Still don't own Supernatural. Not suing would be appreciated.
Anyway, thanks for the reviews.
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"She talked about you all the time." Jeremy walked towards Sam.
His headache pierced and he fell to his knees. Bile burned his throat and he swallowed it back.
"Dean." He weakly called.
"Oh, he's a little busy. So, I don't think he'll be coming."
Sam took a breath. "You're not him."
Jeremy knelt and looked into Sam's eyes. "No, I'm not. Though he did pass through here, but you already knew that. So easy to get him here through his grief, almost as easy as it was to get you."
Sam desperately wanted to fight, to get away, but he couldn't move. The spirit held him too strong.
Dean watched the spirit. "I think your fun is just about over."
"It's just beginning." She smiled. "Do you know where your brother is?" She smiled at the fear that filled Dean's eyes. "I know where he is, and where he's going."
"Where's that?"
Her icy hand caressed Dean's cheek. "Six feet under."
He didn't need the book for the ritual.
Sam found a ladder and propped it against the wall. He climbed the ladder that creaked under his weight.
"That's right, Sam. You know this is the only way to balance all the death you've caused."
Sam's face and eyes were empty from the spirit's grip. He tied the rope around a sturdy pipe and placed the noose over his head. Jeremy kicked the ladder out from under Sam's feet.
As soon as the rope tightened around his neck, he broke from the trance. His hands went to the rope at his neck and tried to keep it from tightening further. He struggled for breath, for life.
"Goodbye, Sam." Jeremy smiled. "It really was a pleasure meeting you."
Dean recited the ritual with determination and desperation. The spirit burned with fury, but was held to the spot.
"Sure, I'm as good as gone." Her voice faded. "But so is Sam."
The spirit vanished. Dean pushed the doors open and saw his brother. Dean's heart stopped, forgot how to beat for a second. Sam hung limp from the rope, still swinging slightly. Dean pulled out the pistol and aimed at the rope a few feet above Sam's head. He steadied his hand and fired.
The rope frayed and broke. Sam fell five feet to the unforgiving floor. His body crumpled. Dean ran to him. Sam's lips were blue, his skin gray.
Dean started the third round of alternating compressions and breaths. He felt a rib crack, but couldn't make himself stop.
"Sammy." His voice broke as a tear escaped his efforts to keep them back and traced a way down his cheek. "Please."
Sam's back arched as he gasped for breath. He instinctively rolled to his side and coughed. Dean kept a hand on Sam's arm to steady him. Sam continued to cough and gasp for air. He vomited and spit blood on the floor in front of him.
"You're all right, Sammy. Just breathe, take all the time you need." Dean squeezed Sam's arm.
Sam shook and struggled to get his breathing under control. He still struggled for air, his thoughts too clouded to figure out what happened. He was so tired, he wanted to sleep for a year. Pain still beat against his head and matched the pain in his chest and around his throat.
Dean pulled out his cell phone and dialed Bobby's number. With each ring, Dean hoped harder than before that Bobby would answer.
"Hello?" Bobby's voice calmed Dean.
"It's Dean." He kept his eyes locked on Sam to make sure that he was still breathing.
"Is everything okay?"
"Not exactly." Dean took a breath and hated that it was so easy for him. "We're about an hour west of your place. Think you can meet us here."
"Sure. What happened?"
"Sam's pretty bad off, but I don't want to move him, not yet."
"What highway are you off of?"
Dean paused to remember. "The school after the Hollendell exit on highway seventy."
"I'm out the door now."
Dean closed the phone and dropped it to the floor. He moved so he could see Sam's face. A little of the color had returned, but he was still deathly pale and his lips still blue tinted.
"Sammy, can you open your eyes for me?" Dean held his brother's limp hand. "Sammy."
His eyes opened for a second, so brief that Dean almost missed it.
"That's good, Sammy. That's all I needed."
"Dean?" He rasped and started coughing again.
