Chapter 3 - Funeral For A Friend

As the guests gathered outside, Sam and Gail were talking quietly in the bunker.

"Oh my God, this is the most morbid thing I've ever done," she said to him.

"I wish I could say the same thing," Sam said wryly. He finished wrapping Dean's body in the shroud he had fashioned. "I called in every favour I had with this guy. We can leave him in the morgue for a week. I'm gonna swap him out for a homeless guy, who died of exposure to the elements. They didn't know what they were going to do with the body, since he had no ID and no known next of kin. So in a way, we're doing them a favour by burning it."

Gail shook her head slowly. Yikes. What they were doing was unbelievable. But it was necessary. It was unpleasant to think about, but realistically, Dean's body had to be kept cold until they could work out the spell, because they would need his original bones to be intact. But they also needed a body to burn at the wake, because everyone needed to believe that they were burning Dean's body.

"Hurry up, Sam," Gail urged him. "Cas is going to come looking for me any minute now."

"OK," Sam said. He hefted Dean's body into his arms, and Gail winked them over to the police station. They appeared in the alleyway behind the property. Sam set Dean gently down on the ground and called his contact on his cell phone. Then the man came down to the side door of the building and let them in, sneaking them into the basement.

"Thanks, man," Sam said to the Officer, and the man nodded curtly. "Just make sure you keep your mouth shut about this, Sam," he said. "I'm breaking every rule there is for you."

"And I really appreciate it," Sam said earnestly.

The policeman opened the drawer. "Are you OK from here?" he asked anxiously. "I'm supposed to be on phone duty right now."

"Sure, don't worry about it," Sam assured him. The Officer glanced curiously at Gail, but he left the room quickly, with no comment.

So they had made the switch and were back in Dean's room now, wrapping the homeless man's body, when Cas came in the room. Sam had just finished covering the man's head with the hood, tying it shut around the neck with a knot so it wouldn't slip.

"I think everyone is here now," Cas told them. He walked up to his wife and took her hand. "Are the two of you all right?" Cas asked, his forehead wrinkled with concern.

Gail and Sam exchanged a glance. Ever since they'd gotten back to the bunker, that was all that he'd been asking them. It was sweet, and heartbreaking, and it was getting on Gail's nerves. Every time Cas asked them that, her conscience tugged at her. Cas's eyes were so sad. The light had gone out of them. He had bustled around the bunker helping Bobby and Frank make the arrangements for the memorial service, leaving Gail to spend time with Sam, ostensibly to take care of him. She'd told Cas that Sam was too grief-stricken to deal with any arrangements, and that she would make sure that Dean's brother ate and rested regularly, and Cas had agreed that whatever helped Sam get through this was what they needed to do.

Gail's heart hurt for Cas, and for Frank and Jody, and Bobby, and Nicole. Anyone, really, who had loved Dean. She'd been so focused on their scheme to get him back that she hadn't stopped to realize how many people Dean mattered to. When they went outside to the back yard of the bunker, she was astonished at the number of the people who were seated there.

She and Cas walked down the middle aisle together, like some grotesque version of a wedding procession. Sam had stayed behind in Dean's room with the corpse, telling Cas that he wanted a final couple of minutes alone with his brother. In reality, he just wanted to check the wrapping on the body one more time, just to make sure there would be no unforeseen accidents. As far as everyone else was concerned, this man was Dean.

Cas seated Gail in the front row beside Frank, Jody, Rob, and Bobby. Nicole was seated in the aisle. There were two empty seats between her and Gail, where Cas and Sam would sit.

But right now, Cas gestured to Frank and Bobby. They rose from their seats and followed Cas silently back up the aisle.

Gail looked at Nicole. She was sitting up straight in her chair, staring stoically ahead. Gail's heart went out to her. If there had been anyone besides Cas that she and Sam would have considered telling, it was Nicole. But in the end, they had vetoed the idea. She was grieving now, but if they told her what they had in mind and it didn't work, or turned out wrong somehow, it would be even worse. It would be hard enough on them, without putting her through it, too. Nobody was really sure exactly what the nature of Dean's relationship with Nicole was, but Gail could see that the woman's eyes were red from crying.

"How are you doing, Nicole?" Gail asked her softly, sliding forward in her chair and putting her hand on Nicole's arm. Dammit. Now SHE was doing it. How the hell did she think Nicole was doing? She felt like crap. All of them did.

Nicole gave Gail a half-shrug. "Not too good," she admitted. "I just keep thinking about how unfair life is, sometimes. But then, I think he'd probably be mad at me if I go around being bitter all the time. I loved him, Gail, but I'm going to have to let him go. Unless he comes back as, you know, one of you guys. Cas had a talk with me a little while ago, and he told me not to give up hope."

"It's always good to have hope," Gail said vaguely.

A few minutes later, Tommy carried a large boombox to a table on the side of the bier where the body would be placed. He pressed a button, and a Led Zeppelin song called "In My Time Of Dying" began to play.

Sam, Cas, Bobby and Frank carried the body down the aisle and over to the bier. They laid it down gently. Each man touched it before taking his seat, and in a heartbreakingly touching moment, Cas kissed his fingers and touched them to the body before he took his seat.

Gail had never heard the song before, but the lyrics were so like Dean that her throat closed up and she choked back a sob. They all sat quietly in their seats until the song finished, and then Bobby rose slowly and walked to the front, standing beside the bier.

"This is the saddest day I think I've ever had, in a lot of ways," he said soberly. "Dean Winchester died a hero, doing what he did best." They had agreed that that was the story they would present to the other Hunters, the ones outside of their inner circle. Many of these people attending were Hunters, but they weren't privy to the details of what had really been going on. But they understood the life, and none of them would question Dean's sudden death. They were all well aware of the dangers.

