"A whole town full of hunters," Dean mused, "I don't know whether to run screaming or buy a condo."
Piper nodded, staring wide-eyed at the assembly line system they had set up in this strange little town. She had a bad feeling about this, and the base of her spine felt like ice.
"Well," the pastor said genially, "the demons were killing us. We had to do something."
Sam shrugged. "So why not call the National Guard?"
"We were told not to."
Piper frowned. "By whom?"
When Pastor Gideon didn't answer, Dean scoffed. "Come on, Padre. You're as locked and loaded as we've ever seen. And that exorcism was Enochian. Someone's telling you something." Piper nodded.
The man looked uncomfortable. "Look, I'm sorry, I, uh, I can't discuss it."
"Dad, it's okay."
The pastor frowned. "Leah-"
Piper turned to see a young woman in a pretty sweater standing behind them. She was smiling at Pastor Gideon. "It's Sam, Dean, and Piper Winchester. They're safe. I know all about them."
Dean's eyebrows went up. "You do?"
She nodded. "Sure. From the angels."
Piper tensed. "The, uh, angels?"
Leah smiled. "Don't worry, they can't see you here. The… Marks, on your ribs, right?"
"So you know all about us because angels told you?"
The young woman nodded. "Among other things."
Dean surveyed her. "Like that snappy little exorcism spell."
"And they show me where the demons are going to be before it happens. How to fight back."
Pastor Gideon smiled proudly. "Never been wrong. Not once. She's very special."
Leah rolled her eyes. "Dad…"
"And, before these visions," Piper said softly, "you get a really bad migraine? Flashing lights, the whole nine yards?"
Lean frowned. "How'd you know?"
"Because you're not the first prophet we've met."
xxxxx
"Well, having backup is nifty," Piper said cheerfully as they walked back to the car.
Dean chuckled, but Sam was still staring around suspiciously. She shared his misgivings, but at least the hunt had gone well.
"Dean! Sam!"
They turned to see Dylan, a young man from the town, jogging to catch up with them. "Yo," Dean said cheerfully.
Dylan stopped in front of them. "Hey, so, um. Is it cool if I get a ride back with you guys?"
Piper smiled. "Dylan, you probably saved my life at least twice in there. You can ride with us whenever you want."
Dean held up a can. "Beer?"
Piper frowned. "Absolutely not, Dean, he's a teenager."
He frowned back. "I was drinking at his age."
She smirked and rolled her eyes. "You were depraved at his age, Dean."
He grinned. "You liked it then, too."
She was interrupted by Dylan's scream. Piper whirled, her eyes widening when she saw Dylan fall. She raised her gun to point at the demon, but it smoked out before she could. She holstered her pistol and turned to the kid on the ground.
"Dylan!"
xxxxx
Piper was sitting quietly in their motel room with Dean that night, upset. Should have been watching the kid instead of flirting with my husband.
"Pipes, come on, cut it out."
She looked up at him from where her head lay on his leg. The rest of her was stretched across the couch, her ankles crossed on the arm. "Cut what out?"
He cocked an eyebrow at her. "I'm not the only one who's easier to read than they think. Quit blaming yourself for Dylan, it happens, baby." He ran a hand through her loose hair. "Blame the demon, not yourself."
She smiled up at him. "That's some sound advice, there, Mr. Guilt Complex."
Before he could respond, Sam came in. Piper smiled. "Where have you been?"
He shrugged his coat off. "Drinking."
Dean snorted. "You rebel."
Sam smiled. "I'd have had more, um, but it was curfew."
Piper frowned. The town had taken some pretty extreme measures after the vision Leah had had at Dylan's funeral. "Huh."
Sam nodded. "Did you hear that they shut down the cell towers?"
Piper sat up. "That's news to us."
"Yeah, no cable, internet. Total cut off from the 'corruption of the outside world.'"
Piper frowned. "They're turning this place into some kind of… Fundamentalist compound."
Sam nodded. "Yeah. I mean, it feels like we should do something, right?"
Piper turned to Dean. "What do you think?"
He looked at her closely for a moment, then nodded. "I think the angels are fucking with these people."
Piper sighed. "But why? What's the point? I mean…" she thought for a moment. "I have been drunk, I've had pre-marital sex, I've gotten tattoos, I've done just about everything they're outlawing out there, and I'm still going to heaven. So what's the point in getting these people riled up?"
Before either man could answer, the fluttering of wings signaled Castiel's arrival. The angel stood, blinked at her blearily, ten ungracefully fell to the floor.
She jumped up. "Cass!" When she got close, se winced and stopped. "Jesus, you smell… Are you drunk?"
Before he could answer, Piper heard breaking glass from outside. She met Dean's eyes, who nodded, then turned to Sam. "Try to dry him out, Sam, I'm gonna go find out what the fuck is going on in this town."
xxxxx
As they approached the sound, Piper looked over at Dean. "Dean, something really weird is going on here."
He nodded and kept walking, his eyes scanning the area around them for threats. "Yep."
She frowned. "Well? Any ideas?"
"Nope."
"God dammit, Dean."
