Author's Note:
Been a few days, hello everyone. I've recovered from a sudden depression episode and I'm back. Happy New Year to those who are celebrating it this week and thank you again to the sweethearts that tried to cheer me up. I love you guys and I hope you know I'd do the same for you if you needed me.
I know some asked for a Cas POV but I really wanted to do this chapter so I hope you like it!
Jet's arms were full and tired but he was almost done, it'd taken quite a few trips to gather up all his shit but he had it. He balanced his way up the stairs and tried to keep his mind focused on the subject of getting his room set up for himself. He couldn't help but wonder if there was a point to it. He knew he had a lot of old shit, a lot of run down stuff that he'd throw out in a heartbeat because he could now. He could afford to replace the broken things, the stuff he hated but couldn't get rid of, all the shit he didn't want anymore.
It'd be far more likely that he'd go through his things and organize it into what he'd be tossing that night. Jet decided that making a list would be the smart thing to do, figure out what he'd have to buy new or more of. He kinda looked forward to it. Shopping for himself used be to a little painful, he'd have to decide what he could do without and what was necessary. Food wasn't an option, but if he needed both a new pair of shoes and pants, because nothing he owned was in good shape, he'd have to figure out what was needed more than the other.
But now it was different, he'd be able to buy everything he needed because he'd earned the money.
Jet tried not to think about where the money came from but it came back to him several times. McLeod might've been born rich but he kept his empire going with the exploitation of others. He kidnapped and tortured at least one person and was responsible for countless animal deaths. Jet couldn't help but see the fortune as dirty money. He didn't want to think of it that way, he knew that it was stupid and he should just accept the fact that he had it now. But what exactly did he have? A sick lab for experiments and playing god. The money was dirty but maybe he could do something good with it?
He'd narrowly avoided being the next kidnap victim. Castiel's trials had gone semi-decently but MacLeod wasn't satisfied, wanted a new subject and Jet was going to be it. It made his skin crawl just thinking about it. If it hadn't been for whatever killed the bastard he might've been in one of those cells losing his humanity as quickly as the rest.
Unloading all of his things in his room was a pain in the ass but it was all said and done as he dumped the last of his things on the floor. Jet stared at the pile of crap and knew exactly what he'd seen put into his belongings, he knew what he didn't see too. There was least one item he didn't spot as they sorted, he'd kept his eye out for but it never came up. Which of course meant that Sam currently had it and was waiting for Jet to come and claim it; or it'd been put into Dean's things. Either scenario was pretty miserable.
Jet pushed his hand through his hair and looked at the time, it was late already and though he was ready to pass out he was a little too scared to. The nightmares hit him harder than Sam or Dean and it didn't make any goddamn sense to him. Sure, he was torn up about almost being a victim and what he might do with the fortune he'd inherited, but still…
Maybe he'd just stay awake until it all panned out. He tried to tell himself it was an alright plan but he knew better than that. He'd seen enough TV and movies to know it was stupid and he'd never get far regardless. But maybe if he was tired enough that he'd just be out cold, no brain activity, he could skip the dreams. Jet was no neuro scientist, he didn't pretend to understand how that whole thing worked, but he was willing to believe just about anything.
Waking up in such a horrified state made him feel sick. He hated feeling so scared, he used to be that terrified as a small child and he never wanted to experience it again.
As Jet decided he'd stay up and sort his shit a strong yawn tried to defy him. He shook it off and sat down with his boxes of garbage, thinking he should've just done this from the start in the entranceway.
Hours passed, he heard some commotion outside a few times but he didn't bother to get up, he figured if it was important there'd be yelling. The sun was long gone and the clock was flipping over to 3am by the time he realized he was hardly able to keep his eyes open. A few hours of only restless sleep weren't enough to keep him awake at that hour so he got up from the floor; it was time for coffee.
Jet stepped out into the hall and for the first time felt like it really was too big for them. He looked at the doors he knew his friends were behind, all of them dark except for a dim glow under Sam's. Jet smiled a little; at least he wasn't the only one refusing to sleep at 3, though it was possible Sam just left a light on. Regardless he started walking down the hall and to the main floor; his footsteps were the only sound in the whole house.
He got over the eeriness of the place after he turned the lights on in the kitchen, the same thought repeating in his head as he went; MacLeod is dead. There was no reason that Jet should be so nervous about the building, Castiel was probably the scariest thing roaming about, which was just another testament to the same. It didn't stop his imagination from running wild, though.
While Jet sat in the kitchen with the coffee maker dripping away, he heard footsteps approaching. He listened without turning his head; they had bare feet and sounded light, almost hesitant. He smiled and leaned back, "What's up Charlie?"
There was a soft sigh of relief as Charlie's steps came in more confident, "I thought you might be a burglar or something."
"Did I really make that much noise that I woke you up?" He looked over at her and she shook her head quickly.
"No, I was in the living room and I heard you from there," she looked at the coffee with a sort of longing Jet understood all too well.
"Want some?"
"I do." She pulled up a chair and sat down with him, quiet at first she glanced at Jet a few times before starting to speak again; "So…" but didn't have all that much planned in the way of conversation.
Jet smirked and rubbed his eyes, he was too tired to really talk much but he couldn't just sit in awkward silence either. "How're you doing with all this shit?"
"Trying to wrap my head around it, I guess." Charlie sighed and leaned back heavily, "I was looking for him forever, they never found a body and I knew Cas would have never run away."
"So you spent the last four years hunting him down, never suspected his old boss?"
"Sort of, MacLeod never spent a lot of time with Cas, plus it didn't seem like it'd be possible for that old man to take him. I mean did you see him? The guy must've been pushing 70 when he died."
Jet tried not to laugh, "Oh I saw him, I worked for him."
