Fic: Just What You've Always Wanted, (Sam/Dean, PG) Part 3 of 3
Back to Part Two
*****
Dean was perfectly fine with Mom and Jess being gone, right up until he figured out that they’d taken the Impala. There was a lot of screaming and carrying on that Sam tried his best to ignore.
“Dean, it was Mom’s car a long time before it was yours. Give her a little time with it, I’m sure she’ll bring the Impala back without a scratch on it.”
“She doesn’t even have a freaking driver’s license, Sam!”
“I’m pretty sure you don’t forget how to drive just because you’ve been in Heaven for a while,” Sam said.
“Shit! I wasn’t even worried about that-thanks a whole lot,” Dean stomped off to the garage.
Sam figured that if he let his brother alone for a while he’d work out some other way for them to get around until Mom and Jess came home.
****
While they attempted to get information about the British version of the Men of Letters out of her, Lady Bevell taunted the brothers about their relationship.
“No wonder your mother and girlfriend left you. There were always rumours, you know the way men like to gossip even though they will never name it as such. The scenarios they’d come up with, you two shagging all over the country. I never put much mind to it, but colour me stupid, here we are in your sex dungeon.”
“This is not…our sex dungeon. It’s just a dungeon,” Sam corrected.
“Well, not exactly true, but we’ll never share the details, right, Sammy?” Dean teased.
“Yeah, you only get that on the fifty dollar tour,” Sam said with a grin.
“You…you’re disgusting!” Toni said with a grimace of distaste.
“And you’re boring,” Dean said with a triumphant grin.
“Toni, just tell us about the group you work with. We honestly don’t know how this whole Men of Letters thing is supposed to go. Aren’t we supposed to be like a fraternal order or something?” Sam asked.
“Yeah, and if we’re in the same group why in the flying fuck are you trying to kill us?” Dean asked.
“As I mentioned earlier, I was sent here by my superiors to either capture you or kill you, depending upon the circumstances. We know about everything you’ve ever done, every ghost hunt, every god or goddess killed, every apocalypse started, etcetera. Something had to be done about you two, that’s the brass tacks.”
“That all you’re going to say?” Sam asked.
Toni nodded, looking like she wanted to cross her arms, but since they were tied to the chair she was unable to.
“You gonna make the call?” Dean asked.
“Guess so,” Sam said. “She’ll be able to get more out of her.” Sam pulled his cell phone out and walked into the hall to get some cell reception.
“Pray tell me, exactly who is it that he is calling?” Toni asked.
“Why the fuck would I tell you that?” Dean asked.
“Because I asked,” Toni said, muttering under her breath.
“Are you trying to put a spell on me or something?” Dean asked.
The muttering continued, so Dean quickly found the duct tape and slapped some over her mouth. Toni’s eyes blazed with rage which was quite satisfying in the moment.
Sam came back through the door and smiled when he saw the tape on Toni’s mouth. “She did try it, I told you she would.”
“Well goodie for you,” Dean said. “What’d Ro say?”
“She wants us to bring Toni to her. If we’re around we won’t let her ‘go there and do that’ whatever that means,” Sam said.
Toni shook her head back and forth vigorously, a brief look of fear in her eyes.
Sam stepped forward and ripped the tape off, smiling when Toni winced. “What?”
“This is meant to be frightening I’d imagine, and well it’s not. Honestly I find the whole thing just plain boring. Let me go now, and perhaps I can manage to persuade my superiors to reconsider their decision.”
“Oh no, you lost that chance a few hours ago, Toni Baloney,” Dean said, stepping forward to take the piece of tape away from Sam. He replaced it over Toni’s mouth, smoothing it down over her angry face with more force than was strictly necessary.
***
They gave Toni a shot to knock her out for the trip to Rowena’s, it seemed like it would go better that way for all of them. Sam and Dean carried her limp body between them all the way out to the garage. Sam secured her in the bed of the truck, checked all of her restraints and threw a tarp over her.
“She’s going to be out the whole way there,” Dean said.
“Let’s hope so, if she’s some kind of super spy escape artist, this could get interesting,” Sam said.
Dean grumbled the entire way there about not having his Baby to drive, how he depended on her, and how unfair it was after he’d saved the world. Sam tried to mollify him with painting the picture of how this way Toni wouldn’t be near them and they wouldn’t have to hear her. Tied up and bouncing around in the back of the old truck was so undignified it almost seemed like just punishment for being shot.
