XxXxX Chapter Four XxXxX
Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Tru Calling. Or Led Zeppelin. Or anything else.
Tru let out a deep sigh as she stopped in front of the diner. The entire weight of her situation set in as she slumped against the side of the building, running a distracted hand through her hair. Jack's message replayed over and over in her head until her temples throbbed as she did her best to figure out just how much he knew. "I really wish he hadn't been so vague," she breathed out, banging the back of her head against the brick behind her.
She leaned up, looking over her shoulder into the diner's large window in an effort to search out her brother and the Winchesters, with no luck. "I guess now's the best time to get a plan together," Tru murmured pushing herself back up. She brushed off her backside and hands before taking a deep breath and pushing open the door, entering the diner and resuming her search from outside.
"No way man. If you're gonna watch a classic Zeppelin moment in film, it's in Fast Times at Ridgemont High," she heard to her left. She turned to see Harrison and Dean talking animatedly while Sam sat next to them, hunched over a laptop and doing his best to ignore their conversation.
"Yeah, that's a good one, despite that Damone clearly said Led Zeppelin IV and they played Kashmir," she heard Dean point out. Tru shook her head in disbelief, wondering how someone slated for death, especially as gruesome as his was supposed to be, could sit and talk about something so nonchalant as Led Zeppelin. She leaned against the counter behind her, watching as Sam sat up straight in his seat and rubbed at his temples, frustration splayed across his face. He stopped as he saw her, his brow relaxing as he realized that she was observing them before patting his brother on the shoulder and getting up to head towards her.
"So, I seem to be missing out on some very stimulating conversation going on over there," Tru pointed out as Sam stopped in front of her. Sam looked back over his shoulder at their two brothers, shaking his head in mild amusement.
"Trust me, it's typical Dean conversation," Sam pointed out, a sheepish smile appearing on his face as he shrugged his shoulders.
"Yeah, same with Harrison. I guess that's why they seem to be getting along so great."
"Well, you basically put Dean together with anybody that likes classic cars, classic rock and classic women and he needs no supervision. For once," Sam explained, waving them off.
"That's just great. Three for three," she muttered, making Sam chuckle again. He glanced back down at her, his forehead scrunching as he bent down to her eye level, scrutinizing her tired features. "Hey, are you ok?"
"What? Don't tell me this freaky day is starting to show," she said, letting out a half laugh as she wiped at her face. Looking him straight in the eyes, she shuddered at the concerned look he was giving her.
"I guess that was a stupid question," Sam amended, standing back up to his full height. "You just looked like something was bugging you. Maybe something different."
"Ok, look, there is something bugging me," Tru informed Sam, rolling her eyes at the subtle yet triumphant smile that flitted across his face. "However, maybe it would be better if I discuss with the both of you," she explained, motioning to him first and then across the diner to his brother.
Sam looked back over his shoulder at their two brothers, laughing at each other's jokes like it was a normal day. "Does this have something to do with us rewinding a day to save Dean?" He asked as he turned back to face her. "I mean, I already had to watch my brother be torn to shreds and if there's gonna to be a problem saving him…" Sam trailed off, dropping his hands to his sides in defeat.
"I'll be honest, I'm not sure yet," Tru told him. "It sucks, but I tend to overreact sometimes, which is my defense mechanism from having to wait for corpses to ask for help and then rewinding to save them," Tru explained with a shrug. "My life is a bit complicated."
"You're preaching to the choir," Sam said, nodding his head in understanding. "Demon hunter, remember?" He chuckled at her smile before letting out a deep sigh he had been holding in. "Well, shall we?" He asked, motioning to the table where their brothers were.
"Sure," Tru said, smiling up at Sam one last time before walking ahead of him to the booth. A shiver ran down her spine as she felt Sam lightly place his hand on the small of her back, guiding her to where he had been sitting.
