In Which Ruby Comes Clean
“Where the hell is he?”
She could feel Bela’s eyes watching her as she paced back and forth across the room. She knew she was being melodramatic, possibly annoying, but she was worried. Really worried. And Ruby wasn’t a fun person to be around when she was worried.
“Would you take a second to breathe, please?” Bela sighed, arching an eyebrow in the other woman’s direction as she continued to work on the spirit board. “I know it’s not necessary for your survival, but I’d prefer if you didn’t wear a rut in my hardwood. It’s new.”
Ruby shot the other woman a glare, but did as she asked, coming to a stop with her hands on her hips, watching Bela as she worked. Her whole body itched to move. Sam was in trouble, which meant that she shouldn’t be standing still. Regardless of the fact that she had no idea where she should be going. Or where to even start looking. Vassago could have taken Sam anywhere, and she was stuck in New York, waiting on an answer from the spirit realm that was really tending to fail in the helpful department. Then, on top of that, Dean had told her to stay put, and while she was really tempted to tell him to shove it, she did as she was told, because she could tell from his tone that he was not happy with her.
Not that he ever was, but this was sounding slightly more pissed off than usual.
“Anything?” she frowned, moving closer to get a better look at the spirit board. Ruby may know magic like the back of her hand, but Bela was the medium. Communing with spirits had never been Ruby’s idea of a good time, so she left it to those who mentioned it as their preference.
“Not yet,” Bela replied, before looking up at her again. “And you can sit as well, you know. I hear chairs are very comfortable.”
“Can’t,” she said, shaking her head slowly, resisting the urge to start moving again. Dean’s call had been a few days ago now, and waiting for him to get here was like pulling teeth. “Too much energy.” She needed to go kill something. Preferably one of the somethings who happened to be holding Sam.
Bela just sighed heavily, before sitting up a bit to rub the back of her neck lightly. “He called from Colorado, and said he had some stops to make. Driving all this way takes time. It can’t be done overnight.”
“Have you seen the way Dean Winchester drives?” Ruby arched an eyebrow. “If he really wanted to get here, he could do it.”
Bela flashed her a look, before leaning back against the couch, closing her eyes for a moment. Ruby’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Why are you stopping?”
“I’m stopping because I’ve been staring at the spirit board for two days straight, and all the letters are starting to bleed together,” she glared back at the woman across from her. “I’m taking a break. In fact, I think I need a drink. You?”
Ruby paused, watching her for a minute, before shaking her head, her feet moving of their own accord and resuming their pacing. Bela turned and watched her as she set the wine glass down on the counter, rolling her eyes before speaking up again.
“What are you so worried about? You said it yourself they don’t want him dead-they want everyone else dead. So why all the concern unless-” Ruby could see the wheels in Bela’s head spinning already, and she stopped what she was doing, watching the other demon with a look that was more pleading than her usual sarcastic demeanor. Bela’s eyebrows went up, and slow smile slid across her face. “-You’re worried about something she may be telling him. About you.”
Ruby looked at her for a minute, before turning on her heel and walking away from her, suddenly very interested in something on one of the far bookshelves. “It doesn’t matter. We just have to get him back. Just because they won’t kill him, doesn’t mean they won’t hurt him.”
Bela snorted slightly, and as she did, there was a loud knock on the door. Both women’s head snapped up, and Bela tilted her head back for a moment to check the security cameras. “It’s Dean.”
She placed the bottle of wine down on the table, before making her way over to the door and pulling it open. Ruby stayed where she was, watching the entryway to the living room carefully. She heard the heavy footfalls of Dean pushing his way into the apartment, followed by his voice.
“Where is she?”
“She’s right in-” Dean came through the front of the entry way at that point, Colt out, aimed directly for Ruby’s chest. Ruby just stared back at him, eyes narrowing at that, while Bela looked mostly scared. “-Dean, what on Earth-”
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t blow a hole in you right now.”
Ruby met Dean’s eyes, arching an eyebrow slightly. “Because we’re on the same side, Dean. We both want to help Sam.”
“Help him. Right.” Dean cocked the safety back on the gun. “I’m not stupid, Ruby. You were tuned in to the demon hotline that whole time. Instead of telling us where Anna was right away, you waited until the job was done. You knew exactly where to go when that spell went down, didn’t you?”
“Dean, it wasn’t like that,” Ruby swallowed, holding up her hands slightly. “I didn’t know until after it was done and Amy called me.”
“Now why do I have a problem believing that.”
She closed her eyes for a moment, leaning back on her heels slightly, before shaking her head. “Just let me explain, alright?” Dean shrugged, almost like he was giving her the signal to go ahead, but the gun didn’t waver. Ruby’s eyes flickered to Bela for a moment, before Bela crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“She might be more conducive to explaining if she didn’t have a gun in her face.”
