Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural.
Mary took a deep breath, her hand raised. She flexed her fingers before balling it back into a fist.
She could do this, she told herself. They were her children. She was their mother.
And yet she stood outside of their door, preparing to knock but too nervous to go through with it. Like a stranger. They were still… strangers.
They always would be if she didn't knock. If she didn't finally accept their offer of being welcomed in their home. So she took a deep breath and brought her fist down on the door, hoping it'd be loud enough that they'd hear it from wherever they were inside the bunker.
It was their angel friend, Castiel, who opened the door, looking more ragged than she imagined an angel ever could.
"Mary?" he asked. He looked like he'd been sleeping in the same clothes for weeks with how wrinkled they were. His necktie was half-undone. His hair stuck out at every angle. She imagined his eyes would have been bloodshot and laden with dark circles underneath had he been human.
Her boys told her angels didn't need to sleep, but Cas looked like he could use a good twelve hours of it.
"Uh, hello, Castiel," she said. "I came to see my boys. Are they here?"
He kept the door open and stepped aside. "You should come in," he said.
She followed him down the staircase and to the bunker's library, where books laid scattered across every surface. Some opened. Some closed.
"Are they on a hunt?" she asked. If that was the case, whatever they were hunting had to be rare given the evidence of mass research filling the room.
She picked up a book and flipped through the pages, surprised to find that it wasn't about anything remotely supernatural. Turning to face Cas, she asked, "Why are they reading a book called Hidden Prisons in the US: Places They Don't Want You to Know About?" She set the book down and looked at the others around it. "All of them are like this? Cas, what the hell is going on?"
"Sam and Dean aren't on a hunt," he said. "They were arrested."
"Arrested?"
She knew that some hunters had issues with the law, mostly because their job sometimes required breaking it (most times required breaking it), but how much trouble did her boys get into that Cas resorted to using books about places that weren't supposed to exist to try and find them?
"They expelled Lucifer from the president," Cas said, "but his security detail must have walked in on them making sure he was okay after the possession. I didn't even know they didn't make it out, not until I starting hearing their prayers. Though their lack of communication beforehand did worry me."
Their lack of communication should have worried Mary, too. Her stomach felt sour at the thought that she couldn't remember how long it'd been since she was in contact with either of them, and the fact that it hadn't raised any suspicion.
She'd just let it go. Brushed it off and thought they were simply giving her the space for which she asked or off on a longer hunt.
"How long?" she asked. She didn't really want to know, but she needed the answer.
"Six weeks," Cas said. "Six weeks, two days, and ten hours."
"Oh, God," Mary breathed out. She sank into a nearby chair. Six weeks. Her boys were gone for six weeks, and she didn't even notice.
What kind of mother was she?
"They've been praying to you?"
"Yes," Cas said. "But they have sigils etched on their ribs that hide them from me, and they, themselves, don't know where they're being kept."
"Are they okay?"
"Dean is restless and complains that he's bored."
Mary smiled a bit at that. She didn't know Dean well, but she remembered how he had to keep moving around when they were searching for Sam. She remembered how he looked like he was ready to climb the walls, and how she sometimes felt the same way.
"And Sam?" she asked.
Cas looked uncertain for a moment. Of what, she didn't know.
"He tells me that our plan didn't work and Lucifer is not in The Cage," Cas said.
Lucifer existing was a lot to take in, but Dean briefed her about it (and a whole lot of other topics) a little bit during the time she stayed at the bunker immediately after her resurrection. He did tell her that Lucifer was in a cage in Hell, then released, then returned, then released again.
It was more complicated than any hunt she remembered doing before her death, and another reminder that she'd been pulled back into a world she no longer understood.
"How could he know that?"
"I don't know," Cas said.
She may not have known him for very long, but she could still spot lies. She grew up learning to spot things normal people couldn't.
"You're lying to me."
"Dean says that sometimes it's better to lie than tell the truth."
Mary sighed. "Just tell me, Castiel. Please, they're my sons."
"If Lucifer truly is not in The Cage and has not found another vessel, then I fear he may be circling Sam."
