Sam wanted to just fast forward past any further discussion regarding the �event� between himself and Faith. They had more important things to work through. Dean was still daggering him with a glare that could stake a vampire, but he wasn�t saying anything. For the moment. Although Sam was sure there�d be a showdown at some point. Meanwhile, Dracora seemed to be stuck in various dragon guises. He was having trouble communicating with her telepathically. Thought out words weren�t working for some reason, so he was resorting to a more primal communication based on emotions and a sort of empathic exchange that included story book pages of mind pictures. Rod Stewart had once sung, �every picture tells a story, don�t it?� Bad grammar, for sure, but the lyrics rang true. You really can communicate with pictures. And the images he was receiving from Dracora as clear as an HD cable television signal was that she couldn�t get back to human form. It had something to do with going back in time, but exactly what, Sam couldn�t say.
�Listen. That little girl could see us. That means we can affect this world. She thought we were ghosts, and I can�t blame her for that. We�re not ghosts, but that�s what I�d think if I was her. And if she can see us, then there will be others who can see us, too.� Sam glanced towards Faith who had thought the Doctor could probably see them, �And maybe Doctor Sullivan is one of them, but maybe not. That girl is the youngest person we�ve had any contact with so far here. Maybe her age has something to do with it. Children are more open-minded to things like ghosts. Adults block them out.� As if on cue, a nurse with gray hair, completely oblivious to the ghostly figures around her, came into Doctor Sullivan�s office, plucked a file from a file cabinet, and then left. �See what I mean?�
He took a seat in a wooden desk chair that contacted the floor with wheels. Sam was still perplexed how they could stand on the floor or sit in chairs, yet they could put their hands or heads through walls and file cabinets. Obviously they were still affected by gravity somehow. Maybe that would be a factoid of ghostly physics they could employ down the line.
�So think about what ghosts can do. They can scare the living crap out of a person.� As witnessed by how fast the teenage girl had blasted out of here. �But some people are intrigued, if not obsessed with ghosts, trying to contact them with all sorts of high tech cameras and recording equipment.� Everyone must have caught the show Ghost Hunters at least once while channel surfing. �We just need to find someone who will listen to us. If we can do that, maybe we can convince them to help us. At the same time, we can�t allow ourselves to freak out about this. Yeah, we�re essentially incorporeal and yeah we seem to have gone back in time about 50 years. But we�re invisible to most people! That gives us a huge advantage in investigations! We can walk through walls! Locked doors are no obstacle. So while we�re trying to figure out how to get back home, we can be investigating Doctor Sullivan. So, I guess what I�m trying to say is, we need to go with our strengths. We need to get home, but we�re hunters. And right now Sullivan is the hunted. So lets think about hunting him, using the tools that have been given to us here. So, yeah, we need to find and talk to that girl or someone else who can see us and will listen, but we also need to put on our sleuthing hats. We�ve got a case in need of investigation.�
It was nice to have the focus taken off of her. It wasn�t over by a long shot. She would still eventually have to face the music. Rachel was still shoot daggers at her. Dean�s silence was overwhelming. He might as well be screaming. He wouldn�t even look at her right now. Faith cocked her head studying Sam as he gave his pep talk. She wasn�t too keen on walking through walls. It was a reminder of their currently ghostly form. Slayers weren�t meant to have a long life expectancy, but she wasn�t quite ready to have kicked the bucket. Concentrating on investigation would help to take her mind off of the situation.
�What are we waiting for?� Faith glanced around the room at the others. �Let�s see what the good Dr. is up to. Go visit the patients and get this show on the road,� she slammed her palms down on the desk. The spectral force caused the papers on the table to blow back. �It would probably be best to operate under the doctor�s radar so that he wouldn�t be able to hide anything,� she straightened back up. No one really wanted to listen to her right now. She could tell that, but this was a valid idea. Things would also probably be easier if they divided up. One group watching the good doctor and the group could talk with the patients. She didn�t figure this idea was going to fly either right about now. Sam and Dean may not want to work together. Rachel didn�t want to work with her. There would be tension no matter how they tried to divide up.
