I was told to put in tissue warnings when necessary a few times before so... tissue warning.
"Home… smelly home!" Lou announces the second she walks into Rufus' old cabin after she and Sam finally make it back.
"Shh!"
They're both greeted by Dean's angry face, an index finger pressed to his lips, when they walk in with their bags.
"Fuck you…." Lou starts to say but quickly stops herself.
When Dean points to a sleeping Sammy, his form sprawled out on his play mat set out on the floor of the cabin Lou doesn't finish her insult. She snaps her mouth shut and gives him an apologetic look.
Dean waves a hand over his shoulder for them to follow him. Sam nods, both drop their bags, and they all make their way down to the basement.
Once at the bottom step, Lou gets plowed into.
"Thank god you guys are fine," Lizzy says while bear hugging her sister. "You scared the shit outta us!"
"I can tell," Lou responds with a huff, their vocal volume back to normal now that they're out of Sammy's range. She hugs her sister back, knowing the fear she must have felt during the whole Alpha Vampire ordeal. "We're fine, Lizard. Just really tired."
"Go get some sleep then," she tells her, getting back to work on the spell she started. The gold bowl is set out on the table in the basement, the devil's trap ready to catch their least favorite demonic non-friend, and Lou knows what happens next. "We can handle this."
"Ugh, I hate that limey little bitch," Lou says, shivering with jeebs over the King of Hell.
"That's because he's practically in love with you," Sam smirks as he walks to the table next to Dean, clapping his brother on the shoulder once as he checks out everything they have set up.
"What?" Lizzy asks, smile on her face as she looks at Lou with the dropped information.
"Oh yeah," Lou nods, arms crossed with her grumpy tone. "He loves me."
"Why?" Lizzy asks with a wider smile, the humor of the situation not lost on her in the least.
"Who the hell knows," Lou tries to brush it off.
"Must be your sparkling personality," Lizzy jokes, earning a quiet snort of agreement from Dean.
"Fuck off," Lou spits right out, giving her sister that sparkling personality she speaks of. "You want me to go take a spin with Sammy? Get him outta here?"
"That'd probably be a good idea," Dean nods, quick to agree. "We just wanted to see what shape you guys were in before we asked you to drive some more."
"We're beat but we're here," Sam answers, walking for the table to really check over the work they've done. The spell is almost ready. "Just need to light it up?"
"Yep," Lizzy says, smiling up at Sam as she joins him. "And you have the Alpha's blood?"
"Absolutely. You got that nun bone?" Lou wonders. She watches Dean pick up and show her the femur bone sitting on the table, already sharpened to a point. "Awesome. Can't believe we might actually pull this all off."
"Right?" Dean huffs. "Feels weird."
"Very," Lou nods. "Ok, give it five minutes and get that demon asshole's blood. I'll just slowly go get Sammy into the car and hopefully not wake him too much."
"Thank you, Louie. Really," Lizzy tells her, meaning it from deep in her heart. She knows how much Lou's been over the whole babysitting thing so her volunteering this duty is really helpful and kind of her.
"I love that little shit," she shrugs, looking at Sam and winking once. She then heads back up the stairs to grab her nephew and head out for a little spin.
"Think she shoulda stayed?" Dean suddenly wonders aloud after a few minutes, hearing the cabin door open and close as Lou leaves.
"Why?" Sam asks, not wanting her to. Crowley's eyes unsettle him when they're set on Lou. He doesn't want her ever near him again.
"You said Crowley's got a hard on for her," Dean figures. "Wouldn't it be easier to negotiate if he was negotiating with the eye candy?"
Sam's face goes cold and looks hard at his brother. "We're not pimping her out to Crowley for blood."
Lizzy huffs a laugh off in the corner as she grabs a jar of some herb she needed to finish the summoning spell.
"I don't wanna pimp anyone," Dean comments with offence. "I'm just saying… Crowley's still just a dude at heart. With eyes. Maybe it'll be less of a slimy, douchey struggle to get the blood if his eyes have what they want to see." Dean shrugs innocently.
"You're a dick," Sam says and shakes his head.
"Yeah… I know," Dean quickly acquiesces. "So… we ready?"
"As we shall ever be," Lizzy says to him, dropping a few pinches of herbs into the bowl. She caps and places the jar on the tables before pulling Ruby's knife out from the sheath at her waist. "Let's call King Douche."
Dean smirks at her as he takes up the box of matches. He pulls one out and strikes it, dropping it into the bowl. The flames rise up, flaring brightly before dying back down.
Silence remains. The devil's trap on the basement floor remains empty. Lizzy twirls the demon-killing knife in her hold once, stance still ready despite nothing happening.
"Is he trying to make a grand entrance or...?" Dean shakes his head and looks around the room.
"I don't know..." Sam shrugs.
"Son of a bitch," Dean slams a hand down on the table. "He's standing us up."
"But we summoned him," Lizzy points out. "Doesn't he kind of have to show up?"
Her husband looks at her with a face of fury. "If Crowley wants to screw you, he'll screw you."
"Unless…" Sam starts, walking a few steps and getting a frightening feeling deep down. "He can't come 'cause something went wrong."
