Chapter 23: Cracked Ribs and Casts

Three Weeks Later

Dean was so obviously ready to climb walls Andy laughed every time he got that look in his eyes. He had been stuck on a couch for three weeks. Andy couldn't heal him through the cast, and it would have been too much for her anyway. Her ribs were better, but she still had a hard time breathing fully. Bobby was busy recollecting his library from where he stashed copies all over the country. Andy and Dean were a tangle of limbs on the old couch watching T.V, and Sam was doing his best not to check out too often. Bobby came back with the Impala one day and Dean sent Sam out for some food.

"Sammy…Pie!" said Dean enthusiastically.

"Not cherry!" Andy piped up from where she was lying on Dean's chest. Dean looked at her askance. Andy made a face. "Bad experience with cherry pie." Dean laughed and kissed her forehead. Sam chuckled and headed out the door. Dean hauled himself up and crutched his way to the fridge.

"I could have gotten it for you babe," Andy said standing up. Dean waved her off.

"You're no better off than I am Andy. You stay there." Andy frowned, but sat back on the couch. She rubbed absently at her sore ribs. She decided it was time for a nap so she lay down and drifted off to the sound of bad Spanish soap opera. Dean looked over at her. His brow furrowed.

"You think she's ok?" Dean asked looking at Bobby who gave him a questioning look.

"Yea, why?"

"I don't know, she just seems a bit… off. Like sad or something." Bobby chuckled knowingly.

"She's just down on herself cause she couldn't heal you up." Bobby said looking at Andy affectionately. Dean looked surprised, and glanced to her. He wondered out loud.

"Why is that? I mean, I know it takes a lot out of her but, I've seen her do wild and crazy stuff. Broken leg I imagine would be simple." Bobby stared at him

"You want her to kill herself?" Dean look shocked.

"No! What are you talking about?"

"You know how she heals right?"

"No not really. She uses energy somehow…"

"Yea, she uses her energy. She manipulates her own body's energy and feeds it into another person. That's why it takes so much out of her. Right now she needs all the energy she has to heal herself. You know when she passes out, that's her body's way of safeguarding itself so she doesn't give it all away. I've only seen her go past it once." Dean's eyes were wide.

"How did she do that…why would she do that?" Bobby looked at him puzzled.

"For you y' idjit."

"For me?"

"You don't remember?" Dean shook his head. "You were about 19…20. I caught a werewolf case and asked your Daddy to lend a hand. You came along while Sam stayed at the house. While we were hunting the thing, it got hold of you. Tore you up but good. We got the son of a bitch, but you were in bad shape. Then the weirdest thing happened. Andy came rushing out of the bushes. She had been hunting the same thing. She patched you up as best she could, enough to get you back to my place. Poor Sam was beside himself when we got back. Andy took you into the bedroom. I watched her work on you for hours. She used herbs and stuff I would never even thought of. She never stopped. She blacked out once, but came around in a few seconds and just kept right on going. When she was done with you, you were just as pretty as you'd ever been. I don't know how, but Andy stayed conscious long enough to let Sam in to see you before she passed out. Once you woke up, your Daddy had you going right away. Didn't even tell you what really happened either I guess. Andy ended up with a mean bought of pneumonia after that." Dean's eyes widened. "She was in the hospital on oxygen for a week." Dean looked at the sleeping form of his lover on the couch. He had never known.

"She had it for you long before you knew what it was boy." Bobby said with a grin.

"I always thought it was only me from that early."

"Nope, I think she loved you the day your Daddy introduced you." Bobby said, putting a hand on Dean's shoulder. Dean shook his head.

"God only knows why. I was pretty nasty to her for that first little while." Bobby shrugged.

"Heart knows what it wants. And hers wanted you." He said. Dean looked at his girl, curled on the couch and wondered how he ever managed to hold on to her, and why he had come so close to losing her.

Sam came back, without pie.

"You get cake, that's close enough right?" Sam said turning away. Andy laughed when she saw Dean's face. Then she winced because of her sore ribs. The boys looked at her concerned. Dean pulled her to him, carefully manoeuvring around his cast. Sam sat at the table reading a newspaper rather intently. Andy thought that was a bit odd for a moment then Dean decided to give her a deep kiss and the thought flew out of her mind. At some point they must have fallen asleep, because when Andy woke up, she really had to pee. She managed to painfully get herself out from Dean's arms and went to the bathroom. When she came back, she noticed Sam wasn't in the cabin. She glanced outside. The Impala was gone. Her heart stuttered. Then she remembered the paper, and looked at the page it was open to. She saw the death reports and knew he had gone after the case. Why he went alone escaped her for the moment. She also knew she had to wake Dean up. Not something she was looking forward to. She put a hand on Dean's shoulder squeezed and shook lightly. He jumped slightly and opened his eyes. He looked up at Andy, slightly grumpy that she had woke him up.

"Sam's gone," she said quietly. Dean glanced around, and then sat up quickly. He saw a piece of paper that Andy missed. Back in a few days. I'm fine. Sam was all it said.

"Other shoe just dropped!"

They called Bobby, who was out filling up his own ride. He tried to convince Dean to just let Sam be, but Dean was having none of it. He was determined to saw his cast off, and go running after Sam ASAP. At least he let Andy help, so he wouldn't cut his leg off. It was not hard to track Sam down, but that was not the biggest problem. Sam had been hunting a Kitsune. Particularly, one they had run into in the past, and Sam had let her go, and Dean was not too happy about it. Andy and Sam together managed to talk him down, and they worked out to meet up in Spokane with Bobby the next day.

