Author's Note: Warning.. This chapter includes torture and minor character death. C'mon, you're brave enough though, right?
Dean runs the rest of the way to the door, leaving his mom calling after him. He doesn't know what any of it means exactly but the hairs standing up on the back of his neck urge him on. When he bursts through the backdoor, his father stands up. It only takes him a second of searching his son's face before he immediately asks, "What's wrong?"
"I- I don't know. There was this guy.. I forgot to tell you- after, I mean.. I think he's like.. I don't know what-"
"Calm down." John stretches out his arm and holds Dean's shoulder while his mind races. "Now what about some guy?"
Mary comes through the door huffing and asks, "What's going on?"
John lifts a finger from Dean's shoulder to indicate wait a minute.
"I woke up one night and there was a man in our backyard. Um..like a week and a half ago. I think he was at Sam's school talking to mom."
The hand on his shoulder tightens. "What was he doing?"
"Just.. singing." Dean knows it sounds kinda silly but his dad isn't laughing. In fact he visibly pales and quickly turns to Mary. "What'd he say?"
"Nothing weird. He seemed.." she shakes her head before she can say nice again. "He said that he was a Pediatrician and wanted to take a look at Sam's arm sometime. He gave me his card and said anytime I wanted to come by.. that he was always there."
"Anything else?"
"Just that he had a young girl himself and if we ever wanted to make a playdate-"
"Did you see her?! Was she there?"
"No. Sam came out and I said goodbye. What is it?"
John rubs his hands over his face and walks to the doorway to check on Sam who's sitting on the floor near the tv watching PowerRangers.
"John?"
"Call Bobby." He says, still watching Sam. "Tell him they found us. Find that card it gave you and tell him to meet me there in an hour. Then call Ellen. Take the kids."
Mary tenses all over and Dean darts his eyes back and forth between them. "What's going on?"
"Dean, Come with me." John calls over his shoulder as he walks past him and out the back door. Dean dumbly watches his mom pick up the phone before following after. It's terrifying that his dad didn't laugh off what he said.. that instead he'd become dead serious. When he gets out into the backyard, he looks both ways until he sees the cellar door open.
Down the steps, his dad is rapidly loading guns and strapping knives under his jacket. More than he'd think there were spots for.
"Dean." John says when he sees him, not pausing in his loading. "I need you to listen up. You, Sam, and your mother are going to go to Ellen's. Take your knife with you. If anyone other than me or Bobby shows up-" He turns and searches the shelf for a moment before grabbing a bottle and tossing it to him. "Throw this at 'em and run like hell."
"What? What is this stuff?" It's clear and he holds it up to the light. "It just looks like-"
"Water. Holy water."
Dean gives him a funny look. "What, so vampires might show up?"
John sighs and puts down the gun for a second and walks over to him. He almost closes the distance but stops awkwardly.
"There's no time to talk this out like I probably should have before.. but later. Later I will. Right now you protect your mother and Sam, okay?" Dean just stares at him. Protect them from what?
"I know you're mad at me and that it ain't always easy between us..." While his dad stumbles over how to finish that sentence, Dean suddenly wants nothing more to see Cas right that minute. He almost jumps when John pulls him into an abrupt hug. Something had to be very wrong. Before he even thinks about hugging back, his dad lets him go and tells him to go help his mom with packing a bag.
Ten minutes later, his dad scoops up Sam in a tight hug. "Listen to your mom and big brother okay?"
"Okay, Daddy." Sam mumbles sleepily.
Handing him to Dean, John embraces his wife for a full minute.
They drive off, watching their dad slam his trunk and get in to the Impala looking different. Harder. And that was saying something for John Winchester.
On the way, his mom grips the steering wheel with white knuckles and Dean's attempts to get her to talk about it are shot down. She just shakes her head distractedly and they drive in heavy silence on the dark highway road to Ellen's house. When they get there, he carries a sleeping Sam inside and waits while Ellen greets Mary with a fierce hug. Then she says, "Well ya'll better come in. Dean, go ahead and take Sam to the backroom there. I made up a bed."
"What's going on? Jo appears around a corner in a robe.
"Nothin'. Go back to sleep, Baby. I'll tell ya in the mornin'."
"But-"
"Now, Joanna."
She grumbles and shuffles back to another room.
