A/N: To LexieLou-I'm so sorry about your brother, sweetie. That sounds awful. I've never lost anyone as close as a brother, but I have lost many extended family members. It hurts and it's something that changes you.

The cause of the accident is revealed in this chapter, and Kayla finally tells Sam about Jess and Mary.

It had been two full days, and very little had changed. Sam was still unconscious. The only bit of good news over the last two days had been Sam's breathing tube coming out. He'd kept breathing on his own, a sign that he was getting better. Kayla kept a constant vigil beside his bed, one that not even Dean could keep pace with. The two of them had switched places from their usual duties-Dean was now caring for a distraught Kayla, while Kayla was the one who had to be reminded to eat and sleep. Though Kayla desperately wanted her father to wake up, she dreaded him doing so. He still had no idea about Mary and Jess.

The police had already concluded their investigation. There was no real criminal activity that had led to the accident. The brakes on Sam's car had started to go bad a month earlier. He'd had them fixed, and the new ones seemed to be working well. But ironically, those new brakes had been exactly the problem. Just twelve hours after the accident, the manufacturer had issued a nationwide recall on those brakes. Apparently, after a month to three months of moderate to heavy use, the brake lines in most of the cars they'd been installed in had snapped, leading to accidents just like the one that had killed most of Kayla's family.

Kayla was flipping through her phone, looking at pictures stored there. The newer ones were, of course, mostly of Samantha and Jesse. But Kayla had installed a printer app on her phone and scanned every one of her father's old photos he kept stored at their house. This was no small task-her father had printed close to a thousand photos and had them all in various scrapbooks and other places around the house. It had taken Kayla almost three full days of working steadily to scan all of them. She constantly had a low storage alert on her phone, warning her that she was running out of space.

"What are you looking at?"

Todd had come back into the room with a cup of coffee for each of them. Kayla felt oblivious. She didn't even realized he'd left. But she thanked him for the coffee and went back to her phone.

"The photos I scanned at Dad's."

"Weren't there like a thousand of those?" Todd asked.

"Thousand and three." Kayla answered monotonously.

"Babe, you need to eat."

"I'm not hungry." Kayla said.

"It won't do your Dad any good if you get sick too." Todd said gently. "Dean just left to get us some sandwiches."

"Fine." Kayla responded. She was too tired to argue.

A long moment passed, and Todd asked, "Tell me what you're thinking."

Kayla stared at the photo she was on. Mary was five years old, sitting on Kayla's lap and putting both hands on Kayla's eyes. Kayla didn't know in the photo that Mary was there. She started to recall the memory in the photo, but decided instead to talk to Todd about it.

"I told Mary once that the wrong kid came first."

"What do you mean?"

"She was always sticking up for me. I told her she should've been the older sister."

"Babe, I wanted to talk to you about something." Todd said. "I heard what you said to your mom in the morgue."

"You heard what?" Kayla asked.

But before Todd could answer, the sound that Kayla had hoped to hear for days came from Sam's bed. The first thing she saw was Sam's hand move slightly under the blanket. He stirred a little, and Kayla sent Todd for a doctor. She sat on the edge of Sam's bed, smiling at him as Dr. Miller came inside. Sam started to speak, but his voice was hoarse from not talking for days.

"Hang on, Dad. It's Kayla. Okay? Let the doctor look you over and I promise I'll tell you everything."

Sam tried to talk again.

"Dad, listen. You're okay. I promise you're okay. You're in the hospital. You're safe. Do you trust me?"

Finally, Sam started to focus and realize who it was talking to him. "B…Bug?"

"Yeah. It's me, Dad. Do you trust me?"

Sam nodded. "Yes," he answered, barely above a whisper.

"Just let the doc look you over."

Dr. Miller seemed delighted. "Well, Mr. Winchester, you seem to be in good shape, considering. Can you tell me what you remember? I know it's tough to talk, so just take your time. No one's in a hurry."

"Sam?" Dean had come back to the room, the bag of food he'd brought back lying forgotten on the sink next to the door. "When did you wake up?"

"Just a few minutes ago." Kayla told him.

"Okay." Dr. Miller was concluding his exam. "I'm gonna leave you guys alone. Mr. Winchester, I'd like you to stay here for a couple days, but assuming there's no complications, you should be good to go home the day after tomorrow."

Sam nodded, but the motion seemed to make his head hurt.

"Thank you, Dr. Miller." Kayla said.

"Where's my wife and daughter?"

Kayla stopped. The moment she'd been dreading was here. No one spoke, and Dr. Miller, sensing that everyone was hesitant to say anything, started to volunteer.

"Mr. Winchester, I'm sorry…"

"Dr. Miller, could you leave us alone please?" Kayla asked, cutting him off. "I'll take care of it."

The doctor tried to hide his relief. He loved his job, but he hated telling family and friends that their loved ones had died. If anyone wanted to do that for him, he was happy to let them.

"Okay. Page me or Dr. Kline if you need anything."

"Thanks. Todd, Dean, do you mind waiting outside?"

"Yeah." Todd said. "Dean, why don't we take these sandwiches in the hallway? Maybe get some coffee or something?"

"Sure. Kiddo, you sure you want to do this alone?"

Kayla swallowed. "I got it."

"Will someone please just tell me what's going on?" Sam asked.

"We're outside, babe." Todd said simply.

"Kay, stop beating around the bush, please. I'm too tired for this. Where are they?"

Kayla took a seat back on the edge of Sam's bed, where she'd been siting quite a few times in the three days they'd been there. She wasn't exactly sure whether she'd been watching him or trying to will him awake, maybe both, but now she wanted nothing more than for him to go back to sleep so she wouldn't have to break this awful reality to him.

