⛧✧ ✮⚝
"How many of you ass-clowns are in there? A hundred? More?" Dean asked, his arms tightening around me as I tried to push away from him, but he held me firm against his chest.
Leviathan-Cas just smiled, his mouth dripping black blood.
"Your vessel's gonna explode, ain't it? Wouldn't do anything too strenuous. In fact, I'd call it a day, head on home, huh?" Dean suggested.
"We'll be back. For you." it answered, and walked away.
Bobby blew out a sigh. "Well, this is a new one."
"Dean! Let go of me!" I squirmed out of his grasp quickly the second he loosened his arms from my waist.
"Well, I'm sorry if I wanted to protect you!" Dean said as the three of us stood.
"And I don't need your protection!" I replied in a snappy voice.
"Hey, you two! Quit your bickering and let's find Sam!" Bobby interrupted.
"Fine." I trailed behind the two men as they walked where Leviathan-Cas went, and we found Sam pressed up against a wall in a panic.
Dean ran up to his brother. "Sam! You hearing me?" he put a hand on Sam's chest when Sam snapped out of it, still freaked out. "Whoa. Look at me. Hey. All right, we got to button this up. Come on, let's get out of here. Come on."
The four of us walked out of the lab and found Leviathan-Cas walking behind a gate and into a water reservoir; the four of us watch as he goes under, and whirlpool appears as black liquid radiates out from it, then disappears suddenly.
"Aw, hell." Bobby sighed when he saw a sight that read: 'Public Water Supply. No Swimming. No Fishing. No Boating.'
"Damn it." Dean said as he grabbed Cas's trench-coat from where it floated nearby.
"You said it. Those...whatever you call 'ems..." Bobby nodded.
"Leviathan." I answered.
He looked at me. "Right. If they're in the pipes, they got themselves a highway to anywhere."
"Awesome." Dean sighed. "Okay. So he's gone."
"Yeah. Rest in peace. If that's in the cards." Bobby added.
"Dumb son of a bitch." Dean said as he folded the trench coat.
Bobby shrugged. "Well, he was friends with us, wasn't he? Can't get much dumber than that. Come on, those things will be coming up for air soon."
========
I turned the corner of the kitchen and stopped when I saw Dean wake Sam up from sleeping on the couch; leaning back against the wall and crossing my arms loosely over my chest, a light smile forming as I continued to look.
"Whoa. That's twelve hours straight, I'm calling that rested. Here." Dean held a bottle of water and a power bar out to Sam. "Hydrate, and uh, protein-ate."
"Breakfast in bed." Sam said as he took the water and power bar from Dean, not noticing me.
"Don't get used to it. Let me see that hand." Dean unwrapped Sam's bandage and inspects his stitches.
"Eh, you'll live. Here." Dean takes a bottle of whisky from the table and poured it over Sam's wound.
"Hey, kid," Bobby walked up beside me, making me look at him. "You and Dean still...you know, not a thing?"
I nodded, looking back at the brothers as they talked. "Yup."
"...but you still like him."
"Yeah."
"Okay. So, just tell him. That kid hasn't gotten a wink of sleep since that day." Bobby said, "for my sake, talk to him. Soon."
Sam finally cleared his throat once he noticed us. "So, ooze invasion. Any leads?"
Bobby shrugged. "I got all my feelers out. Whatever they're up to, it ain't–ain't about going Mothra down Main Street. They'll turn up. You seem pretty eager to stretch your legs, you know."
"Now onto our other big problem. How're you doin'?" Dean asked Sam once he put a new bandage on his brother's hand. "And do not say okay."
"I'm not okay." Sam answered.
"You think?" Dean said.
"Hey. Go a little easy." I said, finally speaking up for the first time since getting back.
Dean just looked at me silently before sighing. "There's nothing easy about it, okay? We acted like he had everything under control."
"I get it. I'm sorry. Look, I-I didn't exactly want to crack up, you know?" Sam said.
Dean looked back at his brother. "What the hell happened back there?"
"Well, it's not just flashbacks any more." Sam admitted.
"Well then what?"
"It's more like...I'm seeing through the cracks."
"What does that mean?" Dean asked.
"It means I'm having a difficult time figuring out what's real."
"Hallucinations." Dean muttered.
"For starters." Sam nodded.
"Well for starters, if you're tripping Hell's Bells, why would you hide that?" Dean asked.
"I wasn't hiding it, Dean, I – I was just not talking about it. I mean it seemed like you two had enough going on as it was. Look, I – I just figured, try to hold onto the safety bar and ride it out, you know? But it's getting more specific."
