Title: Nothing and Everything

Part Two: Retribution

Chapter 37

~~~~~~~~~~

Before she could lose her nerve, Jo sat down to fill out the form that had been in the envelope and send it back along with the money for their dinner. They’d go down two days early so she could psyche herself up for it -- and case the location for anything out of the ordinary, though she wasn’t going to tell Dean that -- and stay two days after to recover. She’d pretend they were having a walk down memory lane while making sure all exits were still available.

Profession.

She tapped the pen against her lips before writing, Part owner/manager of WHC Investigations, Inc. a privately owned company offering selective services across a tri-state area.

It was mostly true. They did work a tri-state area (along with the rest of the country), though not with the shiny new official job and they did offer selective services.

Married: Yes

Husband’s Name: Dean

Years Married.

She thought about that question. It was definitely over a year, as Jack was just past eighteen months old. Make that over two years because she’d been pregnant while married. No, make that…. After more counting backwards, tongue caught between her teeth, Jo put pen to paper again.

Approximately 3 years

And it didn’t feel nearly that long. It seemed like only a few months to her, which she supposed was a good thing.

Children: Yes

Names.

Jo considered that question as well. Did the Impala count as a child? She and Dean both called her ‘baby’ and Dean took care of her like a child. Yes, Jo decided and made up a name.

Paula and Jack

Have you traveled? Yes

If so, where?

She started listing off states and finally scratched it all out a wrote, Have visited 48 states and three countries since graduation.

Which reminded her. They needed to take a case in Hawaii so she could cross that one off her list. Of course, getting Dean there was going to be a problem what with his fear of flying and all. Maybe she and Gwen could go?

With a sniff, she returned to the paper.

Hobbies and special interests: Dead languages, forensics, world religions, folklore, and urban legends, bartending

As an afterthought, she added, reading and fashion.

Further education: On the job training in linguistics, psychology, sociological trends, proper weapons handling

She continued to fill out the rest of the information, only half of it tongue-in-cheek.

~~~~~~~~~~

It had taken Jo two days to fill out the questionnaire for her reunion and she handed it to Dean to read through before sending it. He snickered at some of Jo’s answers and pointed to one. “When did we become incorporated?”

“About a month ago. Don’t you remember signing the papers?”

“That’s what I signed?” He’d signed a lot of papers recently and hadn’t been particularly interested in what he was signing as long as he knew which name to use. After all, Sam, Jo, and Gwen were on top of the ‘real business’ stuff.

“Uh-huh.”

“Why did we do that?”

“Possible tax break?” The way she said it made him think she really didn’t know the answer.

“We pay taxes?”

“Yes. We’re a business, Dean. We pay taxes.”

“For which business?”

“The --” She closed her mouth, pursed her lips and quirked a brow. “You know which one.”

He smiled softly at her annoyed tone and glanced back down at the form. This reunion had her all riled up. Jo’s sense of humor appeared to have taken a vacation. “Do we have a secretary?”

“No. We have a system set up to screen calls. You know that.”

“Can you pretend to be my secretary?”

She sighed, rolling her eyes. “Later.”

Grinning in anticipation of that ‘later’, he pointed at another line. “We have two kids now? When did you have Paula?”

“Oh, Paula isn’t mine. She’s yours.”

“You know something I don’t?”

“The Impala, Dean. Get it? Paula? The Impala?” Now she smiled, pleased with her own cleverness.

He held up a finger, ready to argue, then decided it actually made a weird amount of sense and nodded. “Okay. Two kids then….” The rest of the questionnaire was filled out much the same way and he almost pitied her former classmates. If she’d been half the handful then as she was now, they should have some idea what was headed back at them. “You feel like going out on a job?”

“Another cheating spouse?” She sounded bored by the prospect and he didn’t blame her.

“No, a real job. Possible ghouls. Sam spotted it. He and Gwen are currently arguing over whether we’re going out or you are.”

“Grave robberies?”

“Several.”

She watched him a moment then asked, “You don’t want to go?”

“I promised Ellen I’d help her with a project.” He just wasn’t quite sure what that project was. Something for Bobby was all Ellen had said, which could mean anything.

“Sure. We’ll go. We haven’t dealt with a ghoul in months.”

