Just Breathe Chap 16/16 Part A
Title: Just Breathe Chapter 16/16 Part A
Author: JCRGIRL
Pairing: Dean/Sam
Rating: R
Warnings: Wincest, underage
Word Count: 3,347
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. Just playing in Kripke's sandbox.
Summary: Dad is away and Sam falls ill leaving Dean to deal with a sick brother. Endings are hard.
Author Notes: Title from Faith Hill song. Also, as always completely unbeta-ed.
A/N2: Wow, this section kicked my ass! I have an idea that I've been batting around for a sequel. Let me know what you think!
Dean stood in the doorway, paralyzed by indecision, and watched Casey’s petite body jerk and twitch on the floor. His only experience with seizures was limited to a time when Sam was small, sometime before his first birthday, and had gotten a fever so high and so fast that he had a seizure. Dean was just a little over five at the time and the most he could really remember was the look of panic on his father’s face and the too bright lights of the Emergency Department.
He took a step forward, mind still searching for the best course of action, when her rigid body suddenly went limp. Kneeling down, he brushed the strands of hair, worked loose from her ponytail, away from her face and was relieved to see she was breathing.
“Casey?” He shook her shoulders. “Casey?” A little louder this time. Getting no response, he scooped her up in his arms and hurried back to the house in the desperate hope that Zoe would know what to do. Grunting, he jostled her dead weight - how exactly does someone so small weigh so much? - to open the back door and moved inside quickly in the direction of Zoe’s room. Dean gently laid her down on the bed and heard the light steps of Zoe following him in the room.
“How’s Sam?”
Zoe knelt next to Casey and ran her hands over the younger girl’s body checking for an explanation for her unconsciousness. “He’s fine now. He was in a lot of pain so I gave him some pain medicine and a sedative. He should be out for a couple of hours, at least. Now, tell me what the hell is going on? What happened to her?”
“I don’t know. Sam was having a nightmare and when I woke him up all he would say was that something was wrong with Casey. When I got to the training room she was having a seizure.”
Dean walked out to the short hallway and positioned himself between the two open bedroom doors, affording him a view of the sleeping figures in each.
“A seizure?” Zoe’s whisper was barely audible as she reached over to Casey shoulder and pulled her onto her side. She petted the side of Casey head, hypnotized momentarily by the motion. “She’ll come around in a few minutes. Why don’t you go check Sam’s stitches to make sure he didn’t pop any of them?”
Dean watched as she rested her forehead on the edge of the mattress in front of Casey. He nodded even though Zoe couldn’t see and went into the room with Sam.
The gauze on Sam’s legs were still crisp and white so Dean bypassed those and started carefully peeling the tape from the dressings on Sam’s chest and arm. The seventy five thin, black soldiers on his chest and the fifty on his arm, phalanxes of sentinels holding Sam together, were still intact. Dean gently replaced the bandages, fingers smoothing down the securing tape along the edges. He sat on the edge of the bed and looked down at Sam’s sleeping face before bending over to place a chaste, loving kiss to his lips.
“I love you, Sammy.”
Dean turned, the feeling of being watched zinging up the nerves of his spine creating alarm bells in his brain. Casey leaned against the door jamb, a faded blue blanket wrapped around her slumped shoulders.
“Hey, you okay?” Dean rose, smoothing the cover over Sam’s chest.
“Yeah,” she croaked and in the next breath, “No. Um, he’s going to be out for a little while. Can we talk?”
Sam’s face was slack in deep slumber and Dean ran his fingers across his brow. He nodded at her, watching Sam for a moment longer before following her into the living room. Zoe waited for them, propped against the table, carefully tracking Casey’s sluggish gait to the chair.
“Did you know that Sam gets visions, Dean?” Casey’s words washed over him mid-step and in his shock he didn’t pick up his foot enough, caught his toe on the carpet and stumbled into the couch. Hissing a curse at the bruise he knew was imminent on his shin, he hopped once before falling in an ungraceful sprawl on the cushion.