"I wanna open up the floor now. Anybody who's got a funny story about Dean, come up here and share it with us," Bobby continued. "We're setting up a bar over there." He pointed to another table beside the one with the boombox, where Chuck, Barry, Ethan, Kevin and Riley were setting up bottles and glasses. "Everybody, help yourselves. It's what Dean asked for, and it's the kind of sendoff he deserves."

One by one, the guests started to get up and tell their stories, and soon, many of them were laughing. Even Sam grinned from time to time. "That's right," he was saying, nodding his head. Or, "I forgot about that." Cas looked over at him sharply, frowning, but Gail put her hand gently on her husband's leg and gave it a brief squeeze, and Cas faced forward again. He hadn't smiled once, not even at the funniest stories. Cas knew that everyone grieved differently, and that this was what Dean had wanted. But it was very difficult for him to sit here stoically while he could feel his heart breaking in two. If Dean were here, he would be berating Cas, calling him "Major Buzzkill". Telling him to take the stick out of his butt. The tears started flowing down Cas's face. He made no effort to wipe them away.

Frank had mixed emotions at the moment. On the one hand, nobody knew more about the therapeutic value of a good laugh than Frank. But on the other hand, he was still angry as hell about this whole damn thing. As soon as the service was over, he was going to talk to Sam. Then, if Frank was confident that his friend was going to be all right, Frank was going to move Jody and Rob back into their little house, and then plan a family vacation for the three of them. But first, they were going to stop by Sioux Falls and have a chat with Jody's doctor.

Barry and Tommy were thinking the same thing. They were sitting on the other side of Rob, holding hands. Tommy was going to talk to Sam after the service, too, and tell him that he and Barry were going to move back to Vancouver and start planning the wedding. But only if Sam was going to be all right.

Eventually, the stories wound down, and then Sam stood up. "I want to thank everybody for coming," he said. His voice caught. Looking out at all of their old friends had made him feel even more emotional. "I don't think I'm gonna be able to speak, so I'd like to ask Gail to go up in my place."

She rose. They'd discussed this beforehand. She had a very short verse that she'd wanted to read, and a song of her own that she wanted to play. Just in case what she and Sam had planned didn't work, Gail needed to express her feelings for Dean in her own way.

She went to stand at the front and took the piece of paper out of her pants pocket, smoothing it out with her hands. After a moment, she cleared her throat and began to read:

"'And when he shall die,/Take him and cut him out into little stars/And he will make the face of Heaven so fine/That all the world will be in love with night,/And pay no worship to the garish sun'."

Gail's lips were trembling now, but she was determined to say what she wanted to say. "Dean Winchester was my brother, in every way that matters. We laughed together, we cried together, we got mad at each other. I got on his nerves, and he got on mine. And if I had a nickel for every time I told him to please, please swallow his food before he talked, I'd be a rich woman." A ripple of laughter went through the guests. Gail continued, "But, as my dear, sweet Dean would probably say, I'll shut my pie-hole and bottom line it. Dean Winchester was an imperfect human being, and he was a pain in my ass, and I loved him, and I miss him so much I can't stand it. I need to play a song for him. I hope he won't hate it too much."

Gail nodded to Tommy, who had stood from his seat beside Barry and moved back over to the table where the boombox was. He pressed the button again. The song Time by The Alan Parsons Project began to play, as Gail re-took her seat. She had chosen the song very carefully. It said goodbye to someone the singer loved, "maybe" for forever, questioning whether the singer would ever meet the loved one again. It was a bittersweet, lyrical song, and it expressed perfectly the way she was feeling right now.

Cas enfolded her in his arms when she got back to her seat, and they cried together. Gail's heart was breaking for Cas, too. She didn't know how much longer she could keep this deception up. Something was going to have to give, and soon.

But for now, after the song was finished, Bobby walked up to the front again. He wiped his eyes with his shirt sleeve and said, "Most of you guys - and gals - know what happens next. If you don't wanna stay and watch, feel free to leave."

There was some murmuring in the seats, but nobody got up. The Hunters knew very well what was going to happen next. It was what had to happen in their world, when one of them fell. Frank, Cas and Sam rose from their seats again and went to join Bobby up at the front. They moved over to the bier. Tommy handed each man a torch. The torches had been pre-soaked in kerosene to make them more flammable. Then Tommy lit the torches, and the men moved over to the body, two at the shoulders and two at the legs. Once the men were in position, Tommy pushed the button for the music once more.

Bobby had gone with Bob Seger's "The Famous Final Scene", as Dean had suggested:

"Like a guest who stayed too long/Now it's finally time to leave."

Dean's pallbearers touched the torches to the body on the bier.

"It's been coming on so long/You were just the last to know."

The flames licked along the sides of the body. Soon, the entire torso was on fire. The fire spread quickly, and then the corpse was suffused. The men dipped their torches one by one in a bucket of sand that the Angels had placed behind the bier, but they all remained at their positions, like an honour guard escorting their fallen brother and son to the next realm. As the body turned to ash, the song concluded.

"It's been a long time since you've smiled/Seems like oh so long ago,/As the light fades from the screen/From the famous final scene."

The song faded away, and the only sounds that were heard now were the crackling of the flames, and the weeping of some of the observers. Then Frank cleared his throat and said, "OK, that really sucked. And it's exactly the opposite of what Dean wanted. So let's crank up the classic rock tunes, and drink our faces off."

Nicole and Jody sniffled back their tears, nodding. Frank was right. Dean would have been a little upset not to be mourned at all, but he also hadn't wanted the mood to be overly somber, either. So they all tied to smile through their tears, and as the body on the bier burned down, the party began.