A/N: OK now that I have Jo figured out it's time to get on with the story shall we ...


Bobby, Your Grocery List Sucks!


The living room was a buzz with talk as Jo walked back in. She'd taken off down the road to find the nearest liquor store, almost forgetting that she had no money till she realized she still had Dean's coat on and luckily his wallet was in his coat pocket. As she'd walked back into the house no one paid any attention to her, which was good, since she felt strange and out of kilter around them all except Dean. Nikki was talking animatedly to Bobby about Purgatory, who was frantically thumbing through stacks of books, Sam was absent, still recovering she guessed, and turned just enough to catch a pointed look from Dean who had a rueful smile on his face as he put out a hand for his jacket.

"Hunter's Helper always works in a pinch ... hot sweaty sex with a handsome guy works even better." He whispered as he took his coat and wiggled his eyebrows at her. She chuckled.

"Thanks for the tip, when I see a handsome guy I might try that." She shot back. Dean narrowed his eyes and shook his finger at her but a loud yell from Bobby had him turning around frowning.

"You find something?" he asked. Bobby nodded.

"Pretty obscure, but yeah I think I did." Bobby stopped, a cold chill running down his spine. He glanced up at Dean. "You're not gonna like this."

Dean sighed. "Never do ... what gives?"

"Looks like we need tainted earth, a native of Purgatory, blood of a virgin, and a weakened rift from a previously opened portal." Dean narrowed his eyes on Bobby and threw his hand over his head.

"Seriously, your grocery list sucks Bobby." Bobby rolled his eyes and looked at Nikki for help. She too was frowning however.

"What he means is that we are in trouble." Dean nodded.

"That I get."

"I've been going over Jo's memories of Purgatory," Nikki flicked her gaze at Dean, her borrowed sight this time coming from Sam, which creeped him out almost as much as seeing her using Diablo's eyes. "Tainted earth would be where Sam rose from hell, the rift would be the room in Detroit where you tried the first time to open the portal to hell. Blood from a virgin would come from me," Dean and Bobby both raised eyebrows at that which she pointedly ignored, "but the Purgatory Native is where we hit a brick wall." Jo frowned.

"What does that mean?" Nikki stared at the book for a moment and sighed. Pushing away from the desk she swiveled in the chair and cast a look down the hallway to where Sam was still resting, a distracted look in her eyes. Dean tried to pinpoint what it was that Nikki was concentrating on but was riveted on what she was saying.

"Neither Bobby nor I can tell if it means we need blood or a whole body that has resided in Purgatory." Dean stared at Nikki for a moment then to Jo. It slowly dawned on him who she was referring to.

"Hell no." Dean shook his head. "Has to be another way, someone else." Nikki sighed and looked over at Jo, a deep sadness settled in her face. Jo's eyes watered, but she quickly looked away.

"Bloody hell ..." Nikki's eyes went wide as she bolted from the chair, papers flying to the floor. "Diablo! To me now!" She yelled, as Bobby jumped to his feet. Diablo appeared in the room and immediately went after Nikki who was racing for the door. The hell hound took one giant leap to the bottom of the steps and began a low howl.

Everyone rushed into the hallway to see what had spooked her so badly, but was quickly knocked back as Nikki flew back into the living room and whipped out her flash drive from her net-book.

"What the hell is going on Nikki!" Dean yelled.

"We've been set up!" Nikki turned to Dean with fear in her eyes. "Get in the car and drive as fast as you can to Detroit, you know which room ..." she loaded her flash drive and net book in its case and handed it to Bobby. "Get the book ... no that one!" She knocked the book out of Bobby's hand and tossed the one he'd been reading from into it as they all stared at her liked she'd gone crazy. The lights in the house began to dim and the ground started to rumble. They all cast wary glances at her. She cursed and pointed to Jo. "She's the key to opening Purgatory ... the whole bloody gate is in Jo! The Dragons didn't want to deal, they wanted to raise the stakes! The seizures Sam is having - information collection! Hell is tapping his thoughts, he's the leak! I made sure he won't wake back up for a while but you have to get them out of here NOW!"

"Son of a bitch ... !" Dean exclaimed as he looked out the window at the massive black demonic cloud heading their way. He looked back at Nikki eyes wide. "Move, now!" Him and Bobby wrestled Sam's prone body into the car as Jo jumped in the backseat beside Bobby, resting Sam's head on her lap. Dean stood there with the door open and looked over the top of the car. At least eight other huge hell hounds had joined Diablo and where staring in to the distance with teeth bared. He glanced up at Nikki who had yet to leave the porch.

"Nikki get in the car!"he yelled. She shook her head, her gazed fixed on the black cloud.

