𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍

𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘮𝘺 𝘸𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘩

━━━ DELANEY ELIZABETH WINCHESTER HAS DONE MANY CRAZY THINGS SINCE BEING SWOOPED INTO THE WORLD OF THE SUPERNATURAL. She's also done many thing she's not proud of either, but she tries not to think too much about any of the bad stuff. Even though her anxiety makes it a bit hard not to when it keeps reminding her that she's the reason a lot of the bad in the world is even happening at the moment. Many things that Delaney would have never even dreamed of doing while she was still at Stanford and occupying her time with classes and Will. Now . . . she occupied her time with demon hunting.

And . . . at the current moment, Delaney found herself occupying her time with trying to get into a mental hospital of all places. Dean had gotten a call from an old hunting buddy of his and Sam's named Martin that had all but begged them for help on a new hunt as he thought something was running around the mental hospital he was in. He truly had sounded like a crazy person on the phone, but Dean had known better and promised Martin they would help him. Or rather, Delaney and Theo would help him.

It had been no secret that Delaney and Theo were struggling through the loss of Ellen and Jo the past few weeks and Dean thought it'd be good to throw the two of them into a hunt to get their minds off everything. Which the same could be said for Dean as Delaney noticed the eldest Winchester startling awake most nights and Delaney knew she heard Jo's name fall from his lips at least once or twice. But Delaney knew better than to try and get Dean to talk about his emotions out loud because he buried his emotions so far down you could barely even see them anywhere.

Delaney shifted in her chair next to Theo while Dean and Sam stood behind their chairs. A doctor in a white lab coat held up two faked files that Dean and Sam had made up for Delaney and Theo so they could checked into the mental hospital for a few days. They just had to get admitted for long enough days that they could figure out if Martin's words were true and something supernatural was, in fact, running around the hospital. Not that it made being thrusted into a mental hospital any easier.

"You were referred to me by a Dr. Babar in Chicago," the doctor said, not taking his eyes away from the two files before him. The sunlight could be seen through the glare in his rectangular rimmed glasses that were perched on the top of his nose. "Isn't there a children's book about an elephant named Babar?"

Dean's face remained neutral as he stared at the doctor because he had taken said name from the very same book he used to read to Delaney. Probably one of the many reasons she'd even gotten into reading in the first place as she made Dean or Sam read it to her as much as possible when she was younger. "I don't know. I do not own any elephant books, doc. Look, I — I think that . . . the doctor was in over his head with these two 'cause my sister and her little boyfriend, uh . . ." He trailed off, whistling as he twirled his finger around the side of his head to signal Delaney and Theo were insane.

The doctor held up a hand while Sam reached over and knocked Dean in the shoulder to tone it down a bit with a stern glare. To which the eldest Winchester merely shrugged in response. "Okay, fine, thank you. That's — that's really not necessary. Why don't you tell me how you're feeling first, Bella?"

Delaney's jaw ticked as she heard Dean snort behind her, the boy having used the name of the female character from Twilight because he thought it was oh so funny to see his sister's annoyed expression over it. "I'm fine, doc. I mean, okay, a little depressed, I guess? You know, probably because I started the apocalypse and all."

The doctor froze in his actions of grabbing a clipboard to jot all of his notes down on Delaney's input. Which, admittedly, wasn't necessarily a full lie, but Delaney would never say that out loud or she'd risk sending Dean and Sam ( and probably Theo ) into a whole overprotective showdown. "The apocalypse? Which you think you started?"

"Well, I did. I mean — I killed this demon named Lilith, right? Which, by the way, is better off for everyone involved. However . . . doing that freed Lucifer from Hell, which I also did not  know would happen because my demon boyfriend at the time, Randy, manipulated me into doing it and not warning me of what would happen after. Admittedly, it was pretty stupid of me to even trust him in the first place. But now . . . Lucifer's topside and we're trying to stop him before he possesses me."

"Who is trying to stop him?" the doctor asked, furrowing his eyebrows as his tone laced with pure confusion.

"We all are. My brothers and I and Paul," Delaney said, motioning to Theo when she mentioned the name Paul. "Oh and this one angel."

The doctor's eyes face shifted and he appeared like he understood everything Delaney had just said when he didn't even begin to know the half of what Delaney meant. "Oh, you mean like a —like an angel on your shoulder?"

"Oh, no, his name's Castiel," Theo finally chimed in, fixing the doctor with a smile. "He wears a trench coat and has yet to figure out how to work a cell phone."

