The boys spent the next two weeks looking for any sign of the Amazon women that had eluded them. They found nothing.
They were currently in a motel in Nebraska and looking for any other job nearby. Dean and Cas had been working on their marriage issues, but neither one of them wanted to dwell on any of it very much so the changes were slow in coming. Sam did what he could to help the couple, taking them out for drinks together and talking Dean into movie marathons while they had a short break. It had worked pretty well. They were all laughing and relaxed together.
Dean had been awake for an hour. He didn't want to move and wake up Cas, who was holding Dean as he slept. They hadn't been too intimate the past two weeks so he didn't want to lose what he was getting now. Sam was in his room, probably searching for a job. Dean should be doing the same but instead he was tracing a finger over the back of Cas's hand. Cas mumbled quietly and twitched his hand.
Dean pulled back for a second to let him settle before lightly touching him again. Cas made a low noise and cracked open a sleepy eye. Dean smiled and curled his fingers around Cas' hand. Cas grumbled, still mostly asleep, and lifted his hand to weave their fingers together. "Morning, Cas." Dean ran his free hand through Cas's hair.
"Mrnig." Cas mumbled into Dean's t-shirt. He never was a morning person. He stretched his tired muscles and fell limp against him again.
"Did you like the movie?" The three of them had watched the original Star Wars trilogy the night before. Dean had finally made good on his promise to show them to Cas. Cas grumbled a yes as he rolled onto his back. "Really?"
"Yes, Dean." He opened his eyes and gave him a small smile. "It was…" Cas rubbed his eyes, "interesting."
Dean sat up and leaned against the headboard of the bed. He watched Cas try to wake himself up and failing. He had curled up turned away from Dean and seemed to drift off. He slipped off the bed carefully so he didn't disrupt Cas too much and put his jeans on. Sam had to be up and he wanted to see what he had found, if anything.
After walking a few doors down, Dean knocked on Sam's door. "So, you found anything on our Amazon friends?"
"No," Sam had his laptop open on his bed. Dean sat in the open chair by the bed. Sam sat on the bed and looked through a few of the open web pages.
"You looking for something else then?"
"Yep." Sam closed out a few stories that were too "everyday" to be their kind of thing. He looked over the screen at his brother. "You could help."
"I could, but why would I deprive you of your research. I know how much you love it." He smiled at Sam's eye roll. "I was actually thinking about calling Frank and seeing if he managed to turn up anything for us on Dick."
"Sounds good." Sam nodded. "Cas sleeping?"
"Yeah, I tried to get him up but…he never was an early riser anyway." They sat quietly for a minute. The only sound was Sam typing on his keyboard. "I guess I'll try to get a hold of Frank." Dean stood up and took out his phone.
After getting the run around from Frank, Dean was finally able to get him and told him to get some information. Frank told him where to go in a few days and he would call back. Dean grudgingly agreed.
A few days later, as directed by Frank, the three of them were waiting outside a payphone on a back street outside of town. Dean ran inside the booth when it started ringing. "Hello." Dean closed the door of the small booth. He sighed. "I am the eggman." Frank and his stupid passwords. Sam and Cas smiled at Dean's irritated look.
"Seriously, Frank, payphones? I mean, I'm getting the clap just touching this thing." He paused as Frank talked. "Frank Savage, really? No I know, Big Mouths are everywhere." He listened. "Uh well, since you asked, some actual intel on the Dick Roman guy would be nice." Sam looked up from the newspaper he was reading. "Fine, alright, good looking out." Dean hung up the phone and slipped out of the phone booth, trying not to touch it too much as he did.
Sam handed Cas the paper to read about a story he found while Dean walked back to them. "I hope he finds out something quick. This whole protocol de jour thing is really creepin' my cheese."
"So we got dick on Dick?"
Dean gave a wary look. "That's a vivid way of putting it."
Sam smiled. "Well, since Frank isn't giving us anything." He pointed to the paper in Cas's hands. "I think I've got something in Kansas."
"Okay, let's do it." Dean clapped his hands. They left for Kansas. Sam filled Dean in during the drive.
They all tilted their heads when they saw the body of a middle aged man covered in huge circular marks spiraling around him. "Whoa, those are not the fun kind of hickies."
Sam looked at the coroner. "You're saying an octopus did this?"
"Not just any octopus. Based on the welt diameter, I would say enteroctopus dofleini."
"Okay," Dean smiled, "and for those of us who skipped the octopus class."
"Giant Pacific Octopus."
"How giant we talkin' Doc?"
"Approximately 30 feet."
"How did one get to Kansas?" Cas knew that wasn't really possible. The doctor shrugged.
"So, what…guy comes home, cracks open a beer and gets suckered to death?" Dean pointed to the body.
"I think this is some kind of freak fetish attack. Someone created those hickey marks and then bled the man out." The doctor turned the man's head and revealed a wound on his neck where he bled out.
They thanked him and walked out into the hallway. Dean looked at Sam. "Did that bite look a little vampy to you?"
"Yeah, no question."
"So what are we looking for? An octovamp, vamptapus?"
"That's crazy even for us right?"
"It does push the envelope. Let's go talk to the widow." Dean led the other two to the car and they drove to the dead man's house.
