The Last Mistake

CHAPTER TWO

24 Hours Earlier, Garth's Houseboat:

"Where's my brother?"

Nearly jumping a full foot off the floor, Garth vowed to start keeping that door shut even as he was quickly spinning around and trying to backpedal at the same time.

"W…who?" he managed to get out while also putting as much distance between himself and a clearly agitated Sam Winchester as he could since his houseboat was sort of crowded.

"I think he means Dean since that's the only brother I've ever seen Sam with."

The all too helpful voice of the zoned out prophet who was staring bleary eyed at various pieces of paper and the half of stone tablet was not the best thing Garth needed right then since he was more than aware of who Sam wanted. He just wasn't sure how to answer him without getting killed one way or the other.

"Where's Dean, Garth?" Sam demanded, trying to out maneuver the tiny, skinny hunter in between all the hunting stuff and books that Kevin had tossed around in his mad haste to solve this latest mystery.

"Ummm, haven't seen him?" Garth hoped that sounded convincing then groaned.

Head poking up from behind a stack of books, a crumpled pile of paper and several food containers that contained things that even had Garth blinking, Kevin Trang blinked for a moment as if bringing the real world back into focus to frown.

"Yeah, you have," he reminded helpfully, rolling his eyes with a small smile. "He showed up a day or so ago with food and stuff for me and asked you to help him track down some yoyos as he called them. Then he hung you up on the coat rack over there until you agreed and…"

"I think I like him better when he's muttering to that rock," Garth rubbed his face a second before letting out a yelp as his feet once again left the floor of his boat. "Hey! Now you guys have to stop this!"

A little guy who was much shorter than Dean, Garth was really small compared to Sam who was four inches taller than his own brother so it wasn't hard for Sam to pick him up and hook the back of his belt loop to the coat rack on the far wall.

"Is that what Dean wanted? Help finding Walt and Roy?" Sam demanded, feeling the frustration he'd been feeling just hit the breaking point. "Garth, what did you tell him?"

Sam had been edgy since waking up the morning after he'd exploded on his brother. At first it had just started because Sam was pissed that Dean just saw himself as a grunt who could be easily sacrificed for the greater good.

Then it had gotten progressively worse until finally Sam had slipped and revealed things about his time running solo while Dean was in Purgatory. Things that he'd never wanted Dean to know, mainly for this very reason, because if Sam knew anything it was how his older brother would react to what had happened to Sam in Louisiana at the hands of hunters that Dean already had reason to hate.

"Garth! Did you help him?" Sam demanded, pretty sure of the answer before the wiggling little hunter shot him a dark look and he swore bitterly. "Damn it."

"He had me in sorta the same position you do, Sam. Kinda hard to say no to that if I ever wanted to get down," Garth objected, giving up on getting down and so finally crossed his arms to pout. "I'll tell you what I told him if you get me down."

Sam just lifted one eyebrow before shifting a look at Kevin. "Where'd Dean go?" he asked the prophet, ignoring a stuttering Garth for the moment as he also ignored the cold ball of fear building in his heart.

He'd known that eventually after telling Dean who'd jumped him, who'd put the brand on his back that his brother would go after Walt.

Hell, he'd been waiting for Dean to go after those two for three years but now was not the time and Sam knew that. They were on the verge of closing the gates of Hell for good and Sam had just taken on the task of doing the three trials that would close them.

Getting sidetracked would not help them…would not help him since Sam knew eventually he'd have to tell Dean about the pain in his arm and the occasional nosebleed and once he did that there would be no getting his brother off his back but for Dean to have done this, to have gone after Walt then that was gong to bring a lot more shit than Sam wanted because he had no doubts that Walt would tell Dean the rest of it.

"South east Louisiana, tiny little town not on any new map about fifteen minutes outta Houma or so Garth told Dean after he got him off the wall," Kevin recited without looking up and missed the way Sam's face went pure white.

"Hey!" Garth yelled when he noticed Sam's reaction. "Sam? What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost or…thanks," he mumbled when Sam took him off the coat rack but didn't miss the way the younger Winchester's hands were shaking. "Sam? Dean didn't say what he wanted with them but…I've been a hunter a while so I've crossed paths with a couple hunters named Roy and Walt and…"

Exchanging looks with Kevin who had decided to take a break from cracking the secret of the second trial to swallow more caffeine and pay attention. "Dean was in his 'I'm pissed and someone is going to pay painfully' mood too," he pointed out. "Then he got that phone call and his mood got worse."

