Evolutions 30
A/N I told you this one would be a while. And although it's short, I didn't want to keep you hanging.
Please let me know what you think about this chapter. There are only two scenes, and just minor changes, but I think they were important. However, I'm still not sure about this new format, if I need to give a little more than just what changed - which is basically all dialog - or if I should go deeper. I'd love to hear what you're thinking about this!
Just so you know, as I am planning it now, the next chapter will not be another episode. Episodes 01x12 (Faith) and 01x13 (Route 666) are unchanged by powers!witch!Sam - at least on screen. But there is a change and we'll see it in the next chapter, which will be a mini-case fic (good lord willing, and the creek don't rise. And the Winchesters in my head cooperate).
See you soon! thanks for sticking with this!
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SCARECROW (01x11)
ACT ONE
Interior Motel room
Dean and Sam are sleeping and Dean's phone rings
"Dean," Sam muttered, but Dean kept sleeping. "Dean!" Still no response. With a sigh, Sam grabbed the phone, and opened it, frowning when he saw the California area code. "Hello?"
"Sam, is that you?"
Sam shot bolt upright. Of all the voices he'd thought might be on the other end of the line, this wasn't one of them. "Dad? Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine," John assured him, and Sam could hear the slight smile in his voice.
"We've been looking for you everywhere. We didn't know if you were, if you were okay."
In the other bed, Dean stirred, the conversation — and the word Dad — breaking through his sleep-fogged mind.
"Sammy, I'm all right," John assured him, again. "What about you and Dean?"
"We're fine. Dad, where are you?"
Dean sat up and swung his legs off the bed, reaching for the phone.
Sam shifted away, moved the phone to the hand and ear further away from his brother, as he listened to his father's response. "Sorry, kiddo, I can't tell you that."
"What? Why not?" Sam snapped. "What, you think I'll track you down and kill you or something?"
Dean sighed, shaking his head. "Is that Dad? Give me the phone."
"Of course, I don't think that," John sighed. "I can't explain, you just need to trust me."
"Trust you!" Sam scoffed. "Why should — wait a minute. You're closing in, aren't you? On the thing that killed Mom."
"Yes, I think I'm getting close. It's a demon, Sam. A demon with yellow-eyes."
"I thought we already knew that."
"We thought so, yeah," John confirmed, "but I'm sure now."
"What's he saying?" Dean demanded and reached for the phone again.
"And you're getting close."
"Maybe. Listen, Sammy," John sighed, "I wanted to say…I heard about what happened to your girlfriend and…I'm so sorry. I never wanted you to go through that."
"Do you know where it is?"
"I'm getting close."
"Let us help," Sam practically begged.
"You can't be part of this, Sam," John countered. "Not you or Dean."
"Because it's after me," Sam deadpanned.
"What's after you?" Dean demanded. "Give me the phone, Sammy."
"That's part of it," John admitted. "But more than that…this thing is dangerous. Too dangerous. I need you and your brother to stop looking for me. Now, take down these names."
"Names? What names? Dad, just talk to me. I swear to you, we're on the same side, here. I just…I want to help bring this thing down. I have that right, Dad, after what it did to Mom, to Jess. If it's after me I have a right to help bring it down."
"Look, we don't have time for this," John sighed. "This is bigger than you think, they're everywhere. Even us talking right now, it's not safe."
"No," Sam said stubbornly. "All right, no. I just went through two years cut off from everything, everyone, and I won't do it again. Don't give me it's not safe, I know that, dammit. After what happened to Je-Jess," he added, his voice breaking slightly on the much loved — much missed — name, "I know that better than anyone. So, don't you dare tell me no, tell me what I can do."
"What you can do," John snarled, "is your damn job, Sam. Now take down these names."
"No! Just tell me where you are!"
"Give me the phone," Dean demanded, again, standing and moving to his brother's bed, desperate to both hear his father's voice and stop the disaster that this phone call was going to turn into.
"Sam, I told you, you have to stop looking for me. You and your brother, you have a job to do, and I expect you to do it. There are lives at stake."
"We're not the only hunters on the planet, Dad, somebody else can take care of…whatever it is. We should be there, with you."
"No, Sam, I told you…"
Dean finally grabbed the phone and pulled it away from his little brother. "Dad, it's me. Where are you?"
"That doesn't matter, Dean. Take down these names, have you got a pen?"
