Disclaimer: I do not own Sam, Dean, Jess, or Supernatural. Would be kinda nice if I did!

After All This Time

Prologue

Dean sank down tiredly on the shabby hotel room's lone double bed next to the duffle containing his weapons. His body ached all over from his neck, to his shoulders, down to his lower back and knees. The last solo hunt had been rough; he missed hunting side-by-side with his dad and brother, but that would never happen again. Instead, he received texts from his dad with coordinates for the next hunt and hopped from place to place, which made for a very lonely and isolated existence. John Winchester was a man obsessed with finding the thing that had killed his wife. Therefore, he had decided that the fastest and best way to do that was to split up and cover more territory. And Sam, well, Dean's little brother had run away from the hunting life years ago. Dean missed him to the very depths of his soul, but yet his little brother's name never crossed his lips and was never mentioned in front of their father. John had told Sam that if he left to never come back, and at the time, he'd meant it. Dean suspected that now the sound of his brother's name brought pain, guilt, and regret to John Winchester. Therefore, it was best not to speak of Sam at all.

Forcing himself to reach for the duffle beside him, Dean sorted through the weapons and began to spread them out over the bed. It was time to clean and organize things so that he would be prepared for the next hunt wherever it may take him. He grabbed the remote and turned the TV to a movie he had seen many times over in crummy, run down motel rooms such as this one as he chose the gun he'd used on his last hunt and began cleaning it carefully.

Dean's cell phone rang from its place on the nightstand. Placing the gun in his lap, Dean reached over and picked it up. Glancing at the caller ID, he froze as his heart thudded almost painfully in his chest. It was Sam's number. Dean hadn't spoken to his little brother in six, nearly seven years, yet always did enough research to keep Sam's phone number stored in his phone. Sam had moved to Palo Alto and gone to school at Stanford; Dean's kid brother was smart and had always dreamed of college. He wanted nothing to do with the hunting life; he wanted normal.

The thought still made Dean ache inside. John Winchester had been devastated by his wife's death, so it had been Dean that had cared for his younger brother; in fact, he'd practically raised Sam. He had kissed boo boos, wiped tears, cleaned up spills, and read bedtime stories. And then that little brother had grown up and left the nest, desiring normal and leaving his brother and father behind. Sure, Sam had tried calling a few times once he had reached California, but Dean had never picked up the phone. He didn't know what to say to the little brother that had abandoned him; anger and the sting of abandonment had been too great at the time.

And now, after all these years, Sam was calling him. Dean realized he had been lost in thought when the phone stopped ringing as it went to voicemail. His heart pounded in his chest as he waited for his brother to leave a message.

Finally, his phone alerted him that he had a voice mail. With trembling fingers, Dean held the phone to his ear and felt panic coil in his stomach at the sound of a woman's voice, not Sam's.

"Dean," her voice said hesitantly, "this is Jess, uh, Jessica. I'm Sam's wife. There's been an accident. The doctor said that if anyone wants to see him they should come now." Her voice broke and she breathed a wavering sigh. "He talks about you all the time, Dean, so if you want to see him, you are welcome. He's in the ICU here at the hospital near Stanford. I'm not leaving the hospital, so I'll…uh, I'll be here if you come. I think he'd really like to know you are here. He has missed you so much."

The message ended on a sob, and Dean stared at the phone in shock. From the unspoken words in Jessica's message, it sounded as if Sam was dying. Sam, his baby brother who was now married and had a life of his own without Dean, was dying.

He knew what he had to do. Dean cleared his throat and called his brother's number, his mind numb. When Jessica's tear-sodden voice answered, Dean managed to choke out two words before hanging up. "I'm coming."

To Be Continued…