What happened when Benny entered the ‘Twilight’ zone. SLE4 for Septembers_coda
It had taken some time, but Sam and Dean had finally organized the Men of Letters bunker into a home for themselves and their extended family.
Castiel had his own room; one of only two rooms in the bunker not angel proofed. Granted, it was surrounded on all sides by rooms that were, but it was a compromise. When it became obvious, even to Dean, that he and Castiel’s friendship was becoming more intimate, it made sense that Cas should live with them. The compromise was the angel proofing on all rooms surrounding his room and the bunker’s lounge room.
Like everything else within the bunker, the lounge room was timeless and indisputably masculine. There were two oversized sofas and a couple of armchairs were arranged around a walnut coffee table. With a sideboard placed against the wall behind the armchairs. A full-sized reprint of Rembrandt’s “The Night Watch” hung on the wall behind one of the sofas.
The exception to its classic décor was the IKEA cabinet that stood opposite the Rembrandt and housed the flat-screen TV, PS3 game console and stereo. This had been another compromise, one reluctantly made by both Dean and Sam to keep Gabriel’s ghost happy.
That was another thing about the bunker; it liked throwing surprises at you.
Like the fact that until The Horn of Gabriel was destroyed, some form of its namesake archangel would remain upon earth. As Men of Letters legacies, Dean and Sam had come into possession of the Horn and what remained of Gabriel.
They had wanted to destroy The Horn. However, there were bigger problems to deal with at the time so, Gabriel and his Horn stayed. Besides, much as Dean hated Gabriel, for some reason still unfathomable to him, Sam didn’t. If Dean noticed that Sam wasn’t upset by the ghost-angel’s somewhat obvious innuendos, well, he just shut up.
The other permanent resident was Kevin Tran. Resourceful, though, Garth had turned out to be, both he, and the brothers knew Kevin would be safer at the bunker.
Dean and Sam had Castiel brand him with the same sigils he’d burned into their ribs, and they’d given him another anti-possession tattoo. More easily inked than the first, because Castiel had knocked Kevin out. Kevin had been understandably freaked when he’d regained consciousness and discovered they’d placed the tattoo a little too close to his underwear line for comfort. Dean thought it hilarious. Even Sam admitted that Kevin was unlikely to be dating for the foreseeable future. So, what harm was there to be had?
The reluctant Prophet, with help from Gabriel, got his own back when he sent Sam and Dean on false tablet trial. Part of which involved eating mystery meat pie and reciting the Enochian equivalent of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. Castiel had actually laughed aloud and spent the following day humming the nursery rhyme.
Sam had trapped Gabriel in a salt circle for a week and Dean had refused to eat any sort of pie for a fortnight.
So, there they were, Dean and Sam, Castiel, Gabriel’s ghost and Kevin Tran living more or less in harmony. Until about a week ago. That’s when Dean got a call from a dead man, or rather a dead vamp and Sam had some explaining to do.
***
Castiel and Gabriel sat in the lounge room and listened to muffled sounds of arguing and fighting coming from the bunker’s armory.
There was the sound of a door opening and unsteady footsteps echoed across the tiled foyer and a very disheveled, bloody and bruised Sam Winchester stumbled into the lounge room and fell, face-first, onto one of the sofas.
“What the heck’s going on?” Gabriel demanded to know.
“Twilight,” came Sam’s muffled reply.
“No, it’s mid-afternoon Sam,” Castiel corrected Sam.
Sam maneuvered himself onto the sofa properly and ran a hand over his face. Gabriel floated down beside him and soothed away the hair from his face. Sam grunted half-heartedly in protest, but didn’t push him away.
“Yeah, I know Cas. I meant the movie, ‘Twilight’.” Sam said, “Benny found out about the stupid Twilight phenomena and, well, didn’t react well to its portrayal of vampires.”
“Benny is dead Sam, you left him in Purgatory.” Cas said.
“Yeah, about that.” Sam paused for a moment, “I lied. Benny was fighting monsters when the portal opened, that part was true. He wanted to stay, that part was true too.”
Sam rolled his shoulders, sat up a little straighter and continued, “Being there, seeing what you and Dean had lived for a year. I guess I made a snap decision. Dragged Benny back up and out of Purgatory. He didn’t take to kindly at first but we sorted that out. I made it clear that he couldn’t contact Dean. Not until he’d been clean and sober a year.”
Sam slumped back against the sofa’s back and stared at the ceiling. Then he looked around the lounge room.
“Where’s Kevin?” He asked.
“I took him to Garth when you and Dean arrived. I didn’t know who, or what, it was you dragged into the armory but I didn’t think it would help him translate the tablet,” Cas said.
“Yeah, good thinking, thanks, Cas,” Sam smiled at the angel.
“Did you kill Benny?” Cas asked.
“No. Neither Dean ,nor I could do that. Not after hearing his side of the story.” Sam sighed.
“So, what happened? Gummy-bear?” Gabriel asked and moved the bowl of goodies closer to Sam.
“Gabe, stop manifesting, you know what we said about using your ghost-powers.” Sam spoke as one would to a child. Gabriel poked his tongue out, so maybe the tone was warranted.
“Fine, from what Benny told us, it went something like this.” Sam ran his hand through his hair. The two angels settled themselves and Sam began to tell them about Benny and The Twilight Saga. continued