4.
"So, what do you remember?" River asked as Dean sped back towards Bobby's. She fiddled restlessly with her necklace and shifted in her seat. They rode in a older Buick that smelled distinctly like feet and made an odd clicking noise whenever Dean pressed to hard on the accelerator.
"I remember Lilith, I remember getting gnawed on by a demon dog and then…nothing," Dean glanced at her and then back to the road, "Until I woke up in the box and had to dig my way out."
She took a deep breath and blew it out through pursed lips, "I'm glad, I can't even-I don't want to imagine. It's like you get a reset, a do over." Dean nodded, remembering again the vision of the woman tied to the table, crying in fear and agony as he stood over her. Some wicked tool grasped in his hand as he calmly considered which part of her bruised body to assault next.
"How 'bout you? Bobby showed me the security footage, Riv. You should be dead. What the hell happened?"
"Yeah… I don't know. I uh- I remember Lilith, her offer and then the pain," River's hand ghosted over her abdomen as she stared out the window, "I felt everything afterwards, I just couldn't talk or see. I felt the bumps in the ambulance, when they put the needles in my arm and the tube down my throat." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "Then they cut me open and I screamed but they couldn't hear me." Dean reached his hand over and grabbed hers. "Then I don't know what happened. I felt like I was floating and then there was a voice that told me to wake up…I was in a field surrounded by sunflowers and Joshua Trees…"
"Joshua trees?" Dean asked.
"You ever seen any before? Maybe in the desert on the way to Vegas? Great big spindly ugly trees. I love them, they're my favorite so are sunflowers. And there was…don't laugh because this is all probably some dream my oxygen deprived brain came up with," Dean looked at her and motioned for her to continue as they were pulling into the Singer Salvage yard, "There were platypus, platypuses? Platipy? What ever the hell the multiple of platypus is those things were all over the place too."
Dean laughed, "You're serious?"
"I know. The voice came back and sounded really proud of itself and said 'I made all these things, aren't they great?' " River smiled crookedly, "There was this orange light, but not like orange orange more like the orange you get at sunset it was beautiful and then everything was gone and I was in an abandoned building in Manitoba…I didn't tell Bobby any of that, he worries too much about me as it is."
"Manitoba, huh? How'd you get back home?" Dean asked as they climbed out of the car.
"I just kind of wandered around for a few days and then I called Loki, he zapped us to Idaho for a while and then I borrowed a car and drove home. So…"
"Thats it, that's what all you got to tell me about the last four months?" Dean asked as they climbed up the stairs to Bobby's front door.
"Oh, well. I mean…besides all the kinky sex I had with Loki? You don't wanna hear about any of that…" River laughed when Dean stumbled on the last step, "Kidding. We didn't do anything too kinky. I'm savin' all that stuff for you…Hi Bobby!" River grabbed the older man in a hug when he opened the door.
"You're gonna get it as soon as I track down Sammy," he muttered. The hunters convened in Bobby's kitchen as Dean went through all of Sam's old numbers. "Come on, Sam. What the hell." Dean paused for a minute while he thought about his next move. "Yes, hi. I lost my phone and was wondering if you could turn the GPS on…Wedge Antilles…my social? Sure, 3245. Ok thanks."
"Did that really just work?" River asked smiling over her cup of coffee.
"Course it worked," Dean sat down in front of Rivers laptop and logged onto the cellphone's website, "I know that kid better than he knows himself. He's in Pontiac, Illinois."
"That's close to where you were buried, Dean," Bobby said quietly. Dean snapped the laptop closed and muttered something under his breath.
"Dean, he wouldn't 've made a deal," River said watching as he sat across from her clenching his jaw.
"Oh, no? You tried to make a deal. You summoned a goddess of death to make a deal; of course Sam would make a deal. God damn it!" he stormed out of the kitchen followed closely by River and Bobby.
Six hours later the three hunters arrived in Pontiac, Illinois. Dean complaining about the car, it's pitiful engine and lack of tape deck the entire time. "Alright, Winchester! Enough. You whine again about not being able to push it above 70, me and Bobby are gonna hog tie you and lock in the fucking trunk," River yelled from the backseat. Thankfully Dean found the motel Sam was staying at a few minutes later and swung the brown Buick into a parking spot. "Lucky number 13," River muttered as she knocked on the door to Sam's room. A moment later a short, thin, gorgeous, half naked women answered.
"So, where is it?" she asked looking quizzically at the three people standing outside.
"Where is what?" River asked, trying to peak behind the short woman into the room beyond.
"The pizza it apparently takes three garage band dropouts to deliver?"
River glanced herself and two companions, realizing as usual they were all dressed in similar attire, layers of flannel, jeans and sturdy boots. "Uh…sorry, I think we have the wrong room," River started, inhaling sharply when Sam's towering form suddenly appeared in the doorway.
Dean's face lit up and he smiled widely at his younger brother, "Hi, Sammy." Sam blinked twice and then grabbed Dean. River thought they were going to share a long over due, brotherly hug but instead Sam pulled out a silver dagger and swung it at Dean's throat.
