A/N: Chapter title taken from the country western song by Phil Vassar of the same name.
Part 4 – Just Another Day in Paradise
I. Remote Control
They all die when he touches them -- Bobby, Ellen, Caleb, Pastor Jim, Sam and Dad -- and Dean's moaning, shaking, still trapped inside the dream. Dean tastes human flesh and blood in his mouth, sees Pa steaming those bones clean in that large metal pot. Sam tightens his grip, wraps his arms around his brother, and he doesn't even remember falling asleep holding Dean like that hours later.
Don't open the door, John pleads silently. Damn it, don't.
"Missy likes you, Gabriel. She always has. She likes the way you look. The way you taste. You two practically grew up together." Missouri's eyes are pitch black in the dream, and Dean can only sit there and stare at her.
Gabriel's eyes glaze over as Pa puts down that big bowl of hot stew in front of him. Gabe knows what it is, knows who it was. He can almost smell Layla's perfume coming from the bowl, but God, his stomach starts rumbling and he's so damn hungry…
Pa leans down, puts his lips right next to Gabriel's ear. "These two bitches are all yours, boy. You got their weight on you. So you eat up, and after you're through, you're gonna bury what's left of 'em all by yourself. You bury 'em deep, because if you don't, you go back in the barn with Lee and Jerry."
"It's a damn shame the way you treat her. Such a cute couple, too." Missouri pouts, and the gesture is pure Meg. "Little twisted sister and a cast-off angel with broken wings. You're damaged goods, boy. Go back to her, Gabriel. Give up this Dean nonsense, huh?"
The Demon makes John flash that fake police badge and smile. John's hands wrap around the woman's throat as soon as she closes the door behind them.
Meg and Missy stay at Jerry and Sophie Hayden's house. Missy gets excited when she sees all the pretty glass bottles in the bathroom. She accidentally breaks one, but Sophie doesn't mind, not any more.
Missouri goes to the pound and adopts a dog. It's a Saint Bernard mastiff mix that weighs 160 pounds. Missouri figures Dean's weight at 175; that's close enough.
The next morning Dean acts like nothing happened the night before.
Jerry has green eyes, but they're not as wide and pretty as Gabriel's are. Meg tries his meatsuit out for size, and when they have sex Missy insists that Jerry's eyes stay green. Afterwards Missy uses her knife on him. She keeps his eyes in one of the glass jars, a pretty blue one, as a souvenir.
Sam stares at Dean in disbelief. "Come on, Sam," Dean drawls lazily, "we're wastin' daylight. Got work to do."
Missouri keeps a journal that she plans on giving to Sam one day. She wants Sam to understand why she did what she did.
Dean sniffs noisily. He angles his head down and wipes his eye against the side of his arm. "Must be allergic to somethin' Bobby's got in the house," he says softly, and Sam just nods. They both know that's not true.
Bobby packs a duffel with amulets, special herbs and the "spirit trap" book. He hands the duffel to Sam and takes Dean aside. Dean frowns when Bobby thrusts another protection charm into his hand. "Take it, you idjit, and this time don't lose it on purpose like you did the other one, okay?"
Dean takes a long, deep breath. His voice is too calm, almost childlike. He turns and looks Sam directly in the eyes, and the blankness in Dean's face is terrifying. "Pa wouldn't let anybody else eat the…the meat. Because of Layla's cancer, y'know? Said her mom was too old. Tough like leather." Dean lowers his head a little, stares down at the floor next to his feet. "So you know what Pa did?" Sam has a pretty good damn idea. Dean doesn't even blink, and Sam waits for it.
They load up the Impala and Bobby's truck with the duffels, brushes, paint cans and the Key of Solomon. Dean's all snark and swagger, and even Bobby quirks an eyebrow at him and shakes his head.
Meg settles in underneath Missy's skin; it's a comfortable fit, always has been.
