AN: Wow. I'm so sorry it has been this long since I last updated. I meant to update at Christmas, but we actually had big family/travel plans this year and I didn't have time. I was also so busy getting myself on the dean's list my first semester in college that I sprained my hand and could hardly write, let alone type. It sucks to be smart. :p
"For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible."-Stuart Chase
Chapter 6
The next morning, Reid and Rossi go to talk to the Winchester brothers. When they arrive they are surprised to see Dean pacing the cell and Sam still asleep on his mattress on the floor. Dean had changed clothes at some point and his bloody clothes were half-folded and thrown on the top bunk. He stops his pacing abruptly when he spots the agents.
"Dean Winchester, it's nice to see you on your feet." Agent Rossi greets, approaching the cell, but not entering. "I'm Agent Rossi and this is Agent Reid."
Dean crosses his arms over his chest.
"Well I can say it's not nice to see you." Dean growls, clearly not pleased with the circumstances he awoke to.
"I'm a little surprised you're awake. Castiel gave us the impression you would be asleep longer." Reid says, ignoring Dean's tone.
"Cas?" Dean asks, coaxing an eyebrow.
"Yes, you were having a nightmare and Castiel did… something, that made you rest peacefully."
Dean smirks. "The two-fingered forehead poke?" he asks.
"Yes." Reid replies simply, feeling like he is missing some hidden meaning.
Dean nods.
"We were wondering if you and your brother could answer some questions." Rossi says, getting them back on subject.
"If it's about who killed those men in Pontiac, it was me. You can let my brother go; he has nothing to do with this." Dean says firmly, coming closer to the bars.
"We know that." Rossi replies, "But Sam refused to leave your side. Not to mention the myriad of other crimes both of you have been accused of."
"He refused to leave?" Dean asks surprised, looking down at his sleeping brother. "Even after I…" Dean swallows thickly, gesturing at his throat, unable to finish the question.
"We did offer to put you in separate cells, but Sam requested you stay together." Reid informs him.
Dean watches his brother sleep for a moment before turning back to the agents outside the cell.
"You said you wanted to talk to both of us right?" Dean asks, avoiding any more chick-flick-feeling moments.
"That would be useful, yes." Reid says, allowing the deflection.
Dean crouches down next to his sleeping brother.
"Yo, Sasquatch, time to get up." He says, shaking Sam's shoulder none too gently.
Sam mumbles in annoyance and tries to roll away.
"Sam, you're going to be late for school!" Dean says a little bit louder, a smirk crossing his features, but not reaching his eyes as Sam sits up, alert.
Dean chuckles.
"Dude, you haven't been in school in more than a decade and that still works."
Sam rubs his eyes blearily.
"Wha…" Sam starts in confusion. "Dean! Your awake!" he says, truly awake now.
"Gees, from the way everyone's talking you think I was in a coma or something." He says as he helps his brother to his feet. "We've got visitors." He adds, gesturing at Reid and Rossi.
"Dr. Reid." Sam says, coming over to the bars.
"Good morning Sam."
"Doctor Reid?" Dean asks, eyeing Reid suspiciously.
"Not a shrink." Sam assures.
"Good. I hate shrinks." Dean mumbles, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Is it still because of that wraith?"
"Dude, you of all people know how messed up that was. She tried to suck out your brain! Not to mention she called me, um, a 'paranoid schizophrenic with narcissistic personality disorder and religious psychosis.'"
"Dude, seriously? You memorized it?"
"Shut up."
"You were diagnosed with schizophrenia?" Reid asks, bringing the brothers back to the present.
They look out the cell bars at Reid.
"It's amazing how easy it is to be institutionalized if you want to be." Dean says, somewhat guardedly, trying to end the discussion and feeling they may have said too much.
"A friend of our dad's, Martin Creaser, had called us in to find what was killing the patients at a psychiatric hospital. He was a former hunter who couldn't take the stress of the job and had admitted himself, but you can't shake a hunter's instinct…"
Dean pulls Sam a little away from the bars so they are facing each other. "Sam! What are you doing!?" He whispers urgently.
"We're telling the truth, and don't give me that look. This wasn't my idea. It was Cas', so if you want to yell at someone, yell at him."
Dean runs a weary hand over his face and they both go back to the cell bars.
"I believe we should continue this conversation in a more comfortable setting." Rossi says, more comfortable now that Sam is awake and seeing them interact. He motions to a guard to come open the cell. Rossi leads them down the hall and Reid follows behind Sam in the back.
"What, no cuffs?" Dean asks a little surprised as they are lead to a cushy looking lounge with couches. "Well this is different…" Dean says, suspicious of his surroundings.
Dean looks to Sam, to see if he was expecting this. Sam shrugs in response.
"So what's the catch?" Dean asks Rossi, crossing his arms over his chest and refusing to enter farther into the room.
"There's no catch. We just want to talk." Rossi says, sitting down on one couch and gesturing for Sam and Dean to sit across from him.
Sam sits comfortably and Dean hesitantly joins him, sitting on the edge of the couch apprehensively.
"Where do you want to start?" Sam asks as Reid takes a seat next to Rossi.
"I get the impression that starting from the beginning would take a while. For now let's just start with…" Rossi pulls out a small notebook with notes on it. "The Mark of Cain?" He asks, watching as Dean tenses and glances towards Sam and Sam nods reassuringly.
With a controlled exhale Dean presents his right forearm, the Mark an angry red against his skin.
"Interesting…" Reid says, leaning forward to get a closer look. "It looks very similar to the Aramaic "vav", or letter "w", which can also be read as the number six."
Dean pulls his arm back and covers the Mark with his left hand as if hiding it makes it go away.
