Dean's Angel Chapter 10
Title: Dean's angel
Fandom: Supernatural
Beta'd by: lotrspnfangirl and Jdl71
Summary: Dean has always been special, Mary just didn't know how much. Dean was little when he died for the very first time and it changed his life forever. Being a hunter can be tricky. Being a hunter who sees dead people is even trickier. Especially when you don't know why you see them and you really don't want your family to find out about your capability.
Warning: (Highlight to see.)Characters death, it's supernatural what do you expect. It's either non-permanent, death that all ready happened on the show or minor original characters.
AN:Sorry for the wait. I was going to post this two weeks ago before I went to visit my relatives in Iceland but my laptop decided that it was time for the screen to stop working right before I went.
I still can't believe I have actually written 10 chapters for this story, in the beginning it was just supposed to be a short one shot.
Huge thanks to both Jdl71and Lotrspnfangirl for reading this over and making it better. I don't know what I would do without them.
Hope you enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 10
July 17th, 2006
John and Sam did not get a long time to process everything they had just learned before their usual crap caught up with them. In this case, that crap came along in the form of Meg. Her wanting the Colt could ruin everything the three of them had worked up to over the last twenty-three years. After some planning and a quick search at a nearby antique-shop for a gun that could pass as the Colt, John was on his way to meet her.
The next few hours were a living hell for Dean. He’d always been worried that if he ever told anyone about what he could do, he would never hear the end of it. Right now, sitting in the Impala beside Sam, and watching the house that the demon might show up in, he wished worrying over his secret being exposed was the biggest thing he had to deal with. However, it wasn’t even close to being the biggest trouble in his messed up life. Not only had his father gone off to meet some demon who’d just murdered two of their friends, both of which being very good hunters, but he had gone alone, without any backup. Dean himself was waiting to come face to face with the demon that had killed his mom and completely uprooted the Winchesters’ lives in the progress.
He kind of wished Sam would start asking questions about his abilities or about Jessica right about now. Hell, he wished Sam would start talking about pretty much anything as long as it would get Dean out of his own head, picturing every little thing that could go wrong…
Like the poor women burning on the ceiling, because they weren’t fast enough. Meg finding out that the Colt was fake, then torturing and killing their dad. The demon getting away and Sam trying to go after it in a desperate attempt at revenge and dying in the progress. The possibilities were endless, circling like sharks in Dean’s brain.
The thought that this could all be over after tonight felt surreal. Sure, there would always be things to hunt in the world, but it wouldn’t be up to them to stop everything anymore. Sam could go back to college, Dean and John could settle down and go hunting on the weekends or something. For the first time in twenty-three years, they could have a normal, apple pie life.
Dean forced himself to try and think about this as just another hunt. They had done the research so now they just needed to wait for the demon to show up. Then they could go in guns blazing and save the day. Maybe even get some thanks from the parents for saving their family; after years of experience, Dean wasn’t holding his breath for that.
He couldn’t help being nervous, but that was a feeling Dean had gotten quite familiar throughout the year. Since at least November, Dean had felt like something was missing, something important. The feeling had started shortly after they left Lawrence. Maybe it had something to do with his mom but for some reason, Dean didn’t think that was it.
It was similar to the feeling people get when they suddenly start looking for their phone in a panic, except most people get an immediate sense of peace when they realize that they‘ve been holding it the entire time. Dean never gets that peaceful feeling because he doesn’t even know what it is that he’s looking for. Time and time again Dean had caught himself checking if he had everything. And it was always the same checklist;
Gun. Keys to the Impala. Amulet from Sam. His favorite Zippo, the one Matt had given him. His phone, plus his other phone. Fake FBI badge, wallet, ring. The hotel room-key. His bracelets and his jacket. He had even gone over the entire Impala, twice, to check if maybe a cassette-tape or one of the weapons were missing. But no, everything was where it was supposed to be.
For the life of him, he couldn’t figure it out what was missing. Whatever it was, he felt defenseless without it. And now, he was about to go up against the thing he had spent his whole life preparing for. Defenseless. He didn’t even have the Colt, Sammy did.
Whatever was going on with Sam, the demon had something to do with it. It killed their mother in his nursery. It killed his girlfriend. It was only fair that Sam gets to kill it. Plus, it made Dean feel better to know that his baby brother had the best protection against the demon. He had all the faith in the world that Sam could take that shot when it came to it, he just hoped he would get the chance before it was too late.
So yeah, a part of Dean wished Sam would start asking questions right about now, especially after sitting in the Impala for a half hour without any talk. Another part of him, the part that was terrified that something bad would happen tonight, didn’t want to deal with anything other than the hunt right now.
“Tell me more about this seeing dead people thing you do,” said Sam all of the sudden and Dean couldn’t help but think his brother had some mind reading ability, too.
“You want to do this now? Aren’t we a little busy?” asked Dean who reached over and turned the radio that had been playing completely off.
“Just keep an eye on the house while we talk so I can write some notes down,” Sam answered as he reached for his computer from the backseat. “If my vision is correct, the demon is going to show up around quarter to nine, so we are most likely going to be here few hours and we need to talk about it sometime. Besides, it might come in handy.”
“What? How? I can’t control this any better than you can yours.” That came out harsher than Dean intended but he couldn’t help it, every fiber in him was on edge right now.