The hospital set up hadn�t changed in years. It was set up the same now as it would be in the future. The patients check in and common area was down stairs. Several of the more docile people were placed there. This one day forbidden floor was for the more disturbed patients. It was also the location of all the Doctors experiments and projects. This is why one day the floor would be closed. So many horrible and traumatic things happened between the walls that pain would leave a scar on the building. A few sparse rays of sun light began to cascade through the window of the office. It was sun rise. �The patients are probably beginning to gather down stairs to get their meds in the game room maybe we should start down there,� she began to head out the door into the hallway. She didn�t wait for the others to follow. She wasn�t sure they would under the circumstances, but she was going to find this girl.
Nurses were passing her in the hallway. They didn�t even notice that she was there the fact still gave her the creeps. Two orderlies were beginning to pass her dragging a screaming girl. She kept chanting that she would be good not to do this to her again. A couple of nurses were holding a door open down the hallway motioning for them to hurry and bring her in. The doctor was waiting.
Her bright blue eyes burned as they flickered between Sammy, Dean and Faith, their faces alone expressing their emotions and feelings towards each other. Rachel couldn�t help but feel as if her two brothers would come head-to-head sooner or later, probably knocking seven-bells out of each other in the way they usually did. It would be her job, yet again, to try and make sure that didn�t happen, even if that meant knocking both of their heads together and sending them both to separate corners to chill off and sort themselves out. Hopefully, that showdown wouldn�t happen until later, hopefully until after the case had been solved and they were moving onto the next one. Rachel had no idea what would happen to Faith, but her loyalties remained with both of her brothers. Whatever they decided, she would support them and guide them � just like she had always done. Sometimes, being the voice of reason within her family unit sucked. As she listened to Sam, she couldn�t help but agree with him. He was right. They needed to get their heads back into the game and figure out a way to get back to their own time and their bodies, hopefully before she gave birth.
Rachel watched Faith break off from the group and head down the corridor by herself. She wasn�t going to follow her, not even if Dean ordered her to. She had her own investigating to do, something that probably nobody else had thought of and yet may just prove critical in their current situation.
�I�m gonna check if we�re stuck in this place.� The blonde Winchester announced, her eyes returning to Dean as if waiting for his approval. �Maybe there is someone back in the town that will be able to help us, a medium maybe?� Since Sam was so sure that they weren�t ghosts, maybe they weren�t just limited to the hospital. Maybe they would be able to travel into the town down the road. There had to be someone who could help. �I�ll be fine on my own. Look, Sam and Dracora should stick together, and so should you and red-head there. That way, you�ll both keep out of trouble and I won�t have to worry about either of you until I get back.� There was one problem running through her mind. If they separated, they wouldn�t have a way of contacting each other � something that Faith hadn�t thought of before she had wondered off. It wasn�t as if they could use their cell phones. �Maybe, we should all meet back here in like two hours, put together any clues and evidence we�ve got?�
The round, utilitarian clock behind Doc Sullivan�s desk read 7:04. It was the beginning of everyone�s day here in October 1964. �Two hours. So like 9 o�clock. Got it.� Rachel had suggested Sam team up with Dracora. He glanced at the Forest dragon that was standing in the hallway, Dracora�s tail curled around her scaled feet like a big cat. With those blue-green, jeweled eyes, she was watching the people go by, some of whom were walking right through her. �Ok, so Rachel is heading to town, to see what 1964 looks like in Coldwater. Maybe you can catch a ride with that Republican in his overalls and the five teeth.� He frowned, �You think you can do what you need to do in two hours?� But he shrugged and turned to Dean and Dianna. Dean was still glaring at him, his arms crossed defensively over his chest. �And you two will, uh, investigate something else. The dragon and I will take the fourth floor, see what�s shakin up there.� The fourth floor was the top floor of the Davis Memorial Mental Health Facility, or at least that�s what it was called in 2012. When he and Dracora had entered the building, that top floor had been almost completely obscured by the fog. He didn�t have a clue what they might find up there.
