Title: Whatever It Takes [6/?]
Author: alakewood
Warnings: Spoilers for Jump the Shark, The Rapture and When the Levee Breaks; with a few lines of dialogue quoted from The Rapture.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1200+
Summary: Sam, Dean, and Adam return to Bobby's where Sam is promptly locked up in the panic room. AU of the end of The Rapture through the beginning of When the Levee Breaks.
Disclaimer: As always, I own nothing.
oxoxo
Adam wondered if there had ever been relaxed silences between Sam and Dean as they traveled from state to state in their father's car. At first, he thought it was merely his presence that caused the tenseness, but after what had happened earlier that night, he knew that Sam and Dean were more than capable of creating it without his help.
It seemed that this thing with Sam had been a long time coming, just a culmination of his weird behavior that had been going on for a long time considering the lack of surprise on Dean's face when he'd caught sight of Sam's bloodied one.
"Let's hear it," Sam had said not long after they'd returned to the Impala.
But Dean had had nothing to say and the silence that had merely been tense became impossibly strained.
When they were just over an hour out from Sioux Falls, Bobby called Sam's cell. Whatever was going on sounded urgent – Adam could hear Bobby telling Sam that they'd better haul ass. The engine roared a little louder as Dean sped up, the need for a purpose or to escape the stressed quiet making his foot heavy on the gas pedal. And Adam couldn't blame him – he wasn't exactly one-hundred percent certain what was going on with Sam, but the fact that his brother was drinking blood - demon blood, no less – like some kind of vampire was definitely bad. It was obvious that Dean was terrified about what Sam's behavior meant and whatever he was becoming.
But Adam had been catching little glimpses of Sam and, while he wasn't any more sure of Sam's side of the story than he was of Dean's, he knew that Sam had to have some kind of reason (however deluded) for doing what he was. Which, Adam suddenly realized, he didn't even know what it even was.
Bobby met them at the door, quickly ushering them inside, talking more pointedly to Sam than to anybody else. "Downstairs. Come on."
Adam cast a sidelong glance at Dean, the dimness of the hallway keeping the motion somewhat hidden. Dean looked...expectant. And slightly nervous. Then Bobby stopped in front of a large steel door at the end of the hall, still talking to Sam as he opened it. "Go on inside, I wanna show you something."
Around Dean and between Sam and Bobby, Adam could see markings on the floor or the room beyond, odd shadows moving across it. "All right," Sam said, walking into the room. "Uh, what's the big demon problem?"
"You are," Bobby replied. "This is for your own good."
Dean helped Bobby close the heavy door before Sam had any time to react.
"Guys? Hey! This isn't funny," Sam yelled.
Adam was beyond confused as he watched Bobby close the small view window in the door, briefly locking gazes with an even more confused Sam. "Whoa. What are you guys doing?" He turned to his brother. "Dean?"
"It's for his own good," Dean said, echoing Bobby's words.
oxo
Sam's yelling hadn't lasted very long but, even so, Adam couldn't sleep just knowing that Sam had been locked up in Bobby's basement. He stayed in bed as long as he could, but it couldn't have been much past seven or eight when he heard Dean's footsteps creaking down the upstairs hall, so he got up and followed Dean down to the kitchen. "Coffee?" Dean offered, pausing in the middle of returning the coffee pot to the warmer.
Adam shook his head, opting to sit at the kitchen table. "No thanks. I'm good."
Dean set the pot down and leaned against the counter, holding his mug between both of his hands. "You okay?"
Adam yawned, scrubbing his hands over his face. "Just tired. Couldn't sleep."
Dean nodded. "Yeah. Short night."
"Rough night." He shook his head again. "What's going on with Sam? What's with locking him up like that?"
Dean sighed heavily, setting his mug of coffee down on the table before he slid into the chair across from Adam. "I-I don't know what's going with him. With anything anymore. You saw him last night – drinking that demon bitch's blood. I don't know what he's doing anymore." Wearily, he rubbed a hand over his face before sliding it through his already somewhat disheveled hair. "Alastair should've been a clue, but..." He trailed off. "Look, all you need to know is that Sam's...sick. Whatever he's been doing is making him sick. And it's the blood that's doing it. It's poison. He's gotta dry out. Sober up. Get better."
"Yeah." Adam pushed his chair away from the table and stood. "Well, I saw what he did to Jimmy's wife last night. How he saved her. Maybe what he's been doing to himself isn't all that bad."
Dean made an indignant sound, his mouth falling open as his eyebrows drew together. "How could you- Yeah, so you read Dad's journal, but that doesn't mean you understand what's going on here."
"Do you even know what's going on here?" He bit at his lip as he started for the dining room, nearly backing up right into Bobby. "Maybe you can talk to him."
oxo
Bobby set Adam up at the dining room table with a short stack of books about seals and the apocalypse and demons while he and Dean spoke in hushed tones in the kitchen. Shortly before noon, Dean disappeared to the basement and couldn't have been down there much longer than five minutes. But it was plenty enough time to get Sam yelling.
Adam tried to ignore it, immersing himself in the musty-smelling books.
But, a few hours later, long after Sam had gone silent, he suddenly started screaming and Adam couldn't ignore it anymore. He went into the kitchen to confront Bobby and Dean. "What's going on down there?"
Dean and Bobby shared a glance. "It's probably just withdrawal," Dean said uncertainly.
"Just let him out already. I think you've proved your point."
"I'm not gonna lose Sam. Not to this." Dean's jaw was set, the muscles twitching.
"So you lock him up against his will to try to make him see it your way? All you're gonna succeed in doing is pushing him even further away."
And if that didn't sound like the tried and true Winchester way, Dean didn't know what was.
Adam shook his head slowly. "I'm not gonna be a part of this. Can't. Won't."
There was a flash of something dark and indefinite in Dean's eyes. He shrugged. "Then don't be."
"I hope that bird around your neck doesn't make you drown." Adam stormed out of the kitchen and up to his room.
oxo
"Come on, Cas! You son-of-a-bitch. Where the hell are you?!" Dean turned completely around, scanning the dark salvage yard for any signs of Castiel's presence. He was preparing to yell again when he heard the familiar flutter associated with Cas's arrival and turned again to see the angel standing in front of the girders at the end of a rack of compacted cars and parts. "Well, it's about time. I've been screaming myself hoarse for about two and a half hours now."