And he’d successfully cheered her up.

~~~~~~~~~~~

While ghouls weren’t Jo’s favorite thing to hunt, this particular job had been a doozey. Not that she’d let Dean know that. He’d worry if she did. She let herself back into the room she and Gwen had gotten, careful not to spill the coffee she’d bought with their breakfast. Jo closed the door with her foot, expecting to hear the sound of the shower or at least some sign that Gwen was awake.

No luck. She set the coffee and food on the table, crossed her arms, and sighed. Gwen was asleep again. She’d apparently gone right back to sleep the second Jo had left. Normally, Jo wouldn’t worry about her sleeping except it was nine in the morning and Gwen was usually up with the sun or six, whichever came first. She rarely missed a run and she’d missed one every day for a week. Thinking back, Jo realized it was actually longer than that. She’d started really sleeping a lot right about the time they’d gotten back from being out for six weeks straight. Gwen hadn’t gone out for a run in a long time now, like somewhere around three weeks. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she shook her. “Gwen.”

“Mmm.” She stretched.

“Gwen.”

“What?”

“It’s after nine.”

She opened her eyes and blinked sleepily. “Yeah? Why are you waking me up? Job is done. Let me sleep. I’m tired.” Rolling onto her side, she yanked the covers high up over her face.

While it was a possibility the case had left her genuinely exhausted, Jo didn’t think so. She’d already come to another conclusion. “Why didn’t you tell me you were preggers?”

The covers lowered, Gwen’s eyes popping open. “I’m what?”

“You heard me. Preggers. Pregnant. With child.” She pressed a hand to her chest to indicate herself, “I’m your best friend. Your dear sister-in-law,” then poked Gwen in the arm with the last words, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

She stared at Jo, hand moving to rub at the spot Jo had poked. “You think I’m pregnant?”

“It’s kind of obvious. You’re sleeping a lot more than usual, haven’t had the energy to go for a run….”

“I went for a run the other day.”

“And came back after ten minutes because you were too tired. You went back to bed.”

“I’m not….” She scooted up to sit, understanding dawning in her eyes in slow degrees. “I could be.” She nodded. “I might be.”

“As much as you and Sam have been pursuing that goal? Congratulations. I remember the fatigue, though mine went hand-in-hand with puking at weird hours.” She stood. “I’ll go out and buy a test.”

“I’ll wait until we get back.”

“Don’t you want to know?” She crossed her arms.

“Of course I do, but…I want Sam there.”

“You’re a braver woman than I.” Telling Dean had had her stomach all tied in knots for days. Gwen didn’t look afraid to tell Sam, though, more like afraid to find out for sure. “I thought you wanted to be.”

“I do,” she insisted. “It’s…scary, you know?”

Did she ever. “I think you’ll be fine.”

Still, she bought two tests anyway (there was a sale) and slipped them into Gwen’s bag. Why buy them at home when there was a store right across the street?

~~~~~~~~~~

Pregnant. That one word made her giddy and terrified at the same time. Giddy because it was what she and Sam had wanted and terrified because it was something completely out of her comfort zone.

Gwen opened the package, took a last glance at the directions, and did what they said.

Sam was still asleep. She’d woken early, at only four, unable to sleep with the possibility that she was pregnant swirling in her brain. She’d looked at her phone app, but couldn’t remember if she’d skipped a period or just forgotten to log it.

Gwen rubbed the fingers of one hand across her forehead. She’d been really tired lately, the cold she’d thought she’d had stretching out longer than it should have. The really tired part should have clued her in a lot sooner and now she felt a little stupid that she hadn’t realized immediately or even noticed that she’d skipped a period. She stared at the little calendar in the app, trying to figure out when she was due. November? December? Somewhere around then maybe?

The timer went off and she picked up the test. The line was a very solid pink, as in no way she could think it was negative.

Dumping it in the trash, she put a hand to her stomach, letting a tiny curl of a grin slip free.

I’m pregnant, she thought. It really happened.

Suddenly she wasn’t scared by it at all, ready to drag out the pregnancy and baby books and start planning.

