Chapter Ten

Bobby stared at the front door, frowning, before looking at Cas.

"Can you make sure that idjit don't go far?"

The angel nodded and vanished. Bobby sighed and wiped a hand down his face, backing up, he returned to the kitchen, glancing at the basement door as he passed.

"I'm sorry, boy," the grizzled hunter murmured quietly as guilt washed over him again.

SPN

Dean startled when Castiel appeared beside him, the angel grabbing his shirt so the human wouldn't stumble into the drainage ditch at the side of the road.

"What are you so angry about, Dean?" the angel asked once the hunter had begun to walk again, keeping pace with the human's strides.

Dean ground his teeth in frustration, "We rescued Sam; I checked his injuries and he's still pissed at me!"

The angel frowned, "Sam must have been terribly upset when you turned him away, Dean."

The hunter shrugged, "Doesn't this make up for it? He's safe now. I didn't even yell at him for drinking demon blood."

Castiel reached out and put a hand on Dean's shoulder, halting his progress, "You still think Sam willingly drank blood?"

Dean pushed the angel's hand off his shoulder and began walking again, "We both know, Sam. He will try and deny it but he's a junky."

The angel watched the human as Dean walked farther and farther away, it saddened him that the man had such a low opinion of his brother.

"Why do you pass judgment without knowing the whole story?" Cas said, catching up with Dean quickly.

The human didn't respond.

"Do you want Sam to be like this? Do you want him to fail?"

Dean still remained silent, his expression closed.

"You saw the state Sam was in when we found him. Do you not think the hunters forced the blood on your brother?"

The human stopped and sighed, "I don't know, okay? I just… I don't want to get my hopes up and then be disappointed in him again."

The angel stared at the young man.

You do not deserve Sam, Castiel thought but did not speak.

"Do you have a destination in mind?" the angel asked, instead.

"No," Dean replied, "Why? Do you?"

"Since Sam is currently too ill to speak to you," Castiel said slowly, "Perhaps we should find out the truth about his captivity from its source."

Dean raised an eyebrow, "Go back and talk to those hunters."

"Talk," Castiel agreed, "Or something like that."

SPN

Sam needed water. He was so thirsty. He licked his chapped lips and swallowed, his throat aching.

When had he last had something to drink? He thought it had only been hours ago but that couldn't be right, not when his mouth and throat told him it had to have been at least a day.

Sam opened his eyes and gazed sadly down at the pentagram on the floor of his prison. Moving slowly, his joints sending stabbing pain through his body if he hurried, Sam sat up.

Swaying slightly, Sam lowered his chin to his chest, as nausea bubbled up in his stomach.

He frowned as he caught sight of clean white bandages wrapped around his torso. Reaching out with his good hand, Sam touched them, soft and warm with body heat beneath his fingers.

Had Alma done this? Sam wasn't sure; he didn't think so. She had seemed far too depressed to do much of anything the last time Sam had seen her.

Carefully, Sam stood, realizing that he was not sitting on the lumpy, smelly mattress but a cot. Turning quickly- and biting back a cry of pain- Sam stared at the camp bed. His gaze slid from the bed to the pentagram on the concrete floor, only then realizing that it was not drawn on the floor with marker but a shadow cast by the design on the ceiling. Sam didn't trust himself to look up but he almost smiled. He was home. He was at Bobby's.

"D'n!" Sam called as loudly as he could, wanting nothing more than to see his brother.

"D'n!" Sam turned to the door and called but there was no response.

Sam's legs gave out from under him and he missed the cot as he fell, landing heavily on the concrete floor.

Dean wasn't here. Dean had abandoned him. Again.

The young man lay down on the floor, tears welling in his eyes, shivering.

Dean still didn't want him. Dean still hated him. He'd left Sam to rot in Bobby's panic room. Sam didn't know why he expected anything different.

SPN

Bobby looked up sharply at the howl of pain that cut through the still air of the house.

"Shit," the veteran hunter swore and rolled away from the table.

Moving into the living room, Bobby cursed his paralyzed legs, wanting nothing more than to go to Sam and help the young man. Instead, he grabbed his cell phone off the desk and punched in Dean's number.

The phone rang once, twice, three times before going to voicemail.

"Balls!" Bobby growled and slammed the phone down on his leg in frustration.

The veteran hunter moved towards the basement door and listened intently for any further sounds but all was silent.

Picking up the phone again, Bobby dialed the eldest Winchester's number, praying for an answer.

"Bobby?" Dean sounded slightly out of breath but the older man knew that was probably because the younger hunter was trying to clear his thoughts and had probably decided to have a little bit of a jog.

"It's Sam-" Bobby began but Dean interrupted, "Is he alright? What happened?"

"I think he's hurt, Dean," the hunter confessed, "I'd go check on him myself but you know-"

Bobby looked up at the sound of fluttering wings and a dull thump to see the eldest Winchester and Castiel standing before him, "-My legs."

The grizzled hunter closed his phone and Dean stepped towards him.

"Please tell me that's strawberry jam on your face," Bobby asked at he caught sight of a red streak across Dean's cheek and on his brow.

"It is not fruit preserve," Castiel answered as Dean opened the basement door and stomped down the stairs.

"What the hell did you do?!" Bobby called after Dean but the young man ignored him.

