Disclaimer: As always, Supernatural belongs to its wonderful creators and not me.

Warnings: Swearing, angst and subjects which could offend.

A/N Seriously, this chapter had been trying to write itself for two weeks now. I originally started posting so I could get the push I needed to keep going. And I'm still not all that happy with this chapter! But it could be worse, I suppose!

If I'm judging correctly then there should be roughly 5 more chapters to go? (Don't quote me on that, I could be wrong!)

I also realize that some of you might be thinking that Sam doesn't become 'psychic' until right before Jess dies. I should probably let you know that I manipulated this for the sake of the story, and that being 'psychic' isn't the same as being 'sensitive' to the paranormal. (I used to read a lot of fantasy/sci fiction. Can you tell?)

Having cleared that up, on with the reading and reviewing thing!

Part Nine: This time Imperfect

-

This doubt is screaming in my face

In this familiar place sheltered and concealed

And if this night won't let me rest

Don't let me second guess

What I know to be real

Put away all I know for tonight

And maybe I just might

Learn to let it go

Take my security from me

And maybe finally

I won't have to know everything

- Sick Cycle Carousel by Lifehouse

-

Sam could feel it inside of him, straining and struggling, trying to push him out of his own body. It burned through him, screaming with its own need and its hunger seemed to gnaw at his very bones.

If he had known it would be like this he wouldn't have done it to begin with. He knew what it was now, and he had no idea where the knowledge had come from, or how, but if only he could let them know, then maybe they could release him from the prison of his own body.

-

Dean screamed as he raced down the stairs, watching as Sam's body jerked and seemed to freeze.

And then he disappeared within that black cloud and it was too late for him to do anything. Next thing he knew, the cloud seemed to absorb itself into his little brother's body and Sam collapsed boneless to the ground.

He skidded to a halt and fell to his knees beside him, vaguely hearing shouting in the back ground but all he could see was his brother's lifeless body in his hands, and all he could feel was the cold that seeped from Sam's body and chilled his own skin.

"Sam, Sammy, don't do this" he begged holding his brother close. "Please come back, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, please don't leave me..."

There was no reply. Only Sam's limp body in his arms.

And then someone was pulling him away and holding him back as he struggled to get to his brother.

Caleb was leaning over Sam's body, slapping his cheek lightly and calling his name to no avail. Jim's arms were stronger than Dean thought possible, and he gave up trying to get away from him and watched, anxious and trembling as Caleb tried to illicit a response from the lifeless teen on the ground.

Eventually the young man sat back on his heels and looked over at them.

"He's alive. Perfectly fine from what I can tell. But not waking up..."

"You hear that Dean?" Jim said in his ear, his hand rubbing Dean's arm soothingly. "He's okay."

"Then why isn't he waking up?" Dean asked, desperately, feeling like he was four years old again and vulnerable. "What's wrong with him?"

"We don't know yet, Dean-o," Caleb answered, turning back to Sam once more. "We need to get him inside though. It's cold out here."

Jim helped Dean to stand, and they watched as Caleb scooped Sam into his arms and lifted him carefully.

Dean's breath was shuddering through him as he tried to stop crying, but he couldn't seem to gain control of his emotions once more. When he had awoken to find Sam and the shotgun gone, a horrible feeling of dread had consumed him, and he had automatically assumed the worst.

What had followed was a frantic search of the house and the horrible realization that he was alone and Sam was gone.

And he was lying there, so pale and still in Caleb's arms and it was his fault.

It was enough to make him start crying once more, and he barely registered Jim pulling him into his arms and holding him close. He buried his face in the pastor's chest, unable to quell the sobs that wracked his body.

Sam was gone, Sam was leaving him behind. Sam was lost...

And where was their father when they needed him the most?

"Hush now, lad," Jim murmured into his hair as he rubbed Dean's back slowly. "Quiet now, it'll all work out, you'll see."

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry..." Dean sobbed into the Pastor's neck.

"None of this is your fault, Dean. You know that. And Sam knows it too," Jim said quietly.

Eventually, Dean's tears were exhausted and he grew still within the safe circle of Jim's arms as he drew in one shaking breath after the other. Surprisingly, he felt better now that he had cried. Cleaner somehow, and lighter. As if a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and he was ready to fight for Sam once more. It had been the fear that had gotten to him. The dreadful fear of seeing Sam attacked by that thing; if Sam couldn't fight for himself any more, then Dean would just have to fight for him. It was as simple as that, and he was ready to take up that duty once more.