Reaching out, she snagged a plastic cup, filled it with water and drank. She’d go back to bed and take that other test Jo had shoved in her bag when she woke up again. Sam didn’t have any plans to go anywhere and even if he did, he’d wake her up before he left. She’d take the test again with him there at her side.

~~~~~~~~~~

Cleaning the house wasn’t a thing Sam enjoyed, but it was necessary. They all took turns doing chores and it was Sam’s morning. He made his way around the house, emptying trash cans, wiping down sinks, and so on. Gwen had left her phone in the bathroom and he slipped it into his shirt pocket. Sam started to change the bag in the trashcan and noticed something in the bottom of it.

The box to a pregnancy test and the test with it. He drew it out. The line was solid and he looked at the package directions.

Gwen was pregnant. Had to be Gwen because Jo would’ve used the bathroom upstairs for the test.

Sam held the test in one hand and her phone in the other, opening the app she’d been using to track their progress. According to the app, she’d missed a period. According to the test, she was pregnant.

Closing the toilet lid, he sat down, the trash can he’d been changing the bag in still in the middle of the floor. His stomach lurched, heartbeat pounding hard in his chest. Why hadn’t she said anything?

He set the test back in the trash, surprised that it’d happened so fast. He’d thought they’d be trying for the full six months.

Was she wondering if he’d freak out like Dean had with Jo’s pregnancy? He wasn’t Dean though and it was time to buckle down and accept this responsibility. Gwen was pregnant with their child and he had to finish with the soul stealer as soon as possible. She was right. He had to figure something out even if it wasn’t what was supposed to work.

He quietly put her phone back on the nightstand and finished the chores he’d been working on. She was still asleep when he checked back on her, dead to the world, and Sam bent, pressing a kiss to her forehead.

“I’ll get it done,” he whispered and took the box of journals upstairs to the office. Jo and Dean had taken Jack out to the park, so Sam had the area to himself. He drew out the journals he’d already looked through and his notes and began to go back through the pages, searching out anything he could use. A vague plan began to form, taking shape as he worked and just when he’d decided to try another angle and attack the reddish stain that had been on the box lid, he heard the stairs creak and Gwen’s voice behind him.

“Sam?”

He turned in the chair. “You’re awake. You slept late this morning. Been sleeping in a lot lately. Feeling okay?” It was a leading question and he hoped she’d tell him right now.

Instead, she held up a box. It was a pregnancy test, the same brand as the one that had been in the trash. Gwen licked her lips and bounced a little on her toes like she was excited about something and trying to hide it. “I think it’s time to take a test.”

He rested his arm on the back of the chair, trying hard not to break out in a goofy grin. Had she taken the other test to make sure he wouldn’t be disappointed in the results if her suspicions were wrong? She had, hadn’t she? “Then we should go take it.”

They read the directions together before she went into the bathroom, then sat on the floor just outside the bathroom to wait, not talking. They simply sat close, waiting for the timer on Sam’s phone to go off. Sam held her hand in his, enjoying this moment with her. She looked peaceful and excited at the same time, like she was honestly looking forward to being pregnant. He was glad for that, pleased that she was pleased. When the timer went off, they both stood and moved into the bathroom, looking down at the test. It read the same way the one he’d seen in the trash had: positive.

Sam was surprised to find his hands shaking this time when they hadn’t earlier. “We did it.” It was real. There was no going back now and he drew in a breath that shook as much as his hands were. “We’re…we’re pregnant.” He blew that breath out. “Wow. That was sort of quick. I thought it’d take longer.”

Smiling, Gwen pressed her hands to her stomach. “So what now? Do we tell anyone yet?”

“Dean and Jo, but…let’s wait on anyone else until after you see a doctor.”

“Doctor Ames? Jo liked her.”

“It’s up to you. It’s all about you being comfortable for the birth, Gwen. If you like Dr. Ames, then we’ll go with her. She’s familiar with Jo and Dean’s crazy schedule conflicts, so maybe she’d be best?”

“I’ll call her office.”

