CHANGING - 5/10

[leighannwallace.livejournal.com]

Title: CHANGING

Author: Leigh Ann Wallace
Rating: PG
Genre/pairing: Gen
Characters:Sam, Dean and Bobby
Word count: 2467
Summary: Sam is bitten by a shapeshifter. Are the legends true, will Sam change? How can Dean save him?
Spoilers: (if applicable) You're safe if you've season eps up to season five. Mention of Lucifer and the apocalypse
Warnings: (if applicable) Shameless Angst
Disclaimer: Pretty clear I don't own anything to do with Supernatural. Written out of love and passionate obsession.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Bobby burst out of the house, shotgun raised, looking around wildly.

"Dean! Damn it! Sam!"

Shouts rang out from inside the salvage yard. There was another shot, followed by a scream, which was abruptly cut off.

"Shit!" Barefoot and shirtless, Bobby followed the sounds of battle.

Sam grabbed Carl's rifle, clubbed Bill with it, swung it back around in the same continuing swift movement and felled Carl. Then, furious, he broke the gun over the nearby wood chipper; grabbed the second rifle and did the same.

Head bloody, cursing, Bill grabbed him from behind and Sam spun, wrenching free. Hands curled into claws, he grabbed the man's throat, and held on tight. Carl tried to pull him off of his partner, but Sam, holding tight with one hand to Bill, grabbed hold of Carl's throat with the other. He started squeezing.

"You are not going to hurt my family!" he snarled.

Lost in a red haze of rage, Sam's grip tightened. His vision narrowed - his enemies faces turning red, their throats under his fingers, the fear in their eyes - their fear smelled good.

"Sam! Where are you? Sam!"

Dean's voice broke through the red haze surrounding him, brought him part of the way back to himself. Giving both men a violent shake, he threw them to the ground and then stalked after them.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Panicking, choking, Carl jumped up and ran, slammed into a car, fell, got up and ran again.

Sam let Carl go. Focused on Bill, he grabbed the helpless man by the hair and smashed a fist into his face. Blood sprayed as cartilage crumpled.

"Oh, crap! Sam, stop!" Dean ran forward, grabbed his brother. "Let him go!"

Dropping Bill, Sam turned on Dean, shoving him back, hard. He turned back to the man on the ground. The moonlight reflected on his eyes. Bill, bloody and torn, moaned in terror.

"Sam!" Up again, Dean moved in, gun ready. "Get off him! Now!"

Furious, Sam glared at him. "He was going to kill us. All of us! Not just me. You! And Bobby!"

Dean tried to stay calm, to see past the fiery rage to his brother. "I know, Sammy. But I can't let you kill him. Not like this."

Growling in frustration, Sam paced around the downed man. Swooping in, he grabbed the man by the collar and dragged him up off the ground effortlessly, bringing Bill's face close to his. The smell of fear coming off the man was both rank and sweet, driving Sam close to madness. His eyes flamed yellow and Bill's went wide with terror; his hands flailing helplessly.

Bobby came up to them, pushing Carl ahead of him with the shotgun. Both men stared in astonished fear as Sam held the helpless hunter a good two feet above the ground and shook him like a rat.

"You have a problem with me, you come to me," Sam hissed. "You hear me?"

Bill nodded jerkily.

"If you come anywhere near my family again, I will tear out your heart and eat it in front of you!"

With a final growl of frustrated rage, Sam threw Bill to the ground where he lay gasping for breath. He glared at his brother. "He's alive! Happy?"

Sam strode over to Carl, yanked him away from Bobby's protecting shotgun and threw him down on the ground next to Bill. Both men stayed on the ground, staring up at him, frozen.

"Starting the apocalypse was an accident, you assholes! I thought that killing that demon would keep Lucifer downstairs. I was wrong. And that's on me. Me. Not Dean. And not Bobby."

"This -" he motioned to his eyes - "wasn't my fault! We were hunting and I got bit. Not - my - fault!"

"Fault or not, you'll still turn," Bill rasped, glaring up at him, starting to feel braver with Dean and Bobby there. "You'll kill."

Sam took a step toward them and Bill shrank back.

Dean came forward, stood beside his brother. "If he does, I'll deal with it," he said coldly." You don't come near us again. Next time I see you, you're dead."

The two hunters managed to struggle to their feet.

"Bobby, we came for Sam," Carl said, throat raw. "Not you, or Dean."

"Did you think you could come on to my place, kill a boy that's like a son to me, and walk away clean?" Bobby said contemptuously. "Get off my property, Carl. And don't come back."

