Profound Bond – Chapter Three
It was a Tuesday afternoon, one day in late spring, when Dean met his first demon.
He remembers that much at least. Dean had taken Sam into the bathroom and locked him in there, not wanting the monster that John had brought home to see his little brother, or for Sam to see it. It had been in the body of a small looking weedy man with glasses, not that it needed them. John had sprayed a Devil's Trap on the floor, and that was where he threw the demon.
Dean had been standing behind the cheap shoddy couch, staring wide eyed at the man sitting tied up in the circle in the middle of the room. John had finished tying the demon up and had looked at his eldest son.
"Don't just stand there Dean. I'm gonna teach you how to exorcize a demon."
Every time Dean had stumbled over the Latin incantation, John had pursed his lips and looked at Dean disapprovingly. Desperate to please his father, Dean tried to talk faster, to let the words roll out smoothly from his tongue. When the demon had started twitching, Dean had jumped, letting the piece of paper with the words on it flutter slowly to the ground. John had twisted his mouth into an ugly line and finished the exorcism.
Dean had crawled back into the bedroom, where Sam was, disobeying him even though Dean had told him that he mustn't come out no matter what. He tried to hide the forming bruises from his brother, but even then Sam had a sharp eye, and had silently gone to the hardly working fridge to get out some cold water to put in a glass that Sam could hold against Dean's face. Dean silently thanked him, as moving anything in his face right now was too hard and too painful.
Dean had been nine. Sam had been five.
His experiences with demons hadn't improved over the years.
When he was hunting, he had dealt with a few cases, very distinct as in how rare they were, that involved demons. Things had been better, before Meg and Alastair had come along.
Meg is a leader, as far as Dean could tell.
Alastair is a specialist.
Meg directed, had grunts and master plans. She was someone you didn't want to cross, and you didn't want her to remember your name.
Dean hadn't been that lucky. Meg had liked him from the first time he had met her, and the way that he just kept running across her every year or so, he had to assume that she sought him out, because she never seemed surprised that he was there. The final hunt before he had been asked to join the SPN unit had involved her, and it was through his planning that he had managed to get out Annie, Victor, Rufus, Bobby, Caleb, Tamara, Isaac, Ellen and Sam out alive. It had been one of the rare times that hunters had worked together, made even rarer by the fact that Bobby had called in the SPN unit as well, since mixing hunters and federal representatives had never seemed to work out well.
Bobby had picked up on something big happening, and Missouri had called to talk him into gathering as many people as he could, saying that he would need all the help he could get. Dean had convinced Sam to take a week off from Stanford to come and help, to which he had reluctantly agreed, wanting to study for some test, and meet up with a girl he had met, someone named Jess.
They had arrived too late to stop Meg's plan, and had witnessed as too many demons to count had flown up into the air, separating and spreading in all different directions. Dean had suggested a plan, by passing all the demons, and getting everyone out alive safely. Even though a pathway to Hell had been opened and a truckload of demons had escaped, everyone had got out alive, Dean had counted it as a win, even as he tried to ignore the guilt that ate him up from the inside, the quiet voice at the back of his head that told him that he could have stopped it, if he'd been faster, better, stronger. It reminded him of all the innocent lives that the demons could be taking, who they could be possessing, what lives they could be ruining. Dean told it to shut up, but it was persistent.
It sounded like his father's voice, but Dean chose to ignore that as well.
And then what happened with Alastair, and the dreams that had been plaguing him ever since…
Safe to say, demons were topping the list of his least favourite things to tango with. They were hard to kill, hard to defend against, and always had a plan in motion to do something horrible to the human race in general. Not to mention the fact that every single fucking thing about them was a trigger.
So when Charlie told him that the case involved demons, Dean wasn't exactly happy.
"Hey, don't look at me like that. You said any case, and this is a case. And you have your super-secret weapon on stand-by for nuclear, Cas."
"That is incorrect Charlie, I have more power at my disposal than a nuclear reactor."
"There you go Dean, you've got nothing to worry about." Dean sees fear flash in Charlie's eyes, and realises for the first time that the others on the team are also getting over their own innate fears of the supernatural.
They're all here for a reason.
"Do you dislike demons Dean?" Cas asks, looking over the information Charlie had up.
"You could say that," Dean mutters, looking at the ground. "Anyway, Charlie, gimme the info and I'll do it."
"Elko, Nevada has been having problems with disappearing citizens lately. Five cases have been reported in two days, and the police have been having problems with what is reported as 'cult and religious symbols'. And then while I was going through the cameras of the local area, I saw this."
Charlie hands over a photo printed out on a piece of paper. It's obviously from a security camera, but it just happens to get a solid glimpse of outside the shop as well. Dean can see a group of people, and leading the group of people is a too-familiar face.
"Meg," he hisses out. Never seeing her ugly mug again would have been too soon for Dean.
"You know this demon?" Cas asks.
"Too well."
"When are you going to leave?"
"I'll get packed up and leave tomorrow morning. You need anything from me until I get back?"
"Nah, I call you if anything comes up."
"Cool, I'll see you when I get back then."
"Are you sure you don't need any back up?"
"I'll be fine. I've dealt with Meg on my own before."
"Yeah, and that worked out so well."
Dean feels his mouth twist against his will, and he swallows down his automatic response. Charlie doesn't need that, and he doesn't need to feel bad after telling her off.
"Thanks for the reminder," he says instead, and Charlie flinches and mutters 'sorry' under her breath.
"What is your relationship with this demon Dean?" Cas asks as they walk out of the offices, Dean running over what he would need in his head, inventorying and gathering. There should be everything he needs in his apartment.
