The Price Part 1

They decided to get as far away from Chicago and Dick Roman before they opened up whatever was encased in stone, that Dick had dug up. A few days after the dropped Charlie off they found a abandoned house and set up there. Sam put the case on a table before opening up his laptop. Lacey looked around, taking the place in. It looked like someone had decided to build a house then stop just before finishing it and left it to rot. She gingerly grabbed a chair, dusting it off, before sitting down next to the table. Dean opened up the case and Sam lifted the slab out, unwrapping the cloth around it before laying it out on the table. Dean grabbed a tool box they had brought from the car and set it down on the table too.
"That's a lot of fuss over a caveman Lego." Dean observed.
"Yeah. Well, whatever Dick wants is bricked up inside that." Sam shrugged as Dean pulled a mallet out of the tool box. He put a pair of safety glasses on while Sam did the same. Dean raised an eyebrow at Lacey but she shook her head.
"I'm good."
"All right." As Dean took his first swing at the slab thunder began to rumble outside. As he took a second swing at it Lacey could see lightening spiking in the distance. Dean stopped and glanced out the window.
"That wasn't me." Lacey clarified.
"That sound like somebody saying, 'No, wait- stop.' To you?"
"Uh… yeah. Yeah." Sam said, sounding a little disconcerted.
"Yeah. Oh, well." Dean shrugged and swung the mallet down again and kept going until they could see a small stone tablet peeking out of the clay. Dean put down the mallet and picked the tablet, turning it over in his hands. The tablet is covered in weird squiggles and shapes. The three of them look at each other blankly.

When Lacey woke up the next morning she was freezing cold. The sleeping bag she was wrapped in barely made a difference with the cold, hard floor below her. Dean was in the process of getting up, which was what had woken her, the loss of that small amount of warmth. Shivering, she got to her feet and followed Dean over to where he and Sam were watching the news on Sam's laptop.
"Here with Dr Marlon Price of the U.S. Meteorological Survey at a press conference earlier today."
"Baffled? No, I'm not baffled. Frankly, I'm offended. This is not the way weather behaves." Dean wrapped his arm around her, trying to stop her from shivering.
"Power outages and related damages to electronic equipment have been reported from as far east as Cape Cod…" They were distracted from the news by one of the metal cups on the desk moving of it's own accord.
"Bobby?" Bobby that you?" Dean called out, but got no reply. Sam held up an EMF meter, the lights flashing away.
"Think so. But that whole adventure at Roman's seems to have drained his batteries."
"So, what? We start the storm heard around the world?" Sam nodded at the stone.
"When we broke this thing open last night, every maternity ward within a hundred mile rdius got slammed. Looks like any woman in the last month of her pregnancy went into labour." Lacey raised an eyebrow, looking unimpressed.
"Hmm. This one goes out to all the ladies. So, heavyweight signs, omens- what do we got?"
"I assume it's writing. But I've never seen anything like it, ever. And it doesn't match anything in any book or online."
"All right, so big daddy chomper lands here, he grabs himself some Dick…" Lacey snorted at his wording. "And then he starts secretly underwriting university departments, pouring money into digs, all for this. Why?"
"No clue. We do know that he will be tearing new ones until he gets it back, though. Look, we got to take a minute, hole up somewhere safe, find out what we've got."
"Rufus' cabin then?" Dean suggested.
"Yeah." Sam nodded in agreement.
"Yes, please! A real bed!" Lacey sighed.
"And this time, I'm doing the shopping." Dean told him defiantly. Sam shook his head at the two of them. His phone began to ring.
"It's Meg." He told them before picking up.
"What?" Sam paused a moment. "What? Cas is awake." That got their attention. Sam put the phone down and pressed the speaker phone button.
"When?" Dean asked.
"Last night about eight."
"And you waited till now to call us?" Dean growled.
"I've been busy with Cas. He's just a tad different than when he dozed off, 'kay?" Meg threw back.
"What do you mean different?"

