Disclaimer: Kripke's toys, my sandbox. Thanks for letting me play.
Chapter 7
"Dean – son," Bobby said softly, "Joliet is hours from here. It's already ten thirty."
Dean glared at him with fierce, red-rimmed eyes. "We need to go. Now."
Three weeks ago:
The trio pulled into the parking lot of a dark baseball field a record two hours later. The Impala's tank was dangerously low on fuel and if John Winchester were still around he would rip into Dean about the foolishness of going into a situation where it was very possible that they would need to get away quickly and wouldn't be able to. But Dean couldn't spare the five minutes it would take to pump some gas into the black beauty. He had to save Ben.
He had to save his son.
There was no doubt in his mind as to the validity of that note. Ben was his. He knew it in his heart then and he knew it in his soul now. Lisa fed him that lie that Ben was fathered by another man and he swallowed it because he didn't have any other choice. It explained why he always felt there was an invisible thread running back to Lisa and Ben; his soul knew what his mind refused to accept. And he didn't fault Lisa for lying to him and trying to protect their child from the dangers of the life he led. He had the hell deal hanging over his shoulder, demons and monsters gunning for his ass, and he couldn't have gotten involved with them without dragging them into the mud with him for the short time he had left. And when he came back… he was too broken and too afraid to seek them out. He didn't blame Lisa for denying him his son. The note was right – being a Winchester was poison.
It was twelve thirty when he spun into the ball field's gravel lot, well past the designated time that Lilith had specified. Dean strode purposefully onto the infield, gun gripped firmly at his side. "Lilith!" he called out. "You demon whore! Where are you!" For the first time, he forgot all about who exactly it was that Lilith was wearing.
"She's not here," came a silky voice from next to the dugout. A man stepped out from the shadows and into the pale moonlight and the sickly orange glow from a nearby streetlight.
Dean and Bobby both raised their guns and leveled them on the man's chest. Dean made to take a step forward but Ruby shot her arm out in front of his chest to stop him.
"It's Connor," she hissed, eyes black and looking like she wanted to rip the guy limb from limb.
Connor was not a tall man, with brown hair and an average build. You could walk past him and never look twice unless you got a glimpse of the half-crazed look in his eyes. Bastard was clearly unhinged to say the least.
"Ahh, Ruby," he smiled, "So nice to see you still prefer slumming with lesser beings. How's your face, darlin'?"
She ignored the jibe about the bruises she was sporting, courtesy of him. "Where's Lilith?" she demanded while at the same time Dean said, "Where's Ben?"
"So many questions, neither less important than the other." He took a step closer to them, licking his lips hungrily while he looked at the two hunters and the demon. Dean fought the urge to shoot him right there and then, regardless of the fact that the bullets wouldn't kill him and would only draw the police down on them.
"Where are they, you sonofabitch?" he growled.
"Miss Lilith got tired of waiting for you and left some time ago. She'll contact you later, I'm sure."
"Where's the boy?" Bobby asked, danger lacing his gruff voice.
"Good to see you again too, Mr. Singer," he called jovially. "It's been some time since we last met."
"Maybe I'll kill you this time."
"Quit kidding yourself, Captain Ahab," the demon smirked. "I'm your white whale. Tell me… where are our little friends Jenna and Marcus these days? I'm dying to see them again."
Dean cut off whatever Bobby was about to say next with a, "Where the fuck is Ben!"
"Oh, he's right there," Connor nodded his head towards the dugout he'd been standing next to. A shape darker than the shadows around it was lying on the bench inside.
"Ben!" Dean called out. "Ben, its Dean – answer me!"
"Bennny… Answer your daaadddy," Connor sing-songed.
"Ben!"
"I'm afraid that he won't be answering you," Connor whispered with a smirk on his lips.
"He's still alive," Ruby said as she gripped his wrist to stop him from bulldozing the demon in front of him.
Fuck, let the bitch be right, he prayed.
"For now…" Connor smirked and his eyes went inky black for a moment.
"What did you do to him?"
"Lilith told me to have fun with him. A gift, as it were, for joining up with her." Connor glared at Ruby. "You know how I have a soft spot for kids." Ruby's lip curled up in a snarl and Connor grinned maliciously at her. "Just think of what she would have given you if you'd said yes."
"Fuck you," Ruby growled.
"She might have even let you keep company with your former lover's fabulous body. It would have had Lilith at the helm, but consider that an added bonus and an honor in it's own right."
