Getting the Hang of Thursdays

It was Thursday, and it was morning. Sam and Dean's latest crappy hotel was in Burlington, Vermont. It wasn't even fall, which according to all of the tourist information at the front desk, was the best time to be in Vermont. Instead, it was winter, and there was snow on the ground. Sam woke up with a splitting headache. Dean had made a pot of coffee and was reading the paper.

"Ugh," Sam groaned.

Dean glanced over at him. "You okay?"

"Headache. Pass the aspirin," Sam said.

Dean leaned over to reach for the pill bottle, which Sam was keeping on top of the table by the bed. But instead, the aspirin bottle began floating over of its own accord. Dean gaped at it.

Sam was clutching his head, so he wasn't looking, and didn't think anything of it when his free hand touched the aspirin bottle. "Thanks."

"Uh…" Dean began, "that wasn't me."

Sam swallowed a couple of pills and finally looked up. "Ha ha, very funny."

"That was all you," Dean said. "Your telekinesis is back."

Sam looked at the aspirin bottle, and then looked back at his brother in disbelief. "No way, I thought Cas said he slowed my changes down."

"Maybe you would have gone through a bunch more changes by now if he hadn't intervened. I don't know. We'll deal with it."

Sam sighed. "Great, while I'm busy being the mutant of the week, have you found anything?"

"Not really."

"Then why are we here?"

"We need a break, and you need to get used to having abilities again."

Sam nodded. He knew Dean was right. "I guess."

"Come on, we can go ice fishing," Dean said.

"Since when do you ice fish?"

"And, we can get some fresh maple syrup right from the trees." Dean grinned.

"Since when do you care about fresh maple syrup?" Sam asked pointedly.

"Okay, I read the tourist brochure."

"There's got to be something to do around here that isn't completely boring," Sam replied.

"There's always the coat factory," Dean answered.

Sam sighed. "Right. I think I'm going to go find someplace to hike."

The trail was long and winding with many snowy pine trees along the sides. Sam just wanted to be alone. He was tired of being constantly worried about. And most of all, he wanted to be normal. But that wasn't going to happen, so he settled for being alone in the woods. The trees, at least, did not care whether or not he was a freak.

Sam was quite content walking along the path dusted lightly with snow. That is, until he felt the familiarity of piercing pain in his head. He reached into his pocket for the aspirin bottle, which he never went without these days. The pain intensified. Sam opened the aspirin bottle, took out a couple of pills, grabbed his bottle of water from his backpack, and swallowed them.

Knowing that it would be a few minutes before the medicine kicked in, he continued walking. Suddenly, the pain intensified to the point where he had to actually sit down in the snow. Surely it wouldn't be long before it passed, he thought. Sam suddenly felt as though a serrated knife had stabbed him in the head and twisted 360 degrees around, not once but several times. This was by far the most painful migraine he'd had in months.

As the landscape around him faded to black, Sam worried that Dean wasn't going to find him if he didn't wake up soon enough. Yeah, he'd given his brother the general vicinity where he'd be hiking, but there were several trails in the area. There was always the GPS on his cell phone, but the Winchester brothers had been forced to turn it off to avoid law enforcement officials tracking them.

I'm screwed, was Sam's last thought.

It was so very cold. Sam wondered if he was dead, but remembered that Cas had given him five years. Well, if his time wasn't up, then he was probably still outside. Sam blinked and saw nothing but blue sky and sun. In fact, the sun was so bright that he had to look away, at the trees under him. Under...WTF...

"Aaaaaaaaaugh!" Sam yelled, flailing wildly. "Crap!"

Fear gave way to the realization that he was, indeed, floating in the air above the trees.

He stopped flailing. "Cas? Help?"

There was a fluttering of wings, and the angel appeared nearby. "Sam!"

"I… um…how do I get down?"

Cas gaped at him, trying to say something, but changed his mind. "Follow me."

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"Just think about going down," Cas said, and proceeded to descend.

Sam tried. He really did. Down…down…dammit…go down. But it didn't work. He remained floating in the sky.

Cas hovered up again. "I see you are having trouble navigating."

Sam sighed. "Sorry. Apparently landing isn't my thing."

Cas nodded and grabbed Sam by the shoulder. "Come on."

Under Cas's weight, Sam was able to finally touch the ground. He gave the angel a nervous look. "How long was I out?"

"Half the day. Dean is incredibly concerned. He is waiting in the parking lot with the Impala."

"All right," Sam said with resignation. "I'll go talk to him. Thanks, Cas."

Cas nodded. "Perhaps some practice is in order."

"Yeah. Later." Sam watched Cas disappear with a flutter of wings, then trudged off towards the parking lot.

The Impala was one of two vehicles there. It sat next to the park ranger's jeep. A very worried Dean was behind the wheel, listening to Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven. Sam knocked on the other side before getting in.

"Cas said he found you," Dean said.

"Yeah, he did," Sam replied.

"You were unconscious for about six hours. You scared me half to death, Sam."

"Sorry. I couldn't exactly help it."

"From now on, you don't go anywhere alone."

"Dean!"

"I mean it. Except for the frigging bathroom, 'cause that's just TMI for me. Okay?"

Sam sighed. "That's not reasonable and you know it."

Dean turned towards him abruptly and stared through his brother's blue eyes. "What am I supposed to do with you, Sam? How do I know you're not going to be in a coma in the next minute, bleeding to death through your nose? How the hell do I protect you?"

"You can't, Dean. Not anymore."

The older Winchester brother sighed. "Apparently not. You want to tell me what happened when you woke up, or do I have to drag Cas's feathery butt back here and ask him?"

"Not really, but since you're giving me no choice…I was floating."

"You mean, like a hallucination?"

"No. Like actually floating. I was above the tree line. Cas had to pull me down."

Dean gaped at his brother. "Holy crap. Well, I guess we should get you a cape and spandex."

"Not in this lifetime."

"With a big fat S on the super suit."

Sam rolled his eyes. "No way."

"Ok. Well, I'm glad you finally got the really awesome super power, but now we need to go back to Sioux Falls."

"Why?"

"Because the Sheriff just called me. Something's killing people back there, and she thinks it might be our kind of gig."

Sam looked surprised, but glad. "Great. I never really got the hang of vacations anyhow."

"All right." Dean started up the Impala and backed out.

Dean was more worried than he would ever admit. Sam's headaches were freaking him out, as well as the super powers. But he reasoned that Cas had bought them time enough to find God, and hopefully strike a deal with Him before Sam's deadline. He had one suspicion as to where he might find God, though. He just hoped it would be a good lead.

The End (for now)