Down the Rabbit Hole

Under Lock and Key Part 1

Dean headed outside into the junk yard and found Bobby tinkering with one of the cars.
"Hey." He held up two beers and passed one to Bobby.
"How is he?"
"He's good. He's really good." Dean seemed surprised himself. "Better than I could of hoped."
"Uhuh."
"What? Why the poop face?" Bobby sighed.
"I'm glad he's better. I really am. But that kid went straight up Menedez on me not 10 days ago. And now it's all just erased? Sorry, I'm having a hard time just looking at him."
"It wasn't Sam." Dean reassured.
"Maybe it wasn't all Sam, but it was him Dean."
"Well what do you want me to do Bobby?" Dean sounded exasperated. "We tell him everything?"
"No. Just wish I could, that's all."
"Yeah, but if we start throwing that crap at him, we don't know what's going to happen. It could crack the wall."
"I know, I know." Bobby muttered.
"So you know what? As far as I'm concerned it's a gift horse and I'm not looking for teeth. I'm sending Death a damn fruit basket."
"He's gonna find out, you know. One way or another." Bobby warned him. "Someone'll tell him or he'll figure it out on his own. He's not dumb. He should hear it from us."
"Can we just leave it alone for the moment please?" Bobby threw up his hands.
"Okay, you better prep for the B side, cause when Sam realises we're shinin' him, he ain't gonna be cute."

The following morning Dean and Lacey were loading their bags into the trunk, ready to leave.
"Sam still asleep?" Bobby asked as he opened the passenger door.
"Yeah, let him rest, we'll call him later."
"Call me from where?" The three of them turned to see Sam coming down the porch steps.
"Oh, uh, there's this thing in Oregon." Dean explained.
"Great. I'm in."
"Whoa, whoa." Dean held up a hand. "You just got vertical."
"Exactly. I'm up. I'm good." Sam shrugged.
"Well a few more days of crap cable couldn't hurt." Dean protested.
"Right, cause that's what you did when you got back from hell." Sam pointed out.
"All right, the four of us can go."
"You three go on ahead. You've got this covered. I, uh, I forgot I promised that idgit Rufus I'd work the phones for him."
"You sure?" Bobby waved away their protests.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You three enjoy catching up. Okay?" Lacey shrugged and climbed into the back seat.
"What was that?" Sam asked as Bobby headed back into the house.
"One part age, three parts liquor." Dean guessed before shrugging and getting in too.

They had been driving for most of the day and darkness had fallen a short while ago. After they had stopped for food Lacey had dozed off in the back seat. Sam was on the phone to one of the officers working on the case.
"Uh, you got it officer. Thanks. You too." He hung up the phone. "So get this, besides the crash, there were two other disappearances in town this week."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Last weekend a college girl vanished from her apartment, on the seventeenth floor. Then three days ago another girl didn't make it home from school."
"They know each other?"
"No. No connection. Just young and female, like the plane crash girl."
"What would disappear a girl out of the sky anyway?"
"Good question." Sam glanced down at the case notes. "So you never even tried, huh?"
"Tried?" Dean looked confused.
"To go live a life after. You do remember you promised that right?"
"Yeah, I remember." Dean nodded gruffly.
"So why didn't you try?"
"What makes you think I didn't?"
"Cause look at you, look at this, you're exactly the same." Sam motioned to the car.
"Yeah, you're probably right." There was silence for a moment, apart from the roar of the engine. "I was with them for a year... Lisa and Ben." Dean admitted.
"You were?" Sam frowned at him. "Why?" Dean looked away from the road to glare at him.
"Cause you told me to go live 'some normal apple pie life', I believe those are the words you used."
"Yeah, I did, but I meant with Lacey, not with Lisa and Ben." Sam told him. Dean looked at him open mouthed.
"You didn't think to tell me that part?"
"I thought it was obvious. Next time I die I'll leave clearer instructions." Sam joked. "So wait, you lived with Lisa for a year, where was Lacey during all this?" Sam sounded concerned.
"Well... she travelled for a bit, most of the time she spent at the institute." Sam looked at him, waiting for him to elaborate.
"Right, of course." Dean chided himself. "You don't know."
"Don't know what?"
"Lacey can open portals between realities." Sam looked a little surprised. "She ended up going to live at the X-Mansion for a few months."
"The X-Mansion...As in Professor Xavier, the X-Men?" The shock was evident in Sam's voice.
"Yeah. That's where she found out where she came from. Apparently she was one of God's special projects before he high tailed it out of heaven. She's mostly mutant but she's got a bit of angel in her as well." There was silence for a moment as Sam processed this.
"Wow, so Lacey;s an X-Man." Sam sounded impressed.
"Yeah, I told her you'd like all that geeky crap."
"So God made her, she's supposed to be this weapon, and God handed her to us. You know what this means?"
"God has a sense of humour after all?" Dean guessed.
"Dean, when Lacey first got here, the demons and the angels were surprised. That means none of them release her from her prison." Dean raised an eyebrow, questioningly. "She literally landed on our car. Don't you get it? God made her then he released her, he's the only player with enough power to do that. And he sent her to us, to you. If he didn't intend for the two of you to be together then .... Yeah I guess he does have a sense of humour after all." Dean just stared ahead at the road, his mind going ten to the dozen as realisation dawned. Sam chuckled to himself. "I swear sometimes I think you need to be hit round the head with the truth."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Dean muttered as he pushed the Impala to go faster.

