But He's My Brother

Chapter 5

Authors note: First things first: Thanks to girlwholovesjensen for betaing as usual. this story wouldn't be half as good without your help. This chapter was hell. but in a good way. I got the idea at...well i don't really know what time but most of it was mentally written well traipsing around the haunted bike path near my school in the middle of the night. Clearly i had been watching too much supernautral when i thought that was a good idea. needless to say it wasn't. lost in the dark on a haunted bike path and no sam or dean...well its just not fun. however, if someone would like to supply me with them, or even just Dean...well, hell, I'm in for it again. no matter how creepy it was cos those winchester boys are worth a few scares aren't they? I worked hard to make this chapter extra long cos i felt bad about how long i took to update so i hope you enjoy. Also, for my chapterly plug i want to urge all you to go over and read gilwholovesjensen's fic working title intro part one cos its awaesome and totally under reviewed. Enjoy the chapter!

one lasst thing...just had to get in my own shameless plug...bad me, but i can't help myself. I did a oneshot called wishes for WIWSNB and i think that you might like that if you like this. its angst filled and rather dean centered. cos its just so much fun to torture him. :evil grin:

Jo looked back at Sam, confused when he didn't follow her out of the door.

"Sam. What are you doing? Come on."

"I can't." Sam looked down at the ancient runes that covered the exit.

"Why?" Jo wasn't exactly the best versed in ancient runes, and she knew both Sam and Dean were...but still, she was pretty sure those only could contain like demons or spirits and Sam might be considered to be a lot of things...from a uptight researching machine, down to the Anti-Christ but he wasn't a demon.

"Demons can't go past..."

"So?"

"And I have demon blood in me." It was practically a whisper as his eyes remained trained on the runes, Jo's eyes followed his glance and right away she got it, even before he finished saying it. A shiver of fear ran down her spine as she looked at Sam. He couldn't leave.

Dean knew he was panicking but he couldn't help it. He had spent the better part of half an hour trying to break into this warehouse and nothing worked. He had picked the lock--nothing. He smashed it, hit it, pulled out his .45 and shot at it, and in a moment of supreme frustration tried to ram it down with his Impala….but still nothing had happened, the door barely dented, and he ripped the better part of the front end off of his front fender.

"That's not normal. That is not normal." Dean was frantic, and fuming. He had to get in there. He had to get to Sam. It was never supposed to play out like this; Sam was supposed to be at the motel, safe…If that bitch hurt his brother or Jo…Dean was going to kill her.

"Well, it's probably cursed," Ellen, offered trying to remain calm, if Dean wasn't going to she didn't really have an option otherwise.

"I know that!" Dean bellowed angrily. "I just need a damn way in, and that doesn't help me."

"Jesus! Dean, do you think that I'm not scared to death too? My daughter is in there." Ellen told him, "But blaming and yelling isn't going to help us find them any sooner."

"I have to find him Ellen, I have to." Dean said his eyes shining with a glimmer of fear that surprised Ellen slightly; after all, she had never once seen Dean show any serious emotion, except maybe anger…but definitely not fear.

The minute the words were out of his mouth Dean had his answer. He knew how to get to his brother. He was going to go through the roof. The steel doors may have been able to keep him out, but the skylight would be simple to get through. All he had to do was break the glass, and rappel down.

Dean walked over to his car, digging through the trunk for the rope and ignored Ellen's questioning look.

"Jo. No. You have to go."

"No." She told him stubbornly, she wasn't about to leave him here alone on some kamikaze mission to sacrifice himself for all of them.

Sam just wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her, throw her, whatever it took to get her out of here. He couldn't—Sam refused to watch anyone else die because of him, he couldn't do it. It was bad enough that Dean was about to die for him, he wasn't going to put anyone else in that position.

"Don't you understand?" He told her, his voice rising above his usual tone out of fear and pain from the headache that wouldn't go away from the time he'd hit is head and just kept getting worse. He was trying to save her life and Dean's and she was making it so damn difficult. "I saw what is going to happen to us. I saw you die. I saw everyone dying, and I'm not going to let it happen. I'm not going to let Dean die either, you have to go and warn him before he tries to get in here."

