Chapter 8
"I'm hitting the shower before this shoulder knots up," Sam said as they filed into the motel room. He rifled through his bag for a change of clothes as Dean dropped the first aid kit on the desk and began cleaning the small cut on his forehead in the mirror that hung over it. As Sam shut the bathroom door, Lexi reached for the remote and flipped on the tv.
"Hey, you hungry?" Dean asked as he tucked the first aid kit back into the bag on the table. "We should go get food."
"Yeah, starving," Lexi responded, clicking off the tv again and heading for the door. Dean grabbed his keys from the table and crossed the room to the bathroom, rapping loudly on the door before opening it and sticking his head in.
"Food, we'll be back," he called over the noise of the running shower. Pulling the door closed again he turned and headed across the room. "Let's go."
They drove in silence across town, headed for a pizza place Lexi said she'd seen on the way in. They'd gone about four miles when the idea struck Dean and a grin crossed his face. He gripped the wheel firmly and pressed down a little harder on the accelerator as they approached the strip mall with the restaurant.
"Dean, it's up here on the left," Lexi said as she felt the speed of the Impala increasing slightly. She looked over at Dean and saw the smirk he wore as he sped up even more. "What are you doing?"
Dean couldn't hold back the chuckle any longer as his smirk turned into a full-on grin that lit up his green eyes. He looked over at Lexi's wide eyes as he laughed, still pressing down the gas pedal.
"Don't you dare, Dean!" Lexi yelled as it dawned on her what he was up to. She reached out to punch his arm but it was too late. At that moment the car filled with a now-familiar flash of white light and Lexi felt herself pulled with a whoosh. As the light receded she found herself standing inches from a very wet, very naked Sam in the motel's shower.
"What the fuck!" Sam yelped and stepped back against the shower wall, his hands instinctively dropping to cover himself.
"Oh god!" Lexi cried and raised her hands to her eyes as the steaming spray of water soaked into her clothes.
"Lexi, what…"
"Dean!" Lexi yelled as she turned her back to Sam, pulling the curtain back and stepping out of the tub. "I'm going to fucking kill your brother!"
"Lexi?" Sam said as he smiled at the lump under the blanket on the cot. "It's okay, I'm dressed."
"I'm not coming out," Lexi said from under the blanket. "Not until Dean gets back, and then he's getting punched."
"Welcome to life with Dean," Sam said, laughing as he sat on the edge of the cot and patted Lexi's blanket-covered knee. "Believe it or not, he only does crap like that to people he likes."
"Yeah, well," Lexi started, then sat up, pulling the blanket down off her head to look at Sam, noticing his face still slightly pink. "He's still getting punched."
"Twice," Sam said, laughing. He turned his gaze away from Lexi to look across the motel room, rubbing a palm down the leg of his jeans. "You know he thinks we should...be…"
"Together?" Lexi finished, dropping her eyes to study the blanket in her lap, feeling her face flush red again as Sam looked back over to her. "Yeah...I kinda got that."
"It wouldn't be...I mean," Sam stuttered, noticing Lexi's blush and feeling his own face racing to match hers. "It'd make sense."
"Yeah, it would…" Lexi raised her head back up, meeting Sam's hazel eyes. She blinked once, slowly, as Sam leaned forward toward her, sending a flutter up from her stomach as he came closer. He heard her breath hitch slightly as he moved closer, a tremble pushing out from his core. He pressed his lips to hers softly, lingering for just a moment before he pulled away just slightly, lowering his forehead to meet hers. Lexi felt his breath, warm against her mouth, taking in each detail of the moment with time seemingly slowed to a standstill. Sam pressed his lips back to hers, firmly this time, as his hand reached up to cup her neck, his thumb brushing her cheek and his fingers tangling into her curly hair. Lexi leaned in to the kiss, one hand sliding up to rest on Sam's bicep, the other reaching up to the back of his head, fingers grasping lightly at his long, still-damp hair. They each felt the other leaning in closer, closing the gap between them and the kiss deepened, heightened, pressure increasing as both their mouths fell open against each other, lips and tongues both now seeking out the other as the rest of the room and world fell away, leaving nothing but the warmth between them.
"Long time no see, bunk buddy."
Lexi and Sam broke apart suddenly at the sound of the snarky voice in the room, their heads whipping around toward the window where the image of Lucifer stood leaning against the wall. Lexi gasped as she realized Sam had reacted to the sound at the same moment she did, and she felt a shudder run through his body under her hand. She turned her eyes back to him to see him grasp his left hand with his right and press his thumb deeply into his own palm.
"No, no, no, no…" Sam muttered as he jumped up from the bed and began pacing to the far side of the small room, gripping his palm tightly.
"Sam?" Lexi said, standing with her eyes trained on Lucifer as he stood there smirking at them. She watched as Sam swung around to look at Lucifer, his eyes widening as he saw he was still there.
"Come on guys, why so surprised? You knew it was coming eventually." Lucifer took a step away from the wall, arms held wide as he glanced back and forth between Sam and Lexi. "You know you just helped me out by giving in to those pitiful little human urges, right?"
"Not real." Sam turned and gripped at his hand again, pacing the width of the room between the two beds. Lexi took a step back until she hit the wall beside the cot, looking between Sam and the image of Lucifer, completely at a loss for what to do.
"Sammy, you know what needs to happen." Lucifer took another step toward the middle of the room, toward Sam.
"Not real. Not fucking real."
"You can make this go away for Lexi, Sam." Another step closer. "It's what you do, right? Sacrifice yourself to save everyone else."
"Fuck, fuck, fuck." Sam's thumbnail began digging into the skin of his palm.