“What are you talking about?” Lots and lots of blood came unbidden to Dean’s mind. Sam’s dream the night before Casey was shot and Dean carried her in the house, her blood slicking his palms, and a few short weeks before Sam was shredded by a skinwalker and Dean followed him to the house, Sam’s blood drying on his fingers. The blood drained from his face so fast he actually felt dizzy from the loss. Casey’s smile was tired and sympathetic, her arched eyebrow knowing.
“Visions?” Zoe’s voice was hushed with a note of something Dean couldn’t identify and he was automatically on the defensive. If it happened that Sam was a freak, which Dean was not entirely convinced of yet, then he was Dean’s freak and no one, no one, will treat him badly.
“I usually avoid psychics. I have a tendency to be… pulled in to their visions and premonitions,” Casey said, leveling a gaze at him.
“So, that’s what happened this morning? Sam had a vision and you were sucked into it somehow?” At Casey’s head nod, he couldn’t help but ask the logical follow-up. “What did you see?”
“Lots of things,” she said vaguely. “Sam’s not safe here anymore. In the vision, he was kidnapped from here by two, I want to say, shapeshifters the night of the full moon. The next full moon is tomorrow night so we’ll need to move him tonight.” Dean nodded his agreement, his stomach in knots. “I have to go into town before we leave, but when I get back we need to figure out how to get him out.” Casey stood up and shrugged off the blanket.
“Where do you think you’re going? You had a seizure less than an hour ago. You’re not well,” Zoe bellowed, her shoulders in a hard line.
“I’m fine. I have to go into town and pick up some things that I ordered. I’ll be back before Sam wakes.” Casey’s fists were balled at her sides and her words were forced through gritted teeth, trying to reign in the agitation that was rolling off her. She turned toward the door, picking up the keys to the Jeep off the counter.
“Casey! You will tell me where you are going. I will order you if I have to.” The words were cold and steely when spoken, but Dean could see from Zoe’s expression she regretted them the moment they left her lips.
Casey turned on her heel and looked back at her friend like she’d been slapped. She closed her eyes and took a calming breath before swallowing hard. “Do you trust me?” It was spoken so quiet that Dean had to strain to hear, the tone pained like Casey was afraid of the answer.
“Of course. With my life.”
“Then trust me now.I need to go to town.”
Zoe tilted her head to the ceiling and blew a deep breath through pursed lips as the sound of the kitchen door closing echoed in the silence. She righted her head and rolled the tension from her shoulders. Brushing past Dean, she went into her bedroom and shut the door.
Dean looked down as Sam slowly blinked his eyes open, the lingering effects of the sedative making the movements lethargic. He’d lain down next to his brother after Casey left and for the last two hours watched Sam sleep in between light dozes of his own. His mind had spent the time turning over and over where he and Sam should go next. In the last seventeen years they had visited nearly every corner of this country, criss-crossed it dozens of times, but he’d never given serious thought to where among the amber plains would he want to call home. Home. That was the one thing that Dean was certain of, wherever he and Sam ended up was going to be home, a permanent home. His fingers traced the outer edge of the bandage on Sam’s arm. The sight of Sam’s bloody body combined with the gut wrenching pain Dean had experienced thinking Sam was going to die was enough to convince the eldest Winchester sibling that some things were more important than the ‘family business’. Sam’s hazel eyes slid into focus and a shy smile spread across his face.
“Hey,” he said timidly. Dean saw the uncertainty that Sam was desperately trying to keep contained. He sensed the anticipatory fear and heartbreak that Sam was expecting, believing that Dean would have changed his mind or decided against this thing between them.
“Hey,” Dean smirked and leaned over to brush a light kiss across Sam’s lips. Sam’s eyes widened at the touch of Dean’s soft lips to his, body shaking from an excess of nerves. “I told you I wasn’t going anywhere. Whatever this is, Sam, I’m in. I just want you to make sure this is what you really want.” Dean caressed the side of his brother’s cheek with his knuckles.
Tears leaked out of the corners of Sam’s eyes. “God, Dean.” He let out a relieved exhale and the tremors seemed to calm. “I want this. I-I have for a long time. How - how are we going to do this?”
“Slowly, Sammy. Very slowly. You need time to heal and…”
“And what?”
