Chapter 1

It was the middle of the night and fifteen year old Dean Winchester, thought he heard someone crying. He woke up on the floor of his and Sam's bedroom beside his bed. His usual sleeping space occupied by his younger brother.

They were spending the night at Bobby's. They had actually been spending the last month or so at Bobby's while John was away on a hunt.

Dean managed to pull himself upright into a sitting position listening again to someone cry out.

"Sam's having another nightmare," Eli, Dean's best friend and Bobby's son called out. "You got it or do you need your sleep tonight?" he joked.

Dean stood up and shook his head. "I got it covered. Just make sure the princess stays sleep." Eli nodded and wrapped a protective arm around his baby sister Jennifer.

The four of them had been watching movies and playing videogames upstairs in the boys' room and had fallen asleep. Sam had passed out in Dean's bed. Dean had slumped to floor beside it and Eli and Jen had clocked out lying in Sam's bed.

Dean took a deep breath and reached for his younger brother. He was becoming worried. This was Sam's third nightmare this week.

"Sam, wake up man. Come on Sammy, it's just a dream." Dean shook his brother's shoulders gently. "Sam, are you with me?" Sam's eyes jarred open in a panic. His breath came in short, quick gasps. "Sammy? You okay?"

Sam looked at his older brother and nodded, rubbing his eyes, more embarrassed than anything else. Instinctively he sat up, looking around the room. "Sorry I woke you." he told his brother.

Dean frowned and shook his head as he climbed in the bed next to his little brother. Sam moved over to give him some room on the queen sized mattress.

"Try and get some rest Sammy." Dean said. Sam nodded, letting his heavy eyelids fall closed.

Bobby knocked on the bedroom door. "Is everything okay in there?" he asked concerned.

Matt shuffled out of bed and stumbled to the door, tripping over Dean's makeshift bed on the floor.

"Sorry dad," Matt told the man peering up at him in the doorway. "I stepped on the remote and the darned TV came back on."

Bobby yawned and eyed his son skeptically, before giving the teen a small nod. "Get some sleep; y'all have school in the morning."

"Yes, sir," Matt covered.

Bobby muttered something as he walked back down the steps. Matt shut the door and climbed back into the bed beside his sister. Dean nodded a small thanks to his friend before drifting off to sleep.

The next morning Dean was the first awake. He had forgotten that Sam could be a bit of a wild sleeper. An elbow to the jaw woke Dean up and he responded to the kind jester by smacking Sam gently in the face with a pillow. The commotion woke Eli who was sleeping on the other side of the room.

"What the hell, Jerk!" Sam cried sitting up. "What was that for?"

Eli laughed at the response.

"You elbowed me in the mouth, Sammy." Dean replied smiling.

Sam shrugged and hit Dean in the shoulder playfully with the pillow. "Next time sleep on the floor like you always do."

"I would if someone didn't get nightmares." Sam frowned. "You woke up screaming again."

"Oh," Sam said looking down.

"What was it about this time?" Dean asked.

Sam looked over at where Eli and Jennifer were still in bed. "Nothing," he said quietly. "It was just a bad dream."

Dean looked over at his current roommates and Eli nodded. "It's cool Dean. Let me wake Jen up and we'll give you two some privacy."

Elijah shook the sleeping girl. "Wake up, princess." he called out to her. "Come help me and dad in the kitchen." When Jennifer didn't budge, Eli removed the covers and attempted to pick up the sleeping girl while tickling her. "Come on bug, time for breakfast."

Jennifer woke up laughing as her older brother tickled her sides; her squirming causing her shirt to ride up. Eli stopped when he noticed the bruises decorating her torso.

How'd that happen, bug?" Eli asked picking the girl up and standing her in front of him. He lifted her shirt so he could get a better view of the bruises. Dean and Sam saw them too. Jennifer made an effort of moving away from her brother and swatting at his hands, pulling her shirt back down.

"I asked you a question, Jen." Eli said.

Jennifer and Sam exchanged glances.

"A hunt," Sam volunteered. "It happened when we were with Dad and Caleb hunting that werewolf a few weeks ago, remember?"

Eli raised an eyebrow at the obvious lie, but didn't say anything about it. "Come help me with breakfast. I'll look at it after you eat something."

