6 months later

Dean had just finished up a hunt and was sleeping in a dirty old motel room when his phone rang waking him up. He picked it up, "Yeah?"

"Dean?" he heard a female voice say.

"Yeah, who is this?"

"It's Rebecca Warren, Sam's friend," she said.

"Yeah, I remember you. I don't know where Sam is," he said, wondering why Rebecca would be calling his phone instead of Sam's anyway.

"I know. He's here in the hospital. He had a car accident."

Dean bolted upright. "Is he OK?"

"The accident was three days ago. He's still unconscious and the doctors say they won't know anything until he wakes up," Rebecca said.

Dean had noticed that she hesitated before the word until. He figured that probably meant the doctor had said 'if.' "Are you in Palo Alto?" he asked.

"Yes."

"I'm actually in California. I'll be there in a few hours."

SSSSSSSSS

Dean ran into the hospital and saw Rebecca and a couple of other people. "Any change?" he asked.

"He woke up a half hour ago, but there's something you should know," Rebecca said, but didn't get a chance to finish as Dean pushed past her into Sam's room.

"Sam, are you OK?" he asked.

"Yeah. Dean, what are you doing here?" Sam asked.

"Rebecca called me and told me you'd been in an accident so I came," Dean said.

"Oh," Sam said, lamely and was looking past Dean to the door.

"Are you waiting for someone?" he asked.

"Yeah, my girlfriend," Sam said.

"You have a girlfriend?" Dean asked, somewhat surprised. He thought it was probably a good thing.

"Yeah, her name's Jessica," Sam said.

"Weird coincidence," Dean said.

"With what?" Sam asked.

Dean furrowed his brow. "What's her last name?"

"Moore." Dean was afraid he was going to say that.

"I'll be back. I want to talk to your doctor," Dean said.

"OK," Sam shrugged.

When Dean exited the room, he saw the doctor approaching Rebecca, who was alone by then, and he joined them.

"So, I take it he has amnesia?" Dean asked.

"Yes. Did you say anything to confuse him?" the doctor asked.

"No, I just excused myself when I realized what was going on. What are we supposed to do?"

"I want to wait until tomorrow. A lot of times with a head injury followed by prolonged unconsciousness, memory loss will only last a few hours."

"But he's asking for his girlfriend," Dean said.

"Did they break up?" the doctor asked.

"She died," Rebecca said.

"Oh, I didn't realize. This may complicate things."

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"It may not just be physical, it may be psychological. Has anything else happened that he might want to forget?" the doctor asked.

"Our dad died," Dean said.

"OK, well, we'll wait and see what happens tomorrow," the doctor said and left.

"Do you have a place to stay?" Rebecca asked.

"Yeah, I'll manage," Dean said, and left quickly.

SSSSSSSS

The next day Dean arrived at the hospital minutes before Rebecca. "Have you seen Sam or the doctor yet?" she asked.

"No, I just got here," Dean answered as the doctor walked up.

"OK, let's go see Sam," he said and led them both into the room.

"Good morning, Sam," the doctor said.

"Morning," Sam answered.

"Do you know what the date is?" the doctor asked.

"Not exactly, I think I've been asleep for a few days," Sam answered with a smile.

The doctor smiled back. "Month and year, then."

"October 2005," Sam answered.

Dean sucked in a breath. Sam had reverted to right before Jessica died. Rebecca shot him a look.

As if he could read their thoughts, Sam asked, "Where's Jess?"

"Sam, I'll let your brother and friend fill you in on everything, but first there's something I need to tell you," the doctor said.

"About Jess?" Sam asked.

In spite of himself Dean smiled. You never could derail Sam's one-track mind.

"Indirectly. It's March 2007."

"Was I in a coma for two years?" Sam asked.

"No, you seem to have amnesia," the doctor said.

"Well, will my memory come back?" Sam asked.

"There's no way of knowing. It may, it may not," the doctor answered honestly. "I'll be back later, if you have further medical questions, but I'm going to let Dean and Rebecca fill you in on what you've missed." As he turned to leave, he whispered in Dean's ear, "If he gets too agitated, buzz a nurse and they can sedate him." With that he walked out of the room.

"Did Jess and I break up?" Sam asked.

"Sam, Jess is dead," Rebecca said.

"What ? How? When?" Sam asked.

Dean broke in. "New Year's Eve 2005. She got hit by a drunk driver."

Rebecca looked at him quizzically. He glared at her. Sam missed the exchange. He was crying. "I'm sorry, Sammy."

"If there's any more bad news, I want to get it all over with at once," Sam managed to say in a strangled voice.

"Dad's dead," Dean said. "He died killing the demon that killed Mom."

"Dean!" Sam said and motioned to Becca.

"She knows all about what we do," Dean reassured Sam.

"She does. How?" Sam asked.

"Her brother was framed for murder by a shapeshifter," Dean answered.

"Zack? Really?" Sam looked to Rebecca for confirmation.

"Yeah. He doesn't know, though, so don't say anything to him."

"Don't worry. I'm good at keeping that secret," Sam said and smiled.

At first Rebecca didn't get the joke, but then she remembered that a couple of weeks before Jessica had died, Sam had accidentally ruined a surprise birthday party for Zack.

"Anything else?" Sam asked.

"No, I think that's it," Dean answered.

"I wish you could have met Jess," Sam said.

"I did, once. She seemed very sweet. I liked her," Dean said and meant it.

"I'm glad. That means a lot to me. Did dad meet her?" Sam asked.

"No," Dean said. "But, you two did make up," he added.

"Really?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. Dad decided having a normal life was what was best for you," Dean lied. "Now that the demon is dead, you don't have to worry about thinking that you're letting him down or anything."

"Thanks, Dean," Sam said, feeling like a huge weight had been lifted from him.

"Well, now that I know you're going to be OK, I'll let you get on with your life. I'll call you if I need a good lawyer," Dean said.

"Bye, Dean," Sam said.

Dean walked out and Rebecca excused herself and followed him out. "Why did you lie about how Jessica died?" she asked.

"Sam's had too many deaths on his conscience for too many years. I thought I would take a couple of them off," Dean answered.

"A couple?" Rebecca asked.

"Yeah, my dad's too," Dean answered. "Make sure he doesn't find out the truth, OK?"

"Yeah, I'll do my best. Nobody brings Jess up too much anymore, so it shouldn't be too hard."

"OK, take care Becca," he said and left Sam to the life Dean hoped would keep him safe.

The End

A/N: When I thought of this episode 3 questions came to mind: What if Dean left the Colt in the trunk, What if the yed possessed Sam and not John and What if Sam killed John? I originally discarded Sam killing John because of what that would do to Dean and his feelings for Sam. So, I decided to have Dean lave the Colt in the trunk. I started writing that and it got so out of hand the only way I would have been able to get Sam out of all the trouble I got him into was to have YED spontaneously combust I thought about having YED possess Sam when he went in to pull the fire alarm, but I was left with the problem of how to get him out. So, I decided to have Sam shoot John, but not because John told him to, but because there really was no other choice. After I made that decision, I decided it would be nice, if just once, Sam could have the life he always wanted, and to get rid of the whole weight of the world that he's been carrying around. So, I apologize to anybody who doesn't think this scenario was very likely, but poor Sam just can never catch a break and I had to help him out a little.