Six
Eileen's text had filled Sam with a whole new sense of determination.
Couple of ghosts. Sioux Falls area. Catch me if you can.
The playfulness of the last line was what got him. Nobody had pushed his buttons so teasingly in such a long time, he almost wasn't used to it. Almost. The pair had been secretly texting and meeting up at various hunts ever since she'd left the bunker the first time. One would think, with the prophesized end of the world coming, there wouldn't be time for such things.
Sam thought it was the perfect time.
All their lives the brothers had traded happiness for guns. Solitude for salt. Kinship for late night motel rooms and greasy diner food that, after a while, would surely kill a man. Sure, one-night stands satisfied the primal side, but Sam, from day one, had known he always wanted more out of life.
He'd thought he'd found it with Jessica, who he would still consider to be the great love of his life, and that had managed to be foiled too. There were years in between of "what ifs" and "almosts", but now the world was ending. For real this time.
Jessica would want him to finally be happy, Chuck rest her soul.
Sam's fingers flew over his phone's keyboard.
I'll be there. I'm not sure it'll be as easy to give Dean the slip this time.
He waited a moment until he heard the ding of a reply and zipped up his duffel bag.
Well, hopefully we'll just run into one another by "accident" then ;)
The winking face sent an unusual shiver down Sam's spine and he smiled after pocketing his phone and locking up his room. He made his way down the dank motel hallway and passed door after similar door until he reached Dean's room.
He threw open the door and found Dean zipping up his own bag. Castiel was sitting awkwardly on the couch, not saying much beyond nodding to acknowledge Sam's entrance.
"I was looking at cases." Sam piped up and Dean looked over at him with tired eyes, blackened around the edges.
"Rash of ghosts in the Sioux Falls area," Sam cleared his throat. "Nobody's taken it yet."
Dean threw his duffel over his shoulder and sighed before breaking into a slightly forced smile.
"Well," he replied. "We haven't paid Jody a visit in a while. I say it's time."
-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-
Dean took the back road on purpose.
The streets of Arrowsmith were silent. The place was practically a ghost town. Only a few people remained in every other house. Old cars with weeds growing out of them adorned driveways and children screamed and played with half inflated balls and broken-down toys in the overgrown yards. An older man gave the car a silent wave from his rotting couch on his front porch as they passed.
"You and dad spent three weeks here? Why?" Sam mentioned.
"Yeah," Dean replied. It was the first time the brothers had spoken more than a sentence to one another in weeks. "Djinns. For some reason, a whole pack of them decided to take residence here. Makes sense, it's adjacent to some bigger towns, but not too big. Endless victims without calling attention to themselves…until they did."
Sam nodded, looking out the window as Dean continued to drive. Castiel remained silent in the backseat, staring down at his feet. Dean resisted the urge to say something.
"We finally got all of them," Dean kept talking to keep the uncomfortable silence from taking over. "Took forever. Dad really didn't want me involved after a while. He'd managed to find another hunter to help."
"Why?" Sam asked. Dean was instantly transported back to when Sam was younger and had a well of endless questions bouncing around in his head.
"I guess he was mad at me about something," Dean rolled his eyes. "Who knows that time. Either way, I found things to do. When I wasn't helping them with the paper trail related to the hunt, I was off having a good time at that bar…"
Dean trailed off when he saw what was happening next to them.
"Right over there…"
It must have happened overnight. A demolition crew was in the process of tearing down one of the walls of The Cave. The brakes squealed when Dean hit them and Sam shot forward against his seatbelt, giving Dean a confused look. Castiel lifted his head as Dean quickly pulled into a parking space and jumped out of the car.
"What are you doing?" Dean yelled at the construction manager who turned to look at him.
"What's it look like, kid." The guy replied, adjusting the clipboard under his arm.
"You can't just…" Dean trailed off. He knew his attempts were futile. The place would be gone by the time they hit the interstate.
"I just had a lot of memories here, that's all."
