Supernatural does not belong to me, although I wish it did. I am simply playing in Kirpke's sandbox for a bit. All rights and ownership are the property of Kripke and the CW network. I am not making any money from this; it is for my own personal pleasure.

Synopsis: Set at the start of Season One, Dean had been in a wheelchair since his father disappeared more than a year ago and he finally has to tell Sam… There'd been an accident that night and Dean had paid a very high price….one he still doesn't understand. The story will have some hunts from season one and possibly into season two…the brothers will continue their search for their father…there will be alterations to the hunts to accommodate Dean's new situation. I have every intention of returning Dean to good health before this ends…but getting there is going to be bumpy.

Please keep in mind that I do not have a Beta, so all grammatical errors are my own. Not Slash. Brotherly love and Angst only…

Please Review: They keep me motivated. Also thank you to any reviewers that are 'guests' since I cannot PM and you guys personally.

Chapter 16

Family Reunions

The boots were getting closer…Dean wasn't sure why Missy hadn't come back yet, so he crawled until he could lever his beaten body into the chair again. He groaned inwardly as the burns on his thighs pulled and the wounds on his knuckles seeped blood onto the tires of his chair. He was just settling himself into the chair when a figure rounded the corner….

"Dad?" Dean whispered as the figure of his father came into view. John Winchester was thinner than Dean could ever remember seeing him and his face was lined with worry as his eyes landed on his eldest son. His eyebrows drew together in confusion as he saw the chair that Dean was currently sitting in.

"Dean? What happened?" he asked as he walked toward his son.

Dean shrank back into the chair, suddenly forgetting about his wounds as the past years of abuse flared within his mind. Only to be pushed back as he thought about Sam and the fact that those bastards had gone out there kill him in cold blood. "Dad…Sam!" he said as his breathing sped up and he started pushing his chair toward the kitchen door where the ramp was located.

"Dean…He's okay. I already got him out of the cage." Their father's blue-green eyes looked away for a moment before coming back to rest on Dean again. "He wasn't too happy to see me…but I asked him to wait with the sheriff. I didn't want more of us in this house than there already was." John glanced around the house and then back at Dean's burned and broken form. "Dean…what happened?" he repeated.

Dean looked down at his legs and then back up at his father. "You mean you don't know?" he asked quietly. His father shook his head 'no', and Dean felt his heart drop…their father had to know what was going on. He was Dean's last hope of fixing this. He was the connection between the witches and the demons and what they had done to Dean.

"I'm sorry son…I don't remember much…not for a long time now." He said as he walked over to where Dean was staring at him.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Dean asked as he tried to look his father in the eye. It was hard for the last few years he had tried to look anywhere than in his father's eyes. He had hated seeing the disappointment and the anger that was always just beneath surface of those expressive orbs. But not tonight…there was nothing but sorrow and sadness.

John was just getting ready to answer when Sam came rushing through the front door. "Dean! You okay?" His little brother asked breathlessly as he glared at their father and knelt in front of his…holy mother of…had these bastards tortured his brother? The thought ran through Sam's head before he could get a hold of it and was obviously reflected out his own eyes as Dean's gaze dropped from his and he moved his hands to try and cover the wounds on his legs. They were still bleeding sluggishly…but this only succeeded in showing Sam the damage to his hands.

Sam gasped at the slices into Dean's hands and the way the blood still oozed from them as he tried to hide other injuries. This whole Dean getting hurt thing really wasn't cutting it with him. They needed to stop putting the middle Winchester in danger….because honestly; he didn't think that he could take seeing his brother in this type of condition anymore. Sam cast his gaze over to their father, his own blue-green eyes narrowing as he stood to all of his 6'4 height and stalked over to him. This was the first time that he had seen their father since he had gained another 4 inches in height. He was gratified to see that he now towered over their father by a good three inches. He crossed his arms across his broad chest as he stared at the elder Winchester and raised an eyebrow, in a pretty good imitation of Dean. "Where the hell have you been?" he asked through gritted teeth. His eyes flashing dangerously as he ignored the silently pleading look that his older brother sent him. Sam knew that they needed to get Dean out here and get him cleaned up…but their father some serious explaining to do. And Sam wasn't sure that he wanted the man to know where they were staying until he had explained some of the shit that had happened over the last few years.

Dean's eyes flickered from his brother's dangerous expression to the confused and slightly sad face of his father. Dean didn't know what was going on with his dad, but he did know that Sam wasn't going to understand…no matter what excuse their father had. He felt his vision start to darken slightly as he watched the stand-off between his family. He tried to stop the forward momentum of his body as his started to shut down…he didn't know if it was from pain or blood loss…both probably. But his world darkened and his eyes slipped shut.

Sam's eyes were drawn to the sudden movement of his brother as he watched Dean's body slipping to the floor. "Dean!" He cried as he lunged forward to stop the unscheduled descent of the wheelchair bound man as his body slumped and he dropped into unconsciousness. His fingers grabbed onto Dean's shirt as the body dropped…he felt the familiar weight of his older brother settle into his arms. "Dean…come on man…wake up." He said as his voice shook from the stress of the last couple of days. Their father rushed forward. "NO! I got this." Sam said as he glared at his father. He gently lowered Dean to the dirty floor and looked over at John with narrowed eyes. "We need to get him out here…" Sam didn't want him anywhere near Dean, but he didn't have a choice. While Dean had lost weight, he was still close to 170lbs and they needed to get him out this shithole quick. He inhaled slowly and ran a bloody hand over his face as he debated and finally waved their father over.

