Picking Up Where We Left Off (Gen, 9a/13)

[sams1ra]

Title: Picking Up Where We Left Off
Disclaimer: This is Kripke's sandbox, I just like playing with his toys ;)
Rating: R, for language and violence.
Category: Gen.
Pairings: None.
Characters: Dean, Sam, Bobby, OCs, other canon characters.
Spoilers: For all episodes aired in the US. This story is mostly AU for season 3, but some characters and events will be mentioned.

Comments: Are what feeds my muse ;)

A/N: Much love and cookies to the awesomeness that is my beta tru_faith_lost . All remaining mistakes are mine.
Son of A/N: This chapter? Kicked my @$$. It really did. But it ended up being pretty long, so I've cut it. Next part should be up as soon as it gets back from my beta. Oh, and happy Fourth of July!

Summary:  Twenty five years ago, a demon killed Mary Winchester and tainted her son. Six years ago, someone drugged and abducted Dean Winchester. Nine months ago, one of a yellow eyed demon's tainted kids killed Sam Winchester. A few days later, the gates to hell opened, and all hell broke loose. And now, everything's picking up where it left off....

Chapter Nine

Dean instinctively straightened when the door opened. He could see Annie stiffen from the corner of his eye and tightened his hold on Jesse. A woman came through the door, or rather stormed through it. Anger practically rolled off her in waves, and Dean pushed to his feet, Ben doing the same to his left.

The woman scanned the room, and everyone in it seemed to try and make themselves smaller. The black pools of her eyes swept over them, finally landing on Dean, and yeah, no doubt she wasn’t human. Dean swallowed hard and shifted Jesse around. He was suddenly painfully aware of the wall at his back. Ben, Annie and everyone else seemed to clear away from him, and honestly, Dean couldn’t blame them; the woman was practically exuding wrath.

For the slightest of moments, Dean couldn’t help but stare at her, because damn, she was hot. He could probably do all kinds of things to her, if she wasn’t, you know, trying to kill them all. And a demon. Dean tried to peel Jesse off him, set him down on the floor, or at least hand him over to one of the others, but the terrified five- year-old held him in a death grip, eyes wide with fear. Dean could feel his little heart pumping against his chest and clenched his jaw.

The woman – tall, with long black hair done in ringlets and a dark complexion – made her way across the room with long, purposeful strides. Dean swallowed hard. He finally managed to put Jesse down. The boy shrieked in horror, and kept on shrieking even after Naomi took him in her arms.

The woman stopped in front of Dean and stretched to her full height. Dean sort of wished he could take a step or two back, and then mentally slapped himself. Get your act together, Winchester. This demon ain't no different than any other SOB you've sent back to hell.

The woman didn’t stop until she was right in his personal space. "You," she spat, and her voice was cold enough to chill his blood. "Come with me."

Oh, hell no, Dean thought, not even realizing he was holding his breath,

"Now!" The woman snapped, and Dean couldn’t help but flinch at the menace in her voice. He glanced around at the others, who kept their distance from him. He didn’t know what it was about this demon, but what Dean wanted most of all at that moment was to be far, far away from her. Man up, Winchester! Dean noticed the other demons now, six in number, who must have followed the woman in the room.

"Fine," the woman said coolly, "Start killing people," she ordered, not taking her eyes off of Dean. Screams broke out as the demons made their way towards the others.

"Oh, come on, you really think I'm gonna buy that?" Dean asked, "After all the trouble you've gone through to get us here, twice, you're just gonna kill people because I'm not going to be your little lap dog?"

The woman gave him a cold look that made a chill run down his spine. "Yes," she said. Dean's blood was rushing in his ears, his heart pounding. The others were all getting as far as they could, but there was nowhere to go. Dean forced himself to smirk.

"I don’t believe you," he said.

"Do you really want to test me?" The woman shot back. Dean licked his dry, chapped lips.

"You wouldn’t do it," he said, and did his best to keep his voice strong, steady. "You need us. For some reason, you need us. You're not going to kill anyone. If you were going to kill us, you would have done so by now. You would have done so six years ago," Dean argued.

