A.N.: Thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing. It means so much to me :-)

Silently Dean stood in front of the damaged car that had been brought to the local police impound yard. He couldn't believe his brother had been in there, let alone had come out of it alive. It looked so badly damaged and burned out, it was a wonder Sam was still with him. He tried to ignore the knot in his stomach and reminded himself that Sam was alive, in hospital, yes, badly hurt and bruised, definitely yes, but he was alive.

Taking a deep breath, Dean went to the car to take a closer look. He checked the driver's side first; Sam had said .. or better he had said that Invisible Jade had told him that she had felt they had been hit by something. Dean shook his head at that thought … he still wasn't sure if he should believe she really existed.

Looking at the car, Dean couldn't really tell if there was any proof that another car had driven into them, although he figured the damage should be more heavily on this side if they really had been hit by something. He let his hand trace over the dented door … and held his breath when he really did find something. There were traces of sulfur on the door. So something evil had been involved here.

"Great." He mumbled, not sure if he should take this as good news or not. Thinking about it, he decided this was good news. His brother hadn't nearly died because of a simple car accident. Something evil had done this and somehow that took away some of his fear. It took more than a stupid car accident to get a Winchester hurt.

It didn't take away his guilt though … if he had stayed with Sam, his brother would have never been in that car.

"Hey, what are you doing here?"

Cursing under his breath, Dean got up. He saw a small man standing only a few feet from him. He was in his mid forties and was wearing a blue overall. He didn't look like a cop, Dean noticed relieved. Actually, he didn't even look too clever.

"Hi, uhm, I'm Josh Homme." Dean said smiling and held out his hand to the man. "I'm from Allman Insurance's. This car belongs to our insurant and we just want to rule out that someone else was involved in this accident. You know, find someone else to pay for this." He grinned, pointing at the wrecked car.

"Well, you can't just come here like you want." The man said, looking uncertainly at Dean.

"Of course, I know. I'm sorry, I should have called you first, uh …"

"Manny." He cleared his throat. "Manny Lippowitz."

Dean bit his lip to suppress a laugh. This was just too good. "Well, Manny, I hope I haven't offended you in any way. I can come back later if this isn't a good time. Although my boss will be pissed." He smirked, casting a glance at Manny indicating that all bosses were alike really.

Apparently Manny wasn't too fond of his employer either. "Well, now that you're here … take a look if you like. I don't want you to get in any trouble. But next time you call." He pointed his finger at Dean and looked at him all earnest.

"Sure, yeah, absolutely." Dean nodded sincerely. "Thanks."

Manny nodded his head shortly, pulled out a cigarette from his pocket and walked away.

"Well, that was just too easy." Dean grinned. Then he turned his attention back on the car, trying to find any more traces of sulfur. When he looked inside, his grin froze on his face though. There was a lot of blood on the Passenger seat … Sam's blood. Images of Sam lying on the cold ground, looking as pale as the snow around him and having blood all over him flashed through his mind and again he saw the medics trying to resuscitate his brother. He had come so close to losing him …

Dean shuddered and swallowed down the lump that had build in his throat. He tried to concentrate on the task at hand … finding anymore signs that the demon, spirit or whatever had been inside this car. He checked every corner, but couldn't find any more traces of sulfur. Relieved he crawled out again. At least whatever had caused this hadn't been after Sam or else it would have surely gotten into the car after the accident.

Feeling slightly relieved Dean turned away from the car.

"You sure take your job seriously." Out of nowhere Manny had appeared in front of him again, blowing smoke from his cigarette in Dean's face. "You insurance people really try hard not to pay for any damages, do you."

Suppressing a cough, Dean put on his best smile. "Uh, you know, if the boss' happy, I'm happy. Though there doesn't appear to be any sign that another car was involved. Do accidents like this often happen on that road?"

"No, not really. It's a pretty safe road actually. There was one ugly accident a few years back, but that's it. Usually it's just the drunk people who get hurt there." Manny's face lit up. "Hey, maybe she was drunk. You wouldn't have to pay if she was drunk, would you?"

