Sam has been driving around for days afraid to stop anywhere but for food and gas. Finally one night it got close to freezing outside and Sam seeks out a warm motel room. He doesn't hear the phone ringing as he stands under a hot shower. The heat penetrating his sore body cramped up from spending so much time in the car. He kicks himself when he sees the light flashing on his phone indicating a voice mail, and holds his breath when he listens to Dean's voice on the message. He tries repeatedly to call the number back but all he gets is the ringer taunting him. No answering machine picks up the call. As soon as he hangs up he gets online and uses the reverse directory the number to see where Dean is calling from. It wouldn't give him a street address but it did give him the town. Looking it up on Mapquest he sees he was still over 1000 miles away. He quickly loads the car back up and heads out to Oklahoma.
Almost 24 blurried eyes hours later Sam pulls in to town. Exhausted, he drives around town until he finds a motel room. Once inside he crashes and sleeps for 10 hrs straight. Waking up early the next morning he immediately feels on edge, like something is going to happen. He showers and put on clean clothes hoping the hot water will wash away some of the trepidation. Most of his uncertainty is about how Dean will react if he ever finds his brother. Some of it is something else, something nagging in the back of his consciousness. He tries to shake it off as he climbs into the car and starts to drive around town. Immediately he notices how laidback and old fashion the town looks. None of the modern glass clad buildings. It has a nice homey feel to it. Sam couldn't help smiling to himself.
"He had to pick the most normal looking town in America." He says to himself thinking about Dean. "I guess if you had to run away from the life we live this would be the furthest place from it." A few blocks from the motel Sam drives past the town elementary school. Outside in the yard kids are yelling and playing. Squeals of fun echoed off the school walls. He is so intent on watching them as he drives by that he almost misses the man walking ahead of him heading down the street.
"Dean!" he yells out slamming on the brakes hard. He is about to jump out before he realizes he hasn't put the car in park yet. Dean spins around instantly at the sound of his name.
"What the hell?" Dean said as he runs back to his brother and the car. "Sam what the hell are you doing here? How on earth did you find me?" he startles Sam by giving him a bear hung.
"Dean, oh my god." He starts to laugh as he hugs his brother back. It wasn't until a car honked behind them that they realize they are still standing in the middle of the street. Dean walks back over to the sidewalk.
"Park it over here Sammy, behind the school." He points to the parking lot. Sam quickly leaves it in a space and joins Dean in front of the school yard.
"Jesus look at you." Sam starts to laugh when he notices Dean is wearing a janitors uniform. "Oh no way….. don't tell me." He starts to playfully punch Dean's arm. Dean returns the punch immediately.
"It's no different than cleaning up after you all these years Sammy." Dean teases him. "What can I say I need a paycheck? This is as good as anything." Sam nods but then his tone gets serious.
"Damn it Dean where the hell did you go? I've been worried about you for days. I'm half tempted to beat the crap out of you for scaring me like that." Sam looks over at Dean waiting for an explanation. Dean looks down on the ground struggling for the words. When he finds them he doesn't hold back.
"I don't know what happened, Sam. I just couldn't deal anymore. Not with hunting, not with Dad, not with you, not even with myself. I felt like, I don't know, I was gonna go crazy if I didn't do something. I just didn't know what to do. I hitched a ride and ended up here. But you know what, Sam I feel safe here. It's the first time I've felt safe in a long time. There's nobody here I can hurt. Nobody here I can let down…" Dean looks at up at Sam. "No ones life is in danger if I screw up."
Sam watches his brother struggle with his confession. It's the most emotion he has seen from his brother in a long time. Dean stops and the silence hangs between them for a moment. Finally Sam speaks up.
"I guess I'm just used to you always being there Dean. Always knowing what to do. Always having the answer. I never realized how much of a burden it was. How much of a burden I was."
"You've never been a burden Sammy." Dean interrupts him.
"Yeah I have been Dean. Dad made me your responsibility when I was a baby and that was totally unfair of him. I guess over the years I hoped you would just stand up to him and tell him to fuck off for making you miss out on your life. When you didn't, I don't know, it just made me mad because you could be so much more than what he is Dean. I hated to watch you live for us." Sam unburdened himself as well.
"Even after you almost died, you were still willing to sacrifice your life for someone else. Why Dean? Why is it you value everyone else's life besides your own? I don't understand."
