CHAPTER 12 - Disarm the Idjit
Sam came outside to discuss Castiel's visit with Dean without waking Alex. "Was it the medallion doing that to him?"
"Yeah, apparently it's like angel kryptonite," Dean confirmed chuckling at the irony that the stone in its center was green.
"So what did he say? He know how to destroy it?"
"That's the weird part. He ordered me not to. He said just sit tight and hang on to it."
Sam frowned. "If Bobby finds a way to stop this thing from killing angels, which obviously it can do, why would Cas tell us not to go through with it?"
"I dunno, Sam. Friggin' angels never make a lick of sense. But I'm all for hangin' on to it. It could come in handy."
"Dean, don't start that again."
"No, fuck that, Sam. Seems your extra-curricular activities the past three days ain't exactly been flying under the angel radar." Dean threw his brother a stern, disapproving look but didn't elaborate. "Cas wasn't happy with you and he's about the happiest of the bunch from what I can tell. We may need that medallion someday."
"What if this is another test?" Sam argued. He wasn't afraid of Castiel. Or Uriel.
"How so?"
"To see where your loyalties lie, Dean. Your true loyalties are supposed to lie with saving the world and all of humanity, not just saving me."
Dean listened but didn't answer his brother. It was the truth - his loyalties did lie with keeping Sam safe. Above anything else. Without Sam, he really wouldn't care what happened to the rest of the world, himself included. It didn't seem wrong to him to feel that way about his baby brother.
Spurred on by Dean's silence, Sam continued his argument. "By hanging on to this medallion, you're choosing to risk Hell on Earth - armageddon, the freaking apocalypse - just in case I get on the wrong side of Uriel. You can't keep putting this on me Dean. It's not fair."
Dean threw his brother a questioning look. "How's me keeping this be puttin' anything on you? My decision."
Sam's voice softened slightly. "I have every right to risk my life for what I believe in too. You do it all the time and I deal with it. I dealt with you going to Hell to protect me, I'm not going to deal with the rest of the world following suit. You need to stop throwing yourself and everybody else under a bus for me."
They stared at each other for a moment, neither sure of what to say next. Dean clenched his jaw but remained silent.
Sam sighed, seeing he wasn't getting anywhere with his stubborn brother. "This medallion is dangerous, Dean. To everyone on the planet, not just angels. To Bobby, to Ellen and Jo, to Alex. Way too dangerous to be carting around hoping at every turn we don't get ambushed by Lillith's army trying to get their hands on it. You know destroying it's the right thing to do, no matter what Castiel says. If this is a test, destroying the medallion is the passing move."
SPN-SPN-SPN
Unable to even contemplate sleeping at this point, Sam went on a Java run. He returned to the room to find Alex awake and griping about the guys skipping her turn on watch. Dean playfully threw a pillow at her to shut her up but was saved from her retaliation by Sam's cell phone ringing.
"Hey Bobby, what's up?" the young hunter answered quickly, silently praising the older man's impeccable timing.
"Good news and bad news, kid."
"Uh, start with the bad news, I guess."
"Whoa, wait!" Alex interjected, making a guess on the topic of conversation. "Always start with the good news."
Sam rolled his eyes but conceded. "Make that good news first, Bobby."
"Well, I got the book and there is a way to strip the medallion of its power to kill angels and the book has a very detailed explanation of how to do it."
"And the bad?" Sam asked.
"Bad news is the details."
Sam wrinkled his nose in disappointment. "Not an easy spell?"
"That'd be an understatement."
Why was that not surprising? "How bad?"
"We need some weird shit, but most of it's stuff I can rustle up. But there's a couple of big ticket items we're gonna need some help locating."
"What kind of help?"
"Sassy. Blind. Nice ass. "
"Pamela?"
"You always were the sharp one, kid. On my way to get her now. I'll be there by lunchtime. You boys just stay put and try to keep out of trouble 'til I get there."
SPN-SPN-SPN
Keeping out of trouble proved to be easy enough but Dean was bored. Laying low in a stuffy motel room was one of his least favourite pastimes, especially a crappy one with twelve porn channels and only two regular ones. Well, usually the excessive porn wasn't a problem but Dean didn't figure Alex would appreciate the masterful cinematography of 'Busty Asian Beauties Blow into Manhattan'.
