(A/N)-Guys, hellatus is trying to kill me. All the spoiler-y goodness and pictures leaking from Supernatural…I can't even wait for January, I just can't. (Not to mention Doctor Who isn't coming back for another three days! Any fellow Whovians out there?) Okay, moving on. This chapter follows the episode "Mommy Dearest", but there are things that I did change in the interest of the story. Please, keep the reviews coming, because they make me a very happy writer. J As usual, I don't own Supernatural or any of the characters except for Lydia. So here's the next chapter of this story!
"So." Castiel purred lightly as he lay next to Lydia, naked, looking up at the stars. It had been a few days since the time traveling incident, and Cas had been up in Heaven the entire time; he hadn't even had time to think about Lydia, let alone spend time with her. When he finally had a free moment, Cas had appeared at Bobby's and whisked Lydia away to a deserted island. Although they only had a few hours to be with each other, both of them made sure that they used that time thoroughly.
Lydia stared at the dark sky, shaking her head and smiling. "That was…amazing."
"I agree." Cas nodded, then felt a pang of guilt as he felt Lydia wrap her arms around him and nestled herself closer to his body. He hadn't gotten around to tell her about working with Crowley yet, and it was killing him on the inside.
Lydia instantly picked up on the fact that something was bothering him. "Hey, you okay?" she asked gently.
Cas shook his head. "No, not really." He took a deep breath in and looked back up at the stars, avoiding her gaze. Please don't hate me for this…he thought. "Lydia, over the past year…" Suddenly, he stopped talking altogether; he stared off into space, listening intently. "It's Dean." Lydia groaned loudly, but Cas silenced her. "No, I think it's important. I think it's about Eve."
"It's always about Eve!" Lydia argued as she stood up and brushed off the sand from her body. "I just wish the bitch would die already…Where are my clothes?"
"You threw them over there," Cas pointed behind his shoulder. Lydia walked over to the pile of clothes and started putting them on. "But if we don't take care of her, nobody else will."
"That seems to be the motto to our lives, Cas," Lydia said as she buttoned her jeans. "Still, I don't want to be fighting monsters like her for the rest of my life."
Cas, who was now putting on his clothes as well, added bitterly, "If you hadn't become a hunter in the first place…"
"Dude, you dumped me in my apartment with no money and no source of income," Lydia reminded him gently. "I really didn't have much choice there. And anyways, I was mad and was trying to spite you."
"Can you help me tie this?" Cas was struggling to re-tie his tie, so Lydia came over and did it for him. As he watched her do this, he said, "You know, Lydia, if something happens to me, I want you…"
"Don't give me that speech." Lydia quickly cut him off.
"What speech?"
"That one!" Lydia dropped the tie. "The, 'If-Something-Happens-To-Me-I-Want-You-To-Get-Married-And-Live-A-Normal-Life' speech Sam gave to Dean before he jumped into the pit." Lydia shook her head defensively. "You're going to be fine. I'm going to be fine. We're going to beat Eve and everything's going to be great." Lydia looked at Cas seriously. "I promise."
Cas was stunned; that was exactly what he was going to tell her. "I'm just saying Lydia, with the war going on…"
"Can we just go?" Lydia asked, not wanting to discuss this any further. Cas grabbed her hand, and by the time Lydia blinked, she was back at Bobby's house.
Dean was staring at the two of them, jumping back a bit. Then, he snapped, "Cas, get out of my ass!" He looked at Lydia, obviously put-off. "You too!" He didn't give either of them the chance to respond before he asked them, "Where the hell have you two been? We tried calling Lydia like ten times!"
"We were busy, Dean. We were trying to find out more about Eve." Lydia lied so flawlessly, it almost scared Cas. "We couldn't find much else, though."
"You know what we need?" Sam said, taking a few steps closer to them. "We need an inside man. We've met a couple of friendly monsters, right Dean?" Dean looked doubtful, but agreed that they've might've.
