Episode 3 – Sex Sells
Author's Notes: Also, lots of the fun things the brothers get to do because of Dean's new demon status are inspired by tumblr posts (for example).
And if anyone knows of a floor plan for the bunker, pretty please tell me because I couldn't find much… So excuse any inconsistencies regarding the batcave's layout!
This chapter's case was inspired by the Teen Wolf fic "This is Ridiculous" (which is definitely worth reading if you like Sterek!).
xXx
There is a light breeze blowing through the streets of Albuquerque. The night sky is clear so Damien can see the stars when he looks up from the sidewalk while he is on his way home.
He can't keep himself from smiling but that's mostly due to Janette, his girlfriend, whom he spent the past hour kissing.
Other guys his age would have tried to cop a feel but he's not one of them. Janette isn't ready, she told him that, and maybe he could do with a bit more time before they rush into this whole sex thing as well.
There is a noise in the bushes to his right and Damien freezes, a lock of dark hair falling into his face. He jerks his head to get it out of his eyes just when he sees the bush move and a sliver of something white shine through the branches.
That is all the warning he gets before a horse jumps out from behind the bushes and he takes off, running down the street.
The animal gives chase and even though Damian knows fuck-all about horses, he is pretty sure they shouldn't run after teenage boys.
A glance over his shoulder makes his eye bulge. The horse is all white and there is a horn on its forehead. A freaking horn.
Damien is distracted and doesn't see the wall ahead of him. It hurts when his chest collides with firm brick, though it hurts even more when the beast's horn pierces his back and rams right through his torso, pinning him to the wall.
Someone screams in the distance, maybe a witness but it's not like it matters. All help will come too late.
What the actual fuck, is Damien's last thought before the lights grow dark around him.
xXx SUPERNATURAL xXx
"Be right back, Sammy!" Dean calls out, already running up the stairs in the other room.
"Where're you going?" Sam shouts back from the library, looking up from his laptop to see Dean is already out the door. He heaves a sigh and keeps scrolling, hoping that today's the day they finally find a case.
A week has passed since their conversation with Crowley and nothing has come up. It's almost like the supernatural has taken a holiday until Dean learns the ropes of his new form of existence. Castiel hasn't been in touch either, which Sam tries not to be hurt by.
His eyes fall on the fruit basket on the middle library table, the "Welcome to Hell" card still attached to the bow. He has no idea whether to laugh at the ridiculousness of it or throw the thing out. He doesn't trust Crowley as far as he can throw him and won't risk being poisoned by an apple.
Exactly eleven minutes after Dean left he returns, carrying something that looks suspiciously like –
"Pie? Seriously, Dean?"
His brother merely smirks. "From that great place in Denver, Sammy, they make the best pie in America and I figured I need to practice those teleporting abilities, might as well do something useful with it. Brought you one of these organic vegan muffin things you liked last time we were there."
He thrusts the small paper bag into Sam's hands and teleports away, presumably into the kitchen because why the hell should Dean walk anywhere when he can just zap there. Sam swears under his breath. One of these days he'll just put his childish brother in a devil's trap in the garage so he'll stop annoying him.
Dean appears next to him, stabbing at the pie with his fork. "What'cha reading, Sammy?"
It speaks volumes about how often Dean has pulled that stunt that Sam doesn't even flinch anymore at his brother's sudden appearance.
"Something about the negative effects of too much sugar on dental health."
"Come on, it's not like I get cavities. Jesus, Sammy, I don't even gain weight anymore, I'm frozen in time and it's awesome." He takes a large bite of cherry pie to prove his point. "Don't be a bitch and eat your damn muffin."
Sam wants to bang his head against the tabletop, though he manages to restrain himself, grabbing the bag instead. The muffin tastes as amazing as he remembers.
He switches to another tab on his laptop and almost chokes on his last bite.
Dean pauses, fork in hand, and narrows his eyes as Sam skims the article, mouth falling open.
"Do we know anything about unicorns?" Sam asks and now it is Dean's turn to choke on his food.
"No, 'cause there's no such thing."
"Well, there's a body in Albuquerque that begs to differ."
Dean snatches the computer and takes in what Sam found. "Yeah, 'impaled by a horn-shaped object' could be tons of stuff, ain't meaning it's a fucking unicorn."
