Dean's phone rang half an hour into their drive. He glanced at the screen with a sneer and then flipped it open angrily.

"What, Crowley?" Dean got angrier as Crowley spoke. "Yes you coward, the angel is gone. Hello?"

Dean flung the phone on the ground at Sam's feet. "Stupid moron hung up on me."

"I don't appreciate the names you associate me with, Dean."

Dean and Sam both spun around to stare at the backseat, which Crowley now occupied, sipping a glass of expensive whiskey.

"How the hell…." Dean started while Sam had to force his brother to keep his eyes on the road.

"That tracking coin I put on the angel? There's one in this sad, smelly excuse of a car." Crowley looked like just sitting in the Impala was infecting him with a terrible disease.

The car slammed to a halt, and Crowley's whiskey went splashing out of his glass. Dean turned around with blazing black eyes. "You know nothing about this car so I suggest you shut the hell up before I decide to turn the Colt on you, which I stole from your mansion by the way."

Crowley didn't look threatened; instead he appeared pleased. "Ah, I didn't even notice. Very good theft skills there. I like your passion, Dean, there's hardly a demon that has any."

Dean's expression changed from angry to confused. He let out a frustrated huff and turned back around, starting up the car.

"I wouldn't worry about me if I were you," Crowley continued. "I'm most likely the only one that doesn't underestimate your denim-clad nightmares. I know better than to get on your bad side."

Sam couldn't help but let out a quiet chuckle. Crowley could be funny if he wanted to sometimes.

"Then maybe you're actually smarter than I made you out for," Dean grumbled.

"Ha, ha." Crowley rolled his eyes and Sam decided to finally speak up.

"What are you doing here, anyway?"

"Ah, so he speaks." Crowley smirked, attempting to wipe the spilled whiskey off his suit. "Good question too. I've decided that it's best that you don't come back to my mansion."

"Why the hell is that?" Dean practically shouted even though Crowley was a mere few inches from him.

"Because the angels will keep coming back if you two dumbasses are there and that's putting my life in danger. Besides, you should get a head start on going after Alastair and ending him once and for all. He's becoming quite the hassle, I've heard."

"Of course, Crowley, it's all about you."

"I'm a demon, of course it is. You should understand, Dean, because of the idiotic lengths you'll go to save that damn brother of yours."

Something occurred to Sam just then. Crowley wasn't in this simply to get rid of Lilith like Dean had assumed. There was something else Crowley was aiming for. He wouldn't be that desperate to work with them to kill Lilith simply to stop the apocalypse. If anyone could survive the apocalypse, it was Crowley. Another thing… why would Crowley care about Alastair's fate anyway. As far as Sam knew, the two had nothing to do with one another.

"You're not in this just to stop Lilith from starting the apocalypse, are you Crowley?" Sam asked and the demon looked affronted at Sam's sudden attention. "There's something in it for you, isn't there? Something big."

Crowley looked offended at first and Dean glanced over at Sam, finally understanding the same thing.

"Of course there is. And I assume now I'm going to have to tell you two pigs if we're going to continue working together. Am I right?" At the brothers' hard stares Crowley continued. "If we lock away Lilith, she doesn't control Hell anymore. Guess who comes into control then…"

"Alastair." Dean stated, his voice rough and grim. Sam knew he didn't imagine the shiver that ran through his brother's body. He reached over to place a hand on Dean's elbow and his brother didn't even shake it off. Dean was really affected by this news, and he wished he could use his powers to kill Alastair for torturing his brother.

"That's right. But if you two end him, I'm next up on the food chain. I don't know about you two morons but I think I would be a much better replacement than that scumbag. Would cause you both a lot less hassle too, having someone in charge who is on your side."

It all made sense now. Crowley, that sneaky cocky demon had planned this all out. Helping Dean out of Hell and working towards a common goal of killing Lilith. Crowley knew what Dean had been through with Alastair and wouldn't stand for him ruling Hell. And then when Crowley realized Sam was a permanent part of the picture, he understood Dean's devotion to him. The crossroads demon knew that Dean would stop at nothing to save Sam from Lilith's evil plans. He also knew that the person Sam would want dead the most was his brother's tormentor. He used their passion to gain what he wanted, to be the ruler of Hell.

Everything about being a hunter told Sam not to allow this. To be working with demons (other than his brother of course) and to help one become the ruler of Hell of all places. He should shoot Crowley right now; Sam did have the Colt after all. But it was true that they would much rather have Crowley than this Alastair, who tore apart souls in Hell in ways Sam didn't want to imagine. At least Crowley, as conniving as he could be, never harmed Dean and wanted to keep them on his side. There was always the option of killing Crowley as well after Alastair was gone… but who knew what demon was next in line after Crowley.

