Tethered

by Cheryl W

For Dean and Sam the only thing harder than staying together…is being forced to be apart. No Slash.

26. Chapter 26

Tethered

Author: Cheryl W.

Disclaimer: I do not own Dean, Sam or any rights to Supernatural, nor am I making any profit from this story.

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Chapter 26

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To Sam, the motel room felt too small with all five of them occupying the same space, a space that usually only included he and Dean, occasionally another addition like Cas or …Bobby. Thoughts sobered with the absence of those two people from his life, from Dean's life, Sam felt a spark of grief…before he took in the presence of the people who were in the room, who were dedicated to helping them, ensuring that Paytah didn't win…and he and Dean didn't lose each other.

It was actually amusing watching Dean, obediently still sitting at the table where Wade had manhandled, divvying out their weapon stash to Wade, Nathan and Strongeagle and dispensing instructions about rocksalt, salt rings and iron like some wizen wizard. And to the three men, it probably seemed that fantastical…and surreal. A holy quest, a dragon to slay, honor to restore, a kingdom to save. It sounded so heroic and commendable. 'If you didn't know the cost you sometimes had to pay to do good,' Sam pensively thought, wished he had been spared that harsh reality, that Dean had. 'Course we always end up doing the most crazy, recklessly stupid things, sometimes even the unthinkable, to try and avoid paying that cost,' his fingers sliding over the cover of the spell book Dean had used to nearly condemn himself to the cage with him.

Suddenly, his hand stilled, his brain tripping over the dumbbehind spell Dean had used, the intentions of that spell: 'To bind two souls together, to make the fate of one soul the fate of the other.' Swiveling around to Dean, he said without preamble, "Maybe we've been thinking about this the wrong way, trying to find an Indian solution to a ghost problem."

Dean unceremoniously shot down Sam's suggestion. "Sam, this guy eats rocksalt for breakfast, has zero remains left for us to burn and he's not tied to the cave or anything on the altar, not to mention, he can go wherever he wants to."

Sam unleashed a cocky smirk in light of his brother's dismissals. "But he's tied here by something."

Trusting that Sam was onto something, Dean stood up and started to cross to Sam, gave Wade a glare when the medic seemed poised to reprimand him for wasting his strength. Coming to stand toe to toe with Sam and eager to hear his brother's theory, Dean provided the answer he knew Sam was waiting for. "He's tied here by hatred."

"Right, for his brother," Sam concluded, felt confidence surge through him at Dean's show of faith in him. "What if we get him the one thing he wants?" he posed, anticipation zinging through him for Dean to jump on his mental bandwagon, for Dean to figure out how to turn his theory into practice.

"Wanikiya," Dean deduced, eyebrows rising when Sam waved the spell book in front of him like it was the holy grail.

"Thought that was the plan, get the brothers face to face to talk things out," Nathan asked as he joined the brain storming session between the brothers.

"They might not make peace, that's the wrench in all of this, right?" Wade questioned, didn't know why the brothers suddenly seemed hopeful.

But Sam's attention hadn't swayed from Dean's, said more to Dean than the others, "I figure, it gives us a fifty-fifty shot."

Following Sam's line of thought, Dean formulated, "But we need Wanikiya's "life's blood.""

"Wait, you want us to give Wanikiya to Paytah on a silver platter, let him kill him, get his revenge?" Strongeagle incredulously demanded, didn't think he was up for sacrificing one soul for another. "We don't even know if taking his brother's life will release Paytah from spiritwalking or make him stronger."

Voicing his support of Strongeagle's uncertainty, Nathan added, "For all we know, it would free Paytah up to kill any brotherly pair he disapproves of by his own hands."

But the brothers acted like the other men hadn't spoken, were to in tune to each other to bother with anyone else. "Maybe the "life's blood" part isn't literal," Sam optimistically offered.

Realizing that they were out of the loop, Wade stepped between Sam and Dean, the rude gesture finally snagged the Winchester's attention from each other to their fellow provisional hunters. "You gonna stop with the secret mumble jumble talk and clue us in because I'm thinking we're not thinking what you're thinking."

"Crap, I hope I'm not," Nathan muttered under his breath, earning him a glare from Wade, Sam and Dean. "No offense, but I seriously don't want any of this to start making sense to me."

"Ditto," Strongeagle chimed in without shame.

Jerking his head to Sam, Dean gave his brother the floor to explain the freshly minted plan.

