A/N- I'm sorry for the wait on this, things are a tad on the hectic side for me lately and I'm still in the process of trying to get another job and I've just been really stressed out over some of the events that have been happening in my life lately, so trying to sit down and write wasn't exactly on my "to-do" list. But it is now; I ended up getting lost on my way to a job interview this morning, but the hiring manager was kind enough to allow me to reschedule so as far as that goes…I'll be fine. I hope this is worth the wait though! (I know, I know, a week isn't THAT long to wait for a chapter, but I hate when more then a week goes by and I haven't written anything) Enjoy…or enjoy as much as you can, especially w/ the way John's gonna be acting in future chapters. *evil cackle and hides far, far away*
Chapter 9
Dean let out a long, heavy sigh as he shut his cell phone for the second time in less then an hour and placed it in his pocket. A part of him was relieved that, with this new threat on his little brother's life, their father would be making his face known again to help them, but another part of him still didn't want John anywhere near Sam, especially in his condition. After all, the last time John Winchester had shown his ugly face in front of both him and Sam was back in the hospital, when he had refused to even say a word to his youngest son and was doing everything in his power to get Dean to dessert his brother.
So as much as the older Winchester brother knew that their father would be useful during this sudden turn of events, that didn't mean that Dean had forgiven him.
Far from it actually.
John was going to have to earn that trust back, just like he was going to have to earn his right to be beside Sammy without Dean present in the room. Whether that took days, weeks, months or even years, it didn't matter to Dean; all that mattered was his traumatized, injured little brother…and if John so much as said a word that would cause further hurt to Sam, his ass would be out that door before he even knew what had taken place.
Running a hand over his face and through his hair, Dean shook his head and turned back to the partially open doorway to his and Sam's room and watched as his brother shifted slightly in his sleep, a quiet moan escaping him. Frowning slightly, the older brother was at Sam's side in two strides and just as he took a seat beside him, the moans soon turned to heart-breaking whimpers.
"Goddamnit, not again!" Dean growled under his breath, starting to feel physically ill as he knew that once again, for the second time that day, Sam was going to be waking up from yet another vision. Placing a gentle but firm hand on his brother's shoulder and shaking, Dean attempted to wake him before this vision caused too much pain and agony,
"Wake up, Sam-"
Before he could even finish the sentence, Dean watched as Sam's wide, hazel eyes flew open and a loud gasp escaped him. Removing his hand for the time being, the older Winchester held his hands out in front of him, trying to appear as calming as possible for his brother's sake,
"It's okay, Sammy; you're okay-"
"No," Sam interrupted with a shake of his head. His entire body trembled violently as he attempted to sit straight up and his arms gave out from under him as he collapsed back onto the bed,
"Dean…"
"You're okay, kiddo," Dean tried to sound as reassuring as possible as he moved closer to help lift the kid into a sitting position on the bed,
"I gotcha." Once Sam was situated, Dean's frown deepened and his green eyes soon took on a look of fear as he watched his brother rub his forehead as if he was in pain,
"Sammy?"
"What's happening to me?" Sam mumbled under his breath, closing his eyes tightly to try and stop the shooting pain in his forehead. Would the pain ever end? And what was with all of these things he had been seeing lately, whether it be dreams or while he was awake? Rubbing his forehead once more, the younger brother painfully opened his eyes to look Dean in the eye.
"Another one?" Dean answered the question with a question of his own. He was in now way prepared to explain these visions to Sammy, he wasn't prepared for the look of shock and agony that was bound to appear on his little brother's face once he knew. But he couldn't lie to him; that was one thing he was vowing never to do, especially with Sam's current condition.
"I saw…Dean…" Sam was nearing hyperventilation by now as he tried to take in every single detail of…whatever it was he had just seen,
"I saw it…"
"What did you see, Sam?" Dean demanded, moving both hands until they were resting on the back of Sam's neck, feeling the perspiration and the dampness of his brother's hair against his fingers,
"Tell your big brother what is you saw and I'll fix it, okay?"
