Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or the direct quotes from it. I do own Alexis.
Chapter 37: Demons
They'd spent the next three weeks lying low. They'd taken on two hunts, but other than that they were at Bobby's for the most part just trying to come up with something they could use. The three were currently on I-90 but had just come up to a detour. They ended up stopping off at a rather fancy hotel, the Elysian Fields Hotel, since a storm had blown up. Alexis reluctantly shakes Sam awake, despite how much she wanted to let him sleep. He'd been getting about as much sleep as she had recently, and that wasn't much.
As they were checking in, the clerk spots a nick on Dean's face and hands him a tissue. Weird, Dean has been driving for the past few hours, how would that have gotten there? She thinks to herself, making a note about how weird this whole place seemed. Once they'd gotten their keys, the clerk tells them about their all you can eat buffet, so that's where they head.
While Dean was getting pie, Alexis was finishing the yogurt parfait she'd grabbed and Sam was on his phone.
"This storm is bad, like Biblical bad. We should hit the road." Sam says.
"I don't know if we should drive in this though." she responds as Dean sits down.
"Why would we be driving? We've got a room." Dean says, joining in.
"It's friggin' Noah's Ark out there and we're eating." Sam states.
"How many hours of sleep did you get this week? Both of you for that matter. Three? Four?" Dean asks, now bringing her into it too.
"We've done just about everything we can. Bobby's got his feelers out. Would it kill either of you to just get some sleep?" the older Winchester continues.
Sam mumbles, "Yeah, whatever." And Alexis just nods in agreement, really indifferent as to if they stayed or left.
On their way to their room, they spot a couple that seemed to have just gotten married. Inside, while Dean is preoccupied with the chocolate on the pillows and the selection of porn on demand, both Sam and Alexis look around, seemingly picking up on the same thing.
Dean must have caught the looks on their faces because he asks, "What?"
"Isn't this place kind of in the middle of nowhere?" Sam says.
"So?" Dean responds.
"So what's a four star hotel doing on a highway in Indiana?" Alexis adds.
Cutting off Dean's response, they hear moans and bed springs coming from the room next door followed by a loud thud, the wall in their room cracking at the pressure. Exchanging glances, the three head into the hallway and pick the lock to the room next door, Sam walking in first. They find the room oddly empty, and to add to the oddness, Dean spots a ring on the floor. Sam and Dean head to the lobby to ask about the couple next door while Alexis goes back to the room. Sam had texted her a few minutes later that they were going to scope out the place and to keep an eye out for anything weird. About twenty minutes after that, she gets another text from Sam. 'It's a trap, we were led here. Be careful.'
Now fully weirded out and not enjoying being alone, she gets up and walks into the hallway, but just as she rounds the corner, a hand wraps around her mouth and she's pulled into a room. As she's let go, she whirls around, preparing for a fight, but she comes face to face with Gabriel. "Gabriel?" she exclaims, not at all who she was expecting to see.
"I don't have time to explain, alright, but you three are in trouble. Big trouble. Have you mysteriously bled at all today?" the angel asks in a hushed tone.
"What? No. What's going on?" Alexis asks, trying to keep her voice down too.
"Good, then you can leave. Let me get you out of here." Gabe says.
"What? No! I'm not leaving without Sam and Dean."
"Alexis, listen to me. You are in danger, more so than Sam and Dean right now. I need to get you out of here and will whether you like it or not. I'll get the Winchesters out, but they can't leave right now. They're linked by a blood spell. Just take this DVD, do not let it out of your sight at any cost, and let me get you out of here." Gabriel says, not really giving her a choice.
She really didn't want to leave Sam and Dean here, not knowing that they were in trouble, but Gabriel had pretty much told her he was getting her out of there whether she wanted to go or not. Seconds later, she's standing in the foyer of her apartment in Chicago, completely alone. She sends a quick text to Sam, simply reading, 'Safe', and then proceeds to pace. After ten minutes of that, she decides to bake, trying to keep her mind off of the boys and trying to convince herself they were okay and would call her soon.
Two hours later, her phone finally rings, and Alexis immediately answers it. "Sam! Are you guys okay?"
"We're fine. Are you? Where are you? What the hell happened to you?" Sam responds.
"Chicago. It's a long story, just get here as soon as you can."
"Okay. You're sure you're okay?" he asks, probably catching the tone in her voice.
