John and Dean sat bolt upright when they heard yelling. "What is that?" Dean asked.
"Sam's nightmare. Where are we?" John asked
Dean looked around. "This is the house we were staying in the night Sam left for Stanford."
They got up and went into the other room, where the shouting was coming from.
"It's your fault your mother died. You owe us and if you leave I'll kill you," another John was saying when they walked into the next room. There was no sight of Sam, but the other John was pounding on a closet door as he was yelling.
"Great, how are we going to get to him?" Dean asked.
"Go attack him," John said, indicating the him pounding on the closet door.
"Why me?" Dean asked. He didn't want to attack his Dad, even if it wasn't really him.
"Because if I go up against him and get in trouble, you won't know which of us is which," John pointed out.
"OK," Dean said and ran up and tackled the other John from behind. As they tussled, the real John approached the closet and knocked on it.
"Sam?" he said.
"What's going on? Who's fighting?" Sam asked. He was afraid to open the door. His father had showed up out of nowhere yesterday and had been taunting and attacking him ever since.
"Sam, you need to come out and talk to me," John shouted over the din of the fight going on behind him.
Sam knew this was a trick of some kind. You didn't go from so angry to caring in a blink of an eye like that. "Just leave me alone. Please," he begged.
"Sam, the last couple days haven't been real. You're dreaming. You need to come out and talk to me," John cajoled.
Dean landed a good hit to the fake John and he disappeared. He came and joined John by the door. "Come on, Sammy. Come out," Dean called in.
"Dean?" Sam asked. When had he gotten here.
"Yeah, Sammy, it's me. Will you please come out?"
"I can't. Dad wants to kill me," Sam whined.
"No, I don't," John said.
"Yes, you do," Sam argued.
"Look, Sam, I promise I won't let him kill you," Dean said with a glare to his dad when it looked like he was going to continue to argue.
Sam carefully opened the door, but just looked at John without coming out.
"Why don't you back up a bit, Dad?" Dean asked and John did it.
Sam stepped tentatively out of the closet. "This is a dream," Dean said.
"What are you guys doing here?" Jeremy asked as he suddenly appeared behind them.
"Jeremy?" Sam asked.
"Sam, wake up now. That's an order," John said.
Sam focused on his father and woke up. He sat upright in bed.
"Sam?" Jessica asked.
Sam grabbed her in a hug.
Dean and John woke in the hotel room at the same moment. "How did it go?" Bobby asked.
"I think he woke up. Let's go check," John answered. "And we know who is behind it."
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Dean, John, and Bobby entered Sam's room as the doctor was finishing up his exam . "How is he, Doc?" Dean asked.
Jessica was nervously standing by. If Sam could just fall asleep and not wake up for 3 days, it could happen again.
"As far as I can tell he's fine. But, then again, I don't know what happened in the first place," the doctor admitted. He updated Sam's chart and told him he could check out whenever he was ready. If it was up to him, he would keep him a few days to run some more tests to make sure he didn't end up here again, but hospital policy forbade such an action.
"Jessica, can we have a few minutes?" Dean asked.
"Sure. I'll go get some in the cafeteria. Can I bring you anything back, Sam?"
"No, thanks."
"I'll be back in a half hour," she promised, and left.
"Sam, you know that that's not how I really feel, right?" John asked. "You know I don't think you're responsible for your mother's death?"
Sam just shrugged and turned away.
"Sam, I love you, and I don't blame you for anything," John said.
"The dream study you entered, was that the nightmare you were having before that?" Dean asked.
"No," Sam answered, but didn't elaborate.
"Well, what was it?" John asked.
"I kept seeing Jessica burn up on the ceiling."
"Like your mother?" John asked.
Sam nodded.
"Why would you dream that?" Dean asked.
"I don't know. Does it matter?" Sam asked. He didn't want to think about it. Whenever he closed his eyes, he could hear Jess's screams and smell her flesh burning. The dream was always so vivid.
"I guess not. What do you know about that Jeremy kid?" Dean asked.
"Right after I dropped out of the study, the doctor cut Jeremy out. I don't really know why," Sam said.
"How did he get in your dream anyway? Wouldn't he need your hair or DNA or something?" John asked.
"Yeah. He invited me back to his place after the doctor died and offered me a beer. He must have got my DNA from that."
"Uh oh," Dean said.
"Dean, you didn't," his father admonished.
"I was thirsty," Dean said, lamely.
"We'd better find him and fast," Bobby said.
"Hey." They all turned to see Jessica in the doorway. "Ready to get out of here?"
"Yeah," Sam said.
Dean, Bobby, and John left Sam in Jessica's hands and went off to find Jeremy, before he could disrupt Sam's sleep again, or Dean's.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Sam and Jessica walked into their apartment. "So, are you feeling OK?" Jessica asked worriedly.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Sam reassured her.
"So, what was it like seeing your family after all this time? You never did tell me what you fought about when you left."
"I don't know. We didn't really talk for that long. I've been asleep for most of their visit."
"They should have come back here. Where did they go? Did they leave?" Jessica asked, disappointed to think that she might not get to know Sam's family better.
"No. They just had something they had to do. They'll be back," Sam said, although he realized he wasn't sure about that. They could just take care of Jeremy and split. He wondered if they were going to kill Jeremy. He didn't think so, as they didn't kill people, but he didn't know how else they would stop him.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Bobby, John, and Dean went to find Jeremy at his dorm room, but he had cleared out.
"Now what?" Bobby asked.
"I'll go to sleep, lure him to my dream," Dean said.
"That's crazy," Bobby said.
"I'll drink some more African Dream Root and go with him," John said. "It's probably the only way we'll find him. You can keep watch in case he comes back."
"This is the stupidest plan I've heard of," Bobby grumbled as he fixed the tea for John.
When it was ready, John plucked some hair from Dean's head.
"Ouch," Dean whined and John chuckled.
Dean laid down and fell asleep moments later. They had been trained to fall asleep and stay awake at will, because they never knew when they would have a chance to sleep. Once Dean was asleep John drank the concoction of tea and Dean's hair and joined him in his dream.
