Dean looked across the poker table at the clearly pissed off man. They had been playing poker for two hours and but this point Dean had cleaned him out of $600.
"Come on, man, play another round with me. Give me a chance to win it back," the man pleaded, his words slightly slurred at the end.
Dean went to disagree when the man held his hand up.
"Wait, wait, I'll even throw in my car," he said before holding up a set of keys.
Dean's eyes brightened at that. "What kind of car is it?" he questioned.
"A silver Volvo," he answered.
A sneer twisted on Dean's lips as he let out a snort. "Please, we got a 71 Mach Mustang out in the parking lot that would run circles around that crap ass car of yours," he told him, pointing to the keys. "I'll be keeping the money," he stated before pulling himself from his seat and walked off to the bar where Sam and the girls were waiting for him.
~Magical Supernatural Time Skip~
Charlie and Courtney laughed loudly as they walked out of the bar, their arms around each others shoulders as the boys walked behind them.
"I can't believe you drank that green shit," Courtney stated, smiling brightly at her sister. "It looked like anti-freeze."
Charlie rolled her eyes. "I got 50 bucks off of Dean, didn't I?" she asked, pulling the bill out of her bra.
"I can't believe you paid her to drink that, Dean," Sam said, smiling down at his brother. "It probably was anti-freeze and she's going to die any minute."
A chuckle left Dean. "We can only pray."
Sam shot him a look.
"That she makes it through the night," Dean amended. "What did you think I meant, Sammy?"
"Uh huh, whatever you say, Dean."
Charlie pulled her keys from the small clutch bag and unlocked the door of Roy. She hopped into the drivers seat and attempted to start her car but Roy refused. He cranked and cranked but never caught, giving off a sick sound.
"That doesn't sound good," Dean stated, walking away from his baby towards the girls. "He wont start?" he asked when Charlie climbed back out.
She shook her head, a deep frown on her lips. "I don't know what his problem is. I just tuned him a few days ago," she said, walking around the hood with Dean.
Courtney and Sam watched as their two older siblings poured of the engine of the Mustang. They argued back and forth about what could be wrong, both coming up with nothing.
Courtney narrowed her eyes and looked to the side of Roy. "Hey," she muttered before walking off towards the trunk.
"What?" Sam asked, following after her in worry of some monster jumping out and eating the girl.
Courtney stopped by the gas cap, looking at the open door and missing cap. She crouched down before it and groped the ground where she found the cap. She leaned closer to the opened, running her fingers across the paint under it. A groan escaped her and she stood up, rubbing her fingers together. "Hey, Charlie!" she called, her tone full of defeat.
"What?!" Charlie snapped, her anger building up with the thought of something else being wrong.
"What would happen if someone put water into the gas tank?" she questioned.
There was a moment of silence before a rather crude string of obscenities left the older woman.
"Why the fuck would someone put water in my gas tank?!" she demanded.
Courtney and Sam shrugged, knowing they didn't piss anyone off.
Their eyes snapped over when a groan escaped Dean and he stepped away from the car. "That douche bag," he said.
Charlie spun around to glare at him. "What? What did you do?!" she demanded, her voice hard.
Dean chuckled nervously. "The guy I played poker with?" he questioned, getting them all to nod. "He wanted to win it back and he offered his Volvo to sweeten the deal. I sort of dismissed him and told him that we had a 71 Mach Mustang in the parking lot that could run circles around it," he stated, stepped further away from Charlie, knowing how bad he got when someone messed with his car.
Charlie took a few deep breaths, her mind working through the information Dean had just told her. She nodded slowly. "Well, even when you fuck up you manage to do something right," she muttered, letting out long sigh. "My carburetor is ruined but Roy understands the importance of dissing Volvo owners."
To say that the other three were surprised would be an understatement. They glanced at each other nervously waiting for her to snap and kill Dean.
"I think it's the anti-freeze," Dean whispered to Sam, his eyes wide.
"Yeah, uh, we should call Bobby," Sam stated, before casting a worried look to Charlie who was mumbling under her breath, "and get her in bed."
Bobby arrived the next morning to find a rather bitchy Charlie, a hung over Courtney, and a pair of overcautious brothers. He didn't argue with Charlie when she told him that she and Courtney would be going with him back to his place with Roy so that she could help him fix what was wrong. Dean had told Bobby to just do what she said, seeing as she had actually bitten him early that morning for tell her to get up. The two sisters piled into the tow truck and before they knew it, they were back at Bobby's house.
The days slipped by faster than the girls had thought they would, Charlie spending most of her time fixing up Roy with Bobby while Courtney cleaned their weapons so well that she could see her face in Charlie's shotgun. And then Bobby left for the Dominican on a relic hunt.
Courtney grabbed two beers from the fridge before walking to the back where Charlie was once again under Roy's hood.
"He runnin' yet?" she asked once she was close enough.
Charlie peeked her out, a frown pulling at her lips. "Everything is perfect except for the missing carburetor," she answered, her voice carrying with a tone of depression.
"But Bobby ordered it, right?" Courtney asked, hoping to cheer her sister up. "It's vintage, right?"
A small humorless chuckle left Charlie. "Yeah, just like everything else on this car," she answered, bracing her hands against the front. "But it won't get here till next week."
Courtney's eyes widened. "We're grounded here till next week?"
"Bobby has some cars that'll run but Roy ain't moving for another week."
Courtney now understood her sister's depression. She loved being with Bobby but there was only so much domestic she could take, plus she was starting to the boys, not that she'd ever tell Charlie that. "Well shit," she grumbled, holding one of the beers out to Charlie. "What the hell are we going to do? I've cleaned every gun within a mile radius, you've fixed up almost every running car in the yard…" she trailed off, her mind working for something to take the edge of being completely useless.
"We could find a hunt," Charlie suggested, her voice a little hopeful.
Courtney shook her head. "Do you remember what happened the last time we went of a hunt without Roy?"
Charlie winced at the memory. "Yeah, okay, no hunting."
The hunt that didn't include Roy had been a trying time for the sisters. They had just been through a car accident, the previous hunt consisting of Charlie ramming it into the get away vampires own car, and they were running around in one of Bobby's clunkers. The hunt had been a complete failure and Charlie even managed to break her arm.
"We're just going to lay around here?" Courtney asked, popping her beer open and taking a long drag.
Charlie nodded in defeat. "Pretty much."
"Fantastic."
The sisters stood around the car, drinking down the cold beers trying to put the fact that they had nothing to do out of their minds. They both jumped when the familiar tune of Magic Man by Heart filled the air.
Charlie's eyes lit up. "That's Dean," she stated. "Front seat."
Courtney pushed off the car and looked down through the open window where Charlie's phone was sitting on the driver's seat. She reached in and answered the phone, pressing it to her ear with a smile. "Hello, Winchester…what?...say that one more time…are you serious?...okay, okay, we'll be here….alright, see you then, Winchester."
Charlie's eyebrows had disappeared into her hair line by this point. "What was that?" she demanded, not liking the tone her sister had taken during the call.
Courtney looked down at the phone she still clutched in her hand. "Dean and Sam are in trouble," she explained.
"Winchesters in trouble, what else is new?" Charlie joked.
Courtney shook her head. "No, they have something that both the angels and demons want and they're willing to start an all-out war over it," she explained, looking to her sister with wide eyes. "They're coming here to keep it safe."
Realization hit Charlie. "Do you think that's why they let us get away with being away from them?"
"I'll bet you my sword that's why," Courtney answered.
"What do you think it is?"
Courtney shrugged. "It could be anything," she answered. "Maybe it's God's left ball."
Charlie laughed at that, nearly choking on her beer. "Shit I hope not," she said before dropping Roy's hood. "Did he say when they'd be here?"
"An hour," she told her. "I'm going to go clean out the panic room."
Charlie nodded after her and let out a sigh. "What the hell have they gotten themselves into now?" she asked before following after her.
It had been an hour since they had called and when they rolled up in what was not the Impala Charlie had a mini freak out.
"Where's the Impala?" she demanded as she made her way down the porch.
Dean pulled himself from the clunker. "Sam's getting her," he answered.
"Oh, good, that's-" she cut off when she saw the red head in the back seat. "Who's she?"
Dean glanced over to her before letting out a sigh. "Later," he said, grabbing the red head by the arm and leading her into the house.
Charlie raised an eyebrow but remained silent. She went into the house and into the kitchen where Courtney was cleaning her sword like an anal retentive.
"Well, is it God's left ball?" she asked with a chuckle.
She shook her head. "It's a ginger woman who looked more than freaked out," she answered, taking a seat at the kitchen table.
Courtney spun around. "Wait, what?!" she demanded, her eyes wide.
