A/N: During Bad Moon Rising I promised Phx a limpSam story. Here it is, I hope everyone who has asked for hurt Sam from me likes this one. I promise this one won't become hurtDean before the end. My wonderful, patient and insightful beta Abni is keeping an eye on me. And just another reminder—I don't write death fic!

With What Life Remains

Chapter One

Then, with what life remains, impaled, and left

To writhe at leisure round the bloody stake

--Joseph Addison

The water in the bathroom was on full blast. Dean was leaning against the door humming AC/DC as loud as he could, ignoring the repeated blows on the door.

"Give me a minute, Sam," he said to the door.

"Come on Dean, Susanna will be here in forty-five minutes!" His brother said, continuing to pound on the door.

"What's that Sam? Couldn't quite hear you."

"Dean, come on," and Sam's voice finally took on the pleading tone Dean remembered from when they were kids. His brother's "please, please" voice used to get his way when all else failed. The fact that it was now drifting through the door meant Sam was really on edge about his plans for the evening.

Dean chuckled. Nice to know you're actually looking forward to this, Sammy. Nice to see you going out again. He smiled, turned off the tap and opened the door. As he suspected Sam had been leaning against it and almost fell onto the bathroom floor. Dean caught him and set him back on his feet with a grin. "Sorry, Sam, can't rush in there you know."

"Bite me, Dean," he said shoving past him and slamming the door in his face.

Dean flopped down on the bed and flipped the TV on, hoping to find something worth watching for awhile. Nothing like a cheap motel room to give you really bad cable. After ten minutes of flipping he finally found reruns of "The Simpsons". You know if I had just left it on this channel I wouldn't have missed the first ten minutes. But, hey, I'm a hunter, always looking.

They had gotten to town seven days before, checking into a local haunting that had ended up in four deaths. After some quick research Sam and Dean had ended up questioning people at the university. Chasing down lead after lead they had discovered that all four victims worked in the same building on campus. And one of those leads had led to Susanna, sister of one of the victims.

Dean had tried his charm to get her to talk with them about her sister, but it hadn't worked. Then comes Sam, one look and she's spilling her guts, crying and asking him out to dinner. Still not sure how he managed it, but…It worked and it's good to see him going out, it's been too long.

They had finally managed to track down the source of the haunting, find the grave and salt and burn her into oblivion. And they had both escaped from the encounter essentially unscathed. Sam had a small cut on his hand and Dean a bruised knee. But all in all not bad. Since the ghost was gone, Sam couldn't come up with anymore excuses to avoid the date and had finally given in. And he's tried to cancel how many times? Sorry Sammy, won't work. You are going out and you are enjoying yourself.

The bathroom door opened and steam billowed out into the room. Sam came out, hair still wet, wearing a blue shirt, holding a green one in his hand. "Dean? Which one do you think?" He said holding the green one up.

"Dude, are you worried about what to wear on your date? Need a hand with the make-up too?"

"Come on, Dean. She'll be here in a minute," Sam said, looking a little panicked. "Do you think I should just cancel? You might need some help finding our next hunt, maybe I should just stay." He reached for his cell phone on the bedside table.

Dean grabbed his phone and sat on it. "Nope, you're going out, Sam."

"I'm not sure I…" he was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Too late, Sammy," Dean stood up, handed his brother his phone and went to the door. He sighed, "How exactly did it end up you are going out with the hot blonde?"

"Shut up," Sam whispered frantically from the other side of the room.

"Relax," Dean said pulling the door open. "Hi, he's almost ready," he said to the woman standing outside the door.

"Thanks," she said walking into the room. "Hi, Sam," she said with a shy smile. "You ready to go?"

"Uh, sure," he said looking at Dean like a deer caught in headlights, "yeah, let's go."

Dean laughed at him, "Don't be out too late kids, call if you're going to be out after 10."

"Yeah, thanks," Sam turned and gave him a look that should have killed him on the spot and slammed the door behind him.

Dean walked over and pulled the door open. "Night, Sammy, be careful! Be a good boy." He laughed when Sam also slammed the car door. He sat back down to watch TV for awhile longer. He was planning to go down to the pub after a bit, but it was still a little early. His phone started ringing halfway through "The Family Guy". "Sam, you're on a date, what are you doing?"

"Susanna heard about something that might interest us a couple of counties over, thought I should mention it before I forgot."

Yeah, yeah Sam. Knock it off, time to have fun. "Ok, Sam, I'll check it out. And Sammy?"

"Yeah, Dean?"