He sat on the couch, listening to Gwen make an appointment for the end of the week. The receptionist was familiar with Gwen because she’d gone in with Jo a few times. Sam wondered if Dr. Ames would be ready for another Winchester daddy-to-be asking weird questions. Dean had once said the doctor hadn’t blinked at some of his stranger queries.

The kitchen door opened as Gwen hung up. Jo came through into the living room, carrying Jack. “He’s okay, Dean. He’s fallen off that slide before, usually taking a couple other kids with him. He’s a menace on the playground sometimes.”

“How can you be okay with it? I think my heart stopped when he hit the ground.”

“He’s not hurt. He didn’t even cry.” Jo set Jack down and began to divest him of his jacket. He didn’t want to stand still for it and as soon as she got the coat off him, he ran to his play area in the corner, dropping to his knees to play with a large plastic car, making noises that sounded rather like the Impala when Dean started her up. Jo stood up and hooked the hood of the jacket on the top of one kitchen chair. “Hey guys. You’re awfully quiet. What’s up?”

Sam glanced at Gwen. She looked back at him, bit her lip, and shrugged. They grinned at each other and turned back to Dean and Jo.

Dean tossed his jacket at the back of the couch. Like usual, it fell to the floor. “Hmm. Goofy grins, excited twinkling eyes….” He raised his brows. “Let me guess. Got a bun cooking in the oven?”

Dean’s knowing question provoked an enthusiastic nod from Gwen and Sam nodded as well.

Jo and Dean exchanged a long, amused glance. “Congratulations.”

“You knew already,” Sam accused Jo.

She shrugged. “Of course. She figured out I was before I did. Besides, I remember the sleepy phase. She did all the driving and I spent most of the time napping. I think I was awake maybe six hours a day there for awhile.”

“You’ve been doing all the driving.”

“Yup. She’s been doing a lot of napping. I’m a trained investigator, you know.”

She and Dean both had begun using that like a catchphrase half the time. “How long have you known?”

“About a day. Figured it out yesterday.”

After awhile, Sam excused himself to the workshop out in the garage. He had plans to put into motion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gwen could honestly say she felt peaceful about her pregnant state. She followed the directions she had to Ronnie and Ham’s cabin and thought about the past couple days as she drove. Seeing that Sam was happy about the news had taken the tension from her shoulders. She hadn’t admitted she’d been scared he’d behave like Dean had, but that worry had been there, a tiny sliver of doubt inside her.

Dean had proposed that they use that room at the lower front of the house as a nursery rather than try to use that third bedroom upstairs and Gwen thought it made a certain amount of sense since their bedroom was downstairs. She wasn’t yet to the stage of starting to plan out a nursery or look at baby items. Her focus right now was finding out as much as she could about her pregnancy and what to expect right up to the birth. Once she was confident she had the information she needed, she’d move on to the next phase.

She turned into Ham and Ronnie’s driveway, followed it as it curved around deeper into the woods and parked in front of the cabin beside Ronnie’s car.

The front door opened, Ronnie stepping out and she realized Ronnie had been watching for her. She was greeted with an enthusiastic hug that smelled of White Diamonds on the porch and another once she was inside with her coat off.

Ronnie grasped her arms, then cupped Gwen’s face in her hands. “You’re here.” She looked ready to cry from her happiness in that.

“I made good time, I think.”

“You’re staying here for the night,” her grandmother ordered. “I won’t hear of a refusal.”

“Give the girl a minute to breathe,” Ham called out, appearing in the doorway. “Hello, Gwen. Come on in.”

“I don’t mind staying over.” She followed Ham into the living room. “Sam said I should. Have a good visit, you know?”

“Let me get you some coffee.” Ronnie headed into the kitchen. “It’s decaf, but I can make you a pot of regular if you like.”

“Decaf is fine.” Gwen curled up on the sofa with the decaffeinated coffee Ronnie handed her. She felt comfortable here with them. The cabin wasn’t hard to get to and she was glad she’d made the trip to see them. Talking on the phone and exchanging emails had been lacking the real connection of being in the same room to talk.

“What’s so urgent you needed to see us immediately?” Ham accepted the coffee Ronne held out to him and took off his reading glasses, setting them on the table beside the paper.

She ran her fingers up and down the side of the mug. “Have you been keeping track of the weird attacks on the news? The ones all over the country?”

