Steel to my trembling lips,
How did the night ever get like this?
One shot and the whiskey goes down, down, down
Bottom of the bottle hits
Waking up my mind as I throw a fit
The breakin' is takin' me down, down, down

My heart's beating faster, I know what I'm after.
I've been standing here my whole life,
Everything I've seen twice, now it's time I realize
It's spinnin' back around now, on this road I'm crawling
Save me cause I'm falling, now I can't seem to breathe right
Cause I keep runnin', runnin', runnin', runnin'
Runnin', runnin', runnin', runnin'
Runnin' from my heart.

DREAM A LITTLE DREAM OF ME

Beth's POV

It was mid-afternoon and Sam had been missing for a couple of hours. Dean and I had split up to find him. Dean was checking all the places he thought Sam would be, like libraries and museums, I was checking the more likely places... bars.

The fifth bar I entered was just as dingy as the rest, lit up by the afternoon sun shining in some dirty windows, there was a handful of people scattered throughout the medium sized establishment. Sam was at the bar, nursing a glass of whiskey.

"There you are," I said, walking up to him with a worried expression on my face. "What are you doing?" I asked, although it was a pretty obvious answer.

"Having a drink," Sam said, turning to look at me with resignation in his eyes.

"It's two in the afternoon and you're drinking whiskey?" I asked, gesturing to the glass. I couldn't help but recall a few years back when Dean and I had been having a good time in the evening at a bar, and Sam had called us out on it. That had at least been half way expected, we hadn't even hit five o'clock today.

"I drink whiskey all the time," Sam said, his voice slightly slurred.

"No you don't," I countered, raising an eyebrow at him. Sam rarely drank, he didn't like the idea of being out of control.

"What's the big deal Beth?" Sam asked, sitting back and sighing. "You and Dean get sloppy in bars, you make out in dark corners and nearly hump each other on stools all the time. Why can't I?" Sam asked. I snorted and looked around the bar at the seedy looking woman behind me.

"Didn't say you couldn't... but it's kind of slim pickings don't you think?" I asked, shrugging at him. "What the hell is going on with you?" I added, crossing my arms and looking at him.

Sam shook his head, looking back at his drink. He had the lost look of a man who had been defeated one too many times in his eyes. I could relate, I'd been feeling that way a lot lately.

"I tried, Beth," Sam said softly, not able to bring his eyes up to look at me.

"To do what?" I asked, stepping up to him and laying my hand on his shoulder. He leaned in to my touch and sighed again.

"To save Dean," he said. I bit my lip and took a seat next to him, looking over at the bartender.

"Can I get a whiskey, make it a double?" I asked and he nodded at me.

"I'm serious, Beth," Sam said to me.

"Yeah... you're drunk," I muttered, shaking my head.

I took the drink the bartender offered me and downed it in one gulp, gasping at the burning sensation. I gestured at the bartender again and pushed the glass toward him.

"Keep them coming, thanks." I said to the curious look of the bartender. I looked over at Sam who was watching me intently.

"Beth. Where he's going... what he's gonna become..." Sam was shaking his head, finally voicing the things that I didn't want to look at, that I couldn't talk about with Dean. I took a slower drink this time, but not that much slower.

"We can't stop it. I'm starting to think maybe even Ruby can't stop it," Sam said. I frowned at the mention of the demon's name, I didn't trust her like Sam did. "But the thing is," Sam continued. "No one can save Dean."

"That's not true, we still haven't looked at..." I started to argue with him but he cut me off.

"No, that's not what I mean. I mean, no one can save Dean because he don't wanna be saved. I mean, how can he care so little about himself?" Sam asked.

"Sam, it's not like you think, of course Dean cares about himself... he doesn't want to go to Hell," I said, finishing off my drink and holding the glass out for the bartender to refill.

"He's got a funny way of showing it," Sam muttered, shaking his head.

"Sam you gotta cut him some slack," I said, downing my third drink with a grimace. "He's doing what he thinks is necessary to protect us."

"I'm a big boy Beth! I don't need your protection anymore!" Sam said, jumping off his stool. He stumbled a little and I shot out an arm to steady him.

"There you guys are!" Dean's voice sounded behind us, and he joined us at the bar, tossing a look at Sam with a slight frown.

"Have we got a new Tinkerbell?" He asked as he sidled up to me at the bar with a kiss to my lips. Sam glared at him and I shook my head.

"Drinking already? Day is still young," he said with a smirk.

"Mmmm well you know what they say... if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," I said with a grin, nodding my head at Sam who was frowning at Dean.

"What's wrong with you?" Dean asked, looking at him with a confused raised eyebrow.

"Nothing!" Sam snapped, folding his arms across his chest.

"Yeah, right," Dean scoffed, chuckling to himself.

"You don't want to save yourself Dean!" Sam said, and Dean looked surprised at the somewhat random comment – random to him because he'd missed the start of the conversation.

"What are you talking about?" Dean asked, shrugging at me. "What's he talking about?"

My phone started ringing and I answered it, glad to be out of this conversation.

"Hello?" I asked, listening to the voice on the other end. "Yes, this is Ms. Sniderson," The person relayed a message to me and I looked up at the boys in surprise. "My Dad? What? Where?" I asked in response to the statement that I'd just been delivered.

The boys were looking at me curiously, wondering what the conversation was about. I hung up and looked at them. We had to move, and now.

"What was that about?" Dean asked, looking at me curiously.

"It's Bobby," I said feeling alarm enter my body. I looked at the bartender who was watching us all curiously. "Can we get a few coffees to go?" He nodded and then I looked at the boys. "We have to go, now."

Hospital
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Beth's POV

When we reached the hospital a day later Dean was still asking questions. "Well what's he doing in Pennsylvania? Huh? Did you know he was going somewhere?" He asked as we walked down the hallway toward the room Mr Sniderson was currently in.

"No, I haven't talked to Bobby in weeks," I said, shaking my head.

"And why is it that you're his emergency contact? Shouldn't it be Cole? Where is she anyway?" Dean asked and I shrugged. I didn't know where Cole was right now, she'd dropped off the radar. I knew she was all right because she still sent me the occasional check-in text, but she was tight lipped on where she was or what she was doing.

"I don't know Dean!" I said irritably, feeling tired and worn out. I hadn't been sleeping very well and my head was starting to feel like someone had taken a chainsaw to it.

Bobby was in a bed, still as a corpse when we entered. I hesitated at the door while the boys went in. The doctor was already in there doing his rounds and greeted us, I only joined them when Dean introduced me as Bobby's daughter.

"So, what's the diagnosis?" I asked, standing next to Bobby and peering down at him. The young doctor was standing at the foot of the bed looking down at the comatose man. I could almost see the pimples on his skin he was so fresh out of school. I reminded myself that age didn't matter, look at what we'd all been doing at age sixteen or seventeen, but still – there was a big difference between hunting and doctoring.

"We've tested everything we can think to test," the doctor replied. "He seems perfectly healthy."

"Except that he's comatose," Dean pointed out from beside me and I nodded, biting my lip.

The doctor looked at Dean, and then me, concern in his eyes. "Ms Sniderson, you're his daughter. Anything we should know? Any illnesses?" He asked.

I shook my head. "No, no he never gets sick. He doesn't even catch cold," I replied, looking down at Bobby.

"Doctor, is there anything you can do?" Sam asked quietly from the other side of the bed.

"Look, I'm sorry, but we don't know what's causing it...so we don't know how to treat it. He just...went to sleep, and didn't wake up." He answered, and he looked genuinely compassionate, he truly had no idea what the problem was and he really had run through the list of possibilities, he wasn't just saying it.

Motel Room

Beth's POV

"So, what was Bobby doing in Pittsburgh?" Sam asked when we entered the motel room.

"Maybe he's taking an extremely lame vacation?" Dean said, shutting the door behind us.

"I mean, he must be working a job, right?" Sam asked as we started looking around the room.

"Well you'd think there'd be some sort of sign or something, you know?" Dean asked as he circled the room. The room was spotless: brick walls when there wasn't wallpaper in a hideous blue and green print, paintings, an old tired television next to an equally sad looking lamp. The bed was made, obviously housekeeping had been once the ambulance came to collect Bobby because he'd been found in bed.

I opened a bedside drawer, but it was empty. Dean found the same thing on the other side of the bed.

"No research, news clippings..." I said, frowning and looking around. If this had been our room on a job the place would be literally covered in information. Dean nodded as Sam walked over to the closet.

"Or a frigging pizza box or a beer can," he said, raising an eyebrow. Sam opened the closet and looked inside, there were clothes hanging up, it looked like a normal closet until he chuckled.

"How about this?" Sam asked, looking over at us, pushing the clothes to the side. I crossed over to him and looked inside. Pinned to the wall behind the clothes was all the research you'd expect to see as a hunter. News clippings, maps and pictures of plants – roots, mushrooms, seeds... on the map Bobby had written 'Pittsburgh' in big red letters and underlined it.

I felt Dean come up behind me and leaned subconsciously back into his warmth, closing my eyes for a moment as his hands came to rest on my hips and he looked over my shoulder at the collection of articles. "Good old Bobby, always covering up his tracks," Dean said with a chuckle.

Sam looked at us and then back at the closet. "You guys make heads or tails of any of this?" He asked. I looked at one of the pictures of a plant and pulled it off the wall feeling Dean's hands slide tighter around my waist. I leaned back against him, showing the paper to the boys.

"Silene capensis..." Dean said, reading the title. "Which of course means absolutely nothing to me," he added. I nodded, I hadn't seen it before either.

"Here, obit," Sam said, reaching back into the closet. He pulled out the newspaper clipping and skimmed over the text. "Dr Walter Gregg, sixty-four, university neurologist," he said.

"How'd he bite it?" Dean asked, glancing over.

"Um... actually they don't know. They say he just went to sleep and didn't wake up," Sam answered, looking up at us.

Dean took the clipping and started reading it for himself, I bit my lip, looking up at Sam. "That sound familiar to you?" I asked.

Sam sighed and nodded. "All right, um... so let's say Bobby was looking into the doc's death. You know, hunting after something..."

I looked up sharply at that statement. "Something that started hunting him," I said.

"Yeah," Sam said with a nod. Dean shifted, placing a kiss at the back of my neck before pulling away and pointing at the closet.