"Dean just took a red headed woman down into the panic room," she told her.
"You don't think its-" she cut off with a suggestive eyebrow tweak.
Charlie scoffed. "He wouldn't do that in the panic room," she defended.
"I don't know, he is a Winches-"
"Where's Bobby?"
They looked over and found Dean standing in the kitchen doorway.
"He's in the Dominican," Courtney answered. "Getting a relic or something."
A frown pulled at his lips as his lips darted around the kitchen.
"Dean, what's going on?" Charlie asked, looking up to him with a slight glare. "Why is there a freaked out ginger in the panic room?"
Dean looked between the girls before letting out a long sigh.
The girls listened to the story without interrupting, finding it more than believable.
"And now they're both after her and you're pretty sure it's not just because she can hear the angels," Courtney cleared up.
Dean shook his head. "The lengths they're going to get her, no. There's something else going on."
"And Tiel is in on this?" Charlie asked, still finding it hard that the naïve angel was part of it.
Dean let out a humorless laugh. "Yeah, Cas is in on it," he said. "Along with Uriel. They've been on our asses for a while now."
Charlie grimaced. "Who's on the demons side?" she asked.
Dean's head shot over to her, his eyes wide with slight surprised. "What?"
She shrugged. "Well, the angels brought out the heavy hitters, who did the demons bring?"
He cleaned his throat and shook his head. "I, uh, didn't catch a name," he answered. "Some guy with a lisp."
Charlie's eyes widened at that. She knew one demon that had the same speech pattern no matter which vessel he was in and that was Alastair. She couldn't believe that he left hell just for this. Her eyes turned to Courtney. "This is worse than we thought," she stated.
Courtney nodded, her mind on the same wave as her. "What are you going to do with her?"
Dean shook his head. "I'm going to wait till Sam gets back," he answered, pushing himself up from the chair and heading towards the basement stairs.
Charlie shot a look to Courtney before following after him. She stopped in the shadows, however, when she saw the figure of another woman, her body shimmering between demon and human. She couldn't help but wonder why Dean was okay with a demon being so close.
Dean knocked on the open door. "Iron walls drenched in salt. Demons can't even touch the joint."
"Which I find racist, by the way," the woman said.
Dean looked over to her. "Write your congressman," he told her.
The woman gave a snarky expression before tossing him two of something. "Here."
He caught them and looked them over. "Hex bags?" he questioned.
"Extra-crunchy. Hide us from angels, demons, all comers," she told him.
Dean paused for a moment, seemingly hesitant. "Thanks, Ruby."
Charlie's eyes widened. The demon that was helping them was Ruby? The demon that Bobby swore up and down about?
"Don't lose this," Dean said as he handed one of the hex bags to the ginger woman.
"Here, you'll need one too," Ruby said, turning to look to Charlie so she could throw the bag of bones and God knows what else to her.
Charlie caught them, her eyes never leaving the demon. "Thank you," she said slowly.
"We've never met," she stated, taking a few steps closer. "I'm Ruby," she said, holding her hand out.
Keeping a sharp eye on her she shook her hand. "Charlie Dark."
"Nice to meet you," Ruby said before glancing up the stairs. "Is the other one going to stab me if I go up there?"
A smile twitched at that. "No, she'll look at you oddly at first but will end up asking you about the hex bags," she told her.
Ruby nodded again and moved to the stairs, clopping up to Courtney.
Charlie shook her head after her before moving into the panic room, the ginger looking to her with slightly wide eyes. "I'm Charlie Dark," she said, holding her hand out to her.
"Anna Milton," the ginger said back, shaking her hand with a sheepish look.
Charlie flashed her a small smile before looking to Dean, wondering how he was going to handle this one.
"So, Anna, what's playing on angel radio? Anything useful?" he asked, looking at the wall the held the angel wards.
"It's quiet. Dead silence," she answered, looking to him with a slightly empty look.
"Good," Dean said with a frown. "That's not troubling at all."
Charlie lost her small smile and reached out, her hand running up his back till it reached his shoulder.
"We're in trouble, huh?" Anna asked, looking between Charlie and Dean. "You guys are scared?"
Dean glanced over to Charlie, casting her a small worried look. When he looked back to Anna he had an uneasy smile. "Nah," he answered.
There was an awkward silence before Sam's voice called from upstairs.
"Just stay here, okay?" Dean asked as he made his way to the stairs. "Keep an eye on her," he told Ruby as they walked by.
"How's the car?" Dean asked once we walked into the kitchen where Sam and Courtney were sitting.
"I got her, she's fine," Sam answered. "Where's Bobby?"
"The Dominica," Charlie, Courtney, and Dean answered together.
"He said if you two break anything, you buy it," Courtney added with a small smile.
Sam chuckled at that. "Is he working a job?"
Dean winced. "God I hope so. Otherwise, he's at Hedonism in a banana hammock and a trucker cap," he described.
Sam grimaced. "Ah, that's seared in my brain."
"Cannot be unseen," Courtney agreed.
"Did you really have to, Dean?" Charlie asked, pinching the bridge of her nose.
Dean ignored them and pressed forward. "What'd you find on Anna?"
Sam sighed and held up the file he had put together after his research. "Not much. Her parents were Rich and Amy Milton. A church deacon and a housewife."
"Riveting," Dean muttered.
"Yeah, uh, but there is something here in the report. Turns out this latest psych episode wasn't her first."
"No?"
"When she was 2 and a half, she'd get hysterical anytime her dad got close. She was convinced that he wasn't her real daddy," Sam said.
Dean raised his eyebrows. "Who was? The plumber? Hmm? Little snaking in the pipes? Heh," he chuckled with that goofy look on his face.
Sam shook his head. "Dude, you're confusing reality with porn again," he told him.
Courtney shook her head at him. "How do you even do that?"
Dean shot her a look.
Sam ignored them and continued on. "Anna didn't say. She just kept repeating that this real father of hers was mad. Very mad, like, wanted-to-kill-her mad."
That surprised Dean. "Kind of heavy for a two year-old."
"Well, she saw a kid's shrink, got better and grew up normal," Sam finished.
"Until now. So, what's she hiding?"
"She might not be hiding anything," Charlie stated, getting their attention. "It's not uncommon for children at the age to repress certain memories. And if something actually happened the cause the mental break than I wouldn't be surprised that she did so in order to project herself from the truth."
Courtney nodded. "The therapist is telling her that what happened didn't really happen. What would you do?"
"But could have happened that was so bad she had to repress it."
"Why don't you just ask me to my face?"
They all turned and found Anna and Ruby standing behind us.
Dean's jaw clenched. "Nice job watching her," he shot at Ruby.
"I'm watching her," Ruby said back with an indifferent tone.
Sam let out a sigh and nodded. "No, you're right, Anna," he said carefully. "Is there anything you wanna tell us?"
"About what?"
"The angels said you were guilty of something. Why would they say that?"
"You tell me," she said back. "Tell me why my life has been leveled, why my parents are dead. I don't know. I swear, I would give anything to know."
Charlie and Courtney glanced over at each other, knowing full well that something was off with this woman. They knew full well that if anyone's parents were killed, good of bad relationship, they would have a full break down.
"Okay. Then let's fide out," Sam told her.
"How?"
Charlie let out a sigh as she sat down in the panic room. "I don't want to bring her into this," she whispered to Courtney.
"I don't either but she's the only one who can do this," Courtney whispered back.
"The last time they brought her in she ended up blind, what's going to happen to her this time?" Charlie argued back.
Courtney flashed her a hard look. "I don't see you suggesting anything," she shot back.
Charlie let out a long sigh. "I just don't like how this is going," she stated. "What the hell is so important about this girl that the angels and demons are willing to kill for?"
"That's what we're going to find out."
Charlie twitched at that and looked across the room to Anna.
"We're here."
She perked up at that when Dean's voice came from the stairs. She jumped down from the table and followed Sam out of the door.
"Pamela, hey," Sam said, his hand going to her shoulder.
"Sam. Sam?" she asked, a false tone of confusion in her voice.
"Yeah, it's Sam. Sam. Yeah?"
"Sam, is that you?" she asked, reaching out blindly.
"I'm right here."
She let out a long sigh. "Oh, know how I can tell?" she asked before slapping Sam's ass.
Sam grunted and shot Dean a look.
"That perky little ass of yours. Bounce a nickel off that thing," she stated, laughing lightly. "Of course, I know it's you, Grumpy," she said before looking over towards us. "Same way I know that's Charlie, that's a demon and that poor girl's Anna," she said, smiling at us. "And that you've been eyeing my rack."
Sam stammered at that.
"Don't sweat it, kiddo. I still got more senses than most," she said before turning to Charlie. "Hey, babe, how have you been?" she asked, holding her arms open.