Then they wait. Ellen brings out coffee and they sit around just staring at each other for the next several hours. Dean's mind ping pongs around the last few days while he fingers the bottle in his jacket pocket. Holy water.. Cas had said demons needed a human. Was this stuff supposed to hurt them? Was that what his dad was out looking for right now? That guy on the swing… was he seriously one of them? He felt like he was waiting for someone to say just kidding, but they were sitting there waiting for news of whatever the hell his dad was doing. The knife feels bulky in another deep side pocket. Could his dad get hurt? What if that had been the last time he'd see him? And he'd said they'd found us. Who were they? Why were they-
Ellen's phone rings next to him. She nods quickly at him, so he turns and picks it up.
"Hello?"
"Dean?! Where ya'll been? I called the house a dozen times!" Bobby shouts into the phone.
"Dad said-"
"Look your dad's at Mercy Regional. They found my number in his wallet and called me. High tail it over here as soon as you can."
"Wait, weren't you with him?"
"No. The dang fool musta gone off on his own without telling me."
"But-"
"I gotta go. They're taking him in now. Tell your mom!" He yells into the phone, huffing like he's running and hangs up.
"What is it?" Mary says anxiously.
"Dad's at the hospital. They called Bobby- didn't you call and tell him to meet dad?"
She gasps and rushes to grab her keys once she gets to her feet. "Your father said he would before he left." She turns to Ellen. "Can you watch them for-"
"Go." She waves her off. "We'll come in the morning if he's gonna be there a while. Call when you can."
Even with the constant panic over his dad, something keeps bothering him. "I thought-"
"Dean, take care of your brother." She kisses him on the forehead and rushes out the door.
He curls up on the couch under a blanket Ellen covered him with but doesn't sleep. When morning comes, she gets everyone something to eat and gives an edited version of events to Jo, telling her their dad was injured so they might be staying there for a while. Nothing about why they came in the first place. Not that he knew much himself. Last night when he'd asked, Ellen would only say that it was something he needed to talk about with his folks and to try to get some rest.
Once they're all loaded into her car, they head to the formidable looking collection of buildings his dad is in. His mom had called early and given Ellen the room number so they navigate the maze of hallways until they find her.
She hugs both Sam and Dean and tells them their dad will be okay. He's stable but still.. she turns away and starts crying. Jo takes Sam in the corner of the waiting room to play with some transformer toys he'd brought and Bobby tells the rest. John had been stabbed several times, but miraculously no vital organs were hit. He was unconscious but the surgeon was hopeful he would wake up in the next few days. In the meantime, they had IVs sending pain medicine and fluids through his body, not counting the two blood transfusions.
Bobby came and patted his shoulder roughly, in a generic manly sign of support. Dean just looks numbly from him to his mom to Ellen.. like it doesn't quite make any sense. After a minute, Bobby awkwardly grabs him close and Dean makes his arms move to hug him back. "He'll be alright, Son. Your old man's one tough bastard."
After that, they wait all day sitting in uncomfortable hospital chairs but his dad doesn't move. They ate hamburgers in the cafeteria for lunch. Mary spends most of the time in his room but Dean switches with her twice. During his turns, he just sits next to him, watching the machines beep and the ping that meant his dad's heart was still going.
In the evening, they got Cuban sandwiches and waited some more. Sam was just about at his end after playing with all the toys and books they'd brought. Dean got up and said he'd be back in a few minutes.
He walks out into the hospital's dimly lit courtyard. Running fingers through his hair, he stares up at the open night sky with its millions of happy twinkling stars. Dean sits down heavily on a bench, elbows on his knees and holds his head in his hands.
"Cas…" He breathes out slowly. "I'm at Mercy Regional. It's a hospital and anyway.. My dad.. um.." He chokes on a small sob that came out of nowhere. For long minutes he doesn't know what else to say. While he's still looking for the next words, someone sits down next to him. He thinks it's probably his mom who found him but when a tentative arm curves around his back, its firm and muscled. Dean turns into him without looking up and buries into Cas' warm neck, inhaling woods and a faint sweetness.
Cas' other arm comes around to hold him tight with more confidence. He fists Cas' shirt and holds on until he can collect himself enough to wipe at his wet face. Eventually he hears, "What happened?"
