A/N: I don't usually overwrite canon like this, but this is more along the lines of what I wish we could have seen in "Taxi Driver." (Neither Bobby nor Benny appear in this version.)

Sam stood beside Dean on the deserted, darkened street, dead-end alleyways on either side reaching behind the rear entrances of buildings, the subdued rush of cars and distant voices filling the air with the nighttime sounds of the city. He waited, his hand by his side fisting and flexing, wanting the reassurance of his knife in his grip even though he could feel the hilt of the blade pressing reassuringly against his chest where it laid in the inner pocket of his jacket. He told himself that was good enough, knowing it was there.

He caught Dean's eye, noticing the concern in his brother's face. "Dean, I'm fine," he assured. The words came like a reflex. Dean opened his mouth to answer, but he was interrupted as a city cab pulled up to the curb in front of them. Dean and Sam exchanged a wary look.

A small, dark-haired man with a day's worth of stubble smoothly exited the cab. He leaned on the open door and appraised them both, then gave a nod and a knowing smile.

Dean frowned. "You're the-"

"Ajay," he said, still grinning. "You need a fare, I'm your man. Where to?"

"Hell," Sam answered bluntly, ignoring the way the man's eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed suspiciously. "I need to get into Hell. Can you do that?"

"I can do a lot of things," he said coyly. "Why don't you tell me why I should want to?"

"What did you have in mind?" Dean asked.

The man stepped back away from the cab and closed his door with a firm slam, then came around the front of the car. He was shorter than either Winchester, but he looked up from Dean to Sam with a cocky air of self-assurance. "Tell me why you want to go to Hell," he insisted instead.

Sam hesitated, shooting Dean another furtive glance, but he saw nothing in Dean telling him not to answer. Sam said, "I need to pull someone out. An innocent soul."

"Innocent." He sounded skeptical.

"That's right," Dean pressed. "Will you help us?"

"Me," Sam amended, ignoring Dean's startled reaction. "Not us. Just me."

Dean drew in a sharp breath and pulled on Sam's arm, dragging him close and bowing his head to whisper, "No. You're not doing this alone."

Sam pulled away, shaking Dean off and pushing aside his own surge of fear at the prospect of what he had to try and do to satisfy the second trial. He turned his attention to Ajay. "Will you help?"

"I'll help," the smaller man said hesitantly. "If my sister is the one you bring out."

"Your sister is in Hell?" Sam asked.

"She is innocent," Ajay said. "The Great Spirit cast her into the pit to spite me. As... repayment for a perceived slight."

"This, ah, 'great spirit,'" Dean ventured. "You mean God?"

Ajay shrugged. "He has many names."

"God threw your sister into Hell?"

"He was angry with me. For stealing the sun and the moon. It was Eagle's idea, but I was the one who carried them."

Dean shook his head. "What do you mean you stole the-"

"Dean," Sam interrupted. "It's lore. That's a Native American legend, coyote stealing the sun and moon." He turned back to Ajay. "You're a coyote," he surmised.

Ajay's grin broadened.

"So," Sam continued. "You'll take me into Hell if I promise to rescue your sister. But how do you..." He swallowed, forcing back memories of fire and pain. "How long has she been down there? How do you know she's still... all right?"

"She is like me," Ajay said simply. "And she knows how to sing."

"Sing?" said Dean.

"Her singing protects her."

"Her singing..." Sam said slowly. "I... I think I might have heard it."

Ajay smiled proudly. "Even Hell cannot keep her from singing more beautifully than any of the creatures on this earth."

"But how will I find her?"

"Ah!" Ajay turned back to his cab and opened the back door. "Hell is a dangerous place. You will need a guide to keep you safe. And sane," he added, glancing back at Sam pointedly. "It's very easy to lose your way in Hell."

"I know," Sam said.

Ajay reached into the back, and when he came out again he had a black raven perched on his forearm. Its black eyes gleamed intelligently. Ajay ran his other hand affectionately over the smooth, ink-black feathers that lay flat against its back.

"Raven is my friend. She is loyal and wise, and she knows the passages of Hell better than any of us. She will be your guide. And she'll lead you to my sister."

Ajay held out his arm toward Sam, and the bird spread its wings and hopped lightly onto Sam's shoulder. Sam startled but managed to keep still as its sharp claws dug into the fabric of his coat and glanced his skin.

As soon as the raven left his arm, a visible tremor went through Ajay, and his transition from man into coyote morphed before their eyes. An instant later, a large, gray coyote stood in the cab driver's place, as tall as the man and standing fully upright on its hind legs.

The coyote, Ajay, gestured with its front paw to Sam. "Follow me," he said, turning toward one of the alleys.