They hustled her into Rowena’s place, securing her to the metal chair Rowena had set up in the center of some sort of complicated design on the wooden floor. It was something much more involved than the Devil’s Trap they were used to seeing. Toni’s head still lolled on her shoulder.
“We found out pretty much nothing from her, and we need to know more about exactly why the British Men of Letters is after us. Anything else you can get besides they’ve been watching us and we’ve caused too many apocalypses so we must be stopped would be useful. Also if she knows anything about how to get a soul back to Heaven, that’d be good too.”
“Aye, ye didn’t get ta far then. I’ll take a crack at her and let ye know,” Rowena said with a sly grin.
They’d almost reached the bunker when Sam’s phone rang. “I’ve found that the British gents are on a clean-up tear trying to keep all the occult knowledge from spilling over onto the civilian world. They’re worried you boys are going to let the whole world in on the dirty little secrets of how things really work. That’s where their power comes from after all, knowing all that the masses do not.”
“So it isn’t anything specific then, just a random clean up that we’re getting swept into?” Sam asked.
“Nay, you two were problem number one for a while, but they were having trouble locating you. The bunker’s properties of deception as well as the Impala’s have kept ye well hidden from their view.”
“The Impala’s what the what now?” Sam asked.
Dean’s eyebrows shot up and he frowned.
“The car is en-spelled, Samuel. Did ye really not know? Och such a wee bairn.”
“Rowena, I’m not wee and I’m definitely not a bairn, I’m just not that magically aware or whatever,” Sam said.
“Fine, fine, laddie I’ll explain it in beginner’s terms then. There is a magical device in the Impala that creates a barrier around the car. It doesn’t make it truly invisible, it is more akin to a very strong suggestion to look elsewhere,” Rowena said.
“Jedi mind trick, these are not the droids you’re looking for, yeah, got it,” Sam said.
“I’m not sure what you’re referring to, but I’m glad ye understand. And about getting a soul back to Heaven, there is a whole conversation to be had there. Toni had some ideas on the subject, and I have a few as well. I’ll send you the details in an email once I gather my thoughts, shall I?”
“Sounds good to me. Hey, uh…do we need to come back and get Toni?” Sam asked.
“I will take care of her as promised, Samuel,” Rowena said.
“All I want, Rowena, is not to have to see her face again. She shot me,” Sam said.
“After what she did to ye, laddie, I’ll exact revenge on yer behalf and send her off to points we shall leave unspecified, deal?”
“Deal,” Sam said with a shrug. He was trying very hard not to care about basically sanctioning Rowena’s possible torture and killing of Toni. But she had it coming, he hated to admit to himself that it was an easy choice. And it was even easier passing off the responsibility to Rowena. But Rowena was apparently on their team now, or at least it seemed that way at the moment.
Sam’s phone rang again. He saw who it was on the display and put it on speaker so Dean could hear too.
“Where are you?” Cas asked.
“We just passed mile marker forty-six on highway thirteen northbound, why?” Sam said.
“Because I have news,” Cas said from the cramped back seat of the truck.
Dean was proud of himself for how little the truck swerved. Maybe he was finally getting used to angels appearing in the back seat of whichever vehicle he happened to be driving at the time.
“I have returned the British people back to the Men of Letters. I informed them that they were not to make an attempt on your lives again.”
“And how did they respond?” Sam asked.
“Judging by the amount of urine they let out on the floor, using more of my angelic presence than I usually do convinced them,” Cas said.
“Ew, gross,” Dean said with a laugh. “Good, I hope those dicks stay on their side of the Pond for good.”
“You ever going to tell us exactly where ‘No Where’ is, Cas?” Sam asked.
The poof of departing feathers was all the answer they got that time.
****
Mary and Jess returned after only a week away, full of tales of being on the road and marveling at the junk food that was now available. At least they returned the Impala in good condition, although Dean was going to take a while to get over that whole thing. Much more importantly though, neither of the women wanted to try the solution that Sam and Rowena had come up with to return them back up to Heaven.
While Mary and Jess were road-tripping, they had decided that since they basically had been handed a second turn around the wheel without the gamble of reincarnation it seemed silly not to try to make the most of it. They assumed that if they didn’t go too wrong, they’d end up back in Heaven eventually after dying a second time.
