I threw a wish in the well,
Don't ask me, I'll never tell
I looked to you as it fell,
And now you're in my way
I'd trade my soul for a wish,
Pennies and dimes for a kiss
I wasn't looking for this,
But now you're in my way
Your stare was holdin',
Ripped jeans, skin was showin'
Hot night, wind was blowin'
Where do you think you're going, baby?
WISHFUL THINKING
Local Bar
Unknown Location
Beth's POV
Sam had been going at Dean and failing that, me, for the last three weeks about what Uriel had said to him in the motel room regarding Dean remembering Hell. Currently it was my turn and he was following me back to the bar as I went to go and see about buying the bottle instead of doing drinks shot by shot like we had been.
"It just doesn't make any sense, Beth. I mean why would Uriel tell me Dean remembered Hell if he didn't? Why would he tell me to ask you?" He asked and I sighed, getting a little tired of having to lie, but it wasn't my place to talk about it.
"I don't know Sam, maybe he doesn't know what he's talking about, maybe he's just trying to cause trouble because he doesn't like you, hell, maybe he's a dick just like Dean says," I offered.
"Maybe, but he's still an angel," he said, looking at me. I paused and sighed up at him, letting him know as my eyes locked with his that I was tired of this line of questioning.
"Yeah, an angel who was ready to level an entire town, Sam. Look, Dean has nightmares, that's all I got, okay? Whether he actually remembers anything... well, I can't really say, that's up to Dean to talk about," I said.
I looked back toward the table where we'd been sitting and watched the topic of our conversation for a moment. He was downing one shot of whiskey after the other, and didn't look like he was slowing down any time soon. I paused, pushing my worry for him to the back of my mind. It had been three days since we'd crossed paths with Samson and Delilah, and while things were definitely on the mend, they were far from perfect.
"What can I get you?" The bartender asked as I reached the bar. I leaned over to look at the bottle he'd been serving us out of not ten minutes ago, it was still three quarters full.
"How much for the rest of the bottle?" I asked with a nod and he smirked, naming a price. I slid a fifty across the bar at him and then on a whim threw in another twenty and grabbed the bottle by its neck and unscrewing the shot pourer, handed it back..
"Thanks," I said, turning to face Dean again.
"Hey anytime sweetheart," the bartender said, pocketing the fifty and putting the twenty in the till. Sam rolled his eyes at me and started to open his mouth.
"Sam, come on give it a break would you? I have no idea why Uriel said what he did, okay?" I lied and Sam scowled, clearly not believing me but unable to prove his point. A waiter had walked up to the table where we'd been grabbing a bite to eat and Dean sighed heavily, his shoulders slumping from the attention. I quickened my pace, reaching the table as the kid started in on my troubled husband.
"You want to try a fryer bomb? Or a chipotle chili changa?" He asked Dean who tried not to jump down the guy's throat, downing another shot.
"No, no I think we're good," Dean said, smiling at me as I sat down and refilled his shot glasses, taking one in hand and knocking it back with a sigh.
"You sure? We make a mean fish taco supreme," the annoyingly bright and cheerful man offered – I found myself staring at the German style suspenders holding up his trousers. He had the entire surface of them covered in buttons with smiling faces and other happy sayings and pictures, many of them lit up and sparkled, it was a little creepy.. Sam sat down and raised his eyebrow at him.
"No, no, we're still good, but thanks," I said with a smile.
"Okay, awesome," he said with another big smile, hovering for just a few moments longer before walking away.
Sam was still looking at me expectantly and I rolled my eyes at Dean, knocking back another drink.
"Come on," Sam said, "look at the pair of you, you haven't stopped drinking in two days!"
"Oh this again?" Dean asked and I nodded, topping up the shot glasses again.
"Yep," I said, handing him a glass which he took more than willingly, sliding his fingers across mine and sending a shiver down my spine. At least one thing was back to normal and we were definitely making up for lost time. I licked my lips in anticipation of what was coming later tonight when I managed to get Dean back to our room.
"Seriously Sam, I don't have any idea why Uriel said what he did, okay?" Dean poured his shot down his throat and gasped with pleasure, putting the glass back on the table with a thump. Sam looked at the row of empty glasses and smirked sceptically.
"Right."
"What?" Dean asked innocently and I felt a little sorry for Sam. I'd encouraged Dean to tell Sam about what he remembered but he kept refusing saying he didn't want to talk about it. As it was, he hadn't really spoken about it with me, it was only because I'd seen a lot of what had gone on through my own dreams that I knew. Dean knew this, and it was a comfort to him because it meant I could understand what he was going through, what he'd experienced, without him actually having to put it into more than a few words to tell me what memory was flashing up when they did force their way into his mind.
"Okay. Fine." Sam said with a sigh. "Look me in the eye and tell me you don't remember a thing from your time down under." He stared at Dean who rolled his eyes and then met Sam's gaze straight on.
"I don't remember a thing from my time down under," he said and Sam rolled his eyes, clearly not believing him. "I don't remember, Sam!"
"Look, Dean, I just want to help," Sam said.
"You know everything I do. Okay? That's all there is," Dean forced out in as level a tone as he could given how frustrated he was by the ongoing conversation.
"Outstanding!" The cheerful waiter was back and I turned a fake smile to him as he grinned down at us. "Dessert time? Huh? Am I right?"
"Dude..." Dean grumbled, knocking back another shot and looking at me with a pained expression.
"Listen, bros. You have got to try our ice cream extreme... it's extreme," he said coaxingly.
"Uh, no extremities, please," Sam said. "Just the..."
"Check?" Happy man asked pulling the docket out of his pocket and putting it in the middle of the table. "All right, awesome," he said as he turned away.
"Thanks," Sam said and I shook my head with amusement.
"All right, so where do we go from here?" I asked, looking at Sam who had been on job detail.
"I'm not sure. Uh, looks like it's been pretty quiet lately," Sam said, frowning at the change of subject, but letting it go and reaching into his bag. "No signs of demon activity, no omens or portents I can see."
"That's good news for once," Dean muttered, reaching out and taking the bottle from in front of me and pouring himself one more shot, downing it, taking a sip of his beer and then shovelling a couple more fries into his mouth.
"Yeah," Sam said. "Just the typical smattering of crank UFO sightings and one possible vengeful spirit." He turned the laptop around and I scooted a little closer to Dean, pressing my leg up against his until we were thigh to thigh and then sliding my hand along his jeans, squeezing just above his knee.
"Here, check this out. Uh... up in Concrete, Washington, eye witness reports of a ghost that's been haunting the showers of a women's health facility."
Dean choked on his beer, almost spitting it across the table and I rolled my eyes at him before skimming the article.
"The victim claims that the ghost threw her down a flight of stairs," I said, glancing at Dean who was reaching for his wallet and pulling money out of it. "I can see you're very interested..."
"Women... showers," Dean said, throwing some money down on the table. "We got to save these people," he added with a grin, leaning over to kiss me quickly.
Sam rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Tell me again... you guys have been married how long?"
"Uhhh," Dean said, looking at me. "Hey we got an anniversary coming up sometime soon," he said with a grin and I laughed.
"Yeah baby, we do," I said, leaning in to kiss him.
"Hmmm, fancy that," he smiled and I shook my head with a smile.
"Yeah, fancy that," I said, leaning in to kiss him again.
Sam threw his hands up in the air. "Good grief, you guys are something else, you know that? Dean practically throws himself at the naked women case and you think you're gonna make it to one year?" He asked. I laughed and squeezed Dean's thigh.
"Hey, he knows who he's coming home to," I said getting up from the table. I grabbed the whiskey bottle and waved it in the air. "Don't you Dean?" I asked, throwing him a suggestive look and putting an extra sway into my hips as I walked, starting to lead the way to the car.
"Yes ma'am," he said with a chuckle, getting up to follow and leaving Sam to stare after us, shaking his head with a smile.
Concrete, Washington
Beth's POV
I'd arranged to meet with Candace, one of the victims of the spirit attacks in town. She'd suggested a quaint little Chinese restaurant called Lucky Chin's and as Dean pulled the Impala up in front of it he looked across at me, a flash of worry passing behind those hazel eyes before he smiled to cover it up.
"No fortune cookies, huh?" He said and I laughed softly with a nod.
"Definitely no fortune cookies... or tricksters... for that matter," I said, leaning across to kiss his cheek. "I'd much rather make love to you in my own body," I said softly in his ear and received a soft moan in reply.
"Later," Dean promised and I winked, pulling back and opening the door.
"I'll see you at the fitness centre when I'm done," I said and Dean nodded, pulling out from the curb and driving off as I closed the door. I stretched a little, adjusting my jeans and smoothing out the red tank top I had covered with a black leather jacket that hit me mid-thigh and also hid the gun at the small of my back. I pulled out a small notebook and pen and looked toward the building.
Candace, it turned out, was a very attractive young woman in her mid-thirties with long luscious brown hair and matching eyes. She was flushed and smiling, almost excited about her encounter at the fitness centre. The only odd thing out was her right arm which was in a sling, injured from the fall where the spirit had pushed her down the stairs. I fought not to roll my eyes at some of her comments, because there was nothing exciting about being tossed about by a spirit, and I was talking from experience.
"I'm not surprised the spirit world chose to make contact with me. I'm something of a … natural sensitive," Candace was saying and I forced my attention back to her, pushing the memories of that day where I had been tossed out a second-storey window by a poltergeist.
"I can sense that about you, Candace," I said with a nod. "That whole... sensitive thing."
"So, what did you say you're calling your book?" She asked suddenly and I hesitated, almost thrown by the question.