It was best to just let Crowley get what he wanted. If he got out of hand down the line, then Sam and Dean could take matters into their own hands.

"Can't believe I didn't figure that shit out on my own." Dean fisted a hand in his hair with frustration.

"Such a potty mouth, aren't you, Winchester," Crowley cooed.

"You don't have this Alastair tracked down yet, do you?" Sam asked.

Crowley gave Sam a blank stare. "Does it look like it, Moose? If I knew his whereabouts don't you think I would have told you ages ago?"

Sam rubbed at his temples. Being with two demons in the car at the same time was getting aggravating. He couldn't handle both Dean's tense attitude at the moment and Crowley's 'no-shit' blatant statements.

"You okay?" Dean asked in a hoarse voice and Sam looked up to see Dean's black eyes on him, the anger on his face made way for concern.

Sam made a mental note to never internally complain about Dean's attitude again. It didn't matter what kind of attitude Dean wore, hidden beneath it and willing to come to the surface was always his concern for his little brother. That really said something about Dean, about the type of person he was. The fact that he was a demon made him that much more unique.

Sam shook his head and put a smile on for his brother. "Yeah. Just got a headache, that's all."

Dean narrowed his eyes at Sam. "You look tired as hell. Get some sleep." Something in his eyes changed then, as if Dean was just realizing something important about Sam. He turned around to scowl at Crowley. "You've harassed us enough; get the hell out of my car."

"Trust me; I'm itching to leave this germ-infested vehicle. Just one more inquiry and you'll be free of me for the time being."

"Then get on with it already!" Dean slapped his palms against the steering wheel in frustration. Sam wasn't sure why Dean was such in a hurry for Crowley to leave; he would be gone eventually, why make a fuss about it?

"I'm not that annoying, so relax you buffoon," Crowley hissed

"Well I'm sorry but I can't stand to be in your presence after you refused to teleport me to Sam! In the time it took me to drive out here he could have been dead!"

"Do you really think I would put my life on the line for that human of yours? He's alive isn't he? So take your vile attitude somewhere else."

"That's not the point, Crowley!"

"Then if you're so determined to save your brother quicker, maybe you should be practicing teleporting while your brother extracts demons! You're both slow learners; perhaps you could benefit helping one another!" Crowley seethed sarcastically.

Sam cleared his throat before Dean could respond and Crowley decided to end the current argument and turn to face Sam. "So tell me, Sam… what happened with the angel?"

"That's none of your business!" Dean shouted and Sam had to reach over to calm him again.

"It's fine Dean." Sam kept his tone light and then addressed Crowley. "He just wanted to talk. He's all confused as to if the angels are stopping or aiding in the apocalypse. I tried to reason with him a bit and it sounds like he might help us, or at least look into what we're working towards."

"And what exactly is he looking into?" Crowley asked.

"Lilith's whereabouts."

Crowley waved a hand in disgust. "That doesn't matter at the moment. The seals that she's breaking don't matter unless she ends up dead. Next time that atrocious angel stalks you, tell him to find Alastair. It will do us all a favor if he's out of the way first."

"There, you have your information, Crowley." Dean spared a quick angry glare towards the back of the car. "Now get the hell out of here."

Crowley rolled his eyes. "As you wish." He cooed mockingly before vanishing into thin air.

As soon as Crowley disappeared, Dean was pulling the car over towards the side of the road, near the forest.

"What the hell Dean? What's going…"

"Give me a water bottle from the backseat," Came Dean's clipped answer.

Sam sighed, but listened anyway, reaching over in the dark to unzip the duffle where they kept the drinks and some snacks. He searched around until he found a warm water bottle and turned to the front just in time to see Dean pull out the knife he kept in his boot and slice open his arm.

For a short second, Sam forgot about the whole demon-blood thing and he started to reach over to grab Dean's arm to stop his brother. Dean noticed this and smiled a little, he seemed to relax and his voice was much calmer when he spoke next.

"Can you pour a bit of that out Sammy?"

Sam rolled down the window and emptied a quarter of the water before he turned back to his brother.

"This good enough?" Sam asked as he handed the bottle over.

"Yeah, that's perfect." Dean took the offered bottle and held his bleeding arm over it, letting the blood dribble in. "You didn't take your daily drink yesterday, it's probably why you have that headache."

