Hey guys:)

As promised, I´m back with the next chapter.

This could be set at any point in the show and my thanks goes once more to my wonderful beta soncnica:)

Warnings for swearing and some blood, but nothing too major.

Summary: The aftermath of a hunt leads to an unecpected encounter by the roadside.

Looking back on it later, Will doesn´t really know what possessed him to stop. It was late, after all, darkness already creeping over the horizon and he was the only one on the road. But hey, it wasn´t like he really believed in the stories.

His grandma used to tell them to him when he was little, to keep him and his friends out of the forest. "Whatever you do, William, dear, stay away from the woods at night." Then, she would lean over and whisper conspiratorially into his ear: "There are monsters in there, restless spirits". His mother always scolded her for telling him these stories but she would just wink and smile the knowing smile of grandmothers all over the world.

And even though he mostly stayed away from the woods as a kid, he told himself that that had little to do with her warnings. Back then, it had been decades since the disappearings, since the townspeople found the mutilated corpses on the edge of the woods and all that was left were the questions and the countless myths they inspired. It was probably just due to some sort of provincial paranoia that, up until this day, he could never completely shake the feeling of dread that settled in his bones whenever he drove down the narrow road through the woods, never mind that it was the fastest way to reach Newcastle.

Newcastle, the village he grew up in. The cursed village, as some called it with just a hint of wariness in their voices and God, why was it happening again?

Three weeks ago, a young boy had vanished. Went to play with his friends but never arrived there, he´d read in the papers. The police found no traces of the kid, absolutely nothing. Townsfolk´d been in terror since then, the old legends and fears returning with vengeance.

"They are all going crazy, you know?", his mother told him over the phone a few nights ago. "Set up a neighborhood watch, can you believe it, and suspect everyone and everything". Since his father had died, she lived alone in the big old house and even though she had sounded calm about the whole thing, he had promised her to come for a visit as soon as possible.

Will was only three miles out, the forest all around him swallowing the remaining daylight with ease, when he saw him.

It was a man.

A really tall man who stood on the side of the road, waving as soon as the car was within viewing distance. The closer he came, the more frantic the waving became and there was an urgency to it that he was unable to ignore. While his head was screaming at him to continue, to keep driving, his right foot found the brake nearly on its own accord.

He came to a stop beside the man, eyeing him through the closed window: even taller from up close. Shaggy brown hair that hung into his face. Seedy jacket that no person with other options would wear in Michigan in November. The stranger was smiling at him disarmingly. All in all, he looked pretty harmless.

One look at his watch revealed that it was quarter to eight. He´d told his mom he´d be there by eight. She´d start to worry around half past eight, but she wouldn´t result to more drastic measures until after ten. That would be more than two hours from now.

He made sure that the doors were properly locked before he lowered the window a notch.

"Can I help you?"

"Hey. Thanks for stopping." The man sounded slightly breathless. "Could you possibly give me a ride to Newcastle?"

"How did you even get here?" Will asked, mostly to avoid having to answer immediately. The man´s smile became slightly sheepish. "Uhhm, I was wandering around in the woods and got lost."

"Wandering around in these woods? Alone?" He couldn´t keep the doubt out of his voice.

A shrug. "I´m not from ´round here."

Like that´s an explanation.

This was the kind of situation everyone warned you about, starting with the teachers in kinder garden with their Stranger Danger. It was how every second horror movie started. By picking up a hitchhiker.

"How am I supposed to know you´re not some sort of psycho killer?"

The man sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. "Look, mister, I really need to get to Newcastle. You can search me, lock me in your trunk, I really don´t care. Just, please!"

The hint of true desperation in the man´s voice was one he couldn´t believe one could fake. But still…

Feeling a little stupid, Will grabbed his pocket knife from the glove compartment before opening the door. It had been a gift from his father, one that he carried around more for the sentiment than its possible usefulness, but it wasn´t like the stranger knew that. He stepped out of the car and slowly rounded the hood, eyes never straying from his would-be passenger.

"Alright then. Put your hands on the roof."

That´s how they always said it in the movies.

Might as well let the guy believe he knew what he was doing.

"Okay, no problem"

The stranger raised his hands in a placating gesture before slowly stepping forward and resting them on the roof of the car. Will approached him slowly, knife ready in his right hand, muscles tense. Only when he stood beside him did he realize that he had no idea what to do next. After all, he never searched a person before.

"I´m not going to hurt you, I promise."