He shrugged. "What, Pipes? I have no idea what's going on in this shitty little town. What I do know is we gotta fix it, because we gotta fix everything."
Something chilled in her heart. "Not getting burnt out on me, are you, Winchester?"
He shook his head. "No, kitten, just… Just looking forward to that vacation, with beaches and tiny umbrellas."
xxxxx
Dean walked up to the bar, Piper by his side. There were men shouting, two louder than the others.
Paul, the bartender, first. "You come onto my property, spouting some crazy-"
Interrupted by Rob, Dylan's father. "Sorry, Paul, there's no other way!"
When they got in close enough to see, they found Pastor Gideon standing between the men, holding them apart. "Guys, come on, please!"
Dean strode forward. "Need a hand, Padre?"
The man nodded, and Dean took Paul by the arm and hauled him away. "Just, everybody cool down for a minute!" the pastor snapped.
Paul yanked his arm out of Dean's grip, but stayed where he was. "'Cool down?' My friends are trying to run me out of town! Do you think I should 'cool down?'"
There was a weird, fanatic light in Rob's eyes that Dean didn't like. "I'm sorry, Paul. It's not our choice."
Paul rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. That's bullshit."
Rob shook his head. Dean held an arm out and Piper came to stand next to him while Rob spoke. He didn't want her anywhere near that crazy person, so he slid the arm around her shoulders and pulled her tight against him.
"You've got to go," Rob was saying, "For everyone's sake!"
Paul turned to look at Jane, who had taken up post next to Rob. "We grew up together. I stood at your wedding!"
Jane nodded. "Yes, you did. But that was then. And now you're standing against the flock." She, at least, had some sympathy along with the insanity in her eyes. Dean understood, losing a kid had to make you a little nutty, but this was beyond that. "Don't make this hard for us," she said softly.
Paul blanched. "Hard… Hard for you? No. This is my home. You want me out of here? You'll have to drag me out."
Dean winced and put his hand on Paul's shoulder. "Woah, woah, woah, buddy, you don't want to do this."
Before he could argue his point further, Jane pulled out a gun and pointed it at Paul. "No one's gonna stop me from seeing my son again."
"Jane," Piper snapped. Dean looked down to see his own wife was holding a pistol, pointing it at Jane's husband. He celebrated internally.
"Jane," Piper said softly. "You need to stop and think for a second."
Jane shook her head, but was eyeing Piper nervously. "I've already thought-"
"Not about Paul, Jane," Piper interrupted, her hand never wavering. Dean admired his goddess-like wife, defending the innocent, and being insanely hot while doing it.
"No, Jane, you're going to want to think about me. Because you can bet that I'm a lot faster with this gun than you will be with that one. And then, you're going to want to think long and hard about how much you want to lose today." Piper's eyes flicked to Rob, to whom the gun was pointed, then back to Jane. "Because, while I am endlessly sorry about Dylan, I truly am, I will shoot Rob without a second's hesitation if you try to shoot Paul. Are you willing to bet against me, Jane? Or are you going to put down the fucking gun and let us talk, like goddamn people?"
xxxxx
"Well, that was close," Piper said cheerfully as they ushered Paul into their motel room.
"That was hot," Dean said fervently. She smiled and bit her lip a little, then turned to see Sam and Castiel staring at them.
"Hi, guys. Jane tried to shoot Paul, so I thought we'd save him instead."
Cass swayed on his feet before falling onto the couch. "It's starting."
Dean frowned. "What's starting? Where the hell have you been?"
"On a bender," the angel snapped.
Dean blinked. "Did he… Did you say 'on a bender?'"
Sam winced and nodded. "Yeah. He's still pretty smashed."
"Who the hell is this guy?" Paul asked incredulously.
"An angel," Piper answered. She sniffed and made a face. "An angel who smells like a brewery."
Paul stared at her. "What?"
"It is not of import," Castiel said evenly. "We need to talk about what's happening here."
Dean threw his hands in the air. "Well, I'm all ears."
Sam sighed. "Well, for starters, Leah's not a real prophet."
Piper blinked. "What?"
Paul blinked, too. "What the hell is he talking about?"
Piper shook her head. "What is she, then?"
Castiel looked at her blearily. "The whore."
Dean huffed out a laugh. "Wow. Cass, tell us what you really think."
Castiel turned to look at Dean. "She rises when Lucifer walks the earth. 'And she shall come, bearing false prophecy.' This creature has the power to take a human's form, read minds. Book of Revelation calls her 'the Whore of Babylon.'"
Everyone stared at the angel for a moment . "Well, that's catchy," Dean snarked.
Sam nodded. "The real Leah was probably killed months ago."
"What?" Paul shouted. "What do you mean killed months ago? She was… I mean… She's right there! In the church!"
Piper put a hand on his arm and winced. "Paul, that's not Leah… She's a pretty powerful demon."
He ran a hand through his hair. "Well that is… Fucked up."
Piper nodded miserably. "I know, I'm sorry."
Dean was watching them, then turned back to Cass. "What about the demons attacking the town?"
"They're under her control."
Piper frowned. "And the exorcism?"
"Fake." Cass started to chuckle. "It actually means, 'you, um, breed with the mouth of a goat.'"
