Chapter Ten: Ex. 11:1-12:36
Thanks to my amazing beta, Tafferling!
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This is what the LORD says: "About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again."
— Exodus 11:4–6
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As Verpiančioji tightened the ropes, she noted how terribly fragile the woman's wrists felt under them. Humans were so frighteningly breakable. So… fleeting.
JJ turned her head, blue eyes wide over the black gag around her mouth. They were in the middle of an empty warehouse, abandoned for the night with minimal, easily dealt with security, and little chance of interruptions. Swallowing her misgivings, Verpiančioji tugged the knot closed and stood, studying it critically. It looked correct, according to Dr. Reid's substantial knowledge of knots. They would do the job required of them.
The rug looks out of place, Dr. Reid pointed out, concerned, and they both looked down at the rug under JJ's folded legs. Between her knees, hidden once Agent Prentiss took her place at her back, her gun was a dark, blocky suggestion. They'll notice it…
Gadintoja is not that clever, Verpiančioji assured him. And Išskalbėja will not suspect betrayal from me.
Under the rug, the rune lay. Not in blood, but Verpiančioji was sure the spray paint Dean had acquired would do the job adequately. Dievas Senelis was aware of their purpose. He would be listening.
"Nod if you can escape the knot in a hurry," Verpiančioji asked JJ, who tensed her wrists and then nodded, eyes tracking their progress as they paced critically around her. It would have to do. "Very well. Agent Prentiss now."
Over there, Reid said, and Verpiančioji turned her head to find Prentiss peering out the heavy warehouse door, watching for Dean. He was placing the final workings on the windows and other doors, to try and contain the sisters in some small way. They wouldn't hold for long… but with Verpiančioji's help, they might hold long enough. She's upset…
How can you tell? Verpiančioji asked curiously, pacing up quietly behind the woman. She looks merely focused to me.
Her posture. Her shoulders. She's been biting her nails. You upset her… His voice was still simmering, still bitter with traces of the horrified fury he'd shown when she'd miss-stepped and kissed the other agent earlier that day. As she remembered it, their lips tingled, still warm with the memory of her mouth. Despite his anger, there was some pleasure in the physicality of the act. You shouldn't have done that. It was… stupid.
His feelings were a muddle that made her head ache. It was hard to understand why he denied them so fiercely, why he had responded so violently to even the merest hint of rejection. After all, it was not him Agent Prentiss had rejected. It was Verpiančioji who'd disgusted her. Human lives seemed terribly complicated.
It was not stupid, just misguided, she responded, coughing to alert Agent Prentiss to their presence. The woman's eyes flickered to them, and back outside. Still angry. So much anger in these humans. She responded. If you weren't being foolish, you would know this. After all, it is your understanding of the physiological response to physical contact that tells us this. Not mine.
"We have to tie you up now," she said out loud, ignoring Dr. Reid's spluttering.
Emily snorted, rolling her eyes and turning to face them, mouth downcast. "Even after hearing about your little adventure with your cuffs, that's still bizarre to hear from you," she teased without any of the usual warmth that Dr. Reid's memories told her should be there. Within her, Verpiančioji felt Dr. Reid wither miserably. The amusement vanished from Agent Prentiss abruptly as some of that sadness leaked through onto their face, and she grabbed their hand. Verpiančioji jolted with surprise at the sudden touch, sure that Agent Prentiss would continue to ignore them until such a time as Verpiančioji was removed from within her friend. "You know, if your sisters work out you're working with us, they'll kill you. You might be the oldest, but I've seen what the one in Hotch can do."
Verpiančioji nodded. "It is likely discovery would mean my death," she admitted. "But there is little we can do about that except to work quickly." Their hand was warm, the skin where they touched hypersensitive.
Dark eyes studied them tiredly. "You'll do what you can to keep him safe, right?" she said, hand twitching around their fingers. "No matter what happens?"
She comes first, Dr. Reid cut in. No matter what, they come first. Promise me.