"Oh, well, um... well the working title is... Supernatural," I said with a nod. "Yeah. I've been crossing the country, gathering stories like yours. But anyway, you were telling me about your encounter," I said, bringing it back to her favourite subject: her.
"Yes, well..." Candace said. "Once I saw the apparition, that's when I started to run..." I turned my head, hearing a giggle from a woman sitting in a chair not far from us. She reached across and took her partner's face in her hands and kissed him hard, he moaned and I couldn't help but stare, they were practically mauling each other in public. A memory of Dean and I in a similar embrace in a restaurant suddenly popped into mind and I smiled. I forced myself back to Candance.
"And you said the ghost chased you?" I asked.
"Not just that. It knew my name. It kept yelling, 'Mrs Armstrong! Mrs Armstrong!' And that's when I hit the stairs and fell," Candace said, sitting back in her chair.
"You fell? The ghost didn't push you?" I asked, a little thrown by the fact that a ghost would be calling out to this woman as it chased her.
"Oh, I don't – I don't know. I mean, I think it did. Maybe," Candace said hesitantly.
"Did you feel like it meant to hurt you, like it was violent, or..."
"It was a ghost. I'm lucky to be alive," Candace cut in dramatically and I tried not to smirk. "Anyway, I was at the bottom of the stairs, and that's when it got weird," she chuckled. "It helped me up."
I looked up from the note I was making in my book to make it look like I was even halfway interested in her story. "Say again?"
"Yeah. It helped me up. And it kept saying over and over, 'Please don't tell my mom,'" she said.
I paused, looking at her. She wasn't lying. "Yeah," I said with a frown. "That's weird."
Fitness Centre
Beth's POV
Dean was sitting on the steps of the fitness centre reading a local paper when I arrived, skipping along the footpath.
"Well, you pick up anything?" I asked as I came within a few feet of where he was sitting..
Folding the paper up, he looked at me with an arched eyebrow that clearly told me he felt like he'd been wasting his time.
"No EMF in the shower or anywhere else. This house is clean," he said, standing up face to face with me.
"Yeah, I'm not surprised. I kind of got the feeling back there that crazy pushed Mrs Armstrong down the stairs," I said, thinking back to her nutty story.
"I got to tell you," Dean said, sliding his hands around my waist and pulling me in to face him. "I'm pretty disappointed,"
I grinned up at him. "Awwww... you wanted to save naked women," I teased and he grinned.
"Damn right I wanted to save some naked women," he said, leaning in to kiss my neck and I chuckled in response. His lips trailed along my soft skin and I moaned quietly, thinking about them in other places on my body.
"Well there's one naked woman I know of who could always use saving," I said and he moaned into my neck as he licked his way up to my earlobe, nibbling at it softly.
"Yeah, I hear her husband's a real lame ass, pretty boy but not much in the bedroom," he said and I giggled, slipping my hands around his waist.
"Definitely, I think this woman needs a real man to save her, she needs... Batman," I said with a raised eyebrow, thinking about how not so long ago Dean had referred to himself as that during a supernaturally cursed lucky streak.
"I can be Batman," he said with a grin, leaning in to kiss my lips.
Pounding footsteps sounded as a young boy went racing by on the dock. Three clearly older and more malevolent looking boys were chasing him.
"Come on, guys, get him!" One of the boys called out.
"I got him! I got him!" Another yelled as they raced after the much smaller, but clearly faster kid in front. Dean stopped what he was doing to watch the kids.
"Run, Forrest, run!" He yelled and I hit him, frowning.
"Dean!"
"What?
"That could be your kid someday!" I said and he shook his head.
"Oh I don't think so sugarpie, our kid is gonna know how to fight," he said confidently.
"Yeah, okay, John," Sam's voice said and I looked up to see our little brother had joined us sometime during the conversation about the kids. Dean frowned at the reference to John and then looked at Sam.
"Sorry guys, but I don't think anything's going on around here," Sam said.
I looked over to see a man arguing with a police officer, their voices carrying to us on the cool afternoon air.
"How the Hell was I supposed to get a look at it? It grabbed me from behind and threw me into a tree!" A tall man said, clearly agitated. He was dressed in a flannel shirt with a brown vest over the top and a baseball cap covering shortly cropped hair.
"Something's going on," Dean said, following my gaze.
"Yeah, okay, Gus. I understand you got shook up. Anyone would be. But don't you think it – don't you think it had to be a bear?" The officer was asking, looking sceptically at the man in front of him.
"I know a damn bear track when I see one!" Gus snapped "This thing didn't leave bear tracks! Its feet were huge!" Dean's eyes perked up at that and I groaned internally. He was still on the elusive hunt for Bigfoot, even eight years after our failed attempt at finding one.
"Now, Gus..."
"It was Bigfoot, Hal – The Bigfoot!" Gus insisted and Dean's steps picked up just a little.
"Gus, you're not talking sense here," the officer said.
"There's a Bigfoot out there, damn it, and he's a son of a bitch!" Gus was shouting now, his voice raised and pitched slightly higher from his excitement.
"Excuse us," Dean said, stepping forward and flashing his badge. "FBI."
"What?" The officer asked, confused. Gus turned around, his demeanour instantly changing as he settled down, moving to stand back next to the officer with his arms crossed.
"Yes, sir. We're here about the uh... the..."
"About Bigfoot?" The officer asked incredulously, looking at Dean like he was as mad as Gus.
"That's right," Dean said with a nod, turning to Gus. "Sir, can you tell me exactly where this happened?"
"Yes, I can," Gus said quietly, looking us over.
Woods
Beth's POV
"What the Hell's going on in this town?" Dean asked as we walked along the dirt path in the direction Gus had sent us. "First there's a ghost that's not real, and now a Bigfoot sighting?"
"Well every hunter worth his salt knows Bigfoot's a hoax," Sam snickered, looking at Dean who managed to look offended.
"Hey! Jury's still out on that!" He snapped and I grinned, shaking my head.
"Well maybe somebody's pumping LSD into the town water supply," I suggested with a smile, shaking my head. It was about the best suggestion I had.
We took a couple more steps and then I slowed, seeing it. The boys spotted the same indentation in the dirt that I did and hesitating only briefly with a look at each other, they walked closer to reveal a huge track sunken into the ground.
"Okay...what do you suppose made that then? Oh disbeliever?" Dean asked.
"That, uh... well that is a big foot," I said, nodding and conceding the point. It looked a little like a bear foot, but at least twenty times bigger than it should. It was beyond large, it was huge.
"Okay," Sam said, shrugging. He had as good a comeback as any.
Dean pointed in the direction that the prints led and we exchanged intrigued looks, deciding without speaking to follow. The tracks led through the woods which skirted around a large park in town and then up a hill to a car park. Across a little creek was a red brick building and the muddy prints led across a little bridge toward the back door.
As we approached the building we saw that the exterior door was torn completely off its hinges and leaning against the wall. A sign advertising Liquor Store over the door hung lopsided and I eased my sidearm out from under my jacket flipping off the safety.
"Okay..." Dean said, raising an eyebrow and I shrugged. "Ladies first... especially when they're packing," he said with a grin and I chuckled, taking the couple of steps up to the door and holding the gun out front, finger resting lightly beside the trigger. I listened for any noise inside but there was nothing, likely we were too late.
When I stepped into the store it was in shambles. Worn red floorboards were littered with empty bottles of liquor, bags of chips and popcorn lay broken open, their contents spilling across the aisles. I dropped my gun to my side, but kept it out just in case as we all stepped into the store to look around.
"So, what – Bigfoot breaks into a liquor store jonesing for some hooch?" Dean asked. He bent down to look at some of the empty bottles on the floor and grinned, looking up at me. "Amaretto and Irish cream. He's a girl drink drunk," he declared with a snicker. I chuckled, shaking my head.
"Seem to remember you liking that combination one night," I commented and Sam laughed, moving ahead of us.
"Yeah, yeah I remember that..." Sam tossed back with a raised eyebrow. "Didn't you uh... didn't you let Beth convince you to take her to see Shakespeare in Love after your girly drink session?"
Dean opened his mouth to retort and then shut it, scratching at his head. I snorted. "Well he owed me one after making me go see There's Something About Mary," I said. Mind you, I'd actually enjoyed that movie in the end.
"Yeah, somehow I don't think he was going because he owed you one," Sam commented with a laugh. "Say... when did you guys say you hooked up?" He asked, looking at us with a sly grin.
My eyes widened and I laughed. "Well it wasn't over Shakespeare in Love !" I said and Dean nodded emphatically.
"Yeah, that was one ridiculous damn movie..."
"Awwww I thought it was sweet, all about forbidden passion and love," I said walking around another aisle and checking it out.
"My point exactly," Dean said. "Had enough of that as it was..." he muttered, coming up behind me and I grimaced. He was right about that. I had been able to indulge my guilty pleasure of spending movie time with Dean by putting my head on his shoulder during the movie and he'd eventually put his arm around my shoulder, holding me to him. Feeding him popcorn had been the highlight of the whole night.
Dean reached out in front of us and picked up a small bottle of whiskey, grinning and sliding it into his jacket pocket, I shook my head at him and he gave me a 'What?' innocent look that drove me a little crazy.
"Hey, check this out," Sam called out from the end of an aisle and we walked casually down to join him, avoiding the debris on the floor.
Sam was staring at a magazine rack which had been raided. There were a couple of magazines left, but the majority were gone.
"He took the whole porno rack?" Dean asked, shaking his head. Sam reached out and pulled a tuft of fur from behind a magazine, it was thick and black, and looked like it had come off a bear. "Well, I'll say it again. What the Hell is going on in this town?" Dean asked.
