FOURTEEN
Lisbon, Maryland
January 21st, 2009
"That has to be the best breakfast I have ever had," Sam exclaimed, as he pushed himself away from the table. He beamed at Reggie, who took his empty plate and put it in the sink. As she started to wash the dishes, Sam glared at Dean. His brother was still shoveling in his third helping of food. Dean was completely oblivious to the death stare Sam was giving him as he got up from his chair. Since you won't lift a finger..., Sam thought contentiously.
"Let me do that," he offered as he stepped up beside Reggie at the sink. She smiled kindly at him, but shook her head.
"You're a guest. Guests don't do dishes."
"You're making me feel like a mooch. You made this awesome breakfast and now you're cleaning up too? That's not right," Sam replied, again glaring at the back of Dean's head.
"How about I wash and you rinse and dry? We'll work as a team," Reggie suggested. Sam nodded and pushed the sleeves of his shirt up.
He and Reggie worked well together and soon all the dishes, except Dean's, were stacked up on the counter, waiting to be put away. Sam turned to look at his brother, who burped loudly and sat back in his chair. "You done now?" Sam growled.
"I think I'm good, yeah," Dean said, rubbing his stomach contentedly. "You certainly weren't kidding when you said you made a mean omelet, Reggie."
"Thank you," she laughed as Sam snapped the dish towel across Dean's head. Dean swung around and lunged at Sam, but missed and went toppling from the chair in a loud crash. Sam laughed as Dean scrambled up and came at him again, this time armed with his own dish towel.
"I'm going to beat you senseless," Dean cursed, dodging Sam as he swung at him again. Dean tripped on the chair Frank was sitting in and stumbled into the table, sending the salt and pepper shakers flying.
"Alright, alright," Reggie cried. "That's enough. I need my kitchen to still be standing when you guys leave," Reggie scolded, laughing as she yanked the towels from their hands.
Dean offered his hand to Sam. "Truce?" They shook once and smiled at Reggie to show they were going to behave. Just as Sam stepped past Dean to pick up the shakers from the floor, Dean smacked him in the back of the head. Sam spun, trying to shove his brother, but Dean was quicker this time, and Sam missed. "Lightning fast reflexes," Dean stated, laughing as Sam rubbed the spot where Dean had hit him. Frank began to chuckle, too. Sam and Dean froze, staring at the old man in shock.
"You boys remind me of my baby brother, Sean, and me when we were younger," Frank stated. Sam looked to Reggie and saw that she wasn't at all surprised to hear Frank's coherent remarks.
Today's a good day, I guess, Sam thought to himself.
"We used to fight all the time. Gave me thirteen stitches once. Hit me with a candlestick right above my eye. I still have the scar." He raised his hand, pointing to a small, white scar above his left eye. "Our mother thought he took my eye out with all the blood pouring from it."
"Sounds about right," Dean said, glancing at Reggie and Sam as he spoke. "Sam and I have given each other a fair share of scars, too. But what else are little brothers good for if you can't beat them up every once in a while?"
Frank chuckled and nodded his agreement. "What indeed. Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to head up to bed and take a nice long nap," Frank declared. He got up from his seat and strode from the room without another word. Both Dean and Sam turned to look at Reggie, who was staring after Frank with a sad expression on her face.
"That has to be strange," Dean stated, clearly trying to break the silence that followed Frank's disparate departure. Sam glared at Dean, who seemed completely oblivious to his tactless remark.
"It can be, yes," Reggie stated. Sam looked at Reggie, surprised and relieved that she hadn't taken offense to Dean's innate ability to put his foot in his mouth. She sighed and stepped away from the counter where she'd been leaning.
"I think I'm going to head upstairs and get dressed," Reggie said, giving them a small smile. "If you need anything, help yourselves or give a yell," she stated before quietly leaving the room. Both Sam and Dean waited, listening to her light steps as she jogged up the stairs.
"Dude, could you sensor your mouth a little?" Sam snapped when he was sure Reggie was out of earshot.
"What are you talking about?" Sam rolled his eyes at Dean's callousness.
"You can be so unbelievably insensitive sometimes," Sam grumbled. He stared at the kitchen doorway, thinking. "So when do you think we should head out?" he asked a moment later, changing the subject.
"I don't know. I think maybe we should stick around a little longer. Ask Reggie a few more questions," Dean said, staring off too.
Sam smirked at his brother. "You just want to stick around and flirt with Reggie some more," he teased. Dean couldn't cover the smile fast enough and Sam began to laugh.
