Chapter 20
"Hol' up, do we even have a plan?" Dean asked as they exited the diner, kneading his left temple with the palm of his hand. Sam gave him a once over, looking for any other signs of distress or discomfort caused by the reoccurring ailment but none seemed apparent.
"Do you ever have a plan?" Gabriel retorted, "Usually you two chuckleheads just mindlessly barge in and hope for the best. And no offense or anything, but I've seen your plans when you do come up with them and trust me we're better off with no plan." Dean glared at him through blurred vision, barely able to distinguish the archangel from the other surroundings; he still wasn't sure whether he was talking to Gabriel or a neighbouring lamppost. "In you go," Gabriel ushered them towards the old fashioned toy store opposite the diner.
"What about you?" Sam asked, suspicious of Gabriel's actions. He grabbed Dean's arm, preventing him from wandering into the store alone before he'd received an adequate answer from Gabriel.
"It's warded against me." Gabriel heaved feeling defeated. "I can't pass through that door even if I wanted to, that's why I'm sending in the b-team."
Sam stared the other man down, scrutinizing every inch of Gabriel's body language and facial expression, hoping to discover how trustworthy the renowned trickster was. Dean fussed in his grip, squirming to be set free, he had very little patience left and being treated like a dumb kid was not helping matters, not to mention that it felt as if someone was learning to play the drums inside his head, badly at that. It was not until Castiel spoke that Sam's suspicions were depleted. "Gabriel is telling the truth Sam; it is warded against all angels as well as most Norse and Pagan gods." He spoke staring beyond Sam and the store.
"So we're going in alone?" Sam verified, "Without back-up?"
"Oh come on," Gabriel drawled, "You'll be fine. It's not like you need us to hold your hand." he stared at Dean for a moment who continued to struggle in Sam's protective grip. "Well, at least one of you doesn't."
Dean shot daggers at the blurry lamp-post figure, probably missing the intended target by miles. He escaped Sam's grip and marched forward with as much authority as a four year old could project, Sam following him through the old wooden door. As they evaluated the small, passé store, they heard a soft, metallic ding as the door closed behind them, signalling that they were closed in with the infamous goddess.
"Hello there, I'll be with you in one moment." A chirpy English accent called out from seemingly nowhere, originating from somewhere behind the counter. Suddenly a lightly freckled face appeared from behind said counter, a hand on the surface to support the woman's weight; well, Sam wasn't sure if woman was the correct term to use, perhaps girl, child, maybe adolescent. Whatever she was classed as Sam would've been surprised if she'd told him she could legally drink. Her fair blonde hair looked almost yellow in the light, tied in a long, messy plait with a purple beanie covering the top of her head. The dress that she wore looked like it belonged in the forties, purple like her hat with a pattern of tiny yellow and grey flowers distributed across it with brown ankle boots to top the look off, the outfit was incredibly youthful like all other aspects of this girl, child maybe adolescent.
Standing at full height, which wasn't that tall, she was able to see the Winchesters entirely, eyes flickering over both in turn, lingering over Dean who was now clutching his head with both hands; he was so distracted he showed no signs of recognition towards the dog that came trotting out also from behind the counter. The Labrador puppy, that was still considerably large, shared the same bright blonde her as its owner. Sam knew if Dean was in his complete mind-set right now he would've shown some sign of aversion towards the dog.
"My goodness, what a surprise," She said, despite her sincere, dazzling smile, the tone of her statement hinted towards sarcasm. "I mean honestly guys, you're both hunters right? And it takes you this long to track me down? I'm a little disappointed to tell the truth." She stroked the dog's head as she passed it, closing the safe distance between her and the Winchesters. She stood in front of them, looking up into Sam's eyes shining a slightly awkward grin. "It's nice to finally meet you," She shook his hand before crouching down to get a better look at Dean.
"Wow," She breathed, pulling aside the strap of the dungarees, releasing a small laugh after reading the statement written on the t-shirt. She turned Dean around with her arms, he didn't protest since he was still too distracted by the pain in his head. She shot up, turning to face the dog again. "Do you think this is how Van Gogh feels after witnessing one of his masterpieces? Or Lady Gaga?" She didn't seem to be addressing anyone in particular, besides possibly the dog.
Dean released a gasp of pain, falling into Sam's leg, unable to withstand the pain any longer. "Oh god," The girl exclaimed. She rushed forward bending down again to support Dean in her arms before Sam could. She lifted him up and positioned him on her hip expertly, stroking a hand delicately across his forehead as she scurried behind the counter to find something. "Don't worry." She called out to Sam who was doing exactly that. "This happens all the time with Winston." She said as she rooted through a pile of what appeared to be junk.
