Just a heads up: Last chapter I published has some pretty low traffic. I posted on a Saturday and usually don't do that so if you missed it head back one chapter and read that first to avoid confusion. Thank you so much, everyone!
Dean grins to himself when he hears the downstairs bedroom door creak shut a bit. Lizzy's done and Sammy's down for the night. And he let her only put him down. That's one hell of a success considering where they were at dawn.
"He's good?" Dean asks as Lizzy walks into the kitchen area.
"Already passed out," she explains with a slight smile, so happy she got to put him to bed alone and Sammy was good with it. "He didn't even get to the moral the Lorax was trying to impart."
"He usually doesn't get that far," Dean laughs a little, watching her pour two pretty hefty glasses of Jameson at the counter. He then watches her walk towards him on the couch, her form always mesmerizing whenever she's moving… even if she's exhausted. "Good idea."
She hands him a glass. "After today? We earned this." She sits right up against him, arm to arm, and clinks glasses. They both take a long sip from their cups.
"Oh yeah," Dean sighs in too much enjoyment. "So good."
"Yeah," Lizzy nods, agreeing completely as she leans her head into his shoulder. They both exhale a breath they felt they'd been holding all day now that Sammy's done for the night. He made life difficult today. And they walked on eggshells from the minute Sammy woke them up. But now it's calm. No worrisome questions, no clingy child, no freak outs. Instead it's quiet. Beautifully quiet.
That is, until the sound of an engine rumbling can be heard outside. Lizzy picks her head up sharply, ears intent on the sound out of habit. Any sound out of the ordinary puts her on edge these days.
Dean, on the other hand, closes his eyes immediately when he understands. "Son of a bitch," he mutters, knowing who it is. He knows a solid, well kept '64 Mustang when he hears one.
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
"They're definitely still here," Sam points to the Impala parked in front of the cabin as Lou pulls up.
"Thank god," Lou huffs out a good breath, the stress of possibly rolling up to an empty cabin having plagued her. She would be devastated if Lizzy and crew left before they arrived. The twenty-four hour ride was too long to be disappointed at the end.
She pulls the Mustang up beside the Impala, not unlike she does back at their Kansas house every day, and hastily gets out. She stands up and surveys the surroundings. The shitbox sitting behind Dean's car is a rusted hunk of crap. Lizzy must have stolen that car when she got out of Purgatory to get here to her family.
"So… do we just walk in?" Sam asks her over the roof of the car once he's out also. Lou makes a face and shrugs.
"Shit," Lou worries aloud, looking at him. "Uh… maybe I should call Dean first, give him a heads up…."
"Don't bother."
They both turn towards the new voice and see the open front door of the cabin, Dean's silhouette standing in it.
"You couldn't have given us a couple more days?" he challenges in a pissed off voice with his arms crossed, standing defiant and angry.
"Couple more days!?" Lou gets fired up right away with his words. "You've been gone a fucking week!"
"And what's it to you?" Dean spits right back. "If I want to take my son and ditch then that's my right. I'm his parent. You're not… even if you think you are."
Low blow. Lou's even angrier now. "I've been a mother to him for a fucking year!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay," Sam tries to intervene, holding a hand out in surrender to each of them as he stands by Lou's side. "We know you think we did the wrong thing here, Dean…."
"Because you did!" Dean shouts at his brother, having hoped Sam would have come around and seen how wrong he was to lie about where Lizzy was. So much for that.
"But we only did what we thought was best at the time," Sam keeps trying. "You have to see how messed up this whole situation was on all sides of it."
Dean doesn't speak, keeping his jaw clenched.
Sam just sighs, his brother more pigheaded than he's ever been able to handle. "Look. We just came to see that you and Sammy were alright and… we know she's back."
Dean straightens up. "What do you mean?"
"Lizzy is in there, isn't she?" Lou asks, her voice back down to a more appropriate place. "She got out, just like I knew she would?"
Once more Dean's jaw flexes. "She's here."
