Warnings and disclaimers: See chapter 1

Many thanks to CorieHall for the beta on this story.

Chapter 20 Shooting gallery

Dean's right hand lifted off the ground flipping the silver stake over and slamming it up into Jeremy's crouched rear end pointing the tip up at an angle toward the front. Dean felt a satisfying crunch of bone as he drove the steel up past bone hoping to hit an artery and slow the guy down. He lifted as much of his body as he could to push the spike up as far as it would go. He was rewarded with a scream so loud Dean flinched. Jeremy dropped his precious gun and it fell straight into Dean's waiting, painful, bleeding right hand. Dean thought he might have to use the gun on its owner but the young man dropped across Dean's legs howling in agony before it was suddenly cut off and he fainted dead away.

Dean turned to Sam.
"See he was okay dishing the pain out Sammy."
Sam chuffed a laugh at Dean's brand of humor whilst still amazed he had taken the guy out.
"Okay Sammy, lean to the left."
Dean aimed the nine millimeter to Sam's right after checking the safety was off.
"Dean you're not going to…?
"…Shoot the chain. Unless you have a paperclip in your jockeys. The other brother is on his way with dad. We have to get out of here and save dad's ass."
"Shit and Bobby too." Sam leaned to the left as far as he could. "You sure you can do it Dean?" Sam could see that Dean's hand was struggling just to keep the gun up.

Sam knew it was only ten meters, something Dean could do in his sleep but he had blood just about everywhere and sweat from pain running down his face.
"No problem Sammy." Dean panted pushing the pain down deep and concentrating only on the sights of the gun and the chain beyond it.

Dean breathed deeply a few times then fired one shot. The chain sprang apart with a flash of spark.
"Great shot Dean."
"Right, Sammy."
Sam went quickly to his right as far as he could and was a little startled how quickly the chain dropped away.
"Hold still Sammy."
Sam stilled immediately trusting Dean's words implicitly. A shot rang out and both the chains on Sam's feet snapped at once causing Sam to overbalance slightly.
"Man that was a fantastic shot Dean!"

Sam sprinted the ten meters to his brother so fast he skidded as he stopped.
"Dean, Dean you okay? Of course you're not. What do I do?"
Sam wanted to hug his brother and help him at the same time.
Dean leaned as far forward as he could and slipped his fingers in Jeremy's front pocket and pulled out a small silver key.
"Get yourself out of those cuffs Sammy."
"Okay, okay."

Sam quickly discarded the cuffs then looked around in the dark. He stood and flicked all the switches on the hanging board on giving the room more light. It was as Dean had suspected an old explosives factory. There were plenty of caution signs on the walls but the floor had been cleaned well and fixtures taken off the floor so the whole area was clear meaning they had been preparing for some time. Sam bent and pushed Jeremy off Dean with a grunt, avoiding looking at the pooling blood, then saw a pool of light off towards a corner past Dean's feet. A red cross caught his eye. He ran to the corner and opened a large first aid box that was hanging on the wall. The box itself was old and rusted but when he opened the door there were obviously new contents inside. The bottom was filled with syringes and needles but the top held at least a dozen thick rolls of bandage.

Sam scooped all the bandages out fumbling them in his arms as he hurried. He was about to run back to Dean when he saw his and Dean's jackets lying on the floor. He. dumped the bandages in the jackets and scooped the jackets up running over to Dean. Sam ripped his outer long sleeved shirt and t shirt off and threw his jacket over his naked torso pulling the sleeves up quickly. Sam ripped his t shirt in two and made two pads slapping one on either side of Dean's right hand then wrapping it quickly with a bandage.

Sam moved to Dean's left side and put his hands around the spike through Dean's hand.
"Sorry Dean, this is going to hurt."
"I know Sammy, don't worry, just do it."
Sam pulled the spike out quickly knowing it was like a band aid. Dean grunted but otherwise gave no indication he was hurting. Sam wrapped up Dean's hand like he had his other babbling to take his and Dean's minds off what they were doing.
"See you were right Dean. Dad should listen to you more often."
"Sam."
"Bobby said so too."
"Bobby's here?"
"Yeah, he's been helping us look for you."
"Good ol' Bobby." Dean groaned out as Sam pulled the spike out of his left foot.
"Sorry Dean."

Sam wrapped Dean's foot with parts of his shirt and bandages.
"Not your fault Sammy."
"Yes it is Dean. You told me to watch out for him."
"Yeah but it was meant for dad as payback Sammy. They set this up over months. Don't you dare blame yourself."
Sam pulled the spike out of Dean's other foot without answering and set about patching it up as Dean watched his brothers face carefully.

It would be just like Sam to try and take the blame for this whole ugly mess. Sam moved to the spike in Dean's shoulder checking it carefully before wrapping his hand around it. Dean put his right hand over Sam's stopping him from moving.
"Sammy please don't blame yourself for this. It wasn't any of our fault. Look at me Sam!"

Sam reluctantly looked into Dean's bright green orbs and saw tears in his eyes making the color seem brighter and his eyes looked like they were looking into his soul.
"Come on Sammy you're the smart one. You know this is none of our faults, even dad's. These guys have a screw loose and we were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don't blame either of you for what happened to me. I just want to be back with my family again, where I belong."
Sam nodded in understanding because after all that was what he wanted as well.
"Okay Dean. Let's get this off you and get out of here."
Dean looked into Sam's eyes finding no lie there so finally let the younger man continue with his work.

TBC