“And I don’t want to screw this up. I mean, I know I’ll screw up some times, but, you know, I mean really screw this up. I just” Slender fingers pressed against his lips thankfully silencing his babbling. Sam face was so full of love and adoration, Dean’s stomach ached. No one, no one, save Sammy, had ever looked at him like that and he could feel it in his fucking toes.
“Slow,” Sam repeated, tilting his chin up in invitation.
Dean dipped low, the kiss soft with gentle pressure and languid strokes. The pulled back from Sam’s mouth at the sound of the Jeep coming up the driveway.
“Sounds like Casey’s back.”
“Casey!” Guilt flashed across Sam’s features as he remembered the dream from earlier and his feeling that she was in trouble. “Is she okay? What happened? Where was she?”
“Sam.” Sam calmed at the sound of his name. “She’s fine. It was a seizure but everything is okay now.” Dean rubbed his palm over Sam’s stomach in soothing circles until his words penetrated Sam’s panicked mind. “Look, Sam. We have to leave tonight. Casey doesn’t think it’s safe anymore.”
“Why? What’s happened?”
“What do you remember of the dream you had this morning?” Dean propped his head in his hand, distantly hearing the sound of Casey moving in the main part of the house.
“Just sounds mostly. It was like the actual visual part was behind a curtain. I went to pull it aside but couldn’t and when I touched it…” His voice trailed as he recalled the feeling of Casey in danger when his fingers touched the veil. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Casey says they’re not dreams, they’re visions.” Sam’s gaze widened slightly and slid off Dean’s face, fixing resolutely out the open window. Dean could almost hear the pieces snap into place as his mind arranged them to complete the mental puzzle. “How long have you known?”
“Not long,” Sam mumbled. “Figured it out after the werewolf. I dreamed the night before that it killed you. When I saw it running at you, it was like living my nightmare.”
Dean remembered Sam thrashing the night before the hunt. After Dean woke him up, he told Sam that he needed to go back to sleep so he’d be sharp for the next night.
“Sam, you should have told me.” Dean cupped Sam’s face and rubbed his thumb over Sam’s cheekbone. “The one you had this morning.” He waited for Sam’s nod, “Casey saw it too. She said in it you were kidnapped tomorrow night. Does that match the sounds you remember?”
Sam’s eyes moved back and forth as his mind searched his memory. When they stilled, he looked slightly green. Dean took that as confirmation and brought his fingers down to wrap around Sam’s neck. “Don’t worry, Sam. I won’t let it happen. We’re going to get you out tonight.”
There was a light knock on the doorjamb and the brothers looked up to see Casey standing in the opening flanked by Zoe. Dean had the uncontrollable urge to jump back, knowing that their position was incriminating, but Sam stilled him with a gentle hand on his arm and a slight shake of his head. Dean quirked an eyebrow at him, but suppressed the instinct, trusting Sam.
“Can we come in?”
“Yeah.”
Casey moved to the dresser and leaned against the front while Zoe sat in the rocking chair that Dean had pulled up to the side of the bed the previous night. Dean untangled his arms from around Sam and sat up, reclining back against the headboard.
“I have an idea on how to do this. Trotter will be here soon to check Sam over again and give you the instructions you need to care for Sam’s wounds on your own. Once Trotter’s given us the green light to move Sam, each of us will take a car and head in a different direction. Zoe, take the Corvette; Trotter will drive the Jeep; Dean, you and Sam will, of course, leave in the Impala; and I’ll use the Judge. Just let us know which way you want to go and we’ll head in the other three. Hopefully, we’ll be able to split the demons up or maybe even get them to follow the wrong car. Both times they’ve attacked, you’ve been separated. It would stand to reason we’d do it again.”
“Trotter agreed to put himself at risk like that? He barely knows us.” Sam shifted on the bed and winced at the burning pain in his chest. Casey didn’t answer, but Zoe rolled her eyes. Sam raised his eyebrow in question, Zoe merely shrugging in response.
“Florida then Indiana,” Dean answered Casey without hesitation, having made up his mind while his brother slept, and now Sam’s eyebrow was directed at his brother. Dean looked over at him with a soft smile. “You always loved the beach. We could stay there until you graduate then settle in Indiana. There was that little town in the northern part that we passed through a few years ago, remember.”
