Pivot Point

Story Name: Pivot Point

Pen Name: ElenaRoan

Disclaimer: Don't own any of them, written purely for enjoyment.

Warnings:

Summary: What if Anna decided to derail the apocalypse by intervening to help rather than trying to make the brothers never having existed.

Timeline: Season 5

Note: I'm Australian and I can't bring myself to use USA spelling, sorry.

Chapter 94: Rescue Riding

They were planning on taking a leaf out of Anna's book and letting those at Bobby's know in person, but a ringing phone before dawn cut that short.

Dean fumbled for the phone and squinted at the id blearily before answering on speaker, "Bobby?"

"Sorry to wake you. A Pastor two towns away from you just called, one of the local families sought refuge in his church. He doesn't know a huge amount, but knows enough to call with something like this."

"Okay." Dean swore silently as he sat up, rubbed his eyes, then grabbed a paper and pen to note down the address the older Hunter gave him, "give us enough time to pour a couple of coffees down our throats, and we'll head there."

He glanced over at Sam, who was already on his way to making those coffees. He looked like he hadn't had the best sleep. Neither of them really had had much chance of that after the news the previous night, thinking of which…

He hesitated before speaking up, "Bobby… with what Anna wanted… we were going to wait until we saw you…"

"But you're not headed here now. Bad news I take it?"

"Cas is dead."

"Balls. She say how?"

"The archangel Raphael. Jimmy's in heaven, though, she checked."

"That's something I guess. Damn shame, though. He and Anna were the only ones that could think for themselves."

"Yeah." Dean agreed softly.

He hung up as his brother brought the coffees over, "how did you sleep? And 'fine' is not an acceptable answer, I can tell that just by looking at your face."

"You know how sometimes you just want to wake up?"

"Yeah?" Dean rolled his eyes at himself a moment later as it clicked, "with you, you do actually wake up."

Sam shrugged, "keep having the reflex while actually awake too. He risked so much for us, he didn't deserve to go out that way."

"Callous as it sounds, he did know what he was doing."

"True, still doesn't mean he deserved it. Probably should let Amelia and Claire know…"

"We'll go see them after this case is sorted, that's not something they should hear over the phone."

Sam just nodded, they'd probably have headed there right after Bobby's place if this hadn't come up. But, grief or no, living people in danger came first. Something both of them were reasonably sure both Castiel and Jimmy would have agreed with.

Coffees finished, and some take away breakfast from the closest open diner in hand Dean pointed the impala at the troubled town.

They pulled up outside the nondescript church, nothing really to catch the eye to suggest a particular denomination that they could see. The door was open a crack, but nothing else in the sleepy neighbourhood gave a hint to a problem. Certainly nothing severe enough to send a family seeking sanctuary in the wee hours of the morning.

"What do you think happened?"

"You know as much as I do. At least they're not in the middle of it, don't have to worry about rescuing them at the same time as dealing with the fugly."

Hopping out of the impala, they headed into the church. There was a small family huddled on a pew near the alter when they stepped through the door, the apparent pastor hurried over to them as soon as he noticed them.

"Can I help you, gentlemen?"

"You called Bobby?" Dean asked, deciding to bypass all the tentative questions as both sides tried to figure out if they were talking to the right person.

"Oh, thank the Lord." The pastor visibly relaxed, "you made good time."

"We were nearby. Could you tell us what happened?"

"Not really sure, to be honest. The Wilks family came banging on the door in a panic. After their description of stuff flying around I was reminded of what another pastor told me when I arrived. 'Something weird happens, no matter what you think you know, you call.' So I called."

"Good thing you did. There's more to it than church teachings would suggest."

"May we talk to them?"

The pastor nodded and led them over to the family.

"These are the experts I arranged to come help with the situation." He introduced hesitantly.

"I'm Dean, this is my brother Sam." Dean introduced, "we'd like to ask you some questions about what happened."

"Our home is possessed!" The mother stated, sounding a little exasperated.

"Possessed?" Sam gave her a surprised look, "how do you know? Did you smell sulphur or anything?"

"What are you talking about? Everything went flying, it's definitely possessed." She snapped, "now can someone go exorcise it already?"

"We'll deal with it." Dean told her, passing on explaining it was probably a ghost or poltergeist rather than a demon, "we need some information about the house first."

"Like what?"

"The history of the place. Whether anything unusual has happened lately. Any renovations. That sort of thing." Sam replied, taking over smoothly. He sat down on the pew and directed an earnest gaze at the parents.

