Big Brother is Always Watching

by everfaithful

Companion piece to No Such Thing As Miracles. You dont HAVE to read the first story but it doesnt hurt. The boys find out that there is more than the supernatural to worry about, and that treachery comes in small packages.

1. Chapter 1

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This is a companion piece to No Such Thing as Miracles, taking place after Deans long and painful recovery. The brothers find out that the supernatural isn't all they have to watch out for, and that treachery comes in small packages.

Again … these aren't my toys, but I really enjoy playing with them.

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Dean sighed as he was wheeled out of the hospital. It was policy, and he hadn't been able to talk them out of it, but he was finally being discharged.

Eight months. Six months in skeletal traction, two months intense rehab to rebuild everything.

He thought he was going to go crazy. But finally, today was the day.

And he didn't know who was happier, him or Sam, really, as Sam walked beside him. Once they were out of the hospital, at least through the doors, Dean held up his hand to stop the transportation guy and carefully stood up. He felt good. So he hazarded a few steps. They went fine. All was well with the world.

"Man, I am so glad you're back." Sam said, clapping his brother on the back. "I'm telling you, there's something wrong with the car."

"There's nothing wrong with the car." Dean said smugly, catching the keys Sam tossed at him and getting into the driver's seat.

"I'm telling you, something's wrong. It makes this weird noise when it starts..." Dean started the car and arched an eyebrow at Sam. No weird noise. She was purring like a kitten. "I'm telling you this car is possessed." Sam said with a sigh as Dean laughed.

"No… the car is not possessed." He said. "She just missed me. So you all packed up and ready to go or are we going to… where ever you've been living?" Dean asked as he selected a tape and put it in the deck as he pulled out of the parking lot. God it felt good to be behind the wheel again. It was like coming home. Well for him it was coming home.
The Impala had been the one constant in his life for as long as he could remember.

"I'm packed." Sam said. He didn't want to stay here any longer. Too many bad memories, too much that he didn't want to be reminded of. Hell, he never wanted to see another McDonald's for as long as he lived. "So I figure we'll take it easy for a while."

"Like hell." Dean said. "That sounds dangerously close to the V word. No way you are suckering me into another one of those." He knew things would have gone down much the same if they had been on vacation or not but he had just spent 8 months flat on his back. He wanted to kick something's ass, just to prove to himself that he could still do it. "You can't tell me you haven't been keeping an eye out on the internet for freaky shit."

"Okay, maybe I've been keeping half an eye opened." Sam said as he shifted in the seat. It felt good to be in the passenger seat again, as much as he bothered his brother about driving. The car wasn't the only one who had missed Dean on the wide open road. "Okay, no vacations. Not for a while, I promise."

"So what did you find?" Dean said. This time was different than the last time he'd been released from the hospital after his father's death. He'd had more time to wrap his head around it and more time to come to terms with it. It helped that he'd been able to come to terms with his father in the first place before John crossed over, and this time he really did. Cross over that is. He knew John was at peace, which helped him come to peace with it.

"Nothing really interesting. Haunted hotels, poltergeists at a school..."

"All girls' school?" Dean asked hopefully with a smirk.

"No. It's not an all girls' school. And even if it were they would be jail bait." Sam said with a laugh.

"True enough. I don't know… let's start with the hotel. Probably just publicity stunt anyway but what the hell. Start off light before jumping into the deep end again." Dean said with a shrug as he tapped out the beat of the song that was playing. "So where is it?"

Sam smiled. " Connecticut ." He said as he opened the lap top and pulled up the website. "It's an old mansion turned into a hotel in the 40's." He began to describe the place. "Reminds me of the haunting, although I doubt we're gonna see Catherine Zeta-Jones wandering around."

"That would seem too much like a vacation." Dean said with a laugh. Connecticut was good. Far from Louisiana . Far from Kansas . Nothing like those two places. And lots of time to drive and get reacquainted with his baby, even if Sam insisted on making derisive comments about it.

"I ahm… had a body shop take out the dent in the front left hand side, they matched the paint pretty well." He told Dean. "Can't really tell she was ever dented and no, it wasn't me driving when it happened." He said putting up both hands. But he wasn't the one that fixed it either. He knew that he didn't know enough about it to do much good.

The last 8 months had been interesting for Sam. He had gotten a part time job, nothing impressive. Mostly handling files for a local law firm who was impressed with his Stanford resume. He had wanted to dabble a bit… look at what he was giving up to make sure that he could do it. He had thought about making Dean retire. The demon that had killed their mom and Jess was in hell. Dad was in heaven… they could go on with their lives.

He interviewed at the local university, and could have gotten into law easily. The firm he had been working at offered him an internship if he stayed on. It had been so tempting. A chance to start his life again, to follow his dreams. But in the end, he had turned both down. He didn't know if it was the call of the road or the sure and certain knowledge that Dean would never stay in one place once he was out of the hospital that drove him to walk away from his dreams a second time.

He never told Dean about any of it.

Dean looked at Sam and pulled over. Getting out of the car and going to look at the repaired area. Nodding and mumbling to himself before getting back into the car and back on the road. "It was Dad. Or more correctly Tommy." Dean said. "I'd forgotten." Because so much had happened afterwards. "That was Dad's clue that I was, you know, not me. When he told me, and I didn't freak over her being all dented and scratched. Guy did a good job. Probably best I didn't know about it, might have set my recovery back a few days...weeks."

"It was hard enough to keep you in bed as it was and there was no street on the side of the hospital you were on, so I couldn't drive Christine by to show you she was alright. " Sam told him. That was the main reason he didn't tell Dean about what he was doing for money, or the college interview. It would have caused trouble with his recovery. And their dad had told him to take care of Dean, so that was what he was going to do.

"You make me sound awful." Dean said. "I wasn't that bad, and you know it." Not really anyway. Maybe from some angles...okay a little. "And stop calling her Christine, you're going to piss her off you know. Then how will we get to Connecticut ? Might as well go to sleep, cause I plan to drive at least to Tennessee before pulling over."

"Dean…I was dating your nurse remember…you were that bad… hell some days you were worse." Sam pointed out with a laugh. The demon being sent back to hell had in some ways exorcised Jessica's ghost from his mind. He still thought about her, still missed her but it wasn't a huge gaping hole where she used to be anymore. He had been able to move on, even if it was only on to casual dating.

"No I wasn't. She was completely playing you, dude. Sympathy vote and all." Dean said with a chuckle as he switched tapes to something else. "But it feels good to be on the road again." He liked the freedom of the road, the liberation. Feeling it all the more keenly after having been bedridden for most of the eight months, with various poles and tubes sticking out of his body. The biggest indignity had been the catheter, he hadn't gotten over that from the car crash nearly a year ago, and then he'd woken up with another! "And good to see you out and about, little brother." He'd worried about Sam for a year, since Jessica's death. Made worse when their father had died the first time. His brother's intensity on just about everything scared Dean. Not the intensity itself, the chance that it would burn Sam out. He knew what it was like to feel worn down by everything, even if he believed he hid it moderately well.

"Yeah well don't expect me to turn into an absolute man whore or anything, but yeah I had a good time while you were out of commission. Someone had to take up the slack after all." Sam said with a grin. "But yeah, I've been missing this too. Bet you never thought you would hear me say that one." He laughed a little. It was good. Times were good. With the demon gone he didn't have that hanging over his head either. Didn't matter about his plans and his little war or how many other kids he had done this too, cause it was over. They were just normal hunters now.

Actually he was expecting Sam to say he was settling down, and Dean could go on without him. Which he wouldn't have done. Sam was still his brother to look out for. Besides, he would have missed the brat anyway. So even if it had killed him, he would have stuck around.

"You're right, never thought I'd hear you say that." Especially with an Ivy League school (Tulane) in New Orleans . "But I'm glad you did." He said and punched his brother's shoulder for good measure. "Woulda missed that annoying voice in the passenger seat."

Sam returned the punch. "Yeah, well, Dad told me to take care of you." He said. "So you're stuck with me. You know me, the only time I listen to Dad is when he's dead." It didn't hurt to say it this time. Seeing him with step into the light, having nearly a year to deal with it. It was okay. Wasn't his preferred choice for how things had ended but it was okay, because it wouldn't do any good for it not to be okay. "So how you feeling? I mean really. Are you completely okay, almost okay… still hurting like hell but dealing with it okay..?"

"Dude, I'm okay." Dean said with a laugh. "Clean bill of health, been lifting weights, workin' out, getting it all back in working order." He sighed when he caught the look from Sam. "I don't hurt anymore." He told his brother. "And nothing is going to bust on me any time soon. Got my strength back up. Just gotta work on the endurance is all. No running
marathons for a while. So any big chases up the stairs and out the window are all on you, bro. But I'm okay. Really."

Sam nodded. "Okay." He said, letting it go. It was a more honest answer than he had honestly anticipated, but with what they had both been through, some things had changed for both of them. And that was alright. It was good even. He settled comfortably into the passenger's seat and pulled out his cell phone, calling the road house.

