Chapter 6: What Would You Do Without Me?

It took a while, but six hours later the doctor pulled a mass of...something out of the man's abdominal cavity. He dumped it in the kidney dish the nurse held out, then set about stopping the blood flow from where the parasite had attached itself...by its mouth, disgustingly enough. A short time later, he and his most unflappable nurse had finished closing up the man on the table. He breathed a sigh of relief, glanced at the monitors, where the patient's vitals were still strong, and turned to leave the sterile room, stripping out of his bloody gloves as he did.

Bobby and his young friend, the man's brother, were sitting anxiously in the living room, nearly identical expressions of worry on their faces. The doctor was always glad to talk to families in this situation - it was nice to alleviate their worry.

"It went well," he said, and the two men looked at each other and breathed sighs of relief. "Obviously we should watch him for a while - infection is always possible, especially without a real operating room, and with the amount of weight he's lost, he's going to be particularly weak for a while."

"Don't worry, doctor," the younger man said. "We'll take care of him."

He smiled. "I'm sure you will, son, but I'm going to want to stick around for a few hours, and I'll leave my nurse here for a few days longer, just to be sure."

Bobby and the young man exchanged a worried glance, but after a moment the older man cleared this throat.

"Um, sure, doc," he said. "We can just-"

"Doctor!" a worried voice called from the operating area. "Doctor, we have a problem!"

The doctor spun on his heel and headed back to the sterile area, the two hunters following close behind.

"What?" the doctor snapped, going straight to his patient...who seemed fine. The monitors were all still showing normal vitals, the man's color looked no worse than it had, and nothing appeared to be bleeding.

"It's the...thing," the nurse said, and the doctor turned towards her, his gaze running along her pointed finger to the small table at the end of it. The small table that held an empty kidney dish.

"It's gone," the nurse said, quickly followed by a string of curses from just outside the sterile room.

"Sam, you check the living room, I'll check in here. Doc," Bobby said, glancing up at him from outside the curtain of plastic. "Is it okay if I get in there? We need to find this thing, fast."

"Okay," the doctor said. "Just stay away from the patient."

Bobby nodded and pushed aside the plastic, his eyes darting around the room and an enormous knife in one hand. The doctor knew better than to interrupt the man while he was doing...whatever it was he did, and he shot a warning glance at his nurse who, thankfully, nodded once and kept still.

Slowly Bobby crept around the sterile area, looking under the long table that still held the patient, under the crash cart and other assorted medical devices, and the smaller table being used to hold surgical implements. Eventually he straightened up and was about to say something when a shout from the direction of the living room froze him in his tracks.

"Bobby!" the younger man called. "It's in here!"

Bobby streaked out of the room, leaving the doctor and the nurse to glance at each other before deciding to follow, but much more slowly and cautiously.

Sounds of a struggle greeted them when they made it to the living room, and the doctor watched, wide-eyed, as Bobby and the young man chased a small, but extremely fast shape around the living room, lunging at it with wicked-looking knives bared.

Suddenly the shape shot towards the doctor and the nurse, who both dove out of the way, making way for both whatever the thing was and Bobby and the young man. The three of them streaked out of the living room back in the direction of the sterile room, and the doctor scrambled to his feet, his thoughts turning immediately to his patient. All he needed was for that thing to infect the poor man with God-knows-what.

The doctor raced back to the sterile room, just in time to see the thing leap onto the table with his patient...and the man to jerk awake and, producing yet another enormous knife from who-knows-where, stab viciously down at the nasty-looking thing, the knife going clear through the thing's skull to pin it, twitching, to the table.

The man grinned at the other two hunters. "How would you ever make it without me?" he said, then he flopped back onto his back and promptly fell asleep.

Two weeks later the boys were finally ready to leave. Sam was fine, in perfect hunting shape and raring to go. Dean...well, it would take a little while longer before Dean was back to his old self, but at least the grey had gone from his skin and he didn't look like he would fall over in a strong breeze anymore.

Bobby had tried to get them to stay a bit longer, to train for a while in a place that, while maybe not perfectly safe, was at least better than bein' back out on the road actively hunting.

But, of course, his offer had been politely, but firmly, turned down. Bobby understood -those boys belonged on the road, and they all knew it.

"Thanks again, Bobby," Dean said, shaking his hand. "We couldn't have done it without you."

"Damn straight," Bobby replied as Sam came out of the house with the last of their stuff. "Honestly, you two boys get into more trouble than any six other hunters."

"It's my fault," Dean said, and Bobby raised an eyebrow. "I'm so sexy not even the demons can stay away."

Bobby snorted, and Sam tossed a punch at his brother, which was deftly avoided.

"Oh it's your fault, alright," Sam said. "You and your damn mouth. You can't keep it shut, and it's constantly landing us in trouble."

Dean grinned. "True, but not with demons."

Sam snorted, rolling his eyes. "Right. Bye, Bobby," he said, and he headed off the porch toward the car.

"Yup," Dean echoed, following his brother. "See you later, Bobby!"

Bobby watched as Dean crooned over the Impala for a moment and Sam tossed the bags in the back seat, then the Winchester boys slid into the car (in unison, of course - it was kind of creepy) and took off, a cloud of dust drifting behind them.

Shaking his head, Bobby walked back into the house. He loved those boys, but it was hard to be sorry when they left - with all the problems they had, the Winchester brothers would be back to see him soon enough.