WinchesterHaunt: Hooray! I’m going to get to meet my goal after all and put up a new story before the Shadow episode comes on. I thought of this story the other night when I got back from watching a theatrical play of Shakespeare’s finest works. Don’t worry though, I made sure that I reframed from using, thy and thou and all that good Shakespearian stuff. This fic is set one month after the Nightmare episode.

Rating: PG-13 (To be safe. I think there might be a bit more cursing in this one than my last one. Forgive me! But you all know how Dean is.)

Disclaimer: Nope, not mine. I’ll let you know if that changes anytime during the story. So, I guess you guys don’t have to worry about any disruptions.

Summary: Destiny is preset and no matter how hard we try, we’ll never be able to change that. What happens when Sam finally realizes that? One-Shot

Whatever Happens, Will Happen

By: WinchesterHaunt

Sam sat leaned against the headboard of his newest motel bed. He didn’t know how long he had been awake, just that the digital clock on the bedside table read 6:55. The pain that had invaded his head upon waking was now nothing more than a dull ache; an annoyance at best. A glass of water and aspirin could fix it, but Sam didn’t feel like letting the pain go just yet. He couldn’t let the pain go. Not until he knew that it was over.

The young hunter hadn’t budged since he had first awoken, even though his bladder thought a brief trip to the bathroom wouldn’t be such a bad idea. But he continued to sit and watch the minutes tick by while his head and heart wage war against him.

His heart ached at what he had done; what he had been doing for some time now. It was riddled with guilt for not acting on what he had seen. Why had he not helped? Why was he just sitting there? Those were the questions his heart pleaded with him to answer and as always, his brain was there to provide the one painful and truthful answer. Because it wouldn’t have made a difference.

This battle had gone on for close to a month now. His visions weren’t a nightly occurrence. Even with all the evil that was in the world, there still wasn’t enough to torment Sam’s dreams every night, and for that he was grateful. But it was hard to remember that when he did have a vision. It was hard to think about the few nights of peace that he did get when he had to watch things of the supernatural origin kill or otherwise rune the lives of others. And it was even harder now. Now that he knew there was nothing he could do to stop them.

The weary eyed boy glanced over to the clock for possibly the hundredth time that night and saw that it was only one minter till seven ‘O clock. It was almost time for the rest of the world to see what Sam Winchester had saw, but he doubted that the rest of humanity would feel quite as guilty as he did.

Plucking the remote from the bedside table where Dean had left it the previous night, Sam clicked on the television and was rewarded with an ear splitting sound that no doubt woke up the next two rooms on each side of them. He quickly turned down the volume that had been turn up to full blast and let out an irritated sigh when his big brother’s head jerked out from under the covers on his bed.

Sam would have laughed had he been in a more jovial mood. Dean’s hunter instincts had been kicked into overdrive and he might have looking menacing with his large knife he kept stashed under his pillow in his hand had it not been for his bad case of bed-head and the clear look of disorientation that dawned his face.

“What happ’ned?” Dean slurred and looked around through his barely opened eyes.

“Nothing, Dean.” Sam didn’t spare his brother a look. He just kept flipping through the channels until he landed on the news. “Someone left the volume on too loud last night.”

Dean made a grunting noise before pulling himself fully upright in the bed. Apparently it was too early for him to catch Sam’s accusation.

“How long ‘ you beenup?”

Sam’s eyes swept over to Dean long enough to catch the suspicions in his brother’s eyes.

“Not long. I just wanted to see the news.”

“You know,” Dean continued in his know-it-all big brother voice, “the news comes on later for the people that wake up at normal hours.”

“Yeah, well,” Sam shrugged, “I thought we had already agreed we’re not normal.”

Dean shrugged in return, “We can still keep up appearances.”

The younger snorted a humorless laugh, “Right. Tourist by day…”

“…Paranormal Ass Kickers by night.” Dean finished smugly and propped himself up on the bed’s headboard. “Yep, this gig may not have the best insurance policy, but it does have its’ benefits.”

Sam frowned and looked back towards the television ideally scratching the back of his head, “Speak for yourself.”

“Hey?” Dean waited till his brother looked at him before continuing, “Your visions aren’t back are they?”

Sam immediately jerked his hand away from his head and placed it back in his lap. “No. Everything’s quiet up there.”

The youngest Winchester silently prayed for Dean to believe him. He hated seeing the look of concern on his brother’s face, especially when it was directed at him. He hadn’t had that face aimed at him in almost a month and was glad to see that Dean’s over all well-being, physically and mentally, was better now that he didn’t have to worry about his little brother as much.

Dean, of course, didn’t look too convinced, but he didn’t get to reply as a segment of the news came on that caught Sam’s attention. The increase of the volume stemmed the conversation for the moment as they both fixed their attention to the glowing screen.

