Katie's POV
In the morning everyone was subdued. We barely talked, and when we did it was just related to fixing and eating breakfast. Maggie and I cleaned up the kitchen and said we were going to the bedrooms to gather our things together.
When we were all ready we packed our stuff in the back seat of the car. We had a lot more than what we came with. The boys hugged us close, again without saying much. But I said, "We will go get groceries and necessities and bring them over later. And we do want to meet Garth. Leave a note in the back seat when he gets here okay?"
Sam nodded and kissed me, and then helped me into the car. Dean, for all he was the one who wanted us to leave the most, was the one who was having the hardest time letting go of Maggie. But he finally did, and we went back home. We both sat in the car crying and talking until we were able to get ourselves under control, and then we went inside. We left our stuff for now, until after we told our parents what was going on. Hopefully, we could tell just enough of the story so as not to make them worry. Fat chance on that one, I thought.
Dad was at work. He often drives a fixer upper home so Mom can have the car, especially since we have been asking for it to stay at home so much lately.
We told mom we were going to stay in our old room for a few days. Of course, she wanted to know what was wrong, and were we no longer happy with Sam and Dean. We assured her we were still madly in love, and that the love was still returned. Then inspiration hit me out of the blue. "They have an old friend coming in, and they want to work on some of the rooms. We decided it was best to stay out of the way. We will still go see them several times a day."
She seemed to accept that so I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I sat down at the table with her and I said, "Mom?"
"Hmm?"
"Would you and Dad be willing to sell me your car?" I asked.
"Oh, Katie, I don't know about that. We would need to get a new one then, and we don't have the money for that."
"Mom," I said, "I did say sell, not give. I do have money. I will pay you more than it's worth. Or hell, I'll trade you my car. It's four years newer and has way fewer miles on it."
"You want it because of the portal, right?"
"Yes Mom, and we can't always be inconveniencing you guys, and we have to have it available even more than usual for a while."
"I understand," she said. "Let me talk to your father, and see what he says."
"Thanks, Mom," I said, and jumped up off the chair and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Then Maggie and I went out to gather our things.
When we were all settled in again, we sat down and watched the last two episodes again. I said, "None of this looks like what's happening over there. So it must not be connected, and Chuck or whoever isn't getting visions about it."
"I agree," Maggie said. "But this stuff is like a bomb waiting to drop. Which tragedy is going to strike first?"
"That's a good question. Let's go get the shopping done." I said.
When we returned with the groceries, we put them into the other car and popped back to the Impala. I was happy to see that the groceries did come with us. We carried them inside and were putting them away when Sam came to the kitchen for some beers. We grabbed each other and kissed like we hadn't seen each other for weeks instead of just hours. Then Sam said, "Wait here, I'll go get Dean."
We finished putting the groceries away just as the boys came back. Dean hugged Maggie too, but he seemed edgy. I glanced at Sam and he touched his arm as if to indicate the mark. I took out sandwich fixings and we all sat down and had a late lunch. They said nothing had happened yet, and Garth wasn't there yet. No sooner had they told us that than Dean's phone rang. It was Garth, and he was giving him directions.
Dean went out to the garage to open the doors and let Garth in. So we asked Sam how bad it was for Dean without Maggie here. "Well, it's no picnic, "he said, "But he is handling it so far. The physical labor is helping a lot."
Just then Dean came in with Garth, and I had to suppress a laugh. He didn't look like our Garth, exactly, but he had all the same qualities. This Garth still looked like a happy-go-lucky nerd, always smiling. He didn't look anything at all like either a hunter or a werewolf, but he was both. But the aura surrounding him just made you like him right away.
He hurried over to Sam and hugged him, and then he turned to look at us, after which he looked at Sam and Dean and said, "You have something to tell me?"
"Sam put his arm around me and said "Garth, this is Katie. She's my girl."
Then Dean put his arm around Maggie and said, "And this is her sister Maggie. This one's mine."
"Wow," said Garth. "Just wow!" and then we got the hugs, and let me tell you, as slight and scrawny as he was, this man was strong, and boy could he give hugs."
Sam said," You'll get used to that, it's kind of his thing."
