Paranoid

"So, if the books can't tell us anything, what do we do then?" Dean is laying on his stomach on the floor, pressing various buttons on one of Baby Dean's toys, making the plastic play various, staticky animal sounds.

Sam had insisted on them going home after Thomas' disheartening news, or lack of news. He could tell that Dean wasn't comfortable around the other hunters yet, and they were still not sure if Dean was real or not, and his small bursts of anger didn't help.

Sam had run some more tests without Dean knowing it, and he had passed them all; Walking into the house without activating the devil's trap or any of the other wards, using utensils of different metals without reacting, and the love in Dean's eyes when he saw the Impala again was as sickening as ever.

On top of that, the way Dean reacts whenever they mention Cas cannot be faked. Dean never told Sam exactly what happened when Cas died, only that he had sacrificed himself to save them. But Sam knew there was more to the story. At least, it impacted Dean severely just being in the room when Cas was taken by the Empty. Sam knew that Dean didn't handle losing anyone well, and whenever they had lost Cas, it had been really bad. Except for the last time. There'd been no excessive drinking, no violent outburst, no self-harm. Something happened that made Dean change. To try to be better, like Sam had always known he could be, but that Dean never believed himself.

But whenever Sam poked at the subject, Dean withdrew or lashed out. Just like today.

So Sam had guided his brother to the car with the promise that a long drive would clear both their minds. They ended up driving in silence, listening to music, just like old times. The air still felt heavy when the car pulled into Sam's driveway.

When they got home, Eileen and Baby Dean were already there, hanging out in the living room. Dean had immediately gotten down on the floor, where Miracle watched over Baby Dean playing with his toys. Dean was immediately completely mesmerised by his nephew. Sam sat down on the couch, secretly snapping a picture or ten of the sweet display.

Dean would never admit to being a great role model. He'd probably never seen the way he looked at Sam when he was proud of him, the same way he right now looked at Sam's son for repeating the word "Moo". With so much love.

Sam almost misses Dean's question among all the moos and baas and oinks. What are they going to do now? "Maybe we need to talk to someone who knows something the books don't? Maybe we should try contacting Jack? Or summon an angel? Someone who might know something about the Gospels? Or maybe we can find someone old enough who were there? We can ask Rowena if she can dig up some really old demon?"

Dean's relaxed posture suddenly changes, every muscle in his body tensing. He slowly looks up at Sam, his voice an odd mixture of hopeful and angry. "Or maybe we should speak to the person who created them."

Sam feels a cold shiver run down his spine. "You can't be serious."

"You telling me you haven't kept tabs on him all these years?"

"Of course, I have." Sam gets up, walking back in forth in front of the blanket where Big Dean and Little Dean are playing. "That's not the point."

"Then what is?" Dean is fighting to keep his voice down, aware of the baby right in front of him.

"We can't trust him," Sam hisses. "He's screwed us over more than once."

Dean slowly gets up from the blanket, giving Miracle a final pet before walking up to his brother. "But he's human now. He can't hurt us."

"He can still lie."

"Everybody lies!" Dean hisses before taking a breath to calm down. "I'm just saying, it can't hurt to talk to him. Sure, we're not his favourite people and he's not ours. Maybe he will just slam the door in our faces, or maybe, just maybe, he can give us something to work with."

Sam shakes his head. This is a bad idea. Every fibre in his body is screaming not to do this. But… It's the best idea they have.

-.-.-.-.-

Dean tries to look anywhere but at Sam saying goodbye to Eileen and Baby Dean. He wishes he didn't have to bring Sam on this mission but a) he promised they would to this together, and b) Sam had refused to tell Dean where Chuck is hiding out because he knows Dean would sneak off during the night.

They take off in the Impala, and slowly the world falls away. Suddenly, they are in a vacuum where it could be any year between 2005 and 2024. Just them, the car and the road. And a mission for them to complete, just the two of them.

"So, whereto?" Dean finally asks.

"Miami," Sam sighs.

"You've got to be kidding me…" Dean laughs. "Of course that scumbag would be in freaking Miami."

"Yeah… My sources tell me he makes a living scamming the tourists."