With a plan in place, Sam was more than happy to escape the caustic, yet unspoken, criticism that was boiling just under the surface in Dean. Dracora was still seemingly mesmerized by the passersby in the hallway, particularly the ones that just walked through her like she was an illusion. Sam tried to catch her gaze, to coax her down the hall towards the stairs, but he had to tap her on her scaled shoulder to get her attention. Then Sam Winchester, with a 15-foot long, winged dragon in tow strode down the hall away from Doctor Sullivan�s office. This was definitely a picture for the Winchester scrapbook. Too bad no one had a camera.
Actually, Sam did have a camera. On his phone. He stopped, brought forth his cell phone, and raised his hand, palm forward, gesturing for Dracora to halt. Then he aimed and took a picture. What resulted was a clear picture of Dracora, Dean, and Dianna amidst the hospital staff going to and fro to whatever business needed their attention. A nurse was caught in mid stride emerging from Dracora�s chest, which brought images from the movie Alien swimming to the surface of Sam�s unpredictable and fickle mind. �Interesting.� He wasn�t sure what he was going to do with this little bit of information captured by a piece of technology from almost 50 years in the future, but maybe it would come in handy. He noticed the phone was roaming for cell service. Good luck with that, Verizon.
It was a good thing that Dracora, the Forest dragon, was incorporeal, because otherwise she wouldn�t have been able to squeeze into the stairwell, which was narrow and dark but for the light coming through a small, barred window at the landing between the third and fourth floors. As it was she was able to clamber up the stairs while shoulders, hindquarters, and an occasional swish of her long tail passed through the walls to the outside. If someone out there was capable of seeing Dracora, like that little girl, then they must be thinking they�re truly and most sincerely one flew over the cuckoo�s nest.
The door to the fourth floor was secured with a metal bar bolted to a hinge on the wall to the right of the door, and then padlocked on the left side just above the door knob. Apparently, someone didn�t want folks straying onto this floor. Did the good Doctor Sullivan or others have something to hide up here? Sam automatically reached for the padlock, but of course his hand passed right through it. Rolling his eyes at himself, he just walked through that locked door, which was something that was going to take some time getting used to. Dracora followed him, nudging him forward with her snout so she could fully exit the stairwell. What they found here was strikingly different from anything else Sam had seen in the hospital. The long hallway was lined with barred cells � perhaps 25 in all. In some of those cells, faces pressed against the bars or hands reached out, hoping to grasp something other than air. Sam glanced in the first two cells on either side of the hall. On one side was a woman, perhaps in her early 20s, in a straight jacket. Her ankles were shackled to the wall, limiting her mobility, and her mouth was open in a perpetual scream. Although her lungs were pumping and her lips were moving, no sound came from her. In fact, the entire hallway was devoid of human voices. The only sounds were the shuffling of feet, hands clasping the bars, and someone towards the end of the hall banging his or her head against the bars. Opposite from the woman, was an impossibly thin man dressed in what could only be described as diapers. Soiled diapers, in fact. He was withdrawn, scrunched into a corner of his cell, rocking back and forth with his arms clasped around his bony knees. He was staring at the light on the ceiling, and like the woman across the hall, his mouth was open in a silent scream. Visible on his throat was a red, angry scar. Apparently his vocal cords had been severed. Someone really didn�t want to listen to the desperate cries of these people.
