Twigs & Twine & Tasha Barnes Part 1

Lebanon, Kansas

Sam, Dean, and Angela were sitting in the bunker, talking about what had happened the night before. Grace sat on Sam's lap and was coloring in her coloring book.

"Okay, so last night… that Super Mario power-up crap?" Dean asked. "That wasn't Cas. That freaking baby isn't even born yet and it sock puppeted him. Think about it." He stood up and walked over to where Sam and Angela were sitting. "Cas said that he had faith in Lucifer Jr.? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Sam and Angela looked just as frustrated and confused as Dean.

"I don't know," Sam started. "I mean, look, this doesn't make any sense to us either, Dean. But if we wanna have some shot at finding Cas, then we have to… I don't know. Uh, try and think like him."

"How?" Dean demanded. "Seriously, I mean up until now, if Cas messed up, if he did something wrong, but he thought it was for the right reasons, I got it. Right? But last night, when I looked at him, I did not recognize the guy staring back at me."

Sam just turned away and reached for a bundle of brown leather, which he opened to reveal the Colt inside. It was melted and broken thanks to Dagon. Dean put his hands down on the table and leaned forward.

"Can you fix it?" Dean asked.

Sam picked up part of the Colt. "I hope so."

Suddenly, someone's cell phone started vibrating, and the hunters looked around.

"It's not me." Angela shrugged.

"Not me, either," Sam added.

"It's not me," Dean muttered.

Sam lifted up an open book and found the vibrating phone tucked underneath. He picked it up confusedly. "Must be one of Mom's," he muttered. "Hello?"

"Oh… uh… Sam?" Alicia's voice rang through. "Uh, I didn't know y—Uh, it's Alicia. Banes."

"Alicia?" Sam asked in surprise as he put the phone on speaker. "Hey, what's going on?"

"Like Max and Alicia?" Angela asked.

"Yeah."

"Yeah, sorry to um… Uh, Mary gave me a couple different numbers to reach her, and we thought—

"No. No. Mnh-mnh." Max interrupted loudly.

"I thought Mary would be down to help," Alicia explained. "Uh, be our backup on this, um…"

"You sound crazy." Max's voice rang through.

"Hey, guys. It's Angie. Uh, you two okay?" she asked concernedly.

"Yeah, depends who you ask," Alicia answered. "Um, Mom was hunting this witch who's killed people all over Wyoming. Uh, anyway, Mom usually checks in with us, but she's sort of disappeared."

"Oh, my god," Max complained. "She did not disappear. She's busy."

"Wait, so—so your mom is missing?" Dean asked.

"Where are you guys?" Angela questioned.

"We're on our way to Rock River, Wyoming," Alicia answered. "But Max thinks I'm overreacting, but I—

"Because you're being dramatic." Max scoffed. "Mom's fine. Stop bothering them."

"Fine." Alicia conceded. "Okay. Hey, we'll be okay. Uh, never mind."

"No, wait, wait, wait, wait. Um…" Sam looked quickly up at Dean and Angela. "Hey, why don't you text us your address? We'll meet you."

"You will?" Alicia asked in surprise.

"They will what?" Max asked.

"We'll see you soon," Sam replied before hanging up.

"What the hell man?" Dean demanded. "What about Cas?"

"Dude, Cas ditched his cell phone. Look, Jody put an APB out for Cas and Kelly across three states." Sam shrugged.

"Until that shakes something loose or we get some other break, all we're doing is—is sitting here, banging our heads against a brick wall," Angela added. "Let's get out there. Let's…"

Sam sighed heavily. "Their mom's on a hunting trip and hasn't been home in a week."

Dean tilted his head and stared at Sam for a moment. He nodded and looked away. "All right. Let's go."

Sam and Angela turned to walk away, while Dean pulled out his phone and tried to call Mary.

~/~\~

"This is Mary. Leave a message." Her voicemail played.

"Mom. Hey, uh, just wanted to let you know that, uh, me, Angie, and Sam, we're uh, we're heading out on a case with those witch twins, uh, Max and Alicia. Um, I'll text you the info, but, uh… I know the Brits have got you and Robert running nonstop. So, if you can help out, that'd be great." Dean leaned against the table. "Um… and even if you can't swing by, can you call me back? Just some stuff going down that's… kind of got me spun out. Be good to talk to you." Dean finished his message and hung up.

~/~\~

Rock River, Wyoming

Alicia and Max were standing by a lake looking out on the water. The Impala parked next to their Jeep, and Sam, Dean, Angela, and Grace walked over to Max and Alicia.

"Hey guys," Angela greeted.

"Hey." Alicia smiled.

"All right, well, we're here. What do you got?" Dean asked.