“Maybe not, but you can talk to them and find stuff out, I can only see things, I can’t interact. Have you ever asked anyone of them to do stuff for you? You know, move stuff, scare people, typical ghost things?” asked Sam who now had his computer in his lap with an empty document on the screen, ready to take notes, like the good little schoolboy he was. When Sam saw the raised eyebrow from Dean pointed at the computer, Sam added, “We need to know as much as we can about this, Dean. It might be important. Now tell me!”
“Fine! They mostly just... talk to me, tell me stuff that is important. Like who or what killed them. Where they are buried. A few have done some ghost things to help, gone and found something for me or distracted someone while I did what I needed.”
Sam’s fingers were flying all over the keyboard, writing down as much information as he could.
“So... finding stuff for you… distracting…Hey, you never got someone to distract me or Dad, did you?” Sam looked up from his computer with a look that was a mixture of annoyance and respect, kind of like when he was younger and a magician pulled a trick on him. He had been super impressed by the trick, but it would drive him crazy not knowing how it was done. Of course, Sam didn’t stop thinking about it until he figured it out.
“Well to be fair, you two were always snooping around the same things I was, so sometimes it was just easier to get them to distract you. If it makes you feel better, it was harder to trick you than Dad. He always went straight ahead to check the distraction out, then came back to finish whatever it was that we’d been doing. You, on the other hand, wanted to make sure you didn’t miss anything first.”
“Well, Dad has always been a ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ kind of guy.” Sam shrugged and typed a few words before looking back at Dean. “Moving on, can you always tell if a person is a ghost?”
“I have gotten a pretty good hang of it. Do you remember Emma, the girl I dated when I was around thirteen or something? I had no idea she was dead the entire time I dated her.”
“Emma? Wait, you mean your imaginary Emma? Dad and I were sure you made her up! She was a ghost the whole time and you didn’t notice?”
“The whole frigging time. I probably should have figured it out sooner... I mean, just the fact that I never got to first base should have clued me in.”
“Gross, Dean.” Added to the look on his face, his brother was not impressed by that statement, but it quickly went away and a gleeful look took its place. “The great hunter, Dean Winchester, dating a ghost without even knowing it. Just wait till Dad finds out,” mocked Sam.
“Yeah, yeah. You don’t have to sound so happy about it. Besides, her being a ghost just meant that I didn’t have to fight any of the other boys for her. Not that I couldn’t,” he added hastily, “I just didn’t need to.” Dean smiled smugly and then added with a dreamy expression, “She was smokin hot Sammy. Smokin’!”
If the eye-roll Dean got was an indication, then his little brother was not impressed by that either. Getting back to the business at hand, Sam continued with another question, “Do you see them all the time?”
“No. I remember when I was little I could see them everywhere. Of course, I didn’t know they were dead at the time. Mom and Dad just thought I had imaginary friends, but I figured out that they were ghosts later. After the fire, I could see Mom everywhere, then one day she just disappeared out of the blue.” Dean paused and licked his lower lip, waiting for Sam to finish typing. “Uh, well, after that I could see a few ghost here and there, but only for a few days. After Lawrence, I’ve hardly seen anyone, and the few I see are just there for a very short time. I don’t know what it is, but it almost feels like there is something standing in the way of them staying. Blocking them.”
Next to Dean, Sam seemed to be deep in thought, analyzing every tiny detail before he started typing it all on the computer. It was becoming more and more difficult for Dean to focus on the house and not on what his brother was writing. His brother was writing a lot. How he could write so much just from what Dean was saying was beyond him.
“Have you ever done any research on this yourself? I mean real research. I know how much you hate doing that,” asked Sam.
“No,” said Dean sarcastically, “Of course I looked into it. When I was ten I spent hours reading everything I found. Every time I got the chance, I was nose deep in some book. Dad was always leaving us alone at the hotel so I got him to sign you up for some club, Smart Science or something, to get some time alone.”
“Wait, I was the one to ask Dad to sign me up for that,” said Sam.
“Yeah, after I spent a week leaving the brochure out where you could see it and I was always talking about how good you were every time I helped you with your homework. Getting people to do what you want is in the hunter's job description after all, Sammy.”
“It’s Sam.” Sam huffed and added what Dean referred to as Sammy’s bitchface number three. It was probably killing Sam that it had not been his idea to go to that club after all. Sam had always been extremely independent and he didn’t like when he wasn’t in the control. The fact that it was only 'bitchface number three', and not one or two, meant he was more annoyed than angry.
Sam sighed, gave another withering glare, before moving on. “Did you find anything out at least? After you tricked me into going?”
“Come on, Sam. You loved going there, just like I knew you would, and you got so much better at it! You were at the top of your class in no time,” said Dean, nudging Sam’s shoulder and trying to get him to drop the attitude. They both knew Dean would never have talked his brother into going if he hadn’t believed that he would love it. Which is why he had about hundred “discussions” with their dad, about whether or not Sam got to continue in the class or if he had to start in a new club if they moved. It had been exhausting, but so worth it every time Sam came home smiling and ready to tell Dean about everything he just learned.
Sam seemed to accept that and Dean knew that Sam would forgive him in time. So he went back to the matter at hand. “All I found out was that it’s not a curse... and as far as I could see, I’m the only one in our family that can do something like this. But of course I thought you were normal up till a few months ago, so there’s that. It also would’ve helped to know that I died when I was a baby! Remind me to ask Dad about that when we met up with him.”
