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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.
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A Wandering Boy
Chapter 16
Home Town Heroes
From Chapter 15
It is settled that Jerry belongs to the Minotaur, guardian of the Outer Ring of the Seventh Circle of Hell, the circle reserved for the violent. These souls spend their eternity immersed in the Phlegethon, a boiling river of blood and fire. There he would stay until perhaps he repented enough of his sins to pass to Purgatory, an unlikely event as his soul was too shriveled to even know what repentance and guilt were, let alone learn to use them to progress hoping one day for forgiveness He would stay to the end of the world, when he would be judged and raised or destroyed utterly. As the King of Hell has said; "This is hell, that's what you do in hell. You wait".
Chapter 16
"Come on Dean," Sam shouted up the stairs. "You're going to be late. Haul your ass down here or I'll come up and drag you out of that bed."
Upstairs Dean heard the demand but elected to curl more tightly into the blankets and put his pillow over his head. Once again he drifted off into the nice, warm, quiet place. He was so relaxed, so comfortable and snuggly that when his covers were rudely jerked off and his naked foot grabbed it was a horrible shock. Next his ass hit the floor and he was being dragged across the room.
"I told you," Sam grumbled, sliding Dean along on his butt. "Now get in that shower and hurry it up. Cas and I have to get to the cop shop before they start coming out here and poking their noses into things. Move it. Castiel will bring you your clothes."
Sam bent down and hoisted Dean up and over his shoulder. The first coherent thought through Dean's head was relief he wasn't being dragged down the hallway so rug burn wasn't going to be a problem. Sam deposited the boy on the toilet seat and left, slamming the door behind him. "Hurry it up or you really won't like what's coming next." Sam hollered.
Knowing that "Sam Dad" was perfectly capable of putting Dean in the shower forcibly the kid stripped and went for the shower dancing on one foot as he pulled his pajama pants off. In under a minute he was standing under the still warming water, unwilling to wait for the plumbing to catch up.
The bathroom door pushed open and Castiel entered, carrying Dean's clothes. Glancing over at the shower he said "Good, I'm glad you're in there. Sam told me to get you under the water naked if you weren't here already. You have about ten minutes before he's coming up to get you dressed. I suggest you hurry."
Castiel left the room and Dean braced his hand against the shower tile while he yawned himself into coherence. Other mornings, other showers, drifted up from his treasure box of lost memories and he vaguely heard some other man yelling at him to 'get a move on, son'.
Ten minutes later Dean met Sam on the stairs, Dean coming down to breakfast and Sam coming up to get Dean.
"Good job," Sam said and put his back against the wall to let Dean go by. "There's a scrambled egg sandwich waiting for you. Grab it and head for the car."
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Sam pulled up in the kissing lane to drop Dean at Discovery Elementary. As the boy climbed out of the back seat Sam noticed that quite a few of the people standing around were staring at him and Castiel. Only then did it strike Sam that their faces had been all over the T.V. the previous night. He saw small groups putting their heads together and talking then looking at the car. As Sam pulled away he saw Dean join his friends Jerry and Kerman just outside the entrance. He hoped that this new found celebrity would not cause Dean any trouble in school.
In English class Mr. Martinez singled him out. "I hope you are fine today, Dean. Are your Dads sure you should be in school today?" When Mr. Martinez said Dads some of the kids in the class giggled and started whispering.
"That's more than enough, class." Mr. Martinez barked out. "You all should be thankful to the Winchesters. Anyone of you could have been kidnapped yesterday. "
They children settled down to their work but there still was an undercurrent of excitement buzzing during the class. When the bell rang, Dean stayed in his seat, as usual, waiting for the hallways to clear. Some of the kids though stayed in the class room too and when Mr. Martinez left Al Michaels approached Dean.
"Hey Winchester," he said "I saw you on T.V. last night. Nice family. How come you have two Dads? What happen to your mother? My Dad wanted me to find out today."
"Why would that be any of your business, Michaels?" Dean answered back, annoyed.
"Well, my Dad says it's not normal. You shouldn't be living with two guys. My Dad should know, he's a cop. He said you should not be allowed to live with those men."
"My family is none of your Dad's business." Dean replied. "Tell him I said so and if he has a problem he should talk to Sheriff Mills. She likes my Dad and his partner. So shut up, you and your stupid Dad don't know anything."
Dean picked up his backpack and pushed his way out the door.
It went on all day; everyone had an opinion about Dean's family. Some came up to say how brave it had been for his Dad to rescue Ronnie Youngman. With the exception of Bobby the whole Winchester family had been on the news broadcast and now all of Sioux Falls seemed to think they had a right to talk about the Winchesters unusual family.
The teachers all acted like they had done something wonderful and embarrassed Dean in every class. He only wanted to be left alone. In the halls between classes a lot of the kids felt like they had to tell him what their parents said. Dean was amazed at how many of the parents let their kids know that they didn't approve of Dean's family even if they had been heroes.