The woman walked around him slowly, and Dean really hoped no one noticed him shudder. Having her cold, dark gaze focused on him made him feel like he was diving into ice water. "Perhaps you're right," the woman said, "there was a reason I had you all brought back here." She stood in front of him again, studying him for a moment, before she turned her back to him. "Kill the little boy," she ordered, and then turned to look at Dean. "He wasn’t there six years ago. I never wanted him here anyway," she said with a cruel smirk.

Dean gasped as the demons made their way to Jesse and Naomi. "You wouldn’t."

The demon leaned in close. "Try me," she whispered in his ear. "Paint the place with the boy's blood!" She ordered, and grinned at the sound of screams.

"Alright!" Dean said, heart pounding fast against his chest, "Alright, just don’t…" His eyes traveled to the scared little boy, to the terrified woman who tried to keep hold of him, "I'm coming."

A tiny smile appeared on the woman's lips. "That's so sweet," she said, and slapped Dean's cheek, giving it a little pinch. "You thought you had a choice." She smirked at him, before she turned and started for the door. "Take him," she told her men as she walked out of the room. Two men reached for Dean. He tried to shrug them off, but they wouldn’t let go. Jesse cried out for him and Dean turned to look at the scared little boy.

"You stay here with Ben and Naomi, okay runt?" Dean tried for a smile, "I'll be back before you know it. Just stay with them," Dean said as confidently as he could, but the little boy just shook his head and fought Naomi, trying to break loose. Dean was about to say something else, but the men at his side grabbed him and practically carried him out of the room.

---

"Hey, Bobby, check this out," Sam said, spreading the records and his notes on the table beside Bobby. Singer shifted the notes around a little so he could see them better, then squinted and pulled the notes closer.

"That guy's name is in the fireman's report," he noted, "He's one of the cops that sniffed around after the fire. One of those that tried to look into the cult case before the mayor decided to bury the whole thing," Bobby said. Sam nodded and sat down next to him.

"Yeah, well I was just looking at the hospital records from the weeks before and after the fire, and check this out," Sam said, pointing at one of the papers. "The couple days after that fire, eight people were admitted to hospitals nearby, all suffering from pretty much the same symptoms. And get this; officer Martinez is registered here for bringing one of the supposed victims to County hospital."

"Yeah?" Bobby prompted.

"The victim's name was Donald Nash," Sam said. Bobby waited for him to elaborate. Sam didn’t.

"Yeah?"

"Bobby, Donald Nash is one of Dean's aliases," Sam said. It took a moment for his words to sink in with Bobby. "We should go, check this guy out, talk to him. See what he remembers," Sam continued.

"Sure thing, Sam," Bobby said. He got up from the table and went over to the bedside table to get his car keys when Sam's cell started ringing. Sam practically leapt out of his chair to get to it.

"Dean?"

"Not really." The hopeful expression died on Sam's face.

"Ruby." The word tasted like ash in his mouth.

"Oh, come on Sam, stop pouting. You know deep inside you're happy…"

"Listen, Ruby, I really don’t have the time…" Sam started before Ruby cut him off.

"Really?" She asked dryly. "Huh. And here I thought you wanted to know more about the demon that's after your brother. But hey, if you don’t, I can always…"

"No, Ruby wait!" Sam said quickly. There was no answer on the other side of the line. Sam's heart skipped a beat. "Ruby?"

"Greenoak Park. Midnight. Come alone," Ruby said and hung up.

"Why?" Sam asked before he realized there was no one on the other end of the line. "Ruby?"

"Ruby?" Bobby asked gruffly. "What she want?"

"She says she has more information about Dean," Sam said, still holding the phone up to his ear, his heart beating fast.

"And you believe her?" Bobby's tone of voice made it clear what he thought about that.

"I can't afford not to, Bobby," Sam said. Bobby sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Tell you what, why don’t I go talk to the cop, and you go talk to your little demon friend," Bobby suggested, resigned. Sam gave him a small smile of gratitude.

"Thanks, Bobby."