"So — so you see this angel, too?" the doctor questioned Theo who nodded rapidly in response, to which the doctor slowly lowered the clipboard down and glanced at Theo. "And how do you feel?"

"Pretty down since the loss of our friends who were like my family, but they did it so we could get rid of Hellhounds in a demon town a few weeks ago," Theo responded, probably sounding just as insane as Delaney did moments ago. The crazier either one of them sounded was better because it would be their way into the hospital.

Dean chuckled and shook his head, placing his hands on Delaney's shoulders and squeezed. "See what I mean, doc? I mean, my poor baby sister has been beating herself up for months over all of this stuff. The apocalypse wasn't her fault. See, that demon boyfriend of hers she mentioned, she claims he got her addicted to "demon blood" or something. I mean, near the end she was really going through that stuff. She's not a bad person. Della was just . . . high. So if you could fix my sister and her boyfriend up so we get back on our road trip, that would be awesome."

Delaney scrunched up her nose and shrugged when the doctor looked to her. "He was dropped on his head as a baby."

With a sigh and a nod, the doctor stamped both Theo and Delaney in to be evaluated for a few days to see if they truly deserved to be in the hospital. Just a few days to get them through the hunt and out of there as if it never happened.

Once they were admitted, Theo and Delaney had been separated from each other to go through a physical exam just to make sure the duo didn't have any illnesses before they entered the hospital. What Delaney assumed would just be like a normal check up visit to her doctor, ended with her getting a little too up close and personal with the perky and smiling female nurse. She had never been to an OBGYN before and the fact she even had to go through that type of exam as well made her feel incredibly violated even though Delaney knew it was a normal check up a woman would get at least once a year.

Delaney shuddered as she made her way down the hall and into the mess area where the patients were allowed to linger about and interact with each other until it was lights out time at ten pm. It gave Delaney and Theo at least a few hours before their first night to get some information out of Martin wherever he may be in the mess area. She noticed Theo and everyone else in the mess area had on the same blue robes, blue sweatpants and white t-shirts. It was like a uniform of sorts and Delaney absently tugged at the strings on her own robe as her blue slipper and white sock covered feet glided across the white tiled flooring.

"How was your, um . . . your exam?" Theo asked, looking whiter than the t-shirt that covered his toned chest. He looked just as uncomfortable as she did and she rose her eyebrows at him in silent questioning. "Did the nurse, um . . . you know . . . "

"Yes, and I've never felt more violated in my life," Delaney grumbled, absently covering her chest more with the ends of her robe and shifting on her feet. "I feel like she should have asked me out to dinner first."

Theo let out a quiet snort and his blue eyes lit up with that of amusement. "Did Delaney Winchester just make a joke to me? I call that character development."

Delaney rolled her emerald green eyes at him and perched herself up onto the back of the couch next to her, picking at her nails. "Or you can call it the fact that you're the only person I know in here and if I'm going to get through this hunt, I might need to at least talk to you so I don't go fully crazy."

"Delaney, you know I'm sorry about — "

Delaney held her hand up to stop him from talking, already knowing the direction the conversation was about to go. Honestly, Delaney knew the two had to have a conversation about what happened between them in high school where Theo had suddenly ghosted her out of nowhere just when they were finally getting to a point where they could even consider each other boyfriend and girlfriend. She also knew that she shouldn't even still be bitter about it because it happened at least ten years ago now, but Delaney was starting to realize it was because her feelings for him never truly went away. Only were hidden until she had to look at his stupid pretty face and his stupid dazzling blue eyes and the way his stupid hair curled up cutely onto his forehead. And Theodore Christopher Mitchell was just stupid . . . at least, that's what Delaney told herself to keep her true feelings for coming out.

Besides, everything she loved ended up dying anyways so why even bother trying to go back there with Theo? She had a feeling it'd end up there eventually if what Gabriel said was true and they were soul mates. Better to keep Theo alive and hate him, then have him dead and love him. It was logical . . . wasn't it?

"Theo, I do not need to hear about it, okay? It's in the past. We're in the past and I don't want to hear the excuses or the explanations right now. I just want to find whatever supernatural is causing mayhem this time and get out of here," Delaney said to Theo who frowned softly as he no doubt truly wanted to try and fix things with her. She did, too, but not at the possibility of her letting her emotions out again and him dying. She'd lost enough people in her life as it was, she didn't need to lose another.

