"So me and Sam are gonna head upstairs for a little bit," Dean begins explaining to Nathan while in the living room of the little boy's house. "If you hear anything, don't worry about it, ok? Just stick with Lizzy down here and we'll see you in a little bit."
"Ok," Nathan says quietly, reaching up for Lizzy's hand which she happily gives to him. He grips tightly to her through the glove she wears and looks straight up to her. Lizzy's heart melts with the expression on his face and in his eyes. It's total trust. Nathan has given his wellbeing over to her and she wants to cry with the faith he displays for her. Children are amazing like that. They trust first, assume the best out of everyone until they're given a reason not to.
"We're good," Lizzy shakily tells Sam and Dean as her emotions threaten to take over. Fuck this curse right in the ass. It's making her a wreck.
"You sure?" Sam skeptically asks with narrowed eyes.
"Shut up and go, huh?" Lizzy tells them both. "I'll shout if anything happens."
The two hunters head upstairs to begin their side of the plan while Lizzy sits in the center of the salt circle they made on the dark blue carpet.
"So, any other good jokes you want to share with me?" Lizzy smiles to Nathan as he sits on the floor facing her.
"Hmm," Nathan pretends to think while tapping his chin. Lizzy grins as she watches his antics before he starts. "Why did Tigger look in the toilet?"
"Ew," Lizzy scrunches her face with the obviously gross joke coming her way. "I don't know, why?"
"He was looking for Pooh!"
"Oh, gross Nate!" Lizzy feigns disgust by sticking her tongue out as she laughs. Nathan laughs also until he hears something hitting a wall hard upstairs. His expression changes from happy to scared in a second with the bang.
"It's just Sam and Dean, kiddo," Lizzy assures. "They have to make holes in some of the walls to help get rid of the bad thing. You ok?"
"Yeah," Nathan answers in a shaky voice. She can feel the worry begin to creep into him so she keeps the distractions coming.
"You know some very good jokes," Lizzy says as they hear more loud banging. "Can you give me another?"
"I got the east done," Sam says to Dean as he joins his brother in the master bedroom. "How's west coming?"
"Pretty much done," Dean answers while swinging one last time, his small sledgehammer knocking the already made hole in the dry wall into a slightly bigger one. He reaches into his pocket and drops a hex bag into the hole as Sam starts fishing out some more items from his duffel. "Alright, just the kitchen and living room to go."
"Here," Sam says while handing over a twine-tied bundle of herbs that they made back at the motel from what they picked up at the gypsy shop. Mostly Sage with a couple extra herbs that Missouri had suggested. "We'll do a full sweep up here before heading down."
Dean takes his Zippo out of his jacket and lights the herbs, the smoke from both bundles immediately curling into translucent tendrils into the air. They separate to cover the area faster and walk through each room on the floor, the smoke filling the air and hopefully driving away the evil that's taken up residence here.
When a full sweep is almost done Sam stands at the top of the stairs, watching as Dean finishes up the last room.
"We've got activity guys!" Lizzy's voice suddenly calls from the living room and almost immediately after they all hear the shattering of something in the kitchen. Sam quickly looks to Dean.
"You good to finish up here?" Sam asks quickly.
"Yeah, go," Dean says as he rushes to get the task at hand done so he can help out where the activity is. Sam leaves the doorway and starts pounding his feet down the stairs.
"What happened?" Sam asks Lizzy before he even makes it all the way down the staircase.
"The family portrait began rattling," Lizzy explains in her best I'm-not-alarmed-in-the-least voice. "Then I called up to you two and something in the kitchen smashed. We're ok in here though, right Nate?" Lizzy looks over to Nathan with a warm smile to hopefully get a positive reaction from him as the shaking and shattering around the house made him very nervous.
"Right," Nathan says with only half certainty.
"You're doing great, Nathan," Sam assures as he takes off for the kitchen. He finds shards of broken glass all over the floor by the counter along with several apples strewn about. It was the crystal fruit bowl Sam remembers seeing on the counter when they first gave the house a once over. Without pause he drops his bag by the northern facing wall and takes out his mallet. Running his fingers over the drywall he feels for seems until he finds a spot that he's confident will work. Sam takes a strong swing. The second the head of the mallet drives through the wall one of the apples that had been on the floor smashes into the wall a few inches from where Sam is standing, just missing his head. He jumps at first with the unexpected impact, eyes searching around the room for any other immediate threats, but then he ignores the whole thing and takes another swing to widen the hole just slightly. Once he makes contact again, several shards of glass come flying in his direction, the largest piece grazing his arm and slicing his skin open. The sharp sections of crystal hurl themselves into the drywall, several of them getting stuck into it.