Turning to address his audience, Sam began, "We don't know a sure fire way to kill Paytah but we might have a way to join his soul to Wanikiya. Which would either condemn them both to be ghosts…" for Strongeagle's sake, he amended, "spiritwalkers or …."

"…send them galloping off to the big teepee in the sky together," Dean finished, unable to let Sam get all the glory.

"And if they both end up ghosts here, that's the good news how?" Nathan tersely chided, playing devil's advocate.

Surprisingly, it was Strongeagle who defended that outcome. "Wanikiya wouldn't let Paytah take more lives, especially when he knows his brother's anger should be directed solely at him."

"So we're counting on Wanikiya duking it out with Paytah and keeping him honest for all of eternity?" Wade ventured, felt a sprig of sympathy for Wanikiya and that heavy burden.

"Not necessarily," Sam countered. "Paytah could forgive him and they could be free to move on."

"When pigs fly," Strongeagle grumbled under his breath, elaborated more eloquently when he realized everyone was looking at him. "Paytah hasn't been waiting two hundred and fifty years to hug it out with his brother. He believes Wanikiya's actions led to the death of his tribe, the desecration of the Sioux nation, and brought shame to his family blood line. He thinks the only way for redemption is for Wanikiya to pay for those atrocities, with his very soul. He will welcome the chance to condemn Wanikiya's soul, to forever deny his brother peace, even if he condemns his own soul in the process."
"Then we're back to the town having not just one but now two pissed off ghosts," Nathan sighed, liked when this circular logical stuff was left to sci-fi movies like The Terminator and Twelve Monkeys, not his life.

For a moment, silence fell then Sam noted the eureka look on Dean's face a second before his brother declared, "So we make sure they can't leave the cave."

"How? Like you said, Paytah has free reign of the whole town, isn't tied to the cave," Sam countered but there was excitement in his tone, faith. Faith he knew wasn't misplaced when Dean's answer was his trade mark cocky smirk.

"We'll bind Wanikiya to the cave," Dean announced smugly.

"And that means, if Paytah's soul is bound to his…" Nathan broke off and smiled as he grasped the bite of karma, "…neither of them could leave the cave."

Wade gently nudged Dean's shoulder with his. "I know this is going to go to your head but….that's brilliant," his look swinging from Dean's cocky smile to include Sam, who was humbly nodding his thanks for the compliment.

"I hate to be nitpicky, but how do we do all this binding of souls and sealing into caves," Strongeagle interjected into the round of congratulations.

A dearth of answers blanketed the room until Dean snapped his fingers and proclaimed, "Wanikiya, he already gave his life's blood trying to get back to his brother, to save his tribe. If we do the soul binding spell where he died…"

"…where he bled out…it might meet the criteria of "life's blood"," Sam's thoughts aligning with Dean's. "The rest of the stuff for the spell…."

"Is in my duffle bag in the trunk of the car," Dean supplied but at Sam's peeved look he defended, "Hey, I don't waste left over ingredients."

Sam felt a shiver travel down his spine at the revelation that Dean had kept the friggin' ingredients?! For what?! A "just in case" he needed them again, thought trying to bind his soul to someone condemned to hell was a good idea?! "You said you weren't going to try the spell again," he huffed out, his fear manifesting as anger.

"No, I said you showed up so I didn't have to try it again," Dean corrected, ignoring Sam's scowl. "But we do need something of Paytah's, something to put into the pot to do the link. We have no DNA, nothing he treasures, cause if we did we would be using it to toast him into the next life."

Strongeagle spun around and began rummaging through his backpack, then hurriedly returned to the group, Wade's crude drawing of the altar in the cave in hand. Pointing to the pipe in the drawing, he cross examined Wade, "You sure you saw this pipe?"
"I saw a pipe, not sure how accurately I drew it. I took pictures but…."

"This pipe turned out all white, right?" Strongeagle guessed and Wade's nod confirmed. "Crap, just like my grandfather told me. He said they were spiritual items, that they would show up as white blurs in pictures."

"Welcome to the wonderful world of the weird," Dean wisecracked, giving the Indian a companionable pat on the back. "So this pipe, it means something to Paytah?"

"Oh yeah, it does. It's passed down from generation to generation…" Strongeagle imparted with awe.

