Demon's Year 06/?: Supernatural AU
Title: Demon's Year
Author:
yami_faerie
Words: ~5,000
Ratings/Warnings: Rated PG-13, or R if you're offended by the "f" word, language, some violence, spoilers for seasons 1-5.
Disclaimer: This isn't my world. I just like to imagine it is.
Summary: Dean has one year left to live before he goes to Hell. Meanwhile, he and Sam are being chased by the FBI, demons and even an escaped-from-prison Gordan Walker who wants Sam dead. Can Dean keep Sam alive before his Deal is up?
Chapter Six: A No Good, Very Bad Day
"You gotta control your anger, Sam… Don't let it control you…"
- Danielle Palmer, "Demon Game"
The ringing cell phone jerked Weyland Kubrick out of his stupor as he waited for Creedy to bring him the new credit cards he'd applied for under false names. He glanced at the ID before flipping it open. "Yello?"
"It's Boris Redford," came the reply. "I hear you've been on the lookout for the Winchesters."
"Yeah," Kubrick said, wondering if Boris wanted to join in the hunt or if this was something else. "What about it?"
"You're going to want to open your laptop and go to the Biggerson's Family Restaurant website."
Kubrick frowned, but did as told. "Biggerson's," he mumbled to himself as he looked up the website via search engine. Then he clicked on the homepage and gaped.
"That's Dean," he said. "And the girl, isn't that -?"
"Ellen Harvelle's kid, Jo," Boris supplied with his deep, old voice. "Looks like they really do support the freak Dean calls his brother."
Kubrick nodded with pursed lips. "That restaurant is only an hour away from where Creedy and I are."
The two Hunters had been to Baltimore while Gordon went with Finn to visit a step-mother-turned-widow in Michigan. Kubrick had then driven them to New York to swing by one of his PO boxes for the credit cards. Hunting a freak of nature that had been raised by one of the best Hunters to ever live didn't leave much time to restock ones funds, particularly when you managed to make the FBI's wanted list for 'murder'. Like Scott Carey hadn't deserved the wrong end of Kubrick's gun. He had done the world a damn favor by taking the freak of nature out.
"You know, there's no Sam in the picture," Kubrick said after a moment.
"Anyone who knows anything about the sons of John Winchester knows they don't stray far from each other nowadays," Boris replied. "Find Dean, and you'll get to Sam, I guarantee it."
Kubrick grinned. "Thanks for the tip, Boris," he said, "I owe ya one."
Boris chuckled. "Just let me know when the freak's dead so I can breathe easier."
"Will do," Kubrick said. "Take care, friend."
He snapped his phone shut just as Creedy stepped into his RV with a bag of mail and a six-pack of beer. "Who was that?"
"Boris," Kubrick said. "He found Dean Winchester, he's barely an hour's drive from where we are."
Creedy nodded. "And his brother?"
"No signs, but you know he's gotta be close by," Kubrick answered.
"I hear ya," Creedy said. "You drivin' this thing or am I?"
"You drive," Kubrick said, leaning back in his seat and staring at the picture of Dean and Jo once again. "We're gonna start with the Biggerson's Family Restaurant."
"Ooh," Creedy said, "I love their garlic knots."
"Just drive, old man," Kubrick chuckled.
Creedy grinned and clambered into the front seat of the RV. Less than a minute later, they were on their way to Buffalo, New York.
"You WHAT?"
Ellen caught Sam wincing and rubbing at his forehead at the outburst from Bobby as he spoke on the phone with Dean. Rolling her eyes, she strode past Sam and Ruby before taking the phone from Bobby and putting it on speaker.
"It's not like I planned on having a hot chick pickpocket me," Dean was saying hotly.
"Dean -"
"That's enough, Bobby," Ellen cut the man off. "Dean, you doin' all right?"
"That's a stupid question," Jo's irritated voice came over the speaker. "He's already spilled coffee all over his only clean pair of jeans, crashed into a server who spilled two trays of food everywhere, tripped on his own feet and scraped his knees raw, stepped in dog crap, and it hasn't even been an hour since the foot was stolen! If he loses one of his boots next, I'm so done, I swear."
"Do you think the guy who had the foot before Dean is still alive?" Ruby asked from the other side of the room. "If not, then I wouldn't give Dean another two hours before he finally kicks it."
"Shut up, Ruby," Bobby and Ellen said at the same time.
"Dude, I don't even dare drive the Impala," Dean said over the phone. "I don't want her to blow up."
Ellen closed her eyes for a moment. "We're still looking for answers," she said, placing a hand on Bobby's shoulders.
