Wow! MANY THANKS for all the very kind reviews, alerts and favorites! You sure know how to welcome a girl back! :D
Okay, here starts the weird...
:D
Caroline
-o-o-o-o-o-o-
"I can't explain it, Bobby. We weren't apart for more than five minutes. Ten, max!" Dean ran a shaky hand through his cropped hair, staring back at his nearly catatonic brother strategically balanced against the trunk. Sam hadn't moved since he learned of his plight. "There was no chest when we arrived. Nothing! It just did a Houdini and showed up. It wanted Sam. It was waiting for him to be alone before it made its move. Damn it, I left him alone! And now…."
"Alright, just calm down. What's done is done. Now we just have to figure out what it means and how to fix it," the older hunter advised from his home library. "We know that most of the artifacts there are ancientGreek, so we have something to start with. Does it look familiar to you in any way? Anything you can think of?"
Dean walked over to the open chest, bile rising in his throat. He wanted to set the damn thing on fire, but he had no idea what, if anything, that would do to Sam.
"No." Dean caught a whiff of something in the air. "Perfume. It smells like some kind of perfume. I can't put my finger on it. And Sam isn't… He's not talking." The hunter turned away from his brother just out of earshot but close enough to sprint to Sam at a second's notice. "I don't know whether he's in shock or something worse. He kinda had a meltdown when I said Christo. I don't think he'll be much good to me at the moment."
The sigh was eminent from the other end of the phone. "Look. We know it isn't a demon, so that's a good thing. I know you're not gonna like this, but I think you should bring that thing back here…"
"Are you out of your freaking head, Bobby? After what it just did to Sam? What else it might do? I don't want it anywhere near him!" Dean gripped the phone harder, continuing his pace around the room like a caged animal.
"I think whatever it needed Sam to do, it did. Bringing it here shouldn't cause him any other ill. I can study it and figure out what the hell it is."
"How 'bout I just take a picture of it? Then it won't be around us?" Dean walked back towards Sam who exuded exhaustion from every part of his body. He tried to gain his attention, but Sam was lost in his own miseries.
"Just bring it to me. It's the only way I can know for sure." The gruff voice left no room for argument. "But you might as well send me the picture now."
"Is there anything I can do to make it safer?"
"You'll be fine, Dean. Just watch out for your brother. Look for any kind of signs of, well…" Bobby didn't have to finish the thought. Yellow only meant one thing to the Winchesters, even if Sam had passed the Christo test. "I have some research to start on and some calls to make. See ya when you get here."
"Thanks." The call ended and Dean's heart sank.
-o-o-
The panicked conversation slid in and out of Sam's consciousness, but he caught the key phrases and the intonation of Dean's voice. He was freaked. Really freaked. And if Sam's eyes were actually yellow, he couldn't blame his brother one bit.
But it didn't feel like possession. Well, not really. Something was off, but he didn't know what. He had control now, so that meant something else was going on. The power of whatever was in the chest had consumed him, molding Sam to its will. The last time he'd been through something like that, Dr. Ellicott was fingering his gray matter. His body quaked at that thought and from across the room, he felt Dean thunder to his side.
"Sammy? You okay?" A firm grip on his shoulder made itself known as the worry radiated from Dean. "Hey? You with me now?"
Sam tentatively looked at his brother, praying that the yellow was gone. He was greeted by that crooked smile that said things were back on the right track. Dean was a good actor, but Sam could still read him like a book.
"Is it gone?" Hope leaked from Sam's hushed voice as he blinked at his brother.
A sigh, followed by relaxed posture, told him what he needed to know. "Yeah, Sammy. We're good. How do you feel?"
Sam reached an arm requesting assistance and Dean had them both on their feet with a swoop of his limb. He teetered a moment, but found his balance as he shuffled away from the chest.
"I'm still dizzy, but better," Sam replied, planting his feet on the floor. He looked back down at the chest, feeling no attachment now. Dean's arm fell to his side as he trusted Sam on his own. "I have no idea what happened or where the hell it came from! I mean, I know that once I saw it in the corner it pulled me to it, but once it opened… I don't remember anything."
"I thought I heard you talking to someone from upstairs, so I came back down." Dean offered, eying his brother, still glimpsing to make sure that everything was status quo. "You were doing the horizontal tango with the box and then you opened the lock as you mumbled something. The smoke came out and then you took a header onto the floor."
Sam considered the explanation, trying to fill in the missing gaps of time when he noticed the cut on his finger. Thinking nothing of it, he continued with his limited recounting. "All I know is that it wanted to be opened, and I tried to… I couldn't stop it." Shoulders hunched at the failure to prevent another evil thing roaming free in the world.
"Look, we'll figure this out, okay? Bobby wants us to bring it back so he can study it." Dean looked at the smear on Sam's jeans of the fresh blood. "That alright?"
Sam nodded, grateful that Dean was with him. "I heard part of that conversation while my head was still clearing." He hunched back over the trunk and closed the lid, observing the inscriptions on the top and side. "We definitely know it's Greek but I don't know what any of this means."