…And in other news today, a 37 year old woman was found dead inside her home. After interviewing the neighbors and searching the home, authorities claim that the woman was alone at the time and no one was seen or heard breaking into the house. Further investigation proved that there were no places of forced entry. Only one neighborhood boy claims to have seen what went on in the house at the time, but as of right now he is not speaking to the authorities. We’ll bring you more up to date information has we receive it.

Also in news today…

Sam turned down the volume. He didn’t care about the rest of the news. The dull ache inside his brain pulsed to remind him of his vision and he pinched the bridge of his nose. I guess I’m not the only one who saw it, Sam thought. “He’s probably to scared to tell the police about that thing.”

“What?”

Sam jerked his head up and looked into his brother’s narrowed eyes, “What?”

“You said, ‘he’s probably to scared to tell the police about that thing’.” Dean swung his legs over the side of the bed so that he could fully face his brother, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Sam tensed. Had he really said that out loud? He had meant to keep it to himself. Darn! Why did Dean have to have such good hearing? ‘Guess that’s what comes from too many years of hunting and not enough years behind a desk learning to tune out your teacher. But maybe he could still cover it up. The statement was vague enough. Any descent person would be concerned about a little boy how probably witnessed a horrible murder.

“You heard the news, Dean. The child obviously saw that woman get murdered by someone. He’s probably just too afraid to talk about it.”

“That’s not what you said, Sam,” Dean lowered his eyebrows at his brother, “and I can’t help but wondered if that little boy wasn’t the only one who saw what happened.”

Sam turned his head away and didn’t answer, and that was all the conformation that Dean needed.

“Damn it, Sam.” Dean raked his hand over his less than cooperative hair. “Is this why you look like crap, because you didn’t get any sleep last night?”

“Dean, I didn’t…”

“Didn’t what?” Dean stood up and started digging around in his duffle bag, “didn’t have another vision last night, or didn’t mean to lie about not having a vision last night.”

“What are you doing?” Sam asked with an underlined tone of worry in his voice. Surely his brother wasn’t about to take off without him, was he?

Dean shook his head as he produced a t-shirt from his bag and pulled it over his head. When he grabbed a pair of jeans from his bag a small white bottle fell out along with them. The older hunter picked up the bottle and was surprised at how much lighter it was since the last time he had picked it up. Dean clenched the bottle in his fist and worked his jaw.

“Is this the first vision you’ve had since Michigan, Sam?” Dean waited for Sam to reply but all he got was a negative head shake. “Second?”

“Fourth.” Sam clarified.

Dean clinched his teeth and tilted his head to the side before tossing the pill bottle back into his bag.

“Dean.”

“Get packed Sam,” Dean’s voice was blank of expression, “We’ve got a job to do.”

“A job?” Sam slide over to the side of the bed and stood up. “You mean the Fergason’s house?”

Sam knew that had been the wrong thing to say the minute the words had left his mouth. If possible, his older brother had become more irritated.

Dean pursed his lips together and turned to meet Sam, “I don’t believe they gave her name, Sammy.”

The two stayed quiet for a moment; both just staring at each other until Dean decide it was a waste of his time and turned to retrieve some other personal items.

“You don’t even know where she lives.”

“Yeah,” Dean snorted before sending Sam a glare, “but I bet that freaky head of yours does.”

“Dean.” Sam tried to get his brother’s attention but Dean seemed to feel that the conversation was over, “Dean.”

Again there was no reply as the older hunter zipped up his bag and started towards the door.

“Dean!” the younger grabbed at Dean’s arm, “Would you just listen to me for a second?”

“What Sam?” Dean’s voice was cold as he wrenched his arm back from Sam’s hold, “You wanna talk about this now, huh? Now that it’s too late to do anything about it. What the hell’s wrong with you, man? If you’d told me about this earlier we could’ve stopped the attack all together.”

“That’s what I’m talking about, Dean. So would you just shut up and listen to me?”

Dean swiveled his head and held both of his hands out to the side to gesture Sam to continue. He had to hear this. He wondered what excuse his little brother would use to get out of this one. No doubt it would be anything besides, ‘Because this is my problem to deal with and I don’t need anybody else worrying about it.’ But he thought that response would be better than the other answer that nagged at the back of his head. ‘Because he just doesn’t trust you.’

“Look,” Sam tried to find the words to say. It shouldn’t be hard, right? He’d been musing over them for the past month; had been torturing himself at how helpless he had truly become. “I… you—you just can’t change things, Dean. It’s destiny, no matter how cliché it sounds. It didn’t work the first time, it didn’t work the second time, and it sure as hell didn’t work the third time…”

“Whoa, whoa,” Dean held up his hand to stop his rambling brother who had taken his seat back on the bed. “Now I know that they taught you how to talk in college, but would you mind dumbing it down for us undereducated guys?”

