Title: Need Some Light [11/?]
Author: Ailendolin
Rating: PG-13 … just to be sure.
Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural and do not make any money with this story. I also don't own the Star Trek character mentioned.
Summary: Tag to Jump The Shark. What if Adam hadn't been dead when Dean found him?
Word count: 3555
Characters/Pairing: Adam, Dean, Sam, Castiel, Bobby, Gabriel, Rumsfeld, Milo and one cameo
Warnings/Spoilers: Spoilers for Jump The Shark. Story goes AU in the middle of the episode.
Author's Notes: Hey guys! *waves* Told you the next update wouldn't take as long as the last one. Today, I've got something to celebrate. I'm moving to a different city at the beginning of October to continue my studies of Earth Sciences (I want to become a paleontologist, hence the fossil digging I mentioned in the author's notes of the last chapter) and today I've finally found an apartment there! Looking for one was quite difficult because I'm currently living 400 km away, so I'm more than happy right now that I've finally found one. And because of that you're getting Chapter 11 a bit early. I hope you enjoy this one as well and leave me a little review *smile*
Chapter 11
"What the hell did you do to me?" Sam asked, staring wide-eyed at Gabriel. Dean looked at his brother in confusion. As far as he could tell nothing had happened when Gabriel had snapped his fingers. A look at Adam and Bobby told him that they had no idea what was going, either. Only Castiel looked intrigued and was studying Sam closely.
"Well, Sammy-boy," Gabriel drawled, smiling smugly, "I've just helped you with your little blood problem. Congratulations," he added, "You are now 100 % pure human."
"What?" Sam asked, looking shocked.
Dean could not help but stare at Gabriel. The Archangel was leaning back in his chair, looking decidedly proud of himself and not even the slightest bit bothered by all the stares directed at him. With another snap of his fingers he produced a new bright red lollipop.
"You guys are seriously bad at showing your gratitude, you know," he commented nonchalantly.
Dean looked helplessly at Castiel. "Is it true?"
Castiel smiled at him. "It is," he said. "There's no trace of Demon Blood left in Sam."
When Dean looked back at Sam, ignoring Adam's questioning gaze, he could see the same astonishment he himself was feeling in Sam's eyes. Suddenly, his brother looked young and innocent again. Dean did not know if he imagined that or not but it seemed as if a shadow had been lifted off Sam and for the first time in weeks his brother felt not like a stranger to him.
He looked at Gabriel, desperately trying to keep his emotions in check.
"Thank you," he said, voice choked and full of gratitude. "Really, thank you."
Gabriel waved his hand dismissively.
"Oh, I didn't do it just for you. It had to be done, anyway." At the questioning looks the others gave him he explained, "Sam's Demon Blood is all part of the big plan of Heaven and Hell. It's what makes him suitable to be Lucifer's vessel."
"So, does this mean I'm not his vessel any longer?" Sam asked, still looking shocked and confused by this turn of events.
"Nope," Gabriel replied. "You're still his vessel and he can still use you if you say yes. The difference is that without the Demon Blood he will burn you out pretty quickly. Ruby knows that. That's why she's letting you feed on her."
"So, she has been lying to me," Sam stated, looking down at his feet. Dean fought the urge to roll his eyes.
"Of course she's been lying to you," he said. "She's a demon, Sam. They tend to do that."
Sam glared at him. Before he could retort anything, however, Gabriel spoke up.
"She's been manipulating you the whole time, Sam," he said, completely serious. "Her plan is for you to kill Lilith."
"But that's a good thing, right?" Sam asked, desperately.
Gabriel shook his head. "Lilith is the Final Seal, Sam. By killing her you would have let Lucifer free. Both Ruby and Lilith know that, and the Angels do as well. Your little pet demon has worked towards this since you know her."
"Who is that Ruby?" Adam asked suddenly. Everyone turned to look at him. "And Lilith?" he continued, looking at Sam and Dean for information. Sam stared at Adam as if he only now realized that his younger brother was there and had no idea what they were talking about. He abruptly stood up, shaking his head.
"I can't do this right now, Adam. Sorry," he said and left the room without another word.
Dean looked concerned at the door, not knowing whether he should follow Sam or stay with Adam who stared at his hands guiltily. In the end it was Bobby who made the decision for him.
"I'd better go after him and make sure he's okay."
"I'm coming with you," Gabriel said, surprising everyone. "What?" he added, defensively. "Explaining your fucked up life to mini-you is going to be so boring." He yawned. "Sam's more fun than you two anyway."
Gabriel smirked, snapped his fingers and vanished.
"Great," Bobby said, "I've got an Archangel loose on my property, intent on pestering your brother who's got enough to deal with at the moment. - I'm too old for this," he mumbled as he left the room in search for Sam.