"I've been good, Pam," Charlie answered, hugging her back. "It's great to see you again."
"I'd say the same but then it would be a bad joke," Pamela said before turning to Anna. "Anna. How are you? I'm Pamela."
"Hi."
"Dean's told me what's been going on. I'm excited to help."
Anna smiled. "Oh, that's nice of you."
"Oh, well, not really," Pamela told her. "Any chance I can dick over an angel, I'm taking it."
Confusion pulled at Anna's face. "Why?"
"They stole something from me," she answered before pulling her sunglasses off to reveal her white eyes. "Demony, I know. But they're just plastic. Good for business. Makes me look extra-psychic, don't you think?"
Anna laughed at that.
"Now, how about you tell me what your deal is," she said before wrapping her arm around her shoulder, chuckling deeply. "Don't you worry," she said as she led her back into the panic room. "Hi, Courtney!"
Charlie smiled after them before looking back to the boys. "If anything happens to her I will do the same to you," I told them.
Sam nodded and headed off into the room, leaving Dean and Charlie alone.
"How do you know Pamela?" he asked, stepping closer to her.
"Who doesn't know Pamela?" she asked back. "She used to come into the bar a lot when her and Jesse were still together," she explained.
"You've met Jesse?" Dean asked, surprised.
Charlie chuckled. "Oh yeah, I've met Jesse," she said before moving into the panic room. She returned to her previous post next to Courtney on the far table. A small smile touched her lips when Dean walked in and leaned against the corner of the table, his hip touching hers. She bumped his shoulder lightly before looking back to Pamela. She watched as Pamela laid Anna on the cot while she took a seat in the chair.
"Nice and relaxed," she said. "Now, I'm going to count down from five to zero. When we're at zero, you'll be in a deep state of hypnosis. As I count down, just go deeper and deeper, okay? Five, four, three, two, one. Deep sleep, deep sleep. Every muscle, calm and relaxed," she said before pausing. "Can you hear me?"
"I can hear you," Anna answered, her voice far away.
"Now, Anna, tell me…how can you hear the angels? How did you work that spell?"
"I don't know. I just did."
"Your father, what's his name?"
"Rich Milton."
"All right, but I want you to look further back, when you were very young. Just a couple of years old," Anna told him.
"I don't want."
"It'll be okay, Anna. Just one look, that's all we need."
"No," Anna answered as she started to fidget.
Pamela pushed on. "What's your dad's name? Your real dad. Why is he angry at you?"
"No. No…No! No!" she yelled, her back arching off the bed as the lights started to flicker.
Pamela tried to rain in the situation. "Calm down."
"No, he's gonna kill me!" she yelled.
"Anna? You're safe," Pamela tried again.
"No!" she shouted as the door to the panic room slammed, locking Ruby out. "No!" she yelled, shooting up into a sitting position.
The lights started to explode, sending sparks everywhere.
"He's gonna kill me!" Anna screamed.
Charlie jumped slightly when she felt Dean's arm wrap around her waist, pulling her closer to him. She ducked her head towards his shoulder, protecting her eyes from the sparks.
"Calm down. It's all right, Anna," she said, holding her hands out to the girl.
Anna continued to thrash, sending more things flying.
Dean jumped up and went to Anna, trying to help Pamela but only ended up getting hit in the face, sending him across the room.
"Idiot," Charlie muttered, jumping down from the table and going to Dean, pulling him to his feet before dragging him to Courtney and Sam who were watching with wide eyes.
Pamela got up from the chair and hovered her hand over Anna's face. "Wake in one, two, three, four, five."
Anna stopped thrashing and the room returned to normal.
"Anna?" Pamela asked, running her hand down the girls face. "Anna?"
Anna let out a long sigh, her eyes opening.
"Are you alright?" Pamela asked.
Anna let out another sigh and sat up once again, her face calm. "Thank you, Pamela," she said, her voice surprisingly calm. "That helped a lot."
An uneasy feeling coiling in Charlie's chest at the way Anna was acting. Against her better judgment her hand slipped into Dean's, squeezing tightly. To her surprise Dean squeezed back.
"I remember now."
"Remember what?" Sam asked, pushing Courtney behind him a little more.
Anna looked to him. "Who I am."
Dean looked down to Charlie who's eyes were just as wide as his. "I'll bite," he said, looking back to Anna with the same freaked out expression. "Who are you?"
Anna hesitated for a moment. "I'm an angel," she answered.
A tense silence spread through the room, everyone glancing around to see what the collective response was going to be. No one moved before Charlie and Courtney spoke.
"I need a drink."
They found themselves in the living room, Courtney and Charlie both clutching a glass of whiskey and vodka as they watched Anna pace back and forth.
"Don't be afraid, I'm not like the others," Anna stated, looking to the more than nervous Ruby.
Ruby swallowed hard. "I don't find that very reassuring," she stated.
"Neither do I," Pamela added.
Anna let out a sigh and turned back to the brothers. "So, Castiel, Uriel, they're the ones that came for me?" she asked.
Sam nodded. "You know them?"
"We were kind of in the same fox hole," Anna answered, casting a nervous glance at Sam.
"So, what were they, like, your bosses or something?" Dean asked, confusion written all over his face.
A smirk pulled at Anna's lips. "Try the other way around," she admitted.
Dean seemed impressed. "Well look at you."
"But now they want to kill you?" Pamela asked, breaking the awkward eye contact between Anna and Dean.
"Orders are orders," she answered with a shrug. "I'm sure I have a death sentence on my head."
Pamela cross her arms. "Why?"
"I disobeyed," she answered. "Which, for us, is about the worst thing you can do. I fell."
"Meaning?" Dean asked.
Charlie rolled her eyes. "She fell from heaven," she stated, getting their attention. "She's a fallen angel."
"Became human," Pamela added with a bored tone.
"Wait a minute, I don't understand," Sam said, his forehead puckered. "Angels can just become human?"
Courtney nodded before Anna could answer. "The only real difference between humans and Angles are our souls. Angels don't have souls, they have grace," she answered before looking to Anna. "But that would be like ripping out your soul."
Anna nodded. "Kind of hurts. Try cutting your kidney out with a butter knife. That kind of hurt," she stated before gesturing to Courtney. "I ripped out my grace."
Dean twitched. "Come again?"
"My grace. It's energy," she explained. "Hacked it out and fell," she said with a shrug. "My mother, Amy, couldn't get pregnant. Always called me her little miracle. She had no idea how right she was," she said, pacing around the room again, making Ruby even more nervous.
"So you just forgot that you were God's little Power Ranger?" Dean asked, sounding a little pissed.
Anna turned back to him. "The older I got, the longer I was human, yeah."
"I don't think you appreciate how completely screwed we are," Ruby cut in, her voice clear with a panicked edge.
Anna nodded. "Ruby's right. Heaven want's me dead."
"And Hell just wants her," Ruby added. "A flesh and blood angel that you can question, torture, that bleeds. Sister," she said, looking to Anna, "you're the Stanley Cup. And sooner or later heaven or hell, they're gonna find ya."
"If you're given a choice I would go with Heaven," Charlie told her with a small smile. "Lesser of two evils."
Anna gave her an appreciative look. "That's why I'm gonna get it back," she stated.
The girls eyebrows shot up. "Excuse me?" they asked.
"My grace," Anna clarified.
'You can do that?" Dean asked, sounding disbelieving.
Anna nodded. "If I can find it."
Dean scoffed at that. "So what? You're just gonna take some divine bong hit and shazam, you're Roma Downey?"
Anna nodded at that. "Something like that."
Dean flashed her a smile. "All right. I like this plan. So where's this grace of yours?"
Anna looked slightly put off. "Lost track. I was falling about 10,000 miles per hour at the time."
Confusion pulled at Sam's forehead once again. "Wait, you mean falling, like, literally?"
"Yes."
"Like the way a human eye can see? Like a comet, maybe, or a meteor?"
It was Anna's turn for confusion. "Why do you ask?"
A bright smile suddenly flashed across Courtney's face. "I knew you were the smart one," she said before going to the large bookcase.
"Hey," Dean said, looking to her with a glare.
Charlie gave him a small smile and ran her hand up and down his back again. "It's okay, you got the looks," she told him.
Dean raised one of his eyebrows at that, a smile of his own pulling at his lips. "Is that so?" he questioned.
"And the ego," she added before turning to her sister. "What did you smart ones figure out?" she asked.
"This will take a while," Sam stated, Courtney nodded in agreement.
"We'll let you know when we find something," Courtney answered.
Charlie let out a small growl and turned back to Dean. "This is going to take forever," she said.
C.S.
