Dean find out that Sam is back and both brothers will have to deal with the fallout from that, but when one needs the other, will he come through for him?

This is there at the back of my brain every time I sit down to write, maybe if I can get it out then I can finally get my other stuff finished before S6 starts and tries to mess with my muse again.

Short chapters again for this one, to start with anyway.

Dean leant back against the wall at the end of the bar and closed his eyes. He'd just finished helping Brian put out the small fire that he'd managed to start in the kitchen, Gregg had just dropped a tray of glasses on the floor to his left and he now had to be the one to go over and tell the group of bikers that were waiting on their food that there weren't anymore steaks, but hey they still had salad. Yep, he thought, life's just peachy.

"Shutting your eyes won't make it go away boy, you of all people should know that."

Dean smiled before he opened his eyes, knowing that it would be Rufus he'd find leaning on the end of the bar watching him when he did.

"Sometimes you just need to step away from it all for a minute or two though," Dean offered as he reached out a hand and clapped the other man's shoulder. "You want a drink, it's on the house?"

"Better make it a beer, don't think you've got enough glasses left for a shot." He gestured in the direction of the guy in his knees behind the bar.

Dean smirked and turned his head to Gregg who was busy sweeping up the debris that he had created from the floor. "Gregg, get this man what he wants and then go see if you can round up some glasses from the tables…and try not to drop them this time."

"This your place?," Rufus enquired.

"Nope, it's just me that has to make sure that it keeps running."

"Need better staff," Rufus observed wryly.

"Just having an off night, shit happens." He pushed off the wall and went to walk by Rufus when the man's words stopped him.

"Always thought that it'd be your brother that quit, not the other way around. Seems I called you boys wrong." Rufus watched as Dean moved in beside him. "You liking your new life, knowing that your brother is still out there somewhere, fighting the good fight?"

Dean bristled. "I didn't quit. I'm here because this is what Sam wanted me to do. I promised my brother that I was done with hunting for good, so that's what I am. Done."

Rufus sipped the beer that had appeared in front of him, grimacing at the taste. "Beer always tastes like shit, 's why I only usually drink Johnnie," he muttered as he did. "Never figured that you'd be happy with him out there hunting on his own though. Guess you boys ain't as tight as I thought."

Dean tilted his head and studied the other man for a minute before speaking. "You do know that Sam's dead right?"

Rufus' eyes registered something like shock for just a brief glimpse and then he frowned. "That so? Must have been another hunter that I saw over in Hot Springs then, strange though, cause your brother is kinda hard to mistake, him being forty feet tall an' all. My bad."

"Couldn't have been Sam. Sam's dead." Dean's face was calm but Rufus could almost hear the wheels churning in the younger man's head.

"It was your brother, I don't have no doubts about that." Rufus drank the beer again and then pushed it away in disgust. "Seen him twice out that way now. Last time, two months ago, I wasn't sure at the time, but now…looking back I'm pretty sure that that was him as well."

Dean's face paled. "Two months ago?" He wiped at his face with his hand, all thoughts of the bar and the problems of the night forgotten. "You sure it was him?"

"Sure as I know who you are. It was him, like I said, he's kinda hard to miss."

Dean walked away from the hunter, pushed the door to the kitchen open and grabbed his jacket. "Brian?," he called to the man standing staring forlornly at the blackened stove before him.

"Look Dean, I'm really sorry man…," he started but Dean waved him off.

"I gotta go out, you're in charge." Dean tossed him the bar keys. "Can you lock up and get these back to Lisa tonight?" He was already moving out of the kitchen and away when his words registered with Brian.

"Wait! What?" He spoke to the empty air where Dean had been standing.

Rufus watched Dean as he crossed the bar and disappeared out into the night then he caught the eye of the man behind the bar. "Any chance I could get a decent drink in here son," he asked, the smile on his face finally reaching his eyes.

TBC