NIGHT 54: M21-30 HALLWAY
[ from here ]It took her a moment when she turned down the men's hallway to skim the area with her flashlight. This was the part where she got confused, the muscle memory not really carrying her the whole way. He'd given her directions once, but that felt like a lifetime ago now that she actually needed to put them into practice without Bella
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When he offered her the knife, she looked down at the butcher's knife in her hand. Yeah, real hard decision. She set it aside on the desk and reached out to take the familiar handle of her own knife. A little piece of home. Not that demons had a real particular sense of nostalgia, but considering the tricks she'd had to pull off to get her hands on this baby, she wasn't taking for granted the fact that she had it around again. It was the little things, truly.
"You spoil me," she quipped, taking it from him and turning the blade over in her hands, inspecting the unique curvature for any kind of indicator that it'd suffered from misuse in their time at the institute. But, the handle wasn't much more abused than it had been from the symbols she'd carved into the wood herself, and the blade was pristine. "Kinda morbid for a birthday present." Kind of a morbid joke on her part, as well, but she couldn't help but remember who'd gotten impaled on it.
Or maybe at this point it was remembering that she didn't remember. Whichever. Her eyes flickered up towards him and she raised a questioning brow slowly, lips tugging out of the smirk they'd pursed to form and into something more analytical.
"You gonna share with the class how you got it outta Landel's own personal impound?" Or why you spent breakfast with a goddamn angel? Sam hadn't met the guy, right? He didn't even know Dean was gonna spring back, so what was he doing slumming it with a guy who reeked of Grace and self-righteous divinity? Not the company she liked to see him hanging around, but also, unfortunately, not the kind of question she could rationalize throwing out there so suddenly. Better to ease into it and give him a chance to bring it up himself. The last thing he needed to think was that she was keeping a constant eye on him.
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He placed the flashlight beside Ruby on the desk to keep the room from plunging into absolute darkness and leaned back against the closet across from her. Ruby didn't seem interested in going anywhere anytime soon, and Sam didn't mind. If they were going to catch up, it'd be easier to do it in here than walking around out there with one eye over his shoulder for anything about to eat them.
Speaking of which, hadn't Ruby said something about...King Kong? Never mind. He could ask after he answered her questions, though he was prepared for it to not make much more sense even after her explanation.
"A few nights ago, there was this-incident that turned all the doors into portals." He hated the word portal, but there was no other way to describe it. "Most of them led to other parts of the institute, but some of them threw people into home dimensions. But I mean, more of a pocket, you know? Like someone cut out a square of it. It was basically a ghost town, no reception, no residents, eventually it threw you back when you stepped too far. Anyway, I ended up by Dean's grave, found the car-that knife was the only thing that came back with me." He paused. "My abilities worked there. Whatever was suppressing it, they lifted it for that one moment."
Which meant it could be lifted again, if they only found out how the hell it was being done in the first place. They were putting down even angels, apparently, or at the very least a demigod, so whoever this was had some major juice behind them.
...And that was all he had. It was sad, but he honestly was out of his depth. He just hoped Ruby had some answers here, because he was flat out.
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When he finished, she looked down at the knife in her hand, obviously impressed. She'd like to say it was a case of savior complex strikes again, but she knew there was no chance he'd just grabbed it outta the freaking glovebox to bring it back to her. That was pushing her luck even back before Dean had come prowling back around the land of the living.
She was going to remark on their luck that the knife had come back, but that last implication stopped her dead in her tracks, mouth hanging slightly open as she hesitated to process. His abilities were kicked back into gear. He didn't exactly reek of joy about the fact, which she'd have to work on, but the fact that he was even mentioning it meant he knew it was big news. Good news. And that brought a slow, genuine smile to her face. Well, look at the kid go.
"You pulled a demon," she clarified bluntly. "Nobody around except a demon for you to smoke. Kinda left that part out, Sam." At least, she could assume he was smoking a demon. The way he'd reacted to her bringing up the possibility of his other abilities didn't exactly lend to him whipping anything else outta the arsenal just for a dog and pony show. It changed things to know that there was a demon in the equation. Either it had broken into Landel's little pocket, or Landel had trapped it there to wait for Sam. Neither option was really looking too good. If the demon broke in, it meant they weren't safe from them inside the facility like she'd thought. But, if Landel put it there, it meant he was leading them on to think that Sam could use them again for any sensible reason.
