Comrades and Brothers

SYNOPSIS: Ep. 15, season 6 "French Mistake" spinoff – Two guys transported to a strange place by a mysterious power. That's not so bad, right? But there's a catch. They hate each other. And now they're forced to work together to survive.

Author's notes: This is the only way I can write an RPF story and technically, since it is a spinoff of an episode, it isn't even an RPF. In my personal opinion, Jensen and Jared have become characters through the episode "French Mistake". So in this way I am not using the actors, just their "another universe" characters and thus I can pretty make up anything from that world.

Also if anyone is curious on how my SPN/SV crossover story is doing, I did not abandon it. In fact I am in the process of writing chapter 3. I've still got a pretty good idea on where I'm heading for the most part.

Part 1

Jensen hiked up his khakis for the umpteenth time as Jared rolled his eyes. The muddy water beneath their feet made a sloshing sound as they walked. Jared stopped as another car drove past them and threw his hands up in frustration. "That's it. This is getting us nowhere, man. Don't you have a better plan?"

He half turned to see his co-star stare at him with raised eyebrows and tight, pursed lips. "What the hell are you looking at me for, Padalecki? I'm as lost and carless as you. At least my plan has us walking around and not sitting on our asses in god knows where!"

Jared fumed. "Yeah because wandering around aimlessly is so much better than staying put and looking for a lift."

"Excuse me for not being too fond of hitch hiking with strangers or have you not seen the movies?" Jensen sneered. "Or, hell, any of our episodes."

Jared snorted as they continued to walk along the road. It was eerily quiet out. "Paranoid freak."

"Sometimes it's good to be a little cautious," Jensen shot back.

Jared just rolled his eyes and watched as a truck came down the empty road. Jared stuck his hand up in a half hearted attempt to grab the driver's attention and to his surprise the vehicle came to a slow roll. It stopped just a few feet from the two men. Jared looked anxiously back at Jensen and noticed the tension in the man's shoulders. The driver rolled the window down and Jared could see the bulky outline of a man in the darkness.

"Son of a bitch," Jensen said from behind him in a perfect mimic of his character, Dean Winchester, as he stepped closer.

At the same time, the driver said in surprise, "Dean? Sam? Is that you, you idjits?"

Before Jared had time to contemplate what was going on, the driver got out of the car and Jim Beaver was coming around the truck to greet the two actors. "Beaver!" Jared cried in relief and ran to hug the man.

Then suddenly he found himself thrown on the ground on his ass and Jim was glaring down at him for no reason. Baffled Jared sat there as Jim hissed out a "Christo". Then as fast as lightning, Jim dug his left hand into his jacket and got out a bag half filled with some kind of white powder. Jared wasn't sure what to make of this.

Behind him Jensen seemed just as confused, chuckling nervously like he thought their friend had lost his mind and he didn't want to startle him into a full on melt down. "Come on, Jim. Quit messing with us. It's not that funny, dude."

Jim paused to stare at them and for a moment Jared hoped Jensen had reached him. But then Jim was back to opening the bag and Jared only had a second to lift his arm up as the man threw a handful of the white powder all over Jared. Jared blinked in surprise and sat dumbly on the ground waiting for Jim's next move. Nothing came for a full thirty seconds. Jared eased back and swiped the powder from his hair. He heard the stiff movements coming from Jensen behind him.

"Dude, he threw salt at us," Jensen hissed in his ear. "I mean what the actual fuck?"

"I…don't know," Jared shook his head baffled. Jim's behavior was definitely out there. Jim went over to the back of his truck and took out a knife. Jared's eyes bulged as he took in the sight. "J-Jim?"

Jim's eyes narrowed at Jared. "Stop calling me that and tell me what you did to Sam!" He edged closer to the two men. "Fucking shape shifters, I swear."

"Shape shifters? Are you fucking high, Jim? We're not shape shifters!"

"Shut your mouth," Jim spat, waving the hunting knife at Jensen in warning causing the man to clam up.

Jared eyed the knife nervously and made to get up when Jim's gaze shifted back to him, a hard gleam in his eyes. "Stay put, shape shifter."

Not seeing much of a choice, Jared sat back down, his huge frame tensing up as Jim stepped closer until he was right in front of Jared, then he crouched down and lifted one of Jared's arms up. Jensen spluttered indignantly from behind them as Jim sliced into Jared's arm. The three men watched as red blood oozed from the wound. For a long moment no one said anything, silently mesmerized by the sight of the blood, but finally Jared figured it was safe to pull his arm back. He cradled his arm, hissing at the pain as he shifted to a more comfortable position, crossing his legs beneath him.

"Son of a gun…you really aren't a shape shifter," Jim muttered, wiping the blood from the knife with his jacket. Jared stared up at him with wide eyes, a disbelieving look on his face, because really that was what they had repeatedly said from the beginning.

"No shit," Jensen said.

Jim snapped his eyes to the blonde. "He might not be a shape shifter, but you still could be," Jim growled.

"For the love of…Christ, man, what in the hell is wrong with you?"

"Huh. Neither of you are shape shifters. This is a new one."

"Christ, we could've told you that, you freak. In fact we did," Jensen said, stressing the last sentence. He rubbed at his arm making sure to avoid the slice. "Damn it, that hurts."

Jim sighed and shook his head as he put away the knife with some reluctance. "So what the hell are you guys then?"

"Human," Jared said instantly. "We're one hundred percent human."