"So maybe if we torch it, Paytah goes poof too," Wade suggested, earning him Strongeagle's heated glare and an outburst of umbrage, "Torch it?! It's..it's priceless. It's an invaluable part of our heritage,"

"Is it worth more than your life, than the lives of the siblings in this town?" Sam nonjudgmentally pressed.

Embarrassed at his temporary loss of what was important, Strongeagle shook his head. "No. No, I wasn't….of course lives are more important than history."

"Is Paytah tied to it enough…I mean would he go away if we did torch it?"Wade dared to propose again.

"No, I don't think so. This guy's too conceited to care about anything above his own revenge. Besides, he would guard it closely if he knew it was his ticket to staying here," Dean theorized before he inquired of Wade, "He didn't stop you from getting close to it, did he?"

"Nope. Let me take pictures and everything," Wade drawled.

Sam nodded his head in anticipation. "Ok, it's not a way to banish Paytah but it should work as his part in the binding ritual. And as far as trapping them in the cave, Strongeagle, you said you can get Wanikiya there."

"Yeah, I should be able to call him there," the medicine man declared with a little less confidence than the group appreciated, which spurred him into digging into his other duffle bag and pulling out a pipe with an eagle feather tied around it, the bag of stones and a sweet grass basket. "With this stuff and Dean's connection with him, I can beckon his spirit from the spiritworld."

Dean nudged Sam and undertoned, "He's got a friggin' basket Sammy. He's adlibbing as badly as we do with our spells."

Immediately Strongeagle defended his choice of supplies. "Hey, I needed sweet grass to attract good spirits and this basket is all I got, which was in my attic and a gift from my aunt in South Carolina."

"Chill, Strongeagle," Nathan cut into the Indian's long winded rant, his tone humorous not reprimanding. "I think they were complimenting your ingenuity."

Untrusting of that explanation, Strongeagle hesitantly looked to the ghost hunters, relaxed when he saw that they weren't laughing at him, were instead smirking. "Ok, well…Ok."

"So we lure Wanikiya there, we bind his soul with his pissed off big brother's, then either they both go merrily into the next life oooorrrrrr we trap Wanikiya in the cave and therefore trap Paytah in the cave. How do we trap Wanikiya in the cave again?" Wade taunted, pointing out the one very important part of all this no one seemed overly concerned about.

"Crap, we need something of his to bind to the cave," Dean hissed, gaze going to Sam, waiting for his little brother to pull another one of his geek boy rescues.

Though he was reveling in Dean's trust, Sam wished he deserved it this go around. Hating to crush his brother's faith in him, he remorsefully admitted, "I got nothing." At Dean's rolling eyes of exasperation, Sam defended, "Dean, Paytah's been trying to get his brother to come to him all these years, and has had zero luck. So apparently he doesn't have anything of his brother's, well, not anything meaningful to Wanikiya."

"I might," Strongeagle announced, earning him hopefully looks from the gathered man. Raising the bag of stones, he smiled. "When I call Wanikiya's spirit here, his spirits goes into the stones."

Catching on quickly, Sam formulated, "So while his spirit's in the stones…."

Dean picked up Sam's plan. "…we put the stones in the cave. But how do we stop Paytah or Wanikiya from just pocketing them and walking out? We need to make sure the stones stay in the cave, that they can't be removed…for like…eternity."

Wade smiled cockily as a revelation came to him. "I don't know about eternity but I know a way to make getting the stones out of the cave a miner's nightmare."

Seeing that the medic was too busy gloating to share his plan, Dean goaded, "You done patting yourself on the back, want to share with the class you're one shining moment of brilliance."

At the insult, Wade scowled at Dean. "Just because I've done some pretty stupid things lately, like befriending you, going into a haunted cave, defending you from a ghost with anger management issues, does not make me an idiot."

"Oh really," Nathan drawled, truth be told, a little miffed at his best friend's reckless streak lately. But he couldn't help chuckle at Wade's withering glare. Reaching out, he playfully ruffled the man's blond hair. "Come on, Mr. smarty pants. Tell us your "brilliant" plan."

Glowering, Wade brushed down his disheveled strands of his hair, lobbed a "Jerk," to Nathan, who knew he had a thing about his hair being in place. Once he was presentable, he turned his brazen smile on Dean. "Stone, when it gets hot enough, melts. I say we tuck the stones into crevices all over the cave and blow torch them into liquid."

Dean's eyebrows rose in surprise and admiration. "I take it back. You're having two moments of brilliance: Befriending me and this melting stones thing."