Theo opened his mouth to argue with Delaney, but he quickly shut it. Fighting with someone as stubborn as Delaney was never a good idea. If she didn't want to talk about their past, then she wouldn't until she was ready to. Plus, Delaney did have a point of them being on a hunt and them only having a few days to see it through before they would be released for not actually being insane. Even though they sounded like they were because to many people . . . monsters did not exist. "Okay . . . okay. I just cannot believe your brother talked me into doing this."

Delaney hummed and crossed her ankles as she swung his legs loosely back and forth, still perched on the top of the couch. "The guy Martin did a lot for my brothers and my dad. I guess it's the least we could do to help him out."

Theo's eyes swept around the room and they stopped on a thin, balding man on the other side of the room. He was sat at the table near the wall of windows, staring out into the street below. Nudging Delaney, Theo jerked his chin in the direction of the man that the duo recognized to be the man, Martin, that Dean and Sam had described to them before they entered.

Sliding off the couch — with help from Theo — Delaney lead the way over to Martin and cleared her throat, offering the man a small smile in greeting when his dark eyes finally turned to look at her.

"Delaney? Theodore?" Martin asked, returning the smile when Delaney nodded in response. He gestured to the seats before him for Delaney and Theo to take. "You know, Delaney, you got so big. Your father showed me photos of you and you were such a bright eyed girl. Your brothers sure were proud of ya. Sorry to hear you got thrown in this mess of a lifestyle. You know, I probably could have done this myself with my hands tied behind my back if this were back in the day. Well, now . . . "

"What do you think it is that we're hunting?" Theo inquired, leaning his forearms on the table that separated him and Delaney from Martin. "Anything you can possibly think of?"

Martin shook his head grimly, hands resting in his lap as he hunched over in on himself. "I don't know yet. A ghost, a demon, monster. Animal, vegetable, mineral. Hospital's had five deaths in the last four months. Doctors keep calling it suicides, but they're all wrong."

Delaney pursed her lips and clasped her hands before her on the table, mirroring Theo's actions as she tilted her head. "Oh, so you've seen this thing then? Has anyone seen this thing?"

"Well, a couple of patients have, uh, had glimpses, but that's not a lot to go on. I mean . . . they're reliable, at least. I know you two and Dean and Sam must all think I'm a bag of loose screws. I mean — you wouldn't be wrong, but I wouldn't have called Dean unless there was something truly here. I can feel it in my gut."

Delaney exchanged a silent look with Theo, the two both having some sort of silent agreement over going along with Martin's story. It may have sounded crazy, but the two knew that it never hurt to check the thing out and, plus, they couldn't leave the hospital for a few days. Might as well help Martin out if they could. "We believe you, Martin. Have you checked any of the bodies, found signs of an attack?"

Martin exhaled sharply, the sound shaky and one filled with anxiousness. "Well, uh, no. I don't, uh . . . I don't go around dead b-bo . . . b-bodies anymore."

"Bella, Paul," the doctor from earlier that morning called, walking up to the trio sat at the tables. He eyed Martin for a long second before his eyes shifted back to Delaney and Theo who peered up at him. "I am glad to see you're making friends. Why don't you and Mr. Creaser join us for group? Please. Right this way."

Delaney puffed out her cheeks and stood up with Theo and Martin, slowly following after the doctor and Martin a few feet behind. "If he makes us talk about our feelings, just stab me in the eyes."

Theo snorted and stuck his hand out for Delaney to shake. "Deal."

The patients — and Delaney, Theo and Martin — had been brought into a small empty room that only had a circle of chairs in the middle of the room. Windows lined along the walls letting in all the bright sunlight from outside, the shadows of the trees swaying in the sunlight that was cast along the gray carpet. Much like their "uniforms" the walls had been painted the same shade of blue and everyone was asked to take a seat around the circle. Unfortunately for Delaney, she had gotten the seat next to the doctor while Theo took the seat next to her and Martin next to him.

"Alright, so . . . who would like to start us off?" the doctor asked, eyes sweeping around the circle for a volunteer. A man with thick brown hair, a light beard and blue eyes shot his hand up instantly which the doctor sighed at and Delaney wondered how many times this went on before hand. "Anyone else?"

When no one else seemed like they wanted to participate, the doctor eventually relented and allowed the patient, Ted, to speak. "I'd very calmly like to talk about the monster that's hunting us."

"Ted, we're not going to have that discussion again. It's not good for group," the doctor denied, clasping his hands in his crossed over legs.

"I agree. You know what else isn't good for group? A monster eating all our faces off! I saw it! When it killed Susan."

A girl with short blonde hair and big brown eyes gasped, sitting forward in her chair spastically. "I did, too! It had big lobster claws. It was an alien, like on on X-Files."

