Disclaimer: Characters, SPN world, etc. belong to the writers, actors, producers and crew members that bring them to life. The idea for this story is mine, but I'm playing in their sandbox. Thanks!
Doing the Math
Dean listened to the hum of the Impala's wheels on the pavement as she sped them back to Kansas. He left the radio off out of deference to Sam, who was slumped in the passenger seat, eyes closed. It wasn't clear if he was pretending to be asleep, or just resting, but Dean, for once, was content to let Sam be. Castiel's cryptic declarations about Sam's health were eating away at Dean.
"Shit!" Sam jerked upright, wincing when his head hit the roof of the car. He rubbed at the top of his head while Dean straightened out the car before it hit the grass bank alongside the road.
"Sam, what the hell?"
"Sorry." He had the grace to look a little sheepish.
"What got you all hot and bothered?"
"Thinking."
"That's what gets your engines revving? Little brother, you are such a freak."
"Shut up." Sam scowled at him. "This is serious."
Dean cracked up, laughing and glancing over at his brother. He tried to calm down, but one look at the scowl still on Sam's face had him going again. Finally, he managed to stop.
"Sorry. But you took a long time getting dinner the other night and I ended up watching this stupid kids show. Bunch of cute baby animals rescuing other animals. There was this duck that kept singing 'This is serious.' You said it, and I was just picturing you as a baby duck. Sorry." Dean started laughing again.
Sam huffed, the sound of an eternally put-upon younger brother. "And you call me the freak."
"Yeah, yeah. What thoughts rattled their way loose of that steel trap in your head?"
After a moment's wait to make sure Dean wouldn't start laughing again, Sam ran his hand over his face. "Okay, bear with me for a minute. I've been thinking about this for a while, trying to make the pieces fit." He took a deep breath. "You know how angels and whatever liked to manipulate our lives before? I mean, things like making sure that Mom and Dad met, that we became hunters..." He trailed after catching sight of the look on Dean's face.
"Yeah, you mean their whole 'You have a Destiny' bullshit that we did not buy into and beat back into the corner like it was a featherweight taking on Ali?"
When there was no response, Dean looked over at Sam. His brother shook his head, a slight grin showing.
"Too much?"
Sam nodded.
"At least I try to come up with witty repartee. All you do is toss around big words trying to impress everybody with your vocabulary. Or that touchy-feely crap."
"Hey, I don't." Sam stopped, took another deep breath and rolled his eyes. Dean smirked. "Anyway. We didn't go along with their plans, but they still tried to direct things."
"So they tried to Spielberg us. So what?"
"Listen for a minute. What if they're doing it again? I was half asleep just now, thinking about our cases this last year, and something occurred to me."
"What, that we work too hard?" Dean pressed on the accelerator and the Chevy purred as it picked up speed.
"That, yeah. But also this. Think about all the powerful creatures we've been letting go lately." Sam turned his body so he was facing Dean. "We've got Kate, the werewolf, Aaron and the golem, James and Portia. Even Shane's, I mean Prometheus' kid. Then there's Kevin working on the tablet, Garth as backup. We bumped into Charlie again. How often do we ever bump into someone that we helped – or really, who helped us?" As he moved to face forward again, he said, "We found out about the library and the Men of Letters."
"Benny," Dean said.
Sam turned his head a fraction and glared at Dean from the corner of his eye. Then he took yet another deep breath, let it out and stared at the dash.
"Do we need to sign you up for lamaze classes, Samantha? You're doing an awful lot of deep breathing over there."
Sam looked directly at Dean, inhaled deeply and half-grimaced, half-smiled at his brother. After a pause, he exhaled and said, "And Benny. Maybe Meg, if she's still alive." He furrowed his brow. "Do you think she's still alive?"
"Do you want her to be?"
"I don't know. She's a demon, and a pain in the ass. She has no morals and she only looks out for herself. But she helped us. She's helped a few times, as long as it fit into her agenda."
"Yeah. I don't know. If anyone could survive it though, it would be her. Just to be a pain in the ass." Dean chuckled, then thought about what Sam said. His eyebrows went up. "Lot of powerful creatures being let go. Are you saying we're going soft?"
"No. I'm saying what if us meeting them is part of some kind of plan. Think about it. Those people I mentioned, they'd be the start of a pretty powerful army. One that would be on our side."
Dean scowled. He turned the brights on to better see the road. "I'm not sure I like where that line of thinking is going."
"Me either. Because if we need an army that powerful…" Sam leaned back into the cradle of the leather seat and shrugged.
Tapping his hand against the steering wheel, Dean pressed on the accelerator again, suddenly wanted to be back at the library. "Yeah. What the hell is it this time?"
They both settled in to watch the pavement slide by, lost in their own thoughts.