While his brother drew them out as only he could, Dean found his attention drawn to the kid huddled on the pew, who had made no attempt to say anything. It could just have been because of the eventful night or him being tired, but his instincts told him it was more than that.

"Hey." He said softly, sitting down near him, "eventful night, I hear."

The kid nodded mutely.

"I'm Dean, what's your name?"

The kid was quiet for so long he thought he wasn't going to get an answer.

"Rex."

"Hi Rex. Good to meet you, even with this happening." The kid just shrugged, "anything you can tell me about what happened?"

"Everything went flying…"

"Must have been scary."

"Was cool… to start."

"And then?"

"The… flashes."

"Why were the flashes scary?"

"There was a man's face in them… he looked…"

"He looked?" Dean prompted gently when the boy's voice trailed off.

"Evil."

"How so?"

"Just… looked cruel. Mamma said it had to be a demon."

"Had you seen him anywhere before?"

Rex shook his head.

"Did anything out of the ordinary happen recently?"

The kid hesitated before shaking his head.

"You sure?"

"Found something." Rex mumbled after another long moment.

"What did you find?"

"Just some old bones… and a really cool pocket knife." Came the mumbled replied, "in the woods."

Dean felt like swearing, "a pocket knife, huh? Did you bring it back from the woods with you?"

"Mamma don't like knives, so I hid it in the basement."

He felt like swearing again, probably a vengeful. And two anchors. They never seemed to get simple jobs, "think you can draw me a map of where the bones are?"

The was a distinctly shorter hesitation before Rex nodded, pulling paper and crayons to him before drawing his mental map of the section of the woods he played in. To Dean's relief, he started explaining the landmarks he used as he drew.

"You going to make the evil man go away?" He asked as he handed the drawing to him.

"I promise." Dean replied earnestly.

Sam was actually waiting for him when he turned away from the boy.

"Didn't want to interrupt, looked like you were actually getting somewhere." Sam commented as they left the church after taking their leave of the pastor, "hope you got something, the parents couldn't have been more clueless."

"The kid, Rex, found some bones in the woods and a pocket knife. Which he brought back and hid in the basement. He also saw the face in flashes of light."

"Vengeful?" Sam more stated than asked.

"Probably. And two anchors."

"Let's see if we can find the one in the house first, then worry about finding the bones."

"Rex drew me a map to the bones, so there's that."

"That's something."

It was weird actually unlocking the door to a scene instead of breaking in, but there was no doubt that it was the house in question. Wasn't visible from the outside, but there wasn't a single piece of furniture still on its feet inside.

"Definitely got the right place."

Sam nodded, "and there's an anchor nexus next floor down."

"That's where it's going to get dicey."

Ghosts tended to be dormant, even vengeful ones, during the day except near an anchor.

Sam carefully formed a shield around both of them, "stay close."

"You forming a shield?" Dean asked after a moment figuring out his little brother's thought process. Sam nodded. The eldest brother made a mental note to make sure to give him a muesli bar later.

The ghost bounced off the shield as soon as they reached the bottom of the stairs down into the basement, Sam flinched.

"You okay?"

"Yeah. Just he's strong. Nexus is over there." Sam pointed.

They quickly and carefully moved in that direction, the ghost bounced off the shield a few more times before Dean dug the knife out, dosed it with salt and lighter fluid, before setting alight. Sam let the shield drop as he felt the ghost get yanked out of the home as the secondary anchor evaporated.

"That is one seriously old knife." Dean commented, digging it out of the ash. The wooden part was mostly ash now, "no wonder Rex described it as really cool."

"Doubt we're going to find a record of him in more recent news articles. Not with that knife being so old. What are you going to do with that?"

"Rex mentioned his mum didn't like knives, don't want to get him in trouble."

Sam shrugged, "okay."

Back at the impala Dean shoved two muesli bars at Sam before pulling out the childish map and studying it, "you going to be okay for the next part?"

"Unless you particularly want to try dodging what a strong vengeful would throw at you on your own." Sam retorted, glaring at the bars but munching on the first without complaint.

"Just… that seemed to take a bit out of you."

"He was strong. But nowhere near draining me though. I'm good. I'm sure you'll do your mother hen shove a tonne of food at me tonight."

"More like at lunchtime." Dean pointed into the trees, "it's this way."

"Lead on."

Dean was glad the boy had explained the reasoning behind his drawn landmarks. Even so, it was the ghost bouncing off the shield that alerted them to having arrived before they actually saw the bones. From the way the leg bones were sticking out between two roots, they gave an indication of how whoever he had been had died. Dean didn't waste time dosing the bones with salt and fuel while Sam held the ghost off. They didn't relax until the ghost went up in flames.

