SO, to start off, I am wowed by all the reviews I got. I totally made my week!!!! It also gave me a nice diversion from studying, lol, checking my email every 10mins compulsively for days. (Yeah, I know, I have no self control....)
WOW!!!
Thanks to my wonderful beta OTS. Any remaining mistakes are mine when I went over the chapter after getting it back from her.
So, here you guys go!
Chapter 4: The feeling of trust
The Impala was double-parked across from the county sheriff's office on the extra wide main street of the town. The buildings all had a two story facade common to many older western towns. Everything in the county sheriff's building was in wood: floors, walls, ceilings - all of it. An old style cell was even in the far corner of the room, but it was full of filing cabinets and office supplies. Dean thought it was amusing, and decided that their covers should have been Texas Rangers. Sam thought Dean needed to grow up.
The Winchesters waited in a small area for the sheriff to get off the phone. From what Dean could hear, the sheriff was deciding what he wanted for dinner and was talking to what Dean hoped was a very small child. 'Important county business.' Yeah right. The guy even had a real missing persons on his hands. Not that he was ever going to find the girl. So with this evidence, when the sheriff poked his head out of his office and looked all of twenty five years old, Dean was not surprised.
"I'm sorry. I was just tied up in some business, gentlemen." The man waved them into his small office area. "I hear you came into town for the Lila Michael case." Dean and Sam entered the little room and had a seat into back breaking wooden chairs.
"Yes, we believe the case we are working on might be related to that incident." Dean took on an authoritative tone and straightened the collar of the sport coat he was wearing. "We are looking for any information you may have collected so far. Our office would greatly appreciate any local assistance you may have to give us with this matter." The look Sam gave Dean clearly said Dean was laying it on a little thick. Dean shrugged in response. Too late now.
The sheriff looked perplexed as he ran his finger through his short sandy hair. "What kinda case are you two working? Missing Persons too?" The man slouched backwards in his padded computer chair, reaching for a manila folder behind his head.
Dean shared a conspiratorial look with his brother. "It's confidential, but possibly a kidnapping."
"Oh, hum. That's weird. We've had a couple other people not show up for work around here lately. Mostly lowlifes though. No real reports have been filed on them so far." The sheriff handed Sam a small pile of papers and nodded. "I got photocopies, so don't worry about returning them."
"Thank you. Is this all the stuff you have so far on Lila?" Sam asked noticing the suspiciously tiny pile.
"Yeah, it's really strange. The father said the girl just walked out the front door to go play. Then she disappeared off the face of the planet." The sheriff looked frustrated. "The father didn't even report it for a couple days 'cause he thought the girl was going camping with the church group."
Dean quirked his mouth thinking about what the cougar from the local bar had remembered Lilith saying. Playing with her angels alright. "Wow, you guys seem like you're really on top of things here. Do you have any leads on her whereabouts? Are there any abandoned old buildings in the area where the girl could be?" Dean leaned and put his hands on the edge of a large wooden desk. "Any warehouses?"
The sheriff looked at Dean through the corner of his eye. "Honestly, that kinda cliché, but yeah. There was supposes to be a major industry airport built here about twenty years ago, but plans fell through. But it was too late for some of the business owners; they'd already put up some buildings in the desert. Nice flat place. Good for an air field. All that land's been bought back by the government. Nothing active out there right now. You can't see any of that from any road, though. How'd you know to ask?"
Dean gave the man a surreptitious smile. "Inside information."
With that Sam and Dean bade the young sheriff farewell, and headed out to the nearest airport.
Settling in the Impala, with Metallica faintly playing in the background, Dean looked suspiciously at the person, no – demon, in the back seat. "So explain to me how this plan of yours works again."
Ruby rolled her eyes. "We go pick up Pam from the airport. Then, as you think deeply - I know that's hard for you." She stopped speaking to return Dean's glare. "I know Sam. Time. Place." She continued. "-Pam reads your mind, helping you to remember your dreamscapades with angel boy. And as you remember them, I try a location spell to narrow down the search parameters."
