[AU] dark gonna catch me here

[gavemea_45]

Not two seconds after the door closed, Dean started demanding answers. Sam explained pretty much everything, although he glossed over the part where Wynonna'd threatened to shoot him, and for the most part Dean took it pretty well.

Until he made the suggestion of bringing Wynonna - and Peacemaker - to a crossroads and forcing the demon there to give up Dean's contract.

By the time the fight's over, Sam's certain of two things. First, that Dean's not willing to listen to reason because he doesn't want to risk Sam. And second, that he's not going to let his brother go to hell.

He makes sure Dean thinks he's asleep first, and waits until he hears his brother start snoring... then waits another half hour to make sure. Once he's certain Dean's not faking, Sam sneaks out and borrows the Impala.

There's a crossroads three miles north, an isolated one with an abandoned gas station nearby that he can use to get to the bar.

It'll do.

Comments

[pacificator]

There's the fire. It licks up around the body, eating hungrily at dress and hair and skin. Make your peace, she tells the unknown woman, silently.

In the end, they'll all burn. No Heaven waits at the end of the line for the heir. Of that much, she's certain.

Finally, after the fire's caught enough to almost hide the thing it's burning, she opens her mouth. "What she said."

Wynonna glances at Sam. "About the deal. Think it's true?"

[gavemea_45]

"I don't know." But he's deathly afraid it is. "When we ran into her on a job before ... she didn't refuse to bargain like that, though."

Sam takes a shuddering breath and blows it out in a harsh rush. "There's got to be a way. I'm just gonna have to look harder to find it."

[pacificator]

"Everybody's got a price."

She pushes more certainty into it than she feels. "Even demonic... middle management, or whatever her boss is. Hey."

Wynonna looks over at him, her brows drawn together but her eyes clear. "We'll help. Me and Waves. However we can. Okay?"

[gavemea_45]

Sam nods, and finally looks away from the flames. "Thanks. I mean it," he says, softly. "And ... same goes. Whatever you need, or Waverly, any kind of help - just say the word. I mean that, too."

[pacificator]

She nods, meeting his glance.

When he first told her about this, she'd thought about it only in terms of what she'd do, if Waverly were in trouble. How far she'd go to save her sister.

She'd never thought – what if there were some benefit to her being out of the picture? The screw-up. The psycho. The one who never should have been the heir. The black sheep.

Any one of the revs could toss the same damn argument at Waverly's head as the demon had at Sam tonight. And they wouldn't be totally wrong. "Thanks."

[gavemea_45]

He nods again and looks back at the fire, checking on its progress.



"I need you to know," he says, abruptly. "What she said. Dean's not like that. Okay? He's not."

[pacificator]

She shrugs, slight. "Even if he were, you're not gonna let him burn."

There's a heavy weight of certainty behind the words. "Because I am like that. And Waverly wouldn't stop at anything to save me anyway."

[gavemea_45]

"He's my brother." Sam looks back over at her. "And I doubt that, by the way. Not about Waverly, about you."

[pacificator]

"You shouldn't."

Low, as she looks back down into the flames. "You don't know the worst things I've done."

[gavemea_45]

"I know that you're dealing with a hell of a mess back home, and you still dropped everything to come to another world to try to save someone you don't yet know, for the sake of someone you'd basically just met."

Each word is steady and absolutely certain. "That's the kind of person you are, Wynonna."

[pacificator]

"Yeah, well."

She smacks the back of her hand against his chest, uncomfortable with his sincerity. "It's not like I had big plans tonight, anyway."

[gavemea_45]

She really is a lot like Dean. It makes him even more inclined to think well of her.

"Uh-huh. Be that as it may, I'm buying when we get back to the bar."

[pacificator]

"Not gonna say no to that."

She looks back down at the fire. By now, the body inside is more a suggestion of a person than anything else. "Sorry, lady," she murmurs. "Nothing personal."

[gavemea_45]

"At least she's free of it now. There's that." It's pretty damn cold comfort, but it's all he's got to offer. Wynonna may have been the one to pull the trigger, but Sam's just as responsible. He'd have taken the shot himself if he could.

"I wonder who the demon thought you were. That was just weird."

[pacificator]

"That was weird." She grabs onto the change of topic with both hands. "What'd she say? A new meatsuit?"

Wynonna frowns over at him. "Did she think I was some other demon?"

[gavemea_45]

"I mean, that's what it sounded like." Sam grimaces. "Like I said, weird. It's not like I'd be working with a demon."

[pacificator]

"Yeah."

Her fingers flex, missing Peacemaker in them. "Still, good to know Peacemaker works outside my world, huh?"

[gavemea_45]

"Yeah. And it looked just like what our Colt would have done," he confirms. "Maybe you should ask your agent guy if he's heard of any demon trouble from down south, for real."

[pacificator]

A small frown flickers between her brows, but she nods.

What the fuck is going on with Dolls lately, anyway? "I will."

[gavemea_45]

"I mean, hopefully not. You sure don't need any more trouble. But maybe just in case."

The fire's starting to burn lower and Sam studies it with a critical eye. "I'm going to get a tarp and shovel. We should be able to bury her soon."

[pacificator]

"Even if we don't overlap, might be worthwhile to take a trip up to the Ghost River Triangle in your world, anyway," she points out.

"Maybe whatever supernatural boundary is around it in my world exists here, too."

[gavemea_45]

She's not wrong, little as he likes to think it. "Yeah, guess we should." Sam goes over to the car and pulls what he needs out of the trunk.

[pacificator]

She watches the makeshift pyre burn. It's the least she can do for the poor woman who – probably, hopefully – never asked for any of this. "Need a hand with any of that?"

[gavemea_45]

"No, I got it. Just ... stay with her while I get things ready," he calls.

There's a drainage ditch a little ways away from the side of the lot. Sam works on making it wider and deeper - deep enough, anyway.

[pacificator]

He asks her to stay, so she stays, trying not to think about the horror that would fill Waverly's eyes if she heard about this and trying not to listen to the scrape of the shovel as Sam digs the woman's unceremonious grave.

"You probably deserved better than this," she tells the dead woman. "I'm sorry about that."