Post by Dean Winchester on Oct 4, 2016 18:13:56 GMT -5
ooc; SEASON SIX. EPISODE ELEVEN.
Dean got out of his car in front of the address on his scrap of paper that held directions to Dr. Robert's office. He looked at the grocery store and then down at the address and repeated this action twice before coming to the conclusion that yes, he was in the right spot. "Oh you've got to be kidding me" he muttered. He was going to a doctor's office in the back of a grocery store. Massaging his temples, Dean pushed through the front door and got directions from the man chopping up a a pig at the butcher's counter. Following the new directions, he found himself in a small cramped hallway through a narrow door at the very back of the shop, where he was met by an elderly gentleman in a white lab coat. "Dean Winchester?" "You must be Dr. Robert" Dean guessed with half a smile, still weirded out by their location. Dr. Robert took Dean's face in his hands, beaming. "Son, I stitched up your daddy more times than I can count, let me tell you. Oh, it's good to see you." He let go of Dean's face and gestured for him to follow. "'Course, that was ages ago, back when, uh, I still had my medical license." This was just getting better by the minute.
Dr. Robert opened the final door of the hallway, pointing inside. "Right this way." Dean made a face as he complied. "Well, you know, I'm, uh, I'm no germ freak, but..." Dr. Robert shrugged. "Rent's cheap." Dean nodded in understanding, finding to his surprise that the brightly lit office they had entered was much cleaner than he'd been expecting. It made him feel marginally better about what he was about to do. "My assistant, Eva" Dr. Robert introduced as a young black haired woman looked up from the monitor she was prepping. "Hi." Dean gave her a little wave of greeting that she ignored. "Hop right up." Dr. Robert gave the bed a pat. Dean hesitated. "Now, you -- you have, uh, done this a lot?" "Oh many many times" Dr. Robert assured him. "And...and your success rate" Dean wanted to know, still on the ground rather than the waiting bed. "Oh, excellent --almost 75%." Dr. Robert beamed and then glanced around and lowered his voice. "So, should we get the, uh, preliminaries out of the way?" Dean wasn't sure why that had to be asked in a whisper but it didn't really matter. "Sure, yes, of course" he agreed, reaching into an inner jacket pocket and pulling out the envelope of cash he'd brought with him, passing it over. "Ok then." Dr. Robert nodded appreciatively, accepting the fee. "Ready to go?" Dean exhaled deeply, sliding out of his jacket and draping it over the closest chair. "So...listen, if, uh, something..." "Goes wrong" Dr. Robert prompted, understanding the gist of the question easily. "Yeah." Dean held out a sealed envelope addressed to Ben. "Could you mail this for me please?" "Sure." Dr. Robert took the envelope and pocketed it. "Would've thought you had something for your brother, Sam." He eyed Dean curiously as the older Winchester climbed up onto the bed and Eva began to stick little sensors on his arm. Dean smiled sadly. "If I don't make it back, nothing I say is gonna mean a damn thing to him."
Dr. Robert didn't push the matter. Instead, he held up a vial of clear liquid. "Are you ready?" Eva placed an IV in the crook of his arm and then pushed him back so he was lying down. Dr. Robert began to insert a syringe amount of the liquid into the IV. "You have three minutes." Dean's heart began to race at extraordinary speeds. His eyes rolled back into his head. And the next thing he knew he was looking down at himself on the bed, hearing Eva say, "no pulse, no sinus rhythm" while feeling his wrist. And Dr. Robert gave a confident nod. "He's dead." Dean swallowed hard. "Good times."
Speed walking, Dean returned to the grocery store downstairs which was now entirely empty. "This better work." He closed his eyes, recalling the incantation he'd looked up to summon a reaper. "Messorum evoco qui me tetigit." "Dean? What the hell?" Tessa's voice reached his ears and he opened his eyes, turning around to find her in the doorway, looking remarkably confused. Dean, on the other hand, looked relieved. "What do you know, it worked." "I was in the Sudan" she exclaimed, taking a few steps towards him. "What's with yanking me ov--" She stopped cold, both her speech and her steps. "Wait, why are you dead?" Now it was Dean's turn to take a step in her direction. "Tessa, I need a favor." "Oh you're kidding." Tessa raised a baffled eyebrow. "You died to ask me a favor??" "Tell your boss I need to talk to him" Dean requested and Tessa actually physically balked. "No." "Please" Dean begged. He was out of options. This was his one last ditch hope at getting Sam's soul back. Tessa stared at him incredulously. "Where do you get the nerve??" Dean lifted his shoulders and let them fall in a half shrug, smiling weakly. "Desperate times." "He calls us. We don't call him" Tessa insisted, stressing this with quite a lot of energy. Dean took another step closer. "Make an exception!" "I can't!" "Can't or won't??" Dean was almost in her face by this point but Tessa held her ground. "Both!" "All right, Tessa. Thank you very much." The third voice joined their argument calmly. "Hello Dean." Dean spun around so fast he nearly fell over. And there he was. Death.