"None of your bees wax Cas."
"You are right, I do not own any bees wax. However, you did not answer my question about the demon."
"None. Of. Your. Business."
Cas frowns but thankfully doesn't push the issue. He stays behind when Dean catches the elevator down to the car park, and the angel doesn't show up on the drive home. Dean's grateful that he won't have to face the questions he would ask just yet.
Collecting all of the things he would need to take on Meg, even with angelic help, took a while, as Dean had to replenish his holy water, salt and spray can supplies, but everything else he could find where he lives.
After he had everything he needed packed and ready to go, Dean turns his computer on and searches all he could find on the town where Meg had taken up residence. He doesn't find much more than Charlie, but he does find a block of old apartment buildings that have been marked for demolition, and which witnesses have described as to having strange noises, chants, black smoke and screams coming from late at night. No one put stock in such things, no one except Dean, who had heard Meg doing these kinds of things before.
Dean swallows Pamela's strange tasting leaves, and wishes for a dreamless sleep.
Beep beep beep beep beep b –
Dean shuts off his alarm, sighing softly as he realises that he had slept the night through.
Gathering his bags, Dean locks his apartment, asks Chuck to watch his it, and is out on the high way towards Nevada before the sun had completely risen above the horizon.
He's half expecting Cas to show up during the car ride, but as the hours tick by and there's no flutter of wings in the seat beside him, Dean feels himself becoming cooler and cooler towards the angel. Because it's winter, the sun sets earlier than it would have if it were summer, and Dean finishes the twelve hour long journey in darkness. Finding a motel was not particularly difficult, and it was a half decent one for once.
After letting himself feel alone for a few seconds as he looks around the single room, Dean lays down all the wards, salt lines and protections against demons and all the common monsters in twenty minutes.
Two leaves of Pamela's medicine later, Dean is lying down on his bed, eyes drooping and brain weary.
The harsh sunlight is what drags him out of sleep. Blinking rapidly and fighting the urge to let his eyelids droop again, Dean takes the cursory second to survey the room. It usually didn't need to be done, since there was nearly no way that anything could get inside the room, and so it took Dean a second to register that he isn't alone after all.
"Holy crap Cas! What the hell are you doing here?" Dean slurs, throwing the covers off and sitting up, immediately regretting it and having to fight to remain in the bed instead of on the floor beside it.
"I believe that there is a group of demons set on wreaking havoc in this town Dean. That is why we are here. "
Dean groans, not up to dealing with the angel this early in the morning. "How'd you get in 'ere anyway?"
"None of these have any effect on me Dean, or any angel. You possess no knowledge of angel banishing or warding symbols."
"So there are things that can affect angels?" His head is pounding and his mouth feels like something's died in it.
"Of course." From what Dean can tell, Cas is looking at him with a slight frown, as if Dean was stupid to think that there isn't any way that angels can be affected by things like symbols.
"I guess there's no chance of you telling me what they are, right?"
Cas regards him silently. "You are correct."
"Great. Now please move so I can go and throw up."
Cas follows him into the bathroom, breaking nearly every personal space and empathy rule that Dean can think of. He stands next to the sink and watches silently as Dean hangs his head over the toilet.
"Why do I feel like I have a hangover? I don't have a hangover. Do I?" When Cas shakes his head, Dean lets out a sigh of relief. "Well at least I didn't go and drink myself to sleep last night."
"You appear to be suffering from an overdose of camrine. A very rare herb, one that's said to help those who have trouble sleeping have a long and undisturbed rest. I smell it on you, through your pores and on your breath."
"You mean Pamela's herbs?" He is going to throw up, and he doesn't want to do it in front of the angel, but Cas is being annoying and standing there, so he tries to hold it back.
"I hope this Pamela gave you very specific instructions, because otherwise she may have been trying to kill you. An overdose can be fatal."
"Oh, yeah, she told me really specifically what to do and how to take it."
"And you ignored her?"
Dean swirls his tongue around his mouth, feeling the pins and needles shoot wherever he touched. "Maybe?"
Cas gives him a disapproving look, and shakes his head before looking at the ceiling. "Of course. You will not be sick, it is simply the effect of the herb, and how it makes you feel like you're going to vomit. You will not though.
"But I still get the feeling. Awesome."
"I have confirmed that there are demons in this town, but there is a powerful one among them that is shielding their presence and numbers from me. I can sense their presence in this town, and have narrowed their possible location to a few city blocks."
"I know where they are." Dean replies, still fighting the urge to empty his stomach, no matter what Cas says on the subject.
"Where?"
"There's an article open on the computer."
Cas leaves the room, and Dean lets himself take fifteen minutes to kneel and gradually feel better.
When he leaves the bathroom he finds Cas sitting in the chair in front of the computer, staring at it as if it'll stand up and bite him.
"Awesome," Dean mutters. "A technologically impaired angel."
Cas is staring at the home screen, and Dean leans over him to grab the mouse and clicks on the open internet tab, bringing the article and the map of where the abandoned apartment block is. "There. That's where Meg is."
"Is this information reliable?"
"Yeah, Meg leaves these kinds of signs lying around. If you know what you're looking for, then it's not too hard to pick up on her trail, as long as she's topside and not kicking her feet up downstairs. I'm going to go and ask some questions of the local cops, just to check and make sure I've got all of the relevant information, and to make sure that this place," Dean taps the screen of the computer, pointing at the apartment complex, "Is the right place to be looking."
"I will accompany you."
Dean raises an eyebrow. "Okay then, come on."
Dean changes into his suit and stuffed as many demon fighting and general tools onto him as he can while still remaining inconspicuous.