Jim set him back slightly but left his hands on his shoulders. The weight of them was a comfort to Dean, and he felt strong once more, despite the tears still trickling slowly down his cheeks.

"God I feel like an ass..." Dean said hoarsely with a weak laugh.

"No. There's no need to. This is hard on all of us," Jim said firmly. "And it's good that you've gotten it out of your system. Now, you're going to go inside and help us to figure this out. He needs us now more than ever, and he needs you most of all."

Dean nodded and straightened his shoulders as he wiped his face clean and drew in a calming breath. Jim nodded approvingly and smiled warmly at him.

"Good lad."

Dean smiled at him, and rolled his neck, feeling it crack.

"Where's Dad?"

"He stayed in town to finish up some business. I'll go and call him to let him know what's happened. And you..."

"I'm going to go and help Caleb wake Sammy up." Dean finished grimly.

-

Caleb had Sam lying down on the couch in Jim's lounge room, and he himself was sitting on the table and watching him with a frown on his face. His hands were clasped together in front of his face.

Dean hesitated in the doorway but then crossed the room, and went to kneel down by Sam's side but Caleb's hand on his arm stopped him.

"What the hell, Caleb?"

"Just...wait. Tell me what you saw?"

Dean frowned. "Why? What's it matter? Sam needs me..."

"It means everything if we're going to figure this out, Dean," Caleb said sharply. "You know that. Start using your head."

Dean glared at him for a moment before reluctantly doing as Caleb asked.

"I saw this...shadow. A black shadow and it...surrounded him, like it was holding him immobile. And then it just disappeared. And then Sam collapsed. That's all, I swear." Dean frowned as he remembered.

Caleb was on his feet now, and he was clutching Dean by the arms.

"Are you sure that's all that happened? There was nothing else?" he asked urgently.

"Y-yeah. I'm positive," Dean was taken back by Caleb's sudden distress. "Why? What's wrong?"

Caleb didn't answer; instead, he stooped down and collected Sam into his arms once more, his face grim.

"Caleb? What are you doing?" Dean asked, scared now. "What are you doing with Sam?"

"Go and get the Pastor," Caleb ordered. "Now."

Dean was used to taking orders without questioning and he did so now without hesitation. Caleb never ordered him about unless it was dire and if he was doing so now, then Dean didn't even want to think about what was wrong.

He returned shortly with Jim hot on his heels, but Caleb wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Caleb?"

"I'm in the dining room."

Jim and Dean followed the sound of the young hunter's voice into the nicely furbished room, and stopped still in amazed silence at what they saw.

The table and chairs had been roughly shoved to the side, and Caleb had laid Sam down in the center of the room and was currently drawing around him with chalk.

"Caleb, what are you doing?" Dean asked, fear hardening his voice. "Why is Sammy...?"

"I think he's been possessed by some sort of spirit. It's the only explanation for what happened, and I'm not taking any chances." Caleb replied as he completed the protective circle around his younger brother. "This will contain him and whatever is in him until we can figure out how to banish it."

"P-possessed..."Dean repeated, disbelievingly."There's no way..."

"I don't understand it either, Dean, but I think he might be right." Jim said softly. "There's nothing else that would do something like this to him."

Dean fumbled for a chair and sat down. He stared at where his younger brother lay motionless in the middle of the circle that Caleb had drawn.

The other hunter was creating a salt circle around the chalk one. Once he'd finished they all stood there in silence and stared at Sam, at a loss as to what to do next.

The door slamming open saved any of them from making a decision, and John charged in like an enraged bull.

"What the fuck is going on?!" he demanded when he saw Sam. "Caleb what the hell are you doing to my son!"

Jim didn't even bother to rebuke him for the blasphemous language, and he straightened from where he was leaning against the doorway.

"Sam went outside, John. We don't know why, or how, but whatever it was that's been...hurting him had somehow possessed him." he explained calmly.

Dean knew that when his father was like this he was a ticking bomb, likely to lash out at anyone or anything until he managed to calm down.

He only ever got so explosive when someone was threatening one of his own, and he was downright terrifying. Dean however, couldn't be gladder to see such a fierce protective urge from their father.
"That's not possible," John said flatly, still glaring hotly at Caleb.

"Well I'm afraid that's what has happened, and if we have any hope of helping Sam, then you need to calm yourself so we can get to work." Jim answered him.

Dean looked at his father as the older man's eyes sought out and found him. John left the doorway and approached Dean, who stood slowly.

John's hands fell on his shoulders and gripped then tightly. It was a gesture meant to reassure and comfort at the same time, and Dean relaxed ever so slightly.

