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Chapter 7

'So what's part two of your genius plan?' Dean asked Sam, more than a little put out that he had no say in this and it was turning to crap right in front of him. At least if he had an input he could feel like he deserved to be shot to hell. Right now, he really didn't.

'Now we pick up our stuff and head on out there.' Sam stated casually.

That got Dean's back right up but for no other reason than that is what he had suggested not all that long ago and he said as much. Sam's response was clear and calm.

'Dude you wanted to go out there when we had nowhere to go, when there were more men and when we had other options. Now we don't, so now we do.'

'You're the boss.' Dean chided still holding his gun to the window but stretching to reach his bag, wincing as he did so. Man, where was that aspirin? He would never admit it but with all this going on, he was feeling worse not better.

'I'll pack, I'll be quicker. You keep watch.'

'Yes Sir.'

Sam flung his own bag down and frowned, 'Dean, come on. Work with me here… unless you have a better idea?'

'This was my idea.'

'Okay, it was your idea. Goodo. So we gonna do this or not?'

'Not up to me.'

Great. So Dean was sulking – and hurt – and pissed. Dean at his best. Lovely.

All Sam wanted to do was save his brother and make it up to him. Find a way to fix it so Dean didn't have to. Sure, he supposed he should have filled him in on his intentions and sure, he would have been equally as pissed if Dean had've done the same thing to him but in this situation, there really was not enough time to have a full on round table discussion to thrash out the details. He saw an opening and he acted upon it and truth be told, as of now he was making it up as he was going along. He just didn't want Dean to know that. It would only cause him to freak out and try to take it all on himself and he just simply was not in the condition to do so.

So they had to go. They had to face these imbeciles before they got hold of some guns of their own and they had to do it taking Dean's state into account - which meant Sam had to take the lead.

When he finished packing for the both of them, he threw the two bags over his shoulder and lifted his gun. 'Okay, I aim at this Max dude and you aim at the others. If anyone makes a move, we shoot their tires.'

'What is with you and the tires? I'm gonna shoot them.'

'No man, we don't want them to come after us; we want them to not be able to move.'

'Shooting them will make them not be able to move!'

'Dean!'

'Fuck me Sam. You're pissing me off.'

'I know but let it go and just go with what I am saying okay?'

'Fine.'

'Follow me.'

'Sure thing Chief.'

Sam closed his eyes and took a breath not to prepare himself to open the door but to calm himself from his brother's attitude.

And people say he's the prideful one. Jesus.

He reached over to the door and took hold of the handle while checking over his shoulder that Dean was still behind him. Thankfully he was, even though his glare told him it wasn't where he wanted to be. Tough. Dean couldn't take charge on this one. He just had to deal.

'We're coming out!' Sam called. Dean strained to peer out the window. The guys were now straightening; some out of apprehension, others psyching themselves up for the long awaited confrontation. There had to be at least thirty of them out there. The odds weren't great but… the guns were... and that was something.

Sam turned the knob and slowly opened the door. 'You ready?' he asked his brother.

'Yeah, just go.'

Both of them switched on their hunter instincts, put their guns into position and stepped slowly onto the path finally sharing the same air as these losers.

The second Max took a step closer, Sam said; 'We will shoot.'

'No you won't.'

Sam aimed at his bike's tire and shot. One tire down. The leader's tire down. Yes.

'You motherfucker!' There was no getting through to this idiot, instead of backing down; he bolted towards Sam who merely shot his mate's tire. Dean took his aim off Jimmy and pointed his gun straight at Max's head.

'I will kill you you son of a bitch.'

Max stopped in his tracks, believing this one. The look in his eyes told him in no uncertain terms that if he so much as lifted a finger to touch the sasquatch, he was dead.

'We have more coming.' Sam said as he moved around them on his way to Bobby's associates and their waiting cars. 'Best if you guys get out of here.'

No one said a word - or moved a muscle.

'You touch the Impala one more time, and they will shoot you up.' Dean added. 'You let them tow it.'

'You guys calling the shots are you?' Max challenged.

'We're the ones with the guns.' Dean said, not shifting his aim.

'Not for long.'

