"Hey, here…..Dean…hey, hey, come on…..that's it. Hey." Sam pulled a flask from his pocket and uncapped it with his teeth. "Here, take a drink….no, no…don't turn away, come on." he used his chin to hold Dean's head still. "Come on, take a drink…..okay….good, you're good." he pulled another flask from a different pocket and splashed its contents in Dean's face, allowing him to duck his head and wipe his cheek on Sam's sleeve.

"I am?" Dean coughed and spit and hacked then coughed some more. "The…..fuck? Not…possessed, dumb…..ass." he saw no immediate need to move, so he didn't. "Ow!" he moaned pitifully. "Shit." man, he was feeling his age if one tackle to the ground caused him to feel like this.

"The wards protecting the burial grounds were violated. The spirits are angry and lashing out, hence the sudden weather. You have to tell me what you saw so I can determine which ward was broken and offer …."

"Big ole bird." Dean finally sat up, wavered a bit then collapsed against a strong, warm shoulder that never faltered in its support. "Oye."

"Take it easy." Sam murmured, all sense of urgency focused only on his brother. "I've got you." he took a moment to revel in Dean allowing him to hold tight. "What kind of bird? An owl? An eagle? Billy? Hey, you…." the woods once again burst with activity, but this time it was created by man and Nate and the other two hunters emerged at a run. "Fuck." Sam seethed, holding Dean a little tighter.

"What the hell's going on? What the hell did you let happen?" Nate demanded angrily, yelling to be heard. "The whole side of the mountain dusted up! How stupid are you? I thought you Winchesters knew all and everything!"

"Really? Now's not the time." Sam spat tersely. He juggled Dean to a sitting position but kept an arm around his shoulders. "The bird Dean…..tell me about the bird."

"Eagle." Dean managed to sputter, arms holding his stomach. "Nufff-ff-ff."

"Really? You're bird-watching?" Luke exclaimed in astonishment. "Billy's knocked seven ways unconscious and all you're worried about is what bloody bird he saw? What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

Sam rose to his feet, his brother, still coughing up a lung, sprawled protectively between his legs, and confronted the trio. "Seems like you got a problem with me." his hands fisted but he forced himself to relax. "Find a way to stow it, 'cause we got bigger issues than your nose being out of joint."

"Recon!" Nate yakked, extending an arm to keep Luke from stepping forward and meeting Sam's confrontation. "Do you not understand what that means? You weren't supposed to dig up anything! I made myself clear! What the hell's the matter with you? Don't you know what sacred, ancient Native American burial grounds means?"

"Nate, Billy ain't waking up!" Ronnie called urgently. "Let it go and help me."

"Oh yeah, I know." Sam said, voice dangerously low. So, Nate had known! If Dean wasn't actively searching for his breath, and had he seen the need, he might have warned Nate about incoming typhoon Sammy. "DO THEY? Did you tell THEM?" he jerked a thumb over his shoulder towards Billy's inert form. "Seems they didn't get your memo. Or maybe they ignored it."

"And you knew better?" Nate sneered. "Oh right, yeah, I forgot, the all-oh-so-mighty-Winchesters know everything about everything."

"We didn't dig up anything because I know everything about this so-called hunt and why we're up here, so what exactly are you saying, Nate?" Sam took a step closer, one eye on Dean. "You got something you want to say to me?"

"Nate, what do we do about Billy? He needs help, we gotta help him! How do we do that?" Luke was yammering in the background.

"Saying you and your brother ain't such the hot-shots." Nate countered right back, matching tone for tone with Sam. "And maybe you ain't as smart as everyone says you are and he ain't as tough."

"You're a dick." Sam said simply. "That all you got? 'Cause let me tell you….."

"Tell me what? Huh? What you got to say, college boy? Enlighten me, since you know-oh-so-much."

"You sent us up here with no other purpose then to get us out of your way. Way to go Nate, it's a hunt, not a competition. The winner doesn't take home a trophy."

