Despite her insisting, the Winchesters refused to let her follow them into the building. For her own safety, they said. Zoe sat in the backseat, listening to the radio in hopes it would alleviate the boredom. It did not work.
"First thing I tell you, kid. And what do you do? You do the exact opposite."
Zoe jumped at Gabriel's sudden appearance, but didn't say anything.
"Kiddo," Gabriel said, "Do you know why the first rule of time travel is not mess with the timeline?"
Zoe remained silent.
"Because you'll end up making things worse!" Gabriel said, "Sooner or later, Bobby will lose the ability to walk, except this time it wasn't a stab in the leg and Zachariah being a dick."
"What did you want me to do?" Zoe asked, "Let Bobby stab himself and be rushed to the hospital?"
"YES!" Gabriel shouted, "Because that's what is supposed to happen."
"The outcome'll stay the same," Zoe tried.
Gabriel shook his head, "Kid, minor changes create a ripple effect. If you continue to mess with the timeline, you'll end up making it worse. You need to stop."
He disappeared, leaving her alone.
.
.
Sam and Dean ran to the impala, both of them supporting an unconscious Bobby.
"What happened?" she asked as she helped them get Bobby into the backseat.
"Zachariah," Dean said, "Tried to convince me to say yes to Michael. When I said no, well…"
Bobby remained unconscious. Zoe tried not to look at the odd angle his legs were. As Dean started the car, he paused as a thought occurred to him. He turned around.
"Did you know?" he asked her, "That I was the Michael sword?"
She didn't answer, but her silence was answer enough. Sam turned away from her in silence as Dean drove to the nearest hospital.
"Would have been a nice little detail, you know?" Dean continued, "Would have saved us a whole lot of trouble."
.
.
.
Zoe sat outside the hospital room as the doctors broke the news to Bobby. After much shouting and the doctors leaving Bobby alone lest they be on the receiving end of his temper. She remained silent as Dean told Bobby that she knew he was the Michael sword. Bringing up a new silent discussion on whether or not she was working with the angels.
"Keep an eye on her," Bobby said, "Make sure she's in your sights at all time."
She placed her head in her hands, and cursed silently. She'd messed up. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap.
Bobby had gone through more pain than originally planned. Zachariah had slowly shattered every bone in Bobby's legs, and doctors were unsure if he'd be able to regain feeling much less walk.
"Way to go, Domingues," she muttered.
"What do we do now?" Sam asked.
"Well," Dean began, "We save as many as we can for as long as we can, I guess. It's bad. Whoever wins, heaven or hell, we're boned."
"What if we win?" Bobby asked.
There was a pause.
"I'm serious. I mean, screw the angels and the demons and their crap apocalypse," Dean said, "Hell, they want to fight a war, they can find their own planet. This one's ours, and I say they get the hell off it. We take 'em all on. We kill the devil. Hell, we even kill Michael if we have to. But we do it our own damn selves."
"And how are we supposed to do all this, genius?"
"I got no idea. But what I do have is a GED and a give-'em-hell attitude, and I'll figure it out."
Zoe chuckled. Dean always was one to never give up.
"You are nine kinds of crazy, boy," Bobby said.
"It's been said," Dean agreed, "Listen, you stay on the mend. We'll see you in a bit."
.
.
.
.
Castiel only briefly glanced at her as he approached the room. His attention, however, was focused elsewhere.
She didn't bother eavesdropping this time. Whatever the boys did, she no longer cared. She wanted to go home. To see her family. Not be stuck in a TV show making sure that everything went smoothly. She briefly wondered if it actually was a TV show. How would they view her? More importantly, in what violent way would she die?
Supernatural had a habit of killing it's female cast. Zoe only wondered if it would be painful.
She needed fresh air. Not bothering to tell the boys where she was going, she headed either to the nearest source of food since she had barely eaten anything.
The hospital had a small café. She ordered a Frappuccino, and a ham sandwich. It would keep her full, at least until the boys went for food. Or food that she could actually eat. Sam had been the only one to find an alternative to greasy hamburgers for her. Dean simply continued to look appalled.
When she finally got home, Zoe wondered if she'd look at the show the same way again. She'd barely made it to the second episode, and already Gabriel had called her out on her mistake.
"Hello Zoe."
She jumped when Castiel spoke.
"For fuck's sake, Castiel," she said, "One would think you'd know not to scare people."
"I apologize."
Zoe studied him. This was Kripke's Castiel. The socially awkward badass who used to be an asshole.
"So what brings the famed Castiel angel of the lord before me?" she asked taking a sip from her Frappuccino.
"Sam and Dean are searching for you," he said.
She shrugged, "So?"
"They believe you are working for heaven."
"Really?" She leant back, still holding her drink. "And what do you believe, Castiel?"
"I believe that they may be right," he replied leaning forward, "But I do not believe you are with Michael."
She remained silent.
"Why are you here, Zoe?"
She bit her cheek, as she decided on how to answer him.
"Promise you won't tell?" she asked.
"If it places Dean or Sam-?"
"It's not," she said quickly, "at least I hope not."
"Meaning?" Castiel asked.
"Zoe!"
They both turned to see both Winchesters walking towards them, neither of them looking happy. Zoe glanced briefly at Castiel before placing her drink on the table with an annoyed huff.
"Cas?" Dean asked looking surprised to see him.
"We will resume our conversation at a later time," Castiel said to her, before acknowledging the brothers and disappearing.
Zoe watching him go, before sighing.
"Where were you?" Dean asked.
"In case your eyesight failed you," Zoe said, "I went to find something to eat. Don't tell me it's a crime now?"
"You should have told us."
Zoe tossed her drink and napkins in the trash, "Well boo-hoo. What're you gonna do, Winchester? Send me to my room?"
