'Vera' was hitting dead end after dead end in her quest to deliver Dean's soul to the demons who had her on a leash. She thought if she got something that looked like Alice, his lover, maybe he would trade his soul for her life. When the shapeshifter slipped through her fingers, her thoughts turned to his brother. Dean had sold his soul for Sam before. Maybe he would do it again.
That didn't pan out either. Sam was nowhere to be found. She might have been impressed with how thoroughly he had disappeared if it wasn't such a pain in her ass at the moment.
She had one last idea. It was a long shot, but after so many disappointments, she was ready to try a hail Mary.
In a dilapidated, long disused homeless shelter in Sioux Falls, she drew the rites to summon someone who, once upon a time, owed her a favor. Given the circumstances, she didn't know if he would honor it. Hell, she didn't even know if he would show up. She didn't know if her location of choice counted as an abandoned sanctuary, but Bobby Singer's home town must have been big on religion because all their churches were in perfect working order.
To her relief, a man appeared before her after she recited the incantation to call him. He seemed startled for a moment, then heaved a weary sigh.
"DeberÃa siquiera preguntar?" Huehuecoyotl said wistfully. "How many people know this damn ritual anyway? I swear, I've been summoned more times this last year than in the five hundred preceding it."
"Don't worry, the ritual hasn't been circulating," she assured him. "Same summoner, different face."
"I love a riddle as much as the next guy chica, but if you got yanked away from date night as much as I do, you wouldn't be in the mood for them either," he told her, crossing his arms over his chest with a frown.
"Huey, it's me."
He studied her for a moment, toeing the line separating them and scrutinizing her eyes. Unblinking and blue, they held his gaze.
"I feel like I know you, but I can't place you," he admitted. "I'd ask if we had a fling, but I never forget a beautiful woman."
"I'll give you a hint. I'm here for that last favor you owe me."
He squinted at her cynically.
"Alice?"
"The one and only."
"Can't be," Huey said in disbelief. "Alice has the most unmistakable eyes in the world. Those aren't them."
"Alice has been through a hell of a lot since the last time you saw her," she shot back. "Me. I've been through a hell of a lot. Look, are you going to help me or not?"
"If you're Alice, tell me something only Alice would know," Huey demanded, crossing his arms over his chest.
"This coming from a guy I met once?" she scowled. "What do you even know about me that I could tell you?"
"We met twice," Huey corrected her. "Granted, you wouldn't remember the first time. Fine, chica, answer me this; Who was older, Hunahpue or Xbalanque?"
"Is that a trick question?"
"You tell me."
"They were twins."
"Common knowledge," Huey said dismissively.
She crossed her arms over her chest, her scowl deepening.
"I don't have time for games," she told him. "Are you going to help me or not?"
Huehuecoyotl looked around unhappily. The warding around the circle that contained him was expertly done. Flawless. Alice or not, the only way he was getting out was if she let him go.
"It would seem I don't have a choice," he grumbled. "What is it you want?"
"A photoshoot," she replied.
Dean stayed up late into the night. He finally allowed himself to get the drink he'd been craving since Vera grabbed him to help her hunt 'Alice'. Currently, 'Alice' was still in the trunk. He still didn't know what he was going to about her. Him. The whole situation was giving him a hell of a headache.
He wasted at least an hour calling all of Sam's old numbers and leaving messages, to no avail. Hours passed before he accepted that Sam wasn't going to call him back. All he could do was wait and hope that Sam reached out to Bobby or showed up at his place.
Dean couldn't stop himself from peeking out his window every few minutes as the night wore on. Kaydie was nowhere to be seen, but Dean got the feeling that he hadn't lost her. Not yet, anyway. He had gotten Bobby's message about Vera's visit as well. He felt like half the world was after him for one reason or another.
At three in the morning, Dean finally came to a decision about Danny. He finished his last drink, the alcohol numbing him just enough that he wouldn't feel guilty about what he was about to do until the next morning. He got in his stolen car and drove out past the city limits. Earlier, Danny had protested loudly whenever they hit a bump in the road. Now he was silent. Maybe he could feel what was coming. Sense that his time was quickly nearing.