"Aha!" she declared when she found a necklace with a small golden charm of what looked like an apple, a charm that matched the one herself and the dog both wore. She placed it over Dean's head and stood back a bit while Dean recovered. "I seem to send off these vibes to people around me who have experienced the effects of the age regression. I realised this when Winston didn't age, he's nearly 100 years old, you know." She patted the dog's head again, more affectionately this time beaming at the barking dog. "That should keep away the headaches for now; I can't say the same for the memory loss though, everything seems to intensify around me. That's why a lot of my family didn't like having me around that much." She smiled awkwardly again, looking between Sam and Dean's worried expressions. Not realising both brothers were hiding the fact they were aware of this side-effect.
She pinched Dean's cheek lightly in an attempt to rid the distressing look, "It's only one of the many drawbacks of having this gig." She smiled pitifully at them. "Is something the matter?" both Winchesters had remained silent since entering the store (unless you count a pained cry Dean had emitted involuntarily) both looking as dazed as the other.
"You're Idunn?" Dean finally asked, fiddling with the newly acquired accessory.
"Yes, and you're Sam and Dean Winchester. Like I said, it's a pleasure to meet you both. I've heard a lot about you. Most of it negative but you can't believe all the rumours you hear, right?" Her expression quickly changed to intrigued, "Are you two really trying to stop the apocalypse? Hey, props to you if you are, someone needs to teach a lesson to those obnoxious angels. It's like they think they run the universe, forget some of us been around just as long as they have."
"wai', so you're, you know, not twyin' to kill us or anythin'?" Dean asked, sitting cross-legged on the counter top.
Idunn laughed, "Kill you, I've been trying to keep your asses safe. Who'd you think got rid of that pesky demon who wouldn't leave you alone? Or who helped Loki with distracting the angel squad?"
"That was you?" Sam asked.
"Don't seem so surprised. I mean, why on earth would I want you dead?" She sighed after a realisation, "You two have been spending too much time with my family. They seem to have that effect on people." She chewed her lip. "You know, you two aren't too popular among my family." She added. "Not many hunters are."
Sam felt a wave of panic pass over him, wanting to pull Dean away from the goddess, he just realised that a lot of her family members murdered by them, or people in the same line of business. "We're, eh," Sam stuttered. Was there even a polite way of saying, 'Sorry I murdered your aunt'?
"Hey, don't worry about it. I should be thanking you actually; I disliked most of them anyway. They're all stuck in their ways, hung up on their tradition; all the murdering and human sacrifices. You can just get so sick of it. Do you know what I mean? They had no one to blame but themselves." She spoke as if she was talking about something trivial and routine, although it all probably was for her. "What?" She asked Dean who was sat silently surveying her from his spot on the counter.
"You're jus' not weally wha' I was expec'in'." He stared up into Idunn's stunningly blue eyes.
She smiled fondly down at him, taking the comment as a compliment, which Sam supposed it was, kind of. "Why? What were you expecting?" She asked.
Dean shrugged, "Dunno, jus' Gabwiel said you were dangewous."
"Oh, he's just still mad from the last time." She interjected. Dean raised an inquisitive eyebrow, indicating her to elaborate. "Well, last time we saw each other I may have accidently," She emphasised, "Sort have shot him with a bow and arrow." Dean and Sam stared at her questioningly. "Then set a couple of bears after him and then shot him again, twice." She winced, ashamed of the act she had performed. "But hey, I overreacted a little; we've all done it before. You'd think after two centuries a guy would forgive you, obviously not."
Dean nodded to move along the conversation, although his face showed that he was shocked at what she said; she looked so kind and innocent. "So if you don' have anythin' agains'us why'd ya do this?" He asked, waving a hand over his body.
Idunn sighed, "Oh, trust me, I didn't. I haven't done anything like this in a while; it's such a hassle and causes me more trouble than it's worth. It's so much easier not to. I mean there's the whole-"
"Wait, if you didn't do this, then who did?" Sam interrupted, voice verging on panicky.
She rolled her eyes muttering to herself, "That's fine. It's not like the extremely difficult process matters at all." She shot a look at either Winchester, coughed to clear her throat, straightened up and then raised her voice to its normal volume. "Like I was saying, I didn't do this but someone did use the magic that I possess. There was this girl, a little weird if you ask me, like a crazy fan girl; one day out of the blue I hear this weird sound, suddenly my TV's on fire and I can hear this girl talking to me. I was pretty freaked out as you can imagine, that thing doesn't usually happen on your average Thursday afternoon. So she explained that she'd found an old book that had a spell to communicate with me. I was flattered at first, all the talking, I don't get to do that much, but soon she became obsessed and I got kind of bored. She was talking to me like every day, always about the same bloody things," She shook her head lightly, using hand gestures throughout her explanation. "Anyway, after a couple of months she said she wanted to try one of the other spells. I told her not to, told her most of them were dangerous and it would only end badly. I practically forbade her from doing so, but did she listen to the wise, eon old goddess?" Sam was beginning to understand, Dean still looked confused and was unsure what this had to do anything, his underdeveloped mind not piecing together the facts. "She cooked up a de-aging potion, she didn't know that was what it did at the time, her translations were a little off you see, and then she set her sights on a test subject. She had plans for her cat, but when you two stumbled into the middle of her experiment it seemed almost like fate to her. I guess it was just a case of wrong place, wrong time." She smiled, still trying to come across as friendly.