"Wow, you're cranky when you're bored," Alex laughed.
"I've been dealing with that for twenty five years," Sam chimed in.
"Let's go outside and get some fresh air," she suggested.
"I don't do walks," Dean groused. "And Bobby said to stay put."
"Since when did you obey anybody that wasn't Dad?" Sam said, standing up, a book in his hand. "Let's go sit out back; it's sunny and there's even a little park."
Alex jumped up to join Sam, eager to get out of the room also. Dean sat stubbornly on the bed for a moment longer, arms folded as he leaned against the headboard and boots still on. "You wanna sit in the park?" he scoffed. "You gonna bring a friggin' picnic basket, Sammy?" Despite the sarcasm and resistance, however, he followed them out the door.
Sam settled at a picnic table and began reading one of the books Bobby had brought from South Dakota. For his entire life as a hunter, he had been taught not to pay much attention to the angel lore and biblical specifics. In light of Dean's recent rescue from Hell by one Castiel, bonafide angel of the Lord, he had a lot of catching up to do.
He was also hoping he would dig up some grain of information that could help him find and kill Lillith.
Although concentrating on the book in hand, Sam was a natural multi-tasker and inattentively listened to the idle chatter of the other two, who were sitting on a park bench close by. Dean was not a morning person and had managed to get very little sleep in the past two days which only made his sour morning disposition worse. As always, his bad mood improved as the day rolled on and he seemed quite cheery now. Sam allowed himself an inward smirk, thinking that wasn't an infrequent occurrence with Alex around. Much like her elder brother, she was far from the most somber person they'd ever met and when she was in a good mood, it was infectious. Dean in particular seemed affected by her cheery nature.
They had about three hours to kill until Bobby was due to arrive with Pamela and Sam noticed with amusement that the pair managed to chat comfortably for two and a half of those hours without either one actually revealing a single intimate detail or emotion about themselves. He was starting to figure they could keep it up indefinitely but eventually, it got personal.
"No way! You were a PA on Hell Hazers? You met Tara Benchley? From Boogeyman? That's so cool!" Alex sounded impressed. She was cross-legged on the bench facing Dean.
"Oh, I more than met her," Dean boasted with a cocky grin.
Sam closed his eyes and groaned. How did his brother, of all people, not know that you never tell a woman you're interested in about your prior conquests? And he was sure Dean was interested.
"Yeah, right!" she scoffed with a disbelieving grin. "She's like, almost an A-lister. Sam, is that true?"
Sam looked up long enough to give her a confirming nod before turning back to his book.
"Wow, that's pretty impressive," Alex admitted. "What was she like?"
Dean raised an eyebrow.
"I mean personality-wise!" Alex clarified quickly, flushing slightly.
"She was cool, I guess. I don't know, really. I knew her for like, a day." Actually, a day was exaggerating. "So what happened with you and the cop you dated?" Dean asked, realizing his mistake and trying to deflect. He regretted the question when he saw the smile on her face disappear for a split second.
"Ah," she dismissed with a wave of her hand. "My fault. I decided to come clean."
Dean winced. "Ooh, kiss of death that one." He remembered Cassie's reaction when he had come clean, telling her what he really did for a job. He remembered being much more than broken-hearted at being dumped. A sudden sense of overwhelming hopelessness had hit twenty-three-year-old Dean. Cassie's rejection had been a wake-up call as to just how alone he would always be. He'd finally been given a tiny taste of what a semi-normal life with someone special to share it with would be like (someone who wasn't his farty, grouchy, hairy brother) and then it had all been ripped away. Hunting was who he was and it had stung to see that he couldn't have both hunting and Cassie. This epiphany coming just months after his brother had left him in search of white collar normalcy and Stanford had made it all the more hurtful.
"You told him about Red-Eyes?" he asked Alex.
"Yeah. I guess it was too much for him. He kept insisting he believed me, but then he just stopped calling. Josh and I had to leave town early because, you know, he was a cop and we couldn't take the chance he'd turn me in."
Dean snorted his disgust at the guy's behavior. "Guy was a coward. His loss."