We left the liquor store via the front entrance, leading us away from the broken door and tracks that had come up the rear. Taking a seat on the bench by the pavement I searched my mind for any thoughts on what we might be dealing with.
"I got nothing," Dean said out of the blue and I nodded, neither did I.
"It's got to be a joke, right?" Sam asked. "Some big-ass mother in a gorilla suit?"
"Or it's a Bigfoot," Dean insisted, not willing to give up on the idea just yet.
"A Bigfoot who is an alcoholic porno addict?" I asked with a smirk.
"Yeah, kind of like a deep woods Duchovny," Dean joked and I laughed. My eyes suddenly caught sight of a little girl on a push bike riding up the hill and when she passed us a magazine flew out of the box that was attached to the back of her bike.
Dean rose to his feet, moving toward the magazine and picking it up, turning to show us. "Little young for Busty Asian Beauties," he commented, holding the porn magazine up for us to see. The girl had disappeared around the back of the liquor store and I decided to follow her, the boys trailing after me.
Peeking around the corner just in time to see her ride off down the path we had come, Dean nodded and we hurried after her, pausing just long enough to see that she'd returned a box full of liquor and pornos, a 'sorry' note attached at the top.
"Let's go," Dean said and started to jog after her, Sam and I following close behind.
Little Girl's House
Beth's POV
I led the way up to the house which was a simple weatherboard, clean and middle class, comfortable.
"What's this, like a Harry and the Hendersons deal?" Dean asked as we reached the porch. I shrugged and knocked on the door, the same little girl from earlier answered.
"Hello?" She asked and I smiled down at her.
"Hello! What's your name?" I asked, crouching down in front of her and she looked at me curiously.
"Audrey," she supplied. "What's yours?"
"Oh, well my name is Beth, and this is Dean and Sam, they're my brothers. We were … well we..." I said and then realised I really had no idea what I was asking about. "Are your parents home?" I asked when nothing else came to me.
"Nope."
"No..." I said, glancing at the boys.
Dean frowned and shrugged at me before turning to the little girl. "No. Um.. have you seen a really, really furry..."
"Is he in trouble?!" Audrey cut in urgently and Dean looked a little taken aback by the question.
"No," Sam said, chuckling. "No, no, no. Not at all. We just ..."
"We just wanted to make sure he was okay," I said, smiling at the little girl who was frantically looking back and forth from me to the boys.
"Exactly," Dean said from behind me and I could practically see the smile plastered to his face trying to reassure the girl.
"He's my teddy bear. I think he's sick," Audrey said with a worried look.
"Wow. Uh... amazing," Dean said and I looked back at him. "Cause you know what? We..." he reached into his pocket and pulled out an official looking badge. "...are, uh... teddy bear doctors."
"Really?" Audrey asked with a smile. "Can you please take a look at him?"
"Sure," I said with a smile, standing up straight and shrugging at the boys.
"Sure. Yeah." Dean said with an equally as confused look.
Audrey led us inside and up a flight of stairs to a bedroom door where she hesitated, looking up at us. "He's in my bedroom. He's pretty grumpy," she said, turning to knock on the door. "Teddy? There's some nice doctors here to see you." Twisting the handle, the door swung open and I could barely believe my eyes.
Sitting on the little bed in the centre of the room was a huge black teddy bear that was moving. Not only that, it was drinking from a bottle of bourbon, his eyes looking at the TV.
"Close the friggin' door!" He yelled upon the intrusion and Audrey sighed, obeying the command.
"See what I mean?" She asked, looking up at us like it was the more normal thing in the world to have a real live teddy bear drinking booze and watching TV in your room. I looked stunned at Dean whose mouth had fallen open. Sam, for once in his life, was also speechless.
Audrey didn't seem to notice our stunned silence, talking to us as if we were what we had claimed: teddy bear doctors.
"All I ever wanted was a teddy which was big, real and talked. But not he's sad all the time – not ouch sad, but ouch-in-the-head sad – says weird stuff, and smells like the bus," she continued as if giving us her best list of symptoms so we could treat him.
"Um, little girl..." Dean said.
"Audrey," she corrected him.
"Audrey, right. How exactly did your teddy bear become real?" He asked with as level a voice as I've ever heard.
"I wished for it."
"You wished for it?" Sam asked with a slight frown.
"At the wishing well," Audrey said with a nod.
I watched as Dean hesitantly reached for the door again, opening it and looking in at the teddy bear. Teddy was sitting watching on a chair, staring at the television which was playing a 24-hour news station.
"Look at this," Teddy said, rocking in place and pointing at the screen which was showing some sort of attack in the Middle East. "You believe this crap?"
"Not really," Dean said, giving Teddy an appraising look. The Bear turned his big glass eyes to look at us all.
"It is a terrible world," Teddy said, looking at us. "Why am I here?!" He asked loudly and Dean jerked back a little, appearing a bit disconcerted.
"For tea parties!" Audrey called out in answer.
"Tea parties?" Teddy said with a slightly hysterical laugh. "Is that all there is?" He asked, starting to sob and turning back to the TV. Dean's eyes widened in his classic oh my freaking god this is insane look as he backed slowly out of the room and closed the door.
"Audrey, give us a second, okay?" I asked and she nodded, looking sadly at the floor and sighing.
I indicated with a slight incline of my head for the boys to follow me and we stepped to the end of the hallway. "Okay. Are we... should we...uh," I scratched my head, frowning. "Are we gonna kill this teddy bear?" I whispered, not believing the words were coming out of my mouth.
"How?" Dean asked. "Do we shoot it, burn it?"
"I don't know," Sam said with a shrug. "Both?"
"How do we even know that's gonna work? I don't want some giant, flaming, pissed-off teddy on our hands," Dean said and I swallowed hard, reaching into his jacket and pulling out the bottle of whiskey he had pocketed earlier. I opened it and chugged the equivalent of a couple of shots in one go before handing it to Dean who did the same.
"Yeah," I said. "Besides, I get the feeling that the bear isn't really the... you know... core problem here." I turned back to look at the sullen little girl by her bedroom door. "Audrey, where are your parents?" I asked.
Audrey shrugged and looked at me. "My mom wished they were in Bali, so I think they're in Bali," she answered. Bali. Great.
"Okay, well...I'm really sorry to have to break this to you, but...your bear is sick," I said and Sam nodded.
"Yeah, he's – he's got..."
"Lollipop disease," Dean cut in.
"Lollipop disease," Sam confirmed with a nod.
"It's not uncommon for a bear his size," Dean said, the lie spilling easily from his golden lips. "But, see, it's really contagious," he added.
"Yeah, so, is there someone, maybe a grown up, that you can stay with while we treat him?" Sam asked.
"Mrs Hurley lives down the street," Audrey said.
"Perfect," Dean said with a smile and I felt the need to take another belt of alcohol.
"Good, yeah, good," Sam said. "Uh, we'd like you to stay there for a few days, okay?"
"Okay," Audrey agreed with a nod.
"Oh, and, Audrey? Where is this wishing well?" I asked.
Lucky Chin's Chinese Restaurant
Beth's POV
When we arrived at the restaurant I'd been in earlier with Candace, we headed straight for the wishing well, staring down into the water.
"Think it works?" Dean asked.
"Got a better explanation for teddy back there?" I asked and he shrugged.
"Well, there's one way to find out," he said and started patting around in his pockets. "Uh, babe, you got a coin?" He asked and I rolled my eyes, reaching into my jeans and pulling out a quarter. I held it for a moment, thinking about the last time I'd done this, it had been in Sioux Falls right before my 21st birthday. Dean, Cole, Sam and I had gone into town to buy a new table after Cole and John had broken the one in the kitchen while they were wrestling. Well that had been the official story.
Dean and I had been fighting because we'd made out all night and then I'd pushed him away with the same old crap about John's rules the next morning. I'd found out just before we'd left that John and Cole were secretly seeing each other, and when Dean had stormed off on me at one point when out shopping for something to wear for my 21st birthday celebrations, I'd been sick to my stomach over it.
Cole had spotted the well on the way back to the car, and pulled me over to it. Laughing she'd tossed in a coin, winking at me and saying "May we always be in the arms of the men who love us just as much as we love them." I'd raised my eyebrow at her, knowing full well who she meant, but she wasn't talking at that point, it was still a secret she was with John, even though I'd accidentally stumbled across them.
I smiled in the ten seconds all this stirred up in me, thinking about those better times, before the return of the yellow-eyed demon, before John died, before Sam died and we sold our souls to bring him back, and before Dean was sent to Hell. With a sigh I handed the coin over to Dean wishing that we could go back to those brighter days with John.
Dean grinned, missing the sigh, and closed his eyes for a moment.
"What are you gonna wish for?" Sam asked.
"Shhh!" Dean said before tossing the coin in the well. "Not supposed to tell."
We paused and waited and suddenly the door to the restaurant opened and I nearly fell over dead when I saw who walked in. "Somebody order a footlong Italian with jalapeno?" Asked the familiar voice that I'd know anywhere. Dark brown eyes peered at us with a twinkle in them as he held up a sandwich in his hand, waving it about. I didn't care about the sandwich, I was completely unable to speak as were the boys, seeing the man standing in front of us. It was John.
Dean and Sam exchanged a look and raising his hand, Dean looked back at the wishing well. "That'd be me," he said and then moved instinctively as his father tossed him the sandwich.
"Should've known," he quipped with a smirk and Dean shook his head, closing his eyes and then looked at me.
"What the hell did you do?" He asked urgently and I swallowed, recalling what I'd been thinking about when I handed Dean the coin.
"Oh shit," I said softly, meeting Dean's hazel eyes. "Ohhhh shit."