"As in specifically what?" Dean asked, "What the hell, Sam? I mean seriously, how do you, how do you argue with that?"
"I know. It's a problem."
"Well now wait, I got it. Why would the Devil holodeck you a whole new life when he could just kick your ass all over the Cage?"
"'Cause, as he puts it...You can't torture someone who has nothing left for you to take away." Sam said.
Dean nodded. "Okay, fine. But this Malibu dream mansion that he, he, he makes for you to take away is this post-apocalyptic mess?...Wait. Are you seeing him right now?"
Sam nodded.
"You know that he's not real. Right?" Dean asked.
"He says the same thing about you."
"I'm going back to work." Bobby said, then looked at me. "Talk to him." and left the room.
========
Sam sat across the kitchen, taking apart his gun, Bobby researched stuff on his computer with Dean and I leaning over his shoulders, much to his annoyance.
"Well, at least he's not curled up under the sink." Bobby said.
"Yeah, no, he's just sitting there silently field-stripping his weapon." Dean answered, taking his younger brother's phone from his jacket pocket as it hung on a kitchen chair.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Turning on his GPS, case he decides to fly the cuckoo's nest." He answered.
"And you? How are you doing?" Bobby asked.
"Seriously Bobby, it ain't like he's hexed, you know? I mean, what if it's the kind of crazy you can't fix?" Dean said.
Bobby nodded. "Yeah, I'm – I'm worried too, but humor me for a second. How are you?"
"Who cares? Don't you think our mailbox is a little full right now? I'm fine."
"Right. And weren't you pissed at him when he said the same thing just a couple hours before he spilled his marbles all over the floor?" Bobby asked.
He shrugged, grabbing a mug and pot of coffee, pouring himself one. "Yeah, well, I'm not Sam, okay? I keep my marbles in a lead friggin' box. I'm fine. Really."
"Of course. Yeah. You just lost one of the best friends you ever had, your brother's in the bell jar, Purgatory's most wanted are surfing the sewer lines, and you broke up with one of the only girls who's actually fine with your line of work, but yeah, yeah, I get it. You're – you're fine."
"Good." Dean took a sip, glancing at me before looking back at Bobby. "And we didn't break up. We weren't even dating."
"No, you were just taking me to bed every night." I said with a roll of my eyes.
"I didn't exactly hear you complaining those night, princess." Dean said, looking at me and setting his mug down.
"Same goes for you." I shot back.
Bobby sighed, clapping once to get our attention. "Have your lovers' quarrel later. Course, Dean, if at any time you want to decide that's utter horse crap, well I'll be where I always am. Right here."
Dean frowned. "What, you want to do couples' yoga, or you want to get back to hunting the big bads?"
"Shut up. Idjit." Bobby said, but smiled a little.
========
Dean walked into the room carrying groceries, setting the bag on the kitchen table.
"So it looks like we got some bad news for a change. Stockville North Kansas, most of a high school swim team got mangled to death in their locker room." Sam said to Dean as he read off his computer.
"Cop talk on the wire's kind of garbled, saying it looks like some kind of wild animal attack. They're saying that whatever attacked them's about the size of a linebacker." I added from next to Sam.
"It's a lead, Dean." Sam said.
"All right, but if you think you're going out on a hunt..." Dean shook his head.
"No, I know. I'm not. But you are. Look, Bobby's running the hub, I'm – I'm 5150'd, which leaves you to follow this thing up." Sam said, then glanced at me momentarily before looking at his brother. "You're taking Bianca with you."
"What? No." Dean shook his head.
"Dude. Seeing this is painful." Sam said. "You two are better together, whether you like it or not. Bianca makes you a better Hunter, and Dean, you make Bianca just better and less murderous.. she's actually got feelings now!"
"Dude. Stop it." I shut him up. "You're in the middle of a psychotic break. I'm not leaving you."
"Yes, you are. It's a couple hours' drive, and it could be a Leviathan thing." Sam announced.
Dean shook his head. "Nah, if you think we're leaving you here alone..."
Bobby looked offended. "Hey. What am I, chopped brains on toast? I can eyeball the kid. Go. Work off some of these nerves on something useful."
Dean sighed loudly, looking at me, then his brother. "Fine. Let's go, Bellamy."
I followed Dean out of the house and got into the newly fixed Impala, just sitting in the drivers seat as I stayed silent in the passengers.
"I'm not happy about this." Dean spoke up, turning the ignition and starting the car up.
"Yeah, well, I'm not too thrilled either." I looked at him finally. "But how about we put aside this and just get the job done? That sound good?"