"Yeah, but how did you get Pam to help, let alone fly out here?" Dean looked pointedly at Ruby as if she was supposed to understand that that was what he had asked in the first place.
"Simple. I made a deal with her." Ruby smiled softly. Then rolled her eyes skyward when both the Winchesters turned around making highly annoyed squeaking noises at her, and pinned her to the seat with twin betrayed glowers. "Not that kind of deal guys. Just that if she'd help you out, Dean, that you'd see about getting her some kind of apology from the angels. Plus there might have been a favour or two thrown in there."
"That's it? We have to convince Castiel, the more likely of the two angels to agree, even with the probably torture, pain and all around badness, to kiss her ass. That's going to happen." Dean sighed deeply. "Plus she's going to read my mind the second we pick her up and figure out that she's been lied to. That's going to go over well."
"Don't forget the favours. She suggested them." Ruby lifted her two fingers.
A few hours later, back at the hotel, Dean was lying on his bed staring up at the ceiling. The off-white stucco was starting to arrange itself into patterns, constellations really. A bird taking flight, a shotgun blast, and a pair of large really nice –
"Dean, are you even trying?" Ruby whined.
She had a local map with a bunch of runes drawn on it in 'special' sand spread out beside him, with a couple of candles lit around them.
"Dean, just try to concentrate. Pam's doing her best here. You need to too." Sam bit in, snapping his fingers in front of Dean's face.
"Okay Dean, pick a spot on the ceiling. It's okay, I want you to lay there relaxed and look at that spot without blinking. You may feel your eyelids starting to get heavy." Pam droned on in a smooth, soft, easy voice.
"How wasn't I doing that before?" Dean asked in somewhat petulant tone.
"DEAN!" Pam snapped. "You started giggling about the constellation Uranus."
"Oh, sorry."
"Let start, again."
A few minutes went by, and Dean was now lying relaxed on his bed, eyes shut, face blank and relaxed. Pam put one hand on his left shoulder where Castiel had gripped Dean to drag him out of hell. "What do you remember about your dreams? Think back. Where were you?"
Dean did not answer.
"Dean where were you. Were you talking with Castiel?" Pam intoned gently, though everyone aware in the room could hear her disgust when the angel's name rolled off her lips.
"Yes. We were in the motel rooms, and in the car once." Dean frowned. All of a sudden some of the sand on Ruby's map darkened at the spot where they were.
"Well at least we know the spell is working." Ruby said quietly. "Even if this doesn't help us at all."
"Did you see him anywhere else Dean? At a warehouse, maybe?" Pam prodded.
"It was dark. There were spotlights. Crates. A dirt floor. The crates have labels on them. Lavelleè's Detergent." Dean paused to take a breath. Sam quickly scrawled down the name into a notebook.
"Was Castiel there?" Pam asked again.
Dean's eyes flew open as he gasped. "We need to go now. Cas, hang on we're coming. Hang on." His back arched until only his heals and shoulders contacted the bed. Sam could see the strain in Dean's face and neck muscles, saw him gritting his teeth. Sweat started to pour of Dean's forehead, dampening his hair. His fingers curled into white knuckled fists. His body flew into a seizure for a second.
Ruby's map started to smoke in one spot, in the middle of the park land. She went black eyed and ripped it off the bed, patting out the small fire that burned into the blanket. The smell of smoke filled the air. Sam desperately hoped the fire alarm would not go off.
Pam tightened her grip on Dean's shoulder. "Okay, time to wake up. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." Dean relaxed, and sagged boneless into the mattress. But he did not open his eyes.
"Pamela. Why isn't he waking up like Anna did?" Sam asked, worry etching his voice.
"I don't know. When I mentioned the angel's name the second time, I felt Dean grab at something, in his mind. I let him, I thought it was a memory. But then he pushed me out of his head. Someone else is in there with him right now." Pamela wiped her face with a sleeve. "I don't know who it is."
