Fighting Demons: Chapter 9 "Soulgaze"
Author: snuggle_muggle
Title: Fighting Demons: Soulgaze
Fandom: Supernatural/Dresden Files crossover
Characters: Harry, Karrin, Sam, and Dean
Prompt: #45 "Stare"
Word Count: 2119
Rating: PG-13 (A non-spelled out cuss word)
Genre: Supernatural/Mystery
Summary: Murphy will only be satisfied when she knows for certain that the Winchester brothers aren't evil.
Disclaimer: Supernatural belongs to Kripke; Murphy and Dresden belong to Jim Butcher, and they both belong to many others. Too bad. I'd love to consider a lease-type plan, though.
Spoiler Warning: Some more spoilers for 3:12 of SPN, "Jus in Bello," that sort of give away the ending and a bit of the plot. If you need me to, I could send you an edited copy of this particular chapter.
Notes: This is chapter 9 of my continuing Dresden/Supernatural crossover, written for my fanfic 50 prompt table, located here. Also, this is the book universe of Dresden, not the TV universe.
Chapter 1; Chapter 2; Chapter 3; Chapter 4; Chapter 5; Chapter 6; Chapter 7; Chapter 8
Soulgaze
Sam grabbed both her hands in one of his to keep her from pushing him any more. "There’s a reasonable explanation for that, Karrin."
"Well, we’ll see about reasonable!" which made no sense to Sam, but at least she had stopped hitting him and she looked a little calmer. He let her hands go and she didn’t start hitting him again, so Sam took that as a good sign. "Where’s Harry?"
"Downstairs, in his lab." Dean sat back down on the couch eyeing Karrin’s gun warily. Mouse seemed to have lost interest in him now. He was sniffing Karrin half-heartedly and when she didn’t respond, he curled up in a corner by the fireplace.
"So. Start talking." She could have been talking to either of them, but she was looking right at Sam, so he cleared his throat, trying to decide exactly how much he should tell her.
"What’s going on?" Dresden was emerging from the basement, still in the ratty plaid bathrobe, looking curiously at the little tableau arranged in his living room.
"I’ll tell you what’s going on, Harry - these two are impostors! The real Sam and Dean Winchester are dead! And if they weren’t dead, then they’d be under arrest for murder and a host of other charges-"
Dean interrupted her. "Look, Murphy, if we were impostors like you say, how stupid would we have to be to claim to be two guys wanted by the FBI?! We’re not dead, obviously, and we never claimed to be dead!"
"The building just blew up and because we had been in it before-"
"Because you were on the Most Wanted Lists all over the country!"
"Right. Because of that, we were arrested and in jail. But the FBI agent, Henriksen was his name, he came and he actually believed us."
"He was possessed, see," Dean chimed in, "and we exorcised that demon and so he had no choice but to believe us-"
"So, he let us out and" Sam paused for a moment, unsure how much detail he wanted to go into about that evening’s activities. They hadn’t all been noble, in any case, "let us go. And then later we heard about the explosion and I guess things got mixed up."
"And since being dead is actually fairly useful, we haven’t exactly rushed to correct the error." Dean tried to smile winningly at Karrin, who narrowed her eyes at him.
"But what about all the murder charges and everything?"
"All misunderstandings. We’ve never hurt anybody intentionally ever - well, unless they seriously needed killing. And as for all the complaints about desecrating graves and everything, those were just to make us sound like devil worshippers and sickos. Salting and burning the corpse is the only way to get rid of some of these nasty ghost things. It’s not like it’s fun for us." Dean folded his arms as if that settled the matter.
"Well, maybe not, but-"
"Murph, I’ve got some ideas on this whole demon connection, but I want to go check out some of the bodies and I want to get there ASAP. Maybe we could hold off on the interrogation until later?"
"No. I won’t. I could get in a lot of trouble for running around the city with two known felons. And I’m not going back to my office and pretending that I never saw them either."
Sam felt sort of bad for Karrin at that point. She must constantly feel like she was being pulled in two different directions because of her obvious friendship with Dresden and the questions that must always come up at the police department. But then on the other hand, she knew him well enough that she seemed willing to believe that Dresden was innocent even when the evidence made him look guilty. He opened his mouth to say something but then Dresden spoke up. "Mouse likes them, that should count for something, right?"
