C21

-oOo-

Following Lucenda as she picked her way carefully to the back of the storage area; Sam and Dean grinned at one another as the woman continued to happily chatter away, seemingly verbalizing whatever was going through her head at each given moment, unconcerned about whether or not either Sam or Dean joined in.

-o-

"I have a feeling that this thing hasn't been opened in something like forty years. I know I've never opened it, didn't have any use for it. You know if you spot something in here and you think it might be useful, put it to one side. I don't mind if you want to take the whole damn trunk away with you. Just make sure you hand over any family heirlooms that's been hidden inside it and could make me a very rich woman...Although, any chicken feet are yours by-the-way, with my blessing."

Lucenda stopped and fished around in the pockets of the denim jacket she wore, making a small sound of triumph as she produced a keyring size Mag light.

"Ok spiders. Move out or die. Where are you, you bugger? ... Ahh...I see you!

-o-

"There you go you two, see? Behind this old cupboard, I'd forgotten this was here, on the floor underneath those old paintings and the old steamer trunk. I think those boxes on top are full of decorating stuff, rollers and dustsheets, they're not heavy. I'm thinking this is your bit. From what I can remember, the trunk is heavier than it looks, so be careful. I'll be over here, out of the spider zone. Don't worry about the other stuff, just shove it...Oh look, see? Mum's dressmaking dummy! I knew it was up here! Anyway, shove the other stuff wherever; might as well get the thing right out and into daylight. Want to borrow the torch?"

Sam shook his head.

"We'll let you know if we need it. Go on Dean, in you go."

Dean looked at the narrow gap between the back of the cupboard and the stack of things that had been piled on top of the trunk, deciding it was going to have to be a sideways shuffle.

"Ok. Once I'm in, I'll pass things out to you."

Lucenda cautioned Dean helpfully.

"Watch out for Kung-Foo spiders. They're mean beggars."

"Gee, thanks for that!"

There was a sudden yelp as Dean began to squeeze himself sideways into the gap. Sam immediately looked concerned.

"You ok?"

"M'fine, gonna have a bruise on my butt is all, just banged it on something. Ow, that smarted. If I'd been wearing my own butt, I wouldn't have done that."

"Dean, if you were wearing your own butt, we wouldn't be here."

"Good point. ... Ok, I'm in. You ready?"

"Whenever you are bro."

-o-

Lucenda stood watching as the two men quickly and efficiently began to move things off the trunk and stack them neatly in another gap. Nothing was too heavy, but the confined space the pair was working in made twisting and bending awkward. Another large 5 by 5 canvas was passed over to Sam. Lucenda had told them that her mother loved to paint and the canvases were hers. She demanded that Sam turn each one around so she could look at it before he stacked them again. A couple she had decided to keep and take back down to the house. Some of the paintings were of landscapes, most either with stormy skies or sunsets. A couple were obviously fantasy based, fairies sat around in a forest clearing. Then Sam noticed they became much more abstract, the colors and shades dark and heavy, seemingly thrown on at random. Sam thought he could make out the vague fragmented hint of shadowy faces in one of them.

"Looks like your mom enjoyed painting in different styles."

Looking at the one Sam currently held for her to see, Lucenda scrunched her nose up at it.

"Yeah. Those ones were done before her and dad died; car crash. She'd started having bad dreams, crying in her sleep and stuff, and she used to do these kinds of paintings after a nightmare. She hated them, said they were crap. She could remember the nightmares, but couldn't manage to get the picture in her head out onto the canvas. Then she stopped bothering to paint at all. I've got the last one she did hung in the dining room. It's a bit more cheerful than this lot, thankfully.

"Sammy? Last one, coming your way."

-o-

Taking the 2 by 4 canvas off Dean, Sammy looked at it before showing it to Lucenda, as he had with all the paintings. Again it appeared to be abstract, but this one struck Sam as much more powerful and dramatic. Done in strong vivid shades of oranges, red, dark blue's and black, at the top right hand corner, it looked like the woman had started out with a very different painting. There was a patch that almost seemed to be looking through the vibrant shades, where the colors showing were much paler and, Sam thought, hinted at part of a scenic view. Without warning, the canvas suddenly felt red hot under Sam's hands and he instantly dropped it, before slamming down to the floor on his knees, clutching at his head and giving vent to a long, guttural cry of pure pain and terror.

Somewhere, outside his own head, Sam thought he heard the mournful howl of wolves, before they were drowned out by the sound of the orange, red and blue flames spitting and roaring all around him. Black smoke plumed just above his head, curling over him like a thick, jet black cloud, his throat was seared by the heat of breathing in both smoke and fire. Another sound, to his left, an animalistic moaning and rasping that was horrifyingly to hear. There was a momentary break in a small area to his right, through the furious curtain of flames he glimpsed the tops of distant hills, then hell snatched the blessed sight away and, voiceless now, Sam gagged at the overpowering smell of burning flesh, his own flesh.