Once he had a chance to get to know Jess in this new context, Sam realized that Amara had been absolutely right. Jess was what he had always wanted-a sister. Back in their time together at Stanford, he’d desperately tried to put her in place of Dean, but that hadn’t worked. He’d been fooling himself about wanting to get married, trying to trick himself into believing that he’d be able to live a life without Dean. Could a person possibly be more wrong? Nope, not likely. Sam was just glad that he figured it out eventually. But he was still sorry that Jess had to die so horribly. Maybe if he’d realized all of that sooner, she could have had a regular life, instead of burning to death on their apartment ceiling.
Jess didn’t see it that way-at all. As a recently resurrected person, she had a whole different way of looking at being alive. “But, Sam, I’m getting a second chance here, that’s the whole point of this in a way, right?”
“And you’re gonna do what exactly, just go off and hunt with my mom?” Sam asked.
“Hell yeah she is,” Mary said. “We’ll trade off cases with you two, kinda split the workload up. You know you guys could use the help.”
“Well, okay then, guess we gotta get you trained up, Jess,” Dean said. “If you’re gonna be backing up my mom, you need the skills.”
“But, Dean, that’s not what we talked about,” Sam protested.
“It’s their choice, Sammy. It’s their second chance at life, and if this what they want to do, who the hell are we to stop them?” Dean asked.
Sam’s mouth opened and closed shut loudly. He briefly bitch-faced and then nodded, not looking anyone in the eye. “You’re right, I’m sorry, finally getting a chance to be the one being over-protective went to my head I guess.”
“You guessed right, and we’ll be fine out there, Sam. Your mom really knows her shit,” Jess said. “And it’s not like I can go back and see my family. How the hell would I even explain that to them, my parents are too old for a shock like that, and my brother seems fine.”
“It was a pretty traumatic way to lose you, Jess,” Sam said.
“Yeah, I was surprised Sam even survived it really. Getting better seemed impossible for a while there, it took him months and months to really get there,” Dean said.
“Aww, you missed me,” Jess said.
Sam slapped her knee and grimaced. “Of course I did, the way you died…it haunted my nightmares for years,” Sam said.
Jess frowned and then pulled Sam in for a one-armed hug. “I’m sorry, Sam. I didn’t mean it like that. I feel pretty damn lucky that I had someone like you missing me.”
Sam pulled out of the hug and stared at her for a long moment. “I’m the one who’s sorry, Jess. I didn’t warn you, I had dreams of how you died, for weeks before it happened for real. I should have tried to protect you.”
“You were protecting me, Sam, by not telling me about hunting and all that. You were keeping me naive and safe for as long as you could. And I honestly doubt I would have believed you anyway.”
“I didn’t know what the dreams were then, I’d never had anything like that happen to me, and then it happened for real, and it got even worse from there,” Sam said.
“That’s where I should say I’m sorry,” Mary said from the other side of the room.
“Because of the deal you made?” Dean asked.
“What deal?” Jess asked.
“Back before the boys were born, when I was dating their dad, a demon came to my house, it killed both of my parents, as well as John. Then it made a deal with me, it would bring John back to life if I gave it permission to come to our house in ten years. I agreed in a heartbeat, I didn’t even ask what the hell the visit would be for. I didn’t know that he’d do that to Sam or.…”
“It’s okay, Mom, I would have made the same choice in your situation,” Sam said, glancing over at Dean.
“Me too, Mom, well I kinda did my own version of that already,” Dean said.
“Man, what is it with your family?” Jess asked.
“Cursed, we’re cursed, I’ve always joked about it, but when you add it all up, seems accurate to me,” Sam said.
“We are not cursed, Samuel Winchester, we make our own luck in this life. Sometimes it turns out well, sometimes not. That’s just how it works,” Mary said.
“How it works pretty much just sucks,” Dean said.
They all agreed on that.
***
Dean got over himself pretty quickly and accepted Jess in the same way that Sam did, as a sister. He had a harder time than he admitted to anyone else accepting that Mary and Jess wanted to hunt on their own. But they didn’t ask for the boy’s permission and he understood why. Jumping in and helping Mary retrain, and beginning to train Jess went a long way towards that. He started at first because he didn’t want their new sister to get hurt. Or their resurrected mother either. But eventually he came to see it as just part of how their new family would work from then on out.
