AN: Sorry about the wait... one sick hubby and a little one coming down with something else has had me a little frazzled. Hope you enjoy this anyway! See you soon!

Dean wasn't sure what to do. The look on his little brother's face spoke more than words ever would and it hurt not to be able to take the pain away. "Sammy, Jenna's scared; she's just lashing out. If anything right now we need to think about…"

Sam laughed as he wiped his face. "You know what Dean, I think what we need to do is go home and get you ready to go. Then if I'm up for it, I'll figure out what to do and deal with it." He said with a wry smile on his face. "Of course if I had the chance, I'd probably get drunk and not think about what's going on."

The musketeers were shocked and looked at each other before looking back at their little brother. "Sammy…" Taylor began, worried that the kid was going to do just that.

"Relax, I'm not going to… but after this, in another life, it would be tempting." Sam admitted. How many times had he snuck a drink or two to help dull the pain that his father had inflicted on him, how many times had he prayed for a release that never came? Now though his life was supposed to be better and all he could think about was how Jenna had been fooling him, making him believe that she cared when all the while she was just around him out of pity. "I'm heading home, I'll see you there."

As they watched Sam ride off on his bike, they couldn't get rid of the helplessness they felt. If anyone deserved to be happy, it was their little brother; but there he was with a broken heart and what appeared to be another blow to his already fragile ego.

Sighing, Stephen was about to open the Suburban doors when the Colonel came out and joined them.

"Jenna's calmer now, and she admitted she only said those things to try to keep Sam away. She's worried that with his HIV he'd get sick if he was around her while she's doing chemo." He said quietly, wishing more than anything that this hadn't happened; that his little girl wasn't sick, and the young man who became such a part of their lives wasn't hurting.

Dean nodded, but when he spoke it was with a firmness that shocked them all. "You do know that he's not going to just bounce back from this. Once he's hurt like that, that's it, there's no second chance. Colonel, we all see the gentleness that Sammy has, but he's been hurt too much too often, and we barely got through to him when we got him back. For this to happen now… I'm sorry sir, but I really don't see how things can go back the way they were for them, not now."

Terrence knew what Dean was saying, and had to agree. Jenna could have done anything else to Sam, and he would have brushed it off as if it was nothing; but to take his heart, after he gave it to her so trustingly, and cruelly break it, he wouldn't be able to get past it. What's more disturbing was he couldn't blame the boy.

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Sam rode home trying not to think about anything on the way. He didn't notice the cool air, the dogs barking, or even the traffic sounds that meant that one of the neighbors had finally finished rebuilding that engine. The ride home was a way for him to retreat into himself without completely getting lost, and it was the only thing he felt he could do to make sure he didn't completely fall apart.

He hadn't been joking when he told his brother's that a drink was tempting right now, but he wouldn't fall that low, he still had a promise to keep and part of that was to take care of himself; somehow mixing meds with alcohol didn't fall into that category. Not even aware that he'd reached the apartment, he numbly started up the sidewalk when he heard someone shout out his name.

"Hey Heather, something wrong?" Sam asked, wondering why she looked as if someone had kicked her dog, if she had a dog.

Heather looked at Sam and knew something had happened; he always had expressive eyes and tonight was no exception. "Are you alright? We noticed you rushed out of here and the guys followed you."

Not knowing exactly how to answer that without sounding as pathetic as he felt, he was trying hard to come up with something that wouldn't seem so bad without actually lying to her. Heather and her sister were more than landlords, they both were friends and he even thought that Amber had a crush on Dean, but he doubted if she'd ever admit it. He saw Heather look at him with a worried expression and didn't know how to answer her. Thankfully he was saved from thinking about it too much when the sound of the Suburban stopped close by.

The sound of the SUV doors shutting hurriedly echoed through the night bringing people to their windows to see what was wrong. As soon as they spotted the Musketeers however they all shook their heads and turned back to their evening rituals leaving the men outside to do their business. As the men in question glanced at their neighbor's reactions, they couldn't help but wonder if maybe they were a little more dramatic than they had ever thought. Seeing Sammy standing there talking to Heather made them wonder though if maybe they were just being paranoid, maybe everything was alright after all.

"I'm going to bed; I'll see you guys in the morning." Sam said quickly as he rushed into the apartment.

Looking at the others Dean shook his head. "Nothing's ever easy, is it?"