'If you know what's good for you, you will walk away.'

'We're not going anywhere.' Max said crossing his arms. 'You want this car; you are going to have to fight for it.' He then added, 'You added the guns, we were happy to fight fair.'

'Fight fair?' Sam repeated. 'A whole town against two guys isn't fair. You beat him up and got your money back. You didn't need to go this far.'

Max raised his voice as he backed away from Dean and faced Sam. 'This guy ripped us off, made a fool out of us, he needed to be dealt with and we dealt with him. It had nothing to do with you but you made it about you and now you have to be dealt with too – only much, much worse.'

'You dealt with him by smashing up his car.' Dean said content to let them think she was Sam's.

'Not good enough, I want to smash him up.'

'Not going to happen.'

'One way or another, it will.'

Sam and Dean were making real progress and they were now closer to the cars than the crazy people. There was no way in hell though they were going to break eye contact.

'Let it go.' Dean said, 'You got your revenge. You don't want to keep messing with us.'

'Don't I?' Max smirked.

'It won't end well for you.'

Max nodded but then jumped to take a seat on the trunk of the Impala as he watched his opponents open one of the car doors. 'How long did you say your friends were going to be?'

Sam and Dean didn't answer. Just climbed into the backseat and breathed a huge sigh of relief. The driver, who they hadn't even managed to look at yet, took off. The other car trailed behind them. Once out of the car park, they lowered their guns and relaxed some more.

Sam was the first to glimpse the driver just after two other cars pulled into the drive way.

'Hey guys.' He smiled a smirk. 'Didn't your momma ever tell you not to get into a stranger's car?'

The feeling of pure and utter dread filled their guts as Dean instantly raised his gun at the drivers head and Sam pointed his at the passenger's. 'Oh you have got to be kidding me!' Dean growled.

They didn't even consider these two cars being anyone but Bobby's friends. How could they be so stupid? Of course these guys would have set this up. It's what they would have done. It was brilliant and now they were well and truly fucked. Sam was as close to throwing his hands up in the air and giving up as Dean was to shooting the jokers.

'I'm kidding guys.' The driver laughed. 'I couldn't resist.'

When neither of them laughed or relaxed the guy continued, 'Come on, it was kind of funny right?' When he received no answer and no movement, his smile dropped and he said a genuine; 'Guys, I'm sorry, really.'

'Who are you?' Dean ordered not willing to let his guard down just yet.

'Chris Evans, this is Joe Lombard, we're here because we heard vampires were in town.'

Finally they could both breathe out. They were in town for the very same reason, only they had killed the vampires dead two nights ago.

'That was anything but funny.' Dean reprimand dropping his gun. 'I could have shot you. I was going to shoot you.'

'You guys know the hunters' life, you don't get many laughs. Gotta take what you can get.' Joe said recovering from almost being toast.

Sam and Dean exchanged a bewildered look. What did they do to deserve these guys? Their lives sucked. All the time, their lives sucked.

When Dean called the very relieved Bobby they organized to meet at a diner three towns away. Chris and Joe dropped them off and turned around ready to join the convoy of hunters to fight the big fight. It was still hours away but they were happy to drive to the designated waiting area and meet and greet the other hunters as they came in.

As Sam and Dean sat down at one of the old and dingy booths in the old and dingy diner, they ordered what they could with twenty dollars and Sam spoke. 'Once Bobby gets here, I am going back with them to get the Impala.'

Dean's head snapped up from searching his bag for pills, 'The hell you are.'

'I can't let everyone get caught up in this when it is my fault. This could end badly and I don't want that on me.'

'They want you Sam. Not me, not Bobby, not any of the others. Just you.'

'I'm not going to just sit here and let them go in and take the fall for me.'

'Yes you are.'

'No.' Sam frowned, 'I'm not.'

'Yes. You are. Don't even piss me off with this. I'm serious.'

'So what? We just walk away?'

'Yes.'

'No. No way.'

'Yes we do Sam.' Dean sat himself up and raised his eyebrows giving Sam his best big brother glare. 'And you know why? Because you are going to prove to me that you can.'

'This isn't about revenge Dean, this is about saving people's lives.'

