Hi. I know. I know. It's been FAR too long since I updated this story. My excuse? Well, there isn't one really. Everyone's busy, etc, etc. Anyway, I've had this written out for two weeks and it's taken me this long to get it into my computer.

The good news? This is the final chapter. After making you wait this long I thought it was the least I could do. As always, this hasn't been beta'd. So all mistakes are my own.

I hope this is worth the wait. Take care. I'm going to take the rest of the summer off once I finish my other stories too but I'll be back as soon as the bug bites me again. Thanks for sticking with me!

Susanne

CHAPTER TEN

Sitting still only made the pain worse. Growling deeply in his throat, Nick sprang to his feet and began pacing around the far end of his cell. Every step was agony but it also made the temptation worse as well. Nick had to rip his eyes off the inert body of Dean. Involuntarily they always strayed back to the red, pulsing form.

"No, no,no,no,no," Nick chanted under his breath. Pacing like a lion, he continued. He didn't know anything else to do.

A low groan from the direction of the lump brought Nick up short. Rational thought had pried its way into Nick's obsessed brain. If he smelt blood it meant that Dean was injured. Concern overrode all of his own problems. Padding quietly over to the eldest Winchester, Nick cautiously knelt down beside him. A second moan issued from Dean but he wasn't showing any signs of coming around. The need to feed tried to overwhelm him. Unsure of what else to do, Nick moved to the far corner and sank down into being careful to keep his back to Dean's inert body.

Dean hurt. The pain kept trying to drag him back up to the surface of his mind. Intuitively, though, he knew that an even deeper pain waited for him in the light.

While Dean considered the alternatives, the scene back in the house played before his mind's eye. Despite his hunter training, he'd been taken completely unaware by the three male vampires. One had been hiding beneath the wooden stairs. The second was beside a large wooden shelf in the deep shadows it created. The third had come from somewhere above Dean, probably in the shadows of the floor joists.

They'd attacked simultaneously, their combined weight forcing Dean to the ground. As he hit the hard floor, all of the air was forced from his lungs. Still, Dean tried to get onto his side, to struggle out from under the mass of cold, clammy flesh.

"Son of a bitch," Dean breathed as he fought to extract himself from the pile. He didn't have the breath to speak, his oxygen starved lungs burned in his chest.

"It's him," a harsh, grating voice said near Dean's right ear. "Don't kill him."

What the hell... played through Dean's mind as too strong hands caught hold of him, pulled his face out of the dirt that covered the floor and stood him up on his feet. The darkness of the house made it hard to see anything but three pale faces as they came into view. Struggling as hard as he could, Dean couldn't break the grip they had on his arms, neck and mouth. A chill skated up and down his spine as the cold radiating off the attacked behind Dean seeped through his clothes. It felt like being pressed against a glacier.

"That's too bad. He's a fighter. It always makes the blood that much sweeter," the beast behind Dean's back breathed into his ear, causing yet another series of shivers.

"Let's go before he alerts the other one," the first vampire stated. The hand over Dean's mouth prevented that but the vampire wasn't taking any chances.

Sam. Damn. In his frantic fight to get away, Dean hadn't had time to think about his baby brother. They'd better not touch him or Dean would rip them limb from limb. Somehow.

"Can I feed on the other one?" the second voice asked. If a voice from the grave could sound pleading, this one did. "I'm hungry."

"Suck it up. Marcus only wants this one. Leave the other one alone." One of the three faces, the palest and ugliest, moved in front of Dean's face. An evil grin split the pale surface while his eyes looked like the depths of a well. "Marcus has something special planned for this one."

Daggers shooting out of Dean's blue/green eyes, he tried to kill the creature through sheer malevolent hatred. He wasn't successful. Still grinning, the vampire casually brought up his right hand and slugged the hunter in the side of the head. Darkness swallowed Dean whole.

OOOOO

Sam. Sam must be frantic, Dean thought as he shot to the top of his mind. Ignoring the splitting headache and the various other scrapes and bruises that were presenting themselves, Dean pried open his eyes. Then he blinked. Once. Twice. A third time. It took him that look to seek out the one small pinprick of dark grey in the black world on the other side of his eyelids. Relief flowed through him. He wasn't blind. Thank God. Breathing slowly and deeply, Dean listened intently. He wanted to know if he was alone.