Karrin looked over at the big dog, but her face didn’t relax. "Yeah. Mouse is pretty trustworthy, but I really need more evidence than that." She pulled Dresden into the kitchen and there was some fast muttering and complaining that Sam couldn’t hear or understand.
Sam thought for a couple minutes about how they could even start to explain the various charges that were filed against them, or had been before they were supposedly killed, and could probably be easily re-filed when it was discovered they were actually still alive and kicking. The list was fairly lengthy and there was a lot of bad stuff they’d done besides that known by the FBI. Could you say credit card fraud? Not to mention the sizable arsenal of weapons they drove around with in their trunk, most of which were completely illegal to own, even if they were usually only loaded with rock salt. Dresden emerged from the kitchen with Karrin a couple steps behind. He looked sulky and not very happy, while she actually looked happier than she had since she pushed her way into the apartment.
"Have either of you boys ever heard of soulgazing?" At their negative responses, Dresden continued. "Didn’t think so. You met my eyes a little too easily over lunch." He cleared his throat. "As a wizard, I can do it, but I should probably warn you that while I’m looking into your soul, you’ll also be looking into mine. Murph’s done it. Said it was quite, uh, interesting."
"Wait, wait, wait. You want to look into our souls?"
"Yeah. It’s painless enough for you, although I’ve seen some things I’d rather I hadn’t over the years. Basically, I’ll be able to see your true inner selves, your actual, well, soul - Can’t really think of a better word. If you’re basically decent people, then I can tell, pass that on to Murphy, and she can stop thinking you’re trying to weasel your way into my house so you can steal all my valuable worldly goods." He laughed deprecatingly. "If you’re not, however, Murphy will probably just kill you. So, uh, speak now or forever hold your peace."
"I don’t like the idea of anyone seeing down into my soul." Dean shook his head. "That’s not good."
"Oh, come on, Dean. You haven’t got anything to hide." Sam was intrigued with the idea, really, although he felt a bit of a nervous hitch in his stomach at the idea that everything he truly was would be exposed to this man. He knew, though, that Dresden was a good guy. A little bizarre, but good. He liked to think of himself as good, too, although the fact that the demons were starting to consider him their leader-king made him a bit queasy. He hoped that part didn’t show up on his soul. That would be even harder to explain to Karrin than the fact that the rumors of their deaths had been greatly exaggerated.
Dean looked at Sam. "Are you kidding? You’re a choir-boy compared to me."
"I don’t care about what you have or haven’t done. I’m not trying to judge your worthiness to enter heaven or anything. It’s more your motivations for doing things. What you’re capable of doing. What you wouldn’t ever do."
"I’ll go first, I guess." Sam took a deep breath. "What do I need to do?"
"Just stand there." Dresden stared closely at him and Sam met his eyes. He wasn’t sure exactly what would happen, had no idea what to expect. Dresden’s eyes were a dark brown, with flecks of green in them, almost like his dad’s had been. Suddenly, as though a switch had been flicked, he wasn’t looking at Dresden’s eyes anymore, but into them. Like he could see behind them. But he didn’t see like, you know, his brain or anything. Instead, it was like looking into a room from an doorway. The room was cluttered with piles of stuff and boxes and vials and containers, all of them labeled but Sam couldn’t read any of the labels. He stepped inside the room, to get a little closer to the first box but the label was in Latin, and although Sam knew quite a few words in Latin because of his stent at law school, he didn’t recognize the word. Spilling out of this box, though, was a gray cloak, stained with what looked like blood and Sam turned away. Whatever was there, he didn’t want to see any more of it. He saw names on a lot of the containers and those seemed to be vibrating slightly with music and Sam wanted to pick them up, but when he stretched out his hand, he couldn’t touch them. He saw Karrin’s name on a big box and he really wanted to lift the lid and look inside that, but just as he reached toward it, he blinked and he was looking at Dresden’s brown eyes again. Dresden nodded slightly, his eyes narrowing minutely. He looked at Sam as though expecting a reaction, but Sam had no idea what to say. What do you say to someone when you just saw their soul? Thanks, that was loads of fun? Somehow, he didn’t think that would be appropriate.
"Uh, so, did you see what you needed to?" Sam wasn’t sure that was appropriate to say to someone who just saw inside your soul either, but it was all he could think of at the moment.
"Yes. You all right?"
"Yeah. Shouldn’t I be?"
"Well, yeah. I suppose."
"It is over already?" Dean looked between the two of them. "You aren’t going to hug or anything, are you?"