Heather looked at the group of men and asked quietly, "What happened? The only time he looks like that is when something happens with Jenna." The Musketeers looked at her stunned for a moment until she shook her head. "Look, I'm not an idiot. The only ones that can hurt us are the ones that we love and we all know that he loves her – a lot! So what did she do this time? Please tell me that she didn't bring up his illness again…"

Dean didn't know how to answer that, it wasn't that they had really been keeping Sammy's HIV status a secret, it just hadn't come up. "Uh, Heather, how do you know about Sammy?"

"You know sometimes you boys are just ridiculous. We've talked about it Dean, in fact he told me right after Jenna found out and had put her foot in her mouth. Now I'm going to ask again… what did she do now?"

"Jenna's sick and took her fears out on Sammy which he's taking to heart and won't accept that she didn't mean anything she said." Taylor said while looking up to see the light in the kitchen switch on. "Come on guys, if he's in the kitchen then he's actually fixing something decent to eat. God I love Mandy, but her idea of food sucks!"

Laughing their agreement, they agreed to talk more with Heather later and ran upstairs to see their little brother in the process of cooking bacon and slicing tomatoes. As they watched, it looked more like he was attacking the fruit than actually slicing them, but they understood that the frustrations he'd been holding in the last couple of weeks were starting to surface.

The Track and Field Regional's that Sam and his teammates had been so pumped up about had been rescheduled twice do to the excessive rainy weather they'd been having lately, coupled with the surprise that he'd been trying to arrange for Dean falling through, and now Jenna acting the way she was, he was more than a little tense. All he wanted was to have a chance to give something back to his brother's, to not be a burden, while at the same time possibly enjoy his life; maybe it was too much to ask, maybe…

"Uh Sammy, I think they surrender." Taylor joked, bringing Sam's attention back to the tomatoes that he had basically butchered.

Looking at the mess on the counter Sam could only reply with a "damn" before his brothers started laughing and gathering up the rest of the items they needed for the BLT's. As he watched, he saw them all pitch in to finish their late dinner and help him clean up the pulverized mess on the counter top. Watching them, he knew that he wasn't alone and that he was a lot luckier than he had ever been before.

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Dean hated the idea of going off on a mission, even a cakewalk like this one, while everything was happening at once at home. He'd already stayed up late with Sammy and made sure that everything was settled and taken care of on that front, while at the same time sending not so subtle signals to the other brothers that everything had better still be good when he got home. He knew about the car that his little brother had tried to surprise him with, and he also knew that the deal fell through when the guy started poking his nose into their business. Sammy still didn't know the real reason why the guy backed out of their negotiations, but Dean made sure that the guy knew not to screw with people like that again; especially for some close minded view that he had.

"Don't worry Dean, we got him. He'll be fine while you're gone, and hopefully it'll be an easy mission so you can get back and help him blow out his candles." Stephen said with a smirk.

It had been unanimously agreed amongst the Musketeers that Sammy would have a good old fashioned birthday party, adapted for his age of course, but it would have a cake with ice cream and all the friends they could cram into the apartment and backyard. Katie and Celia were planning it, while the guys were going to implement it, and they knew that they wouldn't fail in making their little brother's sixteenth birthday one that he'd remember forever. Of course it helped that Sammy had no idea what they were planning and had sworn all friends to secrecy in hopes of giving him the biggest surprise ever.

"Yeah, I know. It's just… we got him back and now I have to go and…"

"Dude, chill out… you're going on an escort mission, not to the moon." Joseph said as he smiled at Dean's antics. They all knew what Sammy had been through, and what he was facing now; so for him to start acting as if they hadn't a clue what to do was so far out of left field it was easy to be amused.

Sam walked in just as Dean was playfully flipping them off, making the youngest of the group look at them all as if they had lost their minds. Shaking his head, he walked over to get a carton of milk before he leaned against the refrigerator. "So, you're heading out this morning." He stated calmly while looking at his big brother. "Do you have everything… toothbrush, toothpaste, underwear, condoms…"

The guys had thought it was amusing until Sammy had gotten to condoms and then an epidemic of coffee spewing occurred, making a mess of the kitchen floor. As they all looked up at their little brother in shock they noticed his much too innocent gaze before he spoke again.

"What? You can never be too careful… that's what you use to cover your rifle barrel in the rain, right?" Sam asked, trying hard not to laugh, but it was becoming increasingly difficult with the aghast looks he was receiving.

It took Dean a moment before he understood that little brother was having some fun at his expense; not that he didn't deserve it, it was just an unexpected surprise. "Alright, wisenheimer… you've had your fun for the day. How about you get ready for school and we'll drop you off on the way to the base?"

Laughing as he headed towards his room, Sam felt a lot better. He knew that no matter what, he had his brother's; and that made everything alright.