This is the seventeenth story in my series.
Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Supernatural world. I am just playing in their sandbox.
"I'm going to find some way to redeem myself to you," Castiel says specifically to Dean after shockingly waking up on the floor once he put Purgatory's residents back. He shouldn't have survived but he's sure glad he did. "I'm just happy I could at least redeem myself with Elizabeth."
"What do you mean?" Dean questions, not seeing what the angel did for his wife that was so worthy of redemption.
"Where is she?" Castiel says, eyes roaming the room.
"L's back at Bobby's house…"
"Not Elizabeth," Castiel clarifies. "Lou. Where is she?"
Dean and Bobby simply stare at the angel with sheer confusion.
"You just sent her ass back into Purgatory," Bobby answers.
"No, I didn't," Castiel says, breaking free of the hold Dean and Bobby still had on his arms. "I kept trying to explain to Elizabeth that I had a plan."
"What plan?" Dean asks with anger as he's failing to understand anything the angel is blabbering about.
Just then they hear some movement in the corner of the room followed by a hushed gasp. All three stare at the overturned metal table blocking their view of whatever made that noise.
"To return her sister to her," Castiel says, peering at the direction the sound came from. "I am giving Louise back to her."
"You mean…" Bobby starts but pauses. When it all clicks he rushes over to the table and pulls it away from the wall with one hard yank, revealing the curled up, small form of a dirty and disheveled woman shaking while pressing herself into the corner. The trapped like a rat stance combined with the dirt-stained and tattered appearance makes it hard to tell but Bobby knows this person too well to question it. "Lou!?"
When she hears the voice she looks up at the man standing over her. Her eyes widen with total shock as her body shakes violently. "Bobby!?" she shouts when she sees him. She starts to breathe hard with the sudden change. The confusion pummels her mind into a very baffled and nonworking place for a second.
"H-holy… Shit," Dean says with shock, stepping towards the frightened woman slowly. She looks like a cornered wild animal, the way she moves to a crouch with her back against the wall, her eyes darting about as she looks for ways out and possible weapons.
When her sights fall on Dean as he gets closer her fear disappears. Instead her face drops in anger, her body tenses, and her fangs descend.
"You," she growls out when she see the man that devastated her best friend. For her she's still four years out of the world and Dean just left Lizzy high and dry, crushing her best friend, the woman that was to be her mate after she turned.
"Lou, relax," Dean starts to say, hands out in surrender, but that's all he can speak before the woman lunges for him.
She dives through the air and tackles him, fury ruling her senses. Dean falls onto his back on the floor, hitting his head and dazing him for a second. Lou pins him down lightning fast and prepares to bite him when Bobby tries to pull her off. She shoves him away and turns back to attack Dean again, the man just barely able to hold her off with his hands around her neck.
"Lou! Stop!"
"I'll kill you!" she screams through her fangs, clawing at the bastard that hurt her friend.
"Don't! Lou!" Dean shouts again, still wresting her away from his neck. "You don't understand!"
"Die!"
And then as quickly as she dove for him she collapses on top of him, her body lifelessly heaped across his with Castiel standing behind her.
"You should secure her," he suggests, dropping his hand after touching her head. "She won't be out for very long. I suggest you tape her mouth so she doesn't turn anyone or feed."
Dean pushes Lou's body off of himself and stands up. He and Bobby stare down at her with total confusion.
"I owed her," Castiel explains quietly, looking upon the mess that has become Louise Becker. "Elizabeth still hurts so much with the loss of her sister that… I owed her this much. After everything."
"But she's still a vamp," Bobby says, ignoring his fatherly love for the girl on the floor to get everything straight in the very confusing moment. Right now he'd give anything to pick her up, hug her, make it all better if he can.
"Not for long," Castiel tells him as he pulls a hand from his trench coat. He gives Bobby a vile of blood. "Coming back into this world has purified her, made her new and as if she's never fed before. You can cure her now."
"That's the vamp that turned her?" Dean nods to the blood.
Castiel thinks for a second. "I have been with Elizabeth throughout her life. I was there right after Lou was killed, the pain Elizabeth felt at her death calling out to me. I have held onto this with high hopes that I could help her sister since that day."
Bobby looks down at the unconscious woman on the floor. He hasn't seen that girl in four years. He's cried more than he cares to admit over her loss and what it's done to Lizzy is just horrible. Yet here she is, lying on the floor. They can have Lou in their lives again after all this time. Nodding his head, Bobby bites the inside of his cheek to stop from crying with sheer thankfulness.
