Unexpected Destinies Chapter 17
Title: Unexpected Destinies
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: up to and including Exile on Main St., AU from the end of season 5
Warnings: AU
Word Count: 2,380
Summary: Sam finally receives word from his brother.
PRESENT
Sam had been elated when he'd recognized the number the text came from, it was one he'd memorized years ago. Although they regularly used different sim cards to help them with their work, Dad had taught them long ago the value of having a number they could always be reached at. Both in case of emergencies and so that people could reliably contact them if they needed help. The question of how Dean had gotten his number hadn't seemed particularly important just then, simply that his brother was finally contacting him.
The question of how he knew to do so, because as far as Dean was concerned he was still in Hell, didn't occur to him until much later.
If the situation wasn't so serious, Sam was sure that Christian and Gwen would have teased him mercilessly for the way he'd reacted to that text. As it was, however, the contents of the text had swiftly dampened his joy. Instead of there being anything useful inside pertaining to how his brother was and what he'd been doing since abandoning Lisa and Ben, all it had contained was a set of coordinates. If it hadn't been for Dad's habit of doing exactly the same thing, he'd have been sure it was a trap. Even with that precedent, however, he still wasn't one hundred percent sure that it wasn't, especially since all his subsequent calls and texts to Dean had gone completely unanswered.
Christian had been opposed to going at all, but Sam had Samuel in his corner and Gwen had been willing to do it so long as they scoped out the situation enough in advance. Mark had been mute on the subject as he was on most issues, willing to follow the majority decision. A quick Google search had revealed that the indicated spot was a deserted stretch of road in the middle of nowhere in Nevada. The topography suggested that an ambush would be neigh on impossible as the area was completely flat in a fifty mile radius.
Dean had chosen his rendezvous spot well if he intended to put everyone as at ease as possible given the circumstances. It only served to make Sam strangely nervous about it all as what reason could his older brother possibly have to be so secretive about things? To feel the need to select such a careful spot and organize the met in this manner? A quick call to Bobby had confirmed that he too had received a similar text and no further contact despite numerous attempts to do so. They'd arranged to meet up at the nearest town and then do the last stretch together.
Which was where they were now.
"Well, can you make out any more yet?" Samuel demanded impatiently.
"That was five minutes ago," Sam snapped back, lowering the binoculars.
He was starting to wonder who wanted to see Dean more, himself or his grandfather. The thought made Sam frown. From the get go, Samuel had seemed very interested in getting Dean to join them and it had irked him to no end. All of a sudden his perfect family had started to resemble his old one with Dad always praising and doting on his older brother while he got left out in the cold, unable to do anything right. Oh, he knew the last wasn't true now, but still, this incessant need of his grandfather's to get Dean to join them annoyed him. He'd told the older man about how much his brother had changed and how it was better that he was no longer hunting, but still Samuel couldn't seem to leave it alone.
"Don't take that tone with me, Sam Winchester."
Sam bit back the desire to tell his grandfather that he wasn't the boss of him and that he didn't have to take his orders. It was hard, but he managed it, not wanting to come across as childish or petulant. This was also a really bad time for an argument as they could still be walking into a trap of some kind and needed to have as much of their attention focused on their surroundings as possible. He could deal with this later.
"All I can see is a black smudge in the distance that is probably the Impala."
Or at least he hoped it was the Impala, Sam wasn't sure else it could be, but somehow the thought of the Impala not being there made his stomach churn. Dean wouldn't abandon his baby, so her absence would be a clear sign that something was not only wrong, but horrible so.
Slowly, as they got closer and closer to the provided coordinates, Sam was able to make out more detail which he faithfully relayed to his grandfather. The first thing to become clear was that it really was the Impala that he'd noticed earlier. She was parked on the sand off the side of the road, glistening in the warm afternoon sun. The next to emerge from the haze were the indistinct shapes of several people.
Several.
They had only been expecting Dean and this new revelation had unsettled Sam and he could tell his grandfather didn't like it either. Quick calls to Bobby and Gwen had confirmed his sightings and they all felt the same unease. What was going on here? Who was with his brother and why? Had Dean hooked up with some random hunters he'd come across? It didn't seem likely to Sam, as his brother had hunted alone before despite knowing other hunters, not to mention the fact that things were still tenuous at best for them within the larger hunting community. What with his name being attached to Apocalypse and all and Dean's own reputation for sticking to family like glue.