We were sitting at a table, the four of us, like we'd just jumped back in time seven years.
"Hang on, hang on," John was saying, shaking his head and holding his hand out. "What are you guys talking about? We just finished up that werewolf job in Minnesota," he said and I shook my head, reaching for the bottle of liquor Dean had put on the table. I took another swig straight out of the bottle and put it down with a thumb.
"Maybe you should slow down on that Bethie," John said and I groaned.
"Oh I don't think she's had nearly enough," Dean said, looking at me a little worriedly. I had gone white as a ghost as soon as John walked in and my legs gave way shortly after, the boys catching me and getting me to the table.
"We got a real problem here,' Dean added and Sam nodded emphatically.
"Yeah, Dad, you shouldn't be here... you..." I kicked Sam under the table and threw him a glare to silence what he was about to say and John frowned at us.
"What's going on? What aren't you telling me?" He asked and Dean and I shrugged.
"Nothing, nothing," Dean said, taking a sip of the whiskey himself. "Just that, there seems to be this wish thing going on … people's wishes are coming true," he said.
"I think it works," Dean said, biting into his sandwich. "I was pretty specific. Except for the delivery boy..." He looked at me and I hung my head. John got up to grab a paper from a table across the room and the boys looked anxiously at me.
"What the hell happened?" Dean asked.
"Me? Why are you looking at me?" I asked quickly.
"Because you handed me the coin! Did you wish for Dad to be alive?" He asked and I shook my head.
"No! No I would never!" I said, shaking my head. "Well, okay maybe I would, but I didn't. I was just... I was thinking about the last time we made wishes in a well, you remember Sam?"
Sam thought about it and then nodded. "Yeah, on your 21st birthday, you were upset with Dean..." Dean looked at me and I avoided his gaze.
"Well, I was just thinking how nice it would be to have things back to those good days... you know? And I guess... well I guess it picked up on Dad being gone."
"Mmm," John said with a nod, coming back and holding up the local paper where there was an article about a local man winning the lottery. "I'm guessing this is one of those wishes you're talking about."
I pointed at the couple I'd seen earlier who were back at the restaurant, still madly in love and all over each other. "I'm guessing them too," I said, noting that the girl was completely out of his league.
Dean looked over where I was pointing to see the girl feeding a dumpling to the geeky looking guy sitting opposite her.
"Well that definitely goes on the list," he said, shaking his head. "What are we supposed to do, huh? Stop people's wishes from coming true? I mean, it sounds like kind of a douche-y thing to do," he said, and then he looked at John who was perusing the menu. "And it has it's up sides..."
"Yeah, maybe," Sam said sceptically, frowning slightly. "But come on, man. When has something like this ever come without a price tag? And usually a deadly one." He had a point.
"I don't know Sam, it's a damn good sandwich," Dean said with a grin. Sam looked at John and Dean rolled his eyes. I smiled, seeing a faint smile on John's lips which hadn't been there for a while until Cole and him hooked up, it made me smile. But it couldn't last, could it?
"Hey Bethie, what you smiling at?" John asked, looking up at me.
"Oh, nothing. It's just good to see you," I said, glancing over at Dean.
"I just went down the street to get gas," he said with a raised eyebrow.
"Feels like it's been forever," I said, shrugging and blinking back a couple of tears. I was not going to break down and cry like a blubbering baby. Dean reached under the table and squeezed my thigh and I grabbed his hand, holding it tightly.
"Well I still think we need to be careful, these wishes are going to backfire, or something, they always do," Sam said.
"All right. Fine. We'll put a hold on the wishing till we figure out what's going on," John said.
An older chinese gentleman walked up to the table, glancing at Dean's sandwich which was half eaten. "Uh, gentlemen, gentleman... and lady. I'm sorry. We don't allow people to eat outside food here."
Dean paused and then glanced at me, raising an eyebrow. "Well, I am certainly not gonna eat the inside food here," he said, and started patting around his pockets. I watched as he pulled one ID out and then glancing at it, flipped it closed again, tucking it back in his pocket before pulling another one out of his jeans. He smiled when he looked at this one and flipped it open.
"Health department. You, my friend, have a rat infestation. We're gonna have to shut this place down under emergency hazard code 56C," he said.
"Rats?!" The man exclaimed.
Several hours later the restaurant was abandoned and we had drained all the water from the fountain. I was sweeping up coins from the fountain, and I looked up, shaking my head at John who was standing next to me with the owner.
"Typical fountain, plaster Buddha. Nothing I can see," I said.
"Yes, nothing. We keep a clean place here," the owner insisted.
"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to leave during the preliminary investigation, okay?" John said, placing his hand on the man's shoulder. He hesitated for just a moment like he was going to argue, and then wandered away going to the back of the restaurant.
"Oh come on," Dean was saying to Sam from the other side of the fountain. He pulled a coin out of his pocket and flipped it to his brother. "Aren't you a little bit tempted?"
Sam smiled and shook his head, chuckling. "No," he said, handing the coin back to Dean. "Wouldn't be real. I wouldn't trust it."
"I don't know," I said, looking at John who was flipping through his journal over by one of the tables. "He looks pretty damn real to me, and that bear..."
"Yeah," Sam said.
"Come on, if you could wish yourself back, you know, before it all started... Think about it. You'd be some big yuppie lawyer with a nice car and a white picket fence," Dean said, looking at our little brother. He was essentially saying what I'd wished for.
"Not what I'd wish for," Sam said, shaking his head.
"Seriously?" Dean asked, looking surprised.
"It's too late to go back to our old lives, Dean. I'm not that guy anymore," Sam said and I smiled sadly at him, no he wasn't, but that didn't mean he couldn't be. It didn't mean that he wouldn't be happy living the dream with Jess. And where would Dean and I be if we didn't have to watch out for Sam?
"All right, well, what then? Hmm? What would Sammy wish for?" Dean asked.
"Lilith's head on a plate," Sam said without hesitation. "Bloody." His eyes darkened and I saw the anger sitting just below the surface, the same anger that had been so cruel to me when Dean had died, and it sent a shiver down my spine. Oh he might be playing nice, and had realised a few things about what he'd done during our last case, but it was still there, just waiting to be unleashed.
Dean saw it too and shifted a little uncomfortably, instead glancing down at the fountain. "Okay, what is that?" He asked, pointing at a larger coin among all the pennies and dimes.
I leaned forward to get a better look. "Some kind of old coin, I don't recognise the markings."
Dean reached down and tried to pick the coin up, but it wouldn't budge. "Damn."
"Lift with your legs," Sam said and Dean threw him a frustrated look.
"Is that little mother welded on there?" Dean grunted, looking at us.
"Huh." John said, coming over to look at what we were doing. "Well I can fix that." He disappeared from the restaurant while we were contemplating that statement and minutes later reappeared carrying a crowbar and hammer, the latter of which he handed to Sam.
"Hey, hey, hey, what is this?! You are gonna break my fountain!" The owner exclaimed, when he saw John brace the crowbar against the coin.
"Sir, I don't want to slap you with a 44/16, but I will," Sam said raising his eyebrows at me and I almost laughed. The man hesitated as if considering what Sam had just threatened him with. He sighed and turned to leave. "All right, thanks," Sam said, patting him on the shoulder.
John was continuing to struggle with the crowbar and then Dean, looking at the hammer in Sam's hands, stepped forward.
"Let me see that. I got an idea," he said, taking the hammer off Sam and then moving beside his father to position the crowbar against the side of the coin and then stepped back with a smile, bracing the hammer in both his hands.
"Oh this is a bad idea..." I groaned.
Dean chuckled, tossing me another smile and then lifted the hammer over his head, swinging down hard with precise aim, hitting the crowbar.
"Ho!" The owner yelled as the end of the hammer went spinning through the air, breaking clean off the handle landing near his feet.
"Damn!" Dean exclaimed.
"Coin's magical," John said.
"Boy, I'd say. I think it's hoodoo that's protecting the well. I don't think we can destroy this," Dean said.
Sam pulled a notepad out of his jacket and using a pencil he took a tracing of the coin, ripping the page out and handing it to me.
"All right, here. You got to look into this," he said.
"Well where are you going?" I asked, looking at him in surprise.
"Something just occurred to me," Sam said and I saw John watching him curiously.
"I'm coming with you," John said and Sam shook his head.
"No, you … you should just stay with Dean and Beth, look into the coin," Sam said but John smirked, shaking his head.
"I think your brother and sister are more than capable of a little coin research, I'm coming," he argued and without waiting for an answer he walked toward the door leaving Sam to sigh and follow.
Fitness Centre
Sam's POV
Now that we knew we were dealing with an enchanted item, it suddenly made sense to me how it was that a you'd get a weepy, freaked out ghost at the fitness centre. Short version: he wasn't a ghost.
I found myself in the women's changeroom at the fitness centre, Dad tailing along with me. As we started to enter the room Dad hesitated and I raised my eyebrow at him.
"You know Sammy, you're a lot more confident than you used to be," Dad said. "You know, with the hunt... and you just completely bossed your brother and sister about back there." I snickered, he didn't know the half of it. I found myself wondering just how he was going to react when he found out they were married... or hell, when he found out Cole was currently raising his youngest son.
I pushed the thought out of my head as quickly as it had come. He couldn't stay, that much was clear, this was going to go bad and no telling how, it was just a matter of time. So far he hadn't thought to call Cole, and I was hoping it was going to stay that way, at the very least he'd have trouble if he did get the urge, he had no phone, and she'd changed her numbers several times since he'd died.
Entering the changerooms I saw a blonde woman standing at the mirror brushing her hair, dressed in nothing but a towel. Dad frowned and shook his head at me with a shrug and I nodded to the floor. There along the dry floor were wet footprints making their way closer to the woman.
