Reminiscence Chapter 9: Now, a supernatural fanfic

Notes

Sorry I didn't make an update within the week, but here it is. Again, this one is gonna be a little different, but I'll explain why aftwarwards: )

Enjoy(please tehe)

Ok I soooo totally accidently posted the wrong document for chapter 9 HAHAHAHAHA-Facepalm- Gah that's....interesting.

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Chapter 9

Dean's stomach knotted at the awful clanging sound the support beam made as Sam's body slammed into it. He stood, still frozen in shock over the abrupt change from having a heart-wrenching conversation with Sam to watching something grab his little brother and toss him across the bridge. Dean watched as Sam slid down the beam to land harshly on the bridge. He had started forward when the air over Sam seemed to shimmer and a misty figure appeared. Dean's heart jumped into his throat.

"Sam!" He called warningly, seeing Sam's eyes groggily open in response to his voice. Before Dean could do anything to stop it, the misty figure, clearly a young girl now, reached towards Sam and placed a ghostly hand on the side of his head. Sam's entire body tensed, his eyes snapping closed and clenching in obvious pain.

"Sam!" Dean yelled again, desperate, scared, worried. He raised the shotgun he'd almost forgotten he'd been holding and fired at the spirit. With unnatural rapidity, the girl broke her touch with Sam, leaving him to slump back, unconscious against the planks of the bridge, and disappeared before the rocksalt from Dean's shot could hit its mark. Dean cursed and immediately broke into a run towards Sam's still body. He made it four steps before he was yanked off his feet and thrown back towards the Impala. A loud, unpleasant, warping sound accompanied Dean's collision with the driver's side door and consciousness left him in a star burst of light.

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The painful pounding in his head coaxed Dean back to awareness. His closed eyes clenched when the throbbing became worse as he gradually regained consciousness. Dean lifted a hand to his head, immediately locating a decent sized lump on the upper left side of his forehead. He groaned as the goose-egg protested his touch and he instead worked on getting his eyes open. Stars. Literal stars glittered in Dean's line of sight and he quickly realized that he was lying on his back on the ground. The reason why and what had put him there came rushing back and Dean bolted upright in a sitting position. The bridge around him tilted and he swallowed back a strong feeling of nausea. Dean closed his eyes until he no longer felt as if he was aboard a ship in the grips of a hurricane and opened them to find the world much more cooperative.

He immediately looked over to where Sam had landed on the bridge. Dean's heart slammed a painful beat against his ribs and quickly picked up its tempo. Sam wasn't there. Dean forced himself to his feet and looked around wildly for his brother. He didn't have to search for very long and cold gripped him at what he found. Standing twenty or so feet from where he had last been, on the wrong side of the railing of the bridge, was Sam.

"Sammy?" Dean called, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible. Sam didn't respond, or even seem to hear his name being called; he just continued to look ahead, seemingly hypnotized by something only he could see. Dean swallowed hard over the tightness of anxiety in his throat and he took a few, cautious steps forward. He kept his gaze fixed on Sam's face the whole time, trying to gauge the situation, terrified of what a wrong move on his own part might do. Sam's expression softened after a moment and he lifted his arms out in front of him as if reaching for something. Dean's eyes widened as Sam started to lean forward.

"Sam, NO!" Dean ditched the cautious approach and broke into a run as Sam plummeted towards the icy rush of water below. He skidded to a halt at the railing and leaned over, eyes darting frantically. A loud splash and a ring of bubbles marked the impact of Sam's fall, but other than that, there was no sign of him.

"Sam!" Dean wasn't sure what he expected to accomplish by screaming Sam's name, but his mind was quickly clouding with too much panic for him to care if he was being irrational. Something breaching the surface of the water forty feet down the stream pulled Dean's attention and he zeroed in on it in time to see what appeared to be Sam's navy blue coat. Dean immediately reacted. He had vaulted over the railing and was falling towards the water before he could even think twice about it.