"You need to get her somewhere safe for the turn," Castiel suggests. "And I think you need to be careful how you tell Elizabeth of this."
"And we gotta catch Lou up on everything so she doesn't try to rip my throat out again," Dean says, knowing how much has changed since Lou was gone. The girl practically killed him with her anger over Dean's dumping Lizzy… four years ago. Who knows what she'll do when she finds out that they're now married parents.
"And we gotta find Sam," Bobby brings up, knowing how much this will mess with the already fragile man.
"Alright, well, one thing at a time," Dean thinks aloud. "Let's get you out of here, Cass. Come on." Dean goes to pick Lou up but gets shoves in the back instead. "Cass? What the hell?" Dean questions once he turns back to look at the angel.
"You need to run! Now!" he panics out of nowhere. "I… I can't hold them back!" Cass doubles over and starts to struggle.
"Hold who back!?" Dean asks.
"They held on inside me. Dean, they're so strong."
"Who the hell…?"
"Leviathan!" he shouts back. "I can't fight them. Run!"
"Go get Sam!" Dean shouts to Bobby as he picks Lou up in a rush. He lifts her in his arms and turns to flee but Castiel's voice stops him.
"Too late."
"Cass?" Dean looks at him with worry, the tone of voice not at all like Castiel.
"Cass is…" Castiel shrugs and smiles. "He's gone. He's dead."
Castiel's body shoves Bobby and the man hits his head on the wall. He tumbles to the floor and groans.
"We run the show now," Castiel's eyes peer at Dean manically, his eyes crazed and not at all like the angel they're riding.
Swallowing hard as he tightens his hold on Lou's unconscious body, Dean takes a step back and realizes he's not getting away this time.
"Oh, this is going to be so much fun," Castiel's voice laughs out, the tone evil, dark, and chill inducing, leaving Dean lost as to what to do to get everyone out of there alive.
"Bobby?" Dean calls out just as the man stirs, sitting up to watch what's happening.
Castiel's stance wavers a little as black liquid starts to drip from his hairline, ears, and mouth.
"Your vessel's gonna explode, ain't it?" Dean questions, holding Lou tighter with his need to protect her in the moment. He finds himself suddenly ready to die for this woman that just second ago wanted to kill him. "Wouldn't do anything too strenuous. In fact, I'd call it a day, head on home, huh?"
"We'll be back. For you," Castiel's voice warns as it starts walking out of the room. With no other recourse they let him go. Never go up against an unknown rival with no weapons. They know better.
"Well, this is a new one," Bobby comments, not knowing what to do in the moment.
"Grab my keys in my coat pocket," Dean says, assembling his thoughts enough to make some sort of plan. Bobby runs to him and takes his car keys out. "Let's get her in the car first before she wakes up and goes Pattinson on me again. Then we gotta find Sam."
"What about Cass?"
Dean shakes his head as he starts moving out of the room. "If we have time."
"You're not real," Sam struggles out as Lucifer strangles him against the brick wall, his air cut off.
"Right, you think this fruit-bat fever dream is reality?" Lucifer taunts right back. "You come back, I'm sorry, with no soul like some peppy American Psycho, 'til Saint Dean glues you back together again by buying you some magic amnesia?" He laughs at the thought. "You're real. I'm very real. Everything between is what we call set dressing."
"No," Sam panics with the idea.
"You're still in my cell. You're my bunkmate, buddy. You're my little bitch, in every sense of the term."
This can't be happening. No. No, he got out. He had to have.
"Sam," Lucifer taunts with a smile. "Sam…"
"Sam!" Lucifer's voice turns into Dean's and when he blinks it isn't his torture master in front of him but his brother. "You hearing me?"
Dean slaps a hand down onto Sam's chest, looking to ground the hallucinating man any way possible.
"Whoa! Look at me," Dean says when Sam flinches at his attempts to get him back. "Hey. Alright, we got to button this up." Sam nods at him in agreement once he comes back. "Come on, let's get out of here."
"Yeah, yeah… ok," Sam nods as he catches his breath. He's back to reality. He's back with his family in the real world… right?
"I think he went this way!" Bobby points to a busted open side door and runs.
"Come on," Dean says, grabbing Sam's upper arm and pulling him.
The three hunters run out of the building and into the back where the public water supply is. They get there just in time to see Castiel's form walking unsteadily into the large lake, disappearing into the water. The pond water swirls around where the angel disappears and a burst of black travels outward, dissipating into the water.
"Damn it," Dean laments when the water grows still and Cass never resurfaces.
