Jaws' Revenge (Pt. 3), GEN, AU, [PG-13]
Fic: Jaws’ Revenge
Author: sandymg
Beta: borgmama1of5
Summary: Sam’s accidental wish with a cursed Babylonian coin throws Sam and Dean into a familiar yet strange new world
Spoilers: Up to the end of Season 4. References Wendigo 1x02, Wishful Thinking 4x08 and Jump the Shark 4x19
Wordcount: 10,600 (5 parts COMPLETE)
Genre: Gen, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, AU
Characters/Pairings: Sam, Dean, Adam, Dean/Hailey (minor)
Rating/Warning: PG-13, mature themes
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or any of its characters. They belong to the CW and Eric Kripke -- who'd best treat them well
[ prelude], [ part 1], [ part 2]
Part 3
At dawn everyone staggered awake and gathered what supplies they could from the destroyed camp site.
“It’s settled into an old mine, not far from here. I can track it there, I think. I think I’ll remember … “
Sam stared at him. “Dean. You and Dad track this Wendigo before?”
“No. It’s just … gotta be something like a mine or a cave … someplace they can store their - food - and keep out of sight for decades at a time.”
Sam wasn’t completely satisfied by this but didn’t push further. “Let’s get this over with. Stay together.”
They hiked with Dean taking lead, Hailey by his side, the boys in the middle, and Sam at the rear. Dean stopped a moment to study a claw mark on a tree. Sam called out to him. “Over here Dean, another one.”
“Here, too,” said Adam.
Almost at the same time he and Sam reached for each other, words overlapping.
“Too easy.”
“Trap.”
A low growl rapidly reached full ferocity. Together Dean and Sam shouted, “Run!”
Dean grabbed Hailey’s hand instinctively and yelled at Sam to watch out for Adam and Ben.
“I got them!”
The roar of the monster was so loud now Dean thought it must be right on top of them. Hailey stopped abruptly and gasped, pointing. An arm, once belonging to Roy, was lying on the ground before her. Just beyond were several more body parts. “Don’t look,” Dean ordered and then something’s wrong kicked him in the gut.
“It’s quiet,” she said, surprised, and then realized what this meant. “Ben. BEN!”
“Sam’s with them … it’ll … it’ll be okay,” Dean said trying for calm and reaching just below panicked. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He was supposed to get caught and Sam rescued him.
Tears filled her eyes. With all that happened this was only the second time he’d seen her cry. He could really like this girl.
“It took them.”
It wasn’t a question but Dean answered anyway. “Yes. Look. This could be good … I mean, I’ll track it now. It’s heading to its lair, we’ll find it. Find Sam and Ben and Adam. And Tommy. Hailey, it’ll be okay.”
He backtracked to where he’d last seen the others, then began circling, looking for a sign of which way the Wendigo took them. There were tangled footprints, Sam’s easy to discern from the younger boys’, and then nothing. Nothing askew to show that anything huge had passed. The dirt kicked up under his boots as he paced, desperate to find a clue. He expected, he didn’t know what. Something like a trail. M&Ms. They were his, in his bag. He’d dropped them like breadcrumbs for Sam to follow. Except that it hadn’t taken him and Sam didn’t have any candy to pull a Gretel with.
“Dean?” Hailey asked worried.
He ignored her and but stopped pacing. He had been taken. And that meant the way was already in his head, he just had to tap it. Closing his eyes he visualized flying through the forest held in an ice cold vise.
“This way!”
They walked quickly now, not speaking, each lost in their own respective worry. A sound behind a tree up ahead made them stop short. He put his hand to his lips to keep Hailey quiet and indicated she should stay back and wait. Slowly he approached. His eyes widened when he saw Adam, blood covering his face, hunched against the tree, rocking.
Running over, Dean assessed his little brother, carefully checking over the wounds. Everything seemed superficial, scratches, sustained when falling. Hailey took a scarf from around her neck and started cleaning Adam’s face.
“Adam,” she said gently. “What happened?”
He focused on her, clutching Dean’s shirt as he spoke. “It … it dropped me. Guess all three of us were too … Dean …”
“I got you bro. You’re okay.”
Adam clung to him, red streaked tears falling rapidly now onto his tee-shirt. “It has Sam,” the boy kept mumbling over and over. Dean kept his brother in a half hug as the kid worked the fear out of his system.
