Chapter six: not edited

READ AUTHOR'S NOTE AT BOTTOM OF THE CHAPTER

The room around him was dark, so dark that he couldn't see his own fingertips. Something was wrong - very wrong. It made the hair on the back of his neck stand up in a way that he never felt before. Fear radiated through his veins, pain clearly shown in his eyes when he pushed the covers off his bare torso. He could tell he was in his younger body. At the mere age of twenty three, he could still recognize his seven year old self.

He glanced out of his window to see that the moon was barely reflecting any light onto his backyard. Weird. Normally, at this time of night he could see everything from the playground to the lingering trees hanging near the wooden fence. This made incoherent thoughts start to swarm in the back of his mind. What was going on? Where was Sam and Dean? Is this another nightmare? Why was he dreaming this in the first place?

"Mom?" He found himself calling out in the dark - not knowing something sinister was happening in his house. "Dad? Are you up?"

Going out of his room, the blonde tiptoed to the edge of the hallway, peering over the wooden staircase to see that no light was on downstairs. That meant his parents were either outside sitting on the deck or sleep in their room. He knew it was one of those options. It was the only valid reason that they wouldn't be answering him at the moment.

When Rory walked down the hall, he heard the sound of crinkling - like a small fire was building up to be something darker, more destructible than before. Curious about the sound, the blonde walked to his parent's room to see that the door was slightly open - making his lips tug down into a frown. A light was streaming out of the cracks, something that made the hair on his neck stand up once more.

"Mom? I think you left the light on-" His younger self says quietly. But when he didn't get a response, he pushed the door open to reveal a horrid sight.

A mixture between a gasp and scream fell from his lips when he saw his parents hanging from the ceiling - a small dance of fire surrounding their torso. He wanted to run and call for help, but his legs wouldn't budge. It was like he was frozen in place. All he could do was stand there and watch the fire explode into different colors, absorbing every last inch of his parent's body. He wanted to wake up from this nightmare. And somehow he couldn't. His mind wouldn't let him.

But when he was finally able to, a voice filled his head, telling him it was time to wake up.

"Please wake him up, Sam. He's literally whimpering in his sleep." Dean glanced over his shoulder at the sleeping blonde before looking back at his brother.

Sam sighed lowly. "If he yells at me it's your fault."

"Hey, it's not my fault you wanted him to get more sleep." Dean says while picking up a newspaper. A few seconds later he spoke again. "But he should be thankful that I even suggested that. It shows how much I care for him."

"That's bullshit. You don't care about him." Sam glared at his older brother. "The only reason why you want me to wake him up is because you don't want drool on your seat."

Dean frowned. "That's not true. I may not show it but I am growing to like the kid."

"Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, Dean."

Sam unbuckled his seat belt before reaching over and shaking the whimpering blonde. He wanted to get him out of his dreams before it became unbearable from him. The youngest Winchester knew how much nightmares can bother someone - making him not want Rory to deal with it. It's a terrible feeling to deal with nightmares, especially when it's something really bad.

"Rory." Sam placed his hand on top of the blonde's knee, shaking it softly. "Wake up, man."

When Rory didn't budge, Sam sighed in annoyance. He knew that some people were hard to wake up, but he didn't know the blonde would be like that. Most people who suffer from nightmares are harder to wake, than most people. But shortly after shaking Rory for a few minutes, the blonde started to stir awake, a sigh of relief leaving Sam's mouth when he noticed the response coming from him.

Rory blinked open his eyes sleepily, realizing he's in the impala still. "Did I fall asleep?"

"Just for a couple hours." Sam replied softly. He noticed that his hand was still resting on the edge of the blonde's knee, making him move it away quickly. "U-Um, how did you sleep?"

"Fine." He lied, not wanting to dwell on the truth. The blonde had nightmares throughout the night and to have them in the morning time was terrible. Clearing his throat, he spoke up. "What did I miss?"

"Well, while you were whimpering in your sleep, oh Sammy here was fidgeting in his sleep." Dean explained, earning a glare from his brother. "Are you guys connected or something? Cause both of you were dreaming some crazy shit."

"I take it I was having a nightmare." Sam narrowed his eyes when the glare left. A look of concern flashed across his face when he realized that Rory was dealing with the same thing. "Wait. Rory, are you alright?"

"I am fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

Sam frowned. "I know how nightmares can be-"

"I said I'm fine." Rory snapped, not caring that his sharp words sliced through Sam, causing him to flinch. "Now can you stop worrying about me for once?"

"He can worry about you all he wants. Want to know why? Cause that means he cares about you, Rory." Dean defended his brother's actions. He knew that his brother cared about Rory. Both of them did. Even though the eldest Winchester didn't show it, it was the truth.