Reaching out when the footprints stopped, I felt my hand hit something solid, and instantly a pale skinned kid with red hair and freckles appeared in front of me. The woman looked up to see the three of us standing and turned, looking startled.
"Don't worry ma'am," I said, flashing her my badge. "I'm with the health department." She frowned, grabbing her bag of toiletries and ran past us, and I had to hand it to her, no scream, she took that kind of well.
"What?" The kid asked, looking ashamed and holding his hands in front of his now fully exposed groin.
"So, you can turn it on and off, huh?" I said, turning back to him.
"How...how did you know that I was..."
"You actually walked up to a wishing well, dropped a dime, and wished to be invisible so you could spy on women in the shower?" Dad asked, chiming in with his stern look that in earlier years would have set me off.
"N-No. No. N-No, no, no. That's crazy," the kid denied and I shook my head.
"Put on some pants, and stay visible," I said sternly, poking him in the chest with a finger.
"O- okay," he said with a nod, almost waddling toward the back of the changeroom.
Dad was staring at him with a darkness in his eyes, scowling and I frowned, what was up with him?
Downtown
Beth's POV
Sam had taken the Impala, so Dean and I were walking back to the motel. He was chuckling, his hand around my shoulder, fingers tracing through my hair as he leaned in to kiss the soft skin between my neck and shoulder. I groaned, slipping my arm around him and leaning into his touch.
"You're a bad boy," I said and he sucked a little harder, murmuring his agreement.
There were shouts next to us and I startled as the three bullies from earlier in the day went sprinting past us, the little kid they'd been chasing now having turned the tables, chasing them now. I realised that I'd seen the kid leaving the restaurant as we'd arrived, and stared as he chased down his bullies. He saw me watching and paused, turning from me to Dean, who had stopped kissing me and was also looking at the boy.
"You got a problem, mister?" He asked.
"What?" Dean asked, surprised. "No." He looked nervously at me and the boy smirked, running off again.
I heard a loud gurgling coming from Dean's stomach and he reached down, clutching a hand to it.
"Dean?" I asked, concerned, and he groaned, almost doubling over.
"Oh man..." he whined.
We were near the motel, so taking his arm in mine, I helped him to the room while he continued to clutch at his stomach moaning softly. "Oh Beth... not good..."
"You'll be okay," I reassured him, but as I got the door open he ran past me, straight for the bathroom and I heard him throwing up as I entered the room and closed the door.
Half an hour later Dean was still wrapped around the toilet. I brought him in a bottle of water and wet a cloth, holding it up to his forehead.
"Ahhhh, that's nice," he said softly as I rubbed his shoulders with my free hand. The vomiting had seemed to stop about ten minutes ago, but he was still dry heaving and looking miserable in general.
There was a sound at the door and I looked up through the open bathroom door as Sam and John walked in.
"Dean?" Sam asked, seeing us at the toilet. "You all right?"
"The wishes turn bad, Sam," Dean answered with a strained voice. "The wishes turn very bad."
"The sandwich huh?" Sam asked as I stood up and nodded.
"Yeah," I said, casting an appraising eye at John who was sitting at the table by the window, fidgeting as he pulled apart a handgun and then reassembled it.
"The coin was Babylonian," I said, looking at Sam. "It's cursed. I found some fragments of a legend. The uh, the serpent is Tiamat, which is the Babylonian god of primordial chaos. I guess their priests were working some serious black magic."
"They made the coin?" Sam asked, and I nodded as Dean got up off the bathroom floor.
"Yeah, to sow the seeds of chaos. Whoever tosses a coin in the wishing well, makes a wish, it turns on the well. Then it starts granting wishes to all comers," I said, smiling sympathetically at Dean as he staggered past me to the bed, throwing himself back on it with a groan.
"But the wishes get twisted," Sam said, his eyes turning to look at John. "You ask for a talking teddy..."
"You get a bipolar nut job," I finished.
"And you get E. coli," he said to Dean who groaned a reply. "Well what about...?" His voice trailed off and he inclined his head toward John, then leaned forward.
"Anything?" I asked.
"Yeah, the last fifteen minutes he's been worked up and anxious, looking over his shoulder like there's something coming after him," he said softly and I bit my lip, nodding.
"Well this thing has turned more than one town upside down over the centuries. IT's even wiped a few off the map," I said, glancing at Dean and then John with worry. "I mean, one person gets their wish, it's trouble, but everybody gets their wish..."
"It's chaos," Sam said.
"Yeah."
"Any way to stop it?" Dean asked, looking up from where he had his arm draped across his eyes and was lying flat on his back on the bed.
"Yeah. One way. We have to find the first wisher. Whoever dropped the coin in and made the first wish, they're the only ones who can pull it back out and reverse the wishes," I said.
"So for now, we've got a couple of nutso dreams come true, but once the word gets out about the well, things are just gonna get crazier and crazier," Dean said, sitting up.
"Yeah," I said with a nod.
Dean had fallen asleep on the bed after another round of throwing up and the rest of us were quietly conversing about what to do with the fountain and coin. John was pacing the room, getting antsy and several times I'd had to bite my tongue from telling him to sit down and shut up.
Suddenly I noticed the telltale sounds of Dean whimpering in this sleep, and he started to thrash around on the bed.
"Beth..." he called out and I got up, hurrying over to his side, climbing on the bed with him.
I took his shoulders in my hands and gently shaking him said, "Dean. Baby wake up."
Dean jerked awake and went to grab at me, stopping when he realised it was me. "What? I'm up, what?" he said and I sighed, brushing my hand across his sweaty forehead.
"Sleep well?" Sam asked sarcastically and I threw him a glare as Dean caught his breath.
"You okay?" I asked quietly
"Yeah," Dean muttered, rolling away from me and to the side of the bed, taking a sip of whiskey out of the bottle he had left there. I grimaced and moved next to him, meeting his eyes which looked troubled, but he was holding it together. "Tanned, rested and ready," he said with a little smile, trying to fob it off. He reached out and pulled me into him, kissing me softly and I moaned, returning the kiss. "Now that's a good way to wake up." Dean said as he pulled away with a genuine smile.
There was the sound of spluttering from behind us and I realised almost immediately what we'd just done. I turned, that familiar sense of guilt returning to sit in my stomach as John stared at us, his eyes darkening.
"Did you just kiss your sister?" John asked
"Uh, yeah, so?" Dean said, shrugging, trying to appear casual.
"I thought we went over this years ago Dean! You are to keep your damn hands off your sister, keep your mind on the job!" John said loudly. Dean's body tensed under my hand and he scowled, looking at me.
"Jesus Christ.." he muttered, shaking his head. "He's got a lot of nerve given Cole."
"What did you say?" John demanded coming around, Dean didn't respond.
"Dean, you will answer me when I ask you a..."
"Oh give it a break Dad, we're not freaking kids anymore," Dean snapped, standing up.
"You... the pair of you … I knew something was going on with you two!" John snapped and he stepped forward, grabbing Dean by the shirt, practically lifting him off the bed.
"Wait! Dad... just... stop!" I said, crawling to my knees and then off the bed, getting in between them.
"No, how long has this been going on?" He asked roughly. "What did you do to her? You took advantage of your own sister?!"
"What? No!" Dean said, shoving John off him.
"Dad just stop," I said, looking frantically at Sam who stood up from where he'd been doing research.
"I said how long has this been going on!" John yelled at us and I flinched.
"Seven years Dad!" Dean snapped and John let him go.
"Seven... what?"
I realised with a start that in John's timeline, I hadn't even known them for seven years then.
"What the hell is going on here?" John asked and Dean, trying to calm the situation down, put some space between John and himself.
"Look, Dad, you need to calm down," he said and John immediately started to get riled up again.
"Dad," Sam said, stepping in. "You need to listen to us, okay?"
"Sam, did you … did you know about this?" He asked, turning to his younger son.
"Yeah I did Dad," Sam said softly. "We all do, everyone except you."
John's eyes suddenly went dark with anger and he pushed Sam aside, moving toward Dean and getting up in his face.
"Did I not make myself clear about this?!" He yelled into Dean's unmoving form.
"Yeah, crystal clear Dad," Dean said. "So freaking crystal clear it took her six years to figure out what she wanted, six years Dad! You really did a number on us, you know that?"
John lashed out with a fist and caught Dean unexpectedly on the side of the head.
"Dad!" I yelled, running to Dean's side while Sam grabbed at his father.
"Stop it!"
"Dad stop it," Sam said. "You don't understand."
"Damn straight I don't understand!" John said, straining against Sam's hold.
I reached out and took a deep breath, my left hand extended out in front of me. My eyes caught my wedding ring and I hesitated, but realised he had to be told.
"Dad, listen to me," I said, locking eyes with his. "Listen, please. There's a lot you don't know because, well because you aren't right."
"What are you talking about Bethie?"
"Uh, first off, Beth's not my sister, she's my wife." Dean cut in, seeing the warning going off in John's eyes.
I nodded, putting my hand on John's arm. "Dean and I, Dad we're married, we've been together for a long time now, and..."
"Married?"
"Yeah, Dad it's the year 2008..." I said and he reeled back, looking at me confused. "The reason you're here is because somehow, my desire to have you here transferred to that coin when Dean made his wish."
Dean straightened up and nodded. "Yeah Dad, truth is, you haven't been around for a while, we've been on our own for years."
"What?"
"Come on Dad, look at us, we don't exactly look twenty-one anymore!" Dean snapped and John hesitated, looked us over, his eyes trailing to the rings Dean and I were wearing.
