Chapter: Twelve

~~~~~~~~~~

Jo was struggling to get up from Kate having thrown her when hands grasped her arms and steadied her.

“Easy,” a familiar feminine voice said. “I’ll have these off you in a sec.”

“Sophie?” Jo let Sophie help her up. The handcuffs loosened and were gone, Sophie dropping them back into Jo’s bag and handing it to her. She took it. “What are you doing here?”

“Dean called the hotel, asked for us. Good thing we hadn’t left for the show, yet, huh? Teddy was stoked. Another vampire. Between you and me, I think he’s warming up to being a hunter.”

“He’s here, too?”

“He is. Sorry we weren’t here sooner.” She gestured at Dean. “There’s a reason he’s staying downwind of her, you know. Scent and all.” Sophie almost sounded like her pre-soulstealer self.

And then Jo saw him. There were two of him, one fighting with Kate and the other coming up behind her. The Dean behind her grasped her shoulder, tugging to turn her. Kate did turn, eyes widening, realizing she’d been outmaneuvered. “You,” she screamed. A third Dean appeared, blocking her from escape and then her head was rolling on the floor of the parking garage.

The extra Dean disappeared and the first one morphed into Teddy. The blood all over him was gone in a snap. “Nice,” he remarked. “Clean work. I have to work on that. Had a little trouble getting a good smooth slice with the machete on the others.”

“You get better with practice.” Dean removed a jar from his jacket pocket and began to fill it with Kate’s blood. “Thanks for the backup, Teddy. Sophie.”

“Thanks for the inclusion. This is a learning experience.” Teddy studied the area. “Better hurry, Dean. There’s people on the next level.”

Jo and Sophie approached, Jo hoisting her bag onto her shoulder. The only reason he’d be collecting blood was because it was needed for the cure. “Why do you need that,” she asked. Had Kate gotten Sam or Gwen? Would the cure even work on a pregnant woman?

He glanced up at her. “Sam and Gwen found Becky. Kate got to her.”

“Will it work?”

“We’ll see.” He wrapped a cloth around the jar and shoved it down into his jacket pocket, then closed his jacket over his shirt, hiding the machete.

Teddy and Sophie said their goodbyes and left them on the sidewalk outside, the two strolling hand in hand. They looked like a normal couple.

“I’ll never ridicule Sam for calling Teddy for help again.”

Jo patted Dean’s back with a hand. “Yeah, you will.”

“Let’s get this to Becky.”

The hotel room was in chaos when she and Dean arrived. The couch was overturned and Sam was behind it on the floor, Becky on top of him, trying to bite him. Sam was managing to fend her off, but it wouldn’t be long before Gwen had to kill her.

Gwen was holding the machete beside them, in strike position, arguing with Sam over killing Becky. “Come on, Sam!”

“Don’t kill her, Gwen!”

“She’s trying to eat you. I said I’d kill her for that and I’m going to. Move your arm. I’d rather not have to take you to have it sewn back on.”

“You can’t!”

“I sure as hell can.”

Dean thrust the jar of vampire blood at Jo. “Here. Make up the cure. Fast.” Striding to them, he grasped Becky, hauled her off of Sam, and said, “stop trying to drink Sam,” in a tone that had Becky suddenly backing down, a stricken look on her face. She jerked away from Dean. The fangs slid back in and she closed her mouth, backing away.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I can’t stop….”

Sam got up off the floor. His shirt hung open. The buttons appeared to be gone completely.

Jo busied herself at the table, using the card with directions on it. Sam had it all ready so it was mostly a case of mixing it all together and pouring it down Becky’s throat.

“Don’t give me that,” Dean snapped. “You will sit your almost vampire ass down and wait in silence while Jo gets the cure made up. One move in any direction and I’ll let Gwen chop off your head. Do you understand me?”

Becky’s eyes widened. “Yes.”

Jo finished mixing and took the jar to them. “Here.”

Sam brought a trashcan over. “You’ll need this.”

Becky took the jar and sniffed it, nose wrinkling in disgust. “It stinks.”

“It works. Drink.”

With a worried glance at Sam, who nodded encouragingly, Becky took a deep breath and chugged the mixture. What happened next was disgusting and Jo was truly sorry that Becky had to go through it.