"I'm busy Dean, talk fast" Death ordered, staring him down. As he was pretty sure he only had about two more minutes, if that, left before Dr. Robert would be reviving him, fast was the only way he knew how to talk. "I have something of yours" he reminded the horseman. "You mean my ring?" Death raised an eyebrow. "I recall loaning you that temporarily." Dean's heart was going faster than was probably healthy. It wasn't every day you tried to extort assistance out of none other than Death. "Well, if you want it back"- "I'm sorry, you assume that I don't know where you've hidden it" Death interrupted shrewdly. He looked straight at Dean who attempted a smile and failed miserably. Death nodded. "Now we've established you have hubris but no leverage, what is it you want?" Relieved Death wasn't going to do anything to him for the whole trying to use leverage on him for help thing, Dean tried to slow his heartrate and treat this just like a normal conversation with a normal person. "Lucifer's cage. I figure you're one of the few people that can actually jailbreak it" he guessed. "Do you?" Death waited for more without confirming or denying this. "Sam's soul is stuck in that box" Dean explained and Death gave a somber nod. "I've heard." "And our other brother Adam is trapped in there, too. Michael rode him in." Dean still felt horrible about that. Michael was after him. If he'd done a better job at avoiding it or had just accepted his role in the first place, the angels wouldn't have needed a plan B and Adam wouldn't be stuck in hell with two angels, both pissed. Death heaved a heavy sigh. "Dean, quit shuffling and deal." Dean took a step closer. "I want you to get 'em both out" he requested, holding his breath for the answer. Death considered this for what seemed like an eternity before saying, "pick one." Dean blinked. "What?" "Sam's soul or Adam's" Death clarified. "As a rule, I don't bring people back. I might make an exception once, not twice. So...Pick." There was no hesitation. "Sam."
Death nodded, looking very unsurprised by this choice. Dean, his heart actually back to a normal pace now that it seemed like they were getting somewhere, took the seat next to Death at the counter. "Now his soul has been in there for a year, and I understand that it's...damaged." "Try flayed" Death corrected gravely. "To the raw nerve." "Well, is there any way that you could, uh, I don't know, hack the hell part off" Dean suggested feebly. Tessa rolled her eyes. Death got to his feet, shaking his head. "Dean, Dean, Dean. What do you think the soul is? Some pie you can slice? The soul can be bludgeoned, and tortured, but never broken. Not even by me." "Well, there's got to be something" Dean insisted desperately. "Maybe." Death paused for a few seconds, appearing to be thinking something over, before announcing, "I can't erase Sam's hell, but I can...put it behind a wall, if you will." "A wall" Dean echoed, not sure he followed this, and Death elaborated. "In his mind --a dam to hold back the tide. Nasty, those memories. You don't want to know what they'll do to him. Believe me." "Okay, uh, a wall." Dean stood, nodding in approval. "Sounds good."
"But it's not permanent" Tessa pointed out, crossing her arms. She didn't appear all that pleased with Dean. "She's right" Death agreed. "Nothing lasts forever. Well, I do, but..." He shrugged as if to say it wasn't important to the current issue. "Okay, so that's the choice -- Sam with no soul, or Sam with some drywall that if or when it collapses, he's...done" Dean summarized. Death nodded. "Yes." Dean weighed this over in his mind for only about a nanosecond before determining the reward was well worth the risk. "Do it." "I never said I'd do it" Death pointed out and Dean felt sort of like he'd run face first into a brick wall. "Then what the hell have we been talking about??!" "Your price" Death explained calmly. "If you win the wager." "Great." Dean rolled his eyes in annoyance. "What's the bet??" Death got right up in Dean's face, speaking in a low, dangerous voice. "Don't roll your eyes, Dean. It's impolite." Dean's heart almost stopped. For a minute, there was a stare-off. Finally, Death backed down, retreating a step. "Now, when you fetch my ring, put it on." Dean blinked, caught off-guard by this request. "What?" Death held up one finger. "I want you to be me for one day." Dean could not possibly see where this was going or what the point of it was. He kept expecting Death to at least go into more detail if not tell him it was all a joke. "Are you serious" he finally asked when neither happened. "No, I'm being incredibly sarcastic" Death deadpanned dryly, before finishing with, "take the ring off before the 24 hours are up, and you lose. No soul for Sam. Clear?" "Okay." Dean nodded in agreement. "Yes. But...But why?" "Simple Dean. Because"-
Dean's eyes snapped open, his chest heaving with deep breaths. He was once again on the bed in Dr. Robert's office. "Oh thank Moses" Dr. Robert exclaimed in relief. "You couldn't have given me five more seconds" Dean groaned, closing his eyes again. Dr. Robert removed the IV from Dean's arm. "Son, you were gone for seven minutes." Dean opened his eyes once more, widening them in surprise. "I was??" "Mm-hmm." Dr. Robert nodded, still looking quite relieved. "I thought for sure death had you by the twins." Dean closed his eyes.
