2. May 1996

"Oh, hello, little boy!" the woman behind the counter said. She looked like a little bit over 40 and had a terrible scar on her left cheek. "What do you want?" She had dark circles under her insensitive eyes.

Sam didn't know how many hours you would be able to sleep if you lived in your own gas station, but he surely knew he didn't want to switch places with that woman. At least Sam had his brother, Dean, and his Dad, who was – like always – at one of his hunting trips. They didn't have a home, like this woman had, but they had family; they had each other. Sam could always count on Dean, he would always be there to save him. There were times when he hated it, he hated Dean, he hated Dad and his job, but he knew he would be dead without them. And this woman had no one, except a dead child.

One of the first things he learned when Dad told him about their 'family business' was how to identify the smallest signs. For example the crucifix on the wall with 'R.I.P Sam (1990-1996)'. He could only guess that the crucifix was for her son.

"My name is Sam, too," he said to break the silence and pointed to the crucifix. "Was he your son?"

For a second, Sam wanted to hit himself for trying to start a conversation. Dean would've probably said "You don't know this woman, so don't try to talk to her about anything else than the reason you're visiting her. She could be anything, a shape shifter, a ghost, a vampire! So just shut your mouth and end the conversation as quickly as you can." But this woman, a shape shifter? Vampire? Well, it was night and darkness had filled almost the entire room, but this woman just seemed exhausted and sad. He just knew she was a human.

The woman sighed and nodded. "Yes, he was my son," she said and gently stroke Sam's hair with a little melancholic smile on her lips. "I love the name Sam. He was my little angel … And now he's one, I guess ..."

"Do you miss him?" The woman suddenly stopped stroking his hair and let go of the mess that used to be his haircut. He didn't know if she would reply, he also didn't know why he asked such stupid questions. Or maybe he just needed somebody to talk to, whose last name wasn't Winchester. His Dad was hunting one of his monsters, and this one was very good in running away, so Sam hadn't been able to go to a school for a whole week. And today was his 13th birthday, and Dad was gone and Dean simply forgot it.

"Yes, I do," the woman replied and showed him a little label on her chest with 'Hi, I'm Gaby' on it. "My name's Gaby, and you are Sam, right?"

Sam nodded and looked at Gaby's scar again. Somebody did this to her on purpose and Sam guessed it was Gaby's husband/boyfriend. "The son of your child did this to you, didn't he?"

For a moment, Gaby looked shocked and confused with that question but then she smiled at him again and nodded. He knew this was a private question and he wanted to apologize but she suddenly started to talk again. "He wasn't too happy about my pregnancy, I guess." She pinched his cheek like he was ten years old and it surprisingly felt good. He almost forgot why he even went into the gas station, Dean was probably waiting for him to come back, Sam wanted to stop by the gas station because he was hungry and he didn't exactly know if the things Dad gave them were classified as food. "You're a clever little boy, Sam. But I know you're not here for a talk, and your stomach has been making weird noises since you opened the door," she joked and looked at the Sandwiches next to her. "You want a Sandwich?"

"Damn it, Sam, what the hell are you doing?" His older brother, Dean, entered the building and looked angry. "I thought you only wanted to buy some snacks and not have a conversation!" Well, to be honest, he wanted both. But he knew he could only have one thing, so he chose the Sandwich.

Dean grabbed him from behind and bought two Sandwiches and a Cola, probably for him. He then quickly gave Gaby the money and pulled Sam to the door.

"Bye, Sam!" Gaby said while Dean dragged Sam, in his hands the Sandwiches and the Cola, to the car.

"Bye, Gaby," he murmured and looked at his brother. Dean was busy eating one of the Sandwiches and probably thought Sam would do the same. But Sam lost his appetite.

"Dean ..." he whispered and his brother finally looked at him, he had bread crumbs on his mouth and left cheek. "Today's my birthday."

Dean didn't seem to understand what he was saying for a second, he swallowed the last piece of the Sandwich in his stomach and wiped off the crumbs on his mouth. "Yeah, I knew that!" he quickly replied and punched him in the arm. "Of course I knew that! Happy …" Dean really had forgotten it, he didn't even know Sam's age.

"Dean, I'm 13."

"Yeah, happy 13th Birthday, big boy!" he said and laughed. "Now get in the car."

"The car's not yours," Sam replied. "And you don't have a driving license."

"But I have a fake one!" Dean joked and grinned one of his Dean smiles. He then opened the door and excepted Sam to jump in but Sam refused to get in the car. "And relax, Dad got me the car, the guy he borrowed it from lives near here. We will give him the car back when Dad done his job."

