Don't Cry
I
thought I could live in your world
As years all went by
With
all the voices I've heard
Something has died
________________________________________
Alex looked at the river and whistled lowly. "This can't be good." The demon said to Bobby Singer. "This is the fourth river we have come across with nothing living in it. It smells like boiled fish out here too."
Bobby knelt by the river and examined one of the fish that had washed up. "This ain't one of those seals you can stop. It's not a seal. It's a sign." He said, looking around. "This is in no way good." They were losing. They were doing everything they could and they were still losing.
"Yeah, well, there are more signs than seals these days. It's getting closer." The demon said and actually looked a little fearful. "We aren't gonna be able to stop this. It's coming down to the wire. We're talking weeks if we are lucky. Then hell comes to us."
"You forget who's working on this." Bobby said. "Winchesters work best on a deadline and by the seat of their pants. It's not over yet."
"Sam is doing all he can. It just might not be good enough. Hope that hidey hole you have at your place is big enough for a small army." Alex said and turned to walk away. "He said to meet him at a bar in town. Thinks there is more going on here than dead fish and a hot river."
"Always is." Bobby said with a sigh. "And you better hope they stop this. Because my hidey hole as you call it, demons can't enter it. It's why I created it. Well, let's not keep Sam waiting."
Sam was looking over the extended book of revelations and he was frowning. The river had been boiling not long ago. The animals were dropping dead. Everyone was wandering around talking about possible seismic activity, maybe some new volcanic hot bed was forming and the gasses were killing off the birds and fish, but Sam knew better.
"So what did you find?" Bobby asked, grabbing a beer and heading over to the booth Sam was hunched over. "Smells like a tuna factory out there. Smell ain't gonna get any better as the afternoon heats up."
"The church just outside of town has been desecrated. To the point that holy water made the ground sizzle." He said. "Two little girls have disappeared. They think they got lost in the woods and are going to drag the river for them."
Bobby shook his head. Those poor parents. If those little girls got into the river, all they'd find is two boiled meat sacks that looked nothing like their children. "Been hearing on the news about uproars and riots. Religious hysteria is building."
"Can't say I am surprised. Especially from the fundamentalist crowd. They have been waiting for this to start for as long as there have been fundamentalists. I don't think those girls are in the river. I think they are slated for sacrifice." He said as he turned the book toward Bobby so he could see what he was looking at.
Bobby scanned the page and dismay flooded his face. "All right, then we need to find those girls and get them out of town." He said.
"There isn't much time. I figure if we don't find them by sundown, we aren't going to. "Sam said. "If we can't find the girls we have to wipe the town." He knew the odds weren't in the girls' favor. But he also knew that if he didn't give Bobby at least a little time to try and find them he would never forgive him. "We can't afford to let another seal be broken."
"Sam!" Bobby said, his jaw on the floor. "This town has twenty thousand people in it. You can't just wipe a whole town."
"We have to stop the seal. We have two ways to do that. We get the girls out of town or we get rid of the town. Letting this seal get broken is not an option. We can't afford to lose another." It was a matter of logic, really. Twenty thousand, verses the whole world. Sam would have to choose the world.
Bobby finished his beer. "Guess I better start looking then." He said and looked at his watch. "I'll let you know when I find them."
"Bobby… " Sam said. "Take Pamela with you. She might be able to help. But if you don't find them, you two get out of town before sun down. I mean it."
Bobby nearly asked 'and if I don't?' But didn't at the last minute. Because he didn't want to know what the answer would be to that. This was heart breaking enough, hearing the words that were already said, and hearing them in Sam's voice. So instead he nodded and adjusted his cap. "Wish me luck."
"Devon, you take a few of the boys and make a sweep of the town as well. Help out as much as you can." He said as he got to his feet. He had things he needed to do as well. He had to set things up to blow the town if they couldn't find the girls in time. He really did hope Bobby found the children in time. But he didn't have a lot of faith.
Bobby and Pamela made a frantic sweep. He was an excellent tracker, and she was a honed psychic. But finally the sun set.
"If I stay right here," Bobby asked Pamela, "do you really think he'll do it?"
Pamela looked heartbroken. "Yes… I do." She hated saying it but this wasn't their Sam anymore. He was hardened in ways she couldn't understand. Couldn't reach. "Let's go before we find out the hard way."
Bobby took Pamela's arm and raced toward his car, calling Sam. "Sam, give me three minutes to get beyond the town limits." He said. He was, after all, leading a blind girl.
There was a sigh of relief on the other end. "You've got it." Sam said. He hadn't wanted to kill Bobby or Pamela. But he couldn't let another seal slip through his fingers. "Call me when you are out."
"Just stay on the line then." Bobby said as he slammed on the accelerator, the roaring and gunning of the engine clearly heard over the phone. "Getting past the last main strip now." Dammit, he was going to do it. And he would have done it even if Bobby tried to stay. He wiped at his eyes as he drove fast.
Sam waited for the car to cross out of the city limits then nodded curtly to the demons surrounding him. Their hosts slumped to the ground and the demons descended upon the city like the angel of death from the Ten Commandments. A dark inky blackness swirling through the buildings and roads, blanketing it in a think black fog.
The ground shook and screams filled the air, from below as fires burst forth from all corners, explosions rocked the buildings, leveling the town in mere minutes, leaving it a burned and barren wasteland. The blackness returned, and one by one the demons host bodies rose to their feet.
Bobby watched from his car, just beyond the limits. "My god." He said in horror. "The kid just leveled a town with demons." There was nothing left. Not a skeleton, not a building, nothing but parched, burned earth and remnants of smoke.