Sam spins the laptop around again, clicking on another tab and showing Dean the screen.
"Witness says it was a unicorn."
"That homeless chick was probably high as a kite!"
Sam rolls his eyes and searches for similar deaths in the same area and comes up with five in total, another man apart from Damien Peterson, as well as three women. Respectively girls – all the victims are between 15 and 24.
He watches as his brother reads the reports, cherry pie forgotten at his elbow.
"It's worth checking out."
"Yeah, but unicorns? Aren't they supposed to be pure and have a thing for virgins or some shit?"
Sam pushes his chair back and gets up. "We'll find out. Come on, let's pack. If we leave now we can make it there before midnight."
Dean groans but the slump of his shoulders tells Sam he has already won.
They hit the road twenty minutes later.
xXx
Six hours into their eleven-hour drive, Dean gets back from paying for gas carrying a red car refresher in the shape of a tree.
Sam only needs to raise an eyebrow before Dean snaps, "Not one word!"
So Sam bites his tongue, trying and failing to keep the grin off his face as Dean fastens the tree to the rearview mirror and the scent of cherry slowly but surely cancels out the faint note of sulfur that has started to fill the car.
xXx
Setting up camp in a cheap motel has a soothing kind of familiarity about it and knowing they are actively hunting things and saving people is enough to put Sam's mind to rest, at least for a couple of hours.
They slip back into their suits and their roles as Agent Araya and Holt easily enough. Dean is gruff and direct as always while Sam tries his best to make the witnesses and the victims' families comfortable with his "puppy eyes" as Dean calls them in a tone that is half fondness, half mockery.
They fail to unearth another person who actually saw the unicorn except the homeless woman who smells like a distillery when they question her and won't talk before Sam slips her a twenty. However, they quickly find out what all victims had in common.
"It's his birthday this week," Stan sobs, clutching his tissue. He is 19, a student with a part time job at a pizza delivery place and his own apartment, which is where Sam and Dean are currently sitting, Sam shifting uncomfortably and wondering if he should offer the guy another handkerchief, Dean, obviously bored, walking around the room.
"I'm very sorry for your loss," Sam says, heartfelt. There is a picture on the side table, showing Stan arm in arm with Alec Mallory, their latest victim.
"We were waiting, you know," Stan continues between shaky breaths. "For his 16th. Not our choice but it was the only way Alec's parents allowed me to date him."
"Why 16?" Dean asks from the other side of the room where he is inspecting the bookshelf.
"Consent laws," Sam explains at the same time Stan speaks up.
"Wait, isn't the age of consent in New Mexico 17?"
"Yeah, but not for same-sex relations," Stan says before blowing his nose.
Sam can practically feel the penny drop and his head snaps up, eyes looking to catch Dean's. From the look on his brother's face, he figured it out as well.
xXx
"So whatever's killed those people is targeting virgins?"
"Yeah, without any apparent order," Sam grouses. "Only Damien, Alec and Patricia had partners, the other two girls were single when they died."
"And it can't be that they're straight because then the thing wouldn't have killed Alec."
"So what, the unicorn's simply strolling around, waiting for the first virgin to cross its path?"
"Damn it, Sammy, it's not a fucking unicorn!"
"Well, what if it is?"
"Then you get to say I told you so, you happy, bitch?"
"Jerk."
Sam manages to keep up his serious expression another moment longer before he bursts out laughing. Dean joins in seconds later and it sounds sincere, not just like Dean is faking it.
xXx
In the end, it's Dean who finds the second link between the victims (unfortunately only after a fourth girl was found with a horn-shaped hole in her chest): They all attended an open-air concert of a band called "Black Unicorns".
"You'd think with a name like that they'd be something special, not some lame-ass mainstream synthetic shit show," Dean complains while he is surfing through the band's YouTube cannel on his bed and Sam is trying to find a way to trap or kill the actual beast. "Found anything?"
"Unless we're using a virgin as bait, I've got jack."
"So let's go with that plan."
Sam is rarely aware of pulling what Dean calls a 'bitchface' but right now he does it with intent.
His brother only looks more confused. "We wouldn't let the thing kill her, and hey, if she's hot I can save her from future unicorns." Sam continues to glare. "What? Not having sex's clearly dangerous! It's our duty as hunters to help – where's that righteous spirit of yours, Sammy!"
