~~The next morning ~~
"Hey, Sammy," Dean greets his brother with a grin. It's a genuine smile, something Sam hasn't seen on him in... wow, years. It's nice, really, seeing his brother so carefree. He deserves it.
"Hey," Sam replies, giving his brother the cool guy head nod. "How are you holding up?"
"Honestly, never felt better," Dean tells him. "No more hunting, no more running for our lives on a daily basis. I love saving people and all, but this..."
"Yeah," Sam agrees. "It's great. So, you and Cas, huh?"
Dean nods sheepishly. "Uh, yeah."
"Hey, man, I ain't judging," Sam tells him. "I'm happy for you two. I think you're good for each other."
Flustered and unsure how else to respond, Dean replies, "Hey, no chick flick moments, remember?"
Sam rolls his eyes, an amused smile on his face. "Yeah, yeah."
"I still can't believe you're dating Gabriel," Dean adds.
Sam's smile falls at this. "Uh, yeah, not — not anymore, actually."
"Seriously?" Dean says in surprise. "We've been here, what..." (Author checks previous chapters) "a week, and you guys already broke up? Nice, Sammy. Way to be committed to your relationship." Seeing that Sam isn't in the mood to joke about this, Dean asks in a gentler, kinder tone, "What happened?"
"Chuck brought Jess back," Sam says simply.
"Jess?" Dean repeats, seeming unfamiliar with the name. It takes him a moment to realize who that is. "Stanford Jess? Cute little blonde thing?"
"Yeah," Sam confirms, not bothering to tell him to stop talking like that about his girlfriend.
"Well, that's awesome, man! You get laid yet? Trust me, it's a huge stress reliever. And god — er, Chuck knows it's been a while since your last time."
Instead of mentioning how many times he and Gabe have done it in the last week, he gives his brother a signature bitch face.
"Exactly what I'm talking about," Dean tells him. "Loosen up, Sammy. We're pretty much living the life right now. Enjoy it, man!"
"I can't enjoy it," Sam replies, not as thrilled with this setup as Dean is.
"Why not?" Dean asks.
"Because I just had to break up with my boyfriend, Dean!" Sam whisper-yells, so his voice essentially comes out at normal volume but more passionate. "You may be having the best time of your life over here, but not all of us are that lucky. I'm glad that we've got our friends back. Charlie, Kevin, Bobby. That's all great. But this whole situation kinda sucks for me right now."
Dean frowns. Seeing his brother unhappy always drags him down, too. He can't help but feel sort of guilty; he hadn't even noticed anything was wrong, so busy enjoying himself instead of paying attention to his brother. Then again, he's got a new boyfriend. He deserves to be able to spend some time with Cas.
"I'm sorry, man," Dean says finally. "I didn't realize..."
"I know," Sam replies. "I wasn't blaming you. I'm just... I'm kinda stressed out right now."
"When isn't at least one of us stressed out? But you know you can always come to me if you need help, right? And I mean whenever. Wake me up at two in the morning if you want to."
"I know," Sam replies. "And thanks, Dean."
"Course, Sammy."
The conversation sort of fizzles out, but they're used to that by now. With as many long car rides as they've had and the number of hours they've spent working cases together, they're used to conversations starting and ending like this. Sometimes they revive it, sometimes they don't. This is one of the times they do.
"Things have been pretty quiet," Dean observes.
"Yeah," Sam agrees. "At least, they have been recently. I guess it's because Lucifer..." he trails off. He was going to say Lucifer hasn't made a scene, but that's because Lucifer hadn't been out here. So where is he?
"You don't think Chuck..." Dean says slowly.
"Stuck Lucifer away somewhere with someone for some 'quality time'?" Sam finishes. "I don't see where else he would be."
"And who else haven't we seen in a while?" Dean asks, unsure as he asks who this would be.
Sam think about this for a moment. "I don't kn--" He pauses, then mutters, "Dammit," under his breath.
"What?" Dean asks.
"I think I know where Lucifer is," Sam tells him.
"Where?"
"I think Chuck stuck Lucifer with the one human he hates most here," Sam replies.
It only takes Dean a moment to figure out who this would be, and when he does, he isn't sure whether to feel stupid that he didn't realize it earlier, or concerned for her wellbeing. What he does know now is who Lucifer is stuck with, and he knows that it's not going to end well.
"Jo."