Chapter 3:

The trip to the hunting site was … awkward for the lack of a better word. John was driving with Dean riding shotgun. They were both tense, so tense that Mary thought they might jump out of their skins at the slightest sound. She decided to keep quiet and not startle them since she had no desire to die, again. The tension in the car was so bad that Mary could feel it tingling through her skin, like an army of ants that were crawling through her, right between her skin and innards. Surprisingly, Sam seemed immune to the tension, humming a cheery tune under his breath, eyes twinkling in amusement every time John or Dean startled when the tune hit a comparatively louder note. From what she knew of the boys, Sam used to be the one who was the most affected by such situations, even though he refused to show it. Mary wondered what had changed it all of a sudden.

The cage, Mom, and it didn't happen all of a sudden. I spent over a century in there. When you are stuck between two of the most powerful beings in existence who happens to hate each other's guts and has more emotional baggage than our entire extended family, you learn how to sail over stuff like this. This is nothing, Mom. John's just trying to guilt you into something or the other with his holier-than-thou attitude, which was ironically Michael's favoured tactic. Never worked on the Devil, though. Just pissed him off. The more angry that one is, the more frigid he gets. That led to lots of spectacular silent stare downs. Dean and John have got nothing on them.

Mary was very proud of the fact that she did not show any outward reaction as to how surprised she was when she heard her son's voice in her head. She turned to face him and raised an unimpressed eyebrow. Sam gave her an unapologetic grin and shrugged.

Why not? You know I can use my powers; so why should I hide them? Adam and I had a lot of fun doing this. There wasn't much to do in the cage. We played everything from hangman to poker. In fact, we even managed to rope in the Archangels. That had been hilarious. Michael sucks at poker; you can see everything that goes through his mind on his face. Lucifer can't lie to save his life. He can only lie by telling you the truth! He's excellent at that, by the way. Raphael's got a poker face on twenty four/seven and Gabriel is, well Gabriel. Oh! While I can to a certain extent sense and interpret people's emotions accurately, it's easier picking up their thoughts. So if you don't mind, please think up a response. It gets boring if I'm the only one talking. Thinking. Whatever.

You can read minds?

Eh, not really. It's more like I can hear people's thoughts. I mostly keep that ability switched off. Hearing everyone's thoughts nonstop is headache-inducing. Did you know that people think even during their sleep?

I did not.

It's not actively done you know. It's like their subconscious wakes up when they sleep. It's fascinating. The thoughts you hear when people are unconscious are stuff even they don't realize or acknowledge about themselves. Speaking of which, did you know that Dean's gay?

What? No! Since when?

Since forever?

But Dean sleeps around with women to the point that I'm worried he'll catch something! How is someone like that gay?!

That's a front. He hasn't accepted it himself, actually. So whenever he catches himself thinking that a guy is cute or something he'll pretty much go on a, well, is sleeping spree an actual term?

Wow. Wait how do you know that?

Well hearing his thoughts while he was sleeping confirmed it, but I've always suspected it. Especially after Cas showed up.

Are you telling me that my son has got the hots for a literal angel?

Yup. Poor guy doesn't know that Castiel's taken yet.

Who is it?

I'm not going to gossip about my best friend's love life with my mother, Mom. But they are a match made in Heaven. Hell, maybe. Nah, I think a match made in Earth is more accurate. Yup, that's about right. Match made in Earth. They make a cute couple though. Scary, even.

Never knew you were this talkative, Sam. The memories I woke up with made you seem like a quiet little thing.

Hey!

Okay, maybe not little, but you get my idea, right?

I used to be quiet. Talking out never brought me anything other than pain. John and Dean were never big on talking about what you feel and stuff. Plus they were pretty much dictators, John more than Dean. My opinion never mattered much to them. Believe it or not, the Devil listened to me much more than those two did even during the whole let's-torture-the-pathetic-humans stage that he had during the first five years in the cage. He got bored with it and we wound up trading stories for the next thirty years. The angels had a lot more to tell naturally, but even we shared bits and pieces of our life or even the plot of movies and such. Lucifer liked Van Helsing, while Michael went with the Hobbit. I learned a lot about Adam too.

Mary tried to subdue the rising horror at the thought of her son being tortured. She must have been unsuccessful because Sam reached out and took her hand and mouthed an "I'm okay now." to her. She shuddered and slid closer to her son her hand still in his. He leaned against her and settled his head on her shoulder. They stayed like that for a while, merely basking in each other's presence. Mary noticed John watching them through the rear mirror but ignored him. Dean on the other hand had fallen asleep ten minutes ago.

You sound like you are close to them.

Yeah. It's hard to hate people when they are not just a vague idea. Once you know someone for real, you can never see them as just an enemy that needs to be taken down. They take flesh and blood; they become real in our mind. The moment a soldier realizes the ones in the opposite side of the war are real people with dreams and troubles and pain and families: people waiting for them to return safely, he'll never be able to kill a soldier from another side and sleep without a troubled conscience. That's what happened to me. Hearing them speak of themselves, the horrible lives they have led makes it impossible to hate them. Lucifer wound up imprisoned in a cage for many millennia even by earth's standards. Time goes differently in Hell. Just imagine going from living in a place where you share your minds and thoughts with thousands of others to complete isolation for thousands of millennia. Lucifer was desperate to get out of the cage and stay out of it. That's why he fought as much as he did. He was terrified of going back into the cage and if he stopped fighting he would just wind up back there. Michael pretty much had a mental breakdown after he had to throw the brother he raised into the cage. Took Raphael centuries to coax Michael out of his room, apparently. Still has PTSD by the sound of it. So, yeah. I feel sorry for them. Considering that they and Adam were pretty much my only company for over a century, I'm close to them. Love them like a family, even.

I'm glad you got out of the place, though.

Me too.