Sam stared at the black and white movie playing on the tv screen. It was one he had seen thousands of times, yet it still remained unmemorable. He had finished all his homework hours ago. There was a raging snowstorm outside and he wasn't willing to brave it to go farther than the gas station.

Sam sprawled out on the biggest bed in the motel room. The excitement of getting the bed to himself had worn off after a day or two alone.

Dean had promised to be back tomorrow, but Sam knew how difficult he had found this hunt, so he wasn't going to hold his breath. His dad hadn't even given him a day when he would be back, but Sam wasn't expecting it. They had been fighting a lot nowadays. Much more than normal.

Sam didn't know what was wrong with his dad. Sure, he didn't want to hunt anymore, and he wanted a real life, but what was so wrong with that? It wasn't even like his dad knew that Sam could leave this life.

He hadn't looked at any of his homework or a single test since Sam was eleven years old. Dean was always proud of him, but he didn't care about school. Jack didn't really get what most of his tests were about, but he still congratulated him. He helped him get an A on his history essay on WWI since he had seen it.

His dad didn't know that he had applied to several colleges. Neither did Dean. Jack did though. Jack even tracked down his lost applications for him.

Sam sighed heavily as he listened to the wind howl outside the door. At least Jack was having fun tonight. He turned to stare at the window when there was a loud tapping sound. Jack was tapping his staff against the glass.

He grinned and waved which managed to pull a laugh from Sam. Jack looked so out of place, jumping up and down happily in the middle of a snowstorm.

Jack pulled faces and pressed his face up to the window. Sam found his own boredom and sadness dissolve as Jack infected him with his happiness.

The winter spirit's duties weren't over however and soon he waved goodbye and Sam's smile became a little sadder as he watched Jack be plucked up and away by the wind.

~An Unlikely Friendship~

The dream was unusual. One the main aspects of this being that Sam knew he was dreaming.

He found himself in an empty town. The buildings were all empty and derelict. A feeling of foreboding was heavy in the air. Although nothing seemed wrong in the dream, Sam found himself desperately wishing he would wake up. Cold seeped into his body and made him shiver.

Sam tried to tell himself that it was just a dream and that he was fine but when he opened his mouth to speak nothing came out. His feet started moving against his will.

Sam screamed internally at himself to stop walking and to wake up, but he couldn't make a single sound. The street his body was walking on seemed to be never-ending.

Sam began to struggle, screaming and crying. He tried to stop moving or turn around, but his body didn't change direction. The pain in his head began to intensify as a result from his screams reverberating around his skull.

Suddenly, Sam noticed he wasn't alone. It wasn't that he hadn't seen them before, rather that they hadn't been there before.

People, men, women, children, lined the streets. All of them with glaring yellow eyes.

Sam started screaming for help, his dad, Dean, Jack, anyone.

Instead of helping, the people, much to Sam's horror, began to turn into yellow eyed clowns. All of them grinning madly with too sharp teeth. They started chanting his name.

Sam started crying then. He was trapped in a nightmare.

Sam kept walking until he found himself standing in front of two dark figures. One had yellow eyes and was grinning like the clown people. However Sam found himself more scared of the other figure who was smiling gently, almost kindly, at him. There was something vicious in that smile.

Sam suddenly found that he couldn't breathe. He tried desperately to suck in a breath. He clawed at his throat, but he couldn't find anything that was restricting his breathing. The pain in his head was overwhelming. Sam couldn't tell if it was the pain or the lack of oxygen that was making his vision swim. Darkness invaded his vision and a loud ringing overtook all other sound.

When the darkness had taken over everything he could see, the ringing faded. Sam could hear his name being screamed. But he couldn't answer because he still couldn't breathe. A pair of yellow eyes appeared in the darkness and Sam knew he would have screamed if he had any more oxygen.

"SAM!" His name was shouted once more.

Jack. Jack was shouting for him. Sam wanted to answer, he wanted to beg for help but he couldn't.

~ An Unlikely Friendship ~

Jack flew around the swirling snow storm happily. It was beginning to calm down now and Jack was confident that it would slow and stop itself.

He flew down to the motel window of Sam's room. Jack peered into view with a smile that quickly turned into a look over horror.

A dark shadow was on top of Sam.

"Hey!" Jack shouted slamming a hand against the glass.

The creature didn't flinch.

The Wind gave Jack his only warning. He spun around to see that he was surrounded by several of those shadow creature things.

The Wind had picked up one of them and hurtled it away.

Jack glanced back in the window at Sam before he grabbed his staff and aimed it at the nightmares. The Wind picked up around them, ready to fight beside Jack.

The nightmares moved first. As a group they flew at Jack suddenly. Jack ducked down, and he heard as the glass shattered behind him. He didn't hesitate.

