Author's Note: Right, I have no idea where this came from. One minute I'm happily borrowing my mam's laptop to answer some questions in several private messages, the next I'm suddenly typing away like crazy. I blame Sam and Crowley for this, I really do.

I need to say a massive thank you to everyone who has pm-ed with words of encouragement during my own horrible Hellatus, which is due to GCSES and a comatose computer. Thank you so much guys for sticking by me with such patience! Please grin and bear it a little longer and hopefully I'll soon have a TONNE of updates for you. Until then, take this as a peace offering. Care of my recent obsession with a certain English demon. ;)

Words in italics are Sam's thoughts at the time. :P

Warning: Me being me, this contains swearing, scenes of violence/torture, and constant bickering between hunters and demons alike (Cas is apparently too polite to argue. :P) If offended by any of the aforementioned, then stay away. :L

Disclaimer: As always, I do not own Supernatural. Not even a teeny knife or weeny gun.

"One Simple Plan"

"So I did the only thing you can do when you are trapped in a corner: I chewed my way through the wall."
~Scott Adams~

Present

"You know what Dean, this is the last time we work with a demon…" Sam found himself muttering while peering blearily around the darkened room. His head was throbbing, and his side was killing him. Hopefully he hadn't broken anything, or else he really would be in big trouble.

As if the trouble wasn't big enough all ready!

"And you know what, Bobby?" Sam continued talking to himself as he tried to get his hands – which were currently tied behind his back – free of the tight knots, "this is the last time we help any of your friends." He gave the cord one last useless tug, before giving up with a sigh, "I'm being serious." He leant back into the chair he was bound to with a moan of pain as his side protested. Closing his eyes, Sam fought against the rising nausea he was feeling every time he moved his head.

"And you know what, Sammy-boy," Came a voice from the darkness, mocking his latest ramblings, "They say that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness."

Oh, brilliant. He's come 'round and all.

Eyes fluttering open, Sam peered into the darkness of the room. All he could see was the faint outlines of devil's traps and a table, piled high with objects he couldn't make out. There didn't seem to be anyone else there, but Sam knew that he wasn't alone.

Unfortunately.

"How come you're here?" Sam asked the other side of the room while fighting to keep his eyes open. The drumming noise inside his head was upping the tempo, and it didn't half hurt.

There's a song about that…I think.

"I'm…Trapped." The voice muttered, sounding embarrassed. "Not going anywhere anytime soon. Neither are you, by the looks of it."

"Sssstrange." Sam heard himself slurring the word. His battle to fight unconsciousness wasn't going well, apparently. But he didn't want to slip into that world, not without knowing what the hell was going on.

He heard faint swearing and a rustling noise before hearing a wince of pain.

"What…Are you doin'…?" He muttered groggily to the shadows.

"Trying to get out. Seems they know their stuff." There was another wince of pain.

"What… Happened…? Why're we…Kept here?"

There was a brief silence, before the voice came back again. "Sammy –boy, they're coming for us. And they know what I am, and who you are. And judging by the way we've been locked up, we're not being invited to a bloody tea-party."

"Oh." Was all Sam said, before he lost his fight to stay awake. Without another word, he slipped into unconsciousness.

Three days previous

"So." Sam said, turning around in his seat to face his brother. They had been driving for some time now, and neither had commented much on where they were going or even why, for that matter. They had nattered about Cas and how they could help him, before Dean had put on his usual loud rock music. Now, however, Sam had had enough of avoiding the huge demon-sized white elephant strolling around the car, and had decided to question his brother's motives.

After all, just why exactly were they working, yet again, yet a demon? After all the lecturing Sam had been given and duly received about the whole fiasco that had been Ruby, now Dean was willing to trust a demon? It just didn't make any sense, and Sam couldn't understand his brother.

"So." He said again, looking at his brother, who kept his eyes fixed on the road ahead.

Sam decided to try another tactic. "Dean-"

"Spit it out, Sammy." Dean interrupted, rolling his eyes. "But I already have a good idea on what it is you're planning on saying to me."

Throwing caution to the wind, Sam just went for it. "Look, Dean. I don't get it. At all. Why are we working with a demon?" He asked, watching his big brother's reaction.