"Oh thanks for the outpouring of praise," Wade sarcastically retorted even as a wide, pleased smile was plastered on his lips. After all, he wasn't a fool, knew Dean's good opinion wasn't easily earned.

Nathan rubbed his hand over his mouth as the implications sank in that they were doing this. "Crap, I mean…the way you guys talk…this could work."

"It has to work," Sam grimly declared, saw a matching determination glistening in Dean's gaze.

"Is it wrong if I feel kinda bad we're about to sequester Wanikiya with his brother forever," Strongeagle timidly asked, knew that, out of everyone, he would be responsible for ripping Wanikiya's spirit from its peace, of condemning him to fraternal strife.

"Family. For good or bad, you're stuck with each other," Nathan thoughtfully stated, thinking of his strained relationship with his mother. Recognizing the curious looks directed his way, he grumbled, "Hey, no family is perfect."

"No arguments from me," Dean mirthlessly agreed, still smarting from Samuel's betrayal. But catching Sam's hurt frown, he patted his brother on the chest. "Don't cry, Sammy. I'm not trading you in for a less emo version anytime soon."

Shoving Dean's hand away, Sam snorted, "Jerk. You should be thanking your lucky stars I'm so attached to you because you'd be dead how many times just this case if I wasn't around to save you?"

"You save me?! That's hilarious," Dean snorted.

"I saved him, too. Car accident and hospital," Nathan chimed in.

"Me, I did it three times," Wade boasted, raised a finger for each incident he ticked off, "Treated his injuries after the car accident, stopped him from going into the cave," noticed that one had Sam glowering in anger at Dean so he hastily continued, "Then the hospital…twice there actually."

"Oh, right. Two times in the hospital," Nathan corrected his own tally.

"You're all hilarious," Dean sarcastically bit out before he turned to Strongeagle. "What? You're not going to jump in too?"

Strongeagle had the good grace to blush. "Actually, I'm on the other side of the spectrum…almost got you killed with the vision quest."

"And the death camas," Wade interjected with censure, still wasn't inclined to give the Indian a free pass on that.

Intending to sidetrack the guilt train before it reached him, incriminated him for emotionally blackmailing Dean into doing the vision questing, Sam interjected, "Well, whatever we did, it got us to this point."

"All's well that ends well?" Nathan posed with a half-smile, fear starting to trip up his pulse at the crap odds that things would end well, for any of them.

"Something like that," Dean mumbled before he took a quick head count, did some calculations and asked of his brother, "I think it's going to take both of us to keep Paytah distracted to give Strongeagle time to get Wanikiya to show his face, not to mention make sure Paytah doesn't kill Wanikiya and stays oblivious while the stones are melted."

"Yeah, and I'm still thinking the altar should be destroyed," Sam tacked on, biting his lip at the growing list of tasks that needed to be done while he and Dean tried to not get killed by Paytah.

"We're going to be spread pretty thin," Dean surmised.

Sam was spared having to give a response as a knock came on their door. Swinging open the door, he found an answer to his prayers in the form of Chief Fox. Suddenly he knew who they could assign to the 'binding souls' station. "Chief Fox, how's your Latin?" he said in greeting, didn't let the Chief's uncertain expression deter him as he ushered the man inside.

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As it turned out, Chief Fox's Latin wasn't bad. He had started his education aiming to be a lawyer before turning to law enforcement. That didn't mean he ever thought he would be using that skill set while standing in Judge Preston's front lawn in the middle of the night about to chant some spell like a lame tv show warlock. But Dean and Sam had started in the middle of town where Strongeagle and strangely, Sam, deemed the official site of the Indian village was. Then they calculated where Dean guesstimated Wanikiya had died. And the Chief really didn't ask how the two brothers knew either detail. What he did know was disturbing enough.

But he wasn't bailing on the helping out, said he would and strangely, believed that whatever they were doing, having him do, it just might save his townspeople. "Will never see this in one of the law enforcement seminars," he grumbled as he knelt down on the ground, spread out his ingredients and opened the book to the marked pages. "Not like I'll have to worry about being in law enforcement long," he drawled, because if Judge Preston or any of the Judge's family saw him out there doing black magic on their lawn, he'd be lucky not to get the tar and feather treatment as he was run out of town.

Pulling his phone out, he hit his newest speed dial and when Sam's voice answered with a "You set?" he confirmed with a "I'm here, I got the wacky book out and I have all the ingredients to do the spell that will probably forfeit my place in heaven."

