A/N: Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed, favorited or subscribed and thanks waiting so patiently while I edited the story.
The boys had been acting weird last night. Bobby Singer should have known something was up. He should've figured it out sooner that those two idjit weren't his real boys. Once he got the lug running around in Sam's body off of him, and the after making a few more threats with his shotgun, he got not-Sam to go into the basement where he promptly tied him up. Salt, holy water, silver, nothing Bobby used against not-Sam caused any reaction other than annoyance.
"What the Hell are you?" Bobby asked.
"Jim, this isn't funny anymore," not-Sam said. Tears weld up in the creature's eyes. This was a creature, right? This couldn't be a human. Whatever he was it was something he had never seen before.
"Who's Jim?" Bobby asked.
"You are!"
Bobby flung a canister of salt at non-Sam's head, mostly out of annoyance. It bounced off not-Sam's head and onto the ground. Bobby picked up a machete. "Don't mess with me!" he said. "Those boys are like family. What have you done with them?"
Not-Sam hyperventilated until he passed out.
"The fuck?" Bobby asked.
Not-Sam was out cold. He wouldn't be getting any answers out of him anytime soon. His only option was to hit the books. Hours went by and he still had no ideas about what this creature could be. He even prayed to Castiel, but that good for nothing angel didn't answer. Once not-Sam woke he continue the integration. Not-Sam cried again.
"Who are you?" Bobby asked.
"It's me, Jared. Jared Padalecki. I'm your costar. I know I play pranks on you all the time, but this is too far Jim. Please let me go."
Nothing out of this creature's mouth made any damn sense. What was its game? Was it just trying to mess with Bobby's head, or was there some ulterior motive?
Overhead the ceiling's lights flickered. He looked up at them, curiously. Electromagnetic interference. Great. Another monster was coming.
Suddenly behind Bobby a black woman appeared. The creature, who called himself Jared. screamed. "Who the fuck are you?! Where did you come from?"
"Silence!" she yelled.
Jared shut up, although a soft whining sound still came from him.
"I've been looking for you, Winchester," the woman said. "Give me the key. Now!"
"Angel. Which one are you?" Bobby asked. "Dear God, tell me that's not what's happened to the boys. They ain't possessed by angels, are they?"
"Jim, is this part of the joke?" Jared asked.
"Who the Hell is this Jim you keep yammering about?" Bobby asked.
The woman's head tilted to the side as she examined not-Sam. "Virgil was right. You are not Sam." She looked at Bobby. "It's Raphael, by the way. That thorn in my side Castiel sent his errand boy Balthazar here to hide a key with your boys. But the Winchesters are not here." Raphael stepped forward and grabbed Jared's face with her hand, pulling it forward. She dug her hands through his coat pockets, but when they turned up empty she said, "Where are they?"
Jared sobbed. "Please stop! I don't know anything. I just want to go home to Gen." He strained his head to look at Bobby but Raphael kept his head in place. "Please Jim. This isn't funny anymore. Please just end it."
"Pathetic," Raphael said, and let go of Jared's face. She pulled a hair from his head, which just started up his waterworks again. "They're not here. No longer on this Earth. And the idiot you're torturing knows nothing. He's from another world, here against his will. There's no reason to torture him for information anymore." She flashed a wicked, full-toothed grin. "Unless you just enjoy that. No worries about Sam and Dean. I'll find them. Well, maybe you should worry a little bit. Because they're not making it home alive." And then she was gone.
Bobby looked over at Jared. His face had turned red and was scrunched up as he sobbed. It was pretty pathetic. "Who are you?" Bobby asked. There was no threat in his voice, just utter dumbfoundness.
Jared sniffled. "I'm just an actor. I live in Vancouver."
"You're Canadian?!" Bobby asked.
"No…I just live there. I'm from Texas."
"Ain't no Texan ever cried like that before." Bobby sighed and untied the actor.
"Is this…real?" Jared asked. "It's not some joke? Supernatural is real?" Jared stood up from the seat and rubbed his arms. His biceps looked chaffed from rope burn.
"You mean the dumb books that Chuck guy wrote?"
