Thank you MaggieMay17 for beta'ing, Ncsupnatfan and VegasGranny for pre-reading, and you all for reading.

Chapter Thirteen

Dean and Nick were making their way back from the garage, having gone into town to get pizza for a late lunch, after a morning spent in discussions of Magnus. Neither of them were speaking, and when Dean came to a dead stop, Nick took a few more paces before realizing Dean wasn't with him.

He stopped and looked back. "What's wrong?"

In answer, Dean pressed a finger to his lips.

Frowning, Nick listened and then heard what had made Dean stop. It was laughter, Mary's laughter. It had been a while since Nick had heard it at all, and it had never been so carefree and loud as it was now.

They set off walking again, Dean taking the lead into the library and then coming to a stop again. Nick moved in front of him and then stopped, too.

Sam was sitting at the table with Castiel, Mary, and Jack. Mary's eyes were bright with happiness, and Jack's smile tentative, but what shocked Nick was the fact Sam was smiling, too. He was happy in a way Nick hadn't seen since long before the seals started breaking. In fact, he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen his brother like this.

"Sammy," Dean said quietly.

Sam looked up at him, and his smile grew. "Hey, Dean."

"Sam came back to speak to Violet and to spend some time with us," Mary said, her delight obvious.

"Awesome," Dean said. "You hungry? We got pizza."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Not so much with the hunger these days, Dean. I've not had an appetite in… months."

"Years," Castiel corrected, shooting Sam a strange look.

Sam looked startled for a moment, possibly because of the reminder of the fact he had no autonomy for many years. Nick was annoyed that Castiel was pointing that out. He'd have expected Castiel to have more tact than that. He wasn't the blunt angel he'd been in the beginning, he was the one that had the most contact with Sam, and Dean said Sam was opening up to him.

"Nice, Cas," Nick said, shooting him a pointed look.

Castiel looked confused and then frowned. "I'm sorry, Sam," he muttered.

Sam shrugged. "It's fine. Yeah, I guess it has been years. Sleep is a non-issue, too. I got some in the immediate aftermath of the switch when I was healing, but that didn't last long. It was good while it lasted."

Dean carried the beers to the table and said, "You drink, though? I know Cas has done that."

"Yeah," Nick said, carrying over the pizza and setting them down on the table. "There was that whole liquor store binge."

Sam smirked, and Nick guessed it was a story Castiel had told Sam when they'd been off doing whatever it was they did when they weren't here.

Mary reached across the table, pulled the top pizza box over and flipped open the lid. "If Sam's not eating, we might as well start before it gets cold."

"Nothing wrong with cold pizza," Dean said, hesitating behind the chair next to Sam and then apparently deciding to go with it, pulling it out and sitting down. "It makes a good breakfast."

"If you're a savage," Nick said, sitting beside Jack, opposite Sam and Dean.

"You're too damned fussy," Dean said, taking a slice and then biting into it and talking around his mouthful. "I thought cold pizza was a staple of college life."

"Yeah, so's marijuana, but I avoided that, too," Nick said.

Mary considered him a moment and then smiled and picked up a slice.

"So, how did it go in Tibet, Sam?" Nick asked.

A strange tension crossed Sam's face for a moment before he answered. "It was fine. I took out a couple of bakeneko, which was a first."

"I don't know them," Mary said.

"They don't usually come out of Asia," Sam said. "Feline origin monsters. They're big on eating entrails. They were supposed to have tails, but I didn't see any. Not that I really looked closely. I was busy."

"I'll bet," Nick said.

He'd seen the state of Sam after he'd faced the monsters outside the bunker that Michael had set up to stop him getting in, and he'd not looked good. He was fully powered now, but it must still be a hard fight.

"Was it very difficult?" Mary asked, concern in her voice.

"Not really," Sam said. "I've got the hang of smiting now, so I can take them down easily enough. But then Cas showed up, and we went on a field trip."

"I thought you called Cas," Dean said.

"Uh, yeah, I did," Sam said, shooting Castiel an amused glance that Nick thought there was a story behind it. "But I didn't expect him to come so soon." He turned his attention back to Mary. "No, it's not hard to deal with them. I think the biggest thing is going to be finding them all. I need to know how many Michael made so I know how many to track down. I might also have to go to the Brits to find out how many the other Men of Letters have taken out."