“I know. And we’re going to go get him. We’re going to get all of them. And then we’re going to barbeque us some Wendigo burgers well done.”
* * *
The sign was about as ominous as you could get. Warning! Danger! Do not enter. Extremely toxic material. Toxic alright, Dean thought wryly. As in eat-you-for-dinner toxic. He found the entrance but now it was all uncharted from here. None of this had happened before. Good. Enough with the instant replay. This was the way he liked his hunts, think fast and get them before they even know you’re there. Of course, he would definitely have preferred not to have three civvies’ lives at stake and his brother in the line of fire. Brothers. Even with Adam right here, it was hard to keep that straight.
The boy had calmed down and taken on a bit of Sammy’s steely determination. He recognized that look, had seen it many a time in the past. Not lately. That look said keep away from my brother, you bastard. Why were there two Sam’s in his mind. This one … his Sam … and another?
He turned to Hailey, met her trusting gaze. Nothing could happen to her … he didn’t think he could … “Stay behind me. Adam, watch out for her.”
“Yes, sir,” his brother answered. They’d done this before, he realized then. Hunted. With Dad. Obeyed the rules and survived. They would do it again.
The tunnel twisted ahead of them, dark and foreboding. He pulled out his flashlight and did his best to be sure nobody tripped on anything. Made no difference when the floor suddenly gave out and he found himself tumbling down.
“Dean!” Adam shrieked, quickly pulling Hailey back away from the gaping hole.
He landed in a thud on what felt like hard gravel. After a second of orientation his mind filled in the gaps. Bones. Great, he’d found the Wendigo’s garbage shoot. He heard Princess Leia bitching to Han Solo about their great escape plan. Or was it the princess that had landed them in the garbage? Never mind, Winchester, think. This was familiar again … sort of. Standing tentatively he waved the flashlight around. There. Ben.
They were tied in a neat row to the ceiling. Ben. Sam. Tommy. He ran to Tommy first and felt for a pulse. Weak but there.
“Hailey,” he called out above him. “Your brothers are here. They’re alive. Both of them.”
Adam’s voice shouted down, “Sam?”
Dean approached his brother. Tried to wake him. Sam opened his eyes groggily. “Sam’s okay. Stay with Hailey, try to find a rope, but don’t go far and keep sharp.”
He pulled out his utility knife and cut Sam down first, then Ben. Together they carefully took Tommy down. Sam eyed him. “How’d you find us?”
“All those years of watching those Daniel Boone reruns paid off.”
Sam didn’t buy it but it didn’t matter because the faint growl coming at them from a distance stopped all further chatter.
Dean looked around frantically. The only way out was in the direction of the creature. He had his lighter fluid and matches but … wasn’t there something better?
“What are you looking for, Dean?” Sam asked.
“Roy’s pack. Did you see it?”
“Yes,” Ben said suddenly. He and Sam were holding up Tommy. He let go tentatively and let Sam take his brother’s weight. “Over here.”
Scrambling to the backpack, Dean rummaged until he found what he sought. Smiling, he twirled the weapon for Sam to see.
“Flare gun … that’ll work,” Sam said with a weak grin.
Loaded and ready, Dean felt better about the situation. Still he had an injured boy here and his youngest brother and Hailey were above ground and unprotected. And there was no easy way out of here.
Sam caught his attention. “Dean.”
From above Adam dropped down a rope. Dean smiled broadly. “Way to go kid. Sam, help me loop this around Tommy. Hailey, Adam, you’ll have to pull him up.”
A few minutes later he heard the sounds of Hailey hugging her brother, telling him that he was fine, he’d be okay.
“You next,” he said to Ben as the teen started to hoist himself up slowly. Above, Adam struggled to pull him up as Hailey tended to her injured brother.
Now only Sam and Dean remained beneath ground. They looked at each other a second. “Quiet,” Sam said.
“Yeah,” Dean replied holding the flare gun tighter.
“C’mon,” Sam said starting up the rope.
Dean started to follow as soon as his brother’s giraffe legs were out of the way. But the creature had other ideas. It appeared in a blur so fast he wasn’t sure what happened as he went flying.
“Dean!” Sam shouted. Above him he heard Adam yell, too.