She quickly took a seat across from Sam's open laptop as he sat back down in front of her. She looked over at Dean and Harrison as they continued their conversation, not even aware that two people had just joined them. "Just so you two know," she interrupted them, "you kinda can't beat computer animated Princesses singing Immigrant Song in Shrek the Third."
Sam let out a muffled snort as Harrison rolled his eyes and Dean allowed an impressed smile to stretch across his face.
"I don't think I've seen that one," Dean told her, nodding his head.
"It wasn't better than Fast Times, man," Harrison said, waving off his sister. "Geez, Tru. You're such a girl," Harrison told her.
"Aw, thanks for noticing," Tru laughed as she turned her attention back to Sam. "Hey, where'd you get the laptop," she asked, pointing to his open computer.
Sam looked down at his computer and shrugged. "Um, Best Buy?"
Tru smiled at him, trying to hold back a laugh. "No, I mean, you didn't have it with you earlier."
"Oh, yeah. It was in the car with our other stuff," Sam said, pointing out of the window to a car parked in front of the diner. Tru followed his finger, her eyes widening at the car he was pointing at. "Wow, so that car belongs to you two," she surmised.
"Yeah, you're a little late on this conversation," Harrison told his sister. "Besides, they aren't the only ones that have a cool classic car."
"Be that as it may," Tru argued with her brother. "Weigh it out. Ford. Chevy," Tru said, holding her hands up like a scale. She tipped the Chevy side down and gave him an apologetic expression. "Looks like Chevy won."
"I never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but I officially like this girl even more than when we could see her bra," Dean laughed, holding up his empty coffee cup for a refill. Sam grinned sheepishly as he looked up at Tru, smiling as she shook her head in disbelief.
"As much as I love to have my bra part of a conversation," Tru began. "I really think it's about time we get down to the nitty gritty."
Dean chuckled, shaking his head in amusement as he took a sip of his refilled coffee. "It doesn't get much better than having your imminent death referred to as nitty gritty."
"Well, we definitely need to get that figured out, especially with our limited time crunch, but I'm talking about something else," Tru said, waving her hands in front of her. She winced as Dean shot her an incredulous look while Sam's face looked like it held a million questions. "Look, don't get me wrong, your death is definitely tops on the must stop agenda, but there are a few hurdles that may be popping up." Tru told him.
"Like what?" Sam asked, coaxing her forward with his hands.
"How about the fact that none of us knows how to stop a hellhound," Dean pointed out, his face the most dejected Tru had seen it yet.
"Well, there's that," Tru agreed, pointing over at him. "But, not what I'm talking about. Do you two remember that guy we were telling you about? Jack?"
"Yeah, your Lex Luthor," Dean said.
"Right, sure. Him," Tru said, falling back against her seat. "Listen, he called and left me this really vague message, while we were all talking at the morgue. I'm not in the habit of adding drama to a rewind day, but he may or may not know about Dean asking for help and you jumping on the rewind with me," Tru said, pointing at Sam.
"Wait, Tru, what did he say exactly?" Harrison asked.
"He said that we needed to talk and I would know what about," she told them, talking with her hands. "He also said that he'd be in touch."
"Is that it?" Dean asked. "I don't wanna sound insensitive, but that could mean anything. What makes you think he knows anything based on that?"
"He and I managed to switch places once, during a jump. For some reason, the corpse asked him for help and we both rewound. Now, usually, I just get these backwards flashes of my day before I wake up in bed. That time, it was just key glimpses of things during the victim's day. It was very cold and unsettling, but I was finally able to discover how he manages to get all the details of my jumps."
"And since he gets those glimpses, he probably saw that I was there when Dean asked for help and went back with you," Sam breathed out.
"Exactly. Trust me when I say that Jack is bad news. Whenever I save someone and veer his job off course, he tries his hardest to even things out," Tru informed them.
"How exactly does he do that?" Dean asked, leaning forward a bit.
