Author's Chapter Notes:

Hi Sorry for the delay, work and stupid PC have delayed this

Little note : Robert Campbell is mentioned in TKARA 3.02 as being Mary's uncle, a heart surgeon that died 19/07/2001, killed either by Azazel or for him, it does really clarify which. Sam is looking in the family history in the motel room. My character is a relation of his as I will explain in this chapter.

Thanks, Mary x

White outlines a plan of attack

Ruby had to almost sprint across the carpark as she struggled to keep up with the brutal pace that Sam set across it. Sam was already walking into the restaurant by the time she caught him and pulled his arm to stop him there in the doorway.

She got her breath back and flicked her head towards the far end of the diner. "The two guys in the end booth…that's them."

"Ok." Sam walked up the aisle and Ruby caught him up again and turned him to her, trying to make it look like an embrace and not as if she was restraining a madman, which she felt at the moment she was. Sam's anger shone from him.

"Wait, you not going to do it here are you?"

Sam almost laughed at the shock on her face as he peeled her fingers off him. "I am…I'm going to slip into the booth beside them, I'm gonna yank them out where they sit and then I'm going back to check on my brother."

He went to start down the aisle and she grabbed him again.

"You can't be serious!" She tried to keep her voice down and her face hidden aware that the demon facing them was now looking in their direction, the 6' 4" raging giant being restrained by the slip of a girl next to him catching the demon's attention.

There was a steely determination in Sam's voice when he spoke again. "Watch me. Alastair likes public displays…he's gonna get one. Keep the waitress busy."

Sam walked up and slipped into the booth.

"Morning, nice day isn't it?" His tone was affable and light, but he knew that his eyes were betraying the turmoil inside him.

"I think you've got the wrong booth there…boy!" The demon across from him lent over the table and into his face. "Now why don't you go, get your little lady there and get out."

Sam smiled a sweet, disarming smile. "Sorry, can't do…I need you to get out first I'm afraid."

He heard the clatter from behind him, took it as his signal from Ruby and raising his left hand in front of him, he grabbed the arm of the demon next to him with his right. Sam felt it this time, his gift. It was like a power surge and he was aware that the lights in the restaurant dipped briefly as he locked on to his two targets with more force that he could usually initially muster, his anger at Alastair feeding it. These demons weren't as strong he had feared, he realised that this was going to be easy. He focused all his anger at the men with him and did exactly what he'd told Ruby that he would. He yanked the demons out, the black smoke this time pouring from their lips and the men left behind slumping instantly over the table.

It was over in seconds and his head was buzzing from the effect. Sam took only a moment to gather himself and the reached out and touched both their necks, smiling as he felt their pulses under his fingertips. Quickly he extracted himself from the booth and pushed past a startled Ruby who was kneeling down, helping to clear up the tray she'd deliberately knocked from the waitress' hand. She stood up, a flustered look on her face and then, with one last look at the booth, she scrambled after Sam.

"What did you do?" She caught up with him at the car. She looked back at the window of the diner and watched as the waitress headed towards the two prone men. "Are they….?"

"Alive?" Sam finished the sentence for her. "Yeah, I exorcised them. I told you…I'm not in the mood to hang about here…Dean's gonna need me when he wakes up." He opened the car door and slid in waiting until she rounded it and got in too. "You were right by the way. Alastair is playing with both of us. Those demons were just foot soldiers, it was too easy. I think he wanted me to leave Dean alone. I think he wanted us out of the way."

"Why?"

"I don't know…but I have a bad feeling about this."

---

Dean struggled to open his eyes and focus on the face in front of him. He vaguely remembered the face that swan before him.

"Who….?" It was all he could force out. He felt the restraining hand against his chest.

"I'm the guy that helped you and your brother at the bar in Hell. Name's Robert."

Dean tried to force his body up off the bed but Robert held him there. "I wouldn't move just yet if I was you, I don't think your done healing yet." He reached into his jacket and pulled out a small flask. "Here, drink a little of this, it'll help with the pain."

Dean tried to turn his head away from the stranger but Robert gripped his face and held him there. "If I was trying to hurt you I could have done it before you woke up. I'm here to help. Trust me."

Dean studied the man. He felt that he was looking in a fairground mirror, the man reminded Dean of himself but he was leaner and although it was hard to tell from this angle, he looked taller. He found that for a reason that he couldn't explain that he did want to trust him. "Where's Sam?"

"Your brother left with his pet demon."

Dean raised an eyebrow.

"How did I know about that? I know a lot about your family Dean and I'll explain when Sam gets back, now, will you please drink this?" Dean hesitated for only a second and then let Robert pour the liquid into his mouth. It stung and he could feel it burning all the way down inside. "Shit." He shut his eyes and waited until the burn changed into a pleasant warmth that ran through his whole body. It seemed to quell the excited chatter of the others in his head too, holding them at bay, for how long him didn't know but he was grateful of the small reprieve. He finally found his voice again.

"What was that?" Dean screwed his face up at the bitter after taste in his mouth.

"Just a little family pick me up." Robert pulled Dean's arms straight and pushed his three-quarter length sleeves all the way up, turning and examining the arms as he did. "The marks are almost gone, you should feel a little better soon."

"Help me up." Dean held out his hand and Robert gently lifted him and slid him up against the pillows.

"Don't try to talk just now, just rest, like I said we can talk when your brother gets here." He walked over and got the bottle of water from his bag. "Here."