Alex shrugged, not missing the compliment but not sure how it was meant and not really wanting to find out. At this point, she didn't know which would be worse, that Dean had feelings for her or that he didn't. Safer to just steer clear of that altogether. She had decided after the incident with the cop that if you keep feelings out of your love life, you get by just fine. Unfortunately, that usually translated into having practically no love life because keeping feelings out was easier said than done.
"He wasn't a coward, he was just normal," she said quietly.
Dean didn't pry any further. "So before you became a 'part-time hunter', what were you gonna be?" he asked, pulling the abrupt subject change ploy from Alex's playbook. He remembered that she and Josh had sung together in the bar in Dayton last year and were actually pretty good. She could also play guitar and piano that he knew of, couldn't enter a room without turning the radio on, and her iPod was an almost permanent extension to her ear. "Rock star?" he teased.
Alex laughed. "God no. The whole musician thing was Josh's deal, not mine. When I was young, I didn't really figure on living long enough to put much thought into a career. Not like I could go to college; you gotta stick in one place for that. How 'bout you?"
"Hunter," was Dean's immediate response, his mind reeling as it processed her casually spoken comment about not expecting to live far into to adulthood. That just wasn't right.
"Oh come on," she pressed. "You must have had some fantasy when you were little. Astronaut? Race car driver? Na, I see you as more the fireman type. Then again, Chip'n'Dale's dancer wouldn't be out of the question."
Dean shook his head. "Nope. Hunter. From day one."
Sam lifted his head again to interrupt. "That's true too," he offered before Alex could ask. He didn't elaborate to explain that Dean hadn't been given a choice and had never even contemplated straying from his father's plans for them as Sam had.
"Huh." Alex looked thoughtfully at Dean. "Well, I suppose you are really good at it. Probably a good choice for you."
"I am," he agreed, pulling a handsome grin to ease her into his next topic of conversation. "We are," he added, gesturing towards Sam also, "...which is why you need to tell us everything about Red-Eyes."
Alex huffed, dropping her feet back down onto the grass. "Can we just concentrate on destroying the medallion for now?" she said tersely.
Sam put his book down and swung one of his long legs over the picnic table bench to face her. "Yeah, it's about time you came clean. Give us something to go on."
Sam agreed with Dean. She couldn't keep running from this thing her entire life. At some point, she had to let someone take care of it for her and if anyone could do it, it was the Winchesters. Maybe he could even take it out with his new ability. Ruby had hinted he would need to take more drastic measures to get any stronger, and that was a line he couldn't cross, but maybe he could handle Red-Eyes at his current level. There was that small problem of Alex telling him never to go there on her account but she didn't necessarily have to find out.
"All we're asking for is information," Dean encouraged.
"Yeah, right," Alex snapped. "Like you wouldn't go after it if you thought you'd figured out a way to take it out."
Dean shrugged, admitting nothing but implying she was right. "Look, I get it, you don't want us to get hurt. We won't. We're careful."
She gave him a 'yeah whatever' eyeroll. If she'd learned anything in the past few days, it was that the Winchesters took risks, especially if someone's life was at stake.
Dean wasn't giving up this time. "I know some people have been killed when you've gone after this thing before, but we're not just anyone, Lex."
Alex stood up quickly and looked as though she was going to storm away before spinning back around to face them. "Some people!" she cried, breathing heavily as her eyes darted back and forth between the brothers. "It wasn't just some people! It was my parents!" her voice hitched on the last word and she looked quickly away towards some kids who were playing by the swings.
Both brothers fell silent for a moment, not sure what to say at the revelation. Alex just stood there for a long while, clenching her jaw, avoiding eye contact with either of them. She tried to blink back the tears welling in her lower eyelids.
It was Sam who spoke first. "Josh told me they died in a burglary," he said quietly.
Alex swallowed. "No," she answered. "That's just what the police report says. Josh found a hunter who told us Red-eyes was a demon. He gave us an exorcism and we tried it on him and he got pissed. He put Josh in a coma and then he killed my parents because he wanted to teach me a lesson."
"That's not your fault," said Dean sincerely.
"Look, I don't expect you to understand," she replied with a sigh, still avoiding eye contact.
