The One He Brought Back

Scene Seven: The Rescue Mission

     The ride to the mills had been an uneventful loop of Cas worrying about the kids, Sam trying to calm him and Dean wanting to kill both of them. When they finally arrived at the Mills, they were greeted by Jodie, who was the only one there at the time. She explained quickly what was going on and showed them around. Of course, it wasn't as simple as they originally thought it would be. Nothing happened and the EMF's were dead until Alex and Clair, Jodie's foster children had come home. None of them needed to do any digging at all. Cas pulled Clair aside to ask what she had been doing lately. At first, of course, she lied, saying that she went to a party with her friend from school.  After a while though, she admitted to being approached by a stranger who gave her a necklace and she had spent the whole night the day before it started trying to destroy it, knowing something was off about it. It didn't work.

     They hadn't thought twice about the ruin helping angels locate a place. Hadn't bothered listening to Castiel's plea to not answer the door. Hadn't thought twice when a Jehovah's witness showed up at the door, Dean passively telling them to 'fuck off'. Now they wish they had. Maybe if they had been a little more suspicious, a little less gullible, they would be back home. They wouldn't be in a jail cell in heaven.

     Jodie and Alex had had the good sense to hide, Clair thought she could help and hence was captured with the trio the angels were after, though they didn't have the one thing they truly wanted. They didn't bring Maxine. Dean sat on a slab of rock in the back of the cell lazily, tilting his head back slightly to rest it on the cement behind him. "Cas back?" he heard Sam ask from the cell beside him. Dean squeezed his eyes shut tighter, "No. Is Clair still okay." He heard a sarcastic, "No." from Clair and rolled his eyes slightly.

     He perked up when he heard footsteps and saw that his cell door was being opened, a tattered angel being thrown in. "Cas", he yelled in a hoarse whisper. Cas grabbed onto Deans shirt for support. The cell door was soon to slam behind them and the angels marched away, leaving the four alone. Dean wrapped his arms around Cas and pulled him into the bench, hearing Sammy asking, "Cas, what did you tell them? What do they know?" Dean grunted a bit, half from holding Cas' weight and half from annoyance, "Give him a minute." Cas sat down, "No its fine," he struggled, "Thank you, Dean." He rested his head on the back wall, trying to get more comfortable, "I didn't tell them anything. But they wanted to know about Max." Cas closed his eyes, clearly drained. Dean scooted closer to Cas and silently offered his shoulder to rest on, which Cas hesitantly agreed to. Soon, Cas was leaned into Dean, staring off into space, completely relaxed. "Who's that?" he heard Clair question. Sam answered back, "we'll tell you later." Dean rested his head on Cas', he'd never admit it, but he always found his presence to be comforting.

***

     "Please tell me you've found something?" Max said, Calmly. She was too focused on the multiple lour books she'd pulled out to try and find the gates to heaven to worry about tone. "Uhhhh," Jack dragged, clearly reading frantically before jumping, "A - a playground of some sort apparently, but it doesn't say where it is. Its guarded by two angels though, so I don't know how we're supposed to get in even if we get there." Jack furrowed his eyebrows and looked up at Max reading violently, "Violet? Can you fly?" Max looked up and considered it, tilting her head from side to side. "At this point, I wouldn't be surprised but I don't know to be honest." She thought for a moment and then jumped up. "Give me the book!" She said happily. She placed her hand on the page trying to focus on where it came from. She saw the authors soul, Jim Rigglen, scratching the words onto the page with ink, she followed the trail from the ink to his mind, trying to find the location to the playground. Sure enough, there it was. A small, sandbox in a playground that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. "Found it!" She opened her eyes and touched Jack's forehead, relaying the memory to him. "Can you get us there?" Jack kept his eyes closed, grabbing her arm and teleporting both of them to a bush near the playground to hide. There stood two angels, one looking like a small child, prancing around the sandpit. The other posing as their parent, guarding the portal. "Can you put angels to sleep?" Max asked quietly. "No, but I can distract if that's useful." Max nodded, "Should be." She got up and Jack quickly jumped to action, filling their heads with so many random, loud, obnoxious thoughts that they didn't even notice when Max gently touched their shoulders, putting them into a coma-like state for angels.

     "Okay," Jack said cheerfully, getting up and ushering Max to hop into the portal. "Max walked over to the oldest looking sleeping angel and searched for the ritual to open it. After retrieving the ritual she looked up at Jack. "You're half human." She stated. She looked at Jack, focusing on the air around you. Jack furrowed his eyebrowed and tilted his head, "What are you doing?" Max sighed, "There's a possibility that your atoms will be returned to the univurse upon entering. I know you won't stay here, so that's just in case that happens so that maybe I can bring you back." Jack nodded, Knowing her statement was right. "Let's go," Jack said, trying not to be nervous.

     Max walked through the sandpit, blinded by heavens light. Though, at first, she thought that it hadn't worked and that she had just walked through the sandpit. She turned to look behind her to find that the light had dimmed and Jack was standing behind her, clearly hurt, but in one piece. "You okay?" she asked quickly, "Yeah," Jack wheezed, doubled over, his hands on his knees. She touched his shoulder, hoping to heal him, but she couldn't for some reason. "I'm sorry Jack I really am trying..."Jack stood, still a bit hunched over, "its okay. I promise I'm okay." Max looked at him and finally nodded.

     She turned back around and found a door, grabbing the handle and stepping out, it seemed that they had landed in the middle of a broom closet. Peeking down the hallways, she saw a long strip of door after door, labeled with names. She closed her eyes, trying to find Sam, Dean, and Castiel, she finally found a blurry image of them in a jail cell, smiling at Cas and Dean. She tried hard to find a trail that led to them but they were too far away.

     Max walked forward a bit, Jack trailing behind her. soon,  she spotted an angel turning a corner, silencing any thoughts the angel had that they were out of the ordinary, She asked, "Where is heavens prison?" The angel wouldn't speak at first until Jack forced him to spill, "I'll bring you to it," the angel finally said.

      It wasn't long before Jack and Max found themselves in a hallway of cells. They walked quickly, peaking in each as they went, "Dean?" Max called, "Sam!" Jack found Dean and Cas first calling out to Max, "I found them, you need to open it though." Max was too busy helping Sam and some other girl she had never met out of their cell, but she couldn't. Yet again, her powers failed her. Jack tried pulling on the bars too, they wouldn't budge. They didn't hear footsteps from behind them, nor did they hear the sigh, but Max did hear her name, "Jack, Max, stop," the voice sounded caring but exasperated, Like a tired parent. Sam swallowed, looking at the man behind Max, "Chuck?"