"That's not it," Dean mumbled, chuckling when Sam snorted incredulously. "Okay, so maybe I might think she's incredibly hot and wouldn't mind hooking up with her if we'd met under different circumstances. But right now, we're here on business, and I plan on keeping it strictly that way."
"Since when has that ever been your philosophy?" Sam teased.
"Since now." Sam's smile faded from his face as he watched his brother intently. What is up with him...?
"So, do you think Reggie knows something more, something she may not know is of importance?" Sam asked. "I mean, she pretty much laid it all out last night and it seemed like she told us everything she could remember."
"There might be. I just think we should stick around a little longer and talk with her. Maybe even ask Frank a few questions." Dean glanced at Sam and shrugged. "It seems like today is a more lucid day. Maybe he'll remember something that he may not have told Reggie." Dean got up from his chair, his eyes focused once again on the doorway. "I think I'm going to jump in the shower. Let me know if you hear from Ruby." He strode from the room, Sam staring after him, confused by his brother's mood.
At Dean's mention of Ruby, Sam pulled out his cell phone and stared at it, as if willing the phone to ring. He hadn't really thought about how long it had been since he'd heard from her.
I hope she's okay, he wondered. A few minutes later, he found himself wandering into the living room, curiosity bringing him to the pictures on the walls. So many smiling happy people, he thought jealously.
"Oh no. Not you, too," a voice stated from behind. Sam turned to see Reggie leaning against the doorway, shaking her head at him. She was dressed in traditional hunter's attire: a fitted, long sleeved dark gray shirt over a pair of snug blue jeans, and heavy black boots. Her curly hair fell loose around her face in a soft curtain of auburn and Sam found himself gaping at her. Dean wasn't wrong about her being incredibly hot, he thought.
"What's that?" he managed to finally ask.
"The pictures. You have the same look on your face that Dean did," Reggie explained, crossing the room to stand beside Sam.
"What look is that?"
"The one that says I-must-have-gotten-jipped-growing-up-because-I-was-never-that-happy-as-a-kid look," Reggie stated. "The two of you seriously need therapy. Your childhood wasn't as bad as you think, at least from what Bobby's told me."
"You aren't wrong about the therapy," Sam muttered. He turned to look at Reggie, her words finally sinking in. "What exactly did Bobby tell you about our childhood?"
"That you moved around a lot, just like most hunters; that your dad began training you, prepping you, for the life when you were pretty young; that you tried to have a normal life after you graduated high school. Just the basics, mostly. Bobby isn't that big of a gossip," Reggie joked. She read Sam's face at the mention of his time away, his time with Jess, and her eyes softened. "I'm sorry if I said something that upset you."
"No, it's okay. You didn't, not really. I was just remembering something, that's all," Sam stated, wanting to avoid the look of sympathy in Reggie's green eyes. He smiled at her and added, "Don't worry about it. It was a long time ago. Kind of feels like a completely different life now." He went back to staring at the pictures on the walls. "Why do you think our childhood was better than this?" he finally asked, indicating the pictures.
"Just because someone looks happy in a photo doesn't mean they are. My family was just as dysfunctional as yours, Sam. Perhaps more so. Don't begin to second guess how you grew up just because of some smiling people in some old pictures on my walls," Reggie said.
Sam sighed and turned back to the pictures. "It's hard to imagine you weren't happy."
"There were moments, I'll give you that. But mostly my upbringing was what you would expect. I was dragged from city to city on hunts, watching unimaginable horrors happen to innocent people. My family was usually so spread out that they couldn't be bothered with being an actual family. I only ever really had my grandfather and Frank to count on. My grandfather died when I was sixteen and Frank is, well, you can see how..." Reggie trailed off, looking out the bay windows.
She shook her head, as if to shake away the bad thoughts, and then turned back to Sam. "At least you have Dean. You've always had him and your dad. So don't go knocking the good thing you have." She playfully pushed Sam. He smiled at her and pushed her back.
"Am I interrupting something," a voice from behind snapped, startling both of them. They spun, Sam already recognizing the voice. Ruby!, he thought gratefully.
"Who the hell are you," Reggie snapped, glaring at the woman.
"I could ask you the same thing," Ruby snarled back.
"This is my house so I think I get to ask the questions." Reggie turned to Sam, reading the relieved expression on his face. "You know her?" she asked.