Bobby follows them over to the spirit trap house in his truck. Sam can't help but think that the house is like something out of "The Three Bears": not too big, not too small. It's just right, down the road from Bobby's place, and the nearest neighbor is over a mile away.
Sam wakes up, looks over. Dean's sitting in the chair, his knees drawn up to his chest, his arms wrapped around the tops of his knees, staring blankly out the window. Dean turns his head slightly and his eyes are too bright. Vacant. Sam freezes, thinks that Layla is back. He thinks that until he sees that single tear running down his brother's finely cut cheekbone.
Missouri doesn't name the mutt until the black-eyed woman in her dreams asks her to. Gabriel's a good name for a dog.
Missy liked Layla's eyes best of all, and she kept them in a tin box after Pa's finished with the rest.
"Don't, Sam. Don't. I could'a fought back. I could have, and I didn't. Layla and her mom died because I fucked up. I deserved whatever Lee and Jerry did to me."
Pack your things, baby, Meg purrs smoothly. You want to see Gabriel, don't you?
Sam and Dean spend the afternoon laying down entry and containment lines according to Bobby's book. When they finish Dean announces "This house is clean," in a squeaky high-pitched female voice like the little psychic chick from Poltergeist, and he's a little puzzled when Sam doesn't laugh.
Gabriel slips that silver knife of his into his pocket and thinks about using it on himself. One deep cut down the thin skin of his inside elbow should do it.
Is he worth all this, John? Is he? Tell me Dean's not worth all your pain and suffering and I'll let you go. John's laugh rumbles in his chest, deep and low, as he tells the Demon to go fuck himself.
Gabriel the dog dies half an hour after Missouri feeds him a bowl of canned dog food laced with arsenic.
Dean dreams that Ellen finds out that Dean as Gabriel killed Ash. Ellen stabs Dean in the heart with one of Bill Harvelle's hunting knives. Dean doesn't put up much of a fight.
John's body kills six women in two weeks. They all look like Mary Winchester, and each time John's grip on his sanity loosens just a little.
Missouri times the dog's death with her watch, and afterwards she buries him in her backyard in her rose garden.
He doesn't like her, and he's pretty sure she can't stand him, but Missouri's probably going to die because of him, so Dean ignores the dream and goes anyway when Missouri calls.
Two more postcards come in the mail after that, each one written in John's blood. One from St. Louis, Missouri (BORED NOW), and a few days later, another one from Wichita, Kansas (WHAT'S THE MATTER, DON'T YOU LOVE ME ANYMORE?). "Come and get me, you son of a bitch," Dean mutters, and the brothers hunker down in the spirit trap house and wait.
It's not good enough, Meg whispers to Missouri that night. Dean deserves something special. You need to find it. You'll do that for me, won't you? Missouri nods and says she will.
In the dream Sam just stands there, unable to speak or move. Dean's too pale, too still. Missouri takes him by the collar and drags him off into the darkness.
Lee doesn't even bother to whisper. "Let us hunt him, Pa. He's no good for anything else anymore." Gabriel pretends he doesn't hear as he stacks firewood and he hopes Pa says yes.
Two weeks later the last postcard comes from Kansas City Missouri, inked in John's blood with a crude drawing of a house and the words: HOW FUCKING STUPID DO YOU THINK I AM, BOYS?
Missouri decides to use belladonna herb. The lore says that whoever eats it is taken and killed by the devil, and that's just what Dean deserves.
When one of her neighbors compliments her on how good her roses look Missouri smiles politely and doesn't say very much.
"You done enough to him," Pa says roughly. "Don't wanna hear any more talk like that."
He's not in the habit of checking his caller id first. "Dean," Missouri says gravely, "If you want to save John, you have to come see me, and you have to come alone. Don't tell anyone else about this."
Her name's Cassie Robinson; Dean sees her hitch-hiking by the side of the road half a state away from Bobby's place.
"Personal stuff," Dean says carefully. He won't look directly at Sam. "Be back in a day or so."
