This chapter might seem strange and confusing at first, but just go with it. Trust me it will all make sense.
Sam and I were leaving the courthouse, having spent the last forty-five minutes looking for records on the Russo family that had three family members die strange deaths that week, when Dean called. Sam answered on the second ring and I overheard the two exchanging the information we had found. Or lack of information rather. So far we weren't getting very far.
I watched as Sam hung up the phone and let out a deep, stressed sigh.
"Back to the hotel?" I guessed.
He nodded his head as we continued further down the street and away from the courthouse. We took a seat on a bench and waited for Dean to come pick us up.
"I'm worried about Bobby," I said after a moment. "He's really not taking Rufus' death too well."
Sam nodded. "He tries to push it off like it's nothing, but it's bothering him."
"What are we supposed to do?"
Sam shrugged his shoulders before glancing down at me. He gave me a little smile and I could see his dimples. I couldn't help but to smile back.
"What?" I asked him, entirely confused.
"It's just weird that the only alone time we seem to get is moments like this."
I cocked my head to the side. "And you think that's something to smile about?"
He shook his head. "No, I think it's funny in a way that's…not funny."
I chuckled, rolling my eyes. "Sammy, you confuse me."
"Hey, lovebirds," Dean's voice called out as he pulled up alongside us. "Hop in."
I felt myself blush, but I chose to ignore it and climbed into the back of the Mustang. We made our way back to our nice hotel room after driving through a drive-thru and picking up some fast food.
We ate our dinners in silence, all three of us pouring over something that might shed some light on the case we were working. I wasn't finding anything.
I glanced down at the nightstand in the middle of the two hotel beds. We had found a string of pure gold when we had been investigating the garage of the man who had been 'karate chopped' by his garage door, as Sam had so eloquently put it. It was now laying on the nightstand beside me like a big puzzle I couldn't solve. It felt like the answer to our questions was sitting right here in front of us, but it made no sense.
"Looks like a local woman who owned a travel agency was just strangled to death by her copy machine," Sam announced, sitting straighter in his chair.
Dean and I looked over at him as he continued to read his laptop.
"Story was just released, must have been recent," Sam said.
"Well, let's go check it out then," Dean said, rising from his chair and throwing his fast food wrappers into the garbage bin.
Thankfully there weren't any alarms that went off in the travel agency building as we snuck our way inside. Since it was dark out, the three of us were armed with flashlights.
We each took separate areas of the room and began searching around the place for anything that might help us.
"You sure she's not somehow related to the Russo's?" Dean asked from the other side of the room.
"No, I checked the records," Sam answered him.
"Okay," I said, "So it's not a family curse. What is it then?"
"I don't know, you got me," Sam replied, looking through a stack of papers and folders.
As I was scanning around me, something glinted when the light of my flashlight passed over it. I glanced down and was surprised to find another string of gold like the one back in the hotel room.
"Well, here's something," I said, bending over and pulling the string from off the floor.
Both guys came over to see what I'd found instantly.
"Gold string," Sam said, holding it up to his face for a closer look.
"Now what?" I asked, looking between the brothers.
"Bobby," Dean said instantly.
Once we got back to the hotel, I collapsed onto the bed next to Sam, who was ever vigilant on his laptop. Dean was on the phone with Bobby and Ellen explaining to them the golden strings we'd found.
"What'd she have to say?" I asked, glancing over at Dean expectantly when he'd finally gotten off the phone.
He paused for a moment before answering. "Does the name Titanic ring a bell?"
Sam and I both exchanged a look before shaking our heads.
"Nope," we both answered.
"Maybe you can search it," Dean told his brother.
I rested my head against Sam's shoulder as I watched him type 'Titanic' into the search bar. He clicked on a site and began reading aloud from it.
"The RMS Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world when it made its maiden voyage across the Atlantic in 1912."
Dean sat there with a mug of coffee in his hand looking just as confused as I felt.
"So what's the big friggen deal? It's a ship. It sailed," Dean said.
"I don't know," Sam answered, scrolling down more on the website. "Well it looks like there was a close call. The ship almost hit an iceberg."
"So?" Dean asked.
"So…it looks like the first mate spotted it just in time," Sam said.
"Wow. Good for him," Dean said sarcastically before going back to the crossword puzzle in front of him.
"Oh wait here," I said, holding back a laugh. "Dean, you're going to love this."
He glanced back up from his puzzle with raised brows.
"The first mate's name was I. P. Freely."
He quirked a grin. "Well that's not suspicious. You got a picture of ol' Freely on there?"
