Typical Disclaimer: This story has the typical violence you'll see in the show along with all the angst. I try not to get too off character or too violent, but I'm giving it a mature rating just to be on the safe side.
I of course own nothing and get nothing but the satisfaction of writing the story and hopefully making it enjoyable for others as well. Comments are always welcome, good or bad. Thank you to everyone and I hope you have been enjoying it.
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"How much time do you think you'll need Carol?" Karen stood next to Sam adjusting the mask on his face. "I'm going to need to switch to an IV drug if you're going to need more than today."
"I understand. I was able to make several days pass for us and I'm sure I can do the same. Once I have him, you can turn off the gas, I shouldn't have a problem keeping him as long as the house is quiet." Carol took her place in the chair next to the bed and looked at Sam sleeping peacefully. "Anything specific you want to occur?"
Karen reached down and grabbed Carol by the face, "what do you think? He's been a thorn in my side for months now. I want him humbled and doing as he's told." Karen roughly removed her hand, jerking Carol's head slightly.
Carol glared up at her, "I'm doing my best. You can't expect me to turn him into an obedient puppy overnight when he's had 23 years of good-boy ingrained into him."
Carol cringed and expected Karen to hit her, but the blow never came. Karen just stared down at her with the slight snarl expression on her face and clenched jaw. "I am well aware of your challenge and I know you'll do the job." Karen glanced over at Sam, "if you're going to bring him out of this today then you need to make sure you end it in a fight. Otherwise, he'll be suspicious about his wounds."
Carol nodded, "I understand. Give me a minute or two and then take off the mask." Carol reached out with her mind towards Sam, linking was easy enough. Taking over was a little more difficult. She found him in a dream, one of his nightmares actually. Jess was above him and the fire was raging around him. She knew the next step would be for Dean to come crashing in the door to rescue him … instead, she took control of the dream …
Carol reached down and grabbed Sam, pulling him from the bed. Sam looked at her in confusion as she pushed him out of the room. He was no longer looking at Jess or calling her name. He looked at her dumbfounded as she pushed him away from the blazing heat of the burning room and held onto his shirt calling his name, "Sam? Sam?"
Sam suddenly jerked awake. Carol was sitting next to him on the bed in the motel. Her hands were resting on his chest shaking him lightly, "Sam?"
"Hey there. Welcome back," Carol smiled easily at him as he sat up on his elbows. She didn't move away and just watched him. "You ok? Another nightmare?"
Sam looked at her concerned features and frowned slightly.
"You seem to have them a lot." She smiled and casually reached up and moved the thick locks of his brown hair from his eyes. He pulled his head away from her and she returned her hand to her lap and shrugged, "you're eye's healing up nicely," she said softly as she got up from the bed and moved to the table where breakfast was sitting.
Sam looked at the table and the bags on the floor. She'd obviously gone somewhere other than fast food and brought back a decent array of items to choose from for breakfast.
"I thought you might be hungry. You were sleeping so soundly, but I could hear that stomach of yours growling all the way across the room." She waved a hand at the chair on the other side of the table, "why don't you come up and pick something to eat."
She looked over at him sitting on the bed unsure; she knew the various thoughts running through his head. "Damn Sammy, I'm not that bad." She scowled at his surprised look. "I have not poisoned the food, nor trying to force you to do anything you don't want to. I was instructed to take you where ever you wanted and hang out to see if you decided to come home." She turned disgustedly towards the different containers of food and served herself what she wanted, leaving the rest for Sam if he so choose.
"Stay out of my head," he finally said feeling bad that he'd thought those things and worse about her. He took a deep breath and joined her at the table, picked out several different things to eat as his stomach growled fiercely at him.
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"Any luck yet Missouri?" Dean called her on the phone for the fourth time in two days.
"No honey and I'm not going to get anywhere if you keep calling and disturbing me." Missouri took a deep breath and sighed, "I'm sorry Dean, but I just can't find him. What I felt was so sudden and so intense, but stopped so quickly I couldn't come close to telling you where it originated. I can't even tell you which direction to look. Right now I'm just hoping he'll try to contact me again."
Dean sighed and clenched his fists in frustration, "ok Missouri. Let us know if you do find something."
"You know I will."
---
There was plenty of food on the table and Sam ate his fill. Sitting back with a satisfied belch, he blushed at Carol, "excuse me."
Carol laughed softly and waved her hand at him in a 'don't worry about it' gesture. "I'm glad you enjoyed it. Whenever you're ready, just let me know and we'll hit the road again." Carol stood up and started packing her bag.