"Wait a minute, Dad. What's going on? Why won't you tell us where you are?" Dean demanded.
"I can't, son. It's not safe for us to be together. Not for me, not for you, especially not for Sammy. You can't be near me now, so I need you to stop looking. Now, get a pen, and take these names down."
Dean scrambled in the top drawer of the night stand and pulled out a pad and pen. "Yeah, go ahead…."
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A few hours later, In the Impala
Sam glanced over at Dean, who sat in the passenger seat, flipping through the papers they'd printed out about the names Dad had given them.
"Alright," he frowned. "So the names Dad gave us, they're all couples?"
"Three different couples," Dean confirmed. "All went missing."
"And they're all from different towns? Different states?"
"That's right," Dean nodded. "You got Washington, New York, Colorado. Each couple took a road trip cross-country. None of them arrived at their destination, and none of them were ever heard from again."
"Well, it's a big country, Dean. They could've disappeared anywhere."
"Yeah, could've. But each one's route took 'm to the same part of Indiana. Always on the second week of April. One year after another."
"This is the second week of April."
"Yep."
"So, Dad is sending us to Indiana, before another couple disappears?"
"Yahtzee," Dean agreed. "Can you imagine putting together a pattern like this? All the different obits Dad had to go through? I mean, yeah, shit father, but the man's a master when it comes to Hun…ting…" Dean's voice trailed off as Sam pulled the Impala to the shoulder at the side of the road and turned the car off. "What are you doing? Are you okay? You getting a headache?"
"I'm fine," Sam assured him. "It's just…Dad is homing in on the demon that killed Mom and Jess, the demon that put a fucking supernatural bounty on my head, and he's sidelining us? Well, fuck that noise, man. We're headed to California."
"Why California?"
"Dad called from a pay phone. Sacramento area code," Sam shrugged. "We get to California, and we can track him from there."
"Sam."
"Dean, if Dad's closing in on the bastard that killed Mom and Jess, we gotta be there. We gotta help."
"Dad doesn't want our help," Dean pointed out.
"I don't care."
"Dad gave us an order, Sam. He gave us a case.'
"I. Don't. Care. We can get another hunter to take a look at the case."
"Not before the next couple dies, and then it's another year, and two more lives lost."
"I know all that," Sam nodded, "and I get that it's important, but I'm sorry, there's nothing more important to me than taking that bastard down."
"Well, I'm sure that will be a comfort to the couple who's going to die in the next couple days," Dean frowned. "Look, Sammy, I know how you feel…"
"Do you?" Sam snapped angrily, leaving Dean just blinking at him in shock. "Do you, Dean? Really? You were, what, four when Mom died? I watched Jess die six months ago, and I watch it over and over again every time I shut my eyes. How the hell could you know how I feel?"
"Dad said it's not safe for us to be with him, now," Dean reminded. "And it's not like you're all that safe with him to begin with."
"I am sick of people telling me what's fuckin' safe, Dean. Because I was safe and Jess died," Sam snapped and practically threw himself out of the car, stalking to the trunk.
Dean sighed and got out of the car, meeting his brother at the trunk, where Sam was busily throwing his clothes, a couple books and a few small assorted weapons — including salt, an iron crowbar and holy water — into his backpack.
"You're a selfish bastard, you know that?" Dean snapped. "You just do what you want. Dad says it's stay away, it's too dangerous for all of us. People are going to die out here. But you don't care. You don't care what anyone thinks
Sam paused and looked up from loading this bag. "That's what you really think?"
"Yes, it is," Dean doubled down, too angry (too afraid) to be rational.
"Well then, this self bastard is going to California."
"Sammy…."
"Don't Sammy me," the younger boy snapped. "Look, I know this hunt is important, and I'm not suggesting that you skip it." He sighed, and continued a little less angrily, "I know there are lives at stake, Dean," he continued, a little more gently. "But, for the first time since…since Jess died," he explained, his voice breaking just slightly, "I know where Dad is. By the time I get there, he may be gone, I get that, but…at least I'll be only a day behind, instead of weeks or months. And I gotta believe I'll find him before he takes that bastard down. I gotta believe that, Dean, or what I am doing out here?"
"What are you…Saving lives, Sam," Dean reminded, firmly. "We are saving lives. And there are two more at stake, right now, here, and you…"
"And I am going to California," Sam said calmly, and tossed the keys to Dean before he pulled his backpack over one shoulder and started walking away.
