𝐃𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐀𝐍

𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐓𝐘-𝐒𝐈𝐗

It's four AM, and Dean is the only one awake. 

Sam was the first of them to give up, and fell asleep somewhere around nine, sprawled out on his bed, leaving no room for anyone else. Katherine hung out for a little longer, then passed out on the sofa around one. Her arms are tightly crossed over her chest, eyebrows furrowed.

Dean grips his coffee cup and takes a few swigs. 

Then his cellphone rings on the table right in front of him. SHA33. Dean snatches his phone up  and flips it open.

"Dad?" Dean moves for the bathroom as quietly as he can before closing the door behind him. The window high up on the wall provides all the light he needs.

"Dean." That's his father's voice. He'd heard it countless times before...usually angrier than this. Not to say there's no coldness about his father's voice.

That's all there was.

"Is that really you?"

"How can I be sure?"

"You can't."

Dean's heart hammers in his chest as he holds onto the doorknob. 

"Dean...how could you do it?"

He frowns. "Do what?"

"Sell your soul."

Dean's eyes snap up, and he catches a view of his reflection in the mirror. He looks like himself. "I had to," he whispers. "I was looking after Sammy, like you told me to, and Kat—"

"I never wanted this." Static swallows his father's voice. "Never." Dean rubs his forehead, closing his eyes. Something he doesn't have a word for floods his stomach. He's disappointed again. "You're my boy. I love you. I can't watch you go to Hell, Dean."

The white noise sits between the two for a few moments. "I don't know how to stop it," Dean whispers. 

"Because if you break the deal, they both die, right?" 

The rug gets taken out from beneath Dean's feet. "What?"

"I know a way out," John says. "For all of you."

"How?

"The demon who holds your contract." The static in Dean's ear intensifies. "He's here. Now."

What did Katherine know? Enough to look at weather patterns. In the damn newspaper, though? 

✕

Finding sleep was hard. He felt sick to his stomach, amped on caffeine. 

At eight, two hours after Dean laid down to try to rest, Katherine woke up to a phone call. She got dressed, left a note on the stationery pad, and took the car keys. 

She came back around eleven, well after Sam woke up to Dean poring over Katherine's notes.

"Hey," Sam chirps, smearing peanut butter over a piece of toast. "Everything okay with Lainie?"

"Oh, yeah." Katherine nods, shrugging out of her jacket. "Her mom's ghost freaked her out pretty bad last night, she just wanted to talk about it." She gestures to Dean after tossing the car keys on the table. "What's he doing?"

"Uh...weather patterns," Sam says.

Katherine frowns. "I just looked at the weather," she calls to him, moving for her bag of clothes.