Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural, Dean or Sam, I'm just borrowing them and I give them back when I've finished and I don't own anything to do with the film 23.

This idea comes from the film 23. The enigma number 23 is the belief that all incidents and events are directly connected to the number 23. Is it an obsession or is it a curse

Thank you for your reviews. Happy you like it so far

Chapter Ten

Marty pulled Dean closer and whispered near his ear "She comes in dreams to me, wants me to go with her, can't do it again, I can't" tears rolled down Marty's face as he openly sobbed.

The nurse reappeared as Dean was prising Marty's fingers from his arm. "Ok boys I think visiting time is over, what did you boys say to Marty to upset him?"

"We only asked him if he had anything belonging to Emily" Bobby replied

"No wonder he got upset, Emily's a delicate subject, He had a locket with Emily's hair in, never left his sight, thinking about now can't say I seen it lately"

"Are you saying it's lost?" Bobby asked

"No, it's probably locked in the office safe" Nurse Nancy replied

Outside they climbed back into the impala; they sat for a few minutes Sam was the first to speak "We need to get inside that safe tonight".

"Yeah" Bobby replied "The sooner the better"

"Let's get a motel room and then something to eat" Sam said

As darkness fell, Bobby and Sam were working out their plan to break into the nursing home. Dean sat on his bed looking into space; he wasn't interested in anything Sam and Bobby where planning. Sam looked over at his brother, since trying to jump off the hospital roof Dean had lost his appetite, he hadn't said much since the nursing home. He thought Dean looked lost and tired. Sam returned his attention back to Bobby.

"Ok, I think that..." Bobby stopped in mid sentence as cold breath left his mouth, the temperature in the room had suddenly dropped.

"Dean jumped up from his bed "M"

She walked through the wall of the motel. Sam and Bobby grabbed for their rock salt guns but M had cleverly positioned herself behind Dean so that they couldn't shoot her. Dean turned to face her

"M, I'm sorry, I wanted to come"

She ran her ghostly hand softly down Dean's face "I know, you don't remember this Dean but we met years ago"

"You bitch, don't you do this; haven't you done enough to him" Bobby yelled angrily

Sam who was slowly moving round to get a better shot at her froze, he had never seen to Bobby so angry.

"We can't have met before, I would remember?" Dean's voice was laced with confusion

"Dean they made you forget me"

Bobby knew what she was going to do and he couldn't let it happen he lunged forward to knock Dean out of the way so he could fire a shot off but he was thrown back against the wall his shotgun falling out of his reach. Dean turned to see Bobby hit the wall. "Please M don't hurt them"

Sam went to Bobby's aid as he checked Bobby over he asked "Bobby what's going on?"

"He helped them make you forget me" M pointed at Bobby

Dean turned too looked at Bobby and then back towards M, "I don't understand M?"

"You will my darling" she placed both her ghostly hands at each side of Dean's head and she kissed him long and passionately

At the back of Dean's mind there was an explosion of memories and feelings long since forgotten, he pulled away with such force from M that he ended up on his rear. He sat with his head in his hands jumbled memories of the days before his 23rd birthday, meeting M, dad killing her, on his birthday being taken to the sanatorium, the feeling of being alone and unloved by his family all surface.

As Dean fell backwards Sam shouted out "Dean" he feared for his brother, not really sure what she had done to him; bringing the shotgun up he pulled the trigger. She shrieked as the rock salt dispersed her.

Sam shot daggers at Bobby "I had a right to know and you kept it from me"

"I was protecting Dean"

"Or maybe it was dad you were protecting"

"Hell boy is that what you think of me, I couldn't give a rat's ass about your daddy. Sam, your daddy screwed up big time back then. You know what your daddy was like; he didn't tell Dean the whole story, need to know basis only, he just barked orders at Dean and expected him to carry them out. It just never occurred to him about Dean's 23rd birthday, he was still angry about you for leaving to go to school."

"Oh no, don't you go blaming this on me; I just wanted to go to school, like any other normal kid" Sam yelled out angrily

"Well we wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for you dragging Dean to Portland"

Sam's anger deflated, he knelt down beside his brother "how could dad do it, how could he leave Dean in a sanatorium?"

"I'm not saying what your daddy did was right or wrong, he wasn't proud of what he did, he was just a desperate man; he thought he'd lost you and he couldn't lose Dean as well."

"He hadn't lost me; it was dad who said if I went I was to stay gone. Why didn't he ring me I would have looked after Dean?" Sam replied

"You know your daddy and his stupid pride. Anyway what's done is done, we can't change the past; we need to help Dean now" Bobby replied

Dean spoke his voice hard "you was one of the one's who deserted me, you didn't care about hurting me, just like him, he left me too. I was a disappointment, maybe it was the curse that made me a disappointment to him, I tried to please him but it was never good enough. I saw the look in his eyes that day when he left me there."

"Dean, I didn't desert you, I went off to school; it didn't mean I didn't care about you, your my brother I never stopped loving you" Oh god how could he make Dean understand

"Joe, I prefer to be called Joe"

"OK"

Bobby cleared his throat and spoke up "Sam we need the locket, you stay with your brother while I do the job"

"Are you sure?" Sam asked because he was going to do it

"Yeah" Bobby picked up the impala keys

Outside the motel room Bobby calmed himself it had been intense in there, climbing into the impala he drove off in the direction of the nursing home.

Back inside the motel room the tension was still building

"M was the only one who cared and he killed her because I disobeyed him" Dean yelled

Sam could see that Dean was becoming angrier "No Dean, sorry Joe he didn't kill her, M was a ghost then just like she is now"

Dean climbed to his feet yelling "You're lying, just like him"

"No I would never lie to you, if dad killed her how come she's here now when she suppose to be dead?"

Dean started to pace "He did kill her I saw him do it, I was there"

"Dad salt and burned her bones"

"Stop it, stop it you're confusing me, just like Doctor Hill he twisted things, he tried to make me see things his way" Dean replied "She came to me in the sanatorium, all the other patients they had visitors, family members but no one came for me, no one care except M"

"If I had known I would come and taken you away"

"He said he loved me and everything would be OK, I trusted him and what did the bastard do? He put me in a sanatorium and then finds someone to make me forget M and what he did to me, is that love? He just wanted to order me about, there was no one else"

Sam could see Dean was angry at him and dad was this how Dean really felt deep inside? Maybe that why he created Joe to vent his angers something Dean would never do "He should never have done that, you probably won't understand this but he did it because he loved you"

"I'm not going back to a sanatorium, you're not doing that to me too" and before Sam could reply Dean had slugged him one, knocking Sam to the floor. Dean was out of the motel room and into the night before Sam knew what had happened.

Staggering to his feet Sam rushed outside; searching there was no signs of Dean, he checked his watch it was coming up to midnight. He had to find him before 12.11.

TBC