"You sure we should be doing this?" Sam glanced over at his older brother's solemn face, flickering pale in the weak glow of the headlights. The road ahead of them was dark and snow covered. Frozen trees stood at attention on both sides. It had been at least five hours since the Impala was greeted with a twist scrap of metal welcoming the wary hunters to Vermont, and Sam was tempted to believe they'd meet another scrawled in French and baring the Maple leaf symbol before they made it to their destination.
"Look, the compound is the safest place for them, now. At least this way, I know where they are, and I know they're safe." Dean's voice has a drag to it, even in its commanding, honest volume. Sam feels a familiar tightest in his throat and he coughs unto his sleeve. His brother turns concerned emerald eyes in his direction, but he waves off the concern even as blood drops splash unto his tan jacket. "Sammy?" The older hunter whispers quietly.
"It's okay. Just a tickle." He tries to smile, but they both frown as they turn away and spend the rest of the drive in silence.
Dean almost misses the snow covered cabin, off the beaten path, where his baby's engine rumbles in protest of the freshly laid snow. He parks on the road, not wanting to chance getting stuck in the inches of new powder that now dust what had served as a driveway. His eyes catch sight of a large snowpile near the back of the cabin, hiding the rusted out Ford pick-up that belongs to his sister, once as beloved by her as his baby is to him. But recent events and a new arrival have caused the black chrome truck to fall into disarray and be parked where it will be left to rot. A well used charcoal colored SUV, its tires still warm, the snow laying down only the lightest of blankets, is parked in the truck's usual place. "Well she's home." Dean mutters as he and Sam near the front door.
"Yeah, you think she'll try to shoot us?" Sam mutters, cocking an eyebrow to his brother.
"Is that even a question?" Dean shoots back, rapping his knuckles on the wood of the reinforced door. "Jamie!" He calls. "It's us." He really doesn't need to announce himself. His sister's psychic abilities well beyond capable of revealing something as diminutive as the identity of the pair of stragglers knocking at her door in the middle of the night.
Sure enough a faint light begins to glow in one of the few small windows of the cabin, and a few seconds later the door creaks open, revealing a short, pale woman wearing black yoga pants and a long sleeve shirt, her blonde hair pulled back from her face in a loose ponytail. She crosses her arms tightly across her chest as her blue eyes roam over both boys in turn. A light frown graces her full lips as she throws her arms around Dean, pulling him into her embrace. Dean wraps his arms around her torso, holding her safe against him. Sam stands back uncomfortably though patiently waiting his turn to acknowledge his sister. Sure enough she releases Dean and turns to pull Sam into her arms. She gasps softly as she meets his chest, arms tightly wrapped around his neck. He places his forehead against her, forcing her sapphire eyes to meet his emerald ones. They stare at each other in silence for a moment, before she finally nods to his unspoken promise, and releases him.
The three siblings enter the cabin, a cold wind blowing snow against their bodies as they get inside. Jamie gestures forcefully towards the open door, and it slams firmly shut under the influence of her telekinetic power. With her other hand she gestures across the room to the small fire place. Flame erupts from her open palm, fleeing into the dry wood littering the fireplace floor. The wood ignites and warmth fills the cabin. Dean and Sam are unaffected by the display, all too well acquainted with just how well their sister can manipulate the world around her with her powers.
Jamie turns her face to the flame, gesturing for her brothers to join her on the old, beaten couch just in front of the fire. She sits on the arm, allowing the boys to take the cushioned seats. Once they're seated she finally speaks to them. "I know about Cas."
Dean nods with a heavy sigh that comes from the depth of soul, also looking into bright flames. "I figured you'd know by now." She reaches out and grips his hand, still cold from the chill of the Impala's stirring wheel. "You and the kids need to come with us. Somewhere safer. Where angels and demons can't find you."
Jamie glances to her brother, her bright eyes holding a hint of sadness and despair, that Sam catches but says nothing. "It won't keep us safe for long." She mutters. Her eyes drift to the red painted sigils on the window beside them. "They're gonna come for him. I've seen it."