"Yeah, I am. I'll be better when I lay eyes on you both." she replies.
"Alright, we're a few hours away. Try and get some sleep."
She laughs slightly and says, "Yeah, right. I'll see you soon."
After hanging up, she bakes a pie, to add to the few dozen cookies she had, and then finds herself watching Grey's Anatomy, which she'd set up to record, while waiting for the Winchesters. She was really curious about the DVD Gabriel had given her, seeing as the title was Casa Erotica, but she figured she should wait for the boys, knowing they probably needed to see it too. She just wasn't sure why it was porn or what was on it.
Out of the blue, sometime after midnight, she hears wings, causing her to practically jump off of the couch.
"Gabe! You're hurt!" she exclaims upon laying eyes on the archangel.
"I'm fine. Listen, I'm supposed to be dead. Lucifer thinks I am and soon, so will everyone else. So will Sam and Dean. You need to leave it like that. I need to go into hiding for a while. Call me only if you're in imminent danger of death, okay?" Gabriel explains quickly.
"What? Why?" she asks, not at all following.
"I just do, okay? Watch that DVD with Sam and Dean and do what is on there. After you end this apocalypse, one way or another, I'll be able to come out of hiding again. Be careful, Alexis."
Before she could say a word, Gabriel disappears, leaving her even more confused and worried than she was before. If Lucifer thinks Gabe is dead, then that means Lucifer was there. Oh my God.
About an hour later, the Winchesters walk through the door. She lets out a huge sigh of relief as she goes to hug Sam. "You have no idea how glad I am to see you."
Both brothers nod and the three walk into the kitchen area.
"Is that pie?" Dean asks.
"Yeah."
"Jesus, Lex, how much did you bake?" Sam questions upon seeing the counter.
"Uh, a lot. I was nervous and I couldn't sit still, so I baked." she responds.
Both brothers chuckle and Dean goes to put his bag in his room while Sam just sets his down. Once Dean was out of earshot, Sam turns to her.
"Lex, I have to tell you something." Sam says, giving her a rather somber look.
She realizes that he thinks Gabriel is dead and she doesn't know. Crap, another thing I have to lie to Sam about because of Gabriel. Trying to look like she didn't already know, she asks, "What?"
"Gabriel, he um, he didn't make it out. He's dead, Lex." Sam says after stepping closer to her.
She closes her eyes. She knew it probably looked like she was trying to compose herself, and she was, just not the way Sam thought. How am I supposed to keep this from him? He's expecting me to fall apart right now because Gabe's gone but he isn't and I know that. "Dammit." she mutters.
Sam pulls her closer to him, wrapping his arms around her, and says, "I'm sorry."
She just shakes her head against his chest, truly having no idea what to say.
After letting him hold her for a minute, she pulls back, remembering the DVD. "He um, he gave me this DVD and told me we need to watch it." Alexis reaches down and grabs it off the table, handing it to Sam.
"Porn? He gave you porn?" Sam asks, raising an eyebrow and looking between the DVD and her.
"What about porn?" Dean asks, walking back into the room.
"Gabriel gave her this. Told her we need to watch it." Sam says, handing the DVD to Dean.
"He wants all of us to watch porn? Casa Erotica to be exact?" Dean asks, a slightly disgusted look on his face.
"I don't know. Let's just get this over with and see what's on it." Alexis says.
Sam grabs his laptop and hands it to Alexis. The three sit down on the couch, Alexis in the middle, and then put the DVD into the laptop and press play. It opens with a girl in lingerie and heels on a bed. She groans, really wishing Gabriel hadn't given her porn. When the person at the door walks in though, Alexis perks up. It was Gabriel. When he starts making out with the girl, she leans her head against Sam's shoulder, not needing to watch. When she hears her name though, she looks back to the screen.
"Sam, Dean, Alexis, you're probably wondering what the hell is going on. Well, if you're watching this, I'm dead. Sorry, Lex. Without me, you've got zero shot at killing Lucifer. Sorry, again. But… You can trap him. The cage you sprung Lucifer from is still down there, and maybe, just maybe, you can shove his ass back in. Not that it'll be easy. You got to get the cage open, trick my bro back into it, and uh, oh yeah, avoid Michael and the God squad. But hey, details, right? And here's the big secret, Lucifer himself doesn't even know, but the key to the cage, it's out there. Actually, it's keys, plural. Four keys. Well, four rings, from the horsemen. You get them all, you got the cage. Can't say I'm betting on you boys, but, uh, hey, I've been wrong before. And Dean, you were right. I was afraid to stand up to my brother. But not anymore. So this is me, standing up. And this is me lying down." Gabriel says.