Sam mumbled, �I think we�ve found Doctor Sullivan�s failed experiments.�
The town of Coldwater was no different in 2012 than it had been in 1964. Perhaps a bit less sleazy. The adult video shop that had been situated on the corner of the main road had replaced an old-fashioned looking family pharmacy. People were walking around wearing clothes that Rachel wouldn�t be seen dead in. If her brothers decided that her body would be burnt wearing large purple flared trousers with a waistband that reached her armpits, she would happily return to haunt them both. Knowing Dean, he would probably get some kind of weird kick out of seeing her wearing such things, but hopefully Sam would try and knock some sense into his head. The weird sensation of people walking through her was something that caused Rachel to violently shiver. Maybe coming back to haunt her brothers wouldn�t be such a good idea. They would just have to put up with knowing that she was disappointed in them.
At least she wasn�t in the mental asylum anymore. She was no longer surrounded by crazy people and young girls who screamed bloody blue murder at the very sight of her, her brothers and their friends. She no longer felt as if she would be strapped down to another table any moment, prepped for an operation that she didn�t need.
Looking around the town, the young blonde Winchester wondered if 1964 Coldwater was any different to Lawrence, Kansas 1978. She felt a little out of place, especially sporting a huge and round stomach. With people walking into her, Rachel couldn�t help but feel a little intimidated. Usually she hated strangers looking at her and watching her, but now that they couldn�t see her, she would give anything for someone to simply just look her in the eye.
Rachel�s wish came in the form of a plump middle-aged woman with greying hair. She was wearing a pair of those flared trousers that reached her armpits and a fluffy wool cardigan. The woman�s eyes stared at her, but no shock was evident upon her face. It was as if she saw non-dead people from the future all the time. A rather solid lump formed in the blonde�s throat. Okay, she took it back. She didn�t want anyone looking at her anymore. The woman was starting to creep her out a little. Rachel had been a hunter long enough to know that she shouldn�t simply look a gift-horse in the mouth and do nothing about it. This woman was perhaps the only sane person in the Coldwater area who could see her. Taking a deep breath, the blonde walked the couple of meters to stand in front of the woman.
�You�re Rachel Winchester.�
Rachel nodded her head slowly, confirming what the woman obviously already knew. It was one thing to actually be able to see her, but to know her name was something else. Was this part of doctor Sullivan�s plan? The blonde suddenly felt a little vulnerable. If she couldn�t even flip the pages of a stupid book, how could she defend herself if this woman started to attack her?
�Don�t look so spooked. Castiel told me you would be here.�
Dean was mad enough to rip Sammy�s head off with his bare hands. He didn�t believe for one second that Sam or Faith had been ensorceled or magicked into each other�s arms. That was just pure, unadulterated bullshit. But he was also smart enough to know that this wasn�t the time or place to duke it out with his bro. They were in a helluva fix here and they needed to keep their heads. But Sammy�s time would come. The wrath of Big Brother would come down on him like two tons of whoopass.
So Dean didn�t say anything about what had happened back at the motel. Or, more precisely, what would happen in about 48 years. So what would happen if the only way back was to live their way through the years? He and Sam and Faith would all be like 70 something in 2012. Visions of Sam and Faith, all wrinkled and gray, going at it like hormonal bunnies 48 years in the future left a bad taste in Dean�s mouth. They�d find a way back. Maybe before the betrayal went down. They were time travelers now, right? Maybe he could stop the Sam and Faith in the sack thing.
Dean watched as Sam and Dracora headed into the stairwell. Rachel was already gone, on her way to Coldwater. Best thing was to follow Faith. See what was happening downstairs. Things were going to be awkward between Dean and Faith for a while, too. He didn�t really know what to think about what she had done. But she had some serious explaining to do. Dean turned around to ask Dianna if she wanted to follow along, but the red-head was gone. Frowning, Dean strode back into Doc Sullivan�s office, but there was no sign of her there, either. Dean leaned into the door jam, a hand on either side of the doorway and looked both ways along the corridor. Dean spent another five minutes searching the rooms up and down the hallway with no luck. Dianna had vanished.
