Thanks to all who've been reading and commenting, sorry this update was so long in coming, my internet was down! Especially thanks to SupernaturalSam for her wonderful work as Beta!
Dean sat on a rock, elbow propped against one knee, head resting against his upturned palm. His other hand was against the rock, fingers drumming in no particular rhythm.
It was…ugly…outstandingly ugly. If he hadn't been looking at it for the last ten minutes or so, he'd have never believed it. And damn, the thing was ugly!
Clearing his throat, getting the ugly spud's attention, Dean gave it his most menacing glare. "Where am I? More importantly, where is my brother, where's Sam?"
"You right under brother's nose." Its sing-song, too cutesy voice for its face and body grated on Dean's last nerve.
"Sure hope he doesn't get the sniffles." Dean dug his flask out of his pocket, opened it, and took a sip.
"Sammy's got a secret."
"Umhum. Don't we all? Where is he? If you hurt him, I'll rip your head off with my bare hands. You just stay away from my brother."
The troll sat, cross-legged in front of Dean, but out of reach. Dean's eyes narrowed, he watched the thing's face, which gave him very little clues. Extending his arm he offered the flask. Silly troll took it too. He had to make a real effort to keep the smirk from his face.
It made what Dean took to be some sort of sour face, hard to tell on a troll, cocked its head to one side in a gesture that reminded him a bit too much of Sam, "All in there you got is water?" Trolls, it seemed, were totally unaffected by holy water.
Smiling Dean took back his flask, fished the other one out of the other pocket, offering it to the troll. "Here, maybe you'll like this one better?"
The troll took the offering, taking a deep drink. "Better, much better. Like this. Sammy has a secret."
Dean sighed, "So you said."
"Daddy died, Sammy knows."
"Yeeaaahhhh…." Dean took back his flask, wiped off the opening and took another sip. He held it back out to the troll. "Dean knows too, that's not a big secret, we were both there. Try again dude."
Sitting perfectly still, only Dean's eyes followed the troll as it danced around. The troll took two drinks from the flask.
"Sammy should tell Dean."
Smiling Dean shook his head, retrieved his flask, wiped, and another sip for himself. "Sammy tells Dean everything, some days the boy never shuts up. And you'd better not let him hear you call him Sammy, makes him irritable. He might just squash you."
Getting close enough to Dean to snatch the flask away, the troll put it to his lips again. Then snarled and held the flask up side down, shaking it. "All gone."
"So aren't I supposed to answer a question or play with a billy goat or something? Cause dude, my kid brother is up there, probably freaked the hell right out, and frankly I'm not spending forever down here. Where am I anyway?"
"Under brother's nose."
Scratching the back of his head, Dean sighed deep and heavy.
"Only have to answer question, can have brother back."
Dean straightened, "What do you mean have him back? Where is he, what did you do with him?"
"Brother right where you left him, brother fine." The troll staggered, dropping to the ground drunkenly.
"Ask the question." Dean snapped. "Or let me out and I'll get you more of that." He dipped his head at the empty flask still gripped in the troll's spiny fingers.
The troll looked from Dean to the flask and back again. Brother for booze, not a bad trade Dean reasoned, making a mental note not to actually tell Sam what the trade was.
"Sammy knows about daddy. Sammy has a secret."
Dean stood up, snatched his flask from the ugly thing, "You know what? I don't care. And, for the record, I get to call him Sammy not you!" Holding up the flask, waggling it back and forth a few times, "Want more or not?"
"Secret make Dean angry, very angry at Sammy. Not want to talk to Sammy."
Hunkering down so he was face to face with the troll, Dean shook his head. "Not going to happen."
"Sammy has a secret, knows about daddy."
Standing to his full height, throwing both hands in the air, Dean shouted, "I don't care!"
"Bring more?" The troll tapped the flask.
"You bet I will, ten minutes, and I'll be back."
In the next instant Dean was back, next to the bridge, muttering, "Stupid thing," then, "That was different."
Sam finished the sigils on the right pylon, glancing at the opening to the bridge. He'd have to go through and cross to the other side. Taking one step, his foot stopped before it hit the old wood of the bridge. He backed up a few steps, looking again at the opening.
"Ok, Sam, get a grip, you're being silly." He said aloud. Dean was definitely going to call him a girl for this. Tapping the chalk against the palm of his other hand Sam began to pace back and forth in front of the bridge. Why was he so sure the thing was going to eat him whole, it was just a bridge? But, he did have to free Dean before he finished the sigils, he was quite sure of that fact.