Seeing as Gabriel was finished and now seemingly about to sleep with the girl, Alexis shuts the laptop.
"Horsemen, huh?" Dean says, looking at the two of them.
"Guess so." Alexis says.
"Well, we got War's. We nicked Famine's. That's two rings down." Dean continues.
"All we need are Pestilence and Death." Alexis states.
"All? That's not easy." Sam says.
"It's a plan, Sam." Dean says.
"And it's the only one we've got." she adds.
"Alright, it's late, why don't we all just get some sleep and figure out what we're going to do in the morning. And I mean it, both of you get some damn sleep." Dean says firmly before walking down the hallway.
"You uh, you okay?" Sam asks her.
"I'm fine, Sam. Let's uh, let's just get some sleep. Real sleep."
Sam nods and stands up, extending his hand to her. She takes it, allowing him to help her up. The two then walk into the bedroom, both changing quickly, and slide into bed. Sam pulls her over to him so that her head was on his chest.
"At least we have a plan now." she says.
"Yeah. I just wish…"
"What?"
"I wish we could've gotten Adam out of there. It's not fair." Sam says sadly.
"I know it's not. I know." she responds.
Neither of them say anything else and eventually fall asleep.
The next morning, they began their search for Pestilence and manage to track him through a few towns, but miss him every time, but all they keep coming up with is swine flu. They had no pattern and no idea what he was doing, just that he was probably heading east. They were in West Nevada, the whole country was pretty much east.
Just as Sam hangs up with Bobby, a voice appears right next to Alexis, causing her to jump and punch it in the face. The body that belonged to the voice was Crowley, so she didn't feel too bad about punching him. In fact, she was rather satisfied with it.
"Watch the face, would you?" he asks.
Dean immediately pulls the car over and Sam goes to plunge the demon knife into Crowley, but he had disappeared already, now showing up outside the car. The three get out, all pissed at the demon, but Sam seemingly more so than the other two hunters. Crowley tells them he can give them Pestilence.
"That's got your interest, doesn't it?" Crowley says.
Sam turns to Dean and Alexis and asks rather loudly, "Are you actually listening to this? Both of you? He nearly got you killed, Lex!"
He was definitely pissed off. Crowley swears he didn't know the Colt wouldn't work and then nearly begs them to come with him, saying he knew about the rings. And much to Sam's dismay, they do.
Crowley takes them to some abandoned, broken down, house. When Dean asks how Crowley knew about the rings, he reveals that he'd hidden a magical coin of sorts in the Impala, allowing him to track them and hear things. The demon then tells them he wants in in helping put Lucifer back in the cage.
"You said you could give us Pestilence." Dean states.
"Well now, I don't know where Pestilence is, per se, but I do know the demon who does. He's what you might call the horseman's stable boy. He's who you want, believe me." Crowley tells them.
"Well how do we get him to spill? Rip out his toenails?" Dean questions, clearly having little patience with the demon.
"Nah. Nuts at his pay grade don't crack. We bring him here, then I sell him." Crowley continues.
"Sell him?" Sam asks.
"Please, I've sold sin to saints for centuries. Think I can't close one little demon?"
"Alright, so where's this demon?" Alexis asks.
A bit later, they're packing up and Sam expresses his displeasure at this whole thing once again.
"You ready to go?" Dean asks as Crowley walks in.
"Yes, I am, Sam keep the home fires burning." Crowley says.
"What are you talking about?" Dean questions as both Alexis and Dean turn to face the demon.
"Sam's not coming."
"And why the hell not?" Sam asks.
"Because I don't like you, I don't trust you, and oh yes, you keep trying to kill me." Crowley says bitterly, standing directly in front of Sam.
"There's no damn way. This isn't going to happen." Sam says, raising his voice.
"I'm not asking you, because you're not invited. I'm asking you two, what's it going to be?" the demon says, looking at Dean and Alexis.
None of them say anything for a minute and Crowley turns to walk away.
"Wait." both Dean and Alexis say after sharing a glance, earning them a glare from Sam.
"I'll go." Dean says.
"I'll stay with Sam." Alexis adds.