"All right, you guys stay here. See if you can make heads or tails of this," he instructed as he started walking to the door.

"What are you gonna do?" Sam asked, looking up.

"Look into the good doctor myself," Dean said with a grin, heading for the door. I frowned and looked at the research, my head thumping and screaming at me. Dean paused before leaving, glancing back at me, an unspoken quiet moment passing between us. My heart was already starting to beat a little faster at the thought of him going out there on his own, since New Years we hadn't separated for longer than a half hour until we had to go looking for Sam yesterday; but plants were my speciality when it came to research, I could be better utilised here.

I grimaced but started to pull the articles off the wall with a sigh. Sam watched me as I started to lay them out on the bed. "Go on," he said, nodding at the door. I looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. "I know you'd rather be out there with Dean, so go on," he said, giving me permission to shirk my research. I grinned and kissed him on the cheek, almost tripping over my feet to get to the door.

"Okay, but call me if you get stuck!" I said, hearing Sam laugh as I raced out the door, running after Dean. He'd taken the stairs, but as luck would have it the elevator had just reached this floor and people had exited, leaving it empty. I ran in, hitting the ground floor button and hoping Dean wasn't in a hurry when it came to walking down four flights of stairs.

As the doors opened I hurried out into the motel lobby and spotted Dean coming out of the stairwell, smiling at the good timing of it all. He looked surprised when I stepped in front of him and then grinned.

"Something you needed?" He asked. "Some herbal knowledge only I would have? Some intricate detail about the West African tribal peoples of .. Indigibway?" He said, making up some African sounding name.

"Maybe," I said with a grin. "Well I do have this... uh... headache? Could use a little of your special treatment," I added and Dean grinned, shaking his head at me. He looked around us, pulling me into a secluded corner beside the stairs and pushing me up against the wall.

"Yeah? Like this?" He asked, his lips kissing across my forehead before trailing down to my neck and sucking softly.

"Mmm, that seems to be helping," I said with a slight giggle, delighting in Dean's playful side. I wound my arms around his neck as he pulled back to look at me, his hazel eyes peering into my very soul as he smiled, leaning his forehead against mine.

"Come on," he said softly, continuing to smile. "You can be my Watson today."

"Booooo," I said, pouting my lips. "Watson didn't get to kiss Sherlock... well, unless there's something in the books I don't know about," I added.

"Well, who do you suggest?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow. I thought about it, considering all options.

"You can be Maxwell Smart," I said, and Dean laughed.

"Well you do make an incredibly sexy 99," he said, kissing me again. "But are you saying I'm an incompetent goofball?"

"Hey, don't put down Max! He's the best Control has!" I said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, that right there is a scary thought," Dean said with a grin, pulling back so that I could stand up straight. "Okay, you're 99..." he said with a shake of his head. He started walking toward the door and then glanced back at me.

"You know they got married, right?" He quipped, turning to face me with a grin. I snorted, and rolled my eyes.

"And?" I asked, raising an eyebrow back at him.

"Nothing, just making an observation," Dean said with a grin. I shook my head at him.

"Well...maybe we're more like Perry Mason and Della Street," I said, thinking about it. "The job always came first," I said with a chuckle. Dean looked a little pained and I frowned at him.

"What?" I asked, looking at him as he stared over at me, he seemed to be struggling with some kind of inner demon.

"Nothing, just thinking about things," he said, going a little quiet. "You know it would be normal for us to have talked about marriage at some point, yet we never have," he said, I could hardly believe what I was hearing, it was so unlike Dean. I walked up to him and kissed his lips lightly, staring up into his eyes.

"Do you want to talk about marriage?" I asked, looking at him curiously.

"Do you?" He asked, watching me with an intense look. I paused, considering my answer carefully. I didn't like that it seemed to me the only reason he was even thinking about it was because maybe I wanted it. I didn't want a proposal out of a sense of obligation, because after all these years he was about to die and maybe he should have done it by now. I wanted it only if he wanted it.

"I love you," I said finally, kissing him again. "And every moment with you makes me happy. Don't stress about us being some conventional, normal couple with the same hopes and goals as others out there. We haven't been normal from the moment we met."

He chuckled at that. "Speak for yourself, I am incredibly normal," he said, sliding his hands around my waist.

"If you say so," I said with a laugh, leaning my head on his chest and savouring the touch. After a moment I pulled back and he nodded.

"Come on, let's go Watson, we have work to do," he said, guiding me toward the exit. I trailed after him thinking about how all our awkward conversations lately had been dealt with in such a manner, by ignoring the elephant in the room, just like every other perfectly normal person out there.

Dr. Gregg's Office

Beth's POV

The office of the recently deceased doctor was in the process of being boxed up by his assistant Claire Sanders, books were stacked all over the desk and empty boxes were precariously balanced nearby waiting to be used.

Dean took the lead, pushing into the office and looking around. "So you're Dr. Gregg's lab assistant?" He asked, glancing back at the young woman with us. She nodded, and looked from Dean to me.

"That's right," she said.

"Well, his death must have come as a shock to you," Dean said, wandering over to the desk.

"Yeah it did," Sanders said as she crossed her arms and nodded. "But still, go in your sleep, peaceful... that's what you wish for, right?" She asked.

Dean nodded and looked a little skeptical. "Yeah. Right," he said absently, looking over a me. I followed his lead, picking up a book on the desk.

"So, Dr. Gregg studied sleeping disorders?" I asked, holding it up for her to see. "Dreams?"

Sanders frowned slightly at us, seemingly frustrated. "I don't understand, I went over all this with the other detective," she said. I shared a look with Dean and put the book down, he looked at her curiously.

"You already spoke to another detective?" He asked.

"Yes. A very nice older man with a beard," she said, nodding. We exchanged another glance, seemed we were definitely on the right track.

"Well, I'd love to hear it again if you don't mind," Dean said, turning on the sweet smile. She wasn't buying it.

"Thing is, I'm sort of busy." She said with a haughty look. "Maybe we could do this later?" She suggested in a tone that belied what she was really getting at. She wanted us to leave, and she wanted us gone now. I smirked at Dean who raised an eyebrow at me, running a hand over his mouth to cover the half-smile he had for the unamused look on my face. I hated it when people copped attitude.

"Sure, yeah, we could do that, couldn't we?" I said looking at Dean. "We could just bring you down to the station later this afternoon," I added, throwing back the same amount of attitude she'd tossed our way and watching her face fall. "You know, get your statement on tape, do it all... official-like."

She sighed, a panicked look entering her eyes. "Look, okay, I didn't know about Dr. Gregg's experiments. Not until I was cleaning out his files," she said. I kept a straight face but I was wanting to shout Bingo and smile at Dean.

"His experiments...?" Dean asked. "The ones he was conducting on... sleeping?"

"No one knew, okay? Not the university, not anybody. I already spoke with a lawyer and he told me I can't be held liable for anything," she said, getting defensive.

Dean played up the lead in the same manner he always did, running with the story. "Maybe you couldn't," he said, looking over at me. "But that was before the new evidence came to light." Sanders looked at me and I nodded in agreement with Dean.

"New evidence?" She asked.

"Mhmm," Dean said with a serious nod.

"What new evidence?" She queried, that panicked look coming back into her eyes.

Dean looked at me for help and I jumped in. "We're not at liberty to say right now," I said, taking over the story.

The girl looked at me and then raised her eyes to the ceiling, throwing her hands up. "Look, I'm just a grad student, this was a gig to cover tuition," she said.

"Maybe so. But, uh, still this – this. .. this could go on your permanent record," Dean said. "Unless you hand over the doctor's research to us," he added. I nodded in agreement again.

"All of it," I specified, and the girl looked at me nodding. She'd have signed over the Eiffel Tower in that moment if it meant keeping herself out of hot water.

Jeremy Frost Residence

Beth's POV

The man who came to the door was tired looking, his hair in need of a cut and his eyes blood shot and sore. He hesitated just briefly when we showed him our badges before gesturing for us to enter.

"Look, I don't know what the RA said, but, ah, I was growing ferns," he said, jumping to conclusions as to why we were here. Dean walked into the room, and I followed, my eyes sweeping the surroundings – looking like typical college kid's living quarters.

"Take it easy, Phish, that's not why I'm here," Dean said with a smirk.

"Really?" Jeremy asked, looking surprised. "Oh thank God, okay."

"We want to talk to you about Dr. Gregg's sleep study," I said, turning to face Jeremy.

"Yeah. Dr. Gregg just died, right?" Jeremy asked.

"You were one of his test subjects, right?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," Jeremy said with a nod. He turned around to his fridge and took out three beers, holding them up and motioning them questioningly. He held out a couple toward us and Dean raised an eyebrow at me.

"Unless you're on duty, or whatever?" Jeremy said. Dean stared at the beer for a moment and then took them, handing one to me.

"Dean..." I cautioned.

"We can make an exception," he said with a grin, using his ring to open the bottle and take a drink. I shook my head as he closed his eyes and took a long drink from the bottle, smiling a little as he swallowed. I turned to Jeremy, who was taking a sip of his beer, his eyes watching us both.

"So, Dr. Gregg was testing treatments for … Charcot-Wilbrand syndrome? What does that mean?" I asked, looking at Jeremy.

"Um...I, uh... I can't dream," he answered. I looked curiously at him, nodding for him to continue.

"I had this bike accident when I was a kid and banged my head pretty good and I haven't had a dream since. 'Til the study. You know. Sort of," he said.

"What'd the doc give you?" Dean asked, looking at Jeremy.

"It's this yellow tea. It... it smelled awful, tasted worse," he said in a reflective voice.

"What did it do?" Dean asked.

"I just passed right out," Jeremy replied with a shrug. "And uh, I had the most vivid, super-intense dream. Like a bad acid trip, you know?" He finished.

Dean was nodding with a smile. "Totally," he said before realising we were meant to be police officers. I cleared my throat and looked at him. "I mean, no," Dean corrected himself, making it look like he'd just been reprimanded. "She wouldn't know... does everything by the book, you know?" He said conspiratorially to Jeremy who smiled at my unopened bottle of beer.

"So, how many times did you participate in the study?" I asked, ignoring Dean's comment and looking at Jeremy.

"That was it. I dropped out of the study right after that. I didn't... like it," he said, looking at me. He glanced over at Dean. "To tell you the truth... it kind of scared me."

