I don't know where I'm at.
I'm standing out the back,
And I'm tired of waiting.
Waiting here in line,
Hoping that I'll find
What I've been chasing
I shot for the sky
I'm stuck on the ground
So why do I try?
I know I'm gonna fall down.
I thought I could fly,
So why did I drown?
You never know why
It's coming down, down, down.
ABANDON ALL HOPE
Dean's expression was one of combined eagerness and frustration: he rolled his eyes in my direction, phone plastered to his ear, while he paced next to the Impala. We'd called in Cas after Sam got a lead on the colt. Becky had said that the demon Crowley had it - it had been in one of Chuck's books, and that led us to the situation we were in now - stalking the elusive demon, angel in pursuit. Cas was watching Crowley and another crossroads victim sealing a soul deal right this moment.
"The deal is going down?" Dean asked. "Right. Okay, Huggy Bear, just don't lose him."
The next few moments were going to be excruciating. I stared into the murky waters of the lake we'd parked next to, somehow the weather seemed to me mirroring my mood - it might have been sunny and bright on the surface, but below… deep down was an uncertainty sitting in my gut.
Sam was on his phone when Dean hung up with Cas, and he seemed to use that as a good moment to pick up our last conversation. He glanced down from the road at me, and grabbed a couple of bottles of water from the back seat, moving toward me with purpose.
I accepted the bottle he offered, and sat on a fallen tree trunk nearby.
"Okay, spill, what's going on?" Dean asked, his gentle yet stern worried look penetrated me to the core. I paused, letting it pass through me and reminded myself that he didn't know what was going on, at all, and that had to be worse than knowing. It had to be driving him crazy. I grimaced, feeling slightly guilty that I still hadn't told him, but then quickly reminded myself that we hadn't been alone since the convention.
"Again, not the best time to go into it Dean," I replied, opening the cap and taking a sip of water. It was warm, but still welcome given I was thirsty.
"There never is a good time, but we don't have Sam hovering like he does… so?" His expression shifted from curious to almost pleading. I felt my teeth come into contact with my lower lip, gnawing slightly as I toyed with the words I so wanted to say.
"It's… Gabriel, he shared one of his illustrious prophecies to me," I spat out after a moment. Dean's eyebrow raised slightly as he inclined his head to indicate I continue. "About us," I added.
"Good or bad?"
"Depends how you look at it," replied cryptically. "But he's pretty convinced that you're not going to be able to get out of being Michael's puppet." That wasn't really the part I wanted to tell him, but I also wasn't real sure how to broach the topic that Gabriel was waiting on Dean to impregnate me, with some saviour child, and then go off to be killed in the final showdown of asshole archangels.
"So, that's bad then," Dean said with a nod.
His pocket started to vibrate and play Eye of the Tiger. With a sigh, he pulled it out of his jacket and flipped the phone open, holding a finger up in the air as if to say 'we're not done' before he spoke. "Yeah?"
It had to be Cas, his expression took on that urgent look again. After a few moments, he nodded to himself. "That's okay, you did great. We'll take it from here." Hanging up, Dean threw an apologetic smile in my direction.
"Cas knows where Crowley is, but it's warded in Enochian and he can't get in."
"Angel proofing…" I mused. "He's prepared. He doesn't want Heaven looking in on him."
Our Gabriel conversation could wait. It all could. What we needed now was a miracle, and this was the closest we'd come in the journey. "Let's go," I said, as Dean hesitated for a split second, the look on my face must have been resolute enough that he didn't argue and instead nodded briefly at me.
"This isn't over,' he commented, before kissing my cheek and starting back to the car.
"We got the place," Dean announced to Sam as he climbed back up the embankment.
"One stop first, we gotta pick up someone," Sam replied, slipping his phone back into his pocket.
"Oh you are not going to start picking up strays are you?" Dean complained. I looked curiously at Sam as I reached them.
Sam sighed, and then shook his head. "She's insisting on coming along…" he replied. Only one person could get him that wound up lately… the on-again, off-again, must be on-again Jo Harvelle.
"Oh boy," Dean groaned, making the same connection I had. "Well ain't this gonna be just peachy?"
"Hey, shut up Dean!" Sam snapped. "Like I don't have to put up with the pair of you 24/7!"
"Hey, well nobody asked you to!"
"Yes!" Sam said loudly. "Yes, you did!"
"That was Beth," Dean interjected. It had been a rough couple of months, I knew this. But I was not in the mood for either of their bickering.
"Hey! Shut up the both of you!" I yelled, which brought them both to a complete silence. "We stick together, end of story, and I'm tired of arguing about it. We have seen the future…" My voice trailed off, thinking about it and I saw Dean's head dip down slightly as he considered our child and the fact that I wasn't alive to raise her in that future.
"We have seen what's coming if we screw this up," I said a little softer. "So enough. Let's get Jo, and do this. She's a good hunter, she might be able to help."
Mansion
At what point had it come down to wearing a little black dress and high heels to hunt? I exchanged a shrug with Jo as she pulled the short skirt down around her ass and flashed us a grin.
"What?" The young blonde asked, her smiled turning to a frown.
"Nothing," Dean said, rolling his eyes and attempting to look anywhere but at the long legs running down to the black shoes. "Can't believe you had that in your hunting bag."
"Hey!" Jo countered, eyes flashing. "A LBD is an essential part of any woman's wardrobe."
"Beth doesn't have one," Dean retorted.
"Which is why I'm running point, bozo. This would be much easier if there were two of us about to go prostitute ourselves," Jo replied.
"Sorry," I shrugged, absently fingering the silver anti-possession medallion hanging from my rosary. Yes I had it tattooed on my neck, but it was still a comfort knowing it was there. Guns were no good in this affront, the only weapon that really was flashed in Sam's hand as he shifted Ruby's knife from his left to right.
"Sure, whatever, let's do this," Jo said, turning to walk briskly down the path toward the mansion that Cas said Crowley was hiding out in. There would be demons everywhere patrolling, and an alarm attached to the walls. Our best approach, we'd decided, was going through the front gate. And that lay squarely on Jo's shoulders right now.
As she moved closer to the gate which blocked our only way into the estate, I hurried along the base of the eight foot wall, Sam and Dean leading the way. As Jo reached the gate, we pulled back into the shadows and listened, waiting.
Jo reached out and pushed the intercom, and then paused for a response.
"Hello?" A man's voice sounded.
"Hello," Jo replied, looking up into a camera. "My car broke down. I—I need some help." She smiled at the lens and there was a pause while the man on the other side contemplated her appearance.
"I'll be down in a minute," he said finally. It seemed like a lifetime for the gate to swing open, but in reality was only a couple of seconds. Jo smiled past the perimeter of the gate, but the hand at the side of her hip curled out two fingers, and I felt Sam and Dean shift to readiness, waiting for their cue.
There were two men inside the gate. One of them spoke.
"Evening, pretty lady. Get yourself on in here," he invited.
Jo appeared to hesitate, an act to be sure, but took a step toward them. "I just need to make a call."
"You don't need to call anyone, baby," This was the voice from the intercom, and the undertone of his voice made my skin crawl. "We're the only help you're ever gonna need."
Sam instinctively moved, but Dean grabbed his arm, shaking his head once. We had to stay the course, and trust Jo knew what she was doing. So far she was playing the game to a tee.
"You know what?" She said, turning. "I think I should wait by my car."
One man moved into view and I felt Sam tense even more when the demon grabbed Jo's shoulder, stopping her from moving.
"We said, get your ass in here," he said. Jo acted, spinning and smacking his hand free before punching him in the face, flattening him. Sam was one fluid motion before the second man could even reach Jo, stabbing him in the neck with the knife, and watching as a ripple of light flashed through the body, before pulling it out and then stabbing the first man, still on the ground.
"Nice work, Jo," Dean said, clapping her on the back with a smile.
"Thanks," she said.
I pulled out a pair of pliers from the bag I had over my shoulder, and handed them to Jo.
"Shall we?" I asked. Sam nodded, handing me the knife, and then moving to stand with Jo. Things were about to get entertaining.
Inside the Mansion
Dean and I had left Sam and Jo to cut the power. It was up to us to get inside and prepare for Crowley. Fortunately for us, there wasn't all that many demons in the mansion when we entered, which gave me plenty of time to pull back one of the Persian rugs on the floor in the foyer. I drew a devil's trap with spray paint on the bottom of it.
Keeping watch, Dean nodded when I was done, and helped me pull the rug back into position. He flashed me a cheeky grin as we moved into position. "Now this is more like the old days. Hunting. Taking the fight to them…" he whispered, sounding a little more excited than I'd heard him in months. "None of this running crap, right?"
The power went out at that moment, the room falling into darkness. I peered back at Dean, the light of the full moon outside the only illumination for the room.