Dresden shook his head. "No hugging’s necessary, Dean."
"Sammy must have an empty head. That was over pretty quickly."
Dresden chuckled softly. "Not empty, no. Quite full, actually." He smiled and stepped closer to Dean. Sam could tell his brother was nervous because Dean laughed what Sam thought of as his I’m-nervous-but I-don’t-want-to-admit-it laugh
"I hope I don’t have onion breath or anything."
"I’m not going to kiss you, Dean. Just relax." Dresden stepped a bit closer and grabbed Dean’s shoulders. It seemed like only a second to Sam and then Dresden stepped away. "You all right?"
Dean looked somewhat pale and he grabbed for the chair behind him and sat down. "That is some seriously f’d-up stuff." He put his head down into his hands. "Don’t ever do that to me again, Dresden."
"Can’t. One time only." He took a deep breath while Sam looked between the two of them. What the hell had Dean seen in Dresden’s mind? Maybe he’d looked in the box with the bloody cloak? He’d have to ask later. He was curious what Dresden had seen in Dean’s mind, though. And his own. And he wondered if he’d ever have the guts to ask.
Dresden wiped his forehead. "They’re a bit nuts, these two." He said this with a smile, though, and Sam wasn’t offended. "But they’re good people, both of them, and they’re for the most part exactly who and what they claim to be." He glanced at Sam again, opened his mouth, and then closed it again. "We can trust them." Then he smiled and Sam could tell it was a bit forced. "And let me tell you, if there’s a fight, make sure you’re on their side of the argument." He stood up. "So, now that the important business of the day is concluded, boys, what do you say about heading out to see some people who have died some rather nasty deaths?"
"Are you going to see the ones you’ve not bothered to report to the police?" Karrin looked considerably more relaxed now that she had gotten official word that they weren’t serial-wizard-killers.
"I think we’ll do that tomorrow. We have just enough time this afternoon to get to the five official ones - they’re all still at the morgue, right Murph?" Murphy nodded in response. "Then we should be able to see them all before nightfall there, even allowing for traffic."
"What happens at nightfall?" Sam asked, a bit surprised at this last comment.
"That’s when all the beasties come out to play, and I don’t think any of us are ready to take this demon on at the moment."
Title: Fighting Demons: Soulgaze
Fandom: Supernatural/Dresden Files crossover
Characters: Harry, Karrin, Sam, and Dean
Prompt: #45 "Stare"
Word Count: 2119
Rating: PG-13 (A non-spelled out cuss word)
Genre: Supernatural/Mystery
Summary: Murphy will only be satisfied when she knows for certain that the Winchester brothers aren't evil.
Disclaimer: Supernatural belongs to Kripke; Murphy and Dresden belong to Jim Butcher, and they both belong to many others. Too bad. I'd love to consider a lease-type plan, though.
Spoiler Warning: Some more spoilers for 3:12 of SPN, "Jus in Bello," that sort of give away the ending and a bit of the plot. If you need me to, I could send you an edited copy of this particular chapter.
Notes: This is chapter 9 of my continuing Dresden/Supernatural crossover, written for my fanfic 50 prompt table, located here. Also, this is the book universe of Dresden, not the TV universe.
Chapter 1; Chapter 2; Chapter 3; Chapter 4; Chapter 5; Chapter 6; Chapter 7; Chapter 8
Soulgaze
Sam grabbed both her hands in one of his to keep her from pushing him any more. "There’s a reasonable explanation for that, Karrin."
"Well, we’ll see about reasonable!" which made no sense to Sam, but at least she had stopped hitting him and she looked a little calmer. He let her hands go and she didn’t start hitting him again, so Sam took that as a good sign. "Where’s Harry?"
"Downstairs, in his lab." Dean sat back down on the couch eyeing Karrin’s gun warily. Mouse seemed to have lost interest in him now. He was sniffing Karrin half-heartedly and when she didn’t respond, he curled up in a corner by the fireplace.
"So. Start talking." She could have been talking to either of them, but she was looking right at Sam, so he cleared his throat, trying to decide exactly how much he should tell her.
"What’s going on?" Dresden was emerging from the basement, still in the ratty plaid bathrobe, looking curiously at the little tableau arranged in his living room.
