nightmares06

A/N: This is the seventeenth part of the Brothers Apart series, and continues the third season. If you want to read from the beginning, please go here. On a confusing hunt, Sam finds some unlikely allies in the walls. Dean is not completely on board when he finds out. CHAPTER 1: Entry Curled into a ball, Sam listened impatiently to the voices that echoed above him. They had stumbled onto a case up by the Great Lakes one morning that had both of their spidey senses tingling. A man was found dead in his home while his wife was out. All doors locked, the alarm system armed and fully functional. The oddest part was his heart had stopped without warning (he was only 40). In the subsequent autopsy that had been run on the body, the doctors had found, of all things, a cupid’s arrow pin in his heart. Like it had simply materialized there by magic. Needless to say, the authorities were baffled. Dean was betting on a witch, and Sam wasn’t about to bet against him. Which was why he was

Nights at a motel were rarely quiet, in Sam’s expert experience, but this particular night was especially loud. For the last five minutes, the rustling of sheets had broken through the normal silence. This motel was deep in the countryside, far from the bustle of a normal town. The only sounds to be heard outside the room were the calm chirp of crickets in the distance, and the occasional bird passing by the window. None of that had been what woke Sam, however. He was far more concerned with what seemed to be Dean struggling in his own bed, above and to the side of Sam’s own place under the nightstand. Losing a fight with the covers, from what Sam could hear. Normally, the most he heard from Dean’s side of the room was the occasional snore or a bit of tossing and turning right after laying down. Never at 3am in the morning. Concerned, Sam dragged himself out of his bed and grabbed his satchel. His supplies were ready to go at any time, always left in an easy-to-reach spot nearby.

CHAPTER 26: New Horizons Barely an hour later, Chase and Jacob were downstairs, talking in conspiratorial voices despite the appearance of an empty house. Keen eyes and ears could be just on the other side of any wall, for all they knew. "This is a pretty last-minute plan, Jake," Chase pointed out. "I'm kinda surprised." "I think you're just wishing you thought of it first." Jacob zipped a backpack closed, one that he'd had Chase run some errands to fill. "Think they see this coming?" "Doubt it. I didn't even see it coming 'til you popped back to your real size so easily." Chase carried the backpack while Jacob led the way upstairs. Jacob didn't bother trying to hide his footsteps. He walked lighter like he had learned after several stern warnings from Dean about the earthquakes he caused, but even so his footfalls shook the floor and announced his return long before he came back to the room. Hopefully, it concealed Chase's approach enough to hide what he had planned. Once back

CHAPTER 25: A Restored Chase Artwork of Chase done by rainyday-deer! The rest of the night passed uneventfully, a blessing for the exhausted group. Chase slept soundly as the stress of being captured and the mind-altering drugs worked their way out of his system, and hardly budged except to tug part of the immense shirt's fabric over himself. With people there to keep watch over him, he could put the ordeal squarely behind him. Indeed, by the time the group was packed up and ready to head back to Carlisle, his symptoms were gone. All that remained was a telling scent that clung to his jacket and that he griped about all the way to Jacob's pocket. He was lucky his family probably wouldn't notice. Probably. The drive home was more relaxed than the drive out, though Jacob could tell Chase was looking forward to getting back to the stash of cure for the hex. His arms hung over the edge of the pocket so he could watch the miles speed past under the Impala's tires. "Are we there yet?"

CHAPTER 24: One order of SMALL fries Jacob nudged at Chase to remind him to get into his pocket with Dean's help. While the small teen clumsily crawled towards the edge of his hand, Jacob sighed with relief. If anyone could act convincingly enough for that, it was Chase. He'd seen him improvise excuses on the spot in two different languages and have people believe whatever he said. Chase was a lightweight for Dean to catch, and when he slumped into the pocket at last, Jacob was able to free one hand enough to open up the car. The zhi ren waited patiently and unnaturally well-balanced until he sat down and let them step onto the dashboard again. He sighed at last when the door was closed and looked down. Chase was tiny, and very high, but he was okay. "Chase, I know you're probably gonna gripe about this," Jacob began. "Oh, shit," Chase interrupted him, looking up with his eyes narrowed warily. "We're gonna take care of the case real quick, first," Jacob told him, pretending the

