Author's Note: Continued spoiler alert for My Heart Will Go On. I don't own any characters with the exception of baby Winchester and Isadore the demon. I created her myself. Major feels ahead!
Chapter Inspiration: Don't Make Me by Blake Shelton
Chapter 17
While Bobby and Sam were digesting the information, Balthazar had revealed with incredible amounts of horror, the shifty angel continued to lay out his explanation for not allowing the Titanic to sink.
"One less Billy Zane movie, and I saved two of your closest friends."
"But now, somebody is killing the descendants of the survivors." Sam explained, avoiding the conundrum Balthazar had created.
"And?" Balthazar seemed completely blasé about the fact. It was if he didn't care that people were dying, that people had died because of his actions.
"And, that's like, 50,000 people." Sam supplied.
"And?" Balthazar questioned again, confused as to where Sam and Bobby were going with their little speech.
"And, we need to save as many as we can, but we need to know who's after them." Bobby explained.
"Oh, sorry, you have me confused with the other angel. You know, the one in the dirty trench coat who's in love with Dean?" Balthazar shrugged it off on Castiel. "I don't care." With that Balthazar laughed. It astounded Bobby and Sam how an angel could be so careless sometimes. It wasn't something they were used to. "Goodbye gents."
Balthazar flew off, leaving Bobby and Sam standing in an otherwise empty motel room. They had a huge conundrum on their hands, and people to save. This job sucked.
"What do we do now?" Sam wondered.
"We have to tell Dean." Bobby said as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.
"Sure, tell him that Balthazar hated the movie so much, he prevented the Titanic from sinking, making it so his wife and unborn daughter died so Ellen and Jo could live? That's a recipe for disaster." Sam commented. "You know what he's going to say to that. He's going to demand that the boat be sunk, and your wife and step-daughter will die."
"What other option do we have here, Sam? We need to know who's after these people to save them." Bobby pointed out.
"Fine." Sam resigned. Taking a seat on each bed facing each other, Sam dialed Dean's cell phone and waited.
When the call connected, Dean was sitting in Bobby's study, books spread out around him. Ellen had forced him to eat, and was actively keeping him away from any of the alcohol Bobby had stashed. It was making him grumpy.
"What?" He answered the phone sharply.
"Hey, we caught a break. We know more of what the situation is. Hopefully knowing what's going on will give us a hint at who's behind the accidents." Sam led.
"Okay?" Dean asked impatiently.
"Balthazar." Bobby said.
"What about that dick?" Dean was irritated at the mention of the angel.
"That boat all the victims' families came over on? It was supposed to sink, but Balthazar prevented it because he apparently 'hated the movie.'" Sam explained.
"So, Balthazar unsank a boat, and now we have a boat load of people who should have never been born." Dean summarized, leaning back in the chair as he digested the information.
"Yeah." Sam confirmed. "Like 50,000."
"That makes sense." Dean commented, remembering a possibility he'd found a few books ago.
"How does any of this make sense?" Sam questioned.
"I'm surprised Bobby hasn't figured it out yet, but I have an idea who you're up against." Dean said, rubbing his hand down his face tiredly. All he wanted to do is go back to bed and wallow.
"What?" Bobby asked.
"Fate." Dean replied. When there was silence coming from the other end of the phone, Dean went on to explain. "I mean like 'the fates,' or, one of them at least."
"You mean like Greek mythology? Like the sisters?" Bobby asked for clarification. It made complete sense.
"Bingo, nerds. These ladies are responsible for how you go down, literally. So, if you get creamed by a garage door, or crunched by a copy machine, they're the ones who hammer out the details of how you die." Dean explained, paraphrasing from a book once again open in front of him on the desk. "They spin out your fate on a piece of pure gold."
"Gold thread." Sam connected the dots.
"And then, one of them writes it all down in her day-runner of death. It's high level stuff, but anyway, it fits. Now that we know what Baltahzar did, seems to me that maybe fate is just trying to clean up the mess." Dean speculated.
"So, how do we stop it?" Sam asked.
"How do you stop fate? Good question." Dean replied.
