Alex could feel Sam pulling away from her. Sam wouldn't touch her, wouldn't kiss her and most nights he didn't sleep in the same bed as her. She knew it was that as he got closer to losing Dean the more he pulled away. A month or so after they had visited Atlantic City, Alex sent Dean to get Sam from a bar. She knew he'd be drinking even though it was 2 in the afternoon. She turned the tv on while she waited fro them to get back, not bothering to really watch it. All she wanted was her Sam back, the one who wasn't angry with her because his brother sold his soul for her. She wanted Sam to love her again.
The boys entered their room and told her Bobby was in the hospital and they didn't hesitate to get in the car to go find him. When she saw him lying there, Alex took his hand as Sam and Dean questioned the doctor.
"What do we do now, guys?" Alex asked when the doctor left the room.
"We need to find out why Bobby was here." Sam said as they made their way to his hotel room.
Bobby's room was perfectly clean. His dresser drawers were empty and there wasn't any trash in any cans; no sign that anyone had been here recently.
"Look at this." Sam had opened the closet and pushed the clothes aside, revealing Bobby's research. Alex studied it for a second before an obituary caught her eye.
"Dr. Walter Gregg, 64, university neurologist." She said, reading carefully. "Apparently he just fell asleep and didn't wake up."
"That sound familiar to you?" Dean took the newspaper clipping from her and examined it.
"Let's say Bobby was looking into the Doc's death," Sam said. "Say he started hunting something…"
"That started hunting him." Alex finished and Sam nodded.
"Stay here and see if you two can make heads or tails of this." Dean gestured to Bobby's wall.
"Where are you going?" Alex asked.
"I'm gonna look into the good doctor myself." Dean turned.
Alex and Sam started to read through Bobby's information. Opening her laptop and pulling up her web browser, Alex searched for the silene capensis and read carefully through the legends. There was a few hours of reading. Absentmindly, she twisted the ring Sam had given her on her finger.
"Sam, the silene capensis is African Dream Root. Apparently it lets you dream walk in other people's dreams." She pushed her laptop over to him so he could look at the legends and read them for himself. "Why is Bobby researching this stuff?"
"I don't know." Sam gathered the papers. "I'm going to see Bobby. You coming?"
"Sure." Alex stood and stretched, grabbing her jacket. She was surprised when Sam took her hand as they walked. They found Dean in Bobby's room, watching him. "How is he?"
Dean turned when she spoke before saying, "No change. Did you have any luck?"
Sam filled Dean in on what they had found and she listened while they made a theory about what happened to Bobby.
"If the killer is coming after him, why is he still alive?" Alex watched Bobby's face, hoping for any change in his expression.
"I don't know." Dean said.
Alex kissed Bobby on the cheek before they walked into the hallway, trying to figure out how to find their, as Dean put it, homicidal sandman.
"We could dream walk in Bobby's head." Alex offered.
"Only one problem. We don't have any dream root. So unless you know somebody could get us some…." Dean's voice trailed off. "Crap."
"What?" Alex and Sam asked together.
"Bela."
"Crap." Alex rolled her eyes.
Dean had brought back the doctor's research and Alex was helping him sort through it when she saw Sam had fallen asleep. Smiling to herself she turned her attention back to the papers, trying to read the doctor's handwriting. Alex chuckled when she heard Sam moaning in his sleep and Dean grinned.
"Should we wake him up?" Alex asked.
"Nah. Not yet." Dean laughed at his brother.
"Going through this research would be easier if he'd help us." Alex flipped a page. "Especially since Bela isn't going to be helping us."
"I guess you're right." Dean said, standing to get them both a beer. "Sam. Sam. SAM!"
Sam jumped when Dean shouted his name.
"Must have been having a good dream, Sam." Alex teased him while he rubbed his eyes. "Was it Brad Pitt?"
"No!" Sam said. "It doesn't matter."
"Bela isn't gonna help us." Dean handed Alex a beer. There was a knock at the door and Dean opened it with a sarcastic look. Bela entered, as cocky as usual, handing Dean a jar of dream root. Alex noticed how uncomfortable Sam looked when he saw Bela, and she knew that was who he dreamed about. She kept herself from laughing. Dean handed her the jar and Alex placed it in their safe, spinning the combination. Bela left in a huff when Dean refused to let her come with them.