The next few weeks were almost…mundane. They had a few run-ins with this and that. Osiris digging up Joe's ghost was a highlight Andy could have done without. Not only did it put Dean more on edge, he seemed to fall into a pit of self hate. More than usual. One thing she was starting to notice was Dean was getting a bit antsy about something. He was drinking more, which in itself wasn't all that odd, but he was gruffer with both Sam and her, and it was starting to grate. Any time Andy or Sam tried to confront him about it he would shut them down in no uncertain terms. The one interesting thing that happened was they ran into a witch couple that ended up helping them knock out a leviathan that they stashed at the cabin. Which happened to have a convenient basement. Bobby worked on him with every trick in the book, but nothing seemed to hurt the thing. He was a mouthy SOB too. He kept going on about how there was nothing that could hurt him, and they can't be killed so why ever be afraid. Then there was the days news. Apparently, the leviathans thought it would be a good idea to copy Sam and Dean and send them on a murderous rampage across the country.

"Ok this is getting ridiculous." Andy said as they all watched the news lady talk about the crime spree of the 'previously thought dead' Winchester brothers.

"Oh, it's personal now," Dean said crossing his arms.

"So, you're going to go head on, with no way to kill these guys or even a way to slow 'em down. Real smart," said Bobby.

"They're wearing our faces. I'm with Dean on this one," said Sam.

"Well if you're going to be stupid, may as well be smart about it. You need to see a fellow named Frank Devereaux."

"What, the asshole from Port Huron?" Andy asked cocking her head.

"That's the one. He may be a lunatic, but he's paranoid lunatic, and he'll help you disappear." Bobby said as he wrote down an address.

It was an easy drive over to from Whitefish. When the three of them walked up to the house at the address Bobby gave them, Andy had some doubts. This was the home of not only a paranoid lunatic, but a smart one at that. Which all in all is a dangerous combination. Dean banged on the door, and when no one answered, he tried the handle. It was open. Nodding at Sam and Andy, Dean drew his gun, and went in. A few steps in, they came face to face with a shotgun. After some dropping of names and claiming of favours, Frank agreed to help them. His idea of helping was to smash Sam's laptop, and demand 5 grand for a new one. He told them it was time to ditch the Rockstar aliases, and sadly, to park the Impala. Dean's face at the mention of having to bench his baby was just sad to see.

"She'll forgive you Dean," Andy said patting him on the shoulder. Once all that was done, the headed out, in a new set of wheels.

It didn't take Sam long to figure out the pattern. They were hitting all the cities the boys had worked cases since Sam had left Stanford. They try to head them off, but it takes some time. Before they could make it, the leviathans had shot up Conner's dinner in St. Louis. It was just one more hit to Dean. They high tailed it to the next stop and ended up with more bad luck. The second they had eyes on the doppelgangers the cops showed up and arrested the real pair. Andy managed to ghost her way out of the picture and not be arrested as an accomplice. She tailed the Bobbsey twins to the sheriffs station and tried to figure out a plan. While she was struggling with the problem of figuring out how to tell Leviathans from her real boys, her phone buzzed in her pocket and nearly gave her a heart attack.

Bobby?

Yea, Dean isn't answering his cell what's going on?

They got made by their doubles and the arrested.

Balls!

Do you have anything that can help.

There's a chemical, sodium borate.

You mean Borax?

That's the one. It burns them. So you can get close enough to chop their heads off.

I'll take it. Thanks Bobby.

Now the plan was to stealth in and find as much borax as possible and…improvise. She unfortunately had to watch one of they chompers having a deputy snack before she made it to a supply closet and found some industrial cleaner. With a bit of pure luck, she snuck up behind a leviathan Sam just as, who she hoped was a real Dean, got an axe in his hand ready to chop a head off. When Dean saw Andy after leviathan Sam had his head detached he dropped the axe and pulled her into a hug.

"Nice timing babe,"

"You're welcome," Andy said against Dean's chest. They heard a throat clearing behind them. The sheriff was standing there with a bucket. Andy assumed Dean had managed to talk to Bobby and had heard the same news. They went to get Sam, and took out the other leviathan all in one go. The sheriff agreed to help the boys "be dead" again. Andy was watching Sam. He had an odd look on his face, and he wouldn't look at Dean. She put a hand on his shoulder.

"You ok Sammy?" she asked. He took a moment to look at her, but he nodded.

"Yea, yea I'm fine," he said and got up. They helped the sheriff clean up a bit and they all high tailed it out of there.

They drove for a solid few hours and stopped off at a pier to get rid of their rather gruesome packages. Andy could tell something was eating at Sam. He was very quiet in the car, and leaned against the pier brooding while Dean and Andy dumped the heads.

"Are you sure we want to dump these things. They might come in handy some time," Dean said jokingly. Sam said nothing. "What is it? Did Mr. Monster give you the jeebs?"

"You really want to know what's wrong?" Sam asked seriously. Andy was confused. She couldn't think of anything that Sam could be upset about.

"Yea, you know my motto: Here to help."

"Help, like you helped Amy?" Sam said shortly. Andy raised an eyebrow.

"Amy? The kitsune?" She looked at Dean, and blanched. His face said it all.

"Listen Sam…"

"No, I can't. I can't even talk to you right now."

"So this means,"

"This means I can't even be around you right now Dean. You should go. Just go on without me."

Dean was quiet. Andy could see he wasn't going to fight.

"Sam, wait, can't we work this out? Talk about it?"

"Not this time Andy, for all I know you knew about this." Sam said shaking his head. Andy looked at him stunned.

"I'm sorry Sam," Dean said, and got in the car.

"Go with him Andy." She hesitated for a moment, then walked to the door and pulled it open. She gave same one tearful look and ducked in, slamming the door shut. Dean pulled out and sped away.