A/N: Another short one, I know, but the chapter after this is a whopper. If only chapters would have the courtesy of being the same length this would be so much easier!

The drive back gave Sam time to cool off, and when he pulled into the motel parking lot he wasn't angry anymore. He just felt sorry for Dean. Dean had done everything, had hidden his lycanthropy from John for years, and now it was all for nothing. John knew.

And he'd reacted just as badly as Dean had known he would.

Sam let himself into the room he shared with his brother and Dean, lying under the covers of one of the beds, opened his eyes and looked up at Sam. Sam saw Dean tense then relax again when John didn't follow.

Sam closed the door behind him and offered a weary (but hopefully reassuring) smile.

Sam dropped the bundle of clothes and Dean's shoes on a chair and went over to Dean's bed. "Hey… let me take a look." Sam gently pushed on Dean's shoulder to roll his brother on to his back and pulled down the covers. Dean had showered but hadn't put on a new shirt (probably knowing his upper body would be subject to examination when Sam got back).

"I'm fine," Dean muttered, even as he let Sam hover. A Winchester at least had to protest too much attention to injuries… it was a part of reaffirming their manliness.

"Shut up," Sam said gently and peered closer at the wound. It looked a lot better than it had in the woods. Remarkably better. Supernaturally better.

"Did you…" Sam began to ask.

Dean nodded. "Started bleeding again when I got out of the shower, so I turned then changed back again. Did wonders for the cut, but it wiped me out. I think a banshee could have come through here while I was sleeping and I wouldn't have known it. How long have you been gone?" Dean looked around the room, confused and slightly disoriented.

Sam gently pulled the covers up over Dean's chest again and sat down on the edge beside his brother. He didn't really know for sure, but it honestly didn't matter. "Few hours."

Dean grunted.

"At least you're looking better," Sam noted.

"You look like shit."

Sam snorted and let the bone-weariness plaguing him sag his figure. He'd been so determined not to look weak in front of John, dead set as he was on defending Dean, but alone with Dean Sam could stop faking. The encounter with John, and his attacking Dean, came at the tail-end of an already monumentally shitty day. Sam felt ground to the bone, and didn't doubt he looked it, and Dean naturally had to do the brotherly thing and point it out. "Thanks," Sam said sarcastically.

"You're welcome," Dean answered. Then he froze. Warily, he looked toward Sam. "Where's Dad?" he croaked thinly.

Sam shrugged. "I don't know."

Dean frowned, puzzled.

Sam sighed. "We sort of got into an argument."

Dean chuckled. "How do you two manage to get into a fight in record time every time?"

Sam smirked. "I don't know, it just seems to happen."

Dean's smile faded and he shifted uncomfortably on the bed. "Were you fighting about me?"

Sam didn't see the point in lying. Dean had to already know he had been the topic of conversation. Trying to feed Dean such a blatant lie would just be insulting. "Yeah."

Dean's whole body tensed. "Sam… you two find enough reasons to fight already; don't make me one of them."

Sam could feel his jaw clenching again as he remembered everything John had said. And not so much what he said as how he'd said it.

Dean was quiet a moment, then asked, "Did you tell him?"

"Only what I had to," Sam answered softly. "Not much, actually. I didn't want to tell him anything."

"Well, no, I don't either, but the cat's pretty much out of the bag at this point."

"Wolf's out of the bag, you mean," Sam deadpanned.

Dean rolled his eyes. "Funny."

Sam faked a smirk and shook his head. "He tried to get all these answers from me, and I just… lost it, I guess. I told him to stay away from us until he can be an adult about this."

Dean's eyes widened as he looked up at Sam. "Seriously?"

Sam nodded.

Dean looked bewildered. "So, what… now we wait?"

"Now we wait," Sam agreed. "Or… we could take off."

Dean looked sharply at Sam. "You mean… run from Dad?"

Sam nodded cautiously, meeting Dean's eyes squarely and gauging his big brother's reaction to the idea. Sam would do it in a heartbeat. They didn't need John, hadn't since they were young and had been forced to learn to depend only on each other while their dad was gone hunting. Which was a lot. If John was going to make Dean hate himself, hate being what he loved, then it was an easy decision as far as Sam was concerned. Get with it or get out. After spending so much time alone on the road with Dean after Stanford, Sam had begun to think of the two of them as the Winchester family. They had John outnumbered two to one. Sam felt that gave them the right to say what that meant, being a member of the Winchester family.

If Sam said as much to his older brother, Dean would probably accuse him of trying to get even with John for throwing him out of the family with that bone-chilling ultimatum 'if you leave, don't ever come back.'

And maybe there was a grain of truth in that, but right now it was neither here nor there. This was all on Dean, whatever he wanted to do.

Dean frowned slowly. "We… we can't."

"We could."

"I won't," Dean clarified.

Sam shrugged his acceptance. "Then we wait." Sam stood from the bed. "I'm going to hit the shower then I'll go pick us up something to eat."

"Two great ideas, Sammy," Dean gave Sam a small shove to get him off the bed. "You reek and I'm starving."

"You're a jerk," Sam said with a smirk.

"Bitch," Dean countered as he burrowed back into his pillow to sleep some more.

Sam tried to be quiet in the attached bathroom, mindful of his recuperating brother in the next room, and let his mind wander as he washed the forest grim and Dean's blood from his body. Dean wouldn't run from their father. He never had, now that Sam thought about it, and Sam should have expected Dean's answer to stay and face the music now. Sam was the one who ran away, not Dean. No matter how ugly it got, Dean stuck in there.

Now they waited to see what John Winchester would do after finding out his son could become a wolf. If nothing else, it should prove interesting.

To Be Continued…