"Guys!"
All three hunters snap their focus up the stairs. It's Lou.
"What happened?" Lizzy worries as she heads up while sheathing the knife, worried for her sister and son. They should be gone. "Why are you here?"
Sam and Dean follow her up the stairs. They find Lou, alone, standing in front of the open doorway.
"What's wrong?" Dean asks, wrinkled forehead.
"You two go fucking deal with him," Lou points out front. "I can't handle that much crazy in a single confined space."
"Sammy?" Dean asks, looking out the door.
"No. Emo-boy," she tells them. "I was halfway down the street when he pops up out of nowhere into the backseat with Sammy. Scared the fucking shit outta me."
Lizzy sighs with closed eyes, knowing who she's talking about right away. "Why'd he just pop in?"
"To grab a cup of coffee and catch up," Lou sarcastically answers, clearly pissed off with the scare still. "Why don't you two go ask him? He was both your boy toy first."
"Oh, that's… nice," Dean bites back as Lizzy heads outside right away, Dean following her. "Mature."
"Look who's talking," Lou bitches right back with a smirk and Dean jokingly shoulder-checks her on the way past. She gives him a snarl before they disappear outside.
"Great," Lizzy grumbles to herself as she pauses when she's fifteen feet from the car. The lame-ass song 'Vincent' is playing loudly and she can see the sullen look on Castiel's face in profile as he sits in the backseat looking straight ahead.
"She wasn't kidding about that emo-boy thing, huh?" Dean asks as he gets a small kick out of Castiel's odd mood.
"Nope. This song blows," Lizzy comments and they move forward. They reach Lou's current stolen junker and Lizzy crouches down until her head is level with the open side window closest to Castiel. Dean bends forward and presses a hand on the open ledge.
"Hey, there," he greets the angel, both noticing that Sammy is sat in his lap facing him, playing with the belt of his trench coat.
Castiel simply raises a hand in greeting, looking to neither of them and keeping his downer tone in place.
"Cassie, you ok?" Lizzy wonders and instead of verbally answer he just looks at her with inner pain before his eyes return to the child in his lap. He's being difficult.
Dean straightens up for a moment and looks to the sky, counting to ten to keep his annoyance in check as he feels Lizzy grip his leg in understanding. She's telling him to be patient.
He leans down again and gives it a try. "So, Cass, what's, uh, what's the word?"
"Well, Dean, I've been thinking," the angel starts, watching Sammy gnaw on his fabric belt. "Monkeys are so... clever, and they're sensible in that they leave the skins on the bananas that they eat. Is it really necessary to test cosmetics on them? I mean, how important is lipstick to you, Dean?"
The hunter pauses, in awe of the mess that is his friend right now. "Uh… not very."
"Maybe I should ask a woman," Castiel wonders, looking at Lizzy in the eye. "How important is lipstick to you, Elizabeth?"
"I look good with some classic red lips," she smiles lightly, trying to keep things easy for the broken angel.
"Actually, that's very true," Dean adds his two cents in.
"But I don't think that's more important than the health and wellbeing of animals, I guess," she nods a little. She reaches in and grabs Castiel's hand. "You want to come inside and tell us what's going on?"
With a sigh, Castiel answers. "Samuel does smell a bit. Maybe it's best we bring him in and clean him up."
"We?" Dean asks.
"Well, that's probably a job best suited for his parents," Castiel clarifies as he lifts Sammy up under his arms and passes him through the open window. Lizzy reaches out for him with a smile.
"Is my guy stinky? Did you get all stinky?" she says with a bright tone. She pulls him in and smells him. "Oh yes, he definitely did."
"Come on, Cass," Dean says to him, reaching for the door handle. Lizzy gets up and backs away, letting him open it up. Castiel reluctantly stands and steps out. "Come inside."
He slumps his shoulders and walks.
Once they get inside, Dean shuts the door as Lizzy heads for the couch, laying Sammy on his back and grabbing the diaper bag to the side of the furniture.
Looking around the room, Castiel can tell the group is ready for action, Sam and Lou hauling all the items they need for retrying the summoning spell and making the Leviathan weapon to the kitchen table. "Now, you understand I don't participate in aggressive activity."
"Kinda vanilla way of thinking about your private life, don't you think?" Dean jokes as he watches Castiel make his way to the table in the corner.
"I don't have a private life," he absently answers as he picks up one of the femur bones on the table. He smells it. "Mm. Sister Mary Constant. Good choice."
"I thought when you left you'd be gone for a while," Lizzy mentions, opening Sammy's diaper and making a nasty face.
"When I left, I wanted to observe the flowers, and fruit. Flowers come first, obviously," he mentions as he places the bone back on the table. "But I heard nothing from them."
"You heard nothing from the flowers?" Sam tries to clarify, everyone seeing now how jumbled Castiel's brain is.
"The Garrison." The answer is simple, as if it should have been obvious.
"What happened to the Garrison?" Lou asks.
"Well, finally, the silence was deafening, so I went to look... to the home of the Prophet."
"Kevin?" Lou questions, eyes wide.
