A/N: Okay, I'm a day late with this, and I didn't want to delay until after the holiday. I wanna thank everyone for reviewing and fav'ing this fic! My muse informs me that posing this today by itself will not affect the rest of the story. There is much more carnage and weirdness ahead.

Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural. This is for entertainment only, and not for profit.

Chapter 36

Then:

Tiesen shakes his head as they carry Dean into the house. The look he gives Bobby says I'm sorry.

His home is gone. Bobby knows this.

Even so Bobby's right hand curls up into a fist. It would be a piss poor way to thank Tiesen for saving him and Ellen by taking a swing at him, but there it is. The last thing Bobby remembers is blood red clouds, the taste of salt water in the air, so heavy and thick it took his breath away, and now he's alive and awake here, where ever here is, with Ellen and that damn fool dog of his.

He wishes he could be happy about that, but a part of him wishes he'd died when his home did.

"I'll be damned," Ellen whispers roughly.

Now what? Bobby turns to look. He stares, and he forgets how to breathe for a moment. He forgets to blink.

Hell. It can't be.

"Sam? Sam, is that you?"

"Yeah. It's me." Sam can't stop grinning. Rumsfeld2's the only one who's not frozen in amazement. The dog goes right over to Sam, bumps that big head of his, hard and insistent, against Sam's leg: Pet me, damn it!

Ellen moves first. She envelops Sam in a hug that's so tight Sam's eyes bug out. Something's not quite right, but Sam can't but his finger on it. He can feel Ellen's heartbeat, but there's another one too, and he can't understand it.

He doesn't want to, not at first.

Bobby's eyes narrow. "Where's John, Sam?"

"He crossed over."

"You mean he ditched you."

"No, it's okay. I think it is. Red Dog Inn. I can explain."

Ellen stiffens up. She pulls away from him, just a little. The look on her face can best be described as deer in the headlights, and now Sam's pretty sure he's got the same damn look. The penny drops then, big and round and so heavy Sam locks his knees to keep from falling over.

He'd been so preoccupied, making sure that Gaelen -- that Dean -- was okay. Now that he can focus on himself, Sam listens to his body now, really listens to himself as his lungs pull in air just as easily as they did before Devil's Gate.

"Honey," Ellen murmurs, wide eyed and shocked as hell. "I can feel your heart beat."

Frozen in place, all Sam can do is nod.

Now:

Gaelen slips on that black cassock of his without saying another word. He gets like this sometimes. Moody, humans would call it.

His mind takes him to places he'd rather not go. He hears the whispered conversations his family had about him…

"The boy's unnatural, you can see that in his eyes, can't you?"

…hears the sharp metallic scrape of metal against metal out in the barn as his own father sharpened his ax with the intent to murder his own son.

Gaelen thought about walking into the barn just then. It would have been so easy to give up, to surrender, easy enough to quietly kneel down in front of his father. Easy to bow his head, close his eyes and wait for the downward stroke of the ax.

Gaelen leaves the room in the blink of an eye.

"Here we go," Tiesen mutters to himself. They've seen this mood of Gaelen's before. They could easily go after him, of course, but they don't. Instead the other three Horsemen stand at the window and stare down at the courtyard below. Gaelen appears right next to Samirah. She whickers softly as she thrusts her huge black head into his willing hands.

The expression on Sam Winchester's face is so fierce and brooding that the other three horses prick their ears up and move in for a closer look. It's quite a show. Sam waves his arms in the air as he tries to put his point across.

Samirah ignores him. So does Gaelen. He stands there quietly for a moment, with his forehead pressed against hers. They're alone in the world, with no one else around.

Gaelen swings up onto Samirah's back. She doesn't tack up. He twines his fingers around a handful of her long mane as she swings around towards the gate.

They fade from view after a few steps, and Sam's left behind, fuming.

If anything, Sam's expression, that bitchface, gets even more intense by the time Chale, Rika and Tiesen step out onto the porch moments later.

"I don't know what's going on here," Sam grits out. "I don't know how I got like this."

"Beats the hell out of me," Chale sits down on the stone steps right next to Ellen. It's not what Sam wants to hear, but it's the only thing any of them can say. "Closest thing I can think of is, you're like us."

