A/N: Decided to do a fun little piece for October to make it Witchober, which involves a witch and a newly female Sam. What could go wrong?
Sam's fifteen when it happens. He was just starting to hit his growth spurt, and then found himself in the middle of the woods during a witch hunt—short, swimming in his clothes, and… a girl.
The shock sends him (her?) to his knees, and he's glad that his dad suggested they split up to find the witch's cabin. He needs a minute alone to process what the actual fuck just happened to him. Somehow, he thinks that either his dad or Dean have found the witch. And she's probably pissed enough to cast a spell at them in self-defense. But it targeted Sam. Somehow.
He (she) takes a few deep breaths, but it doesn't lessen the rising panic. Once the witch is dead, he should go back to being a guy, right?
So, he waits, and he listens. And waits some more. She has to be dead by now, but he must've strayed farther away than he thought, because he doesn't hear any sign of his family. With a sigh, he pulls out his phone and dials Dean's number.
"Sammy? Where the hell are you? Dad killed the witch, but we can't find you."
The witch is dead? But he's still…
"She's dead?" he asks, and his voice sounds so much higher than he's used to.
"Sammy? Are you okay? You sound different."
"Dean, I think the witch did something to me," Sam says. He feels tears building up and burning behind his eyes.
"Where are you, Sam?" Dean asks. His voice is steady, but Sam can tell that there's fear hidden there.
"I don't know. I don't hear you guys."
"Okay, well, can you move?" he asks.
Sam's not sure how to answer that one. He's not injured, and he could move if he needed to. "I don't know."
"Are you hurt?" Dean's voice is becoming increasingly panicked.
"No, it's just…" He really doesn't want to say it.
"Just what, Sam?"
"She made me into a girl," Sam says, the tears finally breaking free. "Shouldn't the spell break after she dies?"
There's silence on the other end.
"Dean?" Sam asks, really needing some kind of comfort under the haunting suspicion that reversing this spell is going to be difficult. "Dean, my clothes are too big. They're gonna fall off if I move."
"You have a belt on, right?" Dean asks. "Tighten it as much as you can. It won't be comfortable, but it should keep you decent enough."
"Why aren't you freaking out?" Sam asks, tucking the phone between his ear and shoulder as he tries to tighten his belt enough to keep his pants up.
"Oh, I am," he says. "But one of us has to keep it together, and I'm not the one who just got a supernatural sex change."
Sam hears his dad's voice in the background, but he's unable to make out the words. He's pretty sure that his dad won't blame him for becoming the unwitting target of a witch's spell. To be fair, he wasn't even near the witch when she cast the spell, so it wasn't like he'd have been able to dodge it or anything like that. The problem is that he and his dad have never fully been on the same page, and the tension that builds can turn sour at times, leaving them silently resenting each other.
"Can you see anything around you that's distinctive? Anything that might help us figure out where you're at?" Dean asks after a short conversation with their dad that he can't hear.
Looking around doesn't give him much information. It's dark by now, and every direction looks the same. But he hears water, and it's better than nothing. "I think I'm near the river that we saw on the map. I hear running water in the distance."
"Perfect. Go towards the water, and we'll meet you there," Dean says.
Dean ends the call with his head spinning. Sam's voice didn't sound right, but according to him, the witch got the last laugh with her final spell, and Sam is now Samantha. For the time being, at least. He knows that they'll be looking for a way to break the spell once they find Sam and make it back to the motel.
"What a mess," John says, and Dean has to agree with him.
"Do you think we can break the spell?" Dean asks. "I mean, usually the spells break when the witch dies. So, it's weird that this one didn't."
"We'll do our best. Finding Sam comes first."
It doesn't take long to reach the river from their location, and they follow its current down, knowing that the other direction leads to a small cliff, and Sam would've mentioned that if he'd been close enough to see it. So, they walk, and the darkness and silence both do nothing to help quell Dean's budding anxiety. Sure, they deal with strange situations all the time, but this seems beyond even their idea of normal. Once they're back at the motel, he'll be calling Bobby and asking if he's ever heard of a spell like this. He can't imagine that Sam wants to be a girl longer than necessary, and it'll be too strange to think of him as his sister rather than his brother, no matter how temporary it might be.
After walking for what feels like an eternity, Dean hears a voice that's both familiar and new call out to them.
"Dean! Dad!" Sam rushes over towards them, relief evident in his voice.
And once he gets close enough to stand in the light of their flashlights, Dean's mind goes blank. In front of him is Sam, he has no doubts about that. But this Sam is a petite teenage girl with long curly hair covering her face and tears falling from her large doe eyes.
Sam's never been big, but now he looks positively tiny. And vulnerable. And fragile.
Now, Dean's certain that they need to resolve this spell yesterday, because Sam makes him worry on a normal day, and Sam as a cute girl adds a whole new layer of worries on top of the regular set.
"Well," John says, "what do you say we get you back to the motel and see if we can't reverse this, Sam?"
Sam nods, taking a deep breath to calm himself, but Dean doesn't blame him when he spots an unrelenting tremor shaking Sam's shoulders.
Dean would be freaked out, too, if their situations were reversed, and he hopes that keeping his hand on Sam's shoulder as they walk provides at least a little comfort.