"Actually, I do understand," Dean said, surprising her with a confession of his own. "You see, my father traded his life for mine. He's dead because of me, so I know exactly how you feel."
"So do I," admitted Sam.
"I'm not dead anymore, Sam," Dean reminded his brother. "You don't have to fee…"
"I meant Mom."
"Mom dying wasn't your fault," Dean scolded him instinctively.
"Yellow Eyes was after me," Sam argued. "That makes it as much my fault as Dad's death was yours or Alex's parents' was hers."
Alex looked at both Winchesters in turn, feeling sympathy for each of them. She had never known anyone who could truly relate to her particular form of guilt before and felt strangely closer to them because of it. The look Dean was giving Sam now wasn't one of resentment for costing him a parent, but one of anguish that Sam blamed himself for it. Sam's look told her had he been given the choice, he would have chosen Dean over his father anyway and was grateful to their father for his sacrifice. They both eventually turned their gazes back on her and she nodded slowly. Resigned, she sat back down on the park bench next to Dean.
"You mentioned that others had died trying to kill your demon," Dean said, remembering his limited conversation with her on the subject back in Indiana.
"Yeah," she answered, deciding to finally come clean. "I was about eight years old and these hunters showed up with a plan. When it all went down, Red-Eyes killed one of them."
"Hunters? What were their names?"
"I don't know. I mean, I didn't even know they were hunters at the time. I figured it out years later when Josh and I met our first hunter."
"What was their plan?"
"I don't remember much of that either. I think I was the bait."
"What does he look like?"
"The hunters? Dean, I was a little kid. I can't remember details. The one who died was scruffy but nice. The other one was kind of scary. I don't know, I mean, they were old dudes."
"I meant Red-Eyes, you moron," Dean berated softly.
"Oh," she grinned sheepishly. "Well he's dark, black, pretty big, like seven feet tall, and has a real ugly gnarled face and glowing red eyes with black pupils. He usually shows up as a shadowy figure, kind of see-through - transparent ya know? And he sometimes flickers like a ghost. He has to turn solid before he can touch me, though."
"What does he, uh..." Dean asked gingerly, wary of the potentially uncomfortable subject, "...what does he do to you?"
Alex shrugged, then let out a small snicker when she noticed Dean's extreme discomfort, although it was anything but funny.
"Nothing like that," she assured him. "He's not a perv. And what he does depends if he's in solid form or shadow form."
"What do you mean?" This question was from Sam.
"In shadow form, he can do that demon thing where he throws you around with a hand wave."
She shot Sam a quick, apologetic look, remembering he could also do 'that demon thing'.
"And he does this thing where you feel like your blood is boiling," she shuddered. "It hurts like a son of a bitch but at least there are no scars to explain away afterwards and no broken bones to heal. Then there's the thing where you feel like you're in one of those machines that squish the cars up into little cubes, you know?" Her explanation had become almost casual and she realized with a bit of surprise how comfortable she suddenly was talking about all this to these two. Neither of them were giving her that 'wow, what a freak' look. The one she vividly remembered adorning her short-lived cop boyfriend when she came clean.
Dean was working hard to hide his sympathy. He couldn't imagine living his whole life with this thing doing that to him on a regular basis. Nobody should have to live in constant fear like that. He wished they had met Alex years ago; his father would have figured out a way to save her long before her parents had been killed and her and Josh's lives had been completely destroyed.
Sam, on the other hand, was working hard to hide his anger. How had he ever justified getting out of hunting and taking off to Stanford when there were people like Alex living under the relentless shadow of torture like this? It had been his duty to use all the skills his father had given him and whatever other skills he may possess to hunt these things down and kill them. Well, he wouldn't shirk from that duty now. Never again.
"And what about when he's solid?" he asked through gritted teeth.
Alex groaned. "Sometimes that's a welcome relief… on a short term basis, anyway. Still hurts, but broken bones and cracked ribs hurt a lot less. Then again, if he's extra pissed, he'll use things he finds in the room; knifes, tools, sticks. Those days aren't so good. And they usually come with a much longer healing time," she said, matter-of-factly. "And when he's solid, he can hurt other people, too," she added. "That's never good."
