Summary

The hunters become the hunted when a creature stalks a remote community, and one of the brothers has a choice to make. Will both brothers survive the hunt and the decision of the other?

Disclaimer- I still don't own anything Supernatural or the boys much to my dismay – have offered to play poker for them, as I am poor – hear me lawyers, very poor! Kripke has yet to say no so fingers crossed!

Authors Note – Not sure about this chapter, please let me know what you think- again all feedback is welcome – won't cry for long, promise!

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

Chapter 3

"Dean, that you?" He heard Sammy reply, what the hell, he thought. Wait a minute, when did we open the window?

He walked across to the window and noticed for the first time fingers almost white to the bone holding tight to the windowsill. Dean's face lit up with a smile as he looked down at his brother.

"So, bro – what you doing?" Dean smirked

"Admiring the pointing, what does it look like?" Sam responded grumpily.

"If you said the view, since you are looking at yours truly here, that I could understand. A bit out of shape are we kiddo?" Dean teased, reaching down to grab his brother's arm.

"Funny Dean, just pull me up will you" Sam smiled up at his brother. He could always count on him to find him.

"Dude, you seriously need to lay off the fast food" Dean groaned as he rather unceremoniously dragged Sam back into the room. "Now who's the one who's out of shape?" His younger brother muttered under his breath. As Sam clambered through the window he noticed blood on Dean's hand. "Dean, you're hurt". He reached to check his brother's arm but Dean just pulled away.

"Kitty there must have caught me when it knocked the gun out of my hand, it's only a scratch" Dean shrugged.

"Kitty?" Sam asked, "Well it looked a bit cat like to me?" Dean replied, "Hate to see the litter tray though". He muttered

Sam snorted and was just about to say something more when he saw John in the doorway.

"Dad? What are you doing here?" He queried and looked to Dean for an explanation. Dean just shrugged,

"We never got further than Dad commenting on our car care before Kitty turned up" Dean confirmed.

Before their father could respond there was a sound at the door, and all 3 Winchesters turned to see Cat enter.

"What the hell was that?" She asked them shakily, "Is that what took Billy and Hannah?"

"I'm afraid so" Sam answered for them,

"Oh god, we could have been killed" She started to tremble. Sam went to her and touched her shoulder, "hey, you ok?" He asked softly, she looked up at him, "No, but I'll be fine – do you mind walking me back to the bar?"

"Sure, Dean, won't be a minute" Dean tossed him a gun – "Dude, watch yourself, that overgrown fur ball could still be out there"

Dean chuckled to himself as Sam and Cat left, "If I'd known that's all I had to do…"

"Mind out the gutter Dean, now what have you found on this thing so far" Dean started, though he didn't know why he was surprised that his father went straight down to business.

"Not a great deal – people have been disappearing round here for years – Sam traced this back for about 20 years, no real pattern in the choice of victim, or cycle. Only one of the victims body, a Hannah Taylor, was found but it wasn't pretty. Basically they put it down to an animal attack."

"Were beasts?" His father asked – "No, we pretty much discounted that fairly quickly as the lunar cycle did not match up", Dean replied

Sam dropped Cat off at the bar and hurried back to the guesthouse, what was their father doing here? He thought to himself, and could not help the second more treacherous thought of what does he want? Sam shook himself mentally, he couldn't keep going down this route, him and his father were never going to see eye to eye, but they were hurting Dean with their bickering. He resolved to bite his tongue – be the good son for Dean's sake.

His resolve was tested as he opened the door to hear Dean giving John the low down on what they had discovered so far. Work, was that all their father thought about? They hadn't seen him since they separated after the Daeva attack, but was he asking Dean how his boys were, no, it was all about the hunt.

Dean must have seen the look on his face as he walked in and minutely shook his head, crap, Sam, Don't start this again, Sam could see the thought clearly in his brothers expressive green eyes. No, he was going to start to put Dean first, if Dean was happy with this then Sam would back him up.

Dean watched his brother enter the room with a hunt of apprehension, not liking the resentful look that crossed his brother's face. He was therefore pleasantly surprised when Sam just nodded at their father to continue and with a small shrug and smile at his brother, he came across and sat on the bed next to him, Thank you, Dean thought relieved. He surreptitiously rubbed the back of his hand where it had been scratched by the creature, it was beginning to burn. Probably, should clean this, I just don't want to know where those claws have been, he thought with a grimace.

He should have known better than to try to hide anything from Sam though, "Have you not cleaned that yet" Sam asked with concern, "You don't want to get it infected, especially not that hand" he teased lightly.

Apparently though John was not as amused. "What were you playing at Sammy?" He said abruptly, "Sam" his son muttered quietly. "You made an amateur mistake that could have cost your brother his life, not just a scratched hand. What were you thinking, coming outside without a weapon? You hesitated and that could have been fatal. If anything had happened to your brother, you would have been responsible!" He snapped. Sam raised his head sharply at his fathers rebuke, and could hear his brother suck in a breath in surprise and a hint of anger formed on his brother's normally relaxed face. Sam opened his mouth to respond, and then stopped. His father was right; he paled when he thought about what could have happened to his brother. "Yes sir, I'm sorry, it won't happen again"

Dean nearly fell off the bed in shock, Sam agreeing with his Dad without an argument? He had been about to jump in to defend Sam but thought, if it means Sam being more careful, then perhaps he should let it slide. He thought his Dad was coming across a bit strong though and looked at his father closer. John looked tired, as if he had been on the move for a long time and hoping to divert his Dad a little asked again, "So Dad, what are you doing here?"

"I was in the neighbourhood and heard about the couple who had vanished and thought I would look into it. I didn't even know you boys were here until I seen the Impala in the car park. "Even to Dean, this sounded rather vague. He was also waiting for Sam to jump in with the obvious, if you called us once in a while you might know where we were, and was surprised, both that Sam didn't and that he was thinking this himself, obviously his brother's attitude was rubbing off on him.

He glanced at his brother. Sam was obviously deep in thought. Sam too had been surprised when Dean had not said anything, he didn't really expect his brother to argue back with their Dad but could not help the thought that Dean too thought he was at fault and had put him at risk. Sam knew that where his brother was concerned he tended to react rather than think things through and that one day, Dean would pay the ultimate price either protecting him or because he hesitated – he just wasn't a natural hunter like Dean. He had a tendency to over think and was not a comfortable hunter. Sam knew he was a liability to his brother, because of his 'abilities', his 'curse' and now because of his apparent errors in judgement. He resolved from now on to be less of a burden to his brother.

John watched the subtle play of emotions across his youngest son's face and smiled a small smile of satisfaction. He rose to leave the room and said back his sons," Going to get my things from the truck" As he stepped outside, the moonlight caught his face, and a brief flicker of red, stirred deep within his eyes.

A/N - couldn't make it too easy for the boys could I? But now I have chosen a completely different direction than what I started with, this could end up anywhere and will be as much a surprise to me where we end up :) Hope you are still enjoying this – I am still enjoying writing it so will keep going if you want me to!