"I’ll tell you what’s going on, Harry - these two are impostors! The real Sam and Dean Winchester are dead! And if they weren’t dead, then they’d be under arrest for murder and a host of other charges-"
Dean interrupted her. "Look, Murphy, if we were impostors like you say, how stupid would we have to be to claim to be two guys wanted by the FBI?! We’re not dead, obviously, and we never claimed to be dead!"
"The building just blew up and because we had been in it before-"
"Because you were on the Most Wanted Lists all over the country!"
"Right. Because of that, we were arrested and in jail. But the FBI agent, Henriksen was his name, he came and he actually believed us."
"He was possessed, see," Dean chimed in, "and we exorcised that demon and so he had no choice but to believe us-"
"So, he let us out and" Sam paused for a moment, unsure how much detail he wanted to go into about that evening’s activities. They hadn’t all been noble, in any case, "let us go. And then later we heard about the explosion and I guess things got mixed up."
"And since being dead is actually fairly useful, we haven’t exactly rushed to correct the error." Dean tried to smile winningly at Karrin, who narrowed her eyes at him.
"But what about all the murder charges and everything?"
"All misunderstandings. We’ve never hurt anybody intentionally ever - well, unless they seriously needed killing. And as for all the complaints about desecrating graves and everything, those were just to make us sound like devil worshippers and sickos. Salting and burning the corpse is the only way to get rid of some of these nasty ghost things. It’s not like it’s fun for us." Dean folded his arms as if that settled the matter.
"Well, maybe not, but-"
"Murph, I’ve got some ideas on this whole demon connection, but I want to go check out some of the bodies and I want to get there ASAP. Maybe we could hold off on the interrogation until later?"
"No. I won’t. I could get in a lot of trouble for running around the city with two known felons. And I’m not going back to my office and pretending that I never saw them either."
Sam felt sort of bad for Karrin at that point. She must constantly feel like she was being pulled in two different directions because of her obvious friendship with Dresden and the questions that must always come up at the police department. But then on the other hand, she knew him well enough that she seemed willing to believe that Dresden was innocent even when the evidence made him look guilty. He opened his mouth to say something but then Dresden spoke up. "Mouse likes them, that should count for something, right?"
Karrin looked over at the big dog, but her face didn’t relax. "Yeah. Mouse is pretty trustworthy, but I really need more evidence than that." She pulled Dresden into the kitchen and there was some fast muttering and complaining that Sam couldn’t hear or understand.
Sam thought for a couple minutes about how they could even start to explain the various charges that were filed against them, or had been before they were supposedly killed, and could probably be easily re-filed when it was discovered they were actually still alive and kicking. The list was fairly lengthy and there was a lot of bad stuff they’d done besides that known by the FBI. Could you say credit card fraud? Not to mention the sizable arsenal of weapons they drove around with in their trunk, most of which were completely illegal to own, even if they were usually only loaded with rock salt. Dresden emerged from the kitchen with Karrin a couple steps behind. He looked sulky and not very happy, while she actually looked happier than she had since she pushed her way into the apartment.
"Have either of you boys ever heard of soulgazing?" At their negative responses, Dresden continued. "Didn’t think so. You met my eyes a little too easily over lunch." He cleared his throat. "As a wizard, I can do it, but I should probably warn you that while I’m looking into your soul, you’ll also be looking into mine. Murph’s done it. Said it was quite, uh, interesting."
"Wait, wait, wait. You want to look into our souls?"
"Yeah. It’s painless enough for you, although I’ve seen some things I’d rather I hadn’t over the years. Basically, I’ll be able to see your true inner selves, your actual, well, soul - Can’t really think of a better word. If you’re basically decent people, then I can tell, pass that on to Murphy, and she can stop thinking you’re trying to weasel your way into my house so you can steal all my valuable worldly goods." He laughed deprecatingly. "If you’re not, however, Murphy will probably just kill you. So, uh, speak now or forever hold your peace."
"I don’t like the idea of anyone seeing down into my soul." Dean shook his head. "That’s not good."
"Oh, come on, Dean. You haven’t got anything to hide." Sam was intrigued with the idea, really, although he felt a bit of a nervous hitch in his stomach at the idea that everything he truly was would be exposed to this man. He knew, though, that Dresden was a good guy. A little bizarre, but good. He liked to think of himself as good, too, although the fact that the demons were starting to consider him their leader-king made him a bit queasy. He hoped that part didn’t show up on his soul. That would be even harder to explain to Karrin than the fact that the rumors of their deaths had been greatly exaggerated.
