Chapter 13
"So you're telling me that's Dean? As in, the actual Dean Winchester?" Chuck nodded, trying to calm Becky down; he couldn't tell whether she was excited or worried by this, either way Chuck knew that Dean would not react well to it. "And he's four years old now?"
"Yeah, at the moment. There was a witch and a curse; Sam's busy looking for a way to change him back." Chuck explained, glancing through to the living room to see Dean who had not moved an inch since Chuck had placed on the sofa.
"Why's he here though? And what happened to him? He looks terrible." Becky joined Chuck to stare at the weary looking Dean.
"Sam thought he would be safest here." Chuck almost laughed at how wrong Sam had been. "Dean couldn't exactly go with him to hunt the witch; Sam thinks she has a personal vendetta against Dean." Becky nodded, thinking of possible suspects from the list of witch's the Winchesters had faced in the past, she checked off all the names she had memorised after reading Chuck's work.
"So, is that why he's like…" She waved her hand gesturing towards Dean. "Did the witch do it to him?"
"No, that was from today." Chuck sighed, feeling an intense sense of failure. "There was a demon, I don't know what happened exactly all I know is it chased Dean. After that he went silent; I haven't been able to get more than one word out of him." Chuck said while unpacking the grocery bag held in his hand, leaving out a children microwavable meal of lasagne he'd picked up for Dean.
"Does he still remember everything?"
Chuck nodded, "I think so."
"So it's just him in a child's body?"
Chuck froze for a minute considering the question, that's what he had assumed, but seeing him now, the extreme look of distress and pain he had seen in the child's eyes earlier, it was obvious Dean wasn't his adult self. "I don't know; yeah, sometimes he is but then sometimes," He glanced at Dean again, remembering the state he'd been in less than half an hour ago, "Well, sometimes he's not. I don't really know what's going on." He admitted, placing the lasagne in the microwave after stabbing some holes in the layer of plastic on top and reading the cooking instructions. While the meal heated up he walked into the living room to check on Dean, Becky lingered at the door, choosing to observe rather in the debriefing.
"Hey, are you ok now?" Dean nodded, still vacantly staring at the screen. "Do you want to talk about what happened?" Dean looked down for a minute, contemplating the suggestion before looking up, his large green eyes finally meeting Chuck's.
"I though' I was bein' followed so I wan." He couldn't bring himself to tell the rest of the story, partly because he could still feel the fear consume him when he thought about it, but mainly because he was embarrassed that he had gotten so scared. "I' was the same demon fwom yes'erday." He announced in a near whisper.
"How did it find you?" Chuck asked, eyes darting around the room as if the demon would be there.
Dean shrugged, hoping to leave the topic at that, not wanting to think about the threats the demon had made during each meeting. Chuck sensed his eagerness so he obliged to Dean's wishes, changing the topic to one he knew Dean would be more comfortable with and possibly enthusiastic about. "Do you want something to eat?"
Dean nodded keenly, suddenly overwhelmed with hunger. The last time he had eaten was that morning, it was now seven pm and he was surprised he had survived the day purely on a handful of potato chips; he figured it was due to all the distractions he had encountered during his eventful day. Dean followed Chuck through to the kitchen, leaving Zeppelin on the sofa to continue watching the television, and sat in the chair he had silently declared as his favourite. The entire time he was eating- once again with plastic cutlery after Chuck cut the meal up into smaller chunks since Dean was unable to with only one hand- he was aware of Becky staring at him.
Through a mouthful of pasta he said, "Stop stawing will ya, i's cweepy." Becky eyes immediately fell to the floor, now trying to look at anything that wasn't Dean.
When Dean had finished the lasagne and a slice of pie Chuck gave him in an attempt to cheer him up, he returned to the sofa, pulling Zeppelin back onto Dean's preferred position that was his lap and began to watch cartoons again; only looking up half an hour later when his phone began to ring. It was on the table where Chuck and Becky were still sat around, discreetly discussing what to do with the four year old. The vibrating object scared Chuck at first since he had been on edge ever since they had returned to the house. He looked down at the screen to see the name 'Sam', underneath it read '17 missed calls'.
"Hello," He said answering the ringing phone, bringing the vibrating to an end.