"Our mom is after a borrower witch," Alicia answered.

"So, witch that gets their power from a demon deal." Sam clarified.

"Mm-hmm."

"Okay, so you tracked your mom here?" Angela asked.

"And now we tracked her to the only vegan restaurant in town," Alicia replied. "They told up where she was staying."

"Anything else?" Sam raised his brows.

"I got the bartender's phone number," Max smirked proudly.

Alicia rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Ignore him."

Max grinned and then looked over at the Impala. "Dean… that car is still major."

"You want the tour?" Dean asked.

"Definitely." Max nodded eagerly.

"Come on," Dean replied. "Gracie, you wanna help with the tour?"

"Yeah!" Grace exclaimed happily as she held Dean's hand.

Max, Dean, and Grace walked over to the Impala leaving Sam, Angela, and Alicia to talk.

"Yeah. Max isn't really feelin' this." Alicia muttered.

"Yeah, we hadn't noticed." Sam laughed lightly.

"He always thinks he knows Mom better, but it's 'cause they're both natural witches. It's who they are."

~/~\~

Meanwhile, Max, Dean, and Grace were at the Impala. Dean opened the trunk to show Max the weapons inside.

"Whoa." Max raised his brows.

"Right?" Dean smirked.

"Nice."

Dean chuckled lightly. "Yeah."

"Is that a grenade launcher?" Max asked.

"Yes, she is." Dean nodded.

"Daddy says we don't need it," Grace added.

"Yeah," Dean reached in and pulled out a box of witch-killing bullets. "But, uh, this is what we need right now. Witch-killing bullets."

~/~\~

"And what about you?" Angela asked. "Uh, with magic."

"Nah, I don't have it," Alicia replied. "It's just kind of noise to me. Magic is definitely their thing, you know?"

"Yeah. When I was growing up, Dean and my dad had the same thing with hunting, that bond." Sam replied.

"What about with Mary?"

Sam fumbled slightly on how to answer the question. "I mean, she, uh, she gets into a case and just sort of vanishes."

"Yeah. No, Mary's a great hunter. So is Robert." Alicia replied. "Uh, they don't seem like the hugging kind."

"Yeah." Sam and Angela agreed.

"Hey!" Dean called out from the Impala.

"Let's go find your mom." Angela smiled softly.

~/~\~

The Impala pulled up to the boarding house and they all got out and looked around. Angela adjusted Grace on her hip.

"Well, her car's here." Alicia noticed.

"Well, no one's trying to hide it. That's good news." Dean added.

"Yeah." Sam and Angela agreed.

Suddenly, they heard a noise and turned to see a man that appeared to have just exited the cellar and closed the doors. They stared at the man who stared back at them for a few moments.

"Not weird. At all." Max said sarcastically.

Sam waved to the man, who just continued staring and then turned and walked away. Sam put his hands down somewhat awkwardly.

"All right, look, anything happens, you guys stay behind us," Dean instructed.

Alicia pulled out a knife that had runes carved onto it. "Yeah. Sure."

"Alicia…" Max warned as she headed towards the front door.

~/~\~

Andy turned around, flowers in hand when the door opened and the group came walking in.

"Uh, hi." Andy greeted.

"Hey…" Max greeted slowly.

"Can I help you?" Andy questioned.

"Yes, please." Angela nodded. "We're, uh, we're looking for, uh—

"Max? Alicia?" Tasha asked from behind them. "What are you two doing here?"

Dean, Angela, and Sam looked at each other. Max and Alicia grinned, relieved to see their mom.

"Mom!" Alicia ran to hug her.

"Sam, Dean, and Angela Winchester, meet the great Tasha Banes." Max introduced.

Tasha smiled at the three hunters. "The kids have told me very nice things."

"Alicia basically made them come just in case you were in peril." Max commented.

"Well, that was unnecessary, but very nice of you all the same." Tasha smiled. "Andy, can we get a couple rooms for my children and their friends?"

"Sure." Andy nodded. "It'll just be a minute."

"Great. You can wait in my room." Tasha told the hunters. "I have wine."

Alicia laughed and they started heading towards Tasha's room.

"Great." Max smiled.

Sam, Dean, and Angela followed close behind.

"Wine." Dean grumbled, not so happy about it.

"Just be happy you can actually drink alcohol." Angela laughed.

~/~\~

Tasha was opening a bottle of wine while Max, Sam, Dean, Angela, and Grace were sitting down.

"So, Rock River's a dead end. No witches here, unfortunately." Tasha explained as Alicia walked over with wine glasses. "Thought this was the place—

"Well, then why didn't you call us?" Alicia interrupted. "I mean we—

"Ahem." Max cleared his throat loudly.

