Yay, I did manage to get a one shot done this week! I needed some Cas and Jack feels so I wrote this one. More angsty than anticipated, but oh well. This is set after 13x6 but the only reason it's AU is because Jack didn't run away. Hope you all enjoy, and there's another multi-chap story coming Friday :)
Strong Enough
A Supernatural Fanfic
"He's doing fine…. No, I've been having him do some exercises."
Jack listened to Castiel talking to the Winchesters on the phone in the kitchen, hanging back so the angel didn't know he was eavesdropping. Sam and Dean had gone on a hunt a couple days ago, and had, understandably, thought it best that Jack stayed back at the bunker. Jack knew why, after all, he'd gotten too excited about his powers and thought he could control them and then he had killed that poor man on accident. But he still felt useless, wishing he could be out there using his powers for good, after all, if he couldn't do that then what good were they? But he also realized that he needed to learn to control them better. Otherwise, next time it might be his friends who could be badly hurt.
So Castiel had stayed back at the bunker with him, hoping to help him better learn how to use his powers. It hadn't been said out loud, but Jack figured the angel thought it was better to do this when the Winchesters weren't around. That way their human companions wouldn't be caught in any accidental crossfire.
"We'll be fine," Cas insisted with a slight note of exasperation in his voice. "You two be careful."
Jack retreated quickly back to the library as he sensed the call winding down and sat at the table again, focusing on idly moving the pencil in front of him with his mind. Castiel came back in soon after with a hot cup of coffee.
"What should we do now?" Jack asked him. They hadn't made bad progress that day. Yes, Jack had accidently destroyed one of the chairs in the library when he had been practicing moving it, but Castiel was teaching him how to gauge his power, ease it out instead of just throwing everything he had at an object. He'd had much better success the next time he tried and had eventually managed to slide a chair all the way across the library without destroying anything.
Castiel sat down across the table from him. "You've done well for today, Jack," he said. "But I think we shouldn't push you too much all at once, so why don't we take a break for the night? It's getting late, and you haven't eaten all day. I can take you into town and pick up food, anything you want. And then you can do whatever you would like for the rest of the night."
Jack furrowed his brow thoughtfully. He was very hungry after a hard day's work, and though he was eager to learn more, he was also somewhat relieved that he wouldn't have to practice using his powers again until tomorrow. It was rather exhausting.
"Okay," he nodded with a small smile. "I think I would like pizza. And chocolate cake."
Castiel smiled fondly. "Okay then, we'll go get that."
"Maybe when we come back we can watch Stranger Things on Netflix. Sam said it was good," Jack added.
"That sounds like a good idea," Castiel said and stood, going to grab the keys to his truck.
They drove into town and to the local grocery store to get a chocolate cake before they stopped to pick up the pizza on the way home. Jack happily picked out a cake and followed Castiel to the checkout line.
However, as soon as they were finished there, Castiel got a strange look on his face, and he glanced around cautiously.
"What's wrong?" Jack asked him.
Castiel shook his head. "Nothing, let's go."
Jack didn't believe him, though, and had a bad feeling in his stomach, especially when they were walking back to the truck in the dark parking lot and a light flickered out, accompanied by several footsteps in the shadowed area.
Castiel instantly had his blade out in his hand and he and Jack both turned to see several men in suits behind them. Jack caught the glint of a blade in the dim light.
"Castiel," he said, wondering what they should do.
Castiel was already planting himself firmly between Jack and the new arrivals. One of the men stepped forward with a chuckle.
"Well, well, Castiel. Protecting Lucifer's spawn. I never would have figured that."
"What do you want?" Cas demanded.
"Our boss, Asmodeus, has had us scouring the surrounding area just waiting for you to take the nephillim on a walk. The demons who bring him in will be greatly rewarded. And I bet adding you into the bargain won't hurt either. The boy might need something to…persuade him to be good, after all."
Jack felt a coldness settle inside of him at the mention of Asmodeus. He still remembered vividly how the demon had manipulated him only days after he had been born and tried to get him to let terrible things out of Hell. He wondered vaguely if he should use his powers now to help fight the demons, but instantly pushed the thought aside. Not only was Castiel too close, but they were in a public place, and a human could walk into the line of fire at any moment.
