Ok so I meant to post this earlier today, but it was the first day of classes so I decided to focus on school during the real part of the day. Thanks so much to XKaterinaNightingaleX and tigereyekum for your reviews! And Ninn I hope you do find a way to follow the story even if you don't make a new account. Well anyways, here is the last part of Hollywood Babylon, I kind of like this one a lot.
P.S. I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but I don't have a beta, so that's why there are mistakes a lot of the time. I try to catch them, but sometimes they just slip past my eagle eyes.
"So do you think someone put that summoning ritual in there on purpose to get the spirits to show up or it was just an honest mistake by someone who wanted the movie to be super authentic?" Aubri asked, looking up at Sam and Dean as they walked to the offices of the writer and producer.
Sam shook his head, "That's what we're about to find out." He pushed open the door to the office building and let Aubri lead the way, Dean trailing close behind her and Sam bringing up the rear.
Aubri found the office of the writer and stood in the door way with the guys behind her, waiting for the man to get off of the phone. He looked over at her, holding up a finger and winking at her. She rolled her eyes and pushed her hair behind her ears as she leaned on the doorframe. "Sweetheart, we're all shut down, what are you still doing here?" He asked when he hung up the phone.
Dean cleared his throat frustratedly, what was this guy doing calling her sweetheart? Sure Dean did it, but that was different. Aubri put her hand on his chest to stop him from saying anything and walked forward, the guys following closely behind her. "Um, well," she laughed nervously, hoping she seemed like a star struck PA, "we just wanted to say we read the script and we just thought it was amazing." She winced slightly at the lie, but went with it anyways.
"Yeah?" He asked, smiling widely.
"Oh yeah, awesome." Sam added.
"I know it's pretty rockin' right? I'm glad you guys liked it!" He said as he sat down on his desk.
"We especially liked the attention to detail." Aubri continued.
"I know right, that's my thing. I mean color me guilty, but that is me. I'm a total detail buff."
"I could tell! I mean the way you worked in all to Enochian summoning rituals and all the authentic language." Sam went on.
"You mean all that Latin crap?" His face falling and that's when Aubri knew that this guy knew nothing about what those summoning rituals meant or could do. "Nah man, that's Walter. Walter Dixon the original writer. You like that garbage?"
"Wait, Walter the PA Walter?" Dean asked, obviously confused.
"He's not a PA, there's a clause in his contract that allows him to come on set."
"But he wrote the invocations?" Aubri crossed her arms over her chest. She had seen Walter a couple times and just thought he took being a PA too seriously, but this made a lot more sense.
"He wrote a wackjob screenplay. There's no pace, there's no love interest. It's all wack-a-doo exposition. I had to cut like 90% to make it readable, another 10% to make it good."
Sam and Dean laughed quietly while Aubri's brow furrowed. "Do you have a copy of the original script?"
"That piece of crap? Yeah take two," he handed her the scripts before waving his hand at them, shooing them out of his office. "You can keep it." He called as they left.
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Aubri had skimmed through the script briefly before handing one to Dean and one to Sam. "We didn't cover Enochian summoning rituals in class so maybe the pros should handle this one. For what it's worth though, I probably would be more likely to watch this version than the crap they are filming now."
She sat quietly, looking around the set and fiddling with the ends of her hair while Sam and Dean read through the script, "You're right Aubs, they should have stuck with this one."
"Don't sound so surprised that I'm right Dean-o," Aubri said as she grinned and leaned back in her chair, "I've got a pretty good track record so far."
Sam tossed his copy of the script to the side and put his hands behind his head as he stretched, "It also reads like a how-to manual on conjuration. Like a textbook on how to summon ghosts and get them to do whatever you want."
"Which could be handy if you didn't use them for evil and killing people." Aubri said thoughtfully.
"Yup. So let's say somewhere down the line Walter wanders onto some pretty black magic." Sam thought out loud.
"Yeah and he's pissed at these people for wrecking his movie." Dean adds.
"Motive and means." Sam finished.