"Nice to-s-seeing you." Sam stood and half waved to Bela as she left. Alex and Dean shared a look before she prepared the tea. She handed each of the brothers a cup when it was done.
"Shall we dim the lights and sync of "Dark Side of the Moon" with the "Wizard of Oz?" Dean joked.
"Why?" Sam smiled but he had no idea what Dean was talking about.
"Dude, what'd you do in college?" Alex asked, raising her mug to her lips.
"Wait." Sam pulled an envelope out of his pocket and shook some of the contents into Alex and Dean's hands.
"Is this hair?" Alex asked.
"It's how you control the person's dream you're in. You have to drink some of their body." Sam said.
Alex and Dean grimaced but dumped the hair in.
"Bottoms up." They clinked their glasses together and drank the foul smelling tea quickly. They looked around and tried to see if it worked.
"Feel anything?" Alex asked them.
"No." They both answered. Dean said, "Maybe we got some bad schwag."
"Hey guys. When did it start raining?" Alex pointed to the window.
Dean moved to the window and pushed the curtain aside. "When did it start raining upside down?"
They looked around and suddenly they were in a house that was vaguely familiar. There was nobody in sight.
"I don't know what's weirder." Dean said. "The fact that we're in Bobby's head or that he's dreaming of Better Homes and Gardens."
"Wait a second." Sam gestured as he spoke. "Imagine the place without the paint job, more cluttered and dusty, with books all over the place. It's Bobby's house."
"You're right." Alex, Dean, and Sam all looked around, trying to find Bobby.
"Bobby?" Alex called, moving to the hallway. She looked at the staircase as Sam went outside.
Making her way upstairs, Alex moved carefully from room to room. There was an empty bedroom that had a definite woman's touch but looked like it hadn't been used in a long time. Alex ran downstairs when she heard screaming. She saw the woman in the white dress pounding and clawing at the door leading from the kitchen to Bobby's living room.
"I'd give anything for my gun right now." Alex had no sooner spoke the words than she felt the familiar weight of her gun in her hand. Raising her gun and taking aim, Alex slipped her finger around the trigger and suddenly the woman was gone. "Bobby? Dean? Are you okay?"
Dean opened the door and Alex ran and hugged Bobby tightly. "Would you please wake up?"
Alex felt herself jolt awake, gasping. Sam and Dean had woken up too. While Sam went to find a man he said was in Bobby's head, Alex and Dean went to talk to Bobby. They both smiled when they saw him awake. A doctor was looking at him and making sure everything was okay. Alex handed him his file of research and they went through it while they waited for Sam.
"Stoner boy wasn't in his room." Sam entered the room, hands in his pockets.
"He's not a stoner. He's a full on genius—160 I.Q. That's saying something considering his dad took a baseball bat to his head." Bobby handed Sam a photo of Jeremy's father. "Here's father of the year. He died before Jeremy turned 10. Injury gave him Charcot-Wilbrand and he hasn't dreamed since."
"Til he started dosing the dream drug." Dean said and Bobby agreed with him.
"How did he know how to dig up your worst nightmare and throw it at you?" Alex asked Bobby.
"He was rootin' around in my skull. Who knows what he found in there?" Bobby replied.
"How'd he get in there in the first place?" Dean asked.
"It was stupid, really. Before I knew it was him he offered me a beer and I drank it." Bobby looked slightly ashamed.
"It's not that stupid." Dean said, chuckling awkardly.
"Dean, you didn't." Sam said.
"I was thirsty." Dean tried to explain.
"Great! Now he can come after either one of you two." Sam scolded.
"Sam, they didn't know." Alex said. "We can't do anything about it now so let's just figure out a way to fix it."
"We better work fast and coffee up because the one thing we cannot do is fall asleep." Bobby said.
Two days later Bobby was at the hotel while Alex, Dean, and Sam looked for Jeremy. Dean was very irritable since he was tired.
"This Jeremy guy isn't a friggin ghost. Where the hell could he be?" Dean shouted. Their last lead, a strip club, was a dead end.
"You sure you don't want me to drive?" Sam asked him carefully. "You seem a little… caffinated."
"Thanks for the news flash, Edison." Dean growled when his phone rang. "Tell me you got something."