Easier said then done, Lydia thought bitterly. The brothers had remembered a vampire from their past, Lenore, and Cas had disappeared to go find her. They had been waiting for a little over an hour, however, before Cas returned with her.
"Lenore." As soon as the word was out of Sam's mouth, the terrified-looking vampire immediately bolted and tried to run away from them.
The team of five ran after her. Lenore, realizing she was trapped in Bobby's basement, pressed herself up against the wall, looking at all of them suspiciously.
"It's been a long time," Dean finally spoke up. "Do you remember us?"
"I remember," the vampire finally nodded with that suspicious look still in her eyes. "Your hunter friend almost killed me." Defensively, she asked them, "So what's going on? Why am I here?"
"Well, that's our friend Cas our there," Sam pointed to Castiel, who only looked at the vampire coldly. "And we need to talk to you. About Eve."
Lenore immediately turned from defensive to bitter and angry. "Eve? I have nothing to say about Eve. I'm trying to stay away from her." Sam opened his mouth to say something, but Lenore either didn't notice or didn't want to hear it. "I've been camped out in a basement trying not to listen to her, okay? Me and my nest-we can hear her inside our heads. Telling us to kill. My whole nest finally gave in and started to kill again. It's so hard not to give in."
"So this psychic two-way you've got with Mom," Dean asked. "Do you know where she's camped out?"
"You've got to be kidding me," Lenore told them bitterly. "You want me to tell you where she is? You do know she could be listening to us right now. I might as well be a video camera! What are you thinking?" Bobby tried to answer, but Lenore only shook her head, not listening. "You know what? You're all crazy. I can't help you."
"Can't or won't, Lenore?" Sam demanded. "Look, it's clear as day. You still give a crap. You don't wanna kill. And you don't want this whole planet dead."
Lenore looked at all the hunters hesitantly before finally answering them. "Grand Pass, Oregon. She paused for a moment, listening, before adding, "And now she knows you're coming." She shook her head at them. "You actually believe you can stop her?"
"Well, let's go get her, then," Bobby voiced what everybody else was thinking.
"Wait." Lenore's voice rang out and stopped the hunters in their tracks as they were getting ready to leave for Oregon. "I didn't tell you this out of the goodness of my heart. I need something." She took a deep breath in. "I need you to kill me."
"Lenore, look," Dean tried his hardest to talk her out of it. "You don't have to do this. We'll lock you down until this whole thing is over, okay? Witness Protection Program. You'll be safe."
"You don't get it!" Lenore argued desperately. "It's not about that. I'm dangerous. I hear her voice all the time." She was trying so hard to make them understand, Lydia felt only pity for the vampire. "I'm exactly like the rest of my nest. I fed. I couldn't help it. The girl couldn't have been more than sixteen, Sam." Lenore was pleading with them now. "I'll do it again. I can't stop, not anymore. You have to. Please."
Suddenly, before anyone could stop him, Cas stepped up behind Lenore and pressed his hand to the top of her head. Dean, Sam, Bobby and Lydia watched as light poured out of the vampire's eyes, nose, and mouth. Her face burst into flames before she fell to the floor, dead. The hunters all looked at Cas, mouths open.
"We needed to move this along quickly." That was Cas' only response.
XXX
"No, Sam. This ain't a computer. A computer has buttons." Bobby growled.
Lydia sighed. They five of them were squeezed into a tiny diner both, and it was pretty uncomfortable. She was literally sitting on Cas' lap-much to Dean's obvious, vocal disgust-and they were all tense about finding Eve, which lead to a lot of aggravated snapping at each other.
"So did you find anything?" Sam asked Bobby.
"Nope," Bobby continued searching on the iPad that Sam gave him. "Just nickel and dime stuff. Basically dead end. You think Vampira was lying?"
"I'll search the town," Cas said. Everybody waited, but absolutely nothing happened. Cas looked a bit thrown, but only cleared his throat and strained harder.
"Cas, you look like you're pooping." Dean chimed in unhelpfully.
Castiel now looked very upset. "Something's wrong. Eve's blocking my powers."