Aubri stood up quickly, clapping her hands together, "Well what are you two waiting on? Let's go check it out."
"Let's go let Sam do some nerdy research back at the room first," Dean said, putting a hand on Aubri's arm, "You can even put on your glasses and help him Velma."
"Oh, you are just so funny." Aubri said with a hollow laugh as she shrugged her arm out from under his hand and started walking towards the parking lot. She had to admit though, getting the scratchy contacts out of her eyes for a few hours would be a relief.
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A few hours later, they decided it was time to head back by set and see if they could find Walter. They figured since all the deaths had happened at Stage 9 that that's where the spirits would be strongest and where Walter would probably make them kill again. After they pulled into a parking spot and got out of the car, Sam and Dean walked around to the trunk of the Impala and grabbed a couple of guns. They checked to make sure they were loaded and Dean was about to shut the trunk when Aubri stopped him. "Aren't you forgetting something?" She said, holding out her hand and tapping her foot.
Dean pretended to think for a moment before shaking his head and starting to close the trunk again, "Nope, pretty sure I remembered everything."
"Very funny Winchester." Aubri said, stopping him from closing the trunk again. "If we are right about this and Walter is controlling those dead people in there, then he is packing some serious mojo. Now if I remember correctly the only way to protect myself from Casper the Not-So-Friendly Ghost in there is one of those nifty rock salt guns that you have. So fork it over." She saw Dean open his mouth to protest and put her finger on his lips, silencing him. "The way I see it is, you give me a gun so I can protect myself, or I end up being a liability, because you should know by now that I am not going to just sit on my ass in the car and wait for you guys to save the day."
"She's got a point man." Sam said, checking his watch, "And we probably don't have enough time for you two to sit here and decide who is more hard headed."
Dean rolled his eyes and grabbed a sawed off shotgun out of the trunk, passing it to Aubri as she smiled sweetly at him. "Do you even know what to do with one of these Blondie?"
Aubri brought the gun up and looked down the barrel before looking at Dean out of the corner of her eye and winking at him, "There's a lot you don't know about me Winchester and one of those things is, back when my dad was alive, I would go stay with him during hunting season. Now I won't say I'm an expert marksman, but I pretty much always hit what I aimed for."
Dean shook his head as he finally slammed the trunk of the Impala closed, "Whatever you say sweetheart, just don't point the end of that anywhere near me."
They walked towards Stage 9 briskly, not saying anything, just trying to get to the set before Walter could do anymore damage. That's when Aubri thought she heard a scream. "Did you guys hear that?" She asked, coming to a quick stop.
Before they had a chance to respond she heard it again, and this time Sam and Dean did too. "Aw shit." Dean said, taking off running towards set, Sam following closely behind him and Aubri struggling to keep up on with her short legs.
Dean got inside first and ran towards the sound of the screams. He saw the ghost of Billy, who looked like he had tried to cut his hair with a lawn mower, dragging Martin behind him towards the fan. He aimed and shot the rock salt at Billy, causing him to vanish. "You are one hell of a PA." Martin said breathlessly as Dean stood over him.
"Yeah, I know."
Dean looked around for any sign of Billy or Walter as Sam cut off the fan and Aubri came running up behind him, panting heavily. "I seriously need to start doing more cardio or grow another six inches so I can keep up with you two." She managed to get out between the deep breaths she was trying to take.
Sam walked past her quickly and that's when Aubri saw Walter standing just a few yards away from Dean and Martin. "What are you doing?" He asked nervously, starting to back away from Sam.
"I could ask you the same thing Walter." Sam said angrily, "Raising these spirits from the dead, making them murder for you, that's playing with fire Walter."
Walter had climbed up a set of stairs and was now looking down at them from the rafters, "You don't understand."
"You know what, you're right, I don't understand." Sam called up to him.
"You put your heart and soul into something, years of hard work, years, and then they take it and they crap all over it and then, then they want you to smile and say thank you!" Walter yelled down angrily.
"It's just a movie Walter." Aubri called up, trying to reason with the clearly upset and most likely deranged man.
