Title: Under the Influence of Djinn
Chapter: Four
Summary: AU: The Djinn siblings created a terrible detailed nightmare for Dean out of revenge, nearly killing him, Lisa, and Ben. With Sam alive, Castiel missing, and Campbell cousins in tow, he tries to pull himself back together.
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Supernatural was created by Eric Kripke. No disrespect in intended with this work of fan fiction.
Notes: Thank you for the comments!

The clock radio at the bedside, circa the 1990's, turned to 8:06 a.m. and Dean decided it was time to get out of bed. He had a breakfast meeting with Gwen at nine. She'd knocked on the door the previous night and requested a private meeting, offering to bring the breakfast of his choice. How could he turn down free food?

Sam had just left on a run with Christian and supposedly Mark had pulled an all-nighter on some sort of research and was asleep.

He let out a long, heavy sigh. The future stretched out in front of him and he wasn't sure what he wanted to make of that future. Did he want to go back to hunting? It certainly seemed like it was his destiny and Sam was back.

Where was his conviction that hunting was the right thing to do however? Where had that gone? Everything had become muddied and he felt a little lost in his life. It was surreal that Sam was the one with the conviction now and the commitment to the life. Had that come about because he'd lost his memory? Was that the reason for it? He'd had to go on what felt right and hunting had been it?

A chuckle left Dean. Perhaps someone should wipe his memories, set him loose, and see what happened and where he ended up. It'd be nice to feel like he had a purpose again.

He put his hands behind his head and stared at the water spotted ceiling, his thoughts moving to Lisa and Ben. The relief he'd felt when they'd left had given way to guilt for that relief sometime during the night. That and a sense of failure despite Lisa's well-meaning parting words.

While she was different from the Lisa the Djinn had shown him, she could easily have been that woman. Her silences and sighs, patient and frustrated in this reality, could have indicated resentment of Sam and what he meant to Dean. She could have hated Sam and been jealous of him. She could have not understood their bond at all. The truth was, she didn't hate Sam, wasn't jealous, and did, on some level, 'get' their bond. The Djinn's interpretation of her was the wrong one, for Lisa had seemed to like Sam the past few days and respect his judgment. Maybe him being a primary factor in saving them all had something to do with it.

Dean was glad Sam had helped Lisa make arrangements to disappear, if only because he knew they'd be done right. Nothing would be left to chance. She and Ben would be as safe as Sam could make them. He was grateful for that, since apparently he couldn't protect them.

Sam wanted to know about the Djinn dream, but Dean wasn't ready to share it all just yet. He had to make sure this reality was the solid truth before he let any details slip free.

Maybe he was being overly cautious. Maybe he should tell Sam everything he'd seen in that dream the second Sam got back.

Maybe he should just get up and not be in bed when Gwen got here. That was a start, right?

Sitting up, he tossed the covers aside and glanced up at the ceiling. "Sure would be nice if you'd swing by for a visit, Cas. I need some information on some people and you could clear things up fast." He sighed. "Don't take that wrong. It'd be good to just touch base with you. You there? You hearing me at all?"

He waited ten minutes, but there was no whoosh of angel wings or even Castiel knocking on the door like a normal person. He'd keep trying. No way was he giving up on Castiel.

With an eye on the time, he showered, shaved, dressed, and was ready when Gwen knocked at precisely one minute to nine.

She held a box with a big bag balanced on top of it in one hand and a four cup tray that held four cups. "Coffee, orange juice, breakfast sandwiches, and a buttload of Krispy Kremes. I got a little of everything they had since I wasn't sure what you liked. Creamer and sugar is in the bag if you need it."

"I like my coffee black usually," he said, taking the drinks from her.

"Me, too. Preferably in an iv drip directly into my veins. I live on coffee, especially these days." Moving past him, she set the box and bag down. "I'd dig in before Mark smells the doughnuts. He can smell a Krispy Kreme doughnut from a mile away."

Once they were seated, he unwrapped his sandwich and tried to do some small talk that wasn't small talk. "There any truth to us being cousins?"