"Yes. You know, Leviathan can kill angels. There's a reason why my Father locked them in Purgatory. They're the Piranha that would eat the whole aquarium. They're gone. The entire Garrison… dead. If there's anyone left at all, they're in hiding."
"Um, I'm sorry," Dean walks closer to Castiel. "If the angels are dead, where's Kevin?"
Cass looks off in the distance as he thinks. "I could steal them from their cages, the monkeys. But where would I put them all?"
"Hey!" Dean claps his hands, pulling Castiel back into the present conversation. "Focus. Is Kevin alive?"
"I don't want to fight."
"No, I'm not…" Dean rolls his eyes but Lizzy interrupted.
"Easy." She says it lightly and with a smile, the reminder to be nice as Dean's patience is running thin.
Dean takes a breath. "We're worried."
"They took him. He's alive," Castiel explains what he knows. He then drops his shoulders as if a weight has been removed. "I felt such responsibility, but it's in your hands now."
"Our hands!?" Sam asks, upset at the way this sounds.
"Oh yes, I don't fight," Castiel reminds.
"Wait. Hold on a freakin' minute," Dean tries to make Castiel stop.
He doesn't. "I feel much better. Uh… what's all this?" Castiel points at the gold bowl used to summon Crowley unsuccessfully.
"We called Crowley," Lizzy says with a big smile at Sammy as she wipes his bottom. He smiles back.
"You… called Crowley?" Castiel wonders, confused. "What did he have to say?"
"He was a no show," Dean tells him.
"No show?" Castiel echoes, confused.
"He stood us up, Cassie," Lizzy tells him, putting a diaper back on Sammy.
Castiel's posture stiffens. "We need to get Sammy out of here."
"What?" Lizzy laughs, closing the diaper before picking him up and pulling him into her while pants-less. "Crowley just didn't come when told."
"Yes, but he could still sh…."
"Show up at any time," a Scottish accent finishes Castiel's sentence as Crowley appears in the room. He's not in a devil's trap. He's roaming free in the cabin. "Hello, boys and girls. Sorry I'm late." He looks around at him company. "Well, this is an embarrassment of riches." His eyes land on Lou by the table. "Hello, darling. It's always a pleasure to see you." He bows and Lou stays quiet, refusing to talk to him.
Lizzy stands up immediately and heads towards the back of the cabin with her son, Dean already moving towards her and putting himself between the King of Hell and their boy.
"Oh… now, now Elizabeth. Don't shy away," Crowley comments. "I've yet to have my chance to hold the little hunter-offspring. Come to Uncle Crowley, Samuel…."
"Crowley! Knock it off!" Dean shouts, hating everything about Crowley's words right now.
"Leave them be." Castiel adds in, standing next to Dean out of instinct to protect Lizzy and Sammy.
The demon's eyes fix on the angel. "Castiel. When last we spoke, you… well, enslaved me. I'm confused. Why aren't you dead?"
"I... don't know."
"Well, do you want to dead?" Crowley asks. "Because I can help with that. Happily."
"Alright, enough," Dean tells him, irritation all over him.
"It's enough when I say," Crowley tells him, a sharp edge to his voice. "I came here to help you."
"You came here because we summoned you," Sam reminds him, voice hard.
"Same difference," Crowley brushes off. "I come to help and I find out you've all been lying to me, harboring an angel… and not just any angel, the one angel I most want to crush between my teeth."
"Why the hell would you expect us to give him up to you?" Lizzy angrily asks over Dean's shoulder, earning her a look of anger from her husband. "Are you that stupid, seriously?"
There's a pause as the demon narrows his eyes at her and thinks. "You bore me, you know that?"
"Oh, I'm heartbroken," she sarcastically responds, pressed up against Dean's back with need to punch the asshole demon in her presence, forgetting about Sammy in her arms for a quick second.
"L, take it down," Dean grits out through clenched teeth over his shoulder. She gives him look that's only slightly apologetic.
"Leash her, Squirrel," Crowley eyes Dean before turning to Castiel, ignoring Lizzy's fury. "Or her rude disposition is going to get you all into a situation you're not going to enjoy."
"Why don't you come over here and say that to my face, short stuff!" Lizzy gets pissed. Threatening her angel and dissing her while he's at it. No fucking way.
"I don't believe you'd be too happy if I did that, Elizabeth," Crowley warns her.
"Fuck you, demon bitch!" Lizzy angrily lets fly and Crowley's hand raises to fling her into the back wall.
"Whoa! Wait!" Dean stops him, hands out in surrender. "She's just… pissy. Okay? No need to get violent."
Crowley glares at him. "Like I said… leash her. Unless you don't want my help."
Dean nods, giving in. He then turns his head to glance back at Lizzy. "L, shut up," Dean warns her as the demon once more focuses on Castiel.
"Now, what do you have to say for yourself?" Crowley moves on and stares at the angel.
Castiel's eyes widen for a moment, unsure of what to say. "Well, I'm still, uh, honing my communication strategy," Castiel explains, his nervousness and inability to keep his mind on a single train of thought making him ramble. "I haven't even been back to Heaven. I, I keep thinking there are no insects up there, but here we have... trillions. You know, they're making honey and silk and... miracles, really."