"You said it," Bobby agrees with the display. "They all know this can't be good. Those... whatever you call 'ems..."
"Leviathan," Dean says.
"Right. If they're in the pipes, they got themselves a highway to anywhere.
"Awesome," Dean gripes as he looks to the water's edge when something catches his eye.
"Shit," Sam says sadly as he watches Dean pull a soaked trench coat from the water.
They all stare at the item, the signature of what once was their good friend and ally in this fucked up world, and come to realize one thing.
"Okay… so he's gone," Dean sums up in an attempt to accept the death of a good friend while really just trivializing it. This is too big to process right now so he decides not to.
"Yeah. Rest in peace, if that's in the cards," Bobby comments.
"Dumb son of a bitch," Dean says with difficulty as he roughly folds up the coat, unwilling to leave it behind.
"We tried, Dean," Sam reminds him, knowing they did their best.
"Yeah, lots of good it did."
"Well, he was friends with us, wasn't he?" Bobby points out. "Can't get much dumber than that. Come on, those things will be coming up for air soon and we got some other things to get to."
The car ride is silent as Dean drives them back to Bobby's place. As soon as the Impala came back into sight Dean and Bobby both remembered the huge challenge they still have in front of them.
Lou's in the trunk. Sam doesn't know anything about it yet.
As Bobby and Dean silently communicate to each other in the front seat, looking for the other to start the conversation, Sam takes notice quickly enough.
"Ok, what's going on?"
"What do you mean?" Dean questions through the rearview mirror.
"Something's up," Sam tells them with certainly. "Look, I know I freaked out back there but I'm ok right now. It comes and goes…"
"It's not that," Bobby blurts out as he points to a sign for a motel up ahead. Dean reads his mind and puts his blinker on.
"Then what?" Sam asks, just brow lowering as they pull into the Lewis and Clark Motel. "And why the hell are we stopping?"
"We have something to deal with first," Dean simply says as he pulls into a spot next to the office. He pulls out his wallet and hands it to Bobby. "Get us a room?"
Without a word he takes the wallet and gets out.
"Dean, what the fuck is happening?" Sam tries again. "We're, what, two hours from Bobby's? Let's just get back."
"Something happened, Sam," Dean starts with caution. "Before Cass, uh, exploded or imploded… or whatever he did… well, he did something."
Sam just stares at him looking for answers.
"He said he owed L and he owed you…"
Before he can finish explaining there's a loud thump from the trunk. Sam flinches but doesn't act as though he heard it past that.
"You heard that," Dean lets him know that he isn't going crazy this time. "No scrambled eggs this time. That was real."
"What did you put in the trunk!?" Sam asks loudly, so lost with the sounds of thumps he's hearing from the back. "What did you pu…." He then catches a muffled voice try to scream and even with it being obstructed and taxed he knows that voice. He dreams of that voice every damn night to this day. That voice is everything he's missed, he's prayed for, and he's desperately needed for so long now.
The expression on Sam's face makes Dean realize he's figure it out.
"Sam!" Dean says, trying to stop him as his brother gets out of the car in a full blown panic. He follows quickly. "Sam, wait!"
"Open the trunk!" Sam demands in a booming voice while pointing to the boot of the car as he marches towards it.
"I can't…"
"Dean! Open it!" Sam shouts even louder.
"I can't!" Dean shouts back, standing in front of the trunk and blocking the way. "Sam, she's not right! I can't just let her out when she's like this!"
"Like what!?"
"A vamp," Dean answers quickly, knowing he had to know it already. "She's still a vampire but we're gonna fix it, ok? Calm down, man. I need you to focus here."
They both just stare at each other, Sam pausing with sheer disbelief and bafflement.
"Is it really her?" Sam questions with a vulnerable sounding, little boy voice, the thought of that trunk containing the person he lost years ago scaring him by giving him hope, the kind of hope he hasn't felt maybe his whole life. Any time he's felt anything akin to hope he's been let down so thoroughly.
"Yeah, Sam. It's her," Dean admits and has to stand his ground when Sam comes closer.
"Get her out of there," Sam says with a suddenly pleading voice, just desperate to see for his own eyes now.
"She's still all vamped up," Dean lays down the truth one more time while shaking his head no. "But we're gonna fix that. So… head in the game."
"We'd need the blood of the vamp that turned her for that."
Dean reaches into his pocket and holds out the small vile Castiel gave him.