"Are you joking?" Lydia asked. Castiel shook his head, and she buried her face in her hand. "Eve's doing this?"
"Yes." Cas replied. "I don't know how, but she is."
"Well, that's just perfect," Dean snapped. "Without your power, you're basically just a baby in a trench coat."
Dean was clearly kidding, but Cas looked out the window, upset. Lydia stopped listening to the rest of the conversation and whispered in Cas' ear, "Hey, you okay?" Cas didn't answer her; he just kept staring out the window. Lydia sighed and kept whispering to him. "Come on, Dean was just being an asshole. He didn't mean to. You know as well as I do that he has a talent of sticking his foot in his mouth." Lydia kissed his temple lightly before adding, "I still think you're amazing, Cas."
"Um, Lydia? Cas?" Sam seemed hesitant to interrupt them, but once he had their attention, he told them, "We're going to get going now." Lydia and Cas both nodded before standing up. As they followed the other three hunters out the door, Lydia felt Cas take her hand and squeeze it gently.
XXX
After hours of exploring the town and trying to find Eve, they all entered a bar to find dead bodies scattered everywhere. As they walked around, Bobby said, "Well, the Sheriff's a moot, but you'd think he'd notice this many missing folks."
Dean bent down to inspect a dead woman. He opened her mouth to see a mess of bloody fangs. "We got a vamp over here!" Then, he picked up her limp wrist and told them, "Nope. Scratch that. It's a wraith." Dean shook his head as he stood up. "What the hell? What has fangs and a spike?"
"I dunno," Bobby confessed. "Eve's making hybrids, I guess." He looked up at Dean. "Well, congrats, you discovered it. You get to name it."
Dean thought for a moment before he exclaimed, "Jefferson Starships!" When Bobby, Sam, and Lydia all turned and looked at him, confused, he smirked and explained, "Because they're horrible and hard to kill."
Sam gave his brother a "you're-an-idiot" look before asking, "Okay, fine. But why are all the…Starships dead?"
"Can't say," Bobby nudged one of them with his foot. "But looks like they all burned up from a high fever or the flu or somethin'."
"Hands where I can see 'em!" A voice rang out, startling all of them. They turned around to see the police, the guns pointed at the hunters.
"This isn't what it looks like, I promise." Castiel tried to explain.
"Yeah!" Lydia noticed Dean crawling behind the bar, but kept her eyes locked on the cops, not wanting to give him away. "We're the Feds!"
Feds or not, it took less than a minute for Lydia, Cas, Sam, and Bobby to be arrested and put in the back of a police car. They were all put in separate cars, so Lydia didn't have the chance to talk to any of her friends. After an agonizingly short drive to the police station, she, Bobby, Sam and Castiel were all led out of their cars and lead into the station. Sam tried to explain the situation to the officers, but the Sheriff wasn't listening.
"Straighten out a massacre?" he sneered. "I'd like to see you try."
Sam then looked up, his eyes widening as he looked at the security footage; the officers' eyes were all unnaturally glowing. Sam's head flew back and head butted the policeman holding him. As the monster-cop fell to the ground, Sam cried out to the rest of them, "It's the Jefferson Starships!"
Lydia instinctively did the same head butting move as Sam to get away from the Starship holding her. It gave her a bitch of a headache, but it worked. Even though their hands were literally tied behind their backs, the hunters could still put up a fight. Lydia saw one of the Starships attacking Cas, so she kicked it in the gut, causing it to fall to the ground. Dean raced over and cut its head off, then went over to help Sam, who was currently be beaten by the Sheriff-Starship. Lydia was taken off-guard and was pinned to the wall by her neck, a Jefferson Starship holding her there tightly. She closed her eyes and tried to escape, but to no avail. Then, she felt warm blood squirt across her shirt and her face as Cas sliced the Starship's head off and pulled her off the wall roughly. The rest of the Starships-save for one Dean and Sam were standing over carefully-were dead, but Cas still kept a firm hold on Lydia's upper arm, keeping her close.
