Author Note: Hi everyone! I made a major mistake. Originally, this was not the posted content for Chapter 13. I skipped an entire chapter. Everything you read here is a new chapter as of 12/31/2019. I apologize for the mix up. Please read this before chapter 14. I am sorry for my absence also. Been gone for a better part of a year and that's so sad. I miss this. Thanks for still being there.
Chewing the inside of her lip, Lizzy's eyes remain on the toddler completely wrapped up in his project. Currently, he's organizing by color the several matchbox cars Derek found him when he asked the front desk if they kept any toys around. Sometimes, just sometimes, a Winchester finds some luck. Minor luck, but it's luck all the same that Sammy's favorite toy in the world just happened to be available in the dump they're in.
As Derek points to a car and asks for the model, Sammy answering Corvette like it's supposed to be completely obvious to everyone, Lizzy grins with pride as her heart skips with some sadness. He's such a sweet, happy, and normal boy. How can it possibly be that he's powerful? Henry said he was stronger than the strongest demon they're ever encountered. How, in that tiny little form of a kind and adorable little two year old, can that kind of power reside? Dean's human. She's (mostly) human. This shouldn't be possible.
It just kills her that, no matter what, it's true. She knows in her heart that it I. She may have always known deep down and there's nothing she can do to change that.
A hand falls onto her shoulder at the same time as she blinks out of her train of thought that has been running in loops for over an hour now. Once Henry let his own knowledge fly, she's been unable to focus even in the dangerous situation they're in.
"Focus. Deal later," Lou says in a stone voice, her strength once more big enough for them both. They always do this. While one falls, the other picks up the slack and holds shit down. Lou has plenty of shit on her plate right now also, including the reality of what her own child could someday have to deal with if she allows her pregnancy to continue. But right now, demons on their asses comes first.
"Sorry," Lizzy apologizes as she hastily wipes at her face. She clears her throat and ditches the emotional state as much as she can.
"Don't apologize. Just be alert," Lou says calmly, his hand rubbing Lizzy shoulder before she starts pacing once more.
Lizzy shakes it off as best she can. Focus. Good idea. Focused people don't fall apart.
"Mommy?" Sammy says her name when his head sharply picks up from his cars and his eyes find her.
"What's up, baby?" Lizzy smiles at her boy.
"We go home now," Sammy says more than asks.
"Not quite yet. We have to wait a little longer."
"My cars," he whines.
"I know your cars are better," Lizzy nods, getting up and sitting right next to him. She pulls an arm around his back and hugs him into her side. "And I want to go home, too. But we have to wait for daddy to call and then we can go home."
"Why?" Sammy wonders, not at all understanding what's happening.
She smiles sadly. "Because life is really complicated. But I promise we will be home as soon as I can get you there. You trust me?"
"Yeah," Sammy nods.
"Good. So, for now, you get to play with new cars with your uncle. That's not so bad is it?"
"No," Sammy grins and gets right back into it, putting two silver cars next to each other.
"Did you know he knows about seven specific classic models of cars? Doesn't matter the year?" Derek asks with total disbelief.
Lizzy huffs a laugh. "I absolutely can believe it. When I was… gone for a while, he and Dean played with cars constantly. Dean knows every single classic car by make, model and year without having to think. They went over that stuff every day."
"But… Lizard, that's not normal two-year-old stuff. His memory and eye fro detail is really good. That's ridiculous."
"No," Lizzy shakes her head. "It's repetition."
"No… he's super smart," Derek counters. "And it's not just cars. He knows every letter and number by sight. He can tell me something that starts with every letter I say to him. He can count to thirty on his own. He's wicked smart, Lizzy."
Staring at her son, the absolute joy in her life, she grins with pride and places a hand on his head. "Yeah, he is." She leans down and kisses his head.
At the same time, Sammy's posture stiffens as he sits up bolt straight. His eyes grow wide as golf balls when he looks sharply up at his mom.
"What's wrong, honey?" Lizzy asks him.
"The bad lady is here," Sammy lets her know, his voice an alarmed whisper.
"How do you…?" Lizzy starts to ask but the lights in the room start to flicker rapidly.
Sammy knew. Abaddon found them.
"Take Sammy and get in the bathroom," Lou shifts into hunter-mode immediately while walking for the open duffle bag on the dresser. "Lock the door, line the doorway with salt, and shut the fuck up. Use this if you have to." She tosses Derek an angel blade and he just barely catches it with clumsiness.
"Lou!? Seriously!?"
"Go!" she yells in return, not able to have this conversation right now.
