Chapter 9

"I'm making a beer run, you guys need anything?" Dean said, grabbing his keys from the rickety table in the motel room after they'd all settled their bags by their beds. Seeing Sam and Lexi each shake their heads he pulled open the door and started to step out when a grin crossed his face. "Need me to stay gone a while?"

"Dean!" Sam yelled at the same time Lexi's shoe whizzed across the room, only missing Dean's shoulder because he ducked out and pulled the door closed behind him.

"I swear I'm going to punch your brother, Sam," Lexi said, crossing the room to retrieve her shoe.

"I won't stop you," Sam said with a chuckle, sitting down at the table with the psychic possession book he'd been reading all day.

"Sam, you should take a break from that. Get some rest." Lexi grabbed the remote from the top of the television and flopped on the end of Sam's bed. "Come on, watch a movie with me. Just a couple hours."

"Lexi, I really…" Sam started as he turned to look at her. He let out a sigh when he saw the pleading look on her face. He pushed the book aside and stood, crossing the room. "Alright, but only if we find something Dean will hate."

"Works for me!" Lexi grinned, scooting back on the bed to lean against the headboard and patting the empty half of the bed next to her. Sam sat back on the bed as Lexi scrolled through the pay-per-view choices on the screen. It took them just a few minutes to agree on watching 'A Beautiful Mind,' Lexi happy because it was a long movie and would make Sam rest a while, Sam happy because he could hear Dean bitching about how geeky it was. They settled in to watch, elbows brushing once in awhile as they sat next to each other.

Half an hour into the movie, with Dean still not back, obviously really giving them some time alone, Lexi began to yawn, sinking down a little further from the headboard. The chaos of the past few days and the long hours on the road was catching up to her quickly now that things were finally calm and she felt safe. Sam smiled down at her as she yawned, his own eyes growing tired as he reached an arm across Lexi's shoulders, pulling her closer to rest her head against his chest.

It was an hour later when Dean opened the motel room door with a twelve pack of beer under his arm. He smiled as he saw his brother and Lexi, both sleeping soundly curled up against each other. He wrinkled his nose as he noticed the movie they had on, snatching the remote off the bed next to Lexi, then moved about the room quietly changing his clothes, grabbing a beer and settling into his own bed to watch tv as they slept.

4am brought Lexi awake with a gasp, bolting upright in bed, the movement pulling Sam from sleep as well. The now all-too-familiar red glow in the room started Lexi's limbs trembling and caused Sam's breath to hitch in his throat. Lexi turned to look at Sam as the faint sound of Lucifer's taunting reached her ears.

"Do you hear that?" she whispered, her head tilting, straining to hear what he was saying.

"Yeah, I hear it," Sam said, a furrow of confusion crossing his brow. "Why isn't he appearing?"

The red light grew brighter in the room, then just outside the bathroom door, Lucifer flickered into view.

"Sam, what did…" Lucifer began before flickering out of sight again.

"What the hell?" Sam said, throwing his legs over the edge of the bed to stand.

"...you do to me!" Lucifer flickered in again, long enough to utter a few angry words before dissipating once more. The red lighting grew dimmer for a moment, then increased in intensity. The clanging, banging sounds of chains and metal grates echoed into the room as if at a great distance, guttural grunts of frustration joining in the mix but low enough they needed to strain to hear it. Sam looked down at Lexi from where he stood between the two beds as the sounds and light suddenly zipped to an end leaving the room quiet and dim, lit only by the blue glow of the television.

"That was weird," Lexi said, pulling herself across the bed to sit on the edge. "Is he tired? Losing power?"

"No idea," Sam said, glancing around the room half expecting something more to start happening.

"Dude, what's going on?" Dean mumbled sleepily from the other bed.

"Visitor," Sam replied, running his hands up through his hair while letting out an audible sigh.

"You guys okay?" Dean asked while propping himself up on an elbow. "What'd he do now?"

"Nothing," Sam said, flicking on the bedside lamp as he sat back down on the bed. "It's like he can't hold his energy or something."

"Really?" Dean asked, cocking an eyebrow. "Lucifer can't get it up?"

"Or something is interfering," Sam ventured.

"Either way, I'd call it a win," Dean said.

"Yeah, I'm not complaining," Sam replied, reaching out to place a hand at the small of Lexi's back. "You okay?"

"Yeah, as Lucifer-visions go, that was tame," Lexi said, slightly leaning back into Sam's hand. "But I'm awake now. I'm gonna go shower."

"How about you, Sam - are you okay?" Dean asked as Lexi closed the bathroom door behind her.

"Yeah, man, I'm good," Sam said, crossing the room to retrieve the book from the table. "At least this time we have a solution, we have hope. It's like someone is on our side now, y'know?"

"No kidding," Dean said, sitting up in his bed. "I'd love to know how that damn ghost knew about that book."

"Me too, man." Sam flipped through the book, leafing over several pages before turning it around and handing it across to his brother. "We need to find a tattoo parlor."
"What's this?" Dean studied the page and the symbol in it's center. It was an image of an iron cross shape with enochian symbols inside each of the four legs. "Protection against possession?"

"Yup. Keeps out psychic possession like the other one keeps out demons." Sam grinned at his brother, his eyes bright with the hope of ending the torment Lucifer had been raining on them.