Because no relationship is ever perfect...
Chapter 38
Castiel knew something was off the very second he flew into the house with Jack. Not only was the whole atmosphere reeking with djinn magic, but the picture-esque sigils attempting to pass as abstract paintings hanging on the walls were a damn big clue too for anyone who understood what they actually were. However, it was their meaning what threw off the angel the most.
"Peace. Hope. Acceptance," he read a few of them. "Mercy. Calm. Joy."
"These aren't Enochian sigils," Jack commented, since he wasn't able to recognize them.
"No, they are Sanskrit. Though a couple of them are even older, from Babylon if I am not mistaken."
Proceeding cautiously after calling Dean, Castiel followed the trail of djinn energy to its core, who happened to be the basement. There, in a sterilized and halogen-lit room, two rows of gurneys were aligned to the walls, three on each side. Several items and machines for medical care were placed around in the spotless room, most of them unused at the moment. There was also a big stainless sink, a couple of showcases filled with instrumental and medicines, and a rack of clean towels and sheets. In a corner, something looking like a files cabinet was clearly secured with a lock.
Four of the gurneys were empty. Two were still occupied by an old bony man and a young black woman, side by side.
"Oh, please," Castiel muttered going to them, fear and hope warring in his heart. "Jack, they are still alive!"
"That's great! Do we wake them up?"
"No, we can't. It would be potentially dangerous for their psyche if we forced them to awake. We do not know how long they have been exposed to the djinn's poison. The shock could very well kill them." The seraph pondered the best course of action. "Jack, go back to Dean and Eileen. Inform them of the situation and do not let the coroner to escape. I will remain here until you all arrive, trying to soothe and cleanse some of the poison in the meantime."
After the nephilim obeyed and flew away, Castiel focused his attention on the two patients. Making sure they weren't connected to any vital machine, he carefully pulled out the vials attached to their hands before starting to work, but left the patches monitoring their heart and such, so he could know if something was wrong.
Focused as the angel was on the humans' well-being, among the echoing beeping of the machines, he never noticed the other presence.
He didn't heard the quieted steps behind him.
He didn't feel the needle piercing his neck before darkness swallowed him.
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When Jack returned sans Castiel, Dean had an immediate hunch of dread. Not only had the stupid feather-brain walked headfirst into a monster's lair, but also remained there all alone without any backup.
Things got a turn for the worse when they found the morgue and the coroner's office totally empty, only afterwards being informed that Dr. Saadi had taken a week absence due to her sickness and wasn't working since today. Which could only mean… that the djinn was at home with Castiel.
Driving over the speed limit (fuck the police, they were posing as FBI agents after all), the Winchester arrived and unceremoniously kicked down the main door, gun already at hand and ready to fire. Jack guided them to the basement, apparently the djinn's feeding hole, where a third gurney was very recently occupied.
"You bitch, get your hands off him!" Dean yelled, pointing the gun at the medic.
"Sure, ok! Please, don't shoot me (cough)!" Suleika begged in fear, hurriedly retreating from the motionless body of her unsuspecting victim and raising her hands in surrender.
While Eileen kept the djinn secured at gunpoint, the male hunter ran to the angel, checking him all over. Castiel didn't seem to be hurt in any way, no vials attached to him yet, but he was deeply asleep. And, for a being that didn't sleep, that was quite worrying. Dean slapped slightly his cheeks and pinched his arms, trying to gauge some kind of reaction, but to no avail.
"You fucking... did you already poison him?" he bellowed at the doctor.
"Yes, I did," she admitted in a trembling sigh. "Sort of an accident, though. Or self-defense in a way (cough, cough). I was sure he had come to kill me."
"Yeah, you're not mistaken about that, lady. Wake him up!"
"I can't!" the coroner almost cried, choking on a cough. "I can't wake him up, I already tried when he... when I tasted something strange in him. I didn't want any problems with hunters, but he just doesn't wake up!"