Dean and Crowley leave, leaving Sam and Alexis alone at the house.
"Sam, if Crowley's right, we've got a shot at Pestilence. Dean needed to go." she says, following him into the living room.
"We can't trust him." Sam says.
"I know."
"No, you don't. He almost got you killed, Lex. For four days, I thought you were dead. That's because of him." he says, his voice laced with anger.
"Sam…"
"No. No. All I could think when I saw him was how I almost lost you because of him. And now I remember how I felt that day and those four days after."
"Sam, look at me." she says firmly, getting him to stop pacing and face her.
She steps closer to him, taking one of his hands in hers, and says, "I know, okay? I know. But I am right here. No one died that day. I am sorry you had to go through that, I am, but I'm right here. Nothing is going to happen to me, I'm not going anywhere. If Crowley can help us get Lucifer back in the cage, we've got to do it. No matter how much you want to kill him."
Sam sighs and then nods. He then pulls her over to the couch and sits her there before starting a fire. Once he does that, he grabs a blanket that they'd brought in from the car and a bottle of whiskey before sitting down next to her. Sam then pulls her over to him, draping the blanket over them both, and uncaps the bottle, taking a swig. Alexis falls asleep with her head in Sam's lap and he eventually falls asleep too.
Sometime after the sun comes up, they hear a car outside. Crowley appears at the doorway saying that he was against this, that he'd begged Dean not to come back, that they should be miles away from Sam.
"What's going on?" Alexis asks.
"Just go. Go ahead. Ruin our last hope. It's only the end of the world." the demon says.
Sam walks past and Alexis follows him, completely confused.
They find Dean tying up the demon, who had a bag over his head, to a chair within a devil's trap.
"Sam." Dean says upon seeing the two of them.
"What's going on, Dean?" Sam questions.
"I need you to stay on mission, okay? Focused." Dean says.
"I don't understand. What's all this about?" Sam asks.
She was just as confused as Sam was. What's going on? Why are they acting like this?
"I'm doing this 'cause I trust you." Dean states.
The demon groans, seemingly waking up.
"Trust me to what?" Sam asks.
That's when the demon utters Sam's name. "Sam? Sam, is that you?"
The demon knows Sam? Fuck.
Dean goes to pull the bag off the demons head, and as he does, Alexis watches the recognition cross Sam's face as he asks, "Brady?"
The demon chuckles and responds, "Brady hasn't been Brady in years. Not since, oh… middle of our sophomore year?"
"What?" Sam asks.
"That's right. You had a devil on your shoulder even back then." Brady, the demon, says.
Alexis had stepped sideways slightly, closer to Dean, so she could see both Sam's face and the demon.
"Alright now, let it all sink in."
"You son of a bitch. You son of a bitch! You introduced me to Jess!" Sam roars, moving closer to the demon, causing Dean to hold him back.
Dean gets Sam out of the room, leaving Alexis alone with the demon.
"You crossed not one, but two Winchesters. You do realize there is no way in hell you are making it out of this alive, correct?" she says, glaring at the demon.
"Oh don't be like that. We could have fun. The same way I did with Jess, such a sweet thing. You're no different." Brady says.
"See, that's where you're wrong. I am not Jess nor did I know Jess. And Sam is not the same Sam he was either. Right now, you're useful. But you won't be forever. So go ahead, smirk at me, taunt us, just know you aren't making it out of here alive."
Crowley walks in a minute later, pulling a chair up in front of Brady and taking a seat.
She tunes out what the two demons were saying to each other and just stands against the wall.
When he'd finished, Crowley walks out, pulling Alexis with him. Crowley explains he now had to go 'bust open a hive of demons' and disappears.
"Where's Sam?" Alexis asks, taking a seat next to Dean.
"Cooling off."
"I think I need some of that whiskey now." she says, grabbing it off of the table and taking a swig of it.
She ends up falling asleep until a pounding on the bathroom door wakes her up. When she realizes Sam had locked Dean in, she quietly creeps over to the room Brady was being kept in. She figured that as long as Sam didn't kill Brady, she wouldn't have to try and stop him. She knew she could, but she also knew Sam needed some answers.
When Brady says that he was the one who killed Jessica, she steps closer so she could see Sam. When she sees Sam charge him, she steps all the way in. "Sam."
He turns to her immediately and she could see how angry he was but also how hurt he was. This demon was bringing up things from his past that he had buried.