"Has Josh ever seen him?" Sam asked, remembering his conversation with her uncle.
Alex shook her head. "Not really. He doesn't usually show up unless I'm alone and Josh can't see him in shadow-mode for some reason. I think he saw him solid on the day…" she hesitated before continuing, "…on the day my parents died, but he doesn't remember that whole week anyway. Took a pretty nasty knock to the noggin and he was in a coma for eleven days."
"Okay, I think it's safe to say it's not a crossroads demon, despite the red eyes. What have you tried already that didn't work?" Dean asked.
Alex counted off her fingers as she listed the ways she had tried to kill Red-Eyes over the years. "Salt, holy water, silver, Devil's Traps, Paolo Santo, crucifixes, Chemona berries, Gofer dust, Penarine spheres…"
Alex recounted the various theories of the hunters that had previously tried to help. Tamara and Isaac, Grant Hebert, Colby Hutchins, Sierra Duluth. Tamara and Isaac were the only ones who stuck around long enough to take a shot at it but things hadn't gone down well and the last she had seen of the two hunters was Isaac bandaging her sliced wrists and Tamara calling 9-1-1 before she had passed out. Josh had sent them away before she had even woken up in the hospital the next day.
She told them everything she could think of that might be relevant. They were right; it couldn't hurt to gather intel. She wouldn't let them try anything unless she was sure it would work, but if they could kill Red-Eyes, she could stop living in fear and Josh could have a home. Maybe he would go back to Tennessee and find Teri… These guys were good… maybe…
"Josh told me he thinks it feeds off your psychic mojo," Sam told her.
She nodded. "I think it feeds off pain and it gets more from me because of the psychic link."
"Like Agatha," Dean nodded, remembering the sick enjoyment the demon got from her screaming. "He was definitely more interested in you."
"Agramon," Alex corrected with a chuckle, starting to suspect Dean kept screwing up the name intentionally for levity and entertainment. But mention of the Demon of Fear brought a sudden thought to mind and she let out a gasp before turning to Sam, eyes wide with worry. "Oh shit! You better watch it, Fiver. If Red-Eyes comes around while you're here, he may take a liking to you, too. He's one stubborn bastard to shake once he gets a sniff of you."
"Okay, who the Hell is Fiver?" Dean demanded. He had heard both Alex and Josh use the nickname on her brother and had no idea what it meant. "What movie's it from? Some chick flick?"
Alex laughed. "It's not a movie, it's a book."
Sam sniggered. "Yeah, Mr. Coles Notes, you should try reading one without pinups one of these days."
Dean let out a hmph of annoyance at the ribbing. "Don't forget who taught you how to read, bitch," he defended.
Sam explained, still smiling. "It's Watership Down. It's a book about a rabbit who gets death visions. He sees a vision that his whole warren is going to get killed so he and his big brother take off with the few rabbits who believe him. Turns out he was right and the rabbits who stay behind die."
"A rabbit and his big brother, huh?" Dean smiled.
"Yeah, his big brother Hazel. One of the few who believes in him," Sam said pointedly.
Dean didn't miss the implication. That he, too, should believe in Sam and his abilities. Well, that had been a lot easier when it had just been death visions.
"Hazel must have a screw loose if he just tags along letting his brother stray farther and farther from…" He cut himself off, realizing he didn't want to hurt Sam again by saying he wasn't normal. That had been said once in the heat of the moment when he was angry and scared and he couldn't take it back, no matter how badly he wanted to. Alex, too, was 'not normal' and he didn't want to alienate both of them right now.
Too late for Sam; the damage was done. He got that hurt puppy dog look in his eyes for a brief second before announcing curtly that he was going to go back to the room. "Bobby should be getting back soon and he won't know where we are if we're all out here."
He got up to leave and Dean watched him walk off, wanting to apologize and call him back but hesitating too long until the opportunity had passed. He looked awkwardly at Alex, hating when outsiders were privy to Winchester internal strife.
"Hazel was right to trust his brother," she stated simply. "And Fiver's visions saved them all."
"Yeah, well, good for Fiver." Dean's mood had turned sour.