Dean stands there absorbing Sam's words not sure how to answer because he wasn't really sure himself. "It's all I know how to do Sam. I don't have anything else. I know I let you down. I'm sorry." He knew his answer was weak. His voice barely above a whisper now.
"Don't! Don't start with the guilt crap Dean. The guilt crap ends here, right now." Sam's voice startles even himself. "Promise me Dean." Dean just shakes his head so Sam continues.
"Ok here's the deal. If I have to stop feeling guilty about Jessica dying, you have to stop feeling guilty about getting healed. Neither one of us could have seen what was gonna happen so how could we have prevented it. We're not fortune tellers you know." Sam tries to make Dean understand. Dean nods his head then suddenly starts to smirk.
"Umm isn't that what you are little brother. I mean, you're the one with the visions and stuff. Doesn't that make you a fortune teller?" Dean looks at Sam and starts teasing him. "You know, we could get a little store front here, maybe a crystal ball, you know the works." Sam gives him his most exasperated look but laughs anyway.
"Jesus, Dean. What the hell good are they when they cant even help me find my brother?" Sam says all teasing aside.
"Speaking of, how the hell did you find me? If you didn't have a vision, how did you know where to look? It's not like I left any clues. Hell even I didn't know where I was going. Next thing you'll be telling me is we're psychically connected." curious Dean waits for an answer.
"Who knows Dean, maybe we are psychically connected, we are brothers after all. Hell half the time I used to think that was how Dad kept track of us when we were kids." He stops and smiles at Dean.
"No, I used the reverse directory on the number you called from." Sam proudly tells his brother.
"You what?" Dean asked amazed.
"You called me, right? I just got online and looked the number up. It didn't give me an address but it brought up the town you were calling from. I just hopped in the car and headed here. I guess it was a coincidence that I saw you walking down the street." Sam fills in the details.
"No coincidence Sammy, fate." Dean looks Sam in the eyes. "You're gonna love this one." Sam looks at him confused.
"I think we are supposed to be here. There's something going on, something only you and I would know how to fix, and its happening right here." Dean starts to explain pointing to the school. Sam looks even more confused. Dean starts to laugh.
"I'm working in a haunted school Sammy." He still can't believe it himself.
"Jesus you're kidding me, right." Sam is stunned. One look at Dean tells him he isn't kidding.
"Yep. I took off cuz I was trying to leave all this supernatural crap behind and what happens. I end up working in a school filled with ghosts of dead kids. 'Every time I leave something just keeps pulling me back.' " Dean say chuckling.
"No way man, don't start quoting 'the Godfather' to me" he searches Dean's face to see if he is lying to him. "Serious dude, the school is haunted? How? Why?" Dean reaches over and puts his arm around his brother's shoulder.
"Let me tell you a little story Sammy." They head back to Dean's apartment where he fills him in on the story Willis told him. A few hours and few beers later Dean stops and lets Sam absorb the story. Sam leans back in the recliner thinking about what Dean has told him.
"You're right; I don't think there is anyone in this town beside you and me that would know how to get rid of a ghost. I take it you have a plan?" Sam asks knowing full well Dean has this all worked out already.
"Salt and burn. You know the routine but there's only one problem." Dean has to admit.
"Yeah and what's that?" Sam hopes it won't be too big of a problem.
"I asked Willis about it but he doesn't know. Really there aren't too many people around who would know, but…" Dean hesitates
"and…." Sam's starting to get annoyed.
"No one remembers where Rollins is buried. Willis and I already checked old newspaper clippings and nothing is mentioned." Dean tells his brother.
"Maybe he's was buried at the prison." Sam asks hoping for the best.
"Nope we checked there too. Plus it seems like what ever family he had in town left shortly after his execution so we won't have any luck asking them." Dean explains further.
"Have you tried going through the local cemeteries. I mean a town this small, how many cemeteries can they have?" Sam tries to come up with more ideas.
"Four, I was gonna have to spend today going though them all but with you here we can go though them much faster." Dean knows his brother is already on board with the idea.
"Well if we are cemetery hopping we better get moving." Sam gets up and heads towards the door with Dean on his heels. They head for the car and stop as they realize they both have walked towards the driver's side. Sheepishly Sam pulls the keys from his pocket and tosses them to Dean.
"Sorry, I kinda got used to driving her all the time." He says as he climbs into the passenger side. Dean gets in and runs his hand on the dashboard.
"Daddy's home baby." He says almost cooing. Looking over at him, Sam gives him the standard eye roll response. "Oh brother."
tbc