"Chuck? Where the hell have you been? I've called like 15 times. Is everything okay?" He heard Sam's frantic voice on the other end of the phone.
"Yeah, sorry about that. Everything's fine here, we'd been out at the park. Dean must've left his phone here." Chuck explained, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible, not wanting to worry Sam to any further extent. Chuck thought it was wise not to mention the demon, bullies or ghost until Sam got here and it was absolutely necessary; it was best for him to remain focussed on the case, that way he could find a way to reverse this spell faster. That's what was most important right now.
As if to remind him of that, Dean had wandered over so he was able to hear the phone conversation better, standing on his tiptoes so he could rest his chin on the table, hand next to it in order to balance. "Is everything okay on your end?" Chuck asked hoping the answer was a positive one.
"Yeah, I just wanted to check how everything was going." Chuck could barely hear what Sam was saying over Dean's relentless questions.
"Has he found the witch yet? Can they turn me back? Chuck, what's going on? Chuck, Chuck, Chuck,"
"Dean, shh. I can't hear anything if you keep talking over him." He said, straining to hear what Sam was saying.
"Is Dean there?" Sam asked, not waiting for Chuck to reply since he'd already deduced it due to Chuck's appeals. "I need to talk to him. Can you put me on loudspeaker?" Sam requested.
"Yeah, hang on a second." Chuck pulled the phone away from his ear, searching for the speaker button on the alien phone, Dean rolled his eyes and held out his arm, offering to do it for him, chuck ignored him however and continued to struggle looking for the correct action. "Okay, I think you're on loudspeaker now." Chuck said after pressing a button with a volume symbol on it and placing the phone flat in the centre of the table.
"Okay," Sam said, testing if they could hear him.
"Hiya Sammy," Dean said excitedly, "Have you foun' the witch ye'?"
"Yeah, we found her." Sam replied in a less than enthusiastic tone, Chuck could tell something was wrong.
"So you can ge' her to turn me back then?" Dean was almost bouncing in excitement, biting his tongue as his head bumped against the table.
"Not exactly," Sam replied flatly.
"Wha' you mean not exac'ly?" Dean asked, suddenly deflated, sinking in on himself as he started to become gradually more panicked.
"She's dead."
"What/wha'?" All three people gathered around the phone asked in unison.
"Is that Becky?" Sam asked after distinguishing the third voice.
"Pwiowities Sam, wha' happened to the witch? Di' you kill her?" Dean asked hurriedly, leaning in closer to the phone.
"Right, the witch. No, we didn't kill her; she was already dead when we got to the warehouse." Sam told them.
"How did she die then?" Becky asked before Dean could.
"Um, well, it's kind of weird." Sam said hesitantly.
"Weirder than me bein' four years ol'?" Dean asked sceptically, his bitterness at the situation becoming clearer by the second.
"Good point. But still, it was weird. Her entire body had been drained of all blood and it looks like her organs are missing. She's basically a skeleton with flesh; even her hair and fingernails are gone." Sam described, wincing at the memory of what the body looked like.
Chuck, Becky and Dean all stared at the phone questioningly, sharing the same puzzled look. "Ew, gwoss." Dean said.
"Do you think it was a vampire?" Becky suggested, utilizing her knowledge she had learned from the books.
"Can't be, no bite marks. Actually, there's no sign of any injury on the skin, her blood and organs look like they just disappeared." Sam shot down Becky's theory.
"Well, have you at leas' go' the weversal spell?" Dean asked, hoping there was at least one positive point to all of this.
"That's the other weird thing, I'm not even sure she was a witch." Sam said, producing more questioning looks and even a gasp from Becky.
"Wha' the hell is she then?" The other three members in the conversation all winced, even though Dean was actually a fully grown adult, it was still weird to hear him swear in this form.
"I don't know but there's no sign of witchcraft; no hex bags or grimoires, nothing supernatural apart from the body itself. The only other thing here is what looks like a bunch of old German fairy tale books." Sam explained, as he looked at the stack of books he had bought back to Bobby's and flipped through. "I don't know what's going on, but it's definitely not witchcraft and it's nothing we've ever seen before."
