JOHN'S JOB
The Impala's throaty purr shut off as Sam turned off the engine. "Hey." He nudged his sleeping brother. "We're here."
Dean sniffed as he sat up and pulled off his sunglasses, revealing half-opened glazed green eyes. "Here where?"
"Motel. The Impala needed fed and so do we, so I figured we'd crash here tonight."
Rubbing his face and yawning, Dean glanced at the fuel guage - which was pretty useless when the car was turned off. "Didja fill her up?"
"I did." Sam smiled at him. "Wnat to check in, or you want me to?"
"You can. I'll get our stuff." Sam handed over the keys and they both got out of the car. "Hey, get us two nights, huh? My butt's goin' numb."
"Same here. Two it is."
SPN GEMINI SPN
She kissed her boyfriend goodbye and stepped onto the sidewalk. No classes today, and she decided she wanted to spend it alone.
Singing happily, she danced down the sidewalk and paused when she heard a whimper. "Hello?"
A child staggered out of the bushes. Gaspoing, she crouched down in front of the boy. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"No." He opened his mouth and seemed to vomit black smoke. Before she could react, the smoke had enveloped her and forced its way down her throat.
Her eyes turned black from corner to corner, and she smirked as she stood up and watched the shell of the little boy fall dead at her feet.
"But i'm all better now," she purred, her eyes returning to normal as she walked away.
But inside her mind, tucked away in a corner, the vibrant young woman she had been only moments before screamed in rage.
SPN GEMINI SPN
Sam snorted as a shirt hit him square in the face, waking him. "...uh?"
"Dude!" Dean roared from his own bed. "Come on! Whatever you're dreamin' over there's makin' you make obnoxiously happy noises! I'm tryin' to get a few more winks and I've got a ringside seat to-"
"Okay, I get the point," Sam laughed, sitting up and looking at the clock. "Nearly eight as it is. How long've you been awake?"
Dean groaned. "'Bout half an hour. You woke me up laughin'."
Humming, Sam swung his legs out of bed and scratched the back of his neck. "Not surprsed. I was dreaming about Jess - about the happier times."
"Yeah, no kidding - not if those sounds were anything to go by!" Dean laughed as the shirt he'd thrown at Sam was forcefully returned. He sat up and slid the shirt back on. "All kidding aside, she seems like she was one hell of a woman."
"She was," Sam said, his eyes soft with good memories. "She really was."
Dean swung his legs off of his bed and met Sam's eyes. "I wish I could have met her. I'd like to have gotten to know the lady who made my little brother smile like that."
Sam's grin grew. "Lay back down."
Dean obeyed, a grin crawling over his own face. "Okay. Ready."
Sam snapped the fingers of his left hand, and Dean vanished.
Gemini lay on the bed, closing his eyes and smiling warmly as Sam fed Dean memory after memory after memory of Jess.
Of the fun and happy times they'd shared.
SPN GEMINI SPN
John Winchester sighed deeply, rubbing his head. He'd had a low-grade headache since leaving Missouri's.
Some things she'd said were preying on his mind.
She'd said neither boy could sense John. Like that surprised her.
Missouri had been the one who had taught John to shield his presence from psychics. Not from her, obviously, or from somenone as powerful as her - but more than enough to keep Dean's strange "family-radar" from picking up he was nearby.
Mary had had the same skill. Used to freak John right the hell out. And Dean had inherited it.
But - neither boy?
Had Sam developed an echo of Dean's ability?
But the more worrisome question, for John, was what Missouri had said about this fire elemental. Despite her assurance that it was something that was nothing but helpful, he still worried.
He was still finding reports of this creature - "Gemini", it seemed to call itself - popping up wherever he knew his boys had been.
Why had this thing attached itself to his boys?
What did it want?
Was Missouri right when she said he couldn't drive it away from them?
Well, there was nothing he could do at this moment. Thinking so hard about it was just making his headache worse.
He wanted to help his boys. If he couldn't help with the elemental, then...
He flipped through his notes and found what he was looking for, reaching for his phone.
If he couldn't help with the elemental, he could at least give them some work to do.
SPN GEMINI SPN
The phone buzzed with a text message. Dean picked it up, and his eyes widened. "It's from Dad!"
Sam literally double-took, making Dean grin. "From...Dad? Huh! I remember when the man could barely work a toaster!"
They shared a laugh, then Dean opened the message. "Get the map, Sammy."
"It's co-ordinates, then?" Sam asked, getting their map collection.
"It's co-ordinates," Dean confirmed.
SPN GEMINI SPN
The first thing the Winchester boys did upon arriving in Rockford, Illinois was to find a good motel. Then they got something to eat.
After that, the next few hours were devoted to research. Sam had a working hypothesis that the abandoned asylum they'd passed on the outskirts of town had somethng to do with their father sending them there.
"Yahtzee," Dean said suddenly, and Sam looked up from his own laptop. Their eyes met, and Dean grinned. "You were right."
"It's the asylum," they said together.
Dean spun his laptop around and showed Sam what he'd found.
