by Ally Blue
Sam’s eyes stung. He blinked away the gathering moisture and stared out the window as the Nova zoomed along the dark, empty road in the wake of the ambulance. Now that the immediate need for action was over, reaction had set in, leaving him weak and shaken. Everything had happened so fast. A few hours ago, he and Bo had been safe in bed. Now, Bo was lying unconscious in the back of an ambulance after having been attacked for the second time by one of those fucking things from the other side. And this time, Sam had no idea how or why the portal had come into existence.
Another mystery to solve. Another twist in the sketchy tale of the interdimensional gateways and the beings who called the other side home. Why had the portal opened this time? What did Bo have to do with it? And why, why, did those creatures keep coming here in the first place? What did they want?
Sam didn’t know, and wasn’t sure he wanted to. But something told him he’d eventually learn those answers whether he was ready for them or not.
Chapter Fourteen
It was fifteen minutes after midnight when Sam, Dean and Kyle finally reached the Baldwin County Medical Center. They’d lost the ambulance in the string of lights and surprisingly heavy traffic along Highway 59 between Gulf Shores and Foley. By the time they entered the emergency room doors, nearly forty-five minutes after leaving Fort Medina, Sam was frantic with worry and ready to explode at the least provocation.
He marched up to the desk at the far side of the crowded room, Dean and Kyle at his heels. “We’re looking for Dr. Bo Broussard,” he said to the young man on the other side. “Where is he?”
The man raised his eyebrows. “I don’t know a Dr. Broussard. You sure you’re at the right hospital?”
Dean’s hand on his arm stopped Sam’s angry outburst. “He’s a patient,” Dean explained. “The ambulance should’ve brought him in not long ago. I’m Dean Delapore, and this is Sam Raintree and Kyle DuPree, we’re Bo’s friends.”
“Oh, yeah. Julia said y’all would be coming in.” The nurse gave them a critical look. “You can’t all go back there. Two at the most. Sorry, but there’s not much room back there.”
“I’ll stay out here,” Kyle offered. “Y’all go on back.”
Sam gave the boy a nod and a smile. “Thanks, Kyle.”
“No problem.” Kyle brushed his fingers against Dean’s hand. “Let me know if you need me to do anything, okay?”
“Sure thing. Thanks, babe.” Dean pressed close to kiss Kyle’s chin. Kyle blushed to the roots of his hair, but his eyes shone.
After clipping on the white plastic “Visitor” badges the triage nurse handed them, Sam and Dean hurried through the double doors leading to the ER treatment rooms. Any other time, Sam would’ve teased Dean about Kyle’s transparent adoration. Right now, however, he was too worried about Bo to concentrate on anything else.
Julia the paramedic was standing at the nurse’s station, filling out paperwork. She nodded when they approached her. “Bo’s in room twelve,” she said. “He wanted to see you both as soon as you got here.”
Relief made Sam’s knees weak. He put a hand on the desk to steady himself. “So he’s awake?”
“Not exactly. He’s been fading in and out, but he woke up and was fairly lucid for a minute right before we got here. That’s when he told Pete—that’s my partner—to make sure y’all came to see him the second you got here. He was sort of fixated on that.” She scrawled her name on the bottom of the form, clicked her pen off and stuck it in her shirt pocket. “I know it’s kind of frightening, but try not to worry too much. It’s normal to be drowsy and confused, or even completely out of it, for quite a while after a generalized seizure like the one he had. He’ll come around.”
Dean nodded. “Thanks, Julia. Where’s room twelve?”
She pointed to her left. “On the corner there. I think they’re getting ready to take him to the OR to clean and stitch that wound, so you better hurry.”
Sam pushed away from the desk and strode off in the indicated direction. He managed to mumble a thank you to Julia on the way. He heard Dean saying something to her, but couldn’t make out the words. His attention was completely fixed on getting to Bo’s side.