"Enjoy your date. Relax and have a good time, ok?"

"Sure, Dean." Sam said, Dean could hear the smile in his brother's voice.

Dean opened up the laptop and prowled through their usual sites looking for the next job. He found the information on the haunting and some interesting incidents that had arisen from it. Wow, and a little graphic for an empty stomach. I'm starving, I think my brain is starting to melt from lack of food. I can actually feel it oozing out my ears. I've had enough. How again is it that I am sitting here and Sam is out? Must be losing my touch. He smiled. I wonder how early Sam manages to come back?

Dean wandered out of the room down the block to the pub where he had been spending most evenings. They had a decent selection of beer on tap, a couple of hot waitresses and a good dart board. He'd struck up something of a friendship over darts and was looking forward to a quiet evening. Funny it's usually the other way around, me out, Sam at the bar doing whatever it is he does in bars. Oh well.

"Hey," he said when he saw his dart buddy waiting at the bar.

"Hello, Dean," he said with a smile. Galen Nielsen was a professor of anthropology at the local college, and came to the bar to—as he put it—escape the evils of seminar students. He was fifty and Dean had taken an instant liking to him when he and Sam had interviewed him about the deaths. He worked in the haunted building and he had actually known most of the other victims. Later, on their second night in town, when the professor come into the pub, Dean had sought him out, hoping to get more information, and ended up playing darts and talking for several hours. "Ready for some cutthroat cricket?" Galen said

"Sure, let me get a beer." The bartender had gotten to know Dean fairly well over the last seven days and had the glass already on the bar. "Thanks," he picked it up and headed over towards the board.

"Where's the sidekick?" Galen said with a laugh.

"Out on a date," Dean said smiling. "First one in a while."

"The lovely Susanna?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"She's my TA, Dean. She tells me most things she thinks are important. She's been planning on snagging him for the last three days."

"Kids today," Dean said, picking up the darts. Galen laughed with him.

"How goes the research?"

"Oh, really well, I think I've pretty much wrapped it up, but we'll probably stick around for a few more days," he'd told Galen he was researching the oral history of modern hauntings as folklore within American rural society. And how Sam got me to say that with a straight face I'll never know.

Galen was something of a shark at darts, but Dean squeaked by with a win now and then. They settled down and had dinner, the pub made great burgers and fantastic "bar chips" homemade potato chips. They played again, Dean had discovered that while Galen was a killer at cricket, his skills diminished somewhat at 301. They split a couple of pitchers through the night and Dean headed in relatively early.

He walked back to the motel at midnight. The room was dark. He quietly opened the door, he could see Sam's bed was still empty. Good boy, Sammy. Dean flopped down on the bed and flipped the TV on. One of the stations was running a sci fi marathon and he happily settled in to watch "Them." Got to love giant ants. Always fun. He dozed off halfway through "Kingdom of the Spider" a couple of hours later.

"Jinkies," Velma said to Fred as Dean opened his eyes. He looked around the room, Sam's bed was still empty, morning light was coming through the window and "Scooby Doo" was on the TV. Sam's not back yet? Good for you! He shifted off the bed. More hot water for me.

After showering he headed out in search of breakfast. The café down the street had good coffee and the morning waitress was a nice distraction. He smiled at her as he went in and sat himself down at the counter. She came over with the coffeepot ready.

"Good morning, where's your brother?" She said with a smile.

Damn, another one? What's wrong with me? Something stuck in my teeth? "Not around this morning, but I'm here," he said giving her the full wattage guaranteed-to-make-them-wilt smile.

"Yeah, let me know when you're ready to order," she said walking away. Dean watched her go. Must be the college town thing. That has to be it, they know Sam was Mr. College for awhile, Yeah, that has to be it. I hope. He was staring moodily into his coffee wondering if he were now suffering the fate of Homer Simpson who "used to rock every night and every day, then it was every other day and now I have less than half an hour a week in which to get funky," when Galen walked into the café and sat down across from him. "Morning Galen," he said looking up at the older man.

"Hello Dean, I was curious if you had heard from your brother?"

"No." Hey, lay off, Sam's having a good time, let him.

"Not at all?" Galen sounded upset.

"No, he's out, I just assumed…Why?" Dean said the first jingle of an alarm starting in his head.

"Susanna was supposed to be in to grade some papers this morning and I haven't heard from her."

"Well maybe Sam distracted her," Dean said with a grin. I'm not worried.

"Maybe, but she's so good about calling usually," he said.

"Well, maybe they are busy this morning." Not worried, not worried at all.

