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The Devil May Care

Chapter 4: Shoot the Devil

Dean really hated concussions. They always made him dizzy, disoriented, and a couple of other words that started with D and meant that he felt like crap that only Sam could say.

Sam. Another reason why Dean hated concussions so much. Generally when Dean got a concussion, Sam ended up near death and in so much trouble that it would make a serial killer's sentence look like Disney World.

The most recent concussion Dean received was no exception to either of those rules. Sam was now in a state of unconsciousness with blood pouring out of his stomach and his leg bent at an awkward angle and Dean had no idea where the Hell he was. But Dean did know that he had just shot the devil. And survived.

Rewind. Or at least, Dean thought, attempt to. Given the fact that his head felt like someone was splitting it in two, that might be kind of hard.

Dean recalled that he and Sam had split up by accident when there was a huge rush of demons that attacked all at once. He remembered trying to go after Sam, but getting caught in a heavy crossfire between the demons and a couple of angels gone bad. Zachariah had killed Ellen and Jo. Dean vividly remembered that. He also vividly remembered trying to get to Sam, who seemed to be frozen in place with a man that looked like a breath of wind would knock him over.

Turned out that the latter was Lucifer. Whoops. Of all the times to put his foot in his mouth, literally speaking, Dean just had to do that. Of course, he recovered gracefully, as always, in time to watch a building fall on Sam's head and get knocked out by the Devil, which explained the concussion.

Things were a little fuzzy after that. He vaguely remembered Sam saying something that was about the equivalent of telling Lucifer to fuck off, only in much politer terms because Sam was more polite than any person Dean had ever met, and then Sam doing a semi-face plant on the ground.

Then Dean remembered everything with perfect clarity, because it happened five minutes beforehand. He remembered tackling Lucifer like a football player and getting the gun free of the fallen angel's hands. He also remembered staring at it stupidly for a full second and a half because it was the Colt.

Dean probably had said something equally as stupid, but he didn't really remember that part of it. He did, however, remember aiming the gun at Lucifer's forehead and firing. He remembered an unearthly scream, which didn't come from Lucifer's vessel, but from Sam. Dean had spun around to find Sam convulsing on the ground.

"SAM!" he had screamed. Dean thought that maybe he screamed his brother's name like a girl way too many times in his life, but then, this was Sam he was thinking about. Sam was always getting into near death experiences.

It turned out that Dean hadn't killed the Devil, just his current vessel and Lucifer was now trying to possess Sam without Sam's permission.

"Dean!" Sam cried out in pain.

Dean did the only thing he could think of to do—grab his little brother's hand. He was unprepared for the sudden wave of anguish and pain that overcame him as he did so. He nearly let go of Sam's hand, but knew that if he did so, Sam would be lost to him forever.

So Dean grit his teeth together and tried to focus on something other than the blinding pain coming from Sam. He concentrated on his happiest memories, all of which contained Sam. He thought about the day that Sam had been brought home from the hospital when he was born. He thought about Sam's first steps across the grungy hotel room floor in Blue Earth, Minnesota. Dean remembered Sam's first day of kindergarten better than he remembered his own. Sam had been terrified of going to school. The thought made Dean smile—it was so different than the geeky brother Dean knew and loved now. He remembered Sam's first hunt and how it ended badly, but how it had been Sam that had saved Dean from the werewolf that night and not John. He remembered Sam's first crush, a cute little redhead by the name of Mariah Smalls and he even remembered Sam's first kiss because Dean had walked in on it by pure accident. He still occasionally teased Sam about it.

Your brother is not human. Let him go.

The powerful voice was scary as it resonated from Sam's mind into Dean's. Dean knew instantly who it belonged to and hated it all the more.

My brother is human, you lying bastard.

He remembered the day Sam got accepted into Stanford with a full ride scholarship. Dean remembered how proud he had been of his brother and how proud John had been, even if it meant that he was going to lose Sam. Dean remembered clearly the fight the two had had the night before the epic blowout between John and Sam. Dean remembered the day he first visited Sam at Stanford and then the first night he met Jess. He remembered all the pain and agony that had happened afterwards quite clearly.

Sam is mine, Dean. He is no longer yours. He is no longer Sam.

You're wrong, Dean thought. Sam is still here.

It was true—Sam was still there, just in agony and buried underneath Lucifer's presence. But Dean could still feel his brother, the geeky, innocent version of Sam and the darker, more suicidal version.

Sam, if you're there, say something, Dean thought.

He's not here! Lucifer shouted. Dean winced and almost let go of Sam. But he didn't and he heard the faint cry for help coming from his brother.

Let him go, you bastard, Dean growled. Let him go.

Dean wasn't aware of his surroundings—he didn't see Castiel battling against Zachariah, nor did he see Anna appear behind Zachariah and kill the angel. But he was aware of Lucifer's sudden disappearance and Sam's sudden stillness.

"SAM!" Dean shouted searching wildly for a pulse. There was none to be found.

Someone placed a hand on his shoulder, but Dean shook it off. Sam couldn't be dead. It was impossible! Sam, the brother he had fought so hard to protect from all of this. Sam, the one who had risked his life to save Dean's on numerous occasions. The one that had killed Lilith to avenge Dean's death couldn't be dead. It wasn't possible.

"Dean, come here," Anna said softly. When Dean still resisted she pulled gently on his arm. "Come."

"NO!" Dean shouted feeling himself being pulled away anyway. "SAM!"

Anna pressed two fingers two his forehead and everything went black.