Dean sighed, and looked at his little brother. He could understand why his was getting questioned – hell, he was questioning himself about his actions. He felt like he was disobeying the first rule his father had ever taught him – 'don't ever trust anything you hunt, no matter what.' Later, Dean had found out how demons loved to twist and manipulate humans, telling those people truths to screw up their minds, as well as lying too. So why on earth was he listening to one now? What was he working with it…Again? Especially after what had happened to his baby brother with the Ruby affair and what she did to him. Dean had been so angry at Sam for working and trusting a demon, and now he was playing the 'double standards' card himself.

Dean sighed again, knowing he was going to have to answer his brother's question. A question he wasn't too sure of the answer himself. He switched off the music and began to speak.

"Listen, Sam. I know why you're asking me this. I get it. But look – we need all the help we can possibly get right now. Even demonic help." He added, seeing Sam open his mouth. "You know that there are things we can't do ourselves! I know that Crowley is using us – he only wants to save himself – but he's a demon and I expect that. We'll deal with him after we stop Lucifer. And you have to admit that without him, we wouldn't have the last two Rings, and we couldn't have stopped the Croatoan virus from spreading without him, either."

"He could be like… Ruby." Sam quickly spat out the name, "Y'know, a double agent. What if he's just playing us?" He asked, looking at Dean. "I wouldn't put it past him. After all, he was second only to Lilith herself, and look how close to Lucifer she was! And how powerful, too!"

Dean shook his head thoughtfully. "I don't think so, Sam. You saw how that demon who possessed Brady acted when he saw Crowley; what he said. Crowley's on the run and the other demons are after him. He knows that if he crosses us, we'll kill him or let his own kind get to him first. So he has to play nice with us."

"Look at how Ruby worked. The other demons thought she was a traitor; that's how cleverly she pulled off her act! What if he's the same?"

Dean shrugged, looking back at the road ahead. "Then he's a far better actor than I gave him credit for. Look, Sam – I'm not too happy about working with him either, but we need to. For now, anyway." Dean added.

Sam shook his head, and looked out of the window next to him. "I don't trust him." He muttered.

His brother laughed. "And you think I do? Like I said before, if he crosses us, we can deal with him."

Sam sighed. "It's just… It feels odd, working with a demon." He nearly said the word, 'again' but decided not to. He didn't want to start a fight between his brother and himself over how stupid he had been once Dean had gone to Hell and even after he had returned.

Dean looked at him again, with something like sympathy in his eyes which also looked tired. "I know you do, Sammy. It's the same for me. But we gotta do what we gotta do."

"Which is stopping the Son of Lucifer from rising." A lone voice said brightly from the back of the Impala.

For crying out loud!

Sam swore and turned to see Crowley sitting quite contently with his arms folded. "Would you stop doing that?" Sam thundered, but Crowley only laughed.

Dean couldn't help but chuckle when he saw the frustrated face Sam was pulling. He looked into his mirror and abruptly stopping laughing when he saw that Crowley's hands were stained red with what appeared to be blood.

"What the hell did you do?" Dean asked the demon, while Sam followed Dean's gaze and saw the blood as well.

Why am I not surprised that a demon just waltzed out of thin air into the car with blood over him?

The Crossroads demon looked down at his hands and laughed again, his brown eyes glittering. "Oh, whoopsies. Knew I forgot to do something." He rummaged around in one of his coat pockets and pulled out a cloth, and started cleaning his hands. He glanced down at his shirt and saw more splatters of blood and sighed. "That will never come out. Shame. I liked that shirt." He looked quite despondent at the fact.

Dean and Sam just stared, wondering what on earth Crowley had done to cause so much blood to be split.

"If any of that gets on the back seat's upholstery…" Dean warned the demon, while Sam shook at his head at his brothers OCD over his beloved Impala.

Typical Dean – someone could've just been killed and all he cares about is making sure there are no bloodstains in his car.

"You haven't answered Dean's question – what did you do?" Sam interrogated the demon, who looked up at him with a smirk. "Did you just kill someone? Wouldn't put it past you, you filthy-"

"Sam!" Dean interrupted. "We've been through this already!" He peered at Crowley using his mirror. "Well, Crowley?" He asked.

"Well, let's just say I had some business to do. Apparently some minor demon thought they could try to catch me and turn me in." Crowley snorted, as if to say 'how stupid can you get?' His smirk grew more pronounced as he continued. "He won't try it again. Ever. Neither will any of the others who thought along similar lines." He scrunched up the now bloodstained piece of fabric and threw it out of the window next to him.

"Right." Dean said, looking at the demon warily. "Just… Next time, clean your hands before you get into my baby."