“You think that has something to do with this?” asked Sam, who had started typing again.
“You don’t?” Dean asked, looking over to his brother. “I mean it has to. Missouri said I changed after that, right?”
“Yeah, she said something about how you had been insufferable before you di… before that. Something along those lines. If you’re good now, I can’t imagine how you were before,” said Sam trying to lighten the mood but Dean couldn’t help but noticed how his brother wouldn’t say the word.
Deciding not to comment on that, Dean just said, “Hey! I’m a joy to be around!”
“Keep telling yourself that, Dean,” answered Sam who had opened up some web browser and from the little Dean could see, was searching for people that had come back from the dead. “Have you ever found anyone else that can do some of the things you do?”
“No. I have met with few that claimed to see dead people, but there was always something else going on. Cures, binding spells, or just a spirit that hadn’t moved on and everyone would be been able to see him from time to time,” Dean shrugged and with a quick look at Sam, he went back to watching the house. He was silent for a moment before he admitted, “It would be nice though. I look for them, check them out just in case. There was one guy I was hopeful about but he couldn’t do anything. He was just plain scamming people by telling them that he could talk to their dead loved ones if they emptied their wallets for him. I think he spent about an hour talking to our ‘half-brother, Adam’ or something like that, before I gave up and told him the gig was up. The guy was a complete joke. I mean, I think I would know if we had another brother.”
Sam had a small smile on his face when he said, “And if I know you correctly, which I do, you set him straight and then stole all the money back.”
“Of course! I may have also given him some graphic description of what might happen if he ever did something like that again,” explained Dean with a big smile on his face.
Growing up in this line of work had been tough. There had been times where their dad could hardly afford to put food on the table or a roof over their heads, so Dean did not like it when people used other people's misery to make a quick buck. Maybe that made him a hypocrite... after all, he got most of his money from credit card scams or hustling people, but Dean would never, ever try to take money from someone who looked like he couldn’t afford it or was desperate. Hell, he had lost some games on purpose just because the person looked like he or she needed the money more than him. Being the good guys sometimes meant more than just killing the monster.
It was mostly quiet in the car while Sam did some more research, save for the sound of Sam typing on the keyboard. With a sigh, Sam gave up for the time being and put the computer back on the backseat when the clock tuned half past eight. No way were they going to risk not being ready when the demon showed up.
Over the next hour, the two of them sat and watched the house. As it got closer to go time, Sam brought up everything Dean had been worried about and somehow it was easier to reassure his brother that everything would be okay, than it was to calm himself.
The opportunity to kill the demon came and went in a blink of an eye. The house went up in flames with it.
Thankfully they had gotten the family to safety before it burned up. With the demon still inside and no confirmation he was actually gone, Dean ended up having to physically stop his brother from running back inside and getting himself killed. Sam was so blinded by rage and grief that he would have gone in there to stop the demon, to try to ensure he couldn’t escape, no matter the consequences. And that was something Dean was not willing to risk, even if he had to spend the rest of his life hunting down the demon. It was worth it, just as long as his little brother and his dad kept breathing.
Dean must have called his dad hundreds of times on the way back to the hotel, but there was no answer. He tried all of his phones, even the extra ones that he never used anymore. He even made Sam try calling from his phone, just in case his own might not be working correctly. He really wanted to ignore his father's order for the second time in a short time and go back him up. But his father had told them specifically before they split up to go back to the hotel and wait for him there.
Of course, he had also said that they were supposed to kill the demon, which did not go as planned.
The relief Dean felt when his dad's phone finally picked up was short lived.
Something had gone terribly wrong and from the sounds of it, Meg had their dad. Meg had never given them a reason to doubt her following through with her threats and Dean was hard pressed to believe that this time would be any different. Besides, their dad would have found some way to contact them by now if he had just lost his phone. Despite the glee in Meg’s tone, Dean refused to believe his father was dead. He was sure that if either his dad or brother had died, he would know and not because they might show to him as ghosts.
Now, their number one priority was saving their dad, but it was clear they were in over their heads. They needed the best help they could get and thankfully, the nearest hunter was just that. If Bobby didn't know how to take down a demon as tricky as Meg, nobody would.
The brothers wondered if they should call first, but they didn't want to take the chance Bobby would tell them to get lost. Bobby and their dad hadn't ended on the best of terms last time they had seen each other, the older men ended up in a huge argument over God knows what. John had told the boys to stay in the Impala after they’d come back from a hunt with Bobby, and then the two men disappeared into the house. The second the door closed behind them, Sam and Dean could hear them fighting despite the windows of the Impala being rolled up.
A short while later the door flew open and a furious John Winchester came storming out with Bobby trailing behind him with a shotgun. The Winchesters hadn't seen or heard from Bobby since then.
~Supernatural~
July 18th, 2006
Pulling up in front of Bobby’s house after all this time felt weird, but at the same time, it felt like coming home. Not that Dean would know how that felt, he hadn’t had a home to go back to since they, he and Sammy were kids…
Dean gripped the steering wheel tight and let his mind wander for a moment to try to quell the nervous anticipation bubbling in his stomach. What would it actually mean to have a home? A family? Sure, he had Sammy and Dad, but there was no escape from them, not really. What Dean wouldn’t give for a vacation, a damn break for a weekend or hell, a week! He’d never even been on one before, not really. Sure he had traveled all over the states and been to all the popular sites, but it had always been on the way to or from a hunt, never just to go somewhere and have fun.