The three watched the two defeated hunters stumble away.

After a few minutes a truck started up on the nearby road and Sam relaxed, slightly, eyes starting to bleed slowly back to their normal warm hazel.

"I need some sleep," Bobby said morosely. "And a drink."

"They would have killed us," Sam said with certainty, "no matter what crap Carl was handing out. All of us."

"Bastards," Dean said, already regretting letting them go.

"Were you outside when they came back, Sam?" asked Bobby.

"I couldn't sleep." Remembering, Sam smiled inwardly. Wait. What?

"Oh man, Dean, I'm sorry I shoved you!"

"Yeah, well, next time I shove back, yellow eyes or not," Dean shot back.

"Yellow?"

"You didn't know?"

"How could I? I could feel they were different. And I knew something was up the way those guys were looking at me, but yellow?"

Dean backpedaled at Sam's horrified expression. "Sam, it's not like the demon. We think it's a skinwalker thing. So far, we've only seen it twice - in the last night in the panic room, and tonight."

"I'm thinking it's just something that happens when you're mad or upset," Bobby added reassuringly.

"Yellow eyes," Sam repeated. Crap. Exhaustion enveloped him. He swayed on his feet. Dean put out a steadying hand and he waved it away.

"I'm good." Sam laughed bitterly. "Good. Christ, what a freaking joke."

He started back toward the house, Dean and Bobby following, wearily.

Once inside, Bobby said, "Boys, we're gonna have to talk about tonight, but not tonight. I'm just too damned tired."

"Maybe I should keep watch, just in case they come back," Sam suggested.

"I don't think they'll be back, at least, not tonight," Dean said dryly. "I'm pretty sure Bill peed his pants."

They managed to sleep in until almost noon. When they got up, Bobby warmed up the dinner they'd hadn't eaten much of the day before and served it around.

Sam still didn't have much appetite, he moved the food around his plate nervously, trying to figure out how to bring up the subject of last night. And what would have to happen next.

The slightest of noises from outside alerted him and he stood hastily. "Guys!"

Understanding instantly, Dean leapt up from the table and grabbed his revolver, checking the cylinder.

Bobby picked up the shotgun from the counter. "Out front?"

Sam nodded, tense, hand resting on his gun.

Dean smiled, eyes hard. "Well, well. Maybe I'll get to kill something today after all." Moving quickly, he slipped quietly out the back door, circling around front to look for their uninvited guests.

Sam close behind him, Bobby opened the front door a crack and peered outside.

Carl stood about ten yards from the front door, hands raised. Dean was a few feet away from him, his gun trained on the intruder.

"I don't want any trouble, Bobby," he called. "Just want to talk."

"You boys go check the yard," Bobby said quietly to Sam. "Make sure he's alone."

Bobby walked slowly out to the hunter, shotgun steady, eyes cool. Once Sam and Dean were gone, Carl said, "I'm sorry about last night, Bobby."

"You're gonna have to do a damned sight better than that, old friend or not."

Carl nodded. "I know."

"And you were supposed to call before coming out here again. You're lucky I didn't shoot you outright."

They waited together, silently. When the boys trotted back, Dean nodding the all-clear, Carl studied Sam for a long minute, then shook his head wonderingly. This quiet young man - this was the same yellow-eyed horror who'd nearly killed them the night before?

"Well? Start talking," Bobby prodded.

"When Bill told me what Sam did," Carl finally began, "I almost lost my mind. I still can't quite get my head around it." He shook his head. "Lucifer. Here, on Earth. And you brought him." He looked at Sam, who stiffened, but didn't look away. "Killing you seemed like a damned good idea."

"Then, last night, when Sam said he thought he was keeping Satan downstairs when he killed that demon - it got a whole less clear. It started feeling like revenge. And revenge for something that was just damned bad luck - that didn't sit well. Hell, you boys are hunters, same as Bill, same as me. I should have realized you wouldn't have jumpstarted this shitstorm on purpose."

"No shit, Sherlock," Dean snapped sarcastically. "Too bad you didn't wise up before you tried to kill us."

Carl looked directly at Dean, and then back at Sam. "You're not the ones who almost died last night."

Dean snorted. "You guys got off freaking light!"

There was a short silence.

"You know," Bobby said at last, "given how long we've known each other, you might've talked to me before you decided to come gunning for Sam."

Carl shook his head. "Hell, Bobby, everyone knows how you feel about these two. Like you said last night, they're kin. No matter what they do, apocalypse included, you'd never give them up."