Walking out to the Impala, Dean feels the icy coolness of the angel's presence as Cas followed him out to the car. The angel opened the door to slip inside, and Dean counts it as a success that he had managed to get anything to stick at all.
Dean had already found out where the police department for Elko, and they head there, driving through the winding streets, trying not to let the silence in the car get to him. The angel seems content to let the silence lay between them undisturbed. Dean is used to noise, but Cas always seems to prefer the quiet.
Without any fuss they arrive at the police department, and Dean rounds on Cas. "You still have your badge don't you?"
"Yes."
"And you know that when you introduce yourself as part of the FBI then you have to show them the badge, okay? Just hold it up in front of you. Now don't say anything and let me ask the questions, okay?"
"Dean I wish to participate in the process."
"What?" Dean feels his mouth hanging open somewhat, but he doesn't do anything to close it, too stunned by what the angel was saying. "Cas you've never even seen someone ask questions of the local police."
"I have watched over humanity for millennia Dean. I am sure that I will manage."
Dean watches as Cas opens the door and walks inside.
"Oh this is so not going to end well," Dean mutters, and follows the dark haired angel inside.
Cas approaches the front desk, and asks for the head of the office so he can speak with him. Not too bad, Dean thinks, and that's where it all starts to go downhill.
The deputy walks out and introduces himself as Deputy Framingham, shaking Dean's hand.
"Dean Winchester, FBI." Dean shows him his badge, and puts it away, waiting for Cas to show his. When the angel doesn't move, Dean elbows him in the side.
Cas seems to remember that he's supposed to show Framingham his badge as well, and he pulls it out of his coat pocket and holds it up.
Dean has to resist the urge to rub his forehead when he sees that the badge is upside down. Smoothing his face out into a hopefully unreadable mask, he leans out and flips it over the right way.
When the deputy looks at him strangely, Dean can only shrug half-heartedly and say, "He's new." What else could he tell him? Oh sorry this is my angelic partner who's never interacted with another human being before please humour him? "Could we ask you a few questions concerning the disappearances you've been having lately?"
The deputy nods slowly, still looking at Castiel strangely.
The deputy leads them into the privacy of an office, and motions for them to sit in the two chairs that are on the other side of the desk to where Framingham sits down.
"Just a few routine ones, do you know anyone who disappeared?"
"No I do not."
"Do you know where they are being taken, or do you have suspicions?"
"There's rumour that they're being kept in an old abandoned complex near the edge of town, but I went and checked it out, and there's no one and nothing there."
"When did you go?"
"Yesterday afternoon. Do you know what's happening to these people officers? They're the people of my town, and I really want to know that they're safe and that no more are going to disappear anytime soon."
"No, we don't know what's happening," Dean says, lying through his teeth, something he normally does while on the job. Cas casts an unhappy look at him.
"It's demons," Cas says, and Dean wants to hit him with something heavy.
"What?" The deputy asks, looking at Cas with narrowed eyes.
"Demons." Cas says. Dean glares at him, trying to get him to be quiet.
"We don't know where people are being taken from," Dean tries to salvage the conversation.
"Demons." Dean kicks Cas under the table, and Cas looks at him in bewilderedly, but keeps quiet. Finally.
"You, know, drink, adultery, could be leading people to places where they could be kidnapped. We all have our demons," Dean says, forcing himself to laugh slightly. The other two people in the room eye him, and Dean stops laughing.
"So you know nothing about how these people are disappearing, why they're disappearing, or how they're connected?"
"No sir, I don't."
Dean gives the man his professional smile, and stands. Cas does as well. "Then thank you for your time. We'll find your people, don't worry.
The deputy looks at them in confusion. "Cas, let's go," Dean says, nodding to the deputy, who is still looking puzzled.
Dean pushes open the door, holding it for a second so Cas wouldn't get caught in the doorway. "Well that was a waste of time. He didn't really tell us anything other than we already knew, and you nearly broke our cover!"
"I was simply telling the man the truth. I expected that you would appreciate that statement. You put those that lie high on your list of people you don't wish to spend time with."
Dean rubs his forehead, not wanting to know how Cas knew about the list. "Look Cas, we don't tell people the truth okay? It makes them nervous, and afraid, and that's not something you want. You want people to live out their lives oblivious to all the things out there that could kill them easier than the effort they take to swat a fly. They don't need to know that, and if you tell them that it makes them unhappy. And we want to keep them happy, keep them in the dark."
Cas looks at him expressionlessly. "You wish to lie to people?"
"It keeps them happy and safe Cas. That's what we're here for. To keep them happy and safe."
Cas doesn't look like he understands, but Dean can see him brush off the conversation. "Then are we going to the apartment block?"
"Yeah, I'll go back to my room and pick up my stuff, and we can go to the edge of town and kill ourselves some demons. I'm assuming angels can kill demons?"
Cas gives him a look that clearly conveys that he thinks Dean's insane. "Of course angels can kill demons. You said that we are going to go and kill demons? How can you kill a demon?"
"Oh yeah. I have a knife that kills demons. Kills the meatsuit as well, it's a shame, but it takes care of the demons well and good."
Cas frowns slightly. "May I see this knife?"
"Uh, sure I guess. Here," Dean pulls the knife from his pocket. "It's the only thing that I keep on me no matter what. You never know when you'll need a knife that can kill the unkillable."
"Dean." Cas is looking at the knife in trepidation, and something in Dean twists slightly.
"Yeah Cas?"
"Where did you find this?"
"…One of Lucifer's crypts."
"You know where they are?" Cas asks him urgently.
"Some of them, yeah."
