So I know it's a relatively short chapter but maybe the next one will be a bit longer if I can one or two reviews from this one :)

"You should've died the night your mother did. It's your fault…"

Sam could feel hands wrapped tightly around his throat and he tried to yell out for help.

"It's your fault she died. Everything's your fault. You're cursed and this curse has to end. Dean needs to live…"

The hands grew tighter around his throat and he could feel himself gasping for air, and then he heard his brother's voice, however distant it was.

"Sam! Sammy! Wake up! Sam!"

He felt his body shook and he woke up with a start and looked around to see Dean and Sam both staring at him with wide, scared eyes. Sam looked around and saw the Impala was parked on the shoulder of the road, the engine off. He could feel a warmth trickling from his neck downward and touched at the wetness with his fingers before looking at it.

"Jesus, Sammy… you all right, man?"

The younger sibling nodded and suddenly felt embarrassed. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and realized he had just gotten the blood from his neck onto his face. "Damn it… what happened?"

Dean glanced over at him as he looked at Jo. "Can… can you grab one of the towels out of my bag, along with a water bottle?" He turned back to his brother as she obediently did as she was told. "You had a really… deep nightmare, little brother. You were clawing at your throat like your life depended on it."

Sam exhaled and ran his hands through his hair. "Were you not there when Dad was choking me, trying to kill me? I was having a nightmare about that. My life did depend on it, at the time. It's only been a day and I'm already having nightmares about it."

Jo handed Dean a water bottle and the small, ripped up towel before she bit her lip and watched both him start to work, cleaning up Sam by pouring a bit of the water on the towel and then rub it on Sam's neck and eyes to clean up the blood.

"I'm not blaming you, Sam. What Dad did was… awful and it's lucky that Bobby came when he did. It's normal to have nightmares about traumatic events. There's no shame in it, man. It's better than your clown nightmares anyway, right?" Dean half smirked.

Sam rolled his eyes and shook his head, silent for a long time before he spoke again. "I'm… sorry, Dean."

His brother had finished cleaning him up and he met Sam's eyes. "Sorry? For what? The nightmare?"

Sam Winchester shook his head again and swallowed hard. "I know how much you admired Dad… you're his golden son. I made you leave him. You looked up to him before and now you hate him as much as I do. It's my fault."

Dean gave the towel and water back to Jo who put both items back in their bags, and he placed his hand on Sam's shoulders. "No, Sammy. This isn't your fault. This is his fault. It's Dad's own fault, okay? He did this to himself. He made me hate him. He abused you for so many years. This isn't your fault, by any means. Don't you dare blame my hatred for him on yourself, man. He basically tried to kill you. At this point, I wouldn't blame you for trying to get revenge on the bastard. You're right; I did look up to him before but that was before I knew he did all that shit to you, Sam. I don't admire him anymore. Between the three of us in this car, I want him dead. I'm on your side, always."

Sam felt his heart swell inside his chest and relaxed a bit now, nodding gratefully. He searched Dean's face. "Thanks, man."

His brother smirked and gently patted his shoulder. "Ready to find us a hotel room now? We can't sleep in the Impala another night."

Sam nodded and as Dean started up the car and began driving on the road again, he looked back at Jo who seemed oddly quiet. "You alright? I didn't scare you too bad with my nightmare, did I?"

Jo smiled weakly and shook her head. "No, no. I'm sorry… I guess I'm just still a bit tired."

Dean glanced a quick glance into the rear-view mirror to look at his girlfriend as well but then quickly directed his attention back to the road again. The three of them were quiet and a tension set heavily inside of the Chevy Impala just before they reached a small motel just between state lines, still on the Kansas side.

Dean went to check the three of them in and Sam and Jo both got out, each one grabbing two bags, one of them belonging to her. They set them down on the ground as they waited for Dean to come back.

Sam bit his lip and swallowed uncomfortably, looking worriedly at Jo.

"What?" She asked now, somewhat resentfully.

Sam wet his lips thoughtfully. "You tell me… what's going on with you? You've hardly said two words to either of us since you got inside the car."

Jo took a deep breath and let it out before she stuffed her hands into her pockets. "I just… I don't know. I feel like I'm just a third wheel here, I guess. You and Dean have a pretty close relationship and I feel like I'm intruding on the two of you."

Sam accidentally let out a small chuckle and then looked at her skeptically. "You feel like the third wheel? I'm just his brother. He loves you."

"Are you sure about that, Sam?"

He glanced over at the building where Dean was still inside before he looked back at her. "Of course. Why are you suddenly questioning it?"

Jo raised her eyebrows. "Really? You're asking why I'm questioning Dean loving me? I'm not new here, Sam. I know what kind of guy Dean is. You and I both know he's not a one woman man, nor is he known to settle down in one place for very long."