He exchanged a weighted glance with Ronnie. “Doubt there are many career hunters who aren’t keeping up. It’s big news, something that hasn’t been seen in decades.”

“You heard about the prison break, too?”

Ronnie sat in the chair by Gwen’s end of the couch. “Why do you ask, dear?” Her tone was careful.

“What do you know about the soul stealer?”

Her grandmother went very pale in seconds. “It’s definitely him?”

“We think so. Fits with what little we know. He’s taken a contact of one of ours as his host and did a number on the man’s girlfriend.”

Ham set his coffee down, a troubled look in his eyes. “Everything we had we passed on to Aaron the last time. You haven’t found the information in his things?”

“No.” She shook her head. “Nothing. It’s why I came here. We were hoping you still might have any original source material on him.” They’d all talked and agreed it might go better if Gwen came to see them alone. Sam was working on some project out in the workshop and Dean and Jo had a backlog of paperwork to go over and file. She thought it was more a case of them wanting to give her time alone with her remaining birth family though.

“It all went to Aaron -- unless a Campbell stole it.”

“Ham.” Gwen raised her brows. He was getting better about saying things like that, but it had been a process.

“Sorry, Gwen. Old habits. Aaron had the original text, though it was old enough it may have crumbled to dust. We tried to keep it in actual archive conditions, but we’re no museum.”

“A book?”

“Two sheets of paper, dear.” Ronnie still looked pale, as though she’d been whitewashed. “Paper with symbols and words and a small description of him and how he works, all in medieval writing.”

“Aaron wanted to take care of it and after Billy’s parents and it almost getting Billy’s girl…. I think Billy wanted Aaron on it.”

“Do you know what happened?” She took a long drink of coffee. Ronnie made some of the best coffee she’d ever had, even if it was decaf.

Ham shrugged. “Aaron never discussed it with us except to assure us that it was bound again and the binding was improved.”

“Improved? Like he improved it?” Exactly what Sam and Dean had said Lacey had told them, that Aaron had improved the spell. Her father sounded like quite a guy.

“Yes. He was always reworking those spells we all use, tweaking them to add to the power, drawing from other cultures, other ways of doing things.” Now Ham grasped his coffee mug again, taking a sip before adding, “I told him to be careful with some of that magic, but he was smart and still at that age where dad is an old, unhip fogey with no imagination. In reality, at his age, I’d done my fair share of inventing.”

“What other cultures did he look at, do you know?”

“Take your pick,” Ronnie said. “He’d do things like spend six months in Louisiana studying and hunting with the locals.”

“Oh.” No help there. “It was definitely in his possession?”

“Gave it to him myself.” Ham cleared his throat. “You be careful, Gwen. He gets wind of you, he’ll hunt you down because of Aaron.”

She recalled the accident and the things Castiel had aided her in remembering. “He already tried to get me once. He was in the car with me. I didn’t know anything was wrong at first, but then I knew. He smelled like death, that sickly almost sweet smell rot has.”

“You were lucky,” Ronnie sat forward and placed a hand on Gwen’s knee. “You were very lucky.”

“I think it was more than luck.” She knew it was. There had been a reason she was alive now and she didn’t particularly care what it was. She was alive and that was what mattered. Sometimes she thought Dean and Sam worried far too much about what was going on behind the scenes of life. Perhaps being friends with an angel had done that. Gwen sipped at the coffee. “You know how it is.”

“We do.”

Their conversation strayed away from the soul stealer and after showing them recent pictures of Jack, she put her phone away and put a hand to her stomach. While she hadn’t had her appointment yet and would have to leave tomorrow morning to get back in time, she decided to tell them. “I’ve got some great news.”

“Do tell.” Ham gestured at her. “We love great news.”

“I’m pregnant.”

“You’re pregnant?” Delight lit Ronnie’s features. “You’re sure?”

She and Sam weren’t planning on telling anyone but Dean and Jo until after she’d seen Dr. Ames, but it felt right to tell her grandparents.

“We think so. The home test confirmed it, but I’ve got an appointment with Jo’s doctor later this week.”

Ham grinned. “Ronnie, get out that bubbly grape juice you’ve got stashed in the pantry. This deserves a toast.”

They toasted her pregnancy with the grape juice and Ronnie and Ham began to reminisce about the days when Ronnie had been pregnant with Aaron.

