Glad I got so many of you thinking about Sam's jealousy! I'm not going to let the anticipation last very long though, so you'll see how that's taken care of in this chapter! Also, wow, another chapter in just over a week. Amazing, I know. I do believe the next chapter is almost done though, so that's exciting! That chapter will include their first formal hunt!

Anyway, please enjoy this one! Lots of feels ahead!

You Can Let Go: Crystal Shawanda

After they left Bobby's, they breezed back by Isabel's, staying just long enough for her to go upstairs to pack another bag of clothes, for Sam to round up Ion's stuff, and to close the house up more properly.

It was Sam who suggested they drive by her childhood home.

Isabel had agreed, but when Sam had started to follow her inside the house, Dean stopped him. "No, Sam. She needs to do this by herself."

For Isabel's sake he kept himself under control, but hissed at Dean, "You just met her. Why the hell do you suddenly think you know her so much better than I do?"

Dean's eyes were cold, "I don't. I do know that she needs to see her old man alone."

"Why?" Sam asked, just as it all clicked into place. Why Dean and Isabel had connected so quickly. They were both children that had lost a parent to the supernatural and had no one else to talk to about it. Isabel had gone her entire life with the image of her father spread across their house in her head, and Dean could still feel the heat of the fire on his skin. Yes, John had died, but it hadn't devastated Sam, he'd been old enough to process it. Isabel and Dean on the other hand...they'd never thought about the possibility that Joe and Mary wouldn't be there, never gotten the chance to say goodbye that first time.

Dean could see the puzzle being put together in Sam's head, could practically hear the gears turning, "See? That's not something we want to shit around with. Seeing her, it'll probably end his echo, he'll be gone, for good. She won't want our sorry asses in there."

Sam nodded slowly, guilt passing over him in a thick suffocating wave, "Sorry, Dean."

Dean gave him a tight smile, "Not your fault, Sammy." He gazed towards the house, "She's something, isn't she?"

'MINE!' Yelled the dark voice that lived in the back of Sam's mind, but he forced an amiable nod, "Yeah, she is."

Dean kept going, an odd look on his face, "She's like the sun, and we just...revolve around her." He looked at Sam, confusion muddling his expression, "Do you feel that too?"

Sam shrugged, "I guess. I mean, that's kind of what everything in the book said. We're supposed to protect her."

"I guess that's why I feel like I'd fly off into space if she was suddenly gone." Dean said heavily, scoffing, "I just met this damn girl, but I'm already halfway out of my damned mind."

"She's got that effect on us both." Sam said honestly, feeling the jealousy melt away. Instinct, it was all instinct. He knew almost everything about Isabel, Dean knew very little, but it was instincts that allowed them to connect the way they had. Since Dean had arrived Sam had felt very little change in his own head. His concern and feelings for Isabel were the same, but the thoughts of leaving her in Castlewood had all but vanished. He remembered them, could riddle the logic of that choice, but now, he could never abandon her.

The brothers stayed in an amiable silence, leaned up against the Impala, listening for any sign of something going haywire.

Sam instantly knows that something is wrong. Tensing beside him, Dean did too. "Izzy." Sam uttered before sprinting up the side walk, Dean close behind.

Isabel's standing in the entryway, her back to the door, probably the same spot where she saw the remains of her brother and father all those years ago. "Baby girl?" Dean called, reaching out to her first, again going on instinct rather than Sam's own hard logic.

Isabel's whole body was trembling, shaking in a way that usually would have necessitated that they scene to get her mind and body to reconnect. It had happened a few times before, and Sam hoped she wouldn't need it this time. They wouldn't mind, but Dean would.

Isabel shuddered when Dean's hand rested on her shoulder, and she fell to her knees like a puppet with severed strings. The sobs that echoed through the empty house chilled Sam to the core of his bones. Dean melted around her in the nurturing way he'd held Sam so many times, "Hush, you're fine. Breath, baby girl."

Sam knelt beside them, suddenly aware of just how much bigger he was than they were. Isabel grabbed his hand and pulled him closer, nestling herself between the two of them as she cried. There's an understanding on Dean's face, in every movement he makes, that Sam can't understand himself. "He's really gone this time. I feel like I've lost him all over again." Isabel finally murmured, head on Dean's chest.

