Next chapter! Whee! XD So, just saying, Death's entrance is KILLER sliding up in his 'pale horse' and having that song and looking damned sexy for an older gentleman. Oh so undeniably. XD Just saying. XD This story will include: Dean, Sam, Bobby, Cas, Death, Tessa, angels, demons, and possibly a few dead comrades, dun dun dun! And so on. XD~ Also, I edited the first chapter to include a poem from Robert Frost since I ended up naming the title of the chapter after it. I think it fits the situation well. I may include snippets of such things (poems/quotes) in the future, or not, it's not usually my thing. I like to stick to my own work and such. But it's kind of fun and wouldn't change the story. Just... eh, provoke thoughts? XD I dunno. I'll think on it. Might just be a beginning of the story thing. XD Dean is fire and Castiel is ice for sure though. XD~
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"Morning, sunshine." Bobby's words caused Dean to wince a bit as he squinted his eyes against the sunlight after stumbling into the kitchen almost immediately after waking up.
"Yeah, same to you, sweetheart." Dean muttered as he pulled out a chair and plopped down on it heavily as he rubbed his head.
All the while, Sam was already across from him and he watched Dean with a faint frown but didn't say a word. He knew that Dean didn't want Bobby alerted to the fact that Sam wasn't the only one having nightmares...which was why he'd told Bobby that his shiny new black eye was a product of flailing around due to his own nightmares.
"Or I shall destroy you.." Castiel intoned.
"You're already dead inside." Famine said, amused.
"Maybe, it's you." Mary's illusion taunted.
"Yeah, I've heard that promise from a Winchester before." Ellen scoffed into the phone.
"He's not the only one you got away from." Dean noted as he and Sam stood in the memory of the night he'd left home.
"Baboom! Baboom!" Lillith shrieked.
John whispered into Dean's ear, words that stopped his heart cold in that sterile hospital room.
"Because I'm such a saint...I'll give you one year." The Crossroads Demon said silkily.
Yellow-eyed Sam gripped his neck as he strangled him painfully.
"Stop him. Or we will." Castiel warned.
"You had such potential, Dean..." Alistair sighed almost mournfully.
"If you make me walk through that door...you won't like who walks back out." Dean said lowly.
"I love you, Dean." The dream-Lisa Braeden smiled at him before she faded to reveal a dying Lisa in the hospital.
Jo and Dean kissed, for the first and last time as her life bled away.
"You're gonna die, Dean! And this is what you're going to become!" The black-eyed Dean grinned menacingly.
"No!" Dean jerked awake and slammed a fist in front of him...right into a worried Sam's face.
Sam cursed and clutched his face as he pulled back, and Dean breathed heavily as he finally gained enough cognizance to realize where he was and what had just happened. "Damnit, Sammy. I'm sorry. Shit. Are you alright?" he leaned forward to set a hand on his brother's head and examine it in the poor light.
Sam shrugged him off with a nod as he eyed his brother. "I'm fine, Dean...but...you were...shaking. And you kept muttering 'no'...you had a nightmare too." It wasn't a question.
Dean was silent a moment before he chuckled. "Yeah. I had a dream Uriel was trying to get in my pants. Freaky-ass-angel porn right there."
"Don't lie to me, Dean." Sam said softly. He didn't generally call his brother out on his indifference, but this was different. They were both too broken at present to play this game. And he was worried about his big brother.
Dean's jaw tightened before he looked away. "It's nothin', Sam. Don't worry about it."
Sam stared at him, just stared, and Dean felt uncomfortable under his scrutiny before he rose. "I'm going for a walk."
"Then I'll go with you." Sam started to rise and Dean scowled.
"Like Hell you will. Stay in bed."
"Then you stay too." Sam said, a stubborn set to his expression that did nothing to ease Dean's scowl.
"Pain in the ass."
"Stubborn bastard."
Dean glared faintly before he plopped back down in his chair. "There. Happy now?"
"It's a start." Sam moved so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed as he regarded his brother. "You gonna tell me what it was about, or do I have to keep bugging you?"
Dean's faint glare intensified a moment before he gave in somewhat. "I was dreaming about...things."
Sam stared at the other expectantly before he prompted. "..Things...?"
Dean sighed. "Cas. And the fake Mom. Alistair. A few others. Stuff they said, just crap. Don't know why I got so worked up." he shrugged, but Sam could tell that the other was deeply troubled, he knew his brother inside and out.
"Yeah, well, whatever they said, they're wrong. You know that, right?" When Dean didn't reply, Sam continued. "I don't know what else you meant but I can guess what the fake Mom said. And she was wrong, Dean...you've...had a lot of crap handed to you but it's not your fault...I know when I left, it wasn't your fault."
"Yeah, you've said that." Dean's posture became less troubled and more closed off. It was a touchy subject. The whole 'Sam-leaving-and-Sam-choosing-a-demon-over-Dean' thing.
"I meant it, Dean. Look, I know we've had our differences but-"
"-Just shut up, Sam. I'm tired. I don't wanna talk about this."
"Dean..."
"Leave it, Sam! Damnit! I had a nightmare. Big deal. I don't need you to get all psycho-babble on me."
"Psycho-babble?" Sam replied dryly.
"Just stop, Sam. Please."
Sam sighed at that. It wasn't over, not this conversation or the shadows hanging over them, but for now he'd let it drop. "Fine. But we're not done talking about this."