"Chuck?" Jared asked. "Like the character Chuck? Oh God, I'm having a mental breakdown." Jared shook his head and his eyes darted around the room like he was looking for an escape. "This isn't real. This is a show."
"Do you mean to tell me…do you come from some place where my life is a TV show?"
Jared nodded.
"And you play Sam?"
Another nod.
"Who plays me?"
"Jim Beaver."
"Who?"
Jared shrugged. "He hasn't been a lot of big shows or movies."
"So I'm played by a hack too. Great."
Jared rubbed his neck. "So…uh…can I go now."
Bobby looked this so-called actor up and down. This guy played Sam on a TV show. If he hadn't been so distraught by his missing boys he probably would have found that funny. This guy didn't seem like he could act his way out of a paper bag. "Yeah, whatever. I've got to figure out what happen to my real boys."
Jared slowly walked toward the stairs. He looked back at Bobby, his face scrunched up like he was about to cry again. "Where am I supposed to go?" Jared asked.
"Hell should I know." Bobby was done with this shit. He pushed his way past Jared and stormed upstairs to open a new bottle of whiskey and figure out what the Hell happened to Sam and Dean.
Across town Jensen had found a local inn. He decided against using the fake credit cards in his wallet, they were supposed to be just props anyway, and forked over a chunk of cash in order to stay in a room. Luckily this wallet was filled with real, cold, hard, American cash. The clerk accepted it without even checking to see if they were forged.
Jensen got a room in the back of the motel. When he tried to open the door it stuck and he had to body slam it open. He turned on the light to the room, which was lit by a crappy florescent bulb, and looked at the room in at all its glory. There was a large stain on the comforter of the bed closest to the wall. He opted for the further bed.
Plan. Plan, plan, plan. He needed a plan. What could he do? He had no way to contact Dannell. Maybe he should call the cops? Yeah, that sounded like a good idea. But just as he picked up the motel room phone the light overhead flickered then went out. When Jensen looked behind him, Carl, the extra, appeared.
"Holy fuck!" he screamed and threw the phone at him.
Carl didn't flinch. He held a bowl in his hand and then walked over to Jensen and plunked a hair from his head. Jensen nearly started to hyperventilate. The man went over to the window and drew a strange looking symbol on it.
"What…what are you doing?" Jensen asked, his breathing slowing ever so slightly.
Carl didn't respond. Once the drawing was finishing Carl calmly rammed his body through the window. It shattered and Carl landed on the other side.
"What the fuck?" Jensen screamed. He ran across the room and peaked out the broken window. Carl was now lying on the ground between some bushes, groaning. Jensen ran after him, using the door instead of the broken window, of course.
"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he screamed.
A few patrons of the motel, a woman with thigh high boots and a low cut shirt, and a man with a wad of bills spilling out of his pocket, looked over them. "Whatever he's on, I want," the woman said before lighting up a cigarette. She continued to gawk as Jensen helped Carl up then flicked the cigarette butt at them and went into her room with the man.
"Where…where am I?" Carl asked.
"In a parking lot. You just jumped through a freaking window!" Jensen said.
"I…I did?" He looked Jensen up and down. "Hey, you're Jensen Ackles."
"Duh! Look, this prank has gone way to far. I'm going to call the cops if you don't cut this shit out and bring me back to Vancouver."
The man's brow furrowed. "We're not in Vancouver…where are we?"
"South Dakota, moron. You were in on this…weren't you?"
Carl shook his head.
"But you were with Sebastian earlier."
"I haven't seen Sebastian since we were filming that spell scene yesterday."
That was when this all started. Could Carl be a victim in this too? Jensen needed to gather more facst.
The manager of the hotel came running out the lobby and screaming at them. "What the fuck did you do? I'm going to call the cops!"
"Good!" Jensen said. I've been needing to talk with them all day."
Jared had been transported into an alternative universe where his show was real. At least that's what the angel said. It was just like the episode they were supposed to be filming this week. Now Jared truly believed this was real, that is show Supernatural was real, even if only in an alternative universe. What that said about his mental health, he didn't know.
