Supernatural does not belong to me, although I wish it did. I am simply playing in Kripke'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: So I know there's still interest

Previous Chapter:

"Still seeing blobs?" Bobby asked quietly.

A slight nod and then suddenly Dean was hunching over the car in pain. His eyes squeezed shut and his lips drawn back in agony. Long fingers were pulling at his temples in a useless gesture as Dean's knees buckled and he caught himself on the hood of the car. "Son of a bitch!" He cried.

Castiel moved instantly to his side, Bobby stumbling two steps behind him. "What's wrong?" The angel reached out and then pulled his hand back as he pushed down his desire to comfort the human. Bobby had no such compulsions.

Dean's skull felt as though it was splitting open. An image flashed in front of his eyes and he groaned in pain. And as quickly as the pain had come it was gone, leaving him to breathe rapidly as he tried to make sense of what had just happened. He was reminded of Sam and the agonizing visions that his brother had been suffering for the last year.

"What was that?" Bobby asked. He was staring in concern as Dean started to make his way to his feet.

"I don't know…headache?"

The hunter narrowed his eyes. "You get headaches like that a lot?"

Dean shook his head. "No…" Before he could finish the sentence another wave of agony was splitting his head open. He cried as he dropped to his knees.

"Dean?!" Bobby called out.

A flash of Sam's face. There was a large iron bell with a tree engraved on the outside. Several buildings that looked like they should be in a horror movie stood in stark repose against the grey sky…and then more fiery pain. "Oh God…" He managed as he kept himself from hitting the ground. Nausea coursed through his stomach and Dean he was grateful that he'd passed on breakfast this morning.

"Dean…?" Castiel queried. His gravelly voice pulled Dean back from the brink of unconsciousness.

"I saw him…I saw Sam." Dean dropped his head into his hands as he waited for the unpleasant sensations to pass.

Bobby hissed in surprise. "Like a vision? Like what Sam gets?" Oh god he hoped not.

"What?! No. I just…" Dean stopped when he realized that he could see Bobby clearly. He wasn't blurry or sparkly or glimmery…or any of the other things that Dean had been seeing lately. He opened his mouth and the popped it shut when he noticed that he could also see Castiel…but the angel still had the bright white glimmer just around his body. Like a child that outlines a picture before they color the inside. But both men were crystal clear.

Castiel saw the shift in Dean's posture as he forced himself to his feet. "What happened?"

"I can see." His eyes shifted to Bobby and he blinked several times to make sure that he wasn't fooling himself.

"What the hell?" Bobby said as he stepped forward and waved his hand in front of Dean's face. "Wait…did you say you saw Sam?"

Dean nodded. He took a moment to look at the angel. It was the first time that he'd seen the man that the angel inhabited clearly. "He was in some weird ghost town…abandoned or something."

"Anything else?"

"Uh…yeah…a bell…a big bell…it had a tree on it." Dean closed his eyes and tried to remember exactly what the image had been.

Bobby's eyes drifted for a moment as he accessed an old memory. "Was an Oak tree? Like a white oak?"

Dean blinked in surprise. "Yeah."

"I think I know where Sam is."

They both looked over at the angel. Castiel shrugged. "I can't see him…wherever he is…he's hidden from angel sight."

"Then we drive." Dean said as he moved to the driver's side of the Impala. No way he was letting anyone else drive him now that he could see clearly. He could walk…he could see…now he just needed to find Sam and get the fucking gun and they'd be well on their way to destroying that damned demon. "We've got work to do." He ground out as he slipped behind the wheel.

XXXX

Chapter 55

Visions and Nightmares

Dean watched the road with all the concentration of a mad man. His attention kept wandering off in directions that he knew would send him careening off the two-lane highway. He still couldn't quite wrap his head around the fact that he could walk…and he could see. Albeit with the added bonus of the aura-sight, but he wasn't going to complain. At this point he could drive and he would be an integral part of rescuing Sam and that was the most important thing at the moment. Castiel was seated quietly in the backseat, which still struck Dean as weird. An angel of the lord was riding around inside his classic car… His eyes landed on the spot that his brother should be occupying and he tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

Dean glanced over where Bobby sat in the passenger seat and a pang of longing drove through him. No one should ever sit in that seat but Sammy. And the whole thought process started the painful and guilty thoughts about how his younger brother had been hauled away right under his nose…and there had been nothing that he could do about it.

The remembered pain of the vision that had both given them the clue about Sam's whereabouts and reversed his blurry vision made him wince. His gaze panned the countryside as they drove and he sighed. He still had a slight buzzing inside his skull, but he was able to shove it down beneath the boatload of guilt and push forward. He rolled his shoulders and winced when a sore spot on his shoulder twinged painfully.

"What?" Bobby asked.

Dean shrugged. "Nothing…just thinking."

The older hunter shook his head. "Well stop thinking about it. Can't help Sam if you're drowning in guilt."

