Sam continued to pace the living floor, just as he'd been doing for the past four hours. Sadie had been gone for way too long, and Sam was certain that she was dead by now. After all, if she wasn't a demon anymore, she definitely could be dead. The mortality of it all was driving him crazy. Dean was trapped, possibly dead himself – though Sam truly believed he would have felt something if Dean were dead. Bobby was hurt and still at the hotel. Sam had talked to him on the phone shortly after Sadie left. Bobby had been furious at him for going after Sadie alone, but Sam had convinced him it was the only way to save Dean. Now, there he was in Sadie's home, waiting not-so-patiently for anything. Ruby had camped out at the kitchen table with a book of Sadie's – another something that Sam couldn't make out – similar to the one she'd had in London.

But Sam just couldn't stop the pacing. As long as Dean was missing, he really wasn't sure he'd ever be able to stop pacing. He reached for the tv remote, trying once again to distract himself when a small voice startled him. "Sam? Where's my mom?"

Sam quickly turned off the tv and walked over to John. He scooped the small boy up in his arms and carried him down the hall to his room. "She just had to go run an errand. She'll be back soon. What are you doing up?" Sam asked as he laid John back in his bed and pulled the covers back up over the boy.

"I had a bad dream and I couldn't go back to sleep." John looked up at Sam with tears in his eyes that were so much like Dean's, it almost took Sam's breath away. The boy was no doubt Dean's son.

"Well, that's the great thing about dreams," Sam started to say quietly. "Dreams will eventually end, and you can wake up, and when you go back to sleep, it's a new dream."

John glanced away, refusing to look at Sam for a moment before he finally raised his hazel eyes to Sam. "But what if it's the same dream every time?" John's voice was so quiet that Sam had to strain to hear him.

Sam glanced back over his shoulder at Ruby who'd just joined them and had stopped right inside the doorway. The shared look between the two was an indication to each other that they were both thinking the same thing. Sam turned back to John and reached out a hand to smooth back the hair on the boy's forehead. "Do you want to tell me about your dream, John? Ruby and I here are pretty good at guessing what dreams are about. Maybe we can help."

John looked from Sam to Ruby then back to Sam. He wasn't sure he could really trust this man, but his mother had said they were friends, right? Sam knew his father, so he couldn't be all bad, could he? John licked his lips and chewed on his bottom lip for a minute before he finally began to speak. "It's always the same. Dark and rainy, but my mom and I are always someplace different. It's like a hotel room or something, but it's always a different place. She's holding me behind her and screaming at someone on the other side of the door. She keeps telling them they can't have me." John stopped for a minute as tears moistened his eyes. His small hands held tight to the comforter on his bed and he began to twist it nervously as his story continued. "After a few minutes, the door flies open and a person is standing there. It's always a different person, but they always have the same eyes." John stopped talking then as the memories of his nightmares flooded his mind. The tears began to slip free from his eyes and spill down his cheeks.

Again, Sam looked back at Ruby. She wore a frown on her face, the same as Sam. They both knew where this was going, but Sam still prayed that he was wrong. When it was obvious that John wasn't going to say anymore, Sam finally asked the question he was dreading the answer to. "What's wrong with their eyes, John?"

John shook his head at first. There was no way he could really describe them. Just the thought of saying it out loud scared him.

Sam again reached out and smoothed back the hair at the boy's temple. His free hand wrapped around John's shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze. "It's okay, John. Ruby and I are right here, and nothing can hurt you with the two of us here. Okay? We won't let anything hurt you."

John again looked at Ruby and Sam before finally closing his eyes. His voice again was so quiet that Sam had to lean forward to be able to hear the boy's words. "They're black," he said simply.

Sam felt the rush of fear rush over him like a tidal wave. He closed his own eyes and his head fell forward. Dammit! John – the son of a hunter and a half demon – was dreaming about demons coming after him. Sam opened his eyes and tried to force the look of fear and worry from his face before raising his head to look at John again. The boy stared at Sam, his own worry and fear etched on his little boy features. "What does it mean, Sam? Who are the black-eyed people?"

Sam took a deep breath and tried to offer John a smile. Sam knew exactly who they were, but how much could he really tell John? After all, technically, the boy was only five years old. He still wasn't sure how that worked, but it was definitely something he would ask Sadie about later. "I think those people are just your fears. You worry about someone taking you away from your mom – or her away from you. Do you worry about that, John?"

Ruby scoffed at Sam's assessment of the dream. If it were up to her, she'd tell the boy the truth. He had a right to know, after all. They were demons he was dreaming about, and they were after him. Period. There was no sugar-coating that truth, but there was "bleeding-heart-Sam" – trying his damnedest to do exactly that.

John nodded but didn't verbalize his answer. His eyes shot to Ruby when he heard the sound that escaped her. She thought he was crazy. He knew he shouldn't have told them about his dream!

Sam shot Ruby a "shut up" look before he turned back to John. He again squeezed John's shoulder before he moved John a little to the left. Sam turned around and sat back down on the bed, this time sitting beside John. Sam draped his arm over the top of John's pillow and stretched his legs out on the bed in front of him. "Ya know what I think you need? I think you need a good bedtime story to fall asleep to – so you won't have to think about the bad guys."

Now Ruby's interest was perked up a little bit. What was Sam up to here? She leaned back against the wall and watched the two who occupied the small bed. For some reason, she just couldn't imagine Sam telling some cookie cutter story. If it were Dean, she could just see it now – Goldilocks and The Three Bears – he'd scar the kid for life with the demonic twists and turns the story was sure to have. But Sam surprised her.

"Well, John. Has your mom ever told the story about Merlin?" Sam looked down at John and when John shook his head no, Sam gave the boy a playfully shocked expression. "Never?! Well, you definitely need to know about Merlin. Do you know who King Arthur is?"

Again, John shook his head that no, he didn't know. He smiled broadly, though, and sat up a little more, looking up at Sam as Sam began a lively and exciting story about Arthur, King of Camelot, and the wise old magician that befriended Arthur at a young age and helped the boy learn how to be a man.

Ruby actually found herself smiling at the story, thinking to herself how funny it was to see Sam Winchester telling a bedtime story to a little boy – just as if the night were as normal as Sam ultimately wished it was. She stayed in the doorway and listened for several minutes before finally leaving the two boys to their story and returning to the book on the kitchen table. There were definitely more interesting stories in that book than what Sam was weaving in the bedroom. She was pretty certain that Sadie had never told John these stories, either.

It was nearly four more hours later when Ruby was standing once again in the doorway to the bedroom, watching John and Sam in the bed. The two had both fallen asleep hours ago, Sam with his arm still wrapped around John and John now curled up with his head on Sam's lap. She'd been watching them, remembering what it was like to be human - remembering for a moment the family of her own she'd once had – thinking to herself that this is exactly what it would be like if Sam had a normal life and was a father. She heard the sounds of a car pull into the driveway. She made it to the living room just seconds before the door to Sadie's small home finally opened and Sadie spilled inside. Blood covered her face and hands, and Ruby was at her side in an instant. "What the hell happened to you?"

Sadie groaned in pain as Ruby helped her to the couch and went to the bathroom for a wash cloth. She went the towel in the sink and returned to Sadie's side and began to wipe the blood off her face. It was then that she began to realize that the blood wasn't Sadie's. In fact, there wasn't a visible injury anywhere on Sadie's face nor hands. "Okay, you really gotta tell me. What happened?"