Brothers and Vows-
This chapter goes out especially to cammiemorris7 and to Thorns Have Roses. Thanks for all your reviews. This story probably would have stopped with chapter 1 if not for you.
As it would turn out, Dean had scared Sam as much as Sam had scared Dean.
Big brother tried to swagger from the driver's seat like the situation was under his control. His mouth was open to give orders and his fists were curled to take the reins, but his knees were sinking sand.
At first sign of failing, Sam was a bullet to his shotgun seat and came around the Impala's nose, practically skating on the muddy tarmac to his brother's side.
Dean opened his mouth to say something but was silenced with wide-eyed surprise. Whether by freak adrenaline or some other spiritual power the Soul Eater had tapped into, none could tell. Sam scooped Dean up like a bride and carried him all the way back into the house.
Dean, of course, attempted to protest it at first. There were strangers in the house and this would look peculiar.
The strangers stood vigil in the front room as if this was a reception of sorts. They all should know by now that they had come to live under the roof of something domestically transient. And the look on their Chief's face told them all they needed to know about his reported accident. Blood and fire had done nothing to upset the man who had caged the Devil once. It was his brother, the painful pearl wedged between the clam shell his heart was locked up under. His brother had turned his face to alabaster. His brother had busted his chops like the surf to shoals with that jagged lip-tremor, shipwrecked expression.
"Are you...ar-ar-are you okay?" Sam's voice has the shivers, with all of the nerves of a fluttering heart at first signs of a bride. Cas stood back, panting, a flower girl to all the petals of glass and charred steal that were sprinkling from his coat. Dean's eyes went wide and snapped and crackled in the firework reflection of the crash's aftermath.
"Am I okay?! Wha…? Sam, you just got impaled! Are YOU freaking okay?!" Dean sat up and took both sides of Sam's face, arms having gone limp as wilted flowers even as his hands were vice grips. He was chattering. His tongue was sharply barbed, and it drew blood from his own heart, and Cas could see that his heart blossomed in its bruises. His heart was a wreath of roses, his tongue was a crown of thorns. For all the tongue lashing, he was spreading floral graces to his own condolences. This was a funeral he had canceled after all. And this was a wedding of sorts or a spontaneous renewing of vows. It recalled the memory of a promise made in a god-forsaken church, of a brother to brother and come whatever. Cas flinched. That was the night the angels fell and hope and glory had come to nothing. But Sam and Dean Winchester had made peace with each other and to them, that was a victory worth the history books.
"I made you a promise in that friggin church after all the tablet crap. Do you remember? Damn you, bringing things back up like you do. Damn it! Of course, I climbed into a fire to get you. I told you, dumbass...I told you a million times! Whatever means whatever! What even the Hell were you doing out there when you?-" Dean went on railing Sam. Sam was holding Dean now, in shaking arms, like something from some silly rom-com movie, arms draped around his shoulders. And just then, Cas realized he wasn't alone in the room.
"What...What is he...What is he talking about?" Mary, in tears at her own previous neglect, seeking understanding now.
"Oh, wow. This story isn't for the faint of heart and it may take a few decades to go into all of it. He's recalling the massive myth ark of their love and darkness. They've seen more cutthroat stakes than pirates. They were thicker than thieves, as you humans like to say, maybe because they were made from the same blood and that's thicker than the ink it would take for Metatron to write it all down." Cas took Mary to another seat in this den and gracefully sat her down. He knelt beside her then, drawing a deep breath. He paused, letting Sam and Dean tell their own story, which he would gladly narrate by and by.
"You look like getting mad at me for something like this. You've watched me die a handful of times, Dean. You know how many times I've had to watch you die over the years? Or did you completely forget, I don't know, Mystery Spot?" Sam's indignant expression and the way he drew his brother closer comically contrasted.
"A handful of times?! Really, you bitch?! I put you in the freaking ground with Lucifer. That was...That was…"Dean sputtered and then his hands clapped Sam's cheeks where they rested on them like he was applying aftershave.
"And maybe you like forgot about Jake Talley stabbing you in the freaking back, man? A handful of times?! It only took the one time and the one freaking handful of your blood to send me over the edge." Dean gritted his teeth.