It was Dean's voice that firmly replied, "You're not doing evil, Chief, your stopping it."

"Tell that to my pastor," the Chief mumbled under his breath but appreciated the kid's reassurances all the same. "Ok, you guys are going to steal this pipe thingy from the cave, Wade's gonna get it to me to use as a…what? Big stir stick for this recipe, which I'm only going to do after you call and give me the go ahead."

Sam was back on the line. "Right. Strongeagle needs to get Wanikiya in the cave first before we can bind his soul with Paytah's. Once he shows, one of us will call you…"

"Whoever's not already been gutted by Paytah," the Chief heard Nathan mutter in the background and couldn't hold back a small chuckle. Sometimes the kid's dark humor was a saving grace when things were tough.

"..and tell you to do the binding spell," Sam determinedly continued as if Nathan's comment wasn't probable. "Any questions?"

"Yeah, is this a cat bone?! Please tell me I'm not going to see 'Have you seen my cat' posters all over town," Chief asked as he picked up the little bone, gave a body shiver and tossed it back into the box of other goodies he had.

Sounding almost nervous Dean promised, "No, sir. It wasn't from any of the neighborhood cats in town. I had it …it was from…." Guessed the kid was getting creeped out looks from his companions when he finished with a defensive, "a Veterinarian clinic, guys! I don't go around murdering cats …or dogs…or rabbits for spellwork."

The Chief shook his head but was smirking, couldn't believe he was part of this crazy gathering of even crazier minds. "Ok, well….boys be safe." Heard Wade sarcastically say, "Did he miss the part where we're going into a cave with a vengeful ghost who wants to kill us all," before he ended the call and prayed the young men all came out of this in one piece.

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Parking along the side of the road that bordered the woods, Wade cut his car engine, saw in his rearview mirror that Strongeagle had pulled his Beamer behind them. 'Beamer, really? A preppy Indian?!' he mockingly thought before his eyes found something a little more expected in the mirror: the brothers in his backseat sharing that we're-in-this-together resolved look of theirs before they exited the car.

Climbing from the car and giving God a thank you for a clear moonlit night, Wade found himself growling the next moment when saw Dean start to head for the trunk, "No! You are not carrying even Strongeagle's feather for the ritual." When Dean opened his mouth to protest, Wade said as he passed by him on his way to the rear of his car, "Don't bother arguing with me. Save your meager strength for the hike in the woods and, oh yeah, the epic showdown with the deranged Indian that's been dead hundreds of years and has a particular dislike for you."

Smirking at the exchange between his brother and Wade, Sam shut the car door and then had a moment of lightheadedness. When a hand latched onto his arm and steered him to the side of the car, he gratefully leaned against the car, nodded his thanks to Nathan for the save. Shooting a conspicuous look over the car's roof, he made sure Dean didn't notice his moment of weakness.

Sighing in relief when it was obvious Dean hadn't witnessed his faltering, Sam turned to come face to face with Nathan's worried scowl. "I'm ok," he quietly reassured, had hoped that, unlike Dean, Nathan would accept that as the truth.

"Course," Nathan just as quietly shot back but with a truckload of sarcasm. "Knife stabbed into your shoulder ranks right up there with a paper cut. Why did I even bother hauling you to the hospital, could have put you back together with a few butterfly bandages. Oh, except for the part that you downed poison and your heart stopped."

His anger regenerating his strength, Sam pushed off the car, latched onto Nathan's arm and pulled the man a few steps away, practically onto the road to get some measure of privacy. "Don't make this a big deal," he lowly commanded, eyes piercing into Nathan's.

Nathan almost argued with Sam, until he caught Dean's worried look coming to rest on them. No, not rest on them, on his brother Sam. Silently cursing as understanding fully hit him, Nathan gave Dean a goofy smile before focusing back on the Winchester in front of him. "Dean doesn't need you to be invincible, Sam. He knows you're hurt too," he carefully navigated through the younger man's obvious source of worry.

"What he needs it to be able to trust me to have his back," Sam anxiously corrected, could practically feel Dean's eyes on him, knew this year he had been flakey at best, downright murderous at worst when his Hell hallucinations hit. He didn't know if there had been enough time for him to prove to Dean that he was dependable, that he could trust him to be there at his side, be an equal, that he would not let him down when they were in the thick of it with Paytah.