"Stop it!" Ted cried, cutting off the blonde as he shook in his head. He was clearly annoyed that the girl tried to chime in and give her own input. "Stop helping! Listen to me! We're all dead!"

"That's enough!" the doctor yelled, stopping Ted from going on any further. He sat forward as he removed his glasses from his face and he didn't look the least bit happy about the previous outburst. "There is no monster.  Now, Ted, do you need me to call the orderlies . . . or can you behave?"

Ted instantly zipped his lips shut and sat back calmly in his chair as if he hadn't just been screaming himself. "I'll behave."

That night, Delaney and Theo had agreed to try and talk to Ted once it was lights out. They had calculated when the nurses would go on their rounds and it would have given them at least ten to twenty minutes to get into Ted's room and talk to him. However, when Delaney and Theo had gotten to Ted's room 306, he'd been the next innocent victim of whatever was raging around in the hospital. It had him up by his throat with Ted's legs kicking in the air and by the time Delaney and Theo got into the room, Ted had already been hanged from the ceiling and they were too late.

So the following morning, Delaney and Theo had snuck away from the mess area and towards the morgue. It was a lot smaller than the ones typically in a normal hospital, and Delaney figured it was because that Ted would be transferred to a medical hospital soon to be evaluated and have the family claim him. Ted also appeared to be the only one in the morgue because his door was the only one with an index card with his name on it. The others were all blank, some even left open.

Theo tugged on the door of Ted's cabinet and slowly rolled out the table he'd been laid out on, face ashen and grey with the white sheet going up to his chin. Nothing out of the ordinary showed on him, but that didn't stop Theo and Delaney from checking out his neck and head for anything that can pinpoint them to any sort of hint of what did this to Ted. After feeling around the side of his neck and up to the back of his head where it met his neck, Delaney froze when she felt a small hole.

"Theo, I found something," Delaney said quietly, trying to make as little noise as possible so none of the nurses would hear them in there. She reached forward and grabbed a q-tip from one of the glass containers to her right and pushed the tip of it in as far it could go, balking slightly when she could feel it squelch against the side of his brain. "This hole goes all the way through to his brain."

Theo's nose scrunched up in disgust, blue eyes squinting slightly. "What does that even mean?"

Delaney scanned the room for something that could help and noticed the bone saw sitting on the table nearby, idea sparking instantly in her head. "How about we find out?"

Theo followed Delaney's gaze and he froze when he noticed her staring down the bone saw. He snapped his attention back to her, blue eyes wide in shock. "Delaney, you gotta be fucking joking."

"Keep watch, would ya?" Delaney huffed at him, pushing to her feet while Theo happily obliged and rushed out of the room. She grabbed a pair of medical gloves and slipped them on before taking the bone saw and switching it on. Crouching back to where she was before, Delaney cut a circle around the top of Ted's head and inwardly gagged when she pulled the top of the head away from the rest of Ted's body. She reached inside his head and pulled out the top of his brain that looked like it had been burnt to a crisp, not a single bit of pink left in sight. Only a black, charred mess of tiny matter.

"Del!" Theo rushed back in just as Delaney stood up again, eyes looking frantic and rushed.

"Theo, his brain has been sucked dry," Delaney informed Theo, holding up the charred brain for him to see. "I don't even know what — "

Theo waved his hands frantically in front of Delaney to get her to stop talking, glancing over his shoulder to the door where he'd just come through. "That's really fascinating and I'd love to hear more about your charred brain, but somebody's coming."

Delaney cursed quietly to herself and ran back to Ted's body, placing his brain back into his head and perfectly putting the piece of scalp he'd cut off back over it to look like no one touched him. She pushed the table back into the cabinet and whirred back around to Theo with wide eyes. "What do we do?"

Without even thinking, Theo reached forward just as he heard the door beginning to open and pressed his lips to Delaney's. A small squeak sounded from Delaney and she had to brace her hands on his biceps to keep her from falling over, standing up on her tiptoes to meet up with his height as they were a full foot apart in height. She hated the way her heart raced at the feel of his soft, slightly chapped lips on hers. She also hated the way her body reacted to it and one of her hands had moved up to the back of Theo's curly head.

"What are you two doing in here?" the perky nurse from the previous morning stepped inside, one hand braced on the door and the other clutching a file in her hand. No doubt Ted's file that the medical examiner would need.

Theo pulled away from Delaney with a sheepish smile, one hand still braced on her waist while the other came up to scratch the back of his head. "Two love birds trying to have a moment of peace?"