He walked along the row of cubicles to number twelve. The curtain hung open, revealing a tiny room packed full of people and equipment. Bo lay on his side on a narrow stretcher, his lower body covered by a white blanket. A clean bandage was taped across his back. IV lines snaked into both arms, feeding clear fluids from two different bags into one vein and blood into the other. The oxygen mask had been exchanged for nasal prongs. Three wires led from electrodes on Bo’s chest to a heart monitor sitting on a shelf beside the bed. A fourth wire ran from the monitor to what looked like a bandage around the end of Bo’s finger. Sam stared, wondering if it was even possible to attach more equipment to one person.
One of the nurses clustered around Bo’s bed caught sight of Sam and Dean at the door and made her way over. “Is one of you Sam, by any chance?”
Sam gulped. “I am.”
“Good. He wants to talk to you before surgery.” She nodded toward Bo. “Go on, but be quick.”
Sam edged his way through the crowd to the side of the stretcher, dimly aware that Dean had stayed behind to talk to the nurse. He gently brushed a lock of wet hair from Bo’s face. “Bo? It’s Sam. I’m here.”
Bo’s eyes fluttered open. The panicked look in them sent a jolt of fear through Sam’s blood. “Sam,” Bo whispered, his voice rough and raspy. “I think I know. We have to stop it. Have to…to figure out how to stop it.” His hand clamped onto Sam’s wrist, fingers digging in with surprising strength. “It could happen anywhere, Sam. Anywhere with the right conditions. It’s in me, and we have to stop it.”
Sam wasn’t sure what exactly “it” was, but he’d already decided that whatever had caused the portal to form that night, it had something to do with Bo. Bo must’ve come to the same conclusion, then taken it a step further to theorize that whatever it was in him that had caused the gateway to open, it could happen anywhere with the correct conditions.
They didn’t have any clue how or why Bo had brought the portal into being. And if they didn’t know what it was, how could they possibly control it?
Dread flowed like ice water through Sam’s veins. He opened his psychic senses, and swiftly shut them down again under the barrage of living human energy. Overwhelming, but entirely normal.
“It won’t happen here,” Sam said, hoping he was right. “Just let them get your back fixed, and we’ll figure it out after you wake up, okay?”
Bo shook his head. Before he could say anything else, another nurse leaned over to pat his hand. “Let me have your arm, sweetie. I need to give you some medicine to make you sleepy for surgery, okay?”
A quick flash of irritation crossed Bo’s face, and Sam smiled. Bo despised being talked to like a child.
As the nurse slid a needle into one of the rubber ports in Bo’s IV tubing, Bo tugged Sam closer. Sam leaned down until his ear nearly touched Bo’s lips.
“All these electronics produce an electromagnetic field,” Bo murmured. “Probably all well-shielded, but still, it’s there. Don’t know if that’s all they need. Probably not. But what if it is?”
Sam’s heart stilled for a second. He knew that, of course, but had never really thought about how the electronic gadgets they all took for granted might interact with the interdimensional gateways. Could the EMF produced by the electric appliances all around them form the right conditions for a portal to open? The possibility was terrifying.
“If that were going to happen, it probably would’ve happened already,” Sam speculated, keeping his voice low so no one else would hear. “EMF can’t be the only factor needed for a portal, otherwise one would’ve opened at the house. Right?”
Bo smiled, clearly relieved. “You’re right.” He blinked, his gaze going unfocused. “Oh. Sleepy.”
His hand relaxed around Sam’s wrist, and his eyelids fell shut as the drugs hit him
. Sam kissed Bo’s brow, then straightened up. Too late, he realized what that relatively innocent kiss might tell the people around them.
He glanced at the people gathered around Bo’s stretcher. No one seemed to have noticed, as they were all busy with equipment or paperwork. Sam backed away from the stretcher and reluctantly left the room.
Outside the little cubicle, Dean still stood talking to the nurse. She glanced at Sam. “All done?”
He nodded. “Yes. Do you need us to sign anything for him?”
“No. He woke up and was clearheaded enough to sign his own consents for surgery and blood transfusion, luckily. You couldn’t have signed for him anyway, you’re not next of kin.” She stepped aside, motioning Sam and Dean to come with her as three nurses wheeled the stretcher out into the hallway. “You two can wait out in the waiting room. I’ll send the doctor out there to talk to you as soon as he’s out of surgery.”
