(Dean Winchester)
This is awkward, I think, each time Ruby's thigh rubs against mine when the tow truck hit a rut, which is roughly every 1.3 seconds. I still wish I could have left her behind but who knows what kind of hoodoo she can do and maybe witches really can fly. Hopefully I can foist her off on Bobby I decide and, when I turn to check my right hand side before I turn out onto the slightly less rutted road to Baby Armadillo, she's staring right at me.
"Cut the crap, Ruby," I tell her and she snickers, then I ask her again, "Why are you still here?"
"Because even Castiel knows you can't be trusted to keep Sam safe," she says with a look of disgust and if I were a smoker I'd have put my cigarette butt out on her forehead.
"I'm not the one pushing him to go up against Lilith armed with only a hand, to use his 'powers'," I say it and the words are like ash on my tongue.
"Sam has a gift," she counters and I think it's purely semantics., You say gift, I say curse. Whatever, it doesn't really matter, its just plain wrong and I tell her so.
"Listen!" It's Sam and he's really steamed, which is a huge improvement over zombie, "It doesn't matter. With or without your help, Dean, I'm checking out and it's my dying wish to use my powers to save your life but you're so bull headed that you'd deny me even this," he says hotly, "And so what if it's evil, it's not like I was ever gonna go to heaven," he then says softly.
"Screw heaven Sammy," I tell him, "Castiel promised to perform a miracle, to give you back your eyes."
"And you believe him?" Sam asks me and for the first time I have doubts and wonder, can angels lie? Nah, I think and it seems I have more faith in them than Sam does, which is totally jacked because he's the one who always prayed, still prays as far as I know. I look at Ruby again and I realize I don't really know what Sam does anymore, what he thinks, what he believes.
"Why didn't you just stay gone?" I ask her, "I left Sam more than prepared to keep on hunting without your help."
"All you left him with was a great big hole inside of him, a hole that I helped him fill up."
"With what? Your demonic bullshit?" I know she wants to hit me, hard, but she just takes a deep breath as the truck lurches once more.
"I tried to just sit back and watch but it was too painful," she says and we both turn to look at Sam. He turns his head as if to look out the window while Santiago's head continues to bounce off of his shoulder.
"He gutted all his pain, all his anger, all his fear and still he was empty inside, especially after trying like hell to get you out of the pit and failing time after time. He was empty until he started using his powers to save the people he could, until he started seeing the difference he could make."
"Yeah, but at what price?" I ask her because it sounds all good but I know the devil always exacts his due.
Ruby reaches over Santiago and places her hand on Sam's leg and says, "It doesn't really mattered what the price was, what the price may still be, because, just like me, Sam's willing to pay it."