"We all did, kid." The manager patted Dean's shoulder and continued to signal for the bulldozer to come forward. Dean turned to his two companions, Castiel staring blankly and Sam wondering if Dean had lost his mind.
"Sorry," Dean said. "We can go now. I just…when dad and I were here for weeks that one time, I made a friend. We used to hang out at this bar."
Castiel cocked his head and the longer Dean stared at him, the more he knew that Castiel was peering into his thoughts of said friend. The angel then wordlessly turned his gaze away from Dean.
"Let me know when you're ready." Sam nodded and turned back to the Impala. Castiel got into the backseat, slamming the door shut.
Dean turned to look one last time. One of the walls was already gone, revealing the others that were still covered in memorabilia. Hell, even the first dollar bill the bar had made was still there. Dean would have suspected most people in town would be desperate for even a dollar. He could still hear the karaoke machine from the night before. That damn laugh too.
"Make it count."
Dean felt something move under his boot and he looked down to what he'd just stepped on. A piece of the karaoke wall lay strewn on the asphalt below. A few names were cut off around the edges. Names of various drunken citizens who probably wouldn't even remember the place.
Smack dab in the center were two sets of initials: DW, JB.
Dean looked up at the clouds, knowing full well this couldn't possibly be a coincidence. Yet, here he was in a world that Chuck had created and then torn apart with his very brain and hands. Maybe some things didn't just happen.
Then again, maybe they did.
Dean clutched the piece of wall tightly in his fist and pocketed it.
The Impala merged onto the highway the moment the bulldozer brought the last wall down.
-8-8-8-8-8-8-
Most of the ride to Sioux Falls was quiet. With Sam afraid to ask anything, Dean afraid to tell anything, and Castiel caught somewhere in between. Dean blinked the weariness out of his eyes the moment after they passed the city sign.
"I must go," Castiel suddenly announced. "I'll return when you need me."
Before either Dean or Sam could say anything, the angel took off in a flap of wings, and the air in the car felt heavier than before. Sam blew air out of his cheeks and Dean gripped the steering wheel as tight as humanly possible. The weight of the wall piece in his pocket only adding to his feelings of guilt.
He knew Castiel had seen Jamie in his head.
A side of himself that Dean had yet to tell anyone. Not even Sam. There were things that were never meant to be shared, he supposed.
Or perhaps that was John Winchester talking.
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When they showed up at Jody's door, she looked shocked to see them.
"Well," Jody said. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"The hunt in town," Dean replied, just as confused. "Sam told me you said it was okay for us to crash here for a few days."
Sam gave Jody a look, warning her not to call his bluff. She looked over at the younger Winchester, expecting an explanation, but silently going along with it.
"Of course," Jody acted like a tired, new mom would upon answering the doorbell. "Sorry, must have slipped my mind. Girls! Sam and Dean are here!"
"Studying, mom!" Alex called out. "I'll say hi later!"
Jody smiled endearingly and let the brothers through the front door. The house was warm, packed to the brim with furniture and blankets draped over every place to sit. The smell from the kitchen was heavenly. Dean closed his eyes for a moment, trying to ingrain every smell and sight into his memory. It was so rare they had things like this.
"Claire's making dinner," Jody explained. "Hope you're hungry. It's rosemary chicken and roast potatoes."
"You know it." Dean smiled enthusiastically and turned when he felt a presence from the hallway. Claire leaned against the doorframe and smirked at him.
"C'mere kid." Dean laughed and pulled her into a hug, giving her a noogie and Claire waved his hand away playfully. Sam announced he was taking a shower and walked to the room he usually claimed when they stayed at Jody's, shutting the door behind him. Jody stared and Claire raised an eyebrow.
"That," Jody pointed. "Is something y'all are explaining later."
-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-
Dinner was nothing less than fantastic and, much to both Dean and Sam's delight, Jody and the girls kept the conversation mostly on themselves. Alex mentioned her schooling and how close she was to being done with community college. Patience was off visiting family. Jody had been given yet another raise and was looking to retire at the end of the year. Claire bragged about her hunting and the cases she'd successfully solved.