"Hey Jo, is your mom around?" He asked. "Oh okay… well just wanted to let her know they finally sprung Dean, so we're back on the road." He nodded and rolled his eyes making the sign with his free hand to indicate that the girl was yammering on. "Cool." He said eventually. "Yeah we're off to Connecticut . Haunted hotel. Figured we'd start out small and work our way up this time." He laughed a little because it was appropriate for what the girl said more than any real thought she was being funny. "Sure, thanks. Tell Ellen we'll call and check in soon."

"What's with Jo these days?" Dean asked.

"I don't think it's just a these days thing." Sam said. "I think she's a little sweet on you or something."

"Don't even joke about that. Ellen would have my balls in a vice. Besides, sure she's cute and all but it would be like doing my sister. " He made a face at the thought.

Sam laughed. "That is a disgusting thought." Sam said. He looked at his brother. First time out of the hospital and he jumps into the car for a long, long drive. Nearly across country. He nearly questioned the wisdom of that, and wondered if he should have found something in Mississippi or something, but Dean looked happy. Even more than that, at peace.

Which just cemented his theory that there was something weird about the car. At least it wasn't dangerous weird. Just an abnormal connection to a hunk of steel resting on four rubber tires. Not that he would ever say that. Dean would just deny it anyway, like any good addict!

"Guess it doesn't help that Ellen pulled her off the New Orleans hunt and hasn't let her out of her sight for eight months." Dean said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, Ellen isn't into Jo being a hunter. Can't say I blame her. If I were to ever have a kid I don't know that I would want them in this life. Would depend on their temperament. Some people just aren't cut out for this and I think Ellen is right, Jo isn't no matter how much she wants to be part of the hunt. She would get herself killed real fast on her own."

Dean grunted in agreement remembering all too well how she had very nearly gotten herself killed the one time she went hunting with them. "Gotta say I am surprised that she listened as well as she did to Ellen."

"Yeah well I wouldn't expect that to last very long. She'll get a rebellious streak and head out on her own." He knew how it was to be an independent young adult with an over bearing parent. But he didn't think she would be running off to college when she left. She would go running off to the hunt and they would all be lucky if she didn't come back as one of the monsters they hunted. If it weren't for Dean and Sam she would have died her first hunt out.

"Yeah, well, it's not like she's going to run off to Stanford, your alma mater is safe." Dean said with a laugh. He pulled off the freeway and onto the back roads, where he could really put his car through her paces. Which was what they both needed in a way as he rolled down the window. "I expect we'll hear from her soon, she's got that annoying little habit."

Sam laughed. "Yeah that would go over well. Missouri wanted us to go to Lawrence , but I just didn't see much reason. Hope you don't mind that I didn't even talk to you about it. I just wanted to get back into the swing of things." He didn't want to deal with any reminders. Missouri was a reminder. "This ghost, if its real, is a typical hotel ghost. You know
the kind the ones that make bed covers fly off the beds, choke the guests, nearly kill the help."

"Sounds like a blast. Hey, you think it's a full service hotel? Because you know the physical therapist recommended I continue massage therapy you know." Dean said with a grin. Ah...now that had been a medical professional he wouldn't have minded sticking with.

"I don't know. It's one of those secluded places out in the middle of no where. But if they say you need massage therapy then we'll make sure you get it." Sam said sincerely. "What else did the doctor say you needed?" He asked. He had asked the doctor but since Dean was conscious and all he wouldn't share information on his brother's health, and he hadn't been able to bring himself to get Ash to hack into the hospital records.

"Dude, stop acting like I'm going to break. I was making a suggestion to get me laid." Dean said with a scowl. "The doctor said I need to be treated like I'm normal and return to my normal activities. That's it. That's all. He said I might be a little 'achy' or something, but compared to how 'achy' I've been in the past, it's nothing. Take a percocet, drink a beer, sleep it off. Really, stop worrying so much. I'm not going anywhere. I mean, if I can survive a jolt strong enough to ruin my heart, a car crash hard enough to kill my brain, and an apocalyptic battle to the death with my possessed brother that shattered nearly every bone in my body, seriously, a little pain is nothing."

Sam looked at him, but he wasn't reassured. There was guilt in his eyes. Dean had been hit with the jolt of electricity because Sam had gotten tossed down the stairs by the thing grabbing his ankle. If he hadn't they would have gotten the kids up and come back to face it together. He had been arguing with his father instead of paying attention to what was
going on around them when the semi hit, and well, the possessed brother thing was obvious. If he had been able to look at it all objectively he would see that none of it was really his fault, but he couldn't do that. Circumstances didn't allow
for that logical thought process to kick in. For nearly 2 years he had been traveling with his brother and causing him so much pain… "Yeah… alright." He said and swallowed hard turning to look at his lap top. "But you know… we could still get the massage therapist if you want."

"Only if she's cute." Dean quipped. "Aw come on Sammy. Christ. I'm not blaming you for anything. I chose to fire the taser when it was clearly a wet area. And I chose to scrub the cipher off my back. I didn't choose to drop you on your head though, so I guess any mental defect in you is kinda my fault. Cheer up and calm down. This is an easy
job, right?"

"You should hope to be as defective as I am." He said with a faint laugh. He had been accepted at not one but two Ivy League schools. And he had walked away from both of them for his brother. Sometimes though he wondered if he had done his brother more harm than good. "You chose to do it to save me, Dean. You didn't choose for Dad and I to be arguing instead of paying attention on the road."

"You got knocked around pretty good both times if I remember right. And I know I do." Dean pointed out. "So please. Please, please, please stop with that whole self guilt thing. It is really not the way to attract girls, the bad boy
sensitive thing only goes so far. And they usually attract clingers. So just relax, I'm back, and I'm looking forward to putting powder in your shorts again."

"You put powder in my shorts again and you could be revisiting traction." He said with a grin. "And I think I did pretty well the last few months with the sensitive thing going on. Went out with two of your nurses." He smiled. He wasn't sure he could let it go. But he could at least keep it to himself. It would move to the back of his mind along with shooting him in the asylum and at least a dozen other things that he had done to hurt his brother since they had found each other again.

"Yeah, that's before I got up and walking." Dean said wit ha laugh. "I don't know, should we drive straight through or what? I guess I could be convinced to stop at some point...hours from now..." He looked at his brother. "Got a question though. Have you had any visions? We've assumed all along they were tied to Azazel, and now he's roasting in hell..." He felt, after possession, he could be on a first name basis with the yellow eyed demon at this point.

"We're gonna have to stop at some point." Sam said. "Whether we stay in a hotel or I drive, cause there is only so long I can handle my knees being cramped up." He thought about it a moment. "I don't know if I have had any visions or not. I get these weird mad scientist type dreams… a lot of them lately, but I don't know if that's just cause of all the hospital time or if it's because of something going on out there. "

"That's something to think about. More mad scientists out in the world. Probably idiotic ones." Dean said with a laugh. "I got a few more hours left in me." He was still building up endurance. At least endurance at his own standards. He realized that the hospital and him differed on that point, because he thought nothing of staying up
for days at a time, battling who really knew what, while the hospital was insistent on eight hours of sleep a day , even if they had to drug him to get it.

"Okay. Let me know if you need me to take over." He said. "We can probably make it to Savannah before needing to call it a night." He suggested. That would give Dean another couple hours of driving without pushing too hard. Sam had the feeling his brother was forgetting that he wasn't going to be up to his old standards right away. It took a while to
really recover from that much damage done.

"Ah, the land of Georgia peaches..." Dean said, thinking of other times spent in Georgia . "You don't think they need us in Connecticut right away, do you?" He said with a teasing grin as he gunned the engine just to hear the roar and turned up the music.

A few hours later he was pulling into a Savannah motel, jaw set. He was so fucking stiff it was unbelievable. And tired. Shit, this sucked. Not like he'd admit it to his brother.

Dean didn't have to admit anything to his brother. Sam was easily able to figure it out on it own. He was a little stiff so he could well imagine how his brother was feeling. "Wow… I think I have gotten soft." He said as he got out of the car,
stretching. "I'll get the room." He had used real money for the last 8 months, not wanting to get nailed on the fraud because they had stayed in the same place too long. It was an adjustment to go back to fake names, and ID's. But it was easily done he supposed. He just had to go do it. Which he did.

He came back a couple minutes later with a key and a couple of papers. "Next best thing to room service. A diner that delivers from across the street." He said with a smile, getting back in the car. "Room 139, over behind the pool."

Dean gave his brother a look and hoped that it was a coincidence that it was by the pool. Hydrotherapy had been a big part of his rehab. And he thought that Sam was taking this whole 'Take Care of Dean' thing way too seriously. It was annoying. He was the caretaker, after all. And now he didn't need taking care of, right? But he drove over to 139 and parked the car, grabbing his bag.

"Delivery is good." He said with a chuckle. "The car needs a rest."