Crowley looks at Dean for an explanation. Dean offers none because he has none. The demon looks back at Castiel with an expression of pure confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"Um, preferring insects to angels, I guess," Castiel answers, thinking this tells all about his mental state instead of thoroughly confuse. "Here. I can offer a token, if you like." Castiel pulls a small Ziploc sandwich baggie out of the pocket of his white institutional-patient uniform he's never changed out of. "It's honey. I collected it myself."
Shock in his eyes, Crowley stares at Castiel for a beat before telling him. "You're off your rocker."
The room holds its breath as everyone realizes that the angel that they have is a worthless defense this time. Crowley knows he has the upper hand now.
"Dear, tell me the truth," Crowley says to Lou. "He's off his rocker, is that it?"
Lou's steeled face is all he gets in return.
Crowley doesn't wait for an answer as he understand he won't get one. "Karma's a bitch, isn't it?" With a smug smile, the demon calmly walks to the kitchen counter with arrogance, pouring himself a glass of whiskey from the bottle left on the counter. He takes a sip. "Glad you found yourself a sensible woman, Dean. The whiskey she buys is in an actual glass bottle instead of the plastic encased bleach-substitute I normally find around your redneck presence."
Dean sighs. "I know how to pick 'em. Look, did you come here to donkey-punch your old grudges or to help us end Dick? Pick a battle, man."
"Well, I'm vexed. I'd like to do both but where's the fun in clobbering a ball of wet fur?" Crowley snarks and sips his whiskey. "Text me when Sparkles here retrieves his marbles, I suppose. Meanwhile..." he says while pulling a vial of blood out of his inner suit coat pocket. "A prezzie."
"Really?" Sam skeptically asks as Crowley tosses the vial to him. He catches it, face still concerned. "Just boxed-up and ready to go?"
"I'm a model of efficiency." Crowley shrugs with an evil grin and sips his whiskey.
"Then why were you ten-fucking-minutes late?" Lou finally speaks up, asking what everyone wants to know. "Summoning spells, like the one we used, never come with a delay."
The demon smiles at her slightly warmly, or at least as warmly as he can manage. "Dick had me in a devil trap, my beauty. He's not an idiot. He knows what you are all after."
"So what did he offer you?" Sam interjects.
"A fair deal in exchange for giving you the wrong blood. It's demon, but is it mine?" He smirks with mischief.
"Is it, douche bag?" Lou wonders, wanting confirmation.
"I'd never lie to a lass like you, Louise."
"Don't call me that," she fires back.
"Why not?" Crowley wonders. "It's a lovely name for a lovely girl. It means renowned warrior, befitting of a creature such as yourself, no?"
"Dude! What the hell!?" Lou asks, breaking with his odd kindness sent her way. "Why are you all up my skirt?"
"What I wouldn't give," he smirks. Lou looks at him with further anger. He sighs. "Why wouldn't I be, darling?"
"Because I'm just some chick," she tells him, annoyed as all hell.
"Are you?" he challenges knowingly.
"Yeah, I am," Lou answers back swiftly. "Go find a demon bitch to chase or something."
Crowley narrows his eyes for a moment, thoughtfully entangled in his own mind, before moving on without another word on the matter. "It's my blood. Real deal."
"And why should we trust you?" she further pushes him.
"Good God, don't. Never trust anyone, darling," Crowley tells her before turning his sights to the angel.
"A lesson I learned from my last business partner."
Castiel narrows his eyes at the demon, no verbal response needed.
"And as much as I'd love to take this little cherub of yours to Hell and roast him 'til he's jerky… you boys and girls need him in order to get Dick. Don't they, Cassie-poo?"
The guilt paints itself onto Castiel's face quickly. "Oh, I… I don't fight anymore."
"Come on," Crowley sighs with the angel's reluctance. "Given the particulars of your enemy, sadly, you're vital and you know it… just like your dear Elizabeth here. You both could be the key to punching Dick's clock, hm?"
With that, Crowley disappears.
"Uh… ok…." Dean turns around and sees Lizzy standing there with Sammy. His expression drops. "Hey, uh… the next time a demon that powerful comes by while Sammy's around, try not to pick a friggin' fight with him." He reaches out and Sammy leans for his dad, Dean taking him from his mother while he's upset at her.
Lizzy feels quite at fault for her temper flare. "Yeah, I'm… sorry…."
"You should be," Dean tells her, his voice light and understanding despite his words. He runs a hand over Sammy's dark, thin hair and kisses his forehead. "Even if he has it coming, you can't just mouth off to a guy that powerful with Sammy here."
"I know, I know," she admits, hands covering her face with embarrassment. "He just asks for it, you know?"
"Oh, we know," Sam assures her. He looks down into his hand and sees the blood vial. "You guys think Crowley's, uh..."
"Double-crossing us? Totally," Lou answers as Sam walks to the table and starts to set up what they need to make the weapon. She starts to help him, clearing the summoning spell and readying everything.
"You've got to figure who he wants dead more… us or Dick," Dean mentions, wandering around the room with Sammy, just happy that they're safe without King Demon around to threaten his family.
