"Dean, please give me the gun." I begged.
Dean stood, shifting nervously from one foot to the other, balancing the shotgun in his hands.
"Daddy said you have to." I pointed out. I loved saying that. It was guaranteed to get a response.
Dean sighed heavily. "I know, Sammy."
I stuck my lip out at him. "Don't call me Sammy. Daddy said you had to teach me how to shoot a gun today. I want to shoot the gun!"
"I know." Dean said again.
"So…" I said.
Dad was going to teach me how to shoot, but then Pastor Jim had called him, and he had to leave again, so he'd told Dean to teach me.
"Okay." Dean finally began. "Watch."
My heart raced eagerly. I was finally getting to shoot for the first time.
"Put those on." he pointed at the headphones in my hand.
"Why aren't you wearing any?" I complained.
He winced at the question. "Don't need 'em."
Dean raised the gun to his shoulder, put his finger on the trigger, and squeezed.
In the armory, Dean hands us each a flashlight. I shove an angel blade and shotgun in my belt and then hand one of each to Cameron without hesitation. After what happened with Gadreel, there's no doubt in my mind that she can handle herself.
"Just try to stay back unless it looks like you need to jump in." I murmur in her ear.
"Go find Cas, Sam." Dean tells me. "Cameron and I will start warding the entrances."
I pause for a moment. I can go. Dean will make sure nothing happens to her.
I stumble down the hallway, my head swirling and making it impossible to walk in a straight line.
I can't keep going like this...not with so much at stake.
I trip and fall through the doorway of our lookout room. It's a perfect room for situations like this. Thin windows run horizontal to the floor at eye, just above ground outside. We can see out without being seen.
Cas catches me before I hit the ground.
"Sam?"
"I'm okay, Cas."
He's about to argue, but then seems to think better of it.
"You...are a brave fool." he says.
That's one term for it. I was thinking more along the lines of 'stubborn idiot.'
"See anything yet?" I ask.
Dean and Cameron come in and join us at the windows.
"Nothing. They must already be inside." Cas replies.
"They?" Cameron's voice approaches faltering, but maintains control.
"I think Metatron has gathered together his remaining followers." Cas says gravely. "The only way we can defeat them will be a complicated ruse ending with a banishing sigil. If you banish me with them, I can kill them. But it will take all of us."
I lean over to Cameron, almost tipping over as I whisper in her ear. "It'd probably help if you knew what was going on. He's saying we fight them off as a distraction until they finish drawing the sigils. That's all we have to do. Cas can handle it from there. Not much humans can do at that point."
"Okay, that makes a lot more sense." she mumbles.
"It's Cas. Most of the time we just nod and smile when he talks." I whisper.
"Sam, you forget I am a supernatural being with advanced sense of hearing." Cas says, tracing a sigil on the floor without looking up.
I just nod and smile at him.
Cameron chokes, and Cas' supernatural-being-senses don't pick up on the fact that the choke was actually a laugh.