Chapter Five

"Hunting Nereids." Dean's teeth skimmed across his lower lip. This wasn't good. "You remember?"

Sam's gaze skittered around the cavern again. "Nereids?"

"Yeah."

Sam's Adam's apple bobbed. "There were eggs? And you . . . fell in the water. I got bit. It burns." Sam's palm went to the side of his stomach. His eyes tightened at the corners. At least he wasn't stuttering. "Did I use Dad's knife? I thought I lost it . . . a squirrrrrrrel," his voice drifted. His hand slipped from his side as his eyes fell closed again.

"No, no, Sammy." Dean shook him, but got no response. "Dammit." He stared at Sam a long hard time, not sure what to do. "Okay, all right, I'm gonna take care of this."

Dean tugged Sam over so his other side was lying against the body-warmed weeds. He packed the rest of the vegetation up around Sam's stomach, getting as much around him as he could. Next Dean stood and began jogging in place, pumping his arms around, getting as much of his own blood flowing as possible. It was actually working. Dean felt warmer already.

Heated up as much as he thought he was going to get, Dean slid in behind Sam, pressing his warmer chest against Sam's back, flinching at the shock of cold that was his sibling's flesh. He pressed in close, reaching over to arrange the vegetation as good as he could manage over Sam's exposed skin.

He repeated the process several times, getting up, turning Sam, running around the ledge, doing calisthenics and then slipping in and giving his younger brother his hard-earned warmth.

He wasn't sure when it happened, but he realized Sam was pushing back, snuggling into him, his breathing easier. "Sam?"

"Mmmmmmph."

"You with me?"

"Mmmm-hmmm."

"What year is it?"

"Year of the swine."

Was it? "Idiot."

"You kill the water-monkeys yet?"

"So you remember those?"

"Little hard to forget."

"You'd be surprised." You were out of it for a while. I was worried. Something loosened in Dean's chest and he breathed a little easier. "How are you feeling? Are you warm enough now?"

"Better." Sam's voice still had a sleepy burr to it. "We can go now, you killed them, right?"

"No, not yet. They haven't showed their faces again. They're both wounded though. Maybe they're afraid of my awesomeness."

Sam's breathing hitched up. His shoulders rose. "What if they never come back? We c-can't stay here forever. We'll freeze to death."

Dean knew the signs of panic. "Whoa, whoa. We're not staying here forever." Sam was struggling up, throwing off the weeds. From behind, Dean snaked his arms around him. Sam's chest was heaving in and out rapidly. "Stop it, Sam. Calm down." Sam was going to hyperventilate and with the cold and everything he'd already gone through, it couldn't be good for his heart. "Sam, stop. You trust me, right? You know I always have a plan."

"But sometimes your pl-pl-plans are stupid."

"Hey, they generally work."

"Yeah, usually after we get beat to hell."

It was working, the banter was getting through to Sam. His breathing was slowing, his torso no longer so rigid.

"Well, you're already beat to hell so I'd say we're halfway there." Dean pulled Sam back against him, a little concerned that Sam was so compliant about it.

They lay on their sides together. Dean's breath blew the tips of Sam's hair across the back of his neck. "Sam, don't go to sleep."

There was no response.

He nudged his brother. "I mean it, Sam."

"Yeah, kay."

Dean frowned at the kid's rapidly changing behavior. He didn't know if Sam was going to come out of a deadened sleep fully coherent or not even knowing where he was, or worse, not wake up at all. "No sleeping."

Sam moaned in answer.

"So, why a lawyer?"

"Huhhh?" Barely a slur.

"You were going to go to law school. What was the draw?"

"Draw?"

"Quit repeating everything I say. What made you want to become a lawyer?"

Sam's shoulders squished up in a shrug. "I just, um . . . thought I could make a difference, help people. And . . ."

"And . . .?"

"Each case . . . requires a different approach, piecing things together . . . come up with the best plan. Liked . . . the challenge."

Dean grunted.

"What?"

"I don't know, Sammy. It sounds like you just described hunting."

"Yeah, maybe." Sam went quiet, and Dean let him be until the curiosity got the better of him.

"But . . .?"

"But nothing."

"Oh there's a but. I can feel it."

Sam sighed. "Being a lawyer meant . . . building something permanent. Ya know, putting down roots so far nothing could ever rip them out."

Water splashed the rocks. The beam from Dean's headlamp threw shadows from water-sculpted stones across the wall.