"Need me to spell it out for you?" Nate sneered. "Never understood the hype about you two and I wanted to see how smart and good you really were. All you were supposed to do was hike up here and visually look for graves. I gave you a map that clearly marked the boundaries of…."

"Nate! Billy ain't waking up! What do we do?!" Luke's voice pitched towards frantic. "Come on Nate, little help here!"

"You even say this was our fault, and you won't walk out of here." Sam had had enough and geared up for a fight. "You sent those two off on a wild goose chase without fully informing them what they there walking into. That's on you!"

"I sent them off with you." Nate wasn't backing down. "You're supposed to be some brainy know-it-all lore expert."

"We ain't babysitters. Goes to show they ain't ready to hunt if they don't know to research the job before they embark on it." Sam shot back. "Fully prepared is fully armed. What, you think I trusted you?! I knew exactly what was up here…..they crossed the boundaries and started to dig. They're stupid, stupid for trusting you and for not knowing to research this hunt on their own before coming out here." somehow, he'd advanced further on Nate and farther away from Dean and he took a step backwards, intending to retreat to once again stand over Dean.

"Hey! Where's Craig?"

"And you did." Nate said scornfully, side-stepping and circling around to block Sam. "Where you going? No one is leaving here until I get some answers and we find out what happened to Craig."

"Damn right." Sam stated. He'd never lead Dean into a hunt blindly, no matter his reasons for going on it in the first place. "So, tell me Nate, how much research did you do? Huh? You have any idea how to find Craig? He broke the wards, not us."

"Oh, yeah? Then why is oh-so-Mr. High-and-Mighty all doubled up, rolling around on the ground like a woman with cramps?" Nate taunted. "You're all quick to place blame. If you knew all so much and can do wrong, why didn't you warn them? Huh? How did the wards get broken? Oh, that's right, you do what you want and damn the consequences. Someone gets hurt or killed, oh well, long as the Winchesters get the job done."

"Wow. You wanna go there? Really?"

"Yeah, maybe I do."

"You set us up." Sam announced flatly. "Sent us up here thinking we'd come in blind. Risk your friends to prove what? You're a better hunter? Really?"

"Knock you off your self-proclaimed pedestal. Show maybe you and your brother aren't the hunters everyone says you are – well." he paused, waving a hand over Dean. "Not everyone says so. Guess you ain't, seeing as how Dean can't even sit up…"

"Nate! Some help here!"

"Prove you ain't really nothing but a fuck-up and Gordon was right or Tim, that time when you refused to hunt demons. Why's that Sam? Maybe 'cause you're one of them? Or sympathize with them. Huh? Or maybe because you went and banged…"

Sam swung, Nate not expecting a solidly landed right hook to the jaw, was knocked off balance but the fistfight was on. Sam hadn't grown up sparring with Dean for nothing and he sought the other man's weakness so he could take the advantage. If winning required fighting dirty, Dean was worth it. Sam did not like Nate commenting on Dean's vulnerability or blocking his retreat to Dean's side. Knowing Nate knew Dean's safety depended on Sam, enraged the protective streak the younger brother normally buried deep.

"Nate! He's right, now's not the time." the other two hunters quickly intervened and separated the two, forcefully dragging Nate away. "Something's wrong with Billy and we don't see Craig anywhere."

"Sam." Dean was sitting up, though still doubled over. He'd caught his breath but had yet to figure out what to do with it. "Ohhhhh—oh-ohhhhhh." he moaned, coughing. "OW!"

That one word was enough. Sam dabbed the blood from his lip with the back of his hand – courtesy of Nate's one and only punch – and returned to kneel beside his brother, who, having called Sam back to his side, slumped to the ground.

"You're ok, just breathe." Sam coached. "Breathe Dean."

"M'me...try...ing." he wheezed. "Hard...to...ow…..hurts."

