Fic: Won' Get Fooled Again (5b/7)
b>Title: Won't Get Fooled Again
Author(s):
safiyabat
Artist:
evian_fork
Beta: tumblr user parvasilvi
Characters & Pairing(s): Sam/Cas, brief Sam x Ruby
Rating: M
Word Count: 52,595
Warning(s): Graphic violence, sexual content, mentions of noncon, suicidal tendencies, depression
Summary: Dean is back from Hell, but it's nothing like Sam imagined.
Previous Chapter
He came back to himself in a room, with Ruby. “Hope you enjoyed the honeymoon, sweetie,” she smirked. “The only way they’d let me stay was if I was your wife. So - wife.”
He groaned and adjusted the bed so he was in a more up-sitting position. “How bad is it?”
“Flail chest, hemothorax. She had some fun with your kidneys too. You’re going to be taking a backseat for a while or until we can get you home to Anna, whichever. I called her but I told her that Dean was in town, which meant that Cas was in town. So, it will be a while.” She tossed her magazine to the side. “Might be for the best, you know? Rest you up a bit, let you eat something. I mean you don’t even have to put food in your mouth, they can just, like, give it to you intravenously.” She winced when he glared. “Or not.”
“There isn’t time, Ruby. We need to fight Lilith, not sit here and watch…” He trailed off, looking at the television. “Is that… a Disney movie?”
“Dean said it was your favorite when you were a kid.”
“You spoke to Dean.”
She looked away. “Yeah. He was, uh, waiting. At the motel, when I went back to get some of your things while you were in surgery. We fought for a while. Zille wanted to kill him but we didn’t. Told him you were hurt saving a seal, though. He wasn’t happy about that. He cried when I told him that you were in the hospital, Sam.”
He turned his head away. “Yeah. I’m sure.”
“He did. I mean, first he blamed me for everything and tried to stab me, but still. I don’t… I mean, he’s your brother. He loves you. Anyway, he also told me you’re like the worst patient ever and that you liked Beauty and the Beast. Something about being a French girl in a yellow dress.” She shrugged. “I guess yellow would be a good color on you.”
“It was the only movie he could steal when I was a little kid and got hurt on a hunt.” He sighed and gestured, and a cup of ice chips floated over to him.
A familiar figure appeared in the doorway. Ruby sprang to her feet when she heard him whisper “Castiel.” His hair was, if possible, even more disheveled than usual.
“Sam,” the angel breathed, and if Sam didn’t know better he could have almost believed again. “You’re alive.” He turned to Ruby. “May we have a moment?”
“No,” she replied simply, crossing her arms across her chest.
“I wish to speak to Sam alone,” he tried, inserting more authority into his voice.
“And I said no. We don’t trust you. I don’t trust you alone with him, not the way that you threw him under the bus with Dean. With the other angels. And I sure as Hell don’t trust you with him now. I know you’re here with Dean and that Dean has some idea about bringing him ‘back into the fold’ or some such crap. No way. He’s not being left alone with any of you.”
“I just want to talk.” He turned those massive blue eyes to Sam. “Please, Sam.”
“I’m pretty sure you’ve said everything there is to say, Cas. I mean, what else is there?” He looked away. “You built me up, you used me, and you threw me away. I should’ve known better. I mean, I was warned but well, I didn’t so that’s on me. But that doesn’t excuse what you did.”
“I never intended to hurt you, Sam,” the angel told him, drawing closer and pulling up a chair. “Everything I did, everything I said, I meant.”
“You’re full of crap, Cas. You dropped me like a hot rock as soon as we got out. I mean, you came to tell me not to let on that we even knew each other - that we’d even met - before you revealed yourself to Dean. I was your dirty little secret. I had to let Dean think that I had no part in getting him out, allow you and Uriel to wrap him around your wings so you could drive a wedge in between us -“
“The Lord works in mysterious ways, Sam.”
“No, Cas. That was a choice, and you made it.”
“You agreed to it,” the angel retorted. “And you broke that agreement when you hinted to Dean about my not always having been averse to your powers.”
“Seriously? That’s how you’re going to play this?” Sam shook his head, despite the dizziness. “Just go, Cas. I may not be able to stop loving you, but I’m not going to let you shame me into feeling bad about being honest. Not when you’re the one who made me feel that I could help Dean with my powers in the first place.” He was lying - he felt terrible about giving Dean the slightest hint about what had really happened. But he also wasn’t about to let Castiel think that he was unaffected.