"Kevin, isn't the stone talking to you?" Garth asked with a pointed look, blinking when Sam suddenly turned his back to them and stepped into the small room that Garth used mainly for supplies. "Not good," he decided, debating for just a short moment before following.

Ever since the first time Garth had met the Winchesters he'd been a little in awe. In awe and terrified at the same time because as he quickly learned to piss Dean Winchester off was to invite certain death.

Garth remembered when Bobby had called him in to help Dean out on a case. He'd been thrilled at the chance to work with Dean because coming up as a hunter there were always those whose names a hunter like Garth remembered and respected.

He'd heard the rumors about Sam and Dean but hadn't believed most of them and Bobby had been quick to slap him in the head about any he did believe too hard.

Dean was awesome in Garth's eyes. Then he'd seen a side of Dean that few did and understood what had made the Winchesters the hunters they were because as Garth had seen, Dean lived and breathed being a hunter but he lived, breathed, and would die for his brother.

Seeing Sam as they'd found him that time with that quirky fan-obsessed girl showed Garth how far Dean would go if someone hurt Sam so this time when the rumors began flying and Garth looked deeper into just what Roy and Walt had been up to, he suspected he knew why Dean wanted them found and also why Sam looked spooked right then.

Of course, he also suspected something else that he wasn't sure the Winchesters knew.

"I need you to tell me exactly where Dean went, Garth," Sam spoke without looking as he stared at his clenched fist and the wrist that he once wore the black rubber band on. "I need to get to him cause he doesn't know what he's walking into. He'll be too angry and…"

"He's angry but that's not what worried me about him going in without you or me," Garth bit his lip, not wanting to be the one to tell Sam this. "That call Kevin mentioned…Sam, I hadn't pinpointed Walt yet when Jefferson called Dean and told him that they were in Louisiana," he waited as Sam turned to look at him, confused at first then slowly it began to gel.

Brain whirling at that news, Sam thought it through and didn't like what he was coming up with. "I…was jumped in that same area. Jeff sent me down there but why would they still be…"

"After Dean left I called in a few favors from a couple guys outta New Orleans who do not like Walt and they say that those two have pretty much cornered the hunter's market in southeast Louisiana and the Texas Panhandle," Garth replied grimly, scuffing his boot on the floor. "They've staked out an old plantation that's supposed to be cursed and…Sam!"

Slamming a fist into the bulkhead, Sam knew where his brother was being led but not why when it had always been him the community had issues with but they had believed that had been put behind them. Bobby had done his damnedest to clear that up and Jefferson was…

Pulling his phone out, he considered trying Dean but knew his brother's phone was either shut off or dead cause it had been going to voicemail for the past day so as his heart hammered and his stomach clenched, Sam punched in another number.

"Hey, Jeff…it's Sam," he leaned against the doorframe as Garth handed him a piece of paper with coordinates on it but he knew those by heart since he'd followed them once before. "But I guess you're not surprised to hear from me, right?"

There was a short silence as if the older man on the other end didn't know what to say. "Sam…I'm…"

"You came to that cabin, you came after me, you stopped what was happening and you were there as I healed. Just like you were when Dean and I were kids. I made excuses to my brother the other night that you didn't know that Walt and Roy were setting me up," Sam closed his eyes against the sudden burning because if he'd had doubts the raspy breathing from the other end of the line told him. "You set me up, Jeff and now, you've set my brother up for them, didn't you?" he asked, voice sharpening. "Didn't you?"

Jefferson had been a hunter longer than John so he'd been like a mentor to John and had seen his boys grow up. He'd been one of the hunters in their small circle that Sam had called on after Dean had nearly been killed fighting a Rawhead years ago and in some way, he still recalled these boys as just that…boys.

Now as he sat in his home office in lower Texas, he closed his eyes and fought the burning pain this betrayal was causing him.

"Sam, you have to understand," he began, hearing a choked laugh that reminded him far too much of this boy's father when John was incredulous. "Yes…I did send you in knowing that Walt and Roy were waiting but I didn't know how far he'd take it. I came then but…I can't help Dean…and neither can you."

Fingers tightening on his phone at this comment, Sam could feel his blood running to ice again. "I'll help my brother, Jeff. I'll be damned if anyone hurts either one of us again," he still didn't understand one thing though. "You knew my Dad, Jeff. You knew Pastor Jim, Bobby…so you know how Dean and I were raised.