"Promise me?" Agent Prentiss was saying and Verpiančioji could almost laugh at how alike they were, if it wasn't so terribly sad that they had found themselves in a situation where it felt necessary to beg for each other's lives. "Oh, for fuck's sake. Come here."
"What are you doing?" both Verpiančioji and Dr. Reid said at the same time, and Verpiančioji was startled to realize that she had felt Dr. Reid shape the words in her mouth, some semblance of control she hadn't expected him to obtain.
"This isn't for you," snapped Prentiss, and Verpiančioji winced and almost twitched her hand down to protect themselves. Then there was a hand cupping their chin, a mouth on theirs, and Verpiančioji was speechless at the emotion it wrought.
Dr. Reid was giddy. Confused, tentative, excited, scared; so many flavours of human emotions, she felt almost drunk on them. The kiss lingered. Their hearts hammered.
And it was over. It had taken only seconds, but everything felt… different, and Verpiančioji wasn't sure she was entirely in control anymore.
"Promise me you won't be stupid," Emily said, her mouth still brushing his, and he brought his lips to hers one last time just to see if he was really allowed, tasting the shape of them, breathless and silly and wild with hope.
"I'm never stupid," he said, and slipped back into his mind, allowing Verpiančioji control once more.
No matter what, she comes first, he vowed one final time, and Verpiančioji agreed silently.
She owed him that much.
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Isska was nervous. Stupid bitch. There was nothing to worry about; clearly Verpi had finally come to her senses and worked out that their future lay with Gaddy in the lead. Gaddy rolled her eyes as Isska muttered, "Just going to check things out," and slunk away, leaving Gaddy to enter the warehouse with the kid's sweaty palm gripped tightly in her hand, stumbling over his own inadequate legs trying to keep up with her.
Human children were useless.
How can you stand this? Gaddy thought irritably, yanking the boy's arm and barely biting back a smile when it unbalanced him and sent him sprawling to the ground. I mean, I think I'm doing you a favour.
Inside her, there was a raging hellfire of fury, and it was impressive because no vessel in her memory had ever fought her this hard or this feverishly. Aaron Hotchner was desperate to stop her doing what she planned, and she just kept knocking him back easily, all the time gleefully imagining just what she was going to do to his precious baby boy using his hands.
"Move," she snapped, the amusement with the boy's clumsiness fading as, instead of getting back up, he hugged his knees to his chest and began to whine with fear. Great, gasping breaths that whistled, his face red and hot and grossly sticky as he leaked from every facial orifice. Disgusting. "Move!"
"No, no," he mewled, staggering up despite his fear. She noted with delight the glazed expression to his eyes. She loved when her prey hit this point, half out of their minds with fear. "Daddy, no. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm sorry, please don't be mad. I'm good. I'll be good."
He was babbling, panicking, and he stunk of piss.
Brat.
I'm going to rip you apart, screamed her vessel, tearing at her with ineffectual rage. She ignored the pain he wrought. You'll die for this! Don't touch him! Jack!
"I'm good," gasped Jack, and she grabbed him roughly around the stomach and carried him into the warehouse, out of patience.
Inside, Verpi looked up. She was wearing the skinny agent Gaddy had shot, his eyes black and expressionless. Inside her, despite his fury, her vessel took a moment to be horrified by the sight. At least he's alive, Gaddy pointed out cruelly, smiling, and her vessel didn't respond.
At Verpi's feet, Prentiss stared at them, bound and gagged. She looked pretty gagged. She'd look prettier bleeding and begging for her life, for the boy's life; prettier still when both those requests were denied. Behind her, Gaddy could see blonde hair and a bowed head. Serge's vessel. Another who would soon decorate the warehouse floor.
"So, you came crawling back," Gaddy jeered, and Verpi sniffed and set her chin in a haughty line. "Knew you would. Knew you couldn't do it without us. What changed your mind?"
"We're family," Verpi said softly, the haughtiness fading and leaving her just looking resigned. "Family stick together, Gadintoja. Family… protect each other." Oddly, she looked at Prentiss as she said that, and her gaze lingered.