Sam scrolled down further on the site as Dean got up to take a look at the laptop.
"Isn't that…" I said, pointing at the man in the picture.
"You've got to be kidding me," Sam said, rolling his eyes.
"Balthazar." Dean's shoulders slunk at the name.
"Time for a little angel voodoo?" I asked, glancing between the two.
"I'll set everything up," Sam said with a sigh, closing his laptop and getting off the bed.
It was half an hour later when we had finished doing our spell to call Balthazar when he actually showed up. A cocky grin on his face as per usual.
"Well gents and lady," Balthazar said, shooting me a wink as he always did, "what ever can I do for you?"
"We need to talk," Dean said, getting straight to the point.
"Oh, well you seem upset," Balthazar said, pointing out the obvious.
"What the hell is with the boat, Balthazar?" Dean asked, clearly annoyed.
"What boat?" the angel asked, feigning ignorance.
"The Titanic," Dean shot back.
"Ohhh, that boat." Balthazar said, pretending to suddenly remember. "Yes, the Titanic. Well, it was meant to sink and I saved it."
I looked at Sam, not quite following. He seemed to be confused too as he scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably.
"It was meant to bash into this iceberg thing and plunge into the briny deep and all this hoopla and I saved it," Balthazar explained simply once he noticed our expressions.
I stared at him dumbfounded. "Why?"
"Hmm?" Balthazar asked, raising an eyebrow at me.
"Why did you unsink the Titanic?" I asked him.
"Because I hated the movie!" he answered me.
"What movie?" Dean asked, entirely lost.
"Exactly!" Balthazar exclaimed, pointing at Dean and letting out a laugh.
"You saved a cruise liner because-" Sam started but was cut off by the angel.
"Because of that God awful Celine Dion song made me want to smite myself."
"Who is…Celine Dion?" Sam asked, glancing between the angel and I.
I gave him a look that said 'how the hell should I know?'.
"She's a destitute lounge singer somewhere in Quebec, and let's keep it that way, please," Balthazar said.
I ran a hand through my hair as I stood there watching Dean trying to process the information. Sam pinched the bridge of his nose before looking back at the angel.
"I thought you couldn't change history. I thought that was impossible," Sam said.
"Haven't you noticed? There's no more rules!" Balthazar said with a chuckle.
"So you just unsunk a giant boat?" Sam asked him, slightly glaring at the angel now.
Balthazar jumped into defensive mode. "I saved people. I thought you loved that kind of thing."
I took a seat at the table behind Dean, burying my face in my hands. This was too much. Changing history? How were we supposed to fix that?
"Now all their kids, and their kids' kids are being killed. You totally butterfly affected history!" Sam shot, crossing his arms across his chest.
"Dude," Dean whispered to his brother, "rule one, no Kutcher references."
Sam pulled a face at his brother. Normally I probably would have found that funny.
"See, there's still an Ashton Kutcher, and you still reversed the apocalypse…I just…tweaked a small detail. Like, you don't drive an Impala," Balthazar said to Dean who pulled a face. "Yes, yes, what's an Impala? Trust me, it's not important."
My head was starting to hurt now.
"Oh!" Balthazar said, cheering up, "Ellen and Jo are still alive."
"What?" I asked, craning my head around Dean's back to look at the angel.
"Well, you see, they're supposed to be dead. But see, I save a boat, and one thing leads to another, which leads to another thousand things and yadda yadda yadda. Long story short, they don't die in a massive explosion."
It felt like somebody had kicked me in the stomach. Ellen and Jo died? In a massive explosion? Why couldn't I remember that? He had to be making these things up. Ellen was happily married to Bobby. And Jo was a great hunter.
"Anyway, let's agree I did a good thing. One less Billy Zane movie and I saved two of your closest friends."
"That's all fine and dandy, but someone is killing the survivor's descendants," I pointed out.
"And?" Balthazar asked as if he could care less.
"And that's maybe like, fifty-thousand people," Sam told him.
"And?" he asked again.
"And we need to save them," Dean said forcefully. "As many as we can. So we need to know who's after them."
"Oh, I'm sorry. You seem to have me confused for the other angel. You know, the one with the dirty trench coat who's in love with you?" Balthazar shot back at Dean. Dean rolled his eyes. "I. Don't care."
The angel said nothing more, just disappeared with a gust of wind. I felt like we were still sitting at square one.
"What the hell are we going to do now?" Dean asked, kicking the unoccupied chair next to me.
"What we always do when we have no leads to go on," I said solemnly.
"Bobby?" Sam guessed.