5.
"So there's one thing I still don't get," Dean said, breaking the comfortable silence in the car. River still lay in the backseat, arm thrown over her eyes and snoring softly. "How'd you get out? I thought Lilith was gonna kill you."
Sam nodded, "I don't know. She tried. She blasted this white, burning light at me and it didn't work. I was…immune or something. She smoked outta there pretty quick after that…River, man, how the hell is she alive, huh?"
Dean chuckled, "Says she doesn't know either. Woke up in Manitoba completely healed, no idea how she got there or who fixed her." He glanced in the rearview mirror at her sleeping form, she shifted slightly and murmured unintelligibly. "What about Ruby? Where is she?"
"Dead. Or in hell," Sam answered.
Dean nodded again, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel, "What about your E.S.P Jedi mind powers? You using that stuff again? Huh? Since you got what you'd say—immunity?"
"What? No, Dean. I promised, it was like your dying wish."
"Yeah well, I asked you to take care of my car and you douched it up and I asked you to take care of her and she's been summoning gods and hanging out with that fucking Trickster."
River murmured again in her sleep before suddenly kicking her feet out inches from the back of Dean's head, "Dean!" she yelled sitting up in the back seat, eyes open but unseeing and taking shaky breaths.
Dean reached his arm around the backseat, "Hey, Princess, I'm here. It's ok."
"Sorry…it's been…I don't sleep very much anymore," River muttered sitting back in the seat rubbing her eyes.
"Yeah, me either," Dean murmured back.
The Black Impala and Bobby's brown junker arrived at the psychic's house a little after dawn.
Bobby barely knocked on the before it was flung open, "Bobby, you are a sight for sore eyes!" A curly brown haired woman opened the door and squeezed Bobby, lifting his feet a few inches of the ground. She set Bobby back down and turned her attention to the Winchester brothers and River, "Dean Winchester, outta the fire and back into the frying pan. You are a rare one…"
"Yeah if you say so," Dean said, nervously shuffling his feet.
"This is Pamela Brown, best damn psychic in the state," Bobby said introducing the woman.
She escorted the hunters into her home, "Nice, shirt, Pamela." River said smiling at the woman's Ramones tank top. River flashed her Misfits shirt and the two women smiled congenially .
"So, have you heard anything?" Bobby asked.
"Nope, Quija-ed my way through a dozen spirits and no one knows who busted your boy out," the psychic answered.
"What's our next option?" River asked from where she stood next to Dean.
"A seance, I think," Pamela turned to face River, "Aren't you sweet. Boy, she loves you as sure as the day is long, it's plastered all over her aura…you're pretty good at blocking your thoughts though."
"I have a tattoo that helps with that," River answered. Dean smiled down at her and quickly kissed her forehead. "We aren't planning on summoning, whatever it is here right?"
"Nope, just want to take a quick peek, like taking a glance through a crystal ball except I'm the crystal." Pamela led the hunters into her seance room. There was a small, round wooden table in the middle of the room. Heavy curtains blocked the windows, charms and statues were sprinkled around the room creating protective warding from evil spirits. River wandered around the room, picking up the idols and totems. Pam bent down to gather something and her shirt rode up in the back exposing her lower back tattoo 'Jesse Forever'.
Dean smiled and elbowed his brother, "Who's Jesse?" Dean asked.
Pam stood up and smiled at the brothers, "Well he definitely wasn't forever." She stood in front of the older Winchester, "His loss might be your gain…Wow! I head that loud and clear, just kidding. Got it, the green eyes one is off limits." Pamela looked over her shoulder at River who smiled back.
"The giant is up for grabs," River told her sitting down at the seance table.
Pam smirked at Sam, "Hmm…I've always wanted to scale a mountain." Dean almost choked with laughter as Pam sat at the table next to River. Once the others were seated Pamela readied her self for the seance, "Ok everyone hold hands and I'll need to touch something that our mystery monster touched."
Dean shifted in his seat and took his top layer of flannel off, rolled up his sleeve and showed the scar to Pamela. Sam took in a sharp breath when he saw the scarred, red handprint. Pamela started her invocation of the spirit, "I invoke, conjure and command you to appear before me in this circle." She repeated the phrase several more times as the hunters shared glances over the lit candles. The TV set behind Pamela turned itself on, static and white noise filling the room, the table shook and the candles flickered. "Castiel? No, sorry Castiel I'm not afraid of you…"
"Castiel?" Dean asked.
Pam turned her head towards Dean's voice, her eyes still closed "Castiel is it's name. It's warning me…to turn back, to stop….I conjure and command you to show me your face."
River sat forward in her seat, the high ringing noise in the room becoming unbearable, "Maybe you should listen to it, Pam. Break the circle."
