A longer one here for you! There is a death in this so I've put who at the bottom just in case you want to know before you read it!

Thank you again for all the reviews on this one, sorry that the individual replies have stopped but time is now limited as my son is off school for the summer so that means no peace for me until he goes to bed! RL, who would have one! lol

"She here?," Rufus enquired quietly, pausing just inside the doorway.

"She has to be." Sam wasn't sure if it was a wish or a statement. He stepped further into the lock up trying to get his eyes to adjust from the brightness outside to the dull light of the interior.

"Sam!" Dean stepped from the shadows, gun raised in his hand. Black eyes met the younger Winchester's own as he looked up. "No!" Dean cried this time and Sam watched the eyes flickered briefly to green as the sound of the gunshot echoed through the enclosed space. He raised a hand but couldn't stop it from happening.

The shot missed him, slicing by his arm and hitting Rufus dead in the chest. The hunter crumpled instantly. Dean had managed through long enough to pull the shot wide of his brother but not the man next to him. Sam froze, his eyes drawn down and locked to the fallen form of Rufus until a noise, a small metallic chink, drew his attention. He looked back to the figure of his brother and then down again to see the horseman's rings lying on the ground at Dean's feet.

"Finally." It's was the sound of Dean's voice that drew his head back up. Black eyes stared triumphantly at Sam from his brother's ashen face, finger tightening on the trigger of the gun even as Meg let the words fall from Dean's mouth. "Baymo, Tamo, Ed…."

Sam raised his hand, more instinct than thought and hit out at her as the ground at Dean's feet heaved and then started to crack. A light sparked briefly inside his brother and then Dean dropped, crashing to the floor in a boneless slump. The gun skittered away into the darkness.

The silence that followed the action was deafening. The ground calmed and Dean just lay there, still and unmoving. Behind Sam, Rufus groaned. "Hey, kid?"

Lifting his hands to his head Sam looked at the slumped form of his brother. He was routed to the spot. Fear of what he might have just done filled him.

"Kid! You with me?" The hoarse cry from behind him finally made Sam move but not in the direction that he really wanted, but was afraid to. Turning he walked over and knelt beside Rufus, sliding the man's jacket back to get a look at the damage, eyes briefly flicking back to his brother's fallen form.

"Shit, that hurts," the older hunter managed out between gasps for breath, his eyes seeking Sam's to acknowledge what deep down he already knew. "I'm screwed right?"

"No, no," the young Winchester tried to reassure even as he pulled his hand away bloody. "I can get help. Maybe I can stop the bleeding." Sam's eyes did a desperate but unfocused search of the room for something to use, avoiding the place he really wanted to look most of all as he did.

The older hunter gripped his hand. "Boy, it's okay, like I said, I'm screwed. You know it and I know it. I can feel it." Rufus sucked in a pain wracked breath. "That thing you did with your brother, that you told me about in the car here, think you can do it again? Get her outta him. Use me?" Rufus coughed and blood trickled down his chin. "Need t' hurry though. Don't think I'm gonna last much longer."

Sam finally looked over and rested his eyes on the brother's fallen shape. "I don't know if…I hit them pretty hard….what if I've….."

"Sam?" Rufus' voice was stronger somehow. Calm. Resigned. "Ain't gonna know how he is until you do this. Just put her in here," he tapped his chest with the finger of the hand that was resting across it," and then finish her, put me outta my misery at the same damn time.."

"I can't. Let me get you help." Sam went to stand but Rufus dropped his hand to the younger man's knee.

"Be doing me a kindness boy. It ain't gonna get any less painful from here and I ain't gonna make it. Just delaying the inevitable. You know that. Look at me." Sam wiped at his face and looked down into Rufus' eyes. "Save your brother. This is your best shot. I screwed up, I let the bitch find him and his girl, least I can do's make that right, 'fore I go. Ain't no other easier way to do this. Fetch the bitch on over to me boy, I'll hold her and you can hit her." He laughed, choking on his own blood as he did.

"I need to check him first." Standing Sam walked over on shaky legs to where his brother lay. He knelt down beside him, picking up the rings first and splitting them between his pockets. In the poor light he couldn't tell if Dean was even breathing. His hand stalled halfway to his brother's neck. "I shouldn't have come. I should have just let you be. Let you hate me and be mad at me. Please don't be dead." Reaching down he touched a hand to Dean's neck, searching for the sign that there was still something to save.

"Gonna have to hurry it along there boy, 'less you can find another host willing to let you fry the bitch in 'em." Rufus's weak and pain filled voice drifted to him across the quiet. "Gotta hurry," he whispered out.

Dean's heartbeat was a little too fast but it was there. Sam let out the breath he didn't know that he'd been holding and gazed back across to Rufus. "You sure about this?"

"Sure I'm dying, ain't that enough?"

Sam brushed Dean's head with his hand. "Please be okay." He lifted the hand and started to pull Meg from his older brother. Black smoke lazily trickled from his brother's mouth and nose, gathering in the air in front of him. He stared at it, glanced down at his still prone sibling. "Dean?" He called the name quietly, hoping for a response and getting none.

