Fic: Embrace Our Silent Dreams - Ch. 6
Title: Embrace Our Silent Dreams
Author: Kyra
Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I don’t own it! If I did, I probably wouldn’t be writing fanfiction.
Summary: When Angel goes missing, Connor calls a friend from school for help and is shocked when the man who left footprints in his heart shows up as well.
Pairing: Connor/Dean, possible Sam/Dawn
Spoilers: Spn, Anything up to ‘Provenance’ is fair game. BtVS/Ats, Series Finales for both shows and completely ignores the comics, cos I don’t read them.
Warnings: SLASH!!! You have been warned; don’t like it, don’t read.
Chapter 6: Sharing Information
Connor took Dean upstairs and showed him to a room. He pressed a quick kiss to the older man’s lips before turning and entering his room directly across the hall, leaving Dean to get cleaned up and changed. He walked into his room and closed the door, stripping down as he made his way to his bathroom for a quick shower.
Dean watched as Connor disappeared through the door directly across the hall from him and wondered how in the hell he was supposed to sleep at night knowing Connor was just across the hall. He sighed as he turned and entered the room, closing the door behind him. He quickly pulled his shirt over his head and toed off his shoes, making a face as he took off his soiled boxers and jeans. He tossed the dirty clothes into a corner and moved into the connected bathroom. He supposed there was an advantage to apparently living in a hotel; everyone got their own bathroom.
Connor sighed as he turned off the hot spray of the shower. He stepped out and grabbed a towel off the rack on the wall and quickly dried off as he made his way back into his room in search for clothes. A few minutes later and he was dressed in a pair of loose-fitting jeans and a dark blue t-shirt that brought out his eyes. He left his room and padded barefoot down the hall and down to the lobby.
Dean left his bathroom, a small white towel around his waist and another in his hands as he scrubbed the water from his hair. He made his way over to his duffel that he had grabbed on his way through the lobby when he and Connor had come upstairs and dug through it one-handed, the other still working the towel over his short hair, until he found some clean clothes. Pulling out the boxers, jeans and t-shirt he tossed the wet towel from his hair onto the pile of his dirty clothes, and finished drying off quickly with the towel he’d had around his waist; throwing that one onto the dirty clothes pile as well when he was done and getting dressed.
Dawn glanced up as Connor came down the stairs into the lobby; he really was a sneaky little shit, she hadn’t even noticed him and Dean slip through the lobby and upstairs earlier. “Pizza’s on the counter,” She said before taking a bite of her own pizza, not commenting on the fact that Connor had obviously taken a shower in the ten minutes since she’d last seen him.
Connor nodded and walked over to the counter where the pizza was sitting next to a stack of paper plates, sorting through the boxes until he’d found what he wanted. He quickly grabbed a paper plate and a few slices of pizza before turning around, only to stop as he saw Dean walking toward him across the lobby. Connor swallowed hard as he took in the sight of the other man; he was wearing a tight white t-shirt and a pair of worn jeans, his hair still slightly damp from his shower. A smile crossed his lips as he noticed that Dean was barefoot as well.
Sam looked up as he noticed Dean approaching the counter. “Dude, where have you been?” He asked then paused as he looked at his brother more closely, “And why did you change? Did you take a shower?” Sam looked slightly incredulous.
Dean just shrugged and grinned at his brother. “Dude. They have actual water pressure here! And hot water that doesn’t turn to ice in like two seconds. Like I was gonna pass that up!”
Sam shook his head as he watched his brother load up a plate of pizza, “And you couldn’t wait until later?”
“Nope. The temptation was far too great to resist,” He replied with a grin, his eyes dancing.
Dawn’s eyes widened and she started chocking on the mouthful of soda she had just swallowed when she heard that. She leaned over and took gasping breaths as she tried to clear her airways.
Sam looked startled for a moment before quickly moving to sit next to Dawn, reaching over and gently patting her back as he looked at her in concern. “Are you okay?”
Dawn nodded as she sat back up. “Yeah, fine,” She gasped, “Just went down the wrong tube.”
“You sure?”
Dawn smiled at him, “Yeah. I’m good.”
Sam nodded as he moved back a bit so he wasn’t sitting quite so close to Dawn, but didn’t bother moving back to the other couch.
