If Only Chapter 25

Disclaimer: Don't own them don't sue. Thanks

Warnings: Adult content and violent themes, we are coming to darker portions of the story, torture and violence and general mayhem so be warned.

A/N:So this chapter goes out to Carocali, who did keep her word and got me another chapter of her story out. So in turn here's mine, better late than never. Thank you again to everyone who has provided feedback on the story I greatly appreciate it. I never really thought you all would like it as much as you have. All feedback is appreciated, it let's me know what I need to work on. Alright enough of the boring stuff, on with the story!

Dean rejoined Tom in the kitchen gratefully accepting a plate and a cup of coffee from him while they settled down to the table, each immersed in their own thoughts and while they focused on the food in front of them. The silence that spread out around them wasn't strained but companionable and even restive.

Tom finally pushed away his now empty plate he looked over at Dean, "I take it you were right and Sam's asleep?"

Dean nodded, "Between exhaustion, fever and meds he should be sleeping like a log for a while, just as the doctor ordered." He smiled slightly remembering the dopey look on Sam's face as the pain meds finally kicked in.

"What's so funny?" Tom asked curiously.

"Sam, the meds kicked in with a wallop the kid had no idea what was going on. I was just happy that something worked right for once."

I'm glad they worked to, what'd you say about moving those files back in here to work for a while. This old back could use a break from bending over in a recliner doing research work."

Dean laughed aloud at the comment "Sure, wouldn't want to you to strain anything." He finished in mock seriousness

While Dean cleared the plates from the table, Tom worked on transporting the files and notes back to the kitchen, they seamlessly picked up where they'd left off from before their outing. Dean opened Sam's case file again, taking the time to study it in greater detail now that he didn't have to be concerned with Sam seeing iton accident.

After reading through the case report he returned to the photos of the scene again and he felt the familiar rage bubble up. Pushing it aside he reviewed each picture with a critical eye looking for any detail that might provide them an answer. When he came to the hospital photos he almost skipped past them but knew that he couldn't ignore their potential for valuable information. Dean felt his heart skip a beat as a photo snagged his attention. "Son of a..." He swore under his breath." I never saw it and it was right under my nose the entire time." he said talking out loud.

Dean reached across the table for the stack of notes that Sam had made finally finding the pages filled with the sketches of the symbols Sam had remembered. "Did all of the victims have these marks?" Dean asked holding up the photo.

"Most of them had knife wounds if that's what you want to know. But that isn't what killed them or at least not most of them. Why?"

"Because this." Dean said tapping the photo with his finger. "Isn't a bunch of random knife wounds, it's a symbol, a mark for lack of a better term. I bet when used with these" he said holding up the page of sketches, "You get a very specific result."

"What result?" Tom asked curiously

"I don't know but we need to check and see if all the victims had the same markings it they do then it might help us figure out what they're after."

"I always thought they did this for fun, some sicko pleasure."

Dean shook his head. "That's only part of it. Our friend back at the jail said that Sam was their toy which would've implied just what you're saying true randomness in victims all taken for some sick game. But from what Sam and I discussed about his abduction it wasn't random they were looking for specific traits add that to what I learned during my torture viewing session earlier and you get a different picture."

"What did you see?"

"I watched your deputy get whipped they accused him of helping to guard their offering, their sacrifice, Sam, which means that not only were they looking for a specific person but also to achieve a certain goal."

"Okay," Tom said as he handed over roughly half the files to Dean. "You check those and I'll take these see how many we've got that match Sam's mark."

The pair spent the next several minutes in silence trying to create a cohesive stack. "Alright, we've got a total of 17 cases in the last 5 years 9 of those have marks not counting the girl and my missing deputy. "

"How soon till we can find out about the girl?"

"I'm going to call and leave a message for the medical examiner to check as soon as the body is checked in. Why?"

"These things...like Cranson they tend to follow patterns. The more pieces we can get our hands on the better chance we've got at nailing it down and getting a step ahead of them for a change."

"Alright so until then what'd we do?"