"It's okay," an all too familiar voice came out of the darkness. "We're alone."

Heaving a great sigh of relief, Dean felt a sharp pain in his right side. One rib, possibly two, were cracked or badly bruised. So long as it didn't puncture a lung, Dean wasn't sure he cared at the moment.

"Nick," Dean croaked as he tried to pry his protesting body off the cold ground. He wasn't sure at the moment if he'd ever get warm again. Damn blood suckers. "Are you okay? What did they do to you?"

"I'm fine," Nick said in the darkness. Dimly Dean was aware of the older man moving around somewhere in front of him. Carefully, Dean got up into a crouch, his hands scoping out the area in front of, beside and behind him. A he found was open air and dirt under his feet. They were not in any modern man-made structure anyway. That was one piece of the puzzle. "How are you?"

Standing up, Dean was about to say he too was fine when his side caught and the earth beneath his feet shifted drunkenly. Instantly Dean felt Nick's familiar presence beside him. The older man's strong hands helped to keep him vertical until the spell passed. When Dean was breathing easier, he finally became aware of the coldness of Nick's body.

"What's wrong with you?" Dean gasped as he took a stumbling step away from the Legacy security expert. Something was very wrong here. Dean's teeth had begun to chatter with cold or fright, he wasn't sure which.

"They want me to feed on you," Nick stated, his voice completely devoid of emotion. There was a strange timber in Nick's familiar tones. It made the shivering that accompanied the teeth chattering deepen into Dean's soul.

"Feed on me? What? What did they do, turn you into a blood sucker?" The words came out slightly stuttered around Dean's chattering teeth. Unconsciously the hunter pulled his leather jacket a little tighter around his frame, particularly around his throat.

"Yeah," Nick replied in that same lifeless voice. "I'm very hungry."

The direction Nick was speaking in kept moving. Also, Dean could hear soft footfalls. The ex Navy SEAL was pacing back and forth in front of him. The earlier relief at finding Nick alive now curdled in his belly. Dean cautiously backed away from his friend until he came up against a wall. Feeling marginally safer, Dean tried to keep track of where Nick was.

"Well, you don't want to try me. I taste like garlic," was the only thing that came to mind. Frantically, Dean tried to come up with a plan that didn't include Nick drinking him dry.

"I'm not going to bite you, Dean. No matter how strong the need to feed becomes." Nick tried to reassure the younger man. Unfortunately, the rising hunger was becoming impossible to ignore. He honestly wasn't sure how much longer he was going to be able to hold out.

"Good to know," Dean responded. No bright ideas yet. Still thinking hard, Dean gave into the shaking in his legs and slid down the wall until he was sitting with his knees drawn up to his chest and his back braced against what felt like cold stone. Great, they were in a cave of some kind. Why did it always seem to involve caves when he dealt with vampires of late?

"You're bleeding." The proximity of Nick's voice coming out of the darkness made Dean jump while his skin tried to crawl off his body. Suddenly aware of a cold spot on the left side of his head, Dean brought his hand up to find a tender spot from where the vampire had struck him. Ghosting his fingers over the area, Dean found a two inch long, shallow head laceration that was bleeding like a son of a bitch.

"Are you okay?" Nick asked as he moved as far away from Dean as the cave would let him. The scent of the coppery fluid was sending sharp pains through Nick's stomach and into his chest. He really needed to feed. Unconsciously, he took a step toward where Dean was sitting on the ground. Catching himself, Nick moved back against the opposite wall. Trying to distance himself further from the all encompassing aroma, Nick turned his back toward Dean. Nick rested his feverish forehead against the cool surface of the wall. It helped marginally. At least the stale, mouldy smell from the stones helped to mask the scent of blood.

"I'm fine," Dean responded automatically as he continued to explore the wound, his fingers slick with his own blood. A gentle press on one end of it brought bile to Dean's throat. Damn it. He had a concussion. Swallowing rapidly, Dean tried to prevent the inevitable until it would no longer be ignored. Within a minute, the hunter was on his hands and knees on the ground, vomiting helplessly.

"You don't sound fine," Nick stated. He moved forward, the smell of the vomit covering the scent of the blood. At least Nick felt like he had better control at the moment. When he got within a foot of Dean's side, the heaving stopped and Dean tumbled sideways, away from the mess he'd med in the dirt.