The water was freezing. The shock caused Dean to inhale a quick intake of water and he surfaced, gasping and coughing. Forcing himself to focus on getting to Sam and not on the frigid water soaking through his clothes, Dean began to swim. How long had Sam been in the water? Had he surfaced yet? How were they going to get back to the car? Dean shoved away the thoughts zipping about in his head. "One damn thing at a time."

Dean could feel his body starting to respond to the cold. He was already shivering and the muscles working as he swam were starting to freeze up. Literally.

"Aw, come on. Sam!" Dean's voice raised to a yell, the action causing him to cough a little as air rushed from his chilled lungs. He let the current alone carry him along as he listened, but when nothing besides the rush of water reached his ears, Dean continued to swim. Panic gripped him tighter after a few minutes of drifting downstream still gave him no sight of his brother.

"S-Sam." Dean breathed out through chattering teeth.

A dark shape appeared no more than twenty feet ahead of him. Dean squinted, not sure if the thing he was seeing was no more than rock. The shape moved, rolling to reveal pale features plastered with dark streaks of hair.

"Sam!" Dean swept his arms quickly through the water, propelling himself faster towards his brother. The river kept Sam just out of his reach for awhile, but Dean was finally able to reach out and snatch a shoulder of Sam's coat. He quickly pulled Sam back up against him and wrapped an arm around his chest.

Sam was dead wait in Dean's arms, clearly unconscious. Dean couldn't tell if he was breathing or not. He swept his free arm through the water to steer them towards the shoreline to the right. It was slow going and Dean was exhausted after having to keep both his and Sam's heads above water, but finally he was able to grab hold of a boulder and brace himself against the current. Dean growled stubbornly and pivoted against the rock so his back was to it. The current pressed Sam against him, compressing Dean's chest and impairing his breathing a little, but Dean didn't care; he needed a moment to rest.

Thick clouds puffed out with each heave of Dean's breath, Sam's weight quickly shortening the intake of each. Dean pulled in one more deep breath and ground his teeth before heaving Sam up onto the grassy shore. His cold muscles complained against the strain, but Dean growled in determination and hefted the rest of Sam's upper body back onto land. He dragged himself out next, the cold air making his water-logged clothing feel like a sheet of ice covering his skin. Dean hooked his arms under Sam's shoulders and pulled his legs and feet out of the water.

"Sam?" Dean gently eased Sam onto his back and knelt down next to him. Sam didn't respond, his eyes remained closed. "Come on, man. Give me something." Dean patted Sam down, checking for any breaks or injuries and finding none. Sam lay there completely still, not even shivering from the cold, his face pale and motionless. The blue tinge of his lips stabbed another shaft of fear into Dean's heart and he suddenly noticed with chilling realization that Sam's chest wasn't moving. His fingers flew to Sam's neck and pressed against the cold skin under his jaw.

"Come on, come on." Dean chanted under his breath. He pressed harder and finally found a steady, though weak, heartbeat. Dean's eyes slipped closed in a brief moment of relief. Recovering quickly, knowing Sam wasn't out of the woods yet, Dean immediately tapped into the training that his father had spent years drilling into his head. He pinched Sam's nose shut and took in a deep breath. He forced air into Sam's lungs, trying to purge them of the water that invaded them and caused them to still. Dean sat back for a moment. Nothing. Sam's chest remained devoid of life-sustaining movement.

"No, Sammy. Help me out here." Dean took in another shaky inhale and breathed it into Sam's lungs. Sam's body tensed and Dean quickly drew back, turning Sam on his side as he coughed copious amounts of water out onto the frosted grass. Dean patted Sam's back gently as he continued to expel water from his lungs and took the moment to regroup. After a final retching sound, Sam rolled weakly onto his back, pulling in deep, stuttering breaths. His body had already acknowledged the cold and chills sent tremors all over him.

Another coughing fit overtook him and Dean quickly pulled Sam up, leaning him forward against himself. Sam's head rolled limply on Dean's shoulder as the rough coughing again eased to a stop, leaving him feeling weak and breathless.