Dean was about to lose it, when Jack grabbed his shoulder and forced him still.
"What do you mean that you tasted something strange in him?" the nephilim asked, frowning.
Dr. Saadi breathed deeply, trying to calm down, and slowly lowered her hands. The hunters looked willing to listen, at least for the time being. She seized the chance to both save herself and take a napkin from her shirt pocket, blowing her nose.
"First of all, let me tell you that I have never attacked anyone before. My special patients, those who I feed on, were all consenting adults. There, in the cabinet," she made a head gesture to the corner, "I keep records of every single one of them (cough). A contract was always signed before I put them in an everlasting coma."
A few seconds of tense silence passed, until Eileen deemed the djinn sincere and put away her gun. She kept on guard, though.
"So, when your friend showed up here, I knew that I had been found. But I promise that I didn't mean to do him any harm! I injected him to protect myself, but when I touched him, it was... I don't know how to describe it, but (sniff) it wasn't human. And then when I tried to wake him up, he didn't respond."
"That's because he's an angel, you tattooed son of a bitch," Dean shouted in her direction.
"A what? Now you're kidding, right? Angels are strong (cough, cough). My poison most definitely wouldn't have any effect on one."
"He's running a bit low on batteries, ok?" the hunter growled, annoyed. "Whatever, that's not your business. Tell me how to wake him up before we decide to gank your sorry ass."
The coroner bit her lower lip nervously, her gaze roaming around unfocused.
"I've told you, I can't. I've already tried! I entered his dreamland to talk to him and bring him back to awareness, but I couldn't find him. If he were human, just stopping injecting the poison would eventually break the coma in a few weeks, but if he's really an angel as you say..."
"You could try it again," Jesse suggested. "Maybe it didn't work because you were looking for a human, but now that you know what to actually look for, perhaps it would turn out right?"
The Winchester scoffed in derision at the idea of the djinn playing with the seraph again.
"Dean," Eileen called him to reason, having seen the dismissing roll of his shoulders. "It's a logic plan, in fact. Unless you have anything better. Do you really want to wait who knows how many weeks to see when Cas awakes, if ever?"
"Logic plan my ass! If she touches him again, who's saying Cas isn't going to end up dead like her other snacks? Or like the salamander guy?"
"Now, that wasn't my fault at all!" Suleika defended herself, offended, forgetting the dangerous situation she was in for a minute. "I only ever approach those who ask to die, but that red-haired man (cough) was the one coming after me. He was done for after the death of his mate, and... alright, I accept that I should have been wary of him knowing about me, but I didn't know that he was an elemental, see? I didn't know because he never told me. And then, when I injected him, I tasted something foreign in his energy; something nasty, very similar (sniff) to your friend here. I... I couldn't feed on him, but I still felt sorry for his grief. So instead of kicking him out, I gave him a lethal dose of my poison and buried him under water. The rest, I'm sure you already know."
The Righteous Man winced at the memory of the eyeless crab-like corpse of that poor woman. Yes, of course he knew how the story continued.
"I mean no offense, but..." Jack commented, furrowing upon her state. "You don't seem to be in good health. We were told that you took a sickness leave."
"Yes, I've been sick since that one time (cough) I fed on the fire elemental," the doctor admitted. "I obviously swallowed a morsel of something that wasn't supposed to be bitten at, but it has been a lot worse since a couple of days ago, when you two appeared."
"Whatever, I don't care about you," Dean snorted. "What do we do with Cas?"
"Angel or human, it means no difference at this point." The djinn took a few slow steps back to the seraph's gurney, testing the waters. "Dreamlands are my territory (sniff). If I wasn't able to locate him the first time, I won't be any more successful in the hundredth. He just... inside his dream, he doesn't manifest to me. He's hiding from me, but maybe he will show up to a familiar face?"
It took everyone a few seconds to understand what Dr. Saadi was suggesting.
"You can throw Dean inside Castiel's dream?" Eileen gaped, perplexed. She had never heard of something like this.