"Shut up and keep looking at videos."
"But the music sucks –"
"Don't you dare mute it, you might miss something."
With an eye roll, Dean returns his attention to the laptop screen.
"Son of a bitch." Dean says it in a shocked whisper and Sam is behind him immediately, trying to see what Dean is seeing in the concert video.
It was obviously filmed with a phone from someone in the audience and the picture is shaky and mostly unclear, sometimes too bright because of the sun shining down. Sam holds his breath as his brother rewinds the video and then pauses it at a moment the camera pans across the crowd.
In the distance, apart from the masses, stands a lonely figure. An awfully familiar lonely figure with sandy hair and a mischievous smirk.
Son of a bitch, indeed.
xXx
Dean senses the archangel coming before he has fully teleported into their motel room and once he has materialized, Dean has retrieved his blade and is pressing the tip against Gabriel's throat.
Because it is Gabriel, in the flesh, and a look at his angelic form proves it. It's weird as hell how he can just tell shit like that, but he can.
"You're supposed to be dead," Dean growls, feeling his eyes darken and relishing the effect this has on the trickster, who blinks in obvious shock.
Unfortunately, it doesn't last longer than a second before he is back to his default smirking expression.
"Is that a way to greet an old friend?"
"It's really you?" Sam asks and Dean spares him a glance and a brief nod to confirm it.
"You miss me?" Dean presses in harder until the shiv is scraping skin. "Woah, hold up, demon boy!"
"Tell us why you're here and how or I'll slit your throat and see if you'll come back from that," he growls, almost hoping Gabriel will be stupid enough to actually let it come that far, but Gabriel has never been stupid.
"Okay, okay, don't get your sulfur-riddled panties in a twist!" Then the angel pointedly looks down, wiggling his eyebrows at Dean.
"Let him go," Sam intervenes and only then does Dean step back, giving Gabriel some room.
"Jeez, the rumors don't even come close to the real thing, huh?" When he gets no reaction from neither Sam nor Dean, Gabriel sighs and squares his shoulders. "Alright, here's the thing: I was dead but then I made a deal with Metatron back when he was God and needed me, so now I'm back!" He throws his hands up and the gesture is enough to irritate Dean even further.
Gabriel must have sensed it for he quickly sobers up and abandons his forced cheeriness.
"Why are you here?" Sam approaches and Dean smothers the urge to put himself between his brother and the angel.
Gabriel nods at Dean. "Curiosity. And I need some information."
"On what?"
"Kevin Tran."
Dean doesn't need to look at his brother to know all the color is leaving his face.
"He's dead," Dean explains, which doesn't, apparently, come as a surprise since Gabriel is quick to argue.
"But not gone. I need him. Where is he?" Icy silence. Dean tightens his grip on the blade, feeling the Mark on his skin pulse. "Come on, guys! We're on the same side here! Okay, maybe Dean's treading in more of a grey area these days but you get the gist."
"Talk. Now." Dean punctuates the order by mentally pressing down on Gabriel's chest, making the man wince in pain. Biokenesis is one hell of a gift, Dean muses.
"Jesus, it's like that Mark gave you testosterone poisoning… Alright, but let's get Cassie here – I ain't gonna explain everything twice."
Then two pairs of eyes are on him and Dean feels his stomach drop – just faintly, in the distance, but the feeling is there. With Cas, he doubts there's any other way it could be.
"Pray for him," Gabriel urges, and the order draws a derisive snort from Dean.
"Yeah, 'cause he'll listen to me now."
"He always comes when you call," Sam says softly and Dean feels something strange in his chest but can't quite put a name to it. Gabriel, ever the child, sniggers until Sam slaps his arm to make him stop.
"Fuck, can demons even pray?" Dean asks and he's not even completely rhetorical about it.
"Well, honey, you ain't a regular demon," Gabriel claims and yeah, he's got a point.
For the first time, Dean is glad that he's not so much in touch with his softer side anymore, because he's got no idea how he's supposed to feel as he stows the blade in its self-made holster and fishes for words.
"Cas, if you got your ears on and you can hear me, get your ass down here. Your brother Gabriel's here and it's legit, he's alive and he wants you here, so open a portal and drop by."