"I do apologise most profusely." The demon said, sounding anything other than apologetic. He laughed, before looking at Sam with an amused expression. Sam had not said a word since Crowley had spoken, but instead had glowered in his general direction. "You really dislike me, don't you?" He sounded almost hopeful.

Sam was tempted to dig out the holy water under his chair and fling it into the thing's eyes and face, but refrained when he considered how mad Dean would get at the water staining the upholstery of the seats. Crowley had been here for only a few minutes at most and already Sam was close to killing him. How the bloody hell was he going to cope with his being here for the whole duration of the hunt?

I'm going to end up either killing him, or myself.

Or quite possibly both.

Dean just laughed and decided to concentrate on driving. Obviously his little brother's hatred of all demon kind was going to be a problem on this latest hunt, but at the same time Dean could understand why Sam got mad at Crowley so often. The Crossroads demon just seemed to go of his way to wind Sam up, even though he knew what Sam thought of him and what Sam could do. Hopefully, however, this would stop soon. They all needed to work together; something that wouldn't be achieved if this sort of behaviour continued.

Said little brother was currently turning around to face Crowley and glared at him. "I don't dislike you. I actually can't stand you. Alright?"

Crowley laughed delightedly. His day was getting better. It was so much fun to annoy the youngest Winchester; there were so many buttons he could press to provoke him. "Now really, Sammy. You of all people shouldn't say such things to me." He said with a grin, hoping Sam would swallow the bait and thus answer him.

"What is that suppose to mean, you annoying bastard?" Sam said through clenched teeth.

"Well, after all… You appear to get along so well with demons. There was of course, Ruby…" Crowley watched as Sam's eyes suddenly blazed with fury, and carried on, "It ended with a messy breakup – you did kill her – but you had great fun with that one. And of course, there was darling little Meg before her – you told her all your woes about big brother here, didn't you, before you knew what she was. And of course, there was old Yellow-Eyes himself – he had such high hopes for you. The two of you must have got on like a house on fire – oh wait, you did, didn't you?" Crowley finished with a wide grin, waiting for Sam's reaction. Oh, he enjoyed this. He enjoyed it a lot.

You did not just say what I think you said.

Sam was actually trembling with barely-suppressed rage and he discovered that he couldn't speak, but when he did, he spoke with a voice laced with fury.

"I am going to kill you."

Crowley's eyes seemed to darken and glitter more, and he leant forward. "I would like to see you try, darling." He winked.

Dean decided to quickly intervene before the two of them ended up actually killing each other – it was bad enough that already they were at each other's throats. But his point had been proven to be correct – Crowley was going out of way to make Sam furious, and Dean didn't know how long Crowley could get away with it. Besides, he was angry on his little brother's behalf and he was going to show Crowley that he wasn't to deal such low blows towards Sammy.

"Crowley, that's enough from you. Keep this up and so help me God, I will send you back to Hell where your little friends will only be too happy to see you again!" Dean shouted, taking a small delight in seeing Crowley's smirk get wiped off his face.

"You wouldn't." The demon said, looking horrified.

"You don't think I would? Say something like that to my brother again and I will. In fact, I'd get him to be the one to send you back. He would love that, wouldn't you, Sammy?" Dean glanced at his little brother, who was still looking totally consumed with anger, but nodded with a wicked grin of his own.

"Oh, I would love to do that." He looked at the demon.

"You don't know how to send me back. What exorcisms you know won't work on me." Crowley muttered, glaring. He was tempted – very, very tempted – to just break every bone in the younger Winchester's body. He could do it in the blink of an eye without even touching him, but sparing a glance at the angry face of Dean, knew that he would then be hunted by a vengeful older brother as well as the entire population of Hell. He had known that to stay on the safer side of the brothers he would have to help them out and be on his best behaviour but hey – he was a demon.

"How do you know we haven't found out by now?" Sam said darkly. He hoped that Crowley couldn't tell that he was bluffing. This was his one card he had to play against the demon. Sam hoped it would work.

Crowley guessed that the Winchesters were lying, but then again… He couldn't be too sure. He had stories of these two and what they were capable of, and he also knew that if they did manage to send him back, he would be subjected to hundreds of years of the most painful and barbaric tortures ever invented. Something he was pretty sure he didn't want to have to go through.

Sighing, Crowley realised he would have to give in and leave Sam be. Which was a pity, for that was the best entertainment around.