"I grew up looking up to you. I grew up believing that you were one of the people we could count on, so tell me one thing before I go to help Dean…why?" Sam asked quietly, tone nearly breaking. "What did Dean or I ever do to you that you'd want to hurt us?"

"Hurt you?" Jefferson sounded shocked, standing as if the younger Winchester could see him. "My God, Sam, how could you think that I'd willingly hurt you boys?"

Eyes growing wide at the stupidity of that question, Sam actually laughed as he noticed Garth and Kevin pouring over a map and seeming to be fighting over routes. "Umm, you set me up for two sons of bitches and you just sent my brother into the same damn trap?" he reminded him. "That kind of spells hurt to me, Jeff."

"Sam, I didn't have a choice," Jefferson knew if he couldn't help Dean then he at least owed Sam this. "A few years back, during all that end of the world, Apocalypse stuff, I did something that I shouldn't have and someone…died. I'm not proud of it and I don't understand all of it but…somehow Walt learned of it and he threatened to go to the authorities if I didn't help him."

Considering this, Sam understood this since both he and Dean had done plenty of stuff in that period that neither were proud of. "Walt blackmailed you. He wanted me."

"Bobby was a huge reason that no one ever tried for you again, Sam. He and I did our best to protect you and Dean but after he died and then when Dean vanished…" the older man left the rest unsaid, sighing. "When I had second thoughts, realizing what he was planning I got you out but he's not planning on letting that happen with Dean. You won't get near that place, Sam."

"I just killed a Hellhound, Jeff," Sam told him, voice quiet as his brain whirled with ideas. "I am fighting to fix whatever the hell I let go wrong between me and Dean and I am fighting to close the doors of Hell. I will not lose my big brother to some two-bit jackasses who killed us once. Dean made Walt a promise and if he's hurt my brother…I'll keep it because I'll personally send the bastard to Hell."

Starting to hang up, Sam paused to take a shaky breath. "Jeff? I know you had a reason, it might even be a good one to you and I really don't care that you set me up since I should be used to it but…I do care that you set Dean up. He's my brother. He's all I got left now. Please, pray that I find him before he's hurt because if I don't…my next stop will be to your door."

Disconnecting the call before the other hunter could reply, Sam stayed still for a minute to regather his thoughts then stepped out to nearly run into Garth, who was waiting with full Garth-hunting gear on.

"I'm going with you," he announced, shaking his head to stop the obvious disagreement. "Look, Sam, I know you and Dean don't really take me seriously and I know you don't like that I've taken over a lot of what Bobby used to do but…you need someone with you," he pointed out, taking a stab in the dark to add. "If for nothing else then to shoot at Roy while you deal with Walt and then to cover your back while you get to Dean. I can do that."

Glancing over Garth's head at Kevin, Sam saw the prophet roll his eyes but nod in agreement and Sam did know he couldn't go into this solo. "Fine, but you do what I say and steer clear when I say," he told the skinny hunter, waving at Kevin before heading for the car he'd rented in Kansas upon figuring out his brother was up to something.

"Yep, heard that before and this hunter knows to stay the hell out of the way of a pissed off Winchester," Garth muttered to himself, looking back at Kevin. "Eat something besides hotdogs and call your Mother. Sam, wait up!"

A look at Sam's rental told Garth that they'd be taking his car, which wasn't pretty but would get them to Louisiana in a hurry and had supplies he figured they'd need. "Sam? looking up he noticed that Sam was holding his phone again but looked sick.

Garth held out his hand for the phone and listened to the message that must have been left while Sam was on the phone with Jefferson, he watched the eyes of the usually calm and mellow one of the Winchester's change to hard and ice cold as those last words and the sound behind them played again in his ears.

Listening to Walt's sneering tone had sent Sam into a near panic because just the sound reminded him of that incident but then what he was saying sank in and he heard the sounds in the background that he also knew.

He'd heard them eight years ago in another run down cabin. His stoic old brother being tormented by the damn Yellow-Eyed Demon in the body of their own father. He heard the same pain this time but recognized something else.

Sam knew Dean would never give Walt what he wanted. He'd never give him the satisfaction of hearing him beg and that would piss the hunter off more. Though it was what Sam heard last that settled it for Sam.

"Last mistake, Walt," he whispered, clutching his fingers around what he still carried in his pocket while gazing across the car roof at a wary Garth. "Let's go."

TBC

Author Note: Will Sam and Garth make it to Dean? Who will make Walt understand that messing with any Winchester is his last mistake? Chapter Three will be up soon.