"Right, I guess you know exactly what I'm talking about." She offered an apologetic smile that Jet just waved off.
"The guy wasn't strong but he wasn't stupid, I figure he drugged Cas in order to catch him. Sometimes he'd feed me or give me a drink because I was working so hard, it'd be easy to just roofie me back then." Even those words made his stomach do flips. "I wasn't trying to think about it, but it's possible there were all kinds of drugs in that shit."
Charlie's expression looked as disgusted as Jet felt; she stared hard at nothing as her thoughts gathered about the whole thing. "Where's that lab?"
"Basement, I'll show you once the coffee's done if you want." He knew that she'd seen and heard a lot of shit that day, but if he were in her position he'd never sleep either. There were answers in a lab below them, Charlie had been trying to find Cas for four years and now she could finally do something. She could read about what happened to him, figure out what had changed and maybe even figure out how to help. Why the hell would she want to go to bed and get to it in the morning?
"That'd be great," her smile was pretty genuine though Jet could tell she wasn't sure she should be happy about it.
He raised an eyebrow at her, "Don't push yourself, okay?"
"I know my limits."
"I get that, but you've never been so close to getting your Cas back, what I'm telling you is to remember what your limits are. Maybe you shouldn't see the lab tonight."
Charlie frowned and looked away, she didn't reply. Jet poured them both a coffee and handed one to her as he passed, heading out of the room. Charlie sat still, her hands wrapped around the mug and mouth curled in a bit back grimace.
Jet stopped by the door and looked at her, waiting patiently for her to think over her decisions. She sat there for at least two minutes before finally getting up; she seemed surprised he was still waiting. "I thought you changed your mind about the basement…" she asked with cautiously hopeful confusion.
"I said maybe you shouldn't, I didn't say I wouldn't take you to it." Jet smiled sympathetically and nodded toward the other room, "Let's go."
Charlie was up and on his heels in seconds, "You know you're kinda scary," she admitted as he led her down the hall.
"Am I?"
"Well when I pulled up to this place you were screaming at Sam and Dean, if that helps jog your memory."
"I remember it," he nodded, "I guess I can be a little brash. Do I still scare you?"
"Knowing that you have a temper, maybe a bit." She chuckled as she stopped next to him at the door, "But the more I see the more I realize you're just jagged at the edges. I was worried that Dean was a creep because of his attachment to Cas in his current state, but I put that to rest earlier."
Jet laughed and unlocked the door, "Whatever he told you don't believe him, he's the biggest creep I know."
"See, I can tell you're joking now." Charlie poked at his arm and followed him down the stairs; both of them were trying to keep the mood a little lighter. They knew where they were going and they both knew that Charlie was going to find a lot of things she didn't want to see.
Jet walked into the main area and looked at the screens that they'd left on when they were last down there. Still very little movement and what had been moving more before had slowed down significantly. Charlie was quick to approach the computers while Jet stood quietly looking at world under his estate. It was his now, he was responsible for everything he could see. Those things were dying; maybe he should've put them out of their misery. Maybe he should've called the police and explained what he saw as soon as he saw it.
What would he say now? Telling anyone about it now would be just as suspicious, but he didn't know what to do about it. Keeping it to himself couldn't be any better than MacLeod had been, he'd just be carrying it on.
He realized he hadn't wandered into the same labyrinth that Sam and Dean entered on the first day; he saw it on the cameras but didn't want to go any further. It hadn't quite hit him at first, what he now owned or what he could've been part of. It was there in his mind but he didn't think as much about it as he did now. Everything he was looking at was his responsibility; he was the one not feeding those things and he was the one killing them.
"This is insane," Charlie said and derailed Jet's train of thought. He walked over to her and leaned against the back of her chair. She was already in the files that Sam said were difficult to find and reading the fifth one down the list.
"Didn't want to start at the top?"
"I did," she muttered, either she was a quick reader or he'd completely lost track of time.
One sip of his cold coffee gave him his answer. He grabbed another chair and dragged it over to sit next to her, "What'd you find so far?"
"A lot of rambling, basically he was kicked out of his university for teaching methods and radical class experiments. He mentions it a lot in these first ones, he wants to 'show them' and so on with his ground breaking findings. He was just figuring out the splicing thing, combined two species of lizard."
"I'm guessing the insanity comes in with his god complex?"
"That and the fact that he actually did it," She rubbed her eyes, just as tired as he was by the look of the dark circles. "He theorizes human hybrids early on, that was part of his endgame for some reason."
"Probably a furry at heart, sick bastard."
"Hey," Charlie warned, "Just because you don't understand it doesn't make it sick, besides this is more bestiality than anything furry."
Jet raised his eyebrow at her for what felt like the thousandth time that day, "And you know because…?"
"I'm an open minded person. Just don't be an asshole."
"That'll be hard to do."
Charlie just shook her head at him and kept reading, her expression looking a little tense. "Do you… do you think Cas-"
"No." He cut her off before she could even think of finishing that sentence, "He has absolutely zero sexualisation to him."
"So MacLeod didn't hurt him that way at least?"
"That much I'm sure of." Jet nodded firmly, "MacLeod only ever talked about Cas subjectively in the videos we watched, but he mentioned me at one point and it was very different. Don't worry about Cas, nothing like that happened to him."
Charlie took a shaky breath and nodded, "Thanks."
"Just telling the truth." He pat her shoulder reassuringly and looked back at the screen. He didn't want to think about that either, but of course he'd be in a situation that wouldn't let him ignore it. Cas was a science project but MacLeod might've had other plans for Jet if he'd ever gotten his hands on him. Jet reminded himself again that MacLeod was dead, that it'd never happen and he could relax. It wasn't easy but he managed to push the idea from his head as he did his best to answer any of Charlie's questions.