Pamela's face was covered in tears, her slender body wracked with sobs. The psychic had felt it all, had seen it in ways that Bobby couldn't. "We've lost him." She said finally. "We've finally lost him."
Sam and the others walked slowly, casually toward their cars, as though nothing had happened. Just another night at work.
"Dammit." Bobby said. "He did this to prevent one seal, and he might have opened another because of it." Himself. "What would Dean do in this situation? I know what John would do, and it's not helpful."
"Dean would try and literally beat some sense into his brother, but I don't think it's a good idea to take that tactic with him right now. " Pamela said. "I don't think anyone other than Dean would get away with it and I'm not sure the demons would let him get that close."
"Let's face it, if Dean were here, the demons wouldn't have a choice." Bobby said, shaking his head. "I don't know what we're going to do now. We've managed to keep Sam as Sam for a few months now, but apparently the clock ran out."
"The question is do we stay here with Sam or do we go and try and find Dean to help him." They might be able to leave. Sam was getting more distant every day. He might not care if they disappeared with how this had turned out. He would have killed them if he had to in leveling the town. He had become that cold.
"I don't know that Dean is much better. I haven't talked to Missouri in a while, but last update Dean was an angry drunk with a death wish." Bobby said.
"Which one is the better bet on being able to help?" Pamela said. "Maybe we should find some neutral location and do our best to help both of them. Has to be some way to keep the angels and demons off our ass. If both boys know where we are… maybe we can help them find each other."
"It's worth a shot." Bobby said. "Let's get to a hotel and see where we'll stand after all this." Sam had rented out a floor on a hotel for his demon buddies and his human buddies.
"Alright." She didn't want to go back there. Not after what had just happened. She couldn't look at Sam the same way. It was as though he was a completely alien creature now. She blamed Uriel and those like him. They had broken Sam's faith, his hope, and his soul. He had been salvageable until the day Uriel had taken him prisoner. Those weeks he had been tortured had altered him. Not merely his eyes.
"We need to eat." Bobby said. "And rest somehow. Anyway, all our stuff is there. We'll figure this out. Can't wait to see how the news covers this one though."
"They are down playing everything. " She said. "All the earth quakes, the riots, the droughts and floods and everything else is being down played, but they know… they know what's coming. They don't realize it's hell, they thing the earth is just self destructing, but they know."
"Yeah, maybe." Bobby said as they got to the hotel. They took turns showering and ordered room service. Then Bobby turned on the TV, and started out of his chair. "Sam!" He yelled down the hall. "You better get in here, boy."
Sam was down the hall at a run, something in Bobby's tone told him it was urgent. He came in and looked at the TV and smiled, the first genuine smile in a very long time. He was looking at Larry King, seated across from Dean. The captioning listed him as John M. Osbourne. A theologian. A biblical scholar. He laughed out loud then and went to the phone, dialing the number shown on the screen. He gave the name Randall Rhoads to woman manning the switchboard.
"Dr Osbourne, you're telling me that the events happening now are right out of Revelations?" Larry King asked Dean.
Dean sat back in his chair, glasses on, in a nice suit. He figured it made him look more scholarly. He'd even fully shaved. "The signs are all there. But what's important for people to know is to not panic. By panicking and doing something stupid, they just feed into even more, making it worse."
"Some say that this is just the earth self destructing, environmental damage finally gone too far."
"Well, they'd be wrong. The greenhouse effect has nothing to do with Israel and Palestine uniting peacefully. Nor Europe uniting fully under a single government."
"That's interesting....world peace is considered a harbinger of end of days." Larry King said. "We'll take a call. The first is Randall Rhoads. Randall, you're on the air." Dean straightened up. Randall Rhoads? Oh that was good.
"Only your brother has the audacity to present himself as a Revelations expert using Ozzy's name." Pamela said with a laugh.
Sam cleared his throat. "So what is it you recommend people do, while they are not panicking?" He asked. "Hard not to with the rivers boiling and people beginning to starve due to the loss of so many crops because of the flooding and drought." He had to keep it on topic, but he could hear his brother's voice. See his brother's face, and know that he was okay.
Dean grinned at the sound of his brother's voice. Sam was alive. And able to make a coherent thought. And deliberately calling him, even if by a roundabout way. "I'd tell them to start practicing whatever religion they find comfort in. Whether Catholicism, Judaism, nature worship, or the sock puppet snake Alan Moore worships." He said. "Rioting's not the answer. Killing isn't the answer, and most certainly not is hysteria the answer. Things are bad. They're going to get worse. But if we face this together with a brotherly bond, I think we can make it."
"The sock puppet might be more effective than anything else you have named. After all, if we believe in the religions of the world, this was destined to happen. It's the trumpet heralding judgment day." One they both wanted to silence. "Maybe it's time to go back to the beginning."
"All religions also state redemption at the end." Dean said. "It's important also to remember that we're reading the words of men from thousands of years ago who were trying to tell a good story. But returning to the beginning of things is always a good place to try and figure out a problem. A man has two beginnings though, their innocence of childhood, or when they're forced into adulthood."
"While a man's childhood sets him on the path, it's the adult life that is the path. I would think the second is more symbolic, more significant. It's the adult life that is called to judgment, it's the man whose actions change the world for good or evil."
Dean nodded. He got it, even as Larry didn't. "It sounds like a good plan." He said. "Our choices do influence the world, every single one. For better or worse. It's important to make those choices for the better, and not let ourselves be consumed by fear and hysteria. By finding a path we can follow, we might have a chance, no matter how hard the road is." He was, after all, supposed to be calming people.
"Some roads are going to be blocked. Patience is required. But the world is on the fast track to hell. While panic is a mistake, difficult decisions have to be made or all is lost."