"Sure I can! As long as the hunter (cough) allows me to poison him too, of course. Just a tiny bit!" she added instantly, seeing the mistrusting looks they gave her. "Only a drop, enough to make him sleep deeply and fall into REM. Then I can project him in the angel's mind just as I do when manifesting myself."
Whenever it was for Castiel, there wasn't much to think about in Dean's book. He grabbed the empty gurney next to the angel's and dragged it until they were almost joined. Then he lay down on it and gripped his feathered friend's hand.
"You all, don't take your eyes off her. The second she does anything remotely suspicious, gank her." He threw a menacing look towards the coroner. "Ok, now do your thing."
Suleika sighed, somewhat not at all impressed with the Winchester's dramatics, but she walked to the sink to wash her hands and promptly returned. Dean closed his eyes and tried to relax, thinking about Castiel and praying to him, just in case he might be heard. The moment she placed a hand on his forehead, her beautiful tattoos glowing on her dark skin and turquoise eyes shimmering, Dean was gone.
And at the same time the djinn activated her power, Jesse fell to his knees, a painful rumble leaving his throat.
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It didn't take Sam a long while to return from the tiny post office in Lebanon, and he came back in high spirits. He had also passed by the bookstore in search of... uh, some specific books for this older brother, and just by standards a trip to a bookstore was always a mood-lifting thing for him, but this time he carried some mail of good news. Or well, at least he hoped it was good news.
"Precious?" he called for his soulmate the moment the heavy door closed behind him. "Precious, are you around?"
"Here, at the library," she answered, appearing beside a column with an old, leather-bound book on her hands. "Some lore say that djinn and genies are all one and the same, and other say they aren't. Really, can't they make up their mind? I'm trying to be ready in case anything happens to the boys!"
Sam grinned, amused by his fiancée pout. He hid the official envelopment behind him and walked playfully towards her.
"Hey, I bring you something that may make you lose that frown on your pretty face. Guess what is it?"
"I don't think Lebanon imports yet my sinfully-craved mocha bonbons, so... I have no idea," Jessica smiled back, futilely attempting to snatch whatever was at Sam's back. "C'mon, puppy. Show me already!"
The Winchester laughed at the blonde's impatience, but indulged her. He presented the signed mailing in front of her eyes, awaiting her reaction.
"Oh my god, is that... ? Is it, Sam?! Really?" she blabbered happily, rapidly untying the thread that kept it closed and pulling out some documents.
"You tell me, precious. I hope it's good news." Sam turned around and took off his jacket, leaving it on a chair, but when he looked back at his beloved... perhaps he had talked a bit too soon. "What's wrong, Jess?"
Instead of the bright smile that he had expected to find etched on her face, a worried frown marred her pretty features.
"Sam, please sit down," she whispered carefully, taking a seat herself. "I need to talk to you. I've done... something bad. All the time I knew it was a wrong thing to do, and I still did it anyway. I'm sorry."
Sam felt a bit on guard, the hair at his nape bristling. What kind of bad thing could Jessica do, to put such an ashamed and sorrowful look on her eyes?
"What did you do?" he asked, speaking quietly.
"Some months ago, when we talked about the possibility of Mildred adopting me, you helped me forge a few documents so I could submit a request of validation to an online university, remember? To make everything match and let me finish the last year I'm missing of my History major."
"Yes, sure I remember. Isn't that the answer letter?" Sam pointed at the envelope.
"It is. I was accepted for next year, lessons online starting in September." She allowed herself just the tiniest happy smile before turning grave serious again, showing him a couple of the documents. "This is my acceptance certificate. And this one... is yours."
The younger Winchester frowned at this, not understanding what she meant. He wasn't going back to college, he hadn't presented any-... oh.
He took the second paper Jessica showed him and perused it for a while, speechless. It was all there: his name, age, his fake address that he shared with her... even the resume of his subjects and grades from Stanford. And certainly, it had been accepted as well.
