Heyy so this is hopefully more independent than the other chapters.
I'd like to thank chiapet96 for following, and for Guest for the fabulous review. speaking of...
Guest - I liked your idea, but I already have plans for Sam's pregnancy thing, and it's not with Lucifer lol.
More reviews would be appreciated :)
Anyway, this is my interpretation of "Changing Channels"
I do not own Supernatural.
Dean's your weakness. The bad guys know it, too. It's gonna be the death of you, Samantha.
When Sam came into the motel room, she did not expect Dean to be watching Dr. Sexy, of all shows. "When did you hit menopause?" She asked as she joined him, sitting beside him. She didn't mind a Dr. Sexy MD every once in awhile.
"It's called channel surfing." He retorted.
Sam only shook her head, and as Dean stood to shut the television off, she went to grab her jumper. "You ready?"
"Are you?" He challenged, grabbing his keys and heading out. Sam followed after.
So, apparently they were dealing with bears. Everyone, even the woman who saw it all, (and they even questioned her) decided it must have been a bear that caused all that damage.
Then, they clarified it was actually the Incredible Hulk. Like, the TV Hulk.
Sam was just surprised Dean had to clarify which Incredible Hulk it was. Had he really seen all of them to know between which ones? Come to think of it, Dean really had been into more pop-culture things recently. While he's up channel-surfing, she's up browsing Wikipedia pages. So in a sense, she really had no room to talk.
"Find anything?" Dean asked as Sam walked back into the motel room. She saw that he had the local newspaper.
Sam shrugged. She had just visited the crime scene, so she could see the actual damages. "Well, I, uh, saw the house."
"And?"
Sam sighed. "And there is a giant eight-foot-wide hole where the front door used to be. Almost like, uh-"
"A Hulk-sized hole."
"Maybe. What do you got?" Sam asked, hoping he at least got something more. Surely, the Hulk couldn't have actually done this crime.
"Well, it turns out that Bill Randolph had quite the temper. He's got two counts of spousal battery, bar brawls, and court-ordered anger management sessions. You might say you wouldn't like him when he's angry."
"So a hothead getting killed by TV's greatest hothead. Kinda sounds like just desserts, doesn't it?" Sam said. Wait… desserts… when did she hear that phrase before?
Dean, Mystery Spot. Right.
This couldn't be his doing again, could it?
She shook her head. "It's all starting to make sense." Then again, she has been thinking about him recently. Perhaps this could be their chance to talk.
"How is it starting to make sense?"
"Well, I found something else at the crime scene." Sam said, holding out candy wrappers. More than dozens of them. In fact, it wasn't the lot of them that were at the crime scene, since she was only able to sneak away a handful. "Lots of them."
"Just desserts, sweet tooth, screwing with people before you kill 'em-we're dealing with the Trickster, aren't we?" Dean asked.
"Sure looks like it." Sam said, looking down.
"Good. I've always wanted to gank that mother since Mystery Spot."
"You sure?" Sam wondered aloud. Sure, she knew how Dean must have felt about him. After all, he had been killed over and over again, tormenting her to no end. But… before Dean came back from the hell, she received a visit from the Trickster.
She hadn't been doing so well, and this was before she approached Ruben. Or, rather, Ruben approached her.
She had already left Bobby after the burial, and decided she needed a drink. She was just so upset at herself, upset at Lilith. She wished she could have done more to save Dean.
She knew what she had to do. She was going to try and resurrect Dean, while she got strong enough to gain her revenge on Lilith.
Sam never really liked bars, but she decided to go to one after she rented a hotel room. She only went through one drink, before someone decided to sit with her. After a greeting, she realized it was the Trickster.
She was just too tired to deal with any of it. "Hey." The Trickster greeted.
She nodded silently.
"So, your brother. He's gone, isn't he?" He asked. Sam didn't answer. "I'm sorry."
"Are you here to rub it in?" Sam asked. "If you are, then just leave. I don't want to hear any of it."
