In thanks to those who read and review, here's another chapter for y'all!


Chapter Five:

"So far we've seen five museums, two amusement parks, far too many roadside fast food joints for my cholesterol to ever recover, not to mention all the 'weird, wacky, and wonderful' tourist traps!" Dean frowned at his brother in the passenger seat, momentarily taking his eyes off the road.

"Dude, drive." Sam refocused Dean's attention on the highway with a gesture. "We've all taken turns picking things to see, and besides, one of those museums was all about cars! Not to mention those amusement parks were your idea too." I bet you were just hoping to find some more psycho clowns for us to kill. Sam added mentally. He could tell his brother was getting restless with this whole "normal vacation" thing.

"What would you prefer, Dean?" Said a female voice from the back seat.

"I would prefer-"

Sam cut him off. "I know, let's go check out Roswell!"

"Aw, Sammy! I thought you outgrew that phase!"

"I'm not saying I believe in that crap, Dean, I just think it'd be interesting to see. We've never been there, after all, and who knows, maybe we'll learn something!"

"What is Roswell?" Asked Sarai curiously. From the tone of the argument she gathered they had talked about this before. After two weeks of traveling with the brothers, she had come to realize that much of their interaction revolved around previous shared experiences and inside jokes. Despite the fact that she often had no idea of what they were talking about, Sarai (and R'kenoth) did not feel like an unwanted outsider, instead she felt that her purpose for being on Earth was being fulfilled, as she observed and made mental notes about human behavior, in addition to observing the culture of the society.

"It's a place where supposedly aliens crash-landed to Earth in the 1950s, which was then covered up by the government. There's a museum there that talks about all kinds of alien lore and has exhibits about the different stories." Sam explained.

"Yeah, and in third grade Sammy swore he saw an alien and spent nearly two whole months trying to talk Dad into letting us go do 'research' at Roswell." Dean threw a grin at his younger brother. "Admit it; you just wanted to get the t-shirt."

"Dean, for the last time, it's SAM. And you were interested too; you just wouldn't go against Dad."

"Hey, I'm not the one who said he met E.T." Dean tried to remember why Sam thought he saw an alien. It'd been awhile since he'd thought about the time Sammy went all X-Files on him, looking for proof of aliens.

"It was just a dream I had…" Sam muttered, embarrassed to recall the incident…

Nearly Fifteen Years Ago, the Bedroom of a Shabby Apartment:

"Dean!" The panicked scream woke the twelve year old from a dream about riding a motorbike at tope speed down a deserted highway. If it had been anyone else, dean would've yelled at them to shut up and go back to sleep in order to try and recapture the feeling of the landscape rushing past him in a blur. But it was his little brother who called, and Dean couldn't ignore his fearful cry.

"Sammy? What is it, are you okay?" Instantly wide awake, Dean grabbed the pistol his Dad had ordered him to keep by his bed and quickly ran to Sam's side of the room. Sam sat up in his bed, his covers pulled tight around him and eyes wide with fright. The eight year old insisted that he was old enough to sleep in a separate bed, but when Dad went on hunting trips, Dean often awoke to find his brother curled up next to hum under the covers.

Tonight, Sam had gone to bed on time, which Dean attributed to the fact that he was worn out from the training exercises they'd gone through earlier that day. Their Dad liked to make sure they were in shape to take care of anything supernatural that came after them when he was away, and he'd tested them thoroughly that afternoon before heading to a neighboring town to take care of a pesky haunting. He'd promised to be back in the morning. At any rate, Sam's outburst was all the more startling because usually training days wore both of them out to the point where they could sleep through just about anything.

"Dean, it was right there!" Sam pointed to an empty corner of the room, his hand shaking slightly.

"Sammy, what is it, a ghost?" Dean crouched near his brother's bed, his young hunter's senses straining to detect the spirit or ghost which had disturbed his brother.

"No! It wasn't a ghost!" Sam knew ghosts, and they were kinda scary to look at, but Dean or his Dad always took care of them, so he knew they wouldn't hurt him.

"Good, 'cause I don't think this thing's loaded with rock salt." Dean admitted his relief, and gestured with the pistol in his hand. "Sammy, what did you see? Do we need to call Dad?"

"It was an alien, Dean! With big black eyes, and it was gray and skinny, and had a big head, and-"

Dean stared directly at his brother for a long moment before speaking. "Are you kidding me?? He shouted. "You had a nightmare about an alien? You wake up screaming from a dream about an alien…" He shook his head in disbelief. "And here I was almost worried for a minute!" He stormed over to his own bed and set down the pistol on the bedside table. "Go to sleep, Sam." Following his own advice, Dean pulled the covers up to his chin, and rolled over to face the wall. "And next time you wake me up from an awesome dream, there sure as hell oughtta be a ghoul standing over you!"

Sam shivered, and pulled the blanket around him tighter, looking longingly at his brother's form under the covers on the next bed. "Dean, I was awake when I saw the alien, it wasn't a dream!" He said softly. And it was true. He'd been woken up by a bright flash of light, and when he opened his eyes he saw a small gray form standing in the shadowed corner. At first he'd thought it was just his mind playing tricks on him, but when he reopened his eyes after blinking a few times, it was still there. Petrified, young Sam hadn't even been able to yell as the thing took a step closer. Then a door slammed shut somewhere else in the apartment building, the thin walls allowing the sound to carry. It caught the attention of the alien, and the bright light reappeared an instant later, which is when Sam yelled out to Dean.