"You lost your taste for the hunt, boy. Gotta get right back on that horse," Pa says sternly. That night he sends Gabriel and Jerry out to the roadhouse by the highway to pick up someone to hunt.
Hours later Kat has a hard time changing that flat tire until that hottie with the wide green eyes and blond hair stops to help her. He has a killer smile and she feels safe with him, right up to the moment he grabs her and pushes her inside that rusty old truck.
Damn headache starts small and gets worse; shagging ass from South Dakota to Kansas just isn't an option anymore, so Dean pulls into the Hampton Inn for the night.
The day after she buys the belladonna herb Missouri picks up a young male hitch-hiker named Rob. He's Dean's approximate age and weight.
Sam stands there staring blankly at the wall after Dean leaves. Sam sees Dean gasping his last breath, sees Missouri standing there crying, and that pit in Sam's stomach gets larger and heavier.
Cassie tilts her head up and presses her mouth against his just as Dean mutters something stupid like "Gotta early start tomorrow morning." Suddenly the idea of separate rooms seems pretty damned ridiculous.
Meg and Missy show up on Missouri's doorstep hours later, and she welcomes them with open arms.
His head fills with the sound of his slowly fading heartbeat, and all Dean can think of is that this is a wasted death. It won't free Dad, and Dean can't stop it.
Dean surrenders himself to Cassie's warm and gentle touch like he's been waiting for it all his life. He wakes up alone the next morning, and he's not surprised at all. Sooner or later everyone leaves him, so why the hell should she be any different?
Missouri adjusts the dosage of belladonna accordingly, and soon Rob the hitch-hiker joins Gabriel the dog out in the rose garden.
It's all right, the reaper whispers softly. I've got you.
"After you're gone, Dean, I'm going to spend some alone time with Sam." Meg strokes the side of Dean's face with Missy's long slim fingers. "Poor Sammy. He'll be all alone in the world now, and that's your fault too."
Pa and Lee and Jerry watch him like a hawk, but none of it touches Gabriel, not the girl's crying and pleading, not even the blood at the end of the hunt. Gabriel sleeps deeply and peacefully for the first time in weeks.
Missouri's skin turns grey; Missy's eyes roll white as the life is sucked out of her.
The bottle of beer Missouri gives him must be one of those damn light beers, but it's ice cold and after that long drive Dean drinks it anyway, despite that faintly sweet aftertaste.
"It didn't have to be this way, Gabriel," Missy says softly. "Look what you made me do."
The first wave of dizziness pushes Dean back against the couch cushions. He has a death grip on the beer bottle and he doesn't even feel it when the glass shatters in his hand.
Well, will you look at that, the Demon says cheerfully. Images of Meg and Missy and Dean and Missouri flash and surge behind John's eyes. Now that's something you don't see everyday…
Dean stares into space over Missouri's left shoulder and the reaper slowly fades into view.
"All the things you did, all the people you hurt…" Missouri's eyes are wet with tears. "I saw it when you were a child, Dean. All those years ago, when your father first came to me. I didn't say anything then, and I should have."
Meg hates re-animating dead meat, so she leaves Missy's meatsuit at Missouri's house. She whispers in Dean's ear before she leaves: "I'll always be around, and you won't know who to trust. Now let's see, who will I jump into next? Pastor Jim? Caleb? Sam?"
The reaper pushes his cold dry palm against the side of Dean's face, but it's all wrong. Life flows into him, not out of him, and he can't understand why.
Dean doesn't remember Sam and Bobby showing up. He doesn't remember Sam helping him into the Impala, either.
Hours later and miles away, postal employee Herb Proctor kills his entire family and barricades himself inside his home. Meg makes the jump out of Herb just as the SWAT team enters the house after negotiations break down. The sight of all that blood makes Meg feel so much better. Too bad about Missy, though.