"What? Did you convince them to go home or something?" Sam asked.

"Dad, what do you remember?"

"I know we were in an accident. It's a little fuzzy, but I think I remember everything." Sam said. The memories started to come clearer, and Sam felt his heart sink a little. "Are they hurt? Like I was?"

"Dad, I'm sorry. Mom and Mary were hurt really bad."

"Where are they? I need to see them." Sam said right away.

"Dad…"

"Come on. Let's go."

"Dad, listen to me. I'll take you to them. But they're not in the hospital."

Sam stopped and looked at Kayla. It dawned on him what she might be trying and failing to say, but his mind refused to accept the possibility. There had to be another explanation.

"Dad, I'm sorry. Mom and Mary died."

"What? No, that can't be right."

"I'm s…"

"DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE SORRY!" Sam suddenly shouted. "Don't be sorry because it can't be right."

"Sam." Dean had come in from the hall when he heard Sam's shout. "She's right, Sammy. I'm sorry, but they're gone."

"No."

"Sam…"

"They were fine. They were fine in the car." Sam insisted.

"I thought you said you remembered what happened." Kayla said.

"I do. The car crashed and…"

"And what?" Kayla asked.

"Your mom and sister. They wouldn't wake up. I couldn't get to them and…" Sam finally realized the reason why they wouldn't wake up. "It happened right when we crashed, didn't it?"

"Yeah. The doctor said they died right away."

A long, silent moment passed where everything seemed to stop. Kayla watched her father carefully, not sure what to do now.

"I want to se them. I'm leaving."

"Dad, you need to stay…"

"Are they here in the hospital?"

"No. They're at the funeral home." Kayla explained.

"I'm leaving. Let's go."

No matter the pleading, from Kayla or Todd or Dr. Miller, Sam signed himself out against medical advice. He said almost nothing in the Impala on the way to the funeral home, except to snap at Kayla when she tried to help him out of the car. Dean noted the hurt look on Kayla's face, and decided to say something to Sam about it later.

"Dad, I'll come with you…"

"No."

"Dad, please…"

"I said no, Kayla." Sam snapped again. "Let me be alone with them."

"Okay."

Sam was greeted in the front by Todd's friend, Dusty, who ran the funeral home, and Kayla tried to stop herself from crying as the front door closed. Todd and Dean both looked at each other, and Dean walked to the car. Kayla was leaning against it, staring down at her feet.

"He's just hurting right now."

"I know." Kayla whispered.

"You are too."

Kayla said nothing, simply nodded her head.

"I know you think you have to take care of everything and everyone for all of us. But it's okay to say you need help too."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"I can't think of myself. If I do, I'll lose it."

"Trust me, kid. I've learned from years of experience. Don't keep all that nasty stuff bottled up inside. It'll eat you alive."

"I just…I just can't do it right now." Kayla said. "Dad's going through a lot worse…"

"That doesn't mean you don't have a right to feel bad too. They're your mother and your sister."

"Just…not now. Not now."

"I'll be right out here if you need me, Mr. Winchester."

Sam nodded exhaling hard to try and short circuit the pain he felt pulsing through him. In all the confusion of the day, Dean had told him what happened. The new brakes on his car had been defective. They'd snapped at exactly the right moment to send the car tumbling over the bridge and hurtling towards the highway below. Sam was starting to regain the memories from the accident that had been fuzzy when he woke up. Mary telling some sort of joke in the backseat. Jess laughing. Sam trying to press the brake to slow them down because he could see a puddle of some kind ahead of them. The car not slowing down and Sam trying not to panic and scare Jess and Mary just long enough to get off the bridge. Jess realizing something was very wrong and asking Sam what it was. Sam going through the puddle and suddenly losing control of the car. His last coherent thought before hitting the highway below being that the puddle wasn't water like he'd originally thought, but oil or something similar.

Jess was on the left side of him, Mary on the right. He turned to Mary first.

"I'm so sorry, baby." Sam told her. "I got the car fixed because I wanted you to be safe."

Mary had been perfectly capable of getting home herself. She wasn't allowed her own vehicle on campus, but had taken the bus home every other weekend when she wasn't working or studying for exams. Sam, Jess, or Kayla would pick her up at the bus stop, which was almost an equal distance away from both houses. But, as Mary had explained two weeks before the end of the semester, with Sam's work schedule and Jess pursuing her own interests now that both kids were out of the house, it was hard sometimes to get both her parents' attention at the same time. She'd asked Sam and Jess to come get her so they could have a couple of hours together, and she could tell them about school and what was going on in her life without being interrupted.

"I thought it would make us safer coming home. I guess I screwed that up, huh?" Sam asked bitterly. "I'm sorry, honey. I'm so sorry."

Sam turned to Jess before he lost what little composure he had. He tried to think of what to say, but nothing came to mind. Kayla came in at some point, and Sam allowed her and Dean to make all the arrangements. Back at the car, he saw Kayla, Dean, and Todd all discussing something. Kayla smiled and hugged Todd. Sam didn't know why, but the sight of Kayla hugging her husband and smiling ignited his fury.

"Let's go."

"Dad, listen. Why don't you come home with me and Todd for a while? The kids'll be home in a couple of hours…"

"No. I'm going home."

"Dad, please don't be all alone in that house…"

"I said no, Kayla." Sam snapped for the third time that afternoon.

"Fine. I'm coming home with you, Sam."

"Dean…"

"No. No arguments. You go home with Kayla, home with me, or I go home with you. What'll it be?"

"Fine."

A heartbroken Kayla stepped into the car, and on the ride back to the hospital, wondered if she'd lost her father after all.