Wrinkling her nose, Gaddy pulled a disgusted face. "How trite," she said. "Fine. Prove that you're with me then, sister. Prove that this isn't some flight of sentimental whimsy… if you're with me, I don't want any fuckarsing around."
"What would you have me do?" Verpi asked, her vessel's eyes narrowed warily. Not fully committed then. Not yet.
You're very fond of Spencer Reid, aren't you? she asked her vessel. He snarled in reply, seething. Hmm. Will that fondness remain if he harms your child? He's a tall man… strong, no doubt. Not as strong as you, but certainly strong enough for wee little Jackie boy.
No!
"Here." Gaddy shoved the boy at Verpi, who reached a hand out automatically to stop him from falling and dropped to her knees as Jack sobbed with something that was almost relief, turning his stumble into a controlled leap into Verpi's grasp. Following, Gaddy loomed over them both. "Hurt him."
Verpi stiffened. In her arms, Jack froze too, turning huge brown eyes on Gaddy. "Daddy?" he whispered, voice high and breathy, lips almost blue with shock and cold.
No, no, no, he won't do it. He…
You shot him. Are you so sure?
"Hurt… him?" Verpi repeated, and Jack shrunk against her chest, almost vanishing into the long cradle of Verpi's vessel's lanky arms. She spread a hand over the boy's back, protectively; a wide, bony hand that seemed obscenely large in comparison to the little boy it covered.
"Did I fucking stutter?" Gaddy snapped, her temper flaring. She reached down, dragging the boy back out of Verpi's loose grip by the collar of his dinosaur pyjamas, ignoring the way the boy squeaked and reached for her. "It's not fucking hard, he's six. Do it."
Jack began to shriek, a high-pitched wail that grated. On the floor, Gaddy saw Prentiss begin to struggle against her bindings, JJ already twisting herself painfully around to stare at them.
"Shut up," Gaddy roared, and the boy screamed louder. "Verpi, I said do it! Fucking do it you useless slut!"
The boy kept fucking screaming. Verpi did nothing.
Gaddy whirled on him. "Listen to your father!" she snarled, and slapped him.
Silence. Jack blinked, on his arse with his cheek a bright red, the handprint already visible. It would bruise splendidly.
Her vessel roared and lurched and Gaddy staggered with a gasp, not expecting the power he suddenly coursed with. It wasn't even words her was slamming her with anymore, just a wild, primitive frenzy that left her reeling, left her falling to her knees on the hard floor with her head in her hands as she tried to fight him off.
Jack!
Something struck her on the chin, sending her sprawling. Blinking, she looked up, right as someone grabbed her arm and heaved her sideways, half dragging her towards the rug where Prentiss was shaking off her restraints, ripping her gag off, a gun in her hand.
Betrayal.
Gaddy snarled, and shoved, sending JJ flying. The woman managed to land almost neatly, leaping back up with only the slightest wince. Her dark power just within reach, Gaddy threw both the FBI bitches back again, making sure Prentiss's head smacked the ground nice and hard before whirling on her faithless sister.
Verpi took one look at her expression and grabbed Jack, bolting past her with the boy in her arms.
"Traitorous cunt!" shrieked Gaddy, and flung herself after her sister, bringing all three of them down in a jumble on the dusty, foul-smelling rug. She'd show her. She'd burn the fucking brat while he writhed in her sister's arms, see if she didn't!
Reaching for the kid, power bubbling and oozing from her fingertips, her hand brushed his flailing ankle as he tried to escape, he screamed. Her touch was death, and even children knew it.
Verpi struck her. Once on the jaw, and again, this time to the nose. Gaddy tasted blood, felt cartilage shift.
Kill me, Reid! her vessel howled within her. Protect my son!
Gaddy reached for the kid again. He was loose but not running, blank-eyed with fear, like a rabbit who knew the fox was inescapable.