XXXX

John nodded as he took the hint and walked over bending down to pick up his son's emaciated legs…the blood still dripping from the wounds inflicted by the fucking crazy family that he'd been tracking. He hadn't known that his boys would be in the area…hell he did the best he could not to run into them. John still had holes in his memories…in fact…he couldn't remember the last four years…he hadn't been able to recall anything since the night that he and Dean had gone to a bar searching for a skin walker. They had gotten separated and he hadn't been able to pull any memories until about two months ago.

He had been surprised to find that neither of his sons were around, he had called Caleb and Pastor Jim…and the story that they had told him made him cringe all the way to his toes. He had thrown up until there was nothing left but bile and the taste of failure in his gut. What did a person say when they were told that they had abandoned their sons…one to a life as a cripple in a god-damn wheelchair and the other to a life that was wholly unprotected and bitter. He had done that…somehow he had been possessed and then he had destroyed his own sons and he couldn't remember a fucking thing.

Caleb hadn't wanted to tell John. Somehow he had thought that John Winchester had really turned into that much of a bastard since Mary had died. And although John would be the first to admit that he had his faults…he would never have abandoned his sons. Then he had talked to Pastor Jim and that had been another night of emptying his stomach as he learned that he had repeatedly beaten his eldest son over the last three years until he disappeared the night Dean was injured and left to recover in some lonely hospital. The guilt was palpable and he didn't know how to deal with it as he looked into the angry and scared eyes of his youngest son.

"Let's get him out of here." John said.

XXXX

Sam narrowed his eyes at his father and gently grabbed his brother under the arms and hauled as they stood up in tandem and walked to the door and down the ramp. John had his truck parked closer than the Impala…and Sam wasn't even sure where Dean had put the car. He hoped that it wasn't too far away, but he really didn't know. Sam wasn't willing to lay his brother in the bed of the old truck so he opened the passenger door and gently laid Dean down as he crawled up and cradled the bloodied blonde head in his lap as he slid into the center of the seat.

"Can you…get his chair?" he asked their father.

Sam wasn't sure what he saw flash across his father's face, but it definitely didn't look like it belonged there. He shook his head and ran his fingers through Dean's sweaty hair, his hands trailing over the cuts that had finally stopped bleeding on his cheeks. "Dean…this has to stop." He whispered to the unconscious form of his older brother.

He heard John throw the metal wheelchair into the back of the truck and then the click as the driver's side door opened and his father got in. He looked over at Sam and the still unconscious form of his eldest son and raised his eyebrows. "He stopped bleeding?" he asked as he started the truck and put into drive. The sheriff had told him to get the brother's out of there before the FBI arrived to deal with the psycho's that had lived here.

Sam threw an angry look at his father, the anger and bitterness written in every line of his handsome face. "Do you really even care?" he asked through gritted teeth.

John looked out at the rainy highway as he pulled off the gravel road and headed toward the only motel within 50 miles. He knew that this was where his boys were staying…because it was where he would have stayed if he had gotten a room before he went out to the old house and found out that his sons were tangled up in this mess. He looked back at Sam… "Yeah…Sam. I care." He said evenly as he pulled into the parking lot.

Dean started to shift slightly as the truck came to a stop and their father hopped out and came around to help Sam get him into the motel room. Sam pulled the key from under the mat outside the motel door…they had hid it there before heading to the bar. Just in case one of them decided to leave early…they had adopted the practice when they were younger and Dean would forget and take the key when he went out with a girl. Leaving Sam to try and break into the room after leaving the library or school or soccer practice…it hadn't happen more than once and Dean had been so sorry. Sam had let him off the hook but Dean had never really forgiven himself…so they had come up with this as a possible solution for future conquests.

"S'mmy? You kay..?" Dean asked as his eyes fluttered and he rolled his head back and forth listening for his little brother. His glassy and pain filled emerald irises finally connected with his brother's worried blue-green gaze and he settled almost instantly.

"I'm here Dean...and I'm fine." Sam said as he sank onto the bed next to his brother's hip. He watched as his brother's eyes slid closed and a small smile pulled at the corners of his chapped lips.

"We need to clean and bandage his wounds Sam."

Sam exhaled loudly as he stood and up and stared at their father in disgust. "I'll take care him dad. We've been taking care of each other for a long time…" Sam narrowed his eyes and furrowed his eyebrows. "Can you get his chair out of the truck?" he asked as he turned and grabbed the first aid kit his father had set down on the table. "And then can you find his car and get it back here?" Sam wanted their father out of the room while he dealt with the aftermath of the Benders…he knew that Dean wouldn't want their father to see him like this. And while he hadn't been there for Dean like he should have been in the past…that was all over now…he would be there to help Dean…as much as his stubborn older brother would allow him to.
He was done dealing with his older brother's constant need to protect him...it was Sam's turn to return the favor...and protect his family...and he'd be damned if he was going to fail. Everyone in Dean's life had failed him somehow...Sam wasn't going to be on that list anymore. It was time to come off the naughty list and move over to Dean's nice list. Not that his selfless older brother would ever have put it that way. He would never have placed Sam on a list like that...but then again, it wasn't Dean putting his name over there...it was Sam...and he wanted his brother to trust him again. Like he had when they were kids, before all the abandonment issues had surfaced and he had let his anger at his father and his intense dislike of this life to drive his older brother from his life. They were in this together...and he would get to the bottom of where their father had been too...he owed that to Dean.

TBC…

Author's Note: John's back. But he still has a lot to make up for. And will Sam forgive him for the shit he's pulled? Plus, the hunt for the colt is still on along with the search for the damn demons.

Please Review: They help me move forward…thanks.