"Married?" He asked, and I nodded at him, taking Dean's hand in my own.
"I'm a wish?" John said, frowning and shaking his head.
"Yeah Dad," Sam said. "We don't know how this works, but … you gotta relax, we need to come up with a solution to what is going on."
John shook his head and then ran a hand across his face. "I don't believe this," he muttered and Dean scowled.
"Yeah, well believe it, because you are dead man, well at least, you were the last time we looked!" I grabbed his arm and shook my head. It didn't seem like now was the right time to push that.
John stormed out of the motel room and Sam stood there, staring at us. "Someone needs to go after him," Dean said, throwing his arm up in the air.
"Yeah, in a minute," Sam said. "He's not getting far without the car. Probably just going to hit up the bar across the road. Like father like son."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Dean asked.
"Dean, come on, man. You think I can't see it?" Sam asked and Dean frowned.
"See what?"
"The nightmares, the drinking. I'm with you guys 24/7. I know there's more going on than either of you are letting on," he said.
I shot Sam a warning glance. "Sam..."
"Uriel wasn't lying, but you two are," Sam said. "You remember Hell, don't you Dean?"
Dean grimaced, shaking his head and running his hand across tired eyes. "What do you want from me, huh? What?" He perched on the end of the bed, looking into Sam's eyes.
"The truth, Dean. I mean, I'm your brother. I just wish you guys would talk to me."
"Careful what you wish for," Dean said with a smirk.
"Cute," Sam said, shaking his head and looking down at his hands. Dean grinned, picking up the paper from the bed and smiled over at Sam.
"Come on, can we stow the couples therapy, huh? We're on a job. I want to work. What do you got?" He asked, watching our little brother as he stubbornly refused to talk. "Please?" Dean asked cutely and Sam rolled his eyes.
"We got teddy bear, uh, lottery guy, invisible pervert guy. They all must have wished sometime in the last two weeks. But who wished first, and how are we supposed to know who else wished for what when?" Sam asked.
Dean was looking at the paper and he chuckled, holding the paper out to me. "
Well, it helps when they announce it in the paper. Goes back a month."
I took it and looked at the announcements page. "Wesley Mondale and Ms. Hope Lynn Casey have announced their surprise engagement."
"Ah, true love," Dean said with a grin.
I smiled. "Clearly much deeper than people who run off and get married at the drop of a hat," I grinned and Dean laughed, the smile actually reading his eyes.
Sam smirked and shook his head. "Well it's the best lead we got," he said.
"Yeah," Dean agreed with a nod. "Now...rock paper scissors, which one of us is gonna be unlucky enough to go after Dad?" Dean asked.
I raised my eyebrow, Dean always lost at this game, I didn't even know why we bothered.
Wesley Mondale's House
Beth's POV
I snickered, still shaking my head as I walked up the steps to Wesley's front door.
"I cannot believe you actually won at paper rock scissors," I said incredulously.
"Hey, you think I can't play that game?" Dean asked, chuckling. "Please, I just give in to make you guys feel good half the time," he said, moving to grab me around the waist.
"Uh huh, is that right Mr Winchester?" I asked, leaning in to kiss him softly.
"Yep, that's right little Mrs," he said with another beaming smile. With a gentle pull on my hips, he captured my lips again and I moaned softly, wrapping my arms around his neck, pulling him close. I was breathless by the time we pulled away, thinking about all the other things I wanted to do to him.
I reached out and rang the bell by the door, and as it opened, Dean pulled away from me, shooting a smile at the pretty woman who came to the door. She was the same girl I'd seen all over the geeky looking guy in the restaurant a couple of times now.
"Hello?" She said. "Can I help you?"
"Yeah, uh, you must be Hope," I said and she nodded, looking questioningly at me.
"That's right."
"Well, we're uh, we're from the florist, Wesley called us to come and talk about … wedding flowers," I offered, noting that her eyes lit up at the mention of a wedding.
Hope waved us into the living room where the geeky looking Wesley was sitting in a chair.
"Wes! You didn't tell me that you called the florists for the wedding!" Hope said excitedly as she led us forward, moving to kiss Wesley on the forehead. "You're the best! Mmmmm! Ah! I'm gonna go get my folders," she added, and walked out the side entry to a hallway leading to rooms beyond.
"Uh, o – okay..." Wes said hesitantly, watching as she walked out of the room.
"Wesley," Dean started. "How's it going?"
"It's... Wes..." The guy started to stand up and then stopped, sitting back down. "Aren't you from the health department?" He asked, recognising us from the restaurant.
"Yeah, and florists on the side," I said with a raised eyebrow.
"Plus FBI," Dean added, nodding. "And on Thursdays, we're teddy bear doctors." I fought back a snicker at that comment, my eyes meeting Dean's which were a shining green of mischievousness.
"Huh?" Wes said, confused.
"Doesn't matter who we are," Dean said sternly. "What matters is what we know." I nodded, looking around the house we found ourselves.
"So, coin collector, huh Wes?" I asked casually, looking at a series of coins hanging on the wall.
"Oh," Wes said, looking behind him at the wall. "Yeah. My...grandfather gave them to me."
"Did you happen to lose one of those coins lately?" Dean asked. "And by 'lose', I mean drop into a wishing well at Lucky Chain's and make a wish on it."
"No, I – I don't know what you're, uh, talking about," Wes declared.
Hope walked back into the room carrying a bunch of folders in her arms.
"Okay, now. I have a lot of ideas, but, you know, we don't have all the money in the world. Wes is between jobs right now," she smiled lovingly at the man who had risen to his feet, and then she flashed us a big smile. "Means more time for me!"
"You know, I'm thinking a Japanese-y ikebana kind of thing," she continued.
"Yes. I can see it," Dean said with a smile.
"Yeah," I commented, shaking my head. "So, Hope, uh, tell us how you two lovebirds met," I asked, eyeing off Wes and feeling a bit of anger rising that he'd used an enchanted item to cause someone to fall in love with them, she was clearly under the effects of that enchantment, smitten with the man.
"Oh, best day of my life," Hope declared with a smile.
"I bet," Dean said sarcastically.
"Yeah! It's the funniest thing. We both grew up here, but I never really knew who he was," she sighed softly, looking over at Wes. "Not by name anyway. Until one day last month, it was like I just..." she sighed again, reaching out to touch Wes's face. "I just saw him for the first time. He was just... glowing. Oh, just glowing." She leaned in and started to kiss him lightly on the lips over and over.
"Uh, babe, can you..." Wes looked at us warily as she kissed him in between words. "Can you get us some coffee?"
"Yes," Hope said, kissing him again. "Yeah." Another kiss.
"Oh, okay, okay. Mm-hmm. Okay." She continued to kiss him and Wes glanced at us in between each display of affection. "Oh. Mm-mmm, okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay," he said, finally pulling away and putting a little distance between them.
"Yeah," Hope said, fixing her hair and panting a little as she smiled at him. She smiled at us and walked out of the room toward the kitchen.
Urging the man to come clean, I said, "Wes, we know. So tell us the truth."
Audrey's House
Sam's POV
Dad hadn't been hard to catch, he wasn't trying to hide. I'd found him walking up the highway, frown firmly in place and downing a bottle of whiskey. I had a moment to shake my head and think, like father like son before pushing Dean's issues out of my mind for the moment.
"Dad!" I called out, pulling the car over to the curb and driving slowly alongside him. "Dad get in the car!"
He ignored me, scowling in my direction.
"Come on, Dad! I need your help," I said.
This stopped him and he took another swig out of the bottle before capping it and slipping it into his leather jacket and climbing into the car.
"What is it Sam?" He asked gruffly and I shrugged.
"I need your thoughts on this fountain, you know, how do we deal with this?" I asked, and he nodded for me to keep driving the way he'd been walking. After a few moments he had me pull up in front of the house where we'd found Audrey and the Teddy Bear.
"What are we doing?" I asked, keeping my eyes as he looked up at the house.
"Our job," he said, getting out and slamming the door. He stalked toward the house before I could stop him, drawing out a sawn-off shotgun from his jacket and entering the house.
"Dad! No! What are you...?" I ran after him, reaching the foot of the stairs as Dad moved up them toward the bedroom.
Without hesitation, Dad kicked open the door to the bedroom where we'd last seen the teddy and I came up behind Dad to see Teddy was still in there, eyes glued to the television. He swivelled his big black furry head to look at us as Dad entered and raised the shotgun.
"Wait!" Called out, but Dad fired, shooting the bear through the mouth. There was a moment of shock as stuffing blew out the back of his head all over the room and Dad and I stood there, panting in shock. I couldn't believe he'd just done that.
Suddenly a mewling sound came from the bear and he looked up to the sky, waving his hands around. "Whyyyyyyyyyyyy?!" He yelled, flailing his arms around. "Why?!" I grabbed Dad, pulling him toward the front door and as I turned around I saw a massive hole out the back of the bear's head, The bear began to sob as I pushed Dad toward the car.
"Are you nuts?!" I asked urgently, opening the door to the car and jerking him by the arm until he got in.
"I thought... I thought it would put him down." Dad said, a little stunned.
"Yeah, well, apparently not. What next Dad? You gonna go shoot the lotto winner's money? What were you thinking?"
I didn't receive a response, instead, putting the car into gear, I pulled away from the curb hoping Dean and Beth were having more luck.
Wes's House
Wes sighed, turning to the wall and taking a box down where there was a missing spot in the display.
"My - my grandfather found the coin in North Africa, you know, World War II. And, uh, he brought it back. He, um, he said it was a real wish-granting coin, but that nobody should ever use it." He turned back to us, looking down at the box in his hands. "Um... he was all I had, and when he died, I thought, 'Well, you know what? Why not give the coin a shot?'"
