DEEP BLUE SEA

Author's note: Thank you all so much for taking your time to leave me a review. I appreciate the support :) I hope you'll like the end to the story as well. –Elisa.

Chapter 2 of 2.

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The car barely came to a stop on the beach before Sam had ripped the car door open and had stumbled outside. The younger Winchester brother didn't know how he'd actually managed to get there in one piece since his head had kept throbbing painfully the entire way – making his already fever-blurred vision even blurrier. He felt dizzy and a bit disorientated, and Sam hadn't taken more than a couple of steps away from the car before he fell to his knees in the sand. He fought to control his breathing that had gone haywire in a combination of his congested airways and worry for his big brother, digging his fingers into the sand and coughing a few times in the process.

"I would have loved to get my way with you before killing you, but beggars can't be choosers."

"No." Sam said, clenched his eyes shut and pressed his palms into his eyes to chase away the horrible flashes that kept haunting him; images of the succubus ripping out Dean's heart.

The youngest Winchester brother had lost his mother at the age of six months, had lost his girlfriend twenty-two years later and had recently lost his father as well. He couldn't lose Dean too. Not Dean, never Dean.

Sam clenched his jaw hard and willed his physically exhausted body to keep going, so he got back on his wobbly feet and started walking through the sand.

"Hey! You can't park here!" Someone yelled but Sam didn't care. He had a big brother to save.

In Sam's vision, Dean had followed behind the succubus and her latest victim onto a boat, so the younger brother knew he had to look for a pier somewhere. It wasn't hard locating it though because Sam could spot the masts from at least a few dozens of ships, lighted up by the last sunbeams of the day, in the distance – the hard part was getting there, since every single step he took felt like was he moving through quicksand. Even though the air was still pretty warm, the young Winchester brother was shivering – despite the fact that sweat was prickling out on his forehead, making his bangs wet and sticky. There were only few people still left on the beach and they all shot Sam weird looks as he passed by.

Sam had to stop up a minute - bent forward a little and rested his hands on his knees while trying to catch his breath. Images of Dean dying were still clouding his mind and Sam dry-heaved a few times and coughed.

"You alright, son?" An elderly man suddenly asked and put his hand on Sam's shoulder.

The man then startled back a few steps as Sam flinched away from the touch as if he'd been burned.

"Don't." Sam gasped out. "Just.. don't."

Sweat dripped down from his nose and some made it into his eyes. Sam wiped his face with his sleeve and blinked rapidly a few times.

"You don't look very well." The elderly man carefully commented. "Why don't I go get you some help? You look like you could need it."

But Sam didn't hear a word of it because something else had caught his attention; A beach bar – the bar from his vision. Was his big brother still there or had Dean already left to follow behind the succubus and her prey? The thought of it made Sam's stomach knot. He had to find Dean right now.

Sam straightened back up and – despite the elderly man's protests – he started moving forward once more. It didn't take him too long to reach the pier and Sam closed his eyes for a moment as he tried to recall where the boat was. It had been somewhere at the end of the pier. He was pretty sure of that. Sam opened his eyes back up and looked at the several rows of boat bridges of the pier, biting his lower lip as panic starting seeping through. Which row was it? Was he already too late to save Dean? A small sob escaped him and Sam then picked one of the boat bridges before he started moving again – praying he'd picked the right one.

Sam reached the end of the pier and there was.. nothing. No boat, no succubus, no Dean. He'd picked the wrong boat bridge. Dean could be dying right now and Sam wouldn't be able to save him.

"No." Sam said, fighting the urge to just give up and start crying.

The younger Winchester brother looked frantically from side to side and his heart clenched painfully when his eyes caught sight of the right boat – just a few rows away from him. But how was he gonna get there in time? Should he return to the other end of the boat bridge and find the right row or was there another option for him to use that could save him some precious time? Ah heck – sick or not - he was a Winchester after all.