"Difficult decisions are always made." Dean said with a sigh. "Doesn't help when we're given a narrow frame work to work within."
"It seems to me that you're exchanging riddles with our callers." Larry interjected.
"Always am." Dean said with a slight grin.
"I should allow another caller to come through." Sam said. "I'm sure there is another that wants to talk to you." He knew Bobby would as well, and Sam had plans to make to get to Palo Alto. "Remember though, patience in all things." Just in case someone tried to stop one of them. Who ever got there first would have to wait. "And tried and true methods are best." They had a long established way of finding each other should they get separated.
"Thank you, Randall." Larry said as Sam hung up and Bobby grabbed the phone. "Our next caller is Andrea. Andrea, go ahead."
"Wow, Dr Osbourne, you are just the cutest doctorate I've ever seen!" Some woman gushed.
"Well, thank you." Dean said with a chuckle.
"Unbelievable. I can't get through because women want to hit on your brother." Bobby said.
"Oh, I believe it." Sam said with a grin. "Keep trying. You'll get through. I'll go get everyone off on the next mission while we go to Palo Alto in the morning." He wasn't going to greet his brother with a hoard of demons.
"You figured out Palo Alto from that conversation?" Pamela asked, amused.
"Going back to the beginning. Where it all started or where it was forced home and I was brought back into the hunt. The second location was Palo Alto. Where my fiancé was murdered." He said as he left the room.
Bobby sat down on the bed. "He might be lost to us, but he's not lost to Dean yet." Bobby said. "I'm clinging to that."
"I hope you are right. I do… but I have a bad feeling about this." Pamela said. "I don't know why, but I have a very bad feeling."
Dean pulled out of the studio, tossing the glasses into the back seat and stripping off his jacket. Loosening his tie, he called Missouri, since it was broadcast live. "You see that?" He asked Missouri. "Switchboard lady said I was a big hit with the female demographic." He said with a grin. "And did you hear Sam?" He needed someone else to have heard his brother, to prove that it really happened.
"I saw." She said. "And I heard. It was definitely Sam. Dean, you have to be careful in Palo Alto. Not because of Sam, I think you and Sam are going to be just fine, but there is something huge building and it's heading that way. I don't know what it is, but it will be there soon."
"Well, that's the last thing I want to hear." Dean said. "Something huge and I don't have a freaking army. At least Sam has an army from what I hear. Sure, it's made of demons, which is just freaky, but I'm getting sick of doing all the heavy lifting."
"I wish I could give you more information but my own visions are fuzzy. You two will meet up, and I don't know how but if all goes the way it should, everything will be put right. But if it goes wrong… oh don't let things go wrong. Wrong is the end of the world as we know it."
"Thought you said if I cut down on the booze life would get a little easier?" Dean said. "That sounds like false advertising to me."
"Imagine how much harder this would be to deal with when you can't walk a straight line." She said with a faint laugh. "It's almost over… one way or another this path is almost at its end. And you are going to face this with your brother at your side. Take faith in that." She said.
"Well, like you said, I'm a con man. And I'm nearly out of faith." As much as he had just told the nation to hold onto theirs. "But I've got perseverance. That will have to do."
"I think that will do nicely." He had faith, he just wouldn't let himself admit it and Missouri knew it. He had faith in Sam. She wasn't going to poke holes in that faith, simply because she didn't share it. He needed that faith in order to bring this nightmare to an end.
"It'll have to." Dean said. He was taking the back roads to Palo Alto, because the cities were in uproar. He didn't have time to get caught in all that. He didn't know where Sam was, but though patience was the name of the game, he didn't want Sam to have to wait too long.
Castiel appeared in the passenger's seat. "It's time." He said cryptically. He wasn't going to interfere with Dean and Sam's meeting. But he was going to help Dean prepare for it. It was time that met those who would stand at his back in the final battle.
"Gotta go." He said to Missouri and hung up the phone, looking at Castiel. "It's time for me to hang out with my brother. And not even hell is going to stop me this time, got it?" He said as he drove down a winding road at a breakneck speed in the dwindling light.
"I'm not here to stop you." Castiel said simply. "But it's time to meet your army. " He knew that Dean faced the most difficult battle of his young life. He was going to face it with the host of heaven behind him. But he had to know them to command them.
"Can we do it later? I'm in a rush." Dean said, then slammed on the brakes. There was an idiot standing in the middle of the road. He barely avoided hitting him. More importantly, he'd barely avoided wrecking his car. He got out of the car and walked over to the guy, who was still standing in the middle of the road. "You got a death wish or something?" He demanded. "I nearly ran you over like a squirrel!"
Castiel exited the car and walked around to stand next to the two. "Dean, this is Michael. Michael… Dean. "
"I have heard much about you." Michael said, and he had. Laura loved this man, and spoke of him often. He had lived up to her words, even if he had not lived up to the traditional expectations of a godly hero. This was no Joshua, no David. But then again, David had been a less than godly man in his day.
Dean looked at Michael. So this was the angel that Laura prayed to all the time. The one that had taken her away, actually, instead of healing her like the others had done him. He had to look away. "So you're my army? I'm sure you're a big deal, heard a lot about you too, but we're talking apocalypse and Armageddon."
"The others follow me." Michael said. He sensed what Dean was thinking, but thought better of explaining. It wasn't required to understand, only to obey. Something humans had a great deal of difficulty with.
"And you'll follow me?" Dean asked. "No matter what?" He'd already proven unconventional in the way he kept seals shut.
"In so far as your orders do not conflict with those I receive from our father, I am to obey your orders to the letter." Michael said simply.