Sam smiled. "Yeah the car isn't the only one. I can't even feel my ass right now." He admitted. "Didn't drive a whole lot while you were down. Just to work and the hospital and home really." He said as he grabbed both of their bags from the trunk and headed for the room. He didn't think about it really. Dean was still recovering whether he wanted to admit it or not, and Sam was going to make sure there were no set backs. Although part of him wondered if he shouldn't have
insisted on another couple months in New Orleans , just to be sure.

"That's her problem. You kept her all reined in. Believe me, drives a person, and a car, nuts." Dean said as they got into the room. He stretched and grabbed the ice bucket. "I'm going to go get some ice, order us some dinner, would ya?" He needed to grimace and clench his jaw without his brother hovering.

"Road trips aren't as much fun on my own." He said. "Yeah, I'll order. Anything you've been jonesing for?" He asked, knowing that hospital food was evil, and definitely not on Dean's list of must haves. There was only so often he could sneak in the junk food. "Already working on the beer."

"Pizza. A big greasy pizza." Dean said with a chuckle. "And finally beer. Could only hear 'Now, Dean, just hit your morphine button again and shut up' so many times." Then there was the period in his rehab, when he was up and walking, that Sam had to drag him out of a bar. Who's bright idea was it to put a bar across from a hospital anyway? "Gonna get the ice." He said and headed toward the ice machine around the corner, leaning against it with eyes closed, taking several deep breaths. "Sure, return to normal activity. Doc, you don't know what my normal activity is."

Sam didn't know how bad off Dean was, or he would have started looking at help wanteds in the paper. Instead he called the local pizza parlor and ordered Dean's favorite pizza, some hot wings and salad for himself. He had been trying to eat better, even if that meant just adding salad to his junk food regimen. He stretched out across the bed and stretched. It had been far too long since he had spent that many hours in the car.

Dean punched the ice machine as it filled the bucket. Because if his hand hurt, he could ignore everything else. Then returned to the room with the ice. "Hey." He said as he sat on his own bed and took off his boots. "So what kind of mysterious deaths are we talking about at this place?" Focus. He needed focus, because staring at the ceiling for eight months and watching 'Ghosthunters' on SciFi (and laughing his ass off) threatened to drive him nuts.

"Suffocation, strangulation, usually attributed to accidents but there have been 10 in the last year alone. Never all the same way, but usually young women in their early 20's." Sam said, more than willing to focus on the job as well. The last 8 months had been endless for him as well. Day in day out, nothing but the same thing over and over, punctuated by a great deal of worry for is brother, survivor's guilt, and his own physical pain, which he had brushed off as noting compared to his brother's. He suspected neither of them were going to be enjoying weather changes ever again.

"Why do they always target young women?" Dean mused. "So we check in and check it out...got anything on the history of the place, or too busy surfing for porn while I was at the ice machine?" He teased his brother. Because he would never live that one down. Ever.

"No, too busy ordering way too much food. And strangely, there has been virtually no porn on my computer for 8 months." Sam pointed out. Of course the fact that he had been dating during that time was as much to blame as Dean's missing presence. "Pretty sketchy. Was a popular site for society's' who's who in the '20s … pretty much started after that… a death here and there for a while until it started ramping up over the last decade."

"Great." Dean said as he got the door and paid the delivery man. "Okay, Sam, the food sucked, but they didn't starve me." Dean said with a laugh as he got the food to the table and grabbed a beer and a slice of pizza. Perfect, with the grease nearly making the cheese slide off. "Okay, so we've got an escalation. Gotta love that. Sounds fun. Shoulda broken me out sooner."

"Cold pizza for breakfast…" Sam said about the food, and merely gave his brother a look about breaking him out sooner. He grabbed his salad, a couple pieces of pizza and a hand full of wings before going to stretch his long legs out on the bed. "It's probably just a run of the mill vengeful spirit." He said. "Fortunately neither of us are girls so we should be safe enough this time around."

"I'm not a girl. You, I'll have to keep an eye on." Dean said. "How many times did I have to lay quietly as your girlfriend changed my dressings, going on and on about how 'sensitive' my brother was, and that 'oh we went to a nice romantic comedy last night, and I think he shed a tear...' Awww..." Dean teased. "That was more torturous than anything the
orthopods could even THINK of doing to me."

"Yeah? Well I got a little weirded out when one of them said 'aw, how cute your brother has a mark just like that!'" Sam said with a shudder. "That was the last time I went out with that particular nurse." He said with a grin. It was a little freakish dating someone who had seen his brother naked on a regular basis. Didn't matter that it was her job.

"Hey can't hold it against me. Anytime they got me naked it was after I was really sedated under something." Dean said. It was the only way he'd stop fighting anyone long enough to get anything done. "But I'm glad you had a good time. The student nurses were something else though." Some were quite cute in a young way, all legal of course, but still. Didn't stop him from flirting though.

Sam laughed as he finished up his food. "Yeah well, one of us had to. You were too busy traumatizing them at first." He teased. "Had to get you out of town before some of them lynched you." The ones that didn't want to strangle him, wanted the chance to try and tame him. Neither of which Sam thought was a particularly safe endeavor … for Dean.

"They thought I was cute." Dean said, going for more pizza. "Salad? You ordered salad? What are you reverting back to a granola eating California tree hugging long haired...person?"

Sam laughed at that. "How does salad equate to being a granola eating what ever you said?" He asked, giving him an incredulous yet amused look. "Dude, I wasn't getting as much of a work out with you plastered to a bed. Had to do something I was gaining weight like crazy." His job had kept him busy but it wasn't the same.

"I wasn't getting any work out for five months and I lost weight." Dean said with a chuckle. At which point he started downing the protein shakes, sometimes five an hour, because he was NOT going to be a scrawny son of a bitch. It was with great relief when he started physical therapy. "You must have a slow metabolism. Or something. Guess I should keep you running then, keep the weight off."

"You were eating hospital food. It's almost impossible to gain weight eating hospital food. I was still grabbing what was easy cause… I so don't cook." He admitted with a laugh. "So they have you on any meds?" He asked.

"Nah, just pain killers and muscle relaxants when I need them. Basically I've been prescribed what we were carrying around anyway." He said with a laugh. "Just means it's easier to get a hold of refills. Why, did they put you on any medication? Valium? Lithium?"

"Not really anything like that, just something to help me sleep." He admitted. Although it was supposed to help with the nightmares. He had quite a few screaming night terrors when he had been a patient in the hospital. They prescribed the sleeping pill in hopes of getting him enough rest to recover mentally as well as physically. Sam stopped taking them after a couple weeks. He had sleep through his alarm clock sitting right next to his head. He figured it was better to deal with the night mares and lack of sleep than to be that vulnerable.

"Which you stopped taking." Dean said, knowingly. Throughout Sam's recovery, until he'd been discharged, they'd shared a hospital room. The night terrors were enough to ro use Dean out of a morphine induced half coma. But he wasn't agreeable to his brother being out of his sight until Sam was recovered for the most part. And in order to enable his own recovery, the hospital had given into Dean on that point. They were survivors of something horrible, after all. No one knew quite what, and they claimed to not remember, but it was during those horrible riots in the inner city that they were found, in the perilous condition that they were in too. It got them some sympathy play for when they wanted things their way. Like Sam staying with Dean. And Dean getting specialists that normally they wouldn't be able to even illegitimately afford.

"Dude, living on my own and sleeping through an alarm clock right at my head? No way. That's begging to be lunch." He said. He still had the night terrors. Sometimes he wasn't sure if they were dreams or visions they were so horrifying, he hoped they were just the psychological after effects of being possessed. God knew that if hunters came with shrinks in the know they would rack up some serious hours. He was functional, but Sam wasn't alright.

Dean looked at his brother, and seriously looked at him. He'd bear some watching. He hadn't come through this all as clean as everyone thought. Dean had always been better at sucking things in and keeping them hidden, even from himself in some regards. Sam had never really learned that trick (and maybe that wasn't such a bad thing, it had made Dean the perfect target for Tamiel after all). And made a note that no matter how much he was hurting, he wasn't taking anything. Because he needed to be awake to watch over his brother. End of story, end of discussion.

"Or at least a nice afternoon snack." Dean said. "Seriously, dude. Salad?" He shook his head. "I'll get you back on burgers and slim jims soon enough."

"We'll have plenty to do to run it off here in a while anyway. Besides…I'm eating pizza… and wings… It's not salad alone after all." He caught the look his brother was giving him. "Dean, I'm okay…it's just bad dreams. I'd have to be messed up not to have had any. You were mostly comatose through yours, I think. "

"Yeah, lucky me." Dean said with a laugh. He'd had them. They were just flashbacks. Confusing flashbacks of just about everything he'd been through and everyone he'd ever met gelling into one big scary mess. Bad thing about comas, couldn't wake up from them. Just had to get through them until the next one cycled through. "But fine, I
won't worry about you if you stop worrying about me." He said and waited to see what Sam would say about that one.

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Dean… you haven't stopped worrying about me since the night Mom died. How is it you plan to hold up your end of the bargain on that? I don't think you can. Not even if you really wanted to." He said with a smile, and making no promise of his own.

