Brave and Crazy Part 4
Title: Brave and Crazy Part 3
Author: Fanfic_Addict04
Characters/Pairings: Sam/Dean, Bobby, OMC's
Warnings: Angst, Drama, Mentions of character death, Wincest
Summary: Fourth part in the series. Sam will do anything for Dean, he just needs a nudge in the right direction.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
-----
"Sam? Dean?" Nathan asked incredulously.
"WHAT THE F--"
"DEAN!"
Dean had the decency to look ashamed before scrambling to cover both of them up and looking fearful and angrily at Nathan.
"Who are you?" Dean asked.
"And what do you want?" Sam finished.
"It's me Dean. Nathan."
"Who?"
"Dean do you know this kid?"
"I...No, I don't." Dean tilted his head in confusion, "But he looks familiar."
Sam sighed and then turned back to Nathan. "Look, I don't know who you are, but you have about three seconds before you explain yourself or I get out of this bed and kick your ass."
"Naked?" Nathan asked, half amused, half concerned.
Sam looked down at the sheets and blushed.
"Well no..."
Dean, who was watching the exchange, rolled his eyes. "Look kid, either talk now, or forever hold your peace. And I mean forever."
"Well...it's really hard to explain. You see, Dean, even though you don't remember, we've met before. You see, Sam was lost. You didn't know where he was. You had been searching for weeks and still found no trace of him. And apparently you are really good at that. So you came to see me...because you knew I had...certain abilities. I helped you find him. I didn't hear from you after that but I kept having these...nightmares. They were of you, and I couldn't tell where you were at either. All I knew was that you were in a lot of pain."
"Stop." Sam said.
"Jesus Sam."
"Don't worry Dean, I'll take care of this." Sam grabbed his robe from off the floor and put it on in a flourish. "You, come with me."
Not leaving Nathan a choice, Sam grabbed him by the elbow and lead him roughly out of the room. Going down the hall to another room, Sam shoved Nathan in first, and then quickly followed slamming the door shut and locking it behind him.
"You said you had abilities," Sam gritted out, pushing Nathan against a wall and holding him there by the collar. "What are they, who are you?"
"I told you. Dean tried to find you, and he came to me. I used blood from a cut to track you."
"So you're what? A witch?"
"No. I just...was born with these powers. I didn't want them, didn't ask for them."
Sam sighed and rubbed rough hands over tired eyes. "I know the feeling."
"What?"
"Nothing. So what are you doing here?"
"What do you mean?"
"This world...isn't exactly real."
"I've noticed. Last time I checked you were supposed to be tied up in a factory somewhere, but here we are."
"Ok, but HOW did you get here?"
"I was just trying to send you a message, telepathically. I'd heard it could be done."
"And you ended up here." Sam finished. "Fuck."
"Where exactly is here?"
"That's not important. Look, why were you trying so hard to find me? What is this about?"
"What's wrong with Dean?"
"What?" Sam paled.
"I keep having these nightmares. They're of Dean. He's always in pain. Always in agony, and I don't recognize where he's at. I know they're not just nightmares, they're visions. So what happened to him?"
"Nothing." Sam whispered, turning so Nathan couldn't see his face. Couldn't see the pain and sadness there.
"Sam, I came pretty fucking far, because I thought you were both in danger. I wasn't wrong about you...and you don't even seem to care that you're not really here, that you're actually in...Oh my god. He's out there, suffering somewhere, and you came here? You knew didn't you? You knew what was going to happen to him and you ran away like a selfish little coward." Nathan's volume grew with his anger, "YOU FUCKING KNEW HE WAS HURTING, IN TROUBLE, AND THIS IS WHAT YOU DO? THAT DEAN IN THERE ISN'T REAL! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
"ALL THAT I CAN DO!" Sam screamed back.
Heavy breathing filled the room as they both stared at each other intensely.
"He's dead."
The admission weighed upon the air like a heavy blanket of truth.
"What?"
"He's Dead."
"So what? You just let him die, you just came here and left him behind while you live this wonderful fucking life?"
