Author's note: The movie mentioned in this chapter is Catching Fire, based on the book by Suzanne Collins. Again, not a paid promotion of any kind. Thanks for reading!

Chapter 6
Metatron was growing impatient. Perhaps he was overestimating Dean, but he had expected the elder Winchester brother to have found him by now. He had created some omens around himself, vaguely but distinctly drawing attention to his general whereabouts. At the same time, he had been upping the ante with Sam, making him worse, so as to get Dean even more motivated to find him. And yet, nothing. His door hadn't been so much as knocked on, let alone kicked down. And frankly, he was disappointed. From the Supernatural stories, Dean had seemed like a hero. A brave man, willing to fight for what he thought was right. He was also supposed to be an amazing hunter, finding the bad guy anywhere through a system of contacts and excellent researching skills.
Perhaps this was the conundrum: the worse Sam got, the more Dean wanted to find Metatron. But at the same time, if little brother got worse, Dean had less time to spend on tracking him down. So Metatron had two options: easing up on Sam, therefore allowing Dean more free time or turning the screws, to get Dean to work faster. He decided to do both, in chronological order. And as for phase two, Metatron had something extra special in mind.

When Dean got up that morning, he was ready do to some research on Metatron before making Sam's breakfast. He'd woken up an hour early, so he could get some extra work in.
But as Dean walked into the the kitchen, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he was stopped dead in his tracks. There, at the kitchen table, flicking through yesterday's paper, drinking a glass of orange juice, was his little brother.

"Morning, Dean." Sam said it in a casual tone, like this wasn't the first time in fourteen weeks he had woken up before Dean. Like this wasn't the first time in equally as long that he had been able to get up and grab himself some juice from the fridge. Like this was anything short of a friggin' miracle.
"Morning, Sam." Dean tried to make his voice echo Sam's casual tone, but failed miserably. Probably because his breath was catching in his throat at the mere sight of Sam sitting there, looking a hundred times better than he had the day before.

"Pretty weird, huh?" Sam smiled at Dean, who was making his way over to him. Sam got up, spreading his arms for the hug he knew he was about to be pulled in to.
"Yeah. You can say that again." Dean held his brother close, taking a deep breath. Then he let go, sat down at the table and motioned for Sam to do the same.
"Sammy, what the hell happened?"
"Just woke up about ten minutes ago, feeling good. Decided to get something to drink, wait for you to wake up."
"So... Any idea what happened?"
"Nope. Just woke up and felt better. That's it."
"Wow. So, no pain at all?"
"Some. A one or two. But other then that, I feel great. Clear. Not even tired anymore."
"Wow."
"I know. It's pretty crazy."
"So, what now?"
"I was thinking breakfast. Then maybe go for a drive?"
"Are you sure you're feeling better? It's just really out of the blue."
"Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth here Dean. Look at me." Sam looked at Dean, beaming, smiling a smile that reached his eyes for the first time in far too long.
"I look bettter, don't I?"
There was no denying it. Sam really did look better. So, Dean started on breakfast and they started planning their day.

"So, how long do you think this is gonna last?" Dean shot Sam a questioning look from behind the wheel.
"What, me feeling better? No idea, Dean. I say, let's make the most of it while it does."
"Maybe we should get you to a hospital. Get your stats checked. See how your blood work's doing." Dean was pretty sure this was going to be a "no thanks", but he felt he had to at least put the idea out there
"Yeah, going to the hospital's not really my idea of making the most of it, Dean. Let's just do it like we said: library, then lunch, then park, movie theater, dinner and a bar."
And so they did. They picked out a bunch of new books for Sam to read. Dean even ended up getting a few for himself, though none pertaining to Metatron: he still hadn't told Sam that he was digging into that little bastard again. They they went to lunch at a diner that had an amazing cheese burger for Dean and a great chicken caesar salad for Sam, though Sam told Dean that his version was way tastier- a remark Dean pretended to brush off but secretly relished. With their stomachs full, they hung out on a bench at the park not doing much of anything except lounging in the sun and bantering and generally relaxing before getting their tickets to an afternoon showing of something called Catching Fire, which was a sequel to a movie that Dean hadn't seen, but apparently Sam had read the books ("great light reading, nothing too literary but a lot of fun", Sam had called it) and had been wanting to see the movie. Dean didn't really care either way: he was far too happy to see Sam out and about and feeling so much better to worry about something as silly as not understanding the back story to some film.
If there was something nagging him, telling him this was too good to be true, it was definitely at the very back of his mind.

Metatron could feel that it was working. His connection to Sam allowed him to feel, if only very vaguely, how he was feeling. Just an overall sense, nothing too specific.
Until today, Sam's energy had been murky. Dark. Miserable. And Metatron had been glad, because that was how it was supposed to be: Sam was being punished, after all. However, today Sam's energy was clear. Bright. Happy. Surely this meant that Sam would be out and about, freeing up Dean's time for more research. Surely Dean would now find the time to read about the insanely violent, out of season thunderstorm Metatron had caused over the local library just a few days earlier. Surely he would read that lightning had struck the place but nothing had been found damaged, all the personnel was unharmed and all the shelves were pristine, but all of the books had gone missing? Surely that would lead him to Metatron, who was in a hotel not five miles from said library?
Turns out that for all the avenging angel had read about the Winchesters, he still hadn't quite figured them out. Because there they were, in a jam-packed theater, with some cokes, a huge tub of somewhat overpriced popcorn and a bag of licorice (Sam had teased Dean about it, which Dean had loved: he couldn't believe Sam was feeling well enough to mess with him again) between them, safely out of Metatron's reach. The lights switched off, the screen lit up and Sam whispered to Dean:

"You'll like this, it's got a ton of action."