"No, I've almost got it! I conjure and command you, show me your face!" Pamela yelled, the candles flared and she screamed as her eyes ignited and burned.
"Break the circle! Castiel we reject you from this circle, you are banished from this circle!" River jumped up and smothered the flames on the candles with the tablecloth. A great burst of energy exploded from the center of the room knocking the men still in their chairs ass over elbow and River into the nearest wall.
Pamela thankfully lost consciousness and remained unresponsive as the paramedics gingerly loaded her onto the gurney and into the ambulance. "A deep fryer accident?" one of the EMT's asked Dean for the third time.
"Yeah she was, um trying to deep-fry a turkey. The old man 'll follow you to the hospital if the docs have any more questions," Dean stood in the street and watched as the ambulance drove away, lights and sirens blaring.
River and Sam sat on the porch swing each nursing a tumbler of whiskey. "You want to tell us what the hell that was?" Dean roared, stomping up the stairs to stand in front of River.
"Dean, how the hell would she know?" Sam asked cautiously.
"Because the same damn thing happened to a room full of people that were tryin' to save her life!" Dean yelled again.
River took another sip of her whiskey, "Dean, I don't know. I told you everything I kno-"
Dean swatted the glass out of her hand and grabbed her wrist pulling her out of the swing. Sam jumped up as well, "Let her go, Dean!"
"D, let go of me" River told him, Dean twisting her wrist just a fraction and causing her to yelp in pain, "Please you're hurting me."
"I can hurt you if I need to. Tell me what the hell that was," he hissed, "Pamela might die. She was trying to help us." Dean's features hardened, his jaw set. River looked into his eyes and for a moment saw a stranger, a man full of rage and hate.
"I can't tell you…I don't know," she said again as Dean's grip tightened. Sam pulled his arm back and connected with Dean's jaw, causing his older brother to stagger and let go of River's wrist. Sam grabbed her and pulled her behind his large frame.
"You better get your head straight, Dean. Don't you ever grab her like that again!" Sam yelled. Dean rubbed his jaw, the pain seeming to clear his mind. He glanced at his brother and behind him to River who was rubbing the bruises forming around her wrist.
"Riv..shit. I didn't mean," he started.
River held her hands up, "Just…it's fine." She paused when her cellphone started to buzz "Hey Macarena!". "…I'm gonna take this call." She walked away from the brothers and back into the house where she quietly talked into the phone. Dean rubbed his jaw where Sam had socked him and paced around the small porch. River returned to the porch after a few moments and locked Pam's front door, "You guys wanna go get some lunch?"
The three arrived at a small diner in the middle of town after an uncomfortably silent drive. Sam excused himself to call Bobby and check in on Pamela while River and Dean sat at the table. "Lemme see your wrist," Dean said after a moment. She cocked her head and held out her arm, Dean pulled back her long sleeve shirt and inspected the bruises he had left around her wrist. He hissed through his teeth, "Shit, baby, I didn't mean to do that. I'm sorry…I'm scared. I don't know what we're facing here."
"Well, it can't be any worse than what we've already faced," she told him. "But if you ever try and hurt me like that again I will stab you in the dick," she finished with a soft kiss on his stubbled cheek. Dean nodded in understanding as Sam joined them at the table.
"Bobby says Pam is stable, they're moving her out of the ICU."
"But blind," River said.
"And we have no clue what are dealing with." Sam continued.
"That's not entirely true. We have a name, Castiel" Dean said, "We can use it, summon it here, bind it and waterboard it until we get some damn answers."
"Dean, you saw what it did to Pam and she just wanted a peek. It could tear us apart if we try a face to face," River told him, eyes darting up as the waitress slammed plates of food down in front of the hunters before taking a seat at the end of the table. "You looking for a tip, sweet cheeks?" River asked.
The waitress smiled, "Thought you might be lookin' for us." The waitress' eyes turned solid black as did the eyes of the three other patrons in the restaurant. One of them, a meat suit dressed as a mechanic got up and locked the front door. "Dean, Dean, Dean….to hell and back. What makes you so special, huh? You just get to stroll right outta Hades."
Dean smiled cockily, "I like to think its my winning personality or maybe my cute ass. I don't know what pulled me out or why."
"Lying's a sin, you know that right?" the waitress said.
"I'm not lyin', Flo. But I will tell you we're all real interested in what did pull me out."
"Mind your tone with me, I don't need hellhounds to drag you back to hell," the waitress smirked. River and Sam reached for their respective guns but stilled when Dean raised his hand.
