Chapter Three

The Hero Always Gets a Beer

Ella

"What about demon blood, Uncle Sam?"

Sams eyes widened, his jaw hanging open.. "What did you say?"

"Seriously? Stop with the lies, Sam! What do you mean demon blood?"

"You heard me? El you just.. you read my thoughts." He reached for me, but I shrugged him off.

"What? No you must've whispered it."

"I didn't."

I wanted to argue, to scream, to throw things, but there was no point. I knew he was telling the truth. "Uncle Sam what's happening to me?"

"Hey, its okay." He said, pulling me into a hug. "Don't worry."

I was worried. I was fucking terrified. I let go, I let myself cry into his t-shirt. I mourned for my innocence, for the loss of my mother, and for Dad. How was he going to look at me when he found out?

"It's not okay." I whisper quietly. "How can it be?"

Sam grabbed my face in his hands. "We will go talk to Dean together. He will understand." He promised.

"No." I said standing up, wiping my eyes aggressively. "I can't. I can't." I sucked in my breath. "He has enough on his plate with Michael. I can't put another thing on his plate."

"Hey, listen to me." Sam said gently. "That's how we felt with our Dad growing up. He does not want you to feel that way, El. I promise. He will want to know."

I searched Sams face for an answer. For any kind of indication that he was lying to me, but he wasn't. I knew he wasn't. I sucked in my breath and wiped my eyes again with the back of my hand. "Fine. Fine lets tell him. What's the worst that could happen?" He hates me and throws me in the coffin instead.

Dean

I laid on my bed with my headphones on, blasting music trying my best to drown out Michaels screams within my head. I could feel him banging, throwing things, screaming. He was close to breaking out, breaking through. I knew he was. We were running out of time. I clamped my eyes shut. Shut up you dumb fucker, I am so sick of listening to you!

There wasn't anything left to do. I'd have to tell them, Sam and El, Cas and Jack... it was time to say goodbye. I opened my eyes to see Sammy standing in my doorway, waving. I pulled off my headphones, letting them rest around my neck before I clicked pause on my phone. "Sup?"

"Dude, you're going to go deaf if you listen that loud."

I shrugged. "I'll just ask Eileen for signing advice. It'll give her some more excuses to hang around here." I said flippantly. "What do you want?"

"We need to talk to you about something, if you've got a minute."

I tilted my head, seeing my daughter hiding behind Sams tall frame. "Huh. Yeah sure come on in." I said, fully sitting up.

Nel slowly drug herself into the room, she was wringing her hands and avoiding my eyes. "Eleanor what's wrong?" I asked, eyeing her.

"What?" Her eyes shot up, wide and alarmed.

"I said... what's wrong? You look freaked."

"I... I don't know." She started to sniffle and her eyes darted to Sam.

"Hey, none of that. 'Mere." I said, opening my arms. I watched my daughter slowly walk to me, unlike how she'd done when she was little, running and leaping. She always knew I'd catch her then, but this time something was different.

She hesitated and hovered near the edge of my bed. "Okay one of you two talk, now." I snapped, looking between them.

"Nel is having visions, Dean." Sam said carefully.

"What?" I asked, even though I suspected. Even though I knew.

"Like me." Sam said carefully. "And she read my thoughts." He added.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to gather my thoughts. Fuck this is not what I need right now! Can't we just deal with one problem at a time?

"Dad?" Nel squeaked.

I turned to her to see her eyes filled with tears. "Hey, no, don't do that."

Her lip trembled and she shook her head. She turned to Sam. "I told you this was a bad idea." She pushed past him before turning to me. "I'm sorry that I'm a problem. I didn't want to tell you. I wanted to deal with it alone. Just forget we said anything." She pushed out of my room, slamming the door behind her.

"I... fuck." I rubbed my face. "Well, shit you weren't kidding."

"She read your mind?"

"Evidentially." I sighed. "God, I just can't stop fucking up, can I?"

Sam shrugged. "I should've talked to you alone."

"Why'd she come to you about it anyway?"

"I think because she was worried about you having that exact reaction." Sam laughed humorlessly.

"Yeah." I grunted. "You're probably right." I sighed. "Sammy its getting bad. Michael.. I can't keep him contained, and now this."

"She was wondering if she could help you." Sam said, leaning against the wall eyeing me. "That was one of the first things she asked me."

"Well, that isn't happening."

Sam shrugged. "I don't want her to do it either, Dean. I'm just saying, I don't think she's going to let you go into that coffin. I don't think I will."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You're not going to let my teenage daughter drink demon blood to expel an Arch Angel out of my head. You have to promise me that you'll have my back on this Sam. I'm going in that coffin. By the end of the week I'll be under water. You're gonna have to deal with this psychic shit. Keep it in check... don't let her..."

"What? Go dark side? Pull a Sam?"

"Well, yeah." I shrugged. "Not really the time for pleasantries, Sammy."

Sam pursed his lips. "I won't let her be destructive, Dean. She's my kid too." He said quietly.

And she was. She belonged to all of us. Sam singlehandedly taught her how to read. Cas would show her the beauty in the world, in the flowers and the bugs. I'd stay up with her when she had a nightmare, because lets be honest... I was having them too. She was our daughter, the three of ours. "It's fucking killing me thinking about leaving her." I admitted. "But... at the same time." I sucked in my breath. "Then maybe I won't have to miss Ave so much." I said quietly, my voice dropping. "Maybe it all won't have to hurt so fucking much."