"And now I can do to that piece of ass what I did to Jess. I must say, though, Sam, you upgraded." Brady continues.
She watches as Sam raises Ruby's knife, ready to kill Brady, so she pulls it out of his hand telekinetically. He turns to her, shock on his face.
"You can't do it, Sam. You can't. It's what he wants. Don't give him what he wants." she tells him, hoping that that would be enough and she wouldn't have to actually restrain him.
Sam walks out, right past her, as the demon laughs. Alexis goes to let Dean out of the bathroom and then the three walk back towards Brady, where they are met by Crowley.
"Good news. You're going to live forever." Crowley says as he walks towards Brady.
"What did you do?" Brady asks.
"Went over to a demon's' nest, had a little massacre. Must be losing my touch, though, let one of the little toads live. Oops. Also might have given said toad the impression that you left your post last night, because you and I are - wait for it- lovers in league against Satan." Crowley explains with a chuckle, causing Brady to sigh.
"Hello, darling." Crowley begins, clearly satisfied. "So, now death is off the table. Now you get to be on the boss's eternal-torment list with little old me."
"Oh, no, no, no, no, no." Brady says, becoming less and less cocky by the second.
"So now, why don't you tell me where Pestilence is at?" Crowley asks.
Before Brady could answer, they hear barking and snarling.
"Oh God, Crowley." Brady says.
"Was that a hellhound?" Dean asks.
The sound sent a chill down Alexis' spine. Her last encounter with hellhounds nearly killed her and her sister. Sam must have sensed her fear or been slightly fearful himself because he pulls her to the side of him, one arm wrapped tightly around her waist.
"I'd say yeah." Crowley responds.
"Why was that a hellhound?" Dean asks.
Crowley, looking displeased, pulls a coin out of his jacket.
"What's that?" Sam asks.
Crowley explains that demons planted the same tracking device he had in the Impala, on him, meaning a hellhound followed him here.
"Get me out of here and I'll tell you anything you want." Brady says, earning a, "Shut up," from Sam.
"Okay, well, then we should go." Dean says.
"Sorry, boys. No one knows more about the hounds than I. You're long past the point of go." Crowley says, tossing the coin in the air and disappearing.
"Fuck." Alexis states.
"Dammit." Dean adds.
"I told you!" Sam says.
Dean, mockingly, says, "Oh well good for you." Then he adds, "Luckily, we have salt in the kitchen."
Dean walks off, leaving Sam and Alexis with Brady.
"Get me the hell out of here!" Brady roars as the snarling continues.
Alexis hears glass shatter and Sam pulls her behind him, protecting her with his body, as the two step back behind Brady. They hear shots fire as Sam goes to untie Brady. Dean walks in, no salt in hand, just a gun. The growling increases.
"Dammit, get me out of here." Brady roars, raising his voice even louder.
"Shut up!" Dean says, loading the gun.
As Dean cocks his gun, they hear Crowley shout, "Hey!"
"You're back?" Dean and Alexis say simultaneously.
"I'm invested. Currently." the demon responds. "Stay." he commands, now talking to the hellhound.
"You can control them?" Dean asks.
"Not that one. I brought my own. Mine's bigger." Crowley says, patting an invisible hellhound. "Sic em' boy!"
Dean moves out of the way, towards them, and both brothers, seemingly instinctively, put her behind them. If it weren't for the hellhounds, she'd have protested, but those things were now her least favorite creatures in all of creation.
As the snarling continues, Sam finishes untying Brady and Dean breaks the devil's trap on the floor with a knife. As soon as Brady is free, Sam pulls Alexis out of the room and Dean follows them. When they get to the car, both demons slide in back, and Alexis slides in upfront, in between the two brothers.
They drive for a bit before stopping in an alleyway. Brady gives Crowley a paper with Pestilence's location. Crowley hands it to Dean, telling him it's good, that Brady has no reason to lie anymore. Crowley then leaves and Dean lays a line of salt, trapping Brady in the alley.
"I told you. You crossed both Winchesters. You aren't making it out alive." Alexis tells the demon. Then she turns to the boys and says, "I'll be in the car."
Alexis watches from the window of the Impala, knowing that Sam needed this. He needed to kill Brady. It wouldn't solve everything, probably not really anything at all, but he needed it. Once Brady is dead, the three drive off in silence. They had Pestilence's location. Now they just needed to get his ring.