"We're very sorry for your lose ma'am." They boys were sitting across from the grieving widow.
"Mrs. Hart," Dean set his mug of coffee down on the table, "we know this is bad timing but we have a few routine questions we need to ask you if that's okay." She nodded.
Sam leaned forward slightly. "Did the house feel any different lately?"
"Different?"
Dean chimed in. "Anything strange. Cold spots, did you smell anything weird, maybe sulfury?"
She shook her head. "No, not that I can remember."
"Just ticking all the boxes here. What about any skeletons in your husband's closet?"
"Skeletons? What do you mean?"
Cas looked at the wife. "Do you know anyone that would want to do your husband harm?"
"A colleague? An old flame?"
She looked down at the floor. Sam could see she had something. "The tiniest detail could help."
She looked up at Dean. "You want to know what he's been up to lately, ask Stacy. She was here the night he died."
"Stacy?"
"Our nanny." There was definitely anger boiling just under the surface there. "Do you have any more questions?"
"No," Sam stood up. "That should be all, thank you." The three men left the house.
"Mom, dad, and the nanny. That is a threesome straight out of Casa Erotica. Of course in those the jealous wife tends to channel her feelings more productively."
Sam shook his head. "The only thing I can't wrap my mind around is…"
"What, how wife lady summoned an octovamp?"
"More of why. Kind of impractical right?"
"Yeah." Dean stepped around to the driver's side of his car. "Cas and I can go talk to the naughty nanny. You stay here and keep an eye on the wife."
"Alright."
Cas and Dean left to talk to Stacy.
"How would you describe your relationship with the deceased?" Dean was following the young woman to the kitchen as he talked.
"I don't know. Normal I guess." She was gathering magazines to throw away.
"Normal?"
"Well," she looked at both of them, "I mostly dealt with Debora." At their blank looks, she sighed lightly. "Nothing was going on if that's what you mean."
Cas stepped up beside Dean. "Debora said you were at the house late the night that Brian died."
"Yeah," she walked past them into the living room, "Brian was working late so I stayed with Kelly. She was pretty upset."
"Why was that?" Dean and Cas turned to face her.
"It was her birthday. We had a party at Plucky's."
"Plucky's?" Dean knew that name somewhere. "Why does that sound familiar?"
"Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie? Pizza chain for kids." She raised her eyebrows. "Actually more for lazy parents. Anyway, her dad showed up for maybe five minutes and went back to work, and of course her mom was out of town. This stupid kid told Kelly her folks didn't really love her. She freaked. I was calming her down for hours."
"Did you notice anything weird at the house?"
"Weird like?"
"Anything. Even a bad feeling."
"No, nothing like that. Actually, Kelly does have a weird thing about closets but it's just kid stuff."
"Try us."
She smiled. "She thinks there's a monster in her closet. Drives everyone crazy."
"Thank you." Dean and Cas left, knowing they needed to pay another visit to the house. Dean took out his phone and called Sam. "Hey, we were talking to the wrong person."
"What?"
"Yeah, forget the mom, talk to the daughter. She's mad at her dad for ditching her birthday."
"So what you think birthday wish gone bad or something like that?"
"I don't know. Could be." Dean opened his door and Cas slipped into the passenger seat.
"I got a twenty on her right now."
"Can you get to her without tripping the AMBER alert?"
Sam laughed. "I'll try."
"Alright, see what you can find out." He hung up and got in the car and drove back to the motel.
Sam joined them about half an hour later with some take out. "You find out anything?" Dean took a bag from Sam when he opened the door to their room. Sam handed the other to Cas.
Sam sat at the small table in the room. "Sort of." He emptied to contents of his bag. "The daughter said her mom was trying to keep her from talking to us because she told the local police about the monster after her dad."
"Monster?"
"Yeah, she said she warned her dad about it before he died. That was about all I could get out of her before mom pulled her back into the house."
"Huh, well that doesn't get us much does it?" Dean unwrapped his burger.
Cas had already started into his. "Are we gonna check the house out more?"
Sam shrugged. "I don't know. That seems like the right choice, but I don't know if mom will let us in for that."
"Let's just keep looking for another possibility on what we're dealing with. At least tonight."
They all agreed on that and spent a few hours looking through their resources before calling it a night. Sam left to sleep in his room and Dean and Cas changed into their pajamas. Cas was standing beside the bed when Dean crept up behind him and wrapped his arms around Cas's waist. He left light kisses on the back of his neck.
Dean slid his hands under Cas's shirt and lightly rubbed circles over Cas's stomach. Cas was leaning into Dean slightly. He pushed his shirt up and nipped at Cas's neck.
"Dean." Cas stiffened and pushed his hands and shirt down. He turned in Dean's hold to face him. Dean looked confused. Cas kissed him gently before turning back and pulling the covers down on the bed.
"It's been weeks, Cas." He stayed standing as Cas sat on the bed.
"I know." He said it like nothing else needed to be said.
"You're still mad at me."
Cas frowned. "I'm not mad."
"Okay." Dean walked around to the other side of the bed and slipped under the covers. "You just don't want to be that close."