The statement was ludicrous enough to make Nathan nearly snort but was said with so much vulnerability that his throat clogged with emotion of his own. Giving Sam's uninjured shoulder a squeeze, he declared without one shred of doubt, "Dean does trust you, Sam."

But Sam shook his head before Nathan could go on. "You don't know what's happened to us…between us. I wasn't…" His eyes dropped as he quietly confessed, "I was messed up and I …He couldn't trust me. He just..couldn't."

"Hey," Nathan prodded, waited until Sam's eyes rose to meet his before he said, "Whatever happened, he trusts you now." Sensing Sam gearing up for another denial, he pre-empted the other man by pointing out, "He didn't care that he might catch on fire if you touched him, he still chose to stick by your side. He took poison, stepped into some drug induced alternate universe, because you asked him to." Seeing the guilt racking up on the younger man, Nathan saved the best for last, said with humor, "You dedicated a song to him, a not so manly song, but he listened to what you wanted him to do." Sam had the grace to blush at that one. "But he did all of that, not just because you're brothers, but because he trusted you, trusted your judgment, your gut instincts, knew that, whatever he got into, he could count on you being there with him." At Sam's wide eyed stupor at his insightfulness, Nathan smirked, "See, I'm not so bad as a zen master."

Their moment was abruptly interrupted as Wade threw one of the heavy, weapon filled bags at Nathan, who oophed when it collided with his chest. "Enough with the hair braiding, let's get this show on the road," Wade announced like he was a kid's soccer coach, clapping his hands to cement that image.

"Where's my bag," Sam asked, seeing the car trunk was shut and he had yet to be assigned a bag.

Wade jerked his head over his shoulder and Sam saw that Strongeagle struggling to put a similar bag on his shoulder.

"I should…" Sam began but Nathan threw a hand out, blocked his attempt to go and take Strongeagle's burden from him.

"It's character building," Nathan said with a wink, handed Sam a flashlight before turning him around. Then Nathan took a few hurried steps forward to draw even with Wade, gave his friend a playful kick in the butt as they approached the woods.

Joining Sam, Dean gave his little brother an assessing look. "I haven't said it but…" waited until Sam looked to him with trepidation, like he thought he was going to say something about his feelings, "…you look like crap."

Sam barked out a laugh. "Like you have room to criticize. You're whiter than Nicole Kidman."

"White is the new tan," Dean cockily sallied back as they entered the woods and started to make their way to, what he had come to rename, the cave of doom. When there was a crack of a branch and a curse behind them, he looked over his shoulder, saw Strongeagle tripping over a tree root. Undertoning to Sam, he said, "For being an Indian, he's not very good with nature."

"I heard that!" Strongeagle shouted with irritation from behind them. Sam laughed when his brother blushed and his face gained some much needed color.

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"I wouldn't ask you to do this if I thought there was any other way," Dean quietly said, his regret palpable as he stood beside Sam, both their gazes drawn into the yawning black of the hole in the forest floor.

Clearing his throat, Sam broke from his stupor and acknowledged his brother's presence at his side. "Do what?"

Dean nodded to the opening in the ground, much too much like the one Sam had jumped into at Stull Cemetery that dropped him right into the cage in Hell.

Giving a closed mouth smile, Sam said a beat later, "Not sure if it freaks me out less or more that you'll be making the plunge with me this time." Because he never wanted Dean to make that last jump with him, to end up where he had. In fact, what had given him the fortitude to make that jump was the sure knowledge that, if he didn't, Dean would die by hands that were his own, even if they would have been acting against his wishes.

Unconsciously shifting until his shoulder brushed Sam's, until that reassuring contact was made between them, Dean offered up a dazzling but oh so fake smile, "Don't forget, Nathan's coming along too and we have our own Indian whisperer."

Sam read between the lines of his brother's words, knew Dean was afraid for Nathan and Strongeagle, for Wade who would be topside manning the climbing ropes and sprinting the pilfered pipe to Chief Fox off in some lawn ready to chant away in Latin. "They are part of this to save their town, Dean, the brothers in their town."

But Dean looked away, didn't know if that was going to be reason enough if they got any of them killed.

Mindful of his brother's weakened body, Sam tugged Dean gently back a few paces from the cave entrance and bowed his head to look into Dean's eyes. "We won't let anything happen to them, Dean," he promised, and now that Dean's peace of mind was at stake not just his own, his resolve strengthen tenfold to make the statement not a lie.

