Disclaimer: No if I owned Supernatural Dean would always wear eyeliner and Sam would wear a dog collar. But that's a whole other story (literally) ;)

AN: Character death in this chapter.

Soft singing and the smell of pancakes cooking woke Jack from her slumber. She smiled to herself and sang along to that familiar song. She shot up from her comfy bed and walked out of the bedroom. Chris was standing in the kitchenette in his sweats, flipping pancakes out of the pan singing louder with each bit of food. He turned when she pulled out a chair at the little kitchen table and grinned at her.

"Mornin Sparks." He said cheerfully.

"Food?" Jack asked hopefully. She eyed the plate of pancakes eagerly.

"Patience is a virtue Ma Petite Enflamme." He laughed.

"Since when do we have virtues?" Jack asked.

"Momma Fonty called while you were sleepin." Chris told her. Jack looked up suddenly.

"What?" She asked puzzled. That wasn't right Momma Fonty died when she was six years old.

"She means well. But she went on about me raisin you right and such. Says the roads no place for a little girl." Chris grinned at her and started forking pancakes onto a bright blue dish. The color was familiar, it was the same plate she threw against a wall when she was seven and didn't want to leave after their yearly visit to the family plot.

"You raised me just fine." Jack said because that's how the conversation went the first time they had it.

Everywhere there were little tells, things she should have noticed at first. Chris was wearing the necklace she bought him in Chicago for Christmas when she was twelve. A child size pair of blue rain boots were drying in the corner, they hadn't fit in years. The wall color shifted to the colors of a hundred motel's and apartments. But she stayed the same. Jack looked at her uncle, the only family she had. He was singing loudly again, her favorite part of the song, his reddish gold hair was mussed from sleep.

"I love you." She said.

"What's that Baby Girl?" He said turning to her. He placed a plate of food in front of her and cocked his head to the side.

"Nothin, what are we doin today?" Jack asked.

"Whatever you want sugah." Chris said pouring the syrup in a little bowl beside her plate, they way she liked it.

"Can we stay in today? Just you and me?" Jack asked hopefully.

"Course. But when did you become a homebody?" Chris asked joining her at the table.

"I'm just tired." Jack said.

"S'okay. I promise we'll take it easy for a bit." Chris putting a hand on her shoulder shaking her lightly.

"Easy." Jack repeated. She nodded and picked up her fork digging into the food. It was the sweetest thing she ever tasted. She didn't care that this wasn't real, that it was a combination of her memories. It didn't hurt anymore.

"Your taking this hard, Dean." Sam stated as they watched the t.v. in Jack's room without really watching it. Dean shrugged and turned up the volume. Sam kept pushing.

"I thought I would take this worse because of the dreams but-" Sam started.

"I don't want to talk about it Sammy." Dean interrupted.

"I just want to know what's going in your head, dude." Sam said.

"My head's not a fun place to be." Dean mumbled.

"Its nice and empty though." Sam joked getting a weak smile from Dean.

"I know you get along good with Jack, actually she reminds a little of you, is that why its so tough?" Sam asked.

"Sam, I don't like seeing anybody get hurt." Dean said trying to shut the conversation down.

"I know but…" Sam trailed off. He wanted his brother to fill in the blanks.

"She's connected to us, knows what we've been through. And unlike Max she's not completely out of her fucking mind. Its just," Dean struggled to get the words out.

"Jack shouldn't have to fucking die because she thought protecting us from her enemies was more important than her safety."

"So your saying going down in a blaze of glory isn't your thing anymore?" Sam asked. He could've shaken Dean when he said those words. How many times had Dean tried to tell Dean the same thing? How times had he tried to get him to stop jumping in front every hit meant for Sam?

"Getting jumped by a team of oversized mosquitoes isn't a blaze of glory." Dean said indignantly. He looked at Sam and shrugged awkwardly.

"I know." Sam said. He reached out and punched Dean's shoulder.

"And your right Jack's not completely crazy, only about half." Sam said smiling.

A beep sounded and her heart rate dropped a digit. Sam's sped up as if to make up for it. It had dropped an hour before too. The doctors said she was still dieing even though she was getting better, it didn't make any sense. He thought about calling the night nurse, they knew them all by name now. Two weeks in a hospital room will make you very familiar with the staff. They were keeping her in the I.C.U. because her injuries were still to severe for her to be moved.

"Missouri is coming in a bit." Dean said out of the blue though he was watching the heart rate machine intently now.