Dean feels kind of pathetic since he closed his eyes and now Sammy's wearing that stupid look, somewhere between pity and sorrow and Dean can't stand it.
"So, since my dear brother's missing his wings, we have some time. What do you wanna do until then?" Gabriel throws himself onto one of the single beds, feet on the mattress and Dean mentally shoves him off, harder than probably necessary but sue him, he's pissed off.
Gabriel falls off the bed and lands on the floor with a dull sound. Dean smiles as Sam's eyes widen, probably just now catching on to what Dean did. For such a smart guy, Sammy's really damn stupid sometimes.
"You could call of the unicorn until Cas gets here," Sam suggest, fixing Gabriel with a glare.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. But you gotta admit that was fun!"
Dean growls at him, hand at his blade. He's not planning on doing anything but he likes that he can actually intimidate the trickster now.
"Fine, I'll stop killing virgins!" Gabriel says reluctantly, throwing his hands up in surrender. "Only did it to get your attention anyway," he grumbles and snaps his fingers. "Unicorn gone, you happy?"
Happy might not be the word Dean would use but whatever. Sam though – he looks furious.
"What the hell, Gabriel? Six people are dead because you wanted our attention?!"
The archangel shrugs, arms wide, and the "duh" is practically written across his face.
"And you said you're on our side! That's bullshit, or you wouldn't have killed six innocent kids!"
The two of them argue a little longer but Dean tunes them out because, frankly, he doesn't care. Instead he concentrates on his surroundings, trying to sense another angelic presence.
He is getting good at this, spent a few nights last week out in Lebanon, practicing his skills and discovering that he can sense all kinds of supernatural beings. That's when he discovered he could harm them without touching them, too, squash their eyes, make them bleed, choke them like some Jedi from Star Wars. Or maybe that's more of a Sith Lord quality, he muses before something tugs at the edge of his mind.
He's at the door immediately and opens it just as Cas is raising his hand to knock.
"You heard me," Dean can't help stating the obvious.
"Yes. I still hear you," Cas confirms, sparing a small smile before looking past Dean and into the room where Gabriel and Sam have apparently stopped arguing.
Dean closes the door behind Cas but the angel doesn't advance, only stares at his brother.
"I'm having an odd sense of déjà vu."
"Déjà vues are always odd," Gabriel supplies and offers a smirk. "You didn't really think I was dead, did you?" When Cas doesn't say anything, Gabriel groans, "Oh please, have you got no faith in me?"
"The last time I saw you was in my head and you were an illusion conjured by Metatron to trick me. Excuse me when I'm more than a little weary of you now."
"Well, I promise if you stab me again with that blade of yours, it'll work this time."
Castiel considers him for a moment. "But how?"
"Made a deal with Metatron. That was really me inside your head, by the way, just not in the flesh."
"So Metatron brought you back just to trick me?"
Gabriel nods.
"What did you get in return?"
Dean can see Cas' body tense and his fingers twitch for his angel blade just in case this is nothing more than another trick.
"Resurrection. Oh, and intel on this," Gabriel adds with a flourish, pulling something out from the dark jacket he's wearing over a colorful shirt.
He must have used some kind of angel mojo on the thing, because Dean didn't sense it. He senses it now, though, and whatever it is, it's incredibly powerful.
"A tablet?" Sam breathes out and only then does Dean take a closer look. His brother's right – it's another tablet. Great, 'cause dealing with those things always ended so well. "That's why you're after Kevin?"
"Yup, hot pants. Metatron flicked the switch so I gotta do with the only prophet we still have."
"Which tablet is this?" Castiel asks, clearly in awe as he touches the stone. His fingers skate over the surface almost reverently and it's distracting.
"The human tablet," Gabriel announces. "Allegedly it contains a way to reverse the stunt Metatron pulled, like a sorta failsafe Daddy built in. No clue what else is on there, before you ask."
"We can reopen Heaven?" Cas' voice is nothing more than a whisper.
Gabriel nods. "Maybe we can even get you your grace back."
Dean watches Cas swallow thickly, no doubt trying to flex his wings, which aren't there. "But won't reviving Kevin disrupt the natural order?"
"Honey, closing Heaven screwed things up enough for the rest of the millennium. One more resurrection isn't gonna break the universe, Cas."