He looked genuinely frightened, I exchanged a glance with Dean and he shrugged. "Well, thank you for your time," I said.

Bobby's Room, Hospital

Beth's POV

I walked in to the hospital room carrying a couple of coffees, Dean was sitting beside the bed looking at Bobby with a worried expression.

"Hey," I said, handing him his coffee and taking the seat next to him. "You okay?"

He looked at me with a half smile and nodded. "Yeah," he replied, leaning over to place a kiss on my cheek. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," I said with a shrug.

"Yeah? Because you know you were fast on the way to getting drunk with Sam yesterday..." he said, raising an eyebrow at me. I looked down at my coffee and nodded.

"Yeah, I know," I said quietly. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "It's not easy, you know? Sometimes I just don't want to feel anything at all Dean, I'm scared," I added, looking over at him, a sad smile on my lips.

"You never talk about it," he said with serious eyes, watching me, leaning in a little bit.

I laughed softly, shaking my head. "Like my problems matter, I'm not the one going to Hell..." I said. I'm just the reason he is, I thought, looking back down at my hands.

"Of course your problems matter Beth, they matter to me," Dean said and I sighed at him, smiling and leaning in to kiss him softly on the lips.

"I know, that's why I love you," I said with another smile. "But I'm dealing, okay? If it all starts to get to be too much... well... I'll tell you," I said, knowing it was a lie as soon as it left my mouth. I didn't want to burden him, that's why I had Sam, and Jefferson, and Cole when I could get her on the phone. Dean looked thoughtfully at me, nodding slightly.

"What about you? Anything you want to talk to me about?" I asked, tilting my head curiously to the side. Dean shook his head, a tiny smile on his lips as he watched me. He seemed relaxed and happy for the moment, and then he turned back to Bobby, the worry returning to his eyes.

"No, I'm good," he said. I didn't believe him, but he was just as stubborn as me so there was no point in pushing.

Sam walked into the room and we both glanced up at him. "How is he?" He asked.

"No change," Dean said, scrubbing a hand across his face. He looked tired and I thought about how he hadn't really been sleeping much lately. Neither of us had. "What you got?" Dean asked, standing up and walking over to where Sam was at the end of the bed, spreading papers out on the table there.

"Well, considering what you told me about he doc's experiments... Bobby's wall is starting to make a hell of a lot more sense," Sam answered, sighing and looking at the comatose man before us.

"How so?" I asked, looking up at him, taking a sip of coffee.

Sam held up a photograph of a plant from the file he had, it was of a root of some sort.

"This plant, Silene capensis, is also known as African Dream Root. It's been used by shaman and medicine men for centuries," Sam said.

"Let me guess. They dose up, bust out the didjeridus, and start kicking around the hackey?" Dean asked with a grin.

"Not quite," Sam said with a chuckle. "If you believe the legends, it's used for dreamwalking." My ears perked up at this, I'd read about this phenomena before.

"Entering another person's dreams," I said, standing up to look at the photograph. "You can poke around in their head?"

"I take it we believe the legends?" Dean asked, grinning at my sudden interest. Sam and I shared a look of amusement.

"When don't we?" Sam asked, and I nodded, he was right. "But dreamwalking is just the tip of the iceberg," he continued.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"This Dream Root is some serious mojo," Sam said. "You take enough of it, with practice, you can become a regular Freddy Krueger." I shuddered and hugged my arms around myself.

"I hated those movies..." I said with a cringe. Dean chuckled and shook his head at me.

"You big baby," he said. "Freddy isn't real you know, but it was funny how you didn't sleep for more than a week after watching that marathon one night..." I stared at him. It hadn't been funny in the slightest. In the end Dean had forced me to lie down with him, tucking pillows all around and promised to watch over me while I slept in case I started having a nightmare. This routine had gone on for weeks; I had been sixteen at the time.

"I remember that," Sam said with a grin, raising an eyebrow at me. "You know, didn't you get Dean to sleep with you for like a month because of that show?" He asked, and I looked at him.

"What are you implying?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"When exactly did you guys start with the whole... secret romance thing?" He asked, looking at us curiously.

Dean and I exchanged a look. Well it hadn't been that early, but I was pretty sure I'd started developing feelings for him around that time regardless of whether they were acted on.

"Well that's a hard question to answer..." I said, thinking about it.

"Yeah," Dean said with a nod, smiling at me. "You had it bad for me from the start, admit it," he said with a laugh. I thumped his arm and shook my head.

"Hey, I wasn't the one who suggested that I help you scare off that girl you know... you could have chosen anyone!" I pointed out. Dean laughed softly and shook his head.

"Well at any rate, it didn't get serious until right before you went to college," Dean said to Sam who was grinning at us both. We'd never really talked about this with him before.

"You're serious? You guys went like... almost five years without doing anything about it?" He asked, looking at us in disbelief.

"Well, with the occasional... thing..." Dean said with a shrug. "But yeah."

"Dad made it pretty clear how it was to be," I pointed out and Sam snorted.

"Dad? And you guys always did what Dad said?" He asked. Dean and I shared another sad look and then looked down at the photo of the dream root again, not saying anything.

"Wow," Sam said, shaking his head. "You guys are messed up, you know that right?"

"You can talk dude, you abandoned your whole family to get away from Dad, how is that healthy?" Dean snapped, frowning a little.

"Okay, that's enough guys. Let's not start with all that again, we're here now and that's what matters. And yeah, maybe we'd do things a little differently if we had it to do over," I said to Sam, looking at Dean who smiled at me. "But we did what we thought was best, you know, we were young and life was different then."

"Well you know I'm just saying, Dad was no saint, how long do you think he was messing around with Cole? All that time, you think he knew how you guys felt about each other? You think he even cared if he did? No, because the rules are the rules, and who made the rules? Dad!" Sam was starting to look irritated and I exchanged a worried look with Dean.

"Sam, let it go, it's all in the past, we can't change it," I said quietly.

He took a deep breath and chewed on his lip. "I'm just saying it's not fair," he said.

"We know dude, trust me," Dean said with a nod. "We know," he said again, looking at me with a sigh. I looked over at Sam, who was looking sadly at us.

"Tell us more about the dream root, okay? We need to focus on Bobby now," I urged him. Sam nodded.

"You can control anything. You could turn bad dreams good, you could turn good dreams bad," he said, looking down at the photo again.

"And kill people in their sleep?" Dean asked.

"For example," Sam said with a nod. I sighed.

"So let's say uh, let's say this doc was testing this stuff on his patients, Tim Leary-style," I said, looking at the boys.

"Somebody gets pissed at him, decides to give a little dream visit, he goes nighty-night," Dean finished with a nod.

"What about Bobby?" I asked, looking down at him. "I mean, if the killer came after him, how come he's still alive?"

"I don't know," Sam said with a shrug. It was a frightening thought.

Dean started to pace in the room, looking like a trapped tiger. "Come on," I said, taking his arm and pulling him to the door, looking over at Sam. "Let's walk and figure this out."

They nodded and we left the room, heading for the hospital exit. This is what we did sometimes, when things were building to a point that we had to let things out on a physical level, we walked, or jogged... or in the case of when Sam wasn't around, Dean and I engaged in other more enjoyable activities while we brainstormed ideas.

"So how do we find our homicidal sandman?" Dean asked as he led the way down the hall, Sam and I following closely behind.

"Could be anyone," Sam said and Dean dropped back to a slower pace with us.

"Yeah?" Dean asked, slipping his arm around my waist.

"Yeah," I said with a nod. "Anyone who knew the doctor and had access to his dream root."

"Maybe one of his test subjects or something?" Sam asked, looking curious.

"Possible," Dean said. "But his research was pretty sketchy. I mean, I don't know how many subjects he had or who all of them were." Sam chuckled and shook his head.

"What?" I asked, looking at him curiously.

He sighed and stopped walking, Dean and I paused beside him. "Any other case we'd be calling Bobby and asking him for help right now," he said. I sighed and nodded, he was right.

Dean startled next to me and looked excited, grabbing Sam by the arm. "You know what? You're right!" He said.

"What?" Sam asked, as I frowned at him.

"Let's go talk to him," Dean said, looking from Sam to me, his eyes twinkling with excitement.

Sam looked at him, a little confused. "Sure, I think we might find the conversation a bit one-sided," he said with a smirk.

"Not if we're tripping on some Dream Root," Dean pointed out.

"What?" I asked with a disbelieving tone.

"You heard me," Dean said, glancing at me.

"You want to go dreamwalking inside Bobby's head?" I asked incredulously, pulling away slightly to get a better look at him.

"Yeah. Why not? Maybe we could help," Dean said innocently.

"Dean, we have no idea what's crawling around in there," I pointed out. I didn't like the idea at all, I knew some of the things that crawled around in my head during the dark hours of the night.

"How bad could it be?" Dean asked nonchalantly and I looked at him, seeing for the first time that in spite of all he'd seen in his life he didn't really have nightmares from it, not like the ones I carried with me everywhere I went from when I'd been possessed, when I'd killed my father. I shook my head.

"Bad," I said, in answer to his question.

"Come on, it's Bobby," Dean said.

Sam was agreeing with Dean. "Yeah, he's right, it's Bobby." I shrugged, seeing I wasn't going to win this one.

"One problem. We're fresh out of African Dream Root, so unless you know someone who can score some..." I trailed my voice off, hoping that would be the end of that conversation.

Dean looked like a lightbulb just went off over his head and I cringed, it was never a good sign. I thought about it, and there was only one person that came to mind when I thought about African Dream Root.

"Crap..." I said and Dean chuckled at me.

"What?" Sam asked.

"No... no no no no no," I said, shaking my head vehemently.

"Bela," Dean said to Sam, nodding at me.

"Bela?" Sam said. "Crap! You're actually suggesting we ask her for a favour?"

"No!" I said again, crossing my arms. The last time we'd seen Bela she'd been eyeing Dean off in a tux and suggesting they have angry sex when the job was all done and dusted. The fact that I'd been standing in the room while this conversation went down was a testament to how much I disliked her, I couldn't believe she'd had the nerve to say it right in front of me! But then, it'd probably been the point.

"Look, I'm feeling dirty just thinking about it, but yeah," Dean said, looking at me sympathetically.

Motel Room

Sam's POV

I was doing some research when there was a knock at the door. Dean and Beth were out getting dinner, and wouldn't knock when they returned so I frowned, getting up to answer the door.