"I'm fine," Dean repeated his throat raw from the stomach acids. Lying on his sore side, he skittered away from the foul mess. Even though he'd stopped touching his head, it had started to pound with a beat all its own.

Stopping dead in his tracks, Nick retreated to his wall. The pains were getting worse, stripping away all of his modern civility. Slumping against the wall, Nick began thumping his head against it. Anything to distract him from the tender morsel, oh so very few feet away.

OOOOO

Waiting for Dean, Sam knew something had gone wrong. It was taking his brother too long. His hunter's instincts burning through his body and mind, Sam began to pace around the house. The more circuits he made the more anxious he was becoming. The more anxious Sam became, the faster his thoughts became and the hotter he began to feel. Rounding the side of the house for the seventh time, Sam came face to face with Derrick and Jacob. His first instinct upon seeing the two men from the back was to jump them and rip them limb from limb. Then Sam caught their scent and unconsciously he knew who they were. The tension that had been building in Sam's body didn't drop at all.

"Where's Dean?" Derek asked when Sam padded up beside the two precepts. Fear for the older broth overrode any other concerns.

"He was in the house trying to find a way to get me in too. It's been too long, something's happened," Sam blurted out. He led the two older men to where Dean had entered the building.

"I don't think the police would have just cause to search this place without a warrant so let's see what we can come up with," Derek stated as he began a much slower examination of the outside of the house. Padding along beside the older man, Sam was virtually vibrating with unspent energy. There suddenly seemed to be an eternal well of food for his muscles that was flowing freely. As he followed, Sam's hands kept clenching into fists and then unclenching. He wanted to wrap his fingers around someone to start tearing.

"I've all ready done this," Sam grated. It was getting very hard to talk in anything but a shout. Adrenaline was coursing through his veins like wildfire.

"Humour me," Derek responded. Abruptly, he stopped as images flashed through his mind. Dean, hands grabbing him, Dean on the ground. Dean being dragged away, his body limp. The images gave him direction. Motioning the other two to follow, Derrick set off away from the house.

"Where are we going?" Sam demanded. Dean was in the house, probably hurt and Derrick was leading them deep into the woods beyond the house. What the hell?

"Be patient," Derek responded. Under the house must exist a series of tunnels because Derek got a very strong sense of Dean's presence but it was somewhere below him. The images he was getting did confirm one thing for him, they were dealing with vampires.

Just as Dean's presence felt particularly strong, Sam became very still. Stopping, Derek turned toward the youngest Winchester, a question dying on his lips.

The way Sam was standing, perfectly still, his head turned slightly to the side but tilted upward reminded the prefect of a hound dog catching a scent. The image was unsettling.

"What's wrong?" Jacob asked. He'd been at the rear of their little column.

"I can smell Dean," Sam stated, his voice a mixture of wonder and revulsion. As he stood there, Sam's body seemed to get steadily hotter. The need to get out of some of his restrictive clothes passed through his mind. "He's this way."

OOOOO

The cave entrance would have been impossible to find if the precepts had been on their own. Sam, however, led them straight to it, his nostrils flaring with each breath.

The further the trio moved, the less human Sam's actions were becoming. Derek cast a worried look at Jacob as they followed the younger man into the unknown. In response, Jacob pulled a flasliglht out of the side pocket of the light jacket he'd been wearing and a hand gun out of the back of his pants. Checking that the safety was off and that there was a round in the chamber, the Frankfurt precept stepped into the darkness.

"This is a very bad idea," Derek muttered to himself as he too pulled out a handgun and a flashlight. One thing all his years of hunting the paranormal had taught him to always be prepared. He'd grabbed the two instruments on reflex.

"I can hear you," Sam's voice floated out of the darkness.

Taking a deep, steadying breath, Derek took the plunge.

OOOOO

The pains had become so severe that Nick was huddled in the corner, still rocking and striking his head dully against the wall. The wall was slick with his own blood but Nick didn't notice. The only thing he was fully aware of was the steady lub dub of Dean's heart on the other side of the cave. In an attempt to down the sound, Nick tried to time hitting the wall to coincide with the beating of the human's heart but it didn't really help.

Growling deep inside his throat, Nick pushed away from the wall, gaining his feet in an instant. He couldn't stand it anymore. The meat in the corner was talking, trying to convince him this wasn't a good idea but he ignored it. The meat's only purpose was to give him sustenance. That was the order of things. Nick was the predator, the meat was the prey.