-o-

Sam was sure he had nothing urgent planned, so why would someone be hollering at him to wake up, like he was late? Well screw them, he wanted to sleep in and he was damn well going to.

"F'koff. M'shleep."

Dean shrugged apologetically at Lucenda before turning back to his uncooperative brother.

"Sammy. Quit swearin' an' open your freakin' eyes."

"P'soff."

Dean sighed.

"Here, let me try."

"Be my guest."

Dean and Lucenda swapped places so that Lucenda now knelt at the side of the couch where, between them, they had laid Sam after carrying his inert form into the main house. She opened her first aid kit and rummaged around until she found smelling salts, quickly holding the capsule under Sam's nose, Dean only able to get as far as Don' before she was already talking to Sam and breaking open the capsule.

"Sam, you need to wake up, you're scaring your brother."

-o-

Dean managed to drag the woman out of fist range as the younger Hunter woke up pretty much as though a rocket had been lit in his derrière. Arms flailing like a blind boxer, he jerked his head away from the foul stench and looked around wildly with bleary eyes at the same time as he scrambled to launch himself upright. Dean was there instantly, cautioning Sam and laying a hand on Sam's leg to keep him from getting up.

"Hold on slugger, it's ok. Not so fast."

Sam's startled gaze settled first on his brother and then Lucenda; the sight of them both calming him, although his voice was shaky as he spoke.

"What the hell happened?"

"What do you remember?"

"We were in the storage space trying to get to the trunk. You were handing me paintings and then..."

Sam paused for a moment as his face scrunched in pain. Having managed to settle her own heart rate and her shock at the speed and violence of Sam's reaction to the smelling salts, Lucenda held out a bottle of water to him.

"Here Sam, you should drink something."

Sam accepted the water and took several large swallows, gradually calming his shaking body. He cleared his throat and continued.

"It was that painting, the one you'd just passed me, when I looked at it..."

Dean spoke softly to his hyper aware brother.

"Was it a vision? Did you see something?"

The sadness and horror in his brother's eyes when he nodded back at Dean told Dean whatever Sam had witnessed it was bad, and he moved to his brother's side.

Lucenda stared nervously at the distressed man. Her voice coming out barely above a whisper.

"Mom? Dad? Sam...Did you see my parents?"

"Lucenda, I'm so sorry, I..."

Taking a deep breath, Lucenda steeled herself before nodding at Sam.

"Tell us what you saw Sam, it's ok, I'm ok."

-o-

"The car crash, the one that killed your mom and dad...It wasn't an accident. Their car was intentionally run off the road. I saw your dad, in the driver's seat, he was unconscious, blood pouring down his face. Then there was smoke, black, rising up to the roof of the car, it had nowhere to go. I felt your mom, felt what, what she felt. The terror, knowing she and your dad were trapped...Then...flames, the fire. Dean, it was like I was inside the mom somehow. I heard the noise, flames, growing bigger, starting to roar, everything burning red, orange and blue. I couldn't breath properly, too hot, it seared the inside of my throat. I couldn't get my door open, I tried to see through all the smoke and fire. There was break in the flames, just a small one, to my right, but I saw the tops of hills in the distance. Then there was such a sound, from my left, like a long moan, almost like wind blowing, but rasping. And I felt the pain, the heat, could...The odour...Such pain...And you..."

Sam's gaze settled on Lucenda. She was breathing heavily, trying to hold herself together, pretending the tears weren't tracking down her face.

"At the end, anything she had left, her last thought, her pride, her love, it was all you Lucenda. She devoted it all to you. Leaving you was her only sadness."

Tears now falling freely, Lucenda turned her head away.

"Mommy."

-o-

Lucenda threw herself into Sam's arms and for a while, the only sound was the young woman's sobs as Sam gently stroked her hair with one hand. Hearing Lucenda's sobbing grow quieter, Sam clasped a hand on each of Lucenda's shoulders and pushed her away, until his could look into her eyes.

"Lucenda, you know already that it wasn't the last painting she ever did. She did one more. When you feel ready, you need to go look at it. She did it for you. She needed you to know something, and it's in that final painting.

-o-

Lucenda rubbed at her tears, trying to gather herself and smiling weakly at Sam.

"I'll be sure to look at it Sam, once...Once I'm on my own ... I'm so sorry you went through that Sam. Why you? Why not Dean? He was the first to touch the painting."

