Supernatural Reverse-Bang Fill- "Take Two" (5/5)
Art Prompt Title: Untitled
Art link: Art Masterlist
Prompt Number: 1016
Artist: Farfadine
Fic Title: Take Two
Author: crazybeagle
Fandom/Genre: Supernatural Humor/Angst/Hurt-comfort
Pairing(s): Gen, none (Characters: Castiel, Ruby, Dean, Sam, Bobby)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 13,750
Warnings: Language, allusions to torture and violence, psychological trauma
Summary: AU of 7.02. The Leviathans and the souls destroyed each other. But Dean, Sam, and Bobby know that things are never that simple. They know it for a fact when they find two dark-haired children, one wearing face of a former friend and one wearing the face of a former enemy, lying on the panic room floor....
Take Two
Chapter 5
An hour and a half before the appointment, the five of them, all piled into an ugly, beat-up old sedan of Bobby's, pulled up in front of a small diner that was across the street from the doctors' offices. The waitresses, a couple matronly, middle-aged women, were all smiles, apparently finding their "family" unbearably adorable. It was a sentiment that made them all rather want to gag, especially when Sam had stumbled, painfully awkwardly, over an explanation that Cas was his kid and Ruby was Dean's.
Bobby passed out a menu for Ruby and Cas, squished in a booth next to each other, to share. "Get what ya want, I guess," he said, turning to his own menu, before looking up with a slightly menacing, "-Within reason."
When one of the waitresses came by for their orders-"What'll it be, dears?"-Cas said, without hesitation, "Burger," while Ruby said at the same time, "Fries."
Penciled eyebrows shot up below frizzy bangs. "Alright…" She glanced vaguely from Dean to Sam to Bobby, trying to figure out which of them was a parent. "That alright with you folks?"
"Have 'em split a meal," Bobby said. "That'll be fine."
When their plate finally came, the two of them descended on it like sharks, much to the waitresses' amusement. And they were all pretty hungry-as much as having been raised on diner food had sucked sometimes, at least in Sam's opinion, you forgot how much you could miss it when you hadn't had it in awhile. There was a familiarity about the whole situation that calmed his nerves that were still frazzled from earlier today, and if he ignored Cas and Ruby, and pretended that he couldn't see Lucifer out of the corner of his eye at a booth popping onion rings into his mouth with relish, he was almost content. At any rate, appetites spared them all the need for conversation, which was good, because he had absolutely nothing to say to two out of the other four people at the table without the risk of his brain cracking any more than it already had.
Cas was methodically, studiously ripping his burger into chunks, while Ruby gleefully dunked her fries in too much ketchup and crammed them in her mouth. Dean had a look of near indecent pleasure on his face while he chewed on a mouthful of his own burger, while Bobby was half-lost in perusing a local newspaper in case there were any indicators that any Leviathans had escaped. During Ruby and Cas's appointment, he'd be running errands-post office, grocery store, hardware store and such-partially for the purpose of keeping an ear out for rumors of anything the papers might've missed. Sam stabbed his fork into his coleslaw, almost defiantly. For now, he was okay. This could be a good day. He was determined it would be.
Dean eventually got up to scope out dessert choices, all laid out behind a glass case at the diner counter. In an additional attempt to give this whole day the finger, he told Dean to get him one of whatever he was getting. He'd take a leaf out of Dean's book here, the philosophy that it's really damn hard to be sad while eating pie. He hoped the same went for insanity.
Everybody was so lost in their own individual reverie that, when Ruby finally spoke, Sam started. It took him a minute to realize that she was talking to him.
"Sam," she was saying. "Hey."
Sam didn't answer. He didn't answer, because he knew if he did, there was very little keeping him from a repeat of earlier today, and that there was a pretty damn good chance that whatever Ruby had to say would interest Lucifer more than his onion rings.
"Sam," she repeated, annoyed. Not looking at her, he shook his head minutely, and opted instead to stare out the window. A bright, chilly small-town day stared right back at him from without. The leaves were changing. A few people wandered back and forth in front of shop windows. It all looked so damn pleasant and normal. Ruby made a little irritated noise in her throat.
"He don't have to talk to you if he don't want," Bobby's voice rumbled. The sound grounded Sam, a balm to his shot nerves.