"You are not taking this boy," Castiel said in a firm voice.
"Oh, we aren't?" another of the demons asked mockingly. "Because it looks to me like you're outnumbered."
Jack heard it just as Castiel spun around as if on instinct and caught the blow a female demon aimed at him on his angel blade. She snarled, and disengaged, as the three other demons came forward to attack the angel and the nephillim.
"Jack, go to the truck now!" Castiel cried, parrying another blow and managing to stab one of the demons in the chest, his eyes sparking out.
"I'm not going to leave you!" Jack told him, and dodged another demon who threw himself at him.
"Jack, now!" Castiel demanded, taking a punch to the face, and growling, kicking back at the demon, and then slashing him across the face. "Go!"
Jack bit his lip but was spurred into action against his better judgment. If nothing else, maybe Castiel had another weapon in the car he could use, because he still wasn't going to use his powers.
He hadn't gone three steps before he heard Castiel cry out and he spun around, seeing the angel stagger into a light pole, but it was too dark to see where or how badly he was hurt.
"Castiel!" Jack cried and was about to head back into the fight, when another demon came out of nowhere and tackled him to the ground. The cake Jack was still somehow carrying fell onto the ground, and the asphalt dug into the side of his face painfully. He grunted and the demon flipped him over onto his back, straddling his waist and leering down at him as he held a shining dagger threatening over Jack.
"You're not really all that tough, are you?" the demon sneered, latching his free hand around Jack's throat and squeezing. "But it's better to take precautions. Asmodeus sent us a safeguard, something real special that should keep you down for a good long while."
Jack's eyes focused on the blade as the demon lowered it toward his body, but he never got the chance to cut the nephillim, because a figure in a tan coat hurtled out of nowhere and threw the demon into the side of the truck before stabbing it.
Jack scrambled into a sitting position as Castiel reached down and grabbed him by the arm, hauling him the rest of the way up.
"Come on, get in the car now!" he demanded, and Jack hurried to obey, throwing open the passenger side door and scrambling inside as Castiel hauled himself into the driver's seat and fumbled for only a second before he got the key turned in the ignition.
He peeled out of the parking lot a second later, leaving the bodies of the demons behind them, the blood-soaked angel blade dropped onto the seat between them.
"Are you okay?" Castiel asked as they pulled out onto the road.
"Yeah," Jack replied, still slightly shaken, but he wasn't hurt. He glanced over at the angel. "Are you?"
He saw Castiel's jaw tighten. "I'm fine. But we need to get back to the bunker. There may be more demons."
"I'm sorry," Jack said.
Castiel glanced over at him with surprise. "Jack, it's not your fault. We had no idea they would be waiting out here for us. We haven't seen any sign of Asmodeus for weeks."
"Still, I…" He stopped, glancing over at Castiel who had slumped slightly, a barely cut off groan escaping his lips. "Castiel?"
The angel didn't reply. Jack turned to study Cas more thoroughly and in a passing streetlight he saw red splashed onto one side of his white shirt. Jack's eyes blew wide.
"You're hurt!" he exclaimed.
Castiel shook his head as if trying to clear it. "I'll—I'll be fine," he said which did not reassure Jack in the least.
They were on the last stretch back to the bunker when Castiel cried out and folded nearly in two, startling Jack as the truck swerved dangerously before the angel was able to correct it.
"Cas, you're not okay!" Jack admonished, alarm making his heart beat quickly. He had never seen Castiel hurt like this before and it scared him.
Castiel opened his mouth as if to reply but he suddenly slumped over the steering wheel instead and Jack barely managed to catch hold of the wheel to right the truck before they drove straight off the road into the wooded area beyond.
"Castiel!" he cried, but the angel was seemingly unconscious. His foot had already slipped off the gas pedal, sending the truck into a halting pace and Jack moved the stick to park and hurriedly hauled Castiel's limp form back against the seat. He seemed completely unconscious and Jack tugged his coat open to fully see the alarmingly large patch of red on Castiel's side.
"Castiel?" Jack nearly pleaded, taking the angel's face between his hands. "Castiel, please wake up!"
When there was no change, Jack pushed aside his fear and pulled Castiel into the passenger seat so he could drive. He really didn't know how to drive, but they were only minutes away from the bunker now, so he figured he could manage that.