XXX
Lydia looked on as Bobby sliced the Sheriff's face with a silver knife, causing the monster to groan painfully, then start laughing. She and Cas were watching Bobby interrogate the last surviving Jefferson Starship. Dean and Sam had run to the back of the prison after hearing what could've been more Starships. Lydia's hand was planted firmly in Castiel's as they watched tensely, then turned around to find Sam and Dean standing with two boys.
"We got a couple of hungry human boys here," Dean explained as he led the boys through the room and out the door. "C'mon, guys." Sam questioned them about Eve, but the older-looking boy just shook his head.
"It was just me and Ryan." Dean then asked if they had any other relatives, and the boy responded, "Yeah. An uncle, in Merritt."
Dean immediately agreed that he and Sam would take the boys there, but Cas looked less than pleased with that idea.
"Dean, may I have a word?" Cas asked darkly. Dean nodded and went into another room to talk to the angel. Lydia heard them talking in quick, furious tones before she saw Dean storm out of the room.
"You know what, Cas?" Dean growled. "I'm getting a little sick and tired of the greater purposes. I think what'd like to do know is save a couple of kids. If you don't mind." Dean glared at the angel, but Cas merely glared back. Dean broke eye contact with Cas and turned towards the brothers, as well as his own. "C'mon, guys. Let's get going." He led the other three out of the room, looking back only to throw Cas the dirtiest look he could muster.
Cas, on the other hand, didn't speak to Lydia or Bobby; he stood and looked out a window. Bobby took care of the Leviathan in the backroom, but Lydia stayed behind, watching Castiel out of the corner of her eye. Eventually, when she couldn't take it anymore, she went over and wrapped her arms around his waist from behind him.
"Hey." Lydia breathed in Cas' scent, leaning her head on his back. The angel was stoic in her arms and didn't acknowledge her. It was hard to believe that this was the same Cas that Lydia had had sex with on the beach only hours before. "Sam and Dean'll be back before you know it."
"Maybe…" Cas didn't sound convinced. "Unless they find more wayward orphans along the way," Cas mocked them bitterly.
"Why are you being so nasty?" Lydia let go of her hold on Cas and stepped back a bit. "They're trying to save a couple kids, Cas. We can hold down the fort until then."
"If you two can please save this for later," Bobby was standing in the doorway, narrowing his eyes at the two of them. "I want to find Eve, and the only way we're doing that is to go poke that pig 'till he squeals. So can I get some help with that?"
Lydia and Cas both nodded, and went over to help him. The Starship had gone immense damage from Bobby's questioning, but he still hadn't cracked. Lydia tried a few more of the same tactics that Bobby used, but she only got the same snarky replies that the older hunter did. The two hunters tried everything they could think of, but the Sheriff-Starship kept his mouth firmly shut. When Lydia and Bobby were in the back of the room, thinking of what to do next, Cas requested, "Would you two mind if I had five minutes alone with him?"
"Cas?" Lydia asked him hesitantly as she put a hand on his arm gently. There was just something about his tone that she didn't like-didn't trust. "You don't even have any powers. Why do you…?"
Castiel silenced her by pressing his lips to hers. It wasn't a sweet gesture, however, and Lydia knew it; it was a way to get her to shut up. Once she pulled back and opened her eyes, the look in Cas' eyes only confirmed her suspicions. Without another word, the angel slipped inside the room with the Starship, leaving Lydia and Bobby to wait outside anxiously.
It didn't even take five minutes for the Starship to crack; it took less than two minutes. Lydia and Bobby, after a while, heard the Starship howl painfully, followed by Cas walking out of the room, scrubbing off what looked like blood off his hands.
"Eve's at 25 Buckley Street," Cas said calmly, looking casually at the two of them, despite the horrified looks they were giving him. "Now would be a good time to call Sam and Dean." He turned away from them and walked back in the direction he came, leaving Bobby and Lydia alone. The two hunters made eye contact, both of them seeing the fear in the other's eyes before they dropped their eyes to the floor, neither of them knowing what to say next.
