They must have fallen asleep somewhere along the line because when he woke up she was still wrapped in his arms and the two of them were still mostly clothed. I his drowsiness, he allowed himself a moment to enjoy this – waking up with a beautiful girl in his arms was something that regrettably didn't happen too often, and even considered going back into blissful sleep, until the frantic banging on the door, which he realized was what woke him up in the first place, erased all thoughts of sleep from his mind.
He bolted out of the bed and hurried over to open the door where he found Chris looking frantic and frightened.
"It's Sam" was all she said and Dean rushed out to the other room, not even bothering to put on his shirt or shoes.
He found Sam curled up on the floor, writhing in pain and clutching his head and immediately rushed to his side. They thought it was over - the visions. Sam hadn't had one ever since that night in the cemetery and since the visions had always been connected to the demon they simply thought that Sam's special abilities died along with the demon.
Apparently they were wrong.
"One minute he was fine and then he just went down and started screaming…" Chris was standing at the doorway, obviously distraught, but Dean ignored her and focused on his brother.
"Sam… Sammy… look at me man, come on, I need you to look at me…" But Sam simply groaned again.
He was standing in a dark room that smelled of dust and oak and another scent he couldn't quite put his finger on, and he wasn't alone. There were men all around him and even though he couldn't see their faces he knew that they weren't really men.
He watched in horror as they formed a circle around him, chanting something in a language he couldn't understand. Even though he couldn't understand the words he could feel his gut twisting with dread. Something bad was going to happen - he could feel it in his blood.
The chanting continued but now, as if out of nowhere, a knife appeared in each on of their hands. They moved in terrifying unison, as if their movements had been choreographed, like a dance that had been planned and rehearsed.
The canting stopped abruptly and they each lifted the knifes to their throats… The blood that came oozing from their necks was the brightest shade of red he'd even seen, the metallic taste of copper was so real in his mouth that he almost gagged… he fought for breath and tried to scream…
Sam shook out of his vision with a blood curling scream and grabbed the first thing within his reach which just happened to be Dean's arms. He felt blood coming out of his nose and reached over to wipe it off.
"Hey, hey Sammy… it's ok… you're ok…" Dean soothed him. He helped Sam get up from the floor and sat him on the bed
"Dean? What's going on?" Jo's worried voice came from the door
"Not now!" Dean said rather rudely, but the only thing on his mind at the moment was making sure that his brother was ok. It was his fault. He let himself go - forgot his responsibility and allowed himself the indulgence of being with Jo, and now his brother was in pain. He should have never let him out of his sight, he should have never assumed that just because the yellow eyed demon was gone that Sam would be safe.
"What did you see Sammy? What was it?"
"The ritual…" Sam panted, still clutching his head, trying to fight through the pain "They cut their own throats… there was blood everywhere…"
Dean heard a phone ring in the background and something that sounded like Chris's voice as she answered it, but kept his focus strictly on his brother.
"Dean, there was something about that ritual…it was powerful, more powerful then anything I've ever felt…"
"It's ok Sammy. Don't worry, we're going to stop it…" Dean assured him.
"The hospital just called" Chris announced from her place by the door "Mr. Billson is awake…"
Dean looked at his brother for another long moment until Sam finally nodded, indicating he's ok, then straightened up and addressed the girls "Pack up. We're going to the hospital and then getting out of this town…"
He passed by Jo as he headed out of the room but didn't say anything or acknowledged what happened between them in any way - he couldn't. He had a responsibility to his brother and he couldn't afford to let anything distract him. What ever the yellow eyed demon had planned for his brother it obviously wasn't over yet - and even if it was the last thing he did - he was going to make sure that his brother was safe before he died.
In spite of Dean's rather adamant protest, it was finally decided that both he and Sam would stay in the car while the girls went in and talked to Billson. Being as the man was brought into the ER wounded, after walking out of his house and disappearing for two days, they figured it was a pretty safe bet that there would be some kind of police involvement. That, coupled with the fact that Sam was still nursing one hell of a headache and looking kind of green around the gills meant that the two of them were staying as far away from the hospital as possible.
Dean hated this. He hated sitting back and letting others do the field work for him and especially today - since sitting back today meant he was stuck in a car with his brother. And if he knew his brother, which he did, that would lead to some intense grilling about what happened with Jo.
It took Sam about twenty minutes to get to it, all the while he sneaked sideway glances at his brother while he thought Dean wasn't looking, but finally the moment Dean dreaded arrived.
"So… what happened with you and Jo?" Sam was trying to sound nonchalant but he couldn't hide the hidden smirk in his voice.
"Nothing Sasquach! Let it go!" Dean said testily and turned on the music in an attempt to avoid the conversation.
"Come on! I saw her walk into our room, the two of you were in there for hours…" When Dean didn't respond he kept going, this time not even bothering to hide his smirk "I'm just looking out for you Dean…"
"Shut up Sammy!" Dean threw his brother a glare that could melt ice "I mean it!"
There was a long pause while Sam considered his options. He could keep pressing Dean for answers but it was more than likely that his brother would just shut down and avoid the issue.
"Fine, I'll drop it." Sam finally relented "Jerk"
"Bitch" came the almost automatic response and Sam had to smile.