"You wouldn't know honor if it kicked you in the sack."
"Always such a pleasure to talk to. Tell me Ruby, do your fellows know you were once a member of Lilith's harem?"
"I was never part of yours," she spat. "I bet that was a shot to your ego."
The demon turned his deranged gaze on Dean. "It was her price to get off the rack. She got off easy considering what you had to do, huh, Sport? All those screaming souls begging for mercy from Alistair's star pupil?"
"Shut up, Connor," Bobby growled, thumbing back the safety on his Sig Sauer. Consecrated iron rounds. They wouldn't kill the SOB, but they would hurt.
"Maybe we'll pull Benny downstairs and teach him his daddy's trade."
"I'll kill you!" Dean lunged forward, drawing Ruby's knife from his belt as he did so, swinging wildly at the demon who danced out of the way. Bobby and Ruby jumped into the fray, but Bobby couldn't shoot and risk hitting Dean.
Dean lashed out with the blade, but was thrown back by invisible hands. Bobby's Sig let out a muted hiss from the silenced bullet, striking the demon in the chest. Connor winced and bent at the waist as the bullet tore through his host's body.
Ruby took advantage of his injured state and jumped on the bastard, swinging like a major leaguer and screaming "Where's your cronies now, huh?" She got another slug to the jaw in before she went flying, skidding her way up the first base line. Bobby raised his Sig again now that Ruby was outta the way, but Bobby went soaring too, landing heavily next to Dean.
"It's been fun and I'd love to finish you all, but I have orders. Toodles." Connor wiggled his fingers at them and turned to walk away, but Dean threw the knife at him with all his strength. Throwing a knife isn't easy to start with; from the ground it's near impossible. His aim off, he managed to sink the blade into Connor's tricep. The demon let out a guttural howl of pain, before vanishing on the spot, taking Ruby's knife along with him.
"You stupid sonofabitch!" Ruby screamed at him, "You just lost the knife!" But Dean ignored her. He was scampering to his feet and he could only see the darkened dugout. Sprinting through the loose dirt as he raced his way to the wood and concrete structure, he was completely unable to take his eyes off the too still form. Ruby's 'he's still alive' and Connor's 'for now' running rampant through is skull as he skidded into the dugout and dropped to his knees next to his son.
"Ben! Ben! Talk to me!" he begged, gently shaking the kid's chest. He didn't think he was breathing. Ruby and Bobby came tearing into the dugout, their forms blocking out the meager light from the streetlights. Ruby dropped to the dirt next to him, frantically running her hands over Ben's body, holding back his eye lids, pressing her fingers into his throat for a pulse-check and finally prying his mouth open and smelling his mouth.
"Fuck!" she cursed.
"What is it?" he demanded.
"It's bad, that's what. Help me carry him out to the light. Bobby, go to the car and get the bag of road salt out of the trunk." Nobody thought twice about disobeying the demon. Bobby ran off towards the parking lot, and he scooped his son up into his arms and carried him out of the dugout.
Laying him out gently under the orange glow of the streetlight, Ruby pulled the boy's shirt off over his head and pressed her ear to the spot above his heart. "We might still make it," she told him. "Bobby! Move your wrinkled ass!"
Bobby ran up, the bag of salt in his hands and huffing raggedly from the run. "What now?" he asked, ignoring her insults as it was clear she was worried about the boy.
"Make a ring around us and get the hell back."
"You want me to trap you in a salt ring?"
"Just do it!"
While Bobby was pouring out the salt in a wide ring around them, Ruby turned her deadly serious gaze on him and looked him square in the eyes. "Is this your son?"
"Yes," he breathed.
"You are certain that this is your son?"
"Yes." He was certain. He could feel it all the way down to his tattered soul.
"Okay." She reached over and grabbed his hand, and before he could even cringe at the feel of her holding his hand, she drew a small knife from her pocket and sliced his palm.
"What…?" but she grabbed Ben's hand and was about to pull the blade over his palm too. "Stop! What are you doing?"
"Trying to save his life! Fucking trust me!" she nearly shrieked, dragging the knife over the boy's palm and blood started to well up. It looked black in the orange light.
Ruby reached over and grabbed his cut hand, mashing it palm to palm with Ben's. Folding their fingers over each other, she warned, "Don't let go. No matter what."
He nodded. Someone could hack his arm off at the elbow, and he wouldn't let go.
