A/n: Thank you so much to everyone who reads, reviews, follows, and/or favorites this story. A special thank you to hectatess, mckydstarlight, MarbleWolf, LilyBolt, Guest, jojospn, and SparksFlyAngel for all your support and awesome reviews!

Chapter 22

The next time Sam opened his eyes, scenery was whizzing by. He groaned and stretched the best he could, rubbing at a kink that had formed at the back of his neck. Pulling himself up into sitting position, he squinted out the front window.

"Wh're are we?" He asked still rubbing at the knot.

"Another state over," Dean replied plainly. "Should be there by tomorrow morning."

"How long have you been driving?"

"Pushing six hours."

Sam's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Six hours?" The younger brother did the math in his head then moved so that he filled the rear view mirror so he was all his brother could see through it. "You've been up since two am driving?"

"Yep."

"I thought you said you were tired?"

"I was."

Sam nodded. "Dean just...let me drive for a bit so you can sleep," he said.

"I'm good. Thanks."

The younger man rolled his eyes and sat back in the seat behind his sibling.

"What you can do, is make yourself useful and read me the directions." The elder brother snatched up the papers and keeping his eyes on the road, held them up and back for Sam to take.

The rest of their time in the car was the same as before. Other than the brothers reading and confirming directions they didn't speak.

Dean had to stop and get gas quite a few times on their journey to South Dakota and along the way from the final refill, he stopped at a local coffee shop for a much needed caffeine boost. Sam personally thought it was a bad idea, but he decided to keep it to himself due to his brother's lack of sleep. He made one last attempt to get Dean to let him drive the rest of the way, but like every other time he made the offer, he was shut down. With a defeated huff, Sam threw himself into the passenger seat of the Impala. At the same time, his cell phone went off in his pocket. Dean slid in behind the wheel and looked over as his brother pulled the cell from his jeans and placed it to his ear. "Brady," he addressed. The elder Winchester gave him a disapproving look.

"Hang up," Dean demanded.

"Sam! What the fuck dude? Why didn't you call be back? What's going on?"

"It's been kinda...look, now isn't really a good time, ok?"

The voice on the other side of the phone sounded taken aback.

"Sam what the hell is going on with you? You're starting to scare me and I don't scare easily. You're my friend, you were there for me when I was going through some tough times after Thanksgiving break last year, let me help with whatever you're going through."

His words caught Sam off guard. For the first time in about a year, Brady actually sounded like the man Sam had become friends with in Stanford and not like the man he had turned into after a particularly rough and still mysterious holiday break.

"It's really nothing. But thanks for the support."

"I'm going to come and get you and I won't take no for an answer. You can stay as long as you need to Big Boy."

"Hang up the damn phone already," Dean ordered again as he split his attention between the road in front of him and his brother next to him. Sam put a finger up in his brother's line of sight that told his sibling "one moment," but it was Brady who spoke again.

"Is that-are you still with that douchebag? I thought you were cutting your strings?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, but something came up and Dean and I are on our way to South Dakota."

The car whipped over to the side of the road causing the twenty two year old to stare over at the driver with a mix of surprise and anger on his face. Dean reached over, grabbed his brother's phone, hit end, and tuck it in his jacket pocket.

"What the hell was that Dean?!"

"I told you to hang up," he shot back.

"Give it back!"

"I'll give it back when you cut that guy out of your life. You don't need him, Sam. You're better off without him."

"You don't even know him. I mean yeah ok he can be kind of a dick, but he's my friend."

"Yeah that's what you keep saying, but that's not what I keep seeing. Sitting around and letting your friend get shitfaced and talking shit about their family isn't what a friend does. And that's all I've seen that guy do."

"Like I said he can be kind of a dick, but he's been there for me," Sam explained.

"'Cause you'll let him," the elder brother countered. The car fell silent and Dean shook his head and pulled the Impala back on the road.

XXX

Hours passed and Sam had fallen asleep miles back. His head was laying against the window, his upper body leaning with it, and his mouth was slightly agape. Soft snores escaped him and Dean was grateful that for once it wasn't screams. He yawned and shook his head as to clear the drowsiness from himself. Fighting back the urge to close his eyes and rest, he gulped down what was left of the now cold coffee, and drove on.

It was another good few hours, but finally at a quarter to four in the morning, Dean pulled up to a house that should be their destination. It was too dark to see much and between his sleep deprived brain and it being an almost moonless night, he could make out dark figures of something not far from where he had parked. After waiting and watching them for awhile and noticing nothing moved, he settled on the objects not being a threat. Dean turned back to his brother who was still sound asleep. Unfortunately, Sam had had another nightmare on the drive over after all. Only this time he didn't say anything and neither did Dean. It was pointless to bring it up if all it was going to do was upset his brother further, and besides, it was obvious to the elder man that he wasn't going to talk to him about it.