"Jess, I..." Sam pressed a fist to his lips, trying to contain his anger before saying something that he could regret later. "Can you tell me what the heck is this? I never applied to any of this. I never signed anything! Not like I could take the chance, having one Apocalypse after another weighting down on our shoulders. So what... no, really, how could you?!"
As much as he tried, Sam couldn't contain the fury and the sense of betrayal that ran through him. To think that his most beloved, his soulmate no less, had gone behind his back setting up life plans for him that he couldn't possibly follow in the near future, perhaps not even in the long run... it hurt. It hurt a lot.
"Sam, I don't want to be cruel, but you wasted years of your life hanging onto that excuse. I mean, not wasting... Sorry, that didn't come out right," she inhaled deeply, making an effort to control her breathing and not succumb to the tears that gathered in her eyes. "I know that you have done great deeds, achieved unbelievable things... but nothing of that was for you, it was for the rest of the world."
Sam stood up abruptly, unable to remain still.
"... I need some air. I'll be outside for a while," he said, marching to the stairs.
"Sam, please!" Jessica stood up too, begging, but not trying to stop him. "You don't have to take it if you don't want, but I... I merely hoped to show you, I wished you to realize that if you truly wanted something else, there was still a chance. Not spending your life thinking only about others, but..."
The heavy door was slammed on its frame, its powerful echo sounding like a death knell, before she could finish the sentence.
"... but thinking a little about yourself too."
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Hours later, Dean finally awoke from his trip into Castiel's dreamland. His first reaction was to tear away his hand from the angel's, as if it had burned him somehow. Breathing haggardly, he sat up and shot the seraph a look that reflected in his green eyes everything that he was feeling at the moment: sadness, hurt, rage, disappointment... and betrayal. Very specially betrayal.
"Dean..." Castiel tried to speak, also opening his eyes, that instead were full of regret and unshed tears.
"Save it, Cas." The hunter got up and supported himself on the edge of the bed, feeling a bit dizzy. "I know what I saw, and nothing you say will change it."
A discreet cough called to their attention.
"Ehm, guys? Is everything ok?" Eileen asked politely. "How are you feeling?"
"No, nothing is fucking ok," Dean almost shouted. "As for the rest, I feel peachy. How did you manage on this side of Penny Lane?"
"There has been an interesting development while you slept," the huntress looked behind her, where the kids were sitting leisurely on a free gurney playing cards, while Dr. Saadi was reading some medical reports. "We have located the Angel key, but we didn't risk retrieving it before you two woke up."
"What? Why's that?"
"My key has been corrupted," Jesse explained, sighing and picking up a card before looking at Dean. "It has already been in two different hosts. Apparently, that salamander guy you blasted on the beach was the first to come in contact with it, before it was close enough to me to pick it up."
"Elementals are the balancing agents of nature's energy," Jack continued wisely. "We can only guess, but we think that, possibly, he encountered this unknown energy and decided to take it within himself lest it didn't cause any harm."
"And when I injected Mr. Artell, I was the one poisoned (cough) by that energy instead," Suleika mumbled, evidently not happy. "But the link between us was already established, so when you disintegrated him, that foreign thing you freed followed it into me, making me sick."
"When she used her djinn powers on you, I felt it instantly. Gosh, it hurt, you know?" the cambion complained jokingly, gathering the deck of cards. "But since she's sick and unreliable, we didn't know if taking the key from her would make it impossible for you two to wake up. No way of knowing if some of that celestial power had been mixed in your sleeping pills."
"That was a very wise and well-thought approach indeed," Castiel thanked them. "However, you may proceed now."
"No shit, wait a second," Dean interrupted, watching the other two people in the gurneys. "What about them?"
"Dean, I revised Dr. Saadi's documents, and she was telling the truth. They're clean," Eileen informed them in a soothing tone, walking to the old bony man. "This man, Ralph Tennyson, went missing from Alaska six years ago. His whole family was trapped in a snowstorm and died. Son, daughter-in-law and a three years old grandkid."
