Sam hangs up his phone as Dean and Larissa walk into the library.
"Hey. How did you sleep?" Sam asks.
"Like a drunk baby. What do we got?" Dean asks.
"Uh, nothing." Sam says.
"Really?" Dean asks.
"Yeah, I mean, uh, no weird deaths, no demon signs. There's a kitsune working some truck stops outside of Boise, but Rudy's on it, so..." Sam shrugs.
"All right. So, uh, snow day. I say we get drunk and shoot crap." Dean says.
"Yeah, except we do that every day. Actually, I was thinking about seeing a movie." Sam says.
"Yeah, that would be cool." Dean says.
"It's a French movie." Sam says.
"You mean like nudie French?"
"Even better. It's about a mime that's secretly a cockroach."
"What?" Larissa mumbles.
"I-I don't get it." Dean says.
"Dude, the New York Times said--"
"Who cares?" Dean cuts his brother off.
"All right, well... it's playing in Wichita, so I might not be back till morning." Sam says.
"Well, I trust you. Make good choices."
"Right. You know, I mean... I don't have to go alone--"
"It's fine. Besides, I could use a little "me" time."
"All right. Stay out of my room."
"Totally."
"You wanna go?" Sam asks Larissa.
"No." She states like it's obvious.
"I think you would really like the movie." Sam says.
"I really don't think I would." Larissa argues.
"I think so."
"I think not."
"Well, come with me to say bye to Athena." Sam grabs her wrist and drags her out of the library. "I'm not actually going to see a movie."
"What? Why'd you lie?" Athena asks.
"Because Dean isn't so huge on finding a solution for the mark and he'd be annoyed if he knew I was still looking. Especially if he knew what I was gonna do." Sam says.
"And what exactly are going to do?" Larissa asks.
"I have to find a way to get to Metatron."
"Excuse me? Killed Dean Metatron? That Metatron?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Cause he might know."
"Oh, come on, Sam. And why don't you tell him? I mean, aren't you guys tired of secrets yet?"
"Yes, but it seems to be how our lives work out."
"Yeah, cause you guys don't know how to man up and tell each other the truth. I mean, hello, secrets ruined your guys' relationship more times then I can count. It ruined our marriage. You still wanna go down this road?"
"Look, are you in or not?"
"I love you, but, no. Thena and I will stay here and... and do mommy-daughter stuff."
"Which would be...?"
"Literally anything."
"Fine." Sam sighs.
+++
"Crowley told me. Or rather Rowena told him after she tried and failed to kill me." Dean says as Larissa walks into the library with Athena.
"What the hell happened?" Sam asks.
"The Mark protected me. Rowena doesn't really have a beef with me. She was pissed at Crowley because she thinks he's going soft." Dean says.
"She's not wrong." Sam says.
"Yeah, well, after he and mommy dearest got into a fight--"
"Mommy dearest?"
"Rowena is Crowley's mother." Dean informs, Larissa and Sam sharing shocked looks. "More about that later. So, then he came and told me what she had said. The Mark is an actual curse. So, anyway, I'm sorry. I probably should've told you that."
"Yeah."
"Yeah." Sam's phone rings and Dean picks it up.
"Winchester Accounting. How may I help you?" He asks. "Charlie? What's going on? Where are you?" He puts the phone on speaker after a moment. "Okay. Hey, hey. Take a deep breath, kiddo. Uh, we're all sitting here. Tell me what happened. Why are you bleeding?"
"I, uh-- I got shot. Did you know dental floss works great on stitches? I only passed out twice, and I'm pretty sure my wound is now minty fresh." Charlie says.
"Charlie, you probably need to go to a hospital." Sam says.
"No, no, I-I'm fine. I just got to get someplace safe. These guys are still after me." Charlie says.
"What guys? Who?" Sam asks.
"Some southern fried d-bags. They've been after me since I dug up "The Book of the Damned."" Charlie says.
"You found it? Where?" Sam asks.
"After some near misses and some broke into museums, I found historical documents that led to a monastery in Spain. It burned down years ago, left for dead, but, uh, I had this hunch about it. Turns out I was right."
