Jo knocked three times, waited, knocked, waited, and knocked again. She was getting frustrated at being left outside when Dean had already admitted he wanted her help. She pulled out her cell phone, dialing Dean's number, and listened. His voice mail picked up; either he had turned off his phone to go to sleep – an unlikely explanation considering how worried he had been about his brother – or he was in trouble. Now, she was past frustration. Jo was somewhere near worry at this point.

Not having had a lot of experience in the lock-picking department, Jo prayed no one would come by and see her as she fiddled with her hairpin in the door lock. She wasn't even sure exactly what she was doing. But she knew it was imperative that she get the door open as soon as possible. After what seemed like an eternity, a soft click let Jo know that she had somehow maneuvered her pin into the right place. She silently slid the door open, absently noting the messy state of the cabin. Quietly creeping around in the dark was hard enough in a place that you were familiar with; but this was an unfamiliar, untidy place in the middle of nowhere and Jo tripped four or five times before she found the hallway. She went down, reaching the first door and pushing it open. No one was inside the room. She found her quarries in the next room, sliding the door open and sighing in relief as she saw her friends slumbering. Well, Dean was softly sleeping, anyway. His hand was menacingly holding onto his gun. Sam looked to be more unconscious than asleep, and the nurturing, feminine side of Jo kicked in. She went toward him, spotting the bandages with red seeping through on his chest. She reached out to touch him, instantly regretting it as he groaned miserably without waking. Dean, however, heard the small noise in his sleep and shot up, the gun raised to right between Jo's eyes as she pulled away.

"Dean," she said aloud, her hands up even though she didn't know why she did it.

"Jo?" he asked, almost breathless from his rude awakening. "Don't ever do that to me again!" he growled, shaking his head to clear it and moving to check on Sam.

"Sorry," she said. "But when you didn't answer the door or your phone, I got worried and came in. I wasn't trying to be quiet."

Dean looked down at his phone in surprise. "I'm sure I would have heard it ring," he said thoughtfully, noticing with some distaste that he really did have a missed call from Jo. "Well, sorry," he mumbled.

Sam was starting to wake up with the noise of the conversation in the room. This time, he managed to get his eyes open and even focused before either of the other two occupants even knew he was awake. "Dean apologises," he said, his voice low and soft but still drawing attention. "Miracles happen every day."

"How're you feeling, buddy?" Dean asked, dismissing Sam's comment without another thought.

"Wonderful," Sam said sarcastically. "As long as I still have my heart."

"It's in there beating," Dean responded. "No one steals my brother's heart while I'm around."

"Isn't that comforting," Sam answered.

"I'm glad you're okay," Jo put in.

"Me too, believe me," the younger Winchester said back.

"Well, what is it that we're up against?" Jo asked. "I mean, is this attack related to the others? And if so, what is it? How do we kill it?"

"We don't know for sure if they're related," Dean said. "We think they are, but we have no proof. Besides, it's been 24 hours since Sam first saw the thing, and it didn't manage to rip his heart out."

"It put up a good effort of doing just that," Sam said as he gingerly touched his bandaged chest.

"Yeah, but it failed. And you said it felt like the thing was trying to suck your life out, not rip your heart out."

"Dean, we have no idea what it felt like to those people that actually died. No one got around to asking them. It could feel like the same thing."

"But we don't know!" Dean said, his voice rising.

"Of course, Sam wasn't doing things he wouldn't normally do, either," Jo put in quietly. "The other victims seemed like they were possessed."

"That's true," Sam replied. "So you think they're unrelated?"

"I didn't say that. I merely stated a fact."

"Do you think they're related?"

Jo put her hands on her hips. "I don't know. I can't imagine that they could possibly be random occurrences in the same town at the same time. But different things happened to you than happened to other people."

"Maybe Sam's special 'gift' kept him safe from possession," Dean suggested, using his fingers as quotes over the word gift.

"We know that's impossible," Sam snapped. "I've been possessed before . . . or don't you remember that I nearly killed you?"

"Sam, let it go," Jo warned in a soft but stern tone.

"How can I let that go? Obviously, I'm a prime candidate for possession." There was an uncomfortable silence, and Sam took a deep breath before filling it. "Look, I'm not beating myself up over it," he began, then, when Dean's eyebrow shot up, he amended, "too much, anyway. But we have to face the facts. Having visions didn't stop me from being possessed before; why should it now?"

