TRUST

Chapter 4

Summary: The brothers head out for a hunt, but before it's done the bonds of trust may be too broken to be repaired ever again.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Supernatural. They belong to Kripke. This is done strictly for fun, not profit.

"Please…don't…do this." It was a pain filled plea that he knew fell on deaf ears, but he had to try. Sam was tied to a chair with his head leaning heavily on his chest. He didn't have the strength to raise it. Blood dripped from his split lip and busted nose.

His head was lifted from his chest by a hand and he was forced to look into the cold eyes of his brother before Dean gave him a right hook that sent Sam's head back to his chest. Sam groaned in pain and Dean smirked as he turned away. "Don't worry, Sammy boy. If I do this right." Dean turned back to Sam holding a very sharp knife in his hand. "It won't hurt." With that he sliced quickly across Sam's shoulder and Sam cried out in pain. "Much," he said with an evil grin.

Dean woke with a start and then stifled a groan as his neck gave a sharp twinge from the position he had been sleeping in. 'I really need to stop sleeping like that,' he thought. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and then looked over at Sam. He was still asleep. Dean wondered what time it was. He looked at his watch. 6:30…A.M. or P.M.?

He peeled back the curtain slightly and decided it was evening by the heavy sun in the sky. They had slept most of the day it would seem. Dean quickly got up and padded to the bathroom to take care of his business. Once he was done he stared at himself in the mirror.

It was kind of unnerving to see Sam so beat up and yet there were no bruises on his face. You'd think that Sam would've been able to get at least one punch in. But, of course, that had been a week ago. It would probably be healed by now like the cut on his forehead.

He stripped off his clothes and stepped into the shower. There weren't any bruises or cuts anywhere on his body and that just made his stomach clench in apprehension. There should be some sign of something. Something different about him to give him some clue as to what had happened to him to make him go all 'evil', but there was nothing.

As the hot water beat down on his body, he thought about the dream he had had just before he woke up. It gave him chills to feel how unemotionally calm he had been while beating Sam. He knew it was him that had caused the damage, but up until now he had not remembered any of it. He turned to face the spray letting it run down his face and down his chest. If the dream had been a memory, then he'd have to ask Sam about it and take care of the injuries.

He quickly finished washing himself and then stepped out of the shower so he could dry himself off. He quietly stepped out of the bathroom to grab the clothes he had bought for himself and then slipped back into the bathroom. After getting dressed he noticed Sam's clothes lying on the floor in the corner. He picked them up to examine them and nearly gagged when he saw Sam's T-shirt. New guilt swelled in him and he wondered how his brother had kept this from him. He knew probably why, but it still irked him that he had kept it from him.

Dean left the dirty clothes where they lay and walked back into the room. Sam was still asleep so Dean decided to go get some food. When he returned, Sam was just waking up.

"You're up." Dean sat the food on the table and watched as Sam struggled to sit up, the pain obvious on his face.

"Yeah." Once he was up, Sam scrubbed a hand through his hair gingerly wincing with the movement. "What time is it?"

Dean sat down on the bed opposite his little brother. "Uh, almost 7:30 in the evening. Looks like we both crashed pretty hard."

Sam nodded slightly and looked over at the bag of food. "So what'd you bring us?"

Dean looked over at the bag and then got up to retrieve it. "Uh, some sandwiches. Found a diner not too far from here. Same as earlier." He brought the bag back over and handed Sam a sandwich. They ate in silence for a moment as Dean tried to gather enough courage for the next question.

"So did you remember anything else?" Sam asked hesitantly giving Dean a furtive look.

Dean took a bite of his sandwich and then nodded. "Yeah. At least…I think I did." He sighed and put down his sandwich. "Sam, why didn't you tell me how bad you were hurt."

Sam shifted uncomfortably. "I'm fine, Dean. Really, it's not that bad."

Dean snorted at that comment. "Yeah, right. You're fine. Sam…I saw your shirt. I remember…a little bit. About a knife?" He brother flinched slightly at that revelation. "Sam, you really need me to take a look at your injuries. If any of them got infected…"

Sam was quiet for a moment. He bit his lip in apprehension and then nodded once. "Okay."

Dean nodded once and then went to retrieve the first aid kit and supplies that he had bought. He sat down tentatively next to his brother on the bed and helped Sam take his shirt off. Sam hissed slightly in pain and Dean grimaced when he saw his brother's torso. "Jesus, Sam." Guilt welled up in Dean and he clenched his jaw in anger at what he had done to his little brother.

His brother's stomach and sides were a patchwork of bruises and cuts. Dean could tell that some ribs were at least bruised if not broken. He gingerly felt along the ribs and sighed slightly when he didn't find any broken. He then started to clean and inspect the cuts on his front. None of them were too bad and were actually starting to scab over. Dean's grimace deepened as he took in the bruises around Sam's neck. He had tried to strangle him.

A flash of his brother's face with his hands wrapped around his throat flitted before his eyes and Dean closed them trying to shake it off.

"You okay?" Sam asked a touch of worry in his voice.

Dean nodded and took a deep breath. "Yeah. Just, uh, remembering I guess." He continued his inspection trying to keep his emotions in check as he surveyed the damage.