Ruby clasped her hands over theirs and started chanting rapidly in Latin. He tried to focus on what she was saying, rather than the cool feeling of the hand in his, or the non-perceptible chest movements of his son's non-breathing – but Latin had never been his strong suit and he understood nothing. She spoke faster and faster, gripping their hands in a crushing vice, but nothing happened. Bobby was pacing the outside of the ring, watching Ruby with narrowed eyes, but he only shook his head when Dean made eye contact with him. Whatever Ruby was saying didn't have the elder hunter charging at her, so her spell must not have been on the dark side of the moon.
"Dammit!" she swore, letting go of their hands and grabbing a hunk of her hair. She used her knife to hack it off, threading the lock of hair around his and Ben's entwined fingers. She gripped their hands in hers again.
"What are you doing?" He didn't like her hair being wrapped around his and Ben's hands while she spoke mumbo-jumbo over them.
"Dean, for once in your life – trust me!" she hissed, holding tight to their clasped hands. "And don't let go."
She started chanting again. It sounded like the same thing she was saying earlier, but he couldn't be sure. Latin sounded like snakes on speed to him with all the 's' sounds.
After a moment, he could feel a heat creeping into his palm. "I think something's happening," he whispered. Ruby nodded, but kept chanting her spell. Repeating the verses over and over, the warmth spread and gained strength. A few more verses and the heat had grown to a small fire in their palms and he understood what she meant by 'don't let go' as it felt as if he had his hand on top of a hot stove.
Faster and faster she spoke. The heat grew and grew. A small tendril of smoke started to waft up from the dark locks around his fingers, and the smell of burning hair assaulted his nose. He couldn't have let go even if he wanted to with the death grip Ruby had their hands in. More smoke started drifting up from the hair and a wind started to blow around them that smelled strongly of sulfur. Ruby's hair started whipping around her face as she chanted, her eyes were coal black and their hands were burning from the heat.
Ruby started panting as she spoke, every breath sounded like it caused her immeasurable pain. The wind picked up more, her hair flying in a frenzy and she started screaming, "I take it! I take it!"
Simultaneously, the lock of hair burst into flame, Ruby's head snapped back so she was looking skyward, and a long howl erupted from her mouth while her back arched painfully. Still she held onto to their hands even though Dean felt his skin blistering where the lock of burning hair touched.
"I TAKE IT!" she screamed to the sky.
She jolted like she'd been hit with a taser and the demon slumped to the ground, out cold. Her hands fell away from his and Ben's, and the instant her hands left theirs, the fire went out, the heat dissipated, and Ben drew a deep, ragged breath.
"Ben!" he let go of his hand and moved to cradle the kid's head in his lap. Bobby stormed the circle, looking at the boy who was still unconscious, but mercifully breathing, and he dropped to a knee next to the little brunette and gripped her chin in his beefy hand, turning her face to his.
Her eyes flickered open just once, and she whispered, "Retispatha…" before passing out again.
"Bobby, what the fuck just happened?" he asked, still amazed that Ben was freaking breathing. It was music to his ears.
"She couldn't get the spell outta the boy, so she took the curse onto herself instead."
"Will she live?" he didn't know if he wanted her to or not. She'd caused them nothing but trouble since the day she waltzed into their lives, feeding them lies and doing everything she could to make Sam turn bad… But she just saved his son. The mixed feelings were trapped under the giant ball of emotion lodged in his throat that his son was alive because a demon saved him.
"We should get outta here," Bobby said gruffly. Dean stood and gathered Ben up into his arms. He placed the boy into Bobby's outstretched arms, and while Bobby headed off to put Ben into the Impala, Dean stooped and lugged Ruby's body to her feet. Throwing her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, he started walking towards the car, wondering if he was doing the right thing in bringing her with them. It was just that… after all the bullshit… it didn't feel right to leave her behind.
As the spell started to course through her, and her veins turned to fire, and her head felt like it was about to explode, she couldn't help but think of the boy. Not the one on the ground in front of her… but another boy she hadn't been able to save from Connor. That little boy looked similar to the one at her knees now, but that little boy had been much younger. That little boy had his father's dark curly hair and dimples… and her brown eyes.
Iain… A whispered name that was both prayer and penance.
Connor stole her son from her, but he would not have this child. Not if she had anything to say about it.
