"This makes no sense whatsoever," Lizzy dismisses everything as they all sit together around the kitchen table in the old farmhouse. "No. That can't be what happens to us."
Sammy's head is still hung a little low, as it has been the entire confession. Telling his mother about the major mistake she makes that become the possible ending of the world is probably the hardest thing he's ever done… and considering his life is just a series of doing things that are incredible hard to do that's not good.
"It's what he says happens," Dean reminds his wife that can't seem to stop staring at the older version of their child. "And I saw what came into the bunker after him. It was a black-eyed bitch hell-bent on killing all three of us and, Liz… she looked an awful lot like you."
"But you're sure it's me and not just a demon riding my ass," Lizzy tries once more to get Sammy to give her a different answer.
"I'm sure, mom," Sammy quietly answers, barely looking at her as the guilt hits.
"This is insane," Lou shakes her head and sits back in her chair, sighing loudly. "No fucking way." Sam grabs her hand under the table from where they sit together, knowing she's also having a difficult time accepting this whole thing. Lou is stubborn and determined. Finding out she gives up on her own nephew in the future due to how bleak and terrible it is… this is not settling with her at all.
"I know how this has to sound," Sammy finally looks up a little, scanning the room at the younger-than-he's-used-to faces. Collectively there's a whole lot less wrinkles and gray hair. They look so young and vibrant. When he last saw his dad, he was a disaster. His uncle Sam was a panicked mess heading out to find his brother. And Lou… couldn't even form coherent thoughts as she wasted away in a nursing home once her brain broke on her. His family is a family again. They're alive and well again.
"Insane," Lizzy comments with upset.
Sammy then looks at his mother for the first time in a long stretch during this miserable confessional. "I never wanted it to come to this. I never wanted to have to come here and tell you all this. I knew it'd break your heart."
Lizzy's face wrinkles. "You're worried about me? I'm the reason all this shit happened!"
"Mommy, you don't say that!" Sammy, the young kid sitting in his father's lap, chimes in.
"Sorry baby," Lizzy forces a smile at his innocent little face. "You always try to help me out, don't you?"
"Yeah," child-Sammy answers as Lizzy glances to her adult son, making sure he understands that she's speaking of him at all ages.
Adult-Sammy just smiles. "I've never really blamed you for this, mom." Mom. It still feels so good to say.
"How could you not?" she needs to know.
"Well… you were just trying to do the right thing," Sammy shrugs. "Back when you took on the Mark you had no idea what it would do to you. Your focus was on killing Abaddon before she worked up enough power to really destroy the planet… and destroy any hope you had for a future for your son."
"But isn't that what I ended up doing anyways once the Mark changes me?"
"Yeah, but… at least as a demon you had a plan. Abaddon was just havoc and pain. You were still you to an extent, you were still smart and you planned ahead. Even as a demon you were still… you. Kinda," Sammy explains. "I mean, you had ton of chances to kill me… but you never did. Even back at the bunker I doubted that you were actually going to kill me. I'm your weak spot."
"You always were," Lizzy grins a little, patting his handsome face twice on the cheek. Sammy smiles back, looking ready to break once more, before she keeps going. "So, what now? I assume she's on her way here." Referring to herself as she… weird.
"She definitely is. She's pissed that I came back to change things. Clearly, she doesn't want that, so we need to stay hidden until I can reach out to someone to help me break the curse."
"Curse?" Sam asks.
"Yeah, the Mark is just a curse. All curses can be broken."
"Breaking a curse. We can do that. Let's move," Dean smiles, standing up and bringing young Sammy with him, settling him on his hip.
"First, we need to completely disappear," Sammy reminds. "Everyone keep the hex bag I gave you on you at all times. Don't lose it!"
Dean checks that little Sammy has his around his neck, his hex bag on a cord so it's easier for him to keep it on him.
"Second, I need you all locked down while I go grab an expert that can help us."
"No way," Dean immediately says with a don't-fuck-with-me voice.
"No way?" Sammy asks.
"Yeah, no way. Not alone."
"Dad…"
"Sammy, no!" Dean puts his foot down. "I don't care if you're three years old or ninety with a bad hip. I've seen her and you're not going alone. I'm coming with you."
"Me too," Sam adds in and stands up also, joining his brother in united stubbornness.
"It's not a good idea," Sammy refuses, once more packing his things up into his canvas backpack. "Anything happens to you guys then the whole future could be rewritten."