"Yeah, this is Ruby. Ruby, this is Reggie Connors," Sam introduced. "Ruby, you really should have called first," Sam stated, taking a step closer to the small, slender brunette woman who stood in the middle of Reggie's living room. She crossed her arms insolently and glared at Reggie over his shoulder.
"The info I was able to get is a little more important than a phone call," she hissed at him, finally tearing her eyes away from Reggie. Her expression softened a little as she looked Sam in the eyes. "You should go get Dean. You both need to hear what I found out."
"Get that demon out of my house!" Reggie yelled as she tried to push past Dean, pointing a closed flask of holy water at the woman standing across the crowded kitchen from her. "Get her out, now, or I swear I will use this!"
"Calm down. Please," Sam pleaded with the female hunter as she attempted to get out of Dean's tight grasp "She's not like other demons, Reggie. She's on our side,".
"I don't care. I don't want that thing in my house," Reggie yelled again. Sam watched as Dean tried to control the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. He could at least act like he doesn't want to let Reggie go, Sam thought angrily.
"Maybe you should just take Ruby outside, Sam," Dean stated. Sam shook his head sadly, but took Ruby's arm and led her out the back door.
They stepped out onto a small, weather-worn wood porch that was mostly bare except for a small furnace at the opposite end. A strong gust of wind blew through the backyard, making Sam shiver, regretting leaving the house without his jacket.
"Geez, can she overreact! Are you sure you're safe here, Sam?" Ruby said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.
"Don't, Ruby. She's just not used to there being such thing as a 'good' demon. You should understand that. Look how long it took Dean and me." He didn't like Ruby talking badly about Reggie anymore than he liked how Reggie was acting towards Ruby. "You came here to tell us what you found out?" he pressed, hoping to get her mind off of the hunter inside.
"Yes, I did." Ruby took a deep breath and turned her back on Sam. "It took a while for me to find my contact and, at first, he didn't want to give me anything. It took some - shall we say, coercion - to get him to give me something." Sam shuddered at the delight in Ruby's tone. Both Sam and Ruby turned to look as the back door opened and Dean stepped out onto the porch.
"So what'd I miss?" he asked, clearly enjoying the current situation.
"Nothing. Ruby was just going to tell me what she found out," Sam explained. He nodded at Ruby to continue.
"I hate to tell you guys, but Lilith's plans are big. I wasn't able to find out the exact details on the seal, but I was able to find out what this dummy ritual is all about." Ruby looked briefly at Dean before turning back to Sam. "You need to get the hell out of here, Sam. And you need to do it soon. Lilith isn't playing around anymore. She knows the angels are helping you, she knows they know what she's up to, and she's planning on putting a stop to it. Now."
Sam glanced at Dean and saw that his brother was leaning against a faded banister, looking like he hadn't a care in the world. "So what is the dummy ritual, then?" Dean asked, nonchalantly.
"Lilith is setting up a series of murders to lure you into a trap where Malphas and several other higher-level demons are waiting to kill you," Ruby snapped, misreading Dean's dismissive attitude. It was obvious she thought he didn't believe her. "What's his deal?" she asked, rounding on Sam.
"We kind of already know about the fake ritual," Sam explained sheepishly.
"You see, we have our own reliable sources, Ruby."
"Fine, then what am I even here for?" Ruby growled.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out," Dean snapped. "You show up, unannounced, which was completely idiotic considering where we are, and tell us exactly what we already know. You haven't given us anything new, anything of use. It's almost like you're dragging us along."
"What's your point, Dean? That I'm lying to you? That I'm in on Lilith's plan and I'm setting you up?" Ruby clenched her hands, seething. Sam stepped between Ruby and Dean, trying to be the buffer.
Dean sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "As much as I wish I could say I believe you're in with Lilith, I don't think it's likely. Lilith hates you almost as much as she hates Sam and me. But I do think you've been had." Dean sighed again as he went back to leaning against the banister. "I think you're source, this demon who owes you, set you up, Ruby. I don't know what that means for us exactly, but it can't be good." Dean stared at Ruby and Sam, waiting for what he said to sink in.
"You think they're following her, don't you?" Sam asked, horror twisting his stomach into knots.
"Yup."
"Oh god," Sam moaned, immediately turning to look at the house. Misery gripped him as he realized what they'd brought on Reggie and Frank Connors. "Dean, we have to leave. Immediately. If you're right, then they followed Ruby here."
"If I'm right - which, usually am - the only thing we can do is stay, Sam. We can't leave Reggie and Frank to deal on their own with what may be coming. Not when we brought it here."