"Fuck!" Sam complains as he sees his arm begin to bleed.
After hearing Sam swear loudly, Nathan's confidence drains as does the color in his face and he whips his little head to Lizzy with alarm.
"You ok Sam-I-Am?" she evenly asks over to him without even a hint of concern in her voice. She needs Nathan to relax if he's going to get through this. She also needs Nathan to relax if she's going to get through this. His emotions keep hitting her pretty hard with their severity.
"Yeah," Sam shouts back as Dean comes flying down the stairs.
"What happened?" he asks with worry after hearing his brother shout. "Where's Sam?"
"Right here," Sam answers as he walks into the living room, duffel over his shoulder and a dishrag being pressed onto his bleeding forearm.
"Are you hurt?" Nathan asks with super wide eyes. Lizzy can feel the panic and a little bit of blame taking the child over. The little guy knows this thing, whatever it is, is only there because it's attached to him. He feels like Sam's injury is his entire fault.
"I'm fine," Sam assures. "It was just an accident."
"And it had nothing to do with you. See, we're still ok," Lizzy says as she grabs Nathan's hand. The little boy scoots over and crawls into her lap. He settles in much like he had out on the lawn before coming inside. Lizzy looks to Dean and Sam and shakes her head, letting them know how much of a toll this is already taking on the child.
"Let's move, Sammy," Dean says while taking his mallet out of his bag once more. He nods his head towards Nathan to let Lizzy know he might get a little freaked.
"Cover your ears, hon," Lizzy tells Nathan and he does so, Lizzy covering over his hands with her own gloved ones for insurance. Dean hits the wall and Nathan jumps. He watches as the man he just met puts a hole in his house. He's confused to say the least so once the wall smashing is done, Lizzy tries to explain. "See what Dean's putting in the wall?" she points to the hex bag in his grip.
"Yeah," Nathan answers.
"That is going to help make the bad thing leave for good. It's kinda like the one around your neck. It'll protect you."
Dean pauses before finishing this step of their ritual and turns to face Nathan with a cool and collected tone. "Alright dude, I'm gonna need you to be brave right now, ok?" Dean warns. "It might get a little crazy in here once I put this in the wall. Can you be brave for us?"
Nathan just nods his head slightly as he beings to shake with nerves. Lizzy wraps her arms around his tiny frame, his anxiety transferring slightly harder onto her as she does, and she takes a very deep breath. Nodding to Dean, she gives him the go ahead.
Dean tosses the hex back into the wall and immediately a huge, ominous boom sounds throughout the house. All three hunters flinch and look around with surprise as Nathan slams his hands over his ears once more, his little body shaking even more.
"The hell was that?" Sam asks after they don't see anything around that could have caused the massive sound.
"No idea," Dean answers. "Let's keep going. I get the feeling that this thing isn't exactly thrilled with us now." Dean looks over to Lizzy and she reads his thoughts immediately. He's nervous now, nervous that the poltergeist will try to come after Nathan and, in turn, her.
"Go!" she tells him while tightening her grip on the small kid. Sam and Dean head to the dining room where they had already set up for the second part the cleansing ritual.
Standing at the dining room table, the candles lit and large gold ritual bowl filled with the necessary herbs , Sam opens the Latin bible to the reading they will need.
"Dean," Sam calls over to his brother. "I've got this in here if you want to stay in the living room." He saw the worry in Dean's whole body as he left Lizzy alone in there with Nathan.
Dean's torn completely with the offer. His brother needs his back up incase this thing gets pissed at his attempt to expel it but at the same time Lizzy is unprotected and left with helpless Nathan on the other side of the house. Shit…
"No," Dean answers as he walks over to Sam and tightens the dishtowel Sam had tied around his bleeding arm once he's made a snap decision. "Start reading, Sammy. L's good in there and she'll yell if she needs us."
Sam nods and takes out a book of matches. He lights one and lets it burn for a second while inhaling deeply. "Here goes nothing."
He drops the lit match into the bowl and the herbs flash brightly once before they start to smolder.
"Denique , exsisto validus in senior quod in suus validus vox," Sam begins to read and immediately the lights that are turned on in the house flicker in unison. "Inicio plenus loricatus of Deus , ut vos can take vestri obsto devilâs propositum." Sam stops when they hear a loud, shattering pop in the room next door.