I smiled, and nodded, peering out the door and seeing a shadow fall on the floor, just around the corner. "Yeah, much better, we're in control," I replied, inclining my head and hearing footsteps. "Someone's coming."
Dean readied his shotgun filled with rock salt and we crossed over the rug, waiting inside the room.
Crowley had take residence in a middle-aged short man, but for all intents and purposes was clean cut and enjoying the look. Decked head to toe in a stylish black suit, with black shirt and black tie, he was clean shaven and looked as if he'd been expecting us.
"Crowley, I believe?" I asked, and he looked me up and down appreciatively before rolling his eyes.
"So," he said in a thick Irish accent, "Nancy Drew and the Hardy...boy finally found me." His eyes swept the room, looking for Sam, but he appeared unconcerned by his absence. "Took you long enough," he added.
I held my breath, suddenly feeling very exposed in the room, despite holding Ruby's knife. Crowley took a couple of steps into the room, almost onto the rug before stopping. It was crumpled from having been moved, I instantly knew that he'd discovered our plan, and he knew that I knew in the way he looked at me. He smirked, and leaned down to flip a corner over. When he saw the devil's trap he sighed, standing.
"Do you have any idea how much this rug cost?" He complained. I felt arms grab me, and beside me Dean struggled as another man secured him, taking the gun and pinning his arms to the side.
The knife was yanked out of my hand, and as much as I struggled, I couldn't move. They had us. I cursed silently that we hadn't been more concerned about the lack of guards in the mansion. Why wouldn't he have them? We had been led into a trap as sure as we thought we'd been moving Crowley into one.
The latter held the one object we'd come for, the Colt, up in his hand, still on the other side of the rug and tutted. "This is it, right?" He asked. "This is what it's all about."
My whole world stopped as he pointed the gun at Dean.
"No," I muttered, struggling harder.
The room slowed to a crawl as Crowley shot. I thought I saw the bullet fly through the air toward Dean, and then it missed, hitting the demon behind him. Bang! Another shot, and the demon behind me fell to the floor dead with his comrade, leaving Dean and I both gaping. Dean reached for me and placed a hand at my back, checking me over. I breathed a sigh of relief, letting myself take in the feel of his hand pressed to me. We were alive.
"We need to talk," Crowley said. "Privately."
"Jesus Christ," Dean muttered as Crowley turned, waving the colt in the air in a gesture for us to follow. "Are you okay?" He asked, looking me over.
"Yeah," I nodded, my hands shaking a little as I turned and patted him down for bullet holes I knew I wouldn't find. "Dammit." He gave me a quick hug.
"Come on," he said, his voice growing steely. He let me go, and leaned down, picking up the shotgun and knife, handing me the blade. I felt the comfort of its hilt in my hand, sharing a look of confusion and concern with Dean before we followed him into the room adjoining where we were.
"What the hell is this?" Dean asked angrily as we stepped through the doors.
"Do you know how deep I could have buried this thing?" Crowley asked, waving a hand and causing the doors to slam shut behind us. "There's no reason you or anyone should know this even exists, except that I told you."
I looked skeptically at him. "You? You told us?"
Crowley shrugged. "Rumors, innuendo, sent out on the grapevine."
"Why tell us anything?" I asked.
The demon pointed the gun at Dean again, and I felt myself starting to get angry. This wasn't the way this thing was supposed to go down. The only thing that I was comforted by was the knowledge that Sam and Jo would start looking for us soon, when we didn't call.
"I want you to take this thing to Lucifer and empty it into his face," Crowley said to Dean.
"Uh-huh, okay, and why exactly would you want the devil dead?" He asked.
"It's called…." Crowley paused, and put the gun down on the table next to him. "Survival. Well, I forgot you Winchesters at best are functioning morons."
Dean bristled. "You're functioning...morons…" he tried to retort, but the look on Crowley's face showed how unimpressed he was with the attempted insult.
"Lucifer isn't a demon, remember?" He asked, looking a me before picking up a drink and swirling the scotch inside of it. "He's an angel! An angel famous for his hatred of humankind. To him, you're just filthy bags of pus. If that's the way he feels about you, what can he think about us?"
"But he created you," I pointed out. At least, that's what I'd always been led to believe. It wasn't as if it was clear in the bible, but there were things in my Dad's journals… impressions.
"He created us, he loved Lilith and he killed her to get out of Hell. To him, we're just servants. Cannon fodder," Crowley said. "If Lucifer manages to exterminate humankind, we're next. So, help me, huh? Let's all go back to simpler, better times, back to when we could all follow our natures. I'm in sales, dammit! So what do you say if I give you this thing, and you go kill the devil?"
Crowley picked up the colt again, holding it handle first to Dean. This had to be a joke, right? A demon, handing us the one thing that we believed could rid us of the Devil. I glanced sideways at Dean, seeing him look at me. His eyes widened slightly in question, and I wrinkled my nose, thinking.
What if he's for real?
I looked back at Crowley, and he wriggled the gun in the air, clearly growing impatient.
"Well Nancy? What'll it be? I'm giving you the solution to the whole damn book." And he was. I sighed, and stepped a little closer, taking the gun out of his hand and then quickly moving back beside Dean.
"Right," Dean said, nodding in my direction. "Great."
"Great," Crowley said with a smile.
"Great…" I echoed, glancing down at the gun in my hand. It felt heavier than I remembered, or was that just me?
"Great!" Crowley again.
We all stood there, not speaking, just looking at each other. Crowley had a smug smile on his face, like the cat who had just gotten the cream. There was just one problem.
"Just one little thing…" I pointed out, and Dean shook himself beside me, as if he'd been lost deep in thought. He turned his gaze to Crowley and cocked his head to the side.
"Yeah," he said. "You uh, you wouldn't happen to know where the devil is, by chance, would you?"
My arm was twitching. I wanted this demon gone as much as I did Lucifer.
"Thursday, birdies tell me, there's an appointment in Carthage, Missouri," Crowley replied. I glanced at Dean, he wasn't moving, just taking it all in.
"Great," I said resolutely.
I moved quickly, just like John had trained us: before I could talk myself out of what I was doing, or second guess what had to happen. Instincts took over. Within a second I had stepped up to Crowley, lifted the gun and placed the barrel to his forehead. I let out a breath and squeezed the trigger.
Click.
Nothing.
Shit.
Nothing! The gun wasn't loaded! Crowley's eyes met mine, and he hadn't even moved. He hadn't even blinked.
"Oh yeah," he said finally, unfazed. "Right. You'll probably need some more ammunition."
I kept my expression still, hiding the surprise that I should not being feeling. I should have known he wouldn't hand us a loaded gun. He's a demon!
Crowley moved effortlessly toward a desk, opening a drawer.
Dean cleared his throat. "Oh, uh, excuse me for asking, but aren't you kind of signing your own death warrant? I mean, what happens to you if we go up against the devil and lose?"
Crowley stopped, turning back to Dean. "Number one, he's going to wipe us all out anyway. Two, after you leave here, I go on an extended vacation to all points nowhere. And three…" His voice had progressively grown louder, until "... how about you DON'T MISS, okay! Morons!"
The doors behind us opened, and Crowley looked up, again not surprised. I heard two sets of footsteps, one of them Sam's - the other had to be Jo. With a flick of his wrist, Crowley threw a box toward Dean, who caught it and opened it in one movement. I glanced over to confirm the contents. Bullets.
When we looked back to where the demon had been standing, he was gone.
I sighed. "Dammit. This did not go as planned."
"But we got the Colt," Dean said.
"Yeah," I muttered, looking down at it. "We got the colt."
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Bobby's House
I'd found my way to the little memorial garden Sam had made for Dean and I, tucked away behind the makeshift gym in an old shed at the back of Bobby's salvage yard. It was about the only thing Bobby kept neat and tended, though since he'd been in a wheelchair, it had started to get overgrown. Sitting on the bench under the magnolia tree Sam had planted in memory of Dean's and my lost baby, it only drove home the sinking feeling that yet again we were in over our heads, and facing almost certain death.
It wasn't that long ago Dean and I had been retiring and planning to settle down. To have another baby. Tomorrow we would be going after the Devil. The Devil. It seemed surreal, even after everything we had experienced.
I was expecting Dean to come looking for me, so it was a surprise to look up and see Jo. The girl, who couldn't be much younger than me, leaned against the side of the shed, a bottle of beer dangling from her fingers. She nodded silently when I turned to face her, lifting the bottle up and gesturing to the little angel statue under the tree.
"It's not too late," she said.
I scoffed, feeling my heart sink.
"I beg to differ."
"Mum, Sam, Cas, we can handle it. Maybe you and Dean should take off. Get as far away from all this as possible."