"Doesn't matter if I do or not." Dean said with a smirk. "I'm the oldest, therefore I'm in charge. Therefore you have to listen to me. So, you have to do what I say, which is quit treating me like -I'm- the little brother. Dude, I'm fine. Don't make me hit you or something." He finished his pizza and stretched out on the bed. It wasn't a hospital bed, which made it paradise. Even with the thin blankets, hard mattress and flat pillows. It was still paradise.

"No way. Dad told me to take care of you. He didn't say until you told me to stop it." Sam said with a grin. "Get used to it." Truth be told, Sam had been watching over Dean since Nebraska . He had gotten completely scared by nearly losing him that time and it had never left him. Each time Dean was hurt it just made it worse. Now he had parental permission …and that was something that Dean couldn't argue with … much.

"Huh." Dean said. "Well, problem. Dad's dead, which makes me the oldest Winchester , and therefore the head of the family, which means my wants, needs and requests should supercede those of a dead guy, right?" They had a year to deal with their father's death. It was easier to talk about the fact that he was dead, even if they still skirted around the reason why he was dead this time. Or the last time for that matter.

"Dude… it was the last thing he said to me. Nothing trumps a father's last request." He pointed out as he found the remote control and stretched out on his own bed. "So it looks like we are stuck taking care of each other." He said, knowing that had been part of his father's death speech the first time he had died. Watch out for Sammy… it was something that had been beaten into Dean's head since their mother died. Watch out for Sammy. Well Dean
could watch out for him all he wanted to, because now Sam was going to take care of his brother.

"Just don't...hover." Dean said distastefully. That had been the worst part of the hospital incarceration. The hovering. The constant asking on how he was feeling, how the pain was, if he needed something. He was a legend in his own time at that hospital, the only patient they knew of in skeletal traction that, once he could move one of his arms, constantly turned down his morphine drip. He hated the drugged feeling. The wooziness. "I don't hover. Neither did Dad." Now, after his death (again) they realized their father had done the best he could under the circumstances, crippled by grief with two young boys to raise. Seeing their father step into the light, made whole with their mother, changed a lot of their perspective. And in the end, if the results were looked at, John Winchester hadn't done too bad.

"I'm not hovering." Sam said, giving Dean a look. "If I had been hovering we would have stayed in New Orleans for the school year and maybe you would have driven to the corner store." He pointed out. It had crossed his mind. Especially with his being accepted to Tulane, with a good job. Little things. Little things that had once seemed big things to him. Strange how a lot of perspectives had changed over the last year.

Dean scowled at his brother as he turned off the light and popped a few pain pills. "Might as well
transferred me from the hospital to the asylum then." He said. "Me and a real job? Not likely.
Night, Sam. I'm drugged, so wake me up when it's time to go."

"Will do." Sam said as he turned the volume down on the TV. He would let Dean sleep until he woke up on his own. There was no rush to get to the hotel. People weren't dying at the moment, the ghost wasn't going anywhere. Dean needed to take it slow. Truth be told, so did Sam . Eventually his eyes began to drift closed whether he wanted them to or not and he was pulled into sleep kicking and screaming all the way.

Literally in his mind, even if not body. He was being drug down a long white hallway, Institutional lights. Pulled through a set of metal doors and thrown down up on a table, Strapped in place, no matter how hard he fought, how loud he screamed for help. Wires were attached to his body, to monitor his responses, an IV shoved into his arm and fluids started. They moved around him and attached things injected things, never once speaking to him, never once acknowledging that he was aware.

And then the pain began…

Dean smacked Sam. He wasn't waking up any other way. Dean probably couldn't be heard over Sam's own screams. Pinching didn't work. Shaking didn't work. If this didn't work, punching was next.

All he knew was he was asleep in a nice drugged fog (which sometimes was good, especially when you were stiffer than a corpse in rigor mortis) and then Sam was yanking him out of his fog with terror screams. As if he was screaming for his life.

"Sam!" Dean tried again. "Wake up dammit!"

Sam woke still in the throes of the dream and fell off the other side of the bed, trying to get away from the pain, from the terror, he scrambled back into the corner. Parts of the dream still superimposed over the hotel room. His breathing was shallow and rapid as the dream slowly faded. "Dean?" He asked, still not sure if he were awake or asleep, which was dream and which was reality.

Dean wasn't as limber as he used to be right now. Better than he was last week, but not quite up to snuff. So he threw the melted ice water on Sam. "Yeah. Dean." He said. "Want a beer? You can tell me what the hell you were screaming about." Might as well pack too, he thought. Because the other patrons of the hotel had to be convinced someone was dying in here after screams like that.

Sam nodded. "Yeah." He said as he stripped off the now wet and cold tee shirt, pushing himself back up on the bed. "It's the same dream…. Except this time it was me." He explained what had happened in the dream. "Would have thought the night terrors would have subsided by now." He didn't know if it meant anything or not. He was sure it was just a dream. It didn't have the same feel as his visions did. Didn't have the same pull. But then again, they weren't being directed by Azazel any longer. Who knew how that would change things?

"Dammit, Sammy, you never said they were this bad." Dean said, tossing him a beer. "I'm not made of glass, you son of a bitch. You should have told me. Thought we were in this together?"

"They're night terrors. Not gonna be run of the mill nightmares, and … there's nothing anyone can do about it other than drug me senseless. I didn't see any reason to worry you even more about it when it's just… night terrors."

"Dammit, Sammy, you should have told me." Dean said, shaking his head. "Come on, let's get our asses to Connecticut . Don't give me that look, screaming like that, people are probably calling the police thinking I'm killing you. Though I should punch you in your freaking head, jack ass."

Sam got dressed and started to pack. "I told you I was having mad scientist dreams, didn't see where the details were so important. What's got you all worked up over this, Dean?"

Dean tossed him the keys. He might be awake, but he was still drugged. And he loved his car too much. "Look, dude, we're all that's left. It's just me and you. And if there's something in your head I need to know about it. Because what if they aren't night terrors? What if it's some vision? And even if this one isn't the next one might be. And I need to know." He'd lost his mother. He'd lost his father, twice. He'd be damned if he'd lose his brother and would use all the tools available to him to make sure he didn't.

"Okay." Sam said. "Okay, we'll talk about the dreams when they happen." He promised. He didn't know if they were visions or not to be honest. They were so vivid it wasn't even funny. Sam got behind the wheel and started the car. "See… there's that sound again."

Dean chuckled a bit as he eased into the passenger seat, shoving the seat back further than even Sam had it and put his feet gingerly on the dashboard. "That's because you're slamming the gas pedal. Gotta be gentle with her, can't be so rough."

Sam gave his brother a look but adjusted his driving style a little. "Okay so if you need to go back to sleep go ahead. I can get us there in one piece." He told him. He hoped they were through talking about the night mares. He had a hard enough time putting it out of his mind as it was, and that was where it needed to be… out of his mind.

Dean gave his brother a look. "Do you ever get sick of saying that?" He asked. "Dean you need your rest. Dean, why don't you just lay down? Dean, how about some sleep? Nurse, can I get a sedative?" He chuckled. "I'm good, really. Doc says I'm probably now in the best shape of my life. Of which he'll take all the credit for of course."

"Dean, you were too sleepy to drive and gave me the keys without asking." Sam pointed out. "It's three in the morning. Dude, sometimes it's just logic talking, not nagging. " Sam shook his head. "Over sensitive much?"

"No, you're the sensitive one. Not me." Dean said with a chuckle. "Just afraid if I go to sleep, you and my car will get in a bitch fight or something. After all, she's taking exception to you trying to treat her like any other normal off the assembly line car. She is a work of art and a mechanical marvel and wishes to be treated like such." That and he was
afraid if he went to sleep, he'd miss something. And Sam was already proving himself to be less than forthcoming. Out of the misguided idea of taking care of Dean.

"Dude, you're scaring me." Sam teased. "You do realize that this… is just a car, right? An old car that has been rebuilt more often than an aging actress." Sam didn't see it as not being forth coming. He saw it as having a little privacy. Something he was going to have to get used to doing without again.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." Dean said. "This car is just like us, you know. She's the ultimate survivor. Completely wrecked a whole bunch of times and she still purrs like an overgrown kitten. Admit it, half the shit we've done, if we were in some Japanese plastic matchbox, we'd be dead. Like, years ago. You owe this car your life, Sam, might as well start showing some appreciation." And he was only half joking.

"Not saying I don't appreciate the car… Just sayin'… you need a real girl." Sam teased in return. He had definitely been grateful for the car when the semi had struck, grateful for the maneuverability. He just found it funny that outside of family, Dean's longest running relationship was with his car.

"Dude, tried that." Dean said. "I'm not built for that. Not with this lifestyle. And I kinda like this lifestyle. Go new places, meet new faces...kick demon and spirit ass along the way. Now if it would only pay, then it would be perfect. But ya can't have everything, right, Sammy?" He smiled a bit as the Impala cut across the darkness. doing very well, even if it was Sam at the wheel.