"No you won't. If you were gonna kill me, kill us. You would've done it already," Dean looked at his brother and River, "You're just as spooked as we are. I bet whatever dragged me out is way above your pay grade…but you go ahead do what you think you need to do. Don't come cryin' to me when whatever is comes knockin' at your door with some vaseline and a baseball bat because they want me here, sweet cheeks."
The demon growled, "I'm gonna reach down your throat and pull out your lungs. Then I'm gonna make your brother rape your girlfriend to death." Dean smirked then slapped the demon causing her head to knock to the side. She took a deep breath and stared at Dean but didn't utter any further threats.
"That's what I thought. Let's go," Dean stood up from the table and pulled out his wallet and threw a crumpled bill at the waitress, "For the pie." He grasped River's sweaty hand in his own and they left the diner.
"Holy shit, holy fucking shit that was close," River stammered as the walked back to Baby, "Shouldn't we…I don't know try and fucking gank those black eyed assholes."
"How? We only got the one demon killing knife between the three of us and there's at least three of them in there," Dean said.
Sam turned to face them, "I've been killing a lot more demons than that lately."
Dean still had her hand grasped tightly in his, "They're scared. They don't know what pulled me out either. We are dealing with a bad mofo here. One job at a time; those assholes can wait." They drove back to the Astoria motel discussing again the problems of potentially summoning Castiel. River and Dean scoured through notes and books on warding and binding before finally falling asleep sometime before midnight. Sam sat watching them, River asleep with her head resting on Deans lap before getting up silently and leaving the room taking the car keys with him.
The clock on the nightstand clicked to 12:23 am; River and Dean had shifted in their bed. Dean now spooning her from behind and tightly grasping her to his chest. The TV set clicked on as did the radio, the sound of static causing the hunters to wake. "What the he-" River started turning over to grab her shotgun as Dean pulled his gun out from under his pillow. A high pitched ringing caused them both to stop and glance around the room, noticing that Sam's bed was conspicuously empty. They fanned out across the room, Dean heading towards the front door as River moved towards the window. The ringing increased in pitch, causing them to stagger and hold their ears, the mirror above the bed cracking from the high frequency.
River let out a strangled cry as she dropped her shotgun to try and press her hands to ears tighter, "What? It's too loud!" The mirror shattered, sending glass shards raining down; Dean jumped at River knocking her to the ground as the windows exploded in wards. The pain in their heads was becoming unbearable and just when they thought the pressure would cause their eardrums to explode the door was kicked in.
"Dean! River!" Bobby's muffled voice rang out. They pulled each other to their feet and staggered out of the room and towards Bobby. The three hunters ran from the room and whatever presence was trying it's damnedest to pop their skulls.
"You two ok?" Bobby asked once they retreated to his car and were burning blacktop.
"What?" River yelled from the backseat, her ears muffled like she'd attended a rock concert. Dean turned to face her and gave her a thumbs up, "Oh yeah, I'm ok!" she yelled back, picking a shard of glass out of her hair, "Just a couple of cuts!"
Dean and Bobby exchanged a look before Dean pulled out his cellphone. "Hey, Sam where are you?"
"I was hungry; went to go get a burger. Why are you up? Everything ok?" Sam answered, he had taken the Impala and was sitting across town in front of the diner they had fled from earlier.
"Yeah, Bobby's back. The three of us are going to go get some beers," Dean answered, earning a surprised glance from Bobby.
"Yeah, ok, well spill one for me," Sam said before hanging up.
"Why didn't you tell him what happened?" Bobby asked.
River sat forward, " 'cause he'd just try to stop us, right?" her voice slightly back to it's normal tone.
"Stop what?" Bobby glanced back at her.
"From summoning this thing," Dean said, "It's not gonna stop until it get what it wants. I'm not gonna be caught with my pants down again Bobby. Next time our heads are gonna blow 'Scanners' style."
"You two idjits are outta yer mind," Bobby told them.
River laughed, "Yeah, what gave it away? We do this, we do it right. We're still probably gonna die but…"
Dean turned to face her, "We got the demon killing pig sticker and Bobby's got an arsenal in the trunk. We summon it, bind it and beat the shit outta it until it gives us answers."
The three hunters drove further out of town into the country side and decided on a rickety barn in the middle of an overgrown field. River and Dean spent the next few hours spray painting sigils onto every available surface while Bobby readied their weapons. "I'm gonna say it again, so you idjits are perfectly aware, this is a bad idea."
River stood up and wiped her dirty hands onto her dirtier jeans, "Yeah, we hear you Papa Bear. But we got sigils and binding marks from two dozen faiths covering this place."
"And iron, salt, silver and the knife. We're covered to kill just about anything any of us has ever heard of…"
River exchanged a look with Dean and picked up her rock salt filled shotgun, "Let's crank dial this asshat already."