"Dude, you're like a freaking robot." Dean said. "Well, what are the orders from God? So at least I have a head's up. Because I'm kinda out of the loop here."
Michael chuckled softly as though responding to something else he was hearing. "Because you have chosen to be. I am to follow your orders, and protect you. So far those are my orders. But I am the eldest of all angels. First created by god, and as such, the first one that gets called to action when needed."
"Well, I know something you don't know." Dean said with a grin. "And it's gonna help us win this thing. You, Castiel, the whole lot of you, you can visit hell to release a soul or whatever. But you've never lived there. I have."
"What is this bit of information that's going to help us win the war?" Michael asked. He had suspected that was why they had chosen a man from hell itself to lead the army. It couldn't have just been the hope that he would keep Samuel from crossing into darkness.
"I was taken off the rack. I was supposed to be the next big thing down there." Dean said as he headed back to his car. He didn't like to think about it, never mind talk about it. "I heard things. Once I was able to ignore the screams in my head, started to make sense why I was brought back. Don't worry, you're on a need to know basis also. But I have an appointment to keep. And really? The force hell is bringing up? I'm gonna need more than two angels and my good looks."
"You will have them." Michael said. He would make sure of it. "But did you really want to meet a legion of angels on a back road in the middle of the night?" He asked with a smile. "I hope this information you have will win the day. We're running out of them."
"Depends. I certainly wouldn't object to running into a legion of Victoria's Secret angels, all bound to do my bidding on a back road." He said with a grin. "And I hope so too." But it was the last card he had to play.
Michael chuckled. "Wings do not an angel make." He looked to Castiel then back to Dean. "You will be protected when you go to meet your brother. He is unlikely to harm you… unless he has passed too far into darkness, but his cohort cannot be trusted."
"His cohort?" Dean asked. "Bobby? Pamela? No, I don't need to be protected from Sam. Sam wouldn't hurt me." He wouldn't either. Unless he was possessed. Or screwed with by a ghost. Sam was more likely to just leave than physically hurt Dean. "How about this? I order you all to stay back, we'll meet....I don't know, I'll be hungry. So some diner. I'll get in touch with Cas, or you, or someone and set up a rendezvous point. But you're not scaring off my brother. He already thinks you all want him dead. Forget it. Stay back. That's an order."
"A cohort is a military unit. 100 men to a century, 6 centuries to a cohort, 10 cohorts to a legion." Michael said. "Your brother has been amassing an army. A smallish one, but an army of demons nonetheless. It's not your brother I am concerned with protecting you from."
"And you've got your orders." Dean said. "From me. You screw this up for me, deal's off. I mean it." He desperately needed to see his brother. To see him, not just hear his disembodied voice in a studio.
Michael didn't say anything else. Not to be there would be to disobey his father who had ordered him to protect this man. But there were ways to go about it without being seen by anyone. "Contact Castiel when you want to meet. Or you can call my name. I'll know when you mean me."
"Fine." Dean said and got back into the Impala, heading to Palo Alto. Palo Alto was a big town though, so he found the apartment building that Sam and Jess had lived in and waited across the street with a large cup of coffee. He looked up at the sky. And it was...bright. It was nine o'clock at night. It shouldn't be bright.
Sam slid into the passenger's side of the Impala and sighed. "This feels good." He said with a smile as he closed the door. "How are you? And if you say fine, I swear I'm gonna short sheet your bed."
Dean laughed as he grinned at his brother. "I'm actually not too bad." He said. "Probably not fine, but not too bad. You?" He said as he looked at his brother. His brother was actually there. Right there in the passenger seat, and Dean had to resist the urge to reach out and punch Sam in the arm just to make sure that he was really there. So instead he reached over and took off the sunglasses. It was night after all "I know about the eyes, bitch."
"Been better, been worse." He said honestly. "Yeah… the eyes… I sent the son of a bitch that did it to hell. He ever crawls out of there I bet he won't give you as much lip." Sam said. "So… wow… If Bobby hadn't turned on the TV I wouldn't be sitting here right now. Dude, John M Osbourne. That was messed up."
"That was brilliant." Dean said as he drove toward a coffee shop nearby. "Like Randall Rhoads was any less messed up? Probably didn't make much of a dent, but if three people listened to me, that's three less people adding to the chaos. Gotta take the victories where I can take them."
"Randall Rhoads didn't go around calling himself the prince of darkness and pretending to bite the heads off bats." Sam said with a grin. "But I hear ya. The victories have been getting smaller lately. Why the hell is it light out?" Sam asked, looking out the window.
"Something's going on." Dean said. "I'm hoping at least for a cup of coffee with my brother before we have to go save the world." He grinned. "Let's face it, our respective armies aren't gonna get along."
"Yeah that's an understatement." He said. "But that is why I told them to go deal with another seal down in Baja." He didn't want them anywhere near his brother. There was a resentment there that he didn't want to turn into something more substantial.
"I got to give Archangel Michael a direct order. Felt good. Maybe next week I'll have him buff out the car." Dean said with a grin. He pulled into a coffee shop and just looked at his brother. "You know, that's actually a pretty girly shade of yellow come to think about it."
"Again with the girly." Sam said shaking his head. "The only one that thinks I'm girly is you, ya know." He laughed. "Jerk."
"Bitch." Dean said as he got out of the car. "Only one who says that, huh? Has nothing to do with the fact that you surround yourself with demons. Remind me again about that power you've got? You know, the one where you can rip them out of their bodies and throw them back into hell? I wouldn't call you girly either if that was hanging over my head. Doesn't mean I wouldn't think it. A lot. Often. Let's get a cup of coffee. You can catch me up on you."