The crunching gravel changed to dirt spinning up against the undercarriage and Dean slowed, ripping himself from his thoughts. He glanced over at Sammy, saw the same anxiety on his brother’s face and decided. After they saved their dad, Dean was going to Las Vegas on a vacation and dragging Sammy with him. Nothing was going to stop him. He had earned it, damn it!
It didn’t surprise them one bit to see Bobby walking out on his front porch with a shotgun in hand. It made them a little bit nervous, since Bobby was a damn good shot, but not surprised. They slowly made their way out of the Impala and lifted up their hands to show they meant no harm.
“Well, what are you idjits waiting for?” called Bobby, like they would have gone near him while holding that gun. “Get up here!” he added as he lowered his gun and walked back inside.
The boys shared a quick look before they made their way inside after him.
“So, what have you Winchesters gotten yourself into this time?” asked Bobby when Sam closed the door behind them.
“You know us, always getting in trouble,” answered Dean as he took the room in. There was a lot more stuff than he could remember and it was everywhere. It was a complete chaos with stacks of books on every table, papers stuck all over every wall they could see. Dean knew from experience that there were weapons hidden around as well, they were just hidden so well that you wouldn’t find them unless you knew where to look for them. There was no doubt in Dean’s mind though that Bobby knew where he would find everything he needed and could tell if something had been moved.
Dean remembered the first time he’d come here. It was a few months after his mom died and John had come to Bobby to learn as much as he could about what was out there in the dark. Dean was sure John had met Bobby a few times before, but he hadn’t heard of him until they rolled up in front of the old house and Dad told them not to touch anything.
The place had looked a lot like it did now. Back then, most of the stacks had been higher than Dean and the boys could hardly move without knocking something over. Of course, that made it difficult for Dean since he was tasked with watching after his baby brother while the grown ups were talking. His baby brother who had recently learned how to walk, or run more like it. In true Winchester fashion, Sammy totally skipped learning to walk first and went straight from crawling to running. At least Dean liked to think all Winchesters did that.
Chasing after him and keeping the stacks from topping quickly turned into a game of hide and seek. It started with Dean trying to clean up a stack of books that Sammy had pushed over, only to turn around and notice that Sam was gone. Dean was just about to give up on looking for him and go ask his father for help when he heard another stack of books fall down and then another, almost like dominos. It went on like that for awhile, before Dean found his brother sitting on the floor looking at a knife he had just found.
With a little bit of help from the nice lady that lived there with Bobby, the one like his mommy that only Dean could see, Dean had been able to get his brother to take a nap and had managed to put all the weapons Bobby had lying around somewhere Sammy wouldn’t reach them. Dean had just started putting all the books back where they belonged when his dad and Bobby came back. His dad had not been happy to find the mess and had ordered Dean to put everything just like he had found it. Bobby, on the other hand, was just shocked. He didn’t seem to mind that his books were all over the place and refused to let Dean touch any of the weapons to put them back.
The next time they came, all the weapons were out of Dean’s reach and the books were all neatly stacked on top of surfaces that Sammy couldn’t reach. The biggest change, in Dean’s opinion, had been the new box in the corner with some toys in it.
With every visit from the Winchesters, Bobby’s place got a little cleaner, and every once in awhile a new toy or even a book or two would appear in the box. Apparently, Bobby had gone back to his old habits after losing touch with the Winchesters and Dean couldn’t help feeling responsible for that.
“What Dean is trying to say is that Dad is in trouble and we need your help,” said Sam, who was eyeing a book on Bobby’s desk, the work on the binding in Latin but easily translated, ‘daemonium’. When Bobby noticed what he was looking at, Sam added, “How much do you know about demons?”
“Ohh, balls.” Turning around, Bobby scanned the books behind him before finding the one he was looking for and pulling it out of the stack it was in before handing it to Sam. “You better take a look at this while I go find us something to drink,” Bobby said, before making his way to the kitchen.
Sam went and sat down at Bobby’s desk and after rearranging a bit on the table, he started looking through the book. The book was huge and from what Dean had seen, it was called ‘The Key of Solo-’ something-or-other. He didn’t really care as long as it could help them save their dad.
The boys learned a lot from that little visit. They learned how to exorcise a demon and they even were able to perform one after Meg showed up. Unfortunately, the poor girl the demon was possessing didn’t make it. Thankfully, she had been able to tell them where they might find their dad before she died. They also learned why John and Bobby had a falling out and a heavy blanket of silence fell over them in the aftermath of Meg’s departure.
It turned out Bobby had suspected that Dean could talk to the dead from the get go. Not much got past Bobby after all. The last hunt they had been on together had just proved him right after he witnessed Dean, in the heat of the moment thinking he was alone, had snapped at a ghost that was annoying him. Bobby tried to talk to John about it after they got back from the hunt, but of course, everything blew up in a typical John Winchester fashion.
They boys left it up to Bobby to try to explain to the paramedics what had happened to Meg. How he was going to do it, they had no idea. They climbed into the Impala after promising to keep in touch and headed for the open road. For now, they had only one thing on their minds. Get Dad back alive.
~Supernatural~
AN:Like always all comments are loved (specially since I don't know if anyone is reading this over here).
