I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE

Chapter Two: Winchesters Don't Give Up On Family

Jenny slowly managed to find the strength to push herself into a sitting position. She looked around the trashed bedroom of her brother, dejected and confused. Still coming to terms with what had just happened, with the sound of the door to the bunker being slammed still ringing in her ears, she sighed deeply. All she could do there was wipe the blood from her face with the back of her hand and will herself not to cry. What was she supposed to do now? Dean was gone, and he wasn't coming back..

Or was he?

Dean had found them once. He'd returned to the bunker—the place he had once called his home—and he had tried to kill both her and Sam once already, what was to stop him from changing his mind again? What was to stop him from coming back and finishing what he had started? Nothing.

Jenny had seen the mentality in the piercing blackness of his eyes. She had seen the malicious intent he'd had towards her, and she had seen what he had done to Sam. Even if it looked like him, it wasn't fully Dean in there, and that meant one thing, more than anything else, was different about him—she could no longer predict what he was going to do.

With Dean, the Dean she knew, there wasn't a lot he could do that would surprise her. She knew his moves when he was angry, when he was sad, when he was downcast and disheartened. But not this Dean. Not the guy who had just tried to slice her neck with a knife. He was someone she didn't know.

It was at that thought she remembered the state Sam had been in, lying on the floor of the bunker unconscious and covered in his own blood. Hopefully he had regained some form of consciousness by now, because she really didn't want to be alone to deal with the aftermath. Not when she was sporting a black eye, a busted lip and a bloody nose that had come from the fists of her own brother.

Jenny managed to stumble to her feet, holding onto the desk beside her for some support, and grimaced at the pain in her body. But that wasn't her main priority, that belonged to her younger brother. Staggering slightly into the hallway she let out a deep breath and wrapped an arm around her torso, holding in place her ribs that she was now so sure were at least cracked.

The adrenaline had drained from her completely, it had left with Dean. And now, at the sight of her brother on the floor in front of her, she felt as though she could burst into tears of helplessness. What hurt more than anything was the fact that Dean was responsible for the pain Sam was surely going to feel when he opened his eyes, and not just the physical side of it. All he had ever done was protect Sam, keep him safe from everything and anything in the world, he had even gone so far as to sell his soul for the brother he loved so much, and now he wanted him dead. It hurt her to see their family the way it was now.

"Sam?" she pressed softly as she lowered herself to her knees beside him. "Sammy, wake up." she rested a hand to his shoulder and very gently, so not to pressure anything that could be broken, she shook him. "Come on, bro. Wake up."

Gradually, a small frown worked its way to Sam's bloody features. It looked a mixture between pain and confusion, even before he had opened his eyes. "Jenny?" he murmured, squeezing his eyes closed for a moment before they opened fully, as if he had suddenly been slapped with the bitter reality of what had happened there. "What happened?" he urged, pushing himself to sit up, ignoring all pain. "Where's Dean?"

Jenny placed a hand to his shoulder and sighed, green eyes found hazel, and Sam could almost see the sorrow in them. "He's gone," she told him quietly. "He left."

For the first time Sam seemed to notice that she wasn't just emotionally hurt, she was in serious physical pain, too. There was blood beneath her nose and lip, blood that he was sure she had already tried to wipe away, as well as dark bruises already forming around her left eye and cheek. Dean had clearly done a number on her once he had been done with Sam.

"Are you okay?" he asked, already knowing what the answer was, whether she was going to admit it to him or not.

"Yeah," she nodded slowly, unconvinced. "I'm fine." Before he could even think to argue with her, she shifted slightly and grabbed a loose hold of his arm. "Can you walk?"

Sam frowned, because he didn't really know, everything hurt. "I think so." he muttered, before he made an attempt to stand. Jenny caught him as he stumbled slightly but he quickly regained his balance and nodded at her, as an indication that she could let go of his arm, but she didn't.

Arms around each other, they made their way into the main room of the bunker where Sam leaned against one of the tables and Jenny went about finding a first aid kit. It was only then that Sam noticed how much mess had been created by their fight; the entire room was trashed.

"What the hell happened, Sam?" Jenny suddenly asked him, her back still facing his direction. "I mean, how did he even get in here?"

Sam shook his head, he hadn't even thought about that. It was like, for the first time since he had seen him there, he realised, Dean wasn't human, he shouldn't have been able to get through the doors in the first place. "I don't know," he answered honestly. "I came back and he was just sitting there, waiting."

Jenny turned back to face him, eyes narrowed. But Sam's gaze was fixed solely on the floor at her feet, like he was a million miles away from there. "Did he say anything to you?" she asked curiously.

"Nothing much," he answered, despondent. "I said we could help him, you know? Fix him." Sam's eyes slowly travelled upwards towards hers, he looked so disheartened, so regretful. "He just said we needed to be out of the way before we did something to mess up what he'd become. He doesn't want to be helped, Jen."

