"Come on, guys! Please?" I beg.
"Why are you so insistent on this being your first case?" Sam asks.
"Why are you so against it?" I counter.
"We're not even sure there is a case! People disappear all the time and it's not always supernatural related." Sam explains yet again.
"Let the girl come, Sammy. What's the harm?" Dean interjects.
"It's Sam, jerk."
"Bitch."
"Alright, twits. I'll join y'all in a minute. I gotta let Kev know." I interrupt their mock argument.
"Okay, Caitlin. See you soon I guess." Sam sighs in resignation.
I hang up the phone and track down Kevin. I find him in the library, looking at something on his laptop. "Hey, babe." I greet.
"Hey, honey. What did they say?" he asks conversationally.
"Dean and I wore Sam down, he said I can join." I beam.
"Your first hunt with the Winchesters. Are you excited?" he asks with a smile, knowing I've been looking forward to this moment forever. He had to listen to my groaning when the brothers sent me home during our vacation instead of letting me join the werewolf hunt. Apparently, a werewolf was too dangerous for my first hunt. I brought up Purgatory, but they put their foot down so I went and helped Kevin move our stuff instead.
"Extremely. I'm glad they agreed to this particular case. It's one of my favorite episodes." I enthuse.
"What happened to not messing with cases involved with the show?" he jokes good-naturedly.
"You're living proof that I suck at sticking to that rule." I laugh, kissing him on the cheek.
"Promise you'll be careful. I don't want you to get hurt." he says worriedly.
"This isn't a very dangerous case. I'll be fine. I'll be back when we're done." I assure him.
I land in the Impala just as they are nearing the school. "Hey, Cat." Dean welcomes.
"Do you have your badge?" Sam asks, tucking his own into his jacket.
"Yep." I confirm as I pull it out of my jacket and flash it professionally. "Agent Urie reporting for duty."
After I had moved back in, the boys had made me a fake FBI badge. Dean wasn't happy with my chosen name, since he likes their rock aliases, but I convinced him to allow it. They also helped me shop for my own FBI threads, which are similar to what Charlie wore when she hunted with them.
"I still think you should have a rock alias." Dean declares with a grimace.
"At least I chose a popular musician, even if he isn't your taste." I defend.
"We are not having this argument again, guys!" Sam exclaims in annoyance. "Dean, you let her have the name, so quit complaining. Caitlin, don't forget to address us as agents and let us do all the talking."
"I know, agent." I reply cheekily.
"I'm going to call the local police." Sam says, pulling out his phone.
"Yeah, of course! Yeah, I certainly appreciate it. You got it. Thanks, officer." Sam finishes as we park. We all get out while he relays the information he received. "So, the last place Ms. Chandler was seen by anyone was in the auditorium. Turns out she's the drama teacher."
"Ugh, theater kids. Great" Dean grumbles.
"What? I was a theater kid." Sam responds defensively.
"Barely. You did Our Town, which was cool. But then, you did that crappy musical." Dean replies.
"The - Oklahoma? Hugh Jackman got cast off of Oklahoma." Sam exclaims.
"You ran tech, Wolverine." Dean mocks.
Sam gets an embarrassed look and mumbles "Shut up."
I quietly giggle at their banter as we walk into the building. As we reach the auditorium, I can't hide my smile anymore, knowing what is about to happen.
"What are you smiling about?" Sam asks quietly, hoping Ms. Salazar isn't listening.
"Nothing." I reply innocently. He gives me a suspicious look, but drops it.
We enter the auditorium in the middle of a rehearsal. The brothers whip their heads toward an actress who is saying very familiar lines.
"Idjits! You, idjits. You are idjits."
Dean looks at Sam, but then, another familiar expression is heard. "Hey, ass-butt! Hey! Ass-butt!" a girl dressed as Cas shouts.
Suddenly, a few notes are played on a piano, and some scenes set up on stage, while a girl dressed as Dean starts to sing.
