Summary: Sam's powers have seemingly returned, there are pros and cons to be considered, and about a hundred cans filled with worms to be dealt with.
Note: The Sheriff in Hook Man is technically only given his Actor's name, Al Humphrey. (I think that's the last name. Not actually sure.)
Note 2: Marathon watched Criminal Minds … A lot of actors are shared between them and apparently, Garth and Jess are serial/spree killers and Lucifer/Nick and Rufus are policemen in the Criminal Minds verse. Now I get why there are crossovers between them …
Means, Odds, and Ends
Previously:
Adam jerked awake as the lamp on the nightstand between the beds flew and crashed into the far wall. Sam was not awake, in fact, he was mumbling and clearly not aware something had crashed. Jimmy threw the door open, but Adam had only one focus- his older half brother, who had become the one thing he was really sure of thanks to the demon torturing him with his mother's face.
"Sam, Wake up!" Adam ducked as the motel's courtesy iron flew through the air. That was less worrying than the fact his brother's nose was now leaking blood. There were several things that he knew could be related to the symptom of a bloody nose- a change in humidity, stress, or even a freakin' brain hemorrhage. "Sam, please! Wake up!"
"Dean, no!" Sam gasped as his eyes opened. It took a longer moment for him to recognize that Adam and Jimmy were standing there in the motel room, and he wasn't watching Dean be torn apart in hell. His arms went around Adam who was right next to him, latching on to the closest living thing he recognized as safe. "No, please, God …"
"Sam …" Adam was more than a little freaked out, but there was little he could do to extract himself. He was more concerned with his brother's nosebleed and the levitation of certain objects to be honest, than his own comfort.
It seemed the demon's attack on Jimmy had done more than trigger Sam's tentative telekinetic powers again.
Now:
"I saw Dean, he was being tortured by a demon." Sam explained, hands shaking as he held the cup of coffee Jimmy had made. "It felt like a vision." Absently, one hand rested on Claire's head.
Claire had woken up when the iron had crashed into the door, and had been too sleepy to understand much beyond 'Sam had a bad dream'. She had immediately pulled herself up onto the bed with him, with a sleepy explanation that nightmares went away when people shared beds, (Adam and Sam had looked at Jimmy, who explained that sometimes Claire would have nightmares that had her climbing into bed with him and his wife, she didn't mean anything else, and would they please get their minds out of the gutter?) and had fallen promptly asleep on Sam. Jimmy grabbed a spare blanket to throw over her, and told Sam not to wake her.
"You were bleeding from the nose, has that ever happened before?" Adam had grabbed the journal he'd been cataloging his notes on supernatural injuries and illnesses, and was now writing down everything Sam said. He'd have to check out the books regarding anything and everything regarding Sam's powers.
"Maybe? I don't really remember." Sam was tired, but the memory of what he saw kept coming back with a surge of guilt. Dean was being tortured while he sat here and did nothing.
"Hey, don't think about it." Jimmy gently whacked Sam on the head with a spare pillow. "Dean wouldn't want you to dwell."
"I know, but … he's there, being tortured, because of me."
"Sam," Adam started, only to be cut off by Jimmy.
"Dean's there because he chose to sell his soul, Sam. Yes, he did it for you, but not because of you." Jimmy corrected. "The demon said that angels were supposed to pull him out, right?"
"I can't exactly trust her." Sam pointed out.
"You can trust us, though." Adam put down his journal. "We'll help you find a way to get him back, that doesn't require making a deal."
"Yeah, I know, it doesn't make it any easier." Sam sighed, one hand coming up to rub at his eyes.
"Duh." Adam rolled his eyes, before picking up his journal again. "Now back to a slightly more critical topic, you've gone from death visions to hell nightmares that are probably visions, and you just threw things around the room. You should probably learn to block or control them so that doesn't happen."
"Dean didn't want me to use them, I mean, I have them because I have demon blood."
"You mentioned that before, what does that mean?" Jimmy noted, he hadn't pried, and there was an understanding that the book(s) regarding Cold Oak and the Devil's Gate were temporarily off limits.
"Azazel dropped his blood into my mouth when I was 6 months old. Mom tried to stop him so he killed her. He did that to all the special children." Sam glanced down at Claire who was doing a wonderful impression of a limpet and clinging very tightly to him in her sleep. "That's why I have powers, and why Dad told Dean to kill me if he couldn't save me."
