I put up a short chapter last night to close this story out, but it was really done in a very half-assed sort of way. I felt guilty for waiting so long before updating, and then felt guilty for half-assing it. So I took it down and reworked it. Here is the really-for-real last chapter of Pieces. Thanks to all who have reviewed.

"Fuck!" Dean's shout was gruff, and he slapped Sam's hands away. "Fuckin' A, man!"

"Sorry." Sam was trying to be gentle as he wiped the dried blood away from Dean's bullet wound, but the crusted grime was taking some elbow grease to remove. "There's some Darvocet in the Impala, do you want it?" He had all the overhead lights in the motel room on, but still had to squint to see the extent of Dean's wounds.

"No." Dean clenched his jaw. "Just get it over with, ya non-bedside-manner-havin' motherfucker." Sam doused a gauze pad with hydrogen peroxide and swiped it over Dean's shoulder, trying not to hear the little hiss of pain that Dean sucked through his teeth. There was a slight red rash on Dean's throat, remnant of the noose that had rubbed the skin raw, and Sam swabbed it with the gauze, just for good measure.

"Hey Dean." Distraction was always a worthy pain-technique, Sam decided, and getting Dean talking would make the whole uncomfortable business of patching him up go quicker. "Why did you want the book burned? Seems like something we could have used, maybe passed it on to Bobby. That kind of information could be worth something, you know?"

Dean's forehead crinkled. "That sort of thing is bad news, Sammy. Even if you try to use it with the right intentions, somehow things always turn out wrong. Only bad things can happen with shit like that."

"Not if you know what it is, though. I mean, you can be on guard from letting it corrupt you, use it in the right way."

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely, Sam. That sort of power won't ever bring any good to anybody, no matter what their intentions are." Dean scratched at his eyebrow with his thumb, not meeting Sam's eyes.

"I guess so," Sam admitted. "Wrong hands, and all that." Sam tossed the bloody gauze over his shoulder and reached for a roll of clean bandage. "I guess I just hate to see knowledge go to waste like that."

"The devil you know is safer than the devil you don't, Sam. You can't just forget once you dip into evil like that, and it marks you. You wish you had never seen it, never learned it, but you can't go back."

The tone in Dean's voice made the hair on the back of Sam's neck stand up, but he didn't let it show. Dean spooked too easily. Instead, Sam gently laid a thick pad of gauze under Dean's collarbone, and lifted Dean's hand to hold it in place while he taped it. "You say that like you know."

"Helluva lot of stuff went on while you were at school, Sammy." Dean's radar had gone up, detecting Sam's concern, and he flipped immediately into full-on stoic-sarcasm mode. "Some of us lived real life, instead of hiding out in the library like pussies." He shrugged away from Sam's touch and picked up a roll of bandage, awkwardly trying to wrap his own shoulder.

Sam snatched the bandage back, skewering Dean with a look. "Knock it off, Dean." He wrapped Dean's wound quickly, a little more roughly than he meant to. Dean flinched slightly, which immediately stopped Sam. "You okay?"

"Yeah." Dean's jaw muscles tightened as he stared down at his hands, which were clenched in his lap. The two sat silently, Sam watching Dean, Dean avoiding Sam's eyes. Finally Dean couldn't stand the quiet. "Thanks, by the way," he mumbled.

Sam's eyebrows rose. "For what?"

"For coming after me. That Gideon nut would have air-conditioned my head if you hadn't drilled him. It was a good shot."

"I'll always come for you, Dean." Sam spoke around a lump in his throat, reaching to grasp Dean's bicep.

"Oh, for fuck sake." A pillow winged toward Sam's head and he ducked just in time. "Can't we have one night with no Hallmark moments? Christ."

Sam could only shake his head as he stooped to pick up the pillow from the floor. Some things just never change, but somehow he knew he wouldn't have it any other way.