"How?" Cas demands, taking a step closer.
"Whoa, Cas, calm it there. I really don't want to talk about how I know where they are, okay? Drop it, please."
Cas narrows his eyes but releases the knife so it falls on the ground. Dean bites his tongue and picks it up, running a hand through his hair when he stands back up.
Cas is still looking at him suspiciously. "The angels have been searching for Lucifer's crypts for a long time Dean. They hold the demons most prized weaponry and knowledge. Keeping that away from them is critical."
"Yeah well very few demons know about the crypts, and they're not guarded or anything. I seriously just broke open a door, walked in, and picked this up."
Cas purses his lips slightly and looks over Dean's shoulder. "Let us go and investigate the apartment block," he says, and disappears in front of Dean's eyes.
"I don't think I'm going to get used to that anytime soon," he mutters under his breath, looking around to make sure that no one saw Cas disappear.
As soon as Dean leaves the hotel room, with all the things he needs in a bag over his shoulder, himself stocked with as many weapons and lock picks as he can manage, Cas appears beside him.
"The demons are currently inside the apartment block. There are somewhere between seven and twelve of them, and there is a more powerful demon among them."
"Meg," Dean spits out the name while hurrying to the Impala. Cas appears in the seat next to him and Dean decides not to mention anything since he's currently about to face down a building full of demons and trying to ignore the fact that he hasn't slept in over 24 hours.
Pulling up a block away from the building, Dean gets out and checks that everything is in place. Satisfied that he's as prepared as he's going to be, he faces Cas.
"Do you know where the main gathering of them is?"
"There is one on the first, second, third, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth floors. There is a gathering of no more than five plus the more powerful one on the fourth floor."
"Great, you take the ones on the top floors, work your way down to the fourth, and I'll get in and do the same from the bottom." Cas looks like he's about to protest, but Dean strides over to the building, opens the door and looks back to see if the angel is still standing there. He isn't, so Dean goes inside.
He finds the first demon easily enough, standing at a junction of three halls and talking on a phone with her back towards Dean. As soon as she hangs up Dean goes in low, and slices through her stomach from the back. She barely has time to let out a strangled sound before the orange lightning goes through her and she lies still.
Dean has trouble locating the stairs, and he runs around looking for them for a longer amount of time than he really should have before he finds them. Going up them and opening the door is easy, but when the next demon is standing right in front of it and looking at him when he comes out Dean regards it as a bad move. He leaps towards Dean, who dodges out of the way and lets him go rolling down the stairs, making an extremely loud racket. Dean winces and jumps down the stairs three at a time in order to get to the demon in time for him to stab it before he can get his bearings again.
Skipping past the second floor, Dean arrives on the third and takes five minutes to find the next demon. Or rather, she finds him.
Slamming him up against the wall, the demon narrows her eyes slightly at Dean, like she's trying to place a face.
"Wait, you're one of Alastair's, aren't you? His stink is all over you," she purrs, getting closer to Dean and keeping him held against the wall with one hand while the other traces his body.
The hand holding the knife is well and truly pinned, so Dean wrests the other out of her grip and throws some holy water on her. She screams, holding her hands to her steaming face and backs away, trying to get away from the water that Dean is still throwing at her. He stabs her in the heart and she falls down with her skin still smoking slightly.
"I need to have a shower after this," he mutters, flicking the blood off his fingers before heading towards the staircase.
Dean goes up the next set of stairs carefully, and listens at the door before opening it. It sounds like a full on melee is going on between two parties, and remembering that Cas said there was five demons plus Meg up here, Dean decides to quit wasting time and lend a hand to his angel.
Cas whirls past the door as Dean opens it, chasing a demon in order to get his hands on it. Quite literally, Dean guesses as he sees the smoking corpses of the demons, their faces burnt off and looking nauseously squishy.
Meg is standing in the corner with another demon, and her face lights up when she sees Dean.
"Dean-o! You've come and joined the party at last!"
Dean ignores her and rushes her body guard, who leaps at Dean. The demon lands on top of Dean, and he tries to breathe through the stench of sulphur. Dodging a punch aimed at his head that goes through the concrete underneath his fist, Dean takes advantage of the opportunity to stab the demon, heaving it off of him in order to stand up and look at Meg.
Dean hears the rest of the commotion in the room die down, and guesses that Cas must have finished killing all of the other demons.
Sure enough, Cas silently joins Dean at his side, looking at Meg.
"Well hello Clarence," Meg says, and Dean feels something inside him rear up at the nickname, something dark and ugly, and he quickly shoves it down because this is no place to be feeling that. There is no place or time to be feeling that. Ever.
Cas narrows his eyes. "What are you doing here?" He asks instead, and Dean looks at Meg and waits for her answer.
"Oh you know, this place is on a ley line, and I needed a few of those to do what I needed to do. You know what I'm talking about, don't you Clarence?"
"Do you know where it is?" Cas asks.
"Cas? What are you talking about?"
Cas ignores Dean, devoting the intensity of his stare to Meg.
"Well this is a locating spell, so, what do you think sweet cheeks? Anyway, it's done, see you two later. Toodles!"
Meg disappears. "Can't you track her or something?" Dean asks in desperation.
"No. Demons are hidden from angels."
"Of course they are. Of friggen course."
When Dean turns to look at Castiel though, the space that had been occupied by the angel is empty. "Fucking angels," he says to the empty room.
"And that all that happened?" Charlie quizzes him from the other side of the desk.
"Yeah, we showed up, kicked some demon ass, Cas asked some real weird questions like he knew what Meg was talking about, and they both left. I cleaned up the bodies and drove straight here."