"Well, that's that." Sam commented as he released the shield.

"You good?"

"Stop fretting, Jerk."

"Fine, Bitch. Let's go tell the family they can clean up their home and go grab lunch."

The pastor was quick to hurry over to them when they reentered the church.

"Done."

"Was it… was it really a demon?" He asked hesitantly.

"No." Dean told him, "vengeful ghost. We torched the anchors, he won't be a problem again."

"Oh…"

"They can go back to their home." Sam added, handing the keys back, "got some cleaning to do, and I think some things were broken, but it's still standing and they're okay. That's the important part."

He nodded, "very true. I'm going to have to thank Pastor Murphy for giving me the advice and number if I see him again."

The brothers shared a sad look as the name registered.

"Sorry, you're not going to get a chance to." Sam told him gently, "Jim Murphy… was killed about 3 or 4 years ago."

"Oh." His face fell, "may I… may I…?"

"That one was a demon. One of the strongest we've faced off against actually."

"Oh."

"We exorcised her if it helps."

"I… guess…" he took a deep breath and looked at the family, "I'll let them know it's sorted."

A short conversation had the family coming over to them.

"Thank you." The mother said awkwardly, looking like expressing gratitude wasn't a common thing for her.

"Glad we could help." Sam told her.

"I'm going to get the place blessed, so we don't have to deal with a demon again."

"Actually, ma'am, it wasn't a demon, and that wouldn't help even if it was. It was a ghost, it won't bother you again though."

Dean crouched down to talk to the boy when Rex tugged on his hand, "hey."

"I… guess I'm grounded for life now once mamma finds the knife…"

"Only if you tell her about it." Dean replied, aware in the back of his mind he was probably undercutting the mother's authority, but not wanting the kid to get into trouble, "Do something for me, though. If you or your friends ever find something like that again; stay away from the bones and tell an adult. Preferably your pastor over there."

The kid nodded earnestly before following his mother when she called him impatiently.

"What are you planning on doing now?" The pastor asked once the family had left the church.

"Now? Now we go have lunch." Dean told him, "then, barring another emergency, we'll probably head towards Illinois. We… have some bad news to give to the family of a friend, and they deserve to get it in person."

"Oh, my sympathies. That happens often I take it?"

"Way more than we'd like." Dean confirmed with a sigh, "and even the best… well… sometimes even the strongest and most skilled can't win…"

"My sympathies." He hesitated, "if you want a recommendation on food, Gracie's on the main street does good solid meals."

"Thank you."

The recommended diner did indeed do quite good meals, including omelette's, which Sam happily settled on. He wasn't an idiot, he knew full well he needed more to eat after the activity of the day even if he didn't have the type of raging appetite that Dean did.

The homemade pie on offer was all that was needed more to land the place on the favourite eateries list of Dean's.

"So, we can get a town or two over before we stop." Dean commented as he finished up the pie, "or we can find a room for the night and start fresh in the morning."

Sam paused before answering, double-checking his impression, "I think… finding a room would be best."

His big brother immediately looked at him, concerned, "you okay?"

"Yeah. Just getting a… sense… that that would be better. No sense of danger… just…"

Dean studied him for a moment before shrugging, "okay. Bit late in the piece to argue with your abilities so let's go with that."

The titular Gracie was quick to recommend a motel when Dean paid for the food and had obviously called ahead when they checked in at the office.

The sun had just set when Bobby called.

"Please tell me we don't need to be a fire brigade again." Dean answered, "we were hoping to go pay a visit to Jimmy's family, they deserve the news delivered in person."

"No point. And there's no fire you need to put out, yet anyway." Bobby replied.

"What do you mean 'no point'?" Sam asked.

"Josiah called, they ended up with that on their plate. Apparently, Raphael blew Cas into chunky salsa."

Dean had to swallow hard, "gee, thanks, Bobby. That was a mental image I could have lived without."

They could almost hear the older Hunter roll his eyes.

"Anyway, when they went to talk to his wife, the house was closed up. Got out of the neighbours that something weird had happened and called to see if I had any info."

"Were they able to find Amelia and Claire?" Sam asked.

"Didn't say, that's the usual method though. And definitely for that group after finding out that Jimmy was Cas' vessel."

Dean sighed, "don't feel right just leaving it."

"Could try the team, see whether they can pass on the new location."

"That's an idea. Thanks for letting us know, Bobby." Sam replied, and the other Hunter rang off.

