Shared Nightmare [Adam/Ruby]

[Ruby]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/ei88w7.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #ccc; width: 500px; height: 572px; padding: 0px;, bTable] She sat in Sam’s room on the night of the seventh day of his…she had no idea what to call it now; episode would be the best she supposed. Every now and then she’d see a twitch from Sam and her eyes would trail over to him, hoping he’d have his eyes open and looking at her as if to say ‘Hey Ruby, what have you been so damned worried about? I’ve been fine all this time’. She might deck him for it but honestly she’d be relived to find out his whole episode was just something fleeting, nothing permeate, but somehow she doubted it. This was her handiwork, she told herself that over and over again, the guilt daring to eat a hole through her at times and not only because Sam lay here broken before here but there was another life that by her actions had been torn apart, another walking and living reminder that she had still so much to answer for, Adam had been there also. Her eyes moved to the youngest Winchester as he sat in the darkness. Tonight it was just her and him in the room, unlike the previous night’s where others had moved in and out, some staying to sit, others just coming by to ask how he was. Ruby had stayed silent most of the time, only speaking when spoken to and only a handful of words at that. When Christopher had come in to pull her out the times he had she followed him, saying little, but always putting up a small protest to his insistences. Finally, she could take it no more, not only was it the quiet heavy room that weighed down on her, she also knew that she had to say something to Adam. She’d spent the last days on and off trying to come up with the perfect words, some explanation, something he might deserve but everything was hollow. How do you tell someone you are sorry for sending them to hell? There isn’t really a hallmark card that works in this situation so Ruby turned to Adam, dark eyes fixing on him a moment, and simply said. “I did this to you both and there is no excuse for it, for what it’s worth I’m sorry.” Maybe giving him someone to blame might help him more than any explanation could but if he wanted to know the who, when, why, and how she’d give it to him, it was more than fair of her to offer it after what she had done. LOCATION: Sam’s room NYNY Casino, Vegas baby MUSIC: A Nightmare Remembered by Dream Theater OUTFIT: I killed bambi NOTES: Supernatural Hallmark Cards, coming soon?!?

[Adam Milligan]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/2cnt8y1.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #7d776b; width: 500px; height: 600px; padding: 0px;, bTable] Adam was a man in search of a coping mechanism. His conversation with Letty, combined with a much longer series of talks he'd been having with both Nichole and Luke Byron had led him to decide that it was time to at least try to regulate his chemical intake. Sam would be waking up soon, and he had more stability in his world right now than he'd had when he started on his quest to find some magic bullet cocktail of drugs that would make him sane again. Time to admit to himself that it wasn't going to happen, and so he just needed to...steady out. Stabilize. So he was trying it. He was taking the quetiapine, despite that it barely took the edge off, and was trying to stick to a joint or a couple of drinks, not both, to help him sleep at night. He was down under two and a half hours of sleep a night but his reading suggested that he should eventually get past that and up to three or even four hours a night if he got onto a split sleeping schedule. He just had to give the meds a couple of weeks to take full effect. All of which meant that his nerves were shot to shit. So much so that in a desperate, last-ditch attempt not to lean too heavily on alcohol or the prescription painkillers he had squirrelled away for headaches that he'd taken up smoking. His mother would be rolling in her grave if she hadn't been eaten by ghouls, but at this point Adam was making what seemed to be the best of a bad lot of choices and this was what he could come up with. So when Ruby finally spoke, Adam startled up from his thoughts and fumbled the zippo that he'd been turning over and over in his hand. The lighter hit the carpet with a rattly thunk, and he bent over to retrieve it before he tried to answer her statement. Apology. Whatever you'd call it. "You really didn't. When you come right down to it, archangels did this to me. Archangels and their direct flunkies. You were a third-tier villain at worst. And besides," he shrugged one skinny shoulder, "not to get philosophical or anything but if I start trying to blame people I'll never stop. Too much blame to go around, and nothing to be gained from assigning it. I..." his forehead creased as he tried to find the right words. "I don't have the energy for blame or revenge or any of that crap. It's taking too much just to stay vertical and try to figure out what's going to happen with Sam when he wakes up." Location: Sam's Hotel Room, NYNY Casino, Las Vegas NV Music: Jesus Walks - Kanye West Outfit: Comfortable in black and gray, with bare feet and rumpled hair Notes: The only one he blames is Dean, and that's for other reasons.