"John and Mary, husband and wife"
Out of respect to the performers, I bite my lip to keep from laughing as I watch their expressions during the song. When the director yells "Cut!", they turn to each other in shocked disbelief.
"What in the holy..." Dean exclaims.
"If there is case... It probably has something to do with all of this." Sam comments.
"You think?" Dean replies sarcastically. Then they turn and see that I am silently cracking up. "You knew! You knew about this whole thing! That's why you insisted on this case!" Dean hisses slightly angrily.
"Maayyybbbeee" I say, giggling again.
"You are so dead!" he threatens.
Just then, the director walks up. "Hi! Oh my gosh... Are you guys from the publisher? I'm Marie, writer/director. This is Maeve, my stage manager, and I was just, uh, dir-"
She stops when she sees Sam's badge. Dean and I try to show our own badges, but when Sam realizes the actors who play Sam and Dean are doing the same, he stops us. "I'm special agent Smith. This is my partner, special agent –" Sam introduces.
"Smith." Dean fills in.
"Smith. No relation." Sam continues. "This is our trainee, agent Urie. We're here to look into the disappearance-"
"There is no singing in Supernatural!" Dean interrupts, still upset.
Sam looks embarrassed while Maeve and Marie, the stage manager and director, just look confused.
"Well, this is Marie's interpretation..." Maeve explains.
"Hah! Well... I mean, if there was singing, you know... And that's a big if! If there was singing, it would be classic rock. Not this Andrew Floyd Webber crap –" Dean continues to rant.
"Andrew Lloyd Webber." Sam corrects quietly.
"What?" Dean asks distractedly.
"Well! You know, we do sing a cover of Carry On Wayward Son, in the second act." Marie tells him.
"Oh!" Dean replies, seeming slightly less upset at that.
"Really?" Sam asks, not impressed with the choice.
"It's a classic!" Marie, Dean, and I exclaim at the same time.
"Right. Anyways. We're here to talk about the disappearance of Ms. Chandler. Any chance you two saw her, before she vanished?" Sam says professionally, getting us back on track.
They continue to discuss the case as I just watch, glancing around the auditorium. "That's great! That's great. Jody Mills, that's great. So! How about you give me a... behind the scenes tour, while your director shows my partner Ms. Chandler's office? Deal?" Sam rambles. The girls nod so he continues. "Great. Give us a moment, please."
"I'm gonna throw up." Dean says as the girls walk away, Maeve giving him a dirty look.
"I mean, I gotta say, it's kind of charming. The production value, and the... No?" Sam starts before seeing Dean's face. "No, no. I'm gonna check for EMF. You and Cat look for... cursed objects." he finishes, walking away.
"When this is over, we need to talk." Dean growls to me before following Sam. I stare after him wide-eyed in shock, but shake myself and hurry after their retreating forms.
We follow Marie backstage as she and Dean discuss the props. Dean, not able to resist, grabs a prop gun and plays with it. "Don't. Please, don't." Marie says as she takes it away from him and puts it back.
Dean then sees the actors who play Sam and Dean practicing a scene. "What are they doing?" he asks Marie.
"Oh! Hum, they're rehearsing the B.M. scene." Marie answers.
"The bowel movement scene?" Dean asks incredulously.
"No! The boy melodrama scene!" Marie corrects. Seeing Dean's confused face, she explains. "You know, the scene where the boys get together, and they're-they're driving, or leaning against Baby. Drinking a beer, sharing their feelings. The two of them. Alone. But together. Bonded. United. The power of the brotherly-"
Dean notices something and interrupts. "Why are they standing so close together?" I roll my eyes at this, but I knew it was coming.
"Hum... Reasons." Marie answers vaguely. I'm well aware of her reasons and have to try not to smile in amusement as Dean responds.
"You know they're brothers, right?" he asks.
"Well, duh! But... Subtext." she replies.
"Why don't you take a substep back there, ladies?" Dean directs the actors.
"Sorry, he's not a fan of that particular pairing." I whisper to Marie, outing myself as a fellow fangirl.
"Are you a fan of the books too?" she asks curiously.