Lou takes a deep breath of relief and smiles momentarily. "Dean, I need to see her."
"No fucking way."
"Dude, she's my sister!" Lou reminds him, walking to the bottom of the front steps to look him in the eye.
"And she's my wife. And I'm the only one that actually bothered to look for her!" Dean fires back.
"I knew about the escape hatch, idiot," Lou explains quickly. "I knew she'd get out sooner or later and instead of risking opening that door and exposing all of Purgatory to the whole friggin' world, I waited."
"And lied."
"So fucking what!?" Lou asks, losing her temper now. "Just because I chose a path you wouldn't doesn't make me love her less or care about my family less! Let me in!"
"Over my dead body," Dean barks back at her. "We'll be here a few more days and then we'll head home. She needs to readjust. And get to know her son… without distraction."
SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Sitting in the back bedroom with her sleeping boy, Lizzy can hear Dean speaking in an angered voice to someone. She didn't bother asking who he thought it was coming up the driveway, she just listened when he told her to cover Sammy and keep quiet. Sammy hasn't moved but Lizzy's wide awake, ears listening intently.
The length of the conversation makes her think Dean knows whoever it is he's talking to and curiosity gets to her. She walks for the closed bedroom door and opens it enough to peek her head out.
"And she's my wife…" she hears Dean say. "And I'm the only one that actually bothered to look for her!"
"I knew about the escape hatch."
She knows that voice the second she hears it. Lou. Her sister is here.
"I knew she'd get out sooner or later and without risking opening that door and exposing all of Purgatory to the whole friggin' world, so I waited."
"And lied." Dean sounds pissed off.
"So fucking what!?" Lou asks, clearly losing her temper over how the conversation has been going. "Just because I chose a path you wouldn't doesn't make me love her less or care about my family less! Let me in!"
She needs to see her sister. She has to. Lizzy walks for the front door despite the clear objections Dean has to all this.
"Over my dead body," Dean barks back at her as Lizzy creeps up on him. "We'll be here a few more days and then we'll head home. She needs to readjust. And get to know her son… without distraction."
Lizzy reaches the door and lightly pulls Dean aside, not looking to further anger him. When she looks out to the front of the cabin, there they are. Lou's just a few feet away at the bottom of the steps and Sam's back by the Mustang, both looking at her with wide, happy eyes.
"Louie," Lizzy quietly says her name as a small smile spreads across her face. She watches Lou's eyes snap onto her with wide shock, needing a moment to register what's happening.
"Holy shit," Lou sighs in a thankful voice. As she climbs the few steps she says the name she's choked on for over a year. "Lizard."
"Hi," Lizzy laugh-cries out as she wraps her smaller yet older sister up in a tight, strong hug. Lou clings to her hard, Dean's venom now ignored completely and forgotten.
"I'm so fucking glad you're okay," Lou says quietly, her face over Lizzy's shoulder as she won't let go.
"Define okay for me," Lizzy half-laughs as she sniffles a little, her world a little more stable now with Lou in it once more.
"Shit, I know," Lou tells her, backing up to look at Lizzy in the eye and observe her. "Purgatory's a real vaca spot, huh?"
Lizzy shakes her head, her expression sympathetic and sad for her. "I can't believe you did that for four years."
"Well, that shit's over now, for both of us. You're back, you clearly found the portal… and you look pretty good considering."
Lizzy just pulls Lou in again. "I missed you," she admits quietly.
"Like you wouldn't believe," Lou confesses right back, her voice hushed so only Lizzy hears it. No need for the men to hear her be that weak, right?
And the movement behind Lou's form makes Lizzy pay attention to something other than her sister.
Her somewhat adopted brother is there too.
Sam stands back a few steps from the stairs as he watches on silently, a face of sheer hurt mixed with happiness to see her playing out on his face, and Lizzy can't hold back. She ends the hug with Lou. "Sam-I-Am," her choked up voice says as she rushes down the steps. She slams into him, hugging him around the middle before he can even react to her.