Impossibly fast, Nick crossed the distance between him and Dean. In an instant, Nick caught Dean around the neck with one hand and pulled him to his feet.

"Nick," Dean hissed with what breath he could draw. "You'll hate yourself in the morning."

Growling louder, his teeth bare and elongating into fangs, Nick pulled Dean's struggling body toward him, intent on ripping open the meat's jugular. The anticipation of that sweet liquid coursing into his mouth and down his throat was almost orgasmic in nature. So intent was Nick on his prize that he didn't hear the cell door crash open.

A loud, vicious snarling behind Nick distracted him for a moment. Then something vaguely furry, very warm and very strong landed on his back. Almost nonchalantly, Nick tried to shrug his attacker off as his fangs pierced the skin on the side of Dean's neck. Dean's gasp sent waves of pleasure through Nick as the first drops of blood spattered onto his tongue.

The snarling got louder as too strong hands with too long finger nails pried Nick's hands off Dean. Pissed off now, Nick allowed the meat to fall bonelessly to the ground so he could deal with the nuisance one and for all.

Reaching the entrance of the cell, Derek and Jacob panned their flashlights inside, trying to get an idea of what was going on. What they found made their blood run cold. In the center of the room, Sam and Nick were engaged in mortal combat. Neither of them was fully human any longer as they struggled to kill each other. Mesmerized by the two bodies doing things that were definitely inhuman, Derek failed to notice the figure huddled against the wall just a few feet away.

Searching the cell with his flashlight, Jacob ignored the combatants for the moment. Finally, he spotted Dean. The younger man was barely conscious with one hand wrapped convulsively around his neck, red, dark blood seeping too fast between his fingers. "Keep an eye on the door," Jacob instructed as he slid inside the cell to reach Dean. Pulling his shirt out of the waistband of his trousers, Jacob ripped the bottom off. Ripped that into two pieces, he pulled Dean's hand away from his neck long enough to press a section against the bite mark and then wrapped it with the other piece, tying it as tight as he dared. Glancing at Nick and Sam as they continued to do battle, Jacob caught hold of Dean's collar and pulled him toward where Derek was standing at the entrance.

"We have to get Dean out of here," Jacob said over the grunts and snarls of the other two. Despite the difference in their sizes, they appeared to be evenly matched, neither getting the upper hand. "He's going to bleed to death."

The words penetrated the battle fog that had invaded Sam's mind as he entered the room. Until Jacob's statement the only thing that had mattered to the youngest Winchester was killing the vampire. It was a biological imperative like finding a mate and eating. The mention of Dean's name reawakened Sam, not the werewolf but the younger brother. Dean needed help.

"What about Nick?" Derek had to shout to be heard. It killed him to see his friend and colleague turned into a monster. He couldn't face leaving Nick here to continue to feed and kill humans. He knew that wasn't what Nick would have wanted. "We can't just leave him here."

As those words penetrated further into Sam's conscious mind, he looked closer at the creature he had pinned up against the wall. Behind the blood red eyes, the long fangs and snarling face, Sam saw his friend, his surrogate older brother. As Nick continued to struggle, Sam pulled him away from the wall only to smash his head and body against it with a crushing blow. Once. Twice. Three times. By the third time, Nick had stopped fighting and was hanging in Sam's grasp. As Sam watched through his too sharp eyes, Nick's contorted face slowly changed back into the man he knew and respected. Unsure of what to do now, Sam stepped back, allowing Nick to crumple to the ground in a heap.

Breathing like a locomotive, Sam took one step back, his hand/claws flexing as he imagined ripping Nick's head off. It was the only way to be sure. Instead, feeling some of the heat leaving his body, Sam turned to the two precepts.

"What now?" Sam asked, the words slurring slightly as his teeth began to retract back into his head, to look human again. As well the thick, black hair that had sprouted all over also began to retract, along with the scary looking nails. Under the werewolf facade, Sam's human cheeks burned brightly with shame. What the hell kind of freak was he now?