"And you chose now to tell me?" Sam asked dryly.

"Sorry got distracted. The nurses here are hot." Dean said giving a ghost of his usual lecherous smirk.

"She gonna try again?" Sam asked.

"Yup." Dean answered. Missouri had come again a few days after Jack went into the coma to try reading the cards, thinking maybe the proximity would help, but she still came out unclear.

"I'm staying in the room this time. She stole my cookie last time." Dean said picking at his bag of chips.

"That was me." Sam said.

"Bitch."

"Jerk."

Another beep, another digit lower.

"Can I have an omelet?" Jack asked Chris sweetly.

"Damn it but you can eat. Where the hell do you get that from? I swear your momma barely ate a salad at dinner when she pregnant with you, everything made her sick." Chris said getting up from Momma Fonty's couch to go into the motel kitchenette to make her some food.

"I'm makin up for that." Jack said following him. She stuck close to her uncle as much as possible. She didn't want to miss anything.

"Bet your ass you are." Chris said pulling out the eggs. Jack liked looking at the displaced objects. Things that never existed in the real world all at the same time and place. There was a drawing on the fridge of a puppy she made in Kindergarten and the photo of her mom and dad holding her as a baby. A Native American charm against evil was above that. To guard against bad things like vegetables and whole wheat, Chris told her when they put it there, when she was ten.

"You can't stay here." A female voice said behind her. Jack turned and saw a pretty blonde girl standing behind her in white nightgown.

"Go away." Jack hissed at her. She recognized her, but the details were fuzzy and it hurt to concentrate on them. All she knew was that the woman was trying to take her away from the only place she ever felt safe.

'That's not right, there was somewhere else too….' The thought came unbidden. She pushed it back and ignored the pretty woman.

"Its like she's trapped inside herself." Missouri said closing her eyes trying to get inside Jack's mind. She concentrated harder, shuffling through the surface memories, trying to find the girl.

"Is it a spell?" Dean asked.

"No, honey. Jack's doing this to herself, that I'm sure of it." Missouri said opening her eyes and shaking her head.

"Herself? Can she do that?" Sam asked.

"She's very strong, Sam." Missouri told him.

"Why?" Dean asked.

"Haven't you ever wanted to run from it all Dean? Hasn't it ever gotten to the point where you can't hold yourself together?" Missouri asked slowly. She was pushing on a sore point with him and she knew it but she wanted to make them both understand.

"Is there anything we can do?" Sam asked. Another beep and two more digits down. The doctors said if it dropped much more she would code again and they didn't think she would survive this time.

"There might be something you can do Sam." Missouri said thinking to herself.

"Me?" Sam asked.

"No the other Sam Winchester." Missouri said sarcastically.

"What can I do?" Sam asked crossing his arms over his chest.

"You're a strong psychic Sam, you just don't know it. Maybe you can reach her, the way you did the first time." Missouri said.

"That was a nightmare. I get premonitions, I'm not a telepath." Sam said.

"You think I don't know that?" Missouri snapped.

"I meant if you went to sleep maybe you could reach her in a dream, like before."

"You can't stay here Jack, it isn't real. You need to wake up" She said coming around and kneeling in front of Jack so she could see her face. Jack spared her a glance. Her blue eyes were so damned sincere, so sad.

" I don't want to. It hurts out there." Jack said sounding like a whining child and almost hating herself for it. Almost. Chris was working away like he couldn't hear or see the intruder into the dream world.

"You'll die if you don't wake up." The woman said seriously.

"Why do you care?" Jack snapped.

"Because you aren't supposed to die now. Its still out there, there are still people to save." She said softly running her hand through Jack's hair.

"I'm no one's protector." Jack whispered.

"Then why did you run back in for the little girl, her names Ana you know, she's five and she absolutely worships you now." She told Jack smiling. Jack felt a flicker of remembrance, fire and fear, but not her own. Her head was starting to hurt again. She recoiled from the woman's words.

"Why did you save Billy and Tommy when the vampires had them? Why were you willing to put your life on the line to keep Dean and my Sam safe?"

"Your Sam?" Jack asked, too surprised to resent her for forcing the door to these memories open again.

"Before it killed me, we were together. I thought we'd get married someday." She answered without an ounce of self-pity.

"What's your name?" Jack asked her.
"Jessica. You can call me Jess though." Jessica answered.

"I'm sorry Jess, but I can't help you." Jack told her.