"YES! Alright, yes that is exactly what I did. There is nothing, nothing, I wouldn't give to have him back, but I can't do anything."
"Bullshit. How did he die?"
Sam walked close to Nathan to make sure he heard him, and his face was a breath length away from the younger boy's face.
"He sold his soul, so that I could live."
"What?" Nathan searched his face for any hint of a lie.
"There exists such a demon called a cross roads demon," Sam explained slowly as if speaking to a child. "They make exchanges with you. Something you want, for your soul. Dean sold his because I had died, and he couldn't handle that."
The words were bitter on Sam's tongue even now. He never did forgive Dean for doing what he did. There was so much that he never got to do before Dean had died. Like tell him he loved him, make love to him, own a home with him, settle down. Even if they didn't do that, even if they lived their lives on the road Sam wouldn't have cared. But he took that decision away from Sam the moment he kissed that bitch.
"Dean told me there were demons out there," Nathan admitted quietly. "So he's-"
"In hell. Paying an eternity of debt he should never have had in the first place."
Silence filled the room like the light of the moon, and nothing was said for a moment.
"And there's nothing you can do? No special portal or ritual you can do or say that will bring him back?"
Sam remembered something, some place, and for a moment his eyes told Nathan that his mind was a million miles away. But then Sam shook his head slowly and then blinked a couple of times.
"No. Nothing."
"Still. If there was anything I could do and I were you, I wou-"
Nathan's eyes widened to the size of saucers, and he fell to the ground, knocking into Sam. Sam grabbed a hold of his elbows and shook Nathan, who seemed to be silently screaming.
"Nathan? Nathan!" Sam shook harder.
As if here were never there, Nathan slumped over in Sam's arms and then disappeared into thin air. Sam grasped at the space where Nathan had just been, and tried to figure out what was happening.
"Something must've happened to him...he was just projecting himself into my mind...god what if he's hurt?"
"Baby?" Dean asked through the guest room door and startling Sam. "Are you okay? Why don't you just come back to bed?"
Sam stood and unlocked the door. Once open he looked up at Dean for a moment and stared into his eyes. This was wrong. This was all wrong. The real Dean would never call him baby. Maybe 'babe' on a good day, but never baby...the real Dean would want to know what happened to Nathan, and what they talked about. Sam thought about what Nathan had said.
'And there's nothing you can do? No special portal or ritual you can do or say that will bring him back'
'No special portal...'
There was something. Sam didn't want to leave this place, didn't want to go back to fighting everything in his life. Just wanted to drink in this dream like it was the elixir of life, and fill himself up with happiness and a lifetime shared with the man he loved.
Sam looked up at Dean again. He could still have that...in reality. Resolve set into his soul and he pushed the door the rest of the way open, looking down into Dean's eyes.
He would go, rescue Dean and salvage what was once his life, but first he needed to do this one thing...in case his plan failed and he was lost.
Stroking the side of Dean's face, Sam took a deep breath, and then leaned down and touched his lips to Dean's. He tilted Dean's chin up and deepened the kiss. It was still soft, a whisper on his lips, but even so it held the intensity of the sun. Soon, if all went well, he could do that for real.
"Baby? What's wrong?" Other Dean's voice was worried now.
Sam stepped back into the moonlight again.
"I'm not your baby."
------
Sam sucked air into his mouth as he regained consciousness. He was hanging by his wrists, and already he could feel the lack of energy from loss of blood. He looked around and saw that Nathan was hanging right beside him, in a dream world somewhere. His hunter's instincts kicking in, he focused his senses in trying to find out if the Djinn was in the room at the moment. It didn't look like it to Sam, and he couldn't hear or 'sense' him here either.
Assuming it was safe, Sam used his upper body strength to bring his legs up to hand level. He grabbed the pocket knife he always kept in his boot, and then lowered his legs quietly to the ground. He fought to bring his hands together, so his knife could have access to the other binding. Sam noticed that the hooks were chains, that led up to the ceiling, but the attachments that were around his wrists were leather.