Sam smiles and leans down, hugging her back as he can feel her shaking. No, he's not her best friend. Lou will always be that for her. And no, he's not her partner. Dean is her soulmate in every sense. But the bond they have is unique in and of itself. It's something no one can touch and it's something they both know is nothing like any other link to any other human they each have. He's put on a brave face for his brother and for his wife over the past year but now that she's back he can give it up.
When Lizzy can feel the quick hitch in Sam's chest she knows he feels it too. The easiest person she has to talk to and the kindest soul she knows is back in her life.
With tears in her eyes, Lizzy reaches up to hold his face. She kisses his cheek and sighs. "It's so good to see you." The usually blasé statement isn't so mundane when she fills it with such heartfelt love.
"Missed you too," Sam smiles a little and rubs his eyes before he can cry. No need for that. Lizzy cries enough for everyone, right? He then backs up a bit. "Hey, uh… is Cass here?" He's hoping the angel is. He's actually missed him too. A lot.
And her eyes sadden instantly. She just looks at him, the devastation clear in her expression, and Sam nods once, already understanding. He doesn't push it in the moment.
Lizzy looks up at him and smiles before clearing her throat and shaking the emotional moment off once more. "Ah, I'm really glad you guys are here. I was dying to see you both."
"I wasn't," Dean comments, arms still crossed as he leans into the doorframe unmoving.
"Couldn't tell," Lou bites at him.
"Dean… shit, can't you just look at it from our perspective for five minutes?" Sam asks of his brother, wanting so badly for this reunion to be pleasant instead of tinged with anger.
"Nope. All I see is two lying sons of bitches that are supposed to be family and be honest!" Dean fires out, voice raised again.
"Okay, enough," Lizzy shakes her head at all the anger bubbling between her surrounding family. "Everyone inside."
"But I don't want…." Dean tries to stop her.
"Too bad," she stops him immediately. "I haven't seen them in over a year. And I wanna get to the bottom of all this hate." She looks to everyone outside. "Let's go." She waves to the front door and makes sure everyone listens. "I'll get the whiskey. Let's do this and get it over with."
Whiskey all around, the group is settled as much as they can be. Sam and Lou share the couch, Dean sits in the upholstered chair that's a decent distance away from them, and Lizzy has a chair pulled up from the kitchen table between the two opposing groups.
With the heavy, fueled mood in the room Lizzy's beginning to feel more like a peacekeeper than just another member of the clearly broken family.
"Alright, what the fuck happen?" Lizzy asks them when the silence lasts too long. She obviously needed to start this up himself.
"They lied to me," Dean spits out fast, wanting the first crack.
"Yeah, only because you're a fucking psycho when it comes to Lizard," Lou returns with a bratty tone.
"No! We aren't fighting about this!" Lizzy tells them all in a tone that says not to fuck with her. "We're talking. That'sit." When no one protests she continues. "Dean, what the hell did they lie about?"
"I told you. They said you were dead," Dean explains himself in an upset voice. "They came back from Roman Inc. alone. No you, no Cass, no Kevin… they said you all died. They lied to me."
Lizzy nods, noticing the mention of Kevin. When she looks at Sam and Lou they are very obviously looking away and avoiding her. She backburners that little nugget of information for now. One thing at a time. "Why was that bad?"
"You weren't dead!" Dean shouts, his anger still strong as ever.
"We had to lie, Dean…."
"Sam," Lizzy lifts an eyebrow at him, asking him to hold off. He shuts his mouth for now, understanding that he'll get his chance. Lizzy focuses on Dean again. "So, they told you Cass and I were dead?"
"Yeah."
"Why do you think they did that?"
Dean pauses, eyeing her. "Whose side are you on?"
"Both," she quickly tells him. "Answer the question."
Clenching his jaw, Dean takes a long sip of whiskey. He doesn't want to answer. Lizzy keeps looking at him and he knows he has to respond or else nothing's going to happen here. She can be a very patient person. "Okay, fine. They thought I'd open Purgatory to get you."
