End of the World as We Know it Part 2
I gotta be honest
This I promise
This buzz is just too good to let go
I just want you to know
It didn’t end with the new song, no matter how much Sam wish it had.
“I can’t sing this.” Dawson tugged off his headphones. “This is ridiculous.”
Sam agreed, but it was Friday and the sooner he was done with this, the sooner he was out on the road with Jess. Now was the wrong time for Dawson to throw a tantrum. So not the time.
“What’s the problem guys?” The tired of voice of Peyton Sawyer, their producer rang through the sound booth.
“These aren’t the lyrics I wrote,” Dawson complained.
They weren’t exactly worse though, Sam thought.
“We’ve already discussed this, Dawson,” Peyton said succinctly. “This is what the label wants. It’s just one song.”
“Yeah, D-man. We’ve discussed this already,” Seth smirked. “It’s not fair that you get to write all the songs. I believe this was covered in kindergarten. It’s called sharing.”
Dawson glared at him, and turned his attention back to Peyton behind the glass. “I am not doing this.”
Her hazel eyes narrowed. “Just do it.”
Seth leaned into the mike with a smile. “I would like it stated for the record that I do not have a problem with this song, and I think you‘re awesome Peyton. We should definitely have lunch.” Ryan elbowed him and Seth glanced at him in surprise. “What?”
Peyton sighed. “You know let’s just take five.”
Sam took his headphones off and glanced at his watch. Shoulders slumped in relief, there was still time. He glanced around, thought about getting a soda.
“You know I hate to say it,” Dean murmured as he came up beside his brother, “but I agree with The Head. This does kind of blow.”
“Yeah, cause all our other songs of are such high caliber,” Sam said dryly.
Dean smirked. “Shut up, bitch.”
“Jerk.” Sam couldn’t help his smile.
“You still planning to head out this weekend with Jess?”
Sam’s smile faded slightly. “Uh, yeah. Just as soon as we’re out of here.” He felt like an ass. Despite what he’d told Ryan, he still hadn’t brought himself to tell Dean his plans. He wasn’t sure how to break the news. But he’d convinced himself that it would be better to wait until after this weekend with Jess. That way he could hopefully break the bad news with some good news.
Besides it wasn’t like leaving the band was a bad idea. It wasn’t like they needed him. They’d all manage just fine. Although if Sam were honest with himself, the only person he was really worried about was Dean, which was stupid. It wasn’t like leaving the band would be any kind of betrayal. Oh yeah, the annoying voice of reason in his head told him, then why haven’t you said anything already?
“Hey, look what I’ve got.” Seth slapped a picture frame against Sam’s chest, one against Dean’s. Sam let out a soft humph of surprise, glanced down. “So I’m thinking CD cover, yeah?” Seth suggested.
Sam stared down at the simple frame. Immortalized for all time, the bee costumes.
Dean glanced at Seth in disbelief and then looked at his brother. “Can I kill him?”
“Usually the proper response to a gift is thank you.” Seth shook his head in disbelief. “Way to be grateful.”
Dean looked at Sam expectantly. “Seriously.”
Seth ignored him and stared out at the control room. “You know I better go give Dawson his before Peyton kills him.” He cast a quick glance between Sam and Dean. “Don’t worry. You guys can thank me later.”
Sam’s gaze dropped back to the photo and he contemplated burning it, every copy Seth made and possibly Seth himself. So that was why he was caught off guard by Dean’s bombshell.
“Heard from Dad. Gonna swing through town this weekend.”
And yeah, Sam was so not prepared for that.
“Well,” he said carefully, if not a bit sarcastically, “I’m going to have to miss it, unfortunately.”
“Weekend with your girl,” Dean conceded, “but maybe you can leave later. Jess can meet him.”
Like Sam would ever let that happen. “No.”
“Come on man, you’re not still hung up on-”
“Dean, I’m not going to cancel my plans because Dad feels like dropping by unexpectedly, since he’s probably working a case nearby. It’s not my problem. Besides I’m just keeping to his words. Staying gone.”