"Yeah, you're right. I hadn't even thought about that. Thanks, Manny. I'll sure look into that." Dean tried to look as grateful as possible. He had to stifle another laugh at the proud expression on Manny's face. "You know, you should think about going into the insurance business. You look like that could be the right job for you."

"You think?" Manny asked surprised. From the look in his eyes, he already pictured himself making a career as an insurance agent.

"Sure, yeah, think about it. So, uhm, what about that accident you mentioned? What happened there?" Dean asked, trying to sound like someone who was just interested in the latest gossip.

"It was a hit and run. About five years ago. Local woman died in the accident. Her car had been pushed off the street and she bled to death. Happened during the night and she wasn't found until noon the next day. She was long dead then." Manny told him.

Dean tried to push off any images of Sam lying in that car all night, slowly bleeding to death. Sam would have never lied there that long. Dean had already been on his way back. He would have found him in time.

"You're brother is a lucky guy. If he had been found just a little while later …"

The doctor's words rang in Dean's ears. What if he hadn't found him in time? What if that guy hadn't come by and pulled Sam out of the car before it was too late? What if …

Shaking those thoughts off, Dean turned his attention back to Manny, forcing his voice to sound steady and hide the tremble he felt at the thought of Sam. "Really. Wow, that's bad, man. They never caught the guy who did it?"

"No, never." Manny replied, unaware of Dean's distress and happy to get a chance to tell that story to someone who hadn't heard it by now a hundred times already.

"I guess some guys get away with everything, huh? You ever wonder who did it?" Dean asked.

"Well, I looked at all the cars pretty closely that days, you know, if any of them had any suspicious damages or something. Didn't see a thing. Don't think it was a local." He said, looking important.

"Hm, well, I gotta go. Thanks for the help again, man." Dean waved at him shortly and then walked away to his car. He wished there would be more Mannys in the world. That would make his job so much easier.

At least they had some clue now where to start looking. He would check out that accident Manny had talked about, see where that lead him.

XXXXXXX

"What do you mean you called something?" Sam asked slowly, hundreds of different ideas what she could have called running through his mind.

"I'm not sure. There was …. there was something in the room. The candles went out and … and it got really cold. And …"

"And what?" Sam urged her to go on.

"There was this whisper …" Jade tried to put up a brave façade, but Sam could tell she was scared.

"Could you understand what it was saying?"

"No, not really … something like time to pay, but that doesn't make sense right?" She laughed nervously.

"Well …" Sam decided not to get into that right now. She already looked worried enough. "Anything else?"

"I … I think that … God, Sam, do you really believe all this?" For the second time today Jade looked at him as if he had lost his mind.

"Hey, you're the one telling me this. I'm just listening." Sam objected.

"Yeah, but … shouldn't you doubt what I'm telling you? I know I would."

"Well, I'm not you. Thank god." Sam smirked. "So, what else?"

Jade looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. She didn't know what to think about this. Was he just making fun of her? Or had he really seen weirder things than this happening. After all, he had accepted the fact that she was like a ghost at the moment fairly quickly. And to a certain degree, so had his brother. She decided to take the risk. She could always claim later that she had been lying in a coma and had never said any of the things she was about to say.

If she ever would wake up …

She shook that thought off and took a deep breath. "The lights went out and when my eyes got accustomed to the darkness, I … I … I think I saw a woman."

"Uhu." Sam nodded slowly.

"That's all you have to say?" Jade asked with wide eyes. She had expected him to start laughing at that point.

"Well, you obviously called a spirit … did it say anything else? What did it look like?" Sam asked quietly.

Jade looked at him for a long moment. She still couldn't believe he was just believing her like this. "She … or it … whatever … she didn't say anything else. My grandma came in and she disappeared."

"Did you see her again after that?"

"No." Jade swallowed. The memory of that night send shivers through her spine. "What do you think that means?"

Before Sam could reply anything, his mobile rang. He bent down to get it out of his bag that was still lying on the floor. He winced in pain as his sore ribs protested against the movement and Jade quickly walked up to him to help, remembering at the last moment that there wasn't really anything she could do.