"Wait!" Dean exclaimed. "How will he - I mean, you'll be able to get him out again. Right?"

The pointed head of the coyote nodded solemnly. "Raven will guide him and I will retrieve him. Don't worry, Dean Winchester. Have faith in your brother."

Sam straightened, feeling the raven settle its perch on his shoulder. He looked at Dean, and Dean nodded to him. "Watch yourself," Dean said steadily. It was an order.

Sam inhaled and nodded back, then followed the coyote into the darkest shadows of a graffiti-covered alley, leaving Dean standing on the curb beside the taxi.

Ajay stopped beside the far wall of on building's brick exterior and motioned to Sam to stop. "This is where the gate opens. Be ready."

Sam tensed, feeling his heart pounding as he was suddenly brought back to that moment in Stull Cemetery when the ground had opened and he'd fallen backwards into the yawning pit alongside Michael, with Lucifer shrieking and flailing inside his own head. He shook himself. This was different. He was different.

"I'm ready," Sam said.

"When I give you the signal," Ajay said, "I need you to laugh."

Sam looked at him, not comprehending. "Laugh?"

"Yes. Laugh. It's powerful protection against the evil that lies through that gate."

"But I-"

"Listen," Ajay cut in. "You do what I say, all right? Or this isn't going to work. Follow my lead. And when the gate opens, whatever you do keep Raven in your line of sight. Focus on her. Not anything else you might see down there. Got it?"

Sam gave a determined nod. "Right. Got it."

The coyote tilted his head back and his eyes narrowed to slits, and let out a low whistle.

The air around them shifted, building from a gentle breeze into a swirling current that lifted Sam's hair and whipped his jacket open before flapping it back against his body.

"Now!" Ajay shouted. His wolfish mouth parted in an approximation of a smile, baring his teeth, and he barked out a loud, boisterous laugh.

With fear and dread roiling in his gut, Sam drew in an anxious breath and forced himself to do as he'd been told. The laugh he managed was hollow and mirthless, but he struggled to make it match the coyote's.

Suddenly, his perspective shifted, and in his mind's eye he saw a look of utter comical disbelief on Dean's face. He imagined what Dean would think if he happened to look back and saw his brother sharing a laugh with a man-sized coyte in a deserted alleyway. How high would he think I was right now, Sam mused, and the idea of it, of how ridiculous he would no doubt look to Dean and Dean's predictably dry reaction, made him smile in spite of himself and a genuine laugh burst out of him.

The graffiti on the walls around them began to swirl and meld together in a psychedelic cacophony of color. I must be high, Sam thought, just as the coyote broke off his laugh and Sam felt a paw on his arm. "Go now," Ajay urged. "Find my sister."

A fissure formed in the swirl of graffiti, spilling out a gust of heat that blew Sam's hair away from his face and carried the smell of sulphur, blood, death, and despair. The terrible familiarity of it clawed at Sam's defenses, and he gasped, falling back a step away from it.

The raven leapt from Sam's shoulder in a flurry of wings and dove through the portal. "Go!" Ajay shouted. "Raven will guide you!"

Clinging to the last of his resolve, Sam pulled the knife from his jacket and held tight to it as he stepped through the portal and walked back into Hell.

Everything seemed to be melting around him. He could feel wetness pooling in his eyes, and he couldn't be sure if it was tears or blood or his eyes themselves disintegrating inside his head. Sam clamped his hands over his ears against the high-pitched screaming that came at him from all directions. He felt something hard scrape his knees, and he realized he had fallen. He didn't remember falling. Didn't remember anything before the chaos of noise and sight and sense.

He heard someone calling his name. It sounded like Dean's voice. "-am! Sammy! Look at me, Sam. Open your eyes."

Sam forced his eyes open, nearly blinded by the spike of pain that drove itself through his head as his senses tried to process the overflow of contradictory information.

Screaming.

So much. Too much to-

Can't.

"Sam!"

On instinct, Sam's eyes snapped to the source of the voice that sounded like Dean's, and he found his eyes locked with the beady, black eyes of Raven. "Eyes on me, man," she said in Dean's voice, her beak syncing perfectly with the words. "You got this."

Sam felt a cool rush of air wash over him, clearing the panic and chaos from his mind like water down a drain.

The words filled him with an overpowering feeling of warmth and comfort, of Dean's hands supporting him when he was hurt, too weak to stand, too overwhelmed to think clearly. It was Dean's voice that always managed to break through and reach him when he thought he didn't have it in him to go on.

Dean. He could do this.

Raven cocked her head encouragingly, indicating the path ahead, and Sam scrambled to his feet still clutching the knife.

He could hear singing.

He rushed forward after Raven, keeping his sight set on her soaring black form outlined against the onslaught of sights that his mind immediately rejected and tried to block out. He could ignore it as long as he kept his eyes on Raven.

