"Sam?" Dean's voice was too soft, too tentative as he spoke. Not that Sam can really blame him, since Danny left Sam locked himself in the bathroom. He wasn't sure how much time passed as he sat on the toilet seat thinking. Running over all the words Danny said, all the new information dropped on them, and the things Sam wished he asked while Danny was still there.
But holy shit, Danny was alive.
He wasn't human.
That thought had kept swirling through his head as he sat alone. Ignoring Dean calling to him behind the door. It wasn't long before Dean stopped, Sam figured he went to think it over on his own. Eventually, Sam left the safety of the bathroom and settled on his bed, eyes trained on the white card still sitting on the table. Untouched.
"He's alive."
"Not really." Dean bit back, the anger and hurt still clear in his voice.
"Dean." Sam spoke, voice hard as he finally met his brother's eyes. "He's alive. He fucking survived. All this time."
"He lied to us, Sam."
"Can you blame him!" The words left Sam before he really thought about it, bubbling in his chest and forced out with a rush. "His parents knew something was off with him, we saw what they did to him! You heard him, he ran from hunters, people wanted to dissect him!"
Dean's jaw set, hands clenching slightly by his side, but Sam didn't feel like he could stop. His body thrumming with adrenaline even if his muscles felt to heavy to move. Everything happening inside him felt like polar opposites, pushing against each other and hoping to win.
"You can't tell me after everything, every night we spent taking care of him while he tried not to cry didn't mean shit!" Sam growled, taking a deep breath. "I know you haven't spent much time with him since then but... but you weren't there every night I held him when he woke up screaming from a nightmare. How many of them were cause by hunters like us? We never stopped to think that maybe not everything that isn't human is a monster?"
"This is different-"
"Why? Because it's new? Because Danny never told us?" Sam asked, watching the conflictions shifting through his brother. "Because there's only humans and monsters in this world?"
"We aren't like them! We never fucking hurt Danny, so why wouldn't he tell us? Why would he hide it if he was so good!" Dean finally snapped, hands balled by his side. Sam felt his pulse flair. He didn't want to fight, the idea of raising a fist sounded exhausting. He wasn't going to let this go, Danny was back. Maybe he can't have what they once had, but he can't imagine pretending like Danny never came back.
"How was he supposed to know that! We never talked to him about hunting-"
"How about after all that shit, when you found out Danny was a hunter?" Dean growled, taking a step forward. "He can't play the high card when he's the very thing he hates."
"You know damn well Danny isn't anything like us." Sam felt the fight slip from him, shoulders dropping. His throat tightened and a familiar pressure built behind his eyes. His voice dropped, the anger slipping from him. "I've told you the stories, all the different creatures Danny let live. The ones he gave a second chance at life with. Danny cared about who they were, not what." The tears prickled harder, but Sam blinked them away.
Realization flooded him as he fell back on his bed. Danny told him these stories, watching carefully for his reaction because he was testing the waters. Danny was testing him, seeing if he was safe or not. If Sam was going to turn on him the day he told him the truth.
"Danny wanted to tell us. Looking back now, it was so fucking obvious." A harsh sound left Sam, it took him a moment to realize it was a laugh. "He basically screamed it every time he stared at me when he told me, he was terrified." Sam finally met Dean's eyes. There was a shift in the way he was standing.
"Trust me Sam, something doesn't feel right." Dean finally spoke after a moment, voice calmer than it was moments before. "There's something he isn't telling us, and it's going to bite you in the ass later."
"I'm sure there's tons of things he hasn't told us."
Sam sighed, glancing over his shoulder at the motel room door. It was dark out, and Sam wished he had looked at the time when Danny had showed up. It's hard to say how long its been. The two of them had been going back and forth for so long, switching between arguing and just talking. Dean didn't trust Danny, and Sam wasn't sure if he did either. He knew one thing for sure, he can't let Danny slip from him again.
Danny got hurt because of him. Danny was in a coma because of him. Danny was stuck someplace for so long. When he finally was allowed out, he came to them. How was Sam supposed to react to that? Part of him wanted to rush over to Danny's hotel room, grab the smaller man and never let go. The other part, was hurt. A mix of hurt, pain, and anger.
