28. Chapter 28

Disclaimer: Supernatural belongs to Erik Kripke, Warner Brothers and quite possibly others who are not mentioned here. No money will be made from this fan fiction.

Summary: When Dean goes to sell his soul at the crossroads to bring Sam back, someone else steps in to negotiate the deal. Cas did get a sign and it sent him off into the past to change things. AU from The Man Who Would be King and All Hell Breaks Loose.

It's All in the Details

By Colleen

Chapter 28

Demon minions often come off as looming slabs that play bodyguard to their more actively psychotic masters. However, when two demons have orders to watch a target, but not engage them and they can't go giving themselves away by finding their own fun while they wait, they will eventually break down and talk to each other.

After two days on the road, they had already covered sins, depraved acts, favourite kills and just how many uses there are for the human spine once it's been pulled from a still screaming body. Therefore, it wasn't surprising that eventually they would go on to other, less work related topics.

"You honestly expect me to even entertain the belief that an impossibly super strong alien, with x-ray vision, super speed, laser eyes, the ability to fly and more, could possibly be taken down by a guy with a utility belt?" The demon who was currently sitting on the driver's side of the car asked.

"Yes." Said the demon on the passenger side, who had his attention on his partner, rather than on the house they were staking out.

"Why?"

The demon looked at him as if he were long past brain dead and shook his head. "Because, he's Batman!"

"Truer words."

Both demons froze and turned to look in the backseat.

One of the guys they were following was sitting back there, a wry grin on his face. The person sitting next to him…wasn't a person.

"Crap." To be honest, they both very nearly did. "Angel."

They were fumbling for the door handles when a hand slammed down on the back of their necks and they were suddenly yanked sideways through inner space so fast the bodies they were in couldn't pull in air to breathe.

A moment later, they dropped unceremoniously into a large devils trap that had been painted onto the floor of what appeared to be an empty two-car garage.

The other, taller guy they had been following was standing outside the circle, holding a book and waiting for them.

"Hey. Do you know that this summer I tested over twenty different exorcisms?" The guy asked them, the smile on his face almost… kind.

"Ah…" The two demons looked at each other. "Okay."

The guy's expression went hard. "So let me introduce you to the one that will send you back to Hell by ripping you apart pain filled atom by pain filled atom." He opened the book and paged through it until he found what he was looking for.

"Oh, if you're willing to answer our questions for a switch to the fast version, then let me know before the start of the second hour. After that, you won't be able to stop screaming long enough to actually talk to us."

Both demons squared up in front of him. They had been through centuries of torture in the pit. Some piddling little ritual was not going to get the best of them.

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Twenty minutes later, after having searched and gotten rid of the demons' car, Dean and Cas walked into the garage and moved to stand by Sam as he watched their two guests writhe inside the devil's trap. Black wisps of smoke were being leached out of their bodies, their skin lighting up everywhere it was pulled from.

Outwardly dispassionate, the two hunters and one angel observed them for a few minutes.

Dean glanced at his watch. "Hey, is this the same exorcism that you did over in Idaho?"

Sam nodded.

Castiel tilted his head as one of the demons started to slam its head against the floor. With a gripping motion, he froze the creature in place to stop it from further harming the body it was using.

Dean frowned at the sight. "Doesn't this one take twelve hours to complete?"

Sam nodded. "Uh, huh."

The other demon moaned, his teeth clenching as he tried to hold it in, because he realized that the giant was right, if he started screaming he wouldn't be able to stop.

"You sick bastards…" He had to stop to breathe through the next bolt of pain, which, lucky him, turned out to be one in a series. He jerked as if there were multiple lightening strikes going off under his skin. Panting as they ended, he finally managing to finish what he'd been saying. "You get off on this, don't you?"

He didn't need to have someone freeze him in place as he watched the guy with the green eyes who had been in the back seat of the car with the angel. Somehow, those eyes, which had been amused then, were now shards of ice. His whole expression went cold. So much so that the demon actually shivered as if the temperature had dropped.

"Funny, coming from a demon, but no." Dean told him. "We don't. That doesn't mean we won't stand here for the next eleven and a half hours and watch you scream. Because we're all about doing what needs to be done."

Of course, the only other time Sam had used this exorcism, he'd given up less than an hour into, unable to take even demons being put through that much pain.

Not that they were going to tell these two idiots that.

The demon grit his teeth as several more pieces of him ripped away. Somehow, every time it happened, the pain was worse than the last time. But he could handle it, he could.

It took so little to tip that over to could not.

Held in place by the angel and unable to move, his partner needed someway to physically express his pain.

All of them cringed as he started to scream.

"Cas!" Dean yelled out over the noise.

The angel tightened the mental grip he had on the demon and it fell silent.

"Thought you were going to listen to us scream." The demon asked. His voice was dangerously close to a shriek and he knew unending screaming wasn't far off.

The tallest of them, the bastard who'd set them up in this little piece of Hell on Earth shook his head.

"That only happens if you don't answer the questions."

"And if we do you switch to the fast exorcism?"

Sam nodded.