"Is that…?" Sam shakily asks and Dean nods. Sam takes a few breaths of overwhelmed shock. He runs his hands through his hair as Dean's good news hits him. "But she's fed…"
"And Cass took care of that too."
"How?"
"Beats the hell outta me but he did it."
"I… I, uh… we can help her? Really help her?"
"That's why we're here, Sammy."
He huffs and starts to lose it with that that means. "Don't fuck with me…"
"I would never fuck with you on this one, little brother. Never," Dean promises completely. "I wouldn't."
"She's back?"
"Yeah," Dean says, smiling with what this means for his brother. "We're gonna get her human again. Sam, Lou's here and it's gonna actually be ok for once. No bullshit."
Sam sighs with relief and tries to hold it together. She's back. His Lou, the one person that means the fucking world and more to him, the one person he just could not get past at all, that he couldn't find a way to live without happily… she's here again.
Bobby runs out of the office with a room key in hand. "Last one on the end," he points and they all move. They get back into the car and head that way, Dean backing the Impala into the space directly in front of their door.
"Here," Dean says to Sam as he hands over the keys. "You get her inside and Bobby and I'll get the cure ready. Don't untie her yet. She's still a vamp and might be hungry. And she still fucking hates me."
Sam would have laughed at this if he wasn't so anxious to see her. He shoves the back door of the car open and runs to the trunk. He nearly drops the keys as he tries to get it open but he manages all the same.
As the trunk door squeals open he gets his first glimpse at her.
Lou's hair is matted and dark with dirt, mud, and blood. Her clothing is tattered at best and her form is thinner and more muscular than ever. The rope is tied so tightly around her waist and arms that her skin is getting raw from struggling. She looks like a feral child found after years in the woods alone but without a doubt that's Lou.
"Lou?" Sam says, the name for once not hurting when he says it.
After blinking with the dawn sunlight she focuses. Locking eyes with the man above her she freezes. She blinks several more times, thinking this has to all be a dream or something.
"M-mm?" she asks, the tape muffling his name as she says it.
"Oh God," Sam laments with her condition but looks past it. It's his Lou. That's all that matters. "I gotcha. I gotcha, Lou." He reaches quickly into the trunk and pulls her out, one arm under her knees and the other around her back. He pulls her close while moving her gently and heads into the motel room Bobby opened for them as he leaves Bobby and Dean to make the antidote. "It's gonna be ok, I promise. You're with us now."
His heart pounds a little faster when Lou easily tucks her head under his chin with clear exhaustion, her body melting into his hold as if no time has passed.
She's home.
"Ok, we're good," Dean says, pouring the putrid looking liquid into a cup from the kitchenette in the motel room. "It'll be a little rough going, Lou… and this tastes like total shit but it works. I would know."
When Dean turns towards Lou sitting in one of the chairs at the small wooden table she just glares at him. Four years to build upon her hatred for him seems to have really made things much worse in her head.
"Lou, hon," Bobby says to her, taking a knee in front of her as Dean hands over the cup, staying away for now. "We're gonna take the tape off but you best behave if we're gonna do that. You're probably hungry but you fight it, you hear me?"
Lou nods her head in agreement.
"This won't be a cakewalk but you're gonna be fine," Sam assures her, sitting in the chair right next to her and facing her. "We're gonna get you human again. Just get through this and you'll be fine."
She just stares at him at this, unsure of what to think about that. She's been a vampire for years now and she's grown comfortable in that state of being. But she remembers being human, the warmth of it and the lack of blood thirst. The emotions such as love and hope and compassion… but she's used to being a bloodthirsty monster…
"Ready?" Sam asks and she nods again despite the conflict in her head. He peels back the tape as gingerly as he can, not at all wanting to hurt her.
As the tape is halfway off Lou closes her eyes. The smell of him. It's been so long since she's fed on human blood that he smells so exceptionally good, so damn delicious, that she can't stop her fangs from descending. She remembers him, who he is and what he means to her, but when that thirst takes over she loses it.
Lou gnashes her teeth at Sam's hand, pushing out of her seat to bite him.
"No, no, no! Lou! Lou!" Sam yells but she falls towards him with her arms still tied behind her back. When she leans onto him with all her weight, her fangs sharp and just an inch away from his neck, Bobby and Dean grab at her.
"Lou! Hon, knock it off!" Bobby directs to her as he and Dean get her on the floor. She struggles back, growling up at them from on her back and Sam nearly crumbles at the sight of her like this.
You're gonna have to watch her die all over again, buddy.
It's the worst timing for Lucifer to start up again, his taunting speaking his worst nightmare.
