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The hospital was small, quaint even. Skye had spent two hours pacing the waiting room with Connor, playing games with him, reading to him from crappy women's magazines, before she got any word on Dean. She stood quietly, Connor's tiny hand in hers as the little boy looked up, not understanding what was being said.

The doctor explained how lucky Dean was, how with all the internal injuries he had suffered, he should be dead. Skye fought the urge to laugh at those words, because somehow she didn't think the doctor would find her reasons for it to be sane. Hell, Skye wasn't sure herself. The barn seemed all a blur to her now. What the hell had she released? Why had it helped Dean? What had happened there anyway? All those questions and yet no answers were to be found yet.

" Can I see him?"

" He's not awake, Miss Anderson. Dean's in a coma. It's possible he might never wake up after all that damage." The doctor warned solemnly.

" Can I see him anyway?"

" Of course. Room 23."

Skye picked Connor up in her arms and walked there, feeling so tired….so very tired now that the adrenaline was wearing off.

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Dean looked so peaceful when she found him. For a moment, it was easy to look past the breather tube and the wires linking Dean to so many different monitors and just think he was asleep. That any minute now he would open those dazzling green eyes of his and flash that winning smile that made Skye's heart ache.

Connor was curled up in Skye's arms, having long grown bored with the games of Patty Cake and This Little Piggy. She cradled him against her, his head on her shoulder, one little hand tucked up to allow his thumb to rest againt his bottom lip.

It wasn't the most comfortable of positions, but Skye had been in worse before.

" Those doctors are full of crap. Dean's going to be fine."

Skye sat up at the sound of a voice that was strange yet familiar all at once. There was a rich resonance to it that she recognised, but it was softer, expressive and warm. The gutteral rasp she had heard in the barn completely gone.

Looking over at the door, Skye's breath caught in her throat. The man was leaning against the door frame in a denim shirt that was rolled up to the elbows. Faded blue jeans hugged his legs, the cuffs covering a pair of well worn leather work boots. Several days worth of growth covered the man's face, surrounding one of the most warm, yet sad smiles she'd ever seen. " He's strong. I made sure of that. Raised both those boys tough so they would survive this."

Skye knew that face. It had jumped out at her from the old photos tucked away in the trunk of the Impala. The man standing in front of her was John Winchester, supposedly dead father of Dean and Sam. And yet here he was….large as life…and sporting the most stunning set of inky black wings that Skye had ever seen. " Mr. Winchester?"

" Mr. Winchester's my father." John drawled easily. " Call me John." He smiled then, letting it light up his eyes. " Nice work." He nodded towards the salt ring that surrounded Dean's bed. " You'll want to keep doing that until he's awake. Make sure nothing tries to get inside him while he's vulnerable."

Now it was Skye's turn to nod. She fought to find the right words. What the hell did you say to a guy that was supposed to be dead? A guy that was standing only a few feet away, looking so casual, yet so magnificant all at once. Before she could say anything though…John was speaking again.

" You need to move Dean."

" Move him? I just got him here. He's in a coma…he needs to be looked after. Time to recover."

" He can get that anywhere. All those machines aren't what's going to heal Dean. Only time can do that and right now? You're running out of it. You need to get out of here, get out of town. Find somewhere quiet and hole up til it's over." John warned Skye. " I've found you a place to go. But we have to go now."

" Go? Go where, John? What the hell is happening?"

" The end of everything…" John said gravely, his wings shifting on his back as he watched his son, pain etched deeply in his eyes.

To be continued in Broken Lands……