[Ruby]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/ei88w7.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #ccc; width: 500px; height: 572px; padding: 0px;, bTable] Ruby’s eyebrow rose in surprise at Adam’s words, honestly it sounded like an insult mixed in with absolution and she was unsure how to take it for a moment. Then a half smirk formed on her lips, impressed with the amount of balls it took for the kid to say that to her, had he not been Adam he might have ended up on the other end of a few choice comments from her that would cut them with that famous sharp tongue of hers. She nodded to him, understanding having the lack of energy to deal with revenge anymore. Had she wanted to peruse it there would be a long list of people she would be headed after right now, Dean Winchester being at the top of the list. Perhaps it was the new lease on life she felt she was finally starting to have or the breath of fresh air in the forum of a pair of sparkling blue eyes which served to invite her into a life she could and perhaps should live. “I didn’t mean to startle you, I just…I’ve been sitting here with you for days trying to figure out how or even if I should say something. It’s hard you know, being back with all this and everything is so different.” She gestured to the room but really meant the world as a whole. It was so hard for her to even begin to understand how different her life was now, let alone explain it. She remembered being human before only that life was only a half-life, strife and pain her companions throughout it. Then hell, if she lingered on those memories, let them burn in her she might find herself just as lost as Sam was. For her it hadn’t been just the one trip down, it had been three times total. Her first trip was when the torturers had broken her and stripped her of enough of her humanity to craft her into a demon. Then when Sam and Dean had left her prone, allowing Lilith to overpower her and send her packing back to hell before taking her body over to finish off Dean. The only way she had escaped that time was by agreeing to come back and finish off Sam, hurt and angry at him for siding with Dean over her after all she had done for them, fully intending to finish him off till she came into the room where he was. The moment she saw him it was all over and she knew it, turning her back on the minions of hell as much as she dared and following Sam. Lilith still owned her though and thanks to what the elder demon knew she used that affection that Ruby felt for Sam against her, pushing her to push Sam down the road that lead to the seals breaking and Lucifer being set loose on the world. All those experiences though had been tempered by the fact she had no soul, so while she felt badly for what she did she never really dealt with it or the horror from hell. Now, without that demon part of her, all bets had been off. Spending time in quiet contemplation she had tried to figure out why it was she wasn’t coming apart at the seams as much as Sam and Adam were, she supposed the reason was that she hadn’t time to lose it yet, bottling it up inside. She’d had the random nightmare, waking up horrified and grasping out for reality, but in the end she would remind herself she was safe and topside. Part of her feared if she ever did finally get sucked into her mind enough to find out how fractured it may be, six hundred years of being a demon held horrors that most people would never know and now that buffer was gone. She hoped that it was simply that she had some strange reserve of strength that the brothers didn’t possess or perhaps it was that her own experiences in hell were less about a constant torture and more about a buildup and release when she agreed to take up the knife herself. “I understand. I’ve no time lately for any thoughts save reacting to the next thing that happens. It’s like I move from moment to moment just to keep going, no destination save getting out of the last moment. I love being called a third tier villain though, so much so I might get a t-shirt saying it.” LOCATION: Sam’s room NYNY Casino, Vegas baby MUSIC: A Nightmare Remembered by Dream Theater OUTFIT: I killed bambi NOTES: We could start an “issues with Dean Winchester” support group.