"Dean would never agree to that," I replied.
"You'd never leave Sam behind," she countered, taking a sip of her bottle. "Isn't that the reason we're all here?"
"It's not that simple, Jo."
"What if it is?" Jo asked. "What if you guys just let it go? John wasn't a saint, he got my Daddy killed Beth. He wasn't infallible. What if he was wrong?"
I noticed a shadow moving to my right, loitering just out of sight from the blonde. Standing, I sighed and raised my arms out to my sides.
"That's just the problem Jo. Us going back for Sam? Saving him from death? That wasn't John's wish. John told us to kill him if he fell under the influence of the demon blood. We disobeyed John. That is why we're here, not because we were following orders like good soldiers."
Jo went still, taking this information in.
"I didn't know."
"And the reason this situation has happened?" I pressed on, wanting to drive my point home. "Is because we let go. We stopped, we walked away from hunting, and because we weren't there Sam killed Lilith and freed Lucifer from Hell. And now we're cleaning up that mess. Because we messed up, we left him, no one was there watching out for him. So, no, fixing this is our responsibility."
"People die when you're around Beth."
Her words sliced through me like a knife.
"Your Dad. John. Sam. Hell, even Dean. What's the common link?"
I stared incredulously at her, but I had no reply. I believed her. It was as if I were speaking to myself.
"That's enough," Dean had been listening until this point, but I knew he wouldn't stand in the shadows while Jo tore shreds off me. "You don't come here, of all places, and insult my wife."
"Dean…"
He cut her off with a wave of his hand through the air. "You want someone to take care of, go tell your mother than a drinking game with an angel is pointless."
It was as gentle a dismissal as she was going to get. I felt Dean's hand move across my lower back, coming to rest against my hip as he pulled me into his side and waited for Jo to leave. She opened her mouth, as if to speak further, but when she glanced at Dean's face she reconsidered and turned on her heel.
I let out a shaky breath as she disappeared into the darkness.
"She's wrong." Dean didn't waste time mincing his words.
"Is she?"
"You know what's in common with those deaths? Demons. Plain. Simple. Evil. You can't help that you got caught in the middle, Beth." His voice was so certain, unlike my own.
"And we're still surrounded by them. We're working with one! Tomorrow… we face death, again..."
Dean turned me to face him, his hands sliding around my waist - firm, strong, warm - while his eyes sought mine.
"Nobody is dying on my watch, sugarpie. No one." Dean's voice had take on the stubborn tone of a child who refused to accept that they had no control over what was to come. "Tomorrow, we'll finish this. Then we'll decide what comes next."
I nodded, leaning my head against his shoulder and feeling the way he pulled me closer, our bodies pressed the length of each other. I didn't want it to end, I never did, but knew we couldn't stand out here all night. After a few minutes I pulled back, and looked regretfully up at him again.
"We should go back inside, work on this plan," I said with a sigh.
"No," Dean said, turning me back to the bench and pushing on my shoulder until I sat down. "It can wait. You still have to tell me about Gabriel."
"Dean…"
"I mean it, no more avoiding the topic, just tell me what's been going on… you think I don't see you're holding on to something?"
I took a deep breath and nodded, leaning heavily against him. Once more, Dean wrapped his arm around me, wedging me snuggly in against the side of his body before he turned his face to kiss the top of my head.
"Ten words or less, go."
It was an old game we used to play, especially when we first got together and had been having trouble communicating complex emotions. Ten words or less had made cutting through the excess story easier. Because when you got right down to it, the punchline was the key to everything.
"We're having a baby."
Dean's hand tightened on me for a split moment, enough to give away his surprise at the statement.
"A… baby? Wait, you're...?"
"No!" I cut in quickly. "No... I'm not. But Gabriel says I will be..."
Even in the darkness, there was enough moonlight to see him glance sideways at the little baby angel statue under the Magnolia tree. The placeholder for our dead baby's ashes.
He recovered quickly, clearing his throat and mustering up a wry smile for me. "Well, uh, of course. We have a daughter coming, right? You saw her."
I bit down on my lip, closing my eyes and recalling the beautiful little girl I'd held in my arms when Zachariah had transported us to the future. She was a piece of me and Dean, she'd been perfect.
But that's all it was. A vision of a possible future. One we were working overtime to change.
"He also said you would have to give in to Michael. Become his Vessel, and fight Lucifer."
"Not happening."
Dean's voice was certain.
"Yeah, but… in 2014, look at what…"
"Not… happening."
I pulled back just enough so that I could peer at his face, which was resolute. His jaw clenched in thought as he once again looked up at the magnolia tree, then over to me.
"Tomorrow… we fix this mess, and then we move on with our lives, our decisions. No more angel condoms, no more devil, just us. Armageddon can kiss our asses, because we are not going down without a fight, and we're not giving in without one either."
I smiled, feeling my heart lift lightly with the pep talk.
"Sounds like a plan, Mr Winchester," I replied lightly, kissing his lips.
"Damn straight, Mrs Winchester," he said, the words enough to make my heart sing for a moment, matching my smile. "We've got this. Together."
I believed him.
Inside - Bobby's House
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Ellen and Castiel were three shots into a drinking challenge at the kitchen table by the time we got inside. The house smelled like it could use a good airing out, thick with the tension of another fight tomorrow, coupled with sour old body odour and whiskey. Ellen had eight shot glasses lined up on the table in front of her, four turned upside down and empty.
With the fifth in hand, Ellen smirked, her perfectly groomed eyebrows a challenge in and of itself to the angel sitting opposite her. To the side of the table was Jo, watching silently while leaning against a wall and sipping from a beer bottle. Ellen drained the shot glass and returned the empty shell, upside-down, to the table.
"All right, big boy," she nodded.
Cas tilted his head slightly to the side and observed his own drinks in front of him. After a moment he nodded and then quickly reached out to knock back one glass after another until all five of his remaining shots were drained. Ellen's mouth dropped open in surprise, and I couldn't help but wonder if my own expression was the same.
Cas smiled and looked over at Dean and I. "I think I'm starting to feel something."
Jo grinned, and I chuckled, opening the fridge to grab three of beers. I cracked them open and sauntered back into the library, handing them out to Dean and Sam who were sitting at the desk.
"It's gotta be a trap, right?" Sam asked as Dean accepted the beer and took a long pull. At Sam's comment he almost choked on the beer before swallowing and raising an eyebrow.
"Sam Winchester, having trust issues with a demon. Well, better late than never."
"Thank you again for your continued support," Sam said said with a wry smile.
"You're welcome," Dean replied, and they both reached out, clinking their bottles together while Sam scoffed at his brother. I shook my head and sipped my own drink, relishing the feeling of the cold, amber liquid running down my throat.
"You know, trap or no trap, we got a snowball's chance, we gotta take it, right?" Dean said.
"Yeah, I suppose," Sam conceded, looking over at me. I shrugged, and perched on the corner of the desk, looking from Sam to Dean.
"It's not like we have any other leads."
"Besides, I'm not sure it is a trap," Dean said, pushing some papers across the desk. "Check it out. I mean, Carthage is lit up like a Christmas tree with Revelation omens. And look at this…" he spun a couple of papers to Sam.
I glanced down at them, missing persons reports… lots of them.
"There's been six missing persons reported, in town, since Sunday," Dean continued. "I think the devil's there."
It felt like we were just going in circles, conversations had already been discussed about this. Dean was simply driving his point home. Carthage was our best bet, and not only that, it was our only one. We simply had no better options, and we all knew it.
"Okay," Sam agreed with a nod.
Dean glanced over at me, hesitating for a moment, I looked at him questioningly - suddenly curious as to what was bothering him.
"Look, Sam, when you think about it…. You can't come with," Dean said finally. Sam rolled his eyes, smiling slightly. My heart thudded to a stop, all at once I saw what he was getting at.
"Dean."
"Look, I go against Satan and screw the pooch, okay. We've lost a game piece. That we can take. But if you're there, then we are handing the devil's vessel right over to him. That's not smart," Dean countered.
Sam opened his mouth, then turned to look at me. "And I suppose you're staying behind?" His voice was accusatory, the question rhetorical, and we all knew it.
With a slightly raised eyebrow I took another drink from my beer bottle and then sighed. "I go where Dean goes."
"How is that smart?" Sam asked. "Since when have we ever done anything smart?"
"I'm serious, Sam," Dean said. I bit my lip, looking from the man I loved, my husband, who I should and usually did support unconditionally. For the first time in a while I disagreed with him.
"So am I. Haven't we learned a damn thing? If we're gonna do this, we're gonna do it together," Sam said.
The silence in the room as Dean stared at Sam was deafening. After a moment Dean's eyes flicked toward me, a slight frown.
"Well?" He asked.