Leaving Dean to handle the talking, Sam leaned against the wall and watched the stretcher turn the corner into a corridor and roll out of sight. All he could see was the top of Bo’s head.
A cold knot of foreboding coalesced in Sam’s stomach. What if Bo’s fears were right? What if any electromagnetic field was enough to allow a portal to form? What if Bo didn’t even have to be conscious for it to happen? He hadn’t felt anything remotely portal-like here, but then again he hadn’t felt it at Fort Medina either.
What if those things get free while he’s in surgery? He’ll die. They’ll all die.
Bo hadn’t mentioned any such thing, but Sam couldn’t entirely discount the possibility, in spite of his reassurances to Bo that a portal wouldn’t open here. Suddenly sick with fear, Sam leaned forward, bracing his hands on his knees. He thought he might throw up, or pass out. Or both.
He heard the nurse’s voice as if from a great distance, asking if he was all right. He shook his head. Dean’s arm slid around his waist, holding him up. Someone shoved a chair beneath him and pushed him down into it. He bent over, his shaking hands covering his face.
He heard Dean telling the nurse how Sam had witnessed the attack, how traumatized he must’ve been by the whole thing, and how reaction must now be setting in. She told Dean they could stay there until Sam felt able to get up, then hurried off to attend to another patient. Sam sat hunched in the chair and let it all wash over him while Dean’s hand rubbed soothing circles between his shoulder blades. Dean didn’t speak, and Sam was glad. He didn’t feel up to explaining himself just yet.
After a few minutes, Sam felt calm enough to sit up straight and meet Dean’s gaze. Dean gave him a worried smile. “You okay?”
“Better.” Sam glanced around and motioned Dean closer. “We have to talk. Bo said something that scared the shit out of me.”
“I figured so.” Dean pursed his lips. “I tell you what. I’ll go tell Kyle he can go on back, since it looks like Bo’s gonna be here at least until tomorrow sometime. We’re gonna need to call Andre and the rest of the crew anyway, so one of them can come get us whenever we’re ready to leave. After Kyle leaves and I call Andre, you and I can find a private spot to talk and you can tell me what Bo said. Sound good?”
“Yeah.” Sam pinned Dean with a solemn stare. “Not everything he said made sense. But some of it did, and that’s what’s so scary.”
Dean didn’t answer, but Sam saw the sudden apprehension in his eyes.
Taking Sam’s elbow, Dean tugged him to his feet, and they headed back into the waiting room.
Half an hour later, Sam and Dean sat huddled in a corner of the hospital cafeteria, sipping strong, bitter coffee made barely palatable by liberal amounts of creamer and flavored syrup. Dean had sweet-talked a young nurse’s aide into giving them some hospital scrubs to wear, and it felt good to be dry for a change. Kyle had taken their soaked and bloodstained clothes with him, saying he might as well wash them since he needed to wash his blanket anyway.
“That was nice of Kyle to take our things,” Sam said, cupping his hands around his coffee mug.
“It was, yeah.” Dean took a sip of his coffee and wrinkled his nose. “I guess you gave him Bo’s car keys?”
Sam nodded. A nurse had found Bo’s keys in the pocket of his shorts, so Kyle had offered to take one of his friends with him and retrieve Bo’s car from the fort. “Kyle’s a sweet kid.”
A grin tugged up the corners of Dean’s mouth. “He sure is.”
“And he’s crazy about you.” Sam peered at Dean over the rim of his cup. “Any chance of this being more than a summer fling?”
Dean looked away. “I didn’t think we came here to talk about my love life.”
Sam studied Dean’s face. Dean wore the closed-off expression he only ever got when someone suggested the possibility of him having a serious relationship. It bothered Sam—and worried him a bit—that Dean never let any one lover close enough to become something more, but Dean was right. They had more pressing matters to discuss at the moment.
Putting his concern for his friend to the back of his mind, Sam leaned his elbows on the table and dropped his voice low, even though there was no one nearby to hear. “When I went to talk to him, Bo said something was in him that caused the portal to open. Well, not in so many words, exactly, but that was the gist.”
