Chapter 23

Disclaimer: Still don't own them.

Spoiler: This chapter contains a spoiler for All Hell Breaks Loose Part 2 and Simon Says.

A big thank you to Soar for all her hard beta work. Any left over mistakes are completely mine.

Dean, John and Bobby saw Sam go down with what they knew was a vision. All thoughts of his grandfather, grandmother and anyone else that was at his grandfather's birthday flew right out of Dean's head. The only thing that mattered was Sammy.

"SAMMY," Dean cried as he wrapped his arms around his brother. "I got you, Sammy," he said gently, over and over. He knew that there was nothing he could do for his little brother except be there for him.

Bobby and John reacted as well and quickly closed ranks on Sam as he was gripped in his vision.

Flash

Sam could see a dark,mysterious figure walk stealthilydown a long hallway. Sam could tell that wherever he was, the owners had money. He recognized a lot of expensive art on the walls. Despite the numerous doorways,the demon seemed to know exactly where he was going. He halted before one particular door,opened itand crept inside.

Flash

Sam was now inside the bedroom. Despite the opulence of the hallway,this bedroom looked very homey. There were pink flowered sheets on a four poster,canopy bed that matched perfectly with the pastel walls. There were several teddy bears resting against the pillows,waiting for the owner to come and snuggle with them after a hard day. There were three James Dean posters, one from each of his movies, on one wall. On the dresser, it looked like there wereseveral family photos,but Sam couldn'tmake them out because there was a man standing in front, looking at them. The man looked familiar,but Sam couldn'tquite place him.

Flash

Fire. Hot, burning fire. A heart stopping scream. Sam could feel the heat of the flames as his eyes were drawn toward the ceiling. The man, stillunidentifiable, was pinned there, consumed by the flames that had taken Sam's mother so long ago. Sam stood rooted to the spot, his heart pounding. Every instinct wastelling him that he knew this man,but it just wouldn't come to him. Suddenly,a second scream filled the air, a woman this time. Sam didn't have to be there to know that another fire was breaking out.

"Uhhh, my head," Sam screamed again as the images pounded his brain.

"Sammy, we're here," John said, offering what small comfort he could.

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Margaret was still sitting at the dining room table when she heard the commotion from the living room.

What now, she thought bitterly. Her life was already ruined. She had no doubt in her mind that she was going to be the laughing stock of the entire social community.

Deciding that she had had enough, she got to her feet and stalked toward the living room. It was time to put a stop to all this nonsense. Maybe she could save a little face by throwing those people out of her house. When she saw the scene in the living room unfolding before her, she became outraged. One of them was faking some kind of attack, the possibility that it could be real never even crossed her mind.

Most of the guests in the living room were standing around dumbfounded, not knowing what, if anything, they should do or say. She could see Ian talking to that Bobby person and John and Dean were huddled over the younger one, Sam.

"Okay, that is enough," she snapped loudly. "It is bad enough that you behave like animals in my home,but I will not put up with this. Now stop this nonsense and get up." She reached for Sam, intending to pull him up off the floor like she had done with Mary when she had found her daughter on the floor in the same way.

Wrong move.

Her intentions were clear to everyone in the room, but the minute she touched Sam, Dean sprang up like he had been attached to a spring, anger pouring out of every ounce of his body. You could do whatever you wanted to him, but no onecame near his little brother. NO ONE!!!!

"DON'T YOU TOUCH HIM," Dean yelled.

Margaret didn't need to be told twice. She stepped back. The pure venom in Dean's voice caused everyone else in the room to follow that advice as well. No one moved, with one exception.

"Everyone," Bobby said addressing the crowd and trying to control the situation. "It's going to be okay, Sam suffers from migraines," he said trying to find a believable explanation. "They're intense and come on without warning. He'll be okay. Frank, is there a room where he can lie down?"

"Uh, sure, um, hold on," Frank said coming out of his stupor. He remembered John telling him about Sam's visions. He had said that they were accompanied by intense pain and he wondered if that was what was really happening. He motioned for the group to follow him when something happened that no one expected.