Dean eyes immediately widen with fear and anger. It takes Sam a half second longer to realize they're talking about their son, Mark. Dean has raised this boy as his own from the moment of his birth, but none of them, his mother most especially, dare to forget that it was Castiel who sired him. Though in truth it was Castiel's vessel whose lifeblood flowed in his veins, and perhaps that is why the boy resembled Dean in almost every aspect, moreso the biological appearance of the vessel that facilitated his existence, save his eyes of course. But it was not the vessel that imparted the boy's angel abilities into his soul, the soul that had once belonged to their brother Adam, and gave him the grace reserved only for the feathered creations of God. Nephilim, the being that usually results from the union of an inhabited vessel and a human, are born full grown monsters that kill their mothers at birth and wreak havoc and terror on the masses of Earth, unable to contain their grace and corrupted by the inherit sin of humanity. Mark was no such being. His mother as the daughter of John Winchester was born to house angels, and not just any angels but the archangel Michael himself, and would have done so save the gift of prophesy bestowed on her at birth. Her flesh was bred to bear the burden of grace, and her soul was purified by the waters of her gift of prophecy. Thus her son was an unheard of being, a human with an angel's grace that had been formed anew.
"When?" Is the question on Dean's lips. He lets out a low hiss of anger. If Naomi can't find Castiel, she's going to go after the only thing that can link her to him. The son will know his father, even though his father does not know him. Cas may have disowned Mark, the thought still makes Sam a little sick though Jamie and Dean have accepted it, and Mark may believe that Dean is his father, but in the end Mark's angelic abilities can point to his sire. All Mark would need to do is call to Cas with his grace, and that grace would reach through time and space and pluck Cas, against his will even, from wherever and bring him back to unite with his child.
"Soon." Was the only answer Jamie would give. She would not reveal the date, and it struck Sam that maybe she didn't know it herself, she only knew that it would come.
Their daughter cries out for her mother's breast. Their son awakens to his baby sister's wails, and even in his rush to find his mother and let her know of the baby's needs, things like this make even Sam forget that Mark really isn't Dean's son, he automatically notices the presence of his father. Dean is swept away into his often neglected paternal role, curled up beside his son in bed, reading The Lorax, The Tales of Arthur and the Round Table, and some ancient text on vampires that causes Sam to snicker when he stumbles over the Latin verbs. He and Jamie are sitting on the couch by the fire, his niece, Emmy, is loudly suckling away, occasionally opening emerald eyes at her uncle, but closing them again just as quickly. She's barely a month old and Sam can't help but frown as the mass of danger she's already in. But he hides the frown from his niece, instead leaning over his sister to kiss her soft pink skin and muss with her auburn hair, already growing in thick like her mother's, but straight like her father's rather than in her mother's soft waves. He chuckles at the irony, her brother looks exactly like their father save the fact that he has Castiel's eyes, while she is a perfect hybrid of her parents except that her eyes are her father's brilliant shade of green.
"You're dying." Jamie mutters softly through their telepathic link, when the two of them are lying together in her bed. Dean has fallen asleep in Mark's bed, with his arms around his boy and his boy's tiny fingers gripping his t-shirt to ensure he doesn't leave in the night. Emmy is slumbering peaceful in her crib just a few feet from the bed, and he turns to look at her rather than his sister, trying not to acknowledge her ominous prophecy, though that proves difficult with her ability to read his thoughts, a gift he has not mastered in the reciprocate, though she insists it's possible.
"I know." He knows. Afterall Castiel proclaimed he was damaged in ways even an angel couldn't heal, and he sees it day after day, as his symptoms grow worse and more frequent. Almost reluctantly he rolls over to face his sister. He drapes an arm over her hip, and she reached out and grips his t-shirt, staring at him with those watery blue eyes full of pain and sadness that nothing will ever cleanse.
"I just got Dean back after a year."
"Your kids have their father back, and they won't lose him again. I'm gonna make sure of it."
"Stop it Sam. Don't pretend you're sacrificing yourself so that Mark and Emmy have their daddy."
"But I am. This family needs Dean. He's your big brother, the father of your children, and hell if Cas is gonna have a ballpark's chance of being okay without Dean."
"We need you too. Damnit Sam don't bring this up. I thought we were past this picking favorites thing!"
"I'm talking more about Dean's suicidal tendency to believe that he's the grunt and it's his job to die so that you and I can live."
"Yeah, well, that isn't going to go away, and if you die Dean is gonna be a mess just like the last two times."
"This last time wasn't terrible."
"You didn't see him."
"Neither did you."