There was another place setting, unoccupied forever more. Dean noticed Claire's eyes trailed to it occasionally when she wasn't speaking.
Sam helped Jody with the dishes. Alex bid everyone goodnight. Dean stood, sort of awkwardly in the middle of the living room floor looking around, until his eyes drifted outside.
Claire sat on the front step, a beer in her hand, and she looked up at the night sky. Dean's feet moved robotically in her direction.
"Mind if I join you?" he asked, and she turned her head his way.
He sat down. Claire still stared at the sky.
"Sorry Cas didn't come with us this time," Dean said, the mention of his name drawing the beer bottle he held to Dean's lips. "Truth be told, I don't know where he went this time."
"It's okay," Claire finally replied. "Really."
"You okay, kid?" Dean asked.
It was a stupid question. He knew the answer by the look on her face.
"Do you ever just wonder why things happen." Claire mentioned.
"All the damn time." Dean shook his head and took another drink.
"No," Claire shot back, not realizing her tone at first, but Dean let her continue. "I mean like, why is happiness fleeting sometimes?"
Images flashed in Dean's head. Memories long forgotten lately. Dreams he'd had recently. He understood exactly what she meant.
"We get handed good things," Claire threw her hands up in the air. "Then they're taken away just like that, without any regard for how we feel."
"I think you just pretty much described life." Dean replied.
"It shouldn't be like that though," Claire's voice cracked. "It just shouldn't…be like that."
Dean looked over at her, worry filling his eyes. The corners of Claire's eyes filled with tears that threatened to fall.
"It took all I had to tell Jody," Claire wiped her eyes. "About me. About what I…like. I was gonna say something to Kaia. I almost did, but then everything happened."
"I understand," Dean replied, choking a little on his own spit and words.
"It's hard to come out," Claire chuckled a little. "It's one of the hardest things I ever did. I don't know why I thought Jody would be mad. She's the farthest thing from a Bible thumper. Am I crazy?"
"For being afraid?" Dean asked. "No. I can only imagine."
He could imagine. He imagined it every day. The conversations that probably would have gone down with John Winchester back in his hay day. Dean almost cringed at the scenarios he'd managed to come up with. Although, they'd never happened. Dean had always been careful.
He always would be.
"For what it's worth," Claire said. "Whether I got the girl or not, I'm glad I did it. It's like shedding a skin I didn't even know I had hanging on me."
Dean considered her words, wondering if she'd say anything else. If he should say anything, but then Claire gave him a look. A knowing look and a smile. His left hand, the one she couldn't see, shook. She tipped her beer bottle's neck to his and they clinked them.
The clouds cleared and the sky filled with stars.
-8-8-8-8-8-8-8-
Sam double checked that his pistol was loaded with the right bullets and that he had at least one piece of iron on him.
He also looked at himself in the mirror and checked his teeth for rosemary even after brushing, flossing, and using mouthwash.
Carefully, he closed the door to his bedroom, and treaded lightly down the hall. A few lights were on here and there to guide the way to the bathroom and the kitchen, but the house was deathly quiet. The crickets chirped excitedly outside, and Sam tried to match their sounds with the creaks in the floorboards.
He was almost to the door when he felt eyes on him.
"Why'd you lie to Dean?" Jody asked, spinning around in an armchair near the couch. She had a cup of tea in front of her and a book in her hand.
"Because he'd have stopped me from coming here on my own."
"What's here?" Jody inquired. "Besides me."
Sam gave Jody a sideways look and reached for the keys to her spare car she often let the brothers use while they were in town.
"You're an adult Sam," Jody said. "You shouldn't have to sneak around."
"Yeah," Sam pursed his lips and sighed. "Somehow, my family has never seen it that way."
Jody did her best not to worry as Sam walked out the door into the night.
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A/N: I'm just on a roll. I haven't felt this enthusiastic about a fanfiction in years. Hopefully, the feeling continues. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. I'm especially proud of Claire's talk with Dean. That being (also) said, Happy Pride Month if I haven't said it before now!
See you next chapter!