Sam was relentless. He slowly dragged Ruby's knife along the demon's cheek. He didn't stop as the demon screamed, and yellow light peaked out through the cut.

"Who then!" he yelled, "if not Crowley, who are you reporting back to?!"

Hardly giving a chance for the demon to answer, he switched cheeks, and the demon screamed on.

"Sam–" Cas tried to intervene, but it was as if Sam hadn't heard him. His focus, his sole attention was on the demon, the one about to crack.

"No one! I–I haven't–" the demon spluttered, but Sam interrupted.

"You're lying! Where's Crowley?"

Suddenly, Sam was thrown back against the wall. The demon smirked, his eyes shown black. He stood from the chair and glanced down at the devil's trap. Sam could see that the rain had leaked through the roof, smudging the paint enough to break the connection.

"Damnit," Sam muttered.

Cas quickly sunk down and tried to fix it, but it was too late. The demon was already striding toward Sam.

"Exorcizamus te-" Sam began the exorcism, but the demon easily grasped his throat, rendering speech useless. He started gasping as he couldn't get air to his lungs. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Cas turn his head toward him.

"Sam!"

Sam had just enough time to see Cas lunge behind the demon before he collapsed to the ground, trying to catch his breath. Cas's limited grace though made him an easy target, and the demon delighted in the opportunity.

Sam stood, raised the knife ready to strike, but before he could follow through, the demon's hand gripped his wrist and ripped it to the side. A blinding pain exploded from Sam's shoulder through his arm. The knife clattered to the ground, and Sam was close to follow. The demon yanked again, and Sam cried out in pain.

Before he knew it, the room was full of black smoke, and the meat suit fell to the ground. There was an eerie quiet only broken by Sam's panting gasps. His vision blurred as he reached over the feel the victim's pulse. When he found none, he sighed, and tried not to pass out when his shifting caused stabbing through his shoulder.

His right arm lay awkwardly to the side, and moving just his fingers sent nauseating pain through the rest of his body. He knew his shoulder was dislocated. He knew the feeling and look from numerous dislocations between him and Dean.

"Cas-uuuhhh!" he gasped, and then groaned when the angel made no response. He lifted himself up and clutched his arm to his chest when the action caused a searing pain in his arm and shoulder. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to stifle his exclamation, but to no avail.

His vision tunneling, he looked over toward Cas, and saw that he was beginning to come to. His nose was bleeding, and there was a cut near his eye. He suddenly shot upright and looked around hurriedly. When his eyes fell on the fallen victim, he quickly found Sam.

"Where's the demon?" he asked.

"Gone," Sam said shortly. He winced. With the demon gone, they were no closer to finding Crowley, and therefore Dean than they had been before. Not to mention the fact that the escaped demon was at this moment most likely warning other demons.

Sam looked back up at Cas who was now regarding him quizzically. He stood and cautiously stepped over the victim toward Sam. He touched two fingers to Sam's forehead, and Sam had to use all his energy just to keep from collapsing under even the gentle touch. When he pulled away, Sam's arm hurt no less.

"Sam... I… my grace–"

"It's fine–" Sam hissed through clenched teeth, "just– help me pop it back."

When Cas didn't respond, Sam looked up at him, wondering the reason for his hesitation.

"Look, Cas, I know it's gonna hurt like a bitch, but we gotta keep moving, we've got to find Dean–"

"Sam, your arm is injured. 'Popping it back in' is not going to work," Cas paused and shook his head ashamedly. "This was my fault, I'm sorry Sam. I did this, so I'm going to fix it."

At that, he made a move to help Sam stand, but Sam pushed him away, winching in the process.

"Damnit, Cas–" he said breathing heavily, "that demon– got away. We have to act now!"

Sam could feel his consciousness slipping away. The pain in his arm was unbearable, but he didn't want to believe what Cas said about the extent of his injury.

Cas must have noticed Sam's quickly depleting energy as Sam felt Cas take his good arm and hoist him up. As soon as he was vertical, Sam swayed and staggered. Cas quickly moved beside him, and Sam leaned heavily on him. The angel showed no struggle.

All Sam could think about was the demon that had gotten away and how much of a setback this had become. But there was nothing he could do. Until his arm was fixed, he was useless. He needed Cas. He was depending on him.

"Bunker–" Sam tried again at changing the angel's mind, but even saying the word took effort and it came out short and pained. Cas ignored him. He took Sam over to the passenger side of the beat-up Ford that he'd been driving.

Sam hadn't had to sit shotgun since he'd seen the Impala. He almost expected his brother to hurry around to the driver's side. But then he was the familiar tan of Cas's coat, and he remembered.

He tried to imagine what exactly his brother would do in the situation. Help him pop it back most likely, then find some cheap whiskey and a place to lay low for a while. Right now, Sam didn't have a while.

Every minute these days he'd spent looking for Dean, catching sleep only when his body physically demanded it.

"Cas…" he muttered, "where are we going?"

Cas had started the car, and they were headed down the road. Sam's vision wouldn't clear enough to make any sense of the road signs.

"You need a doctor's care," the angel replied calmly. Sam leaned back against the seat exasperatedly, and tried to think of anything other than the throbbing in his arm. They'd gotten nothing out of this demon. He needed to find one closer to Crowley.