So, yeah, Sam didn't like this situation in the slightest, but he wasn't going to let this new development prevent him from seeing his brother. At the very least he had to ensure that Dean was aware of the djinn threat. Not to mention the fact that he wanted to have words with his brother about the way he'd broken his promise and abandoned the Braedens. Was that perhaps why his older brother had brought others along? Because he knew Sam had every reason to chew him out for what he'd done? It wouldn't surprise him coming from Dean, not in the slightest. He always had gone to great lengths to avoid confrontations of this nature.
It was only when they were even closer that Sam could make out which of the four figures he saw was his brother. Not surprisingly, Dean was leaning back against the side of the Impala, one foot resting on the edge of her undercarriage and his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jacket. God, it had to be nearly ninety degrees out and his brother was still dressed in as many layers as he usually wore. What was far more surprising and which stunned Sam speechless for a few moments was the figure standing close beside his brother.
Castiel.
For a moment he was back in Stull Cemetery, having just watched Michael go up in holy fire before he whirled on Castiel, or rather Lucifer did and he was helpless to do anything but watch as the devil clicked his fingers and the other angel burst apart just as Chuck had described. He tried to shake the horrible memory, but the sight of the angel standing there beside Dean, as if nothing had happened, was almost too much for him. Yes, he knew that God had brought Castiel back to life once more just like he'd done before, Bobby had told him that much, but he hadn't realized that he was back on Earth. According to Bobby, he had told Dean he was returning to Heaven and they'd all assumed it was permanently.
The thought caused anger to rise within him. He had called for Castiel, it was the first thing that Sam had done once he'd realized he really was out of Hell. Then he'd remembered the angel's death and assumed that was why he didn't reply until he'd learned otherwise from Bobby. After that he'd decided that either Castiel couldn't respond anymore or that he was through with them in particular and humans in general. Clearly that wasn't the case. Obviously it was just him that Castiel was through dealing with, Dean however was an exception as usual.
It was difficult for Sam not to let the bitterness overwhelm him as it swelled within him. He was happy to be seeing his brother once more after so long, he really was. He just wished that for once Castiel and the other angels would see his brother for what he truly was instead of all this prophecy bullshit they relied so heavily on. Castiel of all angels should know it didn't mean jack shit. He'd been there, after all, at the end and seen how ultimately Dean had done very little to bring about the end of the Apocalypse despite all that he'd been prophesized to do.
So why on Earth was Castiel with Dean now? What was it about his brother that drew the angel to him? Sam honestly didn't get it. Dean had never been religious and had actually been almost anti-religion on those few occasions where he had expressed an opinion about it. Dean had never believed and he'd definitely never prayed, so why did he now get a guardian angel while Sam, who'd always believed and prayed, had been left in the cold when he'd needed Heavenly help the most? It made absolutely no sense and he could feel the injustice of it all welling up inside of him, too strong to be pushed aside completely.
"Castiel?" Samuel repeated, drawing Sam's attention back to the present and he realized the last thing he'd said was the angel's name. "That the angel who helped you and your brother?"
"Yeah, that's him, Cas for short."
"You gave an angel a nickname?"
"Dean did," Sam replied defensively at the disbelief in his grandfather's tone. "It just kinda stuck."
"Yeah, that sounds like him."
Sam had to bite back his automatic response to that comment. Just who did his grandfather think he was to believe that he knew what Dean was like? So he'd known him for a few days, big deal, it wasn't like Dean showed who he really was around virtual strangers. Despite that, his grandfather really seemed to think he knew who Dean was and Sam was pretty sure that he was in for a few nasty shocks once he got to know him. Anyone who was going up against those kind of unrealistic expectations was sure to disappoint. He wondered if perhaps this seeming obsession had to do with his mother. More than once Samuel had said that his older brother was like Mom and he wondered if this was perhaps his grandfather's way of dealing with her death. Sure, it had happened nearly three decades ago, but that wasn't the way it seemed for Samuel. No, for the older man it was as if she had died a mere year ago as that was when he'd been brought back to life and discovered she was dead.