"What?"

"You're not a spirit anymore. I can tell you that much."

"Did Dean do this?"

"I don't know. You can ask him when he comes back."

"Whatever's gonna happen, I need to be a part of it. Dean's my brother. So is Gaelen."

"That a fact?" Tiesen's smiles, wicked sharp.

Sam nods. "This is my fight too."

Tiesen looks Sam up and down. "Think it's time we see how you handle yourself."

"It's what?" Sam blinks, and his bitchface falters, just a little. "You're talking about sparring."

Chale's grin gets a little wider. "You can call it that."

Sam considers his chances, and they don't seem to be that bad. Chale's wider than Sam, but not as tall. Tiesen's taller, and solidly built. Could be an even match, especially with his training, provided they don't go all out Horseman on him.

"Oh. Okay." Sam expects Chale or Tiesen to step forward. Neither one moves.

Rika does.

"It's okay," she smiles as she looks up at him. "I'll take it easy on you."

She's about sixteen, maybe seventeen. "You gotta be kidding me, right?" Sam shakes his head and he grins a little as he looks down at her. "I don't …I don't spar with little girls."

Tiesen rolls his eyes.

Chale snorts.

"Good grief," Bobby mutters. He takes a seat on the steps, right next to Ellen. Might as well enjoy the show.

"Uh, Sam?" Ellen says, and she knows it's already too late. Boy's about to learn a painful lesson. Chale winks at Ellen, and she leans against him. "This oughta be good," he rumbles.

Rika grows taller. The white armor she wears stretches to fit her lean, muscular frame.

Sam's eyes widen in shock. She's eye to eye with him now, and what Sam sees in her eyes is huge and powerful and eternal.

And very very amused.

I'll take it easy on you.

Actaeon, Ismael and Ajani whiny loudly at the look of utter shock on Sam's face.

Crap. Crap! Sam's bitchface falls apart. He's screwed, and he knows it.

He's screwed, and Dean's not around.

Something hard slams into the back of his legs. Sam finds himself airborne, staring up at the bright blue sky above. That doesn't last long. He slams into the ground so hard all the wind in his lungs is knocked out of him.

"Uh, g-guys?" Sam stammers. He can't think of anything else to say. He's not going to beg, that's for sure. But maybe he could talk his way out of this? Yeah, right…

"You're in luck," Rika says with a grin as she leans over him. "I'm not a little girl."

If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. You think too much, Gaelen. Samirah bows her head as she splashes through the waves on the beach. Getting wet is the least of Gaelen's worries now.

You sonofabitch, Dean whispers fiercely.

Gaelen laughs, and he really doesn't know whether he's responding to Samirah or Dean. Maybe both. "Maybe I don't think enough," he says out loud. "You know why we reacted to Sam the way we did."

The black horse nods her head. Demon taint. She paws at the surf with her left foreleg, ears pricked, enjoying the way the water froths and foams around her ankles. It's over. It's done.

"Not yet. I have to talk to Dean."

You wanted to hurt my brother, you bastard.

Samirah pins her ears back at the commotion inside Gaelen's head. Dean's awake. And he's not happy.

Gaelen's hands shake as he dismounts. He stumbles against the horse as his eyes glaze over with a horrible blankness. Samirah leans into him hard to keep him upright. She slowly, carefully lowers herself to the white sandy beach. Gaelen's sprawled halfway across her wide, broad back.

Samirah huffs as she settles down on her belly. Dean thinks too much, too.

Dean's fist slams into the side of Gaelen's jaw. It's his left hand, not his right, but Gaelen's head still feels like it's about to fall right off. Everything goes white for the barest second, and when Gaelen comes out of the fog Dean's standing over him, both hands balled into fists. He's battered brown leather and worn blue jeans, all scars and pale golden hand to Gaelen's sleek black cloth and leather. They're not quite mirror images, but two sides of the same coin.

"You knew Sam has demon blood inside him, and you wanted to kill him. That's why you came out, isn't it? Isn't it?" Dean roars.

