"So she's just gonna sit around and do nothing 'til Thursday?" Dean made a disbelieving face. "For some reason, I highly doubt that."
"Nothin' much else we can do besides wait for some indication of activity," Tony supplied. His hands went to his temples; fingers rubbing circles, "But this...is giving me the beginnings of a migraine."
"You've barely read anything," Gibbs scoffed. "Too busy thinkin'."
"That's exactly my point, boss," he defended. "Trying to concentrate on black and white pages while sorting a thousand thoughts flashing into my head, which by the way, I can't really stop, is psychologically draining."
"You are certain it is not another 'vision-headache'?" the concerned Israeli questioned.
Tony let out a small laugh, "Yeah, that's all we need is my father's ghost causing shit again, right?" Ziva's gaze faltered slightly. "No, Zi," he clarified anyway, "It's not a vision-headache. No where near that bad...yet."
"Here," Dean tossed him a bottle of Aspirin he retrieved from his bag.
"Thanks," he replied, catching it with ease. "I'm gonna go upstairs and grab a water. Want anything?"
"It's just about lunchtime," Gibbs said as he checked his watch. "I'll come up with you and you can take a study break by helpin' me fix somethin' for us all to eat."
"Great, I'm starving," Tony exaggerated as he leapt up to follow his boss up the stairs. "I think there's still enough ziti left over to reheat. An' I can make a salad."
"How much of that stuff did you order?" Gibbs shook his head.
"I like to be prepared, boss," he grinned.
"When it comes to food, yeah, I'd have to agree on that," Gibbs smirked.
"Hey, I'm a very prepared person," he defended. "Never go anywhere without my knife. You taught me that," he smirked. "You taught me a lot of preparedness stuff, boss. 'Course, a lot of stuff I learned on my own. More of a 'natural consequence if you don't' type of thing. Food being the one that sticks out in my mind at the moment." Gibbs glanced over at him in question as he pulled the ziti from the fridge. "I got banished to my room a lot when I was a kid," he explained with a smirk, "Most times I'd get locked in there for hours on end. If I didn't hide snacks in there, I'd go hungry. And trust me, when my father was throwing his parties, smelling the food that was served made it impossible to ignore hunger pangs," he let out a small laugh as he set the oven to preheat.
"That actually explains a lot," Gibbs said with a smirk as he pulled out several items for making the salad.
"Yeah, who needs Boy Scouts, right?" he replied as he pulled out a cutting board and set it on the counter.
11 00 11 00 11
"You wanted to speak to me in person, Agent McGee?" Vance asked as he entered Abby's lab.
"Yes, sir," Tim replied as he stood from his chair in front of the computer.
"What did you need?" he asked as he looked around the room, seeing Castiel sitting on a stool in the far corner under the window.
"I was hoping you could...uh...have the agency keep an eye and ear out for anything unusual. More specifically, grave desecration. I don't know how much you know, sir, but...this would be extremely helpful."
"I can make that happen," he told him. "What did you find out about this thing you're lookin' for?" he stepped further into the lab and closed the door to keep out prying ears.
"Well," Tim began, taking in a breath before he continued, "It seems Hel plans on raising the members of that cult at Covenant House. Apparently, it's a pre-written rule or something. She's gotta do that first, before any others. So, after the burials on Thursday, that's when we need to keep an eye on those specific sites. But one of them goes just outside of Norfolk, so we're gonna need to go there, too. We've gotta catch her in the act or we may not be able to track her down otherwise."
Trying not to allow that information to phase him, Vance decided to ask a pertinent question, "If you do find it, do you know how to kill it? Or...whatever it is you need to do get it out of here?"
"That much we're still working on," Tim replied. "In fact, that's what everyone else is doing; research."
"Theoretically," Abby jumped in, "Castiel could full-on pulverize her if he got his hands on her. But the chances of us being able to preemptively lay a devil's trap in exactly the spot she would end up in are pretty slim."
"Not to mention," Ducky added, "The possibility that we may not find her in the midst of her work. She may very well have a prepared location with scribes, just like with the Loki-demon, in which Castiel could not enter."
"Hopefully we'll be able to find an incantation of some kind," McGee stated. "It would at least slow her down enough for Castiel to get to her."
"And if not?" Vance questioned.
"Well...we have the option of using the colt," he replied.
"But it'll kill the vessel," Abby reminded him.
"It will. But if we have no other choice, that's at least an option..."
11 00 11 00 11
McGee decided to make a trip to get groceries with Abby, Ducky and Cas, before heading back to the house. He was getting tired of the ziti. Even though it was good, having it every day was a little off-putting.
After bringing the bags into the kitchen and setting them on the table to be put away, Abby and Ducky retreated to the showers and let Tony, Dean and Ziva assist in helping Tim put the groceries in their proper places.
