Catching Up
Chapter 17 – Nightmare

The group reconvened in the study once more, Mary bearing two large bowls of popcorn for them to eat. "Alright," she said semi-cheerfully, her mind was still a little on John. "Let's see how many of these we can get through."

"We could probably binge right through to the end," Dean said doing a quick count of the remaining episodes. "You know if you're not too tired in your old age," he smirked.

Mary cocked an eyebrow, "I'm your mother but I am not above kicking your ass. Put the DVD on."

"Yes ma'am," Dean complied and started up the show. "So, in the continuing adventures of the dashing Dean Winchester and his dorky baby brother Sam, this episode is called 'Nightmare'. Sam has a premonition in which a man is killed, but the murder is made to look like a suicide."

"Fantastic," Sam muttered. "I remember this one."

"You and me both brother," Dean agreed as the show opened and they watched a car pull into a garage. Almost immediately something strange was clearly going on; the garage door shut itself, the doors locked and the car started, trapping the driver in the vehicle as the carbon monoxide accumulated causing the man to suffocate and die. To make matters worse, TV!Sam was seeing it all in his dreams.

"Well that was an ominous commencement," Cas observed.

"Yeah and a pretty crappy way to start too," Dean chimed in.

Mary whispered, "He's joking, right?"

"Just don't ask and we can all assume so," Sam said and she nodded.

Onscreen, TV!Sam and TV!Dean rushed to get to the house but they are too late to save the driver. All the circumstances align with the vision but the police are calling it a suicide. TV!Sam is convinced that the death was a murder and so the brothers investigate by going undercover as –

"Priests," Mary said dubiously. "You pretended to be priests."

"Was my father in a drunken stupor when this was happening?" Cas said flatly. "Surely this is sacrilege on the highest level."

"Your dad has a virgin/hooker fetish," Dean countered. "Not exactly solid moral high ground to stand on."

"God has virgin/hooker fetish?" Mary gaped.

"Oh yeah," Dean said unabashedly. "Complete with a Mistress Magda."

Well that brings a whole new meaning to 'Who's your daddy?' Sam shuddered, "I'd rather not think about it."

"I'm agree with Sam," Cas winced.

"You brought it up," Dean shrugged. "Hey look, that's the aunt from Sabrina!" he exclaimed pointing at the actress who was playing the wife of the victim.

"You would know wouldn't you? God isn't the only one with a few festishes," Sam grumbled. TV!Dean meanwhile asked the wife about the home and began investigating the upstairs for signs of the supernatural (A/N: wink, wink) and TV!Sam spoke to the son, Max. At the motel, TV!Dean and TV!Sam were discussing the case when TV!Sam had another premonition, this time awake, of the victim's brother being decapitated by his window. They go to save him and Sam is terrified of what's happening to him but TV!Dean reassures him that everything is fine.

"Tell the truth," Sam looked to his brother. "How bothered were you?"

"Approximately ten seconds away from calling up Bobby and pulling an exorcism on your ass," Dean admitted.

The TV!Winchesters were too late to save the brother and after a conversation with Max, they dig into the family history. A former neighbour tells them about how Max was severely abused by his father and uncle while the step-mother did nothing to help. Even when the cops were called, nothing changed. Suddenly TV!Sam gets another vision, this one has Max confronting his step mother about the abuse and telekinetically using a knife to stab her in the head.

This is making me itch for another hunt. "Don't you dare," Sam warned lowly. I know, I know. How reckless do you think I am? "I'm not going to answer that." Fair enough.

In the show, TV!Sam and TV!Dean argued about the best way to deal with Max. TV!Sam wants to talk to him while TV!Dean is intent on killing him. In the end, the elder Winchester agrees to give Max a chance but brings a gun anyway.

"I don't know how to feel," Mary hugged herself.

"Neither did we," Sam said.

Onscreen, the TV!Winchesters were able to show up on time but before they could get Max outside, he spots the gun and turns on them. TV!Sam explains how he'd been having visions of Max's crimes and convinces Max to talk alone with him while TV!Dean and the step-mom head upstairs. Sitting down with Max, TV!Sam leans the true extent of the abuse and how it carried on even to the present. He also learnt that Max's birth mother had died in a fire just like Mary.

"I don't understand," Mary frowned. "What's binding you that you're connected psychically It has to be more than a shared experience."

"We'll get there," Sam replied ominously.

In the show, it looked as though TV!Sam had gotten though to Max but the abused man was still angry and out for revenge. He trapped TV!Sam in a closet with a cabinet and went upstairs where TV!Dean and his stepmother were. Max took TV!Dean's gun and told him to step aside but he wouldn't so he shot TV!Dean in the head.

Dean went white and Mary shrieked, "NO!" and covered her face, shaking with sobs.

"Mom it's okay," Sam reassured her. "That didn't actually happen. It was just a vision, look!" Mary raised her eyes to the television where indeed TV!Sam was having another premonition and the image of his brother's corpse was enough to give him the mental strength to push the cabinet away and escape. "I'm sorry," Sam apologized. "I didn't realize they were going to show that."

"Jesus Sam, give us a warning next time," Dean rubbed his forehead as if he could feel the bullet.

Mary waited until TV!Sam showed up to stop Max before taking a deep breath, "I'm fine. I wasn't ready for that." Unfortunately as she said that, Max took his own life and she flinched. "Or that." Sam held his mother as the stepmother covered up Max's death and the TV!Winchesters left.

"That poor woman," Mary moaned. "I know she wasn't a good mother but -"

"I know," Sam rubbed her back."We really were lucky to have dad…all things considered."

"All things considered," Dean echoed himself softly.

"I should hope that you do not still consider yourself responsible for that poor youth's death," Cas said. "But knowing you as I do…"

"I haven't thought about it in a while," Sam answered. "But the doubt is always there."

"It shouldn't be," Dean added stoutly. "You did your best, hell you just watched the replay. There wasn't anymore you could have said."

In the show, TV!Sam admits to having moved the cabinet with his mind but his brother reassures him that everything is fine as long as he was around, he wouldn't let anything happen to him. "I wasn't lying either," Dean interjected. "I still wish I had taken you to Vegas."

Mary let out a sniffling laugh, "You could have bought a lottery ticket."

"Alright Sammy, it's official. You got your brains from mom," Dean thumped his fist on his knee.

The credits rolled at last and everyone was relieved. "That was disturbing," Cas commented.

"And it's about to get worse," Sam grimaced having looked at the DVD case. "The Benders."