Courtney woke from her nap when Sam's voice filled the empty silence. She was laid out on the couch surrounded by books that had held no answers for her. She remained where she was laying, kept her eyes closed and body relaxed. She didn't like the fact that Ruby was still in the room.
"Here, in March '85 a meteorite vanished in the night sky over Northwestern Ohio. It was sighted nine months before Anna was born and she was born in that part of Ohio," he said, his voice soft, probably making sure that he didn't 'wake' her.
"Pretty buff for a nerd," Ruby stated, her voice just as soft.
It took everything in Courtney not to make some bitch comment at the demon but she remained silent.
"Look, I think it was Anna," Sam said before a ruffling followed. "And here, same time, another meteor over Kentucky."
"And that's her grace?"
"Might be."
"All right, just narrows it down to an entire state," Ruby stated with a snarky voice.
Sam let out a sigh. "Look, it's a start."
"Sam, I'm-….I'm sorry," she stuttered out.
"F-for what?" Sam asked, clearly a little surprised that the demon was apologizing.
"For bringing you this mess," she answered. "If I'd known, I would've kept my trap shut."
"Yeah, well, we'll muddle through."
"Not this time. You do not wanna get between these armies. It's Godzilla and Mothra. If one side doesn't get us, the other one will," Ruby said, her voice taking on the panicky tone again.
"So, what do you wanna do? Dump Anna and run?"
There was a silence.
"Forget it. Look, I know angels freak you out-" Sam continued but Ruby cut him off.
"Forget angels. It's Alastair I'm scared of."
Courtney's heart stuttered at that. She had never thought that she would actually meet Alastair top side. The demon that her and Charlie had forced to describe hell had mentioned him several times. And what the demon described of the man, he was so far from good.
"Alastair?" Sam asked, clearly having no idea who or what he was.
"You met him in the church. Practically, the gran inquisitor downstairs. Picasso with a razor," Ruby said.
"And?" Sam questioned.
"And you should pull him out and throw him back in the pit. If you weren't so out of shape."
"Ruby-"
"No, your abilities are getting flabby."
"Yeah, so how do I tone up?"
"You know how. You know what you gotta do."
Sam's jaw clenched at that. He had promised himself that he wouldn't do that anymore. It hurt Dean too much for him to keep doing it. Plus there was- Sam broke off his train of thought to glance over at the sleeping Courtney. Plus there was Courtney. He would be lying if he said that he didn't like her and he knew that she wouldn't take kindly to the fact that he was drinking demons blood.
"I'm not going that anymore," he stated, his tone firm.
"Sam-"
"I said no."
"Well, then you better pray that Anna gets her groove back or we're all dead," Ruby stated before walking off to God knows where.
Courtney counted to a hundred in her head before moving. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and looked at the ridged Sam who was sitting on the coffee table. "I really don't like her," she stated.
Sam jumped and twisted around, looking to her with wide eyes. "Courtney!" he yelped. "How long have you been…." He trailed off, praying that she hadn't heard the conversation with Ruby.
"Judging by the fact that my first statement was 'I really don't like her' I would assume that I've been awake sine March '85," she answered, hoping her blunt answer wouldn't set him off.
Sam swallowed hard, his mind racing through the implications that would cause towards him. She had heard pretty much everything he didn't want her to know. "Courtney, I-"
"I'm not going to ask you what she was talking about," she cut him off, giving him a soft smile. "Its not any of my business and I understand secrets, but if she does anything out of the ordinary, I will try to kill her."
Sam chuckled nervously, his hand coming up to rub the back of his neck. "Thanks for that."
Courtney's smile quirked. "I still don't like her," she stated.
"She's not easy to get along with."
"No, Dean's not easy to get along with, she's just down right unlikable," Courtney declared.
A frustrated sigh left him. "Look, Courtney, Ruby is-"
"You don't have to explain yourself to me if you don't want to," she told him before letting out a yawn. "Where Charlie?"
Sam cleared his throat. "I think she went out to the yard."
"Probably waiting for Dean to get back."
Sam's brow puckered again. "What's her deal? I mean, she was at his throat a couple of weeks ago and now she always seems to be right beside him."
A sigh left Courtney as she leaned back into the couch. "Charlie has this code," she started, "when someone saves her life she owes them until she saves their life back," she explained. "She'll be by Dean's side till she saves him."
C.D.
Charlie once again found herself sitting on the hood of her prized Mustang, her head bent back as she looked up at the surprisingly bright night sky. She had managed to keep her mind blissfully blank before the rumble of the Impala pierced her nothingness. She kept her eyes on the stars as the engine purred silent and Dean's footsteps replaced it.
"She wasn't too freaked out was she?" she asked once his footsteps got close enough.
"She apologized and said that this was a little too rich for her blood," he answered, stopped beside her.
A chuckle left her. "She was smart to leave," she stated, her eyes connecting the stars.
"Too bad we're not that smart," Dean chuckled with her.
A silence filled the junkyard before Dean had to break it.
"Can I ask you something?" he asked, walking around the front of Roy to lean against the grill.
Charlie lowered her gaze and looked to him, showing that he had her full attention.
"Has Cas ever talked to you about….me?"
Charlie's eyebrows pulled together in confusion. "In what context?" she asked back. "I don't know if you've noticed but you're kind of his favorite human."
Dean swallowed hard and pushed himself forward. "You know that Cas pulled me out of Hell, right?"
"Everyone knows that," Charlie reminded him.
"Did he ever tell you why?"
Charlie was silent as her mind worked through all the conversations she had ever had with Castiel that pertained the topic of Dean. She shook her head when she found no answer. "I'm sorry, Dean, but Tiel doesn't really talk about Heaven around me. He knows it bothers me."
It was Dean's turn for confusion. "Why would Heaven bother you?" he asked, surprise clear in his tone.
A small sigh escaped her as she looked back up at the sky. "I don't like the idea of someone else owning my soul without permission."
"What?" Dean blurted. "Like a cross roads demon?"
She shook her head. "No. You have the conscious choice of selling you soul with a cross roads demon but with God or whoever is up there….you don't get a say," she explained. "When you die, your soul is sent to the place that you've earned in your life. You don't get a say, you don't get to argue, you don't get to plead, its chosen for you. It's like you're paying for the life of Free Will you've had."
Dean's eyebrows shot up. "I-…I've never thought of it that way before."
"You're not on the same anti-authority level as me," she told him with a small smile.
"No, I guess not," he muttered before taking in a deep breath. "Why do you think she fell? Anna, I mean."
Charlie's smile fell. "Wouldn't you?"
Dean shook his head. "Hell no. Angels are…..powerful and perfect," he stated.
She rolled her eyes at that. "Dean, every angel I've met has the constitution of a marble statue," she stated. "Their obedience to orders are that of a brainwashed cult," she told him before remembering something Castiel had told her years ago. "Guess how many angels have actually seen God."
His brows furrowed. "All of them?"
"Only four," she answered. "Only four angels have actually seen God."
"That's it?"
Charlie nodded.
"How the hell do they know that there is a God?" he demanded.
She shrugged. "Blind faith I guess. Kind of like humans."
That seemed to placate Dean. "Huh," he muttered.
"Now that I think about it, it must really suck," Charlie stated. "I mean, to follow orders from a more than absentee father that you don't even…..I don't think I'd be able to do it."
"Trust me, it's harder than you think," Dean stated, looking up to her with that familiar Winchester stare that John had pulled several times when talking about Mary.
Charlie opened her mouth to spew a string of comforting words when the sudden appearance of Sam cut her off.
"Hey."
Both of them jumped and turned to look back towards the house where Sam was walking up from.
"Did you find something?" Dean asked.
"I think so," Sam answered.
Charlie jumped down from the hood and started towards the house. "Did you wake Anna up?" she asked.
Sam shook his head.
"I'll go get her," she stated.
"Union, Kentucky. Found some accounts of a local miracle," Sam said once we were all gathered around the table. "In '85, there was an empty field outside of town. Six months later there was a full grown oak. They say it looks about a century old, at least," he explained, looking around the group of tired faced people.
Dean looked to the angel girl with slight hope. "Anna, what do you think?"
Anna nodded as she looked the various papers over. "The grace. Where it hit, it could have done something like that. Easy," she answered.
Dean looked confused again. "So grace ground zero. It's not destruction, its-"
"Pure creation," Anna finished.
A sigh escaped Charlie. "Is it sad that that makes complete sense?" she asked, bringing her hand up to rub her forehead. "So, we're going to check out the tree?"
"I guess so," Sam answered, looking to Anna who nodded.
"Yes. It's more than likely that my grace is there."
Courtney leaned forward and braced her hands against the table, looking down at the many papers that littered the abused wood. "Are we leaving tonight or in the morning?"
