fic: The Mage
Title: the mage
Author: skiing_pelican
Rating: NC 17
Genre and/or Pairing: established Dean/Cas, past Sam/Gabriel
Spoilers: none, really. You are fine if you know Cas.
Warnings: hurt/comfort, implied character death, transformation, kid!fic
Summary:
Dean and Cas' daughter got captured, and when they went to rescue her, Dean was hit with a nasty spell that brings some life altering changes. As Dean adjusts to the new situation, they still need to hunt down the mage and his insane theater of supernatural.
Authors note:
This story is set in an alternate post season 5 AU, based on my fic A (new) Winchester's life. All the aspects of the verse will unfold as the story progresses, so I won't give much away here, except that Dean and Cas have lived the happy family life for about 13 years before this story. It's not necessary to know "a (new) Winchester's life" to read this. The story starts at an unusual point, but bear with me, this story will consist of much more than just angst and hurt/comfort and will have a lot of mood whiplash.
Disclaimer:
I own Joa and all other OC's that don't belong to Supernatural. Nothing more.
The lazy staccato of the heart monitor still didn't change. Castiel didn't think he could get angry like this at a sound. It was offensive, reminding him with each long pause between the double beeps how sickeningly slow Dean's heart was beating. His hand covered Dean's, and he was wracking his brain what else he could say to his comatose lover. A nurse entered, checked Dean's vital signs and offered him a sad smile before silently leaving them again. She was the one who had suggested to talk to Dean, explaining that he could hear him. But Castiel doubted it. He could not reach Dean, the magic blocking off any attempts.
Castiel felt helpless. He didn't know what to do. He had healed Dean's body completely, but Dean just didn't wake up. The doctors where perplexed, couldn't explain why Dean just didn't wake up. It looked like Dean's mind, his soul, was gone, but Castiel knew that couldn't be true. Dean's body wouldn't be able to stay alive without his soul. It was locked away, somewhere within this body.
Castiel had reached the point where he regretted everything that happend. Not that they really had a choice. They had to go to Vegas, to free Joa. He replayed everything that happened in his head, time and time again, analysing what he should have done to save both Dean and Joa. But he had been to slow, to occupied, and didn't reach Dean in time to protect him from the Mage's spell. Dean dropped down, motionless, bleeding from endless wounds. He barely registered Joa's desperate cry as he dropped down in front of Dean and cradled him in his arms. He barely registered the mage leaving with a self-satisfied laugh and a boasting poof of flame.
First Joa, now Dean. Joa was safe, but still far from all right. She was uncharacteristically silent, not surprising after being held captured as attraction in a supernatural freak show and seeing her dad in this state. The teen didn't leave his side for one moment, and she still looked slightly panicked every time she was forced to stay in a small room, even the toilet. Cas was sure that even this hospital room was much to small for comfort. But she needed to stay with her patents.
Quiet music filled the room. Joa had taken the guitar once more and picked the strings. The music soon involuntarily fell in rhythm with the slow beeping of the hear monitor. Castiel didn't think his daughter noticed it. And he really hoped that Dean could hear the familiar sound. At least, it calmed Joa herself. She hung more than sat in the deep chair on the other end of the room, one leg swung over an armrest, the guitar leaning causally against her. Castiel looked over Dean's bed and his eyes met green ones that looked so much like Dean's. Another pang of grief overwhelmed him and he had to look away from his daughter.
He felt the prickling sensation in his eyes that he had come to associate to tears. The dull grey-blue of the floor started to blur in his vision. The picking stopped and quiet footsteps came over. Joa kneeled down next to him and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his shirt. She started to weep quietly, shaking and soaking his chest as his own tears slowly trailed down his cheeks and tickled into her long, raven curls. He closed his arms around her and held her close, comforting her as much as he could. He didn't say anything. Everything had been said already, and he didn't want to lie and say everything would be okay. And he didn't want her ho hear his voice breaking.
"Pa, it's been weeks." she finally whispered, her voice hoarse from crying and breaking from pain. And she was right. Sam and Bobby were still trying to find anything to wake Dean up, but nothing had worked. But they couldn't give up. Joa needed her dad. She wouldn't be able fly to heaven and visit him like he would. But Dean didn't die. The state he was in was much more depressing, trapped in his own body, a fate much worse than that of a ghost. Here, and yet they were unable to reach him.
"It's not over yet." he said. His eyes trailed to Dean's face. The hunter looked peaceful, as if he was merely sleeping. Castiel couldn't just sit by anymore.
"I'm going to try something." he announced. Joa backed off enough to look at him with wide, surprised eyes.
"What? What do you want to try?" she asked hopeful.
"I need you to leave." he said flat out, pointedly ignoring her question. She stared at him with the same wide, round doe eyes Dean always had when he was frightened. She looked at her dad, before she looked back at him scared. He knew how much he was asking of her as much as she knew he had a reason. She knew her pa wasn't one to beat around the bush. But after all that happened, he asked much. She didn't feel safe alone, and she didn't want to leave her dad.
"Okay." she said anyway, her voice meek. She felt that he was sorry. She wasn't very powerful for an angelic creature - there was to much human in her to call her an angel - but she was a strong empath.
They both stood up, and Joa hugged him, clinging to him desperately as if her life depended on it. Cas silently patted her hair. Without another word, Joa stepped back and fanned out her wings.
"Wait." Castiel said and gripped her arm, holding her back. She turned back.
Castiel hesitated, unsure about what to say.
"I love you. You are my family." he said in enochian, hesitating again. He had to pick his words carefully, he didn't want to scare her even more.
"I will always love you." he added. He wanted to say something else, to tell her if he ever died, they would still meet again, sometime, somewhere. That she didn't need to worry or grief. But he just couldn't scare her with his thoughts. She was already wrecked over her dad's state and what she had gone through herself. What he said came close enough to the truth. She knew all those other things anyway, but nothing he could say would change that she would grief and they would be separated for a lifetime.
“I love you too, pa.” She replied, looking even more scared now. She sure picked up to much of his vibes.
"Tell Bobby and Sam to come to our home in one hour."
"Pa, what are you going to try?" Joa asked.
"Something desperate." he admitted. There was no point in denying it. "If I'm successful, Dean will be okay, but things might change. But you shouldn't be afraid."
He brushed his hand over her curls once more, comfortingly. Joa looked like she was about to burst into tears again. But she forced a week smile.
"Grandpa will call you Idjit." she murmured. Castiel returned the smile, just as weakly.
"Bye, Pa." she said, not waiting for an answer before she leaped out of the window and flew off, invisible to human eyes.
Cas went back to Dean's bed and touched two fingers to his forehead. They were both gone the same moment, the heart monitor going flat, beeping in alarm. Nurses rushed in and stopped fabbergashed in front of the abandoned bed, staring at it incredulously.