The next morning found the three of them knocking on the door of the sister of the girl who had disappeared from the plane.
"You're Penny Dessertine's sister, right?" Dean asked when she opened the door.
"Uhuh." She studied them warily.
"We'd just like to ask you a few questions." Sam told her.
"Looks the cops already came by, I'm tired. So if you don't mind... " She moved to close the door.
"I... I understand, really I do. I know how hard this must be." Sam told her gently. "We'd just like to figure what happened. This will be quick, I promise."
"Okay, fine, come in." She relented, standing back and holding the door open for them. She lead them through the house to a room that was painted pink and covered in stuffed animals. "Penny was very shy, kept to herself. Not at all what you'd call adventurous." She explained as they looked round the room.
"What like flying through a lightning storm in a two seater?"
"She was terrified of that thing. She just did it for Stan." The girl confessed.
"Stan?" Sam asked.
"They were just starting to get serious. She didn't want to seem, you know, not interested. I just wish I'd told her to stay home. We don't even have a body to bury." She confessed tearfully.

They left a short while later and headed out to a motel. Dean stopped at a fast food restaurant to get them lunch which they were sitting round the table eating now, as they did research.
"Hey." Sam said, getting their attention as he leafed through some papers.
"What do you got?" Dean asked.
"Uh, well looks like those other two missing girls baked cookies for the lord." Lacey stopped with a fry half way to her mouth, looking puzzled.
"Pardon?"
"What is that? Code?" Dean asked. Sam chuckled at their expressions.
"No. Church choir, bake sales, promise ring clubs, the works. They were good girls. But Penny wasn't even a Christian so..."
"I have another theory." Dean interrupted as he held up a book. "Penny's diary."
"Dude." Lacey shook her head.
"Did you steal that from her room?" Sam asked.
"I love that you even asked me that." Dean grinned.
"And why wouldn't I?" Sam and Lacey looked at him accusingly.
"No reason." Dean changed the subject. "So, girl napping's, what if it'd not about religion but about purity?"
"You mean you think they're all...."
"Virgins, Sam, virgins." Lacey's cheeks tinged pink and she stared down at her plate.
"Penny was 22." Sam pointed out.
"Yeah with a pink room." Dean scoffed. "And stuffed teddy bears."
"Fine, but you really think..." Dean cleared his throat and opened up the diary.
"I've decided I'm going to give Stan my most precious gift."
"Wow, that sounded really creepy coming out of your mouth." Sam admitted.
"I think I delivered it." Dean shrugged.
"You know, you could have lead with the diary? Anyway, let's say you're right. Who would want virgins?" Lacey busied herself tidying up the fast food cartons.
"You got me. I prefer the ladies with experience." Dean said as he paged through the diary some more. There was a clatter as Lacey dropped their plates down on the counter. Dean looked up from the diary and Lacey looked embarrassed.
"I'm gonna...go....out." She said before heading for the door. Dean raised an eyebrow as he watched her go. Sam rolled his eyes.
"Sometimes you really can be so dense." Realisation dawned.
"It was a joke." Dean said as he got to his feet and followed Lacey out the door. He found her leaning against the railings of the balcony a short way down from their room.
"Sweetheart I..." He started, but Lacey held up a hand.
"It's ok, I'm a telepath, I know you didn't mean it. I just needed to get out of there for a minute, that's all."
"Well, I'm sorry anyway." Dean told her as he leaned down next to her. They stayed like that for a while, just enjoying the silence.