Chapter Text
While feeling a bit tipsy, Dean walked with unsteady steps towards the motel room that him and Sam had been staying in for the past few nights. It was around two in the morning, which was actually a bit earlier than Dean was used to coming back at. For the past month since he'd been out of Hell, he made it a habit of not returning to sleep until at least four AM. Well, if they weren't working a case anyway. There really wasn't any need for him to be back until later if they weren’t working a case. Tonight was different though. Dean was feeling a little more exhausted, which was probably due to the tough, poltergeist case they had finished a few hours earlier around nine thirty. As Dean rummaged through his jacket pockets for the card key, the sound of raised voices on the other side of the door caused him to halt. Dean frowned as he recognized one of the voices to belong to Sam.
"I told you already. I'm done."
"No, you're not, Sam!"
Dean didn't recognize the woman's voice, but it was clear that she knew his brother despite Dean not knowing her himself. He knew vaguely what had happened with Sam while Dean was rotting away in Hell, but who was this? Dean wasn’t entirely sure if he was ready to know. A lot of the details of what happened during their time of separation were unknown to him and for good reason. Whenever something was revealed, it only made Dean angrier and made their situation even tougher. A part of Dean needed to know though. Sometimes it drove him up a wall just thinking about everything that could have happened while he was gone. Dean was just glad there was at least a little alcohol in his system right now to help prepare him for whatever was going on now.
The woman pressed on, "You can't lie to yourself. You know this isn't over yet. Lilith is still out there, and she isn't exactly ecstatic about the stunt you pulled. To tell you the truth, there's a lot of demons out there wanting your head on a platter, but you already knew that, didn't you?"
Lilith? Dean’s eyes narrowed as a frown surfaced. There was no doubt in his mind that whoever was behind this door arguing with his brother was a demon. Dean reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the demon killing knife. It was hard to hear the next words because Sam was muttering, but Dean was able to make out the sentence, “Lilith can wait.”
“No, she can’t.” Dean had no trouble hearing her though. She was getting really worked up over this. “Did you forget everything she’s done? Everything she still wants to do?! She’s not going to stop, Sam. Not unless we take her down.”
The woman laughed loudly, bitterly before Sam could respond. There was an edge to her voice when she accused, “But this isn’t about Lilith.”
“What?”
“You want to take Lilith down just as much as I do. You’re going soft all of a sudden. You’re losing your drive.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Ever since we saved Dean from being Hell’s bitch, you’ve been slacking. You weren’t even going to bother to contact me again if I didn’t invite myself here,” she hissed.
This conversation had gone far enough. Dean was too tired to beat around the bush and slowly piece together what was going on. Honestly, that just wasn’t his style. Dean wanted to make this quick. If he had to find out, he wanted to find out now. For the past fifteen minutes there had been a hint of a headache tapping against his skull, and it wasn’t exactly helping his mood. It was killing his buzz truthfully. Maybe he should have drank more...or less. With that thought, Dean gave an exasperated sigh and opened the door. Both Sam and the woman immediately turned towards him. Dean’s green eyes swept the woman up and down as he closed the door behind him, and he affirmed his original thought of not knowing her. The lithe woman was wearing a black leather jacket and matching, leather pants. Thick, dark brown hair fell around her face in a gentle wave and settled on her shoulders.
When the look of surprise faded off Sam's face, he shifted his weight uncertainly. Dean frowned. Irritably, he announced, "Couple's therapy ended at eleven. I don't know what all this talk of Lilith is about, but I'm ending it."
The edge of the woman's lips curled upward in a smirk. “This is the after session,” she lewdly corrected him as she stepped into Sam’s personal space. The muscles in Sam’s body tensed, but he didn’t move away from her. Dean’s eyes snapped up to Sam to find that he was already giving Dean a deer in the headlights look.
“I don’t know who the hell you are, but you’ve got ten seconds before this knife gets stabbed in your chest.”
“Dean,” Sam warned, but Dean ignored it. He didn’t care if Sam knew this demon or not. A demon’s a demon, and they all deserved to have their tickets punched. The woman didn’t seem as worried about the threat as Sam did. The smirk that remained on her face was making Dean more bitter by the second.
The woman stepped away from Sam to get a bit closer to Dean. She made sure to stay out of arm’s reach from him, but the look in her dark eyes was almost like a challenge. “Oh, Dean,” she badgered. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten me already. I’m hurt.”
Dean’s eyes narrowed. He glanced back and forth between her and Sam. “What is she talking about?”
The silence stretched on. Realization dawned on him whenever he watched Sam avert his eyes to the ground. Dean’s attention immediately snapped back to the demon. “Ruby? Is that Ruby?”
“It’s been awhile.” The casualness of her voice as she spoke was making Dean’s skin crawl. “Welcome back upstairs.”
