Hey guys!

A little more angst in this one, not much action though. But there'll be plenty of that later, trust me (and my cruel cliffies ;) )

Anyway, a little taste of what's to come...

All is disclaimed - I own a couple of books and an MP3, but that's about it.

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"What time is it?" Sam asked. Dean glanced at his watch.

"Almost six." He said. "You sure you're okay?" Sam smirked, looking at his brother through the mirror.

"Oh, yeah. I'm fine." He said. See how he likes it. Sam got out of the bathroom and sat down at the table. The laptop was open. "You're still looking for a new job?" Sam asked. Dean gave him a strange look, almost hesitant, and then smirked.

"Well, actually, I think I found one." He said.

"Oh, yeah?" Sam asked. Hunting would actually be good right now. After that nightmare, going out and killing some evil $0B seemed like a good thing to do. Dean cleared his throat, and Sam braced himself. Dean rarely needed to clear his throat. When he did so, it often meant he was trying to find a way to say something he didn’t want to say. And that was usually not good.

"Actually, I found me a job." Dean said, licking his lips.

"No way!" Sam snapped, whirling around to face his brother. "You're not going on a solo mission, Dean. Out of the question. I mean, are you even sane? Did that poltergeist knock something loose in your brain or something? How could you think…"

"Whoa, whoa, easy there, tiger." Dean cut him off, raising his hands. "It's not like that."

"Not like that?" Sam cried incredulously, "Dean…"

"Sam," Dean stopped him again, "Look, it's not our usual gig. It's not even a gig, really, just a favor." Dean said, "Look, I got this call from a friend of mine. She needs some help," He tried to explain, but Sam cut him off.

"So we'll go together." Sam said in a tone that had finality in it.

"Look, there's no point, really. She's having some trouble with her landlord, she just wants someone to rattle the guy, scare him off, make sure she and her kids are safe, that kind of thing." Dean said quickly. "I'll just go, knock some sense into the guy, and come back. No reason for you to be dragged along, I know how much you don’t like it, you know, feeling like luggage and stuff."

"What? Dean, are we back to that crap?" Sam couldn’t believe it. He'd told Dean a thousand times that it wasn’t like that, that hanging around and staying with his brother wasn’t a burden. That is was his choice. Obviously, Dean still didn’t believe him. "Look, I want to go with you, okay?" Sam said, "I mean, what else am I supposed to do?" Sam regretted those words the moment he'd said them. He meant it, it just didn’t sound the way he wanted it to. It sounded like he didn’t have a choice, and that was exactly the opposite of what he was trying to say. Dean's face was a mask. Completely unreadable. And Sam hated that.

They were doing so well. They were starting to fall back to their old routine from before Sam had left for college. Yes, sometimes it was hard, and yes, Dean often got on his nerves, but deep down, Sam loved it. Yes, he b*t**ed and whined about hunting, but it did give him a rush, and the ride back to the motel after a hunt going right, with his brother by his side, that was probably one of his favorite things.

And then the Demon ruined it all. Ruined everything, for the third time in Sam's life. It wasn’t that things were tense between him and Dean, but before, Dean actually started opening up. When he came to get Sam, he was all walls, and then he finally started opening up, telling Sam all those things he never knew, like how he wanted to be a fireman. And now… Sam signed mentally. Now the walls were back up, and there was probably a moat around them, too. A clairvoyant would have trouble seeing into Dean now. And Sam hated that, he really did.

So, any thoughts, remarks, grammar/spelling mistakes? Let me know what you think.