Six months later.

Sam's plan hadn't gone very well. He had captured a demon and fed off of her for two weeks. Two of her demon buddies came to rescue her and Sam had exorcised them. The demon ended up escaping a couple of days later and since then demons were avoiding him like the plague. He was tired. He was weak. He was hungry, but not for food. He walked around in a daze.

One morning he woke up and realized something. He was no longer craving demon blood. His inability to find it for so long had apparently gotten it out of his system. He remembered Dean and felt badly for all the things he had done.

He called Bobby. When things between him and Dean were this bad, they needed a go-between.

"Hello?" Bobby answered the phone.

"Bobby?" Sam asked.

"Sam, is that you?" Bobby asked in disbelief. He looked up at Dean, who was with him. They were checking on seals. There were a lot of them breaking lately. Dean looked up when he heard Sam's name.

Dean had felt guilty about Sam. He didn't know what to do, though. Sam had betrayed him somehow, he just wasn't sure how. Gordon had taken his secret to the grave.

"I'm in the next town over, Bobby. Can I come?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, of course you can," Bobby answered and hung up the phone. He had never been sure what had happened between those two. Dean had only said that they had gone their separate ways. He also said that Ruby was dead. Bobby had been sure that the two events were connected.

"Is he coming?" Dean asked.

"Yeah," Bobby said. "You're not leaving, are you?"

Dean hesitated for a long moment and finally said, "No."

Sam arrived at the house a half hour later. "Dean. I didn't know you were here," Sam said, awkwardly.

"Hi, Sam," Dean said, just as awkwardly.

"Dean, I'm sorry," Sam said. He knew how inadequate those words were for the monumental mistakes he had made, but he had to start somewhere.

"Me, too," Dean said.

"For what?" Sam asked, genuinely confused. Dean hadn't done anything to be sorry for, as far as he was concerned.

"I blamed you for Hell, Sam. I never came right out and said it, but I did and you knew it. You picked up on my resentment."

"I deserved it. It was my fault. You went to Hell for me."

"No, I went to Hell because I was selfish and weak. I didn't want to live without you and it wasn't fair to either one of us."

Sam nodded. There had been many times when he wished Dean hadn't brought him back. "What's done is done," he said. "You did it for both of us."

They stood there silently for a moment. Bobby looked back and forth between them, unsure of whether he should break the silence. His decision was made for him when Sam broke it.

"I'm going to tell you what Gordon was going to tell you and I'll understand if you hate me, kill me, or just kick me out for good," Sam said, looking down at his feet.

"I'm sure I won't do any of those things," Dean said. He had come to realize in the past few months that there was nothing Sam could do to make him stop loving him. He had imagined a lot of things that Gordon was going to say to him: Sam's eyes turned black, Sam had super strength like a demon, Sam and Ruby kissed. A hundred other things.

"I'm not so sure, but here goes." Sam hesitated again. He was scared of Dean's reaction. He hoped that if Dean decided he hated him that he would go ahead and kill him. Sam had lived for years thinking his father hated him. After his father had died, he had realized that it wasn't hatred, but actually too much love. But, he had felt that he hated him and he didn't want to feel that way with Dean. He would rather die.

"Sam?" Dean prompted.

"I drank Ruby's blood," Sam whispered.

Dean froze. He had never imagined that. But it didn't change anything. Sam was still his brother.

"Why?" he asked.

"It's what gave me my powers. And once I started I couldn't stop. It was like a drug. Addictive and powerful. That's why I'm back now. I haven't been able to get any for the last six months and I think it's out of my system."

"OK, then," Dean said.

"OK?" Sam and Bobby both said. Sam had actually forgotten Bobby was there until just then. He hoped Bobby didn't hate him.

"You made a mistake. It's over. You just said yourself what's done is done."

"OK," Bobby said, getting on board. He'd made a few mistakes in his day, too. Not drinking demon blood, granted, but big mistakes.

They all went back over to the table and started studying the signs to try to see how to stop Lillith.

TheEnd.