Verpi grabbed her wrist, gasping as the Gaddy's power spilled over into her instead; the rot and festering pain that Gaddy brought boiling down her hand, her arm, blackening the skin and leaving pustules that bubbled. "Let me go," Gaddy hissed, trying to shake that iron-clad grip off, feeling Verpi's own power trying to heal what she was destroying. She slapped her sister's face, leaving lines of sickness that decayed and healed in seconds as Verpi fought her. "I'm stronger than you! You'll die!"
"You'll burn yourself out," Verpi said calmly, despite the fact that she was losing, because her lungs were rotting now, her heart choking, and not even she could fix a vessel that was nothing but meat not even fit for dogs. "To kill me, you'll die with me. I think a fitting end for us, sister. I released you upon this world… it is my duty to remove you from it."
"Reid!" someone distantly was screaming. Gaddy's vision blurred. Through the haze, she saw someone grab Jack, carrying him away. Someone blonde. "Say it, Reid! Fucking say it you bastard! Call him!"
Verpi blinked, her reactions slow and uneven. Sluggish. Gaddy would take advantage of that but her own mind was splintered, her power being sucked into an endless pit of healing that took and took and took and left her hollow, empty, dying…
Her sister blinked again. Began to speak, slow and awkward. Clumsy. Familiar words. She stopped. Her voice changed, squeaked, became human. "Don't! Don't touch me—she can hurt you through me!"
Gaddy looked up, slowly, so slowly, and found Prentiss with one foot on the rug, her eyes huge and locked on Verpi. On the magic that blackened her skin, her vessel being torn apart faster than she could heal it.
"Spence?" she said, her voice frightened, and reached for him.
Verpi just flinched away, her grip tightening.
She began to chant again and Gaddy was fascinated.
But not fascinated enough to stop destroying her.
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Gaddy screamed.
Isska turned and ran towards the warehouse where her sister was, feet thudding heavily on the asphalt. The doorway loomed ahead as her heart hammered; what had gone wrong? Were the hunters within?
Not both my sisters! she thought wildly, and her vessel shifted uncomfortably. No no no…
Your sisters are cruel, he sent tiredly. Why do you follow them?
Whatever answer she had planned, it vanished in a heartbeat from her mind as she approached the door and a man stepped out of it. A man she knew so innately despite never speaking to him.
"Dean," she said, skidding to a halt. "Get out of my way."
Don't hurt him! her vessel demanded, anxiety thundering through them both. Don't. Come on, you know him. He's my brother.
It was… hard to dislike Sam.
"No can do, crazy lady," Dean replied, hefting his weapon in his hands threateningly. She wasn't worried… he wouldn't use it against his brother. They loved far too much.
Just like you and your sisters, Sam reminded her.
"Get the fuck out of my way," she snarled, and raised her hand. His eyes tracked her hand, brow furrowed and face coldly furious. Hating her. That was fine. She didn't require the affection of a worthless human—
That's Gaddy talking, not you, Sam said. He was so annoyingly moralistic, gah. You don't believe that. Why are you still cleaning up her messes?
In reply, Isska used her power to grab Dean by the throat and hurl him back against the door with a grunt. "I said get out of my way," she spat, striding towards him and closing her fist to tighten her grip, just to show Sam who was in control here. "I won't have you stand between you and my family!"
"Like you are between me and mine?" Dean wheezed, one hand at his throat and the other bracing against the door. The Colt lie at his feet where he'd dropped it. "Give me back my brother. Listen—I've just spent the last day with a legit freaking genius rambling about you in my ear. I know who you are, and I know what you are. And I know you're not evil."
Isska stared at him. Loosened her grip slightly.
Oh sure, you listen to someone else when they teach you something, but when I try to do it… Sam was grumbling, but Isska shushed him.
"You know who I am?" Isska asked, and swallowed hard. Oh, she knew who she was. Sort of. A… little.
But there was so much she knew was lost to her.
"Išskalbėja," Dean said, mangling the pronunciation but it was her name. She rolled her eyes.