~~~
"You WHAT??" "Just hear me out" Dean begged the irately pacing Sam in Bobby's library. "I heard Cas and Crowley when they said it would either kill me or turn me to jello, Dean" Sam reminded him heatedly. "I heard enough!" "Death said he can put up a wall" Dean explained, causing Sam to stop pacing and stare directly at Dean in confusion. "A wall??" Dean nodded quickly. "Yes, yes, a wall --that -- that, basically, you wouldn't remember hell." "Really?" Sam seemed to be considering it finally. Dean let out a breath of relief. "Really." "For good" Sam wanted to know next. "Like a cure?" "No, it's not a cure" Dean was forced to admit, trying to spin the positive angle. "It...He said it could last a lifetime." Sam latched onto the word 'could' in a heartbeat, with a bitter laugh. "Great. So, playing pretty fast and loose with my life here, don't you think, Dean?" "I'm trying to save your life" Dean insisted with passion and Sam fired back with an equal amount of passion, "exactly, Dean! It's MY life! It's my life, it's my soul. And it sure as hell ain't your head that's gonna explode when this whole scheme of yours goes sideways!" Dean tried to think of something he could say that would sway Sam over to his side of the fence but nothing was coming to mind. "Just curious." Into the newly fallen silence, Bobby piped up for the first time since the conversation had started from his couch against the wall. "I presume Death's not doing this out of the goodness of his heart. So what's your half of the deal?" Dean looked evasively off to one side. Refusing to let it drop, Bobby cupped one hand to his ear. "I'm sorry, I didn't get that." Dean sighed. "I have to wear the ring for a day."
"Why the hell would he want you to do that" Bobby demanded in surprise, clearly not expecting that to be what Dean was going to say. Dean shrugged uncertainly. "Get his rocks off, maybe. I don't know. But I'm doing it." Sam made a move towards the door that was not undetected by either Bobby or Dean, the latter of which, stepped in front of his path, blocking it. "Where are you going?" "Look, I hear you, all right? I get it." Sam held up his hands like a traffic cop, admitting defeat. "I just need a minute to wrap my head around it, all right?" He brushed past Dean. Dean and Bobby looked at each other and then wordlessly followed the younger Winchester outside. As Dean had been the one to bury Death's ring, he knew where it was so it wasn't too hard to get there first. And after digging it up, Dean and Bobby waited off to the side, unsurprised to see Sam strolling up to the hole a few minutes later, looking disappointed to find it empty. Dean stepped forward out of the shadows, coming up behind Sam and holding up Death's ring. "Looking for this?"
Sam was quick to try and morph his expression into a casual, carefree manner. "Nah, just taking a walk." Dean pocketed the ring and approached his brother. "Sam. I'm your brother. I'm not gonna let you get hurt" he promised sincerely. "I know what I'm doing here." Sam's expression collapsed back into one of worry and suspicion. "What if you're wrong?" Dean set his jaw with determination. "I won't let it go wrong." For a few long seconds they simply stared at each other. Then, finally, Sam relented. "Fine." "Fine?" Dean looked surprised at how easy that had worked. "So you're"- "So, I'm trusting you here" Sam filled in the blanks. "Barely." Dean studied him carefully. "You sure?" "Hey you're the one with the...compass, or whatever, right" Sam reasoned. "Just don't mess it up." "I won't" Dean assured him, locking eyes with him for a minute in which neither of them spoke before turning to head back for the house. On the way, he passed Bobby, keeping his voice low.
