Fic: You can do magic (you're the one who can put out the fire)
Part Four: The Trial of Red-Hot Iron
Jensen is blinded by camera flashes the moment his dad opens the door. Déjà vu.
“Step aside!” his father says, putting a protective arm around Jensen’s shoulders and throwing out a hand to shield him from the cameras. Jensen’s mom is on his other side and his siblings are behind them.
“Are you going to attempt to break the soulbond?” a reporter shouts.
Grace answers, in her role as Church spokesperson. “We’re going to Church to pray for our brother.”
“But are you going to try to break the bond?”
“Jensen wants to make sure there is no spell binding him to a witch. As well as prayer, we will be performing an old ritual and Jensen will be engaging in acts of devotion.”
“Jensen, are you doing this willingly?” another reporter shouts.
Jensen stops walking, despite his dad’s determined efforts to hustle him into the waiting car. “Yes,” Jensen says firmly, trying to spot the reporter who asked the question in among the crowd. A whole bunch more flashes go off. “When I walk out of the Church later on today, I want there to be no doubt that I am a free agent acting of my own free will with respect to my relationship with Jared. Thank you.”
He gets in the big, black town car that the Church has sent for his family.
There are more reporters at the Church and they shout out all the same questions that the ones back at home did. Grace and Jensen give the same answers and then they’re bustled inside the Church where Pastor Roberts, Inquisitor Heyerdahl and half a dozen acolytes are waiting. They’re all in flaming red robes with cowled hoods and Jensen feels his pulse begin to race and his stomach begin to churn.
He swallows and turns to Grace who nods. “Everything’s gonna be okay,” she reassures and he hopes she’s right.
When Jensen had called on Friday night and told his parents that he would be flying home on Monday and he wanted help to overcome his bewitchment, they’d gone straight to Pastor Roberts, who’d organized a meeting with Inquisitor Heyerdahl straight away. Inquisitor Heyerdahl had insisted that Grace and Jensen’s mom be kept out of the meeting where they’d planned how they were going to remedy Jensen’s bewitchment, but his dad and Greg had been there and Greg had told Grace everything.
Grace in turn had spoken to Felicia and she’d had a friend of hers sneak into the Church on Sunday night and rig up a series of hidden cameras and microphones.
As soon as Felicia got a signal from Grace, she was going to start broadcasting what was happening in the Church on her Youtube channel.
Pastor Roberts directs Jensen and his family to sit in the front pew, with two acolytes seated on either side of them. Inquisitor Heyerdahl is in the pulpit, flanked by the remaining two acolytes and as soon as Pastor Roberts has the Ackles family seated he joins Heyerdahl in the pulpit.
“We are here,” Heyerdahl intones, in a nasally voice, “so that Jensen Ackles, suspected to be under the enchantment of witchcraft, may undertake a series of ordeals thus proving his devotion to God, so that God may listen to our prayers and grant Brother Jensen remedy from his bewitchment.”
Jensen glances up at the Inquisitor. His face is shining in the light of the Holy Fire and his eyes are bright with fervor. Jensen swallows. He’s not convinced the man is entirely sane. And what’s this about ordeals? Jensen had sort of figured that he was going to be on his knees a lot, praying, probably until they got sore and swollen. He’d thought they may even make him kneel in rice. He’d figured there’d be lots of lighting candles while reciting prayers, writing out prayers and throwing them into the Holy Fire, and almost certainly walking over hot coals.
But the way Heyerdahl said ordeals, has Jensen worried.
The Inquisitor makes the Sign of the Pyre and the Ackles family follow suit. He then announces the Gospel of the Sacred Fire and the Ackles family all drop to their knees to recite it alongside the Pastors and acolytes. There are prayers and readings from the Holy Book. The Inquisitor lights and extinguishes candles and throws prayer scrolls into the Holy Fire.
And then he calls Jensen up to the dais.
Jensen swallows and gets to his feet. He makes his way slowly to the raised platform and stands before the Inquisitor, trying not to shuffle nervously.
“Will you stay to bear witness?” the Inquisitor asks his family.
“We will,” his family replies.
“Your Reverence,” Grace says. “Patriarch Lucius has asked me to live tweet the process for the Church.”
Inquisitor Heyerdahl nods. “If at any time it becomes too difficult for you ladies to bear witness, please feel free to leave.”
Jensen’s breath gets stuck in his throat. That doesn’t sound ominous at all.
At first, things are as Jensen expected. Prayers. Candles. Throwing prayer scrolls into the Holy Fire. Kneeling in rice to pray; which hurts every bit as much as he remembered, only this time he can feel Jared in the back of his mind, sharing his pain and bolstering his ability to cope with it.
Are you watching online? Jensen asks. Jared says that he is, but that so far it’s all pretty boring.
And then Inquisitor Heyerdahl uncovers the Pit of Hot Coals and tells Jensen to take off his shoes and socks.
It’s about to get more interesting, Jensen tells Jared as he roll his jeans up and prepares to walk the pit. It’s been five years since he last did this, but Jensen had mastered the art of walking across hot coals by the age of ten, so he’s able to do it now without unduly hurting himself.
Heyerdahl examines his feet afterward and then makes him do it again. And again.
And then the Inquisitor does an elaborate, booming prayer, with lots of gesticulating and bowing in front of the Holy Fire.
Jensen looks across at his family and raises his eyebrows. His family looks equally as puzzled.
Inquisitor Heyerdahl reaches under the lectern and pulls out a small flogger.
“Take off your shirt, Jensen.”
“No.”
Heyerdahl raises an eyebrow. “Do you want to be cured?”
Jensen takes a step backward and adopts a defensive stance. “I don’t see how you hitting me is gonna overcome a spell.”
Heyerdahl smiles, his lips thin and insincere. “I’m not going to hit you. You need to perform an act of self-mortification in order to demonstrate your devotion and prove yourself worthy of God’s intercession.”
Jensen stares at him incredulously. He’s half expecting the man to laugh and say only joking, but it doesn’t happen. Heyerdahl holds his gaze and then in his strange, strangled voice he says, “Take your shirt off.”
Jensen checks in with Jared, who tells him that it’s his choice. I’ll be here to support you, whatever you decide, Jared sends.
“Are you refusing to be cured?” Heyerdahl says thinly.
Jensen figures that he’s going to be the one wielding the flogger, and he doesn’t have to do it very hard. It’s probably just supposed to be symbolic.
He unbuttons his shirt and an acolyte steps forward to take it.
“Tee-shirt too,” says Heyerdahl.
Jensen complies and Heyerdahl hands him the flogger.
Jensen feels incredibly stupid. He turns away from his family so that he doesn’t have to see their faces while he does this and then he swings the flogger over his shoulder and onto his back, really, really softly.
He does it again.
And again.
“Harder!” Heyerdahl says.
Jensen hits himself a little harder and okay, that hurt.
“Again!”
Crap. Jensen grits his teeth and does it one more time.
“Again!” Heyerdahl shouts. “Keep going!”
Jensen lets the flogger fall another three times and it fucking hurts. He hits again, a fourth time, and is unable to keep the hiss of pain behind his clenched teeth.
“That’s enough!” his mom cries out. “This is just cruel, Pastor Roberts. Make him stop.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Jensen sees Pastor Roberts go to mom’s side. He hears them talking quietly. His mom sounds distressed.
“Keep going,” Inquisitor Heyerdahl says.
But Jensen is done. He shakes his head and hands the flogger back to the Inquisitor.
“I can’t,” he says.
Heyerdahl takes the flogger and then nods his head. Two red-cowled acolytes grab ahold of Jensen’s arms and drag him to a small altar at the back of the dais. They bend him over it and hold him down.
Jensen can hear his mom screaming and Inquisitor Heyerdahl tells Pastor Roberts to get his family out of the room.
“I’m staying!” he hears Grace call out. “It’s my duty to bear witness and I’m not leaving.”
The thump of his heart is booming in Jensen’s ears, his breathing is harsh and he’s fighting hard to get free of the acolytes’ hold. He doesn’t have a lot of room to maneuver though, and when a third acolyte throws himself to the floor and takes hold of his ankles, he has to concede that he can’t move and that he won’t be going anywhere.
“You sonofabitch!” he pants.
“As he breaks, so shall it break,” Heyerdahl intones.
And then he brings the flogger down hard across Jensen’s back, again and again, until Jensen starts to scream.
All Hell breaks loose then. Or at least, his family breaks loose from Pastor Roberts and the acolytes who are still trying to drag them out of the Church.
Jensen’s mom reaches him first and through the haze of pain, Jensen dimly thinks that he wouldn’t like to be in Heyerdahl’s shoes right now, Inquisitor or not.
“Get your hands off my son,” he hears her shout.
Suddenly, his dad’s by his side. Greg too. There’s pushing and shoving and yelling and then Jensen is free. He’d locked the bond with Jared down tight when Heyerdahl started to really hurt him and he cautiously re-opens it now to find Jared cursing and pleading on the other side.