It was a good ten minutes after he sent a text message to Vin that the phone rang with the agent calling back.

"We ran a bug scan just in case." The sniper told them once they answered, "we're not in Denver right now."

"Figured that." Dean replied, "not if you're knocking on Amelia's door. If we'd had any idea that was going to land on your plate, we'd have given you a heads up."

"Raphael is not exactly subtle, but didn't think he'd go quite that flashy." Sam added.

"You knew he was a threat?" Nathan asked.

"Cas… pissed him off a while back. Was hoping he'd be okay, but…"

"What happened?"

"With what he did to piss Raphael off, you mean?" He didn't really need to ask, the team knew more about the event that killed the angel than they do after all.

"Yeah."

"He… wanted to find God. Get him to fix heaven, stop the push for the apocalypse."

"Wouldn't God be in heaven?" Josiah asked.

"Apparently He… left." Sam replied, "a long time ago… the… rebellion by Lucifer and some other stuff."

"According to Cas, there were only 4 who had actually met Him, Raphael being one of them." Dean continued, "when there was word of the archangel active on earth, he decided he would trap him and get the location out of him."

"Did it work?"

"No. Not even slightly." Dean replied caustically, "and the bastard blacked out the eastern seaboard just because he was a little annoyed being stuck in the trap."

"That was him?" Chris asked, surprise apparent in his voice.

"Yeah. If I'd had any idea he'd do that, especially with no useful information to get out of it, I'd have talked Cas out of it… somehow."

"Hindsight is 20-20." Josiah stated.

"Yeah, well… it did far too much damage." Dean replied, "and now it's cost us Cas, and Jimmy."

"Did you know the family?"

"Not really. Spent several weeks protecting Jimmy when Cas was hauled back to heaven for reprogramming. Then met Amelia and Claire when demons finally managed to get a hold of them. Passed on information on how to keep demons out before getting them home. Just sucked all around."

"So that's where Amelia got the information." Josiah commented, "she passed on the information to the neighbours that were jumped by the demons earlier."

"She… is a smart cookie, even if she didn't believe in the supernatural beforehand. It didn't take much for her to go from being introduced to the reality, to figuring out how it would impact her."

"We were actually planning on going and letting her know about Jimmy in person, she deserves no less." Sam added.

"That's not going to be easy." Josiah replied, "she took Claire to her mother's then went travelling to find Jimmy, they didn't know her current location."

"She went looking for Cas and Jimmy?" Sam asked, alarmed as warning tickled on the edge of his senses.

"Yeah. Her mother said she'd contact us when she got the next postcard from her. Apparently, she didn't take a phone with her."

"We really need to find her."

"We're doing…" Chris started.

"This more than just concern, Sam?" Vin interrupted.

"Yeah…" Sam admitted after a moment, "just vague… but… yeah…"

"I'll get an APB put out on her." Chris decided, "we'll figure out some reason to explain it."

"Thanks."

"Anytime." Chris replied, "and Sam… I mean that. Don't care how silly you think it is, if you get a sense of something I will act on it. Mightn't have known psychics for long, but one thing I have learned is not to dismiss any impression. It might be all that stands between victory and death."

"I… thanks."

They said their goodbyes and rang off.

"You were going to tell me about the warning about Amelia, right?" Dean asked as he stowed the phone.

"Didn't get anything until they mentioned she'd gone after Cas and Jimmy, really vague though. Danger I think… not to us though… not even really sure to her…"

"But you'd have told me, right?"

Sam sighed then shrugged, "it's vague… it mightn't have been anything… hell… it still might be nothing."

"Sam…"

"Enough, it's not worth stressing over."

"Like Chris said, it never pays to dismiss any impression from a psychic, no matter how vague. So tell me if you get anything, okay?"

Sam nodded.

"Okay, good. Now… we seem to have a night off for once so… you go do… whatever it is you do and I'll…"

"I'd really rather not have the details of that, Dean, there are some things I really don't need to know about my brother. Just keep it off the new computer."

"You should live a little, Sammy." The eldest brother gave him a grin, "and don't worry… I won't touch the new laptop. That thing could run the entirety of NASA, I don't need that sort of firepower. The other one will be fine for me."

Sam rolled his eyes and deliberately ignored his big brother as he settled in to do some research, at least the waste of money laptop they'd initially tried to replace the fried one with was getting some use. As for what he was going to do, their kid brother asked the strangest questions sometimes, and this unexpected downtime gave him a chance to maybe find answers.

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