Dean pulls back and sighs angrily, "I don't even fucking know. No one will talk to me!" He slumps forward, rubbing his forehead. Everything was all fucked up but feeling the warmth of Cas' leg pressed against his was the first thing that didn't make him hurt in days. "So I know we're not good right now but can you just like.. stay for a little while? I mean, if you can."
He hates how pitiful that sounds to his own ears but he wants it anyway. Enough to ask, even with the possibility of rejection to make it worse.
Cas covers the top of his hand down on the bench. After only a brief hesitation, Dean turns his hand over so they lace fingers.
He doesn't spend his time with Cas asking questions about demons like he probably should or even telling him about his father being a Hunter... instead Dean just holds his hand and enjoys the way his thumb rubs back and forth.
When Dean sees his mom walking towards the courtyard through the glass windows, he squeezes Cas' hand once.
"I know." Cas slowly releases him and stands. "If you need me again.."
"Thanks." Dean upturns his lips in what he hopes is a smile. Cas frowns but takes off before his mom opens the door.
Two days later and his dad had woken a few times but always groggy and unresponsive to attempts to get him to talk. Mary stays at the hospital by his side while Ellen brings the boys to visit every evening.
Mary's telling them about his progress report from the doctor when Bobby says, "Ya need to go home, get some rest. I'll stay with him tonight." After a moment of indecision, she allows, "It would be nice to sleep in my own bed with Sam and Dean back at home. Let me just say goodbye to John, in case he's awake."
"Of course, take your time." Bobby smiles and sits to watch the ballgame on the hospital tv while they wait.
After giving his mom a few minutes, Dean says he wants to go see if his dad's awake before he leaves. He'd yet to get more than a few moments of his dad conscious on his turns at being in the room with him. A nurse pushes the button that lets him into the patient corridors. After getting lost only for a moment, he finds his dad's room and waits by the door when he hears his mom talking softly. When she comes out, he'll-
"Just look at my poor hurt hubby." Her voice sounds a little weird and it makes him turn to peek through the crack just as Mary snatches up the call button pad from John's slow moving fingers. All he can see is the back of her blonde head as she leans forward. His dad's eyes are open wide and face shaking with strain.
"No, its okay, Honey." She pushes the red button that dispenses a dose of pain medicine on the pad and John's face slacks slightly after a few seconds. "You just relax and listen real good to Saint Mary of Winchester."
What the hell? Dean hardly breathes as he watches his mom pats his dad's cheek too hard.
"Don't you worry about a thing. I'm gonna take good care of the kiddies."
John moans once and tries to jerk his arm with the IV. Mary grabs it and keeps it at his side on the bed.
"Now now. Let the nice meds do their job."
His eyes bat heavily though it's obvious he's trying to fight it.
"I was thinking.. Sam would make a great playmate for Lilith. You know how she acts out with she's lonely."
His dad's arm lurches again but with less force this time.
"And Dean.. Mmm..."
He swallows from the door and swears for a moment his dad's eyes find his at the crack before he blinks long again. Mary slaps him across the face before leaning even closer.
"Still with me, Champ?"
John opens his eyes and makes one last surge forward towards his mom but she just laughs and rakes fingers through his hair. Lovingly.
"Alastair is practically chomping at the bit to have Dean on his table. You remember him, don't you? Oh wait, that was your Hunter buddy."
She abruptly slaps him once more so his face turns with the force but he barely flutters his eyes, sinking into the pillows. When she shakes her head mockingly, Dean gets a glimpse of her face for the first time. Her eyes. They flare bright for just a second. Impossible.. but they'd looked yellow? Had he fallen into a freaking nightmare?
"Enjoy your sleep, Johnny Boy."
She's getting up and his heart beats erratic. He's choking. What? What's going on? He walks away too fast, stumbling, not knowing what to do. What he saw. He just needs to get away from her. Away from that door and what he'd heard. Seen. He gets buzzed through the doors and sees Ellen, holding Sam's hand and runs towards her.
"Hey, is your mom-"
"Where's Bobby?"
"He said he had to run home and check for messages. He'll be right back."
"What?! He's not here?"
Dean turns and to his horror, sees his mom walking towards them from across the hall. No time. No time for anything. He barely understood what was going on but he knows one thing he had to do. Protect Sam.
