2009
I looked up at the sky, wishing for snow. It felt cold enough for snow, but the grey sky only spat down rain. I frowned as a drop landed on the tip of my nose. I turned to look at the large, deserted warehouse. Hershey nodded to himself. "This will work," he said, turning to grin at me. I couldn't help but smile.
"So what exactly are we doing, anyway?" I asked as I walked up to him. He wrapped an arm around my waist, and I leaned against his warmth.
"Hmm… I have a few ideas." He dropped his arm to grab my hand. "Come on. Let's check it out." I allowed myself to be pulled inside, the lock on the door not slowly Hershey down for a moment. The warehouse was empty and dark, the dirty windows keeping out much of the dim, natural light. Hershey whistled loudly, the sound echoing slightly. "Yep… This will work." I followed him further into the warehouse, carefully avoiding the large puddles on the concrete floor.
"We're not going to kill them, right?" I asked.
"Nah," Hershey said. "That would piss of the angels. They'd just bring Sammy and Deano back, anyway."
"Lucky them."
Hershey looked over his shoulder at me. "Yeah, lucky them. They get to be Michael and Lucifer's prom dresses." I gave his hand a little tug to let him know that I was stopping.
"Do we really only have six months left?" I asked quietly. A frown twisted Hershey's features, and he shrugged.
"I don't know. Humanity will probably hang on for a bit longer after that, a few years at least. The Apocalypse doesn't really have a set timeline, Cola. Sam and Dean are already dragging it out far longer than it should have been."
"Maybe they'll drag it out indefinitely," I said hopefully. Hershey laughed. Or maybe it was a scoff. Either way, it was tired and bitter, and I never wanted to hear it again.
"Come on, Cola. I think I know what we're going to do." I followed him to the back of the warehouse and through a back door to what I assumed had once been an office. It was no longer an office.
Six, large TV screens took up the far wall, their screens dark. A giant motherboard sat underneath them with more switches and blinking lights than I knew what to do with. A large, black office chair sat in front of the whole thing. Hershey grinned as he held out a black headset to me. "What do you think, Miss Station Manager?"
"Station Manager?" I asked. I could feel the first sparks of excitement.
"We're going to trap Sam and Dean in TV Land. And you, Cola, are going to run it."
Present
"TV Land… This really is the end of the Golden Years. And not just because the world was hurtling towards disaster and annihilation. Hershey… wasn't Hershey. I mean, he was. He was the same person, being, what have you, that I loved – still love. He's just…" I sighed and looked at the crowd for a long moment. Each face looked back at me expectantly. Becky watched me sympathetically, even if her facial expressions were a bit melodramatic. "He does something," I finally said. "Or rather it's what he didn't do. And I had no right to be angry at him for what he did, not after leaving him, but I was furious at the time. Furious and confused and hurt and… and… and I don't know.
"I was used to us being simple. Hershey would kill some dicks, I would ignore the fact that he did so, and we would cuddle on the couch and watch Dr. Sexy. We would never be that simple again. If anything, we just keep getting more and more complicated."
The far door opened silently to let two people slip in. Hershey waved at me cheerfully when he realized that I saw them. Dean looked less than thrilled; I could see the tension in his shoulders and jaw from here. But they weren't killing each other. I honestly wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.
"Took you boys long enough," I said. Every person in the room turned in their chair to look at them. It was actually pretty cool to watch. "I'm going to assume that you've decided to not kill each other on sight?"
"No promises," Dean growled. I winced. Dean was taking Hershey's resurrection and my rapidly approaching trip downstairs exactly like I expected him to.
"Sorry," I offered. He only glared. Hershey frowned, and smacked him upside the head after a moment.
"Ow! What was that for?" he shouted, hand flying up to the back of his head. Hershey ignored him.
"Sorry about that, Cola. TV Land? I think that I should probably be here for that. Especially the ending."
"Probably," I sighed. "Although I am curious, what exactly was your super-secret breakfast meeting? I have a feeling that it involves me."
"Maybe…" Hershey said, drawing the word out with a grin. Great. He knew the terms of the deal, so he couldn't be planning anything too stupid… Oh, who was I kidding? Gabriel and Dean Winchester plotting to screw over a destined outcome? Of course they were going to do something stupid! Suddenly, I could feel a headache building.
"Right then. TV Land. Hershey had entrusted me with being Station Manager. Essentially, I was to pick the shows that the Winchester would be trapped in, as well as manipulate the shows as I saw fit. I knew immediately what show would kick it all off. After all, it was Hershey and mine's favorite show."
2009
It was almost too much information to take in at once. My eyes darted to each of the six screens in turn, double checking that everything was in place. Hershey had popped his head in a moment earlier to tell me that the Winchesters had pulled into the parking lot. The set was ready, and all of the supporting actors were in place. Now we just needed our two stars.
"Okay," Hershey's voice crackled through my headset. "We're going in three… two… one… Now!" A supply closet door opened on the top right screen. Sam and Dean burst out in their perfectly white lab coats and powder blue scrubs. There was absolutely no movement for approximately half a second.
And then Sam made the most adorably confused and panicked face I had ever seen. I burst out laughing immediately. Without prompting, the screen zoomed in closer. The brothers looked at each other and tried to exit the way that they came.
"Oh no, you don't," I said gleefully, and flipped the switch labeled 'CLOSET MAKE OUT PAIR.' It did exactly what it promised. Sam and Dean stood there for a stunned moment before closing the door. "Cue up Dr. Piccolo," I said, finger hovering over the correct switch.
"Sam or Dean?" Hershey asked. I thought about it for a moment.