Gently applying pressure to the leather, he ran the blade back and forth over it. Quietly but quickly he sawed his way through the binding. When that hand was free, he had to stop and rest for a moment, even that small activity making him gasp for air and break into a sweat. He lifted his hand once more and began work on the other band. After a lot of effort, he was finally free. Immediately he stumbled over to Nathan and began working on his bindings as well.
"Come on Nate, wake up buddy."
Sam was only able to escape because Dean had told him how he had gotten free, after his whole escapade. There was no telling if Nathan would know what to do, but Sam highly doubted it. Whatever he did, he had to do it fast; there was no telling where the Djinn could be at this moment. He looked around and saw a tarp covering one of the machines. Shaking off the dust, he lay it on the ground near his feet, then turned to gather Nathan in his arms. Grunting, Sam lay Nathan down on the tarp and began dragging him across the floor.
If he could get to the office and lock the door, then he'd have a safe place to be while trying to wake Nathan up. He didn't know how Nathan did it, or what he even did, but if he could get into Sam's mind then Sam could surely get into his. The trek there was longer than Sam had anticipated. By the third stretch he was gasping for air. He stopped mid-tug and dropped to the floor while resting his head on the back of a conveyer belt. The entrance to the office was clearly visible from their position a few hundred meters away. Sighing heavily, he lay his head back down, and closed his eyes. Sleep beckoned him into it's seductive web, called him like an irresistible siren. If he could only get in a few moments of rest...
Then there was something. A disturbance of the silence, slight in volume, but a disturbance none the less. Sam jolted and chastised himself; he had to be alert if he was going to save them. Ducking further behind the contraption, Sam held an arm protectively over Nathan's body and looked around again. From here he couldn't see any feet, especially those that would belong to the Djinn but Sam couldn't be sure exactly. Slowly he crawled forward so that his feet were a few inches away from Nathan's head. Nathan, still blithely unaware of these going ons, was laying peacefully with his head lolled to the side as if only taking a lazy summers afternoon nap.
The noise had returned and this time it had moved closer. Sam's heartbeat speeding up, he began to feel the adrenaline rushing through his veins. Grabbing a firm hold on the edges of the tarp, he counted to three under his breath before darting up and dragging Nathan as fast as he could to the door. Throwing the tarp in behind him, with Nathan's limbs narrowly missing the corner of a rusty desk, Sam turned and threw the door closed. Just as he turned the knob, there was a loud bang as if a body had thrown itself up against the door. Sam pushed with the strength he had left and latched the door closed, stepping away finally and crashing to the floor.
Taking a few breaths he then crawled over to where Nathan still lay unconscious. He took Nathan's face in his hands and closed his eyes. He whispered softly Nathan's name like a silent prayer, over and over again. Sam began to rub Nathan's temples and continued chanting. Soon he slumped over as well, no longer part of this world.
----
Unlike the last time he had visited another 'world' apart from reality, Sam had been somewhere cozy that fit his needs. But this was far beyond simple comfort and cozy. The room he woke up in was lavish in every meaning of the word. It made the palaces of the world dim in shame. The ornate detail of the french influence on the architecture astounded Sam, and he had to wonder if they were in paris.
Getting out of bed he spotted a wall plug. American. So they were still in the United States in Nathan's wish world. Going lightly on foot, no longer feeling nauseous, he was able to perform at maximum efficiency going into full hunter mode. He didn't know what he would encounter and he had to find Nathan and get him out of here quickly. They had work to do.
Sam found a staircase that wound in a spiral downwards and went into what looked like an open foyer. Once at the bottom he was able to see a kitchen, sitting room, and hallways sprouting out from every direction. He stepped off the stairs and onto the tiled floor of the foyer. Whoever owned the house had exquisite tastes. The chandelier lighting and black and white tile floors were classics. It was like something out of a movie. Sam could count at least three other hallways leading to several open areas with doors along the sides.
"How big is this place?" Sam mused to himself aloud.
"Big enough." A voice answered.