Not knowing what else to do, he went to the stairwell and trotted down the steps to the first floor. To the left of the stairway, which swept elegantly onto the lower floor like something in an old mansion instead of a hospital, was the game room where patients and nurses were gathering, just as Faith had suggested. Dean was relieved to see that someone other than Nurse Sidebottom was sitting behind the reception desk. He�d been of a mind that Margaret Sidebottom had always been and would forever be the receptionist at Davis Memorial Mental Health Facility. Margaret with her constant expression that could be described as two piggish, beady eyes glaring out of a face that resembled a plate of scrambled eggs with hot sauce.
Dean walked to Faith�s side where she was standing to the side of the entry to the game room, out of the traffic where she wouldn�t have to experience people walking through her all the time. Dean crossed his arms and through a frown announced, �Dianna�s gone.�
Faith couldn�t help but retort, �What, you are you talking to me now?� She was too hurt to be civil. The wound was still fresh. Dean didn�t even consider the concept that she was innocent and there was magic involved. He chose to immediately think the worst of her. He never mentioned what he had done. She realized what Dean had said, his words sank in. �Wait, you mean Red just took off?� her brow scrunched together trying to picture where the woman could have gone. Perhaps she had a clue and was on to something. In that case she was perfectly safe just in investigation mode ghosting about. But in that case why didn�t she get Dean�s attention. The other thought was that the woman had run into the doctor. He could have done something with her. �You better go find her,� there was an air of venom in her voice. She had been the second red head he had been hanging within two days.
The patients were scuttling in and out of the room. Nurses were showing them how to play games and operate puzzles. Some of there were already fixated on their projects. It was as if no one else was in the room. A woman was staring out of the room aimlessly mesmerized by something on the grounds. There was a young brunette shuffling through the room with her arms wrapped tightly around a stuffed animal. She was rambling incoherently about people the events in the office. The nurses were ignoring her thinking them simple ramblings of a mad woman. It was the girl from the office earlier. Faith smacked Dean in the shoulder then pointed towards the young woman. She appeared almost too fragile to approach.
�Wait a minute,� raising a hand. She wanted to see where the girl was going observe her. Faith had seen her as a ghost in the future looking almost the same as she did now. Something was going to happen to her and soon. She was connected to the mess somehow. The odds were they weren�t going to get too much out of her right now.
The girl shackled to the wall who had been silently screaming in protest or perhaps just madness was suddenly fixated on something behind Sam Winchester, her eyes as big as saucers and her mouth forming a big O. She stood, took a step towards the bars of her cell, and reached out with both hands, but the chains prevented her from going very far. Then that astonished look transformed into one of despair and loss. The girl shrunk inward a little, still gazing at something behind Sam as a tear slid down one grimy cheek. So he turned to see what she was gawking at. There was nothing, no one. Although Dracora had been standing there on four clawed feet in Forest Dragon guise just a moment before. Sam frowned and retraced his steps into the stairwell. Looking down the stairs, there was no sign of her, but he was already feeling her absence. Dracora had inexplicably been taken from this world.
Suddenly stricken by the loss, Sam put his back to the wall adjacent to the stairwell entrance and slid down until he was sitting on the floor. Owing to the bond they shared and her dragon scale that Sam wore under the skin of his hand, he was still in contact with his friend, but she was distant and her words were muted, as if her voice was traveling along celestial airwaves from some distant galaxy. Although the words were not entirely clear, the meaning came through loud and crystalline as emotions and feelings � reassurance that she was alright, that the bond they shared would never be broken and never fade. And eternal love and friendship blazed across the dimensional boundary, a fire that warmed Sammy�s heart, despite Dracora�s unexpected and sudden departure.
She had been called away suddenly by her mate, Draco. The forging of a critical alliance among humankind, dragons, and an ancient entity known as the Tylwyth Teg required the Queen�s immediate presence. So she was whisked away. But something had happened. When Dracora passed through the portal, it unexpectedly slammed shut and vanished. The wizards declared the portal extinct, extinguished - its allotted number of passages back and forth between dimensions expended, used up. And the magic that had created the portal was lost with the vanquishing of Red Skin and Grako.
