A/N: Sorry for the delay. I have been out of town. Also, we haven't had a flashback in awhile and I have missed little Dean. The idea for this one has been in the back of my head for awhile. I was just looking for the right spot to work it in to the story.
Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or any of its characters. I also do not own C.S. Lewis or the Screwtape Letters, and I paraphrased the quote used in this chapter.
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"What do you mean there is more than one Devil's Gate?" Dean demanded.
"Well, you don't think these guys just sign up for a Disney Express Pass to come to Earth do you?" Gabe replied. "There is more than one Devil's Gate in the world that can be active from time to time. Babylon. Mexico City. Wyoming. Cleveland. Those are the ones that I know of off the top of my head."
"So how do we know where to even start?" Annie asked.
"It is most likely going to be near where the sacrifices are taking place." Cas replied.
"So that means Mexico City and Babylon aren't really options." Annie said.
"Good, because I really would rather drive my baby to wherever we are going than be teleported half way across the world," Dean said.
Meanwhile, Sam had been on his laptop, searching through news stories. "Uh, guys, Wyoming has been pretty quiet. But there have been more fires and not just here in Kansas. They have been spreading across the Midwest. Illinois, Indiana, and a bunch in Ohio."
"It seems as though Moloch may being trying to access Earth through the Gate in Cleveland," Cas said.
"Cleveland, huh?" Dean smirked. "So if we go there looking for a Devil's Gate, do think we will find the Scoobies there, now that they have closed the one in Sunnydale."
"Nah, that one was just fictional." Gabriel said. "Do you think the Feds are the only ones that practice plausible deniability? Demons do it all the time."
"Two equal and opposite mistakes people make about demons" Dean said. "Not believing they exist or taking an unhealthy, obsessive interest in them. Plausible deniability makes not believing in them more likely, am I right?"
"You have actually read C. S. Lewis?" Sam asked.
"Well, they did make the Screwtape Letters into a comic book. It made writing my sophomore English paper just as easy as if I used Cliff Notes," Dean replied.
"So, Mr. Tumnus, where do we go from here?" Annie asked.
"You, Annie, aren't going anywhere," Dean replied. "You are staying here, where it is safe."
"Yeah, right! Because it was so safe last night when four demons attacked that it took two Archangels to get rid of them."
"Well, you are still not going anywhere near Cleveland," Dean countered.
"Listen," Gabe interrupted. "Why don't Rick and AJ here go Simonize Cleveland. Get the lay of the land, see what they can scope out. Cas & I will hang out here with you."
"I am afraid that will not be possible," Cas stated.
"Why not?" Dean demanded.
"There is something else I need to attend to," Cas replied.
"Care to share with the rest of the class?" Dean asked.
"I would rather not," Cas replied. "Not until I have answers and I know for sure if I am able to complete my mission."
"Well, it looks like it is just going to be you and me, sweet cheeks," Gabe said to Annie while grabbing her hand.
Sam and Dean packed up their things in preparation for a road trip to Cleveland. Annie also prepared some food for them to take on the road with them, including, at Gabe's protest, the remaining pie in the house. Before they left, Dean pulled both Gabriel and Annie aside to talk to each of them alone.
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"Look," Dean said to Gabriel. "Annie can be pretty hard-headed when she sets her mind to something. She used to go round and round with my dad about leaving this town, and she would win, against him. She's got that same look in her eye now. But I don't want her near Cleveland. So if you are serious about protecting her, then you need to get her out of here. Take her to Africa, take her to Fiji, hell, take her to the planet Vulcan. Just make sure she is as far away from this as possible."
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"I see the way Gabriel looks at you," Dean said Annie while loading supplies into the Impala. "You need to be careful."
"Oh, I see," Annie said. "So we are back to not trusting my judgment."
"It's not that," Dean said. "It's just that, well he makes me look monogamous."
Annie raised an eyebrow. "Monogamous with who, Sammy?" Dean blanched as his eyes widened in horror. "You know," she laughed, "there is an advantage to knowing about all your adventures. I get good dirt on you. Like knowing about a certain Chuck Shirley, or should I say 'Carver Edlund' and his fans, and the alternatives stories they like to write about you."