Dean pulled off the highway into a wooded area. This far from any large cities, the night was pitch black. Overhead, the sky was full of stars. Dean had seen this sky many times before, having spent so many years spent on the road away from the light pollution that most people were stuck in their entire lives. It never got any less beautiful and after hell, it took Dean's breath away. He took a moment to stop and appreciate it. August was just starting to fade into September and a chill had started to creep into the air.
Dean spent nearly ten minutes timelessly reveling in being alive.
Finally, he forced himself to focus on the reason why he'd come all the way out here. He opened the trunk to find Danny curled up into a ball inside. The shapeshifter's eyes were closed, though whether he was sleeping or playing possum, Dean couldn't say. Either way, it made his job easier.
Dean unsheathed a silver knife and prepared to strike.
Before he could, his text notification sounded, loud as thunder in the dark, secluded woods. Danny's eyes snapped open, filling with panic when he saw Dean standing over him, ready to kill him. Dean hesitated, drunk enough to be torn between checking his phone and killing Danny.
Another notification rang out into the night.
"Hold that thought, ok?" Dean told Danny, though nothing had been said. He slammed the trunk shut and opened his phone. What he saw made his blood run cold. He forgot all about Danny as he processed what he was seeing.
An unknown number had just sent him a picture of Sam, bound and gagged on the ground. The second message was an address. As Dean watched, another text came through.
'Come unarmed and alone.'
"You want me to what?" Ruby demanded from the passenger side of the Impala.
"I want you to go back in there and bust Anna out," Sam repeated himself, more bluntly this time. He hadn't expected Ruby to be happy about the change in plans. She was rarely pleased with his constant improvisation. Still, he hadn't expected her to resist this proposal so fiercely.
"What the hell does busting a delusional teenager out of a psych ward have to do with finding Alastair?" Ruby scowled. "This is why I didn't want you to waste your time talking to her. You and your damn bleeding heart! I knew you wouldn't be able to leave well enough alone! This is a demon hunt, Sam, not a-"
"This has nothing to do with my 'bleeding heart'!" Sam snapped, losing his temper. He held his tongue around her a lot, putting up with the condescension she subjected him to out of patience. He knew her bad attitude was a habit it would take her a long time to break, if she ever could. Now he was at the end of his rope. "I think there's more going on here than you know, Ruby! I think Anna might be the real reason Alastair is here."
That captured Ruby's attention.
"How? Why?"
"The voice's she's hearing? They're saying some interesting things."
"Like what?"
"Why don't you have her tell you herself? After we get her the hell out of dodge," Sam said sharply.
"Why are you keeping me in the dark, Sam?" Ruby asked, eyes narrowed with suspicion. "What did she hear that made you so keen to engineer her jailbreak?"
Sam opened his mouth to tell her what Anna heard about his brother, but something stopped him. The ghost of an instinct, a hint of unease that he had buried months ago when he started working with Ruby. He was willing to do anything to save Dean, but that didn't mean he had to like the things she asked him to do. Especially when so many of those things made so little sense and Ruby was so hesitant to explain herself to him.
"She keeps notes about what she hears," Sam said instead. "I read them. Ruby, she's hearing things about hunters. About demons. It sounded real."
Ruby considered his words for a while, examining him with an indecipherable expression. Finally, she heaved a massive sigh and threw her hands up in defeat.
"Fine. But your lazy attempt to have me do all the dirty work here isn't going to fly," she informed him.
"I'm not being lazy," Sam protested. "Your mojo is the fastest, cleanest way to do this."
"As convenient as it would be for me to zap in, grab the girl and zap back out, it's too risky," Ruby said. "A move like that could put us on Alastair's radar. No, we need to come up with a real plan."
Sam frowned heavily, gazing at the psychiatric ward over the steering wheel. It wasn't the highest security place he'd seen, but it was secure enough that this was going to pose a challenge.
"This is going to be seriously tricky," he mused aloud. "This place is full of cameras... if we're not careful we could end up on more than Alastair's radar."