"I know my name, you idiot—"
"The laundress," he continued. Sam was silent, listening intently. "The goddess of light. She who cleanses evil—that's who you are. You fix what your crazier sisters fuck up. You keep them in check. The seven of you are a balance, and that balance is way out of whack. Come on, I know all this shit, and my… I know a dude who knows even more. You wanna know who your patron is? He knows that. You just gotta help us stop what your sister is trying to do. If you do this—if you murder an innocent kid—you'll never find who you are."
He's not lying, Sam added, and she knew he was right. I can always tell when he's lying.
"Your other sisters aren't dead," Dean said, finally, and she let him go with a thump. "Dievas Senelis—he has them. He's Verpi's patron god. She's helping us, to help you, because you're her sister… but you gotta let me have my brother back, okay?"
Gaddy screamed again and Isska ran, jumping over Dean and hurtling into the warehouse.
Maybe he was right, maybe, but Gaddy was here right now, in trouble, and it was up to Isska to look after her. From anything that threaten—
Verpi? she thought, stunned, finding Gaddy pinning Verpi to a rug, her face twisted furiously and the dark, deathly power she wielded callously twining through their oldest sister and warping the vessel she was within. Isska could see it. Could see the tendrils of darkness oozing through the vessel's thin body and squeezing his organs. It reached slowly and inexorably towards his head, his brain, even as Verpi's bright power struggled to push it back, his mouth moving but the words he was speaking inaudible from this distance.
"Gaddy, stop!" she called, and ran forward. "What are you doing?"
Verpi moaned once, her eyes shuttering and glazing. She was losing, but Gaddy was too. Her vessel was greying as Isska watched, the colour leaching from his skin as she drained every last reserve. Just off the rug, Prentiss stood with her gun steady in her hands and eyes locked on Verpi. There was fear on her face, fear of loss.
She raised the gun, at Gaddy. At the vessel Gaddy was inhabiting.
"She betrayed us!" Gaddy screeched, and her grip on Verpi tightened, fingers sinking into her skin hard enough to draw blood. "She's working with them!"
"You're going to kill your vessel!" Isska shouted, moving forwards. The gun moved to aim at her chest. Behind her, Dean called something that could have been don't, but Isska was focused on her sisters. "We don't hurt each other! This isn't what we do—let her go now!"
Verpi choked and fell silent, eyes rolling until only the whites showed and body falling limp. Whatever she'd been saying, silenced. There was a long beat of horror.
Then the vessel stiffened, arched.
Seized.
"Spencer!" Prentiss leapt forward with a scream, and Gaddy staggered up, raised her hand, threw the agent down down. "Get off me!"
"Verpi will… take… her…" Gaddy wheezed, chest heaving. "She won't… die with… the human. She's not… stupid."
Isska stared at Verpi. Her chest was still moving, still breathing, even as his body shuddered and stopped.
But she wasn't abandoning the vessel. She was… still trying to heal it. Despite her magic being drained almost beyond redemption, she was still trying to save him.
It was so… her.
And Isska raised her magic. The anger and the hate she'd been cultivating, that she'd been allowing to rule her, faltered.
What do I do? she asked no one in particular, anyone who was listening, as she stepped onto the rug and looked down at her sisters. I… I don't know what to do.
Help Verpi! Sam demanded.
"Help me!" Gaddy howled furiously, shaking Verpi's prone body, his head lolling grossly on his neck. "Help me drag her out before the vessel dies! She doesn't get to escape this!"
She's not trying to save your sister, Sam continued. She just wants revenge. She wants Verpi to suffer. And when she has, she'll kill Jack. And JJ and Emily and their families and when will it end? It won't… she'll never stop. She just wants death and without Verpi, there's no balance.
Prentiss kicked out, her foot impacting against Gaddy's wrist, and Isska heard bone break. Dragging herself, Prentiss painstakingly reached out for Verpi. No… not for Verpi.
Fingers twined around the prone hand of Verpi's vessel. Clung on grimly.