Jennifer nodded happy to have changed the subject and followed her brother out of the bedroom.

Dean cleared his throat, "Back to you Sammy."

"What?"

"You know what. Last night. You had another nightmare and I want to know what it was about."

Sam moved to get out of the bed. "Dean, it was just a bad dream. It's no big deal."

"Well if it's not a big deal then, tell me what your dream was about."

Sam shook his head. "Just drop it Dean."

Sam climbed out of the bed and moved to get his clothes out of the dresser. Dean let out an exasperate sigh. He wouldn't get anything out of Sam when he was like this.

"Just hurry up," Dean called after his brother as Sam left the room and headed for the bathroom in the hall. "We don't want to be late for school."

It was an hour later that Eli and Dean were dropping Sam and Jennifer off at the middle school before they headed down the street to the local high school.

The two younger siblings walked down the hall to their classroom. They had about ten minutes before the morning bell would ring and class would begin. The classroom was still pretty empty, the teacher, Ms. Reyes, was standing in the hall for morning patrol. Most of the other students were just beginning to leave the cafeteria.

"Are you okay, Sam?" Jen asked her cousin. The boy looked exhausted. Bobby had been out late last night and the four of them had taken advantage of that, staying up well past their usual bedtime.

Sam nodded and forced a small smile as they took their seats next to each other.

"Another night terror?" asked the younger girl knowingly.

Sam again nodded, "The Shtriga from Brunswick," Jen shuddered at the memory. That case was a few months ago in Georgia. "Dean said I woke up screaming."

Jen nodded. "Dad scolded Eli for the TV being too loud in the middle of the night." Sam frowned. Jen offered a small smile and placed a hand on her cousin's shoulder. "That monster had us for over an hour before Dad and Uncle John found us." Sam let out a low sigh as students began entering the classroom.

"I still have nightmares too." Jen whispered the confession. Sam smiled at her. His smile faded however when he saw his least favorite bully, Ken McAllister, approaching. The large bully was walking with two of his friends. The three were whispering among themselves and laughing at something only they were aware of.

Sam reached into his book bag and took out a pencil and his notebook as McAllister came closer. His head quickly snapped in the direction of Jen when he heard the ten year old scream. The overweight bully had pulled at Jen's long dark braid as he passed by on the way to his seat behind them.

Sam stood, blocking the bigger boy's path. "Hey, leave her alone."

"Sam, don't…" Jennifer tried. She didn't want him to get into trouble. McAllister had always picked on her ever since kindergarten. She had gotten used to it, but things had gotten worse in the past few weeks that Sam had been attending school with her. McAllister had upped his game lately just to antagonize Sam. Which meant trouble for the both of them and she didn't want that.

McAllister smirked shrewdly at his two best friends before glaring at Sam. "Or what, Winchester?"

Ms. Reyes left her post in the hall to stand in the doorway of her classroom. She scanned the faces of her students. "Is something wrong?" she asked. She frowned when she saw the group of
boys standing up behind an upset Jennifer.

"No problem here, Ms. Reyes." James, one of McAllister's friends chimed in. Jennifer took out her notebook and slumped down into her seat when Ms. Reyes turned her gaze to the girl.

Sam waited until the three boys had moved to their desks in the row behind him before re-taking his seat next to his cousin. Ms. Reyes nodded once and instructed them to begin the morning warm-up that was on the board before exiting the classroom and standing back in the hall.

Sam turned to look at his younger cousin, "Are you okay?" he asked.

Jennifer nodded. "Just ignore him," she said. "He's just trying to get a rise out of you."

Sam frowned and was about to respond when he was hit with a paper ball. He picked up the balled up sheet of paper and was about to toss it into the trash when he noticed his name scribbled on it.

He opened it up to see a poorly drawn picture of him and Jennifer at the fence on the playground. Sam was on the ground near the fence with McAllister and one his friends stomping and punching on him. Jennifer was upside down in the trashcan with another boy pointing and laughing at her. On the top of the page were the words: After school you two are dead.

Jennifer peered over at Sam's desk and noticed the sheet of paper in his hands. She read the words on top and the two cousins turned around to face the smiling threesome behind them.

Sam slumped down in his desk. Today was not going to be a good day.