"Watch him."
Dean got out of his car in front of the address on his scrap of paper that held directions to Dr. Robert's office. He looked at the grocery store and then down at the address and repeated this action twice before coming to the conclusion that yes, he was in the right spot. "Oh you've got to be kidding me" he muttered. He was going to a doctor's office in the back of a grocery store. Massaging his temples, Dean pushed through the front door and got directions from the man chopping up a a pig at the butcher's counter. Following the new directions, he found himself in a small cramped hallway through a narrow door at the very back of the shop, where he was met by an elderly gentleman in a white lab coat. "Dean Winchester?" "You must be Dr. Robert" Dean guessed with half a smile, still weirded out by their location. Dr. Robert took Dean's face in his hands, beaming. "Son, I stitched up your daddy more times than I can count, let me tell you. Oh, it's good to see you." He let go of Dean's face and gestured for him to follow. "'Course, that was ages ago, back when, uh, I still had my medical license." This was just getting better by the minute.
Dr. Robert opened the final door of the hallway, pointing inside. "Right this way." Dean made a face as he complied. "Well, you know, I'm, uh, I'm no germ freak, but..." Dr. Robert shrugged. "Rent's cheap." Dean nodded in understanding, finding to his surprise that the brightly lit office they had entered was much cleaner than he'd been expecting. It made him feel marginally better about what he was about to do. "My assistant, Eva" Dr. Robert introduced as a young black haired woman looked up from the monitor she was prepping. "Hi." Dean gave her a little wave of greeting that she ignored. "Hop right up." Dr. Robert gave the bed a pat. Dean hesitated. "Now, you -- you have, uh, done this a lot?" "Oh many many times" Dr. Robert assured him. "And...and your success rate" Dean wanted to know, still on the ground rather than the waiting bed. "Oh, excellent --almost 75%." Dr. Robert beamed and then glanced around and lowered his voice. "So, should we get the, uh, preliminaries out of the way?" Dean wasn't sure why that had to be asked in a whisper but it didn't really matter. "Sure, yes, of course" he agreed, reaching into an inner jacket pocket and pulling out the envelope of cash he'd brought with him, passing it over. "Ok then." Dr. Robert nodded appreciatively, accepting the fee. "Ready to go?" Dean exhaled deeply, sliding out of his jacket and draping it over the closest chair. "So...listen, if, uh, something..." "Goes wrong" Dr. Robert prompted, understanding the gist of the question easily. "Yeah." Dean held out a sealed envelope addressed to Ben. "Could you mail this for me please?" "Sure." Dr. Robert took the envelope and pocketed it. "Would've thought you had something for your brother, Sam." He eyed Dean curiously as the older Winchester climbed up onto the bed and Eva began to stick little sensors on his arm. Dean smiled sadly. "If I don't make it back, nothing I say is gonna mean a damn thing to him."
Dr. Robert didn't push the matter. Instead, he held up a vial of clear liquid. "Are you ready?" Eva placed an IV in the crook of his arm and then pushed him back so he was lying down. Dr. Robert began to insert a syringe amount of the liquid into the IV. "You have three minutes." Dean's heart began to race at extraordinary speeds. His eyes rolled back into his head. And the next thing he knew he was looking down at himself on the bed, hearing Eva say, "no pulse, no sinus rhythm" while feeling his wrist. And Dr. Robert gave a confident nod. "He's dead." Dean swallowed hard. "Good times."
Speed walking, Dean returned to the grocery store downstairs which was now entirely empty. "This better work." He closed his eyes, recalling the incantation he'd looked up to summon a reaper. "Messorum evoco qui me tetigit." "Dean? What the hell?" Tessa's voice reached his ears and he opened his eyes, turning around to find her in the doorway, looking remarkably confused. Dean, on the other hand, looked relieved. "What do you know, it worked." "I was in the Sudan" she exclaimed, taking a few steps towards him. "What's with yanking me ov--" She stopped cold, both her speech and her steps. "Wait, why are you dead?" Now it was Dean's turn to take a step in her direction. "Tessa, I need a favor." "Oh you're kidding." Tessa raised a baffled eyebrow. "You died to ask me a favor??" "Tell your boss I need to talk to him" Dean requested and Tessa actually physically balked. "No." "Please" Dean begged. He was out of options. This was his one last ditch hope at getting Sam's soul back. Tessa stared at him incredulously. "Where do you get the nerve??" Dean lifted his shoulders and let them fall in a half shrug, smiling weakly. "Desperate times." "He calls us. We don't call him" Tessa insisted, stressing this with quite a lot of energy. Dean took another step closer. "Make an exception!" "I can't!" "Can't or won't??" Dean was almost in her face by this point but Tessa held her ground. "Both!" "All right, Tessa. Thank you very much." The third voice joined their argument calmly. "Hello Dean." Dean spun around so fast he nearly fell over. And there he was. Death.