She then closed her eyes, a placed one hand on Dean's forehead. "I conjure and command you, show me your face." She repeated it rhythmically, over and over, more forcefully each time. "I conjure and command you show me your face." She grimaced. "You can't hide from me. I conjure and command you, SHOW ME YOUR FACE!" She then visibly winced and let go of Dean's head. "Oh god!" She flew back, and was caught in Sam's waiting arms.
Dean's eye flew open widely.
"Pamela, stop!"
Dean sat up and rubbed his head with his knuckles between his eyes closing them in pain. "I have one hell of a headache. Thanks for that you two." He mumbled indistinctly. Sam knew he was referring to Pamela, but who else was Dean talking about?
He straightened in the bed, sitting up to frown at the psychic. "Ow. I really hope we got something out of that cause, damn." He opened eyes again to glare at the two women in the room. "Ruby, please tell me your witchy stuff worked. 'Cause that cost me a whole lot of brain cells, and Pamela started ripping into Castiel. And I can tell you that is not a good thing for any of us."
Sam paled, but Pam spoke up first. "What do you mean, Castiel? That was the angel who went into your mind when I did? It sure did not feel like his aura. And trust me when I say I know what his presence feels like." She pushed herself out of Sam's arms and sat beside Dean on the bed.
"It was him alright. I don't know if I reached out to him trying to remember the dreams, or if he sensed I was in la la land, but Castiel tried to come talk to me. He just showed up when you, Pam, started to butt back in. The he just went poof, and disappeared. Like a Genie." Dean shrugged at the psychic. "He didn't look happy."
"Do you remember better now?" Sam inquired, ignoring Dean implications.
"Yeah, more of it is coming together. I know Lilith has him, and how she caught him. But I can't figure out the where the warehouse is, and the why, which is kinda important. I'd be a little more confident about this plan if we knew why Lilith wanted an angel toy."
"Its Looney Tunes plans." Ruby put in.
Three heads snapped to look at her, as she was extinguishing the ritual candles around the room. "Well it is."
"Geek boy. You need to start looking up all the black collars you can find. Lilith put one around Cas's neck. That's why he hasn't angelled up and found us yet. Got to be pretty powerful to screw with angel mojo. Ruby, start in on your people, someone has got to know something." Dean scratched his head again. "I don't think we have a lot of time left here. Lilith wants Castiel for more than just an angelic torture toy. He hasn't told me what for though yet. He just keeps hinting at it like it's a riddle we're supposed to have solved already." Dean glared up at the ceiling. "Probably has something to do with the seal. Pam, thanks for the help, we'll get home as soon as possible. And me, I need a drink." He sniffed the air. "Was something burning?"
Ruby rolled her eyes.
That night Dean sat at the table, reading old company reports Sam had printed out, cross referencing the warehouses in the district Ruby's spell had narrowed it to. Unfortunately, it was larger than they had intended, what with the relevant part of the map being temporarily on fire, to the label he remembered from the dreams he had with the angel. He shook himself sharply when his head hit the table in front of him. He needed to keep going. He had not yet found a match for what he wanted.
"Dean Winchester." A small voice sounded from behind him.
Dean turned around and smiled. "Well this is a familiar dream." He swung his leg over the chair, so he could lean against the back rest. The lamp that lit up the desk behind him blinded Dean initially from seeing Castiel's face. "I'd comment on your clothes, but no one has ever looked better in rags."
The angel sat on the floor, leaning against Dean's empty bed. His head rested on the top of the mattress. The black collar encircled his neck. It stood out of the darkness, made the shadows around it seem like daylight in comparison. His hair did not stand up wildly like it usually did, and his coat was absent. The shirt the angel wore hung in tatters off his chest, though Dean could see no obvious injury to the angel. Castiel sat there, flaccid, and his head rolled down so that his chin rested on his chest. The angel fingered the tie that hung on his chest, still, absently threading it around his fingers.
