In the Light

Chapter Eleven: Vision Realized

Ruby was tapping her feet and moving her hands for the whole ride. Sam grabbed her hands, stilling them. "Hey. It'll be okay. We've got a good plan."

"But it's a vision. Can you even change that kind of thing? Should we be taking that risk?"

"We have to. I won't let you two do this alone."

"This is insane." She was angry. She took her hand from Sam's and crossed her arms.

The rest of the ride was silent.

• • •

A long time later, they were sitting at the poker table just like in Ruby's vision. A man sat down to her left. He was average looking. Brown hair and eyes wearing a t-shirt and jeans with a jacket. Ruby put her hair up into a bun - the signal that the demon was there.

Dean stood up, acting like he was stretching. Swiftly, he took out the hand cuffs. He put them around the demon's hands. It broke through the cuffs immediately, and just like in Ruby's vision, he took out the gun and shot Sam.

The shot rang in her ears and Ruby screamed. She completely forgot about the demon and ran to Sam. "Get the demon!" Sam yelled and shoved her, gritting his teeth.

Dean had the man on the floor. There wasn't time to start the exorcism. The demon smoked out and went under the table. Ruby lost sight of it; it could be in any person in the room now. "Lock the doors!" Dean yelled at Ruby.

He took out the badge and showed it to the people in the room who hadn't run out. It was still chaos. "Everyone calm down! We'll keep you safe, but we need to interrogate everyone before we can let you leave."

To the dealer, Dean asked "Is there a room, like a break room, where we can go?"

Ruby stopped listening to them and focused on Sam. Blood was pooling underneath him and he seemed out of it.

"Ruby, talk to me." Dean was herding people into the staff lounge. Sam didn't look good. "I don't know, Dean. What do we do?" She felt hot tears fall down her face.

"Is anyone a doctor?" Dean yelled, looking around frantically.

A tiny woman raised her hand "I'm an intern at a hospital." She went over to Sam and knelt down. "I think... I think the bullet might have nicked an artery, but it didn't hit his lungs or heart. Can you lift him?" Ruby had moved so that Sam's head was in her lap. She turned him to the side. The bullet had gone through. "I can't fix this here. We don't have any sutures..." She trailed off.

"Floss," Sam said. His eyes were closed and Ruby could barely hear him.

"Can that work? Can we use that? What about a needle?" Ruby said all this in one breath.

"Safety pins. First aid kit." Sam was still awake. That was a good sign

"You get the dental floss, I'll get the safety pins," Ruby ordered the girl.

Sometime later, it was over. Their hands were covered in blood; her jeans and some of her shirt were covered in it too. Sam had finally passed out. The pain must have been awful.

Ruby went to talk to Dean; he was still in the staff lounge. "Is Sam okay?" Ruby nodded. "Good. I'm still gonna rip that demon's lungs out."

"What are you doing in here?" She asked. No one was in the room at the moment.

"I'm asking them some questions so it doesn't seem too suspicious. Then I tell them I have to do I test and I just have them dip their hand in holy water. Go get the next person, would you." She did.

• • •

Ruby stayed with Sam until she heard a distorted scream come from the room Dean was in. She ran inside. Dean was straddling the demon. If it weren't such a serious situation, Ruby would have laughed. They performed the exorcism and it was over a few minutes later.

They went outside, told everyone they could leave, collected Sam, and started going out. Sam leaned sideways and almost fell. The intern yelled something about Sam probably needing to go to the hospital. Dean yelled over his shoulder, "Yeah, thanks," and kept walking.

"Hey. Be serious. He's obviously hurt pretty bad." Ruby was annoyed with Dean.

"He'll just be out of the game for a little while. Look, if he thinks he needs more help or if something bad happens, we'll take him. Let's wait and see how he feels first."

• • •

Sam slept restlessly for a day. Ruby stayed in bed with him. She slept some too while Dean watched TV. She prayed too. Prayed for Sam to get better. For once, she prayed for herself too. She never did that. She had confidence that her prayers helped other people, but she never prayed for herself. But she needed to be at her best for Sam and Dean. Mentally and physically.