Dean shook his head quickly. "I don't want to stay in one place for too long," he stated. "We're leaving tonight."
"Alright, fine," she agreed, nodding her head slowly.
"Shotgun!" Charlie suddenly shouted getting everyone to look to her like she was crazy.
As it turned out, Ruby would be going with them, forcing three people into the front and three into the back. Since Charlie had already called shotgun it was a battle between Sam and Courtney for the other front seat spot. It was a rather violent and Charlie was more than entertained by the fact that Sam beat her.
Charlie was now sitting between Dean and Sam, leaning into Dean with her feet up on Sam's lap as she attempted to fall asleep. She had almost succeeded when Dean chuckled.
"What?" everyone in the car asked him, sounding more than tired.
Dean shook his head. "Nothing. It's just an angle and a demon, riding in the back seat," he stated, looking in the rear view mirror at Ruby and Anna.
Courtney loudly cleared her throat.
"Oh, sorry, two demons and an angel riding in the back seat," he amended with a bright smile. "It's like the set up to a bad joke….or a Penthouse forum letter."
Charlie chuckled at that, her elbow moving over to lightly jab him in the ribs.
Sam looked over at him. "Dude, reality, porn. Two different things."
"You call this reality?" Dean shot back.
"Unfortunately," Charlie answered, slumping against him a little more before letting out a groan. "You are very uncomfortable," she stated.
"Hey, no one asked you to sleep on me," Dean told her with a small smirk.
Charlie nodded. "True," she answered before he hand reached out and squeezed Sam's shoulder, getting him to raise his eyebrow at her. "Nope, you're better," she said, letting her arm fall. "Less muscle."
Dean let out a surprised laugh. "Thanks, Charlie," he said, shrugging his shoulder to jostle her head.
"You are more than welcome, Dean."
Ruby's eyebrow rose before she leaned over so she could whisper to the other sister sitting between her and the angel. "Are they always like that?" she asked.
Courtney glanced at the demon before letting out a sigh. "If you saw them when they first met you would welcome that," she told her, pointing to the frost seat. "Actually, no, seeing as no one really likes Dean you would like how they were when they first met."
Ruby smiled at that but didn't press for examples, her mind working up its own scenarios.
The car ride was long and tedious, filled with dreamless sleep and stiff body parts. They drove down a well-traveled path through a forest in Kentucky. Once Dean rolled the Impala to a stop they all piled out, stretched and walked towards the giant ass oak tree that looked like a hallmark card waiting to happen.
"It's beautiful," Dean stated, getting a slightly confused look from Charlie.
"It's where the grace touched down. I can feel it," Anna stated.
Charlie squinted her eyes and looked to the tree, her head turning slightly as she attempted to see the same glow that Castiel and the other angels had. Her lips pulled into a frown when she couldn't see it and just assumed that she had been wrong to think that the grace would make the tree glow.
"You ready to do this?" Dean asked, glancing over to Anna.
Anna lost her small smile. "Not really," she answered before stepping forward.
Courtney and Charlie looked to each other before following behind the angel, demon and brothers.
Sam hesitated when Anna reached the tree. "Uh, Anna, what are we even looking for?" he asked.
Anna reached her arm out and pressed her hand to the bark.
Charlie's eyes widened when the tree seemed to come alive, the creaks and leaf rustles became louder, reacting to Anna. She looked over to Courtney who had also seemed to notice the trees reaction to the fallen angel.
"It doesn't matter. It's not here," Anna stated, her voice a little stressed. "No anymore."
Dean let out a small grunt that caused Charlie to pat his back lightly in condolence.
"Someone took it," Anna stated.
Courtney jumped at that. "Wow, wait, took it?" she asked, looking to Anna with slightly narrowed eyes.
Anna looked back at her and nodded.
"Okay, correct me if I'm wrong but isn't your grace sort of like the Greek Gods true forms? Humans look at it and it fries them to ashes?"
Anna winced at that. "Not as severe as that. They simply…become like Pamela."
"It works the same with demons?"
Anna nodded.
"Then the only other thing that could have taken your grace would be an angel and if that's the case then I would like to nominate either Castiel or Uriel."
"Uriel," both Anna and Charlie stated, throwing each other wry smiles.
Seeing as there was no further need of the tree they piled back into the Impala, retaking their previous seating arrangements. They once again drove for as long as they could and only stopped when they spotted a run-down barn off a deserted back road. They took their time drawing the angel sigils even though they had a feeling they wouldn't be staying there long.
Charlie had made herself comfortable on the top of one of the tables, Courtney leaning between her legs as they kept a close eye on Anna.
"Alright, well, we still got the hex bags. I say we head back to the panic room," Dean stated, marching back into the room.
Ruby clearly didn't like that idea. "What, forever?" she shot back.
"I'm just thinking out loud," Dean defended, his voice raising a little.
"Oh, you call that thinking?"
"Hey, hey, hey, hey. Stop it," Sam said, coming back in with an exasperated expression.
Ruby decided that appealing to the blatantly obvious was a better idea. "Anna's grace is gone, you understand? She can't angel up and protect us. We can't fight Heaven and Hell. One side, maybe, but not both. Not at once-"
"Um, guys," Anna broke in, her eyes drifting off into space, "the angels are talking again."
"What are they saying?" Sam asked.
"It's weird. Like a recording ," she answered. "A loop. It says: 'Dean Winchester gives us Anna by midnight, or…." She cut off, her eyes widening slightly.
"Or what?" Dean asked, clearly not liking that the angels were talking about them.
Anna looked over to him with a slightly frightened expression. "'Or we hurl him back to damnation.'"
Shock ran through the group, the more prominent being Dean who looked like he was going to be sick.
"What? No!" Charlie all but shouted, pushing off from the table to move to Dean's side where her hand came up to clutch Dean's arm in a death grip.
Sam stepped towards Anna, not liking the idea of Dean back in hell just as much as Charlie. "Anna, do you know of any weapon that works on an angel?"
Everyone seemed to shoot him a look.
"To what? To kill them?" Anna asked, sounding a little scared.
Sam nodded his head as if it was obvious.
She shook her head. "Nothing we could get to. Not right now," she answered.
Dean jumped in. "Okay, wait. I say we call Bobby, we get him back from Hedonism-"
Sam turned on him. "Dean, what's he gonna tell us that we don't already know?"
"I don't know! But we gotta think of something!" Dean yelled back.
"Hey!" Courtney yelled, catching their attention. "Yelling at each other isn't going to help anything," she stated before looking to Sam. "We're gonna pull out the lore books that I packed and we're going to look for something that'll help us," she told him. "Okay?"
Everyone nodded. "Okay," they answered.
Charlie glanced over at her sister, the demon, the angel, and the giant before backing out of the door and heading towards the Impala where Dean had set up camp. She walked slowly through the shadows, her eyes looking over every slight movement till she reached Dean.
His head snapped up when he hears her approach, a smile pulling at his lips. "Hey, Charlie," he greeted.
"Hey, Dean," she greeted back, her voice a little softer than she had wanted it. "How are you holding up?"
He chuckled lightly. "I'm trying," he answered, looking back down to the book he had been reading before she showed up. "What about you?"
A snort escaped her. "Gotta admit, I've never had Heaven and Hell on my heels before," she answered.
"First time for everything," he muttered out, sounding frustrated.
Charlie let out a sigh. "Well, we've ha d a good run. Found anything that'll let us go out kicking?" she asked, leaning against the table and looked down at the book.
"Already resigned to us dying, huh?" he asked, looking up to her. "That was fast."
She chuckled. "I don't know about you, but I've cheated death more than a few times. I'm starting to think that this is elaborate plan of the universe to finally get rid of me."
"I doubt you've done something bad enough to warrant the universe wanting you dead."
"Oh, you never know. We've all done terrible things," she countered with a slightly teasing tone.
Dean's eyes drifted off of her with a slightly tortured look filling it. "Yeah, we've all done terrible things," he agreed.
Charlie's veins went cold at that. She had reminded him of Hell. She swallowed hard and leaned over enough to get within his vision. "Dean, there's something you need to know," she said, catching his attention. "And I'm going to need you to not shut down."
A worried look crossed his face before he cleared his throat. "Okay, what is it?" he asked, his voice slightly cracking.
"I know who Alastair is."
Shocked slapped him across the face once again. "What? How?"
"A few years ago Courtney and me managed to get a demon to explain hell," she told him. "He had a lot to say about Alastair and what he makes souls do."
He cleared his throat and looked away from her. "So-so, you know."
She nodded. "I know what he did and I know what….you did."
Dean's eyes snapped at her, panic clear in them.
