Disclaimer: Mine All Mine. No not the boys, the candy I just ate.
Sam looked up and into the barrel of his brother's .45. Dean was looking down at him with a look of sadistic glee.
"Dean." Sam said ashamed of the way his voice trembled. "Dean please."
Dean's finger started to pull back on the trigger, the click echoing. Everything else faded to a distant buzz when Sam heard that click. Sam closed his eyes silently forgiving his brother when an inhuman snarl tore from Dean's lips. Sam's eyes jacked open to see Dean stumbled backwards clutching his skull.
"You fucker! I'll kill you!" Dean was screaming. Sam watched Dean struggling against himself cursing the demon trying to regain control.
"I'll kill myself before I let you hurt him!" Dean howled. To Sam's horror he brought his shaky gun wielding hand to his head positioning the gun over his temple.
"No! Dean don't!" Sam screamed trying to get to his feet. He felt something burst out of him and his vision went white for a spilt second. He heard a metallic twang and a gunshot.
A wave of terror filled Sam as his vision cleared, expecting to see his brother dead on the floor. Instead Dean was shaking his eyes going from black to hazel like a flickering light bulb. The gun was flying across the room, having misfired and grazed Dean's forehead. It took Sam a moment to realize what he'd done. He'd moved it, torn the gun from Dean's grasp just as he was going to kill himself to save Sam.
"Dean." Sam stood on rubbery legs, pain making him stumble towards his brother.
Dean looked at him, eyes wide with fear and guilt, then Dean was gone. It sneered at him and hit Sam so hard he fell back to the ground. Sam fought not to pass out, but the pain was too much. Sam heard a low whimper, realized it was him and everything went black.
Sam came to minutes later with a pounding in his skull. He had a moment of panic, breathing hard, near tears, bile rising in his mouth which he swallowed back down letting it burn a path down his throat. Dean almost died. Dean tried to kill himself. It had Dean. Dean would die before he let that thing use him to hurt anyone, especially Sammy.
As his paralyzing fear ebbed away, Sam felt a sort of calm start inside. Like the eye of a storm. His thoughts worked out t hat they needed to get out of there. They needed to get Dean back. Him and Jack were on their own now.
Jack. Sam looked around for her. There, against the wall a feet from him. She wasn't moving. Sam crawled to her side and turned her over. Jack's skin was clammy and pale, her lips deathly white. She moaned a little letting him know she was still alive. Sam felt a bit of relief at that. He used the wall as leverage to pull himself to his feet, trying not to vomit and slowly regain his footing. Once he felt relatively steady he bent over and picked Jack up from the ground. She was heavy in his weakened arms and it took him time to get them out of the building. Then he remembered Becca and Andy. Looking back and forth and seeing nothing of Dean Sam placed Jack on the dirty remnants of some stairs outside a nearby building and went back inside for the little girl.
Sam stumbled inside spotting Becca in a corner tied to a chair. She was staring vacantly ahead making Sam think for a second that she was dead already. There was no blood though, nothing to indicate that Andy had hurt her again. She was just in shock, deep shock. Sam used his knife to cut her free and pulled her from the building, putting her on the staircase next to Jack before returning for Andy. Thankfully the boy was knocked out. Sam decided to bring the car around, drop them at the nearest hospital and let them deal with the kids. By the time he got to the street where they'd parked the Impala he saw that it was gone.
Sam got up enough energy to kick an old spray paint can instantly regretting it as another wave of nausea resulted in the action. H looked to his left and right gauging the distance between where he left the other three and where the more populated part of the neighborhood was. Wondering if he would be able to get to them in time if something went wrong(again, he thought) while he tried to find a car to "borrow" for them. He thought of his brother, the image of Dean looking terrified for him and pointing the gun at himself.
Ten minutes later Sam backed the stolen Toyota up to where Jack and the kids were. The car was on its last leg but it was all he could find close by. When he got out of the car he saw Jack doubled over the side of the stairs throwing up. Sam rushed to her side holding his shoulders so she wouldn't fall over. She was shaking violently and clutching her head like it was going to come apart.
"Its okay. Its okay." He soothed pushing her hair back from her face. Mimicking what Dean said when the visions made Sam ill.
"I never…fuck…so sorry…" Jack was sputtering leaning back against Sam.
"C'mon." Sam said picking her up and putting her into the car. She curled up in the seat still holding her head.
Next the kids were placed in the backseat. Sam bit through his bottom lip using that pain to distract from his migraine as he drove to the emergency room down a few more blocks. He felt bad about just dumping them in front of it and leaving but Dean was more important.
"Sam….Sammy." Jack whispered, her eyes shut tight against the agony. She never knew it could hurt like this.
"We're going to the motel now Jack. We'll get fixed and then…." Sam trailed off. He didn't have anything else to say, he didn't know what they were going to do. Find Dean, yeah that was obvious but it was the how that he didn't know.