"Bastard broke my nose!" Nate exclaimed. "And a tooth!" he spat out blood. "I'm gonna kill him!"

"ENOUGH!" Ronnie, Sam remembered, roared. "We don't have time for this! If we have to work with them to help Billy and find Craig, then suck it up and do it!"

And, thought Sam, this is why hunting in groups rarely works. You need absolute, complete trust in your hunting partners and that was a rare thing in their world.

"What's wrong with him?" Ronnie came to stand in front of Sam and pointed at Billy. "Why's he unconscious and your brother isn't? And what happened to Craig? Where is he?"

"Billy's a pansy." Sam said sourly. "And Craig broke the wards." Sam found his backpack and rooted through it until he removed a green canteen. "Dean knocked Billy out of the way and took the hit."

"Okay, fine, they were stupid. How do we help them?" Ronnie asked impatiently. "Dean's at least awake, so guessin' he's gonna be okay, but what about Billy?"

"What's your name again?" Sam asked. "Ronnie, right?" he stepped around Nate and the other hunter who Sam thought responded to the name Luke and stood over Billy's yet-to-move body.

"Do we dig and salt and burn all these graves?" Ronnie asked, briefly wondering why Sam was now ignoring Dean. "That's gonna take some time. We don't..."

Alarmed, Sam yelped. "HELL NO!" he gulped at the thought. They'd all be dead, casualties of a mudslide or some other made-to-look like accident of nature. "We aren't going to disturb anything." he twisted the lid off the canteen.

"We tried that." Ronnie didn't move to stop him because he assumed Sam was going to attempt to wake Billy up and offer him a drink from the canteen. "Hey!" he yelped, springing forward, when Sam, still standing next to Billy, tipped the canteen and let a steady stream of its contents splash over Billy's face. "What are you doing?!"

Testing to see if he's ever going to wake up, Sam said silently. The water in the canteen was from the town's water fountain outside the Native American owned casino whose ancestors these burial grounds were. Oh yeah, he'd done his research alright. But he was a Winchester, born to stubbornness and raised by Dean, he wasn't going to share anything more than he had to with this group.

Alerted by Ronnie's outburst, Nate drew a gun and aimed it at Sam's head. "Stop what you're doing." Nate ordered. "I ain't gonna say it again."

Sam didn't spare an eye for Nate, but he did slant his look to see what the third member of Nate's little group was doing. "Stay away from him." Sam ordered Luke when he made a move to approach Dean. "You take one more step in his direction and you won't have that foot to stand on ten seconds from now."

Luke hesitated, shooting a glance at Nate for further direction. "Big talk from a man armed with a canteen of water when I've got a gun on him." Nate retorted. "I'm a damn good shot, he ain't gonna do nuthin' to you."

Despite Nate's assurances, Luke warily backed-up, eyes searching Sam from head to toe, half expecting the unpredictable hunter to produce either a machete or an ax from the depths of his coat or jeans and indeed, whack off his foot.

"Go ahead, blow my head off." Sam challenged. Nate didn't waver and his finger twitched. "Thanks to my brother, you know, the woman with cramps, Billy failed to actually dig." Sam said sarcastically. "He wakes up and tells me what he saw, I'll know whether or not it's worth your time looking for your buddy, but I'm sure you know all that, so go ahead, end my days."

"What's he saying?" Luke asked Nate. "He's not making sense. Do you understand him?"

"You fond of both knees?" Dean asked. He was in a huddled heap on the ground, holding his own .45. "See how well you walk out of here with only one."

"Yeah." Nate finally lowered the gun. "I do." well, that explained why Sam wasn't freaking out over Dean. Whatever seeing an eagle meant apparently told Sam that Dean was in no immediate danger. And apparently he wasn't, for he was suddenly able to speak coherently, pull a gun and hold it steady.

"Well, I don't." Ronnie snapped. "What the hell's going on around here!?"