"It's not that, Dean." Cas tried to think of how to say what he wanted to say. "I just…" he looked at Dean's guarded face. "Give me a little more time okay?" He leaned in close and put a hand on the side of Dean's head. "I don't love you any less." Dean closed his eyes at the words. Cas kissed him briefly and laid down. Dean followed soon after.
The next morning they heard of another murder in town. Dean and Cas left to check it out. They would let Sam know if it was related at all to the other. They got to the scene as they were rolling the body off to the ambulance. The man had been stabbed through with some kind of object, leaving a hole in a wall he was trying to hide behind. Prints in the grass on the other side of the wall led the police to think he was being chased by a horse.
Dean walked up to an officer while Cas looked at the hole in the wall. "So, the horse I get, the hoof prints, jumping over the fence but what ran him through?"
The officer shook his head. "The best I could tell you is, something big."
"What like a lance?"
The officer shrugged. "It's sad." He pointed to another officer standing beside a woman Dean assumed was the wife. "He's got to pull an eight year old out of school to tell him his dad is dead."
Dean looked back and caught Cas's eye. He gestured for him to follow. "Excuse me." He walked over to the wife with Cas catching up behind him. "Ma'am," the wife stopped and turned to meet him. Dean showed his badge, "Agent Jones FBI," he saw Cas step up behind him with his own badge out, "my partner Agent Smith."
"I'm sorry." She put her hands up. "I really need to go."
"Just one quick question if you don't mind." She crossed her arms and nodded. "Was yesterday your son's birthday?"
"Billy's birthday? No. Why would you ask that?"
"Nothing nevermind." Maybe this wasn't related.
"Well," the woman stopped from her turn, "his father did take him to a friend's birthday party yesterday." They nodded their thanks and let her leave with the officer.
Dean called Sam when they got back to the car. "Hey, do you remember a chain called Plucky Pennywhistle's?"
There was a pause. "No."
"Really? I could've sworn you loved those places."
"No dude, I hated those places. You would dump me and go trolling for chicks."
"It's not like I left you in jail. Those places are supposed to be fun."
Sam laughed. "Fun? Uh, they're lame and they smelled like puke and the ice cream is all grainy."
"Okay, don't have one of your episodes okay. I'm just having a little trouble with this whole witches gone wild thing but both kids were at Plucky's day of. Look, why don't you go check out the local Plucky's and I'll go talk to this Billy kid."
"Why don't I just wait for you to get back?"
"No can do, hair model. Cas and I are on our way to talking to Billy."
Sam's voice got a little too casual, like he was trying not to panic. "Why don't I go talk to Billy now?"
Dean laughed briefly and looked at Cas. "Wait, this isn't about your clown thing is it?"
"What?" His voice had gone a little higher than normal. "No."
"Sammy." Dean knew what a lie sounded like from his brother.
"No." His voice was weak.
"What in the world did they do to you?" He laughed again. "Alright nevermind, just know that 99.99% of all clowns can not hurt you, and if it bleeds you can kill it." He put his phone in his jacket.
"I can go meet Sam if it's that big of a problem, Dean." Cas felt bad for Sam having to face a phobia alone.
"No, he'll be fine. The man's turning 30 this year, Cas, he can handle some minimum wage workers dressed like clowns." He started the car. "Let's go see what Billy knows."
After talking to Billy and getting a semi-disturbing picture from him, Dean picked up some food on the way back to the motel and waited for Sam to come back. It wasn't too long of a wait. "So, what's the low down from trauma town?" Sam stopped and gave him a glare. Dean smiled.
"I can tell you this much, neither vic was up for parent of the year." He walked to the small bar in the room where Cas and Dean were eating. "Kelly's dad skipped a birthday and Billy's dad pulled one of those dick parent scenes that makes everyone cringe." He set a pile of papers on the bar between them.
"What the hell are these?" Dean leaned over the pages full of badly drawn pictures done in crayon.
"Kid therapy. You draw your worst nightmare and poof, Plucky fixes it." Sam took off his suit jacket. "They hang them up on this big wall."
"Well I can't argue with this." He showed Cas the picture. "Leprechauns are deadly." Sam took off his tie and huffed a small laugh. "So, Kelly draws a monster and that goes after her father? That's what we're going with?"
Sam shrugged. "But here's the thing, they label those and guess which two were missing? Well, label was there picture wasn't."
"Octovamp and Billy's."
"So whatever he drew came to life and killed his dad on a horse."
Dean reached into his jacket. "Close, but no seabiscuit." He took out the picture Billy had given them. "When we went to talk to Billy, he drew us this." Sam looked at Dean opened the page. Billy had drawn a unicorn with a rainbow tail and his dad staked through on his horn.
Sam looked at them with raised eyebrows. They both looked a little amused. "Now unicorns are evil?"
"Obviously."
"Great. Well, now the question is how did a unicorn come to life off a sketch and kill Billy's dad?"
Dean shrugged. Cas might have thought it was one of his brothers, but the ones that might have had the humor to do this were all dead. They were still thinking maybe a witch was somehow behind this.
Later that night, they went back to Plucky's to meet a janitor that had told Sam he had some information and to come back after closing. Their hope sank when they saw police cars and lights outside the building. Sam went to talk to the manager while Dean and Cas went to intercept the body on the way to the ambulance. They flashed their badges and looked under the sheet.