Ice cold and moist -- the creature’s breath was near his ear and the hissing it made reminded him of other tendrils of frigid death whispering … taunting … He shook it off, didn’t understand these feelings. “Sam! Get them out of here.”
He didn’t know what Sam replied because Dean was suddenly hurled against the wall, knocking the wind out of him in a whoosh. The gun, he still had it, if he could just … then there was a scream and he looked up to see Sam in the air on the Wendigo’s back - Oh god. Sam’d jumped on it, that was why the monster had let Dean go. He looked up but didn’t see anyone else. He hoped to God that Adam had the sense to get Hailey and her brothers out of there, to safety. Knew he would. Their dad had taught him. It made no sense but he knew his youngest brother was okay because … because he was his brother.
The Wendigo reached back and ran a huge claw down Sam’s side causing him to lurch violently and fall in a bloody heap on the bone-covered dirt -- the sound hard and cracking and Dean didn’t know which breaking bones he was hearing, the ones already on the ground or Sam’s. Dean tried to stand but his leg was throbbing and the weight of standing caused him to groan. The creature stared at him, eyes like molten holes in what used to be a human skull. It seemed slow but must have taken only seconds, long enough for him to think Sammy as he lifted the gun and squeezed the trigger yelling, “Eat this” and the monster burst into a cold, blue flame.
And like that it was over. The Wendigo was dead, he’d done it. Limping, he made his way to Sam who was lying very still where he’d fallen. Dean turned him over to survey the damage when his stomach felt like a watermelon had settled whole inside it. The cut was deep and bad. Parts of Sam’s insides were hanging out and the blood was pouring out faster than water from a faucet.
“Help! Adam, Hailey, can you hear me? It’s gone, the Wendigo, I killed it … but Sam’s hurt … we need help down here!”
He had his shirt off and was pressing it against his brother’s wound, desperately trying to slow the blood loss. Oh god … so much blood. Would Adam come? Would he think it a trick? Dean’d pounded it in them not to listen … Sammy …
“Dean?” Adam’s voice. “Dean!” Frantic now as he saw his older brother on the ground and met Dean’s panicked stare. Adam scrambled down the rope and was beside them in an instant.
“Sam. No!” Adam choked out.
Hailey followed Adam down the rope with her small first aid pack. They replaced Dean’s blood-sodden shirt with bandages from her pack, but it wasn’t enough. Dean knew this. Knew what a mortal wound looked like. Sam wasn’t going to make it. But it didn’t happen this way. He saw himself, Sam at his side, watching Hailey and her blanket-wrapped brothers as they walked slowly away from him. She’d turned her head one last time and met Dean’s eyes. Thankful. Wistful. And he’d turned to Sam, alive, and they’d driven away.
“Maybe we can find another way out and rig a stretcher,” Hailey said.
Dean barely heard her. He gently cradled Sam to his chest and sobbed like he didn’t remember doing since childhood because it didn’t go this way and he didn’t know what to do to change it. Adam put his arms around the both of them, tears running down his face. Something small and bronze flitted a moment before Dean’s vision, clutched between Adam’s thumb and forefinger. Just that old lucky coin Sam gave me ages ago.
“Adam,” Dean said, eyes focusing, forcing himself back from the mind numbing terror. “Let me see that.”
Ancient. Babylonian. Dangerous. The flashes hit fast and hard now, bits of an impossible future mixed with snippets of his dream. Talking teddy bears and pretty women and invisible boys. Lashes and monsters and screaming and hellhounds chasing him, devouring him. Blood spurting everywhere. That was Sam, here, now, wasn’t it? But it didn’t happen this way. A Western set and a man with a knife running at Sam from behind and the same pain, the agony of watching his brother … His brother. He turned to look at Adam who was his brother. But could not be.
“D’n,” Sam sputtered weakly.
“I’m here bro. I got you.”
“Didja …”
“Yes. It’s gone. We’re going to get you out of here. Get you help.”
“A--dam.”
“I’m here, Sam. Hang in. We … we’ll figure out a way to move you and …”
“Adam. It’s okay. Help … help Dean.”
No. This wasn’t right. Wasn’t supposed to … Adam kept playing with the coin, wouldn’t let it go, almost as if it were the only thing keeping him …
“Sam,” Dean said firmly. “The coin. Take it back. Sam, do you hear me? You have to take it back.”
