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The streets were all one-way in this district of downtown, and it took them a while to navigate their way out, onto bigger and faster roads. Sam watched Dean as they went, and Dean was acting weird, holding the wheel in both hands and not glancing at Sam except to give him strained looks.
Maybe things had gone even worse with Lisa than he'd let on, Sam guessed. Hell, Sam could've told Dean that people don't act right, safe, when they need to get some blood in their systems; he could've told Dean that dropping by was a really bad move. Better to call. But he hadn't offered, didn't want to seem like he was jealous or prying or anything. And anyway, Dean hadn't asked, and judging by the way he kept his phone on his thigh, so he could check it every few minutes, Lisa hadn't taken well to being dropped in on.
"Where are we going next?" Sam asked, as they kept heading out of town. Away from Lisa's, Sam noticed, although that could have been a result of where the street was taking them. One way, after all, and maybe Dean hadn't found a good place to turn around yet.
"Out of here," Dean said, still looking out the windshield. "I'll call Bobby tonight, see if he's got a lead on anything around here we can get started on."
"Cool." Sam nodded. "You know, I can call him now, so we can get a head start on it. Not have to wait all day, maybe driving in the wrong direction."
Dean shook his head. "Nah, I'll do it. I've been meaning to talk to him anyway, and I figure it should probably come from me."
"What should?" Sam asked after a moment, frowning.
Dean turned and gaped at him, then shook his head and went back to his staring contest with the horizon. "That I got turned?" he asked, biting off the words. "Ring any bells? Might not have been that big a deal for you, but it sure put a snag in my plans for the week."
"Dean," Sam said, and frowned. "Come on, what are you talking about? You think I wanted any of that to happen to you?"
Dean snorted. "You seemed happy enough at the chance to get someone inside that nest."
"Yeah, but —" Sam shook his head. "That wasn't like, personal or anything. You had to go after the vamp that bit you. And if I'm remembering correctly, you wouldn't let me come with you."
"Because I didn't want you to get bit," Dean said, and he sounded strange, too, putting his emphasis in weird places, so the sentence sounded choppy. He clenched his jaw for a long moment, and Sam looked away before he relaxed it. "I'm just saying, you seemed more excited about learning about the inside of their operation than you did about me."
"Dean," he said, but Dean shook his head.
"I could hear your pulse," he repeated, and then fell silent.
Sam sighed and looked out his window. He didn't know what was up with everyone, first Samuel and now Dean: Dean getting turned had a pretty decent silver lining, once they had the cure, but nobody else got that. It wasn't like Sam had stood back and let Dean get turned, on the off chance he could learn something about the alpha, or anything. Sam only made the best of a bad situation, and everything worked out fine in the end. Just doing his job. Weird for two people who'd taught him so much to be unhappy with him for doing that, but people were confusing sometimes.
Dean pulled onto the freeway and merged into the left lane as soon as he could, so they were riding next to the median before they passed the next exit. He was definitely not heading to Lisa's. Either he thought it was something little enough that showing up in person to talk about it would be overkill, or big enough he didn't want to risk showing his face around there. Sam had his suspicions about that — Dean could talk his way out of little things, without any problem. Too bad, really.
Neither of them had turned the music on. Sam sort of wanted to now, to have something to break both the silence and Dean's bad mood, but he thought that doing it for himself might only make things worse. He thought about cracking his window, but rolling down only one on the freeway always made his ears pop, and it'd probably be too cold for that. So Sam just tried to settle further into the seat, pressing his feet against the footwell and his back against the seat and stretching for a moment, then sinking back down.
He hadn't been afraid of Dean, and maybe that was what kept freaking everyone out. A single vamp — a newly turned vamp, even, a vamp that hadn't adapted to all its new senses yet — was nothing out of the ordinary. Sam'd taken on worse before. Usually he'd had someone working with him, usually Dean, but he could have handled Dean, if he needed to.
And if Dean had bitten him, so what? Sam really doubted Dean would have tried to turn him, and a single bite didn't have to be fatal. It would have messed things up for the cure, but if it hadn't been for that, for needing to make sure Dean didn't feed so he could be turned back, Sam would have let him. They had each other's blood to begin with, in their veins and on each other's hands, and Sam was probably the only person who understood how much Dean would have needed it. He would have given it to him.
Not like there was any way for Sam to say that, though, especially not with Dean still studiously watching the freeway. He sighed and looked back out his window instead, watching the cars they passed.