"Let's look at all the marked victims and see if we've got any other similarities that can tie them together."

Tom scanned one of the files before grunting, "You know I think I've got something here."

"What?"

"This interview from about a year ago sounds a lot like the one I had with you. It came from the city office about 10 miles from here. The man who'd been reported missing had been shooting pool with some friends in a local bar just before he vanished. When interviewed his friend indicated that he'd gotten anxious...agitated about 30 minutes prior to his leaving the establishment. Kept looking over his shoulder as if expecting someone. His friend said that he tried to convince the rest of them to leave when some "bikers" came in because of a bad feeling the place had taken on but that they blew him off and stayed to play several more rounds before discovering his car empty in the parking lot just after closing time. That was when they contacted the police."

"How long was he missing before someone found him?"

"He turned up in a field two weeks later."

"How long had he been dead?"

Flipping through the file to the coroners report he turned pale. "Less than 24 hours."

"What killed him?"

"Septic shock, the wounds were all seriously infected, he'd also been assaulted like Sam, but the ME found profound damage to his colon and bladder…"

"Holy…" Dean breathed horrified that the fate this man suffered could've been Sam's as well. "Was the body dumped? With that kind of damage there's no way he could've walked out of where ever he was being held. Who found him?"

Flipping back and forth Tom found the answer. "According to the site report they received an anonymous caller stated they'd seen the victim stumbling on the side of the road but were afraid to stop. The office sent out a cruiser to check on the tip and found the body in the middle of the field. Our office didn't get the call right away because the initial report from the scene was self-inflicted wounds as the cause of death."

"How could any of that be self inflected?" Dean asked hostily.

"The first officer on the scene reported that the man's wrists were slit. The knife was still in his hand. The other damage was hidden under the clothing. It wasn't until they got the body to autopsy that they found out what actually killed him. His wounds killed him before he could bleed out."

"When you found Sam his clothes had been cut off of him, so how did this guy manage to not only escape but be fully clothes when he did it? Only to end up killing himself in a field god knows how far from where he was taken, when he shouldn't have been able to make it across a room before falling dead. Seems a little odd don't you think?"

"So you think this wasn't an escape that they let him go?" Tom asked quizzically. "And if so. it'slike you said how'd he manage to walk anywhere?"

Dean looked pensive for a moment. "I don't think they did either. I think he was a test, an experiment."

"For what purpose?"

"To see how far Cranson's powers could work from wherever their home base is. They were testing to see how strong his hold was over this guy. I mean you've been held hostage for almost 2 weeks with little or no food, brutalized to the point of possible mortal peril if you don't get help, you manage somehow to escape and then you decide once you're free to slit your wrists in a field? Makes no sense. The only reason anyone in that situation is going to do that is if they feared being retaken or someone convinced them to do it. "

"But why try to have him kill himself? They had to know he was bad off before they started their "test" as you call it. They could've simply waited till he died from his injuries. "

Dean's eyebrow's shot up as something occurred to him. "Unless they needed him to do it himself."

"What? Why?"

Dean shuffled some papers looking for some of the research notes he'd made earlier from his web searches. "Some cultures and religions believe that if you take your own life you give up any claim to what happens to your soul after death."

"Like the Catholics and suicide being a sin and going to hell?"

"Sorta. More like the cosmic balance though. The things you do in your life determine what kind of soul you have, light or dark, good or evil, however you want to see it. You retain "ownership" of your soul so to speak until you die. When you do it's collected and tallied as part of the balance based on the actions you've taken. For the most part free will helps maintain the balance, some people do good, some go bad. Now here comes the tricky part. If you willfully terminate your life before your time then your claim, your actions in this life become nullified, void and your soul is up for grabs for whoever comes to collect it first, in most cases it's evil. Following me so far?" Dean asked looking back at Tom seeing confusion in his eyes.

"For the most part."

