Disclaimer: Neither Dean nor Sam were rightfully mine. But they were just too cute to be left alone.

CHAPTER 3

The taller man moved and he stepped into the light, looking at Sam face to face. Sam studied the face and his mouth went agape. So did the man's.

"Kyle?"

"Sam? Sam Winchester?!"

……………………………………..

Sam felt his limbs went numb and blood rushed to his face in a violent rush. "Kyle Callahan?" he had to double check. As they stared at each other dumbfounded, the younger man came over and patted his companion's shoulder.

"Kyle? You know him?"

"It's Sam, Matt"

"The Sam?"

Sam had a feeling he didn't need to be introduced; that he was already well-known somehow. By the way the young man jaw dropped when he heard his name, Sam knew his name went around quite well.

Suddenly Sam's face was splashed with water, burning his eyes and chocking him breathless. "Geez! What's that for?" Sam almost didn't dare to ask. He ran a sleeved arm across his face and wiped the liquid away. Somehow, he knew what the liquid was and why he was splashed with it.

"I'm not a demon Kyle!" Sam snapped and found his voice caught in his throat. Once again, he heard the gasps in the men's breath.

"A man can't be too careful" Kyle grinned as he shoved the bottle of holy water back into his jacket pocket.

"I thought I was never going to see you again buddy" Kyle grabbed Sam's arms and shook him once. Sam was so sure if he was not holding Dean, he would be pulled into a huge bear hug.

"Me too man…it's been so long" Sam's breathe hitched.

Sam studied Kyle's face. His face was rougher and tighter than of Kyle he used to know in Stanford. Even his grasps were firmer and unhesitant. Sam wondered what Kyle saw in him right now.

"We better get your brother out of here" Kyle's eyes wandered on Dean's limp body. "If you were right about the poison, we don't have much time left" there was urgency in his voice. Sam couldn't agree more. Bringing Dean out from there, and getting help for his condition was the only thing playing in his mind right now.

Sam draped Dean over his shoulder, lifting him in a full fireman's lift. He secured one arm around Dean's legs to avoid them from dangling and later inflicting unwanted injuries from hitting anything on their way out of the woods. "Hang on Dean" he wished silently. His wish was replied with a soft murmur coming out from Dean's parched lips "Sam..my" and it wrenched Sam's heart to hear how weak his brother sounded.

"Matt, you lead the way" Kyle gave out an order to the younger man and the latter albeit hesitant, followed the order in a way that reminded Sam of himself. Kyle looked at Sam "Go Sam"

Sam obeyed and started tramping after Matt while Kyle secured them at the back. Looking back in a quick glance, Sam couldn't help feeling weird. It had been long since somebody was looking after their back. He felt weird really, to be taken care of. Even feeling secured in other people's hands was peculiar. But then, he had no right to be picky.

So they tramped through the woods until they came into a halt in front of 1970 Dodge Challenger which Sam knew would have Dean whistling with awe. Dean was always a muscle car freak. He knew everything about a car. Give him one hell of a wrecked car, and he would rebuild it without hassle. The Impala itself was strong evidence. It was shattered way beyond repair after the brutal crash – even Bobby raised the white flag – but still Dean was able to repair it until it looked almost new.

"Nice car" the words came out spontaneously.

"Thanks dude" Kyle turned to Matt and the latter tossed the car key to him. He caught it swiftly with his hands and later opened the door for Sam. "Get you brother in the backseat"

"Kyle" Matt called timidly. His tone made Sam's heart jumped. It reminded him of something so familiar yet so distant. "Are you sure we should be doing this?" Matt fidgeted with his baseball cap, looking nervous and unsure at the same time.

"What do you mean Matt?" Kyle asked, rather annoyed. "We're trying to save a man's life here"

"He's going to be mad…" Matt reasoned.

Kyle sighed wearily. "Matt, we don't have time for this…he's dying and you know he's the only person who can help" there was urge in his voice, almost commanding.

"Yeah, but…" Matt hadn't had the chance to finish when Kyle interrupted.

Sam had no idea who was 'he' that Kyle and Matt were talking about but 'he' surely had such strong influence on both of them. A man who had a similar effect on him and Dean popped in his mind, but Sam quickly shook him away from his thought. Thinking about him made his heart ached.

"I'll be responsible" Kyle reassured. "Now would you please help Sam?"

Matt nodded as he put the baseball cap back to where it supposed to be. He came over to Sam and helped him settled Dean at the backseat of the Challenger. "Sorry man, for putting you in trouble" he spoke softly to Matt who was securing Dean with a worn out blanket taken out from the car trunk.

"Nah…I'll do it anyway" Matt smiled. Sam returned the smile with one of his own.

"Darn!" Sam remembered something and he slammed the door closed. He forgot about the Impala. They couldn't just leave it like that. Dean would kill him if he did.