One thing was clear. Dean and him came to a conclusion. He was going to call Danny. They were going to navigate the new, weird world that seemed to come with the younger man. Dean claims keeping your enemies close, but Sam had a feeling Dean had other reasons. Nonetheless, Sam was going to call. And hope against all odds that the three of them could at least be civil.
By the third ring, Sam almost hung up. The voice that answered made him wish he did.
"Yello' this is Fenton's phone. If this is an emergency, please call back during business hours." The voice was one he hadn't heard before, but they definitely knew Danny. Sam coughed, trying to think of the best way to answer. "Alright listen dude, I didn't look at the caller ID, so I'm gonna need some help here."
"Uh, it's Sam Winchester. Danny told me to give him a call?"
"Holy shit!" The voice cried, noise became distant. Sam could swear he heard someone repeating 'It's Sam!' over and over again before the voice came back. "Alright sorry man, I just... No one actually expected you to call today. Uh, names Johnny. Danny's a little... well..."
"Is he okay?" Sam found himself asking, his free hand gripping the railing a little harder. A breathless laugh sounded on the other side.
"Oh trust me, man's over the moon." Johnny laughed, before he seemed to somber up a bit. "Today's been a little hard for him, so a few of us got together to try and cheer him up... we might have gone a little overboard."
"He's curled around a toilet bowl, isn't he?" Sam sighed, the concern slipping from him.
"Yea, pretty much." Johnny laughed, more sounds erupted in the background. "I'm on the phone you assholes!" Sam flinched away from the receiver at the loud volume.
"It's fine, you can just tell Danny to give me a call at this number in the morning." Sam sighed, glancing over his shoulder once more.
"Nah Nah, man listen. Look, Danny was already planning to offer to meet for breakfast tomorrow around ten in the morning, that small diner of eighth." Johnny explained, and Sam could swear he heard someone vomiting in the background. "If your down for that, just lemme know, I'll pass it along."
"Would Danny be okay to?" Sam asked.
"This is Danny, have you ever seen him hungover?" Sam paused, realizing that he never had. The man always bounced back, surprisingly fast after a night out. "Trust me, perks of being half dead, or fully dead in my case."
"Hey, don't tell him that!" A voice came muffled, and Sam sighed. Of course, the person who picked up the phone was supposedly a ghost.
"Uhm, okay yea... you can tell Danny I'll be there."
"Awesome, dope!" Johnny spoke, and Sam can swear he heard the grin the man had to be spouting. "I'm a goddamn matchmaker!" Although he sounded further away Sam could hear him.
"Hang up the phone you insufferable little ingrate." How many people was Danny hanging out with? It sounded like a small party.
"Shit, sorry sorry." Johnny apologized. "I'll pass along the message my dude."
The dial tone sounded in his ear, and Sam paused pulling the small device away from his ear. That had to be the number one strangest phone call he's ever fucking had. The phone clicked shut, and Sam slipped it into his pocket.
He's mind racing on whether or not he should meet Danny with Dean. Thing was, even after all this time, Sam still felt like he knew Danny. When he showed up at their motel room, Sam could basically see the anxiety and fear rolling off the shorter man. Saw Danny tense ever-so-slightly when Dean spoke. Danny viewed Dean as a wildcard, couldn't seem to predict how the other Winchester would react.
Sam knows he didn't say much, wished he did. Wished he pushed more, stopped Danny from leaving. He wanted to know more, like what was the zone? Where was Danny this whole time? What did he mean by top-side? And what the hell was Charles, really?
He can ask those questions in the morning. Right now, he need to convince Dean that him going alone was the best option. There was no way in hell he was going to be able to go without his brother knowing. Dean was going to on high-alert about who was coming in and out of the motel. Where he was going, and why.
At least until this whole thing with Danny was figured out. Sam still felt his heart jump every time he remembered that Danny was still kicking. Still wanting to be in his life.
