Thank you so much SamGirlDeanCurious for beta'ing this mess for me, and thank you VegasGranny and Ncsupnatfan for pre-reading.

Chapter Six

Sam and Jessica were sitting on the hood of the Impala, one blanket shared over their shoulders and another across their legs. Sam wasn't particularly cold even without them, but the feeling of Jessica sitting close to him, sharing the warmth, was something he wasn't going to deny himself when he had so little time with her left.

Jessica raised her head from where it had been leaning against his shoulder and said, "What are you thinking?"

Sam smiled slightly. "You used to ask me that all the time."

"I did. You were always thinking hard when you got quiet." She turned her face to kiss his cheek. "You went to a place where I couldn't join you, and the only way to bring you back was to ask."

"I was always happy when you did. Dean says I think too much, and he's probably right, but in this world, coming back isn't always a good thing, not until recently anyway. Not that it's always good in my head either."

He thought of Lucifer and The Mark of Cain, when his thoughts had been worse than dark, lost in two kinds of torture, the one he suffered and the one his brother suffered when that thing was on his arm. Coming out of those thoughts had been coming back to something just as hard to face—Leviathans, no Bobby, Dean being dragged down into the darkness of the Mark.

"No, I guess it's not." She sighed. "But it's good here now?"

"It is," Sam said.

She shifted so she was looking at him fully and her bottom lip caught between her teeth as her eyes bored into his. "So why do you want to leave it behind?"

Sam frowned. "For you, of course."

"I don't mean coming to my world. I mean those trials. They'll kill you, but you're fighting Dean so you can do them. You're finally living on the flipside. Why would you give that up?"

Sam lowered his eyes. "Still, for you. I couldn't save you before, but this time I can. I can make your world a good one and I can bring your Sam back." He sighed. "I know you're not really my Jess and it wasn't you that I let die, but you are to me. I see you and I see the woman I loved. I touch you and I feel the same spark I always did. You don't belong to me, you belong to that version of me in Hell, but I don't feel that. You're mine and I can do this for you."

Her eyes grew wet. "I never deserved you, and I always knew it. I felt like I'd won the lotto the first time you kissed me, and when you told me you loved me, I knew that I would never be the same. And that was before I saw the real you. I hadn't seen you running into metaphorical burning buildings to save strangers day after day. I'd not seen you embracing the powers that scared you to save your father. I just loved you for who you were to me. Every day we spent together made me love you so much more, and then I lost you. And now I have you again. You aren't my Sam, not really, but I don't feel any different when I'm with you to when I'm with him. You are the man I love, and you're proving it by being willing to give it all up, your world, your family, your life, for me to have mine back."

Sam shook his head, a smile playing on the corners of his lips. "I was the winner in our relationship. I never told you about hunting because I didn't want you to be scared, but I should have had more faith in you. You're amazing. You gave everything up in your world and became a hunter with me. I'd lived in that world before college, but it still scared me. You would have handled it better than I did."

"I was scared, and sometimes I still am, but I'm fighting on the right side, for the right reasons, and that makes it easier."

Sam kissed her cheek. "And I'll do the trials again for the right reasons. Doing it for you… I can't imagine something better to die for." His lips quirked into a smile. "I've died before, Jess, more than once, and each time I told myself I came back for a reason and tried to live up to that. This time I won't come back, but that's okay, because my reason will be over. It will be you."

She wiped at her face and Sam saw the sparkle of tears on her hand in the moonlight. "I'd do it for you," she said quietly.

"I know you would." Sam kissed her hair and buried his face against its sweet smell, the same shampoo he used in the hair he'd washed himself that evening. "But I'm going to need you. Sam, the one you lost, is going to need you more than anything when he comes back. I went to Hell, too, once, and I was there a long time. It almost destroyed me. Dean saved me at first, and then Castiel took away the worst of it. I hope we can do the same for your Sam, but even with that, if we can take it away, he'll need you."

Jessica nodded and new tears slipped down her cheeks. "I'm scared for him."

Sam couldn't tell her she didn't need to be scared, as she truly did. The Hell his other-self had experienced was going to have done untold damage, and even if they were able to recreate the wall Death had put up for Sam, he was going to have to deal with losing ten years of his life—ten years of his life with Jessica as well as the temptation of the itch of the wall. He was going to suffer. Thankfully, he would have the woman and family he loved to help him through it.

His Dean was going to suffer, too, but he would have Mary, Castiel, and Jack to help him through it, and he would know Sam had done what he'd needed to do to finally have true peace. Sam thought that would help him.

"How are you going to stop Dean being the one to do the trials?" she asked. "He seems pretty set on it, too."

"I'll find a way," Sam said. "If reasoning with him isn't enough, I'll have Cas and Jack help me. I can make them understand why I need to do it, I know, and they'll want to protect him."

"They'll want to protect you, too."

"Yes," Sam agreed. "But they will let me go for this. It's Dean that's blinded. He's been saving my life forever."

Jessica nodded. "So has our Dean. When you were killed in Cold Oak, John had to knock him out and tie him up to stop him making a deal. He was fighting to do it." She smiled slightly. "He had a concussion that lasted days."

Sam huffed a laugh. "That's what I'll do then. If I can't get Cas and Jack onside, I'll knock Dean out."

"You really think you can?" she asked doubtfully.

Sam considered. "It would be hard. We're evenly matched, but if I catch him off guard…" He sighed. "Maybe not. I'll have to reach him some other way. No one in the world knows me better than Dean. I'll have to make him see this is what I need. And he's always given me that when he can. I know it's going to hurt him, and I hate that it will, but he'll know I can't let anyone do it for me."

Jessica tilted her head up and kissed him. Sam tasted the salt of tears on her lips.