Alex wisely decided to change the subject. "So what's your favourite song, Dean? No wait, let me guess, Thunderstruck."
SPN-SPN-SPN
Bobby and Pamela arrived fifteen minutes later. Bobby led her to the motel room door and gave it a few loud thumps in greeting.
"Hey Bobby. Pamela," Sam greeted when he answered.
"Hey there, Grumpy," Pam smiled back, hand slipping out to brush against his jean-clad ass as Bobby steered her past the young hunter into the room, hiding his eye roll with his ball cap.
Sam grinned with no blush. He had come to expect this behavior from the hot but very forward psychic.
"Where's your brother?" Bobby asked, looking around the empty motel room.
"He's out back with Alex. You know Dean, he can hang around in a motel room all day but the second you tell him to stay in one, he gets itchy. He was going stir crazy."
Bobby turned to Pamela. "Bathrooms on the left, hon. Sam and I are gonna nip out back and get Dean. We'll be right back." Pamela nodded and headed straight towards the bathroom door using her uncanny ability to get around despite her lack of sight.
Sam gave the older hunter a questioning look. Since when does it take two experienced hunters to do what a quick phone call would accomplish? Nevertheless, he nodded and headed for the door, followed closely by Bobby.
Once outside, he turned to the mechanic. "What's up Bobby?"
"Just wanted to have a quick word with you alone," the hunter stated the obvious. "Pam's a little jumpy where angels are concerned. Rightfully so," he added with a guilty look, "but could you boys maybe take certain precautions to make sure Dean's angel buddies don't show up while she's here?"
"Not really sure how to do that," Sam admitted, "but we'll see what we can do. I think Cas tries to show up mostly in Dean's dreams but lately…" Sam let the sentence trail off.
Bobby didn't miss a thing. "Your brother not been sleeping much?"
"Not much at all. He had another really bad dream last night; would have been a real doozie if I hadn't woken him up in time."
The mechanic spoke softly as they rounded the corner of the motel. "He was a demon's bitch for about fourteen hours yesterday then almost got killed again last night by a really nasty sonofabitch. Not sleepin's not really that surprisin', Sam. He's only four months out of the pit, 'member?"
"Yeah, I know," Sam sighed, thinking guiltily how he preferred it when his brother had only been slightly emotionally scarred, on a small enough scale that Dean could mask it and Sam could pretend he didn't see him falling apart. It hurt to watch.
His thoughts were interrupted when his eyes locked on to the melee going on in the motel's little park. "Oh boy," he chuckled.
SPN-SPN-SPN
"So you think Sam will come back out?" Alex asked. "Bobby will call when he gets here."
"Kid's probably getting' his geek on," Dean scoffed. "Glued to his laptop again. He's such a nerd."
Alex laughed at the fond and almost proud way the supposed insult was delivered. "Hey, everybody's got a little bit of inner geek in them," she defended, glad to have resorted to casual, lighthearted conversation.
"Oh yeah? What's yours?"
"Yeah right. I'll admit mine if you admit yours."
"Not an ounce of geek in me," Dean boasted.
"Me neither then," she rolled her eyes.
"Alright, alright. I'll tell you something nerdy about me, but you first." Dean had no intention of revealing any secrets that might be considered less-than-manly.
Alex tilted her head in thought for a moment. "I love the Carpenters."
Dean snorted in disgust. "Yep, definitely some major inner geek going on there."
"What?" Alex shrugged with a slightly embarrassed look. "They're a brother sister band. When I was little, my brother was my hero."
Dean snorted again. "Your brother's still your hero," he accused with no sarcasm in his voice. He felt a slight twinge of regret and sorrow that Sam no longer held him in the same regard.
"Yeah, that's true," Alex admitted. "But now I've got more than one."
He glanced up quickly and when she held his gaze he realized she was indeed referring to him.
"Uh, I'm no hero, Lex," he stammered, face turning serious. "Not by a long shot."
"Yeah, you're probably right," she drawled. "Fighting the apocalypse, surviving Hell, taking on demons five or six at a time, not to mention saving my ass. Nope, nothing heroic about you."