Charlie took in a deep breath and did something she had only done once with John when he had gone over the deep end. She reached up and pressed her hand to his cheek, Dean jerking slightly at the contact, but didn't pull away. "I'm not going to tell you that it wasn't your fault cause you're not going to believe me no matter how many times I say it," she said, the worry she had been holding down ever since his first nightmare bubbling up. "But you can't' keep pushing it down, Dean. "
He shook his head. "I don't wanna…" he trailed off, his voice breaking again. "I don't wanna…" he tried again before swallowing hard. "I can't talk about that."
"I'm not asking you to," she told him, her other hand coming up to capture the other side of his face, making him look to her. "All I want to tell you is that you'll get to a point where it'll become too much and you'll be faced with two options," she stated, her tone serious. "The first option is to pull a Winchester and completely shut down, call it good when you can no longer feel. The other option is to let someone who loves you be there for you."
Dean's eyes had glazed over with unshed tears as he had no choice but to look at me.
"I chose option two when I got to that point and I can honestly say that I wouldn't be here if I hadn't."
"I-I thought that you had-hadn't talked to Courtney," he managed out.
Charlie shook her head. "I didn't talk to Courtney. I talked to someone who understood what I was doing to myself," she explained, her thumbs moving on their own as they ran up and down his cheekbones. "Believe it or not, Dean, I don't want you to go to Hell, I don't want you to constantly torture yourself. I do, however, want you to keep being a great hunter, I want you to be able to smile without feeling guilty, and I want you to get a full night sleep without nightmares."
Dean hadn't expected anything like this from Charlie. Sam, sure, Courtney, maybe, but Charlie? Never.
She shook her head. "I have no idea where this is coming from and I can't seem to make myself stop talking, so I'm going to assume that it's me freaking out about possibly dying in a few hours. Okay?" she asked, nodding her head a little frantically. "Are you okay with assuming?"
Dean swallowed hard and pushed the familiar pain behind the sexual frustration he had been feeling towards Charlie since the first day he had met her. "I'm okay with assuming," he answered before doing the one thing he would have cursed himself for doing when he first met her.
He kissed her.
His lips pushed against hers in a hesitant sort of way, gauging to see whether she was going to let him get away with this. He was pleasantly surprised when her hands moved up into his hair, pulling him closer to her. He leaned into her as his hands came up and gripped her waist, his fingers pushing under the hem of her shirt to hungrily pull at her skin. Their lips moved together in a dance you would think they had done many times before; their bodies pressed flush against the other in a feverish rhythm. Charlie's hands migrated from his hair down to his neck and then under the shoulders of his jacket, her nails biting gently through the fabric of his shirt. Dean's hand followed her example and moved up her waist, along the side of stomach till they gripped her ribcage, his thumb pressed against the bottom of her, he guessed, black bra. Charlie's lips parted as her tongue pushed forward and pressed against his bottom lip. Dean accepted the intrusion and pushed back with his own. He tightened his grip on her before lifting her up onto the makeshift table, her legs wrapping around his waist. Despite their best efforts they were still human and required air. Dean broke off to kiss along her jaw and down to her neck where he nipped at her collar bone.
With the small gift of air the fog that had filled Charlie's head started to disperse, leaving her room to think. She was sitting on a highly questionable table, in the middle of nowhere, angels and demons bearing down from God knows where, and she had a Winchester between her legs kissing on her neck. She found it sad that the only thing she found wrong with that through process was the Winchester between her legs. She needed to stop this.
"Dean, wait," she managed, her hands moving to brace against his shoulders. "Dean, stop."
He seemed to notice her protest and pulled back to look at her. "What? What's wrong?" he asked, concern clear in his voice.
She shook her head. "I can't do this," she told him.
"Do what?" he asked, his eyes still a little clouded.
"Fuck you in the back seat of the Impala," she answered, pushing him a back a little further.
"Are you sure?" he asked, his finger flexing against her skin.
She nodded and reached down to move his hands back down to her hips. "It would just complicate things."
His eyebrows shot up. "And they aren't already?"
She let out a sigh. "Dean, you and I both know that this wouldn't end well for either of us."
"I don't know," he said, his eyes trailing down to her neck again. "I think you would have liked the ending."
"Dean, stop it," she said, lightly hitting his shoulder.
A sigh of his own left him. "Okay, I get it," he said, nodding slowly.
Charlie couldn't help but smile. "Still sorta-kinda-maybe friends?" she asked, turning her head to the side.
He chuckled at that. "Yeah, still sorta-kinda-maybe friends," he agreed.
Her smile widened before she opened her arms. "Sorta-kinda-maybe friend hug?" she asked.
A laugh escaped him before he pulled her into a hug, his chin resting on her shoulder as her arms wrapped around his neck.
There was a small silence as they let the last ten minutes settle in. It was odd how they both managed to put the fact that they had pretty much made-out on the back burner and bring the fact that Charlie had called him out on his self-destruction. They had both known that she was right and that something would have to happen soon if he was going to get even remotely better.
"Promise to just think about what I said," she said, her voice soft as her arms tightened around him.
He nodded hesitantly against her shoulder. "Yeah, okay, I promise."
C.R.
Courtney couldn't help but feel a little bad about what Ruby was going to do.
"I thought you didn't like me?" Ruby asked, seeing the look on Courtney's face as she watched her from her spot beside a sleeping Sam.
Courtney shook her head. "I don't like you, but I wouldn't wish what you're going to do on anyone," she answered. "Not ever Lilith."
Ruby's eyes widened slightly at that. "That's shocking. I thought you would do anything to stop Lilith?"
She swallowed hard as she thought of that. After a moment she shook her head. "There are something you stay away from during war, no matter how desperate you are at the time," she stated, her voice firm and steady.
"That's very Human of you," Ruby told her, a smile twitching at her lips.
"I pride myself on being Human," Courtney responded.
Ruby chuckled lightly. "Too bad that's not entirely true," she said, her voice quiet.
Courtney's eyes narrowed into a glare at the other brunette girl. "How do you know about that?" she demanded, pushing herself from her stool and walking over to the Demon, grabbing her arm and pulling her off to the side, the farthest she could get from Sam, hoping that he wasn't awake like she had been during his little chat with the same demon.
"I'm a demon, we know a lot," Ruby answered, her voice the same quest as before, knowing what Courtney was trying to do and not about to stop the rather cautious hunter.
"Are you going to tell them?"
Ruby shook her, getting a slightly surprised look from the Courtney.
"Why the hell not?"
A soft sigh escaped her. "Because you and your sister are important to the angels," she answered. "Do you honestly expect me to piss them off more than I already have?"
Courtney thought about that for a moment before slowly nodding her head. "Okay, but if you try anything I or my sister do not like, you will have to answer, understand?"
Ruby nodded, knowing better than most what the Valentine Twins were capable of.
Courtney watched her for a moment before she let her grip on the demon's arm drop with a sigh. "I would say good luck but with what you're trying to attempt it seems in bad humor."
Ruby chuckled anyways. "Well, it's accepted either way," she stated before shooting a glance over at Sam. "Keep an eye on him, yeah?"
Courtney nodded, knowing where the demon was coming from. "Kind of hard to lose sight of him."
"He is freakishly tall," Ruby agreed before flashing Courtney a small smile. "I'll see you later," she said before stalking off out the door.
C.D.
Morning had come faster than any of them had liked. The early calls of the birds came from the gaps in the wooden planks that made up their hiding spot. The same tension that had hung over them since leaving the grace tree was thicker than it had been before, all of them knowing that something bad was going to happen soon.
Dean was stationed against a barrel of hay, Charlie sitting next to him, her jacket pulled around her in warmth as he took a chug from his bottle of jack he had stashed in his own jacket. Anna was standing by the barn door, looking out through one of the gaps, feeling the tension more than the others. Sam had woken earlier than they had, saying that Ruby had gone missing, Courtney saying that the demon had still been there when she fell asleep. Charlie had been informed of the plan by her sister as soon as he had entered the barn, the older girl grimacing when she realized what Ruby had gone off to do.
"I don't know, man. Where's Ruby?" Sam asked for the hundredth time.
Dean shook his head. "Hey, she's your hell buddy," he stated, before taking another gulp from his bottle.
"A little early for that, isn't it?" Anna asked, looking to Dean as she walked over.
Dean jerked his head to the side. "It's 2 a.m. somewhere," he stated, getting a small shoulder bump from Charlie.
"You okay?" Anna pressed, seeming a bit nervous that he wouldn't be as clear minded a he should have been.
"Yeah, of course," he answered, denying her thoughts of doubt towards him.