"Hey, Seacrest, guess what, not a nurse. Just playing one on TV. Want answers? Start driving." She told them before hanging up.
"Great. So, Indiana?" Sam sighed.
"Yeah. Eight o'clock last night." Dean mused.
"Yeah. Sam time we opened up that thing."
"I swear, if you've unearthed the book of the dead and we start getting attacked by more plagues and mummies and stuff, I'm outtie." Lacey told them, pulling on her jacket. Dean laughed, pulling her towards him.
"No, you wouldn't be. You'd love that."
"True." Lacey shrugged.
"Hey maybe tonight, you can be Evie, I'll be Rick." Dean wiggled his eyebrows at her.
"Sounds good to me." Lacey said as she followed him outside.
"Guys, can we focus on saving the world please, I do not want to hear about your role playing games!" Sam called after them.

They arrived at the hospital just as it was getting dark outside.
"We raced all the way here, and now I don't know. I can't say I'm fired up to see what's left of the guy." Dean sighed as they walked down the corridor towards Cas' room. Lacey reached out and squeezed his hand.
"You think he remembers at all?" Sam asked.
"That, and I'm guessing whatever kind of hell baggage he lifted off your plate. It's not gonna be pretty."
"Hey. Excuse me, guys, but it's way past visiting hours." They turned to see a male orderly jogging towards them. Meg stepped out of Cas' room.
"It's okay, Able. I've been expecting them. Hello boys, blondie." She nodded at them as the orderly continued on his way. Meg opened the door and they followed her into the room. Cas was sitting staring out of the window.
"Hey, Cas." Dean said softly. Cas turned around to look at them.
"Hello, Dean, Sam, Lacey."
"Hey Castiel." Sam gave him a small smile.
"Cas." Lacey waved at him.
"Look at you, walkin' and talkin'. That's great, right?" He looked between Sam, Lacey and Meg for confirmation. Cas got to his feet and slowly walked towards Dean. When he reached him, he pointed a finger at him.
"Pull my finger." Dean stared at him, not quite sure what he was hearing.
"What?"
"My finger, pull it." Cas smiled at him. Dean gave him a confused look but does as he asks. As soon as he does the lightbulbs and windows shatter. Lacey let out a small shriek and jumped. Cas started to giggle as Meg turned on a lamp.