He put the truck back in drive and managed a jerky start as he wove down the road, glancing continuously at Castiel who slumped limply against the door.
As soon as Jack made it to the bunker, he leapt out of the truck, barely remembering to turn the engine off and hurried around to the other side, his heart in his throat. He opened the door, and Castiel nearly tumbled out onto the ground, but he caught the angel just in time.
"Cas, please wake up," he pleaded again, shaking the angel slightly before giving up, and simply pulling Castiel's arm over his shoulders and hauling him from the truck. They both nearly collapsed on the ground as he took Castiel's weight, but he steadied himself and managed to keep the angel upright, dragging him toward the door of the bunker.
It was a feat to get the door open while supporting the unconscious angel, but Jack somehow managed it and finally pulled Castiel inside to safety.
To Jack's relief, Castiel groaned and stirred in his grip.
"Cas?" Jack asked urgently.
The angel's eyes fluttered open. "Jack? What…"
"You're hurt, we're back at the bunker," Jack assured him. "Can you make it down the stairs?"
Castiel tried his best. He gripped the railing weakly and tried to put one foot in front of the other, but Jack still had to do most of the work. Finally, though, they made it to the bottom, leaving a trail of blood all the way down, and Jack hurriedly directed them toward the dormitory ward, finding Castiel's room and kicking the door open fully. Thankfully, a lamp had been left on, so he could see and he promptly brought Cas over to the bed and eased him down as gently as possible.
Castiel let out a yelp of pain as he collapsed onto the mattress, and didn't stir. He seemed to be unconscious again.
Jack's hands were shaking as he started to make Castiel more comfortable, pulling his legs onto the bed and taking his shoes off. Then he turned to loosen his tie, barely able to do so with his constant trembling, and pulled that over Castiel's head before he unbuttoned his shirt and peeled it open to look at the wound.
It was bad, but not as bad as he had expected, which seemed odd suddenly. Jack frowned as he studied the long gash that ran down Castiel's side, from the middle of his ribcage to the hip on his right side. Yes, he'd lost a bit of blood, but the wound was only half and inch deep at most, and Jack didn't think it would have hit anything vital. Surely Castiel would have been able to heal a would like that, even if it had been dealt with an angel blade.
But then he looked closer, and saw that the edges of the wound were darker than they should be. He carefully reached out to touch the area around the wound and felt overly warm skin under his fingertips. Castiel moaned at the touch and jerked away slightly, obviously in a lot of pain.
Jack pulled back and wrapped his arms around himself, panic settling in. What was wrong with Castiel? Why was his wound so bad? Jack knew next to nothing about caring for wounds, how was he going to fix this?
He suddenly knew what he needed to do then. He carefully reached into Castiel's coat pocket and pulled out his phone, finding the name he wanted in the contact list.
It rang a few times, seeming like an eternity before it picked up.
"Hey, Cas, we're kinda busy right now—"
"Sam," Jack cut him off urgently. "Please, I need help!"
Sam obviously heard the urgency in his voice. "Jack? What's wrong?"
Jack glanced over at Castiel's comatose figure, and reached up to grip a fistful of his hair in anxiety. "It's Castiel, he—he's hurt, and something wrong, I don't—"
"Jack, hey, slow down, take a deep breath," Sam coaxed and Jack found himself obeying, the shaky breath helping a little bit. "Tell me what happened."
"We went into town. There were demons. Cas got hurt in the fight and now he won't wake up. And I think there's something wrong with the wound, because he's not healing." Jack suddenly remembered the demon who had attacked him saying something about a 'safeguard'. Something that would keep him down for a long time. "Sam, I think he might have been poisoned with something."
"Oh god," he heard Sam say quietly before a pause then, "Jack, listen, Dean and I are almost done here, and we'll head back soon, but you've got to calm down and listen to me, okay? Take care of Cas as well as you can; there're medical supplies in the infirmary. Do what you can for him with that, and then use the library to look up poisons that might work on an angel, okay? Just see if you can find a description that matches his symptoms."
"O-okay," Jack said, trying to keep his voice from trembling. "Sam, just, please hurry."
"We'll be there as soon as we can, Jack," Sam told him gently. "Hang in there. You'll be fine."
Jack wasn't so sure, but he had to let Sam go, he had to take care of Castiel.