"Alright, fine, whatever," came Ruby's voice, muffled by a mouth full of fries. "Was just gonna call a truce, is all."
"What?" That got Sam's attention, and his eyes flicked to hers.
"Yeah. A truce," she said, licking ketchup from her finger. "Thought you people liked that sort of thing."
Cas, sitting next to her, was staring at her oddly, a piece of burger seemingly forgotten in his hand halfway to his mouth.
Bobby put his paper down. "And what the hell's that supposed to mean?"
"I mean, about earlier. As much fun as it was, me and the devil won't double-team Sam anymore." She fidgeted a bit, the contempt on five-year-old features making her look pouty and petulant.
Well, that was unexpected, to say the least.
"Why the sudden change of heart?" Bobby asked, eyebrows disappearing beneath the brim of his hat.
"Oh, believe me, there wasn't one," she said, disdainfully, rolling her eyes up at the ceiling. "It's just for the sake of my well-being. He-" she jabbed a thumb at Dean's back, who was now paying for four slices of Boston crème, as it would've looked bad if he hadn't bought an extra dessert for the "kids" to share-"has been looking at me all day like he's visualizing me as roadkill. I'm just covering my own ass here."
On the edges of his vision, Sam could see one of the waitresses watching them with an expression of shock. Apparently the way a small child was talking down to a man old enough to be her grandfather, and insinuating violence against herself, wasn't something small-town America was used to seeing.
"Yeah, well, you ain't stupid, I'll give ya that," Bobby growled.
Ruby heaved a sigh. "Anyways, yeah, I figure that if you two are constantly breathing down my neck to make sure I'm not being nasty to poor Sammy here, my many and varied privileges within the Singer household might be at stake. Just imagine. A ban on macaroni and cheese." She popped another fry in her mouth. "Mmm. God, these are fantastic, by the way."
Sam frowned. This was…weird. If he had to guess, this was either coming out of her mouth because, God forbid, she really was starting to let humanity get to her and this was some half-assed, backhanded way of spitting out an apology, or else it was because- "Who put you up to this?" he asked her.
She snorted. "Well, mostly it's just me being pre-emptive here because I don't have a death wish. But, and color me surprised, this guy. Right here." She pointed at Cas with a fry, a little smile on her face.
"What?" Sam blinked. Cas didn't say anything, but he looked up, briefly, at Sam, expression exceedingly uncomfortable. "…Oh."
Sam must've looked just as uncomfortable, because Ruby looked up at him, then at Cas, and back to him, and laughed. "Aaand let the awkwardness begin."
Sam had barely said two words to Cas since this whole ordeal began. Ninety percent of the reason for that was the fact that Sam had been…distracted, and the rest of it was because Cas had tended to disappear a lot, spending his time wandering around the salvage yard doing God-knew-what. It should've occurred to him that he'd been avoiding them, and probably for good reason, considering all of the shit that had piled up between Cas and Dean. But, more startling to him, it hadn't quite hit home with Sam himself yet until now that Cas was the reason that Lucifer currently was over there leering at him through a mouth full of onion rings. And that was not a can of worms that Sam's brain or emotions wanted to try to process right now. There'd be time for that later. But for now…he supposed it was a good sign, that Cas had told Ruby not to kick him while he was down.
But seven years old or no, Cas's eyes were still capable of doing that unsettling, x-ray scanning thing. He was watching Sam in a manner that suggested he was both deeply penitent and also anxious to gauge Sam's reaction.
"Uh…" Sam began, not really sure how he was supposed to respond to this. "Thanks, I guess?"
But a "thank you" didn't exactly sound right in this situation, they both knew. And neither did Cas's equally strained, "Of course." Bobby looked a little incredulous, and Ruby just rolled her eyes.
Sam was pretty sure that Cas could read now's-not-the-time-or-place in his expression, because he nodded a little-I know-and slipped right back into his now-usual silence when Dean came back, balancing four pie plates.
But, of course, all that implied that eventually there would be a time or a place. Which he supposed he could deal with when the time came.
"Hold hands? Are you freakin' kidding me?" Ruby was glowering up at Dean as though she'd rather die, holding her hand protectively against her chest.