"Dad said what?" Adam didn't remember reading that- well, he remembered Dad telling Dean something before he died that made Dean upset, but he'd been more focused on the fact Dad had apparently died without telling them they had a younger brother. (He felt oddly betrayed, had his mom and him meant anything to the guy?) The idea that his dad had been willing to kill off one of his offspring did not sit well with him, especially for something outside his control.
"Before he died, apparently. Dean didn't tell me for months." Sam closed his eyes. "They're not safe for me to use."
"They're not safe if you can't control them, either." Jimmy sat down in a chair. "Like I said before, we won't let you fall, you can trust us, and I'll keep saying it until you believe it."
"Thanks, Jimmy." Sam looked at Adam who was writing something in his journal, and scowling. "Adam," He started, and this time, it was Adam's turn to cut someone off.
"Sam, you were a baby when you got the blood, you didn't choose to drink it, and it's been scientifically proven that blood doesn't control who we are or what we do. Dad had no right to decide whether you lived or died." Adam wiped a hand across his eyes, which were suddenly and suspiciously bright. "He always told me that you don't give up on family." There was a slightly bitter tone to the words.
"So, don't." Jimmy offered, but this time neither of them paid attention, so Jimmy quietly got up and headed into his room so they could sort it out.
"Dad wasn't Father of the Year material, I'll be the first to admit to that." Sam had awkwardly grabbed onto Adam's shoulder, trying to stretch without jostling Claire. "But he always did the best he could. It might not have been the right thing, but Dad knew he was going to die, and he didn't have time to tell Dean everything. He was desperate, and that caused him to make,"
"'Bad choices', better be what you're going to say." Adam muttered, and Sam just nodded.
"That he might not have made otherwise." Sam continued. "He wasn't perfect, but he was a good Dad when it counted."
Adam nodded, agreeing to Sam's statement, before adding, "I still want to be mad at him." Not telling Adam he had brothers, not warning him about demons or the supernatural, there were so many things that John hadn't told him about himself or the other side of his family, and it was frustrating he couldn't talk to him and get his reasoning behind these decisions. (He couldn't describe the feelings exactly, but Adam felt glad he had Sam, at least, in his life now.)
"Join the club." Sam glanced down at Claire. "I think the rest of this mess can wait until morning, though I'm going to be missing a chunk of my side."
"Why's that?" Adam put down the journal as he settled back under his covers.
"Claire is like a miniature heater … I don't think she's sick, though." Sam felt like Claire was burning a hole where she was pressed against him.
"She's not, that's part of the reason parents try to insist kids sleep in their own beds, they are all like miniature heaters." Jimmy turned off the lights. "Now go to sleep."
Sam listened as Adam fell asleep, Jimmy's soft snores signaling when the other had fallen asleep. Carefully, he turned on a small reading lamp Adam had placed on the nightstand, and picked up the first of the supernatural books. Adam had been going through, he noted, putting post-it notes with questions and notes on times and dates (and names). Sam spent the rest of the night skimming through the books, reliving memories, and he smiled when he found a small note on Dean in Adam's writing, with a tiny note in Claire's. (Which was less odd considering she and Adam spent a lot of time together and she was a curious child.)
'My oldest brother is crazy.' Adam had decided upon Dean's opening prank in the book covering their intro to the Ghostfacers.
'I like him!' Was Claire's decision, the exclamation had a heart for the dot.
(He stopped before Cold Oak, not ready to read about those events just yet, or those that came after.)
When morning came and the others woke up, they started to work through the list they had compiled of people they could find, and Sam took a moment to step outside and call Bobby.
He wasn't impressed with the request for help. "Are you crazy? You want to give how many civilians Demon wardings?"
"Bobby, look, the Demon is now going after anyone mentioned in the Supernatural books. I need your help getting in contact with as many people as we can find, possibly including hunters my dad knew." Sam took a breath. "Please, Bobby, we saved these people, Dean and I, her going after them … it's like she's trying to take away more of my brother."
"I didn't say I wasn't going to help, idjit," Bobby's tone had softened, but it still spoke volumes about what he thought of Sam's request, "I'll get Ellen's help, but you'll have to call Rufus and warn him."
"Thanks Bobby, sorry for dragging you into this."
"You didn't drag me into anything, idjit. A few cases of beer will even the score." Bobby hung up, and Sam let out a breath before offering to take Claire to find a squirt gun and get them lunch.
It was a bit of a surprise when Cassie Robinson called them in the afternoon.