"I didn't mean to make Sam angry," Adam said quietly after Bobby had left. "I just … I feel like the odd one out," he admitted.
For the first time since Gabriel had brought them back to Bobby's Dean took a good look at his youngest brother. Adam looked a little lost, lying curled up on the couch next to Dean with his arms wrapped around his knees. He looked young, Dean realized, too young to be dealing with all these problems and revelations.
"It's quite a lot right now, hm?" Dean asked. Adam nodded. "Believe me," Dean went on, "Not only for you. I'm still trying to make sense of everything that's happened myself." He sighed. "But you're right, there are some things you should know. Cas, why don't you tell him about Gabriel, for the start?"
The Angel looked surprised but nodded. He fixed Adam with a stare. "My brother has vanished 2000 years ago from Heaven. He has been hiding as a Trickster here on Earth but we didn't know that. He was also the one responsible for the case your brothers were working and revealed himself to us because he wants to help us stop the Apocalypse from happening."
Adam looked at him sympathetically. "You haven't seen your brother for 2000 years?"
"No," Castiel said quietly, breaking eye contact. "We thought he was dead. We had stopped looking."
"So, how does it feel, being reunited after so long?" Adam asked, trying to lighten the mood.
Dean looked astonished at his brother and then at Castiel. For the first time he wondered how the Angel felt about the whole situation with Gabriel, and the revelations the Archangel had brought with him. After all, Castiel had just learned that his home was not the perfect place he had always thought it was and that his superiors had been lying to him and had ulterior motives. It had to have affected the Angel in some way.
Castiel tilted his head, looking puzzled. "It feels … good," he said, at last. "I have missed my brother and I'm glad that he's alive."
Dean smiled at him, amused. "We really have to work on your ability to express emotions, Cas."
Adam chuckled.
"But I'm happy for you that you found him," Dean went on. "Believe me, I know how that feels."
"Thank you, Dean."
"No problem," Dean replied, before he turned to Adam. "So, now that you know Gabriel's story I guess it's time to tell you a bit more about your family." He sighed heavily, trying to find the right words. "I guess it started even before Sam or I was born, when our Mom made a deal with a demon to save our father's life …"
He told him about their mother sacrificing herself because she wanted to protect baby Sammy, about the demon giving Sam his tainted blood and about their father vowing to find the demon that killed her, ultimately dragging his sons into the hunting business. He described Sam leaving for Stanford, John vanishing and Sam coming back, and paused after telling Adam about the car crash and about the deal their father had made with the Yellow-Eyed-Demon that had cost him his live.
"Dad sacrificed himself for you," Adam stated, looking wide-eyed at Dean. "He must have loved you a lot."
"He did," Dean said. "And he loved all of us. I'm just sorry that he couldn't really show it all the time. He became so obsessed with his search for the demon that he sometimes forgot that Sam and I were just children."
"What happened next?"
"Sam died," Dean said, looking away, looking at Castiel, and somehow he knew that the Angel had seen all of it, had watched over Dean for all his life, forbidden to interfere.
He told Adam about Sam's powers, about all the other chosen children, about Ava and Andy and finally about Jake and Sam's murder. Forcing himself to continue despite the emotions he felt Dean explained how he had made a deal with a crossroads demon to bring Sam back and how all Hell had broken loose.
"And you only had another year to live?" Adam asked, disbelieving.
"Yep," Dean sighed. "That was almost two years ago. We've tried everything to break the deal but there was no way around it. Around then we also met Ruby for the first time."
Castiel's eyes narrowed at Ruby's name while Adam looked interested.
"The same Ruby Gabriel was talking about?" he asked.
"Yeah. Wretched bitch," Dean muttered. "She's a demon and pretended to help us find a way out of the deal even though she knew there wasn't one. Even then Sam had been inclined to believe everything she was saying."
Adam looked appalled. "Does this mean you didn't find a way out of the deal?"
Dean shook his head. "When the year was up the Hell Hounds came and dragged me to Hell. I was imprisoned there until Cas here got me out." He sent a grateful glance to Castiel before he continued, more quietly. "Only a few months had passed here on Earth until I got rescured but time flows differently in Hell. In the end, I spent about 40 years there."
Adam's expression was horrified. "Do you remember that time?"
"Oh yeah." Dean grimaced, not really keen on revisiting those memories. "Every single minute of it. They've tortured me for years and at some point I gave up, and gave in. I became the torturer." He looked down in shame, unable to meet Adam's eyes. "That's what started this whole business with the Seals breaking and the Apocalypse on our doorsteps. Me, breaking down, was the first Seal being broken."
He stopped, breathing heavily, and only looked up again when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Castiel was looking at him with compassion and understanding in his eyes.