He took a deep breath and decided to start by gathering the medical supplies he would need to at least bandage the wound. The least he could do is stop the bleeding.
Jack hurried toward the infirmary, grabbed what he thought he would need. He had watched Sam and Dean patch up wounds before and thought he could do it well enough, though stitching might be hard. But…maybe he shouldn't stitch a wound that was poisoned. That didn't seem right.
Jack hurried back to the room finding Cas in the exact same position he had left him and threw the items onto the bed. He ran to the bathroom to grab some towels and a bowl of water to clean the wound and returned to start the first aid.
Jack bit his lip as he stood beside the bed, and then hesitantly reached out to start pulling Castiel's coat and shirt off. It wasn't easy with him being so limp, but Jack managed it eventually, throwing the clothes carelessly into a corner. Castiel shivered slightly in the sudden cold, and Jack touched his shoulder, feeling again how hot his skin was.
"Please don't die, Castiel," he pleaded softly, trying to fight against the helplessness, the emotions, that were looming up to choke him. But he took a shuddering breath and wet one of the towels to start cleaning the blood from the wound.
The instant he touched it, Castiel flinched, and let out a breathy gasp. Jack jerked his hand away, trembling. But he steeled himself and went back in.
"I'm sorry," he whispered over and over as he pressed the cloth to Castiel's wound and dabbed the blood from it. Castiel groaned and flinched; once his hand flailed weakly into Jack's arm, as if trying to push him aside, but Jack simply grabbed his surrogate father's hand and clutched it tight, willing his grace to touch Castiel's. "Castiel, please, it's just me."
That seemed to calm the angel some, and Jack cleaned the rest of the blood from around the wound, but was discouraged to see that the edges of it were even darker than before. Jack felt bile rise in his throat, as he grabbed some gauze to cover the wound and tape it down. Why couldn't he have healing powers instead of powers of destruction? Not once had he been able to do something non-destructive with his powers and he was too scared to try and figure it out, fearing that if he tried he might blow Castiel up before he healed him.
But there was one thing he was sure of, and that was that Castiel was in a bad way. A sheen of sweat had appeared on his brow, and yet he shivered. Jack pulled a blanket over him gently.
"Please don't die, Castiel," he pleaded again. "I need you. I just got you back. I can't….I can't lose you again."
Cas didn't reply. He just lay there limply, his breathing a little too labored. Jack didn't know much about poisons, but he had a feeling this was not good. That maybe he was running out of time.
With a regretful backward glance, Jack hurried out of the room and went to the library. He opened the card catalogue like Sam had showed him and looked up poisons. He swiftly grabbed all the books that he could find on the subject and ran back to Castiel's room with the armload. He climbed into the other side of the bed and spread the books around him, swiftly scanning through them for anything involving poisons that worked on angels.
He tried to find the symptoms Castiel was suffering but really they seemed so typical for poisoning: coma, fever, extreme sensitivity around the wound site…Jack had no idea how to narrow it down, especially the ones that didn't specify what kind of creatures it worked on.
He was startled out of his research when Castiel started to shudder violently. Jack dropped his book and leaned over the angel.
"Castiel?" he cried, but the angel only continued the shudder, jaw clenched tight, and a low moan escaping his throat. Jack reached out to grab his shoulders, trying to hold him down, but Castiel continued for several more long seconds before he lay limp again.
Jack scrambled to feel his pulse, but it was there, just weak. He felt sick as he saw blood dripping out of the side of Castiel's mouth, wondering if the wound had been worse than he thought. But as he gently opened the angel's mouth, he saw that he'd simply bit his tongue during his convulsions. Jack wondered if that would happen again.
The only thing he was sure of was that Castiel was getting worse and he still hadn't made any headway into finding anything to cure him.
He glanced over at the phone when it buzzed and he swiftly grabbed it, seeing it was Sam.
"Sam," he answered quickly.
"Hey, Jack, how are you doing?"
Jack looked down at the pile of books. "I can't find anything to help him and he's…he's getting worse."
"Okay, Jack, just calm down, Dean and I are on our way back. It will probably take us about five hours—four hours," Sam amended as the sound of a revving engine could be heard in the background. "Just try to do what you can for him, okay? In the meantime, can you text me a picture of his wound and a list of his symptoms, plus anything else you might remember about the attack? I may be able to do a little research on the road."
