I Remember You
Chapter 18
Sam's head was throbbing. His eyelids felt like they were glued in place and his body felt too heavy to move. Taking a deep breath, Sam tried to get his thoughts together.
Memories began to flood him. He was kidnapped and taken to a hospital, by Jess only it wasn't his Jess.
He was at a hospital surrounded by demons. Sam began to panic. His eyes shot open.
Sam was having trouble breathing and his eyes didn't want to focus. He sat up, trying to get away. That was when he felt strong arms holding him down.
"No!" Sam continued to struggle, he needed to get away.
Another set of hands grabbed his legs and he was forced to lie back down. It was all he could do to catch his breath, he knew that there was no escape so he stopped struggling.
As his body went lax, he heard his name being called.
"Sammy, dude, are you with me?"
Dean, that was Dean's voice. Sam tracked the voice and stared at the unfocused form in front of him. The blurred vision was making him nauseous so he closed his eyes.
Sam tried to calm his body and spoke. "Dean?"
"Yeah, Sam I'm here and so is Bobby. You're safe at Bobby's house." Sam could hear the concern in his brother's voice.
Bobby's house. He realized then that he was lying bare backed on Bobby's old couch.
"Sam, talk to me kid."
"Dean, I feel sick." Sam squeaked out, afraid to move. It wouldn't take much to lose control over his stomach.
Sam heard cursing and rustling.
"I gotcha Sammy." Sam heard as Dean gently lifted his head up and let it hang over the couch. "You need to get rid of the remnants of the potion, it'll make you feel better."
Potion? Sam wanted to question Dean, but his stomach had other ideas as it released its contents.
Dean held tight as Sam violently expelled the fluid.
Sam could just make out his brother's voice over his own misery.
"Bobby, you did only give him a small amount, right?"
"Yeah, but that was powerful stuff. His stomachs just riled up, he's mostly throwing up bile."
"God, I know it's gross."
Sam went from losing his stomach bile to dry heaves. He could hear his brother's voice trying to comfort him.
He was relieved when the dry heaves died down and he was able to relax. His stomach was sore and his head was pounding but at least his stomach wasn't hurting anymore.
Sam kept his eyes closed, afraid of the blurry vision messing with his stomach again.
"Sammy, here open your mouth and take a few sips. Just a bit, we don't want to make you sick."
Sam took a couple of sips of the cool liquid and wanted to drink more, but he knew his brother was right, they needed to make sure he could keep it down before drinking more.
"Sam can you look at me?"
"No, things are really blurry. Dean why am I so sick?"
Sam could hear Dean clear his throat.
"What do you remember?"
Sam swallowed hard. "I was kidnapped. This girl, she looked so much like Jess."
"She wasn't Jess." Dean's voice was soft.
Swallowing the lump in his throat Sam continued. "She took me to a hospital. The doctor and nurses were demons. They… did something to me. I don't remember anything else"
"They took your memory."
Sam could hear the misery in Dean's voice.
"My memory? Why?"
"They thought it would be easier to turn you dark side that way."
Sam nodded and then regretted the move as it made his head pound harder. "You saved me."
"Of course I did. That's what big brother's are for. The ritual to return your memory has made you sick. Try and sleep Sammy. We can talk more when you're feeling better."
"Okay." Sam had lots of questions and concerns, and felt there was no way that he'd be able to sleep. His body had other plans as it relaxed and pulled him into sleep.
-0-
It had been a rough night for Dean. The first half was spent wishing Sam would wake up. Then the second half was spent hoping the kid would be able to sleep off the awful side-effects of the memory reversal potion.
Sam had awoken at about 3am, and promptly became violently ill. Dean was relieved that Sam's memories had returned, he just wished the kid hadn't had to suffer the ill effects of the potion and ritual.
Dean had dozed off and on but once the sun had come up, he had remained awake and attentive to Sam.
To pass the time, Dean was reading through a few of the car magazines Bobby had laying around.
Dean was pulled from his third magazine by Bobby's voice. "Did the kid sleep the rest of the night?"
Dean sat up in the chair. "Yeah, I'm grateful for that. Do you think he'll feel better the next time he wakes up?"
Bobby handed Dean a cup of coffee and took a seat in the other easy chair. "The potion should be out of his system. So he should be better, but to be honest, I'm afraid he'll be weak from the ritual for a few days at least."
Dean blew on his coffee and took a sip. "I figured that. The ritual took a lot out of the kid."