"Well, too fucking bad," Sam speaks up easily, completely with Dean in their need to not sit by and let their youngest member of the family do everything on his own. "The future doesn't sound all that great anyways."
"Yeah, and we tend to get out of sticky situations relatively alive," Dean smirks at his brother.
"Until the day that you didn't," Sammy strongly interrupts them.
"According to the future, that's not for a few more years. We'll be okay," Sam assures despite not really being able to.
Shaking his head with disbelief, Sammy works past it. He knows it's never worth fighting a Winchester man once their mind is made up. The only thing worse than a Winchester man, though…?
"Fuck that!" Lizzy stands up quickly. "We're all going! I'm not letting my son leave without a whole army behind him."
A Winchester woman.
"Jesus!" Sammy yells with exasperation. "First of all, enough with the swearing in front of little me. I have the worst gutter mouth ever. Let's just change that in the future, huh?"
"Don't deflect!" Lizzy scolds, knowing that age old tactic they've all used before. "You're not going alone."
"Fine. Then we compromise," Sammy speaks loudly, hoping to have everyone's attention. "Dad and Uncle Sam, you come with me. Mom and Aunt Lou, you stay with… well, me. Little me. You protect Sammy and find somewhere to hide out. If she gets to me now then… what's the point of all this anyways, right?"
Clenching her jaw for a moment, Lizzy sighs with defeat. Lou can see how hard it is for Lizzy to accept this so she steps in for her, her phone out as she had been searching for hiding spots already. "There's an abandoned elementary school just around the corner. They have an old bomb shelter from the fifties. We're go there, ward it up, lock down." Lou looks at her sister, waiting for an agreement. Lizzy nods once, eyes always on her future son with worry.
Sammy's shoulders drop and he breathes out, smiling slightly. "Thank you, Louie. And mom. I know you wanna come with so… thank you for staying behind."
"You get killed and I'll never forgive myself, you know that," Lizzy points out.
Sammy smiles with pure love. "I know." It just felt so nice to hear her care so damn much again.
"Alright. This is too heavy. I'm calling Cass. He might know what else we can do," Lizzy mentions, pulling out her phone from her back pocket.
"No!" Sammy shakes his head, pointing at her. "Don't do that!"
"Uh… why?" Lizzy asks, very confused why their angel wouldn't be helpful.
"Because… he's… not available for this." Sammy looks incredibly guilty.
Lizzy gives him a knowing look. "What's wrong with Cass? And how would you know? This isn't your time."
Sammy shakes his head. "I don't have time to explain this one. Just know that… he can't be in on this one. He just can't." Lizzy opens her mouth to respond but Sammy cuts her off. "We ready to get outta here?"
"Yeah. Let's all scatter before any demons catch up…." Dean starts to say as a shadow comes across the doorway of the house.
"Too late," an older man with a white hair and beard along with denim overalls on smiles, black eyes on the full room.
Sammy steps forward, shoulders squared and his temperament calm. "How many of you?"
"Not gonna spoil the surprise like that, Sammy-boy," he grins.
"Alright, well… we're surrounded. Great," Sammy laments. "You looking for a fight or something?"
While Sammy stalls, Dean hands his young son off to his mom. Lizzy then creeps back into a corner while her family stands in front of her.
"Who's that, mommy?" Sammy asks from perched on her hip.
"Shh, sweetie," Lizzy shushes him, holding him tighter and angling his head away from the commotion. She can't let him see anything that's most likely about to go down.
"This place was warded," Lou mentions. "How'd your ass get in?"
"Window in the back. You must have forgotten that one," the demon winks.
"Well, alright then," Sammy calmly says, accepting their current situation for what it is. With one fluid, fast movement, Sammy's arm reaches behind himself and pulls out a knife. He throws it with impressive accuracy, the blade burying itself in the demon's chest. He lights up, orange flashes under his skin, before he collapses dead on the floor.
"Whoa," Dean comments with wide, shocked eyes on his son. His speed, his confidence, his natural ability… impressive. "Nice shot."
"We're gonna need more than a single nice shot," Sam complains, marching for the window. Peeking through broken shutters, he sees the several people, all with black eyes, surrounding the house. "At least a dozen, probably more."
"Arm up," Sammy tells them all as he grabs the knife handle and yanks it from the demon's unmoving body. He stands tall, flips it expertly once, and looks to his family. "Meet me out there to catch the stragglers."
Sammy bolts out the front door, knife in hand, and he's gone.
"Sammy!" Dean yells, horrified. He rushes for the door to go after him.
