Sam woke up to an empty room. The few other times that he woke up had been filled with doctors quizzing him and painful tests of how well he was healing. The stitches on his stomach had been prodded and poked so much the Sam was sure the bruises he had were from the nurses and not from the emergency surgery he had been put through.

Every minute he had been awake, he had had someone at his side, being alone now was somewhat disconcerting. If he was still hooked up to the heart monitor, Sam imagined that it would be rapidly increasing. He was still more than a little shaken after being attacked in his own home. His burnt home.

Sam heard Jess before he saw her. Her blonde hair was easily noticeable through the tiny window of his hospital room. Her face was bright red with tears beginning to spill over onto her cheeks. She looked to be arguing with someone. Sam hoped it wasn't Dean. He wanted the pair of them to get along.

Before Sam could give much thought as to who Jess was arguing with, she burst into the room. "Sam," she began. She wiped from her face with the back of her hand. Jess was an angry crier, Sam knew that she hated that. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Sam noticed Dean follow Jess into the room, but he kept his focus on Jess. He still couldn't miss the fact that Dean looked to be as upset as Jess was.

"The policed are here," Jess explained. "They want to talk to about the fire."

"They think that you did it," Dean continued. "You or your friend. They don't believe that you were with me when it started. They think I'm covering for you."

"What did you tell them?" Sam asked. "I'll just stick to your story. Or I'll just say I don't remember."

Jess nodded. "You did lose a lot of blood," she agreed. Her face was pale now. She was probably remembering just how much blood they had all lost, Sam realised. Dean looked somewhat sickened as well.

Sam wanted to reassure them both but before he could, the police offer came in. He was an angry looking man, and he didn't look like he would be ready to believe that Sam didn't remember anything. But then again, Sam knew he looked pretty pathetic right then. Pale and covered in bandages, he hoped that it would make him look like a more unlikely suspect.

"You two need to leave," the officer ordered. He didn't ask, he ordered.

Sam already didn't like this man. He reminded him of his dad. Jess frowned at the man. Dean glared.

"We'll be downstairs getting something to eat," Jess squeezed Sam's hand. "We'll come back soon."

"Good luck, Sammy," Dean added.

Together Dean and Jess left the room, both hesitating in the door to keep looking at Sam a moment longer. Sam knew that they had both already spoken to the police, probably this same officer. He would probably need good luck.

Sam sighed and turned back to the angry man. He doubted that he would enjoy this interrogation. And to think, he had been hoping to come clean to Dean today.

~An Unlikely Friendship~

The silence between Jess and Dean was awkward but it wasn't tense. It was filled with things that both wanted to ask but were unsure of. Dean wanted to ask whether or not she knew about the supernatural. Jess wanted to know whether or not Dean knew about Jack or that Sam hadn't been an entirely inactive hunter.

She wanted to know if he knew that Sam had been in touch with Bobby. She wanted to know if Dean really hadn't contacted Sam during the last four years.

Dean wanted to know if she knew that Sam had shut off all contact with the family when he left them to go off to college. Dean wanted to say that he was still mad that Sammy had left them but looking at Jess, looking at how much Sam's friend, James, was worrying about him and at how he had built a life for himself over the last four years made Dean realise that he was proud of his brother. Even if he had left everything of his previous life behind, including Dean himself.

"I met Sam late in our first year at Stanford," Jess began without prompting. "We started dating early in our second. I'm pre-med," Jessica smiled. "I introduced Sam to my parents during Christmas break in our second year. That was when I knew that I wanted to be with him forever." She blushed, looking away from Dean and to the small box that she was holding in her hands. "We moved in together this year, officially. James is our best friend. We met him when he was... – well that's an interesting story, and I think I should leave it to Sam to tell you that one." Jess smiled. "You two have a lot to catch up on, don't you?"

Dean nodded. "Yeah. It's been four whole years since we've talked. Me and my dad, we move around a lot. We've never really been a Christmas card type of family either."

"I doubt many hunters are," Jess guessed. She smiled at Dean's look. "Sam told me everything. He didn't really want to but… well that's up to Sam to tell you."

Dean stared hard at Jess. "I guess you knowing about everything makes sense, you don't seem all that upset."

Jess heard the unspoken accusation in Dean's sentence. It was upsetting to lose their home, but she was too relieved that Sam, James and Jack – she hoped – were alright to be too devastated. She sighed. This was also something that Sam should be telling Dean, but it also concerned her too. Her, Sam and James – they were all involved in this – and, of course, the Demon.

Jess had numerous theories as to why she had been having visions of her friends' deaths but, given that she knew James's mother was dead, burned in a fire, and that her own aunt had been badly burned after she had seen a fire in Jess's room when she was only a few months old – Jess figured that it was all connected. The only connection she could gather was that this Demon had done something to them when they were babies.

