AN: I am so very sorry for the delay... hopefully this chapter makes up for it!
Stephen knew something was wrong as soon as he and Dean walked back into the living room; Sammy was gone! Seeing Dean's reaction, he had barely enough time to keep the other man from bolting out the door before the sound of the back door opening brought them both back to the possibility that their little brother hadn't disappeared, but just went outside for a minute. Suddenly their conversation passed through both their minds and the idea that something might have been misunderstood slammed into both men hard, sending them rushing towards the back of the house in hopes of finding Sammy.
Sam heard his brothers running towards him so he waited by the door knowing that any movement would freak them out more. He had hoped to be back before they knew he was gone, but that obviously wasn't going to happen. All he wanted was to be able to take a minute and try to get his emotions under control without interference, but obviously that was going to be too much to ask. Sighing, he saw both Dean and Stephen coming through the doorway and instantly knew that he'd been found out.
'Great, not just a trouble magnet, but an eavesdropper too, just what Dean wants around… not!' he thought to himself, wishing he could just disappear but knew that wasn't the answer either.
"What's going on Sammy? I thought you were sleeping?" Dean asked, trying hard not to sound upset, but the thoughts of what could have been's kept popping up in his head. Trying hard to calm himself, he took a good look at his little brother and didn't like what he saw; it was as if they were back at day one. "Sammy… kiddo… you ok?"
Frustrated at himself as well as the situation, Sam would have rather been kicked in the groin than face his brother's right now. His instincts were telling him that he needed to run, to get away from the whole situation, but his heart was telling him that things had been better and he should try again. The conflict within him was getting to be too much and all he wanted to do was go back inside and sleep until the whole fiasco had blown over, but his brothers were in the way and he knew they wouldn't let him go around without an explanation so we was stuck; staring at them as if he had no idea what to expect from them.
Seeing little bro's dilemma, Stephen attempted to get Dean to back off only to face off with one seriously pissed off Winchester.
"Dude… back off!" Dean demanded as he pulled his arm out of Stephen's grasp. Turning back to Sammy he could barely make his brother out in the dim lighting from the house, but what he saw worried him… Sammy was scared… of him! "Sammy, come here we need to talk." He said before he could clamp his mouth shut. 'Idiot… those words are never a good thing.' He chastised himself silently. "What I meant was I'd like to sit down and talk to you face to face about what happened earlier, ok? I know that you're tired though, so how about we do that in the morning, after you get some sleep… ok?"
Not sure what to think about the new development, Sam stood there in the dark contemplating if maybe he had it all wrong and that he was actually still asleep and this was actually a dream. Feeling almost moronic for following a dream's suggestion to go to sleep, he walked inside without saying anything to either brother. Finding his spot on the floor he once again curled up and this time was asleep before his eyes fully closed.
"Ok… what the hell was that?" Dean demanded as he watched his Sammy stumble back into the house seemingly no longer aware of his surroundings.
Stephen had no answer for Dean, but the worry he had felt earlier escalated. Looking over his shoulder he wondered if maybe the neighbor had anything to do with Sammy's odd behavior.
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The bedroom curtain fell back into place without notice giving the room's occupant more privacy as he contemplated what he'd just witnessed. Feeling as if he was letting an opportunity get away, Paul sat by the window and watched the house next door for any other signs of disturbance while forming a plan in case he needed to act quickly.
"Don't worry kiddo… this time I won't fail."
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The morning dawned bright giving full view of the newcomers that had just arrived at the small soon to be rental house. The neighbor's had already gotten the news about the excitement that had happened on their nice quiet street the night before, and now were feeling more than a bit curious as to the new set of events unfolding before them.
"Uh, any idea why we're being stared at?" Taylor asked Joseph in hopes that maybe he knew what was going on. He looked around again before knocking on the door as saw three or four neighbors blatantly watching them while several others pretended to be doing something completely casual but failing miserably.
Joseph knew what Taylor was asking, but he didn't have any answers either which made him more than a little cranky. Something had to have happened earlier to get a reaction like this, and that thought made him want to kick the door down to find out what was going on. Before he had a chance to air his opinion though, the door opened and a very stressed out Stephen stood there staring at them a full minute before letting them it. Yeah… something was definitely going on.
"Come in so they'll stop watching." Stephen grumbled, not really wanting to think about how he and Dean stayed up all night watching over their brother. "That better be coffee in your hands otherwise we're going to have a major discussion."
Laughing lightly, Joseph handed over a large cup before turning to see Dean sitting next to Sammy, watching him as if he thought he'd disappear any moment.
"What's going on?" he asked hesitantly before turning back to Stephen and getting another glimpse that something was definitely not right if the look on the other man's face was anything to go by.