Dean gave his brother's shoulder a squeeze.

"I'm afraid it's Sammy's job to be Vision Man, and mine to be Vision Man's better lookin' sidekick."

Sam glanced at Dean with one eyebrow arched.

"When I'm lookin' like myself, obviously."

Lucenda gave a small smile.

"My mom always claimed there were psychics on her side of the family, I always thought she was just tryin' to compete with dad's old ancestral Hoodoo stories. Guess not, huh?"

Sam quietly placed his hand on hers.

"I'm sorry to have brought up these painful memories."

"No Sam, I'm the one who's sorry. I'm sick and tired of all this crap still rearing it's ugly head after all these years. Not a big leap to figure who ran my parents off the road. Well, it's high time that side of the family lost something important to them. I really hope the both of you can get rid of that bitch Usagi, and that everyone who's in league with her dies and goes to Hell alongside her. Dean? You think you can manage to get the trunk down on your own while I get something for your brother's headache that he looks like he's suffering from?"

"Yes Ma'am."

-o-

Dean paused at the entry to the storage area and gazed down it's length towards where the trunk still sat waiting.

"Right bitch...I'm here to take your toys away. Mood I'm in? Now wouldn't be a good time to try stopping me."

The sound of claws on wooden steps made Dean look down. He grinned as he patted each of the dog's heads where they stood, one either side of him.

"Looks like I've got me some bodyguards."

-o-

Sam looked up as Dean came back into the living room huffing and sweaty.

"She was right; it was heavier than it looked. Think you ok to go?"

Lucenda reappeared holding a pack of tablets and popped two pills into Sam's palm.

"Get those down you."

Sam duly complied, then looked up along with Lucenda as Dean staggered back into the living room, huffing, sweating, and accompanied by Lucenda's dogs. Sam frowned.

"You ok there bro'? Heart not about to have a blow out is it? 'Cos I think there's still an empty peanut butter jar on offer if you need it."

"Get lost. She was right; that bloody thing was way heavier than it looked. You think you'll be good to go sometime soon now you've sat around an' had a nice rest?"

-o-

Outside Lucenda's house the two dogs sniffed around happily while Dean gave their mistress a brief hug.

"Thank you for agreeing to contact us, and for trusting us to send any valuable stuff out the trunk back to you instead of us selling' them and spendin' everythin' on wine, women, and a haircut. Oh, and really thanks for the pie, it was awesome."

Lucinda grinned and brought out the hand she'd had hidden around her back. She held out a large paper bag.

"Here's one to take with you, I had enough apples to make five. Do me a favor? My card's in the bag as well. Keep me in the loop? Please?"

"Never entered our heads not to, we owe you that at least. I'll leave you and Sammy to your goodbyes and go start the car. You take care, any worries, you know my number."

Sam watched Dean stroll to the car, his gaze drifting until he was looking out across the yard, seemingly lost in thought. Keeping her voice soft, Lucinda dragged his attention back.

"They worth a quarter?"

Sam turned to her, confused.

"Sorry?"

Lucinda smiled.

"Your thoughts, I wondered if you'd share them if I gave you a quarter?"

Sam smiled, shaking his head.

"I'm sorry, I was just thinking that the answer to all this body swap curse crap could already be sat in the car inside that trunk, and I wondered, once we're both back in our own bodies; will this experience change anything about how we are with each other?"

"Do you want it to?"

"If you've got a few weeks, I could possibly answer that for you."

The Impala's horn sounded.

"Guess that's my cue. Thank you Lucinda, for everything. We'll keep in touch."

"Just make certain you do."

Sam hugged the woman, kissing her on the forehead.

"I'd better go, before he starts in on that pie."

-o-

Turning the car around, Dean slowly headed back down the driveway towards the road, anxious to get back to Missouri's and open the trunk, hopeful that something in there might help them to reverse the curse. When, after a couple of miles, Sam hadn't said anything, Dean turned to look at his brother's slumped form in the passenger seat.

"You doin' ok Sam?"

Sam sighed, leaning his head sideways to rest on the window.

"I'm fine. Just tired is all. Guess having the vision took more out of me than I thought."

"You wanna lay down in the back, try to rest?"

"Naw, I'll just maybe doze here."