"Um.. Can you keep Sam one more night?"
Ellen gives him a look. "Well sure. I'll ask-"
"No! She won't say so but she's um so tired from the last few days. Please just insist. It's for her own-"
He cuts himself off when Mary joins them.
"Hey! Ready to go?" She smiles and it looks just like his mom always does. He could almost believe he imagined the weird flash of yellow.
"Why don't you let me keep your little rugrat one more night? We love having him. Go ahead, sleep in and we'll meet back here tomorrow."
His mom's smile strains just a tad but only he would catch it.
"Oh Ellen, you've done so much already."
"Aw now none of that. I ain't takin' no for an answer. You need some rest. You gotta take care of yerself too, ya know."
She grins tightly. "Okay then. Thanks."
"Dean?" She turns to him and he swallows. "Uh, yeah." Now that Sam's taken care of the panic settles in his chest at the thought of leaving with.. whatever his mom was. He watches her kiss Sam on the head.
"I wanna go home too." Sam pouts, sticking out his lip like he's getting too old to do. "Um, look Sammy, go peacefully and I promise we'll play Mario Kart all day tomorrow, kay?
Sam yawns and gives in with a, "Kay." Forcing himself to smile, he hugs him tight. He waves to his little bro until he's out of sight.
As soon as they're buckled in and driving, Dean starts sneaking glances at his mother, trying to see her eyes again. Mary turns to him with raised eyebrows. "What is it, Honey?"
"Nothing." He quickly turns back.
"Dean?"
"Yeah?"
"Why did you tell Ellen to take Sam?"
Dread plummets through his stomach and he turns back slowly.
"I didn't."
"Stop lying to me, you little shit."
He backs towards the door and grabs the handle. There's a click.
"Safety locks. What an age we live in, huh?"
"What… what are you?"
"What do you mean, Honey?"
"Stop it! What the hell is going on?"
"Oh careful with your words there, Baby. You really shouldn't go using Hell with so little respect."
Dean looks helplessly out the window to see they're almost to his neighborhood. She's taking him home.
"So where's that angel you got wrapped around your little finger? Or maybe finger isn't the right body part, huh?" She laughs like his mom never did.
"What do you know about Cas?"
"Cas? As in Castiel? Oh goody. The black-eyed idiots I had watching you didn't recognize him. He's just a fresh-faced newbie."
With the mention of him, Dean starts immediately chanting his name over and over again in his head.
"Ah young love."
Cas. Cas. Cas. Cas.
Mary cocks her head and squints at him. "No phone calls on a school night." The last thing he sees is a flash of yellow and his mother's balled fist before.. nothing.
Dean groans when he's dropped down to slump against the back of a chair. Blinking slowly, he tries to get his bearings as his hands are wound together with something. He shakes his head and focuses on his mother's smiling face.
"Howdy, Dean. Yep, still mommy. Well.. mommy-ish."
He tries to jump up but is immediately held down by a pressure on his shoulders. Confused, he takes a second to see he's sitting backwards on one of their kitchen chairs. He drops his head back. An upside-down face grins back at him. It's the man he'd only seen once before.. on a swing.
"I don't understand. What is this? What's going on?"
Flinching, his attention is brought down to his leg where a little girl is sitting with her legs folded beneath her and poking his ankle with his knife to make small dots of blood through his socks. At first, his mind doesn't make any connections about craziness of what is happening but then he recognizes her as the kid riding by on her bike that day. And this is the singing stalker guy his dad ran after. Holy Water. Does he still have it? Would it help his.. mom? Is that still his mom? He needed his dad to tell him what to do, dammit. He tries to ignore the small pain of his leg to face her.
"What'd you do to my mom?"
"Oh she's in here. You should really be worrying about number one right now though, Dean. Your daddy landed you in a world of hurt. And don't think because you got your bouncing baby bro outta the way that he's safe."
"Naughty boy." The young girl waggles a finger at him and gets to her feet. Handing the knife to creepy behind him, she brushes off her dress daintily. It's white today, sleeveless with a ribbon around the middle to make a huge bow in the back. Cute. Like she's dressed up for Easter.. except for all the crimson stains. In the hospital, his mother had said two names. Alastair was meant for him and Lilith..
"Sammy promised to be my friend."
"No! Leave him alone!"