I’m here, Jensen sends and the rush of relief and love is almost overwhelming. And then Jensen’s pain hits Jared and Jared cries out.
“Jared?” Jensen mutters.
I’m here, I’m here.
Jensen’s back stops hurting and it’s awesome.
From somewhere behind him he hears a gasp.
“Oh my!” Grace’s tone is shocked. “Your back just healed all by itself.”
Jensen pushes himself up off the altar and cranes his neck, trying to look over his shoulder and see his back.
“Impossible!” says Heyerdahl.
Everyone-his family, the acolytes, the pastors-is standing on the dais in a loose semi-circle, and while they were very obviously fighting and grappling earlier, they are now all gaping at Jensen.
Heyerdahl lunges for the Holy Fire and grabs one of the ceremonial pokers from it.
“I’ll break his hold,” he shouts. “Potestas incendium! Potestas incendium! Behold the trial of Red-Hot Iron! The power of Fire shall set you free!”
Jensen only has a moment to realize what the Inquisitor intends before the red hot poker-which he understands belatedly is actually a branding iron-is being pressed against his shoulder. Jensen screams and tries to move away, but the altar is directly behind him and he has nowhere to go.
The smell of burning flesh is sickening. Jensen is panting and tears are streaming down his face. When Heyerdahl removes the iron, the symbol of the Pyre is burned into the flesh of his shoulder and Jensen bites back a sob.
The pain stops as abruptly as it started and there’s a collective gasp as Jensen’s shoulder miraculously heals.
“Devilry,” whispers Heyerdahl. “Witchcraft.”
“Or maybe a miracle?” Greg says. “The work of God?”
He strides forward and holds his phone out for Inquisitor Heyerdahl and Pastor Roberts to see.
“Let’s see that again,” Jensen recognizes the tinny voice of the local TV station’s newsreader coming from his brother’s phone. He peers over Pastor Roberts’s shoulder and watches as the TV station broadcasts a special ‘breaking news’ bulletin, showing footage of Jared collapsing to the floor in his home, crying out and clawing at his back. He rips his shirt off and his back is scored with whip marks.
“Just moments ago, Felicia Day, star and producer of the award-winning web series Peace Out, Witches, began broadcasting an attempt by the Church of the Holy Fire in Austin, Texas to break the soulbond between Jensen Ackles, great nephew of Patriarch Lucius Ackles and Jared Padalecki, son of noted magi activists Jessica and Wade Padalecki.”
The TV station shows footage of Jensen being held down and flogged, which makes Jensen shift uncomfortably.
“How did they get that?” Pastor Roberts begins to cast about, obviously looking for cameras.
The TV station cuts again to the footage of Jared collapsing and ripping his shirt off and Jensen can’t help noticing that the scoring on Jared’s back looks identical to the scoring he saw on his own back.
“And then this happened,” the newsreader says with hushed reverence.
A dark-haired man with intense blue eyes holds his hands out over Jared’s back and recites an incantation. His wounds heal. And then the TV station shows footage of Jensen’s wounds spontaneously healing, and Heyerdahl’s cry of impossible!
Of course, what follows is Heyerdahl’s attempt to brand him and Jensen has to turn away from the agony that shows so clearly on his face.
The screen is now split in two and as Jensen sees himself branded he is also able to see Jared cry out and clutch at his own shoulder, where an identical brand appears as if by magic. Once again the dark-haired man heals him. And once again, Jared’s healing is effective on Jensen as well.
“Witchcraft,” Heyerdahl mutters again.
Greg inclines his head. “In part,” he agrees. “But it’s much more than that. Anyone can see that.”
“We’re soulmates,” Jensen says. “Whoever the powers that be are, whatever you believe, they’ve joined our souls together. And Greg’s right; anyone can see that,” he pauses and looks Heyerdahl in the eye. “We’re done here.”
Before Heyerdahl can protest, Grace clears her throat. “Pastor Roberts? Inquisitor Heyerdahl? The police are outside. They’d like you to go and help them with their inquiries into what they’re terming the assault on Jensen. If you wouldn’t mind,” she holds a hand out and gestures down the aisle toward the door. “They’d prefer you to come out of your own free will.”
Pastor Roberts glares at her. “You can hardly claim the moral high ground, girl. You were live tweeting for the Church!”
Grace’s smile is really rather nasty. “No,” she says. “I was helping Felicia to film you.”
“Me too,” says Greg.
Jensen can’t help his gasp of surprise. Greg’s support of him-his acceptance that the soulbond is the real deal-has been an unexpected Godsend. But Jensen hadn’t realized that his brother was in on Grace and Felicia’s plan.
Greg grins at him. “I’m always gonna have your back, little brother.”
Inquisitor Heyerdahl throws up his cowled hood and then strides down the aisle toward the door with Pastor Roberts and the acolytes behind him.
Jensen and his family find a side door and sneak home without the press noticing.
--
Jensen’s mom fusses around him for ages. Despite all the evidence to the contrary she doesn’t seem to quite believe that his back and his shoulder are fully healed and keeps dabbing him with anti-septic and muttering under her breath.
Eventually Grace and Greg gang up on her and drag her away from him.
“Have some iced tea, Ma,” Grace brings out a silver tray on which there’s a glass jug filled with his mom’s homemade iced tea and five glasses.
Jensen adds a slice of lemon to his glass of iced tea and then sits back and sips at it. Jared is a background presence in his mind. They’re not talking right now, just keeping the bond open enough to feel their connection. Occasionally one of them will send the other a nudge of love and affection-sort of like a Facebook poke, Jensen thinks with a smile. But otherwise they’re spending time with their families.
Jensen’s enjoying the pleasant family atmosphere when his dad leans forward with a sigh. He puts his glass down on the coffee table and then rests his elbows on his knees and looks at Jensen, who’s sitting opposite him.
“So I guess we need to talk,” his dad says, tone laced with reluctance.
Jensen nods. He’s been expecting some questions about the soulbond from his parents. He’d talked about it at length with Grace and Greg, but his parents hadn’t been in the room at the time.
“It does seem,” his father says, “that there is some sort of ‘bond’,” Jensen can hear the sceptical quotation marks around the word ‘bond’, “between you and this Padalecki wi- boy. However, he is still not a suitable companion for you. Just because there’s this thing tying you together, doesn’t mean you have to consort with him.”
And just like that, Jensen’s dreams of a happy future where his family and Jared’s get along, go flying out the window.
What’s wrong? Jared enquires.
Jensen lets Jared see the memory and his soulmate’s sorrow and guilt come drifting back along the bond.
Not your fault, Jared, he says and then he sighs.
“Actually, Dad, it does mean exactly that. The bond requires us to be together. If we spend too long apart it gets painful.”
He doesn’t mention that it only seems to become painful for him, because that’s a whole other can of worms that he doesn’t want to open. Although…now that the bond is fully formed, presumably Jared will feel his pain too.
“Be that as it may,” his mom says, “that’s not a reason why you would need to be intimate with him.”
Jensen bites at his lip and looks away. “Uh, actually the bond…kind of requires that too.”
His mom expels a harsh breath of air and then breathes in raggedly. “Oh,” she runs a hand through her hair. “So the magi can just go around forcing bonds on others that force those others to have immoral sex with them whether they want to or not!”
“Jared didn’t cause this,” Jensen’s getting really sick of having to say that.
“He’s right, Ma,” Greg chimes in. “And you know that as well as he does. You’ve read all the same research and reports and you saw today.”
“Besides,” Grace says. “They’re soulmates. A perfect match. Destined to be together. I seriously doubt there’s any part of this relationship that Jensen doesn’t want. Except maybe this whole drama,” she waves her arms around her head.
Naomi Ackles stares at Grace, her expression one of complete non-comprehension and then she turns back to Jensen.
“I think you should move back home,” she says. “I understand that you’ll have to go and see the magus on occasion to meet this awful bond’s requirements, but afterwards you can do a purification ritual and asks God’s forgiveness for sinning with a, with a magus. I’m sure the Good Lord won’t bar you from entering Heaven when this clearly isn’t your fault.”
Jensen puts his iced tea down very carefully and sits up straight on the edge of his seat.
“I’m not going to do that,” he says. “Jared is my soulmate and I’m gonna spend my life with him. In a few years, when the time is right, we’re going to get hand-fasted. We may even contract children with a female same-sex couple. We’re going to be a family, mom. Not some dirty little secret.”
His mom’s face hardens. She gets to her feet and stares down at him impassively. “In that case,” she says, her voice remote, “I only have one son.”
She leaves the room and Jensen’s dad sighs and gets to his feet.
“Now look what you’ve done,” he says to Jensen before following after his wife.
In the wake of his parents exit, the living room is silent. Jensen has put his blocks back at full strength, but even so, he can feel Jared hammering on the other side.
“I’m sorry,” Jensen says when the silence gets to be too much.
“It’s not your fault,” Grace gets up from the armchair where she’s sitting and comes to sit beside him on the sofa. Jensen has his big sister on one side of him and his big brother on the side. It’s unexpectedly comforting. “You know they love you, right?” Grace says.
