Thank you to everyone who reviewed (I totally love you), follows or favorited this story.

Ruby(Guest): Of course I don't mind you telling me what you think! I think it's great that you are invested enough in this story to come up with some ideas. I want to know them! Won't always be able to use everything my wonderful readers suggest, but I would/will certainly always think about it. Thank you for your interest. I'm afraid this particular idea won't make it into the story (I have a vague outline of what I want to happen and this doesn't quite fit in with it), but I still loved reading about it! If you (or anyone else) have (has) any other ideas, please tell me!

I will incorporate some canon events into this fic. There are going to be many differences for example in how they find the hunts and what exactly happens (without Sam everything is different) as well as with the timeline, but the basic plot will in some cases be very similar.

Please tell me what you think.

I do not own Supernatural.

Chapter 4

The journey to the Roadhouse was quiet. Dean was actually sleeping. Now that he had sort of a plan of action, one that included helping Sammy, he was finally able to rest.

John didn't quite see how their decision changed anything. It was extremely unlikely that they would be able to find a way to get his younger son out of Hell. And even if there was one, how long would it take to find it? What would Sam have had to endure by the time they figured something out? Would he even still be their baby boy? He couldn't see that happening. He couldn't believe that they would get Sammy back. But he would help, for Dean's sake. And because Ellen was right. Sam wouldn't have wanted them to give up and drown their failure in alcohol.

Meeting Jo and Ash was something different. Ash was some sort of laid-back super-genius. Jo looked like a sweet young girl, but she wasn't her mother's daughter for nothing. Dean decided he'd rather not upset either of the two Harvelle women.

Ash promised to come up with a computer program that would be able to alert them to any demonic activities anywhere in the states. Jo offered to assist with the research about Hell. Dean didn't quite know whether he should be thankful for the help or feel uncomfortable with it.

The next few weeks were spent researching. Bobby asked other hunters what they knew about Hell, Dean and Jo made one- and two-day trips to the closest libraries, and John searched out libraries, archives and private collections that were farther away from the Roadhouse. So far they had found nothing. Despite Dean's general aversion to talking about his feelings, Jo managed to get him to tell her about Sam. He wasn't quite sure what about the slim blonde it was that made him open up to her, but it almost felt good to tell someone about his brillant little brother. Thinking about him still hurt, and talking even more so, but it also gave him the feeling that he was keeping a part of Sam alive.

One day Bobby took Dean aside to talk about his new timetable of research and nothing else. "You can't stay cooped up forever, Dean. Go out, take a hunt, do something."

Dean wanted to object, say that he had to find a way to save Sammy, but he knew that Bobby was right. Only doing research all day wasn't doing him any favors. He needed to do something.

"We can go on a hunt somewhere together. Check the local libraries for anything useful about Hell and safe a few lifes along the way.", John suggested.

Dean nodded reluctantly. It was probably for the best.

"I have something for you that might or might not be an actual hunt.", Ellen offered.

All eyes turned expectantly to her.

"An old friend of mine works as a gardener on a graveyard. He knows a little something about the supernatural, but he never hunted. Anyways, he noticed something weird about a fresh grave. Every plant in a perfect circle around this grave is dead. He's a bit spooked about it and has asked if I could send someone to take a look. What do you say?"

John and Dean decided to drive separately. Dean couldn't stand to drive with anyone but Sam in the Impala and to him leaving her behind was no option either. It was impractical, and costly, but Dean needed it, so John refrained from saying anything.

They also took two rooms. They both needed space after everything that had happened in the las few months. Working together again would be a challenge, probably more so for John than for Dean. But they would manage. For now they could meet in one room to talk and then get out of each others space.

"The gardener said she was buried about two weeks ago. She died in a car accident. Not really vengeful spirit material, especially not enough for this sort of reaction from the soil.", Dean mused.

"Guess we gotta find out more about the girl. Any friends or relatives nearby?", John asked.

"Father teaches at the local college. She had a roommate called Lindsey and a boyfriend named Matt.", Dean answered. "I could go to the father, tell him I was friends with his daughter and you talk to the boyfriend as a grief counselor or something."

John nodded. That was a good plan. "In three hours back here?", he proposed.

The meeting with Angela's father was rather awkward. Dean usually had Sam around to take care of all the touchy-feely stuff. But Sam was in Hell and Dean couldn't think about that right now. After all, he had a mystery to figure out. And Sammy would probably kick his ass if Dean screwed up a hunt because he was depressed over his death.

When Dean returned to the motel, John was already waiting for him. "The boyfriend is dead. Apparently slit his own throat during the night. But here's the thing: Any an all plants in his apartment were dead, just like around Angela's grave. Hell, even his goldfish was dead. Something's definitely going on here."

Dean nodded. Yes, something was going on. If only they knew what exactly.

