Sam slouched against the wall, his body hurt all over and his brother was God knows where in God knows what condition. "Sammy, come out, come out where ever you are..." Lucifer called out from somewhere in the dark office building they had been hunting in. Sam's heart rate rose, he forced himself to stand up and he quickly limped his way away from the voice. "Come on Sammy...I know I got a little violent...but it was for your own good." Sam could hear himself panting, and he knew it was much too loud. "You needed to know that this is your destiny."

"That's not true! I made mistakes, I was tricked! If I would have known...this would have never happened, YOU wouldn't have ever been set free!" Sam yelled back, unable to take the devil's taunting any longer.

"Oh is that so? I'm willing to bet otherwise." Lucifer stated, his voice much closer then it had been. "So how about it Sam?"

Sam twisted around, he was behind him now. "what are you talking about?" he called out, backing away from the knew position he believed the devil was at.

"I'm so certain that it is you that was destined to set me free and it's you who will eventually become my vessel I'm willing to send you back...back before any of your so called bad choices happened. I'll even let you keep your memories." The voice was now directly behind him. Sam spun around quickly and stared at the face of the devil. His heart jumped into his throat.

"And, what do you get out of this?" He asked his voice shaking slightly.

"Nothing...though when you end up exactly where we are now...I'm sure your spirit will be slightly less willing to believe that this is all just coincidence. It will be just that much easier to convince you to say yes." The demon's eyes shined in the darkness and Sam frowned, before everything went black.

four years previous:

Sam glanced at the Stanford apartments he had been living in for the past year and quickly got out of the impala, turning and looking at his brother as he did so. They shared a sad look and Sam couldn't help but feel guilty for letting Dean go and search for their father alone. "Call me when you find him?" Sam asked, looking at his brothers disappointed face. Dean gave a slight shrug and nodded. "Maybe I can meet up with you later, hm?"

"Yeah, allright" Dean answered not making eye contact with Sam as he spoke. Sam patted the impala door in good bye and turned to leave. Dean started up his beloved car before calling out to Sam, making him turn. "You know, we made a hell of a team out there."

Sam gave a sad smile, "yeah." Dean gave a sigh and drove off, leaving Sam right where he found him half a week earlier, and that just didn't sit well with the seasoned hunter. Dean glanced in his brother through his rear view mirror and frowned.

Sam unlocked the door to his apartment and glanced around, "Jess, you home?" he walked passed the small living room and into the kitchen, where he found a plate of cookies with a blue note that read "Missed you! Love you!" he smiled and picked up a cookie. He walked to the shared bedroom, cookie already half way devoured, dropped his bag by the window and sat on the bed with a sigh of contentment. But then his head gave a painful throb and he reached up to his head. He closed his eyes and squized his head briefly, before his mind went blank.

Sam opened his eyes and glanced around, confusion written on his face. "where am I?" he thought, until he looked behind him and heard the shower running. "Dean must be in the shower," he concluded his mind still heavily confused, he laid back and closed his eyes, ready fro a nap. His hands folded behind his head and he tried to think of what happened after he started running from Lucifer.

Drip, Drip

Sam twitched as he felt something wet his his head. He opened his eyes and let out a gasp. "Jess?" He body burst into flames and his confusion switched to horror. "NO JESS!!" He was frozen, why was he seeing this? Then memory of Lucifer's words returned to him. "No..." he whispered, "NO JESS!!" He screamed out, he couldn't loose her, not again.

"Sam!!" Sam could hear his brother's voice off to his right, but right now he couldn't look at him, not when his normal life once again went up in smoke and flames. "JESS!!" He yelled out again, seemingly unable to say anything but his girlfriends name. He sat up and started to reach for her, even though you could barely see her anymore, even though in doing so he could burn his hands on the flames that devoured her. Dean grabbed ahold of him now and placed himself in between Jess and Sam, he pushed Sam out the door and away from harm. Once again Dean had pulled Sam out of a fire...may it be literally or figuratively.

The fire department showed quickly but it was to late for Jess, as Dean watched them attack the fire, Sam walked quickly to the trunk, he reloaded and unloaded a shotgun just to get his hands moving in a productive manner. "e really did send me back, of course he wouldn't let me save her, he would want to insure that I would continue hunting...that I wouldn't get married and settle down...but to make me watch her die again." Sam looked up as Dean approached him, he could feel the tears on his cheeks now, he loaded the gun once more and threw it back into place. "We've got work to do."