Sam was suddenly understanding where she was going with this and he didn't know why but he abruptly felt himself become defensive in favor of his brother. "You said that you're not new to his personality, so what exactly do you expect to do, change Dean? What do you want to do? Did you expect to settle down somewhere with Dean, have a few kids, work nine-to-five desk jobs?"

"I don't know!" Jo suddenly yelled at him before she gritted her teeth. "I don't know what I expect to happen between the two of us but I'm not an idiot or as naïve as you think I am! My father raised me and you know damn well what kind of guy he was! I know I shouldn't expect anything to change by being his girlfriend. I suppose I don't expect a lot from Dean but I just sort of thought that he wouldn't keep doing this."

Sam ran a hand through his hair and searched her face. "This? This what, Jo?"

"You!" She burst out now, shifting her weight but her face was regretful. "I-I didn't expect him to be okay with you tagging along with us. I feel like you're the couple here and I'm the third wheel between the two of you."

Sam nodded and bit his lip, looking at her in disbelief. He leaned closer to her now when he saw that Dean was coming over to them with the room key. "If you don't want to be with him anymore, you need to tell him so we can take you back to your house. Don't string him along, Jo."

She looked like she was about to say something when Dean interrupted the two of them, looking tired and oblivious. "Well, got the key. Two rooms." He tossed one key to Sam.

Sam caught it easily and grabbed his bag. "I'm guessing this one is the single bed. I'm going to take a nap. I'll see you two tomorrow."

He left the two of them and started towards his room before he unlocked it and opened it. He kicked the door closed and dropped his bag on the floor before he dug out a clean pair of boxers and pajama bottoms.

He pulled his clothes off and dropped them on the floor before he got into the shower and let hot water pelt his skin.

She's going to break his heart.

She's too young.

She'll just endanger all of us.

I wish she'd go away.

"You can make her go away, Sammy."

He opened his eyes at the sound of the too familiar voice. "No, you're not here. I'm just… tired and I'm hallucinating. You're not here."

"You know that's not entirely true. I'm always here! You're an idiot if you think otherwise. Now, let's think together, shall we? Use that old noggin of yourself, Winchester. What can we do to get rid of her? Well, you know the answer to that, don't you, Sam?"

He looked over and saw the outline of the figure he prayed he'd never see again. "No! Shut up… shut up, you're not here! You're gone. Dean got rid of you…"

An outline of a hand touched the shower curtain and Sam watched as the curtain moved ever so slightly. "Dean can never really get rid of me, Sam. You should know that better than anyone. Plus, you haven't taken your meds in a few days, right? So… it looks like you're stuck with me for a while."

Sam ripped open the shower curtain and looked around but didn't see anyone. He didn't see him. He grabbed his towel and dried himself quickly before wrapping the towel around his waist and getting out of the shower.

He rubbed his temples at the headache that was starting to form and he shook his head from side to side in a feeble attempt to make it go away, to make the voice go away.

"I'm telling you now; stop talking to your brother about your little friend inside your head. He doesn't need to hear that shit. Keep it to yourself if you want to keep Dean alive."

Sam placed his hands on the sink and sighed. He couldn't let his brother know about hearing Lucifer's voice again. Dean would know he wasn't taking his pills and just get angry. Anyway, it could distract him if they ever got another case to focus on. Maybe their father was right; maybe Dean would be so distracted that it could endanger his life if he wasn't focusing on keeping himself alive.

"Now, Sam… don't be a fool! Let me hear you say it, the solution to your current problem…"

Sam looked up quickly and nearly staggered when he saw Lucifer standing before him in his vessel. He shook his head and felt a surge of anger pump through him like adrenaline. "NO! I am NOT going to kill her!"

The vessel laughed now and he tsked tsked. "That's a damn shame! It's the solution to every problem in the world. You'd be surprised how much easier life can be without certain people around."

"I don't like her but I don't want her dead," Sam groaned, moving around the vessel, even if it wasn't actually there. It was more out of habit than anything else.

"Oh, Sammy… think about it. You can have Dean to yourself! You two can be butt buddies again. Oh sorry, I most definitely meant bunk buddies…"

Sam narrowed his eyes as he put on his boxers and started to rummage furiously through his bag for his pills. Panic started to fill him up when he realized they weren't inside it. He ripped everything out of the bag and then looked at the mess around him.

Fuck.

He let out a loud angry groan and kicked his bag just as he heard a knock at the door. He sighed and quickly pulled on his pajama bottoms and then opened the door.

"Hey! Whoa… what happened in here?"

Sam sighed and swallowed hard at his brother's disapproval. "N-Nothing. I was just… looking for something. Did Bobby call?"

"Hmm? Oh, no. Not yet. I just came to give you these," Dean held out two orange bottles. "I forgot to tell you that I put them in my bag for safekeeping. I didn't think how the rooms were going to be split up at the time with me and Jo in one and you in another. So here."