Sam’s smile was blinding. He could clearly see the small town, quaint in that old Americana way with flags flying from posts outside the Mom and Pop stores and the highways leading in and out of town edged by large farms complete with iconic red barns and silos. They had passed through around this same time of year, the town decorated for a fall festival to celebrate another successful year. John had stopped for gas and Sam, looking out the window with longing, murmured that it looked like a nice place to live. That had been three years ago, just a random comment, the first and only of its kind, and leave it to Dean to remember.
“Yeah. I think that’s a good idea.”
“Okay, good. That’s settled. Here.” Casey handed over a manila envelope that Dean hadn’t noticed before. “You’re going to need this.”
Dean took the proffered package, noticing it was weightier than he first thought and set it in his lap. Sam made a vague gesture that both Dean and Casey understood to mean that he wanted to sit up. One on each side, they lifted and maneuvered him like the finest china, shifting the pillow behind his back and under his arm to maximize their support, until he rested back on the headboard next to his brother. Settled again, he waved his hand over the envelope in a ‘go ahead’ motion. Dean opened the end and dumped the contents in his lap, papers, laminated cards, phones and other small items sliding over the soft duvet on the bed. Sam leaned over and picked up three North Carolina driver’s licenses, his face smiling back at him on one with the name Sam Remington printed on it and Dean’s smirk on the other two, one with the name Dean Remington and the other with Dean Browning.
“Remington and Browning?” He laughed softly, amused eyes on Casey’s embarrassed expression.
“Variation on a theme,” she smiled. “There are birth certificates and Social Security cards to match. I also had Sam’s school records done in this name so he can be easily registered. There are documents in there showing Dean as your guardian to alleviate any questions.”
Dean plucked the IDs from Sam’s hand and looked over the ones with his picture. “Why do I have two?”
Casey leveled that knowing look at him again and god he is really beginning to hate that look. “It’s easier to remain brothers until Sam graduates since people might think twice about an underage minor living with a single, unrelated man. Afterwards, I thought it would be simpler for you to hide if you weren’t family and,” she paused, continuing after Sam winked, “it would accommodate the life you might want to live.”
Not live as brothers? Why would we want that?
Sam, next to him, nodded his head, a grateful smile on his lips, and Dean had to suppress the urge to lean over and kiss him.
Oh.
Sam rifled through the items picking up two black cards with American Express logos in the corner. His eyes widened in shock and his head snapped up to the younger of the two girls.Dean watched as Casey casually shrugged her shoulder and said, “I have access to better fakes”, but Sam looked far from convinced. He turned toward his little brother to question him, but Sam had moved on, now concentrating on a piece of paper.
“You know what to do with those, right?” Casey motioned toward the paper in Sam’s hand. Sam nodded and set the paper down on his legs and traced the intricate designs with his index finger.
“What are they?” Dean slid the paper out from under Sam’s reverent touch to get a better look.
“Enochian runes,” Casey answered. “They’ll hide you from demons and angels. You’ll virtually be invisible to them.”
“You know where to put them?” Zoe asked.
“Same place as Casey’s, I assume. Middle of the back between the shoulder blades.” Sam replied matter of factly. Dean’s questioning gaze, forced him to go further. “What? I saw it the night the night she was shot.”
“They can basically go anywhere but are more potent the closer they are to the heart. They are supposed to hide your soul and it was the belief that the heart was where the soul resides. The medallions in there will serve the same purpose until you can get the ink done.” Casey pointed to the two round charms strung on metal chains on bed. “Those cell phones are new and registered in the Remington names. I programmed my number and Zoe’s in the contacts. You can decide who else you want to transfer from the phones you have now.”
Sam rolled the two devices in his hand. He powered up the simple flip phone and handed it to Dean when his name appeared on the display then powered up the Palm Pilot that showed his name. The sound of Trotter’s truck coming up the driveway effectively ended further opportunity discussion as Casey and Zoe moved to the doorway.
“You need to get packed so once Trotter’s done with Sam we can bail. Do you think you can be ready to go in an hour?”
“Yeah, no problem.” Dean stood and began to gather their things.