Adam looked at him confused. Sam was too out of it to respond. Images were moving in fast forward now, too quick to catch them all, passing in flashing intensity, threatening to make him sick. Sam at the center, take care of Sammy, dying in his arms. Here. Not here. Dead. The failure, the pain, so unbearable he died himself. Demons talking to him, taunting him until he was evil torturing sick disgusting. A monster. Him and … Sam with powers, bad, dark. Demonic. Sammy. If I didn't know you, I would want to hunt you.
He looked down and brushed the shaggy hair off the face of the person he loved most in all the world. Sam was dying because he’d been trying to get away from Dean. The realization made bile rise and burn like acid in his throat. He took the coin from Adam, who looked at him puzzled and sad beyond measure. This brother, Adam, he couldn’t keep.
“Sam. Listen to me. You made a wish with this coin. It’s cursed. This isn’t supposed to happen like this … You wished I’d stop treating you like a baby brother. I’m sorry. If I … I’ll try harder, I will. But Sam, you have to take the wish back. Please.”
A soft rustle made him look up. Hailey had put her arm on Adam’s shoulder. It wasn’t possible that she understood, but her instincts were spot on nonetheless. Dean swallowed, stared his youngest brother in the eyes.“Adam. I’m sorry. You are our brother. I know this. But Dad never … he didn’t tell us. We don’t know you and you don’t know us. Sam has to take it back. You can’t …”
“Be your brother?” Adam finished brokenly.
“I’m sorry,” he repeated again lamely.
Turning back to Sam he placed the coin in his brother’s hand and cupped it closed with his own. He’d lost so much blood, they had very little time. Sammy, please.
“Dean … I could never wish … Adam …”
Their little brother leaned into Sam and held him as Dean had done before. Agony wrenched through him in tiny shudders. “I love you, Sam. I always will. But do it. If it could save you. Do it.”
Hailey leaned down, rubbing Adam’s back. Dean met her gaze for the last time, held it long enough to say thanks and sorry and if only. Turning back he saw Sam shut his eyes. For heart-stopping moment he thought it was over. That Sammy was dead. And then it went black.
Go to Epilogue
Author: sandymg
Beta: borgmama1of5
Summary: Sam’s accidental wish with a cursed Babylonian coin throws Sam and Dean into a familiar yet strange new world
Spoilers: Up to the end of Season 4. References Wendigo 1x02, Wishful Thinking 4x08 and Jump the Shark 4x19
Wordcount: 10,600 (5 parts COMPLETE)
Genre: Gen, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, AU
Characters/Pairings: Sam, Dean, Adam, Dean/Hailey (minor)
Rating/Warning: PG-13, mature themes
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural or any of its characters. They belong to the CW and Eric Kripke -- who'd best treat them well
[ prelude], [ part 1], [ part 2]
Part 3
At dawn everyone staggered awake and gathered what supplies they could from the destroyed camp site.
“It’s settled into an old mine, not far from here. I can track it there, I think. I think I’ll remember … “
Sam stared at him. “Dean. You and Dad track this Wendigo before?”
“No. It’s just … gotta be something like a mine or a cave … someplace they can store their - food - and keep out of sight for decades at a time.”
Sam wasn’t completely satisfied by this but didn’t push further. “Let’s get this over with. Stay together.”
They hiked with Dean taking lead, Hailey by his side, the boys in the middle, and Sam at the rear. Dean stopped a moment to study a claw mark on a tree. Sam called out to him. “Over here Dean, another one.”
“Here, too,” said Adam.
Almost at the same time he and Sam reached for each other, words overlapping.
“Too easy.”
“Trap.”
A low growl rapidly reached full ferocity. Together Dean and Sam shouted, “Run!”
Dean grabbed Hailey’s hand instinctively and yelled at Sam to watch out for Adam and Ben.
“I got them!”
The roar of the monster was so loud now Dean thought it must be right on top of them. Hailey stopped abruptly and gasped, pointing. An arm, once belonging to Roy, was lying on the ground before her. Just beyond were several more body parts. “Don’t look,” Dean ordered and then something’s wrong kicked him in the gut.
“It’s quiet,” she said, surprised, and then realized what this meant. “Ben. BEN!”