"This was not your fault, Dean," the Angel said, completely serious. "You had no way of knowing that help was on its way. Not after so many years."
"That doesn't change the fact that I started all this, Cas," Dean replied, voice full of regret and guilt. He took a deep breath and then looked at Adam. "After Cas pulled me out of Hell I reunited with Bobby and Sam. I only learned of Sam's liaison with Ruby later. She had kept him company while I was gone, feeding him lies, making him dependent on her. Part of that was him drinking her blood so that his powers grew stronger."
"But I thought his powers were a bad thing?" Adam asked. "Why did he do that?"
"They are," Dean replied. "But Sam doesn't see it that way. He can exorcise demons without killing the hosts in the process and that, in his eyes, makes it worth using powers he got from a demon. We've fought about this a lot, actually, before we met you. Every time I confront him about it he gets defensive. That way, Ruby's been slowly driving a rift between us and there was nothing Bobby, Cas or I could do to make Sam see reason."
"And now," Castiel continued, squeezing Dean's shoulder briefly, "Gabriel's made the Demon Blood disappear and with it Ruby's influence. For the first time in months Sam is able to think clearly and he's beginning to realize his mistakes and how much his actions hurt the people he loves."
"He's a got a lot to deal with right now," Dean added, glancing concernedly at the door through which Sam had vanished.
"Why didn't you tell me all this sooner?" Adam asked, quietly.
Dean sighed. "Because it's not an easy topic, Adam," Dean explained. "You were hurt, hell, you still are, and you've been through so much already we just thought it would be best to wait a little longer until we drop that bombshell on you."
Adam looked down on his clasped hands. "I'm not a child, Dean," he said, looking back up. "I'm tougher than I look. I could have handled it."
"I know, you're a Winchester after all." Dean smiled wryly. "I'm sure you could have handled it but I wanted to give you a little bit more time to get used to everything. This is new for both of us." He paused, looking down thoughtfully. "Maybe we were the ones not ready to deal with this all along, and not you."
Adam smiled slightly. "It's alright, Dean," he said. "I'm just glad you told me and I'm glad that Gabriel could help Sam."
"Me too, kiddo, me too," Dean murmured. He affectionately ruffled Adam's hair. "So, how was your day? Did you have fun with Bobby?"
"Oh yeah," Adam smiled. "After your call we had lunch and then he showed me how to draw the Devil's Trap, first on paper and then with chalk on the floor."
"How did that go?"
"The paper part went quite well, I think," Adam started. "But drawing on the floor was more difficult than I imagined. The circle wasn't exactly round in the end," he admitted, smiling lopsidedly, "More like egg-shaped."
Dean laughed. "Don't worry, with time comes practice. Bobby wasn't mad, was he?"
Adam shook his head. "Not really. He just kept muttering to himself a lot."
"That sounds like him," Dean grinned.
Excited barking could be heard from outside and Adam looked curiously out of the window.
"Dean? There's another dog out there, playing with Rumsfeld," he stated, looking surprised.
"That would be Gabriel's dog," supplied Castiel. "I believe he called her Milo."
"Gabriel has a dog?" Adam asked, staring once more out of the window at the two dogs, playing happily with each other and the various multi-colored balls.
"Apparently," Dean said, rolling his eyes. "Like Cas said, Gabriel has been a Trickster for the last few centuries. He's not exactly the best example for an Archangel, I guess."
Adam grinned at him. "I think he's cool."
"Of course you would," Dean said drily. "Want to go outside and play with them?"
"Sure! You and Cas are coming too, right?" Adam asked.
"Of course," Dean said, grinning. "Cas loves dogs."
Castiel gave him a look. "I love all of my Father's creations," he said stiffly, looking anything but pleased about the prospect of having to deal with Rumsfeld and Milo once again.
"Sure you do," Dean said. He winked at Adam before grabbing Castiel's arm and dragging the Angel off the couch.
Together they made their way outside and around the house until they were met with two excited dogs running around the yard chasing the same yellow ball even though dozens of others were bouncing around them.
"Hey, guys!" Dean called and immediately both dogs looked up and started running towards him. He crouched down and petted both of them generously while Castiel stood uncomfortably next to him.
Adam chuckled and sat down. "Just mimic Dean," he advised. The Angel looked skeptical for a moment before he knelt down next to Dean. Rumsfeld merely glanced at him before he went over to Adam while Milo happily walked over to Castiel. The little Terrier waited patiently for Castiel to pet her and even offered him her belly to scratch after a few seconds.
"See?" Adam asked while petting Rumsfeld behind the ears, "She really likes you. It's a sign of trust that she allows you to scratch her belly."
Castiel looked astonished down at the white dog under his hand as a new voice said behind him, "She can sense that he's an Angel, you know."
