Elizabeth sat in a chair with her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms wrapped firmly around them, making herself as small as she possibly could. Sam and Dean sat opposite her in the war room, both wearing looks of concern. Elizabeth had waited until they said bye to Charlie before telling the boys about the note and what she had dreamed when she was under the Djinn's spell. Dean of course, already knew.
When she was done, the boys looked at each other. She saw Sam slump in his chair and take a deep breath. Dean rubbed his hand over his forehead like he was trying to scrub away the stress.
"I know you guys have a lot on your plate. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything to you." Elizabeth spoke in a quiet voice. There was nothing they could do, and with Sam going through the trials, they didn't need anything else to worry about.
"Hey, don't do that. Okay? We'll figure it out." Dean tried to comfort her. He turned to Sam and said, "Why haven't we killed him again?"
"Because I checked after we got her here and he sold the house. We don't know where he is." Sam hadn't told Elizabeth this information. She snapped her head back like he hit her. She didn't know he was missing.
"Great. So, I have a psychopath after me, you are doing these trials that are making you sick, and Kevin is missing. Is there anything that I'm missing?" She asked.
"We'll figure it out. One thing at a time, Ellie. But for now, we think you should stay with us. We don't want you to be by yourself, so if a food run needs to be made Dean or I will go. One of us will be with you at all times." Sam tried to sound comforting, but he was cut off by a coughing fit.
"Sam, I can't let you do that. You're sick and you're not getting better. I'll be fine. Promise." Her eyes flicked to Dean and saw the weight that seemed to press his body down. He caught her eye and immediately sat up straight and smoothed his features, so she couldn't see the toll everything was taking on him.
"You know what, I'm gonna make some food." He said abruptly and went to the kitchen leaving her and Sam alone.
Elizabeth looked over at Sam to see him shaking. He had to be running a fever again, so she fetched a blanket and wrapped it around his shoulders. "Thanks." He murmured.
He had papers spread out around him trying to figure out what the demon tablet said using Kevin's notes. He had been obsessing over this for a while and even though she tried to help him, she ended up causing more harm than good. Languages and research were never her strong suit.
Dean came back a bit later carrying a tray of food. He set it down in front of Sam and Elizabeth could smell the heat coming from it making her grimace. "Alright, here we go. John Winchester's famous cure-all kitchen sink stew. There you go. Enough cayenne pepper in there to burn your lips off, just like Dad used to make." He said.
When Sam pushed the tray away, Elizabeth couldn't help herself. "Do we need to do the whole airplane thing with the spoon?" She mimicked the sound of an airplane flying and Sam threw her a frustrated glare.
"When was the last time you ate?" Dean asked him, seriously. When Sam couldn't tell him, he said, "Days, Sam. It's been three days."
When Dean tried to take his temperature, Sam had enough and pushed up from the table trying to walk away from the situation. Dean wasn't having it though. "The bloody handkerchiefs, the fever, the shaky legs... this is not good."
Elizabeth raised her eyebrows when he decided to be honest for once in his life. "Well, I'm not good. And I'm not going to be good until we can start moving again. Until I can start the third trial."
Elizabeth started to speak but Dean cut her off, giving Sam a disbelieving look. "Trial? I wouldn't let you start a moped. We're on the rails with this thing, okay, and the only way out of it is through it, believe me, I know. And you know how bad I wanna slam the door on all those sons of bitches. But you gotta let me take care of you, man. You gotta let me help you get your strength back." Dean was scared. Elizabeth only had to take one look at him to see that he was terrified. If she was honest with herself. She was too.
Sam looked like he was telling someone their puppy died when he tried to explain how he was feeling. "This isn't a cold. Or a fever, or whatever it is you're supposed to feed. This is part of it all. Those first two trials... they're not just things I did. They're doing something to me. They're changing me."
"What do you mean they're changing you?" Elizabeth could help but ask.
Before he could answer they heard a ringing from the library. It was an email from Kevin with a video attached. Dean opened it and Elizabeth felt her heart stop. He looked so stressed out and he kept glancing around like someone was watching him.
