A Stranger's Revenge
Author Note: No real warnings in this one except for the language and usual. Yes, I know I didn't start where the last one ended but just trust me and go with it. All will make sense by the end.
Chapter Four
Forty-Eight Hours Later, Palo Alto, CA:
If there was someplace other than hospitals that Sam Winchester hated it would be cemeteries. As a hunter he didn't see them often since most hunters that he had known, except Rufus, all had gotten the standard hunter funeral of cremation.
Though in this case he supposed cremation hadn't been required as he glanced at the burns on his hands and arms that were still carefully covered. He could feel the ones on his legs and back pulling but ignored that pain to focus on the deeper pain that was threatening to overcome him as he stood near a grave while trying not to look at the freshly covered one near it.
"I'm sorry," he whispered even though he was all alone, a cool evening breeze blowing that seemed to almost be like fingers through his hair. "None of this should've happened to you and I should've been watching out more. If I could've saved you…I wish to God this was me and you were standing here."
Squeezing the bridge of his nose, Sam fought back the burning tears that he honestly believed he'd finished shedding in the hospital two days earlier while trying to handle his emotions, his guilt and the obvious questions of both staff and police.
He had thought after Dean's return from Purgatory that he was done with feeling the loss or of facing the fear of what would come next but he guessed he should always remember that he was a Winchester and if something bad could happen to a Winchester then it would.
The burns on his hands were a bit more serious than on his arms though his legs and back had taken the worst of them since he'd done his best to shield his brother from the flames that were burning him and Sam wished he'd been quicker but it had taken him longer than he liked to deal with Nick Moore.
The hunter's fingers shook as he closed them back around the amulet that had once belonged to Dean and now he wasn't sure what to do with it or himself, shivering as the wind blew again and Sam could still smell the gas and smoke in his nose and on his skin from that damn night forty eight hours earlier…
Flashback, 48-Hours before:
"DEAN!" Sam's panic went to terror as he watched the flames attack his brother and knowing even if Dean wasn't drugged the way he was tied kept him from escaping or avoiding them.
"Now you'll know what it's like to watch him die!" Nick Moore's laugh was nothing but a near mad cackle now, pleased to the point where his grip on Sam's throat eased since he knew the boy would be too traumatized by watching his brother burn to fight back…or so he thought.
Sam's reaction was pure instinct and gut reaction as he pulled the knife he'd kept sheathed under his jacket and slashed it across Nick's stomach, hearing and ignoring the startled shriek of pain and denial as his fist connected with the man's face.
"I already have watched him die!" he snapped while kicking out with one leg to catch the surprised former military man turned lunatic in the knee to finally get enough space to shove to his feet and lunge into the bedroom that was being engulfed in flames yet again. "I'm not doing it again! Dean!"
Judging the flames to where he knew his brother's body had been Sam swore viciously at how fast the damn spilled gasoline had caused the flames to spread when he heard Dean's voice choking through fire and smoke. "Dean!"
"Sa…Sam!" the pain was clear but the younger hunter couldn't be sure if his brother's words were slurred from shock, pain or drugs but it gave him a location and without a thought of the risk to himself Sam jumped past the smallest track of flames while also trying to put out what he could by using his hastily removed jacket but quickly realized he needed to get Dean out of the apartment.
"Shit!" Sam cursed while dropping to the floor beside where Dean was straining to twist or do something to put out the flames licking at his legs while nearly rolling right into them if Sam's hands hadn't pulled him back but took the fire on his own hands. "Hold on!"
Dean was halfway back to full consciousness but the drugs must have been stronger this time and made him more sluggish and not able to focus fast enough to understand what was happening except his little brother was arguing with a deranged nutcase and then he felt the flames.
Fire was not something that either of them liked considering their pasts and when the blindfold was jerked off to allow him to see what he could out of swelled and fuzzy eyes Dean recognized the barely hidden panic in Sam's wide hazel eyes but couldn't be certain if it was due to the situation or the memories this was bringing back.
