strangers when we met

19

"I don't like it."

That was exactly the response Meg was waiting for. She'd just thought it would come from Mary or from Sam himself.

What surprised her was that it came from Castiel.

"What exactly is there not to like about it?" she asked him, quirking an eyebrow.

"There's too many things that could go wrong," Castiel replied. "Too many risks..."

"Well, I think that's an advantage. It'll keep us flexible," Meg said, with a smirk.

Castiel wasn't buying it. "Sam will be in a lot of danger. We might not be able to get to him in time, he might even..."

"I'll do it," Sam cut him off.

All the gazes turned towards him. He was leaning against one of the shelves, his arms crossed over his chest and when he lifted his head and spoke, his tone was overtly calm.

"I'll do it," he repeated. "I'll take those chances."

To Meg, that was a good enough answer, but of course the others would need more convincing.

"Sam, you can't!" Mary said. "There has to be another way..."

"We've been breaking our heads trying to find this other way," Sam pointed out. "Yes, it's a risky plan but it's not more so than any of the other ones we've tried."

"No." Mary shook her head. "It can't be."

"Mom..."

"I'm not going to lose both of my boys!"

The declaration came thunderous and forceful. Mary was a head shorter than Sam, but when she planted herself in front of him, she seemed to grow larger and stronger than him. Or maybe it was that Sam had shrunken as a result.

And part of Meg wanted to chastise Mary for not realizing how genius this was, for not picking up on the fact that Adam and Michael were just going to escalate the violence from then on, that they couldn't hide in that bunker forever, that this was a golden chance they had and they couldn't pass up on it.

But another part of her... her eyes kept moving towards were Eris was standing, looking at each of them with her brown and blue eyes, a slight frown on her brow as if she was trying to unravel a very complex problem. And Meg couldn't help but to realize she would also be opposing the plan if it was her daughter being used as bait. It was a thousand times worse, though, because Sam was a very capable hunter, one of the best... but he was still no more than a fragile human.

She would've liked to say something about all of it, but then Castiel put a hand on her shoulder.

"We'll let you to discuss this," he said, softly. "You already know what I think, Sam. But the decision is ultimately yours."

Meg turned her chair and follow him and Rowena out of the library and into another of the large halls that spread out of it. Was she ever going to get an idea of how big the bunker was, exactly? It seemed as ever-changing and expanding as the goddamn Hellscape itself.

Rowena passed them by, practically stomping with her pumps on the floor.

"Where are you going?" Meg asked.

"To get supplies, of course," the witch replied, not stopping and not turning to look at them. "Because Sam is going to convince Mary and we're all going to go with this suicide plan of yours. So I might as well be ready for it."

She sounded angry, in the passive-aggressive way that signaled that she knew Meg was right to propose her plan, but she didn't like it. She wasn't going to try and oppose it, but she was definitely not happier than Mary was that they were risking her boyfriend like that.