"Come on, you're not serious."
"I am serious."
"It's the middle of the night!" Dean called to his brother's retreating back. Sam didn't stop walking. "Hey, I'm taking off, I will leave your ass, you hear me!" he yelled at his beloved little brother, his anger overriding his protective instincts, because damn that kid could push his freakin' buttons like nobody in the world.
Sam turned back and made sure to meet Dean's eye. "That's what I want you to do," Sam said calmly.
Dean stared back for a moment, waiting for Sam to back down, to realize how stupid he was being, to give a fucking inch.
Nothing.
"Goodbye, Sam," Dean huffed and closed the trunk, before rounding the car and opening the door and threw himself into the front seat, starting the car and peeling out a scant few seconds later. He watched in the rear view mirror as Sammy watched for a brief moment, before turning and walking the other way.
Dean watched in the mirror until the boy was out of sight.
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ACT THREE - Bus station. Meg is asleep and Sam and Dean are on the phone
"The scarecrow climbed off it's cross?" Sam repeated.
"Yeah," Dean confirmed. "I'm telling ya, Burkittsville, Indiana. Fun Town."
"I didn't kill the couple, did it?" Sam asked, unsure how he'd feel if they victims had died after he'd left Dean alone.
"No. I can cope without you, you know"
"So, something must be animating it. A spirit?"
"No, it's more than a spirit," Dean said confidently. "It's a god. A Pagan god, anyway."
"What makes you say that?"
"The annual cycle of the killings. And the fact that the victims are always a man and a woman. Like some kind of fertility rite. And you should see the locals. The way they treated this couple. Fattenin' 'em up like a Christmas turkey."
Sam sighed. "The last mean, given to sacrificial victims," he nodded, knowing Dean was right. When it came to hunting, his big brother usually was. Not that he'd tell Dean that.
"Yeah, I'm thinking a ritual sacrifice to appease some Pagan god."
"So a god possesses the scarecrow…"
"And the scarecrow takes its sacrifice. And for another year, the crops won't wilt, and disease won't spread, and Burkittsville stays the only happy, economically healthy town in three counties."
"Lovely," Sam sighed. "Do you know what god you're dealing with?"
"No, not yet."
"Figure that out, you can figure out a way to kill it."
"Yeah, I know. I'm actually on my way to a local community college. I've got an appointment with a professor. You know, since I don't have my trusty sidekick geek boy to do all the research."
Sam laughed, relieved by the normal back and forth; the tossing around of ideas on the case, the teasing and light banter. It felt good. It felt normal. "You know, if you're hinting you need my help, just ask"
"I'm not hinting anything," Dean denied. "Actually, um — I want you to know…I mean, don't think…"
"Yeah," Sam said quietly, easily deciphering the broken sentences as the non-apology it was. "I'm sorry, too."
"Sam," Dean said with a sigh. "You know, you were right. You gotta do your own thing. You gotta live your life, and it doesn't matter what I think, or what Dad thinks, or what anybody else thinks, man."
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah, dude. You gotta…you do you, little brother. I mean, you've always known what you wanted. And you go after it. You don't back down, and you don't cave, no matter what anybody says. Or does. You just… You've always been that way, man, since we were kids. Hell, I wish I—anyway…I admire that about you. And I'm…look, even if I don't always agree with you…I'm proud of you, Sammy."
"I—" Sam's breath caught in his throat. "I don't even know what to say."
"Say you'll take care of yourself," Dean said simply.
"I will. You, too."
"And call me when you find Dad, okay?"
"Okay," Sam said, blinking back sudden, unexpected tears. "Bye, Dean."
"Later, Sam."
Sam stared at his phone long after Dean hung up, until Meg came over to stand beside him.
"Who was that?"
"My brother," Sam said, frowning.
"What did he say?"
Sam sighed, and shook his head with a helpless shrug. "Goodbye."
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CorvusVeritas - Glad you like the way this is going. I said above, I'm still ambivalent about it, but if y'all like it, I'll stick with it. Interested to hear what you think about such a brief chapter, though!
Souless666 - First, don't worry about the late review. It took me flipping forever to post a new chapter, so no problem lol. Thanks for keeping me honest in my notes, too, much appreciated. Clearly, I cannot rely on my memory at my age! Really happy that you liked the 'new format'. Can't wait to hear what you think of this (brief) read!