Finally one of the older boys had repeated a remark about 'a couple of homos' that he had heard at home and Dan exploded right outside the office. The shouting brought out a couple of the office ladies and pretty quickly Dean and Robbie McAlwin were sitting in those famous chairs, waiting to see Principal Angelus.
Gabriel brought both boys into the office at the same time and listened to the problem between them.
First he let Robbie McAlwin speak; keeping a close eye on Dean's clenched fists.
"Well Robbie," Principal Angelus said. "I don't think you have any business talking about Dean's family, no matter what your father said about them. I want you to apologize to Dean for upsetting him and then I want you to take a note to your family. You are suspended until they come in and talk to me."
The Principal wrote out a note and put it into a sealed envelope. He then asked Mrs. Janet to reach Robbie's family and have them come pick him up. The boy was sent outside to wait.
"Well, Dean," the man said "here you are again. You and your temper need to become better friends or you are going to become a special friend of mine."
Dean stared down at his hands in his lap. "Why did they call my Dad names? Castiel is a really good guy. Why would anybody call him names? They only saw him on television. They don't know him."
Gabriel sat back silently. "Dean, you're pretty young to find this stuff out but adults sometimes have opinions about other adults that are simply based on ignorance or stupidity or hate. Sometimes they make those ideas up for themselves and sometimes they get them from other people they respect like parents or teacher or ministers. Your family is not an average family and you will perhaps run into this kind of thing again. You should discuss it with Sam and with Castiel. It's not really my place to give you my opinions either. You are not suspended and you can go back to class but keep in mind that yelling and fighting is not going to change anyone's mind. You know you have a good family and you are just going to have to learn to ignore the idiots out there like Robbie McAlwin's dad."
Dean stood up and reached over Gabriel's desk to give him a surprisingly adult handshake and say "Thank you".
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After dropping Dean off at school Sam and Castiel continued on into downtown Sioux Falls and pulled up at the Sheriff's office. Once inside they were immediately recognized and a few of the officers came over to discuss the capture of Jerry Bader. Most were of the opinion that Sam should have waited for the police to show up but they all realized what Sam had been looking at. There was a traumatized little boy to consider and the possibility that Bader could have hurt the kid even worse than he already had with every minute that passed.
No one held Sam's actions against him and no one even knew about Castiel's partial smiting.
Sheriff Mills showed up and escorted them to an interrogation room to get their statement. Once inside and seated she started up a recorder. Sam knew also that the big mirror on one wall wasn't as it appeared. He saw Castiel looking at and through the thing and he put his hand on the Angel's knee. Leaning over he whispered. "Cas, it's supposed to be a secret. Just pretend you can't see them. You're going to freak them out if they realize you can. Humans can't do that. Just pretend we're alone with the Sheriff."
Castiel nodded to indicate that he understood and stopped looking at the people behind the mirror.
"Gentlemen," Sheriff Mills started. "I appreciate your appearing so promptly and this won't take very long in light of last night's developments." She looked at their confused faces. "Jerry Bader died in his cell last night. Your statements will go directly into the case file as the coroner has had to classify the man's death as unexplained."
Sam raised a figure to break up the Sheriff's statement. "What exactly does that mean? He didn't die from me hitting him in the face? He died from something else?"
"That's right Mr. Winchester," Jody Mills responded. "The coroner was very specific about that. He said that the blows to his head did not kill Jerry Bader. He died of heart failure. The autopsy showed that Mr. Bader's heart appeared to be partially burned. Several other organs showed the same kind of damage. The only supposition out there is that he may have somehow been electrocuted. No one has come up with any reasonable explanation. Unless you two had a very high powered Taser in your car you can't be suspected of killing him."
"By the way," she went one, "we are also looking at every Taser in the department to try and determine if any of them have been discharged even though none of our regularly dispensed Tasers would have a sufficiently high enough charge to do this kind of damage. Something could have malfunctioned. None of the guards on the cell black are even issued Tasers. It's a mystery. Unless we come up with something it's just going to be listed as an accidental death, cause unknown. To tell the truth, we don't want to spend a whole lot of time or money on an investigation. "
Jody laughed. "Maybe God struck him dead. No one really cares. We just don't want his mother to get the idea that she can sue the department for something."
Castiel had flinched when Jody made the God struck him dead remark. Sam again laid his hand on the Angel's knee to calm and warn him.
After giving their statements and then waiting for them to be transcribed, Sam and Castiel were finally able to leave the station. It felt like they had been in there forever and once outside they decided to go to lunch as breakfast had been skimpy and rushed.
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After Sam and Castiel left one of the station's younger officers came to the Sheriff's office. Looking through the blinds at Sam and Castiel leaving he said to Jody "So that's the same sex wonder couple, is it?" he laughed at his own cleverness.
Jody snapped her head up. "That's not too smart of you, Cassidy. Are you looking for a couple of long nights taking sensitivity classes?"
