Title: Loopholes
Author: KatiKat
Disclaimer: These characters belong to the CW and Eric Kripke. No money is being made here.
Genre: Gen
Spoilers: For AHBL2
Warnings: Some bad language
Words: 1700
Rating: PG-13
Notes: My big thank you goes to my wonderful beta yamitai!
Notes2: This is my last coda to AHBL2. I promise :P
Dean stands there, on the crossroads, waiting for the demon to come and get his soul. He stands there alone. He ran away from Sam, slipped away when his brother fell asleep despite himself pouring over a thick tome of some obscure text in a last attempt to save his brother. It's for the best this way...
xxx
"Dude, you've been sitting with your nose stuck into that book for days now," Dean complains from behind the steering wheel. "What's so interesting about it? Is it at least porn?"
Sam doesn't even look up from the fragile parchment, memorizing every word painstakingly...
xxx
Dean knows that Sam'll be pissed at him. Well, he can't kick his butt all the way from the surface, right? Better pissed and safe than doing something really stupid.
The minutes tick by and Dean's anxiety grows, his breath quickens. He had to be brave for Sam, always putting on a mask, but now he is all alone here and he lets himself realize for the first time what really awaits him from now on - fiery pits, pain and torture, for the rest of eternity. And he shudders...
xxx
"That sonuvabitch got you really bad there, Dean," Sam mutters as Dean hisses through his teeth. Sam carefully pulls the needle through the layers of skin on his brother's back and when he covertly snatches a bloody handkerchief and stuffs it into the pocket of his jeans, Dean never notices, too numb with pain...
xxx
And then she's there. No flames, no puffs of smoke or anything similarly spectacular. She just steps from the shadows. This time she is small, almost petite but obviously, she has a thing for brunets. She smiles wickedly her hands clasped together in front of her.
"Hello, Dean," she greets him like they're old friends and maybe they are in a way. He meets her more often than some of his old girlfriends.
Dean opens his mouth to tell her to cut the crap and just get it over with but before he can even utter a word, Sam steps from the shadows behind Dean - and when the Hell did he get there anyway? - and speaks instead of his brother.
"Howdy, you evil bitch!"
xxx
"No, no way are you taking that smelly crap into my car!" Dean protests as Sam leaves the herbalist's shop with a bag of who-knows-what that stinks like cow shit.
Sam continues heading for the car without a word or even a glance in Dean's direction and Dean, glaring for what it's worth, hastens after him, yelling: "I'm serious, Sam. No way, nuh uh!"
xxx
The demon's smile widens. Actually, she grins like a cheshire cat. "Sammy, nice to finally meet you."
Sam glares at her, not rising to her taunt. He walks pass his brother and towards the woman. He doesn't stop in front of her though, but rather starts circling her. Dean doesn't know what he's doing or why he's doing that... circling thing. Maybe Sam wants to unnerve the demon. Dean doesn't know about her but he really is unnerved.
The demon turns with Sam, not taking her eyes from him. "Are you here to say goodbye to your brother? How nice of-"
Finally, Sam stops. Right in front of Dean, with his back towards his older brother. "Cut the crap," Sam interrupts the demon, his voice lashing out like a whip. "And let's get something straight here."
xxx
Dean glares at his brother. "Dude, what are you doing now?" he grumbles as he watches his brother crawl around the room on his knees, drawing strange symbols with chalk on the faded linoleum.
"Protection symbols," Sam mutters but he is clearly not paying attention to his brother.
Dean sighs, running a hand over his face, and decides to let Sam have his way, "Whatever."
xxx
Dean blinks. The demon blinks. Obviously she isn't used to anyone talking to her like that.
Sam lifts a hand and starts counting on his fingers. "Dean sold you his soul for my resurrection. You gave him one year. But there is also this small print."
xxx
Dean lifts the cup and wrinkles his nose. "Eww. What the Hell is that, dude? I'm not drinking that. You can't wait for the demon to take my soul? Do you have to poison me?" He is really losing patience with his annoying little brother.
Sam glares at him. "It's good for your health." Then his face softens. "Drink it and I promise that I won't ask for anything else, I'll stop annoy you and I'll leave you alone..."
Dean rolls his eyes. "Oh, for Chrissake...!" He takes a deep breath and downs the whole cup in one big swallow. If it kills him, he will come back and haunt his brother's ass...
xxx
She smirks. "There always is, handsome."
"He drops dead, you take his soul, I live. He tries to weasel out, I drop dead." He looks at her for confirmation.
The demon crosses her arms over her chest, smiling slyly. She's starting to enjoy this. The whole soul-taking business can get boring after a millennium or two. "Yes, that about covers it."