If he didn´t feel like an idiot before, standing on an empty road beside a perfectly harmless looking guy and threatening him with a pocket knife while trying to play bad cop, he sure as hell did now. But at this point there was no use in backing down anymore.

"I´ll just take your word for that, then, never mind the murderer who creeps around in these woods."

A shadow flickered over the man´s face. "Yeah, I heard about that."

And he still decided to wander around here alone? What was this guy, suicidal?

"Then I´m sure you understand why I have to do this."

He decided to cover his insecurity with speed and slipped his knife in his back pocket before stepping behind the man to quickly pat him down. It was when Will peeled back the jacket to check for possible inside pockets that he saw the blood.

"What the hell happened to you?!"

The man´s undershirt was torn on the left side, blood seeping sluggishly out of what looked like several deep cuts and soaking through the fabric.

"I fell." He shrugged, "Landed in a thorn bush."

He was breathing harder now and hissed when Will moved the jacket back.

"That must´ve been one hell of a thorn bush." Will aimed for challenging, but probably ended up somewhere in the near vicinity of hysterical. The man made no move to elaborate.

"Why didn´t you tell me you were hurt?! I´m going to call an ambulance!"

A hand on his arm stopped him from turning.

"No, I´m okay, really. I didn´t tell you because I´m good. I just need to get back to the village."

"While bleeding all over my car? Yeah sure, why not?!"

The guy had the nerve to crack a smile at that.

"You think this is funny?!"

Will was breathing too fast, pushing a hand through his short black hair for a lack of something better to do. He was completely at a loss of what to make of this.

The stranger had dropped his smile immediately, his tone now steady and calming. "Look, we´ll figure this out, okay? I´m Sam Harris." He slowly raised one of his hands from the hood and held it out.

Will was reacting on autopilot when he reached for it, all of his previous fears of this guy being dangerous momentarily forgotten. "William McCoy".

There was blood on his fingertips, this Sam fellow´s blood. Blood from the wound that was still bleeding at this moment. When their hands met, some of it ended up on Sam´s palm and his eyes were drawn to the little dark red smudges on unbroken skin.

"Hey, William, you okay?"

Under normal circumstances he might´ve bristled at the casual use of his first name, but as it was, he had a hard time taking his eyes away from the crimson spots on their hands. Was he? Okay?

"Yeah, I´m good. I´m perfect. Never better."

"Okay, good. Do you have a first aid kit in your car?"

That was a question he could answer. "I do. An old one. Never used it before, I wouldn´t know how."

"That´s fine" Sam slowly stepped away from the car and was now facing him, shoulder slightly hunched, palms up. As if he was trying to calm a startled animal. Will took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders. "I can get it for you."

He abruptly turned around and hurried to the trunk of his car. He needed two tries to get the key into the trunk´s lock and by the time he managed to dig the ancient first aid kit out, Sam was standing next to him.

"Perfect, that will do. Thank you". Sam gently took the kit from him and placed a hand on his shoulder ever so slightly. "Why don´t you sit down for a moment while I do this?"

By the time Will realized that he did not actually expect an answer to that question he was already standing beside the open passenger door, Sam´s hand on his shoulder nudging him down to the seat. Then Sam turned away from him and gingerly sat down on the ground before starting to rummage through the kit. If he was being honest with himself, he had no idea what was in there. A part of him was pissed at himself for being so completely useless at this. He was no police man. He was no paramedic. He was a damn lawyer and a good one. But right now that didn´t help him one bit.

It seemed that Sam had found something. He pulled a white cloth out of the kit and began to carefully pull the left arm out of his shirt. He had to stop several times to take a breath before his arm was finally free. Will had been so close to standing up and offering his help more than once, but Sam seemed to know what he was doing and he was clueless, so he always dropped back into the seat.

Sam gingerly lifted up his shirt and Will had to force himself to look away from the dark red liquid that was still running down the guy´s side, slowly dripping onto the grass.

This is too much, he´s losing too much, should have called an ambulance, should have-

A sharp hiss jerked his thoughts away from a nearing panic attack and then Sam called out, voice strained.

"Uhm, William, could you maybe give me a hand here?"

His breathing picked up again, heart hammering in his chest. Breathe in, breathe out. He needs help, so get your act together, dammit!

"Yeah, of course"

Sounding much more confident than he felt, he stood up and went over to where Sam was sitting in the grass. Upon coming closer, Will could see that he had used the white cloth as some sort of improvised compress and was now pressing it to the largest of the wounds. When he stood beside him, Sam looked up.