The nurse exhaled exasperatedly, but she didn't yell at them and merely ushered them out of the room to lead them back to the mess area. Delaney's lips still tingled as she followed after Theo and the nurse, fingers pressing to them. She knew the kiss meant nothing — wanted the kiss to mean nothing — but why did a part of her wish it did?

Once they had been brought back to the mess area, the nurse sternly told the duo to stay out of trouble and left them to their own devices. Delaney had waited for the nurse to be gone before she punched Theo in the shoulder, scolding him for kissing her and trying to sound like the kiss hadn't even affected her. Though, Delaney could feel the heat in her cheeks and she knew Theo could probably see the redness in them. Not that it stopped her from acting like she could easily brush it off anyway.

Martin had been stood across the room and Theo and Delaney walked back over to him. He'd been stood over by a wall with a bunch of clown paintings on them. All of them creepier than the next with their painted on smiles and happy go lucky expressions.

"If Sam were here, he'd have a heart attack over there. He hates clowns," Delaney mused, green eyes sweeping along the paintings as she crossed her arms across her chest.

"I painted those," Martin informed Delaney who blinked for a moment before she quickly assured him that they were great. Even though looking at them even gave her the creeps.

"So, Delaney and I just came back from the morgue and seeing Ted. It looked like whatever is doing this . . . slurpeed his brain — sucked it right dry."

Delaney scoffed softly and leant her back against the part of the wall that wasn't covered by Martin's paintings. "Yeah, then it makes the deaths look like suicides. That's why Martin had been found hanging when the nurses and orderlies found him. Any ideas what could do this?"

Martin went fully pale and he nodded his head, gesturing for Delaney and Theo to follow him to the art room across from the mess area. A brown leather journal had been placed on one of the carts and Martin picked it up, his initials in the corner of the leather journal. He quickly flipped through the mess of drawings and notes until he stopped on one that showed a creature with a straggly, greasy hair and a grotesque face. "I can bet you both a chicken dinner this is what we're up against. A wraith. They crack open skulls and feed on brain juice. I never saw one before and i never wanted to, neither."

"So how do we kill it?" Delaney inquired, tilting her head as she examined the creature on the page.

"Silver. You so much as touch a wraith with the stuff and the skin will crackle. Now, that's the good news. The bad news is . . . they can pass as humans. It could be any Peter, Paul, or Mary in the joint."

Theo quickly held his hands up when Delaney smirked at the mention of the name Paul. "Hey, this Paul is not a wraith. Martin, how do we find this thing?"

"A — a mirror. Lore says a wraith will show its true form in a mirror."

Delaney sighed, running a hand through her hair as she tried to figure out the best way to even get the use of a mirror. She was sure the patients weren't allowed to carry around small, compact ones as they could use it to hurt themselves or the other patients. "Okay, well, we just to got to somehow spot check every patient and every staff member."

Theo nodded in agreement with Delaney, running a hand through his own hair. "Yeah, that's a good idea. I just want to know what it's doing in a mental hospital?"

Martin gave Theo a look as if he were crazy. "Who in their right mind would believe a patient when they say they saw a monster? This is the perfect hiding place for a wraith. Now you two need to find it and take it down."

After Delaney, Theo and Martin split up to try and catch anyone's reflections to determine the wraith it took a solid hour before anyone found anything. Delaney had been sat boredly in the mess hall, chin in her hand as she kept her eye on the reflective mirror high on the wall. She could practically feel herself falling asleep as she stared, until the doctor waved at her. When she went to wave back, however, she froze when she noticed his face morphed in the reflective mirror and she noticed he was the wraith.

Later that night, Delaney had casually walked by three different nurses stations and swept up three different letter openers. They were only silver plaited but she figured it should still work just as well so they could take down the wraith and her and Theo could get out of the hospital and back to Dean and Sam. Martin had outright refused when Delaney tried to hand him one, visibly shaking as he stumbled back and away from the youngest Winchester. She knew something terrible must have happened to him on whatever hunt he'd gone on with John, Dean and Sam but she didn't realize how bad it was until he had turned away from Delaney and Theo to count himself out.

It was now down to just Delaney and Theo on their hunt for the doctor and they made it all the way to his dark office to find his keys still on the desk. A good sign as it meant he was at least still somewhere in building. More than likely trying to find his next victim if the pattern remained the same of barely a day or two between each patient was being kept. The two had decided to split up from each other and Delaney took the East Wing while Theo took the West Wing.