"Works for me." Dean nodded, driving out of the junkyard.
The two of us were silent the whole way to Stockvilke High School, getting out of the car and the two of us walking into the school, following the chatter of cops and entering the crime scene of the locker room—covered in blood.
"Special Agent Anderson. Ian." Dean held up his badge, gesturing to me. "My partner, Agent Fisher. Newly assigned."
The forensic officer looked at me. "So, no badge yet."
"Still being shined up by the officers." Dean said quickly.
"..okay. Our point cop's out on the donut. Forensics." He gestured to himself. "I can show you two the layout. And step lightly. We got a whole bunch of NC17 shiznickel right over there."
"Agent Fisher? Really? Carrie Fisher?" I hissed under my breath as we walked around the corner to go deeper into the locker room.
"Hey, you like Star Wars." he answered me.
I suddenly tapped his arm and pointed to a trail of black goo that appeared on a pillar.
"Dammit." Dean muttered. We continued searching with the forensics officer for the next half hour before leaving the crime scene.
"I'll call Sam." I said once we had gotten on the road, driving down the rainy night streets.
"Hey." Sam said once I had put him on speakerphone. "What you two got?"
"Well, we are positive for ick. Same kind of stuff that came out of Cas, and, uh, two of the swim kids were missing – they stole one of their parents' cars." Dean answered.
"So you think these, um, these Leviathan things just jump into people? Like Eve did?"
"I don't know, it makes sense, right? Anyway, uh, state trooper's got surveillance cam on the kids about six hours old, of them gassing up just south of Dakota line, so we're headed back your way. We'll just track them from Bobby's."
"Yeah, sounds good."
"Hey! How are you doing?" I asked suddenly.
"You know, uh, okay."
"Okay. Well hang in there, all right?" I said, then went to hang up the phone.
"Hey, guys. It's getting kind of late, so you two might wanna stop a hotel, then continue here in the morning."
"No way, man. I see what you're trying to do, and it ain't happening. We'll be there in a few hours." Dean answered, and pressed the end call button on my phone.
I put my phone back in my pocket. "Mind if I ask you one thing before I shut up for the rest of the way?"
"You just did, but go ahead."
"It was good, wasn't it?" I asked.
"What was good?"
"The sex."
His hands went white on the wheel as he gripped it hard. "..yeah. But I didn't want it to just be sex. Unlike you, I wanted to make this work."
"And you don't think I want that either? That I maybe might have wanted this to be real?!"
"Obviously not, because you were lying to me!"
"Everyone lies!"
"Not towards someone you love!"
I blinked. "..what?"
He glanced at me, shaking his head. "Never mind."
I slammed my finger onto the cassette button, having the speakers blasting Metallica for the next few hours on the road, filling the silence.
I got out of the car after we pulled up at Bobby's late that night, and we entered the house. "Sam?"
Dean walked in behind me. "Hey, Sammy!"
"You don't think he's..."
"Crap. Probably. Come on." he grabbed my arm, and we walked back out of the house.
========
Dean and I pull up next to a black van outside an abandoned warehouse, getting out and walking into the warehouse.
"Sam? Sam!" Dean said with relief when he saw his brother.
"Sam, what are you doing?" I asked.
Sam suddenly points his gun at me, fear in his eyes. "Are you real, Bianca? Or am I hallucinating?"
"Shoot her. Find out." Dean shrugged.
"Dean!" I smacked his head.
A light smile came onto Sam's face. "Nah. She's real. But are you?"
"Whoa, whoa!" Dean held up his hands as Sam shifted his gun towards his own brother.
"I was with you, Dean!" Sam said.
"Okay. Well, here I am."
"No. No, I don't, I..." Sam stuttered. "I can't know that for sure. You understand me?"
Dean nodded, his hands still up. "Okay, now we're gonna have to start small."
"I don't remember driving here." Sam said shakily, shooting to my far left.
"Whoa, whoa! Sam! This discussion does not require a weapons discharge!" Dean said loudly, getting Sam to lower the gun. "Look at me. Come on. You don't know what's real? Look man, I've been to Hell. Okay, I know a thing or two about torture. Enough to know that it feels different. Than the pain of this – this regular, stupid, crappy this."
"No, no. How can you know that for sure?" Sam asked.
"Let me see your hand." Dean looks at Sam's right hand. "No, no. The – the gimp hand! Let me see it." he grabbed Sam's bandaged hand. "This is real. Not a year ago, not in Hell, now. I was with you when you cut it, I saw Bianca sew it up! Look!"
