Chapter 13: The simplest answer is usually the right one

Sam grumbled to himself as he sat at Bobby's table, half a dozen pairs of eyes looking at him with either concern or fear. "I am fine." He had said. "I am in control. " He had argued. They didn't believe him. Rowena and Crowley stood to the side, Cas and Dean right in his face, Bobby and Gabriel in between.

"Explain it again, Sam, please, because I just can't understand. I can't understand how, after everything, you could just…" Dean trailed off, grunting in anger and shaking his head.

"Dean…" Cas tried, but it only served to piss him off even more.

"I can contain him, Dean. I can release him, I can send him to the cage, heck, I could even kill him." Sam said.

"Really?" The voice inside his head sounded so small and apprehensive, and Sam decided it was best not to answer it.

"It is true." Gabriel spoke up. "You can't see it, Deano-o, but Cassie here and I can. Sam's getting more powerful. He can hold Lucy. And he can do so much more." Dean casted him a glance, before looking back at his brother, and Sam knew why Dean was like this. It wasn't that he didn't trust Sam's words, it wasn't that he didn't believe Sam could in fact hold the Devil; it was that he just didn't trust Lucifer.

Speaking of the Devil, he was being oddly silent considering he hadn't stopped yapping since Sam let him in, he really loved the sound of his own voice. But Sam had other things to worry about, and he certainly wasn't going to worry about Lucifer.

"Alright. Fine. What's next?" Dean asked, finally settling, deciding to focus on something else, and Sam let out a relieved sigh, then took a moment to just relax and compile his answer. Taking a deep breath, he looked around, his eyes drifting to Bobby and he smiled warmly at him before refocusing on Dean.

"Well, we got Lucifer's grace, now we just need to find the spell to extract him from the Empty."

"What's the Empty?" Sam heard Lucifer ask, but ignored him.

"A spell? And where do we find that spell?" Dean asked, frowning in disbelief.

"The bunker."

"Wait. Are you telling me we had a spell to extract someone from the Empty this whole time and…" Sam could see his brother getting pissed again, so he hurried to stop him.

"No. No, we didn't. We don't… It's just that…" Sam paused, trying to find a best way to explain. "Look, whenever we were in deep, there always turned out to be a spell - whether it was to get rid of the mark, to open a portal to the Apocalypse world, or to… to bring back Eileen." It stinged, to remember her and to know she got left behind, but that was just Sam's life. Jess, Madison, Sarah, Amelia… They were…

"Anyway, there is always a spell, and I figured out that it was… They were planted. By Chuck. And now that I… That I am connected to him, I think… Maybe…"

"You could plant one yourself. Clever thinking." Gabriel smiled, and was that a proud smile on his face? It looked so weird.

"But why the bunker?" Cas questioned.

"Well, it has a library filled with spells and all kinds of lore and much more room for all of us." Sam explained, glancing again at Bobby. He didn't want him to think his place wasn't good enough, it was their very first home and it always will be, but the bunker did have so much more resources. "It's in Lebanon. Think you're gonna love it, Bobby. So many books on stuff you couldn't even imagine." Bobby nodded, and Sam could see a hint of a smile twitching his lips, but he remained his ever-grumpy self.

"Well, what are we waitin' for then? Pack yer skirts, we're headed on a road trip." Bobby shouted, then ducked out of sight, probably to pack. Not skirts, just clothes and probably a few more hats.

Crowley cleared his throat and Sam rolled his eyes, then retrieved three syringes of blessed blood and gave it to him. They nodded at each other, and Crowley blinked away, back to Hell, but Sam knew he could count on him if needed - not because they were buddies now, but because the demon will need another fix. Dean raised a brow at them, but said nothing.

"We'll see you there." Gabriel threw back before offering his hand to Rowena like a gentleman Sam never knew him to be.

"No funny business between the shelves!" Dean shouted, but they already disappeared. Sam let out a laugh, relaxing just a bit. He could feel Lucifer's curiocity, so he showed him the image of Gabriel and Rowena when they caught them in the library and was surprised to hear the Devil laugh, saying "Way to go, bro!"

"Team Free Will 3000." Dean said sarcastically "Three washed up hunters, an angel, a messenger of God, one witch and one trapped Devil with demons on a back burner. Splendid." Wow, Dean really was pissy. He didn't like this, Sam could tell, but they both knew they had to do this.

"Who ya callin' washed up?" Bobby scolded as he entered the room and Cas actually smiled as Dean shrunk down before his haze. Sam smiled too. It wasn't ideal, they still had a long way to go before they could be free, but things were already better then they normally were. Right about now they would be hit with something bad, a tragedy or something, and as much as his hunter instincts were telling him to look around the corner, Sam knew, just knew, that nothing bad was coming their way.

Riding the Impala with Dean at the driver's seat and Bobby and Cas in the back felt like the good old times. Which was maybe a bit absurd since none of that actually happened in this timeline, or was happening right now, in a way. The good now times. They could have just asked Gabriel to snap them, Impala and all, to the bunker, but it seemed like he wanted some time alone with Rowena, they did seem good for each other. Besides, they could use a little breather.

