Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Even though the cool night air rushed in through the open window, the surface of her skin burned. Hanna's shoulders seemed to double over the steering wheels as she forced herself to hold back tears and concentrate wholly on the road before her. Panic-stricken, she drove as fast as she could possibly manage without risking any further damage to their injuries.

"Dean," her father glanced over his shoulder; his voice was weak and even cracked slightly when he caught sight of his oldest son.

Hanna inhaled sharply when her stomach flipped as the Impala rounded a sharp turn. "Just hold on. The hospital is only ten minutes away." Her voice was strong and even and confident but she could almost hear the drops of blood dripping off the tip of Sam's nose, and she could almost feel the boiling pulsation of her father's large gashes, and she could almost see the dark haze that was beginning to blur Dean's vision. "Just hold on."

John rolled down the window, his hand moving slow on the crank. The cold air rushed in at an incredible speed and almost drowned Hanna in her own wounds. But the smell was almost gone. The pungent smell of blood and sweat and raw flesh that surely would have overwhelmed. It stuck to each and every one of them - no amount of sweet whiskey could get that smell out. Hanna's eyes raised to look at both of her brother's sprawled across the small back seat, each one with their eyes shut...each one with their mud-caked faces. Those boys. The ones that made the world turn and the stars fall like rain.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

"Don't you dare stop fighting!" Hanna almost screamed above the sound of the roaring engine. "Don't you fucking dare!"

That's when the tears came. It came crashing down with no purpose and no stopping until everything she loved was destroyed. It made her chest ache and pound until Hanna wasn't sure if she'd be able to breath again. Her grip on the wheel tightened because she was losing everything. She couldn't - She wouldn't lose her family. Not her Dad. Not her Sam. And not her Dean.

"Just hold on!"

The Impala surged forward, slicing through the wind, and breaking the speed limit. Her eyebrows furrowed with deliberation. Her knuckles turned white.

"Hanna," John's voice was like a breath of air, pleading to her with as much strength as he could muster, "slow down."

She was clenching her teeth together. "I will not lose you," she was ready to say as her words were drowned out by the deafening blare from a commercial truck. It was the last thing she saw.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

Started this story a VERY long time ago but never got around to finishing it. Invictus by William Ernest Henley has to be the most inspirational poem I have ever had the pleasure of coming across.