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2. Wrong Place, Wrong Time

With no cars in sight, darkness swallowed the open road leaving the black Impala stranded. Its lights were the only thing Dean needed to reach his destination.

The dim yellow light, coming from the streetlights on either side of the road didn't provide any help at all. If anyone would have passed through, the only thing that would have been visible was a cloud of black.

Speed had never been a problem, but Dean had learned how to be careful when he had Sam sitting beside him. Nothing mattered now though, nothing but getting to Sam as fast as he possibly could.

"Just get here, Dean."

Sam's voice had been screaming in his head ever since the call was cut. Dean's hands tightened, he was gripping the steering wheel so hard his knuckles were turning white.

Ever since Sam had left for Stanford he hadn't been calling very often. But those times he had heard from his little brother, he'd dropped everything to have that precious talk.

Dean very well knew how John had felt about Sam leaving. Dean himself, had at first resented Sam's decision, feeling anger because of it. But in the end of the day the only thing he felt was worry for the fear of something happening when he wasn't there to do what he always did.

Protect Sam.

It had been his responsibility ever since fire and destruction had come to rip his family apart. When his eyes had locked onto those brown large eyes, looking up at him innocently, he knew. He was going to protect his baby brother until his dying day. It wasn't just his responsibility, or later on an order, it was his job.

In every conversation he'd had with Sam away from home, he had never heard such terror in his voice. Sam had always tried to veil it while talking to Dean, whatever he was afraid of, yet he could always detect it. Dean had learned how to read Sam a long time ago and it had become something like second nature to him. To hear such unveiled terror was something else. Something was horribly wrong, he could tell, but what could have happened he didn't know.

When the call had been cut, it had felt like an icy fist had connected with his gut. It only made matters worse when no one picked up when he desperately tried to reach Sam again. It was the reason for why he pushed the limits of the Impala, trying to shorten the distance.

-x-

The safety of his brother's voice faded away into the night.

Sam couldn't even see his phone anymore, the man standing before him had it in a crushing grip. A moment later he could see his phone getting smashed against the wall he was leaning against. The silvery pieces fell to the ground, broken and crushed. He looked at them, trying to breathe, while his only way of communication was gone. At least he'd managed to call the one person he knew would drive miles to get to where he was.

Realizing the man hadn't left, Sam tried to look up into the cold face, but all he could see was the sneer curling on his lips. There was no one else except this man he'd never seen before. It didn't do anything to lessen the cold feeling lingering in his stomach.

The punch to his face came like a ripping sensation, it didn't hurt as much as his other wounds, but it left him more out of breath than he could ever remember being. The wounds felt raw and uncomfortable, he felt a wetness somewhere around his stomach but he didn't have the strength to do anything about it now.

A memory flashed by, it was blurred around the edges but it was a clear one nonetheless.

He'd come home from school, his nose bleeding, trying to get past his 18-year-old brother. But Dean never seemed to fail noticing if something was wrong with him.

"What the hell happened?"

"Nothing," Sam mumbled, trying to move past Dean.

"Nothing? Sam, you wanna call this nothing!?" Dean grabbed his arm, dragging him to the bathroom and forcing him to sit down.

"It's none of your business," Sam retorted. "I can take care of myself."

"Yeah I can see that," Dean muttered, starting to clean off the blood, taking hold of his face. His words might have seemed harsh, but the actions were gentle.

"Who did this to you?"

Sam didn't say anything.

"Sammy? Hmm, who was it?"

Sam looked away from Dean penetrating eyes, and stared at the floor.

"Hey," Dean put his hand against Sam's cheek, making him look into his eyes.

"It was no one." Sam muttered. "Forget it, it's not important."

"What the hell is going on Sam?"

Sam thought for a minute. "You can't tell dad."

Dean only raised one eyebrow.

"I'm serious, you can't!"

"You know I won't. Alright? But Sammy, I need to know what happened."

Sam didn't look at Dean when he spoke. "I sort of g-got into a fight." When Dean didn't say anything he continued, " He said..." Sam stopped. "Look it doesn't matter, it won't happen again.

"What did he say? Sam!"

Sam turned to get up. "He said you can't memorize a book without being a geek, and now everyone thinks I'm a geek."

"Oh yeah, well who the hell is he?" Noticing how Sam's eyes had turned very bright he added, "Sam, you're not a geek."