"And that is so not a girly power. I'm telling you. It rocks. Bobby and Pam are in town too, they are wanting to see you. I think my crowd creeps them out, so … you know if you think you can keep the angelic choir boys from going after them… maybe they should go with you."
"Yeah, because Pamela wants to hang out with angels. She and Castiel can become friends, I bet she'd love to see his face. Oh wait, she can't because he burned the eyes out of her head." Dean pointed out as he grabbed coffee and led Sam to an isolated booth. "This is so screwed up though. How'd it end up like this, Sam? Us?"
"Oh angelic intervention and a lot of bad luck." Sam said as he settled into the booth. "Or maybe the demonic intervention when they talked Mom into making a deal." He shrugged. "Not sure the how's and whys matter anymore. They will just say it's all because of free will anyway."
"Yeah, well, they can kiss my ass." Dean said with a scowl. "Missouri caught with me at one point. Talk about a pain in the neck. Next time, I'm siccing her on you. I mean it." Winchesters were hard drinkers by nature. Sam was probably slamming them back too whenever he got the chance.
"Bobby told me she was trying to get you into an AA meeting." Sam said. "Not surprised, you were slamming them back hard core before we split ways." Like Sam had been after Dean's death. Like Bobby had.
"Yeah, well, don't get your hopes up, I didn't go." Dean said. "Well, I went into the building, but all the chicks were old, so I left." He said breezily. "So, how long until the world falls apart? I mean, me, you, public place, after all the trouble the angels went to." And he wasn't convinced it was just the angels, but he didn't need Sam distrusting the things keeping him somewhat safe.
"Oh, probably any minute now judging by the sky and the fact that nothing has stopped us from getting together." Sam said. "Since you don't look plowed, I'm betting you didn't need to in order to take care of business."
"I cut down." Dean said. "We're both bastards to the core, but one thing we don't have is a weak will. I just decided to put it down for a while. And realized I don't need to drink four bottles a night to keep the economy going, that it will be in the shitter whether I drink or not. So what do you think? Meteor shower? Only natural disaster that hasn't happened yet."
"Yeah that's about it. And with both of us here… it's gonna be big. So… think we can stop the son of a bitch from getting out of hell or should we call it a night and go down a couple beers?" He asked rhetorically. Wouldn't matter if they could do it or not, they would try. Even if they died trying.
"The beers sound good, but dammit if we let him walk, the bars will close. Then where will that leave us?" Dean asked with a playful grin. "Guess we're just gonna have to buckle down and stop him. Think he'll wait until I finish my coffee? That would be preferable."
"Might as well finish our coffee. Can't stop a sign and I don't remember any seals being in the area that was on my list. Not that it's complete mind you. Still. Not a good idea to be outside when the flaming rocks start falling."
"If any of them hit my car, I'm going to be seriously pissed." Dean said. "So you've got Bobby and a house full of demons. How's that working out, dude?" He said with a chuckle, just imagining how it was working out.
"Oh it's been interesting." He said and gave examples of the escapades. Including Pamela giving one demon in particular a .45 caliber castration. "Rumsfeld has been the most antagonistic but once I got back from Uriel's play land the boys figured out that just cause Daddy isn't there doesn't mean he won't smack them down when he gets home."
"Remind me not to cross Pamela." Dean said with a chuckle. "For a blind chick, she seems like a good shot. And I feel for Rumsfeld, I do. Poor dog was trained to use demons as chew toys." He caught Sam up on what he'd been doing since he was cured of the virus. "You now have proof that your big brother is awesome. Dude, I was with a full on saint."
"I didn't get to spend much time with her while you were in the hospital, but I liked her. She loved you a lot. I'm sorry she's gone." He knew what it was like. He knew all too well. It had been all he could do not to go into the apartment when he had gotten to Palo Alto, not hit the bar they went to with their friends, or their favorite restaurant. The place exuded Jess. Every where he looked he swore he could see her.
"Yeah." Dean said. "Shoulda seen her reaction when I checked out of the hospital AMA. Love me or not, I was sure she was going to kill me."
"Yeah well, been in those shoes a time or two and trust me, it's tempting to knock you out so you have to stay put, but usually that's counterproductive, given how hard your head is."
"It has to be hard. I don't have a layer of fluffy hair to protect my skull." Dean said with a grin. "Haven't been able to nail down where this last battle is supposed to take place. But at last count, 63 seals were opened."
"That's what I put it at too." Sam said, less than happy at the total. "It won't be long off. I don't think it's going to be Megiddo however. It is going to be at some other great battle site. One that was pivotal. It's going to be in this country somewhere. Otherwise they would have whisked you off by now."
"Gettysburg? Saratoga? Valley Forge? New Orleans? Might make Mardi Gras, that could be cool." Dean said with a grin. "Alamo? Please not the Alamo. The good guys didn't survive the last Alamo."
"You know if it were Bobby who was chosen to fight this battle, it would be Gettysburg. Dad would get New Orleans, during Mardi Gras, and not notice a thing while he was there that wasn't supernatural in origin …but it's us. Means it's the Alamo."
"Oh come on." Dean said. "I was hoping at least for Saratoga. They have a casino and a racetrack. Could be fun...." Dean said and sighed. "You're right. Definitely the Alamo. Guess I should start heading there then."
"Coffee first, meteor shower, and then you can hit the road. The last thing you want driving down the road is a flaming rock slamming into you." Sam said. "Besides, we don't have rivers of blood, or the moon turning red yet. We're good."
"Lots of coffee." Dean said. "Don't have anyone to talk to in the passenger seat anymore, gotta stay awake somehow."
