I took a step toward Dean instinctively, staring at the Leviathan version of Cass with wide eyes.
"How many of you ass-clowns are in there?" Dean asked. "A hundred? More?"
More black goo was dripping from Cass's body.
"Your vessel's gonna explode, ain't it?" Dean continued. "Wouldn't do anything too strenuous. In fact, I'd call it a day, head on home, huh?"
"We'll be back. For you," the Leviathans promised.
Dean pulled me out of the way as they headed out of the room and left us alone.
"Well, this is a new one," I muttered.
"Sammy," Dean took off down the hall.
I made my way out of the building and a moment later was joined by the Winchesters. We all watched as the Leviathans walked into a reservoir. When the water got deep enough, they went under and a whirlpool appeared, black liquid radiating from it before disappearing.
"Aw, hell," I swore.
Sam and Dean turned to see what I was looking at. A sign at the edge of the reservoir read: 'Public Water Supply. No Swimming. No Fishing. No Boating.'
⁘
So then we had a whole new set of problems. In addition to the fact that we had to not only find but figure out how to get rid of the Leviathans, it turned out Sam's hallucinations were way worse than we thought. He was seeing Lucifer all the time and was having a hard time figuring out what was real. I didn't feel comfortable having Maddie and Zep around that, so while Dean and I left Bobby to keep an eye on Sam, Maddie and Zep got to tag along for the ride.
"Alright, I'll try to be fast," Dean told me.
"See you when you get out of there," I told him, leaning in for a kiss.
He climbed out and went into the school to investigate the crime scene where we suspected some Leviathans might have been.
"Mommy?" Maddie piped up from the back.
"Yes, darling?" I turned around in my seat.
"What's Daddy doing?"
"Daddy's working," I told her.
"What's a Leviathan?"
My heart plummeted in my chest. I knew Maddie was getting old enough to ask these types of questions. I mean, she knew angels existed because she had spent so much time with Saraqael and the other young angels in Heaven before everything got complicated. Sara had told us when she had dropped Maddie off back when Zep and I were first discharged that it wasn't safe for her to watch our daughter anymore, especially since at that point, Cass was still playing God.
"Um..." I swallowed hard, trying to figure out what to say. "The Leviathans are scary bad guys that Mommy and Daddy have to try and stop with Grandpa Bobby and Uncle Sammy."
"Why did you not want me and Zeppelin to be around Uncle Sammy?"
"Um..." I glanced out the window to see if Dean was coming back yet. "You'll have to ask Daddy that, okay?"
"Okay. What happened to Cass?"
"Maddie, please. No more questions, alright. You'll have to talk to your dad if you want answers."
"Is he back in Heaven with Sara?" Maddie persisted.
"No, Maddie he's not. I don't know where he is."
"What are 'alloosinayshuns?"
"What?"
"Daddy said Uncle Sammy is having 'allosinayshuns. Is that why me and Zeppelin came with you and Daddy?"
"Madelaine Rose!"
Maddie shrunk down in the backseat of the Impala and beside her Zeppelin made some noises in his sleep. I sighed, lowering my voice and speaking a bit more calmly.
"We'll talk more about it when Daddy gets back, okay?"
"Okay," she muttered, not looking at me.
Letting out a long breath, I glanced out the window again to see Dean walking toward the car.
"So?" I asked when he climbed in.
"Definitely our thing. There was more of the black goo in the locker room."
I sighed as Dean pulled out his phone to call Sam and let him know while he drove.
"Well, we're positive for ick," he said into the phone. "Same stuff that came out of Cass, and, uh, two of the swim kids are missing- they stole one of their parents' cars."
Zeppelin started getting fussy in his car seat and I turned around in my seat to check on him. Maddie still refused to look up from her lap.
"I don't know, it makes sense, right?" Dean continued on the phone. "Anyway, uh, state trooper's got surveillance on the kids about six hours old of them gassing up just south of the Dakota line, so we're headed back your way. We'll just track them from Bobby's."
After asking how Sam was, Dean hung up and I turned back around after securing Zep's pacifier back in his mouth and settling him down. He glanced over at me, then back at Maddie and Zep in the rearview mirror.
"What's wrong, princess?" he asked Maddie.
"Mommy yelled at me."
He turned to look at me for an explanation.
"She was asking a lot of questions. I told her she needed to wait and ask you, but she persisted."
"What kind of questions?"
I gave him a look and his mouth opened in an 'oh' shape.
"Those kind of questions," he muttered. "We've reached that stage, huh?"
I remained silent, watching the scenery go by out the window.
"What do you wanna know, princess?"
"What are 'alloosinayshuns?"
"What?"
"You said Uncle Sammy is having 'alloosinayshuns."
"Oh... Um..." Dean glanced over at me again, but I refused to take this one.
I never had to deal with answering these types of questions growing up. I was an only child and my father didn't have to expose me to hunting until I was older since he just sold supplies out of his shop. Dean had to deal with answering them because of Sam, so he was better at it.
"Hallucinations are... um... they're like bad dreams," he explained carefully.
"What happened to Cass?"
"He's gone, princess."
"Where did he go?"
Dean swallowed hard, white knuckling the steering wheel.
"I don't know, Maddie."
"Do me and Zeppelin get to come more since Uncle Sammy is having 'alloosinayshuns?"
"We'll, um, we'll have to see."
"How are you going to stop the bad guys?"
"What bad guys?"
"Mommy said the Leviathans are bad guys you have to stop."
"We're figuring that out, baby."
It was blessedly silent from the backseat for a few minutes before Maddie spoke up again.
"Are the Leviathans why Cass is gone?"
Dean and I both didn't respond right away.
"Yeah, darling, they are," I finally answered quietly.
Maddie fell silent once more and I glanced back at her. She was staring out the window, brow furrowed as if she was deep in thought. I swallowed, turning my gaze back to the front and reaching over to take one of Dean's hands in one of my own.