Chapter 16B
Author: JCRGIRL
Pairing: Dean/Sam
Rating: R
Warnings: Wincest, underage
Word Count: 3,347
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. Just playing in Kripke's sandbox.
Summary: Dad is away and Sam falls ill leaving Dean to deal with a sick brother. Endings are hard.
Author Notes: Title from Faith Hill song. Also, as always completely unbeta-ed.
A/N2: Wow, this section kicked my ass! I have an idea that I've been batting around for a sequel. Let me know what you think!
Dean stood in the doorway, paralyzed by indecision, and watched Casey’s petite body jerk and twitch on the floor. His only experience with seizures was limited to a time when Sam was small, sometime before his first birthday, and had gotten a fever so high and so fast that he had a seizure. Dean was just a little over five at the time and the most he could really remember was the look of panic on his father’s face and the too bright lights of the Emergency Department.
He took a step forward, mind still searching for the best course of action, when her rigid body suddenly went limp. Kneeling down, he brushed the strands of hair, worked loose from her ponytail, away from her face and was relieved to see she was breathing.
“Casey?” He shook her shoulders. “Casey?” A little louder this time. Getting no response, he scooped her up in his arms and hurried back to the house in the desperate hope that Zoe would know what to do. Grunting, he jostled her dead weight - how exactly does someone so small weigh so much? - to open the back door and moved inside quickly in the direction of Zoe’s room. Dean gently laid her down on the bed and heard the light steps of Zoe following him in the room.
“How’s Sam?”
Zoe knelt next to Casey and ran her hands over the younger girl’s body checking for an explanation for her unconsciousness. “He’s fine now. He was in a lot of pain so I gave him some pain medicine and a sedative. He should be out for a couple of hours, at least. Now, tell me what the hell is going on? What happened to her?”
“I don’t know. Sam was having a nightmare and when I woke him up all he would say was that something was wrong with Casey. When I got to the training room she was having a seizure.”
Dean walked out to the short hallway and positioned himself between the two open bedroom doors, affording him a view of the sleeping figures in each.
“A seizure?” Zoe’s whisper was barely audible as she reached over to Casey shoulder and pulled her onto her side. She petted the side of Casey head, hypnotized momentarily by the motion. “She’ll come around in a few minutes. Why don’t you go check Sam’s stitches to make sure he didn’t pop any of them?”
Dean watched as she rested her forehead on the edge of the mattress in front of Casey. He nodded even though Zoe couldn’t see and went into the room with Sam.
The gauze on Sam’s legs were still crisp and white so Dean bypassed those and started carefully peeling the tape from the dressings on Sam’s chest and arm. The seventy five thin, black soldiers on his chest and the fifty on his arm, phalanxes of sentinels holding Sam together, were still intact. Dean gently replaced the bandages, fingers smoothing down the securing tape along the edges. He sat on the edge of the bed and looked down at Sam’s sleeping face before bending over to place a chaste, loving kiss to his lips.
“I love you, Sammy.”
Dean turned, the feeling of being watched zinging up the nerves of his spine creating alarm bells in his brain. Casey leaned against the door jamb, a faded blue blanket wrapped around her slumped shoulders.
“Hey, you okay?” Dean rose, smoothing the cover over Sam’s chest.
“Yeah,” she croaked and in the next breath, “No. Um, he’s going to be out for a little while. Can we talk?”
Sam’s face was slack in deep slumber and Dean ran his fingers across his brow. He nodded at her, watching Sam for a moment longer before following her into the living room. Zoe waited for them, propped against the table, carefully tracking Casey’s sluggish gait to the chair.
“Did you know that Sam gets visions, Dean?” Casey’s words washed over him mid-step and in his shock he didn’t pick up his foot enough, caught his toe on the carpet and stumbled into the couch. Hissing a curse at the bruise he knew was imminent on his shin, he hopped once before falling in an ungraceful sprawl on the cushion.
