FIC: Family (2/3) HIMYM/Supernatural crossover
Part Two
2008
Ten years wasn't enough time to say goodbye to his brother, not when James barely believed that night at the crossroads had really happened. He tried to explain this to Marshall and Lily at the hospital, in half garbled sentences. He tried to tell them how guilty he felt, all the time knowing that he sounded like a crazy person.
Nothing felt real any more, not a single thing in these last ten years. Not finding his own true identity, finding Tom, his true love, adopting Sam, living his fabulous life, it felt like James had profited somehow from the deal Barney had made. It felt like James had experienced nothing but good fortune, while his brother… what did Barney have? It should have been Barney, living the good life, and maybe to an outsider it might have seemed that he was. But really, during the brief time they spent together now that James had moved so far away, it was plain to see that his little brother's life was pretty empty.
And then, in the past couple of weeks, it had gotten even emptier.
So now, only forty minutes after getting off the plane, James was in a Manhattan hospital, and it seemed like Barney's life might be over after all. Marshall and Lily had met him there, hugged him, sat him down on a rickety plastic chair and told him how Barney was in a coma. James just ached inside, like there was a tear in the fabric of his soul. He felt despair for the first time in years, real despair, and it had all come tumbling out. Their terrible secret deal done that night at the crossroads, how Barney had changed then, how he'd never once fallen in love with another woman, not in ten years. It had been as though Barney's soul was already being eaten away.
"And then if Ted hadn't been such a dick about this Robin thing…" James blurted. Marshall and Lily quickly held hands and giving him a look that told James he'd gone too far. "I'm sorry," James said, waving his hand out blindly in front of his face. "I'm sorry, that was a douche-y thing to say. It's just… I never thought…" He laughed. "I guess you guys think I'm insane, yeah? I mean, all this Hoodoo crap?" Then he voiced his real fear. "I think… I think Barney's in hell… He's never gonna wake up." He whispered.
"No…" Marshall said, patting his arm. "No… god, no. And of course we believe you, dude. We're total believers! There's a whole bunch of lore about supernatural deals made at a crossroads. But usually they don't end with the guy being hit by a bus…" He glanced over at Lily with a panicked expression just as a nurse rushed out over to them.
"Are you the next of kin?" She asked Marshall, who shook his head and pointed at James.
"That's his brother."
The nurse did a double take, then shrugged. "Look, there's a problem. Mr Stinson… he's disappeared."
"Disappeared?" James repeated, dumbly. "What the hell do you mean, girl?"
"Well, one of the orderlies…" The nurse swallowed. "David, one of our orderlies said that he saw him walk out. Which is impossible because-"
"You said he was in a coma!" Lily interrupted.
The nurse gulped. "Not only that. But Mr Stinson has two broken legs."
James couldn't help it, he began to laugh. He'd always feared what would happen at the end, and a bus crash had been the last thing he'd ever expected. And this… was this better, or not? Was the worst yet to come?
*--*--*
1998
"James…?" Barney asked carefully, as his brother straightened his tie, readying his brother for his first day at his new job with Altrucell. James nodded at him to spit it out, whatever it was Barney wanted to ask.
"It's just… what happens?" His younger brother continued.
"What happens with what, dude?" James asked.
"In ten years. What happens? I mean… exactly?"
James's blood ran cold, turned to ice in his veins. "Barn…"
"It's just, she said she owned my soul… Like… does that mean I'll die? I mean, how? Do I just fall down dead, die in my sleep, what? And then… where do I go? My soul?"
James remembered a story Alma-May told him once, about the hounds of hell and demons and the end of days. He hoped against hope that it was all just a fairy tale. It had to be a fantasy… had to be. He couldn't bear to think of his brother burning in hell; A real, actual, tangible hell.
"We said we weren't going to talk about that again," James managed to say, gruffly. "Now who's the greatest wingman of all time?"
"You are, Bro," Barney replied, reluctantly.
"Damn straight!" James said, offering his little brother a high-five and was relieved to see Barney flash him a grin as he slapped his hand. This was better, surely? This was better than razor blades or a bullet or drowning the Hudson. It had to be.
