WHO: Sam & Ruby. WHAT: Just checking in! WHEN: Late afternoon. WHERE: Ruby's place. RATING: TBD. STATUS: In progress.
Sam had left Ruby in Castiel's care the night before, knowing that she would be fine with an angel, in the most literal sense, watching over her. Retreating back to a new hotel, he spent the night drinking away again, shifting back into that same routine that he had taken up ever since he and Heather had broken it off. His heart was aching, he was terrified for his family, and all that Sam Winchester could bear to do with himself was take the weak way out. To drink himself into a stupor, until he couldn't hold his own anymore and toppled into an unconscious heap at the foot of his bed. That was how he had spent his night. Now here he was again, the day afterward, sporting a severe hangover and the sudden desire to drink himself into another coma.
Except he wasn't doing that quite yet. No, rather than getting himself completely drunk off his ass, Sam decided that it was probably a good idea to check up on Ruby again. Knowing that she was in Castiel's care was reassuring, but that hardly changed the fact that he was concerned for her on a level that made it impossible for him to be truly satisfied until he saw for himself that she was fine. Why? Because it was Ruby who came to him, in the middle of the night, when he had asked her to. She had been willing to help him out and, in return, she had gotten abducted. Sam should have known, considering his horrible track record with luck, that someone would have gotten hurt trying to keep him safe. He couldn't have imagined ever possibly feeling guilty over something horrible happening to Ruby because of him, but then again, Sam couldn't quite imagine ever becoming friends with a demon in the first place either.
Wincing from the ache in his skull, Sam raised a fist and gave the door to her place a few steady knocks. With the way his head was pounding, he could have sworn right then and there that he heard someone respond from the other side of the door, but Sam really couldn't have been so sure. Either way, he didn't hesitate to push his way inside.