Jensen scoffs. Apparently he’s not even his mom’s son anymore.
Grace shakes her head. “She didn’t mean that. She just…she’s terrified. According to everything she’s spent her whole life believing with every fiber of her being, by being intimate with a magus, you’re condemning yourself to an eternity in the fires of Hell. She loves you. She doesn’t want that for you. She thinks that if she threatens you enough, you’ll--”
“What?” Jensen interrupts. “Miraculously stop being who I am? What I am?”
Grace smiles. “Yeah, something like that. You’re just gonna have to give them time.”
“She’s right, Bro,” says Greg. “Although it was probably that whole ‘hand-fasting’ thing that pushed her over the edge. That’s a Wiccan ceremony; it’s not recognized by the Church.”
“I know that.”
Greg nods. “Are you going to Convert?”
Jensen shrugs. “Maybe.”
“If you do, you’ll have to go Orgies,” Greg wiggles his eyebrows like a vaudeville villain.
“No I won’t,” Jensen feels his cheeks heat. “The Orgies are strictly voluntary. Although I will say that dancing half-naked on a beach, under the Full Moon is a helluva lot of fun.”
Grace snickers. “You didn’t!”
Jensen nods solemnly.
“Half-naked?” Grace sounds slightly scandalized.
“Well, I just had my jeans on, and they were rolled up to my knees. I had my shirt off. Shoes and socks too.”
Grace giggles. “Oh my,” she says. “It’s always the quiet ones.”
Greg grins at her. “Hey, do you remember that Drawing Down the Moon Ceremony that we picketed, back when you were a senior in High School and I was a junior?”
“Oh yeah,” Grace’s eyes go wide. “We were supposed to be standing with our backs turned to the Filth and Degradation, but you and I both got busted for looking. We both wanted to see some boobs!”
“We got in so much trouble,” Greg shakes his head and then bumps Jensen’s shoulder. “You were the only one of us who didn’t look. We thought you were so pious.”
“I was embarrassed,” Jensen says. “I was holding a sign that said God Hates Witches. Like I wanted to make eye contact with anyone while I was holding that.”
“Well,” Greg grins sheepishly, “it wasn’t exactly eye contact I was hoping for!”
He and Grace dissolve into a fit of the giggles and Jensen can only stare at them and shake his head. “You’re like middle schoolers,” he says. “I’m supposed to be the baby in the family.”
“You’re all a disgrace,” Jensen’s dad says from the doorway. “There is nothing at all humorous about this situation.”
He stomps away, but his appearance sobers them all up.
“Well,” Greg smacks a hand down on Jensen’s thigh. “I’ve got some phone calls to make,” he looks over Jensen’s head at Grace. “What we talked about, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Grace says.
Greg leaves the room and Jensen tries to get Grace to tell him what Greg meant, but she just shakes her head and tells him to wait and see.
--
It doesn’t take Jensen long to pack-he never really unpacked, it’s really just a case of shoving his dirty clothes and his sleep clothes back in his duffel bag and getting his toothbrush, deodorant, shaving stuff and hair stuff from the bathroom. When he opens his bedroom door, duffel bag swung across one shoulder, he finds his mom standing on the other side, about to knock.
“What are you doing?” she says.
Her eyes are red-ringed and puffy.
Jensen’s chest aches. “Figured I should leave. You know, seeing as I’m not your son anymore.”
A single tear rolls down his mom’s cheek.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t mean it. It’s just,” more tears roll down her cheeks. “I don’t understand how you can stand to be with someone whose ancestors sold their souls to the Devil for power. That’s a legacy that lives on in the genes of all witches. He’s destined for Hell, Jensen, and I don’t want him to take you with him.”
Jensen closes his eyes briefly. His parents’ beliefs leave him feeling wretched and heart-sick. “I don’t believe that, mama,” he says. “The magi are just a human variant. What they can do, it isn’t really magic. It’s just manipulating energy in ways that mundanes can’t.”
“That’s not what the Church teaches,” she says, her mouth pursed.
“I know,” Jensen says gently. “The Church is wrong.”
Her mouth becomes a thin line. “The Church can’t be wrong. The Patriarch is infallible. His teachings aren’t to be questioned.”
“I’m sorry, mama,” Jensen says. “But I just don’t share your beliefs any more. I’m not sure I ever really did.”
Of course, his mom wants to know how he can be sure that Jared didn’t bewitch him to make him stop believing. Jensen confesses that he hasn’t believed for a long time now, since long before he met Jared.
“Besides,” he says, “don’t you think it’s a little too convenient, the way anybody who dissents is immediately dismissed by the Church as no longer acting of their own free will?”
His mom’s eyes meet his and Jensen can see the uncertainty in them. “I don’t know,” she says, turning away. “I just…I know what I’ve been taught to think, but… I just don’t know any more.”
Jensen follows her down the hallway and asks her if it’s okay if he waits in the living room.
“Jared’s gonna come and pick me up.”
“You called him?”
Jensen rubs the back of his neck. “We spoke.”
His mom smooths down the front of her floral blouse. “Oh,” she says, “By,” she taps her head.
Jensen nods. “Yeah.”
She shakes her head. “It’s not natural, Jensen.”
He snorts. “Oh, and cellphones are?”
His mom pats at her hair and manages a half-smile. “I guess not.”
Greg appears, carrying a box.
“Has Jared left yet?” he asks.
Jensen puts the question to his soulmate and then tells Greg that he hasn’t.
Greg nods. “Tell him not to. I’ll drive you down in a couple hours.”
“Okay.”
Greg heads out to his truck. Jensen and his mom follow him to the front door and watch as he puts the box in the truck’s tray. There’s actually quite a lot of stuff in the tray already.
“What are you doing?” Jensen’s mom asks when Greg comes back inside.
Greg looks over her shoulder to Grace, who’s coming down the hall carrying a suitcase and a duffel bag.
“Grace?” his mom says, her brow furrowing. “What’s going on?”
Grace puts the suitcase down. “We’re moving out,” she says. “Greg and I got an apartment in Cherrywood.”
His mom’s face blanches. “But…why?” she says.
“It’s just time,” Greg says, coming up behind and putting a hand on her shoulder. “We both want to make some changes in our lives. Spread our wings a little.”
“What do you mean?” Jensen’s mom is sounding a little panicked now.
“Well, for starters I gave the Archdiocese my notice today,” Greg says. “I’ve accepted a job with UAT’s legal team, which I’ll start next Monday.”
Naomi Ackles turns to Grace. “What about you? You didn’t quit your job too, did you?”
Grace nods. “I don’t have a new job yet, but I’ve got some feelers out.”
“But why Cherrywood? I know it’s close to the college, but…it’s a mixed area. And mostly Wiccan too,” she turns back to Greg, her face etched with real worry. “You’ll still come to Church, won’t you?”
Greg makes eye contact with Grace and then shakes his head. “I don’t think so, Ma. I think we’re gonna take a step back from religion for a while.”
“But you can’t!” Naomi wails. “The Patriarch will excommunicate you! He’ll make us cut off contact with you.”
“I haven’t gone to Church for years,” Jensen ventures. “You didn’t cut off contact with me.”
Greg says that it’s different when you’re away at college. They let you get away with stuff because you’re barely more than a kid. But consciously stepping away from the Church as an adult is very much frowned upon. Especially if you’re an Ackles.
All the wailing has brought their dad out from his study and as soon as he hears Greg and Grace’s plan everything gets really heated.
Jensen slips outside and goes and sits in his brother’s truck. He updates Jared on what’s going on and Jared tells him that it’s not his fault. Jensen knows that. Everything with Greg and Grace has obviously been building slowly for some time. The soulbond and the Church’s reaction to it just acted as a catalyst. That knowledge doesn’t stop him feeling guilty though; as if he is somehow responsible for tearing his family apart.
Stop that, Jared tells him firmly.
Greg and Grace come outside and head for the truck, both looking grim.
“I’m sorry,” Jensen tells them.
“It’s not your fault,” Greg says. And then he swears as a van from the local news station turns onto their street.
“Let me handle this,” Grace says.
As the van parks on the street in front of the house, Grace strides across and has an animated conversation with the people in the van.
She’s back a moment later. “I’ve promised them a quick interview in exchange for letting us get gone and not hassling us. Y’all up for that?”
Jensen nods and so does his brother.
They set up beside the van and then Grace makes a statement, telling the reporter that she and Greg support Jensen and his soulmate Jared unconditionally, that she and Greg have now left the Church after a period of growing discomfit with its teachings, and that she would personally like to apologize unreservedly for all the hateful things she has ever said to and about the magi.
The reporter mentions the brutal treatment Jensen received at the hands of the Church’s inquisitor and then asks Jensen how he’s feeling.
“Great,” Jensen says. “No lasting effects thanks to my soulbond with Jared.”
“And your relationship with magi Jared Padalecki is completely consensual?”
“Completely,” Jensen says, his eyes hard and unyielding. “Although having to keep reassuring people of that is getting annoying. There’s been enough research done to prove that the magi can’t make anyone do anything they don’t want to do.”