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Dr. Nathan Keeping was talking with his wife and the Butler's about the disgusting display that had happened at the dinner table. In the mind of the brilliant, but arrogant, doctor, he had convinced himself that he hadn't wanted Dean in his study in the first place and was mentioning how glad he was that he had made that decision. Then he saw Mary's youngest grab his head and go down. He reacted instantly, he was a doctor after all.

Nathan was an obstetrician by practice, but one day, Margaret had come to him with and asked him to look at her daughter as a personal favour. The day after Mary had turned 22, she had been visiting her parents when she had suddenly dropped to the floor with an intense headache. Nathan, of course, agreed. He gave Mary a complete physical, but could find nothing wrong, so he had chalked it up to stress, after all, Mary was getting married and trying to finish up college. He gave Margaret some sedatives and showed her how to inject them. If it should happen again, Mary could sleep off the pain.

It seemed that Mary's youngest suffered in the same way that his mother had. Being first and foremost a doctor, his bag of medical supplies was never far from his side. He retrieved it quickly and filled a syringe. He then boldly walked up to the little group huddled on the floor. Sam had been gripped with another wave of pain and Dean and John were so focused on him that they didn't notice the doctor come up and before anyone could react, he stuck the syringe right through Sam's clothes and into his arm. Both John and Dean felt Sam go limp in their arms as they felt him succumb to the effects of the medication.

Bobby reacted instantly because he knew the doctor was about to be killed. As soon as Dean felt that his father had a firm grip on Sam, all this attention turned to the doctor. He jumped up and grabbed two fistfuls of the doctor's shirt.

"You ass," he said in a voice that was calm, but in a way, was far more intimidating than his earlier scream. "I told you that nobody touches my brother."

"Dean, easy," Bobby said as he stepped between the two men and forced Dean to back off. Not an easy task when Dean was as angry as he was.

"Back off, Bobby," Dean snapped. He had to teach this guy a lesson.

"You're not thinking clearly, go back to Sam."

"Bobby," Dean said in a warning tone.

Bobby hated to do this. He knew that Dean was beating himself up for letting this ass get close enough to his brother to sedate him. However, it was the only way to get Dean to back off. "Sam needs you, Dean," he said gently.

Despite himself, Nathan was captivated at the change that came over Dean with those four words. Dean softened instantly and he returned to his little brother's side. He knelt beside his sleeping brother and gathered him in his arms, talking softly to him. He helped his father pick up Sam and followed his grandfather out of the room.

"That boy needs to learn to control his temper. He should be put on medication," Nathan said arrogantly, as if he had done nothing wrong.

"Excuse me?" Bobby said.

"I said that boy needs to learn to control his temper. He should be put on medication," Nathan repeated slowly and deliberately, as if Bobby was as stupid as he had pretended to be at dinner.

"Repeat that one more time," Bobby said, his temper rising.

Not seeing the change coming over Bobby, Nathan repeated his phrase one more time. This time, it was Bobby who grabbed him. "I only stepped between you and Dean because I don't want my boy charged with murder. Say another negative word about him and I'm going to lock you in a room with Dean, are we clear?" Bobby said imitating Nathan's earlier way of speaking.

Nathan swallowed thickly. "Uh, yeah, we're clear," he said admitting defeat. Bobby let the doctor go and left to find his family.

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Frank led them into one of the spare bedrooms. They laid the sleeping Sam onto the bed and Dean sat beside him. John stood behind them, as if keeping watch over them both.

"John, what just happened?" Frank demanded.

"Sam had a vision," John answered warily.

"He really sees visions of people about to die?" Frank questioned. It was one thing hearing about it, but to actually see it was another.

"If that idiot had left well enough alone…" Dean piped in bitterly. "Sammy would be fine now."

"I'm sure that he'll be fine when he wakes up, Dean," Frank added, trying to comfort his grandson.

"I know that, but now we have a bigger problem," Dean added.

"What's that?" Frank asked curiously.

"What did Sam see? Sam can't control his visions. There's no way to know if what he saw will happen in two hours or two days. If he can't tell us, someone is going to die," John said seriously.

"Is there anything we can do?" Frank asked.

"How long is he going to be out? Do you know what Nathan gave him?" John asked.

"If it's anything like the stuff that Margaret used on Mary once, I'd say a few hours," Frank replied.

