Back in Black

Chapter 7

Sam blinked repeatedly. He felt something had happened to his aura, but he had no idea what.

He froze when he saw a very pale looking man chatting with Dean though.

"Dean, who is that?"

Dean looked rather smug.

"Well you did say you wanted to see Mort. So he adjusted your aura so you could see him. Problem is that you can now see the other reapers as well, not to mention a few other weird things. You get used to it," said Dean.

"That's Mort? He looks like Death warmed over!"

It took Sam a few seconds to realize Mort was laughing at some private joke.

I do believe that is the point, Sam Harvelle, said a voice in his head.

Dean snorted.

"Looks like you can hear him too. Wait, does this mean we get to work on telepathy next?" asked Dean.

I did open those pathways as well while I was at it. That should be fun to explain to your father and mother.

"Hello pranks," cackled Dean.

"This is too weird."

I should be going. They might notice I left my area if I don't.

Dean waved him off, and Mort disappeared without a sound.

~

It took Sam two weeks in between hunts to get the hang of telepathy. Which was unfortunately not soon enough to avoid having to kill a fellow natural-born like himself with recently awakened powers.

Dean tried his best to calm the kid down, but he was too far gone in his rage to settle it peacefully.

Sam shot Dean another weird look. When Dean tried to calm the kid down before he killed his stepmom, Sam had overheard something he rarely heard in Dean's voice.

Empathy.

"Dean...do you want to..."

"No Sammy, for the last time I don't want to talk about it," said Dean, gripping the steering wheel tightly.

"Dean."

"I just want to find a place to crash and get some damn sleep."

Sam let it drop, but he noticed Dean immediately curled up to Bear who he rarely let on the bed because the dog tended to kick anyone next to him off of it. Whatever had caused Dean to sympathize with that kid had to be painful for him. He wondered exactly how badly their birth father John had hurt his brother to cause that reaction.

A few hours later, Sam was so concerned for his brother that he almost jumped when Mort showed up.

Oh dear...this isn't good at all. At this rate the memories will overwhelm Dean before he's even remotely ready to handle them.

Mort? Sam asked mentally, fully awake.

Ah. I was unaware that you were still awake, but that might work to our advantage. I can see you are curious and worried how deeply John has harmed your brother, said Mort.

Sam had quickly found out that telepathy also included a weird feedback...namely memories that were close to the surface. According to Dean it was a side effect of the bond they had, and it made getting messages across to the other person a lot easier.

It was how Mort had been able to show Dean what Adam looked like...John had been with him at a baseball game when Dean had sent Death to find out if John had been telling the truth about handing over the car...and the main reason why Dean had become so angry as a result. The fact that John cared more for his third son more than his other two just because they had magic and Adam didn't made his blood boil.