The reporter sensibly abandons that line of questioning and asks Jensen what he thinks should happen to Inquisitor Heyerdahl.
Greg steps in smoothly and says that’s a matter for the courts to determine, however he will be speaking with his brother about suing the Church for Heyerdahl’s actions, which were, after all, undertaken on their behalf.
The reporter asks Jensen if there is anything he’d like to say to the viewers. He thinks for a moment and then says,
“Just that if Jared and I could have one wish, it would be that everyone could just get along. Magi, mundane, what does it matter? People come in all sorts of shades and shapes and sizes and sexualities; the magi gene is just one more difference. We need to learn to embrace our similarities and celebrate our differences, because if you think about it we’ve got such an amazing, awe-inspiring, diverse planet and we get to be alive. To me, that’s the real magic.”
--
The black Ford truck has barely stopped when Jared flings open his front door and races out. He stops just short of the truck, peering at it and biting at his lip until Jensen appears from the back seat. Jared closes the distance between them quickly and takes his soulmate in his arms, kissing him passionately and then hugging him tightly.
“I missed you so freakin’ much,” he mutters into Jensen’s hair. Which smells amazing. Jared takes a good sniff and he feels Jensen’s amusement through their bond.
“Freak,” says Jensen. He pulls away and looks warmly up at Jared. “I missed you too.”
There’s a bang and Jared’s eyes dart back to the truck. Grace and Greg have just got out and they’re standing awkwardly by their closed doors.
Jared’s not going to lie. He’s a little nervous. Not so long ago these people were talking like they thought that Jared and his family should be burned at the stake. He knows from Jensen that they haven’t really thought that for a long time; that they were just towing the party line, but he’s still half expecting them to shout God hates witches at him or something.
“They won’t,” Jensen murmurs. “Come and meet them.”
The walk hand-in-hand toward the truck and the introductions are made. Jensen’s siblings seem just as nervous as he is; which Jared supposes is something. One thing’s for certain and that’s that Jensen and his siblings were all definitely made using the same incredibly hot mold. Jared takes a second long look at Greg and, for just one brief moment, allows himself to imagine-
“Goddess above,” Jensen says, smacking his arm hard. “He’s my brother!”
“I was in between you!” Jared says indignantly, rubbing at his arm. “You two weren’t--”
Jensen claps a hand over his mouth.
Way to be a stereotype he sends.
Oh yeah. That probably didn’t help at all with the all witches are sluts stereotype that Jensen’s siblings probably believe.
“Sorry,” Jared says. “When I’m nervous my brain likes to babble inappropriately.”
“Don’t sweat it, dude,” Greg says, slapping him on the arm. “You’re obviously a man of taste. I’m flattered. Totally straight though.”
Jared grins and then invites them in. “You’re still planning on staying the night, right? Mom made up both of the spare bedrooms. Oh, and Misha and Felicia waited to meet you!”
Grace squeaks. “Felicia’s here?”
“Oh yeah,” Jared grins. “She did her webcast from here. It was awesome! And then she wanted to stick around to meet Jensen.”
Grace’s smile dims, just a little and Jared’s grin turns wicked.
“Of course, then she found out you were coming too and she kind of grabbed hold of my arms and jumped up and down squealing,” Jared lowers his voice. “I actually wasn’t supposed to tell you that!”
Jensen and his siblings had driven from their parents’ house to the furnished apartment that Greg had rented in Cherrywood. They’d unloaded their stuff and done some basic shopping and then Jensen had let Jared know that they were on their way, smugly thinking that they were going to save a truckload in cell phone costs.
The drive from Cherrywood to San Antonio was about an hour and a half and they stopped for a snack just outside of San Marcos. By the time they arrived at Jared’s place it was a little after six in the evening and it had been a long day.
As soon as they are inside, Jensen finds himself being enthusiastically hugged by both of Jared’s parents and then introduced to Misha, who turns out to be the dark-haired man who Jensen had seen healing Jared.
“Thank you,” Jensen says. “I don’t know how magi healing works, but thank you.”
“I’d explain it,” Misha replies, “but I spent eight years learning this shit in college and it would take too long. Vicariously healing you through Jared, though; that was a first. Would you mind taking your shirt off? I’d like to take a look at the site of your wounds.”
Thankfully, Jared’s mom steps in and suggests that maybe they can do that later, in private. She introduces Felicia who is vibrating with so much positive energy that Jensen feels it buzzing through his bond with Jared.
Whoa! He sends.
Tell me about it, Jared sends back. She’s great. But her energy levels are so high and she’s so empathic, that it can be exhausting.
She talks a mile a minute too. Asks Jensen questions and then answers them herself before he can get a word in edge ways.
“Felicia,” he finally manages to say, “I believe you know my sister, Grace?”
He reaches out an arm and drags Grace forward.
“Hi,” Felicia says.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Grace says formally.
Felicia looks her up and down, grins suddenly, and pulls her in for a hug. She whispers something in Grace’s ear that has his sister blushing furiously and when Jensen looks around, he finds Greg talking with Misha, his brother’s eyes as big as saucers. Jared’s parents are watching the whole scene unfold with happy expressions, their arms around one another.
“Come on,” Jared says. “I’ll show you where you’re sleeping.”
Jared practically drags Jensen down the hall to a bedroom and he’s on him the moment the door shuts, shoving him up against the closed door and practically devouring him with his lips and his tongue.
“Fucking missed you,” he says when he finally pulls away.
Jensen’s lips are slick and swollen and he looks slightly dazed. It’s a good look and Jared is proud to have caused it.
A moment later Jared’s mom bangs on the door.
“Wow,” she says when Jared opens it. “Charisma wasn’t kidding. You boys better cool it until we’re all in bed tonight unless you want Grace and Greg to be faced with an impromptu orgy and I really don’t think they’re ready for that.”
Jensen turns scarlet.
“Sorry, mom,” Jared says. He can sense Jensen’s embarrassment at the fact that he’s talking with his mom about sex and he understands it intellectually, but the magi-and Wiccans-just think about sex differently. It’s something natural, sacred and beautiful; not something dirty and sinful.
They leave Jensen’s duffel bag in the room.
Jensen is disbelieving that Jared’s parents are cool with them sleeping in the same room and it reminds Jared yet again what a different attitude Jensen and the Holy Fire folk have toward sex.
Jared’s dad has shown Greg and Grace to their rooms and he tells them that Felicia is helping Grace to unpack, which Jared assumes is a euphemism and Jensen hotly insists is a totally literal expression. Given the emotions that Jared can sense coming from the women, Jared doubts that very much and he knows Jensen can feel what he’s feeling via their bond, but it takes Felicia and Grace’s somewhat dishevelled reappearance for Jensen to concede that Jared was right.
“Aren’t they adorable when they do that whole telepathy thing?” Misha says. “You can see whatever they’re talking about play out on their faces and of course you can feel the emotions; it’s so entertaining.”
Jensen looks horrified and then embarrassed and then he hides his face in Jared’s chest.
“It’s okay, babe,” Jared pats him on the head. “You can’t help having such an expressive face. Just, promise me you’ll never play poker, okay?”
Jensen smacks his arm and mutters something about hating him, but Jared knows that’s not true.
Felicia and Misha stay for supper, which is a lively affair, filled with good humor and good conversation. Jared’s mom and Grace are talking effective PR strategies, his dad and Felicia are talking about some VR computer game that Felicia reviewed recently, and Misha is quizzing Greg on the ‘strange aversion to orgies that you Holy Fire people have’.
When he’s eaten his fill, Jared sits back and watches the banter flying back and forth. This is good, he decides. This is family. He can feel Jensen’s gratitude for the presence of his siblings and knows that he’s hopeful that his parents will come around too, one day.
They’d watched the news before supper, which was full of Inquisitor Heyerdahl’s arrest for assaulting Jensen, and reports of dissension within the ranks of the Church of the Holy Fire. There were Pastors interviewed who talked about the need to re-interpret scripture; saying that the focus on the magi was wrong, that God had been condemning evil, not witches, that the mundane interpretation of evil as witches had merely been the result of fear of those who were different; of xenophobia. Jared wholeheartedly approves and he knows that Jensen does too. It looks like they’re in for some interesting times.
Jensen reaches for his hand underneath the table and Jared takes it, his heart swelling with love.
Jensen’s eyes widen and then he smiles softly. “Jared,” he chides gently.
“What?”
“You should probably do something about this,” Jensen gestures to the sparkly rainbow-colored swirls that are dancing around his head.
“Oops,” Jared says, quickly reintegrating the physical manifestation of his magic. “I guess my magic missed you too.”
He can’t believe it’s only been a couple of weeks since his magic reached out and claimed Jensen as his soulmate. And he knows that they were only apart for one night and most of two days, but he missed Jensen fiercely the whole time they were apart.
I missed you too, Jensen says.
Jared smiles. He can’t wait to get Jensen into the privacy of their room so that he can show him-repeatedly-just how much he loves him.