"It seems to be the customary practice for parents and children at busy intersections," Cas said, watching a young mother and her toddler crossing another crosswalk about a block away from them, her hand wrapped tight around his fat little wrist.
"Shut up, Cas," she muttered.
Cas shrugged, but held his own hand up for Sam to take. The two of them walked past and began to cross the intersection.
"Look, I'm not thrilled about it either, believe me, but he's got a point," Dean said. "If you wanna use our asses to shield you from Crowley you at least gotta play along. Pretend to be normal." He scrutinized her for a second. "Well, normal-ish," he amended.
"Oh yeah, because those two are totally the picture of a healthy father-son relationship," she said, pointing at Sam and Cas, who were both holding themselves very stiffly as they walked, Sam's hand barely clasped around Cas's at all. "They look like they're both afraid the other's gonna go crazy and murder them." She paused. "Which, y'know, is valid, considering-"
"Can it," Dean cut her off, and reached for her hand. "Come on. The light's about to change."
"Fine." She smiled, and added, "Daddy."
The look on Dean's face at the word suggested that he'd just tasted or smelled something highly unpleasant. He didn't take the bait, though, because there were a few other people milling around, some crossing ahead of them. "Funny," he muttered. "Real funny. Just come on."
She raised an eyebrow at him, challenging. "Fine then." She took his hand.
"Fine." He held her hand tight, his hand completely engulfing hers, and pulled her forward.
Ruby let herself be carried along for a few steps. She held on tighter, wiggling her fingers around to get purchase inside his, before digging her nails, hard, into the most sensitive spots she could reach. She heard him hiss in pain, his fingers flexing, but he didn't let go.
"Problem?" she said lightly, looking up at him.
He gave her a murderous glare, swearing under his breath as she dug her nails even deeper into his skin. "God, you are so grounded for this…" he growled between clenched teeth.
When they finally reached the other side, Ruby let go of his hand, laughing, and practically skipped forward to catch up to where Cas was walking a few yards ahead of Sam.
There were angry, crescent-shaped nail marks in his palm and between the joints of his fingers by the time they reached the other side. One of them was bleeding.
And regardless of whether it was totally screwed up of him to find amusement in the fact that he wasn't the only one Ruby was torturing now, Sam looked like he was having a bit of a hard time keeping a straight face.
"Dead," Dean whispered so that the old lady standing not six feet from them wouldn't hear. "She is so dead." Sam's lips twitched. "And if you laugh you're dead to me too," he added viciously.
"'Kay. Sorry."
"Sure you are."
"And now we have to wait?" Ruby slumped over to a faded, salmon-pink couch that wasn't occupied by an assortment of either sick and fussy or incredibly noisy and rowdy children waiting to be seen or their bored or anxious-looking parents. "But we're here on time." She picked up an old copy of Oprah magazine, flipped through the first few pages, and tossed it aside, flopping onto the couch with a dramatic sigh. "The walls are the color of puke in here," she noted idly, pointing at the pinstriped yellow wallpaper. Cas climbed onto the couch next to her, drawing his knees and feet up so that he was sitting cross-legged, regarding the other children with wide, wary eyes.
"The doc'll be out in a few minutes," Sam said, flipping through some paperwork on a clipboard. "This is gonna take awhile, isn't it?" he muttered to Dean, who was holding a clipboard of his own, along with a folder containing all of Ruby and Cas's forged documents.
"Yup," Dean muttered back. Then, to Ruby, he added, "Normal, remember? So play nice and all that."
"Aw, dang it," she said dryly, in a voice loud enough for the entire room to hear. "And I only tagged along because I thought I was gonna get to eat some babies." Several pairs of eyes inevitably turned their way. She smiled sweetly around at them all.
Dean laughed, once, loudly, breaking the silence that had ensued after Ruby's words. "Hah, yeah, kids say the darndest things and all that, right?" But the gaze he leveled at her was livid.
Sam had cleared his throat loudly and brandished his clipboard at Dean, jerking his head towards an empty pair of chairs on the opposite side of the room. Dean complied, and left with him, but not before mouthing a You're DEAD back at her over his shoulder.