The thought disturbed Sam on some fundamental level and he thought he now had an inkling of what had bothered Dean so very much about Heaven after their little trip there. He'd been quite happy with it in a lot of ways as it had shown him that it wouldn't be more of the same as he'd started to dread after having interacted with a number of angels who were, as Dean had so aptly named them, dicks with wings. It had been reassuring to him to see that Heaven wasn't control by those same angels to the point where human souls were forced to experience what they wanted them to. No, instead it had shown him that they got to relive the best of their Earthly lives, not a bad deal as far as he was concerned. Especially if it meant not having to deal with all of the bad stuff.
Regardless of the reason why it had happened, Sam was pretty sure his grandfather was in for a bit of a surprise during this meeting and he had to admit, he was kinda interested in seeing how it went. Well, if he could keep Dean from trying to kill the old man seeing as his first thought was likely to be evil supernatural of some kind.
"Who are the others?" Samuel demanded.
"What? Oh, right."
Sam pulled himself from his thoughts and turned the binoculars to the other two people waiting by the Impala, ruthlessly trying to shove aside the pain of Castiel's betrayal. The first figure was a woman, she seemed to be about fifty to sixty years of age, tall and slender. She had graying dark brown hair and eyes that seemed familiar to him in an odd way though he was sure that he'd never seen her before. The second figure was a man of indeterminate age and African-American heritage. He stood further back from the rest, a ways behind the Impala whereas the woman stood abreast with it, though about ten feet away from where it was parked.
They were intentionally spread out, Sam realized. It was similar to the way that Samuel and Christian had decided to approach Dean. As soon as they got within half a mile of the rendezvous, the other two cars would pull onto the side of the road and they'd ride the rest of the way abreast of each other. And wasn't that just great? All that Sam had wanted was to protect his brother from the djinn out to kill him and somehow they had ended up with this scenario where each of them brought others and came at the meeting as if expecting to be stabbed in the back.
Just what did that say about them?
"I don't know the others, but can you tell how they've placed themselves?"
"I noticed. Any clue what's going on here?"
"Your guess is as good as mine. Who knows what Dean's gotten himself into this time."
A.N.: I just wanted to warn everyone that this is the last chapter I currently have finished for this fic. I do expect to have the next one ready (it's started) before Saturday, but if I fail to update then, this is why.
I will, however, have a oneshot kink-meme response fic up tomorrow that's also Dean/Cas and is ~4,000 words. So some, hopefully, good news to go with the, potentially, bad news.
Chapter 18
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: up to and including Exile on Main St., AU from the end of season 5
Warnings: AU
Word Count: 2,380
Summary: Sam finally receives word from his brother.
PRESENT
Sam had been elated when he'd recognized the number the text came from, it was one he'd memorized years ago. Although they regularly used different sim cards to help them with their work, Dad had taught them long ago the value of having a number they could always be reached at. Both in case of emergencies and so that people could reliably contact them if they needed help. The question of how Dean had gotten his number hadn't seemed particularly important just then, simply that his brother was finally contacting him.
The question of how he knew to do so, because as far as Dean was concerned he was still in Hell, didn't occur to him until much later.
If the situation wasn't so serious, Sam was sure that Christian and Gwen would have teased him mercilessly for the way he'd reacted to that text. As it was, however, the contents of the text had swiftly dampened his joy. Instead of there being anything useful inside pertaining to how his brother was and what he'd been doing since abandoning Lisa and Ben, all it had contained was a set of coordinates. If it hadn't been for Dad's habit of doing exactly the same thing, he'd have been sure it was a trap. Even with that precedent, however, he still wasn't one hundred percent sure that it wasn't, especially since all his subsequent calls and texts to Dean had gone completely unanswered.
Christian had been opposed to going at all, but Sam had Samuel in his corner and Gwen had been willing to do it so long as they scoped out the situation enough in advance. Mark had been mute on the subject as he was on most issues, willing to follow the majority decision. A quick Google search had revealed that the indicated spot was a deserted stretch of road in the middle of nowhere in Nevada. The topography suggested that an ambush would be neigh on impossible as the area was completely flat in a fifty mile radius.
Dean had chosen his rendezvous spot well if he intended to put everyone as at ease as possible given the circumstances. It only served to make Sam strangely nervous about it all as what reason could his older brother possibly have to be so secretive about things? To feel the need to select such a careful spot and organize the met in this manner? A quick call to Bobby had confirmed that he too had received a similar text and no further contact despite numerous attempts to do so. They'd arranged to meet up at the nearest town and then do the last stretch together.
Which was where they were now.
"Well, can you make out any more yet?" Samuel demanded impatiently.