"Yeah," I said when he let me go, "Our Garth is the same way."
"What does she mean, their Garth?" he asked curiously.
"It a long story. We'll fill you in as we work."
"Time for us to go," I said, "I want to write some notes before we make that call to Eric. Then we will come back one more time to report on the call. Garth, it's a great pleasure meeting you."
Maggie said the same thing to him and then we were hugged and kissed by our guys and went back to the Impala.
Back at home I made my list of questions for Eric, set up connection and the recording, and sat and waited for 6 o'clock.
"Hello Eric," I said, when he answered.
"Will you at least tell me your name, so I can greet you properly," he said. "You should know by now that I'm safe to talk to. I'm more vulnerable than you are."
"It's Katie," I said. "My name's Katie, and my sister is Maggie."
"Well hello Katie, and Maggie too, if she's there."
"Eric," I said, "did you kidnap Chuck?"
"Kidnap him?", he exclaimed. "Hell no, I rescued him." he said.
"Rescued him from what?"
"From his future as an angel whore, or demon whore, as the case may be. He was tired of being in the middle of it all. And he didn't think he had a guardian angel anymore, he kept being put in danger and no angel came to rescue him. He was afraid. He wanted out. We made a deal. He's living quite well now on this world, and, to my everlasting surprise, still receives the prophesies. Isn't that a kicker?"
"Wow," was all I could say for the moment. But my mind was racing. "So, he hasn't seen any prophesies relating to this situation?"
"Nope, not a one."
"I don't know if that's good or bad," I said. "Listen Eric, we have some ideas, but it would require you, at the very least meeting up with Maggie and Me. And possibly going to see Sam and Dean. Would you be likely to agree to do these things?"
"Well," he said, "That depends. What is it you think I could do there to help?"
"Well the first this has to do with protecting Maggie and me," and I told him how Cas had warded the boys against being found by angels. "We would have Cas do it to us, but we suspect it wouldn't work against those other angels. But we thought you might be able to do it."
"Hmm, interesting. You are right about one thing, what they have now will not keep them from other prying eyes. They don't have Enochian symbols. Their magic is completely different."
"Darn! That's exactly what we thought. So the question is, could you ward us, and/or teach us how to put wards on the Bat Cave?"
"I will research that tonight and see. I'm not aware of a way just now, but it's been years that I've been away. However, last night I did dig up, and I mean that literally, my ancient scriptures, and I did find something interesting. There may be a way to destroy the bound creativity if and when the boys ever do get to it."
"Oh that's incredible? How?" I asked excitedly.
"Again, I need to do more research. Like the ancient tomes you are aware of, everything is couched in allegories and parables and outright code. One thing references something in another tome and so on. But I will keep digging, I promise."
"Thank you for that. I have another question. We have most of this mess sorted out now, but there's still one thing that doesn't make sense, and we can't find a reason for anyone doing it."
"And what would that be?" he asked curiously.
"Just this," I said. "How is it that Jared, Jensen and Misha look exactly like Sam, Dean and Cas? Who did that?"
"Well I can actually answer that. God did it?"
"You'll have to be more specific," I said, laughing to myself at the absurdity of even having to say something like that.
"Sam and Dean's god, he said."
"Why would he do that?"
"Well, I got this story from Chuck, some time ago. See before, let's call him Beta, before Beta decided to wash his hands of it all, he actually planned to thwart the attempt to start Armageddon. He was going to replace the real players, with the ones who were only actors, just switch their worlds. If that happened, the Dean and Sam on that world wouldn't be ready to be vessels and the plan would end before it started."
"Then why didn't he do that?"
"Two reasons," he said. "One, something, no one knows what, made him not care anymore. And two, he saw that the steps the boys were taking on their own was actually going to work. Dean and Sam and Cas had altered god's plan. All on their own. That may well be what sent him off the deep end. Who knows?"
I digested that information for a few minutes. Then, "I hardly know what to say," I said. "That's pretty damn epic."
"That it is," he said. "Call tomorrow, say 6:30. Hopefully I'll have more answers for you then"
"Bye Eric," I said.
"Bye Katie," he said, and hung up.
"Oh my god," I said to Maggie. "Wait till everyone hears this!"