As Meg cleaned up the broken glass the three of them sat down with Cas.
"Okay, just hang on, Cas. Wait. Let us catch up to you for a second." Dean looked a bit frazzled as they finished listening to Cas.
"So, you're saying you remember who you are, what you are." Sam clarified.
"Yes. Of course." Cas nodded before changing tack. "Oh, outside today, in the garden, I followed s honeybee. I saw then route of flowers. It's all right there, the whole plan. There's nothing to add." He smiled happily at them. Lacey and Dean exchanged a look.
"You might want to add a little Thorazine." Sam suggested to Meg.
"Right? He's been like the naked guy at the rave ever since he woke up. Totally useless."
"Will you look at her?" Cas smiled fondly at Meg. "My caretaker. All of that thorny pain. So beautiful."
"We've been over this. I don't like poetry. Put up or shut up." Meg told him, although her gruffness seemed more playful than truly annoyed.
"Okay. So, Cas, you said you woke up last night?" Sam tried to change the subject back to the matter at hand.
"Yes. I heard a ping that pierced me, and , well, you wouldn't have heard it unless you were an angel at the time." Cas explained. Dean looked at Lacey and raised an eyebrow.
"You're part angel, did you ping?" Lacey snorted.
"No, but to be fair I was at ground zero, there was a lot of thunder and lightning going on." Sam opened his bag and showed Cas the stone tablet.
"That's also when we opened this."
"Oh. Of course. Now I understand."
"Understand what?"
"You were the ones. Well… I guess that makes sense."
"What makes sense?" Dean frowned.
"If someone was going to free the Word from the vault of the earth, it would end up being you three. Oh, I love you guys."
"Is this a McGonagall moment?" Lacey asked as Cas pulled the three of them into a hug.
"It does feel like it." Sam muttered.
"Oh. Uck. Ok, all right. Ok." Dean grumbled. As Sam patted Cas on the back.
"Yeah, yeah. You… you said something about "The Word." Is that what's written on there?"
"Did you know that a cat's penis is sharply barbed along its shaft? I know for a fact the females were not consulted about that." Cas randomly told them.
"Uh, yeah, I'll second the not being consulted part." Lacey nodded, raising an eyebrow.
"Cas, please, we're losing ground out there, okay? We need your help. Can you not see that?" Dean asked plaintively.
"This is the handwriting of Metatron." Cas said as he studied the tablet.
"Metatron? You saying a Transformer wrote that?" Sam frowned. Lacey began to giggle and Dean snorted.
"Dude." Lacey shook her head.
"No. That's Megatron." Dean told him.
"What?"
"The Transformer, it's Megatron."
"What?" Sam sounded exasperated.
"Metatron. He's an angel. He's the scribe of God. He took down dictation when creation was being formed." Cas explained.
"And that's the Word of God?" Sam asked.
"One of them yes."
"Uh… well, what's it say then?"
"Uh… Tree…Horse… Fiddler crab." Cas shrugged. "I can't read it. It wasn't meant for angels."
"Okay, this all sounds bad. What are you three jackasses doing with the Word of God? Let me see that thing?" Meg moved as if to take the tablet but Dean stepped in front of her.
"Back off, Meg."
"Come on, it's my ass too."
"Back off." Dean repeated, more firmly.
"Damn it! Enough of this 'demons are second-class citizens' crap!" Meg raged.
"Ok, let's all just calm down." Lacey said stepping between the two of them.
"Don't like conflict." Cas teleported out of the room, dropping the tablet on the floor, where it promptly broke into three pieces.
"Uh…" Sam stared at the place where Cas had been.
"What the hell was that?" Dean demanded.
"You heard him. He doesn't like conflict. He's down in the dayroom now. I guarantee it." Meg told him.
"All right, we'll go handle Cas. Sam, will you please pick up the Word of God?" Dean asked, sounding strained.
"Yeah." Sam bent down and started to pick up the pieces. Lacey followed Dean out the door, slipping her hand into his as they walked down the corridor towards the day room. When they reached it, they found Cas sitting at a table with his back to them.
"You realise you just broke God's Word?" Dean asked as they walked across the room and sat down on the other side of the table. "It's Sam's thing, isn't it? You taking on his cage-match scars. I'm guessing that's what broke your bank, right?"
"Well, it took… everything to get me here."
"What are you talking about, man?"
"Dean, I know you want different answers." Cas sighed.
"No, I want you to button up your coat and help us take down Leviathans. Do you remember what you did?" Dean was getting worked up now. Suddenly there was a box in Cas' hands and he held it up, revealing it was the board game "Sorry!". He shook the box and the game appeared, completely set up on the table.
"Do you want to go first?" Lacey began to giggle. Dean gave her a look.
"I'm sorry. I think I better go extricate your brother from a situation. I'll be back in a minute." Lacey teleported out and onto the front lawn of the hospital. She stared, half confused and half amused at the sight before her. Sam was chasing a much shorter guy across the lawn, the guy was yelling at him and clutching something to his chest as he zig zagged away from Sam. Lacey teleported in front of him and he ran into her, falling backwards onto the ground.
"You ok?" Lacey asked as Sam reached them, seeming rather breathless.
"Yeah." He nodded as Meg joined them.
"Not a demon or a chomper. What the hell are you?" Meg frowned down at him.
"I'm… Kevin Tran. I'm in adavanced placement. Please don't kill me." The kid managed to squeak out.
"I'm not gonna kill you." Sam told him as he helped him to his feet. He tried to take the bag, containing the tablet, from Kevin but he wouldn't let go of it.
"I'm sorry." Kevin winced as Sam continued to tug on the bag. "I'm sorry. I don't know why, but I can't let go of this." The three of them exchanged glances.