'You want to save people's lives?'

'Yes.'

'Then stay away. If you go there they will do anything to get to you. If you don't, maybe it will be a bit of out of sight, out of mind and they will back down. They don't have a beef if you aren't there. Think about it.'

'Dean.'

'Both Bobby and I agree on this. You are staying here. End of discussion.'

Going back to searching through his bag, a thought occurred to Dean and he searched harder, coming up with nothing. Sam watched as his brother became more than a little frantic.

'What's wrong?' he frowned.

'Did you pack the whiskey?'

'I don't know.'

'Sam, did you pack the whiskey?' His tone had an urgency in it that Sam didn't much like.

'Does it matter if I didn't?'

'Yes it matters if you didn't.'

'Why?'

'Because I want my whiskey.' Beginning to unpack the bag's contents one by one on to the top of the table firstly concerned Sam and then embarrassed him. He scanned the diner to see if others had noticed. Most of them had and were watching their table and his brother with inquisitive eyes.

'Dean.' Sam whispered. 'Dean.' Dean wasn't listening; instead he was still continuing to pile all his belongings, including his laundry on to the table.

'Dean!'

'What?'

'Stop. It's obviously not there.'

'Dammit Sam!' he yelled thumping the table causing the whispers to really start.

'It's not the end of the world.' Sam mumbled to the table humiliated beyond belief.

Dean's eyes flickered through the window and scrutinized the area. There were stores across the road, surely there had to be a convenience store that sold alcohol. Just one. He only needed one. He squinted and spotted exactly what he wished for. Once he had grabbed his stuff and smushed it all back into his bag he stood up. 'Cancel the order.' he yelled towards the staff.

'What?' Sam questioned, his eyes darting from Dean, to the staff and then back to Dean. His stomach had been rumbling for hours now, he wanted something to eat and fast, however when he realised that hope was over, he stood with his brother, gave an apologetic smile to the whole damn room and followed him out the door.

'What the hell Dean?' Sam was furious. All this over less than half a bottle of whiskey. This was not good, not good at all. In fact it was looking like this was worse than he thought.

Dean was well on his way, walking as fast as he could towards that store. He needed that alcohol, not even necessarily to drink right now, but just to have. He had to have it.

'This is ridiculous. Are you seeing yourself?' Sam growled keeping up easily. Even Dean's fastest step was still hindered by his injuries.

'Don't start Sam. Don't even start. You should have packed it. If you don't know to pack everything, you shouldn't have packed anything. I should have done it.'

'Just stop.'

'No.'

'I'm hungry. We haven't even eaten all day, or last night.' He tried.

Slowing a little Dean nodded, 'We'll get something from here. Put it on credit. That way we can pick up a few things.'

'Including more whiskey right?'

'Or beer. Feel like a beer?'

'No, I don't feel like a beer.' He lied. Truth was he did, his nerves were shot to pieces but only one, two at the most. He just did not trust this situation enough to even screw a lid off.

'You gotta let loose sometimes Sammy, live it up a little. You're always so uptight.' Dean said as he clutched his ribs while gaining some steam. Pushing the door open into the store, his first sight was the racks and racks of bottles to his right.

First destination; right there.

He didn't even bother to ask Sam for his assistance, he could tell by the look on his face that he was going to be absolutely no help at all. Instead he stopped a young guy as he was stepping by and said, 'Excuse me, do you work here?' It was obvious he did, he was wearing the same uniform the other workers were wearing.

'Yes.'

'Great.' As Dean pointed out exactly what he wanted, Sam could only stand by and watch dumbfounded. There was no way in hell Dean was going to drink all this. No way in hell. He would not let him. That was for damn sure.

'What are you going to do? Lock me in the panic room?' Was Dean's smart ass reply when Sam told him just that.

'Don't tempt me.'

'Relax, it's for all of us, not just me.' The new calm that had taken over Dean once he had skulled a bottle of beer and Sam was pushing the almost full cart back over the road to the diner terrified Sam even more. He knew what was going on, he had been through the same kind of thing himself, the same signs were there. Dean was out of control. Out of control and a dead set alcoholic.