SPN/DA Fic: Aftershock Fifteen
Title: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen - Aftershock Fifteen - & Sixteen
Also: Minor Tremors parts One & Two
accompaniment(s) to: With a Bang
Author: Mink
Rating: SPN/DA Crossover - PG - Gen - AU in the year 2020
Spoilers: General (for all aired episodes)
Disclaimers: SPN & DA & characters are owned by their various creators.
Summary: Dean POV. After a night of unusual events, everyone in the house is on edge and Dean wants to know why. Warning: Only thing fluffy in this one is the kitten.
Dean considered it a sign of truly arriving in life when he no longer had to endure silences if he didn’t want to.
He dropped his plate loudly on the kitchen table and straddled a seat.
When he was growing up he’d learned real early on that keeping your mouth shut and staying under the radar did you a lot of favors. But spending a childhood striving to be invisible hadn’t been all fun and games. In fact, sometimes Dean wanted to start making as much noise as he could until everyone within a hundred-mile radius knew he was there.
“Hey, Alec?” Dean had to speak up to be heard over the television. “You awake?”
“No.”
There was a weird vibe in the house despite the bright and sunny morning hidden behind all the drawn curtains. Apparently at some time the night before, the window in the upstairs bathroom had been broken. More specifically, it had been shattered into pieces by Alec shoving a fist through it. The really interesting part was that the kid claimed to have had no memory whatsoever of having done the deed.
As if shit didn’t get exciting enough around here.
Gulping down some lemonade, Dean wondered at the genuine confusion on Alec’s face as the kid had tried to explain. He had heard of walking and talking in your sleep, but he’d never heard of punching in windows. Alec’s arm was pretty messed up too. Sort of. That part didn’t make much sense either. The wound that traveled from wrist to elbow was a little too straight and perfect for a round trip through plate glass. But that wasn’t all Dean had missed last night.
He looked at the back door, wide open and blowing a warm breeze in from the yard.
There was also the patch of burnt ground that Sam thought he’d hidden out of sight back in the cornrows. The scorch lines were about the right size for a cremation and just far enough from the house to make it unlikely to be noticed by anyone. And nobody would have either if Dean hadn’t been out there looking for the minuscule cat whose only discernible use so far was finding holes to get stuck in.
“How ‘bout you Sammy?” Dean asked. “You alive?”
“What?”
“Nothin’.”
Looked like no one was in the mood to do much talking.
Glancing over his shoulder to make sure everyone was still preoccupied with the TV, Dean flipped open his sandwich and covertly removed a layer of meat. He dangled it under his chair and got ready for some action. He didn’t have to wait long for the little tabby to come out of nowhere and savagely tackle the cold cut like the weakest wildebeest on edge of the herd.
Dean flung more baloney in different directions.
The fur ball was better than a dust buster. He tossed another piece upwards just to see the freak snatch it right out of mid-air. Of course the bastard wouldn’t touch the two-ton sack of dog chow Dean had lugged from a few towns over, but who would when it rained lunch meat three times a day.
“The rest is mine,” he shook the cat off his boot. “Go gank a mouse.”
Ignoring its stealthy maneuvers to follow him to his room, Dean had to admit, after he got over his fear of stepping on the thing it wasn’t that bad to have around. Sometimes it would puff up and run around like it was on fire, but besides a few over turned beer bottles there was no harm done.
He pushed the curtain back to look out at the cremation spot concealed by the waving corn stalks.
“And I’m not callin’ you Killer,” Dean let the curtain fall back into place. “So just forget about it.” The kitten clambered up the side of his bed, using grappling hook claws in the quilt to achieve the summit. It explored all the pillows before finding one flat enough to park on. “Because it’s stupid for one thing,” he explained. “And you look more like an Ozzie to me. Maybe a Zappa-”
“Dean?”
Dean quickly grabbed a basket of laundry off his floor. “Hey, Sam,” he gave a smile. “Just thought I’d do a load of whites and then I realized, hey, I don’t have any whites.“
“I need to talk to you,” Sam shut the door and locked it behind him. “You got a minute?”