"Hmm… Dean. Wait! Sam. Going with Sam. Jerk deserves some payback for stabbing me at Mystery Spot."
"Can't disagree with you there."
I waited until the pair made it a few steps into the hospital before flicking the switch. I started to giggle before the dark-haired doctor even made it on screen. Damn, this was a lot more fun that I had initially expected. Was this what Hershey felt every time he pulled a trick on someone? No wonder he kept doing it after all these years.
Dr. Piccolo said her bit with an extra slap at the end. The funniest part was Dean's expressions during the whole thing. He looked like Charlie when he first walked into Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Still, my mouth dropped when he realized exactly where they were. Oh, could this get any better?
"Hershey, we have a fan boy!"
"Who?" he asked after magicing himself beside me. He pressed a kiss to the top of my head.
"Dean," I said, pointing to the middle top screen. The boy were arguing over what had happened to them. "Recognized Piccolo and the hospital instantly."
"Now, would you say that this is casual viewing 'eh, it's on, I'll watch it' fanboy or die hard 'I get off the road by ten every night so that I can watch it' fanboy?"
"Well considering he's bringing Sam through the cast of characters…" Hershey grinned. I looked at the brothers for a moment. "I wonder how he would react to Dr. Sexy?" His grin widened and he squeezed my shoulder.
"I knew I lo - adore you for a reason," he said.
Wait.
By the time I whirled around to look at him, Hershey was gone and Dr. Sexy was striding towards the boys. Did I hear that correctly? He wasn't going to say adore originally. He was definitely going to say a very different word. Right? Maybe?
A dull crash drew my attention back to the screens. Dean had Dr. Sexy pushed up against the wall, calling him out on the lack of cowboy boots. Oh yes, definitely a die hard fanboy. I wasn't at all surprised when Dr. Sexy morphed into Hershey, although my heart skipped a beat when he did so.
"That was you on the police scanner, right? This is a trick," Sam said, looking rather annoyed for himself. Hershey rolled his eyes.
"Hellloooo," he said, circling his face with his hand, "Trickster? Come on! You two yahoos went after Cola's family. Did you honestly expect us to do nothing?" Dean flinched as if he had been hit. I frowned and zoomed in on his face. Something Hershey said had hit a nerve. But what?
"Where the hell are we?" Dean asked, all business once again. I zoomed out.
"Like it? It's all homemade. My own sets, my own actors, my own station manager," he grinned and winked at me through the screen, "call it my own little idiot box." Sam followed Hershey's line of sight. I knew that he couldn't see me, but the gears were turning in his head.
"How do we get out?" Dean asked, clearly unimpressed with Hershey's theatrics.
"That, my friend, is the sixty four dollar question."
"Whatever. We just, we need to talk to you. We need your help," Sam said, suddenly earnest. Really? Even after Mystery Spot, they wanted his help? Hershey pretended to think about it for a moment.
"Hmm… Let me guess. You two Muttonheads broke the world, and you want me to sweep up your mess!" Yes, that would explain it. The Apocalypse would definitely qualify as desperate times.
"Please, just five minutes. Hear us out," Sam said. It wouldn't necessarily be a bad idea… I mean, Hershey said that it was hopeless and inevitable, but if the Winchesters got enough people on their side, maybe we could force a stalemate, if not an outright win. It was worth a try, wasn't it?
"Sure," Hershey said with a noncommittal shrug. He suddenly brightened. "Tell you what. Survive the next twenty four hours, we'll talk!" Survive? I thought that we weren't killing them!
"Survive what?" Dean asked.
"The game!" Hershey said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"What game?"
"You're in it."
"How do you play?"
"You're playing it."
Dean's jaw clenched. "What are the rules?"
Hershey waggled his eyebrows at him and disappeared in a burst of static. He reappeared next to me. I took off my headset and looked at him for a long moment. Hershey looked down at me with a small smile, his eyes as warm as honey.
"You didn't let me in on the full plan, did you?" I finally said. Hershey's smile faded.
"What are you talking about? We trap the Winchesters in TV Land for a little while and have fun. If they pretend like they're part of the show, they move on to the next one."
"I thought that we weren't going to kill them."
"We're not." He looked over at the board and flipped the switch marked 'DR. PICCOLO.'
"Then what was with the survive comment?" Understanding flashed across Hershey's face. The smile returned, this time tinged with amusement. He knelt down so that I was at eye level, taking my hands in his.
"They don't know that," he said. "It's no fun if they realize that they're invincible."
"True," I allowed. Hershey's smile widened. I looked down at our intertwined hands. "They want your help."
"Yep," he said, popping the 'p.'
"Are you going to?" Hershey let go of my hands and stood. He studied the screens for a moment, flipping a switch that I couldn't read from here. "Hershey." He didn't turn from the screen.
"I love you," he said. My heart skipped approximately six beats. My mind went blank. I never expected him to just say it, even with the near miss earlier.
"What?" I squeaked. Hershey looked at me, eyes almost comically wide, as if he only just realized what it was exactly that he had said. I stood up with weak knees. "What did you say?" He started at me helplessly as I approached him.
"I love you?"
And suddenly I'm back to the New Year's night, and our walk in the snow, and how Hershey quietly told me that he didn't know how to love me. He had looked so small, so human then, just like he does now. A gunshot rang out from the screens. I somehow didn't care. Because for the first time since I murdered Cullen, everything felt like it was going to be okay. I wrapped my arms around Hershey in a tight hug.
"I love you too," I said. Hershey huffed out a laugh, his breath warm against my neck.
"I know," he told me before turning his head to capture my lips with his own. In the background, I dimly heard Sam yelling for a doctor.
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