Author's Chapter Notes:
Hi, you know everytime I write the name Pamela Barnes down I get the Dallas theme in my head. Go figure! (Makes me want to check the shower for dead men appearing in it too!) So has to be a story plot there! *laughs*
Anyway - Ruby goes to try and get help, and Alastair shows that he is not without humour as he sends the boys after their first target...although all does not go to plan.
Two Knights Defense
Pamela closed the phone on Ruby and sighed.
She had known that the damned Winchesters were going to be trouble before she had even agreed to help Bobby but she had never reckoned on them being this much.
She knew that it wasn't their fault that she had ended up blind…she had pushed her luck to the limit and got burned…literally and badly. They wouldn't have asked her for her help if they'd known that she would end up as badly hurt as she had been, that just wasn't how these boys worked. She rubbed her sightless eyes and threw some candles down on the table.
No, the boys were as big a victim in this as she was and she wanted to help them, needed to help them…she just wasn't sure why. She smiled…hell it wasn't that bad really…the last image that was seared into her brain before her eyes fried was Dean Winchester's pretty, pretty face, she thought that there could be worst things that she could be seeing in her dreams…like the things she knew he was...the things she had seen when he had taken her hand to help her from the car the day they had asked for her help with Anna. She had run from them then…she wasn't going to do it again.
She knew that sooner or later she was going to get stuck in this war that the Winchesters had been dragged into…she might as well go in under her own terms as be thrown in under someone else's. She sat down to wait for Ruby.
----
Ruby stopped to let her eyes adjust to the gloom in the room that she had just entered. She could just make out Pamela walking in front of her and she stood there watching as the older woman moved effortlessly round the room collecting the things that she would need and placing them on the table.
Pamela's voice tore her from her reverie. "Don't just stand there, here." She caught the box of matches that was deftly thrown at her. "Light the candles for me and then sit in the nearest chair to the door."
Ruby did as she was told. "I wasn't sure that you'd help me…I mean after what the angels did to you and everything."
"Sister I really want to be as hell and far as gone from all things Winchester as I possibly can…but, seeing as how I can't see to go anywhere I figure I may as well throw my hat into the ring and see what ends up buried under it…I only hope it isn't me!" She laughed a dry laugh and sat in the seat opposite Ruby. She lent over the table and stared sightlessly into Ruby's eyes. "You sure about this, I mean look at me and all I was trying to do was look."
"I'm sure." Ruby swallowed hard, rubbed her hands on her jeans and then reached across to take Pamela's own. "Ok then…let's do this."
---
Ruby could feel Pamela's hand shake slightly as she started the ritual. She watched as the other woman laid her other hand over her eyes.
"I invoke, conjure and command you….come to us Castiel." Ruby felt the oppressive nature in the room grow as Pamela repeated the words. Something shifted in the dark, a faint, fleeting glimpse of an image and then Pamela stopped talking and dropped her head. "Pamela?" Ruby could feel the fear building in her and for a moment she was tempted to run but before she could give action to the thought Pamela gripped her hand tighter.
"What do you want?" The voice was low and menacing. "Why would you of all things want to speak with me?" Pamela was channelling the angel.
"I…I need your help…it's Dean…" Pamela lifted her head and Ruby had to look away from the light that shone through her eyes, it touch her skin and she could feel the burn. Ruby struggled to finish her words. "He needs your help…Alastair."
"I know what Alastair has done…I cannot help. My orders forbid it. His brother can help him can he not?"
"No…if he helps then Dean goes back…Alastair will make sure of it."
"Then Sam must complete the task that he was given. He will see then if you can truly trust a demon."
Ruby was sure there was a smirk on Pamela's face as she spoke but she couldn't look to check. Ruby felt a little indignation at the thinly veiled attack on her. "He can trust me…I thought you were sent to help Dean? Why won't you? He needs your help."
" I was sent to save him but we must all pay a penance for our sins Ruby…you should know that…isn't that why you are helping them? For penance…or do you have another reason? Perhaps you want to be queen to a king one day?" A soft laugh floated in the room.
"I want to help them that's all. I thought that was what you wanted too but I can see that I'm wasting my time here. I thought you were supposed to care all the time, not just when it suits you. You know, it kinda makes me glad I'm just a heartless bitch demon and not a wondrous angel of the lord." She broke the connection with Pamela and stood to go.
