Authors Note: I would give you all an idea of the plot, but I'm worried it would ruin the surprise! So this is my first multi-chapter works, which I hope is worth it. This idea has been toying in my head for some time and I seriously hope the continuity works. It is set during Season 4, were Sam knows what happened to Dean in Hell, Dean knows about Ruby and Castiel and Dean are growing closer. Sam is also beginning to begum addicted to Demon blood by this point.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the character =( They all belong to their rightful owners, as do the song lyrics!

"Masquerading as a man with a reason,

My charade is the event of the season.

And if I claim to be a wise man, well,

It surely means that I don't know."

Sam lay flat out on the motels bed with his arms tucked under his head, his elbows sticking out. Dean had disappeared to the liquor store and Sam was worried about him. After 'Hell' Dean had not been the same, and know Sam understood he was terrified for him.

Dean entered through the door as he thrust it open rather violently, clutching a liquor bottle at hand and a newspaper in the other. He wasn't drunk – that Sam knew, but he was angry.

"What's up?" Sam asked half-heartedly.

"Board."

"Are you looking for a job?"

"Yep." Dean had answered lightening his tone.

"Dean you haven't slept in days, we don't need another job." Sam was trying to be sensitive, but he couldn't think of a better way to get through to this brother.

Dean was silenced and sat down on his bed flicking through the newspaper looking for signs of the extra-ordinary.

Dean had ignored Sam and kept flicking through the paper, until he spotted something. He smiled, as it seemed like the perfect job. He turned to Sammy, pointing down at the page, "Look at this." He flicked the paper over and handed it to Sam.

Sam looked down at the page and began to read, whilst Dean paced the room with his hand on his chin, "Lucy Wallis was attacked by her 'so-called' husband this last weekend." He turned to Dean looking oddly confused, "An attack is not supernatural, Dean."

"Read On."

Sam read on and as he noticed the next few lines he paused, "Lucy Wallis's husband died three years ago and as Lucy resides in a mental-hospital we area attempting to discover the true attacker." The following text was just the classic 'if you have any information please contact us' speech.

Sam paused and looked at Dean, "Ghost?"

Dean nodded, "Only question is, why did he not kill his wife?"

Sam just shrugged and looked at Dean expectantly.

"What?" Dean snapped.

"This is the moment were you announce we're leaving."

"Yeah. That..." Dean was stuttering his words, as if he was focused on something more important than this job.

"Come on, Dean." Sam gestured, as he rose from the bed, shifting across the room, urging Dean to follow.

The impala was parked in the motel car park and as they locked the motels door Sam looked at Dean attempting to read his thoughts, failing in this attempt. Dean opened his side of the impala as he settled down behind the wheel. Sam followed suit in the passenger side, before shifting his weight too look at Dean directly on, "Come on man, what's up?"

"I'm fine, Sammy. Come on."

Dean promptly turned the car engine on, and as the familiar noise of the impala wound up, he turned up his crappy music as Sam shuffled back further into the seat, still not believing Dean's confidant attitude.

They drove in silence for a while, until Sam picked up the paper from earlier that day and began to re-read the article. Dean looked over his shoulder and down at the paper, "Does it say which mental home she's in?"

"Urm… Westbrook Rigshaw Care Home for the Mentally Challenged."

Dean snorted in amusement, "Sounds like a great place to live!"

Sam growled, "Shut up, Dean."

"What? Why?"

Sam just shook his head in disappointment.

Dean paused, a little hurt, before continuing the conversation, "Does it say what actually happened."

"Only that she was beaten up by her so called husband. I mean she was clearly beaten up, she had bruises and cuts, she was bleeding a lot." He paused, "But what I don't get is why this is supernatural?"

Dean frowned, "Her husband is dead Sam."

"Yes, but it could just be anyone who is pretending to be a husband, or she is just mentally ill – she could have beaten herself up."

Dean fumbled in his side door angrily, before pulling out a scrap of newspaper and thrust it towards Sam, "Does this look like she beat herself up?"

Sam held the piece of paper up into the light, the newspaper clipping was a photograph of a young lady with shinning blue eyes and ivory black hair, but the main feature of this photo was the amount of blood splattered across her eyes, mouth and cheek bones. Sam paused, "Should could have done though, Dean. It wasn't necessarily a ghost."

