Title: The Curse of Bittersweet Kisses
Chapter 37
Notes: There’s a brief reference to Back to the Future.

~~~~~~~~~~

The commotion drew Jo from Ellen’s cabin to see what was going on. She saw Castiel trying to talk to Dean and Dean determined to beat him to a pulp until two men pulled Dean off him. When Dean headed for their cabin, she went after him, going through the door to find him staring at a piece of paper in his hand.

He let out a pained cry and tossed the paper at the table. “It has to be like this. How could it not?”

“Dean? What’s going on?”

“It’s over, Jo. He’s got Sam. Or if he doesn’t, he will soon.”

“Who has him? You mean Lucifer?” What had happened?

“It has to be like this,” he repeated. “That’s what he said, you know. In the vision. We’d end up here every time and what do you know? Here we are.”

“Vision? Are you talking about the one Zachariah gave you? I thought that was a fabrication just to get you to do what he wanted. It wasn’t prophecy.”

“It might as well have been. You don’t understand.” He pounded a fist on the table. “Sam is out there, probably becoming Lucifer, Cas is all screwed up, and do you have any idea how much Morgan reminds me of Risa? It’s freaky.”

Who was Risa? She only knew the basics of what the angel had shown him. “Was I there? Or our daughter? How about mom and Jody? The PD’s?”

“The details have changed, but he said that. He said changes wouldn’t mean anything. We’d still end up here. So now I have to follow him. Hope I can put him down like a damn dog before he says yes, hope Lucifer can’t put him back together from the cage, and if I’m too late….” He went to the cupboard along one wall and searched through it, returning to the table with a gun.

“Dean, stop a minute and think about this.”

“That’s the problem. I didn’t think about any of this until it’s too late or damn near. I don’t have the Colt, but it doesn’t work anyway. We know that, don’t we? You and I. You died for nothing on that mission. I’m sorry, Jo.” He left the gun on the table and reached for her, hands cupping her face. “I don’t think I’ve ever told you that I love you. I do, you know. Just never found the right way or time to tell you. I mean…you’re my wife. In my mind, anyway. I know we agreed him saying it didn’t make it so, but you’ve become that woman I want.” He pressed a kiss to her lips, a kiss that was as bittersweet as any they’d ever shared in the past. “Raise Beth right. Hell, I know you will. You wouldn’t do anything less than your best.”

The defeat in Dean’s voice brought tears to Jo’s eyes and she grasped his wrists in her hands. “You’re going to help me raise her.”

“I have to go now.” He extricated himself from her, hands gentle.

“Damn it, Dean, stop! You’re fitting the circumstances to fit the vision --”

He grabbed the gun, brushed past her, and out of the cabin.

Jo whirled and went to the table, snatching up the paper Dean had laid there before following him outside.

Dean strode quickly towards the trucks. He was going to go out no matter what she said, so how did she stop him?

She read the paper, frowning. Whatever the message was, it made no sense to her, but perhaps Cas might know? She hurried down the short flight of steps, grabbed his shirt, and handed the paper to him.

~~~~~~~~~~

Castiel didn’t stay where Dean told him to, nor did he let Morgan touch him.

“Go back to your infirmary,” he told her. “I’m fine.”

He understood why she’d talked to Dean and while he didn’t like that she had, Castiel did get her reasons. She was falling for Sam and he could see how they might have made her suspicious when she’d shown up at the cabin during their talk. He followed Dean, saw him go into his and Sam’s cabin and Jo go in after him.

Should he go to the door? Risk another beating? He rested his hands on his hips, beginning to feel the pain from the places Dean had hit. Just when he’d decided he had to try again, Dean emerged, pushing past Cas like he didn’t see him.

Where was Dean going?

He was about to follow him when Jo grabbed his shirt and thrust a paper at him. “Read. Read, now!”

He did as she ordered.

‘Dean, Come to ‘the garden’ alone. I’ll walk with you and talk with you.’

She clutched his shirt, a finger tapping the paper. “What does this mean? You know them better than anyone. You know Sam better than anyone in camp aside from Dean. You’ve spent the most time with him.”

“It’s the first two lines of the refrain from a hymn --”

“Dean’s got it in his head that he’s living some vision and this note seemed to confirm it for him. Where’s ‘the garden’?”

He struggled to recall what had been said about that vision.

“Tell me,” she yelled, smacking her hand against his chest with each word.