XXX
The very second Dean and Sam got back, the five of them were out of the police station and trying to find where Eve was as quickly as possible. They eventually found 25 Buckley Street-it was the address of the diner where they had eaten earlier.
"You've got to be kidding me," Dean groaned. "She's been in there the whole time? But then why the hell would she just let us in and out like that?" Everybody else was silent, so Dean only shrugged and started towards the diner, pulling out his gun and gripping it tightly.
"What, are you just gonna stroll in?" Bobby hissed. "We don't know who's human or who's with her. You can't just…"
Dean shrugged again. "Bobby, c'mon, there's only one way to draw her out. Me and Sam will go in." Bobby tried arguing with him, but Dean, as always, didn't listen. "If we don't get a shot, you three take it. That's the plan and I'm sticking to it."
With one last look, the Winchesters slowly went into the diner as the other three held their breaths fearfully. Lydia glanced over at Bobby and asked, "Are they always this stupid?"
"Pretty much." Bobby nodded.
Silence descended on them once again; the party three watched as Eve started talking to Sam and Dean. They couldn't make out what they were saying, but Lydia and Bobby had their guns locked and loaded, ready to barge into the diner and attack at any seconds. They were so focused on the diner, however, that they didn't notice the Starships creeping up behind them. Lydia felt a hand clap over her mouth and her gun thrown out of her hand before she felt another arm snag around her waist and drag her out of her hiding place. Wildly, her eyes moved towards Cas and Bobby, and she saw that they were all being held by a couple of Jefferson Starships. Before she had the chance to try and fight them off, the Starship holding her dragged her, along with Bobby and Cas, into the diner and right into Eve's trap.
Lydia couldn't help but feel a flash of panic as Eve, the Mother of All, took her eyes off Sam and Dean and looked at the three of them. She looked directly at Cas and smirked lightly. "And you, wondering why so flaccid? I'm older than you, Castiel. I know what makes angels tick. Long as I'm around, consider yourself...unplugged." Eve gave him a sarcastic wink that made Lydia's blood boil before she walked back to the Winchesters. "Work for me. It's a good deal." When Sam and Dean only glared at her further, she rolled her eyes. "If you do, I won't kill your friends. That's a bonus, right?"
"Alright, look," Dean glared at Eve with so much anger and hatred, it scared Lydia. "The last few months we've been working with an evil dick. We're not about to sign up for an evil bitch." Lydia and Bobby looked at each other, both of them wondering what the hell Dean was doing. "We don't work with demons. We don't work with monsters. And if that means you gotta kill us, then kill us!" He shook his head and looked straight into Eve's eyes without batting an eyelash. "Beat me with a wire hanger, Mom, but the answer's still no."
In response to this, Eve appeared right behind Dean, pulled his head back, and bit his neck. Sam, who was also being restrained by Starships, shouted his brother's name and struggled towards him. Bobby, Lydia, and Cas did the same, but stopped when they saw Eve stagger back, coughing violently.
Dean, pressing his hand to the wound in his neck, stood up and held up a shotgun shell. "Phoenix ash. One shell, one ounce of whiskey. Down the hatch." He raised his eyebrows, enjoying the furious look Eve was giving him. "It's a little musty on the after burn, but if it works, it works." Of course, Dean being Dean, he couldn't resist adding one last remark. "Call ya later, Mom."
Lydia watched as Eve crouched down and transformed into another form; she took the form of another, younger, dark-haired girl. A bright light started glowing from her chest, and Eve stood there, choking and sputtering. Blood and another dark substance started running down her face, and eventually, Eve fell to the ground, dead. Dean had killed her. The bitch was dead.
Her children, however, were far from dead; they all went wild and started attacking the hunters viciously. The hunters defended themselves, but they were dangerously close to being overtaken when Cas raised his hand and roared, "Everybody, shut your eyes!"
