A/N: Happy Labor Day to those who celebrate. As a treat I am posting a chapter early for your reading pleasure. Enjoy...NC


Chapter 4

"Finish eating Dean and let's go check that building out," Bobby told Dean as he sipped his coffee. "Never would have left the place open if I thought the boy would be nosy and go in there."

"You know Sammy, he's too curious for his own good," Dean shrugged. He quickly finished his sandwich and chugged his drink before getting up to wrap Sammy's leftovers to put in the fridge for later. "Let me check on him and I'll be ready." Dean stepped into the living room and over to the couch to gaze down at his brother. Sam was lying on his side, with his legs bent so he would fit on the couch. He had his hands clasp under his chin and looked so innocent. Dean looked around for his jacket and searched his pockets for a disposable camera and snapped a couple of pictures of Sam to have proof of what had happened. He adjusted the blanket over Sammy and brushed a stray strand of hair from his face. "We'll figure this out Sammy," he mumbled softly so not to wake him. With one final look, Dean headed back into the kitchen where Bobby was waiting. "Should we call Dad, Bobby?"

"Why don't we wait until we have more information? No need bothering him while he's on a hunt."

"Yeah, you're probably right, but if he calls…"

"We'll see. Is your brother okay?"

"He's sleeping. You think that's normal after something like this?"

"I have no idea, but his body might need the rest after what it went through. It had to be hard on him."

"I didn't know you had curse boxes Bobby," Dean commented.

"Well, some can't be destroyed in the usual way, and I was doing an inventory to see what I might could get rid of. I left the door open to go check something out in another building and Sam must have gone in then. I was going to go lock it back after we finished in the garage."

They walked across the yard and down the path by the crushed vehicles to the storage building that was still open. Dean stepped into the large room and looked around again. He started to step toward the shelf that was stacked with curse boxes but stopped when Bobby called for him.

"Whoa boy. Here, put these on before you touch anything," Bobby growled at him holding out a pair of gloves.

"Right, thanks," Dean replied accepting the gloves and slipping them on. He moved Sammy's sneakers and socks to the door to take back to the house when they went. The rest of his clothes were not salvageable and kicked them to the side. "He found those clothes from here," Dean pointed to the tubs and clothes scattered around them.

"Yeah, those are some of my old clothes and clothes I inherited from other hunters. Their belongings were brought to me when they didn't have family to take the stuff. When I get enough collected, I take them to the homeless shelter in town or to the church clothes closet."

"I'll clean this mess up," Dean offered, squatting to pick up the scattered clothes, fold them, and put them back into the tubs before closing them and sliding the containers back on the shelves.

"I think I found the box Sam was talking about," Bobby called to Dean as he reached to pick up a box laying on the floor. He looked inside and saw it was empty. "Help me look around on the floor, whatever was in here must be around here somewhere. You're closer to the floor than me, check under the shelves to see if it got pushed or kicked under one of them."

"Okay. Any idea what we're looking for?" Dean replied crawling around on his hands and knees to look around the shelving units and on the lower shelves in case the object got lodged among the curse boxes. He looked around and saw a broom to use and swept it under the bottom shelf to see if there was anything under them. All he found were dust bunnies, a pen, a couple of screws, scraps of paper, but nothing that looked like a cursed object. "Nothing Bobby, did you have any luck?"

"Nope, didn't find anything else opened or anything laying on the shelves that I could find."

"Where could it be?" Dean asked looking around with a frown.

"There's one place we haven't really looked."

"Where?"

"On Sam. Maybe he picked it up and kept it on him without really knowing it."

"The only way to know is go check him out."

"I'll lock up, you keep those gloves on," Bobby cautioned him. "I don't need both of you aging on me and having to find a way to reverse it. It's bad enough we have Sam to deal with. You know there's always a bad side to a cursed object, we just don't know what this one is."

"That makes it urgent to find this cursed object then." Dean headed from the building toward the house to check on Sam and see if he had anything on him that might be the missing object.

The house was quiet when Dean entered through the backdoor and figured Sammy was still asleep. He went into the living room to see him still on the couch sleeping and headed upstairs to check the clothes that he had on when they found him. He checked the pockets on the sweatpants but didn't find anything and headed back downstairs.

Dean sat down in the chair by the couch and watched Sammy sleeping. He noticed what looked like a chain around Sam's neck where his T-shirt was pulled down. Carefully, he slipped his gloved finger under the chain and pulled on it, pulling a gold amulet out.

"Dean," Sam grunted when he opened his eyes to see his brother's face close to his. "What are you doing?" he asked pushing back from him and randomly pulling the amulet from his fingers.

"Sammy, where did you get the amulet?" Dean asked in a strong voice.

"Why? I don't know," Sam replied suspiciously, sitting up and tucking the necklace back under his shirt away from his brother's reach. "It's mine."

"Bobby," Dean spoke to him as he stepped into the room but didn't take his eyes off Sam. "I know where it is."

"Where?" Bobby asked looking at Sam and seeing a dark look on his face.

"Around Sammy's neck. Give me the necklace Sammy," Dean demanded as he stood over Sam.