Jess had seen, easily, how much Dean loved his baby brother. She knew from Sam how much Dean had basically raised him, Jack had backed him up. She could only hope that Dean loved Sam too much to hold any grudges against him for something that had been done to them when they were babies. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. A calming trick she had learned from Jack. Jess had found herself in need of calming an awful lot these last few days.

"I know about the Demon that was in Sam's nursery on the night your mother died. I know that James's mother died in a fire in his room when he was a baby," she paused for a minute, to gauge Dean's reaction. His face was carefully blank, not giving anything away. "I know that there was a fire in my bedroom when I was a baby too.

"And I know that the three of us all saw the night the Demon attacked us for weeks in advance."

The silence following that statement was tense.

~An Unlikely Friendship~

When Jack woke up, the searing heat seemed to have lessened slightly. He didn't know why or how but he was willing to chalk it up the soft hands that were wrapped around his left hand.

He was sitting up against something that was both hard and comfortable. With a strong smell of blooming flowers. Flower.

"Has the ban on the little winter sprite been lifted?"

Jack didn't recognise the voice that asked but he was familiar with the tone. Other spirits didn't like him.

"You can't blame Jack for something that Old Man Winter did," came the reply. Jack could hear the shaking fury in the voice. It was something that he didn't remember hearing from that spirit before. Nate. Cool headed, calm Nate, sounding ready to snap.

Jack suddenly felt scared. Nate was never angry. Never. Something had to be terribly wrong and whenever something was wrong among the seasonal spirits it was usually his fault. Was he going to die?

Jack wished he could ask but he was familiar with was wrong with him. He was somewhere in the 'Spirit World' where spirits and sprites of all kinds could meet without any danger from conflicting elements or seasons. People couldn't die here.

That was what was happening to Jack now. He was in a sort of limbo. His body was too weak to do anything, even truly wake up. It was likely Jack was in this state because his spirit wasn't attached to his body anymore.

"I'm truly sorry, but I can't go against Mother Nature's wishes."

Jack felt Flower's flinch at the sudden, loud slam of something. It sounded like something with skin.

"'Mother Nature's wishes'? Her 'wishes'! it's her wishes that got Jack in this position. We all know that he's not a normal spirit! He never should have ended up Spirit of Winter, but her wishes ended up putting him there. She killed Old Man Winter, and then never bothered to clean up her mess. The least she could have done was train Jack.

"Of course, he messed up! Of course, he pissed off a Guardian. But what else was he supposed to do!? She hasn't given a damn about Jack since she couldn't stop the other winter spirits from rebelling! Mother Nature is just holding a grudge!"

That was Summer Heat, hot tempered and showing it. "She's weak – she couldn't handle another rebellion, not from the seasons. And if you don't heal Jack, this instant, then that's what you're going to get!"

There was silence.

Jack didn't fully remember the rebellion of the winter spirits. He remembered Mother Nature killing Old Man Winter. He remembered the other spirits coming together, leaderless, in revolt. She had killed their leader without a trial. He had been like a father to them, and they didn't know what to do without him. They could have learned. Everyone knew that the spirits and Mother Nature had acted too hastily, but that was in hindsight. They were angry, and she had been furious.

Jack hadn't taken part in the revolt, he had been barely able to make even frost then. A baby sprite, they had called him, too young to fight.

Too young to be put in charge of winter, and far too young to have been blamed for the revolt. But he was the only one left to blame, so blamed he had been.

To threaten another rebellion by the spirits was incredibly serious. Summer was right, Mother Nature wasn't strong enough to take on the Four Seasons. And if the Four of them died, then nature itself would collapse. There would be no cold, no heat, no growth and no decay.

A sigh. Then, "Fine. Never let it be said that the Healer doesn't care about her spirits. But if this falls on our heads, I will say that it was your fault."

"Deal," said Flower. "Now save him."

~An Unlikely Friendship~

The water was cold.

Jack hadn't expected it to be cold. It was the Water of Life. It healed all it touched. It was strange that it was cold.

Cold was the feeling of death. Jack knew all about cold. Why was the water cold?

Distantly, Jack was aware that he must be deteriorating. The Water of Life was outside of the Spirit World which meant he was in danger of dying again. He guessed that that should bother him more than it did.

The main thing that worried him was the water creeping up his chest. Were they going to let him drown?

"Don't worry Jack."

Easy for them to say.

"We're not going to leave you."

It felt like they were.

"You need to go under the water."

It was like asking him to walk through fire. He would prefer fire to water.

"Please, Jack? For Sam."

Sam. He had been hurt last Jack saw. Blood everywhere. Jack needed to get to him. But first he needed to get better.

Jack didn't know if he inhaled before letting himself sink down into the water. He didn't need air, not really.

But then why did he feel like he was drowning?