The demon gasped, his borrowed body seizing as another bit of him pulled away and the pain jacked up one more notch. For a few moments after, he just breathed. "Fuck it, what do you want to know?"

Sam's expression was grim as he crouched down and started to ask.

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The resident was just passing by the entrance to emergency when she noticed the two men… well, walk didn't seem to be the right word, but they both entered through the door in a vertical position.

She stuttered to a stop as she realized that they both had their eyes closed and the way they stood was awkward, as if there were an invisible man standing between them and he was the only thing holding them up.

And then he wasn't.

The two men slumped to the floor. Calling for help, she ran to them. In the noise and confusion that followed, she didn't notice the sound of wings as something left a few moments later.

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Cas arrived back at the garage they'd 'borrowed' just as Dean and Sam finished cleaning the devil's trap from the floor.

"I have delivered them to the Emergency ward at the hospital. There were doctors helping them before I left."

Dean nodded. It wasn't everyday that the victims were still alive after the demons had been kicked out of them. Hopefully by getting them to the hospital as quickly as Cas did, they'd have the chance to stay alive.

They finished packing up their garbage and headed out. The building was just a couple of houses down from their grandmother's place. Knowing that the neighbours were away, she'd suggested that they do the exorcism there. Since the demons hadn't been very competent at their stakeout, preparing the space quickly before Cas grabbed them had been easy.

Deanna Campbell was waiting for them when they returned to the house.

"Well?"

Dean nodded. "It's done. The poor slobs they'd possessed even survived the exorcism. Cas already dropped them off at a hospital.

She raised an eyebrow. "Handy. So, did you get anything out of the demons before you yanked them out of there?"

"Yeah, turns out an old acquaintance of ours has taken over where Lilith left off. The bi… uh." He paused, censoring himself in front of his grandmother. "She had them keeping an eye on us."

Deanna's eyes widened. "Lilith?"

Dean grimaced. "Yeah. Demon, high level."

"No, really?"

Sam and Dean both winced. Grandma did sarcasm just fine. "She had plans, nasty ones. Ones that included Sam in them… Dean rolled his eyes slightly at the expression on her face, the one that told him she knew he was skating over the facts. "Okay, some of those plans involved me as well. Doesn't matter, 'cause Sam here killed her."

"So." Sam said, quickly changing the subject. "We want to tell Bobby about the Campbell family business."

She thought for a moment, and then nodded. "Fine." She smiled. "Let me know if he's actually surprised by it."

They looked at her questioningly.

"I've always wondered if he suspected, but wasn't willing to ask."

Dean had to laugh. Knowing Bobby, it was a definite possibility.

"So, are you boys going to be in town for a while?"

"Just for a couple of days. We have to be in Minnesota after that."

"A hunt?"

"Uh. " The brothers looked at each other, each of them trying to stare the other into explaining Adam to their grandmother.

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Deanna took the news about the boys having a half brother better than they thought she would. Mary was her daughter after all, but she'd had the experience of being a widow for just as long as their father had been a widower. Eventually, you have to do something to fight the loneliness.

Didn't mean she wasn't annoyed at their father for keeping it a secret. Sometimes she really wished that John was still alive, if just so she could kick him in the pants.

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Bobby swore when they told him about Deanna. Yeah, he'd had his suspicions about the lady, but he'd never followed them all the way through to Sam and Dean's family on their mother's side being hunters.

When Dean ended the call, the older hunter was muttering about all the times he could have saved himself a crap load of annoyance, by getting Deanna to do some of the more specialized research for him.

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Adam taped the last box shut and looked around his room. It still had a lot of stuff in it, since he'd be coming home for holidays and summers for years to come. However, it also had an empty feeling to it, as if he'd pulled the guts out of it to leave nothing but a shell.

"Adam."

He was pulled out of his depressed musing by his mother's voice. "Yeah?" He called out to her.

"Sam and Dean are here."

He smiled. His brothers had missed the packing, but they had made it in time to help him schlep everything out to his truck. Over the phone last night, they'd even offered to stuff what they could into the Impala and do the six plus hour drive with him. He'd told them they didn't have to, but Dean said he wasn't going to miss out on a second brother's move to a place of higher learning.

Sam had just said something about Dean not wanting to miss all the opening week parties that would be going on.

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Dean shook his head as he looked over the dorm room. "Damn, and I though we stayed in a small room or two in our day." He looked at his half-brother. "You're really going to do the whole year in this?"

Sam not so very discretely whacked into his brother with one of the boxes he was carrying. "Can it Dean."

The elder Winchester glared at his younger brother and rubbed at the spot on his hip that had met up with the box.

"No fighting." Adam said distractedly as he tried to figure out which bed would be his.

Dean shook his head and then headed down for a second load. When he came out the entrance, he spotted two guys sprinting in the opposite direction from Adam's truck.

"You should have left someone down here to keep an eye on your brother's stuff."

Dean sucked in a breath and slowly turned to see Loki, who was leaning up against the side of the building near the door. Wincing slightly he had to ask. "Do I want to know what you just did to them?"