Sam climbed onto a yacht nearby, moved to the other end of it, by walking on the little line of footing by the rail, and he somehow managed to jump onto the boat behind it – closer to the boat that was his goal. Sam continued his mission and when there was only one boat between the one he was passing through and the boat that Dean and the succubus would be on, Sam saw a man enter the boat with a woman that he – after blinking a few times to make his blurry eyes focus - recognized as the succubus. Sam's heart started beating faster. He knew he didn't have long to stop his big brother from being killed, so he hurried to walk the last distance and jumped onto the far end of the succubus' boat.

As Sam snuck closer to the succubus and the man who the creature had brought along with her, the younger Winchester brother could see that the succubus was currently straddling the man, kissing him and unbuttoning his shirt. From Sam's view, he could see that the creature had a pair of handcuffs in her hand that she was probably gonna use on her victim. She would soon do to him what she had done to the three other victims but Sam worried more about what she was about to do to his big brother. Speaking of the older Winchester brother, Dean suddenly showed up out of the blue with a knife in his hand and Sam nearly gasped out loud as he realized that he'd reached the moment from his vision where Dean would get killed.

Dean moved forward towards the succubus and Sam jumped out of his hiding to run the last bit of the way across the deck. Just as Dean raised his knife and the succubus spun around, Sam connected with the both of them like a flying projectile; pushing his brother out of the way while he himself rolled across the deck with the succubus in a tangled mess. Sam's head then connected with a hard object and his vision immediately blackened.

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Dean groaned as he got up from the deck that he'd fallen down onto - the air having been knocked out of him in the fall. He'd fortunately not lost his knife in the process and Dean clenched the haft of it while wondering how he had ended up being pushed to the ground, or more specifically; who had pushed him to the ground? And where was the succubus?

The man, whom the succubus had wanted as her next victim, had moved to the steering system of the boat – probably under the influence of whatever the succubus had poisoned him with – and he turned on the engine of the boat and started steering it out on the open sea. Dean turned his head to see where they were going, but what caught his eyes made his stomach turn to ice.

"Shit." Dean muttered and clenched the knife in his hand hard. What the hell was Sam doing here?

The succubus was standing about twenty feet away from the older Winchester brother with an arm around Sam's neck from behind and with a knife pressed against Sam's throat. The younger brother was at the wrong side of conscious; his eyes closed but his head shifting slightly which meant that he was probably trying to return to the land of the living. Sam's hands had apparently been cuffed in front of his body – which Dean couldn't believe was very comfortable with the cast around Sam's wrist – and he was bleeding from a rash above his right eye. Dean also noticed how awful Sam looked; his little brother's face was pale and sweaty and – even if he had been completely conscious and the succubus wasn't holding him up – Dean doubted he would have been able to stand at all.

"You bitch!" Dean growled with eyes burning of anger. "I'm gonna kill you!"

"You're forgetting that I have a knife pressed to this guy's throat." The succubus smiled and inhaled the scent of Sam's hair. "Or should I say your brother?"

"Let him go!" Dean snarled and took a threatening step forward.

"Ah-ah." The succubus said, pressing the knife a little harder to Sam's throat which made Dean stop up. A little flow of blood trickled down from Sam's throat and Dean clenched his jaw hard.

"Sam shouldn't even have been here." Dean thought in a mix of worry for his little brother and anger towards the succubus.

"You know, the wounded hearts taste the best." The succubus said, and Dean's anger flared as she stuck out her tongue and licked some of Sam's blood off his cheek. "You and your brother lost someone recently, didn't you? I could smell you from miles away."

"Let. Him. Go." Dean repeated and clenched the knife in his hand almost painfully hard. "Now!"

"No, I don't think I will." The succubus said, tightening her arm around Sam's neck which made the younger Winchester brother groan softly. "Your brother carries a lot of sorrow in his heart and I can't wait to have a taste of that."

"I swear to God, if you touch my brother I'll rip your heart out!" Dean roared.

"No honey, I'll rip your heart out." The succubus said with a sugary smile that made Dean feel sick. How he could have found the woman attractive earlier was a mystery to him now. Anyone even thinking about hurting his little brother was hideous inside out to Dean.