She folds her arms and hmpfs in a gesture that should be adorable but the blood splattered on her hands and arms ruin the effect a little. "But I'm bored. My last friend isn't much fun anymore." She twirls in place to show her dress with its handprints at the bottom. They're stark red and shocking against the white. And small. "He got me allll dirty."
"You sick bitch! Don't you-"
Dean winces at a sharp bite of pain at the top of his shoulder. "Should you really be yelling right now, Dean? Your generation is so impatient." The man behind him, Alastair presumably, taunts and drags another shallow slice across his back to his other shoulder. "The yelling comes later."
Mary smirks. "Nice knife, by the way. A gift from Papa Winchester?"
Lilith plops down again, her skirt poofing around her. She dabs at the blood pooled by his shoe and draws on the wooden panels of the floor. Hearts and flowers and then eyes and mouths and large teeth.
He shivers in revulsion when the back of fingers stroke his cheek, then the hand turns so the edge of the blade takes same path. When he jerks his face away, he hears, "Such spirit. I can't wait to know you more intimately."
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
Raspy laughter comes from the man he refuses to look up and back at again. "To know what makes a person scream or howl.. break completely and lose the ability to speak.. is there anything more intimate?"
His mom scoffs. "Hmm, I don't know, Al. Our boy's been rollin' around with a genuine Servant of the Lord. And ain't that a little.. sacrilegious? Probably aren't earning a lot of points with the big guy for that one."
To hear the mocking chortles in the voice that soothed him after every scrape and read bedtime stories before he fell asleep.. was almost worse than the infrequent bites of the knife at his back.
Dean's grits his teeth through a deeper jab. "Shut up." He growls. "You don't know anything about it."
"Mama Mary is disgusted by you, did ya know that?"
"That's not true." He says with less confidence and for a moment doesn't feel the burning from over a dozen wounds.
"'Fraid so, Dean baby. Her little boy playing bottom bitch to-"
"Stop it! You're lying! You are nothing like my mother. You're.." He gulps down a scream when the knife cuts a long strip downward. Sweat drips from his face and blood makes his shirt stick agonizingly to his back where it hasn't been cut to ribbons. "You're a demon."
"Who said you were just a pretty face."
"I could make it prettier." Lilith licks her lips hungrily from the floor. It's awful and disturbing on a soft child's face. This had to be some bizarre nightmare.
"Why are you doing this to us? What do you want?"
"Oh well that one's easy. See your daddy had the bad luck to crash a pretty important party we were throwing. One with a VIP guest. Lemme tell ya, rituals for that type of shindig can't just be thrown together every millennia. Planets aligning, lunar cycles, the right saint's bone.. it's all a bitch to work out. And there we were all ready with our party hats on, cake lit and.." her voice turns hard now. "Two bumpkin hick hunters come and blow the surprise."
She paces in front of him, sneering at Dean when he cries out from a sudden deep twist of the tip of the knife at the back of his arm.
"That's not the sorta thing you can just say water under the bridge about.. Dean?"
It's getting harder to concentrate on all the words she's saying. They start to bleed together.. like he's bleeding…
He vaguely feels a sting against his cheek. A slap probably but it only makes him lift his head briefly. "Ya listenin', Buddy?" She tsks and cocks her head but his eyes keep closing. If she'd just let him rest his head against the back of the chair.. maybe..maybe then..maybe he'd wake up.. and..
"I don't think you're paying enough attention, Sonny. Here, Al. I think your aim is off. I bet his soft spot is a bit.." He sees her arm come back over his head with the knife before she suddenly flips it mid-air and plunges it into her own stomach, smile never faltering, "Higher."
Dean screams and thrashes in place, not even sure what he would do if he got free. The demon is doing it within his mom, but still he fights upwards against the stone grip, not feeling the cuts he'd stopped counting.
"Ohh," Lilith makes a noise like she just saw a neat trick.
"That got a reaction." Alastair chuckles low.
"Tickles. Yeah mommy felt that one." She pulls the knife out as Dean watches in horror and rubs the bloody flat of it over his cheeks to smear over his face.
"You fucking bastards!" He fights until he's too weak to buck up again and slumps against the chair, heaving.
The demon wearing his mother's face bends down and says from an inch away, "Honey, we're just getting to know each other." Her eyes flash and he closes his so he doesn't have to see her anymore.