"Dean?" Sam's voice was quiet and scratchy as it stuttered out through chattering teeth. Dean's eyes fluttered closed briefly. It never failed that his name was the first thing Sam always said upon regaining consciousness. He gripped the back of the collar of Sam's jacket and nodded, knowing Sam would feel the confirmation he wanted.

"I d-didn't m-m-mean to-" Sam wheezed.

"Take it easy, Sammy. Breathe for a moment ."

Stubbornly, Sam pulled away, forcing Dean to grab the collar of his coat when he stated to list backwards. Sam's eyes looked desperately at Dean, the need for forgiveness begging in the blue-green depths.

"I"m sorry." He managed to whisper. Dean's eyebrows furrowed and he shook his head.

"Nothing to be sorry for, Sam. Now let's get the hell back to the car."

Sam nodded weakly, a breath whistling out through his teeth.

"Cold." He rasped. Dean got to his feet, irrationally angry when his knees almost buckled, and pulled Sam up after him.

"You and me both, little brother." He said before draping Sam's arm over his shoulders and wrapping an arm around his back. Most of Sam's weight leaned heavily against Dean and he had to seriously concentrate on keeping both his and Sam's balance as he turned them both around to head back towards the bridge. Dean felt his spirit crack a little. The distance between them and the warmth and safety of the Impala might as well have been a hundred miles with a shivering Sam leaning heavily against him, not to mention the fact that Dean himself couldn't even feel a good part of his body anymore.

Dean tightened his grip on Sam's wrist and sighed out a cloudy breath. They had to get started sometime, and with hypothermia hanging dangerously over their heads, now seemed like a good time. A few minutes into the slow trek back, the silence filled by little else than frosted foliage crunching under two sets up boots and Sam's wheezy breathing, Sam decided he didn't like the quiet anymore.

"You're sh-shivering." He said quietly. Dean readjusted the arm around Sam and kept his concentration fixed on the uneven earth stretched out before them.

"A midnight swim down a freezing cold river can do that to ya."

Sam expected as much. He realized how dumb his statement must have sounded, but Dean obviously did not decipher the question behind it, so he reiterated.

"You alright?" He asked, trying to get his numb legs to move and help Dean out a bit. The long pause that followed allowed more than enough time for Sam to predict what Dean would say next.

"I'm not the one who stopped breathing, Sam."

"No, but y-you are the one who took a bump to the head then j-jumped into a river."

Dean was about to question how Sam knew that when he remembered the prominent bump on his forehead. He shook his head, amazed how observant Sam was under all circumstances. Even after what had just happened to him, Sam was still completely tuned in to his brother's well-being.

"I'll be alright once I stop feeling like Frosty's understudy."

"Dean..." Sam protested, tripping a little over a root in the meantime. They listed to the side a few feet, but Dean quickly steadied them.

"No memory loss, not dizzy, the headache's a given. Just cold, Sammy. That's all."

That seemed to appease Sam somewhat, at least for now, and Dean heard him breathe out a raspy sigh. They were only about one hundred yards away from the bridge now and the road was in clear sight. Dean had somehow forgotten about the spirit in his panic, but now it jumped to the top of his list of problems. The spirit obviously worked its magic with people when they were on the bridge, and returning to it could easily cause a repeat of the past thirty minutes. They had no weapons, no way to ward off the spirit, and there was no way in hell Dean was letting Sam anywhere near that bridge again. He'd have to leave him and come back with the Impala. Dean frowned at that idea, but there was really nothing else he could do.

Lost in formulating a plan, Dean missed a significant dip in the terrain and he and Sam nearly tumbled to the ground. His hold around Sam's back slipped and Sam yelped suddenly. Dean braced them both from falling and stopped abruptly at Sam's cry of pain. He turned to stand in front of Sam, hands on his shoulders, steadying him as he swayed slightly.