"Yeah, you're probably right, it's just she's kind of like family and I worry," Galen said smiling a little.

"Nothing to worry about I'm sure. If something was wrong Sam would have called." Still not worried. Nope. Not worried.

He and Galen ordered breakfast and sat talking for two hours. Galen seemed curious about Dean's "research" and Dean did his best to tell him about it without revealing the actual nature of what he did. They were both obsessively checking their phones by the end of the meal. Dean's was lying on the table and he was staring at it willing it to ring by the time he finished with his pear pie.

"I need to get back, when you hear from your brother call me," Galen said and wrote down his cell number on the napkin.

Dean folded it and shoved it in his pocket. "Sure, likewise." He smiled and headed back to the room, hoping to find Sam there. He might not have called, might have just showered and gone to sleep. When he opened the door the room was still empty, the bathroom open and dark. He was starting to get worried, a little knot of tension in the back of his neck, slowly tying itself tighter.

He tried sitting down and looking for another hunt, that lasted all of fifteen minutes. He decided to take the car to the carwash and detailed her, taking his time, enjoying the tactile contact with his baby. He drove back to the motel, still no Sam. He called his brother nineteen times, still no answer.

The sun was beginning to disappear behind rain clouds. The clouds running across the sky were coming up fast and Dean could see the rain on the horizon drifting down like a soft curtain. It was still fairly early, not yet noon. And great, wash the car and it rains, never fails. Sam? Where the hell are you? I don't think you have ever been on a date this long. Come on Sammy, call. I'm not checking up on you, just starting to get a little worried.

He finally dropped down on the bed to watch the sci fi marathon that was still running. How many bad films can they cram onto one channel? "Monster on Campus" was first. And college professors turning into cavemen, always entertainment. Well at least we didn't have to deal with that here. Plain old ghost, although cavemen might be fun, break up the demon-ghost thing we usually deal with. And college professors mean co-eds, yep.

His phone was ringing, finally, he grabbed it. Damn, speaking of college professors. "Galen, hi."

"Dean, you heard from them?"

"I would have called," he snapped.

"Sorry, I know, I'm just worried. I haven't heard a thing, and Susanna's roommate called and wondered where she was," he sighed. "Well call when you hear something."

"Sure," Dean said as he hung up. Ok, Sammy, time to call. He tried to focus on the TV, it wasn't holding his attention anymore. He was starting to get worried. That odd feeling in the pit of his stomach that seemed to be reserved for his brother. I'm overreacting. The alarm bells were beginning to jingle a tiny bit.

He got off the bed and paced around the room. He tried Sam again. He walked to the door and looked out hoping to see Susanna's light blue car in the lot. He paced some more, called Sam, looked out the door, called Sam, looked at the TV, called Sam. I might be getting worried. The movie ended and another started. Still no Sam.

He was staring at the TV watching giant bunnies eating people alive when he realized his phone was ringing. If that is Galen again I'll hunt him down and kill him. He looked at the caller ID and relief washed over him in a great wave. "Sam, hey man, you must have gotten pretty lucky!" See how casual I am Sammy? Not worried at all. Nope. You are a big boy now.

"Dean?" Sam's voice sounded strained, Dean could hardly hear him.

"Sam? What is it?" The alarm bells were starting to get louder and louder. The knot of tension had twisted into actual pain.

"Dean…" His brother's voice was trailing off.

"Sam? Where are you?" Dean could hear the little note of panic creeping into his voice, the sound that was only there when he was worried about his brother. "Sammy?"

Sam coughed a little, "Dean … I think Susanna is dying. Can you help her?"

"Sam, where are you?"

"Dean…I…I don't know."

"Sam?" His brother didn't answer. "Sam? Sammy?" And the panic was there in his voice, full blown, frantic. He could feel it moving out of his lungs, out across his body, making his heart was pound. "SAM!"

He thought he heard his brother coughing then nothing, only silence.

XXX

"Night, Sammy, be careful! Be a good boy!" Dean called from the door. He was smiling and waving, Sam waved back, resisting the urge to flip his brother off. Cute Dean, very cute. Not like I'm nervous enough about this, but you have to do that. Thanks.

"Your brother is funny," Susanna said smiling at him.

"He thinks so," Sam said smiling back, trying to relax.

"He cares about you, it's cute."

"Yeah, cute. I'll tell him that later," Sam said under his breath. He looked at her. "Where do you want to eat?"

"There's this great Italian place outside of town, do you like Italian?"