A minute stretched into five. Five stretched into ten. Ruby sunk down onto the couch, half-lying on it, her feet dangling off the front, and stared up at the tiled ceiling. Cas remained silent, apparently focused on whatever was on the TV that had attracted the attention of a small crowd of excited preschool-aged girls-something with jarringly bright colors, obnoxiously high-pitched voice acting, and painfully cheerful music. The Oprah magazine that Ruby had thrown aside was sitting open in his lap, apparently having caught his attention but forgotten for the sake of the TV.
Ruby let out a long breath. The scents of disinfectant and unwashed children hung heavy in the air. Over in one corner, two little boys-siblings, by the looks of it-were having a shrieking argument about which one of them "gets ta play Angry Birds on Mommy's iPad until the doctor comes out." Clamping her hands over her ears didn't help to block it out, either. She tried.
God, if somebody asked her which she'd preferred, this or Purgatory, she'd almost be tempted to say Purgatory.
Almost.
Two mind-numbing minutes and she couldn't take it anymore. She was even willing to strike up a conversation with Castiel-at least he'd provide her with some measure of intelligent conversation, even if every other thing he said pissed her off-to distract herself from…this.
But no, he was too distracted by that stupid pony show-that was about the extent of her knowledge, that it seemed to be about talking ponies-to pay her any heed.
She stared at the TV.
Some hick-looking pony with a straw hat, an exaggerated southern accent, and a picture of an apple on the side of its ass was talking: What in the name of all things cinnamon swirled is a full-grown dragon doing here in Equestria?
"…The hell is this?" she mumbled, not bothering to sit up anymore than was necessary to see the TV.
"The best I can figure, the ponies are attempting to subdue a sleeping dragon," Castiel said, in a voice that indicated equal parts bewilderment and intense interest.
"Why….?"
"I believe the smoke from its snoring makes it difficult for them to breathe. They wish it to move elsewhere."
"Oh."
She watched for a moment. This shit was pretty mindless-she'd give it that. She'd be on that examining table getting needles stuck in her arm by some white-coated bastard before she knew it. One of the girls sitting on the nubby brown carpet-a spunky-looking redhead in overalls- in front of the TV let out a little whoop and cheer whenever a particular pony came onscreen. A blue winged pony with a rainbow tail sprouting from its butt, and from what she could tell so far, the most badass character in the whole show. It was teasing and goading some pink and yellow cream puff looking pony about not being brave enough to face the dragon.
Ruby snorted, lifting a finger towards the screen were the rainbow-butted pony was currently scaling a magical mountain or something. "So what's this one, the gay pride pony?"
Cas's brow furrowed. "Her name is Rainbow Dash. And I could be wrong but I don't believe that her sexual orientation has any bearing on the plot."
"See, that's where you're wrong," Ruby said, propping herself up a little on her elbows. "Now if you ask me, it's all a big metaphor for gay pride. See, the rainbow one is just trying to get the useless yellow one-"
"Fluttershy," Cas supplied.
"-whatever. The rainbow one is trying to get Fluttershy to face the evil dragon of homophobia so that she can finally love and accept herself for who she truly is."
The furrow in Cas's brow deepened. "Really?"
She shrugged. "Isn't it obvious?"
"No."
"Well. Shows what you know."
Cas was silent for a long moment. Then, "I can't tell if you're purposely trying to confuse me or not."
Ruby laughed. And laughed. And laughed. Like some dam in her had finally broke, and she couldn't help it. She wasn't even sure what was so funny anymore after the first five seconds, but it bubbled up inside her nonetheless. Hell, maybe it was some kind of pent-up hysteria. Probably. Whatever. Still felt damn good.
The look Cas gave her suggested that he was somewhere between perplexed and frightened by this. From the other side of the room, Dean and Sam were looking at her like she'd sprouted another head.
Okay.
Maybe this really did trump Purgatory.
Certainly trumped Hell.
Not by much, but still.
*End*
Last minute author's notes: Guys. Check out this ART. GUH. Farfadine has been so wonderful through this entire process, going above and beyond my expectations to produce all this beautiful stuff you're seeing. This final piece above was the actual picture prompt. And also-- thank you to my friend Beth, who happens to be my source of knowledge of all things My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic!. And for all that it's thoroughly insulted in this story, it's actually quite cute.