The Trickster sighed. "Look, Samantha. The only thing I'm here for is you. You're upset, I want to help." He called over the bartender, and bought a drink for her, getting one for himself as well. "Bigger things are about to happen. Are you sure you want revenge on Lilith?"
"Absolutely." She said, taking her drink, "That bitch will get what's coming for her."
The Trickster eyed her. She definitely wasn't in her right state of mind currently. She was upset and angry, and was most likely to do something stupid, especially since she didn't have Dean around to keep her in check.
"Just be careful." The Trickster said. He took his drink, and left her at the table, not before ordering another drink for her. However, she grabbed his wrist before he could escape.
"Stay, please."
She wasn't sure how she felt of him now, but, she knew she didn't quite want to kill him.
"Yeah, I'm sure. Son of a bitch didn't think twice about killing me a thousand times." Dean said.
"Think about it, Dean. Maybe we can use him."
"For what?"
"Okay, Trickster's like a Hugh Hefner type, right? Wine, women, song-maybe he doesn't want the party to end. Maybe he hates this angels and demons stuff as much as we do. Maybe he'll help us." She kinda wanted to see him again, too. She hoped Dean could understand.
However, Dean gave in, and they decided to wait until the Trickster decides to make another appearance. Eventually, they got a dispatch, and headed as fast as they could over to the scene.
They arrive at a warehouse. Which was odd, because despite the coordinates given to them, it was awfully quiet. There's been a murder, but Dean pointed out that there were no other police cars or lights anywhere. It's all just messed up.
Suddenly, the two of them are in lab coats, and are in the inside of a hospital. "What the hell?" Dean said.
"Doctors." A blonde woman came by, acknowledging Sam and Dean before passing by.
A brunette doctor came up to the Winchesters, mostly to Dean, who had been gawking at her. She slapped him, cursing at him, before leaving him. Sam stared after her. "Isn't that…?"
"I can't believe this, I just got slapped by Dr. Piccolo!"
Sam looked up to find that they were indeed, in Seattle Mercy Hospital. She watched enough Dr. Sexy, MD with Dean to know where she was.
"We're in Dr. Sexy, MD." Sam realized. They walked through the hallways. They needed to leave, they had absolutely no experience as Doctors, and they needed a way to the Trickster. "OK, so he's put us in TV land."
"Oh, so that's your theory? That's stupid." Dean commented. "No lights, no crewmembers, the actors. This looks all real."
"It can't be, Dean. How can this be real?" After all, they've been on a movie set before on a previous case. This was much too real for them.
Another Doctor walked by, acknowledging them. Dean nudged her. "There goes Doctor Wang. The sexy but arrogant heart surgeon."
He pointed out other characters to her, even a ghost. It's all really compelling. "Oh boy."
"What?"
"It's him. Doctor Sexy."
The Doctor, his name actually Doctor Palmer, stopped in front of the Winchesters. Doctor Sexy winked at Sam, and her legs turned to jelly. She even felt her face heat up, but she tried to stand strong. Dean nudged her. The Doctor acknowledged them, and they acknowledged him.
Sam tried not to stare, but was failing.
"You want to give me one good reason why you defied my direct order to do the experimental face transplant on Mrs. Biehl?" Doctor Palmer asked Dean.
"One reason? Sure." He looked down, to see the white tennis shoes. Dean slammed Doctor Palmer against the wall, stake at hand. "You're not doctor sexy!"
The sudden movement shook Sam back to reality. "You're crazy." The doctor replied, eyes wide.
"Really? Because I swore part of what makes Dr. Sexy sexy is the fact that he wears cowboy boots. Not tennis shoes." Dean said, obviously offended. Sam snorted. "Shut up."
"Call security." Dr. Palmer told someone, who had come upon the scene.
"Yeah, go ahead pal. See, we know who you are."