Sam read aloud about a policeman who'd shot his wife, then killed himself.
Dean nodded. "And their beat that night included a call to the asylum. There's been several cases over the years since 1964."
Sam nodded. "So what happened in 1964?"
"I haven't found that, yet. But this pattern starts in '64."
Sam nodded, chewing on his thumbnail as he thought. Dean chuckled softly as he noticed that. He'd tried so hard to break Sammy of that growing up, and the brat still did it!
"Okay," Sam finally said. "Let's go talk to the policeman's partner and then see if we can figure out what happened in '64."
Dean nodded and closed his laptop with a 'click'. As he grabbed his jacket, he smiled when he heard a second 'click' as Sam closed his. "It just wasn't the same without you, Sammy."
Sam chuckled. "Glad to hear that - cause, thanks to Gemini, you're pretty well stuck with me!"
SPN GEMINI SPN
After throwing scissors - and losing – Dean went in first to talk to the partner. They had decided to use the sympathetic ear tactic, so Dean came on really strong and pushy.
Sam came over and "rescued" the partner from Dean's overly aggressive approach, and bought him another beer.
Dean waited for nearly a half hour. When Sam finally emerged, he was grinning. "Got it."
"Got what? Besides a bit of a buzz," Dean teased.
Sam chuckled. "Found out why 1964 is the pivotal year. Apparently there was a riot at the asylum then."
They got in the car - Dean driving - and Sam told him about bodies not being found, including the doctor on call.
When he fell unexpectedly silent, Dean glanced over and chuckled.
Feeling safe and warm - and a little buzzed- his little brother had dozed off.
SPN GEMINI SPN
Upon finding that the doctor's son still lived in town, the brothers knew they'd have to talk to him.
Upon finding out he was a psychiatrist, they decided one would go talk to him while the other would spend that time in the library.
As Sam got out of the car, he teased, "Have fun at the library, jerk!"
"Bitch," Dean snarled as he drove away to the tune of Sam's laughter. He was around the corner before he let his own grin show.
SPN GEMINI SPN
Sam was seething by the time the hour was over.
Not only had the good Doctor Ellicott The Second been spectacularly unhelpful about the '64 riot at the asylum, he had spent the hour grilling Sam once he'd discovered Sam was "road-tripping" with his brother.
He had repeatedly tried to insinuate that perhaps Sam and Dean might be just a little too close.
As Sam was leaving, the doctor gave a parting shot. "Sam? I want you to consider trying to build a life for yourself - apart from your brother."
Sam hadn't been able to resist. "I did that for four years, Doc. Know what I found out? It's overrated. I'd rather be half of a whole with Dean than an entire Sam - and alone."
And he had left.
Picking up on his mood, Dean asked him, "What happened?"
"I need to go flying."
Dean nodded.
Ten minutes later, Gemini took to the air and Sam filled Dean in.
The authourities never did find out who set the fire in the empty field thirty miles south of town.
SPN GEMINI SPN
Around midnight, John's laptop computer chimed. He came out of the bathroom, hair still damp from the shower, and checked it.
An email alerted him that a new news story matching his search terms had been posted.
John groaned aloud as he read it. A mysterious fire in a field just south of Rockford, Illinois.
Where he had sent his boys.
What in the hell did this thing following his boys around want?
SPN GEMINI SPN
That night, Gemini glided onto the asylum grounds. From Sam's research, they knew the riot had been in the South Wing.
Walking along the wall, Gemini found a suitable entrance. A well-placed jet of flame and the second-floor window was history. Gemini glided inside and set the duffel at his feet.
Dean stepped away, and Sam crouched, distributing the weapons. They made their way down to the first floor and started prowling the corridors.
A scream erupted and both brothers bolted toward it. They found a shivering young woman trapped behind some debris. When they found out her boyfriend was somewhere in the asylum, Sam took off after him.
When the straggler had been found and the four reunited, Dean asked them, "Do you guys watch horror movies?" Upon finding they did, Dean instructed them to learn from them and stay out of places like this!
Sam hoped he'd hidden his grin better than he thought he did.
But nobody was grinning when the girl was thrown into a room, which was locked between them.
When a spirit materialised with her, Sam realised it was trying to pass on a message. When it did, it released her and she whispered, "137. It... It said 137."
Sam and Dean looked at each other. "Room number," they chorused.
"Okay," Dean ordered. "You get them out of here. I'm gonna go check out the room."
"Be careful - snap if you need me."
Dean nodded. "You know it." A quick exchange of weapons, and Dean was gone.
SPN GEMINI SPN
Room 137 wasn't hard to find. And once Dean was in, he realised why the spirit had communicated this room.
He looked around, whistling low. "This must've been Ground Zero for the riot."
His light suddenly caught a spirit standing, watching him. She made no threatening moves, just watched him.
Dean nodded at her in acknowledgment, and her head dipped in a nod as well. "You wanna show me something?" he asked. "I'm here."
Slowly, she raised her hand and pointed at a cabinet.