"You sure about this?" Sam asked nervously. He was sitting at the table, with three sleeping pills and a cup of water in front of him. He had to stay under for awhile to try and reach Jack.

"No." Missouri answered watching the boys. The door to the hospital room was locked and Dean was keeping watch outside the door.

"Thanks." Sam said rolling his eyes. John was sitting in the chair beside Sam's not letting his disapproval go unvoiced.

"What if he goes to sleep and gets there and ends up in a coma too?" John demanded.

"One less mouth to feed." Missouri quipped.

"Not funny." John warned.

The machine beeped again and steeled Sam's resolve, well that and the fact that his father didn't want him to do this. He downed all three sleeping pills in one gulp.

"You're doing the right thing." Missouri told him.

"You're doing the stupid thing." John told him.

"Nurse alert." Dean said through the door. John rose and unlocked the door to let Dean in.

"You alright Sammy?" Dean asked immediately at his brother's side. Sam was blinking dizzily. He was already going on little or no sleep, the pills wouldn't take very long to work.

"I'm okay." Sam said feeling his eyes droop closed. He slumped forward in his chair caught by Dean before he hit the ground. Dean situated his head to rest on the table and looked at his watch. It read 2:00 am.

The night nurse, Rachel, came in right on time.

"How are we tonight?" She asked cheerfully. She frowned when she saw the readouts from the life support.

"Oh dear." She said to herself reading from each machine.

"Its getting worse isn't it?" John asked to keep her attention.

"Yes I'm afraid so. Maybe I should call in the on call doctor." Rachel said frowning.

"He must be very busy." John commented.

"No its a slow night." Rachel said picking up the bedside phone and dialing in the doctors pager number.

"He'll here in a minute." Rachel assured them. Her gaze flickered to Sam who was, for lack of a better word dead to the world. Dean had slumped into the other chair pretending to sleep too.

"Aw. Your boys must love their sister very much. They've barely budged from her bedside." She commented.

"We're a tight knit family." John said trying to unobtrusively guide the nurse out the door.

"Where is her aunt, she hasn't been here in a couple of days?" Rachel asked in a concerned voice.

"She's trying to get some more time off of work to stay here." John told her, relieved he wouldn't have to think up another lie on the spot. Madeleine Keith had used up all her vacation time waiting at the hospital for improvements that never came. She had to fly back home to try and wrangle more time off without telling her boss what was going on.

"If you wouldn't mind ma'am I have some things to discuss with my sons. I think its time we made some hard decisions." John told the nurse softly at the door. He looked down at the ground intently letting his whole body convey grief and despair over the possibility of loosing a child.

"Of course." Rachel said in a hushed pitying tone. She out her hand on his shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze, and damn the woman looked like she was about to cry herself.

"Thank you." John said nodding and closing the door quietly.

"I think she likes you dad." Dean teased. His mood had elevated since Missouri had told them her not-so-master plan of dosing Sam.

"Shut up." John retorted.

"Jack why are you running?" Jessica asked following Jack around the apartment. Jack was pacing back and forth.

"I'm not running I'm pacing." Jack muttered.

"You know why I mean." Jessica gave her a sour look.

"I'm getting lip from a ghost." Jack said to herself dropping onto the couch.

"I'm not a ghost I'm a spirit, ghost implies I'm haunting someone." Jessica clarified calmly. She was losing her patience, if that was possible.

"Your being a pain in my ass right now." Jack said feeling the strangest urge to stick her tongue out at her.

"You're dieing." Jessica said.

"And your not wearing any shoes." Jack pointed out.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Jessica asked.

"How can I believe someone who doesn't have enough common sense to wear shoes in someone else's subconscious?" Jack asked.

"If I could get headaches you'd be giving me one right now." Jessica told her.

"I get that a lot." Jack said smugly.

"Is it working?" Dean asked Missouri.

"I'm not getting anything just yet." Missouri said. Suddenly Sam started twitching in his sleep.

"Sam's trying to reach you." Jessica told Jack.

"I'm sure the reunion will be wonderful." Jack said.

"I can't stay any longer." Jessica told her.

"Urgent appointment to get your hair dyed?" Jack asked.

"People need you Jack." Jess said.

"No they do-" Jack started but Jess was already gone, leaving Jack alone with her uncle again.

"Chris." Jack called looking around for him.

"Hmmm?" He asked poking his head out from the bedroom.

