Straightjacket Feeling ch. 5

“Sam, she can’t be gone,” he said standing up. “She could hardly keep her eyes open. There’s no way she could have walked out of there, much less snuck out of there.” Dean was now pacing around the room. He had his fingers laced together with his hands behind his head, a gesture his younger brother made more often than he did.

“That’s what they told me Dean,” Sam said with a sigh as he sat down on the end of the bed. Their roles had changed and Sam was beginning to notice that. Dean was usually the calm one sitting on the end of the bed while Sam paced, now Dean was pacing and Sam was sitting. It didn’t make much sense to Sam. “Dean, calm down,” Sam said firmly. Was Sam giving out orders now too? He stood quickly to get rid of the odd feeling in the pit of his stomach he was getting watching Dean pace. “Dean, stop you’re gonna make me sick,” he said as he grabbed his older, shorter, brother by his shoulders to stop his movement.

“Someone must have taken her Sammy,” he said turning around to face his brother.

“Dean,” Sam said firmly once more. “Calm. Down.” He sighed and sat down on the end of the bed once more. “Who would have taken Abbi? She has no enemies right? I mean she hasn’t been hunting with you guys in a long time right? She hasn’t gone on a job with you or Dad since when?”

“Not since a year or so after you left for college,” he said simply. “She got separated from us on a job overseas. You know her and her love for that whole Europe thing,” he said with a laugh. “I called her as soon as it was done and she said she was fine. She asked if we minded letting her stay there for a while and we said sure. Actually, Dad insisted on it. He said it was safer, now I know why. She must have shown signs of getting weaker or something.” He sighed and sat down on the end of the other bed. He ran his hands through his short hair and along his face, trying to think of something. “I called her a couple times after that but about two or three months before I got you we lost contact with her. I hadn’t seen her until today.”

“You think she made some enemies overseas,” Sam asked just as confused and baffled as Dean was.

“I don’t know. She seemed a little tenser in the car today, and she’s never yelled at me like that before.”

“Not true Dean,” Sam corrected quickly. “You’ve never yelled at her like that.” Sam gave him a cocky smile and then looked away when he saw the seriousness of his older brother’s face. He sighed and ran his hands through his dark hair, the same way Dean had. “Do you know of anyone she had contact with overseas? Where she was? What she was doing?”

“No,” Dean said with a sigh. “Dad had all that stuff with him. And I don’t remember him ever writing it down.” He got up and walked over to the table where their father’s journal lay open. He flipped through the pages looking for something that might lead to Abbi. “I can’t find anything,” he said with a sigh. “Here,” he said quickly. He pointed to a page of notebook paper in the journal. It had some small scribbles on it Dean could barely make out. “It says she stayed in Ireland for a little bit, doesn’t say where.” He sighed and threw the journal down on the table in frustration after a moment of reading. “Doesn’t say she was involved in anything other than some small journalistic jobs in Dublin,” he said with a sigh.

“A journalist can make some pretty bad enemies,” Sam said arching a brow at his brother.

“Enemies that would fly all the way here to kidnap her from a hospital there’s no way they could know she was in,” he asked leaning back in the chair.

“Good point,” Sam sighed as he turned around and retook his position on the bed. “Maybe we should go to the hospital and see if there’s anything there that might help,” Sam suggested.

“Sure,” Dean said with a sigh. He put his blue jacket on over the same grey t-shirt he had been wearing for nearly six months. He put his boots on and stood, picking up his keys and turned to Sam who was still changing. “Sammy, come on,” he hurried.

“I’m coming,” Sam snapped as he tied his shoes. He stood and grabbed his jacket as they walked out the door.


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Abbi slowly began to reenter the world of the conscious. Her eyes slowly opened and she looked around the room. It was dark and her vision was still blurry. She sat up slowly and looked around. The only light came from a window across the room. Finally, her eyes began to adjust to the darkness. She was fine until she realized she wasn’t in the hospital anymore and she began to panic. She looked around, trying to guess where she was. She went to walk over to the window but found her legs were strapped to the bed. Her heart began to race. “Dean,” she whispered but no actual sound came out. She heard footsteps outside her door. She laid back down as the door slowly opened and she shut her eyes, pretending she was still unconscious.

She couldn’t tell who had come into the room. All she could hear was the sound of boots against the hardwood floor. She tried to slow her breathing and heart rate so it wasn’t obvious she was awake. “You can open your eyes,” she heard a man’s voice say. The voice sounded somewhat familiar but she couldn’t place it. She opened her eyes slowly. That did nothing to help her see who it was. It was far too dark for her to see anything but a silhouette. “Do you take me for an idiot Abigail,” the man asked.