Suddenly, the area around them froze, and Dr. Palmer's face morphs into the Trickster's grinning one. "You guys are getting better! Hey, Samantha, I see you are looking pretty fine these days-"
"Nice try, but you aren't talking yourself out of this before getting us the hell out of here." Dean challenged.
Sam scratched the back of her head nervously, blushing. Why was she feeling this way? He was a Trickster. She couldn't have feelings for him, and he couldn't have feelings for her. After all, she even said he was the Hugh Hefner type. He probably had other women at the tips of his fingers - she wasn't about to fall into that trap.
"Or what?" The Trickster grabbed Dean's arm, and twisted it. Dean's face wrinkled in pain. "Don't say you have the wooden stakes, big guy."
"That was you on the police scanner, wasn't it?" Sam asked. "This is a trick."
"Hello? Trickster. Come on! I heard you two yahoos were in town. How could I resist?" Sam realized he used this same sorry excuse he used last time.
"Where the hell are we?" Dean demanded.
"Like it? It's all homemade. My own sets, my own actors. I call it my own little idiot box."
"How do we get out?" Dean struggled. Sam knew he was trying to keep calm, to be on his good side. Well, she didn't expect that he cared much about him, she expected he was trying for Sam's sake.
"That, my friend, is the sixty-four billion dollar question."
"Whatever. We just need to talk to you. We need your help." Sam tried.
They tried to talk, the Trickster even seemed to consider when she butted in nicely. But, he told them that they had to survive TV land, which Dean was already sick of.
Dean ended up getting injured, and Sam had to act in an emergency operation in order to save his life.
They were flashed into a Japanese game show. Sam knew it was Japanese because Bobby had taught her some back when she was a kid, and Dean and John were gone on a hunt. Sam sat in a chair as a "guest appearance" while Dean stood on a podium.
"-nutcracker!"
Sam didn't understand much Japanese, only enough to get her through a city if she ever needed to. But she had a vague idea of what this game was going to do to Dean. "What was the name of the demon your sister chose over you?" The host asked.
Dean freaked, he looked to his sister for help, but she only shrug. She only understood that the question was about her somehow.
The timer went to zero, and the pole with the ball swings up and whacks Dean right in the crotch. Sam looks on, horrified.
Sam moved from her spot, (since it was commercial break) and went to Dean's side. "Dude, are you alright?"
He didn't answer, and Sam just rubbed his back, shaking her head.
Lights flashed, and she turned to see the door open to reveal Castiel. "Another trick?" She asked.
"No, uh, it is me. Uh, what are you doing here?" Castiel asked.
"Us? What are you doing here?" She challenged, wondering how he was able to get into this TV land.
Cas moved over, and healed Dean. "Looking for you, you've been missing for days."
"So get us out of here, then!" Sam urged.
"Let's go." He agreed, reaching out to touch them in order to warp the three of them out, but he disappeared into static.
"Cas?" Dean asked, alarmed.
"I… I think I got it. Just play along." Sam said, as she was being ushered back to her seat. Sure, she was still shocked about Cas, but she hoped this plan was going to work.
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
"Ah, another question. Let's see if he gets this one. Will your mother and father still be alive… if your sister wasn't born?"
Sam recognized father, mother, and sister, so it was about their family, but the rest was alien to her. Dean looked to Sam wildly for help, but she just shrugged. "The answer is… yes?" Dean tried in Japanese.
The area dissolved into a commercial. Which Sam resented, because she had to do the talking for it while Dean was some background character.
Dean waved to the girl, who just left their house. He looked at his uneaten sandwich, as the laugh track continued. "How long do we have to keep doing this?" Dean murmured, through his forced smile.
"I don't know." She was honestly tired of all this. "Maybe forever? We might die in here."
Laugh track. "How was that funny? Vultures." Dean said.
Suddenly, the door opened to reveal Castiel, who had minor injuries and his trenchcoat was all raggedy. An applause track played, and the Winchesters stood, worried for their angel friend. "You okay?" Dean asked.
