The Shape-Shifting Winchester

Chapter 31

Chapter 31

Sam tilted the paper and narrowed his eyes. "I think...this looks like...maybe...uh..."

"Out with it," Dean said, eager to be done with trying to figure out the embossing twelve hours later.

Sam sighed. "The only thing I can make out is Phil. So Philadelphia, maybe?"

"It's our best bet. Let's go."

Grabbing their bags, the boys ran out to the Impala and Sam asked to drive. "Why?" Dean asked.

"Because I like to drive," Sam shrugged.

Dean apprehended him for a moment, swinging the keys around his finger. "You mess up my car, I'll kill you."

"Yeah, sure you will." Sam nabbed the keys from him and swung down into the seat.

During the drive the boys were relatively quiet, and Dean laid back, his head tilted away like he was asleep. But he was wide awake. Trinity's words wouldn't leave his mind: I'm not...good. You've gotta let me go. It's best, I promise.

Then he saw her lifting the gun and shooting herself. He flinched, seeing it again. Hearing her say that she was about to blow, that if she flipped she wanted to be far, far away from them, so she didn't hurt them.

"Dean," Sam sighed. "I know you're not asleep."

Dean exaggeratedly snored and Sam rolled his eyes, not attempting any further conversation, but shaking. Finally he burst, and started ranting to himself. Dean started to get annoyed.

"She should know that we're her brothers-we can help her! And how can she think that she would ever consent to killing us? That's ridiculous! And Cas can't say anything to us because she compelled him, so that must have been how she made the shifter kill herself, but when did she make the switch? How did she know that the shifter would shoot her? Did she compel her to do that?"

"Shut up, Sam," he growled. "We'll go, we'll find her, and we'll drag her back home. Force her to listen to us."

"Dean..." Sam sighed.

"That's what we're going to do, Sam. End of story."

"How do we make sure she doesn't leave again?"

"We can't, not without silver. But I'm not going to do that to her."

Sam nodded, silently agreeing. Suddenly he pulled over, and Dean understood why. Simultaneously they got out and opened the trunk, finding all the silver-bullets, knives, chains-and putting it in an empty duffel, which Sam shoved to the front of the trunk before they closed it. "When we find Trinity, I don't want her to see anything that might suggest we doubt her," Sam said, although Dean already knew that and agreed wholeheartedly.

The rest of their ride was filled with Bon Jovi, Metallica, AC/DC, and anything else Dean had on tape. Even though Sam was driving and therefore had control of the music (driver picks the music; shotgun shuts his cakehole), he didn't. He left it alone; as he had previously experienced, the music somehow helped to calm his brother, and he didn't mind it. (you humming Metallica? Calms me down)

Not nearly soon enough they came to Philly, and Sam pulled into the parking lot of the first motel he saw. "You wanna get started, or sleep?"

Dean looked blankly at him, and Sam shrugged. "Hey, just asking."

After lugging their bags inside and setting up computers, Sam and Dean both started pulling up every apartment building in the city limits and immediate surroundings. There were a lot.

"She wouldn't be in a crappy one," Dean said, starting to cross a few off.

"Or one that would take a close look at her credentials," Sam added.

"So, suburban?"

Sam shrugged. "Seems like our best bet."

Trinity looked out her window at the city below her and let out a heavy sigh. She hadn't worked hard enough to destroy the embossing; her brothers were probably out there right at that second. For a moment she considered leaving, not giving them time to find her, but something kept her.

She couldn't leave her brothers again.

*Flashback*

Trinity hadn't been there when the hellhound tore into Dean, but she could imagine it.

When the clock hit midnight, she flinched and squeezed her eyes closed, hoping that when she opened them Dean would still be alive.

However, instead she got Sam, stumbling through the door of the motel blindly, like he wasn't seeing anything.

"Sam," she breathed, urging, begging, him not to say what she knew to be true. "Sammy..."

His eyes met hers and she collapsed to the ground in a puddle of screaming and sobbing. Her big brother was dead. Dean was dead. No, no he couldn't be. It was a lie. He wasn't dead!

Unwillingly flashes of a hellhound (or how she imagined one), flashed behind her eyelids and she heard Dean screaming. Truly screaming. She couldn't imagine how Sam felt when he saw that, and suddenly she looked up.

He was just...blank. Tears pooled in his eyes until they got too heavy and fell, but he was expressionless, just staring at the wall. She was watching him relive Dean's gruesome death.

Shaking, she stood and walked sure-footedly over to him. It took all her strength, but she was able to say, "I'm sorry," loud enough for him to hear clearly, and wrapped her arms around him. The touch broke him out of his trance and he squeezed her so tight she thought she would suffocate, but she didn't object. She needed her brother now. She needed him, and he needed her.

*After Lucifer!Sam falls into the pit*

Trinity sat in Bobby's house with Dean and patted his swollen, bloody face with a soft, wet cloth. Tears were running down her face, blurring her vision, but Dean was expressionless. It was scarily similar to how Sam had looked after Dean had gone to hell.

"He's going to be okay," she said, smoothing her voice out until it was soft and maternal, hopefully helping him somehow. "Cas got you out, Dean. He can get Sam out before anything happens. I promise."

He shook his head. "No, he won't. He can't get into Lucifer's pit, not without help. And none of the other angels care enough to help."

He sounded so broken; it made a terrifying coldness run through her veins. She swallowed another bout of tears and smiled (though it rather looked terrifying because she was grimacing simultaneously). "Hey, big brother, can you teach me about the car? I'd like to learn."

That drew his attention, if only for a moment, and his distraction brought her a sick sense of joy.

*End Flashbacks*

Dean grimaced. Whenever either of them had died, Trinity had hurt as much as they had, but she set her personal feelings aside to help them. It didn't matter that she could've been dying on the inside, because seeing them heal helped her heal. And Dean had always been too blind with grief to notice until Sam was back. He was her big brother, how could he have let her do that?

He glanced at Sam, and knew she'd done the same for him. It didn't matter what they were going through; Trinity had always put her feelings aside to help them. How on earth could she be evil? It made him furious that they'd told her about it without knowing the full story.