“What are you talking about?” Lots and lots of blood came unbidden to Dean’s mind. Sam’s dream the night before Casey was shot and Dean carried her in the house, her blood slicking his palms, and a few short weeks before Sam was shredded by a skinwalker and Dean followed him to the house, Sam’s blood drying on his fingers. The blood drained from his face so fast he actually felt dizzy from the loss. Casey’s smile was tired and sympathetic, her arched eyebrow knowing.
“Visions?” Zoe’s voice was hushed with a note of something Dean couldn’t identify and he was automatically on the defensive. If it happened that Sam was a freak, which Dean was not entirely convinced of yet, then he was Dean’s freak and no one, no one, will treat him badly.
“I usually avoid psychics. I have a tendency to be… pulled in to their visions and premonitions,” Casey said, leveling a gaze at him.
“So, that’s what happened this morning? Sam had a vision and you were sucked into it somehow?” At Casey’s head nod, he couldn’t help but ask the logical follow-up. “What did you see?”
“Lots of things,” she said vaguely. “Sam’s not safe here anymore. In the vision, he was kidnapped from here by two, I want to say, shapeshifters the night of the full moon. The next full moon is tomorrow night so we’ll need to move him tonight.” Dean nodded his agreement, his stomach in knots. “I have to go into town before we leave, but when I get back we need to figure out how to get him out.” Casey stood up and shrugged off the blanket.
“Where do you think you’re going? You had a seizure less than an hour ago. You’re not well,” Zoe bellowed, her shoulders in a hard line.
“I’m fine. I have to go into town and pick up some things that I ordered. I’ll be back before Sam wakes.” Casey’s fists were balled at her sides and her words were forced through gritted teeth, trying to reign in the agitation that was rolling off her. She turned toward the door, picking up the keys to the Jeep off the counter.
“Casey! You will tell me where you are going. I will order you if I have to.” The words were cold and steely when spoken, but Dean could see from Zoe’s expression she regretted them the moment they left her lips.
Casey turned on her heel and looked back at her friend like she’d been slapped. She closed her eyes and took a calming breath before swallowing hard. “Do you trust me?” It was spoken so quiet that Dean had to strain to hear, the tone pained like Casey was afraid of the answer.
“Of course. With my life.”
“Then trust me now.I need to go to town.”
Zoe tilted her head to the ceiling and blew a deep breath through pursed lips as the sound of the kitchen door closing echoed in the silence. She righted her head and rolled the tension from her shoulders. Brushing past Dean, she went into her bedroom and shut the door.
Dean looked down as Sam slowly blinked his eyes open, the lingering effects of the sedative making the movements lethargic. He’d lain down next to his brother after Casey left and for the last two hours watched Sam sleep in between light dozes of his own. His mind had spent the time turning over and over where he and Sam should go next. In the last seventeen years they had visited nearly every corner of this country, criss-crossed it dozens of times, but he’d never given serious thought to where among the amber plains would he want to call home. Home. That was the one thing that Dean was certain of, wherever he and Sam ended up was going to be home, a permanent home. His fingers traced the outer edge of the bandage on Sam’s arm. The sight of Sam’s bloody body combined with the gut wrenching pain Dean had experienced thinking Sam was going to die was enough to convince the eldest Winchester sibling that some things were more important than the ‘family business’. Sam’s hazel eyes slid into focus and a shy smile spread across his face.
“Hey,” he said timidly. Dean saw the uncertainty that Sam was desperately trying to keep contained. He sensed the anticipatory fear and heartbreak that Sam was expecting, believing that Dean would have changed his mind or decided against this thing between them.
“Hey,” Dean smirked and leaned over to brush a light kiss across Sam’s lips. Sam’s eyes widened at the touch of Dean’s soft lips to his, body shaking from an excess of nerves. “I told you I wasn’t going anywhere. Whatever this is, Sam, I’m in. I just want you to make sure this is what you really want.” Dean caressed the side of his brother’s cheek with his knuckles.
Tears leaked out of the corners of Sam’s eyes. “God, Dean.” He let out a relieved exhale and the tremors seemed to calm. “I want this. I-I have for a long time. How - how are we going to do this?”
“Slowly, Sammy. Very slowly. You need time to heal and…”
“And what?”
