Woke up? Check.

Food? Check.

Homework completed? Check!! *groans!*

Easter prezzies wrapped? Check!

More food? Check!

Room tidied, dusted, vacuumed, bed changed looking gorgeous and smelling sweet? CHECK CHECK!!!

New chapter posted on the day I promised?! CHECK CHECK CHECK!!...did I mention CHECK!!??!!

I should totally play the 'review and you'll get a chapter tomorrow' card more often!!! Hehehe!!!

Thank you SOOOOOO much guys!!! Told you I'd be back!!!!

Wow I'm astounded at how much I've done today! There is a plus side to waking up at 8:30am on a day off then huh?

Side kick-Bia1007

Beta- Eggylaine

Everybody needs some time all alone

For the first time in hours Dean made a noise when he felt a hand on his cheek, the hand was rough, large and most of all it was cold, it took some long minutes of struggling before he figured out it was John. He looked up past the man's shoulders and saw a ladder at his now open window...the rest was sort of easy for even someone as brainless as him to figure out.

"Thank god..." he heard John breathe as he was pulled into a tight hug. "Jesus if you ever pull a stunt like this again..." when he was taken into a tough hug, Dean whimpered rather painfully so John pulled back mostly out of shock...and when he saw the blood, John didn't know what to do. "Oh my God...what the hell did you do Dean?"

Dean started sobbing when he felt John pulling off his clothing, more like ripping them off, trying to find the bleed, needing to know how Dean hurt himself. "Dean? Dean listen to me, where is the knife or whatever you used?"

Dean couldn't think, he couldn't breathe, let alone speak to the man, all the questions that rushed to his ears just blurred into one and he felt like vomiting, passing out, sobbing and maybe all three together at once.

Before he knew it he was in the bathroom leaning over the toilet as John held him steady, rubbing circles on his back with one hand and holding a towel to his now bare chest with the other.

He didn't know what happened from there, all he knew was he was scared.

SPN

"Dean? Dean listen to me, where is the knife or whatever you used? Dean?!" John yelled jolting the kid as he held the front of his shirt, trying to shake some sense into the lost child before him.

He let Dean drop his forehead to his shoulder, helping Dean to lean on him as he searched for the weapon, when he found a small pocket knife in his front jean pocket. He wasn't sure whether it was a good thing or bad, but it was small at least so it didn't cause too much damage.

"Dean..." he sighed, taking the little knife and keeping it deep in his own pocket.

He cursed when he heard the pitiful groan and saw the awful shade of green take over Dean's complexion. He picked Dean up, put his feet to the floor then pushed the misplaced furniture out the way enough for Mary to squeeze in and help him carry Dean to the bathroom where he puked just in time to reach the toilet.

Over the heaves he could hear Sam crying and Mary trying to comfort him, he wanted to protect everyone so badly, stop all the tears coming from everyone he cared about but all he could do for the time being was hold onto Dean and try to stop the 2 rather thin cuts from bleeding much more. He made sure the kid was partly done for the few seconds it took for him to pry the boy of his now stained shirt and he took the nearest towel within his reach from the rack above his head. He pressed it on the drizzling wounds and held the boy just a little tighter as he lost consciousness, he wasn't sure whether it was from shock or pain or both but he knew the broken boy needed to shut himself off for now so he didn't try to wake him back up and wasn't planning to anytime soon.

"God stop this boy from killing himself..." and he wasn't talking about the cutting...

SPN

"Mmgg...mooww..." Dean grunted as he reached a hand up to press on where it stung but the hand wrapped around his own stopped him.

"Dean? You with me kid?" John asked, carefully squeezing the boy's hand, willing some strength into him.

"Wha...s-sorry..." were the first things that came from Dean's mouth, he didn't know what he had done, but he knew something was up, and when something was up, he was usually the cause.

"Sam and Mary are downstairs...you shook them up pretty good."

"S-sorry."

"Dean, you can't keep torturing yourself like this, I thought you were doing okay? Why didn't you tell us things were this bad?"

"I-I don't know what happened...I...please don't kick me out...I swear I don't know what happened."

"Dean, look around you, we kept you here because we knew if we took you to a hospital they would take you away, does it look like we have any plans of kicking you out anytime soon?"