"What?" Dean stammered. "I'm not…drowning in guilt."

Castiel chose that moment to throw in his two-cents. "Yes. You are." His rough voice didn't make Dean feel better as he threw an irritated look over his shoulder.

Dean's eyes shifted between the rear view mirror and the passenger seat. "You two gonna gang up on me all night?"

Bobby huffed. "Nope…just for the duration of the car ride."

"Great that's so much better."

Dean snorted and shook his head as he looked back out the front window. He shifted and couldn't help the slight smile that played across his lips when he felt the leather move beneath his legs…and then he felt guilty. It was a nasty little circle that he was tired of and there was nothing that he could do to change it because he'd lost Sammy in the process of regaining what he'd lost…and all of it could be laid at the feet of their father. He considered the fact that he'd had Bobby put his wheelchair in the trunk…and he hated that he was just waiting for something to take away his ability to walk again.

A streak to the right of him had Dean's eyes flashing in that direction; he was only barely able to miss the large mule deer that darted from the edge of the road. His instincts took over and he slammed on the brakes, the car's tires squealed in protest as it came to a sliding stop on the shoulder. The dust enveloping the black vehicle as the creak of a door echoed through the silence.

Dean hauled himself from the car, his heart racing. He wasn't prepared for a second image to slam into his unprepared mind. The image of Sam and the yellow-eyed man…they were talking, but he couldn't hear anything. The only thing that Dean could do was stumble across the road and fall to his knees, headless of the sharp gravel that bit into his sensitive knees, and empty his stomach. It didn't take long considering the only thing he'd eaten was a donut and a strong cup of black coffee. He didn't even hear Bobby as he stepped up next to him and laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"You okay, boy?" He didn't drop his hand as Dean sat back on his heels and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

The buttery yellow eyes were haunting him as he blinked slowly. "I'm not sure."

Bobby inhaled and moved so that he could see Dean's face. "What's that mean?" Castiel was now standing slightly to the left, his blue eyes watching the older Winchester boy with mild curiosity.

The pain behind his eyes was magnified by the radiance of the aura projecting off the angel. He reached up and covered his eyes like he was staring at the sun. Bobby looked over at the angel and raised an eyebrow. It was pitch black out and Dean looked like he needed sunglasses. This whole aura thing wasn't any better than any of the other problems that Dean suffered from.

"It means I got another glimpse of Sam." He bit out as he forced himself to his feet. Dean wobbled slightly as his legs adjusted to the increased blood flow. He struggled toward the car, his head pounding with every trembling step. The cool air was biting into him as his thin over shirt did little to protect him from the coming winter.

"And?" Bobby called after him as he moved to try and catch the young man before he landed face down in the gravel.

Dean clenched his jaw. "And nothing…it's the yellow-eyed demon…again." His words were void of emotion as he crawled back inside the Impala.

XXXX

Sam walked through the nursery where he knew he'd been the night his mother died. It was brightly painted with pictures of fuzzy animals on the walls and a bright colored mobile with shapes of the stars spinning above a brown crib. He could even smell the light scent of baby powder as he looked over at the changing table. His eyes flickered to Azazel and he couldn't help the lift of his lip in hatred. Never in his entire life had Sam felt the power of hate…even as badly as he disliked his father…he wasn't sure that he hated the man. But this demon? Sam hated him with every fiber of his being; on a subatomic level he loathed this being. What it had done to his mother…what it had done to Dean…and finally what it had done to him.

"How about we see mommy?" The demon raised a hand and the entire scene fast-forwarded. The mobile sped up and spun like a top as the waning moonlight filtered through the closed blinds of Sam's nursery window.

Sam's breath caught in his chest when his mother walked through the nursery door. Her long golden blonde hair catching the light from his small lamp on a dresser Sam hadn't noticed until that moment. The skin around her luminous blue eyes crinkling into a smile when she heard the baby inside the crib.

"Sammy…he'ya baby boy." She said as she stepped up to the crib. Mary Winchester never had the chance to pick up the happy child as a shadow fell over the boy's tiny form. Her eyes flashed up and widened in shock.

"You?!" She hissed as she placed her body between the shadowy figure and the baby. All sounds from the crib ceased as the large blue-green eyes of the child shifted between his mother and the stranger.

Sam started forward as his mother's silent scream broke him loose of his paralysis.

"No, no Sammy…this isn't happening right now…it already happened. This is only a memory, it's all in the past." He waved his hand and Sam found his feet routed to the spot near the door. His heart was hammering in his chest as he watched the shadowy figure turn and the bright yellow eyes pin his mother with a glare.