~~~~~~~~~~

It had been awhile since Sam Winchester had summoned her. Abigael arrived in the traditional angelic fashion, taking a long look around the garage workroom before flipping her wings out a fraction to alert him of her presence.

On the long table in front of him were three sizes of boxes, two of which were exact copies of the box that had had Balthazar upset. The other was different, set aside slightly, and she concluded it was the model of the one to trap the soul stealer. Of the other two, one was jewelry sized, a study in miniature, the symbols carved on it precise in their shrunken state, while the other was the size of a paperback novel.

Sam was hard at work, polishing the tiny one and when he heard her, he set the cloth down, took off his safety glasses, and turned. “Abby.”

“Sam. You called?”

“I did. Nice to see one of you still answers.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I need you to tell Castiel that I need it back.”

“It?” What did Castiel have of Sam’s and why wasn’t he answering?

“He’ll know what I mean.”

“Are you certain?”

“Yes.” He leaned back against the table. “If he asks why, tell him Gwen is pregnant and I’m changing the rules to keep my family safe.”

She’d known of Gwen’s condition and protected her and the child already from a couple nasty incidents that could have changed the course of the timeline.

“You’re not surprised,” he observed, crossing his arms.

“Why do you need to change the rules?”

He sighed. “Because we’re not angels, Abby. We don’t have all the time in the world to deal with the soul stealer. We don’t have everything we need, can’t seem to find the last bits, and none of you will help us. Cas has been out of touch for months now, not even answering, Balthazar and Uzziel don’t show either, and you just seem to study Jack all the time. I have to do something before Gwen and the baby get hurt, before Dean, Jo, and Jack get hurt. I won’t let him take any of them. If I can’t do it the way it’s supposed to be done, then I’ll --”

“Do it the Winchester way.” She glanced at the boxes. Sam had a plan in mind and Castiel needed to be aware of it. “Okay, Sam. I’ll search him out and tell him. Is there anything else?”

“Just that.”

“Either I’ll return shortly or he’ll come down.”

Going to heaven, she headed straight for that office Castiel had claimed and kept locked. Two angels she didn’t know were guarding the door. “Is he in there?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Stand aside.”

“No one goes in.”

She raised her voice. “Stand aside now.”

With a glance at each other and what appeared to be a silent agreement to let Castiel deal with her, they let her pass.

Stepping inside, she closed the door behind her. The room was nearly bare now, only the desk, chair, Trickster box, stack of papers, and journal remained. Castiel was in the chair, elbow on the desk and chin in hand, the journal open in front of him. She moved to the desk, reached out, and picked it up. His gaze didn’t lift from where it had been for several long seconds, and when it did, it was so weary that he seemed broken.

Her heart constricted painfully. Had it been Death’s aim to break Castiel and do what Zachariah and other angels had failed? Or had Castiel taken on far more than he was able to handle?

Abigael turned her attention to the journal, reading what Castiel had been contemplating. She swallowed hard., lips parting as she read. “This is what they need.” The pages discussed the changes Aaron had made. Holy water and iron were components of the ritual and…. She shook her head with mild disgust. Aaron had used the sort of magic humans shouldn’t even use.

“You think I don’t know that?”

“Why is it still here?”

“Timeline. Just a little while longer and I can release the information.” He sat back. “You of all angels should know how important the timeline is.”

That almost sounded like a dig at her current job. “And you of all should know there’s always wiggle room of some kind. There’s fluidity to time. It’s close enough that you can take the journal down and things should….” She stopped, remembering the Winchesters, free will, and that task Sam had asked of her. “Sam wants ‘it’ back, needs ‘it’, and says you’ll know what he means.”

Stretching out a hand, he set it on the box, one finger tracing a design. “He has a plan?”

“He does.”

His smile was a fond one. “Always ahead of the game those two. I’ll take the journal down then. Leave it where he’ll find it.”

“And the box?”

“You can take it to him, but he’ll find the journal probably later today, so stay there until he calls you to bring the box back here to me for safekeeping.”

She did as he asked, taking the box to Sam and waiting. However, her wait was cut short as a new charge was born and she had to hurry to Sweden to meet her.

~~~~~~~~~~

It barely took Abigael half an hour to retrieve the box, a thing that frankly surprised Sam. Taking it from her, he placed it behind the two smaller boxes he’d created. He’d expected she, like Castiel, would disappear.

“You saw Cas?”

“I did.”

“How is he?”

She paused, then shrugged. “Not good. He’s exhausted. His current job has him running ragged. I’m hoping when it’s done he can rest.”

“Angels don’t sleep.”

“No, but we require rest of sorts and he hasn’t gotten much.”

“What’s the job?” He didn’t wait for her answer. “How did Castiel end up on Death’s leash?”

Alarm flashed in her eyes, then was quickly covered over. Her smile was sad. “In the end, we’re all on Death’s leash.”

She definitely knew more than she was telling, but was gone before he could press her.

Sam’s attention turned to the boxes. Time for an experiment. He thought it was possible to split up the Trickster’s power between boxes from a central source. Dean would say he was crazy for poking at this, yet wasn’t that what they always did? They poked until they had what they needed and Sam had a plan that could circumvent Aaron’s changes. He hadn’t shared it with Dean or anyone yet. He had to figure out if it would work first.