Fandom: Supernatural
Beta'd by: lotrspnfangirl and Jdl71
Summary: Dean has always been special, Mary just didn't know how much. Dean was little when he died for the very first time and it changed his life forever. Being a hunter can be tricky. Being a hunter who sees dead people is even trickier. Especially when you don't know why you see them and you really don't want your family to find out about your capability.
Warning: (Highlight to see.)Characters death, it's supernatural what do you expect. It's either non-permanent, death that all ready happened on the show or minor original characters.
AN:Sorry for the wait. I was going to post this two weeks ago before I went to visit my relatives in Iceland but my laptop decided that it was time for the screen to stop working right before I went.
I still can't believe I have actually written 10 chapters for this story, in the beginning it was just supposed to be a short one shot.
Huge thanks to both Jdl71and Lotrspnfangirl for reading this over and making it better. I don't know what I would do without them.
Hope you enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 10
July 17th, 2006
John and Sam did not get a long time to process everything they had just learned before their usual crap caught up with them. In this case, that crap came along in the form of Meg. Her wanting the Colt could ruin everything the three of them had worked up to over the last twenty-three years. After some planning and a quick search at a nearby antique-shop for a gun that could pass as the Colt, John was on his way to meet her.
The next few hours were a living hell for Dean. He’d always been worried that if he ever told anyone about what he could do, he would never hear the end of it. Right now, sitting in the Impala beside Sam, and watching the house that the demon might show up in, he wished worrying over his secret being exposed was the biggest thing he had to deal with. However, it wasn’t even close to being the biggest trouble in his messed up life. Not only had his father gone off to meet some demon who’d just murdered two of their friends, both of which being very good hunters, but he had gone alone, without any backup. Dean himself was waiting to come face to face with the demon that had killed his mom and completely uprooted the Winchesters’ lives in the progress.
He kind of wished Sam would start asking questions about his abilities or about Jessica right about now. Hell, he wished Sam would start talking about pretty much anything as long as it would get Dean out of his own head, picturing every little thing that could go wrong…
Like the poor women burning on the ceiling, because they weren’t fast enough. Meg finding out that the Colt was fake, then torturing and killing their dad. The demon getting away and Sam trying to go after it in a desperate attempt at revenge and dying in the progress. The possibilities were endless, circling like sharks in Dean’s brain.
The thought that this could all be over after tonight felt surreal. Sure, there would always be things to hunt in the world, but it wouldn’t be up to them to stop everything anymore. Sam could go back to college, Dean and John could settle down and go hunting on the weekends or something. For the first time in twenty-three years, they could have a normal, apple pie life.
Dean forced himself to try and think about this as just another hunt. They had done the research so now they just needed to wait for the demon to show up. Then they could go in guns blazing and save the day. Maybe even get some thanks from the parents for saving their family; after years of experience, Dean wasn’t holding his breath for that.
He couldn’t help being nervous, but that was a feeling Dean had gotten quite familiar throughout the year. Since at least November, Dean had felt like something was missing, something important. The feeling had started shortly after they left Lawrence. Maybe it had something to do with his mom but for some reason, Dean didn’t think that was it.
It was similar to the feeling people get when they suddenly start looking for their phone in a panic, except most people get an immediate sense of peace when they realize that they‘ve been holding it the entire time. Dean never gets that peaceful feeling because he doesn’t even know what it is that he’s looking for. Time and time again Dean had caught himself checking if he had everything. And it was always the same checklist;
Gun. Keys to the Impala. Amulet from Sam. His favorite Zippo, the one Matt had given him. His phone, plus his other phone. Fake FBI badge, wallet, ring. The hotel room-key. His bracelets and his jacket. He had even gone over the entire Impala, twice, to check if maybe a cassette-tape or one of the weapons were missing. But no, everything was where it was supposed to be.
For the life of him, he couldn’t figure it out what was missing. Whatever it was, he felt defenseless without it. And now, he was about to go up against the thing he had spent his whole life preparing for. Defenseless. He didn’t even have the Colt, Sammy did.
Whatever was going on with Sam, the demon had something to do with it. It killed their mother in his nursery. It killed his girlfriend. It was only fair that Sam gets to kill it. Plus, it made Dean feel better to know that his baby brother had the best protection against the demon. He had all the faith in the world that Sam could take that shot when it came to it, he just hoped he would get the chance before it was too late.
So yeah, a part of Dean wished Sam would start asking questions right about now, especially after sitting in the Impala for a half hour without any talk. Another part of him, the part that was terrified that something bad would happen tonight, didn’t want to deal with anything other than the hunt right now.
“Tell me more about this seeing dead people thing you do,” said Sam all of the sudden and Dean couldn’t help but think his brother had some mind reading ability, too.
“You want to do this now? Aren’t we a little busy?” asked Dean who reached over and turned the radio that had been playing completely off.
“Just keep an eye on the house while we talk so I can write some notes down,” Sam answered as he reached for his computer from the backseat. “If my vision is correct, the demon is going to show up around quarter to nine, so we are most likely going to be here few hours and we need to talk about it sometime. Besides, it might come in handy.”
“What? How? I can’t control this any better than you can yours.” That came out harsher than Dean intended but he couldn’t help it, every fiber in him was on edge right now.