He let them know that if they were watching the video then he was dead. Elizabeth felt her shoulders drop at the news. He didn't deserve this. Kevin started crying and he said, "I'm sorry. I know it was my job, but I— but I couldn't... I'm sorry." That was when Elizabeth broke. Tears started streaming down her face as the video ended and she wrapped her arms around her middle.
Dean swiped a book off the table, sending if flying. "Damn it!" He yelled as he walked away with his hands on his head. He was taking it hard, Elizabeth knew. Without looking at Sam, she walked to her bedroom, trying to keep herself together.
When her door closed, she collapsed on the bed and let herself break. Kevin didn't deserve to go out like he did. He was just a kid and he was their responsibility. Maybe if she stayed with him it would have turned out differently. They should have moved him there. The bunker was safe, and he would have been okay if she had just been smart enough to suggest bringing there.
She didn't know how long she laid on the bed, sobbing. When she calmed down enough that she was no longer shaking, her eyes drooped. It had already been a long day and it wasn't even 4pm yet. Resolving to go to sleep, social norms be damned, she put her pajamas on. Before she could fall asleep there was a knock on her door. Wiping her face she told them to come in. "Hey. You okay?" Sam asked from her doorway.
"I'm good. Always." She said without turning to him.
She felt the bed sink with his weight when he sat down. He placed his hand on her hip, trying to comfort her. "You know you don't have to be okay right? I know that you and Kevin were close."
"I'll be fine Sam. You have enough to worry about, don't spend your time worrying about me." She sniffed.
"Well, I do. Even if you scream at me and push me away, I will always worry about you."
She turned to look at him and saw that he was staring at her. She took his hand in hers and squeezed it. "You boys are too good to me."
"It's not hard to be good to you, Ellie." He has a small smile playing at the end of his lips. He realized that he was staring intensely at her and cleared his throat. "Look, we have a lead on the third trial, so pack up. You're coming with us."
They pulled up to a large hotel somewhere in Colorado. It looked like nice and all, but Elizabeth noticed there was not a lot of cars in the parking lot. As she expected, the place was pretty empty when they walked in. It was a nice place, it was just empty. This is going to be good, the thought.
The guy at the front desk didn't say a word as they asked for a room. The only indication that he was a real person was when he looked at Elizabeth and Dean confused when Sam turned to them and asked if they heard a noise. Dean laughed it off as Sam having the flu, but Elizabeth walked over to Sam and put a hand on his arm.
"You okay?" She asked.
He shook his head slightly. "Are you sure you didn't hear that?" He looked confused as she shook her head no. Dean told them to go ahead of them to the room while he scoped out the place and gave her one of the two keys.
When they got to the room, Sam collapsed on the bed. He started laughing hysterically when Elizabeth sat next to him. "Hey, you remember that time we were on a hunt and we had to share a bed?" He asked her.
She nodded as he kept talking. "I was so sure that I was going to wake up and you were going to be crushed because I rolled onto you. You were so cute in your little shorts, and I swear Dean was going to punch me when I won rock paper scissors for the bed." He chuckled. "You know, before you woke up, I had to go to the bathroom, so you wouldn't see my morning …" He fell asleep almost as soon as his sentence stopped.
What the actual fuck? Was he serious? Elizabeth shook her head and stared at him. If she didn't know any better, she would say he was drunk.
He sat up suddenly, like he was shocked and reached for the glass of water by his bed. Dean came in with a brochure talking about how the place hadn't had a visitor since '06 and they were the only people there.
Sam laid down again and started talking to Dean. "Hey, you remember when uh... when Dad took us to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, on that pack-mule ride?"
"Oh no." Elizabeth said. Dean gave her a questioning look, but she just shook her head.
"The what?" Dean asked his brother.
"And you're, uh... your mule kept farting, just— l-letting go, like, gale force?" Sam slurred.
"Dude, you were like, four years old. I barely remember that." Dean looked so confused.
Sam started laughing and said, "You rode a farty donkey."
Dean looked at Elizabeth and she shrugged. "You wouldn't believe what he said to me. You got off easy."
He raised his eyebrows and then shook his head. "Okay. Uh, I'm gonna go check out the Two Rivers Tribal Museum and Trading Post."