Secret, what secret? "Sammy's clueless." Scratching the back of his head he paced, and thought, what secret did he have to tell Dean? "Hey, Dean, remember when you were ten, and you got into trouble because you left the ammo in the wrong place? I did that." Turning a slow circle, no Dean. "Well, what else? Ummm….I know you love me more than the car, but only slightly." He talked louder. Raising his voice more, "I…um…filled up with the wrong grade gas last week, but since you love me more than the car, it's ok, right?"
No Dean. Sam was running out of secrets.
"I sent that Cathy chick you had the hots for when you were seventeen the Valentine's card." He dropped his voice to a mumble, "The one that made her never talk to you again."
He was getting desperate, turning a circle, hands out, "Would a hug once and a while kill you?" Actually a question not an admission, but Dean would get the point and understand.
Five minutes more of pacing and thinking, Sam had come up with no better secrets. Nothing came to mind about their father's dying that he and Dean hadn't talked about, but was there something? Was there something unimportant to Sam, which would matter to Dean? Or something Sam had maybe not mentioned, then disregarded purposely? Something he knew Dean didn't? Dean was still pretty prickly on the subject, so Sam, liking his teeth and face the way they were, avoided it.
It nagged at his brain, chewing a small hole through his mind. Something he knew, Dean didn't, something his father had….Sam sucked in his breath and felt a bit light headed. He'd told Dean, he was sure, or had he glossed it over? Had Dean not seen the true ramifications? Probably not, since it was just now sinking into Sam's mind, and Dean had been unconscious at the time, and was still prickly on the subject and Sam never brought it up after those first few days, and…CRAP!
Sam nearly jumped out of his skin and passed out when a firm hand grabbed his arm and yanked him around, then along toward the snapping jaws of the bridge entrance.
"Dean! Where…how…I thought…"
"Sammy, we've got…" Dean glanced at his watch, "Eight and a half minutes, shut up, give me some chalk, we need to get down to the other end and draw!"
Standing there with his mouth open wasn't very helpful; neither was just standing there while Dean ran right onto the bridge with the snapping jaws. Turning he barked at Sam to put a move on. Following, Sam hesitated at the bridge's entrance, somewhat reluctant to cross. Dean's voice from half way across, again telling him to hurry, to follow him, got Sam's feet moving. With one final, wary glance at the opening, hoping the jaws didn't snap shut on them both Sam sprinted after his brother. When they were on the other side Sam felt silly, of course the bridge had stayed a plain wooden, creaky, old bridge. He dug the box of chalk from his pocket, tossing it to Dean's waiting hands.
They started marking the sigils, each one taking a pylon.
"How'd you get out? What did you have to tell him…her…it….whatever?"
Dean grinned wickedly. "Got the thing plastered on Jack, then when my flask was empty I promised to be back in ten minutes with more. It kept rambling on about some secret you know, but I said I didn't care."
"Dean." Sam stopped, immensely relieved to hear Dean didn't care about what Sam knew or didn't know. Which was odd, since Sam still wasn't positive what this secret was, but he was positive it had the potential for causing big trouble. "If you promised it you'd be back in ten minutes and you're not, it'll just come after you and probably won't let you go a second time so easily." A twinge of fear threaded through his chest, he pushed it away.
"Sam, keep drawing. I know. That's the plan."
"We have a plan?"
"No, I have a plan. You've been fumbling around up here in the dark. Don't mark the last one till I tell you to."
"And how did you come up with this plan?"
Dean smirked, "It just sort of popped into my head. What can I say? I'm that damn good."
Sam rolled his eyes and groaned, "Excuse me while I go vomit." He turned when he felt Dean's hand grip his elbow, moving him along, back onto the bridge.
"Stay on the bridge, don't get off, no matter what happens." Dean drew the final sigil on Sam's pylon. He handed Sam the flask and jerked his chin toward the middle of the bridge. "We need the little guy to come get his whiskey. And Sammy, no matter what, you stay on this bridge until I tell you otherwise."
"Why?"
"It can't do anything as long as we're on the bridge."
"How do you know?"
Dean shrugged, "I don't know, I just do. The trap is on the bridge, so it makes sense I guess."
Sam admitted as much, and didn't admit, at least not out loud to Dean, his brother was usually right about these things.
"Sam. Stay on the bridge. No matter what." Dean held up one finger and enunciated every word, using the tone of voice that told Sam arguing or not doing as requested would lead to more trouble than anything supernatural could dish out at him. When Dean talked like that, he meant it, and going against his brother at time like this was something Sam never really considered. Funny thing was, he'd often realized, if his father or anyone else had spoken to him in that manner, Sam would have done what they said not to, just to prove he could. When it came down to it, was really important, Sam rarely, if ever, questioned Dean, especially during a hunt. Sam never thought much about or questioned why he accepted Dean's authority, possibly because Dean quite readily accepted Sam's input, and in most cases explained his motives and reasons. Sam may have been raised predominantly by this brother, but that same brother never treated him like a child, even when Sam had been a child. What Sam thought and felt was always valued by Dean.