"Fine." He muttered, annoyed at his giving in. He threw the younger Winchester a poisonous glare before allowing his attention to be drawn to looking outside of the window.

Sam still looked angry and still glowered at the back of the demon, but turned around to face the front of the car. He knew now, at least, what he could threaten the demon with to make him behave. Which was something, he guessed.

If I could send him back, I would do so without blinking an eye.

Dean, seeing that the threat of confrontation had mercifully disappeared, decided to swiftly change the topic before anything else could be said by either of his passengers that could encourage another 'verbal war'.

"So, Crowley. How did you know about the demon search squad?" He asked, thinking that it was better to focus on their latest hunt as opposed to killing each other.

Crowley kept looking out of the window. "I heard news, and me being me found out." He shrugged. "You should know by now I have my ways." He smirked.

Sam's total disgust for the demon was eventually trumped by his desire for knowledge and he decided to continue the questioning. "Did Lucifer actually copy everything that God did? I mean, Jesus is God's son, right, and Mammon is Lucifer's… What else did he copy?" Sam asked, and the fact that his little brother was once again acting like the walking encyclopedia made Dean smile. He had missed that. Ever since they were young kids Sam had enjoyed pestering him, or their dad, for information. It had been nothing but questions, but recently that had stopped. Now Dean could see however a glimpse of his little brother from a while ago.

Crowley turned around, now looking at Sam with something akin to interest. "You actually care about us living on the other side of the coin, Sam? Well, I am impressed." He studied the younger Winchester. "After all, you were meant to be the leader for the army, were you not? I had Lilith moaning in my ear for quite some time over that." He said, his grin widening. "She was really determined to put you down like a, 'sick puppy' if I remember correctly. Personally, I believe it was pure jealousy – all the attention you were given and she received none. Her, the first demon ever made and by Lucifer at that." He shook his head and laughed. "She really wanted your head on a plate."

Exactly what I wanted from her. How ironic.

Sam laughed. "Really?" He looked at his brother. It was strange hearing a demon talk about something that had been so big so naturally. Hell, it was strange talking so matter-of-factly with a demon, full stop. Especially a demon who had been close to the very demon Sam had been pitted against.

"Oh yes." Crowley appeared to be enjoying himself. "But that wasn't what you wanted to know."

"No. We want to know 'bout Lucifer and his minions." Dean put in. He too was intrigued by talking to the demon, who was casually talking about Hell and its secrets.

"Indeed you do. Well, you may laugh, but Lucifer is God to us. Our Creator, if you will." Crowley was no longer looking at Sam but instead was staring straight ahead. "The fallen Morning Star. The angel who fought with his brothers and was locked up by Michael. He was beautiful, you know." Crowley said, apparently lost in thought. "Then… Then he became the Devil you know and hate. He had hated his Father for ordering him to bow to you lot, and for making Jesus, so he took revenge and created Mammon."

"How?" Sam breathed, totally absorbed with this new information. "Jesse – the Antichrist-"

"Is to be the 'end time' leader who fulfills Biblical prophecies concerning an adversary of Christ, while resembling Him in a deceptive manner. The antichrist will seemingly provide for the needs of the people but deny the ultimate salvation." Crowley said, apparently reciting from somewhere. "Your little Jesse was made by a succubus – the highest ranking one - impregnating a human female, as you well know. Mammon was created by Lucifer himself doing the deed. How? I don't know." Crowley admitted, shrugging. "But this was before he was locked up, shortly after he made Lilith; the first demon. It was possible him for him."

"How long ago are we talking?" Dean asked.

Crowley laughed. "Once again, you're lucky to have your looks. I thought you would have known! You are talking about thousands of years ago. Thousands. And shortly afterwards, Michael trapped Lucifer into the Box, and consigned Lilith to the very depths of Hell. Mammon was born to a human female who may have been a virgin, I do not know. Anyway he was tracked down and handed to Lilith herself, thus he grew up in Hell."

"Where he has been ever since, I'm guessing?" Sam said.

Crowley winked. "Top of the class, Sammy-boy. Only now, he wants out. Which brings us back to the little job at hand. We have to stop his vessel being found. If he pops out of the Pit, we'll be dealing with not just one show-down, but two." He shook his head. "Something I think we all agree cannot happen."

"Michael versus Lucifer and then Lucifer versus Mammon?" Dean guessed. "Do these guys not care about the people they will kill in their little games?" He thundered.

