Where's My Brother?
AN: So yeah. Guess I'm back, at least for a moment. TAG to the mid-season finale.
I haven't edited this. Took me a few days to have the time to get it done. Just a big bag of sappy crappy no-happy-ending junk right here. Have fun!
*~.~*
It was like a bad dream.
Winchesters weren't exactly short on those. Like ever.
Maybe 'bad dream' didn't cut it.
Dean had been right. It hadn't been God. How stupid could he have been to ever believe that? How absolutely, insanely stupid. Stupid didn't even cut it, really. The level of stupid Sam felt in that moment was only exacerbated by the level of underlying fear that was quickly boiling back to the surface, now that the 'calm' that so-called God had given him for a deceiving few seconds had begun to wear off.
He couldn't breathe. Sure his lungs were doing the in-and-out thing they were supposed to, but it felt as though none of the oxygen was actually reaching them. Sam's heart pounded in his ears, muffling Lucifer's cruel, self-satisfied words as he sneered them at his newly re-won bunk mate.
Lucifer stood back for a moment, leaning in the corner of his cage as he watched Sam slowly slip into a fit of despair. His happiness at seeing the young man was no lie. He'd been so alone for so long. The cage was torture for him only in the fact that it was so damned boring. Sam being back...well, that'd make it loads more interesting. Watching him fall apart again would be the most fun he'd had in centuries. Hell-time, of course. Re-breaking Sam Winchester would be even more fun than it was the first time around. After all, the first time around Lucy had been mostly pissed off, mostly bent on revenge and making the kid suffer. Now...well, now he could concentrate on the joy of picking him apart for amusement's sake.
Sam felt himself slipping down the hot-cold wall of the cage to the floor beneath him. It wasn't so much the nightmare that his near future held, as much as the sudden brick of guilt that slammed into his chest.
Dean.
He was gonna be so angry. Right up until it killed him.
It was all Sam's fault.
He couldn't even blame Rowena. Not even Crowley, really, because when he thought long and hard about it, he should've known. Hell, he had known the possibility of this whole plan backfiring was inevitable. Good intentions blowing up in his face? Yeah, that was kinda the running theme of his entire goddamned life.
He should've waited for Dean. He shouldn't have allowed Rowena's impatience to dismiss the absolute importance of waiting the fuck for his brother, as he'd asked. Who knows what Dean had been doing? Did it matter, though? Could he not have waited twenty more minutes and tried again? Called more than once or twice? Shit...had he even called more than once? Sam couldn't remember. Things were starting to get fuzzy.
"Aw, Sammy," Lucifer said in a mocking sympathetic voice. "No need to worry about big brother. He's got enough on his hands as it is, right? Just think of me as the Underworld's best babysitter! I'll take such good care of you while he's working out his relationship with the dark she-lord."
"Whatever you're trying to do, it won't work," Sam managed to say, his breath shaking against his will. "You're not getting out of here. It doesn't matter what happens to me."
"You really think he'll let you rot in here again?" Lucifer pushed up off of the wall and walked toward Sam. "He's got no Lisa and Ben to go to this time, Sammy. No Bobby. No anyone. The only one who could get you out of here whole and intact, Dean killed to save you. He'll have no choice but to crack open the cage."
Sam's eyes darted anxiously in front of him. "He won't," Sam proclaimed, then looked up at Lucifer again. "Dean won't let you back out of here. Never."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that. But hey, either way I've still got something to play with in here, which is a heck of an improvement from yesterday." He crouched down in front of Sam and grinned. "What should we play first, huh?"
If possible, Sam curled in on himself even more than he had been.
*~.~*
"C'mon, Sam, where the hell are you?" Dean grumbled into his phone, pissed at himself for not answering when he'd called earlier.
"You could ask my absolute horror of a mother," Crowley sounded behind him. Dean spun around to see the king of Hell.
"Tell me you didn't go without me," Dean growled.
"That would be a lie."
"Damnit, Crowley, I told you-"
"You told Moose. Not me."
"How about a little less semantics and a little more where the fuck is my brother?" Dean said with narrowed eyes. "And don't tell me to ask that bitch mother of yours, 'cause I ain't got the patience."