[Adam Milligan]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/2cnt8y1.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #7d776b; width: 500px; height: 600px; padding: 0px;, bTable] He smiled at her, lopsided and not quite sleepy but looking a bit like it just because his head was leaned back against the cushioned chair, his eyes dropped partway closed as he watched her. "I don't think you owe me anything." Neither combative nor pointed, more contemplative, like he was thinking it out as he said it. "I mean," he shrugged, "you never met me. Nobody did, not really. You fucked with Sam, but half the world's taken a potshot at Sam at some point. You broke his heart and some part of me hates you for it, but more of me realizes that it was one small part of a much bigger thing." "Mind," and he sounded downright cheerful about it, "do it now and I'll shoot you from a safe distance." Like a third of a mile away from a rooftop with a sniper rifle. Adam had no illusions about his combat ability. He was determined to learn to shoot well, and possibly use a blade (he was thinking sword, oddly enough), but that was so that he could act in a support capacity while people better suited, like his half brothers, did the actual world-saving. Adam was only too happy to be the one running the communications hub and covering a situation with a sniper rifle, not least because he didn't at all want to be the stupid kid who went running in and then needed to get saved over and over. "But this is everybody's clean start or whatever, and the way I figure it, you and him have to work your own past out your own way, and me inserting myself into that will just make shit worse." Another shrug, the sharp line of his clavicle showing clearly through the babywale corduroy of the shirt he wore. Adam had been lean, narrow when he was brought back to life. Now he was skinny and aiming for gaunt, he couldn't remember to eat with any kind of regularity and half the time he puked whatever it was right back up when the next round of horrors came at him. The smells, he'd always been sensitive to scents. "The only things that matter to me right now are Sam, Nick, and my Dad in that order. I don't have room for anything else." A slow, sly smile that was more 'him' than most of his other mannerisms these days. "If you really do get that t-shirt? Lemme know, Cafe Press does discounts for multiple items and I want one that says 'Spare'." He glanced around the room, eyes drawn back to Sam as they always were in the moments between. His brother was deep in his sleep cycle or whatever it was, breathing deep and slow, his eyes still behind the lids. "You wanna come out onto the balcony, get some fresh air? Which I'll immediately poison with cigarette smoke?" Location: Sam's Hotel Room, NYNY Casino, Las Vegas NV Music: Jesus Walks - Kanye West Outfit: Comfortable in black and gray, with bare feet and rumpled hair Notes: Looking for the funny.

[Ruby]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/ei88w7.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #ccc; width: 500px; height: 572px; padding: 0px;, bTable] She got up, stretching out her arms, her eyes lingering on Sam as well, quietly accepting everything Adam had said to her before turning away from him and stepping out onto the balcony and leaning up against the wall that stood in between them and a nice drop to a splat of a death below. She watched him move from the room after her, still thinking over everything he had said and wondering how much, if anything more, she should say to him. Almost of testing the waters she softly spoke a small truth to Adam. “Sam doesn’t want me, not like it was. I still love him, never stopped but I think he took me in to be more of a security blanket or in the hopes that I’d be able to piece him back together like I did before. I can’t Adam, I’m not who I was and it’s not the same situation it was then. The problem is I know deep down what it is Sam needs on a fundamental level but I’m scared to go out and get it for him.” Clasping her hands in front of her as if she were almost praying she dared a little more truth. She knew she had little to fear from Adam and part of her wanted to protect him, because she was protective of Sam, and there was something that Adam possessed in common with Sam, call it a look or an energy but it was so much like Sam that it had that effect on her of making her want to protect him. “Nichole…she, well Sam thinks she’s lying about who she is. She’s dangerous too Adam and I don’t want to see you or anyone else hurt because of her. Just please be careful.” She also knew that deep down, if the little tart tried anything around Sam, Adam, or Christopher she’d put a bullet in the girl’s brain and deal with the consequences. She’d had about enough of the little faker and if she had wormed her way into Adam’s heart she was now doubly a threat. Maybe there was too much of Sam’s pet demon still in her to just let that go. LOCATION: Sam’s room NYNY Casino, Vegas baby MUSIC: A Nightmare Remembered by Dream Theater OUTFIT: I killed bambi NOTES: One guess what it is Ruby thinks Sam needs...

