Chapter 14

Sam's head snapped up to see Dean turn. He moved at a torturously slow pace and once their gazes finally met, Sam gulped.

White as a sheet and with frighteningly wide eyes, Dean's question was barely audible:

"What did he say?"

"Um... Dean... I-I..." Sam stammered ineptly, but Dean wasn't listening.

"What did he call her?" It was more forceful; the anxiety building, as he walked back into the room.

With two ground-eating steps Dean was at the bedside.

By now Garrett seemed to have finally passed out. His body sagged droopily; his face, having awkwardly dragged along the pillow, caused the tip of his nose to bend funnily upwards while his mouth hung open.

Unceremoniously grabbing the Texan by the collar, Dean carelessly shook him until he got a drawled moan out of him.

"What did you say?" He questioned, disregarding the greenish hues tinting Garrett's cheeks.

"You're gonna make him-" A chill ran down Sam's spine and he instantly shut up under Dean's murderous glare.

"Wake up, you idiot!" He barked, jerking the young man into half-consciousness.

"Um..." Garrett whined drunkenly. "Wha'..."

"What did you call her?"

"Huh?" Garrett was completely out of it and he could barely keep his eyes open.

At least the nauseating jostling had stopped.

"What's her name?"

Why was he shouting? Oh God his ears were ringing!

"Who?" Garrett's head wobbled dully from side to side.

It took all of Dean's strength not to throttle the kid. Gritting his teeth and breathing harshly through his nostrils, he swallowed back the choking feeling and pushed out:

"Amy what?"

At the mention of her name, a goofy lopsided grin spread over Garrett's mouth and he drawled out musingly:

"Mmmm... Amy..."

The older Winchester nearly snapped. He was gonna make mincemeat out of this kid, he was gonna take his foot and shove it so far up his-

"...Dr. Amy Carrington..."

Dean froze and behind him, Sam's lids dropped closed in defeat.

His cluttered brain grasped at straws, flooded by all the ramifications of that little bit of information. It was her! All this time, it had been her. Dismissively letting go of Garrett, who plopped back on the mattress with a painful grunt, Dean stood up. He ran the back of his shaky hand over his mouth and blinked hard.

His swarming mind didn't even pick up on his brother's weak voice.

"Dean..."

He was too busy trying to choose what to focus on.

The day Garrett had first shown up at the Roadhouse...

'She was outside... she... Jesus!'

The phone call to Sammy and the cryptic replies he got suddenly made sense. And now, just ten minutes ago, when he'd snatched Garrett's cell off of the floor...

Sam watched anxiously as Dean suddenly whirled around and marched out of the room. Hastily, he trailed behind him, calling out:

"Dean..."

Nothing. He simply continued to trudge down the hall.

"Dean!"

Unexpectedly, he halted and out of the blue he was in Sam's face, demanding with dangerously narrowed eyes:

"You knew? You knew about this and you didn't tell me?"

"I-I..."

The resentment irradiating from his brother made Sam's throat close up remorsefully.

"All this time..." Dean's voice cracked, jerking Sam into action:

"No, not all this time. I swear, man. I only found out it was her when we got to Griffin." He tried to excuse himself, but Dean didn't look convinced.

Sam could tell the sorrow and initial shock were rapidly morphing into anger by Dean's hardening expression. He was pretty sure any second now his older sibling would slug him. Good, maybe that would help ease the guilt.

"So when I called you, you-you were at..." He trailed off, refusing to say her name.

Sam nodded, dropping his gaze in shame.

"And what? You just decided it wasn't worth sharin', that it?"

Sam could see Dean's knuckles whiten as he balled his hands into fists.

Yep, any minute now, he'd be sporting a brand new shiner. Sam braced himself for the impact. When it didn't come, he blurted nervously:

"What was I supposed to do? Tell you?"

"I'm thinkin'... Yeah!" Dean's tone was heavy with caustic sarcasm.

"What for? Huh, Dean? I asked you, I asked you flat out if you wanted to get her up here and you said no. You said that the only way she'd be safe was if she stayed away from hunting."

"So you and Coma boy decide to go behind my back and drop in on the doc?"

"Dude, I told you, I didn't know back then. It was only when I got to Griffin that..."

The intensity of Dean's glower made Sam's blood freeze.