Jensen snorted as Jim stared at them suspiciously. "Yeah and you're one hundred percent bonkers. You should've just said no to the drugs, man. That stuff always comes back to bite you in the ass."

Jim glared at Jensen. "I don't take any drugs, kid. Just tell me why the hell you two are dressed like my boys and we'll forget this whole thing."

Jensen and Jared both exchanged bewildered glances with each other. They were both freaking out, Jensen knew. He could see it in Jared's eyes just the same as he could hear the quickening beat of his heart in his own chest. He felt something churn in his guts. Either Jim had gone insane or he really thought Jensen and Jared were Dean and Sam and that was just fucking nuts because Dean and Sam were just characters off a TV show and so was Bobby but Jim thought he was actually Bobby Singer and nothing so far had made any kind of sense. Either Jim had lost his head through the years or…or Jensen was losing his or maybe they both were or maybe the whole damn world was.

"Okay look man, we have no freakin' clue what's going on but we're not Dean and Sam and you're not Bobby Singer. I'm Jensen Ackles, he's Jared Padalecki and you're fucking Jim Beaver and you're our friend and we're just actors and seriously, what the shit have you been smoking?"

Jensen stumbled back a step as both Jim and Jared stared at him like he'd lost his mind. Yeah okay, that sounded way better in his head but seriously he didn't understand why Jared was joining the old man, Jim was completely insane and Jensen was starting to regret every moment they stayed here with him. This was just too messed up. Jensen looked down at his feet as Jared finally turned away to face Jim again clearing his throat awkwardly in the silence.

"What my, uh, friend here said is correct. We're just actors from this TV show and we have no idea what happened to uhm Sam and Dean," Jared's voice said.

Jim raised an eyebrow. "Okay say what you're saying is true and you don't know a damn thing 'bout them which is very highly unlikely might I add, say I believe all that, I've got one question for you and I'd like a damn answer–a straight one."

Jared swallowed and nodded. He had a feeling what the question might be and didn't know how he'd answer but for their sake, he'd have to. "Okay, sure. Whatever it is, I'll try to answer," he said licking his chapped lips nervously.

"You better do more than try," Jim warned as he went to the trunk to fish out a shotgun. Jared's eyes widened at the sight, his mouth open to let loose a shocked gasp that was just loud enough to snap Jensen's head up. "Now I ain't playing 'round here. If you two are who you say you are, then why in hell are you dressed like my kids?"

"Holy shit," Jensen let slip backing away as far as he dared without taking eyes off the gun, an actual honest to god real gun with real bullets that would really actually hurt if he did fire at them. "Oh my god we stepped in a nut house," he stuttered to Jared. "Padalecki, he's seriously tripping, man. That's a gun. Honest to god real gun. And the nutty fucker's got it in his hands. And the safety's off and I bet it's loaded. He's gonna shoot at us, the crazy ol' coot's gonna shoot us dead." He couldn't seem to shut his mouth up but he really didn't want to die. He didn't want to die. Jensen was too young to die. He still wanted to do a million things like getting back home to his bed, to Danny. Living to see tomorrow. Playing as Dean freaking Winchester, hunter extraordinaire. But he couldn't do any of that if he was dead.

"Shut up, Ackles," Jared hissed getting kind of sick of the death talk. He addressed Jim then, "Look man, put the gun down. No one needs to get hurt around here. We get that you just wanna find your boys but look, we already said we aren't them and we don't know what happened to them and you already tested us to see if we're human and we passed. Now just put the gun down and we can talk this out like rational adults."

"I am being rational," Jim snapped holding on tighter to the gun like a man possessed. "Now why don't you just answer my question and we can damn well move on."

"We told you already, we're actors for this TV show called 'Supernatural' and Sam and Dean are our characters and today we were shooting this one episode called 'The French Mistake' and right when we had to jump through this window in this scene we landed here in the middle of nowhere! We don't know anything beyond that, honest to god!"

A thick silence descended over them. Jim regarded the two actors thoughtfully for a moment and Jensen found himself holding his breath because it looked like he finally believed them. Finally Jim heaved a sigh and holstered the shotgun, and put the safety back on. "Yer lucky that actually sounds plausible," he grumbled.

Jared perked up a little at that, relief flooding his face. "Really? How?" he asked curiously.

"Angels," Jim said simply but didn't bother to elaborate before he closed his eyes and screwed his face up in concentration. It set Jensen on edge. He had a feeling things were about to get nuttier.

"Just how much crazy can a guy take?" he grumbled to Jared.

Jared looked back at him, strangely amused. "We're about to find out I guess."

For more than a couple minutes nothing happened. Jim opened one eye and looked around; he seemed unsurprised by the result and shrugged a little before the grounds suddenly shook under their feet. Jared nearly toppled over. Jensen braced himself for whatever was about to come.

"Bobby Singer," a familiar gravelly voice boomed from behind them.

"Son of a gun, you came," Jim said in an awed voice.

"Of course. You prayed."

Both Jensen and Jared whirled around in surprise. In all his glory, stood a man in a trench coat. His arms stretched out before him, his head was cocked at an angle as he took in Jensen and Jared with achingly familiar blue eyes and lips turned down in a frown. "Misha?" The name came out before Jensen could stop and think but the man just looked at him blankly, a perfect imitation of his character Castiel.

Misha shook his head. "No. My name is Castiel. I am an angel of the lord. And you two are not Sam and Dean. Are you?"