Lost and Found

10. You Suck

PART ONE: FAMILY VALUES

CHAPTER TEN: YOU SUCK

------

TEAM WINCHESTER, STARLING CITY, USA

------

Dean rubbed the leather upholstery affectionately as they sat across the street from the massive night club. It was subconscious Sam was sure, but he had caught him doing it at least twice. Rather than call him out for it the third time he let his brother be and decided to change the subject. "So tell me again how you got out of there. How are you alive?"

"I told you, it was Cas," Dean said casually, as if angels were as common as dogs.

"But Dean, I watched you burning alive. I seen your skin bubbling and- and-," Sam shifted uncomfortably in the passenger's seat as he remembered the sight. Dean froze, about to take a gulp from the large pop he had gotten with dinner. He cleared his throat awkwardly and replaced the cup into the holder and gripped the steering wheel despite the fact the car was turned off and they weren't moving. 

Dean recalled the wash of acceptance as he had laid there thinking he would inevitably die. He remembered every scorching second of it. He remembered the feeling like his eyes were being burnt out of his head with a cattle prod, that the flesh of his face was being torn off his bones. He remembered praying to Cas to take care of his little brother. He remembered reaching for Sammy, reaching and reaching and meeting nothing but dirt but knowing he had to be there.

He woke up some time later, Cas hovering over him, a blank expression on his face as he peered at him with bright blue eyes. The smell of smoke and burnt flesh that seemed to cling to him was still sharp in his memory even after multiple showers. He remembered immediately trying to find Sam but he was already long gone. He had made Cas take him to the motel, but their things were cleared out and there was no indication to where he might have gone. They had mentioned Seattle before but Sam was dust in the wind nowhere to be found, they searched everywhere between the two towns. He was nowhere, until now.

"Cas pulled me out just like before," Dean said lamely.

"And then what? You just showed up in my motel room? I don't think so." 

Dean let out an aggravated sigh and grabbed his drink, taking long gulps before he answered anything more. "He pulled me out, used his angel mojo to heal me and then we went looking for you."

"No demon deals?"

"None."

"You didn't make a deal with Crowley, or with Death?"

"Sam, I told you! Cas did it, that's it. Now can we please just focus on the situation at hand?"

Sam frowned at the explanation and remained silent as he stared out the window, waiting for a sign of Oliver or his crew. Though they had followed them here it didn't make sense, they were going to pursue research at a night club? "Are we sure they're here and not, I don't know, in a side building or something?"

"We watched them go in the front door Sam,"

"Still, doesn't it seem odd to you?"

"This whole thing is odd Sammy," Dean sighed and jabbed the eject button before flipping the Journey cassette over and turning the music up louder.

Sam dropped the topic and just stared out the window towards the nightclub that had a giant glowing sign on it proclaiming it 'Verdant'. Not his style, but he wondered if Dean had ever frequented nightclubs in his younger years. Probably not, he rationalized as he listened to his brother passionately sing along to 'Wheel in the Sky'. Definitely not.