OOOOO

The trip through the tunnels took longer than it had the first time. Sam was no longer in full werewolf mode and so had a little more trouble finding their way out. Plus, he was burdened with Dean's semi-conscious body. Derek and Jacob had taken control of Nick. In his concern for his brother, Sam hadn't seen exactly how the two precepts did it but they somehow managed to restrain Nick while he was still unconscious or dead, Dean wasn't sure which. He chose to not pursue that line of thought. Despite the heat that Sam was still giving off or maybe because of it, Dean's body resting against his own felt so very cold and even though he hated to admit it, small.

"I'm so sorry," Sam said under his breath. Fearing he was going to drop Dean, Sam shifted him into a more secure position.

"What for?" Dean asked his voice barely above a whisper. Being up against his brother's body felt like sitting against a furnace. Not an entirely unpleasant sensation at the moment. He only heard the words from a great distance. Part of him was ecstatic to hear his brother's voice. The other part wanted to pound him into the ground for taking responsibility for everything, as always.

Relief chipped its way through the worry. Sam was so happy that his brother was conscious and lucid enough even if he did sound pissed off. "I shouldn't have let you go in there alone."

"You didn't 'let' me do anything. Now put me down," Dean grated. He hated the idea of his brother carrying him. That wasn't the way of the world, Dean took care of Sam, not the other way around.

Luckily for Sam, that discussion was forestalled by their arrival at the tunnel entrance. Stepping out of the way, Dean still firmly clutched in his arms, Sam let Derek scope out the area on the other side. Dean stirred as it to get out of Sam's arms. Angrily, Sam held him a little bit tighter, eliciting a low groan. "Sorry," Sam muttered reflexively as he waited for a sign from Jacob.

"Put me down. I'm not a baby," Dean grumbled, ignoring the pain in his side. When did Sam get so strong? How had Dean missed it?

"Sssshhhh," Sam hissed back. Jacob was taking too long. A quick glance over his shoulder at Derek, Sam turned back just in time to see Jacob step through the entrance, his gun coming up reflexively. For a split second Sam thought the precept was going to shoot him, something. Sam secretly thought he deserved to be shot, then he realized the gun was aimed behind him. Almost dropping Dean, Sam put him on the ground rather abruptly while turning to face the threat.

Four vampires were coming up the tunnel towards them. Derek still had hold of the unconscious Nick with one hand and began shooting at the advancing shapes with the gun in his other hand. He was joined immediately by Jacob. While silver bullets hurt like hell for vampires, they only sure way to kill them was to decapitate them. Unfortunately all three of them had left their machetes at home.

Sam felt the fire taking over again as Derek and Jacob emptied their guns into the still advancing vampires. Just as Sam felt like he was losing himself into the werewolf persona, the vampires began to drop. With a physical effort, Sam forced the werewolf back to the furthest reaches of his mind as the last vampire struck the ground, just short of Derek.

"Let's get out of here," Derek breathed. He knew the vampires wouldn't stay down long and that the noise would probably draw others. They were really not in a position to deal with any more of the vile creatures. Hefting Nick a little higher, Derek waited long enough for Sam to collect Dean before making a bee line for the entrance.

"What the hell was that?" Dean grunted as he was carried out into the sunlight. He'd seen the change coming over his kid brother. Despite having nothing left in his stomach, the sight had been enough to make him want to hurl.

"I'll tell you about it later," Sam said, breathing hard to keep up with Derek and Jacob. Shame turned his cheeks even redder than the exertion had. After everything the two of them had been through together, he didn't relish the thought of telling his older brother he was still a werewolf.

"You'd better," Dean said. The rest of the trip was made in silence, each brother lost in thought in their own worlds.

OOOOOO

"We should have taken Dean to a hospital," Sam grumbled. He knew Rachel had been through medical school but Dean looked so pale and the wound to his neck looked very jagged. Further, the fact that his older brother was lying quietly while the blond haired psychiatrist poked and prodded him was completely out of character. He was really worried about Dean.

"The wound and blood loss are easily treated," Rachel stated. "The explanation would have been another thing."

"Still," Sam pushed. Wearily, Dean opened his blue-green eyes and glared into his baby brother's blue-grey ones.

"Let her do her job. Now, what the hell was that back there?" The memory of Dean's brother's warped face splashed bile into the back of his throat.

"Ah," Sam hedged. He really didn't want to have this conversation now. In front of Rachel.

"The other shots weren't working on him," Andrew stated simply as he entered the room. In his thin hand he brandished a rather large, scary looking syringe.

