Chapter 9
Sam Winchester did not know if he was completely stupid or just insane. He had to laugh at himself though, it was pretty funny. The look on his brother's face when he had loaded all of the alcohol into Bobby's truck was priceless. 'Share it around, tell them it's our way of saying thanks.' Sam had said ensuring Dean's silence. There was no way in hell Dean could demand any of it back after that. He would look like an ungrateful, selfish bastard. It was perfect.
'I'm not going to be in this condition forever you know.' Dean mumbled giving his best fake smile and a last wave to Bobby.
Sam smiled trying to stifle a laugh.
'You won't be laughing when I get you alone.'
'I know.' Sam couldn't help it. A chuckle escaped.
'Enjoy it while you can buddy. We're five hours away.'
Dean Winchester was not happy. He did not want to be leaving others to fight their battles for them even though he understood why they had to. What he didn't understand was why he had to climb into the back of a stranger's SUV so that said stranger could drive him back to the closest thing he had to a home.
The further away they drove the further out of the loop they would be. What if this thing didn't work and something went wrong? What if someone got hurt? They were driving in the opposite direction for God's sake!
Not only that. What if Bobby and these hunters couldn't manage to gain possession of his Impala? He should have been there, or at least close by. It was his car they were trying to retrieve. It was like he didn't even have a say in any of it.
And another thing. He wanted to see her, he wanted to wait for Bobby, see the Impala being towed on the back of his truck, check her out and then drive home with her.
Something else he wanted; a frickin drink!
Sam was pissing him off.
What he really felt like doing was whacking his brother upside the back of the head. He reckoned he could do it too without causing much more pain to himself. All he would have to do was lean forward a bit and then bam, smack it. It probably wouldn't be as hard as he would have liked, but man it would have felt good.
The only thing that stopped him was this Tony dude.
Tony was the man Bobby had organized to come back for them. Sam and Dean had never before met him, let alone heard of him. He was a short, middle aged, skinny guy driving an expensive luxury SUV probably over the moon to be out of the line of fire. A day or two on the road in a flashy new vehicle; he won the jackpot there. No one involved in all this was luckier than he.
Sam seemed to be getting along okay with the guy, happy to chit chat and fill him in on the whole sorry story. Dean however did not want to talk, did not want to listen and did not want to look at the back of his brother's head any longer. He stretched out his legs, leant his own head against the corner panel of the rear windows and closed his eyes.
Even though it felt like seconds, it was well over four hours later when Dean woke with a start. They had driven over a pot hole or something just as unimportant. The radio was on low and Sam and Tony were still talking.
'Sam.' Dean said as he rubbed his eyes noticing it was dark out.
'Hey, how're you feeling?' Sam asked as he turned around to see his sleepy brother. 'We're nearly there.'
'Have you heard from Bobby?' Dean frowned.
'Yeah, they got her. He's on his way.'
Even though a deluge of relief poured over him, this time, he did whack his brother across the head. 'Why didn't you wake me?'
'Ow. God. Because you were better off sleeping.' He frowned rubbing the side of his forehead.
'No, I was better off knowing how my damn car is. How is she? What happened?'
'Bobby said she can be fixed. Sounds like she copped a bit more before they got to her though. Those guys weren't around when the others got there.'
'So all that was for nothing then? Great.'
'It wasn't for nothing, we got her back.' Sam replied, 'And no one got hurt. I'd say that was best case scenario.'
'No best case scenario was if it didn't happen in the first place.'
Okay so Dean hadn't woken in an any better mood, his voice was as gruff as ever, his jaw was set about as far forward as it could go and the look in his eyes was still one of being downright ticked. Sam gave Tony an apologetic sigh as he turned back around and found a spot on the windscreen to look through. Dean was right, the closer they got to Bobby's, the less he was laughing. In fact, he was pretty much freaking a bit out. Dean was going to kick his ass; maybe not physically, although that smack did kind of hurt, but definitely verbally.
Tony refused the offer to come inside Bobby's house. He could see that these two brothers had something going on between them that they had to sort out. Even though he was dying to use their bathroom, he lied and said he was making his way back to where he came from. Truth was, he was going to the nearest McDonalds to pee and eat before locating a Motel room where he could watch some TV and sleep.
The Winchesters had other plans; both different to one another's.
