Chapter 19: The Super Seven
"See, that's the distributer cap, it needs to be secure in order to- are you even listening to me?"
Mia glanced up from her study of the Impala's hood to Dean's incredulous stare. "What?" she asked innocently.
"I'm trying to teach you about Baby and you've completely zoned out," Dean replied in irritation.
Mia shrugged, " I don't understand all this mechanic mambo-jumbo. I do know that if you move the hood up and down like this,"
She reached out to the hood and flopped it open and closed in amusement. "See? Now it looks like the car is talking."
Dean rolled his eyes as he watched her flip the car's hood up and down like a puppet's mouth as she sang; "It's the CIRRRRRRRCLE OF LIFE! AND IT-"
Dean grabbed her forearm, stopping her from further messing with his car's hood. "How are you gonna learn to use the car when I'm gone if that's all you know how to do? How are you gonna know when to check the tire pressure or when to give her an oil change?"
"She won't need to know any of that because you're going to be the one doing it," Sam said firmly. He stood beside Mia with his arms crossed, gazing at his older brother intently.
Dean heaved a heavy sigh and eyed his brother sadly.
Ever since Dean had told Sam, Mia, and Bobby about his looming death sentence, he'd been trying to figure out what they would do without him. He tried to teach Sam and Mia to take care of the Impala and work together without him but the two were adamant that they could prevent his deadly fate.
"Bobby's calling," Mia announced, when she saw Dean's phone light up with Bobby's number. She was grateful for the distraction because she knew if Dean discussed his death further she was going to break down again.
Dean picked up his phone and spoke quickly with Bobby. Once he hung up he told them that Bobby finally found a case. This was the first case in a week they'd gotten since the gates to Hell had been opened. They were quick to take off and meet Bobby at his location.
They met up at an abandoned farmhouse in Nebraska. Mia noted an odd smell emitting from the house and the deafening sound of crickets and cicadas.
"Bacon cheeseburgers for breakfast?" Bobby remarked in an unsatisfied tone as he watched Dean wolf down his food.
With his mouth full of food, Dean replied, "If I'm gonna die in a year I don't have to sweat about the cholesterol."
Bobby shook his head and muttered something indiscernible under his breath before knocking at the door. There was no answer but the hunters could hear faint music coming from inside. Dean knocked again, more loudly this time, and shouted
"CANDYGRAM!"
Still, there was no answer. Dean told Mia to pick the lock and she quickly got to work. As soon as she'd picked the lock and opened the door, she cried out in disgust. The smell coming from the house was utterly horrific and a thousand times worse than the stench on the porch. Mia held her nose as the four hunters walked inside.
"This doesn't look good," Sam remarked grimly as everyone pulled out their guns in preparation.
Dean led them further into the house, cautiously peering around corners for any potential dangers. They reached a door at the back of the house where they heard muffled screaming coming from the other side. Sam kicked down the door in a swift and decisive motion. The other three followed behind him until they reached the source of the screaming. It was coming from an old television set that was re-running an episode of Dallas. A family of three sat on the couch rotting.
Mia had to take a step out of the room because the stench was unbearable. Dean, Sam, and Bobby recoiled from the odor as well and covered their noses with their sleeves.
"What the hell happened here?!" Bobby exclaimed in horror as he surveyed the decaying bodies.
Dean shook his head in utter disbelief at their surroundings, "I have no idea."
"We should check for sulfur," Bobby announced. The three younger hunters agreed and began searching the room. Mia and Sam checked the lining of the windows while Dean checked the doorways; all the while holding their arms against their noses not to breathe the horrible decompositional smell.
Suddenly, a loud thud sounded from the front of the house. The four hunters exchanged looks. Dean and Mia nodded at each other and headed for the door to check on the noise. When they reached the front porch they were confused to find nothing amiss, until out of nowhere a man appeared and swung his shotgun, slamming Dean in the head. Mia gasped and ducked when the man tried to swing at her but once she stepped back she felt strong hands gripping her upper arms from behind. Just before the man attempted to strike her again, Bobby appeared and grabbed his arm, stopping him.
"Bobby?!" The man with the gun laughed in recognition.
Bobby released his arm just as Mia felt whoever was holding her from behind let go of her arms.
"Tamara? Isaac? What are you two doing here?" Bobby cried out in a mixture of delight and surprise.
The woman, Tamara, emerged from behind Mia and gave Bobby a surprised chuckle. "We could ask you the same question."