CHAPTER 23: Like a Sack of Potatoes Tugging the lock from the bars, Sam detangled his legs from the cage and hopped lightly down. The soles of his leather boots landed softly on the table and he knelt down to put the lock on the table without a bang. In the other room of the small camper, the snoring continued blissfully on. “Piece of cake.” “Alright, Chase, time to go,” Dean murmured quietly. They couldn’t risk waking up the humans when they were so close. He caught the edge of the door and pulled it so it swung wide open. Chase let out a breathy chuckle, relieved beyond measure to see that his escape was possible after all. When Ed and Harry had returned to find that two of their captives had simply vanished, Chase had worried he'd be in bigger trouble. Ed's frustration by itself wasn't enough to be that intimidating, but his size was more than enough. Even a flustered geek had much more power than Chase. Chase had been lucky Harry could mellow his friend out. No one had been on

CHAPTER 22: Mission Impossible: Borrower Protocol The zhi ren stayed rooted on the dashboard despite Jacob's hasty driving. Whatever mojo enabled them to slip through tight spaces or glide around on paper wings kept them stable, even in his sharper turns. That same mojo didn't make them very courteous navigators, he found. Once or twice, Jacob had backtracked to find a route they wanted to use. Their tiny, exasperated instructions and pointing hands came late many times, later than the Impala’s bulky weight could easily correct in time. Despite that, it didn't take much more than half an hour to find the place. A small campground was set up for long-term stays, with rows of campers and RVs filling almost every available space. Jacob noted a few campfires still blazing in flickers of orange while drunk campers laughed and chatted the balmy summer night away. He ended up parking in a small communal lot near one corner of the place. The Impala idled a few seconds more with quiet

CHAPTER 21: Bring in the Reinforcements Voices drifted in and out of Dean’s hearing. There was no danger in the rumbles of thunder that interrupted his sleep from time to time, no worry that humans would grab him or take Sam away. There were so many times during their childhood that they’d feared exactly that happening. Falling asleep in the tiny home under the floorboards was almost impossible when humans were in the room above. Knowing that only a thin surface of wood separated them from giants that could destroy everything made all of them uneasy. There wasn’t much they could do about that… all the families in the motel had to deal with the same fears and worries. Sam and Dean just weren’t as used to it as the others. Some nights they’d even curl up in Dean’s nest of fabric together, hunkering down against the world with only each other for support. Jacob had changed all that. Though he’d done exactly what they’d been warned against at first… Capturing Dean, trapping him in a

CHAPTER 20: Lights, Camera... Action? Chase slumped his shoulders and covered his face with his hands, but not out of despair. Instead, pure exasperation and disbelief rang through every one of his motions, and he dragged his hands up and back through his straight black hair. Oh my God. I've been captured by the actual biggest nerds I've ever seen. Jade and Gold watched him curiously while he took a slow breath and lowered his hands to his sides. His fists clenched and unclenched, and then Chase crossed his arms. After everything, it didn’t take so much effort to ignore the huge room around him. Instead, he kept his attention on the glittering black eye of the camera lens, an intimidating glare that could cost so many people their entire world. "Dude. No. At what point in this conversation did I make it seem like I'd cooperate?" He once again doubted they would actually listen to him, but Chase wasn't about to just give them whatever they wanted, either. He had to do whatever he

CHAPTER 19: Drawbacks to Having a Knack With a town as small as the one they were in, it didn't take much driving around to find a suitable little motel. Check-in was easy, and in no time at all Jacob was setting the duffel bag of supplies on the bed and digging out a water bottle and the laptop. He sat at the table with both before finally propping open his pocket to peer down into it. Dean had a hand covering his eyes to block out the light, and Sam hovered close by, a hand at the ready in case Dean needed him. Neither had tried to even glance out of the pocket on the short trip, Dean in too much pain and Sam too busy fretting over his older brother. After so long spent with him, they trusted Jacob’s judgment for where they were being taken, a huge dissonance over how they were months before, back in the beginning of getting to know the hulking teenager. Jacob’s eyes softened. He tried to keep his voice down, though he knew it originated mere inches from where Dean hunched. It was