Previous chapter here.
Art link: Art Masterlist
Prompt Number: 1016
Artist: Farfadine
Fic Title: Take Two
Author: crazybeagle
Fandom/Genre: Supernatural Humor/Angst/Hurt-comfort
Pairing(s): Gen, none (Characters: Castiel, Ruby, Dean, Sam, Bobby)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 13,750
Warnings: Language, allusions to torture and violence, psychological trauma
Summary: AU of 7.02. The Leviathans and the souls destroyed each other. But Dean, Sam, and Bobby know that things are never that simple. They know it for a fact when they find two dark-haired children, one wearing face of a former friend and one wearing the face of a former enemy, lying on the panic room floor....
Take Two
Chapter 5
An hour and a half before the appointment, the five of them, all piled into an ugly, beat-up old sedan of Bobby's, pulled up in front of a small diner that was across the street from the doctors' offices. The waitresses, a couple matronly, middle-aged women, were all smiles, apparently finding their "family" unbearably adorable. It was a sentiment that made them all rather want to gag, especially when Sam had stumbled, painfully awkwardly, over an explanation that Cas was his kid and Ruby was Dean's.
Bobby passed out a menu for Ruby and Cas, squished in a booth next to each other, to share. "Get what ya want, I guess," he said, turning to his own menu, before looking up with a slightly menacing, "-Within reason."
When one of the waitresses came by for their orders-"What'll it be, dears?"-Cas said, without hesitation, "Burger," while Ruby said at the same time, "Fries."
Penciled eyebrows shot up below frizzy bangs. "Alright…" She glanced vaguely from Dean to Sam to Bobby, trying to figure out which of them was a parent. "That alright with you folks?"
"Have 'em split a meal," Bobby said. "That'll be fine."
When their plate finally came, the two of them descended on it like sharks, much to the waitresses' amusement. And they were all pretty hungry-as much as having been raised on diner food had sucked sometimes, at least in Sam's opinion, you forgot how much you could miss it when you hadn't had it in awhile. There was a familiarity about the whole situation that calmed his nerves that were still frazzled from earlier today, and if he ignored Cas and Ruby, and pretended that he couldn't see Lucifer out of the corner of his eye at a booth popping onion rings into his mouth with relish, he was almost content. At any rate, appetites spared them all the need for conversation, which was good, because he had absolutely nothing to say to two out of the other four people at the table without the risk of his brain cracking any more than it already had.
Cas was methodically, studiously ripping his burger into chunks, while Ruby gleefully dunked her fries in too much ketchup and crammed them in her mouth. Dean had a look of near indecent pleasure on his face while he chewed on a mouthful of his own burger, while Bobby was half-lost in perusing a local newspaper in case there were any indicators that any Leviathans had escaped. During Ruby and Cas's appointment, he'd be running errands-post office, grocery store, hardware store and such-partially for the purpose of keeping an ear out for rumors of anything the papers might've missed. Sam stabbed his fork into his coleslaw, almost defiantly. For now, he was okay. This could be a good day. He was determined it would be.
Dean eventually got up to scope out dessert choices, all laid out behind a glass case at the diner counter. In an additional attempt to give this whole day the finger, he told Dean to get him one of whatever he was getting. He'd take a leaf out of Dean's book here, the philosophy that it's really damn hard to be sad while eating pie. He hoped the same went for insanity.
Everybody was so lost in their own individual reverie that, when Ruby finally spoke, Sam started. It took him a minute to realize that she was talking to him.
"Sam," she was saying. "Hey."
Sam didn't answer. He didn't answer, because he knew if he did, there was very little keeping him from a repeat of earlier today, and that there was a pretty damn good chance that whatever Ruby had to say would interest Lucifer more than his onion rings.
"Sam," she repeated, annoyed. Not looking at her, he shook his head minutely, and opted instead to stare out the window. A bright, chilly small-town day stared right back at him from without. The leaves were changing. A few people wandered back and forth in front of shop windows. It all looked so damn pleasant and normal. Ruby made a little irritated noise in her throat.
"He don't have to talk to you if he don't want," Bobby's voice rumbled. The sound grounded Sam, a balm to his shot nerves.