Dean looked at Sam. "Are you kidding? You’re a choir-boy compared to me."
"I don’t care about what you have or haven’t done. I’m not trying to judge your worthiness to enter heaven or anything. It’s more your motivations for doing things. What you’re capable of doing. What you wouldn’t ever do."
"I’ll go first, I guess." Sam took a deep breath. "What do I need to do?"
"Just stand there." Dresden stared closely at him and Sam met his eyes. He wasn’t sure exactly what would happen, had no idea what to expect. Dresden’s eyes were a dark brown, with flecks of green in them, almost like his dad’s had been. Suddenly, as though a switch had been flicked, he wasn’t looking at Dresden’s eyes anymore, but into them. Like he could see behind them. But he didn’t see like, you know, his brain or anything. Instead, it was like looking into a room from an doorway. The room was cluttered with piles of stuff and boxes and vials and containers, all of them labeled but Sam couldn’t read any of the labels. He stepped inside the room, to get a little closer to the first box but the label was in Latin, and although Sam knew quite a few words in Latin because of his stent at law school, he didn’t recognize the word. Spilling out of this box, though, was a gray cloak, stained with what looked like blood and Sam turned away. Whatever was there, he didn’t want to see any more of it. He saw names on a lot of the containers and those seemed to be vibrating slightly with music and Sam wanted to pick them up, but when he stretched out his hand, he couldn’t touch them. He saw Karrin’s name on a big box and he really wanted to lift the lid and look inside that, but just as he reached toward it, he blinked and he was looking at Dresden’s brown eyes again. Dresden nodded slightly, his eyes narrowing minutely. He looked at Sam as though expecting a reaction, but Sam had no idea what to say. What do you say to someone when you just saw their soul? Thanks, that was loads of fun? Somehow, he didn’t think that would be appropriate.
"Uh, so, did you see what you needed to?" Sam wasn’t sure that was appropriate to say to someone who just saw inside your soul either, but it was all he could think of at the moment.
"Yes. You all right?"
"Yeah. Shouldn’t I be?"
"Well, yeah. I suppose."
"It is over already?" Dean looked between the two of them. "You aren’t going to hug or anything, are you?"
Dresden shook his head. "No hugging’s necessary, Dean."
"Sammy must have an empty head. That was over pretty quickly."
Dresden chuckled softly. "Not empty, no. Quite full, actually." He smiled and stepped closer to Dean. Sam could tell his brother was nervous because Dean laughed what Sam thought of as his I’m-nervous-but I-don’t-want-to-admit-it laugh
"I hope I don’t have onion breath or anything."
"I’m not going to kiss you, Dean. Just relax." Dresden stepped a bit closer and grabbed Dean’s shoulders. It seemed like only a second to Sam and then Dresden stepped away. "You all right?"
Dean looked somewhat pale and he grabbed for the chair behind him and sat down. "That is some seriously f’d-up stuff." He put his head down into his hands. "Don’t ever do that to me again, Dresden."
"Can’t. One time only." He took a deep breath while Sam looked between the two of them. What the hell had Dean seen in Dresden’s mind? Maybe he’d looked in the box with the bloody cloak? He’d have to ask later. He was curious what Dresden had seen in Dean’s mind, though. And his own. And he wondered if he’d ever have the guts to ask.
Dresden wiped his forehead. "They’re a bit nuts, these two." He said this with a smile, though, and Sam wasn’t offended. "But they’re good people, both of them, and they’re for the most part exactly who and what they claim to be." He glanced at Sam again, opened his mouth, and then closed it again. "We can trust them." Then he smiled and Sam could tell it was a bit forced. "And let me tell you, if there’s a fight, make sure you’re on their side of the argument." He stood up. "So, now that the important business of the day is concluded, boys, what do you say about heading out to see some people who have died some rather nasty deaths?"
"Are you going to see the ones you’ve not bothered to report to the police?" Karrin looked considerably more relaxed now that she had gotten official word that they weren’t serial-wizard-killers.
"I think we’ll do that tomorrow. We have just enough time this afternoon to get to the five official ones - they’re all still at the morgue, right Murph?" Murphy nodded in response. "Then we should be able to see them all before nightfall there, even allowing for traffic."
"What happens at nightfall?" Sam asked, a bit surprised at this last comment.
"That’s when all the beasties come out to play, and I don’t think any of us are ready to take this demon on at the moment."