~~~~~~~~~~

It wasn’t that Gwen wanted to kill Becky. Really, it wasn’t. She simply didn’t want to take a chance, especially knowing Becky’s fixation on Sam. She could pretty easily envision Becky coming after Sam to turn him and have him for herself for eternity and that just wasn’t going to happen on her watch.

Okay, maybe a little part of her wanted to, considering the woman had memorized Sam’s smell. That was downright creepy. Crush stuff like he’d said, yet also stalker behavior.

So it was a relief when Jo and Dean arrived with the blood for the cure before she had to actually take that step.

After the grossest part of the cure, Becky sank to the floor and curled up. Gwen could imagine how embarrassing this must be for her, to be weak and vulnerable in front of them, Sam especially. Gwen remembered very well how it felt to be sick in front of a crush. It was an unpleasant experience and she sympathized. Then there was the embarrassment that Gwen was there and had seen it all.

She put Sam and Dean to work cleaning up while she and Jo took charge of Becky. Jo covered her with a blanket and brought a cool washcloth to clean the blood from her face, while Gwen sat beside her and told her she’d be okay. After awhile, Becky pushed herself to sit up.

“Why are you being nice to me,” she asked Gwen soft, confused voice.

She answered as honestly as she could. “Because you need that right now. Believe me, I could be a bitch and ream you out for attacking my husband, but what good would it do? You weren’t yourself. You were under the influence and I’m sure it won’t happen again in any way, will it?” Meaning, Becky had better not do anything that could be construed as going after Sam, including any stalker-ish behaviors.

Becky took her meaning as though Gwen had shouted it, shaking her head. “No. Never.”

Jo crouched down. “Feel like heading back to your room? From what I understand, you need some rest now. The cure process takes a lot out of a person.”

“I didn’t know there was a cure to being a vampire.”

“Campbell family trade secret,” Gwen told her. “Though I’m sure others out there have it, too.”

“The books never mention it.”

“Not the ones published,” Jo said, sitting on the floor. “It’s understandable the knowledge was mostly lost. Vampires were almost extinct for a long time. It’s only recently that their numbers began to grow again. Thing is, you can’t feed or the cure doesn’t work. Sometimes, I guess it doesn’t work even then.”

Becky was silent for long minutes, staring at the floor. “I don’t want to go back to my room. It’s where she…. In the bathroom there.”

“We’ll clean it up and if you still can’t stand to be in there, we’ll get you a new room.” Jo was using her mom tone, the one that brooked no disobedience. She got to her feet and held out her hands to help Becky up. “Come on. Up.”

Gwen got to her feet. “Hey, guys, we’re taking Becky to her room.” She glanced at her in question. “What number?”

“Seventeen nineteen.”

“Meet us there when you’re done, okay?”

They waved hands at them and continued cleaning the suite.

Becky was wobbly on her feet, unable to walk a straight line, and it took both her and Jo holding on to her to get her maneuvered to her room. Once there, Becky laid on the bed while Jo worked on cleaning the bathroom. There was actually very little blood splattered. It was obvious to Gwen that Kate must have had turning Becky in her game plan. She hadn’t tried to feed on her at all.

“You should shower,” Gwen suggested. “Put on pajamas. We’ll order pizza, stay with you awhile.”

“You’re bossy,” Becky told her, but she said it the way Jo did, like it was a plain observation.

“I can be,” Gwen agreed.

“Hell, yeah, she’s bossy,” Jo called out, “but I’m bossier. I’m not suggesting you shower, I’m ordering.” She appeared in the doorway. “Get in here and shower while we order the pizza. What do you like on yours?”

Becky sat up and reached for her bag, drawing out clothes. “I like the supreme, lots of black olives and mushrooms.”

“Great. I’ll order. Gwen, call the guys and tell them we’re getting pizza.”

For a second, it looked like Becky was going to cry, but then she took a deep breath. “Thanks.”

Jo snapped her fingers and pointed to the bathroom. “Shower.”

When Becky had disappeared into the bathroom and the water was running, Jo looked at her. “Think she’ll be okay?”

“As okay as civilians ever are.” She hoped this experience would put Becky off of Sam and their life, but somehow, she suspected it wouldn’t. She suspected it’d only fuel Becky’s admiration of Sam. How twisted was that?