Dean turned his gaze towards the kids playing with water-guns over by the slide, afraid to even look her in the eye while even thinking about all the UN-heroic things he had done for Alistair. Afraid she would see him for what he really was. Weak. Broken. Empty. Scared. Conflicted. Everything a hero wasn't.
"All of this – everything that's going on," he said quietly, shifting in his seat as he spoke, "this isn't exactly by choice. If I had my way right now, I would probably run as fast as I could away from it all, world be damned," he admitted. "And trust me, there's a lot you don't know. I'm not a hero. Far from it." He managed to throw a quick glance towards her, making an attempt at a smile and pulling the veil back across his face with sarcasm. "I'm just the tag-along big brother rabbit, remember?"
The awkward moment was suddenly interrupted by a sharp, cold sensation in his face. He tensed instantly, hand whipping round to touch the handle of the pistol he had tucked away in the back of his pants while his head spun around to assess the threat. He realized within half a second that he had simply been hit in the face with a stray shot from one of the kids playing a rowdy game with water-guns. His shoulders quickly relaxed and he grinned as he noticed Alex wiping her face also.
The kid that had hit them was standing frozen still about ten feet away, a look of total fear on his eight-year-old face. Dean scowled at him, intending to intimidate the kid into getting lost, but Alex laughed.
"Hey, little guy, don't look so scared," she said cheerily to the brat. "No harm done." Dean threw her a reproachful look.
"Oh no, he should be scared," the hunter warned in a slightly threatening voice he reserved for annoying kids.
"Dean!" Alex slapped his shoulder in reprimand before turning back to the kid. "Are you guys playing cops and robbers?" she asked the boy, loud enough so his playmates could hear her also.
"Yeah," the kid answered politely, still looking scared.
"See this guy here?" she tapped Dean on the knee. "He's a big-time robber. You guys should all shoot him quick."
The kids were all gathering around but none moved. Dean smirked. "Nice try," he leaned back on the bench with a cocky grin. He had the intimidation of minors down to an art form.
Alex got up and held out her hand to the nearest kid, who immediately handed her his watergun. She aimed right at Dean and fired, hitting him squarely between the eyes.
Not actually expecting her to do it, Dean was caught off guard. He spat out the water dripping into his mouth and stood up quickly. "Gimme your gun, kid," he demanded of the boy who had fired at them to begin with. The kid obeyed immediately.
"Oh shit," Alex whispered through her grin, realizing she was going to get slaughtered. She fired once again quickly and turned to run, Dean charging after her.
Curiously, that human instinct of siding with the underdog kicked in and all six kids still with guns in their hands squealed and charged after Dean. It seemed there were now nine cops to his one robber. After catching up with Alex and emptying his gun on her, Dean found himself being blasted by six laughing kids, his attempt at intimidation long forgotten. He ran around the park and avoided them with ease, using the playground for cover, allowing them to get just close enough to land the occasional spray within a couple of feet of him and keep their hope alive.
They were taking turns refilling from a bucket of water they had stashed by the swings. One little girl in particular was quick and thought three steps ahead, Dean noticed, impressed. That kid had good instincts. She'd make a good hunter.
He led all the kids to the far side of the park before sprinting back towards the swings to refill his toy gun from the bucket before their shorter legs could carry them back over. He was almost done when he felt a huge blast of water hit him in the back. He jumped up with a roar, turning to face his attacker. He saw Alex standing over thirty feet away holding a Mega-Blaster, a two foot long, kick-ass water-gun with a large tank of water on the top.
"Gotcha!" she jeered. He hadn't even noticed her nip around to the Bronco to pull the gun out.
"Oh, you'd better run!" he warned, laughing as he raced towards her. He headed straight into the spray with an outstretched palm as he charged. She turned away to run at the last moment but he caught her around the waist, yanking the big gun out of her grip with one hand and holding her at arm's length with the other while he got his finger positioned on the trigger.
A multitude of delighted squeals arose from behind him as the kids caught up with them and took note of the magnificent new weapon in his hands. He let go of Alex and turned the Mega-Blaster on them, sending them scurrying away shrieking loudly with that perfect blend of fear and fun that occurs so often in childhood.