The hunter grimaced at the info. Shit, no wonder the grandpa had wanted to die.
"And the girl?"
"Subebe Ngabake, from Arkansas. Only 22, a pre-olympic runner, but..." Eileen lifted the hem of the sheet, revealing that her legs were cut at the knees. "A drunk driver ran her over two years ago. They were free to choose this for themselves, Dean. It wasn't the djinn's fault."
The Winchester turned away, irritated and cussing under his breath. He was already in a foul mood after witnessing Castiel's dreamland, and now this... he didn't even have a son of a bitch to gank and work out his anger.
"Go on then, kid. Don't make us wait and do your thing."
Jesse nodded and got off the gurney, standing in front of the djinn. The coroner closed the medical report she had been reading and stood up as well. Face to face, everyone waited for the anunnaki key to flow into the cambion... but it didn't happen.
"Hum... is there anything in particular I should be doing?" Jesse asked, bewildered.
"Not that we know of," Castiel answered, equally confused. "The other times, the key recognized its intended host and joined with them smoothly. I wonder why it is not the case this time."
"Didn't you say that your key or (cough) whatever had been corrupted, due to already mixing with other hosts?" Suleika commented. "Maybe you have to call it to you or something?"
"That might be it," Dean agreed. "Claire's key had become a gryphon, and we had to kill the creature to regain it."
"Nobody is going to get killed!" the cambion exclaimed, rejecting the idea. "I can... I could use a spell, I guess. Hopefully a small one. Tell me, will I get poisoned if I touch your skin?"
"No, of course not. There has to be volition from myself in order to poison someone, or else I couldn't live in society like a normal person." She looked at the teenager warily. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to steal your heart, Doc," Jesse couldn't help but tease a little the beautiful woman. "Only figuratively, don't worry. May I?"
Begrudgingly but with no other options in sight, the woman accepted. The boy placed a hand respectfully on her chest, above her heart, measuring the beatings and steadying his own to the same pace.
"Alliis samaraan, koratu mem."
After he uttered the spell, Dr. Saadi felt something weird on her whole body. It wasn't painful, but it was... uncomfortably irking. Like an itch under her skin, like a troop of ants crawling in her veins. Little by little, it moved across the rest of her body and gathered in her heart, under the boy's hand, and by then it had actually begun to feel somewhat painful.
"I almost got it. Please, bear with it just a bit more. Alliis samaraan, koratu mem," he repeated the chant, slightly louder this time.
She felt a tug, and then another. I felt similar to a case of hiccups, the strong ones that jolted your whole thorax and abdomen, only that in her heart instead of her diaphragm. At the fourth tug, the coroner finally felt something disentangling and leaving her body.
"There it is, people! I got it!"
And then yes, barely two seconds later there was a purple light being absorbed into his skin, glowing softly before disappearing. As usual, the anunnaki channel's first reaction was to blink a couple of times, trying to clear whatever it was suddenly in his vision.
"Phew, nice to get that out of my chest. Literally," Suleika dared to joke, now that this whole mess was finally over.
CREEAAAACCKK!
A tremor, sudden and powerful like an earthquake, shook the very foundations of the house. Both ceiling and floor were covered in small cracks in a matter of seconds, while a particularly large one opened in the middle of the basement.
Something sharp shot lightning-fast from the large crack, impaling itself in the nape of Dr. Saadi and coming out from the other side, tearing apart her throat.
"Oh kitty, kitty..." a raspy voice sniggered while a red blob started to pour out of the crack. "Where have you been hiding? I'm still so hungry."
The djinn's corpse fell to the ground, not moving anymore. The hunters' group stood there, frozen in shock, as an unexpected silhouette formed from the red blob until reaching a solid shape. It had the face of a stranger, but for those able to look beyond the surface, it was still easily recognizable.
"Legion."
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