John paced around the basement of the panic room. It had been a couple of days since finishing the case in South Carolina, he had barely scraped together a plan for getting rid of the thing that had infiltrated his family. None of the books that Bobby had lying around the living room were of any help, that is when he could read through them. He wasn't one to read lore when it had nothing to do with a case, so he knew the other man in the house would suspect something. If only he could have gotten Sam or Dean to let something slip.
Sam avoided the man whenever he could. When John did corner the boy and finally ask questions, he would give him some bullshit answer and continued saying he needed to do something. That something usually ended up reading something from Bobby's library. Dean, on the other hand, was harder to get answers from. His oldest didn't actively avoid him like this youngest, but there was the issue of having the creature actively around his son. When it wasn't there, he would have answered similar to Sam.
From John's observations, both believed whatever the creature with the awful overcoat said. Worse yet, Mary was also seeming to fall for its tricks. Some powerful demons have the gift of persuasion, he thought to himself. It was the only thing that was making sense to him. Not only were his family falling for it, but a well-seasoned hunter that had been in the game that even John had.
Bobby was even harder to get through. Every question asked was met with a look of distrust. This thing got the trust of Bobby first before getting to his sons. He had to have heard the stories supposedly how they were supposed to save the world from an apocalypse. They could be considered useful for the other side to get their hands on. If only he could get through to all of them.
Turning his thoughts, John thought about his observations about the creature. Pale skin, dark hair, blue eyes. Nothing too special about the meat suit, but it was also unassuming. He was usually somewhere in the house, seeming to observe the things around him. Sometimes he would leave, stating that there was a problem in heaven. Then he would disappear. Very few creatures could do that. Demons also left sulfur behind; ghost left ectoplasm. The only thing that made sense was demon though.
John thought back on his experience. The more powerful the demon, the less demon-like qualities they had. That yellow-eyed demon barely left a trace of himself wherever he went, outside of the house fires that would appear. Holy water did nothing to show the truth. Bobby also mentioned that there was a powerful devil's trap in the living room, but that may be fake. He couldn't be too sure.
He looked down at the instrument in his hands. It was explained on the case when weapons were being selected that it was a demon-killing knife. As soon as they returned to Bobby's it was tumbling inside his head. Maybe this would be the thing he needs to keep his family safe. Why would you use a demon-killing knife on an angel, he thought to himself. You wouldn't. It would have to do something to demons it shows its worth. If it didn't kill the thing, it would hopefully be injured enough his family could see through the facade.
Recently if felt that everyone in the house was keeping something from him. In his gut he knows it was a way for the demon, he had now decided, to separate them even farther. After the time they spent, it would have to know that manipulation would never work. It would try to stop him before he could break whatever speel was there. John would have to move quickly. There was little time before he would be gotten rid of.
John left the panic room, hiding the knife in the back of his pants. He quickly and quietly walked up the wooden stairs from the basement as he could. In the kitchen, he saw Mary starting what looked to be dinner.
"You were down there for a while," she stated. "Everything okay."
"Everything's fine. I was just thinking about somethings."
"Looks like we both have that in common," Mary said, turning away from what she was doing and looking straight at the man who was supposed to be her husband. "I've been running things around in my head, trying to make sense of things, but it's not... clicking."
"What do you mean?" John asked.
"Have you felt any different since we came back? Different to how we were before we died?"
John shook his head in confusion. "Where is this coming from?"
"To me, it feels like you want to pick right back up to where we left off. Everything's different; you're different."
"I'm different?"
"Oh, come on, John. You know what I mean," Mary spoke with force. "You continued to live after I died. You're angry at the world. You look like everything is on the cusp of breaking. We have a family yet you don't seem too interested in it."
"I'm just trying to do what is best for this family."
"And what's that? Lurking off by yourself. We have barely had one civil conversation with one another. How about asking your son's how they've been? How about getting to know what they've been up to? Their interests? How about getting to know our son-in-law better? You haven't made an effort."
"Mary... There have been things..."
"What things, John? We've been dead. We've barely had time to come up with things to do. But you've been like this for a while. After Sam was born, you would go off and barely be home. You became someone I didn't know. You are turning into that person again, and it's someone I don't want to be around.
John stared at her in shock. "Mary...," he started softly. "There's no reason for this. I promise that I will fix this."
"I hope you do because I honestly don't like what's happening. I just want all of us to be together and happy. I don't think that's too much to ask, but if it is, just tell me. I've been trying my best here, and I just... John, things need to change."
"Don't worry. I'll fix things now." John turned around and walked out the backdoor where he knew everyone else would be this time of day.
"Now?" he heard Mary question behind him before her footsteps were following him.
John made his way to the functional portion of the garage that sat on the property. He saw Dean working under the hood of the Impala, exactly as he taught him to. Sam was sitting off to the side reading from some tome, seeming to be looking at the creature that called itself "Cas" for confirmation as to what he was reading. "Cas" was standing more so in the opening of the door, some feet away, surveying the scene.
"John?" Mary called out again. This time all three in the garage turned toward them. "What's going on?"
"Fixing things," he called back to her. The creature was fulling turned toward him with its head tilted to the left. Both Sam and Dean stood to walk toward the man. John, as he went the last step, pulled the knife out of the back of his pants. Both boys went running for their father but they were too late. John had already started descending on the creature. Just as the knife was about to finish is assault, John felt a force pushing him back.
John looked up and just saw the thing in front of him just standing in front of him looking as if nothing had happened.
"What was that?" he heard Sam ask.
"John looked farther in front of him to see Sam and Dean standing up. It seemed whatever pushed him back had pushed them all. Looking back, he saw Mary also standing.
"It looks to be the power of the protection charm that Celine made created some kind of barrier between me and anyone else is around if someone means to do me harm. I, myself, was not expecting it to be as powerful as it is."
By that point, John was standing up again, readying the knife again. Trying to take a step, he was interrupted by Mary suddenly standing in front of him.
"Why were you trying to stab Castiel?" Mary screamed at him, an incredulous look in her eyes.
"He's the reason that everything's wrong," John simply stated, trying to sidestep the woman. Suddenly;t there was pain radiating from his left cheek. Mary's hand was still up from the hit.
Mary refusing to continue looking at the man, snatched the knife out of his hands and walked to the group. sam and Dean were continuously asking the angel if he was alright.
"Why didn't you try to move out of the way?" Sam asked.
"It was not as if the knife was going to harm me in any way. I would have easily been able to heal the wound."
"Even with the baby feeding on your grace?" Dean then asked him. At that, Castiel looked perplexed, as if he hadn't considered it before.
"John's easts started ringing. "Baby?" he screamed. "That thing has convinced you it's pregnant? Are you all falling for this?"
The ring of people opened up to face him. Looking at the creature, he did notice that it was slightly rounder than when they had first met.
"This was not the way we wanted to tell you," Dean said sheepishly.
John looked at all of them. "You all seriously believe this. This is all impossible. I'm going to prove that this thing is evil once and for all."
Sam came up to stop him. "I think it's time for you to leave."
"I'm not going anywhere," he grounded in his son's face.
"John," Mary yelled. Once he was looking at her, she said a single word: "leave."
John looked between all of them before looking back at Castiel. "Don't think this is over." He turned on his heel and went back to the house.
After a couple of minutes, they heard the sound of a beater leaving the property. The tension left the group, but they knew it wasn't going to be the end of it. This was a shoe that Sam and Dean were expecting to drop sooner or later. Mary had her answer as to whether her marriage was worth saving.