A/N: Hey everybody, Fanpire updating from her morning lecture! Totally missed the mark and forgot last night was Wednesday (which shouldn't have happened because One Chicago Wednesdays usually keep me on the ball). Anyway, I hope you all forgive me. Thanks to bagelcat1, Colby's girl, Bjester74, tyrsibs, and shadowhuntingdauntlessdemigod for the reviews. They made me really happy. I loved writing mini Winchesters and Bobby, so I'm glad you all loved it as much as I did.

This chapter is tagged to episode 10x18, Book of the Damned. I hope you all enjoy it. I think I went with the obvious choice for this chapter but it was too good to pass up.

Disclaimer: Nothing recognizable belongs to me.

Obi-Wan

They were exhausted. Sam's eyes were beginning to blur, Charlie looked like she was tempted to throw the Book of the Damned into the fireplace, and Dean…well, Dean looked like Dean always looked lately. Angry, tired, stressed, and done.

Charlie sighed. "Okay, even the Bletchley Circle couldn't crack this thing. I've tried every cryptographic algorithm there is. Goose egg."

Dean glanced over from the files he was skimming through.

"Well, maybe that's not such a bad thing. Those people following you… Hmm?" Dean fixed her with a pointed look. "All kinds of wrong. Talking multi-generational, centuries old wrong. The Styne family. Men of Letters' files have them dated back to the early 1800s. They used spells to create disease, to destabilize markets. Hell, they even helped the Nazis before they came into power, and they profited from all of it."

"So, they're like the supernatural DuPonts?" Charlie questioned.

"Basically." Dean shrugged. "All the spells they used came from a book of 'unspeakable evil' which they lost nearly a hundred years ago."

Sam couldn't believe they were having this conversation. To him, it didn't matter about the evil family that was hunting them. It didn't matter that the Book was made of skin and blood. He didn't care that the thing was evil. If it could save his brother, he was all for it.

"Okay, so they're bad. So what? We've faced worse!"

Dean shook his head, walking over to him. "Sam, read the file," he said, passing it to him. "The way the book works is, when you use it, there is a negative reaction. I'm talking biblical negative. Dark magic always comes with a price. We know that. We've been down that road before."

Charlie moved to stand next to Sam, facing Dean. "Well, let's at least translate it; see what it says."

"You guys don't understand!" Dean groaned. "The Book's been calling out to me ever since I laid eyes on it, okay? Calling out to the Mark. I can hear it like it's alive. It wants me to use it, but not for good. Look, I wanted it to be the answer too, okay? I really did. But we have got to get rid of that. Burn it, bury it, I don't give a damn. We'll just have to find another way to fix the Mark."

"Like what?" Sam pled. Recalling the words from Bobby's letter, he knew he didn't want to go behind Dean's back with this but he wasn't about to give up the only lead they had either

"I don't know," Dean admitted.

"So, you're giving up?" Charlie questioned angrily.

"No, I'm not giving up, Charlie, I don't have a death wish!" Dean growled. "Okay, even if I did, I can't die, not with this thing on my arm. What I can do is I can fight it as long as I can until…"

"Until what?" Sam slammed the file down on the table. "Tell me. Until what, Dean? Until I watch you become a demon again? Until then? I can't do that. I won't do that!" Sam could hear the emotion creeping into his voice but, for the first time, he didn't try to hide it. If Dean was getting desperate over the presence of the Book, Sam was getting desperate over Dean.

He couldn't lose Dean. Not again.

"Well, then you'll just have to lock me up!" Dean argued. "Bind me to the bunker like you did last time."

"That doesn't solve anything," Charlie stated forcefully.

"Look, just let us translate the book, okay?" Sam begged. "If there's a cure, we'll do it and deal with the consequences later. I can't lose you."

"Really?" Dean stepped up to him, standing nearly chest to chest with him.

"Yeah, really," Sam replied confusedly.

"You change your mind on that, cause that's not what you said last time."