Sam nods to himself as if he confirmed something. But he asks again. "So it's either him dropping dead or me dropping dead, right?"
The demon narrows his eyes suspiciously. She really, really doesn't like where this whole conversation is headed. He couldn't have...
xxx
Dean thinks he wakes up in the middle of the night but he's not sure. His head is fuzzy and he simply knows that it's that weird concoction of Sam's fault. He will kill the bitch in the morning if he pukes his guts up. But maybe he isn't awake after all because the dingy old motel room is glowing with candles and there is someone smearing something on his naked back and he feels something wet on his face... If Sam painted raccoon eyes on his face, he'll make lotsa small Sammys out of him!
He tries to move but he finds out he can't. And then someone is chanting some really weird stuff and suddenly, Dean feels like he is caught in a whirlpool, drowning. And everything goes black...
xxx
Snarling, the demon rushes at Sam, her hands shoot up, going for his throat. "You little...!"
Sam doesn't even flinch, just raises his hand and wiggles his finger at her. "Nuh uh uh. I wouldn't do that."
She growls, spitting curses, prowling around Sam, shooting him evil glances, the uncomprehending Dean forgotten in the background.
"I'll kill you for this," she hisses. "I'll send them after you. All of them. They'll tear you apart and eat your hearts. They'll..."
Sam waves a hand dismissively. "Amen to that. Now go and bother someone else. Hush hush."
The demon glares at them a moment longer, baring her teeth like a rabid dog. But then she turns into a black cloud of smoke, disappearing into the sky, leaving only her human shell behind.
And the victoriously grinning Sam. And Dean, standing there, blinking, his mouth open. Dean doesn't understand what's going on but he feels like Sam somehow stole his show - not that he's complaining, considering the outcome.
xxx
When Dean wakes up, he feels hung over and his tongue is fuzzy. He turns around to bitch at Sam because this must somehow be his brother's fault... and finds him deeply asleep, his face calm and content, for the first time in almost a year...
xxx
Dean frowns. "Sam? What's going on here, bro?" he asks, then quickly raises his hands in a defending motion. "Not that I'm bitching here. I could've been already roasting my jewels in the pit now..."
His brother turns around and although he has a wide smile plastered on his face, Dean sees how shaky he really is. Obviously, Sam hasn't been as sure of the outcome as he pretended to be.
"I found a loophole!"
Dean blinks. "A what?"
Sam grins, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "A loophole. A hole in the contract. The small print."
Dean rolls his eyes. "You sure are a lawyer, dude."
Sam grins again, his laughing free and happy. "According to what you told me, if she killed you, I had to live. If I died, you would have lived. She couldn't kill us both because that would break the agreement. And besides, this crossroads demon? She can't exactly kill whoever she wants - as the Yellow Eyed Demon said, even the bad guys have red tape," Sam said all smug and sly. "And so I bound us together."
Dean raised his eyebrows, then frowned. "You what?"
"Bound us. Our souls. Lives. Together. You die, I die. And the other way around of course. Why did you think I was doing all those weird things these last couple of days? I didn't lose my mind by the way."
Dean's eyes almost pop out of his head. "Are you totally nuts?" he yelled.
Sam steps closer, poking his brother in the chest with his forefinger. "See? That's why I didn't tell you. You wouldn't have even considered it!"
"Of course I wouldn't have!" Dean throws his arms up in frustration. "This is... this... Argh!" He's so mad he can't even find the words to express himself.
Sam refuses to back down though. "It did save your ass so shut up and be grateful! And now you'll have to be more careful and not take any dumb risks!"
Dean rakes his hands through his short hair, muttering to himself. "I can't believe this. We are so fucked up... so fucked up!"
"But alive," Sam reminds him.
"That too. But so fucked up. Now the demons have to kill just one of us and both Winchesters are goners!" Dean's head snaps up. "How could you do that? How could you throw away your life like that?" he demands, exasperated.
"Let me think," Sam says, tapping his fingers to his lips, then he lifts both hands imitating a scale. "My life, my brother's life." His wannabe scale is perfectly balanced.
Dean makes an unhappy face. "Sammy..."
Sam looks at him sternly. "I promised that I would get you out of it. You agreed... And before you even think about saying something stupid, the price was not high. Not in my eyes." He smiles again, squeezing his brother's shoulder. "So shut up and be grateful. I am."
Dean's vision blurs. He's still angry and he still wants to kick his brother's ass - and maybe he'll do it yet - but in the past year, he has learned a lot about sacrifice. Enough to not disrespect it.
And so he shuts up and is grateful. The ass-kicking can wait for a while.
The End