Before Dean could move to rouse him, a porch light flicked on and what looked like a side or back door opened. Robert stepped into the light with a shotgun aimed in their direction, his finger steady on the trigger. The elder Winchester slowly opened the door and rose from the car with his hands up showing he was unarmed.

"Whoa, hey, relax there Davy Crockett," Dean called out. Recognizing the voice, the hunter lowered his weapon.

"First the early mornin' call now this?" He grumbled. "When Sam said you'd be over, I didn't think it'd be at some ungodly hour."

"That's my fault," Dean admitted as he approached Robert. Now that the elder Winchester was standing in the light, the hunter could see the dark circles under the young man's eyes and the exhausted look on his face.

"Well you're here, might as well get some sleep," he sighed trying to keep his voice from sounding sympathetic. He wanted to help the boys sure, but he wasn't looking for a "if you give a mouse a cookie" scenario. Offer a stranger a place to sleep and they'll be looking for a meal, next a place to wash up, and the list goes on. He'd fallen for it once before some years back, it wasn't a mistake he intended to make again. "I've got a spare room upstairs and couch down here you can borrow for the night," he said. He noticed the elder brother's tired green eyes light up at the sound of finally getting to rest, but it was short lived as he shook his head.

"Nah. I'll stay in the car thanks," he declined. As inviting as a bed sounded to him right now, he still wasn't fully certain that Robert was someone they should let their guard down around.

"Suite yerself," the hunter shrugged. "But you got a lot more 'n me to be worried about. You boys'd be safer inside the house than in the car."

As Dean readied himself to counter the older man's offer, he heard the squeak of the passenger door opening up and closing and Sam made his way over to join them.

"S'rry it's early," he apologized, sleep still in his voice. Robert shook his head, "don't be."

Sam then turned to his brother, taking in his worn face and heavy eyes.

"You need sleep, like, yesterday."

"Says he'd rather sleep in his car," Robert informed him.

"What?"

Dean rolled his eyes. "It's nothing personal, I just don't trust the guy is all."

"Well too damn bad, you're going to have to get over it," Sam retorted. He turned back to the hunter. "Thank you Mr. Singer, we really appreciate the hospitality."

"Sure. Just don't get too comfy. This ain't a hotel. I'm goin' back to bed, you two can sort out who sleeps where."

The three men entered the house, the owner locking the door behind them. He pointed up at the stairs that were located to the far left facing the entrance. "Second bedroom's upstairs," he said before leading them down the hall and into what was more than likely meant to be a family room but looked more like a study. There were bookcases full of reading material crammed inside them and then more books lay in piles on the floor. Not far from the fireplace, sat an old wooden desk and a chair with more books sprawled out and open resting on top of it. Ahead of them was what Dean imagined was the other place he had offered up as somewhere to rest.

"Couch is there, bathrooms back down the hall and to the left. Kitchen's through there. Help yerself to a glass of water."

"Thanks, really."

"Don't mention it."

The older man retreated down the hall and up the creaking stairs.

"Alright, do whatcha you gotta do, then up you go," Dean replied moving his thumb up, gesturing to the upper floor.

"I'll sleep down here, it's fine," Sam commented nonchalantly.

"Nope, I got the couch."

"Dean, you haven't slept in what...almost two days? I've got the couch, go get some rest."

"Forget it, I've already called dibs on it." Sam sighed as he watched Dean approach the furniture, looking at it questionably before throwing himself down on it. It wasn't the most comfortable thing, but at the rate he was going, he was good with sleeping on the floor.

"Alright, fine. Night Dean," the younger sibling said too tired to argue further.

"Night."

Sam gave the room one last look before turning and following the same direction Robert had earlier. Dean could hear the stairs protest under the weight of his sibling's feet, his footsteps on the ground above him, and then the house fell silent. Once he could no longer hear his brother walking around above him, he fell into a deep sleep.

A/n: Alright guys, I've finished the next chapter and I'm onto the next! We are finally going to start rolling into some action here soon. I know I said that a ways back, but this time I mean it. It's going to get a bit bumpy for the guys. Thank you all again!

Guest: That's a really really good way of putting their relationship right now. A land mine. I like that. Yeah it's a bit better, they still have their moments. I'm glad you still see hope for them, me too lol. As always it's fantastic to hear from you. Thank you so much for your awesome review!

SparksFlyAngel: Both brothers are going through some rough times. Sam with the loss of his wife and Dean with trying to reach out to his brother and correct the pass. That was quite a bit of an emotional chapter, yeah. Sorry about your emotions though. Yep, and here they are, at Bobby's! I'm glad you liked that last chapter, thank you as always for your awesome review!