Sam watched her curiously. She rolled her clothes like Dean did, fussed over her hair like Jess use to, tried to wake him and soothe him when he was having nightmares like both of them, and seemed annoyed by his presence but at ease with helping him around all at the same time. Sam took a breath and turned his attention to the table. He cleaned up the leftovers and pulled out his laptop. He began looking through web pages for unusual deaths and something to hunt. He focused his mind on the search and tried not to think of anything else. He got the reaction he was expecting.
Carol turned around and glared at him from the sink area where she had been brushing her hair. She put the brush down on the sink and tried to walk casually over to him, "what'cha doing?"
He glanced up at her, "what do you think I'm doing?" He stood up from his chair and grabbed her by the throat forcing her against the wall, "get out of my head. I don't know what you think you're going to accomplish, but I can see right through all the hints of Dean and Jess that you're trying to mimic." He tightened his grip and she just pulled desperately at his hand and hit at his arm, squirming against the wall, tears welling in her eyes. He pressed his face very close to her's and growled, "I wont become what you're wanting me to be. I wont help you or Karen or any of the others. I will never do what you want. You took my family away from me and I will not forgive, forget, or bend to you. Ever!" He squeezed a little harder and her eyes rolled, her hands fell limply to her sides, and she sank into unconsciousness.
Sam blinked and quickly let her go. She fell to the ground and when he checked she wasn't breathing. Panic began to sweep over him as he laid her straight on the ground and began to try rescue breathing. "Come on, breathe damn it." He checked her pulse and it was still there, so he breathed into her mouth again. After a second she inhaled sharply and began coughing.
She squirmed away from him, tears streaming from her eyes as she back-peddled as fast as she could towards the bathroom area. Sam stood as she curled herself under the sink coughing and holding her throat, all the while watching him with tear-filled eyes. "I did it because I like you. I'm just supposed to watch you and keep you safe, that's all Karen told me to do. But you're a really nice guy and I like you, so I thought if I could fill in even a little bit of what you lost you might feel the same thing about me." She pulled her knees up to her chest and tucked her chin in so that her forehead was resting on her knees. "I'm sorry, Sam," she sobbed lightly from her place under the sink's vanity.
Sam just frowned and watched her, not sure if he should believe her.
After a few moments, Sam took a deep breath and walked over and kneeling down next to her. He knew she was probably reading his mind already so he went ahead and put his hand on her shoulder. She jerked back and hit her head on the vanity, causing her to cry out a little and put a hand over the spot that had impacted. This just made him mad, thinking she was messing around with him again.
She looked up at him and noticed the frown on his face, "I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting you to touch me in any way other than to maybe choke me again."
"Yeah right."
"I didn't, I can't read your mind when I'm upset. I have to concentrating and I can't do that right now." She swallowed and rubbed the spot on her head checking it to make sure it wasn't bleeding. "I'm still trying to get over the fact that you were going to kill me," she sniffed. She looked up into Sam's eyes, "I wont do it any more, not intentionally. I promise. I can't help it if you get too emotional though, because it'll just come to me as if you'd opened your mouth and told me. But I wont purposefully go into your head anymore." She looked at him hopefully as he stared down at her.
The room was silent for a while. Sam stood up and offered her a hand up, which she lightly accepted and went over to sit on her bed without looking at Sam. She fidgeted with her socks and shoes while Sam went back over to the laptop and just stared at the screen.
"I want you to take me to Palo Alto." Sam suddenly said.
"Where?"
"Palo Alto. California." Sam stared at her.
"Uh, ok." She stood up and started packing, "who's there?"
"Stanford," he said pointedly as he shut down the laptop and began packing his things.
"The school?" Carol glanced at him questioningly as she finished putting her things in the bag and zipped it up. "You have friends of family going there?"
"I'm going back to school." He closed his bag and looked at Carol, "I never wanted this life really and now that I don't have a reason to stay in it, I'm going to back to school. I'm going to do what I had wanted to do before. This time I'm doing it for Dean."
Carol shrugged, "wow …uh … ok, to Palo Alto it is then." She shouldered her bag and headed for the door. The drive was quiet and Sam eventually drifted off to sleep as he watched the scenery go by. He woke up and noticed they were making excellent time. Glancing over at Carol she appeared to be getting tired, but just smiled over in his direction. Damn she could drive like Dean too. He stretched a little and grunted at the soreness of his muscles.
"Want me to pull over so you can stretch a little?" Sam looked at the road signs and a rest stop was coming up, so he nodded, "yeah, I could use a walk." As the exit came, she pulled over and got out of the car making a straight walk to the vending machines. Sam got out and strolled around the benches the small building that contained the restrooms. Something was wrong and he knew it, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He walked into the restroom and washed his face and hands.