Sam groaned again and this time his fluttered open to tiny slits. It didn't take him more than a few seconds to realize that he had been cuffed and had a knife pressed to his throat, and it made his eyes widen while he let out a surprised gasp.

"Sam." Dean said to catch the younger brother's attention.

Sam's eyes found Dean's and the brothers shared a look that calmed the youngest a bit. It's gonna be okay. Sam nodded as much as he was able to do in the position he was in and Dean turned his eyes back at the succubus.

"Having a little moment?" She asked.

Dean didn't say anything. He was busy wondering how he could attack the succubus without hurting Sam in the process, but it was a bit easier to do now that Sam was awake. Despite the fact that Sam was hurt and sick, he was still a well-trained hunter and Dean knew his brother was capable of a lot more than the succubus seemed to think – knife to his throat or not.

"Dean!" Sam suddenly shouted and Dean spun around to find that the man that had come close to be the succubus' snack, was about to attack the older brother from behind. Dean placed a solid kick to the man's stomach while Sam used the sudden distraction to knock the knife out of the succubus' hand and break the hold she had around his neck. Sam and the succubus both went after the knife but in Sam's current state, his coordinates were slow and misjudged so he tripped over something on the deck and – since he couldn't use his hands to break his fall – Sam stumbled right into the railing of the boat, flipped over it and nose-dived into the water underneath him.

"Sam!" Dean shouted, had turned around just in time to see his brother disappear over the railing.

The succubus picked up the knife from the deck but as she turned around to face the oldest Winchester brother, Dean stabbed his silver knife right into the creature's heart. The succubus gasped and looked at Dean with wide eyes, and Dean smiled coldly in return.

"Told you I would kill you." He said and twisted the knife before pulling it out – the succubus' eyes turning blank before she fell into a boneless heap on the deck. "That was for Sammy, you bitch."

Dean dropped the bloody knife and ran to the railing where he'd seen Sam disappear. He let his eyes search the water for his younger brother and panic soon started filling his heart as he couldn't see Sam anywhere.

"What happened?" The man asked as he got back on his feet somewhere behind Dean. "Where am I? Who are you?"

"A part of the two reasons you're still alive." Dean answered and shot the man a glare before he swung himself over the railing of the still moving boat and jumped into the dark ocean.

The water wasn't as cold as Dean had feared, but the sun was gone by now and the only light he'd got was the moonlight reflected by the water around him.

"Sam!" Dean called, frantically swimming around in circles as he tried to spot his brother. "Sam!"

Dean took in a deep breath and dived underneath the surface. Nothing.

"Sam!" Dean shouted again and spit out a bit of water. "Sammy! Sam!"

Dean's heart hammered almost painfully inside his chest as he kept searching for his missing little brother. Sam had not only been sick but also hurt and cuffed. Dean knew he wouldn't last long in the middle of the ocean and the thought of it made him sick. He wouldn't let Sam drown out here, he just wouldn't. Dean dived underneath the surface again but once again came up empty-handed.

"Sammy!" Dean shouted and took a few more swimming strokes.

He was about to shout Sam's name again when his boot connected with something underneath the water; something solid but yet soft. Dean took in a big breath and dived underneath the surface again. The water was dark and turbid, but Dean could see a shape a little down and soon his fingers found the soft mop that he knew was Sam's hair. Dean managed to grasp onto Sam's shoulder and dragged his brother upwards before breaking through the surface.

"Sam." Dean sputtered, struggling to keep Sam above the surface and look him over at the same time.

Sam's eyes were closed and Dean's heart skipped a beat when he realized Sam wasn't breathing.

"No.. You don't get to do this to me, Sammy." Dean said and moved Sam's cuffed hands around the older brother's neck so that Dean could hold Sam up and use both hands to tend the younger hunter at the same time.

Dean tilted Sam's lolling head back a little and pinched his nose shut before breathing into Sam's mouth. Fortunately, Dean didn't have to repeat the motion more than twice before Sam started coughing up water.