“Maybe not, but you can talk to them and find stuff out, I can only see things, I can’t interact. Have you ever asked anyone of them to do stuff for you? You know, move stuff, scare people, typical ghost things?” asked Sam who now had his computer in his lap with an empty document on the screen, ready to take notes, like the good little schoolboy he was. When Sam saw the raised eyebrow from Dean pointed at the computer, Sam added, “We need to know as much as we can about this, Dean. It might be important. Now tell me!”
“Fine! They mostly just... talk to me, tell me stuff that is important. Like who or what killed them. Where they are buried. A few have done some ghost things to help, gone and found something for me or distracted someone while I did what I needed.”
Sam’s fingers were flying all over the keyboard, writing down as much information as he could.
“So... finding stuff for you… distracting…Hey, you never got someone to distract me or Dad, did you?” Sam looked up from his computer with a look that was a mixture of annoyance and respect, kind of like when he was younger and a magician pulled a trick on him. He had been super impressed by the trick, but it would drive him crazy not knowing how it was done. Of course, Sam didn’t stop thinking about it until he figured it out.
“Well to be fair, you two were always snooping around the same things I was, so sometimes it was just easier to get them to distract you. If it makes you feel better, it was harder to trick you than Dad. He always went straight ahead to check the distraction out, then came back to finish whatever it was that we’d been doing. You, on the other hand, wanted to make sure you didn’t miss anything first.”
“Well, Dad has always been a ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ kind of guy.” Sam shrugged and typed a few words before looking back at Dean. “Moving on, can you always tell if a person is a ghost?”
“I have gotten a pretty good hang of it. Do you remember Emma, the girl I dated when I was around thirteen or something? I had no idea she was dead the entire time I dated her.”
“Emma? Wait, you mean your imaginary Emma? Dad and I were sure you made her up! She was a ghost the whole time and you didn’t notice?”
“The whole frigging time. I probably should have figured it out sooner... I mean, just the fact that I never got to first base should have clued me in.”
“Gross, Dean.” Added to the look on his face, his brother was not impressed by that statement, but it quickly went away and a gleeful look took its place. “The great hunter, Dean Winchester, dating a ghost without even knowing it. Just wait till Dad finds out,” mocked Sam.
“Yeah, yeah. You don’t have to sound so happy about it. Besides, her being a ghost just meant that I didn’t have to fight any of the other boys for her. Not that I couldn’t,” he added hastily, “I just didn’t need to.” Dean smiled smugly and then added with a dreamy expression, “She was smokin hot Sammy. Smokin’!”
If the eye-roll Dean got was an indication, then his little brother was not impressed by that either. Getting back to the business at hand, Sam continued with another question, “Do you see them all the time?”
“No. I remember when I was little I could see them everywhere. Of course, I didn’t know they were dead at the time. Mom and Dad just thought I had imaginary friends, but I figured out that they were ghosts later. After the fire, I could see Mom everywhere, then one day she just disappeared out of the blue.” Dean paused and licked his lower lip, waiting for Sam to finish typing. “Uh, well, after that I could see a few ghost here and there, but only for a few days. After Lawrence, I’ve hardly seen anyone, and the few I see are just there for a very short time. I don’t know what it is, but it almost feels like there is something standing in the way of them staying. Blocking them.”
Next to Dean, Sam seemed to be deep in thought, analyzing every tiny detail before he started typing it all on the computer. It was becoming more and more difficult for Dean to focus on the house and not on what his brother was writing. His brother was writing a lot. How he could write so much just from what Dean was saying was beyond him.
“Have you ever done any research on this yourself? I mean real research. I know how much you hate doing that,” asked Sam.
“No,” said Dean sarcastically, “Of course I looked into it. When I was ten I spent hours reading everything I found. Every time I got the chance, I was nose deep in some book. Dad was always leaving us alone at the hotel so I got him to sign you up for some club, Smart Science or something, to get some time alone.”
“Wait, I was the one to ask Dad to sign me up for that,” said Sam.
“Yeah, after I spent a week leaving the brochure out where you could see it and I was always talking about how good you were every time I helped you with your homework. Getting people to do what you want is in the hunter's job description after all, Sammy.”
“It’s Sam.” Sam huffed and added what Dean referred to as Sammy’s bitchface number three. It was probably killing Sam that it had not been his idea to go to that club after all. Sam had always been extremely independent and he didn’t like when he wasn’t in the control. The fact that it was only 'bitchface number three', and not one or two, meant he was more annoyed than angry.
Sam sighed, gave another withering glare, before moving on. “Did you find anything out at least? After you tricked me into going?”
“Come on, Sam. You loved going there, just like I knew you would, and you got so much better at it! You were at the top of your class in no time,” said Dean, nudging Sam’s shoulder and trying to get him to drop the attitude. They both knew Dean would never have talked his brother into going if he hadn’t believed that he would love it. Which is why he had about hundred “discussions” with their dad, about whether or not Sam got to continue in the class or if he had to start in a new club if they moved. It had been exhausting, but so worth it every time Sam came home smiling and ready to tell Dean about everything he just learned.
Sam seemed to accept that and Dean knew that Sam would forgive him in time. So he went back to the matter at hand. “All I found out was that it’s not a curse... and as far as I could see, I’m the only one in our family that can do something like this. But of course I thought you were normal up till a few months ago, so there’s that. It also would’ve helped to know that I died when I was a baby! Remind me to ask Dad about that when we met up with him.”