Peeking through the crack in the door I looked out to see who it was, surprised when I saw Bela standing there. She raised an eyebrow in greeting at me and I opened the door up, letting her in.

"Hey Sam," she said with a little grin, following me into the room.

"Bela," I said, a little annoyed, "I didn't think there was a chance in hell you'd show up," I said, standing across from her and putting my hands on my hips. She smiled at me, her eyes running up and down the length of my body.

"Well, I'm full of surprises. Though, truthfully..." She paused and untied the belt of the coat she was wearing, walking toward me. "You wanna know why I'm here?" She asked.

"Okay," I said, shrugging.

She opened the coat and let it slide to the ground, wearing nothing but a some sexy lingerie, her breasts pushed perkily up from the bra she was wearing.

"Because of you," Bela said softly, leaning in to me. I looked away, feeling my interest pique and not liking it at all.

"Uh, what are you doing?" I asked, feeling awkward as I looked back toward her. She reached out, brushing her hand along my cheek, her eyes staring at my mouth.

"I can't stop thinking about you," she confessed, moving slightly closer.

"What?" I asked, confused. With a little smile she leaned in, her soft lips brushing along mine as she kissed me firmly. I leaned into the kiss, putting my hands on her arms, taking a deep breath as she kissed me a little longer. I shivered, feeling her hands circle around my waist and I knew I wasn't going to say no.

"Are you sure?" I asked her, and she nodded with a smile, leading me over to the bed and pushing me to the mattress. I landed on my back, staring up at her as she leaned over me, kissing me heatedly.

I rolled her over and started to kiss along her neck down to her breasts, my hands running along her body.

"Sam," she breathed as I nipped at her skin. "Sam... Sam... oh!"

"Sam! Wake up!" Dean's voice startled me out of my dream and I sat up quickly, I looked around, realising I had fallen asleep at the desk, my head on my arm. Dean and Beth were sitting over at the coffee table going through papers about the case. I felt some drool on my mouth and wiped it with the back of my hand as I turned to face them, my eyes meeting Beth's as she raised an eyebrow.

Dean smiled and shook his head. "Dude, you were out. Making some serious happy noises," he said with a chuckle. I shifted uncomfortably, not knowing what to say, my eyes dropping from Beth's.

"Who were you dreaming about?" Beth asked with a grin, leaning forward, her eyes searching mine.

"What? No one. Nothing," I insisted, looking away.

"Come on, you can tell us. Angelina Jolie?" Dean asked, grinning at Beth.

"No," I said.

"Brad Pitt?" Dean countered and I glanced over at him, frowning.

"No. No! Dude, it doesn't matter," I said, shaking my head. What was with these two? Were they always thinking about sex?

"Whatever," Dean muttered, looking back at the papers he had.

"Whatever," I muttered under my breath, feeling a little snarky.

"I called Bela," Dean said randomly, and I found myself going very still, trying to look at them both nonchalantly, not wanting to give away my dream.

"Bela? Yeah? She-What'd she... you know, say? She... gonna... help us?" I asked, cursing myself for getting flustered and then I felt the telltale feeling of myself getting aroused. I shifted in my chair again, trying to get it to go down.

"Shockingly... she said 'no'," Beth answered, rolling her eyes. "Good riddance too I say," she added.

"Huh," I said, feeling slightly disappointed and then questioning what the hell was going on with me.

"Well it puts us back at square one," Dean said, frowning and flipping through the research in front of him. "We've been trying to decipher the doc's notes. Unfortunately he has worse handwriting than you do," he added.

I moved around a little bit, thinking about killing puppies and old grandma's in bikinis and anything that would get little Sam to go back to sleep. Dean looked over at me and frowned again. "You gonna come help us with this stuff?" He asked.

"Yeah, yeah," I said, keeping my back to them for a little longer. "Just give me a sec."

Suddenly a knock sounded at the door and Dean got up to answer it, Beth looked curiously from her place on the floor where she had been sitting at Dean's feet while he opened the door. Just like I had in the dream, he inched the door open and then when he saw who was there, he opened the door, shooting us an annoyed expression.

"Bela, as I live and breathe," Dean said.

Bela walked in wearing a similar trenchcoat the one she'd been wearing in my dream, only this one was black. I felt my arousal stirred again and I tried to cover it up, crossing my legs and looking around the room.

"You called me. Remember?" Bela said in her British accent.

"I remember you turning me down," Dean pointed out, swinging the door shut.

"Well, I'm just full of surprises," she said wide-eyed at Dean, Beth scowled at her from the coffee table, but bit her lip. Bela smiled at Beth, and then looked over at me while she rifled through her bag.

"Hey, Bela..." I said, waving at her awkwardly. "What's going on?"

Dean looked at me with a curious expression and then went back to Bela.

"I brought you your African Dream Root," she said, handing a jar over to Dean. "Nasty stuff, and not easy to come by," she added, putting her bag on the television set next to her and opening her coat with her back to me.

"Why the sudden change of heart?" Beth asked, getting up from her place on the floor and crossing her arms.

"What?" Bela asked, looking innocently at Beth. "I can't do you a little favour every now and again?" Beth snorted and looked at Dean in frustration. I was too busy watching that coat, wondering what she had underneath it, my mind completely on my dream and not on the conversation they were all having.

"No, you can't," Dean said, shooting Beth a look telling her to calm down.

The coat fell away and I sighed with relief, relaxing a bit when Bela revealed she was just wearing regular street clothes, and not lingerie. I don't know why I'd been thinking she'd be dressed like in the dream, it was completely illogical.

"Come on, I wanna know what the strings are before you attach them," Dean said, looking at her skeptically.

"You said this was for Bobby Singer, right?" Bela asked, looking at Dean, who nodded in reply.

"Well, I'm doing it for him, not you," she said.

"Bobby?" Beth asked suspiciously. "Why?"

"He saved my life once," Bela said. "In Flagstaff." Dean looked at me with a raised eyebrow like he didn't quite believe her. I shrugged, I didn't know whether she was telling the truth or not.

"I screwed up and he saved me, okay?" Bela said. "You satisfied?"

"Maybe," Dean answered, looking at the jar of dream root. Bela looked at me expectantly, a smile on her lips.

"So when do we go on this little magical mystery tour?" She asked.

Beth snickered and shook her head, coming around the coffee table to Bela's side. "Oh you're not going anywhere," she said firmly, looking at Dean, who nodded his agreement.

"Yeah, I don't trust you enough to let you in my car, much less Bobby's head. No offence," he said, crossing to the closet where he opened the safe that was in there, putting the dream root in there next to the colt, closing the door and locking the safe.

"None taken," she said, glancing at me. Bela looked annoyed when Beth and Dean looked at her like she needed to leave.

"It's 2am. Where am I supposed to go?" She asked.

"Get a room," Dean said with a raised eyebrow. "Ah, they got the Magic Fingers, a little Casa Erotica on pay-per-view. You'll love it." Beth snickered at the Magic Fingers comments and shook her head.

"You..." Bela started to try and insult him and then gave up, grabbing her bag and coat in a huff and storming out the door. I jumped up, watching her go and wanting to get just one comment out.

"Nice to see... - seeing you..." I said, but the door was already being slammed as she left the room, completely ignoring me. "Bela..." I said, the name rolling off my tongue.

Dean was smiling at her as she left, looking satisfied with how things had progressed, Beth was staring at me a little curiously and I shrugged off the very awkward good bye I'd just tossed Bela's way.

Motel Room

Beth's POV

Sam had prepared the dream root brew while I sat on the bed with Dean feeling a little anxious. I still wasn't sold on this course of action. Dean leaned his shoulder against mine and took one of my hands in his.

"You don't have to do this, you know," he said, giving me an out. I shook my head.

"No, I want to, I just feel a little sick about it; it will be better with the three of us in there, safety in numbers," I said with a little smile. Dean nodded and kissed the side of my head.

"That's my girl..." he said and I blushed a little at the pride in his voice.

Sam came over and handed a couple of mugs to us with a sickly yellow looking tea. Dean chuckled, glancing up at Sam. "Uh, should we dim the lights and synch up Wizard of Oz to Dark Side of the Moon?" He asked. Sam looked at him confused, sitting down.

"Why?" He asked with a smile. Dean looked at him a little disappointed and I shook my head with a grin.

"What did you do during college?" Dean asked. Sam looked at us with his patented confused reaction to when we asked these sorts of questions. Dean gave up and raised an eyebrow at me, lifting the cup to his lips.

"Wait, wait, wait. Can't forget this," Sam said, holding out his hand.

Dean lowered the mug and we both looked at Sam questioningly. He pulled out a little brown envelope from his shirt pocket and reached in for the contents. Dean held out his hand and Sam put some of the stuff in his palm. "Here," he said.

"What is that?" I asked, struggling to see in the dim lighting.

"Bobby's hair," Sam said.

"We have to drink Bobby's hair?" Dean asked incredulously.

"That's how you control whose dream you're entering. You gotta drink some of their uh... some of their body," Sam explained.

"Well, I guess the hair of the dog is better than other parts of the body," Dean said with a shrug and I chuckled. He passed me half the hair in his hand and we all put it in our drinks, mixing the contents. I grimaced at the smell that hit my nostrils, not looking forward to chugging this drink at all.

"Bottoms up," Dean said.

"Yeah," Sam said, lifting his mug up. We chinked our mugs together in camaraderie and then lifted the mugs to our lips. Dean glanced quickly at me with a smile on his lips.

"See you on the other side," he added softly to me and I nodded, drinking the liquid in one long swallow.

I finished the drink and looked at the mug in my hand, gagging a little at the taste of the tea. Dean was sitting next to me doing the same and Sam looked around the motel room in confusion. Nothing had changed.

"Feel anything?" Dean asked.

"No. You feel anything?" Sam asked, looking at us. I shook my head a little and shrugged.

"No," I answered as Dean inspected his cup.

"Maybe we got some bad shwag," he suggested. Suddenly there was a clap of thunder outside and rain started to patter against the window. Sam looked over, confused.

"Hey, when did it start raining?" He asked. Dean stood up from the bed and walked over to the window, it was dark outside, but you could see the rain reflected in the streetlight outside.

"When did it start raining upside down?" Dean asked curiously, and I went to look outside the window. Sure enough, rain drops were floating up through the air, from ground to sky.