"What happened to her then? We found her dead a couple of days ago." Sam inquired, it was visible that Dean was not keeping up and still trying to process Idunn's story.
"That was in the fine print of the spell; like I said, her translations were off. In order for the spell to work it requires a human sacrifice; it was one of the reasons I begged her not to undergo it."
"So whenever you pull this stun' you kill an innocen' person?" Dean established.
"You have been spending way too much time with my family." Idunn repeated, shaking her head again in disapproval. "That only happens when a human tries to perform the spell, it takes a certain degree of skill to do it correctly." She seemed almost proud of the fact she could perform the task correctly.
"Gwea' stowy, weally fascina'in'. Bu' can you turn me back now?"
Idunn shrugged, "I don't see why not; I don't know why you'd want to turn back, you're just so adorable." She cooed, pinching Dean's cheek again causing him to squirm away from the ticklish feel.
Sam was finally able to breath properly for the first time since Dean had been changed, relieved they'd found a solution, "Okay, le's do this." Dean said, sitting up straighter and edging towards the end of the counter.
"Well I can't just do it right now." She explained like it was first grade math. "I haven't got any of the ingredients, or equipment with me and I have to run my store anyway." She gestured to the empty aisles that seemed bare and naked.
"How can we get these ingredients then?" Sam asked, maintaining his composure whereas Dean almost broke down again, clutching his forehead and burying it in his knees.
"Sh-h, don't worry, you've got to stay calm." Idunn soothed the toddler, who was currently acting exactly like one. "I have all the ingredients, I just need someone to go pick them up, that's all."
Dean sniffed, rubbing his nose on the collar of his t-shirt, looking incredibly young in that one moment.
"Look, I'm sure Loki can round them up in no time. I'll tell him where they are and he can zap in and out." She said, handing Dean a tissue which he accepted hesitantly. "Where is Loki anyway? He's not really one for anonymity." She asked, turning to Sam for the answer.
"You have warding against him, and our friend." Sam explained, he had expected her to know this.
Idunn threw her hand to her forehead, hitting it with a light thud. "Of course, the angel and pagan proofing, I completely forgot." She walked swiftly back behind the counter, moving everything out of the way, including Dean who was still awfully quiet, so the entire wood surface was the revealed. Sam was now able to see the weird symbols carved into the counter top where the checkout machine had been. She pulled out a pocket knife and scratched away two of the carvings.
Before she had even returned the knife to her pocket, Gabriel and Castiel had appeared.
Castiel's eyes immediately averted to Dean, he had not felt comfortable letting his charge confront the goddess in such a vulnerable state and was relieved to see that both hunters were not harmed in any way.
"Idunn, long time now see." Gabriel smiled.
"Yeah, well you're the one who never bothered to call." She replied sarcastically, "Does anyone else know you're here?" Although on the surface she seemed polite she had a subtlety that said she could kill him in one swift movement.
"Just little old me, I haven't spoken with the rest of the family for quite some time." Idunn nodded.
"They seem to be burning a lot of bridges. Do you know if they're still angry?" Idunn asked with hopeful desperation. Sam noticed the sadness in her words, the kind that only came from disappointing your family, the kind he had been very familiar with all of his life.
Gabriel nodded, no words were needed to shatter Idunn's desire of having her family back.
"Well, let's get down to business then, shall we?" Idunn said with an unconvincing smile. She pulled a piece of lilac paper out of a notepad and scribbled down a list of instructions of what needed to be collected and where they could be found. "I need you to go and collect these, should be easy enough but a lot of them are warded against you, and angels." She added looking at Sam who understood her silent message.
"I'll go." Sam said, trying not to notice how Dean looked up at him with large, surprised eyes. "Cas, you stay here and make sure Dean's okay." The angel nodded in confirmation, he didn't really need to be told but was pleased to hear Sam voice what he was about to suggest.
"He'll be fine." Idunn reassured him, ruffling Dean's un-brushed hair to make it even messier, much to his displeasure.
"We'll be back soon." He promised, exchanging a single nod with Dean. Dean did not look up from his knees, just buried his head deeper.
Part of him, the part he was currently deeply ashamed of and would not tell anyone about, was relieved he was able to escape the store with only Gabriel; he needed time away from the seemingly bi-polar toddler. Sam worried Dean's mind was deteriorating again, that was how it had started the last time; obviously the news about the ingredients had hit him harder than Sam had expected.
Yeah, I have to fix this, Sam thought as he felt the familiar action of flying.
AN: Here's the new chapter, I hope you all enjoy it. I know Idunn is probably not what you expected but, hey ho. Like always, thank you for all your reviews and favourites, it's nice to know what you all think of it. I will try to update soon, but enjoy for now.