"We got to stop meeting like this." Dean made a move to stand up. And he did. Dean blinked in the dream. Not once was before had he been able to move around of his own will. He walked over to squat in front of the angel. His shoes made no sound when the slid across the carpet. "Hey, Castiel. What do you need to tell me?"
"I don't need anything. I am busy with my orders." The angel responded automatically.
Dean raised an eyebrow. "Well that makes sense. What orders?"
The angel did not immediately respond. He sat on the ground, and a faint confused look stole over his features. He cocked his head in the fashion that he often did when Dean said something, or did something that was uniquely human.
"Recon. Upper level demons are congregating. We're not yet aware of the reason." The angel wetted his lips. "It's hot down here". And the angel stared past Dean into the lamp light. His eyes fixed on the bulb, unblinking. Dean turned around to look at the light. As he turned back, for a second out of the corner of his eye, Castiel was hanging from the roof by his hands. But Dean blinked, and stared back in the darkness where Castiel sat with his legs stretched out in front of him on the brown shag carpet.
"Yeah, you told me that already. Where are you now? Where does Lilith have you?" Dean kneeled at the angel's side glancing worriedly at the man, angel, whatever. A simple cut appeared on Castiel's forehead, and started dripping blood across his face. The small tear of blood ran down his cheek, and fell on to his dirty white shirt, mingling with other stains.
"Lilith." The room wavered and started to give way to a desert scene. Harsh sunlight began to blind Deans eyes, wind tousled Castiel's hair.
"No, you don't. You showed me that already. I remember. Stay here!" Dean snapped the command to the angel. Abruptly everything flashed back to the motel room. Castiel looked up at Dean, his dull unfocused eyes centered on Dean's face. Dean felt weariness roll off the angel. Pain, exhaustion, and burning desire to be free rang in Castiel's eyes. They glowed slightly, increasing in feverish intensity when Castiel made eye contact, but Dean looked away. Dean could never be able to hold the angel's penetrating gaze.
"There is a Seal. Uriel does not know which one." The angel stated out loud, though it sounded as if the Castiel was trying to affirm the information himself. The angel's shoulders started to shake. His jaw clenched. He took a ragged breath.
"The Sight of a Seer." Dean informed the angel. And then Dean on instinct grabbed Castiel's left shoulder hard. The angel did not pull away from him. "Come on. We've had this conversation before. You know what's going on. You're with the demons. If you want us to come rescue you, you have to give me a little more to work with than flashes of the insides of dirty old buildings. I'm not psychic you know." Dean smirked a little then stopped.
Castiel's cheek turned black, and the eye on that side was suddenly swollen shut. "I have not caught up with the demons yet. However, I have discerned their direction of travel." The room flashed out again. Dean almost saw the outline of crates before he shook the angel again, grounding them both in the motel room. Dean glanced fearfully at the angel. Even in the dream, Dean knew that Castiel was not with it. Not thinking straight. Not alright.
"Then what was that?" Dean asked releasing Castiel's arm. More blood appeared on the angel's shirt. "What's this?" He gestured to the wounds spontaneously appearing on the angel's body. Dean frowned at a deep gash along the angel's breastbone, and pushed a hand against it to put pressure on the wound.
Castiel hissed in pain. "I am out in the desert. The demons are about to stop. I don't know why." His face winced in response to pain, contorting. The angel's eyes opened wide in shock.
"That happened a week ago. Cas!" Dean gripped the angel's shoulder hard. "Come on, where are you now? Can you tell me anything else? Cas!" Dean half hoped that his use of the nick name would antagonize the angel into thinking straight.
"No. That is happening now. It has to be." The angel's form wavered in and out of existence. Dean reached with both hands to hold the angel in place.