"Alright, fine, whatever," came Ruby's voice, muffled by a mouth full of fries. "Was just gonna call a truce, is all."
"What?" That got Sam's attention, and his eyes flicked to hers.
"Yeah. A truce," she said, licking ketchup from her finger. "Thought you people liked that sort of thing."
Cas, sitting next to her, was staring at her oddly, a piece of burger seemingly forgotten in his hand halfway to his mouth.
Bobby put his paper down. "And what the hell's that supposed to mean?"
"I mean, about earlier. As much fun as it was, me and the devil won't double-team Sam anymore." She fidgeted a bit, the contempt on five-year-old features making her look pouty and petulant.
Well, that was unexpected, to say the least.
"Why the sudden change of heart?" Bobby asked, eyebrows disappearing beneath the brim of his hat.
"Oh, believe me, there wasn't one," she said, disdainfully, rolling her eyes up at the ceiling. "It's just for the sake of my well-being. He-" she jabbed a thumb at Dean's back, who was now paying for four slices of Boston crème, as it would've looked bad if he hadn't bought an extra dessert for the "kids" to share-"has been looking at me all day like he's visualizing me as roadkill. I'm just covering my own ass here."
On the edges of his vision, Sam could see one of the waitresses watching them with an expression of shock. Apparently the way a small child was talking down to a man old enough to be her grandfather, and insinuating violence against herself, wasn't something small-town America was used to seeing.
"Yeah, well, you ain't stupid, I'll give ya that," Bobby growled.
Ruby heaved a sigh. "Anyways, yeah, I figure that if you two are constantly breathing down my neck to make sure I'm not being nasty to poor Sammy here, my many and varied privileges within the Singer household might be at stake. Just imagine. A ban on macaroni and cheese." She popped another fry in her mouth. "Mmm. God, these are fantastic, by the way."
Sam frowned. This was…weird. If he had to guess, this was either coming out of her mouth because, God forbid, she really was starting to let humanity get to her and this was some half-assed, backhanded way of spitting out an apology, or else it was because- "Who put you up to this?" he asked her.
She snorted. "Well, mostly it's just me being pre-emptive here because I don't have a death wish. But, and color me surprised, this guy. Right here." She pointed at Cas with a fry, a little smile on her face.
"What?" Sam blinked. Cas didn't say anything, but he looked up, briefly, at Sam, expression exceedingly uncomfortable. "…Oh."
Sam must've looked just as uncomfortable, because Ruby looked up at him, then at Cas, and back to him, and laughed. "Aaand let the awkwardness begin."
Sam had barely said two words to Cas since this whole ordeal began. Ninety percent of the reason for that was the fact that Sam had been…distracted, and the rest of it was because Cas had tended to disappear a lot, spending his time wandering around the salvage yard doing God-knew-what. It should've occurred to him that he'd been avoiding them, and probably for good reason, considering all of the shit that had piled up between Cas and Dean. But, more startling to him, it hadn't quite hit home with Sam himself yet until now that Cas was the reason that Lucifer currently was over there leering at him through a mouth full of onion rings. And that was not a can of worms that Sam's brain or emotions wanted to try to process right now. There'd be time for that later. But for now…he supposed it was a good sign, that Cas had told Ruby not to kick him while he was down.
But seven years old or no, Cas's eyes were still capable of doing that unsettling, x-ray scanning thing. He was watching Sam in a manner that suggested he was both deeply penitent and also anxious to gauge Sam's reaction.
"Uh…" Sam began, not really sure how he was supposed to respond to this. "Thanks, I guess?"
But a "thank you" didn't exactly sound right in this situation, they both knew. And neither did Cas's equally strained, "Of course." Bobby looked a little incredulous, and Ruby just rolled her eyes.
Sam was pretty sure that Cas could read now's-not-the-time-or-place in his expression, because he nodded a little-I know-and slipped right back into his now-usual silence when Dean came back, balancing four pie plates.
But, of course, all that implied that eventually there would be a time or a place. Which he supposed he could deal with when the time came.
"Hold hands? Are you freakin' kidding me?" Ruby was glowering up at Dean as though she'd rather die, holding her hand protectively against her chest.
