Title: Forever

Summary: Deleted scene from Mystery Spot. Up at a rural cabin, Dean takes a fall, and the results are fairly hard hitting. Big ol' Smallville reference. One-shot.

Rating: T for character death

Spoilers: Mystery Spot plot... which isn't really much for the first thirty minutes...

A/N:I so wanted to see this happen in the episode, and it just didn't. So I'm making it. Bonus points if you catch the big, honkin' Smallville reference!

Disclaimer: The show, characters and episode aren't mine. Deal with it.


Forever

"This is ridiculous," Dean griped as the brothers headed into the cabin, "we can't even stay in town?"

"No," Sam said, tossing his duffle bag onto the couch, careful to avoid hitting his brother, especially after the axe incident. "We can't risk it."

"Oh, come on, man. What's the worst that could happen?"

"You could get shot, or hit by a car, or crushed by a desk, or slip in the shower, or choke, or eat a bad taco, or get killed by Cujo, or get electrocuted, or-"

"Ok, ok. I get it. We'll just hang out in this nice little cabin until tomorrow."

"Because there is gonna be a tomorrow," Sam muttered, his face set and determined.

"Right," Dean nodded, "now, where's the little boys' room?"

"There isn't one," Sam said as he began rifling through his duffle bag. This was perfect. The small cabin on the outskirts of town seemed to be abandoned, and nothing could possibly kill his brother there. They would be safe, time would continue on its rightful path, and nothing weird would happen.

"What about an outhouse?"

"Didn't see one."

"What do you want me to do, go in the bushes?"

"Yes, Dean," Sam sighed, "go in the bushes. Just don't get too far away. With our luck there's a giant bear trap out there."

"And we wouldn't want me bleeding out," Dean said with a tone that was too carefree for Sammy's comfort. He opened up the screen door and headed out onto the porch, gazing around the deserted property. "That's cool," he muttered, stepping onto the hard-packed dirt, "hey, Sammy. Come check this out."

Sam waved a hand in his brother's general direction. He was too preoccupied with unpacking to really care what Dean did, as long as it didn't get him killed. Then he heard the tree branch.

It wasn't like Dean to be careless enough to snap a branch like that, even when danger wasn't afoot. Sam stopped what he was doing and dashed out onto the porch, searching frantically for his brother. What he saw nearly stopped his heart.

Dean was standing by the edge of a steep cliff overlooking a rushing river, his hands held innocently out in front of him, his mouth working incessantly, trying to calm the redneck waving the gun.

"This is private property," the redneck shrieked, finally calming his excited hand and pointing the gun straight at Dean's heart, "there's 'No Trespassing' signs everywhere."

"Put the gun down and we'll leave," Dean said, but the redneck wasn't having it. Sam saw the whole thing in slow motion, saw the trigger being pulled, the shot being fired, the bullet hitting his brother in the shoulder just a bit too high to actually kill him.

Dean looked shocked, glancing from the bullet hole to the redneck and back again. He staggered back, throwing a startled look over his shoulder as his feet left land and he hurtled over the cliff.

Sam's feet were moving before the whole scene even registered in his brain. He was at the drop-off in a minute, roughly shoving the redneck out of the way. He skidded to a stop, his feet loosening a couple of rocks and sending them tumbling down toward the rushing river at the bottom of the canyon.

He'd heard his brother splash, but couldn't see the body. He gazed into the river, searching frantically, wondering why he wasn't waking up if Dean was dead.

His brother popped up out of the water, a triumphant grin spread across his face. Dean looked up at Sam, spread his arms wide, and yelled, "I'm all right!" before one of the rocks that Sam had knocked loose landed in the center of the older man's head, sending him crashing back down into the water.

o0o0o0o0o

Sam awoke with a start to find Dean lacing up his boots, cranking up the radio, and pretending to sing along. And it was still Tuesday.