Sam pawed the carvings now with interest, seeing a tree and what appeared to be deities fashioned around it. A few letters from the Greek alphabet were also etched, but not spelling anything immediately recognizable. "I definitely know the book to look at once we get to Bobby's. It's an ancient tome of Greek mythology…"
Dean held his hand up to stop the madness. "Now I know you're alright. Geek Boy, or should I say Greek Boy, strikes again! Come on, Aristotle, let's get out of here." He reached down and grabbed the chest, heaving it up to his shoulder.
"I'm impressed! Nice tie-in, Hercules! But you're not carrying that thing alone." Sam took the other end of the chest as they walked it out the door and into the Impala.
-o-o-
After a quick drive-through meal, the boys were on the road. Sam succumbed to sleep shortly after eating, and it put Dean immediately on edge. Not only did he have another two hours before they'd get to Bobby's that would now be in silence, but the horror of the yellow smoke surrounding his little brother kept playing itself out in his mind over and over like a bad skip on a record. What had it done to him? Would they be able to fix it? He knew that going to see the older hunter was the best answer but it didn't stop the fidgeting and tapping of nervousness that had overtaken Dean's body.
Too much had gone wrong this year, and he'd be damned if he was going to let Sam get hurt for nothing. Especially in light of why they were at the secret museum in the first place. He'd fought the idea of the break in, but Sam had gotten desperate these last few weeks, searching for something, anything, to get Dean out of the deal. After their encounter with Bela and the haunted ship, Sam had given him a hard time about his lackadaisical attitude regarding the deal. He could see the guilt eating away at his overly emotional brother, so he took the olive branch and agreed to the treasure hunt.
Later, he would wish he'd listened to his instincts.
-o-o-
Sam slept like a rock, which, in itself, wasn't unusual, but he was so still as the car bumped along. It was a healing sleep; only Sam wasn't injured. Dean gnawed on his fingernails, pushing the pedal down further, feeling the Impala respond to his demands. He was listening to Led Zeppelin II as Robert Plant crooned out to the awesome guitar riffs and John Bonham went nuts on the drums in Moby Dick. It mildly calmed him as he refocused his energies on getting his brother to safety.
The sun was setting and he knew the last bit of their journey would be shrouded in the dusk. He watched, with mild irritation, as the beams of light arched across the sky, smacking him in the face. Dean reached for his sunglasses on the bench seat between him and Sam, noticing a piece of lettuce hanging out from his brother's cuff.
"Rabbit food," Dean chuckled as he grabbed the leaf and removed it from the clothing.
"Ow! Cut it out, Dean," Sam roared violently as he yanked his sleeve away, suddenly awake. "Can't you just let me sleep?" And with that outburst, Sam turned back towards the window and was sawing logs again.
"What the…" That wasn't the reaction he'd expected. He looked at the lettuce a little closer and noticed it wasn't lettuce after all. It looked like some kind of leaf. "Well that's weird as hell." He turned it over, stealing glances at it as he continued his drive down the highway.
It looked like a typical, everyday leaf. Sam's reaction, however, was not typical, and that set off all sorts of warning bells.
Desperate to see his brother's eyes to halt the nagging in his brain, Dean attempted to wake Sam up once again.
"Sammy!" Dean poked at Sam's shoulder until he got a response. "Sam! Wake up!"
Dean watched as Sam dug his fingers into his eyes, pulling sleep from them. The anticipation of the hazel staring back at him was almost too much to take. "Hey! You with me?"
Doe-eyed, with heavy blinking, Sam looked at his brother with concern as he understood the tone had underlying meaning. "Dean? What is it?"
Hazel. Normal. Sam was alright.
"I need a break. You wanna stop and get something to snack on?" Dean sent a quick glance over to Sam to try and hide his utter relief at the sight before him.
"My eyes still green, or are we heading for a devil's trap?" Coy, but with a touch of tease to it.
Dean sighed, feeling the weight of the world coming slowly off his shoulders. "No, your puppy dog eyes are still intact. No worries."
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Sam barked back, absently rubbing his wrist as if he were in pain.
That got Dean's attention.
"Where do you think this came from?" Dean asked casually as he handed the leaf to Sam, watching his analysis.
Sam sniffed it, turned it over and puzzled over it. "I have no idea. Where did you get it?"
"It was peeking out from under your sleeve. I yanked it and that's when you cried out." His eyes pointing to where Sam was unconsciously massaging his hand.
That got Sam's attention.
He pulled up his sleeve and saw the red mark he'd been attending to. Sam turned the leaf over, looking at the stem's base. His eyes then travelled to the spot on his wrist. The mark on his arm held the same pattern as the stalk.
"How the hell did a leaf get glued to me?" Sam continued to turn it over in his hand, fascinated by the mystery before him.
"I don't like this. Not one bit. That bitch of a trunk is going down."
"Dean, how could it have anything to do with the leaf?" Sam questioned, looking back at the wooden box in the back seat.