"Like Cas knew what Meg was talking about?"
"Yeah, well that's the thing," Dean looks around and lowers his voice, leaning in slightly. Charlie raises her eyebrows as she does the same. "What Cas was saying – it was like he was knew what Meg was talking about, and he wanted to know if she knew where it was, so he could get it. Meg knew he was looking for it, I'm sure. What she said before she disappeared, it sounded like she knew what Cas wanted, and she was taunting him, saying that the demons were ahead of the angels or something, using a tracking spell. That's why I think he's gone now, has been gone ever since the fight with them, he's reporting to the whoever's orders he runs on, and they're all piecing together the little hints that she was dropping throughout the conversation, trying to find whatever he was asking about."
Charlie frowns slightly, and Dean sees the lines in her forehead that are starting to be there more often, the lines that make her look older and wearier. Dean wants erase them, wants the crow's feet at the edges of her eyes to grow bigger, not the worry lines on her forehead. Ever since the whole bullshit with the angels started he's seen her frowning more and laughing less.
"I'll look into the angels wanting something, Dean, but I don't know if it's likely. And if it is, I'm going to have to extremely careful."
"Why? Just because they're angels?"
"Yes," she hisses. "Yes because they're angels, and because everyone who knows about them except some of us here want them to be good, need them to be good, just to know that there's something out there greater than them, working for the good of humanity, and at the end of the day, they'll be there when they're gone. You're only disbelieving because you can't find it in you to trust any supernatural creature after what happened with Alastair, I can't believe that they're totally good if they let all this crap happen in the first place and the rest of us just think it's too good to be true, except for Jo, because she hasn't seen any of her friends die in front of her, doesn't know what it's like to know that you're the only one who is going to care if you disappear, if you stop being you, if you use so many fake names you start to forget what your real one is. No one wants them to have a secret agenda, because if they do, what does that say about us? I'll have to tread carefully with this one Dean. Very carefully."
Dean runs a hand through his hair and nods. He feels the tiredness running through him, and he wants to go and crash but at the same time he's dreading what dreams he'll have tonight.
"Look, I'm tired and I need to go and unpack. If anyone comes by tell them I've gone home, okay?"
Charlie agrees and goes back to her typing.
Dean's phone is chiming, chiming, and he digs through his bag to find it.
"Hey Dean, I know it's late, but I wanted to call you now rather than in the morning."
"I'm up Sam."
Dean can nearly hear the way that Sam narrows his eyes and tilts his head judgementally.
"Still having problems with the dreams then?"
Dean licks his lip. "So what were you calling for?"
Sam sighs, but Dean isn't going to talk to Sam now, or later, or ever if he can help it.
"Can you come up and be a witness at a case I'm on? I know I said I'd be coming down to visit this weekend, but you can come up here, and I'd still get to see you while working?"
"If you came down here then I'd get to see you, you could bring some of your dusty books and we could have a fun time sitting round working out asses off. Here. Where there's no chance of me going near a plane." Dean had been meaning to call Sam but hadn't gotten around to it. Now that his brother is asking him however, Dean can't pass up the opportunity to needle him a bit.
"I get paid a lot of money to translate those texts. Don't call them dusty."
"You did always look at the big picture Sam. And they are kind of dusty."
"No but this is an important case, and I just need a witness and you worked on this one, so it's perfect."
"God, which one?"
"From May 2002,where there was a gardener and he disturbed the grave of that spirit, remember? It knocked me out and you freaked because you thought I was dead?"
"Oh, yeah, that, I know that. Well I can ask Rufus, but no promises." Dean always remembered the cases where Sam was injured, and this had been a pretty serious one. Sam had broken four ribs and a leg, but while he had been lying there unconscious, Dean had thought he was dead.
"Thank you Dean. You can come and crash here for a few days, and spend some time with us."
"I don't think so Sam. You probably get too little sleep as it is, me being there isn't going to help. I'll book a motel, and everyone can sleep easier."
"Dean." Sam's voice is on the 'you can't argue with me I'm a lawyer' setting, and Dean sighs, already knowing that he's going to cave. "You are not going to sleep at some random motel room just so me and Jess can maybe get some more sleep when the chances of that happening are literally none."
"I haven't slept in the last two days Sam. I feel like I'm about to crash, so can you hang up so I can call Rufus and I'll text you back okay?"
Sam lets out a breath and Dean can feel him nodding over the phone. "Fine. But you are not sleeping at a hotel while you're here. And the case is in a few days, so the sooner you can get up here the better, okay?"
Dean hangs up and brings up Rufus's number. It rings for two sets and the grumpy voice of the older man comes through the receiver. "Dean? What are you calling about this late at night?"
"Can I head over to DC to be a witness in one of Sam's cases? Got to keep him in business, and I'm the only witness other than himself and I'm eighty per cent sure he can't interview himself."
"As long as you find a way to get some sleep boy. I've seen the shadows under your eyes. You need to relax, and if that'll happen if you go to DC then sure, fine, whatever. I can't have my best team member down. And you have to fly. I can't have you away for as long as it would take for you to drive."
Dean releases out a strained breath. "Really? You're gonna make me fly?"
"Your choice boy."
Dean purses his lips. "Fine, I'll go. But I'm not forgetting this."
"You can not forget this all you want, and it won't make any difference."
Dean sighs and hangs up, permission received even if he didn't like it.