"Kid, I ain't gonna get much older over here." Rufus' voice dragged Sam back to the here and now. With a flick of his wrist he all but threw Meg's essence across the room and into the older hunter. He watched as the man convulsed as he swallowed down the demon.

He expected a smart assed comment as he stood and walked back over to where Rufus still lay but it was still the hunter that was in control. Confusion flashed in his eyes but Rufus' grin and words eased it. "She's in here, don't worry. I can feel her."

"Why hasn't she taken control?" Rufus seemed please but Sam felt sick. This was going to be so much harder this way. This way it wasn't Meg he was killing.

"Bitch is out cold. Must have been some hit you gave her." He caught the worried look in Sam's eye. "Dean'll be fine. She ain't dead, feels like when you got a concussion 'cept it's her not me that has it."

"Her being in there'll give me time to get you help….."

Rufus shook his head. "Won't matter son. As soon as you get her out, I'd be dead anyway. 'sides, where else you gonna put her? Just remember to do my send off right and we're good."

"I will."

"Do me a favour kid?," the hunter choked out.

"Anything."

Rufus chuckled and coughed blood into his hand again. "Damn." He closed his eyes for a second then looked up at Sam. "Look after that fool brother of yours for me, God knows someone has to. And you boys behave now, you hear?" Rufus signalled him down. Sam knelt down. "No more fightin', life's too damn short to be mad at the people you love for no good reason."

"Yeah." Sam heard a groan behind him and realised that if Dean was stirring then Meg would be too. "Is she coming round?"

Rufus tensed and Sam reached out a hand. The hunter froze and Sam knew that Meg was back in charge. "So what now? You fry me and Rufus and go play happy families with your brother and his little slut? Fine, fry Rufus." Meg dropped back down and Rufus' eyes slid from black back to their normal colour. "That's exactly what he's gonna do," the older hunter said to no one in particular then he looked at Sam and smiled. "Don't mind her son, just do it."

"Sam…." Turning Sam watched as his brother somehow managed to pull himself into a sitting position, using the wall behind him to prop himself up on. "What happened? Where is she?" Dean reached for the shelf at head height and started to pull himself onto his knees cursing as he pulled on his injured side and arm. He almost fell back but his own sheer pig headedness got him there. Head resting on the shelf between his hands he turned to look at Sam. "Where….?," he stopped mid sentence a small hiss of breath escaping as pain flared through him.

"She's here. I've got her Dean. Stay there." Sam drew his attention back to Rufus. The man inside the shell was almost gone and Sam knew that the demon was probably the only thing keeping him breathing. Still it didn't make what he was going to do any easier. He'd killed before but this was different. More personal. Someone he knew.

"You've got her?," Dean's voice was closer and when Sam turned he could see that his brother was on his feet now, using the wall to work his way towards them.

"Jesus Dean," Sam muttered as he held Meg pinned and stood to help his brother, worrying filling him as he took in Dean's unfocused stare. "You okay?"

Dean narrowed his eyes, swayed slightly. "Peachy." His glaze drifted to the fallen man on the floor. "Is she in Rufus?" He brought a hand to his head. "Shit, I shot him. Didn't I?," he asked, the confusion in his voice making Sam frown. "Is he alright?"

Sam looked back to Rufus and the pool of blood that the hunter lay in. He wondered briefly just what his brother was seeing that could even make him think that the fallen hunter was in any way alright. "No," he said gently. "I think you must have clipped something inside, he's bleeding out too fast to save." Sam tightened his grip as his brother swayed against him.

"He's dying?" Dean blinked a few times.

Sam nodded. "Yeah. He asked me to put her in him and then to finish it."

Dean seemed to hear it and rally at that. "No. I'll do it."

Sam rounded on him, careful to ensure that he was still keeping Meg locked down for now. She was quiet, too quiet. "How are you gonna do that? Something that you want to tell me?"

His brother snorted at that. "Only that Ruby's knife should be in the car. Front seat."

"Oh."

"Go get it. I'll finish this." He stepped free from his brother and slid down the wall before Sam could catch him.

"No," Sam crouched down, touched a hand worriedly to his brother's damp brow. "I can manage."

"Killing Meg's one thing. I don't want you to be the one that kills Rufus."

The hunter in question's voice cut through the small silence. "Not like Sam hasn't killed a hunter before, is it Sam? He enjoys the kill part a little too much for my taste, and that's saying something" Meg used Rufus' face to grin at them but Sam twisted his hand and she quietened again.

Dean gripped his brother's arm. "I need to do this, now that I can. Just get me the knife. Please?"

Sam hesitated, then he nodded and stood, looking to see if he could keep Rufus in sight while he made the car. "I'll just be a minute."

Meg waited until he was outside to bait Dean. "Scared to let your little brother take me out Dean? Worried about what it'll do to him? Might be enough to tip him back over to the dark side eh?"