"Mm, yeah, sure that was fair. Because later Lilith's freaking mutts ripped you to bits and I had handfuls upon handfuls of your freaking guts to clean up! You...you mugga friggin jerk! Throwing yourself into a freaking train wreck like that, what the heck, did you take your freaking idiot pills this morning, Dean?!" Sam shook Dean until his teeth chattered.
"What are you yelling at me for you whiny little bitch, I'm not the one who impaled you to the tree, dipshit! What were you thinking with what you did?!" Dean and Sam were ranting at each other now and everyone else was pretending not to be eavesdropping, even though their jaws were on the floor at some of the stuff they heard.
"What do they mean? Who was Lilith? What mutts? And what's a mystery spot?" Mary's hands were shaking. Cas took one of them.
"Well, that's the thing about Sam and Dean. This story has dragged on so long and bloody that even I don't remember everything they're talking about. Dean sold his soul once to save Sam who had been killed. I think that's what they mean. Dean was taken to Hell by Hellhound minions of Lilith the queen of the demons. I am the angel who rescued him, and that's how I came to know your boys. As for the mystery spot, I have no idea what that is. They don't tell me much about life before I met them." Cas frowned.
Mary sputtered.
"B-both of my babies have been in Hell? But Dean made it sound like only Sam was tortured in Hell?! When he said-I thought...I thought he meant he helped rescue Sam when he said..." Mary covered her mouth with her other hand.
"Well, Dean would be like that, wouldn't he? That's the only tour of the Pit that he would care about." Cas stood up finally and went to them both, just about the time that Jack shyly entered the room with a chalk-white face.
"Guys, um, guys?" Cas shook Dean, whose hand went up in a "wait your turn" type expression.
"I told you, damn it, a promise is a promise and you're not freaking welching on that deal. I mean, Imma tell you like our Bobby used to say to me. If you die before me, I'll freaking kill ya!" Dean's eyes were bugging now. Sam had let go of him if only so he could get some air himself. He'd covered his mouth with both of his hands and looked like he was going to be sick.
"Dean…"Cas' patient voice nearly made Mary cry out from laughter and sadness all at once. Dean looked up now, innocent expression on his face. By now he and Sam both saw Jack and snapped to attention.
"Hey there, kiddo. How you feeling?" Dean smiled. Sam reached out, seeing Jack's pale expression.
"You okay, bud? Look a little spooked." Sam frowned at Jack's suddenly trembling mouth. Mary made a note that John used to say that.
"What do you mean am I okay?! YOU almost died!" Jack drove his fist into Sam's shoulder.
"Yeah,Sam, you almost died!" Dean jabbed a finger at Sam.
"Shut up, Dean! You almost died too." Jack jabbed a finger into Dean's scalp. Dean hissed in annoyance. He was about to say something but Cas was laughing at him which caught him off guard and shut him up. Jack was clearly not done.
"What the hell happened to you guys? And what are you in here fighting about?! Hellhounds? Mystery Spots? Getting stabbed in the back? I don't understand most of it but you two have had the most whacked out life I've ever heard of an I'm the Devil's kid!" Jack pulled at his hair. Sam spluttered. Jack turned on Dean.
"And you're gonna freaking explain it too because I need to know at least where some of my family came from. Why the hell are you two like you are anyway? Did no one ever explain to you that when you have a family and they care about you coming home and going ballistic fighting at each other after you freaking ALMOST DIED is like NOT COOL!" Jack slumped on the floor, glaring accusingly at Sam for an explanation. Sam stuttered.
"I swear it was an accident. Why are you all so pissed at me?" Sam pointed to himself.
"Because I'm really freaking tired of you dying, Sam! This is like the second time since I've been around that you freaking died and I've heard stories that you've died a lot more times than that." Jack slapped his knees. Sam stuttered.
"Yeah...You know, some of us really would like to hear the whole story...It's not your fault what happened tonight, but we're all still pretty upset by it." Mary pressed closer now, feeling that she had to try her luck. Dean looked at her astonished that she would do what he'd secretly wished she would do ever since she'd been back.
"Well, I told you,...I thought I told you already? The Soul Eater came at me, knocked the bike off the road, I flew into that tree…"Sam started to explain.
"Sammy, they mean the whole story of us. Like how we got to be batshit crazy." Dean leaned against the couch, exhausted.