He sent a text to Annie and Charlie telling them he's going up to Sam's to witness on one of his cases. Charlie texts back almost immediately wishing him a good trip, and reminding him to go 2 sleep rite now! Dean rolls his eyes and sends a text to Sam saying he had the permission and that he would be flying up. Sam acknowledges it, and tells him when the court was gathering. Dean turns his phone off and his computer on, trying to ignore the grittiness of his eyes and the weariness that's running through his bones. Booking his flight for the morning, he sets his alarm so he can still get up in time to catch it.
He feels like he doesn't need to use Pamela's leaves tonight, so he lays down on the bed and he feels that before he could close his eyes the alarm is buzzing him awake again. Dean stares at it blearily, wondering if his brother would hate him if he went back to sleep and missed his flight.
Oh god his flight.
Dean had been trying not to think about the flight.
Flying scared him shitless, and Rufus knew this, knew that he hated it with a passion that edged on manic. He pushes the impending flight out of his mind, and packs his bag, showers, and locks up his apartment before racing down to street level. Catching a taxi, he sits through the traffic and watches as his city comes to life around him. People stream through the streets, the traffic becomes heavier and he makes it to the airport an hour and a half before his flight leaves. He texts his arrival time to Sam, who texts back immediately.
You're coming today?
i thought id get it over with
Okay, I'll tell Jess and pick you up when you get here.
Dean turns his phone off and puts it in the tray for it to be scanned, and puts it in his pocket when he gets it back. He feels rather naked with all of his weapons, picks and back up gone, only the things that would remain unidentifiable on a scanner on him. That's hardly anything though, and Dean is constantly looking around him, wondering how civilians can stand to be this exposed all the time.
It's only when he sits down on the flight and the door closes that he starts to panic.
Putting his earphones in, he selects a random track from his Metallica albums. The thrum of the music goes through his headphones comfortingly, and Den tries to ignore how the plane starts to move around him.
Four and a half hours. He could do this.
He makes it until the planes levels out before he throws up.
"Dude you owe me," Dean groans as his brother looks at him in alarm.
"Are you okay?"
"I just spent over four hours on a plane, do you think I'm okay?"
Sam takes his bag and puts it into his car, some new age one that Dean didn't want to know or think about his brother driving. Holding his head in his hands after he slides into the passenger seat, Sam still shoots him a concerned look. "Did you sleep on the plane?"
Dean looks at him like he's crazy. "Of course I didn't sleep on the plane. It's a friggen death trap, why would I sleep on it?"
Sam releases a breath and shoots a look over at Dean before he pulls out from the parking space. "You'll live."
"Only just," Dean mutters, staring out the window. DC is different to Phoenix, more crowded both in buildings and people. Sam navigates the streets with ease, something that he has done for the years that he has lived here. Sam and Jessica live on the outskirts of the city, away from the hustle of the main hub. They have an actual house, and every time Sam sees Dean's apartment he managed to find a way to ask him if he was planning on buying a house anytime soon. Dean seemingly couldn't convince his brother that he was perfectly happy with the space he had now.
The lawn is neat, and Dean can see that Jess is growing some sort of plant in the garden in front of the house, but since it was winter it just looks like a few sticks poking up from the ground with a few rounded and dead looking leaves on them.
Sam is still holding his bag, and Dean had to grab it from Sam before he could enter the house. Sam unlocks the door, and walks inside, obviously expecting Dean to follow. The clean and modern house is white and open to the air, and very contemporary. Dean can almost smell the money that's gone into the place, and he smiles at the proof of Sam's success.
Jess comes around the corner of the living room, and Dean fights back a smile at her rounded belly. "Dean! So glad you could make it, sit down, sit down, you don't look well."
"Like I was telling Sam, I just spent over four hours on a plane."
"And with your flying fear that must have been difficult. Let me grab you a beer, both of you, and you can catch up while I finish making food."
"I just kind of want to sleep," he confesses to Sam.
"Then go and lie down for a few hours. You must have gotten up early today, and don't think I forgot about how you told me you haven't slept in two days."
Dean rubs his hand over his eyes. "Sleep deprivation. Besides I slept for three hours last night."
Sam doesn't say anything and Dean looks up to see that his brother has his worried face on. "Go get some sleep Dean," he says gently. "We'll still be here."
Sam hauls him up by the shoulder and drags him over to the guest room where Dean stays when he comes over, and Dean only fights his brother half-heartedly. "Go to sleep."
Dean watches as his brother gives him a last look and closes the door before eyeing the bed with trepidation. Hoping that being away from everything would calm his dreams, he lays down on top of the covers and closes his eyes.
At least his dreams aren't about Alastair this time, Dean muses tiredly. The falling sensation is still trying to get his stomach to regurgitate its contents, and Dean is trying valiantly to keep them inside. Taking a shower had removed most of the stale sweat, and now he is just looking in the mirror above the sink, studying himself.
His eyes are bloodshot and the normally vibrant green of his pupils have been reduced to a washed out olive. There are dark shadows under his eyes, and the lines in his face are more apparent than ever. His skin looks sallow next to the white of his shirt, and Dean can see the fatigue that shadows every angle of his face. He looks ten years older than he is, and he tries to ignore the few grey hairs that are becoming more apparent throughout his hair.
No wonder Sam and half the airport had been looking at him worriedly.
Rubbing a hand over his face, Dean puts on some clothes. He had slept for a decent amount of time, since it was seven in the morning, and he can hear movement in the kitchen. When he walks out he finds his brother dolloping yoghurt on top of some muesli.
"How are you even related to me?" Dean asks, looking at Sam's breakfast with disdain.
Sam sighs. "This is good for you Dean."
"Yeah well. Do you have any real food?"
"We have some ham in the fridge, I'm pretty sure."
Dean eyes his brother and wonders why God hates him. Managing to find some cereal at the back of one of the cupboards, he pours himself a bowl of that, even though Sam claims that he's not sure how it got there.