"T-talk to me. Keep me awake. I can't-" Jack moaned in pain. "Keep me talking…p-please."
"Oh, yeah okay." Sam said pinching the bridge of his nose. "Um what was the story with the exorcism you saw?"
Jack braced herself to speak. She could make it through the pain if she had something else to concentrate on.
"I was-I was five and M-momma Fonty was goin out…" Jack swallowed the sourness in her mouth. She nearly gagged again but held it back.
"She said I couldn't go out with her….It wasn't my business. So I followed her."
"Did you know where she was going?" Sam asked.
"No. Else I would've stayed my ass home." Jack's short laugh came out as more of a wheeze.
"She was assisting in the ritual. They had to tie it down so it couldn't touch anyone. That h-how it moved…it got the possessed man's daughter though, made her cut her own throat." Jack stumbled over the words. Sam was starting to regret picking this topic.
"She was the same age as me, we played together." Jack finished.
"I'm sorry." Sam said. "One of the Deva's children had a woman named Meg. We exorcised it but she died anyway."
"You exorcised one of them? How'd you…?" Jack stopped and covered her mouth to keep from getting sick in the front seat of the car.
"Key of Solomon. We used it to keep her still. Keep it from attacking either of us." Sam said. He skidded to a stop in front of the motel and got out running around to the other side to get Jack out.
"Sammy?" Jack asked, letting him carry her up the stairs to the room.
"Yeah." Sam asked leaning against the railing for support. His other shoulder was aching and he knew it was dislocated.
"I'm sorry I fucked up and let go." Jack said.
"Its not your fault. It got to me too." Sam said speaking past the lump in his throat.
Then they were Dean and Sam's room. Sam laid Jack down gently on his bed and went to double the salt lines at the door.
He staggered, the dizziness catching up with him again and grabbed Dean's bag digging for the painkillers there. He took two out, one for him and one for Jack. They couldn't afford to take more than that, t hey needed their wits about them. He went to bathroom and filled a cup with water downing t he first one for himself and refilling the cup for Jack. He held the cup to her lips letting her gulp down a mouthful to rid herself of the taste in her mouth then he slipped the pill past her lips and pressed the cup there again. Lights weren't an option, the pain would double, so they sat in the dark, shell shocked.
"What did it say to you?" Jack asked, suddenly needing to know very much. She was almost to the point of screaming at the top of her lungs for letting go back at the hotel. Dean was in trouble now. And Sam was hurt. He tried to hide it but she could feel the way he favored his arm while carrying her.
"It said Dean hated me. That people would get hurt because of me. That I wasn't good enough." Sam whispered. It was easier to say these things aloud when you couldn't look into the eyes of the person you said them to.
"It told me I was just a useful thing to you guys. That I was weak and a danger to you both." Jack said. She hated that she had to sniffle. This pain was her punishment, a well deserved one for fucking up, she thought.
"It isn't true." Sam said. She wasn't sure if she meant it to be for what it told him or her or both. The painkillers were starting to work taking a little of the edge off.
"Let me fix your shoulder." Jack said even though she could barely sit up.
"Its fine." Sam lied.
"We have to hurry up and find a way to get Dean." Jack reminded Sam. She found herself pulling her weight up by t he headboard and edging towards Sam in the dark.
Sam let her fingers probe skillfully the injury in the dark then when he least expected it she twisted it with all her strength and popped it back into place. He cried out fell back, the pain dissolving an instant later. Sam was panting with the remnants of pain. Jack pressed on the pressure points around his shoulder knowing where to touch to make it easier. Her own pain was starting to ebb away bringing a sense of clarity.
"We should call my dad." He said after he caught his breath. "Ask him what he knows about this kind of demon."
"An Missouri. Maybe she can read the cards. Give us an idea." Jack suggested. She felt Sam nod in agreement.
"First I want to talk to Erica though. Find out what she remembers about this thing." Sam said. Making a plan, even a scant one helped him keep it together.
"Your arm is still bleeding." Sam said dully remembering Erica biting into her arm.
"I'm getting a little tired of these things always trying to bite me." Jack tried to make her tone light and failed miserably. She pulled off her long sleeve shirt and tore the sleeve handing it to Sam to tie around her upper arm. The dark wife beater underneath was sticky with sweat like everything else they wearing.
"He'll be okay." Jack said. "He's toughing than It is. It got to us before it got to him. He'll be okay." She was trying to assure herself of this as much as Sam.
"Yeah, Dean's strong." Sam agreed wiping the back of his hand over his face. How long could a person fight though? How long could Dean fight?
TBC………………………..
AN: Oooh even I was on the edge of my seat while writing this. The next chapter is all going to be Dean and the Demon inside him trying to break him. Expect some looks into Dean's mind, some of his regrets and fears, things he wouldn't even share with his dad. And later on a phone cameo by John and Missouri. Till then kiddies……..