The angels exchange glances and then Castiel turns around, looking first at Dean, then at Sam. "Where can we find Kevin's ghost?"
Dean seeks Sam's eyes and sees the same sentiment mirrored back at him. "We're only telling you if you take us with you," Dean says with finality.
Gabriel rolls his eyes and groans. "What, you wanna play chaperones? Fine. Better if you talk to him anyway; least he knows you two idiots."
"And you'll give him the choice to stay dead or to keep on living when it's all done," Sam tells him. "Kevin deserves that."
"Was gonna do that anyway, I'm not a total douchebag," Gabriel grumbles before crossing his arms when Dean snorts. "So where is he?"
"With his mother," Sam volunteers. "She took the object he was bound to. No idea where she is now."
"Lucky for you, I'm still an all-powerful archangel. Give me one minute."
They do, spending it in awkward silence. Dean uses the time to watch Cas out of the corner of his eyes as he stands still, brows furrowed and staring at the spot Gabriel just disappeared from.
"Buckle up, kiddos!" Gabriel announces when he returns, accompanied with a sound of flapping wings that always make Cas' eyes so sad that it almost hurts Dean to look. So he averts his gaze and grips the blade instead, feeling its energy course through his veins.
"Where are we going?" Sam asks, already stuffing things in his duffle bag.
"Holmesburg, Philadelphia – hurry up, will ya?"
"It's a thirty hour drive," Dean feels the need to point out. "A few minutes ain't gonna hurt."
Gabriel waves his hand in front of his face. "Hello? Fully-equipped angel here! Throw your stuff in that beast of a car of yours and I'll zap us there before you can start the engine."
"I swear, if you get a scratch on her –"
"Seriously, is he always like that since that Mark mangled his soul?" Gabriel asks Sam, but it's rhetorical so no one answers.
Dean figures he's just cranky because he hasn't tried zapping the car across the US himself.
xXx
"It's just unnatural," Dean curses under his breath. "A car's supposed to drive, not just disappear and pop up someplace else."
Sam chuckles, which earns him the stink eye from his brother but it's funny and at the moment he is glad about everything that makes him laugh.
Gabriel has traced Linda Tran to a two story red brick house in a street full of identical red brick houses on one side and a small river and a park on the other.
It looks nice and makes Sam wonder if they lived somewhere similar before Kevin became a prophet and lost track of his life. He has to shake his head to clear it from the memories that still fill his mind whenever he thinks of Kevin, memories that intrude on his dreams and make him wake up in a sweat.
He feels Dean's eyes on him. Maybe Sam's just imagining things, but his brother seems more attentive than ever since his transformation, as if he can sense his moods. And maybe he can.
Sam schools his expression and walks up the steps to the front door, Dean in tow. Gabriel told them to explain the situation since Linda knows and trusts them, and then get the angels.
Sam would be lying if he said he wasn't curious as to how Gabriel would bring Kevin back.
The doorbell chimes on the ground floor. It was late evening in New Mexico, yet it's only two hours later here in Philadelphia and not too late so there is a light on somewhere in the apartment.
Linda Tran looks exactly like Sam remembers her, if not more rested and without bruises. Her eyes widen when she sees them.
"Hi, Linda," Sam begins. "We need your help."
xXx
Before Linda can put the coffee tray down, Kevin appears in the small but homey living room, his eyes wide.
"What happened to you, Dean?"
Linda narrows her eyes because she is a smart woman and Sam knows they won't get away with lying to her and more importantly, they shouldn't. They give Kevin and her the abridged version and Sam observes his brother as he tells the story, how he failed to kill Metatron but didn't die.
There is just a hint of regret in his voice and he doesn't stumble over his words when he confesses he is a demon now. Linda covers her mouth with her hands but the gasp is still audible.
"We're still hunting, nothing's changed," Sam soothes her, adding a belated "much".
"But the angels reclaimed Heaven, right? I heard about it, everyone who died in the past few days didn't end up in the veil, there are portals now," Kevin asks, sounding cautiously optimistic.
"Yes, but the gate's still closed," Sam explains. "But there might be a way. That's why we need you, Kevin."
Sam feels bad asking even more of the kid after he gave them so much. It can't be helped, though. So Sam explains about the tablet and Gabriel the Archangel bringing him back to life, with the option of finally finding some peace once his task has been accomplished.
