"You left me to rot in that hell hole for a girl?" The man glared at Sam intensely. His assumption made his expression fall and his jaw clenched. Just thinking about it made him hurt and angry. He waited for an answer from Sam, but Sam didn't exactly know how to do that.

Kristen butted in and shook her head, "No, no, we just met."

Sam agreed and hopped in, "I helped her and she wanted to return the favor. What do you think I've been doing this whole time? I was out looking for answers about where you had gone, Dean."

Ah, the infamous Dean Winchester. Wait…how did he get out of Purgatory? Isn't that a one way street? Kristen contemplated. She decided to tell the truth. "You said you have only been looking for three months," she pointed out. Sam turned to her and shot her a resting bitch face. The word really? was plastered all over his expression. Kristen shrugged and glanced over at Dean. She might as well stay out of this until their arguing died down.

Dean's eyebrows shot up, wrinkling his forehead in the process. "Three months? You waited seven god damn months to go looking for me?" He almost laughed and licked his dry lips. "We told each other we wouldn't look for each other if something were to happen. Of course, we never listen. Shows our brotherly love, right? What happened to that?"

Sam hesitated and looked away. He cleared his throat before speaking, "I found something worth quitting for. Then….then I realized all the horrible places you could have been. I couldn't just sit there and let you rot. I came to my senses."

Dean tilted his head slightly in confusion and furrowed his brow. He put his hand up to motion Sam not to speak for a moment. "So you completely gave up on hunting? The family business?"

"For a while." Sam peered back at his brother ashamedly. He knew what he did was wrong, but he yearned to have his own life. Something he could be proud of. He achieved that, well, until the guilt took over.

Dean held his brother's gaze and spit back, "So that's why your phones were turned off. You know, I thought I was leaving messages in the wind. I was afraid you were dead." He scratched the back of his head in thought for a moment. "What about the other hunters that needed you?"

Sam instantly replied, not missing a beat, "They had Garth. He's still out there running around. They didn't need me."

His brother scoffed and laughed a bit, "So what? You let some of them go alone and die? What a hunter you are."

"I know. I know. I made a bad decision, but I wanted to enjoy life. I was alone. I didn't know what to do. I-"

Dean cut Sam off and returned to glaring at him, "You didn't want to start looking for me?"

"It's not like it's been an easy search! I've asked around heaven and hell. You don't know how hard it was to find someone to agree to help search those places. Once I found out where you were, I've been looking for a way in," Sam explained himself, holding his hands out in an I tried fashion.

Dean only focused on the negative. His brother left him there to rot for nine months without a care in the world. Dean took a step back and grimaced. "It's not like Purgatory was dandy! Flowers, meadows, sunshine. No. It was worse than Hell, Sammy, and you know how much that took a toll on me."

"But you're still here. You made it!" Sam exclaimed, trying to shed light onto the situation.

"No thanks to you," Dean shot back. His face blanked, showing no emotion at all. Sam's jaw tightened at his words and remained silent. Dean's lip twitched and he contained his rising anger. "What about Kevin?"

Sam defended himself before his brother could make any more horrible assumptions. "Kevin is fine. He's been helping me."

"At least you did that much." Dean's icy glare turned to Kristen as he spoke to her, "Sam doesn't need you anymore. You're free to go do whatever you were doing before."

Oh, so now it's my turn to get yelled at. Kristen responded quickly, "That's the thing. I don't remember what I was doing before. I was buried alive and I don't even know why."

Dean turned to Sam and waved his hand at Kristen. "No memory. Great. Do you even trust her to keep you alive? Does she know how to fight?"

Kristen scoffed at his words. Never judge a book by its cover, Winchester. "I am a hunter. I know how to hold my own."

"Claire did just fine around demons," Sam backed her up and sent a small, reassuring smile her way. It was clear he trusted her. She proved that much.

His brother didn't see the point in his assurance. Just because she could fight didn't mean she could be trusted. "Then she'll be fine on her own."

Kristen smiled back at Sam; she turned to Dean and added, "What if the person who tried to kill me is still out there? I don't know what I'm walking into. I'm staying here."

"She's right, Dean. She needs to stay low for a while and I said I would help her get through this."

