"Why is Lucifer going to sacrifice you?" Dean asked again.
"It's the only way he can stay topside," Sam said.
"That's right," Jim said. "The chosen ones must be sacrificed within 24 hours of the rising, or Lucifer will be locked up forever with no possibility of regaining his freedom."
"OK, then the first thing we have to do is get them out of that cage," John said, wondering about the whole chosen ones comment, but decided to not worry about it for now.
"Water?" Dean asked. Water put out fire.
"Worth a try," John said.
Jim ran out to the garage for some buckets and filled them with water. John, Dean, and Jim all took a bucket and simultaneously threw the contents onto the cage. Each side jumped in five inches, making Sam and Jessica's prison smaller. They now barely had any room at all.
"Well, that didn't work," Dean said, unnecessarily.
Sam shifted a little and ended up hitting his arm on one of the bars. "Aargh," he yelped. That had really hurt. He had been wondering, if they could just walk through the flames to the other side, but that had been a solid stop. So, at least he knew that wouldn't work.
"You OK?" Jessica asked.
Sam nodded. "Be careful, though, you don't want to touch."
"Maybe you should kill me now. Then the devil can't sacrifice me and stay topside," Sam suggested. He also thought maybe he wouldn't bother sacrificing Jessica, although, he had to admit to himself, that he would just out of spite.
"No," Dean said. He was not killing his brother. They might not have spoken in the last couple of years, but his job was always to keep Sam safe.
"I don't want to any more than you do, but we need to consider it," John said.
Sam fought the urge to roll his eyes. Of course his father would be up for this plan.
"No," Dean said again.
"Dean, I would rather you or dad kill me then the devil," Sam said. "We're sitting ducks here and there is obviously no way out."
"We could try…," Dean trailed off. He knew there had to be a way, but he didn't know what.
"Can't just try things, Dean. You saw what happened last time. One more jump in like that and we're going to literally be squeezed by the flames.
Jessica shuddered when she heard that. Not only had her mother died in a fire when she was six months old, but when she was five, her father had fallen asleep, drunk, smoking a cigarette and set the house on fire. The firemen got her out, but her father had died. And she had spent two weeks in a the burn unit at the hospital. Luckily there was no permanent damage.
"Oh, nice to see I have an audience."
Everyone turned to see the figure standing in the corner. He was huge and glowed red. No mistaking who that was.
"Leave my brother alone," Dean said.
The devil rolled his eyes. He flung the three hunters into the wall. "I hope you have a good view."
He threw out his hand and the fire walls disappeared. Sam and Jessica were rooted to the floor. Lucifer approached them.
"Sam, run!" Dean yelled.
"Can't," Sam said in a trembling voice. He took Jessica's hand in his and squeezed it. She turned to him and smiled and squeezed it back.
Unnoticed by the devil, Jim was muttering under his breath. Lucifer slowly approached his two sacrifices. He was going to enjoy this. He hadn't been able to kill anyone in two millennia. Just as he was within inches of the frightened couple, he disappeared.
"Where did he go?" Sam asked, not that he was complaining.
"I just recited the devil exorcism," Jim said. "He's back in his cage, but he can come back. If he gets back up here within the next 24 hours he could still make the sacrifice."
"Well, we should leave, then," Dean said.
"We still can't move," Sam noted, after trying.
"Yes, anything the devil did will remain in place until his time is up," Jim said.
"How do you know all this?" John asked.
"I found some ancient texts a while back. This was all spelled out in them."
"What does he have to do to get back out again?" Sam asked.
"Not him. The demons."
"Well, will they know that he's not up here anymore?" John asked.
"I have no idea. We'll just have to wait."
"Sam, I just want you to know, I'm sorry," John said.
"What?" Sam thought he must have misheard. His father had never said that to him before.
"I didn't mean to get so mad when you left. But with all the evil I've seen in the world, I was worried about you," John explained.
"But you didn't want me around here either," Sam said.
"Yeah, the place is crawling with demons. I wanted you safe."
Sam didn't know what to say to that. He realized that he had probably never understood his father at all.
"I don't mean to be a pain, but I'm hungry," Sam said. Jessica had had that sundae earlier, but he hadn't eaten since breakfast.
"I'll get you something," Jim said and went to the kitchen.
"So, how did you two meet?" Dean asked. They had to kill time somehow. Plus, he was interested in Sammy's life.
Sam and Jessica exchanged a look, now that they had learned the truth of their being together. "Our friend Brady introduced us," Sam finally said.
"What?" John asked. He could tell something was going on.
"The demon that was in Leah said that we were manipulated to be together," Sam said.
"Why? Why were you two the chosen ones?"
Sam decided it was best to pull the bandaid off fast. "When we were babies a demon came into our bedrooms and dripped demon blood into our mouths."
"So, you have demon blood in you?" John asked.
Sam looked down.
"Doesn't change anything, Sammy," Dean said, glaring at his father.
"Of course not," John agreed. "Just trying to get all the info. We might need it."
Jim walked back in the room with a couple of sandwiches. He handed them to Sam and Jessica.
They ate in silence.
SSS
24 Hours later
They had spent the time alternately talking and getting to know Jessica, and just communing in silence. Nobody had slept, though. Suddenly, Sam and Jessica felt the hold break and they fell to their knees.
"It's over," Jim said.
They had made wedding plans and Dean and John both promised to be there. Sam and Jessica were determined to be happy no matter how they had met. They decided it didn't matter.
John was worried about the demon blood. He hoped there were no ill effects later.
The End