"Ugh, don't remind me." Dean replied.
"Yeah, well, I just have to say, that karma might take a long time, say like twenty years, to come around to bite you in the ass. But she always does, Dean. Speaking of which, I fully intend to keep that promise I made to you the last time we had a conversation along these lines."
"That wasn't a promise. That was a dream-crushing threat to a little boy." Dean said, with his best puppy dog eyes.
"Whatever, you know that look doesn't work on me. Promise or threat. The message still applies," Annie said.
"You wouldn't dare" Dean said.
"Try me."
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As Sam and Dean drove off in the Impala, Annie turned to the two angels standing on her porch. "Cas, before you go, I need to ask you and Gabriel a question or two."
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Annie walked home from school, her backpack slung over her shoulder. She was crying and needed to get herself together before she got home. She had held back the tears at school and now felt like she could cry freely. But there was no way she was going to cry in front of Gran, let alone Dean and little Sammy, who were visiting with the their dad. Not about this.
That stupid Davey Johnson had ditched her as his date for the Senior Prom. In the cafeteria, at lunch, in front of the whole school. What an asshole! All because he had heard some stupid rumor about how she had been seen making out with someone else under the bleachers. Someone else who was a girl. Annie could have cared less if he had heard that she had been caught making out with an elephant under the bleachers. What really hurt and angered her was that he had chosen to believe the rumors at all, when Davey knew that behavior like that went against Annie's character. She wasn't a cheater. Yet by believing those rumors, he had accepted that to be the truth, at least publicly. Then he took it a step further and exposed the issue in front of the whole school, instead of having a private discussion between the two of them.
By the time she got home, she was able to stop the tears. She sat down at the kitchen table with a piece of her Gran's pie and a glass of milk. But then her Gran asked her if she wanted to go shopping for a prom dress that weekend.
"I am not going to the prom anymore, Gran," Annie said. "Davey Johnson decided he'd rather not take me. I really don't want to talk about it right now." With that, Annie grabbed her pie and headed out to the front porch. Dean, who saw she was upset, followed her.
Dean crawled up onto the porch swing next to Annie, as she sat there and ate her pie. Annie looked down and handed the rest of her pie over to him, suddenly not hungry anymore.
"Thanks, Annie," Dean said. "You're the best. You know, you deserve someone better than Davey Johnson."
"What? What are you talking about Dean?"
"Someone better. Someone, like maybe, me?" he said as he looked up at her.
"Oh, Dean," Annie said, as she wrapped an arm around his shoulder, "I am afraid I am too old for you."
"But you could wait for me Annie. I'll catch up with you, I promise."
"Dean, by the time you are older, you'll have so many girls your own age chasing after you, you won't even notice me anymore. And I'll still be too old for you."
"Still don't mean stupid Davey Johnson's not a creep."
"I am not going to disagree with you there, Dean."
"That's why I sent him away."
"What?"
"He came by this morning looking for you. And I told him you weren't here."
"What exactly did you tell him, Dean?"
"Um, maybe that you were already at school, with your other friend…your girlfriend that you like, to, um...kiss."
"DEAN WINCHESTER! How could you? You know that is not the truth! And how do you even know about those kind of things?"
"I'm sorry, Annie," Dean said, refusing to look Annie in the eyes. "I just wanted to make him go away, so I said the first thing I could think of. I just remembered those things from the TV in the motel rooms we stay in with dad."
"Dean you are too young to watch those types of programs. Does you dad know you watch them?" Dean continued to avoid Annie's gaze and refused to answer her. By this, Annie knew that John Winchester had no idea what his son was watching when he wasn't at the motel.
"You need to stop watching those types of programs. If I get wind that you are still doing it, your dad will find out. And Dean Winchester, if you EVER interfere with my relationships again, I will personally see to it that you NEVER get pie in this house AGAIN!"
Dean Winchester finally looked at Annie Laughlin, this time, with a sheer look of panic on his face.