Dracora would not be returning any time soon to the realm of hunters, aged, but well-maintained muscle cars, greasy diner food, and roach-infested roadside motels.
Tears welled up in Sammy�s eyes. He would never again ride upon Dracora�s strong back and feel the flight muscles rippling under her scales as she took to the air. She was oh so beautiful, too � as a dragon and as a woman. In her woman guise, Dracora projected an ethereal beauty that was a product of not just her remarkable physical appearance, but more importantly came from a place deep inside. She had a dazzlingly beautiful soul. And forever would.
Sam turned to the shackled girl. She was now focused on him, mouthing words that came out only as hushed whispers. The girl had seen Dracora and could see him as well. And she wasn�t the only one. The man in the cell opposite her was guardedly watching him. But he was still scrunched into a corner like a wary animal, clearly afraid of Sam Winchester, perhaps associating anyone outside the bars as a threat. Other inmates down the hall were peering through the bars at him, too. It seemed as though Doctor Sullivan�s patients, at least these patients, could see Sam Winchester.
Faith had lashed out at him initially. It was Dean�s nature to lash back. He normally didn�t have much restraint in that department, but on this occasion he managed to hold his tongue. He crossed his arms over his chest, maybe as way to hold in some of that anger. Faith had done him wrong. That wasn�t something he was going to forgive easily. Besides, he wasn�t much accustomed to women cheating on him. Especially women cheating on him with his brother!
But if they didn�t work together, they�d no doubt be stuck in this damned asylum as specters, phantoms that couldn�t affect this world even one little bit. For Dean, that was akin to being in hell. Faith wanted him to go look for Dianna. But he didn�t have a clue where to look. In fact, his intuition told him she was gone from this place. And that she wouldn�t be coming back anytime soon. But if she�d found a way out, then maybe there was hope for them.
Then Faith was jabbing him in the shoulder, pointing at a girl who appeared to be even crazier than most of the nutjobs in this place. She was mumbling to herself and pacing the floor, a feral look in her eyes. Then Dean recognized her. From Doc Sullivan�s office. This was the girl who saw all of them and bolted like she�d seen�a bunch of ghosts.
Dean took a few steps her way, �Hey, its me. From upstairs. Not a ghost. And I�m not dangerous. I need your help. And maybe I can help you.� The girl stopped her pacing and looked up at Dean. As she fixed him with her gaze, Dean could see that her eyes were spinning around like pinwheels and she was talking to herself, in fact, having a conversation with herself: �Not real, can�t be real. Stupid imbecile. Of course they�re real because they�re inside your head. Manifestations that will possess you and steal your physical body. No, no, I think they want my help. I think they can help me. Help me fight Doctor Sullivan. Not manifestations. Real! Moron! Doctor Sullivan is your only chance of getting out of here. His treatments will cure you. Tell the nurse immediately what you�re seeing. They�ll burn the phantoms out of your brain. Do it, or else!!�
Dean was afraid the girl was too far gone to be any help at all. She was crazier than a dog in a hubcap factory.
Chara O�Donnell had seen many things in her life. She had witnessed events that would surely go down in history. The recently departed relied on her to relay messages to their loved ones. Even Angels popped up in her dreams to send her on a mission. Nothing could have prepared her for witnessing a young, pregnant woman�s apparition go through denial and shock. Granted, being told that she would soon die by a complete stranger would have sent her into a stunned state, but Chara had not expected the tears to fill those blue eyes. How could she comfort the woman? Her arms would feel nothing but a cold, thin air.
The pair of them stood in silence for what seemed like an age; Rachel mumbling her disbelief and Chara simply watching her. The clock in the other room chimed out, notifying the pair of them that it was half eight, only half an hour before Rachel was due back at the hospital to meet with her brothers. �Did Castiel say how it would happen?� The blonde Winchester asked, her eyes looking to meet Chara�s. If there was any chance that she could avoid dying, Rachel would take a firm hold of it with both hands.