"Sure, sounds great," he said. Sure, Italian, garlic bread and pasta, always good for a date. Sam settled back in the car and watched the countryside roll by. The road ran along the edge of a mountain, a large cliff on one side and flowing off into a river valley below on the other. The view was spectacular. In the distance Sam could see squares of black, green and gold, fields of grain turning the land into a checkerboard. The trees reached up on the valley side of the road, some of them just the tops, brushing the edge of the steep road.

"No guard rail?" He said looking over at her.

"No, there never were many up here, and when there's an accident, it never gets replaced really, we are kind of far out of the city," she said with a laugh.

"There are a lot of accidents up here?" He asked

"Yeah, our county is dry on Sundays so a lot of kids head over here to the next town which is not dry. When they come back…" She smiled at him.

"That makes sense." Sam said with a snort. "A stretch of road known for accidents and no rail. Smart."

"I know they tried to fix the worse parts, but up at the top…oh well. Hey thinking about your brother's research? I was kind of wondering what you look for."

"Well, you know, unexplained deaths, or reports of strange sounds and lights." And yes, I sound like a freak. Hey, first date and I'm already sounding like the utter freak I am.

"You know that's interesting. I heard about this cabin a couple of counties over that someone said they saw a Native American man walking around. They called me because I work in the anthro department, you know."

"Really?" He pulled out his phone and called his brother.

"Sam, you're on a date, what are you doing?"

"Susanna heard about something that might interest us a couple of counties over, thought I should mention it before I forgot." And hello Dean, I'm not feeling at all awkward here, why didn't you let me cancel this?

"Ok, Sam, I'll check it out. And Sammy?"

"Yeah, Dean?"

"Enjoy your date. Relax and have a good time, ok?" Dean said, Sam could hear the smile in his brother's voice.

"Sure, Dean."

He still wasn't quite sure how he ended up going out. He and Dean had interviewed Susanna and her professor about what was happening. Neither one had any real information for them. The next day he had been researching in the library when Susanna had come looking for him. She smiled and helped him find materials. Dean had taken one look at her and had left Sam alone with the attractive blonde with nothing more than a fairly lewd raise of the eyebrows. Before Sam really knew what was happening he heard himself accepting her invitation to dinner.

And here I am. Going out. He fidgeted a little in the seat, looking over at Susanna. She sensed his look and turned to him with a smile. She is really good looking. Blue eyes, blonde hair, and how did Dean put it? A body that could kill in less than three seconds?

They pulled up in front of the restaurant twenty minutes later. Sam held the door for her, he managed to order a bottle of wine without looking like an idiot and then sat looking at her, at something of a loss for words. He smiled and looked down, straightening the forks.

"I think it's really sweet how you help your brother with his research," she said putting her hand on his wrist. He looked up and she smiled at him. "It's a really interesting subject don't you think?"

"Sure," he said smiling at her. I sound like an idiot. I can't even get out two syllable words right now. How does Dean do this all the time? Well he probably doesn't really talk all that much, just smiles that smile at them and they are naked or something. What do I say? Why am I the one here and not Dean? How did that work out?

"You seem to know a lot about that kind of thing, too. You don't think…" Her eyes filled with tears all of a sudden.

"What is it?" He put his hand over hers, where it was resting against his wrist.

"Well you don't think that Lacey, because of the way she died, you don't think she won't be able to rest do you?"

Funny how some people just accept things like spirits and some people deny them completely. "I don't think so."

"Oh thank you!" She said laughing a little, her eyes still a little bright.

"Yeah, but let's not talk about it right now," he smiled at her and patted her hand. "Let's just enjoy dinner. We can always talk more about it later." And did I just say that? Later? What am I doing?

"Yeah," she giggled looking at him.

Dinner came and went, they sat talking. Dessert came, they sat talking. Sam had to admit to himself that coming out was not such a bad idea after all. The manager finally came and told them he had to close. When they finally left Susanna hooked her arm through his. He smiled down at her as she unlocked his car door. They sat talking in the car, listening to music for a long time. Ok, Dean, you were right, this wasn't such a bad idea after all.

"You want to go walk by the lake?" She asked some time later.

"Uh, yeah, sure," he said. I wonder if that's a euphemism.

"Great," she pulled out of the parking lot and out onto the highway heading back up the hill towards town. Sam was fiddling with the radio when she let out a small huff of annoyance. He looked over at her, she had an odd look on her face.

"What is it?" He looked out the windshield but couldn't see anything.

"I don't know, the car feels wobbly or something."

