This time it takes Sam quite a while to fall asleep tonight, whereas Aliyah falls straight into a deep sleep. When Sam finally drifts off, he once again finds himself trapped inside his dreaded dream world.
The next morning Sam awakes to find himself on the floor wrapped in his bed sheets, feeling like someone had set his body temperature on fire. He groans, before pulling himself up, checking his watch to reveal that the time reads only four am.
Aliyah lies as still as she can – just like she used to in the days that Sam would wake up from his nightmares back at their foster family's homes.
"It was just a dream, Sam." She whispers, listening as he heads into the bathroom to wash his face with cold water.
Finally the light outside shines through the worn out curtains of the motel, but thanks to Sam neither of the siblings had endured a good nights sleep. Sam is currently snoring (way too loudly) whilst lying upside down in his bed, and naturally Aliyah would usually throw something at him, but today she decides against that.
Instead of going out for breakfast this time she just opts for eating some snacks in their motel room– because although Aliyah will probably never admit it to any living soul... She worries about her brother, a lot.
Sam is still sleeping by the time Al has gotten showered we well as dressed, and he almost frightens the life out of her (kind of hard to do considering their daily job occupation) when he practically falls out of his bed, whilst incoherently mumbling away to himself.
When he groggily sits up, Aliyah notices how bloody his face keep, and as her brother then proceeds to glance up in her direction, she points on her own face to where he has been bleeding on his own.
"It's fine," he practically slurs as if he was drunk, and then staggers off to the bathroom once again.
Aliyah feels like shouting at him that no, it wasn't freaking fine. But, instead she refrains from doing this, and waits for him to exit the shower before she says something to him.
"Sam, I think you need to see a – "
"I just need some fresh air," he interrupts her, not letting her finish. Instead of listening to what she has to say, he then walks straight out of the front door.
Aliyah contemplates following her brother, but comes to the conclusion that he knows what's best for him at the end of the day, so she simply lets him go... with a slight feeling of regret growing in her gut right now.
Trying to take her mind off of things, Al plugs in her headphones and starts to play some music. Although she is soon interrupted once again, by whom she assumes is Sam coming back from his little tantrum... But, that's not the case.
Having heard the door swing open, she quickly pauses her music, and then turns to face the door... Where some stranger is holding up an unconscious, and dangerously pale looking Sam.
"Who the hell are you?!" Aliyah shouts at the leather jacketed stranger, as she reaches for her gun that was placed next to her on the table.
"I don't think names are really an issue right now, sweetheart... Your boyfriend here has just passed out, so a little help?" The guy replies, causing Al to scoff loudly.
"My boyfriend?! Okay, I don't know exactly who you think you are.. But, just drop my brother and go." She demands, pointing the gun steadily at the cocky stranger's head.
"Your brother?! Alright, listen... Whatever kinky shit you've got going on here, it ain't none of my business.. But, for real your friend here has got a concussion, so I need some water to wake him up, and we need to keep him awake."
"If you call him 'my friend' again, I'll shoot you, and you'll be dead before you hit the ground." Aliyah speaks coldly, her eyes flitting to Sam as he groans slightly and his eyes flicker open.
Sam manages to use the last of his strength to tear away from the stranger, which unfortunately leads to Aliyah being temporarily distracted – therefore giving the stranger enough time to take his own gun out.
"Put it down."
"How about you put it down first?" Even his damn smile is cocky.
"I asked first."
"And I asked second, honey." He clicks his tongue, his head leaning slightly towards his left.
Aliyah is currently pretty close to shooting this guy, but Sam quickly clears his throat loud enough to distract her from pulling the trigger.
"Can we just talk about this? No guns... Please?" Sam asks the both of them, and reluctantly they both seem to agree.
"Slowly does it," the guy speaks, as both him and Aliyah lower and disarm their weapons. Aliyah now quickly guides Sam to a chair, and then grabs him a wet cloth for the small cut on his head, where he must've fallen outside.
"Okay... You first, who the hell are you?" Aliyah spins around on her heels to face the unidentified and unwanted visitor, after she has handed Sam the cloth.
"I'm Sam's brother."
"Right... I think I would know if we had a brother, but thanks for the laugh." Aliyah laughs dryly, but he isn't laughing with her.
"Dean Winchester... And I certainly don't have a sister, so who the hell are you?" He retaliates just as quick, his body language getting slightly defensive.
"Aliyah Winchester, sister to Sam Winchester... No Dean in the picture the last time we looked," she answers, turning back to check if Sam is alright.
"Sam went with our Mom when our parents split up, okay? And after Sam went into care it was practically impossible to find him," Dean begins to explain to her, but Aliyah still isn't quite convinced.
"Oh yeah? So where was his dad then, couldn't he come and save the day... Oh, and news flash.. I was born after our parents split up." Aliyah explains further, but likewise – Dean still isn't buying it.
"Listen, dad's missing, okay. That's why I started looking even harder.. He didn't want me finding you because he didn't want you in the life, and then when he went missing, so I had time to dig deeper, but it was like there was no records of you, so that's why I've taken so freakin' long to find you!" Dean seems to be directing all of his speech to Sam, as if Aliyah doesn't even exist right now.
