ooOoo
The Supernatural characters belong to Kripke Enterprises and the CW, not me. No money is being made from this story. It is for entertainment only. A/N: I wish to thank Winter Gray for all her help with this chapter. Her suggestions made it a better and stronger piece.
The Fae Prince
Chapter 10
The Legend of the Fae
The gemmy bridle glitter'd free,
Like to some branch of stars we see
Hung in the golden Galaxy
The bridle bells rang merrily
As he rode down to Camelot.
And from his blazon'd baldric slung
A mighty silver bugle hung,
And as he rode his armour rung,
Beside remote Shalott
The Lady of Shalott by Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1809-1892
"Come on in, Dean." Bobby cheerfully answered. "I haven't heard a word from any one about your father lately and don't have any idea where John's holed up but it's not here."
"Good deal," Dean replied. "We ran into some trouble he created for us at McDermott's Bar south of Lincoln. Left a message for me with the bartender about getting my ass up here and dropped poison into the Hunters' ears about Sam. He's started a rumor that Sam's a witch."
"Bastard, that kind of talk could get a person shot." Bobby growled . "Come on in. Just pull straight into the open shed. We can close the overhead and no one will see the car. We might as well be careful."
"Thanks Bobby." Dean said. "I'm going to run in with the lights off, just a little bit of extra cover."
They pulled back out and turned on the road, running back to Bobby's driveway. Without lights they were navigating by star light and the muted roar of the Impala's engine sounded like a hunting lion hidden in the dark. As they passed, the night birds scattered into the sky. Sam smiled and wished he could join them in their flight; in their dance in the moonlight. He watched as Luna touched their wings with silver.
In front of his house Bobby stood on guard. He waved them toward the dark mouth of a small building beyond the house. Once the Impala was engulfed in the darkness Sam and Dean stepped out to follow the Hunter, their duffels in their hands. As far as any watcher might be able to tell the car and riders disappeared on the road outside the gates.
Of course, anyone who knew Dean would know he was with Bobby but a little bit of stealth was always useful. Just a hint of doubt could be turned to an advantage in a game of hide and seek.
Once inside Bobby directed them to the room he used as a combination living room and library. "Stay out of the kitchen guys." Bobby said. "Too many windows there; I don't need the sound of breaking glass to scare me out of a couple year's growth. Sit down and I'll get some beers."
Bobby left and Sam reached out for Dean. The younger man allowed his partner to pull him down on to the couch next to him. Dean fidgeted. He wasn't sure that he wanted Bobby to know so early in the evolving relationship that Sam was becoming more than just a partner.
Bobby returned with the beers and a flick of his eyes confirmed Dean's supposition. Bobby knew something was up.
"Alright guys," Bobby started. "You want to tell me what you two are planning to do? I have a hunt I want to send you out on but I also want to know what kind of team I'm dealing with. Sam, you owe me information and I have a list of questions that would take a week for you to answer. Dean, your father is a knot we're going to have to untie sooner or later so we also need to decide on a plan for handling what's likely to become an a sticky situation. I would just rather not have the mess get played out on my driveway. Any ideas?"
Sam reached out and wrapped an arm around his young lover. "Dean, why don't you call your father and set up a meeting on neutral ground? Make it a public place where he won't be likely to try and shoot his way out." Sam laughed. "Maybe a coffee shop in Sioux Falls or a spot in the park in the middle of town; any place public would do, I think."
Dean laughed. "Great, we're going to have lunch with John Winchester. That's freaking adorable."
"It's not that bad an idea. At least it would be better than a bar with a bunch of antsy Hunters watching." Bobby said. "I don't want to have the meeting here either. This place is too private; he might think he could get away with trying to retrieve you by force." Bobby snorted. "This is getting a lot like retrieving a runaway bride. You know; daddy to the rescue."
Dean blushed. "That's ridiculous. I'm going to be eighteen in January. He'll just have to get used to the idea that I've gone out on my own. He can't have expected to control me forever."
"Well boy, give him a call." Bobby said. "Just keep the trouble away from my door. I'll go with you if you want but I suppose John will only want to see you."
Sam spoke up. "I don't care what the man wants, Dean is not going alone. I'm going too."
Dean looked over at the Prince. "No, Dean," Sam growled. "You are not going by yourself. I'll tie you down if I have to but that man is not going to take off with you. What if he brings along some friends of his own?"
Bobby slapped his thighs and stood up. "Fine, it's decided. Dean you make the call and set it up. Sam, you come with me. You owe me answers to questions about your people and I want to collect."
Bobby led Sam to the back of the room among the shelves of books and Bobby's desk.
Dean flipped his phone open and hit speed dial. He wasn't surprised when the call went to voice mail and he started to leave a message. "Dad, this is Dean. I want to…" He got no further when his father's voice roared at him.