Sam walked over to them. "So?"
"Manager found the body in the ball pit, blood everywhere."
"Cops have a theory?"
"They think the ball washer did it."
"The what?"
"The ball washer."
Dean smiled. "The what?"
"The ball…" Sam held out his arms. "Dean." Dean laughed.
"Look at this." Dean lifted the sheet to show Sam the janitor's wound. Sam was a little grossed out. He dropped the sheet and they took the body away. "That's a shark bite."
"A shark in the ball pit?"
Dean shrugged at Cas. "Apparently." He looked at Sam again. "And judging by the radius, I would say a twenty footer at least." Sam and Cas shared a confused look they turned to Dean. He shook his head in disbelief. "Shark Week, man. How do you not watch that? A whole week of sharks."
Sam turned and entered Plucky's. Cas patted Dean's arm and followed Sam. The three of them looked through the almost painfully cheery building. They made their way to the wall of child fears. Sam noticed another missing picture. He pulled the nametag off the wall. "Omar Cooper." Dean and Cas turned their flashlights to him. "How much you want to bet Omar was afraid of sharks?"
"How would the janitor be connected though?" Cas was looking at the pictures as he spoke. "I thought they were relatives."
"Saul said he had something important to tell me."
"So this isn't about ganking some dickweed parent?" Dean watched Sam pull out his EMF meter.
"More like silencing a whistle blower." He turned the meter on.
"Great," Dean turned to the wall Cas was still looking over, "so whatever we're dealing with can literally fire off childhood fears at will. Watch out for evil lunch ladies."
"Let's comb this place." Sam went off in one direction with his meter. Dean and Cas split off with their own.
Dean groaned. "Seriously? Octopuss, Seabiscuit the Impaler, land shark. What's next?" They spent a good hour or two looking over every part of the building before heading back to the motel to try to figure out what has the juice to bring drawings to life with such fatal power.
The next morning they were still thinking. "Maybe a tulpa?"
"No, the killings are too spread out." Dean rubbed his eyes from a full night of reading.
Sam was on his computer. "True." He looked at Cas. "Angel maybe?"
Cas shook his head. "I doubt it. Most of them have returned to Heaven and this seems too indirect. They wouldn't send pictures after people."
"Meaning it's too creative? If Gabriel were still alive, I would think it was him but," Dean shrugged. Sam nodded.
"What then?"
"I don't know." Dean took a drink from what had to be his tenth coffee. "I'm tapped out."
"At least we know where it is."
"Yeah, but we swept the place and nada."
Sam leaned back in his chair. "I could go back. Drill the employees and dig up some dirt."
"What good is that gonna do? They think you're a Fed. The one guy who was gonna rat, got killed. Even if anyone knows anything, they're not gonna tell you."
"Alright." Sam clapped his hands and stood up. "That's the plan. I go back and play bad cop, really lay into them." He walked to the bathroom.
"What will that do?" Cas thought maybe Sam hadn't heard what Dean had said.
"When I'm done, you two watch them."
"And if someone freaks, that's our creep?" Dean was beginning to see Sam's line of thought.
"Or he'll lead us closer and you can track him."
"What's our cover?" Dean pointed to Cas.
"I don't know." Sam shrugged and started to close the door. "Just hang back. Act normal." He shut the door.
Dean scuffed. "Yeah two men in their 30's hanging out in Plucky's, that's normal. Not pervy at all."
Twenty minutes later, Dean and Cas were sitting at one of the small tables near the center of the place. Sam was talking to the manager. "This is ridiculous, Cas." He leaned in to whisper. "We can't just sit here like a couple creeps. Someone will call the cops."
Cas smiled. "I'm sure we'll be fine. Just relax."
Dean shook his head. A little girl walked by the table playing with a giant rainbow slinky. Dean's eyes widened and looked back to where the girl had come from. "Cas, I'll be right back." He pushed off the table and practically ran to the counter of prizes. Cas followed quickly.
"Giant slinky." Dean pointed to the prize behind the man with a way too wide smile. "I would have killed for one of those when I was a kid. How much?"
"1000 tickets."
"Cash, dude how much?"
"Oh, we don't take cash here at Plucky Pennywhistle's. Only tickets won through hard work and determination."
Dean looked him up and down. "You main-line the Kool-Aid huh?"
The man, who's nametag read Howard, giggled a little too long. "It's double ticket Tuesday if you play skeeball." The wide smile never left the man's face. Dean narrowed his eyes and turned slowly and grabbed Cas's arm.
"Cas, I'm getting that slinky." He pulled Cas to the skeeball machine. "I can do this. I only need 500 tickets right?"
"Dean, we need to watch for the employees Sam is questioning."
"Yeah, I know." He waved dismissively. He played through the first game quickly and smiled at the tickets that came out of the machine. His smile fell when there were only three. The door to the employee lounge opened and the manager walked out. "Keep going, Cas." He slapped his back and he followed the manager.
"Dean, I don't know," he was already out of hearing range, "how to play this." He looked at the machine warily. It couldn't be that hard, right?
Dean came back a couple minutes later. "It's not her. How you doin'?" Dean looked at the tickets. There had to be at least thirty of them. "What the?"
