Before It's Too Late: Chapter 6

Sam closed the website he was in and went into another, hoping to find something more useful than what the last page had to offer. A little over an hour had passed since he hung up on his brother, and he still had yet to find anything that could help Alex.

He sighed and pushed back his chair to take a short break and stretch his aching muscles. He was still sore from being thrown through that glass door yesterday on that hunt they just finished when Kyle had called them up. And even though his arm was still in searing pain, Sam was trying to let it not bother him. At the moment he was more focused on Alex’s problem.

“Sam!”

Quickly, he got up and rushed into the living room. “What’s wrong?” Sam asked, walking up to Alex, who shook her head.

“I—I’m sorry,” she quickly apologized, feeling guilty that he thought something was wrong. “I didn’t mean to—nothing’s wrong. I just tried calling you, but you didn’t hear me, I guess… Sorry.”

Sam let out a small sigh of relief and gave Alex an apologetic look. “Hey, don’t worry about it. I’m sorry that I didn’t hear you. I should have been paying more attention.” He mentally kicked himself for that. Their dad always taught them to keep focus and concentration when they were on hunt. No matter how much it had bugged him as a child, deep down he knew his father was right. And with Alex’s current condition he knew he had to be more alert and focused.

Alex stood up and rolled up the flannel sleeves of the doll pajamas she was wearing, and frowned at how loose they seemed. She didn’t bother responding to what Sam had said. She didn’t want Sam to feel guilty, but at the same time it bothered her. As long as she was tiny, Alex needed help with pretty much everything and couldn’t be left alone for too long. Just like Hana, Alex thought.

“Did you sleep alright?” Sam asked as he knelt down in front of the recliner, slightly worried about her silence. “Dean mentioned that you had a rough night. Why didn’t you wake me?”

Alex shook her head and shrugged. “It was nothing I couldn’t handle. And, yeah, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“It was a nightmare. I was asleep and I couldn’t wake up.” Alex threw her arms out to her side, looking up at Sam, her tone suddenly more sharp. “What do you want me to say?”

Sam was taken aback by her reaction, but before he could say anything Alex apologized.

“Sorry,” she muttered. This time she looked away. “I haven’t been getting much sleep lately.”

“You know, my offer still stands if you want to talk about your nightmares,” Sam reminded her of what he said the first time she told him about her nightmares. “Believe me, I understand.”

Alex sadly shook her head, still not looking up at Sam and spoke quietly. “No, you won’t. Not this time.”

Now Sam was really curious about that dream. He had seen a lot in his lifetime and, yet, there was something in Alex’s dream that he wouldn’t understand? But before Sam could question her, Alex shut her eyes tight and grabbed her head, hissing in pain.

“Alex?” Sam quickly held his hands out to her sides, keeping her trembling body steady. “What’s wrong?” Sam watched as Alex’s knees gave way. He caught her before she fell and held her in his hands. “Alex, tell me what’s going on. I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s wrong.”

“Th-This will show them… Need to be taught… L-Lesson…” Alex struggled between breaths with her eyes still closed.

“Lesson? What—Alex?” Sam watched as he finally felt Alex begin to calm down in his hands. “Hey, are you alright?”

Alex groaned as she rubbed her head and blinked a few times. Looking up at Sam, she weakly nodded her head. “I think so.”

“What just happened?” Sam asked, almost afraid to hear an answer.

Now Alex shook her head, looking scared and confused. “I don’t know… I… That’s never happened before.”

Sam looked at the door when he heard the Impala pull into the driveway. After hearing the car door creak shut, he looked back down to Alex. “You said somebody needs to be taught a lesson. Do you know what that means?”

Alex shook her again. “No.”

“Did you see anything when you closed your eyes?”

This time she nodded.

At that moment Dean walked in through the front door. After he closed the door behind him, he paused seeing his brother was holding Alex. “Something going on?”

Sam looked at Alex before turning towards his brother. “I think she might have had a vision.”

“A what?!” Dean’s eyes widened. Not again. Not with Alex, too. Come on, can’t she have a normal life?

Sam looked back to Alex and carefully set her back down on the chair. He shifted to his right to give her some breathing room.

“What’d you see?” Dean asked, walking over to them as he took off his jacket.

“Trees. I was in the woods… I wasn’t tiny…” Alex trailed off, trying to make sense of what just happened.

“Anything else?” Sam asked as his brother sat down on the edge of the couch near them.

