Disclaimer: the characters of Supernatural were created by Eric Kripke and are owned by the CW Network. No profit is being made.

NOTE TO READER: Finally, the long hiatus between my last story and this story is over. Thanks in advance for all the PM's I have received asking me to post something new. Thank you! Well, here we go again. I had an idea, well, actually I've had a few while on hiatus since finishing "The Edge of Madness," and now that my schedule isn't exactly lighter, but perhaps minutely accommodating to writing now and again I have started a new chapter story. Now, I should tell you that I've been writing this in my free time, so it will mostly be mostly all written or perhaps even complete by the time this chapter is posted. I just don't have the time to keep up with regular updates, so I've opted to try to complete stories before posting the first chapter rather than make you wait forever between chapters, so at least this way I can post regularly without having to actually write because it's all ready done.

At any rate, I hope you enjoy this newest story. This story may different than what you're used to reading from me. It's not laden with tons and tons of angst, although there is angst for a few chapters here and there, especially the beginning. I just had an idea I wanted to run with and get out of my system, so here it is. Also, I already have several new stories begging to be written and when I can I will write them.

Happy reading, I hope!

A Life Redirected

Chapter One:

Shifting in the Light

By Dawn Nyberg

"There's no time for us, there's no place for us, what is this thing that builds our dreams, yet slips away from us …It's all decided for us, this world has only one sweet moment set aside for us…" Excerpt from Who Wants To Live Forever, by Queen

December 10, 1994, Mile Lacs Lake, Outside Wealthwood, Minnesota

"Sammy, you do as I say," John ordered as he tossed Dean a gear bag. The fifteen year-old caught it easily.

"You heard Dad," Dean chimed in. "This water wraith is too much for your gangly eleven year-old ass to handle."

"Bite me," Sam made a face at his big brother.

"Boys," John's tone was warning. "And, Dean, I don't recall asking for your two cents either." Dean dropped his eyes.

"Yes, sir," he answered. "Sorry," he muttered quietly under his breath.

"Look Sammy, I just don't want you getting hurt, okay?" John offered a mild smile. "This Water Wraith is going against pattern and is frequenting a frozen lake rather than a body of water that isn't. And, it's been causing thin ice in areas where they thought it was safe and thick. And, last weekend several people fell through while skating on the other side of this lake when it should have been frozen at least five to six feet deep. Dean and I got this one. I want you to wait here."

John had decided the best way to rid the water Wraith of this lake would be to use an ancient ritual that involved using a dried and ground up seaweed from the Irish sea and once introduced into the water through a hole in the ice along with an incantation the Water Wraith would be expelled and forced into open air out of water where it would die almost instantly. John was thankful an old contact had been able to acquire the needed seaweed powder, and now all they had to do was put the powder in the lake and say the incantation. He had done his homework and made sure the ice was thick, but in an area where it wasn't more than four feet deep below should the Wraith show up and mutate the ice causing it to soften and break suddenly.

Twenty-Minutes Later

Sam stood on the shoreline and watched his brother and father further down shore out on the water preparing the ritual. "Not fair," he mumbled. He put his foot onto the frozen water edge and slid his foot around playing with the slickness. Sam wanted nothing more than to finish this job because his father had promised him that they'd spend the next couple weeks or so at Pastor Jim's down in Blue Earth and would spend Christmas there. And, as soon as the Wraith was dead they'd leave for Pastor Jim's in Blue Earth about 60 miles away. Sam glanced down the shoreline and saw that his brother and father were still taking care of the ritual. He ventured onto the edge with both feet and scooted around. He'd scoot from ice to ground and back again as he entertained himself.

The ice was crystal clear in most places and would cloud as the ice edged out toward deeper water. He could see little fish swimming below the frozen surface in the unfrozen water lying beneath. He spotted one fish in particular and without thinking he began to scoot out further following the fish until it disappeared into the deeper water beneath. Sam noticed he had managed to trail out a good forty feet from the shoreline. "Crap, Dad will have my butt if he sees me out here," he complained. He started to shuffle on the ice with his hiking boots toward the shore when a light of some sort caught his eye beneath the surface, and suddenly he realized too late, it was the Wraith. He spun his head toward his father and brother's direction out on the lake and spotted his father depositing the powder and Dean read the incantation from a piece of paper. There was a bright flash of light that exploded beneath the surface and Sam saw water spray up through the hole his father had created and dissipated into mist quickly.

