When they got back to their motel room, Katya carefully placed her sister on one of the beds and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"We need to tie her down again?" Dean asked, throwing a wary glance at the mermaid.

"No." Katya pressed her lips together. "She's still too weak to do any harm, and… she's barely conscious."

Dean nodded, lifting one shoulder. "Fair enough." He turned to look at Sam who had pressed one hand to the wall for support, dark circles under his eyes as he watched Mona. "You good?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Sam lied. In fact, the long walk through the forest and back hadn't done him any favors; his side was throbbing with pain and the lacerations on his back were stinging like crazy. "We need to, uh, start doing some research."

"Sam," said Dean sternly. "You're worn out, dude, I can tell. You need to lie down."

The younger brother shook his head. "No, Dean, I don't." He gestured toward Mona. "We don't have time."

Dean sighed in exasperation. "At least do your research from your bed, alright? You're not gonna be of any use if you overstrain yourself."

Sam glared at his brother, but folded and moved toward the bed. No matter how annoying Dean's bossing-around was, Sam knew he was just being protective of him.

The mattress felt heavenly soft as he sank down on it, his body grateful for the much needed rest. He reached for his computer and grimaced as his side protested painfully, then he turned the screen on and began searching for a cure.

xxxXXXxxx

Darkness. It was everything Sam was aware of; he was surrounded by it, consumed by it. It was heavy and thick and god, it was hard to breathe. Before he was completely overcome with panic growing inside him, something suddenly eased the darkness. It was a small, white light, so far away that it was barely distinguishable in the darkness. But it was there. He started moving toward it, curious to see what it was. As a weak beeping sound suddenly reached his ears, the light began to blink.

Beep, and the light was on. When the beeping stopped, the light went away and the darkness nearly swallowed him. Beep. The light saved him again, making him feel inexplicably calm, and he kept moving toward it.

Something about it all felt so familiar- he could've sworn he'd seen the light before, heard the sound before.

He was close know, he new it. The light hadn't grown much bigger, but it was stronger, brighter. With trembling fingers he couldn't see in the dark, he reached toward the light and just as his fingers wrapped around the pearl, it stopped shining and everything went completely dark again. This time, there was no light to save him. His heart started racing as it became difficult to breathe again. There was no way out.

"Sammy!"

Sam jerked awake, his heart beating hard with lingering panic as he looked around the room, disoriented. It was dark, but not the suffocating darkness he remembered. He tried to regain his breath as his eyes became accustomed to the darkness.

"Sam, hey," Dean's voice called out to him, and Sam could finally discern his brother's silhouette by the side of his bed and noticed Dean's hands on his shoulders.

"Dean," Sam said breathlessly, wrapping his own hand around Dean's wrist to anchor himself.

"Yeah. You okay?" Dean's eyes flashed with concern as he took in his brother's pale, sweaty face. The kid had a fever, that much was obvious.

Sam swallowed hard as he sat up in the bed, rubbing a hand across his face. "Yeah, uh… yeah. Bad dream. Where's Katya and, uh, Mona?"

"They went into the room next door before nightfall," Dean explained. "You were out like a candle."

"And you didn't figure anything out?" The disappointment in Sam's voice was palpable.

Dean shook his head. "So what'd you dream about?" he asked, suspicious of a fever dream that could have his brother so noticeably freaked out.

"I…" Sam's frown suddenly dissolved and his eyes widened as realization filled him. "I know how to cure her!" He fumbled to get out of the bed but his legs were stubbornly tangled in the sheets.

"Whoa, whoa," Dean said, pushing his brother back down in the bed. "Calm down. You have a fever, Sam."

"No, Dean, look," Sam placed a hand on his brother's shoulder and pushed himself up again, "I don't know how I know, but it's just like the dream I had about Katya's sacrifice. I know how to cure a mermaid. Well, not all of it, but…" He trailed off as he swung his legs out of the bed, reaching for his computer that had somehow returned to the nightstand while he slept.

Dean watched his brother open the computer with a frown still etched onto his face. He couldn't help the nagging feeling that something was wrong with his brother. The dreams, and the fever… something was up, and he promised himself he'd dig into it despite Sam's repeated insistence that he was fine.

Sam typed into the search bar three words; mermaid. cure. pearl.

The search gave one result. He clicked on the page, scrolling down the page through the lore.

"I knew it." Sam smiled as he looked up at his brother. "Listen to this.

When the mermaid is killed by cutting off the brain activity, its powers are withdrawn to one part in the body and so intensely focused on that spot that a pearl is created. This pearl can be used to cure the mermaid. Crush the pearl into powder and spread it over the lake in which the mermaid was created while reading the incantation stated below, and the mermaid's power will return home and in exchange send the lingering soul back into the body."

Dean stared at his brother. "Son of a bitch. You figured it out."

Sam chuckled and feigned sounding offended. "Don't sound so surprised, dude."

"Never." Dean smirked. "Geek."

Sam leaned back in his bed and could finally relax while Dean got up and wrote the spell down on a piece of paper.
"Alright, so how are we supposed to find one of those… shiny things?" Dean asked. "We have to kill a mermaid, right?"

"Pearls, Dean," Sam corrected. "And I already did kill a mermaid, remember?"

"Yeah, and fishing her body out from the bottom of the lake isn't going to be a problem at all." Dean's voice dripped with sarcasm as he raised his eyebrows at his brother.

Sam snorted and closed his eyes, suddenly feeling very tired. "We'll figure it out. We should go tell Katya."

"Dude, it's 2 AM," said Dean. "We'll tell her in the morning. Go back to sleep, little brother."

Sam nodded and crawled back under the covers without opening his eyes. Dean waited until he was fast asleep, which didn't take long, before touching the back of his hand to his brother's forehead. He frowned as he felt the abnormally high temperature and went to the bathroom to wet a towel with cold water. He placed it across Sam's forehead before finally sinking into his own bed again, wishing that his little brother would feel better in the morning.

A/N: I'm trying my best to get these chapters out but I'm still really busy with school! 6 weeks 'til christmas break, I can't wait to begin writing tons again!

Please leave a review telling me what you thought, I love seeing y'all's response. Thanks for reading!