Bobby smiled, "What's it been, a year?"
Dean raised his hand from where he lay on the ground. "I hate to interrupt but I'm kinda bleeding out here," he groaned in pain.
Mia helped Dean up as Bobby introduced the husband and wife couple as old hunting buddies he'd worked with in the past. The couple invited them over to their place to compare notes and catch up on this particular case. On their way out, Dean called the coroner's office for them to pick up the bodies.
He called back hours later to see if they had determined the cause of death yet for the family but ended up flirting with the secretary over the phone for an hour. Meanwhile, Isaac and Tamara showed off their collection of weapons to Bobby, Sam, and Mia.
"This is the Palo Santo," Isaac explained holding up a sharp stake of wood.
Sam frowned as he observed the seemingly insignificant artifact, "What is it?"
"It's holy wood from Peru," Tamara explained, "it's just like holy water to demons, it stings them like hell. We use it to nail them down during exorcisms."
"Sounds great," Dean's voice boomed into his cell as he walked into the room, "I'd love to go for appletinis with you, call you later, goodbye."
Mia opened her mouth to make fun of him for agreeing to go out for appletinis with the secretary he'd never met but then decided to hold her insult in her throat, Dean was already dealing with enough, she didn't want to add her stupid teasing to the list of things he had to endure.
"What did the coroner's office say?" She asked levelly instead.
"The people in that house died of starvation and dehydration, there was no sign of a break-in. In fact, there was a fully stocked fridge in the next room," He announced.
Mia frowned, "So there was no sulfur at the site, and no signs of possession. What kind of monster do you think we're dealing with then?"
Bobby sighed, "I have no idea, this doesn't seem like any demon I've ever dealt with…"
Sam crossed his arms pensively as he attempted to comprehend what they needed to do. "I think we should all look into-"
"Whoa, whoa," Isaac interrupted, as he put his hands up, "what do you mean 'we'? There's no 'we'."
Mia raised her eyebrows at his theatrics, "What's that supposed to mean?"
Isaac grimaced, "Look, you seem nice and all, but this ain't Scooby-Doo. We don't exactly play well with others and no offense, but we're not about to team up with the damned fools who let the Devil's Gate get open in the first place."
"Offense taken," Dean remarked, surprised by Isaac's rudeness. Mia made an irritated sound of agreement.
Tamara reproached her husband, "Isaac like you've never made a mistake?"
Isaac nodded, "Yeah little things like locking my keys in the car or turning my underwear pink in the laundry-never brought on the end of the world though, no."
Mia shot Isaac the dirtiest look she could conjure and rounded on him. "Are you suggesting this was our fault? You do realize that if it hadn't been for us that gate would still be open?"
"You're the ones who let that demon get to it in the first place," Isaac shot back.
"I'm sorry, were you there? Were you hiding in the woods or something when this all went down? Because I don't remember seeing you there. In fact, you have no right to say anything. We didn't 'let' him do anything, and some of us nearly died trying to stop him. So don't you dare blame us for this," Mia hissed menacingly.
Sam and Dean exchanged surprised looks in response to the girl's furious demeanor.
Isaac reared up to counter her argument but Tamara held his arm "Sweetheart, that's enough," she said to him softly.
"Tamara, they've brought war upon us, there are too many demons for us, or all hunters to even begin to counter," Isaac fumed.
Dean glared at him, "You should listen to your wife buddy, and shut up."
Tamara pulled her husband away before he could say anything else.
That next morning they'd been given another mysterious case nearby, two women had gotten into a fight over shoes which resulted in one slamming the other's head into a car, killing her.
Mia and Bobby had gone to the DA's office to interview the killer and found no unusual signs with her. She was completely lucid, had no signs of possession at all, and Mia spilled holy water on her 'accidentally' just to make sure. They met up with Sam and Dean at the clothing store where the incident had occurred. The police and forensic teams were sweeping the place for evidence.
"Dean," Sam said, taking him aside from the store clerk he was currently flirting with, "what are you doing?"
"Talking, until you rudely interrupted," He retorted.
"Did you not see the dead body? Do you not realize we have a case here?" Sam asked in irritation.
Dean began fake coughing, "You know, I don't have much time left, I'm just trying to make the most of my life."
Mia pressed her lips together as she thought about the truth in Dean's statement. Normally in a circumstance like this, she would roll her eyes at his theatrics and make a sarcastic retort but she held back once again.