Walter sighed, "Look, I got nothing against you guys, you're not part of this. Just leave, please just leave, but Martin has gotta stay."
"Sorry Walt we can't do that." Dean explained, "It's not that we like him or anything, it's just a matter of principle."
Walter's gaze hardened as he looked down at them, "Then I'm sorry too."
He raised the talisman that he had been clutching to the entire time and began to say what sounded like one of the summoning rituals Aubri had seen in the script for the original movie. "Walter, come on, don't!" She called up to him. Her heart sped up and she held on to the shotgun a little tighter, ready to shoot if she needed to.
The stage started to shake and they all looked around, trying to figure out what would happen next. Dean whipped around as he saw three spirits appear and start walking towards them, "Aubri!" He yelled, "You better have been telling the truth earlier."
Aubri moved closer to Dean, holding up the shotgun and aiming at the advancing spirits, "I've got this," she said through gritted teeth, trying to keep her hands from shaking. Then the spirits disappeared one by one.
They all looked around at each other, not sure where the ghosts had disappeared to, when Sam went flying backwards. "SAM!" Dean yelled as he ran over to his brother. Aubri ran over to Dean, pushing Martin in front of her as they went. When they reached the brothers, Dean grabbed her arm and shoved her ahead of him roughly, "Come on, come on, move!" He ordered, running in the direction of the cabin on set.
When they got inside Sam slammed the door shut and Dean reloaded, mumbling what Aubri was sure some relevant movie quote to himself as he did so. Aubri turned around, shotgun still raised, only to see that the cabin was missing a crucial feature, a fourth wall. "Umm guys?" She said nervously as she backed away from the gaping hole where they should have been a wall.
"What?" Dean snapped, turning around only to see what she had just discovered, "Oh man!" He continued fumbling around with his shotgun, loading it while he kept an eye on their surroundings.
"I can't believe this," Martin said behind them, "ghosts are real!"
"What makes you say that?" Dean asked as Sam looked at Martin with disbelief evident in his eyes.
Aubri laughed to herself as she put her back to the wall, "Trust me Marty, ghosts aren't even the worst of it."
"So how is Walter controlling them?" Martin asked, his breathing slowing down.
"Probably that talisman." Sam said as he looked around. Then something clicked in his head and he quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
"I really don't think this is a good time for a phone call Sam." Aubri said nervously, looking at him out of the corner of her eye.
"Don't you think if film cameras can pick these suckers up then this is worth a try?" He explained. He raised the phone up and began to scan the room with it. Then he saw Billy coming towards Dean and Aubri. "Right there!" He yelled, pointing at the empty space directly in front of Aubri. She quickly pulled the trigger, blasting rock salt at what looked like nothing at all. "You got him." Sam said breathlessly.
Dean clapped her on the shoulder as Sam continued to scan the room, "Good job Aubs."
"Right there!" Sam shouted again. This time Dean shot at the empty space, but from what Sam saw on the screen of his phone, he had hit the spirit.
Aubri could hear quick footsteps coming from above them and looked up to see Walter running along the rafters, trying to get away without being noticed. "Sam!" She said, elbowing him quickly and gesturing upwards with her head.
Sam looked up and then handed the phone to Martin, "You get the idea, you guys just hold them off."
"I cannot believe there's an afterlife." Martin said disbelievingly as he scanned the room.
Dean cocked his gun again and got ready to shoot when Martin said to. "Oh there's an afterlife alright, but mostly it's a pain in the ass."
"There!" Martin yelled, pointing at thin air. Aubri and Dean both shot at the spot. "I… I can't see anymore, do you think they're gone?" He asked after scanning the room a few more times.
Aubri looked at Dean, eyebrows raised, "Do you really think Sam took care of it that fast?"
He grabbed her arm and pushed Martin in front of him, "Let's go find out." He said gruffly as he pulled her along.