Five minutes later the elevator to the parking lot opened and Jo and Chris got out and hurried over to the car.
"What did you find?" Dean asked as soon as they settled down in the back seat.
"Drive!" Jo said and the tone of her voice was all the prompting Dean needed. Within a minute the Impala was speeding out of the parking lot and heading down the road.
"What happened?" Sam turned around in his seat as soon as they were a safe distance away.
"The place was crawling with cops and FBI. Apparently, they figured out that some of these murders and disappearances are connected and there's a full investigation under way." Jo informed them.
"Damn it!" Dean slammed his fist against the steering wheel.
"Relax, Billson didn't even recognize us! There's no way he could have given them your description…" Chris assured him, but Dean wasn't really listening anymore.
"Yeah, well I say we get out of dodge as fast as we can anyway. Just to be safe"
They dropped the girls off by Chris's car, then took two different routs, using every back road available, to get out of town as fast as they could. Dean drove and kept one eye on the rearview mirror to make sure no one was following as Sam navigated and kept on the phone with the girls in the other car to make sure they were ok too. 20 minutes after they passed the city limits Dean saw Chris's Mustang pull up behind them but kept on driving for another hour just to be safe.
Later, when he stopped to think about it, he couldn't help but be proud of all of them. Somehow, even though they hadn't known each other long, they managed to operate like a well oiled machine. He took the lead and they fell in line without question. Nobody challenged his decision to leave, no one lingered or caused any delays, nobody tried to convince him to stop even well after they left the small town behind them, They kept driving until Dean gave the word, until he decided it was safe enough for all of them, they trusted each other without question - and somehow, amidst all the craziness of the past 48 hours, that knowledge gave him some small amount of confidence.
They finally decided to meet at a nearby rest stop to re-group. Dean insisted on making one last de-tour to make sure they weren't being followed or ambushed, but once he was satisfied that it was safe the two cars pulled into the rest stop and the four occupants calmly exited their cars and headed for the diner.
"Well that certainly got my blood pumping" Chris commented dryly as they headed for their table, attempting to relieve some of the tension, but her attempt at humor only earned her a glare from Dean and a half smile from Jo and Sam.
Dean maneuvered himself so he could take the seat beside his brother, instead of beside Jo, and ignored the hurt look she sent his way as he did so "So? Did you girls get anything at the hospital?" he launched right into the matter at hand, avoiding meeting Jo's eyes.
The girls exchanged a triumphant smile and nodded.
"Yes we did! And it was a thing of beauty let me tell you…" Chris smirked, ignoring the way Dean rolled his eyes at her gloating "Billson didn't even recognize us and we couldn't exactly tell him that he was possessed by a demon with all those cops around…"
"So…" Sam prompted
"So Jo walks in and tells him that we're undercover DEA agents and that we think he was drugged!" Chris chuckled
"It was easy!" Jo shrugged, her smile as broad as Chris's, but it visibly dimmed as soon as she glanced up and looked at Dean who was still avoiding her eyes "The guy had so many cops going in and out of his room he didn't even ask for our badges. We told him we were investigating a string of cases where people were dosed with hallucinogenic drugs and that we needed to know exactly what he remembered from his experience in order to determine what kind of drugs were used"
Sam nodded and smiled, conveying his appreciation at the clever rouse but Dean just fidgeted restlessly in his seat, anxious to get to the real information as soon as possible, until Chris finally rolled her eyes at him and gave him what he wanted.
"He said that he remembered looking for something, like it was the most important thing in the world. Some kind of cup or goblet that he thought was buried…"
"Hold on… did you say a goblet?" Sam stopped her as something occurred to him, while quickly pulling out his laptop "Could it be like a chalice?"
When she nodded he pressed a few keys then turned the screen around for the others to see "It ran into this when I was doing research on Ebenezer. It's used to be a sacred object - no one knows when it was forged but by the 16th century it was confiscated by the church and hidden away in an undisclosed location, but the rumor was that the location was Salzburg Austria."
"Which is where the people of Ebenezer were originally from" Chris realized from her own research on the town.
"Exactly. And remember the notebook? it said something about mastering your destiny? Well this goblet was called "The Chalice of destiny""
"God, these guys were really bad at naming things weren't they?" Dean grumbled "I mean, Chalice of destiny? It's kind of obvious isn't it?"
The others chuckled
"So what does this chalice do?" Jo asked, pulling the lap top over and scrolling down the page, but Sam just shook his head, having no answers to give her. "Well, whatever it is we better figure it out fast because Billson said something about the solstice, which is on June 24th, which is in 2 days."
"And just to add another happy thought" Chris said gravely "mythically speaking the solstice is known as a demonically empowering day, meaning all demonic powers get an extra boost on that night."
"She's right!" Sam shot Dean a meaningful look that told his brother this was exactly what he saw in his vision. "What ever ritual these demons are planning it must be something really powerful."
"So what do we do now?" the question came from Jo but it was on all their minds.
"I say we panic" Chris mumbled under her breath and when the others looked at her funny she shrugged "but that's just me…"
"We go to Ebenezer" Dean finally concluded, once again taking the lead "we have a few days before they get there. We settle in, we scope the place out and we get ready for them…"
