On Borrowed Time

16. Feathery Asshat

PART ONE: RUN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: FEATHERY ASSHAT

------

TEAM WINCHESTER, STARLING , USA

------

Sam had to admit it, Dean had done a good job. Though he did wonder how Felicity had known to pass the needle off to him. He also wondered (while the others had shrugged it off as the shock of seeing her friend on the table) if the hallucinations had begun. The way she had suddenly cried out and dropped the needle - nerves were a thing but he had seen her stitch Oliver up before without this reaction. He made a mental note to mention it to Dean.

Diggle laid on the table still motionless and Felicity had since disappeared into the thumping nightlife of the club above them. Sam had cleaned up and fallen into the seat behind her computer desk, waiting with the others in tense silence for Diggle to start moving again. He sipped on the beer Oliver had silently provided them with and finally gazed at the monitors before him.

The FBI facial recognition software had fascinated him, and the unlimited access to the city's security cameras seemed brilliant. But it was as he minimized the Starling City Police database that his curiosity spiked. 'A Guide to Hades' Underworld', he resisted the urge to snort at his own obliviousness - of course Felicity wouldn't have asked about other mythos without reason. Without her there though, he couldn't know what leads she was pursuing.

"Hey, uh Dean?" he called out, clearing his throat as his brother glanced up from his copy of Busty Asian Beauties. "Do you think the underworlds are connected?"

Dean frowned and returned his gaze to his magazine, shrugging Sam off with his nonchalant scoff. "What like Hell, Purgatory? No Sammy, I don't think they're connected."

Sam recomposed himself and presented the question to his brother again. "No Dean, I mean do you think the afterlife of all these religions we encounter connect? Is Hell just a corner of Hades' Underworld? Or vice versa?" Dean closed his magazine then to fully asses his brother.

"That's awfully deep for a Friday night Sammy," his tone was calm but his expression accusatory. "What are you thinking?" Sam skimmed the essay and examined the illustrations that graced the webpage before finally answering.

"Felicity's got a page here open about the Greek Underworld and I was just wondering if she might have been on to something," he finally admitted, closing the webpage. It was preposterous, in all of their time hunting they had never encountered anything that would suggest the Underworld actually existed. Still, he wondered. They hadn't had any notions of angels for the longest time, or purgatory the seals... There was a lot in the universe they didn't know and that was enough to make him believe it could be a possibility.

"Is there some way to figure out?" Oliver asked, finally speaking up, but his heart wasn't in it. His attention had been focused on his injured friend.

Sam weighed the idea as he shared a look with his brother. "Well, there's always the possibility that someone like Crowley would know -"

Dean snorted and shook his head, "Yeah, like Crowley's going to give us any answers," he said, finally letting his feet drop from the other side of the desk.

"No, but the angels might," Sam countered seriously and Dean sighed before getting to his feet and grabbing his jacket. "And we've got nothing but time to kill," he said, gesturing his beer towards Diggle before taking a long sip. Dean contemplated for a moment, eying his magazine again before finally grabbing his keys off of the desk.