Dean swallowed the immense anger and alarm that alarmingly rose within him at the sight of Sam.

He stopped still at the bottom of the steps, and his eyes began to shine with guilt at the sight of him.

If it weren't for the forceful hands pushing his back to urge him forward, Dean would've stayed in shock. Sure, he had been expecting this, well dreading it really, but honestly, now that he saw his brother, it was a different feeling than just knowing what was happening. He could see it with his own eyes, and that was easily 100 times worse for him.

Not being able to take his eyes off him, Dean noticed Sam's exhausted eyes slightly widen after finally realising the presence of his brother. He suppressed a wince when his eyes travelled across Sam, taking in the harsh slashes across his chest, the burns on his feet and the blood which had dripped off of Sam and onto the floor.

Sam's eyes followed his brother's movements as he was being directed next to him, his wrists being tied onto a lowered hook on the ceiling, by the same hands that had ordered the infliction of such agonising pain on himself.

He didn't know how to think, how to react, or even, how to believe that Dean, his brother, was here. He shut his eyes closed, trying to breathe not just through the pain that was deciding to be 10 times worse than what it felt like, but the actual hope of seeing Dean again.

It was too good to be true. This was just another one of Toni's hallucinations, yeah, it's just that.

Hallucination or not, however, Sam couldn't bring himself to take his eyes off of Dean. He felt that if he did, he would disappear, leaving him alone again.

Sam couldn't go through that again, not now.

Dean grimaced as he felt the hooks and chains tighten against his wrists. The British lady, who had referred to herself as Toni, smirked as she pulled the chain tighter, walked away and shut the door, leaving one broken, and one angry Winchester.

Dean pushed his anger aside, and let his focus shift on the figure beside him.

"Sammy?" Dean called out, looking at his trembling brother.

After a moment of no response, Dean tried again.

"Sam?"

At this, Sam seemed to return from whatever was going on inside his head, as he sadly looked at Dean.

"You're not here…" Sam quietly breathed out.

Dean's heart sank as he felt the pain in Sam's tone, and the weight of what his words actually meant.

"No- no I'm here, see?" He said, smiling, "I'm here now."

Sam swallowed. He didn't believe that Dean was here, but then again, what if he actually was here? What if his older brother came back? Sam couldn't help but let his downhearted self feel the hope of his brother actually being here.

"How?" Sam dejectedly asked, closing his eyes briefly to try and control the rapid beats against his ribcage.

Dean didn't hesitate to reply. He wanted to tell his brother everything. Everything that happened with Amara, Chuck and his mum, but knew he should leave the latter out for now, it would be too overwhelming for him otherwise.

"I never went, Sam, I never died." Dean said, trying to reach out to his brother.

Sam shook his head. "No- you wouldn't survive that- you can't-"

"Sam. Listen to me. I'm here now alright? And I'll be getting us out of here, I promise that. You're not alone now, okay? Okay?"

Sam listened in despair and hope as Dean went on about what happened. He explained how the souls inside him didn't need to go off, and how Amara was grateful for reuniting her with Chuck. It seems so real.

"If I believe you- and you're just in my head-" Sam began, giving into what his heart was believing was true.

"Hell Sammy, it's true, and I'm so sorry that you are debating whether it is or not. I swear- I'll make these sons of bitches pay for what they did to you." Dean promised, trying to push down the sudden fury he felt towards these people.

Sam smiled. It was the first time he did since being here, and god it felt good. It felt good to finally feel emotions which were not causing him to spiral, but instead giving him a sense of happy tranquillity.

"Thank you." was all Sam said, but it was enough to let Dean finally breathe out in relief. He had reached his little brother. Now all that was left was to get the hell outta here and fix Sam up.

"Hey, little bro?"

"Yeah?" Sam softly chuckled at the use of 'little'.

"You mind being my eyes for a minute and telling me where to move my wrists towards to get them out of this freakin' hook?"

Sam nodded, and leaned his head as far back as it would go, and started voicing what he thought would be the best direction to get Dean out of the tied up situation.

After a struggling 20 minutes, (it had been a real pain in the ass - as Dean had reiterated), Sam had managed to direct Dean on where to flex his wrists to get the hook to essentially unhook, as it had been luckily loosely put on. Apart from the occasional grimaces and winces of pain - which were expected - Sam had done a good job, considering, and now Dean was free from the hooks that were now scattered on the floor.

It would have been impossible if that bitch hadn't double checked whether it was screwed on right… Dean silently thought.

Averting his eyes back to his brother, Dean crouched down in front of him, and tried to unscramble the chains from the chair.