“Sam’s with them … it’ll … it’ll be okay,” Dean said trying for calm and reaching just below panicked. This wasn’t supposed to happen. He was supposed to get caught and Sam rescued him.
Tears filled her eyes. With all that happened this was only the second time he’d seen her cry. He could really like this girl.
“It took them.”
It wasn’t a question but Dean answered anyway. “Yes. Look. This could be good … I mean, I’ll track it now. It’s heading to its lair, we’ll find it. Find Sam and Ben and Adam. And Tommy. Hailey, it’ll be okay.”
He backtracked to where he’d last seen the others, then began circling, looking for a sign of which way the Wendigo took them. There were tangled footprints, Sam’s easy to discern from the younger boys’, and then nothing. Nothing askew to show that anything huge had passed. The dirt kicked up under his boots as he paced, desperate to find a clue. He expected, he didn’t know what. Something like a trail. M&Ms. They were his, in his bag. He’d dropped them like breadcrumbs for Sam to follow. Except that it hadn’t taken him and Sam didn’t have any candy to pull a Gretel with.
“Dean?” Hailey asked worried.
He ignored her and but stopped pacing. He had been taken. And that meant the way was already in his head, he just had to tap it. Closing his eyes he visualized flying through the forest held in an ice cold vise.
“This way!”
They walked quickly now, not speaking, each lost in their own respective worry. A sound behind a tree up ahead made them stop short. He put his hand to his lips to keep Hailey quiet and indicated she should stay back and wait. Slowly he approached. His eyes widened when he saw Adam, blood covering his face, hunched against the tree, rocking.
Running over, Dean assessed his little brother, carefully checking over the wounds. Everything seemed superficial, scratches, sustained when falling. Hailey took a scarf from around her neck and started cleaning Adam’s face.
“Adam,” she said gently. “What happened?”
He focused on her, clutching Dean’s shirt as he spoke. “It … it dropped me. Guess all three of us were too … Dean …”
“I got you bro. You’re okay.”
Adam clung to him, red streaked tears falling rapidly now onto his tee-shirt. “It has Sam,” the boy kept mumbling over and over. Dean kept his brother in a half hug as the kid worked the fear out of his system.
“I know. And we’re going to go get him. We’re going to get all of them. And then we’re going to barbeque us some Wendigo burgers well done.”
* * *
The sign was about as ominous as you could get. Warning! Danger! Do not enter. Extremely toxic material. Toxic alright, Dean thought wryly. As in eat-you-for-dinner toxic. He found the entrance but now it was all uncharted from here. None of this had happened before. Good. Enough with the instant replay. This was the way he liked his hunts, think fast and get them before they even know you’re there. Of course, he would definitely have preferred not to have three civvies’ lives at stake and his brother in the line of fire. Brothers. Even with Adam right here, it was hard to keep that straight.
The boy had calmed down and taken on a bit of Sammy’s steely determination. He recognized that look, had seen it many a time in the past. Not lately. That look said keep away from my brother, you bastard. Why were there two Sam’s in his mind. This one … his Sam … and another?
He turned to Hailey, met her trusting gaze. Nothing could happen to her … he didn’t think he could … “Stay behind me. Adam, watch out for her.”
“Yes, sir,” his brother answered. They’d done this before, he realized then. Hunted. With Dad. Obeyed the rules and survived. They would do it again.
The tunnel twisted ahead of them, dark and foreboding. He pulled out his flashlight and did his best to be sure nobody tripped on anything. Made no difference when the floor suddenly gave out and he found himself tumbling down.
“Dean!” Adam shrieked, quickly pulling Hailey back away from the gaping hole.
He landed in a thud on what felt like hard gravel. After a second of orientation his mind filled in the gaps. Bones. Great, he’d found the Wendigo’s garbage shoot. He heard Princess Leia bitching to Han Solo about their great escape plan. Or was it the princess that had landed them in the garbage? Never mind, Winchester, think. This was familiar again … sort of. Standing tentatively he waved the flashlight around. There. Ben.
They were tied in a neat row to the ceiling. Ben. Sam. Tommy. He ran to Tommy first and felt for a pulse. Weak but there.
“Hailey,” he called out above him. “Your brothers are here. They’re alive. Both of them.”
Adam’s voice shouted down, “Sam?”