“You think that has something to do with this?” asked Sam, who had started typing again.
“You don’t?” Dean asked, looking over to his brother. “I mean it has to. Missouri said I changed after that, right?”
“Yeah, she said something about how you had been insufferable before you di… before that. Something along those lines. If you’re good now, I can’t imagine how you were before,” said Sam trying to lighten the mood but Dean couldn’t help but noticed how his brother wouldn’t say the word.
Deciding not to comment on that, Dean just said, “Hey! I’m a joy to be around!”
“Keep telling yourself that, Dean,” answered Sam who had opened up some web browser and from the little Dean could see, was searching for people that had come back from the dead. “Have you ever found anyone else that can do some of the things you do?”
“No. I have met with few that claimed to see dead people, but there was always something else going on. Cures, binding spells, or just a spirit that hadn’t moved on and everyone would be been able to see him from time to time,” Dean shrugged and with a quick look at Sam, he went back to watching the house. He was silent for a moment before he admitted, “It would be nice though. I look for them, check them out just in case. There was one guy I was hopeful about but he couldn’t do anything. He was just plain scamming people by telling them that he could talk to their dead loved ones if they emptied their wallets for him. I think he spent about an hour talking to our ‘half-brother, Adam’ or something like that, before I gave up and told him the gig was up. The guy was a complete joke. I mean, I think I would know if we had another brother.”
Sam had a small smile on his face when he said, “And if I know you correctly, which I do, you set him straight and then stole all the money back.”
“Of course! I may have also given him some graphic description of what might happen if he ever did something like that again,” explained Dean with a big smile on his face.
Growing up in this line of work had been tough. There had been times where their dad could hardly afford to put food on the table or a roof over their heads, so Dean did not like it when people used other people's misery to make a quick buck. Maybe that made him a hypocrite... after all, he got most of his money from credit card scams or hustling people, but Dean would never, ever try to take money from someone who looked like he couldn’t afford it or was desperate. Hell, he had lost some games on purpose just because the person looked like he or she needed the money more than him. Being the good guys sometimes meant more than just killing the monster.
It was mostly quiet in the car while Sam did some more research, save for the sound of Sam typing on the keyboard. With a sigh, Sam gave up for the time being and put the computer back on the backseat when the clock tuned half past eight. No way were they going to risk not being ready when the demon showed up.
Over the next hour, the two of them sat and watched the house. As it got closer to go time, Sam brought up everything Dean had been worried about and somehow it was easier to reassure his brother that everything would be okay, than it was to calm himself.
The opportunity to kill the demon came and went in a blink of an eye. The house went up in flames with it.
Thankfully they had gotten the family to safety before it burned up. With the demon still inside and no confirmation he was actually gone, Dean ended up having to physically stop his brother from running back inside and getting himself killed. Sam was so blinded by rage and grief that he would have gone in there to stop the demon, to try to ensure he couldn’t escape, no matter the consequences. And that was something Dean was not willing to risk, even if he had to spend the rest of his life hunting down the demon. It was worth it, just as long as his little brother and his dad kept breathing.
Dean must have called his dad hundreds of times on the way back to the hotel, but there was no answer. He tried all of his phones, even the extra ones that he never used anymore. He even made Sam try calling from his phone, just in case his own might not be working correctly. He really wanted to ignore his father's order for the second time in a short time and go back him up. But his father had told them specifically before they split up to go back to the hotel and wait for him there.
Of course, he had also said that they were supposed to kill the demon, which did not go as planned.
The relief Dean felt when his dad's phone finally picked up was short lived.
Something had gone terribly wrong and from the sounds of it, Meg had their dad. Meg had never given them a reason to doubt her following through with her threats and Dean was hard pressed to believe that this time would be any different. Besides, their dad would have found some way to contact them by now if he had just lost his phone. Despite the glee in Meg’s tone, Dean refused to believe his father was dead. He was sure that if either his dad or brother had died, he would know and not because they might show to him as ghosts.
Now, their number one priority was saving their dad, but it was clear they were in over their heads. They needed the best help they could get and thankfully, the nearest hunter was just that. If Bobby didn't know how to take down a demon as tricky as Meg, nobody would.
The brothers wondered if they should call first, but they didn't want to take the chance Bobby would tell them to get lost. Bobby and their dad hadn't ended on the best of terms last time they had seen each other, the older men ended up in a huge argument over God knows what. John had told the boys to stay in the Impala after they’d come back from a hunt with Bobby, and then the two men disappeared into the house. The second the door closed behind them, Sam and Dean could hear them fighting despite the windows of the Impala being rolled up.
A short while later the door flew open and a furious John Winchester came storming out with Bobby trailing behind him with a shotgun. The Winchesters hadn't seen or heard from Bobby since then.
~Supernatural~
July 18th, 2006
Pulling up in front of Bobby’s house after all this time felt weird, but at the same time, it felt like coming home. Not that Dean would know how that felt, he hadn’t had a home to go back to since they, he and Sammy were kids…
Dean gripped the steering wheel tight and let his mind wander for a moment to try to quell the nervous anticipation bubbling in his stomach. What would it actually mean to have a home? A family? Sure, he had Sammy and Dad, but there was no escape from them, not really. What Dean wouldn’t give for a vacation, a damn break for a weekend or hell, a week! He’d never even been on one before, not really. Sure he had traveled all over the states and been to all the popular sites, but it had always been on the way to or from a hunt, never just to go somewhere and have fun.