Sam sighed loudly in annoyance and walked over to Bobby who was fixing his tie in the mirror. The older man had gone out of his way to clean up, he had a nice crisp suit on and his messy hair slicked back.
Dean whistled when he saw him. "Looking spiffy," He remarked.
Bobby shrugged off the compliment but Mia noticed a little twinkle in his eye when he did. "There are no traces of sulfur as far as I can tell and no signs of possession. This is starting to look strange... I'd assume it was just a garden variety whack job if this was its own incident but this happening so soon after us finding the family can't be a coincidence."
"Well, whatever it is we don't have a clue what caused it," Mia replied regretfully.
Dean smirked, "I wouldn't say that." He pointed up to the security camera in the corner of the store and glanced at his brother. "See? I am working."
Sam just huffed and shook his head.
After viewing the tapes, the hunters noticed that a red-headed man had entered the store and spoke with the woman before she attacked the victim. The four of them decided he must've had something to do with this case, and possibly the family as well so they decided to go around town asking if anyone knew his name and whereabouts. By nightfall, they had a name and a location. The four of them staked out the bar that Walter Rossen, their person of interest went to every night supposedly.
"What time is it?" Bobby asked Dean as he kept his eyes on the establishment.
"Just a little after midnight," Dean replied, then glanced to the backseat of the car where Mia lay fast asleep. He didn't understand her constant need to sleep. He and Sam were used to 3 hours a night and any more made them feel loopy, but Mia could sleep for 24 hours and still crave a nap.
Bobby saw what Dean was looking at and smiled fondly at the snoozing girl. Sometimes looking at her he could see her little seven-year-old self. He then brought his attention back to Dean, "Are you sure this is the right spot?"
Before Dean could reply there was a loud pounding on the window scaring them, and waking up Mia who jumped up and rubbed her eyes.
Sam snickered as he climbed into the back of Bobby's car beside Mia, "The people I spoke to in the bar said he is a frequent patron but he's been missing for a week, which is around the same time the Devil's Gate was opened."
"He might be possessed," Bobby suggested, "the demons that escaped are not like any we've ever seen. They have powers we can't even begin to understand."
"Guys," Mia exclaimed when she saw their guy climb out of his car and walk up to the bar.
Dean and Sam moved to jump out of the car but Bobby stopped them, "Did you even hear what I said? We can't just go out there blindly, we have no idea what he's capable of! We should tail him first and see what his powers are like."
"Uh, Bobby," Sam called the older hunter's attention to the other side of the parking lot where Isaac and Tamara were exiting their car, "I don't think that's an option."
Bobby cursed under his breath. Mia grabbed Dean's binoculars from the backseat and watched the married couple enter the bar and sit down at a table.
"What's happening," Dean asked impatiently.
"Nothing yet, they're just talking, oh wait... Walter just got up… Okay, now Isaac's following him and-oh shit," She gasped.
"What, what happened?!" Bobby prompted her worriedly.
Mia replied, "The bartender just grabbed him and he threw the flask of water Isaac had on the ground. Oh my God… the entire bar! Their eyes are all black… They're all demons!"
At her final statement, Dean and Bobby were on the move. They raced for the door to the bar but found it locked. Mia tossed Sam the binoculars as she raced to help the other two try to kick down the door. Sam came over but kept an eye on what was happening. He told them that the demons had grabbed Tamara and were forcing Isaac to drink poison.
"EVERYONE IN THE CAR NOW," Bobby exclaimed and they all sprinted into the car barely getting seated before Bobby gunned the engine and drove them through the door of the bar. A group of demons backed up as they exited the car. Sam went for Tamara who was on the ground crying for her dead husband who'd downed an entire bottle of drain cleaner.
"He's dead, we need to go!" Sam cried as he struggled to pull the sobbing woman off of her husband's body and into the car.
Meanwhile, Bobby and Mia were spraying the demons away with flasks of holy water so Dean could target Walter. He whacked Walter over the head and then dragged him into the trunk with the devil's trap carved over it.
Bobby and Mia quickly climbed into the car after Sam and Tamara.
"DRIVE, DRIVE, DRIVE," Dean screamed to Bobby as he flung himself headfirst into the front passenger seat.
Bobby drove them to his house while Mia and Sam tried to console a sobbing Tamara who couldn't seem to comprehend the fact that her husband was dead. She kept telling them to turn around and go back for him but they kept driving through the night.