"Why?"
Cas looked anywhere except at her. "That doesn't matter right now. We should focus on finding them, and I have an idea of who can help us."
Mary found herself sitting at the kitchen table of the bunker with an angel, a demon (claiming to be the King of Hell), and his witch mother (literally a witch, she wasn't just being mean).
She felt more like she was in the set-up of a bad joke.
"You have got to be kidding me," Rowena said. "You want me to track two men, and one of them may or may not have Lucifer circling him? He should be back in his cage. The spell went perfectly."
"Apparently not, if Lucifer isn't in The Cage. Which was the entire point of the spell in the first place," Crowley said.
Rowena glared at him, and Mary wondered how they were mother and son. At the same time, their relationship felt as distant as hers did with Sam and Dean. She would like to keep the hostility out of that relationship, though.
"If Lucifer is still alive, he'll be after your head, too," Crowley said. "He'll be after all of us for that last stunt. So if you value your life, and I know you do, you'll help."
Rowena rolled her eyes. "I'll do it, but I'm telling you that Lucifer is back in his cage. That spell was foolproof."
"Rowena, please," Cas said. "Just find Sam and Dean's location."
Dean knew he was dreaming, but he was glad that it wasn't of memories of Lucifer again.
This time, he could enjoy just sitting on the roof of the Impala under the night sky. Usually Sam would be next to him and they'd have an array of fast food surrounding them, but he had to take what he could get for now.
"Dean."
Dean whipped around at the sound of his name and saw Cas standing a few feet away.
"That really you, Cas?"
"Rowena found your location, so I was able to use it to enter your dream," Cas said.
"Why didn't you just fly in and get us out?" Dean asked.
"We're working out a plan to get both of you out, but Rowena's spell didn't work. Lucifer isn't in The Cage, he's circling you two. It wouldn't be safe for me to get you two out, Lucifer would notice me."
"Then, what's the plan?" Dean asked. He hopped off of the Impala's hood, realizing that it didn't matter much while he was in a dream. "We can't let him keep circling Sam. He's had more than enough Lucifer in his life for the next couple of millennia."
"Crowley won't draw as much attention getting you two out as I would flying you two out," Cas said. "The plan is to set up a distraction to draw the majority of guards out and give Crowley the chance to find your exact cells."
"When?"
"I don't know, Dean. It will take us time to get there."
"We apparently don't have time, Cas. I don't want my brother stuck alone with Lucifer breathing down his neck for another second." Dean took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair. "Do you know how long it's been? How long Lucifer's been bothering him?"
Cas shook his head. "I'm sorry, Dean. I only found out recently that he wasn't in The Cage, though Sam suspected that according to his prayers. We didn't know until Rowena tracked him after tracking you, and then him. His location was the same."
"Is he in a vessel? Is he one of the guards?"
"No, he doesn't have a vessel. He's circling Sam in his true form, which made it easier for Rowena as his power is much more potent and traceable."
"Shit, shit, shit," Dean muttered.
He paced next to the Impala. He thought that being bored was the worst part of being imprisoned, but he was wrong. The worst part was knowing that the thing who tortured his brother for almost two centuries in Hell was once again unwilling to leave Sam alone.
He needed something to hit. He needed something to kill (Lucifer was at the top of the list).
"You gotta get him out, Cas," Dean said. "You gotta get him out as soon as you can. Every time he's been alone with The Devil before never ended well."
"I'll do my best, Dean."
Dean wanted to say more, but Cas was gone.
Dean was standing and at the door of his cell before his brain completely caught up with the fact that he was awake. He pounded on the door and yelled until his voice was hoarse, but nothing would draw the guards' attention to him. They didn't care whether he lived or died.
And they definitely wouldn't care if Sam was being tormented in his cell. They probably already thought both of them were Satanists. Sam arguing with Satan would kind of fit that profile of them.
Even if they were in the same building, Dean never felt farther away from Sam.
Author's Note: Merry Christmas, friends! We'll see what Sam's been up to in the next chapter.
