A loud groan of agony woke the brothers the next morning at the ungodly time of 4:27 a.m., and both of them burst into the hallway to see what was the matter, sporting daggers and guns even while in their pajamas. They blinked at each other, then turned toward the third occupied room in the hallway. Instead of a demon attacking, all they saw was a note on the door that read in big block print: I'M NOT DYING I SWEAR - HYPERGLYCEMIA AND MENSTRUAL CYCLES DON'T MIX! She had even included a small emoji of pain in the bottom right corner, and if it hadn't been before dawn, Sam and Dean would have laughed.
But it was, so they didn't, and instead they trudged grumpily back to their beds.
At a more human hour of nine a.m., the brothers sat at the library table indulging themselves in the lovely lemon blueberry muffins and mixed fruit that Olivia had prepared for them in a bout of "insomnia-driven baking therapy." (Or so it said on the note that she had left on the oven where the muffins were being kept warm.) Sam stuffed his third one into his mouth as he turned a page in his book on Prophets, while Dean slumped back in his chair and rubbed his forehead.
"Sam, we need to figure this out," he said, the first words they'd said to each other all morning. It had been a tense 24 hours for the two of them, but they hadn't realized how tense until Olivia had become bedridden. She had been a sort of diffuser for them, and now they were feeling their nerves get the better of them.
"Which part?" Sam asked genuinely, "Kevin? Cass? The tablets? Olivia?"
"Yes."
"And we're starting with…?"
"Uh…" Dean faltered, then had an idea that he would probably regret. "What do most of these have in common?" Sam thought for a moment.
"Angels," he said finally, "Oh, come on, Dean, you're not seriously thinking she could be an angel?"
"She used a demon-killing knife to cut herself, wants to find Castiel, and loves holy water. I think she gargles with the stuff," Dean pointed out, "It's not too far out of the realm of possibility." Sam rolled his eyes.
"Dean. Dude. The bunker has sigils that keep both demons and angels out. She wouldn't be able to get in without us taking them off, even if she was overshadowed," Sam said. Dean growled in frustration; he was right. Trying to help, Sam offered, "Vampire?"
"She came in, we didn't invite her," Dean replied. "Werewolf?"
"The dagger is silver. Would have hurt a lot more. A god?"
"Possible, but unlikely. Not after Prometheus…" Dean reflected quietly, and Sam nodded sadly. Their contemplation was interrupted by Sam's cell phone ringing from his pocket and, slightly spooked, he answered it.
"Hello?"
"Tampons. Pads. Now."
"Uh…" he said into the cell phone, his eyes wide.
"Just go to the nearest gas station and get me a box, please, Sammy. I ran out on my way back from Maine," the voice of their sister croaked miserably through the earpiece, and Sam found himself caving.
"Uh, all right, sure," he agreed, noticing Dean's eyebrow raising, "Any specific… kind?"
"Aw, aren't you a sweetie. Amelia trained you well," she said genuinely, "I prefer pads, get me the thin long ones with the wings. Thanks!" With a click, they were disconnected, and Sam briefly wondered if he'd been conned. Dean somehow successfully suppressed a grin and waited for Sam to confess what he'd just been roped in to.
"Come on, Dean, we're on tampon duty," Sam grumbled, rising from his seat.
"Oh, no, my dear Sammy, you are on tampon duty. I have nothing to do with it," Dean said smugly, propping his feet onto the table with a cocky smile.
"Come on, seriously?" Sam complained.
"Run along, Sam, sister dear needs her pads. I believe I heard that she needed the long thin ones with the wings?" Dean teased, loving every second of it. Sam grumbled half-heartedly and was about to reply when they both heard a shout come from the hall.
"For the love of Lucifer, Beanie, just go with him! He has to take the Impala anyways!" Olivia shouted and a loud retching noise was heard following her edict. Dean guiltily took his feet off the table and the two grown men left their home in order to buy pads for their little suffering sister.
...Oh, how their lives had drastically changed in less than 24 hours.
The tension from before the call for feminine hygiene products returned full force as they drove down the mostly barren road, said products resting easily on the backseat Olivia had occupied the night before. Dean was worried; about Sam's body, about Kevin, about Castiel, about the Tablet, about the whole damn world. And he couldn't shake the guilty feelings from Olivia's memories last night. Much to his surprise and consternation, he had almost found himself recalling those memories as if they were his own. How and why remained a mystery to him, though.
Sam, on the other hand, still felt guilty about what he had put Dean through without realizing it. What he had done - going to Stanford, retiring from hunting, drinking himself stupid, relying on his powers - he did because that's what he had thought best for himself, and in some cases Dean too. But… he had to admit that many of those times, those choices hadn't been for Dean or even the betterment of the world, but just for himself.
Any and all thoughts about tension, however, flew out the window when Dean looked in the rearview mirror and saw an angry Naomi had materialized in his backseat. Swearing, he swerved the car onto the side of the road, and both the brothers whipped their heads around to verify that it actually was her.
"What are you doing here?" Sam asked.
"What have you two done?!" Naomi shrieked, appearing not to have heard Sam.
"What are you talking about?" Dean asked.
"The Null Souls Vault!" she cried, suddenly teleporting to the outside of the car and beginning to pace. The two men exited the car as well as she muttered rapidly, "There is a soul missing from the vault. While I was gone saving your sorry hides, the vault was broken into and a soul was taken. A soul taken from there is a major infraction, it could upset the whole balance of time!"