Dean didn't know how to answer that so he shrugged and turned away.

"Sam?" he mumbled not long after when he heard John's chair creak.

"Downstairs, I think you need to get some more rest and then we're calling a family meeting and you're going to talk to us about all this."

Dean sighed, he did feel like crap, but he was just too scared to go to sleep, why was something haunting him? He knew now with the latest incident that something was lingering and it wasn't natural, the thing he couldn't work out though was why his salt didn't work, once he was in his room the thing following him should have gone, unless Ron lied about salt being protective, it wouldn't be the first time he fell for one of those cruel games.

"Go to sleep Dean, I'll be here when you wake up, don't worry."

He closed his eyes and felt the darkness swallow him whole before he could change his mind.

"Vampires hate wood, any kind, they can't stand it, burns em alive."

'Huh? Dad said that was just a misunderstanding with other creatures like pagan gods and such, vampires don't give a crap about wood, I remember him telling mom.'

"Are you sure it's wood?"

"Are you questioning me boy?!"

"N-no sir, no, I'm sorry."

"Good, now git over and stand guard with this stake while I go up behind it, stab it in the heart when you get the chance!"

Dean nodded, taking the stake of wood in both hands and holding it out like a blade in front of him, prepared to strike, honoured his uncle was giving him the chance to try to kill something.

"Hey there little boy, seems you're lost huh?" some sadistic freaky man said from behind him, he glared as he turned and rammed the stake into its chest, right where the creature's hollow black dead heart lay. He cried out when the man laughed before twisting his arm round, snapping something without breaking a sweat. "Silly silly boy, don't you know that only works on make believe movies like Buffy?"

Dean let himself fall to the floor in agony before he screamed once again in shock as a loud squelch and a thud rang out.

"Man you dumb little shit, you'll believe anything," Ron laughed, standing there with a blooded machete in his hand. "Get the hell up, don't even think about puking in my car!"

When he stood and lead the way out the woods, Dean felt a hard slap round the back of his head, Ron thought the cruel swat was funny, his face was like he had just given someone a wedgie, not slapped a poor 11 year old boy round the head, making him trip once again and sob as he landed on his damaged limb.

"Pathetic."

SPN

Dean jolted awake from his miserable dream and looked around.

"How are you feeling sweetheart?"

'So I guess Mary is on suicide watch now then.'

"Fine, I feel fine, c-can I go see Sam?" he asked, using his puppy eyes as best he could, he really needed to see Sam, make sure he was okay, make sure he didn't hate him for leaving him alone at school.

"He's pretty shaken up right now honey."

'Guess that's a no.'

"Maybe you can bring him around, he's been silent since you...since he realised you hurt yourself."

Dean nodded in understanding, he knew for sure now he didn't do this to himself, he didn't cause the cuts on his chest, the thin slicesthat didn't really cause any damage whatsoever, but when you got a few of them round in one place to party, they stung like a mother and could bleed a fair bit.

He didn't hurt himself like everyone suspected, but compared to saying he was being stalked by some invisible supernatural creature, it was a lot more rational and certainly easier to go along with. But he needed to get Sam to know he didn't do this to himself, he needed to tell the boy that when he walked away from school, that was just temporary, Sam had helped him! He was helping! He didn't cut himself damn it!

He pushed himself from the bed and made his way to where he heard soft cries inside the kid's room.

"Sam?" he asked, knocking on the door before he pushed it open only to find it stuck half way. "Sammy what are you-?" he asked when he saw the chair in front of the door stopping him from opening it all the way.

"What?!! You did it!!" Sam spat, but he still couldn't see the kid.

"Sam, I need to talk to you."

Sam sniffled, it sounded like he was trying to stop the cries as Dean held in a deep breath and pried himself through the small gap in the door.

"Sammy?" Dean asked finding the boy on the other side of the bed with his knees to his chest and tears soaking his face. Making sure no one was listening in, and also lowering his voice to a tiny whisper, Dean sat himself down next to Sam and spoke. "Sam, I didn't hurt myself, it wasn't me I swear, it was something...one of those things from my past, I don't know what but I swear on my parents' graves, I didn't hurt myself, I wouldn't do that, I wouldn't, I just can't do that, not now I know somebody in this world gives a crap about me," the older boy vowed.