It wasn’t long before Dean saw red. Everything crashed down on him at once. Not only did Sam twist and torture his soul in unredeemable ways while Dean was being roasted, but Ruby had been involved. It was typical if Dean really thought about it. Of course Ruby had been on the bandwagon to get Sam to do what he did. Dean didn’t know what was grinding at his sanity more: the fact that it happened, or the fact that she was still here. Dean lunged forward with the knife, blinded by the fury behind wanting Ruby dead and wanting her dead now. The look of surprise that crossed her face was one Dean cherished, but Dean couldn’t even so much as lay a finger on her before Sam was crowding his space and shoving him away.
“Dean, wait!” Sam pleaded, which only made Dean’s blood boil further. No. No. Sam had pleaded for Ruby’s life before. That era had come and gone. It was supposed to have come and gone! Everything was running backwards around Dean. Sam was supposed to be pleading with Dean to kill her already, not spare her.
“Goddammit, Sam!” Dean shouted as he regained his footing and shoved Sam off of him. He squared out his shoulders and glared long and hard past his little brother at the demon who looked slightly irritated now. Dean’s heart was pounding in his ears.The sudden rush of adrenaline mixed with the bit of alcohol in his body caused the room to sway a bit. He tightened his grip on the knife and managed to stay upright. They were hunters. They were supposed to kill demons, not save them. Dean knew Sam had never wanted this life, but the last thing Dean had ever expected from him was to protect something so vile. “I won’t do this again! I’m not going to stand by and watch her drag you along!”
“When have you ever just stood by?” Sam challenged, offended now. “You’ve wanted her dead since day one!”
“You wanted her dead too!” Dean accused. “For good reason! She’s a demon, Sam! If you’re going to try to convince me she has some redeeming qualities, you can save the good samaritan speech. I don’t want to hear it, especially not after everything she’s done.”
“Everything she’s done?!” Sam gaped. He flung an arm out, gesturing back towards Ruby. She had fallen quiet ever since the two brothers engaged in this argument. Her dark eyes calmly rolled over Sam before making eye contact with Dean. “Ruby saved my life, Dean!”
“By turning you into a demon?” The grin that stretched across Dean’s face was cold and humorless. The silent chuckles that left him were nothing more than huffs of air blowing out his nose. “Sam, that’s the exact opposite of saving.”
Sam had straightened up to his full height as anger began to stir in him. “That was my own choice! That had nothing to do with Ruby!”
A heavy sigh left him like a punch to the gut, quick and almost painfully. He was pacing now. Dean’s eyes followed him, trying to block out the demon in the room. The more he ignored her presence though, the more sour he became. Dean disagreed coldly, “I find that hard to believe,”
Ignoring Ruby only lasted for a few more seconds before Dean couldn’t take it anymore, turned a hard stare towards her, and jabbed a hand out in her direction. “I’m sure Ruby here was cheering you on from the sidelines and giving you pep talks along the way!”
“It was my choice,” Sam stated a little firmer this time, frustration leveling his voice now instead of heightening it. “You were rotting in Hell. For months, and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. What happened--all of it--was my choice, and I sure as hell aren’t sorry for it.”
They held each other’s gaze for a long time, tension hanging thickly through the room. Dean announced sternly after a beat, “Then we have more problems than I thought.”
Ruby broke the silence that hung afterwards by taking a small step forward and mentioning, “Looks like that’s my cue to leave. Sorry but I’m not thrilled at the thought of group therapy.”
Dean remembered the knife in his hand and straightened up, which caused Sam to tense. Although every fiber in Dean’s body screamed at him to shoot forward and attack Ruby again, he didn’t move. It would have been useless with Sam so close. All of his efforts would have been in vain. He knew that. Knowing that Ruby knew this too was a little infuriating. Sam eyed him for a moment longer before turning to Ruby. He nodded and agreed quietly, “You should go.”
Ruby nodded back at him and calmly stepped towards the door. She turned her head and gave a small smile to Dean. There wasn’t any amusement or slyness to it, but it didn’t earn her any points as far as Dean was concern though. “Again, welcome back to the surface. Hasn’t been the same without you.”
Oh, how true that really, really was. Dean shot a look towards Sam out of the corner of his eye before remarking stiffly, “Damn right it hasn’t been.”
A pleased smile formed on Ruby’s face before she turned and disappeared out the door. The rest of the night was strained, which unfortunately was common between the brothers lately. Neither one of them said a word to each other. Despite having just returned from a local bar, Dean opened one of the beers in the fridge and gulped it down before turning in for the night. It didn’t help. It never really did. Nothing was going to help this situation. The last thought on Dean’s mind before he slipped into unconsciousness was that he was starting to believe nothing could ever fix it either.