Sam looked at his brother questioningly.

"Well you are, but you're my geek," he smirked. "And no one but me is allowed to call you that. Now tell me who he is."

"What are you gonna do?"

Dean smirked at him. "Talk to him."

Sam cracked a smile. "Sure you are."

"Yeah well no one touches my little brother," Dean said, ruffling Sam's hair.

The memory seemed to fade away, Sam tried to think about it to stay awake but it didn't seem to be working. It had taken what seemed like an eternity to just open his eyes, and now he felt as if the darkness was taking hold of him once again. But he couldn't close his eyes, not yet. Moving was a difficulty but he was determined to stay awake. He couldn't let go, not until he could see his brother in sight.

-x-

When Dean reached California he very well knew he had broken a few laws to get there, but right now it didn't really matter. Slowing down, he scanned all the buildings, looking for that familiar figure.

Frustration started to take hold when he couldn't detect Sam anywhere. What he could detect was that there wasn't anything fancy about this, give it a few more years and some of those building could fall apart. He was certain he had heard Sam correctly, but the darkness also made it impossible to see. What he couldn't understand was what his little brother would do here, when it smelled trouble, and Sam wasn't someone who wanted trouble.

After several moments of frustration, Dean saw something that made his heart start beating furiously in his chest. By one of the buildings, that was too dark too dark too make out in the dim light, was Sam. It was only because the dim light shone right on his face, which made him realize that it was his little brother he was staring at. The second thing he noticed was the blood, and the realization that someone had hurt Sam really bad hit him hard.

His Sammy.

Running out of the car as fast as he possibly could, he fell to his knees in front of the younger boy.

"Sammy? Sam!"

Dean's fingers felt for a pulse, he let out the breath he was holding when he found it. It was weak, but it had a steady rhythm.

"Come on, Sammy. I need you to open your eyes for me." He tried to maneuver Sam so that his head rested against his lap, and not against a hard brick wall. "If you really think I drove all the way out here just to see you sleeping you're wrong," he tried.

Sam wasn't responding.

Just when Dean was about to cover Sam with his jacket, his heart seemed to turn cold as ice. He could feel more than see the dampness on Sam's left side, when touching it he knew it was blood. Dean now knew he had to get Sam to a hospital before he bled to death in front of him.

"God, Sammy, why didn't you tell me?" He touched Sam's cheek, shocked at the coldness of it. "I'll take care of you Sammy, don't worry."

Sam's cough made Dean pray for Sam's eyes to open.

"Dea..."

"I'm here, Sammy."

Sam grabbed his arm. "W-we h-have to f-find Mike," Sam stuttered.

Dean stopped Sam from getting up, putting a restraining arm on his hand on his chest. "We don't have to do anything except getting you to a hospital, and who the hell is Mike?"

"M-my dorm mate," Sam shuddered. "I h-have t-to f-find him."

"And where was he when you were getting your ass kicked?"

"I d-didn't s-see him D-Dean. T-they w-were m-many."

Dean noticed how Sam's grip on his arm loosened. "Well I don't really care about this Mark guy right now. We have to get you to a hospital, now."

"No."

It was barely a whisper but Dean heard it. "Are you kidding me? You need care Sam, right now."

"B-but..."

"Ok, I'll call for help about Mike, is that alright with you? Now we can go."

"N-no."

If Sam hadn't been so weak at that moment, Dean didn't know what he would have done. "Sam, we're going and that's final. I'm not gonna sit here and let you bleed to death."

Not waiting for an answer, Dean helped Sam up, who only fell heavily against him.

He ended up carrying Sam's entire weight, and then carefully putting him in the car, bending over him to fasten the seatbelt.

Dean made the call about Mike while he was driving, speaking fast while looking at his little brother who looked worse then he had done before. Giving Sam his undivided attention, he noticed how quickly Sam seemed to be fading away from him. Something that put a knife to his heart, and a fear he had never known started to take hold of him.

"Sam, I need you to stay with me," he said sharply when Sam's eye lashes was almost touching his cheeks. "Sammy, hey, you have to stay awake." Dean desperately tried to shake Sam awake, but he wasn't responding to anything he did.

Dean pushed down the accelerator even further, while trying to get a response out of the younger boy beside him. He only knew a little more than the basics in medicine, he didn't know a lot about what was happening to Sam right now, but what he did know was that Sam had to stay awake.