The End
<
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Jensen is blinded by camera flashes the moment his dad opens the door. Déjà vu.
“Step aside!” his father says, putting a protective arm around Jensen’s shoulders and throwing out a hand to shield him from the cameras. Jensen’s mom is on his other side and his siblings are behind them.
“Are you going to attempt to break the soulbond?” a reporter shouts.
Grace answers, in her role as Church spokesperson. “We’re going to Church to pray for our brother.”
“But are you going to try to break the bond?”
“Jensen wants to make sure there is no spell binding him to a witch. As well as prayer, we will be performing an old ritual and Jensen will be engaging in acts of devotion.”
“Jensen, are you doing this willingly?” another reporter shouts.
Jensen stops walking, despite his dad’s determined efforts to hustle him into the waiting car. “Yes,” Jensen says firmly, trying to spot the reporter who asked the question in among the crowd. A whole bunch more flashes go off. “When I walk out of the Church later on today, I want there to be no doubt that I am a free agent acting of my own free will with respect to my relationship with Jared. Thank you.”
He gets in the big, black town car that the Church has sent for his family.
There are more reporters at the Church and they shout out all the same questions that the ones back at home did. Grace and Jensen give the same answers and then they’re bustled inside the Church where Pastor Roberts, Inquisitor Heyerdahl and half a dozen acolytes are waiting. They’re all in flaming red robes with cowled hoods and Jensen feels his pulse begin to race and his stomach begin to churn.
He swallows and turns to Grace who nods. “Everything’s gonna be okay,” she reassures and he hopes she’s right.
When Jensen had called on Friday night and told his parents that he would be flying home on Monday and he wanted help to overcome his bewitchment, they’d gone straight to Pastor Roberts, who’d organized a meeting with Inquisitor Heyerdahl straight away. Inquisitor Heyerdahl had insisted that Grace and Jensen’s mom be kept out of the meeting where they’d planned how they were going to remedy Jensen’s bewitchment, but his dad and Greg had been there and Greg had told Grace everything.
Grace in turn had spoken to Felicia and she’d had a friend of hers sneak into the Church on Sunday night and rig up a series of hidden cameras and microphones.
As soon as Felicia got a signal from Grace, she was going to start broadcasting what was happening in the Church on her Youtube channel.
Pastor Roberts directs Jensen and his family to sit in the front pew, with two acolytes seated on either side of them. Inquisitor Heyerdahl is in the pulpit, flanked by the remaining two acolytes and as soon as Pastor Roberts has the Ackles family seated he joins Heyerdahl in the pulpit.
“We are here,” Heyerdahl intones, in a nasally voice, “so that Jensen Ackles, suspected to be under the enchantment of witchcraft, may undertake a series of ordeals thus proving his devotion to God, so that God may listen to our prayers and grant Brother Jensen remedy from his bewitchment.”
Jensen glances up at the Inquisitor. His face is shining in the light of the Holy Fire and his eyes are bright with fervor. Jensen swallows. He’s not convinced the man is entirely sane. And what’s this about ordeals? Jensen had sort of figured that he was going to be on his knees a lot, praying, probably until they got sore and swollen. He’d thought they may even make him kneel in rice. He’d figured there’d be lots of lighting candles while reciting prayers, writing out prayers and throwing them into the Holy Fire, and almost certainly walking over hot coals.
But the way Heyerdahl said ordeals, has Jensen worried.
The Inquisitor makes the Sign of the Pyre and the Ackles family follow suit. He then announces the Gospel of the Sacred Fire and the Ackles family all drop to their knees to recite it alongside the Pastors and acolytes. There are prayers and readings from the Holy Book. The Inquisitor lights and extinguishes candles and throws prayer scrolls into the Holy Fire.
And then he calls Jensen up to the dais.
Jensen swallows and gets to his feet. He makes his way slowly to the raised platform and stands before the Inquisitor, trying not to shuffle nervously.
“Will you stay to bear witness?” the Inquisitor asks his family.
“We will,” his family replies.
“Your Reverence,” Grace says. “Patriarch Lucius has asked me to live tweet the process for the Church.”
Inquisitor Heyerdahl nods. “If at any time it becomes too difficult for you ladies to bear witness, please feel free to leave.”
Jensen’s breath gets stuck in his throat. That doesn’t sound ominous at all.
At first, things are as Jensen expected. Prayers. Candles. Throwing prayer scrolls into the Holy Fire. Kneeling in rice to pray; which hurts every bit as much as he remembered, only this time he can feel Jared in the back of his mind, sharing his pain and bolstering his ability to cope with it.
Are you watching online? Jensen asks. Jared says that he is, but that so far it’s all pretty boring.
And then Inquisitor Heyerdahl uncovers the Pit of Hot Coals and tells Jensen to take off his shoes and socks.
It’s about to get more interesting, Jensen tells Jared as he roll his jeans up and prepares to walk the pit. It’s been five years since he last did this, but Jensen had mastered the art of walking across hot coals by the age of ten, so he’s able to do it now without unduly hurting himself.
Heyerdahl examines his feet afterward and then makes him do it again. And again.
And then the Inquisitor does an elaborate, booming prayer, with lots of gesticulating and bowing in front of the Holy Fire.
Jensen looks across at his family and raises his eyebrows. His family looks equally as puzzled.
Inquisitor Heyerdahl reaches under the lectern and pulls out a small flogger.
“Take off your shirt, Jensen.”
“No.”
Heyerdahl raises an eyebrow. “Do you want to be cured?”
Jensen takes a step backward and adopts a defensive stance. “I don’t see how you hitting me is gonna overcome a spell.”
Heyerdahl smiles, his lips thin and insincere. “I’m not going to hit you. You need to perform an act of self-mortification in order to demonstrate your devotion and prove yourself worthy of God’s intercession.”
Jensen stares at him incredulously. He’s half expecting the man to laugh and say only joking, but it doesn’t happen. Heyerdahl holds his gaze and then in his strange, strangled voice he says, “Take your shirt off.”
Jensen checks in with Jared, who tells him that it’s his choice. I’ll be here to support you, whatever you decide, Jared sends.
“Are you refusing to be cured?” Heyerdahl says thinly.
Jensen figures that he’s going to be the one wielding the flogger, and he doesn’t have to do it very hard. It’s probably just supposed to be symbolic.
He unbuttons his shirt and an acolyte steps forward to take it.
“Tee-shirt too,” says Heyerdahl.
Jensen complies and Heyerdahl hands him the flogger.
Jensen feels incredibly stupid. He turns away from his family so that he doesn’t have to see their faces while he does this and then he swings the flogger over his shoulder and onto his back, really, really softly.
He does it again.
And again.
“Harder!” Heyerdahl says.
Jensen hits himself a little harder and okay, that hurt.
“Again!”
Crap. Jensen grits his teeth and does it one more time.
“Again!” Heyerdahl shouts. “Keep going!”
Jensen lets the flogger fall another three times and it fucking hurts. He hits again, a fourth time, and is unable to keep the hiss of pain behind his clenched teeth.
“That’s enough!” his mom cries out. “This is just cruel, Pastor Roberts. Make him stop.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Jensen sees Pastor Roberts go to mom’s side. He hears them talking quietly. His mom sounds distressed.
“Keep going,” Inquisitor Heyerdahl says.
But Jensen is done. He shakes his head and hands the flogger back to the Inquisitor.
“I can’t,” he says.
Heyerdahl takes the flogger and then nods his head. Two red-cowled acolytes grab ahold of Jensen’s arms and drag him to a small altar at the back of the dais. They bend him over it and hold him down.
Jensen can hear his mom screaming and Inquisitor Heyerdahl tells Pastor Roberts to get his family out of the room.
“I’m staying!” he hears Grace call out. “It’s my duty to bear witness and I’m not leaving.”
The thump of his heart is booming in Jensen’s ears, his breathing is harsh and he’s fighting hard to get free of the acolytes’ hold. He doesn’t have a lot of room to maneuver though, and when a third acolyte throws himself to the floor and takes hold of his ankles, he has to concede that he can’t move and that he won’t be going anywhere.
“You sonofabitch!” he pants.
“As he breaks, so shall it break,” Heyerdahl intones.
And then he brings the flogger down hard across Jensen’s back, again and again, until Jensen starts to scream.
All Hell breaks loose then. Or at least, his family breaks loose from Pastor Roberts and the acolytes who are still trying to drag them out of the Church.
Jensen’s mom reaches him first and through the haze of pain, Jensen dimly thinks that he wouldn’t like to be in Heyerdahl’s shoes right now, Inquisitor or not.
“Get your hands off my son,” he hears her shout.
Suddenly, his dad’s by his side. Greg too. There’s pushing and shoving and yelling and then Jensen is free. He’d locked the bond with Jared down tight when Heyerdahl started to really hurt him and he cautiously re-opens it now to find Jared cursing and pleading on the other side.
I’m here, Jensen sends and the rush of relief and love is almost overwhelming. And then Jensen’s pain hits Jared and Jared cries out.