Once he left the restroom he found Carol at the vending machines still pulling out chips and cokes. As he walked up to her, she smiled and handed him everything, "can you take these to the car while I use the restroom please?" He smiled and took everything from her, watching as she entered the building before walking over to the car. While he waited he looked around the rest stop at all the different people coming and going. He noticed a couple of burly looking men in a large truck at the end of the row of parking spaces. His mind raced as he recognized them, but couldn't remember where. As Carol returned to the car, she glanced in their direction, "what's wrong?"
"I don't know. I think I've seen them before, I just can't remember where." Sam frowned as he got into the car. Carol shrugged and got into the drivers side, "want me to do a walk by and see what they're up to?" Her smile faded quickly as Sam frowned at her, "you can't just get into people's head any time you feel like it." She blinked and opened her mouth to say something, but closed it and looked dejectedly at the steering wheel as she started the car and pulled back out onto the Interstate. Sam watched in the rear view mirror as the truck eventually pulled out as well. They were being followed.
Carol played various radio stations that she could find during the trip and Sam watched the truck follow them for a long time before he finally spoke up, "take the next exit." Carol blinked at him, "uh … what's the next exit?" Sam turned to her, "it doesn't matter. Just take the next exit and look for a way to get back to the Interstate afterwards. I need to see something." She shrugged, "ok." They took the exit into a small town that seemed to serve no purpose other than to take care of weary travelers. Looking at the gas gage she decided to pull into one of the stations and fill up the tank. Sam watched as the truck took the exit shortly after them and pulled into a restaurant across the street. "That's just too obvious," Sam thought to himself.
Carol got back in the car and Sam glared at her, "have you been talking to anyone? Have you called Karen to let her know where we're going?" Carol shrank back a little from his tone and glare, "No. I haven't talked to Karen since we left the house. What's wrong?" Sam turned to stare at the truck across the street, "them." Carol looked at them, "the same guys from the rest stop?" Sam nodded. Carol pulled away from the pumps and drove across the street, Sam grabbed her arm, "what are you doing?" Carol stopped the car in the parking lot, "I'm going to find out who they are and why they're following us." Sam frowned again but before he could say anything she said, "they're making you nervous, which is making you stressed and making your thoughts yell at me, so I'm taking care of this so you don't start accusing me of reading your mind again." She looked at the men in the truck, "besides, if they're following us it's my job to keep you safe until I get you where you want to be."
They both got out of the car, "you can't fight, you couldn't even get out of my grasp this morning," Sam said over the hood of the car. Carol frown and instinctively rubbed her throat, "no, but if they're Karen's people they'll leave you alone because of me." She smiled at him and walked towards the truck. Sam watched her stride confidently to the truck as one of the men climbed out of the passenger side. He noticed her getting nervous and clenching her fists. As much as he wished for Dean's advice and a handgun, he knew that wasn't going to happen and prepared himself to have to fight these two men. But Carol back stepped away from him and turned to walk quickly back to the car, "get in. Now." The fear he saw in her eyes just made him more nervous. They climbed into the car and she pulled out of the lot squealing tires. Looking behind them, he could see the truck following again.
"Who are they Carol?" Sam looked at the stressed expression she had on her face as she continuously looked in the rear view mirror. Her eyes were glistening as she fought to keep tears backs, "they're here for you. We've been gone longer than Karen expected and she's sent them to make sure I'm doing my job. We need to lose them. They don't know where we're headed, so if we lose them we might stand a chance." Sam frowned, "how are we going to lose them?" Carol smiled at him the way Dean used to when he had a plan that Sam probably wasn't going to like. As they hit the Interstate, she floored the gas pedal. Sam held on and put on his seat belt. Carol glanced over at him and smiled again.
They weaved in and out of traffic as the car reached 110 MPH. Glancing behind them, Sam could see the truck was keeping up. Carol was staring intently out the front window. "What are you doing?" Sam's nervous tone caused her to smirk lightly, "I'm looking for someone." Sam frowned, "who?" Her smile broadened, "you'll see. He's close. His thoughts are getting easier to read now." Sam glared at her, "you said you weren't going to do that." She glanced at him briefly, "I said I wouldn't read yours, I didn't say anything about anyone else. You asked me not to read those guys at the rest stop, so I didn't, but now it's your life on the line and I'm going to do what I have to in order to keep you safe." Sam looked at her intently and she glanced over at him. "I'm sorry Sam, but I'm going to do what I have to." As they neared a bend in the road, Carol changed lanes and hit her brakes hard, the tires squealed and the truck flew past them, caught unaware as they flew around the light corner that a State Trooper was parked in some trees. Carol laughed lightly as the officer turned on his lights and began speeding to catch up with the truck. Sam couldn't help but smile as they passed by them and continued towards California.