What Dean did know was that Sam needed to get the hell out of this place before it all went up in smoke. "Get…get out," he choked on smoke and fumes, gasping when his bruised and already battered and torn up body took another beating by the full weight of his Sasquatch sized brother when Sam tried to use his own body to put out any flames already on him. "Sam…no time to get…me loose. He's got the place…rigged. It'll go up any…any second. You've gotta go."
"I'm not leaving you, Dean," Sam refused flat out; already deciding that he'd get his brother out alive and safe or they'd both face eternity wherever they ended up together but he was not doing the whole alone thing again. "Stay still and I'll have you loose and damn it!" he glanced up as something fell on his back to burn through his shirt and into his skin.
The flames had caught the ragged curtains that still hung in the room and now once again the ceiling where Sam had watched his girlfriend burn was on fire right above where he struggled to free his brother of the restraints while also trying to shield him from the flames and ignoring the pain as Sam knew he was getting burned.
"Sammy!" Dean's voice was barely there but when he spoke the nickname that he hadn't used since returning from Purgatory it still made his brother still. "You can't get me loose and outta here before this place goes up or comes down around us," he felt his wrists moving freer but not enough to free himself yet and the sounds of wood cracking and boards creaking told him dimly their time was running out. "I want you out. I'm…"
"No, don't you say it," Sam refused to listen to what he knew would come. He was not going to let his brother say the words he hardly ever said to anyone, much less him, just because he believed he was dying. "You pulled me out of here that night and I'm not leaving here now without you. Just hang on. I've almost got…"
"Sam!" Dean suddenly shifted his body to knock his brother off balance and also made it that the bullet that cracked above them missed striking Sam in the neck but as Sam struggled to regain his balance, avoid the flames that had crept closer and pull his weapon Dean could see the badly bleeding but still determined to finish the job psycho aim again and knew this time he wouldn't miss. "Sammy! Move…!"
The fear for Sam outweighed everything else in Dean which might have been what allowed a brief surge of adrenaline so that he was able to shove himself up enough to use his shoulder to knock Sam away from him and away from the bullet that just fired.
"Dean, no!" Sam's fingers closed on his weapon when his brother's movement took him by surprise when Dean's shoulder hit him in the chest to push him out of the path of the next bullet but his head jerked at the sound of the 9mm round striking flesh and watched as his brother's body seemed to be hit with another round before the momentum of the moment slowed to a crawl.
Saving Sam hadn't allowed Dean the strength to avoid the bullet that struck his shoulder or the next one that hit him in the back and shock and pain was already causing him to black out before the flames he fell toward could engulf him.
The next few moments were a blank to Sam as he pulled his gun from where he'd shoved it into the back of his jeans and was firing it even as he pulled himself to his knees to see four rounds hit Nick Moore in the chest. "Go to hell," he told the man whose eyes he held as he fell to the floor, the weapon that had shot Dean falling from his fingers as life went out of crazed eyes. "Dean? Dean, are you…oh, God…"
Smoke, fire and flames were all Sam could see as he began to cough from the fumes and smoke surrounding him but he ignored the flames all around him, even as he batted at his arms to try to find his brother just as a loud crack made him look up to the spot where Jessica had died to see the ceiling begin to fall. "Dean!"
Present:
"I'm sorry," Sam wasn't sure how many times he'd apologize or how long he planned to stay in the cemetery when he knew he needed to face other issues.
"Sam?"
The hesitant voice from behind him wasn't a shock since Sam knew that someone would come or that someone would have to come to check on things or at the very least come speak with the police. He just wasn't sure if he was prepared to face Charles Moore over the grave of his daughter yet again.
"Mr. Moore," he turned slowly after running a shaky hand over his face to clear the tears away. "I hope you don't mind that I came by to visit her."
Charles Moore had aged much since the funeral of his youngest child eight years earlier but he still didn't harbor any resentment for the tall young man who his daughter had adored. "You're always welcome to visit Jessica, Sam," he assured him while taking in the covered burns, the fading bruises and the deep shadows under deep and sad eyes.