"Dean, where the fuck are you?" The man sounded furious. "You better be ready to meet me. I'm at a motel…"
"Dad," Dean finally yelled back. "I don't care where you are. I'm not coming back. I'm done with you."
"Dean, you are seventeen years old. I own your ass." John Winchester wasn't listening to anything. "I'll track you and that man down and drag you back. "
"Dad, if you don't stop yelling I'm hanging up. Do you want to listen to me or not?"
"What could you possibly say that I want to hear other than Yes, Sir, on my way, Sir. That's what I want to hear." John roared back.
"Well, you're not going to get it so listen up. " Dean was yelling as much as John and he glanced down the room at Sam and Bobby. There was no way in hell that they couldn't hear what was going on.
Dean waited for the swearing to die down. "Now listen. Tomorrow around noon Sam and I will be at that coffee shop across the street from the Sioux Falls cop shop in downtown. You go there and sit at one of those outdoor tables until Sam and I show up. If I see guns or any of your friends or if anything looks hinky to us at all you'll never see us. This is your last chance."
"Dean, alright, OK, fine." John seemed to grab on to his temper and lowered his voice. "You are my son and whatever has happened between us I want to resolve. You and I are all the family that's left and I want you in my life. If I have to compromise on some things that I don't particularly like, your new boyfriend for one, then I will. Just show up tomorrow and we'll work it out, I promise."
Dean matched John tone for tone. "Tomorrow, around noon, coffee shop down town; that's when I'll see you again and we can try to talk through our problems. You are my father and all the family I have left. I don't really want to cut you off completely but you can't hunt me and Sam down. You have to stop the threats and stop spreading rumors about us. I'll see you tomorrow then. Good bye."
"Good-bye, son." John responded quietly. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Dean snapped the phone shut and joined Bobby and Sam in the back of the room.
"That sounded just delightful." Bobby grunted. "Somebody is going to get wise one of these days and fill that man full of buckshot. I only hope I get the first shot."
"He settled down by the end of the call." Dean responded. "We'll see him tomorrow and talk."
"Just watch your back, boy." Bobby advised. "John is a snake in the grass. Be careful."
The three men settled into their chairs surrounded by Bobby's books. The Hunter flipped the switch on a green shaded library lamp on the desk and the room's shadows were thrown into darker contrast. Bobby pulled one of his notebooks out of the desk drawer.
"Where do you want to start, Sam?" Bobby asked. "I would suggest you start with your name, your real name, not Sam Singer."
"My Fae name is Samisfallen. I am a Prince of the Fae, my father is King of the Seelie Court and we had a bit of a disagreement. He tossed me out and locked the doors behind me." Sam smiled.
"I don't think that the argument is something I want to tell you about. It's family business."
"Alright then," Bobby paused. "Is the 'fallen' portion of your name something historical? There are legends about the original fall of angels from when Michael supposedly threw Lucifer out of heaven. Is that how far back we have to go? Or do we go back even further than that?"
"I assume you are thinking about that famous passage from your bible, Genesis 6, 1-4.
"When men began to multiply on earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of heaven saw how beautiful the daughters of man were, and so they took for their wives as many of them as they chose. Then the Lord said: "My spirit shall not remain in man forever, since he is but flesh. His days shall comprise one hundred and twenty years"
At that time the Nephilim appeared on earth (as well as later), after the sons of heaven had intercourse with the daughters of man, who bore them sons. They were heroes of old, men of renown."
"That is one of the legends of the beginnings of my world but there is more than that." Sam said. You also have the legend of the Grigori, the Watchers, whose leader, Samyaza, encouraged his followers to procreate among the humans. Your Biblical Book of Daniel and the apocryphal Books of Enoch, both hold fragments of the legends of the Fallen.
Bobby slid a copy of a leather bound manuscript over the table to Sam. "Why don't you tell me how much of this is true?"
Sam lifted the manuscript and read aloud; "The Watchers, the Grigori or "Those who are awake" are terms used in connection with biblical angels. The Grigori occur in the Book of Daniel (2nd century BC) and in the apocryphal Books of Enoch (1st and 2nd centuries BC). Each book refers to both good and bad Watchers with a primary focus on the rebellious. The Watchers, also called the Holy ones, may have been an attempt by the author of the Book of Daniel to present the Babylonian Gods as acknowledging the power of the God of Israel. The leader of the disobedient Watchers, Samyaza, encouraged the Fallen Watchers to instruct mankind and to procreate among them. They taught men weaponry, cosmetics, mirrors, and sorcery. The Watchers are bound "in the valleys of the Earth" until judgment day for their rebellion against God's word."