“Jared?” Jensen mutters.
I’m here, I’m here.
Jensen’s back stops hurting and it’s awesome.
From somewhere behind him he hears a gasp.
“Oh my!” Grace’s tone is shocked. “Your back just healed all by itself.”
Jensen pushes himself up off the altar and cranes his neck, trying to look over his shoulder and see his back.
“Impossible!” says Heyerdahl.
Everyone-his family, the acolytes, the pastors-is standing on the dais in a loose semi-circle, and while they were very obviously fighting and grappling earlier, they are now all gaping at Jensen.
Heyerdahl lunges for the Holy Fire and grabs one of the ceremonial pokers from it.
“I’ll break his hold,” he shouts. “Potestas incendium! Potestas incendium! Behold the trial of Red-Hot Iron! The power of Fire shall set you free!”
Jensen only has a moment to realize what the Inquisitor intends before the red hot poker-which he understands belatedly is actually a branding iron-is being pressed against his shoulder. Jensen screams and tries to move away, but the altar is directly behind him and he has nowhere to go.
The smell of burning flesh is sickening. Jensen is panting and tears are streaming down his face. When Heyerdahl removes the iron, the symbol of the Pyre is burned into the flesh of his shoulder and Jensen bites back a sob.
The pain stops as abruptly as it started and there’s a collective gasp as Jensen’s shoulder miraculously heals.
“Devilry,” whispers Heyerdahl. “Witchcraft.”
“Or maybe a miracle?” Greg says. “The work of God?”
He strides forward and holds his phone out for Inquisitor Heyerdahl and Pastor Roberts to see.
“Let’s see that again,” Jensen recognizes the tinny voice of the local TV station’s newsreader coming from his brother’s phone. He peers over Pastor Roberts’s shoulder and watches as the TV station broadcasts a special ‘breaking news’ bulletin, showing footage of Jared collapsing to the floor in his home, crying out and clawing at his back. He rips his shirt off and his back is scored with whip marks.
“Just moments ago, Felicia Day, star and producer of the award-winning web series Peace Out, Witches, began broadcasting an attempt by the Church of the Holy Fire in Austin, Texas to break the soulbond between Jensen Ackles, great nephew of Patriarch Lucius Ackles and Jared Padalecki, son of noted magi activists Jessica and Wade Padalecki.”
The TV station shows footage of Jensen being held down and flogged, which makes Jensen shift uncomfortably.
“How did they get that?” Pastor Roberts begins to cast about, obviously looking for cameras.
The TV station cuts again to the footage of Jared collapsing and ripping his shirt off and Jensen can’t help noticing that the scoring on Jared’s back looks identical to the scoring he saw on his own back.
“And then this happened,” the newsreader says with hushed reverence.
A dark-haired man with intense blue eyes holds his hands out over Jared’s back and recites an incantation. His wounds heal. And then the TV station shows footage of Jensen’s wounds spontaneously healing, and Heyerdahl’s cry of impossible!
Of course, what follows is Heyerdahl’s attempt to brand him and Jensen has to turn away from the agony that shows so clearly on his face.
The screen is now split in two and as Jensen sees himself branded he is also able to see Jared cry out and clutch at his own shoulder, where an identical brand appears as if by magic. Once again the dark-haired man heals him. And once again, Jared’s healing is effective on Jensen as well.
“Witchcraft,” Heyerdahl mutters again.
Greg inclines his head. “In part,” he agrees. “But it’s much more than that. Anyone can see that.”
“We’re soulmates,” Jensen says. “Whoever the powers that be are, whatever you believe, they’ve joined our souls together. And Greg’s right; anyone can see that,” he pauses and looks Heyerdahl in the eye. “We’re done here.”
Before Heyerdahl can protest, Grace clears her throat. “Pastor Roberts? Inquisitor Heyerdahl? The police are outside. They’d like you to go and help them with their inquiries into what they’re terming the assault on Jensen. If you wouldn’t mind,” she holds a hand out and gestures down the aisle toward the door. “They’d prefer you to come out of your own free will.”
Pastor Roberts glares at her. “You can hardly claim the moral high ground, girl. You were live tweeting for the Church!”
Grace’s smile is really rather nasty. “No,” she says. “I was helping Felicia to film you.”
“Me too,” says Greg.
Jensen can’t help his gasp of surprise. Greg’s support of him-his acceptance that the soulbond is the real deal-has been an unexpected Godsend. But Jensen hadn’t realized that his brother was in on Grace and Felicia’s plan.
Greg grins at him. “I’m always gonna have your back, little brother.”
Inquisitor Heyerdahl throws up his cowled hood and then strides down the aisle toward the door with Pastor Roberts and the acolytes behind him.
Jensen and his family find a side door and sneak home without the press noticing.
--
Jensen’s mom fusses around him for ages. Despite all the evidence to the contrary she doesn’t seem to quite believe that his back and his shoulder are fully healed and keeps dabbing him with anti-septic and muttering under her breath.
Eventually Grace and Greg gang up on her and drag her away from him.
“Have some iced tea, Ma,” Grace brings out a silver tray on which there’s a glass jug filled with his mom’s homemade iced tea and five glasses.
Jensen adds a slice of lemon to his glass of iced tea and then sits back and sips at it. Jared is a background presence in his mind. They’re not talking right now, just keeping the bond open enough to feel their connection. Occasionally one of them will send the other a nudge of love and affection-sort of like a Facebook poke, Jensen thinks with a smile. But otherwise they’re spending time with their families.
Jensen’s enjoying the pleasant family atmosphere when his dad leans forward with a sigh. He puts his glass down on the coffee table and then rests his elbows on his knees and looks at Jensen, who’s sitting opposite him.
“So I guess we need to talk,” his dad says, tone laced with reluctance.
Jensen nods. He’s been expecting some questions about the soulbond from his parents. He’d talked about it at length with Grace and Greg, but his parents hadn’t been in the room at the time.
“It does seem,” his father says, “that there is some sort of ‘bond’,” Jensen can hear the sceptical quotation marks around the word ‘bond’, “between you and this Padalecki wi- boy. However, he is still not a suitable companion for you. Just because there’s this thing tying you together, doesn’t mean you have to consort with him.”
And just like that, Jensen’s dreams of a happy future where his family and Jared’s get along, go flying out the window.
What’s wrong? Jared enquires.
Jensen lets Jared see the memory and his soulmate’s sorrow and guilt come drifting back along the bond.
Not your fault, Jared, he says and then he sighs.
“Actually, Dad, it does mean exactly that. The bond requires us to be together. If we spend too long apart it gets painful.”
He doesn’t mention that it only seems to become painful for him, because that’s a whole other can of worms that he doesn’t want to open. Although…now that the bond is fully formed, presumably Jared will feel his pain too.
“Be that as it may,” his mom says, “that’s not a reason why you would need to be intimate with him.”
Jensen bites at his lip and looks away. “Uh, actually the bond…kind of requires that too.”
His mom expels a harsh breath of air and then breathes in raggedly. “Oh,” she runs a hand through her hair. “So the magi can just go around forcing bonds on others that force those others to have immoral sex with them whether they want to or not!”
“Jared didn’t cause this,” Jensen’s getting really sick of having to say that.
“He’s right, Ma,” Greg chimes in. “And you know that as well as he does. You’ve read all the same research and reports and you saw today.”
“Besides,” Grace says. “They’re soulmates. A perfect match. Destined to be together. I seriously doubt there’s any part of this relationship that Jensen doesn’t want. Except maybe this whole drama,” she waves her arms around her head.
Naomi Ackles stares at Grace, her expression one of complete non-comprehension and then she turns back to Jensen.
“I think you should move back home,” she says. “I understand that you’ll have to go and see the magus on occasion to meet this awful bond’s requirements, but afterwards you can do a purification ritual and asks God’s forgiveness for sinning with a, with a magus. I’m sure the Good Lord won’t bar you from entering Heaven when this clearly isn’t your fault.”
Jensen puts his iced tea down very carefully and sits up straight on the edge of his seat.
“I’m not going to do that,” he says. “Jared is my soulmate and I’m gonna spend my life with him. In a few years, when the time is right, we’re going to get hand-fasted. We may even contract children with a female same-sex couple. We’re going to be a family, mom. Not some dirty little secret.”
His mom’s face hardens. She gets to her feet and stares down at him impassively. “In that case,” she says, her voice remote, “I only have one son.”
She leaves the room and Jensen’s dad sighs and gets to his feet.
“Now look what you’ve done,” he says to Jensen before following after his wife.
In the wake of his parents exit, the living room is silent. Jensen has put his blocks back at full strength, but even so, he can feel Jared hammering on the other side.
“I’m sorry,” Jensen says when the silence gets to be too much.
“It’s not your fault,” Grace gets up from the armchair where she’s sitting and comes to sit beside him on the sofa. Jensen has his big sister on one side of him and his big brother on the side. It’s unexpectedly comforting. “You know they love you, right?” Grace says.