When they busted through the door to the outside, the first thing Aubri saw was the broken talisman lying on the ground. Then she could hear Sam explaining to Walter how they were free now, how the spirits wouldn't be happy that he had made him kill. That's when Walter fell to the ground and started to scream as his back was ripped open. Martin lifted up the phone so he could see what was really happening to Walter and when Aubri saw the three spirits tearing away at the screaming man she gasped quietly, "Oh God," before putting her hand over her mouth and squeezing her eyes tightly shut.
Dean heard Aubri's whispered exclamation and put an arm around her, gently pulling her to his side as he clenched his jaw. Sure Walter hadn't been a stand-up guy, but no one deserved to go out like that, being ripped to shreds by something that he couldn't even see. Aubri buried her head in Dean's shoulder and he held her even tighter to his side as Walter's screams started to subside.
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She couldn't look away. All she wanted to do was look away and block out the screams, but she couldn't. She couldn't even blink. Her eyes were frozen open, staring at Walter's body being ripped to shreds while he screamed. She couldn't move and she couldn't help him; she was just as helpless as he was.
Aubri sat up in bed, gasping for air, as she was shaken awake by a hand on her shoulder. She wiped quickly at the tears that had escaped her eyes and then felt around on the bedside table for her glasses so she could see who had woken her up. "Here you go." Dean's gruff voice came from right next to her as her glasses were placed in her hands. "You ok?" He asked, worry evident on his tired face.
Aubri sniffed quietly, nodding her head, "Yeah, it was just a dream, I'm fine."
He raised his eyebrows, clearly doubting her, but he didn't press the matter further. "Ok, whatever you say." He settled back down in bed, getting ready to close his eyes.
"Dean?"
Aubri's voice sounded small and broken, tugging at Dean's heart, "Yeah Aubs?"
"Can you… can you just sit with me for a little while? I don't think I can go back to sleep just yet."
Dean rubbed his hand across his face and sat up in bed, scooting over to the opposite side, "Yeah, I just have one rule," Aubri's eyebrows rose as she waited to hear what he had to say, "no chick flick moments." Dean said seriously before patting the bed next to him.
A smile ghosted across Aubri's face before she got up and went to sit on the bed next to him, "Sure thing." She said quietly, settling back on the pillows.
"You wanna watch some TV? I bet there are some great George Foreman infomercials on right about now."
"It won't bug Sam? I already feel bad enough about waking you up." She asked, looking at him out of the corner of her eye.
"Sweetheart, if you haven't noticed by now, once he's out, he is done for until he wakes up bright and early." Dean said smirking.
Aubri laughed quietly, "Ok then, bring on the infomercials."
They sat in silence for a little while, just flipping through the channels. Dean looked over at Aubri for a moment and saw her chewing on her bottom lip as she focused on the TV, looking like she was holding something back. Probably cause you told her no chick flick moments. Then he had an idea, "How about, after we check everything out on set one last time, we stop by Bobby's and you can see the drool machine?"
Aubri's face lit up immediately, "That would be great!" She smiled at him, the first real smile she had given him since she watched what happened to Walter, "I could kiss you right now Winchester," she laughed when she saw a look that was a mix of confusion, panic, and satisfaction cross his face, "but you did say no chick flick moments." She kept smiling as she turned back to the TV, looking at him quickly out of the corner of her eye to see him looking at her like a confused puppy.
Dean shook his head; would she ever stop surprising him?
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The next morning Dean woke up in a tangle of sheets, his arm slung over something, no correct that, someone. Someone who had one of their legs thrown over his and their head tucked under his chin, blonde hair spread out like a halo. Wait, I didn't bring a blonde home last night. Then he realized just who the girl in his arms really was, Aubri. He sat up quickly, pushing her away from him.
The shove from Dean shocked Aubri awake and she sat up, eyes wide with confusion and glasses sitting crookedly on the end of her nose. She had been perilously close to the edge of the bed before she woke up and the force of her sitting up quickly took her over the edge and onto the floor. "What the hell?" She questioned, looking around, glasses close to falling off before she pushed them up.
"You fell asleep. I fell asleep." Dean explained.
