A/N: New story for you. I hope you like it and I'm sorry for the wait with Afterlife. I promise to get it to you as soon as I can. Promise. :)

Also posted on DeviantART and there is a wallpaper on Photobucket .com/albums/ee475/Gatergirl79/Supernatural%

Warning 1: This contains spoilers for the end of season 6 and the beginning of season 7.

Warning 2: This has not been BetaRead which means it will contain spelling and grammar mistakes. I hope this will not put you off.

CHAPTER ONE

It was just another case, the old kind, the ones that came before heaven and hell, before self-proclaimed gods and creatures older than time itself. The kind that came before the wall in his mind began to crumble to dust allowing the nightmare to run free.

Sam was on constant alert. His delusions were still hard to tell from reality, but luckily he'd found a way to keep his sanity. It wasn't has if pain wasn't normal for him.

He glazed at his brother as they walked from the Impala to the hospital. He was still suffering, Sam knew that. Losing the only friend he'd ever had was a weight Sam didn't envy. Added to the stress of their newest global threat and Sam's own breakdown, his brother was a bad day away from a full blown breakdown.

That was why they'd taken this case, because when Dean got really close to the edge he threw himself into a job, no matter how small. He'd done it for years and usually Sam would complain, wanting to get back to the big picture, but he was just as tired of the constant fighting. It was one endless battle.

"So you think it's a werewolf?"

Dean shrugged. "Everything seems to point that way."

"So why are we here?"

Dean's head shot around like it was a stupid question. "You don't think we should check out the bodies first. – Just in case."

"In case of what?" Sam asked, though he thought he knew the answer.

"In case it's not a werewolf eating people."

He wasn't going to say it. – He wasn't going to put into word the thing that had stolen so much from them over the last six months, including the confidence that they could defeat any and all comers.

The brothers had spent an increasingly difficult six months wondering why they even bothered anymore. Dean had already said once or twice, when the Leviathans got a touch too close, that they should just find a nice quite place and wait it out.

Sam knew losing Cas had practically destroyed his brother, he knew it but couldn't understand it. How his brother and Cas could have such a strong connection. He'd finally put it down to the whole saving Dean from hell thing, but then Cas had saved him from hell too yet they didn't have a bond. They were friends in the normal sense of the word.

They'd been close, but even when Dean appeared to turn his back on Cas completely, when he'd summoned Death to destroy him, Sam had known that their 'profound bond' as Cas had called it, was still there, frayed to a single thread, but there none the less.

Until the moment Dean had pulled a tanned trench-coat out of the water. In that instant the thread had snapped, severing their bond and taking with it whatever it was that gave Dean hope.

"If it was a Leviathan, there would be more bodies Dean, not to mention they'd take a hell of a lot more than just their hearts."

"Humour me then. – Let just pretend for a few hours okay. – Let's just run this one by the book."

Sam nodded silently and followed after his hopeless brother.

Well it seemed it was a werewolf. Big surprise. Sam had thought as they'd examined the body. Of course he wasn't idiot enough to say it.

"So where now? – Back to the hotel?"

Dean was staring at the body, his eyes glanced over, his mind only god knew where. Sam wondered for a second if that was what he looked like that Lucifer crawled out of the back of his mind to taunt him.

"Dean!" he nudged the shorter man's shoulder. "Dean."

"Huh, what? – Yeah, Hotel." He shook his head and turned to leave.

"Are you alright?" Sam asked catching up with him quickly.

"Fine."

"Dean?" Sam sighed.

"Leave it Sam."

"Fine."