Dean approached his brother. Tried to wake him. Sam opened his eyes groggily. “Sam’s okay. Stay with Hailey, try to find a rope, but don’t go far and keep sharp.”
He pulled out his utility knife and cut Sam down first, then Ben. Together they carefully took Tommy down. Sam eyed him. “How’d you find us?”
“All those years of watching those Daniel Boone reruns paid off.”
Sam didn’t buy it but it didn’t matter because the faint growl coming at them from a distance stopped all further chatter.
Dean looked around frantically. The only way out was in the direction of the creature. He had his lighter fluid and matches but … wasn’t there something better?
“What are you looking for, Dean?” Sam asked.
“Roy’s pack. Did you see it?”
“Yes,” Ben said suddenly. He and Sam were holding up Tommy. He let go tentatively and let Sam take his brother’s weight. “Over here.”
Scrambling to the backpack, Dean rummaged until he found what he sought. Smiling, he twirled the weapon for Sam to see.
“Flare gun … that’ll work,” Sam said with a weak grin.
Loaded and ready, Dean felt better about the situation. Still he had an injured boy here and his youngest brother and Hailey were above ground and unprotected. And there was no easy way out of here.
Sam caught his attention. “Dean.”
From above Adam dropped down a rope. Dean smiled broadly. “Way to go kid. Sam, help me loop this around Tommy. Hailey, Adam, you’ll have to pull him up.”
A few minutes later he heard the sounds of Hailey hugging her brother, telling him that he was fine, he’d be okay.
“You next,” he said to Ben as the teen started to hoist himself up slowly. Above, Adam struggled to pull him up as Hailey tended to her injured brother.
Now only Sam and Dean remained beneath ground. They looked at each other a second. “Quiet,” Sam said.
“Yeah,” Dean replied holding the flare gun tighter.
“C’mon,” Sam said starting up the rope.
Dean started to follow as soon as his brother’s giraffe legs were out of the way. But the creature had other ideas. It appeared in a blur so fast he wasn’t sure what happened as he went flying.
“Dean!” Sam shouted. Above him he heard Adam yell, too.
Ice cold and moist -- the creature’s breath was near his ear and the hissing it made reminded him of other tendrils of frigid death whispering … taunting … He shook it off, didn’t understand these feelings. “Sam! Get them out of here.”
He didn’t know what Sam replied because Dean was suddenly hurled against the wall, knocking the wind out of him in a whoosh. The gun, he still had it, if he could just … then there was a scream and he looked up to see Sam in the air on the Wendigo’s back - Oh god. Sam’d jumped on it, that was why the monster had let Dean go. He looked up but didn’t see anyone else. He hoped to God that Adam had the sense to get Hailey and her brothers out of there, to safety. Knew he would. Their dad had taught him. It made no sense but he knew his youngest brother was okay because … because he was his brother.
The Wendigo reached back and ran a huge claw down Sam’s side causing him to lurch violently and fall in a bloody heap on the bone-covered dirt -- the sound hard and cracking and Dean didn’t know which breaking bones he was hearing, the ones already on the ground or Sam’s. Dean tried to stand but his leg was throbbing and the weight of standing caused him to groan. The creature stared at him, eyes like molten holes in what used to be a human skull. It seemed slow but must have taken only seconds, long enough for him to think Sammy as he lifted the gun and squeezed the trigger yelling, “Eat this” and the monster burst into a cold, blue flame.
And like that it was over. The Wendigo was dead, he’d done it. Limping, he made his way to Sam who was lying very still where he’d fallen. Dean turned him over to survey the damage when his stomach felt like a watermelon had settled whole inside it. The cut was deep and bad. Parts of Sam’s insides were hanging out and the blood was pouring out faster than water from a faucet.
“Help! Adam, Hailey, can you hear me? It’s gone, the Wendigo, I killed it … but Sam’s hurt … we need help down here!”
He had his shirt off and was pressing it against his brother’s wound, desperately trying to slow the blood loss. Oh god … so much blood. Would Adam come? Would he think it a trick? Dean’d pounded it in them not to listen … Sammy …
“Dean?” Adam’s voice. “Dean!” Frantic now as he saw his older brother on the ground and met Dean’s panicked stare. Adam scrambled down the rope and was beside them in an instant.
“Sam. No!” Adam choked out.