"We got out of there as fast as we could. She's safe now. No one else is coming over to her place anymore. It's over, ok?" Sam paused and waited for a reaction, but Dean remained perfectly still, glaring daggers up at him. "Look, what was the point in telling you? Drudge up old wounds? You were pretty messed up as it was. I-I didn't want to... I'm sorry, man."

Setting his mouth in a straight line, Dean's jaw muscle twitched from the effort to keep his temper in check. His Adam's apple bobbed up and down a couple of times and he gave Sam a disgruntled nod.

The two remained in silence for a few moments and Sam could see there was still something bothering him. He didn't push. Instead, he waited until Dean ultimately muttered in an unbearably low voice:

"Is she... um..." He cleared his throat, he couldn't meet Sam's gaze. "... she ok?"

Sam's shoulders relaxed.

"Yeah, man... she's ok."

There was another nod and a dry gulp from Dean, but he kept his stare fixed on the floor. It remained unfocused, jumbled by random, misplaced thoughts flashing before him. Dean shivered at the flickering memory of himself waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night; the phone clutched in his slippery hand and already dialling her number, only to hastily turn it off before it got a chance to ring. Though Sam had remained blissfully unaware of it, this had happened on more than one occasion, particularly during the first three months of being back and it had probably triggered Dean's first secret trip to Griffin. In total, he'd gone down there eight times. Sam only new about the most recent one, which was apparently right about the same time Garrett first popped into their lives.

'Christ!'

He still couldn't get over the fact that she'd been a few feet away from him while he was butting heads with Texas.

'Wait a second! Blabber-mouth must have told her! That's why she came-'

For some insane reason his stomach decided this was a good time as any to do the wiggle-jiggle and a sudden giddiness took over.

"You should have seen it. She ripped me a new one for all the dumb things I did..." Sam let out a nervous chuckle, in a pathetic way to alleviate the tension.

He was surprised when his little quip got Dean to finally look up and exclaim:

"You told her?"

Sam frowned. Of course he'd told her.

"Well... yeah..."

"Um... everything?" Dean continued to probe.

"Pretty much."

"Ruby, Lucifer..."

Sam nodded, oblivious to what Dean was hinting at.

"Everythin'? You're the one who told her and not Garrett?"

"How would Garrett know about what happened over the last year?" Sam scratched his head and Dean suppressed the urge to smack him.

His kid brother continued to gawk at him with a giant question mark hovering over his head. God, for a book worm Sam could be really thick sometimes. Wasn't it obvious what he was trying to fish out of him?

'Me, you douche! When did she find out about me being back?' He mentally yelled at Sam, who remained blissfully unaware. 'Bitch!'

He was going to make him ask, wasn't he? That blockhead was gonna actually make him come out and say it!

After a frustrating moment, he figured maybe he could get around this.

"Ok so you told her about the whole shebang! How'd she take it?"

"She thinks you and I should've paid more attention in Sunday school." Sam's attempt to lighten the mood failed miserably yet again.

At his little brother's impossible daftness, Dean broke down and swallowed his pride:

"I'm not talking about that! I'm talkin' about me! How'd she take it when...?" He mentally kicked himself for not being able to keep his tone casual when he said it, but the doubt was killing him. How had she reacted? Was she happy? Was she angry? Knowing her, the latter was the more plausible of the two.

"Oh! She already knew about that." Sam added, jerking Dean out of his reverie.

"What? So Texas told her?"

Sam shrugged.

"What? What does this-" With barely restrained anger Dean mimicked Sam's shoulder shrinking. "mean?"

"I dunno. I never got around to askin' her who told her. She said she's known for a while now."

Dean looked up gobsmacked at the taller man.

'A while?'

What did that mean, a while? A month, two months, half a year? How long is a while? And why the hell hadn't she said anything about it? Why hadn't she-? What the-?

"Dude, are you ok?"

Dean's muddle gaze zeroed in on Sam.

"Huh? What?"

"You don't look so good..." The shaggy haired Winchester pointed out.

He'd just been informed that the woman haunting him for the last year knew he was back and hadn't done anything about it. No tracking them down to some seedy motel or random diner to give him a piece of her mind or maybe sucker punch him, not even an angry phone call. Nothing! So, yeah, Sam would have to excuse him if he didn't look so good!

Clinging to his pride, though, Dean refrained from expressing his frustrations and instead, straightened his back and shook his head. Mutely, he took his cell phone from the front pocket of his jeans.