"I got the time." He said and looked toward the window as the first flaming rock slammed into the road outside. "And no we are not getting up. We are staying put. Right here and riding this out."
"You're paying for the next round of coffee then." He said as he watched the meteor shower. "Not like we can stop it anyway, so might as well stay in and watch the fireworks. Are you okay? Really? It's weird, I can't keep an eye on you now."
"I'm … not really okay. But I'm hanging in there. Faking it as much as possible cause it scares Bobby if I don't." Sam said honestly. "At least it's going to be over soon… we can get back to our usual form of dysfunction."
"Can we?" Dean said doubtfully. He didn't think there was any real coming back from this, for either of them. "You know, I can handle this. I can. I know I'm a screw up in the rest of my life, but I can handle this. Maybe you should just step back and ride the whole thing out." He knew Sam was a seal that wasn't fully opened. But even he could see the cracks. Maybe just sitting back would be the safer choice. "Let your big brother handle this."
"No." Sam said firmly. "The only thing I have been able to do to help is take down the threats along the way. You are out there alone. You need my help however you can get it."
"Sam, honestly? You're losing it. I can see it. Soon you're going to look older than Dad." He said, exaggerating a little there. "And once we leave this coffee shop, we both know I might not be there to pull you back, because everybody seems against us, don't they? If I could do one thing, that would be to make sure you're safe, you know that." It had been pounded into his head since he was four years old.
"Dean… I know that you want to protect me. I know that. But you have to understand, I can't just sit back and watch this from the sidelines. I can't just sit there and wait for some angel to find me and tell me you are dead, I'm gonna be there."
"You've watched me die once, that wasn't enough?" Dean asked with an arched eyebrow. "And I've watched you die. How about no one dies?"
"I like that idea, I really do. But if you really thought that was likely, you wouldn't be trying to keep me out of the fight." Sam said. "No… we do this together, I don't care what Castiel thinks about my state of being or the taint of my soul."
"I hate it when you're all logical, you know that?" Dean said as he watched the show outside."You can't even let me do this right. I was wrong to drag you out of your life before. When I came here the first time. I know it. I've been trying to make up for it too."
"Jessica's death is not your fault. If I hadn't gone off with you, it would have happened while I was out getting milk or at the interview for the scholarship. The demon has been playing our family all along. He wanted me out there training… honing my skills. He told me as much. That's why he killed Jess, so that I would have to get back on the job. That's not on you. Believe it."
"You know, I wish I could have killed him slower." Dean said with a shake of his head. "And don't worry about Castiel, he says there's hope for all of us. He's an optimist in denial. You already took care of the guy that hated the both of us."
"Yeah well, he wasn't alone." Sam said. "I know Castiel wasn't on their happy list. They tortured him, too. But still… I don't know how many of the feathery bastards you can trust. I figure I can't trust any of them."
"And how many of the demons can you trust?" Dean asked, glancing around the coffee house. Dammit. So much for following orders. Either party.
"You know… probably about as many as you can of your boys." Sam said, knowing what he was looking at. "Now I thought I told you guys to take care of things in Baja." He said in a tone that was harsh and cold. Not one that Dean was used to from his brother at all. "You know how I feel about disobedience."
Dean raised an eyebrow at his brother. "Looks like someone's gonna get spanked." Dean said as he glanced at the other half of the shop and shook his head. "That's all right. I remember telling some angel named Michael that if he screwed this up for me, the whole deal was off. Think I'll ride out the apocalypse right here. Coffee's not too bad."
"We knew the angels would be here." Alex said.
"And we knew the demons would be here." An angel said. Dean hadn't met his force yet, he had no idea who any of them were, just that they were angelic. "And they'd like nothing more than to remove Dean from this plane of existence yet again."
"No one is going to touch my brother while I'm here." Sam said and looked at his boys "Are they?" He looked from one demon to the other. "Not over a little thing like jealousy." He looked over at the angels. He didn't think for a minute they were just there to protect Dean. "You boys going to stop blocking our communications? Otherwise I might have to take over riding shot gun again."
"You wouldn't do that." An angel said. "Because that would leave your brother short in his army."
"Yeah, my way obedient army." Dean said with a roll of his eyes.
"We have seals to stop. We need to go."
"I'm having coffee with my brother. You know, the guy you don't want me to talk to? Think I'm giving up this chance? Get out of here." Dean said and turned his attention back to his brother. "And this is why I prefer to work with myself or at most two others."
"Normally I don't have problems with my crew. They don't have the superiority complexes that your lot do. Not that it does them any good at the end of the day. You see cause I know that you boys want this stopped. Walking away from Dean not only breaks your orders, it endangers the end game. Neither of which you are really allowed to do. Since your marching orders don't include thinking for yourselves. That gets you lot a trip to hell. Or has Uriel been given a reprieve since I last spoke to him?" Sam said, giving the angel that spoke a look that said he would just as happily carry him down stairs as look at him.
"Okay, everyone stop." Dean said. "Demons on that side." He said, pointing toward one side of the shop. "Angels on that side." He said, pointing to the other. "No one says a word, I don't want so much as a straw wrapper blown across the room, got it? Everyone sit down, shut up, or leave."
Sam smiled slowly. It wasn't a pleasant smile. "You heard the man." He said and watched as the demons obeyed, leaving the angels to Dean to worry about. He then leaned back in his seat and relaxed, taking a drink of his coffee. "This town is gonna be full of craters, and ½ burned by the time this shower is done…and I doubt it's isolated either." He said looking out the window.