Dean looked over at her, briefly, before turning back to Ruby. “Stay out of this, Bela, or you’re next.”
At that, Bela just huffed before heading back over to the kitchen again. “Don’t get any blood on the hardwood.”
“It’s new,” Ruby added for her at the end, and Dean just snorted, before lowering the gun, but only slightly.
“Well, Ruby-explain. I’m all ears.”
Ruby paused for a minute, trying to figure out how on earth to say this to not make her look like a traitorous bitch. Which she was, in the end. But how to say it so that Dean would understand that this wasn’t her intention. That this wasn’t what she thought was going to happen. The wait only seemed to piss him off, and the gun started to get rise again.
“Talk, damnit.”
“I told Azazel I’d train Sam so that I could get out of the Pit,” she said slowly. “It was only supposed to be a few months, and then they would take over, but you in all your genius had to go and kill him, so I got stuck with Sam for thirteen years.”
Dean snorted for a minute, before raising the gun completely again. “Not making me feel any better, Ruby.”
“They didn’t tell me a lot, Dean,” Ruby said, starting to back away from him. “They didn’t tell me that they were going to kill me in the end, they didn’t tell me what they were planning, and they didn’t tell me that these powers would kill him.” Her voice was starting to get desperate. “Look, Dean, you’ve seen the way I’ve fought for your brother. Do you really think I would have fought that hard if I knew he was going to wind up dead anyway?”
“How the hell am I supposed to know,” he replied, eyes narrowing. “Maybe you wanted to wait, and kill him at the right time.”
“I swear, Dean-I didn’t know that this was the way things were going to play out.” Her back hit the bookcase and she stared back at him. “I just want to get him back. I swear.” Dean’s face wasn’t budging. In fact, she knew that look on his face, and this was Dean being judgmental. “Oh, don’t give me that look. You know what it was like down there. If you had the opportunity to get out, and all you had to do was convince the AntiChrist to go dark side, wouldn’t you take it?”
Dean swallowed, before shaking his head. “I don’t remember anything from down there.”
“Oh, that’s bullshit,” Ruby growled, moving closer to him. “You can’t wipe away those memories, no matter what kind of power you use. Besides-angels are sadistic sons of bitches. They’d want you to remember what you did down there, in order to make sure that you didn’t want to go back.”
Dean watched her for a moment, the thoughts processing through his head. His bottom lip wavered slightly, before lowering the gun completely and moving away from her. “You make like you’re going to stab him-or my boys for that matter-in the back again, and you’ll be dead before you can even raise the knife. Are we clear?”
Ruby let out a sigh of relief, before nodding. “Don’t worry-I’m done screwing with them.”
Dean walked away from her, heading towards Bela and picking up the bottle of wine she had been drinking from, making a face and then turning back to Ruby. “One more thing-so you knew the demons involved, and you didn’t see this thing with Amy coming?”
“Not at all,” Ruby admitted honestly. “I should have-Vassago is a selfish bitch, especially when it comes to her demons-but I didn’t think she’d actually manage to find her. If I had-”
Dean tilted his head to the side slightly, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “If you had, what?” Ruby just shifted uncomfortably for a moment, before looking back towards the spirit board.
“I would have taken care of it.” Dean could infer from that what he would.
He paused for a moment, before pushing away from the table and heading back toward Ruby. “So-the big plan. Let’s hear it. And I mean the one that you found out after you realized that your bosses were going to fuck you over.”
Ruby sighed softly, before running a hand through her hair. “They want to break Sam-push him over the last threshold of his abilities. They know hitting a Winchester’s family is pretty much like a bullet to the brain, so they figured they’d knock everyone Sam relies on out from under him. Namely, at this point, you and me.”
Now Dean just looked confused. “But I was dead-why did they wait so long to come after you?”
“Because Vassago is insane?” Ruby said, before shrugging her shoulders. “To hell if I know. She probably saw something in one of her damn visions. Either that, or they knew that Castiel was going to pull you out and wanted to stick it to the angels.”
Dean sighed heavily, before dropping himself back into one of Bela’s couches, running a hand over his face. Ruby could tell he was tired, and she really couldn’t blame him. A human, especially one like Dean, should never have to deal with memories from Hell. Especially the way Hell twists you around and keeps you from knowing left from right, good from bad. Hell was the kind of thing that made everything just about survival and nothing else. She could tell he hadn’t been sleeping, and apparently so could Bela. She came from the kitchen a few minutes later, a glass of wine for herself in one hand, and a glass of scotch that she placed in Dean’s hand as soon as she got close enough. He looked up at her briefly with gratitude, before taking a sip and swallowing hard.
