Author's Note: Hi everyone! I was going to post tomorrow but then I realized that that would give you guys an extra day to hunt me down and kill me for what I did to little Dean. So, out of a sense of self-preservation and because you guys are just so awesome, I am posting today (obviously)! But first I want to thank Araina Richardson, new21writer, snseriesfan, FireChildSlytherin5, Invader Kiwi, Stone120, elf, jokergirl94, BranchSuper, savannaharaiza5, PsychoPicasso, Shorty22133, and Eliza Ghost for their awesome reviews.
Chapter Four: Aftermath
John Winchester knelt down next to his wife and reached his hand out to stroke though his son's hair. His dead son's hair. Because he was certain that the life had left Dean's body only moments before. And just how the hell had this happened?
He'd been woken by his son's screams and was ashamed to admit that he'd hesitated before getting up and out of his chair. He'd at first assumed that the boy had had a nightmare and comforting the child after a bad dream was more Mary's specialty than his own. But something about the boy's scream didn't seem right. It reminded him more of the cry of pain he'd heard from his fellow Marines when they were wounded than a child scared of a nightmare. And that thought is what finally got him moving. But too late it seemed. For when he'd gotten upstairs, the door to Sammy's room was slammed shut and locked and he heard a man's voice coming from inside. After banging on the door got him nowhere, John was about to call the cops but then Mary had told him not to. He figured that maybe the man inside the room had threatened to kill them if the police arrived, so he obeyed his wife's request. But that didn't mean he'd just stand around and hope that things turned out alright. No. He'd find a way into the room and save his family. But a gunshot ended all thoughts of rescue. He screamed to Mary and heard her yelling back that they were okay. And then the door had been unlocked. He wasn't sure how since his wife hadn't gone near it, but there was no time to ponder that as he took in the horrific scene in his youngest son's nursery. A man lay dead on the floor with a gunshot wound to the head. But the father barely glanced at him as his eyes found his first born son. Mary was cradling his tiny body in her arms as blood poured from an awful looking stomach wound. John was by their side in an instant. Dean was saying something about how it could've been worse and Mary was hushing him. John offered to call an ambulance but was shot down by his wife who wanted to drive the boy to the hospital. But then Dean had said that it was too late and told them that he loved them. When the boy's eyes closed, John thought he'd die as well. This just couldn't be happening.
"Dean, no buddy. C'mon, don't do this." And there were tears streaming down his face now. Yep, ex-Marine tough guy John Winchester was sobbing like a baby as he pleaded with his dead son to not be dead. "Please, Dean, come back to us."
"Oh baby, no." Mary cried over and over.
"Step aside. I will help him."
John's head whipped around to see a man wearing a tan trench coat standing over him. The man was staring at Dean's body with an expression of sadness but the mourning father still didn't trust the intruder. What were his intentions? And how did this man get in here without being heard? Although he supposed that was easy since he and Mary were calling out to their lost child as Sammy wailed away in his crib.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Castiel. I am an angel of the Lord and I can heal your son."
"No. No, I don't know who you are, but you stay away from my boy."
"John, Dean's dead." Mary cut him off. "This man can't do him any harm. And if he is an angel…"
"Mary, Dean's dead! There obviously are no angels looking out for him!" John couldn't believe what he was hearing. But he guessed that Mary was grasping at any small amount of hope that was being offered to her, no matter how ridiculous it seemed and that made him hate the man in the trench coat. Because Mary's heart would break all over again when Dean remained dead.
"I apologize that I couldn't come sooner. I'll explain everything later but for now I need to heal Dean."
"Okay." Mary agreed.
"No!" John insisted, but Castiel (if that was trench coat guy's real name) pushed past him and laid a hand on Dean's stomach.
John was about to pull the man away from his son when a light seemed to radiate out from where the guy's hand was. And then Dean began to convulse slightly. When the young boy's eyes snapped open, his father forgot all about the strange man in the trench coat.
"Dean? Buddy, can you hear me?" he reached forwards and once again stroked his son's hair.
"Dad?" He blinked slowly a few times and then his gaze focused on Mary. "Mom? What… oh!" What could only be described as recognition flashed through the boy's eyes and then he looked at the stranger. "Dude, Cas, 'bout time you showed."
John opened his mouth but no words could form. Dean didn't really sound like himself nor did he seem the least bit traumatized by his death and recovery. And he somehow knew Castiel.
"I'm sorry. I couldn't get involved in the fight against Azazel without attracting the attention of angels that may have tried to stop me. I also wasn't sure how much power it would take to accomplish all of this. I had feared that I would be unconscious for quite some time."
"What the hell are you going on about?" John interrupted. "Who are you?" He was trying desperately to wrap his head around what had happened in the last few minutes. How had this man healed John's dead son? Hell, he hadn't even figured out how Dean had been killed in the first place.
"I already told you…"
"Yeah, well, you can tell it to the cops when they get here." John stood to go get the phone but two voices stopped him.