"I couldn't! I had wings seared to my soul, Cas and I were fighting a war. Besides, this last time with Dean, don't pretend that you were any kind of alright. There were a couple of nights I packed Mark in the truck and took off to go get you."
"I've apologized for that. I was trying to keep you off Crowley's radar."
"I know. I'm actually surprised Crowley's been quiet on my end. I half expect to wake up and find him standing over me."
"Tell me you keep an angel blade hidden under your pillow."
"Right next to my gun."
"Oh is that what the lump is?"They erupted into quiet laughter, and Sam is relieved to see his sister smile, even if the expression only plays for a second upon her lips. "Stop worrying about me." He tells her, leaning forward and brushing his lips against her cheek. There was a time when his sister was not so concerned for his safety. When Dean was raised from hell he and Jamie had grown fair apart, though they tried not to let Dean see it. Jamie knew about the demon blood, she knew about his addiction, she knew his sins. He had severed their bond as twin souls, and he nearly severed their bond as siblings with it. They had only just begun to repair their damaged relationship after 5 long years.
Dean still doesn't know about the fight they had. About how Jamie, pale and weak with grief and torment, not just because of the death of her beloved older brother but also the death of her fiancé, had sought out a crossroads demon. Sam had already been pulling away from her. Already he had been seeing Ruby. Jamie stayed at Bobby's long after he left to hunt again, to extract his revenge on anything that moved. She wouldn't hunt. She couldn't. Sam didn't know it, but she felt Dean's pain in hell, she dreamed of it, she just about lived it. The pre-awakening of the prophet within her had brought on a psychic connection to the souls of both her brothers, so that she felt the hellfire and the demon blood, finally she could not take it. So that night she took her truck down to the crossroads and summoned the demon. The demon that would not deal with Sam came willingly to Jamie, alone and vulnerable. Jamie told the demon she didn't want years, she just wanted their places switched, she would take Dean's place in hell. The deal made, the terms set, Jamie started to lock lips with the demon, only to find herself thrown back, and her twin's teeth sunk deep with the neck of the demon.
It had waken her up. Seeing him, so corrupted, so unhuman, it torn down the sheet of depression that she had been encased in. Her eyes were alive again, that was his first thought when he dropped the demon's body and turned to face his twin. She stared at him with anger that progressed to rage. She had been wrapped in Dean's leather jacket and a pair of his jeans, depression had taken over her body and she paler and slimmer than before and even so she looked more threatening, the more he looked at her the more he swore she looked just like him. Even her voice was not hers when she spoke to him. "You are not my brother anymore." She had hissed, and he had fled, because she had become Dean, and he had failed her as he had failed him.
He blinked back the memory found her staring intently at him. She moved closer, sinking into his chest and he curled himself around her. "You will always be my brother, Sam." She mutters, before falling asleep. He hopes so. He hopes so.
The next morning Dean is trying to take the crib apart in a way that will allow him to put it back together later, when they're safe at the compound. Jamie is busy nursing Emmy and getting Mark breakfast while Sam packs the SUV and the Impala with various items, most of them are her kids' things. Luckily Jamie still has a hunter's mindset, most of her stuff fits in a duffel, and the heaviest thing is her box of books that includes stuff for spells and weapons. "Eat fast, kiddo." Sam tells his nephew, ruffling his hair as he helps Dean carrying the "crib from hell" out into the Impala.
"I got something for you, son." Dean walks in carrying a necklace with an angel sigil branded into it. He kneels down in front of Mark and touches the amulet around his neck. It was his once upon a time, but he threw it away in anger. Jamie kept it, though, and gave it to their son. "I need you to wear this, okay buddy? You can't take it off." The boy protests Dean removing the amulet, afterall it's his daddy's, it's what keeps Dean close to him.
"Dean." Jamie says in warning, starting towards her brother and her son. Too late, Mark uses his powers, conjuring the symbol unto his amulet. Jamie closes her eyes and sighs. "Mark."
Dean and Sam look at each other and then to Jamie. "Jamie?" Dean asks softly.
Jamie looks around the cabin. "The sigils should have absorbed his powers, but we need to get out of here, now."
"Time to go, guys." Dean picks up Mark and carries him outside quickly. Jamie follows with the baby, and Sam hurriedly gestures them out. They rush to the SUV, and Sam helps his brother and sister secure their kids inside. "We'll be right behind you." Dean tells Jamie, pulling her into a tight hug. "It will be okay."