"Yeah," I said, feeling anger rising under the surface. "Well, now you're gonna wish it back."
"Oh," Wes said with a chuckle. "Oh. Ha ha, no, I'm not," he said, looking at us like we were crazy.
"If you don't stop it, something bad's gonna happen," I said to him and Dean nodded.
"Something bad, like us," he added, pulling his gun out of the waistband of his jeans.
"We really wish you'd come with us," I said to him with a smile, Wes swallowed hard, his eyes locked on to the gun.
Two minutes later we were in Wes' car, Dean was driving and I was in the passenger seat, gun sitting in my lap as Wes lamented his situation in the back.
"I don't get it. So, my wish came true. Why does that have to be a bad thing?" He asked, laying his head back on the seat.
"Because the wishes go south, Wes. Your town is going insane," I said.
"Come on. You're gonna sit there and tell me that your relationship with Hope is functional, that it's what you wished for?" Dean asked, his insight into what we'd just seen coming to the surface, he'd been paying attention to more than Hope's curvy hips and luscious smile.
"I wished she would love me more than anything," Wes said with a sigh.
"Yeah, and... uh, how is that going? That seem healthy to you?" I asked, even as I said it I felt a little odd, looking over at Dean and recalling what I'd been like while he was in Hell. I'd been ready to throw myself into the lion's den on more than one occasion to get to him, even considering suicide which for all intents and purposes should have landed me in Hell, right where I wanted to be. Those had been dark days indeed and even now they haunted me, reminding me just how dysfunctional I was, how dependent I was on Dean to be okay. I sighed quietly, and pushed it to the back of my mind – I had never claimed to be healthy in my love for Dean.
"Well it's a hell of a lot better than when she didn't know I was alive," Wes said, interrupting my thoughts.
"You're not supposed to get what you want, man, not like this. Nobody is," Dean said, glancing in the rearview mirror at Wes. "That's what the coin does. It takes your heart's desires and it twists it back on you. You heart of the whole, uh, 'be careful what you wish for'?"
"'Careful what you wish for,'" Wes said in a mocking voice, trying to imitate Dean. "You know who says that? Good-looking jerks like you guys, the ones who've got it so easy because you happen to be handsome or beautiful."
"Easy?" I said with a raised eyebrow, I wanted to laugh because nothing about my path with Dean had been easy in the beginning.
"Easy?" Dean echoed me, glancing at me.
"Yeah. Women – women look at you right? They notice you," Wes said to Dean and then glanced at me. "Men notice you, am I right?"
"Believe us, we don't have it easy," I said, going back to the original statement.
"We are miserable," Dean said, looking at me a little sadly. "We never get what we want. In fact, we have to fight tooth and nail just to keep whatever it is we got," he added, and I nodded, smiling over at him and resting my hand on his shoulder. I did have to admit to at least having something to fight for, which was more than poor Wed had before this wish.
"But you know what?" I asked, turning to Wes. "Maybe that's the whole point, Wes."
"Yeah, people are people cause they're miserable bastards, 'cause they never get what they really want," Dean agreed.
"Right, yeah, you get what you want, you get crazy," I said with a nod. Lord knew my getting what I wanted – Dean, safe and out of Hell – hadn't been without it's craziness. And there was the added bonus that somewhere our father was running around, revived from the dead.
"Take a look at Michael Jackson," Dean pointed out. "Or Hasslehoff." He raised his eyebrow at me and I grinned, not exactly convinced by our argument, but we were on a roll so what the hell.
"You know what?" Wes asked, looking at us. "Hope loves me now – completely. And it's awesome. Besides, look around. Where's all this uh, insanity you guys were talking about?" I had to admit, the world outside the car looked pretty calm and quiet. Dean shrugged and pulled the car into the main street.
I glanced out the window, seeing the kid from earlier who had been chasing the bullies, having turned the tables on them. He was circling an SUV like he was going in for the kill, and I could just make out the forms of three kids in the car, moving around urgently.
Without warning the boy tipped the SUV over on it's side.
"Well, that should cover it," I said with a nod, and the boy raised his arms in the air and started yelling.
"Kneel before Todd! Kneel before Todd!" The kid started to rock the car back and forth as the kids inside screamed in fear.
Dean unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car, looking back at me.
"I'll handle Todd, you get Wes to Lucky Chin's," he said. I hesitated, not for the first time since we'd been on these hunts and I'd had to go it alone. The last time I'd separated from Dean, four days ago on a hunt I'd ended up under the influence of a powerful supernatural being, and nearly killed myself.
"Beth, go!" Dean said, seeing me pause and I nodded.
"Right," I said, taking a deep breath. "Be careful."
I slip across the seat and put the car into gear, easing out from the curb and driving past the kids as Dean walked toward them on foot.
Dean's POV
I hadn't missed the momentary panic in Beth's eyes as I told her drive off, but there was nothing we could do, this kid was out of control and someone needed to step in while she took care of the job.
"Hey, kid! Can I talk to you a second?" I called out as I kept my body language casual.
"Get out of my way!" The boy said, starting in on me with an aggressive swagger and stare that would frighten the best of people, at least enough to get them to back down.
"Okay." I said, holding my hands up. "Hey, I can dig it, Todd. It – it's Todd right?" He nodded and I leaned down, placing my hands on my knees, bringing me back to his level a bit.
"Look, I – I know the score. Okay? They're – they're bullying you."
"Every day," Todd said with a nod. "Every day! You do not know what it's like!"
"No, no... I don't. But you know, you're you and I'm me, so..." I had no real answer to that, I'd never really been bullied.
"Couldn't stop them," Todd said, his voice lowering. "I couldn't do anything. Then Audrey Elmer told me the wishing well worked."
"Okay, okay. Look – look I get it. They're – they're mean little jerks, huh? But they're not superhuman like you," I said, thinking I had to talk this kid down before he did something he was going to regret. "You see, with great power comes great respon...ohhhh!"
I fell back hard as Todd didn't even wait to hear the rest of what he said. He'd upper cut me, sending me flying through the air and I landed hard in some garbage cans and trash bags, groaning. Damn. I had not seen that one coming. I looked around, kind of glad there hadn't been anyone else around to see that.
Beth's POV
I forced myself to keep driving even as Dean walked up toward the boy. Swallowing hard, I turned the corner slowed the car down to a crawl, moving but also trying to get my breathing under some sort of control, I realised belatedly that I might be having a panic attack, and now just wasn't the time.
"Are you okay?" Wes asked, and I glanced up, frowning slightly.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"
"You guys aren't FBI are you?" He asked and our eyes locked in the mirror, I shook my head.
"No, he's my... he's my husband," I said.
"See this is what I'm saying, all the good looking jerks get..."
"Stop that!" I snapped, feeling a headache coming on. "You have no idea what we've been through, how much we've sacrificed to be..." I faltered, what was the point, he wasn't going to get it.
I sighed, looking back at him. "Look, a year ago I lost him, he was taken from me," I said and he frowned, looking at me.
"Taken?"
"Yeah... he had a … near death experience you might say, and was in a coma for a long time, and he's had issues ever since, but it doesn't change things. We're together, and yeah, you might think lucky bastard but the truth is, I didn't fall in love with his looks." I swallowed, shaking my head slowly and seeing that I had a captive audience, I continued.
"I fell in love with the way he looked after me when I broke down and couldn't get back up, I fell in love with the way he makes me laugh, and the little gestures of affection he gives me, I … I fell in love with his heart, Wes, not just the outside. And we've overcome a lot of obstacles to be together... a lot... years and years of obstacles. Believe me, Dean wasn't lying when he said our lives suck, and they're hard, our lives aren't easy, and that's the truth."
Wes looked thoughtful and I saw Lucky Chin's in front of us. Pulling up to the curb I noticed the open sign and breathed a sigh of relief, maybe we could get this all taken care of soon.
There was a commotion as the Impala roared into the curb in front of us and John got out arguing with Sam, they were in fine form, yelling and waving their arms in the air.
"You shot a teddy bear Dad! That's not normal!" Sam yelled and John threw his hands disgustedly in the air and walked toward me.
"Beth!" Sam said, hurrying to meet me. "Did you get him?"
I nodded at Wes who was getting out of the car.
"Things are getting bad," Sam said, glancing at John who was holding his gun in his hands and pacing up and down the storefront.
"They're not that bad," Wes said. "I mean yeah, that kid turned over that car, but those kids probably had it coming..." Sam looked questioningly at me and I shook my head.
"You don't wanna know."
"Yeah, well you should have seen the teddy bear," Sam said, reaching for Wes's arm. "Now come on, fun's over dude. Time to pull the coin."
Wes pulled his arm out of Sam's grip and shook his head. "Well why can't we just get what we want?!" He yelled.
"Because that's life, Wes," Sam said. There was a crack of thunder and a sizzling pop beside me and I turned in horror to see Sam fall to the ground.
"Sam!" I called out, falling to my knees beside my little brother, the realisation that a lightning bolt had just struck him down coming vaguely into my mind.
John let out an anguished cry and grabbed me to my feet, I felt a sickening thud as my back hit the wall of the building.
"I told you and Dean to look after him!" He yelled and I gasped for breath, winded from the blow.
"Dad! Stop it!" I said, my hands coming to his wrists as he pinned me to the wall, his eyes full of dark rage. From the corner of my eye I saw Wes go into the restaurant.
"Let me go Dad," I said firmly, looking at him. The fury behind his eyes was unmistakable, I'd seen it in Dean's eyes before when he'd been hallucinating from the ghost sickness. He was out of control.
"Dad..."