Cas shrugged. "I thought it would be harder."
Dean smiled. He pulled the tickets off the machine. Cas threw and it landed right in the 100 slot. Dean cheered and pulled Cas's arm and planted a kiss on his cheek. "I've never loved you more." Cas laughed and pushed him away playfully.
"But, mom," a young boy to their left caught Dean's ear, "I don't want…"
"Just eat." The mom, who was wearing a Plucky's uniform, put a plate with pizza on the table in front of the boy.
"But it sucks!"
She sighed and left her son at the table. Dean walked over to the boy. "Why don't you cut her some slack?"
He looked up at Dean. "Why do you care?"
"Because I've been where you are."
"Your mom made you camp out at stupid Plucky's after school?"
"No, but my dad hauled me places. Besides, she's workin' a tough gig," he nodded to the woman who was crouched on the floor cleaning up a mess on the floor. "She's exhausted. You should pity the old." He smiled. "And hey, free grub."
He looked at the pizza slice. "That stuff tastes like butt."
"What?" Dean laughed. "Come on, it can't be that bad." He reached down and picked up the plate. He took a bite of the pizza and chewed for a moment. It wasn't so…oh God. Dean let the pizza fall back onto the plate. He dropped it back on the table. "Yeah, that is butt." The boy smiled. Dean was about to leave when he saw a drawing of a robot on the table. "You scared of robots or something?"
"They have laser-eyes." He pointed to his eyes.
"Yes." Dean saw the cheery man from earlier walk past him. Sam had been talking to him. He greeted one of the kids with a big smile. He texted a negative to Sam and joined Cas at the game. He had won another impressive amount of tickets. "Dude, seriously how do you do this?" He ripped the tickets off and saw Cas smile smugly.
Suddenly, the employee lounge door busted open and Dean heard Sam call out his name. The lion mascot, minus the head, ran past them. Dean and Cas immediately took off after him. Sam followed behind.
The lion ran out the back door and down the street. Dean was faster than Cas and was hardly an arm's reach away. He grabbed out for the tail of the suit and ripped off the velcro attaching it. With a leap, Dean managed to get his arms around the employee and knocked him into a pile of tires. They bounced and rolled before Dean could stand up with the man laying on the ground with his lion paws held up.
"If this is about the meth lab, it wasn't me. It was my brother. We have the same fingerprints. Please, this is the best job I've ever had."
Sam and Cas were standing nearby catching their breath. Dean furrowed his eyebrows. "Look uh...?"
"Clif."
"Clif, you're not using kid's nightmares to smoke people are you?"
He looked like he wasn't sure if Dean was being serious. "I don't think so."
Dean pulled Clif up by his suit. "Get up." Clif kept his hands up, not knowing what to expect. "Look, we don't care if you broke bad or whatever, but there is something seriously weird going on in there."
"You mean in the sub basement?"
Sam moved in front of Clif. "This place has a sub basement?"
"Sure, door's out back. Easy to miss if you don't know."
"What's in there?"
"All I know is, me and Saul used to come in after hours and," Clif started laughing, "you ever shroom in a ball pit?" He kept laughing until he looked at Sam again. "Not that I would agents. It was Saul, just Saul. All alone. Anyway, sometimes we heard stuff, spooky stuff through the vents coming up through the boiler room."
They walked Clif back into the building. Dean saw the young boy from before with his mom. "But somebody stole it."
The mom crouched in front of him. "Don't draw another one."
Dean caught his eye and nodded to him. He deflated and looked back to his mom. "Okay, I'm sorry."
"Thank you."
"That placemat sucked anyway." She took his hand and walked him out.
Dean moved to the table he had been drawing at earlier and looked through his papers. "What is it, Dean?" Cas stepped up beside him.
"Earlier, his mom got pissy with him and now his placemat is missing."
Sam walked around the table. "What do you think?"
"I think, pissy mom plus sad kid plus placemat with something awful on it equals wacky corpse."
"You think she's next on the list?" Dean shrugged. "I'll tail them just to be safe. You and Cas…"
"Check the boiler room."
"Right." Sam went to follow the mom and son but stopped. "Dean, any idea what he drew?"
"Robot, about the size of a house. Shoots destructo beams out of it's eyes."
Sam nodded. "At least I'll see it coming."
"Yeah." Sam left. Dean and Cas found their way to the sub basement.
Dean led Cas through the door way into the sub basement of Plucky's. It was a dark storage room. Cas was close behind, casting a light with his flashlight. They didn't have to look too long before finding a small alter alight with fire on some kind of symbol drawn on the concrete floor. A small desk was beside the fiery alter. "Well that's perfectly normal." Dean sighed.
Cas looked around at the walls covered in drawings of kids in water. One of them was drowning. Cas shivered a little from a sudden flashback of nearly drowning in Sioux Falls. He also saw a picture of two young boys around a birthday cake. "Dean." He pointed to the picture when Dean stepped up behind him.
"Huh." Dean put his flashlight away and pulled out his gun. He saw an open book with symbols in them similar to what was drawn on the floor. He saw a paper under the book and pulled it out to see the drawing Tyler had done earlier.