Sam dropped the manuscript back on Bobby's desk. "You have assembled a lot of clues here. I will tell you what I was taught to believe but I want to tell it in my natural form."
Bobby was amused. "I'll just think of it as a visual aide."
Sam stood and once again the humans watched as he stripped away his glamour. The body that remained was almost transparent and floated in the air in a long slender twist of colors only seen in bubbles. Sweeps of pale light wrapped around the creature's limbs and his whitish hair drifted around his head as if he was floating in water. He stretched a hand out to Dean and when Dean touched those cold finger tips Dean's own hand took on the same appearance.
"Whoa there," Bobby exclaimed. "Dean, I think you might want to step back a bit."
"He is safe, Bobby." Sam's Fae voice chimed and again Dean heard the sound of bells far away. "If you have read all the legends, as I believe you have, you know one says that although the Fae like to play with words they cannot lie. I tell you he is safe."
"He can only change if I will it and I don't want that to happen until I can take him home with me. Who knows if that will ever come to pass? My father has sealed the doors against me." Sam released Dean's hand but continued to float before them.
"In the time of the war in heaven there was more than just Lucifer's rebellion contributing to the factions. The Watchers, the Grigori, had violated their oath and lusted after the daughters of men. When Michael cast his beloved, Lucifer, into hell there were 200 Watchers who followed the desires of Samyaza and took the opportunity to descend not to hell, but to earth.
Your legends speak of the Angels who fell to hell with Lucifer and the angels who stayed in Heaven with Michael but the Watchers God determined were not evil and did not deserve Hell but had defied God and could not remain in Heaven. In addition to the 200 Watchers bound in the Valleys of Earth there were another 200 minor angels who were simple followers. Those God banished to our realm and they founded the Fae.
"So," Bobby interrupted. "Your people are not the decedents of Lucifer's fallen angels or of the Grigori but an unrecorded group of banished angels?"
"Not unrecorded, Bobby." Samisfallen replied. "Here and there you will find mention made in the oldest of man's manuscripts disputing the number of the Watchers exiled to earth and denied heaven. There you will find the fathers of the Fae.
"Over the millenniums other creatures mingled with the Fae. The Persians called us the Peri and confused us with their Djinn. The Tuatha De' Danann, Irish Gods and Goddess from the Northern most Islands, sought shelter with the Fae when they were defeated in battle and brought us the concept of the Sidhe. We sheltered minor deities such as nymphs and tree spirits when their day passed. Christianity has sent us many refugees."
"Like other living societies, my people have many threads woven together to make us what you see before you. We are now divided into two different courts, the Seelie and the Unseelie. The Seelie welcomes all of life. The Unseelie are cruel and deadly."
Samisfallen slowly sank down to Bobby's floor and his Fae light began to dim as he recovered his glamour and become Sam Singer again. Sam smiled at Bobby. "Does that answer some of your many questions Mr. Singer?"
"It starts to fill the hole," Bobby admitted. "I have a description written in 1691 that I would like you to look at also. It seems to describe your people and I have wondered how it came to be written. "
Sam nodded at Bobby. "I will be glad to look at it for you but at the moment I want to ask Dean a private question. Would you mind if we stepped outside? We won't go any further than the Impala, I promise."
"Go on, I can't stop you. If Dean wants to go with you just be careful out there. I don't think either John or anyone else is around. If there were Rumsfeld would be barking his head off and he's been quiet all night. So go on, have your private talk. I'll be waiting."
Sam took Dean by the hand and the two went out of the house and down the outside steps, quietly making their way back to the Impala in the small garage. Once there Sam backed Dean against the side of the car and held him. Dean flattened his hands on Sam's chest while Sam's arms formed a cage to hold the young Hunter in check.
"What is it you want to talk about, Sam?" Dean asked.
Sam leaned in and captured Dean's lips and tightened his hold. Pressing against the young Hunter's body Sam pushed a knee between Dean's legs. "I think it might be a good time to let Bobby know that we are lovers." Sam said as he nuzzled into the side of Dean's neck. "I don't want to conceal it from the man. He has a right to know who he's sending out on these hunts."
"Do you think it's important?" Dean wiggled a bit against the thigh Sam was pressing into his crotch seeking just a bit more sensation as he became aroused. Sam breathed in Dean's ear, a move Sam had come to treasure for the response it triggered. Dean didn't seem to be able to control the shiver a tongue in his ear sent down his spine.
Sam smiled an almost predatory smile and licked down Dean's neck in one long stroke then recaptured his lover's lips. "It may be very important. He wants to trust us and if we are hiding secrets he'll always feel, under the skin, that there's something he doesn't know. He'll want to protect you from the Big Bad Supernatural being who might carry you off to another world. You seem to have too many fathers."