"Definitely not us if Lou's a part of our group," Lizzy smirks at Lou a little.
"Dude… shut up," Lou tells her sister, completely on the spot with Crowley's shining to her.
"Maybe you're, like, demon bait or something," Lizzy laughs lightly, keeping a distance from Lou as she says these things. "Demons are drawn to you."
"He's the only one I know of so far so cram it," Lou tells her, placing a fresh, clean bowl on the table as Sam pulls out the three small bottles of blood they've collected. "Seriously though… you think this is really his blood?" She picks up the vial and looks at it hard.
"Depends what Dick offered," Sam answers, still also unsure of what to think. "But it's all we got. And if he didn't want to help I don't think he'd bother giving us anything… right?"
"Maybe," Lou shrugs. "Guess we just… assume he's telling the truth."
"Aw, would he lie to a lass like you?" Dean interjects with a shit-eating grin from a few feet away. Lou just flips him off.
"Here we go," Sam nods to Lou and together they pour the three bloods into the clean bowl. "Okay. Um…." He picks up the bowl of blood and looks around the room as everyone gathers together at the kitchen table. "So do we, uh..."
"Uh, there's no magic words. No nothing," Dean reminds him, tapping an index finger on the notebook Kevin left them. "We just... just go."
Sam thinks for a second before saying, "Alright, then." He picks up the gold summoning bowl and dumps out the contents onto the middle of the table. Sam then places the sharpened femur bone into it. Pouring the blood over the bone he winces. Once done, everyone closes their eyes and waits. And waits.
"Uh, where's all the thunder and lightning?" Dean asks, pulling his hand away from Sammy's head as he'd blocked his ear assuming it'd get loud in there.
"Maybe it worked?" Sam says skeptically.
"We're just gonna assume?" Lizzy has to question, worried about sending anyone in their group after the most powerful Leviathan with a possibly fault weapon.
"And hope we don't look like asses, yeah," Lou says. "We should let those dry and start planning this attack out, huh?"
The whoosh of wings is heard and when they all look they see Castiel standing there, a large plate of sandwiches piled onto it in his hands. No one had even seen him disappear in the first place. He was silent.
"So, none of this should cause you any ill effect," the angel immediately starts speaking as he places the platter onto the table in the last little nook of uncovered space. "I went to a little farm in Normandy for the wheat and the lettuce and tomato and… and I thoroughly examined and comforted the pig before I... slaughtered it for the ham."
When no one moves Castiel can feel how out of the norm his gesture is.
Picking up a sandwich, he tries to hand it to Dean. He knows if anyone will eat it will be him. "Eat up. You need your strength."
Eyeing him with concern, Dean takes the sandwich and says, "Thanks, Cass."
"We could use something more than food from you, Cassie," Lizzy starts in as he walks over to him, a hand on his shoulder. "Even though the food is great. Thank you for that. But we could use your actual help…."
"I do not fight," Castiel returns with
"We get that, but why was Crowley so certain that you need to come with us?" Sam asks, hanging onto that very key, very obvious point Crowley chose to make before leaving.
"And why did he say L would need to help out too?" Dean adds in, his major concern being that of the mother of his child possibly being necessary to killing Dick. He wants her nowhere near the Death Star.
"Crowley's wrong," Castiel claims, clearly lying as his eyes dart around the room with major guilt.
"I'll be waiting right here. I can keep watch over Samuel while you're gone. But please, accept this sandwich as a gesture of solidarity." He motions to the food he made and still refrains from eye contact with the room.
"I'm not buying that, Cass," Lizzy tells him, keeping her voice calm and soothing whenever she speaks to him within his new state. "But if you can promise me that Crowley wasn't talking about anything super important, that we're safe if we go in there without you, then I'll trust you."
He still doesn't look at her. He keeps his sights around the room. "You are all warriors, better than my own brothers and sisters at most points. You should be fine."
Lizzy sighs but makes sure the room lets it be with a pointed look. She doubts he'll let them leave without being sure they'll be safe.
"Well, let's get ready," Lizzy says to everyone and everyone starts to move around the room, preparing for their big attack.
Once Dean parks their stolen van outside of Sucro Corp, the last known location that Dick was seen in, Dean sighs heavily and looks behind him at Lou. "She text you at all?"
"Did you think she would?" Lou scoffs as she starts to unpack the duffel bag of weapons they brought.
"No," Dean admits, knowing Lizzy's sore over getting out-voted for mission: Kill Dick. She didn't take it well, wanting to follow through with her threat she put on him the day Bobby died, Dick having shown up to the hospital to rub salt into the already gaping wound. She vowed she'd end him to his face and now she's once more sidelined by motherhood.
"Don't worry about it so much," Lou tells him without looking away from her job. "Trust me, any one of us dies in this and she'll understand fully that she couldn't come."
"So… any one of us dies and she gets over being left behind or we all come back and she's still pissed?"
Lou laughs. "Pretty much, yeah."
"Shitty options," Dean grumbles, looking at his phone. No messages. He starts typing one of his own.
"Well, when she's alive tomorrow then she can shut the hell up about it," Lou points out. "No nephew of mine is growing up without his mom."