"That's it, little brother." Dean mumbled and gently patted Sam on the back. "You're alright, you're alright."

Sam continued coughing, gasped for breath and gulped big amounts of air into his abused lungs.

"De- .. Dean." Sam gasped out, his voice hoarse and his breathing wheezing.

"Right here, Sammy. I've got you." Dean said, still with Sam's arms around his neck. If someone saw the brothers right now, they would probably wonder if they were in the middle of some kind of intimate embrace, but Dean couldn't care less about what people might or might not think right now.

Sam let his forehead rest on Dean's shoulder while he still coughed softly. Now that he knew that his big brother had him, all energy had drained from his exhausted body and Sam closed his eyes while allowing himself to be consumed by the safety and protectiveness of his older brother. Dean was here. Dean was alive.

"Hey. You with me?" Dean asked and Sam nodded into Dean's shoulder.

"I'm with you." Sam mumbled.

"Good because I need you to help me out a bit here." Dean said, treading water. "Move your legs, Sam."

"Can't. Too tired." Sam mumbled.

"Bullshit Sammy, come on." Dean said. "I'm not gonna let go of you but you have to help me here."

Keeping himself and Sam above the surface was starting to get hard. Sam moved his legs a little bit but his body was beyond exhausted by now – too busy trying to fight the fever to care about anything else. The younger brother's teeth started chattering and Dean pulled Sam impossibly closer in hope of providing his brother with just a little bit of warmth.

"We gotta get to shore." Dean said – more to himself really than to Sam. "Come on."

Dean twisted around until he had Sam behind him instead of in front of him - but still with Sam's cuffed hands secured around his neck.

"This would have been so much easier if you were still the small scrawny kid you used to be." Dean complained a bit out of breath which made Sam snort softly. Settled behind his brother like this, Sam actually did feel like the small scrawny kid he'd once been – back in the days where he believed that there was nothing his big brother couldn't do. In situations like this, Sam secretly still believed that.

Dean strained to swim back towards the shore that he could easily spot, but the distance was rather large and Dean was already getting tired.

"Sam." Dean panted. "You gotta help me, man. Move your legs."

"Trying." Sam mumbled.

And Sam did try – he really did – but his body wouldn't cooperate much. He managed to move his legs a little bit and Dean didn't ask for more than that. He knew Sam was doing all he could do in this mess they'd gotten themselves into.

A sound caught the older brother's ears and Dean scanned the area for the reason as the sound came closer and closer. Then suddenly a boat showed up out of the blue and lowered its speed as it approached the brothers.

"Hey!" Someone shouted and Dean looked up to see the man that had almost become the succubus prey, looking down at them from the boat. "I thought you could need some help."

Dean smiled in relief and swam closer to the boat with Sam in tow.

"Help me with my brother, will ya?" Dean asked the man.

"Of course." The man answered and reached down for Sam as Dean removed Sam's cuffed hands from his neck.

"Careful." Dean said to the man who nodded his answer before he put his hands underneath Sam's armpits and pulled him up while Dean pushed from the water.

Sam groaned as he was manhandled onto the boat and he watched the man warily as he sat him down on a little landing on the deck.

"I'm William O'Conner but you can just call me Bill." The man told Sam and reached out a hand to shake the young hunter's hand but faltered when he noticed the cuffs on Sam's hands and the broken wrist.

Dean then climbed onboard and he instantly squashed past Bill to crouch down in front of Sam.

"You okay, kiddo?" Dean asked and brushed a hand through Sam's bangs to move the sticky hair out of Sam's eyes.

Sam nodded and Dean gave the younger brother's neck a reassuring squeeze.

"Is there anything I can do?" Bill asked.

"It would be great if you could find a blanket and a first-aid kit somewhere." Dean answered without turning his eyes away from his brother.

"Roger that." Bill said before leaving.

Dean reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out a (wet) set of lock picks and gently grabbed Sam's hands before he started picking the locks of the handcuffs – making a mental note to visit a hospital somewhere to get Sam's wet cast replaced by a new one.

