You guys are amazing. Thank you so much to those that review and thank you so much to those who read only.

Now, on with the show:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sometime during the night, as the rain continued its slow descent homeward, the two companions had fallen into a fitful slumber. Sue frowned in her sleep, reliving the nightmare that should have only existed in bad horror movies, not here in real life where there was order amongst the chaos. She shivered and moved closer to the warm body beside her. Dean shifted in his fevered sleep. His mind was nagging at him to wake up, he'd slept enough and needed to get back to somewhere, get back to something, but what? His dream clouded mind couldn't grasp what was just beyond his reach. He shivered, awareness crept close, like a cat stalking an unsuspecting bird. One foot in front of the other, slowly edging forward into the kill zone. Slowly edging toward a world full of pain and uncertainty. A world where , for once, Dean had a solid place. He knew he had a job to do, and it wasn't done yet. Slowly he peeled one eye open, hoping that for once the horror of the night had dissolved into a bad dream to be remembered through the day. He gazed out into a crisp, bright morning. The sounds of the river below reminding his body how thirsty it really was. Dean squinted against the headache that threatened to knock him off the ledge and into the peaceful void below. Taking stock of his injuries he allowed his eyes to close. His ribs were killing him, nothing new there. Definitely broken, and thanks to the position of the breaks there was no way he was gonna be able to hide them from Sam.

Sam.

He was going to be full of misguided guilt for not being there to help Dean rescue Sue. Well, that would teach the kid a lesson. Dean ignored the guilt and worry that was slowly creeping into the crevices and gaps of his heart. Sam would be worried, he had to get back. Lesson taught or not, it wasn't fair to leave him in the dark like that. He was still his younger brother, and if what Sue had said was true, then he'd make his way back to Dean when he was ready.

Carefully he shifted his left leg and stifled the cry that shot through him like a lightening bolt. Ok, that was definitely not a good sign, carefully he shifted enough that he could look at the offending limb. It wasn't so much a gash in his thigh as it was a deep jagged cut that seemed to give off vibrations of heat. Yeah, he was definitely gonna catch hell for this from Sam. And probably Sue.

The hunter craned his head skyward and laughed hysterically at the sight that greeted him.

"Wha? What's going on? You ok?" Sue scrambled for purchase as the sudden jolt back to the conscious almost had her falling from their perch. She looked at Dean, who was looking up and laughing so hard that tears of both happiness and, Sue suspected, pain, ran down his face.

"What the hell are you laughing at?"

Dean pointed up.

Sue followed his lead, her mouth fell open in disbelief.

"No! Friggin! Way!"

"Yes way!"

"We fell further than that."

"Well, it appears not." Dean wiped the tears from his face and looked up again, two metres above their heads was the top of the cliff. Two metres. Six and a half foot. Seventy eight inches. Just friggin typical.

"Well" Said Sue as she carefully stood, stretching aching muscles and tired limbs. "I guess there's no point staying down here any longer. I can't believe we didn't fall further. It felt further."

"Yep, sure did." Dean made no attempt to move. Sue narrowed her eyes and looked him over, he was slumped slightly to the side, holding onto his right side with his left hand. The gash above his eye didn't look so bad in the early morning sunlight. His face was covered with sweat and from the squint in his eyes she knew he had a killer headache. But there was something more. She ignored the nagging feeling and looked up again, searching for something to use to climb up with. That was when she spotted the thick, hardened root of an old , long dead tree jutting out just above her head, it was about that same time that she spotted the blood clotting on the end of the jagged piece of wood.

Dean glanced up and realised within a second his jig was up. Sue knelt down, hands clasped in front of her, eyebrows raised in a question. Dean smiled, giving her his best I've-no-idea-whats-going-on grin. She frowned. He folded.

"Left thigh."

Sue carefully leant over him and pulled the bloodied tear of jean apart, revealing the jagged gash. She carefully probed the area around the injury, trying to ignore the panic at the heat radiating from his body, the swollen redness around the gash.

"You couldn't have mentioned this?"

"What could you have done?"

She had no answer. All she could feel was a mounting frustration at the situation.

"We gotta get out of here. Get you back safely."

"Hey that's my line." Pouted the thirty year old hunter.

"Ok stud, get me out of here." Sue stood back with the hint of victory dancing around her eyes. Dean struggled to get upright, managed to lean forward enough that he had leverage from his hands behind, he pushed, made it to his knees. The lack of colour in his face vying for attention with the lack of air in his lungs. He hung his head as he extended a hand.

"Fine, I'll need a small amount of help."

