Catching Up
Chapter 24 – Dead Man's Blood

It wasn't the easiest time for the Winchester clan to get some rest but they managed it and were able to get up the next morning with some level of energy, not much but that was what coffee was there for. Cas, bless his wings, had it ready and waiting for them the moment they walked in the kitchen. "Good morning," he greeted. "I've prepared the coffee but I would not hazard attempting anything else."

"That's fine Castiel thank you," Mary smiled and sipped hers. "I'll throw something together. We can eat and watch the show."

"This should be a joy," Dean mused.

"For better and definitely for worse, that was our last hunt with dad," Sam swirled his cup.

Mary froze, "John dies?"

"Way to spoil it for her Sammy," Dean remarked.

"If it bears any comfort Mary," Cas put in. "Winchesters have an uncanny ability to defy death. He does come back, if only temporarily."

"That does make me feel better, thanks Castiel," Mary said gratefully before turning to her boys. "Should I have been comforted by that?"

"Don't question these things," Dean advised her.

"Let's just get breakfast and start the show shall we?" Sam proposed and they agreed. A while later, bearing plates of eggs, bacon and toast, they all sat down in the study to begin the next episode. "Cas will you do the honours?"

"Gladly," Cas got the remote and DVD case. "The next episode is Dead Man's Blood. After a vampire hunter who was John's mentor is murdered, Sam and Dean are surprised when John himself shows up to solve the case." He started the show and they went through a new beginning montage going through the family's turbulent relationship.

"Oh this is going to be fun," Dean stabbed a piece of bacon.

The show began properly with a man named Elkins at a bar, making notes in a journal when a group of people come in. He looked at them weirdly before taking off. "Vamps," Mary said flatly.

"Mhm," Sam hummed. Elkins managed to make home but the vampires were there ahead of him. He then barricades himself in his study and tries to get out an old-fashioned gun however the vampires break in and kill him.

"The Colt?" Cas turned to the brothers.

"THAT was THE Colt," Mary's jaw dropped. "Made by Samuel Colt. The gun that can kill anything. That Colt?"

"Almost anything," Sam corrected her. "But yes."

"Incredible," Mary breathed.

Meanwhile, TV!Sam and TV!Dean were going over potential cases when they came across Elkins' death and TV!Dean recalls that name being in their father's journal. They decide to go check it out and determine that Elkins was indeed a hunter unbeknownst to the fact that they were being watched.

"Well that's not terrifying," Sam said conversationally. If this little back and forth isn't phasing you, nothing else really should. "Fair point."

In the show, TV!Dean notices something written on the floor which turned out to be the location of a mailbox with a letter addressed to a J.W. However before they could open it, John appeared and revealed that Elkins had a very important antique gun. Now they needed to find the vamps who'd taken it and get it back. "Gotta say," Dean commented. "It wasn't everyday that you heard the old man say he was wrong."

"How could anyone believe that vampires are extinct?" Mary sighed as John explained vampire lore. "They're not animals, they're people. Even if you killed all the ones currently in existence, there are those who could make people into one with needing a bite or worse yet, people who would turn themselves."

"I didn't know there was a spell to make someone a vampire," Sam said. Spells, plural form and there's always magic for something. Even for the most ludicrous of things, there's always a way to pull it off.

"Spells Sam, more than one. Never doubt magic," Mary pointed a fork at him. See mom's on my side.

"Mom you're missing all the Sam and Dad love hour here," Dean said referring TV!Sam and John locking horns over John's treatment of them.

"I'm listening," Mary replied. "You sound remarkably like me Sam and that's the truth. Towards the end or what I thought was the end. I wasn't taking any of my father's orders quietly. It drove him nuts and we fought a lot."

Onscreen, the vampires were seen tormenting a couple they had abducted from the highway when presumably the leader Luthor comes in. He decides to keep the girl but let's his cohorts feed on the man. Luthor isn't thrilled when he finds out that they had killed Elkins and worries about other hunters coming. He notices the Colt and recognizes it as no ordinary gun. At the same time, TV!Sam's loses his patience with John just giving out orders with no explanation and confronts him, the two get physical and TV!Dean has to break them up. Christ it's like watching a messed up version of All My Children "Seen many episodes have you?" Don't mock my television habits Mr. Gilmore Girls

Mary had stayed silent throughout the exchange. Sam and John's love/hate relationship was so painfully reminiscent of her own with her father, it broke her heart. She actually wondered whether she was merely watching her story acted out by her son and husband. The John she had known wasn't like that though things weren't always perfect between them. She was also hyperaware that these were John's final moments but remembered from Dean that he died saving him so she had some idea of what to expect. All she could hope for was some resolution between father and sons before it happened. It did spark some hope in her when John finally talked about the Colt and why he wanted it so much but it also depressed her further. John was so hell bent on killing the demon that had killed her that the ramifications were reverberating through the family at all stages. She didn't have long to dwell on it as the TV!Winchesters infiltrated the vampire's nest while they slept.

John went to the Luthor's room in search of the Colt while TV!Sam and TV!Dean tried to help any victims. TV!Sam finds the woman abducted from the highway at the same time John finds the Colt while TV!Dean helps some other hostages that were locked up. However the woman from the highway was turned and she alerted the vamps to their presence but they made their escape.

"That was too close," Dean said.

"Yeah," Mary said softly. The show had cut to TV!Sam and John in their room while TV!Dean was out procuring blood from a funeral home. John talked about opening college funds for both Sam and Dean when they were born. Her eyes brimmed with tears listening to John and everything that happened in the aftermath of her death, everything she had brought on them. The pain, the division. A stray sob escaped her and Sam gently took her hand as did Dean.

"Imagine us in college," Dean commented, his tight voice betraying his emotion.

"I'd rather not imagine you anywhere near a sorority," Sam sniffed.

"I wish you both had a chance to find out." Mary took a breath and tried to reign herself in, "Anyway, good call with the dead man's blood." Onscreen, TV!Dean lured out Luthor's girlfriend and another one, giving TV!Sam and John on opportunity to shoot them with arrows soaked in the blood. "Huh, John looks kinda good with that crossbow," Mary allowed herself a smirk until she caught sight of the horrified looks on her sons faces. "Though it would have been better if you used darts, like tranquilizer darts," she coughed. "More would have gotten into their system and lengthened the blood sickness."

"Mom I'm fully aware of how me and Sammy arrived on this Earth but could we avoid anymore Impala moments," Dean requested in a pained tone.

"Dude bring that up one more time and I'm getting Baby reupholstered," Sam threatened.

"Too expensive."

"Infants," Cas rolled his eyes.

Ohhhhhhh Castiel is calling you out! Sam bit his tongue and tried to move on as John explained his plan to deal with the vampires and then go after the demon – alone much to TV!Sam's and surprisingly TV!Dean's ire. "Look at big brother standing up to dad."

"Your father didn't expect to live," Cas frowned.

"He wasn't even going to try," Mary shook her head.

In the show, John remained resolute so as per his plan, he took the Luthor's girlfriend to draw them out while the brothers cleared out the nest and freed the hostages. John tried to trade for the gun but the girlfriend got loose and they attacked him. Just when it looked like the vampires would kill John, TV!Sam and TV!Dean arrived to clean house. Luthor caught TV!Sam but John shot him with the Colt. The girlfriend and the newly turned vampire got away but John finally agrees to work with the boys to take down the demon.

"Going straight to the next one," Cas checked and they nodded. "Alright, this episode is entitled Salvation."