"Yeah, I know, like a bad Hollywood movie." Dean said as the angels went to their side, anxiously and warily. He shook his head at that and turned his attention back to his brother. "So we'll meet up after this at the Alamo?" He said. "Sounds just like a joke to me, by the time I get there, I'll think of a punch line."
"Not sure there is one." He said as he downed his coffee and walked over to get a refill. The owner had fled the shop when the meteors had begun to fall. He brought the pot with him back over to the table "Yeah. I'll be there. That's where we'll make our stand."
Dean refilled his cup from the pot Sam had brought over. "Come on, this is me. If anyone can find a punch line, it'll be me, right?" He said with a grin. "You're still too serious. If you can't laugh at the end of the world, what can you laugh at?"
Sam laughed softly at that. "Yeah, I guess I inherited Dad's sense of humor." Sam said with a shrug. "I'll work on that between now and then." He said and smiled. "And when this is all done, we are going to take a vacation. I mean it. A week someplace with sun and girls and no monsters."
"Now that sounds like a plan I can get behind." Dean said with a laugh. "We'll even throw the cell phones away, let the world fend for itself for a while. Can't remember the last time I slept in." Even drunk or hung-over he never had the chance to sleep in anymore. And Dean hated getting up early (before noon) if he could help it. Unless, of course, he could get up before his brother and give him a rude awakening just for the fun of it. "Call Bobby up, let's get him in here at least. If anyone can dodge meteors, it's Bobby."
Sam took out his cell phone and dialed the number at Bobby's hotel room. He handed the phone over to Dean. He figured it would do them both good to talk to each other again even if the plan was to meet up.
"Hey Bobby." Dean said. still eyeing the other not quite humans in the room. "We're at a coffee shop on Homer Avenue. Great view of the meteor shower. Think you can make it over?"
"It might take a bit, but I can get there. Are you okay, boy?" He asked, touching Pamela's arm as he pulled on his jacket. "It's chaos out there right now. " Although he imagined there was chaos in there too.
"Yeah, chaos seems to be the word of the day." Dean said. "Along with Mexican standoff. Though I guess that's actually two words. Listen, we could use some human back up. Got a cafe full of angels and demons, and it's not even a porno."
"That's an image I don't need." Bobby said. "We're on our way. Try not to get yourself killed before I get there."
"Yeah, well, that's an image that's much more preferable." Dean said. "I'll do my best." He said, hanging up. "Bobby said not to get myself killed before he gets here." He said with a laugh.
"Sounds like a plan, but I don't think he has much to worry about here." Sam could handle any of his own that got out of line. He didn't think Dean could handle the free thinking Angel types, but then again… maybe Sam could handle that too. After all, the ones that were slipping seemed to have lost their protection from on high.
"Yeah, not feeling like dying today. It's not cosmically right or something. I think my horoscope told me I was going to have a good day. Think it said something about money and sex too, but hey, one out of three ain't bad."
"Day's young. Never know what's going to happen between now and dawn, but all things being equal… you can't get that lucky in one day. We would have had to meet up in a bar for that to work out for you."
"Okay, true." Dean said. "So I'll settle for good day. Time to make money later, right? Not that money matters right now, with the economy crashing and all."
"If we don't succeed, money won't matter at all." Sam said, not really willing to entertain that thought. "But I don't think that's going to be a problem. Between the two of us, we should be able to do something. The final seal has to be at the Alamo. That's the one we have to protect."
"Sounds like fun." Dean said. Though he wasn't sure that was the final seal. He still had bets on Sam being the final seal. He grinned as he saw Bobby and Pamela come in. "There they are."
Bobby gave the two sides a glance. They looked like they had been put in their respective corners by their frustrated parents.
Pamela walked over to the table. "Alright, assume the position." She said, waiting for Dean to stand up so she could hug him. She was hoping that this meeting with Dean and Sam would be the incentive Sam needed to hang on a little while longer.
Dean laughed as he stood up and gave Pamela a tight hug. "A guy could get some ideas with words like that, you know." He said with a grin.
Pamela grabbed his ass. "Yeah, well, you know what to do when those ideas turn into intent." She teased and moved to let Bobby in to get his hug. Sam had gotten up to let her move in to sit beside the wall in the booth.
Bobby grabbed Dean and pulled him into a fatherly hug. "How you doing, boy?" He asked.
"Been...dealing." Dean said honestly. Neither his nor Sam's road had been particularly easy lately. And from Bobby's face, neither had his. "It's all spinning up quickly, so hopefully we can get this all over with and return back to our sucky but normal for us lives."
"I hear ya." Bobby said as he took a seat beside Dean on the booth. "This isn't just local. They were talking about it on the news before the transmission went dead. They are having meteor showers all over the world. There's a crater where Disneyland used to be… small lakes are boiling from the heat of the meteors that impact."
"If you ask me, Disneyland had it coming." Dean said. "But this isn't anything we can stop, so I'm not going to think about it." About the people vaporized or flash boiled. Because those were people he couldn't save. They didn't have a chance. Oh yeah, and God supposedly loved them. "We figure it's going to happen at the Alamo. Fitting really, right? But trust me, I've got a few tricks up my sleeve."
None he was going to talk about here. Sam might have confidence in his demons, but Dean didn't share that same trust, so not a word would be spoken here about it.
Sam wasn't going to ask him for details either, for the simple fact that Sam didn't trust angels any further than he could throw them. The bastards were either obedient tools, or treacherous bastards. Neither seemed like a good idea. Especially since they obviously weren't obedient to his brother.
"We'll take that bridge when we come to it." He said simply.
"We don't have a choice." Dean corrected with a chuckle. "Tell you what, once this is over, I'm going on a bender in a strip club."
