CHAPTER 2

They had made it to a town with life again. Dean insisted he didn't need a doctor, even though he could only manage to sit for a couple minutes before collapsing back into his brother's lap. He was still confused but his exhaustion was stronger than the confusion and forced him back to sleep.

"Hey sleeping beauty, we're at a motel. Time to wake up." Sam cooed into Dean's ears.

"Bitch." Dean mumbled as he pressed his face into Sam's legs.

"Jerk. I'm not about to carry your ass to the room. It's bad enough we had to carry you to the car."

"Oh, come on. Even if I don't wanna walk?"

Sam gave his brother's shoulder a shove. "Get your lazy ass up." Sam playfully coaxed his brother into letting him help sit up.

"Dude, what if my legs won't work when I get out?" Dean hesitated as he carefully put his hand on the opened door, remembering how much effort moving took, and suddenly going completely serious.

"Then you take your time. Make them work." Sam replied with what sounded like enough patience to last a lifetime.

"Yeah. Okay." Dean huffed as he started working on getting his legs outside of the car with Sam's assistance. Once he had accomplished that small task he paused as Sam had reached for him. "Don't let me fall." Dean grumbled out.

"Dude, a little faith?"

"Did you have to park so far away?" Dean complained as his feet stumbled over themselves.

Sam carried the most of Dean's weight, keeping his brother from falling onto the concrete. "Man, Bobby parked as close as possible. It's just a short distance from the car to the door."

"Not that far? Maybe if it wasn't so damn cold it wouldn't be far."

Sam released a sound that was a mixture of a chuckle and huff of frustration. "Dude, it's not cold! It's gotta be 100 degrees out here still."

"Easy for you to say, Sam. You have a shirt and shoes on."

"Yeah well consider yourself lucky right now."

"Lucky? Lucky? How can I be lucky being so damn cold? And where the hell are my shoes anyhow?"

"I don't know where your shoes are. Why don't you tell me where you left them?"

"I don't even know where the hell we are!"

They boys kept each other engaged in conversation as they walked. Dean had the need to keep himself distracted. Confusion ran through the veins that were starved of their needs. His head spun. His body swayed. He could feel frustration and anger fill the icy cold that penetrated his skin.

Sam needed to keep his brother's mind off the task at hand. He needed to keep his body moving. He needed to keep his brother's mind from slipping away again. He could feel the exhaustion that settled into Dean's every step and had a need to keep the exhaustion from settling into his mind too.

Bobby relieved the pressure from Sam's grasp as they entered the room. Dean allowed Bobby to gain his weight as he leaned his too tired head against the man's shoulder with a heavy shutter.

"How about we try to get you warmed up?" Bobby questioned as he helped walk Dean toward the bed furthest from the door.

"Yeah…ok." Dean's voice was disappearing with his new found strength.

"Sit." Bobby ordered.

Dean done as he was told. "Bobby?" He wasn't even sure what he needed to ask.

Bobby drew in a deep sigh and sat on the bed across from Dean. "Why don't you lay down? Get under the covers. Try to warm up and let your body relax. You'll feel better"

Dean looked at his own body. "I think I need a shower."

"Not until we get some blood going back through those veins of yours."

"You guys keep saying that. What does it even mean?"

"What's the last thing you remember?"

Sam sat beside his brother, wrapping a blanket around his back and draping it over his shoulder. His body was shivering from the cold it was overcome by. Dean dropped his body to his side. Sam quickly reacted, grabbing Dean's body and easing him to the bed, his head resting comfortably on the pillow.

Dean didn't even acknowledge his brother's help. He couldn't. How could he begin to accept the fact he was too weak to even lay down properly. Besides, it wasn't like Sam seemed to mind the fact Dean didn't want to acknowledge he silent acceptance.

"I told you." Dean replied with a shaky voice. "The last thing I remember, Dad got possessed by the demon and….and…. and after he…uh…." Dean's body shook with the memories.

"Hey, Dean, whatever it is, it's ok." Sam attempted to comfort the memories.

Dean looked up, his sad desperate eyes locked unto Sam's. "Dad was possessed but he had control over it." He shifted his eyes to Bobby. "He…Sam had the colt. He kept telling Sam to shoot him, to kill the thing. I begged him not to so…uh…Dad he um… he grabbed the gun and shot himself." A tear fell from Dean's eye.

Sam rested a hand on Dean's shoulder. "Hey man." He cleared the lump forming in his throat. "It's not real. That didn't happen."

"How can you say that?" Dean started his brother down. "You saw it too! You saw the bullet go through his head the same as I did!"

Sam looked desperately at Bobby for help.

"Dean, I need you to listen to me." Bobby leaned forward making sure he had Dean's full attention as he spoke. "Whatever's running around in that noggin' of your's it's not what you think."

Dean's eyes were searching for clarification.

"Look boy, you got yourself captured by a djinn."