"That aside, Sam's been bit and Bill was right about him turning someday. It could get bad. But the plain truth is, he could've killed us both last night. We couldn't have stopped him. He's too damn strong and fast. The fact he didn't, it says something."

"Says a hell of a lot, you ask me," Dean said.

"Yeah, well, our line of work, sometimes you jump fast or you die." Carl shrugged. "We screwed up."

"What about the other asshole?" Dean asked coldly.

"Bill's not so forgiving."

"Or smart," Bobby added sourly.

"He and I won't be hunting together any more," Carl said. "But I don't guess I'm giving away any secrets telling you that he'll be gunning for all of you. He doesn't take getting beaten real well."

"And another thing. He's spreading the word, so he won't be the only one looking for you." He looked at Sam. "When they come, they'll be coming with silver."

Carl shrugged. "That's it." He looked at Bobby, eyes careful. "We good?"

Bobby stared at him for a long minute, then nodded. "Yeah, we're good. But don't come back again without calling first. I mean it. My trigger finger's apt to be pretty itchy for a while."

After Carl left, the three trailed back into the kitchen to continue their interrupted breakfast.

After a few minutes, Dean pushed his plate away angrily. "We should've killed that prick last night."

Bobby and Sam didn't answer, knowing exactly what prick he was talking about.

Not having anywhere else to put his anger, Dean glared at them. "And don't tell me I'm the only one thinking that," he snapped. "We're going to be watching our backs for the rest of our freaking lives!"

His brother's anger agitating him, Sam tried to keep calm, looking to Bobby. "We didn't mean to bring all this crap down on you. We'll leave."

"There's no need for that, boy!" Bobby protested. "This is your home, same as it's always been!"

"They're going to be coming for me. You can't turn your home into an armed camp!"

"You idjit!" the older man said, exasperated. "It's already an armed camp! It's been an armed camp for the last frigging twenty years!"

"Yeah, but not usually against our own kind. Against our friends." Hazel eyes pained, he said to Dean. "They're going to be coming after you, too."

Dean stared at him for a long moment, face darkening.

"Don't you even think it, Sam! I can see it in your damned face! Don't you even think about leaving without me!" He was shaking with rage. "I don't give a damn about them. It's you and me, together. You and me."

Sam fought back the emotion that were always so close to the surface these days, nodded.

Not satisfied, Dean grabbed his arm roughly.

"This is where you want to freaking listen to me, Sam. You don't go anywhere without me. You - Are - Not - Safe. Do you get that?

Sam flinched and lowered his eyes. Not safe.

The memory of last night's exhilaration warred with the very clear memory of his hands around his enemies' throats. He'd wanted to kill them. If Dean hadn't stopped him, he would have.

I'm not safe to be around. Not even for you, Dean.

He met his brother's eyes. "I promise, Dean. I won't leave without you."

"I don't think we should leave at all!" Dean snapped.

"Am I supposed to hide here for the rest of my life?" Sam shook his head. "We're hunters. That's what we do."

"And what happens if we're out there and something happens?" Dean demanded.

"I deal with it." his brother said flatly. "We deal with it."

"Hate to break it to you, Sam," Dean said angrily, "but the panic room isn't portable. This goes south, the only option I've got is a silver bullet."

"I know." Sam held Dean's gaze. "And I know it's not fair to ask that of you. But I'm asking."

Dean slammed his hand down on the table. "Damn it, Sam!" He lunged to his feet and slammed out the back door, wild with rage. "You son of a bitch!" he screamed to the sky. "Aren't you ever going to stop fucking with us?"

After a few minutes, Sam came out and sat down on the back porch, watching his big brother.

"You know, brother," Dean said, trying not to yell, "this isn't the first time you've asked me to kill you."

Sam tried to smile. "And with my track record, it's probably not the last."

Dean shook his head despairingly, looked away.

"Dean, what the hell else can we do?" He looked at his brother sympathetically. "Crawl in a hole, wait for the world to end? Lucifer's out there. I'm pretty sure he hasn't forgotten us."

Dean dropped down on the porch beside him. "Damn it."

"Come on, man." Sam nudged him. "It's not really any more fucked up than the rest of our lives has been. Who knows, this whole super senses thing might come in handy."

"Yeah, right." Sighing, semi-resigned to the inevitable, Dean slung an arm around Sam.

"It's not always easy being your brother, Sam. But I've got your back."

Comments

[monicawoe.livejournal.com]

I'm suddenly very curoius to hear what Lucifer would have to say about all of this...

your review to Changing

[leighannwallace.livejournal.com]

Clearly, you are psychic. Keeping reading and you'll find out later! :)