Sam shifted, beginning to wake up. He scrunched his eyebrows and opened his eyes. He looked down at his hand where the IV was inserted. His eyes followed the line up to the bag on the wall. "Hospital?" he asked himself, then looked around.

"Nah. Hospitals creep me out. All that death in one place." Dean shuddered.

"You literally had sex with a random woman in a supply closet there," Ruby pointed out. "How are you, Sam?"

Sam sank further into the bed for a minute. "God I'm hungry. And I really have to pee." He'd been in bed for days. Dean helped him to the bathroom.

It was almost good that Sam's recovery took so long. It gave her time to rest too. She'd been feeling pretty terrible, but she had gotten good about hiding how she felt. She'd had to miss Mass too which was probably for the best. The kneeling then sitting down and standing up wasn't good for her. She rubbed her hands together, trying to get feeling back into them.

• • •

Over the next week, the three of them stayed in the hotel. They played Cards Against Humanity and Dean taught her how to play poker. Her favorite said "Instead of coal this year, Santa is giving the naughty kids a cooler full of organs."

That lead to an interesting conversation about some pagan gods Sam and Dean defeated one Christmas. At first, they thought the thing that was killing people was Krampus, Santa's evil twin, which is apparently real.

"Sammy, remember how we walked in on that old guy who we thought was Krampus? He was watching porn and we pretended we were carolers." Sam laughed at that one.

"After that, we noticed that the vic's houses both had wreaths on the outside made with medowsweet. That's an herb used in pagan rituals. We tracked down the gods. They almost got the best of us, but we ganked 'em with branches from their Christmas tree." Dean chuckled, his eyes unfocused as he remembered.

Dean's hand went up to the amulet he always wore around his neck. It was bronze and reminded Ruby of the head of a Egyptian god. "Sammy gave this to me on Christmas when we were kids," he said wistfully. "I feel naked without it." Ruby cherished that moment since Dean rarely said anything so... vulnerable.

"Anyway. Let's finish this game." Dean rubbed his hands together and dealt more cards. The moment was over.

Sam touched the corner of her mouth, which was usually turned up in a small smile. Dean finished dealing the cards. Sam had just picked his up when his phone rang. "Bobby?" Dean asked. Sam shook his head, looking at the number.

"Hello?" His expression suddenly changed. "Mom." He looked at Dean.

Dean's hand shot out, reaching for the phone. He gestured for Sam to hand it to him. Sam shook his head. "Dammit, Sam." Sam couldn't be bothered. He was listening intently. Sam mimed writing something in the air. Dean got a pen and paper. Sam wrote down an address. Ruby grabbed the paper and looked at it. It was an address in Idaho.

Dean stood up and took the phone from Sam. "Mom?" He looked so relieved to her the sound of her voice. "Yeah. Okay, but can't you tell us anything else? Okay. See you there. We love you." He hung up the phone.

Sam had already started packing; he held his left arm against his torso, still in pain. Ruby grabbed her bag and heading to the bathroom. She didn't bother asking any questions. She got the gist of it. Their mom had a lead, but she couldn't talk about it over the phone, so they were going to meet her in Idaho.

Ruby was putting her hair into a ponytail when it hit her. Her hands started shaking and her vision blurred. She grabbed onto the sink, feeling nauseous. She'd forgotten her bag was on the floor. She moved toward the toilet, thinking she was going to vomit. She tripped over the bag and landed hard on the dirty tile floor of the motel bathroom.

She just laid there, not able to move for a few minutes. When she got up, she vomited into the toilet. She knew she wouldn't be able to hide it this time. She called out to Sam, her voice horse and panicked. He burst into the bathroom.

She threw up again. Sam got on his knees next to her. He pulled back her hair and rubbed her back. She felt better then. She closed the toilet lid and flushed it. She laid her head down on the cool plastic.

Sam looked confused. "What happened?" He kept rubbing her back. She sensed that Dean was leaning against the doorframe outside the bathroom.

"Food poisoning? I don't know." She lied. She knew it wasn't food poisoning. She hadn't eaten anything that would've made her sick; she'd hardly been eating at all. Sam was smart. She could tell by his voice when he told Dean to get her water that he knew she was lying.

"Are you going to be okay? If you can't move, we can just call Mom and tell her to come here."

"We gotta button this up," Dean spoke up.

"Dean!" Sam yelled.

"No, no. I feel better now." She took the drink Dean brought. She felt better, just a little shaky. "This is important. We should go."

"I'll get the bags. You get her to the car." Dean was rushing, eager to get back to his mom. Sam put his arm around Ruby, helping her up.

Soon they were in the car. Dean didn't play any music this time. It was quiet as Ruby fell asleep, curled up with her head in Sam's lap. She could feel how tense he was, but ignored it and slept.