Sam knew he couldn't say anything, Dean wouldn't take him serious. He was just a kid after all and Dean was 17. So he just got in the car and watched Dean while he got in it too and slowly drove into the darkness.

"You want a Beer, son?" Bobby Singer, one of Dean's closest friends if not the closest, asked him and handed him a cold beer. Bobby Singer always had beer, which was one of the reasons Dean always came to him in the first place. Another one was that Bobby was a great hunter – and both, Dean & Bobby, knew that Dean's brother's, Sam's, death had changed Dean. It almost felt like he didn't care about his own job anymore, he didn't care what would happen with the world – it was like a sick feeling in his stomach. Dean knew that if Sam was be alive, he would tell him not to give up, but he just couldn't stand a world without his brother. When Sam left for College, he at least knew that Sam was okay and still alive. It made him sick that Sam had to die while Dean was still here.

"Yeah, thanks," Dean murmured and almost drank the whole bottle. After some months, he found out that Alcohol made the feeling less worse, so Whiskey and Beer became his best friends.

John, his dad, always told him to take care of Sammy, to make sure he's okay. And it hurt to know that Dean failed. He pretty much failed at every Job he was doing this week. Vampires in Washington – they disappeared at night and only some dead bodies were left. A narcissistic demon in some small town, who wanted to turn the whole neighborhood into evil demon crap and also beat the crap out of Dean and then disappeared too, and Dean & Bobby had to clean up the mess he left behind. This wasn't just his week, Bobby once said.

"So, what do we have?" Dean asked and looked at some pictures of dead bodies (they looked pretty fucked up) Bobby gave him while he was busy staring at the ceiling. After Sam died, their relationship just wasn't the same as it were before. They only spoke to each other when it was about a Job and Bobby did exactly the same Dean did – pretend like Sam Winchester never existed. But that was difficult because everything Dean thought about was "I could've saved him". Or he could've just jumped with him, so Sam wasn't alone in hell.

For over one year, Dean had tried to make a deal with any demon out there but they all said no. Because most of the demons either didn't have the power to bring him back or just simply enjoyed how one of the greatest hunters alive suffered in his own hell. Probably both.

He also tried to find Lisa & Ben but they had moved and even if he could find them, he knew she wouldn't let him in. As it turned out, Lisa had a relationship with a lawyer for some months now and it was serious. And he didn't want to steal her happiness just because he was selfish – he wasn't.

"Dean, could you please come back to earth and look at those damn pictures!" Bobby said and sighed as Dean looked at him in disbelief. "It's important and we don't have time to sit around and do nothing. Innocent people have been slaughtered!"

"Yeah, you're right ..." Dean murmured and nodded twice before he really looked at the dead body pictures. They had bloody scars all over their bodies, bigger wounds an animal could've done. "So, what kind of freak are we dealing with? Freddy Krueger?"

"To be honest, I don't know," Bobby said and finally looked at the photos too. Bobby Singer had been a hunter for a very long time and if he didn't know what they were dealing with, it must've been bad. And evil, for sure. "It looks like some big animal but some witnesses reported that they saw a ...", Bobby coughed, "'Vampire-Werewolf-Hybrid-thing'. That's at least how they said it."

"There's no such things as Vamp-Wolf-Hybrids," Dean said and took another sip from his beer. "And there are only like 30 Werewolves in the world. Are you sure that girl didn't take pills or something else?"

"That's what the police first thought, too," Bobby murmured. "So they took a Blood test. That girl was clean and I think she said the truth. It could be possible, after all. You and I have seen so many monsters, why not a Hybrid?"

Dean sighed, he wasn't in the mood for something like that. He wasn't in the mood for anything, he actually just wanted to crawl in some corner and stay there for the rest of the week. But Bobby would never allow that, "there are people to save out there".

"Great ..." he whispered and rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache – he was sure he would get one in some minutes. "Okay, when are we going to kill this … 'Vampire-Werewolf-Hybrid-thing'?"

"I would suggest … now?"

"Dude!" Dean said angry. "It's 11:54 PM, give me some rest! We will go next morning." Bobby agreed, he was tired too, and they both sat down at their beds. Dean knew he would dream nothing good, probably something Sam related, but he wasn't even able to stand anymore. He was just too tired. He wasn't able to sleep last night and he kinda regret it that he stayed awake watching Talkshows all night.

"Dean, I miss him too," Bobby then whispered and Dean swallowed hard. They both knew who 'he' was. "Sam was like a son to me and I would do anything to get him back, believe me."

"Yeah ..." Dean said. "Me too." Both were kinda ashamed because they were uncomfortable with showing their feelings, so Dean just lay down on the bed and immediately fell asleep.