"Yeah. Don't try to say anything, Sam. Just rest and breathe."
He continued to fight for air and Dean wished there was something he could do. Sam's fingers tightened around his. Sam shivered on the damp floor, his eyes closed. Dean counted down the minutes until Bobby would arrive.
The rain continued outside and dripped inside. Dean's phone rang and he picked it up. Sam stirred slightly, but didn't wake.
"Bobby?"
"I'm at the school, where are you?"
"The gym."
"What happened, Dean?"
"Just get here."
Dean tossed the phone down. He took Sam's hand. He pressed two fingers to Sam's wrist just to feel the pulse.
Bobby appeared in the doorway and saw the two boys on the floor. He ran over and knelt next to them.
"Dean?" Bobby saw the dark bruising around Sam's neck, the blue of his lips and his ragged breaths.
He glanced over at Bobby. "Let's get him out of here."
Dean and Bobby carefully lifted Sam from the floor. He winced as he was moved and brought out to Bobby's van. They placed Sam on the floor in the back and Bobby tucked a blanket around him.
"Dean, get in the van with me. I'll come back tomorrow with the truck to tow your car to my place."
He climbed in back with Sam as Bobby jumped behind the wheel. Bobby pulled away from the school and hit the highway.
He glanced in the mirror at Dean. "Hollendell has the closest hospital. What happened, Dean?"
Sam's fingers tightened around Dean's. "It should have been easy." Dean briefly met Bobby's eyes in the mirror. "Somehow we got separated, Sam wasn't a hundred percent, he said he was fine. I should have made him go back to the car."
"You know as well as I do how stubborn he is. Once his mind is set, well it'd probably be easier stopping a freight train. Not your fault, Dean."
Sam coughed and Dean wiped the blood away that ran from his mouth.
"When I saw him, he was hanging from a pipe in the gym." Dean's voice was soft.
"Hanging, you mean…?"
"Yeah." Dean remembered, all too well, the cold sickness in his stomach when he saw Sam like that.
Sam opened his eyes and found Dean.
"Hey." Dean hoped he was smiling, because he meant to be. "You okay?"
Sam gave the slightest of nods as he struggled to get a breath. "Hurts." He sighed.
"Where?"
Dean helped Sam lift his hand as his younger brother pointed towards his chest and head.
"We'll get you all taken care of."
"Is it gone?" He coughed violently again.
Dean rolled him to his side so he wouldn't add choking to his list of breathing problems. "Yeah, Sammy. It's gone."
"Good."
Dean almost didn't hear him say it. Sam slipped back into unconsciousness. It was easier than trying to fight breathing and the pain, better just to let it all fade into darkness. Dean felt him relax under his hand and watched the labored rise and fall of his chest.
Bobby pulled into the emergency room parking and jumped out of the van. On his way around he opened the back doors. Sam's fingers tightened around Dean's hand briefly even though Dean was certain that his brother wasn't conscious.
A doctor and a few nurses rushed out with a gurney. They carefully placed Sam on it and hurried him inside. Dean climbed out, overwhelmed with all that had happened. He never got a moment to straighten it all out. Bobby gave the doctor Sam's name and all the important information.
"What happened?" The doctor turned to Dean.
He snapped out of his daze and tried to figure out how to word this in a way that didn't make Sam end up on suicide watch.
Bobby rested his hand on Dean's shoulder. "The boys were working on painting the trim and he slipped off the ladder, the rope wrapped around his neck."
It was better than anything Dean could have come up with.
"Was he breathing when you found him?"
"No." Dean looked the way Sam was taken. "His ribs might be broken." He could feel the snap in his hands still, the weight of the fact that he caused his brother's pain.
"That often happens during CPR." The doctor smiled at Dean and he wondered how the man could do that. "I'll let you know once he's stable."
"Thanks." Dean nodded.
Bobby led him over to a chair and they sat to wait.