Sam reached out and took the bottles from his brother's hand. "Thank you."

Dean nodded and searched his younger sibling's face. "How are you holding up so far? Everything all right?"

Tell him. Tell him about seeing Lucifer.

"Y-Yeah, yes. Everything's fine. Go back to Jo." Sam playfully pushed him out and forced a smirk before he closed the door and let his demeanor drop.

He flatted himself against the door and looked down at the orange prescription bottles, looking up when he saw Lucifer again.

"Nah, Sammy… don't take those. They'll just mess with your head."

"They'll make me stop seeing you," he whispered, opening both bottles and then pouring the maximum dosage allowed into his palm before closing the bottles again.

The vessel made a pfffft sound and shook his head almost solemnly. "Think about what you're doing here. You need me, Sammy."

He clenched his jaw. "Stop calling me Sammy. Only Dean can call me that." He quickly swallowed the pills dry and then walked into the bathroom and cupped his hand before letting water fill up inside of it and put it to his mouth to get rid of the bitter aftertaste.

Sam walked out again and looked around but didn't see any sign of the vessel again. Just in case, he waited ten more minutes but everything was silent, except for the muffled voices coming from next door. He put his ear to the wall and made himself breath silently.

"What do you want from me, Jo? Just tell me!"

"What do I want, Dean? I want you to stop making me feel like the goddamned third wheel! I feel like you two are a couple instead of us! You even pack his crazy pills for him!"

Sam felt a small stab inside his chest at her words and then jumped when he heard a soft slap come from the room, and then several long moments of silence before he heard Dean's voice.

"I-I'm sorry, Jo. All right? I'm… so sorry… he's my brother though! You need to understand! He's my flesh and blood and I'm all he's got! If you're going to call him crazy, then you're calling me crazy too in the process."

Dean genuinely sounded regretful. At least he didn't sound too angry.

Jo sniffled. "I'm sorry, Dean… but I didn't plan on you inviting him along with us. I thought it was just going to be the two of us on this road trip. Do you even love me at all?"

"Of course I love you, but I love my brother too. Why can't I love both of you?"

"You can, but… I need more out of you than this. It's our first day away from Bobby's and I'm just not feeling like your love is enough. I know I'm asking a lot of you, Dean. I know you're not used to being with one person but this isn't enough for me. This isn't what I want."

Dean let out a laugh of disbelief now. "I'm sorry, Jo but I can't be whatever it is you want me to be. I'm going to spend as much time with my brother on this trip as I can because he needs me more than you do."

Another slap. Sam knew this time that it had been her that had slapped him.

"You don't know how much I need you, Dean. You never loved me, did you? You just went along with it, just like you do with everything else."

No denial. Just a heavy, knowing sigh.

Dean didn't really love her. It had been one-sided.

"Things were rough with Sam and our father and… I thought maybe I could love you, eventually. You were there, and I needed a friend. I thought maybe… I don't know. Maybe this crazy, Jack Kerouac road trip could bring the two of us closer and maybe love would happen somehow."

She was softly crying now. "You can't make love happen, Dean. It's just there. It happens spontaneously when you don't expect it. I don't suppose you'll ever know that feeling though unless it already happened between you and Sam. You two seem pretty damn close for being just brothers. Sure there's nothing happening there?"

Her voice was sarcastic and bitter through her tears.

Then Sam heard Dean's voice again. "Shut up, Jo. Just… shut the hell up right now. In fact, let's all do a Chinese fire drill right now. Let's switch rooms. You'll have a room all to yourself so I can actually be in a room where someone can stand me and vice versa. How does that sound?"

"Sounds fucking great right now…"

Sam moved away from the wall and quickly shoved all his things back into his bag before zipping it up and throwing his towel into the dirty clothes hamper. He shoved his pills into bag before he sat down on the bed just as the door opened.

"Well you got your wish, Sam. I'll be sleeping here tonight. You can go next door and sleep with your brother, your dream come true."

Sam grabbed his bag and grabbed her arm firmly before she could move past him. "Watch it, Jo. I warned you about him already. You couldn't have honestly expected this to go any other way."

He let go of her now and then walked outside briefly before entering his brother's room and closing the door. "You guys have a fight?"

Dean grabbed Sam's bag from him and set it down on the other side of the bed. "Don't play dumb. I know you were listening from the other room. These walls are paper thin. Besides, your favorite habit as a child was eavesdropping right and left. It's just better off this way."

Sam nodded and chewed on his lower lip before he took the right side of the double bed and crawled under the covers. Dean turned the lights off and by the dim light of the moon, Sam saw him also crawl under the bed sheets.

"Goodnight, Dean."

His older brother looked over at him and managed a crooked smile at him. "Night, Sammy."