"You can't fix this, Dean; you can't," Sam felt his fragile heart break as he said those words which he knew would hurt his brother. But it was the truth; nothing could fix these nightmares and deep down, Dean knew that,
"I know that now…"
"What the hell do you mean I can't?" Dean demanded, giving his brother a slight shake, his eyes never leaving Sam's sad gaze,
"Of course I can-"
"No," The younger brother shook his head, lowering his eyes down to his hands and running his hand over the cast still encasing his left arm,
"Not this time, Dean-"
"Tell me what you mean by that." There was no room for argument in Dean's current tone and it only made Sam flinch. Silently cursing himself for causing that flinch, Dean moved his hands down to his brother's face and cupped his cheeks with gentleness only a big brother could provide,
"Sammy?"
"They won't go away, Dean," Sam's voice started shaking, even when he refused to meet Dean's eyes,
"None of them will go away-"
"Tell me what you saw, Sam."
"No."
"Sam!" Dean gave his little brother another shake and he mentally kicked himself when Sam finally lifted his gaze up to meet his eyes and saw the tears now shining in them,
"Sammy-"
"I saw you die, Dean! And Bobby!"
If there was anything Dean was unprepared for right then, it was this. Sam was now seeing him die? And Bobby? What the hell?
Forcing back the fear churning in his gut at this revelation, and trying to keep his own emotions under control, Dean tightened his grip on Sam's face and refused to let him turn away again,
"I'm not going anywhere, Sam. You know that."
"Yes you are," Sam was now sobbing openly as he spoke,
"You're going to die, you and Bobby are going to die, Dean…and I can't…I can't…" His shaking continued as he spoke through his tears,
"You can't stop these dreams, Dean; and I can't save you and Bobby…or even me…I'm going to die, too-"
"The hell you are, Sam!" Dean growled loudly before he pulled his sobbing little brother into his strong arms,
"I'm not dying. Bobby's not dying. And you're sure as hell not dying, not under my watch. I swear on mom's grave, Sammy; I won't let you down."
Sensing Sam's hesitance and fear as his shoulders continued shaking underneath his hands, and the way he was still shaking his head, Dean only tightened his arms around his brother and lifted a hand to rest it on the back of his head,
"Sam, there's something I need to tell you about regarding these dreams you're having, alright? It's something you forgot about after the accident…" Feeling his brother tense up, Dean bit his lower lip and continued quietly,
"This isn't how I wanted to bring this up to you, Sam; but I have to tell you because I won't lie to you."
A few minutes went by before Sam finally spoke, his voice more quiet, but still shaking,
"I don't know if I want to know it…I'm too scared to know it, Dean…"
"I know you are," Dean nodded in understanding,
"But I got you and I won't let anything happen to you." When Sam didn't say anything else, the older Winchester chose to cut right to the chase and went for it,
"These dreams you've been having aren't dreams and nightmares, Sammy. You've been having visions for well over a year now, long before the accident. They went from realistic dreams that came true to you seeing things in the middle of the day."
"Visions?" Sam repeated against his brother's shoulder.
"Yeah," The older brother sucked in a sharp breath. This was not how he wanted to do this; this was not the way he had planned on doing this,
"You had visions of people dying, Sammy-" Feeling his brother pulling away from him, Dean cursed himself all over again as he saw the terror present in his brother's large eyes,
"It's okay, Sam-"
"So you are going to die-"
"No! No, I'm not going to die, Sam!" Dean repeated, raising his voice slightly to attempt to get through to his frightened brother,
"Even when you had those visions before, we've been able to save people, Sammy; and that's what we're gonna do here. There's some bastard named Gordon Walker after you; Bobby told me he thinks he recognized that man from your last vision. Now that we know that this son of a bitch is around, we can take him out…and don't think for a second that I won't, because none of us are gonna die." Still seeing the doubt on Sam's face, Dean pressed on,
"I won't leave you alone in this god-forsaken world, Sammy. I won't. And neither will Bobby. This bastard is going down and dad is going to help us." He was silent for a few moments as he watched Sam slowly start to loosen up and some of the fear started to leave his eyes,
"Trust me, Sammy; I'm begging you here."
"I trust you." The reply came instantly and Dean was unable to stop the small smile from appearing on his face.