"Sam?" Aliyah places a hand on her hip, facing her real brother for a true explanation that actually makes some kind of freakin' sense.
"It could be true.. I mean, our records went away after we ran from foster care when I turned eighteen, since we didn't want to be found, so if Dean went looking for me after that year then it would be almost impossible to find me –" he pauses for a few moments after a dizzy spell temporarily takes him over, "– and, he wouldn't have any idea about you, because Mom never even planned on telling Dad straight away, but then she died when you were like almost two years old."
Sam's explanation does have some sense to it, but how come Dean manages to find them today, and it was all a little to coincidental for Aliyah, considering that today is the day that Sam – who never gets sick, ever – would suddenly begin his ill health on the day that his so-called 'long lost brother' decides to show up.
"Well, I'll take it for now!" Dean shrugs, stepping closer to them both.
"Wait... How come you found us so easily now? Why did it take you so long if you always knew you had a brother, no matter what your dad said?" Aliyah continued to shoot question after question at Dean, stepping closer to Sam as she does so.
"Trust me, you don't know dad... And, I had my sources." He replies, obviously not planning to give them away anytime soon.
"Well, until we all submit to a DNA test I'm not believing you." Aliyah snaps, placing the back of her hand to Sam's forehead – that is currently burning up.
"Fine, 'cause me neither." Dean raises his eyebrows, accompanied with a sarcastic smile. Of course Aliyah then orders Dean to leave, but it seems that he has some important information to bear.
"Listen, a few times I've been watching Sam –" Dean ignores Aliyah's snaps of anger at him, and he just continues to talk – " I saw a shifty looking chick a couple of times, so either Sam here has the flu, or someone is really pissed at you guys, and she's getting revenge."
Aliyah pauses to think for a while, and it doesn't take long for her to remember the witch that they had killed a few days ago. Crap. Did she have friends or family that they didn't know about? I mean, she was a loner... No coven. They checked... Didn't they?
"Hex bags." Aliyah mutters to herself more than anyone else, as she rushes outside to ransack the car... A.k.a the first place that Sam was, after he started showing the early signs of sickness.
It takes barely any time for her to find the first bag, which is stuffed under the driver's seat. Retrieving her lighter from her pocket, she doesn't waste anytime in lighting it up. A few seconds later Dean comes hurrying outside, holding yet another one.
"You must've really pissed this witch off," he exclaims, lighting the bag that was in his hand.
"Yeah, well us hunters have a tendency to piss off the supernatural," Al grumbles in response, returning to the car to search for anymore.
Both Aliyah and Dean are stopped in their tracks, as they bear a loud crashing noise from inside the motel room. "Why did you leave him alone?!" Aliyah raises her voice at Dean, as they both tear back inside again.
"Get away from my bother, you bitch!" Were the words that leave both Al and Dean's mouths in unison, but they're too worried about Sam to even notice.
Whoever this witch was, she really does not want to give up on Sam, who was currently attempting to fight her off of him. The witch grabs him in a headlock, before anyone can get close enough to maim her.
"I'll kill him," she hisses, as Sam writhes around in her grip.
"Please – you're in the body of a what, - thirty-thirty three year old? I mean, you don't even look that great for your age, and for starters you can barely even make a good hex bag, for Christ's sake!" Dean laughs rather obnoxiously, only causing the witch to tighten her grip around Sam's neck.
"Not helping, Dean." Aliyah whispers through gritted teeth, turning to glare at him.
"You killed my sister! You hunters think you're better than us all, and just because I'm not a fully talented witch yet, doesn't mean I don't know how to suffocate someone." She grins menacingly, as the colour is beginning to rapidly drain away from Sam's face.
"I hate the family feuds," Dean moans, rolling his eyes heavily.
Aliyah really feels like slapping Dean... But, after a while she can see that he is taunting the witch – trying to distract her, and catch her off guard. Although he knows that this is just making her more and more angry, and it looks as if this isn't helping Sam at all.. Eventually he reaches the ultimate remark about her sister, and low and behold – she throws Sam aside and lunges at Dean instead.
To Al's ultimate surprise, this leads to her going up in a cloud of white smoke, and Aliyah then spots the bottle that Dean had been holding in his pocket. A.k.a their left over bottle of the spell they used on her sister. Dean must've grabbed it from the trunk whilst he was looking for the hex bags earlier.
"You're welcome," Dean smiles, brushing himself down before taking a seat on the edge of Aliyah's bed.
A few moments later Sam proceeds to regain consciousness again, coughing violently due to his previous brush with death just a few seconds ago. This time Sam gladly accepts Al's hand to help him up, then he went and collapses onto his bed.
"Feeling any better, Sammy?" Dean asks him – rudely acting as if he has known Sam for his whole life, when they haven't seen each other for nineteen years.
"No –" Sam is then briefly interrupted by a sneeze, "– and it's Sam."