"We need that foot back," Dean replied. "Jo and I will go visit those guys, see if we can find out who hired them to steal it in the first place. Jo, you're driving. Ow!"
Sam looked up. "What happened?"
"He got stung by a wasp," Jo sighed. "Sam, maybe you should come back instead of doing research. I don't think I can handle this on my own."
Ellen watched with sympathy as Sam squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. As it turned out, being transported a thousand miles demon-style left him with a headache bordering on a migraine. "All right," he finally said. "Ruby will bring me back, then she'll return to help with the research."
"But -" Bobby started.
"She's got experience," Ellen cut him off. "She knows the older works, which means she can help us find an answer." Bobby stared at her for a moment before sighing and nodding. "Jo, go find out who hired those men. Sam will meet you there, all right?"
"All right," Jo replied.
"And keep a close eye on Dean," Ellen added. "Seriously, keep him away from all things sharp or otherwise deadly."
"I will." Ellen hung up and glanced at Bobby with a slight smile before turning to Sam and Ruby.
"Let's get some food and meds into you before we send you back, Sam," she said.
"I'm fine," Sam started to reply, but Ellen refused to hear a word of it.
"Don't think I haven't noticed your every wince, Sam Winchester," she scolded lightly, walking over to him and pulling the book in his hands away. "Goin' back out there won't help that headache, but you have to. Dean needs you to be able to focus if he's gonna make it through this."
Sam sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Yes, ma'am," he finally said. That was more like it.
Ellen turned to head into the kitchen, ignoring Ruby when she called out, "Can we have fries?"
"No one saw where they went," Creedy told Kubrick as he returned to the RV, which was parked outside the Biggerson's restaurant. "And their meal was free, so there's no credit card trail."
"I'm sure they're still somewhere around the area," Kubrick said with confidence. "We'll find them, I know it."
Creedy raised his eyebrows. "How are you so sure?"
"There's a higher power at work here," Kubrick said, turning his face skyward for a moment and smiling. "We've come this far already."
"Shouldn't we call Gordon, tell him where we are?"
Kubrick shook his head. "Not until we find Sam." He looked around. "We need a motel to stay at," he added after a moment.
"I'll go look one up on Yahoo," Creedy sighed, retreating into the RV. Sometimes his friend really seemed like a whacko, but they had come this far. Besides, Gordon would only be pleased if they found and caught the freak on their own, right?
He tried to convince himself they were doing the right thing and hoped he succeeded.
"We know someone hired you," Jo said to Grossman as he sat forlornly in his chair in the middle of the apartment. Apparently the other man who had touched the foot was already dead, speared through the neck by a grilling fork. Fan-fucking-tastic.
"You don't know nothin'," Grossman replied, voice flat.
"Dude, c'mon," Dean said, stepping forward and promptly knocking a CD player off the table next to him. He tried to grab it, only to get tangled up in its cord, so he went down, taking the player and a lamp with him in a loud crash behind the threadbare couch.
"Dean?" Jo called out worriedly.
"I'm okay!" Dean finally huffed out, one arm flinging up and latching onto the back of the couch. A moment later, Dean finally managed to upright himself before running his hands through his hair, knocking out bits of the broken lamp as he tried to look nonchalant about the whole thing.
Jo bit her lip, still caught between laughter and fear, before turning back to Grossman. "Tell me," she said. "Your partner in crime is dead, Grossman, and more are going to join the list if we don't stop it now." She leaned a little closer and softened her voice. "You're a thief, but you're not a killer, are you?"
The despondent man stared at Jo for a long moment before sighing. "She said her name was Lugosi."
Jo and Dean left quickly after that, stepping outside to see Sam leaning against the side of the Impala, rubbing at his forehead with a grimace. "Sam," Jo called out. "You okay?"
"Yeah," Sam said, giving her a strained smile.
"Dude, I just stepped on gum!" Dean cried out in dismay from behind Jo. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a calming breath.
"We got a name," she told Sam, pulling out her cell phone. "Did Ruby go back to Bobby's?"
"Yeah," Sam said, "although Bobby wasn't very pleased."
"I believe it," Jo chuckled, dialing Ellen's number and putting her phone up to her ear. She relayed the information she had gotten and received an answer from Bobby. "The woman's name is Bela Talbot," she told Sam and Dean, watching as Dean tried to scrape the gum off his boot on the edge of the sidewalk. "Bobby says she deals in the black market with magical items, and the last he heard, she was somewhere in the Middle East. He's gonna call some contacts, see if he can't find out where she is."
"It won't come off!" Dean groused, glaring down at his boot.