I ran a hand through my hair and sighed. "He's right Dean. Every time we split up something goes wrong. We should stick together." Sam tossed me a grateful smile, and his shoulders relaxed, allowing himself to breathe.
Dean stared at me, the frown on his face displeased at my loyalty being with Sam's take on the situation. I stared back, refusing to give in. He knew I was right, and after a while he would….aha!
With a huff Dean looked away first.
"Okay. But it's a stupid frigging idea," he conceded, taking another drink and looking past me until his attention came to focus on Ellen, Castiel and Jo, setting up more drinks.
"Boy," Sam said. "Talk about stupid ideas."
"Good God. True, that," Dean said. "I need another beer."
"I'll get it," I said, anxious to get up and move out of the range of any further conflict. As I entered the kitchen, Jo was rummaging around in the fridge, her ass very clearly and dominantly on display in tight jeans.
"Hey," I said, moving to lean against the bench.
Jo glanced up, and then stood up, holding three beers, two of which she handed to me. "Hey."
"Sorry about Dean, earlier," I started, cracking my bottle open and taking a sip. "He gets over protective."
"Yeah, well, so he should, you're his wife," she said with a short nod. Her gaze trailed into the living room, thoughtful. "I'm sorry too."
"It's okay," I said, shifting my weight from one foot to the other.
"No, it's not. Sam's always telling me I need to watch my temper…" she smirked, rolling her eyes and meeting mine. "Like he can talk, huh?"
I chuckled and nodded, we both turned to look back at Sam who was watching Bobby on the other side of the library, out of our line of sight.
"Guess we're all here because of his temper," Jo said finally, a little more sadly.
"We're hunters," I replied. "This is what we do. If it wasn't Sam, it would've been someone else. We'd likely still be in the thick of it. At least we have each other."
"Yeah…" Jo nodded. "At least we have that. So we're good?"
I nodded.
"Everyone get in here!" Bobby demanded. "It's time for the lineup. Usual suspects in the corner." Ellen groaned from the kitchen table and stood up, wavering slightly on her feet before walking forward. Jo and I followed with Cas.
"Oh come on, Bobby. Nobody wants their picture taken," Ellen said.
"Hear, hear," Sam agreed.
"Shut up," Bobby snapped. "You're drinking my beer."
Bobby finished setting up his camera on a tripod while Castiel, Sam, Ellen and Dean begrudgingly lined up in front of the lens. Sam was the tallest and took the middle, Castiel to his right, Dean to his left. Ellen, much shorter than them all, stood in front, glaring at the camera.
"Joanna Beth, you get in here too," Ellen ordered and I turned to look at Jo with a grin.
"Beth? Your middle name is Beth?" I asked.
Jo groaned while Dean snorted and waved me over to him. "Now that's funny," he commented, looking over at Jo. The young girl crossed her arms, a scowl marring her otherwise pretty features as she moved up next to her mother, in front of Sam and Castiel.
I slipped around to Dean's side, his arm quickly wrapping around my shoulder as he pulled me up against him. He put his other arm out and around Sam's shoulders and looked at the camera with a smile."
"Anyway, I'm gonna need something to remember your sorry asses by," Bobby said, pressing a button and wheeling his chair backwards until he was in front of Dean and I. I reached out to pat his shoulder affectionately while we waited for the countdown.
"Ha!" Ellen said in reply to Bobby. "Always good to have an optimist around."
"Bobby's right," Cas said in his monotone, practical voice. "Tomorrow we hunt the devil. This is our last night on earth," he said. I turned to look at him as he finished, shocked that he had pointed out the one thing we'd all been thinking.
Everyone's smiles disappeared, and then I heard the click of the camera as it snapped our picture.
"Well… that's a sombre thought," I muttered. "I need another drink."
Several Hours Later
Sam and Jo had taken Cole's room in the attic, bidding everyone else good night a good hour earlier. Dean and Bobby had sat up talking quietly as I cleaned the kitchen a little, depositing empty bottles into a crate by the door, and washing the stacked dishes on the sink. It felt good to do something mundane, to let myself give in to the simple chore of cleaning, and allow my mind to simply drift without direction.
Eventually Ellen had bid her good nights and gone up to Bobby's old room to sleep. Castiel had disappeared, I wasn't even sure if he slept. Where exactly did angels go while the rest of us caught up on our beauty sleep? I opened my mind to Cas, filtering through the chatter of a hundred different angels all from the Castiel angelic line, until I found him.
"Good night, Beth. Get some rest and I will join you all in the morning." Cas's reply to my unspoken question came quickly, and then he was gone. I tuned out the white noise, shutting down my angel radio, or whatever Dean had called it, so that I was once again alone in my own head.
"Quit fussing woman!" Bobby snapped as I started to wipe down the benches. I looked through the archway into the library to see him positioning himself into the bed that was now tucked under the window - Bobby's makeshift bedroom now he couldn't climb stairs.
With a smile, I tossed the rag into the sink and went to place a kiss on his forehead. "Quit your complaining old man," I said with a grin. "It's one less thing you have to worry about tomorrow."
"Hmph," Bobby said, laying back against his pillow. "At least that fool daughter of mine isn't here to join you."
My smile dropped at the mention of Cole's name. "Have you heard from her? Where is she?" I asked, an ache in my chest at the reminder of the missing woman who was like a sister.
"How the dang hell would I know? You think she tells her dear ol' dad anything? Flaming idjit she is," he said with a sigh.
"I'm sure she's fine, wherever she is," I replied, reaching out to squeeze his hand. "Better she's with JJ and safe, than joining us tomorrow."
"For once that's something I can agree on," Bobby said softly, and then he grunted, waving his hand impatiently at me. "Get goin' you. I got some sleepin' to do."
I crossed the library and paused in the doorway leading to the stairs. "Good night Bobby," I said after a moment.
"Good night, baby girl," he replied, before rolling over to face the window. My heart spasmed at the old term of endearment that both Bobby and John had been using since I was fifteen. With a sadness, I turned to climb the stairs up to the room that was now Dean's and mine, Sam having been ousted from sharing with us years ago.
Want to see what happens on their last night before facing the Devil? Head over to Dean & Beth: The X-Files Chapter 28!
The Next Day
Carthage, Missouri
The town was deserted upon our arrival. Not something we had expected, though it certainly wasn't surprising. I peered out the window of the Impala and took in the missing posters tacked to the telephone poles. To our left was a billboard declaring that ANTI-GOD IS ANTI-AMERICAN with an American flag in the background. Next to it was, strangely, a sign advertising Adult Videos.
I hung my arm out the window, phone in hand, waving it around like I belonged on some kind of TV advertisement for better phone reception.
"You getting a signal?" Sam asked from behind me, squinting at his phone.
"No," I said, shaking my head at the missing bars on my screen.
Dean also had his phone out his side of the car, but now brought it back inside and sighed.
"Nothing," he said. "Nice and spooky."
He stuffed the phone into his jacket and then waved his empty hand out the window. Behind us, Ellen swerved to pull her car up alongside us, Jo riding shotgun, while Cas sat in the back seat.
"Place seem a little empty to you?" Ellen asked through the open windows.
Dean nodded, his eyes sweeping the streets. We were one tumbleweed short of a western movie before a major showdown.
"We're gonna go check out the PD. You guys stay here, see if you can find anybody," he said after a moment.
"Okay," Ellen said.
Eerily, the station was just as empty. Not a single desk clerk remained in the old, worn police department. I carried my shotgun with me, just in case, as I moved through the back cells. Surely there'd be someone locked up? A drunk? The police chief who hadn't gone along with whoever else was running the show in this town… with Lucifer.
The thought didn't sit well with me, and I was starting to think we had made a mistake coming here. Sam had been right, it had to be a trap, why else was the town deserted? Where was everyone?
A noise clattered behind me, I spun on my heel, gun pointed, only to find Sam with his hands raised to the side.
"Sorry," he said sheepishly, and I lowered my gun, glaring at him with a smile.
"Nearly caught a chest full of rock salt then little brother," I grinned, Sam smiled back at me.
"Save it for the demons," he replied, a frown creasing his brow.
"Would that we could find them…"
Dean appeared in the doorway behind Sam. "Nothing?" He asked.
"Quiet as a ghost town," I responded and he lifted his chin, gesturing back toward the front of the building.
"Let's get back to Ellen."
As we walked outside, Ellen and Jo pulled up alongside the Impala.
"Station's empty," Dean said, stopping beside their open window and looking around.
"So's everything else," Jo replied.
"Have you seen Cas?" Ellen asked. I looked up urgently, my attention instantly drawn to the angel. I reached out with my senses, seeking him.
"What?" Sam asked. "He was with you."
Cas? I whispered it telepathically to him, like we often did.