His voice stopped her, it's tone different. "I will see what I can do." He paused. "Perhaps Alastair isn't as in charge of this situation as he would like to think. We might all be pawns in this game Ruby…watch that you don't get in the way."
Ruby looked up. "What do you mean?"
Pamela jerked and then slumped over the table and Ruby stepped forward. "Pamela? Pamela?" She watched as the older woman gathered herself and then looked up at her.
"Did you get what you wanted?" Her voice was frail and tired sounding. "I really don't like that guy.
"No, but I don't think he's an innocent in all this as an angel should be. I needed to go help Sam…are you ok?"
Pamela ran a hand through her hair and put her dark glasses on. "I'm fine…just go help the boys and if you need me?...call."
---
He hated the fact that he couldn't control his own body, that he was jut as much a prisoner in his skin at the moment as the ones that Alastair had chosen to torture him. The sensation that he'd hope to never feel again rippled through him as the hands of those sent to defile his insides ripped into his flesh, slashed muscle from bone, taking him down to the point of the sweet release that he prayed death would bring to him.
It was then that he would feel it, that hated sensation, the tingle of healing, feel it creeping through his bruised and battered body, feel it wash away the graffiti on his soul, cleansing the canvas for the next artist to display his work upon. Dean had hated the healing more than he had hated the destruction...one was a step towards the oblivion that he had come to crave and the other the reminder that he would never reach it, the reminder that his torment would be eternal.
He screamed in silence as the wheel revolved again.
"Having fun there Dean" Alastair was here with him, inside and he was once again tied to the rack, his victims waiting to take their turn at visiting the pain he had inflicted on them back on him.
"I've found an old friend for you to play with Dean? A little guest of honour at your party. Do you remember who this is?"
Dean caught the flash of a white coat and then the hands closed against his head. The words sent shivers through him as realisation broke. "Don't be afraid. I'm going to help you. I'm going to make you all better."
"Ellicott…"
Alastair smiled. "I've got a job for you Dean and then I'll let the good doctor play a while."
As Dean watched Alastair examining his nails in that all to familiar gesture of boredom he thought how much he'd like to rip them from him. Alastair looked up at him and smiled. "That's my boy."
A voice called his name and he turned his head.
"Go to your brother, we can wait." Alastair's soft chuckle sounded in his head again.
---
The co-ordinates has been for a small town and Sam almost laughed at the demon's twisted little joke. He was taking his brother back to Hell, except this one was in Michigan and he didn't have to die to get there.
Sam pulled the Impala into the side of the road and cast a worried glance at his brother. Dean's breathing was so shallow and his face so pale that Sam couldn't fight the urge to lean over and check for his brother's pulse. He wished he hadn't. Dean's heart was racing.
Sam jumped as his phone rang and he sat back up and flicked it open.
"He still breathing there Sammy? Brother looks awfully pale to me. I wonder just were all that blood's gone Sammy, what do you think?"
"I think that you don't call me Sammy…only he gets to do that."
"Sa…mm…y." The demon drawled his name out. "…such hostility! Dean and me we're practically blood you know…that should count for a few allowances don'tcha think?" Alastair chuckled in his ear. "The guy you're looking for goes under the name of Richard White. There's a bar at the end of the main street, I want you to go in and do it right there in the bar…if he leaves…your brother doesn't. Do you understand me?"
Sam voice was full of disbelief that he couldn't hide. "You want me to go into a bar, in broad daylight and pull the demon out this guy?"
"Well it'll be dark in the bar Sammy…although admittedly not that dark…but still I'm sure you'll manage…it's not that hard an instruction to follow Sam now is it? Time to wake up sleeping beauty…but he's on a clock…take too long and Dean might turn into a pumpkin."
Sam snorted." I think you've got you fairy tales a little mixed there."
"Maybe I have…maybe I haven't. Dean'll be able to see who it is you are looking for. Don't disappoint me Sammy…happy hunting."
Sam glanced at his brother again. Dean was going to go nuts. There was no way he was going to let Sam do this with an audience, perhaps he'd find away round it. "Then again at the moment I don't really see how you'd be able to stop me." He touched Dean's forehead out of habit and frowned at the coldness of his skin.
Sam cranked the heater up full and pulled out into the little trickle of traffic snaking through the town.