"Okay, Charlie, what does it say about the mark?" Dean asks.
"I have no fracking idea. The language it's written in, I've never seen anything like it. I, uh, I found some research notes in the monastery crypt, though, by the Friar that buried it. "The Book of the Damn" is a spell book for creating or undoing any kind of damnation there is. We translate this thing, I think we can get the Mark of Cain off you, Dean."
"Charlie, you're a genius." Dean says.
"A genius fugitive. I-- these dudes following me, they are well trained. One of them keeps talking about his family." Charlie says.
"Family? Did you get a name?"
"No clue. I-I-I spotted a tattoo on one of them. Might be a family crest. It seemed occulty. Soon as the book was out of the ground, they were all over me. I, uh... I don't know how much more running I got left in me. They're tracking the book somehow."
"All right, then we need to get you off the grid, Charlie. Where are you right now?" Sam asks.
"Uh, just south of Des Moines." She says.
"Uh, okay, you know what? Our-- our friend, Bobby has a whole bunch of cabins scattered all around, places for hunters to crash. You know, it's not much, but there's some gear and lore books, stuff to keep you busy till we get there." Dean says.
"Okay, bring snacks. And every Men of Letters decoder ring there is. This book is old and scary and I've never seen anything like it." Charlie says.
+++
They get to the cabin they told Charlie to go to and walk in.
"Charlie?" Dean calls.
"Merry Christmas!" Charlie shoots up from where she was asleep at the desk.
"Chalie!" Athena races to her, wrapping her arms around the redhead's leg.
"Hey, baby huntress." Charlie pats her on the head.
"Hey." Dean greets.
"Were you followed?" Charlie asks.
"No, no." Dean answers, hugging her.
"How are you feeling?" Sam asks, hugging Charlie.
"Um... I may have just passed out, but better." Charlie says, hugging Larissa.
"Where's the book?" Dean asks.
"Okay, here's what I've learned so far. About 700 years ago, a nun locked herself away after having visions of darkness. After a few decades squirrelled away by herself, she emerged with this." Charlie pulls the book out of her bag. "Each page is made out of slices of her own skin written in her blood."
"Ew." Larissa grimaces.
"I told you, it's eekish." Charlie says. She gives Sam the book and he flips through it. "According to the notes I found, it's been owned and used by cults, covens, and the Vatican had it for a while. There's a spell inside that thing for everything. Talking some black mass, dark magic, end of times nastiness. As far as what language it's written in, I'm thinking it's some kind of... uh..."
"Dean?" Sam calls, noticing his brother enticed by the book. "Dean!"
"What?" Dean looks up and between the other three adults. "I don't think it's a good idea that I touch this." He gives the book back to Charlie. "I'll go get the rest of our crap."
"Right." Sam says and Dean walks out.
"What the hell was that?" Charlie asks.
"He's not getting better. He's trying to cover, but... we need to find that cure fast." Sam states.
+++
"Okay, I got a pretty good look at his tattoo. It's something like this." Charlie hands Dean a paper that has a drawing of the tattoo on it.
"The douche clan. Got it. Well, this is everything the Men of Letters had on occult families, so there should be something in here." Dean says as he and Larissa start to go through files.
"Sam, got anything?" Charlie asks.
"Maybe. Uh, yeah, it's all in an obscure Sumerian dialect. Actually found a rough match for it in this book." Sam says.
"Great." Charlie says.
"I thought so too. But I've been translating, but none of the translated words make any sense. It's all just gibberish. I mean, maybe it's in a different dialect?" Sam asks.
"No, no, no. You're right, but I-I-I think... I think this is in code." Charlie says.
"An entire book of unreadable text that's also in code. Great." Sam sighs.
"And you call yourselves nerds. Come on. You got this." Dean says.
"Go, super nerds, go." Larissa fist bumps the air.
"Neds!" Athena copies her mom's fist bump.
"He's right. Let's get our Alan Turing on. Decrypt this bitch." Charlie says. Sam notices Dean staring at the book.