“Sometimes you can be such a stubborn little bitch,” Dean muttered. “I don’t know which one of you is worse.”
“I’m not canceling with Jess and I’m definitely not going to postpone.”
“It’s Dad. You can’t keep this up indefinitely. One of you is gonna have to give first.”
“Why?” Sam snapped. “Nothing‘s changed. I am not going back.” Then before Sam could stop himself, he latched onto the one thought in his head that he shouldn’t have voiced. “But, you can.”
The words hung there for a moment, and Sam wished that he could take them back, because God if only he could take them back, but they were out there and it didn’t matter if he apologized. He’d thought it and he’d said it. He swallowed. “Dean, I didn’t mean it like that. But come on,” he gestured around them, “this stupid band thing isn’t working out. And I know you hate it. I mean, wouldn’t you be happier back on the road with Dad, hunting full time? We both know the only reason you’re here is me.” Sam grimaced as he made room for his other foot in his mouth. “I didn’t mean that either. I‘m sor-”
Dean held up a hand, interrupting him. “Hey, how about we just stop talking before you say something else you don’t mean and I’m forced to clock you.”
Sam pressed his lips together tightly as if hoping to physically hold back his words, and nodded. Unfortunately, not tight enough though. “But…”
“Are you ready to continue with this mockery?” Dawson asked snippily after he slammed the door behind him when he came back into the room.
Sam broke his gaze from Dean, thought Dawson was talking to him, but saw Dawson was talking to Peyton, who was glaring at him through the glass.
“Forget that, I’m gonna clock him one,” Dean muttered turning toward Dawson.
“I’ll, uh, talk to Jess,” Sam found himself saying. “We can leave later. I know she’d want to meet him.” There it was, his awkward attempt at a peace offering.
Dean stopped, glanced at Sam and shrugged it off. “Forget about it, Sammy Don‘t do me any favors.”
“Alright, just one more take,” Peyton said with a smile as she settled into her seat. “Just once more and everyone can go home.”
Luckily it did just take one more, and Sam had to admit they didn’t sound half bad, well as long as they’d be able to cover some of Dawson’s flat notes. Peyton and Logan came in to congratulate them. Sam had to admit as he watched Seth try to convince her of the merits of using his photo as the CD cover (which Sam definitely had to make sure to burn later), and Dawson over his tantrum as he excitedly told Ryan about the latest Spielberg film, that he was probably going to miss this a little. He was going to miss them, which was stupid because it wasn’t like he was never going to see them again. It just wouldn’t be the same.
Logan suggested they go out to celebrate, but Sam turned him down. He didn’t want to leave Jess waiting.
“No problemo,” Logan said, “invite Blondie along.”
Sam noted the time on his watch, still early. Maybe Jess would be up for it, and this was probably his last night as an official member of the group anyway. He glanced back at the guys, Logan expectant, Dean not even looking at him, and he thought yeah, okay it might give him a chance to fix things before he left.
“We’ll meet you there.”
Jess was awesome so she agreed to go celebrate with them.
Sam didn’t even bring up the possibility of her maybe getting to meet his dad. It wasn’t something he was looking forward to, though Jess would probably love it. Sometimes she was crazy like that with wanting to know everything about him.
Sam had to give her the extremely edited version which was hard enough with Dean around. The formative years, the training, the hunting, of course, completely verboten. How Sam liked to rip off his diapers and run naked around their apartment when he was three, not so much.
But that wasn’t something he had to worry about at the moment, because Dean was at the other end of the bar, knocking them back and flirting with a bachelorette party that had apparently started an hour before they got there. Judging by how loud they were, Sam was guessing it had actually been two hours, he watched as one of the women stumbled off her barstool. He adjusted his guess to three.
“Hey, should I be jealous?” Jess asked teasingly as she slid into the seat beside him after returning from the ladies room.
