Bobby found Dean in less than an hour, and true to his word, dragged him back to the house. Sam's assumption about Dean heading back to the bar turned out to be right. Bobby had found him drinking at a bar about ten minutes from his house. He wasn't drunk, but he was sure trying to get that way.

Dean wrenched himself away from Bobby as they made it inside. He'd been surprised when Bobby showed up, especially as he was walking. That quickly turned to anger though when the old hunter literally dragged him out of there like a teenager caught doing something he wasn't supposed to. He got doubly pissed when Bobby told him he'd let the Trickster take Sam away. "What the hell, Bobby?"

"I could ask you that!" Bobby yelled as he slammed the door shut. "What's the matter with you, Dean? You brother came here to talk to you and rather than deal with the problems the two of you had, you go out and try to get hammered again!

"I tried to talk to him, Bobby! He didn't want to listen to anything I said! He wouldn't even let me help him get a glass of water! But he had no problem letting the Trickster help him, not to mention that he defended him any chance he got!" Dean yelled bitterly.

"Quit being a child! What were you expecting anyway? Did you think you could make everything better with one conversation? Sam's been through hell the last couple of months and you and I are both responsible for part of it. You really thought it would be so easy to say sorry and then it would all go away?" Bobby asked in disbelief.

"I didn't think he'd prefer to take up with something we've hunted more than me!" Dean yelled again. More than that, he didn't think his brother would trust someone that had once killed Dean like a thousand times. Didn't Sam give a damn about him at all.

"Forget about the archangel! This isn't about him! This is about you and Sam! If you don't pull your head out of your ass, you will lose your brother completely!" Bobby warned.

"What am I supposed to do, Bobby? He won't even listen to me," Dean said.

"Why should he? What have you done lately to make him believe a word you say?" Bobby asked. He didn't blame Sam one bit for not believing Dean was sincere, despite trying to convince him of it. Sam had every reason to be skeptical.

Dean flinched and then brushed past Bobby to head into the kitchen. He collapsed in one of the chairs at the table.

Bobby followed him and sat across from him.

"I get that I screwed up, Bobby. I pushed Sam away and he ended up tortured and blinded because of it. I will live with that for the rest of my life," Dean said, trying and failing to keep the emotion from his voice.

"No. Whatever you may be guilty of, you're not responsible for what happened to Sam at the hands of those assholes. Sam doesn't blame you for that either," Bobby told him. Honestly though, who Sam did blame was even worse. He held himself accountable, believing he deserved it. That was just screwed up.

"He just doesn't want anything to do with me," Dean said miserably.

Bobby huffed irritably. "No, you idjit! He thinks you don't want anything to do with him. You didn't help that by running away like a child!"

"I didn't know what to do! He wouldn't listen to me and then he went on to defend that evil little asshole! He trusts him more than me," Dean said petulantly.

Bobby nodded after a second. Trying to appease Dean on the subject wasn't going to help. He needed to see the situation for what it was. He needed to know that his actions caused his brother to lose faith in him. "Yeah, he does. You've got no one but yourself to blame for that. You treated Sam like crap the last time he was with you. You held what he did against him until he hated himself and believed you did to. I wasn't much better. So, yeah, you lost something with him.

"I get that it's my fault that I lost his faith and trust, but why so much that he trusts some supernatural thing more?" Dean asked. That was the part that hurt. He knew he earned Sam's opinion of him, but not so much that something like the Trickster should be able to replace him.

"Because that 'supernatural thing' did what you didn't, what I didn't. He's been there for him for the last month. He not only saved his life, but he gave him a place to stay when Sam didn't think he had anywhere else to turn. He told him he made a mistake without holding it against him forever," Bobby said.

"He's using him," Dean argued. "And what were you thinking letting him take Sam away again."

"First of all, I'd like to see you stop an archangel from doing anything. Second, Sam wanted to go and I wasn't going to stop him. And I think you want Gabriel to be using him. You don't like that he has someone else to turn to, and an angel no less. Though let me just point out that it's been okay for you. You know, it's unbelievably selfish of you to get pissed because your brother has someone to turn to when he can't turn to you. Would you prefer he be alone while he's dealing with this life altering injury?" Bobby asked annoyed.

"No, I want him to come back," Dean said.

"Well, that's not gonna happen right now," Bobby said.

"If he'd just listen…"

"Again, you've given him no reason to listen to you. Now he came here expecting you to either kick him out or accept him out of pity. He won't allow himself to believe anything else right now because he doesn't wanna get hurt. The worst part is he doesn't even blame you. He thinks you'd be justified in rejecting him," Bobby said sadly.

Dean shuddered slightly. That was unbelievably messed up. Dean understood now how badly he screwed up with his brother. Sam shouldn't think for a second that it was okay how he treated him. Though when Dean thought back on how his little brother would look and act right after Lucifer was released, he knew his brother did think that. "I…I have to tell him he's wrong."

"And what difference do you think it'll make now. He's not ready to even consider believing you don't hate him right now or that he doesn't deserve that hate. I've tried and I know Gabriel has too. Hell, we can't even convince that he doesn't deserve what's happened to him," Bobby said.

Dean looked at Bobby in horror. "He... He thinks…"

"Yeah. He thinks he deserved to be blinded, that it's somehow a punishment," Bobby said sadly.

"Well, we have to do something. We have to convince him he's wrong," Dean said urgently. This couldn't go on. He wouldn't allow his brother to think that he deserved what those bastards did to him.

"Yeah, but it's not gonna happen overnight. Making him see that is going to be a process," Bobby said.

"I have to talk to him," Dean said.

"I have a cell number for him, but you're not getting it today," Bobby said. He put his hand up when Dean went to argue. "Sam needs time to get his bearings after today and you need to get yourself together before you talk to him again. And when you do talk to him again, I suggest you leave any negative talk about Gabriel out of the conversation."

"I can do that now. Come on, Bobby, give me the number," Dean said with a small edge to his voice.

"No," was all Bobby said before he heard one of his phones go off. He immediately got up and walked away to answer it. It seemed it was time for him to get to work.