Sam drove on through the night. Grateful to have an excuse not to sleep. He wished that the drugs that produced a dreamless sleep didn't tend to make you mad as a hatter along the way. Visions he could cope with, these nightmares were something else. Ellen thought it was a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He couldn't completely disagree. It was possible given what his life had been like since Jess died. Hunting demons and ghosts didn't scare him. Not deep down inside. It was when the demons made things personal that it scared him.

He let Dean sleep while he refueled the car and got a cup of coffee and a packet of vitamins supposed to boost your energy. It was usually just a boost of caffeine in the system but he didn't care. He just wanted to make sure he stayed awake.

Dean groaned when Sam started driving into the sun and blindly fumbled through the glove compartment until he found his sunglasses, shoving the sunglasses on before fully opening his eyes. "Dude...when'd the sun come up?" He asked, slouching back down in the passenger seat. Guess he was more tired and more medicated than he thought.
"Come on, next stop, let's get some coffee and it's my turn to drive." Sam needed rest, even if it was just dozing.

"Sure." He said, he was tired, and whether he slept or not, he was too tired to drive. "How'd ya sleep?" He felt bad about making Dean sleep in the car because of his stupid dreams. But there wasn't much that he could do about it. He took the next exit looking for a Texaco. He glanced over at his brother to see how he was not really expecting an honest answer.

"Dude, I slept in a car. How do you think I slept?" Dean said, then grinned. "I slept great! Nothing like a real Detroit engine to lull you to sleep. I'm telling you, in my past life, I was probably a Model T or something. Your music sucks, that's the only bad part of my sleep." Because Sam had decided not to listen to his tapes and scanned the radio
instead. It was Dean's own fault, he had made that rule. 'Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cake hole.' Didn't mean he couldn't complain though, Sam did anyway after all.

Sam laughed at that. "Dean… cars aren't people." He said, pulling into the gas station. "You can't have been a car in a past life. It doesn't work that way. That's like saying Dad was a gatling gun in a past life." He turned off the car. "I'll go get the coffee and chow, you feed your girlfriend."

"Dad was a full on Sherman tank in a past life." Dean said with a chuckle as he went through the glove compartment again for a credit card. "Get some oil too, windshield wiper fluid." He got out of the car and went to the pump. "Just ignore him. He STILL doesn't understand us, poor kid."

"No wonder I never fit in." Sam said as he went toward the door. "I was never a motor vehicle in a past life." He shook his head. He supposed in the land of delusion, Dean's fixation with the car was minimal. Nothing to really worry about. It was just weird. He grabbed two coffees and a few danishes. And then went back to get the oil and the windshield wiper fluid. He rejoined his brother at the car, content to move over to the passenger side. "We're about half an hour out." He said, downing the same sort of vitamin he had taken earlier in the night. Determined to stay awake.

Dean turned the ignition over and listened to the engine for a few moments, then pulled out of the gas station, drinking the coffee. The car, of course, was not making any sort of 'weird' or 'strange' noise and Dean turned it onto the back roads. "Half hour, good. You can grab a cat nap, because you look like hell. I know I got the looks in the family, but dude, you're on the verge of strung out scary." If Sam managed to fall asleep, he'd drive around for a bit.

"Nah, man, I'm good. I'll nap out when we get to the hotel." He said. "And I'm not strung out. Just… don't feel like sleeping." He took a drink of the coffee, and eased back into the seat. His stomach was upset. It was normal when someone needed sleep and couldn't get it. His muscles ached, and his head, well there was no describing the pain in his head. But he wasn't about to sleep. The dreams were too real. It was like going through it every night over and over again.

"Yeah, okay." Dean said with a snort. "Get some sleep, because in the car, on the back roads, doesn't matter if you have a nightmare or whatever." He pointed out. "I'll just turn the music up to drown the sound. I'm serious, dude, get some sleep. Can't go into a job like this and you know it."

Sam looked at his brother and for a split second all the fear of going back into that dream was evident on his face. "Yeah okay." He said with a sigh, and adjusted so that he was facing out the passenger window. Figuring he could fake it for a while, give Dean a little peace of mind at least. He didn't need this just out of the hospital.

Dean nodded and deliberately took the long way to the hotel. Even if he wasn't really sleeping, it was resting. And that would have to be enough. But sooner or later, exhaustion caught up with Sam and he really did fall asleep. For once a real sleep, his body was so tired.

So it was four hours later when Dean was shaking his shoulder, parked in the hotel's parking lot. "Come on, Sam."

Sam woke with a start, and looked around himself a little confused. "When did it get to be noon?" He asked as he stretched "Did you get lost?" He knew that wasn't it. Dean had a weird instinct for back roads and shit. He rubbed his eyes and groaned a little. Still feeling a little shaky but it would pass quickly enough. "You suckered me into a nap, didn't you?"

"Hell yeah." Dean said as he reached into the back and grabbed the bags. His recovery had been a slow one, but it had been steady. With each passing day he felt a bit more limber, a bit more stronger. Only a matter of time, really. And the way rehab had him working, he'd probably be in better shape than before. "You needed it. Come on." He
looked at the hotel, through the glass doors he could see the lobby. "Yup, this place is haunted. Or just possessed by Emily Post or something."

"Oh wow." Sam said shaking his head. "We just can't escape the Martha Stewart wanna bes. You think she's a demon too?" Sam asked in hushed tones before pushing through the door and heading over to the main desk. "Hi, we have reservations under the name Hawkins." He said and produced the appropriate credit card. A few minutes later they had room keys to adjoining rooms. Mostly cause Sam couldn't handle the sweet, knowing smile as the woman pulled up the reservations.

"My son travels with his … brother… too."

Dean grimaced at took the keys, handing Sam's to him. "We ARE brothers, lady." He said, barely managing not to growl.

"Oh." The woman said and looked closer. There was a family resemblance. "Oh! I'm so sorry." She quickly apologized.

"Yeah." Dean said as he headed toward the stairs. He'd take the stairs, because it was better for him, and he didn't trust the elevators yet.

Sam made some apologetic gestures before quickly following after Dean.

Sam laughed a little as he got to the appropriate floor a little behind his brother. "I think you made her feel bad." He said with an almost giggling laugh. He was still a little punch drunk. But he was awake. And he planned to stay that way. "So… unpack … go into town to do research?" He asked.

Research he could get into. Something to focus his mind on. Something to shake off the feeling of impending doom. He started to say something else, as his brother unlocked the door when his cell phone rang. "Yeah. Oh, hey Ellen." He said. "Yeah, we're in Connecticut , didn't Jo tell you?" He frowned. "Wow… ahm… yeah definitely we'll let you know if we see her. No, I promise we'll let you know this time. Really."

Dean stopped unpacking and frowned. "Tell Ellen we'll send that blonde twit back hog tied Fed Ex if we have to." She better not be headed this way. Even if this was an easy job, Dean wasn't in the mood for amateurs. And Jo definitely was. He didn't remember being that much of an amateur at ten, never mind at Jo's age.

"Ahm… no.. no I'm sure he didn't mean twit… you know Dean, he has Dad's temperament when he's hurting." Sam said and gave Dean a look that said he wasn't helping. "Yeah… thanks. I think I'm gonna need it. What? No… no dreams. Really...wow…okay. Tell him to let me know what he finds out. Okay… talk to you later."

Dean made a face. He did mean twit. And he would carry through on the hog tying and bulk mailing if he had to. But he resumed unpacking. "So what's on Ash's radar?" He asked instead, moving the conversation off Jo and Ellen.

Sam frowned, not really wanting to get into it with his brother. He didn't want to deal with the situation at all but if he didn't, Dean would find out anyway and then there would really be hell to pay. "I asked him to keep an ear to the ground for anything about… you know… others like me." He said as he opened the door to the adjoining room and tossed his bags inside. "I wanted to check things out, ya know. Well he found a few. One is dead, murdered in a parking lot, another is in a mental hospital in Maryland and the last one… disappeared. "

"Disappeared, huh?" Dean said. "I wouldn't read too much into it. For all intents and purposes, you disappear from places after a few days or so, right?" He said, to assure his brother, even as he was reading into it himself. He'd have a talk with Ash. Sam didn't need this sort of thing, all info would go to Dean first from now on.

Sam laughed a little. "True enough and if they have people putting psychics into mental hospitals, it's no wonder we're disappearing." He said, wanting to believe that, and definitely wanting to not connect it to the dream he had been having. "So… research? Or do you wanna take it easy around here while I head over to the library?"

"You head over to the library and I'll go talk to the people. See what tales I can dig up that might help us narrow it down a bit." He was a big believer in folklore. Most of the things they hunted other people thought of as nothing more than urban legends and superstitions.

Sam nodded. "Sounds good. Meet you back here at dinner time." He promised and headed out the door. He decided to leave Dean the car, since the hotel was a bit out of town. Dean put on a good show of being up to par but he wasn't yet. It was only a mile or so back into town anyway. Would give him a chance to clear his head, and hopefully focus it on
the task at hand, not the missing psychics.