We turned back to Sam, and suddenly it was like all the colour had drained out of the room, we were standing in a washed out sepia toned house that looked vaguely familiar. I turned around and instead of the window we'd been looking out, there was a fireplace and we were standing in a living room.

Bobby's Dream

Beth's POV

"Okay, I don't know what's weirder," Dean said. "The fact that we're in Bobby's head, or that he's dreaming of Better Homes and Gardens." He gestured to the room, making his point. I looked around harder, this house looked very familiar, especially the fireplace... and that couch... I'd sat on that couch with Dean many times and made out with him.

"Wait. Wait a sec," I said, looking around and grabbing Dean's arm. "Imagine the place without the paint job," I said, gesturing to the walls. "More cluttered, dusty, books all over the place... the couch a little more worn..." I said, looking back at Dean who was nodding.

"It's Bobby's house," he said, looking around.

"Yeah," Sam said, sounding amazed.

"Bobby?" Dean called out in a hushed voice, not receiving a reply.

Sam was walking out of the living room past the stairs and heading toward the kitchen when he stopped and looked around like he'd sensed something. He shrugged and then whispered up the stairs toward the bedrooms. "Bobby?"

I wandered into the kitchen, looking around the perfectly kept room, smiling from the memories of the teenage years we'd spent here, it had been a lot rougher around the edges, but it was still home to us.

"Dean?" Sam said from the other room. "I'm gonna go look outside."

Dean was following me and turned back to Sam, shaking his head. "No, no, no, stay close," he whispered urgently back.

"Dude, I'll be fine. Just, look around in here. Look, we gotta find him," Sam said. Dean considered and then nodded.

"Don't do anything stupid," he said as Sam headed out the door. I moved out of the kitchen into the hallway.

"Bobby!" I called out quietly, feeling a little spooked at the quietness in the house. I jumped a little as Dean walked up behind me and he chuckled at my jittery demeanour.

"Don't do that," I whispered to him and he shook his head with a little smile.

"Who's out there?" We both startled, hearing Bobby's muffled voice through the door into the pantry and hurried over to the door. I stopped, staring at the long scratch marks that were gouged out of the wood.

"Bobby, you in there?" Dean whispered, turning the doorknob.

"Dean?" Bobby asked, sounding a little disbelieving.

"Yeah. It's me. Open up," Dean said, and I stepped back to allow the man space to exit. Bobby opened the door, peering out at us both and I looked down to see a little blonde girl with him.

"Hey," I said with a smile, kneeling down to what had to be Cole when she was a child. Bobby put a protective arm around Cole's shoulders, holding her close to him as she smiled at me. He looked scared and was checking out the area surrounding us. He had scratches across his cheek and nose. Cole smiled at me, reaching out to take my hand.

"Hi," she said to me. "Who are you?"

"I'm Beth," I said, kneeling down to her with a smile.

"You're real pretty," Cole said with a smile back at me.

"Awww, thanks," I said, glancing up at Dean who was rolling his eyes.

"How in the Hell did you find us?" Bobby asked, looking around again.

"We got our hands on some of that Dream Root stuff," Dean answered Bobby.

"Dream Root? What?" Bobby asked.

"Dr Gregg, the experiments?" I asked, looking up from where I was kneeling on the floor. He frowned at me, clearly not knowing what I was talking about.

"What the Hell are you talking about?" Bobby asked us, looking from me to Dean. The lights started to flicker in the hallway and Bobby started to panic.

"Hurry!" He said, scurrying back toward the pantry, picking up Cole and carrying her with him.

"Woah, woah, woah, woah, woah. What's going on?" Dean asked, following him as I got to his feet.

"She's coming," Bobby said anxiously, glancing back down the hallway.

"Okay, Bobby, you know this is a dream, don't you?" I asked, looking at him. Bobby turned and looked down the hallway, his eyes wide and terrified.

"What are you crazy?!" He asked, grabbing at Dean's shirt.

"It's a dream Bobby! None of this is real!" Dean said. A figure appeared at the end of the hallway and I followed Bobby's line of sight as he pointed at the woman who was standing there.

"Does that look made-up to you?" Bobby asked.

Dean turned and the woman approached us. She was wearing a white dress and there was blood on it, smeared across her front.

"Bobby who is that?" I asked, looking at the woman. I had a gut feeling I knew, but I had to ask anyway.

"Mommy!" Cole called out from where Bobby had put her on the floor when he was trying to open the pantry door. I leaned down, pulling her behind me and up against the wall.

"She's... she's my wife," Bobby confirmed. The woman stared at us, her chest had about five stab wounds, but other than that, she just looked like a normal person.

"Why Bobby? Why did you do this to me?" She asked, following us as we all hurried into the kitchen to get away.

"I'd rather died myself than hurt you," Bobby said, tears in his eyes as he looked at the woman.

"But you did hurt me. You shoved that knife into me. Again and again. You watched me bleed. Watched me die!" She said with an angry tone. Dean rounded to the back of Bobby, grabbing him and pulling him away.

"Bobby she's not real," Dean said, but Bobby ignored him.

"How could you?" She asked again, and I grabbed Cole close to me, picking her up. She was light even for a nine year old, but I passed her to Dean who for once in his life didn't question me, simply holding the girl in his arms. She smiled up at him and cuddled up to him, distracted for the moment.

"You were possessed baby. You were rabid. And I didn't know what I know now. I didn't know how to save you," Bobby said, tears in his eyes.

"You're lying! You wanted me dead. If you'd loved me … you would have found a way!" She screamed at him in the end, her rage rolling off her in waves.

I grabbed Bobby by his shirt, and half pushed, half dragged him back into the library off the kitchen while Dean carried Cole beside us. "Come on!" I said as I slid the doors closed. Bobby's wife ran at the doors screaming. Dean dropped Cole gently to the floor and turned to help me hold the doors closed.

Bobby's wife banged on the doors while we held them, Cole had run to Bobby and was wrapping her arms around his leg, he looked down at her, and then stared at us in shock.

"I'm telling you, all of it. Your house, your wife, it's a nightmare!" Dean said to Bobby, looking frantically around us. He saw a piece of cable on the table beside him and grabbed it, using it to tied the handles closed. I breathed a sigh of relief and stepped away, the door now secure.

"I killed her," Bobby said shakily as tears ran down his face.

"Bobby! This is your dream that you can wake up," I said to him, taking Cole by the hand and pulling her back a little further from the door, she was crying and wrapped her arms around my waist, burying her face in my side.

"You can do anything!" Dean added as Bobby walked slowly up to him, looking at the doors which were still holding off the screaming woman.

"Just leave me alone. Let her kill me already," he said. Dean grabbed him, a fierce determination behind his eyes.

"Look at me! Look at me! You gotta snap out of this, you gotta snap out of this now! You're not gonna die. I'm not gonna let you die. You're like a father to us!" Dean said, shaking Bobby by the shoulders. "You gotta believe me, please."

Bobby stared at him for a moment, then he looked at the door before looking over at me.

"I'm dreaming?" He asked.

"Yes!" Dean and I both said together. "Now take control of it!" Dean added.

Bobby looked back at the door and then closed his eyes tightly. Suddenly Cole disappeared from my arms and the banging and screaming stopped. Dean let go of Bobby and walked over to the doors, removing the cable from the doors. He slip them open to reveal an empty kitchen.

"I don't believe it," Bobby said in awe. I walked over to him and put my hand on his arm.

"Believe it," I said, looking him in the eyes. "Now would you please wake up?"

We sat up with a start on the bed, gasping for air. Dean was looking at the mug in his hand thoughtfully and I slipped my arm around him, feeling a little shell shocked.

"Well that was something," he said with a grin. We looked over at Sam who was panting.

"Sam, are you okay?" I asked, he looked a little pale.

"Yeah, yeah... that was close," he said, shaking his head.

He filled us in on how he'd been separated from us when he went outside and couldn't get back into the house. A young man, who we deduced was the kid Dean and I had visited earlier, have shown up and started beating him with a baseball bat, he'd been ready to deliver a final blow when we'd woken up.

I breathed a sigh of relief at the timing and stood up to pace the room. "We need to check on Bobby," I said and the boys nodded.

Hospital

Dean's POV

I pulled Beth aside when we got to the hospital, she was looking a little shaky and tired. When we passed the chapel, I opened the door and gestured with my head that Sam should go ahead and check on Bobby. He nodded and continued walking.

"What's up?" Beth asked, looking at me with a confused expression.

"Sit," I said, pulling her down into one of the pews and glancing up at the mural of the last supper on the wall. I shuddered internally, and pushed the whole idea of a last meal out of my head.

"Your nightmares..." I started, watching her eyes widen a little. "Are they like that?" For years she'd had nightmares that she woke up crying from in the middle of the night. They'd only seemed to amplify since I was going to Hell, and I had a feeling that my deal was the cause of it.

"Sometimes," she confessed, looking down at her hands.

"About your dad?" I asked, imagining how hard it had been for her and Bobby to be at the end of the knife when their loved ones died.

"Yeah," she breathed, looking up at the ceiling, not meeting my eyes.

"What about me?" I asked. "Do you ever have nightmares because of me?"

She looked sadly at me and then pushed it behind a smile. "No," she said softly, shaking her head. "Why would you say that?"

"Well... I am going to Hell..." I pointed out.

Beth nodded, avoiding my look a little so I knew she was lying, but I wasn't going to push her on it. I had my answer, and it made me feel even worse about what I was putting her through. She slid closer to me and kissed my lips with a tenderness only she'd ever shown me. "I'm okay, don't worry about me, worry about yourself," she said, smiling and brushing her hand along the side of my face.

"I will always worry about you sugarpie," I said honestly, pulling her close so I could kiss her again. She smiled and leaned in to me, I snuggled her in close taking in her warmth and gentle breathing as she closed her eyes for a moment. Her hair was soft as I ran my fingers through it, trailing its length down her back, it had gotten long in the last year or so because she didn't cut it anymore. I was suddenly overcome with the paralysing fear that we didn't have that much longer – four months, it didn't give us much time to come up with a solution to stopping my one way trip to Hell, what were we going to do?

She must have heard my breath catch because she looked up at me questioningly. "You okay?" Beth asked, her brown eyes penetrating to my core.

