AN: Sorry kids, here's the sad tag to the fic... Grab your tissues!

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Supernatural or Criminal Minds. If I did, then there would have totally been phone calls between the characters all through the episodes for both shows!

The next night, Dean called Reid to let him know that Sam had agreed to come with him—just for the weekend, he was quick to announce before Reid started yelling. The younger man, not-surprisingly, replied very loudly and adamantly that after the weekend Sam should be left to finish out his schooling, however long he wanted to follow it. Academia was the one place that Reid had always found refuge—note, it was never the physical schools that were his refuge, but the actual academic study. He knew how much school meant to Sam, because it meant just as much to him.

So you can understand why, even though Dean promised Sam was only with him for a few days, Reid yelled at him for a good fifteen minutes before he let Dean talk him down. He knew what "a few days" could turn into when a person started working with Dean. And those boys had once been incredibly close. Reid was afraid Sam wouldn't be able to walk away after the weekend was over.

He called Sam on Saturday morning, catching him just after the boys had gotten a room in the town they were starting their search from. He made Sam promise that he would go back to Stanford. There had been no doubt in Sam's mind that he wouldn't, so Reid was able to calm down a little bit. Sam even told him that, though he would never tell Dean and would seriously injure Reid for ever mentioning it, he was kind of glad to be hanging out with Dean again. They hadn't spoken in way too long.

So Reid started to see it as maybe a good thing. The brothers were finally reconnecting. Even as much as Sam wanted out of the family business, maybe he and Dean could still stay in touch.

When Reid called Sam on Sunday night to wish him luck on the interview for law school, he got no answer. It was troubling. Almost foreboding.

When he got Dean's late-night call hours later, telling him about Jess and the fire, Reid wasn't sure what to think. He couldn't even decide what he was feeling...

Happiness—Sam was okay.

Sadness—Jess was dead.

Relief—whatever danger had come, it had missed Sam.

Anger—something had taken Jess from Sam.

Numbness...

Jess had burned on the ceiling. Like Mary Winchester. The thing, whatever it was, it was back. Reid wasn't sure what that meant for the Winchester family, but he was sure it wasn't good. And where was John in all of this? Was he even still alive?

Sam didn't go to the interview on Monday.

Sam dropped out of Stanford without finishing the last four weeks of his semester. He stopped one semester and four weeks away from graduation from Stanford's Pre-Law program. After Jess...well, he stopped considering law school to be his immediate goal. Instead, he focused his efforts on revenge against whatever had killed his girlfriend. Instead, he became like his father...

Reid had known about the ring Sam had been hiding in his sock drawer for three weeks.

He mourned for Sam. Mourned for the loss of Jess, loss of the future engagement and marriage that would have made him so happy, and for the loss of a chance at the kind of life he had always dreamed of.

After Reid found out that Sam was quitting school, he couldn't sleep. He tried listening to Metallica, but it didn't help. Some things, you just can't run away from. You can't turn your back on reality and hope it goes away long enough for you to fall asleep.

But still, every night for a week, Reid tried anyway.

AN: I am so sorry if you're really depressed right now. I totally didn't see the end of this story coming, but it jumped out of nowhere at me, as I said before. This was just supposed to be a cute phone call between Reid and Dean about Metallica. Instead, I found myself fighting tears as I finished it...

I hope you enjoyed it though. I plan to do another tag or two as I continue to "research" both shows.