Sam nodded slowly in agreement with his brother, but another thought had struck him suddenly. "Crowley… You seem to know a hell of a lot about this." His eyes narrowed. "Just how old are you exactly?"

Crowley leant back into the upholstery, his dark eyes glittering. "Maybe I'm just a good listener, and like to know my own Bible stories, hmm?"

Sam snorted. "Like hell you do. I know you were second only to Lilith, and she was Lucifer's first. You do the math – that means you were the second demon created, right?"

"Oh, you think so highly of me. I'm really very touched by this display." Crowley said with a laugh.

Dean sighed. "Just answer the damn question, Crowley! I don't want to hear this going on and on for evermore!" Secretly though he was just as interested as Sam was, but he didn't want the demon to gloat anymore than he already was. Then he really would be unbearable!

"Well, maybe I was the second or maybe I was not." Crowley smiled that infuriating smile of his which made Sam roll his eyes. "Anyway, I don't see how that is so imperative to this case. As far as I am aware, we need to stop Mammon, and the last time I looked he didn't seem to care about rankings." Crowley glanced out the window again, his attention on the previous subject apparently waning.

Sam sighed, and turned around to face the front of the car once more, his hopes of gaining more interesting information dashed. However he had learnt something important anyway about Mammon and his existence, and as a result was more determined to thwart another creature of Hell from crawling into the World and cause death and destruction. He looked at his big brother.

"How far have we got left to travel?" He asked, smiling a bit as he realised how young he sounded by asking that question. "Or should I say, 'are we there yet?'" He said with a chuckle.

Dean laughed. "We should be there within an hour or so, Samantha. Not far to go. We'll check into a motel and then look for Bobby's friend, Thomas Richardson. At least, I think that's his name. He's the hunter around here. He and Bobby go a while back; Bobby saved his life once and Thomas hasn't forgotten it. Always ready to help him out, but this time he needs Bobby's help."

Only it's not gonna be Bobby who'll help him, but us.

Crowley sat up at the name of the hunter. "Richardson… I do know that name from somewhere…" He murmured, once again lost in thought.

Dean glanced at Sam, before looking at Crowley. "See if you've killed a friend of his and you're thinkin' that you're gonna meet this guy with us…" He said warningly. "You could get us into a lot of trouble. This guy hates demons, almost as much as Sammy here does." Dean broke off laughing darkly. "And that's saying something!"

Sam cracked a smile, but was too busy focusing on Crowley, wondering what the connection was between the demon and Bobby's friend; what had happened in the past between them. Knowing the demon, it was probably linked to murder, or violence of some kind.

He volunteered to help us knowing he had history with this Thomas?

And he called us idiots.

"Dean, I'm hurt!" The demon pouted. "You have such a low opinion of me. I'll have you know I don't go around killing humans!"

"That time when we went to pick up the demon Brady? You killed two guards –who were not possessed! – for no reason!" Dean retorted, looking (and feeling) exasperated.

Crowley smirked. "Well, I don't usually do that." He said, before muttering, "At least, not all the time."Seeing Dean raise an eyebrow at him, Crowley shrugged. "That's what you get for working with a demon! And since I cannot recall harming or killing anyone called Richardson, it seems I am quite innocent of these accusations."

"Yeah. This time!" Dean said, rolling his eyes at the demon. "Seriously though, don't cross this guy. Like I said before, he really hates you guys." He continued, gesturing at Crowley. "He has a real vendetta against demons for some reason; Bobby didn't go into the details with me. Anyway, just stay outta his way, okay?"

Crowley mimed locking his hands together and tossing away the non-existent key. "Whatever you say, Deano."

Deciding to ignore the demon's antics –

Something I'll have to get used to

- Sam looked at his brother. "Did Bobby tell him it's only us coming and not him too?"

Dean shrugged. "Yeah. Guess so. Thomas didn't seem to mind though. Just glad to get any help right now I guess." He cracked a smile, but it didn't reach his eyes. "I know the feeling."

Sam inwardly winced. He too knew the feeling; it was just that Dean was usually so composed on this sort of topic; so reluctant to say that he felt defeated. Well, usually he was, but recently… Recently he had been more open. More likely to turn around and say, 'screw this' or curse against God and the Angels. Sam also could see that there were days where his brother didn't want to get up in the mornings, or wouldn't go to sleep at night. He also saw that his brother seemed to be drinking more often these days. But what was worse about the whole mess was that Dean was mentioning this in front of a bloody demon. And what's more, he didn't even seem to give a damn about it, either.

