Disclaimer: Not mine… will never be… (sobbing in the corner) I am the Queen of my Sandbox and the leader of the midnight Raids, though… (stands and wipes tears with fists) So there… (sticks out tongue)
NOTE#1: Remember, not canon… my Sandbox Rules apply! Thank you all for the reviews, favs and alerts! I'm not sure if people expect a personal reply or not… I have no idea what the rules are for that… but I greatly appreciate them… each and everyone! HuGGs… (smiles)
Chapter 2
After the bags were tossed in the trunk and they climbed into the impala Bobby leaned onto the back of the seat and asked Dean, "So exactly where are we headed?"
Sam looked over at Dean as he waited for his answer as well.
Dean stared sullenly ahead. He didn't want them along for the ride. What if he had to wheel and deal to make this work? To stop this insane pit jump. Not to mention the other things involved in the whole shitty mess. How was he going to make anything happen with these two tagalongs breathing down his neck?
Sam and Bobby exchanged looks before Bobby sat back and silently watched Dean. He knew Dean. The little idgit was up to something. Something he didn't want them along for. He just wasn't sure what that was… yet.
Sam chewed on his lower lip while he studied his big brother. He looked like shit. They'd been through the ringer and they (heaven and hell) weren't done with them yet. Pitting them against one another when all they'd had for awhile now was each other. Well, it sucked. It more than sucked, it was the last straw. It could very well shatter them into a million pieces. And just how the hell can you come back from that?
A couple hours into the silence and Sam cleared his throat before he asked, "Dean… where are we going?" He hoped for an answer that Bobby hadn't gotten when he'd posed the question earlier.
Dean continued to drive for a few minutes before he told them, "Dad's storage."
"The one at Castle?" Sam asked surprise laced in his voice.
"He got any more that I don't know about?" Dean asked but he looked at Bobby in the rearview mirror.
"How should I know?" Bobby asked crabbily, once again leaning forward.
Sam turned and echoed Dean, "Does he?"
Bobby leaned back and frowned, crossing him arms in silence before he said quietly, "Turn left at Hwy 59."
Dean got a pissed off look on his face as he silently followed Bobby's directions. Ten minutes later Dean snapped, "When were you going to tell us about this Bobby?"
Bobby shrugged but remained stubbornly silent.
"Bobby." Dean repeated as his fingers clenched reflexively on the wheel.
"It wasn't time." He finally muttered sullenly.
Dean and Sam glanced at each other before Dean growled, "It wasn't time? Bobby, when would have been the time? After Sammy jumped in the pit?" Dean slammed on the brakes and yanked the wheel to the right pulling off the road onto the side as he roughly maneuvered the car into park. Jumping out he slammed the driver's door and stalked away. He couldn't believe it! Bobby knew he had a week. And he pulls this shit on him! Wasting time they didn't have letting him chase a useless lead!
God, he was pissed! He stormed back to the car and yanked open his door. Leaning in he snarled at Bobby, "DON'T ever keep shit from me again! This… this is wasting my time! Time I don't have!" He climbed back in and once again slammed his door shut.
Mumbling under his breath while he put the car into gear, he floored it. Squalling tires, horns blaring in protest and a trail of scorched rubber left in their wake caused a hint of a smile from Dean. Sam white knuckled the dash but wisely kept his mouth shut.
Three and half hours later they pulled up to an old farmhouse. A man immediately appeared on the porch holding a shotgun.
Once Bobby stepped out the gun was lowered and the man smiled as he asked, "How the hell are you Bob?"
"To tell you the truth, we've been better. I'd like you to meet the boys." Bobby said with a strained smile as he walked over to the man and shook hands.
"The boys?" He asked surprised and then grinned. "Well, it's about damn time." He stated with genuine enthusiasm.
Dean and Sam looked at each other confused. The man seemed to know about them. It left them feeling at a disadvantage because they had no idea who the man was.
"Been wondering when you'd show and want to see the collection." He told them, smiling broadly.
"The collection?" Sam echoed exchanging glances once more with Dean.
"Well, you don't think we keep everything in one locale do ya?" The guy asked and then snorted in response to their twin looks of 'what the fuck is going on?'
"Bob has some, some of it's at Castle, some of it's here and then Fort Tayme has the rest. Then of course we have copies stashed all over hell and back." The guy stated proudly.
"Fort Tayme?" Bobby repeated with a snort, instantly his mind supplied the image of the tiny woman in her late sixties who had a hell of a reputation as a woman not to piss off.
The guy laughed as he held out his hand to Sam who was closer, "Name's Joseph Pacer… Pace for short." After shaking Sam's hand he asked, "You little Sammy?"
Dean chuckled as he agreed, "Yeah, that'd be him."
Pace turned sparkling eyes towards Dean as he said, "And I guess that makes you Deanny."