Aubri couldn't understand the panicked look that was on Dean's face, but she felt her own heat up at the realization that she had spent the night in the same bed as Dean, of all people. "Oh…" she nodded her head slowly.
A muffled grunt came from the foot of Aubri's bed and Sam sat up slowly, "Why are you on the floor?" He questioned sleepily, rubbing his eyes before running his hand through his hair that was sticking up in every which way.
"I fell," Aubri explained, eyes still on Dean who was looking right back at her with an odd expression on his face.
Dean's stomach was turning over and over. There were so many problems with what had just happened: one, a girl had spent an entire night in his bed; two, he didn't have a chance to take off before she woke up; three, he had been cuddling; four, it was Aubri; and five, he had been cuddling… and enjoying it! Aubri was looking at him with a look on his face that he was sure mirrored his. A look of confusion, slight disgust, and slightly pleased. Why were either one of them pleased about what happened? Dean stood up and hurried towards the bathroom, nudging Sam with his foot as he passed him. "Let's get a move on you two so we can check out the set one last time and get the hell outta here." Once the door was shut behind him, Dean put his hands on either side of the sink and looked at his reflection, "Get it together Winchester." He ordered, but he couldn't, his mind just kept going back to that feeling he had felt before he realized how wrong it was that Aubri was in his bed.
He had felt content, hell, he had felt happy. He shook his head and splashed some water on his face; he didn't deserve that feeling, not with her. She didn't belong with him or in this life; she was just passing through until she found a way back to her world. She was too good for him. He took a deep breath through his nose and exhaled before exiting the bathroom.
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Sam and Aubri were watching a scene being shot after walking around the set one last time, double checking EMF and everything else. Dean had disappeared almost as soon as they got there, mumbling something about going to find something to eat. He still hadn't shown up and missed out on seeing what had happened to the just the night before be made into part of the movie. "You find out there's an afterlife and this is what you do with it?" Sam asked Martin, arms crossed over his chest.
"I needed to jazz it up a little bit." Martin said, grinning shamelessly.
Aubri shook her head and pulled on Sam's sleeve to get his attention, "Let's go find your shithead of a brother now."
They looked all around Stage 9 without finding him before deciding to just head back to the Impala and wait for him there. As they walked past on of the trailers, the door swung open, catching Aubri's shoulder and throwing her back onto the concrete, "What the fuck?!" She exclaimed, looking up only to find Sam looking down at her with concern on his face while Dean, who was fixing his jacket, hadn't even noticed Aubri was now on the ground, for the second time this morning.
To top it all off, Tara Bensley emerged to stand on the steps of her trailer, in a robe, "You're one hell of a PA." She said, smiling widely at Dean.
"Thank you." Aubri heard him reply as Sam helped her up. She brushed her hands off on her pants before storming past Dean, purposely bumping into him as she passed. Her face was burning as she made her way to the Impala, people moving out her way to avoid the tiny ball of fury that she had turned into.
Dean laughed at Sam as he turned to make his way back to the car, trying to act like he hadn't noticed what had happened with Aubri. After what had happened this morning, Dean had known just what he needed, so when Tara suggested they go to her trailer to "look at some of the dailies", of course he didn't refuse.
Sam glared at the back at his brother's head as they neared the Impala and he saw Aubri sitting in the back, arms crossed over her chest as she fumed. Before Dean crossed over to his side of the car, Sam reached out and smacked the back of his head, "Nice going man." He muttered, feeling kind of bad for Aubri.
"Dude, what the hell?" Dean exclaimed, looking at Sam with a look of shock and confusion on his face, even though he already knew what he had done.
Well that's it for Hollywood Babylon. I'm still trying to figure out what I am going to do for Folsom Prison Blues, because I really want to include that episode. Let me know if you have any suggestions and let me know what you thought of this chapter. As always, review at will!
ALSO BABY ACKLES WILL GRACE THE WORLD WITH HIS OR HER PRESCENCE THIS YEAR! PARDON ME WHILE I EXPLODE WITH JOY AND HAPPINESS!