"She's more of a cunt, really," Crowley mused. "But I digress. We made the trip without you. Sam tried to call you, but you didn't answer."
"He should've waited," Dean growled, both in anger and fear.
"You should've picked up."
"I couldn't!" he yelled. "I was in the middle of- Goddamnit I don't have to explain myself to you!"
"You're right. You don't," Crowley replied calmly. "Just like Rowena didn't have to explain why she so easily agreed to your brilliant plan."
Dean felt the anger like heat burning in his chest, all the way through to his face. He took a step toward the demon. "What's that mean? What happened?" he asked as calmly as he could manage.
"The spell worked," he told him. "The one she figured out from the Book of the Damned. She successfully summoned Lucifer to a cage in a more...convenient location in Hell. Sort of an interrogation room for the damned, if you will."
"And you what, just left Sam down there alone with him for questioning?"
"Eh...not exactly. Well," he hesitated for a moment, trying to figure out the least horrid way to break the news. "We did stay," he began. "But after a while, the spell seemed to, eh...wear off, if you will."
"What?"
"The spell just sort of...fizzled out, and my mother dragged me off, and when I looked back..."
"Did you let Lucifer out of the cage?" Dean's eyes widened in horror.
"No. No, he's still in there, far as I know."
"What? You're... You're not making sense. What happened, and where is Sam?"
"He's still there. When I looked back, he was...inside the cage with Lucifer somehow. Nothing I could do at that point. No idea how it even happened." Dean choked on the words he had attempted to scream out, his airway seeming to close off at the news. "Honest, Dean, I have no idea what happened."
"What'd he say?" Dean's voice was small.
"Couldn't hear," Crowley confessed. "But I've got an idea. Especially if I was to go by your brother's body language as a clue. My guess is this whole thing was a huge charade, courtesy of the devil."
"What?" Dean was still processing.
"I think everything that lead you to want a one-on-one with your old arch-nemesis from the apocalypse days was actually set in motion by the king of lies."
"Sam said...Sam said it was God..."
"Yeah well, you never quite believed that, did you?" Crowley arched a brow. Dean looked at him and charged him without warning, pinning him against the wall. "Calm down, squirrel-"
"Did you know about this?" Dean yelled. "Did you and Rowena plan all of this out?"
"I swear I didn't," he replied. "I can't speak for Rowena. I don't think she planned it, but she might've known it was a possibility."
"If she got Sam into this mess, she can get him the hell out!"
"Have you met her? You realize that she does absolutely nothing that doesn't benefit her and/or causes someone somewhere some sort of emotional or physical pain if not death? You also realize that threatening to kill me will change nothing?"
"Except that maybe she wants me to finish what Sam didn't."
"Let's not jump to conclusions!"
"You take me to him right now!" Dean growled. "Take me to Sam!"
"I don't think that's a good idea."
"To hell with what you think! Take me to him!"
"Say I take you!" Crowley counter-yelled. "Then what, eh? Think you can get him out of there with a bro-ment?"
"So help me God-"
"See I think God actually did just the opposite in this case..."
"If anything happens to him, I swear I'll find a way to put you and your mother in Sam's place in the cage!"
"Just hold on there," Crowley put a hand up. "No need for such vile threats. If I knew how to get Sam out, I'd tell you. Thing is, I don't. Rowena is hellbent on using this as some sort of bargaining chip, but for what, I'm guessing is a trade you won't be willing to make."
"The Book of the Damned," Dean surmised. "And the codex. You know I can't let her have it. Not even...not even for this." It physically pained him to say it.
"Which is why we're going to have to figure something out, and quick. You know as well as I the difference in the movement of time in Hell. Death is gone. Castiel couldn't bring Sam out whole. What are the other options?"
Dean felt panic run thick in his blood. He couldn't breathe; couldn't think. Every second gone by might as well be an eternity for Sam, and greater odds of him not coming out of this unscathed. He needed time. He needed...
"Take me there," he said.
"Dean..."
"If I'm there, I have more time, right? Time won't pass as fast there. I can plan this out."