"Nikki, get in the damn car or I'll throw you in myself!" She smiled softly at Dean once and then her eyes went blank as she gave up Sam's sight.

"Go Dean, now!" She slammed Dean's mind with a physic 'push', a strong command to leave that she knew he couldn't fight, and with one last sorrowful look at Nikki he slammed the door and peeled out of the driveway, the Impala not needing any coaxing. As the black car weaved in and out of Bobby's carefully constructed devils trap made from junk cars, and onto the black top, her back end fishtailed as Dean hammered the gas. The last look he got was a blinding flash of light as the legion of demon's washed over the porch in an inky billow of black smoke.


You could hear nothing but ragged breathing in the car as Dean push it to the limit, eating up miles of road between Bobby's house and the demons. Somewhere in his head he knew that Nikki was gone, and if he focused on it he'd be sick. Sam still hadn't woken up, Jo had his head cradled in her lap, her pale face still shell shocked. Bobby had slipped into the front seat, his face a mask as he stared at the road, the book Nikki had given him lay forgotten in his lap. Dean cast suspicious glances in the rear view mirror occasionally to make sure nothing was following them. All eye's finally turned to him, and their weight was crushing.

"How's Sam?" he asked quietly, Jo shook her head. Bobby looked back at him for a second then over at Dean.

"If she was right ..." he stopped for a second, his throat closing as he thought of Nikki, "we need to keep as much information from him as we can." Dean nodded stiffly. If Demon's had been tapping Sam's memories for hints about Purgatory since he got his soul back that meant they had no idea how to pop that door. And since they had the 'door' sitting in their back seat that meant they'd be sitting ducks if he woke up and overheard any conversation about what had went on. It also meant they wouldn't be able to tell him what happened to Nikki. Dean sighed.

"You think she somehow made it out of there?" Jo asked quietly from the back seat. Dean met her gaze in the mirror and shook his head.

"I don't see how ..."

"Maybe the hounds held them off and she made it to the panic room ..." Bobby offered. Dean wanted to latch on to some way she could have survived the attack but every instinct told him she was dead. If a Legion of demon's were able to break through Bobby's safeguards, which were numerous and powerful, then the panic room wouldn't have provided much safety for her. He shivered, and had to fight the urge to gag, his mind violently refusing to think about what Nikki would have went through. He shoved it away, pushing it down to that pit of despair, rage, and anger that he reserved for his hunter's instincts.

"Dean, maybe it's time we called Cas." Dean shook his head.

"No, she told us what we needed to do. Next town we come to we'll stop long enough to gas up, get something to eat, and keep on driving. You need to open that laptop and see what she was working on, figure out her plan." Bobby nodded quietly, knowing now wasn't the time to push Dean.


They rolled into the gas station of a small town just outside of Fairmont about mid-morning. Dean pulled himself out of the car slowly, stretching tired aching muscles. Jo headed for the bathroom and Bobby was already buying coffee and food. Dean opened the door and looked in the backseat where his brother lay. His body was cold, slight tremors occasionally rocked his body, but other than that Sam hadn't woke up, and Dean knew why. The wall was down, or at least the biggest part of it, the part that counted anyway. It didn't take a psychic to tell him that his brother was in trouble, just how much trouble Dean didn't know. He ran a hand over his face, the familiar feeling of hopelessness stealing over him.

"Sam will wake Dean, you have nothing to fear there." Dean turned to face Death.

"Will he be ..." Death cocked his head at Dean and cast an irritated glare at him.

"Have you not learned anything? Always the wrong questions Dean." Death waved a hand and time appeared to stop around them. A table and chair came from nowhere along with two chairs. As Death sat at the table, he waved a hand towards the opposite chair. Dean sat, grateful for once for the pile of junk food in front of him. He waited for Death to slice into his pizza before Dean began doing the same. Starving, near exhaustion, he began eating with gusto, knowing that Death would drop whatever bomb he had soon enough. At least he'd take it this time on a full stomach.

"Your reasoning for the way things have played out for you and your brother to the blonde in the bathroom was very insightful. I was impressed. You seem to have truly begun to grasp the magnitude of things." Dean nodded, but didn't say anything. Death looked at him once then continued.

"Nikki left explicit details on her," he paused for a moment, "net book concerning her sessions with Sam. I believe he will find them very insightful later."

Dean threw his pizza on his plate and pushed back a bit from the table, anger twisting his face into a snarl. "You son of a bitch. You knew she was going to die when you sent her to Sam. Do you know, much less care, what this is going to do to him?" Death calmly continued to eat.