The hallways of the East Wing were dimly lit and empty as Delaney slowly made her way through them. No sign of the doctor could be seen anywhere and Delaney started to think he might be somewhere in the West Wing if he was nowhere Delaney had checked so far. Those thoughts went out the window when she heard footsteps around the corner from the hall she currently walked down. Peeking around the corner, she saw it was the doctor making his way down the opposing hall, rolling up his button up sleeves. 

Delaney quickly pressed her up against the wall, gripping the letter opener in her hand and braced herself for when the doctor rounded the corner. When the doctor was in front of her, Delaney leapt forward with a shout, swiping down with the letter opener and slicing the doctor's arm. She barely got another swing in before two orderlies came up behind her and pulled her off the doctor, causing the letter opener to fall to the ground with a quiet clang!

Delaney used her tiny body to squirm out of the two orderlies' grips and fight them off. She elbowed one in the face before kicking out her leg, sending him flying to the floor and holding his privates as he groaned in pain. She grabbed the other from behind and sent him into the glass of a nearby look-in window that peered into one of the rooms in the hall. Delaney had spun around just as the doctor got away and she scrambled for the letter opener, following him around the corner and taking him down mid-way down. However, she didn't get to swing again when Martin suddenly appeared, grabbing her wrist and stopping her from slicing again.

"Stop! Look at his arm! The cut's not burning! It's not him!" Martin informed Delaney, keeping his grip steady as he forced Delaney to look at the slice on the doctor's arm. True to his word, it just looked like a gnarly gash and nothing supernatural happened to it. "It's not him."

Delaney groaned as she dropped the letter opener to the ground and sat back on her heels, staring up at the ceiling. Of course, just her luck . . . she'd look like the crazy person.

Delaney was high for the first time in her life. They had all but forced Delaney back into her room, hopping her up on two different drugs to keep her mellow and calm. However, all the drugs did was make it feel like Delaney floated on a cloud and the room spun around her. She'd barely even remembered the conversation she had with Theo when he came in to check on her after the whole ordeal. Martin had no doubt gone to him once Delaney had been hauled away and Delaney didn't know if it was because she high, but she swore she thought she saw genuine concern in his eyes when he looked at a high Delaney.

With her down for the count for the moment, Theo promised to keep checking out the rest of the staff and patients to see if he could find the wraith. He'd given up not too long after Delaney had been pulled away and Martin found him heading back to his room. Not that Delaney could really protest as she could barely tell her left from her right at that moment. She would have been no help to Theo if she even tried to leave her bed.

It took a good few hours for the high to fade and Delaney to get her right sense of self back again. Theo hadn't returned back to her and she could feel the guilt weigh heavily on her heart, so she had asked one of the orderlies if he could bring the doctor to her so she could properly apologize to him for attacking in the hallway. She didn't even care if the doctor accepted it or not, she just wanted to let him know she was sorry.

"You wanted to see me?" the doctor asked, opening the door to Delaney's room with an orderly stood in the doorway to make sure nothing happened to him. Though, Delaney wasn't sure if that was protocol or if the doctor had requested the orderly to stay just in case Delaney attacked again. Not that she really blamed him if he had done so.

"Uh, yeah," Delaney whispered, standing up from the chair at her tiny desk and turned to face the doctor. "I just wanted to let you know I feel horrible about what I did to you earlier. I thought you were a monster."

The doctor nodded and he didn't appear surprised by her words. "I know that. The question is, why?"

Delaney opened her mouth, but no words came out. She knew there really was no proper way to tell the doctor why she had thought he was a monster. Anything she told him would make her look crazy, something that Delaney had already done a few times already on other hunts. "I — I was . . . it doesn't matter, um . . . because after what happened, I-I had a . . . moment of clarity. Um . . . I realized there's no such thing as monsters."

The doctor took a step toward Delaney, clasping his hands before him. "Well, I'm . . . glad to hear you say that. But honestly? Monsters are the least of your problems. People can learn to live with delusions, but the anger I saw in you. I . . . you hurt those two men and you were going to kill me. The look in your eyes when you came after me — I . . . it was like you were barely even human. Like a girl possessed."

Delaney grimaced at his choice of words as he wasn't too far off. She was close to being possessed by Lucifer, she'd been possessed before and nearly hurt her brothers and Bobby. She knew the anger he talked about, her anger about wanting to kill the things that hurt those who couldn't help themselves. She was angry last night, hating the very thing she thought the guy was. "I know. Please . . . just . . . could you give me a second chance?"