If James kept telling himself that, it stopped him thinking about the low growl he always imagined he could hear, faint, but getting stronger.
*--*--*
2008
The first thing they needed to do was find Barney, of that the three of them were in complete agreement. James was keen to involve Ted - if Barney was likely to try to contact anyone, it would be Ted.
When Marshall offered to call a friend "who could help", James assumed it would be Ted, but was saddened to find Marshall talking animatedly to a different guy, some other guy... Dan or Dean or something. When James rounded on Marshall, venting his anger, he was told how how Ted had broken down, almost completely, and how Robin was having to stay with him, just to try to keep him together. Even Ted's girlfriend Stella had no effect on him.
According Lily, Ted blamed himself.
As well he should do, James thought, as he, Marshall and Lily had tried everywhere they could think. GNB, various strip joints, clubs, bars, even Barney's old Laser Tag place, but nothing. They all gathered at Barney's apartment just before midnight, to maybe wait and see if he would return home. And it was easier to fixate on Ted. None of them wanted to talk about the obvious problem here: The obvious physical impossibility of it all. Marshall and Lily seemed way too calm, way too composed. Almost as if this sort of thing had happened to them before.
None of them wanted to talk about what they might find if they actually located Barney. None of them wanted to talk about the coma, the broken body, how in the hell Barney had walked out of the hospital. Whatever this was, it didn't feel like the miracle that Marshall still hoped it might be. But finally, when they were all slumped on Barney's couch, shielding their eyes from the glare of his criminally large TV screen, Marshall cleared his throat to break the silence.
Then a key rattled in the door.
Barney walked in, with a girl on each arm.
There was a brief commotion, a tangle of limbs as the three of them tried to stand up. James managed it first, taking two steps towards Barney, unable to fight the overwhelming relief that swept through him.
"Barney!" Marshall yelled, as James's younger brother turned his face towards them and for the first time they could see his eyes.
Barney's eyes were two black pits.
It was as though a block of stone hit James square in the chest, forcing him back down onto the couch. Barney lifted his hand casually as if swatting a fly and James felt the pressure on his chest increase until he was groaning in pain. Lily screamed and Marshall yelled obscenities, then gurgled into silence.
"Oh shut the hell up," Barney snapped at them as each of the girls sashayed their way into the room. His voice sounded wrong. It was a wheedling voice, a whining voice with a very slight lisp. "Don't you get it? Barney's not at home anymore! This meat suit's mine now," it said.
Despite being barely able to breathe, let alone speak, James felt a shiver go through him. It had never occurred to him, through these long years of anguish at his brother's fate, that he'd be in any danger himself at the end.
"Let go…" James grunted, the edge of his vision greying. "Give back… his soul… please!" Gasping, he grit his teeth in agony as his ribs took the strain of the pressure on his chest.
The black-eyed thing laughed. "Stupid… I don't have his soul. That's… long gone. Or… soon will be. I'm just the tenant in his broken body. And let me tell you, it's not that great in here any more, even without him to fight me off. Now, I'm not sure what a spleen does, but I'm sure it 'ain't this!"
James twisted against the couch as Marshall tried to move beside him. The big man managed to speak. "What about… the hell hounds?"
Barney's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Hell hounds? What are you talking about?"
James nodded encouragingly as the big man continued, fighting against the invisible force that had the three of them pinned down. "Barney's ten years are up. We were expecting the hell hounds to-"
And suddenly, terrifyingly, there was a growl.
The black-eyed thing's head whipped around and he muttered "Hell hounds? Oh shit!" before opening his mouth wide, wider, and vomiting a gritty black smoke up into the air and over the floor. He went on and on, expelling the choking stuff until his eyes rolled back in his head and his body slumped into a heap on the ground with a snap of bone that made James, Lily and Marshall wince.
Then James realized two things. Firstly, that he was free to move. The intolerable pressure on his chest has eased.
And secondly, that the front door was shaking, the sound of growling had gotten way louder, and that Lily's fingernails were sinking into his arm.