Sam splashed more water and Billy finally flailed, coughing up both lungs. Sam recapped the canteen and went to his knees, pulling Billy off the ground by the front collar of his coat. "What did you see?" he gave the younger man several hard shakes. "Billy, hey….talk to me. No…no…..breathe later…..talk…." he slapped Billy's hands down when he tried to press them against his chest. "Yeah, yeah, I know…..it's called panic and it'll pass. I can help you, but you need to tell me what you saw."

Billy tried to speak; his mouth moved, his tongue worked but his attempt to form words was garbled. Sam relented and gave him some water to drink, though not from the green canteen.

"What did you see?" Sam asked pointedly. "Come on, pull it together. Talk to me. What did you see?"

"Smoke….no, clouds, lotsa clouds." Billy gasped and sputtered. "Big...clouds."

"What about a bear? Or a buffalo? A fish, maybe?" Sam pressed ruthlessly. "Did you see an animal? Billy! Hey…hey, come on….an elk?"

"Clow….ddds." Billy was being strangled and it took both Ronnie and Nate to break Sam's hold on the man's jacket for Sam to realize his tight hold was choking him. "Saw…..cl…cl…cl….ow!"

"A bird, maybe?" Sam pushed. "An eagle? Billy! Hey! A crow? Or maybe an owl?"

"Fluff….fee, clo…w…ds." Billy's eyes rolled, his lids fluttered and he was rendered incapable of saying anything more.

"That's enough." Nate ordered, breaking Sam's hold completely. "You're done."

Sam allowed Nate to push him away and grabbed his backpack. He dug and pawed and eventually pulled out a dusty, musty-smelling book with yellowed pages and a moldy binding that was neither paper nor hard-cover. Ronnie just watched him, unsure what to do. Now that Sam knew what both affected men had seen, a bird and clouds – he knew what ritual to say.

"What're you doing?" Ronnie asked. "I don't like not knowing what's going on." he stepped away from Billy. "What was so special about that water? What kind of water was it? Where'd you get it? What are you saying? What's that book? How do you know this shit?"

"It's water from the town fountain outside the casino." Sam eventually answered.

"What does it do?" Ronnie persisted.

"Don't ask." Dean wheezed. He was sitting up, fingers splayed against the ground to support his weight, gun beneath his palm, finger still on the trigger. Ow, his chest hurt. Maybe he'd hurt something after all. "Trust him, it's what he does." he swallowed, his throat thick. A burning sensation blossomed out from his chest until he was shivering. "Sammy? Something ain't right." he groped with his other hand for something solid to hold onto.

"What's the big deal about birds?" Ronnie pushed, wanting answers. "Or clouds? I don't get it."

"It's called research." Sam snapped, bending over to remove the gun from Dean's grasp. Straightening, he allowed Dean to grab hold of his jeans near his knee. "It's what you do before a hunt. It's what you and your ass-wipe partners should have done." he gave Dean's shoulder a pat. "Sssh-shush, I'm on it…..you'll be okay." he ignored the others and began reading from the book he held in one hand.

"Craig?" Luke was saying, when Sam finished reading and put away the book. "Craig? Where's Craig?! CRAIG?"

"What the fuck are you doing?" Sam demanded. "Keep your voice down!"

"Craig's missing." Luke stated as though Sam wasn't well aware of that. "And what difference does it make how loud I am?"

Sam muttered something that wasn't discernable and that added to Luke's rising panic. He wanted someone to listen to him but Sam was once again entirely focused on his brother and didn't even acknowledge Craig's absence and Nate and Ronnie were occupied with Billy. No one paid him any attention so he ceased blabbing and took off at a run in the direction Billy and Craig had been digging.

He never made it.

He was tackled to the ground with enough force, he ate dirt. He hadn't been tackled with just the intent to stop him from going where he was headed; no, he was tackled in anger…..blunt, unrestricted anger. He was jerked by the back of his neck and flung across the clearing, well away from the line that separated safe ground from burial grounds. He landed with a thud that shook the very earth.