Did she tell her? Chara didn�t want to cause the young woman more distress, but she must have a right to know. The Angel hadn�t said anything about keeping quiet on that subject, even though he had been highly upset simply talking about it. �Your brothers. They will argue out their differences and won�t notice the danger they are in. You�ll place yourself between your brothers and the danger, and it will kill you.� Even with her Irish accent, Chara did sound deeply sympathetic. �You will die doing what you have done your entire life, protecting your brothers.�
Rachel took a long, deep breath and nodded her head as she blinked away the tears from her eyes. Somehow, she had known that all along. She had always known she would die protecting Sam and Dean, but did she have to be so young? Why couldn�t she have another few years to watch her baby grow up, maybe sort things out with Castiel? They could be a happy family. There was still a chance she could come out of this alive. She�d fight, just like she always had done; but there was no chance on Earth she would let her brothers die if she could prevent it. Wiping the tears that had started to fall from her eyes, Rachel nodded once more. It was time to put her game-face on.
�We need to get back to the hospital.� The blonde announced, folding her arms across her chest. �Sam and Dean will go nuts if I�m not back on time.�
Chara nodded her head in agreement as she stepped over to open the door. The hospital wasn�t too much of a walk, but they would never make it there on time. She would have to drive the pair of them. The Irish woman took a moment to hunt down her car keys, before she joined Rachel on the porch. �You need to keep this quiet from your brothers. They need to argue out their differences. Terrible things will happen if they don�t.� Chara warned the young woman, as she unlocked the passenger side of her car, opening the door for Rachel to get in. Once the door was closed and she was behind the wheel, Chara turned on the ignition and started driving down the road and towards the Mental Asylum.
Rachel stared out of the window for the entire journey. This may well be her last day on Earth, and she was already some kind of apparition. She may as well already be dead. Usually, her brilliant mind was capable of figuring out a way around problems, such as the one she found herself in. This time, however, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn�t figure out a solution. What terrible things would happen if Sam and Dean didn�t argue? Would Sam resort back to drinking all that demon blood again? Would Dean give the pair of them a huge �fuck you� and drive off into the horizon, never to be seen again? Would they be forced to battle some monster, the three of them losing their lives? In Rachel�s book, losing one life was better than losing three. Her family meant the entire world to her. She would love for Sam to marry some beautiful woman, find work at a Law Firm, and for Dean to grow old and grey and sit by an open fire surrounded by his grandchildren. The pair of them would meet for birthdays, Thanksgiving and Christmas and speak weekly over the phone. Her death would hurt them for a little while, but they would soon get over it and continue to live their lives. Their lives were much more important than hers, right?
�What floor do you need to be on?� Chara�s voice quickly brought Rachel from her thoughts. The blonde blinked a couple of times, before she realized that they were in the parking lot of the Mental Asylum. Had she been silent the entire journey? That was unlike her. �Nobody will see you. They won�t question you wondering around. I�ll come up with some excuse and meet you.� The Irish woman shot the young blonde a comforting smile, as if she knew what internal chaos was going through Rachel�s head.
�Doctor. Sullivan�s office is on the third floor.� Rachel spoke, her voice as strong as it should be, giving the impression that she was fine with everything that was yet to come. �They�ll be a group of us, and possibly a dragon but she�s a good friend. She won�t hurt you.� Out of instinct, Rachel moved to open the car door, only frowning when her hand fell through the metal. �Er, you mind giving me a hand?�
Chara was only happy to oblige. Unbuckling her seat-belt, the Irish woman was out of the car and opening the passenger door in a matter of a minute. She watched as Rachel silently made her way towards the large building and vanish through the doors. What excuse would she come up with? Chara had no names of patients she could be visiting, not did she have the blueprints of the building. Nevertheless, the Irish were well known for making things up as they went along. Locking the car, Chara took a deep breath and made her way towards the reception area.