"Bobby also says that Ruby found a cleansing ritual that should break the curse," Jo continued blithely, ignoring Dean for the moment. "Thing is, we need the rabbit's foot back to do it."
Sam sighed and nodded. "Let's get you two to a motel," he said after a moment. "Once Bobby finds out where this Bela is, I'll go find her and retrieve the foot."
"You're gonna leave me with him?" Jo asked in dismay. "What if he gets me hurt?"
"Hey!" Dean said indignantly.
"Duct tape him to a chair, then," Sam said with the barest hint of a grin. "If he can't move, then things can't go wrong."
"We are not tying me down," Dean snapped, finally ignoring the gum on his boot, "and I'm coming with you."
"So you can really make the Impala blow up?" Sam asked with raised eyebrows. "I thought you had more respect for your baby."
Dean's mouth fell open, but he seemed to have nothing to say.
"We almost got in a car wreck already," Jo said with a scowl. "Sam, I'd still rather go with you."
"No," Sam said simply. "You're the babysitter until I get that foot back, okay? We can't let anything happen to him."
"I don't need a babysitter," Dean grumbled petulantly.
Jo just sighed and glared at Sam. "Fine," she said. "Let's go."
The sound of the front door slamming shut startled Roxy out of her silent musing. "Taryn?" she called out.
"I saw her!" Taryn burst into the room, purse still swinging from one arm and her jacket dangling off one shoulder. "I saw her, Roxy, I saw her! She's alive!"
"Who?" Roxy asked. "Who are you talking about, babe?"
"Alexia!"
Roxy froze.
"Say that again," she finally said slowly, staring in concern at her girlfriend as the redhead took in deep, heaving breaths.
"I was up in Salt Lake today to have lunch with my aunt, remember?" Taryn asked. Roxy nodded silently. "Well, we were walking back to the flower shop she works at when I heard a commotion coming from the alleyway we were passing, so I stopped to look and -" She shook her head, eyes wide and mouth split into an almost crazed-looking smile. "I saw her."
"Alexia," Roxy said to clarify, and Taryn nodded. "Your cousin."
"It was so weird," Taryn continued after a moment, dropping her purse on the bedroom floor and finally pulling her jacket back over her freckled shoulder. "She was… surrounded by all these people, like six or seven, and they all had these menacing looks on their faces, but I swear, one of them was that ballet dancer who went missing last month like, the night before her show was due to open at the Capitol Theater. And Alexia, she was dressed differently, like less pearls and cardigans and more jeans and leather jackets." She looked back at Roxy. "I think she even had a knife strapped to her leg, and her hair was actually hanging down for a change, but it was her, I know it was."
Roxy frowned and swallowed hard. "What happened next?" she asked after a few seconds.
Taryn sank onto their bed, eyes distant. "One of the others, the dancer, she was saying something to Lex, but she was shaking her head and looking all defensive, so the dancer… she lifted up one hand and Lex flew up against the alley wall, and then there was this crack and she cried out, so I yelled at them."
Taryn's eyes refocused and she gave Roxy a deeply troubled look. "I don't know if it was the lighting, but their eyes?" She swallowed. "It looked like every last one of them had black eyes."
Roxy's insides went cold. Oh, shit.
"Anyway, Alexia shouted at me to run and then she just vanished." Taryn gave Roxy a wide-eyed look. "Like, just gone. And then the others disappeared, too. Like it had never happened." Taryn swallowed hard as a worried expression crossed her face. "Roxy… am I going crazy?"
"No!" Roxy said at once. "I mean, I don't know what you saw, but your cousin… it's been a month, and she went missing clear across the Atlantic. How could she be here?"
"I don't know," Taryn all but cried out, looking distressed, "but my aunt saw it, too! I don't understand what's going on, Rox. I mean, all those people who disappeared between November and April before all showing up dead, and then Dani - and now all these other people who are just gone, Roxy. What's going on?"
"I don't know," Roxy said softly, mind whirling too fast for words. She needed to find out if there was anything peculiar about Alexia's disappearance, but there was no way the authorities would talk to her, unless… "I need to make a phone call," she said softly.
"What?" Taryn asked, face scrunching up in confusion.
"Sorry," Roxy said, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to Taryn's forehead. "Just - I have to go… do something, but I won't be long and then we can make dinner, okay?"
"Okay," Taryn said slowly, "but I don't -"
"Everything's okay," Roxy cut her off, "I promise." She kissed Taryn on the mouth this time before grabbing her cell phone, wallet and car keys. "I'll be back in less than an hour." She left quickly, unable to look her lover in the eyes as she shut the front door and let herself into her car.