"That was five minutes ago," Sam snapped back, lowering the binoculars.
He was starting to wonder who wanted to see Dean more, himself or his grandfather. The thought made Sam frown. From the get go, Samuel had seemed very interested in getting Dean to join them and it had irked him to no end. All of a sudden his perfect family had started to resemble his old one with Dad always praising and doting on his older brother while he got left out in the cold, unable to do anything right. Oh, he knew the last wasn't true now, but still, this incessant need of his grandfather's to get Dean to join them annoyed him. He'd told the older man about how much his brother had changed and how it was better that he was no longer hunting, but still Samuel couldn't seem to leave it alone.
"Don't take that tone with me, Sam Winchester."
Sam bit back the desire to tell his grandfather that he wasn't the boss of him and that he didn't have to take his orders. It was hard, but he managed it, not wanting to come across as childish or petulant. This was also a really bad time for an argument as they could still be walking into a trap of some kind and needed to have as much of their attention focused on their surroundings as possible. He could deal with this later.
"All I can see is a black smudge in the distance that is probably the Impala."
Or at least he hoped it was the Impala, Sam wasn't sure else it could be, but somehow the thought of the Impala not being there made his stomach churn. Dean wouldn't abandon his baby, so her absence would be a clear sign that something was not only wrong, but horrible so.
Slowly, as they got closer and closer to the provided coordinates, Sam was able to make out more detail which he faithfully relayed to his grandfather. The first thing to become clear was that it really was the Impala that he'd noticed earlier. She was parked on the sand off the side of the road, glistening in the warm afternoon sun. The next to emerge from the haze were the indistinct shapes of several people.
Several.
They had only been expecting Dean and this new revelation had unsettled Sam and he could tell his grandfather didn't like it either. Quick calls to Bobby and Gwen had confirmed his sightings and they all felt the same unease. What was going on here? Who was with his brother and why? Had Dean hooked up with some random hunters he'd come across? It didn't seem likely to Sam, as his brother had hunted alone before despite knowing other hunters, not to mention the fact that things were still tenuous at best for them within the larger hunting community. What with his name being attached to Apocalypse and all and Dean's own reputation for sticking to family like glue.
So, yeah, Sam didn't like this situation in the slightest, but he wasn't going to let this new development prevent him from seeing his brother. At the very least he had to ensure that Dean was aware of the djinn threat. Not to mention the fact that he wanted to have words with his brother about the way he'd broken his promise and abandoned the Braedens. Was that perhaps why his older brother had brought others along? Because he knew Sam had every reason to chew him out for what he'd done? It wouldn't surprise him coming from Dean, not in the slightest. He always had gone to great lengths to avoid confrontations of this nature.
It was only when they were even closer that Sam could make out which of the four figures he saw was his brother. Not surprisingly, Dean was leaning back against the side of the Impala, one foot resting on the edge of her undercarriage and his hands stuffed into the pockets of his jacket. God, it had to be nearly ninety degrees out and his brother was still dressed in as many layers as he usually wore. What was far more surprising and which stunned Sam speechless for a few moments was the figure standing close beside his brother.
Castiel.
For a moment he was back in Stull Cemetery, having just watched Michael go up in holy fire before he whirled on Castiel, or rather Lucifer did and he was helpless to do anything but watch as the devil clicked his fingers and the other angel burst apart just as Chuck had described. He tried to shake the horrible memory, but the sight of the angel standing there beside Dean, as if nothing had happened, was almost too much for him. Yes, he knew that God had brought Castiel back to life once more just like he'd done before, Bobby had told him that much, but he hadn't realized that he was back on Earth. According to Bobby, he had told Dean he was returning to Heaven and they'd all assumed it was permanently.
The thought caused anger to rise within him. He had called for Castiel, it was the first thing that Sam had done once he'd realized he really was out of Hell. Then he'd remembered the angel's death and assumed that was why he didn't reply until he'd learned otherwise from Bobby. After that he'd decided that either Castiel couldn't respond anymore or that he was through with them in particular and humans in general. Clearly that wasn't the case. Obviously it was just him that Castiel was through dealing with, Dean however was an exception as usual.
It was difficult for Sam not to let the bitterness overwhelm him as it swelled within him. He was happy to be seeing his brother once more after so long, he really was. He just wished that for once Castiel and the other angels would see his brother for what he truly was instead of all this prophecy bullshit they relied so heavily on. Castiel of all angels should know it didn't mean jack shit. He'd been there, after all, at the end and seen how ultimately Dean had done very little to bring about the end of the Apocalypse despite all that he'd been prophesized to do.
