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Chapter title is from song by Metallica.

57

Nothing Else Matters - Metallica

Sam was waiting outside her door the next morning, two cups of takeout coffee in his hands.

"Dean is…" He threw a glance at the Impala behind him, and shrugged helplessly, handing her a cup.

She took the cup from his outstretched hand.

"Doesn't matter."

"Damned straight." The cold angry voice came from right behind her, and she very nearly jumped. Stupid damned teleporting. She refrained from spinning around on her heel, because she could feel the heat of him, too close by her shoulder, vibrating with pent up something, as tense as a taut string, topped off with a growl. "Where to?"

The glance Sam shot his brother was frustrated and exasperated. "Tulsa. Tulsa or Raleigh. There's a Benedictine Order in Tulsa, and …"

"The Ambelyn Foundation in Raleigh." She finished for him. Of course. "I didn't think biblical was their thing, though."

"Friends of yours, princess?"

"DEAN!" Sam snapped.

With great deliberation she put the coffee cup back into Sam's still outstretched hand and turned around. There was no place for this, the turmoil and recrimination in those green eyes as they looked back into hers, unsettled and uneven and wanting, emotion thick around him like a cloud, emotion like no demon should fall prey to. She drew herself up and stepped into the foot of space he had carefully left between them, icy and calm and controlled.

"Dial. It. Back. Or you will get us killed."

He didn't break her gaze, didn't back up, didn't give in, trying to say something without saying it. There was a hardness there, brittle without hope, and he flicked a glance at his brother over her shoulder before he came back to her, wanting something, she didn't know what, and it was hard not to put a hand on his arm to take away the torment in his eyes. But there was no place for that, if there ever had been, the illusion of togetherness.

This was a job.

Nothing more.

The corners of his mouth quirked downward in silent agreement.

She turned back around, took the coffee from the hand Sam hadn't moved, and walked off to her car.