Dean made sure his cell was charged, he'd find excuses to call his brother every hour or so. Because something was off with Sam. And it wouldn't be like it was the first time he'd take off to spare Dean trouble or whatever the reason was.

"Got it." He said and put on his jacket. Connecticut was cool this time of year. Or maybe he just felt it a little more lately. "Dinner time, see if we can find a Hooter's."

"Fine, we'll find a Hooter's." Sam said rolling his eyes. "If there is one in town. Might have to go a few miles down the road but if you will shut up about Hooter's we'll go." He said with a laugh. "Later man." He told his brother and started out the door.

"I'll shut up for three days about it." Dean said with a chuckle as he headed to the car and drove into town, passing himself off as nearly what he was. So it wasn't a lie. A postgrad student on a road trip across America to write a paper on folklore and mysteries. Well, the road trip across America was right, and he did keep a journal similar to his father's, so it kind of counted as writing a paper, right?

But he picked up interesting tidbits. So he called his brother, to try and tell the difference between fact and folklore, since he was in the library and all.

"Yeah man, what's up?" Sam asked, rubbing his temples. He had one mother of a headache still, at this rate he would be taking the heavy duty pain pills himself and willingly crashing for a night. He was looking over the microfiche of old news papers dating back to when the hotel was first built.

"Revolutionary war, it was an infirmary. Civil War, it was an arms garrison that had some accidents." Dean said. "Part of the underground railroad, at least two known serial murderers are believed to have stayed at least one night there...three suicides, and a mob hit on a wedding day. Anything like that come up in your research?" His brother sounded tired. He'd have to drug him tonight. He'd get him drunk, but Sam tended to talk too much when drunk.

"Let's see, Revolutionary war, yes, Civil war, haven't found anything yet. But it's possible, nothing on the railroad.. no way of knowing about the serial killers, suicides yes, mob hit, yes. I am betting the suicides or the mob hit are our best bet. Gonna see what else I can find out about… hold on." He said and frowned. "Hey wait up." He called out to a young woman who darted behind some of the stacks, it looked for all the world like Jo! He chased her for a while but lost her. "Dean… I think Jo is here."

"Fuck." Dean said as he went back to his car. "I'm heading over there now." He said, pausing as the car started up. "Be there in like two seconds. Don't worry, I've got rope. Still gonna argue with me that she's a twit?"

"I wasn't arguing I was saving you from Ellen." He said with a laugh. "I'll meet you out front. If she has taken off, shouldn't be long till we see her again since I am sure she is here for the job."

"If we can track demons, we can track a bubble headed girl." Dean said as he drove, pulling up alongside the library a few minutes later, taking a length of rope out of the car. He was not kidding about tying her up. Possibly kidding about shipping her back to her mother in a box. He saw Sam and waved. "All right. Where was she last? I so don't need
this."

"Yeah, as if my headache could get any bigger." He said shaking his head and led the way inside the library. "I was over there talking to you and saw her over there watching me. Took off after her but she was gone before I got to her. " He said as he led the way, then frowned. "Side exit. Nice. "

"Son of a bitch." Dean said. "Okay, so we wait for her to turn up. She will. So what else did you find? Old man down at the bar, really informative. Seems to know where all the skeletons are buried in this town. He told me about the mob hit, sounds like something out of a Tarentino film, really."

Sam led the way back to the microfiche, and flipped through the pages rapidly even though it hurt his head to do so, the flashing light made his eyes feel like they were trying to explode out his temples. But he still sat there and eventually slowed the process, until he came to the article he was looking for, in the garish bold print type of sensational journalism prevalent in the 1940s. Delosean Wedding Massacre. It said on the front page. The article went on to describe how the wedding had been interrupted just moments before the final I do's with a hail of gunfire. No one
attending had escaped injury and very few had escaped death.

Dean read the article. "Hey, the bride was kinda cute." He said. The good thing about newspapers then, they printed crime scene photos. Even if they were grainy and of poor quality. "Look at all that blood. Massacre is right. Says they had to completely redo, nearly tear down the walls because of the bullet holes."

"Really… makes me wonder if there isn't something in those walls that shouldn't be." Sam said. "Wouldn't be the first time some one took advantage of a tragedy and created more work for us."

"Think they'll let us tear down the walls?" Dean asked, leaning his chair back as he looked at his brother and silently handed him a handful of Excedrin. "So it was the ballroom, right? Think there's a wedding later today. We should crash. Pick up some bridesmaids or something."

Sam tossed back the Excedrin. "Definitely crash, definitely not on the bridesmaids. At… least not until we are done with the job." He said with a smile. "Yeah … we need be sure before we go tearing out the walls. Otherwise we could wind up explaining why you have the same finger prints as a dead guy… again."

"Okay, point taken." Dean said. He went to a computer and started to look through architectural guides and city zoning blueprints. "Gotta have something here." He said frowning at the results. "All right, here we go. Fifty years ago they took out a zoning permit to expand the south wall of the ballroom, increase capacity. Think we can exclude the south wall then, it was completely torn down. I'm still going for a bridesmaid."

"Okay… well… we can scope it out at the wedding, or I will while you scope out the bridesmaids, and then tonight we can come back in with equipment and check it all out. See if there is something in the walls that registers. If not…I don't know… that's a lot of bodies to salt and burn." He said.

"Yeah I know." Dean said. "this wedding could get messy too." he said as he printed out the blueprints. "Hopefully the food will be good. It's a hotel, they gotta expect people to just wander in, right? Or we could be long lost cousins or something. We'll figure it out."

"Go with the flow." Sam said. "Usually works well for us." He nodded. "Okay… so… chow then back to the hotel and see what we come up with." He suggested. The Excedrin was kicking in finally and he figured he could handle the rest of the day now.

"Food...first great suggestion you've had today." Dean said with a laugh, clapping his brother on the shoulder as he went to the printer to collect his print outs. "Hey, for once we're not eating a funeral on the job, that's gotta be an improvement, right?"

"Anytime we can avoid funeral food and hospital food in the same day…is a good day." Sam said as they made their way out of the library, neither brother noticed that they were being watched closely. Neither noticed the young blonde speaking quietly to a man in a crisp grey suit, or that she was pointing to Sam.

"Damn straight." Dean said as they headed back to the car. He thought he felt someone watching them, but when he looked, there was no one around. So he shrugged it off. "Hooter's, right? One in the next town over, five minute drive."

"Yeah I agreed to Hooter's." Sam said with a laugh. "You're a perv, ya know that." He teased. He didn't think so, he was just giving Dean a hard time since he had a fixation with the restaurant. Although he was pretty sure he had a fixation with the argument about whether or not to go to the restaurant.

"Yeah I know." Dean said as they drove to the other town. It was a full night, so they didn't get a close up spot. And Dean made sure he parked next to 'middle aged cars', cars with what he presumed to be middle aged drivers. Less chance he'd get a ding or anything in his car. "Come on, you're a guy. Gotta admit, it's great for digestion."

Sam laughed then. "Dude, beer is great for digestion, large breasted women…not the stomach you're thinking with there." It wasn't that Sam didn't appreciate the esthetics. He did. That was the problem, and he wasn't the sort of guy that could just go out and get laid. He needed it to be at least a little more than hi, how ya doin, have you seen my car, before he went there.

"Hey whatever works." Dean said with a grin. "Beer, large breasted women...either way my food goes down great." He said as Sam staggered. "Guess you're more tired than we thought...Sam?" Why did his brother have a tranq dart sticking out of his neck? "Shit! Sammy, come on." He said, putting his brother's arm around his shoulders and started running back to the Impala. Dammit, no Hooter's.

Sam tried to run as well but was losing his coordination almost as quickly as he was losing consciousness. "Dean, you can't do this." It was too soon for his brother to be hauling him around. "Not what he meant by normal activity." He slurred. Only years of training kept him moving at all. Years of their father driving it into their heads to run no matter the exhaustion, the pain, you kept moving. Dean was obviously a better student in that category, but Sam could manage. He was out completely by the time Dean got him back to the car, and settled inside.

"This is normal activity." Dean said, not bothering with seatbelts as he tore out of the parking lot. "Good thing they got you and not me, she wouldn't do this for you." Meaning the car. Of course, Sam wasn't talking, but Dean kept driving. No one knew back roads better than him as he made his way back to the hotel and snuck in, grabbing
their stuff and coming back to the car. "All right, here we go." He said, getting the hell out of Dodge. He took the dark out of his brother's neck. "Son of a bitch." He said, throwing it into the backseat. Government issue, of that he was sure.

Sam was trapped in sleep. A near coma type sleep, but it didn't stop the dreams, because they weren't dreams at all. The visions played out as they had before, but the terror didn't wake him, barely caused more than a whimpering moan to escape his lips, even though he was screaming internally. The endless stream of tests, the pain, the threats. Dean standing at his bedside, wounded, barely able to stand himself. "Just hang in there, Sammy, I'll get us out of this… just
hold on." And then the vision repeated itself.