Sam closed his eyes and felt the weight of the vision wash over him, felt his body growing heavy, his ability to move being sucked out of him, his voice silenced. Trapped, Sam felt drained of all free will as he once again began to relive his vision of the fire. This time it was like watching it on the big screen. Once again, he could feel the scorching heat, but this time he was on the outside looking in. He saw the woman's eye's, wide with terror, watched as the flames began to devour her and her husband. The male was lucky, he was unconscious. The woman's blackening hands appeared from behind a curtain of flame, and battered against the car's windscreen, one hand became engulfed in flames, curling and shrivelling in on itself as it burnt and dropped out of sight. When the guttural animalistic scream pierced through the superheated air, Sam heard himself draw in a deep gasping breath. His inward breath acted like a sudden release trigger, and Sam felt his head jerk forward off the seat's headrest. As the last of the vision faded out, he felt his strength slowly return and, along with it, his ability to move and to speak. Opening his eyes, he found himself being held firmly, almost painfully, by the grip of Dean's hands around his upper arms and his brother's worried face only inches from his own. Sam lazily wondered who was driving whilst Dean had a hold of him? His eyes began to flutter closed again, the action disturbed by his brother shaking him and Sam opened both eyes again, giving Dean a look of indignation.

"...mmy, you're staying here with me. Got that? Have you got that Sammy?"

Sam's tongue felt thick and numbed, his head wobbly on his neck, making him nod like his head was being bounced up and down on elastic and his words come out slightly slurred.

"Goddid. Thtopp shaky, plee? M'ere, m'ere, m'back."

Dean dragged Sam into him, supporting the back of Sam's head with one hand.

"Sonovabitch you scared me little brother. What the Hell was that all about? Your eyes were just staring at nothing, you didn't blink, an' I swear you were holdin' your breath."

Sam licked his lips to wet them and tried for speech again.

"Sleep paralysis. You remember? I had it a few times as a little kid, when I was really stressed out. I guess the vision earlier really messed with me. I'm ok now though, you can let me up, 'fore I suffocate in your armpit."

-o-

Starting the car up again, Dean still looked worried.

"Soon as I spot somewhere, we're stoppin' for a drink. Baby could do with some juice anyway, ok?"

Sam shuffled himself upright in his seat.

"I guess."

Dean pulled off at the next exit advertising gas and into a parking lot. He got out and watched Sam wearily pull himself out of the car and wander in the direction of the store. Dean filled the car as quickly as he could pulling her over into a parking space. Walking into the store, he looked around for his little brother. Panic took over as his eyes scanned the small store without spotting his brother. He headed for the bathroom to find it empty, no sign of Sam. Walking quickly, he strode up to the checkout desk, throwing the cash for his fuel down on the counter.

"Excuse me? My brother came in here a few minutes ago, little shorter than me, light hair, did you see where he went?" he asked as he threw some money down for the gas.

The thin and spotty youth on the till stared up at the giant standing at the opposite side of the counter from him.

"Um, yeah. Went out back there. Is he in trouble?"

"Not feelin' well is all. Ok if I go out there to him pal?"

"Ok, if you're sure there's not gonna be any trouble."

Dean smiled, wondering just what the lad would have done to try stopping him following Sam. Dean headed towards a door set between two stacks of boxes in the back. Pushing it open, he hurried outside and began looking around. There was a small park set back from the store and he could just make out the shape of his brother sitting on one of the benches. Dean strode over to him sat down next to Sam, looking at his brother in concern whilst softly admonishing him.

-o-

"Dude, don't disappear on me like that. Ok?"

Sam kept his gaze fixed on a small lake. At one curve, a stand of mature weeping willows dipped the tips of their branches in the water. Clumps of long grasses and rushes stood proud of their own reflection, a large blue and yellow dragon fly settled itself on a sun bathed lily pad. Ducks and a group of four geese leading their goslings were sedately swimming on the lake's surface. One of the little goslings began to stray off course, setting out to explore on his own. His bid for freedom quickly curtailed by one of the adults. The scene looked picture perfect.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to worry you, just saw this out the door, it looked tranquil, calm."

Words didn't need to be said for Dean to know what Sam was thinking. He had been able to read him like a book his entire life. He had to admit Sam was getting better at hiding some things, but Dean could usually see through his farce. Dean knew his brother was needing some quiet, alone time, and he was happy to let Sam have it.

"You want me to go? I can come back, pick you up later, when you're ready?"

Sam considered Dean's offer, finally shaking his head.

"No, it's ok. But I'm gonna sit here a while so, if you want to go, that's ok too. Either way's fine."

-o-

Sat comfortably side by side, the brothers quietly continued to watch everything around them, staying there, contemplating, as the sun began to make its way lower in the sky.

An hour later, Dean gently pushed at his brother's shoulder with his own.

"Feel like hitting the road yet Sammy? We still haven't managed to get that drink I threatened you with earlier. How about it?"

"Yeah, ok. I guess I'm ready now."

A/N: Had to correct a major mistake here, so this chapter is longer than most. Please review NC