For a few miserable minutes, Dean drifts with voices murmuring above his head. He'd been tugging on his wrists the whole time but they just felt rubbed raw. He couldn't see if he made any progress or not. Doesn't matter. This isn't real. None of this can be real. None..
The next second, he thinks he's dreaming because there a thunderous howling and when the pressure on his sore shoulders disappears, his head lolls back to see a pillar of black smoke moving above his head. When the thing in his mom grins and runs past him out of sight, Dean instantly gets a burst of energy and starts tugging hard on his wrists. After only a few seconds, they break apart and he scrambles inside his jacket for the bottle of Holy Water. No sooner do his fingers touch it and a small body barrels into him from the side, sending him to the floor. He tries to focus through the searing pain to get to his feet but Lilith pounces on him again before he can get up. She scratches wildly at his face, then his arms when he brings them up to cover his head and push back without any effect. Keeping one arm up, he searches the ground with his hand until he feels what he hopes is the bottle and brings it up to smash into her head without hesitation. She screams in rage and pain, twisting away even as he turns and scoots as far from her as he can get.
He gets to his knees, heaving. When an arm hooks under his elbow, he cocks back his fist but sees Cas' face only a second before he swings.
"Cas?"
"Move, Dean!"
He's hauled to his feet and half carried-half dragged to the stairs. Cas pushes him ahead of him so he stumbles up towards the second floor. He hears Cas grunt but when he pauses to look over his shoulder, he's told to keep going. He makes it to the third floor but when he turns back, the stairs from the second to the third floor are empty.
C'mon, C'mon, C'mon. He thinks over and over. Please. C'mon!
Cas slams into wall with his shoulder at the second floor landing and runs up the last stretch, three at a time.
"Go!"
Dean quickly walks backwards, not taking his eyes off him until he touches his doorknob and opens it. He waits and only crosses into it when Cas is almost in front of him. There are several shadows on the wall leading down the stairs.. many feet pounding up the way to them.
When Cas pushes him firmly inside and closes the door, he immediately turns and digs his fingers into one of many wounds on his torso and starts painting a symbol on the back of his door in blood. Squiggles, circles.. it makes no sense in his hazy brain. If he could just sleep a whi-
"Dean!"
Cas is in front of him, sitting back on his haunches looking worried. He's on the floor.. he must have slid down..
Cas is trying to talk over his mom from outside his door. Why.. that doesn't make sense.
"Dean. Honey. You know you have to leave the door open when you have a boy over."
"Dean! Please, we don't have long. Can you hear me?" Cas yells at him from an inch away. Why is he yelling? Everything hurts and its getting so.. freaking.. cold. Cas is warm. Maybe he'll come closer.. make it better..
"You're alone, aren't you, Castiel? Do the numbers, kid. Why don't you cut your losses and pick a new boy toy, huh?" There's a grating noise like something sharp being dragged along the other side of his door.
"Cas? I missed you, ya know." Dean mumbles with his eyes shut.
"I need to know if there's anyone else in the house. Sam?"
"No.. just.." He shakes his head to clear it some. "Just her." He gestures vaguely back at the scraping noises.
Cas pulls Dean to his feet and holds onto his wrist to keep him walking with him towards the window. The window. Where Cas comes from. And where he leaves. They're going to leave. They can't leave her. Not with those monsters.
Dean jerks his arm back and tries to make a coherent sentence. "No Cas! We can't.. my mom's here. We can't leave her."
"Castiellll.." His mom sing-songs. "Give 'em to me before I have to take him."
Cas has blood smeared all over his arms and front but he doesn't show a bit of weakness when he grabs Dean's arm again firmly.
"Cas, Please!" Dean continues struggling until Cas finally throws him over his shoulder and strides towards the window. The door splinters and he sees his mom's face one last time, twisted in rage with burning yellow eyes, then they're lifting up high in the air.
Over his lawn they fly with a handful of people staring up at them with black eyes.
Author's Note: I know for some of you this might have gone in a darker direction than you were perhaps expecting. I hope you trust me to make you smile and pant again. Also, it looks like chapter updates are taking about a week now as they get longer. Usually towards the end of the week(Friday to Saturday-ish). Hope you're still with me, darlings. I love you all dearly.