Lucifer entered Andy. The shaking and the noise stopped. Andy/Lucifer walked up to the trio sitting in the corner. Dean stood up and stepped in front of Sam. Lucifer ignored the two of them, though and spoke to Azazel. "Why did you hurt my chosen one?"

"I was just trying to get him to conform to your will," Azazel protested.

"Well, your plan didn't exactly work, did it? But that's not even the point. Nobody was to hurt the chosen one." Lucifer leaned over and touched Azazel's head and he died.

Lucifer then knelt down to speak to Sam. "Stay away from my brother," Dean shouted.

Lucifer smiled up at him and flung Dean against the wall.

"Leave him alone," Sam said. He knew he wouldn't have been very intimidating to the devil in the best of circumstances, but that had to be truly pathetic.

"I won't hurt him, Sammy. We need two brothers."

"For what?" Sam asked.

"I need to possess you and my brother Michael needs to possess Dean. Then the four of us will fight to the death."

Sam and Dean exchanged a look. "But you need our permissions," Sam remembered.

"You will both give them of your own free will. However, you're not ready. That's OK. You soon will be. In the meantime, here's a gift." He touched Sam and he was healed.

The devil disappeared and Dean slid down from the wall. "You OK, Sammy?"

Sam nodded and then said, "No. I don't want to be possessed by the devil."

"We won't say yes. We'll fight this together," Dean said. "You with me?"

Sam looked at Dean. He remembered his dream. He stood up. He backed away. "Are you sure that vampire cure was permanent?"

"What?" That seemed like years ago to Dean. "Yes. It's permanent."

"OK," Sam nodded. "I'm with you." He couldn't do this on his own.

SSS

Andy was aware of what was going on. He felt so stupid. Lucifer was just going to use him until Sam said yes. Then he would leave him either dead or a drooling mess. There would be no reward for freeing him. Lucifer had no loyalty or gratitude for anyone. The only reason he was acting nice to Sam was to get his precious yes. Why hadn't Andy listened to Sam when he had told him not to listen to the yellow eyed demon? Why hadn't he stayed true to himself instead of trying to get power and respect? Why had he drunk demon blood? Seriously, who does that?

SSS

Two weeks later

Dean noticed the fear in Sam's eyes. He was afraid of him. Dean didn't know how to fix that. Sam was sleeping now.

Sam was having another nightmare. Of course, he didn't know that.

"Sammy, wake up," Dean sing-songed.

"Dean? What's going on?"

"Cure's over."

"You promised it was permanent," Sam accused.

"I lied. Had to make sure you were with me when I turned. Bobby knows we're here we have to go." Dean pulled Sam to his feet and shoved him into the car. When Dean had been driving a few minutes and was on a back road, Sam reached over and jerked the wheel hard. The car crashed into a rock wall on the driver's side and Sam jumped out the passenger's side and started running.

Dean caught up with him shortly. Why was he always forgetting how fast vampires were. Sam was still trying to run when Dean grabbed him from behind and placed a cloth over his nose and mouth. Sam recognized the smell of chloroform.

When Sam woke up, they were in the car. They were pulling up to an old farm house. Dean drove the car into the barn and stopped. He opened Sam's door and pulled him out. He pushed a button on the wall and a section of the floor opened up. Sam realized he would have never known it was there. There were stairs leading down from it and Dean shoved him ahead of him. Sam's leg couldn't support him and he tumbled to the bottom. Dean ran down next to him and pushed another button. The floor closed above them and they were plunged into complete darkness. Sam knew that as a vampire, Dean could see in the dark, but he couldn't.

"The great thing about this place Is nobody will be able to find it. "

"How did you find it?" Sam asked.

"I tortured the former owners last night before I ate them."

Sam shuddered. "Can't you turn on the lights?"

"I don't need to. I can see just fine," Dean assured him.

Sam felt himself being lifted up and walked forward. He was pushed with his back against what felt like a support beam.

"Put your hands around it behind you," Dean instructed.

Sam did so and Dean duct taped them together. Then he bent down and wound duct tape all the way around Sam and the beam from his feet up to his neck. Sam couldn't move anything except for his head. Sam was convinced Dean could read his mind when he felt his forehead being duct taped to the beam. Now he was completely immobile.