"Yeah, yeah... just tired, I feel like I haven't slept in days." I said to her, kissing her forehead, it wasn't really a lie, I did feel tired, I just also felt a lot of other things right now too.

"Well, let's go check on Bobby and then we can go back to the motel and get some sleep, hey?" She suggested, I nodded and climbed to my feet, pulling her up beside me. Tomorrow, we could tackle the deal tomorrow, today I just wanted to get some rest, and spend it with Beth, Sam and Bobby. Our little family. More and more I was starting to appreciate just what that meant.

Hospital Room

Beth's POV

Bobby was back to normal, having made a miraculous recovery from his coma which the doctors couldn't explain. We chuckled to ourselves, thankful we knew what we did in a world where supernatural occurrences could be explained away as miracles. It was several hours later, Sam was off checking on Jeremy and we were sorting through the notes from the case.

"Hey, Bobby," Dean said suddenly in the quiet room. "That...uh...that stuff, all that stuff with your wife?" Bobby looked over at him. "That actually happen?" He asked.

Bobby sighed and looked away. "Everybody got into hunting somehow," he said softly.

"I'm sorry." I said sadly, I understood what he was feeling.

"Don't be sorry," Bobby said quickly. "If it weren't for you guys, I'd still be lost in there. Or dead," he added, looking up at me and then over to Dean again. "Thank you." Dean's mouth twitched a little and he nodded.

Sam walked into the room, taking in the scene before him and rubbing his hands together. "So uh, stoner boy wasn't in his dorm. My guess is he's long gone by now," Sam said.

"He ain't much of a stoner," Bobby commented, picking up a photo of Jeremy and looking at it.

"No?" Dean asked, looking curious.

"No. His name's Jeremy Frost. Full-on genius. Hundred and sixty IQ. Which is sayin' somethin', considering his dad took a baseball bat to his head." Bobby said. We nodded and Bobby picked up another piece of paper, a printout of a licence and handed it to Sam.

"Here's Father of the Year," he commented. "He died before Jeremy was ten."

"Looks like a real sweetheart," Sam said with a smirk, handing me the paper to look at.

"Injury gave him Charcot-Wilbrand, he hasn't dreamt since," Bobby said. I showed the paper to Dean and then put it back on the table in front of Bobby.

"Till he started dosing the dream drug," Dean said, nodding.

"Yep," Bobby confirmed.

"How'd he know how to dig up your worst nightmare and throw it at you?" I asked, frowning at how realistic it had been. I didn't want to think about what he would have pulled out of my head.

"He was rooting around in my skull. God knows what he saw in there,' Bobby answered, looking at me.

"Yeah. How'd he get in there in the first place?" Sam asked. "Isn't he supposed to have some of your hair, your DNA or something?"

"Yeah. Before I knew it was him, he offered me a beer," Bobby said and I exchanged a look with Dean as he continued talking. "I drank it. Dumbest frigging thing."

I smirked at Dean and shook my head slightly, feeling my heart rate pick up. Dean chuckled a little and bit his lip. "Oh, I don't know. It wasn't that dumb," he said, laughing nervously.

Sam and Bobby looked at him, realising what he'd just said. I was shaking my head, a hand over my face and kicking myself over letting him drink that beer, usually I stepped in and made sure we didn't eat things that were offered to us during investigations, like the peanut brittle from the Carrigans during a recent investigation.

"Dean, you didn't?" Sam asked, his voice resigned, he already knew the answer.

"I was thirsty," Dean said, shaking his head.

"That's great!" Sam snapped angrily. "Now he can come after either one of you!" He looked over at me with accusing eyes. "Did you too?"

"Hey! No, and even if I did, it would be an honest mistake, don't take that tone with me Sam Winchester!" I snapped back at him, my patience was pushed to the limit right now from lack of decent sleep and worry over Dean. Sam narrowed his eyes at me for reprimanding him, I rarely did it so he wasn't used to it.

"Well, now we just have to find him first," Dean said.

"Well, we better work fast, and coffee up," Bobby said. "Because one thing we cannot do, is fall asleep," he said, the implications of what could happen if they did hanging heavily in the air. I looked at Bobby, he seemed all right, but Dean was looking very tired already, I chewed on my lip, suddenly more worried than I already had been.

Impala

- 2 days later -

Beth's POV

Dean was driving, and we were speeding down the blacktop as he ranted and raved in a very pissed off mood.

"I mean, this Jeremy guy's not a frigging ghost. Where the Hell could he be?!" Dean snapped to nobody in particular.

"Dean, you sure you don't want me to drive?" Sam asked from beside him. "You seem a little..." A glare from Dean stopped what he was about to say, and Sam hesitated. "...caffeinated."

"Thanks for the news flash, Edison," Dean snapped. His phone started ringing and we nearly swerved into the middle of the lane as he hurried to pull it out of his pocket. He finally got the phone to his ear and answered it.

"Tell me you got something!" Dean said harshly into the phone, switching it to speaker and handing it over to me as I leaned forward to listen from the back seat.

"Strip club was a bust, huh?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah," I said with s sigh.

"That was our last lead," Bobby said.

"What the Hell, Bobby!" Dean snapped again, his frustration clearly building.

"Don't yell at me boy. I'm working my ass off here," Bobby reprimanded him and Dean looked chagrined.

"Sorry, I'm sorry. I'm just... I'm-I'm-I'm tired." He said a little softer. I reached out and squeezed his shoulder, keeping an eye on the road.

"Well who ain't?" Bobby said back and I chuckled, it had been a very long couple of days.

"What's Bela got?" Dean asked, referring to the suddenly born-again-helpful woman. Bobby stopped to talk to her in the background and then he came back on the line.

"She's got nothing," Bobby said.

"Great!" Dean huffed. "Well, I'm just gonna go blow my brains out now!" He said, grabbing the phone off me and closing it, throwing it down in his lap. He hit the steering wheel with an angry grunt and I bit my lip, wondering how I was going to get him out of the driving seat before he got us all killed.

Ten minutes down the road Dean pulled the car on to a dirt road, driving us down a little until we were in a deserted clearing with woods surrounding us. He shut off the engine and I looked at him.

"All right, that's it. I'm done." He said.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, frowning at him and looking around for a gun in case he was serious about shooting himself.

Dean slid down in his seat, resting his head on the back of it. "Taking myself a long overdue nap," he muttered, getting comfortable.

"What?" Sam exclaimed, looking at me then back to Dean. "Dean, Jeremy can come after you," he said.

"That's the idea," Dean said and I closed my eyes, sighing. Stubborn, frustrating man.

"Excuse me?" Sam asked incredulously.

"Come on guys, we can't find him, so let him come to me," Dean said, sitting up again.

"On his own turf? Where he's basically a god?" Sam asked.

"I can handle it," Dean said confidently. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Not alone you can't," Sam said, reaching over and pulling out some of Dean's hair.

"Ow!" Dean snapped, looking perplexed. "What are you doing?"

"Coming in with you," Sam said.

"Not you're not," Dean said, frowning at him.

"Why not?" Sam asked. "At least then it'll be two against one."

"Three against one," I said, pulling my own bit of Dean's hair out of his head. He flinched again and glared at me.

"Well I don't want you guys digging around in my head," Dean said, looking at the pair of us.

"Too bad," Sam said, reaching forward to get the ingredients out to make up the dream root tea. Dean looked like he was going to argue and I shot him a determined look. He wasn't getting out of this one, he opened his mouth again but then shut it, remaining quiet. I smirked, at least he knew better, even in his sleep deprived state, than to argue with me.

Dean's Dream State

Beth's POV

Sam and I woke up first, the weariness from the last few days seemingly taking their toll on Dean as he lay with his head against the window. Sam cleared his throat and looked at me.

"Dean," I said, reaching out to him. Sam beat me to it, smacking Dean on the arm and the other woke up with a start.

"Geez! For the love of God!" Dean muttered, looking around with an extremely tired expression. "What are we still doing here?" He asked.

"I have no idea," Sam said. We head a sound outside the car and looked around. "There's someone out there," Sam said.

We exited the car, it was dark and hard to see anything. As we moved in front of the car we could hear music, it sounded like church organ. Dean was turning around, looking behind him and when he turned back suddenly I was staring at a younger version of myself, short shoulder-length wavy hair, smiling back at us: I froze, looking at Dean hesitantly.

"Hey," Beth said with a smile straight at Dean. "You know it's the bride who's supposed to be late, right?" She grinned and suddenly we were standing in a church, surrounded by people who I presumed were meant to be family and friends.

Dean didn't move, and Beth reached out for him. There was a movement from beside us and a younger version of Dean stepped out of the shadows, joining her in front of the church altar. Dean was staring, his mouth dropped open. It was like watching a 3D version of a film, or something, and really weird when you were featuring in it.

The priest beamed from between the two younger versions of us and raised his hands in the air. "We are gathered here today..." he started and I heard Sam take in a deep breath beside me.

"I uh... I've never had this dream before," Dean said suddenly, looking back at us, appearing a little uncomfortable. He turned his back to us, looking at the wedding occurring in front of us and the priest was now telling the younger Dean to 'Kiss the bride'. I took a few steps toward Dean, feeling a combination of love and sadness in my heart. He'd never shared any kind of indication about ever wanting to get married, or even thinking about it, and yet this looked like an old dream, one he'd had many years ago.

"Stop looking at me like that," Dean said without even glancing back at us. Sam had a sad expression on his face.

"Sorry," he muttered, glancing over at me and shrugging.

The picture changed and our counterparts were at a crowded reception taking their first dance together as husband and wife. Beth was smiling up at Dean and leaned in to kiss him. "Dean, I love you," she said. The picture changed again, and we were all standing outside, huge Chinese lanterns being released up into the night sky, young Dean stood with his arm around his wife, smiling at a younger Sam who was next to us, letting one of the lanterns go. Our entire family surrounded us, Mary, John, Bobby, Cole, my parents... we were happy.

Beth smiled and then suddenly the entire scene around us shook, and everyone in front of us disappeared into the darkness. We all looked around, surprised, and confused.

"Where'd they all go?" Dean asked, frowning. Sam was looking behind me and he nodded at someone who had emerged from behind a tree. Jeremy.

"Guys," he said. He took off at a sprint, chasing Jeremy who quickly darted into the dark woods around us. Dean and I followed, running after them, but we soon lost track of Sam but kept running in the same direction. Suddenly I tripped and found myself on the floor of the woods, and when I looked up Dean had disappeared.