They drink the coffee while Kevin and his mother processes the news and he catches Dean eying the Scotch in the liquor cabinet across the room with. Sam has a theory that demons need more alcohol to get drunk than humans, that is if the rate Dean is going through booze is any indication.
"I'll do it. But after that, I'm done."
Sam looks up and finds Kevin's jaw set and his eyes hard. Linda draws a shaky breath, undoubtedly glad that she gets another chance to hug her son, to say goodbye properly this time.
"We'll need the ring." They all turn around at Gabriel's voice, having appeared inside the house along with Cas, who nods at Kevin.
A lesser woman would have been intimidated by an archangel standing in her living room, yet not Linda Tran. She doesn't offer the newcomers anything, only goes to retrieve the ring from another room.
"You're the one who can bring me back?" Kevin wonders, eyebrows raised.
"I'm a man of many talents," Gabriel shoots back with a cocky grin. "Maybe I'll show you sometime?"
"No more bad porn with you in it!" Dean interjects, to which Gabriel responds with dramatically clutching at his chest.
"You wound me, sweet cheeks."
Sam exchanges a look with Castiel, who seems equally bemused.
In the end, Kevin's resurrection is as impressive as Sam thought it would be. Gabriel takes the ring in one hand and puts the other over Kevin's ghostly head. He crashes the ring but seems to be tethering the prophet to this realm for Kevin doesn't disappear. He flickers and then starts glowing, the image terribly similar to the one stuck in Sam's head when Gadreel smote him with Sam's hands. This time, however, Kevin's eyes remain intact. His mouth opens in a wordless scream and Linda steps forward but Sam holds up a hand to stop her.
Everyone, including Dean, has to cover their eyes when the light seemingly explodes and when Sam blinks his eyes open again, Kevin is still there, seemingly solid, and smiling broadly.
He moves forward to hug his mother who sheds a few tears and then Kevin is on Sam who feels like the wind was knocked out of his lungs. It takes a moment but then he hugs back, reassuring himself that Kevin is alive and breathing after all.
It is a brilliant feeling and it even manages to fill the hole in Sam's chest a little.
"Alright, let's get this show on the road," Dean says pointedly and Sam doesn't even need to open his eyes to see the "no Chick flick moments, damn it" face his brother's sporting.
"Back to the bunker?" Sam suggests and Dean, Cas and Gabriel nod in assent.
"Everyone board the mother ship and I shall bring us back at warp speed!" Gabriel announces, which earns him a chuckle from Cas. Gabriel stares at him, horrified. Even Sam has to admit that the angel's newfound knowledge of pop culture is a little creepy.
"Did you get that reference?"
"Yes."
"Holy crack on a cracker, I leave you alone for a bit and you screw with the order of the universe… How did that happen?" Gabriel looks at Dean accusingly. "Late night movie marathons? Cozy cuddling sessions at HQ?"
Dean growls but there is the faintest hint of a blush coloring his ears. Sam files that information away with a grin.
"It was a 'gift' from Metatron," Cas explains, seemingly unfazed by Gabriel's insinuations.
"Oh, don't you dare spoil Dowtown Abbey for me, brother, I've just started watching it and I ain't lying this time!"
"I won't. I'm also aware of the negative attitude most people have towards spoilers."
"Good," Gabriel grouses, finally walking out.
Meanwhile, Kevin is hugging his mother goodbye. "I'll come back when my work is done to see you one more time, okay?"
Linda nods tightly and pulls him against her chest again. She watches as they all scramble into the car, Dean in the driver's seat and Sam riding shotgun while the angels and Kevin are in the back. Kevin waves back at his mother until Gabriel teleports them out of Holmesburg and back to Lebanon.
xXx
End Notes: Yay, Gabriel's back! Because I refuse to believe that the writers brought him back for one meager episode after four seasons without plans for more. Besides, there are so many more possibilities with Gabriel in the mix!
I hope you enjoyed his return as much as I did :) Let me know what you think!
PS: The names Agents Araya and Hold are taken from members of the group "Slayer". I consulted google maps and chose Enfield Ave in Holmesburg for Linda Tran's new home. The small river is Pennypack Creek, for those of you who'd like to know^^