Upon hearing her master's voice Milo got back on her feet and ran over to Gabriel, barking happily. The Archangel knelt down to take her into his arms.
"Hey, little girl, miss me?"
She licked his face in response and he laughed. When Dean saw him like this he could almost imagine Gabriel not as a Trickster but as an Archangel, a powerful but gentle being that used to bring messages to the people on Earth. It was a side of Gabriel he hoped to see more often, now that he was reunited with at least one of his brothers again.
The Archangel stood back up with Milo in his arms and looked at Castiel.
"She's used to sensing my Grace," he explained. "Yours feels familiar to her and she associates it with good things. Like treats." He grinned. "Want to give her some, Castiel?"
He snapped his fingers and suddenly Castiel held a dog treat in his hand.
"I don't know how," his brother admitted and Dean smiled fondly while Gabriel looked on, amused.
"Just hold out your hand to her and she will take it."
Castiel looked at Dean uncertainly. After an encouraging nod from him and Adam he tentatively held out his hand to Milo. The little dog squirmed in Gabriel's arms, trying to get closer to the treat and finally reached Castiel's hand. She immediately grabbed the biscuit and munched happily on it.
"See?" Gabriel grinned. "Wasn't too hard." He sat Milo back down and looked at Adam. "Reach into your pocket and give one to Rumsfeld as well, will you?"
Adam looked surprised when he found a dog treat similar to Castiel's in his pocket. After he gave it to Rumsfeld who was already waiting impatiently for his turn he looked back up at Gabriel.
"You'd be the highlight of every child's birthday party, with tricks like that," he said.
Gabriel looked intrigued. "You know, I never tried that. But I should!" He grinned gleefully. "Whose birthday is next?"
"We're not children anymore, Gabriel," Dean said patiently.
"Well," Gabriel replied thoughtfully, "I could turn you into one." He grinned.
"You can really do that?" Adam asked, looking excited.
Dean glared at him while Castiel frowned.
"You will not turn Dean or anyone else into a child, Gabriel," the Angel said, turning towards his brother. Gabriel scowled at him.
"You're such a spoilsport," he grumbled. "But I guess it would be kind of inconvenient. At least as long as we're trying to sabotage Heaven's plans," he added with newfound delight.
"What else can you do?" Adam asked, curiously, before Dean could stop him.
"Oh, lots of fun things!" Gabriel said, enthusiastically. "I can manipulate time, for example. Very entertaining, I can tell you. Or I can make things sappear, like the dog biscuits. Or create illusions. Say, do you have a favorite TV show?"
Adam looked thoughtful. "I've always liked Star Trek," he said after a moment.
"Perfect."
Gabriel snapped his fingers and a person shimmered into existence next to Adam. He was almost bald, and wore a teal-colored Starfleet uniform with a combadge attached to it. The look on his face was serious.
"Please state the nature of the medical emergency."
Adam looked like Christmas had come early.
"That's the EMH!" he exclaimed.
"Yep." Gabriel smiled lazily while Dean just shook his head and Castiel looked perplexed. "I thought about bringing Q," he went on, "But I figured one powerful being here was enough."
"This is so awesome!" Adam exclaimed and proceeded to shake the hand of the Doctor who looked bewildered around. Dean had not seen his brother that happy and carefree since they had found him and even though he did not particularly appreciate Gabriel fooling around he could not help but feel grateful towards the Archangel for giving Adam a few precious moments of childlike wonder.
"Are you injured?" asked the Doctor impatiently when Adam had finally let go of his hand.
"Uhm, no?"
Gabriel chuckled. "Computer," he said with a wink at Adam, "End program."
The Doctor vanished with an annoyed huff while Adam beamed at Gabriel.
"I don't really know what to say," he said, "But that was amazing! I wish my Mom could have seen it. She loved Voyager and the Doctor was her favorite character." He looked up towards the heavens and smiled sadly. "She had all the seasons on DVD and used to watch them with me."
Suddenly he looked back at Gabriel. "You said that you can manipulate time," he said with a hopeful expression. "Can't you go back in time and save her?"
Gabriel shook his head, and Adam's face fell. "I can't. Well, I could, actually," he said. When Adam looked hopefully at him again he held up his hand. "But it wouldn't matter. The thing with time travel is, Adam, that you can't change the past. You can visit it but you can't change it, no matter what you try."
"That's true," Dean said and laid a comforting hand on Adam's shoulder. "I tried to change the past once and everything still played out like it was supposed to. It's not worth the pain, believe me."
Castiel looked away at those words and bent down to pet Milo again who sat by his feet and observed Rumsfeld's play with the yellow ball.
Adam sighed but nodded. "It was just a thought," he mumbled and shrugged. "I miss my Mom."
"I know, kiddo, I know."
TBC