Dean looked over worriedly at his brother as he drove. Finally he rifled through Sam's bag for the vitamins and energy pills. Getting drive thru coffee. Stopping quick for gas whenever he hit half a tank. Wouldn't do to try and see how long a tank of gas could get. The Impala got shit for gas mileage, the price of serious horsepower. And it was the horsepower he needed right now as he crossed into New York , headed down a back road parallel to I-88 toward Pennsylvania . No idea where he was going, just somewhere.

After a few hours he called Ellen.

"Ellen, it's Dean. Listen, we saw Jo. And something strange happened and you need to set my mind at ease right now or I swear I'm going to kill her."

"Okay, slow down and start from the beginning. Where did you see Jo and what happened?" She wasn't going to say anything to set anyone's mind at ease until hers was set to rest. At least she was alive and well. Although what the hell she was doing chasing after John's boys she had no clue.

"Connecticut. She gave Sam the slip, then Sam gets shot in the neck with a government issue tranq dart." Dean said. "Did I mention government issue? He's still sleeping right now, hours later. I don't believe in coincidences, Ellen. You need to convince me right now that Jo doesn't have anything to do with the government."

"Why would Jo want to see anything happen to Sam? Last I knew she liked you boys." Ellen said in confusion. "She has spent her entire life here at the road house, we don't make too many government connections here. And yeah, I am sure the government has a department to handle the supernatural, but they don't exactly have a 1-800 number posted around here. Are you sure it was Jo?"

If Sam said it was Jo, then it was Jo. "Yeah, I'm sure it was Jo. Wasn't too talkative though. This feels like a set up, Ellen. And the only one who knew we were in Connecticut was Jo. So either she's behind this or she ratted us out. Which one is it Ellen? I know, you said you can't control those people, but give me a break here. Who was it?"

She sighed. "I don't know." She said honestly, but she had a hard time believing that her daughter would be behind an attack on Sam. "I'll do some checking around here and see what I can come up with. I can't imagine she would turn on you. It just… I'm sorry Dean, I can't see it. Did something happen while you were on that job with her? Something that
would set her off?" She was confused by all of this. Dean could occasionally come across like his father, but Sam? Sam was still a sweet kid. Why would she turn on Sam?

"Besides the fact that's how she says she feels close to her dad, and Mom comes and drags her back, not to mention then tells her how Dad died. How much did you tell her, Ellen? How much does she hate Winchesters right now? Enough to sell us out to the highest bidder? Enough to jump on the chance to be a hunter, even for the government?" Dean said.

"Dean, I'm gonna forget you said that. I didn't raise her to be like that. I didn't tell her to hate you boys, now calm down. You get somewhere safe, and you keep your head down. Check in with me… no I don't want you to tell me where you are. Cause I don't know who around here can be trusted and who can't right now. Your daddy made a lot of enemies in the community. Could be any one of them as easily as it could be Jo. If she did do this, Dean… I swear to god I don't have anything to do with it. I just hope she isn't caught up in it from just trying to join in on what you boys are doing."

"Yeah, well, let us know next time you get a postcard or call from her." Dean said, shaking his head. "I'll call you later." He still thought Jo was caught up in a government conspiracy to get at Sam. Missing psychics...

Sam would think he was being paranoid and delusional. But Dean still thought he was right. Or he had watched too many X-Files reruns in the hospital. Too early to tell, but caution was the word of the day as he crossed into Pennsylvania , avoiding anything that could even tentatively be labeled a 'main road,' looking over at his brother. How was he going to get him and Sam out of this one?

Sam moaned softly, and winced. The world was suddenly dark, and…vibrating? The car, how did he get to the car? He sat upright and looked around with wide eyes. How much of it was dream and how much of it was reality. "Where are we?" He asked, figuring that was safer than was it real or how did you get us out of that place He rubbed at his neck, it was still tender, a bruise forming at the injection site.

"Well, good morning sunshine." Dean said as he turned the radio down. "Back roads of Pennsylvania . Figure we'll drive for a while, lose them, before we pull over." He'd already checked the car over for any tracking devices last time he stopped for gas. And found one. Which pissed him off, they messed with his car, they messed with his brother. They deserved to die. Painfully and slowly. So he attached the tracking device to a nice old couple driving to Maine to see some lighthouses.

"So they didn't… we weren't… " Sam took a deep breath. "Told you Hooter's was a bad idea." He teased, mostly to ease his own tension. This situation was going to drive him insane. Things were supposed to calm down for them once the demons were sent back to hell, not ramp up. Although he supposed they were lucky they weren't found while they were in the hospital.

"Yeah, yeah." Dean said about Hooter's, shifting in his seat. He'd been too long on the road in one position. Nearly time to stop for gas. "So, you sure those nightmares of yours aren't visions after all?" Someone had to say it. Especially in light of what had happened. He stretched back and reached for the dart. His back cracked, making him sigh, damn that felt good, as he dropped the dart into Sam's lap. "Remember when we were, what were we? Twelve and sixteen, and Dad found the military depot and we loaded up on weapons, outside Arlington?" Weapons they
would then modify. But Dad had been a Marine, he knew what to look for.

"No… I'm not sure." He said and looked out the window, swallowing hard. He would have to ditch his brother at some point. He couldn't let him be taken too, they were after Sam, not Dean. "Ahm… yeah I remember that trip." He said as he picked up the dart. "So this is the spike that was in my neck." He said looking it over. "Government issue. Great."

"Yeah that's what I said. Along with some rather blue words I'm not sure you're old enough to hear." Dean said with a quick grin. "So I don't know, coincidence that you saw Jo at the same time? Called Ellen, she couldn't give me a
definitive indignant answer to that you know."

"She's not in any of my visions but that doesn't mean anything. Do you really think she would get involved with the government?" He asked frowning a little. "Hunters usually avoid the government agencies like the plague." He looked at the dart once more. "Not surprised Ellen didn't have an answer. She and Jo sort of remind me of me and Dad sometimes, ya know. Love each other but just can't stop butting heads. Probably cause Ellen is … pretty ahm…
controlling. This could be some sort of all out rebellion."

"Why couldn't she just rebel and go to Stanford?" Dean grumbled. "I don't know, man, anything's possible. Could be trying to right things for her old man by going after us, in some warped way. We've seen more screwed up. Hell, we're more screwed up. Just gotta keep them off our tail until I figure this out."

"We…. till we figure this out." Sam said with a sigh. "They are after the psychics." He told his brother. "Trying to force us to use the abilities, as if they can … bully… " that sounded better than torture right? Dean was already climbing the walls over this shit, no need to make it worse. "Us into controlling something that normal desperation can't manage." He said and shook his head. He figured Dean was right about Jo but man, that was going to be hard on Ellen. At least when Sam had rebelled he hadn't betrayed anyone.

"So we lay low." Dean said. "Might head off into Canada ...man I hate Canada ." He said with a shake of his head. But there was no extradition treaty with Canada . And plenty of places to get lost and disappear into. "Anything else those dreams of yours tell you that might be of some use now?" He understood now why people smoked. He never smoked, but damn he could use a cigarette.

"Canada works." He said. He might not have to leave his brother then. Sam was obviously spooked. "Ahm… it's an older installation. It's not completely underground, some of the rooms had windows. The wire mesh filled kind." He leaned back in the seat. "I'm sorry man." He said. "Sorry I got you into this."

"You didn't get me into anything." Dean said. He wished Sam would stop saying shit like that. They were brothers, after everything else they'd been through, this should be a piece of cake, right? "But we're going to get out of this, all right. But you just had to top me. Couldn't stand me being on the FBI's most wanted list, so you had to go paint a target on your back for some secret government agency. Really, the jealousy is pathetic."

Sam had to laugh at that. "Yeah well, that's no excuse for starving me to death." He said shifting again in his seat. " Pennsylvania huh… ever thought about growing a beard and wearing funny clothes? Worked for Harrison Ford."

Dean laughed and pulled into a drive in, getting a couple of burgers, more coffee, and fries, tossing the bag back into Sam's lap. "There, can't have you starve to death or anything." He said. "And I'm not wearing a funny hat. I just...drove."

"You just don't want to be surrounded by girls who won't even think about putting out." He teased. "You need me to drive, looks like you've been at it a while." He said as he dove into the food. His last meal had been a while ago.

"I'm good until the next fill up." Dean said, which should be in about a half hour. Should give Sam time to eat at least. "And nothing wrong with having some reasonable expectations out there. It's completely unreasonable to go into an Amish community and expect to get laid. Though when I was in traction, I heard of this tradition they have, where they send the kids out at 18 into the big wide world to see if they're ready to be Amish. Bet some of those girls are ready
to give it up, I mean they're out there to experience all the sin the outside world has to offer. I got a few sins I could show them."