An hour later, with the pizza in shambles, Becky cleared her throat and adjusted one pillow behind her back. “You guys are death on conventions. It’s like you’re a magnet for this stuff.” Becky sipped the ice water Gwen set beside her. She was pale, but looking better than she had.

“Tell me about it,” Jo said with a roll of her eyes. “My class reunion was an especially big hoot.”

“The first one had ghosts, this one a vampire. What’s next, a demon army?”

“Given our track record, it’s entirely a possibility,” Dean admitted.

“Yeah.” Becky tugged the covers up higher. “Well, do me a favor and stay away from the next ones.”

“We’ll keep on top of the locations,” Gwen promised her. They would, too. The website for the convention would be added to the list they regularly monitored -- or farmed out to be monitored.

“How you feelin’,” Dean asked, propping a foot on the bedside.

Becky thought a moment. Right now, she looked like a lot of people they’d saved: still frightened and fighting the trauma in her head. “Weird. A little sick to my stomach. Disoriented, I guess. I’ve brushed my teeth like fifty times and I can still taste that cure.”

“That’ll go away after awhile.”

“Are you sure?”

He nodded, meeting Becky’s gaze squarely. “I’ve been there. Managed not to feed for hours, took out a nest, held on until I got the cure.”

“Hours of that?” She squeezed her eyes shut for several seconds and opened them. “I could barely take a couple hours.”

“You held on long enough,” Sam said. “Dean and I…. We’re sort of unique in the strength of will department. We’ve had to be.”

“You did fine, Becky. Better than the average person.” Gwen sat beside her. “You’ll probably find yourself being more aware of things around you now, maybe even a little paranoid that there’s someone in your room.”

“It’s normal.” Dean crossed his arms. “But you’ve read the books. You know the things that happen.”

Sam’s expression softened. “You have someone you can call to stay with you for awhile?”

Becky smoothed the bedspread with one hand. “Chuck, I guess. He’s the only one who knows the truth. I can talk to him -- if he’ll come. I think he thinks I want to get back together and I don’t. Not really.”

There was a knock on the door. Jo went and checked the peephole. “Speak of the devil….” She opened the door. “Let me guess. You had a vision.”

He peered past her at all of them. “Uh…no. A woman was beheaded in the parking garage across the street. I --”

“And you immediately thought of us?” Dean sat up. “Sweet, Chuck.”

“I just thought Becky should know.” Chuck stepped into the room, Jo shutting the door behind him. “Police are crawling all over the parking garage. You guys aren’t parked there, are you?”

“Nope. Baby’s safe elsewhere.” Dean stood. “How’d you know we were in Becky’s room?”

“Terri said she saw a couple women helping Becky into her room about an hour or so ago and one woman was pregnant. Far as I know, Gwen’s the only pregnant woman at the convention.” He looked around the room, obviously noting the pizza box and beer bottles. “Having a party? What’s going on?”

Gwen slowly pushed herself up out of the chair. “We should be going back to our suite.”

Jo stood as well, then pressed a hand to her mouth. “Oh crapsticks! I promised Molly I’d be myself at the mixer!” She glanced down at her watch. “Chuck, is it still going on?”

“Sure is. Hey, do you have any idea why David Angle and his bodyguard would be looking for you and Dean?”

Dean let loose a half-laugh. “Yeah…. Maybe Jo and I should go down to the mixer for awhile. Put in an appearance.” He stood. “Becky can fill you in on what happened.” As he passed Chuck, he slapped him on the back, leaning in close and saying something Gwen couldn’t make out.

Chuck’s expression shifted to concern and he went to the bedside, sitting down beside Becky. “Are you okay?”

Dean shooed them into the hall and closed the door. He looked at Sam, brows raised. “You and Gwen coming with us?”

“No.” Sam shook his head, putting an arm around Gwen. “We’re going to the room and not leaving it until morning.”

“I’m tired,” Gwen confessed, leaning into the embrace. “A lot of excitement today.”

“You kids have fun, then.” Dean took Jo’s hand in his and they headed down the hall towards the elevator.

“You really tired?” Sam slid his hand along her back. “Because we never did get to have that fun night last night.”

