53. Chapter 53

It's All in the Details

By Colleen

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own them.

Chapter 53

Henry was going over the Men of Letters' protocols. In the past, the society had connections with a few choice people in government, but those connections were severed over 50 years ago. Dean had explained the fake Ids they used, which, to be truthful, the Men of Letters also utilized in their time. It would be best though, if they could also become officially reinstated.

Henry slid one of the emergency situation books back on the shelf and pulled out the next one. About a third of the way through it, he found what he was looking for.

"Emergency dissolutions and restarts, by years, decades or centuries. They really did plan for everything."

XXXXXXXX

Sam was hip deep with helping Henry try to get their official lines reopened, when Dean found a vampire hunt. He told Sam and his grandfather that he'd come across a spate of suspicious deaths and was going to check it out. Jimmy jumped in and offered to go as back up. He was tired of Henry giving him the hairy eye.

Dean wasn't keen on the idea. After the whole, temporary turning incident, he felt he had something to prove and he couldn't do that with a babysitter. However, it did convince Sam to stay at the bunker, so he'd take what he could get.

An hour into the drive, Jimmy looked up and appeared to be communing with someone who wasn't there. After a bit he nodded and looked over at Dean.

"Cas says you need to do this one on your own."

Dean shook his head, but instead of commenting on it, asked something else.

"How is he, anyway?"

"Better. He could probably take over short term, but he'll heal up all the way faster if he doesn't."

"Good." He gave Jimmy a sideways glance. "It okay if I leave you at the motel?"

"Just pick one close to a diner." He patted down his pockets, finding Cas' wallet of money holding. "I might take in a movie as well. Feels like forever since I've gone to one, so I might as well take the opportunity while I have it."

Dean nodded. "Just keep your Cell phone on, even if it does end up annoying the other movie goers and call me if something seems even a little bit off."

Jimmy nodded. Cas could probably fight for a bit and certainly fly away if needed, but it would be better if he didn't have to.

Dean booked them into a motel room and changed into his Fed suit. He and Jimmy had lunch at the diner across from the motel, Dean doing research on a laptop while they ate. Then they split up, Dean going off to track down a lead at a hospital and Jimmy grabbing a cab over to the movie theatres.

It was several hours later, after a couple of more leads and a change back to his usual attire, that Dean tracked the vampire down at a parking lot. He slammed the vamp down on the Impala's trunk, holding a knife over him. The vampire hissed, teeth dropping.

"Eat it Twilight." He cut into the neck, panicking when he felt the blood hit his face. The vampire used the moment to push the hunter away, staggering off a couple of steps. Dean recovered, swinging his big ass knife to take the vampires head off. Then he stripped his outer shirt off, using it to wipe off the blood, being careful to keep it out of his mouth.

He'd never realized how easy it would be to accidentally turn yourself.

Off in the darkness, someone started clapping.

"Oh, I can't wait to see you work, once we get you back to Hell."

"Who the hell are you?" Dean pointed the bloody knife towards the figure stepping out of the shadows.

"Forgotten me already?" The man, demon Dean suspected, looked down at himself. "Of course, I have switched bodies since we last met." He smiled at Dean, it wasn't at all pleasant. "The names Alistair. We're going to have such fun, you and I."

Dean looked around, but didn't see any other demons. "How the hell did you find me?" He had not left home with out his hex bags.

"You're a hunter. All I had to do was watch out for a hunt. Only took me three tries to find you."

"Awesome."

"Yes, I'm sure it will be."

XXXXXXXX

Jimmy was chatting up the waitress at the diner while he had an after movie burger, when he stiffened suddenly.

"Uh, sorry. Just remembered, there's someone I'm suppose to meet." He quickly reached into his/Cas' wallet and dropped enough money on the table to cover the bill and give the waitress the best tip she'd ever gotten.

"We open early for breakfast." She told him, knowing he was staying at the motel across the street.

"Thanks." She heard him mutter something urgent about someone named Cas.

He went out the door and around the corner, his form shifting darker than the night around him, before he disappeared.

XXXXXXXX

Dean tried to block the third punch, but didn't have a hope. Alastair had a punch like ten mules and Dean was certain there was something wrong that wasn't just broken ribs and a punctured lung.

"Oh, Dean, we'll have the best of times. I had your Daddy on the rack, you know. Cried like a baby. When he wasn't railing against the fact that he was suffering to save your worthless hide." He delivered a right hook that took Dean's feet out from under him, so Alistair followed up with a kick to already shattered ribs once he was on the ground. "He hated your guts by the end. Hell, by the first month."

"Bullshit." Dean said, the mantra, demons lie, running through his head.

