Under a blood red sky

It was hard for him to leave Sam be for a little while, but Dean did it. Jo wasn't here to tell that his brother was back, Phaedra and Harry already knew...

Bobby. He needed to tell Bobby.

Walking out of the motel, Dean started dialing his phone. Bobby picked it up on the third ring, and there was a sound of clattering.

"Hell," Bobby said, gruffly. "Yeah?"

Dean would've asked, under normal circumstances, if Bobby was starting his Saturday drinking early today. It'd sounded like bottles. Bobby was a functioning drunk just like Dean was. But this wasn't a normal circumstance.

"Bobby I gotta tell you something," Dean said.

"Yeah. I figured. Traditionally, that's why people make phone calls."

Dean stopped walking and dropped his head. Of course Bobby figured that he was calling for something less important. Not that the situation in York wasn't important, but this was Sam. Bobby considered them both family. Family was always more important.

"Bobby, Sam's here. Sam's back."

There was silence on the other end of the phone line. Dean was pretty sure he could hear Bobby swallow. He'd probably knocked back a drink. "How? He okay? You sure it's really him? He didn't bring Lucifer back, too?"

"It's him," Dean said. "Not really sure about the rest."

"Dean, that kid spent a YEAR in a cage with Lucifer and Michael. Even without the Hell part, he's not firing on all cylinders. I wouldn't wanna spend a year with you two ijits in the panic room if you were at each other's throats. And your bastard level is much lower than those guys."

"Cute."

"I'm serious, Dean. You add Hell over top of that, and not just garden-variety sinner Hell but Satan's punishment Hell?"

He stopped and leaned on the Impala, in the parking lot now. He was nodding. "I know." It made his blood cold to think about Sam in that situation. It hurt him that he hadn't been able to get Sam out himself.

"What about Adam?" Bobby asked. "Was it a two-fer?"

"No. No Adam. I don't know if that's good or bad."

"Yeah, neither do I. Look, Dean, I got a... the local sheriff's been callin' me about a buncha weird shit and I'm supposed to go meet her in a few minutes. You see how Sam's REALLY doing, and you call me back."

"Okay."

"And you make him call me, too," Bobby said. "I've seen both of you jerks come back from the dead twice now. I know a thing or two about how you behave."

Dean smirked and hung up, and stopped looking at his boots and the asphalt near the drivers' side of the Impala, intending to open her up and get in.

When he raised his eyes, though, there was someone standing there. It took Dean a second to process that the man in the trench coat was really there, and not just some kind of hallucination.

His demeanor changed entirely, eyebrows drawing together, jaw setting.

"You're fucking kidding me, right?"