As Close as Family

Disclaimer: see chapter 1

Summary: see chapter 1

Warnings/Rating : see chapter 1

Thanks again to Rae Artemis for her huge patience and great beta skills.

Chapter 4 – Finding Suzi

I rushed back to our room from the car. 'Sam, I'm sorry man. I lost track of the time. I was restless, figured if I sat in the car, listened to some music and kept an eye out for Suzi, I wouldn't disturb you too much.'

'Okay. It's fine. Just let me know huh! I was worried. No sign then?'

'No, town's deserted. Everywhere between here and the diner is locked up and dark, not a sign of anyone anywhere.'

'Just have to wait for now, unless you have any other ideas?'

'No. None.' Just then there was a tap on the door, I snatched it open, 'Thank god, kiddo… I was worried sick.' Grabbing her wrist firmly, I pulled her in through the door.

It was Sam who saw the grimace that passed over her face; I was too busy checking outside to see if she'd been followed. 'Dean, let go.' His eyes flicked from me to where I held her wrist. I flinched away, wanting to apologise, wanting to tell her I never meant to hurt her. She shook her head and looked down.

'Suzi? Come and sit down. Take the weight off. Can I look at that wrist for you?' he ushered her round to sit down without actually touching her.

'Sammy,' her voice was quiet, 'I'm sorry.'

'Hey Suzi, me too. I'm Sam now, all grown up. I won't kick you under the table anymore or not on purpose anyway. Long legs sometimes get in the way now.' He smiled at her gently, trying to ease the tension with a gentle joke as he knelt down beside her.

'Sam,' she nodded slowly, her voice tentative, 'Dean said it was okay to come?'

'Course it is. Do you want me to look at your arm?'

'I'm okay, it's fine.'

Sam rose and stepped back. 'Look I'll give you and Dean some time. I'll be back in a while. Dean, you need me, I've got my cell.'

'Sammy... Sam… don't… I'll…' She was like the frightened little girl we had first taken in again.

'Hey, no worries, Suzi, I'm not upset. You and me, we're gonna be just fine. You talk to Dean. We'll catch up later, it's all fine.' The nervous undertone to Sam's voice showed how worried he was that he was going to frighten her away.

She nodded but her eyes didn't lift from the floor. Sam looked for acknowledgement from me and then headed out taking the Impala keys with him. I closed the door behind him and turned back to Suzi. I hated the feelings it brought back, the feelings I remembered from when we were kids, anger, fear, powerlessness and pain that it was too late the damage already done. I moved to sit next to her.

'You okay?' I didn't get an answer straight off; she didn't even acknowledge the question at all. I put my arm around her shoulder gently pulling her in, I could feel the tension radiating from her. 'So…?'

'Dean…I…I'm in…It's just…' I waited but didn't let go, stroking her arm gently, just like we'd sat as kids. 'Dean, I've got myself into a mess. I don't know… I can't sort it out.'

'Ssh, we're here, we'll help.'

'He'll come looking for me. They'll want me to go back. I don't know how to get away. I don't know how they found me.'

'Found you? What do you mean found you?'

'It's like before. There's a demon, Dean.'

'Okay, okay, ssh. It'll be okay. Sam and I, we'll sort it. Don't worry. Now you are going to let me look at that arm.'

'Dean, why did you come? How did you know?'

'We didn't know but I'm glad we found you. I've missed you and your letters.'

'Yeah. I'm sorry. I thought I knew what I was doing. I thought I could handle myself when I left Jason and Max's. I thought I was all grown up,' the tears were flowing down her cheeks.

'Hey, we're all okay now. If you like, when this is over, we'll take you back to Jason's. I know they'd be happy to see you again.'

'I turned my back on them; they won't want to know me now.'

'Sure they will. Last time I spoke to them, they were worried about you. They'd want you to get back in touch. Now come on, let's see your arm. Then we'll get Sam back in and we'll decide how we're going to take this demon down. He's quite the exorcist now, our Sammy.'

For the first time, she lifted her head and looked at me, 'I messed up, Dean.'

'It doesn't matter. We're here to help now.'

She nodded sadly, 'I'm sorry'. I knelt in front of her and began to check her arm.

'It looks like it might be just a sprain. I'll wrap it for now and we'll keep an eye on it. If it feels any worse, we'll have to get it checked out at the hospital. Now let me see the rest of these.'

'No Dean.'

'No? Why not?'

'I'll be okay. You taught me how to look after them years ago. I still do what you told me. They're all clean.'

'You sure?'

'Yeah.' I couldn't tell whether she was telling me the truth or not, but now wasn't the time to push her.

Author's Note: More soon I think (all being well - yesterday's chapter was late so two today!) Please review, it's good to know what people think. Next chapter is undergoing final edits.