"Enough of this ghosty, 'show you the past,' Christmas carol crap. I got it. You don't." Dean grabbed the angel's chin and forced the glazed stare of angel into his eyes. "You have been with Lilith for over a week. Tell me where you are so we can save your sanctimonious ass!"`
Castiel's eyes cleared for a brief second. Then, he opened them. Dean shivered as awareness flooded from the ange's eyes. "I am sorry Dean. I am trying. I can't with this collar around my neck... It is pulling my Grace from me. I cannot." He shuddered and looked over Dean's shoulder. "Lilith is here. The Seal cannot fall."
The angel's eyes widened, and his right arm made the sign of the cross over his chest. He focused on something Dean could not see and steeled himself to withstand what Dean could guess was a soul wrenching assault.
The angel shook in terror, and screamed. A piercing, wailing, tormented scream. Dean grabbed him harder. Castiel took a raged breath, visibly brining himself back to Dean. "Four demons left with me. Lilith is here. Don't come alone. It's due south of where I left my coat." The angel looked at Dean lucidly for the first time and trembled. "Please do not tarry. The second part of the ritual occurs tomorrow night. We cannot loose this Seal, this battle. Dean Winchester don't let my faith in you be in vain." The angel started to fade out. Dean's hand slipped through the angel's incorporeal shoulder.
"Damn it. God, why are you letting this happen?" Dean felt panic swell over him. Castiel was being dragged off, out of Dean's head to be tortured, again. Desperation set in. Dean grabbed at the only thing that still looked like it was whole. The black collar. It burned Dean's hand like fire, it froze Dean's hand like ice, it pierced Dean's hand like a thousand knives. It felt like Death.
The rest of the angel rushed back to the room, tangible. Dean let go, his hand was agonizingly numb. Castiel was panting. His breath came in quick short bursts. "Dean, I suggest... Suggest you hurry. Lilith will discover..." Blood bubbled down the angel's chin. "What I am…I am doing. She'll find you." The angel's chest and breathing were making wheezing sounds. "I can't let that happened." The last part was said in one breath. The angel's chest tightened, and convulsed. He tried to make Dean let go, tried to push Dean away from him.
Dean persisted, not letting the angel go. If there was one fault that Dean had, it was not being able to let things go. Dean's fingers of his left hand dug into the collar, and his right fingers seized the angel's shoulder, with all of his strength.
Dean swore. "Come on God, Uriel. Now would be a good time to butt in. I'll start praying every day. I'll stop swearing. I'll-"
Castiel clasped Dean's arm, the one that held Castiel's shoulder. The angel weakly pulled Dean down, so his ear was closer to the angel's mouth. "Do not be blasphemous." The angel gave Dean a bloody sarcastic smile.
Dean let out a chuckle that sounded more like a sob.
"My throat. It burns like hell-fire." Came a whisper from the angel's mouth.
Dean wiped blood from the angel's mouth with the sleeve of his jacket. "How do you know?"`
The angel looked surprised at Dean, and cocked his head. "Been there."
Then Dean woke up.
GENERAL REVIEWER RESPONSES, because I love responding to reviews, even though fanfic does not want us to anymore in the chapter itself, and there were many of you this time who did not sigh in.
I was very touched and encourage by all the reviews. I found they fell in to 4 basic types. 1. To all of you who felt that I should save Cas right away, I respond "But then I can't torture him anymore, Its all the hurt taken out of the hurt/comfort." 2. To all those who enjoyed Angel-FU, "I too would like to see way more on the show!" 3. To all who enjoyed the interrogation at the end, "this is really strange, but it was my favourite scene to write thus far, does that make us weird?" 4. And to those that though this would make a good episode/kept them entertained until January "That's exactly why I wrote this. To keep me entertained. LOL. Plus the reviews are major ego boosters!"
SO....
On that note. REVIEW AGAIN!!!!! See if it worked this time, ie the chapter came out a day and half early, it will likely work again.
PLEASE REVIEW, IT MAKES ME HAPPY, and trust me, IT WILL MAKE YOU HAPPY NEXT WEEK!!!!