Jensen scoffs. Apparently he’s not even his mom’s son anymore.
Grace shakes her head. “She didn’t mean that. She just…she’s terrified. According to everything she’s spent her whole life believing with every fiber of her being, by being intimate with a magus, you’re condemning yourself to an eternity in the fires of Hell. She loves you. She doesn’t want that for you. She thinks that if she threatens you enough, you’ll--”
“What?” Jensen interrupts. “Miraculously stop being who I am? What I am?”
Grace smiles. “Yeah, something like that. You’re just gonna have to give them time.”
“She’s right, Bro,” says Greg. “Although it was probably that whole ‘hand-fasting’ thing that pushed her over the edge. That’s a Wiccan ceremony; it’s not recognized by the Church.”
“I know that.”
Greg nods. “Are you going to Convert?”
Jensen shrugs. “Maybe.”
“If you do, you’ll have to go Orgies,” Greg wiggles his eyebrows like a vaudeville villain.
“No I won’t,” Jensen feels his cheeks heat. “The Orgies are strictly voluntary. Although I will say that dancing half-naked on a beach, under the Full Moon is a helluva lot of fun.”
Grace snickers. “You didn’t!”
Jensen nods solemnly.
“Half-naked?” Grace sounds slightly scandalized.
“Well, I just had my jeans on, and they were rolled up to my knees. I had my shirt off. Shoes and socks too.”
Grace giggles. “Oh my,” she says. “It’s always the quiet ones.”
Greg grins at her. “Hey, do you remember that Drawing Down the Moon Ceremony that we picketed, back when you were a senior in High School and I was a junior?”
“Oh yeah,” Grace’s eyes go wide. “We were supposed to be standing with our backs turned to the Filth and Degradation, but you and I both got busted for looking. We both wanted to see some boobs!”
“We got in so much trouble,” Greg shakes his head and then bumps Jensen’s shoulder. “You were the only one of us who didn’t look. We thought you were so pious.”
“I was embarrassed,” Jensen says. “I was holding a sign that said God Hates Witches. Like I wanted to make eye contact with anyone while I was holding that.”
“Well,” Greg grins sheepishly, “it wasn’t exactly eye contact I was hoping for!”
He and Grace dissolve into a fit of the giggles and Jensen can only stare at them and shake his head. “You’re like middle schoolers,” he says. “I’m supposed to be the baby in the family.”
“You’re all a disgrace,” Jensen’s dad says from the doorway. “There is nothing at all humorous about this situation.”
He stomps away, but his appearance sobers them all up.
“Well,” Greg smacks a hand down on Jensen’s thigh. “I’ve got some phone calls to make,” he looks over Jensen’s head at Grace. “What we talked about, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Grace says.
Greg leaves the room and Jensen tries to get Grace to tell him what Greg meant, but she just shakes her head and tells him to wait and see.
--
It doesn’t take Jensen long to pack-he never really unpacked, it’s really just a case of shoving his dirty clothes and his sleep clothes back in his duffel bag and getting his toothbrush, deodorant, shaving stuff and hair stuff from the bathroom. When he opens his bedroom door, duffel bag swung across one shoulder, he finds his mom standing on the other side, about to knock.
“What are you doing?” she says.
Her eyes are red-ringed and puffy.
Jensen’s chest aches. “Figured I should leave. You know, seeing as I’m not your son anymore.”
A single tear rolls down his mom’s cheek.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t mean it. It’s just,” more tears roll down her cheeks. “I don’t understand how you can stand to be with someone whose ancestors sold their souls to the Devil for power. That’s a legacy that lives on in the genes of all witches. He’s destined for Hell, Jensen, and I don’t want him to take you with him.”
Jensen closes his eyes briefly. His parents’ beliefs leave him feeling wretched and heart-sick. “I don’t believe that, mama,” he says. “The magi are just a human variant. What they can do, it isn’t really magic. It’s just manipulating energy in ways that mundanes can’t.”
“That’s not what the Church teaches,” she says, her mouth pursed.
“I know,” Jensen says gently. “The Church is wrong.”
Her mouth becomes a thin line. “The Church can’t be wrong. The Patriarch is infallible. His teachings aren’t to be questioned.”
“I’m sorry, mama,” Jensen says. “But I just don’t share your beliefs any more. I’m not sure I ever really did.”
Of course, his mom wants to know how he can be sure that Jared didn’t bewitch him to make him stop believing. Jensen confesses that he hasn’t believed for a long time now, since long before he met Jared.
“Besides,” he says, “don’t you think it’s a little too convenient, the way anybody who dissents is immediately dismissed by the Church as no longer acting of their own free will?”
His mom’s eyes meet his and Jensen can see the uncertainty in them. “I don’t know,” she says, turning away. “I just…I know what I’ve been taught to think, but… I just don’t know any more.”
Jensen follows her down the hallway and asks her if it’s okay if he waits in the living room.
“Jared’s gonna come and pick me up.”
“You called him?”
Jensen rubs the back of his neck. “We spoke.”
His mom smooths down the front of her floral blouse. “Oh,” she says, “By,” she taps her head.
Jensen nods. “Yeah.”
She shakes her head. “It’s not natural, Jensen.”
He snorts. “Oh, and cellphones are?”
His mom pats at her hair and manages a half-smile. “I guess not.”
Greg appears, carrying a box.
“Has Jared left yet?” he asks.
Jensen puts the question to his soulmate and then tells Greg that he hasn’t.
Greg nods. “Tell him not to. I’ll drive you down in a couple hours.”
“Okay.”
Greg heads out to his truck. Jensen and his mom follow him to the front door and watch as he puts the box in the truck’s tray. There’s actually quite a lot of stuff in the tray already.
“What are you doing?” Jensen’s mom asks when Greg comes back inside.
Greg looks over her shoulder to Grace, who’s coming down the hall carrying a suitcase and a duffel bag.
“Grace?” his mom says, her brow furrowing. “What’s going on?”
Grace puts the suitcase down. “We’re moving out,” she says. “Greg and I got an apartment in Cherrywood.”
His mom’s face blanches. “But…why?” she says.
“It’s just time,” Greg says, coming up behind and putting a hand on her shoulder. “We both want to make some changes in our lives. Spread our wings a little.”
“What do you mean?” Jensen’s mom is sounding a little panicked now.
“Well, for starters I gave the Archdiocese my notice today,” Greg says. “I’ve accepted a job with UAT’s legal team, which I’ll start next Monday.”
Naomi Ackles turns to Grace. “What about you? You didn’t quit your job too, did you?”
Grace nods. “I don’t have a new job yet, but I’ve got some feelers out.”
“But why Cherrywood? I know it’s close to the college, but…it’s a mixed area. And mostly Wiccan too,” she turns back to Greg, her face etched with real worry. “You’ll still come to Church, won’t you?”
Greg makes eye contact with Grace and then shakes his head. “I don’t think so, Ma. I think we’re gonna take a step back from religion for a while.”
“But you can’t!” Naomi wails. “The Patriarch will excommunicate you! He’ll make us cut off contact with you.”
“I haven’t gone to Church for years,” Jensen ventures. “You didn’t cut off contact with me.”
Greg says that it’s different when you’re away at college. They let you get away with stuff because you’re barely more than a kid. But consciously stepping away from the Church as an adult is very much frowned upon. Especially if you’re an Ackles.
All the wailing has brought their dad out from his study and as soon as he hears Greg and Grace’s plan everything gets really heated.
Jensen slips outside and goes and sits in his brother’s truck. He updates Jared on what’s going on and Jared tells him that it’s not his fault. Jensen knows that. Everything with Greg and Grace has obviously been building slowly for some time. The soulbond and the Church’s reaction to it just acted as a catalyst. That knowledge doesn’t stop him feeling guilty though; as if he is somehow responsible for tearing his family apart.
Stop that, Jared tells him firmly.
Greg and Grace come outside and head for the truck, both looking grim.
“I’m sorry,” Jensen tells them.
“It’s not your fault,” Greg says. And then he swears as a van from the local news station turns onto their street.
“Let me handle this,” Grace says.
As the van parks on the street in front of the house, Grace strides across and has an animated conversation with the people in the van.
She’s back a moment later. “I’ve promised them a quick interview in exchange for letting us get gone and not hassling us. Y’all up for that?”
Jensen nods and so does his brother.
They set up beside the van and then Grace makes a statement, telling the reporter that she and Greg support Jensen and his soulmate Jared unconditionally, that she and Greg have now left the Church after a period of growing discomfit with its teachings, and that she would personally like to apologize unreservedly for all the hateful things she has ever said to and about the magi.
The reporter mentions the brutal treatment Jensen received at the hands of the Church’s inquisitor and then asks Jensen how he’s feeling.
“Great,” Jensen says. “No lasting effects thanks to my soulbond with Jared.”
“And your relationship with magi Jared Padalecki is completely consensual?”
“Completely,” Jensen says, his eyes hard and unyielding. “Although having to keep reassuring people of that is getting annoying. There’s been enough research done to prove that the magi can’t make anyone do anything they don’t want to do.”