"How's everything… You know… Up there?" Dean asked, motioning for Sam's head. He was worried about Lucifer being in his head again.

"He's… Uncharacteristically quiet." Sam said and knew it should be concerning, but Sam just knew it was fine. Fine. Nothing to worry about. Dean glanced his way, and Sam could read it in his expression that he didn't like it, none of it, but he kept his mouth shut.

The drive wasn't supposed to be long, only 6 hours, four with Dean's driving, yet Dean insisted they take a break, get some food in a diner by the road. Maybe he just wanted to take a breather, things were happening quickly, they already managed to cram a few years of their previous experience into a few short weeks of their current existence.

"Seriously. I am fine." Sam tried his best to look as sincere as possible, to really show Dean he was in fact - fine, because his brother kept throwing him worried glances, not even bothering to look away when Sam met his burning gaze. "Alright, look. He is quiet. I am not seeing him around like a hallucination, like… like I used to." Sam started, and Cas ducked his head. Sam could feel guilt seeping out of him, but he ignored it.

"I am fine, I swear. And the faster we get Jack back, the faster we can get this over with." Sam said, trying to make Dean understand. "If we can just get Jack back, then we can try and figure out a way to… I dunno, transfer the power onto him, or something. Chuck feared him and he feared him for a reason, so we need him. And to get Jack, we need Lucifer."

"And then? What about after that?"

"I don't know. We send him back to the cage?" They could also strip him of his powers and let him be, let him loose on the world, that would work too. But it wasn't an issue now, Lucifer didn't matter. Dean shook his head, still clearly hating this whole thing, but at least he focused on his food now, and Sam knew that was the best he could hope for from his brother. Bobby on the other hand just listened and remained quiet, while Cas's face flashed with a microfrown, gone in a blink.

Sam really wanted them off this topic already and focusing on getting Jack back.

Something that proved to be a lot more difficult as he thought it would be. There was no spell.

When they got to the bunker a few hours later, Sam combed through every book Sam already knew by heart, completely ignoring Bobby's amazement, Dean's grumpiness and Cas's concerned and curious glances. He didn't even notice that Rowena and Gabriel weren't there at first, he only remembered them when they came out of the kitchen with mugs of coffee and tea and cookies (where did those come from?)

"Sam." Cas tried to get his attention, and when calling upon the hunter didn't work, he set a warm, soothing hand on his shoulder. "Sam." He said again and shook his head. This wasn't working.

"This isn't working." Dean said.

"I don't understand." Sam replied.

"I know I'm just an old mechanic…" Bobby started, finally speaking up and sounding way too sympathetic for Sam's liking "...and I don't know much about quantum physics, but I am not sure you can extract someone from a timeline in which he never existed."

Cas let out a sigh and Bobby looked at him. "Bobby is correct. However, since even thee rules of quantum physics were written by God, I assumed… I hoped Sam would be able to rewrite them. I just…"

"I can't believe this. I can't believe that I can't… That this can't… That it can't be done." Sam interrupted, feeling a bit lost, like a writer with a writer's block. He thought he knew how to end this story, he through he knew how to make it all happen, and now, he was stuck on a filler chapter.

"Maybe we can't extract Jack from the nonexistent future, but you can still make him the old fashioned way." Gabriel pointed out, and the whole room fell silent, just staring at him. Gabriel blinked a few times, surprised, then took a step back, raising his hands in surrender mode. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"We could never ask Kelly to do that, to go through that." Dean said firmly and Sam found that he agreed with his brother. They could never ask her to do something that would only hurt her, and kill her in the end.

"Perhaps you need someone stronger to bear the child?" Rowena interjected. Like a good little witch, she knew what a nephilim was and she knew that their human mothers don't survive the childbirth. But if the mother was otherwise 'stronger', maybe even magically enhanced…

"You mean powerful, like you?" Dean's time was practically dripping in accusation, but as Rowena smirked at his comments, Sam found himself blushing, remembering just what 'the old fashioned way' implied.

Suddenly, Gabriel stepped forth and snapped his fingers, morphing his vessel into a female one, with all the right curves in all the right places, with long golden hair and stunning hazel eyes. "How about this, stud?" He purred and Sam's eyes went comically wide as he backed away from him.

"Hey, Goldilocks. Drop it." Dean said. "You're an archangel and Sam's… Well… I'm pretty damn sure that wouldn't make a nephilim." Dean stumbled a bit over his own words, but they all knew what he meant.

"Dean's right. None of it would work. It took a very specific set of circumstances that led to Jack being born the way he was, for him to be the way he was. There was Kelly's kindness and her sacrifice, Cas's willingness to be a father figure, to show him the world…"

"Your willingness to keep him safe when I couldn't…" Cas said with a kind smile directed at Sam.