Mary set down the crust of her slice and asked, "What will you do when it's all over, when there are no more to hunt?"

Sam's face fell into lines of sadness for a moment. Castiel gave him a curious look, and then Sam said, "I guess I'll work that out when it's over. There's usually something else to fight."

"Yeah, there is," Dean sighed. "Though Chuck seemed to think we'd be okay now."

"I wouldn't rely on his reassurance," Sam said, the words bitten off and angry.

An awkward silence fell over the room that Dean broke with an awkward laugh. "Speaking of reassurance, do you remember your Lego, Sammy?"

Sam frowned. "Lego? Uh, yeah. Why?"

"Do you remember telling Nicky that it was possible to make a bullet out of it?"

From the look on his face, Nick was pretty sure Sam had no idea what he was talking about, but he nodded and said, "Yeah, sure."

Dean began to laugh genuinely this time. "You remember this, Nicky?"

Nick searched his memories, and then his cheeks colored. "Yeah. I remember, but we really don't need to talk about it."

"I think we do," Mary said eagerly.

"Yeah, I want to hear it," Jack said, grabbing another slice of pizza.

Dean winked at Nick and said, "Okay. Sam told him sneezes came out at the speed of light, so if you had something up your nose and sneezed, it would become a bullet. Nick shoved a Lego man up his nose. Problem was, he couldn't sneeze. Sammy had him sniff up a bunch of pepper packets he'd brought back from the diner."

"You obviously planned this well, Sam," Mary said, her tone disapproving despite the glimmer of happiness in her eyes.

"He did," Dean said. "Anyway, Nick couldn't sneeze, and he couldn't pull it out. I came back and found Nick digging up his nose with his finger, jamming that thing higher and higher, and Sam almost peeing himself with laughter."

They all laughed, even Sam, though his came a little later than theirs, and it made Castiel shift uncomfortably.

"How did you get it out?" Mary asked.

Dean grinned. "Tweezers out of the first aid kit. Sam had to pin Nick down, though, since he wasn't exactly eager for me to do it."

"What did John say about it?" Mary asked curiously.

No one answered, and then Sam cleared his throat and said, "He was pretty mad about it when he found out. I think he took my allowance for a couple weeks. Not sure."

Dean shot Sam a smile and said, "Yeah. It wasn't good."

Nick watched Sam, feeling a rush of fondness for him. John hadn't said anything about it as it was long over by the time he'd gotten back to the motel—days later—and none of them had told him. The fact Sam was cushioning Mary from that, even though he'd not been there to see Mary's initial shock and sadness when she'd discovered the way their childhoods changed and how absent John had been after she died, was good to see.

"Jack!" Castiel said suddenly as if struck by an idea. "Sam has something for you."

Jack frowned and lowered his slice. "You do?"

Sam smiled slightly. "Yeah. I figured I owed you something." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small glass vial that was swirling with grace. There wasn't much, less than Gabriel had been able to offer when they'd tried to use his to open a rift to the other world, but there was some, and Jack's eyes fixed on it as Sam set the vial down on the table.

"Is that yours?" Dean asked, his voice tense.

Nick was feeling uneasy, too. Chuck had offered to take Sam's grace, but he'd said it came at a risk to Sam. If Sam was experimenting with removing it, even with Castiel's help, it could be dangerous. And it would leave him weakened when he was facing Michael's monsters.

"No," Sam said. "Technically, it's Michael's. I took it from his creations before I killed them." He addressed Jack, his tone careful, "You might not want it, but I figured you deserved to choose. It will power you up faster than your grace can do alone."

"Do you want it, Jack?" Castiel prompted when Jack just continued to stare at the vial.

Jack considered a moment and then said, "If I take it, do I become Michael?"

"No," Sam said confidently. "It doesn't work that way."

"Castiel said when we thought you were Lucifer but acting weird that you might have been better to us because you were affected by my grace. He said there were… feelings attached."

Sam looked at Castiel, brow furrowed, and Nick guessed it was news to him.

"It wouldn't turn you into Michael," Castiel said. "This is such a small amount and should have little to no attachments. The amount Lucifer took from you, and the grace I took from the angels when I was powerless, was much more than this. Michael gave his creations the merest amount. Even if you took the grace Sam retrieved from every single monster that Michael made, it would not change who you are."