"Nope," Ellen said. "He went after the reapers."
"Reapers?" Dean said.
"He saw reapers?" Sam asked. "Where?"
My heart stopped at the thought. We didn't exactly like running into those in this family.
"Well, kind of everywhere," Jo replied.
"Everywhere?" I asked.
"Yeah," Ellen chimed in. "It didn't look good. He said they only gather in times of great catastrophe... he mentioned Pompeii."
I shared a concerned look with Dean, and let out a long breath. "That… doesn't sound good."
"What about your, eh, angel radio thing…. Can you hear him?" Dean asked, his eyes hopeful. I bit my lip, concentrating again and once more reaching out to the missing angel.
My surroundings faded, and I was moving through time and space, like fast forwarding through a movie. One moment I was standing in Spain, watching a matador practicing his moves; the next I was in a burger joint, listening to a radio broadcast about the strange weather patterns. I tuned these scenes out, like fine tuning a radio, seeking the Castiel I knew.
All these were other angels within the angelic line, all angels who I could host. Yet, I never spoke to them. I knew they were there, but there was really only one Castiel to me.
Suddenly I was standing in a dark room, lit by firelight. I glanced down, seeing flames, and then…
I gasped, feeling myself pushed out, thrust back into the here and now. Dean moved to catch me as I staggered and opened my eyes.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah," I nodded, gripping his forearm. "I'm fine. Just… disoriented."
"Did you see him?"
"Yeah, I think so," I replied, biting my lip. "Wherever he is, it's dark… and there's a fire..."
"Fire?" Sam asked, and I nodded.
"He shut me out before I could see more."
"Well that's just great," Dean cursed, sighing and turning to kick the wheel of the Impala. "Dammit!"
"So we go on without him," Ellen said, climbing out of the car. "The mission hasn't changed."
"Maybe we'll find Cas on the way," Jo said, joining us on the pavement. "He might be in the school basement looking at the boiler for all we know."
I reached out again, trying to locate the angel, but this time the way was barred to me. He'd shut me out. That did not bolster my spirits.
Dean sighed, but nodded at the same time. "Yeah okay, let's move. We'll go on foot from here. He can't have gotten far."
Short While Later
The streets were eerily silent and empty as we walked along them. I glanced into an abandoned car, bringing up the rear with Dean and Sam. Ellen and Jo were just a couple of paces ahead, no one seemed to want to separate too much now that Cas had gone missing. It was too quiet.
The feel of the double barrel shotgun should have been a comfort, but it was lost to me. This was no run of ghosts or haints, salt would do precious little against a horde of demons. If we could stay in one place, long enough to exorcise them, maybe. But on the move… it was habit more than anything else that caused us to arm ourselves against those we couldn't really harm.
Where was Castiel?
I opened my senses again, but was greeted with a continued wall of static. Cas was blocking me, whatever was going on, he didn't want me to see or hear him. If Lucifer did have him, perhaps this was his way of protecting us. My blood ran cold at the thought.
What if…?
No. I would know if the one angel who had been watching over me, my mother, my family... for millennia...was dead. I'd feel it if he were gone. I had once, and I would again. Wherever Castiel was he was alive, albeit silent.
"Well, this is great," Dean muttered next to me. "...been in town twenty minutes and already lost the angel up our sleeve."
"You think, uh, you think Lucifer got him?" Sam asked from my left.
"I don't know what else to think," Dean replied.
"There you are," a strange woman's voice stopped us dead in our tracks. I turned, squinting into the sun and focusing my eyes to take in the lone figure standing behind us.
She had long, wavy dark hair. I had seen her before. Months ago… after Sam broke the seal.
"Meg?" It was more a question than a statement. The last I'd seen her, she'd vacated the very person she was possessing, leaving us with a hell of a mess to clean up, including getting Bobby to the hospital before he bled out. We hadn't stopped to check on the girl, I had assumed she was dead.
Apparently Meg had taken a liking to the body and come back to reclaim her.
"Meg…" Sam sighed. My hand tightened on the forestock of the gun, and I fought an itch to pump a shell into the barrel and blow her away. It wouldn't do much, other than make me feel better.
"Shouldn't have come here," she smirked. Meg's stance was confident, relaxed, that alone was enough to make me wonder what she had up her sleeve.
Castiel? I sent another thought out directly to him. Nothing.
"Hell, I could say the same thing for you," Dean said, I was pulled back into the moment as he took a few steps closer, and lifted his hand to aim the colt directly at her. My heart started to race.
Meg didn't even flinch, the smirk on her face grew as she rolled her eyes, staring straight down the barrel of the gun.
"Didn't come here alone, Deano…" she said. Her eyes flicked downwards at the same time as something splashed in a puddle at her feet. As if on cue, the sound of several dogs growling and barking announced she was telling the truth.
"Hellhounds," Dean confirmed, his voice sounding a little higher pitched than usual.
The blood drained from my face, from the snarls we were flanked from the side. We could hold them back with a couple of well paced shots. But we'd never see them coming. And once they had our scent… they'd never stop.
"Yeah, Dean. Your favourite," Meg smiled. "Come on, Brady Bunch. My father wants to see you."
Dean's head dropped slightly, but his hand held true. If his reaction was anything like mine, he would be terrified. The memories of the night he'd been dragged to Hell hit like a tidal wave. I could barely move, but fought not to show it.
No no no no no….
"I think we'll pass, thanks," Sam's voice was unwavering as he replied for everyone.
"Your call. You can make this easy or you can make it really, really hard," Meg said easily.
Dean glanced over his shoulder at me, and then Ellen. I turned my head slightly to the left, seeing her nod. I prepared for whatever came next, shifting my feet to make sure they still worked.
"When have you known us to ever make anything easy?" Dean asked with a chuckle, turning back to look down his arm, and the colt, to Meg.
Meg smiled and shook her head at him. At the same time Dean dropped his arm and fired. Blood spurted from the invisible hound next to her, all over Meg's boots.
"Run!" Sam ordered. All five of us turned, sprinting down the road. I glanced behind me to see Dean gaining on us, before turning my head.
A snarl sounded behind me and I turned in time to see Dean fall to the ground, tackled to the ground by an unseen force.
"Argh!"
Dean grunted, attempting to stand up, but his legs gave out from under him before he'd even straightened up.
My heart stopped.
"Dean!"
He started to get dragged backwards along the road, his hands trying to hold on to anything, to slow the movement.
"Beth! Stay back!"
No no no no no!
I had to reach him. I couldn't see him ripped apart again. I lifted the stock to my shoulder, aiming just above Dean's head, and took a couple of running steps after him. Dean kicked out, managing to break contact with the hellhound for a split second.
Close enough.
I squeezed the trigger with a prayer.
Please please please...
The hound yelped, and I saw a splash in the puddle behind Dean. I aimed, following the blood spray and its movement. I shot again, another yelp from the hound.
Everything slowed down. My heartbeat pounded in my ears like a herd of horses thundering around me in a stampede. Then nothing.
Sound faded like water being pulled out to sea before a tidal wave, until I could only see Dean's mouth moving in the periphery of my vision as he struggled to get up. Beside me, movement flashed as Jo's blonde hair came into view and she stepped closer to Dean.
She was tracking the hound I'd shot, and I saw her fire several more times, stalking it while I grabbed Dean's arm and pulled him to his feet.
His eyes. They were terrified. He had dropped his gun in the melee, and then he yelled, one word, readable from his lips even though I couldn't hear him.
"Run!"
He spun me and we started to move together. I wrapped an arm around him as one of his legs seemed to give out. Beside us, Jo backed up from the hound she'd been shooting, moving alongside us.
We gotta move, we're too exposed!
"Jo!" Ellen's voice called out, with it the tidal wave finally returned and hit; sound crashed down around me.. time slipped back into normality.
"Hurry, they could be anywhere..." Dean said pushing me as we raced toward Sam and Ellen.
I heard a growl from behind and let go of Dean, protecting him with my body as I fired randomly into the air behind us, missing.
Where was it?!
"Come on!" Jo's voice was commanding, she had also shot in the same direction, but now turned to resume running.
Another gnarly sound came from my right, I looked, just in time to see dust kick and Jo pulled to the ground. She cried out as huge claw marks opened up on her stomach.
Jo!
"No!" Ellen was the one to yell it… and I could hear the panic in her voice. I pushed my own paralysing fear deep down and forced myself to move. I aimed, let out a breath, and pulled the trigger. The hound shrieked in pain as I hit my mark.
Oh god!
Dean ran, scooping Jo up as I fired again, and then Sam and Ellen reached us, also firing into the street, hoping to hit something. We moved for the hardware store next to us, Sam and I holding the line while Ellen threw the doors open.
