[For Veronica]

[unchosen_son]

The whole Dean thing wouldn't get off Sam's mind, no matter how hard he tried to shake it. He'd tried shooting things, which didn't help. He'd tried sulking, but then he was afraid that his father was bound to catch him and start asking questions. So he'd eventually just given up and grabbed a book to just head for a walk, barely paying attention

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[neptune_sleuth]

Veronica had been headed down to the beach, jogging along with her headphones in her ears, but it was her practice to leave the volume down low enough that she could hear the world around her, so as never to be caught off guard. The sound of Sam's voice cut through the music, and before she was even fully certain what she was doing, she had started toward it, pulling the earbuds from her ears.

"Sam?" she called out, bursting through the brush to where he was. "Sam, oh my god." He was starting to sink down, and Veronica's first, irrational thought was that an ROUS was going to jump out at them and then a flame would spurt up, and — alright, her mind was a little out of control. She struggled to get her thoughts clear. Whatever he'd said, whatever he'd done, she wasn't about to let him drown in quicksand.

[unchosen_son]

It was slow, but it wasn't exactly nothing and Veronica hadn't found him until he'd sunk a good four to five inches. Granted, being six foot four meant he had a lot of inches to go, but he didn't exactly look forward to asphyxiating and given that he was about hip-deep already, this wasn't exactly going in a direction he liked.

"Hi," he greeted, as if he weren't sinking into a pit of sand. "Yeah, I sort of...wasn't really paying attention," he admitted, scanning the ground around him. "I don't know how widespread or patchy this is," he warned.

[neptune_sleuth]

"You know," Veronica said hurriedly, "there are times when paying attention? Really a good idea." She was looking frantically around for something, anything, to throw out to him to pull him in. Sure, he didn't exactly look like he was in a huge amount of danger right then, what with the whole thing where he was approximately the same height as the Empire State Building, but god knew how long it would take to drag him out or if the first plan would work at all.

Forcing herself to calm the hell down, she searched their surroundings, carefully staying in one place as much as she could. If she fell in, too, they'd be, as the old saying went, completely screwed. Edging forward cautiously, she headed toward a branch hanging crookedly from a nearby tree. It had probably been partially snapped by some large animal lumbering by or Chuck's friend John Casey, one or the other, but she was pretty sure she could pull it the rest of the way down.

[unchosen_son]

Sam didn't exactly want to get into the details of why he was so distracted because that was just way too much of a grey area to be talking about while he was sinking in quicksand. He took deep breaths and just kept calm, watching her go and feeling, impossibly, really strangely guilty for making her do this.

"Maybe some rope?" he offered, hoping his voice carried.

[neptune_sleuth]

"Rope?" Veronica echoed, disbelieving as she looked back over her shoulder at him. At last the branch snapped beneath the force of her pull, and she took a stumbling step backward, breath catching audibly in her throat as she realized what was happening. She caught herself a moment later, eyes closing tight, half-waiting to feel herself start sinking, too. "You really think I should go all the way back to the Compound?" she asked, turning toward him, hand on her hip. She arched an eyebrow at him, but there was some sincerity in the question.

[unchosen_son]

"No," he said quietly. He didn't want her to go anywhere, but he didn't think that saying that would be a very good idea, so he just tried to set himself up on dry ground. He pushed, but nothing happened and he closed his eyes to stay calm, keeping his mind on one sole idea.

Veronica. She was there and she was helping him and he'd be okay.

"Please, please never tell Dean about this. I'd never hear the end of it."

[neptune_sleuth]

Veronica laughed, small and rough in her throat. "Like I tell Dean anything," she said. She moved closer, cautious, trying her weight carefully each step of the way. Holding the branch out to him, she nodded. "Come on, grab hold. Let's see if I've learned anything from the movies."

It would have helped, she thought, if she carried rope around with her or if he weren't so big or if she were a little more certain of the ground she stood on. She'd been training, though, for so long and so hard, and she had the strength for it; she had to have. Calm as still waters.

[unchosen_son]

Sam took a long deep breath and stared warily at the branch, looking up at her and trying to forget every physics lesson he ever had that said this was going to be a miraculous feat. But he still reached up and with strong and large hands, grabbed hold of the branch. "I know you can do this," he said, mostly for himself. "I mean, hey," he laughed nervously. "It's either this or we need a new home for me. Maybe my feet'll hit bottom, right?"

[neptune_sleuth]

Already she doubted this would work at all, but Veronica pushed the thought from her mind, stepping heavily backward, her grip on the branch tight. Just because she'd been on TV didn't mean she could pull a trick out of the movies and expect it to work, not here. "You're tall enough," she agreed dryly. "We'll just build a roof over year head in an 'A,' like Eeyore's house." He was just as gloomy as that damn donkey sometimes anyway. She could feel him straining forward, his weight on the other end, but just how much give she'd get from quicksand, she didn't know. Why couldn't this place provide me with some nice, convenient Tarzan vines? You can pull an elephant up with those.

[unchosen_son]

Sam was slowly trying to climb his way up the branch, but he was breathing faster now as his fingers started to slip and he started to feel like it was about to crack any second. "Crap," he exhaled in a panic. "Uh, Veronica, quick, what do I do?"

[neptune_sleuth]

"First you try breathing," she replied, as calmly as she could. It was hard enough for her to do on her own. Briefly she considered holding out her hands to him, dragging him out, but she'd probably just get pulled in herself. "Calm, Sam. Deep breaths. Try and move your legs around, but just stay calm, okay?" It was rare for Veronica to completely drop the sarcasm, but she'd never had any real experience with this kind of thing before and quicksand was enough to make a girl lose the time for quips. Gripping the branch more tightly, she tugged as hard as she could, staggering backward. "I will get you out of this."

[unchosen_son]

"Breathing, yeah, I hear that thing's good," he added, searching all around him and taking a long sigh and keeping calm with her instructions, trying to climb up the branch slower. "Okay, not to get anyone unduly excited here," he spoke, calm as usual, "but I think I'm inching up and out of here."

[neptune_sleuth]

"You caught me right before I broke out the party hats," Veronica said. Clenching her teeth, she heaved all the harder, digging her heels into the ground and stepping slowly backward. Everything that had happened between them, the arguments and betrayals, the kisses and confessions, had to be forgotten for the moment, possibly for the first moment in weeks; until the task was done, she was no one.

[unchosen_son]

Sam closed his eyes and put all his training to work, upper-body strength having to do the job when he kept looking for a foothold and kept not-finding one thanks to the way the quicksand just kept making him slip. Eventually, he was out enough to grasp for dry-land.

"Veron...Veronica, maybe a hand?" he encouraged, reaching out with his right-hand while the left held onto the branch.

[neptune_sleuth]

Keeping her left hand wrapped tightly around the branch, Veronica held her right out to him, taking hold and hauling him forward. "Come on," she said, gritting her teeth together and all but stumbling down. Heaving a sigh, she staggered back to lean against a tree, eyes closed, relief evident in the sudden slackness of her shoulders. "Well, that was fun."

[unchosen_son]

Sam was covered in grimy sand from about the chest down and he grimaced as he stumbled and eventually just wound up collapsing from the tiredness of fighting his way out, staring up at Veronica with sheer relief and gratitude in his eyes. "Thank you," he exhaled. "So much."