“There was a figure.” Alex walked over to one of the armrests and folded her arms as she leaned against the soft cushion. “I don’t know what they looked like, but I know somebody else was there. They weren’t human, either. I don’t know how I know that, but I just do. I can feel it.” She put her head in her hands and wiped them through her hair.

“Maybe you’re starting to remember what happened to you?” Sam suggested. “Was there anything else you saw?”

Alex closed her eyes trying to remember the blurred vision that flickered and faded in and out. After a while she shook her head. “There was some sort of movement, but other than that, nothing.”

“Alex,” Sam carefully began. “Is there anyone you know that would want to teach you a lesson?”

“No. Not that I’m aware of…” Alex trailed off, trying to think. “Maybe a drunk that I refused to serve anymore alcohol to or I had to kick out at closing time… Sorry.” Alex shrugged.

Sam nodded in understanding. “That’s alright. We’ll still figure this all out.”

“Hey, I thought I heard you say something when I was unlocking the door?” Dean asked, directing the question towards Sam.

“When she had the vision she said something about somebody needing to be taught a lesson. Sounded like more than one person,” Sam explained.

“A lesson?” Dean thought about that for a minute. “So, if she really is getting her memory back, then it sounds like she was being targeted, which means she might be the only victim.”

The boys both looked at Alex, who swallowed as she slid down into a sitting position. “Which will make it harder to figure out how to get me back to normal,” Alex quietly said.

“Hey, everything is going to be alright,” Sam assured her and glanced at his brother.

“Yeah, we’re going to fix this in no time.” Dean smiled, masking his own doubt for Alex’s sake.

“Alex, what did you want me for, anyways?” Sam asked, suddenly remembering why he was over by her in the first place, instead of doing research.

Alex shrugged, “I just wanted to know if you could you get me my clothes and maybe a little something to eat?”

“Sure,” Sam said, immediately standing up, “but your clothes aren’t clean yet. We still need to figure out how to wash them.”

“Speaking of which,” Dean said as he dug through his pocket and pulled out Alex’s sweater. “I found this in the woods.” He extended his hand towards Alex and held it out between his fingers for her to take.

“My sweater?” Alex grabbed the familiar clothing and checked the pockets.

“Is something missing?” Dean asked, noting the troubled look on Alex’s face.

“I was just wondering what happened to my cell phone.”

Dean and Sam looked at each other, both wondering the exact same thing.

A short while later Dean was sitting on the couch, flipping through an old book from their library, as Alex munched away on some bread that Sam spread a little jelly on for her. Dean rubbed his chin as he heard his brother clicking away at the computer on the table in the dining room. The day was going by slow, and he was hoping to find something to cheer up Alex.

Meanwhile; Alex wiped her mouth off on the piece of napkin that they ripped off for her, before she took another sip of milk out of the bottle cap. She took her time, knowing there wasn’t anything else she could do to help them with their research. She had told them everything from the vision, and Sam got to searching different leads on the computer, hoping his luck would change. Other than that, she couldn’t do a thing to help them.

“Dean?”

He looked up from his book to look at Alex. “What?”

“How…” Alex trailed off, not completely sure that she was ready to ask what was bothering her. So, she changed the question. “Have you found anything yet?”

Dean sighed and glanced at the pages. “Not really.” When Alex didn’t say anything else, he looked over at her again. Her head was down, eyes closed, jaw clenched tight, and her fists were digging into the cushion of the chair. “Alex?” He watched as she took a deep breath and finally looked back at him. “Are you okay?” he asked, suddenly more alert. “It wasn’t another vision, was it?”

Alex shook her head, sighing as she looked up at Dean. “No.”

“Then what?”

“I’m just… trying to get used to all of this.” Alex bit her lip, looking away from him. After that Alex didn’t say anything for the rest of the night until Kyle came home.

“Hey, how’d it go?” Alex asked. Her face fell when she watched Kyle sadly shake his head.

“I’m sorry. There’s still a lot more we need to dig through. It might be a while before we find a cure of some sort,” he carefully explained, while watching her reaction.

Alex simply nodded her head and quietly asked, “How’s Hana?”

“Good. She misses you.” He gave her a small smile, but she didn’t say anything else. Kyle let her be and walked over to Sam and Dean in the dining room to discuss what they had found. They both filled him in on what happened to Alex with her vision.

“So somebody did do this to her,” Kyle realized. “So much for searching through all of those books today about cursed objects.” He shook his head at his wasted time.

“Hey, don’t beat yourself up over this. She’s not dying. You have plenty of time to figure this out,” Dean reminded him.