"When did Mary have to be sedated?" John asked trying to recall anytime this might have happened. The only time he could think of was when Nathan had threatened to sedate her, after they got the news about the possibility that Dean may not survive.

"She developed the worst headaches after she turned 22. Nathan thought it might be stress from college and the wedding," Frank said.

John and Dean exchanged a look, each thinking the same thing. Sam's vision's started when he was 22. Could Mary have experienced them as well? There was no way. Wouldn't Margaret have been killed on Mary's sixth month birthday? All the special kids they had encountered had experienced house fires. It had to be a coincidence, right?

"How's Sam?" Bobby said as he came into the room. He had stopped Miles and found out which room they had put Sam in.

"He's still sleeping," Dean said as he stroked Sammy's hair and soothed it off his forehead.

"Frank," John said addressing his father-in-law. "Will you stay with the boys a second?" Frank nodded. "Bobby, I need to talk to you," he added and motioned for him to step out in the hallway.

"What is it John?" Bobby asked with concern. He took in the sight of the man before him. John's suit was rumpled and his tie was loosened. He was clearly agitated about something.

"I need you to do something for me," John requested.

"Anything, John, you know that," Bobby said sincerely.

"You may change your mind once you hear what it is," John warned.

"I'd do anything for you and the boys, John," Bobby repeated firmly and sincerely.

"I need you to look into Mary's background," John said softly. He didn't want to admit that his beloved Mary may have been a target of the demon before he's even met her.

Bobby was shocked by John's request, it was the last thing that he had expected. "What's going on, John?"

"Frank said Mary had bad headaches," John explained.

"So."

"They didn't start until after she was 22."

"Oh," Bobby said as realization started to settle in.

"Mary didn't have a house fire though. Have you heard of anything like this Bobby?" John asked, rubbing his brow and trying to drive away the headache he felt coming on. Mary couldn't have been a special child, she couldn't.

"I'll look into it, John, you have my word. Let me go call Jefferson," Bobby said naming one of the Winchesters' hunting friends. His original first contact had been Caleb and Bobby still missed his old mentor. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and took his leave. John wandered back into the room and took his place beside his boys.

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After Sam's attack, Margaret's guests took their leave. She had a feeling that she wouldn't be seeing her friends again. Sitting alone and in silence, she looked up when she heard someone enter the room.

Frank had excused himself from the room where his grandsons were, he wanted to talk to his wife about Mary.

"Francis," she said stiffly.

"Margaret, do you remember anything about Mary's headaches?" Frank asked, trying to keep the anger out of his voice.

Margaret ignored her husband. "Really Francis, did you know about the childish display those people had planned?"

"Excuse me?" Frank asked.

"Did you want me to be embarrassed?"

"Let me tell you this, Margaret, I've got no sympathy for you, none. I know I didn't like John much at first, but the important thing was that Mary did. If she trusted John, I was willing to put up with him. John didn't have much, but he loved Mary, I know that now. If you'd stop judging people just because they're not rich, maybe you'd see that too. Did you know that Dean is just like Mary? He has her heart. Despite everything you did to him, he still wanted a relationship with you and before you protest that he was in on what happened at dinner, remember this, you hurt someone he cared about. He and Bobby are very close. Plus, he's the spitting image of his mother. Sam has Mary's enthusiasm for learning, he loved school, just like Mary did. He earned a full scholarship to Stanford with a shot at law school. Mary's boys are special, Margaret, and I feel sorry for you that you can't see past the fact that they don't have money," Frank lectured.

"Francis, I will not get into this again. My friends will never speak to me again," Margaret lamented.

"I can't believe you," Frank said exasperated. "If they can't take a joke, they were never your friends to begin with and I say good riddance."

"FRANCIS," Margaret exclaimed. "You don't mean that."

"The hell I don't," Frank said firmly. "I do agree with one thing though, I don't want to get into this again. I want to know more about Mary's headaches."

"There's nothing to tell. She was here one day, grabbed her head like Samuel did. A few minutes later, she was fine. I asked Nathan to look at her and he gave me some sedatives in case it happened again."

"How many times did it happen?" Frank asked.

"Once," Margaret admitted. "The first time was when she was here a few days before she was to marry that grease monkey. She had another headache so I gave her the injection then she slept it off and went home."