Hailey followed Adam down the rope with her small first aid pack. They replaced Dean’s blood-sodden shirt with bandages from her pack, but it wasn’t enough. Dean knew this. Knew what a mortal wound looked like. Sam wasn’t going to make it. But it didn’t happen this way. He saw himself, Sam at his side, watching Hailey and her blanket-wrapped brothers as they walked slowly away from him. She’d turned her head one last time and met Dean’s eyes. Thankful. Wistful. And he’d turned to Sam, alive, and they’d driven away.
“Maybe we can find another way out and rig a stretcher,” Hailey said.
Dean barely heard her. He gently cradled Sam to his chest and sobbed like he didn’t remember doing since childhood because it didn’t go this way and he didn’t know what to do to change it. Adam put his arms around the both of them, tears running down his face. Something small and bronze flitted a moment before Dean’s vision, clutched between Adam’s thumb and forefinger. Just that old lucky coin Sam gave me ages ago.
“Adam,” Dean said, eyes focusing, forcing himself back from the mind numbing terror. “Let me see that.”
Ancient. Babylonian. Dangerous. The flashes hit fast and hard now, bits of an impossible future mixed with snippets of his dream. Talking teddy bears and pretty women and invisible boys. Lashes and monsters and screaming and hellhounds chasing him, devouring him. Blood spurting everywhere. That was Sam, here, now, wasn’t it? But it didn’t happen this way. A Western set and a man with a knife running at Sam from behind and the same pain, the agony of watching his brother … His brother. He turned to look at Adam who was his brother. But could not be.
“D’n,” Sam sputtered weakly.
“I’m here bro. I got you.”
“Didja …”
“Yes. It’s gone. We’re going to get you out of here. Get you help.”
“A--dam.”
“I’m here, Sam. Hang in. We … we’ll figure out a way to move you and …”
“Adam. It’s okay. Help … help Dean.”
No. This wasn’t right. Wasn’t supposed to … Adam kept playing with the coin, wouldn’t let it go, almost as if it were the only thing keeping him …
“Sam,” Dean said firmly. “The coin. Take it back. Sam, do you hear me? You have to take it back.”
Adam looked at him confused. Sam was too out of it to respond. Images were moving in fast forward now, too quick to catch them all, passing in flashing intensity, threatening to make him sick. Sam at the center, take care of Sammy, dying in his arms. Here. Not here. Dead. The failure, the pain, so unbearable he died himself. Demons talking to him, taunting him until he was evil torturing sick disgusting. A monster. Him and … Sam with powers, bad, dark. Demonic. Sammy. If I didn't know you, I would want to hunt you.
He looked down and brushed the shaggy hair off the face of the person he loved most in all the world. Sam was dying because he’d been trying to get away from Dean. The realization made bile rise and burn like acid in his throat. He took the coin from Adam, who looked at him puzzled and sad beyond measure. This brother, Adam, he couldn’t keep.
“Sam. Listen to me. You made a wish with this coin. It’s cursed. This isn’t supposed to happen like this … You wished I’d stop treating you like a baby brother. I’m sorry. If I … I’ll try harder, I will. But Sam, you have to take the wish back. Please.”
A soft rustle made him look up. Hailey had put her arm on Adam’s shoulder. It wasn’t possible that she understood, but her instincts were spot on nonetheless. Dean swallowed, stared his youngest brother in the eyes.“Adam. I’m sorry. You are our brother. I know this. But Dad never … he didn’t tell us. We don’t know you and you don’t know us. Sam has to take it back. You can’t …”
“Be your brother?” Adam finished brokenly.
“I’m sorry,” he repeated again lamely.
Turning back to Sam he placed the coin in his brother’s hand and cupped it closed with his own. He’d lost so much blood, they had very little time. Sammy, please.
“Dean … I could never wish … Adam …”
Their little brother leaned into Sam and held him as Dean had done before. Agony wrenched through him in tiny shudders. “I love you, Sam. I always will. But do it. If it could save you. Do it.”
Hailey leaned down, rubbing Adam’s back. Dean met her gaze for the last time, held it long enough to say thanks and sorry and if only. Turning back he saw Sam shut his eyes. For heart-stopping moment he thought it was over. That Sammy was dead. And then it went black.
Go to Epilogue