Takes place after episode 4.16 and before 4.17 and is not canon compliant.
The First Seal Revisited
"I need you two to go to Michigan."
"What's in Michigan?"
"A hunt."
Sam looked at Jane, who simply shrugged and quirked an eyebrow. "Details, Bobby?"
Bobby dropped a folder between them before seating himself at the table, shaking his head when Jane offered to get him a cup of coffee. "People up across the Mackinaw bridge are dropping dead."
Jane poured a little more coffee into her own cup of creamer, watching as Sam began sorting out the contents of the folder. "Be a bit more specific Bobby."
"Healthy people, out of nowhere, dropping dead." He growled at her. "Specific enough for you, princess?"
"Thank you King Grump." She replied sweetly, fluttering her eyelashes at him. "Besides that? Location?"
"Sault Ste. Marie."
Sam slid some newspaper clippings towards Jane, frowning slightly. "Witches maybe?"
"Maybe. A bit toned down for witches though, usually they like their victims to go out miserable and painfully." Bobby sounded doubtful.
"Anything else?"
"They were all men."
Sam and Jane exchanged another look. "Witches."
"Sault Ste. Marie, isn't that up near Canada?"
Jane nodded, concentrating on not spilling the spoonful of beef stew she was aiming for Dean's mouth. "Mind not flapping your gums so much?" She was very tempted to pour the bowl over his head when he smirked before opening his mouth wide. "You can feed yourself."
"Mmm…" He closed his eyes, savoring the taste. He was definitely getting used to being waited on hand and foot by his luscious, Betty Crockerish wife. "Sweetheart, you're cooking… good thing I didn't divorce you, I'd be missing out."
"First, don't talk with your mouthful. Second, you divorce me? Whatever. Third, feed yourself."
"But Janey, baby," He mocked whined, only half attempting to raise his arms. "It hurts when I lift them."
She eyeballed him, sighing and spooned him another mouthful. If she would have been in his position, she would have found this degrading. But since it was Dean, he was enjoying himself. That was her guy, lazy jerk. "Apparently some men are just dropping dead."
"Cause?"
"None from what Bobby could tell, or what the papers are saying, they all seemed healthy, and they were all male."
"Witches." He shuddered. "I hate witches, they're skeevy. So he's sending Sammy?"
Jane cleared her throat, feeling a might awkward. The feeling intensified when he got a very serious look on his very handosme face, the humor fading from his eyes. "Yeah…"
"No…" Dean shook his head. "There's no way… you're-"
"Going to Sault Ste. Marie with Sam."
After what had happened in very recent memory with Castiel, Uriel and Alastair… how Pamela had died… the fact that everything in Heaven was not operating the way it was apparently supposed too. "No, you're not going."
"Yes, I am. We're leaving tonight. Mind if we borrow Baby or should we take my car?"
"I mean it, Jane. You're not going, not without me." Dean moved to get up, letting out a loud curse when she poked him in the side. "Damn it, woman!"
"Exactly."
"Bobby, are you going to be able to hold down the fort and deal with Dean's prissy backside?" Jane eyed Bobby doubtfully, knowing he was more likely to shoot Dean in the leg then put up with Dean's whining.
"He gets too annoying, I'll shoot him." Bobby said with a one shouldered shrug.
She rolled her eyes. She loved all three of her guys but… they were predictable. "He's drugged up pretty good right now, I took away his pain pills, I think he's rebelling."
"Sounds like Dean." Sam chuckled, closing the trunk to the Impala and stuffing his hands in his pockets. "I already went up and said 'bye, I don't think I'm going to go back for seconds."
Jane sighed, looking over her shoulder and up at the house. "If I'm not back in ten, send help."
"I don't want you to go."
"Darlin', I have too." Jane ran her hand across Dean's forehead, smiling down at him. He was almost adorable, a little bit loopy, pouting… it was cute. "It'll be fine. It's witches, skeevy, horrible witches. They got to die, it's our policy, remember?"
"My policy." He nodded, and then sighed. "I got something to confess Janey."
She pursed her lips, that was never a good thing.
"And it is written that the first seal shall be broken when a righteous man sheds blood in hell. As he breaks, so shall it break." The words came out soft, and slowly, and it sounded like he was quoting. Dean slowly raised his eyes to hers. "Alastair." He murmured. "He told me that."
Jane frowned, cocking her head to the side. "What does it mean?"
"That was the first seal that was broken, Janey. It was the first. The righteous man who broke and shed blood in hell, it was me."
Jane could only stare at him, watching in silence as a tear slipped from his now closed eyes.
"I broke the first seal, when I… when I said yes to Alastair and… when I started tortur-" He froze, taking a deep breath, another tear following the first. "-torturing others. I was that righteous man."
There was nothing she could say to that and even if there was, her head was too busy spinning and processing. What he was basically saying was that he had-
"I started this Jane, all of it. I started the apocalypse."
That.
"That's why they pulled me out of Hell, they knew I would break. They just didn't reach me in time."
She positioned herself so she was laying half propped on the pillows and gently took him into her arms, her fingers combing through his hair. Dean had been the first seal, or had broken the first seal, and he was the reason they were staring down an apocalypse. She could practically feel the guilt and despair rolling off of him and pressed her lips to his head. "I love you, Dean."
"How can you?" He whispered, not moving his head off her shoulder. "Look at what kind of man I am, Janey."
"You're a good man and you didn't know, Dean."
"I shouldn't have caved, I should've stayed on the rack."
"How could you?"
"My dad did."
"Dean…"
"He did, Janey, and me? I jumped off of it because I couldn't take anymore, like a coward."
"Oh, Dean…"