Ten minutes later, she pulled into an empty church parking lot and pulled out her phone. "Here goes," she murmured to herself, flipping it open and going through her contacts before selecting the right one and putting her phone up to her ear. She bit her lip anxiously as she waited for the phone to be answered.
"Hello?" came a gruff voice at last.
"Hey, is this Bobby Singer?" Roxy asked softly.
"Yeah."
"My name's Roxy Parker, I'm Sam and Dean's friend… Can we talk?"
Ellen called when Sam pulled into the parking lot of a motel to report on the whereabouts of Bela Talbot. "Thanks," Sam said to her. "I'll call when I get the foot back." He checked Jo and Dean into a room, told Dean not to move for anything, told Jo to be careful, and then he was off. "New York City, here I come."
He used his abilities to keep any law enforcement away and made the drive in less than three hours, even getting traffic to make way for him as he made his way to Queens. Finally, he reached the address Ellen gave him just after dawn and found a place to park the Impala before quickly making his way to the fifth floor of the apartment building.
Okay, he told himself, go in, grab the rabbit's foot, get out, then back to Dean. Fast and simple.
He steeled himself and reached out with his mind to unlock the door silently.
He was in.
Jo had been in the bathroom for all of five seconds after finishing her breakfast bagel when Dean suddenly yelled, "Fire!"
Only just containing a groan, Jo ran back out into the motel room.
The little A/C unit under the window seemed to have faulty wiring, because there were flames licking their way through the grating. "Dean, don't -"
Dean ran forward, snagged a blanket and starting trying to smother the fire.
"- move." Jo didn't stop her groan as she moved forward. "Just - get away from it, Dean. I can handle it."
"I almost got it," Dean said quickly, pulling back only to find the flames rekindling. "Hang on! Crap."
A few seconds later, the fire was out and Dean breathed out a sigh of relief as he rose. "See?" he said to Jo. "No harm."
Then the sleeve of his dark blue jacket caught fire. "Shit!" Jo grabbed the blanket from Dean and threw it over his arm, but Dean stumbled, reached out to grab at the window curtain and pulled it off the rod and went down hard, knocking himself out. Jo barely restrained her scream of frustration as she followed Dean down and finally put a stop to the flames on his arm. Then she rose, cursing under her breath and looked out the window.
Two Hunters she hadn't seen in over a year stood on the other side, staring right back at her. As Jo reached for the gun at the small of her back, she couldn't help but wonder if this day could get any worse.
Bela prided herself on a lot of things. Her thievery skills, her luxurious way of living, her money, her car, and, of course, her sixth sense for trouble.
Which made it incredibly annoying to be facing off, gun to gun with a man the size of a mammoth. No one was supposed to be able to get into her flat, not with the security system. Suffice it to say, she was highly displeased.
"I need that rabbit's foot you stole from my brother," Sam said after a moment.
Bela smiled. "No," she said. "Well, if you have 1.5 million on you, then I'm willing to hand it over."
Sam stared at her, face impassive. "How did you know where to look for the foot? According to my friends, it's been locked up in my dad's storage locker for at least ten years."
Bela glanced at her ouji board. "The ghosts of the people it's killed were very attuned to its location," she answered calmly. Sam also glanced over at the shelf, gun still tightly trained on her.
"Figures," Sam muttered. "So you plan to sell it? Doesn't your buyer know what happens if they lose it?"
"Some people are very willing to pay high, lucrative prices for the things I procure," Bela answered.
"You mean steal," Sam said flatly. "You're a thief."
"No," Bela repeated. "I'm a great thief."
"That foot needs to be destroyed," Sam told her. Bela chuckled and shook her head.
"You Hunters," she whispered, "with all your amulets and talismans. You could put your children's children through college with them if you weren't so wrapped up in petty revenge and anger."
A strange look crossed Sam's face before it vanished.
"Hunters would argue that saving innocent lives is more important than money."
Bela tilted her head to one side as she stared up at Sam. "I've done my research," she told him. "You were on your way to becoming an outstanding lawyer. What was that for if not the money?"
Sam's eyes shuttered. "It was more about finding a legal way to help people," he said. "I wouldn't know what to do with 1.5 million if it hit me in the face."
"The price of growing up on the road?"
Sam snorted softly.
There was a moment of silence.
"I'm not letting my brother die," Sam finally said, and suddenly, Bela felt her muscles freeze up. She couldn't move! "You should know," Sam continued as he put away his gun, strode over to the counter and picked up the rabbit's foot, "I don't actually like making people do what I tell them, but I can't have you trying to stop me because then I'd have to kill you and I don't want to go down that path." Bela glared silently as Sam shoved the foot into his jacket pocket. "Don't follow me," he said with forceful intent, "and don't come after any of us, not about this."