"Ok, so add this to the fact that demons are always looking for ways to tip the balance to their side of things. So they offer out contract for unclaimed or unmarked souls, usually in trade for something, money, power, fame the usual. Once the contract is fulfilled and the souls are delivered the balance swings hard to the dark temporarily."

"What does the shift gain them?"

Dean shrugged as he continued, "It depends on what you believe or if it's even true, some say that it allows demons easier access to this plane of existence. Some say it's what causes natural disasters and large scale loss of life. Eventually that loss of life resets the balance and everything settles down."

"Wow"

"Yeah, not pretty."

"Ok so next question, how do we figure out if Cranson and his "children" are collectors and if he is how do we stop him?"

"First we need to confirm out theory, by going through the rest of the records. We need to see how many victims had self inflicted wounds regardless of the actual cause of death. We also need to see if they were marked and if they'd been given a quick or merciful death."

Tom turned an angry glare on Dean when he commented on a merciful death. "None of them died quick, they were tortured and brutalized, there was nothing merciful about it."

"You're mistaking the torture for the cause of death. They're not the same. I'm talking about when the end came for them was it quick and relatively painless or did they suffer through their last breath? Like this guy," Dean said pointingto the file Tom had been reading. "Septic shock is not quick or painless, he knew he was dying, and while he did eventually try and take his life I'm betting they couldn't break him until the very end. But some of the others wouldn't have been as strong willed, they'd agreed willingly in trade for a quick death. So we're looking for knife wound through the heart, broken neck, something that would've caused near instantaneous death. Those will be the ones that relinquished their souls willinigly."

"How do you even give up your soul willing or unwilling? And even if you could why would you?"

"For the same reason people during the Inquisition confessed to being witches or devil worshippers, they simply couldn't take the pain any longer. Every one has a breaking point and once its reached you will do anything, agree to anything to make it all stop. My guess is that the markings are a binding spell, a contact so once the victims agreed the soul is captured as the body dies."

"I hate to bring this up, but your brother is marked, did they offer the same to him?"

"I think they want something more from Sam then just his soul. From what Sam's told me and reading through his stuff I think Cranson is looking to try to occupy Sam's body on a permanent basis."

"Like possession?"

"Possession is a possibility but it's not permanent, one exorcism and he's expelled from Sam's body and in those cases Sam would still occupy his body as well. It's got to be something more than that, I just don't know what it could be. What I do know is we've got to keep Sam away from them. With everything that keeps happening I don't know how far from that line Sam really is." Dean said quietly, sharing his concern.

"He's a strong man, he'll get through this." Tom said trying to reassure him.

Dean nodded but didn't add anything more. He continued to look through the grisly files searching for the clue that would let them know how to stop Cranson. They were into their third hour when Tom's phone rang. After a brief conversation he disconnected the call. "The girl was marked and cause of death was a single knife wound to the heart."

"So she went willingly." Dean said sighing. "Would she've survived her injuries other than that?"

"ME's office isn't sure at this point."

"Where'd they find her?"

"About 5 miles from where we found your brother."

"What about the others were they all found in the same area?"

"I don't know for sure, some of these weren't our investigations in the beginning so I don't have the full report of location. I can pull the detail up at the office and let you know."

"When are you planning on going back in?"

"I need to be back in time for the next shift change, I can check then."

"While you're there find out about who owns the farm you found Sam at. The place looks a little too good to have been "abandoned" for any length of time."

"Will do. What about you and Sam?"

"I've got a lead I want to check out first but I don't think Sam's up for another field trip so soon. I'm going to wait 'til he wakes, which will probably be pretty soon as those pain killers are only good for about 4 hours and that was before Sam developed whip marks. I'll see what he thinks and take it from there."

"Care to share you lead?"

"The first victim, the girl from the bookstore. It seemed sort of strange that they rob the store for an obscure text and know that they need a sacrifice right away. She was marked like the others and she had self inflicted wounds. Before her this group was nothing but theft and general enforcement and muscle. So I think the owner might be able to shed some light on what exactly was in those books and how they knew to take the girl with them."

"You think they knew in advance."