Dean had predicted that his brother would eventually pony up on the truth about last night, but he was still relieved he wasn’t going have to do the asking. Sam paced back and forth a few times before he let out a deep breath and sank into a chair by the window.
“I’m worried, Dean.”
“Yeah?” he said carefully. “What about?”
“I think we should go see Bobby. Maybe let him run a few tests on Alec.”
It took a few moments before Dean understood what he’d just heard. He’d been expecting something more along the lines of an explanation for burning human remains in their backyard. Not a trip down to South Dakota. “Tests? Are you out of your freakin’ mind? I think the last thing this kid needs is any more tests.”
“He hurt himself,” Sam said. “What if he does it again? What if I can’t help him? What if-“
“You said yourself that he’s gotten better at keeping it reeled in. And hey, I’m not getting sucker punched in the brain every time he gets bummed out by a sad commercial anymore. That’s progress right?”
“I think we should bring him over to Lafayette too,” Sam clasped his hands in tight fists in his lap. “You know there’s about three wards he should be wearing.”
With a sigh, Dean took a seat on the edge of the bed. Sam had a good point about the tattoos. They should have gotten the kid inked the second they left Seattle.
“And what about all the other stuff, Dean? There are at least five rituals that we haven’t even talked about yet. And now… and now the sleep walking stuff? I’m just sayin’ that we don’t know what could happen next and we have to do everything we can to keep Alec safe-“
Sam suddenly went quiet.
They both turned their heads at the telltale creak on the floorboards just outside in the hallway. The kid was talented but he still couldn’t quite achieve weightlessness.
“We can hear you,” Dean called out. “Come on in.”
With a jolt, the formally locked door swung open with Alec jerking the doorknob in mild offense. He held his gauze wrapped arm close to his chest and eyed them both warily. “If you wanna leave me out of it you should try a little harder.”
“No one’s leavin’ you outta anything,” Dean said. “We’re just talking.”
Dean thought it would have been a perfect moment for Sam to back him up on that one but his brother kept strangely quiet. Alec took a step backwards into the hallway and looked like he was ready to take off.
“It’s all right to be mad, Alec,” Dean patted the bed and waved Alec in. “You oughta be. We should have sat down and had a talk about all this psychic crap a long time ago.”
Alec came in and took a reluctant seat next to him.
Dean waited once again for his brother to jump in to begin the awkward discussion on their fun-filled demonic heritage. All this mental mind magic was his brother’s turf and Dean was happy to let him handle it.
But Sam didn’t say a thing.
Alec held his bandaged arm closer to his chest when Sam did nothing but continue to stare out the window. Dean shook the spastic kitten off his bleeding hand and tried not to grind his teeth.
“So…” Dean cleared his throat. “So you’ve got this… uh… you’ve got a gift.”
“Oh man,” Alec groaned. “Look, forget the talk, I’ll just read the bible a couple hundred more times. Maybe some Black Sabbath lyrics would help.“
“Fine, forget the ‘gift.’ The ‘gift’ is stupid,” Dean said. “But you got… something and it’s yours. It’s not going away so you gotta make do with it the best you can.”
Alec’s posture sagged with the fear he’d been trying to keep hidden under his annoyance. “I’m trying to but… but what if I can’t? I mean, last night I-“
“Sam’s been living with this stuff for a long time and if his sorry ass can figure it out than you can too. But we also have a few friends that know a lot more about this kinda thing. So we were thinkin’ maybe, if you wanted, that this guy Bobby might be able to lend a hand.”
“A hand at what?”
“Well, for starters you need to start considering a few new upgrades,” Dean patted his chest over the tat that Alec made fun of whenever he saw it. “I know it’s not exactly kick ass but this thing is better than body armor.”
“I don’t want any lame tattoos.”
“All I’m askin’ is that you think about it,” Dean said. “That’s all.”
Alec rubbed absently at the back of his neck.
“You know you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”
“I know.”