"At least I got back up on this," Dean mutters, sending his message to Lizzy.
I know you're pissed. Don't be. We did what we had to for Sammy. It's all for Sammy. I love you.
Dean then pockets his phone and looks to Sam with his laptop wide open, keys clicking away. "You got it yet?"
"Here we go," Sam tells him as he gets access to the security cameras he needs. He holds the screen between Dean and him, making sure even Lou can see it.
They get a solid view of the board room, meeting in progress with Dick Roman at the head of the long table.
"Thank you, Charlie, wherever you are," Sam mutters, thankful that she taught him how to gain access to any security camera, even ones Frank would never have been able to crack.
"Can't wait to meet this chick," Lou comments, Lizzy and she having yet to meet Charlie.
"You guys will like her," Sam assures, knowing they will.
"We got you, Dick," Dean says with an undertone of dark excitement.
"Yeah, that's, uh, the second floor," Sam mentions as he clicks to a new camera view to start a plan of attack. "And… and then…." He stops when he registers the man walking down the hallway on his laptop screen.
"What… the fuck…?" Lou awes, seeing it too.
"What the hell? Is that Dick?" Dean asks.
Sam starts clicking through other views. A different hallway. "And that's Dick." And then a desk in an office. "And so it that."
"Son of a bitch." Dean washes a hand down his face with the stress of what's being presented to them.
"Cycle through again," Lou asks of Sam, needing another look at all the Dick Romans running around the building. Just as before, Dick seems to be in several places within Sucro Corp all at once.
While they watch the live footage, a pickup truck pulls up to the curb across the street. Sam looks up and sees it park in the odd place and he has a weird feeling. Peering through binoculars, he sees a woman in a maid's uniform open the door and step out, a paper wrapped item under her arm. She looks around a bit before walking for the building and when he gets a clear peek at her face Sam's heart stops.
"Shit," he says, dropping the binoculars. Lou and Dean look at the woman with him. "That's the maid from the motel. Lou."
"Wait, what motel?" she wonders, looking at the woman and not recognizing her.
But Sam processes it all at once. Why would the woman from the motel near the Alpha Vamp's hideout be at Sucro Corp right now? Right when Bobby's flask disappears?
"Oh, no. Oh, Bobby, what are you doing?"
"Wait," Dean's face drops. "Are you saying that Bobby…?"
"Look, just, uh, wait here," Sam tells them both and he jumps out of the car.
"Are you out of your mind?" Dean asks.
"Sam! Don't do that…." Lou tries to stop him.
"You guys have the weapons, and… and eyes on Dick, plural," Sam points to the laptop before shutting the car door. "I'll take care of Bobby."
"Sam!" Dean shouts at him.
"Shut up," Sam returns with and jobs off after the maid.
Lou itches instantly as she sits there. He shouldn't being going out there alone, not at the Leviathan headquarters.
"Who's the maid?" Dean finally asks Lou, confused as all hell.
"She worked at the motel we stashed the flask in… where the flask disappeared from," Lou says, watching Sam disappear from sight.
"How the hell would he remember her face?" Dean wants to know, the mind of Sam something he still doesn't get.
"Photographic memory," Lou explains quickly as she digs into a duffle in the backseat by her feet.
Dean just sits and thinks for a second. "Really?" he wonders, never having known that before.
"It's why he retains fucking everything, duh," Lou tells him, picking up an iron crowbar. "He reads it once, sees it once, it's cemented in that friggin' huge brain of his forever." She opens the car door.
"What… where you going?" Dean asks as she gets out too. "You heard Sam…."
"Fuck Sam," Lou says and runs off in the direction Sam disappeared in.
Dean sighs and shakes his head. "Great."
By the time Lou catches up she watches Sam holding his own arm tightly, blood trickling from between his fingers. The large knife in the maid's hand has blood on it.
"Get out of here, Sam," the maid growls.
Lou watches Sam straighten up a bit. "No."
The maid then slams Sam against the vehicle and grabs his throat with both hands. Sam chokes out struggled sounds and pulls at the stronger than human hands but can't loosen them.
"Bobby, stop…" Sam gasps. "Stop."
Lou reaches Bobby and quickly, gripping each end of the crowbar in her hands, brings it over the maids head and pulls her back. The second the iron touches her neck Bobby's blown out of her, leaving the maid once more free.
Once she's sure Bobby's gone, Lou lets go of the woman and steps back. "You ok?"
The maid's wide, horrified eyes look at her in panic. "Where am I?" she asks. "Who the hell are you?"
Lou just closes her eyes and sighs. She then looks at Sam. "Are you alright, Giant?"
"Yeah," he nods, shaken with everything that just happened. Bobby attacked him. He attacked him. The decisions that have to make because of this puts fear deep in his heart. "Uh… miss? Why don't we get you somewhere safe, ok?"
When the door to the cabin opens, Lizzy smiles to see Dean walk through first. She's relieved. But then she takes one good look at his sour, sad face and she knows something went wrong. "You didn't get it done."
"We got distracted," Dean bitterly answers as he walks into the cabin, drops a heavy bag, and marches right for her as she's sitting at the table, Sammy in a high chair as he eats some cut up strawberries laying out on his tray. Dean runs a hand over Sammy's head and kisses his face hello.