"Well there's got to be some way, Dean." Bobby insisted, the idea of Ellen and Jo dying tugging at him.
"Or there isn't. I mean, this is fate we're talking about here." Dean pointed out. "You know, the easiest way would be to get that angel to re-sink the boat."
Sam looked to Bobby, and Bobby tensed. That was the last thing he wanted to do for personal reasons. "Is there any other way?" Bobby pressed.
"Not that I can find. There's a big difference in dying awful, and never having been born." Dean replied honestly.
"Bobby…" Sam warned.
"Sam, shut it." Bobby snapped.
"What's got your panties in a clench, Bobby?" Dean asked, hearing the older hunter snap at his brother.
"Nothing." Bobby replied grumpily.
"Try that again." Dean challenged.
"Look, apparently, a crap load of dominoes get tipped over if the Titanic goes down. Bottom line, Ellen and Jo die, but Hermione and the baby live." Sam explained.
Dean felt like he'd been punched in the stomach. As much as he cared about Ellen and Jo though, he knew what needed to happen. "Listen, you summon Balthazar and force him to sink that boat, you hear me?" Dean snapped, looking down at his wedding ring once again. "I don't care what you have to do, just get him to sink the damn thing, you understand me?"
"Dean…" Bobby started to argue before Sam cut in.
"Dean, we'll figure this out. We understand you." Sam said.
Dean didn't acknowledge either when he ended the call. He would get his wife back if it's the last thing he did. He went to the kitchen to hug Ellen one last time.
"Thanks for the grub." He told her.
"You're welcome kiddo. You figure out what everyone's up against?" Ellen asked, returning to the dishes she was cleaning.
"No, no I haven't." Dean lied. "My eyes are so weary though they're going crossed. Just going to go grab a few winks before I get back at it."
"Go on up, get some real rest." Ellen smiled maternally back at him.
Smiling, Dean made his way upstairs and back to bed. He was trusting Sam and Bobby to get the Titanic re-sunk so when he woke, he'd be beside his wife again. Unfortunately, Castiel decided to gate crash his head.
"Where are we?" Dean asked, looking around at the unfamiliar scenery in his dream state.
"Russia." Castiel replied.
"Are you aware of what your frat bro did?" Dean asked his angel friend angrily.
"I'm aware. Balthazar can be, impetuous." Castiel remarked.
"Well, riddle me this, why does Hermione and my daughter have to die in order for Ellen and Jo to live, huh?" Dean questioned.
"I imagine fate harbors a certain degree of rage toward you." Castiel replied in his usual monotone.
"What'd I ever do to her?" Dean questioned.
"Nothing of import, just the tiny matter of averting the apocalypse, and rendering her obsolete." Castiel informed Dean.
"Then why hasn't she gone after Sam too? I wasn't alone in stopping the apocalypse." Dean reasoned.
"She has, I saved him and Bobby." Castiel assured Dean.
"Then why didn't you save my wife and child from that demon?" Dean's voice went cold with the knowledge that Cas had saved Sam and Bobby, but not Hermione.
"Dean…" Castiel started, but got cut off by a beyond angry widower.
"No Cas, because of your brother, my girls are dead! No, wait, this is on you and your brother!" Dean exploded at the angel. "I've been surviving on the fact that I couldn't save them, and that's bad enough, but to know it is a direct result of Balthazar, and now you? How? How could you do this?"
"Dean, there are more important things for me to worry about." Castiel informed Dean sternly.
"Oh yeah, Raphael and the war in heaven. You better hope you win that war, because if you don't, and my loss is completely in vain, I'm coming after you, and Balthazar." Dean threatened, getting right in the angel's face.
A defiant, angry look overtook Castiel's usual impassiveness. He pressed two fingers to Dean's head, returning him to consciousness. Dean laid in the bed, hands pressed to his forehead, and tears in his eyes. He now had the knowledge that Castiel hadn't prevented the loss of his family. He hadn't even tried, and to make matters worse, that son of a bitch was supposed to be his friend. He could hear Ellen talking and pacing downstairs. He should be happy Bobby had her, but he couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by his loss.