So why on Earth was Castiel with Dean now? What was it about his brother that drew the angel to him? Sam honestly didn't get it. Dean had never been religious and had actually been almost anti-religion on those few occasions where he had expressed an opinion about it. Dean had never believed and he'd definitely never prayed, so why did he now get a guardian angel while Sam, who'd always believed and prayed, had been left in the cold when he'd needed Heavenly help the most? It made absolutely no sense and he could feel the injustice of it all welling up inside of him, too strong to be pushed aside completely.
"Castiel?" Samuel repeated, drawing Sam's attention back to the present and he realized the last thing he'd said was the angel's name. "That the angel who helped you and your brother?"
"Yeah, that's him, Cas for short."
"You gave an angel a nickname?"
"Dean did," Sam replied defensively at the disbelief in his grandfather's tone. "It just kinda stuck."
"Yeah, that sounds like him."
Sam had to bite back his automatic response to that comment. Just who did his grandfather think he was to believe that he knew what Dean was like? So he'd known him for a few days, big deal, it wasn't like Dean showed who he really was around virtual strangers. Despite that, his grandfather really seemed to think he knew who Dean was and Sam was pretty sure that he was in for a few nasty shocks once he got to know him. Anyone who was going up against those kind of unrealistic expectations was sure to disappoint. He wondered if perhaps this seeming obsession had to do with his mother. More than once Samuel had said that his older brother was like Mom and he wondered if this was perhaps his grandfather's way of dealing with her death. Sure, it had happened nearly three decades ago, but that wasn't the way it seemed for Samuel. No, for the older man it was as if she had died a mere year ago as that was when he'd been brought back to life and discovered she was dead.
The thought disturbed Sam on some fundamental level and he thought he now had an inkling of what had bothered Dean so very much about Heaven after their little trip there. He'd been quite happy with it in a lot of ways as it had shown him that it wouldn't be more of the same as he'd started to dread after having interacted with a number of angels who were, as Dean had so aptly named them, dicks with wings. It had been reassuring to him to see that Heaven wasn't control by those same angels to the point where human souls were forced to experience what they wanted them to. No, instead it had shown him that they got to relive the best of their Earthly lives, not a bad deal as far as he was concerned. Especially if it meant not having to deal with all of the bad stuff.
Regardless of the reason why it had happened, Sam was pretty sure his grandfather was in for a bit of a surprise during this meeting and he had to admit, he was kinda interested in seeing how it went. Well, if he could keep Dean from trying to kill the old man seeing as his first thought was likely to be evil supernatural of some kind.
"Who are the others?" Samuel demanded.
"What? Oh, right."
Sam pulled himself from his thoughts and turned the binoculars to the other two people waiting by the Impala, ruthlessly trying to shove aside the pain of Castiel's betrayal. The first figure was a woman, she seemed to be about fifty to sixty years of age, tall and slender. She had graying dark brown hair and eyes that seemed familiar to him in an odd way though he was sure that he'd never seen her before. The second figure was a man of indeterminate age and African-American heritage. He stood further back from the rest, a ways behind the Impala whereas the woman stood abreast with it, though about ten feet away from where it was parked.
They were intentionally spread out, Sam realized. It was similar to the way that Samuel and Christian had decided to approach Dean. As soon as they got within half a mile of the rendezvous, the other two cars would pull onto the side of the road and they'd ride the rest of the way abreast of each other. And wasn't that just great? All that Sam had wanted was to protect his brother from the djinn out to kill him and somehow they had ended up with this scenario where each of them brought others and came at the meeting as if expecting to be stabbed in the back.
Just what did that say about them?
"I don't know the others, but can you tell how they've placed themselves?"
"I noticed. Any clue what's going on here?"
"Your guess is as good as mine. Who knows what Dean's gotten himself into this time."
A.N.: I just wanted to warn everyone that this is the last chapter I currently have finished for this fic. I do expect to have the next one ready (it's started) before Saturday, but if I fail to update then, this is why.
I will, however, have a oneshot kink-meme response fic up tomorrow that's also Dean/Cas and is ~4,000 words. So some, hopefully, good news to go with the, potentially, bad news.
Chapter 18