"Yeah, well, it's the real deal. I have it; and it sucks." He says uncomfortably, not at all happy with the idea of telling these feds the truth, especially about the Mark.
"Castiel said it made you kill those people." Rossi says, trying to gage Dean's reaction.
Dean looks away from the group and swallows thickly, but doesn't say anything.
"Maybe we should…move to a different question." Sam says, sitting forward and watching his brother with concern.
Rossi considers pushing for more, but nods slowly, watching Dean. "We can do that…how about you tell us about your relationship with Mr. Novak?"
Dean snorts. "He hasn't been Jimmy for, what? Six years? Being atomized by an archangel does that to a guy." He says flippantly, grasping at the offered life-line to get away from talk of the Mark as fast as possible; even if it means reveling more asylum-worthy information.
"An archangel?" Rossi asks.
"Yeah, Old Raph' wasn't too pleased that we wanted to prevent the Apocalypse so he killed Cas. Apparently God was on our side and brought Cas back to life, but let poor Jimmy rest in peace."
Sam's eyes are wide as he looks at his brother. "I didn't know that Jimmy actually died."
"Yeah, I asked Cas about it 'case I was curious. I think it's better this way, the poor bastard had it rough."
"You should have told me!"
"You should've asked Cas." Dean retorts gruffly.
The boys glare at each other in silence for a moment before Rossi clears his throat.
"Can you tell me about your relationship with Castiel, then?" He tries, coming in from a different angle.
After a moment Dean gets back on topic. "Cas was the one who 'gripped me tight and raised me from perdition'." He quotes.
"That's an interesting wording. Castiel said something very similar." Rossi says, referencing his notes.
"It was the first thing he ever said to me. 'I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition.' You tend not to forget something like that."
"Are those the exact words?" Reid asks suddenly.
"Yeah. As far as I can remember. Why?" Dean asks, surprised by the younger man's question.
"Because it is verbatim to the Supernatural books by Carver Edlund."
Sam and Dean both groan and slouch back into the couch.
"It would be so satisfying to burn every copy of those books." Dean says.
"Yeah, but because of Becky they're on the internet." Sam says annoyed.
"If I ever get my hands on her…"
"Get in line. She didn't marry you." Sam scowls.
"Becky Rosen?" Reid cuts in.
"Yeah…but how'd you…?" Sam asks.
"She's in the books. But I wasn't aware she married Sam." Reid says sounding almost intrigued.
"That happened after Chuck stopped writing. She dosed me with a love potion she got from a crossroads demon. He was going to make it permanent in exchange for her soul. At least she was smart enough to come to us for help when she figured out he was a demon."
"Yeah, and signed the divorce papers with little fuss." Dean snorts, elbowing his brother.
Sam rolls his eyes and ignores Dean.
"Anyway, if you've read the 'Supernatural' books, then you already know most of our story." Sam tells Reid. "As it says in the books, Chuck was a prophet. Everything he wrote was true."
"What do you mean was a prophet?" Rossi asks, catching the use of past tense.
Dean leans forward in his seat. "As far as we know Chuck is dead. According to Cas there can only be one active prophet at a time and we met Kevin. So he must have died sometime after finishing 'Swan Song'." He explains.
"So this, Kevin, is a prophet?" Rossi asks.
Dean meets his eye for a moment, pain crossing his features before he looks away again.
"Was."
The word hangs in the air like poison. Guilt clearly heard in the single word.
Sam sighs, not wanting to start that particular argument again. Dean's never going to listen; no matter how many times Sam tells him it wasn't his fault.
"So the events in 'Skin' are the exact events that took place in St. Louis?" Reid asks, changing the subject abruptly and going back to Sam's earlier statement.
"St. Louis…that was a shape shifter, right?" Sam asks, using Reid's question as a way out of the land of guilt and chick-flick moments.
"Yes. The book says you found out about the murders through an email from one of your Stanford friends. Becky Warren's brother Zach, was accused of murdering his girlfriend Emily, and you decided to help prove his innocence."
"Oh, right. That was the first time we came on the FBI's radar." Sam says, remembering the case in question.
"Dude, how do you know all that?" Dean interrupts, staring Reid down. No normal person could know all that information in such great detail.
"I have an eidetic memory." Reid tells him, again choosing to ignore Dean's hostility.
Dean looks at him blankly.
"He remembers everything he sees." Sam informs Dean.
"Oh..." Dean says a little impressed.
"So…St. Louis." Rossi prompts, following the lead Reid had opened, and trying to get away from delusions and back to some actual facts.
"Right. St. Louis: shifter." Dean says, getting back on task. "I hate shifters. They can be freakin' anyone they want. That's what happened in St. Louis; the thing was changing into the guys that got framed and then killed the women. It just happened to look like me when I ganked it. That's why they declared me dead." He explains, giving the short version of the story. "Too bad I had to miss my own funeral…" he muses.
"I think we should have Garcia see if she can verify some of this information." Rossi says, standing to leave the room and make the call. It would be important to know how much of the details in these books were true, and how much, if any, truth there was to the Winchester's story. Were the Winchesters living their lives by following the books, or was this author using the Winchesters' delusions as inspiration for his stories?
"That sounds like a good idea, though I get the feeling that they will match up with reality." Reid says, thinking along the same line as the senior agent; that the events in the books very well could be connected to real events.
Rossi nods and leaves the room.
"You know, it's kind of refreshing to have people actually believe us for once." Dean says.
What do you think? Does Reid believe them? Or is he just playing along?
No guarantees on when the next chapter will be out. It is mostly written, but I need to decide where to go with this and the life of a college student can be quite insane.
Thank you for your patience and thank you for reading!
~Sari Dark