"I hate this." She muttered, taking a few steps back. Sam cast her a grateful look anyway and a moment later he was finally able to fish the phone out of the bag by himself.

"Dean?"

"Hey. You're supposed to be resting." Dean said as soon as he heard his brother's voice.

Sam chuckled. "I was going to, but then the phone rang. What did you find out?" He asked more seriously.

"Did I wake you?"

Sam was surprised at the question. Was that guilt he had heard in Dean's voice? "No, you didn't. I was still talking to Jade. Apparently she called a spirit with a Quija board. A woman … it said it was time to pay. Then the grandmother showed up and the spirit disappeared."

"A woman, huh? Did she say what it looked like?" Dean asked.

Sam was relieved his brother's voice sounded like his normal self again. He must have imagined the guilt part. Dean never felt guilty for waking him up. "Not yet." He responded to Dean's question. "What did you find out?"

"Well, the car looks pretty wracked. And I found sulfur on it."

"Really." Sam nodded. "So a spirit was involved. Must have been whoever she called … but why?"

"Well, did she forget to pay any pills lately?" Dean joked, referring to the spirits remark about the time to pay.

Sam rolled his eyes. "You found anything else?"

"I talked to this guy, Manny, he said there was an accident on that road a few years back, hit and run. A woman died … bled to death until she was found. Maybe it's the same one. Jade called her spirit and now it wants revenge."

"By pushing cars off the street?" Sam asked doubtfully.

"What is he saying?" Jade wanted to know. So far she had only been able to follow Sam's side of the conversation. And she was dying to know what his brother had found out. "Who is pushing cars off the street? I told you we were hit!" She pointed out triumphantly.

Again Sam rolled his eyes … between his brother and Jade he wasn't sure which one could be more annoying.

"Who knows how those things are ticking." Dean shrugged. "I'm on my way back. Maybe you can find something out about that accident on the internet … or better, I'll go to the library and do it there. This way you can get some rest."

"Don't be ridiculous. It'll go much fast if I do it from here. So skip the library and get back here." With that said, Sam ended the connection before Dean could object in any way. His brother was acting weird. First the hint of guilt when he thought he had woken him up and now he wanted to do the research in the library so he could get some sleep? And Dean thought he was the one acting weird with talking to a ghost and all that.

"So?" Jade looked at him expectantly.

"Well, we have some leads. Have you ever heard about an accident a few years ago? A woman died, happened on the same road we were on." Sam asked while he turned on is laptop and began searching for the local newspaper online. There should be some mention of the accident.

"No, I never heard of it. But I haven't been here in years. After my grandfather died … my grandma shut everyone out. She refused to leave the house or let anyone come visit her anymore and … well, we kinda lost contact." Jade said quietly, regret and guilt audible in her voice.

"How did your grandfather die?" Sam asked quietly.

"He had a heart attack. It happened so sudden … he never had any heart problems or anything and then one day he just collapsed in the garden." Jade told him in a sad voice. "It happened years ago but I still miss him. Jess and I always had a great time here … we used to come here every summer. We even had our own rooms."

Sam stilled at the mention of Jess' name. After her death he hadn't thought he would ever learn anything new about her … and now finding out about the time she had spend at her grandparents with her sister; it was just a small detail, but it had been a part of Jess's life and he was glad to learn about that. He could almost see her telling him about it herself. Her eyes always beamed with joy when she talked about her family and she had this smile on her lips …

"I miss her too." Jade said quietly as if she had read Sam's thought.

Sam looked up at her and their eyes locked … and for the first time Sam felt that he and Jade had actually something in common.

They looked at each other for a long time and it wasn't until they suddenly became aware of what they were doing that they both startled and looked the other way. Sam squirmed uncomfortably on his bed while Jade took a few steps away from him.

"So, uhm …" Sam cleared his throat. "Did the spirit look like this woman?" Trying to ignore the awkwardness between them, Sam pointed at his laptop. He had finally found some information about the accident Dean had talked about.

Jade hesitated a moment before she slowly went to Sam. Trying not to get too close to him, she bend over to look at the monitor. She gasped when her eyes fell on the picture

"Oh my god … that's her." She whispered.

TBC