"Yeah, because we've been so good at protecting the people we care about," Dean bitterly snorted, his thoughts primarily of Bobby.

Seeing an opening to broach a dread that had been spreading through him, Sam chose his next words carefully. "Listen, with Strongeagle's spell beckoning spirits and the cave's existing mojo in that department, you know, what happened with Wade…"

"You mean his reunion with his brother?"

"Yeah, I mean…who knows what we'll unlock," Sam vaguely alluded, hoped he didn't have to spell it out for Dean, afraid that his brother would take it as a lecture.

At first Dean didn't get it…and then when he did, it was like a punch to his gut. Eyebrows rising, he numbly realized, "You think Bobby's spirit might pop up in the cave." Though Sam didn't make a reply, Dean could read the worry clearly in his brother's eyes. "What happened to the "Bobby's at rest"? That I'm going stark raving mad thinking he's still around?" Dean caustically interrogated.

"Dean, Oliver wasn't a restless spirit and he came to Wade. I'm just saying, the possibilities are there and I …"Sam broke off, didn't know how to phrase the rest without it ending in an argument.

Dean waited Sam out, needed his brother to spell it out for him.

Clenching his jaw, Sam focused on anywhere but on his brother as he steeled himself for the fallout his next words might bring, for the crack it might reopen between them. But he couldn't go into the cave with Dean without this understanding, without preparations for this. Brave enough to face Dean again, he haltingly implored, "If Bobby shows up…promise me you're not going to trust him to save you, that you're not going to put yourself in jeopardy trying to connect with him…bring him back."

What Sam thought might happened didn't see impossible, but what his brother thought he should do if it did?! That was. "So if, by some miracle, we see Bobby down there, you want me to ignore him?! Blow my one chance, my last chance to talk to him…to say goodbye," Dean incredulously retorted, couldn't believe Sam was asking that of him.

Sam ached for his brother's pain, for the need shining so clearly in Dean's eyes for closure, for just one more gruff pep speech from the man they both had loved like a second father. But Sam wasn't a fool, knew that, what he was asking of Dean, it was akin to what he had on the crocotta case when their dead father was supposedly calling Dean and he had friggin' begged Dean to not blindly follow whatever their "dad" told him to do. Which, incidently, Dean hadn't done.

With a hard swallow, Sam answered his brother's all but rhetorical question with a pained but earnest, "Yes, that's what I want you to do."

Stepping into Sam's personal space, Dean pinned his brother with a glittering hard expression of scorn and hissed, "It's just so easy for you to cut the ties, isn't it? Write people off." And some part of Dean reveled at Sam's flinch before he heartlessly pressed his advantage. "What if Jess makes an appearance, huh? Same rules apply?" he frigidly challenged.

Wade picked that inopportune time to approach the brothers, wasn't blind enough to not see, freaking feel the tension between Sam and Dean. "Hey, everything alright?" his tone worried and wary.

"Let's just get this done," Dean gruffly announced, leaving Sam to seek out Nathan and Strongeagle's company.

Troubled, Sam bit his lip but snagged Wade's arm when the medic turned to leave. Eyes holding Wade's, hoping to be able to detect any flickering of bias, Sam interrogated, "Your brother, was he…was he like you remembered? Was he himself?"

A sad but fond smile lightened Wade's features. "Like he never left my side," then he pulled from Sam's grip and joined the threesome a few paces away.

Sam nodded to himself, reassured, if only a little, by Wade's words that the cave didn't turn spirits angry, that if Bobby did make a showing, he most likely wouldn't hurt Dean…might even protect him like Oliver had Wade. But even so, he knew he wouldn't put his faith in Bobby, not to do the duty that was his, was his honor to do: keep his brother safe.

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Standing on the brim of the cave opening, Sam and Dean hooked up their climbing rope harnesses, wordlessly let Wade double check the tautness of the lines. Then, with one more meaningful 'don't get yourself killed' look at Dean, the medic stepped back and picked up the rope anchoring Dean's line to him even as Nathan got a good grip on the rope around his waist tethered to Sam. Then Wade gave the Winchesters a nodded go ahead.

Dean started to turn around, get ready to be dropped into the cave backwards but Sam's hand coiling around his bicep halted him mid-motion, caused his eyes to meet his brother's for the first time since their little spat over ghost visitations.