“And I don’t want to screw this up. I mean, I know I’ll screw up some times, but, you know, I mean really screw this up. I just” Slender fingers pressed against his lips thankfully silencing his babbling. Sam face was so full of love and adoration, Dean’s stomach ached. No one, no one, save Sammy, had ever looked at him like that and he could feel it in his fucking toes.
“Slow,” Sam repeated, tilting his chin up in invitation.
Dean dipped low, the kiss soft with gentle pressure and languid strokes. The pulled back from Sam’s mouth at the sound of the Jeep coming up the driveway.
“Sounds like Casey’s back.”
“Casey!” Guilt flashed across Sam’s features as he remembered the dream from earlier and his feeling that she was in trouble. “Is she okay? What happened? Where was she?”
“Sam.” Sam calmed at the sound of his name. “She’s fine. It was a seizure but everything is okay now.” Dean rubbed his palm over Sam’s stomach in soothing circles until his words penetrated Sam’s panicked mind. “Look, Sam. We have to leave tonight. Casey doesn’t think it’s safe anymore.”
“Why? What’s happened?”
“What do you remember of the dream you had this morning?” Dean propped his head in his hand, distantly hearing the sound of Casey moving in the main part of the house.
“Just sounds mostly. It was like the actual visual part was behind a curtain. I went to pull it aside but couldn’t and when I touched it…” His voice trailed as he recalled the feeling of Casey in danger when his fingers touched the veil. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“Casey says they’re not dreams, they’re visions.” Sam’s gaze widened slightly and slid off Dean’s face, fixing resolutely out the open window. Dean could almost hear the pieces snap into place as his mind arranged them to complete the mental puzzle. “How long have you known?”
“Not long,” Sam mumbled. “Figured it out after the werewolf. I dreamed the night before that it killed you. When I saw it running at you, it was like living my nightmare.”
Dean remembered Sam thrashing the night before the hunt. After Dean woke him up, he told Sam that he needed to go back to sleep so he’d be sharp for the next night.
“Sam, you should have told me.” Dean cupped Sam’s face and rubbed his thumb over Sam’s cheekbone. “The one you had this morning.” He waited for Sam’s nod, “Casey saw it too. She said in it you were kidnapped tomorrow night. Does that match the sounds you remember?”
Sam’s eyes moved back and forth as his mind searched his memory. When they stilled, he looked slightly green. Dean took that as confirmation and brought his fingers down to wrap around Sam’s neck. “Don’t worry, Sam. I won’t let it happen. We’re going to get you out tonight.”
There was a light knock on the doorjamb and the brothers looked up to see Casey standing in the opening flanked by Zoe. Dean had the uncontrollable urge to jump back, knowing that their position was incriminating, but Sam stilled him with a gentle hand on his arm and a slight shake of his head. Dean quirked an eyebrow at him, but suppressed the instinct, trusting Sam.
“Can we come in?”
“Yeah.”
Casey moved to the dresser and leaned against the front while Zoe sat in the rocking chair that Dean had pulled up to the side of the bed the previous night. Dean untangled his arms from around Sam and sat up, reclining back against the headboard.
“I have an idea on how to do this. Trotter will be here soon to check Sam over again and give you the instructions you need to care for Sam’s wounds on your own. Once Trotter’s given us the green light to move Sam, each of us will take a car and head in a different direction. Zoe, take the Corvette; Trotter will drive the Jeep; Dean, you and Sam will, of course, leave in the Impala; and I’ll use the Judge. Just let us know which way you want to go and we’ll head in the other three. Hopefully, we’ll be able to split the demons up or maybe even get them to follow the wrong car. Both times they’ve attacked, you’ve been separated. It would stand to reason we’d do it again.”
“Trotter agreed to put himself at risk like that? He barely knows us.” Sam shifted on the bed and winced at the burning pain in his chest. Casey didn’t answer, but Zoe rolled her eyes. Sam raised his eyebrow in question, Zoe merely shrugging in response.
“Florida then Indiana,” Dean answered Casey without hesitation, having made up his mind while his brother slept, and now Sam’s eyebrow was directed at his brother. Dean looked over at him with a soft smile. “You always loved the beach. We could stay there until you graduate then settle in Indiana. There was that little town in the northern part that we passed through a few years ago, remember.”