The hell hounds were here at last. And they'd come for Barney's soul.
2008
Ten years wasn't enough time to say goodbye to his brother, not when James barely believed that night at the crossroads had really happened. He tried to explain this to Marshall and Lily at the hospital, in half garbled sentences. He tried to tell them how guilty he felt, all the time knowing that he sounded like a crazy person.
Nothing felt real any more, not a single thing in these last ten years. Not finding his own true identity, finding Tom, his true love, adopting Sam, living his fabulous life, it felt like James had profited somehow from the deal Barney had made. It felt like James had experienced nothing but good fortune, while his brother… what did Barney have? It should have been Barney, living the good life, and maybe to an outsider it might have seemed that he was. But really, during the brief time they spent together now that James had moved so far away, it was plain to see that his little brother's life was pretty empty.
And then, in the past couple of weeks, it had gotten even emptier.
So now, only forty minutes after getting off the plane, James was in a Manhattan hospital, and it seemed like Barney's life might be over after all. Marshall and Lily had met him there, hugged him, sat him down on a rickety plastic chair and told him how Barney was in a coma. James just ached inside, like there was a tear in the fabric of his soul. He felt despair for the first time in years, real despair, and it had all come tumbling out. Their terrible secret deal done that night at the crossroads, how Barney had changed then, how he'd never once fallen in love with another woman, not in ten years. It had been as though Barney's soul was already being eaten away.
"And then if Ted hadn't been such a dick about this Robin thing…" James blurted. Marshall and Lily quickly held hands and giving him a look that told James he'd gone too far. "I'm sorry," James said, waving his hand out blindly in front of his face. "I'm sorry, that was a douche-y thing to say. It's just… I never thought…" He laughed. "I guess you guys think I'm insane, yeah? I mean, all this Hoodoo crap?" Then he voiced his real fear. "I think… I think Barney's in hell… He's never gonna wake up." He whispered.
"No…" Marshall said, patting his arm. "No… god, no. And of course we believe you, dude. We're total believers! There's a whole bunch of lore about supernatural deals made at a crossroads. But usually they don't end with the guy being hit by a bus…" He glanced over at Lily with a panicked expression just as a nurse rushed out over to them.
"Are you the next of kin?" She asked Marshall, who shook his head and pointed at James.
"That's his brother."
The nurse did a double take, then shrugged. "Look, there's a problem. Mr Stinson… he's disappeared."
"Disappeared?" James repeated, dumbly. "What the hell do you mean, girl?"
"Well, one of the orderlies…" The nurse swallowed. "David, one of our orderlies said that he saw him walk out. Which is impossible because-"
"You said he was in a coma!" Lily interrupted.
The nurse gulped. "Not only that. But Mr Stinson has two broken legs."
James couldn't help it, he began to laugh. He'd always feared what would happen at the end, and a bus crash had been the last thing he'd ever expected. And this… was this better, or not? Was the worst yet to come?
*--*--*
1998
"James…?" Barney asked carefully, as his brother straightened his tie, readying his brother for his first day at his new job with Altrucell. James nodded at him to spit it out, whatever it was Barney wanted to ask.
"It's just… what happens?" His younger brother continued.
"What happens with what, dude?" James asked.
"In ten years. What happens? I mean… exactly?"
James's blood ran cold, turned to ice in his veins. "Barn…"
"It's just, she said she owned my soul… Like… does that mean I'll die? I mean, how? Do I just fall down dead, die in my sleep, what? And then… where do I go? My soul?"
James remembered a story Alma-May told him once, about the hounds of hell and demons and the end of days. He hoped against hope that it was all just a fairy tale. It had to be a fantasy… had to be. He couldn't bear to think of his brother burning in hell; A real, actual, tangible hell.
"We said we weren't going to talk about that again," James managed to say, gruffly. "Now who's the greatest wingman of all time?"
"You are, Bro," Barney replied, reluctantly.
"Damn straight!" James said, offering his little brother a high-five and was relieved to see Barney flash him a grin as he slapped his hand. This was better, surely? This was better than razor blades or a bullet or drowning the Hudson. It had to be.