"I take it you didn't find anything," Tony said as he stuck a few items into the fridge.
"Not a single photo that looked familiar," Tim replied. "But it's not like there are extensive photos of cemeteries online. I'd have to actually walk through them to be sure. I know what cemeteries the cult members are being buried at, so I guess I could go check them out and see where exactly she's gonna start."
"I will go with you," Ziva said. "We can have two teams; cover both cemeteries and take pictures so that you do not have to go to both."
"Whoa, hold on," Tony interrupted. "Ziva, if you're goin' with Tim, you're takin' Castiel with you, at least."
"And Bobby," Dean added. "Tony, you and Gibbs can team up with me an' Sam to scope out the other one. But in all honesty, I think we need a little more intel on this whole thing."
"Well, that'd be nice," Tony replied, "But the only intel we have is from McGoo's dreams."
Tim looked up to find everyone was suddenly looking at him. "There's...no way I can just go to sleep right now, guys," he defended with a slight smirk as if they were insane.
Without warning, Castiel approached him. "I believe I can assist with that," he said before reaching up and touching Tim's forehead. Tim collapsed immediately to the floor.
"Cas!" Dean threw his arms out to the side in frustration, "A little warning maybe?"
Castiel pursed his lips and furrowed his brow at Dean before looking down at the agent who was now sleeping on the floor. "Perhaps I should have told him to lie down first?"
11 00 11 00 11
Covenant House...
"Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary and Martha, were friends of Jesus." Karen Lively, the Pastor's wife, read aloud the Bible story to the group that gathered in the reading room. "When Lazarus fell ill, his sisters sent a message to Jesus, 'Lord, the one you love is sick.' When Jesus heard the news, he waited two more days before going to Lazarus' hometown of Bethany. Jesus knew that he would do a great miracle for God's glory and, therefore, he was not in a hurry."
In the back of the room, sat Brianna. She listened intently to the story, though her eyes wandered among the others in the room.
"When Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had already been dead and in the tomb for four days. When Martha discovered that Jesus was on his way, she went out to meet him. 'Lord,' she said, 'if you had been here, my brother would not have died.' Jesus told Martha, 'Your brother will rise again.' But Martha thought he was talking about the final resurrection of the dead."
Brianna's eyes turned smokey for just a moment. But when she blinked, they returned to normal.
"Then Jesus said these important words: 'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.' Martha then went and told Mary that Jesus wanted to see her. Jesus had not yet entered the village, most likely to avoid stirring up the crowd and calling attention to himself. The town of Bethany was not far from Jerusalem where the Jewish leaders were plotting against Jesus. When Mary met Jesus she was grieving with strong emotion over her brother's death. The Jews with her were also weeping and mourning. Deeply moved by their grief, Jesus wept with them."
She'd never heard the story before. Her head cocked to the side as she devoted her undivided attention to the woman in the front of the room.
"Jesus then went to the tomb of Lazarus with Mary, Martha and the rest of the mourners. There he asked them to remove the stone that covered the hillside burial place. Jesus looked up to heaven and prayed to his Father, closing with these words: 'Lazarus, come out!' When Lazarus came out of the tomb, Jesus told the people to remove his grave clothes."
Brianna stood from her chair and quietly escaped to the bathroom. "What are you waiting for?" she looked up into the mirror at her reflection. "Why haven't you brought them back yet?" It was Brianna in the reflection, but Hel was in control of every other part of her.
"I'm not bringing them back, Brianna," she told her.
"What?" Brianna gaped.
"I have free will here," she explained. "And my will is not to raise them."
"But...we were promised..."
"Not by me," she said calmly. "What is it to you that they should return? They weren't really your friends."
"We did everything we were told to do!" she argued.
"Told by a demon; not by me. You summoned me here for power. You have it now, through me."
"Power you're not even using!" she scoffed.
"I'll be using it. People will rise; just not the ones you'd thought. And once they begin to see, they'll have no choice but to let me stay here."
"This wasn't how it was supposed to be," Brianna's voice cracked. "You were supposed to raise them up and take Tammy's body. I was supposed to be free and given power as my reward!"
"I like this body," Hel retorted in a monotone voice as she admired her reflection. "And I'll keep it. If you cannot accept that, I can arrange for you to no longer be aware, if that is what you so wish?" Brianna began to cry. "Go ahead; let it out, dear. No one can hear you." In a final attempt, Brianna screamed. Hel smiled...
*~.~*
McGee sprung upright on the couch from his dream; eyes wide and breath hard. "He is awake," Castiel's calm voice sounded somewhere beside him. Gibbs and Tony came into his view only moments later.
"You okay?" Tony asked as he sat on the arm of the couch.