A corner of his mouth turned up as he turned his head toward her. “Just checking out the bartender.”
“Funny, I don’t think you’re his type.” She grinned, swiped the bottle of beer that was in front of him and raised it to her lips. Grimaced, when she realized it was warm and set it back down.
Sam smiled apologetically. “Hey, I’m sorry. We can get out of here if you want.”
“No, it’s great. I’m having fun. Besides, I don’t want to miss the wedding.” She tipped her head toward Seth, who had stumbled over to their table, wearing the bride-to-be’s veil. He lifted a glass off the table, drained it before placing a hand on Sam’s shoulder. “Sam, buddy,” he hiccupped, “apparently there are two types of women in the world. The one you marry…”
“Oh yeah, what’s the other one?” Jess asked, arched an eyebrow with a barely concealed smirk as she leaned forward in her seat.
Seth blinked in surprise, and smiled sloppily. “Hey, Jess. When did you get here?” His eyes narrowed. “And why are there two of you?”
Sam chuckled. “Okay, I think you’ve had enough.”
Seth ignored him. “You’re a very lucky girl,” he hiccupped, “woman, Jess,” he corrected himself. “Our Sam is the glue that keeps us together, he’s the cheese to our macaroni. You know like the really cheesy kind, where the noodles all stick together.” Seth nodded, slapped a hand against Sam’s chest. “That’s Sam.”
“You know, Seth. I think you’re right.” Jess nodded with a smile and cast a sly glance at Sam “I do find him kind of cheesy at times.”
Sam shot her a look.
“Right.” Seth nodded, glanced at his empty glass. “Refill.” He latched onto Dawson as he walked by, swinging an arm over his shoulder. “Hey, Dawson. There are two hot girls over there. I think they’re sisters.” Seth squinted in that direction. “Twins?”
“So I’m cheesy, huh?” Sam asked turning back to Jess.
Jess laughed and leaned over to press a kiss against the corner of Sam’s mouth. “Don’t worry I still love ya.”
“Picture of the happy couple?”
Jess perked up, and smiled as Veronica Logan's girlfriend, snapped their picture. “Cool camera.”
Veronica glanced down at the camera in her hands. “Thanks. It was a hand-me-down from dear ol' dad.”
“Oh, so he's a professional photographer?”
For the first time Sam noticed how expensive looking the camera in Veronica's hands was. Good enough for surveillance, he thought.
“Well, he does take photographs professionally,” Veronica said with a nod. She cocked her head “Another picture?”
“No way.” Sam shook his head. “No more pictures.”
Veronica smirked. “It's not as fun for you without costumes, huh?”
“Costumes?” Jess asked curiously wondering what she was missing.
Sam could kill Seth.
Veronica nodded. “Just wait until you see the video.”
He added Logan to the list.
“Oh the music video,” Jess guessed correctly because Sam was unfortunately attracted to smart girls. “I can't wait to see it.”
He was going to have to kill himself, but not before Seth and Logan.
“So what kind of costume?” Jess asked.
He'd make sure Logan's death was excruciating.
Veronica laughed as Sam tried to evade answering. “Hey look at that our bride-to-be is kissing the bride-to-be.”
Both girls turned to look and sure enough some girl had Seth pinned to the bar with an open-mouthed kiss.
“That proper pre-wedding behavior? I bet the groom would just love to know about that,” Jess joked.
“Perhaps, or maybe her mother-in-law.” Veronica mused and snapped a picture.
Jess gave Sam a soft squeeze and said teasingly, “Well if we get married. I wouldn't have to worry about crazy-in-laws, right?”
Sam thought about his plan to have Jess meet his dad, and how that would likely turn out. “Right,” he nodded along with her. “You definitely wouldn't have to worry about that.”
“Just Dean.”
Dean still wasn't talking to him, but he'd probably get over that. Sam hadn't done enough groveling yet, but Sam still hadn't told him his plans to leave yet or his plans to marry Jess so that was probably just going to blow up in his face in just a matter of time. Sam got up. “I'm going to get another drink.”
