AN: I hope you all like this one... I'll do my best to update soon. Take care!


As morning beckoned over the horizon, John was more than a little anxious to go check on his boys. When Joshua had come into the room in the middle of the night, he'd thought he would get some information. Unfortunately all the hunter had said was that Dean had things under control and anything else could be dealt with later. Now it was later and no one else seemed to care that there hadn't been a sound in the next room in the last several hours and it was beginning to worry him. It wasn't like Dean to not let him know what was going on, especially for this long.

"Leave them be John." Joshua said quietly as he continued to drink his coffee and look over the morning paper. He hadn't even bothered to look up, but knew exactly what his friend had been thinking about doing. It was odd how normally he would have been the first one to stay out of John Winchester's way when it came to his boys, but something had changed and he wasn't the only one who'd noticed it. "If they need us, they'll call us." He stated plainly while trying to ignore the straight out lie. It would have to be life or death before Dean would alert anyone to anything he needed, and it looked as if Sam had followed in his brother's footsteps, even unknowingly.

Glaring around the room John noticed the same sentiments on both Jim and Bobby's faces while Caleb continued to feign sleep. It irked him that the one thing he wanted most to do at the moment he couldn't because of the reaction it would cause. Who knew it would be something like this that would make him want to take his youngest boy in his arms and never let go? That thought puzzled him a moment before he sat down hard. The last time he had felt like that was when Sammy was twelve and had been blown out of a tree by a careless hunter's shotgun. Thankfully Sammy hadn't been seriously injured by the buckshot since it was a glancing blow to the arm, but the fall fifteen feet had kept the kid unconscious for a couple of days causing those who cared about him the most to worry that something else was going on. He remembered that the day Sammy woke up was the last day he had actually prayed – begging God to bring his baby boy back to him. After that he had been so worried about feeling that helpless again he had stopped taking extra care of the boys' needs and made sure they knew how to survive.

"Damn it!" he blurted out before he stood and made his way to the door. He had no idea what he was going to do, but he had to figure out a way to fix this before it was really too late.

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Dean was thankfully for the couple hour's sleep he got, but more thankful that Sammy hadn't woke up while he was out for the count. Looking over the other man, he couldn't get past the stronger features in his face but still saw his little brother's scrawny attributes – the vulnerability within him. Sighing he rose from the chair and stretched a bit before he walked over to make a pot of coffee. Something told him that while Sammy would have taken the extra time to catalog his body's injuries and come around slowly, Lucas would deal with whatever needed to be dealt with and the sooner the better.

When the door opened quietly he turned only slightly, already knowing who it would be and wondering what took him so long. This whole ordeal was throwing everyone off their game, but it was most unsettling to watch his dad act as if he had no clue what to do.

"Hey, I'm about to get the coffee going." Dean said while turning his attention back to the task at hand. "So, what's the plan for the day?"

John took a deep breath before turning toward the younger man in the room. "Do you remember that hunt in Gainesboro?"

Puzzled, Dean turned and looked at his dad closely. Something was going on and he had no idea what to think about it. "Which one… the werewolf, or the banshee?"

Smirking, John nodded. Leave it to Dean to point out not just one but two hunts that had gotten so damn screwed up on his watch. "Banshee."

"Yeah, I remember it. Sammy was keeping lookout in the tree and everything would have been fine except some trigger happy yahoo shot first before asking questions."

John wondered why Dean didn't point out that the only reason why it was Sammy in the tree was because he was following orders. Who sends a twelve year old up a tree to keep an eye out for a vengeful banshee? "Yeah, that's the one. Do you think that's when things changed?"

Dean didn't pretend that he didn't know what his dad was talking about, there was no reason to. The truth was though that while his dad had been beating himself up over what happened, Sammy was too. The kid had been trying so hard to make their dad proud that for once he didn't ask questions, just shimmied up that tree as if he'd been doing it all his life and sat as still as possible in that cold valley. "Dad, you really don't want to talk about this. So how about we just…"

"No Dean, I do want to talk about this. I keep remembering his face after he woke up and found out what happened. I never understood what was behind it, and I guess I never wanted to dig that deep, but now… now I have to wonder – would things have stayed the same if I had asked him why he looked at me like that?"

