Sorry Anne1013 and Masondixon, it is what it seems and would I hurt our boy? lol (ok you know me too well but not until the next chapter at least :) )

"Ok. Spill." Bobby pushed Dean down into the seat and leant against the desk. "How long'd you get this time?"

The younger man dropped his eye line from his friend's and his brother's. "Midnight," he said quietly.

Sam and Bobby exchanged horrified looks. "Midnight?" Sam asked. "Like tonight, midnight?"

Dean nodded, "It isn't what you think. I had this idea."

"Yeah, I remember that you had one of those the last time." Bobby waved his arms at the younger man. "And look how damned well that one turned out. You being dead broke something in your brother that still hasn't been fixed!" Sam gave the hunter a hurt look. "Well it's true, that bitch'd never have got as far into you if he'd been here."

Dean bristled. "Well I fixed it now, haven't I?"

"Why you…."

Sam stepped in between quickly.

"Bobby. Why don't we just let him explain." He pulled the older man over to the couch and into the seat, sitting down next to him. "Dean?"

Dean laced his hands together and dropped his head, wondering how he'd explain his random thought process and how it had led him to here. "I made a deal with Crowley. I was looking at Bobby's research and the idea hit me." He paused, wiped at his face with his hand and then continued. "You don't have demon blood in you anymore. The first condition of my deal was that your blood was made clean of everything. Yellow eyes' blood, Ruby's blood, everything. Do you feel it?" he asked hopefully.

Sam nodded. "I feel it. It feels good." He smiled sadly at his brother. "Not worth what you did for it though."

"I didn't just do it for you." He turned to Bobby. "It's my fault that you couldn't walk. I said no to Zachariah even when he told me what he'd do to you. I'm just setting that wrong right Bobby. You should have been able to walk, I talked to the doctors. They couldn't find the reason why you weren't able to. But I knew Bobby." his voice softened. "I knew."

"Dean…" Bobby shook his head. "I could have lived with the way I was."

"Yeah, well I couldn't. It's been eating at me all this time."

"So you sold your soul for my blood and Bobby's legs. What does Crowley get out of the deal? No offence, but I'm sure that your soul really isn't worth that much to him," Sam offered.

Dean shook his head. "It's not. It's just a condition of the deal as well. Can't make a deal without a soul for sale." He smiled wryly.

"So what else did you give him?"

"I can't tell you." Sam went to protest but Dean stopped him. "Your Lucifer's vessel. The rest of the deal concerns him. I'm sorry Sam, I would if I could."

Sam played with the bracelet on his wrist, looking down away from his brother, hiding the pain in his eyes." You said that you'd help me Dean. How am I supposed to fight Lucifer if I don't have you by my side?"

Dean stood, walked over and knelt down in front of his brother. "By the time this is done, I'm hoping that you won't have to."

"Did you do this for me?" Sam bit into his bottom lip and tried not to let the tears fall.

"I did it because I had to Sam. There is no other choice. I can't say yes to Michael. I can't fight you if you yes to Lucifer. I can't." Dean stood and started to pace the room, trying to calm the sick feeling in his stomach by motion.

"I'm not going to say yes Dean," Sam protested, hurt filling his voice. "You wouldn't let me even if I wanted to, which I don't."

Dean swallowed hard and rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. "Yeah, you are. You're going to say yes Sam."

His brother and Bobby's head shot up at that. "What?"

"In my vision of the future, you said yes and I said no. Lucifer won Sam." He turned to his brother. "You killed me. Snapped my neck."

Sam's mouth dropped open as Dean continued. "He said that no matter what I did, what I altered that we would end up there, at the same place. I didn't believe him until the horseman touched me. Until it looked inside me. Sam, in the future I was this person that was so dead inside, he did things that I could never, and yet, he was me. I can feel it Sam. Just like the horseman said. I'm dying inside Sam, the thing that makes me, me? It's dying, if it isn't dead already. I'm on my way to becoming that person that I don't want to be." Dean slumped down into the seat. "And so were you, until now."

Silence fell on the room after that until Dean wiped his hand across his lips and looked up at Bobby. "I need your help to finish this. Will you help me?"

Bobby's sigh was long and sorrowful. "You know that I will. Just tell me what you need me to do."

TBC