Sam, in the meantime, began to feel an increasing amount of exhaustion. He didn't know where from (perhaps from the fact he had been tortured the past couple days contributed to it), but he tried his best not to show it outwardly. He was already troubling his brother enough.

Dean knew something was wrong. Sam was suppressing his exhaustion, he could tell. After spending your life with someone, it's kinda easy to determine small things like this.

"Just hold on." Dean said, thinking that was the best thing to say for Sam to listen to.

I'll try. Sam thought.

Dean smiled softly, and Sam wondered whether he had said that out loud.

"Bingo." Dean said, grinning, as he held the metal chains in his hand and carefully placed them on the floor so as to not make too much noise to alert Toni. He still had no idea when she was gonna get back.

Dean gently gripped Sam's lower shoulders, avoiding the open gashes, and helped him up, catching him when he began to stumble.

"Woah, easy tiger, take your time."

"That's the one thing we don't have, Dean." Sam replied tiredly.

Dean bit back a retort when he saw Sam's face scrunch in pain.

"The quicker we get outta here, the quicker we can get you fixed up." Dean sympathetically said, as he kept steady hands on his brother.

Sam couldn't hide the abrupt pain, not this time, as white hot flares began to obscure his vision.

He would have dropped to the floor if it weren't for the firm hands bringing him carefully to his knees.

"Sam?" Dean called, voice breaking.

Sam only shook in pain, his face now buried in Dean's shoulder.

Dean immediately embraced Sam, comforting him and telling him it was all okay. Dean didn't know how much pain Sam was going through, but it was easy to tell that it was a lot to the extent that he reminded Dean so much of when he was incredibly young; whenever something scared Sam, he'd run up to Dean crying and wanting comfort from his older brother, in which the Dean would be more than happy to give for his brother. Starting from a young age, Dean had hated seeing Sam in pain, and as the years went by, it became one of his greatest fears, along with his brother dying.

Dean kept his hand on Sam's back, rubbing it in a circular motion. This helped Sam a great deal as he began to breathe through the intensity of the pain.

A good few minutes passed, in which Sam was able to recover, and Dean was able to breathe again. He had been scared shitless but tried his best not to focus on the worry and only on helping his brother. But that was easier said than done.

Sam took his time in regaining his composure, but before long was back on two feet. Dean's hand was still gripped on one of Sam's shoulders, but Sam was slowly but surely able to walk. It was more of a limp really, but hell with that, it counts, Dean silently berated.

They were a few feet away from the chair, and Sam was beginning to be able to slowly increase his speed, which was a relief, but a familiar creak of the door opening made any relief they had instantly wash away.

"So, did you think you really were gonna be able to get out of here?" Came the smug voice of Toni, as she descended down the steps and into a clearer view of the Winchesters.

Dean glared at her, ignoring her question and looking around for any useful weapon he could use.

"You people are so difficult! Can't you tell we're trying to help you? We want to get rid of every supernatural creature on this planet!" She said, her voice rising.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you just say you were trying to help us? Then why the hell would you do this," Dean pointed towards Sam's chest at the harsh slashes still oozing blood, "to my brother?!"

She stayed silent, and that was when Dean lost it. He began to advance on her, throwing a punch that managed to reach his intended target. She jerked her head backwards, and reached for her cheek. Already, a dark bruise was forming.

As Dean went for another attack, he left his side open. Sam saw it before Dean could - Toni reached back into her waist back pocket and pulled out a golden gun, pointing it directly at Dean… a bullet fired.

Dean realised it too late. He saw the smirk displayed on her face, and saw her quickly reach for a gun.

He closed his eyes waiting for the impact, believing his last thought to be how he failed Sam again.

When nothing came however, he dared open his eyes, and the sight before him was enough to envelop him into an overwhelming pit of melancholic vehemence.

It wasn't Toni and the gun in front of him, it was Sam. Sam, who stayed still for a moment, and then fell to the ground, a pool of new blood soaking his shredded shirt, and river on the floor beside him…

... yes, another cliffy ;) oops.

I won't lie, I spent a lot of time on this chapter, but I thoroughly enjoyed writing it on this Tuesday evening! It was relaxing after a day of tests haha (which were surprisingly okay, well I say that but just watch me get a low score on it lol)

So, the famous twist has arrived! *cue the dramatic entry music* it will only escalate further from here, and I know what you're all thinking - 'Cas can just fix it all up for Sam' - ohhh if only it could be that easy ;) you see, it's no normal gun...

Anyways, hope you enjoyed, have a great day :)