They could only hear Dean's side of the conversation and Alex flinched when he snapped his phone shut and threw a tantrum. Alex rubbed her eyes and tried to think of where to find Jeremy. Dean pulled onto a side road and parked in the woods. Turning off the engine he said, "That's it. I'm done."
"Dean, what are you doing?" Alex asked.
"Taking myself a long overdue nap." Dean leaned back in his seat.
"Jeremy can come after you." Sam said, trying to reason with his brother.
"Come on, man. We can't find him so let him come to me." Dean said.
"On his own turf, where he's basically a god?" Alex asked.
"I can handle it." Dean closed his eyes.
"We're coming with you." Alex yanked out a few strands of Dean's hair.
"No you're not." Dean said.
"Why not? This way it's three against one." Sam examined the hair that Alex gave him.
"Cause I don't want you guys digging around in my head." Dean's tone softened a little.
"Too bad." Sam made himself and Alex a cup of tea quickly and they drank it. Alex groaned as she woke up then nudged Sam and Dean who startled when she touched them. Still parked in the middle of the woods Alex asked, "What are we still doing here?"
"No idea." Dean said, opening his car door and getting out. "There's someone out there."
Alex and Sam followed Dean when they heard a love song and suddenly a woman was on a picnic balnket, offering Dean a glass of wine.
"We only have an hour until we have to pick up Ben from baseball." She smiled warmly.
Alex smiled at the thought of her gruff brother in law dreaming of having a family. Dean turned and denied it. "Stop looking at me like that."
"Dean, I love you." The woman said and Alex realized it was Lisa, a girlfriend of Dean's.
Suddenly it was dark and Sam said, "Dean."
They both turned and saw that Sam had seen Jeremy hiding in the trees. All three of them ran after him, but they were unable to catch him. Alex lost sight of Dean as he ran. When she finally paused, Sam slammed into her.
"Dean?" Sam called, looking around.
"Let's try to find our way to the Impala, Sam. Maybe Dean headed back that way." Alex breathed deeply, trying to catch her breath. They worked their way back and tried to think of a way to help Dean. Suddenly, they were waking up in the Impala again.
"Dean." Sam nudged the man in the driver seat, gasping when he saw it was Jeremy. Alex shrieked when Jeremy hit Sam with a baseball bat. Sam opened the door and fell out, crawling backwards to escape the psychotic man stalking him, gasping for breath.
"You don't know when to leave well enough alone." Jeremy walked closer to Sam and Alex knew she'd have one chance to stop him. She placed her hand on the door handle and waited for Jeremy to be close enough before slamming it open. Jeremy chuckled and she was being dragged out of the Impala and tossed on the grass.
"You're a psycho." Alex said, trying to shield Sam from the bat as he grunted, trying to breathe.
"You're wrong." Jeremy said.
"Tell that to Dr. Gregg." Alex spat back.
"The doc?" Jeremy stopped moving and leaned on the Impala and Alex took the opportunity to position herself to shield Sam better. "The doc's the one who got me hooked on the stuff and then he took it away. But I needed it and he wouldn't let me have it."
"So you killed him." Sam said, breathing normally.
"I can dream again." Jeremy said with a smile. "You know what that's like—not to be able to dream? It's like being awake for 15 years."
"Let me guess, that makes you go crazy." Sam taunted him.
Jeremy leaned close to Alex and Sam and spoke, gently running the tip of the bat on Alex's jaw. "I just want to be left alone. I just want to dream."
"Sorry. You can't do that." Alex said, moving quickly as she tried to take the bat away from him. Before she could grasp it, she was pinned to the ground next to Sam. Suddenly she was tied to the ground next to Sam.
"I'm getting better and better at this—stronger and stronger all the time." Jeremy said. "But you and your brother, you're not waking up." Jeremy moved to kneel next to Alex and spoke quietly, just loud enough to make sure Sam heard him. "I've seen into your mind, you know. I know what you want, what you dream about, and I can give it to you."
"How could you have gotten into my head? You don't have my dna." Alex growled as she struggled against the ropes.
"That's the thing about motel rooms, they're so easy to break in to." Jeremy said. "I can give you whatever you want if you stay here."
"Alex." She heard Sam's voice but it wasn't coming from next to her, where Sam was tied up. Looking up, she saw a different Sam in the woods, standing a few yards from her. He approached her and held out his hand to her, offering to help her up and her body was free again. Stunned, she took his hand and she was pulled against his chest. "I love you, Alex."