"I don't think they're premonitions," Tim told him, then looked to Gibbs, and then to Castiel. "I think I'm just seeing what's happening as it happens."
"What makes you say that?" Gibbs queried.
"Well I...the dream started out in the middle of a Bible study at the Covenant House," he explained. Tony shot a glance at their boss. "Hel is possessing a young woman; blonde, maybe 5' 8. I think she called her 'Brianna'," he squinted as he tried to recall details. "She seemed to be a willing vessel. Or was."
"What's that mean?" Tony asked.
"I think the girl was part of the cult. She was arguing with her because Hel strayed from the plan to resurrect the sacrifices. Tammy was supposed to be the vessel once they were brought back, boss," he said as he looked up at him. "But she wants to stay in Brianna. And she has some kind of plan to ensure she can stay."
"If she's not gonna raise the kids," Tony said, "Then how do we know where to look?"
"If they're not premonitions," Gibbs said, "Then she's already brought someone back."
McGee's cell went off in his pocket. It took him a moment to realize what the noise was, before retrieving it. "McGee," he answered.
"Got a call in from an agent," Vance's voice sounded on the other line, "Says he overheard talk about someone messing with a grave at Rock Creek. Thought he'd call me, but he hasn't checked it out. Figured I'd let you do that."
"Thank you, sir," he said before ending the call. He swallowed, then looked up at Gibbs, "Grave desecration at Rock Creek."
It happened that Dean walked in at that moment. "Just so happens Bobby just got a call from a local friend who works at Oak Hill," he said. "There's a disturbed grave site, but he's not sure what did it. It's pretty fresh, though. She could still be around."
Tim stood, "I'll go to Rock Creek with Ziva."
"Take Bobby and Cas, just to be safe," Dean said. "We'll team out like we discussed earlier. The rest of us will go to Oak Hill once we've got something to take with us. In the meantime," Dean handed McGee his shotgun, "If you find any zombies, remember to aim for the head."
11 00 11 00 11
"What is it exactly that we need to take, now?" Tony asked as he impatiently paced the basement.
"Something to fight Hel with," Sam told him. "Something to hold her, anyway."
"Screw Hel, man!" Tony exclaimed, "We should be out there takin' out zombies before D.C turns into an all-out 'I Am Legend'."
"First of all," Dean interjected, "Technically, 'I Am Legend' was a medical mishap of epic proportions. This would be more like 'Night of the Living Dead', if anything. Secondly..." his gaze shifted a bit as he thought, "...secondly, it'd probably be better to hold off on zombie-killin' 'til we at least have the cover of night."
"Doesn't that kinda give them the advantage?" Tony asked, an incredulous look pasting his face.
Dean cocked his head as he realized Tony might have a point, then looked over at Sam. Sam scratched the side of his head, "Look...let's give Bobby like...ten more minutes. If they find the site and it's the one Tim saw in his dream, then we can at least verify whether or not he's actually seeing something that's happened. In the meantime, this might actually be a lot faster if I wasn't the only one looking for something we can use..."
11 00 11 00 11
McGee stalked across the cemetery lawn, Bobby and Ziva trailing just behind him on either side, and Castiel a bit further behind them.
"Does this look familiar, McGee?" Ziva asked.
"Very," he said as they continued to walk. After a few more steps, something flashed in his mind. It was like a photograph; the world around him turning for a brief moment into what he'd seen in his dream. Then it was back to normal; daylight once again washing over the scene before him. "It's just up ahead, I think," he said as they continued.
But as he approached the site, he realized that this place was familiar for more than one reason. It wasn't just familiar from his vision...he'd been here before...
Not wanting to believe this was the right site, he squinted to read the headstone that sat upon the open earth of the grave. All the blood rushed from his face as he read the name. "Oh my god..."
11 00 11 00 11
"We've got the colt," Gibbs said impatiently. "So if she happens to be there, we've got it covered. Let's just go."
After sharing a glance, the Winchesters decided he was probably right. Sam closed his book and stood from the saw horse.
"Finally!" Tony exclaimed as he headed up the stairs before the rest of them. As he reached the top, he barely made out the faint knocking at the front door. Cautiously, he readied his weapon at his side as he made his way to the door.
With the knowledge that he was safe and that nothing and no one else could cross the threshold into the house, he opened the door. The person standing there in the doorway, caused Tony's heart to sink in his chest. He could literally feel the blood draining from his face and his gun slipped from his hand to the floor with a clunk. She was dirty and looked scared out of her mind; eyes red-rimmed like she'd been crying. She seemed just as surprised to see him.
Tony stood silent for a moment, if only to find his breath. His heart was pounding in his chest and he had to reach out and hold the door frame to keep from falling over.
"Kate?..."
11 00 11 00 11
Tbc...