Thank you so much to everyone who supports this story! I hope you enjoy the new chapter. :D
I do not own Supernatural.
Sam lay in bed, staring up at the white ceiling, as he did his best to ignore Lucifer setting off miniature fireworks in the corner. Unfortunately, this took a lot of effort, as the Devil didn't bother dropping the flames into a trashcan. Instead, he flicked them around the room, setting fire to various things before he deigned to put them out. So far, the curtains, the flowers, and the bedside table had been sacrificed. Sam was certain his bedsheets would be next, but he continued studying the ceiling. He'd found a number of cracks, some water damage, a few ants, and strangely a piece of gum. Then, they were falling.
"Dad," Dean whispered, and when the eldest Winchester pulled away he found both his sons' eyes fixed behind him. Pulling out of their grasp, John turned around to find a familiar white light fading as a man fell to the floor. For once, he thought, it wasn't future Sam. A distinct lack of muscle and general care for his own body spoke to that - but then the stranger whimpered and curled into himself when he hit the ground, and John knew that sound.
"Sam?" Dean asked, stepping forward cautiously. "That you? The real you?"
Sam sat up slowly, turning to look at them for a second, glancing in a corner where nothing stood, and then back to them. "Are you real?" he whispered. All three of the present Winchesters frowned in concern, especially when they noticed how he dug the thumb of one hand into the palm of the other. "Are you real?" Sam repeated, more urgently, once again looking to the corner and back even as he stood, more hunched over than they'd ever seen him. Fear crept into his gaze, and present Sammy leapt forward.
"Yes!" the youngest Winchester blurted. "Yes, we're real, and we want to help." Ignoring his father's reaching hand behind them, the gaze of either a proud or worried brother, Sammy walked slowly but steadily towards his future self. He may not be able to change what had already happened to this Sam, but he could change his own future - and for that, he needed to know what happened, which just gave helping Sam even greater purpose. "Why wouldn't we be real?"
Future Sam laughed, a hollow sound that Sammy did his best to ignore. "You could be another hallucination. Not 'cause of demon blood," he added, noticing the look in their father's eye. "Because I got my soul back and I remember everything that Lucifer did to me in that Cage. Because he's here right now, and I know he's not actually real, but he is to me and it's… it's hard to convince myself otherwise sometimes."
Dean swallowed back bile, the thought of everything his brother would one day go through making him nauseous. Dead girlfriend, visions, possessed by a demon, dead, epic bad luck two times over, detoxing from demon blood, possessed by the Devil himself, soulless, and now, when he was supposed to be fixed and everything all right, haunted by Lucifer who had apparently tortured him in some special part of Hell. The picture the future Sams painted, when all put together, was a bleak one. This particular Sam impressed that further, with his weight-of-the-world slouch, what appears to be hospital clothes, some bandages, gaunt look, and dark circles under his eyes. "When was the last time you slept or ate?" he heard himself ask.
Future Sam shrugged. "Days," he murmured. He glanced in the corner again, where the present Winchesters imagined he saw Lucifer, and added, "Even Lucifer has lost count."
"And the clothes?" John asked, his gruff voice disguising his worry for his son who appeared to be, despite everything else they've seen him go through, at his lowest.
"In the future, I'm locked in a psych ward while Dean looks for a cure," Sam admitted, curling further into himself as though to avoid looking at them as much as he could - or in a nonexistent shield to whatever Lucifer said and did.
Dean frowned, resisting the urge to pull future Sam into a hug. Despite how much he looked like he needed it, and how much his own big brother instincts screamed at him to do it, he knew in the state Sam was in it could do more harm than good. At the same time, he felt relief at the knowledge he was still around to help his brother, saddened at the reminder of all that happened to make that possible, and upset that he would leave Sam alone in a hospital, even if it was to look for a cure. "Lie down on the bed," he ordered, pointing to it for good measure. Sam frowned in confusion, emphasizing the evidence of his poor health.
"Lie down," John repeated his son's order, understanding his idea. "You might be able to get some sleep with all of us here, and even if you can't, you can relax the best you can knowing that we're here to protect you."
"Do it," young Sam glared pointedly. "If anyone knows what's best for you in this situation, it's yourself and your family. So lie down."
Future Sam fidgeted, shifting from one foot to the other, but in the end he did as they asked. Lying down on the bed, he turned on his side to watch his father watch him, even while he recognized a hand each from his past self and past brother resting on his legs. Closing his eyes, he managed a light doze for the first time in days with the knowledge his family was there, and the distinct absence of Lucifer after their voices and his own pain made him disappear.
Sam only knew when he returned to the future when the weight from two hands vanished and Lucifer set off another miniature firework. "That was fun, Sammy-boy," he chirped. "And good for you for getting that teeny-tiny bit of rest you managed. Bravo. And yet, I couldn't help but notice they never really answered your question, did they? Oh, they said they were real, but they never gave any reasons as to why you should believe them, did they?"
"They were real," Sam whispered fiercely. "I know they were, and you'll never convince me otherwise."
Facing an empty bed, the present Winchesters turned to each other. "We have to do something," Sammy insisted. "When these visits stop, and they have to at some point, we have to do something. They can't happen for no reason at all."
"We will," John and Dean spoke in unison.
"We'll change the future," his brother added. "With all this knowledge, there's nothing else we can do."
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