Tru opened her mouth and then closed it, her breathing becoming labored as she did her best to control the constricted burning in her throat. "You know what? If you'll excuse me for just one second," Tru began, standing up quickly and swiping away at the tears threatening to fall. "I just need to freshen up real quick before we…" she cut off, walking away before she finished her sentence.
Dean's eyes were wide with curiosity as Sam's were scrunched, both of them turning back to Harrison at the same time with identical questions on their features.
"You guys, Jack has put Tru through hell these last few months," Harrison explained to them, still looking at the trail his sister had left behind. "And that doesn't even include him trying to stop her from saving people."
"What did this guy do?" Sam asked, suddenly concerned for the girl that could be saving his brother's life.
"Look, it basically started several months back…" Harrison began, watching as they both leaned forward in interest. "When I died."
"You've died?" Dean asked. "Wait, then that means you asked her for help."
"Yeah. Mind you, she had to wait around for a while before I did, but I'm her brother. She waited and I did eventually ask for help. She rewound and got the warning from Jack that if she did save me, there would be some kind of consequence."
"Like what?" Sam asked, looking over his shoulder in the direction Tru had gone.
"Well, Tru took Jack's warning and basically shoved it and saved me. By the time that same day had wound back down, Jack had arranged a situation that ended with Tru's boyfriend being killed, something Jack considered an even trade. Luc never asked for help, and she hasn't forgiven herself yet."
"Man, this chick's perfect for you," Dean said, slapping his brother on the arm as he leaned back in his seat. "No offense, man," Dean said to Harrison, earning an uninterested shrug.
Sam's jaw fell open as he absently rubbed at the spot where Dean had slapped him. "Dude, what the hell is that supposed…?" He began, stopping as Tru plopped back down in front of him.
"Ok, all better," she said, smiling wide at Sam and Dean. Sam smiled back at her, noticing the light red splotches around her eyes half hidden with facial powder. "Did I miss anything?"
Dean looked from his brother to Tru's brother, giving Harrison a knowing smile as Sam and Tru kept their attention on each other. "Nah, nothing important. Look, I know we need to get a plan together, but this is still just a bit too convenient for me," Dean explained to Tru. "I mean, by my own choice, I'm knocking on hell's door and all of a sudden a way out shows up? Not that I don't appreciate it."
"Actually, you already knocked on hell's door and they dragged you in," Tru corrected him. "For some reason, even after you made this deal of your own free will, there's a big purpose for you to be alive. It's not my right to question that purpose, but it is my responsibility to honor it."
"So, what do we do?" Sam asked.
"Well, normally I'd mostly be on my own with this…" Tru began, stopping at the scoffing sound coming from her brother.
"Correction, while I have the wonderful help of Harrison and Davis, I have a system that I follow. You have to understand, I'm not given any notice when a body is about to ask for help. Because of that, I usually have to learn as much as I can about any corpse just in case," Tru said. "However, since you rewound with me and you were there when Dean died, I'm a bit ahead of myself since you can fill me in on the events leading up."
"Leading up to Dean dying?" Sam surmised. He let out a deep sigh as Tru nodded her head. He opened his mouth to begin before re-closing it as he felt his brother's gaze on him.
"You know, it hadn't occurred to me yet, but she's right. You do know what happened. Or, what's supposed to happen," Dean told him. "I can only assume that we didn't get Lillith, since I ended up dog food."
Sam looked around the table at the three sets of interested eyes trained on him. "No, man. We didn't get Lillith. She tricked us by possessing Ruby's host and sent Ruby back to hell. By the time you saw her true form, it was already too late. She pinned me to a wall and released a hellhound to kill you," Sam told him.
"What do you mean about me seeing her true form?" Dean asked.
"Well, while we were driving to the house where Lillith was we got pulled over and you stabbed the cop with Ruby's knife, killing him. When we asked how you knew he was a demon, you told us that you could see the true demon underneath the human façade," Sam explained, nodding at Dean's wide eyes. "Bobby explained that it was normal for people so close to their deal being up to be able to see demons because you were basically Hell's bitch."