"Sammy, that's --" there was an excited kind of relief in her tone and she shook her head. "It's great news. Do you even realize what that means?" Apparently, she didn't think he did, cause she just kept going without giving him much of a chance to respond. "It means we got a better idea of how he's pulling this off. You got outta range. Sure, we take a walk outside, it's still covering us, but if you could get far enough away through your portals that they were coming back?"
She pushes away from the desk and begins to slowly walk across the room to where Peter's desk is, pacing a little bit but slowly enough that it's more like strolling while she thought. There was a lot to consider. Whether it was just distance or some kinda dimension jump or -- it was way above her paygrade, that was for sure. First angels, now this crap. They could handle it, but she didn't really make a habit of trying to find ways into alternate planes of existence that she didn't belong on. Not exactly her brand of homework. Maybe it should have been.
No use worrying about it now.
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"I mean, I gotta tell you, Sam, I'm not all that eager for angels to be playing hard ball on the in-field, but if we wanna get you and your brother outta here …" The Dean card. It almost felt too cruel to play it, but she knew it would illicit the response she wanted. Enthusiasm. A pause, discomfort and sudden coldness washed over her expression and her eyes sternly fixed on Sam. She studied him for a minute, scrutinizing, then she canted her head a little, a small degree of wry dread making itself clear in her tone and the knitting of her eyebrows.
"Tell me your little trip back to Kansas didn't involve takin' your brother along for the ride. I mean, no offense, the guy can handle a lot, but getting him caught up in this …" It almost sounded like she was encouraging Sam to hide things from Dean for Dean's own good. Wouldn't that be a perfect world. Truth be told, a part of her just wanted to find out if he'd agree. Test the boundaries of how far he was willing to go and how open he was hoping to be with his brother.
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He shouldn't be thinking about it.
"I wouldn't go that far," he said. "I'm pretty sure that demon was dumped in there specifically for me. Whatever's capping me off was probably just momentarily lifted. But yeah, you're right. It can be lifted, so..."
So they just had to lift it. Easy enough to say. Not so much in practice. Whether the curse, as Ruby put it, was placed over the institute or the entire dimension as a whole (was that possible? He wouldn't put it past them at this point), the concept of breaking it remained the same. Though with the amount of bad blood between some of the patients here, he had a feeling throwing everything back to normal was gonna result in some major chaos, but that. What. Wasn't his problem? He hated to acknowledge it, but the thought was there. It was only his problem insofar as it affected Dean and...Peter, yeah. People he'd come to call friends. But even then, it was a risk he was willing to take if it meant bringing Dean back.
As for the angels. He had to admit, he wasn't sure where Ruby stood on there with them, but if she was willing to put up with them, as it sounded, to do what they needed to, then that was good enough for him. He knew a large part of it was because she knew Dean was a package deal-but it didn't matter. As long as they were on the same page. He was hard pressed on help right now and he did appreciate that at least with Ruby, getting her on his side wasn't like pulling teeth.
He guessed that was one more reason to keep the shaky truce with the angels. Unspoken truce in Castiel's case, but one nonetheless. In case they needed them, in case the power switch came back on. He couldn't see it being a good idea to stir crap up with them only to be screwed over later on.
Which was something he was about to bring up with Ruby when she spoke up again. In hindsight, it wasn't unexpected at all that her mind had jumped there, but it hadn't occurred to him just then. He shook his head. God, the thought alone...it'd been sheer freaking luck that Peter had been with him that night.
Yeah. No encouragement necessary. He was doing just fine hiding shit from Dean on his own, apparently.
"Dean's still in the dark, believe me. I was with my roommate, actually." He hadn't wanted to drag Peter into this, but he couldn't keep Peter out of their conversations forever. "He's...kind of like me. But, uh, not. It's complicated. He says he has abilities, too, but the way he describes them doesn't match up. And his birth year definitely doesn't line up with Azazel's generation batches."
It was possible for Yellow-Eyes to break the pattern, but he doubted it. That many kids, all of them sticking to the same schedule? Combined with Landel's earlier outburst of altverses, he was more inclined to believe that Peter's powers had nothing to do with demons, or at least not demons in the way that Sam knew them.