He stood, although the reluctance was plain on his face. “I didn’t come here looking to fight, Sam.”
“Then why did you come?”
“I came to see with my own eyes that the man I l- that you were alive, that you would recover.” He turned for a moment. “My orders are to follow the directions of the Righteous Man, Sam. Can you try to understand that? I wish that things could be different. Maybe after - after his task is done - I will be free to pursue my own interests.”
“I hope that works out for you, Cas. I do. But I think we both know the odds of me being around to see it.” He closed his eyes and lowered the bed. “I’m tired, Cas.”
“Sam -“
“That means you need to leave, Angel.” Even though his eyes were closed Sam could hear the wicked grin in Ruby’s voice.
There was a moment of silence. Then a soft hand passed over Sam’s face and a sound of fluttering wings heralded his departure.
Ruby had either enough class or enough wisdom not to mention the tear that leaked from his eye.
As soon as Sam could be safely discharged from the hospital he let Ruby drive him back to Baltimore. They didn’t want to let him go - the police really wanted details on who had given him such a beating, and did it have anything to do with the people who had showed up at the hospital claiming to be his brother and uncle and that the woman in there with him was not his wife but a demon? There were murmurings about malnutrition and about the scars on his body and did he have anything he wanted to talk to a social worker or a mental health professional about, but they couldn’t force anything and he didn’t have time for that. He had to stop Lilith. Besides, somehow he doubted that they would find “an angel broke my heart and my brother thinks I’m evil” to be terribly believable.
So back to Baltimore it was, where Anna finished healing him up. Maybe more of a break would have been nice, but he could sleep when he was dead. They tracked down more Lilith partisans in Missouri - what was it with demons and Missouri? - and stopped another seal from breaking in Philadelphia.
When people randomly stopped dying in one town in Wyoming he groaned. Another Seal. Great. And in Wyoming, across the country. But who else was he going to send on this one? It wasn’t like he could just reach out to Bobby and say, “Hey, could you give someone else a ring, it’s kind of a hike and I don’t want to leave this sweet setup I’ve got in Baltimore.”
So the team set out for Wyoming again. He took more of them than he had the last time. If something was interfering with the natural order it probably involved some heavy power. He wasn’t positive that he was ready for it, but he had to try. So they headed out west and asked around, and Sam found that the last person to die in the town had been a twelve-year-old boy by the name of Cole.
Cole, as it turned out, was still around - as a ghost. Sam shook his head. If he hadn’t accepted his abilities, hadn’t accepted who he was, he’d have been forced to find some other way of reaching out to this kid. Spirit board, maybe. Astral projection, although that sounded stupidly risky. As it was, he was able to reliably just gesture to the kid when no living people were around and let him know that he was noticed.
Being noticed didn’t mean that the kid was friendly. “You’re with them,” he spat. “The black smoke. I saw you.” He scowled briefly, and a lawn chair went flying at Sam’s head.
Sam glared at the projectile and it sat back down on the ground. “There are different types of black smoke, Cole,” he explained. “They probably all look alike to you.”
“They are all alike,” he insisted. “When I died, and the man came to get me, the black smoke came and got him.” He glanced at Sam. “Why am I telling you this?”
“Because I’m trying to help you, Cole.”
“Can you help me come back to life?”
“No. Trust me. Nothing good comes of it.”
He snorted. “What would you know about it? All my mother does is sit there and cry. All day. All night.”
“Cole? I’ve, uh. I’ve come back. Trust me. Nothing good comes of it. It’s hard to see her like that, I know. But do you think that maybe part of the reason she’s like that is that she can’t let go? Because you haven’t let go? You’re letting her know that you’re still there, and you’re trying to comfort her, but she can’t … she can’t move on with her life. And you can’t move on to what’s next for you.” He felt a chill on his skin and extended his senses, even as the boy tried to shrink in front of him. The presence was colder than an angel yet oddly comforting, like a pair of arms waiting to offer an embrace. He turned to face it, blocking access to Cole.
The true form was vast, and dark. It had been contained inside the image of a woman, a beautiful woman with pale skin and straight dark hair. “Sam Winchester,” she greeted with a professional smile. “It’s an honor and a pleasure.”