"Fine. We'll accept that fact and move on," Dean growled.

Sam rolled his eyes but said nothing, his temporary energy wearing away quickly. His eyelids felt very heavy, as did his whole body. Dean and Jo were startled when his limp hand suddenly rolled off his chest and onto the bed with a dull thump.

"Is he –"

"He's just asleep," Dean interrupted, checking Sam's pulse just to be sure. "He's not dead."

"I was going to ask if he was asleep," Jo said. "I didn't think he was dead."

"Anyway, we need to figure out what to do. Will this thing come after him again? I don't know how long we can keep doing this. It was worse tonight than last night."

"Last night?" Jo repeated, surprised. "What happened last night?"

"Roughly the same thing. It got him when he went to shut the dog up."

"What dog?"

"The one that died right after a dead guy came through the door and tried to kill my brother. There was blood everywhere."

Jo's hand came up to her mouth. "Oh," she said shakily. "Was he okay then?"

"Sam? Or the dog?"

"Sam," she ground out in annoyance. "I don't care about the dog."

"He had a cord wrapped around his throat. That's where all those bruises came from. Apparently, this thing tried to strangle him so he wouldn't struggle. I got there in time to shoot the thing but I didn't know what it was doing or anything. And Sam was too tired to stay awake the rest of the night, even though I'm sure he wanted to. But yeah, he was okay in the morning."

"So this happened twice in two nights?"

"Isn't that what I just said? Please tell me we don't have to repeat everything twice."

"Look, Dean, I'm just trying to understand what happened here so I can help Sam, okay?"

Dean nodded tiredly. "I'm sorry," he said for the second time that night.

"It's okay," Jo answered with a smile. "I understand. Sam will be fine, all right?"

"Yeah," Dean said. "I won't let anything happen to him."

"Get some sleep," Jo commanded. "You can barely keep your eyes open."

"I can't. Something could happen."

"I'll watch while you sleep," Jo offered. "Just for an hour or two."

Dean lacked the strength to resist, even though his instincts told him not to abandon his brother like that. "Thanks," he muttered as he collapsed back into his chair and fell asleep instantly.

Jo smiled as she looked at the slumbering brothers. It must have been nice to have someone care about you as much as these two did about each other. They would do anything to rescue each other. Wistfully, she thought about how she wished she'd had a brother or sister. But then again, her mother was quite protective.

With a sigh, she sat down on the floor across from the door to wait out the rest of the night. She intended to let Dean sleep or longer than the hour or two she had suggested. Both Winchesters needed it. Clearly they hadn't slept well in a long time. Dean had dropped his gun on the bed, and Jo snatched it up before returning to her position. Light was starting to filter in through the room, signaling the arrival of day. So far, she didn't know if people were attacked during the day, but it was better safe than sorry. Besides, this gave her time to think. Something was definitely after Sam, and they had to stop it before it succeeded in killing him.

She hadn't even noticed that she'd fallen asleep until she heard Sam's agonised whimper. Jo shot up at the same time Dean did. Sam was halfway out the door when he made the sound, but continued without slowing. "Sam?" Dean called worriedly. "Sam, you okay?" He followed his brother out into the hall, not appreciating the fact that he received no response. Jo was right behind him when he put his hand on Sam's shoulder and spun him around. He gasped at what he saw. Sam's eyes were completely black, implying possession. This had just registered when Sam violently shoved Dean into Jo and down to the ground, turning to leave before they could get back up.

"Sam!" Dean shouted after his brother.

Sam broke into a quick run, disappearing out the door and into the newly dawning day. By the time Dean and Jo arrived at the door, Sam was long gone.

"Oh no," Jo said softly.

----------------------

Note: Well, this ended up being a less-than-exciting chapter. I don't do them very often, but sometimes they're a necessary evil. And curiosity forces me to ask people's opinion on something: Would you rather have a quick update but a boring chapter, or wait an extra couple of days for more excitement? If you could answer in a review, I'd really appreciate it. No, that isn't a cheater's way of asking for reviews. I'm really just wondering. But hey, thanks for reading. I really appreciate those who are so kind as to tell me what they think!