Chapter Someodd…
Bobby stared at the threesome standing in his living room, slightly confused at the fact that they had made it there so quickly and had just let themselves in. Of course, considering it was Dean, he should have known they would just barge in.
"Where's your brother?" he asked, having finally realized that Sam was not one of the group.
Dean shrugged. "With a bunch of feds, right now, actually," he grinned. "He's fine, I'm sure. I'll give him a call later."
"He'd better be fine, boy," Bobby said gruffly.
Dean shrugged again, motioning to his companions. "This is Max and Tony, Bobby. Introductions and yadda yadda. Now, can we figure out how to get rid of the vampires and take down Manticore? Again?"
Tony rolled his eyes. "You never were very patient," he muttered.
"You should see him on a hunt," Bobby countered, also rolling his eyes.
Tony asked about a computer and about its internet connection and Bobby showed him to the desk. The computer was almost completely covered in large texts and tomes. It seemed that the older hunter had been researching something before they had arrived. Dean took a look at one of the books, raising an eyebrow. "Researching ways to kill demons, Bobby? You know there's no way to do that without the colt or the knife."
"Sam can," Bobby said gruffly. "Granted, I don't like the way the boy does it."
"Neither do I," Dean mumbled. "Don't get me wrong, Castiel's warning is only making me mad, because killing demons is killing demons, but Sam doesn't ever look good after doing so…"
Max rocked back on her heels, not sure exactly what to say along this line of conversation. Because, frankly, she didn't know what exactly they were talking about. She felt kind of useless, not knowing anything about the things that Dean was hunting, and not being able to help Tony, who was busy plucking away at the computer.
Tony asked Bobby something else, and the older hunter turned to help him, muttering something about 'annoyin' young'uns'. Dean ignored them and went over to the couch, dropping onto it and grinning as Max did the same. "So," he said conversationally. "I'm gonna call my baby brother. Anything you want me to say?"
Max raised an eyebrow. "I don't know you 'baby brother'," she pointed out. "Why would I want to say anything to him?"
"Aw," Dean whined. "Live a little, Maxie!"
"We're facing end-of-the-world odds, and you want me to 'live a little'?" she repeated incredulously.
Dean shrugged, watching as Tony settled at Bobby's computer, Sam's laptop next to him on the desk. "Nothing we haven't faced before. Or are facing on a daily basis now…"
Max sighed. "True."
~*~
Sam was startled out of his light doze by the ringing of his phone. Abby, Ducky, McGee and Ziva had all been completely shocked by his ability to sleep though Gibb's driving, but he didn't let that concern him. Besides, Dean was a crazy driver too. Especially when there was something nasty on their tail that they were trying to outrun.
"…'lo," he mumbled through a yawn, rubbing at his face.
"Max thinks you're a sexy beast," Dean's voice answered.
"…That's nice," Sam mumbled with a slight roll of his eyes. "What's up?"
"Just wanting to make sure you were still alive," Dean said flippantly. "Never can tell with you, Samantha."
"Uh huh, sure, Dean," Sam replied. "Like you're much better. Where are you?"
"Bobby's," Dean answered. "Tony wants more information before we let the public know. And then we'll be heading to Seattle."
"We just landed in Seattle," Sam said, glancing at his watch. "We're on our way to the compound. We want to make sure that vampires and ghosts are the only things working with Manticore."
There was a slight pause as Dean considered that. Abby was talking to McGee quietly, while Ducky and Ziva held their own conversation. Gibbs yanked on the wheel, doing a quick turn, and Sam briefly wondered where he had learned to handle a minivan like that. Yes, a minivan. Anything else wouldn't have fit their numbers.
"How many ghosts were at NCIS?" Dean asked softly.
"Over twenty," Sam answered. He paused. "Hey, I have a question for you."
"Shoot."
Sam sighed. "Castiel called. He couldn't find you, and he couldn't get into the building after I blessed it. Now, why wouldn't an angel be able to gain access to a building that was blessed using an ancient Catholic prayer?"
Dean grumbled to himself for a moment. "You know…that is a really good question," he answered. "In fact, it brings to mind many more questions." He paused. "Do you think he's what he says he is?"
"Well, we know for a fact that he's an angel," Sam said slowly. "We just don't know for a fact who it is he's working with."
"He got me away from Hell," Dean said softly.
Sam sighed. "I know. And I'm grateful, I am. But I can't help but wonder."
He could tell that Dean was nodding on the other side of the phone. "We'll keep an eye on him." He sighed. "Tony needs help with some things. Be careful, alright?"
"You too," Sam mumbled and hung up the phone. He sighed and leaned back against the seat, absently listening as Ducky told Ziva a story about something that happened in China many years back.
Abby turned to him, grinning and bouncing in her seat. "You know, now that I think about it, you look kinda familiar."
"He was on the FBI's Most Wanted List, Abs," Gibbs pointed out gruffly. Apparently, that was still a slightly sore spot with the agent.
"No," Abby said. "I know that, but…oh! You're on the Hell Hounds website!"
McGee turned around at that. "Hell Hounds? Really? That's an interesting site."
Sam groaned. "Are they really still going at it?" he mumbled. "What did you see?"
"Well," Abby said thoughtfully. "There was that haunted house in Texas about three years ago," she said with a frown. "I saw you and your brother running from it, but it wasn't really all that good. And then there was that haunted house last year, but they said that they had to cut out some of the material because it was too graphic."
"Fake, in other words," Ziva said.
Sam shook his head. "No. Graphic. One of their people was killed in that house. They probably didn't want to show that." He sighed. "What do you want to know?" he asked Abby, seeing her puppy-dog eyes.
"I wanna know about one of your hunts," she said happily.
"Could you be a little more specific?" Sam asked. "I've been hunting since before I can remember." He paused. "And I'd rather you not ask about the ones where me, Dean or my dad died. Thanks."
Abby gave a small pout but agreed. "Alright…how about a haunted house?"
"We've done plenty of those," Sam murmured. "Including the house where my mom was killed. But there was this one house that totally got the best of Dean. He didn't realize that the house had manifested itself into a life-like semblance. So when we tried to cleanse it, the staircase tried to eat Dean."
Gibbs turned around as he pulled the car to a stop. "We're at the compound where the transgenetics were staying," he pointed out. Sam nodded and pulled the sliding door open, stepping out and stretching. He really was too tall to be stuck in a minivan all day. He'd never have thought that he would actually miss riding around in the Impala.
Sam stared at the building and gave a small sigh. "Anybody have a camera with night vision?" he asked, pulling the EMF out of his dufflebag, along with his sawed-off and a bottle of Holy Water. You could never be too prepared, after all.
Sorry to break it to you, but there's only a couple chapters left in this fic. I figured the way to take care of the problem of not knowing what to write is to shorten the fic…unless of course, my mind decides to give me something to work with. *shrugs* I can't promise though. Loves to all ya'll, and leave a review.