"Definitely. Love what you are doing here, it's pretty great!" I answer enthusiastically.
"Thank you. Your partners don't seem to agree." she comments.
"They are very set on everything being completely canon." I tell her.
We finally make it to the office and we start looking around. Dean stumbles upon a robot head and holds it up. "Is this hers?" he asks.
"No! That's a prop from act two! I've been looking for that, actually." Marie exclaims.
"There's no space in Supernatural." Dean insists.
"Well, not canonically, no. But this is transformative fiction." Marie explains.
Dean smirks at that and scoffs "You mean fan fiction."
"Call it whatever you like, ok? It's inspired by Carver Edlund's books. With a few embellishments. Well, as you know, Chuck stopped writing after Swan Song. I just- I couldn't leave it the way that it was! I mean, Dean not hunting anymore, living with Lisa?! Sam, somehow back from Hell, but not with Dean?! So, I wrote my own ending." she rants.
"You wrote your own ending, with spaceships?" he asks skeptically.
"And robots. And some ninjas. And then, Dean becomes a woman." she tells us. Dean just stares at her so she quickly adds, "It-It's just for a few scenes!"
As we are walking back to the auditorium, Dean decides to set Marie straight on what really happened to them. "Alright, Shakespeare! You know that I can actually tell you what really happened with the-the Sam and Dean? A friend of mine hooked me up with the, uh, unpublished unpublished books." he starts.
"So, Sam came back from Hell, but without a soul. Then, Cas brought in a bunch of leviathans from Purgatory. They lost Bobby. And then, Cas' and Dean got stuck in Purgatory, Sam hit a dog, they met a prophet named Kevin. Then, Sam endured a series of trials, in an attempt to close the gates of Hell, which nearly cost him his life. Then Dean? Well, Dean became a demon. Knight of Hell, actually." he finishes.
"Wow..." Marie scoffs in amusement.
"Yep." Dean responds, not realizing she doesn't believe him.
"That is some of the worst fan fiction that I've ever heard!" she laughs. "I mean, seriously, I don't know where your friend found this garbage! I am not saying that ours is masterpiece, or anything, but geez. Ha! I'll have to send you some fic links later." she mocks.
I laugh with her when I see Dean's face. He turns and shoots me a glare before noticing Siobhan and Kristen, still with their Dean and Cas costumes, hugging.
"What are they doing?" he asks, pointing at them.
"Hmm... Kids, these days, call it hugging." she replies.
"Is that in the show?" Dean asks, about to get upset again.
"Oh, no. Siobhan and Kristen are a couple in real life." Marie assures. "Although, we do explore the nature of Destiel in act two." she adds.
"Sorry, what?" Dean asks in confusion.
"Oh, it's just subtext! But, then again, you know, you can't spell subtext without... s-e-x." she reveals.
Dean looks extremely unamused by this. He starts heading out to meet up with Sam, but I tell him I'll join him in a minute.
"Hey, Marie?" I call as she was walking away. I quickly catch up to her.
"Yeah?" she asks.
"Any chance you could send me those fic links?" I ask quietly.
"Sure." she replies with a knowing smile, glancing behind me at Dean's retreating form. "Your partner sure is opinionated about the show I'm doing."
"Yeah, I think it's just his age." I smirk, handing her my email. "I better catch up to them, see ya!" I say as I follow after Dean, catching up to him as we reach the parking lot, where Sam is waiting.
Dean tells him about what we learned, including the revelation of Destiel. "I don't understand." Sam comments after he finishes.
"Me neither." Dean responds.
"I mean, shouldn't it be... Deastiel?" Sam continues, annoying Dean.
"Really? That's your issue with this?" Dean replies angrily.
Sam smirks. "No, of course it's not my issue. You know... How about Sastiel? Samstiel?" he adds.
"Actually, that's a popular ship." I pipe up, causing the brothers to stare at me. "I always liked Sabriel, personally. I never wanted it to actually happen, of course. I just liked it in a literary context."