"Dean!" I called out, climbing to my feet and spinning around in a circle. "Damn."

Dean's Dream Scape

Dean's POV

I turned around when I heard Beth fall, only to find myself in a hallway, the wallpaper on all four walls a patterned woods.

"Okay..." I muttered to myself, walking back down the hall. "Beth?!" I called out but didn't get a response. There was a door at the end of the hallway which seemed to be drawing me in. I walked toward it and before I reached the end, the door swung open slowly. I stopped, watching it, and as the door opened further, I realised it was a motel room, the same as the one we'd been staying in.

There was a clicking noise from within the room, and as I moved beyond the door into the room, I noticed there was a man sitting at the desk, clicking the light on and off. I watched the man turned to face me, and once again I found myself staring at another version of myself.

"Hey, Dean," he said to me, slowly standing up. I smirked, shaking my head a little.

"Well aren't you a handsome son of a gun," I said, making light of the situation. He smiled back at me.

"We need to talk," he said. I nodded at him, I saw what he was getting at. I started to walk around him in a circle, at the same time so did my alter ego, and we were like two caged tigers, sizing each other up.

"I get it. I get it," I said with a shrug. "I'm like my own worst nightmare, is that it? Huh? Kind of like the Superman III junkyard scene? A little mano y mano with myself?"

My alter ego didn't seem too impressed with my humour, I found myself wishing Beth was here, she'd at least laugh at my joke. Where was she anyway?

"Joke all you want, smart ass. But you can't lie to me. I know the truth." He said to me, and we came to a stop, facing each other. "I know how dead you are inside. How worthless you feel. I know how you look into a mirror... and hate what you see."

I smirked, shaking my head. "Sorry, pal, it's not gonna work," I said with a smile. "You're not real."

"Sure I am. I'm you," he said.

"I don't think so," I replied. "Because see, this is my siesta. Not yours," I said, raising my hand in the air. "All I gotta do is snap my fingers and you go bye-bye."

I snapped my fingers, waiting for him to disappear, but he didn't. I snapped them again and looked around, nothing was happening, he was still standing there. My alter ego watched me with a slight smile as I snapped my fingers a few more times before giving up and dropping my hand to my side, and raising my eyebrow. He smirked at me as if to point out that I wasn't in control here.

"I'm not going anywhere. Neither are you," he said. Suddenly the door slammed shut and locked. I looked at him, feeling myself go deathly calm, assessing the situation.

"Like I said..." my alter ego commented, raising his hand and gripping a sawed off shotgun. "We need to talk."

Dean's Dream

Beth's POV

A gunshot fired and I woke up with a start in the back of the Impala again, Sam startling awake in front of me. Dean was still asleep on the front seat and Sam reached out and shook him awake.

"Dean," he said, looking around. "Hey, wake up."

He hit Dean on the arm a few more times as I shifted, moving to get out of the car. Suddenly Dean turned around and I glanced back, my brain quickly registering that it wasn't Dean in the seat, it was Jeremy. He swung a bat, hitting Sam in the stomach. "Sam!" I called out, running around the door and wrenching it open, helping him out.

Jeremy came around the front of the car, bat resting on his shoulder as he looked at us.

"Well well... if it isn't Ms Police Officer. Boy, you guys just don't know when to leave well enough alone, do you?" He asked.

He walked toward us and I felt myself slip in mud, falling to the ground with Sam as Jeremy towered over us.

"You're psycho," Sam muttered.

"You're wrong," Jeremy countered, shaking his head.

"Yeah?" I asked. "Tell that to Dr. Gregg."

"The doc? No, no. The doc's the one that got me hooked on this stuff, and then he took it away." Jeremy watched us as we lay on the ground, looking like he was about to swing that bad at us.

"But I needed it," Jeremy said. "And he wouldn't let me have it."

"So you killed him?" Sam asked, looking incredulously at him.

"I can dream again. You know what that's like, not being able to dream? You never rest, not really. It's like being awake for fifteen years." He said, and I realised why he'd obviously had a bit of a psychotic break.

"And let me guess. That makes you go crazy?" I asked, raising my eyebrow at him. There were days I wished I couldn't dream so I could escape the images in my head, but I was starting to see why it was a good thing that I could. Jeremy leaned forward, holding the bat out at us.

"I just want to be left alone, I just wanna dream," he said.

"Sorry," Sam said, shoving me backwards as he spoke. "Can't do that."

"Wrong answer," Jeremy said. Sam was suddenly pulled flat against the ground, and he started to breathe heavily with the restriction.

"Beth, run," Sam muttered to me and I shook my head. "You have to get to Dean, just... focus on him, wake him up."

Jeremy laughed and shook his head. "You can run, but I'll find you. You and your brothers? You're not waking up. Not this time. I'm not gonna let you."

I didn't even consciously make a decision one way or the other, all I knew was I thought about Dean and my desire to find him and have him get us out of this mess like he always did and I was suddenly gone, Sam and Jeremy fading from sight, and I found myself in a hallway with forest wallpaper.

I was standing outside a door and through it I heard a laugh, and then Dean's voice. "I mean, you're going to hell and you won't lift a finger to stop it," he said and I frowned, wondering who he was talking to.

"Talk about low self esteem," he added with a chuckle. "Then again, I guess it's not much of a life worth saving, now is it?"

I tried the handle but it was locked. "Dean!" I yelled, banging on the door. "Dean let me in! You have to wake up!" My heart was starting to skip a beat thinking about Sam at the mercy of Jeremy, I had to get to him and fast. I stepped back, concentrating on the door, imagining Dean on the other side of it, and then I willed myself to be next to him. I felt a stomach churning rush and then I was in the room, and in front of me were two identical Dean's, facing off at one another.

"I mean, after all, you've got nothing outside of Sam and Beth," One of them said. "You are nothing. You're as mindless and obedient as an attack dog." I looked over and the other Dean smiled a little, shaking his head slightly.

"That – That's not true," he said. I knew instantly this was the real Dean.

"No? What are the things that you want? What are the things that you dream? I mean... your car? That's Dad's. Your favourite leather jacket? Dad's. Your music? Dad's. Do you even have an original thought?" He asked. Dean scoffed at the imposter, not saying anything.

"No," Imposter Dean continued. "All there is, is 'Watch out for Sammy. Look out for your little brother, boy!' You can still hear Dad's voice in your head, can't you?" He asked, motioning to his head with a shotgun. "Clear as a bell."

"Just shut up," Dean said, looking uncomfortable.

"I mean, think about it..." the other Dean said, walking toward Dean whose face had turned serious. "...all he'd ever do is train you, boss you around. " I moved to Dean's side, taking his arm in my hand, he glanced down at me and I shook my head.

"Don't listen to him," I said softly.

"But Sam... Sam he doted on. Sam he loved. Hell, even Beth he adored, and she's not even his real flesh and blood!"

"I mean it," Dean said to the imposter. "I'm getting angry!"

"Dad knew who you really were. A good soldier and nothing else. Daddy's blunt little instrument. He didn't care about you. He didn't give a damn about your desires, I mean, for years he stopped you from following your heart, from doing anything about Beth, or anyone else for that matter! Your own father didn't care if you were happy, he didn't care whether you lived or died. Why should you?"

"Son of a bitch!" Dean said angrily, moving me aside and pushing at the imposter and hitting him so that he landed on a desk. "My father was an obsessed bastard!" He yelled and I flinched at the anger in his voice. The imposter tried to get up but Dean kicked him down against the desk again. He picked up the shotgun that had fallen to ground and used it like a bat, hitting the imposter with it and then pinning him across the neck against the wall.

"All that crap he dumped on me, about protecting Sam, protecting Beth. That was his crap! He's the only one who couldn't protect his family. He ..." Dean stepped back and swung the gun, hitting the imposter twice. "He's the one who let Mom die!" He pinned the other Dean down again, looking in his eyes.

"Who wasn't there for Sam. I always was! He wasn't fair! I didn't deserve what he put on me!" He said, backing away from the imposter and raising the gun. "And I don't deserve to go to Hell!" He shot the gun, the sound echoing through the room and I stared, shocked as the imposter Dean slumped against the wall, dead.

"Dean!" I said, grabbing his arm. "Dean, we have to go, you have to wake up, quickly!"

Dean looked at me and then shrugged me off, approaching the dead version of himself. Suddenly the imposter came to life, his eyes flickering open and appearing pitch black like a demon's. I shrieked and moved away. The demonic Dean looked at Dean and snapped angrily at him.

"You can't escape me Dean. You're gonna die! And this, this is what you're gonna become!" He said.

"No!" I yelled, grabbing Dean's arm and pulling him away as the demonic version stood up and started to walk toward us. Dean stepped in front of me, pushing me behind him into the corner we were fast being backed into.

"You can't protect her Dean, you never could, you were too late to save her from Ruby, and soon enough she'll be left all alone, who's going to protect her then?" The demon said, staring at me.

"You shut up you son of a bitch!" Dean cursed at him and he smirked, shaking his head.

Suddenly the demon disappeared and we all startled awake in the Impala, gasping for air. Dean spun around, looking at me.

"You okay? Beth?" He said, reaching for me.

"Yeah," I answered, nodding. "Yeah..." I grasped his hand and looked at Sam, reaching out a hand to him too.

"Sammy? Are you all right?" I asked. Sam nodded, and looked at us both.

"Yeah, I uh... I did a little dream weaving of my own," he said, leaning back in his seat. "You took too long waking Dean up, had to take it into my own hands," he chuckled. I stared at him, raising my eyebrow, not commenting. I was still reeling from what had just been said.

"How did you do it?" I asked.

"I uh, I just concentrated on Jeremy's father, and he appeared, you know? Scared the guy long enough that I was able to get up and hit him with his own baseball bat. Then we woke up. I presume he's dead?" Sam said.

We both nodded at him, breathing a sigh of relief.

Motel Room

Dean's POV

I heard the lock in the door being tumbled and turned around to see Bobby and Sam return. Beth walked out of the bathroom when she heard them and looked around.

"Hey, you guys seen Bela? She's not in her room. She's not answering her phone," I asked.

Sam closed the door and shrugged. "She must've taken off or something," he suggested.