We piled through, Sam bringing up the rear with a few more shots before slamming the doors closed. He grabbed a huge chain off some shelves and looped it around the handles. The doors buckled with a force of at least two hellhounds hitting them; the chains held, but wouldn't for long. It wasn't going to be enough.
We're all going to die in here.
I frantically looked around, seeing bags of rock salt piled nearby and hurried to grab one, tossing it to Sam before getting my own. He sliced it open with his knife and started to pour the contents along the threshold and up onto the window sill to the left. As I reached the doors I locked eyes with Sam who glanced back toward the middle of the shop. I followed his desperate expression to see Dean and Ellen had taken Jo further in, leaning her against a counter.
"Need some help here!" Ellen called out as I cut open my own bag and started to pour the salt.
"Go!" I panted, continuing until the salt was across the threshold of the entire doorway. As Sam moved toward Ellen and Jo, the growling and thrusting against the doors stopped. All that I could hear was the sound of my own hard breathing and Jo's whimpers.
They're still out there.
I quickly lined the other windowsill and then turned to see Jo pull her hands away from her stomach - blood spurting out from two large lacerations. Ellen panted, kneeling next to Jo and throwing Sam and Dean a panicked look.
Castiel. Where are you?
My thoughts rang out, trying to connect to the angel. But there was no reply.
We were on our own.
Later
Ellen was crouched next to Jo, having just finished bandaging her stomach wounds. I grimaced from where I stood, seeing the blood seep through the white sterile gauze. It wasn't going to be enough.
Sam walked up and handed Ellen a bowl of water, leaning down to wipe Jo's sweaty brow before caressing her face. She smiled up at him, and my heart broke.
Oh, Sam...
"You got those batteries?" Dean asked beside me, and I startled myself back to what we were doing.
"Uh, yeah," I answered. "Here." I handed him a couple of double A batteries and he slotted them into the back of the radio transmitter we'd found in the back office. He worked deftly, replacing the cover and then started to adjust the controls.
"Dean…"
"I know," he said, pausing to look over at me. "It's bad."
I nodded, opening my mouth but not finding any words. I blinked a couple of times, forcing back the fear that was pounding inside my head, threatening to come out in tears.
"Dean… I…"
He stopped, his expression softening as he reached out a hand, settling it around the back of my neck and pulling my forehead in against his.
"We're getting out of here," he said stubbornly. I bit my lower lip and nodded, the movement causing friction between our skin as he held my head firmly.
"But…"
"Beth," his words were forced. "We're getting out of here."
He dropped his hand, turning back to the radio and making some more adjustments. "We just gotta come up with a plan."
Sam rose to his feet, glancing over at us before striding away from Ellen and Jo. Dean and I were just out of hearing, and we'd deliberately done that to give everyone space. As Sam reached us, Dean looked up from what he was doing.
"How's she holding up?" He asked, throwing a glance back at Jo.
Sam paused, looking at his brother and they shared a moment not unlike one Dean and I had experienced earlier.
We're not getting out of here.
"Salt lines are holding up," Sam changed the subject.
At least that was true. I'd made sure every entrance to the building was salted while Ellen and Sam had worked to stabilise Jo.
"Safe for now," Dean nodded.
"Safer," Sam replied. "Trapped like rats."
"Hey, you heard Meg. Her father's here," Dean said. "This is our one shot, Sammy. We gotta take it, no matter what."
I looked a Jo and Ellen on the floor. No matter what. Was this it? Was this how we all died? In a foolish conquest to kill the devil? I almost wanted to laugh at Gabriel's stupid prophecy now. Suddenly it was preferable to what we were facing. How wrong he'd been.
There's not going to be a baby. There's not even going to be an us by nightfall.
Dean let out a long breath, hitting the side of the radio, it squealed to life.
"Here we go," he said looking up at me.
"Sam, some help here, please?" Ellen called out. Sam moved immediately, leaving us alone again.
"You think he's gonna be okay?" I asked Dean once we were alone.
"He's gotta be," Dean said. "We need him."
He tuned the radio to where it needed to be, and then clicked the transmission button. "K C 5 Fox Delta Oscar, come in."
Nothing but silence greeted us.
"Come on…" I muttered under my breath as Dean tried again.
"K C 5 Fox Delta Oscar, come in." Radio static grated on my nerves as we tried again to reach the outside world. For whatever reason our cellphones weren't working, and it had become clear that we were now reliant on other forms of communication.
Another pause, and then a squeal before, "K C 5 Fox Delta Oscar, go ahead."
Bobby's voice echoed back to us and I closed my eyes in gratitude.
Thank God!
"Bobby, it's Dean. We got problems."
Another pause.
"It's okay, boy. That's why I'm here," Bobby replied. "Is everyone all right?"
Dean's face cracked, the first sign since we'd reached the shop, that he was walking on a tightrope, trying to hold it all together.
"No," he said into the radio, clearing his throat. "It's… it's… it's Jo. Bobby it's pretty bad."
I reached out, laying my hand on his shoulder and giving it a reassuring squeeze.
"Okay. Copy that. So now we figure out what we do next."
"Bobby, I don't think she's…" Dean's voice failed him as he swallowed hard and broke off the sentence. There was a pause from Bobby's end, just a moment in time, yet it spoke volumes.
"I said, what do we do next, Dean?"
Dean leaned heavily on the bench next to us, bringing his hand up to his head. I squeezed his shoulder again.
"We can do this," I said, pushing my own anguish at Jo's condition down deep inside.
You focus on what comes next. The past is the past, you can't change it. It can't help you now, but it can hurt you. What are you going to do now, Beth? Right now? That's what counts. That's what will keep you alive.
John and Bobby had both drilled this into us a hundred, maybe a thousand times. I wondered if the same lines were echoing through Dean's mind like they were mine. He took a moment and then nodded to himself. I watched him visibly pull himself back together, just like we'd been trained to do.
"Right," he said, clearing his throat, his eyes locking with mine as he clicked the button on the radio again. "Okay, right."
"Now, tell me what you got." Bobby said. I reached out to take the radio from Dean, and started to recount what had just happened.
Later
"Before he went missing, did Cas say how many reapers?" Bobby had moved on to the books.
"I don't…." Dean looked searchingly at me, all I could do was shrug. "He said a lot of things, I guess. Does the number matter?"
"Devil's in the details, Dean."
Ellen had walked away from Jo, leaving her alone with Sam who was now sitting beside her, holding her hand and talking softly into her ear. As she approached, she raised a bloodied hand up and tapped Dean on the shoulder, his back still turned to her like he couldn't bear to look at Jo.
He turned, and Ellen gestured for the radio. Without a word, Dean held it out, clicking the button.
"Bobby, it's Ellen. The way he was looking, the number of places Castiel's eyes went, I'd say we're talking over a dozen reapers, probably more," she replied.
"I don't like the sound of that," Bobby replied.
"Nobody likes the sound of that, Bobby," Dean said, "but what...wh...what does that sound like?"
"It sounds like death, son. I think Satan's in town to work a ritual. I think he's planning to unleash Death."
"You mean, like, as in this dude and taxes are the only sure thing?" Dean asked.
"As in Death. The horseman. The pale rider in the flesh."
"Unleash?" Dean asked. "I mean, hasn't Death been tromping all over the place? Hell, I've died several times myself." I shivered at the thought, sighing at Dean who threw me an apologetic look.
"Not this guy." Bobby answered. "This is—this is the angel of death. Big daddy reaper. They keep this guy chained in a box six hundred feet under. Last time they hauled him up, Noah was building a boat. That's why the place is crawling with reapers. They're waiting on the big boss to show."
"It makes sense. It's the apocalypse," I commented. "When else would the four horseman rise? And who else more qualified than Lucifer to make it happen?"
"You have any other good news?" Dean asked.
"In a manner of speaking," Bobby replied. There was a pause. We all stood by the radio, waiting breathlessly for him to start broadcasting again.
"I been researching Carthage since you've been gone, trying to suss out what the devil might want there. What you just said drops the last piece of the puzzle in place. The angel of death must be brought into this world at midnight through a place of awful carnage. Now, back during the Civil War, there was a battle in Carthage. A battle so intense the soldiers called it the Battle of Hellhole."
"Good place to raise Death incarnate," I said softly.
Dean's face turned thoughtful. "Where'd the massacre go down?" He asked of Bobby.
"On the land of William Jasper's farm."
Later
"That's my girl, you're okay, honey," Ellen was wiping a cloth across Jo's sweat-soaked forehead, desperately trying to reassure herself more than anyone else that her one and only daughter was going to make it out of here. The more I looked, the more I realised that it wasn't going to happen. Not if we wanted to complete the mission.
"Now we know where the devil's gonna be, we know when, and we have the Colt," Dean said with a lowered voice to both Sam and I.
