Dean stood in the motel room. Sam had checked his beeping phone and run off somewhere. Dean didn't expect to see him again for a while. Good. That was part of the plan.

He had sat on the computer after waking up supposedly looking up how to deal with panic attacks. Bullshit. Talk therapy? What was that crap. He knew what he needed to do. He needed to bury that torturing son-of-a-bitch for good. He knew the best way to do that: tequila. Lots of tequila and some time to himself. He already knew where the hole was, and he intended to throw that fucker and his panic attacks down it. Who needs that part of their soul anyway?

There were some things that Sam just never needed to know. He took out the bottle and got started. This time it really would be over.



"And you ignore your phone for nearly a whole day why?" Ruby's shrill question was clearly solely to annoy Sam since he knew she could just read his mind.

"I can't just leave Dean like that. He is still my brother." Sam sat down on a dingy bed. Ruby sighed and came over to sit next to him.

"Okay." She said, more gently this time. "You're more worried than usual. Why?"

Sam wrung his hands and looked down at the floor. "Dean's just so different since ... you know. I mean, I thought he was getting back in the swing of things, and then this. I just ..." Sam sighed. "I don't know if I can trust him on a hunt. I don't know if he can handle this anymore. He's not the decisive, forceful, fuck-shit-up Dean that I remember."

He turned and looked at Ruby. "I don't think he's strong enough for this anymore."

She looked back at Sam. "All the more reason to keep training."

Sam knew that she was right.


FIN.

A/N: And that should take us back to continuity between Heaven and Hell and Family Remains, more or less. Thanks so much to everybody who read, reviewed, and alerted my story! I've never had people like my stuff so much! :::smishes you all!!:::