“So this is your final test we’re going to do,” Dean said, pinning a paper target to the firing range wall. He walked back towards where Jess stood behind the shooting area. “Go ahead and choose three weapons and the various kinds of ammunition you’d take on a hunt where you weren’t sure what monster you were after.”
“Is Mary doing this one too?” Jess asked.
“Don’t worry about Mary for now, she’s already passed all the re-tests I’ve thrown at her,” Dean said.
It had turned out that Mary was still a very good shot, the training her hunter father and mother had instilled in her hadn’t disappeared even though she’d been in Heaven all that time. Jess had taken to the training with all the enthusiasm of a college student learning an interesting new subject. It had been a good way for Dean to get to know her, he pretty much instantly figured out why Sam had ended up with her. She and Dean were so much alike it was almost eerie except for how funny it was, they even shared the same damn birthday. If that wasn’t some sort of cosmic sign, Dean didn’t know what would be.
Jess chose a crossbow, a Ruger pistol and a sawed-off shotgun, placing them in a row on the shelf in front of her along with several types of bullets and arrows.
“Good choices, I’m going to shout out a monster type at you, and I’m going to time how long it takes for you to choose the correct weapon and take out that monster. Okay?”
Jess nodded and wiped her hands dry on her jeans.
“Vampire!” Dean yelled, hitting the starter on the stopwatch.
Jess quickly filled the Ruger with dead man’s blood coated bullets and shot three times at the head of the figure on the target.
Dean snapped the stopwatch and noted the time she’d taken on his clipboard. “And now what next?” Dean prompted.
Jess stepped over to the weapons wall and grabbed a wickedly sharp machete. “Off with their head, if it’s still attached,” she said with a grin.
“And what are the chances there’s more in the nest?” Dean asked.
“I’m assuming there are more vamps, and I’m ready for them to move more quickly than I can see if they’re the older ones. Half-full pistol and this should be enough,” Jess brandished the machete.
“Good, that’s really good,” Dean said.
They were interrupted by a sudden burst of clapping, not the sarcastic slow type, but the enthusiastic soccer mom on the sidelines kind. Dean and Jess turned to see Sam in the doorway grinning like a fool. Mary was next to him also smiling.
“Looking good, kid,” Mary said. “My parents would have been happy and relieved to have you backing me up.”
Jess ducked her head in embarrassment. “Thanks, Mary.”
****
Mom and Jess were gone for real, this time they’d zoomed off in their own car, not the Impala. They’d chosen one of the classics from the bunker’s garage and Dean had worked on it with them both to make sure it was in good working order and they’d know how to take care of it out on the road themselves. Rowena had sent along another en-spelled bundle to protect the vehicle like the Impala had always been. Teaching them all the car maintenance stuff reminded Dean of the time he’d tried to pass on that same sort of information to Sam in the months before his demon deal was coming due. Wow, that had been a long time ago.
Sam and Dean stood in the now much emptier bunker garage, arms around each other’s waists as the engine sound of Mary and Jess’s car faded away.
“Is this how parents feel when they send their kids off to school? Sam asked.
“Yeah, it is,” Dean said.
“Out of the two of us, you would know better. I just hope they’re okay out there,” Sam said.
“They’re going to be better than okay, they’re going to kick it in the ass,” Dean said.
“When will we know we did the right thing here?” Sam asked.
“What, by not insisting they go back to Heaven?” Dean asked.
Sam shrugged, not sure what he was really asking, he’d gone back and forth on it so many times in his own mind.
“The way I look at it, seems like it’s their lives, or their after lives, whatever you want to call it. I mean, it wasn’t their choice to come back here, but it was their choice to stay,” Dean said.
“You wouldn’t say the same thing about me,” Sam said.
“That’s different,” Dean said.
“How so?” Sam said.
“I don’t…don’t feel the same way about them as I do about you-and us,” Dean said.
“How so?” Sam repeated, feeling like he had to force him to say the thing out loud for once.
“Don’t get me wrong, they’re important as hell to me, I love them both. But you-and you and me, totally different category. You’re crucial to my life even having a point to it, pretty much the only thing that matters,” Dean said.
“See, Amara was right,” Sam said.
“Amara? What’s she got to do with anything I just said?” Dean asked.
“She made sure I got just what I always wanted,” Sam said, pulling Dean into a hug that wasn’t going to end any time soon if he had a choice. Dean finally hugged him back, like he was accepting what Sam had said.
It was about time.
The End