"Don't tell me you're worried about the human authorities," Ruby scoffed.
"Don't underestimate how much of a pain in the ass regular human police can be," Sam shot back. "The FBI made me and Dean's lives hard as hell for a good year there... I'm sure you remember."
"Lightweight stuff. But it's your party," Ruby said. "We'll do it however you want."
Sam spotted Dr. Pinsky leaving for the day and raised his eyebrows. Ruby didn't miss the change in his expression.
"What?"
"I have an idea."
"Oh yeah?"
"I'm not sure you're gonna like it."
"Since when has that ever stopped you?" Ruby groaned. "Spit it out Winchester."
"What if we didn't bust Anna out? What if Dr. Pinsky released her?"
"I don't follow," Ruby frowned.
Sam just grinned.
The address Dean had received was in Sioux Falls, practically in Bobby's backyard.
"Boy, it's a damn fool idea to walk into this alone," Bobby growled. Dean had stopped by his place to fill him in and drop off Danny. He could have just killed the shapeshifter, but deep down, he still wasn't sure that was what he really wanted to do and this turn of events offered the perfect excuse to postpone his execution.
"I don't have a choice," Dean told him. "I can't risk getting Sam hurt."
"That risk is there no matter what you do," Bobby pointed out. "We don't know who has Sam or what the hell it is they want."
"Actually, I'm willing to bet my dad's car it's Vera," Dean countered. "I mean, think about it Bobby. She shows up here asking about him and the next thing you know, I'm getting a list of hostage demands? It doesn't get fishier than that."
"Ok, but that doesn't answer the question of what on god's green earth she wants from you two," Bobby said.
"Does it matter?"
"Of course it matters! Every scrap of information we can think of matters. It's the difference between going into this blind and having some clue about what the outcome might be!"
"Yeah, well this is all the information we have," Dean sighed. "It's gonna have to do."
"I don't like it."
"Do you see me jumping for joy? Since when does anything happen to this family that we like?"
Bobby sighed heavily, but was forced to agree.
"So you want me to what, babysit Danny while you waltz into the belly of the beast?"
"That, and come looking for me if you don't hear from me by tonight," Dean explained.
"Fine. But I'm not walking into this alone like your dumb ass. If I don't hear from you in an hour, I'm calling in backup."
"Backup? Who's backup?"
"Whoever I can rustle up on an afternoon's notice."
"Thanks Bobby."
"I'm dependable, aren't I?"
"Always."
"Yeah, and taken for granted too. So, where's the shapeshifter?"
"Trunk. I'll get him. Where are you gonna keep him til I get back?"
"I've got a panic room in the basement that'll hold him just fine," Bobby replied.
Dean left Danny in Bobby's capable hands and made his way to the address. An old, abandoned homeless shelter just outside Sioux Falls downtown area. Night was beginning to lose its potency, the sky turning dull, dark grey as the sun prepared to make its appearance. Before he left the car, Dean checked his weapons. He had a knife tucked into pocket and two in his socks. He had a gun in his jacket and a lifetime of training that he couldn't leave behind if he tried.
Dean was fine with showing up alone. He was damned if he was showing up unarmed.
He entered the shelter slowly, watching carefully for any signs of activity. The place seemed untouched, the counter and chairs in the lobby coated in years worth of dust and cobwebs. The windows were covered up and as the sun rose outside, slivers of golden light found their way through the cracks in the old boards. Dean walked quietly, peeking around corners as he checked room after room. They were all empty. Silence surrounded him, thick enough to cut with a knife. Dean's senses were alive with the hunt, heartbeat steady from years of experience even as the back of his neck tingled and his hand itched with the desire to have a grip on his firearm. He forced himself to leave it hidden in his jacket and pressed forward.
A sound caught his attention. It was so soft as to be nearly undetectable, but it was enough to draw Dean to a door. He got close, listening intently. It sounded like tense, labored breathing. His pulse picked up as he turned the handle quickly, throwing the door open.
Inside, Sam lay on the ground, bound just as he had been in the pictures Dean had received. It was his breathing that had drawn Dean to the room.