"Death has a purpose Dean, a meaning in the grand scheme of things." Dean started to roll his eyes but a look from Death stopped the action.

"I've done everything you asked of me ..."

"The souls Dean?" Dean nearly growled with frustration.

"I'm only human dammit! I ... "Dean stopped himself there, as realization hit him square in the chest. He met Death's eyes over the table who nodded once.

"You are finally starting to see the light." Dean narrowed his eyes.

"You never expected me to find the souls, because they were never lost. You already know where they are. So, what was this all about then? Not because you were concerned about Sam, you don't give a shit about one human soul, it was something else. Something bigger." Now Death stopped eating and stared hard at Dean, his eyes narrowing. Dean didn't budge this time.

"Before you get to Detroit I'm going to send someone to you, a Fate, she has some interesting things to tell you about your angel ally and what he's been up to. And before you insult me one more time Dean," The table disappeared right out from under Dean and he fell to the ground with a loud "Oomph!". Death leaned over him and said, "All souls are precious to me Dean, yours, your brothers, Nikki's, all of them. I have worked very hard to get the order back in place, ensuring as little humans as possible must suffer for the damage that you, your brother, and this feud between heaven and hell have caused. Frankly, I'm sick of it." He straightened and turned. "There's more going on than you understand right now Dean, and for the record, keep to what Nikki said to do. Athropos will be on her way to find you before you get to Detroit."

At that, Death disappeared and time started back up again. Dean sat there for a second and ran a tired hand down his face, when he looked back up Jo was peering down at him. He sighed and stood up.

"We need to find a place to den up for the night Dean ... Bobby needs somewhere he can spread out and go over Nikki's information and ..." her voice trailed off for a moment.

"What?" he asked. She turned back to him.

"Sam is getting worse." Dean immediately made for the car. When he got there he checked in on his brother who definitely had taken a turn for the worse. Sam was ice cold to the touch, his skin pale white, and his lips had a blue hue to them. But his shirt was soaked in sweat and his body was rocked with spasms.

"OK, this isn't good." He looked at Bobby over the back seat. "How much time you think we got till we need to be in Detroit?"

"Next full moon, that's about four days from now." Bobby cast a doubtful look at Sam. "Not sure if he has one day left Dean. This isn't natural, what's going on with him." Dean nodded.

"Let's find a motel and figure out how to help Sam." Dean slid out of the backseat and turned to look at Jo.

"How you holding up?" He asked, noting the way she held herself away from him.

"Fine." Dean nodded and walked around to get in, accepting that there just wasn't enough time to deal with all the fucked up things in his life, including his feelings for Jo right now.

They drove to the first motel they could find, checked in, and settled in the room. An hour later he'd finally gotten Sam out of his sweat soaked shirt and on the bed. He'd stood there looking at him, wondering what kind of hell his brother was going through, if he even knew what was going on around him. For an second Dean felt like giving up. He'd wanted Sam back, was so happy to see him with Nikki, and now it was killing him to think that Sam might wake up and he'd have to explain that he'd left her behind in order to save themselves. He knew he'd done all he could for Sam right now, trusting that eventually he would wake up like Death had said. He leaned in and whispered softly "I'm right her little brother, I'll always be right here Sam." When he got no response he stood up and went to the bathroom to take a shower, never once turning to acknowledge the sad looks coming from Bobby and Jo who had sat down at the table and were going through Nikki's files.

"We're going to have a visitor tonight." Bobby and Jo looked up from their research questioningly as Dean came out of the bathroom with nothing but half buttoned jeans and scowl on his face. Jo looked away, slightly embarrassed to be caught openly staring at him. Dean would have been moved to make a raunchy comment but he was to damn tired to flirt, much less fight, which is what he figured was coming. Jo would sacrifice herself to make things right, which wasn't going to happen again on his watch, and she thought she was doing a good job at hiding that fact. But Dean had been down that road to many times to be fooled, just right now, he was way to tired to deal with it.

"A Fate, Athropos or something. She's got information that Death wanted her to share. Wake me when she shows or if Sam gets worse ..."They all looked at Sam then back to Dean who sighed. "More worse ... I don't know ... just fucking wake me when shits hits the fan!" He growled and immediately fell into some much needed sleep.


A/N: Yikes ... Dean resembles Atlas, the Greek God who holds the world on his shoulders doesn't he? Poor guy. You know he secretly feels responsible for Nikki's death, since he didn't stay or force her in the car. Now his brother is dying (not really but hey - Death can be fickle right?), he's facing loosing Jo for the second time, and life in general is just sucking for him right now. Wish I could say it was going to get better - but it just wouldn't be an SPN-fanfic if it turned out all sunshine and roses huh?