"You make another stupid move like that again and I will chain you to a tree and leave you here." Sam turned his back on him and returned to the side of his brother. "If you're lucky, your pals here won't desert you and will eventually pick the lock. Dean, we gotta get outta here." Sam collected Dean's gun, the green canteen, the book and stuffed them into his bag. "The spirits are angry and my offering won't appease them for long. They want us off this mountain and we need to find shelter before they let loose with weather the likes of which we've never seen before."

"What? They gonna chase us?" Nate scoffed. "How far you gonna run?" he shook his head. "No. No. We're not leaving without Craig. He has to be here somewhere." he gazed at the disturbed ground across the invisible boundary Sam apparently knew not to cross. "You know so much, tell us where Craig is. Tell us what to do for Billy."

"Smack him. There's nothing wrong with him." Sam said tersely. He shrugged into his backpack, slung Dean's over his shoulder and helped Dean to his feet. He waited but Dean failed to gain his balance. "He hit his head when Dean slammed him to the ground…..and no, Dean didn't slam his head so don't even start. Dean…..hey….I'm right here. Give up and let me help you."

"How do you know where the boundary is?" Ronnie asked. "I mean, how do you know how far to go? Or not go? There's nothing to tell anyone."

"I brought my own map." Sam got a good grip on Dean. "There're markers, just gotta know what to look for."

"But these grounds, these graves, have been here for hundreds of years." Ronnie said. "People cross these lands all the time and no harm comes to anyone. Why now?"

"Intent to disturb a grave." Sam replied. "They...the spirits protecting these burial grounds….." he pointed to the threatening sky, a sky that growled and rumbled, temporarily held at bay by his chant. "They…...know. Dean, you ready?"

"We gotta help Craig! We gotta look for him." Luke frowned. "We can't just leave him out here! Where'd he go? Who took him? Do you know? DO YOU?"

"We don't have time to look for him." Sam said, holding Dean up when his knees buckled. The wind had started up again and the clouds that gathered split the sky with jagged, forked lightning. "We're leaving. We gotta get off this mountain before the spell wears off."

"Oh, yeah?" Nate stood in front of him. "Doesn't look like he's gonna walk out of here on his own. You help us find Craig, we'll help you carry him….." he pointed at Dean in disgust. "…..down the mountain."

"Don't need your help." Sam retorted. "Can carry him myself if I have to."

"Jesus!" Luke cried, ducking as a nearby tree bent and cracked, a large limb striking the ground so violently, the ground heaved, doing its best to upend them all. "What the hell is that?!" he went to his knees, falling forward to his brace his weight on his palms. "Mountains don't have earthquakes!"

"Get out of my way." Sam felt Dean slump against him and started towards the path that led down the hill. The sooner they got going, the better, for as they continued down the path, he'd be supporting more and more of Dean's weight. "After what you said to me, you pulled a gun on me...…wow, way to ask for my help. This is your hunt, remember? You don't need or want anything from us. There's nothing we have or know that will in any way benefit you, remember saying that? Now, get out of my way, I'm taking my brother off this mountain."

"What about Craig?" Luke insisted. "We can't just leave him…"

"We can't help him until we're safe." Sam bit out. "Once Dean's out of danger and safe as I can make him, I'll do what I can for Craig." he was tense, on edge and exhausted. It felt like everything that had just happened had taken an hour, when in fact Nate and the others had burst onto the scene less than 10 minutes ago. "But Dean comes first and no one comes before him."

"Fuck!" Nate exploded, he was pissed-off over being caught without the knowledge Sam had and he hated having his words thrown back in his face. It made him look both incompetent and uncaring. In fact, he was furious over being forced into a position where he was forced to rely on Sam. "Luke, help me with Billy."