"No!" Dean and Mary cried out at the same time.
"What? Why not?"
"John, this is all going to be hard to understand, but we cannot get the police involved."
"Mom's right. Please, Dad, don't call the cops. We can explain everything to you but the cops'll just get in the way and screw everything up."
John couldn't believe what he'd just heard come from his son's mouth. "Dean!"
The boy shrugged. Mary's hand shook slightly as she wiped the blood away from the child's belly. There was not a mark on him. Both parents stared in surprise. John knew he should've figured out that the wound would be gone since his son was alive, but seeing it was still a shock. All thoughts of calling out law enforcement disappeared from John's mind as he was forced to go back to thinking about what had occurred in this room. And man, did he not want to think about that. He wanted to take charge and pretend that things weren't spiraling out of his control. But there was just so much that defied rational explanation and it was overloading his brain. John needed to make sense of all of this. He just wasn't sure how to.
"Dad, get Sammy out of his crib and hand him to me. He's crying his head off." Dean sat up in his mother's arms.
John stared at his son in disbelief. His four year old had just given him an order. And since when had Dean called him 'Dad' instead of 'Daddy'?
"Dad! C'mon, he needs me."
"Dean, you can't…"
"Here."
John turned to see Castiel holding the baby, who was still crying.
"You! Put my son down!" John growled.
He was pissed when the trench coat wearing man completely ignored him. Instead, the man walked around Mary and crouched down in front of her and Dean. Dean reached his skinny arms out and took the infant from Castiel. The boy held his little brother close.
"You're okay, Sammy. Everything's gonna be okay now. You're safe and I'll keep you safe."
Baby Sammy reached up and grabbed onto Dean's face as his sobs slowly died down to hiccups.
"Dean, we need to discuss what happens next." Castiel announced.
"You talk to me, not the child." John insisted.
"Just wait 'til Sammy's asleep, Cas. Then we'll talk." Dean answered as though John hadn't spoken.
"I would like to know what's going on with you." Mary directed her statement to Dean.
"Look, I told you I'd explain everything but I really want to get Sammy back to sleep."
"Have you all lost your minds?" John just about shouted. "We have a dead body in the room, a stranger claiming to be an angel, Dean almost died, and you all just want to sit around and talk things out?!"
"Quiet, Dad!" Dean hissed. "You're scaring Sammy."
And sure enough, the baby was starting to cry again.
"You don't tell me what to do, Dean. What the hell is up with you?"
"Please calm down." Castiel requested.
"And you definitely don't tell me what to do!"
"John, please, you're not helping the situation." Mary spoke up.
And that was the last straw. The world had gone insane and while John was trying to make sense of everything, he was being shut down by everyone from his wife, to his four year old son, to the goddamn stranger who'd somehow gotten into his house. He half expected the dead guy on the floor to start arguing with him as well.
"Well you know what will help the situation? Me calling the cops."
"No." Mary and Dean protested yet again.
"We have a corpse in our house. We have to report it."
"We can't explain it to them."
John turned to his wife. "It was self-defense, Mary. They'll understand."
"No, they'll take the colt. We can't let them take it." Dean insisted.
"And where did you get the gun, Mary?" John asked, his son's statement reminding him of that question.
"You'll have to ask Dean."
"I sent it to him." Castiel admitted.
"What?!"
Sammy started crying again.
"Everyone shut the hell up!" Dean cried out. "You're upsetting him." Then he turned his attention back to the baby in his arms and lowered his voice. "Shhhh, it'll be okay, Sammy. Shhhhh. I'll take care of you."
John grabbed fistful of Castiel's trench coat. "You gave my son a gun?"
"It was needed for him to protect this family."
"I protect this family. Not a little kid."
"You failed the first time around. That is why it became Dean's job."
"First time around? What the hell are you talking about? I never failed my family, you crackpot. I don't know who you are, but the cops'll have to deal with you. And don't anyone disagree with me this time. I'm calling them. If the neighbors haven't already."
"I made sure no one heard the gunshots." Castiel informed him.
John ignored him and went to leave the room to get the phone. Mary still sat on the floor with Dean in her lap and neither made a move to get up, but Castiel quickly blocked his way.
"You can't do that."
"Move, or I'll move you." John threatened. He was an ex-Marine and could take out this idiot without breaking a sweat. The man may have somehow healed his son, but he had admitted to giving the boy a weapon and was quite possibly insane, so if he had to be dealt with, John would do it without a second thought.
"No. Please calm down or I will have to make you calm down."
"I'd like to see you try." John laughed.
"Don't hurt him, Cas."
"I won't, Dean. But he is past the point of reason."
John grabbed the man by the shoulders and was about to shove him out of the way, when Castiel reached a hand up and lightly touched his forehead. Everything went dark.
Author's Note Part Two: Poor John... oh, well. I hope you all enjoyed. Please leave a review and let me know what you thought. Thanks.