"Yeah. We just have to get past eight or so hellhounds and get to the farm by midnight," Sam said. As if they'd heard us, there was a growl and a thump at the doors again, but the chains held, as did the salt line.
"Yeah, and that's after we get Jo and Ellen the hell out of town," Dean said, stubborn as ever.
Sam nodded, pausing to glance over at Jo. "Won't be easy."
"Guys, Jo isn't walking out of here, look at her," I pointed out. "It's impossible."
Dean's brow furrowed as he looked at Sam, oblivious to what I was saying. "Stretcher?" He asked. Sam nodded quickly in agreement.
"I'll see what we got," he said, starting to walk away.
Jo's eyes met mine, and she rolled them, struggling to sit up a little straighter.
"Stop. Guys, stop," she said. Ellen looked over to where Dean and Sam paused, and sighed.
"Can we, uh, be realistic about this, please? Uh! I can't move my legs. I can't be moved. My guts are being held in by an ace bandage. We gotta—we gotta get our priorities straight here." She was fighting to hold her emotions in check, but there was an understandable fear in her eyes as she met Sam's shocked look.
"Number one, I'm not going anywhere," she added.
"Joanna Beth, you stop talking like that," Ellen snapped.
"Beth's right," Jo said with a solemn nod before looking at Ellen. "Mom. I can't fight. I can't walk. But I can do something. We got propane, wiring, rock salt, iron nails, everything we need."
"Everything we need?" Sam asked, still in denial. I looked over this girl, a newfound respect for her strength and courage. She looked at me and nodded slightly, seeing that I was on the same page.
"To build a bomb, Sam," Jo finished.
"No," Dean said, shaking his head vigorously. "Jo, no. No one is dying here today."
"You got another plan?" Jo asked. "You got any other plan?"
We all fell silent, contemplating her words.
Jo sucked in another breath and sighed. "Those are hellhounds out there, Dean. They've got all of our scents. Those bitches will never stop coming after you. We let the dogs in, you guys hit the roof, make a break for the building next over. I can wait here with my finger on the button, rip those mutts a new one. Or at least get you a few minutes' head start, anyway."
"No," Ellen said. "I...I won't let you."
"This is why we're here, right?" Jo asked as Ellen shook her head, tears in her eyes.
"If I can get us a shot on the devil….Beth, come on, you know it…. we have to take it," Jo said, looking straight at me.
"No!" Ellen protested, looking up at me. "That's not…"
I met Ellen's eyes, letting the truth settle into them. She stared back at me, her eyes narrowing.
"Mom," Jo said, looking at Ellen. "This might literally be your last chance to treat me like an adult. Might wanna take it?" She smiled, and Ellen started to sob.
"Jo, are you sure about this?" I asked, hesitating for the first time.
Jo nodded, turning to look at her mother. They shared an understanding, Ellen's sobs starting to subside. Ellen barked out an order, not daring to look up at the three of us still standing. "You heard her. Get to work."
I turned, pulling myself together and focusing on the job at hand. We needed salt, and that I knew where to find. Dean and Sam busied themselves getting the other materials and piling them in one place. While we worked, the skies outside grew darker with dusk.
Finally, it was done. Sam was sitting with Jo, holding her hand and speaking softly in her ear. She smiled, and turned to kiss his cheek. Beside me, Dean took long, slow breaths and strung wire to the detonator button.
"This is crazy," he muttered.
"This is the only way," I said, taking his hand and squeezing. "And you know it."
Dean glanced back at Sam and scowled. "First Jess… now this. How's he gonna make it out of here?"
"Like we all do, because we were made for this, Dean. We'll do it because we have to."
Dean's shoulder shook with a heavy sigh before he pulled them back and led the way back to Jo.
"Okay, this is it," he said, crouching down besides her. "I'll see you on the other side. Probably sooner than later."
"Make it later," Jo said as he handed her the detonator. Quietly she started crying, and Dean pulled her head slightly forward to kiss her on the forehead, leaning his against her for a moment as they shared a silent moment. Then he stood up, and walked down an aisle toward the back room.
I knelt down next to Jo, seeing tears brimming in Sam's eyes as he remained next to her.
"You're the bravest girl I know," I said with a smile, reaching out to brush my thumb across her cheek, smoothing away a couple of tears. Jo smiled, and shook her head.
"No I'm not, I'm just a realist," she said. "You take care of these boys, okay?"
"With my life," I promised, glancing at Sam then standing up and walking over to join Dean at the back of the store, where he was keeping himself preoccupied by checking, and re-checking our shotguns.
I wanted to ask him if he was okay, to pull him into a hug, but not now. Now was not the time for us to lose our focus. We knew what it was going to take to get out of there. We had to stay on track.
"Ellen's staying," he said after a moment.
"What?" I asked, looking back to where Sam was now walking away from their mother and daughter. "No!"
"She's gotta," Dean said. "And she wants to."
"But we…"
"Someone has to open the door, Beth," Dean said, the look on his face told me he didn't like it any more than me. He was right. Ellen stood up, peering down the aisle toward the three of us.
"Beth, boys, get going now," she ordered.
"Ellen…" I faltered, struggling to find words.
"I said go," she replied, nodding at us. Sam pushed past me, opening the door into the back storage room.
"And Dean?" Ellen called out, waiting for Dean to turn and face her. "Kick it in the ass. Don't miss."
Dean nodded once, and then pushed me ahead of him. "Let's go."
We hurried after Sam, who was pulling down a ladder that led up to the rooftop. He hoisted me up the rest of the way when I reached him, and I gripped the rungs, pulling myself up one hand at a time. Once I had a foothold I glanced back to see Dean following me. I scrambled the rest of the way up to the root and pushed the door at the top up and over.
Dean was right behind me, and Sam emerged seconds later. "Keep moving," he said, nodding toward the rooftop of the shop next door. We sprinted across the top of the hardware store, and I looked down, planning my steps. With practiced ease, I launched myself off the edge of the shop, my momentum carrying me easily over to the other rooftop where I rolled a couple of times and then got to my feet.
Dean and Sam followed, Sam now in the lead. He reached a fire escape and started to climb down first. Dean gestured for me to follow, and then he took the rear. As we reached the alley below, we paused, listening for any signs of hellhounds, but the night was silent.
Out of nowhere, the sky lit up in a blaze of orange and yellow as Jo and Ellen set off the bomb. I gasped from the size of it, then we ran, hard as we could to get back to the Impala and go after our target.
William Jasper's Farm
The farm was surrounded by low lying bushes. We crawled up a slight rise and peered down into a field beyond. Dozens of men stood, in no particular order aside from staring at a man digging in the centre.
"Guess we know what happened to some of the townspeople," Dean said, crouching beside me.
"And that's Lucifer," Sam said, nodding at the man in the middle of the demons.
"This is it, then…" I stated, licking my lips. My heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest.
"Okay," Sam said.
"Okay," Dean said with a nod.
Sam hesitated, looking from Dean to me. "Last words?"
"Oh Sam…" I said, reaching around Dean to squeeze his arm.
Sam stared at me for a moment, and I filled my eyes with determination and that stubbornness we were all known for. We had to get out of here, we had to succeed.
Dean watched this, and then raised an eyebrow as Sam turned to him. "I think I'm good."
Sam paused, locking eyes with Dean and then nodded. "Yeah, me too."
We gripped the shotguns we were holding, Dean checking the colt one more time, and then we stood up, walking toward the scene before us.
"Hey!" Sam called out, moving slightly ahead of us, shotgun at the ready. "You wanted to see me?"
Lucifer turned dropping the shovel he'd been using to fill a hole, and smiled. I saw middle-aged, blonde haired man, staring back at us, his eyes tired, his face sporting more than a five o'clock shadow. There were lines starting to mar his face, telltales that his vessel was not holding up to the pressure of containing one of the strongest archangels ever created.
"Oh, Sam, you don't need that gun here. You know I'd never hurt you. Not really," he said.
Dean had flanked Lucifer while he looked at Sam, he stepped up beside the angel, raising the colt to the side of his head. "Yeah? Well, I'd hurt you," he said. "So suck it."
He pulled the trigger, the shot echoing across the field. In front of my eyes I saw Lucifer fall to the ground, then glanced at the demons around us. No one moved. Dean stood over the body, breathing heavily, and shared stunned looks with us.
We'd done it!
But then Lucifer moved, sitting up and groaning. "Oowwwwww!"
Shit!
Lucifer stood up, cracking his neck to the side, and looking at Dean. "Where did you get that?" Sam looked horrified, and before Dean could move, Lucifer punched him. I saw him fly through the air, and hit a tree trunk with a resounding crack! He didn't move, unconscious… or?
"Dean!" I took a few steps toward him, while Sam faced Lucifer alone.