Dean shakes his head in disbelief. "God… The biggest scam artist in the World, still manipulating people."

-.-.-.-.-

They drive down to Atlanta before spending the night in yet another magnificent motel. They fight for the first turn at the shower. Sam wins. Dean bitches about the water pressure. Sam picks up takeout for dinner. Dean teases him for still eating rabbit food. Sam remembers the pie.

In lack of better words, it is incredibly domestic. Their kind of domestic.

-.-.-.-.-

They leave early the next morning to make sure that they get to Miami in good time.

The further south they get, the more the view changes from Autumn to almost summery conditions. Dean's never been a fan of the cold, trying to keep to the southern states during the Winter, but of course they had to go where the hunts lead them, no matter the weather.

They arrive in the afternoon. Of course Chuck is staying right down by the beach. It might be off-season, but there are still people enjoying the warm weather with their toes in the sand and all that jazz.

Dean preens at the admiring looks Baby receives from the people they drive by.

Sam guides them to a small house in Fort Lauderdale. They park a few houses away. Afterall, Chuck knows their car just as well as they do, and they don't want to scare him off.

Dean doesn't know what he expected to feel when he would see Chuck again. Maybe he'd be afraid. Maybe he'd reverse to his old, violent self and finish him off now that he had the chance again. Maybe the sky would open, and there'd be fire and brimstone raining down on them.

None of that happens. Instead, both he and Sam are dumbstruck when they see the former deity reclining on a sunbed in nothing but pink swimming trunks decorated with yellow flamingos and bright red sunglasses.

His eyes must be closed, because it's not until they shadow for the sun that Chuck reacts. He lifts the sunglasses to see what is blocking the view. It seems to take a couple of seconds before he realises who he is looking at, but as soon as his brain computes, he starts scrambling off the sunbed to move away from them.

Dean quickly grabs his scrawly arm, holding on a bit tighter than necessary. "Oh, come on, Chuck. Where's the love?" He spits the name as if it were a curse.

"Don't kill me! Please, don't kill me. I haven't done anything, I swear!" Chuck begs, while trying to free his arm from Dean's hold.

"We know, okay? We know." Sam tries to sound reassuring, but he can't help the venom lacing his voice. "We just want to talk to you."

Chuck calms down a little bit. "About what?"

Sam and Dean exchange a worried look. This is it. They tell Chuck what they want, and he can decide whether or not he wants to help them. Of course there are certain things they can do to persuade him, but they'd rather not go there. Their best bet right now is to play nice.

Which means that Sam takes the lead. "About something called the Amulets of the Gospels."

Chuck's eyes flicker for a moment, and the brothers immediately know that he is about to lie. "I've never heard about that."

"Come on, 'God'. You created everything and everyone. Are you telling me that someone just walked onto your playground and buried something in the sandbox without you knowing?" Dean sneers.

"I don't know! Seriously, guys-"

Before Chuck can explain just how serious he is, he is interrupted by a voice behind him. "Sunflower? Is something wrong?"

They all turn towards the sound. On the terrace of the house stands a young, beautiful redhead in a flowy, green summer dress. "Are these your friends?"

"Abby, honey, actually-"

"Careful, Chuck," Sam whispers as he smiles at the woman. "We don't want Abby here to know who you really are, do we?"

Chuck smiles triumphantly. "You really think you can convince her that I'm God?"

Sam chuckles. "No, of course not. But we could tell her about Diane and Crystal and Maggie and all the other women you have scammed around the states since you became human. How does that sound?"

"Sunflower?" Abby asks, looking concerned.

Dean smirks. "Yeah, come on, sunflower. Even if Abby isn't interested, the cops would probably love to hear about Diane and Crystal, and what was that last one?"

"Alright, alright," Chuck hisses before raising his voice. "Nothing's wrong, sugar bunny. This is just two old friends coming by to say 'hi'."

"Hi!" Both Sam and Dean wave at Abby.

"Oh! How great! I haven't met any of my little sunflower's friends. Would you like some iced tea?"

"Sounds great!" Dean smiles.

Abby gives a happy little jump before she walks back into the house.