"Oh hell no, Sheriff." The man answered. "If they can handle the world's opinion of their partnership and can kick ass with the best of them, more power to them. They might have gone a ways to curing some locals' opinions about gay guys yesterday. They are obviously guys you don't want to mess with if you value your face."
"Fine," Jody responded. "As long as you're on their side we won't have a problem. I've known Sam for years and Bobby Singer is well respected in Sioux Falls. I have to admit that I was pretty surprised to find out that Sam is not only homosexual but also managed to have a son along the way. He's stuffed a lot of experiences into his twenty four years while keeping his mouth shut about it all." Jody stood with her fists on her hips and looked out at the front door where Sam and Castiel had disappeared.
"His father was the original hard ass and gave Sam a difficult childhood. There was a time or two the former Sheriff had been seriously thinking about getting Sam away from his father. I guess that's all worked out and Sam is what he is now. No changing him to suit ourselves."
Cassidy smiled at her. "I wouldn't even think of trying. After all we now have two of the most unusual Home Town Heroes you'll ever find. Leave it up to South Dakota to come up with something new."
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Sam and Castiel found a family style restaurant on the same block as the station . As they walked along some people made a point of smiling at them and gave friendly nods. A few people turned away or scowled but they were definitely a minority. As they entered the restaurant and waited to be seated Castiel started to ask questions. "Sam, why do all these people have an opinion about our partnership? There is definitely something here that I don't understand. Why would they even be expected to have an opinion about our relationship?"
They were seated in a window booth and opened their menus. Sam looked at the Angel's face and grinned. "If you don't have any idea what to order, I'll do it for you," he said to Castiel.
"I must admit that human food is a mystery," the Angel responded. "Currently I know that I don't like coffee, beer is just tolerable but I have a great fondness for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches."
"I'm pretty sure you'll like the angel hair pasta with Alfredo sauce, chicken and broccoli." Sam said. "I'm getting the Cobb salad myself. If you don't like coffee, let's try ice tea and see what you think of that."
"If you think that's appropriate, of course, please order it. What about my previous questions? What is it that I don't understand?
Sam leaned back in his booth. "Well, Castiel, since we are seen together constantly, and proclaim ourselves as partners at every opportunity, people have assumed that we have a sexual relationship. The word partner can have that type of connotation outside of a business environment. Dean's existence only adds value to the assumption. We appear to be a same sex couple with a child that we are raising together."
"Oh, well that clears up a number of questions for me" the Angel said as he turned to watch the waitress deliver their food.
"This doesn't bother you, does it Cas?" Sam said, pushing his salad components around. "I mean, it doesn't break any of your Heaven's rules or anything, does it? God isn't going to throw you into prison or something, is he?"
Castiel look surprised for about the first time, ever. "Oh no, I assure you Sam. God has no interest at all in the sexual proclivities of his creation. No matter how new life arrives it is the life that is sacred. As long as a creature does not commit its soul to evil all are welcome in the Heaven. Sex has nothing to do with winning or losing God's blessings. All are welcome in my father's house."
"So if we go back to Bobby's tonight and make out like love sick moose, God doesn't care?" Sam asked.
"I'm not sure exactly what you are asking me to do," Castiel said while investigating his pasta. "As I said there is only one way to avoid Heaven and that is by committing or selling your soul to the demonic forces. Even then, if you are truly penitent, God will forgive even that. It must be a complete rejection of the prior commitment to evil however. You cannot lie to God. That is similar to cheating Death. Neither event is even possible."
"So who are these Angels that you are hiding from, Cas? It seems somewhat serious to me." Sam went on between bits of his salad.
"Unfortunately some of my brothers have deviated from God's will and believe that only they can interpret his intention. They are attempting to claim the Earth as their Paradise and have turned from their intended purpose and become corrupted. It is very sad. I believe that they are sincerely mistaken. I received my instructions outside the normal chain of command. I think I received direct revelation from our Father. I have no idea why I was chosen but I took Dean Winchester and fled here. As long as the corrupted Angels here don't find either Dean or me this timeline will stay pure. I hope that God or the Angel Joshua will bring my brothers back into the light."
"Well, that's a lot to absorb." Sam said. "It certainly puts concerns about sinful acts into perspective. All these rules that have been laid down by the World's religions are pretty much superfluous, aren't then?"
"This is very good,' Castiel exclaimed, poking his fork at his pasta. "This was an excellent choice on your part." He looked up, "Excuse me, I didn't mean to interrupt you. What was the question again?"
"Rules about sin as laid down by the World's religions?" Sam reminded the Angel.
"On yes, completely irrelevant; God has no interest in such things. I've told you what the one great sin is and even that can be forgiven." Castiel ate the last of his pasta and put his fork down. "Now, should we wait here until it is time to pick up Dean? When we are back at Bobby's you can explain to me what to 'make out like love sick moose' means."
Sam laughed. "Good plan."