"Probably some weird craving of Jess's."
Sam looks floored by the revelation. "So that's where all the food's been going," he mumbles. "Look, I have to go, so just hang around here, the case is tomorrow, okay?"
"Okay. You have cable here, don't you?"
Sam smiles. "Of course. After growing up in all of those dodgy motels I needed good TV no matter what. Jess complains that it's a ridiculous amount to pay, but she doesn't say anything when we get every channel around."
"Awesome."
Sam smiles and inhales the last of his muesli, dumping the bowl in the sink and grabbing his bag, yelling goodbye to Jess and waving at Dean.
Dean wonders into the living room and flicks the TV on, smirking when he goes through the channels and realises that there's a Doctor Sexy MD marathon on. An hour into it, Jess comes down and sits next to him on the couch with a tub if ice cream in her lap that she takes a spoonful of every few minutes. Dean watches as she slowly falls asleep and the spoon falls out of her hand. He stands and plucks the ice cream tub from her hands lightly, putting it back in the freezer.
Dean is startled awake by Sam placing his laptop against the couch where his head is leaning.
"So you had a good day then?" Sam asks teasingly, but Dean can see the worry that lurks underneath his brothers eyes.
"What – Uh, yeah Sammy. I must have fallen asleep." Dean looks around and sees Jess snoring on the other end of the couch. "Is she always this loud?" He asks.
Sam nods forlornly.
"Did you do anything interesting today, or just your normal lawyer slash translator stuff?"
"Kevin finished the text he's been working on for the last three months, so he was pretty pumped about that. I don't know how the kid manages it. He's younger than me, and yet he's fluent in at least seventeen languages, is fairly proficient in fifty more, and can recognise anything you put in front of him. Ancient Sumerian is a dead language, but he somehow managed to decode it. Some pretty useful stuff in there as well."
"Good for him," Dean says. "I'm going to call Charlie, make sure everything's okay down there. You gonna wake Jess?"
"No, don't. She needs the rest." Sam looks down on his wife with a tender smile and love in his eyes. It makes Dean content to know that his brother is happy in his life, even if that means that he sees less of him than he wants to.
"You can just do whatever until tomorrow. The trial starts at nine, and I need you to be ready to come with me when I leave at seven. You brought your suit, right?"
Dean nods. "I still think it's too formal."
"Don't be ridiculous, it's fine."
Sam rubs his eyes. "I'm going to go and get sleep for tomorrow okay? Remember, seven."
"Yeah Sammy, I got it."
Sam gently picks up Jess and takes her upstairs.
Dean picks up his phone and dials Charlie, waiting for her to pick up.
"Dean? Everything okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, just checking to makes sure that everyone fine."
"Annie and Ash teamed up to go and look at a case that is probably a shape shifter, so they'll be gone for a week or so. Other than that, it's all quiet here. Victor can walk on his own, but the doctor said not to strain it, so he's staying at home for another few days, not that he's happy about it. Everything's quiet, your angel is hanging around, Anna popped in to speak with Jo an hour ago, and Rufus and Uriel are in his office talking about something. I'm about to go home. Do you know when Sam's trial is?"
"Tomorrow."
"Then how on earth were you planning to drive there?"
Dean frowns. "Yeah, well I would have managed it."
"So you'll be back in three, four days?"
"Yes I'll spend some time with Sam and Jess before heading back."
"Okay Dean. I'll talk to you later, okay? Get some rest."
Dean doesn't say anything and Charlie exhales loudly into the phone. "Sleep! Now!" She says before hanging up.
Deciding not to push his luck with the sleep, Dean turns the TV back on, not caring which channel it lands on. He lets it lie on some kind of cheesy horror flick, and tries not to fall asleep.
"Dean?"
Dean has Sam pinned on the floor of the living room before his brother can finish the word.
Letting out a deep breath, Dean glares at Sam. "Fuck Sammy, you scared me. And your reflexes are getting loose if you let me pin you that easily. Don't wake me while I'm sleeping, okay?"
Dean relaxes his hold on his brother, letting him up before he stretches. "What's the time?"
"Quarter past six. Go and get ready, and we'll leave at seven."
Dean shakes his head to get rid of the last vestiges of sleep, showers, puts his suit on, and gobbles down some more cereal. "I'm ready to go," he says, looking around the kitchen for Sam. "Sam? Where are you?"
Sam comes down the stairs with his briefcase and laptop. "Ready to go? Great."
They get in Sam's demonic car, and drive for twenty minutes to Sam's work. The whole time Sam goes over what he needs Dean to say in order to prove his point to the court.
"Just tell the truth," Sam sums up as they pull into the car park.
Dean waits in a room until Sam calls him, and then answers all the questions that his brother asks him. Dean doesn't know the importance of half of them, but he answers anyway, and Sam smiles at him when he is told to leave.
Dean talks up a woman who was also sitting in the waiting room, not for Sam's case but for another that was going on at the same time. When she's called up Dean finds a piece of paper with the name Rebecca and a number on the seat where she was.
Dean picks it up, wondering if he'd call her.
Sam came in twenty minutes later, smiling widely and with a gleam of triumph in his eyes. "We got it! We won the case, the shopkeeper got sued, and we got paid!" Sam crows, success pouring out through every part of him. "I have to finish up the paperwork, do you want to come back into the office and meet the gang?"
Sam is looking at him, waiting for his answer. Dean looks at where the girl – Rebecca – had been sitting and stands up, casting the piece of paper into the bin on his way out, not looking back.