The crunching gravel changed to dirt spinning up against the undercarriage and Dean slowed, ripping himself from his thoughts. He glanced over at Sammy, saw the same anxiety on his brother’s face and decided. After they saved their dad, Dean was going to Las Vegas on a vacation and dragging Sammy with him. Nothing was going to stop him. He had earned it, damn it!
It didn’t surprise them one bit to see Bobby walking out on his front porch with a shotgun in hand. It made them a little bit nervous, since Bobby was a damn good shot, but not surprised. They slowly made their way out of the Impala and lifted up their hands to show they meant no harm.
“Well, what are you idjits waiting for?” called Bobby, like they would have gone near him while holding that gun. “Get up here!” he added as he lowered his gun and walked back inside.
The boys shared a quick look before they made their way inside after him.
“So, what have you Winchesters gotten yourself into this time?” asked Bobby when Sam closed the door behind them.
“You know us, always getting in trouble,” answered Dean as he took the room in. There was a lot more stuff than he could remember and it was everywhere. It was a complete chaos with stacks of books on every table, papers stuck all over every wall they could see. Dean knew from experience that there were weapons hidden around as well, they were just hidden so well that you wouldn’t find them unless you knew where to look for them. There was no doubt in Dean’s mind though that Bobby knew where he would find everything he needed and could tell if something had been moved.
Dean remembered the first time he’d come here. It was a few months after his mom died and John had come to Bobby to learn as much as he could about what was out there in the dark. Dean was sure John had met Bobby a few times before, but he hadn’t heard of him until they rolled up in front of the old house and Dad told them not to touch anything.
The place had looked a lot like it did now. Back then, most of the stacks had been higher than Dean and the boys could hardly move without knocking something over. Of course, that made it difficult for Dean since he was tasked with watching after his baby brother while the grown ups were talking. His baby brother who had recently learned how to walk, or run more like it. In true Winchester fashion, Sammy totally skipped learning to walk first and went straight from crawling to running. At least Dean liked to think all Winchesters did that.
Chasing after him and keeping the stacks from topping quickly turned into a game of hide and seek. It started with Dean trying to clean up a stack of books that Sammy had pushed over, only to turn around and notice that Sam was gone. Dean was just about to give up on looking for him and go ask his father for help when he heard another stack of books fall down and then another, almost like dominos. It went on like that for awhile, before Dean found his brother sitting on the floor looking at a knife he had just found.
With a little bit of help from the nice lady that lived there with Bobby, the one like his mommy that only Dean could see, Dean had been able to get his brother to take a nap and had managed to put all the weapons Bobby had lying around somewhere Sammy wouldn’t reach them. Dean had just started putting all the books back where they belonged when his dad and Bobby came back. His dad had not been happy to find the mess and had ordered Dean to put everything just like he had found it. Bobby, on the other hand, was just shocked. He didn’t seem to mind that his books were all over the place and refused to let Dean touch any of the weapons to put them back.
The next time they came, all the weapons were out of Dean’s reach and the books were all neatly stacked on top of surfaces that Sammy couldn’t reach. The biggest change, in Dean’s opinion, had been the new box in the corner with some toys in it.
With every visit from the Winchesters, Bobby’s place got a little cleaner, and every once in awhile a new toy or even a book or two would appear in the box. Apparently, Bobby had gone back to his old habits after losing touch with the Winchesters and Dean couldn’t help feeling responsible for that.
“What Dean is trying to say is that Dad is in trouble and we need your help,” said Sam, who was eyeing a book on Bobby’s desk, the work on the binding in Latin but easily translated, ‘daemonium’. When Bobby noticed what he was looking at, Sam added, “How much do you know about demons?”
“Ohh, balls.” Turning around, Bobby scanned the books behind him before finding the one he was looking for and pulling it out of the stack it was in before handing it to Sam. “You better take a look at this while I go find us something to drink,” Bobby said, before making his way to the kitchen.
Sam went and sat down at Bobby’s desk and after rearranging a bit on the table, he started looking through the book. The book was huge and from what Dean had seen, it was called ‘The Key of Solo-’ something-or-other. He didn’t really care as long as it could help them save their dad.
The boys learned a lot from that little visit. They learned how to exorcise a demon and they even were able to perform one after Meg showed up. Unfortunately, the poor girl the demon was possessing didn’t make it. Thankfully, she had been able to tell them where they might find their dad before she died. They also learned why John and Bobby had a falling out and a heavy blanket of silence fell over them in the aftermath of Meg’s departure.
It turned out Bobby had suspected that Dean could talk to the dead from the get go. Not much got past Bobby after all. The last hunt they had been on together had just proved him right after he witnessed Dean, in the heat of the moment thinking he was alone, had snapped at a ghost that was annoying him. Bobby tried to talk to John about it after they got back from the hunt, but of course, everything blew up in a typical John Winchester fashion.
They boys left it up to Bobby to try to explain to the paramedics what had happened to Meg. How he was going to do it, they had no idea. They climbed into the Impala after promising to keep in touch and headed for the open road. For now, they had only one thing on their minds. Get Dad back alive.
~Supernatural~
AN:Like always all comments are loved (specially since I don't know if anyone is reading this over here).