Gwen finished the bite of her sandwich, washing it down with orange juice. "Maybe. We'll get to that soon. After we eat. Though I will say, Sam laughed about the name when he got his memories back. Said he thought Meg got us all. Not sure who Meg is. He didn't elaborate."

"Meg's a demon. So…when did that happen exactly? Him getting his memories back. I'm a little fuzzy on the details."

Her stare was amused. "Uh-huh. You know, Dean, you can ask all you want and try to trip us up, but the facts remain the same. This is real."

"Just answer me."

"Okay." She set her sandwich down and reached for her coffee. "We were in Illinois passing by a field and Sam sucked in a breath and told us he'd buried his brother Dean there after a hellhound dragged his soul to hell and an angel named Castiel rescued Dean and brought him back. It was pretty fast after that. Childhood things, then the rest. He'd narrate the memories as they came and from that first one about burying you, he tried to find you. Of course, he didn't have details he needed until the last bits about the promise you made rolled in. We handed over the job we were on to another hunter in the area and headed here for a reunion. He couldn't wait to see you." She took a drink of the coffee.

"Why'd you come with him?"

"He asked us to. I guess he wanted our support." She set the cup back down. "He was afraid you'd think he abandoned you when you found out he'd been alive for a year before coming to see you. He was really afraid of that, yammering on until Christian told him to shut up about it. His amnesia was real."

"I know."

"Do you? Because it frustrated him. The fact that he couldn't remember anything, not even what the two hunters claimed he'd done bothered him. And when he did remember those things and the demon Ruby…." She shrugged. "He was ashamed of it. Still is, I think. He gets that look sometimes."

"There's no Samuel pulled from somewhere in the beyond to make you guys a team? No rest of the family or compound or family archives?"

Her brows rose and she looked like she had no idea what he was talking about. "Nope. No Samuel. No rest of the family. Hunting isn't conducive to having big families. We tend to die young. Mark, Christian, and I…. We thought we'd made it out, you know? It pulled us back in, kicking and screaming at the unfairness of it and how bloody it was when it happened. I sometimes miss having a home and life outside of hunting. It's not in my cards, I guess."

He nodded. He could understand that very well. "And Christian isn't a complete dick, Mark does occasionally talk, and you…. You're not what the Djinn made you out to be either."

"Is that a good thing? Me, I mean."

"Don't know yet." His gut told him he could trust her and that she was being straight with him. Could he trust his gut?

"Ahh. Let me know when you figure it out. As for Christian, he's the kind of guy who was never good with his peers. With kids, yeah. He's great with kids, but most adults find him abrasive. Mark does talk. He has his favorite topics that he'll go on and on about, like trains."

"Trains?"

"I kid you not. Trains. Guy's a big train enthusiast. Likes to sit and watch them, which is a snooze-fest in my opinion. It's his thing, though."

"What about you, Gwen. What's your thing?"

She set the coffee down. "I'm just a woman in search of a demon to torture and obliterate off the face of the earth for what it did to my family and friends."

"Join the club."

"Card carrying member. That's my thing."

She had the sort of steely resolve in her eyes and voice that Dean remembered from his dad. "You said we'd talk about us being cousins after we ate?" He finished his sandwich and opened the doughnut box, choosing three tasty looking confections.

"We can start now if you want." Leaning over, she pulled a sheaf of papers from her bag. "Here. I did this yesterday and thought we could go through it together, look at the common names and see if we're family after all."

"You did a genealogy in a day?" He hadn't asked her to, or even indicated he'd wanted a report.

"Sure. You seem like the kind of guy who wants the details. Was I wrong to look it all up?"

He took the papers. "No. I do want to know where we all stand on the family tree. Or if there's a single tree at all."

"I'm curious, too."

Dean laid the papers between them so they could both read as they finished breakfast.

The angel who'd evicted Castiel strolled through heaven as if she had no particular destination in mind. When Raphael's spies eventually glanced away from her, she took the opportunity to slip away and through a hidden door into a section of heaven disguised as human heaven.