Silently, Sammy smiles and reaches up with a piece of strawberry.
Dean ducks down and eats it. Sammy claps his hands together once. "Da-da-da-da."
"Hey, kiddo," Dean greets while chewing.
"Dean, what the hell happened?" Lizzy asks, completely confused.
"Bobby," he says sadly, sitting down in a chair he pulls up next to her, keeping close to Sammy.
"What the hell does that mean?" she wonders, very concerned already.
"It means we have one seriously shitty conversation to have right now," Lou answers for him as she walks in with Sam.
"Jesus, you ok?" Lizzy worries when she sees the bruising around Sam's neck as he walks in after Lou, closing the door.
"Not really," Sam answers, a bit shaken still by the fact that it was Bobby that did it to him.
"What happened?" she asks him, using Sammy's bib to wipe down his face as Dean pulls him out of his chair.
"Bobby happened." The second Sam says it he watches the fear coat Lizzy's face. She already knows enough. And then she spies the blood on his cut open jacket sleeve.
"Shit," she sighs. "He did that!?"
Sam doesn't answer, just makes a sorrowful face that lets her know he did. She sighs.
"Come on. Family pow-wow," Dean says and moves for the couch, sitting down and putting Sammy in his lap. He hands him his favorite stuffed dog as everyone sits in a small circle. Sammy chews on the dog's ear, like usual, and stays quiet aside from some random noises of contentment here and there. He's generally a happy baby, a toy and a lap making him quite appeased.
"What happened?" Lizzy very quietly asks after grabbing her medical bag, afraid to know. She sits next to Sam on his hurt side and tugs on his jacket lapel once, letting him know to take it off.
"When we got to Sucro Corp we were staking the place out," Sam tells her, his heart already broken enough. He pulls the jacket off and starts to open the buttons on his flannel shirt under it. "As we were trying to make a plan of attack a pick-up pulled up. I recognized the woman that got out. She was a maid from the motel we stashed Bobby's flask at while going after the Alpha."
Lizzy face goes white as she pulls out supplies to patch Sam out and arranges them on the coffee table. "Why would she be there?" She already knows.
"Bobby was possessing her," Lou tells her sister plainly, getting this over with as she watches Sam wince as he removes his next layer. "He was using some poor woman to get to Dick and kill him himself."
"He didn't have the weapon needed to even put a dent in Dick though," Lizzy points out.
"Doesn't seem to matter," Dean says. "The guy's not thinking. He's gone full agro."
"Oh shit," she says, voice wavering. "What do we do then?"
"You know what you gotta do, Liz," they suddenly hear a familiar, gruff voice say. Bobby appears in the cabin and they all look at him with worry and a little fear. "Don't look at me like that."
"We're worried about you," Lizzy tells him, her voice shakier now that he's here. She busies herself with cleaning the blood off Sam's now exposed arm, the slice just below his t-shirt sleeve.
Bobby's eyes land on Sammy. He shares a slight smile with just the sight of the little boy. "Me too." He pauses, accepting what comes next and accepting that he's no longer going to be around to see Sammy grow up. "Well, ya got the flask. You idjits should've burned it right off a long time ago."
"Bobby…" Dean begins to speak but the older man doesn't want to hear it.
"No. I'm still jonesing to go back... grab some poor bastard, kamikaze 'em going after Dick," he tells him walking closer to Dean. He stops right in front of him, watching Sammy chew away while still teething. "It's bad."
Without asking, he reaches down for Sammy. The little boy instantly reaches up, small hands outstretched for his grandfather that he hasn't seen in some time. Bobby picks him up, pulls him in, and sits him on his hip, displaying his ghost strength if anyone in the room had doubted it. Without thought, the young boy rests his head on his grandpa's shoulder.
No one says a word when they watch Bobby's eyes close, leaning his head against Sammy's. And they certainly don't mention how he clears his throat just to find his voice again after a moment with his grandkid.
"Let's be real," Bobby finally is able to talk, the lump there in his throat. He looks at Sam with guilt. "I damn near killed you. And that woman."
"It wasn't your fault, Bobby… not really." Sam concedes quickly despite Lizzy pressing gauze to his still bleeding arm. He was upset and angry for the way Bobby acted the entire way back to the cabin. Now that he sees the hurting ghost of the man he's loved since childhood he doesn't care as much. He just doesn't want Bobby to leave now.
"Right," Bobby scoffs, tone sarcastic. He pulls Sammy closer without thinking. "That's just what ghosts turn into. I really bet the farm I could outsmart that."
"You tried," Lizzy attempts to smile but fails.
"I'll always try, but you kids know what happens when you try sometimes."
"Yeah, you get your own ass handed to you," Dean gripes, having been burnt over trying to do the right thing so many times in the past. "So, what's it feel like?"
"What? Going vengeful?" Bobby asks, Dean nodding. He peers down at Sammy's face, awake yet calm, and he keeps his eyes there. Sammy seems to control his anger like nothing else has been able to. "It's an itch you can't scratch out. It keeps… nagging 'atcha. And nothing can fix it."