[Adam Milligan]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/2cnt8y1.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #7d776b; width: 500px; height: 600px; padding: 0px;, bTable] Adam leaned back against the rail, lit a smoke with the Zippo that had a razor blade etched into it--it had been too perfect not to buy-- and took a very deep drag, let it out on a long happy shiver of breath. It was amazing how fast he'd gone from them tasting like shit to being the most delicious thing in the world. The shaky feeling in his chest started to ease, his hands started steadying out immediately. It was entirely possible that it was all psychosomatic but he'd take it. Sagging back slightly into the rail, any release of tension was a blessing, he said, "I don't understand what Sam needs right now, other than what I can guess at based on what I need. We didn't exactly get a chance to talk, and Nick's understanding of his psychology is...thin. Norah just says to ask him when he wakes up. And Dad never understood him either." His forehead creased as something occurred to him. "Of course, it's possible that I don't understand him either. I did down there, but that wasn't exactly real life. Down there is...it's own thing, you know how it is." At least he assumed she did. The Cage wasn't Hell, he had enough of Michael's memories left to know that. The Cage was in hell, but it was its own place. The pit at the bottom of the lake of fire, a pocket realm inside of Hell where Lucifer's and Michael's whims defined reality. They could do anything, anything their cosmic and twisted minds could conceive, except to leave the tiny infinity of that bubble. But he still figured that the Cage was more like Hell than it was like Earth or Heaven. Enough that it created a presumption of understanding that had him trusting her enough to ask, "What does Sam need? Why isn't it a good idea to get it for him?" And to answer honestly about his sister. "She's told me about him not believing that he's her sister. Norah says it's not that he doesn't believe the blood relation part, just that he's not ready to decide that shared DNA equals emotional connection. And Nick's..." he shook his head, hit his smoke again. "She's hard to deal with. I know that. But I'm hard to deal with too. I get why people think she's dangerous, in a way she is. Trouble happens to her, around her, sometimes she's a catalyst for it and other times she has the best intentions in the world and causes the trouble anyway. I can absolutely see the potential in her to hurt people, hurt me. But if she hurts me, I truly believe that it won't be intentionally. And really, how much more can you ask of a person in this world?" Location: Sam's Hotel Room, NYNY Casino, Las Vegas NV Music: Jesus Walks - Kanye West Outfit: Comfortable in black and gray, with bare feet and rumpled hair Notes: He loves his sister, but is far from blind.

[Ruby]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/ei88w7.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #ccc; width: 500px; height: 572px; padding: 0px;, bTable] Taking a deep breath she turned looking out on the city lights of Vegas. This town had begun to grow on her in a fundamental way, it sort of reminded her of herself, a place that had such a shady beginning but was now trying to find its own strange redemption amidst trying to also hold onto what it knew, both sides warring with each other. What she was starting to get was that you could not be moral and immoral at the same time, that perhaps the demon she was might be gone forever and she might have a chance at something other than a constant struggle to survive. Then again she could be wrong and that life was just this, crawling from one day to the next and hoping for something magical to happen. “Yes Adam, I remember hell. What I went through down there was different than what you and Sam did; I don’t know if easier is the word for it, perhaps able to cope with it might be more appropriate.” She let that statement linger, not wanting to go further into her experiences for fear they might bring Adam back un-needed memories, not wishing to harm him any further at this point. Also she didn’t want to remember unless he needed her to, then she would search back through her memory and give him what details he wanted, to hell with the consequences to her, she owed him that. “Sam needs Dean, as much as I hate to admit it he’s always been lost with his older brother. When Dean died before he was trying to commit suicide by hunt when I found him. The only reason I was able to do anything at all to help him then is because I turned him towards revenge. I tried to be both his partner and his lover and it really worked for a time but he truly was a self-loathing hollow shell without Dean. When I came back I saw that same look of defeat in him and before all this happened he had begun the hunting like a madman again, it’s harder for him because this time it’s not that Dean is dead, he’s still out there and just choosing to not be at Sam’s side which is worse. I can’t get Dean for Sam, I go near your older brother and he probably will try to kill me again.” There it was, in the end Ruby knew deep down that as much as she had been trying she could and would never be a substitute for Dean in Sam’s life. She loathed that fact about Sam, how it seemed that without Dean he couldn’t function properly, wanting so badly for him to be independent but after the time they had spent together she didn’t see that ever a possibility. She also knew once Dean was in the equation her time with Sam would become problematic. Sam might have to choose between her and Dean and she would always come out on the losing side of that choice no matter how upset Sam was. “She’s not a person Adam just like I wasn’t a person, had I not had control as a demon I would have expected someone to put me down, truthfully I’m surprised another angel hasn’t shown up to take her under control. The truth is that she’s got powers that I’ve seen aren’t completely under control. For your sake find her someone who can teach her control but fast, I don’t like her at all because she’s what came between Sam and Dean.” She didn’t have it in her to sugarcoat it more than that, had she been speaking to anyone else she would have point blank told them to get the girl control or put her down. LOCATION: Sam’s room NYNY Casino, Vegas baby MUSIC: A Nightmare Remembered by Dream Theater OUTFIT: I killed bambi NOTES: Yea, she ain’t going out and getting Dean for Sam.