"Well, more or less. Some parts of the story are really confusing. For example, what is a mystery spot?" Cas tilted his head.
"Trust me, you don't want to know. You guys have good memories about Gabriel and all that and it wouldn't be right to tell you guys about that." Sam bowed his head.
"Gabe? What does he have to do with that? See, you can't tell us and then not tell us!" Jack was getting progressively more annoyed and started coughing.
"Whoa-oh, okay, okay. Whatever you want me to say...I'll...Whatever, okay? I'm sorry. I didn't...I swear to God and all of you I did not mean to scare the bejeesus out of you tonight." Sam looked up at his Mom who had pulled up a chair.
"It's okay, honey. Really, but...We'd all feel better if you'd um...If you'd explain some of this stuff. Like, why did...If the Soul Eater just draws power out of a soul, then how come yours is ice and fire? What did...What did Lucifer?..." Mary's voice trailed away when Sam's face turned the color of a newspaper's ashes.
"Maybe we could start...smaller?" Mary cringed. Dean leaned up, more sympathetic to Sam now.
"The whole thing started when you died. And it only went downhill from there until Sam here decided to go to school and get a life and meet a beautiful girl named Jessica. Yellow Eyes burnt her up in a ceiling fire the same day I came to tell Sammy that Dad was missing. We went off on a wild manhunt for our Dad. We found him in time to fight Azazel, but Azazel possessed him…"Dean looked at his feet. And then, to their amazement, his eyes were blinking fast like he was trying hard not to cry.
"But our Dad, see he really really loved Dean and me. After Azazel,( the Yellow-Eyed Demon, Jack) ripped Dean's guts to bits, he ended up dying in a hospital. My Dad made a deal with the Yellow-Eyed Demon to save Dean but Dad went to Hell. After that, me and Dean went off on a mission to do away with the demon that killed our whole family, us included, before the end." Sam smiled.
"That literally makes no sense." Jack tilted his head.
Dean leaned up.
"Settle in, kid, cause not a damn bit of this bug ugly story is going to make sense. And by the time you'll understand everything from what a mystery spot is to why I made a weird promise to my brother in a church like something out of a ridiculous chick flick...Uh... you're gonna wish you hadn't asked. Trust me…"
By the end, it was just as they had said. Jack had asked questions until he was blue in the face. He laughed and he cried and then he cried more and there were some parts that he begged to know more about and wasn't told.
Finally, Jack got too tired. And Cas scooped him up and carried him to bed. He had been silent this entire while. He would fall asleep at the foot of Jack's bed later, having cried himself silly after the events of this day, stoic angel nature be damned.
But Mary still had questions. And now that she had her boys alone seated on the same couch, she couldn't help herself.
"Okay, so...It's not fair maybe, after everything, for me to want the unabridged version of this story, but...I still have so much to catch up on. Mother stuff. The details behind the devil….I should have been there growing up, you know? When you were both already 20 something and looking for Dad, I should have been there…When you were fighting a war you couldn't win and everyone blamed you both for it, I should have been there...When you were both burning in Hell, I should have-"Mary swallowed a sob. Sam looked at his still blood-stained hands. Dean cleared his throat.
"What do you want to know?" Dean's eyes were hopeful. This was a first.
"You...I want to know you. I don't know how to make sense of that. There's a lot of holes in this story. The John that played football with you and had Baby Sammy under his arm at the same time wouldn't have left you for weeks on end like the story you told me about his disappearing and how it didn't scare you at first…"Mary bit her lip. Sam nodded.
"Well, being absent was kind of his thing." Sam frowned. Dean was biting his knuckles now. Mary looked at him, amazed.
"Sam….I just realized. To hear you tell it, even the way you two were to each other and….and I never realized. He did love me! He did! Oh, he would have lost his cookies about what happened to us all them years…." Dean buried his face in his hands. Sam wrapped his arm around him.
"Yeah, we loved you and we missed you, Mom. Still do. And we've screwed up many times throughout lives as people and you've heard enough of the myth to know that now. But growing up we had Dad. And just like he was...We became who we are partly because of the version of Dad we knew and our broken little world." Sam smiled. Mary nodded.
"Tell me everything. I'm ready to hear it now."