"You'd also be fairly limited on whom to discuss the problem with, you realize."
"Just get me there, Crowley. Please..." he said, resolve cracking a bit...
*~.~*
When Dean finally made it to the end of the tunnels and out into the open, dark space, he could only see the edges of the cage when the lightning flashed above it. A silhouette stood in the center when the light flashed again, and as Dean grew closer, he saw something huddled up against the wall closest to him, hands gripping tightly to the bars where he lay.
Sam.
"Sam!" Dean called out as he dashed forward to get to his brother. He heard a broken sob that tore something open in his chest. "Sammy..." he skidded to his knees and reached for Sam's fingers where they gripped outside of the cage.
"I won't say yes," Sam cried, not opening his eyes. His teeth gritted down as he spoke, and Dean tried to look him over; find where he was hurt. "Never. Never gonna happen."
"Sam, I'm gonna get you outta there, okay?" Dean told him. "Can you open your eyes? I need you to look at me, Sam!"
"No!" Sam shouted. "I won't! I won't do it!"
"Sammy, it's me!" Dean told him, gripping his hand the best he could manage.
"Aw, isn't this the most adorable thing?" Lucifer said from where he casually leaned on the other side of the cage.
Sam's eyes flew open then, gaze shooting back to Lucifer before fixing back on his brother. "Dean?"
"Yeah, Sam, I'm here."
"It's really you?"
"Don't mind him," Lucifer told Dean. "I might've been messing with him earlier."
"You sonofabitch, you let him out of here!" Dean growled, not letting go of Sam's hand now that Sam was gripping back.
"Sam knows the terms," Lucy said with a shrug.
"No!" Sam yelled. "I can't. Dean, I can't," Sam's chin quivered as his wet eyes locked with Dean's. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry, Dean, this is all my fault. I'm so stupid..."
"Sammy..." Dean's voice broke with his name.
"I should've listened to you. I never listen...I'm so sorry..."
"I'm gonna find a way, Sam, okay? I promise you," Dean pressed his forehead against the bars close to Sam's. "I'll get you out of here. You just gotta hold on, okay?"
"I can't do it again," Sam whimpered, tears trailing down his nose and cheeks, gathering at the corners of his mouth before cascading down his chin. "I can't, Dean. I don't wanna come back like I did before. I can't...I can't... Please..."
"Sammy, I'll figure it out, I swear." Dean's eyes stung with tears he tried in vein to hold back. "I'll get you back whole, no matter what. I swear it. You just gotta hang on, okay? You gotta keep it together for me, alright? I'll fix this..."
"But the Darkness..."
"I'm gonna get you outta here and you're gonna help me with that, okay?"
"Dea..."
"I think visiting time is over, Deano," Lucifer said, pulling Sam away from the bars with an invisible force; ripping Sam's hand from Dean's.
"You asshole!" Dean yelled as he stood, hands curled tightly into fists at his sides. "You let him go!"
"This seems awfully familiar," Lucy replied, ignoring Sam for the moment as the younger brother curled up on his side on the floor. "You begging for me to return Sam, and then me beating the life out of you...well, almost, anyway. I tell you what. Convince him to say yes, and I won't kill you the way I've been dreaming of for centuries."
"You'll never ride him again," Dean growled.
"Oh I...doubt that. I've been doing it all day already. Oh wait...you mean...haha! Okay, I see. I see what you mean. Again, though, I think you might change your mind."
"Dean..." Sam's voice sounded from the middle of the cage and Dean met his brother's eyes. "Don't. Don't..."
"Sam..."
"Don't do it, Dean. Just go..."
"Sammy...no," Dean replied brokenly, tears finally escaping. "I'm not leaving you."
"You have to!" Sam shouted. "Just go, Dean! Leave me... It's okay..."
"It's not okay," Dean replied brokenly. "It's not okay, Sam..."
Dean knew he was right, though, and it killed him too much to fully accept it. He'd have to find a way. He'd have to get Sam out, or he couldn't go on. This time Sam didn't make him promise anything. Not a damn thing. So Dean would do whatever it took to get him out of there.
He just hoped that it wouldn't be to late once he did...
~Fin~