“Um…. Jackson County Sanatorium.”

Jo blinked. “You know where it is? How to get there?”

“Yes.”

She dropped the note. It fluttered to the ground. Jo wrapped a hand around his upper arm and pulled. “Come on.”

“What? Why?” He let her tow him along.

“We’re following them both.”

“No, Jo….” He gestured at his face. “Did you miss what Dean just did to my face? He wouldn’t listen to me at all or let me explain anything.”

“It’s nothing compared to what I’ll do to you if you refuse. Get us a vehicle while I tell mom and Jody where we’re going and why.”

He did as she ordered, handing her the keys when she returned. Jody was with her, getting in the backseat.

“We’re not long behind Dean,” Jo was telling Jody. “Maybe twenty minutes.” She started the car.

“It’s a few hours away from here,” Jody told her. “Jimmy…I mean Castiel, and I stopped there once as a favor and found it abandoned.”

“You may still call me Jimmy if you prefer, Jody.”

“Thanks.”

“What’s the significance of it?” Jo pulled out of the camp and onto the road. “Why there?”

Castiel sighed and settled back in the seat. “Well…. If Lucifer was listening in to us this whole time, he heard Dean the night he talked about Zachariah’s vision and how Lucifer had said that they’d always end up there in that place. Basically, if Dean denied Michael, every road would lead to Sam as Lucifer in that place…killing Dean, then ending the world.”

Jo looked sick at that. “And he believes it. He thinks he’s following Sam to his death. Lucifer would love to needle Dean like that, make him think he’d failed and it was all because of that.”

“He would. Yes.” He made sure his seatbelt was tight. “I’d drive faster if I were you.”

She did.

A couple hours later, Jody leaned forward. “What’s the plan?”

Castiel cleared his throat. “Stop Dean before he kills Sam in an attempt to stop him from saying yes when in order to end this he has to say yes…to Michael, not Lucifer.”

The car swerved before Jo got it back under control. “He’s got to what?”

“You didn’t realize? I’m sorry, Jo, I thought you did. It’s the only way Sam himself can close the connection, his bond, to Lucifer. Simple and effective. He’s connected to the cage as well as Lucifer, so he can invite Michael to take him as his vessel, thus freeing Michael from the cage and closing it forever with Lucifer still locked inside. At least, I think it’ll work. He heard Michael’s voice, indicating to me that the bond is to the cage and Lucifer both. We went over the details hypothetically.”

“Sam’s plan is a hypothetical proposal?” Fear wrapped about her words.

“Yes. I believe that’s what he intends to do. Not taking the medication cleared his mind and body from those effects, perhaps making it easier to enact such a plan.”

“Castiel, you’re sure Lucifer didn’t piggyback?”

“I’m sure, Jo. I would have noticed, even as gone as I was with the power I had, and Death certainly would have noticed. He’s in the cage, but has a connection to Sam through the angel-vessel bond and because I pushed down the wall Death put up to keep it contained. It remained even after he was back in the cage. If he can convince Sam to say yes, then he can slip out. A flaw in the cage, I suppose.”

“No.” Jody shifted position. “He wasn’t supposed to be put back, was he? The fight was supposed to happen and Sam wasn’t supposed to end up first there, then pulled out. It’s an unique turn of events, but not a flaw in the cage. It’s a loophole.”

“One that God apparently didn’t see.”

Jo slowed down to drive around some debris. “I’ll bet he did see it, Cas. I’ll bet it’s the reason Sam has that strong will. He needed it first to defeat Lucifer with Dean, then to withstand these months of internal mental pressure. Thinking back on the way he described his hallucinations of Lucifer…. Man, it’s amazing he didn’t say yes months ago.”

“The drug appeared to keep Lucifer at bay, though he could have been faking and merely biding his time. I doubt we’ll know for sure.”

“Unless he takes over and tells us before he kills us.”

“Cheery thought, Jo.” Jody sat back.

