Archive of Our Own ^beta

Sam poked at the ugly amulet. "You should take this off," he said.

Dean glanced over at him, uncertainty in the shiftiness of his eyes.

"Really," Sam said. "You've been working so hard on the Impala, and it's so ugly. It's a blight on Baby."

Dean looked at him again, and this time there was conflict written in his eyes. He always did have a problem with sentimentality.

"Thanks, man," Sam says, "but seriously, I know. I don't need some amulet. Especially a butt-ugly fake one."

Dean turned back to the road and for a second, Sam thought he might leave it. He had to admit, it felt pretty good to see it again, ugly as it was. Then Dean nodded and took it off, but instead of throwing it into the backseat with the rest of the garbage he'd meticulously clean out as soon as they hit the next motel, he tucked it in his jacket pocket.

Six days later, when they were heading through Kansas on the way to the other side of the country, they took a night off to sleep in their own beds. Sam woke up early and went for a run, and Dean was up with breakfast made when he got back. They talked about a couple of things that might be cases, but the evidence was pretty thin. Still, Dean was better on the move, so they decided to head out as soon as Sam showered.

Glancing into Dean's (neat again, thankfully) room, he saw the amulet on his desk, next to his picture of mom.

Sam took a deep breath and let it out. They were going to find a way to fix Dean. And then Sam was going to permanently etch something on him himself; no more giving parts of themselves to anyone, anything else – if they actually belonged to each other, no one could weasel in and get them to do something stupid.

"Promise, Dean. We'll figure this out."