Dean leaned down to look at Alec’s face when the kid wouldn’t meet his eyes. “What’s the problem, Alec? Talk to me.”
Alec stared down at floor. “If I did something pretty bad… what would… would I have to leave? Like live somewhere else or something?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I think it was my fault.”
Dean felt an uncomfortable sensation growing in the pit of his stomach. “W-What was?”
“The window, my arm, everything!” Alec said miserably. “I don’t think I was sleep walking.”
Sam suddenly sat forward and gripped Alec’s knee hard. Dean was glad his brother finally decided to join the party but he didn’t like the look on Sam’s face. He looked as scared as Alec was.
“Why would you say something like that?” Sam asked. “It-It was just an accident.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Alec looked back and forth between them, his eyes glittering wet in frustration. “I-I was hanging around that funeral after you told me not to and I… I haven’t been taking all the tryptophan I’m supposed to take either. It messes up my dreams pretty bad. I think that’s why I broke that window and I think it’s why I… I think it’s why I did something else.”
“Something else?” Sam was pale. “You didn’t do anything else. You just broke a window that’s all.”
“In my room,” Alec dragged an arm across his eyes. “I found a box of razor blades. My pillow was all cut up. My sheets. My mattress. Why would I do that?”
“Okay, okay,” Dean squeezed Alec’s shoulder and realized the kid was shaking. “Just take it easy.”
“I swear I don’t remember taking them but I must have right? What if I tried to hurt somebody and Sam hadn’t heard me break the window? I haven’t been taking the pills and its all my fault-“
“Alec,” Sam moved to the bed on the other side of him. “From now on just- just try to stay on the tryptophan okay? It’s really important.”
“Yes, sir.” Alec mumbled.
Dean didn't try to stop him when he got up and left the room.
He thought Sam would start talking again as soon as Alec’s footsteps faded off the back porch. When the car engine started and the tires trailed away on the gravel Dean was still patiently waiting Sam to finally open his mouth and spill already.
His patience ran out.
“So you gonna tell me what the hell is going on around here?”
“Alec is still learning,” Sam sounded as tired as he looked. “It’s going to take some time before he knows his limits and… and restrictions.”
“That’s not what I mean,” Dean said. “I mean last night. There’s a whole lot of somethin’ you aren’t sharing.”
“I told you, I woke up when I heard the window break. When I got to the bathroom I found Alec bleeding-“
“Yeah, I heard that story already. But I’m more interested in the fire.”
Sam’s distracted gaze hardened into something else.
“Doing some cremations right here at home these days?” Dean asked. “I hope you let the family know to look for the extra service charge on the funeral bill.”
“Dean-“
“Why’d you burn that lady? What are you so scared of?”
Sam slowly stood up.
“It’s gonna be like this huh?” Dean stood up too. “You can’t even create decent bullshit to shut me up?”
“I tried,” Sam sighed. “But you never believe anything I make up.”
“Years of practice.”
“Dean, I’m sorry.”
“Huh?”
Dean realized Sam had backed him up into the corner of the room furthest from the door. He was about to ask what Sam was so tragically sorry about when his back bumped into the wall. At the exact same moment his brother’s hands lightly touched his face. Dean gasped when a flash of light blinded him momentarily and his knees went out from under him. But he didn’t hit the floor.
“I got you, Dean,” Sam was laying him down on the bed. “You have to trust me, okay?”
Dean tried to answer but he was having trouble moving his mouth.
“You’ll wake up later and remember we all had a talk about going to see Bobby,” Sam pressed his hand gently against Dean’s forehead. “You’ll remember that Alec cut himself sleep walking and that we all agreed he has to start taking his pills more regularly.”
“S-Sam?”
“You’ll remember we had a fight about the tattoos but we settled on letting Alec decide for himself. You won’t remember you found a cremation. You won’t remember asking me about the ashes. You won’t remember anything about that at all.”
Dean couldn’t keep his eyes open.
“What-what did you do, Sammy?”