When Sam lifted his head to meet Dean's honest eyes he let out a relieved sob when he could tell Dean wasn't lying. He let his body fall to the side where Dean caught him and hugged his small curled up frame and whispered more promises in his ear.

"I-I got really scared when y-ou...you left."

"I know, and I'm sorry. I just flipped out that's all, I swear it won't ever happen again."

"B-but how do you know? What if...what's hurting you Dean?"

"I don't know...but it's not so bad, a few bruises can't keep me down for long."

"How are you gonna fix it? Make it go away? What if it gets my parents Dean?"

"It won't get them Sam, and it won't get you, I think it's after me, but...I'll figure it out, I'm good at that sort of stuff."

"You promise you'll kill it before you get really hurt?"

"Yup, promise," Dean hated himself for crossing his fingers behind his back when he said that last line before Sam nodded, the trust in his eyes killing Dean.

SPN

It was later in the evening when the family meeting was called, all of them sitting at the kitchen table waiting for someone to speak, much to everyone's shock it was Dean who opened his mouth.

"So what is this, an ambush?"

"No...it's called an intervention," John informed.

"Isn't that the same thing?" Dean asked, making jokes, hoping they would see he wasn't clinically depressed or something, but the adults didn't seem to find the humour in any of his words.

"No, an ambush is defined as an unexpected attack from a concealed position, and an intervention is when a group of loved ones ban together to help one of their own make a difficult decision."

"So you're my loved ones?" Dean smirked, but stopped his poor attempts when the others just looked upset. "What's the decision I have to make?" Dean mumbled.

"Whether you decide you need help, professional help."

"I'm not nuts."

"Dean, sane people certainly don't cut their own chests."

Dean growled low, angry at the man's remark.

"That came out wrong...you know what I mean."

"I don't need a shrink, I'm fine."

"Dean the only way we're going to believe that is if you tell us everything that happened today."

Luckily, by this time Dean had thought of the perfect story to cover himself, making them aware he wasn't nuts and he wasn't a haunted hunter either, it was a story so confusing it made sense.

"I just...I had a bad class, I felt stupid, I wanted to just be by myself for a while, I found a spot by the back of the school and then these guys came past, tried to get me to drink with them, I just ignored them and one of them said to me that I looked like some dead freak and I flipped, I just carried on walking, when you found me and we got home...I guess I wanted to prove them wrong by bleeding, I just got lost in my own head and I'm sorry."

"Who was it?" John asked carefully as he pinched the bridge of his nose, man being a father of 2 was stressful!

"I don't know, never seen them before, they had a weird accent though so I think they were foreign."

"Dean, you won't do it again will you? You won't listen to people like that, you told me not to listen to bullies," Sam said, mostly for his parents' benefit.

"Learned my lesson," Dean chuckled.

"Kids you two are going to give me a heart attack. This is the last time you ever going to own anything sharper than a knitting needle Dean," John warned, taking the recently confiscated pocket knife and showing Dean the blade. The boys heart skipped a beat when he saw it had dried, red blood on it, still fresh...what the hell?!

"I second that," Mary said shaking her head.

"Can we go watch TV now?" Sam asked with a smile lighting up the room.

"You can, Dean's grounded for running away again and for owning such a weapon and not telling us about it."

"For how long?" Sam whined.

Dean was so glad the attention was now on Sam so he could compose himself a little.

"As long as we decide, now go, me and your mother need to talk."

They both nodded, then let out a 'oh god...' when they were out of hearing reach and up the stairs.

"Dean, I can't keep lying to my parents...please?" Sam begged.

"I know...I don't like it either but...I'm trying to protect you, do you understand that? The less people that know, the better...sometimes I wished you didn't know."

"I understand but...it's hard lying all the time...I just feel like every new lie needs another lie and another and...I'm going to be lying to them, thousands of times for the rest of my life."

"Sam...I'm sorry..." Dean said before things dropped silent and both boys were stood in the end of the hall staring at each other, neither of them knowing what to do.

TBC...

Now I'm off to eat more food and chill...do I deserve another review for all my hard work today? If you say yes in a review I'll love you forever and send an invisible Easter egg in the post! :D