If James kept telling himself that, it stopped him thinking about the low growl he always imagined he could hear, faint, but getting stronger.
*--*--*
2008
The first thing they needed to do was find Barney, of that the three of them were in complete agreement. James was keen to involve Ted - if Barney was likely to try to contact anyone, it would be Ted.
When Marshall offered to call a friend "who could help", James assumed it would be Ted, but was saddened to find Marshall talking animatedly to a different guy, some other guy... Dan or Dean or something. When James rounded on Marshall, venting his anger, he was told how how Ted had broken down, almost completely, and how Robin was having to stay with him, just to try to keep him together. Even Ted's girlfriend Stella had no effect on him.
According Lily, Ted blamed himself.
As well he should do, James thought, as he, Marshall and Lily had tried everywhere they could think. GNB, various strip joints, clubs, bars, even Barney's old Laser Tag place, but nothing. They all gathered at Barney's apartment just before midnight, to maybe wait and see if he would return home. And it was easier to fixate on Ted. None of them wanted to talk about the obvious problem here: The obvious physical impossibility of it all. Marshall and Lily seemed way too calm, way too composed. Almost as if this sort of thing had happened to them before.
None of them wanted to talk about what they might find if they actually located Barney. None of them wanted to talk about the coma, the broken body, how in the hell Barney had walked out of the hospital. Whatever this was, it didn't feel like the miracle that Marshall still hoped it might be. But finally, when they were all slumped on Barney's couch, shielding their eyes from the glare of his criminally large TV screen, Marshall cleared his throat to break the silence.
Then a key rattled in the door.
Barney walked in, with a girl on each arm.
There was a brief commotion, a tangle of limbs as the three of them tried to stand up. James managed it first, taking two steps towards Barney, unable to fight the overwhelming relief that swept through him.
"Barney!" Marshall yelled, as James's younger brother turned his face towards them and for the first time they could see his eyes.
Barney's eyes were two black pits.
It was as though a block of stone hit James square in the chest, forcing him back down onto the couch. Barney lifted his hand casually as if swatting a fly and James felt the pressure on his chest increase until he was groaning in pain. Lily screamed and Marshall yelled obscenities, then gurgled into silence.
"Oh shut the hell up," Barney snapped at them as each of the girls sashayed their way into the room. His voice sounded wrong. It was a wheedling voice, a whining voice with a very slight lisp. "Don't you get it? Barney's not at home anymore! This meat suit's mine now," it said.
Despite being barely able to breathe, let alone speak, James felt a shiver go through him. It had never occurred to him, through these long years of anguish at his brother's fate, that he'd be in any danger himself at the end.
"Let go…" James grunted, the edge of his vision greying. "Give back… his soul… please!" Gasping, he grit his teeth in agony as his ribs took the strain of the pressure on his chest.
The black-eyed thing laughed. "Stupid… I don't have his soul. That's… long gone. Or… soon will be. I'm just the tenant in his broken body. And let me tell you, it's not that great in here any more, even without him to fight me off. Now, I'm not sure what a spleen does, but I'm sure it 'ain't this!"
James twisted against the couch as Marshall tried to move beside him. The big man managed to speak. "What about… the hell hounds?"
Barney's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Hell hounds? What are you talking about?"
James nodded encouragingly as the big man continued, fighting against the invisible force that had the three of them pinned down. "Barney's ten years are up. We were expecting the hell hounds to-"
And suddenly, terrifyingly, there was a growl.
The black-eyed thing's head whipped around and he muttered "Hell hounds? Oh shit!" before opening his mouth wide, wider, and vomiting a gritty black smoke up into the air and over the floor. He went on and on, expelling the choking stuff until his eyes rolled back in his head and his body slumped into a heap on the ground with a snap of bone that made James, Lily and Marshall wince.
Then James realized two things. Firstly, that he was free to move. The intolerable pressure on his chest has eased.
And secondly, that the front door was shaking, the sound of growling had gotten way louder, and that Lily's fingernails were sinking into his arm.
The hell hounds were here at last. And they'd come for Barney's soul.