"Where were you?" Jack asked.

"Catching up on some sleep." Chris told her. "You alright Sparks?" He asked with concern. He walked over to her and put a hand to her forehead.

"Just a headache buts its going away now." Jack replied smiling.

Sam didn't have a clue where he was at first. He looked around the house he was in confusion.

"Great, as if this wasn't crazy enough already." He mumbled looking for a door or something. He walked through the house and saw a heavy wooden door. It looked old with an ornate design carved into the wood. He reached for the heavy knob and turned it loudly. The door swung open easily, into a warm, muggy late afternoon. The sun was setting dipping low into the trees. He walked out and started around the side of the big house. He came to a white painted porch and realized where he was. It was the porch from Jack's photo album, the same rocking chair, now empty, the same view to the right of the waterfront. A little rowboat tapping gently against the dock. He was in Jack's memories. Sam ran up the stairs and opened the back door that led from the porch to a huge kitchen.

"Jack!" He called out. "Jack! Where are you?"

"Jack where are you?" A voice called. Jack started and looked around her.

'No, she thought. I don't want to leave.'

Heavy, fast footsteps were coming closer. She could hear doors opening and closing.

Sam was opening doors to as he ran through the house looking for Jack. No one was there and at least half of them were locked. Everything was in shadows. He stopped on the second floor landing to catch his breath. He thought back to the exercises Missouri had taught him. He closed his eyes and willed himself to relax. Breathing in and out he tried to let himself be open to what was around him. Like on a hunt when he had to listen for any type of movement.

He felt a pull and walked slowly in the direction it was taking him in. He stopped not of his own accord in and opened his eyes. He was standing in front of a red painted wooden door. Jacqueline was painted in dark blue old fashioned lettering. He tried the knob tentatively. It was unlocked.

The front door swung open and Jack saw Sam standing there, looking infinitely relieved to see her. The feeling was not mutual. He walked into her discombobulated apartment looking around at the shifting nature of it in confusion.

"What is this?" He asked more to himself than her.

"You need to leave." Jack told him. She felt the temperature rise in the room responding to her anger.

"Jack you need to wake up, you were attacked. And you're in the hospital, in a coma." Sam told her hurriedly.

"Well aren't I special. Think they'll feature me in Days of Our Lives." Jack snarked.

"This is serious, Jack. You're dieing." Sam said trying to reach out and pull her up from her seat.

"I want to stay here." Jack got up and pulled her arm away heading back into the kitchen.

"Why do you want to stay here?" Sam asked looking around him. The whole place was making him feel nervous and edgy, things kept changing and blurring.

"Chris is here." Jack said sitting down.

"But Jack it isn't real. He's gone." Sam said gently, kneeling in front of her the way Jessica had before. He took her face in his hand to make her look at him. Fear and sadness permeated her formerly happy space and she resented that.

"Stop it." She told him pulling away stubbornly.

"No! You have to wake up Jack. People are worried sick about you. Its been two weeks." Sam said forcefully.

"Get out." Jack ground out.

"No." He shook his head.

"Get out of my Head!" Jack screamed pushing him backward. She'd never used her power on a human on purpose, she didn't even know if she could from here.

"Sam!" Dean's voice rang through her head.

"Not yet." Sam said to himself. He grabbed Jack's arm and dragged her out of the kitchen back into the living room. A man was standing in the living room this time. Chris looked past Sam and straight at Jack, he cocked his head to the side in concern.

"Sam! Wake up!" Dean was shaking his brother awake. Sam had started shaking, practically seizing.

Jack flat lined and a wave of terror washed over Dean. Missouri had made it very clear that she didn't know what would happen if Jack died while Sam was trying to reach her. For all she knew he could die too.

"Damnit!" John cursed.

"Sir you need to move!" A doctor told him as the room was filled with medical personnel.

"Dean grab Sam!" John ordered stepping fast out of the way of the crash cart.

"It isn't real, Jack! He's not real." Sam said shaking Jack. She pulled away from him and faced Chris. She felt an unexpected wave of anguish.

"Why did you leave me!" She screamed at him. "I needed you. Why did you have to die!"

He didn't respond, he didn't move. He wasn't the man who raised her, not at all. She felt like she was watching him die all over again. The pain was too much to bear.

"I want to wake up now." She whispered.

"Sammy, please!" Dean pleaded as he dragged Sam's shaking form out into the hallway with Missouri's help.

