Mute 𖤐 Sam Winchester

TWELVE

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INSIDE of a local diner, Joyce, Sam, Dean and Kate were lead to a booth by their server. Joyce turned to Kate, motioning for her to get into the booth first.

Sam and Dean sat across from them as Joyce slid into the booth beside the blonde. Once she sat down, she adjusted her shirt just enough to grab her gun if she needed to.

Kate took a deep breath as she looked up at the boys. "Just so you know, Brian's the reason I carry this."

Joyce watched as she moved for her jacket, and she stiffened. As she placed her hand over her gun, Dean was already beginning to grab his own.

"Hey." Dean warned.

"I'm just showing you something." She said to him. "In case I ever lose it like Brian did. You won't have to kill me."

It was a silver dagger.

"Yeah, well, saying it and doing it are two different things."

"I'm serious. And whether you believe me or not, I've never hurt anyone who didn't deserve it. And I have never, ever, eaten a human heart."

Sam looked at his brother. "Guess that explains all the dead chickens back at the barn."

"I eat what I can find. What people won't miss, hopefully. Small game, deer, I meditate. Yoga helps."

Joyce rose a brow.

"Yoga?"

Dean seemed just as weirded out. "Okay. . ."

"You laugh, but I'll pretty much try anything to keep that side of me under control."

"Well, that's great, Kate. It really is. And it's nice to see that, uh, this hippie-dippie new age crap has had such a positive influence over your sister."

Kate released a loud sigh as she slumped her shoulders. Joyce placed her hands back onto the table.

"Tasha. . . She's a different story. After I left school, I was. . . Adrift. Lost. Not really sure where to go or what to do, so I went someplace safe. I went home. But, even though I'd be good, I started to think about my family. How safe were they going to be? I was a werewolf. And then, of course, there was you two.

"What if you showed up and tried to kill me? I couldn't risk that. So I walked away. Never called, never wrote, just started a new life. Until one day, I saw a posting on my sister's Facebook page. Tasha had been in a really bad car accident. The doctor's didn't think she was gonna make it. We were always so close. So, I had to go say goodbye. Then, it hit me. This curse that I had, that had brought me nothing but pain and suffering, could actually finally do something good. If I turned Tasha into a werewolf, it would heal her wounds, save her life; give her a second chance. So, I did the unthinkable."

Sam watched as Joyce signed, knowing he'd be the only one to know what she was saying.

"Tasha should've died naturally, she's only brought the same pain and suffering on Tasha for her own selfishness."

"At first, I thought I failed. Even though werewolves heal quickly, it was too late for Tasha. Then she woke up. Not sick anymore, but okay. Tasha had so many questions, what happened? How did she get here? So, I was straight with her. The good, the bad, the ugly. What we were and why we could never go back home and the responsibility we had to control what we'd become. It was a lot to swallow, but we had each other, and that felt like enough. . . Or so I thought."

Joyce had been zoning in-and-out of the conversation due to the lengthy details. All she knew was that Kate had made the mistake of turning her sister into the same thing she was; these were the thoughts running through her mind while she played Footsie with Dean under the table out of boredom.

"My sister, she gave in to everything that I had warned her about. And I knew, even if I couldn't bring myself to admit it then, I knew I was losing her."

"So, back at the barn, that was all just an act to protect Tasha?" Sam asked her.

"She's family. And yeah, worth eating a bullet for. And she needs me now more than ever. This is my mess. I gotta clean it up."

"And how do you plan on doing that, Kate?"

"By getting Tasha out of here."

Joyce rolled her eyes.

"She hasn't listened to you yet. Why do you think she's gonna start now?"

"I don't know, but. . . I've gotta try. You know, we'll go out into the woods. We'll drop out for however long it takes. Until she learns to control this."

"If she's too far gone, then she won't learn." Joyce signed.

"Little late for team building, don't you think?" Dean asked.

"So, what? I just abandon her? I did this! I owe her every chance to make it right."

"What if she never does?"

Kate looked at Sam, but something had changed in her eyes.

"Then I'll take care of it."
"You'll take care of it? You know what that means?"

"Why don't you ask Brian?"

Joyce watched as Dean gave Sam a sideway glance.

"Well, maybe it doesn't have to come to that. You know, if you had shot straight with us from the get-go, we might've been able to help you a lot sooner."

Joyce looked at Sam. "What the hell is he doing?"
Sam looked at Dean and signed back to her without speaking out loud. "I have no idea."

"What do you mean?" Kate asked him.

"By curing you both."

Joyce tried not to react, but it was difficult considering he was lying to the woman in attempt to lure her to her and her sister's deaths. She leaned back against the booth, pursing her lips.

Kate scoffed. "Shut up."
"Yeah, okay, or you're welcome."

"There is no cure for werewolves."
"And for a long time that was true, but we found one. Now we've got everything we need on our end, okay? But the clock is tickin'. And we need one more thing— Tasha. Unless you wanna do this without her."

"No! No. It's a long drive, but I know where to find her."

Dean nodded. "Okay, well we'll get the car ready, and you can do whatever you need to do."

As they each slid out of the booth, Sam and Joyce stared at Dean before following the oldest outside. It was in a matter of minutes when they finally broke the silence.

"Dude, what are you doing, there is no cure." Sam said.
"You wanna kill them." Joyce signed.

"Look, Ariel, I literally cannot understand what you're saying." He said to Joyce. "And there is one."

Dean revealed his knife.

"Dean, it's a little more complicated than that."
"Kate and Tasha are monsters. Last I checked, we kill monsters."

"Right, but how can you possibly blame Kate for fighting for her sister? We do it all the time."

"Well, yeah, and that's worked wonders for us."

"Well, we're still here, aren't we?"

Joyce slithered between them and pressed the button on her phone, and a feminine voice echoed.

"Don't fight. I don't like it, either. But Kate seems focused on trying to stop her sister. Maybe we should let her do it."

"And what, both of them turn into what Tasha is?" Dean asked. "But is it right? I mean, all that you've done for me, I've still got this mark—"

"And we'll figure that out, we always do." Sam argued.
"But you can't take whatever's happened to us or to you and dump it at these girls' feet."

Joyce scratched the back of her neck awkwardly.

"All right, so, what, you wanna nuance this thing? Hit me, what's your plan?"