"The Hell we aren't." Dean muttered.
Sam shot his brother a severe look before he leaned back. The brothers fell silent a moment before Sam dared to add softly. "I'm not leaving, Dean. It's you and me against the world."
Dean didn't reply, merely closed his eyes, but he could tell from the way that his brother's posture relaxed and a reluctantly more peaceful expression came over his face that the other had heard him loud and clear, and been pleased by them.
And for now, that was enough.
Dean finally cast a glance up at Sam who seemed determinedly focused on his cereal. And before he knew it, he found himself laughing. A throaty, bitter sound that turned into something more helpless, like he wanted to laugh or cry and couldn't quite decide which.
"Dean?" Sam looked at his brother in concern and Bobby moved over to the table, expression hesitant.
Dean kept his laughter up a moment, his shoulders shaking as he put a hand over his eyes and simply grinned, but the look in his eyes when he lowered his hands was full of pain and remorse, and bitter.
"Damned apocalypse is knocking at our door again, we're fighting God, and Sammy's eating a bowl of cereal. Cereal. Our lives are so messed up, man." Dean lowered his head as his shoulders shook a bit again and he chuckled faintly even as his lips twisted in pain.
Sam and Bobby exchanged a glance and Bobby moved to put a hand on Dean's shoulder when the latter jerked and stood up suddenly, startling Sam and Bobby both.
"Bobby, you got today's paper? I'm gonna look for a case."
"What?" Sam and Bobby were in unison as they stared at Dean as though he'd grown a third eye.
Dean stared at them with a blank expression, as though it were perfectly natural for him to ask that, and after his 'perfectly natural' semi-minor-break-down just a moment ago. "What? Just cuz' Cas took his crazy pills this morning, we're gonna stop being hunters? Right now we don't have a rat's ass chance of fighting him, we don't even know where to start, unless you've got some God-killing hoodoo I don't know about. For now, he's gonna leave us be, looks like. So in the meantime, rather than sit around moping, I'd like to get out there and do my damned job. Monsters aren't taking a holiday, neither am I. You with me, or what?" Dean looked between the two who again exchanged a glance before Sam spoke.
"We're with you, Dean, obviously...it's just...maybe we should take it easy, try to figure things out..."
"What's to figure out? We can't stop Cas right now, can't reason with him. Crowley's out there doing God knows, 'scuse me, Cas knows what, and we're not exactly in the best shape at the moment. We're kind of screwed. So like I said. I'd like to at least do my job rather than sit around here. Got a problem with that?"
Sam and Bobby were silent a moment before Bobby moved around the table to thwack Dean's head, who shot him a reproachful look and scowled. "I've got one, ya idjit. In case it escaped your notice, but Sam's not exactly up for a fight right now and neither are you. Now you can pretend you're okay-look at me when I talk to you, boy-" Bobby snapped when Dean started to move away, annoyed, and Dean reluctantly looked back at him, "But I know better and so does Sam. You wanna run off half-cocked to be an ass and get yourself killed, fine. But don't think Sam's in any condition to be dragged off with you. And don't think I'm letting you, either."
Dean snorted. "You're gonna stop me?"
"I've got a panic room with your name on it, kid." Bobby warned.
"Try it." Dean challenged and he and Bobby glared before Sam rose and moved between them.
"Look, will you both just...stop it?" Sam rubbed his head and he didn't look well. "Dean, we'll take a look at cases, do some research. But Bobby's right, we can't just up and leave right now. This is hard on all of us. So would you please just...not be stupid right now?"
Dean gritted his teeth. "Sam..." he growled.
Sam stared down at his brother, nonplussed, and Dean ultimately made an irritated noise and muttered something snarky before he sat back down.
"Fine. You wanna sit around and talk shop? Fine. Let's waste some time." Dean grumbled as he slouched in his seat and glared at the table.
Sam and Bobby exchanged glances that were both relieved and exasperated before Sam sat back down and Bobby returned to what he'd been doing.
Sam hazarded a glance at his big brother before he passed him the cereal box. "Lucky Charms. Your favorite."
Dean looked up and stared at Sam with a mixture of surprise and disbelief. How had they gone from being ready to strangle each other to talking about damned Lucky Charms? But in the end, with a weary chuckle, Dean took the box and poured himself a bowl that he tore into with increasing relish. "Thanks, Sam. Bobby." he muttered. And it was more than the cereal. Dean did believe that they should keep up their job, no arguing that, but rushing out while they were all so messed up was just begging for some monster to bite their heads off. And he was grateful, more than grateful, that they gave a damned and were with him.
Sam smiled faintly through his own bowl, and even Bobby was a bit more relaxed. "No problem, bro." Sam said as the trio fell into a comfortable silence to pass their morning.
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Mmm. So...somewhat more fluff. Ish. And such. XD Awkward brotherly bonding and ass-kicking all around and Bobby's just like...'ya, idjits'...XD Meanwhile, Cas is taking over the world!..Or not. I want to write him some chapter-love. But OCD is making it difficult. I want to know for sure if it's Cas-gone-crazy, or the souls possessing him, or someone's taken over, or what. In the interviews, Mischa makes it sound like Cas is himself but confused, Jensen makes it sound like Cas is possessed by a God, and the previews make it sound like Cas is just gone. Bwah. I'll bring him in though. Eventually. Or just not dwell on inner-monologue too much unless I decide to just take poetic license and write what I feel is most accurate. XD Whee! XD~