Chapter 1

The RV rumbled along the road, and Dean watched the world go by the window, reveling in the awareness that the world still existed outside his long isolation. After two months in small rooms and an even smaller cage, the weeks in the hospital had felt freer, but nowhere near as free as sitting beside a window bigger than he was, watching cars and houses and people and cats and dogs and cows go by in the never ending panorama that was the U.S. highway system.

The longer he gazed out the window, the further away the memory of Azazel seemed. The longer he didn't try to move with any speed or strength, the more he could forget how bad off he was.

He picked up a carrot, dipped it into the dressing, and began to crunch it down. Admittedly, he'd normally have chosen something other than rabbit food with ranch dressing for a snack, but it beat IVs and long stints without anything at all. Sammy was just going to be fussy for a while, till he got some of the freaked out of his system.

Cars, motorcycles, motor homes like this one, buses, semi-trucks . . . people going places, doing things, not controlled by demons or even medical personnel. It reminded him that life continued apace for the rest of the world. He'd have to find out what movies were out. Maybe Sammy would take him to one.

At the moment, Sammy boy was in the back of the RV, in bed, after staying up all night in the hospital to keep an eye on him. Dean took a deep breath and quelled the maniacal paranoia that started to overtake him at the realization that his little brother was out of sight. It wasn't as if he could have left the RV while it was on the highway doing fifty.

Dean wanted to say he didn't need to be babysat like that, but the fact was, if Sammy left for more than five minutes at a time, he started flipping out. It had gotten better. For one thing, he could convince himself that Sam was safe in the back of the RV, but he was nowhere near normal, yet.

He decided not to think about that, not to think about any of what had happened since September, and focused on watching the world go by.

I have started posting the sequel. This is a teaser for those of you who have followed this story but not me. It is not the full first chapter, so go forth and find it. :)