"I love you, Sam Winchester," she said. "I have never and will never love anyone or anything more. Maybe I'm not your Jess, but I know she loved you just as much."

"Your mine right now," Sam said. "And that's what counts."

It was what was going to make it possible for him to say goodbye to his brother and the rest of his family for the last trial. It was going to be his strength when he gave her up and placed her back in the arms of the Sam that she needed.

Dean gave up trying to sleep after two hours tossing and turning. He knew he needed to rest, to be on top of his game the next day, but rest wouldn't come. He was consumed with what was happening and what was still to come. They were going to that world to save it and those version of themselves, and that was going to be easy compared to what came after—watching Sam saying goodbye to Jessica.

Sam wasn't going to die. No matter what he thought and wanted, Dean wasn't letting it happen. If it came down to it, he would knock Sam out and do the trials. If not, if his other self or John did them, he would play his part. But no matter who did them, who died, Sam was the one that was going to lose the one he loved and Dean didn't know if his brother was going to be able to handle that.

He got out of bed and went to the dresser for clean clothes then wandered into the bathroom to use the toilet and clean up. When he came out fifteen minutes later, clean, dressed but still tense, he went to the library where he was sure he would find Castiel waiting.

He was right that Castiel was there and not that surprised that Jack was, too. The kid needed less sleep now he had grace again, and he had to be antsy after the way the day before had gone and with what was coming next. Jack's experiences in a different world had left their mental scars, and this new one promised to be difficult, too. Dean wasn't that calm either.

They both looked up as he entered and Castiel pushed a cup of coffee towards him as he took his seat.

"I didn't think you liked coffee anymore, Cas," Dean said. "Didn't you say it tasted of atoms or something."

"Molecules," Castiel said. "And I prepared this for you. We heard you moving around and I was sure you would appear soon."

Dean grimaced. "The fact that you can hear me on the crapper is one of those things I could have lived without knowing, thanks."

"Sorry," Castiel said.

Dean sipped the coffee. It was hot and strong, just the way he liked it, and he murmured thanks as he set the cup down again,

"Any sign of Sammy and Jess?" he asked.

"No," Jack said. "I can go look for them if you like."

Dean laughed. "You probably don't want to do that, Jack. I'm guessing it'll make the educational videos I sent you look tame."

Castiel frowned. "They should be rested for we go to that world. I don't think we'll be able to rest much there."

Dean nodded. "Yeah, they should, but if you had one night with the woman you loved left, would you sleep?"

"I've never loved a woman," Castiel said.

"Trust me, they're not going to waste it sleeping. We'll load them with No-Doz if we need to. And they'll have time to rest some in that world. It's not going to be easy to get the trials done. Just because we know what they are this time, we still need to find a hellhound and rogue reaper. It's not going to be easy."

Getting Sam to sleep was going to be the least of their problems. If Lilith found out they were there, they were going to be fighting demons constantly until they could get the trials done. They had Jack on their side, and he was something no one in that world had ever faced, but if they were smart, they might find a way to slow him down with sigils. Dean had to hope they were dumb.

Dean toyed with his cup, turning it around by the handle and then pushed it away and said, "Jack, you're going to need to be ready for demons when we get there. You, too, Cas."

"We know," Castiel said. "We've discussed it. We can both smite them with ease. And we have planned how we're going to deal with angels, too."

Dean's head snapped up so fast his neck cricked. "Angels! Damn. Jess didn't say anything about them. They've got their own Cas so they've probably got a buttload more." He pressed his hand to his forehead. "And they'll be gunning for us if they find out we're there to stop their apocalypse plans. They've got to be getting pretty frustrated with Sam holding out all this time. They wanted Lilith dead so the apocalypse could kick off."

"Exactly," Castiel said. "Jack can conceal his powers from them, but we have to assume they're watching Jessica, Dean, and John of that world. When they see us appear…"

"We have to kill them," Jack said.

Dean nodded. "Yeah. That's actually a pretty good point. Maybe we can wipe out Michael while we're there. And if those assholes Zachariah and Uriel are still kicking, I'll do them for good measure."

Castiel smiled slightly. "Yes, I would enjoy ending both, but—"

"Dibs on Zach," Dean said quickly.

"But we cannot risk the ire of Heaven," Castiel went on. "We will be leaving that world a better one by closing Hell, but we cannot leave our counterparts to face their wrath either. We must tread carefully. If we can do it without bloodshed, going unnoticed by as many as possible, we will be protecting them, too."

Dean sighed. "Fine. We'll 'tread carefully'. I would have liked another go at Zach though."

"I could kill them all," Jack offered.

Dean huffed a laugh. "That's sweet, Jack, and I appreciate the offer, but the fact we're hanging on here with the few that are left is probably a lesson against. If Michael comes calling, though, you can have him. Raphael, too. They were both assholes."

Jack looked pleased and Dean grinned a moment before his smile faded. He wanted to be doing something, preparing the weapons, but most of them were in the trunk of the Impala and that was with Sam and Jess, probably having the backseat defiled by a little brother who was going to be valeting her as soon as this was all over.

He wanted a drink but couldn't drink. He should sleep but that was impossible. He wanted to do anything but sit here waiting for the last night his brother could have with Jess to pass so they could enter a world that was going to be a whole new kind of nightmare.

"Okay," he said, forcing cheer into his voice. "Cas, get the cards. Jack, get the pretzels. We're playing poker."

There was nothing else useful he could do, so he was going to annihilate the two celestial beings that may have grace and infinite power, but neither had a poker face worth a damn.

So… They both had plans for how to stop the other. Which do you think is going to be the winning plan?

Until next time…

Clowns or Midgets xxx