“Have you found anything yet?”
“Nothing,” Bela shook her head. “But this isn’t surprising. From what Ruby said, these are some very high level demons. They aren’t going to be easy to find.”
“So no leads at all?”
“I’m sorry, Dean,” she said with a sigh. “Stay, get some sleep, and maybe I’ll have something in the morning.”
Ruby didn’t like this plan. Ruby had been sitting on her ass for three days now, waiting for Dean to show up and she wasn’t’ going to sit around some more while she waited for Dean and Bela to play house. Dean seemed to agree, downing the rest of his drink and starting to sit up.
“I’d love to stay, Bela, but I should start heading-” His voice trailed off, and he shook his head slightly, before looking over at Bela with wide eyes. “-you slimy bitch.” With that, he keeled over, flopping sideways on the couch, out cold.
Ruby’s eyes widened as she turned to look at Bela. “You drugged him.”
Bela just gave her a look before moving over, starting to drag Dean into a more comfortable position on the couch. “You know that he hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep in days. He could use a solid eight hours without nightmares.”
“We don’t have time for this,” Ruby glared. “We need to find Sam.”
Bela moved to the end of the couch, taking Dean’s feet in her hands and starting to pull off his shoes. “Do you even know where to begin to look? Really, Ruby-what’s the harm?”
Ruby’s jaw set slightly, before she shook her head, starting to move towards the door. “Forget it. I’m out of here.”
“Do you really think that’s going to help your case?”
Ruby stopped in the entryway, closing her eyes for a moment. She hated being bound like this, being held in place for the mistakes she’s made when all she really wanted to do was go out and kill something. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and she turned to face Bela, who was holding Dean’s phone out to her.
“Call and check in with the boys. Let them know that Dean’s alright. When you’re done-there’s a vampire nest in a warehouse in Brooklyn.”
Ruby blinked at her, before taking the phone. “You trust me to come back?”
“I trust you not to screw yourself,” Bela replied. “In the meantime, I’ll keep looking for Sam.”
Ruby just nodded slowly, before looking down at the phone and pulling up the last number dialed in the recent calls. She hated it when Bela wound up being the reasonable one in a situation.
At least when she was reasonable, she was right.
She could feel Bela’s eyes watching her as she paced back and forth across the room. She knew she was being melodramatic, possibly annoying, but she was worried. Really worried. And Ruby wasn’t a fun person to be around when she was worried.
“Would you take a second to breathe, please?” Bela sighed, arching an eyebrow in the other woman’s direction as she continued to work on the spirit board. “I know it’s not necessary for your survival, but I’d prefer if you didn’t wear a rut in my hardwood. It’s new.”
Ruby shot the other woman a glare, but did as she asked, coming to a stop with her hands on her hips, watching Bela as she worked. Her whole body itched to move. Sam was in trouble, which meant that she shouldn’t be standing still. Regardless of the fact that she had no idea where she should be going. Or where to even start looking. Vassago could have taken Sam anywhere, and she was stuck in New York, waiting on an answer from the spirit realm that was really tending to fail in the helpful department. Then, on top of that, Dean had told her to stay put, and while she was really tempted to tell him to shove it, she did as she was told, because she could tell from his tone that he was not happy with her.
Not that he ever was, but this was sounding slightly more pissed off than usual.
“Anything?” she frowned, moving closer to get a better look at the spirit board. Ruby may know magic like the back of her hand, but Bela was the medium. Communing with spirits had never been Ruby’s idea of a good time, so she left it to those who mentioned it as their preference.
“Not yet,” Bela replied, before looking up at her again. “And you can sit as well, you know. I hear chairs are very comfortable.”
“Can’t,” she said, shaking her head slowly, resisting the urge to start moving again. Dean’s call had been a few days ago now, and waiting for him to get here was like pulling teeth. “Too much energy.” She needed to go kill something. Preferably one of the somethings who happened to be holding Sam.
Bela just sighed heavily, before sitting up a bit to rub the back of her neck lightly. “He called from Colorado, and said he had some stops to make. Driving all this way takes time. It can’t be done overnight.”
“Have you seen the way Dean Winchester drives?” Ruby arched an eyebrow. “If he really wanted to get here, he could do it.”
Bela flashed her a look, before leaning back against the couch, closing her eyes for a moment. Ruby’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Why are you stopping?”
“I’m stopping because I’ve been staring at the spirit board for two days straight, and all the letters are starting to bleed together,” she glared back at the woman across from her. “I’m taking a break. In fact, I think I need a drink. You?”