Jenny scoffed bitterly and went back to searching through the mess. "Nah, I got that part." she muttered darkly, more to herself than to him.

Finally, she found what she was looking for and turned back to her brother as she opened it up on the table beside him. Even though he knew she had to be in pain herself, she didn't even bat an eyelid as she got on with what she was doing. She was the same as Dean when it came to looking out for Sam, it seemed to be a Winchester thing, if they were younger than you they came before everything. He knew Jenny had always looked up to Dean and looked out for him.

"Where are we supposed to go from here?" he asked her as she began to gently wipe the blood from his face, cleaning the deep gashes his fight with Dean had left there.

Jenny shrugged, never taking her eyes away from what she was doing. "I don't know, Sam." she mumbled, as though she barely wanted to think about it, let alone answer.

Sam wet his lips and looked down, tentative of his next question, but he needed to ask it. "Can he even be saved?" he asked her quietly, almost holding his breath for her answer.

Jenny paused for a moment and lowered the cloth from his face, looking down at the blood covering the white material for a moment. "I'm not sure," she sighed, but for the first time there was something like belief in her eyes. "But there's a part of him still in there somewhere, that much I do know."

Sam frowned a little. "How can you be sure?"

"Because, we're still alive." she answered. "Something—I don't know how to explain it—but something snapped it him, Sam." she was talking to him as though she was pleading with him to believe what she was saying, like she expected him not to. "For a minute back there, he wasn't a demon. It was him, and I mean really him."

Hazel eyes regarded green for a moment as Sam seriously considered what she was telling him. If what she said was true, there still had to be some trace of humanity left within him. After all, he had been unable to kill either of them, after his claim that it was his whole intention of being there. He had left both of them alive, beaten, sure, but still alive. And then something clicked in his mind, it wasn't that he needed to be fixed, he wasn't broken, Dean needed to be cured. And that wasn't as impossible as it sounded.

"You know," Sam cleared his throat, because he knew she wasn't going to like what he was about to say. "We never did finish that last trial.." he said, hoping that she could piece together what he was suggesting so that he wouldn't have to spell it out for her.

That was enough to once again stop her in her tracks. "What?" she asked, her voice was suddenly stern, thick with something that could be described as dread.

"I mean, I killed a hellhound, right?" Jenny's face fell as he spoke, like she knew her suspicion of what he had been thinking was right. "I saved an innocent soul from hell... The only thing left to do is cure a demon. And Dean isn't possessed, Jen, Dean is a demon."

"Hold on," Jenny shook her head, because there was no way in hell she was letting her kid brother put himself through all of that again. Not after his last attempt. "Sam, that trial nearly killed you. Hell, if Dean and I hadn't shown up when we did to stop you, it would have killed you."

"We have to save him, Jenny." Sam countered, his voice still calm, as though he didn't need to argue his point further than that. "He's our brother."

"No." she told him bluntly. "No, there's gotta be another way. You can't—" she stopped herself, this time she really did look close to tears. But Sam wasn't about to back down.

"Jenny, something might have clicked in him today, but that doesn't mean that it won't click back. We either save him or he's going to kill us." he sighed. "And, at least this way I can save some people. We can literally close the gates to hell here, Jen. You know it's worth it."

"Sam—"

"We don't know that this trial will kill me," he argued. "But I do know that, given another chance, he will." He sighed regretfully at what he was about to say, but he knew it had to be said. "And, honestly, Jenny, this is happening with or without you.. But I'd rather have you in my corner when it does."

Jenny said nothing for a moment, as though she was too lost in her own thoughts to even form words. Sam was evidently more than willing to attempt the trail again, she could see that in his eyes. Everything in her told her that she had to stop him, she had to talk him out of it and get him to change his mind, whatever he said, she couldn't allow him to go there again. But there was something else that told her maybe she had to let him try. She believed him when he said it would happened with or without her, she really did. And fighting him on it would only cause more hurt that neither of them needed.

If all the years of hunting with Sam and Dean had taught her anything, it was that Winchester's don't turn their back on their family, ever, they don't give up on family. No matter what the circumstances, no matter what had gone down in the past, when the time came, they were always going to be there. Just like she and Sam were still willing to help Dean, and just like she couldn't allow Sam to carry on the trial alone. She couldn't turn her back on her brother when he was willing to, one again, risk his life to save not only his brother but everyone else in the world. He was willing to try to close the gates of hell, after it had once before almost ended his life. He was showing that selfless streak he had to the extent she had never seen in another human being before.

There was no way she could stop him, he was too determined to finish it, to save their brother, she had to be there.

"Okay." she whispered. "I've got your back, Sam."