---
The bar had been easy to find, it had a large sign that swung lazily in the breeze and proudly proclaimed the bar's name as The Damned Inn.
Sam shook his head. "You're kidding me!"
He parked the car as close as he could get and got out and circled to the passenger side.
"Dean?" He called his brother's name softly and was rewarded with a soft moan and Dean stirred and opened his eyes.
Dean wretched.
The healing sensation made him feel sick but he pushed down the bile that was sitting in his throat and tried to calm himself. He could still feel Ellicott's hands and eyes on him and he tried not to think about what was waiting for him when they were done here. "Where are we?" His voice sounded strained even to him.
Sam look sheepish and Dean raised his eyebrows at him.
"We're in Hell." Dean took in Sam's dead pan face and realised that his brother wasn't making some kind of sick joke. "Really this town...it's name is Hell."
"If it is…it's colder than I remember." He gave Sam a weak smile. "Alastair does have his moments…"
"You look like shit big brother." Sam eased his arm under Dean's shoulders and pulled him out of the car.
Dean closed his eyes and bit his lip as another wave of nausea rolled through him. "You try entertaining the guests from hell and their all night partying, see how you do." Dean lent heavily on the car door and tried to catch his balance as he spoke.
"You ok?" Sam's worried face floated briefly in front of him and just for a minute he thought he was going down but then his legs decided to come back online and he turned to Sam.
"I feel like someone stirred my inside with a spoon, apart from that…I'm peachy." A half hearted grin crossed his face.
"Think you can manage over to the door?"
Dean smiled but shook his head. "Not under my own steam." The admission scared him almost as much as it worried his brother.
"Ok." Sam put his arm under Dean's and almost dragged him over to the front door of the bar.
"So manly." Dean managed a small laugh that quickly however turned to a lung wrenching cough.
"Serves you right….you ok?" Sam switched from annoyed to concerned in a heartbeat as Dean's face reddened as he struggled to catch a breath. "Come on…let's get you inside."
Sam swung the door opened and felt it as Dean shifted his weight onto his own feet and promptly swayed back against him. Sam steadied him with a hand as they walked through the doors together.
"Hunters." Dean whispered the word as he let Sam guide him to a seat in the corner.
Perfect, Sam thought, just perfect. "Do you see him?" Sam looked at Dean to see that he was already scanning the room.
"Nah, I don't see anything out of the…wait…there." A slow smile crossed his brother's face. "See the guy that's just headed for the john?" Sam nodded. "That our guy. Help me up."
Sam breathed a sigh of relief at the reprieve he had just been handed, no audience after all. "No you wait here, I'll just be a minute."
Dean gripped his arm harder than Sam would have thought he'd have strength to. "No way…we're doing this together…even if I have to crawl across the floor after you, besides I can watch the door."
"Here then…take this." Sam slipped him Ruby's knife. "Just in case."
Dean nodded and the knife disappeared inside his jacket.
Sam helped Dean up and they slowly crossed the floor, Dean praying all the time that the little group of hunters in the corner didn't know or recognise them. He pulled the collar of his jacket up to hide his face knowing that there was nothing he could do about the conspicuousness that was his giant of a brother.
They pushed through the toilet door and the man was standing at the sinks. Dean lent back against the door and Sam waited until the man turned before he raised his hand.
"You!" The black flashed in his eyes and he started forward only to be frozen in his tracks as Sam ramped up his act.
The black smoke was just starting to drift slowly from the face in front of him when Sam heard the moan from behind, he looked in the mirror behind the demon and was horror struck as the realisation of what was happening hit him.
Dean was caught in the moment, as mesmorised as the demon was as Sam started the extraction, then he felt the little tug inside and then...well then he couldn't breathe.
"Sam…" It was a strangled noise.
Sam turned, distracted and confused but still holding the demon at bay. Dean was hanging onto the door handle for grim death as the black smoke slowly curled from his lips. His brother was too close to the floor show…instead of being a spectator he had unwittingly became part of the act.
Sam was exorcising his brother as well as the target.
The demon in front of him chuckled.
"Well smart ass…what are you gonna do now….kill me, you kill him. Let me go…and I'll finish you both."
Chapter End Notes:
Few notes - Hell is a real town in Michigan - I couldn't resist! I've never been and I don't know if there is even a bar in the place but there is in my story!!
Hope you like, I will try to keep the updates coming at a regular pace.