"It seems to be the customary practice for parents and children at busy intersections," Cas said, watching a young mother and her toddler crossing another crosswalk about a block away from them, her hand wrapped tight around his fat little wrist.
"Shut up, Cas," she muttered.
Cas shrugged, but held his own hand up for Sam to take. The two of them walked past and began to cross the intersection.
"Look, I'm not thrilled about it either, believe me, but he's got a point," Dean said. "If you wanna use our asses to shield you from Crowley you at least gotta play along. Pretend to be normal." He scrutinized her for a second. "Well, normal-ish," he amended.
"Oh yeah, because those two are totally the picture of a healthy father-son relationship," she said, pointing at Sam and Cas, who were both holding themselves very stiffly as they walked, Sam's hand barely clasped around Cas's at all. "They look like they're both afraid the other's gonna go crazy and murder them." She paused. "Which, y'know, is valid, considering-"
"Can it," Dean cut her off, and reached for her hand. "Come on. The light's about to change."
"Fine." She smiled, and added, "Daddy."
The look on Dean's face at the word suggested that he'd just tasted or smelled something highly unpleasant. He didn't take the bait, though, because there were a few other people milling around, some crossing ahead of them. "Funny," he muttered. "Real funny. Just come on."
She raised an eyebrow at him, challenging. "Fine then." She took his hand.
"Fine." He held her hand tight, his hand completely engulfing hers, and pulled her forward.
Ruby let herself be carried along for a few steps. She held on tighter, wiggling her fingers around to get purchase inside his, before digging her nails, hard, into the most sensitive spots she could reach. She heard him hiss in pain, his fingers flexing, but he didn't let go.
"Problem?" she said lightly, looking up at him.
He gave her a murderous glare, swearing under his breath as she dug her nails even deeper into his skin. "God, you are so grounded for this…" he growled between clenched teeth.
When they finally reached the other side, Ruby let go of his hand, laughing, and practically skipped forward to catch up to where Cas was walking a few yards ahead of Sam.
There were angry, crescent-shaped nail marks in his palm and between the joints of his fingers by the time they reached the other side. One of them was bleeding.
And regardless of whether it was totally screwed up of him to find amusement in the fact that he wasn't the only one Ruby was torturing now, Sam looked like he was having a bit of a hard time keeping a straight face.
"Dead," Dean whispered so that the old lady standing not six feet from them wouldn't hear. "She is so dead." Sam's lips twitched. "And if you laugh you're dead to me too," he added viciously.
"'Kay. Sorry."
"Sure you are."
"And now we have to wait?" Ruby slumped over to a faded, salmon-pink couch that wasn't occupied by an assortment of either sick and fussy or incredibly noisy and rowdy children waiting to be seen or their bored or anxious-looking parents. "But we're here on time." She picked up an old copy of Oprah magazine, flipped through the first few pages, and tossed it aside, flopping onto the couch with a dramatic sigh. "The walls are the color of puke in here," she noted idly, pointing at the pinstriped yellow wallpaper. Cas climbed onto the couch next to her, drawing his knees and feet up so that he was sitting cross-legged, regarding the other children with wide, wary eyes.
"The doc'll be out in a few minutes," Sam said, flipping through some paperwork on a clipboard. "This is gonna take awhile, isn't it?" he muttered to Dean, who was holding a clipboard of his own, along with a folder containing all of Ruby and Cas's forged documents.
"Yup," Dean muttered back. Then, to Ruby, he added, "Normal, remember? So play nice and all that."
"Aw, dang it," she said dryly, in a voice loud enough for the entire room to hear. "And I only tagged along because I thought I was gonna get to eat some babies." Several pairs of eyes inevitably turned their way. She smiled sweetly around at them all.
Dean laughed, once, loudly, breaking the silence that had ensued after Ruby's words. "Hah, yeah, kids say the darndest things and all that, right?" But the gaze he leveled at her was livid.
Sam had cleared his throat loudly and brandished his clipboard at Dean, jerking his head towards an empty pair of chairs on the opposite side of the room. Dean complied, and left with him, but not before mouthing a You're DEAD back at her over his shoulder.