"Damn straight you would," Lou mutters just loud enough to be heard.
"Oh, can it. Would you?" Dean snaps at her.
"Stop!" Lizzy gets pissed off, their bickering just a breath away at all times, apparently. When they all quiet again she keeps going. "Dean… if you knew I was in Purgatory, even if you knew what happens when you open that place up, would you have tried to get me?"
"Yes," Dean answers.
"See!" Lou points at him childishly and gets a dirty look from Dean in return.
"Lou, don't make it easier to knock you out cold than it is to ask you to stop," Lizzy challenges with a patronizing smile.
Lou wants to blow up at the threat and Sam sees it instantly. He grabs her knee quickly and she gets it. She keeps her cool considering she just got her sister back and Sam's silently asking her to.
"But I wouldn't just go popping Purgatory like some asshat," Dean says pointedly, staring at Lou. "I'm smarted than that and I wouldn't just go undoing everything we just did to keep Purgatory in Purgatory." He sighs and looks back to his wife. "And I knew they were lying pretty quickly anyways."
"What do you mean?" Lizzy wants to know.
"I told you I could feel you. I told you I knew, I just knew, you were alive. I didn't know where but I didn't jump to any conclusions and I certainly didn't immediately go marching into Heaven or Hell to look on a whim." Dean once more looks at Sam and Lou. "I was smart, unlike what you thought I would be. I got some dreamroot, I found L, I talked to her, and she told me everything. Purgatory, the backdoor out, and she told me to meet her here because she was getting out. So I left."
"That's why you stormed out that night?" Sam asks, everything coming together. "And that's where you kept disappearing to at night?"
"Yeah."
"Fuck, we thought you were…." Sam starts to say but he stops, eyes darting to Lizzy. She just lifts one eye brow at him questioningly once again. "We just kinda… we assumed…."
"You thought I was banging random chicks," Dean spits it out for him. "Yeah, I figured you'd both assume the worst of me."
"Why didn't you just tell us what you were doing?" Lou wonders.
"I told you both on more than one occasion that I thought L was alive… and you guys both told me to let it go," Dean reminds. "I said I could feel her. I told you I had a weird feeling about L being alive still and you tried to convince me it was in my head. You wouldn't listen."
"We didn't want you doing something stupid," Sam admits, looking at the floor as he realizes how wrong they were to make such assumptions. Dean clearly wasn't the hasty, reckless guy they thought he was on this. They should have trusted him.
"Well," Lizzy lightens up. "It's not like Dean hadn't set you up to assume he'd do something stupid with many of the past decisions he's made."
"L," Dean gets upset at her.
"Well, you have made some pretty impulsively bad decisions before, have you not?" Lizzy calmly challenges him, trying to make him see their side.
Dean keeps quiet. Good point.
"Look. This is only a mess because no one has looked at the other side. Dean, you dealt with this the right way, even if it probably killed you to do so. And Lou and Sam did what they had to just to make sure you didn't make a big mistake. Can't you all see it now?'
When no one answers, and with the level of stubbornness in the room she wasn't expecting anyone to, she knows they get it.
"Good. Glad that's settled," Lizzy rolls her eyes at them all. She then looks to the couple on the couch. "I just have one question left."
"What?" Sam asks.
"Cass and I were in Purgatory, fine… but Kevin wasn't," Lizzy lets them know. "But if he wasn't in Purgatory and you said he was dead like Cass and me… where the fuck is he?"
Sam and Lou freeze at the question. And guilt paints their faces, skin paling and nervousness settles in. After glancing at one another, hoping the other would say something first, they both clam up and look to the floor.
Dean picks up on the shift immediately. Seeing red, he simply asks, "He ain't dead, is he?"
Another very heavy pause before Lou fesses up with closed eyes. "No."
"What!?" Lizzy and Dean both shout at them at the same time. Lizzy stands up with rage. "Where the fuck is he!?"