"Sam! No! It's him!" River grabbed at the much larger mans forearm. Sam glanced down at River, "Hey, Samsquatch." He smiled and dropped the knife before wrapping his arms around his brother. The two men embraced tightly, Dean patting his younger on the back before they pulled apart. Sam quickly wiped his eyes before he pulled River into another hug.
"So, are you guys like…together?" the brunette, which everyone had forgotten asked.
"What?" Sam looked over at her confused, "No, this is my brother."
"Oh…ok, I guess I'll give you guys some privacy," she slinked off to the bedroom. Sam ushered his three visitors inside and they milled around the small sitting room. The woman reappeared a moment later and Sam walked her to the door. "Well, it was nice. Call me?" she asked toying with the buttons on Sam's shirt.
"Yeah, sure Cindy." Sam answered closing the door.
"It's Kristy," she said as the door shut in her face. Sam grabbed a couple of beers and handed one to Dean, River and Bobby. Dean opened a beer and handed it to River before opening his own and they smiled at each other.
"Nice shirt, Sam." River said smiling. Sam glanced down at the paisley print button up shirt and had just put on, he pulled it back off and glared at River who laughed.
"So, what are you doin' here Sammy if you weren't busting me outta Hell?" Dean asked his younger brother.
"Once I figured out I couldn't get you out of hell I started hunting Lilith. I was tracking a group of demons moving through Tennessee last week, then they took a hard turn and wound up here."
"By yourself, Sam? You trying to become you're old man?" Bobby asked.
"You changed all your numbers, you wouldn't answer my emails. You've been off the grid for months, why? We could've been working together this whole time." River asked him.
Sam sighed, "I know. I messed up. I…wasn't thinking straight."
Dean got off the couch and paced before leaning down and picking up a red lacy bra, "Yeah, not thinking straight. When did you get into town?"
"Yesterday morning," Sam answered.
" 'bout when I busted out," Dean murmured.
"You think that's why they're here? Because of you?" River asked.
"I dunno. Some bad ass demon rides my handsome ass out of hell and is here to rally the troops?" Dean replied.
"Yeah, about that. How are you feeling?" Bobby asked, "Feel like yourself? Different or strange?"
"Or demonic?" Dean scoffed, "Bobby I'm fine. Kind of hungry, kind of horny. Did you give Riv this much shit when she came back?"
"I didn't go to hell hot stuff," she said throwing her bottle cap at him, "No demon is going to give you a get out of jail free card and not have something big planned for your 'handsome ass'."
"Yeah, well what brought you back, huh? Aren't we a little worried about the two of us owing some big bad?"
"I'm not too worried about it," River quipped.
"Look we've got a pile of questions here and no shovel," Sam replied.
"I got a contact, a psychic a few hours from here. I'll give her a call and see if she can do us a solid," Bobby said standing up and pulling out his phone. Dean stood up and headed to the kitchen for another beer.
"Hey, wait a sec." Sam grabbed his brothers arm. "Here, figured you'd want this back." Sam pulled Dean's amulet from around his neck and placed in it his open palm. Dean smiled and put his necklace back on. "What…what was it like?"
River sat forward from her place on the couch, Dean glanced at her then back to brother, "What? Hell? I don't know. I blacked it out I guess."
"Well, thank god for that." Sam said, clasping his hand on his brother shoulder.
River stood up from the couch, "Yeah, thank god and all his infinite fucking mercy…" she muttered sarcastically taking a final long swallow of her beer, "You got anything stiffer than lite beer, Sam?" Dean excused himself to the restroom where he stood for several minutes staring at himself in the mirror. The screams and pain seemed to echo in his head, visions of himself being beaten and bloody flashed before his eyes. He closed his eyes against the flashes but it did no good.
"Dean, baby, you ok?" Rivers quiet voice echoed from the other side of the door. Dean blinked the images away and stiffly walked to the door. He opened it and looked down into River's worried face. "You've been in there almost thirty minutes. I thought I heard…Bobby's psychic friend is home, she'll be waiting for us."
"Alright, she lives about four hours down the interstate. Try and keep up," Bobby yelled at the three younger hunters as he climbed into his brown car that smelled of feet.
"Hey, you wanna drive?" Sam asked Dean as his older brother ran up to Baby and wrapped his arms lovingly along the car.
Dean hummed lowly and hugged the car, River and Sam rolling their eyes. "Should we maybe give you two a couple minutes to get reacquainted?" River asked.
"I'm gonna reacquaint you in the backseat…" he answered.
"Uh yeah not while I'm around please," Sam said throwing the keys at his older brother. The three climbed into the car. River stretching out happily in the back seat as the brother took their post in the front. Dean started the car and whistled when he was greeted with the roar of the engine. Loud, adult alt-rock blasted over the speakers and River and Dean groaned.
"What the shit is that?" River said sitting up. Dean reached down to the stereo and pulled out Sam's IPod.
"Really?" he said disgustedly unplugging the apparatus and tossing it in the backseat.
"Relax. You're tapes are right here," Sam shrugged and pulled Dean's box of tapes out from under the seat. Dean flipped through his tapes, settled on AC/DC and pulled out of the parking lot. River was asleep in the backseat before they made it to the interstate.