"Something's wrong?" Matt asked curiously. Sam's face must have turned white to have Matt sensing the tense in him.

"I've forgotten about the car" he scratched his head.

"We'll come back for it later" Kyle suggested.

Sam contemplated at the option. He had two things that matter the most in his two hands. On one side, he had Dean fighting for his life in someone else's car and on the other hand he had Dean's life left somewhere nearby. If he leaves Dean's baby, Dean would surely kill him. If he leaves Dean, he would kill himself. Sam cringed at the thought.

"Sam, we don't have much time you know?" Kyle insisted. He was already behind the wheel, had the ignition on, only waiting for Sam to make up his mind. Sam was brought back to reality.

'The heck with it…I'll come for it later' he decided mentally. Just as he was about to enter the car, right beside Dean, he was welcomed with a shocking sight. Dean had opened his eyes, looking at him gravely. "Dean?" he had hopes residing inside him.

"Ma' baby…Sammy" Dean whined before he shut his eyes and fell into another restless slumber. Sam went stiff. Kyle and Matt looked at Dean unbelievingly. Then their eyes turned to Sam as he worked his way out of the car.

"I've got to get the car…Dean will be furious if I leave it behind" Sam explained as he leaned at the driver's window.

Kyle sighed dejectedly. He turned to Matt who was riding shotgun and the young man quickly understood. Matt opened his door and got out of the car, closing the door behind him and jogged his way around the car towards Sam.

"Matt will show you the way" Kyle looked up to Sam.

Sam studied Matt and nodded. Then he ran his eyes over Dean. His brother was totally out. Chest rising and sinking lazily, face pale - almost white, sweats trickling, breath hitched and caught in his chest, Sam barely knew him as Dean. He barely knew him these days.

"Take care of him will ya?" Sam turned to Kyle.

"You can count on me dude" Kyle winked and he revved the car away from there, leaving Sam and Matt behind, standing rigidly next to each other.

"Let's go!" Sam didn't want to be left behind. He needed to be close to Dean, he knew Dean needed him. He started running towards the Impala, parked a couple of hundred meters away from there. Matt trailed closely behind him.

'Please be safe Dean' Sam hoped silently. He couldn't lose his brother now, not when he had just got him back from the hands of hell.

…………………………………………

He felt cold. So damn cold. Someone was shaking him, jerking him awake from his nightmare. 'Go away!' he opened his mouth, intending to scream at his assailant. But nothing came out. The shaking got harder, making his head throbbed painfully with each shakes. 'Leave me alone!' still no sound came out.

Dean was desperate. He cracked his eyes lazily as they felt as heavy as rocks. They opened in slits, halfway to closing again. Then he realized no one was shaking him. It was he himself. His body was trembling furiously; muscles twitching and jerking in waves of spasms. He regretted waking up, only to be greeted by pain and agony.

As another wave of seizure rocked his body, Dean gritted his teeth, clenched his jaw and suppressed an agonizing moan. The first time, he made it. But when his body went into another series of spasm, Dean couldn't help but groaned excruciatingly. 'My…I am so screwed'.

"Dude! Are you okay?"

Dean heard a distant voice. 'Sammy…' and he felt relaxed already. He waited for the comforting touch he was always reluctant to receive when he's conscious but nothing came.

'Sammy?'

Did Sammy hate him so much he didn't want to touch him at all? Dean's heart sank. 'It's because I didn't behave right? You asked me to behave but I didn't. I'm sorry Sammy, I truly am.' Dean didn't realize it but he was whining sadly in his pain-induced sleep that it prickled the neck of the man behind the wheel.

…………………………………

Kyle was speeding over the county's speed limit when he heard stirring in the backseat. So he turned around only to find Sam's brother writhing in agony. The broken man was moaning and whimpering painfully and Kyle was damn sure the poison actively doing its job wrecking the man's body.

"Dude! Are you okay?" he asked warily. If the Challenger's gas pedal was made of wood, Kyle was affirmative it would have break into pieces. He was stepping on it with tremendous strength his foot had gone numb. 'Shit!' he was becoming more and more stressed when Dean started groaning when his body was wrecked by fits of seizures.

Kyle searched for his phone in his jacket and straight away dialed a number recalled from memory. He tapped on the wheel nervously as he waited for the call to be picked up. Then he heard a gruff hello at the end of the line.

"Dad?!" Kyle sounded desperate. "I'm bringing home a wounded hunter" he blurted the line impatiently.

He cringed at the man's replies and the rising of his tone. "No dad! Trust me on this!" and listened again.

"He was poisoned by the Pukwudgies" Kyle's tone changed when the man's changed. "No…dad, please"

As he got the man's final decision, Kyle ended the call and turned to have another look at Dean. "Shit!" he cursed aloud seeing Dean was coughing violently. But that was not what made him cursed. Dean was cupping his mouth and there was blood gushing out from in between his fingers, wetting his cloth and the car's leather cushion.