Oh. Right. Jesus, he'd almost forgotten. Talk about having too much on his mind.
"By the way-you weren't in the Sun Room earlier, were you?"
She hadn't been, he was fairly certain, since he would've remembered seeing her, but it was as good a way to segue into the next topic as any.
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Of course, that was the big question, wasn't it? Whether or not he was willing to go there. As long as she kept dangling Dean over him like the carrot on a stick, she had a feeling she could get him to do anything. Just had to show him how dire it was -- he'd been desperate to get Dean back, and here there was a way. She just had to hold back that little tidbit that Dean happened to have come back already.
Well. He was better off not knowing that.
A look of relief passed over her face and she smiled warmly at him, though there was a grim and sympathetic edge to it. She knew he didn't like lying to his brother. It wasn't rocket science. But, it was for the best, and it made her job a helluva lot easier. It seemed like he knew it too. She shifted, ready to step closer and get with the comforting, but he moved onto his roommate so she just stuck to her spot on the desk.
Now there was something above her pay grade. Non-psychic kid with abilities? Talk about fishy. Could be a witch, or a monster of some kind himself. Leave it to Sam to get crammed in a room with something that didn't sound all that human to her. Wasn't that just his luck? She almost felt sorry for the guy.
"You mean when Landel was getting his ass handed to him and losing his shit?" She snorted a little, shaking her head. "Saw the whole thing. I'd say a change in regime ranks a little lower on the importance scale than finding out there might be a way to pull the abilities outta the box though, don't you think?" A pause. "Assuming you don't mind me interfering with your little subject change, that is. Look, I get it, you don't like talking about this stuff, but if we don't talk about it, we can kiss getting Dean outta here goodbye." She pulled herself up on the desk more, getting comfortable and resting her back against the wall.
"This roommate of yours, what's he look like, anyway? Got a name, maybe?" There was a short list of people she'd passed on her way in here -- he had to be one of 'em, right? It was worth chatting him up. "If he's got abilities, I'll bet he wants them back in full force as much as we do. Wouldn't hurt to have somebody on our team to help pick up info on how Landel mighta been pulling this off." She stopped, looking thoughtful. It made sense that maybe with Landel out of the picture, it'd could be lifted, but that pressure in the back of her mind wasn't going anywhere. She still wasn't smoking out anytime soon.
"Or how General Aguilar intends to keep it up. This 2911 stuff might not be a bad place to start digging." Doctor's offices, file rooms, that kind of thing. Somewhere they had to have paperwork on what they were doing, or some kind of ritual set-up to keep the power levels under nine thousand.
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Well, that was good, though. He was glad she'd been there to see for herself. There was less to explain and maybe she'd caught something he missed-of course, that was assuming she was even interested in discussing it, which she apparently wasn't. Not the biggest surprise, he guessed. She'd always pushed the angle on his abilities. He'd never been certain of how right she was, but at the same time, there hadn't been that many options when they'd been dealing with Lilith and she was right in that there were even fewer options here, dealing with the institute and Dean.
So he didn't argue.
"His name's Peter Petrelli," he replied, tackling the easy topic first. "He's pretty nondescript, about my age, dark hair, about half a foot shorter. I can point him to you tomorrow, but if you're only gonna ask him what he knows, don't bother. We've been exchanging information. He doesn't know anymore than I do."
And Ruby might've found it necessary to question whether Peter did, in fact, not know anymore than Sam did, but Sam honestly didn't. It felt weird to say this about anyone other than Dean, but trusted his roommate. Peter had been open with him from the start, and he'd kept a lot of what Sam had told him private. If anything came up, he knew Peter would tell him. Plus, he had to admit he was kinda hesitant about the idea of Ruby talking to Peter, though he knew Rub wouldn't do anything, of course. Why would she? And she'd been plenty helpful with witnesses in the past-in a way, more so than Dean, if only because the guys tended to be much more willing to talk to pretty girl. Still.
Anyways. He wasn't so hesitant that he didn't get where she was coming from.
As for the project. "There's a computer upstairs. The first time I tried hacking into it, it wouldn't crack, but..." He shrugged. "I can always give it another go. Otherwise, I've looked at the offices, the staff library, those have all come up empty, and anyone who's been to the file rooms has only found falsified documents on themselves."