"I'm sorry this happened, Sam," he sighed as he looked down at the newly covered grave before glancing back up. "When Nick escaped the hospital his mother and I never gave it a thought that he'd track you down or that he'd ever do what he did to your brother. Are you…I mean…"
Sam fought back the more natural urge these days to give a smart ass reply since how in the how was he expected to be alright considering things but rather than do that he merely gave a small nod. "I just wanted to stop by to apologize again. Jess shouldn't have died but…I won't say I'm sorry he did.
"I loved Jess, Mr. Moore. Even after eight years I still love her and I wish it would've been different. I wish she wouldn't have died but I hope you understand why I'm not going to apologize for your son's death," he suddenly wanted out of this place before he did say or do something he'd regret later. "I got that he hated me and if he'd have just come after me it might've been different but…he went after my brother and he…"
"Nick was a sick, sick man after his sister's death but…we don't blame you for his death, son," Mr. Moore assured him, placing a careful hand on Sam's shoulder but moved it when he felt him tense. "I wish I could offer you more than my own apology or the assurance that the police won't be an issue since you were clearly defending yourself."
"No, I was defending my brother," Sam corrected quietly, a muscle twitching in his jaw and he knew it was time he went back to the motel on the edge of Palo Alto. "Goodbye, Mr. Moore."
He didn't give the older man a chance to say more because Sam feared anything else and he might snap because the man and his family clearly knew the danger their son posed to others but yet he'd only been in a medium grade psych hospital.
That error had cost one man his life, possibly more from what Garth was finding out now, and had very nearly cost Sam his life but more importantly it had also come very close to costing him his older brother's life.
The ride from the cemetery to the motel he'd chosen once it had been safe enough to get Dean released AMA was small and quiet with no fancy high tech things to appeal to the college kids but it had rooms with two queen size beds, a bathroom with shower/tub duo, cable and Wi-Fi.
The last two had been a must since Sam knew how cranky his brother could be after being hurt seriously and regardless of what Dean said it was still in Sam's nightmares what else had happened in that apartment and how close Dean had come to bleeding out or burning to death.
Sam made a quick run to a diner he and Jess used to frequent to grab dinner and was relieved the owners had changed because that had been his one issue with staying in the area until he was confident Dean was well enough to move on…the chance of anyone remembering him and of the memories returning more than they had.
The fire had all but gutted the apartment building this time but Sam couldn't care less. He'd barely managed to get Dean out before the set explosives had gone off thanks to the flames and then he spent the night handling cops and doctors while calling on Garth more than once.
Dean had suffered greatly from the beatings and abuse Nick Moore had put him through since kidnapping him to finally being shot twice and also having first to second degree burns over a good deal of his already bruised and battered body.
The one bullet had passed straight through his shoulder but the second had nearly hit a lung and had been the one wound, on top of the seriously infected cuts that littered his back and chest, that had worried the doctors but the moment his brother had been told he could release himself AMA, Sam knew he would and hadn't been shocked.
Of course Sam wasn't sure if it was the wounds or what but something seemed to have made Dean quiet and almost withdrawn and that did worry the younger Winchester, though he didn't want to push and upset his brother but he did wish Dean would say whatever was bothering him so Sam would know what to do now.
He didn't blame Dean for hating or blaming him for this since it was on Sam's head that this happened. He should've told his brother about the emails, about the threats but he hadn't and in the end Dean had nearly died.
Sam sat in the Impala for a few minutes after parking in front of the motel before finally grabbing the bag of food, unlocking the door and stepping in to frown a little at the low light across the room and the TV being the only lights illuminating the room.
"I brought dinner and pie," he spoke after a couple seconds, sitting the bag on the table to carefully ease his jacket off while biting his lip to keep from hissing as a sleeve pulled on one of the covered burns on his arm. "I also swung by to pick up the meds the doctor said you'd need for the burns and pain and he said if you were still doing good tomorrow afternoon then it was probably safe to move on…unless you have other ideas."
The last words were spoken quietly but still heard over the lame comedy that Dean had switched on earlier but he didn't immediately reply as he shifted on his bed to try to stand up to see what his brother had brought back only to frown when a burger and fries was placed beside him while the drink went on the bedside table.
"I'm in pain and things still spin form the mild concussion but I don't need to eat in bed," he knew he sounded gruff but his voice was still low and scratchy from the smoke and from yelling but Dean also knew that he needed to settle Sam down and do it now before the kid fell apart literally in front of him.