Dean swiftly walks out of the room and into the hallway, stopping in the middle of it where he can see into the living room and the dining room at the same time.
"What's going on in there?" Dean yells to Lizzy.
"Light bulb burst," she shouts back. "We're good."
That wasn't exactly the truth. Nathan has a death grip on Lizzy's arms that are still around him and he's not holding up very well by now. He only gets worse when the lights finally stop flickering and all go out in unison.
"Sammy! Keep reading," Dean yells to his brother once they're thrown into darkness.
"Pro nostrum nixor est non obviam viscus quod cruor , tamen obviam satraps , obviam authorities , obviam vox illae atrum universitas quod obviam phasmatis copiae copie of malum in uranicus regnum. Shit!" Sam shouts out and ducks, getting out of the way just in time as a plate comes flying off a shelf on the other side of the room and toward his head. The fine china hits the wall behind him and it shatters loudly.
"Sam!" Dean's footsteps are heard marching quickly down the hall. Dean finds himself in a strange game of ping pong between checking on Lizzy and watching over Sam as the house gets more and more active by the second.
"I'm fine, Dean!" Sam shouts back. He knows now that he needs to get this done fast with the increasing assaults. As Dean rushes back into the dining room Sam keeps reading. "Proinde inicio plenus loricatus of Deus , ut ut dies of malum adveho , vos may polleo subsisto vestri humus…"
The sound of the large server cabinet scraping across the floor makes him pause once more. The heavy furniture slides quickly and rams straight into Dean, pushing him backwards until he's pinned between it and the wall.
"Ah! Shit!" Dean shouts out in between the heavy furniture and the hard wall, his pelvis and upper legs getting the brunt of the blow. His upper body slumps over the cabinet at first as he adjusts to the pain. At the same time as Dean cries out with the torment, so does Lizzy from the living room.
"Lizzy!" Nathan shouts when he hears her yell in obvious pain. He turns around in her lap and looks at her contorted face. "What's wrong!?" He's so confused. Nothing had touched her or even come near them.
"Nothing's wrong," she struggles out through the sudden mystery pain she feels in her lower half as she lets go of Nathan and grasps onto her hips with the ache in them. She begins to worry instantaneously. The only reason she's ever felt phantom pain like this is when Dean was hurt. "Dean!"
"I'm alright, L!" Dean lies to her through a struggled voice before turning to look at Sam. "Keep going!" The furniture continues crushing him as he tries to push against it with no avail. It won't budge as the invisible force keeping it there is stronger than him.
"Quod secundum vos have perfectus panton , subsisto. Consto tunc , per belt of verum buckled inter vestri waist , per thorax of righteousness in locus."
Lizzy's attention is pulled away from her pain temporarily as she watches the family portrait that had been trembling before falls off the wall, smashing onto the floor. A sudden, inexplicable wind is felt throughout the home and Lizzy panics. The salt line, though thick, is not meant to hold up to such an attack. She watches helplessly as the grains of salt start to scatter as the unexplainable breeze picks up and the line eventually breaks.
"Get up," Lizzy says while quickly standing and pulling Nathan to his feet. She hugs him into her side and he wraps his arms around her waist. They need to be on their feet in case they need to flee suddenly since their little force field is now useless. She stumbles forward a few steps when she feels something nudge her in the back. Of course nothing was there.
"Lizzy…" Nathan nervously looks up to her as he shivers in fright. Worried for him, she picks the boy up and perches him onto her hip. As they both wrap their arms around each other, Lizzy realizes what a mistake she's made. Nathan, hugging her in with all his strength, presses his cheek to hers and Lizzy is hit like a Mack truck with his fear. She's flooded by it completely and it makes her stunned, her brain scrambled by panic.
"Nathan, calm down," Lizzy tries to bring the child back down. "Please , dude. For me. We're both ok, right?"
"Yeah," he answers with his face buried under her hair into her neck as he tries desperately to hide from the scary things around him.
"So relax," Lizzy tries again without it working. "Buddy, you gotta do this for me. It's really important that you be brave and stop being scared." She brings a hand to the back of his head and grips him in tight while she turns a full three-sixty around the room. Trying to catch any looming threats early on she freezes in her place when she watches the very large, single paned living room picture window begin to quiver violently.
"Quod per vestri feet aptus per readiness ut adveho ex evangelium of pacis," Sam continues to read while he can hear both Lizzy and Dean struggling horribly around him.