Dean nodded his head, taking in everything Sam was telling him before clearing his throat. "So, how'd you get away?"
"What do you mean?"
"What I mean is that Lillith wanted you dead more than me. Sure, she probably got a big kick out of watching me be torn to shreds, but then she had you pinned against a wall. She was probably betting on having all kinds of torturing fun and yet, you got away. How?" Dean asked, holding his hands out in front of him.
Sam's eyes got wider as he focused on the faded spot on the Formica table in front of him. "Um, I think Bobby may have done something." He closed his eyes, searching his mind for a better excuse, anything to avoid telling his brother the truth.
"Bobby? Are you telling me that Bobby managed to perform an exorcism in the tiny time it would have taken her to kill you and him?" Dean asked, his tone full of disbelief. "And if we were in some random house, chances are we didn't even have time to draw a Devil's Trap."
"Look, I'm not sure, ok? You were dead, I was waiting for her to kill me and then all of a sudden, she's leaving Ruby's body in a cloud of black smoke," Sam hissed. "And then Bobby was there. How much do you really want me to remember as I'm laying over your body crying?"
Dean rolled his eyes before leaning back in his seat, his face telling the entire table that he didn't believe his brother. Sam looked across the table at Tru who offered him a sympathetic look.
"Ok, rather than try to remember every detail, I think now would be the best time for us to come up with some kind of solution," Tru spoke up, smiling at Sam's grateful nod. "This is beyond anything I've ever come across, so as much as I hate to admit it, I'm stumped."
"What do you need from us?" Dean asked, sitting up in his seat and leaning onto the table.
"Well, I know you've already said you don't know, but are you sure you haven't come across any way at all to stop one of these hellhounds?" Tru asked, shrugging her shoulders.
"I wish I could say otherwise, but as far as we know, there isn't any way to stop them" Dean said, shaking his head. "I mean, there are certain herbs that can keep them at bay, but eventually they will get to the person they are there to get."
Tru let out a deep breath as she ran her hands through her hair. "Then, as much as you two know about this, you're obviously missing out on something," Tru told them, letting out a deep breath.
"How do you figure?" Dean asked her.
"It's simple. There's no way you would have been given the option to come back if you couldn't be saved. I wouldn't have been sent on a while goose chase for nothing," Tru told him.
"Then, what do we do?" Sam asked.
"Well, I think for one, we need to get Bobby in on all of this," Dean spoke up. "Especially since he was obviously there when I died."
"What about that Ruby girl that you two were mentioning?" Tru asked.
"Girl?" Dean asked, disgust in his voice. "No," he began wagging his finger. "Try a demon possessing a girl."
"A demon? As in the bad guy? Why was she helping you guys out?" Tru asked.
"She wasn't," Sam told her, shaking his head. "Not really, at least. She was just using us by feeding me the lines that I wanted to hear."
Dean looked over at his brother, his eyes wide in shock as a proud smile stretched across his face. "Thank god. Does this mean that you're finally over that bitch?"
"Over her? I was never into her," Sam explained. "Dean, you can't blame me for believing someone when they say they know of a way to save my brother from hell."
"Someone, no. But a demon? I mean, they possess and then start lying from the get-go." Dean explained to Tru and Harrison.
"Whatever, man. The important thing is that I'm done with Ruby," Sam said, mock wiping his hands.
"Aw, now Sam, that hurts," a voice said above them. "I mean, here I spend the whole day coming to find you and I'm not even welcome."
"Oh my god," Dean said, scrunching his face as Ruby stopped at their table. "Well, at least you were right about the different sight. Ruby, you are one ugly broad."
Author's Note: I know it seems like I've been slacking on this story, what with the lack of updates, but this chapter has been one of those constantly open windows on my computer where I just add and edit. And I'm still not digging this chapter, but I assume it's only because this is one of those chapters that just moves the story along before the next chapter which should rock the casbah! We'll see…review please!