Bobby frowned. "Don’t you thank me yet, boy," he grunted. "I come back and you're in any kind of trouble, I'm gonna kick your ass from here to Sunday, you got me?"

Sam's smile grew wider. Bobby rolled his eyes and headed for the door, muttering under his breath.

---

Dean was taken down a dusty corridor with boarded up windows into another room. This room was much smaller than the room the others were kept in. It looked like some sort of boiler room, with many pipes going through it. There were several barrels around, and dust and muck all over. The room smelled of mildew and neglect, the walls painted with red and black symbols, red and black candles lit all around.

Dean ducked his head to avoid getting hit by a low pipeline as he was pushed inside. The woman, demon, whatever, was waiting for him there, her arms crossed over her chest. Dean saw her eyes narrow as he was shoved roughly against the wall.

"Hey, watch out, don’t damage the merchandise," Dean said, and grunted when his face was introduced to the wall. His arms were pulled behind his back and he felt the cool, metallic feel of cuffs close tightly around his wrists. The sound of the woman's high heels resonated around the room as she came closer. She leaned against the wall right next to Dean.

"Mr. Winchester," she grabbed his face, squishing it, and then turned to look at the others in the room. "You realize who we got here, guys?" She asked, and turned her eyes back on Dean. "Why, it's Dean Winchester himself. The Dean Winchester."

Dean caught the men exchanging glances from the corner of his eye. He tried for a smile, which wasn’t an easy feat, considering the woman had an iron grip on his face. "Aww, that's alright sweetheart, I'm always glad to meet a fan. Hey, I can sign autographs or something for…" Dean didn’t get to finish the sentence before he was flung across the room and hit another wall, his breath leaving him in a quick rush of air. He shook his head, trying to get rid of the black dots that hovered around his field of vision.

The woman slowly made her way towards him. "You know, it took me a while to connect the dots, but here you are, in the flesh," she said and punched him in the gut so hard Dean folded in two, coughing. "You've been a naughty boy, Dean," the woman cooed.

"Well, what can I say?" Dean tried to straighten and smirked, "Being nice just ain't the same since I found out there was no Sant…" She punched him again before he finished the sentence, and Dean fell to his knees, cursing and gasping for breath.

The woman grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled his head up. "Funny," she said dryly, "But you know what I'm thinking? I'm thinking six years ago, your daddy was alive. I'm thinking six years ago, we had you for five whole days, and daddy never even came looking for you. The great John Winchester, hunter extraordinaire, and he never lifted a finger trying to save you," she mocked him and smiled. "And you know what else?" She went on, "Your daddy's gone now. No one's coming for you, not six years ago, and not this time," she finished, and punched him in the gut again.

Dean clenched his jaw, a look of defiance on his face, because this bitch could say whatever she wanted, Dean knew better. He knew Sammy. Sammy would come for him.

The woman crouched beside him, cocked her head to the side. "And then you went ahead and did something stupid," she said and sighed. "Not that that should shock me or anything," she shrugged, and then narrowed her eyes and Dean could swear hate and fury were practically oozing off of her.

She turned her head to look at the others. "Dean here went and sold his soul, our soul, to a lowly crossroads demon." The woman's voice was ice-cold. "And you idiots never even thought to check!" She yelled, and suddenly Dean found himself flattened against the wall, barely able to breathe. At least he wasn’t the only one this time. The other men were flung back across the room as well.

The woman got to her feet and straightened to her full height. "Luckily, I did," she said coolly, "And I'm going to fix it." Dean's stomach tied up in knots at the tone of her voice, his heart racing in his chest.

"Uh, I don’t think so," he said, and this time looked straight in her eyes when she turned to look at him. "See, the deal had some fine print, and I'm not…"

"No one's talking to you," the woman cut him off. She walked over to one of the barrels and leaned against it. "Bring her in," she ordered dryly, and a chill ran down Dean's spine.

TBC

Previously: Where it all started >> 2 >> 3 >> 4 >> 5 >> 6 >> 7 >> 8 >> 9a >> 9b >> 10 >> 11 >> 12 >> 13