Lizzy snatches Sammy up in her arms and marches for the bathroom door with Derek. She puts him down inside and crouches to the floor, holding his little face in her hands. "Baby, you need to stay in here with Derek."
"No! I help!" Sammy says, trying to reach out and grab onto his mom. He does not want to separate from her, not right now.
"No, sweetie," Lizzy shakes her head and keeps him back. "You need to stay here with Uncle Derek and be very, very quiet. No words at all. No sounds. Can you do that?"
"Mommy…."
"Sammy, can you do that for mommy?" Lizzy says more strongly. He nods his agreement and she grins. She kisses him quickly. "I love you more than anything. Mommy will be okay. You stay right here and Louie and I will deal with the bad lady."
Kissing his forehead, Lizzy stands up and shuts the bathroom door. When the lock snicks into place behind her she nods to herself. Derek can handle this. Sammy will be safe. He has to be safe.
"Here," Lou says and hands over an angel blade to her sister. Lizzy takes it as she can see the handle of another one tucked away at Lou's back.
With a salt round-loaded sawed off in one hand, Lou attempts to speed dial Sam in the other hand. They both jump when a massive bang rocks the front door of the motel room. On the second burst, the doorjamb splinters and the door itself flings open with violence.
Dropping her phone before she can speak to Sam, Lou does not hesitate. She hefts her sawed off into both hands and fires at the figure stepping into the doorway.
The salt pellets hit Abbadon square in the chest, proper blue dress littered with holes. Aside from a half a step back with the impact, the shot does nothing to her. She barely flinches, no sizzling.
"Is that a way to treat a lady?" Abbadon chides as she stands there, hands crossed over her chest. Her vintage powder blue dress, pearls, and heels give her an innocent look that does not quite make sense in the situation.
"Find me a lady and I'll let you know," Lou counters with attitude.
"Oh, don't bother reaching for that holy water," Abbadon warns Lizzy. "Won't work on me either."
Lizzy's hand freezes on it's way to her back pocket with the flask of holy water. They can't slow the Knight of Hell down. They've never seen anything quite like her and they never had a chance to properly prepare for this showdown.
"What do you want?" Lizzy asks, hoping to get down to it and end this as soon as possible, before Abbadon knows about Sammy.
"I want Henry, of course," she states, knowing they already knew. "But he doesn't seem to be here."
"Because he's not," Lou lets her know. "He's been gone for a couple hours. You should stop chatting and get a move on if you want to catch up."
The snarling grin on the demon's red lips gives both hunters the creeps, a shiver running down their spines. "I'm sure I have a few moments to spare for a little fun." She walks forward a few steps. "Because what's the point of being on Earth if you can't have a little fun?"
Lou fires off her second loaded shell, once more barely effecting Abbadon. She drops the shotgun and pulls out her angel blade as Lizzy twirls hers, taking a fighting stance.
This instantly makes Abbadon laugh with an airy yet evil tone. "You think those will do anything to something like me?"
"It'll slow you down enough," Lizzy says with fake confidence.
"Enough to prevent me from getting to that bathroom you have locked up?" Abbadon comments, Lizzy's heart stopping with total fear. The demon sees the change in her face as much as Lizzy tries to school it. Her eyes narrow on Lizzy. "What do you have hiding in there?"
Lizzy's jaw clenches as she says nothing.
"Must be something important," Abbandon surmises quickly. "Maybe I should take a peek."
"Over my dead-ass body," Lizzy growls, eyes on fire as she stares down the demon.
Abbadon huffs a quick laugh. "Okay," she shrugs and flicks her hands at the wrist out to the sides. Both women lift off their feet and slam into the opposite walls. Lou lands hard on the dresser, her stomach taking the brunt of the fall before she rolls onto the floor. Lizzy catches a little luck and lands on one of the beds. Her ears ring after her head smacks the wall a little too hard.
Once they are groaning on the floor, Abbadon walks casually to the bathroom door. She tries to open it, but the door is locked. She places a hand flat to the door and it bursts open just like the front motel door. Once it's open she steps in and looks around. In the tub is a man with a little boy in his lap, one arm protectively around his little body and the other extended with another angel blade pointed at her.
"How disappointing," she chides. "A baby and boy that has no idea what he's doing."
"Stay back," Derek warns, his voice shaking along with his extended arm.
"Or what?" Abbadon brushes it off. She bends down to look at the little boy. "Handsome, aren't you?"
"You a bad lady," Sammy declares with a strong, fearless tone, his eyebrows lowered. He has no fear in him, even with a scary stranger getting closer to him.