The reporter sensibly abandons that line of questioning and asks Jensen what he thinks should happen to Inquisitor Heyerdahl.
Greg steps in smoothly and says that’s a matter for the courts to determine, however he will be speaking with his brother about suing the Church for Heyerdahl’s actions, which were, after all, undertaken on their behalf.
The reporter asks Jensen if there is anything he’d like to say to the viewers. He thinks for a moment and then says,
“Just that if Jared and I could have one wish, it would be that everyone could just get along. Magi, mundane, what does it matter? People come in all sorts of shades and shapes and sizes and sexualities; the magi gene is just one more difference. We need to learn to embrace our similarities and celebrate our differences, because if you think about it we’ve got such an amazing, awe-inspiring, diverse planet and we get to be alive. To me, that’s the real magic.”
--
The black Ford truck has barely stopped when Jared flings open his front door and races out. He stops just short of the truck, peering at it and biting at his lip until Jensen appears from the back seat. Jared closes the distance between them quickly and takes his soulmate in his arms, kissing him passionately and then hugging him tightly.
“I missed you so freakin’ much,” he mutters into Jensen’s hair. Which smells amazing. Jared takes a good sniff and he feels Jensen’s amusement through their bond.
“Freak,” says Jensen. He pulls away and looks warmly up at Jared. “I missed you too.”
There’s a bang and Jared’s eyes dart back to the truck. Grace and Greg have just got out and they’re standing awkwardly by their closed doors.
Jared’s not going to lie. He’s a little nervous. Not so long ago these people were talking like they thought that Jared and his family should be burned at the stake. He knows from Jensen that they haven’t really thought that for a long time; that they were just towing the party line, but he’s still half expecting them to shout God hates witches at him or something.
“They won’t,” Jensen murmurs. “Come and meet them.”
The walk hand-in-hand toward the truck and the introductions are made. Jensen’s siblings seem just as nervous as he is; which Jared supposes is something. One thing’s for certain and that’s that Jensen and his siblings were all definitely made using the same incredibly hot mold. Jared takes a second long look at Greg and, for just one brief moment, allows himself to imagine-
“Goddess above,” Jensen says, smacking his arm hard. “He’s my brother!”
“I was in between you!” Jared says indignantly, rubbing at his arm. “You two weren’t--”
Jensen claps a hand over his mouth.
Way to be a stereotype he sends.
Oh yeah. That probably didn’t help at all with the all witches are sluts stereotype that Jensen’s siblings probably believe.
“Sorry,” Jared says. “When I’m nervous my brain likes to babble inappropriately.”
“Don’t sweat it, dude,” Greg says, slapping him on the arm. “You’re obviously a man of taste. I’m flattered. Totally straight though.”
Jared grins and then invites them in. “You’re still planning on staying the night, right? Mom made up both of the spare bedrooms. Oh, and Misha and Felicia waited to meet you!”
Grace squeaks. “Felicia’s here?”
“Oh yeah,” Jared grins. “She did her webcast from here. It was awesome! And then she wanted to stick around to meet Jensen.”
Grace’s smile dims, just a little and Jared’s grin turns wicked.
“Of course, then she found out you were coming too and she kind of grabbed hold of my arms and jumped up and down squealing,” Jared lowers his voice. “I actually wasn’t supposed to tell you that!”
Jensen and his siblings had driven from their parents’ house to the furnished apartment that Greg had rented in Cherrywood. They’d unloaded their stuff and done some basic shopping and then Jensen had let Jared know that they were on their way, smugly thinking that they were going to save a truckload in cell phone costs.
The drive from Cherrywood to San Antonio was about an hour and a half and they stopped for a snack just outside of San Marcos. By the time they arrived at Jared’s place it was a little after six in the evening and it had been a long day.
As soon as they are inside, Jensen finds himself being enthusiastically hugged by both of Jared’s parents and then introduced to Misha, who turns out to be the dark-haired man who Jensen had seen healing Jared.
“Thank you,” Jensen says. “I don’t know how magi healing works, but thank you.”
“I’d explain it,” Misha replies, “but I spent eight years learning this shit in college and it would take too long. Vicariously healing you through Jared, though; that was a first. Would you mind taking your shirt off? I’d like to take a look at the site of your wounds.”
Thankfully, Jared’s mom steps in and suggests that maybe they can do that later, in private. She introduces Felicia who is vibrating with so much positive energy that Jensen feels it buzzing through his bond with Jared.
Whoa! He sends.
Tell me about it, Jared sends back. She’s great. But her energy levels are so high and she’s so empathic, that it can be exhausting.
She talks a mile a minute too. Asks Jensen questions and then answers them herself before he can get a word in edge ways.
“Felicia,” he finally manages to say, “I believe you know my sister, Grace?”
He reaches out an arm and drags Grace forward.
“Hi,” Felicia says.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Grace says formally.
Felicia looks her up and down, grins suddenly, and pulls her in for a hug. She whispers something in Grace’s ear that has his sister blushing furiously and when Jensen looks around, he finds Greg talking with Misha, his brother’s eyes as big as saucers. Jared’s parents are watching the whole scene unfold with happy expressions, their arms around one another.
“Come on,” Jared says. “I’ll show you where you’re sleeping.”
Jared practically drags Jensen down the hall to a bedroom and he’s on him the moment the door shuts, shoving him up against the closed door and practically devouring him with his lips and his tongue.
“Fucking missed you,” he says when he finally pulls away.
Jensen’s lips are slick and swollen and he looks slightly dazed. It’s a good look and Jared is proud to have caused it.
A moment later Jared’s mom bangs on the door.
“Wow,” she says when Jared opens it. “Charisma wasn’t kidding. You boys better cool it until we’re all in bed tonight unless you want Grace and Greg to be faced with an impromptu orgy and I really don’t think they’re ready for that.”
Jensen turns scarlet.
“Sorry, mom,” Jared says. He can sense Jensen’s embarrassment at the fact that he’s talking with his mom about sex and he understands it intellectually, but the magi-and Wiccans-just think about sex differently. It’s something natural, sacred and beautiful; not something dirty and sinful.
They leave Jensen’s duffel bag in the room.
Jensen is disbelieving that Jared’s parents are cool with them sleeping in the same room and it reminds Jared yet again what a different attitude Jensen and the Holy Fire folk have toward sex.
Jared’s dad has shown Greg and Grace to their rooms and he tells them that Felicia is helping Grace to unpack, which Jared assumes is a euphemism and Jensen hotly insists is a totally literal expression. Given the emotions that Jared can sense coming from the women, Jared doubts that very much and he knows Jensen can feel what he’s feeling via their bond, but it takes Felicia and Grace’s somewhat dishevelled reappearance for Jensen to concede that Jared was right.
“Aren’t they adorable when they do that whole telepathy thing?” Misha says. “You can see whatever they’re talking about play out on their faces and of course you can feel the emotions; it’s so entertaining.”
Jensen looks horrified and then embarrassed and then he hides his face in Jared’s chest.
“It’s okay, babe,” Jared pats him on the head. “You can’t help having such an expressive face. Just, promise me you’ll never play poker, okay?”
Jensen smacks his arm and mutters something about hating him, but Jared knows that’s not true.
Felicia and Misha stay for supper, which is a lively affair, filled with good humor and good conversation. Jared’s mom and Grace are talking effective PR strategies, his dad and Felicia are talking about some VR computer game that Felicia reviewed recently, and Misha is quizzing Greg on the ‘strange aversion to orgies that you Holy Fire people have’.
When he’s eaten his fill, Jared sits back and watches the banter flying back and forth. This is good, he decides. This is family. He can feel Jensen’s gratitude for the presence of his siblings and knows that he’s hopeful that his parents will come around too, one day.
They’d watched the news before supper, which was full of Inquisitor Heyerdahl’s arrest for assaulting Jensen, and reports of dissension within the ranks of the Church of the Holy Fire. There were Pastors interviewed who talked about the need to re-interpret scripture; saying that the focus on the magi was wrong, that God had been condemning evil, not witches, that the mundane interpretation of evil as witches had merely been the result of fear of those who were different; of xenophobia. Jared wholeheartedly approves and he knows that Jensen does too. It looks like they’re in for some interesting times.
Jensen reaches for his hand underneath the table and Jared takes it, his heart swelling with love.
Jensen’s eyes widen and then he smiles softly. “Jared,” he chides gently.
“What?”
“You should probably do something about this,” Jensen gestures to the sparkly rainbow-colored swirls that are dancing around his head.
“Oops,” Jared says, quickly reintegrating the physical manifestation of his magic. “I guess my magic missed you too.”
He can’t believe it’s only been a couple of weeks since his magic reached out and claimed Jensen as his soulmate. And he knows that they were only apart for one night and most of two days, but he missed Jensen fiercely the whole time they were apart.
I missed you too, Jensen says.
Jared smiles. He can’t wait to get Jensen into the privacy of their room so that he can show him-repeatedly-just how much he loves him.
The End
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