A.N. Thought you are all so friendly, lovely, kind and all round wonderful, you deserved a quick follow up.
Chick xxx

CHAPTER 25

ooo

Dean was shivering and his teeth chattering as Sam helped him to sit down on dry ground, with his back against the trunk of a tree. He knew he should get Dean out of his wet clothing, but current circumstances meant that there wouldn't be much benefit. The air was cool, and getting colder as the sun sunk lower. Still topless, Sam was feeling the effects as well. He shuffled in next to his brother, and began to check the pockets of his soggy jacket. Dean opened his eyes.

"Handsy! See? Go away...Y'r nak'd...S'rude."

"For the last time. I'm not naked! I need to make a...Ah ha!"

"What ah ha?"

"Your Zippo. I'm going to try to make us a fire, I need to get you warmed up."

"K."

"Don't fall asleep on me...You hear? You've got to stay awake Dean. I need to collect wood, but I'll stay in sight.

Dean nodded his understanding, then pointed over to a shrub.

"Get back pack too."

Frowning, Sam held a hand against Dean's forehead, which Dean duly batted away.

"Dude, that's just a shrub, it's not a back pack."

Dean gave Sam a look of pure disbelief, before clarifying things for his younger brother.

"S' under shrubub...moron!"

Sam strode over to the shrub and knelt down to peer underneath. He was amazed to find that Dean was right, there was a back pack under there. Dragging it into the open, Sam stood upright and looked at the green back pack he was holding. The memories came in such a rush, it was like a physical blow, and Sam staggered under their onslaught, dizzied by the speed of recall. They were on a hunt, investigating the cause of some disappearances, the pack was his, Dean had one as well, it looked dumb, they had camped overnight, there had been music, mesmerising music, a gun shot -Gun shot? Why...?- Sam glanced down at himself and at his arms and shoulders. -Not at me then, unless it missed. Maybe...?- There was an awful sinking feeling in his stomach as Sam slowly turned to look back at Dean where he sat, pale skinned and sleepy eyed, clearly fighting to stay awake and watch out for Sam. Sam felt his knees go weak.

...

Exhausted, freezing cold, aching and in pain, Dean saw the blurry figure of his brother fall down to his knees on the floor.-Something's wrong...Have to get over there.-Dean recognised that walking unaided still wasn't an option as yet, but he figured he might just be able to crawl across to Sam.

...

Dragging his gaze from the back pack, Sam raised his head at the sound of a groan from Dean. He was stunned to see Dean, half laid on the floor, attempting to get onto his hands and knees.-What the?

"Dean! Stop! What d'you think you're doing? Just, wait there!"

Sam scrambled onto his feet and ran back to Dean. Dean squinted up at Sam from where he lay.

"K...M'waitin'."

Dropping the back pack, Sam squatted down. Hooking his arms under Dean's armpits, he sat his brother upright again and manoeuvred Dean back up against the tree. Sam was scared, and as a result, he was angry.

"What the fuck were you trying to do Dean? Just what were you playing at? Honestly? I've no idea what's happened to us. I haven't got the faintest clue how we both ended up here, but I'm trying to take care of things. All I want from you is for you to sit here and stay still. Seriously? What's so freakin' hard about that? Huh?"

Keeping his head bowed, Dean avoided meeting Sam's eyes and stayed silent.

"You really are unbelievable! If you want to help, here's the damn back pack. Go through it for anything useful while I get firewood and, stay put! Gottit?"

A brief nod was the only answer Sam got.

...

On his return, Dean was looking pleased with himself and he held something up for Sam's inspection.

"Hey! We've got coffee!"

Sam smiled.

"That's great!...Look, I'm sorry I yelled Dean. I had no right, I was just..."

"No. S' fine Sammy. Ok?...Wanna see what else we got?"

"Pizza? To go with the coffee?"

Dean grinned happily.

"Better!"

...

Sam couldn't help but laugh at his brother's surly expression. Over his mug of coffee, Dean glowered back at Sam from where he sat, zipped up in the sleeping bag with only his arms, shoulders and head poking out.

"Shut up, it's embarrassing. What if somebody comes and here I am, naked except for a sleeping bag? What if I need to go, you know...I can't just wander off into the trees butt naked. There could be wildlife!"