"What does that have to do with-" Dean started, but Naomi interrupted, "And I know that if there's trouble, it's usually something to do with you two."
Sam scoffed, "You hear that, Dean? Our reputation precedes us." The angel, however, was too busy pacing in the brush by the side of the road to pay attention to his sarcasm. She did turn her glare on them, though, and barked, "Where is it? What have you done with it?"
"We haven't done anything, lady!" Dean replied sharply, slightly offended. "Just because you and your angels can't keep one locked door closed for a few minutes doesn't mean you get to just come barrelling at us, guns blazing."
"I came to you," she snapped through gritted teeth, her perfect ponytail swinging angrily, "because that particular soul would have significance to you two." After years of improvisation and lying through their teeth, the brothers knew when to play cool and dig for information.
Too bad they forgot to do so.
"Significance?" Sam asked, "What do you mean? Bobby's soul just got sent to Heaven, and Mom and Dad aren't coming back."
Naomi blinked, surprised, then smirked slightly and answered, "Not them. I'm talking about the Null Souls Vault. But it seems you don't know about it, so it must have been someone else. The question is who."
"What does the vault hold?" Dean barked impatiently, "Since you're so keen on accusing us." Naomi rolled her eyes, and sighed the sigh that many a retail manager lets out during the holiday season.
"I'm exceptionally busy, and I still have culprits to track down," she tried to excuse herself from the Winchesters' presence, but the glares from the brothers stopped her in her tracks. "Fine! The Null Souls Vault holds souls that were planned to be given to human babies but, through some interference from demonic forces, the bodies they were supposed to inhabit never got to exist. This is due to a demon either killing or inhabiting a human that had initially been intended to be that soul's parent."
Dean's jaw dropped, and Sam sat numbly down on the hood of the Impala, but that didn't deter Naomi from finishing, "The stolen or freed soul in question was supposed to have belonged to your sibling, a sister. Your mother was seven weeks pregnant when Azazel killed her, thus the soul that had been bestowed to the child was sent back to Heaven and then stored in the vault. It has been under the tightest security we could muster since then, seeing as how the Winchesters were always on the demon's radar for one reason or another."
Stunned, the brothers could do little more than contemplate everything that Naomi had told them. They were supposed to have had a sister. All of Olivia's memories were supposed to have happened. Everything that she had told them would have been true if she had been allowed to live, but thanks to Azazel and their mother's deal, she hadn't been allowed to exist.
Until the day before.
Naomi's increased fretting broke them from their stupor. "The Null Souls Vault is incredibly sensitive as letting any of the souls out would allow them to manifest in the body that they were supposed to inhabit had they been allowed to live," Naomi continued, resuming her pacing, "which is incredibly problematic. It would completely upend the balance of time and cause events that never happened to have effects in the present. Chaos would reign as normal humans would receive visits from unknown family or foes. But you two," she said, pointing accusingly at the two brothers, who snapped to attention, "are special cases."
Dean smirked cockily, trying not to let the revelation that Olivia really was his sister affect his bravado, "And how so?"
Naomi narrowed her eyes. "Think about it. What are you Winchester boys most known for?"
"Rapier wit?" Sam offered.
"Dashing good looks?" Dean added.
"Foolhardy decision-making where family is concerned," the frustrated angel answered for them. "And what do you think would happen if there was another of your siblings running around?"
Having fun toying with her, the brothers half-feigned ignorance, and she let out a growl, "They would use her as leverage! Not only against you but against Heaven as well! That soul's existence has been kept a secret for nearly thirty years, untainted by any demonic interference under the heaviest security we have."
"So you kept her from us because…?"
"It would be dangerous if she were released," Naomi said, and both brothers scowled, "A third Winchester sibling? One possibly just as powerful and pivotal to both the world's survival and demise? Of course we kept it secured!"
Sam narrowed his eyes further. "You kept our sister locked up for decades because you were scared of her? Or were you planning on using her as leverage at some point?"
Naomi suddenly looked caught, but she recovered quickly. "That is neither here nor there. Part of our job in Heaven is to keep the souls entrusted to us safe, especially the ones in the Vault. And the soul that was released had the potential to end the world if released! It is the soul of a Winchester after all. It could have been a major threat to the cosmos!"
"She could have helped!" Dean snapped. "A powerful hunter? And you kept her locked away? You shot yourselves in the foot!"
"Unless you kept her there to use her for your own purposes someday," Sam reiterated darkly. Naomi hesitated, wringing her hands as she paced, and they could see that she was trying to come up with a way to deny it and turn it back around on them. They, however, were done with her.
"Powerful hunter or no, the soul's existence was truncated due to Azazel's interference. But now it's gone, and-"
"Olivia."
Naomi stopped in her tracks. "What?"
"Her name… is Olivia," Dean said with a menacing finality, and Sam glared at the angel as well. Naomi blinked.
"The soul was never given a name. Your mother didn't even know she was pregnant," she revealed, confused, until a look of dawning understanding came over her face. "Unless… No! That soul-"
"See you around, Naomi," Sam said, and both the brothers scooted to the side to reveal two matching angel banishing sigils on the hood between the two, written in fresh blood, and with a tap Naomi was gone.