Bobby grunted. "Hell, it took a lot out of us."
Dean smirked. "That's true. God, I hate that Sam had to go through that shit."
"I know, but at least he's got his memory back, well minus the last month under the demon's influence." Bobby gruffed out.
"I know it'll be hard on the kid having missing time and all, but I'm glad he won't remember it. That Mara chick really messed with his mind." Dean was still felt anger every time Mara was mentioned.
"Well at least for now he doesn't remember. The way she played with his head, I'm not sure it won't crop up some where down the road." Bobby rubbed his palm across his face.
"We'll deal with it when it comes up." Dean answered quietly. He hoped it never came up and if it did…well he hoped he would be around to help the kid through it.
-0-
Sam could hear hushed voices. After listening for a moment, he realized it was Dean and Bobby talking quietly, probably to keep for disturbing him.
Memories from earlier returned. He had woken up on Bobby's couch disoriented and very sick.
Sam took a moment to take stock of his body. His head was still hurting but not as bad as before. His stomach was sore from last night's activities but no longer felt nauseous. That left his eyes sight.
Sam slowly opened his eyes, and was relieved that the room came into focus with no blurriness.
"Hey Sleeping Beauty, how you feeling?"
Sam turned to see his brother staring at him. He decided to try and sit up and quickly felt his brother's hands on him.
"Slow Sam, take it slow and let me help."
Dean's strong hands helped maneuver him in place, and he felt pillows being propped behind him.
"Not a baby." Sam grumbled as he settled into the pillows.
Sam heard Bobby chuckle from the end of the couch.
"Dean, the kid must be feeling better if he's up for complaining. Sam, how does some juice and toast sound?" Bobby was looking at Sam with a small grin on his face.
Sam gave him a grateful nod. "Good thanks."
Bobby winked and turned to leave.
Dean plopped down in the chair next to the couch and spoke. "You never did tell me how you're feeling Samantha?"
"Better. I can see you clearly, and while my stomachs sore, I'm not nauseous." Sam gave Dean a small smile.
"You have a headache though huh?" Dean's voice held a note of concern.
Sam gave his big brother a bigger smile. He never could hide his ills from Dean.
"Yeah, my head hurts but not as bad as before."
Dean nodded. "After you eat, we'll get you something for your head."
Dean looked down at his hands and Sam could tell something was bothering him.
"Dean, what's up?"
Dean looked up, and Sam could see that his brother was fighting emotions. "I just missed you, that's all."
It was then that Sam remembered. He had been taken.
"How long was I gone?" Sam asked and watched Dean wince at the question.
"You were gone a week before I found you, but…" Dean paused and took a deep breath, "But you've been without your memories for little over a month."
"A month? Why so long?" Sam could see guilt in his brother's eyes.
"It took awhile to find a reversal ritual. I'm sorry."
It was then that Sam realized where the guilt came from. His brother hadn't been able to fix things for a whole month and that had to weigh heavily on his conscious.
Sam decided to get his brother talking about other things.
"How did you find me?"
"Ruby helped me track you down." Dean flushed a little red with that statement.
"You worked with Ruby?" Sam was in shock. His brother had to be desperate to work with the demon.
"Didn't have a lot of choices, and once we got you back she headed off after the demon group responsible for taking you." Dean's voice was full of emotion.
"So when you found me, I didn't remember you?" Sam could see the hurt in Dean's face and knew the answer before his brother spoke.
"No, and it was hard going at first."
"How did you explain things to me?"
"Uh, we grabbed you from the Jess look-a-like. You watched me question the Jess demon and then exorcise her. The human host then explained how she had been possessed, and then, well you went along with me. I think you were in such shock you weren't sure what to do."
"So the girl, she was okay? Why did she look like Jess? I thought she had to be a shape shifter."
"No, they picked this girl Stacy from San Francisco that looked a lot like Jess and then had plastic surgery performed on her. She's okay Sam, I promise. The demon had $2,000.00 dollars in her purse and Stacy used it to get home. She called me when she got home to let me know she was safe."
"God she looked so much like Jess."
"Yeah she did. They really knew how to mess with your head. What happened Sam?"
Sam bit his bottom lip in thought. "I was returning to the motel room when I heard a female voice calling my name. When I turned around, I was face to face with this Jess look-a -like and before I could respond someone hit me from behind. I woke up tied up in a van with the girl."