"A djinn? Look, Bobby, I don't know what you know about those but I promise what's running around in my head isn't some damn dream land!"

Bobby sighed. "Will ya let me finish?"

Dean remained quiet.

"As I was saying." Bobby continued. "This djinn is different than your average joe. The type it is, instead of giving you a good dream land, this one is a dark one. The dream it puts you in is more like a nightmare."

"That's an understatement." Dean huffed weakly.

"Yeah, I can only imagine what type of hell your mind has been through." Bobby replied before continuing his explanation. "This thing, Dean, it had a way of getting into your head like nothing else you'll ever come across. It sees things in the future, and your past. It uses it against you. It also takes your worst nightmares, your biggest fears, and intertwines them all together."

"Bobby?" Dean wiped a shaking hand weakly down his face.

"Dean, I know it's all confusing. I just need you to trust me on this, okay? I need you to just give yourself some time. You need to rest and get your head back on straight."

"Yeah. Okay." Dean paused. "So, is everything in my head wrong?"

"Don't rightfully know. Some of it might be. Some of it not. See, the things it takes from your past, it has a way of jumbling it up, maybe adding fears to it. Or putting someone else's face where it don't belong."

Dean crinkled his brows.

"You could tell me something going through that noggin and we can help you work through it."

"I… I don't know if I wanna."

Bobby nodded with understanding. "We know it ain't gonna be pleasant. This thing doesn't work with pleasant memories."

"There's…. there's just so much." Dean sighed with a deep puff of air.

"Don't doubt it." Bobby replied with understanding.

"It just seems so real." Dean's words released with another weakened tear.

"Dean, son, it was real. In your head. It was all real. There's no way of getting around the truth if that."

Dean squeezed his eyes closed. His body shivered through his icy veins.

"Look, Dean, if… when you're ready to talk you will, and I'll be here to listen. So will Sammy. But why don't you try to get you some rest right now. Those djinn are good for draining the blood from you, and you were damn close to not waking back up from this. You're gonna need a lot of rest to get you physically going again."

Dean only nodded as his response as his exhausted body shivered again.

His breathing evened out. His body calmed under the warmth of the blankets that covered him. His mind giving into the darkness that invaded him.

"What did he do to you?" Bobby sighed as he wiped a tired hand down his face.

"Tell me he's gonna be okay." Sam whispered, unable to move his eyes from his sleeping brother.

"He'll make it through this. He's strong. He's got you and he's got me. He'll make it through this." Bobby stood and made a step toward Sam. He gave a gentle pat to his shoulder. "Why don't you lay down and get you some rest?"

"What are you gonna do?" Sam questioned as he looked up at the older man with exhausted eyes.

"I'm going to hit the shower, wash some of this damn heat off me."

Sam nodded, returning his sights to his brother.

"I know it's been a long couple days" Bobby felt the need to explain his request. "If were gonna be there for your brother we both need to be rested. Sleeping while he's sleeping seems like the most logical to me."

"Yeah, Bobby, okay." Sam sighed as he moved the overly heated blankets, piling them on his brother, and laid himself beside the man he had spent so much time searching for. The man that now that he's found him, he didn't want to lose him again. He slung his arm across Dean's chest, relishing in the steadiness of his breaths.

The shower turned on. The gentle pattering of the water pushing him further over the edge, allowing the comfort of the exhausted darkness to take over his thoughts.

Bobby leaned his hands against the wall in front of him. The cool water beat down over his tired body. The emotions running too wild through him. These were his boys. They always have been. And now they faced something none of them were prepared for. Bobby wasn't sure if he was ready for this. He knew his boys wouldn't be ready.

He knew Dean never had an easy life. The kid always seemed to sacrifice himself. He had so much pain, so much darkness, in his life. There was far too much for this djinn to use against him. And that was only what he knew about. He released silent tears as he wondered what he didn't know about.

He knew, without a doubt, there was so much Dean would hide. There was so much he would never let anyone know. There was so much hurt he shouldered. So much blame he placed on himself. There was so much that an evil being could use for their advantage.

He knew John was never the best dad. He knew Dean needed his mom more than anything. The kid raised his baby brother. He had been pushed into raising the both of them. He raised the both of them with an absent, alcoholic father.

With a heavy sigh, and even heavier heart, he turned the water off and stepped from the shower. Bobby was no fool. He knew things were going to get worse the stronger Dean become. He knew the more his mind worked the more confused and uncertain and scared the lad would become.

His own exhaustion was beginning to win against his power of wills as he laid on his back on the bed closest to the door. He was the protector, the one that should have all the answers. The truth was, he didn't have a clue what they were up against. He didn't know how hard this could be. But he'd never let anybody know any of that. The heaviness settled deep into his bones. He took one last long look at the sleeping brothers before he threw his arm over his eyes and allowed his own form of darkness to partake of what was left.