habits, supernatural [ 1 ]

008. dream root

"You okay?" Sam asks. Larissa snaps out of her trance, looking up at Sam.

"Hmm?" She asks and he raises his eyebrows in question. "Oh. I-- I'm fine." She nods.

"You sure?" Sam asks.

"Yeah, it-- I just, um... it's just a little hard. You know, Bobby and-and all." Larissa says.

"Right. Yeah, of course." Sam says. "He'll be okay. Bobby, uh... Bobby's probably one of the strongest people I know."

"Yeah." Larissa whispers, weakly smiling.

"I didn't realize you guys were so close." Sam says.

"Well, um... he always helped my parents with hunting. Taught them more stuff when he could. He's basically another dad... and given my dad is gone, I... I don't really wanna lose another one. Especially barely even a decade later."

"I get it." Sam says. He frowns when he notices her teary eyes and hears her small sniffle that she tries to cover up with a cough. Sam carefully reaches out and wraps an arm around her, pulling her to his chest.

When she hugs him back, Sam wraps his other arm around her, one hand cradling her head to his chest. His chin rests on top of her head, his other hand rubbing her back.

+++

Sam and Larissa walk into Bobby's hospital room where Dean is sitting. He turns and sees them.

"How is he?" Sam asks.

"No change. What you got?" Dean asks. Larissa looks at Bobby sadly as her and Sam stand at the foot of the bed, Dean joining them.

"Well, considering what you told me about the doc's experiments..." Sam sighs. "Bobby's wall is starting to make a hell of a lot more sense."

"How so?" Dean asks.

"This plan, Silene Capensis, is also known as African Dream Root. It's been used by shaman and medicine men for centuries." Sam says.

"Let me guess. They dose up, bust out the didgeridoos, start kicking around the hackey." Dean says.

"Not quite. If you believe the legends, it's used for dreamwalking. I mean, entering another person's dreams, poking around in their heads." Sam says.

"I take it we believe legends." Dean says.

"When don't we? But dreamwalking is just the tip of the iceberg."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, this dream root is some serious mojo. You take enough of it, with practice, you can become a regular Freddy Krueger."

"You can control anything. You could turn bad dreams good. You could turn good dreams bad."

"And killing people in their sleep?"

"For example. So, let's say, uh, let's say this doc was testing this stuff on his patients. Tim Leary style."

"Somebody gets pissed at him, decides to give him a little dream visit, he goes nighty night."

"But what about Bobby? I mean, if the killer came after him, how come he's still alive?"

"I don't know."

They're leaving Bobby's hospital room and still talking about the case.

"So how do we find our homicidal sandman?" Dean asks.

"Could be anyone." Sam says.

"Yeah?" Dean asks.

"Yeah." Sam and Larissa both nod.