Humans loved so much.
"I won't help you," Isska said, and turned her power on Gaddy, throwing her back from her sister and the woman who was trying to hold Verpi's vessel to this world with sheer willpower. "I… I won't turn against my family."
Who am I, Išskalbėja? whispered a voice, and the rune around them began to glow. Name me.
I don't know! Isska thought, looking around wildly.
"Dievas?" shouted Prentiss, scrambling up to her knees and hunching over Verpi protectively. "Help us!"
But it wasn't Dievas Senelis… Isska remembered him now. He was there too. Distantly. Watching. Not speaking.
This… this voice was for Isska alone.
Behind them, Gaddy was standing, her form wavering as she pulled every last remnant of her power into herself, readying herself to set them aflame. Burn them.
Burn…
"Gabija!" Isska called, and felt a warm-hot pressure against her legs, twining around them. "Protect them!"
We protect families, Išskalbėja, continued the voice, and the cat became a flame; became a woman clothed in burning red. She towered over them, an inferno, and Prentiss cried out as their skin warmed almost beyond their ability to bear. You forgot for so long, daughter. You have hurt this family. I cannot allow this to go unpunished. If I stop her, you will be caught in that.
Have mercy, Gabija, Dievas said, appearing at her side, half her size and withered. She repents.
No, Isska said, and looked down. Gaddy was frozen with shock, staring, and beside her Prentiss had Verpi's vessel pulled into her lap, arms sheltering him from the heat and her dark hair falling loose over his face. She's right. Fix this. Please.
And Gabija did.
Through the fire and the cleansing touch of flame, she seared them from the world, and all they knew was pain.
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The warehouse burned without burning. Dean felt himself crying out with the pain of it, the world around him wavering and warping with the heat, and he couldn't see Sam, couldn't see the goddesses, couldn't see a goddamn fucking thing through this supernatural inferno. On his knees with no memory of falling, he pushed himself up and crawled deeper into that heat, screaming for Sam.
"Sam!"
There was no answer. Through the twisted air around him, he saw a blurry form on the floor. Touched it. Felt rough denim, a soft shirt, the familiar shape of his brother's face. He huddled closer, finding his head and curling around it, some pathetic attempt at stopping the heat from suffocating them.
He couldn't breathe. None of them could. Distantly, he blinked agonisingly dry eyes and saw the dim form of Emily crumpled overtop of Reid, neither moving. He couldn't see the other goddess. Couldn't see further than the side of the rug.
Hope JJ got the kid out, he thought, and felt a searing, burning, scorching hand reach into his chest, wrap around his heart. He screamed.
The pain is temporary, said a voice that crackled and popped like a wildfire. Išskalbėja, now. This one too.
The next touch was cooler.
I cleanse the evil you have suffered, said a voice, a young woman, and the touches receded.
He fell into black, Sam underneath him.
And woke.
Lungs screaming, the world silent around him. Above him, the vaulted roof of the warehouse blurred.
He turned his head, coughing.
"Dean?" said someone, from so fucking far away Dean almost snapped at them to move closer, but his throat wasn't working. "What have you done to them?"
Wait.
He knew this voice.
Cas… help.
We will help him soon, little angel man. Be patient. Others require us more. Verpiančioji, this one wanes. Assist me.
A hand on his forehead, brown eyes watching him, and Dean closed his eyes.
Wait.
Sam? Where is Sam?
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Emily opened her eyes, and Reid was alive.
Letting her head roll to look at him, she found that someone had laid them side by side, their shoulders touching and hands still tangled together. And his chest was moving steadily, his eyes closed, his skin clean and unmarked. There was no sign of the rotting, festering wounds the monster had opened on his arms and face, no purple-tinged lips, no wheezing final breaths.
The memory of them haunted her though.
How? she thought distantly, and let go of his hand to trail her fingers across his face wonderingly.
It took every iota of strength she possessed, but she sat up, pushing through an almost inhuman sleepiness that tried to throw her back down. But Emily Prentiss didn't give up just because she'd rather nap.
