Author's Chapter Notes:
I noticed this one has a cliffhanger too so I will go ahead and add the next one. I won't be that cruel.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
“What’s wrong with Grandma.” Amber asked.
“Sam, what happened?” Dean asked as Ari rushed inside to get another towel to wrap around her mother’s hand.
“She broke a glass,” as he looked down at the small woman in his arms before he shook his head.
Ari came back out with the towel and they all rushed to the Impala. Dean jumped in the driver’s seat while Sam helped the girls get in the back. Then he ran around to passenger side of the car and they took off toward the hospital.
“Mommy, mommy,” Amber said as she looked up at Ari.
“She’ll be fine, honey,” Ari said as she looked up to see Dean’s kind eyes in the mirror.
“I passed the hospital on the way here, its not far, right?”
She nodded at him before she looked over at her mother who seemed pale as she struggled to stay awake. The blood had soaked through both towels and Ari wrapped the one waiting in her lap but this time she applied pressure. Something that had missed initially.
“Will be there in a minute,” she said to her mother as she looked in her eyes.
She only nodded at her daughter, her only child.
Once they were at the hospital emergency room Sam rushed in with Ann in his arms, Ari and Amber followed as Dean went to park the car. They sight of all the blood had the nurses rushing to get to the older woman. They took her to be checked out right away. The Emergency room was full and many turned to look at Ari and her daughter as they went to the counter to give them information for her mother. A couple of people glared at them because they were still waiting their turn to be seen.
“What makes you so special?” One young woman asked as Ari hurried to find a seat out of the way she kept her head down not wanting to look at anyone around her.
Then she saw Sam as he waved to her that he had some seats near the restrooms out of the flow of traffic.
“It’s okay, it’s not your fault. Your mother’s naturally sallow complexion made them think she was urgent. With all the blood loss it’s good they got her in,” he said as he looked at Amber as she watched Dean walk in.
“Thanks, Sam, your quick thinking was a blessing.”
“What happened back there?” Dean asked as he sat in the chair near Ari.
Sam said they had spoken of Ari’s father and his great work with the church but when Sam asked if anything unusual had happened over the years, Ann became agitated. She had squeezed the glass in her hand so tightly that it broken and shards became stuck in her hand. She looked a bit wild eyed at him, but he took out the pieces as best he could then realized his mistake. The broken pieces had been keeping the blood from gushing out. He wrapped her hand in a dishtowel, then noticed she seemed out of it. That was when he had rushed outside.
Dean shook his head.
“Do you remember what upset her? What exactly was it about her husband?”
“I don’t know but the reaction told me that she knows something about what is going on,” he said sadly, as he looked at Ari.
“Is there anything that you want to tell us?” Dean asked as he leaned his head on hers.
“No, I wasn’t around the last few years of my father’s life,” she said with meaning as she bit her lip.
“Well, will just talk to her later,” Dean said as Sam got up.
“I am going in search of coffee, want to come?” he asked Amber.
She looked at her mother who nodded.
“If there isn’t anything drinkable here, I saw a Starbucks down the road,” Sam said as he took the little girls hand.
“See you soon,” Ari said as she kissed Amber’s cheek.
“I think she likes Sam,” Ari said as she looked at Dean.
“He has that effect on people,” he grinned.
They were silent as they listened to the noise of those around them. Mostly the kids played on the not to clean hospital floors while their parents waited in anguish and pain for their names to be called. Ari knew the system was far from perfect, those she was grateful they had taken her mother back, it was possible she was in a line on the exam side still waiting to be seen. She tried not to think about it, God please let her be okay.
Dean watched her though they were quiet. Her dark lashes lay on her cheeks as she looked down at her hands. He thought she had nice slender fingers, elegant, he still could not get in his head what she had done in her life. It just seemed so out of left field for her personality. But didn’t we all have to play a role? Weren’t we all put in situations and asked to do things that we would have never considered on our on at times? She looked up at him finally.
“I’ll go see what’s going on,” he said as he went toward the counter.
The lady that sat across from them came to seat beside Ari as soon as Dean walked away.