"I think they were accepting a job offer. The question becomes was the bookstore owner the broker for the deal or was it just and unlucky coincidence."

"Watch your back out there then. The locals never pinned anything on the guy but if he's involved he's managed to keep it off the radar for 5 years he's not going to respond well to poking now."

"Trust me I know."

"I'll meet you back here once everything's settled and we can trade information and work on a strategy."

The two men straightened up the table, Dean taking extra care to hide away Sam's file in the unlikely event he made it out here to look through the research. When they finished Tom quietly let himself out the back door to his car while Den locked up behind him and moved toward the bedroom to check on Sam.

Dean quietly entered the bedroom to see Sam in the same position he'd left him in hours before, sound asleep on his stomach. The lack of movement was a good indicator that Sam who was a back sleeper by habit was still in a lot of pain. Moving closer Dean crouched down next to the bed so Sam wouldn't have to strain to see him. "Hey bro, time to rise and shine and swallow some more pills." Dean said as he absently ran a hand across Sam's brow checking the level of his fever.

Sam turned into the soothing contact as he cracked open bleary, fever glazed eyes. "It's morning already?"

Dean smiled at the comment. "Nope not even night yet. Just needed you to wake up for me a bit Sam, your meds should be wearing off and I want to get some more into you before they're gone completely. Then I want to talk to you about a lead I want to check out."

"Kay." Sam said as he slowly rolled over to his back and Dean moved to sit on the edge of the bed to help Sam maneuver. The motion cause Sam to be swamped with a wave of dizziness and he weakly held up a hand to stop Dean as it washed over him.

"You alright?" Dean asked concerned as he watched all the color slide out of his brothers face.

"Umm…not sure room's spinning pretty good right now. Just give me a minute and we can go."

"I think you might be better off here in bed this time. I'm not sure you're up to another trip." Dean said as gently as possible waiting for the inevitable argument to start falling from his brother's lips. When nothing happened he became worried. "Sam?"

Sam slowly moved his hand away from where it had been resting over his eyes. "I…think you're right." He said finally.

Dean looked over his brother with a critical eye, not liking what he saw. "Do I need to call Carrie and bring her back over here? I can wait until later to check this out if something is wrong."

Sam shook his head slightly wincing at the pain it caused. "No don't call her. I just need more sleep. You should go and check whatever it is out. If you wait, you might not be able to follow up today. Just give me the pills and I'll see you when you get back."

"Are you sure Sam? I don't like the idea of leaving you here drugged up."

"No matter where I end up I'm going to be drugged up."

Dean realized that Sam wasn't fighting him about taking the meds and in his own way was actually asking for them, something he rarely ever did. "How bad is the pain Sam?"

"It's not good. My back just keeps throbbing and no matter which way I sleep something is hurting, but my head is spinning." Sighing he sounded tired and frustrated. "If I could just sleep..."

"Hey it's alright, let's get the meds in you and let them do their job." Dean said as he handed over the pills and the bottle of water, helping to support Sam as he swallowed them down. He helped Sam get as comfortable as possible on his back while he waited to see the pain float out of his brother's eyes. "Are you sure you're ok with this. I could be gone a couple of hours."

Sam nodded swallowing back a small groan, "Go Dean, I've got the 45 under my pillow and the cell is on the nitestand. I'm gonna be asleep so one of us might as well get some work done."

Dean finally accepted Sam's answer and was happy to see the pain start to seep away from Sam's face as the meds started to work. "I'll be back as soon as I can. You need anything Sam you call. Understand?"

"Lord Dean relax, go, I'll see you when you get back" He said shooing his brother from the room with a tired yawn.

Dean locked up the house, taking time to set several traps up to alert Sam to any unwanted visitors, before climbing into the Impala and heading out. The last thing Sam heard as he drifted to sleep was the familiar growl of the engine and then dreams claimed him.

A/N: Thanks again to everyone that keeps reading. I know this chapter wasn't the big action fest some of the others have been but trust me the best or would that be worst is coming soon.