SPN

Dean's hands shook he was so angry. What those hunters had done to his brother…

Dean felt sick with guilt at how he had acted towards his sibling. If he had known what Sam had gone through, he would not have said the things he had.

Dean flung open the panic room door and rushed to his brother's side.

The younger man was curled up on the floor, his body racked with sobs.

"Sam? Sammy?" Dean put a gentle hand on his sibling's shoulder, "It's alright, Sammy, I'm here. I'm not mad at you. I know what happened, okay? I know it's not your fault."

A minute passed before the younger man reacted. He rolled over halfway onto his back and stared wide-eyed at his brother.

"I d-didn't want to!" Sam almost wailed, "I t-tried so hard… I t-tried…"

"Shhh," Dean soothed, "I know. I don't blame you. It's okay. You did the right thing."

Dean pulled his brother up and laid Sam's head against his shoulder as he had done so many times when his sibling was little.

Sam grabbed Dean's shirt with his good hand and held on tightly, as if he feared his brother would disappear if he didn't cling to him.

Dean tilted his head back and blinked to try and keep the tears welling in his eyes from spilling over.

He almost hadn't wanted to believe Reggie and Tim when they'd told him what they had done to Sam- the torture, the threats, the demon blood- but Dean also knew that people could be just as cruel as the monsters that were out there.

Dean closed his eyes and rested his chin on Sam's head, sighing sadly.

SPN

Bobby's face was pale as Castiel finished describing what had taken place during their 'walk'.

"Dean would not suffer them to live," the angel informed him in his gravelly voice.

"And Alma?" Bobby asked.

"The woman died swiftly," Cas assured the grizzled hunter.

Bobby wasn't sure exactly what to think about the fact that Dean had tortured two humans- fellow hunters- to death in order gather information about his brother.

"Remind me never to get on that boy's bad side," the grizzled hunter said faintly.

Both angel and man looked up at the sound of footsteps and saw Dean and Sam making their way slowly up the stairs.

Bobby rolled over to the duo. Sam looked like death warmed over. His pale face was bruised and sweaty, the cuts bright red; his open shirt revealed tightly wrapped ribs. The hand not clutching onto Dean looked like someone had stomped on it, a pink scar across the knuckles.

Dean steered Sam towards the living room and settled him on the couch. Propping his sibling up on the two throw pillows, Dean sat down beside Sam and put an arm across his shoulders.

"Do you need anything?" Bobby asked, wheeling himself to the kitchen doorway.

"Can you pour Sammy a glass of water?" Dean asked and Bobby nodded, glad to be doing something useful.

SPN

Dean frowned as he carefully picked up Sam's left hand- the hand Reggie had smashed with a hammer- and flexed the fingers experimentally.

"Does it hurt?" Dean asked quietly and Sam lifted one shoulder, "A little… not as much as it did."

Dean's eyes pinched and he frowned in empathy. He looked up at Bobby as the veteran hunter approached, glass of water in his hand.

"Thanks," Dean muttered and handed the cup to his brother.

Sam let go of Dean's shirt, using his right hand to take the glass and drank deeply. Dean set the empty cup on the coffee table when Sam was finished and looked at Bobby again, "Did Cas tell you?"

The grizzled hunter nodded.

"How're you feeling Sam?"

The younger man peered owlishly at the other hunter, "Hey Bobby."

The man frowned at Sam's reply, it was as though he had not even noticed Bobby was there, but the hunter decided that he could forgive it; right then, Sam only had eyes for his brother.

W

Dean peered down at his sibling; finally sleeping peacefully. Rubbing his eyes, the hunter saw that it was past three AM. He stood up from where he had been sitting on the edge of Sam's bed and stretched, the bones in his back popping pleasantly at the movement.

Sam, who had been lying on his back, rolled over onto his side and pulled his legs up.

Dean waited to see if his brother would wake but when a few seconds passed and Sam still slept, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Sam had been terrified to shut his eyes long enough to rest. He was convinced that if he did, he'd wake up to find that the rescue had all been a dream and he would be back in Tim and Reggie's clutches again. No matter how many times Dean insisted that he didn't have to worry about those assholes anymore, Sam had refused to shut his eyes. So, Dean had stayed up with Sam, biding time until exhaustion took over and his younger sibling fell asleep. Dean had been tempted to call on Cas to ask him if he'd knock Sam out but decided against it. He had been without his younger brother for almost a month and he had to make up for all the lost time.

Without even changing from his clothes, Dean sank down onto his own bed and turned out the light that sat between the beds.

He remained silent for a long minute, simply listening to the sound of his brother breathing before he spoke quietly to his sibling.

"I'm so sorry Sammy," Dean whispered, "I must have been out of my mind. I'm never letting you go again. I promise."

Author's Note:

Thanks to mandancie, SPN Mum, Stoney Angel, Elishab68, MysteryMadchen, sarah, 3DBABE1999, NAVILLUS, Katlover98, ToxicTenshi, Jkf340, BranchSuper, Greyfalcon01, angeleyenc, Priya723, L.A.H.H, and Guest for reviewing.

Thanks to everyone who alerted, favourited and followed this story.

3. We come to the end. Thanks to everyone who read! I hope you all enjoyed. Please. leave a comment!