[Adam Milligan]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/2cnt8y1.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #7d776b; width: 500px; height: 600px; padding: 0px;, bTable] A flash of anger, for a moment it burned hot and fierce before he made himself let go of it. She probably was better able to cope with things than he was. Adam was no warrior, he wasn't the one with the destiny and magic powers. If Ruby had been better at coping with the torments of Hell than he had been at coping with the Cage, more power to her and he needed to just be glad she was on their side. He couldn't trust his own anger these days, it came up out of nowhere and burned so viciously, it had to be toxic. When she spoke about Dean his mouth tightened but what he said was, "Then I'll get him Dean. If that's what he needs, I'll get him." He thought a moment, then, "Bobby Singer will know where he is, he always does. And if he won't come back for Sam or Nick," he didn't include himself in the consideration, which might not have been entirely fair to Dean but he definitely had his blind spots, "he'll come for Dad. I'll get Ki to send his sister after Dean if we can't reach him any other way, Malaki says they used to have a thing." Adam knew Norah had been trying to reach his oldest half-brother without any luck, but he also knew that if he asked she'd give him access to her resources as far as getting in touch with Eve Amherst and so on. On the subject of Nichole, "I know she's got powers that aren't in control. I even know that she's dangerous with them, because control isn't something she's good at. But rejecting her isn't going to make any of that better. And I don't exactly have a lot of pull with the feathery crowd, especially since any time any of them get near me I banish them on principle. But I'll ask around." It was beginning to hurt Adam's pride, being so dependent, but he was practical enough to know that he wasn't in a position to change that right at the moment, so he just needed to suck it up and keep working on pulling his shit together until he was capable of taking care of himself. Location: Sam's Hotel Room, NYNY Casino, Las Vegas NV Music: Jesus Walks - Kanye West Outfit: Comfortable in black and gray, with bare feet and rumpled hair Notes: Everybody's got their blind spots.

[Ruby]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/ei88w7.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #ccc; width: 500px; height: 572px; padding: 0px;, bTable] She saw the anger flash in his eyes for that moment and sighed, she hadn’t realized that no one had told him really what goes on down in hell for demons. Well, knowledge is power and it would be best for him to gain some. “I didn’t mean I was better than you or Sam, honestly I wouldn’t have been able to take what you both went through and I’m amazed that you two did. What I mean is that in hell, the part I was in at least, there is a different torment, a way to make the torment stop, and I took that way out. See on the racks they torture you till you agree to take up the knife in your hand and inflict that pain on another soul. After you hurt so much it’s simply a relief….or maybe a way of some sick and twisted revenge to do it to someone else. It’s how hell pulls the humanity out of a human and makes them a demon, a step in that whole process. So I had different coping skills than you and Sam had, I had a way of making it stop, I know you both didn’t.” As she spoke her hands began to shake, it took her a few moments to notice it but when she did she shoved them into her coat pocket, setting her jaw to force them to stop. What she had said was true but it wasn’t the whole of it and she didn’t want to have to dredge up more than what she had but she wanted to just give him a weird sense of accomplishment, even if it was that he lived through it, which is something she knew she wouldn’t have been able to. “Tell Dean that Ruby is here with Sam, if he won’t come for Sam or your Dad then he’ll come for revenge.” If that’s what she was meant to do, be the bait that brought Dean to Vegas to help Sam than she’d gladly be it, not that she wanted to entirely. She also thought of Christopher, how he’d probably chide her about putting herself in the line of fire for no good reason. Of course another thought was that with Dean there, if he and Sam could get past their problems, she might be free to go. “If Dean comes have him talk to Castiel, Cas will help you all out I’m sure, if not for anything else but his dedication to your brother.” Yea, that featherbrain Cas who still owed someone else answers. If he did show his trenchcoat wearing butt around Ruby she had a word or fifteen to say to him too. LOCATION: Sam’s room NYNY Casino, Vegas baby MUSIC: A Nightmare Remembered by Dream Theater OUTFIT: I killed bambi NOTES: No pushing him into stuff, just laying out the facts.