An awkward silence filled the tension that was building up around them. None of them wanted to speak about the issue at hand. Nightmares. Sam was dealing with one dream while Rory was the complete opposite. But both of them were dreaming about one of their loved ones being burnt by some force that they had no clue about.

"You know, sooner or later we're gonna have to talk about this, Sam." Dean commented while flipping through the newspaper. He glanced over at Rory for a split second before returning to his reading. "Same for you. It's not good to keep things bottled in."

"Thanks for the advice, Dad." Rory rolled his eyes in annoyance. He didn't understand why Dean Winchester was giving him advice in the first place.

"Hey, man. I am just looking out for you." Dean placed the newspaper down before glancing at the blonde once more. "It may not seem like it, but I am starting to care about you, and I usually don't do that. I mean, any other person I would tell them to take it like a man."

Something warm spread across the blonde's heart. He didn't know why, but at the thought of Sam and Dean looking out for him made the boy happy. At home, the only person who looked out for him was Jess, but since she's gone, he had no one. And now Sam and Dean are filling in that empty spot. Even though he didn't want to bring up his nightmares- he knew that the Winchester brothers will respect his boundaries.

"Here, look at this." Dean handed Sam the newspaper that had the latest hunt printed on it. "We have a case, an interesting one at that."

"First of all, where are we?" Sam questioned his older brother. He always wanted to know where he was before he went to a new case - well, solving one.

"Toledo, Ohio."

"Oh, I've been here before!" Rory gasped out. He had a friend named Charlie who lived in Toledo. But they haven't talked in a couple years because she grew distant from him. "I have a friend that lives here."

Sam looked at him in surprise. "You do?"

"Yeah, her name is Charlie." Rory grinned at the memories that Charlie and him shared. "If we finish the case quickly, I would love to stop by and see her."

Sam couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy at the sound of excitement in the blonde's voice. What? Why was he feeling like this? He hardly knew Rory. And he isn't even over Jess, so what was this feeling? It had to be fake, just a time of the moment thing. That's all it had to be. Shaking his head quickly, he grabbed the newspaper to look at the current obituary.

"So what do you think really happened to this guy?" Sam thought out aloud. He skimmed through the obituary about Steven Shoemaker, wondering what happened to him.

"That's what we're gonna find out."

➼

This day was getting weirder by the second. First, Sam and Dean had insisted that they should go into the hospital to find out more information - but it turned out that getting it was much harder than it looked. The youngest Winchester ended up using some poker money that Dean earned himself to buy the info out of the person working in the morgue.

Now, all three of them found out that Shoemaker eyes's had practically liquefied out of thin air. The doctors thought it was a stroke, maybe an aneurysm, but the blonde knew that wasn't the scenario. Something bad happened to the poor man, but what could have done that? Rory wasn't sure. But that's how the pair of Winchesters and Rory found themselves at the Shoemaker's residence to find more clues that could help them solve this case.

"So do you think we will be welcomed here?" Sam questioned Dean, glancing at Rory every so often.

"Of course! Just look at us, we're hot." Rory rushed out before Dean could utter a word. "Especially you, Sam."

A slight tint to Sam's cheek was all Rory needed to keep going. "I mean, who wouldn't want to look at all that?"

"if you flirt with my brother one more time I-"

"Would you rather I flirt with you, Dean?" He asked the older Winchester. "I don't mind, but Sammy here might not like it."

"Don't bring me into this-"

"Oh, I'll bring you in any time, baby." Rory sent him a wink before walking past the pair of gaping Winchester brothers.

The Shoemaker house was beautiful. It was a modern home filled with old antiques and pictures of the broken family that lined the pale blue walls. When Rory walked further into the house, he was greeted by people wearing different formal clothes, making him look down at his own attire to see he wasn't dressed for this occasion.

"Feel like we're under dressed." Dean commented while looking around the room. "Sam, if we get nasty looks I blame you."

"Don't blame this on me. I was the one who suggested to wear something nicer." Sam frowned at his brother's words.

"Sure, you did, Sammy."

Rory followed the brothers out of the house into the backyard after a nice man escorted them in that direction. The blonde couldn't help but gape in shock at how beautiful it looked. Tall, towering trees where placed in the middle while bright green bushes lined the edges of the fence. Whoever decorated the backyard did a fantastic job.

"That must be Donna." Dean says while pointing at a girl surrounded by her friends.

Rory squinted his eyes and saw a sight that made him grin. "Charlie!" He sprinted in her direction when the blonde glanced up to see him.

"Oh my- Rory, is that you?" Charlie gasped when she saw her old best friend making his way over to her. "You haven't aged a day."