Somehow Bela knew she was going to obey. "What if we run into each other in the future?" she finally asked in a tight voice, expression pinched. At least she could still talk, she thought to herself.
Sam smiled. "We'll cross that bridge if it comes to that," he said, "but for now, consider this rabbit's foot a last cause."
"I'm going to have a very angry client on my hands," Bela told him.
"Not my problem," Sam said with a shrug, walking past Bela for the door.
"Hunters talk about you, you know," she called out, still unable to move. The sound of Sam's footsteps stopped.
"I know," Sam said after a few seconds, voice quiet. "They call me a freak of nature, but I'm not evil, Bela. I'm just someone who's willing to do whatever it takes to watch out for their family." And with those words, he left. Seconds later, Bela's knees almost buckled and she staggered to her couch.
It seemed the stories were true. The Winchesters were said to value family above all else. Mess with them, and the price of revenge… Bela dropped onto her couch, her Siamese cat leaping lightly onto her legs a few moments later.
"Note to self," Bela sighed aloud. "Don't mess with the Winchesters."
At least, not so directly.
"… just wanna know where he is."
"We can stand here all day, Kubrick. I'm not telling either of you a damn thing other than we were trying to stop that Gate from being opened."
"Then who opened it?"
"What's it matter? That person is dead."
"Sam's still alive."
"It wasn't Sam, for the last time!"
Dean groaned and slowly lifted a hand to rub at the back of his aching skull. What was going on?
"Oh, it looks like Sleeping Beauty's finally gonna join us."
Cracking his eyes open, Dean took in three figures. One was definitely Jo, and she had her gun trained on the other two figures. He could only assume they were Hunters, given the conversation he had just heard.
"Don't you dare get up, Dean," Jo said in a hard voice. "I've got this."
"You're outnumbered without him, girly," said the taller of the two Hunters. "All we wanna know is what happened in Wyoming, and where Sam is. That's it."
"Not here," Dean groaned, lifting his head enough to glare at the men. "Who are you?"
"Kubrick and Creedy," Jo said shortly. "Haven't seen them in over a year."
Dean frowned. "Didn't a Kubrick shoot Scott Carey?"
"That was me," said the tall man. Dean blinked and took in his curly hair and sharp features.
"That wasn't very nice of you," Dean said. "Scott did nothing to warrant death."
"You would say that," Kubrick said, "given what your brother is."
"What my brother is," Dean snapped, "is human with psychic powers. No destiny to be in a demon army, let alone lead one."
"Leading an army?" said Creedy.
Jo groaned. "You might wanna shut up now, Dean."
Dean scowled.
"Look," Jo continued, "we've got nothing to say, and I'm getting' tired of this standoff. Get out and don't come back."
"Where's Sam?" asked Kubrick.
"Not here," Jo snarled. "Contrary to popular belief, the Winchester brothers are not glued at the hips."
Creedy glanced at Dean.
"What she said," was all he supplied.
Just then, he heard the Impala pulling into the parking lot. This can't end well, he thought, watching as Jo's tense posture turned positively statuesque.
Creedy glanced out the window. "Isn't that the car they drive?"
A moment later, Dean heard the driver's door open. There was a pause before it slammed shut, and seconds later, Sam appeared in the open doorway. Dean suddenly realized that the two intruders must have kicked in the motel room door while he was out, mostly because there were wood splinters around Sam's feet.
"What's going on?" Sam asked. "Who are you?"
"Kubrick and Creedy," Jo said. "Kubrick killed Scott Carey last year, and Creedy's his friend."
Dean watched as Sam's normally expressive face shut down. "Get out," he said lowly, "and don't come back."
He moved aside and watched the two men as they instantly obeyed. Sam didn't move until the sound of an RV started up and faded away. "Did you get it?" Jo finally asked.
Sam looked down at Dean and reached into his pocket, pulling out the rabbit's foot. "We need a cemetery," he said, "and then this'll all be over."
"Awesome," Dean said, finally pushing off the floor and stumbling to his feet. "I got some scratch cards you need to go through before we destroy that ugly piece of dead thing, though."
Sam slumped and he gave Dean a look. Jo snorted and rolled her eyes.
That night, they burned the foot in the middle of the local cemetery. The next day, Dean cashed in the scratch cards and got over forty thousand dollars.
Not a bad day in the end there, he thought cheerily as he began the drive back to Sioux Falls. Not such a bad day at all.
TBC...
Chapter Seven