"What happened, Dean?" John asked, his eyes still steely and his voice hard.

"All the entrances were protected. I checked them every half hour at least. I was up there with him, because he was awake, and we were talking. He was listening to something. He thought there was something outside. I looked but I couldn't see anything..." Dean swallowed.

"And then what?" It was Jim, speaking from the background, encouraging him quietly. Dean looked into his fathers eyes, which were boring into his.

"I stayed with him as he fell asleep and I...I fell asleep too. But he was right beside me the whole time I swear...and when I woke up he was gone. He was...he was outside with...that thing," Dean blinked back his tears as he remembered.

John's hand tightened on his shoulders momentarily before they dropped away.

"It lured him outside," the oldest Winchester said after a moment. "He wouldn't go outside. He knows better than that."

Dean thought otherwise but he wisely kept his mouth shut. His father wouldn't tear him a new one while Sam's life was at stake but he'd rather not tempt fate. And he definitely didn't want to do anything to add to his growing list of crimes. Not that he didn't deserve punishment. Whatever it was going to be, he would serve it happily because when it came down to it, he had been the one who had let Sammy slip through his fingers. It was a betrayal not only to himself but to Sam and their father as well, and one he would never be able to fogive.

"So...I think it's safe to say that this thing has been...connected to him for awhile now." Caleb said after a moments pause. "The only question is why?"

Waitaminute. Dean blinked and stood up straighter.

"Do you think that...it's been leeching off him? Like...feeding from his strength somehow?" he asked haltingly. He wasn't as experienced as the other hunters in the room, so he had no idea if it was even possible, but it was worth voicing just in case it was. "He has been extremely weak, hasn't he?"

John was frowning, and he crossed the room to crouch down by the protective circles to watch his son.

"You might have a point there, kid." Caleb said slowly.

Dean scowled at being called a kid (he was nineteen!) but made no effort to protest. Not while there was so little time and so much at stake.

"I've been thinking about this whole thing for awhile now, and there are lots of things that are inconsistent. If it were a spirit, I mean," the hunter continued. "I think I know what we might be dealing with here."

"What? If you know something Caleb……" Jim began.

Caleb shot him an annoyed look but didn't answer him, instead looking at John. The hunter was still watching his son intently, but he was listening intently to what Caleb had to say.

"I checked with Bobby, and he agrees with me." Caleb said quietly, his own gaze returning to that of the prone figure on the floor.

"And?"

It was John who spoke up this time, and he was considerably calmer now.

"I think it's a Wraith."

John's eyes zoomed in on Caleb intently.

"I thought they were all wiped out in the eighteen hundreds."

"So did we. But it fits, when you think about it. It's been feeding off him for awhile now. They were renown for feeding off human emotions, and sapping strength."

"But..." Dean cleared his throat. "I don't understand. What's a wraith?"

"Hard to say exactly. Some say that they were once shamans, of some kind who were so bent on finding a way to become immortal that they wore themselves out and became nothing more than a shadow. The only way they could continue to exist was by feeding off the emotions of people."

Dean gazed at him in confusion and swallowed past the lump in his throat.

"The last of them was supposed to have been killed in the eighteen hundreds." Jim continued where Caleb left off. "But this one must have slipped through the cracks somehow."

"Not only that but it must be a strong one. It seems to have found a way to possess a body, which is a step closer to gaining new life." Caleb said grimly. "And Sam's the unfortunate one to have been picked."

"That's my son you're talking about," John told him between gritted teeth. "Not just another victim, Caleb."

Caleb blinked in surprise then looked at the hunched figure of Sam.

"You're right. I'm sorry."

"They target people who are highly emotive, which would be understandable with Sammy," Jim said. "If it wasn't already possessing Sam, then it wouldn't be that difficult to destroy it."

"But because it is...we can't do anything without hurting Sam further. And because he's significantly weakened, anything we do might kill him."

Dean felt his chest tighten but managed to stay silent. This was an important process, he knew. The older hunters were sorting through the information and deciding what their options were. And while he was sitting in the corner with his heart breaking, he would have to remain quiet and let them work.

Sam still hadn't moved, and Dean wondered what was going on inside of him. He wondered if the Wraith was hurting him, trying to push him out of his own body, and he hoped more than anything that Sam was fighting with everything he had.

"The next move is yours, John," Jim said quietly. "He's your son, so it's your decision."

Dean watched their father watching Sam, and he could fairly see the heavy weight of responsibility resting on his shoulders. One wrong move and the youngest Winchester could die.