Sam immediately sat up and started slurring his words again. "Yeah. Yeah! [sits up] I'm gonna— I'm gonna, uh. I'm gonna follow the hotel manager, D-Dr. Scowley-scowl. He's like a villain from Scooby-Doo."
"Sam, you need to get some rest." Elizabeth told him. "You're acting a bit weird. I think you might have a fever."
"Yeah, I can do that." He fell back into the bed started snoring. .
Dean looked at Elizabeth with wide eyes. "What the hell?"
"Don't look at me, I got nothing." She said with a shrug.
"Okay, look. You stay with Sam and make sure he doesn't hurt himself. I'll go look around." Dean instructed her as he walked out the door.
"Great." She muttered, looking at Sam. Like she would be able to stop him from doing anything.
She sat for a while just staring out the window, not really seeing what was happening outside. She was watching a squirrel run across the parking lot when Sam jumped up with a groan.
"Sam, you okay?" She asked him standing up.
He didn't answer her as he walked toward the door. She ran to stand in front of him and put a hand on his chest. He was burning up. "Sam, you need to lay down."
He tried to push her out of the way. "Don't you hear it? I need to go find him. He's what matters." He was slurring his words so much that she had a hard time understanding him.
"No. You need to lay down. You're not leaving here." She tried to push him to the bed but was making no progress.
He looked at her like he was confused. "No. I have to go." Despite her protests and the way he was staggering, he conjured up enough force to shove her out of the way. She tried to catch herself but couldn't before the side of her head collided with the edge of the table that sat next to the door. She fell to the floor unmoving as her world went black.
She woke on one of the beds with a splitting headache. She touched her hand to her head and it came away with blood on it. As she sat up she groaned. She was going to kill Sam when she got her hands on him. She looked around to find him and saw that the room was empty. The bathtub was filled with ice and water, so she knew someone had been there.
Dean was going to kill her when he found out she let Sam leave. Sighing, she left the room to try to find Sam. As she drew up to one of the doors, she could swear she heard Sam. He was yelling, "Hey can you turn that down?"
Without thinking of the consequences, Elizabeth pulled the door open to find a room full of books. She had never seen so many books and it took her a second to ground herself. She heard someone talking behind the stacks and decided to go find them.
"You've undertaken the trials. You're trying to pull one of the great levers, aren't you? You're pretty far along, too. You get that far along, you start resonating with the Word. Or with its source on the material plane. With me." He was a short man with graying hair. Honestly, he looked like the kind of guy that would try to hit on her that always talked about her looking like his daughter or granddaughter. Her muscles tensed when she saw that he had a gun on them.
She snuck up behind him and Dean's eye caught hers. He shook his head slightly warning her to stay hidden. She cocked her head to the side in disbelief. He looked at her with hard eyes and she knew if she didn't hide, or at least wait, something bad was going to happen. So, she stepped behind a pile of books and listened to the conversation.
"So you get a ruffle in your feathers and just decide to disappear? Go stick your head in the sand, forever? You have no idea what's been going on out there." Dean asked him.
"Nope. That's the whole point." He answered with what sounded like a grin. From what they were saying, this had to be Metatron.
"So you have been holed up here, or, or, or in a wigwam, or before that in some cave, listening to stories, reading books?"
Metatron laughed. "And it was something to watch. What you brought to His Earth, all the mayhem, the murder. Just the raw, wild invention of God's naked apes... it was mind-blowing. But really... really, it was your storytelling. That is the true flower of free will. At least as you've mastered it so far. When you create stories, you become gods, of tiny, intricate dimensions unto themselves. So many worlds! I have read... as much as it's possible for an angel to read, and I haven't caught up."
While she could understand his passion, it grated at her nerves that he just sat by while so many people died. She was about to step out and give him a piece of her mind about Kevin when she heard Sam's voice.
"You know what? Pull the friggin trigger."
"What?" Metatron asked, confused.
"Pull the freaking trigger, you cowardly piece of garbage." Sam yelled.
"No, Sam!" Elizabeth yelled and stepped out from the stack of books. Metatron tried to point the gun at her, but Sam caught the end of the rifle and pressed it to his own chest.