"Sam!"
Sam looked up, eyes widening when they met Dean's. Dean rushed to his side, pulling the knife out of his pocket as he prepared to free Sam.
"God damn it's good to see you!" he said, unable to help himself. "I mean, circumstances notwithstanding and all."
"I thought I said unarmed," came a familiar voice from the doorway, interrupting Dean's rescue attempt. He rose quickly, leaving the knife on the ground for Sam to use and drawing his gun. He turned to level it at Vera, who already had a gun pointed at him.
"I would have humored you, really. It's just... you know, my arms are stuck on pretty good," Dean joked.
Vera laughed.
"Good one. Now put the gun down before I shoot your brother."
Dean moved to stand between her and Sam.
"Over my dead body."
"Nice. You're still as protective of him as ever. That's good. John would be proud of you, keeping your promise at any cost."
"What the hell do you know about my Dad?" Dean demanded.
"Just what you told me," Vera replied. "Now put the gun down so we can talk."
"Talk? That's all you wanna do? What the hell's wrong with a phone call?"
"Bad wording. I meant negotiate."
"Over what?"
"Sam's life."
She took a step toward him.
"Stay back!" he barked.
"Or what? You'll shoot?"
"Damn straight."
"Go on then."
She advanced on him with a taunting smile.
"Give it your best shot."
Dean knew something was wrong, but she was too close and he had no choice. He shot her in the shoulder. She stumbled from the force and clutched the wound, but recovered quickly and kept coming.
"Come on, Dean, stop before you hurt someone," she said.
Dean shot her in the leg and though she stumbled again, she still didn't stop or react with pain. She was practically on top of him now. Out of options, he emptied his clip into her chest. She stumbled back and in the silence that followed his barrage, coughed up a mouthful of blood. Still, she straightened like he'd hit her with something with all the lethality of a pillow at a slumber party.
With a sinking feeling, Dean realized Vera wasn't human. He bent to pull a silver knife from his sock, but she kicked him before he could straighten. The force of the blow sent him flying back. She advanced on him again, standing over him and preparing to kick him, but Dean knocked her legs out from under her before she could strike. He lashed out with the knife, stabbing her in the gut. She groaned, but looked little more than annoyed.
"And I thought Vera was gonna make it out of this alive," she said, sounding disappointed. She grabbed Dean by the jacket, pulling him close enough that he could smell the blood on her breath.
"What the hell are you?" he asked.
"You haven't guessed yet?" she asked, sounding surprised. She headbutted him with a grunt and his vision blurred from the force of the hit. She let him fall back on the dirty linoleum and rose, straightening her shredded shirt. "That's okay. That's probably best, actually."
Before Dean could demand that she tell him, her foot came down on his face and he was plunged into the senseless black depths of unconsciousness.
"I don't know how I let you talk me into this," Ruby grumbled. She settled into the motel room chair, glowering while Sam tied her down.
"With common sense," Sam replied as he finished. Ruby strained against the ropes, surprising Sam with her ferocity. "Whoa there tiger. She's not going to be as strong as you."
"Desperation makes people strong," Ruby noted. "But these'll do. You know what your part of this plan is?"
Sam held up a bandana and a knife.
"Let you out, gag Allison, keep an eye on her til you get back," he recited.
"Right. If I come back and my host is gone, I'll skin you," she threatened. "Assuming Allison doesn't do it first for kicks."
Sam snorted.
"You're being dramatic," he accused. "She can't be that bad."
"Are you kidding me? You've met her sister," Ruby pointed out. "If you think Alice is bad, try to imagine what her witchy big sister is like."
"Ok, I get the picture. Are you ready?"
"As I'll ever be."
"And you know your part of the plan?"
"Bitch, I am the plan," Ruby said sassily, tossing her hair with a grin.
"Ruby, seriously."
"Ugh. Possess Dr. Pinsky, sign Anna out, bring her here, ditch the doc and make sure she doesn't remember anything. Not exactly rocket science."
"Don't knock simplicity," Sam warned her. "It's the mother of success."
She rolled her eyes at him.
"Let's get this over with."