[Adam Milligan]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/2cnt8y1.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #7d776b; width: 500px; height: 600px; padding: 0px;, bTable] "Oh." Flat, slightly childlike in his surprise and then he shook his head, "I thought you meant...something else. Yeah, I know about that. They used to think it was funny to show us Dad, Michael kept saying we should encourage him to take up the knife and then Lucifer would--" he shrugged rather than finish the sentence. Nothing good came of telling war stories. "And as for Dean," a frown, "I'll get him out here, one way or another. Somewhat more immediately, do you mind a personal observation?" When she didn't immediately scream 'No!' or anything, Adam hit his smoke again and said calmly, "You're kinda eager to throw yourself on pyres, have you noticed that? I mean, I get the atonement thing, at least sort of, but the way you seem to be approaching things is kinda like you're hoping somebody will hurry up and start oppressing you already." A crooked, slightly apologetic smile. "Are you going to be really disappointed if it turns out that nobody actually wants to enslave or downtrod or enact vengeance upon you? Like, do you have a Plan B?" The words were flip but his tone was earnest, concerned. Ruby had been cool to him, and he'd had plenty of chances to see the real worry and affection in how she treated Sam during these past days. She truly seemed to be setting herself up for some massive act of atonement and absolution and he kept noticing that people weren't too inclined to go that way and it just made him wonder. Location: Sam's Hotel Room, NYNY Casino, Las Vegas NV Music: Jesus Walks - Kanye West Outfit: Comfortable in black and gray, with bare feet and rumpled hair Notes: Awkward but well-meaning.

[Ruby]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/ei88w7.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #ccc; width: 500px; height: 572px; padding: 0px;, bTable] At first when he started to talk about the cage she shuttered, unable to not hear Sam’s voice crying out in pain, begging first for his own torment to end then for his brother. Hells torturers were cruel and effective, that scream from Sam’s lips was the worst sound she could have ever heard and to this day she’d rather the rack a hundred times over than to hear that again. Turning to look at him she quirked an eyebrow at his words, reviewing the last few weeks, hell all the time since she’d been back, just trying to see it all through his eyes. “I can see that, in part it might be true. I also feel like I’m holding my breath and waiting for something big to happen, like end of the world quick hide the women and children big. We’ve got all the Winchesters either here or going to be here and that alone begs for something of apocalyptic proportions to happen. If not then….there is something I do want to do but to be honest it’s going to be up to Sam when he wakes up if I can or not. If he says stay…well…” She stopped there just shaking her head; she knew lately that it had seemed like just Sam and her but now there were others there for him, his father in particular. What if Sam would be okay without her? Okay in the end the real question might be would he let her go after her promise made to him in a moment she was sure he was her world. LOCATION: Sam’s room NYNY Casino, Vegas baby MUSIC: A Nightmare Remembered by Dream Theater OUTFIT: I killed bambi NOTES: Oh would you look at the possibilities.

[Adam Milligan]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/2cnt8y1.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #7d776b; width: 500px; height: 600px; padding: 0px;, bTable] His smile went strange and wry, "I can't argue that the presence of most to all of the Winchesters in one place at one time is sorta inviting disaster. But I also...I've got a feeling there's no way to say this politely, so let me know when I'm getting close to the line where you're wanting to shove me over the balcony railing?" A beat while he smiled at her, but then he soldiered on. "You're being kinda cruel to Sam by putting this whole thing in his hands." See, that sounded bad when he put it right out like that. "We've already gone over the basic statements about how each of us will do all sorts of dire shit to protect him, seems like I really have to point out the psychological dangers along with the spiritual and physical ones. You're hanging your entire life on his say-so, forcing him to be responsible for your happiness. Given that I'm betting both of us could go on an hour-long rant about how unfair it is that Dean hangs all of both their sins on Sam and both their credit on him, I'm sure you can see the parallel. When Sam wakes up," he couldn't and wouldn't face the possibility of 'if', "he's gonna have enough on his plate determining the course of his own life. You really gonna hang the extra responsibility of of your life on him too, make it that much harder for him to get up on his feet?" Location: Sam's Hotel Room, NYNY Casino, Las Vegas NV Music: Jesus Walks - Kanye West Outfit: Comfortable in black and gray, with bare feet and rumpled hair Notes: More awkward.