"All the time you've been hiding here, how much suffering have you read over? Humanity's suffering! And how much of it has been at the hands of your kind?!" Sam was pissed.
Elizabeth maneuvered around Metatron and pushed Sam back. She stood between them and addressed Metatron. "You want a story? Try Kevin Tran's story. He was just a kid. He was a good, straight-A kid, and then he got sucked in to all of this— this angel crap. He became a prophet, of the Word of God. Your prophet. Now, you should've been looking out for him, but no! Instead, you're here, holed up, reading books. He's dead now. Because of you." She felt a hand on her shoulder pulling her back. Dean shifted his body until he was between her and Metatron.
Elizabeth peeked around Dean's shoulder to see Metatron gone. "What the hell?" She asked to no one in particular. A few moments later, she heard a thud and turned to see Kevin passed out in the chair behind her.
"Kevin?!" She asked, trying to shake him awake.
"Move." Metatron told her. He rubbed his hands together and then reached to press his hand over Kevin's heart. There was a flash of light and Metatron turned to her and said, "Give him a minute."
Elizabeth sat at his side and held his hand. He looked like he went through hell and she couldn't believe he was alive. She was going to fight tooth and nail to get him to the bunker. To safety.
He opened his eyes and Sam called for Dean. "Kevin? Oh thank God." Elizabeth sighed.
Dean came up and leaned over Kevin. "Hey, we thought we lost you kiddo."
"I'm good. Second half of the tablet. And I got it. Third trial. I didn't tell Crowley." He held up half of the demon tablet as Elizabeth smiled at him.
They were riding back to the bunker in the Impala and talking about the information that Kevin gave them.
"Cure a demon. Okay, ignoring the fact that I have no idea what that actually means, if we— if we do this, you get better, right? I mean, you stop trying to cough up a lung, and, and, and bumping into furniture?" Dean asked his brother.
"And you stop pushing me into hard furniture to make an escape?" Elizabeth let the words slip before the thought about what she was saying.
"Yeah, hey I'm sorry about." Sam started to say but Elizabeth cut him off.
"Stop. You were delirious. It's fine." She said.
"No. It's not." He countered.
"It is if it means you are feeling better." She tried to meet in the middle.
"I feel better, yeah, um, just having a direction to move in."
Dean looked back at Elizabeth with a look that said she needed to shut up. He turned to Sam and said, "Well, good, cause where we're headed doesn't sound like a picnic."
"But we're heading somewhere." Sam said.
"Yeah. The end." Elizabeth couldn't help but remind them.
Suddenly she had to brace herself against the back of the front seat to keep from flying forward as Dean slammed on his breaks.
"What the hell was that?!" She yelled at Dean.
He ignored her as he climbed out of the car, Sam hot on his heels. "Cas?!" She heard him yell.
She jumped out of the car to see the angel laying on the ground covered in blood.
"Cas? Holy hell, what happened?" She asked, running up to him.
"It's a very long story. It's also painful. I need help."
She looked down to see he was cradling his stomach and there was blood lining his shirt. Without hesitation, she wrapped her arms under his arm and tried to help him up. She forgot how dense the angel was and had trouble getting him to his feet. Dean shook his head as he walked over to help her lift him.
They deposited Castiel in the backseat while Sam got in the front. Elizabeth turned to Dean as he stood outside the car. His jaw was ticking, and he was taking deep breaths. She heard the story of Cas betraying them and almost killing Dean.
"You okay?" She asked him.
"I'm good." He told her, not even trying to sell the lie.
"It's okay to still be mad at him. But he's your friend and he needs help."
"Don't you think I know that, Lizzy? Why else would he be in the car?" He looked at her like she was stupid.
Her head snapped back in disbelief. "Really? You're gonna treat me like shit because you're mad at him?"
"I didn't mean…"
"I know." She said softly. "Just don't forget that I'm here for the two of you. Even when I get my head bashed in or talked to like I'm a moron."
He looked at her then and reached up to run his finger over her healing cut. "Yeah. I know, kid. Come on, lets go home."