On her other side, another man lay just as still and broken. Hotch.
A woman walked towards them. A child in her arms. Emily snarled, fighting against an invisible hand that pressed against her chest and tried to lower her back to the ground.
"Let him go," Emily said, eyes locked on the unconscious form of Jack Hotchner cradled in the woman's grasp. "Where is JJ?"
Dievas Senelis helps her. If she needs to forget these events to be at peace, he and Išskalbėja ensure it. They will also assist your other team members. I bring the boy to his father so they can be reunited. Today will not linger in his mind.
And she crouched, tucking the limp form of Jack into his father's arms.
"He's… himself?" Emily struggled to say, her eyes heavy and words slurring. "Wait, no, no, don't make me forget. I don't… get the fuck out of my head…"
Why do you fight me so fiercely? Is it so difficult to accept something kind?
"I… don't… trust…" She was falling back, awkward, something warm and firm under her shoulder, her head. She blinked once.
Again.
Once more.
"I don't want to forget it all…" she finished, thinking of what had been offered to her, and opened her eyes to find the shadows had shifted and Reid was looking at her. "Don't want to forget this."
He smiled, crookedly, and his arm was around her, his hand splayed protectively across her belly.
"We won't," he murmured, and tugged her close.
This time, she didn't fight the sleep when it beckoned.
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Sam stared down at the list Dean had written him of what he called 'sure it's nutritionally sound, Sam, there's like, all two food groups on there.' The two food groups apparently being 'meat' and 'carbs' and he was so going to die of a heart attack at thirty, there was no doubt.
"Dean, oi," he said, walking back towards the car and scowling. "Seriously with the shopping?" He paused.
Dean wasn't alone.
The man with him turned to look at Sam, and his face was… familiar. Annoyingly familiar, and Sam ran frantically through his mind trying to remember from where he'd seen him.
"Hey, Sammy, this is Agent Pain-in-my-arse," Dean said, and Sam froze. A fed? The agent, a skinny guy wearing a sweater vest, of all things, smiled oddly at the nickname. "Just having a friendly chat. He's helping answer my questions, like can I have her number?"
"Is there something we can help you with, Agent?" Sam asked suspiciously.
"Nothing of importance and absolutely not," the man said, nodding at Sam. "Thank you for your assistance, Dean. Ah… really. You really helped out."
"You gonna keep up your end of the bargain?" Dean demanded. "I mean, come on, I deserve a reward at least. A photo? You can even be in it, if you're not touching her."
Sam scoffed. "Reward for what?" he asked, scowling at Dean. What have you done, idiot? he thought fondly, and Dean grinned. Playing innocent. "The most helpful Dean gets is knocking over hot chicks' drinks so he can buy them another."
The agent shrugged non-committedly. "No big deal," he murmured, and turned away. "We'll do what we can on our end, but your name is known now. I recommend leaving DC."
"Aw, but does that mean we don't get to go out for tequila and taco night?" Dean whined, and the fed sighed as he walked away.
"Goodbye, Dean."
Dean smiled oddly. "Cya, dork," he murmured, and turned back to Sam. "So, what are you getting your panties in a twist about? Hey, where's my pie?"
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Morgan and JJ were blissfully oblivious about what had happened. Both of them thought the case had just gone a little haywire. The going story was that Prentiss had gone undercover trying to flush out the notorious 'Dean Winchester', but the ploy had failed. Whatever Senelis and Isska had done, it was effective. Few people questioned them.
Rossi was… seemingly ignorant, but Hotch didn't trust that one whit. He'd found a long time ago that it was always best to assume that Rossi knew way more than what he let on.
Reid wasn't talking about it, but Hotch had reached over to him to hand him a file on their first day back from suspension while their conduct was investigated and cleared, and the man had flinched away from him reflexively. There were wounds there that were going to take a long time to heal. Hotch couldn't help but stare at his shoulder whenever he walked away from him, as though picturing what it would have looked like when his bullet ripped through.
