A big thank you to all my reviewers!! You guys have kept me smiling and i appreciate all your comments and reactions! (even the ones that threatened to hold back cookies becuase of the cliffies!!) And a big thankyou to those who just read, i really appreciate you taking the time XXX

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Chapter Three

"Sam."

Sam poured a generous amount of salt into the grave, he barely acknowledged his brother as he asked "What?"

"Stop what you're doing, when I tell you, drop."

"What?" Asked Sam again, this time looking up and seeing the way his brother was holding himself, the way he carefully bent down to pick up the shotgun from the bag, the way his eyes never left Sam.

Wait, he was looking just to the left, just behind. Sam felt the cold hands on his neck the second he flung his body to the floor, he heard the gun go off and the spirit scream. Dean ran forward and lifted Sam by his t-shirt. Hands across his body, checking for a mark, an injury, a clip from the rock salt or a graze from a stone. Dean didn't care, he just needed to know Sam was ok. Sam for his part allowed his brother his inspection, but only for a moment, then he knocked his hands away, bowed his head slightly and caught Dean's eyes.

"I'm ok."

"You sure?" Said Dean, louder than he intended when he saw Sam's brow furrow.

"Dean. I'm fine."

"Well I didn't expect him to join the party."

"Guess he's got something to say about us stopping his fun."

Dean once again looked over Sam.

"You sure you're ok?"

"Dude I'm fine, just more muddy than I was a second ago."

"You're welcome to go have a dip in the pool while I finish this."

"Funny."

They went to work on the bones once more, standing silent before Dean dropped the match into the hole. Sam watched his brother as the flames took hold of Isiah, sending his spirit further into the ether , his hold on life no longer his choosing as his soul rejoined with his body in a place far away . Dean's face was bathed in the light from the fire, making him look so much younger than he was. Or maybe, possibly showing him as the age he really was, if all the horrors and responsibility weren't taken into account. Sam knew he was Dean's main concern. Forever his to watch over. Yet something had changed lately. As much as Dean still had his uncontrollable urge and duty to make sure Sam was protected and saved, Sam had started to feel the same hold over Dean. He'd begun to see that his brother would sacrifice everything, even his life to protect Sam. To save him. Who was there to save Dean?

After their fathers death, with everything that came afterwards, Sam had decided to take that job upon himself. Just one little problem, one little flaw in his resolute decision to be his brother's saviour.

Dean.

Not only did he refuse help, but he went out of his way to hide injuries, to make light of emotional scars, and to adamantly refuse the idea that possibly, he wouldn't be able to save Sam. To Dean that wasn't an issue. He was gonna save him. No matter what. And the 'no matter what' scared the crap out of Sam.

Together they filled in the grave, both taking note of the setting of the sun and hurrying as best they could. By the time they were done dusk was descending and a the cold night air was hanging above waiting for it's turn to blanket the ground.

"Sam we're not gonna have enough time to get back up to that crossing."

"Yeah we will."

After walking for twenty minutes Sam wasn't so sure. As the river narrowed he gauged the distance and with one look to Dean knew his brother was thinking the same. They weren't that far from their initial crossing , so it couldn't be that deep.

Dean led the way this time, walking out slowly, trying to control the gasp as the cold water lapped around his boots, slowly making it's way inside to submerge his feet in it's icy cold tendrils. He heard Sam gasp as they walked further into the flow.

"Damn that's cold."

They walked further, neither admitting to the worry as the water ran deeper than they had thought. Up past their knees, up to their thighs. The pull of the current keeping them bent forward as they resisted the urge to walk at an angle.

"You gonna get a fire going when we get back to the hut Sam?"

"I'm gonna get a raging inferno going when we get back."

Dean laughed with his brother, enjoying the moment before everything went to hell with one slip of his foot.

His first sensation wasn't falling, it wasn't that vertigo as everything tilts beyond your control and you're powerless to stop the plummet. His first sensation was cold. Not mind numbing as he'd heard it described. This was shocking to his every sense, his every nerve ending. In that second Dean Winchester had never felt so awake and alert as his body went under the water. His feet went from him as the current tipped him and his body began to flow downstream.

Sam watched as if stuck in a slow motion time warp. Dean laughing, turning to smile at him, then a trip, then nothing. He disappeared under the water, only to come back up coughing a moment later. Sam lunged forward as fast as the current would allow and grabbed hold of Dean's coat a second before his brother was ripped from him and sent sailing downstream. The second his hands had nothing to hold onto but air was the second the world slammed back into real time. Sending him scrambling back across the river to the shore, running as fast as he could along the banks of the river, toward the grave site.

He kept Dean in his sights. Watched for rocks and logs with every other glance. Ran as fast as he could , yet still, as the pace of the river picked up it kept Dean ahead of him by a few, frustrating seconds.

Dean fought, with all his might to gain control, to get a foot down on the riverbed, to stop his freewheeling plunge toward the heavy part of the river, by the hut and the bend, beyond which he didn't want to know, had no desire to explore.

He gasped in another lungful of air before being caught by a current and slammed into a boulder. His head exploded in stars and for a few valuable seconds Dean allowed his body to tumble forward, stunned. He was slammed against another boulder, this one halting his decline down the river. The cold of the water began to seep into his bones, his movements becoming sluggish not only from the knock to his head, he felt something warm run into his eye but no matter how hard he tried to wipe it away, he couldn't get his limbs to co-operate.

Sam leaped over the grave and grabbed a piece of tree limb, left fallen and discarded by a tree that no longer had use for the appendage. He'd seen Dean take a hit on a rock and come to a stop against the stone. He looked dead already. Shaking the thought from his mind , Sam climbed along the edge of the closest boulder and stretched his arm out with the tree branch toward Dean. He ignored the blood, ignored the dazed way his brother looked at him, the tired expression, the way his jaw lay open and slack.

"DEAN!"

Nothing.

"DEAN GRAB THE BRANCH DAMMIT!"

Dean raised drowsy eyes to Sam, he tried, he really tried to reach the branch. His brother looked terrified and so lost but Dean couldn't figure out why. Couldn't remember what had made Sam so scared. Was it something he'd done? Who'd hurt his brother? Sorry Sammy. So Sorry.

"NO!" Sam watched horrified as Dean's eyes rolled back into his head.

"YOU HOLD ON!"

Dean slowly began to slip down the boulder, back into the current of the river.

"I'M GONNA SAVE YOU!"

Sam leapt into the current , using the boulders as leverage, moving forward as quickly as he could as Dean slipped under the water, head hitting the rocky floor as the lights went out for the older Winchester.

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Was it who you thought would get wet? Do i still get cookies despite another cliffie? xxx