"We're… not sure," Sam admits.
"What the fuck happened!?" Lizzy keeps yelling.
Sam sighs. "Right after… you killed Dick… shit really hit the fan. You and Cass basically disappeared into thin air and seconds later Crowley showed up."
"Crowley!?" Dean outrages. "Crowley was there and you never said anything!?"
"He planned it all out," Lou says to them all, stopping only for a second when Dean gets out of his chair and marches for the basement door. He stomps down the wooden stairs and Lou looks back to Lizzy to explain. "Crowley knew what we were up to, knew that we would kill Dick, or at least banked on it. The very second Dick was dead he was there… and he took Kevin."
Lizzy heart drops. She can't process what she's being told. Kevin, the poor honor student turned prophet of the Lord, was all on his own with no one but their group to look after him and save him… and he'd been with Crowley for over a year?
"What did you do to get him back?" Lizzy asks in a panic. Again, Sam and Lou grow quiet. "Did you do anything to get the fucking teenager that depended on us out of the clutches of the fucking King of Hell!?"
"We were preoccupied by you being gone and Dean and Sammy's wellbeing," Sam tries to explain.
"You mean you wanted to get the fuck out and you ditched everything else, even a kid that needed us," Lizzy fires out at them, the burning fire in her gut getting worse by the second.
Dean makes it back to the first floor, slamming the basement door hard. He glares at Sam with pure malice as he makes his way to the coffee table, dumping a box of roughly seven cell phones onto it, all old phones of theirs that they decided to ditch when they left the life. Not a word spoken, he pulls out chargers and starts plugging them all in one by one. He listened to every word they spoke while he was just a few feet away in the basement. He's pissed.
"Look, we had to get out," Lou says. "If you think it was an easy decision to make to just drop everything, even Kevin, in order to start a good life for Sammy…."
"Don't bring Sammy into this," Lizzy nearly growls, jumping in on helping Dean with charging up and turning on the old phones. "You decided to let that kid just suffer. Who the fuck knows what Crowley could have done to him by now… if he's even alive at all."
"If we went after Kevin we'd all still be in the life…" Sam keeps trying to justify their actions. "A-and Dean, if we told you about him, you'd have thrown yourself into getting him back and been reckless as hell over the loss of Lizzy."
Still keeping quiet, Dean just stares at Sam for a long couple seconds before turning on a phone and checking the voicemail.
"We didn't need any more loss," Sam keeps trying to plead his case. "We just lost a family member, two family members… we couldn't risk losing another."
While Sam speaks, Dean holds a phone up to his ear. The absolute ire that transforms his expression as he listens makes both Sam and Lou's fears double.
Slowly, after skipping through a few messages in the silence of the cabin, Dean pulls the phone away from his ear and places it on the coffee table. He puts it on speakerphone and starts at the oldest message he has on it, staring daggers at Sam and Lou the entire time.
Sam Winchester, it's Kevin Tran. Crowley had me in this warehouse and I just escaped. I don't know where I am. And I don't know if he or… or any other demons are still after me. I need your help. Call me back. It's Kevin Tran.
Lou swallows hard as the utter guilt smacks her in the face. She looks to Sam for help, for something, but he just stares back at his brother with that little boy look he always had when he was ever in real trouble.
"When was that?" Sam wonders, already understanding the weight of his massive mistake.
Dean doesn't bother answering, just plays the next message.
Sam Winchester. It's Kevin Tran. I called you a week ago. Call me, please. I don't know what the hell I'm doing out here, man.
"Oh god," Lizzy worries aloud, sitting in her chair next to Dean as she shares a very frightened face with him. "He's been alone this whole fucking time?"
Dean shakes his head at it all while looking at her.
"We get it," Lou says, every bit of this hurting far more than she ever could have thought it would a year ago when they decided to let him fend for himself.
Dean skips to yet another message.
Sam, it's Kevin. I'm... Whoo! I'm so good…
"Is he… is he drunk?" Sam asks, honest worry now all over his face.