Jack didn't look appeased, and Sam spoke up. "You don't have to take it, Jack. It can be tipped down a drain or stuffed in a drawer. I'm not sure if there's a way to destroy it, but we can try that, too. Cas?"

"It can't be destroyed," Castiel said. "But it can be disposed of. We could visit Mount Kīlauea, Sam?"

Sam grinned. "Okay, now we're doing that with or without the grace. I was hoping Michael would have dropped some monsters in Barbados, but seeing a volcano sounds even better."

Nick wondered if there was a chance the rest of them could go along for one of these trips. The fact the world was open to Sam and Castiel was great; it was awesome for Sam to have something good about being an archangel to hang onto. He figured that flying together would be pretty special for them all if they could go along, and it would be a way for them to spend time with Sam.

"What do you think, Jack?" Mary asked.

"I don't want it," Jack said quietly, avoiding Sam's eyes as if wary of upsetting him. "But I don't think we should destroy it."

"Then we stick it in a curse box," Dean said. "We'll add to it as Sam brings it in, and that way, we've got it if we need it for something.

"What would we need it for?" Nick asked.

Dean shrugged. "I don't know. All I've seen it do is open a rift, and—"

"And we're not doing that again," Mary said firmly. "Bobby and his people are settled here now. We don't need it.

Castiel and Sam exchanged a glace in which silent communication seemed to pass between them. Castiel looked uncertain, but Sam seemed almost intrigued. Nick couldn't think of a reason for Sam to go to a different world, and Bobby and his people had settled.

"Speaking of rifts?" Dean said. "Sammy, when we were preparing to deal with Michael's vessel, we found the Seal of Solomon on him. We were going to find out if it had been used to open a rift."

"I don't think it was," Mary said. "The only world I can imagine Michael wanting to access is his own, and that would be to bring his angels here. Obviously, that hasn't happened."

Sam seemed to be focusing on something outside the room for a long moment, his brow furrowed, and then his attention came back to Mary, and he said. "Give me the seal, and I'll take it to Billie. She might be able to sense something."

"Or you could just ask her," Castiel said, a worried note to his tone. "She would know."

Sam shrugged. "I'll take it with me when I go, and she can check it out."

"Okay," Dean said happily. "I'll get it before you leave."

"When will you be leaving?" Mary asked with an intensity that was probably unintentional.

Sam shrugged. "I've got to speak to Violet before I go, but I shouldn't wait too long. These monsters are going to be hungry."

Mary's face fell. "Yeah, I guess."

"Go when you need and come back when you can, Sammy," Dean said. "It's not like we're going to run out of time to see each other."

Sam nodded. "I will come back when I can. I'll go see her now."

He pushed back his chair and got to his feet. With all eyes on him, Mary's sad, he strode from the room.

When he was gone, Mary dropped down the piece of pizza she was eating and reached for a beer instead. "You had to ask about the Seal, Dean," she said. "Now, he's going again."

Dean scowled. "He will come back. We had something good tonight. Let's not push him for more than he can give."

Castiel cleared his throat and said, "Sam can hear us still, you know."

Nick blinked. "Seriously?"

"He's an archangel; he has much sharper senses than I do."

"Sorry, Sam," Mary said quietly.

"I'm sure he understands," Castiel assured her.

Nick looked to the door, wondering if Sam was going to come back and answer, but he didn't.

Dean handed the beers to Nick and Jack and then unscrewed the cap of his own. "Who's up for a movie after dinner?" he asked.

They'd already discussed the fact they were going to look up the spell that had opened the door to Magnus' place last time when they'd eaten, but Nick figured Dean was trying to create normal for Sam.

When he was gone, they could get back to work on the Magnus problem. He wasn't going to be invested in that since he didn't think Magnus had anything to do with the spell. Let him focus on what he needed to do, and they could do what they had to.

And then, next time he was here and they could talk, Nick would see if he could get some kind of connection that he'd not felt this time. There had been a flicker when they'd talked about the Lego incident, but there had been distance even then. Sam seemed more relaxed with Mary and Dean. He held himself back from Nick.

Hopefully, time and patience would fix that.

So… A little family bonding and some unspoken communication between Sam and Castiel. Yep, Sam is mulling something over.

Until next time…

Clowns or Midgets xxx