"I called and texted a lot." Alicia corrected.

"I'm sorry, baby. My phone hasn't been charging all day." Tasha explained as Alicia sat down. "Oh, but I did find a fantastic acupuncturist."

"Of course you did." Max and Alicia replied simultaneously.

Tasha appeared to be having trouble opening the bottle of wine.

"You want me to help with that?" Sam offered.

"Oh, I've got it," Tasha assured.

"No, but you always call on the fourth day of a hunt, no matter what." Alicia commented.

"Honestly, babe, it just slipped my—

There was a cracking noise as the cork finally came free from the wine bottle. Tasha hastily put her hand behind her back.

Max's brows furrowed slightly. "Mom? You okay?"

"I'm fine." She smiled as she handed the bottle to Sam. "Sam, you do the honors."

"Of course." Sam nodded as he got up to pour the wine.

"Alicia, put some music on." Tasha instructed.

Alicia got up and did as she was told. Tasha turned away from the group and held out her hand. Her index finger was clearly broken and she grabbed a hold of it and straightened it out with a few cracking noises. Finger repaired, she turned back to the group.

"Oh. I ordered food from that vegan place, but no deliveries."

"Oh, I can get it." Alicia replied.

"Oh, I'll grab it." Sam offered. "Uh, you guys stay, hang out, catch up. Dean… drink." He patted Dean on the knee and stood up to leave. "Baby, you wanna come with?"

"Sure." Angela stood up. "Gracie, be good, okay?"

"'Kay, mommy," Grace replied, resting her head on Dean's arm.

Dean smiled slightly as he took Sam's glass and poured the wine into his own.

~/~\~

Dean was checking his phone for any missed calls or messages and sighed when he saw that there weren't any. Tasha walked up to Dean and sat down next to him on the couch while Max and Alicia argued.

"Expecting a call?" Tasha asked.

"Oh. Guess not." Dean replied.

"Alicia…" Max trailed off. "Let's say later, I… hypothetically might need your Jeep to take it out for maybe a little cruise."

"Mm, let's not," Alicia replied, looking at her phone.

"You know, I gotta say, you did a bang-up job with those two," Dean commented as he adjusted Grace on his lap.

"You must be drunk." Tasha laughed.

"Off of wine?" Dean quirked a brow.

"Not fair." Max complained.

"Yeah. I did the best I could for Max and Alicia." Tasha muttered.

"No," Dean replied.

"I got lucky."

"I see how you are with them, all right?" Dean muttered. "It's good. You know, they're—They're happy."

"Alicia said you grew up in the life." Tasha noted.

"Yeah." Dean nodded. "Yeah, our dads raised me, Sam, and Angie to hunt."

"And your mother?" Tasha questioned.

Dean looked away and sighed. "That's complicated."

Tasha laughed and turned to face forward. "Yeah. Family's always complicated. Parents always seem smart and strong and perfect. It's only when you grow up that you realize that they're just people." She replied as she patted Dean on the arm and stood up.

~/~\~

Everyone was laughing and smiling when Sam and Angela returned with the food.

"Hey." Sam smiled.

"Daddy!" Grace ran over and hugged his leg.

"Oh!" everyone stood up excitedly.

"Food!" Max beamed.

"Oh! Who's hungry?" Tasha asked.

"Me!" Alicia replied.

"Oh, my goodness. Thank you." Tasha smiled at Sam and Angela.

"All right," Max rubbed his hands excitedly.

Sam and Angela gave Dean a looked and he grabbed his coat and got up, leaving his phone behind. Sam picked up Grace, who yawned slightly.

"Ooh, it smells so good," Alicia commented.

"All right, let's see what we've got," Tasha added.

"Here, I can set up over here." Alicia offered.

"Okay." Tasha nodded.

"We'll be right back, y'all," Dean told the Banes'

"Sure." Alicia nodded.

"Ah, you two," Tasha started. "Get—get it down. Grab some napkins."

Sam, Dean, and Angela left the room to talk in the hallway.

"I know that look," Dean started. "What's up?"

Angela pulled out a missing persons flyer and showed it to him. "This was posted outside the restaurant. That guy we saw earlier coming out of the cellar? He's been missing for a month."

"Okay, that's weird," Dean admitted. "Well, maybe Tasha's wrong. Maybe there is something going on here."

"Yeah." Sam nodded. "I'll let 'em know."

"No, no, no." Dean stopped his brother quickly. "Let's… We can handle it. Come on."

A/N: Hey, guys, I hope you liked this chapter! I can't believe we're almost at the end of this installment. Love y'all, xoxo :)

~Emily