Sam laughed at his brother. "I stand by my earlier comment. You're a perv." He said shaking his head. "Never figured you as hunting for a virgin though." He was amazed that he managed to actually eat the food. Normally he had an appetite worthy of three teenagers. Right now it was taking work to eat. But he was doing it. Dean would worry even more otherwise. "Dean… maybe we should split up… make it harder for them to find us." Not like he could tell his brother to ditch the car or anything else of that nature.

And in that moment Dean decided to never sleep again. "Forget it. I don't want to hear that again." Dean said. "Because if we split up, they could get the other and we'd never know. We're sticking together and we'll get through this and around this, whatever. Come on, we took on two Fallen and won. How can the US Government really be worse?"

"They're worse." Sam said with absolute certainty in his voice. "You were there in this last one… the one had while I was passed out. Dean… the only reason the are after you is me… I don't want to be responsible for something happening to you."

"Sam, forget about it. I mean it." Dean said with an edge to his voice. "You know, maybe they want me on my own merits, to clone some soldiers out of me, so they'll be really good looking with kick ass music taste and good choices in cars. Your visions don't tell you everything. If I was there, I was there for a reason. And if you go off, and you get caught, I'll have to get myself captured to find you."

"Damn it Dean, you just got out of the hospital, are you really that anxious to go back in? If they are after us they know what we are capable of … they won't be easy to get away from. I don't even know if we can get away from them."

"Of course we can." Dean said. "But we don't have to worry about that because we're not getting caught, and we're not separating and I'm not ditching the car. Next suggestion, Brainiac?" Dean said, trying not to be short tempered and frustrated. But what Sam was suggesting was unacceptable, and he was tired. He'd been driving too long, but now he was afraid to close his eyes.

"Fine." He said and sighed. "So where do we want to stay tonight? Guess we have to be a lot more picky about where we go now. Have to change our patterns. If Jo is part of it then she has told them everything she knows."

"We're not staying anywhere." Dean said, as much as his body screamed for a bed right now. "We're going to keep driving until, I don't know, we don't anymore." He was still working on that part. He didn't know exactly what Jo did or didn't know. So until he did, there would be no stopping. And if they didn't stop, Sam couldn't bolt. So he could work on that part as well.

"Dean, no. You can't handle that right now. You're not at 100 yet and you hauled my ass to the car. You need some place comfortable to sleep. We'll sleep in shifts." Sam said. He wasn't going to let Dean hurt himself over this. Over him. Not after all he had already been through in the last year.

"I'm fine. Don't go telling me what I can and can't handle. I've been driving for the past ten hours perfectly fine." Dean snapped and rubbed his temple with one of his hands. "If we do that, that means you can't leave in the middle of the night, you know. Can't decide that to protect me or some other misguided bullshit that you should leave in the middle of the night without me knowing. You know that, right?"

Sam sighed. "I won't leave in the middle of the night." He said, hating that he had to promise but he wasn't going to risk his brother's health right then. "Now let's find a hotel… maybe there's another out of the way nice-ish one. They won't expect us there." He frowned at Dean's look. "Demons are in theory better at tracking than humans. I don't think it
would have mattered where we went." He had thought it too as soon as he had said it. "They won't expect us there." But it was sound logic when not dealing with supernatural blood hounds.

"Sounds good. We'll get a room with a jacuzzi." Ten hours sitting in one position...a jacuzzi with the jets aimed straight at his back sounded real good about now. "And a garage. If they can't see the car, they can't track it." He knew it would be smarter to ditch the car...but it would be inconvenient. All the weapons and gear were in the car. Not to mention, a 67 Impala could outrun and out maneuver most anything out there.

"Right." Sam said with a nod as he pulled out the lap top, and paused to check it out to make sure there was nothing on his computer. Running anti-virus and anti-spy ware programs that Ash had put together for him. He doubted anything was getting past those. Including government issue codes. This was the man that hacked the government for fun after all. Once that was taken care of, he started searching for hotels within 100 miles of where they were that fit the bill.

Dean drove until Sam found them a hotel, fairly upscale for them. But it would work. Had a garage and everything. Dean parked just out of sight of security cameras and definitely out of sight of the road and they headed into the lobby.

"Okay, so tell me what you found so far." Dean called from the bathroom. He definitely got a room with a jacuzzi. He thought after rehab he'd never want to see another one again (at least one without at least two hot girls in it) but man he was grateful for it as he eased his stiff beyond belief body into the hot water. As hot as he could stand it, and he turned the jets up on high. "I don't know, do you think we can trust Ash?"

Sam stood in the doorway and handed Dean a beer then opened his own. "I don't know." He said with a sigh. "Don't know who to trust anymore. I guess with Azazel out of the picture all the 'hide me' mojo is gone, Cause you know something had to be keeping all of the psychics off the radar some how. I don't think we ever completely trusted anyone but…he doesn't seem the type."

"Great." Dean said, holding the beer to his forehead for a moment. "So we did this really great thing for humanity and sent two fallen back to hell, and in doing so, managed to lift a veil off the psychics, getting us screwed in the process. Can't anything ever go right?" Then he looked at Sam. " Missouri . Call her."

Sam swore and dialed the number, it barely started its first ring when it was picked up. "I told you boys to come out here to Lawrence . Did you listen to me? No!" She said. "Since I am talking to you, I can assume you haven't been picked up by the men in black… or charcoal grey to be more precise."

"No, Ma'am but not for lack of trying on their part. You're okay out there though? No one coming for you or anything?" He asked.

"I'm not on their list, but you are, and all the other kids the demon had targeted."

"Ask her if there's been a blonde with the stooges." Dean said. Maybe Missouri could fill in the gaps that Sam's visions had. He stretched out in the tub and drank his beer, waiting for the stiffness to fade a bit to comfortably sleep. Sam got first watch. It was safe. With everything up in the air, he wouldn't break his promise.

Sam relayed the question and sank down to the floor as he got the affirmative answer. "Yeah… we know her." He said "She's Ellen's daughter. The woman that was helping us with the research on the demons. "

"That poor woman." Missouri said, somehow knowing Ellen didn't know, and it would hurt her deeply.

"Yeah well, poor Jo when Dean gets his hands on her. "

"Dean isn't going to hurt anyone, sweetie, especially not some misguided fool of a girl." She chuckled a little. "Doesn't mean he won't think about it a whole lot."

Dean watched Sam sink to the floor. "Son of a fucking bitch!" He swore. Oh he was going to yell at Ellen. Even if she knew nothing, dammit, he needed to yell at someone.

"Now you boys need to lay low." Missouri said. "They're headed up to Maine after you two, and that's as far as I can see." The government didn't expect to be outsmarted by Dean Winchester, who had barely passed high school, after all.

Mad as all hell, Dean grabbed a towel and got out of the tub, going over to his cell phone and calling Ellen. "It was her." Dean said with a deadly quiet tone in his voice. "And if I find her before you do, I just might kill her, Ellen."

"Right, so we stay away from Maine ." Sam said. "Not a problem. And believe me we plan to lay low." He looked over at Dean. "Hey, it's not Ellen's fault."

"God, Dean." Ellen said, the shock evident in her voice. "You're sure? I mean there is no chance that this is a mistake or a misunderstanding?" She asked hoping beyond all hope that Jo wasn't the traitor in their midst. Jo was all she had left.

"Misunderstanding? My brother got shot with a tranq in the neck. I really can't see the misunderstanding in that. Add in that psychics like Sam have been disappearing..." Dean shook his head. "We're low for now. Complete at ground." Let her think they were hiding out in a cave for all he cared right now. "But if I find her, Ellen, she's returning to you bruised. I don't care if she is a girl."

"Bruised I can handle." Ellen said. Hell she would probably add a few of her own once the girl got back. If she didn't shoot her herself. She thought she had raised her better than that. "Be careful." She said in a strangely hollow tone. She was losing her daughter completely now. Ash could be heard in the back ground. "What? No I'm fine. Yeah it was Dean but I lost the signal. No clue what's going on." She lied as she closed down the phone. If she couldn't trust her own flesh and blood, who could she trust?

Dean sighed and closed his own phone, sitting on the edge of his bed. "All right, all right." He said, putting the phone on the table. "We know who tipped them off. Doesn't help us much, but at least we know. And it's the psychics like you they want. So we're definitely dealing with a supernatural agency, not intelligence." Or they'd go after any psychic, they weren't too choosy. "So I'm going to go to sleep." He was still wired, but a few pills would take care of that. "You better be here in the morning."

"I'll be here, man, I promised, remember?" Sam said as he picked up a book. "The bad guys are headed to Maine , we aren't anywhere near there, it's all good." If there was another attempt however he would go. He wouldn't let his brother live his life on the run. It was insane. "So go ahead and take something for the pain, that I know is still there, and get some rest. Cause I can't promise to be awake long in the car so you'll need all the rest you can
get."

"All right." He said with a chuckle as he pulled on a pair of boxers and folded the towel over a chair. "I can agree to that. Don't let me sleep too long, I mean it, we're out of here by ten at the latest." He said as he found his pain pills and popped a few. Stretching one last time, popping everything back into alignment, he curled up on the bed, knife under one pillow, gun under the other.