The kiss deepened and Dean surrendered to the Fae's skills. The young Hunter hung his arms around the older man's neck and pressed every inch of his body against Sam's. He was almost quivering with need when Sam finally released him from the cage of his arms.
"Come along then," Sam said and took Dean's hand. "Let's take the news to Mr. Singer. If nothing else it should get us into one bed for the night."
Back in the house Sam and Dean confronted Bobby.
"Is there something you guys want to tell me?" Bobby removed his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. Setting the hat back on firmly he waited for someone to speak.
"We thought it was best to tell you that Sam and I are lovers." Dean said hesitantly. "Sam thought that you should know in case it makes a difference in a hunt."
Bobby sat back in his office chair, carefully rocking back and forth. "I appreciate your honesty. I suspected something of the sort what with the practically sitting in Sam's lap and all but it is good to get It out in the open. No more pussy footing around the house in the middle of the night."
"I don't remember doing that." Dean said.
Bobby just raised his eyebrows. "Really? Well it must be my mistake then. I thought I heard someone go out the door in the night the last time you guys were here."
Sam tried to remember that first night in Bobby's house. He remembered the long discussion out on the front steps when he and Dean talked about their different worlds. He remembered sleeping with Dean in his arms but he didn't remember wandering around Bobby's house in the night.
Sam hummed to himself for a moment then spoke. "Bobby, do you ever let the dogs stay in the house at night?"
Bobby removed his hat and put it down on the desk. "I don't make a habit of it. Sometimes in the winter I let them stay in but in nice weather they are pretty much outside all the time. Why?"
"This house is near a couple of active Fae doors. Some are in the trees but some are also near or in the Sioux River. The Fae love waterfalls and their music. I checked on a few of the doors and they are all locked but doors swing both ways. Just because I can't enter doesn't mean that something else can't get out."
"What are you talking about?" Bobby grumbled.
Sam stepped away and touched the spines of books on Bobby's shelves. "This house broadcasts magic. When we first arrived I could feel it. They may be watching you but now I'm wondering if they might also be watching me. There are a couple of possibilities. My father may have set a guardian over me or the Unseelie Queen may be aware that I'm walking the earth. The Seelie Court Prince would be a great prize in her eyes."
Sam was well aware of how he would be treated at the hands of the Unseelie Queen and knew it would be unlikely he would survive. Even more than that he feared she would learn that he had taken a human lover. He had made Dean a target. The Queen would torture Dean just to cause Samisfallen pain and it would possibly take an all-out Fae war to get Dean back from her.
"When Dean and I are here it would be best to increase the protections inside and out. A number of Unseelie hate dogs. Most living creatures hate the Unseelie in turn. I suggest that Rumsfeld, strong as he is, might need some reinforcements."
"Now that I'm alerted it won't be a problem recruiting a few more Rottys." Bobby answered. "There are a few of Rumsfeld's sons and daughters in the neighborhood or out hunting with their humans. We can assemble a pretty good pack." Bobby went on. "Now that the business items are out of the way of this meeting here's something I want you to read and tell me what you think about it." Bobby handed Sam a simple piece of paper.
Rev Robert Kirk, minister of the Parish of Aberfoyle, Stirling, Scotland, wrote in 1691: These Siths or fairies they call Sleagh Maith or the Good People…are said to be of middle nature between Man and Angel. As were Daemons thought to be of old, of intelligent fluidous Spirits, and light changeable bodies (lyke those called Astral) somewhat of the nature of a condensed cloud, and best seen in twilight. These bodies be so pliable through the sublety of Spirits that agitate them, that they can make them appear or disappear at pleasure.
"What do you think of that?" Bobby asked.
"It reads like someone made a mistake." Sam smiled and handed the paper back to Bobby. "A clergy man got an eyeful of something he should not have seen. My first impression is that one of my Court made a mistake and let himself be seen. If it had been one of Unseelie Court this clergy man would not have seen the light of the next day. He was a lucky man and most likely never even knew it. Why is this description still floating around centuries later?"
Bobby put the paper back into one of his many evidence folders. "That particular piece of description has survived to be printed over and over again. It still can't be beat and is always being used as a reference. I wondered if it was at all accurate and set it out for you but after I have seen you transform twice myself, I can answer my own question about the accuracy of the description."
Bobby put away his research materials and stood up. "You guys have had quite the day. The drive up from Lincoln takes about 4 hours. Then Dean got to play telephone with his Dad and Sam got to play circus tricks in the Library. Seems like a kind of full afternoon. I never made lunch but I still don't want you people in my kitchen."
"I'm going to go and whip up some food. Why don't you two just take it easy? The T.V. works pretty good since I got cable or you could, you know, read books. Got plenty of those. After we eat I want to talk about a hunt.