"Sam?"

Sam opened his eyes. The car was stopped in front of the emergency room. When had he fallen asleep? He looked toward Cas who was leaning towards him on his right, the door held open. It took him a second to situate himself, realize what was going on. He looked up at Cas.

"Go along with me," the angel said, holding out his hand. Sam was too tired to argue. He took Cas's help and stepped out of the car, groaning at the pain that the movement had caused.

When he was finally standing, he almost fell right on Cas, as a wave of dizziness threatened to pull him under. The angel stumbled, but managed to take the weight. Sam often forgot how much stronger Cas was than he looked.

They staggered through the automatic door, and the receptionist looked up at them with alarm. Cas pulled something out of his jacket, and held it up so she could see. It was his FBI badge.

"My name is Agent Rogers, my partner, Agent Smith needs medical attention. His arm is injured."

"What happened?" she asked, standing up and coming around from the desk. She led them toward down a hallway and toward a row of beds.

"We are not at liberty to say," Cas replied. Sam looked sideways at him. He and Dean had never thought to use their FBI status to get them out of a story. The receptionist paused as well.

"I'm sorry, but if he's been attacked, we are required to report it to the police," she said looking back at Cas.

"Everything's taken care of, we've notified our supervisor, you can call him if you like."

She pulled back a curtain revealing a bed, and motioned for Sam to sit. "That won't be necessary," she said. Cas lowered Sam down onto the bed.

"I'll get you a nurse," the receptionist said smiling.

It didn't take long for a perky nurse to put herself next to Cas. Sam wasn't surprised though, considering the near empty parking lot.

"How bad is the pain, 1 to 10," she asked.

"I'm fine– just needta… pop it back…" Sam said between gasps.

"Please, sir, I need to know how strong to make your analgesic," she said. She began preparing a saline bag and needle. Sam flinched away, groaning in the process.

"No meds," he said.

"Sam–"

"Sir, you can make this much easier for yourself–"

"No, I don't want– I've dealt with worse before. I'll be fine."

There was a pause as the nurse stared first at Sam, then to Cas in disbelief. Cas offered no explanation. He was unfocussed, not present. Sam wasn't sure if it was his depleting grace, or his worry for Sam.

"Alright, but we'll still need an X-ray, can you walk, or would you like a chair?"

"I–" Sam had started to stand, but swayed when the pain suddenly increased as he stood. He weakly reached out for Cas's arm, but Cas was swimming in and out of focus, and he misjudged the distance. He stumbled, closed his eyes, and blackness came sooner than he'd expected.

The familiar rocking of a moving car brought Sam back into consciousness. He knew it wasn't the Impala though, his first clue being the seatbelt across his chest. The second being the slight jolting that the smooth drive of the Impala lacked. It only took him a second to realize that it wasn't his brother driving, and another second to remember everything.

He opened his eyes, but it was so dark that it took a second for his eyes to adjust. He remembered waking in the hospital, his arm in a very complicated looking sling. Dislocated shoulder and elbow, fractured collarbone was what the nurse had told him. Six weeks in a sling.

He'd been too groggy and sedated to really make sense of any of it, but now he remembered leaving with Cas that morning. He realized what having his dominant arm in a sling for six weeks would mean, how it would set finding Dean back substantially.

He felt the pain in his shoulder. It was significantly less than before, but there none the less. His arm was still numb from the medication, but when he tried, he saw that he could still move his fingers. He hadn't realized how much damage the demon had actually done.

"You're awake," Cas stated. Sam looked over. Cas looked about as beat up as Sam felt, if not more. No doubt he'd been driving all night. A quick glance outside told him they were just outside of Kansas, and the clock showed 11:42 pm.

"Cas–"

"We should reach your Bunker by morning," Cas said tiredly, "you'll be able to rest more soundly there."

"You don't have to drive through the night, Cas," Sam said. He could tell that the angel had heard, but he made no response.

There was a moment of silence. Sam watched the road, noticed that Cas was driving ten miles per hour below the speed limit. There were some human things Sam knew the angel would never completely understand. He liked it though, it made Cas unique.

"Cas, I'm sorry," he said finally. Once again, he'd put his emotions before everything else, and had treated Cas poorly in the process. Sam had been so focused on his brother that he hadn't noticed how much Cas had endured as a result of his lost grace.

The angel sighed and didn't say anything at first. He looked over at Sam, "I can't help you anymore, Sam," he said finally.

"What? Cas–"

"I'm not strong enough to be any help right now," Cas interrupted, "the priority right now is finding Dean. What happened to your arm was my fault, I don't want to be the cause of something worse."

"Cas, what are you talking about, the demon would have killed me if you hadn't been there. I need your backup!"

"I'll let you know if I hear anything about Dean or Crowley, I hope you'll do the same."

Sam knew that Cas had spent the entire drive imagining this exact conversation, and that there was little he would be able to say to change the angel's mind.

He looked out the window and watched the miles toward Lebanon decrease as they got closer and closer to the Bunker. They were back at square one as far as finding Dean was concerned, but when he thought about it, they hadn't really gotten anywhere to begin with. He sighed as he realized he would have to start going to more extreme measures if he really wanted to make any progress. He wouldn't abandon his brother though. Not again.