Ever since he woke up in the hospital Sam had been two steps away. He hovered when he thought Dean didn't know it and had snarled at doctors and nurses in a way that Dean would've found amusing if it hadn't gotten to the point where he actually feared his usually calm and laidback little brother was going to hurt one of them if they touched Dean in a way Sam didn't like.
It had been after one such incident that Dean and the head doctor agreed that AMA would be the best way to go unless the elder brother had wanted to see Sam arrested or kicked out of the hospital.
He accepted that he'd been a little more quiet than usual but Dean had a lot on his mind that was bothering him and wasn't really certain how to address it since he and Sam hadn't been having those deep heart to heart talks since he got back from Purgatory but when Sam jerked back when he spoke Dean knew it was time they started.
"Sit down, Sam," he'd managed to reach out and catch his brother's wrist before he could move back but remembered to be careful since while he had the more serious burns and wounds his little brother had managed to pick up a couple nifty burns himself. "Sammy."
The simple use of that nickname made Sam sit down on the edge of the bed but he still avoided looking at his brother while he busied himself with laying out a few bottles of pills, some salve for burns and clean gauze. "Alright, I know what you're going to say and you're right," he began quietly, hazel eyes intentionally avoiding Dean's gaze because if he was going to face this then Sam needed to do it without seeing the more common dark look where he once knew he'd see calm understanding or even a little compassion.
"I should've told you about those emails. I should've told you that I thought something was wrong. I didn't because I was afraid you'd yell about me being paranoid or that me taking a year off had dulled my senses or that I was running scared from a few photos. I wanted to tell you about them, about the nightmares…" Sam paused to reach up to feel the amulet under his shirt, missing the way his brother's gaze watched him closely. "I wanted to tell you but…I'm not a kid anymore and…
"It was my fault you got hurt because if I had told you then you might have known to suspect something was wrong or you wouldn't have found those photos and got distracted…though I'm not sure why they would've distracted you," Sam was tired and it showed as he rambled on, only stopping when a hand lightly touched the back of his neck.
"The fact that someone asshole was sending you pictures of your dead girlfriend with a not so pleasant message attached kind of pissed me off and I was a little distracted with wondering who the hell I was going to rip the lungs out of," Dean admitted as he sat up so he could nudge Sam's shoulder with his and then hissed in pain since it was his injured one.
Sam's eyes immediately shot to Dean's face to gauge the pain before reaching for a bottle of pills. "They said you'll be sore so you probably shouldn't…"
"This isn't your fault," Dean cut him off finally, sharpening his gaze when his brother went to argue. "Yes, you should've told me what was happening. Would I have given you grief over being paranoid? Maybe but if I did you know damn good and well once I saw the message in that one email that you would've had my attention because the bastard threatened my brother and that's not done. Not before, not now, and not ever.
"I let him in, Sammy. I made the mistake of not listening to my senses but then it didn't matter because I just wanted to keep him away from you," his fingers squeezed like they did when he used to do this as a way to offer his brother support without speaking. "No matter what happened to me, this was not your fault."
"Then why won't you talk to me? Why shut me out again?" Sam asked suddenly, too many days without sleep and almost constant fear taking a toll in that he was willing to ask that straight out even though he figured he wouldn't like the answer.
With a low hum Dean suspected that was part of why Sam was starting to be edgy with him again. "Why did you offer to let that nutjob kill you?" he countered, pretty certain of all the things he'd heard in the last week that would haunt him the most. "Why didn't you get out when I told you to? Why did you risk it, Sam?"
"Because you're my brother and I…" Sam bit down hard on his tongue to keep those last two words in since his anti-emotional brother rarely ever said them unless one of them was hurt seriously…until now.
"I love you too, little brother," Dean felt the way Sam tensed at his use of the words he hadn't heard enough growing up or more recently. "I didn't want you back in that apartment or having to suffer through that again much less have to deal with him or having to make that choice," he sighed while seeing the outline of what Sam's fingers kept moving toward under his shirt and feeling his breath catch.