Sam pulled her shirt aside to reveal the binding link on her chest, still not fully healed. With a deep breath, he pressed the knife to Ruby's pale flesh, slicing through the sigil that prevented her from leaving or being forced from Allison Smith's body. Ruby met his eyes one last time, then smoked out of her host. Sam couldn't help shuddering as he watched the pillar of pure black wind and snake its way through the room, slipping out through the crack under the door and leaving behind the distinct stench of sulphur.
Sam turned his gaze back to Ruby's body. Allison was slumped over, unconscious for the moment and slowly bleeding from the cut on her chest. Sam quickly gagged her with the bandana, securing it tightly behind her head before pressing a rag to the wound he had just dealt her. He held it there to stop the bleeding, examining the other broken binding seals while he waited. The oldest of them was a scar so faded by time that it was nearly gone. Ruby had taken incredibly pains to keep this body for such a long time. Sam recalled the vague explanation she had given him when he asked her why. He wondered how true it really was. He felt like sometimes, Ruby just told him things to ease his conscience. White lies, but lies nonetheless.
Sam brought his attention back to the freshly broken seal, checking to see if the bleeding had stopped. He was startled when his eyes met Allison's, now open, through a thin curtain of blonde hair. She watched him raptly and her gaze grabbed his and held it captive. The hazel eyes that he knew as Ruby's seemed brand new. The dark green flecked with golden brown was familiar, but the light behind them now was completely alien.
Sam prepared himself for Allison to start struggling, but she never did. Allison didn't try to move or speak. She just held Sam's gaze for what felt like an eternity, unblinking. It took him a long time to figure out what her gaze was conveying. At first, he thought it was devoid of emotion. After a while, he realized it was just the opposite. There were so many different emotions in Allison's eyes that it was impossible to pick out any one specifically.
At last, Sam forced himself to look away. He dabbed the cut gently, realizing that it had finally stopped bleeding. He cleared his throat awkwardly, feeling the sudden, intense urge to apologize as he fixed Allison's shirt. He resisted, remembering Ruby's dire warnings that he not speak with her host.
"She's the most manipulative person on the face of the planet. Take it from someone who got majorly screwed over by her once upon a time... you do NOT want to let Allison Smith get in your head."
Sam walked away from Allison, feeling her eyes on him as he sat on the edge of the bed, keeping her in his line of sight even as he avoided looking at her directly. Her gaze didn't falter as he turned on the TV and started switching through channels in search of something to watch.
A long time passed before she made any sound. When she did, it was soft, just the beginnings of a small cough. Just enough to make Sam look at her. She caught his gaze and her eyes appealed to him. They darted past him and he followed her gaze to the sink.
Sam considered ignoring her, but that didn't sit right with him.
"Thirsty?" he asked instead.
Allison nodded slowly. Sam pursed his lips, but got up to get her a cup of water despite Ruby's warnings to keep the bandana in Allison's mouth. How persuasive could she be? Surely Sam could handle whatever she threw at him.
She held his eyes again and this time he didn't look away as he untied the bandana and put the plastic cup to her lips. She drained it, still unblinking.
"Thanks," she said when she was finished.
Sam nodded and prepared to retie the bandana.
"Wait."
He paused, humoring her.
"Is that really necessary?"
Sam didn't respond. He went to secure the bandana again, but she turned her face away from him.
"Come on. This is the first time I haven't been a puppet in over fifteen years. I won't talk, just... can't you just let me breathe free? Just for a little while."
Her expression was stoic, but her voice sounded like it was about to break. Sam tried to remind himself of Ruby's warnings, but he was too full of pity for Allison. He nodded silently and retook his place on the bed.
An hour went by and Allison was as good as her word. She sat silently, watching TV with Sam and occasionally rolling her shoulders or stretching in the ropes that bound her. Sam got the feeling that she was less testing the ropes and more just genuinely enjoying the autonomy, limited as it was. He was filled with shame, despite himself. A small voice in the back of his head told him that once, it had been his job to save people like Allison. Not stand guard to keep them from escaping until their demon could come back and repossess them.