"Hurry Sam!" Dean's voice shouts out through gritted teeth as the heavy furniture continues to pin him. He's hurting and knows Lizzy must be two. She can always feel his anguish as her own and he hopes it isn't interfering with her keeping Nathan safe.
"Ut totus is, suscipio contego of fides, quicum vos can extinguish totus flamma telum of malum unus."
The entire house begins to shake as Sam prepares to finish the reading.
"Take galea of salus quod mucro of Phasmatis, quod est vox of Deus!"
The house quakes with the loud burst that that reverberates throughout the entire structure and at the same time the loud shattering of glass can be heard from the living room.
Lizzy feels the foundations of the house begin to vibrate under her feet. Thinking quickly, she shoves her hand in between her and Nathan's cheeks, making their skin separate, and she instantly regains her wits. The fear subsiding enough for her to function, Lizzy reacts last minute and dives to the floor just before the forceful jolt rocks through the house. It causes the window to blow into the room with the surge of energy.
As she fell to the floor she got Nathan lying on his side with his back against the bottom of the couch. Lizzy fell on top of him, covering her body over his completely for protection.
The shards of glass rain down over them the second the window breaks and as soon as it happens it's over. The house is absolutely silent for a few seconds before she hears Dean and Sam's voices in the other room. Deciding it best not to move with sharp shards of glass all around them, Lizzy holds still and starts talking to Nathan to ensure he's ok.
"Nathan?" Lizzy calls out his name. "Nathan, talk to me."
"Lizzy," Nathan's sob choked voice answers her.
"Don't move, ok?" Lizzy instructs. "Sam and Dean will come get us soon. Did you get hurt?"
"I want my mom." His small, torn voice makes her so sad to hear that she wants once more to cry.
"I know you do, hon," Lizzy says to him, the boy shaking all over. "We're gonna go to them real soon. Stay tough with me. We're almost done. Are you hurt at all?"
"No," Nathan chokes out and Lizzy lets out a very relieved breath.
Nathan's sadness continues to fill the quiet room as Lizzy works so hard to not let his sorrow take her emotions over. She strains to listen to what's happening in the other room, hearing some large furniture scraping the floor as the pain in her hips and upper legs finally starts to lessen. It's then that she feels the pain of her own wounds. Her arm she's laying on underneath her hurts along with the back of her calf, but not so badly that she's worried. She's felt worse before, much worse.
"Lizzy!" Dean calls out as she can hear the sound of his heavy boots getting closer to her.
"We're good!" Lizzy calls out while still facing the couch. "Just get the glass off so we can get up."
"Nate, how you doing in there?" Dean calls out as he pulls his bare hands into his jacket sleeves to protect them and begins removing the sharp pieces off of Lizzy's body.
"I'm scared," Nathan answers.
"You did great, dude," Dean assures him while continuing his work. "And it's all over. Nothing's going to bother you anymore."
"Really?" his small, blocked voice asks.
"Really," Dean answers as Sam comes in and helps him clear off Lizzy. "Oh crap."
"What?" Lizzy asks quickly when she feels Dean's hands inspecting her lower leg.
"Ah, well, you got a little stabbed," Dean says calmly, obviously trying to not alarm her.
"It's not too bad though," Sam reassures as he runs to the kitchen to get her the other dishrag he saw hanging off the stove handle.
"I think you're ok," Dean tells her as he grabs her gloved hand when they clear away as much glass as possible from the two. "Move slow in case we missed something."
"Crap," Lizzy complains lowly as she steps onto her stabbed leg, the pain hitting her once there is weight on it. It hurts more than she'd expect it to but at this point in her life it wasn't unmanageable.
"Oh no!" Nathan cries out as Dean pulls him onto his feet. "Lizzy! You're leg!"
She looks down to see it. The glass shard, which is quite large, is still sticking straight out of her. To most people it'd look pretty bad, but to Lizzy it was just another day.
"Nah, it's not so bad. My leg will be fine, don't you worry," Lizzy smiles to him while holding out her hand to Sam who is extending the clean rag in her direction.
"Sit down," Dean tells her while pointing to the recliner that had been out of reach for the glass shrapnel. Lizzy lowers down into it as Dean kneels on the floor in front of her.
"You're arm's a mess," Sam points out, seeing the shredded cloth of her long sleeved shirt covered in deep red stains. "Might have to go glass fishing later."