Sam watched as Dean added more drops of blood, thunder clapped outside and Sam wondered when the rain had started coming down so hard. It was pouring outside and the wind was howling, practically shaking the car. Sam laughed inside, with the demon blood scene going on inside the car and the dark setting outside, it would seem like they were in the perfect setup for a cheesy horror movie.

"I thought you told me I wasn't going to get side effects because you're watching my dosage." Sam pointed out, he didn't want to do this if it was messing with him in ways other than giving him these powers.

"You wouldn't be having any problems if you were able to have your daily drink yesterday." Dean told him as he capped the lid to the bottle and shook it. "All you have is a small headache, right?"

"Yeah."

"No nosebleeds like when you had those visions?"

"No." Sam dabbed under his nose anyway and his hand came away clean.

"Good, that's good. It's a sign that you're in control of your powers, not the other way around like fake-Ruby wanted. You don't seem to be irrationally angry; I heard that was a sign. The whole Lilith and fake-Ruby plan was to have you drink so much that you'd be completely out of your regular mindset and have the blood make you violent and careless. You wouldn't be thinking straight and you'd push everyone away until you killed Lilith like fake-Ruby would tell you to."

"I'd never have believed fake Ruby over you."

"That's what you think now, you wouldn't be thinking that with her trying to manipulate you with sex and gallons of demon blood in you."

"Gallons?"

"I heard some pretty nasty stuff down in Hell." Dean looked away before he said his next sentence. "According to Crowley, if I were to come back human and everything went just as they wanted, they were planning on having you drain an entire body of demon blood in order to kill Lilith."

Sam's mouth fell open. He couldn't ever fathom doing those horrible inhuman things. Well, he was drinking demon blood right now, but he was doing so under his brother's watch and at least he was drinking it in a humanly way. How would he ever come down so low as to follow a random demon's lead and drain an entire body… a body that would have also housed a human… of blood?

"Thank you for getting to me before they could try to turn me into that. I don't even want to imagine… I wouldn't even be me anymore…"

Dean shook his head. "Hell, I don't know if you'd even still be human after drinking that much at one time."

Sam shivered, his brother's words affecting him more than Dean probably realized. How could Sam ever be capable of doing those things, especially when Dean would have been brought back before he turned, brought back human?

"If you came back human like they wanted you to, you would have stopped me from becoming a monster," Sam said in a thick voice and pleaded at Dean with his eyes. "You're helping me right now, you stopped the plan. Why wouldn't you have been able to if you were still human? It doesn't make sense."

"It makes all the sense in the world, Sam." Dean was calm for once; usually he was irritated when he had to explain things in detail to Sam, expecting him to realize things on his own. "Remember what I told you? I would have come back human but almost completely broken and probably not even willing to live. I would have been less of the brother you remember than I am right now."

Sam could picture that and the sight in his head horrified him. Dean, a crumpled excuse for the man he used to be, dejected and barely fighting, waiting for death to take him….

"That's what they wanted. They needed me back human so I could break that first seal. I would have been weak and whiny…"

"You can't say being upset over what happened to you in Hell would be called whiny, Dean. You were tortured…."

"Yeah, I was," Dean interrupted him with a roll of his eyes. "And now I'm out. It's over and done with and complaining or moping about what happened to me would be pointless and pitiful. Gosh, I don't miss that about being human, the constant pointless emotions that can tear some people apart. It's stupid and ridiculous."

"So what you're saying is that you would have been so broken that you wouldn't have stopped me?"

"I would have been so caught up in my own pity party that I wouldn't have realized your problems until it was too late. You probably would have gotten aggravated by my weakness and kept secrets from me and oh joy, doesn't that sound like it would have gone down well?"

Sam crossed his arms over his chest. He knew Dean was probably right but that didn't mean Sam had to come to terms with the information just yet.

"If they wanted me to go dark-side or mislead me or whatever, why was fake Ruby not pushing me more often? Why didn't she bring up drinking her blood already?"

"Because she had no reason to rush anymore. She knew that if I was back human, the seals would start breaking and she'd have to hurry. But when she found out I'd turned she probably figured there was more time. She had more time to get you to truly trust her and do things right. They had to find another 'righteous man' and start over. And fake Ruby just assumed that because I'm a demon, I wouldn't be coming after you to save you. She just thought I wouldn't care but once she realized I did, she fled."

"So it's all because of you that the angels and demons are all confused and scrambling to get things how they want it?"

"Exactly." Dean smiled. "Look how amazing I am. Little ol' me was able to alter the fate of the universe and of heaven and Hell, all because I wanted to come back and save your whiny ass from turning into a demon-fucking monster."