Suddenly Mary's eyes widened in shock and she grabbed her stomach before slowly lifting from the ground toward the ceiling. Sam felt his fear bubble to the surface and he tried to cry out, but his voice caught in his throat and all he could do was close his eyes. His mother's blood curdling scream was something that he would never forget. The smell of burning flesh and the heat from the fire impacted him in ways that he didn't completely understand. A moment later he opened his eyes when silence rained and he found himself outside of the house. Sam stared up at the window that he knew was his nursery. A shadowy figure stared down at him. A little boy's cries pulled him back to the present and his eyes flashed to the front door. A moment later a four year old version of Dean ran from the house, the baby version of Sam cradled carefully in his small arms. Tears streaked down the terrified face of the small boy.

But the moment baby Sammy started to cry something shifted in the little boy. Sam watched first hand the exact moment that Dean grew up. The small boy swallowed his own fear and wiped his tears on his shoulder before whispering to the bawling baby.

"It's okay, Sammy. I'm not gonna let anything happen you…not while I'm around." The words were strong and grief that Sam knew his brother had to be feeling had been buried beneath the mantra…take care of Sammy.

The world spun again and Sam found himself staring up at Jake and Andy. "Sorry man…but you sounded seriously stressed about that dream." Jake said by way of apology before walking toward the window and peaking out.

Sam sat up and dropped his head between his knees as he tried to erase the vivid memories from his mind. "You okay?" Andy asked when he remained silent.

Sam blinked slowly. "Uh…yeah, I guess so."

Andy shrugged. "Okay." He walked away and Sam found that he couldn't think of anything but the look on his older brother's face as he'd stared down at the infant in his arms. It was love, pure and simple. But not the kind that is envious or jealous. But the most basic form of affection that stems from having taken full responsibility for another life. He swallowed the lump that formed in his throat and ground his teeth together before pulling himself to his feet.

The sun was setting outside the old saloon and he knew that it was going to get damn cold if they didn't get a fire started. He pushed away the guilty thoughts and the concern for his brother and started looking for a way to keep them all warm through the long Dakota night. He patted down his pockets and while he didn't have any of his weapons, he did have his lighter. So that was good. "Hey Andy?"

The shorter man turned and raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

Sam pointed at the large fireplace near the end of the large room they were all gathered in. "Any wood?"

Andy shivered involuntarily and snorted. "I think I saw some in an old shed out back." He started toward the door.

"Wait." Sam called. Andy turned back toward him. "Take Jake. None of us should be going outside alone."

Andy nodded and walked toward the other room where the soldier had headed.

Sam sank onto the wooden steps and leaned his elbows on his knees as tried to clear his head. He knew that the demon was messing with him, but that didn't make the fact that he'd just watched his mother burn to death any easier. That he'd seen the surprise and the recognition on her face when she'd realized that she knew the shadowy man in her son's room. And what the heck did all that mean anyways?

He snorted and shook his head in frustration. "Man I wish you were here, Dean." He muttered.

A rustle behind had Sam spinning around. "He can't help you now, Sammy." A woman's voice floated toward him and Sam felt his skin crawl as he recognized it.

"Ruby." He answered coldly.

"Can't pull a thing over on you, can we, Sam." She cooed as she stepped from the shadows.

A scream from the exterior of the building had Sam surging to his feet and starting toward the door before he felt the pull of demon hold and Ruby blocked the door. "Uh-uh, Sam…that's cheating. He has to survive on his own." She raised a sculpted eyebrow and stared at her nails in boredom. "Just like you will."

Sam's face twisted into anger. "What the hell are you talking about?"

She smiled and if he hadn't been so angry he would have realized that she was actually kinda pretty. At least the meat suit she currently inhabited was pretty. He figured that the actual demon form that her soul would take outside the human form probably wasn't going to be as appealing. "It's kind of a gladiator type thing."

Another scream had Sam's gaze flashing up and something froze in his gut. "I don't understand."

"I know you don't." Her brown eyes flickered toward the rain sliding down the window as it started to fall more heavily. "Maybe we can have your brother explain it when he gets here." She smiled evilly at the look of shock on his face. "You thought we didn't know?" She stepped closer and Sam took an involuntary step back. "Ohhhh…and here I thought we were making a connection. Guess not."

"Leave Dean out of this. It doesn't concern him." Sam ground out between his clenched teeth.

She laughed out loud. "He's every bit as much a part of this as you are. And only one of you walks away from this tiny little town." Ruby turned when the rain picked up and threw a comment over her shoulder before she exited.

A second voice added to the first. "And you brought him right to us, Sam. Thanks for that."

Sam spun around and his mouth dropped open when he spotted a blonde woman that he didn't think he'd ever seen.

TBC…

Author's Note: So it's a been a while since I posted on this, sorry life got in the way again. But here's another chapter and I PROMISE that if the reviews are good, then I will get up the next chapter which has Dean, Bobby, and Cas arriving at Cold Oak. And won't that be a surprise and a fight worth several pages. Ruby, Azazel, Jake vs. Sam, Dean, and Bobby…oh and Castiel too. Plus an appearance of an unexpected ally.

PLEASE REVIEW: Let me know you're still following and I'll continue to write.