Alistair grabbed him by his collar and triple punched him, before dropping him back to the pavement. "Oh believe me, it's the truth. One you'll understand just as soon as I get you downstairs."

Barely conscious, Dean managed a short prayer.

"God won't help you."

"Not who I was praying to."

"Angel's won't help you either."

"On the contrary, we will." A female voice said behind him.

Alistair turned and stepped towards the angel, leaving Dean on the ground behind him.

"Naomi, isn't it?"

"Yes."

Unnoticed behind them, the shadow of a man in a trench coat appeared and kneeled beside Dean, touching him carefully.

"Why interfere, you know he belongs back in Hell."

"Yes, but before that happens, we need to reset the last seal."

"Not something I can help you with."

"We believe otherwise."

Suddenly there were half a dozen angels, surrounding him, trapping him.

The smile on Naomi's face held until she turned to Dean Winchester and found him gone.

XXXXXXXX

Jimmy banged on the door to the bunker with one fist, while he held Dean up with his other arm. Sam opened the door with gun in hand.

"Shit, what happened."

"Help first, explain later."

"Right." He came out and helped carry the semi-conscious Dean, taking his brother's other side. Together they got him down the stairs and into the room he'd claimed as his own. As they put him down on the bed, Sam once again noticed that they really needed to get some new mattresses for the things. He shook his head. Stupid thing to think of when he was close to panicking.

"Now, what the Hell happened?"

"Alistair."

"Who's Alistair." Henry asked, coming in. His eyes widened and he made a choking noise at seeing the condition Dean was in.

"What did you do?" He glared at Jimmy.

Jimmy glared back. "Nothing, it was Alistair." He ignored Henry to talk to Sam. "Cas was able to stabilize him and get us here, but that was all the extra juice he had."

"He was worse?" Sam started checking his brother over, carefully.

Jimmy nodded. "Yeah, a lot worse. Alistair worked him over, big time."

"Who? Is? Alistair? Henry asked again.

Jimmy grimaced. "Demon. Hell's head torturer. Still has a hard on for Dean even though he never got the chance to work him over in Hell like he did in the original timeline." He paused, then decided against mentioning the fact that he was also the demon that tortured John Winchester in Hell after he sold his soul to save his son.

"Where is he?" Henry looked as if he intended to go after the demon himself.

"Angels grabbed him. Cas managed to get Dean away in the confusion."

"We need to get him to a hospital." Sam said.

Jimmy winced. "The car is still back in Greeley, Pennsylvania. Cas didn't have the strength to bring it with him."

"Ambulance then." Sam dug out his cell phone.

"I'll be fine." Dean said, his speech slurred and his eyes shut. Sam just snorted at him.

Upstairs, a fist pounded on the outside door.

"Crap." He looked at his grandfather and Jimmy. "Stay with Dean." Sam changed his phone for his gun. Someone pounded on the door again and he went up the stairs, adding someway to see who was at the front door to the bunkers security needs in his head.

Carefully, he opened the door.

"Are you going to invite me in?"

"Loki." Sam slumped, and invited him in. "Dean's hurt."

"I know." He started down the stairs, Sam closed the door and followed. "Cas has been blasting me with the information since they got here. I'd have been back sooner, but I stopped off to grab the Impala. I dropped it in the garage."

'We have a garage?' Sam thought, then shook it off. There was more important things to talk about. "Jimmy said there were angels there."

"They were gone by the time I got there, but you could tell they'd been there. A good half dozen of them or more." He shook his head. "If they had even a bit of understanding about you and your brother, they would have staked the car out."

"Are you sure they didn't?"

Gabriel gave him an annoyed look and didn't deign to answer.

"What is he doing here?" Henry asked, standing in front of Dean's room.

"Hugs and kisses to you too."

Sam rolled his eyes. "He's here to help."

Henry really didn't like the type of beings his grandsons were hanging out with, but he stepped aside.

Gabriel stepped into the room, took one look at Dean and shook his head.

"He's seriously freaking out." Jimmy said, pointing to his head.

"Okay, okay." He walked over and touched Dean on the forehead.

With a gasp, Dean sat up, completely healed.

"Looks like you went and rolled a one." Loki told him.

"What?"

"Alastair must be stronger than the extra mojo Kas gives you, that or you were having really bad luck."

Dean shook his head. "No mojo. He was just plain faster and stronger. Beat the shit out of me." He took a deep breath, glad to be able to do it.

Until Sam's hug crushed the air out of him.

"Breathing, need to."

Sam backed off. "Sorry, sorry."

"S' Okay." Suddenly Dean stiffened.

"What?" Sam asked, wondering if he'd hurt him. If they still needed to get Dean to the hospital.

"Baby."

Sam let out a breath. No, Dean was fine.