"Thanks." Dean struggled to open the top of bottle, finding that his hands and his muscles didn't seem to quite belong to him yet. Robert took the bottle and twisted it open.

"Can you manage from here?"

"Not sure." Dean closed his eyes and made fists with his hands trying to force the life back into them.

Robert lent over with the bottle and held it up to Dean's lips. "I won't tell if you don't."

Dean hesitated for a moment and then smiled at him, accepting his help.

"How's the pain?"

"Still there." Their conversation was interrupted as Dean turned his head to the door, the familiar rumble of the Impala's engine catching his attention as it drifted through the room. "He's back."

----

Sam burst through the room door, stopped, and then rushed towards the man sitting on the edge of the bed next to his brother. He caught Robert by the jacket and swung him round hard and into the wall. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

Robert tried to push him off but couldn't, Sam was like an angry bear. "If you've touched him…."

"I came to help." Robert tried to get the words out as Sam crushed him harder against the wall.

"Sam." Dean's voice pierced through Sam's red mist a little and for the first time he realised that Dean was awake and sitting up. "It's ok. Let him go."

"Not until he tells me who he is and why he's here."

"Sam!" Dean raised his voice and then started to cough, bringing up little bits of blood as he did. He dropped his head and inhaled sharply through his teeth as a little residual of pain followed the blood up his insides.

Sam dropped Robert and was instantly at his brother's side. "We should get you checked out."

Dean sat for a moment until he was sure that he could speak. "Nah, I'm fine."

"Yeah 'cos you look it." Sam's anger hadn't abated, it has just found a new target.

"I'm fine." He managed to make it sound a little stronger.

Sam sighed and turned back to Robert.

"Well? Talk. You've got five minutes."

----

"My name's Robert Campbell."

Robert was pacing back and forward at the end of the beds and Dean had to eventually stop following his path, the movement of his head making him feel queasy. Sam however was following every movement that the other man was making. Dean could see that Sam didn't trust him and Dean found himself wondering briefly again why he did.

Sam raised his eyebrows as he heard the name and Dean threw his brother a look. "Name mean something to you?" Dean had a little thought of his own niggling at the back of his brain but it was buried for the moment under thin layers of pain and the voices that still echoed round inside him.

Sam never took his eyes off Robert as he spoke, an edge to his voice that made Dean reached out and grip his wrist. "Our great uncle, mom's uncle….that was his name."

Robert smiled at him and ran his hand over his face in a gesture that Sam was more familiar with his brother making when he was nervous or stressed.

"Robert was my granddad. The demons killed him, he was in his seventies, there was no need for them to do that…apart from the fact that he was related to your mom. They took my dad too, the same year."

Sam had open hostility in his voice when he spoke. "Why didn't they come for you too then, and what about your mom? Azazel killed them all, all mom's relatives, her friends, hell he even killed her doctor…so why aren't you dead and why didn't I find a trace of you when I was looking through the family?"

Robert sighed. "Your aunt? Not my mother. She was a one night stand when dad was eighteen and your aunt and him were already married. We didn't live with him, he just came by to visit when he could."

"Oh…" Sam wanted to say something but he wasn't sure what.

"It's not a big deal, at least not now it isn't. Dad liked to get about a bit, in fact I'm probably not the only one that's out there, I'm just the only one that he found out about. I don't blame him though, I'm not exactly a saint myself."

"So you're family." Dean looked up at him from the bed. "Why now? Why did you wait 'til now to come to us."

"You called me."

Sam looked at Dean. "Another secret Dean?"

Dean bristled at the accusation, wishing he felt well enough to stand up, fed up with being looked down at. "I didn't! Don't scowl at me like that!"

Both brothers turned to stare at the elder man when he spoke. "I didn't mean call as in lift the phone, call…" He touched his head. "…I mean call, as in 'for god's sakes help me' call."

Dean looked at him. " Funny, don't remember doing that either."

Robert stopped pacing and connected with Dean's gaze. "You and I we have a link, a connection. I can feel what you feel. I can dream your dreams."

"That must be fun for you."

"Not so much. You don't remember me at all do you?"

"Should I?" Dean raised his eyebrows and shrugged at his brother's quizzical look.

"I'm a healer and an empath. Dad and I paid a visit to your Dad after the fire, it was Sam's first birthday."

Dean's memory gave a little kick, the soft voices, people whispering to him and about him. "I wasn't talking."

"John was worried."

"So you….you healed me after the fire? Newsflash, you didn't do that good a job of it."

"I tried, I was only ten or eleven myself….but I tried. You were at least talking by the time we left."

"How did you find out that you could heal people?" Sam had watched the exchange quietly until now, but he had questions that he wanted answers too as well.

"My mother had the gifts. She showed me how to use them."

"So what…you're here to heal me now? How can you do that…it's not like I'm sick." Dean's voice had a sceptical tone in it.

"I'm an empath too remember and not just an ordinary one. I'm not here to heal you, this thing that Alastair is doing, if we stop it and get the souls out, then your body should heal itself. I'm going to get you to have a little talk with the souls locked inside you and then we'll see about getting them out."

Sam interrupted. "You can't get them out."

Robert smiled at him. "I know that I can't…but I think I may know a way you can."

Chapter End Notes:

Hope you like, and thanks for the reviews.

Mary xx