Title: Alone
Theme: 23. there's no 'I' in team
Character: Dean, Sam, Ruby
A/N: Hmm…really, I know a lot of this is kind of season one, season two-ish. In personalities at least. Bear with me while I attempt to catch up.
Summary: They all like to work alone, which makes it a problem when they do work together.
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Dean likes it when he works alone. Sam isn't there, complaining how they live or how he has to be here. There is no little brother that he has to look out for or worry over.
(Sam isn't there saying words that breakbreakbreak Dean's image of him, destroying his dreams of their family. He can imagine that after all is said and done, Sam will stay with him. There is no future splitting up, leaving only the idea that they are together, now and forever.)
When he and Sam split up to work, Dean relishes it.
-x-
Sam doesn't quite like working with Dean. Or Ruby, when she comes to save the day. It isn't that he doesn't like having a partner. In fact, when he went to school he loved group projects the best. Splitting up the work, talking about ordinary things and slacking off together; working in a group has plenty of perks.
Ruby demeans him and Dean a lot. She always appears when things are at their worst, seeing only what went wrong instead of what went right. Then, after calling them idiots and fools for the nth time, she'll offer them help.
(Yet even then, it will usually come at a price too high for them to pay.)
Dean has a way of making Sam feel useless in a different way. Sometimes Sam, after pulling an all-nighter researching, will tell Dean everything he discovered only to find out Dean knew that already. Even more, Dean would have all of that information and more in a book for easy reference. All that work and time would be for nothing. That coupled with Dean's experience makes Sam wonder why is he even doing this, chasing his father across the country when Dean could easily do this on his own.
Sam likes searching alone because it makes him feel needed.
-x-
They are idiots and Ruby isn't quite sure why she needs them. Well, maybe a little because she doesn't quite like the idea of staying in a hellhole with every other demon she double-crossed. Dean and Sam are the best candidates for helping her, as they already are doing it anyways.
They are strong, she admits, and clever when cornered. She doesn't always have to save them as they can save themselves. This means she doesn't even need to see them for weeks at a time and only come when they are in too deep.
(She's just slowly down how fast they sink.)
Not having to help them gives her plenty of time to do something on her own. This suits her just fine, makes her feel powerful even if she's just fighting with lesser demons.
She enjoys the thrill of the chase; the difference between the hunter and the hunted non-existent.
-x-
Bobby watches Sam, Dean, and Ruby bicker. No, bicker is too kind of a word. It's more like Ruby is berating them, Dean is ignoring her, and Sam is looking worried. They work alone too much, he thinks as he puts a bullet in his gun. It has its advantages but not in situations like this.
Not when they already have someone to work with, someone to lean on. This will lead to trouble one day. One day, they won't be able to think of a way out and will need to rely on each other. When that happens…well, he can imagine the results and they aren't pretty.
He loads another bullet and sighs. It isn't like he has any right to tell them this.
It's not like he did it any differently.
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