"Did she say anything after she had the headache?" Frank questioned.

"It was years ago, Francis, how am I supposed to remember that?" Margaret said wondering why her husband cared so much about something that had happened so long ago.

"Think," Frank instructed.

Margaret frowned in concentration. She remembered her daughter coming to ask her to come to the wedding, one more time. She remembered refusing, asking her daughter why she insisted on marrying someone so far beneath her. She remembered her daughter falling to the floor in pain. She remembered giving her daughter the sedative. Wait, she remembered her daughter mentioning something about someone dying in a fire.

"If I remember correctly, she talked about a fire, and some man with glowing yellow eyes. I told her it was a nightmare, after effects of the sedative," Margaret informed her husband.

Frank recalled John mentioning that a demon with yellow eyes was responsible for Mary's death. He had to talk to John right now. He turned and hightailed it out of the room.

Margaret watched her husband's retreating form. She wondered exactly when her life had gone to hell.

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Dean had remained at his brother's side, his mind going a mile a minute about headaches and the age of 22, that's when Sam abilities started.

"Hey, dad," Dean addressed his father.

Please don't ask what I think you'reabout to, John thought. "Yeah, what is it?" John said.

"Do think mom was like Sam?"

Damn it. "I don't know, buddy," John said using his nickname name for his son. "I have Bobby looking into it. I want to be with Sam when he wakes up."

"How can that be, though? There was no fire. Last year, me and Sam met Max Miller and his mother was killed like ours. In Salvation, Rosie's mom was almost killed in a fire," Dean said.

"I don't know, son. Let's just wait for Bobby," John said, wanting to delay the moment of truth for as long as possible.

"JOHN," a harried voice called to him. Both John and Dean looked up and saw Frank bolt into the room. He was breathing hard, trying to catch his breath. "I just... I just talked to Mar... Margaret."

"Catch your breath, Frank," John cautioned. He knew Frank had had a heart attack in the past and he didn't want anything to happen to him now.

Frank took John's advice. He took some calming breaths and tried again. "I talked to Margaret. She said that the day Mary had a headache, after she woke up, she talked about a fire and a man with glowing yellow eyes. What's happening, John?" Frank asked, not bothering to hide the fear in his voice.

"I don't know," John admitted.

Bobby walked into the room and put his cell phone back in his pocket. "I just talked to Jefferson."

"What did you find out?" John demanded.

"You're not going to like it," Bobby said honestly.

"Spill," Dean said firmly.

"He was working a job in Guthrie, Oklahoma. There was a series of suspicious deaths. A mild mannered doctor, walked into a gun store and shot the clerk and himself, another woman doused herself with gasoline and then set herself on fire. He discovered a set of twins with powers of mind control. One was killed by the other when he tried to kill the other's girlfriend. He dug further and found out that the woman, named Holly Beckett, who burned gave birth to twins in 1983 and gave them up for adoption. One twin, Andrew Gallagher, lost his adoptive mother in a house fire when he was six months old. The other twin Anson Williams, didn't. Yet both twins had the same ability," Bobby said. "From what Jefferson could gather, not all of these special kids have had house fires."

"So it's possible that the demon came for Mary when she was sixth months old," John said flabbergasted. "But why? Why kill some mothers and not others."

"I don't know, John," Bobby admitted. "The only thing I can come up with is that they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They interrupted whatever the demon was doing."

"So mom died for nothing," Dean said angrily. He really wanted to kill that yellow eyed son of a bitch.

"Easy, Dean. We don't know anything for sure," John cautioned.

"Really, because it seems pretty damn sure to me," Dean said. He was in no mood to be placated. He turned and punched the wall, hard.

"Damn it, Dean. Did you hurt yourself?" Bobby asked with concern. The boy did not need this. None of them did.

"I'm good," Dean said, refusing to let anyone check his had. He knew it wasn't broken, he had just bruised the knuckles.

"Let's all take a step back for a minute," Frank said, trying to be the voice of reason. Bobby, John and Dean were all on edge and he was afraid they were about to start hitting each other next. "We have no way of knowing what happened with Mary. Let's wait for Sam to wake up, then go from there."