Jo truly didn't believe that Sam was thinking rationally because this plan of his was filled with more flaws than Jo could count. Firstly, how did they know that his vision was real, that it wasn't just some ploy by the demon to get Sam alone and vulnerable; second, how could Sam fight the demon when he had no weapons; and third—and the biggest flaw, in her opinion—how in the hell was she supposed to keep Dean out of here? Please don't do in, Dean. Sam says you'll die if you go in, it's a trap? Yeah, that would go over real well. If she tried to stop him, he'd probably tie her up, and toss her in the trunk to keep her out of his way. She was, and had been, thoroughly certain for a great deal of time that he had the impala for the purpose of that, because she had seen that trunk and you can fit a body in that trunk after all. If there was one thing and only one thing she knew about Dean Winchester, it was that nothing—certainly not imminent death—stood between him, and protecting his brother.

"I'm not going to leave you here alone." Jo said, she'd rather die, if that's what was going to happen than live with the thought that she had run from this fight in her mind for the rest of her life. "Its suicide."

"I have to stop her. How do you not get that? This is my one chance, my only chance to save my brother, to stop her from taking his soul, and she's going to do anything she can to make sure it doesn't happen. You're playing right into her game. She wants you to stay, to be used as leverage so that I don't stop this. Don't you see? The runes, the visions, and now you refusing to leave...she's going to use you so that I don't stop her."

"She'll kill you, Sam." Jo said as she pieced together what Sam was saying. If she was right, it sounded like he had some great plan to try and save Dean that would probably get him killed. "Maybe Dean..." Jo began to regret the words as they left her mouth. "Maybe its fate, maybe Dean was meant to die like this." She said her voice soft and barely audible.

"No. No, he wasn't." The look of anger in reaction to her words was unparallel to anything Jo had seen in her entire life, but still...she couldn't help but to think that maybe she was right. Dean had just missed death a dozen times in the time she'd known him. Maybe it had finally caught up with him. "You know that's not true Jo, you know it. I died there."

"Sam, you..." Jo's voice trailed off, she had no idea what to tell him, what to say to make him change his mind. 'Let your brother sacrifice himself for you,' or 'yeah, Sam, trying to save your brother, even though you'll probably die doing it, it's a great idea?' It was crap. All they had was each other and...She didn't want to admit this, to herself, or to Sam, but...she didn't see how there was a way out. She didn't see how they could both live. One of them was going to die. Jo swallowed before finishing, thinking of what Dean would have told him, because right now, that seemed like the best choice for her. "You can't do this. If...I'll stop you...if you do this you'll kill yourself."

"I should have died!" Sam screamed at her, his voice shaking with anger. "I should have died! Not Dean, me. It's always been about me, Jo. All the deaths, everyone that I've lost, that I've loved...my mom, Jess, my dad, Dean...Jo, Dean has saved my life over and over, isn't it time I give him something back for that? You can't tell me I should just stand back and watch my brother die because I know, I know you don't believe that."

"Dean, what the hell are you doing?" Ellen asked him, as he walked around the building, rope in hand. She had been questioning him for at least ten minutes and had yet to get a response for him. "Dean!" She said sharply, putting a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "What-what is going on?"

"Stay here." Dean told her, eyeing up the telephone pole, the kind that was fairly easy to climb. From there, it would easy for him to get onto the roof and he didn't have any more time to waste arguing over his plan with her.

Ellen narrowed her eyes as she looked at him, Dean may have been worried and scared but he definitely wasn't going to be giving her orders. "Dean, you did not just give me an order. Now, tell me what we're doing."

"Ellen, this is my fight." Dean told her, trying to get through this as fast as possible. He had to get to Sam, if Sam was hurt...Dean tried to ignore the thought, and concentrated at the task on hand. "Please, just stay here."

"Dean, dammit! You can't do everything alone. I thought by now you would have learned that. You called me for help, and I wanted you to, you and Sam, you're family, and my daughter is in the middle of this. I'm not just going to sit back with my thumbs up my ass. I'm coming with you, got it?"

Dean scrubbed a hand over his face and ran it back through his hair before responding. "Fine. We have to go in through the skylight. We can climb the pole and then rappel down the skylight."

"Let's go." Ellen said leading the way. She may have been a bit older but she definitely hadn't reached the age where she was incapable of hunting.

Dean sighed and followed her up the pole, hoping that this wasn't all going to blow up in his face. That Jo and Ellen would make it out of there in one piece, and that he could get to Sammy, make sure that his brother was okay before that bitch laid claim to his soul.

Ellen couldn't help but to wonder as they made their way onto the roof if Dean was thinking about his soul. She certainly had been, but Dean had a poker face to beat them all...except where Sam was concerned, she remedied her earlier statement, as she got another glimpse at the look of worry clouding his face. The demon had pretty much screwed with the deal. She had taken Sam, and she was almost certain that had to count against something...maybe it would be Dean's loophole, his way out of it...maybe it would save him.