When they finally reached Bobby's house, they tied up the demon beneath a devil's trap painted on the ceiling and prepared to exorcise him.
"We have to go back," Tamara insisted for the twentieth time.
Sam groaned, "For the last time, we can't go back there, we don't even know how to beat them, and we don't have enough holy water."
"I'll go back with her," Dean offered.
Mia stared at him incredulously, "Dean, it's a suicide mission!"
"So what?! I'm dead anyways," he challenged.
Mia fought the urge to scream at him for being so ridiculous but Sam stepped in before she needed to speak.
"You don't even know how many there are!"
"Yes we do," Bobby replied as he entered the room with a huge book. "We're dealing with seven, the Seven Deadly Sins in the flesh."
"What's in the box!?" Dean laughed, doing his best Brad Pitt impression.
"Come on! Se7en? Anyone see that movie?" He added but was greeted with irritated silence. Bobby threw his book at him to catch.
"In this book, it says that the seven deadly sins are actual demons, not just vices. Which explains the two cases; that family was touched by sloth, the shopper by Envy, who we've got up in the next room, and Isaac," Bobby paused to gauge Tamara's reaction, "was touched by Gluttony, that's why he voluntarily drank draino."
"I don't give a fuck who we're dealing with. It could be the four horsemen or the three stooges for all I care, I'll kill them all!" Tamara cried out vengefully.
Bobby glared at her, "We already did it your way, you and Isaac went in there with guns blazing, and look what happened! Look, I'm sorry for your loss but this time we're doing it my way."
The hunters walked into the room where Envy was tied up. He struggled against his restraints and refused to answer questions about what he wanted from them. Dean threw holy water on him, causing him to cry out in pain.
"We already have what we want," Envy panted, "we're all free, we're just celebrating."
"Celebrating?!" Tamara repeatedly angrily, "I'm going to kill every last one of you fuckers."
Envy laughed condescendingly, "You really think you're better than me? Okay, we've got Dean the poster-boy for gluttony and lust,"
Dean shrugged at this.
"Mia, who's too tired to do anything except sleep-remind anyone of a certain animal?"
"Asshole," She muttered.
"And Tamara," Envy smirked, "all that wrath, that is why you and Isaac got into hunting isn't it? Getting out all that anger for things of the past-"
Tamara smacked him repeatedly until Bobby pulled her back.
Envy stared at them, "You call us sins, we're just human nature, and soon there'll be no more of you. We'll hunt you to extinction, you'll see! In fact, the others are coming for me right now."
"Well they're gonna have a hard time finding you back in Hell," Mia replied curtly as she looked to Tamara, "Care to send this clown back home?"
"With pleasure," Tamara sneered as she began the exorcism.
Mia, Sam, Dean, and Bobby gathered outside the room to discuss their next move.
"What do we do about the rest of them coming here?" Sam asked.
Dean answered, "You guys should take off, I can buy you some time."
"No," Bobby said adamantly, "you're not taking them alone, we go down together or not at all."
"Sure, let's just make it easier for them," Dean replied sarcastically.
Mia looked up at Bobby, suddenly and exclaimed, "The water guns!"
The older hunter frowned in disbelief then slowly smiled, "They could help."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Dean called to Mia as she sprinted to the basement. She didn't reply but there was a huge grin plastered on her face.
Bobby chuckled, "It's actually a brilliant plan Mia came up with a few months ago but we forgot about it."
Mia returned holding a bag of water guns and a bucket full of holy water.
"Wait," Sam stifled a laugh, "you want to fill those with holy water and shoot the demons with them?"
Mia nodded, "I know it sounds silly but think about it- we use a flask and throw the water on the demons and half the time none of the water even lands on them. If we're gonna be fighting Envy's family, and we know the only thing that gets them is holy water, I think it's worth a shot."
Dean burst out laughing, "Is this like your stupid holy water balloon idea?" He remembered months earlier when she'd suggested the idea to her in a supermarket toy aisle.
Dean quieted down when he saw the stern look Bobby, Sam, and Mia gave him.
Mia began handing out the guns to everyone to fill up. She offered one to Tamara but she refused it, and instead began lining the doorways and windows with salt.
A few hours later, they heard a noise come from outside as the lights began to flicker and the television turned on to static. Mia, Dean, Sam, Bobby, and Tamara stood shoulder to shoulder with their guns drawn.
"Tamara?!" a voice very familiar to Isaac's cried out.
Mia felt Tamara flinch beside her.
