Present 7

"I'll save you the suspense" Dean says as Sam peers around him trying to figure out where on the planet he is now. "This isn't Earth." Dean starts forward, walking confidently into the blackness, even though one direction looks exactly like all of the others.

Sam follows along behind, squinting into the darkness that surrounds them, but it remains impenetrable. "Then where? It doesn't look like Heaven or Hell."

Dean actually smiles at that. "You know, you and I are the only two humans who would ever be able say something like that and know what we're talking about."

"Just me actually" Sam points out, "you haven't been human in a very long time."

"Not true. I'm still technically human."

"You're Death" Sam points out like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"That's a job title, not a species. I still have the same body I always did."

"I don't know a lot of humans that can kill thousands of people on a whim or fly themselves to wherever the hell this is" Sam maintains.

"I never said I was normal" Dean answers, "but neither are you. Also, I don't do anything on a whim. I can't afford to; the balance is too fragile."

Sam shakes his head but doesn't bother arguing further. Besides, he's distracted by the scene opening up in front of him. Although they haven't gone through any doors, Sam suddenly finds himself in a room. The effect is surreal, like he's just walked out of backstage darkness onto a fully realized film set. On the other hand, the ratty sofa and piles of books call him back to some of his most distant memories.

"This looks like Bobby's house" he observes.

"It's my house actually" Dean says, "but I recreated his living room."

"I would have thought that an all-powerful being would have designed their house with a little more pizzazz" Sam says sarcastically. "Like maybe put in a pool or an arcade."

"Oh, I have both of those" Dean agrees. "Essentially the entire dimension is my house, so there are a lot of rooms. This is where I come to think."

"And what is it that you need to think about?" Sam asks.

"Hopefully, he's thinking about how he's going to throw his traitor brother into a volcano" a feminine voice suddenly calls out.

Sam whirls around to find Tessa standing behind him with her hands on her hips and a death glare in her eyes. Apparently, she fully intends to follow through with that glare because in the next moment Sam feels the air rush out of him as a wave of force throws him across the room. He slams into the ground and finds himself on his ass, struggling just to keep his eyes open as Tessa stalks towards him angrily.

"Tessa, stand down" Dean orders calmly and she comes to a full and sudden stop.

"Is he controlling you? Is he making you stop me?" she asks.

"He's not. We have an agreement."

Sam is ashamed to realize in that moment that with everything going on he'd sort of forgotten that he could be controlling Dean. He could have stopped him from sending that disease into Asia, but he didn't. Maybe in some ways that makes him responsible too.

"You have an agreement to let him chain you up like a dog?" Tessa demands.

"We're spending the day together" Dean explains, "after that, Sam and I will go our separate ways."

Tessa glares at them both like she'd like to smack their heads together but then apparently decides that between the two of them Sam will be the easier target. "If you hurt him . . ." she threatens and Sam can't help but be amused that she feels the need to defend one of the most powerful beings in the universe.

"Anything to report?" Dean asks and Tessa practically snaps to attention.

"Nothing out of the ordinary. You're keeping us busy in Australia, but there's been no abnormalities with operations."

"Good" answers Dean. "Kipling was on Earth today, I half expected him to try to pull something."

"It seems like he might be smarter than Crowley's last ambassador" Tessa speculates. "He seems to have managed to keep his hands out of the cookie jar."

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Are you sure you don't want me to stick around?" she asks and the look she gives Dean makes Sam wonder if all of the reapers are allowed to come and go from his house, or just her.

"We'll talk tomorrow" Dean says gently.

Tessa disappears with a frown.

"What are we doing here Dean?" Sam asks as his brother plops himself down on the replica of Bobby's ratty old sofa.

"I told you, I come here to think" Dean answers. Then he grabs a remote from somewhere and flips on the ancient looking TV.

Sam stands in place, not sure what to think. One minute he's dealing with an ice-cold primordial entity that can kill thousands of people without batting an eyelid, and the next he's watching his brother flip through channels with his feet up on the table, a scene that couldn't be more familiar.

Speaking of the TV . . . "Is that Lethal Weapon?" Sam asks, noticing that Dean seems to have settled on a channel.

"Yeah. The original, not one of the twenty something sequels, spinoffs, or remakes they've churned out over the years.

Sam stares at the slightly fuzzy image on the screen. "You know they converted it to 3D years ago. It's much better quality."

"Let me have my nostalgia, Sam" Dean admonishes.

Sam stands still for a few more moments, trying not to let himself fall into the trap of imaging that he's back in the days when the two of them were kids and they would watch movies at Bobby's. Then he joins his brother on the sofa.