Sam groaned as the realization hit him -- why Jodie, of all people. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I trusted you. I needed -- someone has to do that spell." He pushed himself up onto his elbows, then to a slouch over his lap, and began to detangle the duck tape around the feeding tube from his hair. It wouldn't come. "Dean disappeared before my eyes," Sam mumbled. "Again. He's in some . . ." Frustrated, he yanked the tape out, taking a bundle of hairs with it. ". . . afterlife."

"He's dead?" Jodie asked softly.

"Maybe technically?" Sam's voice cracked, and he slowly drew the tube back out through his nose. It trailed acid in its path, burning. Tears started from his eye on the same side, as he got the last of it out and tossed it away. "I had to get a message to him. The spell I found, to open a door, it's two-ended. Dean needs to be saying the words the same time I'm performing the ritual. It's Purgatory, where he is; all monsters go to Purgatory, so I --" Sam's nose was running, and he cut himself off with a sniff. "-- I had to get down there. Vampire's the only monster there's any coming back from."

Jodie crouched beside him. She wrapped her arm around his shoulders, and Sam tensed to stop himself from falling against her. "Couldn't you just send actual monsters down there with a message?" she asked.

Sam blinked. He honestly hadn't thought of that. "Oh. No, the last thing we need is an all-Purgatory bulletin that Dean Winchester's in town. However that works. But --"

"Is he okay?" Jodie interrupted him.

Sam squeezed his eyes shut. They were watering hard from the stomach tube scraping back up, and his nose was running worse and worse. He scrubbed his face against his shoulder. "It didn't work," he croaked. "I didn't find him."

Jodie tugged him closer and draped the emergency blanket around him. Sam sniffed and wiped his face on his shirt and took shallow, shuddering breaths. He'd been running so long without shelter, and he was so very tired.