The ride to the compound is long and the kids don't tolerate it well. Emmy cries to be fed and Mark complains loudly. Jamie sighs, reaching for her cellphone. "Dean?"
"Yeah?" Dean's voice crackles on the other end.
"We gotta pull over, Emmy has to be fed again and Mark isn't going to take much more of this."
"Alright, I have an idea."
Sam drives so that Jamie can nurse. They switch their son into the Impala with Dean, figuring that if they're being watched then switching the boy between them will each at least buy them a minute. Jamie worries, but says nothing.
They're only halfway there when trouble finds them. Jamie sits straight up, gasping and writhing for breath, one hand clutched on her heart, blue eyes wide with terror. "Stop! Stop! Stop!" She commanded. Sam wordlessly obeys, pulling over unto the side of the road. Dean stops a few feet behind them, and by that point Jamie sprints through the snow to the Impala, tearing towards her son.
"What is it, what's wrong?" Dean asks, horrified. Sam's eyes are wide and he looks at his brother with the worry that comes only from unknown terror. "Jamie?"
"We have to get out of here. We have to find…" She pauses and whirls around. "There's an abandoned house off the next exit. We'll hold up there." She climbs into the back of the Impala, beside her son.
"Sam, protect my daughter." Dean grabs unto his brother's arm roughly for a moment and then heads to the Impala.
Jamie jumps up and kicks open the front door to the house. It flies open with a bang. "Dean start angel-proofing, Sam lay down salt lies and get a devil's trap painted." Dean nods, handing Mark over to her. Sam passes her the baby and she takes them into another room.
"She's spooked." Sam comments with a sigh, getting the salt.
"There are angels after our kids!"
"Yeah, but this is Jamie. The last time I saw her she was covered in blood and half passed out, and still wasn't as freaked. She definitely saw something."
"You think this is a fight we can't win?"
"Wouldn't be the first time."
"Dean!"
Dean and Sam rushed into the room to find Jamie facing an Asian man in a suit. She was crotched defensively in front of her children. "Asher." She hissed, obviously recognizing the angel.
"You know him?" Sam asked softly, he and Dean moving to either side of her.
"I trained him in Heaven with Cas." She didn't take her eyes off him. "I taught you everything you know, Asher. You know better than to cross me."
"I am sorry prophetess." Asher replied.
Jamie pulled her angel blade from her belt. "Not yet, you're not. I stood beside you, Asher, against Raphael's angels. Your own brothers tried to kill you and I defended you. I was with you in that field. I saved you! And you would repay me by taking my son from me?"
Asher paused for just a moment and then drew his own angel blade. "I have orders to take the boy. Even if that means killing you." He added the last part quietly. Jamie narrowed her eyes.
"God protects me, Asher. You know this. You saw his light radiate around me in that field. I am HIS and Naomi is nothing in his sight! She is not God, Asher! She does not do his will." Asher hesitated again and then stepped forward. "If you fight me, Asher, you will die."
Behind them another angel appeared, close to Mark and Emmy. "Mama!" Mark cried out.
"No!" Jamie whirled around and holy fire shot forth from her palm, engulfing the angel who cried in pain.
"Jamie look out!" Sam yelled, moving to shove his sister from the path of Asher's angel blade.
"Sammy, don't." Jamie's telekinesis shoved Sam back into the wall. She skillfully avoided the angel blade and sent another stream of fire towards Asher. He screamed in pain, engulfed by the blaze. "NAOMI!" Jamie screamed. "I know you've sent others." She hissed, turning back to her son and daughter, now safely in Dean's arms. A ring of holy fire appeared around his feet. "Ego sum propheta Domini. Ego vox de caelo. Ego sum Dei filia. Naomi, he gifted me with holy fire that bends to my will and my will alone. You will not sway my will, and YOU WILL NOT TOUCH MY SON! God still lives, Naomi, and I swear by my prophetic tongue that you will come to a less then savory end."
The room grew utterly quiet. A few tense moments past, and few more. Finally Jamie held up her hand. "Liberare eos." The flames died away.
"Is it over?" Sam asked quietly. Dean looked at him somberly, Mark clutched against his chest and Emmy whimpering at the other side. He cast a sideways glance at his sister and then left the room to tend to his children.
"It won't be over until we close the gates of Heaven." Jamie muttered, her blue eyes staring into him. He swore they touched his soul.