Jessica, heart breaking, watched her lover weep.
He lay on the bed, face buried in the pillow and sobbed until he could barely breathe; moaned, writhing, as the pain tore through him. His brother tried to hold him, comfort him, but Sam pushed him away and rose to stagger to the door.
Dean caught him there and the two struggled. Dean, determined not to let his brother leave; Sam, desperate to be alone with his agony.
Dean's strength won out and Sam collapsed to the floor, hands covering his face.
Jessica, it's time to go.
Her face twisted with grief, she protested, "I can't leave him like this!"
"There's nothing you can do for Sam now, Jessica," said the Reaper, his face full of infinite compassion, infinite dispassion
She hitched in a shuddering breath.
"He has his brother," the Reaper went on. "He will always have his brother. That will have to be enough."
"No!" Jessica crouched down on the floor beside Sam, held tight in his brother's arms.
"Sam. Sam, please, don't." She stroked him, rained kisses onto his tear-ravaged face. "Oh, sweetheart, don't. It'll be okay."
She said it knowing it was a lie, it wouldn't be okay, never, ever, because she wouldn't be there to take care of him, and he needed her. His family didn't care, how could she leave him, Sam had no one, no one but her -
"It's okay, Sam. I've got you. I'm not going anywhere." Dean's face was stony, his eyes bright with unshed tears. "Hang on to me. Just hang on."
Puzzled, Jessica pulled back a step, waited, her eyes intent on the two brothers.
After a time, drained of tears, Sam lay still and exhausted.
Dean helped him to his feet, got him over to the bed.
Jessica watched as Dean forced a small glass of whiskey into Sam, laid him back on the pillow.
"Dean," Sam muttered, rousing himself.
"Go to sleep, Sammy."
"No, no, Dean -" Eyes wild, Sam struggled to sit up, grabbed his brother's arm. "Tomorrow, the funeral is tomorrow!"
"Sammy, no," Dean protested.
"I have to go, Dean," Sam insisted. "I have to be there for her. No matter what. Promise me, Dean. Promise." He stared up insistently into Dean's face. "Promise!"
Dean's shoulders slumped. "Okay, Sammy. Okay," he answered reluctantly. He pushed Sam back down, pulled the blanket up over him.
"Promise," Sam said faintly.
"I promise, Sam." He read the question in Sam's eyes. "Have I ever broken a promise to you, little brother?"
Sam shook his head.
"We'll go tomorrow, if that's what you want. We'll go." Dean reached out, touched his brother's cheek, pushed his long, dark hair back from his face.
"Try to get some sleep."
"Sleep!" Sam uttered a cracked and ugly sound that might have been a laugh. He turned his face into the pillow and groaned. "God."
Jessica. You've said good-bye to your family. It's time to say good-bye to Sam.
"Please, not yet," Jessica whispered. "I'll come. I know I have to come. Please, give me just a few minutes more. I'll come."
She stood beside the bed, looking down at the man she had hoped to spend her life with, the man she wanted to have children with - the man she would love forever.
When she started talking, she didn't know if she was talking to herself, or the waiting Reaper. She supposed it didn't really matter.
"I remember the first time we met. Brady -" her mouth twisted bitterly - "Brady introduced us.
"I remember thinking that Sam was the most beautiful man I'd ever met."
"Within an hour, I knew he was also sweet and kind and gentle. And also - the saddest man I'd ever met."
She reached out, stroked his cheek. "He wouldn't talk about his family very much. He loved them, but - he thought he'd disappointed them."
"When we'd been together, oh, I don't know, about six months, he got really really drunk. He never did that, but he - he locked himself in our bedroom and wouldn't come out. When I finally managed to get the door open -" her blue eyes were dark with remembering - "he was sitting on the floor, crying, so drunk . . ."
"He said things I didn't understand, things no one could. The one thing I did understand was that his father had told him that if he left home, he could never go back again."
"His father," Jessica said wonderingly. "How could a father say that to his own son? What could he have done to deserve that?" She looked at Dean bitterly. "How could you have let that happen?"
"You're his brother and he never heard from you, not until the night you came and took him away from me."
Dean lay down on the bed beside his brother. After a long moment, Sam turned to him and Dean wrapped his arms around him comfortingly.
Jessica sighed. It wasn't okay. It was very far from okay. But, as the Reaper had said, it would have to be - enough.
Jessica. I will wait no longer.
She leaned over and kissed Sam slowly, lovingly. Then Jessica turned away from him forever, and walked to the Reaper.
"I'm ready."
As they started to fade from the room, she looked back at the brothers. "Don't let me down, Dean. Don't let him down."
"I'll be watching."
Sam did sleep. Dean kept watch. When Sam stirred and cried out in the night, his brother was there to comfort and soothe him back to sleep.
Whatever you need, brother. Whatever you need