Getting very mixed responses to the whole Dawn/Sam thing, so I'm putting a poll up. If you have an opinion either way, please go and vote there :) The poll will be open for some time as if it does happen, it's not going to be desperately sudden and will probably take a good few chapters to reach that point.

In this fic Sam would only be about four or five years older than Dawn, so age isn't that much of an issue and they do have a hell of a lot in common, but then there would be a lot of trust building on Sam's part and more than a little on Dawn's part, some of the plot developments I have planned would slow it down quite a lot. There's also the fact to consider that everyone will probably end up back in their own world at the end, though their might be a couple of ways around that.

Anyway, enough rambling, the poll should be up now so go vote! :)

Disclaimer: Not mine.

"And they sung about it?" Sam asked incredulously.

Dawn nodded enthusiastically. "Yep."

"A vampire?"

"Uhuh." Dawn confirmed.

"And a hunter?"

Dawn only hesitated a second before answering in the affirmative. Buffy was technically a slayer, but she did the same job as hunters. Just more efficiently and with bonus super powers.

"That's freakin' weird." Sam shook his head, mentally trying to picture Dean singing about his deepest emotions. The picture wouldn't even form. As for the vampire... A singing vampire comforting a hunter was something he'd honestly pay to see.

"Tell me about it." Dawn agreed. "So what about you? Any crazy stories?"

Sam thought for a moment. "A guy was abducted by aliens who probed him then made him slow dance."

Dawn laughed. She knew the episode but the thought was still hilarious, especially hearing it from Sam. He had this slight matter of fact way of saying it, along with this tinge of hope, as if he wanted her to like him, to find him funny. It took some away from the blood junkie image the show had put into her head. "Abducted by aliens?" She questioned, trying her best for genuine skepticism.

"Yeah. Well, no. Kinda. It was a thing called a Trickster. It creates elaborate scenarios to mete out poetic justice." Sam tried to explain. "Actually ran into the same one again. He made me relive Dean dying over and over for months. The day just on a loop like groundhog day."

Dawn kept quiet for a moment, not really knowing what to say after that. "Similar thing happened to my sister. Turned out a load of geeks did it basically for kicks. I don't really know how, no one ever bothered explaining that stuff to me back then. Still don't really."

"Sucks doesn't it?" Sam sympathized.

"Hmm?"

"Being treated like a kid all the time; like you're not grown up enough to know everything or make your own decisions." Sam elaborated.

Dawn nodded. "Especially when it's the big stuff. Like whether or not you want to kill monsters, or if you want to see your dead mother, or if you want your only family to sacrifice themselves to hell so you can live."

Sam glanced at her sharply, resisting the urge to slam on the breaks and interrogate her. "How do you know about that?"

Dawn cursed herself. She was actually talking about her own experiences, but of course she was well aware of Sam's. "Know about what? Buffy threw herself into the portal for the hell dimension Glory opened because only my blood could stop it. She said..." Dawn broke off, steadying her breath. Her voice had been steady enough when she started speaking, but the second she allowed the memory to appear she was struggling to maintain composure. "She said that I was made from her. That my blood was her blood. Then she jumped." She twisted her sleeve between her fingers, staring down at the bloodied fabric. "She didn't ask me. I was ready to do it myself, started stepping forward, but she stopped me. Said this was what she was meant to do and told me to keep living." She replayed her sister's parting speech in her head as she had done thousands of times since that day. It didn't get any easier talking about it, no matter how long it had been, how many times she'd talked to her friends about it when they begged her to open up, no matter that Buffy came back and hadn't gone to hell. But once she had opened her mouth to explain herself she realized just how much she needed to talk to him about this, because he was the only person she'd ever met who knew. He knew exactly what it felt like; no patronizing, no 'it wasn't your fault' speeches, no pity. Just the empathy and understanding of someone who'd been there, done that.

There weren't exactly support groups for this stuff.

Sam stared at Dawn incredulously; only remembering to bring his eyes back to the road when she attempted to cover a sob with a cough. "Y-you..." He wasn't really sure what he'd planned on saying so he trailed off to think about it. "This is ridiculous."

It was ridiculous how a conversation that had started in such a light-hearted humour could devolve so quickly into this. It was ridiculous that they were both burdened with all this shit from childhood onwards. It was ridiculous just how much they shared. The thought of her lying barely crossed his mind. He may not have been the best judge of character, but he knew what those emotions looked like from seeing them every day in the mirror. If she was that good of an actress that he was screwed anyway.

"I... I mean, Dean..." Sam sighed. "I died once." He glanced over at Dawn, registering her slightly bloodshot, but interested eyes as she tried to sniffle quietly. "Dean brought me back. He sold his soul. He got my life and one year before collection, just bargained it away like it was nothing. He... He went to hell. I couldn't stop it, they just took him."

Dawn stayed silent. She hadn't really expected him to open up to her; this wasn't like an AA meeting, 'hi, I'm Dawn, my sister went to hell for me and I have problems with massive guilt, low self-worth and anger', 'hi, I'm Sam, ditto but gender swapped'. She just wanted to know that he knew.

"Cas, Castiel, he brought him back. Dragged whatever was left of him out of the pit and glued him back together." Sam continued. "Something to do with heavenly plans. We're not really sure why." It wasn't a complete lie; the reasons the angels had given were very vague and cryptic.

"Buffy didn't go to hell." Dawn said, her voice barely audible. "She thought she would, but she didn't. She went to heaven."

Sam shot her a puzzled look.

"We all thought she was in some horrible place, tortured and hurt and alone. But she wasn't. And when we brought her back we thought we were saving her, we thought..." Dawn took a deep breath and spoke a little louder. "She was dragged kicking and screaming out of heaven and dumped in her body with all the pain and fear because we couldn't let her die. She had to dig herself... She had to dig herself out of her own grave." She licked a tear off her lip. "She once said living was hell. That we took her out of heaven and made her live in hell."

Sam let her calm down a little before asking the question he was desperate to know the answer to. "How did you bring her back?"

Dawn met his eyes for a second. "Willow."

Sam let out a long breath through his teeth. "Cas wasn't lying when he said she was powerful." He mumbled.

Dawn gave a small smile. "You have no idea."

I know the big heart to heart was a bit OOC, but as I said, there aren't exactly support groups for it and Sam's always been more open than Dean. I also know Dawn was fairly well adjusted to the idea by the end of the show, but I don't honestly believe that's something you would ever get over and maybe her being so together about it in the show would make it more likely she'd be desperate to talk to Sam about it so she could let herself not be so well adjusted for a while and just mope with what is, let's face it (Kripke obviously watched Buffy and as much as the characters of the boys were original, they were almost definitely inspired by in places), her Supernatural counterpart.

Wow! Wasn't I feeling chatty there! Sorry about that to those of you who read all the notes! LOL