Saints or Sinners | {BOOK 3}

16| Cass Wakes Up

While I had been asleep in the van with Maddie and Zeppelin, Sam and Dean had gone to steal a case from Dick Roman containing a hunk of clay. We were now inside an abandoned building and Dean had gotten his tool box from the car to try and see what exactly it was.

"That's a lot of fuss over a caveman Lego," Dean joked.

"Yeah. Well, whatever Dick wants is bricked up inside that," Sam said.

"Alright."

Dean took a mallet out of the tool box, handing Sam and I each a pair of safety goggles before putting some on himself. He hit the clay once with the mallet and outside thunder clapped. I furrowed my brow as he hit it again with the same result, lightning adding into the mix.

"That sound like somebody saying, 'No, wait- stop,' to you?" Dean asked us.

"Uh...yeah," Sam nodded.

"Yeah," I agreed.

"Yeah," Dean repeated, shrugging. "Oh, well."

He continued to hit at the clay, the storm continuing to protest. Finally, it broke open revealing an inscribed stone tablet and Dean picked it up, flipping it over. We all shared a look, wondering what mess we just got ourselves into this time.

⁘

"... at a lost to explain the continent-wide storm system that appeared seemingly out of nowhere, blanketing a good part of the nation in freak lightning displays," a reporter on the news was saying on Sam's laptop. "Here with Dr. Marion Price of the U.S. Meteorological Survey at a press conference earlier today."

Dean had woken up and stood from the floor, looking over at me and Sam at the table before heading into the bathroom to wash up.

"Baffled?" Dr. Price scoffed on screen. "No, I'm not baffled. Frankly, I'm offended. This is not the way weather behaves."

I snorted as the reporter went back to speaking.

"Power outages and related damages to electronic equipment have been reported as far east as Cape Cod..."

I stopped listening, moving over to talk to Dean.

"Bobby?" he asked as a cup nearby moved.

"Think so," I said, showing him a flashing EMF meter. "But the whole adventure at Roman's seems to have drained his batteries."

"So, what? We start the storm heard 'round the world?" he asked, coming out of the bathroom.

"When we broke this thing," Sam touched the stone tablet on the table, "open last night, every maternity ward within a hundred mile radius got slammed. Looks like any woman in her last month of her pregnancy went into labor."

"Hmm," Dean hummed, picking up the tablet. "This one goes out to all the ladies. So, heavyweight signs, omens- what do we got?"

"Ellie and I assume its writing," Sam shrugged. "But we've never seen anything like it, ever. And it doesn't match anything in any book or online."

"Alright, so big daddy chomper lands himself here, he grabs himself some Dick... and then he starts secretly underwriting university departments, pouring money into digs- all for this. Why?"

"No clue," I shook my head. "We do know that he will be tearing new ones until he gets it back, though. Look, we got to take a minute, hole up somewhere safe, find out what we've got."

"Rufus' cabin, then?" Dean suggested.

"Yeah," Sam agreed.

"This time, I'm doing the shopping," I glared pointedly at Dean.

Just then, Sam's phone rang.

"It's Meg," he informed us, answering it. "What?"

He listened for a minute.

"What?" he repeated, then turned to Dean and I. "Cass is awake."

"When?" Dean asked, and Sam put the phone on speaker. "When?"

"Last night about eight," Meg replied.

"And you waited until now to call us?" I asked.

"I've been busy with Cass," she defended. "He's just a tad different than when he dozed off, 'kay?"

"What do you mean, different?" Dean demanded.

"Hey, Seacrest, guess what- not a nurse. Just playing one on TV. Want answers? Start driving."

The demon hung up on us and we shared a look.

"Great. So, Indiana?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. Eight o'clock last night," Dean shook his head.

"Same time we opened up that thing," I nodded to the tablet still in Dean's hand.

⁘

For the first time since back when Sam was first admitted, I got to go up to the room in the psych ward. Part of me wished Maddie and Zep were still around. Maddie loved Cass and would have been so excited to see him again. But at the same time, we didn't know what Cass would be like now and both Maddie and Zep were safe up in Heaven with Sara.

"We raced all the way here, and now I don't know," Dean said as we made our way down the hall. "I can't say I'm fired up to see what's left of the guy."

"You think he remembers at all?" Sam asked.

"That, and I'm guessing whatever kind of Hell baggage he lifted off your plate. It's not going to be pretty."

"Hey. Excuse me, gentlemen, miss, but it's way past visiting hours," an orderly stopped us.

"It's okay, Abel," Meg told the orderly. "I've been expecting them. Hello, boys. Eleanor."

She led us further down the hall into the room where Cass was staying. He was standing over by the window, staring out.

"Hey, Cass," Dean said and he turned.

"Hello Dean, Eleanor. Sam."

"Hey, Castiel," Sam smiled a little.

"Hi, Cass," I greeted, taking in his appearance.

He wore a white hospital shirt and pants under his trench coat. The white hospital shoes on his feet were just a bit too big for him. The dark wings on his back were ruffled slightly, like they needed grooming. It didn't seem like anything was wrong with him, but we had only just arrived, so what did I know?

"Look at you, walkin' and talkin'," Dean said. "That's- that's great, right?"

Cass didn't answer Dean's question. Instead, he walked over and pointed his finger at Dean.

"Pull my finger."

"What?"

"My finger- pull it."

Dean still didn't move, glancing over at Sam and I in confusion. We both shrugged, so hesitantly, Dean took Cass's finger in his hand an pulled. I jumped, yelping as there was a crash and all the lights went out in the room. Above us, the light fixture shattered, as did the window. Cass just laughed as Meg turned on the light.