"Something weird's going on, but we can't be sure what." Stephen said quietly as he motioned for the others to follow into the other room. When he was sure they were out of earshot, he quickly filled both men in on what had happened the night before.
"You have got to be kidding me." Taylor said harshly. "We just got Sammy thinking that he belongs with us, and now you're telling me that all that's out the window?"
"We won't know for sure until Sammy wakes up and we find out exactly what he heard and how he took it." Dean said from the doorway. "Right now though he's sleeping soundly and I really don't want to wake him even if it means he'll be late for school."
The Musketeer's nodded in agreement knowing that the past few days was only a part of what was going on with their little brother. Between Dean missing, psychic powers going online, his now ex-girlfriend diagnosed with cancer, and now the misconception that his brothers thought he was a freak… yeah, the kid really needed to sleep, the rest could wait until later.
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Jenna hated the feeling of nervousness that she was feeling, but even worse was the feeling that she had when she thought of Sam. She knew that with one phone call he'd be there with her… for her… but she knew that wouldn't be right; she was the one who ruined everything, so she'd stick with the consequences.
"How are you Sweetheart?"
Looking over to her father, Jenna tried to smile, but felt that the strain was weighing heavily on her face. "I'm fine Daddy. Don't you have to work today?" she asked, sure that there was some big meeting that he was supposed to be at that moment.
Terrance smiled and patted his little girl on the knee. She reminded him so much of her mother that it was painful. "Don't worry about that, I was able to reschedule the meeting for later; there was someplace more important that I needed to be."
Feeling herself tear up, Jenna hugged her father tightly with the intention of never letting go. No matter how much she wanted to be brave, she was really terrified of this whole ordeal. The doctors didn't want to talk about odds of survival because of her age and the aggressiveness of the cancer, but were more than willing to discuss their experimental treatments to not only kill the cancer, but possibly preserve her organs at the same time. No matter how often she went over the information though, she still wasn't able to fully understand everything they told her, and that's what scared her the most.
The knock on the door brought both father and daughter back to awareness in time to see two doctors walk into the room.
"Good Morning Jenna, are you ready to get started?"
Looking at her father, Jenna was about to follow the doctor's out of the room and was just as surprised as everyone else when she suddenly blurted, "No… no I'm not!"
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Taylor had watched the others leave for the base to get ready for a meeting, knowing that Dean really wanted to be the one to stay with Sammy for the day, but the consensus was to allow someone else to step in to field the situation before Dean and Sammy came face to face again. Now though as he stood there and watched Sammy sleep, he worried that maybe it was the wrong course of action since the longer their little brother had to think something was wrong the longer he'd dwell on it thinking it was fact.
Sighing, he tried to keep his thoughts away from the news that Dean and Stephen had shared, but it was hard to ignore the fact that someone was watching Sammy a little to closely for the Musketeers comfort. Knowing how their brother got when things got tense, it was easy to make the decision not to fill him in on their suspicions, after all someone would be with him at all times now whether he wanted them to be or not.
Vic had left a half hour ago to get ready for school, noting that the youngest of the Musketeers wouldn't be there today, which left Taylor watching over Sammy until the kid woke up by himself. He was just starting to get worried about the length of time his little brother was sleeping when suddenly he was staring at a pair of terrified dark eyes and knew that something bad had just happened.
Hearing his phone, he hesitated in answering it when he caught the terrified look on Sammy's face. Glancing at the caller ID he tried to push aside the ice that had settled into his stomach, but knew that he couldn't delay the inevitable. Taking the call, he hadn't even had a chance to answer it verbally when the frantic voice on the other end had him scrambling for the keys to Mandy's car and grabbing for Sammy to usher him out the door.
"We're on our way!" he yelled into the phone as he pushed Sammy out the door.
"It's Dean isn't it?" Sam asked, terrified that his dream had just turned into reality.
Nodding, Taylor helped Sammy into the car before he attempted to pull his thoughts back together. 'Damn it, he was just supposed to run the car home for me before going to the base, how could this have happened?' he thought to himself, the guilty building with each passing second. Getting behind the wheel, he turned to Sammy and tried to sound encouraging. "Don't worry too much kiddo, its going to take more than a wreck to keep that brother of yours down."
Staring out the window, Sam tried hard not break down, but it was increasingly hard with the knowledge that he had no idea what happened to his big brother. Staying as quiet as possible, he watched the houses speed by as Taylor ignored speed limits to get them to the hospital as quickly as possible.
So lost in their own grief, they failed to see the figure standing at the window of one of the houses smiling widely at the scene that was unfolding before him.