"Now, where were we?" Lucifer asked. "Don't feel too bad, Sam. There's only five things in all of creation that that gun can't kill, and I just happen to be one of them. But if you give me a minute, I'm almost done."
Lucifer picked up the shovel he'd dropped and moved two scoops of dirt while Sam hurried back to us. I reached for Dean's wrist, feeling a pulse and breathed a sigh of relief. "He's alive," I said to Sam who hovered over me.
"You know," Lucifer called out, leaning on the shovel he was holding. "I don't suppose you'd just say yes here and now? End this whole tiresome discussion? That's crazy, right?
"It's never gonna happen!" Sam said, his voice filled with anger.
Lucifer shrugged and went back to filling the hole next to him. "Oh, I don't know, Sam. I think it will. I think it'll happen soon. Within six months. And I think it'll happen in Detroit."
"Detroit?" I said, standing up. "Sam. That's where…" my voice trailed off, and Sam exchanged a look with me. He'd heard the story of what happened with Zachariah had teleported Dean and I into the future. Sam had said yes to Lucifer, in Detroit.
"You listen to me, you son of a bitch," Sam said, his eyes filled with fury. "I'm gonna kill you myself, you understand me? I'm going to rip your heart out!"
"That's good, Sam," Lucifer encouraged with a smile. "You keep fanning that fire in your belly. All that pent-up rage. I'm gonna need it."
Sam instantly stopped, catching his breath as he tried not to give in to the rage that had freed Lilith in the first place. I glanced around, seeing the men all standing in the field, seemingly oblivious to our little drama playing out, right in front of them.
"What did you do? What did you do to this town?" I asked.
"Oh, I was very generous with this town," Lucifer replied, looking at me. "One demon for every able-bodied man."
"And the rest of them?" Sam asked.
Lucifer paused, then gestured to the hole he was filling in. "In there. I know, it's awful, but these horsemen are so demanding. So it was women and children first."
Sam bristled next to me, Lucifer seemed to notice.
"I know what you must think of me, Sam. But I have to do this. I have to. You of all people should understand."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sam asked.
Lucifer dropped the shovel again, turning back to us.
"I was a son. A brother, like you, a younger brother, and I had an older brother who I loved. Idolized, in fact. And one day I went to him and I begged him to stand with me, and Michael….Michael turned on me. Called me a freak. A monster. And then he beat me down. All because I was different. Because I had a mind of my own." He paused, glancing between us. "He sided with our Father, even when our Father took it out on someone I loved more than anyone. He broke… the only being I ever loved, ripped out her grace, and for what? For the whims of a human."
Who was he talking about? Someone Lucifer, fallen archangel, had loved? I had never heard of any such legend or myth about this.
"Tell me something, Sam," Lucifer continued. "Any of this sound familiar? Look at your own sister… look at her next to you. She wasn't made for this life." I frowned, seeing him look to me now. "Your father turned her into something she was never meant to be. You weren't born to be a hunter, you were made into one."
"I didn't have a choice," I replied.
"Neither did she!" Lucifer yelled.
Then he visibly calmed himself. "Anyway. You'll have to excuse me. Midnight is calling and I have a ritual to finish. Don't go anywhere. Not that you could if you would."
Beth.
I startled, hearing Castiel's voice come into my mind.
"Cas!" I thought back at him.
Shhhhh. Not so loud. He'll hear.
I looked toward Lucifer and then closed my eyes, shielding my mind like Cas had taught me. Lucifer turned and started a chant in a language I didn't know, before turning to his demons.
"Now repeat after me. We offer up our lives, blood, souls…"
The demons repeated the words. At our feet, Dean stirred, shaking his head.
"Cas. Where are you?" I sent my thought out while Lucifer was talking, hoping it was enough. The thought that an archangel could read my mind, when not of my angelic lineage was slightly terrifying. "We need to get out of here." Sending him a telepathic image of what was occurring in front of us, how the colt hadn't worked.
"To complete this tribute," Lucifer continued, and his words were echoed back at him from the demons. I helped Dean to struggle to his feet, and saw a flash of gold, as one by one the demons started to fall over dead.
Lucifer turned to take in our looks of horror. "What?" He asked. "They're just demons."
I felt a familiar lurch in my stomach as I was telepathically linked in to Castiel, and started to see through his eyes.
I was back in the dark room, a ring of holy oil around my feet. To my left, a bolt on the pipe was spinning, slowly loosening as Meg watched me from the other side of the fire, her arms crossed, a smirk on her face.
"You seem pleased," Cas spoke.
"We're gonna win. Can you feel it? You cloud-hopping pansies lost the whole damn universe. Lucifer's gonna take over Heaven. We're going to Heaven, Clarence."
"Strange," Cas replied. "Because I heard a different theory from a demon named Crowley."
Meg looked at us, and then scoffed. "You don't know Crowley."
"He believes Lucifer is just using demons to achieve an end, and that, once he does, he'll destroy you all," Cas continued. All the while, my attention followed Cas's… the spinning bolt, the key to our freedom.
"You're wrong," Meg countered. "Lucifer is the father of our race. Our creator. Your god may be a deadbeat. Mine—mine walks the earth."
Cas got the bolt loose and pulled the pipe free of the wall. It slammed Meg through the fire, and straight into our arms."
Beth. Get ready!
I found myself catapulted back into my own body, catching my breath and taking a step back as Dean startled at my movement, slipping an arm around my waist.
Lucifer was staring at the buried space, I gripped Dean's hand in mine, and then reached out for Sam. "Get ready," I whispered.
"What?" Dean asked.
The ground began to rumble in front of Lucifer as something moved under it, rising to the surface.
Behind us, Castiel appeared with a finger to his lips. He glanced once at Lucifer, and then reached out to grasp Sam's and Dean's shoulders. Just like that we all vanished, the scene of Death rising, fading from our vision.
EPILOGUE
Bobby's House
The next twelve hours had been hell. The glasses from Ellen and Castiel's drinking game were still on the table in the library, untouched, forgotten during my cleaning spree in the kitchen. I stared sadly at the empty shots, dull pain settling upon my body like a heavy blanket. I wanted to shrug it off, but I knew better. It was not going to be that easy.
My concern was more on Dean, who hadn't spoken a word since our return. He'd turned on the TV, and sat on the couch, staring at its flicking screen until settling on a 24 hour news station.
On screen at the moment was the same report that had been playing for the last hour. The screen flashed STATE OF EMERGENCY, Paulding County. The results of Lucifer's ritual were starting to show.
"Just received an update that the governor has declared a state of emergency for Paulding County, including the towns of Marion, Fetterville, and Carthage. The storm system has reportedly touched off a number of tornadoes in the area," a reporter read from the teleprompter.
I sighed, turning to see Sam and Bobby gathered around the fireplace, a small fire burning in the hearth. Bobby held a copy of the photograph taken before we'd left. Not even twenty four hours earlier, and we were missing two of the members in there.
"Death tolls have yet to be estimated, but state officials expect the loss of life and property to be staggering," continued the news report.
"Dean," I said softly, watching, hoping he'd look up at me. He didn't. He simply stared at the TV, ignoring everyone. I glanced at Bobby and Sam, sharing a concerned look with the latter, and shrugged.
Bobby frowned, before looking down at the picture. I watched as he leaned forward and dropped the photo into the flames. A burst of fire flared up, engulfing the photo, and then it melted as the heat burned it to ash.
"Dean, get up, say something," Sam said finally.
It was how John would have handled it. Would have made Dean, handle it.
"Leave 'im be," Bobby said, surprising me. "We could all use a break." He pushed on his the wheels of his chair and propelled himself out of the library and toward the front door.
I sighed, moving to sit beside Dean, taking his hand in mine and squeezing.
"It has been over forty years since this many tornadoes have been sighted in one place!" A reporter's voice shouted over the roar of wind behind him. "Emergency services are stretched beyond their means. It's as if the end of the world is coming!"
"We're going to get through this Dean," I said. He didn't respond. "I promise."
But in my heart, I didn't feel it.
Author's Notes
Hope you enjoyed this update, I know it's been a long time coming!
I very much appreciate all the encouragement I've received during my absence, believe me I take all of it on board and it keeps me wanting to continue with the story.
There's a few little deviations as we start to wander into side stories slightly too. More of Lucifer's story will be told in Where Angels Fear to Tread following Gabriel and Sariel. Like I said, I'm following Canon, but unlike a lot of fanfics I've seen out there with OC's written in, I am trying to change it up a little too.
Song for this chapter is "Down" by Jason Walker
Please leave your reviews and let me know what you think!
P.S. If you do leave a review, don't make it anonymous if you expect a response or are asking questions. I actually do take the time to respond to reviews :) And if you have questions, I always do my best to answer them!