Dean nodded, "Yeah, I know it does." Sam could hardly remember Dean ever being so gentle. Maybe in the early days, when Sam had been really young and Dean had tried to protect Sam from their Dad's wrath, but that had quickly been dispelled on the road.

Sam picked Isabel up, and Dean opened the door to the Impala. The nosy neighbors didn't need to see Isabel cry. Sam sat in the back with her in his lap, Ion whining from the front seat where he'd jumped to much to Dean's chagrin. "What'd he say?"

Isabel laughed brokenly, "He likes you two."

Dean snorted in spite of himself, "Good to know." He glared at Ion, "You drool on the window and I'll skin you."

Isabel didn't dissuade Dean from his threat, but wiped her face, "I'd forgotten how different they are. Human Danny and Angel Daniel. I don't know how I never noticed."

"You were just a kid." Sam said soothingly.

She shook her head, "Still, they're nothing alike. Nothing at all. I'd forgotten that he used to act like our dad, and then suddenly, he was all about our mom. Guess I just assumed we'd both changed after what happened."

"Well, I blame that on your mom. Who the hell names two kids the same thing?" Dean offered, grinning devilishly at Isabel.

Isabel laughed, the sound so much more like her usual one, "I don't know. She's an odd one, that's all I got."

Dean kissed her cheek, "We need to get going, baby girl." He looked at his brother, "You staying back here?"

Sam chuckled at the hopeful look on Dean's face. Him and that dog. Sam pushed Isabel off his lap and into the center seat. "I'm good back here."

Dean pulled a face at the dog, "Damn."

Isabel giggled, snuggling into Sam, "Thanks. To both of you. I needed that. I needed to see them again. And uh...well, apparently my dad wasn't the first hunter in the family. Bloodlines. Hastings and Winchesters go a long way back. Always helping each other out."

"Doubt any Winchesters helped a Hastings get off before!" Dean quipped, and Isabel kicked the back of his seat.

"That was crass." Isabel complained, but her mood was already better.

"Hey, don't hurt my baby." Dean yelled, swatting at her knees.

Isabel pouted, "I thought I was your baby girl."

Dean pulled a face, "Aww, Iz, don't make me choose."

Sam thunked his head against hers good naturedly, "He loves his car."

She cuddled into the larger Winchester, "I know."

They'd stopped for gas when Isabel led Sam to the back of the Impala while Dean went inside to get some food. Sam looked at the inconspicuous bag hanging from Isabel's right hand in total shock. "Is that..."

Isabel nodded, all too pleased with herself. "Dean wasn't looking."

If they'd been anywhere but the parking lot of a gas station, Sam would have picked her up, thrown her onto the closed trunk of the Impala and fucked her until she couldn't see straight. "Shit."

Isabel worried her bottom lip with her teeth. "Surprise?"

Sam laughed heartily, "A good surprise, Izzy, a good one." His moment of levity failed. "Dean though."

She rolled her eyes at him, "You're not giving Dean very much credit. He may not participate actively, but I really think he'll be all too willing to appreciate it."

Sam quirked an eyebrow at her, "Oh, really? Because you know my brother so well. You've been fucking him for less than two weeks."

Isabel slapped him, scowling darkly. At her side, Ion growled, teeth bared. "Do not speak to me like I'm a whore." She poked a finger into his chest, "You have no idea how hard this has all been for me. I love you, but you have got to get over yourself!"

She stalked away, joining Dean inside. Ion put himself firmly between Sam and the convenience store, body arched to attack if Sam so much as took a step closer to his mistress. Sam put his back against the Impala, facing the highway so he didn't have to look at the beast that kept growling at him.

And then the growling stopped.

For a few seconds, Sam just assumed that the dog had gotten tired.

Then Isabel started screaming. "SAM!"

He practically jumped over the Impala, running into the store as fast as humanly possible. He froze in the doorway. Dean was on the ground, head in Isabel's lap, the both of them covered in blood. Isabel's angel blade was buried in what seemed to have once been the store clerk. Dean was holding Isabel's hand tightly, gasping for air, bleeding from several stab wounds on his chest.

Isabel was sobbing, using her free hand to press down on Dean's wounds, "I don't know how...I don't know how to help him!" Her eyes were wide, cheeks tearstained, and she looked like a terrified child.