"We're so fuckin' screwed!" Kyle made a hasty turn to the right, now wishing the Challenger could go more than 300km per hour.

"Hang on man!" Kyle reached out a hand to Dean in a way that would shame a gymnast while his eyes remained on the road. He rubbed Dean's back with the hope of soothing the man's discomfort. He stopped reaching when he felt the vein in his shoulder snapped.

"Just hang on, we're almost there" now both hands back on the steering wheel, Kyle couldn't keep his mind away from the wounded man fighting for his life at the backseat of his Challenger.

…………………………………

"Dad?!"

There was a voice and Dean was taken aback hearing the so-damn-familiar word and desperation in it. That was the only thing he heard, the rest was a blur and distant. 'Dad's here?' Dean cracked an eye, looking around for the questioned man.

'No, he can't be…he's dead' Dean's lips trembled sadly. 'He died because of me'

'Sam must have been mad at me because I killed dad…' Dean gathered his knees to his torso and rolled to his other side, facing the seat rather than towards Sam. He tried muffling into the familiar leathery scent of his baby but failed miserably. Somehow his baby smelt different.

'You turned your back on me too?' Dean was heartbroken. 'You're mad at me because I hit you?' whimpering sadly, Dean could feel a cough coming out from his gurgling lungs. He brought a hand to his mouth, trying to stifle the incoming cough. When it came at last, Dean was thrashed into brutal series of coughing. His lungs felt like they were on fire and Dean was sure he was hacking pieces of them when his mouth tasted something coppery.

Dean couldn't care less. Like anybody cares if he coughed out his lungs. Dad had abandoned him, the Impala too. And Sammy, Sammy never really cares about him anymore. They were all angry at him. Dean's a bad boy – the words rang in his ears.

"Hang on man!"

There's that voice again. This time, it was not the voice alone. Someone reached for his back and was rubbing it soothingly, almost lulling him back to sleep. Amazingly, his cough seized at once and once again he felt relaxed. Guess Sammy's not really mad at him.

Dean let fatigue took over him and again, he fell into an infinite darkness.

…………………………………..

Sam gripped the steering wheel white knuckled. The forces of his grip could break the wheel into halves and Sam realized Dean wouldn't like that. So he relaxed a bit, practicing the yoga breathing technique he'd learnt from a video tape in some cracked up motel they'd been staying along the way. Although Dean thought it was sissy Sam found it worked on helping him relax.

"Your brother's gonna' be fine" Sam jumped a little; now realizing he had somebody riding in with him.

Nobody ever ride shotgun with him, only Dean. Even when Dean was down in the pit, when Sam was accompanied by Ruby, he rode the Impala alone. He never let Ruby touched Dean's baby once, knowing Dean would rather die than letting her in. He didn't want anyone who got nothing to do with Dean to ride in his baby. That was the least he could do when he failed at resurrecting Dean.

"Yeah" Sam didn't even believe in himself. To avoid thinking about Dean, Sam tried to be friendly "How long have you and Kyle known each other?"

"Since forever" Matt replied. "We're brothers"

Sam swallowed dryly. So there was other side to Kyle that he didn't know. He thought he knew so much about him but then Sam couldn't blame Kyle since he was secretive too. What goes around comes around. Studying Matt, he supposed the kid was in his early twenties.

"So…uhh, you're a hunter?" Matt asked.

"Uhh?" Sam stammered. "Yeah" he took longer time to reply. The past taught the Winchesters not to trust in people easily because the last time they made friends with a hunter, he turned to be a lunatic who was hungry for blood. Sam shuddered when he thought about Gordon, the way he died and all.

"Our life sucks man" Matt offered an honest comment, and Sam couldn't agree more. There's nothing new there. "Take the right" he sat up straight as if looking for the car ahead of them. Nothing.

Sam turned the wheel, swerving the car into the right corner. They were far behind the Challenger; Sam couldn't even see it on the road ahead of them. His heart was thumping harshly in his ribcage; somehow he could sense something wrong happening in the Challenger and the look on Matt's face confirmed what he had in mind.

"This is not good" Matt mumbled. "You better step on the gas…" he didn't need to continue as Sam already stepping full force on the gas pedal, boosting the speed and sending both of them jerking back from the momentum.

'You know your dad's in danger don't you?'

The Impala seemed to know Dean was not in the car; that he was dying in someone else's car. It rode smoothly along the road, no hesitation. Sam couldn't imagine how the Impala would lavish Dean if it was a real person.

'Step on it girl!' and that was going to be the first and the last time Sam called the Impala 'girl'.

TBC

a/n: Thanks for reading. Hope you're still enjoying the story. I know the chapter's a bit dull. But I feel there's a need for the brothers to connect. Geez, I think I started better than the rest of the chapters. Then again, thanks for reading.