"What do you mean?" Dean grated. Rachel was forced to hold him in the bed until he stopped struggling. In Dean's weakened state it didn't take much.

"I was reading your grandfather's journal," Andrew stated."I found the cure for someone who's been exposed as long as Sam. Drop 'em." From the expression on the young scientist's lean face. He was enjoying this a little too much.

"What?" Sam managed. Then Andrew reached around and jabbed him in the ass with the syringe. With excruciating deliberation, he injected the contents into Sam's butt. Sam felt his world shift a foot and a half to the right while his butt burned like it was on fire.

"Serves you right," Dean stated peevishly from the bed. Looking at his brother through a sheen of unshed tears, Sam could have sworn he saw an amused glint in those depths.

OOOOO

"I'm thirsty," Nick stated, sounding like a four year old in a pout. He'd awaken to find he was very securely strapped to a bed. It had taken a few disorientating minutes before he recognized the room as his own. He had dim memories of the time in the cell with Dean and of biting him. But at first all he really cared about was the all consuming pain and thirst.

When Nick had first woken up, he was alone in the room. Bellowing his pain and rage into the hair had brought Derek. The precept stood inside the closed door way and looked down at his friend, an intense sadness burning in his pale eyes.

"Did you hear me human? I'm thirsty!"Nick barked. Why was this piece of meat ignoring him? Frustrated, Nick tried to hypnotize the older man to get him to release him. Nothing happened.

Despite his best efforts, Derek cringed at being called 'human' like it was a derogatory remark. Still, he stood silently and watched. The door opened and Sam slipped inside. Two days after Andrew's shot and the boy was still walking stiffly.

"How is he?" Sam asked. Dean was on the mend. In fact, at the moment he was in the kitchen stuffing his face. Since being fed on, Dean couldn't seem to get full. The fact that two other legacy houses had managed to clear the caves of vampires seemed to have improved his appetite as well. The only sour spot was that Marcus's body hadn't been found.

"The same," Derek responded. He was beginning to lose hope. Despite Andrew's best efforts, he hadn't come up with anything.

"Come here, human," Nick ordered, turning his attention to the new arrival. Maybe he could work his charms on the tall guy. Same level of success.

"What are we going to do with him?" Sam asked. He hated to see Nick like this. The man he'd come to respect and love was lost to him behind a twisted, evil facade.

"I think I got it this time," Andrew announced as he burst into the room. The young scientist had been working day and night on a cure. He'd pulled ideas out of the Winchesters' two journals and the extensive Legacy library. He knew he was so close he could touch it but thus far the answer had eluded him.

"How much of this crap can you pump into him?" Sam asked, looking at the needle Andrew had in his hand with apprehension. His butt ached in sympathy.

"He'll be fine," Andrew responded glibly. Moving over to a now struggling Nick, he injected the amber fluid into Nick's right thigh. Angrily, Nick tried to dislodge the needle but Andrew got it all in before stepping back.

"How will we know it's working?" Sam asked.

"It'll taken ten to fifteen minutes to work its way from the muscle into the blood stream. After that it'll probably take half an hour or so before we see any type of reaction," Andrew stated. "I'll ber back in two hours to take blood. It's the most accurate way to tell."

Then Andrew was gone, headed back to his RV. Derek and Sam settled in to wait. Neither could face leaving Nick alone. They soon regretted their decision as Nick began cursing and swearing at them as he fought against his restraints. Both men took the abuse stoically, knowing that it wasn't really their friend talking.

Twenty minutes after the injection though, the curses changed abruptly. His face screwing up in pain, Nick fell silent. Nick's eyes closed as what looked like sweat broke out on his brow.

The grimace twisted Nick's face a little further as a few more minutes passed. Sam and Derek exchanged a worried look just as Nick's back arched off the bed and a blood curdling scream was ripped from his open mouth.

The ex-SEAL's limbs were shaking so hard Derek was afraid the heavy wooden bed frame was going to come apart as the fit or convulsion seemed to last an eternity.

The door to the room flew open as Andrew, Rachel and Dean burst inside. All of their faces were full of concern.

"Make it stop!" Sam demanded as he covered his ears with his hands. The longer the screaming went on, the larger the hole that was being ripped through his soul.

For a split second, both Rachel and Andrew stood in the doorway, still as statues. Staring at the scen in front of them had frozen them in their tracks. But Sam's words broke the spell. Stepping foward, the two began to examine Nick.