"Great, thanks. Could you keep pressure on this for a second? I need to wrap it and I can´t do that with only one hand."

Will slowly sank to his knees in front of Sam, the part of his brain not busy freaking out taking notice of the fact that they were nearly eye to eye now. He was about as far away from a medical professional as you could get, but even he could see that Sam was far too pale for a healthy person. The hand not pressing the gauze to his side was planted into the grass to keep him upright and he was visibly leaning on it. He needed help and soon and that was what made Will reach out to exchange his hand with Sam´s.

"Wait. Put the gloves on first." Sam jerked his chin into the direction of the kit where a pair of old Latex gloves had slowly turned yellow since the last time someone had opened it.

"You aren´t wearing any." His mouth was faster than his brain.

"It´s my blood, so that doesn´t really matter." Sam gave him a half-smile.

"Are you some kind of doctor?"

Will reached for the gloves and slipped them on, putting his hand hesitantly over Sam´s, not quite sure how the exchange would work. As soon as his fingers lay over Sam´s, the taller man slowly slid his own away until he had worked it free. Now Will kneeled next to a guy he had met fifteen minutes ago and pressed a cloth to his side with all the force he could muster to keep his blood were it belonged.Not exactly how I imagined my evening going.

"No, not really."

Sam closed his eyes for a second as if to steel himself for what was to come, then reached for two gauze rolls. "I guess you could say I am some sort of volunteer paramedic."

He tried to tear off the plastic that covered the first roll but his hands were shaking too much. Will had to watch helplessly as it slipped out of his hands once, twice. Eventually, Sam put the edge of the plastic between his teeth and ripped the cover down with his free hand. He began to calmly wrap the gauze around his torso. Will watched as his companion covered the large white cloth with gauze until he could take his hands away. Sam reached for the second roll and placed it where Will´s hand had just been, wrapping it in with a little more pressure than he used before.

"How many times have you done this?" Will couldn´t quite keep the awe out of his voice.

"Couple times. I lost count, to be honest." Sam gave him a smile that was reassuring despite its shakiness. "But this time I couldn´t have done it without you, so, thank you." His smile got wider and Will found the corners of his mouth quirking upwards in response.

"Yes, if my law career blows up in my face I could always think of working as a first-class compress-holder" He took a deep breath before he pushed himself to his feet..

Will offered Sam his hand and the guy took it with a grateful smile. As soon as he was upright, however, all the color left in his cheeks faded away and his hands shot out searching for something to hold onto. Will quickly wrapped his fingers around his upper arms.

"Hey, Sam, you alright?"

The tall man had closed his eyes, panting through an open mouth, face screwed up as if he needed all his concentration to remain standing.

"Yeah, yeah…I´m…good" he wheezed out. Before Will could respond to what must have been the most obvious lie of the decade he continued between gulps for air: "You said…you´re a ….lawyer?"

His breathing slowly became more even until he opened his eyes, looking at Will as if nothing mentionable had just happened. As soon as he was sure Sam could stay on his feet unaided, Will let his hands fall to his sides, but he stayed behind him while the taller man squared his shoulders and made the few steps to the passenger side of the car. Will wondered where he took the energy from.

"Yes, I am. Over in Georgetown. Why do you ask?"

Sam had lowered himself gingerly into the seat, head tipped back to lean on the headrest. Now that he was sitting down, tension drained out of his posture with every second that went by, exhaustion taking the place of the resolve that had driven him before. For a moment, Will found himself wondering with vague horror what would have happened to Sam if he hadn´t stopped.

"I studied law once. I wanted to be a lawyer too."

Will bent down to pick up the first aid kit, swearing to himself that he would know its contents and their respective use by heart before he´d leave Newcastle again and put it back in the trunk. When he got into the car beside Sam, the man was struggling to fasten his seat belt since he couldn´t use his left hand without aggravating his injury. He reached over and buckled him in with one swift motion, feeling the slightest bit bemused at Sam´s startled expression.

"I can´t afford waiting here all night and have my mother worrying about me, so don´t sweat it" he shrugged and Sam relaxed back into his seat with a grateful smile.

"Why didn´t you become a lawyer?" Will turned the key in the ignition, and, turned up the heat after he noticed his passenger´s slight shivering. "And what possessed you to go out there without bringing a proper jacket?"