Dean squeezes Chuck's shoulder again, making the former deity squirm. "So, about those amulets?"

-.-.-.-.-

Abby brings their drinks and leaves with a slightly disappointed smile when Chuck asks for some privacy to catch up. Dean takes his drink and leans back in his chair. He's a bit surprised to find that the iced tea has a bit of a kick, but he kind of appreciates it right now.

"So… the amulets." Sam sends Chuck a no-nonsense-look.

Chuck takes a deep breath. He still carries the confidence of God, but with an edge of nervousness that they haven't seen in him for a long time, as if Chuck and God have finally merged. "The Amulets… were my backup plan in case the Empty decided to attack me."

"It has something to do with the Empty?" Dean asks, voice laced with careful hope.

"Sort of. The Empty is… Hell, I don't even really know what it is. Everything is made up of atoms, even the Empty. For a long time, it was just atoms flowing in the dark. One day, something collided and the Empty was created as the entity we know."

"The shadow," Sam states.

"I guess that's a word for it." Chuck shrugs as if they were discussing the weather instead of the creation of everything. "The Shadow didn't have any ambitions. It just existed in the dark, being one with it. Then the right atoms collided again, and Amara and I were created. We were… livelier. And there was so much energy in the Empty. There was so much, so I started creating things. Small first, then bigger and bigger. Then Amara and I started fighting, and she would destroy my creations. I guess she was going through a divine version of a temper tantrum."

"Gee, I wonder why. Her brother and only playmate didn't want anything to do with her. He just wanted to play with his new shiny toys," Dean grumbles.

"I was young too, you know?" Chuck sneers.

Sam clears his throat to diffuse the situation. "So where do the Amulets fit into all this?"

Chuck takes a deep breath. "First, I tried creating the Archangels in order to protect myself against Amara, but she was still too powerful for them. It just ended up with even bigger fights. In the end, the Empty wasn't particularly happy with my creations or our fights. It threatened to wipe us all from existence. So I created my own universe, away from the Empty. Moved all my stuff there, put up barriers between myself and the Empty so it couldn't enter my little worlds, and just tried living in peace, you know? Of course, I had to get rid of Amara, because she kept ruining my universes, but after that… things worked."

"For you maybe…"

"Dean…" Sam chastises before turning back to Chuck. "The Amulets?"

"Right. Well, just because you move away from home, doesn't mean mommy dearest forgets about you. When I created my own universes, I used up a lot of the energy that I collected in the Empty. The only way to keep a truce between us was to give some of that energy back. So whenever divine creatures were to die, their essence would go back to the Empty."

"You telling me that demons are divine creatures?" Dean frowns.

"They were created by Lucifer," Chuck simply states. "The archangels are more powerful than any of the other angels, because I created their essence in the Empty. They are a product of me and the Empty."

"But you created new Archangels in all the universes?" Sam interrupts.

"Yes. Because I transferred their essence. Every time I created new Archangels, I created them from the same energy. Copy-paste. Just as I did everything else, only making small changes here and there to see how it would play out."

"Okay, fine. You had one original idea and just kept with it. No wonder your writing sucked. I'm still not getting what this has to do with the Empty." Dean is running out of patience.

"Well, you two knuckleheads keep interrupting me," Chuck huffs. "Like I said, I had a truce with the Empty. But I knew, if the Empty ever decided to attack and broke down my barriers, I would be in serious trouble. So I made a contingency plan. I stored some of the energy from the Empty in the Amulets and one by one I gave them to my most devoted worshippers."

"Mathew, Mark, Luke and John," Sam states. "But not of this Earth, of one of your earlier ones, which is why we can't find anything about them."

"Yes." Chuck leans back in his chair, linking his fingers on his stomach. "During the years, I would infuse them with more and more power from all my universes. So hopefully, I would have enough power to fight the Empty, if it should come to that."

"But it never did. You never fought the Empty. Why?" Dean asks.

"The truce held. The Empty never became a problem. You did. You kept messing up my plans. Actually, the Empty was thrilled when I told it I was ending everything, and it happily gave me Lucifer back to help fight you. Still, I kept the Amulets. It wasn't particularly happy with you guys' interference either, and it already attacked this universe's Heaven once."