Wobbly is never good in a car, never. "You think we should pull over and see what's wrong?" Sam said looking at the road ahead of them, looking for someplace they could pull off and check the car, but unless they stopped in the middle of the road there was no place to stop.

"There's an overlook around the bend, we can pull off there." She had both hands on the wheel, Sam could see her knuckles, white, as she gripped the steering wheel. Sam reached across the car and put a hand gently on her leg. She looked at him and smiled, then looked back at the road.

Suddenly there was a noise, a popping sound then an odd flopping. Susanna screamed. She was trying to regain control of the car. "Oh god!" He leaned over and tried to help with the wheel. They were trying to force the car back on the road, away from the precipice. Together they wrenched the steering wheel around.

It was a mistake.

The car flipped.

Sam was slammed against the window and saw the edge of the road come up fast, the car rolled again. They plunged off the road. Susanna was screaming as the car went over and over and down the long hill. The car slammed into something, a rock and then into something else. Sam thought he saw a tree right before the final impact.

The darkness was complete. It was cold. Wherever he was resting was a world of pain. He forced his eyes open. There was a tiny bit of light, it seemed to be coming from in front of him somewhere.

"Susanna?" He tried to reach over to her, his arm was held down by something. He tried to lift his head off the seat. Agony stabbed through him, he let his head drop back down and turned it a little to the left, trying to see Susanna. She was lying over the steering wheel, unmoving. "Susanna?" She still didn't move. He tried to look out the shattered windshield. All he could see was the small pool of light from the unbroken headlight.

That should make it easier to find us. I need to get out of here. I need to get help for Susanna. He struggled against the pressure on his chest, he couldn't move. His hand was resting against the door, he couldn't lift it up to open the handle. What's wrong? Where are we? Something was pressing against his chest, his head hurt. He coughed a little and darkness pulled him away.

There was light against his eyelids, he was getting very cold. He could hear something. Is that my phone? I think I hear my phone. Dean? Sam opened his eyes. His phone was definitely ringing. He tried to get it out of his pocket, but couldn't get his arm to bend. Pain exploded up from his wrist and into his brain. The phone stopped. He relaxed, trying to get the arm to move, it still wouldn't. His phone started ringing again. Dean? It must be Dean. He shifted a little, pain ripped out of his side, he felt like he was stuck in the seat. He heard a small sound, a moan from beside him. Susanna! "Susanna?" He turned his head, she was still immobile, her eyes were open a little, looking at him.

"Sam?"

"Don't move," he said.

"Can't," there wasn't much strength in her voice. "Sorry." Her eyes were closing.

"No, Susanna!" His phone was ringing again he tried to turn, tried to get it out of his pocket, pain suddenly shot out of his chest, flowing across his body, paralyzing him, holding him breathless captive against the seat. The phone stopped.

She was still, her eyes were closed. "No, stay awake," he whispered. He tried to reach over to her again, his arm moved a fraction of an inch. I have to help her. He tried to move, something was holding him down against the seat. The pressure-pain of that was getting more and more extreme. He slid his hand across to where her hand was lying on the seat. She was cold. Her eyes opened at his touch, and she smiled a tiny bit. His phone was ringing again. It stopped and then started again, and again, and again. He tried to get his hand into his pocket. Dean, I'm trying. When he tried to shift the pain turned to agony and the pressure in his chest was almost overwhelming. He pulled his head off the seat and looked down.

Shit.

Susanna was moaning a little again. "It's ok," Sam said, he heard a funny sound, a sucking noise, that time. He had no idea how long he'd been lying there since his phone had rung. He slid his hand back across the seat, inch by agonizing inch, it took forever. He finally got his hand to his jacket pocket and got his hand around the phone and pulled it out, it took forever. He pushed his thumb onto speed dial. God I hope he can hear me.

"Sam, hey man, you must have gotten pretty lucky!" His brother's voice sounded a little forced. He's been worried. And no Dean, not lucky.

"Dean?" He managed to force the sound out, the agony causing black spots to appear and dance in front of his eyes.

"Sam? What is it?" Dean said, Sam could hear his brother trying to stay calm.

"Dean…"

"Sam? Where are you? Sammy?"

Sam coughed a little, he could taste blood, "Dean … I think Susanna is dying. Can you help her?"

"Sam, where are you?"

"Dean…I…I don't know."

"Sam?" His brother's voice was now full of panic. Sam could hear it clearly. "Sammy? SAM!" Sam tried to answer and the effort caused him to start coughing, he could taste blood, it was warm on his chin, he could hardly breathe, the black spots flowed together.

Dean, you might need to hurry.

To Be Continued