Full Circle (Book 8 in Arrow/Spn Crossover)

Focus On The Future

I looked down at Sam, "He's freaked."

"Yeah, he gave us the souls and the tribe as "parting gifts"? Bullshit."

"I wouldn't want to be in Hell when he gets back, the ass reamings will be epic."

Sam's lips curled, "No, just clouds of black smoke as he walks down the hall disintegrating demons left, right and center."

"Yeah, not feeling too torn up about that. You?"

"Not one bit."

"You shifting back or staying like that?" I turned and saw his clothes, or what was left of them, "Need me to get you some new pants? Those are trashed."

He looked over his shoulder and his ears drooped down a little, "Damn it, I liked those jeans too."

"Maybe we should invest in a bunch of cheap sweats or workout pants. They come off easier."

"I am not walking around in sweats for the rest of my life. That's just stupid."

The amount of heat he said that with was kind of surprising, "When did you become a fashion critic? Oh wait, let me guess. Thea?"

He grumbled, "Shut up. I'll go grab some new clothes and shift. Pour me some of the bourbon, I need to get the taste of Crowley out of my mouth."

I made sure not to laugh out loud as he bundled the clothes into a pile with his paws, wrapped his jaws around them and carried them out towards the bookshelves, which were shut. The look on his face when he eyed me over his shoulder with a ball of clothes in his mouth was so worth it. "Dude, you seriously going to make me ask? I can feel you laughing you know, jerk."

I walked over and pulled the shelves apart, trying hard not to fall over and laugh in his face, "Has nothing to do with you, I swear."

His eyes narrowed, but he held his head up high as he walked through the gap I'd made, used his paw to open the door and turned down the hall to his room. That tore it for me, I barely made it into the chair before laughing so hard it hurt. Cas came in while tears were still streaming down my face.

"Is this an appropriate time for laughter? The children are still rather upset."

I wiped my face dry and tried to put the image of Sam's furry exasperation out of my head for now. "Sorry, it was something Sam said. You're right, not exactly the best moment to be cracking up. Sam and I will start getting flights for them and get them home. There's not a lot more we can do for them though. When they show back up there's going to be a ton of questions they won't have answers for, or at least answers anyone will believe." I had an idea, I didn't really like it but it may be easier than what they'd have to deal with as it stood now. "We could give them new memories."

Cas' face went still, he never liked doing that, "There's no we involved with that Dean."

"I know, but what options do we have here? If we send them back like this they won't be able to make it through all the questions without cracking. I know someone who helps kids that go through shit like this but those kids have no one else, they're hunter kids or kids who've lost their parents to monsters. These kids all do, they have homes, families, lives that they should get back to living. Just think about it. That's all I'm saying."

"What false memories would we implant?"

"Kidnapping, runaway, either would work. Come up with a generic looking face for a kidnapper to implant in their heads and go with that, or come up with a reason they would have runaway. We find out about their lives and make it fit. They're going to be traumatized no matter how we do this. It's been too long, we can't just wipe them clean."