"Yeah, he keeps trying to get me to go in one with him. I guess he figures after this long apart, I'll tag along this time." Sam said, rolling his eyes. He wished it could be that way. Wanted nothing more than to fall back into old habits with his brother, to go with him where ever the road lead, but he knew that wouldn't happen. It couldn't happen. Not after everything they had been through. Nothing would be the same. Not even if they both survived, not that he thought that was even an option.
"He'll go." Dean said. "All I have to do is ask after this, after all, he definitely owes me."
"And how do you figure that?" Bobby asked, amused. At least the bantering was the same. It was comforting, probably for everyone.
"Because he refused to go last time." Dean said. "And last time I got arrested. If my little brother had tagged along to keep me out of trouble, I might not have been arrested."
"That wasn't my fault!" Sam said with a laugh, and the endless debate of who got who into more trouble began. It had been that way since they were both teenagers. It had driven John crazy.
Bobby shook his head. "They've managed the impossible. Made me feel younger and older at the same time." He said, watching them. "Younger because this happened years ago. Over and over again. Older because I already lived through this once."
"I hate to say it, but it's slowing down out there." Sam said with a sigh. He knew that if they didn't leave now that they could, neither of them would be able to contain their respective forces. There would be war right there in Palo Alto. Heaven and Hell duking it out because neither one was willing to accept that for the time being, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Dean looked outside sadly. "Yeah, I know." He said and finished his coffee. "I'll see you in Texas. Again." He said with a chuckle. Hopefully this time without him ending up in the hospital again. He looked at 'his' side of the room. "Everyone up and out. Now!" He said and headed out. If he drew it out, he'd never leave.
"If you want to go with him, now's the time. I'll understand. I'd like you two to stay but I know this isn't what you signed up for." Sam knew this was hard on them. He wished it could be otherwise, but things were as they were.
Pamela turned toward Sam, her face etched in incredulousness. "Yeah. *I'm* going to go hang out with a bunch of angels." She said. "Eating strange mushrooms lately?"
Dean chuckled. "I'm fine, Sam. They should stay with you." He wasn't blind. Or willfully blind. His little brother was hanging onto the threads of his humanity. The last thing he was going to do was take away the two humans who would stick around Sam. "See you in Texas." He said with a grin as he headed out.
"You're not getting rid of me that easily." Bobby said. Sam scared him most of the time now, but it was those moments (like the last few, really) that kept him hanging on to hope. As fleeting as it was most of the time.
"He's not fine." Sam said, shaking his head. "Okay, well, let's get out of here then. We have a lot of miles to cover and I am betting on interference between here and San Antonio." He knew this was the beginning of the end. All that was left was the rapture, and the moon turning to blood. The meteor shower from hell would take care of the rivers and seas boiling. Not to mention the absolute devastation. He looked over his shoulder at the demons behind him "Well don't just stand there. Let's get a move on."
"We're missing Alex." Chelsea said as she searched through the crowd of demons. "He's not here. He was. He was making himself a latte last I knew..."
Sam swore, and looked around the coffee shop as his mind took it all in, going over every moment that he could account for. He swore again, and this time the windows rattled as he siphoned off the rage that suddenly welled up inside him. "I should have known." He growled. "I should have fucking known."
A demon grimaced. "The angels." He said. "I knew this was a trap."
"A set up from the beginning… every time we meet, it's a set up. " Sam growled. "My own brother." The windows blew out ward as he said the final word, even though his tone was quiet. "Did you know?" He demanded, turning to look at Bobby and Pamela. "Have you been a part of this all along?" He took a step forward, then stopped himself. "Get out." He said instead. "Go crawl into your panic room and stay there till kingdom come." This was likely to be sooner rather than later.
"Now you listen here, boy." Bobby said as he put himself in between Sam and Pamela. "It was your idea to meet up with Dean. Not mine. You arranged it. I haven't spoken to him in ages before today, and you know that. You need to calm yourself down right now. I don't know what's going on, but it's all gotta be for some reason, even if it's a bad one."
"Dad taught us that the best con is the one the mark sets up themselves. You just put what they want where they can see it and they do all the heavy lifting themselves." Sam said. "Dean went on TV. Dean went on Larry King Live of all things? The one way I could get in touch with him that wouldn't sound like a trap. Yeah, I set up the meeting. I arranged for where and when. He brought his angels… his supposedly obedient angels… who refused to do as he ordered. And he didn't pitch a fit? No… this was a trap from the beginning."
"You going to stop protecting your brother now?" One of the demons asked. "Obviously he's not protecting you. He took Alex, the one guy who knows everything about what you're doing. Why would he need to know that stuff unless he was going to use it against you?"
"Now hold on." Bobby said. "I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for all of this."
"We're waiting." Another demon said sarcastically.
"We're done, Bobby… I want you and Pamela to leave now." Sam said. "There is no reasonable explanation for taking my second in command. Except when you realize that at the end of the day, Dean is still a hunter." He picked up his jacket. "And so are you… so you two leave now, go home. No one here is going to mess with you, unless they are really feeling home sick. I'm telling you nicely. It won't be so friendly if I have to say it again."
Bobby looked stricken, and Pamela moved around Bobby and followed Sam's voice over to him. And whether he wanted it or not, she hugged him. "Take care of yourself, Sam. I mean it."
He hesitated returning the hug for a moment, then slowly leaned into it. He didn't know who he could trust. If Dean could use him like that, then there was no one he could truly trust anymore. There was no one that he really wanted to fight for anymore. As far as he was concerned the world could go to hell in the hand basket it created for itself. He was still going to San Antonio. He needed answers. And this time he wasn't going to open himself up for another trap.