“I messed up, Dean,” Sam’s voice shook. “But I’m gonna fix it.”
go to part 16
Also: Minor Tremors parts One & Two
accompaniment(s) to: With a Bang
Author: Mink
Rating: SPN/DA Crossover - PG - Gen - AU in the year 2020
Spoilers: General (for all aired episodes)
Disclaimers: SPN & DA & characters are owned by their various creators.
Summary: Dean POV. After a night of unusual events, everyone in the house is on edge and Dean wants to know why. Warning: Only thing fluffy in this one is the kitten.
Dean considered it a sign of truly arriving in life when he no longer had to endure silences if he didn’t want to.
He dropped his plate loudly on the kitchen table and straddled a seat.
When he was growing up he’d learned real early on that keeping your mouth shut and staying under the radar did you a lot of favors. But spending a childhood striving to be invisible hadn’t been all fun and games. In fact, sometimes Dean wanted to start making as much noise as he could until everyone within a hundred-mile radius knew he was there.
“Hey, Alec?” Dean had to speak up to be heard over the television. “You awake?”
“No.”
There was a weird vibe in the house despite the bright and sunny morning hidden behind all the drawn curtains. Apparently at some time the night before, the window in the upstairs bathroom had been broken. More specifically, it had been shattered into pieces by Alec shoving a fist through it. The really interesting part was that the kid claimed to have had no memory whatsoever of having done the deed.
As if shit didn’t get exciting enough around here.
Gulping down some lemonade, Dean wondered at the genuine confusion on Alec’s face as the kid had tried to explain. He had heard of walking and talking in your sleep, but he’d never heard of punching in windows. Alec’s arm was pretty messed up too. Sort of. That part didn’t make much sense either. The wound that traveled from wrist to elbow was a little too straight and perfect for a round trip through plate glass. But that wasn’t all Dean had missed last night.
He looked at the back door, wide open and blowing a warm breeze in from the yard.
There was also the patch of burnt ground that Sam thought he’d hidden out of sight back in the cornrows. The scorch lines were about the right size for a cremation and just far enough from the house to make it unlikely to be noticed by anyone. And nobody would have either if Dean hadn’t been out there looking for the minuscule cat whose only discernible use so far was finding holes to get stuck in.
“How ‘bout you Sammy?” Dean asked. “You alive?”
“What?”
“Nothin’.”
Looked like no one was in the mood to do much talking.
Glancing over his shoulder to make sure everyone was still preoccupied with the TV, Dean flipped open his sandwich and covertly removed a layer of meat. He dangled it under his chair and got ready for some action. He didn’t have to wait long for the little tabby to come out of nowhere and savagely tackle the cold cut like the weakest wildebeest on edge of the herd.
Dean flung more baloney in different directions.
The fur ball was better than a dust buster. He tossed another piece upwards just to see the freak snatch it right out of mid-air. Of course the bastard wouldn’t touch the two-ton sack of dog chow Dean had lugged from a few towns over, but who would when it rained lunch meat three times a day.
“The rest is mine,” he shook the cat off his boot. “Go gank a mouse.”
Ignoring its stealthy maneuvers to follow him to his room, Dean had to admit, after he got over his fear of stepping on the thing it wasn’t that bad to have around. Sometimes it would puff up and run around like it was on fire, but besides a few over turned beer bottles there was no harm done.
He pushed the curtain back to look out at the cremation spot concealed by the waving corn stalks.
“And I’m not callin’ you Killer,” Dean let the curtain fall back into place. “So just forget about it.” The kitten clambered up the side of his bed, using grappling hook claws in the quilt to achieve the summit. It explored all the pillows before finding one flat enough to park on. “Because it’s stupid for one thing,” he explained. “And you look more like an Ozzie to me. Maybe a Zappa-”
“Dean?”
Dean quickly grabbed a basket of laundry off his floor. “Hey, Sam,” he gave a smile. “Just thought I’d do a load of whites and then I realized, hey, I don’t have any whites.“
“I need to talk to you,” Sam shut the door and locked it behind him. “You got a minute?”