"You realize you're not going to be asleep in there, right?" His eyebrows came together. "He's going to keep you awake for years, Dean. Forever."

I shrugged. "Left to day dream about the good old days."

"Sure. Deflect, whatever." Sam grunted. "Guess I'll go talk to Nel. Calm her down."

I shook my head. "Stop, man."

"No! Fuck! You stop! Stop pretending you aren't afraid! Stop acting like this isn't all a big deal. Stop acting like you aren't her Dad. Like you can just check out. Like that." Sam snapped his fingers. "And then everyone can just forget. As if I could make half the impression on her that you do. Neither of us are Ava, but you are the only real parent she has left. And fuck if you insist on running out on her, can you at least do the job until you're gone?"

I wince. "Damn, Sammy. Goin for the jugular." I sighed. "You're right. Bout all of it." I tossed my headphones to the side and stood up. "I got her."

I pushed past Sam and walked down the hall to her room. I knocked a few times before poking my head in. Claire was sitting on the bed leaning over some lore. I eyed an image of an angel on one of the pages before clearing my throat. She pulled out a headphone. "Lookin for Ella?"

"Mhm."

"She said she needed some air."

"Right." I said with a sigh. I knew where she was.

—

I climbed up the ladder, and squeezed through the hole in the platform for the billboard that overlooked Lebanon. "Hey." I said, eyeing Nel.

She sat in one of my flannels with her back against the billboard. Her legs were straight out in front of her. Even in the darkness, I could tell that her eyes were swollen from crying.

"Hi."

"I'm sorry." I said gently. "And if you're worried I'm lying, listen to my thoughts and you'll see that I'm not.

"Doesn't work that way. I don't think."

"How does it work?" I asked gently.

"Seems to go along with my emotions. If I'm pissed or afraid its like I turned up the volume..." She looked away from me. "I know you didn't ask to have a freak as a daughter."

"Woah, no one said you're a freak, kid. I mean, you are." I smiled. "We all are. Look at Sammy. He's a giant goofball who hasn't had a hair cut his whole damn life. I have an arch angel in my melon, Cas is a baby in a trench coat, and Jack is the son of Satan. We are a bunch of weirdos. So don't go feelin like you're special or anything."

She smiled a little before turning back to me. "I'm scared. I don't want to turn into the things that you hunt."

"Sweetheart, listen to me. We would do anything for you. You would never be one of those things. You can trust me on that."

"I want to." She admitted, quietly. "It's just so... so weird. The other night I think I saw your dream."

I winced. Fuck. "I was worried about that."

"You were? How'd you even guess?"

"Guess you deserve the truth." I sighed. "Before Mom died, we were trying to stop Lucifer from rising the first time." I winced. "So we had a good friend watch you, but it turns out she wasn't who she said she was... she was a demon."

Her eyes flickered up. "I heard Sams thoughts. He said demon blood. What did he mean?"

"She'd been feeding you her blood. To sort of get these psychic powers to grow."

"She.. she killed Mom."

"She did."

"Oh my god." Nel covered her mouth in a sob before regaining her composure.

"Listen to me. I won't let anything happen to you."

"How can you if you're going to be in a box, Dad?"

I rubbed my face. "Damn it, kid. I don't want to do that. I don't think there's any other choice. I hope you can understand that someday."

She looked me over before nodding. "I do understand. That's the worst part. I understand because I would do it too, if it were me."

I took her hand in mine. "Eleanor, your Uncle Sam will watch out for you. He won't let anything happen to you... just... just try to keep this under wraps. Don't push the psychic thing. I don't want it consuming you."

"Like it did to Sam?"

"What? How would you know what it did to Sam?"

"I don't know." She murmured. "I think I just know."

Sam

I popped my head into Nel's room. "Hey, anything?"

Claire looked up at me before throwing a book across the room. "No! Fuck! I am so frustrated! I can't get anywhere. Sam I don't know what she's going to do if she loses him."

"I don't know what I'll do..." I admitted quietly, before shaking my head. "We will figure it out. We have to. He's ready to pull the trigger."

I walked to Claire and sat next to her on the bed. "What books haven't you started on? I'll give em a go."

"This one." She tossed me. "Get to reading, Stanford. We need all the help we can get."

That's an understatement. I sighed to myself before opening the book. I squinted, it looked like a page had been book marked. "What the..." I flipped to it and ran my fingers along the words as I read. "You're not gonna believe this. It's called the Baozhu. It's one of eight ancient Chinese treasures. It's a pearl that grants wishes. Sort of."

Claire raised an eyebrow. "Sort of?"

I cleared my throat. "Well, technically, it's supposed to give you what your heart desires."

"So if we give it to Dean..."

"Blamo, bye bye Micheal. In theory."

"Sam you're a genius! I could kiss you!"

"Hold on there, kid." I laughed, feeling the weight on my chest lift a bit. "We don't know where to find it."

"Give me an hour. I'll get it." Claire said, determined.

"I should tell Dean."

"Just..." Claire grabbed for me. "Maybe wait until we find it. Don't want to get their hopes up for nothing."

I nodded knowingly.

A fucking pearl. The answer to our questions. I clamped my eyes closed before opening them again. "Gonna see if Cas knows about this. Maybe he will have a lead."

"Sounds good." Claire said, typing away on her laptop. "Oh, and Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"Grab me a beer?"

I laughed and shook my head. "One ginger ale coming up."

"Buzz kill."

"You're not twenty-one, you have no buzz to kill." I said with a smile. But if this is the solution, you've got one on me, kid. The hero always gets a beer. Always.