The morning could have started out like any other. Asking groggily for coffee, rolling over in an attempt to stay in bed a little while longer after staying up too late the night before. Yelling at Sam for coffee again, bitching because the light spraying through the thin curtains was bright enough to wake the dead. But it didn't. Something was different in the air this time.

"Sam?" Dean pulled his head up from his pillow, looking around the shabby motel room. His eyes still heavily hooded as he had yet to fully awake. It was easy to see Sam's bed was empty. The blankets still neatly tucked in under the mattress. Sam hadn't come home in the few hours Dean had finally allowed himself to dose off. He licked the insides of his mouth in an attempt to try and rid himself from the dryness that lay ramped upon it, but it was useless. The thick muscle didn't fair any better.

"Coffee." He groaned to himself as he dropped his face straight down into the softness of the pillow again. Making it hard to hear or make out the grunts he was muttering into the fabric.

Closing his eyes he tried to drift back to sleep. After all, it was only just after seven and Sam did have a tendency to wake him up well before Dean was ready. Without his brother here he could steal a few extra winks. Or so he hoped.

He listened, lying there for a moment as he wrestled himself into a comfortable sleeping position. He could hear the couple next-door start into their early morning "exercise." Either they were newlyweds, or hookers started at the crack of dawn in this town. What made it worse was, this was the third day in a row.

"Aww, come on!" He yelled over to them as he pounded on the conjoining wall with his fist. "Some people are trying to sleep over here." He added. "Some who didn't get as lucky as you last night." He trailed off to himself, as he rolled over with a huff.

He tossed and turned for the next thirty minutes, annoyed that he could not fall back asleep. Finally completely frustrated, Dean threw the blankets back in one swift movement and sat straight up in the motel bed with a groan. Swinging his legs over the side of the squeaky mattress, he stared over at Sam's side of the room, rubbing his face with one hand.

"Dammit." He spat out across the emptiness. His body was still in the mid stages of sleep and it fought back against the movements Dean was trying to force upon his own limbs. His joints and muscles aching with every flex and stretch as he stumbled his way to the bathroom.

----------

Sam awoke roughly in the darkness that incased itself over the closed in back room of the library. If Dean knew where Sam was now he would surely laugh. After all, it seemed to Dean that all Sam ever did was pore over information in one form or another. And now to have him sleeping in the library itself was priceless.

Though, Sam didn't stir do to the time of day. Another Nightmare had caught hold of him and it was all he could do not to scream out loudly in the quietly, deserted building. Holding his fingers to the bridge of his nose, Sam willed himself to breathe normally. Tears on the verge of breaking.

He tried not to think of what he'd just witnessed playing out in the back corners of his brain, but you can only hold things back so far and for so long before they break. Forming a raging, uncontrollable current.

He stood up; slamming his laptop shut and grabbed his jacket from its resting place on the back of the nearest chair.