XXXXXXXX

Zachariah watched as the ritual to attach Alastair to the final seal reached its high point. He glanced to his side, noticing Naomi watching dutifully and gnashed his teeth once more over the fact that she'd found the demon before he and his people were able to.

"So, you lost Dean Winchester." Accentuate the negative and maybe everyone would forget the positive.

"We'll find him again. It is too bad though, that we had to bring the demon in. It would have solved the problems we've had with the first seal if we could have let him kill Winchester and drag his soul to Hell."

"Yes, a shame, but we needed this demon." The angel conducting the ritual slotted the last piece into place.

And then Alistair exploded.

"It would seem he wasn't the last seal." Naomi said calmly as she wiped the gore from her face. "It appears we wasted an opportunity after all."

Not having an answer, Zachariah gnashed his teeth some more as he picked the demon's spleen off of his tie and tried to think of who he could blame for this mess.

XXXXXXXX

Dean ran his hand down Baby's side, looking her over for damage before glancing around at all the classic automobiles and motorcycles house in the Men of Letters' garage. "Damn, Baby, we've got you some good company now."

He wandered back into the main part of the bunker, where Gabriel was checking on Cas.

"Well, good news is you didn't hurt yourself as much as I thought you might pulling that stunt." He said, pulling his hand away from Jimmy's head. "Another week and we can see about fixing your outer ward layer, cause I don't think you want to get noticed by any angels or demons without that."

Jimmy nodded for Cas, knowing that the outer ward was what made Cas look like the Cas from now. Without it they may not know who he was when disguised, but they would know he was a lot more powerful than he ought to be.

"Bad news is you'll have to suffer staying with these mooks until you're healed up."

"Hey."

"It's not that bad." Jimmy said. "I'm sure Bobby would let me stay with him part of the time."

"And again, hey!" Dean said, but there was a twinkle in his eyes that showed he was as amused as they were.

"Well, I've got some people to annoy." Loki gave them a salute and headed for the door. He suspected that he could just pop out of the bunker, but he wasn't in any rush to test the theory.

"So, what's on the agenda today?" Dean asked his brother as he wandered by with a stack of books.

"Well, Henry's still looking at getting the Men of Letters' official lines retied."

Dean grimaced, not sure that was a good thing with him and Sam's past records with the FBI.

"Grandma's coming tomorrow."

"Have to make popcorn." Grandma Campbell and Grandpa Winchester meeting for the first time. Should be fun.

Sam gave him a light swat with one hand, balancing the pile of books in the other. "And Bobby and Rufus are coming in later with the Winchester Gospels, version 2.0."

"Don't call them that. They're a slightly better alternate universe of some crappy books. They're not Bible passages."

"Not according to Castiel."

"Humph."

"You know." Sam said. "If Henry reads them, then we have to assume he's going to find out who Cas and Loki are for real."

Dean shrugged. "I'll make popcorn for that too."

Sam just rolled his eyes and set the pile of books he'd been holding down on the table.

XXXXXXXX

Henry was inventorying the spell component room when he found himself staring at the ingredients for the blood kin spell. His soul was almost recharged enough work it safely again, although given the nature of the spell, he couldn't be sure it would return him to his proper time.

"Hard not to want to go back, isn't it?" Across from him Jimmy put down the bottle he was looking at and marked something on the clipboard he was carrying.

"What?"

"I recognize the look of a man who desperately wants to go back to his family." He looked up at Henry. "I see it on my own face every time I look into a mirror."

"You… You gave up your family for…" Henry gestured at him, not sure how to finish the sentence.

"I was an idiot." Jimmy look at the next bottle and noted it on the clipboard. "I thought there was something bigger that I had to do. Something more important."

Henry felt his mouth go dry, because that was how he though of the Men of Letters. Only now… He looked at the ingredients again.

"So, why don't you go back?" He looked up to find blue eyes fixed on his. "I mean, if you could go back."

Jimmy shook his head. "It would put my family in danger."

Henry sucked in a breath and Jimmy smiled faintly. "No, not from Cas, from the things we're fighting."

"But maybe you could."

Jimmy shook his head. " I tried once, nearly got them killed." Then he took a step towards Henry, a startled look on his face. "Do you need to sit down? You're looking rather pale."

Henry steadied himself on the counter, but shook his head. "No. I'm fine." He looked at the spell ingredients one more time, then put them away. He'd made his bed with the Men of Letters. He wanted to go back and fix everything, but he had no idea what he might bring to his family's doorsteps by trying.

His elbow hit a different ingredient and he picked it up, intending to shelve it. His breath caught in his throat as his mind automatically catalogued its uses. Nodding to himself he put it up on the shelf. He shouldn't go back… But maybe there was still something he could do for his son.