Sam grabbed Dean's shoulder as he tried to walk by him. "Oh, come on, man. You know I didn't mean that." Sam felt his heart drop, a black hole opening up in his chest. He thought that he and Dean had moved past this. He thought he had apologized. But had he? Sam couldn't remember if he had ever actually said "I'm sorry" for those acidic words he had thrown in Dean's face. And that broke his heart. Had Dean spent this whole time thinking that Sam had actually meant it? Had Sam not proven his loyalty to Dean when he had burned all the bridges around him to save Dean from his demonic self?

Dean's angry words cut through Sam's internal monologue. "This is my cross to bear, Sam! Mine! And that Book is not the answer! Now we've got to destroy it before it falls into the wrong hands, and that includes me!" Dean sighed as he ran a hand over his face. "I'm gonna go for a drive. Uh, Charlie, we forgot to pick up your snacks."

"Dean, look…" Sam tried to stand in his way but Dean maneuvered around him.

Dean clapped him on the shoulder as he moved by him. "We'll figure out another way. And Sam?" Dean smiled at him. "I'll get my vacation. But not today. Not like this."

Sam watched the door long after Dean had disappeared through it.

"Sam…maybe he's right." Charlie murmured.

Sam shook his head determinedly. "No, there's a way to fix it. There has to be."

Sam threw himself into the pile of books, files, and the laptop that stood open on the table and, after a few long moments, Charlie joined him.

They worked in silence for over an hour with Charlie ignoring the elephant in the room.

She loved these brothers like they were her own, but she knew that they had their own secrets. She knew they had been through some crap, and she knew that they had a ton of loss in their lives, but she knew that they also had their own issues. She loved them but she respected those boundaries, those secrets that they held between them.

But very rarely had one of those secrets been thrown out in front of her like that, and the tension was beginning to get to her.

"What did Dean mean?" she asked quietly. "When he said you changed your mind?"

Sam sighed and scratched at his forehead.

"So, awhile back, we had a chance to, um…close the Gates of Hell. And in order to do that, I would've had to die. And, I was okay with that, and I am okay with that, but Dean was not. And so, he uh…"

"He saved you," Charlie helped.

"Yeah…he saved me," Sam admitted guiltily. And how ungrateful had he been when he found out? Yes, Dean had crossed lines, erased boundaries in order to save him, but it had been to save him. And how had Sam repaid him? By purposefully saying something terrible that was obviously still affecting his brother over a year later.

"And let me guess, in doing so, he did something you didn't want, and that pissed you off. And you said something that hurt him?"

Damn Charlie and her insight.

"Yeah, that sounds about right."

Charlie stood and began pacing. "Brothers," she sighed. "You know, I haven't been a hunter for very long, but it feels like this is the life. Mostly ends in Sophie's choices, death, or tears. Usually, all of the above, huh?" Sam shrugged at her. "How did this become my life? I mean, I was gonna own my own start-up, marry ScarJo, invent something cool. Now I'm just…I'm just happy to be alive." She collapsed next to him.

Sam considered her for a minute. "You know, when Dean came to get me at school, I—I told myself…one last job, you know? One more job. And then when – when I, um…. When I lost Jess, I, again, told myself one more job. There's always one more job, you know? And one more job, and one more job, and then I was gonna go back to law and – and to my life."

"You were the Dread Pirate Roberts of hunting."

Sam smiled at the pop culture reference. "Yeah. I guess I really understand now that…this is my life. I love it. But I can't do it without my brother." Sam took a shuddery breath. "I don't want to do it without my brother. And if he's gone, then I don't…" Sam's last words were cut off as he got choked up.

"I got it. I—I do." Charlie assured.

Sam turned to her with tears in his eyes. "Charlie, I need your help. We need to save him. I'm afraid he doesn't want to be saved anymore, and if he's gone…I—I don't know what I'm gonna do. Please. I need your help." He looked up at her pleadingly.

Charlie smiled down at him. "So, you're saying that I'm the Obi-Wan to your Princess Leia?"

Sam chuckled with tears caught in his throat. "So, Obi-Wan? Will you help me?"

She smiled. "Like that was ever in question."

A/N: Well, I hope that was worth the 8 hour delay in posting. Please let me know what you thought in a review! Lots of love!