"Same rules apply with Jess," Sam intensely stated, needed Dean to know that he wasn't choosing anyone but him, that if Jess showed up, if it came down to picking Jess or his brother, it was Dean all the way.

Stunned by Sam's pledge, Dean numbly nodded, understood the pact that they were making. That no one else, living or dead, mattered down there more than each other. "You ready for this?" he gently inquired, knew this was one of the hardest things he was asking of Sam, to jump into another hole in the ground, to choose him over a reunion of Jess…or Bobby.

"Yeah, let's end this," Sam grimly pronounced then side by side, they leaped into the abyss.

And found it was pretty anticlimactic. No welcoming committee of any kind, no sounds other than their harnesses and ropes being pulled up and Nathan getting suited up topside. Shining the flashlight beam around the cave, Sam's other hand tightened on the rocksalt loaded shotgun but still nothing stepped out of the dark to maul him. 'Or burn me.' He felt a shiver course down his spine at the cage memories but they blinked out when his brother's hand came to rest on his back, sent the horrors of that time on their merry way.

"You ok?" Dean's quiet but concerned voice only reaching the small distance to him, even in the echoing properties of the cave.

Taking a page out of his brother's book, Sam demurred, "Just great" with a bullcrap closed mouth smile, which had Dean's hand slipping up to give his shoulder a reassuring squeeze.

"I've got your back this time," Dean vowed, eyes meeting Sam's even amid the shadowy illumination.

Sam's smile turned more genuine. "Watch it, you're practically hosting a chick flick moment," he teased, almost chuckled when his brother's hand lifted from his shoulder and delivered a love tap to the back of his head. 'Ah, Dean's show of love at its finest,' Sam fondly thought before he got his head back in the game, watched as Nathan then Strongeagle joined them in the cave and put on their respective game faces.

With their team intact, Sam and Dean stepped forward…and promptly got stuck trying to navigate the small tunnel at the same time. They pulled back only to say at the same time, "I'm going first." Dean rolled his eyes before they broke down and did the tried and truth tie breaker: rock, paper, scissors.

"Seriously?!" Strongeagle hissed in absurd disgust at the childish antics of "their fearless heroes".

Contrary to 99% of their previous games, Dean chose paper instead of rock and won the round, proving that, when it really counted, he would always win. He didn't even bother fighting to keep his smug smirk in check at Sam's surprise that soon morphed into suspicion.

Leading the way through the tight corridor of bedrock with his brother close enough to nearly touch, Dean found the tunnel opened up onto a larger cavern with high ceiling, the altar on the far wall set up on a rocky ledge and the scribbles of a people long dead inked into the wall like stone age taggers. "Homey, can see why Paytah likes it here," he snarked, flashlight beam bouncing around the dark crevices of the cavern, discerning that they were still alone.

Sam purposefully stalked for the altar, intending to snatch up the pipe laying front and center and hand it off to Nathan so the relay race to get it to Chief Fox could officially start. But Dean's frantic warning of "Sam!" and Sam's explicit trust in his brother had the taller Winchester dropping to all fours. The instinctive reaction allowed the thrown tomahawk to harmlessly whiz over Sam's head and embed itself deeply into the wall even as a shotgun blast vibrated through the cave's varied lengths.

Thankfully, Paytah flickered out when the rocksalt blasted into him, gave Dean time to reload his gun in preparation for the Indian's next showing. Jerking his head to his side, he ordered Sam to give up the pipe grab. Now that Paytah was on the scene, their primary goal had to be keeping Paytah as far away from the altar as possible to give Nathan an opening to get to it.

Gaining Dean's side, Sam dispiritedly grumbled, "So much for our united front keeping us safe in here."

"Yeah, not so much. I think it just pisses him off more," Dean muttered, before he yelled to their unseen adversary, "Come on! Show your face! You've been itching to have us here …well, we're right here." Doing a slow rotation, hoping to catch an Indian sighting in the dark recesses of the cave, Dean taunted, "Thought you were the big bad judge in this cave?!"

"I am," Paytah menacingly vowed as he instantly materialized in front of Dean, his knife pressing hard enough into the flesh of the hunter's throat to draw blood.

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TBC

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Come on, I had to do a good cliffie before the story wraps up!

Thanks so much for the encouraging words of your reviews and PMs! And thanks to everyone taking the time out of real life to tune into this story.

Have a great day!

Cheryl W.