Sam stopped on the way back in, pausing outside the door. He was just out of Dean's line of sight and wanting to hear what his brother would say before he stepped back inside.

Dean laughed bitterly. "No bitch. If he could have taken you out in the house without hurting Lisa I'd have let him take you down in a heartbeat. There might be a lot of things not right with my brother but he isn't the thing that's evil in this room. So I have no qualms about letting him loose on your ass. Now that you got me here though there's a little something that I've been dying to try on a demon. You gonna stand there all day Sam?"

Shaking his head the younger brother stepped back inside and Dean gestured with his head to his right. "On the shelf over there, there's half a dozen blue bottles, bring me one over."

Doing as he was told Sam fetched the bottle, turning it over in his hand and examining it before handing it down to Dean.

"What's that?" Meg asked warily beating Sam to the question.

"Small parting gift." Dean raised his free hand to his head, groaned as a wave of pain crashed through him. "I'd let Sam do this if I had to but this is going to be so much better though. This way I get to do what I did to your dear old daddy. I get to be the one that sends you down screaming, down past Hell, down somewhere that you ain't ever gonna crawl back out of. You, your brother and that yellow eyed bastard can rot together for eternity."

Sam walked towards them, held out the knife to his brother, eyed the bottle again. "What is that?"

The elder Winchester managed a little grin/grimace reaching up and taking the blade. "Something Castiel gave me before he left. It won't hurt Rufus, even if it wasn't too late, but her?" He lent forward. "I changed my mind about not wanting you hurting and I need a guinea pig for this stuff. Tails, you're it." He held up the hand with the missing nail and then slowly brought it to rest under Rufus' chin, pushing the head up and back. "Sam? Loosen your grip. I want her to be able to move."

"What are you doing? What is that?," Meg queried as Dean unscrewed the lid with the thumb of the hand that was holding the bottle and tipped the contents up and into Rufus' nostrils. The body bucked the minute it rolled inside. "No." The convulsions started a second later. "No, stop it! Stop it!"

Sam knew that Dean had said that it was only the demon that was suffering but still it was Rufus that he was seeing thrashing on the floor. He locked his eyes on Dean who sat impassively beside the writhing man, the depth of the hatred on his brother's face chilling him. He wasn't sure how long had passed before he couldn't stand it any more. Gently calling Dean's name he stepped forward and put a hand on his sibling's shoulder. "Enough."

Without looking at him Dean turned Ruby's knife in his hand and lent over. It was Rufus that stared back. "Bitch didn't like that, not at all, me on the other hand," a little wry smile crossed his face as he spoke. "I enjoyed it just fine." He let his eyes fall closed, breathing ragged. "Time to get this over with Dean."

"I'm sorry," Dean whispered quietly to Rufus and then he drove the knife straight down and into the hunter's heart. Both brothers watched the light burn briefly inside their fallen friend and then Sam was pulling Dean to his feet, wanting to get himself and his brother out of the darkness of the lock up and into the light of the day outside.

"Can't leave him here," Dean said, rallying a little as they reached sunlight and fighting Sam's hold on him.

"I want you clear. I'll come back, get Bobby to help…"

"No." Dean tried to shrug him off and failed, ended up leaning more against his brother than he had been. His voice was rough with emotion when he spoke. "This is my mess. I'm going to be the one to clean it up."

Sam huffed. "How?," he almost barked at his brother. "You can barely stand."

Dean looked at him with hurt, tired eyes. "We are not leaving him here like this."

His brother looked to the car as if for inspiration. He seemed to find it. "Then we'll take him with us. We can clean him and prep him back at the house. Bobby's here and he's got the van. Once we're ready we can take him somewhere, I promised him we'd send him off right."

"Fine. I can help."

Sam cut him off. "No you can't. Just let me get you in the car and I'll do this. We can finish the rest together. Just let me get this?"

His breathing shallow and pained Dean realised that Sam was right. He was done in. Probably even on the edge of going into shock, the air around them suddenly feeling cold against his clammy skin. He was fading now, the adrenaline rush or whatever it had been that had kept him going this long was passing. He knew that Sam could feel it too. "Okay."

"Let's get you in the car." Sam half dragged, half carried his brother over to the waiting Impala and then carefully helped him inside. "Are there any sheets or anything in there I can use?"

"Cupboard at the back, watch the trip wire, it's dad's usual set up." Sam nodded and disappeared. The little bottles on the shelf caught his eye, the ring clear of dust showing were he had lifted the one that Dean had used. He pocketed one, curious about them and intent on asking his brother about it later and then he went to grab the sheets.

Ten minutes later Rufus was wrapped and in the back of the car and Dean was out of it, resting and bleeding against the passenger door covered over with Sam's jacket.

"Just like old times," Sam muttered lovingly to the car, gripping the wheel tightly as he guided her down the open road and they headed for Lisa's.

I killed Rufus! Such a bad person but it was him or Bobby and I really have a soft spot for the auld yin (as we would say here in bonnie Scotland). Beside I may have plans for Mr Singer as well, all good of course! **whistles and walks away*