Coming to Cain was a giant relief and exasperation. It was a relief because he returned to Sam and felt his legs halfway give out when he realized that his brother was alright.
The exasperation was what Cain wanted them to do.
"You want us to help you with the bees?" Dean repeated, looking at Sam who was already carefully slicing the honey off of the combs without hurting the bees. "Why?"
"I helped you, therefore you'll help me." Cain told him, eyes going to Mary who was standing next to him holding the bucket. They were leaning against one another and spoke in a low murmur. "Without her."
"Why can't she stay?" Dean asked, immediately bowing his head when Cain turned to look at him and raise his eyebrow. "Respectively."
"I have jobs for the two of you, only the two of you." Cain told him. "I lack the patience to deal with two underage half demons, let alone a third demon. She can visit eventually but ultimately, only you two will be here."
"We're not underage." Dean couldn't help but mumble. "We're of age."
"Live a few centuries and I'll consider you two of age." Cain told him, walking away making Dean have to follow him. "Until I think you two are done, you'll be working for me and doing as I say."
"And what are we going to be doing here?" Dean asked, not sure what he wanted to hear.
"Whatever I want. For now, it's the bees." Cain told him. "You two lack patience and restraint, both things you both will need."
"For what?"
Cain didn't answer that, just went over to Sam and took the bucket from him and gave him an empty one. Dean hesitated but then joined his mother and brother. "Is this all you've been doing since I was gone?"
"Pretty much, you went back home and he told me to take care of the bees. Showed me how to do it and...that's it." Sam said looking around the other containers. "Takes a while though, this is my third one."
Dean looked into the bucket that he was now filling. "What does he do with them?"
"No clue." Sam said, shaking his head. "I'm not in the position to ask though."
And now, neither was he. They both looked at their mom who just smiled at them.
"I'll talk to him." she said, leaning forward to kiss the tops of their heads. She stared at them for a moment longer before she started to walk towards the shed that Cain had gone to.
"She looks well, guess going to Hell helped her." Sam said softly.
"My money is just on time, she needed to get used to things again." Dean said. "Cain doesn't want her here, only wants us."
"Why?"
"No idea, but whatever he wrote in that note worked." Dean said crossing his arms over his chest as he watched his brother collect the honey. "You having fun?"
"It's not as fun as it looks, I know that I should be having a blast." Sam said dryly as he used his tool to nudge a bee away from his path. "It's alright, not what I expected to be doing."
"Yeah, same." Dean said, reaching out to take the bucket from Sam and just hold it in place. "Think this is all he'll want us to do? Tend to the bees?"
"Who knows, I'd like to think he has some sort of plan, he is a Knight." Sam said, falling silent when Cain and their mother were walking back to them. Mary had a bit of a worried expression on her face but smiled reassuringly at them.
"Your mother is leaving now, you two will remain." Cain told them. "And no, I don't know how long you'll be here, until I say so. You're not prisoners, but if you leave you are to return in twenty-four hours or less. Preferably less."
"What happens if we don't?" Dean couldn't help but ask.
"You'll find out." Cain told them. "One last question."
"What are we doing?" Sam asked after a moment, hesitant from his ranking.
"Whatever I say." Cain said. "Now, say goodbye to your mother. I'll let you know when she can come back here. If you leave she can meet you wherever you want, just not here."
With that Cain turned around and left them, going to one of the tables he had outside and lifting a box, rummaging through it.
"He doesn't like demons." Mary answered their questioning looks. "He said he tolerates the two of you because you're only half. Hence why I have to leave."
"We just got you back." Dean whispered, looking at her. Sam set his things down and crossed over to hug her tightly, Dean joined them after a moment. "Why do we have to keep saying goodbye?"
"Because the world is not kind to demons." Mary said, making the both of their chests clench, it was something she used to say a lot back then. They hadn't understood then but now...now it was something they realized on their own. "But we'll be alright, we'll try to keep in contact."
At that Dean reached into his pocket and took out his cell phone, he didn't have anything else in there other than Sam's number and a few pictures that he didn't really care about. He handed it to her.
"This is a phone, just look under Sam's number and press the green button, you can call us like that." Dean told her. He and Sam had a few better ways of communication after all. "This way if we're too far to meet up we can use this. And we can talk every night."
Mary smiled and nodded, taking the phone from him and turning it around to look at it from all sides. "Alright." she said, reaching out to hug them tightly one more time. "I should get going before Cain gets mad. Or madder at least."
It hurt but then nodded and moved away from her, her hands came up to cup their cheeks, thumb stroking over the skin, before she pulled away as well. She walked a small distance away, glancing back at them one more time before she took a deep breath and disappeared.
Sam and Dean looked at one another before turning and walking back to Cain, stopping a respectful distance away and awaiting whatever he wanted from them.
"Samael, keep gathering honey." Cain told them without turning to look at them. "Dean, you're going to be jarring and labeling the honey that he collects." He gestured to the box that they could now see was full of empty jars and paper. "Get to work."
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