Dawn glared at Dean as he chuckled at her as he sat down on the couch Sam had recently vacated. Did he really have to say something that was so loaded with double meaning? Because she was pretty damn sure that he sure as hell hadn’t been talking about the shower! Her glare softened and she had to stifle a giggle though when Connor flopped down next to Dean on the couch, just that slightest bit closer than he needed to be. She shrugged unapologetically when Connor’s eyes darted over to her; damned supernatural hearing.
As he finished off his last slice of pizza Sam glanced between Dawn and Connor, “So, you guys ready to hear about these demons?” He asked.
Dawn nodded and tossed her empty plate onto the end table, taking Sam’s from him and placing it on top of hers. “Sounds good, maybe we can figure out what they wanted with Angel,” She replied as she got comfortable, grabbing a pen and notebook off the end table so that she could take notes.
Connor just nodded as he continued eating.
For the next hour or so, Sam and Dean filled Dawn and Connor in on the demons that they normally came across. They told them about the demons they had encounter, about the exorcism rituals they used to get rid of them, about any info their dad had on them in his journal and anything else they could think of. By the time they were finished, Dawn had pages of notes written down. She glanced over the notes real quick before nodding to herself.
“So, from what you’ve said, they tend to cause a lot of mayhem and have to possess humans to do so. So, I think we can safely rule out ending the world as a reason for one of them to take Angel,” Dawn said as she looked up at the brothers.
“You also said that they are able to fight their way back out of Hell after being exorcised,” Connor said, “Maybe they’re tired of doing that and wanna bring Hell here? Hell on Earth.”
Dawn’s eyes widened. “Or maybe they want to suck the world into Hell,” She said as she sat up straight, going stiff, “That would make sense. A whole lot of sense actually.”
Dean looked at Dawn in confusion, “How does that make sense? I mean, I guess I could see why they would do it, but why would they need Connor’s dad?”
“Because he almost did it once,” Dawn replied seriously.
“What?” Sam asked incredulously.
Dawn nodded, “Yeah, it was about ten or so years ago now, back during his soulless period. He doesn’t talk about it much. He paid for it though, big time…Spent a few hundred years in Hell because of it.”
“What?” Dean asked staring at Dawn.
“How did he do it?” Sam asked, “Could it be done again? Maybe that’s what they want him for, to tell them how he did it.”
Dawn shook her head. “It wouldn’t matter. Giles did a binding on Acathla, plus it was still in Sunnydale when it sank. But I’d bet he knows other ways to do it,” She replied.
“Wait,” Dean said, “His ‘soulless period’? What the Hell does that mean?”
“It means he didn’t have a soul for a while,” Dawn told him, her tone clearly letting them know that she wanted to tack a ‘duh’ onto the end of the sentence. “Okay, so when you become a vampire the demon gets your body, but it doesn’t get your soul. For the first hundred and forty-five years or so after he was turned, Angelus was a cruel soulless killer. Then one day he snacked on the wrong person; a Gypsy girl who was favored among her clan. Her clan got pissed and decided to punish Angelus, they returned his soul. So after nearly a hundred and fifty years of murder, rape and torture, he suddenly had a conscience. A century and a half of evil and he suddenly cared. About a hundred years after he got his soul, a Balance Demon named Whistler went to Angel and he showed him this girl, a Slayer; told him that she was gonna have it hard, that she’d need help. She moved to the Hellmouth in Sunnydale and Angel followed. He helped her out, at first keeping his distance, but eventually they fell in love. The Gypsies were stupid. There was a clause in the curse. If Angel were to ever experience a single moment of pure, perfect happiness, he’d lose his soul. Well, he had his moment of happiness. For the next few months Angelus terrorized the Slayer and her friends. He eventually got his hands on Acathla, a statue that, if you know what you’re doing, will open a portal to Hell. The portal starts out small, but eventually is big enough that it swallows the world, effectively sucking it into Hell. He managed to open the portal, Buffy got there moments too late. They fought and she won. Just as she was about to kill Angelus and close the portal…He got his soul back. One of her friends had performed the curse. But it was too late. The only thing that could stop Acathla was his blood. So she kissed him, told him to close his eyes, ran him through with a sword and sent him to Hell. With his soul. A few months later, he was back, though none of us have any idea how. But what had been only a few months for us, was centuries for him. He’s only lost his soul one other time and that was more because of stupidity than anything else. And before you ask; no, he’s not in any danger of losing it again. Willow finally found a way to anchor it a couple years ago.” She paused for a moment looking thoughtful, “Though, I guess it could maybe be removed by force, but it would be really hard too do. It would take some major Black magic and a lot of power; Willow’s one of, if not the, most powerful witch in the world and they’d have to be able to break her spell…I don’t even know if that’s possible. She put a lot of power into that anchoring spell, nobody wanted to chance it being broken.”