The computer might be their best bet, in truth, 'cause he couldn't see something as big as this project lying around in rooms just anyone could get into. He hadn't had a lot of time to work on the computer the last time he'd been up there with Dean-though yeah, he had a feeling that if it could be broken into, it would've been so by now. But it was something to do, right? There was no point in not giving it a shot.
Anyway, all of this crap wasn't what Ruby was interested in, Sam knew that. He shifted against the closet door.
"I take it you want to leave all that for later, though. Whatever you have in mind about my abilities, go ahead. I'm listening."
He could guess-it wasn't hard to predict-but there was no point in jumping to assumptions. He might as well let her say it.
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"Relax, wouldja? No single, swinging light in an interrogation room, I just wanna meet the guy." She gave an innocuous enough shrug in combination with the dismissal. "If you want me to keep my distance, I will, but you can't blame me for wanting to get in touch with him if we're all playin' on the same team. Believe it or not, I've got a truckload more knowledge about this stuff than you do, and if he's really not Yellow-Eyes material, then maybe I can figure out what exactly has him juiced."
Not the kind of information cozy roommates would be swapping. Nothing to do with Landel at all, just identifying Peter and categorizing him. Threat. Non-threat. Ally, even. Sam seemed to put a good deal of faith in him by the sound of it, which made him either a promising ally or a dangerous potential enemy. Depending on who he was getting information from aside from Sammy.
Everything about the computer was filed away for later, too. She was the furthest thing from a computer whiz, she didn't need the crap and it was more or less after her time. But, that didn't mean there wasn't hope for her to find someone who could crack it if Sam's second shot at it didn't prove any more effective than the first. It sounded like the best option, regardless, and she had to give him props for not sticking it in the journal. The monster, he could dismiss writing about if the nurses got nosy. But chances were they'd move their supercomputer if they knew Sammy Winchester had found it.
"The computer waits," she confirmed. "I'll ask around and see what I can dig up about it or somebody who can get into it. Couple dozen patients here, we oughtta be able to find somebody who can crack it." Of course, she didn't really have the perspective to consider how hard that could really be, particularly with zero resources. It wasn't her fault that technology happened to be a less than stellar area for her to perform in. That was all on Tammi.
"We didn't exactly get the chance to finish with the attack plan yesterday." The fact that he was the one who changed the topic validated her a little in diving into it. Clearly he was interested in what she had to say, even if he wasn't directly saying so. The fact that he was listening was enough -- she knew how single-minded Sam could be when he got an idea in his head, and he liked to dissuade other possibilities once he'd picked his route. Which meant she had hope that his route would be through her.
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"Pretty sure I'd consider getting force-choked out a blessing right about now." There was a some bitterness in the words. Not that she necessarily ever wanted to experience that, but she didn't like this cloistered feeling she had in the reanimated corpse she'd inhabited either. It was chilling to be seriously trapped and rooted somewhere like that when she'd had a failsafe escape route as long as there was no salt in the area for hundreds of years before.
Right. Persuading Sam. It was a delicate enough art to begin with, she didn't need to let herself get sidetracked by self pity.
"It's not all gone, though, Sammy. Coma girl never woulda been able to do what I got up to last night." Not without help, anyway. The pipe was firmly secured to the wall and she'd wrestled it off with relative ease. Sam might consider it an average day, but for a girl as tiny as the brunette? Not so much in the everyday department. It was enough to convince her that it wasn't all sucked away.
"And you and I both know that pulling demons ain't all you can do." She shifted her gaze to him sternly. Holding up her hand, she began to count off on fingers as she listed the possibilities. "Premonitions, super strength, mind control, telekinesis." Enthusiasm hopped up into her voice. It was only the start of the list and the possibilities were already racking up. "Not to mention Scott Carey's little electrical trick. You could do it all, Sam!" It almost sounded like she was praising him. Worshipping, even. But her tone quickly darkened to something hard and grim.
"But you're not gonna get there by sittin' around and wishing." The way her eyebrows knitted together and her lips tightened into a firm line had her looking like a teacher scolding him for not keeping up with his studies. But that was honestly more or less what it came down to -- he had to pick up the slack. The institute wasn't gonna make it anywhere close to easy for 'em, but they could do it. Together. "You want to get Dean outta here and rescue these people, you know what you have to do. You know what it's gonna take."