"And my willingness to shoot the kid." Dean added with a huff, half regret, half amusement in his voice. Gabriel frowned, confused.

"Shoot him? Like with a gun? You did know the kid was a nephilim, right?" Dean huffed a laugh, and Cas smiled too. It was funny, but it was that biter kind of funny, the kind that laid heavily upon their chest as they missed someone who technically never existed.

"What does… What does Lucifer think of all this? Does he have any bright ideas?" Dean asked, turning to Sam and Sam paused. He realized Lucifer never once made any smartass comment, not a sneer, not one ironic, sarcastic remark. He had been quiet. Way too quiet.

"No, nothing." Sam replied. "Excuse me." He said. "Gotta go to the bathroom." Like that wasn't a complete lie most people in the room could see right through. But they let him. They let him have a moment. So Sam stumbled in one of the bunker's bathrooms, going for the sink. He splashed some water on his face, whipped it with his sleeve (cuz yeah, nobody's been in the bunker in the past 50 years, so there were no fresh towels around), and caught his reflection in the mirror. Nothing there but Sam Winchester.

He leaned in and stared and his reflection just stared back.

For a moment, panic flashed through him with the thought that Lucifer might have left, but as he felt around inside, he found a little cocoon of light, buried deep inside his mind. He poked at it until it let him in.

Sam was in a garden. No, scratch that, Sam was in The Garden, the one and only Eden. He shouldn't know that, but it was something instinctual and he just knew that this was it. This is what it looked like before God made Man. This, or more accurately, a manifestation of this was where the devil hid.

He found Lucifer sitting at the trunk of a really big tree, hiding in it's shade. "Oh, hey Sam." The devil said.

The tone was carefully calm, though Sam could detect a hint of sadness in it that Lucifer obviously tried to mask.

"Hey." He said back dumbly.

"You figure out how to get the kid yet?" Lucifer asked as if he didn't already know. Or maybe he didn't?

"No, not yet…" Sam said, then took a few steps closer. He felt like sitting down. So he sat down on the softest grass he ever felt under his fingers. "...I… I was so sure we could just fabricate a spell."

"Did you try and write one?"

"Um… No. I don't… I don't think that's how it works." Sam replied.

"Well, you should know. You do share His power. You know, I bet you can just imagine Jack there and he would be." Lucifer said, and could it be that simple? Sam jumped to his feet, all too eager to go and try, but something made him pause.

Sam turned and gave Lucifer one long, good look. The devil didn't move, didn't try and hurt him, didn't even make one snarky comment. He didn't even try to take was it that he couldn't?

"Are you… Why aren't you doing anything?"

"And what would I do, Sam?"

"Try and break free? Take over, I don't know."

"But you do, Sam, you do know." Lucifer said and Sam just looked at him for a few moments before it dawned on him.

"You're still caged. My body, the God power… It's keeping you caged. Confined."

"Hey, at least the view's better here." Lucifer said with a shrug, then looked away, and Sam realized something. He realized that, just like Chuck, he was using Lucifer. Using him and planning to discard him later on, just like Chuck did. And that wasn't right, not even for someone like Lucifer. Sam opened his mouth to say something when his consciousness was pulled back to the real world.

"Hey. You ok?" It was Dean, of course it was Dean. Sam nodded, giving his brother a small reassuring smile. And even if he knew it would go to his head, Sam told him "You were right." And he huffed a laugh when Dean raised a surprised, but curious brow. "Lucifer did give me an idea."

Together they walked back to the war room. Sam saw everyone look or at least glance his way, a hint of worry in everyone's eyes, even Gabriel's and Rowena's, though technically they didn't know him, they weren't from his time and they shouldn't care. Yet they did. They all cared. Sam smiled, feeling his brother's hand on his shoulder, then nodded to show he was alright.

He took a deep breath and then another. On the third deep breath, he let his eyes slip closed. There was no need for a big display, no finger snapping, Sam just imagined it and let his breath out, releasing energy along with it.

And suddenly, there, right in the middle of the room, there was Jack. Jack, as Sam remembered him. Jack, as he was when he was first born. Scared, confused, naked. He looked around the room, his eyes big, wide, terrified. His mouth opened as if to speak, then closed. He flinched when Gabriel moved, and stepped back when Cas reached for him.

A little too late, Sam realized what he had done. This was Jack as he was when he was first born. He didn't know them, he didn't have the same connection to any of them, Cas included. And Sam brought him into a room filled with people. He felt crowded. He felt cornered. He was scared. He was just a kid.

"Hello, Jack." Cas said and took a step forward, reaching for him. Sam could feel Cas's need to protect the kid, his concern and his eagerness to help him, but this Jack didn't know him. This Jack didn't know any of them.

"Hey, kid. Why don't you relax, take a breath?" Dean tried, stepping closer too, and Jack turned his big, wide eyes at him, gasped, almost whining, fear and sorrow morphing his expression.

And then he simply disappeared.