He laid there for long minutes replaying happy memories of him and Hermione. The day they met, their first kiss, the first time he held her in his arms, the day he'd asked her to be his wife, their wedding, finding out she was pregnant, finding out the gender of the baby, and nights when they'd curl up laughing and talking while he felt their daughter kick his hand.
And then, his memories took a darker turn. Coming home from a hunt to find a note, it had been stuck to the front door with a knife. A demon named Isadore had kidnapped her because he'd exorcized her back to hell. He remembered how he, Sam, Bobby, Ellen, and Jo had all scoured every source they could find, how they worked tirelessly to find her. Unfortunately, when they did, she was already dead. They'd burst into the abandoned warehouse to find her bloody from multiple stab wounds. He saw at least a half dozen in her stomach and at least 3 in her chest. He was dragged out, kicking and screaming, by Sam, at Bobby's and Ellen's insistence. He remembered standing by her funeral pyre, traditional hunter burial, for hours. The only people there were his brother, Bobby, Ellen, and Jo. Castiel had never showed. He guessed he knew why now. He squeezed his eyes shut, and rolled over, praying for either sleep, or death.
Meanwhile, Castiel was locked in a discussion with Atropos, the fate responsible for the accidents. She was currently threatening Sam's and Dean's lives if he and Balthazar didn't go back and re-sink the ship. She'd taunted him with the fact that Dean's soul was basically begging her to kill him. She was happy about it, cruelly dangling it in front of Castiel knowing what he would choose, even if he felt it was wrong for more than one reason.
Dean startled awake to see bright sunlight streaming through the windows. He went to roll over, but his back hit another body. Whipping around, Dean saw Hermione was sound asleep in the space next to him. Relief poured through him at the sight of her. After the dream he'd had, he maneuvered himself so he could kiss her thoroughly. It took her a moment or two before kissing him back. Once he broke the kiss, he looked down at her tenderly.
"Not that I mind, but what was that for?" She asked, smiling up at him.
"Bad dream." He told her.
"I'm sorry. Shall I make us some breakfast? I'm starving." Hermione replied.
"Sounds good sweetheart." Dean replied before giving her another tender kiss.
She kissed him back before getting up, throwing on a robe, and making her way down the stairs. Alone again, Dean thought about the dream he'd had. Luckily, everything was different here than it was there. "Thank God it was just a dream." Dean whispered to himself.
"It wasn't a dream." Castiel matter-of-factly informed him from a corner of the room
"Geez Cas, a little warning might be nice." Dean replied. "Are you saying this actually happened? The whole, whatever, that was real?" It was like somebody poured ice water through his veins knowing he'd just experienced all of that for real.
"Yes." Castiel confirmed.
"So what happened?" He asked the angel.
"Well, I insisted he go back in time and correct what he'd done." Castiel replied. "It was the only way to make sure you were safe."
"What do you mean?" Dean asked.
"Fate threatened to kill you and Sam if the Titanic wasn't re-sunk." Castiel explained.
"So you killed 50,000 people?" Dean asked, that was very un-Cas-like.
"No I didn't. They were never born." Castiel justified. "That's far different from being killed, wouldn't you say?"
Dean tried very hard to wrap his brain around what Castiel was telling him. 50,000 people no longer existed, Hermione was alive and still pregnant, and… "Ellen and Jo?" He asked the angel.
"I'm sorry." Castiel said, after a moment of deliberation as to how to respond appropriately to the question posed to him.
"So, if you guys went and changed everything back, then that whole timeline, or whatever, just got erased?" Dean questioned, still unable to wrap his head around the situation.
"Yeah, more or less." Castiel replied.
"Well then, how come I remember it?" Dean asked.
"Because I wanted you to remember it." Castiel said cryptically.
"Well, that's helpful." Dean commented sarcastically. "Did Balthazar really unravel the sweater over a chick flick?" He couldn't help but feel like there might have been more to the story, but he was trusting that Cas would tell him if it weren't the case.
"Yes, absolutely. That's what he did." Castiel replied.
"Wow, well it's time somebody took away his cable privileges." Dean snarked. Before he could finish the thought though, he was alone in the room once again.