Things are getting from bad to worse.

He was about to offer some sympathy to his older brother when he found himself being interrupted.

"Oh, boo hoo." Crowley remarked dryly from the back seat. "If this is going to be a session of, 'I'm all alone in the World, O woe is me' then I swear I will rip out your tongue, glaze it and sell it as a fizzy sweet." He paused, looking thoughtful. "How does 'Fizzy Winchesters' sound as a brand name?"

There was silence.

Sam felt ready to make a lunge at the demon, which was sitting so contently behind his brother, but decided to see Dean's reaction first. Expecting fury and rage, he found himself surprised and actually a tad disappointed when Dean seemed to be containing laughter.

"Dean," Sam said slowly, trying to restrain himself, "Are you actually laughing at what the demon just said?" Judging by his brother's shaking shoulders, he was.

It took a few seconds for Dean to control himself, and when he had he turned to face his brother.

"It's the image I had in my head of Crowley standing at a crossroads with a sugar-coated human tongue in his hand, with a sign over his head saying, 'Fizzy Winchesters'." Dean laughed again, and saw that his little brother was anything but amused. "Sorry. Seems my sense of humour changed 'cause of the whole 'Apocalypse Now' deal."

"It kinda has, yeah." Sam muttered, looking at his brother warily.

"Oh, give over, Bitch." Dean said, a grin forming around his mouth. Sam couldn't help but reply, seeing as his brother had seemingly been raised from the ebb of a depression. Besides, it was a link to the 'Old Days' and who was Sam to complain about that? Hell, he missed those days.

"Give over yourself, Jerk." Sam retorted. Seeing his brother's grin widen, Sam felt a happiness that he hadn't experienced in far too long. It felt… Good. Really good. But it also made him feel a little sad.

When was the last time Dean and he had exchanged those all-too familiar words? It had been so long ago; Sam couldn't remember. It was sad to consider that, but there you go. And annoyingly, it had been the demon in the back seat, whose presence infuriated Sam, who had helped return a grin to Dean's face.

Making a mental note to keep the whole 'bitch/jerk' routine alive, Sam decided to see what the demon as up to now, seeing as he had been unusually quiet for a bit.

But on making an investigation of the backseat, Sam saw that Crowley was gone. Turning himself around again, Sam looked out of the car window at his side.

"He's gone again." He informed his brother.

Dean shrugged, apparently not too concerned. "Just as well. It would've been awkward checking into a motel with the three of us. Hell, when it's the two of us it's bad. Three of us would've been worse."

"He could be backing out, you know." Sam propped himself up against the door of the car, "Making a run for it." He knew he was being paranoid again, but still. Someone needed to point out the obvious.

"Sammy, we've been through all this. 'Sides, why would he back out now? It makes no sense-"

"'Cause you know, it makes absolute perfect sense to have him being here and all." Sam interrupted, rolling his eyes. "Come on, Dean! He's a freakin' demon! Are you telling me you actually trust him now? Is that it? You go off with him a couple of times and you're what, buddies now?"

"This coming from the guy who wanted to ask the Trickster to help us-"

"Who turned out to be Gabriel! Not a Trickster, but an Archangel!" Sam said defensively, throwing his hands up. "He-"

"Still wouldn't help us." Dean interrupted again. He looked annoyed, but then something triggered in his memory and he relented. "But he did in the end, I'll give him that. But," Dean changed course as Sam opened his mouth, "That was all totally different! Now, discussion over, Sam. I don't want to have to keep arguing about this all the time we're here. We need Crowley now, and when we don't, we simply won't work with him anymore. Okay?" Dean sounded final, but it didn't escape Sam's attention that he hadn't answered his previous question.

In fact, he had avoided it.

Sam was about to bring that up when Dean again said, "It's over, Sammy." Seeing the look in his big brother's eyes, Sam mutinously shut his mouth, none too happy about it. He went back again to looking outside of the window, and a silence cloaked the Impala.

Perhaps Dean didn't like it anymore than Sam, for a moment or two later he leant forward and pressed a button and then Metallica was once again blasting loudly.

*le gasp* I had to write and re-write this chapter so many times; I can't bear to read it again. :L
Thank you for all the reviews, faves, and alerts. They make me so happy! Thank you again!