"You know what, Charlie? Why, uh... um, why don't we stick with my notes for a little bit? This book is literally making my eyes hurt." Sam weakly chuckles. He puts the book in the box.
+++
"Okay, even the Bletchley Circle couldn't crack this thing. I've tried every cryptographic algorithm there is. Goose egg." Charlie says.
"Well, maybe that's not such a bad thing. Those people following you? All kinds of wrong. Talking multi generational, centuries old wrong. The Styne family. Men of Letters' files have them dated back to the early 1800s. They used spells to create disease, to destabilize markets. Hell, they even helped the Nazis before they came into power, and they profited from all of it."
"So, they're like the supernatural Du Ponts?" Charlie asks Dean.
"Basically." He says. "All the spells they used came from a book of "unspeakable evil" which they lost nearly 100 years ago."
"Okay, so they're bad. So what? We faced worse." Sam says.
"Sam, read the file. The way the book works, is when you use it, there is a negative reaction. I'm talking biblical negative. Dark magic always comes with a price. We know that. We've been down that road before." Dean says.
"Well, let's at least translate it, see what it says." Charlie says.
"You guys don't understand. The book's been calling out to me ever since I laid eyes on it, okay? Calling out to the mark. I can hear it like it's alive. It wants me to use it, but not for good. Look, I wanted it to be the answer too, okay? I really did. But we have got to get rid of that. Burn it, bury it, I don't give a damn. We'll just have to find another way to fix the mark."
"Like what?" Sam asks.
"I don't know." Dean says.
"So you're giving up?" Charlie asks.
"No, I'm not giving up. Charlie, I don't have a death wish. Okay, even if I did, I can't die, not with this thing on my arm. What I can do is I can fight it as long as I can until--"
"Until what?" Sam asks. "Tell me. Until what, Dean? Until I watch you become a demon again? Until then? I can't do that. I won't do that."
"Well, then you'll just have to lock me up. Bind me to the bunker like you did last time." Dean says.
"That doesn't solve anything." Charlie says.
"Look, just let us translate the book, okay? If there's a cure, we'll do it and deal with the consequences later. I can't lose you." Sam says.
"Really?" Dean asks.
"Yeah, really." Sam nods.
"You change your mind on that, cause that's not what you said last time." Dean says.
"Dean..." Larissa mumbles.
"Oh, come on, man. You know I didn't mean that." Sam says.
"This is my cross to bear, Sam! Mine! And that book is not the answer!" Dean shouts. Athena whines, climbing into her mom's lap at the yelling. Larissa covers her daughter's ears. "Now we got to destroy it before it falls into the wrong hands, and that includes me! I'm gonna go for a drive. Uh, Charlie, we forgot to pick up your snacks."
"Dean, look--" Sam says.
"We'll figure out another way. And Sam, I'll get my vacation. But not today. Not like this." Dean leaves.
"Sam, maybe he's right." Charlie says.
"No, there's a way to fix it. There has to be." Sam says.
+++
"What did Dean mean? When he said you changed your mind?" Charlie asks. Sam glances over at Larissa and Athena who are cuddled up and asleep on the couch.
"So, awhile back, we had the chance to, um... close the gats of Hell. And in order to do that, I would've had to die. And, I was okay with that, and I am okay with that, but Dean wasn't. And so, he, uh..."
"He saved you." Charlie says.
"Yeah, he saved me." Sam says.
"And let me guess, in doing so, he did something you didn't want and that pissed you off." Charlie says. "Would this be the same thing that caused the not-divorce divorce?"
"It's half the reason, yeah." Sam nods.
"Also, I, uh, noticed the rings are back on." Charlie smiles.
"Yeah. Yeah, we, uh, we kissed again. Worked it out." Sam says.
"Knew you would. But, anyways, back to Dean doing something bad to save you. I'm guessing you said something to hurt him? Like you said a bunch of things to hurt her?" Charlie asks.
"Yeah, that sounds about right." Sam nods.