She knew this wasn't real, she knew this was just what Jeremy was using against her to make her stay. But when this Sam looked at her and brushed the hair away from her face, she found herself smiling. She could heard the real Sam struggling and calling her name behind her but when she tried to turn, the other Sam stopped her and kept his hand on her cheek, stroking it gently. This was her Sam, the Sam who still loved her, the one who wanted her and wasn't angry with her anymore. Alex stood on her tiptoes to press her lips to his and relished the feeling of his arms wrapping around her, keeping her safe. She pressed her forehead to his and he squeezed her as he rubbed his nose against hers gently. "I'll always keep you safe."
"No." Alex spoke softly. She could hear the real Sam calling for her, even as this one nuzzled her neck.
"No?" Jeremy said, confused. "This is what you dream about."
"I don't want anything that you have to give me, anything you offer me isn't going to keep me from killing you." Alex jerked herself out of dream Sam's arms but didn't get far before Jeremy had her tied to the ground again. She screamed when Jeremy's bat made contact with Sam's legs over and over and she heard Sam grunting in pain. She felt the ropes bite into her wrists as she pulled against them. Dream Sam was watching her while she cried for the real Sam, lying in agony next to her. Jeremy stopped hitting Sam for a few minutes to catch his breath, pressing his bat to his chest.
"You can't stop me. There's nothing I can't do in here." Jeremy said.
"Because of the dream root." Sam said, between breaths.
"That's right." Jeremy said, emotionless.
"Yeah. Well, you're forgetting something. I took some too." Sam had a dangerous smile on his lips.
"Jeremy?!" Alex heard a man's voice calling angrily.
Jeremy looked at the man in disbelief. "No."
The man approached him and Jeremy sniffled. "Dad?"
"You answer me when I'm talking to you, boy!" His dad shouted at him. Jeremy moved away from Sam and looked scared as his father glared at him. Alex felt her wrists and legs be free and Sam was up before she was. He picked up the bat and hit Jeremy twice in the head. Alex watched him crumple to the ground and then she woke up, panting for breath in the Impala with Sam and Dean.
The next morning Alex and Dean were looking for Bela, but she was nowhere to be found. Waiting on Sam and Bobby to come back, Dean questioned Alex.
"What's going on with you and Sam?" He cast a sideways glance at her.
"What are you talking about?" Alex asked, playing dumb.
"Come on, Alex. There's no more of the nauseating love bird crap." Dean said. "Even I can tell that it's been a while since either of you has gotten any, if you know what I mean and I know you do."
"I don't know what you want me to tell you, Dean." Alex shrugged. "Honeymoon phase is over, I guess."
"Fix it." Dean ordered her. "I didn't sell my soul just to have you two go your separate ways. Sam will need you when I'm gone and you have to be there for him. You have to take care of him."
"I will, Dean. I promise." Alex shrugged her jacket on. "You don't get to use the going to hell excuse every time, Dean."
He chuckled before he dialed Bela's number again. Alex went to check out, passing Sam and Bobby in the hall. She got back to the room in time for Dean to say, "We're going to hunt that bitch down."
"What happened?" Alex asked.
"Bela stole the colt." Sam said.
They were shoving their bags into the trunk of the Impala when Dean questioned them about what they saw while they were in his head. The three of them got into the car when Dean spoke again.
"I don't want to die. I don't want to go to hell." Dean said.
"Okay." Sam said. "We'll find a way to save you."
Dean started the engine and drove. Sam hadn't spoken to Alex since they had woken up from the dream root. She didn't try to speak to him, afraid to push him away further. They stopped at a motel and went through the routine of getting a room, showers, then food. Tonight they spent most of the night on their laptops trying to find a way to save Dean. Alex sipped her coffee, trying to stay awake but eventually she fell asleep, her head resting on her arms. Dean had fallen asleep a few hours ago, drooling on his pillow. Sam checked the time and glanced at Alex, chuckling when he saw her asleep with her head on the table. He closed his laptop and picked up Alex, one arm under her legs and the other around her shoulders. She sighed and snuggled into him and he watched her for a minute before lying her down on the bed. Sam grabbed the unused pillow from the bed and laid down on the couch, crossing his arms over his chest and going to sleep.
A/N: Thank you guys for reading. Reviews are always welcome! xo