"What are you doing?" Sam asked. He felt Dean doing something.

"Well, I've duct taped you to the beam, and now I'm tying you." Sam felt the rope being wound all the way from his feet to his neck again.

"This is a bit of overkill, don't you think?" Sam asked.

Dean didn't answer but pulled Sam heard chains clinking. He could see where this was going. Sure enough, Dean wrapped the chain up the whole length of his body and padlocked it.

"Why are you doing this?" Sam asked.

Sam felt Dean stick some kind of cloth in his mouth and then put a piece of duct tape over it. "Now you can't say yes to Lucifer. I'm protecting you."

Sam wanted to point out that Lucifer could just rip the duct tape off if he found them, but obviously couldn't.

Sam was startled to hear Dean's voice right next to his ear. "I told you before, Sammy. If I can't have you, nobody can."

He heard Dean walking away from him. He saw light shine down from the upstairs and watched Dean walk up the stairs. Dean turned to look at him. "I wish it could have been different, Sammy. But you were always leaving me. Now, I'm leaving you. I hope your last couple of days are filled with regret for not appreciating me. But don't worry. I'll be back next week to salt and burn your body." With that Sam was alone and plunged into darkness.

Sam sat upright in bed.

"Sammy?" Dean asked. "Nightmare?"

"Yeah," Sam admitted.

"Tell me about it."

Sam shook his head.

"Tell me," Dean insisted gently, but firmly.

Sam related his nightmare to Dean.

"Was I really that lame as a vampire?" Dean asked when Sam was done.

"What?" Sam asked. He wasn't sure what reaction he was expecting, but that wasn't it.

"I mean, come on, that was kind of over the top don't you think? And stupid. If Lucifer could find you, he could rip the tape off your mouth."

Sam couldn't help but smile. He had omitted the thought from his dream narration. "Yeah, he could."

Dean turned serious. "I'm sorry I hurt you as a vampire. I can't do anything to change that. But I'm better now. And it's for good."

"How can I be sure?"

"Vampire me and regular me have one thing in common. We want to protect you. So, if I thought there was any possibility of me vamping out again, I would leave you. The first time I got the cure, I still felt overly protective of you. That whole year, didn't you notice?"

"You've always been protective of me," Sam pointed out.

"But come on? You didn't notice that it was a little ratcheted up."

"I thought it had to do with Dad's death. And what he told you," Sam admitted.

"It started before then, though. I felt like if something happened to you, I would die or go crazy or something. I never wanted you out of my sight. I could push it down, though. Now, of course, I still want to protect you. But, I'm not crazy with it. The cure is permanent. I'm sure."

"I think it's going to take me a while to not be afraid of you. Last time I lied and just said I was over it. I'm not going to do that this time," Sam said.

"Good. I don't want you to. We'll get through this, but we have to be honest with each other. If we're going to fight two angels, we can't be fighting each other."

"Sounds good," Sam agreed. "We'll take it one step at a time."

"Not to change the subject, but I've been wondering, do you remember being dead?" Dean asked.

"No. I remember Andy stabbing me with the poker and our conversation afterward, but then nothing until Yellow Eyes."

"Guess I have to wait until I die to find out about the after life like everybody else, then."

"Guess so," Sam agreed.

SSS

Lucifer was tuned into this conversation from afar. "Oh, Sammy. You're going to remain afraid of your brother for as long as it takes. He sent Sam another nightmare. He would make sure this one was really long.

Sam was running through the woods. He wasn't sure how he got there or why. He just knew he had to keep running. He was running from Dean. That much he knew for sure.

Dean grabbed him from behind. "Where are you going, Sammy?"

"Dean, please, just let me go."

"Why are you always trying to leave me, Sam" Dean asked. "Well, I can cure you of that." Dean pulled out a gun and shot Sam in the leg. Sam screamed with the pain and fell to the ground. "I'm sorry, Sammy, but you've left me no choice."

Dean bent over and put his hands under Sam's shoulders and started dragging him back. They reached a cabin and Dean pushed him in. Sam was confronted by all those teenagers from Dean's nest.

Then Sam remembered. Those teenagers were a dream. This was a dream. He woke himself up.

Lucifer was shocked. Nobody had escaped one of his dreams before. Sam would be a real prize. And somehow, some way, he would get him.

The End.