Ruby was so silent through the exchange Sam almost forget she was there. Finally she spoke up. "Why didn't I see it," she hissed. "I should have known..." She looked up at Sam, her expression sad.
"All we can do now is batten down and wait for the storm," Dean stated, pushing away from the banister. "Until we know what's coming, we have to prepare for everything." Sam stared at his brother, barely able to understand the calm that emanated from him. "I think I'd better go in and talk to Reggie first, before you bring her back inside." He tossed him the Impala's keys and strode past Sam who was too stunned to object or respond before Dean was gone.
"I'm so sorry, Sam," Ruby stated, breaking the silence as they made their way to the car. "If I'd known..."
"Stop, Ruby," Sam snapped. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "They would have found us anyway. It's not like we were going to walk into the trap they were setting up. They would have had to come looking for us eventually."
"At least we're in a house full of hunters," Ruby offered, hurt at Sam's harsh tone apparent in her voice. Sam offered her a weak smile as he climbed into the Impala, grateful to be out of the rough wind.
"You should try to leave. Get out while there's still time," Dean stated for what felt like the thousandth time. He had spent the previous thirty minutes explaining to Reggie what was happening and unsuccessfully trying to convince the woman to leave.
Reggie shook her head. "I'm not going anywhere. If what you say is coming, then you'll need all the help you can get."
"It's not safe, Reggie," Dean argued. "You should get Frank and hit the road. This isn't your fight."
"It is now," Reggie stated simply.
Dean snorted. "It's too dangerous to stay."
"This is my job, Dean. This is my home. I'm not going anywhere." Reggie shook her head and held up her hand as Dean opened his mouth to argue again. "Nothing you can say will change my mind so give it up."
Dean growled in frustration. He glared at Reggie for a moment, before finally breaking into a small grin. "I guess I should say thank you then."
"I'd hold off until it's over." She took a deep breath, steeling herself for what she knew was coming next. "Now. Bring in the demon," Reggie declared, grimacing. Dean smiled as he pulled out his cell phone and punched Sam's number on the speed dial.
His brother picked up on on the first ring. "Come on in, Sammy. And bring Ruby with you."
A few minutes later, they heard the front door open and voices in the hallway as Sam dragged Ruby through the house and into the kitchen where Dean and Reggie sat. Dean saw Reggie tense as she looked at Ruby and he reached over, taking the small dagger she'd been playing with while Dean had talked to her out of her hand.
"Just in case," he whispered to her.
"I'm sorry," Ruby blurted out. "I didn't know they were following me."
"It's...okay," Reggie winced. She turned to Sam and smiled at him. "Stop feeling guilty, Sam. There was no way you could have expected this. I don't hold any animosity towards any of you. So stop burying yourself in blame. Right now."
This woman is unbelievable, Dean thought in awe as he watched Reggie offer Ruby her chair.
Reggie strolled over to the fridge and pulled out four beers. After handing one to Sam, Ruby, and Dean, she leaned against the counter in front of the sink and took a heavy swig from her own. "So now what?" she asked them. Sam searched the faces of everyone in the room, not sure what to say himself. When no one answered, he began peeling at the label on his bottle.
"I guess the best place to start is by salting all the doors and windows. Maybe put down some devil's traps," Dean offered. He hated sitting around like this. He needed to be doing something.
"I have a few bags of rock salt in the basement downstairs, but almost all my other supplies are in the shed out back," Reggie said. She still looked extremely uncomfortable and Dean could see her taking quick glances at Ruby as she spoke.
"What are you going to do with Frank," Dean asked, hating to ask the question, but knowing it was on everyone else's mind.
"I honestly don't know. He has to be out of harm's way, but we can't exactly lock him alone in a room somewhere." Reggie sighed. "I'm open to any ideas."
"Is there anyone you could call? Anyone that could pick him up?" Sam asked.
Reggie shook her head. "Not anyone that can be here in enough time. Not that we know how much time we actually have."
"I'm guessing not much. I'm sure Lilith is counting on us figuring out her plan. She won't wait long to attack," Ruby said.
"So, I guess we better get to work, then," Dean stated, draining his beer and standing up. "Reggie and I will go out to the shed and get anything we can use. You and Ruby start shoring up inside." He could feel the excitement of the coming battle building inside him as he watched Reggie disappear down the short hallway for a moment. It led to a back room Dean had yet to investigate, raising his curiosity a little. She came back quickly, pulling on a worn, black leather jacket. He grinned at her and she smiled back.
"Let's get started," she said as she led the way out the back door.