"I'm busy Dean, talk fast" Death ordered, staring him down. As he was pretty sure he only had about two more minutes, if that, left before Dr. Robert would be reviving him, fast was the only way he knew how to talk. "I have something of yours" he reminded the horseman. "You mean my ring?" Death raised an eyebrow. "I recall loaning you that temporarily." Dean's heart was going faster than was probably healthy. It wasn't every day you tried to extort assistance out of none other than Death. "Well, if you want it back"- "I'm sorry, you assume that I don't know where you've hidden it" Death interrupted shrewdly. He looked straight at Dean who attempted a smile and failed miserably. Death nodded. "Now we've established you have hubris but no leverage, what is it you want?" Relieved Death wasn't going to do anything to him for the whole trying to use leverage on him for help thing, Dean tried to slow his heartrate and treat this just like a normal conversation with a normal person. "Lucifer's cage. I figure you're one of the few people that can actually jailbreak it" he guessed. "Do you?" Death waited for more without confirming or denying this. "Sam's soul is stuck in that box" Dean explained and Death gave a somber nod. "I've heard." "And our other brother Adam is trapped in there, too. Michael rode him in." Dean still felt horrible about that. Michael was after him. If he'd done a better job at avoiding it or had just accepted his role in the first place, the angels wouldn't have needed a plan B and Adam wouldn't be stuck in hell with two angels, both pissed. Death heaved a heavy sigh. "Dean, quit shuffling and deal." Dean took a step closer. "I want you to get 'em both out" he requested, holding his breath for the answer. Death considered this for what seemed like an eternity before saying, "pick one." Dean blinked. "What?" "Sam's soul or Adam's" Death clarified. "As a rule, I don't bring people back. I might make an exception once, not twice. So...Pick." There was no hesitation. "Sam."
Death nodded, looking very unsurprised by this choice. Dean, his heart actually back to a normal pace now that it seemed like they were getting somewhere, took the seat next to Death at the counter. "Now his soul has been in there for a year, and I understand that it's...damaged." "Try flayed" Death corrected gravely. "To the raw nerve." "Well, is there any way that you could, uh, I don't know, hack the hell part off" Dean suggested feebly. Tessa rolled her eyes. Death got to his feet, shaking his head. "Dean, Dean, Dean. What do you think the soul is? Some pie you can slice? The soul can be bludgeoned, and tortured, but never broken. Not even by me." "Well, there's got to be something" Dean insisted desperately. "Maybe." Death paused for a few seconds, appearing to be thinking something over, before announcing, "I can't erase Sam's hell, but I can...put it behind a wall, if you will." "A wall" Dean echoed, not sure he followed this, and Death elaborated. "In his mind --a dam to hold back the tide. Nasty, those memories. You don't want to know what they'll do to him. Believe me." "Okay, uh, a wall." Dean stood, nodding in approval. "Sounds good."
"But it's not permanent" Tessa pointed out, crossing her arms. She didn't appear all that pleased with Dean. "She's right" Death agreed. "Nothing lasts forever. Well, I do, but..." He shrugged as if to say it wasn't important to the current issue. "Okay, so that's the choice -- Sam with no soul, or Sam with some drywall that if or when it collapses, he's...done" Dean summarized. Death nodded. "Yes." Dean weighed this over in his mind for only about a nanosecond before determining the reward was well worth the risk. "Do it." "I never said I'd do it" Death pointed out and Dean felt sort of like he'd run face first into a brick wall. "Then what the hell have we been talking about??!" "Your price" Death explained calmly. "If you win the wager." "Great." Dean rolled his eyes in annoyance. "What's the bet??" Death got right up in Dean's face, speaking in a low, dangerous voice. "Don't roll your eyes, Dean. It's impolite." Dean's heart almost stopped. For a minute, there was a stare-off. Finally, Death backed down, retreating a step. "Now, when you fetch my ring, put it on." Dean blinked, caught off-guard by this request. "What?" Death held up one finger. "I want you to be me for one day." Dean could not possibly see where this was going or what the point of it was. He kept expecting Death to at least go into more detail if not tell him it was all a joke. "Are you serious" he finally asked when neither happened. "No, I'm being incredibly sarcastic" Death deadpanned dryly, before finishing with, "take the ring off before the 24 hours are up, and you lose. No soul for Sam. Clear?" "Okay." Dean nodded in agreement. "Yes. But...But why?" "Simple Dean. Because"-
Dean's eyes snapped open, his chest heaving with deep breaths. He was once again on the bed in Dr. Robert's office. "Oh thank Moses" Dr. Robert exclaimed in relief. "You couldn't have given me five more seconds" Dean groaned, closing his eyes again. Dr. Robert removed the IV from Dean's arm. "Son, you were gone for seven minutes." Dean opened his eyes once more, widening them in surprise. "I was??" "Mm-hmm." Dr. Robert nodded, still looking quite relieved. "I thought for sure death had you by the twins." Dean closed his eyes.
