Chapter 24 He Slept a Summer by My Side
Dean sat in the main room of the bunker, flashing back to the events at Magnus' house.
"Give me your hand. That's it." He heard Magnus say.
Then Sam. "Dean!"
And Hope. "Drop the Blade, Dean."
"Dean! Dean. Dean." Back in the present, Sam snapped his fingers in front of Dean's face, trying to get his attention. "What's wrong with you? You hear your phone?"
Dean shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts, and answered the phone. "It's about time. Where the hell have you been?" Dean snapped at Crowley.
"I told you I'd be in touch when I'd found Abaddon. Well...I'm in touch." Crowley replied.
"Where are you?"
"First thing's first." Crowley said. "I'll give you the location of the First Blade. You two fetch it, I'll keep her in my sights, then we'll remove her from the payroll for good." In his penthouse, Crowley looked up at Abbadon, who had been listening.
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Sam, Dean, and Hope pulled up to the graveyard that Crowley sent them to. Castiel was busy trying to locate heaven and stop the angel civil war, so he couldn't come with them. When they located the right coffin, Sam and Dean hefted the lid.
"Oh, come on, Crowley!" Sam cried, disgusted. "You really, uh, uh, have to hide the Blade in a corpse? Not--not with a corpse, but in a corpse?"
Dean shrugged. "I got to say, it's not the first place I'd look. All right, here we go."
Suddenly a low growl sounded in the distance. "Do you guys hear that?" Hope asked.
Dean nodded. "I'm guessing Hellhound." There was another growl, closer this time. "Go. Go!"
They ran into a mausoleum and locked the gate behind them. Dean frantically dialed Crowley's number.
"Hello?" Crowley answered.
"Damn it, Crowley, the grave is guarded!" Dean yelled.
Crowley frowned. "That's absurd."
"A Hellhound!"
Crowley shook his head. "No, no, no. She was collected."
"The hell she was!" Hope yelled.
"Guys!" Sam called from the gate, where the hound was invisibly smacking against the metal bars.
"Time was, no one would dare disobey the King." Crowley grumbled.
"Guys!" Sam called again.
"I'm gonna put you on speaker." Dean told Crowley.
Crowley's voice came over the speaker, soft as velvet. "Juliet? It's papa. Stand down." The growling stopped, and the gate was still. "You're welcome."
They hesitantly exited the mausoleum, kneeling again by the open coffin. "All right. Goin' in." Dean sighed.
"Hey, you know what?" Sam broke in. "Maybe, uh...maybe I should do this."
"Sam, it's fine. I--I-I can safely grab it without...you know..."
"Dean," Hope insisted, "let him."
Dean nodded and Sam reached into the corpse, grimacing as he pulled out the First Blade covered in a slimy liquid. "Well, let's go kill a Knight of Hell, huh?" Dean asked.
"Yeah." Sam nodded.
"Yeah." Hope agreed.
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Crowley and his son, Gavin sat in the penthouse where Abbadon was keeping them prisoner. She had gone back in time and brought Gavin to the present with her in order to use him as a bargaining chip against Crowley.
"What're you talking about?" Gavin asked. "Of course I'm boardin' the ship when I go back! I want to go back to my life!"
"It's not a good idea." Crowley insisted, frustrated with his son.
Gavin shook his head. "I'm going to the colonies. I'm workin' my way across. I've given my word!"
Crowley sighed. "Gavin, listen to your father. I know what's..." The boy stormed out of the room. "...best for you." He finished. "Kids." His phone rang and he pulled it out and answered it. "Squirrel. I hope you were nice to your father."
On the other end, driving the Impala down a dark highway, Dean furrowed his brow. "What? Shut up. Look, we got the Blade."
"You do? Well, you need to get it here at once. Cleveland, Humboldt Hotel. Penthouse, of course." Crowley smirked. "When you get here, I'll take you to Abbadon. I'll draw her out, and then you can skewer the ignorant hag." He covered the phone and whispered to Abbadon, "Just selling it."
"All right, we're on our way." Dean said.
"Oh, and, Dean, you need to get a move on. It's a good day's drive from Poughkeepsie."
"What are you talking about?" Dean asked. "We're not even near there."
Crowley just nodded. "Yeah, like I said, you need to leave Poughkeepsie right away." With that he hung up.
"So, we good?" Hope asked.
"Yeah."
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When they pulled up to the Humboldt Hotel, they all three got out of the car, Sam holding the Blade.
"All right. Let's do this." Hope said.
"Wait, wait, wait. Hold on a sec." Dean stopped her. "You're not coming."