Bobby pauses and hugs Sammy in, his face so sad it's painful. What's left of his heart hurts terribly as he says his silent goodbye, clinging to every feel, sound, and smell of his grandkid that he never thought he'd have. He drops a kiss on his head, something he's rarely if ever done before, and then heads for Dean again. He hands the boy back over, his eyes rimmed with tears.
"Look... kids, I'm done," Bobby tells them. "I know. You know."
No one can tell him he's wrong, even if they desperately want to.
"Go get Dick. Send his ass packing," Bobby tells them. "But don't do it 'cause you think it'll scratch the itch. The itch ain't ever getting scratched. Do it to save the world for him." He nods at Sammy. "Now, you kids suck up the tears and meet me out back."
He blinks out.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
The four hunters stand around a small fire in the back of the cabin. Bobby's there, watching the flames as he prepares to leave them for good.
Lizzy's face is already streaked with tears. Ever since her son was born even a sappy commercial could break her down into sobs so this isn't easy for her. And the fact that she has Sammy there with them, holding him so he's facing away from her with his back against her front, makes her hurt more. Sammy's losing his grandfather for good. It's killing her. He has so little as it is.
"Bobby, we can burn the flask easy, but…." Sam pauses, his analytical brain having thought about this minor issue. "We can't burn Sammy."
Bobby nods, looking at the little guy he's so attached to. "I made my peace with him. At first… I just could deal with not being there to see him grow up. But… I know you all. You'll take care of him. I'm not needed."
"That's not true," Lizzy sniffles out, her tears making this harder for Bobby.
"Maybe no," Bobby huffs a quiet laugh at her. "But he's gonna grow up right with the four of you having his back. I don't need to worry about him. I've let it go." He nods and makes sure they believe him.
No one responds. They trust what he says.
"Uh… if I can give a little advice before," Bobby speaks up, Dean holding tightly to the flask as he prepares himself for this. "When it's your time... go. It was damn fool of me to think I could beat this."
"We understanding why you stayed," Sam tries to comfort the man. "Not sure any of us would have moved on either."
"Well then, you best learn from me," Bobby warns. "If you ain't gonna learn from my mistake then you ain't gonna learn."
No one speaks as Bobby's eyes move around their little circle. Sad eyes of all his children, the adopted crew of strong, relentless hunters with hearts of pure gold. To say he's proud of each and every one of them would be putting it lightly. Life was ninety-percent shit for Bobby Singer, but he did have one damn bright spot within it. Well, maybe five bright spots.
But now, after a heart-stopping realization, he's ready to go. "Here's to... running into you guys on the other side. Only... not too soon. Alright?"
Lizzy sniffles loudly and Bobby can't help but smile at her.
"Suck it up, Liz," he taunts with a little smirk, knowing she can't. She just wipes her face and cries more, knowing he never expected her to suck anything up.
"You ready?" Dean very painfully asks.
One more glance around, Bobby's heart full with the way Lou is tucked under Sam's arm, the two of them relying on each other and genuinely happy, and how Dean and Lizzy seem mended and back to where they're meant to be, he knows he's not leaving them in a bad place. They have each other.
"Go ahead, son," Bobby nods.
Dean drops the flask into the fire, the cheap metal softening quickly.
Bobby can feel it happening from the inside out, his ghostly form burning off as he leaves the earth for the afterlife.
The warm orange glow starts to brightly light from within his form. Knowing he has only seconds left, Bobby chooses to leave with his eyes on his boy, his grandkid, the reason he had to live on and be happy in the last year of his life. He's said his goodbyes, detached himself from him so he could leave, but he'll never forget that little boy.
Looking at Sammy, Bobby smiles sadly. "I'll miss you most of all, scarecrow."
And with those final words, his form burns away and the air is empty, the metal flask melted into a pile of salted liquid in the middle of the fire.
Dean looks over at his brother, Sam doing the same once Bobby's gone. He's gone. They've known him practically their whole lives, the man being one of the few constants in their lives they could depend on. He never let them down. He never gave them anything but understanding and love, even when they hadn't earned it. Without a word, they mourn for a second and understand each other within that sorrow.
But they know what they have to do.
Dean turns to Lizzy and sees her wet, devastated face.
"How many times do we have to say goodbye to him," she looks up at him with a pathetically sad face.
Dean doesn't say anything. Instead, he bites his own tears back and gives her a hug, mindful not to squish Sammy.
"Shit," Lou sniffles and backs away from Sam after having been hugging him the whole time. "Alright." She tries to calm herself and roughly wipes her face. Sam discretely does the same, not wanting to admit he cried a little there. "We gotta make a game plan."
"We do," Sam agrees, sucking it all up because Lou's right. He clears his throat loudly. "Let's, uh, head in and figure out what to do about the Dicks."
"The Dicks? Plural?" Lizzy asks Sam. Dean backs off the hug and grabs her hand.
"Yup. A whole bag of them," Dean tells her, leading her into the house. "Let's get to work."
Lizzy glances up as she walks for the cabin, catching Castiel's saddened face as it peers out of the window at them. Clearly he watched the whole thing.