Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or any of its characters. I also do not own the title--it belongs to Jimmy Eat World.
Author's Note: This is the quiet lull in between the two most action packed scenes in the entire story. It's kinda short, but it has a lot of brotherly love, so I hope you enjoy!
Read and review please!!
Summary: A hunt goes wrong, landing both Winchesters in the hospital, one within an inch of death, the other regretting all the choices he has made. With help from an angel, Dean gets to see what would have happened if Jake hadn't killed Sam all those years ago in Cold Oak.
Polaris
Chapter 4
The Road House, despite Dean's best efforts, had been burnt to the ground. There had been no survivors. Bobby had gotten to the small rendezvous for hunters too late, after spending most of the day trying to contact Ash to warn them.
Ellen had lived, bringing the map of the graveyard. Dean wasn't sure what was supposed to happen anymore, now that Jake was dead and Sam was alive. Sam hadn't been exactly helpful, either. He had passed out on Bobby's couch the moment they had gotten there, completely exhausted from the events of the past two days.
Dean stood alone in the massive living room, pretending to be studying the bookcase, but really watching Sam. He still couldn't believe that he was back in this time. The time he often longed for when he was looking at the Sam back in his own time, where Sam would at least tell him what he was doing before he went and did it, where Sam would tell Dean what was bothering him. Being here made Dean realize just how much he had missed his brother.
"Dude, take a picture, it will last longer," came the sleepy grumble from the couch as Sam woke up and stretched. Dean noted the wince as his brother moved his left shoulder and instantly grew worried. Maybe there had been something he had missed. Maybe Sam was going to die after all.
"Dean, seriously man, are you okay?" Sam asked blinking owlishly at him. The youngest Winchester still looked exhausted.
"I'm fine," Dean said instantly. "You okay?"
"I'm fine," Sam said with a yawn. "Where're Bobby and Ellen?"
"I think they went to see if they could salvage anything from the Road House. Why, do you need anything?"
Sam glanced out the window anxiously, making Dean's uneasiness grow. There was something about the look in his younger brother's eyes that made Dean worried about what had happened in Sam's head while he had slept.
"I, uh, I had this dream," Sam said as he sat up and leaned back against the couch. The dark circles underneath his eyes were really pronounced. Dean felt for him, wishing there was something he could do.
"Oh?" Dean asked interest spiking. Dream as in dream or as in vision? But, Dean remembered, Sam's visions hadn't taken the form of dreams in a long time.
"It was about the yellow eyed demon," Sam said hesitantly. He looked any where but at Dean. It had been bad, Dean deduced.
"And?" he prompted. He didn't want to let on to just how much this freaked the hell out of him. Sam was already anxious enough about this whole thing.
"He wants me to do something for him," Sam said still looking any where but at Dean.
Dean already knew what. He remembered every single detail of that day and the weeks after it. But more importantly, he remembered the giant devil's trap in the southern end of Wyoming that was made out of railroad ties, created by Samuel Colt in the 1860s. He remembered that Jake had been the one to get the mysterious Colt back from the Yellow Eyed demon and open the devil's gate in Wyoming.
"What?" Dean asked trying not to sound too annoyed. He wasn't supposed to know about the plan. He wasn't supposed to know anything that Sam didn't know.
"He told me that he wanted me to open a gate in Wyoming," Sam said looking bemusedly at Dean. "Using the Colt. It was weird. Like he didn't know that I knew about the gun and what it would do. And then he told me that all I had to do was to open the door that was in the cemetery and he would never bother us again."
"And you believed him?" Dean asked incredulously. He had thought this version of Sam was supposed to be the smart one. The one that remembered that he had gone to Stanford and actually acted like it.
"No!" Sam protested angrily. "I'm not an idiot, Dean. I said there was no way in Hell that was going to happen. Not after what he did to Mom. Not after what he did to Jess."
Jess. The one thing in the world outside of Dean that actually made this version of Sam tick emotionally. Dean had forgotten about how messed up Sam had been over that, even years later. He wondered in the back of his mind if the Sam he knew in his own time still had feelings for Jess.
"Then what's the matter, Sammy? If you said no, then what's up?" Dean asked as his brother looked away from him again. There was a look of anguish in his eyes, one that didn't go without notice on Dean's part. There was something still bothering him. Dean figured out what it was just as Sam opened his mouth.
"He threatened to kill you," Sam said softly. "If I didn't go along with his plans he said he would kill you and Bobby the same way he killed Mom and Jess in front of me."
Sam looked like he was going to say something else, but decided against it. Dean had a feeling he knew what his brother was going to say.
"Don't worry about us, Sam," Dean said. "We can handle the yellow eyed demon. And we're going to do it together."
"I can't," Sam said shaking his head. "You don't seem to get it. He's going to kill you the same way he murdered Mom! Do you not get that?"
"I do Sam," Dean assured him. "But I also know that he can't kill us if he's dead."
Sam looked up at Dean, an emotion lingering close to hope in his wide brown eyes. His long hair hung in front of them slightly, giving him the look of a five-year-old whose father had just told him he could get ice cream every day after school. Dean nearly smiled at the look.
"Sam, Dean! We brought back food!" Bobby yelled as the front door to the house slammed shut, successfully breaking the brotherly moment between Sam and Dean.