Her expression softened a little and she pushed up away from the desk, approaching him with slow, purposeful steps. Brow creasing, her expression became sympathetic, softening her eyes.
"I'll be here for you every step of the way. You're not gonna have to do it alone, but you're our only shot, Sammy."
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For a brief moment, Sam felt like he was being oddly paranoid and he wasn't sure where all of his concerns were even coming from. It was just, these past few weeks, it felt like everything could go wrong way too easily.
He shook his head, dismissing his earlier concern. "He won't mind talking to you. Just tell him you're a friend of mine."
Peter seemed just as okay with talking to strangers about his abilities (or at least mentioning that he had them), but his roommate would probably be willing to delve into it a little more detail if he knew that Ruby was a friend. Friend. Talk about an oversimplification of their relationship. But it was the easiest one to give. A part of him wondered if he should be asking Peter instead, but Ruby was right: he didn't know as much about his abilities which was partially his fault. He hadn't wanted to know. As if he could bury it all and make it go away. It was ridiculous, he knew. He should get over it.
"A few people I've spoken to couldn't do it, either," he went on. Or, well, conversed with on the board, anyway. Awhile ago, but still. He frowned, thinking. He hadn't considered the technology here since then. "It's weird-the system doesn't even look that advanced, but the entire thing was on lockdown. Couldn't even start to locate a back door. Ditto for one of the doctor's computers. But, uh-see what you can do, I guess. It's worth a look."
He wasn't hopeful, but he wasn't going to be pessimistic about it. If she could find someone willing to do it, who could break through further than he had-well, they could use the help, that was for sure. As good as he was with this stuff, it wasn't his area of expertise. He'd picked it up because it was a handy skill, and because his brother barely had the patience to sit still for ten seconds, never mind for a couple of hours in front of a screen.
Besides, there was something to be said for being able to hack into his brother's Busty Asian Beauties account every time Dean froze his laptop up.
Sam propped a foot up against the closet door, but otherwise let Ruby talk without interrupting. He needed the time to think, anyway, so the longer he had before he needed to give her some kind of answer, the better. She wasn't saying anything he hadn't already thought about, but having it laid flat out in front of him like that made it just that much more tangible. That much more like something he had to make a decision on.
He leaned his head back. God. A part of him knew there was no point in going halfway, that he might as well go for it and not do it at all, and the idea of not doing it at all wasn't an option given what was going on. This wasn't about Lilith anymore, it wasn't even about him. It was about Dean-which both did and didn't make taking that step harder. He knew full well what his brother wanted him to be, but Dean didn't really know him, did he?
"It's not all gone for me, either," he began. "I can reach for it, it just-takes more out of me." He bit his lip. "Look, I know, okay? Just-give me some time. A day or two. Dean already thinks I'm up to something. I can't have him getting any more suspicious than he already is."
Shit, that was as good as an agreement, wasn't it? Better than a maybe. What was he even thinking? He needed more time, but he knew Ruby would say they didn't have more time, and she would be right. They didn't. Though there was no guarantee this would work-and if it didn't, they could stop. If it did...if it did, then he might actually be able to do something for Dean. Lelouch had been proof enough that not all of the patients with abilities were like Peter or Wally. Throw in the monsters, the angels-he couldn't really justify sitting on this any longer when he had a choice not to.
He looked at her. "You really think it's gonna work well enough to be any use, even in here."
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But that paranoia, that worry, was greatly outweighed by the way the weight in her gut lifted at the fact that he was more or less agreeing to what she was trying to coax him into. It was obvious by stress in his demeanor -- leaning his head back, biting his lip -- that he was starting to feel cornered, though. Had she taken it too far? She hesitated some, combing her eyes over him and trying to quickly assess the situation. If she pushed too hard, she'd blow the whole thing.
That didn't mean she was going to let him off the hook that easily though. A day or two would turn into three or four or however long he wanted to let his guilt over Dean delay it. Inevitably, probably. So she let her sympathetic look harden a little.
"You really think it won't?" She shook her head. "Figured by now you'd give yourself a little more credit than that." The distance sufficiently closed, she shifted her weight for a minute, eyes prying for indicators of where the line was here. Then she reached up and placed a comforting hand on the side of his cheek, a supportive if grim smile on her lips. "How many times do I have to tell you you're it? What you can do, what Yellow-Eyes gave you, it's incredible, Sam, and even a fraction of it's gonna be more than what most of these mooks can do. With a little luck, once we get you trained up, it'll be more than enough.