Piper stared at him for a moment before Cass looked a little embarrassed. "It's funnier in Enochian."
"I'm sure," Piper said dryly.
Dean shrugged. "So the demons smoking out, that's just a con? Why? What's the endgame?"
Cass pointed. "What you just prevented. Innocent blood spilled in God's name."
Piper's eyes widened. "She's manipulating them. Into thinking they're pious, into thinking that their actions will get them into heaven."
Castiel nodded. "Her goal is to condemn as many souls to hell as possible. And it's… Just beginning. She's well on her way to dragging this whole town into the pit."
Piper nodded. "Okay. How do we waste her?"
xxxxx
Piper snuck into the room that the pastor had told them Leah was staying in. The pastor was in front of her, wielding the stake. She was nervous, she wasn't certain that Gideon would be able to stake his daughter in the chest, but Castiel had made it clear that none of the rest of them made the cut.
She watched nervously as Castiel grabbed Leah from behind and swung her around, holding her arms, presenting her to the pastor.
"Daddy!" Leah cried, "Don't hurt me!"
"Gideon!" Piper shouted, "Now!"
Leah's face twisted and changed, and she began to chant Enochian. Before she could finish, Piper lunged forward and punched her in the face, hard. "Ugh, shut up."
Gideon looked pale. "Who… What was that? Her… Her face…"
Piper placed a hand on his arm. "It's not her, father. It's something else."
He stared at her, and Piper tried to look comforting, but they were running out of time, and she could hear the sounds of struggles coming from the room the boys had gone into.
He nodded once, then looked back at the dazed Leah. He took a deep breath and drove the stake through her chest. Leah cried out, and the door to the small room they were in crashed open. Dean and Sam ran in, followed by several of the townspeople.
Piper grabbed Gideon and pulled him back as Leah's face switched between the demon's true face and the young woman's. The stake lit up and started to smoke.
Piper felt a hand on her arm, and she backed up into Dean, pressing her back to his chest as the stake went up in a fast, hot, bright flame.
Piper looked around to the townspeople, then met Sam and Castiel's gaze. She turned around to look at Dean. "I hate this fucking town."
xxxxx
Later, in the motel, Piper tossed a bottle of ibuprofen to a very hungover Castiel. "I usually take three or four, but you could probably down the whole bottle."
He caught it and looked at her. "Thank you, Piper."
She smiled. "No problem, wings." She stepped closer and wrapped her arms around his waist. "I'm sorry you're having a hard time, Castiel," she said softly.
His arms slowly came around her, then she was being pressed into him. "I… I find myself at a loss."
She leaned back and smiled. "Well, we'll be all right, Cass. We always are."
"Quit mackin' on my wife, Cass."
Piper turned and smiled at Dean, who was shrugging his coat on as he approached them from the motel room. "Hi, handsome. How's the father?"
He shrugged and came to stand next to her. "He just staked his daughter. He's about to drink himself stupid."
Castiel winced. "I would not suggest it."
xxxxx
Piper was drying her hair, the towel draped over her head, when she felt Dean's hands on her hips. She smiled and pulled the towel off to look at him in the mirror through the curtain of her hair. "Hi, you."
He pressed a kiss to her shoulder. "Hi, kitten."
She leaned back into him, finger-combing her hair while she did so. "Hey," she said softly, "Listen, what was that about having to save everything?"
He was kissing his way up her neck. "Hmm, do we have to talk about this, baby?"
She tilted her head, smiling a little. "Yes, Dean, we have to talk about this."
He sighed, then his arms wrapped around her waist and he kept his forehead resting on her shoulder. "I'm just tired, Pipes," he said whispered. "I'm just… Ready to be done with this." He raised his head and his beautiful green eyes met hers in the mirror. "What do you say we take some time off after this, kitten? Some serious, long time off?"
She turned in his embrace and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I don't understand where this is coming from," she said softly, examining his perfect face. "Dean, what's going on?"
He examined her, then, cupped her face and pulled her in to kiss her hard. She melted into him without thinking about it, like she always did. He pulled away and pressed his forehead against hers.
"You're the only thing keeping me going, kitten."
She leaned back to look at him, and she knew he was telling the truth. She was the only thing keeping him going.
She knew it was wildly unhealthy, it was totally fucked. As much as she loved her husband, he should be fighting for the world, because it was the right thing to do, because he generally enjoyed pissing off creatures much more powerful than he was. Not just for her.
But that was a problem for after the apocalypse.
For now, she took the statement for what it was. Another declaration of Dean's devotion to her.
Instead of arguing with him, she went up on tiptoe to kiss him hard, glad that he'd booked them a separate room so she could thoroughly distract her husband from his troubled mind.
xxxxx
Hi everyone! Here's my notes:
I own only Piper Finley, the original character. I don't own Supernatural or the characters. (heartbroken)
Reviews and comments give me the warm fuzzies and keep me going.
If there are any mistakes in continuity, canon, or geography, blame me.
**It may be a few extra days before the next update, beautiful readers. We throw a big party every year for the holidays, and I'm running around like a crazy person trying to get ready for it. I'm sorry! 3