She laughed at the thought of that, and shook her head.
"I will do, what I goddam fucking please," she said, "Now leave me alone."
"What were you and Cas talking about?" Dean asked.
"Golf."
.
.
.
Bobby sent the boys to Rufus.
They refused to let her join them, so she stayed with Bobby until they returned. They didn't talk, but Zoe could tell. Bobby was studying her, watching her every movement.
"You knew this would happen, didn't you?"
She nodded silently, "You were actually supposed to stab yourself in the leg while fighting the demon possessing you. Zachariah would take away your ability to walk because of that. I thought by getting rid of the demon, you'd be able to walk. Turns out I was wrong and made it worse. I'm sorry."
"Kid," Bobby said, "You had no way of figuring how it would end, even if you knew the outcome. If God said I ain't gonna walk, then so be it."
Zoe looked down, wondering if she should tell him. Bobby unfortunately caught on.
"There's more to it, isn't it?"
Zoe remained focused on the floor.
"well?"
She sighed, "You sell your soul to a demon named Crowley. In return he helps the boys fight Lucifer. In season eight, Sam saves your soul from hell as part of spell to seal the gates of hell."
"Seal the gates of Hell?" Bobby repeated incredulous.
Zoe raised her hands in defense, "Hey, season five is what many consider the kripke era. Everything comes full circle. Everything after is just the show milking their fans for everything they got, or Bible fanfiction. They even team up with Lucifer in the twelfth season?"
"Now you're pulling my leg, kid." Bobby shook his head.
"Swear on God," Zoe said placing a hand over her heart
.
.
.
When Dean arrived alone without Sam, Zoe didn't question him. She didn't need to. One of the perks of knowing what would happen, was knowing to not ask unnecessary questions. If Sam didn't want to join them because he didn't trust himself, that was his own problem. Zoe wasn't going to question him. She had bigger things to worry about, like not opening her big mouth around the Winchesters. Though when she finally meets Chuck, she was going to strangle the living daylights out of him.
While Dean briefed Bobby on the case, and confirmed that the harvelle's and Rufus were alive, Zoe sat outside, scrolling through the internet. She wondered if she could invest stock in companies and get rich. She doubted Gabriel would let her.
"You got any stuff?"
"Does it look like I have stuff?" Zoe asked without looking up from her phone. "It's just me and the clothes on my back. Por quoi?"
"Seeing as how you basically landed in your favorite TV show, and I'm down a sidekick, figured you might want to join."
Zoe blinked as her mind processed what Dean just said. Was he being serious?
"Well?"
"Sure."
.
.
.
When Dean said he was going to need a partner, for a moment Zoe expected Dean to allow her to join him on hunts. To actually be on the field conducting interviews. To hunt down vamps and werewolves and ghosts.
Instead, Dean had her conducting research. He felt she was too inexperienced with hunting to allow her to actually join him. Never mind she passed the gun tests. Perks of having a friend who was way too into guns and insisted all of them learn how to shoot one. Zoe consoled herself with the idea that at least this way, she was guaranteed to have a longer life span than the Winchesters.
"Tricky thing about hunting," Dean said over lunch, "Is making sure you got a case. See, sometimes we get a case and it looks like it could be a vamp, or a werewolf. Instead we actually got a fed's case."
"Because sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between a supernatural creature and a serial killer." Zoe dipped her fry into some ketchup, and looked at Dean, "Dean, I already know this stuff. I saw the episode where Sam was taken by the family who hunted people. And I'm pretty sure there were more cases too."
"Alright, sassypants," Dean said, "What do you know about the supernatural."
"Wendigos, werewolves, and rougarous are basically variations of each other. You kill Wendigos and Rougarous with fire because it's more effective. Werewolves with a silver bullet," Zoe paused for a moment, "And with Shifters too. Zombies you pin to the ground with a silver stake or knife. Dragons with a sword forged in dragon fire, angels with the squiggly symbol or set them on fire with holy oil, or stab then with their blade. Ghosts salt and burn-"
"Okay you proved your point," Dean said mildly impressed.
"I was a big fan," Zoe shrugged.
Dean raised an eyebrow, "Was?"
"I got over it when I had to wait every week for a new episode," Zoe said, "There are other shows out there, like Criminal Minds."
(A/N: sorry guys. But it's true)
"Right."
"There are fans who obsess over it though," Zoe said, "Originally, the largest group was Wincest. People like Becky who shipped both you and Sam. Then with the introduction of Castiel, the focus shifted towards you and Cas being together. Not that I blame them."
"Woah there," Dean said, "I'm into chicks. Cas is just a friend."
"Not the way the fans see it," Zoe said, "But I'm not a shipper, so I don't really give a damn. But there are things the entire fandom agrees on."
"Oh?"
"I'll try not to spoil too much," Zoe said as she began listing off the agreed upon things, "First, John Winchester wasn't the best of fathers. Two, the first season was the happiest, which is foreshadowing for really awful stuff. Three, you NEVER skip a season. I tried and got really confused. We miss a whole bunch of characters that I will not name. We miss Lucifer-"
"What?" Dean asked incredulous.
"Hey," Zoe said, "From the audience perspective in season seven, Lucifer is hilarous. But we also miss the apocalypse because things made more sense. Don't give me that look. You'll miss it too. Just give it a few years. Let's see…Oh! Ben is definitely your kid. No ifs and or buts. Ben Braden is your kid. This is a bit spoilery, but then again he doesn't show up for another three seasons: Metatron is a douche. He's an even bigger dick than Lucifer. And then we end up feeling sorry for him in the end. And we want an episode where the impala is a human. And the human impala MUST be played by John Barrowman."
"Why?" Dean asked.
"Because John Barrowman is a sexy motherfucker."
"….Point."