To: Cariadne, for The Beta Branch Stocking Stuffers 2015

A/n: Huge thanks to Cariadne for helping me edit this thing from top to bottom after the fact - you made it roughly a thousand times better. :D

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Somewhere near Lake Elwell, Montana

Dad's latest set of coded coordinates led them to the middle of nowhere.

They'd left the main highway almost an hour ago and followed snow-covered back roads until the lake came into view, past a thick gathering of trees. The lake stretched far to the east and west out of sight, and the bank on the southern shore was obscured by heavy falling snow.

Sam and Dean climbed out of the truck they'd borrowed from Bobby. Dean hadn't wanted to leave Baby behind, but after checking maps of where they were headed, and knowing it was winter, Dean had reluctantly agreed that four-wheel drive would be wise. He frowned up at the gray sky, hoping they wouldn't be here long – with the snow falling like that, even four wheel drive wasn't going to be helpful soon.

The snow was well past Dean's ankles as he trudged towards the icy lakeshore. His skin prickled from the cold. After ten minutes of wandering and searching, he and Sam still had come up empty. According to the coordinates, however, they were exactly where they were supposed to be.

"There's nothing here," Sam insisted for the fifth time, joining Dean by the lake's edge. His breath made a puff of white mist between them. "I'm telling you, this time he got it wrong."

Dean ground his teeth together. "He wouldn't have sent us here for no reason." He brushed away the snow gathering in his hair.

"Then what do you want us to do, huh?" Sam shrugged, hands in his jacket pockets. "Stand here and continue to freeze our asses off, waiting for nothing to happen?"

Dean shook his head, tired of the circular argument. He didn't have any good suggestions. Dad wouldn't have pointed them to the middle of nowhere, some random lake in the dead of winter, without a good reason. He was absolutely sure of that.

He tugged his collar tighter against his neck to try and keep out the slicing breeze that bit at his skin. His toes were numb in his not-made-for-this-much-snow boots, and his nose and cheeks stung. It was too damn cold out here to be messing around. Dean glared out at the frozen lake, wishing he could see why John had sent them these coordinates, and frowned again.

"I don't know," he admitted with a growl. "Let's warm up for a second. We're obviously missing something – maybe we decoded the message wrong." Although I know we didn't, he added in his head.

Sam sighed and shook the snow out of his hair, visibly unconvinced, but followed Dean back to the truck.

With a huff, Dean wrenched the truck door open. Sam hesitated, turning to look at the lake.

"Did you hear that?"

Dean furrowed his brow. All he heard was the whispery, muffled silence of gentle snow falling and Sam's breathing. He waited a beat or two.

"No?"

Sam shushed him.

Dean waited again, straining to listen for the hint of a sound, but still didn't hear anything. "What?" he asked after a few seconds. Sam started back towards the lake. "Sam, what is it?"

But Sam didn't seem to notice Dean had spoken. He strode purposefully through the snow. Dean cursed under his breath and slammed the truck door shut. He readied his gun as he hurried after Sam, who was already at the shoreline and stepping onto the ice.

"Hey!" Dean shouted, a flash of panic shooting through him. "What the hell are you doing? Sam! Get off the ice!"

"Don't you hear that?" Sam called back.

Dean turned his head this way and that, his eyes darting over the snow. There was nothing – what the hell was he talking about?

"Sam, damn it, come back! You don't know how thick that ice is!"

"That humming noise!" Sam shuffled across the icy surface.

Dean's breath caught in his chest watching him. This was so, so bad. He had no idea how thick this ice was and the last thing he wanted to do was follow Sam out there to test it. But if Sam fell through, Dean would need to be there to get him out. He tried to force in a breath and it snagged in his throat, sharp with cold.

"Dean, it's so close..." Sam slipped and slid, farther and farther away.

Damn it, damn it, damn it…

Dean stomped his foot hard on the ice but didn't hear it crack or give. He gingerly took a few steps onto the frozen water, heart thumping in his chest, hating every second he was standing on it. He'd be lying if falling through ice wasn't high on his worst fears list.

"Sam," he said, edging forward. His mouth had gone paper dry. "Come back here!"

His brother finally stopped and spun around, looking for the source of the sound he was hearing. "Dean, it's right here! You really don't hear that?" His eyes were wild, gleaming in way that didn't feel right.

Dean swallowed. Worry coiled in his gut. Had Sam been cursed or something?

"Sammy, I don't hear anything." He lowered his gun and held his hand out towards his brother. "Look, I don't know how frozen this lake is, so come back here and we'll figure out whatever it is that you're hearing, okay?"

"Dean, whatever's making that noise, maybe that's what Dad sent us here for," said Sam, excited. He grinned wide but it was empty and weird. His glassy, unfocused gaze slid off of Dean to the lake under Sam's feet.

Dean shivered and it had nothing to do with the snow sticking to him. "Sam…"

His brother exhaled. "We–"

The ice shattered.

Dean opened his mouth to scream but the sound got stuck in his throat. Sam cried out and Dean caught sight of long, sickly green-colored limbs shooting up from the icy water, latching onto Sam. Sam crashed down and the ghoulish hands pulled, hauling Sam into the water with it.

Dean dove across the ice, flattening himself on his stomach. His gun clattered out of his hand. "Sammy!"