[Ruby]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/ei88w7.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #ccc; width: 500px; height: 572px; padding: 0px;, bTable] Comparing her to Dean struck home as she turned away from him, turning her neck to crack it a moment, trying to release some tension that his words created in her. Where a few moments ago she had been relaxed and somewhat friendly her whole stance changed, you could almost see her shutting the doors on any bonding that had been going on. “Guilt trips are a bit beyond us now aren’t they Adam? The truth is that you haven’t been there with him, not your fault I know but that’s the fact. If he says he needs me to stay then I stay.” She bit back worse things to say to the kid because honestly she didn’t want to shove him off the balcony metaphorically but also because she heard that conscious in her head as clear as day say “Ruby, calm, he isn’t trying to hurt you.” She didn’t even notice it wasn’t fully Sam’s voice in her head anymore, to angry to do anything else save listen to it. She wanted to turn to Adam, tell him about how much Sam was confusing her, pushing her away one moment but then pulling her to him the next. How she felt like a yoyo and was honestly afraid that if she did just up and leave him that his fractured mind might take it as the excuse he needed to hunt her. She also was afraid that if she did leave he’d find a way to kill himself hunting and that too would be on her. “Change the subject Adam.” LOCATION: Sam’s room NYNY Casino, Vegas baby MUSIC: A Nightmare Remembered by Dream Theater OUTFIT: I killed bambi NOTES: Just like that she’s turned cold.

[Adam Milligan]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/2cnt8y1.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #7d776b; width: 500px; height: 600px; padding: 0px;, bTable] "Sure," he said easily. "Okay." He'd been overstepping bounds and he knew it. He just had to hope that she understood that when it came to Sam, he was willing to be an utter dick to take care of his brother. But he was perfectly willing to back off for the moment. He stubbed out his cigarette and immediately considered lighting another, but didn't. Not yet. "You met the doc yet? She seems...sorta somewhere between nice and incredibly officious. But then a lot of doctors do." He'd been pre-med, about a thousand years ago. He remembered all the medicine fine, it was the idealism that seemed too far away to even touch any more. Location: Sam's Hotel Room, NYNY Casino, Las Vegas NV Music: Jesus Walks - Kanye West Outfit: Comfortable in black and gray, with bare feet and rumpled hair Notes: Shortshort, I'm having a hard time figuring out the next subject.

[Ruby]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=style, background: url(http://i51.tinypic.com/ei88w7.jpg) center bottom no-repeat; outline: 1px solid #ccc; width: 500px; height: 572px; padding: 0px;, bTable] She had the same feelings when it came to Sam, willing to spit in anything’s eye in order to make sure he was okay. Rapidly though that obsession where Sam was concerned, that feeling that only he held the answers to all of life for her, had begun to fade. It started the night she came back to find him broken apart again and kept continuing on till now. Maybe they were all broken people in the end and it was just their jobs to find out how to fix enough in themselves to keep going. Coping mechanisms ran ramped in the circles they kept and she’d had yet to see that her obsessive need to hang on Sam might be what she choose as hers. Of course now that had begun to change as well, he wasn’t there to cling to really, hadn’t been since she got back either. “I met her; she’s a strange one, mixture of western medicine with some older concepts that have been repackaged as new age. She’s young too.” Shrugging at that, really that was all she knew of the girl, youth and this weird name brand obsession. Yes, she knew what Prada, Dolce and Gabbana, and Louis Vuitton were. Hell years back she’d heard a story about a crossroads demon making a deal with a woman so she could get a closet full of the stuff. “You know, if there is anything I can do for you, help in anyway, it’s dangerous out here as I am sure you know and I don’t want you to think you don’t have anyone to turn to for help. I’m sure that your Dad will see to training but I’m also willing to help with that if you want or even pick my brain, I’ve seen a thing or two in my six hundred and some odd years.” LOCATION: Sam’s room NYNY Casino, Vegas baby MUSIC: A Nightmare Remembered by Dream Theater OUTFIT: I killed bambi NOTES: I can see that closet.