0000
"Remember what we talked about, Walker," John's voice was filled with seriousness and at the same time, malice,
"Give me a few days to earn Dean's trust; I'll keep you up to date by my cell." He swung his bag into the front seat of his larger-then-life truck and turned back to the fellow hunter,
"And that bullet that's left in the Colt…I don't want that used on anybody or anything besides Sam. No demons, no vampires, nothing. Are we clear on that?"
"No need to tell me twice, Johnny boy," Gordon Walker rolled his eyes from where he stood in the doorway of the motel room,
"But I never asked you this…That bullet was reserved for that Yellow-Eyed demon you've been after for over 20 years and now suddenly you want it on your son. Why the Colt, John?"
"Because Sam's just as bad as Yellow-Eyes, Gordon," The older man replied as he slammed the door of his truck,
"Maybe even worse…" A tinge of sadness was heard in his voice, but John shoved any feeling of remorse he might be feeling as far down as it would go. There was no time to feel remorse or pity for this monster who wore his son's face; Sam was not his son anymore. He never was his son ever since his Mary was killed in Sam's nursery. It was because of little Sammy Winchester that this whole mess started; it was because of little Sammy that Mary was killed and Dean now hated his guts. This monster had to be vanquished off the face of the earth, it was for the greater good,
"I'll go back to taking out the yellow-eyed son of a bitch after Sam is taken care of…and I'll figure out another way to take it down; this is more important."
"I never thought I would hear those words come out of John Winchester's mouth," Gordon chuckled, arms crossed over his chest.
"Yeah, well, it's something that must be done," John climbed into the truck and stuck his head out the window before he pulled out of the motel parking lot,
"Just make sure that bullet goes straight through Sam's heart. If you used a regular gun, he could heal and Dean would just patch him up. The Colt on the other hand-"
"-will kill anything and anyone," Gordon finished, his trademark smirk never leaving his face as John nodded in confirmation and pulled out of the parking lot, gravel flying this way and that as the truck disappeared down the road.
0000
Bobby groaned and rubbed his knuckles from where he had just thrown a hard, long-overdue punch into John Winchester's jaw and bit back the curses he wanted to throw right into the younger hunter's face. Ignoring the tight glare of annoyance thrown his way, the older man stepped in John's way, blocking the doorway to his house and held out a bottle of beer filled with holy water to him instead.
"Holy water? Really, Bobby?" John growled, shooting another glare at the man.
"Humor me, you ass," Bobby snapped, shoving the bottle into his hand,
"You're not stepping into this house until you drink that. And you're not going anywhere near those boys either until I know for certain you're not possessed."
Tilting his head back and letting the liquid burn down his throat, John sighed heavily and shoved the bottle back to Bobby,
"You going to knick me with silver, too-" His words were cut off when he felt another hard punch to his jaw,
"Fuck!" He cursed loudly, stumbling backwards on the front porch,
"The hell was that for, Singer?"
"For being an asshole of a father, that's why," The gruff hunter snapped, finally stepping aside and allowing John to pass, but never taking his eyes very far from the devil's traps he had secured to the entrance of his home,
"Do you seriously think you can just call out of the blue after having ignored Sam and Dean, and act like you can just apologize and things will be all good?" He didn't wait for John to answer before he glared daggers at the other man,
"Because I'm tellin' ya, there's only one fool in this house and it's not me or the boys! You've got a lot to make up for and not just with Dean; do you have any clue what you did to Sam?"
"I told Dean over the phone, Bobby, I wanted to make up for all of that shit," John replied, impatience leaking into his tone of voice,
"I don't expect either of them-or you for that matter-to trust me-"
"Good," Bobby snorted, the glare never leaving his face,
"Because you'd be an even bigger asshole if you assumed Dean or Sam would forgive you that easily. You're in luck Dean even agreed with me to give you a call back up to help protect Sam…" He lowered his voice slightly as they neared the added-on bedroom, noticing that the door was now shut all the way,
"Dean told you about Sam's visions about Gordon Walker, right?"
"He did," John confirmed, biting back the retort he wanted more then anything to fling at Bobby,
"I mean, yes, he told me about them before the accident and everything, but he also said Sammy hasn't had them since the accident. Not until recently, that is…"
"They're getting more and more violent, too," Bobby stopped in front of the closed door and turned hard eyes to John,
"As in, he's already had visions of himself dying; and if that wasn't enough, he's even seen Dean and myself biting the big one…and of course Gordon Walker was behind all of it." He met John's concerned gaze with a stern look,
"If you so much as say or do anything to cause Sam any emotional pain, Dean won't be the only one throwing that ass of yours out of my house. And if you so much as start harassing Dean anymore about leaving his brother to go back to hunting, that'll earn you another ass-kicking. So none of that bullshit, you idjit."