Left to his own choice, Ronnie offered his assistance to Sam who grudgingly accepted it. Dean was no light-weight and while he managed to stumble alongside Sam, Ronnie's added help supporting Dean's ungainly gait was a relief.

"Where are we going?" Ronnie asked, as they slipped and slid and stumbled down the path, ducking tree limbs and pulling free from snagging bushes. "What about Craig? Can you help him?"

"Maybe." Sam said. "They still behind us?" he didn't care what Nate was doing, but he couldn't knowingly leave them to the elements either. He'd see the hunters safe and give them the information they needed to find Craig but that was all he was doing for them.

"Yeah." Ronnie was huffing. "Where will we be safe?"

Sam didn't reply. They wouldn't be safe anywhere on the mountain until they reached acceptable shelter and they had a limited amount of time to do so. He had an amulet and another spell that would protect them if they could reach four walls with a solid roof before being splatted by a falling tree or crushed by a rock or worse, buried alive under an avalanche of mud.

And Sam knew exactly where such shelter was. They just had to get there before disaster had the opportunity to strike - and that would most certainly happen if they didn't reach safety before Sam's first spell wore off.

"The wards that were broken….." Sam tossed a worried glance at Dean when he stumbled, and despite both Sam and Ronnie's support, crashed to his knees. "Hey, come on….little further….Dean, hey…..come on, get up. That's it. You okay?"

"Need….a…..minute." he gasped, trying to pull up, but Sam refused to allow him to stop. "Sammy, come on..."

"We don't have time Dean, we gotta find shelter."

"Why don't we just leave?" Ronnie asked. "The cars…"

"We won't outrun this storm." Sam said. Nate and Lucas were close behind, carrying Billy between them. Huh, apparently Nate had no problems following Sam now! "They won't let us off this mountain. They're pissed off and if we're out here when that spell wears off, we'll be set upon by wolves or bears and we won't make it."

"We have guns and plenty of ammo." Luke hollered.

"Won't do any good against what comes after us." Sam yelled back.

"So, what you chanted out of that book more or less gives us a head start." Ronnie said. Sam nodded. "Long enough to get off this mountain?"

"No, but long enough if we keep this pace to reach shelter."

"So, someone disturbs those grounds, their deaths are made to look like accidents or animal attacks or the weather and no one ever questions it."

"Only those who have evil or destructive intent."

"Billy and Craig aren't evil." Ronnie objected. "They didn't destroy anything!"

"Dig, salt, burn, isn't destroying?" Sam questioned.

"Well, yeah, but…..well, no." Ronnie frowned. "I mean, the ghost killing those hikers…"

"Yeah, word of advice, don't put too much trust in your buddy Nate." Sam warned. "He was more pissed that Dean and I showed up then he was about sharing details of this hunt with you." he slipped but recovered his balance without dropping either Dean or Dean's bag. "He knew damn well there was no grave up here that needed salting and burning. Oh, and FYI, never go on a hunt without thoroughly researching the case first."

"So, where are we going?"

"I told you, I brought my own map."

"You didn't trust Nate?"

"Hell, no."

"So, what do we do?"

"Stay safe for eighteen hours." Sam said tersely. "The spell, curse, whatever, from the violated wards lasts for eighteen hours. We just gotta out live it. I have an antidote for the poison."

Eighteen hours, a fire, the protective shelter of the cabin and a pot to boil liquid in was all he needed. Treated with the antidote to counter-act the curse of the bird spirit, Dean would be safe and all would be well and they could leave. And God willing, they were never coming back.

"Poison?" Ronnie echoed. "They were poisoned?"

"Just Dean. They'll both live."

"You mean Dean and Billy will. What about Craig?"

Sam sighed, tugging Dean's weight his way, away from Ronnie and giving him a hug. He stopped Dean's head from bobbing with his chin.

"We'll help you find him." he said finally.

And then they were leaving and most definitely never crossing paths with any of Nate's group again. Hell, Sam wouldn't even accept a phone call from them!