II. Blinded by the Light
"Unless you got a warrant, and I know damn well you don't," Bobby says quietly, "You got five seconds to get the hell off my land."
CSI Technician Cheryl Talbott gives Andy Gallagher that empty beer bottle Dean drank from to 'cause Andy asked so nicely, and afterwards none of the cops on scene remembers a damned thing.
"Haven't you been paying attention all along, Sam? Don't you get it?" Dean snarls when Sam tells him that none of it was his fault. "People die when they're around me. When we find Dad, I'm done. I'm gone."
"I love families, Johnny, you know that." Azazel's always cheerful, all the damn time. John can only sit there while the sonofabitch rambles on and on inside his head. "It's all about those pesky family ties."
Rumsfeld2 barks once, loudly. "Son of a bitch," Bobby mutters, and he goes over to the window to look outside.
The yellow-eyed dude pulled some strings, got Andy this sweet little apartment on the good side of town. Andy staggers out of bed, goes to the bathroom, gets a drink of water and then falls back into bed with a sigh. He cradles the bottle Dean drank from in his hands, then reaches out with his mind.
Showtime.
"You did a hell of a job fixing her up after you ran down those bikers, didn't you, Dean?" Hendrickson stands up, leans against the Impala and brushes the dirt off the knees of his expensive suit as Dean walks out on the porch, scowling.
It's a convent this time. John wears a priest's collar ("Looking good there, John boy," Azazel crows gleefully). It's wet work, quick and dirty. John uses a machete and a handgun. Seventeen people die.
Agent Reidy leans against the rental car. "I don't understand you, Sam. You're smart. You're better than this." He looks around Bobby's place and shakes his head. "You could live a normal life." When he hears that Sam laughs in Reidy's face.
"We never did have that talk, Sam," Hendrickson says, and he's smiling like he and Sam are already best buddies. "Is now a good time?"
Everything goes blinding white and Dean can't even scream.
"You took from me, boy," the older hunter in the trucker's cap says. "Time for me to take back from you."
Lee's already dead, lying dead next to the barn, and so's Jerry…
Missy's screaming but Gabriel won't let them get to Pa, he won't—
Gabriel blinks, tugs at his wrists but he can't get up…chair…handcuffed to the chair, and it's white all around him…
"My name is Dr. Sanford Ellicott," the man in the white coat murmurs softly. "You're a very sick young man, Gabriel, but I'm going to help you feel better. Don't be afraid."
They tie his tongue down and strap his arms and legs to the table. The shaggy haired freakishly tall kid stands there, grinning, with his hand on the switch.
"It's not as if you boys are all that close, anyway. He's been away for twenty years." Hendrickson leans forward, working the good cop angle for all he's worth.
The yellow eyed man claims Gabriel for the first time in Gabe's room, after lights out.
"Mine now…my fallen…"
Lightning flashes behind his eyes, in his mouth, underneath his skin. "Never wanted you around in the first place," Sam whispers in Gabriel's ear.
Dean comes out of the fog sitting on his ass, his back against the porch railing. Sam's there, right in his face. Hendrickson's right behind him.
"Dean's sick, Sam. He needs more help than you and your family can give him." Henrickson tries to hand Sam his business card. "You know where to reach me if you change your mind." Sam angrily bats the card away.
"Just a headache," Dean mumbles to himself. "Had 'em before. That's all this is." He leans heavily into Sam, and he stumbles as they walk back into the house.
His head hurts like a bitch, and sometime before dinner Dean slips into the auto yard, picks up a crowbar, and smashes the hell out of one of Bobby's rusted out junkers.
You don't know me, Dean thinks as he stares at Sam. The urge to smash Sam's face in makes Dean's muscles ache. You don't know anything about me.
"You're not my Dad," Dean snaps at Bobby hours later. "I don't have to listen to a damned thing you say."
Huh. It's only a damn nosebleed. Dean's had worse; he's not gonna cry about it.
TBC