"For what it's worth . . ." Dean pulled some of the weeds that had fallen across Sam's exposed thigh. "I wish you could have had that." Talking to the back of Sam's head somehow made it easier to admit.

"I know. Thank you for that. But, Dean." Sam went quiet as though he struggled with what he wanted to say. "I just . . . " He cleared his throat. "Back then, I just didn't realize that I already had it."

Dean wasn't following. "What do you mean?"

"You and Dad . . . you've always been there for me, even when we argued. You guys, you're my permanent."

Dean squeezed his eyes tight, grateful more than ever Sam couldn't see his expression. He swallowed around the heavy stone Sam effectively just lodged inside his throat. Leave it to his brother to turn them both into sobbing little girls after mermaids just tried to eat them.

"Stupid, huh?" Which was Sam's way of back tracking, feeling embarrassed.

"No," Dean said quickly, his throat closing. "No." He squeezed Sam's arm, saying more with the gesture than he knew how to voice.

They didn't say much more. Dean drifted into his own thoughts, waiting out the tide, keeping Sam as warm as possible. The chill was taking its toll on him as well, his body becoming heavy. He wanted to go to sleep, wanted to quit harassing Sam to stay awake and let him sleep as well.

"Time to turn over again."

Sam just moaned. Dean tugged him over to his other side, blinking his eyes to keep them open. He was sleeping for a week once they got out of here. He stood, too tired to do jumping jacks, so he settled for walking around. He checked to see if his jeans were dry yet. No cigar, but his and Sam's T-shirts only had a few damp spots. He shrugged his on, shuddering at the instant cold on his skin and held Sam's tight to him to warm it up. This should help quite a bit.

A quiet scrape echoed across the rock. Dean's gaze snapped up, swinging the headlamp beam around. One of the Nereids was crawling up the ledge, her tail propelling her jerkily forward like a worm.

"Oh you bitch. I've been waiting for you." In the space of a breath, Dean had the knife out of the ankle strap and slammed into the creature's back. With more strength than he'd given her credit for, she rolled over, whipping an arm into Dean and tossing him into the cavern wall.

"Sonofabitch," he heaved out, staggering up to go at her again, dodging the slapping tail, and simply let gravity and momentum carry him down where his elbow rammed into the beast's sternum. He felt more than heard the pleasing crack of bone. Shifting all his weight forward over his arm, he twisted his bent elbow, digging it in farther. The she-bitch's hands came around, claws digging into his arms, the glare of the flashlight casting harsh shadows across the skeletal face. Dean pushed, knowing his elbow was doing damage and that his knife was still in her back. Water-ape was getting hers from both sides.

"Nuuuuhhh!"

Dean jerked upward at the cry. The second Nereid was on the ledge, coming up from the other side. Damn sneaky ape. She had Sam by the thighs and was sliding back down the ledge, the little bed of weeds offering no resistance. Twisting, Sam reached desperately for the divers bag, snatched it, brought it to his chest where he fumbled inside.

Time seemed to slow. Pressing everything he had onto the Nereid, Dean watched, frozen with fear as Sam pulled out a grenade. One long finger slipped into the ring. "Nooooooo!" Dean lunged up, leaving the Nereid he'd only moments ago been intent on killing and raced across the ledge.

"Wait, wait!" he screamed, sliding across the stone to kick at the monster dragging his brother away. He kicked at her face again. Again. Sam screamed. Long red lines sprouted down his legs where her claws slipped away. Dean kicked again, dislodging her. "Now, Sam!"

Sam pulled the ring, tossing the grenade at the beast's ugly head at the same moment Dean lunged at him, rolling them both into the water.

Dean swam to the bottom, pushing Sam backward in the same way the Nereids had earlier. The blast thrummed through the water, pulsating against them. Dean nearly lost his grip on Sam. Huge slabs of rock fell around them. Shit. What'd they do?

Sam pushed away, gaining some moving room while keeping his hand locked around Dean's wrist. As one, they kicked off the bottom and swam upward. They broke the surface to a scene from hell. The blast set off what must have been a fault line in the cave's structure because the walls and ceiling were shifting, sharp flakes of stone falling off in sheets. The Nereids were still on the ledge, their bodies being smashed by raining shards.

Dean looked to where the submerged tunnel should be, at the cracks shooting through the stone like breaking masonry. "We gotta get out of here!"