With a gasp for breath I felt his large hands circle around my throat and the air forced from my lungs as I fought against his stranglehold.
Dean's POV
"Hey, kid!" I yelled, getting to my feet. My face was burning and I was there was a metallic taste of blood in my mouth. "I didn't want to have to do this," I muttered as I approach the little guy. I lashed out with a fierce right hook and hit the kid in the face. 'Ohhhhh!" I groaned, he hadn't even moved, the kid was a rock!
Todd grinned at me, a madness in his eyes that I'd seen one too many times in Hell and I found myself sinking to my knees as he gripped my throat, laughing as he started to choke me. I brought my arms up like we'd been trained to do, getting them inside the chokehold and then smashing them out to the side. Nothing, his arms didn't budge, and I was starting to see stars flashing in front of my eyes.
Beth's POV
Any moment now I was going to black out if I didn't do something. I reached down deep inside me, and an image of Dean and I sitting down at the river on my 21st birthday flashed before my eyes. The pinks and purples hues of the sunrise, while he put his arm around me and pulled me close, we'd been happy, finally admitting our love for each other, and it had taken so long to get to that point.
The man strangling me now had denied us our affection for each other for so long, and it had nearly been the end of both of us at different points. The vision before me changed and I saw John embracing Cole in the gym, kissing her with a hot fervour that showed this was not the first time it had happened. I saw red, and with a screech of anger I lashed out, bringing my knee up between his legs, catching him square in the balls.
John stumbled slightly, his grip loosening and it was enough. I forced my arms up the centre of his and then out, just like Dean had taught me, and broke the chokehold. Grabbing his neck with my hands I repeated the knee to the groin, and he doubled over with a gasp of pain. Looking down I hesitated for just a moment and then I rammed it home, taking his head as he fell to his knees and smashing it into the wall, knocking him out.
"Sorry Dad, but you're a prick," I said, turning to see Sam's body sprawled across the pavement I choked back a sob. My ears were ringing, and I had the urge to vomit, but I needed to get to Wes, I needed to stop this.
Opening the door I found Wes and Hope standing near the fountain.
"I had to do it, didn't I? He was gonna make you wish away our love," she said to Wes and he looked surprised.
"You wished a man dead?" He asked.
"I love you more than anything," she said, grasping at his arms.
"Stop saying that. Stop it!" Wes snapped, and it was clear that all was not perfect with them, regardless of what he had said.
Hope's voice broke and tears started to run down her face as she said to Wes, "but I do! More than anything. More than me. More than life. Oh, Wes. Don't hate me!" Wes took her face in his hands and kissed her sweetly, pulling her into his arms and I stopped, waiting to see what he would do.
"It'll be okay. I'll make it okay. It's gonna be okay," he reassured here. I found myself praying for him to be a good man, to do the right thing. I understood his pain, I knew what it was like to do unimaginable things for love, but at the end of the day I had to believe that the right thing would win out.
I took a step forward as Wes pulled away from Hope and then with a glance back at me he nodded, reaching into the fountain and drawing out the enchanted coin.
"Hope," Wes said, looking at the woman who was now staring at him, confused.
"Do I know you?" She asked, frowning slightly, Wes sighed and looked at me and I felt a stab of sadness for him. Everyone deserved to be loved.
Dean's POV
With a sigh of relief I felt the boy's hands start to slacken and realised that she'd done it, Beth had gotten Wes to the restaurant and reversed the spell. That's my girl I thought with a sense of pride.
I broke the hold of the kid and shoved him back as the kids started to climb out of the overturned car, turning to look at Todd. I knew instantly what I had to do.
"Okay, follow my lead," I said to Todd. "You won't have a problem, come on."
I cowered back from Todd as the boys watched, putting my arms up in surrender.
"Okay, man, no more! No more, okay?!" I cried out, getting to my feet and backing away from Todd toward the boys. As I turned to them I gave them a frightened look. "I wouldn't mess with this kid any more if I were you," I said and they nodded, their eyes wide and scared.
"Stay back!" The boys called out to Todd, and then they ran off down the street. I turned and gave Todd a thumbs up and then started for the restaurant.
Next Day
Beth's POV
Dean's face was peaceful and relaxed as I walked up to him carrying a couple of coffees. He smiled when I reached him, and took the cup I offered him, leaning in to kiss the side of my neck.
"Thanks," he said softly and I nodded, leaning against the pier railing with my forearms and looking out over the shimmering water. If it wasn't so damn cold I'd consider going for a dip, that last image of Dean and I by the river on my 21st had stuck with me from yesterday, and I found myself smiling as I thought about that day and how we'd ended up in the river exploring each other's bodies for the first time.
Folding the paper he was reading in half, Dean tucked it under his arm and I caught sight of the headline where it read Winning Lottery Ticket A Fake. The town was back to normal, and I couldn't have been more relieved.
"What are you smiling about?" He asked, leaning against the railing with me, shoulder to shoulder and watching me with a lazy smile.
"You," I said, my smile brightening as I leaned over and placed a soft kiss against his lips.
"That good huh?" He asked and I nodded.
"You're my wish come true," I said shyly and he smiled that broad, happy grin that always lit up my heart. With a soft caress down my cheek, Dean brought his hand behind my head and pulled me in to him, his lips brushing back and forth against mine as he moaned softly.
"You're mine too," he whispered as he pulled away, and I swear my heart skipped a beat as he said it.
We turned to see Sam trudging along the pier toward us. His eyes locked on to a couple who were looking extremely sunburnt, walking slowly along the pier with a bit of a dazed look upon their faces. Audrey was with them, and I realised that they must be her parents. Audrey was cradling a teddy bear that was a miniature version of the one Sam told us John had shot during his mad moment. There was a band-aid stuck to the head of the bear, but mercifully, he was silent.
"Well, uh, coin's melted down," Sam said as he reached us. "It shouldn't cause any more problems."
Dean nodded. "Audrey's parents are back from Bali. Looks like all the wishes are gone." I nodded, thinking about that, and how it had been good to see John again, but like everything else, it had been too good to be true. "And so are we," Dean added, sliding his arm around my shoulders and starting to walk alongside Sam.
I felt him hesitate a few steps later and he looked over at our brother.
"Hand on a second," he said, stopping.
"What?" Sam asked, frowning at Dean.
Dean glanced at me and then looked over at Sam again, saying, "you were right."
"About what?"
"I shouldn't have lied to you. I do remember everything that happened to me in the Pit," Dean said, his hand trembling a little where it was on my shoulder. "Everything."
"Did you know?" Sam asked, looking at me and I nodded. He sucked in a breath like he was going to lecture me for holding out on him, but then thought twice.
"So tell me about it," he said, turning to Dean.
"No."
"Uh..." Sam seemed confused. Dean hadn't really even told me about it, I only knew from the dreams I'd had where I'd seen it.
"I won't lie anymore," Dean said. "But I'm not gonna talk about it."
"Dean, look, you can't just shoulder this thing alone. You got to let us help," Sam said and Dean nodded.
"How?" He asked, looking up at Sam. "Do you really think that a little heart-to-heart, some sharing and caring is gonna change anything? Hmmm? Somehow... heal me? I'm not talking about a bad day here," he said.
"I know that," Sam said softly.
"The things I saw... there aren't words. There is no forgetting. There's no making it better," he said, looking over at me. He sighed. "It's right here..." he said, tapping the side of his head. "Forever. You wouldn't understand. And I could never make you understand. So I am sorry."
Sam sucked in another breath, almost seeming angry that even while he was getting what he wanted, Dean's honesty, he didn't like that he wasn't allowed to help.
"Does Beth know?" Sam asked and I wanted to roll my eyes. Like this was some freaking competition or something.
"Some of it, not the worst of it," Dean said.
"So you can talk to ..."
"No." Dean said softly, cutting him off. "No, I haven't talked to her about it, I haven't told her anything. She only knows because she saw it Sam, while I was down there... she saw some of it through her dreams."
Sam paused to look at me. "You never told me."
"Yeah, I did Sam..." I said softly. "You didn't want to hear it."
His eyes saddened as he realised the truth of that statement. It had been during the bad period, when he'd sent me away because he was angry at me, blaming me for Dean being in Hell.
"I'm sorry," Sam said and I nodded.
"I know."
"Okay. All right," Sam nodded at us, thinking through what he said. "Well... whatever guys. Just know I'm here for you if you need me, okay? I want to help, anyway that I can."
"Yeah, thanks Sammy," Dean said with a smile, putting his hand on his shoulder. "It means a lot, but … right now, I just need to not think about it, as much as I can."
Sam nodded, tears in his eyes as he looked at our brother. Things would be okay, they had to be. Surely we'd come far enough that things couldn't get any worse, right? With that thought I felt a heaviness enter my chest and sit like a weight upon my heart. I knew as soon as I thought it that we were delusional, things were coming, big things, the Apocalypse, and we were only just getting started in that battle.
Author's Notes
Song for this chapter is Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen. I just love the opening of the song, I thought it was pretty catchy and fit the episode, maybe not the whole song, but I guess if you look at it, it does fit Hope and Wes a little.
For those with an interest in John, Jefferson or Grace, there's a new chapter up over at How To Save A Life by EarthhAngel, which tells a little more of Grace's story. It's very sad! You also get a little peek into Jefferson's life a bit too. So go check it out and leave a review :) Big thanks to EA for telling a bit of Grace's story for me and allowing me to contribute when I could. :)
I'm still working away on San Antonio and the story there. It'll be posted soon-ish... I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It took me a while to get into it, but I did enjoy having Dean and Beth returning slowly to their old selves, or at least, pushing through the bad times together :)
Please leave a review :) You know I love them!