John rubbed his eyes and stood, looking down at his child, his baby. He was the last gift that Mary had given him before she had passed, and he would be damned if he let this Wraith steal him away from underneath his nose. Sam was their baby. Sam wouldn't be left alone to suffer and die.

"The only way we can kill this thing is if we somehow get it to leave his body," John stated slowly. "Any ideas on how we could do that?"

He was greeted with silence.

"I got nothing," Caleb said after a moment's silence. "Suppose we'll have to hit the books."

"Let's get this room cleared then, shall we?" Jim asked.

"Dean, you help the Pastor with that. Me an' Caleb are going to go to Jim's study."

Caleb pulled a face but stood up and followed John as he left. Dean looked at the Pastor, who sent him a kindly smile.

"How about we start with the chairs and I'll tell you everything I know about Wraiths?"

Dean sent the older man a relieved smile and got to work.

-

They managed to move the large oak dinning table out of the room, and clear it of anything that could be dangerous before Sam finally began to stir.

Dean was at his side in moments, while Jim disappeared to summon John and Caleb from their search.

Sam moaned again, and Dean was crouched just outside of the protective circles, wanting so badly to touch his little brother but knowing that he couldn't.

"Sammy? Can you hear me?" he asked with baited breath.

His only answer was a pain whimper, and he clenched his fist on the wooden floor boards.

"C'mon Sammy. Open your eyes for me."

And amazingly, he did. Those unfocused eyes turned towards him, and while he wasn't sure if Sam was actually seeing him or not, he felt elated nevertheless.

"Dee..."

"I'm here Sammy. I'm right here..."

Sam seemed to stir even more and he blinked slowly.

"'m sorry Dean. I didn't mean to..."

"Give me a heart attack? You wouldn't be you if you weren't doing that Sammy," Dean laughed hoarsely.

"It's...I can feel it Dean. It's screaming at me...It wants..." Sam was mumbling, his eyes closing slowly then opening once more.

"We know what it is Sammy. We're going to find a way to save you. You're going to be fine," Dean told him firmly with a confidence he didn't quite feel.

"You have to...have to..."

"Have to what, Sammy?"

Pain filled eyes met his, and Dean saw that Sam was weakening once more. He would surrender to unconsciousness again soon, but Dean wished fervently for him to hang on and keep talking. If Sam was awake and talking then he was alive at least, instead of lying there and looking like he was already dead.

"You have to...kill me...it's the only way..." Sam whispered as his eyes slid closed.

"NO!" Dean said forcefully. "I'll find a way, Sam. I'm not going to let you go."

"You have to...it's the only way for you to...be free..." Sam choked out as he whimpered once more. Dean could only imagine the horrors that he was seeing in his mind.

"No," he whispered fiercely. "Fight it, Sammy. Fight it for me."

"I'll try Dee. But..."

"No buts, you hear me? You have to fight it. Don't let it win Sam. You're stronger than that."

His father pounded into the room with the other hunters close on his heels. John thudded to his knees beside Dean, but Sam's eyes had closed once more and he had stilled.

"Sam?" John's voice was graveled with exhaustion and fear, but strong never the less. "Sam, can you hear me?"

Sam's eyes shot open suddenly, and mechanically, his head turned towards them.

Dean and John flinched backwards simultaneously at the dead eyes that met theirs. There was an unnatural glint to them, and Dean knew then that they were facing the wraith.

Slowly, Sam rolled over until it was crouched and facing them.

It hissed at them.

Dean would have found it funny if it hadn't been Sam that was possessed. The thing hissed like a cat would.

"Mineeee..." it hissed again."Mineeee..."

"No," John's voice was steady and strong, and Dean leaned against him for support. "He's not yours. He's ours. And we're going to get him back, no matter what you..."

And suddenly it wailed an unearthly howl and collapsed to the floor clawing at its head, keening as it did so.

Dean and John watched in stunned silence as Sam's body writhed within the confines of the circle. After a moment silence fell, and Sam grew still once more. The only noise was his sobbing breathes.

Dean only then became aware of the tears running down his face and he hurriedly wiped them away.

"There's your answer then," Jim's voice rang out clearly within the silence of the room. "Sam's going to fight it and we have to do everything we can to help him.

TBC

In regards to the Wraith, i will post information about them in the AN at the beginning of the next chapter. I did do research on them, and the information i found was inconclusive at best, and not very descriptive (which is good for me because it means i get a free reign!) If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I'll answer to the best of my ability.