"I guess we can do this. There's somebody I need to talk to first…" Sam trailed off, reaching into his pocket for his phone.
…..
Castiel looked up from the road, holding the steeringwheel with one hand while he reached for his flip phone with the other.
"Hello?" He answered it.
"Hey, Cas," Sam said.
"Sam. I was about to call you myself—" Cas began, but was interrupted.
"Yeah, look, I know how to find Dean! I'm with….well I don't know if we ever told you, but, there's somebody you should meet. His name's the Doctor, he has a time machine, and I'm with him right now. Anyway, he's agreed to help me follow Dean."
"Slow down. A Doctor? With…a time machine?" Cas questioned.
"Yeah….it's all really complicated, but the point is, he's kinda like you guys, angels, with like, omniscient consciousness and powers and stuff, but he's an alien. We ran into him once before. You can trust him. Anyways, his ship can take me to Dean. We already did it once—"
"You found Dean?!" The angel's voice raised with excitement.
"What's left of him. He's…I think Crowley changed him. A demon, or something. All I can say for sure, is Dean is not going to come with us willingly. I saw him, spoke to him, and he just ignored me. It's like he's someone else, like, like I….didn't mean anything to him." Sam explained.
"So, he got away?" Cas asked, his voice falling.
"Yeah. He…yeah. He's definitely not our Dean. Anyway, I can track him—"
"That's great news, Sam," Castiel replied, "Listen, go for it if you feel like you can trust this Doctor guy you're working with. But, please, don't confront him without me. I think I'm getting close to regaining my grace. Just…wait a while, OK?"
"You are? That's fantastic." Sam gushed.
"Yeah, I guess." Cas's voice was grave.
"What….what's wrong, isn't that good news?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, no, look…. Follow Dean….just….don't do anything yet without me. Sorry. I've got to go." With that, Cas hung up the phone, frowning as he tossed it back into the middle console.
He sighed, glaring back out at the road. What was coming was going to be hard, he already knew it. Just what it would take, though, he wasn't sure.
…..
"Alright. What do you need to stop him?" The Doctor asked.
"Well," Sam said, "I'm going to need to get a few things, just in case. Cas…Castiel, a friend of mine who's an angel, is hopefully going to get his powers back soon. Anyway, I figure we'll just follow him for a while, see what he's up to, and I'll try to figure out a way to stop him."
Canton nodded, "Yeah, sounds reasonable enough to me."
"Good. So, Sam, what do you need to do to get ready?" The Doctor asked, moving toward the controls.
"Well, I have some of it here…but…I could use to go back to my car, get the rest." Sam said after thinking a moment.
"And what all would that be?" The Doctor asked.
Sam sighed. "Look, I know you don't like guns, but that's the only way through this."
"Just don't expect me to use one. But, better yet, is there anything we can do?" The Doctor asked.
"Well," Sam mused aloud, "It might be a good idea to leave you guys with one. In case anything happened. But regular guns won't work. It has to have the right bullets, bullets engraved with a devil's trap to stop a demon. I've used them before, on Crowley, and on Abbadon. They're the only thing so far that works to stop them without getting close. And believe me, you don't want to do that. Even just being anywhere near Crowley, he can explode your body into nothingness if he wants to. Anyway, if it comes to it, shoot Crowley or any other demon with an etched bullet, and they won't be able to move from the spot they're on, or use their powers. Just…don't count on it working for too long, because they're friggin' cunning, and they will figure out a way to get it out, so they can fight again."
"Alright, that's all fine, but what do you fancy we do once we have them trapped in place with these special bullets? You said they don't work for too long." Canton questioned, his expression skeptical.
"Well, that's where the handcuffs come in. They help, they're engraved with devil's traps too, so that they can't use their powers while they're in them. Anyway, if you can take me back to where we started out, I can get all of it out of my car." Sam explained.
"Alright then. We'll be back to your car in a tick," The Doctor said, "Oh, and by the way, you might want to hold on—" He flipped a sequence of switches and dials, and typed briefly on a keyboard.
The Tardis to begin to shake, the familiar screeching sound echoing as it dematerialized. Sam grabbed a railing as it began to pitch about beneath him, like a ship at sea.
"Well, this is a bit of a ride," he said.
"Eh, you get used to it," Canton returned from where he stood, gripping the edge of the console.
"Are you commenting on my driving?!" The Doctor called from the other side of the console.
"What? No. Just…well, OK, yeah…" Canton feebly attempted to deny the accusation, which earned a chuckle from Sam.
"Is he always like this, though?" Sam asked in a lower voice.
"As far as I know," Canton replied.
"Heh, figures," Sam laughed, bracing as the Tardis jolted again as it flew.