Three months since you ditched my ass. Haven't slept for more than four hours a night. It's all good in the hood.
Kevin clears his throat in the message as Lizzy looks ready to cry.
I tried Lou's phone. And Dean's. Guess you motherfuckers don't give a shit about me… unless you died. Maybe you died. But, uh, if you're still alive… eat me.
"Fuck," Lizzy says under her breath as she covers her face with her hands. "How the fuck did this happen?"
"I know how," Dean comments, snapping the cheap phone shut and eyeing his brother and sister-in-law. "He was given up on."
"It wasn't like that," Sam tries to defend himself despite knowing how bad this looks.
"He's just a fucking kid!" Lizzy suddenly shouts as she stands up and points accusatorily at them. "He's someone's son! He has a mother! What the fuck is wrong with you two!?"
"Daddy?" they all hear a small voice call out as Sammy rounds the corner, pajamas on and teddy bear in his arm.
"Hey, dude," Dean's tone changes completely, something kinder and lighter in his voice as he rushes over to Sammy. He doesn't want him in on anything like this. "Were we too loud, buddy?"
"Uncle Sam?" Sammy says when he sees his family on the couch.
"Hey, kiddo," Sam smiles a bit through his burden.
"Hi, Sammy," Lou greets with love.
"You come here?" Sammy asks them with a spark of excitement as Dean picks him up.
"Yeah, they wanted to see us," Dean explains vaguely. "And they wanted to see mommy."
"Mommy mad?" Sammy wonders, having just heard her yelling. Sammy keeps his eyes on daddy while he thinks mommy's upset. He's a smart boy.
"A little bit, bud," Dean partially lies. "But she's not mad at you. You didn't do anything wrong."
When her son starts asking about her state, Lizzy takes a deep breath to calm herself. She can do anything for her boy. She lightens up and walks over to him. "I'm okay, sweetie. I'm sorry we woke you up." She combs her hands through his hair to get it tamed.
"I stay up now?" Sammy asks them both, now excited to see his aunt and uncle he isn't used to being away from.
"No way, dude," Dean half laughs at the attempt. "You know you need some sleep."
"I big guy now," Sammy reminds him.
Lizzy can't stop herself from smiling at that. Even in the worst of the worst kind of argument with her family, one cute moment from Sammy and she's mush again. She kisses his cheek and tells him, "And big guys need their sleep too. How about I read a book with you?"
"Okay," Sammy answers through a yawn.
"That okay?" Lizzy quietly asks her husband, making sure she isn't taking his duties away.
Dean leans in and kisses her once. "Of course, momma. This is a damn good thing. Be my guest."
"Say goodnight to daddy," Lizzy tells her boy. Sammy kisses Dean's cheek.
"Night, dude," Dean grins with love and pride as he hands Sammy over. Lizzy and Sammy disappear into Sammy's room for bedtime part two.
The second they're gone, Dean's smile fades back into his angry grimace. He turns back to the task at hand and sits down in his seat, ready to play the last message he knows is on Sam's old cell phone.
"Sammy looks like he's settling in with Lizzy really well," Lou tries to interject and speak of something really great in the moment.
Dean ignores her. Phone open, back on speaker, he plays the last message.
Sam, it's been six months. I haven't heard from any of you. I can only assume you're dead. If not, don't try and reach me. You won't be able to. I won't be calling this number anymore.
The anger buried in Kevin's tired tone makes Sam and Lou feel about two inches tall as they watch Dean once more snap the phone shut. He stands back up, disappointment and pure anger in his eyes.
"He was our responsibility," he tells them, whipping the phone at Sam. It hits him in the chest. "And apparently we were too busy playing house to pick up the damn phone."
With that he leaves the room, heading back to Sammy's room to once more see his son off to sleep. He can't be in the same room as his brother and Lou right now. It's best he brings his level back down to manageable before working with the very people he's pissed at to fix their past mistakes.