Bobby muttered again, stalked to the alter they had set up and began the summoning spell. An hour after the ritual ended the three hunters sat in the quiet barn. "You sure you pronounced all the words correctly?" River asked. Bobby glared at her and tossed a shotgun shell at her head. She took a breath and turned to Dean but before the words could leave her mouth the ground under them began to shake. The lightbulbs in the abandoned barn flickered to life then exploded, showering sparks everywhere. Blue lights flashed through the holes in the roof and the rafters shook as if something heavy landed on them.
"Maybe it's just the wind?" Dean yelled over the cacophony. The barn doors swung open and a shadowed figure calmly strode in, passing each sigil and totem as if they were invisible. Dean and Bobby grabbed their guns and began firing at the figure. River stood still and watched as the man walked towards them, shotgun hanging at her side. She raised her hand and placed it on Dean's forearm and shook her head. Bobby glanced at them but kept firing. The man stopped in front of the three hunters. He was an unassuming young man wearing a suit, a blue tie and a brown trench coat. His dark auburn hair was messy as if he had been out in the wind and his blue eyes shone confidently. Dean dropped his shotgun and reached behind him grasping the demon killing knife, "Who are you?" he yelled.
The man followed Dean's movements with amusement, "I am the one that gripped you tight and pulled you from perdition."
"Yeah, thanks for that," Dean said as he thrust the deadly tip of the knife into the beings heart.
"Dean no!" River yelled a second to late. The knife sank into the mans chest and he stared down at it before grabbing it by the handle and pulling it out, no sign of pain or even anything more than a minor annoyance crossing his face. "Oh fuck, " River whispered. Bobby swung an iron crowbar at the man's head and he stopped it with his forearm. The man reached two fingers towards Bobby's forehead, the man fell instantly to the ground in an unmoving heap. River took a step back, raising her hands, "Hey, time out. I didn't shoot you…I can see…are those…shit." The man touched her forehead as well and Rivers eyes rolled back and she slumped down, his quick arms reached out and guided her gently to the floor.
"You son of a bitch, if you hurt them…" Dean yelled.
The man stared impassively down at River's still form, "You're friends are sleeping. They will wake up when we are done. But we need to talk privately."
"Who are you?" Dean demanded, leaning down to check River's pulse.
"I am Castiel," the man answered.
Dean stood back up, "I mean what are you?"
"I am an angel of the Lord," Castiel answered.
"Go to hell," Dean scoffed, "An angel? They don't exist, they're myths."
The barn flickered again with lightening flashes as Castiel spread his invisible wings, the shadows bouncing off the wall behind him. Dean looked as the shadows revealed Castiel's unfurled wings, some feathers obviously broken and bent as if from a fight or struggle. "You lack faith, Dean Winchester. I've tried communicating with you."
Dean's emerald eyes widened and stared into the Angels crystal blue ones, "That was you? At the gas station and the motel room? You almost killed me and River. Next time lower the volume."
Castiel dipped his head in apology, "That was my mistake, certain special individuals can see my true form, hear my true voice. My true visage. You are not one of those individuals."
Dean glanced down at River and Bobby who were both still sound asleep, "And what visage is this? Holy tax account?"
"This?" Castiel plucked at his bullet hole ridden trench coat, "This is a vessel."
"So your possessing this guy? You took this poor sap away from his life, his family," Dean started.
"He is a devout man, he prayed for this opportunity and gave me permission to enter his body," Castiel cut him off.
Dean shook his head, a sad smile pulling at the corners of his mouth, "Look, buddy, I'm not buying what your selling. Why would an angel rescue me from hell?"
Castiel took a step towards the hunter, "Good things do happen, Dean."
"Not in my experience," Dean answered, eyes flicking again to River's unconscious form.
The angel cocked his head and stared at Dean with his unsettling blue eyes, "What's the matter, Dean…You don't think you deserve to be saved." Castiel had an almost sorrowful look on his face, his eyebrows knit together with concentration.
Dean shook his head again, "No. Why'd you do it?"
"Because God commanded it. Because we have work for you," Castiel said. Before Dean could reject this answer as well their was a flutter of invisible wings and Castiel disappeared from the barn. Dean stood in the silent barn for a few moments before leaning down to his unconscious companions. "Riv, baby, wake up. You ok?" he patted her cheeks lately until she stirred.
"Everything's shiny captain, not to fret," she answered through half lidded eyes.
"Yeah, your quoting Firefly you must be fine…Bobby time to get up!" he yelled at the older hunter. The old man grumbled before groggily sitting up and muttering, "Balls."