"Just let me in, Sam. You know how to do it." Two more steps and he stood just a foot away from Sam. "Save her, Sam. Come on."
Sam knelt down to the floor, pressing his hands to his thigh, a small trickle of blood starting to seep from his palm. He pressed harder, letting the wave of pain flow through him, shuddering up his arm. His mind filled with images of red, visions of chains, hooks, his own meat searing from his frame. Layers of voices, taunting, laughter filling his ears, all the same voice, Lucifer's voice, from years in the cage, months of following him outside the cage. He reached back to his pocket and slid out his jack knife, flipping it open as he looked up to face Lucifer, anger flooding his face as he saw the grin looking back at him.
"Not…" Sam pressed the knife blade to his palm and drew it across his skin, letting the blood flow warm down his wrist. "Real!"
Lexi watched, stunned as Sam sliced into his skin, let the knife fall to the floor then dug his thumb into the gash, hissing out in pain. Her eyes widened as she saw the image of Lucifer flicker once, return to solid, then flicker twice more before vanishing. Sam let out a loud exhalation as Lexi darted to his side, kneeling beside him, taking his blood-soaked hands in hers.
"Pizza!" Dean called out as he flung open the motel room door just minutes later. He stopped short as he saw his brother and Lexi huddled on their knees in the middle of the room, Lexi holding a red-stained towel over Sam's hand. He dropped the pizza boxes to the table before racing across the room to join them. "What the fuck happened?"
"Lucifer." Lexi glanced over to Dean before turning her attention back to Sam's hand. "Sam sliced his hand to get rid of him."
"Shit. You okay, Sam? Let me see…" Dean reached out and took his brother's hand from Lexi, gently pulling the towel away to see the deep, two-inch gash still seeping blood slowly. "Yeah, we need to stitch this up little brother."
Dean grabbed hold of his brother's elbow, urging him to standing, then led him to sit at the table. All three were quiet as Dean pulled out supplies from the first aid kit and began cleaning the wound. He glanced across the room to Lexi, sitting on the edge of the bed, wide-eyed and silent. Turning back to his brother he saw the same dazed expression on his face. As he began putting stitches in his brother's hand he could feel the anger welling up inside him, trying to push to the surface as he forced it back down. Anger at having to go through this again, anger at his inability to do anything about the situation, because Lucifer wasn't a tangible thing he could shoot or burn. He tied off the last stitch just as his hands began to shake.
He watched as Lucifer stormed around the cage, kicking and punching at anything he could make contact with, throwing a tantrum like a two-year old child. He shook his head at the torrent of curses coming from his wayward, out of control child. His son he'd had so much hope for at first, but who had taken a turn, lost his way so many millennia ago. He'd had no choice but to lock him up, no choice but to save his creation from the destruction his son was so focused on, was still so focused on. He wanted nothing more than to bring Lucifer to him, embrace his son and forgive him. But the damage Lucifer was still trying to unleash out of petty jealousy could not be allowed. It could destroy his whole creation. He considered his options as he watched his son rage, contemplating how to lock him down further, safer.
The Impala roared across the asphalt at ninety miles an hour headed toward Kansas and the safety of the bunker. Sam was focused on the pages of the book that had arrived at their motel a few hours before, his eyes darting across the pages, taking in all the information, searching for the right ritual to rid themselves of the threat of Lucifer. Lexi watched the scenery pass by with her head resting against the cool glass of the window, while Dean drove on, his jaw tense and his knuckles white against the steering wheel.
"Anything yet?" Dean asked, shattering the silence in the car as he glanced over to his brother, his bandaged hand gripping the spine of the book in his lap.
"A couple possibilities," Sam replied, voice low, eyes still trained on the words in front of him.
"Good." Dean shifted slightly in his seat to lessen the stiffness in his back from the tension and hours of driving. "We should stop for food."
Dean turned off at the next exit, pulling into the parking lot of a diner just a mile down the road. Killing the engine, he stepped out and walked to the front of the car to stretch and wait for Sam and Lexi. Inside the car, Sam turned to the back seat to see Lexi still leaned against the window, making no move to get out.
"Lexi, you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm just…" Lexi finally sat up, lifting her head from the glass to look at Sam, her eyes wet. "I'm just sorry. For all of this."
"Why? Not your fault," Sam said, his brow furrowed in confusion.
"If I hadn't bumped into you…" Lexi sighed, looking down at her hands as a tear slipped from the corner of her eye. "It's different. I felt all of what you felt before. But this is different. I saw the fear in your face, Sam. I'm sorry."
Lexi watched, confused, as Sam quickly opened the door and bolted out of the car. He nearly ran around to the other side before jerking open the door next to Lexi. He knelt down as he reached inside to grab Lexi's shoulders and pull her into him. His arms wrapped around her tightly, one hand coming to rest at the back of her head, fingers tangled in her curls.
"It's okay," he whispered. "We'll get through this, I promise."
"Sure you will, Sam," Lucifer snarked from the seat beside Lexi. "Just like you get through everything else."
Lexi let out a gasp as Sam nearly dragged her to her feet and out of the car. Quickly letting go of her, he reached his right thumb to his left palm...but before he could apply any pressure to the fresh wound on his hand, Lucifer simply vanished. No flickering, no last smarmy comments, just vanished, leaving Sam and Lexi staring into the empty back seat of the Impala.
He could feel his face grow red with anger as he watched Lucifer snap himself into the car, and letting his rage take hold for just a brief second, he snapped at the gold thread of energy connecting himself to his son, pulling him back and returning his consciousness back to the cage. He watched Lucifer snarl his rage only briefly before returning his attention back to scene around the black car and saw the hunter and the guardian fold their arms around each other before walking toward the door of the building.