AN: Sorry about the italics, guys, but...I gotta remind you that this is all still flashing back. In hindsight, I should've just started it from where I started it. But in my head...well I won't go into detail again.
Again, little twists in the storyline, making it as copacetic with the show's timeline as possible, but allowing me to steer them down a totally different path. I want them to still encounter the same characters most fans love from these past few seasons, and in order to do that without the Leviathan back-story, I had to include them in a new way.
Bear with the time-jumps...I'm leaping and bounding over a lot of "episodes" that can't happen in this story due to, again, no Leviathans. Just know that for every "x amount of time later" I have skipped over a lot of boring filler LOL.
Enjoy!
*~.~*
A week later, they were holed up in Rufus's old cabin in Whitefish, Montana. It was the only safe thing to do for the time being, with the boys both needing to heal up. Dean was in a cast for at least a few more weeks. Sam had been on bed rest and pain killers for that first couple of weeks. After the hit in the head and that frightening seizure, the hospital had done MRIs to find the origin of the intracranial pressure. They'd remedied the bleeding, reduced the swelling, and Bobby and Dean smuggled him out of the hospital the first chance they got.
Now, four weeks later still, Sam was as good as expected, and Dean was complaining about how itchy the cast was. "One more friggin' week, an' this stupid thing can come off," he said, scratching his skin by shoving a long-handled gun cleaning brush under the front end of the cast.
"Almost over," Bobby said as he walked into the cabin, having heard him before opening the door. "Got somethin' that oughta cheer ya up," he said, then tossed him a set of keys.
Dean's face lit up as he caught them. "My baby!" he smiled. "Can't wait till I can drive 'er."
"So how is it out there?" Sam asked from where he sat at the small breakfast table.
"Since we've been gone, seems to be quiet," Bobby told him. "At least as far as Sioux Falls goes. Got a couple hunters keepin' an eye out, and as far as they can tell, everything's quiet."
"That's weird," Dean said. "So...what? You think they found what they were lookin' for?"
"I don't rightly know," Bobby sighed as he took a seat. "Those dig sites are still active. No idea why they'd have been away from those, unless...unless they were specifically there for us..."
"For us?" Dean asked, then thought about it for a minute. "Well, they did zone in on us, specifically. I guess maybe having insiders posted in the hospital was a back-up for if they didn't get the job done at your place." Bobby looked at him for a moment, an eye twitching with the notion. "What do you think, Sam?" he asked.
But Sam didn't hear him; not with the voice flooding his head right then. It was Lucifer. "You never left, Sam," he told him. "You're still in the Cage with me."
"Sammy?" Dean asked again, turning his head to look over at him. "Sammy?" he said again, watching his brother look somewhere far off. "Sam," he said louder. "Hey! Ground control! Sam!"
"Yeah. What?" Sam shook himself and looked to his brother. "I'm- I'm right here."
"You okay?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he insisted. The room was silent for a long, uncomfortable moment.
"Good," Bobby said, breaking the silence. "Well anyway, if you're right," he said to Dean, "It's a damn good thing I made sure I wasn't followed. I think us disappearing off the radar might've given them the impression that they were successful. Now back to what the sons of bitches are lookin' for... Every last bit of info I had burned down, so..."
"What about this place?" Dean asked. "Rufus leave anything? You check the basement?"
"C-rations and dust," Bobby replied, quirking his mouth for a moment. "I don't think he'd been here in years. So I gotta go round up my old library."
"I thought you said most of those books were one of a kind," Sam said.
"Yeah. That's why I stashed copies all over the place."
"Okay," Dean nodded. "Good." Then he looked to Sam. "Hey uh...two-arms. We're fresh outta grub. Wanna make a run?"
Sam looked surprised for a moment. "Sure," he replied. "Yeah."
He tossed Sam the keys. "Be careful with her. And uh...Sam?"
"Yeah?"
"Pie."
"Obviously." Sam shook his head, then headed out.
Dean waited for the door to close before he turned back to Bobby. "So?"
"So what?" Bobby questioned, narrowing his eyes.
"Before you bail again," he began. "'Girl, Interrupted' over there; any thoughts?"
"Looks to me like he's doin' better," he replied.
"Better?" Dean said incredulously. "What to you mean 'better'? You just saw him!"
"Saw him check out once," he retorted. "That's progress."
"Look," Bobby said with a sigh. "Seems to me Sam's head ain't no different than your arm. People heal on a curve."
"No differe- Bobby, I get this thing off in five days," he gestured to his cast. "I'm golden. Sam's not a curve. He's a frickin' time bomb!"
"Look," Bobby stopped him. "You're so worried about the kid, let me take him with me to pick up my first stash of books."
"No way," Dean shook his head.
"No way?" Bobby raised his brows. "You really think he's so bad off that he can't take a trip to a secret book hiding spot with me? That I can't manage 'im?"
"That's...that's not what I mean," Dean shook his head. "But if someone's got a target out on us, you think it's a good idea to be roamin' around out there without knowin' what to look for?"
"We're not wandering around aimlessly, Dean, and we can't hide in a cabin for the rest of time. And the only way we're gonna get any closer to figurin' out what to look for is to start getting the info back." Bobby watched as Dean seemed to think it through, even if it was begrudgingly. "Besides, if you're right and we do have a target on our asses, I'd sure as hell like to have some back up. Ya know...someone with two functional arms."