"Just like that? It's a little weird," I said, after all, she'd just spent the last two days helping us try and track down Jeremy.

"Yeah, well, if you ask me what's weird is why she helped us in the first place," Bobby commented.

"I thought you saved her life," Beth said, walking over to stand beside me and look at the older man.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Bobby asked.

"The thing, in Flagstaff," I said.

"That thing in Flagstaff was an amulet. I gave her a good deal, that's all." Bobby said and I stared at him confused. What the hell was going on?

Beth scowled and moved away from me, starting to go through our bags.

"You boys better check your pockets," Bobby said, and I started going through them.

"Not literally!" Beth snapped, standing up and looking around. She thought of it the same time I did, and we both moved to the closet where the safe was.

"No, no, no." I muttered, reaching the closet first and finding the safe open and empty, I slammed the safe shut. "Son of a bitch!"

"The Colt," Sam said, looking at Bobby. "Bela stole the Colt."

"Damn it boys!" Bobby snapped, shaking his head.

Beth sighed and walked back to the bags she'd just been searching in. "Pack your stuff, now!" She said, zipping up a bag and throwing it at me, I caught it and looked at her.

"Why? Where are we going?" Sam asked. Beth turned to look at him.

"We're gonna go hunt the little bitch down, we need that gun!" She said, grabbing her own bag and walking out the door. "I am going to skin her alive!" Beth said as she headed for the car.

"Man, she is pissed," Sam said softly, watching her go. I stared at her, it had been a long time since I'd seen her take charge like that, usually preferring to let me lead. I liked it, it was kind of sexy. I frowned, shaking my head. That really wasn't something I should be thinking about right now, we had more important things to consider, like where the hell we were going to find Bela, and maybe saving her before Beth got any other ideas on how to kill the wayward woman.

Motel Room
Next Day

Dean's POV

Beth had finally fallen asleep, and was tangled up in the sheets on our bed while I sorted through some stuff in my bag.

"Hey Sam," I said, looking over at my little brother who was pulling clothes out of his bag, preparing to take a shower. "I was wondering. When you were in my head, what did you see?"

Sam stopped and looked at me, shrugging. "Uh, just Jeremy. He kept me separated from you. Easier to beat my brains out that way I guess, once Beth had left to find you. What about you? You never said."

I shook my head, pretending like I didn't remember. "Nothing. I was looking for you and Beth the whole time," I answered.

I hesitated, looking over at him. "You know... I've been doing some thinking, and that comment you made? About me not wanting to save myself?" I said, and he nodded at me. "It's not true. I don't want to die. I don't want to go to Hell."

Sam swallowed hard, looking at me as if he was fighting off tears. He nodded and smiled at me. "All right. Yeah. We'll find a way to save you," he said. I looked at him, glad we were all on the same page now.

"Okay, good," I said with a slight smile. Sam nodded reassuringly at me and then went into the bathroom. I looked over at Beth and sighed, thinking over what I was about to do.

There was more to what she was going through than what she was sharing, that much I knew. I had to see for myself, what was she really thinking? What did she really want? I crossed over to her, running my hand softly along her face, and then taking my knife I cut some hair from the bottom of a few tresses, holding them in the palm of my hand.

I looked through my bag and found some of the dream root we had left over, and quickly brewed up the tea, tossing the hair in. I sat next to her on the bed, and had second thoughts about doing this, she would be furious if she found out. I'd just have to make sure she didn't.

My mind made up I quickly drank the liquid from the mug I was holding.

The sun was shining down on me all of a sudden, and a slight breeze picked up, refreshingly cool to the senses. I turned around and spotted Beth standing at the edge of a steep drop, her face raised up to the sun, eyes closed as she stopped to take in the sun's rays. I stared in amazement at the scene before me. It was the edge of the Grand Canyon, and it was breathtaking.

A version of myself stepped out of the trees and wandered over to her. Beth spotted him and smiled. "Isn't it beautiful?" She asked, coming over to slip her arm around his waist.

"Yeah, it is," he said with a smile. "But not as beautiful as you are," he added. I rolled my eyes. What a cheesy line!

Beth laughed happily and kissed him. Suddenly the scenery changed and we were standing at the skywalk, a glass horse-shoe shaped walkway that went out over the edge of the Grand Canyon. I followed the happy couple as they wandered along the see-through walk arm in arm.

Suddenly my alter ego pulled away from Beth and she looked at him curiously. He shifted a little uncomfortably and then dropped to one knee in front of her. I stared, disbelieving, and I knew what was coming next. I smirked, well, there was a little romantic part inside Beth after all... and here she'd been playing down any kind of marriage talk all this time.

Beth stared at the other Dean as he looked nervously up at her, taking her hand in his and then asking the fated words. "Beth, will you marry me?"

She didn't answer right away, looking at him a little shocked and I chuckled, this was kind of amusing, and also one of my biggest fears. What if she actually said 'No'?

Beth opened her mouth with a smile but before she could answer, the sky clouded over with angry looking rain clouds and she glanced up at them, alarmed.

Without warning the glass below Dean vanished and he plummeted down as Beth threw herself where he'd been, the glass reforming, leaving her with a perfect view as he fell to his death. Only it wasn't into the Grand Canyon that he fell, it was a fiery pit. I stared, shocked, as she beat against the glass, screaming for me and crying.

Then we were in the pit, flames flickering all around us, the heat almost unbearable. She was searching for me, a distraught mess. I followed at a distance, wanting nothing more than to take her in my arms and comfort her, but I had to see, I had to know how bad these dreams got. She stumbled, falling to her knees and then he appeared in front of her, looking down. It was the same vision from my nightmare. Me, with black eyes, as dark as the night. He smirked at the sight of Beth before him and she cried when she found him, soul-breaking sobs.

Pulling her to her feet, Beth looked at him and he snarled, laughing. "Who did you think you'd find? Dean? He's gone, he's dead, you should have let him go a long time ago, because there's nothing left of him anymore. He's dead to you." The demon said, and I stared, shocked.

"No..." Beth said, shaking her head. "No, you're lying." She took a step back.

He smirked again and reached for her, shaking his head. "No, I'm not, but you can join him if you want, we've been waiting for you!" He rushed her, pushing her against a wall and his whole face melted into a twisted image of death and decay, his tongue snaking out to lick along her face. I ran toward her, ignoring my promise to myself not to let her know I was there, and she screamed.

We both woke up with a start, Beth screaming and gasping for breath, clutching at the blankets in the motel room. I forced myself to move even though I was shocked at what I'd seen. I pulled her in to me, wrapping her in my arms as she sobbed, and leaned against my chest.

"Hey, hey, I got you, you're okay, you're okay," I said to her, rocking her and holding her tightly. "It's just a dream, it wasn't real," I said to her as she slowly started to relax in my arms.

"Oh god, I hate this," she said softly, burying her face in my neck, taking a few deep breaths.

"I know," I said, kissing the top of her head. "You want to tell me about it?" She shook her head negatively against my shoulder and I sighed, thinking about how many times I'd asked her that and every time she said 'no'.

"Just hold me," she said, wrapping her arms around my waist and twisting to sit closer in my lap.

"I'm sorry," I said quietly to her and she turned her face to look at me.

"For what?" She asked.

"For everything, for not being able to protect you, for going to Hell, for putting you through all this," I said.

"It's my fault," she said quietly, tears glittering in her eyes.

"No it's not," I disagreed. "You were just protecting Sam," I said.

"And you were just protecting me," she said softly, sighing as she leaned against my chest again.

"That's what I do," I said with a small smile. She smiled back and nodded, but her arms tightened around me a little more, and I knew she was battling the images she had just seen and felt.

She tensed and looked up at me, hesitating. "What did he mean... in your dream... about not being able to protect me from Ruby?" I paused, looking at her. I couldn't tell her, not yet, we needed the demon, we needed to see if she could help us. If she could, I was going to give her a head start before we hunted her down and killed her for what she'd done to Beth and her father.

"I don't know," I lied to her. "You know it would have made more sense if it had been Meg?" I suggested and she nodded, looking at me sadly.

"That wasn't your fault," she said softly, resting her head against me again. I sighed, unconvinced by her protest, but I didn't say anything. I rocked her quietly as Sam came out of the bathroom, freshly showered. He looked at us both and frowned.

"You guys okay?" He asked, and I nodded at him while Beth stayed locked in against my body.

"Yeah, yeah..." I said, looking up at him. "Just a nightmare," I added. He looked sympathetically at Beth and nodded slightly, not saying anything more. There was nothing left to say. Beth didn't want to go back to sleep, so we turned on the television, finding one of her favourite comedies, Spaceballs, on one of the channels and settling back against the headboard. I wrapped my arm around her as she snuggled in against my chest, smiling at the antics of Princess Vespa taking her revenge on the fools who had dared to shoot her hair.

I watched her, contemplating my next move. We had to find Bela, and the Colt. It was our best shot at killing any kind of demon that might hold my contract. Most of all, I knew now why Beth didn't want to talk marriage … one of her biggest nightmares was of losing me as soon as it happened, as soon as I proposed even. I chewed on my lip, sighing softly. Our lives couldn't be a bigger mess.

We had to find that Colt, and get me out of this damn deal. That was the only way I was going to be able to make everything right, the way I should have done years ago.

AUTHOR'S NOTES

The song for this chapter is Adam Lambert's "Runnin'" I've obsessively had it on repeat for the entire week I've been at work, and I'm still not sick of it!

Sorry this has been such a slow update, I am about to move in a couple of days so I've been busy packing, and when I'm not doing that I've had to work overtime a bit in the last week due to the end of year crunch to finalise everything before we're on a hiatus for two weeks starting Dec 20th, so the next update will likely be slow getting out too because as soon as I finish up on the 20th, I have to go to Melbourne until the 23rd and I'll have no time to write while I'm there :( Believe me, it pains me more than it does you!

Check out the Facebook page, put in the address, then add /pages/Dean-Beth-Supernatural-Fanfic/616741445012946

Thank you to everyone who took the time to review the last chapter, I was so thrilled that you liked it! I have a few ideas floating around for more originals, and there's a lot I have planned for when Dean goes to Hell, we just have to get there yet!

Finally, welcome to all the new readers, I hope you're enjoying the story!

Please leave a review, I love getting those little emails saying "you have a review" about as much as you love getting the "new chapter" emails from me :D