He tried not to flinch when Dean touched him but he knew that Dean noticed. Sam studied his brother's face trying to figure out what was going through his head. He could definitely see guilt, worry, and sadness there; but there was also anger. At himself for doing this or at Sam he wasn't sure.

Done with the wounds on Sam's front he then had Sam turn so he could see his back and just stopped. The wave of emotions that washed over Dean was so intense that he didn't even know how to describe it. He could feel his throat tighten and his stomach clench at the sight of his brother's torn up back. "Oh, God, Sammy," he whispered.

"It's okay. It's not that bad." Sam tried to placate.

Dean's jaw clenched and he exhaled loudly as the anger at himself built. 'Yeah right.' Sam's back was a mess of cuts, bruises, and burns. Some of the cuts were small, but others were deep and slightly weeping with infection. He knew that his brother had a slight temperate from how hot he felt and Dean cursed at himself for not thinking about this earlier. He should have insisted that he take a look at it last night. Who knows how long some of these had been infected?

He pondered the best way to clean the wounds without hurting his brother so much. There were so many. He went back to the bathroom and got a towel and then proceeded to pour hydrogen peroxide over his brother's back. Sam cried out as the medicine bubbled and burned through the many wounds and Dean flinched in sympathy. "Sorry."

"It's okay. It needed to be done," Sam said through clenched teeth. Dean poured some more over his back and Sam pounded the mattress with his fist. "Sonofa-"

Once it was done, Dean inspected some of the worst making sure that they didn't need more care. Thankfully there were only a few that needed butterfly stitches. He then carefully inspected the burns on his brother's back. He carefully placed a hand on Sam's shoulder next to one of the burns and looked at the design trying to figure out what caused it. "Sam, these burns." Sam tensed slightly. "What caused them?" It seemed like there were two different types, both circular in nature.

Sam was quiet for a moment, a frown creasing his features then he shook his head. "I don't remember," he mumbled slightly.

Dean knew he was lying. Trying to protect him from the memory? "Oh come on, Sam. I know that I did this. Just tell me-"

The memory hit him like a punch to the gut.

He could see Sam tied to a chair in a room shaking in fear pleading. "Please, stop. Dean, please…no more." He circled his brother inspecting him as if he were a bug under a microscope as he puffed on a cigar. "Now come on, Sam. This is nothing. You need to suck it up and take it like a man." Dean took the cigar he had been smoking and pressed it into his brother's skin. Sam whimpered in pain and Dean smiled at the sound. "Now…I want you to say that you'll never try to leave again."

There was a flash and the scene changed.

He was sitting in the Impala on a deserted stretch of road, the radio playing an old blues song as he sat there with the door open. He heard a groan and looked down at Sam lying on the ground at his feet. "Ah, good of you to join us in the land of the living." He heard a click and turned back into the car to grab something. When he turned back, he held the glowing cigarette lighter from the car in his hand. "Now…where were we."

The memory ended and Dean snapped back to reality. His hand still rested on his brother's shoulder and he looked down at the damage he had done to his little brother.

Sam turned slightly towards him with a quizzical look on his face. "Dean, are you okay?"

Dean could feel the bile rising in his throat and he quickly stumbled towards the bathroom before he lost the contents of his stomach. He couldn't believe that he had done that to Sam. He was supposed to protect him and yet he had… He heaved again and could feel more bile come up. Tears sprang to his eyes with the effort as his stomach continued to expel every last thing in it. He had hurt, Sam. Tortured him. What the hell could have happened that he could have done that? Did he really have it in him to do that to his little brother?

As Dean continued to dry heave, he realized that Sam was kneeling next to him rubbing small circles on his back trying to soothe him. He tried to catch his breath as his stomach continued to protest only gagging slightly. Finally, when he thought he could, he moved away from the toilet and leaned against the cool tiles breathing heavily.

After a while he finally looked at his brother who was staring at him with a concerned look on his face. "You remembered didn't you?" he asked.

Dean closed his eyes and nodded his head slightly.

Sam sighed heavily and looked down in guilt. "I'm sorry. I didn't want to tell you."

"That's okay," Dean said his voice sounding raspy. "I knew that I had done it. Just…not the how." He shivered at the memory hoping that that was the worse but dreading that it wasn't. He felt a new wave of nausea work it's way up his throat as the memories resurfaced, but he forced it back down. He couldn't break down right now. He needed to figure out what had happened. He rubbed at his eyes in frustration trying to think what to do next. "We gotta figure this out." He dropped his hand so he could look at Sam. "That couldn't have been me. I could never hurt you."

Sam looked down at his hands and nodded. "I know. I kept telling myself that, but…" He shook his head slightly. "What do we do now?" He looked back at Dean.

"I don't know. I guess… treat it like any other case? Look for clues, talk to people, see if anything makes sense?" He looked down at his hands studying the bruised knuckles there. "I called, Bobby. He should get here sometime tomorrow, but until then. We gotta see what we can find out from here. See if we can get anything more from my memory or…what you remember."

Sam looked away and then nodded. "Okay. Let's take it from there."

Dean nodded and then started to stand. His legs were a little wobbly, and he stood still trying to steady himself before helping Sam up off the floor. "Okay, let's finish getting you cleaned up and then get to work."

A/N: Hope you are liking it so far. Please let me know what you think by reviewing. There will be more soon.