Dean’s sarcasm was not lost on Sam. He knew that he had been rambling, but at the same time he couldn’t stop the flow of words. He had kept this to himself for the last month and now that the subject had come to light it was like someone had drilled a hole in his head and all the information, guilt, and helplessness was rushing to get out.

Sam rubbed at his face and then chased his hand through his hair. “Dean. Haven’t you noticed that whenever we tried to stop one of my visions, it never works? It always happens anyway.”

“What are talking about, Sam?” Dean cocked at eyebrow at his brother in confusion, “We changed your first vision and your last vision.”

Sam didn’t look up at his brother but shook his head all the same.

“No,” the young hunter’s voice sounded weary, “We may have changed how it happened, but never really changed it.”

“What about your vision of our old house. We saved Jenny and her kids?”

“We didn’t do anything, Dean. No one died in that vision, and believe it or not, mom would’ve gotten rid of that poltergeist with or without us there.”

“And what about Max?” Dean stared down at his brother trying to not dwell on the mentioning of their mother. He dared Sam to get out of that one. His little brother’s vision had told him that he was about to die, and yet, here he stood. How was that not changing the future?

“It still had the same effect. Somebody still died that day,” Sam jerked his head up and shot Dean a desperate look, “Don’t get me wrong though. I would do it again if I knew that it would save you.”

Dean’s angry, which was at the boiling point, was now back down to a simmer. He couldn’t be mad at Sam now. Not when he had seen the helplessness behind those over expressive eyes. He had to admit that he was glad to see, or at least think, that Sam’s visions had gone away. He knew how hard they were for his brother, both physically and mentally. But it wasn’t until now that he really realized how damaging they could be.

His brother saw the future almost weekly and in some odd, twisted way, Sam had been put in charge of the situations he did see. His brother was getting to decide who lived and who died. How could anyone make such a choice, more or less live with themselves afterwards?

Dean sighed loudly and tossed his duffle down in favor of sitting next to his slumped brother.

“Look, Sam. I don’t have all the answers,” Dean paused when his brother’s head shot up to look at him, “Yeah, I know, shocking.”

Sam rolled his eyes as Dean continued, “But I do know that sitting back and not trying is worse then trying.”

“But what if next time the situation is reversed?” Sam looked into Dean’s eyes to see if he was following, “What if next time, one of us dies in place of the intended victim. I couldn’t live with that, Dean. How am I supposed to know…”

“You don’t,” Dean cut in, “You don’t know, Sam.”

“Then how am I supposed to know if the sacrifice is worth it?” the younger whispered and hung his head again.

Dean closed his eyes for a brief moment and let the silence fill his seemingly empty head. He had no answer for all Sam’s questions, not anymore. He remembered when answering Sam’s questions had been so easy. Younger Sam’s questions of ‘why’ or ‘why not’ could easily be explained off with ‘because dad said so’. But dad wasn’t here now. He couldn’t rely on that answer anymore.

“Sam,” Dean sighed, “for the sake of sounding like a Disney movie… you’ve just gotta listen to your heart, man.”

An amused smile crept over Sam at the disgusted look on his older brother’s face, “Did you just tell me to follow my heart, Mulan?”

Dean glared at Sam, but none of the venom that was there before graced his face, “I think I’m more concern with how you know which character that line goes with.”

“I was a child once.”

“But not when that movie came out,” Dean smirked at Sam’s lame excuse.

Both brother’s let the lighter mood settle around them before Dean patted Sam’s knee and stood up, “Come on, Princess. We’ve got some demon ass to kick.”

“But Dean, what if…”

Dean held his hand up once more, “No more what if’s, Sammy. Whatever happens, happens. But I’ll be damned if I play it safe for the rest of my life just because my brother’s head is screwed up.”

Dean paused at the door as Sam smiled and shook his head slightly before beginning to pack his own things. “I’ll be out in the car.”

The older hunter give his brother a once over before heading out and shutting the door behind him. He tossed his duffle in the back seat and then leaned his head against the head rest.

Dean knew that Sam’s doubts were legitimate. There was no way of knowing how the situation could turn around once they interfered into it. They could just as easily be the victim of a circumstance that didn’t even involve them in the first place. But this was there job, wasn’t it? It was their job to stick there noses where it didn’t belong and hope they came out with both their lives.

So what else could they do? Well…there was nothing else to do but to keep going. To keep helping those in need and letting whatever happen, happen. But Dean knew that as long as Sam didn’t hold anything else back and that if he was there for his little brother, then they would be okay. They could face anything this crazy world had to throw at them.

So whatever happens,will happen. They'd just have to be ready for itwhen it did.

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WinchesterHaunt: And that’s it. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope I didn’t confuse anybody. I know that I got confused a few times while writing it so I hope I was clear. Though, confusing me isn't a hard task. Butif I wasn’t… please don’t shot with we rock salt! Anyway, like I said, I hope you enjoyed it. See ya guys later!