"The dad didn't give me anything useful. Girl seems to have been perfect. But maybe her father just doesn't know his kid as well as he thinks he does."

"Let's talk to the roommate then, shall we?"

According to Lindsey, Angela had been "great, just great". She didn't say much else, apparently torn up over the deaths of her roommate and her roommate's boyfriend.

Dean swiped Angela's journal while they visited her roommate, so the trip wasn't entirely pointless.

"I believe there is someone else we should talk to.", he announced.

John looked intrigued. "Whom?"

"Her best friend, Neil. She mentions him a lot."

John nodded. "Let's go see him then."

From Neil they learned that Matt had cheated on Angela and that Angela's despair over this had been the reason for her death. Now they had a motive for her to become a vengeful spirit. Which meant that they had to burn her bones.

"Only it won't be bones, but a rotting corpse.", Dean grumbled. John wasn't exactly happy about that either, but it had to be done.

Or so he thought until they opened the coffin. And found Angela to be missing. The paper they found inside the coffin led them back to her father, where John lost his composure for a moment.

"I get what you're going through, believe me, I get it. But you can't play around with life and death like that. It's dangerous. What's dead should stay dead.", he snapped at the indignant, grieving man.

"So I overreacted. So what?", John snapped at his son.

Dean had barely managed to convince his father to leave Mr. Mason after he had called the police.

"You didn't just overreact! You acted without sufficient evidence! The plants at his place are fine and he's genuinely grieving! And we gotta talk about that "What's dead should stay dead" stuff later.", Dean shot back.

John was about to open his mouth to continue the argument, but Dean just shook his head.

"I think it's Neil."

That stopped John short. "That kid? Why would you think that?"

"Couse I think he was in love with her. And he's Mason's TA."

It turned out that Neil had indeed been the one who brought Angela back. John and Dean managed to save Lindsey, whom Matt had cheated with, from Angela and found a way to put her back to rest.

"What did you mean?", Dean asked the next day.

John looked at him confusedly. "With what?"

" "What's dead should stay dead." You didn't mean we should stop trying to to find a way to save Sammy, did you?"

"I – No, of course not. I meant – Dean, neither of us is actually supposed to be alive. Sammy brought us back for a terrible price, and – and he shouldn't have done that.", John fumbled for words to explain what he felt.

"Because we aren't worth such a sacrifice. I know. I think the same thing. But Sammy did what he did. We can't change that. The only thing we can do is find a way to get him back.", Dean murmured in answer.

"What if we can't bring Sammy back? What if we try and something like this happens to him? What if he's not himself anymore? Could you put him down if it came to that?"

"That's not going to happen. It's not. We're going to get Sammy back. My baby brother. Not some weird, fucked-up version of him. You hear me?", Dean hissed in distress.

John sighed. Dean wasn't ready to look at the facts yet. But sooner or later he would have to. The chances of getting any part of Sam back were small. The odds of getting all of their Sammy back were practically nonexistent. And Dean would have to accept that some day. But maybe not yet. Maybe not today.

Back at the Roadhouse, Ellen and Bobby sat in companionable silence. Business was slow, and Ellen was curious about something.

"So.", she said eventually.

Bobby just looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"You gonna tell me more about Sam?", she asked.

"What do you want to know? Although I have to to warn you. Haven't seen him much in the last couple years so I don't know everything.", he asked hoarsely.

"Just tell me about him.", Ellen requested.

"He's an intelligent kid. Sometimes too intelligent. Was always difficult to keep things from him. And stubborn. Even more so than John, if that's possible. Went to Stanford against his daddy's will. Full ride. Wouldn't let John stop him. He – he's strong. Stronger than his family wants to admit. Dean was always scared that Sam wouldn't need him anymore some day. But that's stupid. Because even if Sam doesn't strictly speaking need Dean, he'll always want him around enough for it to almost be a need. And that's much more than an actual physical need would be.

Anyways, Sam's smart, and stubborn, and strong, but he's also ridiculously compassionate. He was a good kid, Ellen. And he deserves a lot better than he got.", Bobby said quietly, desperately trying to hold back tears.

"Why did he go back to hunting?", Ellen asked. She hadn't known about Stanford.

"Dean asked for help with the search for their daddy. And then the demon that killed Mary killed Sammy's girlfriend Jessica. He might have tried to deny it for most of his life, but Sam can be a lot like John.", Bobby told her with a slight upward quirk of his lips.

Ellen nodded. "If there is anything out there that could help him we'll find it, Bobby.", she reminded him.

"I know. I just doubt that there is anything.", he answered hopelessly.

AN: I wanted to include the whole "What's dead should stay dead"-reasoning, that the episode "Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things" 2 04 introduced. However I couldn't see John and Dean visiting Mary's grave at this point of time, and there is the whole trying-to-get-Sam-out-of-Hell thing and nothing quite fit, so I changed some things a bit. Or a lot. Hope it's not too boring.