"Well, you still look hot." He grinned, earning a smack from Charlie, who rolled her eyes. Behind them, stood Sam and Dean. Dean was giving them a look while Sam was glaring in their direction.

"What are you doing here?" She questioned him.

"Uh-"

"We wanted to give our condolences to Donna." Sam cut him off with a glare, but quickly hid it with a fake smile in Charlie's direction. He turned to Donna. "Hi, uh- we're really sorry."

"Thank you."

"I'm Sam, this is Dean." Sam introduced him and his brother. "We-"

"Why didn't you introduce me? I'm offended, Sammy."

"We worked with your dad." The brunette finished his sentence after being rudely cut off by Rory.

Out of all the excuses they could make that's the one Sam came up with? Really? Even Rory could come up with a better one than that. Shaking his head, he watched Charlie give him a suspicious look while Sam explained how they knew Donna's dad, which was fake of course. He knew that his old friend would figure it out, she had this sense were she can tell when someone is not telling the whole truth.

Donna glanced at Charlie, then back at Sam and Dean. "You did?"

When she turned to look at Rory, he held his hands up. "Don't worry, I didn't."

All of them continued to talk, well, that was until Dean decided to bring up the death of Donna's father, which didn't sit well with Charlie. After a bunch of reassurance from Donna, the blonde let them continue on that topic at hand. But when Sam brought up the symptoms of a stroke, that idea was quickly denied.

The younger sister, Lily, turned around to look at them. "That's because it wasn't a stroke."

"Lily, don't say that."

"What?" Sam frowned.

"Lily, why would you say something like that?" Rory bent down to look at the younger girl with a frown.

"Right before he died, I said it."

Sam, who was close to Rory, bent down beside him. "You said what?"

"Bloody Mary."

Oh shit.

➼

"Thanks for meeting me." Charlie gave a smile towards the blonde who sat in the booth across from her.

After the incident at the house, Charlie asked Rory to meet her at a nearby diner that apparently had the best food in Ohio. Of course Dean wanted to come with, but when a few words were exchanged, he backed off. Sam wasn't happy about it, and Rory couldn't figure out why. He was just catching up with a friend, what's wrong with that?

"It's no problem. I wanted to see you anyways." Rory says while picking up a menu off the table. He flipped through some of the pages before he figured out what he wanted. "So how have you been? I know it's been a couple years since we last spoke and all."

"Fine. Mom and Dad have been going out more lately, probably because of work and all." She explains while tapping her fingers on top of the table. "I dropped out of college- before you say anything, my parents were okay with it."

Rory held up his hands in defense. "I wasn't going to say anything. You are old enough to make your own choices, sweetheart."

"So tell me, Rory. How did you meet those boys back there." Charlie wiggled her eyebrows.

Charlie knew Rory was bisexual, and surprisingly didn't have an issue with it. When he first told her, she informed the blonde that she already knew - mainly because he wasn't subtle when it came checking out guys. That caused him to have pink cheeks for a week.

"The tall one, Sam, dated my sister back at college, so that's how I know him." Rory flinched at the mention of his sister, thank goodness Charlie didn't see. "Now the guy with him is Dean, Sam's idiotic older brother, who I still question every day."

At the mention of his sister, Charlie's eyes lit up. "Jessica? How is she?"

That's when the room dropped to a certain degree, making Rory gulp in nervousness. He wasn't nervous about Charlie's reaction, he was more worried about the way it would effect him talking about it. Jessica was still a sensitive subject. That's one of the reasons why Sam and Dean never talk about her, unless it's important.

"Y-You don't know, do you?"

"Know, what?"

"Charlie, Jess died a couple weeks ago."

Charlie gasped in shock, tears forming at the edge of her eyes. Her hand was in front of her face. "H-How did it happen?"

"Fire. She died in a house fire." That wasn't the whole truth, but it was enough for the blonde to jump out of the booth and swarm Rory with a tender hug.

Rory clutched to Charlie like his life depended on it. This was what he desperately needed at the moment. A tender hug. He didn't want to ask Sam and Dean for one, knowing how the older Winchester would react to it. But knowing he had Charlie to go to, made a small smile light on his face.

"I'm so sorry, Rory."

"Yeah, me too."

➼

IMPORTANT PLEASE READ:

First of all, I don't want to sound greedy because that's not who I am, but could you guys stop ghost reading. I appreciate the comments and votes I'm getting now but the reads on each chapter are getting lower and lower each time I update. That makes me upset because I work so hard on this story. So please comment and vote more.

Also, I adore Rory and Sam so much, they're my OTP. Do you guys like them?

Check out my Supernatural book with my friend on -gabrieldiaries

This chapter wasn't my best one. That's because I got stuck on how to write this one. I hope you guys don't mind. Chapter dedicated to -scottspack and intospn