Sam’s smile was blinding. He could clearly see the small town, quaint in that old Americana way with flags flying from posts outside the Mom and Pop stores and the highways leading in and out of town edged by large farms complete with iconic red barns and silos. They had passed through around this same time of year, the town decorated for a fall festival to celebrate another successful year. John had stopped for gas and Sam, looking out the window with longing, murmured that it looked like a nice place to live. That had been three years ago, just a random comment, the first and only of its kind, and leave it to Dean to remember.
“Yeah. I think that’s a good idea.”
“Okay, good. That’s settled. Here.” Casey handed over a manila envelope that Dean hadn’t noticed before. “You’re going to need this.”
Dean took the proffered package, noticing it was weightier than he first thought and set it in his lap. Sam made a vague gesture that both Dean and Casey understood to mean that he wanted to sit up. One on each side, they lifted and maneuvered him like the finest china, shifting the pillow behind his back and under his arm to maximize their support, until he rested back on the headboard next to his brother. Settled again, he waved his hand over the envelope in a ‘go ahead’ motion. Dean opened the end and dumped the contents in his lap, papers, laminated cards, phones and other small items sliding over the soft duvet on the bed. Sam leaned over and picked up three North Carolina driver’s licenses, his face smiling back at him on one with the name Sam Remington printed on it and Dean’s smirk on the other two, one with the name Dean Remington and the other with Dean Browning.
“Remington and Browning?” He laughed softly, amused eyes on Casey’s embarrassed expression.
“Variation on a theme,” she smiled. “There are birth certificates and Social Security cards to match. I also had Sam’s school records done in this name so he can be easily registered. There are documents in there showing Dean as your guardian to alleviate any questions.”
Dean plucked the IDs from Sam’s hand and looked over the ones with his picture. “Why do I have two?”
Casey leveled that knowing look at him again and god he is really beginning to hate that look. “It’s easier to remain brothers until Sam graduates since people might think twice about an underage minor living with a single, unrelated man. Afterwards, I thought it would be simpler for you to hide if you weren’t family and,” she paused, continuing after Sam winked, “it would accommodate the life you might want to live.”
Not live as brothers? Why would we want that?
Sam, next to him, nodded his head, a grateful smile on his lips, and Dean had to suppress the urge to lean over and kiss him.
Oh.
Sam rifled through the items picking up two black cards with American Express logos in the corner. His eyes widened in shock and his head snapped up to the younger of the two girls.Dean watched as Casey casually shrugged her shoulder and said, “I have access to better fakes”, but Sam looked far from convinced. He turned toward his little brother to question him, but Sam had moved on, now concentrating on a piece of paper.
“You know what to do with those, right?” Casey motioned toward the paper in Sam’s hand. Sam nodded and set the paper down on his legs and traced the intricate designs with his index finger.
“What are they?” Dean slid the paper out from under Sam’s reverent touch to get a better look.
“Enochian runes,” Casey answered. “They’ll hide you from demons and angels. You’ll virtually be invisible to them.”
“You know where to put them?” Zoe asked.
“Same place as Casey’s, I assume. Middle of the back between the shoulder blades.” Sam replied matter of factly. Dean’s questioning gaze, forced him to go further. “What? I saw it the night the night she was shot.”
“They can basically go anywhere but are more potent the closer they are to the heart. They are supposed to hide your soul and it was the belief that the heart was where the soul resides. The medallions in there will serve the same purpose until you can get the ink done.” Casey pointed to the two round charms strung on metal chains on bed. “Those cell phones are new and registered in the Remington names. I programmed my number and Zoe’s in the contacts. You can decide who else you want to transfer from the phones you have now.”
Sam rolled the two devices in his hand. He powered up the simple flip phone and handed it to Dean when his name appeared on the display then powered up the Palm Pilot that showed his name. The sound of Trotter’s truck coming up the driveway effectively ended further opportunity discussion as Casey and Zoe moved to the doorway.
“You need to get packed so once Trotter’s done with Sam we can bail. Do you think you can be ready to go in an hour?”
“Yeah, no problem.” Dean stood and began to gather their things.
Chapter 16B