Dean had been holding his own at first. Slug one demon, then the next. Repeat. But now, Crowley's two hench-demons had him pinned to the floor and, struggle as he might, he just couldn't fight them off. And that's when he heard it. Sam's voice calling out to him. No, wait. There was something else.

Dean woke with a start. How could he have missed that?

It was still dark outside. He hadn't slept for more than an hour or two. Reaching to the side, he groped for the cell phone that he knew he had placed on the nightstand next to the bed.

As soon as his fingers wrapped around their intended target, Dean found his contact list and scrolled down to Sam's number. He hesitated for a moment. What if it was all just a dream? What if…? No. He had gambled on less before and this time the winning pot contained Sam's soul!

Not wasting another second, Dean hit 'Call' and placed the phone to his ear. By the third ring, he realized that Sam may not even answer. They hadn't parted on the best of terms, after all. Before that thought had completely taken hold, however, a voice sounded on the other end.

"Yeah," was all that was said. No inflection, no emotion. All of which made Dean doubt what he had heard in his dream, what he had failed to notice at Crowley's torture buffet. But, no, he hadn't imagined it. He couldn't have!

"Sam, you have to come back."

"Dean, we're on two separate paths with two completely different goals. How can we possibly work together?"

"You don't understand - "

"I think I do."

"Just shut up and listen to me for a minute, will you!"

There was silence on the other end of the phone now. A tension filled silence but silence, just the same.

"Thank you. Now, remember when we were at Crowley's?"

"It was just last night, Dean. I lost my soul not my short term memory."

"Good to know you haven't lost your sparkling sense of humour, either," Dean muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing. Listen, when you got out of that room, what was the first thing you did?"

"Uh, took a breath of fresh air?"

"After that. Work with me here, Sammy."

There was a heavy pause, then: "You know what I did, Dean. I went looking for you."

"Right. Why didn't you just go after Crowley yourself?"

"I needed your help."

"Hah! Since when? You and your over-inflated ego have already told me that you work better, faster, on your own."

Another pause.

"And, even if that was the case, why not just leave? Escape. You and I both know that you haven't been completely on board with operation "Retrieve Sam's Soul" for weeks now. So, why not just leave me there? Cut your losses?"

"I… I don't know."

"I heard your voice when you were looking for me, Sam. When you called out my name you were worried. Panicked, even."

"Dean, what are you getting at?"

"Don't you see? There's still a small part of you in there, Sammy! Something to hang on to until we get your soul. And, when we do get it - and we will - if something does go wrong, if you do have some kind of psychotic break, like you and Cas are afraid of, that part of you, however small it may be, will help me bring you back! We can get through this, Sammy! We just have to stick together!"

Dean could hear Sam's breathing accelerate, could practically hear his heart pounding through the phone. "Sam?"

A long sigh, then: "I'm sorry. I just can't."

"No, Sammy, don't hang up!"

"Goodbye, Dean."

Click.

Dean tossed the phone across the room, taking little comfort in the sound of it crashing into the bathroom door and clattering to the floor in what was sure to be several pieces.

THE END…?

A/N Anyone else think that we got a bit of a glimpse of 'Sammy' in the last episode?