"What? Of course I am--"
"No, you're not. You're injured, and you don't need in on this fight." Dean insisted.
"Dean,--"
"Hope, I am just trying to keep you safe."
Hope glared at him, fire in her blue-gray eyes. "I don't need you to protect me."
Dean looked to Sam for backup, but he lifted his hands in surrender. "I'm neutral on this one, sorry, man. I see both sides here."
Dean sighed. "Fine. You don't need me to protect you. But I need to know that you're safe. Please stay in the car. For me? I can't take down Abbadon if I'm worried about you."
"Fine." Hope agreed hesitantly. "But if either of you die I'm gonna kill you."
Dean gave her a reassuring smile. He stopped Sam as he started toward the door. "We should give this place a once-over before we go up there. Crowley said he thought he saw some demons headed down to the basement. He'd have checked It out himself, but if word got back to Abbadon that he'd been seen..."
"When did he say all this?"
"On the phone." Dean lied. "Look, it just means that she might know that he's here, okay? So why don't you check out the basement. I'll, uh, take a look on the main floor." Dean looked at Hope one more time. "Stay in the car."
"I will." She promised. The boys started into the building. "Like hell." She muttered as soon as they were out of sight. She grabbed a gun and a machete from the trunk and headed into the hotel after them, following Dean's path to the main floor.
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Dean crept into the suite where Crowley sat. "Hello, Dean." the demon greeted him. "Love the crazy bloodlust in your eyes. Let's not waste time. I'll take you to Abbadon. It's not far."
A feminine voice came from behind Dean. Abaddon. "A boy and his Blade. And still no match for the new Queen." The Knight of Hell smirked. "So, first...you'll die...painfully. And then Crowley will watch his son die--ditto--and then the King himself. The Blade destroyed. That's quite a to-do list."
She flicked her wrist and Dean was pinned against the wall. He struggled to get free. With great effort, he took a step forward, toward Abbadon, his body bent as if he were walking into a strong wind. Abaddon frowned and pushed harder, barely managing to pin him to the wall again. The force of the impact caused Dean to drop the First Blade and Abbadon smirked. Dean stared at the Blade, focusing all of his energy on it. Suddenly slid across the floor into his hand and he broke free of Abbadon's hold.
Just then Hope and Sam came running into the room. Sam looked briefly surprised to see Hope there but forgot it quickly as he took in the scene before him. Dean thrust the First Blade into Abbadon's stomach and lifted her off of the ground with supernatural strength. Hope clutched her head and knelt down a burst of red light filled the room. A high pitched scream filled the air as Abbadon died, but Dean didn't stop. He stabbed her again and again, his eyes hard and animal-like.
Hope lay in a heap on the ground, still clutching her head. She felt like she was on fire, her grace writhing and burning inside of her as it clashed with the hellish power of the Mark and Blade. "Dean. Dean!" Sam called to him. "Dean! Stop! You can stop."
Dean dropped the bloody Blade and stared at it and his hands in shock. Hope sat up, the pain fading now that Dean was no longer touching the Blade. They all just stared at Dean, still kneeling over Abbadon's mangled body.
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The car ride home was silent and uncomfortable. Hope was asleep in the backseat, still weak from exposure to the Mark's power. Cas was meeting them at the bunker to see what he could do to help. Sam was pissed at Dean because he found out that Crowley had warned him about Abaddon and Dean hadn't told him.
Dean sighed, looking over at Sam. "I didn't tell you about the warning because I knew exactly what you would do." He said. "You would make sure that you were right alongside me going in that room."
"You mean like we always do? Because we're actually partners in this and we watch each other's backs?" Sam snapped.
Dean shook his head. "I don't expect you to understand."
"Try me."
It was a moment before Dean answered. "First time I touched that Blade...I knew." He began. "I knew that I wouldn't be stopped. I knew I would take down Abbadon and anything else if I had to. And it wasn't a hero thing." He explained. "You know, it wasn't...it was just calm. I knew. And I had to go it alone, Sammy."
"Oh. Of course." Sam scoffed. "So it was just another time where you had to protect me."
"You could've gotten bagged by Abbadon, and she could've bargained her way out. We couldn't afford to screw this up."
Sam took a deep breath. "Look...I'm glad it worked out, okay? I am. And I'm glad the Blade gives you strength or calm or whatever, but, Dean, I gotta say...I'm starting to think the Blade is doing something else, too."
"Yeah? Like what?" Dean asked.
"I don't know. Like, something to you." He paused. "Look...I'm thinking until we know for sure that we're gonna kill off Crowley, why don't we store the Blade somewhere distant? Lock it up somewhere safe? Okay?"
Dean just glared at the road. "No."