"Can we trust her?" Dean questioned as he crossed his arms. Trust wasn't easy to come by these days, especially in hunters. Some were crazy, others driven to hunt alone. Only a handful of hunters were really reliable and trustworthy.

Kristen stifled a laugh. "You think I'm going to kill you? Winchesters? I'm not signing my own death certificate right now." Sam and Dean looked at her weirdly, then looked at each other in confusion. She continued, "I see why you wouldn't trust me, but seriously, I'm an extra helping hand. I've got nowhere to be and I'm an experienced hunter."

Sam stood his ground and told his brother straight up, "I'm not letting her go out there to be killed. I don't want another friend to die. Almost all our friends are dead, Dean."

Dean held Sam's stare for a bit and thought it over. He definitely wasn't happy with the decision, but he appeared too exhausted to fight any more. He grabbed the holy water from the ground and threw some onto Kristen. She closed her eyes and flinched. After he sprayed another liquid, she wiped the area around her eyes. She understood his skepticism, but the security measures excelled intensely when he pulled out the knife.

Sam held his brother back before he went in with the silver knife. When Dean looked at him confusedly, Sam pointed at the knife. "Dude."

Dean stepped back so Sam couldn't touch him. He shrugged slightly and urged, "I'm just trying to make sure."

"I'll do it if it earns his trust." Kristen held her hand out for the knife until Dean handed it to her. She sliced her upper arm a bit and let the blood drip. She set the knife down and glanced between the two men. "See? I'm clean."

Dean nodded and put the bottles down. "Fine."

Kristen cringed and wiped the unknown liquid off of her face. Some of it got in her nose and it began to irritate her. There was no smell, which she thought was odd. "What is this stuff, anyway?"

Dean answered first, "Borax. It takes down Leviathans."

Kristen went to the kitchen area to find a cloth to wrap around her arm. She searched through one of the cabinets and questioned, "Leviathans?"

Sam sat down in a wooden chair and leaned back. He didn't know how to explain, so he sighed and simply said, "Long story." He glanced over at Dean, who wouldn't sit down. He idly stood by the table, watching Kristen carefully. Distrust was prominent in his eyes and he forced himself to turn away. He grimaced at the sting of the cuts on his face and the ache of the bruise that covered one eye, but he trudged through the pain.

"Got it." She wrapped a piece of cloth around her arm and tightened it to slow the bleeding process down. Getting on Dean's good side was going to be difficult. She understood why. Purgatory really must've taken him down a road he didn't want to venture. She couldn't blame him. "So what are we going to do now that your brother has successfully escaped the inescapable Purgatory?"

Dean peered over at Sam and tilted his head to the side in thought. "I was thinking maybe we could go to a motel. Find a hunt or two and take out some baddies. What do ya say, Sammy?" He set his hand down on top of the back of the chair and tightened his grip. He forced himself to stay up and about. Sitting down would only make his unsettling eagerness to get out worse. He needed to do something.

"You just got out of Purgatory and now you want to go on a hunt? Are you serious right now?" Sam furrowed his eyebrows and looked at his brother as if he was crazy. Dean had just said it took a toll on him, yet he was ready to get back out there and hunt. That part didn't make sense to Sam.

Dean shrugged a bit and grabbed the keys. He rubbed the keys in his hand to feel their texture, the lightness, and get used to the feeling of owning a car again. Walking seemed to go on for an eternity in that Hell hole. "We could go out driving. I haven't seen Baby in months. I need to get out and feel the roar of her engine. The leather seats. The air in my face…"

Sam cut him off with a nod and agreed, "We can go if you really want to. You've had a rough year. I was just trying to give you time to adjust and relax."

"We can do that at the motel while searching the paper. Come on," Dean declared and grabbed his backpack full of stuff. He walked out the door and ran his hand along Baby. He opened the driver's side, got in, and turned on the car. The engine roared to life and left a soothing vibration in the car. Dean grinned slightly and nodded towards the other two to get in.

He was so eager to get out into the world again. Whether that was good or bad hung in Sam and Kristen's minds, but they never dared to say anything out loud. All they could do was support Dean to help him get through the adjustment and whatever horrible memories he would relive.