"What was that thing she said back there? 'Readipasta'?" They were driving down the dark road, ten minutes out from the ball field. Bobby was in the passenger seat, and Ben was lodged in the space between them, Dean's arm protectively around his shoulders as he slept off whatever was in him before the demon sucked it outta him and into herself. He wished the kid would wake up, but just the fact he was breathing was a miracle in its own right. A demon miracle. He glanced into the rearview mirror and saw her still form slumped across the backseat. Again he wondered at the logic of why he just didn't leave here there. He didn't have a real answer.
"Retispatha." Bobby corrected. "It's a very rare plant from Borneo. The flowers are supposed to have healing powers."
"So where do we get some?"
"Well, they're rare. And as expensive and hard to get as water on the moon. The only place I know we're guaranteed to find some would be Missouri."
"Who do you know in Missouri that can score us some?"
"Not the state. Missouri Mosley."
"Oh." He didn't want to go to Missouri's. He avoided Lawrence like the plague, and he really didn't want to drag that sweet woman into his mess. If Lilith was going after the people he knew, sooner or later, she might come knocking on Missouri's door.
"What makes you think she's got any of these flowers?" he asked, seeing a late night gas station up ahead and slowing to make the turn.
"She asked me some time ago to contact Rufus for her. He had a dealer that he used to go to who could find just about anything. She knew that Rufus and I still spoke somewhat, and she asked me to see if he could get any."
"Why didn't she call him herself?" Besides ole Rufus being as cuddly as a porcupine wrapped in a coil of razor wire?
Bobby shook his head. "She doesn't talk to Rufus much since they split up."
"Whoa! Rufus and Missouri?"
Eww. He pulled into the Shell station and idled up to a pump.
"For a couple years, a long ways back." Bobby opened the door to go pump the gas. He could probably sense that Dean was hesitant to step away from Ben. He kid's body heat was coming back to him, and he was getting an awful lot of comfort from that. "The hunting community is pretty small when you think about it. Your daddy kept you away from the other hunters, but after a time in this world, you learn the all the familiar names and faces. Most of us get on better with others like us, makes so that you don't have to hide."
"Like how Sam hid everything from Jessica."
"Right. If Sam had still been huntin while he was with that girl, he woulda had some explainin to do with all the bruises and bang-ups."
"So what happened between Missouri and Rufus? Did she find out he wasn't a people person?"
Bobby snorted. "The way I heard it," he spoke to him through the open window as he fed the nozzle into the tank, "was that she wanted to have kids, and Rufus didn't."
Imagine what those Sunday family dinners woulda been like. Missouri reading your mind while you held hands and said grace, and Rufus scowling while he cleaned his gun over the mashed potatoes.
"Did she ever have any?" he poked his head out the window to talk to his adopted uncle. He didn't think the no-nonsense medium had kids, but what the hell did he know? He didn't know he had a kid until a few hours ago.
"No. She never found anyone to settle with after that, and then I guess she got too old and that window closed on her." Bobby replaced the hose and swiped a credit card across the face of the pump. Dean had stopped using his cards as Sam knew all the names on his. Bobby on the other hand, was a puzzle wrapped up in an enigma wrapped up in a hard taco shell. There was no way either of them knew all the aces up that man's greasy sleeves.
"So you're pretty sure she's got some of this… whatever flower?"
Bobby wrenched open the door and dropped back into the passenger seat. "Almost certain. I'll call her in a minute and ask to make certain. Don't wanna waste time driving to Lawrence if she used it all up on something else already." Bobby cast a glance at the demon in the back seat. "Are you certain about her? I mean – you could have left her in that salt circle."
"She would've been a sitting duck for any demon that came looking for her," he said as he pulled out of the station and back onto the road. He couldn't meet Bobby's eyes and instead flicked his gaze to the rearview mirror where Ruby's prone body was center stage. He felt the steady rise and fall of Ben's chest tucked into his side and he told the elder hunter the truth. "I couldn't do it Bobby. I thought about it for like, a second – but I couldn't do it. I couldn't leave her there trapped and helpless and unconscious after she just saved Ben."
Bobby didn't appear to be judging him. After all, he had once trusted the demon on a joint effort, and between the two of them, they fixed the Colt. He pulled out his cell instead and called Missouri. Dean winced at the late hour, but there was little to be done. They were hours out from Lawrence, and he didn't want to waste a drive out there if the old lady didn't have the goods.