Lydia closed her eyes as a blinding light filled the entire diner. Lydia's eyes, although they were shut, were still watering from the light, and she tried shielding them with her arm. Once the light disappeared, Lydia removed her arm and opened her eyes to see all the monsters dead. She breathed a sigh of relief, shaking her head, before she ran over to Cas and threw her arms around him. He hugged her back, briefly, before they both let go and looked at the other hunters.
"Cas, we gotta take you on more hunts." Bobby was staring at Cas, shaking his head in amazement.
"Um, Cas?" Sam awkwardly asked the angel. "Dean's bleeding pretty good, and…I think Eve turned him into a Jefferson Starship. Do you think you could…?"
Sam never had to finish his request, because Castiel had already touched Dean's shoulder, healing Dean completely. Dean nodded thankfully as he stood up. "Alright, we're good. We gotta move now. That little kid, Ryan-he's one of them. Eve turned him into a Starship."
Lydia's eyes widened in horrified surprise. "I thought you guys tested him!"
"We did!" Dean shot back. "But Eve perfected the model and he slipped right past us! Can we please just go before he kills somebody!"
Cas nodded as he went around, touching all of them on the forehead and transporting them to the boys' uncle's house. Lydia shut her eyes, disappointed, when she saw who she assumed to be the uncle dead on the floor. They had arrived too late.
Dean seemed to share her disappointment. "We kill the Wicked Witch and she still wins. I mean they could've turned half the town by now." Castiel started to say something, but Dean stopped him before he could. "Don't say it."
Bobby was walking around the room, investigating. He opened a closet door, then jumped back as the boys' bodies fell out onto the floor.
"Found 'em." Bobby said breathlessly.
Sam bent down near the bodies and lightly touched a yellow powder that Lydia immediately knew was sulfur. "It was demons. Demons got them." Sam sighed.
Everybody was silent for a few minutes. Cas almost immediately transported them back to the diner, but nobody said anything; there was nothing left to say. But eventually, the silence was broken by Dean, who pulled out his keys with a heavy sigh.
"Y'all ready to go?" Dean asked. Sam, Bobby, and Lydia all nodded. Dean looked over at Cas and told him, "We'll catch ya later, Cas." Cas didn't look back at them; he was pensively staring at all the bodies on the diner floor. Sam nudged Lydia, gave the back of Castiel's head a nod, and raised an eyebrow. Lydia shook her head; she wasn't going to bother to try to say goodbye to the angel. There was no point when he got in a mood like he was right then.
The four hunters left the angel standing in the diner and started walking out to the Impala in silence. Dean, Sam, and Bobby had all opened the doors and were about to get in the car, but Lydia stood there, frozen, watching them.
"Lyd, are ya coming?" Bobby asked her.
Lydia, exasperated, looked back at the diner, then looked back at the three of them and shook her head. "No, I'm gonna go talk to Cas for a while. I'll get him to take my home in a bit."
"You sure?"
She nodded. "Yeah. You guys go ahead. I'll meet you back home."
"Alright." Dean shrugged as the three men hopped in the car. "We'll see you later, then." Lydia watched as the black Impala rolled off into the night, then turned around and walked towards the diner. The door was wide open, and Lydia was about to walk right in, then stopped, her heart stopping for a few beats. She ducked down and hid behind the doorway, peaking to see Castiel talking to none other than the demon Crowley; the same demon who had been dead for months.
"Really, Cas?" Lydia shut her eyes and clenched her fist tightly; there was no mistaking that accent. "This is getting ridiculous. How many times am I going to have to clean up your messes?"
It was then that Lydia exposed herself, standing up and moving out of the doorway, into the diner. Cas' face went from a dark scowl to a pale look of shock and guilt. "Lydia, what are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing!" Lydia yelled back. Her eyes locked on Crowley as her brain struggled to keep up. "And you! I thought…we all thought you were dead!"
Crowley smirked at her, shaking his head. "Not quite, sweetheart. Cas and I have been in business together for quite a while." Lydia's head shot towards Cas and she stared at the angel, disappointment and confusion filling her eyes. She blinked once, and all those emotions were gone; all that was left in her eyes was anger.