"Smart too," she grins. "One of those women out there your mommy?"
Sammy nods, eyes narrowed defiantly on her.
"No wonder she didn't want me in here," she says, extending a hand. "Come with me."
"He's not going anywhere," Derek warns, tightening his grip on his blade.
"You're cute," Abaddon patronizes and winks at Sammy.
Derek takes a swing but with another wave of the demon's hand, Abaddon has the weapon flung across the room, the metal clattering to the tiles as it lands.
She then smiles as warmly as she can muster at Sammy. "Come on, cutie."
The demon takes another step forward, hand once more extended, but freezes when the little boy's eyes begin to glow a very light blue. The light is luminous behind his pupils, inhuman and beautiful. In a blink, a bright field of pale blue light surrounds Sammy and his uncle.
Everyone stops, Derek and Abbadon staring in wonder at the unexpected turn of events. Sammy, illuminated eyes still hard on the demon, never flinches. He acts as if this isn't new, but he's the only one.
"Well, well, well," Abbadon says, looking the field of light over and studying it. "Even Josie up in here has never seen this before." She points to her head, the possessed Woman of Letters reacting to the scene also. "What are you?"
"I Sammy," the boy declare with fire. "You go now."
Abbadon can't help but smile at the fiery little one. "You have some balls, kid. Even if they haven't dropped yet. You'll make a hell of a warrior someday."
Reaching out to take the boy's hand as he could be a handy little ally at the moment, the second her hand touches the blue light it zaps her with pure pain.
She recoils sharply, pulling her hand into herself and cradling it. "You little shit." She stands up tall and flicks her wrist. The boy and his uncle do not move like she intended. Her telekinetic powers don't do anything. She tries again and nothing. Sighing, she rolls out her neck, and resists screaming in front of the child she could really use in the future. "You're lucky I don't have time for this. I'll find you again."
Abbadon marches out of the bathroom and ducks down to the nearest hunter. Lou is holding her stomach while lying on her side when the demon grabs her face and lifts it to look at her. "Where did Henry go?" She blows black smoke from her lips into Lou's mouth. She flashes through everything Lou saw in the last few hours, catching an image of the address Henry wrote down and handed to Sam. She then pulls away from Lou when she has the information needed.
The demon stands up and looks over the room. Easily, she could kill the two hunters. Sammy isn't in the room with them. But Sammy is clearly being cared for by these people and he's doing well. Best keep them alive for now. Just in case.
"Be good, Sammy! We'll meet again!" Abbadon calls out to the little one in the bathroom and she walks out of the motel room towards the car she stole.
The engine outside starts up and a car peels out of the lot. The moment she's definitely gone, Derek watches as the blue light surrounding himself and his nephew gets absorbed right back into his nephew's body. The room returns to normal.
Blinking a few times, his heart racing with fear and shock, Derek's mouth gapes open and closed like a fish. He can't get his voice going. Everything, it's too much. He can't speak. Fuck, say something!
"Lizzy!" Derek shouts out. "Lizzy! Liz!"
"Hold on!" a weak voice calls back, Lizzy holding her head with the pain. She's trying to focus, figure out everything that just happened, but a head injury is a hell of a thing. "I'm… I'm…."
"Mommy!"
That's all she needed. The sound of her scared child snaps her right out of the fog and she gets up off the bed and heads straight to the bathroom, not looking around her. She has a sole focus.
Once in the bathroom, she finds Derek holding Sammy in the tub, both unharmed. "Oh, thank god."
"Mommy!" Sammy cries out again and sprints for her, slamming into her the second she crouches down. Lizzy envelopes him in her arms and locks on, her eyes instantly spilling to see him safe.
"I'm so sorry, baby," she says into his short, dark hair as she squeezes him. "I'm so sorry." Her chest aches with how badly she's let him down. She wasn't even going to tell him about hunting until he was old enough. The plan was for a normal, boring childhood.
He's seen a demon. He's seen a stranger fly through his own closet in his own room. He's heard them speak of magic and time travel.
It's over.
"I failed," she cries to herself, still holding Sammy tight. "Oh, baby. I'm so sorry."
"Where's Lou?" Derek asks when he only sees Lizzy.
Lizzy blinks away some tears and comes to her senses. "Shit." She picks up Sammy and walks to the main room, Derek right behind her. They find Lou trying to get up from the floor. Her movements are slow and pained.
"Louie!?" Derek calls her name and rushes for her, helping her off the floor.