Sam ducked under the covers and curled up in a tight ball, trying to forget the terrifying events by thinking of happy memories, anything to get rid of the feeling of being completely helpless and alone. He huddled there for a moment, then made up his mind. He didn't care of Dean said he was too old for cuddling; Sam was not going to stay in his bed by himself tonight. He quickly clambered into Dean's bed, and wrapped himself in the blanket, curling against his brother's backside. Dean only grunted sleepily and moved over to give Sam room on the twin bed. "Go to sleep…" He mumbled. "It wasn't a dream." Sammy insisted, although he realized Dean was asleep already. "I'll prove it to you."

And Sam did his best. Over the next few weeks, he did all the research he could at the elementary school library, and even went to the public library with his dad and Dean once, because they were researching a hunt anyway. All he could find were unconfirmed theories, reports of flying saucer sightings, and wild stories about government cover-ups. Dean mocked him mercilessly, and his Dad firmly told him that it had just been a dream, after all there'd been a ring of salt around the room and all the usual protections against supernatural beings, and aliens didn't exist. Furthermore, Dean insisted that if there had actually been anything in the room with them, he would've woken up before Sam's shout.

The eight-year old had persisted in his search for answers for several weeks, but with no further visitations and a move to a new town and a new school. Sammy gradually forgot to worry about it, and by the time he reached his ninth birthday, he'd chalked it up to a simple childhood nightmare. He had new nightmares to worry about when he got his first gun after telling his dad that he thought something lived in his closet, and he turned his attention to hunting with his dad and brother.

Present Day, A Highway Somewhere near New Mexico:

"Ha ha! That's right, you had that nightmare! I'd nearly forgotten about that." Dean chuckled to himself as he recalled the circumstances surrounding Sam's interest in extraterrestrial beings. "At least you didn't get abducted by them, like that guy at the college!" He teased.

"Dude, I was eight. And you know that guy didn't actually get abducted for real…" Sam trailed off.

"What kind of evidence does this museum have?" Sarai asked intently. The brothers were too busy bickering to notice the sudden sharpness in her tone, or that she had leaned forward in her seat.

"Just random pieces of junk they claim came from outer space." Dean dismissed the so-called proof out of hand. "But I agree: it'd be worth seeing just so Sam can shut up about how he's never been there."

"Fine." Sam decided not to argue the justification, since he was getting what he wanted. "I still say it'll be interesting."

Dean put air quotes around the word 'interesting.' "That's what you said about the world's largest ball of twine. If it's as interesting as that, I'm gonna keel over from all the excitement."

"I thought the ball of twine was fascinating." Sarai put in. R'Kenoth silently agreed. //It aroused in me a feeling of great wonderment. Wonderment as to why anyone would waste that much of their lifetime wrapping string into a large spherical shape.// "But, I must admit to being intensely curious about Roswell and its alien museum. How long will it take for us to get there?" Oh hush. It was a testament to mankind's perseverance, Sarai defended her position. If R'kenoth had been in control, she would've rolled her eyes.

"With Dean driving? Give it a day." Sam smirked at his brother's disregard for such unimportant things as speed limits and traffic laws.

Dean's only response was to crank up the music; today's heavy metal band of choice was AC/DC.

R'kenoth? Sarai asked seriously, ignoring the music for the time being. Although it was entirely different from anything she had heard before, but to her surprise she was growing to like it. Do you think they will actually find any evidence of the goa'uld or extraterrestrial beings at this museum//No, Sarai, I believe that if there were any truth to those stories, the government would've been smart enough to make sure all the evidence was removed from the sight.// But there's always the chance they missed something, right//Why, you sound almost anxious for them to discover something, Sarai. //If they did, it'd mean we wouldn't have to pretend to be human, and that'd make things easier. //It would also make things more dangerous.//

Sarai had to admit R'kenoth had a point. The way the Winchesters had behaved back at the military base had frightened her, especially since Daniel had told her that they sincerely believed that she was possessed by a great evil and were prepared to do a great violence in order to get rid of that evil. //I am curious to see what the Taur'i think aliens look like, though. I expect this stop to be even more exciting than "The Thing" was!// One of the roadside attractions which had thrilled R'kenoth, much to Sarai's amusement, was a cheap tourist trap in Arizona that advertised the mysterious body of an unknown creature found in the desert. A dollar paid for a viewing, in addition to getting to see the rest of the eclectic collection of old cars and other knick-knacks. R'kenoth was very interested in American history and legends, and had very much enjoyed the whole experience.

Although he wouldn't admit it, Dean had liked The Thing as well, since it gave him ample opportunity to tease Sam. Also, unbeknownst to Sarai or R'kenoth, Sam and Dean had a bet going as to whether they would find one single supernatural thing in any of the roadside tourist traps, and Dean had put most of his hope on The Thing. Sam, of course, insisted that it was made out of paper mache. Dean maintained that it was a werewolf and cub, mummified by the desert. Dean clung to his five dollars, insisting that they weren't done with the trip yet, but Sam only laughed and told Dean to hand it over.