"In here?" He opeend the cabinet and pulled out several noebooks. He opened them, read a few pages, and looked up at the spirit.
She smiled at him and nodded - and faded quietly away.
"Yahtzee," Dean whispered, watching her go peacefully before he returned his attention to the written horrors in front of him.
SPN GEMINI SPN
Sam growled softly as they found the doors to the outside held firmly closed.
He frowned when his cell rang, and even deeper when it said it was Dean. Answering it, he heard Dean's anxious voice say that he was in the basement and needed Sam there as fast as he could get there.
Not arguing, Sam quietly hung up and turned to the frightened couple. "Can you handle a shotgun?"
The girl could, so Sam handed his to her. "It's filled with rock salt. If anyone comes that isn't me or Dean, shoot." He took a step, then turned and added, "Oh, and if you see a flying red-haired man that looks a little like Dean? Don't shoot him, either!"
Smiling to himself at their stunned shouted questions behind him, Sam ran down the hallway.
When he was out of sight, Sam snapped the fingers of his left hand.
Two more running steps, and Gemini was gliding through the corridors. "How'd you figure that wasn't me?"
"Cause I know you. If you needed me that badly, you wouldn't use the phone. You'd trigger Gemini."
"So something's trying to lure us to the basement. Doctor Feelgood here was using the patients in horrible experiments."
"What kind of experiments?" A low whistle rang through his mind once it was explained.
"Yeah." Gemini touched down and slowly moved forward. "Somewhere down here there's a secret room where he'd pull that off."
Sam stepped away and stated, "Four hands are better than two."
Dean shot a grin at him, and they spread out, hands and eyes scanning.
Moments later, Dean gasped as his shoulder was grabbed and he was spun around to face a spirit in a doctor's coat. "Don't worry," the spirit purred. "I'm here to make you better..."
"Sammy!" Dean roared just before the ghost's hands fixed onto his temples and pain lanced through his body.
"Dean!" Sam yelled. "Eyes!"
Dean squeezed his eyes closed and heard the explosion of a gunshot. He felt the agony ease and the stinging kick of point-blank rock salt hitting his face and chest. He wondered briefly how he ended up on the ground.
Sam extended a hand downward. "Sorry, man. I know that hurts like hell."
"Yeah, no shit." Dean allowed the help to climb to his feet, then turned back to the wall. "I think I found something."
"Which would be why that bastard showed up," Sam nodded. "What do you wanna bet that was Ellicott?"
"Sucker bet, Sam." Dean got into the room, and Sam followed. "Damn," Dean breathed.
Sam whistled. "His own private playground." He looked at the tables - now overturned - and the smashed cabinets. "So the inmates riot... What do you wanna bet they drug the doctor into this room to kill him..."
"...and stashed the body here," they chorused as they set to work searching.
"Dean," Sam said a few moments later as the reek of decay rolled into the small room.
"Found him," they said together. Salt and accelerant was applied by Sam - and suddenly Dean yelled, "Sammy, look out!"
Too late. The doctor's ghost had reappeared and latched onto Sam.
A single snap - loud in the small space - and the ghost found itself suddenly empty-handed.
"Lose something?" The ghost spun to find a red-haired man grinning at him, hazel eyes lit with mirth.
The ghost extended a hand - crackling with energy - and said soothingly, "It's all right. I can help you."
"I don't think so." The man's eyes shifted until they were red-yellow from corner to corner. He raised his own hand and the ghost paused, startled by the fire crackling around the human's wrist. "But I can help you."
With that, a jet of flame poured from Gemini's hand. It passed through the spirit and struck the prepared corpse, which burst into flame.
The spirit flared and exploded into flame, vanishing forever.
Only then did Gemini lower his hand and stand there, monitoring the body, so that the building wouldn't catch on fire.
SPN GEMINI SPN
Gemini barely remembered to separate into Sam and Dean before they arrived to the scared couple's side. But they had remembered, and the quartet safely walked out of the asylum together.
They were so tired that Dean paid for an extra night and the brothers crashed in the motel room. Wards were checked, door was locked, and soon both were sound asleep.
SPN GEMINI SPN
John paced.
He hadn't been able to rest. He was worried about how big of a distraction this elemental was going to prove to be to his children. Could they do the job they'd been sent to do?
Maybe he'd better send them on another job. Something close to where they were.
Or maybe he'd man up and just see how they were doing.
It took him another several hours before he made up his mind. Pulling out a nearby case to use as an excuse, he dialed Dean's phone.
Two rings later, he heard a familiar voice sleepily slur, "Mm - hullo?"
But it wasn't Dean.
John didn't know why shock had taken his voice. He'd seen them together in Lawrence. He knew his boys were together again.
But to actually hear his youngest on the phone... "S.. Sammy?"
"...Dad?"
And in the background, he heard Dean's voice. "Dad? It's Dad?"
He heard a beep, then Sam's voice again. "You're on speaker, Dad."
But again, he couldn't respond for a second.
Until he heard them speak in perfect unison. "Dad? Are you there?"
"Omig-d. Boys."
END