Dean gave him a sympathetic look. "I figured they must have used the girl to distract you. Ruby found your cell phone and blood outside the door, so we knew someone had taken you."
"I'm glad that you had a clue as to what happened." Sam had hoped his brother didn't think he had just left.
Dean cleared his throat. "So what happened next?"
The girl and her three flunkies took me to the hospital. When we pulled up to the parking lot, they injected me with something and I lost consciousness. I came too, restrained to a hospital bed. Jess was there, along with this other woman. She said her name was Mara and that soon, I would belong to her." Sam swallowed hard as the memories of his ordeal assaulted him.
"That Mara bitch is dead." Dean statement was cold and full of hate.
Sam nodded and wiped the moisture from his cheek. "Glad you got her. She had plans for me to join her and rule the demon world and then the human one. That's what she told me before I was made to swallow this liquid and then she started speaking in Latin. God my head hurt and the room started spinning. Her laugh is my last memory until I woke up here on Bobby's couch."
Sam felt Dean grab his hand as he tried to compose himself. "It's okay Sammy, it's over now."
Sam nodded. "How?"
Dean gripped his hand and Sam felt comfort in the touch. "She took your memories and blood bonded with you. You were fed lies that your family was dead and that you had been in a coma for three months after a car accident that killed me and Dad. Jess had been by your side the whole time."
"And I believed them?"
"Sammy, you had no memories, and they planted horrible fake memories in your head. Memories that attacked you when you were sleeping. In fact these dream memories kept you from trusting me for a while."
"What kind of memories?"
Dean's grip became harder, almost hurting Sam. "Memories of physical and mental abuse."
"What? Oh my God Dean!"
"It's okay Sam, you and I worked through it. In the last month, we were able to conquer all the demon's memory plants and we were becoming very close."
Sam sighed and then smiled.
"What are you smiling at?"
"It's just that when the djinn had you, and you lived out your life where mom didn't die… we weren't close. This proves that even though we are opposites, we're meant to be brothers and close no matter what."
"Good grief Sam, there you go turning our discussion into a Hallmark moment."
"Jerk."
"Bitch."
-0-
"Jerk"
"Bitch."
Those words were music to Bobby's ears as he entered the living room that held the two Winchester boys.
Bobby cleared his throat as he approached the boys, with a tray of food for Sam. "Hate to interrupt such stimulating conversation, but I got food for Sam. We'll start easy son, just some toast and juice."
Sam smiled and Bobby and shifted so that he was sitting up to receive the food. The blanket that had been pulled around Sam fell exposing the protective symbols Dean had drawn on him.
"Uh, what's with the art work all over me? Bobby did you let Dean draw on me while I was unconscious?"
Dean laughed and Bobby just huffed as he handed the tray over to Sam.
"Sam, you should know I can't control that pig headed brother of yours. He wanted protective symbols drawn on you to help protect you during the ritual." Bobby could see that gratitude in Sam's eyes as he looked at Dean.
Sam studied his chest for a minute and then spoke. "So Bobby can you tell me what good a smiley face does while performing a ritual?"
"Hell if I know, ask your brother." Bobby suppressed a laugh as attention turned to a smirking Dean.
"Dude, you made me promise not to draw male or female body parts on you, and well that blank spot around your belly button needed something." Dean's smirk grew bigger as Sam turned red.
"Dean, will you ever grow up?" Sam sputtered out.
Bobby and Dean both laughed.
"It's not funny, and I want to know- was a permanent marker used?" Sam was now becoming agitated.
Dean chuckled. "All Bobby had was sharpies so, yeah it's permanent. But dude, it'll wear off, promise."
"I'm so paying you back!" Sam grumbled as he took a bite of toast.
"Bring it on, dude." Dean replied as he got up.
Bobby decided he better put his two cents in before he had a prank war on his hands.
"Boys, there will be no pranks or that sort of thing while you're here. It took me weeks to get things cleaned up the last time that happened here. So it can wait until you leave, you hear me?"
Bobby was happy with the two "Yes sir's." He heard in reply.
Dean nudged his brother. "Dude, I'm gonna get a shower, you okay with Bobby?"
Sam nodded and then smiled. "Yeah, just go cause you're starting to reek."
"I think that's you, but whatever." Dean replied as he left the room.
Bobby took Dean's empty chair and took a good look at the ailing Winchester. Sam was still pretty pale and had dark circles under his eyes, but he looked a lot better than he did the previous night. The word zombie was a good one to describe how the boy looked last night.