“I know who you are, that white boy of yours don’t make you no better than me. I saw you at the bar hustling the men for change. Don’t deny it,” she whispered in Ari’s ear before Dean came back to get his seat.
The woman eyed Dean with a gold tooth grin, then sat in her original seat. Ari glared at the woman. She had mistaken her for someone else. She had never hustled in this town. Her life was on track and she hated that the woman had spoken to her at all but especially about things she had no knowledge of.
“She a friend of yours?” he asked politely.
Ari only shook her head, before he told her Ann was being examined but it could be another hour or so.
“The nurse said not to worry they stopped the bleeding….but there could be nerve damage in her hand now.”
“Oh.”
Dean took her hand in his, he had avoided contact just to keep his wits about him. The woman grinned at them though she made Dean uncomfortable with her staring.
“They won’t know for sure until they are done, she was only guessing,” he insisted.
Ari nodded, she knew he was doing what he could to keep her relaxed.
Sam and Amber came back threw the doors thirty minutes after they had gone.
“So you had to grow, ground and brew your own java, Sammy?” Dean asked with a grin as he took the cup from his brother.
“You’re welcome, and its Sam,” Sam replied.
Amber laughed.
“Thank you Sam,” Ari said as he gave her a cup too.
Amber grinned as she sipped from her little cup.
“What are you drinking, munchkin,” Ari asked her daughter.
“Little girl coffee.”
Sam smiled, “Hot chocolate.”
“Smooth move,” Dean teased him.
Three hours came and went before they were able to take Ann home again. Some of her color had returned to her face as they walked her to the car. Her hand was bandaged where they had put the stitches and she had a sling to keep the hand above her heart, at least over night.
“Thanks, boys, I am sorry about all this,” she said as the pulled out of the parking lot.
“Don’t you worry about us, you just relax and we will get you home,” Sam said as he smiled over at he older woman.
Ari was in the front seat this time, since Sam had insisted despite Dean’s look of astonishment. He was the one encouraging Dean to keep it light and simple with Ari but he figured maybe he should let things happen, naturally. Sam had seen the look of pain on Dean’s face when he came back with the coffee. His brother had mixed feelings and he wasn’t sure how he felt about it. At least with Cassie, Sam had not been around to see what Dean had gone through. Though he could imagine his one night-stand rate had tripled over night. Dean didn’t deal well with emotions and rejection had been a strong catalyst for him to shut his heart up all over again. But now that Sam had seen Dean with Ari he had decided to step back and stay out of it. They were both consenting adults besides she knew Dean was leaving, soon. If things turned tragic Sam would help Dean just as Dean had always been there for him. It was a promise he made to himself .
Back at the house, Dean suggested that Ann should rest for the night but she wanted to continue the conversation with them all. Ari took Amber to her room to take her nap with a promise of apple pie when she woke up. When she returned to the room she sat on the sofa with her mother who was wide awake and even a bit chipper now. Or pretending to be, Ari thought. Dean and Sam sat in two wingback chairs across the room from the sofa. They both had their coffees and sipped them as they waited to began.
“Young man.”
“It’s Sam,” he smiled.
“I’m sorry, Sam. You asked me earlier if anything happened that was unusual with my husband. Well I assume you mean in the supernatural realm, because he, Darren, was a minister things that were as you say unusual seemed to follow him,” she said with a twinkled grin.
Then she sighed before she got up to show them a picture of her husband as a young man. He was brown-skinned black man with chiseled features, in the first picture but in the more recent one though you could tell he had been remained handsome he seemed tired. She commented on the photographs as she put them back on the table.
“We were both raised in the south just north of New Orleans, when we first got together there was a big to-do because of our races. We were both stubborn and proud of it so we never let it get us down. We did have to come North to get married which was fine with us, it brought us closer together, at least in the beginning.”
“My mother divorced my father about seven years ago,” Ari added with a look at her mother.
“Even that you don’t know the entire story about,” she said to her daughter.
Ann went on to tell them that when he first became a minister long before Ari was born, we had a small congregation, mostly family and a few friends. Things were simple but in the seminary they encourage you to do things to add people sometimes it meant getting into debt to buy a building. Things that bring stress to not just congregations but couples also.