Stretching up a hand, she swept the backs of her fingers across his cheek. “I’m game if you are.”

She hoped all of the drama for the weekend was now over.

~~~~~~~~~~

Becky readied the conference room with a pot of coffee and tray of pastries. She wasn’t sure any of it would be needed or if they’d even seen her note yet. Maybe they’d all slept in?

There was a knock on the door and Sam, Dean, Gwen, and Jo came in.

“Hi. Morning. Help yourselves to coffee and pastries.” She looked at Gwen’s stomach. “Oh, gosh. I’m sorry, I didn’t get any decaffeinated --”

“I’m fine, thanks.” Gwen eased into a chair without taking anything.

Jo poured herself coffee and took it to the end of the table. After loading up a plate and pouring a cup, Dean joined her and dug in to the food.

“Good turnovers,” he mumbled through one bite.

Sam took half a cup of coffee and sat beside Gwen across from Becky.

“I guess you’re wondering why I asked you here this morning?” Becky’s heart was beating what felt like a million miles a minute. She hadn’t expected any of them to show up, but here they were. She owed them her life. Literally. Sam had talked her down from the bloodlust, explained what her drinking any blood meant, and as Becky happened to like being human, she’d managed to hold on for a good while. It had been really, really hard. She’d been trying to drink Sam when Jo and Dean had returned.

It was a sobering thought.

I was almost a monster, she thought. I was almost a monster they’d hunt down and kill.

Not cool.

She swallowed hard. Becky had come uncomfortably close to really being a part of their lives. The wrong part.

“A little,” Gwen said. She really was pretty, Becky decided, and did look nice sitting beside Sam.

“I wanted to thank you all for saving my life last night, do something nice for you before you leave.”

“All part of the job,” Jo told her, picking a bite from one of Dean’s pastries and eating it.

“Thanks. I really owe you. I like living and the idea of drinking blood forever is just…gross.”

“It is,” Sam agreed. “Anything else you might possibly want to apologize for?”

“Yeah….” Becky glanced at Sam and quickly turned her attention to Gwen. Sam was still pissed with her about her actions and he had every right to be. He wasn’t glaring at her or anything, but she could tell he was upset with her. “I’m sorry, Gwen. I was out of line the other day. I know Sam has more to his life than the books, but it was hard to face that. It had been a long time since I’d seen him and I wasn’t expecting a wife and baby on the way. It was a shock. A big one, because I’d never expected Sam to marry. Since you’re his wife and all, you probably know why I say that, right?”

Gwen smoothed a had across her stomach. “Uh…yeah.”

After disclosing to Chuck what had happened, he’d started talking to Becky about the books, filling her in on a few things that made all of this, now, much clearer. He’d told her all about how Gwen had nearly been killed and been in a coma for weeks and how Sam had retreated into himself over it. He’d explained in detail what he knew of how Sam had felt right then. It was the details Becky had needed to begin to understand Sam and Gwen’s story.

Poor, poor Sam, nearly losing the woman he loved into Death’s waiting embrace, coping the only way he could, while danger still swirled around them all. It was heartbreaking right to the point where it had changed into happily ever after. A fairy tale that he completely needed in his life.

“Who is she, Becky?” Sam’s voice was quiet, but edged with steel.

Her cheeks flared with heat. “Your wife.”

“And?”

“She’s pregnant.”

“Thank you.”

Gwen sat forward. “You’ve been in this fandom awhile.”

Becky nodded. Gwen sounded almost interested in that. “Years. I’m one of the original chat room members and one of the first to write….” She shrugged. “Never mind.”

“To write Wincest,” Gwen supplied with a questioning lilt to her voice.

“Yeah…. You know about that?” Somehow, she hadn’t expected Gwen to know about that.

“It was mentioned. I was told yesterday that you were also one of the first to start a Sam fan club. So, you feel like you really know them. You’ve written articles, organized a convention, write stories to supplement the fandom. Writing is hard, especially fiction. You have to get in the character’s heads, keep them in-character for it to be believable.”

“I pride myself on keeping them in-character in my work. I mean, as in-character as I can using what’s in the books. A lot of people don’t, though and I think it’s a shame.”

“The entire genre isn’t in-character,” Dean mumbled half under his breath, shoving his plate away, the remains of a pastry still on it. Becky saw Jo place a hand on his arm.