"Brothers. You know, I haven't been a hunter for very long, but it feels like this is the life. Mostly ends in Sophie's choices, death, or tears. Usually all of the above, huh? How did this become my life? I mean, I was gonna own my own start up, marry ScarJo, invent something cool. Now I'm just... I'm just happy to be alive."
"You know, when Dean came to get me at school, I-I told myself... one last job, you know? One more job. And then when-- when I, um... when I lost Jess, I, again, told myself one more job. There's always one more job, you know? And one more job and one more job and then I was gonna go back to law and-and to my life."
"You were the Dread Pirate Roberts of hunting."
"Yeah. I guess I really understand now that... this is my life. I love it. But I can't do it without my brother. I don't want to do it without my brother. And if he's gone, then I don't..."
"I got it. I-I do. What about Rissa?"
"I..." Sam softly laughs, looking over at his sleeping family, Charlie not missing the adoration and love in his eyes. "I can't do anything with her. Hunting, apple pie life, any of it. I probably need her more than anybody else."
+++
Dean rushes back into the cabin as Charlie is building the fire back up.
"What's going on?" Charlie asks.
"The Stynes, they found me." Dean says. "Those douches are all jacked up, too."
"What are you talking about?" Sam asks.
"I emptied a full clip into one of them before the son of a bitch went down." Dean says.
"Dean, what are you doing with the holy oil?" Sam asks.
"There is a cure for the mark in the book. But it comes at price. We got to destroy it." Dean says.
"Are you sure about this?" Sam asks.
"It's calling to me, Sam, okay? I can hear it. It's calling to the mark. It wants me to take the book and run away with it. Burn it now." Dean orders and they hear the Stynes outside. "Sam, burn it now."
"Here. Bathroom, go. Bathroom." Sam ushers Larissa towards it. She picks Athena up, rushing to the bathroom. She gets the door shut just as a Styne crashes through the window.
+++
"We're back, bitches!" Charlie announces, her and Larissa walking in. Charlie is carrying grocery bags while Larissa carries Athena. "Whoa! Is that who I think it is?" She rushes over to Cas.
"Charlie, Cas. Cas, Charlie." Sam introduces. Charlie hugs the angel and puts the bags on the table.
"I thought you'd be shorter." Charlie says.
"I'm gonna get these to the fridge." Sam takes the bags, going to the kitchen. He kisses Larissa and then Athena when he passes them.
"Heard you got your mojo back." Charlie says.
"Yes, my-my Grace, it's-- it's been restored." Cas says.
"So, can't you just -- you know... cure Dean?" Charlie asks.
"Unfortunately, it's not that simple." Cas says.
"Oh. Never is, is it? Do you think you could do anything about my carpal tunnel?" Charlie asks. Cas puts two fingers to her forehead. "Is that it?"
"Your carpal tunnel and your bullet wound are now healed. You may want to continue wearing your wrist brace at night, though." Cas says.
"Did we just become best friends?" Charlie punches Cas' arm. Cas looks at Larissa in confusion, but she's just trying not to laugh.
"Hey, look who decided to show." Dean walks down the stairs with pizza. "So? You're back? 100%? How did that happen?" Cas glances at Sam as he walks back in.
"Um, it was Hannah. She managed to get the location of the remainder of my grace out of Metatron." Cas says.
"Awesome. I told you we were due for a win." Dean tells Sam. "Good to have you back, pal." He tells Cas.
+++
"Okay, I need to show you something." Sam says, dragging Larissa into their room. He shuts and locks the door.
"Does this something involve no clothes?" Larissa asks.
"What? No." Sam shakes his head.
"Well, there goes any excitement." Larissa mumbles.
"Here." Sam takes the warded box out and opens it to reveal the Book of the Damned.
"That, um... that's the book." Larissa says.
"Yeah. I-I swapped it out and threw a different book in the fire. I... I know Dean said to burn it, but I can't just let him give up on the idea so easily. I... I'm thinking I need to ask Rowena for help." Sam says.
"The-- the witch, Rowena?" Larissa asks.
"Yes." Sam winces.
"So you're going behind Dean's back for all of this?" Larissa asks.
"Well, y-yeah. Yeah." Sam says. "So, um... you in?"