"That's ok. I can hack it," Lizzy smiles at Nathan as Dean pops her ankle up on his shoulder, looking at the glass piece in the underside of her leg.
"Ready?" Dean asks but doesn't wait for an answer. He pulls the large chunk of glass out of her lower leg and immediately covers over it with the rag. Much like Sam had done to his arm earlier, Dean ties the cloth tightly around her calf to stop the bleeding that began as soon as the obstruction was out.
"Alright, we can finish patching me up later," Lizzy calmly answers while standing up from her seat. She walks to Nathan and takes his hand. "What do you say we go outside and say hi to mom and dad? We can tell them the good news that the bad thing is gone."
Nathan smiles wide and starts marching for the door. They carefully navigate their way around the many sharp pieces and walk out of the house together.
Sam and Dean make their way to the front door, Dean stretching his sure-to-be-sore-tomorrow muscles as he does, and they watch Lizzy walk Nathan to his waiting parents. When Nathan sees them he lets go of Lizzy's hand and sprints to them, crashing into his father in a huge hug that his mother quickly joins into also.
"Alright. It was worth it," Dean grumbles to himself as he views the family happily embracing while slowly moving his body to hopefully loosen up his muscles and take away some of the pain.
"Huh?" Sam questions, unsure of where Dean is going with that remark.
"That," Dean nods to the scene. "Seeing that makes the crap all worth it."
"Oh," Sam says, surprised by the comment his brother makes. "Definitely. S'why we do this shit, right?"
"Right."
Sam then studied his brother's face as he watches Nathan with his parents. Longing. It's clear as day on him and it gets even stronger when he sees Nathan jump onto Lizzy in a big thank you hug.
"She wants that, doesn't she?" Sam asks Dean.
"Who wants what now?" Dean asks with a confused expression as he's snapped out of his train of thought.
"Lizzy," Sam explains himself. "She wants that."
Dean stays quiet, still keeping his sights trained on the family as they thank Lizzy, Nathan perched on her hip and his arms around her neck in a big hug.
"I kinda figured after seeing her with Nathan," Sam says, taking Dean's silence for the answer that it is. "The family, the kid, the house… she wants out."
"Of course she does," Dean shrugs. "This, hunting, was supposed to be temporary thing for her."
"What do you mean?" Sam questions
"She never meant to make this her entire life," Dean further explains. "Told me when we first met that she was gonna get out at some point, do the regular life thing. Of course that was before…"
"Lou died," Sam finishes for his brother, knowing Lou's death really changed a lot for Lizzy.
"And she met me," Dean guiltily adds. "And you. And before Cas and the angel link and all the rest of the shit."
"There's no getting out for her, is there?" Sam asks with a heavy heart.
"Sammy, I'm starting to think there's no getting out for any of us."
The silence grips their conversation again when they watch on, Lizzy now explaining the mess the house is in and assuring Nathan's parents that her injuries are nothing to worry about, all the while with Nathan still in her hold. He has his cheek pressed against her shoulder as the excitement of the night catches up to him. Now that he knows he's safe, he's exhausted. Nathan's so comfortable with her that his eyelids droop and he starts to fall asleep in her arms.
"You think about that ever, that kinda life?" Sam asks, knowing full well that Dean does. "You want that?"
"Doesn't matter what I want," Dean answers, never taking his eyes off of Lizzy as she treats Nathan with such love and warmth. "It can't happen so why bother thinking about it?"
"Yeah…" Sam trails off. "I think about it too sometimes."
It was so unfair. Dean and Lizzy would be great with kids. They balance each other out so well that Sam can only assume they'd make a well balanced, well adjusted, and very happy family. Both would do anything to give their child or children the best life they could. Dean and Lizzy love each other so much that Sam sometimes believes they need to have a kid to share that with or else it's honestly a waste. They deserve that life but life seems pretty fucking dead set against giving it to them.
"Eh, I'd probably fuck up a kid anyways," Dean huffs sadly. "I'm not exactly a model citizen, right?"
Dean slaps a hand onto Sam shoulder before he walks outside to pack up the car, effectively ending their conversation. They need to get Lizzy back to fix up her wounds before heading to that gypsy shop anyways. With how many times he thought the whole family thing through and through, Dean doesn't need to talk it out also. It'll never happen. Just wasn't ever in the cards for him or for Lizzy, no matter how much they might want it.
Life sucks, get a helmet someone once said to him…. Best advice he's ever been given.