Sam and Dean blinked in shock. “Wow,” Sam finally muttered.
“Yeah,” Dean agreed. “So Angel almost sucked the world into Hell…I guess that would be a good reason for demons to want him.”
“Angelus.”
“What?” Dean asked, looking at Dawn in confusion.
“Angelus. Angelus almost sucked the world into Hell,” Dawn said firmly, “Angel and Angelus are two very different individuals. Angel is a good person, a Champion for Good. Angelus is an evil, cruel, narcissistic, sadistic bastard. Believe me; you never want to meet Angelus.”
“Right,” Dean said a bit awkwardly.
“Who’s Buffy?” Sam asked.
“What?” Dawn asked looking confused.
“Who’s Buffy?” Sam repeated. “You’ve mentioned her a couple times. Just now and you mentioned her earlier too. Something about ‘being beat up by Buffy will do that to a guy’ or something similar.”
Connor smiled. “Buffy is Dawn’s older sister,” He replied, “And a Slayer. One of the oldest. She lives in Rome right now. Her and my dad are Soul Mates.”
“Not that they’re actually doing anything about that fact,” Dawn grumbled under her breath.
Connor chuckled, “They’re both stubborn as hell and you know it.”
“Soul Mates?” Dean asked skeptically, “A vampire and a Slayer?”
Dawn nodded but it was Connor who answered, “Yeah, you gotta love the irony, right?”
“Anyway,” Dawn started, “As interesting as my sister’s lack of a love life is, we’re supposed to be trying to figure out why those demons wanted the King of Brood. Are we all in agreement that the whole sucking-the-world-into-Hell-or-bring-about-Hell-on-Earth thing is probably it?”
Sam, Dean and Connor all nodded their agreement.
“It’s as good a place as any to start,” Sam said.
“This is gonna mean research, isn’t it?” Connor asked looking at Dawn.
She nodded, “Yup, but thanks to me and Willow’s database it’ll be way easier. Well, maybe not way easier, but not as many paper cuts at least!”
Connor groaned. “Dawn, that database is huge! Can we at least get some sleep and start in the morning?” He asked.
Dawn quirked an eyebrow at Connor, fairly certain that sleep wasn’t what Connor was thinking about. She let a small smirk cross her lips, “Sure. We can start in the morning.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Sam said as he stood up and stretched.
Dean stood as well and stretched before tilting his head from side to side trying to pop his neck.
Dawn looked at Dean and her eyes went wide as he tilted his head to the side causing the collar of his shirt to shift and reveal a very prominent bite mark right where his neck turned into his shoulder; it was a deep purple and she could see the faintest hint of teeth marks. Dawn quickly cleared her throat softly, getting not only Dean’s attention, but Connor and Sam’s as well.
She smiled as the three men looked at her. “Sorry, tickle in my throat,” She said as she locked eyes with Dean and casually brought her hand up to rub at her neck, in the same spot as Dean’s bite mark.
Connor noticed Dawn making eye contact with Dean and turned to look at the other man just in time to see his hand fly up to cover the bite mark Connor had given him earlier in the office. He caught a brief glimpse of the bruise and teeth marks before Dean’s hand covered it and moved the collar of his shirt back into place and a huge self-satisfied grin crossed his face.
Dawn rolled her eyes as she saw the grin on Connor’s face. “Well, we should head to bed,” She said and watched as the others nodded.
Sam headed up the stairs, Connor a few steps behind him. Dean went to follow but found his way blocked as Dawn stepped into his path, a look he couldn’t quite place on her face.
“Not just yet,” She said, “You and I need to have a talk.”