Taking a deep breath Dean knew what his dad was hoping for, but under the circumstances, he couldn't give that to him. Too much had happened and the once invincible man that he used to see no longer existed. "Yeah Dad, it would have stayed the same… at least for a little while. He thought you blamed him, and yeah, I can see why he thought that. You walked in after meeting with the doctors and the only thing on your face was anger. He was twelve years old and having to face you after just waking up and not knowing what happened or even how long he was out for. Would it have killed you to let him know that he hadn't screwed up, that it was a damn fluke that the wind picked up just as that moron turned? It wasn't Sammy's fault that he became partially exposed and the guy was just wanting an excuse to shoot. Instead, what he got was a pissed off dad who began his normal rant of having to leave before anyone else got involved."

Hearing it from that perspective, John couldn't blame Sammy from turning away from him like he had. It had to be hard on him to think that no matter what he did, it would never be good enough – not even if he gave up his life trying. God, how could he have missed it? Nodding, he rubbed his face before looking at his oldest boy. "I was worried. The docs were talking about calling in CPS because they were claiming negligence, the Sheriff was asking questions about why were there in the first place, and all I could see was Sammy's pale face and him not moving. He could have died Dean, and that didn't set well with me. I know I didn't handle it like I should, but I never hated him – I was more worried for him."

"Yeah, well, you might have taken two seconds to tell him that instead of pointing out how much he wasn't measuring up." Dean said as he poured a cup of coffee. Pausing for a moment he finally turned around. "Why don't you and the others head out for breakfast? I've got things covered here and you can bring me back something. Oh, and something for the kid." Seeing his dad was almost out the door he called out. "Hey, don't forget the pie! They make the best pies in the morning!"

The door closed with a soft click and the muffled muttering of John could be heard before another door opened and closed. Dean held out the cup of coffee with a quirk of his eyebrows and grinned. "Up and at 'em sleepyhead."

"Yeah, yeah. So, mind telling me what that was all about?" Lucas asked groggily as he reached for the coffee.

"I have no clue man… honestly, no clue."

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John stayed quiet while everyone ate; ignoring the pointed looks he was receiving from his friends. He knew that he wasn't acting like himself, but at the moment he trying to put the pieces together. The night they lost Sammy was foremost on his mind and he wasn't sure exactly what significance it had, but he had the feeling that he was missing something… something vital. The scenes of that night played over and over in his head and the only thing that he could come up with was the witch's answer to their question. All this time he'd never paid attention, but now the last word that he heard from her mouth seemed to echo in his brain. Disaster… that's what she said, that's what he had dismissed as disjointed rambling. Now, with that one piece of information he replayed the scene from the beginning once again and now it made some sort of twisted sense.

"Bobby, do you know of any witches that try to teach someone a lesson by using wishes?" he asked as he looked around the table. Maybe someone could tell him exactly what it was that had happened that night.

Puzzled, Bobby exchanged looks between the other hunters before shaking his head. "Witches… no. I've heard of a few other things though that might do it. What's going through that head of yours John?"

"I'm not sure exactly Bobby, but something's been bothering me. Why go through all this? I mean if it was revenge then why keep him in a place that he was safe, especially without me knowing where he was. That night Sammy asked her why she did it. She said that if the wishes were pure then there wasn't a problem, but if it wasn't then it would become a disaster. I never pieced it together before because we didn't hear her answer until after Sammy was already down. She punishes people for their careless wishes."

Those at the table sat in silence while they digested this bit of information. Each man knew that it was a workable theory but the problem was trying to figure out what could have done this. Ordinary spell casting wouldn't be able to handle it, not with as much power it would take to pull it off. So whatever it was was able to tap into a lot of energy without leaving the normal leftover residue.

Caleb stood and looked at John before turning towards the others. "We need to get back to the boys, now!"