Sam stifled that voice. He dismissed it as the bleeding heart that Ruby so often accused him of harboring.
Finally, someone knocked on the door. Sam jumped up to answer it, peering through the peephole to see Anna and Dr. Pinsky outside. Anna looked terrified. Sam opened the door and Dr. Pinsky pulled Anna roughly into the room.
"You know Sam, I think you might be right," Ruby said with Pinsky's voice.
"What happened?" Sam demanded. "Anna, are you ok?"
Anna was close to hysteria and unable to answer him.
"Don't bother, she's freaking out," Ruby told him. "She can see my real face."
"You mean... she knows you're a demon?"
"Yeah. Alastair might be here for her after all. The only question is, why?"
Ruby shot Anna a look of distaste.
"See if you can get her to calm down, she's starting to get on my nerves."
"I'll try to talk to her. You go ditch Pinsky."
Ruby nodded and turned to head out, before she noticed Allison. Her eyes narrowed.
"Sam, why isn't she gagged?" she demanded.
"Relax, I just gave her a drink," Sam explained. It was close enough to the truth.
Ruby scowled, but left well enough alone.
"I'll be back soon. Keep a close eye on these two. Both of them are trouble."
She took off again, leaving Sam to comfort Anna. Once Ruby was gone, she started to calm down a little.
"Have a seat," Sam told her gently. "Do you want some water?"
Anna shook her head, drawing her knees up to her chest and chewing her nails in jittery silence.
"Is there anything I can get you?"
Anna met his eyes. Her own were wide, wet and frightened.
"What do you want?" she asked shakily. "Why did you take me?"
"I just want to keep you safe," Sam assured her. "Your parents murder... a demon did it. I think he's coming for you next."
Anna stared at him for a long time, looking torn. When she finally spoke, she barely got the words out.
"I've lost it!" she sobbed. "I've completely lost it! Oh my God, I'm crazy!"
"No, no, you're not- Anna, you're not crazy, I promise," Sam told her. His words did nothing to help.
"Hey."
Allison's voice came from behind Sam, but she wasn't talking to him.
"Anna. Look at me."
Anna complied, noticing Allison for the first time. Her brow knit in confusion and added horror.
"What-what-"
"It's ok. Take a deep breath. Don't ask questions right now, just breathe."
Sam took a step back, watching as Allison talked Anna down from the edge of a panic attack.
"That's right. In deep, all the way out. Good."
Slowly, Anna calmed. It was a bizarre scene to say the least. Allison was the most collected person in the room, despite the fact that she was tied hand and foot to a chair.
"Can someone please tell me what's going on?" Anna begged, no longer crying.
Allison looked to Sam.
"Well? Are you gonna tell her or not?" she prompted.
"I... uh... well..."
Sam struggled for a moment, before finally giving up.
"It's complicated," he told Anna. "Just... really complicated and-"
"Everything's going to be alright," Allison cut in. "I know this looks bad, but try to look at the bright side. You're out of the loony bin, right?"
"I belong there," Anna said sadly. "This is nuts."
"You're half right. It's the situation that's nuts, not you. Trust me."
"Why?"
"Because I've been where you are. I've been caught in the middle of absolute insanity with no idea which way was up or what was going to happen to me. Believe it or not, I made it out just fine."
Anna's look of complete disbelief said it all. Allison read her expression and chuckled.
"Granted, that was a long time ago. I'm in a whole other mess now. That's not important. What I'm trying to hit at is that you're going to be okay. This guy-"
She nodded to Sam, surprising him.
"-he's good people. He'll take good care of you."
Anna's eyes darted between Sam and Allison, full of uncertainty.
"But... I don't... what about you? If he's such a good guy, what's the deal with you?"
"It's complicated," Allison echoed Sam. "And... not really his fault."
She met Sam's eyes for what she said next.
"He's just... doing the best he can."
The room fell silent after that. Sam couldn't stop thinking about what Allison had said. Of all the things he expected from her, he hadn't expected that.
Either Allison was a better manipulator than Ruby had prepared him to deal with, or something wasn't right.