The trickster seemed to think about it for a moment and then shook his head. "Probably not." He decided against mentioning that they would be fine, just as long as they never attempted to steel anything on campus again.

And really, would it be his fault if they actually did set off the spell he'd tied into that act? He smiled at the thought… an action he noticed seemed to make Dean even more wary than he'd been just a moment ago.

"You… uh, you aren't hanging around a campus again, are you?"

Loki shrugged. "Universities are way too much fun to not mess with them." He smirked at Dean's horrified look. "Don't worry; Adam is off the menu… Besides," He rolled his eyes. "I've been keeping it low key. Cas tends to blow a gasket when I over do it. And yeah, he knows I'm here. He's got this place wired for the supernatural. Anything with mojo that even brushes by this place is coming up on his radar."

Dean let out a semi-relieved breath. Then he smirked. "So, you want to watch the stuff, or help us drag in the boxes?"

Loki shook his head. "Please." He snapped his fingers and then disappeared a moment later. Dean wondered at the brief delay, until he noticed that the boxes in the truck were gone and the distant sounds of two men swearing was coming from an open window above him. He couldn't be certain that it was Adam's room, but it was on the same floor, so it was a good bet.

"Dean!"

Dean half winced and half smirked. Adam would probably never suggest having someone zap something to him ever again. A glance towards the Impala proved that Loki had enough sense to not mess with his baby this time. The back seat was still full of the boxes they'd stacked in there. Fishing his keys out of his pocket, he decided he'd rather deal with dragging the rest of the stuff in over straightening out whatever mess Loki had left them with upstairs.

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Once everything was upstairs, Adam phoned his mom and assured her that they had arrived safe and sound. The three brothers then spent the rest of the day unpacking before going out for a late supper. After, Dean and Sam dropped their younger brother back at the dorms and they found themselves a motel room, paying for several nights. Barring an emergency hunt, they planned to stay a few days while Adam got settled.

They were back at the dorms the next morning. Adam and Sam were busy setting up Adam's computer, while Dean lounged on the bed and looked over the campus map.

"Um. Hi."

All three of them looked up to see someone in the tall and skinny range of human development. As he looked like he had an inch or so on Sam, Dean would have pegged the guy as a basketball player. However, as soon as the kid stepped forward Dean knew he was wrong about that. The awkward giraffe mixed with clumsy ostrich body movements could never survive on a court.

"Hey." Adam said, extricating himself from the octopus of wiring he'd become tangled up in. "You must be my roommate? C. Hayden?"

"Uh, yeah… Cooper, Cooper Hayden."

Dean snorted. "Named after Alice, no doubt."

The guy cringed slightly. "Uh, yeah. My folks were big fans."

Sam looked like he wanted to smack his brother again, but Dean just smiled. "Cool."

The guy blinked and smiled back. "So, you're A. Milligan?" He asked, directing his question to Adam.

He nodded and held out a hand. "Adam. These two are my brothers."

Cooper's handshake was tentative, as if he didn't do it very often.

"So, need any help bringing your stuff in?" Dean asked. Not that he really wanted to carry any more boxes up, but he figured it would be a good way to find something out about the guy that would be sharing a room with his brother.

Cooper shook his head. "No, I don't have a large enough vehicle so I ended up hiring some movers. They should be here at two o'clock."

Dean looked at his watch. "Long wait. Hey, it's almost noon, how about we go get some grub." He picked up the campus map he'd been looking at earlier. "There's a full service student bar pretty close to here and it says they serve lunch." He looked at Cooper. "Our treat."

"Oh…Um, I didn't expect…"

Adam narrowed his eyes at his brothers, knowing they planned to pump the poor kid for every bit of information they could get out of him. He felt a brief stab of younger brother annoyed at overprotective older brotherness, before admitting to himself that he actually kind of liked it. Also, he wouldn't mind finding out something about his roomy in the process.

"It's a good idea. Besides, we should hammer out our privacy issues ahead of time."

Cooper nodded. "Yeah, okay."

On their way out to the car, Dean threw a look at Sam, who nodded back.

By this time tomorrow, he'd have the entire life and times of Cooper Hayden printed out so they could go over it in fine detail.

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Adam waved as his brothers drove out of sight. All told, they'd been here for four days, which was longer than he'd expected them to hang out. Once they'd okayed his roommate, had warned him that Loki might be wandering around the area and had demon and creature proofed the dorm room as much as possible, they'd gone over the campus with him, pointing out all of the danger spots that would invite attack from both human and supernatural opponents.

Adam didn't know if he should laugh or cringe. He had never met anyone as hyper aware of their surroundings as his brothers were. They seemed to notice even the smallest threat of danger. Before, he'd have thought that always being that much on the look out would be crippling. But apparently, to them it was second nature. So much so that they only noticed it subconsciously and reacted without having to think about it.

In the end, the move went fairly well. The hardest part had been explaining the salt in the room to Cooper. He now believed that Adam had a severe ant phobia and was using the salt to keep them out of the room. It was a little annoying, but he could hardly tell him that his true phobias were the things that go grr, rip, and rend you in half in the night.