Despite his knowledge from working on the set this world was still all too unfamiliar. Bobby wasn't Jim. He was a stranger. The only person in the entire world he knew was that jackass Jensen, who threw him at a gun toting maniac a few hours ago in order to make his own escape. Unfortunately, Jared didn't have anyone else to turn to while he tried to cope with his new reality. He pulled out his phone, or rather Sam Winchester's phone, and tried to give Jensen a ring, or rather Dean Winchester's phone a ring.
The call wouldn't go through. Jared stared at the phone in confusing until he saw that there were no bars. Strange, on the show Sam and Dean never had trouble getting bars, not unless the plot called for it. Then he realized his phone came from his own universe and was just a prop. It worked but it wasn't hooked up to a service or anything, And even if it had been on a service there was no telling if the phone work on the cell towers in this universe. He had no way to contact Jensen.
The phone situation did confirm one thing, though. Jared had switched places with Sam, not bodies. That was information he was going to keep to himself, though, in case Bobby decided to take his grief out on Jared.
With no way to contact Jensen Jared thought over his options. Maybe he could find Gen…but if in this world everyone was the character they played on TV…Jared's heart wrenched. Gen's character was dead, killed by his own hand. Or Sam's own hand. He knew he shouldn't feel bad, that Ruby wasn't really Gen, but still, a world without Gen wasn't a world he wanted to live in.
He went upstairs and outside and wondered what Sam would do.
"Castiel!" Sam shouted at the sky. Okay, maybe that was more of a Dean move, but he couldn't think of anything else. Misha Collins appeared before him. Except it wasn't Misha.
"Jared," Castiel said.
"You know who I am?" Finally, someone who could help him.
"Of course," Castiel said. He looked as serious as ever. It was hard to come to terms with the fact that Castiel wouldn't be pulling a goofy face at him once the cameras were off…or that there were no cameras. "Balthazar summoned you here."
"Can you send me back?"
Castiel stared at him, his face unreadable, "In time."
"Did you tell Balthazar to do this?" Jared asked.
"No. But didn't stop him when he came up with the plan." He didn't sugarcoat the answer.
"Why?"
The angel sighed. "You wouldn't understand. Sam and Dean wouldn't understand so I can't expect a speck of a human like you to."
Jared frowned. "But you're supposed to be there friend."
"I'm a warrior," Castiel told him. "I do what I must…but you should meet up with your friend. It would be best that Sam and Dean's bodies are together when they reappear." Then Castiel disappeared.
Yeah, great idea, Cas. Only problem was he couldn't find Jensen, not that Jared particularly wanted to spend more time with that jackass anyway. He had spent enough time with Jensen to last a lifetime. Still, if Castiel thought it was best for them to meet up then he had to try to find that asshole. He tried to think if there was any other allies he could contact for help.
The name Jody Mills popped into his head. Kim Rhodes had played this town's sheriff in a few episodes, and the character was becoming a fast ally for the Winchesters and Bobby. As sheriff she would have all sorts of resources that B-list actors from alternative universes don't. Jared was too scared to ask Bobby to borrow a car so he instead walked aimlessly down the road. A few blocks away was a diner where he stepped in and asked for directions to the local police station. It was a bit of a walk away, but Jared had no other options. The aroma of French fries inside the diner also reminded him he hadn't eaten today, save those few bites of cheeseburger he had before Bobby snapped. Too bad he didn't have any money. Hopefully, Jody would help him with that too.
Jared finally arrived at the station and asked for Sherriff Mills. He waited on the uncomfortable plastic chairs in the lobby as she took her sweet time coming out to meet him.
"Sam!" She gave him a hug. "How can I help you?"
Jared wanted to call her Kim. This felt so weird. "Hi...Jody. Need your help."
She took him back to her office and closed the door behind. "This a monster thing?"
"No...more like a...brother thing. Je-Dean's missing. Need your help finding him."
Jody's eyebrows knit together. "Missing? Like kidnapped?"
"More like he doesn't want to be found. Problem is I need him for something else so him wanting to stay hidden isn't really an option."
"You two have a fight?"
"You could stay something like that."
Jody turned on her computer monitor. "I can put an APB out on him. I'm not sure if anything will come up. You boys are good at covering your tracks."