"Gweat," Dean mumbled sarcastically, like swearing, sarcasm sounded unnatural coming from a child's mouth. "What do we do now then?"
"Me and Bobby are going to look into it, Bobby's already called some contact's to ask around. I'm going to stay here tonight, do some research, and then head back in the morning. I should get there sometime in the afternoon. Hopefully we've found something by then." Dean continued to frown despite his brother's plans; it must have been audible since Sam added. "Don't worry, we'll figure it out. I'll phone tomorrow to check in, bye." Dean, Chuck and Becky continued to listen to the dead line for a minute or two.
"Well this sucks." Dean sighed, breaking the silence.
"It will be okay." Becky tried to reassure him.
"Nothin' abou' this is okay." Dean retorted, moving backwards from the table and turning to hide the pained expression he wore due to the reoccurring pain in his head.
"It'll be fine, it's always fine." Becky stood, walking closer so she would be able to comfort him. She understood now what Chuck had meant by "sometimes he's not," this wasn't the Dean Winchester she had read about over the years. "It's not that bad." She repeated the line she had used frequently whilst babysitting during high school when the children had gotten upset.
Dean turned back to look at Becky with a look that was both confused and annoyed. "Not tha' bad? I'm four years ol' and we don' know why. In the pas' 48 hours I have been cursed by a witch who isn' ac'ally a witch, attacked by a demon, twice," He raised to fingers to emphasise his point, "Spwained my wis', was angel woofied and now we have no idea how to turn me back or even where to star' lookin'." Dean said hurriedly without taking a single breath. "An' you're sayin' 'i's not tha' bad.' Wha's your defition of bad then?" Dean asked angrily before he turned back around and stormed up the stairs, slamming the door shut behind him and putting a chair in front of it so no-one else could enter.
I have to fix this. No-one else is doing anything, he thought to himself.
He began to gather things from his duffel bag on the bed, struggling to pronounce the spell correctly, but eventually he got it right. For a minute nothing happened but then he heard the gruff, English accent say, "Wow, I'd heard rumours but I wasn't sure whether to believe them or not. You look good, what moisturiser do you use, I've been meaning to find a new one."
"Shu' up Cwowley." Dean snapped, unable to handle any more comments about his size.
Crowley laughed at Dean's speech impediment. "You're the one who summoned me. What do you want anyway? Interested in selling your soul for a new teddy bear?" He asked mockingly, Dean didn't reply, just looked down at his feet. "You're actually considering selling your soul." He commented, rather surprised, raising his eyebrows in amazement. "I wish I could make that deal with you," He said smirking.
"So you can turn me back?" Dean asked.
"No," Crowley said grudgingly. "One, you're two young to agree, there would be a breach in the contract." Dean's brow furrowed at the rule he had not been aware of. "And sorry to disappoint, but I couldn't even reverse this if you were eligible for the deal. Whatever this is, it's more powerful than me, and that's saying something." His words were draped in envy.
"Wha'?" Dean asked, confused by the demon.
"I can't interfere with this kind of magic; it's ancient, older than me, older than hell." Crowley said, triggering another inquisitive look from Dean. "You must've really pissed someone off if they found a way to pull this off; I've only seen it happen one other time." He smirked once again.
"Do you at leas' know wha' i' is?" Dean queried optimistically.
"Personally, no, I don't." Crowley sighed, rolling his eyes at Dean's defeated expression. "Look, your no use to anyone like this, you'll never be able to stop Lucifer, and frankly it's pathetic." Dean looked up with an offended look. "Talk to that trickster friend of yours, last I heard he has the most experience in this." And with that he was gone.
"Dean?" Chuck's voice came from the other side of the door, accompanied with knocking; the chair barricading the door shook as he tried to open the door. Dean pulled back the chair so Chuck was able to open the door. "Who were you talking to?"
Dean opened his mouth, but the words that were spoken did not come from him.
"Crowley." Said the angel who was now standing behind him.
AN: Here's the next chapter, thank you for all the positive responses on the previous one and I hope you all enjoy this one too. Good guesses on who it would be, but it's Gabriel. I hope you like the twist, and I think you'll like where the story goes. I have done a lot of research for it. But anyway, until next time, enjoy!