Ruby paused, watching her for a minute, before shaking her head, her feet moving of their own accord and resuming their pacing. Bela turned and watched her as she set the wine glass down on the counter, rolling her eyes before speaking up again.
“What are you so worried about? You said it yourself they don’t want him dead-they want everyone else dead. So why all the concern unless-” Ruby could see the wheels in Bela’s head spinning already, and she stopped what she was doing, watching the other demon with a look that was more pleading than her usual sarcastic demeanor. Bela’s eyebrows went up, and slow smile slid across her face. “-You’re worried about something she may be telling him. About you.”
Ruby looked at her for a minute, before turning on her heel and walking away from her, suddenly very interested in something on one of the far bookshelves. “It doesn’t matter. We just have to get him back. Just because they won’t kill him, doesn’t mean they won’t hurt him.”
Bela snorted slightly, and as she did, there was a loud knock on the door. Both women’s head snapped up, and Bela tilted her head back for a moment to check the security cameras. “It’s Dean.”
She placed the bottle of wine down on the table, before making her way over to the door and pulling it open. Ruby stayed where she was, watching the entryway to the living room carefully. She heard the heavy footfalls of Dean pushing his way into the apartment, followed by his voice.
“Where is she?”
“She’s right in-” Dean came through the front of the entry way at that point, Colt out, aimed directly for Ruby’s chest. Ruby just stared back at him, eyes narrowing at that, while Bela looked mostly scared. “-Dean, what on Earth-”
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t blow a hole in you right now.”
Ruby met Dean’s eyes, arching an eyebrow slightly. “Because we’re on the same side, Dean. We both want to help Sam.”
“Help him. Right.” Dean cocked the safety back on the gun. “I’m not stupid, Ruby. You were tuned in to the demon hotline that whole time. Instead of telling us where Anna was right away, you waited until the job was done. You knew exactly where to go when that spell went down, didn’t you?”
“Dean, it wasn’t like that,” Ruby swallowed, holding up her hands slightly. “I didn’t know until after it was done and Amy called me.”
“Now why do I have a problem believing that.”
She closed her eyes for a moment, leaning back on her heels slightly, before shaking her head. “Just let me explain, alright?” Dean shrugged, almost like he was giving her the signal to go ahead, but the gun didn’t waver. Ruby’s eyes flickered to Bela for a moment, before Bela crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“She might be more conducive to explaining if she didn’t have a gun in her face.”
Dean looked over at her, briefly, before turning back to Ruby. “Stay out of this, Bela, or you’re next.”
At that, Bela just huffed before heading back over to the kitchen again. “Don’t get any blood on the hardwood.”
“It’s new,” Ruby added for her at the end, and Dean just snorted, before lowering the gun, but only slightly.
“Well, Ruby-explain. I’m all ears.”
Ruby paused for a minute, trying to figure out how on earth to say this to not make her look like a traitorous bitch. Which she was, in the end. But how to say it so that Dean would understand that this wasn’t her intention. That this wasn’t what she thought was going to happen. The wait only seemed to piss him off, and the gun started to get rise again.
“Talk, damnit.”
“I told Azazel I’d train Sam so that I could get out of the Pit,” she said slowly. “It was only supposed to be a few months, and then they would take over, but you in all your genius had to go and kill him, so I got stuck with Sam for thirteen years.”
Dean snorted for a minute, before raising the gun completely again. “Not making me feel any better, Ruby.”
“They didn’t tell me a lot, Dean,” Ruby said, starting to back away from him. “They didn’t tell me that they were going to kill me in the end, they didn’t tell me what they were planning, and they didn’t tell me that these powers would kill him.” Her voice was starting to get desperate. “Look, Dean, you’ve seen the way I’ve fought for your brother. Do you really think I would have fought that hard if I knew he was going to wind up dead anyway?”
“How the hell am I supposed to know,” he replied, eyes narrowing. “Maybe you wanted to wait, and kill him at the right time.”
“I swear, Dean-I didn’t know that this was the way things were going to play out.” Her back hit the bookcase and she stared back at him. “I just want to get him back. I swear.” Dean’s face wasn’t budging. In fact, she knew that look on his face, and this was Dean being judgmental. “Oh, don’t give me that look. You know what it was like down there. If you had the opportunity to get out, and all you had to do was convince the AntiChrist to go dark side, wouldn’t you take it?”
Dean swallowed, before shaking his head. “I don’t remember anything from down there.”
“Oh, that’s bullshit,” Ruby growled, moving closer to him. “You can’t wipe away those memories, no matter what kind of power you use. Besides-angels are sadistic sons of bitches. They’d want you to remember what you did down there, in order to make sure that you didn’t want to go back.”