~~~
"You WHAT??" "Just hear me out" Dean begged the irately pacing Sam in Bobby's library. "I heard Cas and Crowley when they said it would either kill me or turn me to jello, Dean" Sam reminded him heatedly. "I heard enough!" "Death said he can put up a wall" Dean explained, causing Sam to stop pacing and stare directly at Dean in confusion. "A wall??" Dean nodded quickly. "Yes, yes, a wall --that -- that, basically, you wouldn't remember hell." "Really?" Sam seemed to be considering it finally. Dean let out a breath of relief. "Really." "For good" Sam wanted to know next. "Like a cure?" "No, it's not a cure" Dean was forced to admit, trying to spin the positive angle. "It...He said it could last a lifetime." Sam latched onto the word 'could' in a heartbeat, with a bitter laugh. "Great. So, playing pretty fast and loose with my life here, don't you think, Dean?" "I'm trying to save your life" Dean insisted with passion and Sam fired back with an equal amount of passion, "exactly, Dean! It's MY life! It's my life, it's my soul. And it sure as hell ain't your head that's gonna explode when this whole scheme of yours goes sideways!" Dean tried to think of something he could say that would sway Sam over to his side of the fence but nothing was coming to mind. "Just curious." Into the newly fallen silence, Bobby piped up for the first time since the conversation had started from his couch against the wall. "I presume Death's not doing this out of the goodness of his heart. So what's your half of the deal?" Dean looked evasively off to one side. Refusing to let it drop, Bobby cupped one hand to his ear. "I'm sorry, I didn't get that." Dean sighed. "I have to wear the ring for a day."
"Why the hell would he want you to do that" Bobby demanded in surprise, clearly not expecting that to be what Dean was going to say. Dean shrugged uncertainly. "Get his rocks off, maybe. I don't know. But I'm doing it." Sam made a move towards the door that was not undetected by either Bobby or Dean, the latter of which, stepped in front of his path, blocking it. "Where are you going?" "Look, I hear you, all right? I get it." Sam held up his hands like a traffic cop, admitting defeat. "I just need a minute to wrap my head around it, all right?" He brushed past Dean. Dean and Bobby looked at each other and then wordlessly followed the younger Winchester outside. As Dean had been the one to bury Death's ring, he knew where it was so it wasn't too hard to get there first. And after digging it up, Dean and Bobby waited off to the side, unsurprised to see Sam strolling up to the hole a few minutes later, looking disappointed to find it empty. Dean stepped forward out of the shadows, coming up behind Sam and holding up Death's ring. "Looking for this?"
Sam was quick to try and morph his expression into a casual, carefree manner. "Nah, just taking a walk." Dean pocketed the ring and approached his brother. "Sam. I'm your brother. I'm not gonna let you get hurt" he promised sincerely. "I know what I'm doing here." Sam's expression collapsed back into one of worry and suspicion. "What if you're wrong?" Dean set his jaw with determination. "I won't let it go wrong." For a few long seconds they simply stared at each other. Then, finally, Sam relented. "Fine." "Fine?" Dean looked surprised at how easy that had worked. "So you're"- "So, I'm trusting you here" Sam filled in the blanks. "Barely." Dean studied him carefully. "You sure?" "Hey you're the one with the...compass, or whatever, right" Sam reasoned. "Just don't mess it up." "I won't" Dean assured him, locking eyes with him for a minute in which neither of them spoke before turning to head back for the house. On the way, he passed Bobby, keeping his voice low.
"Watch him."
