Chapter title is song from Alter Bridge.
10
Watch Over You – Alter Bridge
The route between the bunker and town was a familiar one, even though Sam detoured around, driving aimlessly for miles to throw off any tails, to avoid falling into a predictable pattern.
Always watch your six, son.
A humorless huff was wrung out of him, both hands tightening on the Impala's steering wheel. Sure, Dad, he thought. Only, it's not so much the monsters tailing me I have to worry about. It's the one I'm going back to.
As quickly as the thought came he cut it off. Dean wasn't a monster. Dean wasn't a monster any more than he had been when he'd been hopped up on demon blood. It was all the Mark of Cain.
Wasn't it?
No.
He couldn't think this way. He wouldn't give up.
He fixed his eyes on the road ahead, to keep the image of the demon from crowding into his mind. Trying not to see the cold rage in his brother's face, the First Blade edged up against Cas' throat. He tried not to remember the liquid darkness of Dean's eyes, like Ruby's, nothing but smoke inside, smoke that could be squeezed out and banished, leaving the host behind. Only, like Ruby, if he exorcised the demon in Dean, what would be left? A comatose husk, because the demon was his brother.
A too cheerful gecko flashed by on a billboard as he cruised past at 80 miles per hour. He was driving too fast, lead foot on the gas, trying to outrun his thoughts. Memories beat a merciless tempo in his head, the past, the life, the way his brother had always moved, gracefully lethal, mercilessly precise. A hunter, a soldier trained to fight in his father's war.
A soldier trained to kill.
He huffed, willing his thoughts to a stop. It'd been a close call thing, but Dean had pulled up. He hadn't cut into Cas; he hadn't hurt anyone. He wasn't any different than Lenore, than Amy, than Benny. If they could keep a grip on the monster within, so could Dean.
Except.
None of them, not Lenore, not Amy, not even Benny, could even begin to imagine wiping out three angels without so much as breaking a sweat. Even Abaddon had given the angels a wide berth.
What was Dean becoming?
Dead, dead man's skin icy cold beneath his hand.
Monster.
Dangerous.
No. Not yet. They hadn't been through Hell and Heaven and everything in between for it to come to this. There had to be something. A cure, a fix, some way out.
There just had to be.
With a deep breath Sam sat up straighter in the driver's seat. He looked at his watch. He should be getting back soon.
He put the traitorous thoughts he'd been thinking away; locked them down.
He ought to know how.
After all, he'd learned from the best.