"Keep your eyes open." Dean told Ellen, once they had got inside the warehouse. "They could be anywhere. She may have knocked them out and locked them up somewhere."

Ellen nodded her head, she could have been annoyed with the fact that Dean, who was still a kid, in her eyes at least, was telling her how to hunt...but she let it go. Dean was like his father, and both of them were most comfortable when they had something to lead.

They walked in silence, but they hadn't gotten very far before they heard voices, both picked up their speed and they were confronted with Sam and Jo, backs to them, no more than a hundred feet away, their voices semi audible until...

"I should have died!" Sam repeated unaware of anything else but what he was saying, and fear, and a throbbing headache from where his head had been split open. "I should have died!"

The pain in Sam's voice hit Ellen like a ton of bricks and gnawed at her motherly instincts to do anything she could do to comfort him, to fix what was wrong...even though she knew she couldn't. Ellen turned to look at Dean who had stopped in his tracks when the full effect of his brother's words washed over him.

"I should have died"

Dean had never heard his brother say that in his entire life. He'd heard Sam get a bit reckless, after Jessica died...wanting to find the demon, kill it, but he'd never heard his brother say that. It tore at his insides as a reality that he'd never felt before began to set in. Sam had been carrying this hate and self-loathing around with him...all year. All year and Dean hadn't even realized...Sam had been blaming himself for the deal and thinking this...

"What have I done?" Dean whispered to himself.

He had done this, for himself, and now he was about to leave his brother alone to deal with this guilt that he felt for a choice that his brother had made.

"Sam. Jo." Ellen called out, slightly ahead of Dean who was still staggering at the revelation he'd just had.

Sam and Jo turned in the direction of the voices and Sam felt his heart skip a beat out of fear as he saw his brother. His vision was coming true and he had no idea how to stop it. Sam couldn't stop to think as he slowly followed Jo in the direction of Dean and Ellen. The white spots dancing in front of his eyes made seeing difficult, and it was a struggle to keep his brother and Ellen in focus.

Sam was fighting to keep Dean in focus. With each passing second, the pounding behind his eyes grew worse and he felt nauseous. He was having another vision.

Dean didn't know how he caught it, but he did, he knew the signs, and he knew them well. Even from his distance, he could see Sam's eyes glass over and his body sway slightly with a loss of balance.

"Sam!" Dean yelled, running to his brother, "Sam!"

Jo hadn't realized what was going on behind her until she looked back at the sound of Dean's voice. She ran back to him, trying to support him as his body started to go slack.

Sam brought his hands up to his head, and gripped it, trying to control the pain, force it out...Not let it get the better of him this time. Sam's body was bowed forward by the pain and his limbs turned ridged, he slumped to the floor.

Dean ran towards him and was stopped by Cassia who had planted herself directly in his path.

"Not so fast sugar. I think we've got a debt to settle."

"You bitch! I'm going to send you to hell."

"Dean, I really don't think that's going to get you very far." Cassia said, "Really, after all, think about your poor brother, he's in pain you know. That's quite a whopper of a vision he's having." Cassia grinned, her happiness mirroring Dean's look of fear and anger.

"I'm going to kill you. I'm going to tear you apart." Dean's voice shook with anger. "We had a deal."

"Demon, sugar. We're not the best with deals, even me. Highest bidder and all..." Cassia said, "But, don't worry, our deal, its still good. You know why? Because all I did was promise to bring Sammy back. Screwing with you boys...it isn't against the rules...a bit evil, but...like I said, demon."

It was over...for all of them. Sam could feel his heart pounding in his chest as he watched. That was to be his punishment. He was going to be forced to watch them all die. It was like he was frozen. He couldn't move, he couldn't scream, he could barely think. Jo and Ellen...had...been finished quickly. But the screaming and the stench of burning flesh felt...real.

It came in flashes now. It turned to Dean, who was looking at his brother with tear rimmed eyes and a look of determination...Sam was—the him in his vision—was across from his brother, in perfect sight, just conscious enough to watch her torture Dean before she killed him...Sam could see the knife being held to his throat...a choked "yes! Damn it, leave Sam alone!"...a flash of silver...a scream, Sam didn't know whose...blood...The sound of Dean's scream tore through him, like a knife through flesh...

please be awesome and review pretty please. I was going to wait and post it on thursday but now that my editor switched my days my evil boss decided to make me work til like the last possible minute on thursday nights...:crying in the corner: if i miss the beginning of supernautral im gonna be so mad! anyhow review and make me feel better about my horrible schedue. happy writers revew faster you know.

Thanks!