Sam was feeling a lot of things, but also nothing at the same time. His body thrummed with energy as he stayed settle in a corner booth. The coffee he ordered resting in front of him, untouched. The coffee pot he managed to talk the waitress into leaving, settled between him and Danny. Danny, who had already made his caffeinated drink and was drinking it like his life depended on it.
"Danny-"
"Sam-" A soft laugh left Danny. "Sorry, you go first."
"I can't say I'm not hurt, but..." Sam paused, watching Danny finally stop taking sips from his mug. "I want to hear your side of things, everything." Danny exhaled, tracing his finger along the edges. He was never good at staying still, especially in tense situations.
"It's complicated. Sam, I've been through a lot since I got into that accident, my whole life changed." Danny explained, gaze flickering from Sam's eyes and the table. As much as Sam felt like he was opening a can of worms he can never close again, he wanted-needed-to know about this part of Danny's life. A side of it he never got to hear about. "I have some pretty crazy, and fucked up, stories of how I met all the people I know. How I built my family, or how I know the type of beings I do. It's a lot, I don't want to unload it on you all at once."
"Then don't." Sam responded, finally taking a sip from his own cup. "Dean doesn't trust you, and I don't know if he ever will, but I want to know it all. Danny, this is a side of your life I never got to hear about it. I want to hear about it." Danny swallowed, shifting his gaze to the table.
"You know how I managed to survive the fire? It was because of Charles. He's a... best way to explain it, a time lord. He watches the timeline, makes sure that fix-points occur so there is no paradox, no apocalypse." Danny explained, finally setting back in his seat. Sam kept quiet, taking in everything Danny was telling him. "He saw what was going to happen to me, to you, before it did. So he planned a safety net. He worked with some of the ghost to create a team to swoop in a save me once the fix-point was done. When Dean pulled you out."
"I woke up in the zone after my coma. Frostbite, and a few others, were on the medical team. They worked with me to make sure I'd heal, make sure I wasn't too damaged. It's terrifying once you know more, why fire could be devastating for me. Regardless, I spent all this time healing. Basically doing physical therapy and trying to figure out if I'm screwed or not."
"I'm not at my best, hell I'd be surprised if I'm functioning at eighty percent... but I'm still here. Still as alive as I have been. I wanted to try and see you sooner but, Pandora oversaw my health. I'm sure you can imagine how on it she was."
Sam swallowed, letting the words wash over him. Danny already gave a quick rundown of what happened yesterday, but right now... It was different hearing Danny say it like this. When he wasn't on the verge of breaking down at how the brothers would react. It was strange how Danny tried to play it off like he's just got back from vacation. If this was anything else, anyone else, Sam might have pushed harder. Instead, he choose to follow Danny's lead.
"I can imagine Pandora looking ten times scarier." Sam laughed along with Danny, watching some more warmth slip into blue eyes. "Limited access to her kid and everything, am I right?"
"God you don't even know the half of it." Danny groaned, running a hand through his hair. "I wasn't able to go topside until just before I was able to track you guys down."
"Which brings to my question." Sam steered the conversation, Danny's eyebrows furrowing ever so slightly. "What the hell in 'the zone'" Sam finally asked.
"Holy shit, you don't know, of course you don't. I don't why I kept talking like you did." Danny kind of rambled, a soft dusting of pink filling his cheeks. "It's essentially like Heaven. It's an in-between place for spirits not ready to move on, but don't want to just roam earth as shadows of themselves. Obviously shared with like beings, but it's essentially a mirror world of Earth."
"A mirror world"
"Okay, so get this..."
Sam couldn't stop the smile. Even if he wanted to. Not when Danny was lighting up, rambling on just like he always did when he talked about something he loved. Danny easily launched into descriptions of all the haunts the ghosts had in the zone. A hunting grounds, a lab, clocktower, castles, and even mechanic shops. It was a lot, and Sam was trying his hardest to take it in strides.
One thing was clear, Sam didn't expect to see that smile on Danny so soon.
He also didn't expect his heart to flutter at the sight. After all this time, after mourning. It's a wonder how Danny still left him with butterflies.