"Dean! You need a weapon!" Sam shouts to stop him, rushing for the duffle bag they brought in. He grabs up the couple of sawed-offs they have, preloaded with salt rounds, and tosses one to Lou. He then hands Dean an angel blade and they sprint for the door to back Sammy up while Lizzy stays inside with the younger Sammy.
The second Dean hits the front porch, Sam and Lou right behind him, they're blinded by a massive blue light that flashes through the air surrounding them. They all block their eyes with their arms and can feel the immense force as the pure light blasts through the air.
Once the moment passes, the air around them returning to its still, hot summer humidity, they all look around them.
Roughly fifteen demons lay scattered about, all burnt out from the inside with scorched and empty eye sockets.
"What the hell?" Dean quietly asks, eyes roaming about as he tries to process what he's seeing.
"What was that?" Sam asks, shocked and wide eyes also darting around.
"Sammy!" Lou yells and points to the middle of the front yard.
All three see the young man on his knees on the grass, his head hung with exhaustion as he's in the middle of the blast zone.
"Sammy!" Dean calls his name, racing for him. The second he gets close he dives for the ground, grabbing Sammy's face and lifting it to look at him. His eyes are closed and he's completely drained. "Sammy! Say something! Sammy!"
"Relax… dad," Sammy quietly says, a tiny smirk playing at the corners of his mouth. He inhales deeply. "It's all good now."
"What was that?" Dean asks him, not letting go of his face as he searches Sammy's form, looking for injury.
"Weapon," Sammy tells him, still breathing deeply and trying to regain his strength. "Blows all demons away within an immediate radius. Pretty fucking neat, huh?" He grins, trying to relax his father.
"Neat!?" he asks with fear. "You look wrecked."
"Gotta… tap my soul for it," Sammy vaguely explains. "I'll be fine. Just get me into the car and let's go. I'll be good in about an hour. We gotta go. They know where we are."
"Dude, I don't think…."
"Dad! Let's go!" Sammy shouts with annoyance, attempting to stand up on his own but failing. Dean catches him as he falls. "I'm leaving with or without you."
"Fine," Dean gives in and looks to his brother. "Sam, get him to the car."
Together they help Sammy walk for the Impala and put him into the backseat. By then Lou, Lizzy, and little Sammy are standing on the porch together.
"We're leaving," Sam tells them while Dean starts the car. Lou hands him their bags and Sammy's backpack he arrived with. "Thanks. Keep your phones on. Head for the school and ward up."
"We will," Lou nods. Sam leans down and gives her a very quick kiss on the lips before sprinting for the car.
As Sam gets in, Lizzy and Dean make eye contact.
"Watch him!" Lizzy yells to her husband, speaking about their son from the future.
"Same. Get gone!" Dean yells back and he pulls out of the long gravel driveway, disappearing into the night.
"Come on," Lou says to her sister, already walking for their own car. She's ready to get the hell out of their if that was just the first wave of demons coming for them.
"Louie…."
Lou stops and turns around, seeing Lizzy scan the front yard and the damage done.
"What the hell happened out here?"
"Sammy said he had some weapon or something…."
"Look," Lizzy points to the middle of the circle of dead demons. In the center of the blast zone, right where Sammy was knelt, there's a large burn mark in the grass extending out the sides.
Walking slowly over to the odd shape, when she gets closer she can make out what it is. Her heart drops with fear.
When Lou comes to stand next to her she sees it also.
The blackened, burnt grass on either side of where Sammy had been make out the shape of very distinct, very large angel wings.
"You seeing that?" Lizzy asks with too much fear.
Nodding, Lou answers. "Yeah."
"What… what the fuck does that mean?" Lizzy wonders, looking at her little boy in her arms and back at the clear angel wings on the ground.
"I… uh, I don't know," Lou admits with serious concern.
"Did he tap into an angel's grace or something?" Lizzy continues to panic, staring at the scorch marks. "Because… you don't think the Nephilim line in him… he didn't do that himself. Right?"
A rock of dread in her stomach, Lou decides quickly that it's best to lie right now. "No way. That's nuts. But you heard what Sammy said. We need to go. We can ask him about this later."
Lizzy nods, peering at the burned outline of angel wings, they are very clearly angel wings, before walking for their car in the gravel driveway. No time to overthink about it right now.
I apologize again for how long it takes for updates. I know I've lost some readers. Totally sucks. But hey, gotta do what I gotta do, right? Please hang in there!