And it was different, he realized. Outside of the cage, able to run without being caught and pinned down, hearing screams that weren't Adam's or his own. He was here by choice, he was in control of this. He was not anyone's victim, not anymore.

He was Sam Winchester, and he was on a rescue mission.

With every step, Sam felt his fear dissipating and his confidence building.

The singing grew louder, and before long Sam saw Raven draw up ahead of him and land lightly atop what appeared to be a pile of bleached bones. Sam drew closer to it and saw that the bones were actually a prison cell.

He leaned close to the bars constructed of bones and a startled gasp greeted him. Thin fingers reached through, curling around the bones, and Sam met the girl's eyes through the spaces. He brushed his fingers against hers. "It's okay," he murmured. "I'm a friend of your brother's. I'm going to get you out."

Tears filled her eyes. "I prayed," she whispered. "I never stopped praying. I knew you'd come."

Sam wondered briefly who she thought he was, but dismissed it and looked around for something to use to break the bones of her cage. He carefully studied the periphery of his vision, unwiling to look away from the protection Raven was affording him, but found nothing but bare ground.

"Just hold on," Sam reassured, pulling his knife out of his jacket.

The demon-killing blade glinted as if aware of its own power in this place of demons. Sam drove the point of it into one of the cell-bar bones, expecting to have to saw through it.

It slid through the solid bone like warm butter. Sam's eyebrows raised in surprise as he used the knife to slice an opening in the cage, then grasped the girl's hands as he helped her crawl through.

She clung to him for a moment, and Sam could feel relief churning through her. He wrapped his arms around her and let her lean on him. Then, with a gentle squeeze of her shoulders, he said, "Come on, let's get you home."

A broken sob escaped her, and she nodded, still clutching hard to both of Sam's arms.

He didn't remember being pulled from the cage. But he imagined himself clinging to Death like this, broken and sobbing. He shook the image off. That wasn't him, not anymore. He was anything but broken. He was stronger than he'd ever been.

"Lead us out," he said to Raven, keeping his arms around the girl for both protection and support.

They came to the place where the portal had opened, and Sam looked around, confused. There was no sign of an exit, no indication of how to return. Raven settled to the ground at their feet and looked up at him expectantly.

"What-what do I do now?" Sam asked her. "How do we...?"

Raven's beak opened and she spoke in Ajay's voice. "Laugh," she said.

Sam understood. He looked down at the fearful girl in his arms. "We both need to do this," he said. "I need you to laugh with me."

She blinked, then shook her head. "I don't know how."

"Yes you do!"

"It's been centuries." She looked away Sam saw a tear roll down her cheek. "I've forgotten."

Sam felt a flare of panic. If she couldn't laugh... if he had to leave her... if this was all for nothing... if he was trapped here with her... No, he refused to let any of those thoughts form fully. He grasped her by the shoulders and made her meet his eyes. "You can do this," he said urgently. "You can! You've been singing, defying Hell, this whole time. That means something."

She shook her head miserably.

Sam thought hard. "How did you learn to sing the way you do? Who taught you?" he asked.

The faintest hint of a smile crossed her lips. "M-my brother."

My brother.

My brother.

It was the thought of Dean that had let Sam laugh despite his own fear. "Tell me about him," Sam urged.

Her expression brightened a bit more. "He's..." She smiled wider. "He can get away with anything."

"Like what?"

"You... did you you know that he once stole fire? And gave it to the people of earth?"

Sam shook his head encouragingly even though he knew the legend, because he needed her to retell it, to remember it and remember her brother's trickster antics and let it heal her.

Midway through her story, the girl burst out in fond laughter at the memory. Sam joined in, and as they both laughed the acrid air of Hell picked up and began swirling around them. The portal appeared, and Raven darted through it. Sam held tight to Ajay's sister and followed.

They both stumbled forward onto the black asphalt.

Sam felt strong hands on him, patting him and helping him back to his feet. Dean. He let out the breath he'd been holding, looking up at his brother who was staring back with so much relief written in his face that it nearly undid him.

Dean reached out and pulled him into a tight hug, and Sam melted into it, letting himself be comforted as much as he knew the hug comforted and reassured Dean.

Ajay was holding his sister in much the same way, stroking her hair as tears streamed down both their faces. "Thank you," he murmured, and Sam knew that he wasn't necessarily thanking him as much as he was offering his thanks to the world, to the universe, to the turn of fate that had brought his beloved sister back.

Dean finally released Sam and held him at arm's length, grinning at him.

"You did it. Two down," Dean said.

Sam nodded, smiling back. "One to go."

He had conquered his own Hell. There was nothing he couldn't take on now.