Lullaby |Dean Winchester|

Chapter 21: Notes from No One

"Oh, I almost forgot that subject! Lincoln Baxter. Wow. That's screwed up." I flung the purse over my shoulder and picked up my lunch box. It was heavier than normal, considering I had more than a few silver knives and bullets in there. "Still avoiding him? Wow. The only guy to ever treat you decent and you screw him over. I bet he hates you almost as much as Dean does."

It was draining to not give in and sob. Every word out of his mouth was something I'd thought about, worried over, contemplated. It was one thing to fight the words inside your head, but to hear them thrown at you repeatedly when you already agreed with them? It was damn near impossible to put one foot in front of the other as I walked down to Stanley.

Steven made no footprints in the snow as he climbed into the backseat and buckled his seatbelt. Guess even figments of my imagination need to be safe. I turned the music up full blast and tried to filter out the words he continued to throw at me. "Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap."

"You would certainly know about dirty deeds, wouldn't you? How many lives have you taken?"

"Dirty deeds and they're done dirt cheap."

"You know, I think it's funny that you have a tattoo to represent the people you care about. Would have saved you some money if you got one of the people who care about you." He paused and the glance I took in the rearview mirror showed he was grinning wickedly. "Get it? Because no one cares about you?"

White knuckling the steering wheel, I pushed my foot to the floor and drove to the hospital without so much as a word coming out of my mouth. If I ended the wraith, this would all go away. By the time I parked in the lot, I had gotten to relive three of my worst cases and but the inside of my cheek so hard I'd started bleeding. Carrying my purse and my lunch box in with me, I prayed Steven would stay in the car. But, alas. No dice.

Stepping into the locker room, Steven grew strangely quiet, replaced instead with the buzz of nurse conversations. "-attacked Dr. Fuller! With a knife! I heard another patient was the only one who could stop him."

Rita, the nurse I'd met the day before gasped. "So, what? Is he on lock down now?"

I didn't know the nurse who was speaking. "Well, he was. All night in fact." The male nurse ran a hand through his hair. "But I guess he apologized and he was permitted to go to the day room."

"Not anymore." Denise, our head nurse, said as she walked in. "Alex Van Halen just went berserk. You all go check on the rest of the patients and get them back to their rooms. Go!" All of us were quick to scurry our of the room at her command.

Alex? Sam? The wraith must have come into contact with him as well. Practically sprinting to the day room, we got there in time to see three orderlies dragging Sam away as he screamed for them to leave him alone. Nurses ran to their usual patients while I found Dean in the corner muttering to himself. As always, my shadow of a brother followed. "Not you again," Dean mumbled as his eyes caught sight of me. "You know, I'm really not in the mood to hear you reject me for a second time. Could we pencil this in for later?"

"Rejection?" My eyebrows furrowed and I reached out to grab his hand. He flinched away from me, green eyes wide in fear. "Dean, it's me. Andy. Something's wrong with Sam. What the hell happened last night?"

His wide eyes narrowed. After a few moments of silence, Dean blinked. "Andy?"

I grinned. "Hey, Sparky."

"Oh, thank God." Relief washed over him. "Something whack is going on. I saw Dr. Fuller with a wraith face, but when Sam went after him, the silver plated knives we stole from the nurse cart did nothing!"