"Well . . . this isn't a prison, after all. You'll be allowed to go to the day room. Under supervision, of course. However, if I see one more outburst from you, I will transfer you to a facility that's equipped to handle violent patients. Believe me, they will be far, far less forgiving."

Once the doctor finished his conversation with Delaney, he allowed the orderly to escort her to mess area. She was only allowed a few feet ahead of the orderly before he'd bark at her to slow her pace down. As if he wouldn't be able to catch up to her and her tiny legs after a second, but she let that go. Especially when she saw Theo sat by himself in the mess area and she let out a brief sigh of relief that nothing had happened to him while she was confined to her room.

What Delaney thought was Theo at the table, turned out to be something else. Well, it was Theo but the words he said to her . . . it wasn't like him. He'd went off on her for not giving him the time of day to apologize for what happened between them when they were teenagers. How she hadn't even tried to be civil with him since they joined up together when Bobby asked Theo to ride around with the Winchesters and protect them. All the things that they promised to talk about after they got out of the hospital.

Then on top of that, a circle of patients appeared around her and began to yell insults at her next. She had gotten to the point where she started to push and shove at the patients, trying to get away from her and her breathing space. She had felt incredibly claustrophobic and she'd accidentally punched two of the orderlies in the process. The final straw for her, she guessed, because they had hauled her away from the mess area and to a padded, all white room. Though, Delaney wasn't sure why it had to be padded when she strapped down to the bed in the middle of the room. The only piece of furniture in the circular room.

Delaney wasn't even sure how much time had passed, trying to squirm her way out of the binds on the bed. It had momentarily reminded her of when Dean and Sam had been trying to drain her of demon blood and she'd been trapped. She grunted when her wrists began to get a burn from the straps and she stopped her squirming just as the door opened and shut behind the perky nurse.

"Hey, can you let me go now, please?" Delaney asked, trying to sound as calm as possible to the nurse in the hopes it'd get on her good side. "I don't know what happened back there, but I didn't mean to hit those orderlies in the face. I was mid-swing when they grabbed me."

"No," the perky nurse said, shutting the door behind her and stuffing the key to the room into the pocket on her scrubs. "You are far too angry to be out there in the real world."

Delaney whined and laid back against the pillow behind her. Her eyes had just so happened to drift to the reflective mirror on the wall and froze when she noticed the grotesque image on the nurse in the mirror. So it wasn't the doctor . . . it was the nurse. "It's you!"

The nurse snorted out a laugh and sickly sweet smile graced her features. "Of course it's me, sugar. I got to say, you hunters don't exactly live up to your rep. I mean, Martin's a wreck. He's harmless. Then you and your little boyfriend or whatever he is to you come in here, talking tough about killing monsters? Kind of made you easy to spot. Then all it took was a touch . . . and you were mine. I do just love it in here, though. This place is my own personal five-star restaurant."

Delaney gagged in disgust when the wraith squatted behind her at the head of the bed and swiped her finger along Delaney's cheek. She tried to wiggle her head away from the wraith, but it was no use as she could hear the thing hum in delight above her head, finger sucked into her mouth. 

"Mmm. Crazy brains — they get soaked in dopamine and adrenaline and just all sorts of hormones and chemicals that make them delicious. The crazier they are, the better they taste."

Delaney growled and her green eyes darkened dangerously as the wraith peered at Delaney over the bed. "You did this to me. I'm sure you messed with Theo also, didn't you?"

The wraith hummed and dropped her hand back to her side. "Well . . . I helped. But that rage? No, no, no. That's all you, sweetheart. I don't make crazy. I just crank up what's already there. You build your own Hell, but I give you the legos. When you're ripe . . . "

Delaney gasped as the wraith took a seat on the side of the bed now, hand with her palm up near Delaney's face. A sharp talon jutted out from the wraith's wrist and Delaney tried to move herself as far away from the thing as she could. 

" . . . I make all of your problems disappear," the wraith finished, pushing on Delaney's head with her other hand and forcing it to the side so she could get the right puncture point like she'd done with Ted.

However, before the wraith could plunge the talon into Delaney's head, the door burst open and the two snapped their gazes over to see a stumbling Theo. His skin looked sleek with sweat and his blue eyes were dulled, but he gripped something in his hand and he glared at the wraith. "You get away from her right now!"

The wraith mockingly pouted at Theo and stood up from the bed, leaving behind a squirming Delaney. "Awww, how cute. Delaney's little knight shining soul mate. Do you really think it's gonna end well for you, kiddo?"