So when Dean said stay on the bridge, Sam decided staying on the bridge was wise and prudent. Baiting the troll with the flask is what Sam would be doing. Dean never wanted to risk Sam more by putting him in actual danger, in this case danger of being sucked under ground to wherever the troll had taken Dean.
"I will. You're going to stay on it too, right?" There was no reason Sam couldn't expect the same thing of Dean his brother did of him.
Dean gave him a swift, searching look, immediately acknowledging Sam's apprehension. "That is the plan, Sammy. Don't worry."
Sam exhaled, relieved. Dean glanced at his watch, eyes shifting quickly back to Sam's. Moving back to the far pylons, Dean hung over the edge for a look around before leaning against the pylon he'd been marking on. He held one finger up, then after a second pressed it to his lips. Sam understood perfectly. After what Sam suspected was ten minutes since Dean reappeared he heard rustling in the shrubs, then the slapping of bare feet along the ground.
"Sammy's got a secret."
Sam's eyes met Dean's, he shrugged, palms up he scrunched his nose and made a 'who knows' face. Holding the flask chest high, he waved it around a bit. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, we've been there, done that. I answered your question, so let us go."
The troll stopped beside Dean, looking up at him in what Sam could only guess was a mixture of annoyance and victory. It was difficult to tell on a troll. "You promised to bring me something back. Promise broke."
Dean grinned, "Nope, not broken." He tipped his chin at Sam, "He's got it right there. Go get it from him."
Smiling broadly, looking friendly and innocent, Sam held out the flask. "Here. All yours."
Looking from one brother to the other, the troll didn't move for a few seconds, and Sam was beginning to think Dean's plan might not work. Moving its upper body in something resembling a shrug the troll gave Dean one last leer, and trotted towards Sam. Hanging onto the pylon with one hand, Dean swung his upper body around, feet still planted on the bridge, and drew the final sigil. Righting and turning back to Sam and the troll when he heard Sam's voice, and probably the tinge of panic in it Sam reasoned.
The troll's snout had grown not one, but several impressive sets of teeth. It might have been half Sam's height, but it was moving at him with lightening speed looking plenty menacing and plain scary. Sam looked around as he backed up. He could only get so far from the troll, the bridge wasn't that big. When the troll roared some high pitched screech Sam started backpedaling, trying to hedge around it, and closer to Dean.
"Dean!"
"Sam, run! RUN!" Dean straightened, and was running hard at Sam inside of two seconds. "Jump! Get off now!"
Dean didn't use words like 'run, jump, stay, stop or down' because he could. He usually had good reason, and the harsh quality of his voice only added to Sam's haste. When Dean said those words, in that way, Sam never, ever questioned or thought or resisted. Sam did. He bolted down the bridge, hearing the troll's footfalls right behind him. Swerving to his right he grabbed the bridge railing. It was awkward, trying to duck his upper body under the cover part of the bridge, and vault his long legs over the railing, but he managed to get himself clear. His jump and subsequent landing was less than graceful, and not in the least organized. He slipped on the wet stream bottom, lost his balance and ended up flat on his back in chilly, icy waters.
Running first at the troll, then back the way he'd come, Dean was finally able to dodge around the thing coming at him with surprising speed. "Sammy?"
No doubt Dean heard the rather large splash Sam made hitting the water. "I'm wet." The sun was coming up. Standing, Sam shook water from his hair.
Dean ran full tilt the length of the bridge, he and the screaming, nasty, ugly troll getting there in what would have been a great photo finish had this been the Kentucky Derby. The troll couldn't cross onto the ground, the sigils held it trapped. Dean, however could, but wasn't quite fast enough. Colliding with the first rays of sunlight the troll solidified into granite, clunked on the bridge and rolled…..right onto Dean's foot.
"Aww…for the love of….you've got to be kidding….SAAAUUUMMMYYYYYY!!!!!! Get this thing off me!" Dean dropped to the ground, yanking on his ankle in an attempt to free his stuck foot. "I'm gonna beat the crap out of you for this!"
"Me?!" Sam lumbered out of the stream, shivering. He shook more water off.
"Yes, you. This is.." he waved at his trapped foot. "…your fault, this was your bright idea. Will you stop shaking off water like an overgrown golden retriever?"