Sam whirled around expecting to see Nathan there. Instead he saw an older gentlemen, dressed in fine attire fit for an evening at the opera or other such formal occasions.
"What are you doing in my house?" The man asked coldly.
"I...I'm a friend, of Nathan's."
The man lifted his eyebrow apparently not buying Sam's story.
"Really?" The man drawled, "Then what is his favorite color?"
Perplexed, Sam stood to his full height.
The man shook his head and snorted. "I'm calling the cops," he turned in the doorway on his way out "And for your information, it's blue."
"Fuck." Sam swore. Now he only had a limited time to find where Nathan was at. Given the size of the parts of this house he had already seen, that was not going to be an easy task.
Sam began running down one of the hallways that had an open end, hoping to find another hallway after that. He wasn't disappointed. Soon he found himself turning down several more hallways and coming upon a courtyard entrance. Sam slowed to a stop and walked slowly outside. Fresh air filled his lungs and lush green trees and beautiful exotic flowers overwhelmed his senses.
"Beautiful isn't it?"
Sam's head whipped in the direction of the voice. Nathan stood examining a tree as if seeing it for the first time. He stroked the leaves lovingly and gave it one last brush of the fingers before he looked back at Sam and smiled.
"Welcome, to my home."
"It is beautiful."
Nathan nodded.
"Although I did have a rather, unusual experience with a man who was very intimidating."
Nathan's rich laughter resounded throughout the courtyard.
"That would be my father."
Sam sobered.
"Your real father?"
Nathan's laughter died down, and took a moment longer to look at Sam before sitting down on one of the benches. The room was almost like a park. A beautiful park. A celebration of life really.
"Yes. But...this version is a little more...loving. He's a little more of everything. After all he's here."
"I take it you had a bad home life then?"
"In the real world? Yeah you could say that."
Nathan waited in comfortable silence as Sam digested this information.
"You seem comfortable."
"It's very easy to be seduced by the idea of this world Sam. When it was your world, I couldn't wait to get out of there. It all felt so fake to me, so wrong. Coming here...was like christmas. You ever see one of those movies where the family sits by the fire in the living room, and opens up presents by the glow of their tree? I used to see those movies, through my neighbors window. It was a habit for me, to watch television through their window." He looked up at the clear blue sky and closed his eyes and inhaled. "Out of everything I used to watch on that t.v., that was something that always filled me with this weird sort of comforted feeling. The feeling I guess I always imagined how christmas would make me feel."
Sam smiled sadly. "I know."
"Yeah. I called you a coward back there." Nathan shook his head. "I don't want to leave."
"I know." Sam whispered.
Nathan unexpectedly started taking deep breaths; about to cry.
"It's so unfair." he breathed. "Why is it so unfair?"
He looked so like a child then. Everything inside of Sam crushed into a little ball and went out in comfort for Nathan.
Sam gulped, not looking Nathan in the eye.
"Sometimes life isn't fair."
Nathan chuckled bitterly, blinking the tears back.
"Yeah. I got that memo."
"I just...I've lived so long without a family. I've forgotten what it feels like. You know I even have a little brother here? He's not so much a pain in the ass anymore." Nathan chuckled through his tears, the water getting on his nice tux. "And I just...want to have a family like this." He stopped again, sniffling some more. "Any family at all really."
"Me and Dean...we may be difficult sometimes, and we don't always get along...but we love each other."
"I could tell."
Sam blushed and ducked his head before continuing.
"Well anyway, it may not be what your looking for, but if you ever want to...not be alone or whatever...then we wouldn't be adverse to the idea."
Nathan smiled ruefully.
"And if Dean's not, then I'll kick his ass for you and then you can come over."
Nathan laughed a real laugh that time. Throwing back his head a little.
After the laughter died and the mood sobered, Nathan looked at Sam.
"I guess we should get going then?"
Sirens blared in over the roof and into the room and they both looked up at the noise like it were a bothersome fly swarming above their heads.
"Yeah, I think that's not a bad idea."
Nathan sighed and the pushed himself off the bench.
"Well then. I think we have a family member to save."
- - - - Part 5