~BB~
Sam jerked awake with a start, took a moment to get his bearings. Jess shifted beside him, and sighed sleepily. “'Nother nightmare?”
“No,” Sam lied, feeling like an ass as he felt the beginnings of a hangover. “Just thirsty.” And that wasn't a lie, his mouth felt like the Sahara. “It's okay. Go back to sleep.”
“Okay,” she murmured and he waited for her breathing to even out before he climbed out of bed.
He stumbled over to the bathroom, made sure to close the door behind him before switching on the light. He grimaced when he caught bleary eyed sight of his reflection, turned to the toilet and peed for what felt like an hour. He couldn't remember what he had to drink that night or how much, knew that wasn't a good sign. He finished up and turned on the sink, rinsed off his hands before sticking his mouth directly under the faucet. Fuck, his head was pounding. Loudly. A few minutes after he switched the water off before he realized the pounding wasn’t only in his head. It was the door.
“Dean? What the hell?” Sam had pulled open the door, surprised to find Dean
Dean surveyed his brother. “Don’t you look pretty?”
Sam’s cheek flushed, he took a surprised step back as Dean slapped something against his chest and came inside.
“Dad’s missing.”
“Huh? What?” It took Sam a minute to switch gears, figure out what Dean was talking about. “What do you mean Dad’s missing?”
“Swung by his room. He was gone. Salt down, cats eye shells…”
Sam watched his brother pace. His brow furrowed. “You’re not making any sense. How do you even know…” Dean stopped pacing, stared at him pointedly. Sam followed Dean’s gaze to his hands, and the book he was holding, the one Dean had slapped against him earlier when Dean had come inside. Sam frowned as he realized what he had in his hands. “This is Dad’s journal.” Sam turned it over to examine it carefully, but he’d seen it enough times before to recognize it for what it was just by the cover. He looked up, eyed his brother wearily. “Dean, what are you doing with Dad’s journal?”
Dean looked at him like he was retarded. “I told you. He was gone. He’d left it.”
“Dad doesn’t go anywhere without it.”
Dean gave him another Sam you’re an idiot look. “Check out the last page.”
Sam flipped to the back of the journal frowned at what he saw there. “Coordinates?”
“I think Dad wants us to go there.”
Sam’s head jerked up in surprise, and he slammed the journal shut. “Wait a minute. Us?” Sam frowned, watched as Dean walked over to his fridge.
“Got any beer?”
“This doesn’t even make any sense. I thought Dad wasn‘t going to be here until this weekend. How can he be missing?”
“Shit, all you’ve got is the chick stuff,” Dean said, ignoring him as he held up a wine cooler for closer inspection. He shrugged, and popped the top before letting the door close. “He’d been working a job two towns over. Said he could use another hand, but when I got there, he was gone. Spoke to the clerk, said he hadn‘t checked out. Room paid out through the month.”
"Keep it down. Jess is sleeping." He found himself saying automatically as he cast a quick glance to the closed bedroom door. Sam wondered if maybe he should sit down, settled for leaning against the doorframe of the kitchen as his brain played catch up, and tried to put the pieces together. "So when was the last time you heard from Dad?"
"Four days ago."
It didn't take Sam long to do the math. His eyes narrowed. "How long Dad's been working this case?"
Dean shrugged, played dumb. "You know the old man. Not much on the details."
"How long, you've been working it?" Now Dean was looking at him like he was crazy. "You told me Dad was going to swing by this weekend, makes sense if he was working a case nearby. Probably about to finish up, because he's definitely not gonna take a break to pay us a visit. Doesn't explain why he'd pay for a room a month in advance though, unless he'd been planning to stick around or he's already been here a while."
"Damn that freakishly huge brain of yours." Dean flicked the bottle cap in his hand at Sam's head. "You think too much, Sammy."