Robbed of her weapon, Alex decided to kick Plan B into action. Surely the nine of them could take Dean down? The guy was barely sprinkled and the rest of them were soaking wet. It was embarrassing how good he was. She headed over towards the swings and waited until he came running out from behind the slide, followed by eight screaming eight-year-olds. Alex laughed at the sight, not sure who was having more fun, Dean or the kids.
As he got close she bent over and held her head, groaning loudly and closing her eyes. Dean immediately came rushing over, gun lowered and miniature SWAT team behind him forgotten. "Lex, you okay?"
Alex waited until he was standing right next to her and his free hand came to rest on her shoulder. With lightning speed she whipped out the handcuffs she was concealing, slapping one side onto his wrist and the other onto the steel leg of the swing set. She stepped back swiftly and grabbed the blaster from his grip as he was still putting together what had happened.
The kids figured it out as quickly as Dean had, for they all danced around him now, cheering loudly. Dean straightened up in stoic defeat and waited for the onslaught.
"Handcuffs, huh?" he raised his eyebrows at Alex.
"Hey, there are some perks to dating a cop," she winked back, laughing as eight streams of water suddenly hit the hunter in the face. She aimed the blaster and added her own spray to the now-drenched show-off.
"Hey Dean! Alex!"
She turned to see Sam standing with Bobby at the corner of the motel, waving them to come over. "I'll be right back," she told Dean, deciding to leave him there for a few minutes to let the kids finish having their fun.
Bobby shook his head at the sight. It appeared one of the best hunters he had ever had the privilege of seeing in action was now handcuffed to the swings and a gaggle of rowdy rugrats was shooting at him with water-guns. "She's almost as crazy as he is," he mumbled about Alex, who was strolling over towards them with a giant toy gun in her hands.
Sam grinned. "I know. They're perfect for each other, huh?"
Bobby's eyes widened. "What are you, nuts?" he chastised. "Dean needs a gal who can keep him out of trouble, not one that attracts it like a bitch in heat!"
Sam couldn't reply because Alex came within earshot.
"Hey, Sam. Hi Bobby. Did you bring that psychic?"
"Pamela's here. We should get started on the séance right away, though. She can't stay long."
"What's with the Mega-Blaster?" Sam pointed to the plastic weapon she was carrying.
She laughed. "Josh and I used this once to keep a couple of demons at bay while we got away. It worked pretty well." She held the bright yellow gun up with a grin. "It's got a sixty foot range. Just have to fill this tank with holy water."
Bobby rolled his eyes but grudgingly admitted it was a pretty good idea and he may consider using it in the future... if no other hunters were present, of course, and he would paint it camo-green. He was just mumbling something to that effect when Alex suddenly shrieked loudly as a bucket of cold water was dumped over her head.
She cleared the water from her face to see Dean standing next to her, the kids' fill-up bucket swinging empty in his hand.
"I thought you said you never screamed," he accused with a cocky smirk.
"That was a... an audible expression of surprise, not a scream," she retorted indignantly, running her fingers across her hair to squeeze the excess water out. "And that water's friggin' cold!"
"I can see that," said Dean, glancing downwards with a lewd raise of his eyebrows.
Sam and Bobby averted their eyes politely, both hiding grins by tilting their heads. Alex blushed furiously despite the cold water on her cheeks and quickly folded her arms across her chest.
"How'd you get out anyway?" she attempted to change the subject.
Dean scoffed and held a small object up in his hand. "Paperclip," he boasted.
The four headed back around to the motel room, Sam and Bobby taking the lead while the wet pair sloshed along behind them. Dean raised the Mega-blaster and let out a quick squirt, hitting his brother in the ass.
"Hey!" griped Sam, turning around quickly and shielding his groin with his hands. "What are you, twelve?"
Dean snickered and rotated the gun a few degrees to point at Bobby but the warning scowl on the mechanic's face stopped him dead. He lowered the blaster quickly, erasing the smile from his face. "Sorry," he said sheepishly.
"Disarm the idjit," Bobby ordered Sam, who obligingly did so, snatching the toy gun from Dean's hands. He spun on his heel with a huff and continued towards the motel door, looking very much like he had wet his pants.
Alex and Dean were still stifling giggles when they reached the room.
SPN-SPN-SPN