"I can't." Larissa says.
"What?" Sam asks.
"Sam, I already lied to you for months about something giant. I can't-- I mean, I'm not in love with Dean or anything, but he is still my best friend, and I don't wanna lie to him either. I don't... I don't have the energy to keep lying to you guys -- for you guys."
"So, what? You're just gonna let Dean give up?" Sam asks. "Or-Or Dean asks you to lie to me and that's okay? But me -- your husband -- asks and you can't do it?"
"No, none of that, but I-- I'm done lying. It just ruins everything, I can't do it anymore. I'm still getting over lying to you about Gadreel because I still feel an overwhelming amount of guilt for that. I can't have more piling onto it. That would wreck me."
"Yeah. Yeah, I get that, I guess." Sam mumbles.
"Look, I'm here for you, Sammy. You know that. I just... I can't. I don't wanna be around it."
"No, no, that's okay. He isn't your brother, it-- it's fine." Sam says.
"Maybe... maybe I should go stay with Jody for a bit. You know, and if you need me, you can call. But just-- just for safety, maybe? Precaution. And I don't-- I don't want Athena around all of this."
"Yeah, I get it. That's... that's a good idea."
"This isn't me breaking up with you."
"I know."
"I'm sorry, Sammy."
"Don't be. I'll figure something out."
Larissa leans up to kiss him, but he lowers his head, her not able to touch his lips.
"I'll go pack Thena's stuff for you." Sam hides the book again and walks out.
"Sam--" Larissa tries, but he's already out of the room.
~ ~ ~
Larissa walks into the main room where Dean is.
"Hey." He greets, but sees her duffel bag. "Going somewhere?"
"Uh... yeah, um, Thena and I are gonna go stay with Jody for a bit." Larissa says.
"Why?" Dean asks.
"Just, um... you know, to get out of the bunker. And we haven't seen her in a while, so." Larissa shrugs. "Plus, Thena's super excited about it already, so can't really change my mind."
"Jody! Jody! Jody! Jody! Jody!" Athena hops into the room like a rabbit, her stuffed animal in her arms. Sam is trailing behind her with a small smile on his face.
"See? Can't say no to that little face." Larissa says. "And, you know, you guys can have brother time or... or whatever."
After saying goodbye, Larissa and Athena head to the garage and leave.
"You two get in a fight?" Dean asks.
"What? No. No, we're fine. Thena just wanted to see Jody after we had mentioned her and-- and we just didn't have the heart to tell her no." Sam says, shrugging.
"Right. Okay." Dean mumbles.
+++
Larissa has been at Jody's for a couple of weeks. Claire started living with them and Athena has grown an attachment to the blonde. Claire tries to avoid any interaction with the toddler, but the young Winchester is very persistent.
Larissa is folding laundry when her phone rings and it's Sam.
"Hey." She answers, holding the phone to her ear. "Everything okay?"
"Uh... no. Dean found out." Sam says.
"Oh, shit. How pissed is he?" Larissa asks.
"Very. But I-- I don't know if it's just him or if some of it is the mark." Sam says. "But, Lissy, uh... that-that isn't the worst part."
"What is?" Larissa asks.
"Charlie's dead." Larissa feels her heart drop as she sinks to the floor.
"Wh-what?"
"She-- I asked her for help and-and the Stynes caught up to her. They-- they killed her. I... she's gone." Sam lets out a small sob.
"Oh, my God." Larissa whispers. She feels the tears well up in her eyes and tries to fight them, but isn't able to as they stream down her face. "Wh-- um... do you-- do you need me to come back? I can come back. I'll leave now."
"No. No, no, no." Sam denies. "It's-- it's safer to stay there. Safer for you and Athena. Just... just with-with Dean and the Stynes and the book, I... I can't risk losing you guys too. So, please... stay at Jody's for now."
"Okay. Yeah, yeah, okay. Sam, are you sure?" Larissa asks.
"Positive. You're safer there and... and just knowing that is enough to comfort me somewhat." Sam says.
"Okay."
"I love you."
"I love you, too."