Sam was still coordinated enough to slap it away before it made contact. "So what was the case?"
"Woman in white." Dean shrugged. "And before you say anything, I didn't know anything about it until Dad called me."
"Four days ago?" Sam arched an eyebrow.
Dean rolled his eyes. "Fine. Alright maybe a little before then," Dean cut Sam's knowing smirk short, "but that doesn't matter because it doesn't change the fact that he's missing."
Sam felt the headache he’d forgotten about temporarily with Dean’s unexpected visit, begin to make itself known again. He wasn‘t sure if he could attribute the churning in his stomach strictly to the alcohol he‘d drank earlier, some of it might have been worry. He opened the journal back to the coordinates written in his Dad’s familiar scrawl.
“Lost Creek, Colorado. Well, more specifically, Blackwater Ridge.”
"I can't go with you. I can't cancel on Jess."
As if on cue, the lights switched on and Jess stood at the doorway, wiped sleep from her eyes. "What's going on?"
"Nothing." Sam handed Dean back the journal with a warning look and went to Jess's side.
"Yeah, sorry to drop by unannounced but there was an emergency."
Jess frowned. "An emergency."
"A family emergency," Dean said with a pointed glance at Sam.
"What happened?"
"It's not an emergency," Sam said quickly to assure Jess before she became worried. He sighed regretfully as he turned to Jess. "Just my Dad."
"Is there something wrong?"
So much, Sam thought. He could feel Dean's eyes on him. He wasn't going to have this conversation in front of his brother. He tipped his head toward their bedroom. "Let's talk."
Sam tried to explain to Jess how it wasn't really an emergency, that his Dad was probably just holed up with a bottle of Jose or Jack, possibly both. Hungover somewhere, sounded better than dead somewhere. Sam didn't know where that thought came from before he squashed it down, but Jess must have seen something on his face because she sighed.
"You should go. Check it out. You're obviously worried."
Sam wanted to tell her that he wasn't worried about his dad. Maybe he was worried about her finding out the extent of his family's craziness or her laughing in his face when she saw the ring he'd gotten her, but he was definitely not worried about his dad. John Winchester was fully capable of taking care of himself, even if Dean was worried. "Jess, what about this weekend?"
"It's no big deal. You go with your brother and I can just drive myself up. You can meet me there." She smiled. He was about to protest, but she didn't give him a chance. "Look, I know you don't like to talk about your Dad, but you're obviously worried and I like that you're worried." She slid her arms over his shoulders, and leaned forward to give him a quick kiss. "Because you're a good person, Sam Winchester, and that's why I love you." She grinned. "Well, that and the fact you're a smoking hot rock star."
Which is how Sam found himself on his way to Black Water Ridge, Colorado.
No sign of Dad.
He'd just finished a call with the last area hospital on his list where no one matching his dad's description had been brought in. “So that was a dead end. No one matching Dad’s description has been brought into any of the hospitals. Maybe he just doesn’t want to be found Dean.”
Dean spared him a quick glance before he returned his gaze to the road with a shrug. “He left those coordinates for a reason.”
“Speaking of,” Sam picked up the map, and eyed the area he’d marked, the exact location the coordinates pointed, “you have noticed he’s sending us to the middle of nowhere. There’s nothing there. Just woods.”
“So we check it out.”
Sam rolled his eyes, picked up his phone, checked for messages. Nothing from Jess, but one text from Ryan. GOOD LUCK.
For a second he wondered how Ryan knew about his Dad but then he realized, he was talking about this weekend with Jess. Reminded Sam, how he still hadn’t told Dean and now Sam thought maybe this would be the perfect time. Just needed to keep Dean in a good mood. He put his phone away, glanced up as they passed the sign welcoming them to Lost Creek, Colorado National Forest. “We should stop at the Ranger Station, see what we can find out about the area.” Dean gave him a suspicious look and Sam shrugged. “It wouldn’t hurt.”
part three