Now they are staring at me with twin looks of confusion. "What the hell is Sabriel?" Dean asks.
I blush and say "The name for the pairing of….Sam …..and Gabriel." I cringe as they both shoot me a glare.
"Me and Gabriel?!" Sam exclaims in disbelief.
"I don't know, Sammy. You've got that whole height difference going for you." Dean jokes with a smirk.
"No. Just, no." Sam says with a bitch face. "Besides, Gabe's been dead for years."
"Hate to tell you, Dean, but I liked Destiel too. Like with Sabriel, I never wanted it to be canon, but there were some great fics written for it." I admit, earning another glare from Dean. I'm just digging a deeper hole for myself.
"Ok, alright. You know what? You're gonna do that thing, where you just shut the hell up. Forever." Dean exclaims irately.
Sam laughs, but gets things back to the case.
"Look, man. No EMF. No hex bags. None of the props are even remotely hinky. Other than the Charlie Kaufman of it all, I got nothing. You?" he says.
"In Ms. Chandler's office, there's just a pile of empty bottles and regret. She's just probably face down in a bar, somewhere. Or a ditch. All right, so what? This-this all... This whole musical thing, everything, it's... It's all a coincidence? There is no case?" Dean asks.
"Unless you're seeing something I'm not, no, Dean. There's no case, here." Sam confirms.
"Ok." Dean replies, heading to the driver's side.
Sam winks at me then looks at Dean. "CasDean?"
"Shut your face! Get in the car!" Dean demands.
After the second disappearance, we return to the auditorium. Dean and I follow Marie while Sam and Maeve start on research. We soon discover it's Calliope and come up with a plan.
On the opening night of the play, we are all backstage. We each have a stake, and as the show starts, we split up. Sam is taken near the end of the first song, leaving Dean and I to try to defeat the scarecrow that shows itself during the song, A Single Man Tear.
Dean tackles it on stage and I assist from behind the scenes. I use my powers to soften his impact when the scarecrow flings him. For some reason my powers don't affect it, so I do what I can for Dean.
I smile as Dean awkwardly bows after Marie stabs the scarecrow and it explodes, covering the first few rows in purple goo. He walks over to me after saying his goodbye to her. She gave him the prop Samulet, which I smile at. He looks at me and says, "Thanks for the support. I could feel you softening the impact of its blows."
"I couldn't do anything to it for some reason, sorry." I tell him.
Sam finds us after talking to Maeve and tells us that he killed Calliope. "You missed an awesome show." I say to him.
We watch as the Sam and Dean onstage talk, reflecting how the brothers feel at that moment. After that, it's time for the rendition of Carry On My Wayward Son. I smile with tears in my eyes as I watch their reactions and laugh as Adam still being in Hell is mentioned.
After the show, we part ways. I stick around and see Chuck. I decide to talk to him and nervously approach him. "Umm Chuck?" I ask timidly.
He turns to me and smiles. "Ah yes. You're Caitlin. I'm so sorry for everything that's happened to you."
I'm frozen in shock. I guess I should've known he would know who I was, considering he is God in this dimension. "I wanted to apologize for changing the way things are supposed to be." I say contritely.
"Yes, you have changed the future. You've done well to not stop the big events, however, so it's forgiven." he comments.
"Oh, I read all your books. They're really good! In my dimension this is all a TV show, which I'm sure you already knew, but it was interesting to read your take on everything." I ramble.
"You should check out my blog." he winks.
I notice everyone has pretty much left so I say, "I should probably get back. Nice to meet you!" and fly home.
I land in the library where Kevin is looking at something on his laptop. "How was your first hunt?" Kevin asks, getting up from his spot at the table and wrapping his arms around me.
"Perfect." I sigh, leaning into him contentedly. Now that I've gotten my feet wet with a real case, Sam and Dean won't have an excuse to keep me from hunting with them.
A/N: I am an equal opportunity fic reader. I've read at least one fic of most SPN ships. I like to see how different people view different ships. Feel free to PM any recommendations for fics. I love reading new ones.