Sam paused in his task of hanging wet clothing over the impromptu wash rack he'd made from various sized branches. His expression became thoughtful and serious.

"Hell! You're right! I hadn't thought about the wildlife...The sight could cause them a lifetime of trauma!"

Dean gave his brother the finger. However dumb he felt sitting around wearing the sleeping bag, he was dry, he was finally warming up, he was drinking hot coffee in front of a healthy sized fire, and he was feeling pleasantly drowsy. A pizza would have made it near perfect. The main irritation right now was the cough he seemed to have begun to work on. Dean drained his coffee as Sam finished arranging the wet clothing and he held the mug out to Sam.

"Your turn."

Sam was carrying something in one hand when he sat down opposite Dean, he put it on the floor at his side before taking the mug and making himself a coffee. When he was settled, he picked the object up and held it, dangling from his hand, for Dean to see.

"It was in the pocket of your denim. It's the raincoat bag, right? It's got water in the bottom, cloudy water...Salt water. I'm guessing you filled the bag with salt? Oh, and what's with the new necklace? Not something you'd normally wear, a rosary. Dean, how about you fill me in on what I seem to have missed? What happened to us bro? Please, I've just got this huge blank spot in my head."

Dean nodded.

"Ok...Tell me what you do remember, and I'll take it from there."

Carefully putting the pieces back together, Sam relayed what he could recall to his brother, all except one thing. Sam didn't mention the vague memory of a gunshot, instead, he let Dean take over. However, Dean made no mention of shooting anything. Sam could almost believe he'd been mistaken, he had been under the Naiad's thrall at the time. Still, there was that tiny niggle.

...

Sam stared for so long at Dean in stunned amazement, that Dean began to wriggle in discomfort.

"Will you stop that? It's creepy!"

Sam shook his head slowly, still processing what he'd just heard.

"Sorry, but...Dude, you did a blessing and turned the whole of their pool into one big body of Holy Water! Sonovabitch! Dean, that's...that's..."

Dean grinned.

"Awesome?"

"Damn right! Major league awesome!"

Dean's blush added to the heat he was already feeling in his cheeks.

"Thanks...I think I might accidentally have given them all a salt bath too. It would've dissolved into the water from the hessian bag, and I'm guessing water got in through the top of that green bag."

Sam nodded his agreement.

"So, you saved my ass...From three female, hot, sexy, naked nymphs?"

"Hey! They would've eaten you! Alive!"

Sam laughed at Dean's indignant protest, then suddenly became silent. Dean frowned.

"What's wrong? Sammy?"

Sam's voice was little more than a whisper.

"You were dead...When I found you...You weren't breathing Dean. You were gone."

"Oh...I see...Well...Then I guess I owe you my ass too little brother."

...

Whilst Sam tended the fire and kept watch, Dean tried to sleep. Throughout the night though, his wracking cough got worse, as did the sound effects accompanying his breathing. During a particularly restless phase, with Dean moaning and muttering, Sam again felt at his brother's forehead, and was unhappy to feel the low level heat and the slight clammy feeling to Dean's skin. Although virtually all the water had been puked out of Dean's lungs, there was always the possibility that small amounts, containing who knew what bacteria and pond life, was still hiding in the bottom of his lungs. Sam knew it was not uncommon for victims who survived drowning to die later, having gone on to develop serious Pneumonia as a result of those tiny amounts of water left behind in their lungs. Come first light, he and Dean would head back to the Impala and then, whether his brother agreed or not, it was straight to ER with Dean to get the prescription antibiotics needed to prevent his chesty cough and temperature from getting worse.

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A.N. Going out tonight to meet up with two of our best friends. Gotta say, I'm curious. Had a message to say they have a "business proposition" for me. Slightly nervous, and if you knew this pair, you would be too! One of their ideas had me standing with 499 others, facing 2,000 muttering "Rubber weapons, rubber weapons" as a reminder that's all they were. I'd been used to fighting with metal weapons till then, way less scary somehow! We had no idea there was an illegal double handed metal sword on the other side.. Fortunately the guy carrying it hit my mate next to me on the head, my mate had a metal helmet on. Result? Huge clang of metal on metal, 2,493 people silenced & froze. 6 moved, 1 guy went down. Great weekend :D
Chick xxx