Dean turned maroon as he corrected the guy, "Just Dean." Dean hastily changed the subject as he asked, "How come you never mentioned this before Bobby?"
Bobby said quickly, "We only wanted the angels to know about Castle. It's kinda the one we want people to find."
"So people will think that's it and stop looking?" Sam guessed.
"He is smart." Pace stated.
Bobby nodded in agreement as Pace asked, "So what are you looking for?"
Dean said cryptically, "I'll know it when I see it."
"Alrighty then, let's get to it." Pace commented as he headed towards the barn. While they walked he told the boys, "I was real sorry to hear about your pa. He could be a right pain in the ass, but he was a damn fine hunter."
"Thanks." Dean said quickly hoping that would end the conversation about their Dad.
"Also heard some rumors that a couple of shit for brains took you boys out, glad to see that was bullshit." He continued to rattle as he walked into the barn and straight into the last stall, barely pausing as he exposed the hidden door. Pace stomped down some metal stairs as he continued to talk, "We got all of Jim and Caleb's work here as well as some other lost hunters. Most of the stuff is here. Tayme has about as much as the Castle unit has. Bobby has more than both of them and then the rest is here. Oh, I took the liberty of adding the Campbell stuff, it's here as well."
"You have the Campbell bunker?" Dean repeated, then looked at Bobby as he started to question. "How the hell…"
Bobby quickly butt in to say, "Couldn't let all that fall into the wrong hands."
Sam stopped at the bottom of the stairs as he asked Bobby, "Why didn't you tell us about this before?" He turned grim as he stated angrily, "It might have helped me save Dean and then none of this shit would have…"
Dean placed his hand on Sam's arm as he whispered, "It's done. Let it go."
Sam jerked his arm away as he snapped, "No. I could have saved you."
"You don't know that Sammy." He took both of Sam's arms in his grip and gave a slight squeeze as he told him softly, "We'll fix it now, okay?"
Pace had walked over and flipped some switches and light other than from the barn above flooded the room.
Dean gave a slight whistle as he told Sammy, "Look at this shit, you could spend days down here…" It looked like a library with rows and rows of shelves with books and objects, file boxes all stacked on metal shelving that went to the ceiling. "This is insane."
Pace said with a chuckle, "No, insane is trying to catalog all this mess. It's taken years and I'm still not done…" He smiled as he hinted, "Maybe you guys can help me."
"Another time, maybe. Right now we got to cage a devil." Dean said firmly.
Pace's smile froze as he said softly, "That's a mighty big thing to try to do."
Bobby spoke up as he said, "All the handwritten stuff is in the file cabinets on the back wall."
"Right now I have each person's notes in their own cabinets. The first 4 cabinets are Murphys, the next 3 are Calebs' and the yellow one belongs to Ellen, Ash and Jo, then mine and the rest are yours and Johns. Then there the boxes of Campbell notes I haven't gotten filed yet." Pace stated.
Rubbing his chin he said thoughtfully, "You might want to start with Jim's notes…" He continued as he pointed, "Back there I have a table set up and extra lights. No one will bother you and stay as long as you like. We still have that small apartment in the back as well."
Dean chuckled as he said, "This is so X-files."
Pace commented matter-of-factly, "No, Hunter Files. We're much more organized."
Sam laughed at the expression on Dean's face.
Dean shrugged as he said, "Let's get to it then." and with that he walked away.
Sam looked at Pace as he told him, "This is really quite impressive."
Pace smiled as he said, "It was all Bob and John's idea."
Bobby dropped his duffle as he told Sam, "Try looking in the section on Lucifer. It should be over to the left, 3rd row from the top… that whole shelf marked Hell."
"No." Dean snapped from the back, "You look there. I need Sam back here with me."
Sam shrugged as he mumbled, "Sorry Bobby." as he headed back to where Dean was currently looking through a file drawer.
Sam asked as he walked up. "You really that pissed at Bobby?"
"Naw… no more than you are." Dean said as he mumbled, "Nixies?"
"Nixie? Wha… what?" Sam asked crankily as he opened a file drawer of Jims while he stared at Dean.
"What?" Dean asked looking up from the files he was currently reading.
"You called me a Nixie." Sam said as he started rifling through the drawer.
"No, Dad has files on Dutch folklore. Ya know, they settled in Pennyslvania."
Sam chuckled as he said, "Actually they were German not Dutch. So that would be German folklore." He concluded with an elbow push to the drawer he'd just pulled a stack of files from.
"What the fuck ever, dude. A Nixie is a GERMAN name for water or lake people." Dean said in a huff as he pulled a file and plopped down in a nearby chair and smacked his feet onto the table.
"Dude, really?" Sam asked as he looked up from the files he'd stacked up on the table in front of him where he had sat down a few seconds before Dean.
Dean looked over the file at Sam and grinned as he arched an eyebrow. He was trying for No, not sweating bullets over here. I'm calm, cool and collected...
TBC