Jared smiled to himself. Dean might have been good at covering his tracks, but there was no way Jensen Ackles was. Neither of them really knew what they were getting themselves into.
"Thanks K-Jody," Jared said.
"No problem...Bobby working on this too."
"No! No, no, no, no, no," Jared said. "And don't get him involved."
"He fighting with Bobby too?"
"It's complicated. Trust me, you don't want the details. And if you had them you wouldn't be able to wrap your head around it." And would probably lock him in a loony bin instead of helping. Or tie him up like Bobby did.
"Got'cha," Jody said. "Well I'll call you if anything turned up."
Jared didn't move.
"Something else wrong, kid?"
"Look, I feel terrible asking this but...could you spare a couple bills?"
Jody's eyes filled with concern. "Sam, what's going on?"
"I'm just running low on cash and haven't gotten a chance to eat."
"And Bobby doesn't exactly have filled cupboards," Jody said. She opened her desk and pulled out her keys, which she then tossed to Sam. "I'm off in a few minutes away. And I make a mean pot roast. Go wait the truck."
"You don't have to."
She put her hand up and Jared knew not to argue.
"Thanks," he said. He went out to the truck and waited. Jody took longer than just a couple of minutes and Jared found himself going insane with boredom, all the while his stomach as growling. He tried playing a game on the prop phone but it was such an old model. Jared was used to his iPhone and all its fun apps.
Jody finally joined him in the truck. "Hey kiddo," she said as she started the engine. They drove to her house.
They had only ever filmed at Jody Mill's house one before, and about a year ago, and Jared couldn't for the life of him remember what it looked like. They arrived at ranch and he followed her inside. She told him to take a seat in the living room then brought him a beer. He took it and then gagged. Another skunked beer...or maybe they weren't actually skunk and these people just drank really terrible beer. No IPAs for these working class midwesternites. Jared choked it down to be polite, at least until Jody left the room. Then he poured the rest into the potted plant by the door.
Jody served the meal, and it was almost as good as his own mom's. He gobbled it down and then went for seconds. Then thirds.
"You okay?" Jody asked, sitting across from him at the dining room table.
"Yeah," he said as he helped himself to another helping of mashed potatoes. "Why?"
"Because you're eating like Dean. When was the last time you ate?" she asked
He shrugged. There was that bite of cheeseburger this afternoond but that wasn't much of a meal. "Yesterday," he said.
"Look, if this is a money thing you know I'll always help you boys."
Jared shook his head. "I slept in today. And when I tried to eat lunch…well some things happened, and I didn't get more than a bite."
"Okay." Jody accepted that answer. "You gonna need a ride back to Bobby's?"
Jared frowned. No way in Hell was he going back there.
"Bobby and I aren't exactly getting along right now…I guess I should get a motel room but none of the credit cards in my wallet are, well, mine."
Jody rubbed her temples. "Sam, I know you guys do what you have to do to get by, but you can't tell me about the credit card fraud you commit."
Right, that was why he had those cards. He wondered what kind of maximum they had. Or if they would even work. Probably not. They were supposed to be props, right?
"If you need a place to stay for the night the couch is always opened."
"Thanks Jody," Jared said.
As Jody was helped set Jared up on the couch, lining it with a pillow and blankets, she got a call from the station. "He did what…no, no, no…I'll take care of it…yeah, he's a family friend, let's keep this under wraps till we know more…thanks."
Jody hung up the phone and frowned at Jared. "Well I found him, but it's not good. He was involved in some sort of incident at a motel. A guess some guy jumped through a window?"
Window jumping. Just like how Jared and Jensen got to this universe. This couldn't be a coincidence.
"Regardless of Dean's involvement I need to check this out. You want to come with?"
Well Jared wasn't looking forward to sleeping on a couch anyway. He didn't imagine it was going to be much more comfortable than Bobby's sad excuse for a guest bedroom. Jared followed Jody out to her truck and she drove him straight to the motel that Jensen had been spotted at. Hopefully when he arrived he'd have some answers and maybe a way back home.
A/n: Thanks for reading! Please leave a review. Concrit is always appreciated.