Sam's eyes widened at Dean's description before he burst out laughing. "Dude, that's so disgusting."

"What? It's true. Why else do you think she picked a sassy brunette? Your type…"

"Shut up! I don't have a type!"

"Sure you don't. Wasn't Jess a fake-blonde?"

Bringing up Jess woke a long-forgotten ache in Sam's heart but Dean was right. "She died her hair sophomore year and liked blonde better. It was one of the things she wouldn't take my opinion on. Thanks for stalking me when I was in college, by the way."

Dean found some sugar packets that Sam kept in the car for his coffee and poured it into the demon-blood mixture. It was oddly sweet of him to do that, Sam figured. He could have just given him the mixture without making it more drinkable and told him to 'just drink it and suck it up'.

"No problem, I'm a master at stalking you. You really think I just left you alone the whole eight months I was back and you were moping around?" Dean handed Sam the bottle.

"You said you stopped by occasionally to check up on me," he answered as he took a drink, it tasted just as it normally did.

"Depends on what you consider occasionally. I wasn't about to let you die of misery. Remember that time you almost got hit by a car coming back from the bar? How the car mysteriously rolled ten feet backwards just as it was about to hit you? That fight you got in outside of the apartment and the guy just started vomiting for no reason, which gave you a chance to escape? How about the time you passed out at the park and those police officers found you? They were going to send you to jail or to a hospital or something. Remember how that man came out of nowhere and told the cops that you were his son? Picked your drunk ass up and somehow happened to know the hotel room you stayed at and dropped you off?"

Sam's jaw dropped and his eyes began to water. "That was you?" Sam remembered the kind but gruff man who saved him from the cops. Now that Sam thought back; the man had carried him in his room, the room that Sam had left unsalted from carelessness, and had somehow opened the locked door while still carrying Sam. He opened it with demon powers. And the quiet words as Sam had drifted off into an alcohol-ridden sleep 'You gotta take better care of yourself, Sammy'. That man had been Dean. For once he had someone watching over him to help him, someone who had been trying to get him back on the right path. Dean had saved him from the plan the angels and demons had been laying out for him, this so called destiny. One man had been able to change it all- his brother.

It just went to show that love and dedication went much further than selfishness and greed. Dean had been stronger than heaven and Hell combined.

"Might as well sleep here," Dean stated as Sam drank the rest of the mixture. "I'm not risking ruining my baby because the roads are so bad."

Sam flipped open his phone and checked the weather. Two more huge thunderstorms would roll in after this one. "Yeah, and you know, your car would get really dirty with all the muddy puddles. Can't have that."

"You got that right, bitch." Dean grinned and Sam threw the now empty water bottle at his face before clambering over to the backseat to sleep.

Sam used the snack duffle as a pillow and tried to contort his long limbs into a comfortable position. When he finally felt satisfied, Sam tried to doze off before realizing just how cold he was. He didn't have a jacket on when he was taken from Crowley's mansion and the ever-dropping temperature outside was making him freezing.

Suddenly Dean reached over and picked up his leather jacket from where it lied on the floor next to the backseat. He threw it at Sam.

"Put that thing on. You're freezing. I can hear you shivering, you big wuss."

"You're letting me wear your jacket?" Sam sounded amazed but Dean only shrugged.

"I don't really like that thing. It's way too big on me anyway; don't know why I wore it in the first place. You keep it."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, you were practically inseparable from the thing the whole time I was gone. Kinda creepy that you slept with it on, but whatever makes you happy."

Sam was a bit confused as to why the amulet and Impala still held so much importance to Dean but his jacket didn't.

It was eerily similar, the way the amulet had originally been for their father and Sam had given it to Dean instead. Now Dean was giving Sam a gift given to him by their father and handing it to his brother to keep.

Dean probably didn't realize it, but this action meant a lot to him. While Dean was in Hell, the jacket had been a constant reminder of Dean, of Dean's concern and love for him. Sam had become attached to it like Dean had the amulet and now Sam could say that he would also be wearing a gift from his brother.

Dean might not hold a lot of attachment to the jacket, but Sam sure did.

"Stop staring at the thing like you're having a love affair with it and get to sleep. We have work to do tomorrow and you have to be rested to develop your powers," Dean grumbled and finally laid down on the front seat.

Sam rolled his eyes as he slipped the jacket on, just before he fell asleep he heard his brother mumble.

"Such a freak, Sammy."

Sam fell asleep laughing, and no longer cold.