Dean had predicted that his brother would eventually pony up on the truth about last night, but he was still relieved he wasn’t going have to do the asking. Sam paced back and forth a few times before he let out a deep breath and sank into a chair by the window.
“I’m worried, Dean.”
“Yeah?” he said carefully. “What about?”
“I think we should go see Bobby. Maybe let him run a few tests on Alec.”
It took a few moments before Dean understood what he’d just heard. He’d been expecting something more along the lines of an explanation for burning human remains in their backyard. Not a trip down to South Dakota. “Tests? Are you out of your freakin’ mind? I think the last thing this kid needs is any more tests.”
“He hurt himself,” Sam said. “What if he does it again? What if I can’t help him? What if-“
“You said yourself that he’s gotten better at keeping it reeled in. And hey, I’m not getting sucker punched in the brain every time he gets bummed out by a sad commercial anymore. That’s progress right?”
“I think we should bring him over to Lafayette too,” Sam clasped his hands in tight fists in his lap. “You know there’s about three wards he should be wearing.”
With a sigh, Dean took a seat on the edge of the bed. Sam had a good point about the tattoos. They should have gotten the kid inked the second they left Seattle.
“And what about all the other stuff, Dean? There are at least five rituals that we haven’t even talked about yet. And now… and now the sleep walking stuff? I’m just sayin’ that we don’t know what could happen next and we have to do everything we can to keep Alec safe-“
Sam suddenly went quiet.
They both turned their heads at the telltale creak on the floorboards just outside in the hallway. The kid was talented but he still couldn’t quite achieve weightlessness.
“We can hear you,” Dean called out. “Come on in.”
With a jolt, the formally locked door swung open with Alec jerking the doorknob in mild offense. He held his gauze wrapped arm close to his chest and eyed them both warily. “If you wanna leave me out of it you should try a little harder.”
“No one’s leavin’ you outta anything,” Dean said. “We’re just talking.”
Dean thought it would have been a perfect moment for Sam to back him up on that one but his brother kept strangely quiet. Alec took a step backwards into the hallway and looked like he was ready to take off.
“It’s all right to be mad, Alec,” Dean patted the bed and waved Alec in. “You oughta be. We should have sat down and had a talk about all this psychic crap a long time ago.”
Alec came in and took a reluctant seat next to him.
Dean waited once again for his brother to jump in to begin the awkward discussion on their fun-filled demonic heritage. All this mental mind magic was his brother’s turf and Dean was happy to let him handle it.
But Sam didn’t say a thing.
Alec held his bandaged arm closer to his chest when Sam did nothing but continue to stare out the window. Dean shook the spastic kitten off his bleeding hand and tried not to grind his teeth.
“So…” Dean cleared his throat. “So you’ve got this… uh… you’ve got a gift.”
“Oh man,” Alec groaned. “Look, forget the talk, I’ll just read the bible a couple hundred more times. Maybe some Black Sabbath lyrics would help.“
“Fine, forget the ‘gift.’ The ‘gift’ is stupid,” Dean said. “But you got… something and it’s yours. It’s not going away so you gotta make do with it the best you can.”
Alec’s posture sagged with the fear he’d been trying to keep hidden under his annoyance. “I’m trying to but… but what if I can’t? I mean, last night I-“
“Sam’s been living with this stuff for a long time and if his sorry ass can figure it out than you can too. But we also have a few friends that know a lot more about this kinda thing. So we were thinkin’ maybe, if you wanted, that this guy Bobby might be able to lend a hand.”
“A hand at what?”
“Well, for starters you need to start considering a few new upgrades,” Dean patted his chest over the tat that Alec made fun of whenever he saw it. “I know it’s not exactly kick ass but this thing is better than body armor.”
“I don’t want any lame tattoos.”
“All I’m askin’ is that you think about it,” Dean said. “That’s all.”
Alec rubbed absently at the back of his neck.
“You know you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.”
“I know.”
Dean leaned down to look at Alec’s face when the kid wouldn’t meet his eyes. “What’s the problem, Alec? Talk to me.”