"I'm wet." Sam complained.
"Shut up and get this freaky thing off me."
Sam laughed, he couldn't help it. Dean growled, which only made Sam laugh harder. When Dean glowered at him Sam managed a more contrite expression. "Ok, ok, give me a minute to find something to lift with. You know threatening to beat me up isn't great incentive." A minute's worth of scouting the area produced nothing helpful. "Where's the keys?"
"Where are yours?"
"Left them at home."
More growling as Dean dug the car keys from his pocket, tossed them to Sam's waiting at-a-respectable-distance hand. Sam grinned, "I'll be right back, going to get a crow bar."
When Sam jogged back to his brother Dean looked even more pissed, if that was if all possible.
"Wait a minute." Dean slid his jacket off, threw it at Sam, hitting him in the head with it. "Put that on before you freeze. So help me you get a stain on it and I'll…."
Sam wedged the crowbar under the stony troll. "You'll what D-dean? You're sssstuck under this r-rock." His teeth were starting to chatter, pulling the warm jacket on, Sam took a few deep breaths. Giving a push, grunting under the strain Sam lifted the troll far enough that Dean could slide his food free.
"Ooowwww" Dean grumbled, yanking his foot out and boot off, he rubbed his foot and toes. "Got any paper? Pen?"
"Yeah, th-think so." Sam patted his jeans and sweatshirt pockets, extracting the requested objects.
Dean scribbled on the paper, grinning he held it out for Sam to see. Sam burst out laughing, Dean had written a note he put under the turned-to-stone troll…Question answered! Pulling up on Sam's offered hand Dean grumbled more, making Sam smile more. "Come on, let's get back to the car, you're going to get sick, or freeze or both."
Sam shivering and chattering and Dean limping from a bruised foot, not really so bad on the hunt hurt scale. Sam settled happily in the Impala, Dean had the heat cranked up full, was still bitching at Sam about his foot while he tucked the jacket around Sam a little tighter. Sam bunched the soft leather in both fists. "Thanks."
"You get it dirty, you're getting it cleaned." More growling. Maybe someday Sam would tell him he'd figured out the growl long ago.
"I wasn't talking about just the jacket."
Dean looked sidelong at him, reaching out and patting Sam's knee, he nodded. They drove most the way back in relative silence. Sam stole a glance at his brother every few minutes. Dean wore an expression that told Sam he was mulling something over. Asking would do Sam no good. Waiting, being patient, was what would provide results. Dean would tell him what was on his mind, he always did, eventually. It might come out at the most unsuspected time, but Dean for all his bravado and wall building was an open book to Sam. Dean really didn't keep things from Sam, he didn't share them immediately, often wanting time to think them through. Sam was amazed really Dean had managed to keep their father's revelation to himself for as long as he had.
"So what was it?"
"Humm?" Sam turned to his brother. This time he wasn't going to have to wait so long he sensed.
"The secret you have, the question you answered, what was it?"
"I thought you didn't care?"
"I told the troll I didn't care." Dean took his eyes from the road, gave Sam a meaningful look before looking forward again. "Well?"
Sam had never been so happy to be sitting as he was at that moment. Feeling a bit queasy, and dizzy Sam focused out the front window, resisted the urge to wipe a hand over his face or through his hair. He shrugged in what he hoped was a nonchalant manner. He'd buried it, what he knew, what he'd done. Hadn't done was more the accurate case. Nothing could be changed. He'd never intended Dean to know, not ever. He'd not once looked back, made such an effort to forget, push it to the back of his mind he'd actually blocked it out until tonight. It would be trouble beyond trouble Sam knew. He'd made a choice, the right choice he knew deep in his heart. Never once had Sam doubted it was his only choice. He'd bury it again keep it secret no matter how old he lived to be. No good would come of it being revealed. None, never.
"I don't know, something stupid probably. He was a troll, what's the difference?"
"It said you knew something about Dad, when he died."
"You were there, you know everything I do. Well, you actually knew more." Sam stared out the passenger window now, trying to look like he was sulking.
Dean wasn't buying it. "Sam, a good part of that time I was in a coma."
"I don't know." Sam snapped. "I told you what happened then. What difference would it make anyway?" That was the wrong thing to say, and Sam knew it. The look on Dean's face told him his brother wasn't going to forget this, or let it drop anytime soon. Sam's only hope was that he didn't crack and could just weather this little storm long enough for Dean to give up, or for Sam to come up with something convincible.
Following Dean up the steps to their apartment Sam shivered as the wind picked up. He stopped and turned, looking around, swearing he heard a voice.
Sammy's got a secret.