Sam's eyes snapped open and he jerked out of their hold falling to the ground.

"Is he okay?" One of the nurses asked.

"He's fine." Dean barked kneeling in front of him. He was forgotten when she was called into Jack's room to help.

"Sam? Sammy?" John leaned down to check Sam's pulse. It was beating fast but strong.

"You alright man?" Dean asked him. Sam coughed and nodded, tears were running down his cheeks and he was pale as a ghost.

"I'm never doing that again." He croaked.

"Never." John promised.

"How's Jack? Did it work?" He asked. They glanced at her room and he followed their gaze.

"No." He said. He watched in horror as they used the paddles again and again on her.

"She's gone."

"Yeah."

"I can't believe she's really gone."

"I know."

"I mean she was so beautiful, its just…wrong."

"Damnit will you shut up about your fucking bike already?"

Jack glared at Sam. As he pushed her wheel chair towards the exit to the hospital.

"Don't listen to him Jackie Girl, he just doesn't understand the relationship between man and machine." Dean told her sympathetically. "Or woman and machine in this case."

"You're both insane." Sam said pushing her along hiding a smile.

After her brush with death Jack had regained consciousness. The first thing she did was tell Dean he looked like shit and threatened to skin Sam if he ever dipped into her mind again. Then she asked for food and barely stopped eating since then. She made it very clear that questions about her breakdown were strictly forbidden. Three weeks later she was allowed to leave, Dean said it was because with her hitting on all the male nurses and him on all the female nurses no work was getting done. Missouri said that the hospital already had one trash compacter and didn't need another one in Jack's bottomless stomach.

"You're a pain in the ass Jack." Madeleine said at the entrance.

"Fuck I want my coma back." Jack said.

"I'm not hear to drag you back to Louisiana. I'm here using the last sick day I'll have for the next three or four years, to see that you make it across town in one piece." Madeleine said.

"We'll keep her out of trouble." Dean said.

"Yeah, right, says the man who refereed the wheelchair races in the cancer ward three days ago." Madeleine said rolling her eyes.

"It was the championship, I had to make sure Sammy won fair and square." Dean said feigning innocence. Sam blushed with embarrassment, he still wasn't quite sure how he got talked into that one.

They wheeled out the automatic doors and Sam went ahead to bring the car around. That was when Jack heard a high pitched squeal of delight. Seconds later a five year old was in her lap hugging the living daylights out of her.

"Ana, be careful." A dark haired woman appeared and peeled her daughter off of Jack.

Jack took the opportunity to glare at Dean over the little girl's shoulder. Then she put on her best smile and hoped she didn't look as awkward as she felt.

"Your brother said I could speak with you before you left." The mother told her smiling tearfully at Jack.

"Really?" Jack said through her teeth keeping her smile in place.

"My name is Mary Morales, and this is my daughter Ana," The woman said introducing herself. "I wanted to thank you for saving my little girl. I don't know what I would-" The woman's voice cracked before she could finish talking.

'I hate you.' Jack mouthed at Dean when Mary smothered her in an awkward hug, mindful of the cast on her leg and the light bandages still on her left arm.

"Your welcome?" Jack responded awkwardly. Sam saved her then by pulling up in the car.

"I guess you have to go now." Mary said regretfully.

"Yup." Jack said trying to push herself up out of the wheelchair.

"Now sis you take it easy." Dean said with that shit eating grin on his damn face. She vowed revenge on him then and there.

Sam brought her crutches to her and smacked Dean upside the head.

"What the hell dude?" Dean asked.

"Stop being an ass." Sam said.

"I hope you get better." Ana said suddenly giving Jack's good leg a hug.

"Thanks kiddo." Jack said ruffling the little girl's hair affectionately. A couple more awkward hugs and vow of life long debt to her and Jack was safely in the back seat of the car. Madeleine was following in her own car.

"Your an ass." She told Dean.

"Hey, if I put a magnet on the back of your head will it stick?" Dean asked looking at her in rearview mirror.

"I know what'll happen if you try." Jack said sweetly.

"Stop fighting children." Sam muttered.

TBC…………

AN: Wow this chapter took hours, I think my fingers are going to fall off from typing. You all better appreciate this :D. Its not done yet though. I've still got at least two chappies for my readers to devour but right now I'm just gonna rest for a bit. Till tomorrow.

BTW, The character death was the motorcycle. ;) I couldn't resist the bit of torture. Told ya I was a sadist.