A/N: Alright, from here on the story shouldn't jump around as much. Hopefully it wasn't too hard to follow before. This chapter starts with Sam and Jo reuniting.

Chapter Sixteen

Sam rushed to the edge of the cliff, hidden from the demon and the man by the trees. He didn't see Jo anywhere. The other two were getting into the truck. Sam waited until both their doors were closed then stripped off his jacket and dove into the lake.

The frigid water took his breath away. He had to come back up for air, panting, before taking in a deep lungful and diving back down, trying to find Jo. The lake was deep and the water was dark, making it difficult to see. He looked for as long as he could before he was forced to come back up for breath. Again, he took several deep breaths then dove back under. He repeated this process two more times until he finally felt his hand come into contact with skin. He had found Jo, but she wasn't moving.

Gripping under Jo's arms, Sam tried to lift the unconscious hunter up, but she was heavy. Heavier than she should have been. Sam glanced down, opening his eyes as wide as he could, trying to see more clearly. He could faintly make out something big and round tied around her feet. A weight. Sam unsheathed his knife from his boot and quickly cut the rope attaching the weight to her feet. His lungs screaming for air, he put his hands under her arms and swam up. When they broke the surface, Sam gasped air into his oxygen-starved lungs. Jo, however, wasn't moving.

Sam let himself recover for just a moment before dragging her to the shore. He had to swim a little in order to get away from the cliff and to somewhere they could climb out. Finally, they made it to shore, and Sam dragged Jo away from the water. His body was trembling from a combination of the icy water, frigid air, and physical exertion. The only thing that kept him from collapsing was the sight of Jo's pale, unmoving body.

He moved closer to the unconscious hunter. She wasn't breathing. Sam immediately started administering CPR. Taking a deep breath, he pressed his mouth to hers, passing air into her lungs. He did this again, then placed his hands on her chest and started pumping. One-two-three-four-five. After thirty compressions, she still wasn't breathing, so again he moved to mouth-to-mouth. When he was halfway through the next round of compressions, Jo suddenly gasped and choked. Sam helped roll her onto her side, water pouring out of her mouth. Jo lay there, gasping and shivering desperately. Sam sat beside her, hand on her shoulder, giving her time to recover.

"Are you ok?" he asked once her breathing started to slow.

Jo nodded. She rolled onto her back, her hand on her forehead and her eyes closed. She continued breathing deeply. As she lay there, Sam noticed the scratches and bruises running along the front of her torso for the first time.

"Jo, what happened?" he asked quietly, gesturing to her stomach.

She took a few more deep breathes before answering. "They tied me…behind the truck…and drug me to the…to the lake."

Sam didn't answer. He leaned over her, examining the cuts. While most of them were superficial, there were a few that were still bleeding. Looking more closely at these, Sam was relieved to see that none of them would need stitches.

"Can you walk?" Sam asked. Jo nodded, and Sam helped her to her feet. She was still breathing heavily, but not as bad as before. Sam wrapped his arm around her as they walked, and she did the same, for both warmth and support.

"So what happened, exactly?" Sam inquired as they struggled back to the Impala.

"We were walking back to the motel, when we heard a woman scream. We rushed to help her, but it ended up being a trap, and they drugged us both. Next thing we knew we woke up in some strange place with a demon leering at us."

"That'd be Ryan. We exorcised her ass a few years ago, but she and her sister came back, wanting revenge."

"Yeah, well, they got it. Dean and I were separated for a while, and when I saw him again …Sam, he didn't look good."

"How bad?" Sam asked quietly, fear clenching his stomach. He had been afraid to ask that question.

"He's alive, but he won't be if we don't get him out of there soon."

Sam unconsciously quickened his pace, trying to keep his fear and anger in check. There was no way in hell he was going to let his brother die. "How'd you end up out here?" he asked, trying to keep his mind off his brother's impending death.

Jo grinned slyly. "I pissed off a demon."

Sam barked a laugh, then filled her in on what had happened to him.

As they neared the Impala, Sam grabbed his jacket from where he had dropped it by the cliff and offered it to Jo, who took it gratefully. Her soaked sports bra and jeans did nothing to protect her against the cold.

When they got back to the car, Sam pulled the first aid kit out of the trunk and quickly applied a bandage over Jo's bleeding cuts. Sam dug through the duffel bags until he found some dry clothes. Tossing one of his shirts to Jo, he stripped off his own soaked shirts to replace them with dry ones, then did the same with his jeans. Unfortunately they didn't have any pants that would fit Jo, but she grabbed a blanket from the trunk and said she would be fine. Sam slipped on his spare hoodie then slammed the trunk and climbed into the front seat. Once Jo was safely in the passenger seat he revved the car up and headed back towards the road. They were both still shivering, and the icy wind blowing through the broken window wasn't helping.

As they drove, trying to ignore the cold, they planned out what they were going to do. They figured there was only the demon and the grunt, Christopher, left, so at least they wouldn't be outnumbered.

It didn't take long before they were pulling up in front of the house. Sam killed the engine, looking around warily. They could see Christopher through one of the windows of the house, a beer in hand, but he didn't notice them. The hunters slowly got out of the car, guns cocked and ready. Sam checked to make sure he had Ruby's knife in his pocket, then they moved around to the barn.

They silently opened the heavy barn door and crept inside. Jo gestured towards the hatch and Sam nodded, moving towards it. They stopped as a pained scream ripped through the silence from the closed hatch door. Dean.

Sam hadn't heard his brother scream like that before. Not even when Yellow-Eyes was torturing him. Now his brave, stoic, unwavering big brother was screaming in pure agony. The sound shook Sammy to the core.

He ran to the hatch, pulling Ruby's knife out as he went. Sam wrenched the hatch door open with a clang, determined to free his brother. Jo was right behind him, and they both dropped down through the hole, weapons ready. They froze when they saw the demon standing behind a bloodied, barely-conscious Dean, a knife to his throat.