"Drop it." The voice caught both men by surprise. They turned slowly with their hands up slightly. They didn't expect to find the happy Howard standing with a gun pointed at them. "Drop it." He looked at Dean's gun. Dean lowered his gun slowly and kept his hands out. Cas hoped his gun wasn't visible. "Now, kick it over." Dean pushed his gun to the side with his foot.
"Some pretty heavy hoodoo you've got here." He pointed to the book behind him. "I gotta say, as far as I know, none of these things can poop out a unicorn."
Howard stepped forward. "There's power in fear. When a child draws what he's afraid of, a little of that mojo ends up on the page."
"So what you set a fire and some bed wetter's nightmare comes to life?"
"I have to get something off the parent too, something they own. That bit gets tricky."
"That doesn't seem to have slowed you down."
"I'm just doing what I need to." Howard's voice rose.
Dean raised a hand. "Okay, I get it." He reached back and grabbed the book on the table. He tossed it across the fire at Howard. In the confusion, Dean picked up the picture of the robot and Cas took out his gun. Dean ripped the picture in half. "No drawing, no iron giant."
Howard pointed his gun at Cas, who had his own aimed at Howard. "Ugh, that b-word is still on the list, but not tonight. Bigger fish." He looked at Cas. "Drop your gun."
"Drop yours." Cas had a clean shot at Howard's forehead.
Howard giggled. His gun pointed back to Dean. "I'll do it."
"You'll be dead before you can pull the trigger." Cas's heart sped up in protective anger. "Put it down!"
"You really going to shoot me Howard?" Dean stared the wide eyed man down. "You really want a body on your hands? Blood everywhere?"
"Shut up!" Howard moved forward a little more. Cas took a half step closer to Dean. If he couldn't shoot Howard, he would move Dean or block him. "I got lots of ways to take care of bullies, don't you worry. Like that FBI guy. He's your pal right?" Dean straightened a little. "I saw you chase Clif down. Five minutes ago, his business card was torched. Along with something from my personal collection." He gestured toward a stack of placemat drawings. "I picked it out real special for him too. Soon as I saw him I noticed. He stared at every little Plucky like it was gonna stab him or something. Guy's got a real thing about clowns."
Cas looked at Dean. He looked like he wanted to rip Howard's head off. Cas looked back at Howard. "Stop it. Reverse it now!"
Howard laughed. "I can't. Everything already burned. They'll die when he does."
"Or if you do." Cas cocked his gun and aimed between Howard's eyes. He really wanted to shoot, but he was still aimed at Dean.
Dean was taking the chance to think of something to get Howard. He noticed a couple clown figures behind him. "These are nice dolls you've got. Make them yourself?" Dean picked one up and looked at Howard. His face said yes. "Oh, freakin Plucky."
"Plucky helps kids. It's all I ever wanted to do. When the management slot opened up I…" Howard stopped and frowned. "But they passed me over."
"Shocker." Dean looked at the creepy clown doll.
"I told them, no one cares more than me, but suits never listen." Dean slipped the doll into his back pocket. "So, I'm doing it my way."
"Let me get this straight. You didn't get the good parking space, so you start dropping bodies?"
"Those parents were horrible. They deserved what they got."
"What about Saul?"
"Saul had a big mouth."
"Some guy hits on the babysitter and all of a sudden he's the world's worst dad?"
"A good parent puts his kid first."
Dean advanced on Howard despite the gun pointed at him. "A little girl watching her dad get ganked by the monster in her closet. That's putting her first?"
"In the long run, they'll all be better off."
"You think so?"
"I would have been."
Dean had a thought. He looked back at the pictures of drowning kids and the birthday picture. "So your," Dean made a guess, "brother, what happened to him?"
"It's not my fault. It's theirs." Howard's gun was starting to shake.
"Looks to me like he drowned."
Howard started lowering his gun. "I was screaming but my folks didn't listen. They never listened."
"It was an accident."
"They let him die."
Dean ripped one of the drawings off the wall and held it out to Howard. "I bet you still have nightmares. In fact, I bet you haven't been in the water since."
"Shut up!"
"Because you're afraid." Dean pulled the clown out of his pocket and dropped it and the drawing into the fire alter.
Howard's mouth fell open. "NO!" He reached to pull them out of the fire, but it was too late. He shot off a few rounds at Dean. Dean dropped to the floor and Cas fired back. The fire obstructed his view, so he missed.
When the fire died down enough, Cas stopped. A young boy was standing in front of Howard. He was soaked through. He advanced on Howard. "It wasn't my fault. I'm sorry." The boy stopped next to Howard and touched his hand. Howard fell to his knees and started choking. Water shot out of his mouth and filled his lungs.
Dean stood with his gun in hand. Cas was frozen in place, watching Howard drown. Fear pounded in his chest. Even though Cas hadn't been human yet, Cas still remembered the feeling of water filling his mouth and lungs. The thought of being submerged in water scared him more than almost anything at the moment.
Howard fell to the ground in death. His brother disappeared, leaving nothing but a puddle behind. Dean let out a relieved breath and looked at Cas. Cas was staring at Howard with wide eyes. He put a hand on Cas's shoulder, who flinched. He turned scared eyes to Dean. "You okay?"