"I agree. You said Mary was out for a few hours after the sedative?" Bobby asked.

"Yeah, but Sam's bigger, I'm not sure how much of that stuff Nathan gave him."

"But dad..." Dean stated.

"Enough, Dean," John ground out. "Let's deal with Sam's vision first, then we'll look into this new information, I promise."

"Dad," Dean said again. He was not about to be put off.

"That's an order, Dean," John said firmly.

"Yes, sir," Dean muttered without sincerity, but John let it go and Dean turned back to his brother.

Conversation stalled after that. None of them had any clue as to what to say or do next. They all sat in silence, contemplating what was going to come next.

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Frank stayed with his family for the next couple of hours but the long day had started to take its toll, after all, he wasn't as young as he used to be. He eventually took his leave, asking them to inform him when Sam had woken up. He wandered into the hallway and headed towards a specific room.

His emotions were in turmoil and he knew he would have never been able to sleep, so he did what he always did when he missed his daughter, he went to her room to look at the photos on her dresser. They reminded Frank of some great times.

Shortly after Frank left, Sam started to stir. He had been fighting the sedatives and was winning the battle. He blinked, trying to clear away the cobwebs and the darkness that threatened to drag him back under.

"Sammy," Dean said when he felt Sam twitch.

"I'm here, Sammy," John said adding his assurances.

Sam's mouth felt like he had been sucking on cotton balls and he asked for some water. Bobby grabbed a glass from the bathroom and filled it up.

"What did you see, Sammy?" John asked after Sam had drunk his fill. There was no beating around the bush, they had already lost valuable hours.

"A man," Sam said. "In a girl's bedroom. The demon was there and he killed the man, just like mom. Someone else was there, a woman. I heard a scream," Sam said as he tried to describe what he had seen. The man's back had been to him, but Sam knew that he recognized him, he just couldn't place him and it was driving him crazy. "The man in my vision, I think I know him," Sam added.

"Think Sam. If you can't place the man, describe the room. It may trigger something," Bobby said reasonably. He had been a hunter for a longer time and he a really bad feeling at this.

Sam thought back to his vision. "The walls were soft colors, I forget what they call it."

"Pastel," Dean offered. "What?" He said when Sam gave him a funny look. "I remember mom saying she loved pastels."

John shuddered as if he had been hit with a bucket of ice water. An uneasy feeling was growing in his stomach. "Con... uh, Continue, Sam," he stammered.

"The bed had a pink flower pattern and there were three posters on the wall,"

"Ja...mes, ah James Dean," John asked in a shaky voice.

Sam looked at his father in surprise. "How did you...?" He trailed off. All of a sudden he knew why the man seemed familiar.

"Dad, Sam," Dean said in fear.

"Oh my God," John said adding his fears. "That sounds like your mother's room. Frank told me at your mom's funeral that he had kept it exactly like it was. Mary had several family photographs on her dresser.

Dean's eyes grew wide in terror. This couldn't be happening. "Where's mom's room?" he demanded.

John took charge. "Bobby," he said authoritatively. "Get the colt out of the Impala's trunk. The rest of us will stake out your mom's room. It's the last one in this hallway on the right." He tossed the keys to his friend and Bobby bolted for the door.

John and Sam looked at each other. They knew they had to stop this. It would destroy Dean if something happened to Frank. Even Bobby wouldn't be able to bring him back from that.

"NNNNOOOO!!!!" No sooner had Bobby left a scream rose from down the hall.

Dean paled. This was not happening. "GRANDPA," he screamed. He didn't care that he had nothing to use to fight the demon, that yellow eyed son of a bitch was not going hurt anyone else he cared about. He dodged John's efforts to stop him and ran down the hall toward his mother's room.

"DEAN," Sam and John cried in unison and took off to stop him.

TBC

This chapter really didn't go like I had planned. I was just going to have Sam have the vision of Andy and focus more on the reactions of the people around him. I thought about having the demon go after Frank, but I was trying to think of a way to tie him to the yellow eyed demon, since all of Sam's visions are. Then, while watching the finale inspiration struck. Mary apparently had encountered the yellow eyed demon before so the connection was natural and this chapter became about Sam's vision.

Please read and review and let me know if you think this chapter worked.