"You thought I left you for dead last year, Dean. I wasn't leaving you again and especially not when it was over something that I never should've let happen either," Sam's eyes dropped to where Dean's fingers turned his wrist over to look at the worst burns on his hands. "I would've let him kill me or I'd take the burns if it meant you'd live and forgive me for…"
Dean had thought in eight years that Sam had somehow managed to forgive himself for Jessica's death but from what little he could recall hearing while he drifted in and out back there it was pretty clear his little brother still carried that guilt. "There's nothing to forgive you for this time since even if you had told me about those damn emails we didn't know who'd sent them so the odds were good he'd still have gotten the jump on me sometime.
"I'll heal from this like I have everything else. You killed the asshole so he's not going to hurt you or anyone again," that was what was important for Dean to know because he didn't care about himself as much as he did Sam's safety. "We were on the road again to being brothers before this happened and we're still on that road because we're all each other have left, Sammy.
"It was wrong for me to lay all the crap on you that I have recently, especially about the damn dog since if I could've given you one as a kid then I would've but I was raw from Purgatory and trying to shield you from all that as best I could," Dean took in the burns on Sam's hands, knowing he'd gotten them from trying to untie him just like he knew he'd gotten the ones on his back and legs from shielding him.
It wasn't easy for Dean when it had to come down to his little brother protecting him since he still saw Sam as the chubby little boy that took his first steps toward Dean on short shaky legs and when. It was extra hard after it all settled down and Sam would give him the puppy dog eyes with huge hazel eyes but Dean got that his brother still was worried about the past fights since his return and feared Dean blamed him for this as well.
"Y'know I'm the big brother so it's my job to protect you…to this day I will always have your back and try to keep you safe from monsters or lunatics but…I need you to tell me one thing, Sammy," he reached up to carefully ease the black cord of the amulet out from under Sam's shirt to remember the Christmas when Sam first gave it to him and the day he tossed it away.
Dean wanted to ask how long he'd had it but that wasn't what had been making him distant the past two days. He'd been quiet while trying to piece together the last things he recalled in the apartment, which had been him getting shot and falling into what should've been the flames that took his life, and what happened after he passed out.
"What happened back there after I got shot?" he asked, holding the amulet loosely in his fingers while latching onto Sam's neck firmly this time to keep his brother sitting still when it was clear he wanted to pace now just by the way his breathing picked up. "What kept me from burning or what kept that whole place from coming down on us?"
Sam tried to keep his breathing calm but this was the one thing he'd been leery on revealing because he wasn't sure if Dean would believe him or just say he'd been imagining it but as he watched his brother play with the amulet until he took it off to simply, silently offer it back he took a deep breath. "Jess came."
Flashback:
"Dean!" Sam couldn't see anything past the flames and smoke while he thought he could hear sirens in the distance he knew they'd be too late when he looked up in time to see the ceiling begin to fall.
"Sam."
Expecting to maybe hear his brother screaming in pain as flames consumed him or even a cough from the building smoke, Sam was certain he was leaning toward the side of hallucination as he blinked to see the flames in the center of the room almost dying down.
Though what convinced him of that was the slender silhouette that formed out of the flames…flames that she seemed to be keeping away from Dean.
"Jess," he whispered, stepping forward but going to the floor next to his older brother to check his pulse before releasing a shaky breath when he found it beating strongly if a bit erratically. Then he looked up into the blue eyes of the young blond woman he had loved and lost what seemed like a lifetime ago. "Why? How?"
Jessica Moore wore the shorts and Smurf shirt she had the night Sam's life had changed and not what she'd been wearing the night she died in this very room. Her long blond hair slid past her shoulders as she offered a smile.
"My brother shouldn't cost you yours," she gazed past Sam to where the body of her own brother was burning in the flames. "Nick was never stable, Sam. It's one of the reasons I never talked about him to you or would never have let you meet him. I'm sorry this happened to you or to Dean."