Kyle nodded his head. “I know. Thank god for that.”

An hour later, Kyle walked into the living room as Dean was setting up the couch to sleep on, letting Sam have the bed in the basement that night. Kyle knelt down in front of Alex to say goodnight to her, but she just nodded her head and pulled the blue blanket up to her chin and hooking her arm under the folded up cloth she used as a pillow. Reluctantly, Kyle stood up and walked to their bedroom for the night, worried for his wife.

The next morning Alex woke up to the all too familiar feeling of her heart pounding in her chest. She sat up in the chair and looked over to the couch where Dean was watching her.

“Well?” He was leaning against the armrest of the couch, supporting his head in his hand. “How bad was it?”

“How bad was what?” Alex sat there and pushed up the sleeves of the doll pajamas, but they just slipped back down into place. “Stupid doll clothes,” she muttered under her breath.

“Alex, don’t pretend everything is alright. I saw you tossing and turning all night in your sleep. I even heard you say my name.” Dean moved his elbows to his knees as he leaned forward. “I know you had another nightmare, and I know I was in it, so please, just tell me.”

Alex slowly nodded her head and then looked up at Dean. “Why were you awake all night?”

Dean opened his mouth, and realized that she knew he, too, was having nightmares. Dean cleared his throat. “I was worried about you.”

“You were worried about me?” Alex asked, not believing him.

“Yeah, now what did you dream about?”

Alex took a deep breath and slowly started to explain. “I… I was small… and I was lost outside. Then I heard you come along. I heard you looking for me… But you were angry. I tried hiding, but then you found me, and…” Alex swallowed hard and looked away from Dean. “Then you kicked me, sending me flying into a rock. I broke my ribs and then,” she continued on with a shaking voice, “You stomped on me.”

“Alex, I would never do that to you. You know that, right?” Dean watched as Alex nodded her head, still not looking at him. Although he was still curious, he decided it would be best not to ask Alex about the other nightmare. Dean closed his eyes, sighing and making a mental note not to get angry around Alex when she was this size. He then looked back to Alex and stood up. “Orange juice?” he asked.

Alex nodded her head and Dean took off to the kitchen. He was back a short while later with her juice and another old book that Kyle had brought back from his grandmother’s house. While Dean started reading the worn out pages, he heard Sam make his way up the basement stairs and into the living room.

“Hey,” Sam said to Alex as he walked up to his brother’s side. “How’d you sleep?”

Alex rolled up her sleeves as she stood up to stretch, only to have the sleeves fall down her arms again. “Fi-“ Alex stopped, seeing Dean glance up from his book to give her a knowing stare. “I had another nightmare,” she confessed.

“Are you okay?”

Alex just shrugged, knowing it was no use lying and saying she was fine.

Sam nodded in understanding, and then paused as he looked at her standing there. Something about her seemed off. It was that same feeling he had when they were all in the kitchen yesterday morning. Sam’s eyes suddenly went wide. “Holy crap.”

“What?” Dean asked, noticing the look on Sam’s face.

“We have a problem,” he stated, stilling staring at their cousin.

Dean looked at Alex and then back to Sam. “Really? It took you two days to notice? Wow. And here people think you’re the smarter one.” He shook his head and went back to his research.

Sam stopped staring at Alex and glared at his older brother.

Sensing his brother’s glare, Dean took a glance at Sam, confirming his suspicions. “Hey, don’t look at me. You’re the one who’s oblivious to the obvious,” he chuckled as he flipped the page.

“I meant she shrunk… Again.”

“What do mean by ‘again’? What, the fairy thing? Yeah, I know. You two shrunk when we were in Wisconsin.” Dean finally looked up at his brother, studying his face. “Seriously, are you feeling ok? Did you hit your head or something when you got out of bed this morning?” Dean saw that his brother was getting more upset, but that just added fuel to the fire. “I mean you are freakishly tall. I’m actually surprised you don’t-“

“Dean,” Sam finally cut him off, “she’s smaller today than she was yesterday and the day before that.” Sam stared at his brother, determined to get Dean to understand. “She is still shrinking.”
Sam watched as Dean quickly looked at Alex again. Dean’s mouth fell open as the realization hit him. “Now who’s the oblivious one?”

“Still you,” Dean said as he pointed to Alex who was staring wide eyed at the taller armrest. “While you were too busy gloating, I noticed that she didn’t move an inch.” Dean paused for a minute and thoughtfully replied, “…Or a centimeter?”

“I’ll go get Kyle.”