I winced as I saw Dean squeezing Sam's bandaged left hand and grabbed the barrel of the gun he is holding with his other hand.
"This is different. Right? Then the crap that's tearing at your walnut? I'm different. Right?" Dean asked Sam once he had taken a breath.
"Yeah, I think so." Sam nodded, looking next to Dean.
"Sam? Sam." Dean snapped his fingers in front of him.
Sam suddenly pushes his right thumb against his wound, which bleeds through the bandage.
"Hey. I am your flesh-and-blood brother, okay? I'm the only one who can legitimately kick your ass in real time. You got away. We got you out, Sammy. Believe in that! Believe me, okay? You gotta believe me. You gotta make it stone number one and build on it. You understand?"
Sam nodded, taking his thumb away from his bloodied hand. "Yeah. Yeah, okay." he said, and his phone rang.
"Bobby, hey." Sam said once he picked up the phone.
"The Sheriff was right. The hospital thing's definitely our kind of thing. I double-barreled one of them in the morgue. Silver buckshot – no effect. Bled black ooze."
"Leviathan here?" Sam asked as the three of us headed out into the Impala.
"I'm falling back. I'll meet you at the house. We can regroup."
Sam hangs up the phone and got into the passenger's seat as I got into the back seat. "Bobby's got a live one."
"Look, when we get back to Bobby's—" Dean said once we had been driving in silence for a solid five minutes.
"It's okay, Dean, I'm good. No white rabbits. I'm not seeing anything." Sam answered.
"Okay. Baby steps."
I leaned my head back against the seat and breathed in a sigh, letting out out and closing my eyes.
"You tired, Bianca?" Sam asked.
"You try staying up all night with Dean while you're in an argument." I answered, rubbing my forehead with the palm of my hand. "It's fricking exhausting."
"Hey. You were the one who started the argument." Dean said.
"Just shut up, okay?" I said, "I'm too tired to hear all the shit between us."
"Fair enough." he said, and went silent for a long time before speaking again. "Oh no."
"What?" I opened my eyes, and gasped when I saw Bobby's house was on fire.
"Okay. Search the house for Bobby." Dean said as the three of us got out of the car, running into the charred house and searching the house.
"Any sign of him?" Sam asked as we walked back out of the house, meeting up in the scrapyard.
Deans shook his head. "That place was torched. Somebody knew what they were doing."
"You think Bobby was back there?" Sam asked.
"I don't know." Dean shrugged, then took out his phone and put it up to his ear. "You cannot be in that crater back there. I can't...If you're gone, I swear, I am going to strap my Beautiful Mind brother into the car and I'm gonna drive us off the pier. You asked me how I was doing? Well, not good! Now you said you'd be here. Where are you?" he said, hanging up.
"Bobby!" Sam shouted as the three of us walked through the junkyard. "Bobby? Bobby!"
We turned a corner and saw a tall man—a Leviathan.
"Winchesters and Princess. Congratulations. Apparently you three are competent enough to warrant annihilating. I'd take it as a compliment." it said.
Dean took out a gun and shot the Leviathan in the side of the head with a shotgun. The Leviathan straightens up, looks at the black ooze on his hand, and his face transforms: his mouth enlarges, his teeth become long and jagged, and a long, two-pronged tongue unfurls. He grabbed onto Dean's shirt and chucked him back into a car, grabbing my neck and squeezing tightly.
"Dean, now!" Sam shouted, seeing Dean was right by the crane operator.
"You're one annoying girl. Why can't you just die already?" the Leviathan said, bringing its hideous face near mine.
"Tried that." I choked out, slamming my fist into the Leviathan's nose, breaking away from him just in time for it to shriek and blow us back, sending us slamming into old cars just as Dean dropped a car on top of the creature.
"Bianca? Hey. Hey, wake up." Dean's hands were warm against my cheeks, his thumbs stroking over my jaw. "Don't you dare be dead!"
I groaned as pain slammed into my head, squeezing my eyes shut. "Ow..."
"You're not dead!"
"Obviously not." I answered, pushing myself away from him as Sam remained unconscious next to me.
Dean took out his phone, dialing.
"What're you doing?" I asked.
"Calling help."
========
"Yeah, he's seizing. Copy that. We're just pulling into Sioux Falls." A paramedic announced as the three of us laid on stretchers in the back of the ambulance.
"Sioux Falls? Sioux Falls General? No, no, no. No, you gotta take us somewhere else, anywhere. Please." Dean said.
"Yeah, okay, buddy." The paramedic said, obviously not going to do that.