Jack nodded before he remembered Sam couldn't see him. "Yes, I will do that. Thank you Sam. Just, please hurry."
"We'll be there soon, kid," Dean's voice came over the phone then, and the call ended.
Jack hurriedly pulled up a text thread and listed all of Castiel's symptoms he could think of, and then pulled the blanket down and peeled up the gauze.
He was almost sick as he saw the wound now. It was so much worse than before. The site was almost completely black now, and it was leaking dark discharge. The area around the cut was dark purple and red, and was spreading in dark veins up Castiel's side and over his stomach. It took Jack three tries to take a picture with his shaking hands and he sent the message to Sam.
He covered Castiel with the blanket again afterward because the angel had started shivering, even though Jack could feel the heat wafting off of him. Jack frowned and reached for the bowl and cloths, wringing out a clean one and slowly dabbed it over Castiel's face and neck. The angel let out a soft whimper, and leaned into the ministration so Jack continued for a few minutes before he left the cloth on Cas' forehead and went back to researching, pouring over the books he hadn't looked into yet, and constantly checking the phone for any messages Sam might have sent back.
That was when Castiel cried out, and jolted on the bed, in the throws of some sort of fit, far more violent than the last time. Jack practically threw himself on top of the angel to keep him from falling off of the bed.
"Castiel!" he cried, holding onto his surrogate father tightly as the spasms worked their way through him. Jack could feel the turmoil in Castiel's body, the poison coursing through him. He looked deeper, reaching out with his grace to connect with Castiel's. The angel's grace felt bogged down now, though, harder to reach than it had been earlier. Jack had to slog through a murky darkness before he could reach Castiel's true essence. He gasped slightly at the realization. The poison was slowly but surely converging on Castiel's grace, perhaps even eating away at it. No wonder Cas hadn't been able to heal himself!
Jack sat back on his heels, looking down at the unconscious angel as his mind worked. In his research he had read about spells or poultices that 'drew the poison' from someone's body. Maybe…maybe if Jack could draw the poison out of Castiel with his powers, somehow separate it from the angel's grace, he could heal him.
Fear nearly choked him at the thought of even attempting such a thing. Yes, he could differentiate the two, but what if while extracting the poison Jack accidently damaged Castiel's grace? Although, at this point, the poison was already doing that, and there didn't seem to be another option. He still hadn't found anything that could work, and Castiel was only getting worse. Jack could feel his fever heat from where he was sitting next to him on the bed.
"Okay, you can do this," he said to himself as he pulled down the blanket and peeled back the gauze again. The wound still looked horrific, and Jack took a shuddering inhale.
He tentatively reached out and placed his hand over the wound, not touching it, but hovering just over top. Then he closed his eyes and reached out, first with his own grace, touching Castiel's and locating the poison, accustoming himself to the feel of the two. Then he clenched his jaw, concentrated really hard, and pushed a little of his power through the connection he had made.
Castiel gasped and tensed, Jack paused, but didn't pull back. Nothing had happened, he bit his lip in concentration and pushed a little further. His hand began to glow, and he pictured himself slowly moving the chair over the floor in the library earlier. Easy, gentle movements. Almost coaxing. He kept his breathing steady, trying to keep himself stable.
And then he felt it. The poison began to move. He was pushing it away from Castiel's grace. It was all moving toward one location, toward Jack's hand over the wound. He opened his eyes to look, and saw the dark veins across Castiel's skin retreating. The angel tensed again and let out a long moan, but Jack kept going.
Soon, black viscous fluid was pooling at the wound and dripping down Castiel's side. Jack let out a puff of relief and kept going until all the black was gone, and there was just a little blood left dripping from the wound again.
Jack pulled his powers back and sagged, panting and light-headed from the effort. He quickly grabbed a cloth to wipe up the disgusting poison ichor and put new gauze over the wound.
Castiel groaned and stirred and Jack was instantly relieved to see his eyes flutter open. "J-Jack?" the angel murmured.
"Shh, it's okay, everything's okay now," Jack told him with a smile, exhausted and relieved that he was able to say that in all truth. "Just rest, Castiel."