Dean woke sometime later with a pounding headache and the urge to throw up. He didn't notice the beeping heart monitor or the IV in his hand until he tried to get out of bed and the machines started going wild.

The hospital room door burst open to reveal an agitated looking nurse who shot him a death glare.

"Sir, you need to stay in bed," she said firmly.

"My brother, Sam," Dean tried to protest but the ache in his head grew too much and he allowed the woman to push him back into bed.

"Sam is going to be okay," the nurse said. "He just got out of surgery. I'll take you to see him in a little while, after you get some rest."

Sam was alive.

The thought made Dean nearly pass out in relief and he wasn't so certain that he didn't. The next time he opened his eyes, Anna was there in place of the nurse and she had a very grave look about her. Then again, she was an angel and she always had a very grave look on her face.

"Sam?" Dean started to ask but Anna held up her hand.

"I'm not sure what all happened between you, Sam, and Lucifer," she said. "But I do know that whatever did occur sent Lucifer back behind his seals, if not caused him to die. We're not sure, but Lucifer is no longer walking the Earth."

Dean's jaw fell open and he struggled to close it so he could talk. It didn't work out too well.

"Sam nearly died because of Lucifer," Anna continued. "Not just because of his injuries, which were pretty bad by themselves, but because Lucifer attempted to possess him without permission. It was pretty horrible. You didn't see Sam after what happened—we were all certain that he was dead. But his heart was still beating, barely. Castiel was the one that discovered it and we brought you both here to St. Paul's Medical Center. Sam is in recovery right now and is going to be just fine with a lot of rest and recovery."

"When can I see him?" Dean asked quietly.

"Provided you don't faint when you stand up, you can go right now," Anna said. "You have a nasty concussion."

Dean ignored the last comment and carefully pulled himself out of bed. He was pleased to find that his head didn't hurt. Much.

"Where's my brother?" he demanded.

"Room 666," Anna said. Dean shot her an incredulous look. "Seriously. Castiel is with him right now."

The way she said that made Dean nervous, like Sam didn't have much time left. But she had just said he was going to be fine. So what was going on?

"Lead the way, fearless leader," he said.

Anna rolled her eyes before brushing past him and walking out the door. Dean followed quickly, wanting to see Sam with his own eyes and make sure his brother was okay.

Sure enough, Sam was in room 666. Dean barely held down the sarcastic comments when he saw the room number. He was fairly certain that Anna heard his thoughts anyway from the annoyed look she shot him before she pushed open the door.

Dean's first thought was that Castiel looked exhausted. His second was to wonder if angels ever got exhausted. His third was oh shit, is that Sam in the hospital bed?

The person in the hospital bed was pale, with matted brown hair and dark circles that stood out too clearly on his white face. The person had a thick white cast encasing his left leg and a bandage wrapped around the hand that Dean had held onto for dear life when Lucifer had tried to possess Sam.

"Sam," Dean whispered going weak at the knees. "Is he--?"

"He's alive," Castiel said gravely. "He's sleeping right now."

Dean walked slowly over to the hospital bed and slid his hand underneath Sam's. He felt the strong, steady heartbeat and sighed in relief. He sat down on one of the hospital chairs and rested his chin on the edge of the bed.

"You're both lucky to be alive," Castiel told him. "Lucifer not only nearly killed Sam with his possession attempt, but he also nearly killed you. What you did was stupid and risky."

"It worked, didn't it?" Dean asked with a hint of a smirk. "Lucifer's dead and Sam's going to be okay."

"Yes, but you nearly destroyed yourselves in the process," Castiel said. "You could have brought the entire world to an end with your actions, Dean."

"Lucky thing it worked, now isn't it?" Dean asked not wanting to think about what would have happened if Sam hadn't been strong enough to fight off Lucifer. What had happened was scary enough on its own.

Castiel muttered a word that sounded distinctly like idjits, which made Dean smile sadly.

"Castiel, the other angels wish to converse with you," Anna said. "They're meeting in Deerbourne."

"What's happening?" Dean asked. Lucifer was gone—the war was over, wasn't it?

"Zachariah was killed," Castiel said looking at Anna in a look that seemed distinctly guilty. "He was on Lucifer's side the entire time and none of us realized it. I am now leader of the angels."

Dean's jaw hit the floor as he stared at the two angels in shock.

"De?"

Sam's quiet voice drew Dean's attention away from the two angels to his brother. Sam's hazel eyes were open in mere slits and he looked like he was in an enormous amount of pain, but he was alive and Sam.

"Sammy," Dean whispered wrapping one of his arms around Sam's shoulders in a bear hug.

"You okay, Dean?" Sam murmured his eyes falling close again.

"I'm good, Sammy," Dean said with a smile tugging at his lips. "Get some rest. I'll be here when you wake up, okay?"

"Love you, Dean," Sam mumbled his eyes firmly shut.

"I love you too, Sam," Dean said squeezing his brother's hand gently. He smiled again when Sam returned the gesture.

The apocalypse was over. The Winchester brothers had won. No one was certain what happened to Lucifer, only that he was gone and the world hadn't ended. God was found on the corner of First and Amistad and was restored as the rightful ruler of Heaven.

Sam went on to make a full recovery from his encounter with Lucifer. He and Dean went back to hunting things such as poltergeists and spirits. There were no more encounters with demons ever again.

Dean and Sam lived a long and happy life, dying at the ripe old age of 89 and 85 when their house caught fire and they didn't get out in time. They hunted until they were in their fifties and then retired, returning to their hometown of Lawrence, Kansas to live out the rest of their life.

Finis