Jack dove into the room and started throwing blasts of ice and snow at the shadowy things. The Wind reached into the room and threw the nightmares far away from her Jack.

Jack dodged the balls of what looked like black sand. He didn't want to know what happened if he touched them.

Sam was screaming and gasping on the bed beside Jack, but he couldn't do anything for him just yet. Even if it was killing him to listen to his best friend screaming in fear and pain.

Seemingly sensing this the Wind pushed Jack back towards Sam and started throwing and blowing the nightmares.

"SAM!"

Jack aimed a blast of ice at the creature hovering over Sam. It was thrown at the wall so hard that it left a dent. He smiled in satisfaction. Jack jumped up on the bed and crouched protectively over Sam. It seemed the creature's influence hadn't left Sam yet. He was still screaming.

"Sam!" Jack shouted. Sam's face was pale, but his lips were blue and in-between screams Sam was gasping for air that he couldn't seem to get. Jack pressed his hands to the sides of his face to make him face him. "Sam! Sam, breathe!"

Jack pressed his hands-on Sam's chest. "Breathe!" he shouted again, tears freezing as they fell from his eyes.

Suddenly Jack felt one of his ice shards stabs through his shoulders. He screamed. Jack grabbed his staff and stood. He swung his staff in an arc as ice flung out and impaled each one of the nightmares. They turned to black sand before disappearing.

Jack turned back to Sam, not caring about the nightmares. "Sam. Breathe!" He slapped Sam's chest in an attempt to make him breathe.

Jack sobbed as Sam didn't breathe. He sucked in a deep breath and crouched down over Sam's face. Jack breathed into Sam, hoping that it would make the younger hunter follow.

Jack sobbed out a laugh as Sam started to breathe again. He laughed so hard he wasn't sure he could stop. Jack pressed his face into Sam's chest as he started sobbing uncontrollably.

Blood coated his hoodie from the stab wound in his shoulder, but Jack couldn't bring himself to care.

The Wind blew gently against his back, probably trying to get his attention. But Jack couldn't give it to her. He felt her sigh and pull back to allow him to break down.

The Wind scooped up the remains of all those nasty nightmares. She flung them away from her boys. The Wind picked up each broken shard of glass and placed them in the window knowing that the cracked window would be blamed on the storm or the chilly weather.

She blew warm air at Sam's chilled face in the hopes of rousing the hunter. Jack needed help and she couldn't give it to him.

Sam groaned as he started to come around and the Wind was satisfied. She encircled Jack in her own version of a hug before stepping away from the pair.

Sam would just have to handle this.

~ An Unlikely Friendship ~

Sam finished off the last stitch in Jack's shoulder and he hid his shaking hands. He hadn't been able to stop shaking since the nightmare.

His headache was slow to fade, but Sam was able to work through it.

"What happened?" Sam asked finally gaining the courage to speak up.

He had woken up to find the motel room filled with ice and snow and black slush. The window was cracked, and the wall was dented. Jack had been lying on top of him in the middle of a breakdown and his chest had ached as though someone had hit him.

The effects of the nightmare had not properly left him yet. He was still shaking and sweating but having to focus on Jack's bleeding shoulder had helped significantly.

Sam had thrown Jack's bloodied hoodie into the washing machine that was at the end of the motel corridor. He drew the curtains and put on the tv to make some noise in the silence between Jack's pained grunts as he stitched his shoulder. But now Sam felt he was ready to hear what had happened.

"Nightmares," Jack told him.

"What?" Sam asked.

"They work for Pitch, he is the spirit of fear and darkness."

"And nightmares," Sam finished. "Why did he – they, the nightmares – come here?"

"I have no idea," Jack admitted. "I've never seen them do that before."

Sam shuddered. "Glad to be an exception," he muttered, sarcastically. "C'mon let's watch the tv."

"What was it about?" Jack asked several minutes later.

"Huh?" Sam asked, feigning ignorance.

"Your nightmare," Jack clarified. "What was it about?"

"I… I dunno," Sam admitted truthfully. "I mean there was the Yellow Eyed Demon, lots of them, and clowns… but… there was this… guy."

"Guy?" Jack wondered at the way Sam had sounded so unsure. Surely a guy was a guy? What else could he be?

"Well, he looked like a guy but…" Sam shook himself. "He seemed so evil, but he looked so kind next to all the demons. He was smiling but it made me feel all cold inside."

"You ever seen him before?" Jack asked. "Maybe on a hunt."

"No. I've never seen the town I was in either."

"It was just a nightmare," Jack assured Sam, patting him on leg.

"Yeah." Sam agreed absently. "Just a nightmare."