Dean walked away from Sam, leaving him bewildered. He wasn't expecting that type of reaction out of his brother, it was too simple, too emotionless. He could tell that Dean wasn't handling this, and telling Sam not to get involved was in no way going to help this run of denial and drinking that Dean was clearly on.

Suddenly, Jen was there. Sam turned to her. Jen and Dean had a very different rapport then Sam and Dean did, so maybe she was handling this. Sam questioned her sharply.

"Is he at least talking to you about this?"

Jen met Sam's eyes for a moment and then looked away.

"Not … directly."

Sam frowned. That was not what he wanted to hear. One of them had to do something with Dean. He couldn't just act like everything was cool forever. Four months of hell had to be pretty traumatic. Sam sighed.

"This can't be good for him."

Jen shrugged. "This has always been Dean's way of handling things, and in some ways it works for him. I can't force him to talk about things he doesn't want to."

"But bottling things up and trying to drown them in whiskey is just going to kill him!"

Jen spoke quietly, looking up at Sam. "That's not the entire picture."

Sam's eyebrows crunched together as he looked at Jen. Of course, she always knows more than she says. Still, this was important; he had to understand what was going on. "Then tell me what I'm missing."

Jen sighed and looked at Sam sadly. He could read in her expression that she was pleading with him not to have this conversation with her. He pressed his lips together trying to contain the anger that was boiling up inside him. He hated being left out of things, especially this kind of huge thing. It was just like when they were kids and Dad would tell Dean everything, and they lied to Sam. They weren't kids anymore and Sam didn't need to be protected. He crossed his arms and spat his words at Jen who remained silently watching him.

"Right, you can't."

Sam turned to walk away, but Jen grabbed his hand. He turned back toward her. She spoke quietly, but firmly.

"Sam, do you trust me?" He looked into Jen's eyes. It was so hard to be mad at her when she had done so much for them over the years. He softened at her words.

"Yes, I trust you."

"Then trust me about this."

Sam sighed. He squeezed Jen's hand. "Okay."

Her eyes flashed a smile at him as he dropped her hand, and followed Dean back to the car. He just wished he could do more.

Sam was awoken in the middle of the night by rustling in the bed across the room, Dean's bed. He pushed himself up on his elbow and shot a concerned look toward his brother. However, his eyes met Jen's standing over Dean. She put her finger to her lips. Shhhh. The message was loud and clear to Sam. This was what he wanted to know and what she couldn't tell him outright. Sam lay back down, pulled the covers up, and kept one eye open to watch.

Jen sat up on Dean's bed and waited for the nightmare to wake him. It didn't take long before Dean sat straight up with a shocked look on his face. Jen quickly put a hand on his back. For a moment Dean stayed still as his eyes scanned the room. Sam made sure to remain completely still. The ruse appeared to fool Dean as he soon moved his hand to his mouth as tears began to fall from his eyes. Jen put her arm around Dean's shoulders and pulled him toward her.

Sam had seen enough. He shut his eyes and tried not to consider what Dean must go through dealing with his time in Hell. Tears pushed against Sam's eyes just thinking about it. He tried to just fall back asleep.

Sam did sleep a bit longer, and the next time he woke it was due to Jen sitting beside him. She took his hand hers and squeezed it gently.

He's asleep again. He voice echoed in Sam's head. Sam responded silently.

I'm sorry that I doubted you.

He doesn't want you to know. He doesn't want you to worry.

Sam sighed. When was Dean going to learn that Sam would always worry?

Is there anything I can do for him?

Jen shook her head. You know, a lot happened while you were apart that you both still don't know about each other.

Sam knew what Jen meant. He was getting mad at Dean for not talking about his time in Hell, but he still hadn't told Dean very much about him and Ruby during the time Dean was gone. Tears filled Sam's eyes again.

I know.

Jen bent over and whispered in Sam's ear. "He's going to be okay, Sam." Then she squeezed his hand again and stood up and vanished.

Sam looked over at Dean again. He knew he should trust Jen, but he still worried about it. He couldn't help thinking still about when Jen had said: that they still didn't know so much. Well, Sam couldn't get Dean to talk to him, but Sam could tell Dean what happened while he was gone. The next time, that's what Sam would do.

Sam concluded his thoughts to himself with a tense nod before relaxing back into bed and drifting off to sleep.