"I'm okay," Lou brushes off his concern but allows him to help her to the nearest bed, making her sit down.
"No, you're not," Derek tells her. The moment she's sitting, he lifts her long sleeve shirt up to see the damage she's been hunched over. A dark bruise is already forming to the right side of her lower stomach.
The moment they both see it, Lou and Lizzy's wide eyes meet each other. They don't say a word, they don't have to. They both know the danger this injury presents.
"I'm fucking fine," Lou quickly bats her brother's hands away, not ready to deal with the injury. Instead, she focuses where she feels it's most important. "How you doing, tough guy?"
Sammy doesn't answer, just sniffles into his mom's shoulder.
"I think this was all way too much for him," Lizzy sadly tells her sister, her free hand running through her boy's hair.
"Um… I don't…." Derek sighs, trying to figure what the hell he just saw and how to explain it to an already overly worried mother. "I think… Shit. Lizzy…."
"What?" Lizzy asks, feeling about ready to throw up with fear and worry and pain in her head.
"I, uh…" Derek tries again. "I think Henry was right. About Sammy."
"What do you mean?" she asks, sitting down on the end of the motel bed next to Lou as her head throbs. Sammy clings to her hard, near silent sniffles coming from him now and then as everything overwhelms him.
"Sammy just… did something. To protect the two of us from the demon."
Lizzy and Lou stare at him with wide eyes for a moment. "What do you mean," Lizzy asks.
"The kid just… I mean, I'm, I'm way too new to all this so I don't really know what I saw," Derek huffs out an exasperated sigh.
"Try," Lou grunts as she peeks at Sammy's half-hidden face and smiles at him, rubbing his back.
"He made, like, a force field," Derek slowly explains, words failing him. "Or, like, a bubble."
"A bubble?" Lizzy questions, not getting it.
"Yeah. Of light. His eye got really bright, like they were lit up somehow and they were really light blue."
Lizzy closes her eyes, knowing what he's talking about already. She's seen Cass in battle enough times to know what Derek saw.
"And then… he made a bubble around us," Derek says but it almost sounds like a question.
"A bubble?" Lou asks once again, still confused.
"A bubble of blue light," Derek says while shaking his head and rubbing his eyes. "Oh my god, am I losing my shit?"
"Probably not," Lizzy tells him, knowing what Derek says is true. Squeezing her son tighter for an extra second, she then pulls him back from the hug while still holding him. She looks him in his normal, green eyes and asks him, "What happened in the bathroom, baby?"
"The bad lady came." Sammy sniffles and wipes his nose with his sleeve.
Lizzy gives him a forced smile. "And then what?"
"I don't know," Sammy shrugs and looks down into his lap.
"I think you do, smart boy," Lizzy prods. She lifts his chin gently with a finger tip so he has to look at her. "It was scary, wasn't it?"
"Yes," he responds, his voice thick and his eyes spilling tears once more.
"I was scared, too," Lizzy explains. "And that's okay. It's okay to be scared."
"I telled her to go away," Sammy lets his mommy know, a touch of confidence in his tone somewhere behind the fear and sadness.
"That's my boy," Lizzy grins with pride. "What happened after that?"
"I don't know," Sammy repeats.
Lizzy cups his small face in her hands. "I love you."
"Love you too, mommy," Sammy tells her.
"I'm not going to be mad at you. Or sad. Or anything bad," she reassures him. "I just need to know what happened because I love you so much. And I want to make sure you're okay."
"I maked the light happen," Sammy tells her, not meeting her eyes.
"What light?"
"I don't know," Sammy honestly answers.
"How did you do it?" Lizzy keeps questioning him.
"Don't know, mommy," Sammy's chin quivers as he starts to get upset all over again.
"It's okay, Sammy," Lizzy pulls him into another hug, a tight one as he cries a little more. It's rare she sees him this scared. "It's okay. You're okay, I'm okay. Everyone is safe now."
Sammy nods his head against her shirt but doesn't speak.
"Have you ever made the light happen before?" Lizzy tries a little more.
Sammy nods yes.
"Do you remember when?"
"Bad dream," Sammy answers simply, falling into sobs once more when all his emotions over everything crush him.
"We're done talking about it," Lizzy assures him and rocks with him side to side while holding him. "We can just sit here for a while, okay?"
Sammy nods and continues to cry as he's held tight by his mother.
"I gotta call Sam and warn them," Lou comments, getting up with a hand pressed to her stomach. She grabs her phone and dials.
The rest of the motel room remains silent. Sammy cries. Lizzy worries. And Derek once more wonders if he made the right decision.