"Baby, are you in there? Please let me in, I got away but I'm hurt really bad, I need your help," the voice pleaded.
"It's not him," Sam reassured her, "he's dead, they're just trying to lure you outside."
Isaac's voice continued to persist he cried out for Tamara and asked her why she'd abandoned him when they promised a year ago never to leave the other's side.
Tamara moved towards the door but Bobby put a steady grip on her shoulder. She shook him off, "How could he remember that promise?" she asked in horror.
"Stay strong, Tamara," Dean called.
She began to shake as Isaac's voice called out once more.
"You're just gonna let me die, aren't you? Just like when you let that monster take our baby girl and kill her, that was your fault!"
Tamara screamed and ran out the door, making a gap in the salt barrier. She leapt onto the creature posing as Isaac and rose the Palo Santo steak before plunging it deep into his chest. "I hope you rot in Hell you son of a bitch!" She cried out furiously.
"Tamara, look out!" Mia cried out as she watched Tamara get knocked in the head by one of the demons. The woman collapsed on top of the form of Isaac.
The demon Isaac pulled the stake out of his chest and joined the rest of the five as they entered the house. Sloth, the form of an old, balding, man went for Bobby who backed up until the demon was beneath a devil's trap.
"Fat and stupid, huh?" Bobby called, just before he began to exorcise the demon.
Lust took the form of a beautiful dark-haired woman who went straight for Dean. He sprayed her with his holy water gun until she backed up into the bathroom. "Oh baby," she cooed, "you know I like it rough."
Dean smirked, "Then you're gonna love this." He pulled her into a tight embrace and kissed her until he had her turned around and dunked her head into the bathtub which was full of holy water. He pushed her body in and watched as she shriveled in pain.
Meanwhile, Pride followed Sam into one of the rooms, flanked by Gluttony, Greed, and Wrath. He wasn't fooled by the devil's trap on the ceiling and taunted Sam as Mia took out the demons from behind. She quickly sprayed Wrath, the form of a middle-aged woman, and Greed, an elderly man, with her holy water gun. This resulted in Wrath rampaging furiously after Mia. The hunter ducked behind the corner and when the female demon turned it, she knocked it out cold with the butt of her gun and then dragged the body to one of the devil's traps in the second bedroom. By the time Greed caught up to her, she pulled out her pistol and shot at the demon grazing the skin on his shoulder. He paused to inspect the damage.
"That suit was Armani!" He exclaimed in horror as he stared at his torn and bloody shirtsleeve.
Mia shot her water gun directly into the open wound, getting the holy water into the demon's circulation system, and slowly poisoning him from the inside.
"Trust me, you're not gonna designer clothes where I'm sending you," She reassured him slyly.
The demon cast her a vicious glance before falling to the floor, in a dead slump.
Pride continued to taunt Sam, "I'm going to really enjoy killing you," He smirked as he stepped towards Sam. Suddenly, a blonde-haired woman appeared and slit his throat. The wound seemed to glow and Pride spat out his demonic smoke before falling to the ground.
Sam stared up at the blonde who wielded the strange knife, "Who are you?"
The blonde smirked, "The girl who just saved your ass."
Gluttony, a middle-aged man, appeared in the doorway behind her. "You!" she exclaimed upon seeing the blonde.
The mysterious girl made quick work of killing him the same way she'd killed Pride, before slinking off into the shadows. Sam called after her but there was no answer.
The hunters gathered up the surviving demons and exorcised as many as they could, but unfortunately, only the human hosts of Lust, Sloth, and Wrath were able to barely survive the exorcism. Bobby deposited them at the nearest hospital while, Sam, Dean, and Mia took to burying the bodies of the dead demons in gasoline and salt before burning them on a pyre in a field several miles from Bobby's.
Mia looked at Tamara who watched them pile her husband's form onto the pyre with tears in her eyes. She was lucky to survive the blow Wrath gave her in the back of the head but she secretly wished it had killed her so she didn't have to live without the love of her life. Bobby, Sam, Mia, and even Dean had tried to comfort her but she insisted she wanted to be left alone.
"I feel so bad for her," Mia told Sam, "I can't imagine losing someone like that."
Sam nodded. He knew better than anyone the anguish and pain Tamara felt towards her dead husband as he'd gone through the same thing with Jess.
"She'll be okay," Sam reassured, "it's gonna take some time for her to accept the fact that she'll never see him again, and even more time for her to get over him, but she's strong. She can keep going… she has to."