Gwen shot him a quick glance. “You’re invested in them.”

“A lot of fans are.”

“You feel like they’re friends.”

“I guess.” It was the truth. She’d read the books so many times that she felt like she did know them. Where was Gwen going with this?

“But you’re also one of few who knows the truth. You know it’s all real. Hell, you faced some of that truth last night. You get that what Chuck has written has actually happened and it’s not a pretty reality. It’s hard, gritty, and thankless. It often means losing the ones we love and even pieces of ourselves. It can scar a person and make it years before he can let go of the past and focus on the future.”

She was talking about Sam specifically wasn’t she? She’d segued into Sam as the topic in a seamless manner. Becky nodded.

“Our story,” she gestured at Sam and then herself, “mine and Sam’s, may not be published, but it’s real. We worked hard to balance it all and get where we are today. We’ve had setbacks and moments where we thought we’d lost each other or were going to. You have to understand that this was a big step for Sam and for me. We didn’t make it lightly. He proposed after I woke up from having spent weeks in a coma. We didn’t even consider kids until he was certain he had every assurance that certain things wouldn’t be passed on.” She gestured at Jo and Dean now. “And we’d had ample time to watch Dean and Jo juggle hunting and parenting, so we knew it could be done personally within our lives.”

“I know.” She crossed her arms, still thinking about everything Chuck had told her and how…romantic it really was in the end. Sam really had found love and that was…it was…so totally awesome. “I do. Chuck filled in some blanks last night. I’m…. I can’t promise not to be a fan of Sam, because I am one for life. I’m a died in the wool Sam fan and that will never change.” She transferred her attention to Sam for a moment. “I love you, Sam. I do. I will always be true. There’ll never be another fandom for me. I mean it.” Uncrossing her arms, she tapped a finger on the table. “This is for life. I promise you.”

He seemed touched by that declaration, eyes widening as he swallowed hard. Even Gwen seemed touched, hand grasping Sam’s and squeezing.

She pressed a hand to her chest, turning back to Gwen. “I’m a true fan, you know. As a true fan, that means I should want him happy and I do, even if it’s, inexplicably, not with me. I can let go because I can see he’s happy. He should be happy. He deserves happiness after every crappy thing he’s ever gone through, needs it like air that he breathes or…or water…. You know?”

Gwen’s lips parted.

Becky thought she heard snickers from Dean and Jo’s direction, but when she looked, both were calm, Dean taking a drink from his cup and Jo wiping at her mouth with a napkin.

“I’m just getting so psyched about this, because if Sam can find true love after his crappy life, it can happen to anyone, right? I mean, this is a man who thought that part of him had died with Jess. He’d resigned himself to being alone and now, he’s got that part back. He’s found his heart.” Becky couldn’t help herself, the words pouring out, explaining to them where she was in all of this. “I am totally blessed by knowing this way ahead of everyone else.” She made a squee noise and sat back, grinning. “Chuck explained to me about the timeline and how it’s going to be awhile before those books are released, like years. I’m stoked that I know it all ahead of everyone else. You guys trust me to know this and…a baby. Sam.” She looked at him. “You’re going to be such a good father. That baby is so lucky.” An idea hit her and she stretched out a hand towards Gwen. “I just had the best idea! Can I throw you a baby shower? I’m getting really good at planning parties and things. It’ll be so awesome --”

“No.”

“Oh.” Becky blinked. “Can I buy the baby a gift, then? I’ve got the perfect --”

“No.”

“Oh. Can I just look at baby things and pretend I bought the baby a gift?”

Gwen pushed back her chair and stood. “I gotta go….” She walked to the door and stepped out of the room.

Overcome with emotion. Had to be. She hadn’t known what to say to Becky’s offers, not really. Probably refused because she didn’t want to impose, but Becky understood.

“It’s about that time, isn’t it?” Dean got up and started towards the door, Jo following him. Neither gave her another glance.

Sam stood, held up a finger, started to speak and stopped, mouth closing. Without another word, he, too, left.

Becky’s smile returned. “That wasn’t a no,” she said and mentally began planning the absolute perfect gift.