Title: Whatever It Takes [7/?]
Author: alakewood
Warnings: Spoilers for Jump the Shark and When the Levee Breaks, but goes even more AU.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1000+
Summary: AU of When the Levee Breaks. Adam doesn't agree with what Dean's doing to their brother.
Disclaimer: As always, I own nothing.

oxoxo

As Cas began to close the distance between them, Dean noticed that the expression on his face appeared just as hard and cold as it had been back in the warehouse in Pontiac. It made Dean uneasy. But the look softened as Cas stood before him, melted into something pained and ashamed. Whatever Cas was going to tell him in Illinois, well he was never going to learn what it was now.

Cas turned away, voice becoming as hard as his expression had been. "Get to the reason you really called me. It's about Sam, right?"

Of course it was. But Cas had nothing to tell him that he didn't already know. There were things he wasn't willing to accept, and the thing that Sam would surely become if he continued down his current path...Dean refused to let it happen.

And Cas gave him the out he needed. "We believe it's you, Dean, not your brother."

Anything to save Sam, so Dean readily agreed. Made promises to a God he wasn't sure he believed in, swore to 'obey God's will' just as he would've his own father's. And that was all there was to it, then Cas disappeared again.

oxo

As soon as he woke up, Adam could hear Bobby and Dean arguing downstairs, something about Dean "willingly signing up to be the angels' bitch," which had honestly made him chuckle to himself. But other things that filtered through the floor, "What other option do I have?" and "...or let Sammy trust a demon?", made the muscles in his shoulders and the back of his neck tense with anxiety. He could see Dean's side of the situation, could somewhat understand what he was feeling, but, at the same time, didn't know how Dean could simply lock Sam – screaming for his life – away.

But the argument faded away, replaced by the sound of two sets of boots running across the wood floors in what passed for Bobby's library. The urgency of their footfalls had Adam on his feet and following within seconds and he found himself in the basement, behind Dean and Bobby, at the heavy iron door to the panic room. He couldn't see anything, but heard Sam making choking sounds in the room beyond.

"What if he's faking?"

"Do you really think he would..."

"I think he'd do anything-"

But Dean's doubts of their brother's condition were interrupted by a loud metallic thud as something hit one of the walls, hard. "That ain't fakin'," Bobby said, just before Dean started turning the handle on the door.

Adam watched with something like horror as Sam rolled along the wall, watched Dean and Bobby each grab an arm and pry him off it and force him to the floor. Sam's body kept arching up as though he were seizing, which Bobby must've thought, too, because he's pulled his belt off and shoved the leather into Sam's mouth.

"We're gonna have to tie him down for his own safety," Bobby said, struggling with Sam.

The look on Dean's face was one of abject fear as he stared down at his convulsing brother.

It didn't take long for them to get Sam handcuffed to the cot in the middle of the room. Adam retreated back upstairs and couldn't look his brother or Bobby in the eye as they passed him in the kitchen. He shook his head, taking a seat at the table, wondering how his life had become this, and listened as Bobby tried to figure out if Dean really knew what he was doing to Sam. What they were doing to Sam.

"No. I'm not giving him demon blood – I won't do it."

"And if he dies?"

"At least he dies human!"

Adam could hear the anguish and fear in Dean's voice, had to wonder if that was anything like it sounded when Dean pleaded with Cas to have him resurrected. He somehow doubted it, knew that the connection Dean and Sam had was more than what he would ever have with either of his brothers.

"I won't let my brother turn into a monster," Dean said.

oxo

Neither Bobby or Dean paid much attention to him, were both focused on phone calls and books, trying to ignore the murmurs of Sam's voice that occasionally made their way upstairs.

The day wore on and darkness fell, both Dean and Bobby falling asleep in the library. Adam snuck down to the the basement and stood outside the door to the panic room. As he reached for the handle on the door, he heard four soft, metallic snicks from the other side, as though the handcuffs on Sam's wrists and ankles were unlocking.

"Hello?" Sam called warily, not sounding possessed or drugged-out or anything out of the ordinary.

"It's just me. How'd you...?" Adam gestured towards the cot.

Sam shook his head. "I don't know. What are you doing down here?"

"I was going to...let you out. I can understand what Dean's doing, but I don't agree with it. Bobby doesn't either. They're both asleep upstairs, so we can sneak out of here." For the first time, Adam felt a tenuous link to Sam.

"We?"

"Yeah. I feel kind of responsible for all this. Everything that happened with Jimmy and Castiel. If I hadn't been there, this might not've happened to you."

"This has been going on since before you got here, Adam," Sam told him, starting for the stairs.

"At least let me come with. Let me help."

"No. I gotta do this on my own. If you know what's good for you, you won't tell Dean that you let me out. Don't tell him a thing."

Adam watched Sam quietly jog up the stairs, followed moments later, but, from the doorway, heard the squeak of metal as the panic room door closed, the locking turning back into place. He headed back down a couple of steps. "Hello?" he called out quietly, peering through the dimness of the basement, leaning over the rail to to look under the stairs.

He though he saw something tan flutter in the shadows, heard a faint ripple of cloth, but he couldn't be certain. He retreated back upstairs, through the kitchen, and up to his room, hoping that, in letting Sam go, he'd done the right thing.