"Hey, what's wrong? Sam?" Dean squeezed Sam's shoulders and dipped his head to try to catch Sam's down-turned gaze when he didn't respond right away. "What's the matter?"

Sam looked up finally, a bitter, lopsided smile pulling weakly at his mouth.

"I'd almost forgotten about my back." He said quietly, wincing when he attempted a laugh.

"Your back?" Dean's eyebrows raised and Sam nodded. Dean felt his brother's violent shivering beneath his hands and was immediately caught between wanting to take a look at Sam's back and getting him to warmth as soon as possible. His jaw tensed as he weighed his options.

"How bad?" Dean asked. Sam started to shrug, but bit back a groan and seemed to rethink the movement. "One to ten." Dean urged.

"Maybe a three." Sam said after a moment. Dean nodded curtly.

"Translation: six. Could be worse. I'll take a look at it once we get some dry clothes and very very hot showers." Dean pulled Sam's right arm back over his shoulders and gingerly hooked his own around Sam's back.

The frozen earth finally ran into the black asphalt of the road. The bridge and the awaiting Impala were down a little ways to the right, but Dean steered Sam to the left instead.

"Dea-" Sam started, confused as he looked back over his shoulder at the bridge. "Dean, what the hell are you doing? The Impala's back there."

"I know." Dean grunted as he stopped and carefully lowered Sam to the ground, propping him up against the trunk of a large tree just off the road. "Give me a second and I'll be right back with it." Dean immediately turned and headed back towards the bridge

"Dean!" Sam shouted in protest at his brother's retreating back. He brought a fist up to cover his mouth when he started coughing, the sudden expelling of air not sitting well with his tortured lungs. Sam could only assume that Dean heard his coughing fit, because he turned his steady walk into a steady jog.

Dean's heavy footfalls echoed off the steel of the bridge as he hurried towards the Impala, his eyes sharply peeled for any sign of that girl's spirit. He paused to retrieve the shotgun that he'd dropped after his head-on collision with the Impala's driver's side door. Dean mumbled a heated string of curses at the large dent that interrupted the smooth black of the car's surface. He got into the car and turned the key, clenching a fist triumphantly when it started right off.

Throwing the car into drive, Dean peeled off the bridge; he'd bother shutting the trunk once he got away from the bridge and back to Sam. The Impala cleared the bridge without event and Dean thanked whoever it was that had finally decided to give them a break. He stopped right next to where Sam sat, shivering uncontrollably despite that he had wrapped his arms tightly around himself. Dean left the car running and turned the heater up as high as it could go.

He hauled Sam into the car and retrieved a blanket from the trunk, closing it afterwards. Sam had managed to free one of his arms from his coat, but seemed to be having trouble with the other. Dean got back in the car and helped him with the other sleeve before draping and tucking the blanket tightly around him. Sam met his eyes and his trembling lips turned down into a frown. Sam's crumpled brow completed a clear "What about you?" look, but Dean ignored it and pushed the accelerator down hard. He'd worry about himself after Sam was safe in a warm hotel room.

...To Be Continued...

A few more notes

Ok, so there was no flashback in this chapter, but I mean come on...can you imagine Dean being nostalgic and scatter brained when Sam is in danger? No. Also, I'm sure you realized how many time Dean said Sam's name. I noticed that too, but I swear to God those two boys say each other's name more than anyone else I know lol. I'm not even sure I address either of my sisters by their names when I'm talking to them; guess I'll have to pay attention next time. Aaaanywho, irrelevance.

But the reason I chose to not make this a none-flashback chapter was:

1. It's a necessary bridge(-gigglesnort- bridge) between chapters.

2. I think the next chapter will be the last and I plan to do something special, so I figured I could make up for the short comings of this chapter in the finale. I'll explain everything that's going on with the spirit and add one last dose of reminiscing.

Any objections? Suggestions? See me; )

Reviews are like...I don't know, I'm too hot right now to come up with something witty.

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