“You have an older brother, Ari, who is not my son,” she confessed.
“What?”
“Your father had a brief affair with one of his parishioners. I forgave him though we kept up with the mother and her child. His name is Tony, he lives in Massachusetts and works as a surgeon. He is a very intelligent and kind young man, he has two sons with his wife Maya,” she said with tears in her eyes.
“Why have you keep these things from me? I have a brother, a sister in law, and nephews?”
“It’s not my story, its your fathers, but I am sorry we never told you.”
Ari batted her eyes as she swallowed back her tears .
“Ann can you tell us more about your husband?” Sam said to get them back on track.
After about a year he went off to a retreat for ministers and when he came back he was never the same. It’s not that he became violent or that type thing but the people flocked to his church almost out of thin air. That went on for over thirty years, the buildings had to keep getting larger to hold all the people. He was never violent and she stressed that but he was different. She honestly could never put my finger on the difference. When Ari was born he seemed to change back to his old self for a while, again the change was only something she noticed but it was gone after a while.
“You were totally clueless?” Sam asked.
She nodded.
“Maybe you didn’t want to know, because as you said he seemed okay,” Ari suggested.
She only nodded again. Her husband waited almost thirty-two years to tell her what had happened on that retreat. He came to her in tears.
“I can’t do this anymore he told me. I have to fight back,” she said with tears running down her face.
Ari got up to get her a tissue.
“What did he tell you?” Dean asked.
“He made a deal with the devil, many of the people did, it was a ritual they performed. It was something he could never tell anyone because…..then they would all be in danger.”
Ari looked at her mother and knew she wasn’t making things up.
“Momma, …” she began but her mother held her hand up.
“After he told me he asked me to leave him. He thought if I were out of the way I would come to no harm. Ari, your father divorced me to save me.”
“Oh. I didn’t know,” she said as she hugged her mother.
She had never understood how her mother could walk out on her father but she was busy with her life and never investigated. Maybe its all my fault.
Dean looked at Sam. They needed to move along with the story but they didn’t want to rush them. Women’s emotions could be a tricky thing.
“So Ann, Ari said your husband was hearing noises before he died. Did he call you about that?” Sam asked.
“He told me but we chalked it up to a wild imagination. After he told me the secret his congregation began doing exorcism he believed that God’s power would protect him if he would help the possessed. It became a big thing in his church.”
“What happened instead?” Dean asked.
“He broke the contract by doing the exorcisms. He only figured out the connection when one of his friends who was a fellow ministers confessed to hearing the sound of barking behind him at times. That minister was found,…. mauled to death. It all came together in his mind.”
“That is why daddy killed himself?” Ari asked as though she was a young girl all over again.
“Yes. Your father regretted the things he said to you, later he confessed he needed to keep you away from him too. He loved you very much his only sweet girl.”
Ari was quiet as she got up to warm her coffee in the microwave. Dean followed her while Sam spoke quietly with Ann.
“You okay?”
“Sure,” she said without turning around though she wiped back her tears with her hand.
He pulled her to him then turned her so he could kiss her, he saw so much sadness in her eyes. He felt he could touch it, it was tangible. He didn’t think words could help and part of him was aware that it wasn’t the best time for a kiss. On the other hand, he knew he spoke more fluently with his body then his mouth. For a moment they didn’t care that they could be seen from the living room as her hands went into his hair. All other thoughts fled from their minds, as he pressed his tongue in her mouth. Sam cleared his throat from across the room. Ari moved away from Dean as her heart raced.
“Thank you, for being here, you know, trying to help us,” she said as the microwave dinged.
He put his arm around her as they went to sit down again after she got her warmed coffee.
“So the church activities were the key? Demons are not omnipotent, they have to be at the right place at the right time,” Dean stated.
“They didn’t know he told me?”
Dean shook his head, “Not likely.”
Suddenly Ann’s eyes rolled back in her head and she fell over on the sofa. Ari looked at her mother curiously for a moment.
“Ari?”
TBC