Sam gave Bobby a warm smile. "So my memory-less self knew to warn Dean about his art work, huh?"
Bobby chuckled at that. "Yeah. When you first arrived, it was rough going. You had to learn to trust us, but it really didn't take long before things were almost normal. They may have robbed you of your memory but the demons couldn't take your sense of family."
Sam nodded and swallowed hard. "Uh Bobby, I missed out on a whole month of Dean's last year. I could've been researching."
"It was unavoidable Sam. Don't beat yourself up over it, besides you have been researching."
Sam eyes grew big with confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"Well, you were bored Sam and wanting to learn about the supernatural, so I would give you research assignments. You found some good leads while you were memory-less. Plus I found some stuff too."
"Wow, really?"
"Yep. I made you copies of all the notes and they're in a folder with your laptop, and I added some stuff to your laptop notes. Some of our leads were a bust, but you and I found some new ones."
"God, Bobby, I don't know what to say."
"Well you could stop your yapping and eat your toast before it gets cold."
Sam chuckled and took a bite.
Bobby was happy that he was at least able to take some of the guilt away from Sam. He knew the kid was carrying a heavy load as it was.
-0-
Sam could tell his brother was going stir crazy, because he was driving him crazy.
Dean needed to be on a hunt, but wouldn't allow Sam to even research one because he was in over protective brother mode.
Sam got it, he was still pretty weak and was prone to headaches a week after the ritual. But, he was getting better and while maybe not hard core hunting better, he could handle a simple hunt. He just needed to convince Dean of that.
Bobby, who was growing tired of Dean asking if there was anything he could help him with, had found a perfect hunt. Now the trick was convincing Dean.
Sam went in search of his brother and wasn't surprised to find him tinkering with his baby, the Impala.
"Hey Sam, how ya feeling?"
"I'm fine Dean."
Dean snorted. "Yeah, and that's why you're still falling asleep in the middle of the day."
"So I'm a bit tired, but I'm getting better."
"I know."
"Good. I'm getting better and I think it's time we got out of Bobby's hair." Sam watched as Dean smirked at him.
"So wanna head out and do some sightseeing?"
"No, I want to head out and tackle a small hunt that Bobby found for us." Sam held Dean's eye contact and could tell he was in for another argument.
"I want to hunt too Sam, but not while you're still weak and there are demons out there gunning for you, so drop it." Dean's tone was that of an order.
"Dean, I hate to break it to you, but a demon came here and attacked me. If they want me bad enough, they'll track me down. "
Dean slammed the hood to the Impala closed. "Damn it Sam. I know that, but at least here we have a chance."
"You can't lock me away from the world. I've got to do what I can to help.
"When you're stronger." Dean's voice began to plead.
"It's a simple salt and burn. I'm really not all that bad off Dean. No worse than after the wreck. We did the clown gig while I was healing from that. Hell, you took that hunt and you were far from well."
Sam could tell he was finally reaching his brother.
"Where is this hunt?"
"It's an hour away. A spirit is causing problems at an old theater. The new owners want it gone. We know who the spirit is, and it's a non- threatening spirit. It's just scaring the employees." Sam could tell Dean was considering it.
"Non-threatening now, but once we start messing with it's corpse it might get pissed." Dean grumbled.
"So I play look out and you dig. I promise I can handle a gun in my so called weakened condition." Sam smirked at his brother.
"Ah no Sammy, if you're up for this hunt, you're digging too." Dean smirked back.
"Alright, so we got a hunt ?" Sam gave his brother a big smile.
Dean returned it. "I guess, but no complaining."
"Promise."
Sam felt excitement welling up inside him. He needed things to go back to normal and so did Dean. They still had a lot of crap hanging over their heads, but being out there helping people would make things better. More normal for them, or at least Sam hoped.
A/N: So that concludes this story. I want to thank all of you have left such wonderful reviews. It means a lot to me. I also want to thank my awesome beta's Sendintheclown and Floralia. If it wasn't for their wonderful suggestions and support, I don't know how I would have gotten this story finished. They are the best.
I just want to mention that I'm working on a short story with BlueEyedDemonLiz. It's called Mrs. Robinson and it's a preseries story that deals with a ghost hunt during Mardi Gras. I'm not sure whose name we'll post it under, but it should be up soon. Thanks for reading! :0)