Not bothering to see if the younger hunter was even going to reply, Bobby opened the bedroom door and stepped inside, shutting the door in John's face before he could come in,
"Dean?" His eyes met the older Winchester brother's saddened green ones from where he was sitting beside a sleeping Sam on his bed,
"How's he doin'?"
"There haven't been any new visions since he saw me dying," Dean sighed, checking his brother's face to make sure there weren't any signs of troubled sleep,
"And that was a few hours ago. Thank God…the kid needs the sleep…"
"And so do you," Bobby pointed out with an arched eyebrow, forcing back the retort that was on his lips when he saw his friend roll his eyes to the ceiling,
"Stubborn, stupid idjits…"
"What is it, Bobby?" The younger man changed the subject, his eyes never leaving his brother's face.
"That daddy of yours is here; he's out in the hall," The older hunter spit out, waiting for Dean's snappy comeback,
"And before you ask, he's not possessed. I've already tested him."
"He's here already?" Dean grumbled quietly, his eyes narrowing into slits,
"Is he still apologizing?"
"He sure is," Bobby answered,
"But he also knows you don't trust him, but he's willing to work on that."
Snorting and rolling his eyes once more, Dean leaned his head back against the headboard of Sam's bed,
"Go ahead and send him in. Might as well get this over with."
"You're staying here with Sam, right?"
"Do I look that stupid to you?" Dean demanded, shooting an annoyed glare his friend's way, but was unable to hold back the tiny smile when Bobby glared right back at him,
"I'm not leaving Sam's side while dad's here; so if he has a problem with that, he can go to Hell."
Forcing himself not to laugh at the words coming out of Dean's mouth, Bobby chose to ignore them and turned back around to open the door again, letting John through,
"I'll be outside if you need anything." Leaving the door open, the older hunter walked away, a tense silence filling the air in the bedroom.
"Dean." John didn't know what it was he was supposed to say first, but as he met Dean's hard gaze and then Sam's sleeping form, he knew one thing. He had to be extremely careful, more careful then he had ever been before because if this went south, taking Sam down was going to be his responsibility…even if he had to take Dean down with him.
"Dad." The younger Winchester replied flatly, moving a hand to lay protectively on top of Sam's head,
"Wasn't expecting you that quickly."
"I never went that far, Dean," John replied in as much of a sincere voice as he could muster,
"How's your brother?"
"So you really do care after all, huh?" Dean sarcastically retorted, narrowing his eyes into slits,
"I guess you'll have to ask him that yourself when he wakes up, won't you?" He pinned his father with a hard glare,
"I'm surprised you even came, dad."
"Your brother's safety is important to me, too, Dean," The older man took a seat in the chair on Sam's other side,
"I acted like I couldn't care less; I acted like a heartless bastard and for that, I'm deeply sorry. If it makes you feel any better…I feel horribly guilty about what I said, this being Sammy's fault, the group home, everything-"
"Good." Dean snapped,
"You deserve to feel guilty."
"Dean, I'm trying here-"
"You know I'm not going to trust you that easily, dad," Dean interrupted with a scowl on his face,
"This is Sammy we're talking about here and I refuse to let you hurt him like that ever again, you hear me?"
"I hear you, Dean," John nodded his head, attempting a small smile towards his son,
"You boys didn't deserve how I acted-"
"No, we didn't."
"But I'm here now, Dean; I'm here and I'm going to help you out with this Gordon Walker character, or whoever it is that your brother's having these visions about." He waited as Dean's gaze softened somewhat, but his eyes remained narrowed at him,
"I'll prove to you, and to Sam, that you can trust me again."
"I hope so," Dean quietly replied as he felt movement underneath his hand and saw his baby brother start to stir some more,
"Because I'm only doing this for Sammy's sake; he's missed you something horrible and I refuse to let him down by making the mistake of trusting you."
0000
TBC