Dean, who finished lighting the pyre, overheard his brother's last sentence and looked up, he realized Sam had addressed that to him as well, not just Tamara.
Wanting to change the subject more than anything, Dean asked, "Sam, what kind of knife did that chick who saved you have?"
Sam had told the other hunters about the mysterious blonde who'd appeared and saved him from two of the demons. "I don't know… It looked like a normal hunting knife but when she cut the demons, this kind of light came out of the wound and it just killed them instantly."
"What kind of knife can kill demons?" Mia wondered aloud.
Bobby joined the three of them, having finished looking through any books related to who the young woman might have been. "Nothing I've ever heard of or seen before… Whoever she is, she's dealing with a new kind of witchcraft."
"Do you think she might be part of the demons that escaped through the gates?" Mia asked.
Bobby shrugged, "It's likely, I mean the demons let out are nothing like we've ever seen before. But then her saving Sam wouldn't make much sense."
The four of them watched the pyres burn in silence as they thought about what other kinds of demons were let into the world.
"I'm gonna take off," Tamara announced after a while. She grabbed her bags and said her goodbyes to Bobby who told her to take care of herself.
"Hey, Tamara," Sam added as she walked off.
The woman stopped and turned to face him.
"If it means anything… things will get better for you. I know they will," He promised.
She flashed him a quarter of a smile in appreciation before walking off.
Bobby announced that he was gonna take off too and warned them all to be careful and keep their eyes peeled for any more omens.
"Keep in touch," he called from his car before taking off.
"So where are we going now?" Mia asked.
"Louisiana," Sam told her as they headed to the Impala.
Dean chuckled, not following them. "Isn't it a bit too early for Mardi Gras?"
"Tamara mentioned a hoodoo priest that might be able to help with your demon deal," Sam told him as he packed his stuff into the car.
"Nah," Dean replied nonchalantly, "I'd rather we go to Vegas or something."
"What do you mean, 'nah'?" Sam asked angrily.
His older brother shrugged and shoved his hands into his jean pockets. "It's not going to help, Sam. This deal isn't something I can get out of easily. So forget it, okay?"
He moved to the driver's seat and Sam lost it.
"That's it!" Sam cried, "I'm done. I'm done caring."
Dean raised his eyebrows in disinterest, "Well, that lasted long."
"I mean it. I have been busting my ass trying to find ways to save you and just keep you alive and you act like you couldn't care less! Do you have a death wish or something?" Sam continued furiously.
"It's not like that, I-" Dean tried to explain but Sam cut in again.
"Then what, Dean, what's it like? Because I'm tired of this 'leave me to die' attitude you've been having lately."
Mia's eyes widened, she hadn't expected Sam to crack so soon. She knew Dean was getting on his nerves, as he was getting on hers too but Sam was always the more patient out of the two of them when it came to Dean being irritating. Partly though, she was glad Sam was calling Dean out for being so infuriating.
"Because if we try to get out of the deal, you die! Okay? Those were the terms I was given. And if you find a way for me to get out of the deal, so help me, I will stop you," Dean explained, his voice getting choked up as he finished.
"Why did you make that deal," Sam sighed in devastation.
Dean fought back tears, "Because I couldn't live with you dead, okay? I just couldn't… not when there was something I could do."
"You're an idiot," Mia sighed so softly no one could hear what she said. She was furious with him for making that deal when she could've saved both of them. She even got seven years to spend with them while Dean only had one left.
Sam groaned in frustration, "Why!? Don't you remember what you went through when you found out Dad died for you? He left you twisted and broken and that's what you're going to do to me. This is the most selfish thing you've ever done."
Dean shrugged and smiled through his tears, "I can live with that. I've done enough for this family. I think I'm entitled to… I'm tired, Sam. Now it's like there's finally a light at the end of the tunnel."
"That's hellfire, Dean," Sam retorted angrily.
His brother shrugged. "Same thing to me. Now look, someone," he turned to Mia at this point, "promised me a perfect last year and you know where I what I want to cross off my list first? New York City. I want to see the damned Statue of Liberty and get a hot dog in Times Square."
Mia smiled weakly at this. She was going to give Dean such a good year that it would save him from the depths of Hell when it came time for him to go.
"Now, let's say we kill some sons of bitches and raise a little hell on the way?" He said as they drove off into the rising sun. _
Next Chapter: Mia, Dean, and Sam encounter a mysterious object with the power to punish and reward...