"But, Sam." She paused purposefully, her expression shifting. It was still reassuring in all the right ways, but there was something more solid to it. More urgent. "I'm not gonna tell you not to think on it, but time's not exactly something we're busting at the seams with here." It was hard to make the concessions between what she wanted to say, which was something more along the lines of 'Sure, Sam, take your time, not like we don't have an eternity to get this done and then get back to the war we're still fighting back home. Stop and smell the roses while you're at it, too, why don'tcha?' and what would actually behoove her to tell him. She was getting better with the patience thing -- Sam had taught her how to really use it. One more thing she'd have to thank him for when it was all over.
"And, call me crazy, but I don't see time doing a whole lot to change the situation here. What are you gonna do? Poll the audience, try and talk it over in code with your brother? You're either on board or you're not." All right, so maybe it would've gotten her some points to compromise a little bit more, but compromise wasn't gonna win them any wars, it wasn't gonna knock out any sadistic scientists and it sure as hell wasn't gonna pack away any apocalypses. So maybe the patience thing hadn't quite reached its peak yet.
"This isn't the kind of thing you can just turn on, and we've got a lot of ground to cover. With the way this Aguilar guy's heading things, I'm not sure we're gonna have the wiggle room we've got now to actually cover it. We need to work fast; we don't have time to sit around shooting the breeze."
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Still, he knew that was less a justification, more an excuse. He'd run into plenty of patients here who had enough fragments of their powers remaining to put it to use. The kid from his second night, Wally, Lelouch...He wasn't so sure if it would be enough to really break them out, like Ruby seemed so certain it would be, but it would be something. A pistol and a couple of knives weren't gonna cut it with most of the things running around here. If he could stop getting slowed down by every little supernatural creature that came his way, they might actually make some damn progress.
He frowned down at her, though he didn't pull away from her touch. He knew what she was doing-over four months together, and this wasn't exactly the first time she'd brought this up with him-but it'd stopped mattering awhile ago, after he'd decided not to turn her down. He supposed it was one more thing that separated her from Dean. Sam had been collecting those distinctions from day one. There was a part of him that knew if he wasn't careful, he'd forget.
His thoughts drifted briefly back to what Castiel said again about Dean. He was tempted to say something to Ruby-but what was there to say? True or not, whatever happened, he couldn't see himself relying on another entity to do the rescuing. This Dean, this version of Dean, was here, and Sam wasn't leaving him behind. The angels had nothing to do with it.
Or did they?
Dammit.
After a second, he sighed. "Yeah, you're right. We can't just turn it on, so there's no point in rushing into it tonight if everything's gonna flip by tomorrow because of this Eagle crap and keep us from going any further. Seriously, Ruby. One more night, that's all I'm saying. See what the hell this military takeover deal is going to do to the institute. I want the time with Dean. And God knows I need the time to figure out what I'm even going to tell him if he starts asking." He eyed her for a moment. "It wouldn't hurt if you took that time to be friends with him, either."
If Dean thought Sam liked her...He wouldn't trust her, but he'd be all right with her. As far as Dean was concerned, she was just another hunter, anyway. Just a girl, like Jo. That would make it easier. And Christ, was he really working an angle on Dean now, too?
As if he hadn't done it before. He knew he had, sometimes without even thinking, until months later when he looked back and realized that Dean had only done something because Sam had asked, specifically. But he'd never done it like this. To sneak around with a demon, doing the very thing Dean had asked him not to. But they were over three weeks in and Sam was no closer to busting them out of here or saving Dean. And that wasn't even counting the rest of the people who were still trapped her.
He'd never been good with dealing with feeling useless for long, had he.
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"You're gonna get all the time with Dean you could ask for if we can actually pull this Shawshank Redemption off," she makes a small turn on her heels, rolling her eyes in tandem with the movement and walking back towards his desk. This was going a whole lot of nowhere tonight. "But, fine. Have it your way." He always did, after all. She turned back towards him and began to lay it out. Time to gear up that unwavering obedience.