"It was my fault you died, Jess," Sam remarked while quickly finishing undoing the ropes on Dean's ankles before easing him up against him to figure out the best way to escape the burning apartment. "There were things I should've told you that I didn't and…"
"Brady did before he killed me," Jessica told him, kneeling down to smooth her fingers over Sam's face. "I never blamed you, Sam. I loved you then and will love you always but you need to let go now," she smiled and seemed almost happy. "I can move on now. I didn't before because I never got to tell you that I didn't blame you and I knew you held onto that guilt. He won't blame you either but you need to get Dean and get out. You'll be safe until you reach the street."
Sam had thought that if he ever got the chance to speak to Jessica again that he'd have so much to say but now as he met her eyes and a silent understanding passed between them he could only nod. "I still love you, Jess," he murmured, closing his eyes a little at the soft feel of a ghostly kiss on his.
"I love you too, Sam," she smiled again, keeping the flames and wood away from them as Sam got his brother up and across his shoulders to stumble a little through the apartment. "Be safe."
Present:
"Sammy," Dean's arm was around Sam's shoulders even before the younger man knew they were shaking or that the buried pain and tears that he'd been hiding for days over losing Dean and facing his past had come out suddenly.
As Sam spoke to explain Jessica's visit, Dean had caught the way his brother had started to shake and by the time he'd gotten to the end it was obvious the kid's exhaustion and emotions were breaking open and as years of raising an over emotional little brother had taught him Dean merely ignored his pain to pull Sam against him to just wait it out.
"I miss her still but it wasn't going back there because of Jess that scared me," Sam's voice was shaking and broken as he tried to speak and breathe through tears that he hadn't shed in over a year, turning to see the amulet back around Dean's neck and that seemed to break the final wall and he let his fingers curl into the t-shirt his brother wore. "I was scared that I'd lose you in the same place that I lost her."
"You're not going to lose me, Sam," Dean assured him as he accepted the armful of exhausted little brother and just held on in a way that he hadn't allowed himself since returning. "You saved my life even though as soon as you wake up you will let me see the burns you think I don't know you have," he smirked a little at the bitch face he knew he was getting even though he was already easing Sam down on the bed.
"You're hurt worse," Sam's tone was pure bitchy little brother which was something else they hadn't been relaxed with one another lately so that he'd feel comfortable using but now that he did, now that Dean had taken the amulet back and his fingers didn't seem to leave his neck Sam felt a little more at ease.
"Yep, but you won't be much good to me if you crash from not sleeping, not eating or infected burns, Sammy," Dean shot back, keeping his grip on Sam's neck until he felt his brother settle on his stomach with his face buried in Dean's pillow while muttering something that made his older brother smile. "I know you do, little brother. I'm not leaving you but we are leaving this town as soon as you're awake."
Dean knew Sam would fight sleep since he'd want to make sure Dean was alright but since he also figured it had been close to four days since Sam had slept decently he wasn't surprised to feel his brother slowly relax into sleep after a couple more muttered comments.
He stayed sitting on the bed with his hand on Sam's neck just to be certain he'd sleep since Dean got that the nightmares would still be there for a few more days but not over Jessica. Sam would be having nightmares of nearly losing Dean because whenever he'd been hurt seriously his brother had bad dreams like that and it was just another thing he'd adjusted to over the years.
Switching the TV to some history show, Dean unwrapped the burger to eat it before he propped himself up beside his sleeping brother to doze off slowly.
They had a ways to go before they'd be back to where they were years ago but for the first time in months Dean felt secure in knowing that Sam felt safe enough to sleep and that they would get back on that road to being brothers again like they had been.
"No more nutjobs, baby brother," he yawned, glancing down to see the amulet laying back against his chest and amazed at how much weight seemed to have lifted since he put it back on. "We'll talk about how long you've had this when you wake up and you can also tell me what the hell you have porn or Becky's stories stored on that laptop while you're talking too."
Dean let himself fall to sleep, content they were safe since he'd checked the salt lines and wards even before Sam got back and while he couldn't protect his brother from everything it would be a long time before anything like this happened again because while monsters he got it never failed to amaze him how crazy the regular people were.
The End
A/NII: Thanks for reading. I hope everyone enjoyed it even with the evil cliffhangers. Please look me up on Facebook under morgana07 for updates, news, chatting, etc. Thanks!