But, the Wraith left a parting gift and Sam knew instantly he was in trouble. He heard the breaking beneath and he watched in rapt awe as the cold water below seemed to gravitate toward the surface. The ice was thinning rapidly and Sam had a moment to call out. "Dad!" he yelled as loud as he could and John and Dean both jerked at the sound of Sam's urgent call. They turned just in time to see the large hole open up and Sam disappeared beneath the surface of the icy water. They both struggled across the frozen surface toward the shore. John and Dean saw Sam rise once or twice and then no more. He was gone.

"God, no, please," John begged in a low voice. "Dean run to the ranger station up that path. It's just over there," he pointed frantically. "Tell them your brother fell through the ice. We need help."

"But, Dad, I gotta help…"

"Now, Dean, Go!"

Forty-Five Minutes Later

John had refused to stay back on the shore while rescue divers in cold water gear tried to find Sam. He had made Dean remain on the shore. The ranger station had already put Life Link medical helicopter on stand-by at the landing pad located at the Ranger's Station. There had been an alert sent to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis for a pediatric cold water submersion trauma. The hospital had two emergency departments: one for all patients seventeen and older and then a pediatrics emergency department staffed with pediatric specialists. There was half of John's brain that told him the cold water would buy them time for saving Sammy that he could still be saved, and then the father half of his brain just knew his baby boy was under that ice in the dark and cold. There was a flurry of sudden activity and John heard a rescue worker call out. "They found him, get the chopper fired up, now! And, alert HCMC that we're on the way! ETA 15 minutes!"

And, that's when John saw a diver surface out of the dark, cold water with Sam in his arms. His face was a grey ashen bluish color, his lips were a dark hue of blue; so blue they looked almost purple. His limbs hung lifelessly as he was pulled up by other workers. John saw his baby son's face for just a second, just a glimpse, but it would haunt him the rest of his days. Sam's eyes were partially open, and his dark eyes usually so full of life were glassy and completely unseeing and devoid of life. His wet dark bangs splayed across his forehead a stark contrast against his skin.

"Sammy?" His voice choked off in his throat as rescue workers wasted no time in putting Sam on a back board dropping a breathing tube down his throat and began ventilating him. They did a feverish set of compressions before picking him up and running toward the ranger station and to the waiting helicopter. They had explained to John earlier while still looking for Sam that flying him to HCMC was his best chance as they are setup for cold water resuscitations and rewarming critically low core body temperatures.

"Sir, you'll have to drive yourself to Minneapolis there isn't room in the helicopter." One rescue worker replied as John watched them take his baby boy away. "It's a couple hours, maybe three." Dean stood wide-eyed on the shore trying to push through some of the workers to get a glimpse of his little brother. And, when he did see a glimpse, he knew he'd wish the rest of his life he'd never saw his Sammy looking like that. Dean felt his stomach drop and the bile rise in his throat. Sam looked dead, and with a sudden chill of realization it struck him Sam was dead.

"Sammy, don't you leave me," Dean whispered as his brother quickly disappeared from view toward the waiting helicopter. "Please," he choked out. He felt the weight of a hand drop onto his shoulder and he looked up into his father's warm brown eyes.

"Come on Dean, we have to go, now! We have to drive to the hospital." Dean started to speak, but the words wouldn't come out. John squeezed his son's shoulder as he pulled him along. "Sammy's gonna make it Dean." He wouldn't allow his mind to think of any other outcome. They'd warm him up and resuscitate his baby boy. There was time, he thought to himself. Cold water preserves brain function. He's going to be okay it was a mantra he'd repeat to himself hundred's of times during the silent three hour drive to Minneapolis and the hospital.

To Be Continued

Well, what did you think? I had three story ideas eating at me, and decided to run with this one first. I hope you liked chapter one. Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!