The wind suddenly picked up, the old wood groaning from the strain of it. Both Charlie and Courtney had jumped up at the ready before the barn doors opened and Castiel and Uriel walked in, looking rather put out with having to try and find them. Anna was pushed behind Sam as she looked to the angels she once knew, a panicked look on her face.
"Hello, Anna," Castiel said in his usual monotone voice. "It's good to see you."
A small tense silence passed between the two angels.
"How?" Sam asked. "How'd you find us?"
Charlie stepped closer to Dean as Castiel looked to him with an almost sympathetic expression. She balled her fist into the back of his jacket as he looked down to the ground, shame and guilt taking over for the passive.
"Dean?" Sam asked, surprise clear in his voice.
Dean swallowed hard before raising his head to look to Anna. "I'm sorry," he said, his voice thick.
"Why?" Sam demanded.
Anna searched Dean's eyes before she looked over to the youngest Winchester. "Because they gave him a choice," she answered, her tone understanding. "They either kill me or kill you."
Sam looked to the angels, clearly distraught by their violent manner of handling the situation.
"I know how their minds work," Anna stated, looking to her old garrison. She stepped closer to Dean , her hand coming up to grip his arm in a reassuring way. "You did the best you could," she told him. "I forgive you."
The tension built as Anna stepped between the four hunters and the two angels, looking rather resolved to her decision.
"Okay, no more tricks," she said. "No more running. I'm ready."
Charlie pressed herself closer to Dean, her free hand moving down to grab his, knowing what was to come.
Dean didn't take his eyes off the angels in front of him but he welcomed her subtle comfort and squeezed her hand to the point, he assumed, of pain.
"I'm sorry," Castiel said, an actual tone of remorse in voice.
Anna shook her head. "No. You're not," she denied. "Not really. You don't know the feeling."
Castiel remained unchanged. "Still, we have history. It's just-"
"Orders are orders. I know," Anna cut in, her voice harsh. "Just make it quick."
Charlie couldn't help but tense when she felt the presence of the demons behind her, the unmistakable tingle of Alastair making it's way up her spine as she did her best not to bolt towards Castiel.
"Don't you touch a hair on that poor girl's head."
They all turned to find Alastair standing behind them, Ruby's knife in hand along with the demon herself and two of his minions. The tension doubled as the angels and demons locked stares, each knowing what they had to do to get what they wanted.
Charlie glanced over to her sister who was holding on tightly to one of Sam's arms and nodded before they both pulled the boys and Anna off to the side as the angels advanced towards the demons.
"How dare you come in this room," Uriel started, "you pussing sore?"
Alastair seemed unimpressed. "Name-calling?" he asked, stepping forward. "That hurt my feelings. You sanctimonious, fanatical prick."
Charlie couldn't help but be a little impressed at the insult.
"Turn around and walk away now," Castiel told him, his tone leaving no room for argument.
"Sure. Just give us the girl," Alastair shot back. "We'll make sure she gets punished good and proper."
"You know who we are and what we will do," Castiel said, clearly not liking that Alastair wasn't following his orders as he advanced to stand beside Uriel. "I won't say it again. Leave nor I we lay you to waste."
Alastair wrinkled his nose at the angel. "I think I'll take my chances," he told him.
There was what could be called a stare down between the enemies before Uriel lunged at one of Alastair's minions, slamming him into one of the supporting beams, the other assaulting him from behind. Castiel took his chance and landed two punches to Alastair's jaw before he pressed his open palm to the demon's head.
"Sorry, kiddo," Alastair said when Castiel had no effect on him. "Why don't you go run to Daddy?" he suggested before upper cutting the angel, knocking him to the floor before lunging onto him, rambling off a Latin chant as Uriel killed one of the demons in the back.
Charlie was pulled from her slight daze when she felt Dean pull away from her and grab something behind her. She looked over just in time to see him swing a crowbar at Alastair's head, catching him under the jaw and sending him to his feet.
"Dean, Dean, Dean. I am so disappointed," the demon said, recovering from the hit and stepping towards him. "You had such promise," he said before holding his hand out, fingers spread wide.
The sisters watched in slight horror as both Dean and Sam dropped to their knees in pain. Courtney looked over to Uriel and found him killing the last demon, Anna's grace swinging from his neck.
"Anna, now!" she said, pushing the girl in Uriel's direction, knowing this would stop the fighting entirely.
Anna followed her instruction and lunged forward, ripped her grace from the angels neck and threw it to the ground. The glass broke and a white smoke curled into the air and made its way down Anna's throat, the girl falling to her knees once it was gone. Her body began to glow as she pushed herself to her feet. "Shut your eyes," she said, her voice strained. "Shut your eyes!"
Charlie grabbed Courtney and hugged her to her chest, her arms wrapped around her head to keep her face buried in her chest as she herself buried hers in Courtney's neck.
A light brighter than the sun erupted from Anna before it died out, revealing that Anna was gone and so was Alastair.
With a series of grunts the boys pulled themselves to their feet as the angels stepped towards them, just as shocked as they were.
Charlie pulled Courtney away from her and locked eyes with her, asking silently if her little sister was okay.
Courtney gave her a small nod before pulling away to step beside Sam as Dean picked up Ruby's knife from the ground.
"Well, what are you guys waiting for?" Dean asked, looking to Castiel. "Aren't you gonna go get Anna? Unless of course, you're scared," he said, looking to Uriel for the last part.
Uriel in return, still clearly upset, moved towards Dean, his hand outstretched. "This isn't over," he stated before Castiel grabbed his arm and kept him back.
"Oh, it looks over to me, junk-less," he said, his tone a normal mocking.
The angels watched him for a moment before disappearing a sound of flapping.
Ruby let out a series of pants as she made her way over to the group of Humans, the blood stain on her stomach even bigger than before.
"You okay?" Sam asked when she made her way to him.
She spared a glance at Courtney before looking back to Sam. "Not so much," she answered.
Dean placed the knife in his back pocket before looking to Ruby. "What took you so long to get here?" he asked.
She looked up at him with blatant disbelief. "Sorry I'm late with the demon delivery, I was only being tortured," she defended.
The pair shared a small nod before Dean looked to his brother.
"I gotta hand it to you, Sammy. Bringing them all together, all at once, angels and demons? It's a damn good plan," he said, actually seeming a little smug for his brother.
Sam let out a small sigh. "Yeah, well, when you got Godzilla and Mothra on your ass….best to get out of their way and let them fight."
"Now you're just bragging," Dean stated.
Sam shook his head slightly. "So I guess she's some big-time angel now, huh?" he asked.
Courtney nodded, a small smile pulling at her lips. "For Uriel to hate her that much, I say it's a firm yes."
"She must be happy now, wherever she is."
Charlie shook her head as she looked down at the spot Anna had been before she disappeared. "I highly doubt that," she said, her voice a little tight.
Dean watched her for a moment before he reached out and slipped his hand into hers, giving her the same subtle comfort she had not too long ago.
She glanced back at him, allowing a small smile to touch her lips as she squeezed his fingers.
Seeing as their morning had been less than agreeable they bought a six pack, piled into the Impala and parked her on the side of some middle of nowhere road. Courtney sitting on the hood with Sam while Dean and Charlie leaned against the side, watching the sky. The two younger siblings had noticed their brother and sister's sudden closeness but hadn't commented on it, knowing that it would only get them nowhere and blatant lies.
"I can't believe we made it out of there," Dean said, a humorless laugh attached to the end.
Sam chuckled lightly. "Again."
They clinked their classes and took a heavy chug, all thinking about how they had all come close to dying several times.
Charlie felt Dean tense next to her and looked up to him, seeing the same look he had worn when she had talked to him last night. She knew what he was about to do and honestly she was a little proud and slightly panicked at that thought. Knowing this was going to be more than difficult for the Winchester she slid her hand towards his, brushing the back of it with her own, giving him the invitation to take it. A sad smile pulled at her lips when he threaded his fingers through hers, once again squeezing it to the point of pain.
"I know you heard him," he said, his voice hard.
"Who?" Sam asked, glancing over to Courtney to see if she knew.
Dean swallowed hard, but put on a slightly indifferent tone. "Alastair. What he said. About how I had promise."
"I heard him," Sam answered, deciding not to lie.
"You're not curious?" Dean asked, his voice short.
Sam looked at the back of his brother's head. "Dean, I'm damn curious," he answered, his tone blunt. "But you're not talking about hell and I'm not pushing."
Dean nodded slightly as he took another gulp of beer, his grip on Charlie's hand getting even tighter as he made the choice of actually talking about it. "It wasn't four months, you know."
Sam's head snapped up to look at his brother. "What?" he asked, not nearly understanding.
Dean took a deep breath. "It was four months up here, but down there," he paused to shake his head again, "I don't know, time's different."