Jess makes a pot roast in celebration. It has to feed ten, because Sam has invited over all of his lawyer friends, those that work in the firm alongside him. Dean loses track of the names after a while, but he does remember a few. Kevin, a young Asian man who is the one that Charlie raves about all the time, Adam, a younger man who was against Sam and now has to live with Sam holding that over him until he can prove his own, and Andy, who apparently can convince anyone of anything. Dean thinks the last one should be taken with a grain of salt, but the skill must be handy in a courtroom. Dean tells Kevin about Charlie and Kevin smiles slightly.
"I try my hardest. Sam's more impressive than me, honestly. He doesn't know all the languages that I do and he manages to understand and translate almost as fast as I me."
"Yeah, my little brother's pretty awesome," Dean replies, before he is whisked off by Jess to help make dessert. Jess is probably regretting asking him to help when Dean tries to eat most of the ice cream before she can even put it on the plates, and nearly sneaks off with the entire pie when she isn't looking.
Adam looks like he could be related to Sam, with his hair and body structure. Sam says that Adam is the one he works most closely with, and is one of his closest friends. Dean shakes his hand and says that he's glad to meet him.
Ansem, Ava, Jake and Lily are the others that Sam invited over, and Dean talks to them all in the next few hours. When they leave, Dean thinks that his brother has a pretty good life here.
Jess asks him to clean up, since she's feeling exhausted, and Dean ushers her upstairs nearly before she can finish the sentence. He knows that she really is tired when she doesn't complain once.
Another hour goes past, where Dean washes, wipes and cleans every surface he can find, and Sam joins him for a bit before going upstairs as well. Dean doesn't begrudge his brother, since he spent the entire day on a high, first from nerves and adrenaline and then from happiness.
Dropping off to sleep in the spare room, Dean thinks that this may have been exactly what he needed when he doesn't dream about anything.
Sam doesn't get up for an hour after Dean does, and Dean spends the time looking through his brother's cupboards for any actual food, smirking to himself when he keeps finding items like chocolate, strange looking fruits, and a pile of McDonald's receipts in different corners the cupboards. He leaves those alone, and is making bacon and eggs in a pan when Sam confusedly comes down the staircase, blinking and rubbing his eyes.
"Does Jess want any?"
"She says that if you don't make her any she'll rip yours out of your stomach and eat them like that."
"Wow. Okay then. Adding more bacon and eggs, check."
Dean pops the last toast down in the toaster as Jess comes down. Eyeing the food, she waits until Dean has completed putting the food on one plate before she grabs it and puts it on the dining table, eating like the world depends on it. Dean and Sam watch her fondly, before Dean nudges Sam with a plate of his own. Dean finishes making his own breakfast just as Jess finishes and steals his plate as well.
"Hey!" Dean says, watching in dismay as that begins to disappear as well.
"Remember what I said about the ripping thing?" Jess asks through a mouthful of food, so it sounds more like 'rememer wha I sad bout ta rippin thang?'
"Still," Dean laments. "Food." He picks up the lone piece of bacon that survived, and eats that before Jess can steal it as well.
Dean stays for two more days and three nights before he books his plane ride for early in the morning. The whole time Jess either eats, sleeps, watches TV with Dean and occasionally complains about how there's no baby brochures anywhere. Sam has the first day off, and then he's constantly translating in his office, his dictionaries around him and the whole place reeking of old book.
They both hug him, and although Dean might put up a fuss, he likes the attention and he's pretty sure that the others see right through him and know that he likes it.
Catching a taxi towards the airport, he goes through the process of boarding the plane more leniently than usual, being with his brother for a few days putting his tolerance levels up. He still can't ignore the fact that he is boarding a plane however much he tries, and as the departure time gets closer and closer he becomes more and more nervous.
Dean eyes the boarding area with apprehension. Sighing, he walks up and goes through. Plugging his earphones in, he turns his music up so he can't hear the engines turning over.
Pleased with himself for not throwing up as the plane levels out, Dean listens to his music repeat itself, starting the tracks again.
Humming along to the music, Dean almost misses the small fluttering sound next to him, and it's only the hunter instincts that have saved his life so many times that had him snapping his eyes open and jerking away from the empty seat next to him.
Or the not so empty seat next to him.
Cas looks calmly at him. "Have I told you that you're going to give me a heart attack one day?"
"Yes. Though I don't see how I could influence the blood in your heart, making it clot and giving you a heart attack."
"You're gonna scare me to death one day Cas. I mean it. With your whole disappearing reappearing act."
"Flying is how I travel Dean. It would not make any sense to move as you do when I can move to where I want to when I want to be there."
"Yeah, yeah, don't rub it in. Do you have any reason for being here, besides scaring the living shit out of me, and potentially, freaking out the airplane people when they realise that they have one more passenger then they expected?"
"The other people cannot see me."
"So I look like I'm talking to myself?"
"Yes."
"Awesome," Dean says. Now everyone's going to think I'm nuts.
"Rufus asked me to find you and tell you that he has not heard from Annie and Ash since they left for Arkansas. It's been three days, and they normally check in every day. He told me that as soon as you get back we shall leave to check on them."
Dean rubs his eyes. At least I got a decent amount of sleep last night, he thinks. "Crap. Ash always makes sure to call every day."
"That is what Charlie said."
"We've got," Dean checks his watch. "Two hours on this death trap left, and then an hour for me to gather my stuff, and then two days to drive there. By which time it'll probably be too late to save them from whatever had them."
Cas doesn't say anything, and Dean looks over to the angel, only to see his empty seat. Dean shakes his head and puts his music back on, contemplating how his life has changed in the last few weeks.