All Sam wanted to do was drop their bags, jump in the shower and chill out, all Dean wanted to do was have a drink and yell the crap through Sam.
Dean won.
'You know what I don't get?'
'Dean –'
'No answer the question. Do you know what I don't get?'
Sam sat down on Bobby's sofa and began to undo his shoelaces. 'No, what don't you get?'
'Who gave you the right to give away all of my fucking beer!'
'It wasn't your beer; it was someone else's beer. It's not like it was your money.'
'No, you gave away my money as well! I tell you what Sam, this is crap. All this, all that happened was a whole bunch load of crap! You are the one that always goes on about working together and keeping both of us in the know, treating each other as equals and all that, but you just went right out on your own at every turn on this one. You go fight these idiots, you give them my cash just because they asked for it, you change plans on me in a split second. I had no frickin idea what was going on in that room. We had frickin psycho bikies staking us out, ready to make us their lunch and you start doing your own thing without a damn word to me. That was just stupid. You left me hanging and confused. That was a dumbass thing to do. Too much room for error and you know better than that.' He took a breath while he continued to pace around the room eyeing his brother. Sam pulled both shoes off with his feet and sat back staring at the coffee table in front of him. 'Then you start taking over and making decisions on my behalf when I want something completely different. You should have heard me out. I didn't want to go with Tony; I wanted to wait for Bobby. I was fine waiting for a bit longer but no, Sam's so perfect, he knows best. Dean's all hurt and can't sit down and chill out ANY LONGER!' Now he was yelling. 'Then without even looking at me, without saying a word, you just haul all of my alcohol right over to Bobby and why? Because Sam thinks Dean wants to drink it all on the way home and he has to intervene and stop that doesn't he? If you care to even ask, I am onto my drinking okay? Once I stop feeling like the walking dead, I am onto it.' He shook his head, 'You did this all wrong and you left me out of it like I was some sick and stupid kid. I don't know where you get off treating me like that but I tell you, it stops now do you hear me?'
'That's not what I was doing.' Sam finally spoke, feeling sick and thoroughly scolded, but trying to appear strong on the outside, strong to Dean.
'Which bit?' Dean screamed.
'The bit about treating you like a sick and stupid kid. I was just trying to deal with it so you wouldn't have to.'
'Yeah because I am some sick and stupid kid.'
'No, because you were down Dean. You think I would have done it like I did if you were okay? We could have worked together if you weren't hurt but you were so we had to do it different.'
'Because you say so.'
'No, that's not it. I didn't nut out this plan, it just came to me and you were on the phone so I just went with it.'
'Which is a stupid thing to do!'
'Yes, okay.'
'We can't afford stupid! You are just lucky it worked out. No, we are. You threw me into it as well. I was at your mercy, their mercy without a friggin bit of anything to back me up.'
'I was there to back you up.'
'And who was there to back you up?' he screeched louder than he ever had.
Sam's stomach dropped. 'Oh no, Dean don't. Do not turn this around and make it about you needing to look after me. There is nothing wrong with me looking after you for a change. You don't have to be the one that looks after everyone else all the time.'
'Oh God, don't you dare. Do not start with this crap. We needed to be there for each other and you totally went against that. That's on you. Don't even bring me and my damn psyche into it.'
'Why do you have such a problem with me looking out for you?'
'I don't! You just went about it all wrong!'
'We got out didn't we?'
'By luck.'
'No, it was more than luck.'
'No it wasn't.' Dean leant against the table and folded his arms. 'It could have gone the other way just as easily. If they had guns, we would both be dead by now. You were riding on guesswork and chance, nothing more.'
Sam felt sick. 'What else could we have done?'
'No good asking now is there?'
'I was trying to fix it, i swear.'
'You screwed up Sam. You just...screwed up, case closed.'
So no credit where no credit was due, fair enough.
Sam nodded and looked down to his socks. He wanted out of there, he felt offended and hurt yet he wasn't sure if he was justified in feeling any of that. Once again he acted on best intentions and once again Dean didn't like them or agree with them; any of them. They were all wrong in his brother's eyes, just wrong, case closed.
'Are we done?' Sam asked.
Dean shook his head, rubbed his eye and took a deep breath in. 'For now. I guess.'
'I'm having a shower.' He picked up his shoes and bag and took off out of the room, leaving Dean alone and nodding … feeling guilty… and thirsty.