"I don't have much time." Castiel said quickly.
"What happened?" Sam asked.
"I got out." Castiel said. "Listen. Something's not right, this thing is much more powerful than it should be." Suddenly, he is flung backwards, and the Trickster reappeared, grinning.
"Hello!"
He tried to explain to them that they had to play their roles out there as Michael and Lucifer, not just fictional roles in a TV land.
They tried to talk, but apparently he had no side, and he just wanted to watch them fight and end the world.
So, he transported them to another land, a procedural cop show. Dean ranted to Sam how much he hated them, and that there were too many on TV doing the same things.
They ended up ganking the Trickster, and were found back in their original place. Except, Sam felt a bit off. She could hear Dean talk, but it's just dark all around her. She was just floating in an abyss. When she heard him snap a phone shut, she said, "Dean?" Her voice sounded odd and gravelly.
"Sam? Where are you?"
"Oh, crap. I don't think we killed the Trickster." Sam sighed. However, she felt relief for some reason. Crap, she really did like this guy.
As Dean drove, they put the pieces together. How well the Trickster seemed to know Castiel, how pissed he got when Dean mentioned Michael and Lucifer. They could be dealing with an angel. Playing along with that, they knew how to trap him and get him to really start talking.
Sam felt Dean rummage through the trunk for their stash of holy oil. "Dean… that feels uncomfortable." She said.
Dean sighed. "Let's hope this works."
After setting things up, Dean called out for the Trickster and he came.
"Wow, Samantha. Get a load on the rims of you." The Trickster complimented..
"No comment." She said. She knew she was supposed to be angry at him, but she just couldn't stay mad. Especially since she realized her feelings for him.
"Ok, kids, ready to come quietly?"
"Hold up, we're not going anywhere until Sam has opposable thumbs." Dean said.
"What's the difference? Satan's going to ride her ass one way or another."
Sam sighed, but soon she was transformed back into herself. She held a cigarette lighter, and dropped it, lighting the ring of holy fire around the man. After a certain revelation, they warped out of TV land and back into a warehouse.
After some more reasoning, the Trickster decided he needed to reintroduce himself. "Gabriel, they call me Gabriel."
"The archangel?" Sam asked. Great. She had the hots for an archangel.
Gabriel explained that he had to leave because he hated watching his brothers turn on each other. He was determined, that in fact they had to live up to destiny. That the Winchesters were going to have to fight each other as Lucifer and Michael.
Dean switched a knowing glance with Sam. "No, that's not gonna happen."
Dean demanded that Gabriel bring back Castiel, so he did, seeing as he didn't have the upper hand.
However, they weren't just going to leave him. Dean pulled the fire alarm, so the sprinkler system put out the fire. Him and Castiel left the warehouse, but Sam hung back a little longer. "I know you're upset about your family…" She tried. Maybe there was a way she could get him on their side, even after all that happened. "Help us stop them fighting. That's what you're afraid of, right?"
Suddenly, Gabriel appeared in front of her in a flash. She stepped back on reflex, because he was suddenly too close to her. "If only I could help you, Samantha. But it's destiny. You gotta let it happen."
"It's not gonna happen, and I'm not gonna say 'yes' to the devil."
She turned to leave, but Gabriel took her hand, whirling her back around. She raised an eyebrow, looking from his hand to his face. "I- maybe I'll help. On my terms, though. I'll… let you know." He said, smiling. Then, ever so gingerly, he planted a chaste kiss on her knuckles, before disappearing.
She stood staring into the empty air, rubbing her knuckles. Which had just been kissed by an archangel. She felt her face shamelessly heat up, because maybe she did have a chance with him. She liked to think that, after all. Connections were very difficult in the hunting life, she's had experience after all. However, Gabriel was different.
"Sam, what's taking so long?" Dean called into the warehouse.
"U-um, nothing. I'm coming." She stuttered out, and approached Dean and Castiel, who gave her looks of suspicion.