Sam took one deep breath and sunk to his knees next to them, putting a large hand over hers, calming her and adding pressure to help Dean. "Hang in there, Dean." He looked into Isabel's face, "I'm sorry."

She scoffed, "Not the time, Sam. Dean's dying, I can feel it."

"So make it stop." Sam told her, trying to recall how it had felt when he'd had the powers from the Yellow-Eyed Demon.

Isabel furrowed her eyebrows, nodding slowly. "Okay. Make it stop. I think I can do that."

Dean's breathing got better slowly, each rasp less shaking, until he was smiling up at Isabel. Still covered in his own blood and dressed in a ripped up shirt, but he was whole. "That's my girl!"

A vague smile passed across Isabel's face as she lost consciousness. They both grabbed her. "Did she get hurt?!" Sam yelled at his brother.

Dean shook his head, "No, he didn't notice her until she put that blade in his back."

Ion shuffled over, bumping his nose against Isabel's arm. The dog fell and Isabel jerked awake. "Ion!" The dog's eyes were open, but he looked just on the edge of sleep. She stroked his fur. "Didn't know either of us could do that." She struggled to her feet, pulling Dean up with her. "We need to go before someone comes." Pulling her blade out of the previously possessed store clerk, face oddly calm. She closed the man's eyes, whispering softly to him and then speaking to the brothers, "I remember now, how to kill. I remembered how to kill, but not how to heal. How screwed up is that?" She put her arms around Dean, burrowing her face into his chest, smearing more blood onto herself but not caring. "You could have died."

Dean pushed her away gently, "But I didn't. You saved me, okay, baby girl?" He gestured to his brother with a tip of his head, "Grab the dog, Iz is right, we need to split."

Sam did as he was told, and then the four of them were on the road again, Isabel curled in the back seat with her sleeping dog, looking more pensive than alarmed. About thirty minutes after they'd left the gas station, Dean pulled off into the trees, hauling Isabel out of the car with him and opening the trunk. Sam grabbed a trash bag and held it for their bloodied clothes, and then pulled out towels and water for them to wash their skin with.

For the first time, Isabel was naked, but neither of the brothers were remotely tempted to start anything. The day had been too long, too much too quickly.

Isabel was still quiet, but Sam could tell she wasn't totally lost, just thinking. "He didn't know what I was." She finally said after they'd gotten back on the road, the sun just starting to set.

"What?" Sam asked, turning so he could see both of them.

Dean bobbed his head, "The demon recognized me after a few minutes of watching, kept mouthing off to me, but he didn't do any of that to Isabel. She didn't give him much of a chance, but, still. Didn't both of your parents talk about demons recognizing you by smell?"

Isabel nodded, fingers laced in the softness of Ion's fur, "They said my blood would change soon. Guess it hasn't yet." She laughed softly, "It's a good thing too, or we'd both be dead."

Sam's gut clenched. He couldn't imagine them both being gone, just like that. Dean had almost died, would have if Isabel hadn't been there. She could have died too, had she been in there with Dean when he was attacked and not come up behind the man stabbing Dean.

They checked into a motel and Isabel rushed into the shower leaving the brothers to get a still passed out Ion settled onto the motel sofa. Isabel came out pouting at Sam, hair wet and skin red, dressed in a T-shirt and boxer's she'd stolen from him at some point. "I'm cramping."

Sam sighed. He'd known she was being erratic, but he figured that it was supernatural, not normal. "Come here."

She stayed back, and he could feel Dean watching the both of them, "We need to talk first."

"About...?" Sam asked even though he already knew.

"About you acting the way you have been. We were fighting, and I was so upset by you that I couldn't feel Dean. He almost died because I couldn't tell he was in the middle of a damned fight." She looked ready to fight again, but took a deep breath. "I recognized that look on your face when it showed up two days ago."

"What look?" Dean asked, and Sam shot a glare at him.

"That one." Isabel informed the older Winchester. "It's the same one that popped up at the block party when John-David cornered me. I thought you were going to take his hand off because he touched me." She shook her head, miffed by his behavior, "Usual seeing you all possessive is a huge turn on, but not now. I love you, Sam, and I'm learning to love Dean already. Yes, it may be because of some nephilim caveman thing, but it's happening and I can't help myself." A small smile flitted across her face, "I'm not going to lie and tell you that I wish it was just you and me again because I don't."