"Damnit," Dean grunted. "Damnit..."
"We'll check in every two hours," Bobby continued to try his case. "Even got another hunter in the area if anything feels off. It'll be fine, kid. What's the worst that could happen?"
24 hours later, Dean was pacing the cabin floor. It was half an hour past check-in time. He'd tried to call both Bobby and Sam a handful of times already. The GPS on Sam's phone hadn't moved location in two hours. Dean was officially freaking out.
"Screw this," he said, then picked up the electric handsaw and began slicing into his cast...
*~.~*
Sam and Bobby were tied and gagged in the abandoned parking garage; each to a separate support beam. The place was swarming with demon-possessed men. One of them had spotted the hunters when they'd stopped for gas. They'd been on their way back from retrieving the first set of books. Once the demons got wind of their presence, they had ambushed them and dragged them back to this garage.
Bobby had questioned the purpose of it. They had assumed the demons wanted them dead, so why just kidnap them?
"You think we don't know that as soon as big brother Dean Winchester figures out something's wrong, he won't come galloping in to try and rescue you?" one of the demons told them, a grim smile on his face.
So that was their game. Wait for them all to be in one place, then take them all out.
True to form, Dean showed up just a matter of hours later. Sam and Bobby didn't know it until he was being escorted in by two demons, each holding one of his arms as he struggled to get away.
When Sam saw him, all hope drained from his veins. "Sammy," Dean's eyes widened when he saw him. "Bobby..."
They both started struggling against their bindings again.
"It's no use," the head demon told them. "But hey, at least you all get to die together." They shoved Dean down to the floor between his brother and Bobby, his hands tied behind him.
"Why?" Dean asked, his teeth gritted together as he spoke. "I get it. We're hunters. But why go out of your way, huh? Why have you all been to hellbent on taking us out in particular?"
"Because you may potentially slow us down," the leader said with a shrug.
"Slow you down?" Dean questioned. Sam looked to him for a moment, wondering why he was bothering with the small talk. But then he realized that he was stalling them. Something was happening outside. They could hear it. Apparently the demons couldn't, even though they were all inside the garage now.
"You three have been snooping into Roman's business for too long," the leader told him.
"Uh...Roman? What?" Dean asked, legitimately confused."Pretty sure we were meddling in Crowley's business," he retorted.
"Crowley?" the demon laughed. "Crowley's got nothing to do with this."
"Pretty sure you're wrong about that," Dean replied. "Or you're wrong about us snooping."
The demon narrowed his eyes, but before he could retort, there was a squeal of a loud speaker that suddenly filled the room.
"Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii, omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica." The voice was familiar only to Bobby. The demons were trying to get out of the garage now, their thoughts of killing the hunters now furthest from their minds.
The exorcism continued, and Dean looked to Sam who was quickly working his hands out of their binding.
"Hurry, Sam," he told him, feeling helpless as he couldn't do what he needed to in order to free himself. His arm ached with the mistreatment the demons had shown it earlier. The Latin continued around them, the demons now smoking out and their hosts crumbling to the floor around them
Sam finally freed himself and went right to Dean, seeing his discomfort, and began untying the knots.
"What the hell were you thinking, Dean," Sam scolded halfheartedly, "Taking your cast off this soon?"
"I was thinking you were in trouble, and it seems I was right," he retorted, hissing once his arms were free.
"Yeah well good job rescuing us," Sam rolled his eyes.
"Shuddup."
"Anyone care to rescue me over here?" Bobby asked around his gag, with a raised brow.
"Sorry," Sam said before making his way to the older man. "Who the hell was that doing the exorcism?" he asked no one in particular.
"That'd be me," a voice sounded from the entrance, and they turned their heads to see him. He was tall and thin as a rail, goofy looking.
"Boys," Bobby said once his gag was off, "Meet Garth Fitzgerald."
"The fourth," Garth added as he strolled over.
"Garth, Sam and Dean Winchester," he introduced. Now that they were all free, they stood. Sam shook Garth's hand, and Dean just gave him a nod as he held onto his sore arm.
"Thanks for saving our hides, man," Sam told him.
"No problem," he said with a smile. "Bobby said you'd be in town, so I kept an eye out. Once I figured out what they were planning, I started ninja-salting the perimeter. I waited for them all to be inside to close it up."
"And the speaker system?" Dean questioned.
Garth pulled out a megaphone, held it up in front of his mouth and cut it on. "Bullhorn," he said into it, causing the others to wince and cover their ears. Garth laughed, seeming truly happy with himself. Sam and Dean shared a glance.
"All right," Dean said, then cleared his throat. "Well thanks again. And uh...we owe you one."
"Hey, man, it's the job, right?" he said, still smiling. "You ever need anything, just holler. Bobby's got my number."
"Yeah," Bobby nodded. "Well, right now I think I need to head to Frank's. It's probably already out on the demonic phone-tree that we've been taken care of, so we're probably good for the time being. Boys, head back to the cabin and grab our stuff. I'll text you the coords to Frank's place. It's out in the Blue Ridge Mountains. GPS won't work out there, so you best get a map once you hit Virginia."
"What, you're goin' alone?" Dean questioned.
Bobby gave him a look that reminded him that neither Dean nor Sam could make the trip themselves without the other. "How's your arm, genius?"
"Fine," Dean grumbled. "You friggin' check in, Bobby, you hear me?"
"Yeah yeah. You too, idjits."
TBC...