The angel gave him a slightly questioning look, but didn't seem able to offer more at the moment as his eyes slid shut again.
Jack himself was completely exhausted. He had expended more energy than he thought he had but he also felt good inside. He had finally done something with his powers that was purely for good! Maybe eventually he could learn how to heal wounds completely.
But right now he just needed sleep. He pulled the blanket back over Castiel and curled up next to him. He reached out to wrap his fingers around Castiel's wrist and felt the reassuring thrum of his grace, still weaker than usual, but unencumbered by the poison. Jack allowed the safe feeling of Castiel's grace to lull him to sleep as he succumbed to his exhaustion.
Dean practically barreled into the garage, and slammed on the brakes, causing Sam to brace his hands against the dashboard before he could be flung through the windshield. He didn't berate his brother though because he was just as anxious to be back. He hadn't heard anything from Jack in the last hour even though he'd texted their ETA several times and Sam had sent suggestions on cures that might help Cas. And yeah, that picture Jack had sent him…it didn't look good. In fact, it had reminded Sam all too much of what had happened to Cas after Ramiel had stabbed him with the Lance of Micahel, and he would be lying if he said he wasn't terrified of what he and Dean might find waiting for them.
He and Dean raced into the bunker. "Jack?" Sam called, looking around, as there was no reply.
"Dammit," Dean muttered as he pushed past his brother and raced for the dormitory ward, Sam hot on his heels.
Cas' door was ajar, and the brothers barreled into the room, hearts in their throats, but what they found stopped them.
Cas was lying in the bed, resting…seemingly peacefully, without labored breathing, or flushed skin, and Jack was curled beside him among a pile of books, his head pressed into the crook of Cas' neck, looking for all the world like a puppy.
Dean was the first one to step forward, pressing the back of his hand to Cas' forehead, before pulling his blanket down to check his wound. Sam went over to the other side of the bed and touched Jack's shoulder with some reluctance to wake the boy.
The nephillim started awake and spun around to see Sam.
"Sam!" he cried and threw himself into the younger Winchester's arms.
Sam caught him with surprise. "Jack, hey, it's all right. What about Cas?"
Dean had peeled a bandage from Cas' side and Sam peered over the bed to see the wound was half healed, and not at all infected looking.
"The hell? You find a cure, kid?" Dean asked.
Jack smiled almost proudly. "I couldn't find one, so I pushed the poison out of his body with my powers."
Sam and Dean shared a wide-eyed look. "You can do that?" Dean asked.
Jack shrugged. "I guess so."
Sam grinned and reached out to take hold of Jack's shoulders. "Jack, that's great! Your practice has really been paying off."
"I'm just glad I can use my powers for good too," Jack said, glancing back over at Cas as he stirred, grunting in a slightly irritated way as Dean pressed the gauze back over his wound.
"What's going on?" the angel asked as his eyes opened, glancing between all three of the figures standing over him.
"Hey, man, how are you feeling?" Dean asked, settling a hand on his shoulder.
Cas frowned, as if taking stock of his body. "I…not great, but not as terrible as I did." He looked over at Jack then. "Jack you…you saved me."
Jack gave an earnest look and reached out to clasp Cas' hand. "You were hurt. I couldn't let you die again."
Cas' expression softened and he squeezed Jack's hand in his. "Thank you."
He seemed exhausted after that short conversation, and Sam touched Jack's shoulder.
"Why don't we let Cas rest? You could probably use something to eat," he suggested.
Jack nodded, and climbed off the bed, following Sam out the door as Dean lingered to help make Cas comfortable.
"Jack, you did good," Sam told him, a proud feeling in his chest as he said it. "You figured out how to help him by yourself, and you were able to control your powers enough to do so. See? All you need is a little practice."
Jack nodded. "I suppose you're right."
"Just never forget," Sam said and stopped him in the hallway, turning him around to face him. "You are good, Jack. This only proves that. No matter what anyone else tries to say to you, I never want you to forget that."
Jack gave him a wise look. "I think I'm believing it more myself now," he said softly.
Sam smiled and wrapped an arm around the nephillim's shoulders. "Come on, let's go have breakfast. Do you want waffles or pancakes?"
Jack bit his lip in thought. "Can we have both?"
Sam grinned. "Sure, kiddo. That's sounds good."