"Sam! Let's go!" Dean shouts to his brother to get him back to reality when he catches him fading. "Get the stuff!"
You ready to lop her head off? Watch her blood pool under her body as her head rolls the other way? Think you can do that? Think you can see that happen all over again? Ha, not a chance…
Sam shakes his head and pushes past it. Lou is far more important than hallucinations. He grabs the cup on the table and stands between Dean and Bobby.
"Grab her jaw," Sam says, steading his voice and taking control. He wants his Lou back and damn it he's going to get her back.
As Bobby presses her forehead down onto the carpet Dean yanks the tape the rest of the way off quickly before he grabs under her chin and forces her mouth open.
"Lou, relax," Sam says to her, kneeling low over her. "You drink this and it's over. Calm down."
She eyes him oddly, the fire and need to feed in her still but her movements lessen slightly with his reassurance.
Sam carefully pours the antidote into her mouth, going slow and making sure she actually swallow it as he does. She gets most of it down and they let go of her head once done.
Lou coughs and sputters a bit but her struggling stops. She lays back for a second, looking up at the ceiling as she lets the liquid run through her system before her body wretches once. With a single gag she twitches while on her back.
"She's gonna blow," Dean says with experience as he runs for the trash can by the door. He rushes back to Lou and puts it on the floor next to her before helping her sit up quickly. He gets her head over the trash can just as she starts to throw up pitch black liquid into it. "Alright, you're good," Dean says to her encouragingly while gathering her matted hair behind her head and rubbing her back, feeling for her as she goes through this transformation. He remembers it all too well. "Almost there, Lou. You got this. Hang on."
Sam stands back and watches helplessly with anxiety, glad that Dean had the clear mind to watch over her right now as his own head is spinning.
When there's nothing left to vomit in her system Lou falls back onto the floor, going still.
"Lou!" Sam panics a little but Dean holds up a hand.
"Give her a second," Dean says, walking calmly to the bathroom. "It worked but you just gotta let it run its course."
Bobby claps Sam on the back, telling him it's all ok silently. Sam just keeps his eyes on her, worried even if he knows she's fine.
Dean comes back into the room with a wet washcloth and sits next to her on the floor. The whole being a father thing has really changed him and seeing someone in need of help like this made him flip the dad switch without thinking. He lifts Lou's head just slightly and starts to wipe the black death from her mouth and the dirt from her face. She's an absolute disaster, looking like she's been through a war with her current state.
Without warning Lou inhales deeply once, her eyes blinking as she coughs harshly.
"There she is," Dean says encouragingly, lifting her up a little more and turning her so that she can cough up the last of the cure and the inner evil still in her throat. "I gotcha. You're just fine now, Lou. You did good."
She violently coughs a few more times, clutching hard to Dean's forearm around her chest as he holds her up. She starts to take deep breaths as she feels someone sit onto the floor in front of her.
"Lou?" Sam's voice says warmly as she can feel large hands on her face, pushing her matted hair out of her view. When she looks up from the floor the first thing she sees is Sam's hazel and emotion-filled eyes looking right at her. God damn did she miss that right there. His eyes. She could tell his exact thoughts with just one look at those eyes and right now when she sees him there she's unsure of what's reality.
"Please tell me I'm really here and this isn't some fucked up dream," she asks of him, saying her first words to him while shaking with the overwhelming everything. She can feel someone cutting her arms free behind her.
"You're here," Sam promises her, holding her face in his hands. He smiles at her with sheer happiness. "Lou, you're here."
"Giant?" she questions, still having a hard time accepting that it's over, the ordeal and the fear and the constant alert horror is done. She's safe for the first time in longer than she can remember and she knows she is because Sam's there.
"Yeah?"
The second her arms are free she lunges for him, this time not to attack. She wraps her arms around Sam's neck and climbs onto him desperately, her body against his in a second as she clutches with painfully tight strength and collapses into sobs.
"Sam," she just cries out his name, her face buried in his shoulder as he wraps her up in his arms, a form of relief he's never experienced washing over his entire being as he feels her, hears her voice say his name… he has her back.
"I missed you… so much," Sam says to her, two trails of tears rolling down his cheeks as they get tangled up on the dingy floor of the motel room.
"Sam," she repeats, the one word all she has left in her vocabulary at this point. Sam. She lost him she thought. Every day she thought about him, the too few memories of him keeping her going and never letting her give up in that horrible land she was locked away in with no hope of ever getting out. This makes no sense but she's out. She got out.
And she found him again.