The Love Potion Incident

Side quest

Weeks go by. Then months. The two hunters keep doing what they do best: killing demons, protecting relics and pissing of rednecks. At one point Sam gets captured by some mad farmer, who made a deal with a demon for immortality, but who had to keep finding strong magical beings or sorcerers, to sacrifice to him. When Dean comes to Sam's rescue, he shoots the farmer and his rabid dog with blessed silver bullets, turning both into dust. It turns out the guy was already over two hundred years old, and had learned to tell when people were more gifted with magic than others.

Once the Winchester's are re-united and leave the man's premise, Sam notes: "Shame Cass wasn't here, he'd have had a picnic, seeing he's not the only one clueless about pop culture!" But Dean abruptly halts and with a sad look answers: "But then the guy'd have gone after him! And then I wouldn't have been able to come up with a plan, because I would..." When he doesn't finish, Sam comes back to him and asks: "What? You were able to find someone to bless the ammo, why wouldn't you have..." "Because if he's in danger, I have to be there! I have to save him right away! I... I can't just leave him to his fate, hoping he'll be alright, he could think I abandoned him.", Dean suddenly rages. Sam is taken aback and murmurs: "Why would he? I didn't think so! I knew you'd come for me eventually. Hmm. Wait... is that how you feel about him? Do you think he abandoned you?"

Dean blushes, but then he resumes his pace and gives back: "Don't be weird Sam, that's... He'll be there, if I need him. He always is." They almost arrived at the Impala, when Sam cautiously pries: "You miss him a lot, don't you?" Dean cringes, but gets into the slightly messy car, only to reply: "Yes. I do.", before turning the volume all the way up and singing along with his favorite song. Sam has to cover his ears, to drown out the noise and the raging sorrow in Dean's voice, and he sends his prayer to heaven, like he's been doing since they left Green Garden: 'Castiel, where are you? Dean needs you, please come back!'

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They pass a few towns, stay in small villages with only one store, or bigger cities with proper night clubs and nice hotels. In one of those cities, they stay to investigate the high number of mysterious teenager suicides. When they find out, that all the kids had been frequent guests of a local nightclub called 'The Hellhole', they pay it a visit. The name certainly fits, as the interior is held in blood red and otherwise black, the staff has to wear horns and clothing that looks more like fetish fashion from a sex store than that of a catering service, the music, apart from being too loud, consists of nothing but Gothic and black metal, and as for the crowd... There are so many people with body modifications, that the two have a hard time deciding, whether they are humans or demons. Some girl with black eyes, implanted horns and a split tongue, tries to hit on Dean, but when he raises his hand and turns the silver ring with his thumb, making it flash, she respectfully backs away.

Sam again wonders, why his brother is still wearing it. He hadn't asked him about what happened with him and the witch, probably thinking it was for the best, but he kept the ring. And was using it to ward off girls. Sure, the chick was a bit weird looking, even for their liking, but otherwise seemed okay. And when another cute girl, whose only body mod are her braces, also tries her luck, and Dean uses the ring AGAIN, Sam has to join him and ask: "Hey, what's up with you? She wasn't your type either?" He smiles at him, but his brother returns with a frown: "We're here on business!"

Sam's blinks, thinking he hasn't heard right. This is the first night in a long time, where they go out in a place like this, so far nothing interesting has happened, and they had managed to both get their own hotel room, so they might as well have fun while waiting for the next Antichrist to wreck havoc, dammit! Only later does Sam find out, that he should have followed his big brothers example. But for now a tall, dark maiden in a corsage catches his eye. "Hey, you hold the fort, I'll go check out that Marilyn Manson type girl!", he shouts, barely hearing his brothers remark: "You realize Marilyn Manson is a dude?"