A minute stretched into five. Five stretched into ten. Ruby sunk down onto the couch, half-lying on it, her feet dangling off the front, and stared up at the tiled ceiling. Cas remained silent, apparently focused on whatever was on the TV that had attracted the attention of a small crowd of excited preschool-aged girls-something with jarringly bright colors, obnoxiously high-pitched voice acting, and painfully cheerful music. The Oprah magazine that Ruby had thrown aside was sitting open in his lap, apparently having caught his attention but forgotten for the sake of the TV.
Ruby let out a long breath. The scents of disinfectant and unwashed children hung heavy in the air. Over in one corner, two little boys-siblings, by the looks of it-were having a shrieking argument about which one of them "gets ta play Angry Birds on Mommy's iPad until the doctor comes out." Clamping her hands over her ears didn't help to block it out, either. She tried.
God, if somebody asked her which she'd preferred, this or Purgatory, she'd almost be tempted to say Purgatory.
Almost.
Two mind-numbing minutes and she couldn't take it anymore. She was even willing to strike up a conversation with Castiel-at least he'd provide her with some measure of intelligent conversation, even if every other thing he said pissed her off-to distract herself from…this.
But no, he was too distracted by that stupid pony show-that was about the extent of her knowledge, that it seemed to be about talking ponies-to pay her any heed.
She stared at the TV.
Some hick-looking pony with a straw hat, an exaggerated southern accent, and a picture of an apple on the side of its ass was talking: What in the name of all things cinnamon swirled is a full-grown dragon doing here in Equestria?
"…The hell is this?" she mumbled, not bothering to sit up anymore than was necessary to see the TV.
"The best I can figure, the ponies are attempting to subdue a sleeping dragon," Castiel said, in a voice that indicated equal parts bewilderment and intense interest.
"Why….?"
"I believe the smoke from its snoring makes it difficult for them to breathe. They wish it to move elsewhere."
"Oh."
She watched for a moment. This shit was pretty mindless-she'd give it that. She'd be on that examining table getting needles stuck in her arm by some white-coated bastard before she knew it. One of the girls sitting on the nubby brown carpet-a spunky-looking redhead in overalls- in front of the TV let out a little whoop and cheer whenever a particular pony came onscreen. A blue winged pony with a rainbow tail sprouting from its butt, and from what she could tell so far, the most badass character in the whole show. It was teasing and goading some pink and yellow cream puff looking pony about not being brave enough to face the dragon.
Ruby snorted, lifting a finger towards the screen were the rainbow-butted pony was currently scaling a magical mountain or something. "So what's this one, the gay pride pony?"
Cas's brow furrowed. "Her name is Rainbow Dash. And I could be wrong but I don't believe that her sexual orientation has any bearing on the plot."
"See, that's where you're wrong," Ruby said, propping herself up a little on her elbows. "Now if you ask me, it's all a big metaphor for gay pride. See, the rainbow one is just trying to get the useless yellow one-"
"Fluttershy," Cas supplied.
"-whatever. The rainbow one is trying to get Fluttershy to face the evil dragon of homophobia so that she can finally love and accept herself for who she truly is."
The furrow in Cas's brow deepened. "Really?"
She shrugged. "Isn't it obvious?"
"No."
"Well. Shows what you know."
Cas was silent for a long moment. Then, "I can't tell if you're purposely trying to confuse me or not."
Ruby laughed. And laughed. And laughed. Like some dam in her had finally broke, and she couldn't help it. She wasn't even sure what was so funny anymore after the first five seconds, but it bubbled up inside her nonetheless. Hell, maybe it was some kind of pent-up hysteria. Probably. Whatever. Still felt damn good.
The look Cas gave her suggested that he was somewhere between perplexed and frightened by this. From the other side of the room, Dean and Sam were looking at her like she'd sprouted another head.
Okay.
Maybe this really did trump Purgatory.
Certainly trumped Hell.
Not by much, but still.
*End*
Last minute author's notes: Guys. Check out this ART. GUH. Farfadine has been so wonderful through this entire process, going above and beyond my expectations to produce all this beautiful stuff you're seeing. This final piece above was the actual picture prompt. And also-- thank you to my friend Beth, who happens to be my source of knowledge of all things My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic!. And for all that it's thoroughly insulted in this story, it's actually quite cute.
Previous chapter here.