"Missouri? Bobby Singer. Yeah… sorry about the late hour… Yes, I'm aware how late it is in Lawrence… I'm sorry I got you outta bed, but we need some help… Me and Dean Winchester… We're wonderin if you got any of that retispatha flower left… You do? We need it. Bad… A little boy got cursed by a demon… Yeah, mean SOB... Can we have it?... We're on our way… A couple of hours? Look for us near six with the way Dean's driving with his lead shoes on." Bobby hung up and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"You didn't tell her about our drunken prom date back there," he gestured to the back seat with a nod of his head.
"I'm betting the whole pot on her pity for the boy, that she won't slam the door in our faces when we show up on her step carrying a demon."
"She won't be happy." He wouldn't be happy. He didn't want to think of what Missouri would do when faced with an unconscious demon laid out on her sofa.
"Knowing Missouri's mojo, she'll sense Ruby before we even hit her street."
"She can do that?" He took the ramp up onto the highway and dropped the gas peddle. The Impala roared with satisfaction and surged forward, settling into a throaty purr that was as comforting and reassuring as the soft breathing sounds of his son.
"Yeah, she's got fugly-radar. She can smell 'em coming a mile away."
"Does she own any firearms?" The last thing he needed right now was someone pointing a gun in his face, telling him to get off their porch.
"'Course she does. Let's pray that she doesn't pull 'em. Rufus was a crack shot in his younger days and you can bet he taught Missouri her way around a gun."
Wanting to get off that subject, he asked Bobby something that was nagging at the back of his mind. "What was she saying in that spell of hers?"
"Oh, that. It was, 'Blood of my blood, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh – let no evil mark you while I breathe.' Then when that didn't work, she started saying, 'Blood of my blood, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh – let the dark within you find sanctuary in this willing host.'"
"She actually said that? That's what the 'I take it' bit was about?"
"It worked. She pulled that curse right outta the boy and into herself."
"Holy shit."
"You might not have noticed what was happening outside that circle cuz you were too busy, but the lights up and down the street were flickering in and out and there was a flash of lightning 'cross the sky."
"And there was that freaky wind too." He hadn't noticed all the other stuff Bobby noted, and he wondered how much attention Ruby's light show might've drawn onto them.
"What wind?"
"The wind that smelled like sulfur." Duh.
"There was no wind, kid. I saw her hair flyin', but there was no wind."
"Huh. Some really freaky shit then." Outside the salt circle was another world than inside it had been. He wondered if they had somehow passed between worlds during the spell – a state of Limbo as it were. Trying to figure it out was hard on his head when all he really wanted to do was sit in a quiet corner with Ben until he woke up.
Bobby settled back into his seat then, letting out a tired huff. "If you don't mind, I'll get some shut-eye 'fore we reach Kansas."
"Naw, go ahead. I'm pretty wired."
Bobby pulled his hat down over his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. Within a few minutes, he could hear the soft, even breathing of a man asleep. That left Dean as the only awake person in the car. He adjusted his arm around Ben's shoulders a little more, pulling the kid tight against his side and relishing in the rise and fall of his chest.
Breathing. Fucking breathing.
He'd had his run with magic and spells and incantations before. He never liked them. He didn't trust them, and usually didn't trust the people behind the spells either. But if whatever Ruby did gave Ben his life back, then maybe witchcraft wasn't so bad after all. He cast a quick glance in the rearview at the demon. She looked innocent back there – a far cry from the black pool of manipulating-conniving-blood-pimping-evil that she was. But she saved his son. She saved a boy she didn't know and put herself at risk to do it.
He didn't know if she would wake up when they gave her the magic flowers, but he felt like he owed it to her to try and save her life.
It was six-thirty when they started to roll up Missouri's street. Bobby had woken up a half hour before but Ben and Ruby were still both out of it.
"Crap," Bobby cursed, nodding his head towards a familiar house. There was a plump black woman standing on her porch, arms folded across her chest and the glare she was sending their car shoulda been enough to crack the windshield.
Dean slowed and pulled into the driveway, turned the key and the sudden silence was deafening. Bobby kicked his door open, saying, "Might as well get this over with. Best not to keep the executioner waiting."
Dean got out, ignored Missouri's scowl as he pulled Ben from the car and placed him into Bobby's arms. He went to the back, gathered Ruby up and slung her over his shoulder again. Turning, both hunters met the wrath of the short medium head on. She had stormed down the front steps and now glared reproachfully at them from three feet away.
"Dean Winchester," she spoke with the air of a pissed off grade school teacher. "Do you mind telling me why you've brought that to my house?"