His brother's hands flailed in the water. Dean shimmied closer, panic seizing his insides. Sam's head surfaced for a second, gasping. The green hands strained against Sam's shoulders, struggling to drag him down, drag him under, drag him sideways under the ice, but Sam fought. Dean reached in and snagged one of Sam's slippery, cold wrists. He yelped at the shock the frigid water sent through his arm.

"Sammy! I got you!" He clapped his other hand around his brother's hand. Whatever was working to haul Sam down was strong. He heard a small cracking noise and almost stopped breathing, thinking the ice under him was about to give.

Dean grit his teeth and pulled, pulled harder, pulled with everything he had. Sweat beaded on his forehead from the fear coursing through him. Sam's head emerged from the water and he sucked in air.

"Dean!" Sam cried out. He latched his free hand onto Dean's arm and dug his fingers in so hard, Dean knew there'd be deep purple bruises later. If there was a later.

Sam twisted, struggling to dislodge the creature. It jerked back and forth with him, and Sam choked on the water splashing over his head. Dean held on tight.

The angle was bad and Dean's limbs were screaming. His body slid closer to the hole and Sam went under again. Desperate, Dean swivelled sideways. The movement almost tipped himself into the hole and Dean fought the terror seizing his chest. With better leverage, Dean yanked as hard as could on his brother's wrist.

His couldn't feel his hands, tight around Sam and numb, plunged in the water. Sam clung to Dean's arm and thrashed. Suddenly the resistance lessened and Dean rolled, pulling Sam with him. Sam sputtered and gasped as he surfaced.

Dean scrambled back, tugging Sam completely out of the hole. He released Sam's wrist to wrap his arm protectively around his brother's chest. With his other hand, he reached back, scrabbling for his discarded gun. His breath came in shallow, panicked huffs and his aching fingers shook so hard he could barely latch onto his weapon. He heard another ominous cracking noise and another bolt of panic shot through him.

The creature exploded out of the water with a piercing shriek. The noise was incredible and it drilled into Dean's ears. Its wide, glowing white eyes found the boys and it lunged, making a grab for Sam's legs with its spindly green hands and claws. Dean tightened his hold on Sam and finally found his gun. He brought it up and fired at the beast, over and over.

The monster let out another spine-chilling screech and crumpled onto the ice. Sam clapped his hands over his ears and Dean winced, keeping his gun trained on the flailing creature. Blue and white flames erupted from the bullet holes as the silver bullets burned the beast from the inside out. The scream reached such a pitch Dean thought he might go deaf, and then it abruptly cut off as the thing burned. In seconds, all that remained was a hideous, charred, melted mess of green flesh.

Dean fell back onto the ice, ears ringing, his heart pummeling his collarbone. Sam coughed and shivered violently against his brother.

"I t-t-think... we f-f-found it... aft-t-ter all," Sam managed.

Dean closed his eyes and tried to breathe.

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

It wasn't until the boys were back at Bobby's, after a quick stop at a medical clinic to make sure Sam was okay, that they finally figured out what the hell had happened.

Bobby slapped his hand against the yellowed page of the book he'd been pouring through. "Thought so," he said. "Qalupalik."

Dean shot a concerned look at Sam, curled up on the couch under three blankets. "A what now?"

"Inuit legend," Bobby explained. "Lives in the water and steals away children from their mommies and daddies when they've been bad. Lures 'em away with a humming sound." He frowned thoughtfully. "Odd, though. Supposed to only go after kids."

Dean shot an amused look at Sam. "Well," he said.

"Shut up," Sam mumbled in response.

"Seriously though, why'd the hell did it go after Sam?"

"Got me," said Bobby with a shrug.

"I did think Dad sent us on a pointless mission," Sam piped up. "Maybe that counts as being disobedient?" He attempted a weak smile.

Dean rolled his eyes. "Whatever. The thing probably hasn't had a meal in six months and we were convenient."

"You couldn't hear the humming noise it made, though," Sam pointed out. He rubbed at his nose and hunkered deeper under his blankets. "It was weird."

Dean remembered the strange look on Sam's face right before the beast had exploded out of the ice. He hadn't had time to properly react before, too worried about him or Sam falling through the ice, but it was clear he'd hadn't been himself.

"Don't worry about it." Dean waved him off, but Sam ignored him.

"And I couldn't stop myself from running towards it, out onto the ice," Sam added. "Right after… after I gave up on Dad's message."

Dean glanced at his brother when he noted the pained, guilty tone in Sam's voice. "Hey," he said sharply. "It's fine."

Sam swallowed and looked like he wanted to say more, like he didn't agree but was too tired to fight about it, but nodded anyways.

"We got the thing, and we got outta there," Dean assured him. "It's fine."

And he meant it. If he had a dime for every time something went wrong, or some beastie messed with their heads… Still, he fought off a shiver and the memory of the creature, the cracking ice, and the utter terror that had coursed through him.

Dean rose from his chair when the kettle whistled. He fixed up a mug of tea (some fruity herbal crap Sam liked) and brought it over to the couch. Sam mumbled his thanks and poked his hands out from under his blankets to hold the mug close. Dean settled on the couch at Sam's feet and scooped up his headphones. Bobby was engrossed in another thick, dusty book as Dean cranked some Led Zepplin, letting the waves of familiar music drain away the lingering tension in his shoulders.

By the time late evening rolled around, Sam was feeling much warmer, and Dean dozed off beside him.

Once he finally stopped picturing being dragged under the ice.

-end-