"We spend a day, figure out what General Mao's up to and what we're in for 'cause of it, and I'll work on trying to become Dean's new BFF." Wasn't that just the kind of day she would look forward to. Playing hunter girlfriend for Dean might be a little easier if he wasn't pulling the black-eyed skank card every two seconds, but that didn't make her like him many more. And her feelings on the subject were clear in the look on her face -- the grim, thinly pulled line of her lips, the raised eyebrows, and the way she seemed to be in a constant state of a begrudging shrug.
"I'm not making any promises on that one. Not that I don't want to bury the hatchet before it can get sharpened and all, but your brother didn't like me the first time. I don't see the second going any better just because he doesn't have all the facts." But she was conceding. She was going to do it -- for Sam, if not just to make her life easier. He didn't need to further convince her, but she felt the need to lay down her pessimism anyway. "Speaking of which … if I'm gonna drop in and start getting cuddly, you should probably fill me in on what you've been telling him. Anything and everything, I mean specifics. We can't afford to be singing a different tune."
There were parts to the story that she already knew, of course. The host of personas she'd accrued since waking up in Landel's wasn't easy to juggle, but she could manage. There was Kristen Alighieri, the supposed nutjob who'd gotten locked up in this place for one reason or another -- probably thought she'd been possessed by demons, Ruby imagined. Then there was Ruby, hunter, friend who'd worked with Sam a coupla times and one hundred percent, bonafide, breathing human. That one was probably even funnier, but hey, if Dean bought it … and all of that was piled on top of the real deal.
The real Ruby that couldn't seem to keep separated the two halves she'd already cleaved herself into. Sympathetic, snarky sidekick in Team Prevent the Coming Apocalypse who cared about Sam and really wanted to help him, and the one who was trying to bring it on and played him like a fiddle. Those two had already bled over to a certain degree, it was unsettling to consider if the other two might throw themselves into the blender as well. She'd always imagined she'd be better at this.
Her eyes softened as she watched him, considering this, and her lips turned downwards into a despondent frown. Maybe there was some credence to not shitting where you slept after all.
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So here they were, then. It wasn't that he couldn't back out at the last minute, but Sam knew himself better than that and in some ways, he had a feeling Ruby did, too. He didn't say yes unless he meant it. If he'd been uncertain enough to walk away, he never would've let Ruby negotiate him down this far in the first place.
Honestly, he wasn't even sure what that extra night was gonna do except give him an illusion of some kind of peace of mind. But...maybe that was it. As ridiculous as it sounded, he could use the temporary downtime, even knowing it wouldn't last.
Right. Anyways. Dean. Fortunately, Ruby and Dean hadn't crossed paths that much and the few times they had, only once or twice had they had the chance to even talk a whole lot. It made coordinating this simpler, but at the same time, was it that good of an idea to have them become...BFFs, as Ruby had decided to call it? Sam preferred acquaintances. Either way, he knew it made logical sense in theory. If they were gonna do this, he couldn't keep taking off with Ruby without Dean wanting to know who this chick was. They might as well cut to the chase and have Ruby get to know Dean before his brother started asking after it. It'd be less suspicious.
In practice, though, Sam couldn't say he was any more at ease with the idea than Ruby was. Still.
He shifted, the closet creaking a little on its hinges behind him. The outline of the gun dug into his back, but he ignored it. "There's not much," he said. "You two barely met. As far as he's aware, we never knew each other outside of here. He knows you're a hunter and that you specialize in the occult, which should cover why you might know more about hexes than most. And he knows you're not the first version of you. You gave your surname as Jackson, but he's not gonna blink if you turn up with a new one." Most hunters were being generous when they gave out their real first name. Last names were a luxury.
Sam shook his head, as if wrapping up his thoughts. "That's about it."
He returned his eyes to her, realizing her expression had changed. He studied her for a moment with a sort of cautious curiosity, but he didn't ask, mostly 'cause, where did he start? He did, however, concede, "Look, I know you're not exactly thrilled with Dean and I know he's not the easiest guy to get along with. I promise I'll try and get him to behave around you, too, all right?"
Nothing changed, he guessed. He'd always been playing mediator between the two of them. He still remembered keeping Dean from putting a bullet in her. At least it wouldn't go that far this time as long as the part about her being a demon stayed under the table.