He held out his hand. Maybe he was a little wary, but he still wasn’t about to be disrespectful of whoever this was until he knew her. He had his suspicions of course. “I’m afraid I haven’t had the pleasure.”
“My name is Tessa. I’m a reaper. Your brother and I met a few years ago after a demon crashed a tractor-trailer into your car. He won’t remember me, of course.” She smiled and took his hand. “It’s rare for anyone to be able to see me, but you’re not exactly human anymore, are you?” It wasn’t a judgment, it wasn’t a condemnation. It was a simple statement of fact.
He inhaled sharply, made himself exhale more slowly. “No. I suppose not. Were you the reaper who brought me to Hell the last time I died?”
“No. And I’m reasonably certain you didn’t go to Hell, Sam. But I’m actually here on business, so if you’ll excuse me -“
“Listen, Tessa,” he interrupted, staying between her and the boy. “I get that the natural order of this place is being dangerously thrown off. That’s why I’m here, really. But I think you’re in danger. I think something is harming, maybe killing, reapers. Cole said that something, it sounds like demons, stole his reaper and made off with it. You need to get out of town, as quickly as you can. Come back when we’ve taken care of it, okay?”
Her smile shifted, became a little condescending. “Sam, I’m not worried about your little angel-demon war. I’m not part of that. I serve Death, and Him alone. I’m outside of the whole Apocalypse thing. I’m here to do a job and I’m going to do it. You have no idea what’s going to happen if the balance isn’t restored.”
“I’m not saying not to restore it, Tessa,” he urged. “I’m just saying to get to safety until everything is fixed. I’m not even asking you to get involved. I just want you to be safe.”
That, of course, was when the sky darkened. A massive cloud of black smoke approached. Cole screamed, but the enemy wasn’t aimed at him. It was aimed at Tessa. On instinct Sam grabbed her and thrust the reaper behind him, placing himself directly between the demon and its presumed target. He reached out with his mind and identified the source: Alastair.
His heart raced and his palms sweated. This was the demon that had hurt Dean, carved him into someone else. He reached down inside himself for more power, everything he had, and pushed back. Hard.
The smoke coalesced, and a familiar face appeared. Sam felt his own curl into a snarl of hate. Alastair’s energy pushed at him. “You think you can stop this, boy?” the demon leered. “You think your ridiculous half-breed body can stop the power of Hell itself?”
Sam reached further. His muscles ached, trembled, burned, but he ignored them. “Shut up,” he ground out, and he pushed again. This time the power came from elsewhere, like a dam within him bursting, and Alastair found himself blown back into some trees several yards away. “Get out of here,” he ordered Tessa. “Go somewhere safe until this is solved.”
He felt her leave without a word. “Impressive,” Alastair had to admit, staggering to his feet. He was bleeding from his nose and his ears. Could a demon get a brain injury? “You’ve been working out, I see. Too bad you weren’t willing to take that step before I got my claws into your darling brother.”
Sam didn’t bother responding. Instead he grabbed onto Alastair’s spirit and pulled, forcing it back into the Pit. The demon fought; he’d never had an exorcism that struggled quite so much. The fiend managed to pull away, sending a wave of sulfur and flame at him that should have reduced him to ash. He let the assault wash over him. It probably should have killed him, but no one in this town was able to die these days. It at least should have hurt, but instead his body absorbed it like sunshine.
Alastair’s eyes widened and he fled, returning to his smoky form and heading north. “Cole,” Sam said, turning to face the boy. “Do you know where he went?”
The ghost flinched. “Your eyes!”
He sighed. “Yeah. It’s a… thing they do. Sometimes, when I use my abilities.” They must have gone gold again. One day they’d change permanently, if he lived that long. Oh well. There was nothing to be done about it.
“The smoke first showed up at my funeral. At the funeral parlor.” He pointed to the north. “I think they’re there.”
Sam shook his hand. “Thanks for all your help, Cole. Listen. I’m going to try to keep you and your family safe.”
“Are you an angel?”
He laughed. “Far from it, Cole. Far from it. But I’m going to try to help you. You’ll probably see the lady who was here before again, though. When you do, remember what we talked about. Okay?”
Cole nodded, and Sam started off toward the funeral home. He sent a text to Ruby on his way.
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