"Who are you calling?"

"Dudley Sloan."

Though he was dialling the number, Sam's eye roll didn't go by unnoticed.

"What? Just makin' sure! You know her. The woman is a walkin' disaster. She'll always find a way to get herself into- Hello?" Dean paused, but noticing no one had picked up yet, he waited.

"Man, you really need to get over this obsession with keeping her safe." Sam half-mocked.

"Zip it, Sammy. You're still not off my shit-list." Dean warned, cocking an eyebrow and waggling his finger in his face.

Sam remained unfazed, though. If he was calling him Sammy everything was going to be fine.

"Yeah? Hey, it's Dean Winchester."

"Winchester? What the-? Why are you callin' at one o'clock in the mornin'?" The voice on the other side was hoarse with slumber.

"Good to hear you too, Dud."

"If you're gonna ask me a favour, callin' me Dud really isn't the best way to start off."

"Sorry. Look, I'm callin' to know if anything's going on around those parts."

"Like I told Bobby today. Nothing much. Just your usual salt 'n burn's. Why the sudden interest?"

Sam could see the discomfort creeping between Dean's shoulder blades, causing his back to go rigid. It became even more obvious when he began pacing around, while rubbing the nape of his neck.

"Yeah, nothing... Um... What about in Indiana? Evansville...?"

"You talkin' about the doc?"

Dean halted and gaped at his brother.

"What?" Sam mouthed, confused by the sudden change.

"The doc? Wha-what doc?"

It couldn't be. She couldn't possibly be that stupid!

"Pretty carrot head? Stubborn as a mule? Dr. Carrington. You know her. She and her momma used to have a clinic up in Griffin. She reopened it about three weeks ago."

Dean's lids fell closed and he ran his hand over his face. He was gonna kill her!

"Dude... what is it?" Sam whispered.

Covering the mouth piece, Dean frowned up at his brother.

"First I'm gonna kill her and when I'm done I'm coming for you and Texas."

"Winchester? You there?"

"Yeah, I'm still here."

"You worried something might happen? Look, I got one of my boys up at her place but I can get-"

"No, no, no. Don't send anyone. It's ok. Go back to sleep."

"Sure?"

"Yeah. I gotta go."

Dudley Sloan didn't even get a chance to properly say his goodbyes; the phone was off and back in Dean's pocket.

"Now are you gonna tell me-Dude?" Sam suddenly found himself standing alone in an empty hallway.

After a couple of awkward seconds, he regained his composure and chased Dean down the stairs.

Ellen frowned and looked up in the direction of the heavy steps. She barely caught a glimpse of Dean as he rushed passed her.

"What-?"

When she saw Sam following suit, she tried again:

"What's goin' on here?"

"I gotta go." Dean announced curtly, picking up his leather jacket off the stool and slipping it on.

"In the middle of the night? Where the hell to?"

"That's what I'm still trying to figure-"

"She opened up the clinic!" Dean cut Sam off. "And guess when?"

Once again, he didn't get a word in.

"Three weeks ago." He poignantly arched an eyebrow at Sam as he added: "Interesting, huh?"

"I-I swear, I had nothing to do…"

"Whatever… We'll deal with that when I get back."

Dean halted mid stride when he felt his brother close behind.

"Where do you think you're goin'?"

"I'm comin' with you." Sam stated matter-of-factly.

"I just found out that Carrington went and did the one dumbass thing she could think of and she's about to see me for the first time since I came back and didn't tell her. You sure you wanna be there when we finally butt heads?"

Sam gulped dryly.

"Didn't think so. Bobby, keep an eye on him." Dean shouted over his shoulder before disappearing out the door.

"Who's Carrington?" Ellen wondered from behind the counter.

"Carring… Amy? The Amy?" Bobby sauntered over to Sam as the young man nodded.

"Remember Garrett's friend? The one who hightailed out of here with his ride?"

The bearded man gave him an accepting nod.

"It was Amy."

"Who's Amy?" Ellen's question continued unanswered, while the two men exchanged ominous stares.

"And you didn't tell your brother? What's wrong with you? You got a death wish, boy?"

"Bobby…"

"Ok, am I gonna have to pull out my shotgun again to get some attention around here?" Ellen snapped, tired of being ignored.