Sam flinched.

Isabel stepped closer and took one of his hands in hers, "We're better now. Can't you feel it? I know you felt something missing before because I did too. That feeling is gone now, isn't it?" Sam nodded, not looking into her face. Isabel grabbed his chin, forcing him to look at her, "That was Dean. He's what was missing, and, Sam, I don't love you any less than I did before. If anything, I love you more."

He swallowed, forcing himself to speak again, "How?"

Isabel smiled, "Because for the first time in our relationship, you're not lying to me. No more half truths and avoidances. It's amazing."

"How can it be amazing to find out your boyfriend kills the monster under the bed for a living?" Sam said, almost petulantly.

"It's amazing because now I know what your nightmares are about. I could spend all night listing the things I know about you, your favorite ice cream, favorite song, what your favorite toy is, but you totally blocked me off from the deepest parts of you." She looked so vulnerable standing next to Sam, almost a whole foot in height separating the two.

Dean had to say something, "Favorite toy? I'm guessing you're not talking about Tickle-me Elmo."

"Nipple clamps. He likes to watch me squirm." Isabel said honestly, pulling Dean to the both of them, "Seriously though, if this is going to work, we have to be honest with each other. I realize that's not going to be easy for you two. I know you're used to lying your asses off every day, but you've got to try. What happened this afternoon can't ever happen again."

Dean chuckled, "Yeah, almost dying sucks the fun right out of shit."

Isabel scowled at him, but the expression didn't have any heat. "Not funny, Dean Winchester." She forced her eyes back to Sam, to make sure he was with her and not stuck in another fit of jealousy. "I've got a big heart, and you know that. There's no reason for you to feel like Dean's taking anything from you or that I'm going to play favorites. Let it go. We're three parts of a whole unit. It's going to take time for us to figure it all out, but we can't block each other out first."

Sam nodded. "You're right." He looked at his brother, "I'm sorry. I know this isn't your fault, it isn't anyones fault, and I'm just going to have to deal with it."

Isabel was beaming, but Sam could tell she was tired, could tell that with every minute that passed the pain in her abdomen grew. He picked her up and put her on the bed. "Saaamm." She groaned when he pressed on her lower back.

He shushed her and she curled in on herself, "Honesty works both ways, Izzy. I've told you before to tell me if you're hurting."

"I did tell you, and then I insisted on staying standing to run my mouth. Dean, come here." She added a soft "please" as an after thought.

Dressed for bed already, Dean didn't give her any trouble, and slid into bed next to her, "You okay?"

Isabel nodded, eyes pinched closed in pain, "Happens every month, you think I'd be used to it. Some months are worse than others though."

Dean kissed her forehead as Sam turned off the lights and got into the bed behind Isabel, resuming his work on the spasming muscles of her back, "That's not what I meant, baby girl. You killed a demon today."

He felt her nod, "I killed a man today too. That clerk. I didn't even think about it either, I just killed him." She slid her arms around him, head on his chest that, just hours earlier, had been torn apart, "You could have died though, so it's okay." Her head knocked into his collarbone a second later and she hissed a bit as Sam's hands found one of the spots aching in her body.

"Breathe, Izzy." Came Sam's voice in the darkness. A few seconds later, "That help?"

Her only response was to let out a satisfied hum and to nestle her hips closer to Sam so it was more comfortable for him to keep the pressure up as they drifted off to sleep. Dean brushed his lips against her forehead. She'd brought Sammy back to him and saved his life in more than one way. They'd be just fine.

You Can Let Go: Crystal Shawanda

"Wind blowin' on my face
Sidewalk flyin' beneath my bike
A five year-old's first taste
Of what freedom's really like
He was runnin' right beside me
His hand holdin' on the seat
I took a deep breath and hollered
As I headed for the street

You can let go now, Daddy
You can let go
Oh, I think I'm ready
To do this on my own
It's still a little bit scary
But I want you to know
I'll be ok now, Daddy
You can let go"

For the record, that song in its entirety is heart breaking! Anyway, that should be the end of Sam being a jealous ass. Probably some smut coming in the next chapter!

Questions and comments are always welcome!

-Jenn