Saving Grace

In The Beginning -- Azazel

~*****~

My eyes can barely stay open as we drive along the dark road. I stretch my arms overhead and glance behind me before I gasp in shock, the air choking me for a moment. "Can we put a friggin' bell on you?" I ask angrily as Dean sweeps his head around for a moment and growls.

Castiel doesn't say anything. Dean snorts. "Oh, you're a regular chatty Cathy. Tell me something-- Sam would have wanted in on this. Why not bring him back?"

"You and Carlotta must do this alone." Castiel explains.

"And you don't care that he's tearing up the future looking for me right now?" Dean asks.

"Sam's not looking for you. Either of you." Castiel says.

Dean huffs a little. "All right, if I do this, then the family curse breaks, right? Mom and Dad live happily ever after, and Sam and I grow up playing little league and chasing tail?"

"You realize if you do alter the future, your father, you, Sam-- you'll never become hunters. Carlotta will have died up there in the mountains, surrounded by the corpses of her parents, and all those people you saved, they'll die."

I chew on my lip. "Didn't realize I meant so little to you freaks." I mention irritably. "Obviously we realize that."

"And you don't care?" Castiel asks.

"Oh, I care." Dean says. "I care a lot. But these are my parents. I'm not gonna let them die again. I can't. Not if I can stop it--" I lean back in my seat as Castiel disappears without a word.

~*****~

Dean had finally agreed to remain in the Impala while I broke into Elkins' safe. After arguing about who could open the safe quicker, Dean had ultimately caved when I'd stepped out of the Impala and locked the car up tight with my powers. Breaking into the safe would be no problem to me.

I smiled a little when I'd finally wrapped my hand around the colt, my fingers trailing over the familiar carvings. "Hold it right there, friend," I hear someone say. I freeze at the sound of a shotgun being pumped. "Drop the gun. Be on your way." I stand up slowly, pulling my finger off of the trigger.

"I can't do that, Daniel." I say softly, my hand remaining tight on the colt.

"Who the hell are you?" He asks when I turn to face him.

I hum. "A hunter. Just like yourself."

"Thief's more like it." Daniel snorted.

"I just need it for a few days." I explain.

"Not happening, missy." 

I huff irritably. "Look, I have a chance to save some very special people." I say after a moment of thought. "Some people who don't deserve the evil that came for 'em. But I need this gun to do it. So, if you want to stop me, you better kill me." I shove the gun into the waist band of my jeans and slip past Daniel.

I stop at the frame of the room. "There's some hunters in Lawrence -- The Campbells."

"Never heard of 'em." Daniel retorted.

"That's where the Colt will be." I glance back at him, and he nods after a moment.

Dean is still in the Impala, trying to open the door. I feel my nose begin to run when I pop the door open, and the door Dean is trying flies open. "You get it?" Dean asked irritably.