"She was here." Cassie informed him, she sounded a little tired, but alright. "She was pretty pissed, though, said you were the one that stepped up the game, so she's going to as well."
"Are you alright?" Sam thought his throat was going to tighten up until he couldn't breathe. That was too fast, he would not have made it to them in time.
"We're fine. Now, I've been looking some things up, and I think, with Jimmy's help, I can find your mysterious Author. I can also find some of the people you can't." Cassie informed him, something thudding in a background and her muttering a curse.
"How?" He asked, a little surprised that she was volunteering. Then again, he'd liked meeting Cassie because she was one of the few people that could put Dean back on his heels.
"Sam, I'm a reporter and editor, I run our small town's paper; I can definitely interview people for a book without raising too much suspicion. Speaking of, congratulations, you are now a reporter for our paper."
"Wait, what?" Sam blinked.
"Sam, you and Dean are cute, but did it ever occur to you that if you asked, other people could help you out, legally?" Cassie sounded smug. "I paid attention to the 'wanted by the FBI' news, you were never actually convicted, just suspected and arrested and then presumed dead. I can write a very convincing series of articles, or even a book, on how you two were never guilty, just a pair of wandering brothers with bad luck. People would believe it."
"… Have you been talking to the sheriff of this place?" Sam was more than a little surprised at Cassie's decision. She hadn't wanted to stick with Dean, he'd though she hadn't wanted anything more to do with them.
"First thing this morning, Al and I came to an agreement. Now, I need the numbers and addresses of Becky, Zach and Sarah Blake." When Sam didn't respond, she heaved a sigh. "If Dean hadn't played the 'stay with mom' card, I would have joined you guys. I want to help you, Sam, and this time, I'm not taking 'no' for an answer."
"Why?"
"Because Dean always lit up when he talked about you- yeah, he told me about you when we were dating- and when we broke up I almost went to Stanford to ask you if he was telling the truth. Plus, I've never been good at sitting and waiting for something to happen, so let me help you."
"… You were captain of the debate team, weren't you?" Sam smiled, touched but still a little stunned at the offer of help.
"Damn straight." Cassie huffed. "Now, get me those numbers and addresses, Pretty Boy, plus the list of people you can't locate, and a couple pictures of this half brother and you, and I will start my own brand of hunting. Pretty sure I can make it to St. Louis if I leave now."
"Yes Ma'am. Anything else?" Sam wondered if she knew just how similar to Dean she sounded right then.
"I got a synopsis of the books from a fansite, I think you better meet with that Lisa Braeden again."
"Why?"
"Because she only tells Dean she got the test done, she doesn't show him any papers, and if that Demon is reading the books and targeting those close to you..." She trailed off.
"A potential nephew would do it." Sam closed his eyes. He hadn't even considered that. "Thanks, Cassie."
"No problem. I'll keep in touch!"
Sam hung up, just as Jimmy did with a small frown.
"Something wrong?"
"The next name is a studio writer for Hell Hazers 2: The Reckoning."
"I saw that movie, it was pretty good." Adam noted, not really paying attention as he typed up notes trying to locate the kids from Wendigo. "Especially since the characters actually put up a fight instead of just letting themselves get killed in stupid ways."
"I'm not sure I'm the one that should be calling him." Jimmy shot Adam a brief look of bemusement before turning back to Sam. "I'm more likely to get an aide."
"I can ask Cassie, she's volunteered to get the ones we can't." Sam wasn't up for talking to the guy either.
Someone knocked on the door, and Sam quickly crossed over to open it. The Sheriff stood there with a small stack of papers which he handed Sam.
"Read, sign, get them back to me before you leave." He looked at the mess of papers and notes. "Anything I can help you with?"
"Actually, yes, there were some members of law enforcement my brother and I helped, a Detective Diana Ballard in Baltimore, Warden Deacon in Green River county, and a deputy my brother and I met in Minnesota, though that case turned out to be normal humans, her name is in the book and she won't want to hear from any of us." Sam explained, and Adam quickly gave the Sheriff a sticky note with the name and town the deputy had worked, along with a few details about the incident with the Benders that wouldn't have been included.
"I'll look into it. Don't forget those papers." The Sheriff nodded, and left.
Next: Meg's plans get yet another hit, but it works in her favor this time, sort of.
Do you know how awkward it is to write something and not include Sheriff Mills? I want to include her so badly … I just can't think of how to do so just yet.
I'm also thinking this is just going to turn into just a season 4 rewrite, with a sequel containing one-shots about how the rest of the seasons would change.