"No . . . but I'm crazy, so what's there to lose, right?" Theo smiled wickedly at the wraith, leaping forward to jam the silver blade in his hand into her. 

The wraith caught Theo's hand at the last second and pushed him towards the wall, crashing his back into it. The force of his back hitting the wall sent the silver blade clattering to the ground and the wraith shot out her talon again, getting ready to plunge it right into Theo's forehead. He grunted as he tried to keep her hand away from his face, other hand reaching up to the grip the talon. At the last second, he snapped the talon and it sent blood spurting out the broken tip of it and the wraith stumbled back. 

Taking the opportunity he was granted, Theo bent to grab the silver blade again and he jammed it right into the wraith's heart. A burning sound echoed around the room before the wraith collapsed the ground, propped against the wall and didn't move again. A small shake took over the room and then it was over, leaving the two clear headed once again as the effects of the wraith were wiped clean.

Delaney peered up at Theo, raising an eyebrow at him. "You still crazy, Mitchell?"

"For you? Of course," Theo mused, chuckling when Delaney shot him a deadpan expression. "No, I'm okay. Here let me help you out so we can get out of here."

Delaney sighed with relief and gladly let Theo help her out of her binds, rubbing her sore wrists from all the struggling she'd been doing. She had just gotten to her feet when the alarm sounded in the room and the duo exchanged one look before they were taking off, ready to get out of the hospital and as far away from it as possible.

Delaney and Theo had finally found the Impala where it had been parked by Dean in a dark, shadowed area hidden in the trees. He'd left it behind for the two to use to get back to him and Sam once they were done with the hunt in the chance they'd need a getaway car. They had booked a motel room on the other side of town and Delaney and Theo just had to make it to the motel and they'd be free.

Though, when they made it back to the Impala, Delaney stopped as she finally had a moment to her thoughts. Maybe the wraith hadn't been wrong. She couldn't lie to herself and say she didn't feel anger constantly. It had been a constant emotion if Delaney were honest, especially when her intake of demon blood was high. She'd always have something to be angry about ever since she joined her brothers on the road and it was like a never ending, vicious cycle. 

"Lanes, get in the car," Theo instructed, motioning to the passenger side for Delaney to get in so they could get going. "You can call Dean and Sam on the way to the motel to let them know we're coming and probably need to get the hell out of here."

"She was right, Theo," Delaney scoffed to herself, slapping a hand to her side as Theo furrowed his eyebrows and made his way over to her. "I mean — I'm always angry. I'm angry at everything. I was angry at my brothers and dad for keeping this whole life a secret from me for twenty years. I was angry at Lilith for killing Dean. Now I'm angry at Lucifer because he's trying to ride my body like it's an amusement park ride and — and I make excuses. I blame Randy or the demon blood. But it wasn't Randy's fault, I mean — not really. It's not them. It's me. It's all inside me. I mad all the fucking time . . . and I don't even know why!"

Theo frowned softly at Delaney's words, hand coming up to softly push away some of her hair from her face before he rested it comfortingly on her shoulder. "Lanes, listen to me, okay? I know I wasn't there for any of that. I only know things from what the boys, Bobby or you told me about the past. I just — so what if you're angry? You're the one person that deserves to be angry after everything that happened to you. What are you gonna do, though? Take a leave of absence? You gonna just go say yes to Lucifer and end it all? You just have to take all that crap and bury it. You gotta keep it down because that's how you keep going and how you survive. You can't let it cloud your mind over. You with us?"

Delaney let out a long breath, taking in all of Theo's words. He had a point and she knew that some of her feelings were valid. She just hated how she reacted to some of them and probably made a bigger mess of things than they would have been. Delaney always told her brothers to keep a cool head and she couldn't even follow her own advice, so why would the boys do so if she didn't?

"Yeah . . . I'm with you," Delaney quietly said after a long moment of silence between the two. "And Theo about what was said in the hospital about us — "

"Don't even think about it. We're cool and everything's cool. We're hunting buddies and friends now. That's what matters, okay? That we're getting to where we're okay with each other now," Theo interrupted her, squeezing her shoulder gently and offering her a small smile. "How about you say we go and get your brothers so we can hid the road again? Maybe I'll even convince Dean to stop for a coffee for you."

"Make it two coffees or it's a no deal."

word count: ( 8.1k )

— we are back after three months and we get so much Mitchster content in this chapter, I'm oozing with joy. i love them so much and they aren't even together yet. thank you guys so much for being so patient with updates on this and i decided to give you a bit of a long one since we haven't had any delaey content since may. so . . . i hope you enjoyed it!