Dean smirks. "Yeah, we tend to have that effect on arrogant bastards."

If Chuck could still kill with only a look, Dean would have dropped dead on the spot.

"Wait," Sam interrupts, ignoring the silent staring match between his brother and Chuck. "You said you put up barriers? So how did the Empty enter Heaven?"

"In Heaven, the barrier is maintained by grace. Grace comes from angels. Not enough angels equal not enough grace equals weak barrier. On Earth, it's maintained by souls. Plenty of humans equals a strong barrier." Chuck rolls his eyes in boredom. "Is that all?"

"No." Sam pushes on. "We need to know how to find the Amulets. Are they still on Earth? This Earth?"

Chuck laughs. "Why? Are you going to take on the Empty?"

"None of your business. Where're the Amulets?" Dean leans forward in his seat, staring intently at Chuck as if daring him to mess with them.

Chuck enjoys their desperation. He slowly leans forward, finally drinking a long, slow drink from his iced tea. He carefully puts the glass back on the table before leaning back in his chair again, making sure every movement is as slow as possible. "After some time, I realised that it was dangerous to keep them all on Earth, my first Earth. So I scattered them across my universes, keeping them hidden."

For a moment, Dean feels his heart drop. How are they going to look for four Amulets in a vast multiverse that they have no idea how works?

But then Chuck continues: "But then two idiot brothers got in my way, and I decided to erase all of existence. So I moved the Amulets to my very last universe for safe keeping."

Sam peaks up. "So they are here? On this Earth?"

"I said universe," Chuck berates. "I hid one in Heaven, one in Hell, one in Purgatory and one in the Veil."

Dean body is tight as a coil in anticipation. This is it. There's a way. A dangerous, tricky, complicated way. But a way. "How did you hide them?"

"In the darkest corners. Where only myself or my most trusted could reach them." Chuck leans back with a satisfied smile.

"That's all? The darkest corners?" Dean asks sceptically.

"Yup. It's not easy to get through the different realms, you know? Unless you're, well, me," Chuck gloats.

"Like that's ever stopped us before," Dean grinds out. Didn't Chuck send them to Hell and back more than once when he was God? "What do they look like, the Amulets?"

"Pieces cut from the Tree of Knowledge."

"The Tree of Knowledge? The Tree of Knowledge?" Sam asks.

"Is there an echo in here?" Chuck looks around in faux wonder.

"Alright, wiseass. Is that all? Anything else you wanna tell us about these Amulets?" Dean's leg is bouncing with his eager to get to work. To get Cas back.

Chuck thinks for a second. "Nope, I don't think so."

"What about how they work?" Sam shoots bitchface no. 24 at Chuck, and Dean is happy that he for once is not on the receiving end.

"Oh, right." Chuck leans forward and speaks very slowly. "You take. The Amulets. And place them. Together. They emit. A huge. Amount. Of divine power. That should. Repel. Maybe even hurt. Maybe even kill. The Empty." He leans back again with a smirk at Dean and Sam's exasperated looks. "Even you guys should be able to handle that, don't you think?"

-.-.-.-.-

Chuck takes a deep breath as he finally hears the rumbling of the Impala disappear in the distance. He's not surprised that Sam has kept an eye on him all this time. He just didn't plan on the lanky Winchester actually making contact as long as he kept away from the supernatural.

He was a bit surprised to see Dean though. He is sure that he had heard that the older Winchester had kicked the bucket. Oh well, not his headache anymore.

Being human sucked. Being dead would suck even more. He had come to appreciate why humans feared dying. Not knowing where you'd end up. Heaven, Hell… Chuck doesn't even know if he is human enough for those places, or if he will end up in the Empty together with the other divine creatures.

Still, he can't quite deny that spinning stories still gives him a kick. Hence the whole scamming-rich-women-thing. They never expect him to run off with their money. He looks so innocent, and still has that damn amazing singing voice. Hah!

But he had forgotten one thing; The rush of being in control. The power of real manipulation.

Chuck smiles to himself.

He is going to miss sunny Miami, but it's probably time to skip town before Sam and Dean realise that he hasn't told them everything.