"Why were you out here, Sammy?" Dean asked and Sam winced a little when Dean removed the cuffs, rubbing a bit at his sore wrists.

"I.." Sam started when Bill returned with the items Dean had requested; a first-aid kit and a blanket.

"Here you go." Bill said and handed the things over to the older brother.

"Thanks." Dean said as he accepted them.

"I didn't know what to do about her." Bill said and nodded in the direction of the dead succubus that was still lying on the deck a little away from them. "I do remember what happened but I don't understand what she is.. or was."

"Don't worry about her." Dean said and wrapped the blanket around Sam's shoulders. "I'll take care of it. You just get us back to shore, alright?"

"Alright." Bill said and started walking back to the steering system but turned back around when he was halfway there. "I don't know what that.. that creature was, but I do know that you boys saved my life, so.. thanks."

"You're welcome." Dean said and Bill nodded a bit before leaving the brothers alone.

Dean opened up the first-aid kit and found a piece of gauze before he gently started dabbing at the wound above Sam's eye.

"So, what are you doing out of bed, Sammy?" Dean asked his younger brother. "I had everything under control."

"No, you didn't." Sam said and shot Dean a dewy-eyed look. "You would have died."

"What are you talking about?" Dean asked with a confused frown. "I wouldn't have.."

"Yes, you would!" Sam exclaimed, cutting off his brother. "I saw it, Dean. I had a vision where the succubus ripped out your heart. You would have died."

Sam's voice broke and Dean's heart clenched as he watched Sam struggling hard to compose himself.

"Hey." Dean said in a soft voice and put his hand on the back of Sam's neck. "It's okay now, I'm not dead."

Sam looked up and Dean caught his eyes in a reassuring look.

"Apparently some giant Sasquatch saved my sorry ass this time around." Dean smiled and Sam shot him a little soft smile in return.

"You saved me too." Sam said.

"Damn right I did, little brother." Dean said. "And don't you forget about it."

Sam snorted and Dean chuckled a bit before applying some pieces of gauze tape on Sam's forehead to keep the wound closed. He also cleaned the small slash on Sam's throat.

"You hurt anywhere else?" Dean wanted to know but Sam shook his head.

"I don't think so." Sam said and coughed a little. "Just tired."

Dean got up from his crouched position before he sat down next to Sam and let his younger brother lean against him.

"Hey Dean." Sam said and then hesitated.

"Yeah?" Dean asked while carding a hand through his short wet-dripping hair.

"I don't think I like California anymore." Sam admitted and Dean knew the youngest Winchester brother was thinking about what had happened the last time he'd been in this area and what had been close to happen this time as well.

"Me neither, Sammy." Dean agreed.

They would soon be back at the pier and Dean had to figure out how to get rid of the succubus' body while also following Sam back to the Impala. He had no doubts about what was most important though.

Dean turned his head and smiled when he saw how hard Sam was trying to stay awake. Sam would be asleep as soon as he'd been situated in the Impala, and Dean would make sure that Sam got back on his feet again.

"If you can't save Sam then you have to kill him."

John Winchester's last words were still haunting the older brother. He didn't understand why his dad had told him what he did, but Dean at least knew something; that he would never be able to kill his baby brother, his Sammy.

"You can close your eyes if you want." Dean said. "I'll wake you up when we reach the shore."

"Thanks Dean." Sam said and gratefully let his head rest against Dean's shoulder as he closed his eyes.

"If you can't save Sam then you have to kill him."

Dean tucked the blanket closer around Sam and put an arm around his brother's shoulders. There were a lot of things Dean couldn't do anything about; he couldn't bring back the people they'd lost, he couldn't do anything about those damn visions Sam had - that somehow had been the reason why Dean was currently still alive, he realized and pulled Sam closer. But Dean would always save Sam. Always. It was as simple as that.

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THE END.

Thank you so much for reading! Feel free to leave me a review ;)

-Elisa.