She looked at him confused. Her hands were shaking and tears were forming in her eyes, but she was stronger than to let herself cry. “Who are you,” she asked strongly. She was surprised her voice could sound like that, given her current situation.

The man simply laughed and let the blinds drop ridding the room of what little light it had. Abbi’s heart raced and she clenched her fists trying to calm herself. “Who am I,” he asked still laughing. The man sat down on the edge of the bed, next to Abbi. “Abbi, what kind of a question is that,” he asked brushing the girl’s hair from her face. She turned her head quickly away from him. His voice was so familiar but she couldn’t place it. “Shhh,” the man whispered placing a finger over Abbi’s lips. “Now’s not talking time for you Abs,” he said with a smile.

She cringed at the name. Only one person had ever called her that, and that was Dean. That didn’t make sense, the voice wasn’t Dean’s voice. She knew Dean’s voice, this man had an Irish accent anyway. Who was it? “Abbi, don’t be afraid,” the man whispered taking Abbi’s trembling hand. Abbi tried to fight and pull her hand away but he tightened his grip and she was in no shape to fight. Her head was beginning to hurt and her vision blurred slightly. “Shh,” the man whispered. “Its time to sleep now Abbi,” he said as he took out a small needle from his pocket. He removed the cap and straightened her arm. Then he slowly inserted the needle into her arm and sent whatever was inside coursing through her bloodstream. Her vision had just come back into focus. The man leaned forward and before she could see his face, her world went black. “Good night my princess,” the man whispered kissing Abbi lightly on the forehead.


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Sam and Dean got to the hospital just in time to find the police there. “Can I help you sir,” one officer asked.

Dean looked down at the tag on the man’s uniform. “Not really officer,” he read the name on the tag, “Rowland,” he said with a smartass smile.

“I can’t let you in there sir,” Officer Rowland said stepping in front of Dean.

“Why not?”

“This is a crime scene sir can’t you see,” he asked pointing around at all the tape.

Sam and Dean exchanged glances. “Crime scene,” Dean asked trying to hide the worry in his voice. “What kind of crime?”

“Arson,” the officer answered. “Now if you don’t mind I need you two to step back please.”

“Arson,” Dean said quickly.

“We came responding to a call from a staff member here,” Sam interrupted. Dean looked over at his younger brother questioningly. “One of the attendants called and told me that my dear sister-in-law went missing. I called up my brother and we came to find out what we could. You see, my brother’s wife has Leukemia and when he saw her last, not more than a few hours ago she could hardly stay conscious for very long. We came by to find out how she got out.”

“Yeah,” Dean piped up.

“Wait right here sirs,” the officer said. He turned and walked back to a group of other officers.

Dean turned quickly to his brother and pushed him back slightly. “Sister-in-law,” Dean asked.

“Well they have on record that Abbi’s an orphan with no siblings so immediate family couldn’t work. Plus cousins wouldn’t be close enough for something like this,” Sam answered.

The officer returned and both boys turned to face him. “Abigail Murphy,” the man asked looking at a chart in his hands.

“Yeah, that’s my baby,” Dean said with a smile that was more real than he meant it to be. Sam merely rolled his eyes.

“It doesn’t say anything about a spouse,” the officer said.

The boys were caught off guard. Dean answered quickly though. “We haven’t actually gotten married yet,” he said blushing slightly. “We were supposed to be getting married in a couple of weeks actually,” he said beaming. Sam was beginning to think Dean was getting a bit carried away.

“Really,” the officer said with a somewhat sad face.

“What,” Dean asked turning ghostly pale. Sam could see the terror in his eyes.

“Well the fire started in her room,” the officer said simply. “The firefighters weren’t able to recover a body there was too much damage to the room. They found her hospital band though,” he said handing the charred plastic band to Dean. “I’m terribly sorry Mr….”

“Winchester,” Sam answered for his brother.

“I’m sorry Mr. Winchester. I’ll let you know if we find out anything new.” The officer left to go look around the site.

Sam looked down at his brother who was staring at the band in his hand. It looked for a moment as if he wasn’t breathing. “Dean,” Sam asked after a moment. This was what Sam had feared since they brought her in. Dean shouldn’t lose her like this. It wasn’t fair. Dean looked up at his brother slowly. There were tears in his eyes, though he tried to look strong. He clenched his fist around the Abbi’s hospital bracelet. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to Sam understood. He wrapped his arms around his brother and felt Dean’s body begin to tremble. “I’m sorry Dean,” he said quietly. He didn’t know what else to say. Dean’s body began to quake as he was unable to hold back the pain inside him any longer. Sam could hear his brother’s heartbroken sobs. He felt so helpless and wondered if this is how Dean felt with Sam after Jess died.