The car slowed and Dean punched the brakes. He got out and keyed open the trunk of the car. Commotion was heard and Dean appeared at the back passenger side door, arms filled with blankets, their luggage and sundry items. "The trunk's going in the trunk. I don't want it near you."
Wisely, Sam knew not to argue with Dean when he was in this state, so he got out, following Dean's lead, wanting to assist with the relocation of the items from the trunk the back seat. Another creak announced the readiness of the boundless objects that would be sure to make their way to their new, temporary home in the rear seat. Sam was about to push over the chest to the other side of the car so they could pull it out easier when Dean bit his head off.
"Don't touch it! Just stay away." The creak of the hinges closed and Dean ran to the other side, jerking the coffer with almost inhuman strength, throwing it into the back of the car, slamming the trunk shut.
He made his way back to the steering wheel, eyes wild. "It has a tree on it, Sam. What the hell do you think that means?" Dean's body was shaking at the thought of something else hurting his brother. His face was reddened, both from exertion and anger, but he kept himself in check.
Dean saw Sam watching him but, he didn't care. Something was going on, and he didn't mind Sam knowing that he was just a little freaked out by the whole thing.
"Hey, we'll work it out, okay?" Sam answered as Dean started the car, revving the engine and pealing back onto the road. "With Bobby on the case, we're sure to figure it out."
Dean nodded, not trusting his voice, and the tore down the highway.
-o-o-
Sam pulled the phone out as soon as Dean had calmed down, which took longer than Sam had expected. That gave him additional time to think some things through regarding this strange chest and the comments his brother had made.
"Bobby? Have you got any idea what this thing is yet?" Sam asked, hoping the man had some more clues so they could work out this mystery.
"I grabbed the Ancient Texts of the GreeksVolume IV and started paging through it," Bobby responded, pages still turning as he continued the conversation. "From the picture you sent, the tree is definitely sacred. The letters on either side of it seem to spell the equivalent of "life" and "death" so I'm doing some cross-checking."
There was a pause as Bobby seemed to note there was something wrong. "What happened?"
Sam huffed. He had some unfounded theories rifling through his brain and he knew that none of them could be good. The key was letting Bobby know what he thought without panicking Dean yet. "I seem to have picked up a leaf that attached itself to me. We're not quite sure where it came from," Sam answered coolly, glancing sideways at Dean. "Dean is afraid that the proximity of the chest is, um, affecting me."
"What do you mean?"
"Honestly, I'm not a hundred percent sure, but the fact that there's a tree on this chest, and I mysteriously have a leaf glued to me…"
"Glued to you? Spill, boy."
Sam's stomach dropped to the floor. He wanted to talk to Bobby about the chest and mythology but Sam knew Dean would not want to hear what he was about to say. He'd hoped to avoid it until they got to the house.
Readying himself for the onslaught, Sam took a staggering breath and plunged forward. "I think…I think it grew. From me."
"What?" The stereo screams from both Dean and Bobby made Sam shudder as he voiced his concerns to his family.
"The stem was the exact shape as what Dean pulled from my skin, like when you take a leaf from the branch, the mark it leaves behind. I don't know any other way it could have been attached to me unless it actually grew from me."
"Sam? What the hell are you talking about?" Dean said in an anxious voice.
Sam looked to Dean, feeling all the anxiety from him. Unfortunately, if they were going to figure this out, he needed to spill what he knew – or thought he knew. There would be no protecting Dean from the truth.
"The leaf reminded me of something that Jessica bought once. She used to get these fancy creams and moisturizers from these specialty houses," Sam answered, knowing that in normal circumstances he'd be called a girl for remembering this sort of thing.
But these weren't normal circumstances.
"As I turned the leaf over and smelled it, it came back to me. I'm pretty sure it's a myrrh leaf. And that would explain the vanilla smell."
"The perfume? I smelled that, too, right after…" Dean was putting the pieces together along with his brother. "But what's so significant about myrrh?"
"Greek gods and myrrh are not a good thing, Sam. What are you thinking?" Sam could tell Bobby was on the same trail.
"The legend of Adonis. He was born from a myrrh tree after his mother, Myrrha was tricked into committing incest with her father, Theias."
Dean's face blanched as he listened to the one-sided conversation, not liking it one bit. "So, what does this have to do with the chest?"
Sam continued the tale from memory, answering both Dean and Bobby. "After Theias realized what had happened, he chased after his daughter, with the intent of killing her. Aphrodite saw Myrrha's plight and turned her into a myrrh tree. Theias shot an arrow into the tree and Adonis was born from the split in the bark."
"So, again, I ask, what does this have to do with the chest, Sam?" Dean asked with a little more heat in his voice. His hands were gripped around the steering wheel, white-knuckled. He didn't like where this was going.
"I'm not sure, but the chest seems like it might be connected to Adonis. The two deities hovering over the tree. The words 'life' and 'death' in Greek. So, if we understand these carvings correctly," Sam took a deep breath as he continued on with his theory. "It looks like someone is attempting reincarnate Adonis back from the dead."