Alec stared down at floor. “If I did something pretty bad… what would… would I have to leave? Like live somewhere else or something?”
“What are you talking about?”
“I think it was my fault.”
Dean felt an uncomfortable sensation growing in the pit of his stomach. “W-What was?”
“The window, my arm, everything!” Alec said miserably. “I don’t think I was sleep walking.”
Sam suddenly sat forward and gripped Alec’s knee hard. Dean was glad his brother finally decided to join the party but he didn’t like the look on Sam’s face. He looked as scared as Alec was.
“Why would you say something like that?” Sam asked. “It-It was just an accident.”
“No, it wasn’t,” Alec looked back and forth between them, his eyes glittering wet in frustration. “I-I was hanging around that funeral after you told me not to and I… I haven’t been taking all the tryptophan I’m supposed to take either. It messes up my dreams pretty bad. I think that’s why I broke that window and I think it’s why I… I think it’s why I did something else.”
“Something else?” Sam was pale. “You didn’t do anything else. You just broke a window that’s all.”
“In my room,” Alec dragged an arm across his eyes. “I found a box of razor blades. My pillow was all cut up. My sheets. My mattress. Why would I do that?”
“Okay, okay,” Dean squeezed Alec’s shoulder and realized the kid was shaking. “Just take it easy.”
“I swear I don’t remember taking them but I must have right? What if I tried to hurt somebody and Sam hadn’t heard me break the window? I haven’t been taking the pills and its all my fault-“
“Alec,” Sam moved to the bed on the other side of him. “From now on just- just try to stay on the tryptophan okay? It’s really important.”
“Yes, sir.” Alec mumbled.
Dean didn't try to stop him when he got up and left the room.
He thought Sam would start talking again as soon as Alec’s footsteps faded off the back porch. When the car engine started and the tires trailed away on the gravel Dean was still patiently waiting Sam to finally open his mouth and spill already.
His patience ran out.
“So you gonna tell me what the hell is going on around here?”
“Alec is still learning,” Sam sounded as tired as he looked. “It’s going to take some time before he knows his limits and… and restrictions.”
“That’s not what I mean,” Dean said. “I mean last night. There’s a whole lot of somethin’ you aren’t sharing.”
“I told you, I woke up when I heard the window break. When I got to the bathroom I found Alec bleeding-“
“Yeah, I heard that story already. But I’m more interested in the fire.”
Sam’s distracted gaze hardened into something else.
“Doing some cremations right here at home these days?” Dean asked. “I hope you let the family know to look for the extra service charge on the funeral bill.”
“Dean-“
“Why’d you burn that lady? What are you so scared of?”
Sam slowly stood up.
“It’s gonna be like this huh?” Dean stood up too. “You can’t even create decent bullshit to shut me up?”
“I tried,” Sam sighed. “But you never believe anything I make up.”
“Years of practice.”
“Dean, I’m sorry.”
“Huh?”
Dean realized Sam had backed him up into the corner of the room furthest from the door. He was about to ask what Sam was so tragically sorry about when his back bumped into the wall. At the exact same moment his brother’s hands lightly touched his face. Dean gasped when a flash of light blinded him momentarily and his knees went out from under him. But he didn’t hit the floor.
“I got you, Dean,” Sam was laying him down on the bed. “You have to trust me, okay?”
Dean tried to answer but he was having trouble moving his mouth.
“You’ll wake up later and remember we all had a talk about going to see Bobby,” Sam pressed his hand gently against Dean’s forehead. “You’ll remember that Alec cut himself sleep walking and that we all agreed he has to start taking his pills more regularly.”
“S-Sam?”
“You’ll remember we had a fight about the tattoos but we settled on letting Alec decide for himself. You won’t remember you found a cremation. You won’t remember asking me about the ashes. You won’t remember anything about that at all.”
Dean couldn’t keep his eyes open.
“What-what did you do, Sammy?”
“I messed up, Dean,” Sam’s voice shook. “But I’m gonna fix it.”
go to part 16