"No, it's mine," Sam snapped back starting to get up.

"Bobby, a little help here," Dean quickly said as he threw himself at his brother to try and hold him down.

Sam slapped Dean, trying to knock him aside and heard his brother grunt when he made contact with Dean's shoulder. His size and strength were an advantage for Sam, but Dean was wiry and dodged Sam's attempts to stop him.

Bobby grabbed one of Sam's arms before he could throw Dean off him and kicked his feet out from under him making him drop back onto the couch. He pressed down on Sam's shoulder to hold him on the couch as Dean struggled with him, trying to pull the necklace from around Sam's neck.

"Got it," Dean exclaimed as he jerked it over Sam's head and jumped back before Sam could grab him. He held it up away from Sam and quickly dropped it into the curse box Bobby had brought inside with him.

"Sam, I don't want to hurt you boy," Bobby cautioned him pushing him back onto the couch when he tried to get up.

Once the amulet was in the box, Sam suddenly shook his head and went limp for a moment before staring in confusion at Dean and Bobby.

"What happened…Wait! What's wrong with me?" Sam cried out as he looked at his hands and down at his body. "Dean?" he cried hoarsely. "Bobby…"

"Guess the power of the amulet over Sam is gone now that it's off him and in the box," Bobby commented patting Sam's arm to try and comfort him.

"It'll be okay Sammy, we'll figure this out and get you back to normal," Dean offered taking a seat by Sam on the couch and letting him wrap his arms around him again. "Not too tight this time."

"What?" Sam questioned.

"Nothing. I got you Sammy, it'll be okay," he assured him.

"I'm going to take this into the office and do some research," Bobby told the brothers thinking they needed a little time alone to bond. He didn't get an answer from either brother as he walked toward his office.

"Don't you remember waking up earlier and getting a shower?" Dean asked Sam.

"Not really. My mind is all foggy and I hurt all over," Sam sniffed as he looked at how small Dean looked now. "What happened to me?"

"Your curiosity got the best of you bro, and you messed around with a curse box. For some reason it aged your body, but not your mind."

"Yeah, I went into one of Bobby's storage buildings thinking Bobby was in there. I think I remember wishing I was older and bigger than you, and I can't remember much after that, bits and pieces here and there until a few minutes ago."

"Well, you got your wish Sammy," Dean surmised as he rubbed his back, letting Sam cuddle into him which was sort of hard with Sammy being the size he was.

"You're going to fix this aren't you Dean?" Sam whispered to him in a pathic little brother's voice.

"Yeah Sammy, we'll fix this," Dean mumbled. "Why don't you lay back down and rest while I go see if I can help Bobby?"

"Will you sit with me for a few minutes?" Sam asked hopefully.

"Sure Sammy, I can do that," Dean nodded moving to the chair as Sam laid back down. He started humming an old Beatles song, 'Hey Jude' hoping it calmed his stressed brother. He saw Sam fighting to keep his eyes open until he lost the battle, and they stayed shut. Dean eased from the chair and moved it to the side before heading into the office.

"What did that thing do to Sammy?" Dean asked as he dropped into the chair across from Bobby. "Have you found out how to change him back?"

"I'm not a magician Dean and can't pull the answer out of my ass," Bobby snapped at him. "I'm looking for any information on the amulet right now. Why don't you grab a book and get to reading?"

"Sorry," Dean apologized. "Where do I start?"

"Here, go through my logs and see if you can find this amulet in there and see where it came from," Bobby instructed Dean, handing him a logbook.

"Okay," Dean agreed leaning over to open the box to study the amulet for a moment and memorize the strange symbol on it. He closed the box back and started scanning each line of the log searching for the amulet.

"I've seen that symbol before…" Bobby mumbled to himself as he pulled another book from bookcase to start looking through it. "Your brother okay?"

"I guess, he's resting again. It was like that amulet had control of him and he didn't even know it. Am I right?"

"You know how cursed objects work and I think you're right. Sam seemed okay until you tried to take the amulet away from him."

"Yeah, I remember reading some about them and Dad worked a couple of cases that involved cursed objects," Dean said. He stopped reading and looked up at Bobby. "We're going to find a way to get Sammy back, aren't we?"

"We'll do everything we can Dean. Usually with a curse there's a way to break it."

"I hope so, I want Sammy back, my Sammy, not this gigantic version of him."

"I know son. I've put out some feelers to some of my contacts to see if they know anything about the amulet or a spell to break a curse."

"You better hide that box. I don't want Sammy getting his hands back on it."

"I already thought of that. I'll put it in my lockbox." Bobby turned and took a key from his pocket to unlock a box behind his desk and slipped the curse box inside and locked it back. He pocketed the key and was going to keep it with him even when he went to bed. The lock box was strong and couldn't be easily broken into, plus Sam wouldn't know where he put it. Bobby went back to looking through the book for the symbol on the amulet, occasionally glancing at Dean seeing the worried look on his face. He hoped they found something that would point them in the right direction. He didn't think Sam staying this way was a good thing or healthy for him.


A/N: They found the cursed object. Now, to find out what it is and how to break the curse before it's too late. I do like reviews/comments. NC