"What's not ghost-y about this? Sam!"

"Come on, Dean. How many times to people fight in this world. She may have actually just have had very little respect for herself, she may just have not cared."

Dean scowled, understanding were this conversation was going, he turned to Sam and snapped, "Sam. I thought we were over this!"

"I still don't understand why you did it, Dean." Sam paused, "You just didn't care."

Dean snarled and swung the car into lay bye. He slammed the breaks on and breathed before turning to Sammy his eyes glaring, "You think I enjoyed my time in Hell, Sam? You think I wanted this to happen, to leave you?" He had raised his voice now.

Sam was silenced, "No… but you –"

"Exactly! Just because I didn't complain, doesn't mean I freaking asked for it." Dean yelled.

"You didn't exactly make it very easy for anyone, Dean." Sam had now also begun shouting to match Dean's ecstatic voice.

"What you think I could have popped a message up from Hell, Hey guys. I'm freaking being tortured down here, but I'll come visit you some time to say hi."

"No. But you could have freaking cared." Sam shouted.

"Cared about what, Sam?! I was dead. In Hell, what could I have cared about?"

Sam looked down at his hands, "Me. Bobby. Dad."

Dean bit his lip and turned his head to the window, before putting his foot on the accelerator, slipping the impala into gear, ignoring Sam's last comment, before there wasn't much time before Sam was shouting again.

"You don't care, Dean. You didn't give a second thought to any of us whilst you were under. Did you even think once about how we were doing up here? I needed you, but I couldn't have you, but Ruby helped."

Dean's eyes were filled with tears and he blinked them away, staring at the road before speaking very slowly, "Sam, don't you think about anyone but yourself. I was freaking being tortured in Hell and the one thing. The one thing that kept me going was you guys. Knowing that you were living up above. I damn care Sam, so don't you dare, ever dare, say that I don't care. Because I do. I care so freaking much." He paused as another tear fell, "But in Hell I just couldn't bare to care."

Sam was silenced and just stared at Dean whilst Dean's eyes remained fixated on the road, he gulped back wondering if he should talk or not. Dean turned his face from the road and locked eyes with Sammy, "Sammy. I bloody care. It was just too hard."

Sam nodded and bit back a tear, "I understand, Dean."

"No. Sam. You don't. But that doesn't matter, no one will." Dean turned back to the road, before speaking again, "Can we get back to the job?"

Sam nodded and glanced back down at the clipping, "So do you want to go get a word with her, see what really happened?"

Dean nodded, "I'm just trying to work out why a ghost didn't kill her?"

Sam looked a Dean still a little weary, but spoke anyway, "I know. It's a bit weird, but what if the ghost sought revenge for a beating, rather than death? Would that trigger a beating instead of a full-blown killing?"

Dean retorted, "I suppose so. I just don't see why a ghost would need to get revenge for a beating. It doesn't seem quite right."

"I know what you mean. It doesn't seem like normal ghost activity. Could it be a shapeshifter?"

Dean nodded, "I suppose so. They don't exactly have super-human powers on staying-alive, so maybe she got away. But how would he have got the body of a dead man?"

"Maybe he's not dead."

Dean shivered, "Come on man. No!" He groaned, "That's the making of a messed up relationship. I don't want to delve into something like that!"

"Have you ever had a relationship for more than a month, Dean?"

"Urm… No." Dean smiled, "But that's the way I like it."

"You saddo."

"Oi!" Dean shoved Sam's arm, "Who you calling a saddo? Bitch."

"Jerk." Sam retorted.

The white lights of Ohio came nearer as Sam and Dean drove a hair-raising speed along the bumpy country road. Many ideas flicked through the brothers heads as they attempted to figure out what might have happened to this women, and would it happen to anyone else. Sam turned to watch Dean, driving the car, cautious about the argument they had, had. Wondering if Hell was still startling him, after all he was always very jumpy, although he knew what had happened to Dean in Hell, was their something he wasn't saying? Sam's head was full of so many questions, but in a way he had so many secrets that Dean needed answers too, and one of them was Ruby.