Prentiss… Hotch really wasn't sure. There was a strange atmosphere in the bullpen these days, a kind of waiting tension between his team members that he was sure hadn't been there before. Reid and Prentiss avoided each other's gazes, sat away from each other on the jet, and directed any queries they had about their work to the other members of their team.
"There's something going on with those two," JJ said one day, eyes narrowed. "Did something happen while they were undercover together?"
Hotch merely hummed and changed the subject.
He'd spent his suspension with his son. Anything Jack wanted to do, they did it, and Jack was giddy with the power he wielded.
He didn't remember a thing, and Hotch couldn't forget. Couldn't forget the fear in his eyes aimed at Hotch, the red bruising shape of a hand on his cheek. Looking at Hotch the way Hotch used to look at his dad.
And Hotch refused to forget, because remembering it all was his repentance.
.
.
"You know what I like about you, Prentiss?" Rossi demanded, throwing himself into the seat next to her. She jumped, coffee sloshing from her mug into her lap and her eyes snapping away from the form of Reid hunched over a report through the window and back to Rossi. "You don't fuck around. Usually."
"Is this a pep-talk?" Emily asked, taking the napkin he offered and daubing at her pants. Rossi watched her carefully. Outside in the bullpen, Reid stood and wandered over to Morgan's desk, his mouth moving at a mile-a-minute as he tried to explain something complicated and probably really boring to the other man. Emily watched him too with her expression blank, but her eyes gave it away. "What have I done now?"
"Fucked around," Rossi said, and grinned when she shot him a weirded-out look. "Or are in the process of doing so. Come on, Prentiss. The kinda work we're in, you know there's no guarantees of anything. You know that more than most… stop being so worried about yesterday, you don't make any moves for tomorrow."
He stood. Emily was still staring at him, as though she was trying to gauge how much he knew.
The news blared on the TV behind her, a mugshot popping up with Information wanted on the whereabouts of Dean Winchester. Wanted for:
Emily turned her eyes to that without saying anything, and Rossi smirked. "It's always the handsome ones who get all stabby, isn't it?" he said, and Emily shrugged. Outside, footsteps thudded towards them.
"Not really my type," she said, and turned right as Reid poked his head through the door.
"I'm heading out for lunch," he said, smiling crookedly, eyes skimming the news report. "You guys want to come along?"
"Not me," Rossi said, flopping into the couch Prentiss had vacated with the speed of a startled cat at the offer. "But Prentiss is super keen. You kids have fun now. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."
The door swung shut behind them, but didn't quite cut off Reid's wary, "He does know that that doesn't actually rule anything out, right?"
Ah, to be young again.
.
.
"Checkmate," Emily said, and took his king. Reid frowned at the board.
"How come you keep beating me?" he asked, and she smiled. It was a soft smile, and he felt a little hot and silly at the sight of it, feeling his own mouth respond automatically.
"I want to win," she said. Her foot bumped his under the table. Around them, the park was alive with families, the sun warming their shoulders. "I'm very good at getting what I want."
Reid looked around. Everything looked… so normal. Like there was nothing illogical or unknown lurking under the surface. A perfect illusion. "It's not over, is it?" he asked suddenly, changing the subject, and she began to reset the board after checking her watch. "I mean… how can it be now we know what we know?"
"We'll work it out, Spence," she responded, and looked past him. Smiled at someone over his shoulder. "Together. Hello, you. Long-time no see."
"Hello, Agent Prentiss. Dr. Agent Reid. May I join you?" Cas slid onto the seat opposite, allowing Emily to slip around and join Reid on his side, sidling across until their sides were pressed together. Reid let his hand fall onto her thigh, hers resting on top. The gentlest point of contact. "Where were we?"
"Three wins to you," Reid said, and moved his pawn. "Eight to me. I thought you said you were good at strategy."
"Allow me to redeem myself," Cas said, and made his move.
Things were different, now.
But not all bad.