"Yes," Gaelen says simply. No need to lie about this. No excuse for it, either. He couldn't put what he was feeling into words. It was confusing, looking at Sam Winchester, knowing the boy was tainted with Azazel's blood.

Sam Winchester, one of Azazel's special children. There was a time when that would have been an automatic death sentence, and Gaelen would have been only too happy to do the honors himself.

Gaelen wipes at his chin, stares at the blood on his fingers. "You knew about the yellow eyed demon. You knew I fought and hunted him all those years."

Dean leans in, fists the front of Gaelen's greatcoat with his left hand. Gaelen watches the sleek golden muscles in Dean's right hand tighten, and he stills himself.

What will be, will be. Maybe Samuel Colt found a way to kill everything after all, including Death.

"Doesn't matter what happens to me. Or to us." Gaelen nods at the barely contained fury in Dean's voice. It seems natural it would come to this. Gaelen would die for his family. Dean would die to keep Sam safe.

They stare at each other for a long moment.

Dean releases his hold on Gaelen's greatcoat, which isn't necessarily a good thing. Gaelen sits back so he doesn't faceplant into the ground.

"Sam stays innocent, you hear me? You don't know a damn thing about that."

"I know what it's like to grow up alone. Sam was lucky to have you."

The look Dean gives Gaelen is intense, searching. "I need to hear your intentions."

"My what?"

"Yeah. You heard me. About Sam," Dean says quietly.

"Sam wants to ride. He's family now. I'm not going to stop him."

Dean shakes his head. "I don't want him to ride."

"He's an adult. He's not a child anymore."

"Why didn't you try to kill him?"

"He's not evil," Gaelen says simply, and Dean lets out the breath he didn't even know he was holding in. "He could have used the spear on me. He didn't. He helped me instead."

Dean's shoulders sag, and all the tension seems to run out of him. "All my life I tried to keep him innocent," he says softly.

"I know," Gaelen nods. "You're scared, Dean."

Dean rolls his eyes. "You are so damn full of it."

"Maybe. You're scared that Sam will go dark. He won't. He's got us. All of us." Gaelen stretches out on the ground. It feels soft against his back, like a pillow. Not bad. "Is this one of those chick flick moments you're always running from?"

Dean rubs the back of his neck with his hand. He looks uneasy. "Uh, no."

"Are we done here? Because this is giving me a damn headache."

Dean nods. The corners of his mouth quirk upwards in a grin. "We're done."

"Good." Gaelen closes his eyes. He pretends not to notice when Dean finally leaves.

Kasey Jordan always did like the beach. She could sit there in the shade for hours. It was a place to get away from it all, at least for a while.

A rider on a huge black horse comes into view. Kasey waves, and the man waves back. People sometimes ride their horses on the beach, and that's nothing new or special, but the sight of these two takes her breath away.

He's green eyed, drop dead gorgeous, broad shouldered and barefoot, dressed in faded blue jeans and a black tee shirt. He rides bareback, sits free and easy. The horse is the most striking Arabian she's ever seen. It's probably the largest, and that sleek black hide flashes with spears of sunlight as it moves effortlessly over the sand.

Kasey blinks. Horse and rider disappear into thin air.

Well, it's nothing. Sun got into her eyes. She looks up and down the beach. There's no sign of them. just a line of hoofprints in the sand.

People don't really vanish like that, do they?

Nahh.

Kasey turns back to the live feed from CNN on her laptop.

"…authorities have no explanation for the odd occurrence, which is the third time in as many days that frogs, worms and snakes have been reported to fall from the sky onto the Golden Gate Bridge. In other news, law enforcement officials in Richmond, Virginia made no comment on eyewitness reports that the White House of the Confederacy in downtown Richmond was pulled underneath the ground by what can only be described as long blood red tentacles. Police Chief Matthew Greyson discounted those reports in a news conference…"

Breaking news scrolling at the bottom of the screen indicates a blizzard in Miami, Florida, cattle mutilations in Texas, reports of winged men buzzing highway traffic in Kennebunkport, Maine.

Strange days.

Hope everyone has a happy and safe Thanksgiving! Next chapter will be posted next week.