Missing scene from the episode 1, series 1, between Dean dragging Sam out of his burning apartment and the bit where they are standing outside as the fire engines and police do their bit.
A/N- I know this has been done before, but i did it ages ago, and just found it when i was sorting through stuff to take to uni. So here it is. Don't be too harsh, this was written just after the pilot, i like to think my writing has improved since then...also my computer is new and doesn't have microsoft word yet, so this hasn't been spellchecked, so sorry for any annoying mistakes, i have checked it but i can't spell for the life of me, and don't even get me started on my grammer...and i'm very tired right now.
Dean pulled Sam, who was still screaming denials, bodily out of the apartment door, the heat already burning at his skin. Sam struggled limply in his arms,
"Get off! Jess! Dean, let me go!" Dean held his brother in a tight grip, one that, however tight, if Sam was not becoming incapacitated by greif, he would have easily gotten out of. Sam gave a gasp that ripped Dean's heart in two just a little bit more, a kind of broken sob. The fight left Sam's body as he collapsed against his big brother, who gently lowered him to the grass. His face became scrunched up, eyes clamped tight, but tears still leaked from the corners.
"We should've...she might still be-" Dean knew he had to cut that line of thinking off right away, however brutal it was to say it.
"No Sam. Jess is dead. There was nothing you could have done." Sam let out a strangled sob and turned away from his brother. His shoulders shook as his gaze fell directly on the burning building.
"She's gone...she's gone...Jess...no, I'm so sorry! I'm so so sorry!" he sobbed again and Dean crouched down next to him. It was a cruel twist of fate that Sam had had his mother and now his girlfriend ripped from him, and already Dean was asking inevitable questions, theories running round in his head. Was it the same thing that killed their mom? If it was, why choose now to resurface? Was it something to do with Dad disappearing? And why Sam? Why had it taken an interest in his life? Or more to the point, trying to ruin his life. Dean voiced none of this, not now, it wasn't the time. First he had to get Sam back together.
"Sam, get up." Dean tried ordering him, but the youngest Winchester remained sprawled on the floor, sobbing and muttering. Dean tried a different tact, he crouched down in front of his brother. Sirens could be heard now as more people gathered. The building was blazing now, and many people stood watching, chattering in either hushed or animated voices, depending on whether or not they'd seen Sam. Dean gripped Sam's face in both his hands, and forced his little brother's eyes up to meet his.
"Sammy, come on, get up for me. We can't stay here all night. We've got to get out of here." Sam's face was slick with salty tears, but he had stopped crying now. His eyes looked slightly unfocused, but as Dean said that, they gained a little clarity.
"No..." he murmered, almost to quietly for Dean to catch, "No." he repeated.
"What?" Dean asked, "Sammy, we've got to leave, that thing could still be here! We can't do this on our own."
"Yes we can!" Sam shouted suddenly, anger sparking in his eyes, "We have to find it, and kill the bastard! Kill it, you hear me!" Rage radiated from him and his entire body shook. Dean wanted to placate him, he knew this was a good lead, but they needed their Dad.
"Ok, Sam, Ok. We'll dig around here, but I'm calling Dad." Sam nodded and then stood and walked slowly to the car. Dean walked towards the police and fire crew who were organising the vulture like crowd and the fire management. A policeman walked towards him. Normally, Dean would have dodged him, but the man seemed intent on talking to him and was also looking in Sam's direction. Dean didn't want him talking to his brother, so he made eye contact with the Californian state policeman and watched him make his way over.
"Evening, Officer." Dean said, smiling just enough to be polite, but not too much that he looked happy. He knew that the fire at their old house had been considered 'natural', but that was twenty-two years ago, fire detection may have evolved enough by now, to find out that it was not natural. The last thing they needed was for Dean to be hauled into an interveiw room and questioned about arson.
"Young man, where were you when the fire started?" The Officer had iron grey hair poking out from under his hat and was carrying a notebook and pen for writing down accounts. His skin looked a leathery tan, but as the fire was being doused, night was closing in around them again.
"Yes sir, i was. My brother over there, owns the apartment where the fire started. We'd spent the weekend hunting together out in the country. I dropped him off outside his apartment then left. That's when i remembered i'd forgotten to pick up an old holiday photo album of our family, that he told me i could borrow, so i went back to get it. When i arrived i saw smoke coming out from under the door. I kicked it down and found the place going up in flames...I grabbed Sam and got us out." Dean thought that was a pretty decent story. It stuck to the truth as much as possible, and the whole photo album thing couldn't be proved either way now that everything had been burned to a crisp. Dean's heart clenched at the thought of all Sam's memories burned to ash and gone. All the photo's he had noticed during his breif few minutes in the apartment, of Sam and Jess and a few other unknowns who Dean assumed were Sam's college friends. At the time he had felt a slight resentment towards the photos...now he just felt sadness at what his brother had lost. The Officer was scribbling in his notebook, he asked for times and Dean supplied them. Then came the inevitable.
"Thank you, son. Now, is that your brother?" He pointed with his pencil in the direction of the youngest Winchester, "I'm going to need to speak with him." He said, staring at Sam. Dean twisted to see his brother, who he realised with a jolt was going through the secret weapons stash in the Impala's boot. He had almost smiled. Almost. Whatever Sam believed, deep down he was still a Winchester.
"Yeah, that's my brother. But you can't talk with him, he's really messed up." The Officer glanced at him, then back at Sam,
"Son, you can't tell me what i can and cannot do." Dean, once again that evening, tried a different tact. It took surprisngly little to bring his usually hidden emotions to the surface. He scrubbed at his face.
"Look Officer, I'm sorry. It's just, Sam's girlfriend...she didn't mkae it out, he's really cut up about it." Tears sprang involuntarily to his eyes. "There was a fire too, when Sam was just a baby...and our mom died...she...Sam's never got over it." The Officer's face softened, and he put a comforting hand on Dean's shoulder.
"Well son, i think we all know there was nothing underhanded here, it was just a terrible, tragic accident." He squeezed Dean's shoulder, "I will have to speak to him though, in a few days, to clarify your story." Dean nodded,
"Thank you, Sir." The Officer smiled slightly, turned and walked off to talk with the fireman who seemed to be in charge. Dean turned to look at the smoking, blackened building, a shell of it's former glossy happiness, red and blue lights flashing across it's front. He turned with pitying eyes to face his brother, and then walked over slowly, to find Sam loading cartridges expertly into a shotgun, which he then threw into the trunk. Dean looked at his brother, waiting for him to say something. Something worthwhile, something that would help both of them heal.
"We've got work to do." Dean wasn't disappointed.