Dean watched her for a moment, the thoughts processing through his head. His bottom lip wavered slightly, before lowering the gun completely and moving away from her. “You make like you’re going to stab him-or my boys for that matter-in the back again, and you’ll be dead before you can even raise the knife. Are we clear?”
Ruby let out a sigh of relief, before nodding. “Don’t worry-I’m done screwing with them.”
Dean walked away from her, heading towards Bela and picking up the bottle of wine she had been drinking from, making a face and then turning back to Ruby. “One more thing-so you knew the demons involved, and you didn’t see this thing with Amy coming?”
“Not at all,” Ruby admitted honestly. “I should have-Vassago is a selfish bitch, especially when it comes to her demons-but I didn’t think she’d actually manage to find her. If I had-”
Dean tilted his head to the side slightly, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “If you had, what?” Ruby just shifted uncomfortably for a moment, before looking back towards the spirit board.
“I would have taken care of it.” Dean could infer from that what he would.
He paused for a moment, before pushing away from the table and heading back toward Ruby. “So-the big plan. Let’s hear it. And I mean the one that you found out after you realized that your bosses were going to fuck you over.”
Ruby sighed softly, before running a hand through her hair. “They want to break Sam-push him over the last threshold of his abilities. They know hitting a Winchester’s family is pretty much like a bullet to the brain, so they figured they’d knock everyone Sam relies on out from under him. Namely, at this point, you and me.”
Now Dean just looked confused. “But I was dead-why did they wait so long to come after you?”
“Because Vassago is insane?” Ruby said, before shrugging her shoulders. “To hell if I know. She probably saw something in one of her damn visions. Either that, or they knew that Castiel was going to pull you out and wanted to stick it to the angels.”
Dean sighed heavily, before dropping himself back into one of Bela’s couches, running a hand over his face. Ruby could tell he was tired, and she really couldn’t blame him. A human, especially one like Dean, should never have to deal with memories from Hell. Especially the way Hell twists you around and keeps you from knowing left from right, good from bad. Hell was the kind of thing that made everything just about survival and nothing else. She could tell he hadn’t been sleeping, and apparently so could Bela. She came from the kitchen a few minutes later, a glass of wine for herself in one hand, and a glass of scotch that she placed in Dean’s hand as soon as she got close enough. He looked up at her briefly with gratitude, before taking a sip and swallowing hard.
“Have you found anything yet?”
“Nothing,” Bela shook her head. “But this isn’t surprising. From what Ruby said, these are some very high level demons. They aren’t going to be easy to find.”
“So no leads at all?”
“I’m sorry, Dean,” she said with a sigh. “Stay, get some sleep, and maybe I’ll have something in the morning.”
Ruby didn’t like this plan. Ruby had been sitting on her ass for three days now, waiting for Dean to show up and she wasn’t’ going to sit around some more while she waited for Dean and Bela to play house. Dean seemed to agree, downing the rest of his drink and starting to sit up.
“I’d love to stay, Bela, but I should start heading-” His voice trailed off, and he shook his head slightly, before looking over at Bela with wide eyes. “-you slimy bitch.” With that, he keeled over, flopping sideways on the couch, out cold.
Ruby’s eyes widened as she turned to look at Bela. “You drugged him.”
Bela just gave her a look before moving over, starting to drag Dean into a more comfortable position on the couch. “You know that he hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep in days. He could use a solid eight hours without nightmares.”
“We don’t have time for this,” Ruby glared. “We need to find Sam.”
Bela moved to the end of the couch, taking Dean’s feet in her hands and starting to pull off his shoes. “Do you even know where to begin to look? Really, Ruby-what’s the harm?”
Ruby’s jaw set slightly, before she shook her head, starting to move towards the door. “Forget it. I’m out of here.”
“Do you really think that’s going to help your case?”
Ruby stopped in the entryway, closing her eyes for a moment. She hated being bound like this, being held in place for the mistakes she’s made when all she really wanted to do was go out and kill something. She felt a hand on her shoulder, and she turned to face Bela, who was holding Dean’s phone out to her.
“Call and check in with the boys. Let them know that Dean’s alright. When you’re done-there’s a vampire nest in a warehouse in Brooklyn.”
Ruby blinked at her, before taking the phone. “You trust me to come back?”
“I trust you not to screw yourself,” Bela replied. “In the meantime, I’ll keep looking for Sam.”
Ruby just nodded slowly, before looking down at the phone and pulling up the last number dialed in the recent calls. She hated it when Bela wound up being the reasonable one in a situation.
At least when she was reasonable, she was right.