Cas cleared his throat. "I'm fine." He put his gun in his jacket and ran a hand over his face. "We should probably get this off the floor," he pointed to the symbol, "so no one else stumbles on it by accident."
"Yeah," Dean picked up Howard's book, "but first." He dropped it into the fire. "No one else can use it now." When the book had dissolved, they removed the sigil from the floor and put the fire out. Dean called Sam as they climbed the stairs out of the basement. They left Howard to be found from an anonymous tip they would call in later. Sam was alright and on his way to Plucky's to meet up.
Dean and Cas waited outside by the Impala. Sam drove up in a stolen Jeep. "Let's roll." He stepped out and sparkled in the moonlight. He was covered from hair to pants in glitter. Dean had to bite his lip hard to not bust out in laughter. Cas didn't have that much control. His laughter bubbled out at Sam's appearance.
Sam dropped his head and raised his arms. "Go ahead, say it."
"You're so sparkly, Sam." Cas couldn't stop laughing as he spoke. Dean finally let out a laugh. He leaned into Cas and the two of them laughed hysterically.
"I'm sorry." Dean faced Sam. "You look like you got attacked by some PCP-crazed strippers." Cas leaned against the Impala, holding his stomach as he laughed.
"Dude, one of them sprayed me with seltzer from his flower." Sam was smiling at the other two's laughter.
Dean had another fit of laughter. "I'm sorry." He grabbed his side, feeling a sting at all the laughing. Sam was giving him a weird look. "What?"
"Nothing, carry on." Sam smiled. He was really happy to see his brother and Cas laughing like this. They had had some fun the last couple weeks, but they hadn't laughed like this in a long time.
Dean took a couple breaths and tried to sober his voice a little. Cas had fallen into quiet giggling. "Sam, I'm sorry for psychologically scarring you."
Sam narrowed his eyes a little. "Which time?"
"Shut up, seriously. I mean, ditching you when we were kids was a dick move and the whole clown thing."
Sam shrugged. "You know what, man, getting my ass kicked by those juggalos tonight…it was therapeutic."
"You faced your fear."
"Exactly, and now what else could a clown ever possibly do to me. I feel good."
Dean laughed. "Well, congrats."
Sam held up a finger. "By the way, to celebrate." He walked back to the Jeep.
"What?"
Sam took something out through the passenger's seat window. He turned with a giant rainbow slinky in his hand. Dean's mouth fell open. "No." Sam handed it to him. "Did you win this?" Cas smiled at Dean's excitement.
"We earned that." Sam walked to the passenger side of the Impala. Cas squeezed Dean's arm as he passed him for the back seat.
"Hey," Dean set the slinky on the hood, "I got you something too actually." Dean took out a small clown toy he had taken from the basement. He tossed it to Sam. Sam caught it with a terrified look on his face. "What, you said you were over it?" Sam held the doll up by it's neck and glared at his brother. "Think of it as a clown phobia sobriety chip." Dean smiled and Sam looked at the doll with murderous eyes.
Cas and Dean sat in the car. Sam stared at the doll for a moment before pulling the clown's head off and throwing it to the ground.
Dean drove off when Sam slipped into the car. They parted off to their rooms once at the motel. Sam said something about needing to take at least three showers before getting the glitter off of him. Dean and Cas were laughing as they entered their room. Dean was holding his slinky with a smile that could rival a five year old.
Cas chuckled. "Well, you got your giant slinky."
Dean laughed. "I did." He put his new toy on the bar by the bed and walked up to Cas. He pulled the man closer by his belt loops. He kissed him with a smile. "I'll give you a giant slinky."
Cas threw his head back with a laugh. "God, Dean." He covered his face with a hand.
Dean pulled his hand away from his smiling face and kissed him again. "You know you want it." He held Cas's wrists as he laughed again and took a step back.
"Dean," his laughs finally died down a little. He shook his head at Dean's wide grin and sparkling eyes. He hadn't seen him look so happy in a very long time.
"What?"
"Nothing." He leaned in and kissed Dean, holding his face close. Dean held his waist tight. The kiss turned hot quickly. Soon they were breathing hard and pulling on each other's clothes. Cas then abruptly pulled back. "Dean, wait."
"What, Cas? Come on." Dean was getting a little irritated by Cas's constant teasing and pulling away.
"I want to do something."
Dean's anger was replaced with curiosity. "What?"
"Something we haven't done, oddly enough."
"Okay." Dean didn't know what Cas meant. They had done a lot of stuff while together and Dean was wondering what kind of weird thing he could be bringing up.
Cas walked into Dean's space and lowered his voice. "The car."
Those two words had more of an effect on Dean than he thought possible. But did he mean what Dean hoped he meant? His heart sped up. "The car like…in the car?" Cas nodded, his smoldering eyes sending a warm feeling down Dean back. He smiled and planted a hard kiss on Cas's lips. "You have never been sexier."
Cas held Dean's jacket with a tight grip and pulled him into another demanding kiss. He broke the kiss and whispered into Dean's ear, "Get the car started." Dean shivered and practically ran out the door. Cas dug their bottle of lube out of his bag and went outside to the rumbling Impala. Dean was sitting behind the wheel with a look between excited and nervous. Cas had barely shut the door before Dean was backing out of his spot and whipping out of the parking lot.