"Thought you'd never ask."

Once Dean was standing and had caught his breath he began to reach for the top of the overhang before Sue stopped him.

"Wait, let me go first."

"Yeah, and how you gonna pull me up?"

"Well I never quite thought ahead to that bit." Sue wracked her brain for a way to ease the pain for Dean, but no matter what idea she came up with, they all began with him pulling her up to safety. "There really isn't another way?"

"Sorry sweetheart, but no. Just ignore any girlish whimpers you may hear from me."

"I doubt very much you whimper like a girl."

Dean reached high and pulled himself up, his feet tiptoeing against the ledge as his hands fought for purchase. His heart threatened to beat out of his chest, his head swam and his hands shook, but he was determined. With all the energy he could find he gave a little jump and grabbed hold of the roots of his dead, attacking tree that stretched above and into the forest.

"I take it back," Said Sue as she helped push his legs higher. "You do whimper like a girl."

"Shut up." Came the breathless reply. Sue pushed harder as Dean's body disappeared over the top, she could hear his heavy breathing, the slight pant and gasp. For what seemed like an eternity she heard nothing but his struggle for composure. For one, terrifying minute she was convinced he'd passed out, she was about to start making her own way, somehow, off of the ledge when a hand appeared above her.

"Grab hold, I'm gonna pull as you climb." At Sue's concerned look Dean added, "Don't worry about hurting me, I'm all right, I swear."

"Uh huh, sure." Sue bit down hard on her lip and pushed all fears, emotions and worry to the side as she gave a jump and climbed, clambered and hauled herself up onto the cliff top.

Twenty minutes later the two were still lying beside each other, Dean still trying to catch his breath while Sue was unable to catch her thoughts. Twelve hours had passed, twelve short, stupid hours in which she'd been abducted, almost beheaded, saved, dug up bones, burned bones, spent a night in the forest and slept on a ledge.

She was so staying in tonight.

She let her head fall to the side, Dean had his eyes closed but she could tell he was still awake. His arm was wrapped around his chest and she could tell he was counting in an effort to control his breathing.

"Do it in threes."

He looked over at her and tried to feign annoyance.

"Wha?"

"Threes. In for three, out for three."

As Dean finally managed to get his breathing under control, Sue sat up and inspected his thigh. There wasn't much she could do except bandage the wound with a torn off piece of her shirt. It was still seeping a little and she hoped the makeshift bandage would do its job long enough for them to make it to a hospital.

"Thanks Nurse Nightingale."

"You ready to get out of here?"

"Stop stealing my lines."

Sue smirked as Dean pouted and frowned up at her, the pale face and blood shot eyes doing nothing to help his weak voice sound annoyed. Slowly, with her help, he stood and together they began the long walk back to the Impala. Dean had parked the car half a mile further at the end of an abandoned road, a road that once led all the way up to the cabin before nature had reclaimed its land. Sue kept her arm around his waist, lending as much support as she could but more so to keep them on track and walking in a straight line. He was favouring his right side which on more than one occasion had caused them to veer slightly off course.

"Oh my baby, thank god."

Sue smiled as the black car came into view. Her smile grew even wider as realisation washed over her.

"Keys."

"What? Oh no way lady, there ain't no way."

Sue let go of Dean's waist and stood in front of the tall hunter, his slightly bent posture and exhausted features gave her even more motivation for her actions.

"Keys now, there is no way you are driving us to the hospital."

"Hospital? I don't need a hospital. Honestly I'll be fine."

"Dean, you need to go to the hospital." Sue's tone had softened but her posture remained as convicted as before.

"Sue, its ok, it's not that bad and Sam can fix me up no problem. I don't like hospitals."

"Who does?"

"Fair point, but I really don't like em. I swear if Sam can't fix me up then I'll go."

"We compromise then."

Dean knew what was coming but couldn't prepare himself for the blow as it landed and he flinched at the thought.

"Come on, give me the keys. I drive. No hospital. You drive, and when you eventually pass out, I'll take us to the hospital."

Demons had nothing on the conniving of women. Reluctantly he relented. Mainly because it would have been rude not too. After all Sue had been through a lot in one night. So really he was just being chivalrous, in a way. You know, gentlemanly. Had nothing to do with the pounding in his head, the heat from the fever or the fact the ground kept shifting every time he blinked.

Nope, nothing to do with that at all.

TBC

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review, you know you want to!

(Anyone else being tortured by the promo for the next ep? I swear the second i saw it time decided to slow down and crawl its way toward the ep.)