Chapter title is from song by Shinedown.

41

Thick as Thieves - Shinedown

The moon was high overhead when Sam joined him out on the deck. It was a dark, clear night and the stars were bright pinpoints in a velvet sky.

"You really think he can do it?"

"Empty heaven and hell? Not if we keep Crowley safe."

God, did he really just say that?

Sam blanched. "God, did you really just say that?"

"I know. Feels like I should wash my mouth out with soap or something."

"Dean, everyone we know. Mom and Dad. Bobby and Ellen and Jo. Ash. Pamela at the Meadowlands. I mean, everything …"

"Yeah."

They fell silent, each staring out over the steel gray water. He wanted a beer, just for the habit of it. Back when they were little, they use to sit on the hood of the Impala on clear nights like this, looking up at the stars. He'd told Sammy lies about how Mom was up there watching over them, just so Sam would sleep easy at night. Making stuff up, whole hog, and somewhere in there, somehow, Sam had bought into his bullshit and believed. Heaven and Hell, good and evil, right and wrong.

Most of the time he tried not to overthink things. He had a job and he did it, figuring what would come later would come later, and in his case, he knew what was coming anyway. And he was fine with that, so long as he knew Sam was okay, even if Sam's ideas of heaven were seriously whack.

But what was happening now—asshat angels ripping souls out of their private paradises, tearing up the natural order—that was a whole new level of wrong. To turn into something like Alfie, six serious fries short of a happy meal, clawing and clawing and crazy ravenous from now until the end of time-

That was not okay.

It was quiet inside the house. Sam had left a light on before he came outside, and the warm glow spilled out onto the wide deck. Zee had cleared parts of the house so he could move around, with an unfathomable look, as if she were weighing pros and cons.

"You may as well stay." She finally said, taking Toby by one hand.

He had grunted, because Toby looked hopeful, and they were as exposed as all hell. Who knew what Cas' Scooby Crew might have tracked in on their way here. He hoped she wasn't too fond of this house, because she had to know as well as he did that this location was well and truly burned.

"I don't think this is her only house." Sam offered into the silence.

"Huh?" Dean said, even though he kind of wanted to deny that was what he'd been thinking about, considering they had bigger problems.

Sam stared thoughtfully out over the lake, watching the wake of moonlight on the water.

"Jake, a friend of mine from Stanford—his folks had a place like this. Not like this, like this, with the devil's traps and all, but custom. You can kind of tell."

Money. Loads of it. Like that samurai sword of hers, the real deal.

"Like Bela, you think?"

"Not getting that vibe. You?"

He shook his head. From what he remembered of Bela's place, she liked her things. This was almost the opposite. Devil's traps and warding aside, and she had an awful lot of them, Zee's place was like her gear, stripped down to the essentials, all clean lines and smooth surfaces. There were none of the homey touches Lisa had imparted to the places they'd lived, no random magnets on the fridge, no souvenir mugs from that trip to Seattle, no photos, not even stray toiletries in the bathroom. It may not have been her home home, but he had a sneaking suspicion if she had more houses, they were all like this. Rufus had backup cabins dotted here and there, but they were all distinctly Rufus-like, the way all of Bobby's stashes and lockups always had a barely-constrained-chaos air to them.

"That's some serious demon warding she's got going on, though." Sam added quietly.

There was that. The iron devil's trap under the house was something else. If she hadn't stopped him from teleporting to Cas, he would have been well and truly stuck, short a blowtorch and a few hours time, that's even assuming he knew where to look.

Sam fidgeted. "Dean."

"If she wanted to do something, Sam, she'd have done it by now."

"Yeah, I guess. Unless she's waiting for something."

"What? Angels? Opportunity? Bit been there, done that, don't you think?"

Sam shrugged helplessly.

He slid a sideways look at Sam's profile, where Sam was still worrying with a frown. This was always the downside to Sam's grand plans, but now, like it or not, they were in for the ride. He didn't know, what she had planned, what she was going to do. She wasn't foolish. She left the wards around the bedroom whole, taking nothing for granted, because the lesser of two evils was still evil. At best she was just keeping him around for the Mark on his arm, the Blade in his hand, to look out for Toby until she could get the kid stashed at whatever Bobby or Pastor Jim equivalent she had in mind.

That was all it was.

The day had dawned cool and misty, thin fog drifting over the lake surface in swirling wisps. Zee was packing up what little there was of Toby's things.

"Maybe we should go with you."

Sam looked over at Dean in shock. That was the last thing he expected to come out of Dean's mouth. Zee glanced over at Dean.

"Hmm."

It was neither agreement nor disagreement.

Dean took the pack from Zee's hands as she zipped it shut.

"Where are we headed?"

"Xavier's."

There was a half beat of silence.

"You're sending him to mutant school?"

Dean's voice climbed on the last words. Sam wanted to bury his head in his hands, because Dean was 12, and he was 8, because that was the first thought that popped into his head as well. He coughed once.

Zee's lips twitched. Not quite a smile. Not quite not one.

"It's sword school." Toby supplied with the impatience of childhood, as if that should have been obvious to everyone. "I don't have any powers. Duh."

Sam swallowed his next cough forcibly.

"Um, so, where is sword school?"

"Cody. Wyoming."

Dean shot Zee another highly skeptical look before he beckoned to Toby.

"C'mon, kid. If it's going to be wax-on-wax-off for you, we might as well practice on the way. The Impala could use some more touching up anyway."