Dean drove down a dirt road off the main street and pulled off to the side. He didn't see lights of any vehicles or houses anywhere close. He looked at Cas, expecting to see hesitance or a change of mind but Cas threw him a look of wanting that made his heart race. As if given permission by the look, Cas climbed over the middle of the front seat and straddled Dean.
Lips met and hands held the other closer. Dean was surprised by Cas's eagerness. Two days ago he didn't want to let Dean touch him much. Now he was pulling Dean's jacket off and kissing him like Dean was air and Cas was drowning. Dean managed to get Cas's top layer off while Cas was busy biting his neck and unbuttoning his jeans. "Cas, slow down. There's no rush." He grunted when Cas got his hand into his boxers and wrapped a warm hand around Dean's semi-hard dick.
Cas smirked as Dean's eyes closed and his head fell back against the seat. He leaned over him and pressed a light kiss to Dean's mouth. He kept his mouth just far enough away when Dean tried to kiss back. Dean's hands were like iron grips on his hips.
"Cas." Dean wrapped his arms around Cas and pulled him up against him. Cas had to put his hands on the seat to keep his balance. Dean kissed Cas, their tongues fought for control of the fierce kiss.
Cas pushed his hips down to grind against Dean's now full erection. Dean moaned and let Cas kiss him with dizzying passion. Cas used the leverage from his hands on the seat to slide over Dean's lap in slow thrusts. "Fuck, Cas!" Dean's head fell back and his hands held on loosely to Cas' t-shirt. "Shouldn't we move to uh…" Dean closed his eyes and moaned, "to the back seat or something?"
"No." Cas moved his hands to Dean's hair and leaned in to ghost his lips over Dean's. "I like it right here." He silenced Dean's moan with another hard kiss.
Dean had actually never had sex in the driver's seat of his car before. He would gladly change that for Cas.
Cas moved back over to the passenger's seat and quickly took off his jeans. Dean was watching him and catching his breath. He pushed his jeans down past his knees while Cas took off his boxers. After taking the lube he had brought out of his pant's pocket, Cas took his position over Dean again. He handed the bottle to Dean and kissed him.
Dean coated a couple of his fingers with the lubricant. He worked open and stretched Cas until he was fucking himself on three of Dean's fingers. The windows were beginning to fog up as they both let out hot breaths between kisses. Cas pulled Dean's hand away from him and took the bottle from Dean's hand and put some on his hand and covered Dean's hard, leaking cock.
Cas lowered himself until Dean was fully inside him. He let out a shaky breath and dropped his head to land on Dean's shoulder. Dean rubbed Cas's back and let him adjust. It had been a while for them and he didn't want to hurt him. Cas started slow, lifting off Dean a little and pushing back down.
Dean wanted to thrust back into Cas. He wanted to hold his hips and fuck Cas with all the desperation he was feeling, but he couldn't. Cas was going to take his time and drive Dean insane.
Cas braced himself on the seat and on the next downward move pushed a little harder. Dean was letting out little noises of pleasure and Cas wanted to see how long it took for him to really make noise. He arched his back a little and grabbed handfuls of Dean's hair and sped up his moves. Dean's surprise made him tangle his hand in Cas's shirt and moan loudly.
"Uh," Dean squeezed his eyes shut and buried his face in Cas's shirt, "fuck me, Cas."
Cas moaned and slammed down, pulling another cry from Dean. It was then that Cas realized how close he was to hitting the ceiling of the car. He put a hand up, the fabric soft on his skin. He used the new position to move his back in fluid waves.
Where did he learn that? Cas was moving like a freakin' lap dancer. "Jesus, Cas!" It felt amazing. Dean opened his eyes and felt his throat tighten at the sight of him. Cas smirked and bent down to kiss him. Dean held him there so he could thoroughly kiss him. Cas continued his movements as best he could as he nipped at Dean's lips.
Dean reached between them and started jacking Cas with the same rhythm he was using to ride Dean. It was Cas's turn to cry out and moan. He sat up and closed his eyes. His hips stuttered in their movements and Dean took the chance to thrust up into Cas as he moved his hand.
"Dean." Cas's voice was low and rough. He put his hands back on either side of Dean and pushed down to meet Dean in his thrusts. Their foreheads rested together and each man had lost whatever thoughts they had had. Their movements continued to quicken and become more desperate. They moaned and sighed each other's names, feeling their stomachs tighten and their hearts about to burst.
The vinyl was beginning to creak under Cas's grip and the car was starting to move with the movements of the couple. It only took a couple more thrusts for Cas to scream in release, followed closely by Dean.
Drained and completely blissed out, Cas relaxed into Dean, curling his arm around his husband's neck. They both let the after-waves of orgasm course through them as they held each other close. He kissed Dean's neck lightly once he felt his body fully relax. "I love you, Dean."
Dean smiled and ran his fingers through Cas's hair. "You too, Cas." He didn't want this moment to end. He didn't want Cas to move or to drive back to the motel. He didn't want to face the world anymore. All he wanted was to hold his husband close and know that his brother was safe somewhere trying to get glitter out of his hair.