Charlie knew what he was explaining from the demon her and Courtney had interrogated and took a rather large gulp from her beer, wondering if her and her sister should really be there for this.
"It was more like 40 years," he stated.
Sam shook his head as the implications came to him. "My God," he whispered.
"They, uh, they sliced and carved," he explained as he looked off into the distance, his voice wavering slightly, "and tore at me in ways that you-" he broke off to shake his head, not being able to bring himself to say it. "Until there was nothing left."
Charlie swallowed hard before leaning closer to him, letting her head drop down onto his shoulder as she gripped his hand back with equal strength as he did hers.
"And then suddenly I would be whole again. Like magic," he said, a slight mock at the last word. "Just so they could start it all over."
Charlie could feel the tears bud her eyes as her mind made up images of the tortured he must have gone through. She turned her head till her forehead was pressed to his shoulder, hiding the fact that she had her eyes crammed shut.
"And Alastair, at the end of every day, every one, he would come over and he would make me an offer. To take me off the rack…if I put souls on. If I started to torture. And every day I told him to stick where the sun shines," he explained, a slight laugh at the last word. "For 30 years, I told him. But then I couldn't do it anymore, Sammy," he said, his voice going thick with his own unshed tears. "I couldn't. Then I got off that rack. God help me, I got right of it and I started ripping them apart."
Charlie's other arm came up and wrapped around his waist from the front, a movement she knew Sam or Courtney couldn't see.
"I lost count of how many souls," he struggled out. "The things that I did to them."
There was a pause as Sam tried to speak. "Dean-" he cleared his throat, "Dean, look, you held out for 30 years. That's longer than anyone would have," he stated, knowing for a fact that he himself wouldn't have gone that long.
Charlie's heart broke when she chanced a look at Dean, finding him struggling to hold back his tears as one defiant one rolled down his cheek.
He dragged in a harsh breath as he reached up to run a hand down his face, whipping the tear away. "How I feel …." He started, this being harder than he thought it would have been. "This…..inside me," he grimaced at that. "I wish I couldn't feel anything, Sammy. I wish I couldn't feel a damn thing."
Charlie decided that she didn't care if the others saw her, she couldn't take it anymore. She moved her hand from his waist and brought it up to the side of his neck, her thumb pressed in front of his ear.
He was reluctant to look down at her but he did so in the end and was surprised to find tears of her own in her eyes. He had thought about what she had told him last night, about having two options, and he decided to try and take the second option. She had been right and that had brought on a concern in him. How did she know so well what he was going through?
Her hand moved from the side of his neck and wrapped around it instead, pulling him closer to her as she pushed herself up onto the balls of her feet, giving her enough height for him to bury his face in the side of her neck easily.
The drive back to Bobbie's was a silent affair, none of them really wanting to talk after what Dean had told them. They all silently agreed to sleep down in the panic room, seeing as they might still have Heaven and Hell on their heels. Charlie and Courtney hadn't argued when Sam told them to sleep on the cot, seeing as they were the only two who wouldn't mind sleeping that close to each other. Dean and Sam set up their own make shift beds on the floor and soon crashed in a dead sleep.
Charlie woke when she felt something jab into her ribs. She pushed away from the cot and found her sister practically on top of her with her elbow in her ribs. She pushed herself up and over the side of the cot. She rubbed a hand over her eyes before looking over to where Sam and Dean had been sleeping only to find Sam. With a sigh she got to her feet and made her way up stairs.
The middle of the day had turned into evening, sending the house into shadows. Everything was silent, the only sound being her footsteps. She shuffled through the house till she found that the front door was cracked open. With a slight nervous suspicion she walked forward and pulled the door open further and peeked out. A frown pulled at her lips when she found Dean sitting on the front steps, elbows on his knees as he looked up at the stars.
Charlie hovered in the doorway a moment before stepping out and sitting next to him, leaving a few inches of space between them. She wasn't going to press him to talk, she hated when people did that to her, but she always felt better whenever was just near her.
"I kept my promise."
She jumped slightly when he spoke, sitting up a little straighter as she gave him her full attention. "I'm glad you did," she told him, keeping her voice soft so as not to disturb the seemingly calm of the night.
He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, almost brokenly. "I think I scared Sammy," he stated with a humorless laugh.
She shook her head. "I think you keeping it from him scared him more," she told him.
"Does it scare Courtney?"
Charlie was slightly taken aback by his question but remembered that she had actually told him what she kept things from Courtney. With a small sigh she nodded her head slowly. "It's not as bad as it used to be but sometimes I say things and I know it scares her," she answered, her hand reaching up to rub the back of her neck. "But she knows that I won't talk about it so she doesn't push."
"No offense but she seems like the pushing type," he said.
She shook her head. "No, she is, but she knows better than to push the subject," she stated, hoping Dean would also get the hint and also leave it.
"See, Sammy doesn't know when to stop pushing," he said, looking back up at the sky, shaking his head. "He just keeps asking questions till I snap at him and then everything just gets tense."
She nodded in understanding, remembering all the many times something like that had happened with her and Courtney. "Do you regret it? Talking to him?"
Dean hesitated before answering. "I don't but at the same time I feel like-" he cut off, shaking his head.
"You feel like you have to be the strong one, that you shouldn't be the one asking for help," she finished, nodding her head slowly.
Dean nodded his head absently. "I've been taking care of Sammy my whole life," he told her.
"You've never had to ask him for help before," she stated, knowing for a fact that she had only asked for help from Country a spare few times. "You've always shouldered everything yourself."
He nodded once again, his eyes remaining locked onto stars above them. "It's my job to take care of him."
"Did John tell you that?" she asked, her voice a little bitter.
Dean's head snapped down to look at her, his eyes narrowed and a frown on his lips. "I know you hate my dad but that doesn't give you the right to bad mouth him, not around me."
She shook her head quickly. "No, no, I don't hate John," she said, her hand coming up to grip his arm. "And I'm not going to bad mouth him, I wouldn't do that," she told him, her voice gentle. "He just always had to do things the hard way."
"Like what?" he demanded.
"Like giving you such a soldier complex that it's impossible for you to ask for help," she answered, hoping he wasn't going to get defensive like his father had so many times.
Dean watched her for a moment before dropping his eyes to the ground, his hands clasped together almost painfully.
Charlie bit her lip and moved her hand from his arm to across his back. "Your father was a good man who did his best at raising two boys in a world that scared the shit out of him."
"My dad wasn't scared," Dean stated, a slight snap in his tone.
"Dean, we're all scared," Charlie said, leaning a little closer to him, her side now pressed into his.
"Are you scared?"
She nodded. "All the time and do you want to know why?"
He twitched his head in her direction.
"Because being scared is human, and it's what keeps us separated from the things we hunt," she told him, her thumb running up and down in a soothing manner.
"What if we start to become the things we hunt?"
Charlie knew that he was talking about what he did in hell and she didn't like where his thoughts were going. "Were you scared in Hell?" she asked, her tone rather blunt.
Dean tensed at that, every muscle in his body tightening as the memories flooded him.
"If you were scared in Hell then you're Human."
"But what I did to those souls is-"
Charlie cut him off. "Those souls were down there for a reason, Dean," she reminded him.
He shook his head as he let it fall forward, his eyes closing tight. "Charlie, the things I did to those souls, it wasn't Human," he stated, his voice quiet as it started to water again. "It was so far from Human."
Charlie took in a deep breath as her mind searched for something to say. "Do you regret doing it?"
"Every damn day," he answered.
"Did you enjoy doing it?"
"How can you ask me that?" he demanded, looking up at me with a tear filled glare.
"Did you?" I demanded back, standing my ground.
"No! I didn't like it!" he snapped.
"Then you don't have to worry about not being Human," I told him, my free hand coming up to cup his cheek, making sure he couldn't look away from me. "The things we hunt wouldn't be remorseful of what you did, they would revel in it. They would enjoy it and keep doing it, leaving a trail of bodies behind them. "
He had lost the glare but the tears in his eyes had grown, one of them escaping and rolling down his cheek.
Charlie moved her thumb over and caught the tear, smearing it away. "The things we hunt wouldn't be like this," she told him, her voice dropping back down to the gentle tone.
Dean's hand came up and covered hers, pressing it harder to his face as he closed his eyes, leaning closer to her.
Charlie wrapped her arm around Dean's neck and much like earlier that day pulled him into a hug, this time, her forehead pressed against his.
She would be there for Dean, just like John had been there for her.
I have no excuse but I hope this entire episode will kind-of-sorta-maybe make up for the rather large time gap between updates. Love to all those who are hanging on. I'm working on the next chapter as we speak!
See you in the dark,
Alya Kihaku + Shiri Mizuki O.o