“What do you think he meant was in him? Just the ability to open a portal?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t think he’s sure either, honestly, but it seemed to me like he literally meant something was inside him that didn’t belong there. It doesn’t make much sense, but that’s what he said. Maybe he was still confused from the seizure.”
“Maybe.” Dean rubbed his chin. “We’re going to have to talk with Bo some more later, after he recovers from the anesthesia. He’s not one to jump to unsupported conclusions, so there must be something specific that’s making him think he’s…” Dean snapped his fingers, as if he could summon the right word out of thin air. “Possessed. Infected. Whatever. The point is, even if he was confused, I bet there’s something in particular that’s making him believe something abnormal is inside him.”
“It’s all connected somehow,” Sam muttered, half to himself. “The portal, Bo’s seizure, the weird way he’s been acting lately. Maybe whatever Bo thinks is in him is the common denominator.” He rubbed a hand across his face. “I wish I’d had more time to talk to him.”
Dean gave him a searching look. “You said some of what he told you did make sense. What else did he say?”
Hunching his shoulders, Sam traced the rim of his coffee mug with one finger. “He’s afraid of another portal opening here.”
“What do you mean, ‘here’? You mean at the fort?”
“No. Here, as in here at the hospital.”
Dean’s eyebrows shot up. “What makes him think that?”
“All the electronics. No matter how well shielded they are, they produce an electromagnetic field. Bo’s afraid that field could create favorable conditions for a portal to form.” Sam took a sip of his cooling coffee. “We don’t know what it is about Bo that caused the portal to open at the fort, if that really is what happened. What if that unknown factor plus the electromagnetism here is enough to make another one open?”
A visible shudder ran through Dean’s body. “God, what a fucking nightmare.” He raked his damp, tangled hair out of his eyes. “What do you think, Sam? Is it possible?”
Having had time to calm down and think about it, Sam had his answer ready. “I think it’s possible, theoretically speaking, but I also think it’s pretty unlikely. If there’s really something inside Bo that made the portal open, he must’ve acquired it before tonight. If that’s the case, and if all you need to open a portal is that unknown factor plus an electromagnetic field, what happened tonight would’ve happened before. In fact, the damn things would’ve been popping up all around us for days. I think there must be other conditions that have to be present for a portal to form.”
“Like a certain level of EMF? Or a certain type? Becaus
e natural and artificial fields do have different characteristics.”
“Either or both of those, yeah. I mean, the background EMF from a houseful of electronic gadgets is usually higher than most natural fields, so I’m thinking probably a strong natural rather than artificial field would be necessary.”
“Yeah, that makes sense.” Dean lifted his cup and took a long swallow of coffee. His expression was thoughtful. “Of course, there might also be a particular catalyst we’re unaware of. Something that activates the X factor and sets off a chain reaction leading to a portal.”
Sighing, Sam shook his head. “God, there’re so many unknowns here it’s impossible to form any sort of real hypothesis.”
“You said it.” Dean yawned. “I think we should stop speculating about this whole thing until we can talk to Bo. Knowing him, he already has a testable theory.”
Sam had to laugh, because it was true. Bo’s mind was so quick and agile it was scary. He could think through any problem and arrive at a logic-based conclusion in a fraction of the time it took most people. When his ideas started flowing, Sam had trouble keeping up.
They finished their coffee in silence, then went back to the ER waiting room. While Dean napped with his legs curled in the chair and his head resting on the wall, Sam sat awake and watchful, his psychic senses wide open. Most likely he was right, and there was little to no danger of a portal opening, but there was no point in taking chances.
He ignored the inner voice telling him that if the unthinkable happened, he’d never be able to get to Bo in time to save him.
Chapter Fifteen
Sam’s concentration had begun to waver by the time the doctor came out to the waiting room with a report on Bo’s surgery. Keeping his senses on full alert always tired Sam, but trying to hold his psychic focus while he was already tense with worry was exhausting. When the surgeon—“Dr. Curran, call me Jack”—sat in the chair next to him and started talking, Sam let his mind relax, keeping only a slight connection with the psychic energy of the hospital.