Ten minutes later, his voice completely gone from the torturous screams, Nick collapsed, exhausted onto his bed. His grey eyes slammed shut as consciousness escaped him.

"What did you do?" Derek asked. He tried to keep the accusation out of his voice when he addressed Andrew but it was hard.

"Well, at least we got a reaction this time," Andrew responded, looking a little sheepish. In his hand were two vials of blood that he and Rachel had taken during their exam. There were some very positive signs but Andrew wanted to make sure before he said anything. "I need to do tests on this blood before I'll know more."

Without waiting for the precept's response, Andrew slipped out of the room, nearly stepping on Alex who'd been out in the hallway since there was no more room in the bedroom.

"How did you stop it?" Derek pressed. Even though he'd watched everything the two had done to Nick, he really hadn't seen them treat him.

"We didn't," Rachel replied as strange sound emerged in the room.

After Nick's screams, Derek and Sam's ears were still ringing but there was definitely something else now in the room, some subtle change. Looking down at Nick, it finally hit Sam. For the first time since they'd brought him back to Angel Island, Nick Boyle was breathing. Unbidden, tears sprang into his eyes. Not really believing it, Sam stepped forward and gently placed a hand on Nick's forehead. A single tear tracked down Sam's face. Under his fingers, Nick's skin was warm.

"I think he's back," Sam said, looking at his brother. "He's alive."

OOOOO

A week later, Nick was slowly making his way down the stairs to the kitchen. He was starving. After being dead and a vampire, Andrew and Rachel were carefully watching all of his fluid and nutritional intake to make sure he didn't overload his newly alive system.

It was 3 a.m. The whole house was asleep as Nick padded across the carpet. He was tired of waiting. He wanted real food. Now. Walking into the room, the ex-SEAL nearly jumped out of his skin. Sitting at the counter was Sam. The youngest Winchester should have been sound asleep. He'd spent most of his days watching over Dean and Nick.

"What are you doing up?" Sam demanded as he stood up and moved to help Nick to the nearest chair. Waving Sam off, Nick managed it himself.

"I'm hungry," Nick responded, a self-conscious smile twisting his lips. "How about you?"

"Can't sleep," Sam responded as he sat back on his chair.

"Yeah, I can relate to that. All this resting is wearing thin," Nick stated. He was all ready exhausted from his short excursion but he wasn't going to admit it.

"I can imagine," Sam sympathized. "I don't think Rachel wants you eating much yet." Seeing the look on Nick's face, Sam gave in. "What are you in the mood for?"

"Steak," Nick responded, licking his lips. Seeing the fear that flashed over Sam's face, he quickly added. "Well done."

"I can do that."

Half an hour later, Derek and Dean entered the kitchen cautiously. From the clanging and clattering both men expected to find an army of the undead trying to break in. What they found was something all together different. Taking in the scene, the two men lowered their weapons and stared.

In that short time, Sam had managed to completely demolish the spotless kitchen. After he'd started grilling the steak on the stove Nick had decided he wanted some fish too. More than game to try, Sam had found, prepared and began to poach salmon for his friend. Then Nick had had another craving and on it went. By the time Dean and Derek arrived, Sam had one of pretty much every item available cooked or cooking while Nick happily tried everything as it became ready. At the moment he was alternating between a mouthful of steak and then one of salmon. It all tasted so good he couldn't decide between them.

"What's this?" Derek asked. He wasn't sure if he should be angry or laugh.

"I was hungry," Dean stated simply between mouthfuls. "Want some?"

For the first time in mouths, the kitchen at the legacy house felt like it used to. Smiling broadly, Derek led Dean in and took a seat.

"What's on the menu?" Derek asked as he marvelled at the mess Sam had made. Grinning too, Dean settled into the seat beside the older man. It killed him to admit it but he hadn't seen Sam this happy in a long time. Maybe never.

The demon blood was gone. So was the werewolf stain thanks to Andrew. For the first time since Sam was six months old he was completely and totally Sam.

Thanking whatever God that had made this possible, Dean accepted the piled high plate his kid brother shoved in front of him and dug in. Sam was actually a pretty good cook. Not that Dean would ever tell him that. Taking in the people around him as a lively discussion broke out, Dean felt something he hadn't felt since he was four. He was home. They both were.

THE END