"It turned out it didn´t work for me" Sam answered after thinking for a minute, ignoring his second question. Suddenly, he straightened with a start. "Oh damn it, how could I forget that?! Will, I really hope not to overstretch my welcome, but could I use your phone for a second?"

Will waved his concerns away and pointed at the glove compartment.

Sam fumbled through it until he found the phone and activated the screen. He typed a number he apparently knew by heart and held the device to his ear. Will tried to concentrate on the road but it was silent in the car and he couldn´t help but hear that the call was picked up after only one ring.

"Who´s that?" The voice sounded gruff and suspicious and a little hostile, but Sam leaned back in his seat with a sigh as soon as he heard it.

"Hey Dean, it´s me."

The line was silent for a few seconds before the voice on the other side, apparently belonging to someone named Dean, could be heard again.

"Sammy?" Still gruff, but mistrust and coldness were replaced by relief. "Are you okay?"

Will didn´t need to turn his head to know that the man beside him was smiling while he answered. "Yeah Dean, I´m fine. It´s done." His voice lost its lightness." You were right. It was too late for him."

The line was silent. Sam cleared his throat." I´ve caught a ride back to the motel and meet you there in 10." Then he moved the phone a few inches away from his ear.

Before Will could ask what exactly "was done" and for whom it was "too late", violent yelling and cursing filled the interior of the car. Between the swear words, Will could make out phrases like "Don´t you dare do that ever again!" "What were you thinking just disappearing like that and don´t give me the ´It wasn´t my fault!", "You´ll wish it finished you off when you get back here!" and more mysterious threats that made him wish to never piss the man on the other end of the line off.

After throwing an apologetic glance in his direction, Sam took it all with a grin, never trying to interrupt or defend himself. After a while, when it seemed that Dean had reached the limits of his collection of colorful expletives, he simply ended the call. The silence in the car was deafening in the first couple seconds. Before Will had collected his thoughts, Sam suddenly asked: "Do you have any siblings?"

"No, I don´t"

"Be glad" Sam laughed.

"Your brother?" Will jerked his chin in the direction of the phone Sam still held in his hand.

"Yeah. Dean´s my big brother and he tends to worry far too much." The grin in Sam´s face tapered off, leaving a fond smile in its wake.

The first houses came into sight and within minutes, they were standing in front of the only motel in Newcastle. Will didn´t have time to turn the engine off before a man with dark hair and a furious expression on his face hurried towards them. He ripped the passenger door open.

"I hope for your sake you didn´t lie to me, Sam, because if you´re anything but fine I´ll kick your ass into next week!" he growled without even acknowledging Will´s presence, eyes searchingly roaming over Sam´s body before settling on the makeshift bandage on his side. The taller man appeared pretty unfazed by the threat and pointed towards Will.

"Dean, this is William McCoy, the man who gave me a ride and supplied me with the contents of his first aid kit to cover up a scratch-"

"Scratch, my ass, the last time you had a scratch they nearly had to amputate your foot, so don´t give me that shit!" Dean bent over Sam and inspected their handiwork with a gentleness that belied the anger in his voice, while the Sam just closed his eyes and let his brother work. After a thorough examination Dean apparently found that there was no immediate need for an amputation and looked up at Will, who just sat there staring at the scene unfolding in front of him in silent wonder.

"I guess I´ve got you to blame that this stupid idiot ever found his way out of the woods, which means that I owe you a thank you. So, uhm, thanks" He nodded once before starting to pull Sam from the car, while the latter protested that he could still walk on his own, thank you very much. Once he was standing, Sam turned around and leaned back down.

"Yeah, thank you, Will. Don´t know where I´d be now without you. You and your compress-holding skills."

Will mirrored his grin and held out his own hand. "Anytime. Been nice to meet you,Sam."

His passenger shook it once before stepping back where Dean was already waiting, putting a steadying hand on his shoulder.

"Likewise. Be safe." Sam closed the door and Will turned on the engine.

As he got back on the road and pointed the car towards his mother´s house, he could see the two strange men in his rearview mirror. The smaller one, the older brother, had put a protective hand around the taller one´s back as they were slowly making their way towards what Will assumed was their room. They were still talking, and the last thing he saw of them before turning into the main road was Sam, face lighting up with laughter about something Dean had said.

Well, I guess I wouldn´t mind having siblings like that.

And that´s it for today:) Hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you have any prompts, let me know:)