As the protections about the place closed around her, she felt the tension inside her ease somewhat. Walking the line before Raphael was draining, yet necessary. She strode the corridor towards the office at the back of the hidden complex.

"How is he?"

The voice stopped her and she paused. "My report is for Naomi, Samandriel."

"You can tell me that detail without compromising anything else. We need to know he's not been damaged beyond repair by Raphael."

The last of Castiel's angel friends were hiding here in Naomi's region of heaven, given sanctuary by her merely because she found them all useful at present. Samandriel, Inias, Rachel, and a few others, friends he'd made who, for one reason or another, had been unable to come forward when he'd needed them. They all regretted that decision now, though she suspected they were relieved it wasn't they who'd gotten the beating from Raphael.

Tucking her long black hair behind her ears, she decided to tell him. "He lives and there's a human with him who will take care of him. She's been charged with making sure he survives."

"What more does Raphael have planned for him? Surely she won't just forget about Castiel now? It's not her way. She'll make life as hard as she can, see if she can break Castiel as a human, too."

"Perhaps. The woman -"

"We should be helping him. We're his family."

"You should have remembered that when he cried out for help."

Samandriel flinched. "You know Naomi had me on other business."

"You could have left it."

"And had her after me as well as Raphael?" His own words seemed to shame him and he looked down at the floor. "It's what Castiel would have done. He defied all of heaven and…. We should be helping him now."

With a glance back at Naomi's office, she stepped close to him. "Don't."

"Don't what?"

"If you get in the way…. Everything will go wrong. Do you understand me?"

Turning, he began to walk away.

"He calls the Winchester brothers his family now, Samandriel."

He stopped. "After we failed him multiple times, I don't blame him."

There was nothing more to say and she hurried into the office. Once inside, she stood waiting, knowing better than to speak before she was bidden to.

A folder was open in front of Naomi on the top of the wide desk. Slowly, she closed it, her cool gaze raising to study her operative. "Well?"

"He's in place, as is the woman."

"Is Raphael pleased with the job you've done?"

"Yes. She spoke of making me the head of the watch." Meaning she'd continue to be in charge of Castiel in his human form, giving reports to Raphael on what he and the woman were up to. And reports to Naomi, of course. There were always reports to Naomi.

"Has the appointment been made official?"

"Not yet."

"What's Raphael waiting for?"

"The reports from the first week I believe. She wants to make sure I'm right for the position."

"Are you?"

"Yes. Castiel doesn't know my vessel. He never saw me in that form and it's not like he'll be able to see our natural forms anymore. Us or anything else. Raphael was sure of it."

"Based on what? Raphael's own ideas of what removing our powers does?"

She had no answer, for Naomi was right. Raphael had no basis for that idea. It could be right or wrong.

Naomi tapped a finger on the desk. "Don't be too certain. Castel has proven…resilient. Remain cautious. Were there any problems you came across when you placed him and the woman in the motel?"

"None."

Naomi waited, brows raising as if she already knew that wasn't exactly true. She folded her hands together on the folder. That calm gaze was unnerving.

"There is one thing I didn't expect."

She cocked her head a fraction to one side. "Go on."

"His being is knitting together with the body on a cellular level. He…. He could really be becoming human."

Was that the slightest flicker of surprise in her superior's eyes?

No, it couldn't be. Nothing surprised Naomi. Nothing ever had. She seemed to always have a firm grasp on situations and had plans in place to deal with them. Like with Raphael. Naomi had relocated her office back before the apocalypse was thwarted and Raphael took over. If Raphael wanted to see her, she had to make an appointment and wait for her to come to her.

Or perhaps she merely had a good sense of self-preservation, the operative thought. Naomi had the potential to be a serious threat to Raphael and Raphael knew it.

Naomi lifted the folder and laid it to one side, then reached for another in the small stack by her elbow. "Keep me apprised of any future changes in his state."

With that, she was dismissed.