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She knew how hunters operated and she knew how to act like one. Luckily, it was more or less like a demon - distrusting and arrogant. They all were. With that self-righteous saving people stick up their asses. Give a guy a knife and a "monster" and they'd all think they were heroes. Kinda ridiculous. Giving a slow nod, she leaned back against the wall beside the door, arms crossing over her chest as she processed the info.
"All right. Easy enough to remember," that was good news. "And don't get me wrong, I'm not your brother's biggest fan. Honestly, I could do without him." That was a big risk to take, telling the guy who thought his brother was still dead that she didn't give a damn about it. But, they could 'save him' here and she was gonna do everything she could to help him, so that should even it out some.
"But he's your brother, and I know what that means to you." Obedient as always. "I'm gonna do whatever I can to get him out of here with us and I know getting along's gonna help that along. Trust me, Sam, I'll play nice. Believe iet or not, I do know how." Believe it or not. That was a little laughable, and she made sure that the quirk of her lips and one eyebrow implied it. Sam knew all about how nice she could play.
She hesitated, considering one interesting thing about the story they'd apparently spun together and Sam's debriefing. "How's he know I'm version 2.0?" Thinking about it kinda stung -- as though it wasn't bad enough having her memories on the fritz and yanked from her skull by the good doctor, she had to admit to it aloud and sacrifice all that pride. It was worse that Dean knew, to be honest.
She'd done a lot of work to keep anybody from catching on, with the exception of a select few like Sam and Roxas who were on the need-to-know list, and acted like she'd been around the whole time. In a place as populated as Landel's, that was easy, and sure, it had gotten her info, but it might have been easier if she wasn't worried about all of her tale being copacetic with Sam's. Truthfully, they should have had this talk sooner, but there hadn't really been time between weapon-hunting with Roxas and the nurses constantly lurking while the lights were on. Still.
"Not that I'm complaining, but I didn't really think you'd include "Ruby's back all memory-free" when telling him about your day at crazy school."
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Sam acknowledged what she said with a slight nod, but he let any further discussion of it drop. He knew how she felt about Dean and frankly, he didn't begrudge her. He didn't like it, but it wasn't like he'd ever expected any different. She was a demon and Dean hadn't once given her the time of day, not even long enough for Sam to get some damn answers out of her barely thirty hours before the clock was going to strike midnight. So...yeah, he couldn't say he wanted them to be the best of friends. She was agreeing to help him get his brother out and she was willing to be civil. That was about the most he could ask for.
He moved around her to perch on the edge of the desk. "It came up. He saw me beeline for you and he wanted to know why since, uh, something happened the night before. Something I needed to talk to him about before you showed. Actually," he added with some hesitation, "I wanted to tell you that, too. "There was this-incident across the institute, something preying on the subconscious. Anyway, the short of it is, he...knows I have demon blood. As of yesterday afternoon. I had to give him something." He frowned, more at himself than at Ruby. "And he's dealing, so it won't be a problem."
He couldn't quite tell how Ruby would take this news, but what was done was done and honestly, the confession had gotten Dean off his back for the first time in...weeks, it felt like. And Sam had to admit, it made him breathe easier to know that Dean was okay with that giant bombshell. He knew it didn't change anything; there was still a crapload of stuff he hadn't told his brother. But a part of him felt a little less guilty, anyway.
Besides, as far as confessions went, that had been the most practical option. There was no way he could tell Dean about willingly using his powers, and he was glad his shadow hadn't gone down that road. At least the demon blood was something he couldn't help.
"Anyway, at least one patient's known Dean before he even remembers being here, as well, so he's not gonna hold you being version 2.0 against you. Someone might've tampered with him, too."
Or Dean, entirely. Dean as a whole? How many were there, if this altverse stuff was happening? The thought of there being alternate copies of Dean somewhere out there, throughout the various threads of time, was crazy, but it was all too possible.
Had this been in the journal he'd given Ruby, by the way? He could've sworn he'd written it down, but at this point, there was way too much information to keep track of that he'd let himself be more disorganized than he normally would've. It hadn't been necessary to record every little thing down, anyway, until Ruby came back and needed catching up. The journal was more to keep some semblance of order to what was going on, keep him busy when he needed to be kept busy; it wasn't really about him being worried he'd forget. He'd always had a good memory.
Plus, the details of this place weren't things you could forget that easily.
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