“Times we live in,” she replied.

~~~~~~~~~~

Jo was shaking. She felt a sick rolling in her stomach as she thought about it all.

“We need to consider the worst case scenario.” Castiel said the words in a calm tone, though Jo noticed that his hands were shaking just like hers were.

She got a chill down her back. The last time she’d heard those words, it had been Dean saying them and they’d been planning how to get away without Castiel realizing they were gone. “Worst case.”

“If Lucifer does have control of Sam.”

“You said Sam’s plan is to accept Michael,” Jody reminded him.

“No, I said I believe it is. I’m not entirely certain, but that was the part of what we discussed that he was the most interested in. I believe it’s his plan and I believe he can do it, but we need to prepare. Be ready just in case.” He turned in his seat.

He was seeming more and more like the angel Jo had first met as the minutes passed.

“Jo, if it’s the worst case, I want you and Jody to get back to the camp. Just slow down enough to let me out and head back.”

“Abandon you? No.” Jody tried to interrupt, Castiel talking over her.

“Someone has to warn them. Perhaps between Dean and I we can slow him down a little somehow. Give Sam something more to hang on to to overpower him. He did it once. He can do it again.”

Jo exchanged a glance with Jody in the rearview mirror. The worry in her eyes matched Jo’s own worry.

“The people will follow your orders, Jody, and Jo, you need to get yourself and Beth as far away from the camp as quickly as possible. Take Morgan with you. Jody can get Ellen out.”

She couldn’t believe they were actually considering this. “I’m not leaving my mother.”

“You have to. You’re a mother now yourself. Your job is to protect your daughter in the same way Ellen protects you. Ellen will die for you if she thinks splitting up will give you a chance to escape. There’s no better example of the fierceness of a mother to her child than Ellen. You’d do well to emulate her.”

There were eerie similarities to the plan he was proposing and the one that had been decided on back then and Jo swallowed past the rising lump of fear in her throat.

“You’ll create a series of rendezvous points and times or days between yourself and Jody on the way back. The goal is to keep moving. Oh, and…if you get a chance to see Mindy, either of you, tell her I did care for her?”

Jody’s hand touched Jo’s shoulder and squeezed in a comforting grip. “We’ll do it.” She released Jo’s shoulder. “Now, let’s go back to Sam, Michael, and Lucifer a moment. I want to make sure I have all the facts straight.”

“Okay.” He looked at her.

“Tell me how Lucifer can take control if Sam plans on accepting Michael to free him and close the cage. How could that happen? If he’s determined not to accept Lucifer at all?”

“Well, it sort of depends on if Lucifer realized that when I pulled Sam’s body out I had the power to remove every bit of demon blood that polluted Sam, returning his blood to that original innocent state, so to speak.”

“That’s quite a gamble,” Jody replied.

“Sam is a good gambler. Usually he can read the odds fairly well.”

“What if he’s wrong,” Jo ventured to ask. “What if he underestimated Lucifer?”

“Then Lucifer overwhelmed his senses, pulled over on the way, and had a demon cocktail or two, thus tainting Sam’s body, keeping Michael trapped, and paving the way for an easier transition back into Sam.”

“Oh, geez,” Jo muttered.

“There is a light spot in this, Jo,” he offered.

“Yeah? What is it?”

“Lucifer underestimated both him and Dean once. I believe with his hubris that he’ll do so again.”

“Really? You know we humans have a saying,” Jody told him. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Are you so sure Lucifer’s pride will keep him underestimating Sam? Isn’t it possible he learned that lesson?”

Castiel’s gulp was loud. “Maybe.”

Jo drove faster.

~~~~~~~~~~

Sam cleared his throat. He’d stalled long enough. It was now or never. He took a deep breath and prayed that this was the right action. It seemed to fit with what he knew and what Chuck had been trying to get him to see.

“Michael? Michael? Are you listening? I know you’re there in the cage and I know you protected Adam. You blocked off a corner and made him safe.”

“What are you doing, Sam?” Lucifer stepped close. “Talking to Michael now like you’re buddies? Like he can even hear you?” He raised a hand and tapped his knuckles on Sam’s forehead. “Hello, McFly. I’m the one you’re connected to, not him. He can’t hear you.”

So why could Sam hear him? Surely if he could hear Michael, then Michael could hear him? It made sense. He took a step away from Lucifer. “I remembered it wrong. He made me remember it wrong. I see that now. You tried to tell me what to do if I got out somehow --”

“You’re confused, Sam. This is all in your head.”

“It’s not all in my head. I’m the loophole you were hoping to ride out of hell. Death walled our connection up. It’s why I wasn’t supposed to scratch at it.” He transferred his attention to Lucifer for a second, then fixed it on a point opposite him, trying to focus on Michael.

“There is no loophole. You’ve got quite the imagination. I’m a piece of you, remember? Nothing more, nothing less. Just fit me back in --”

“Going back to that are you?” He laughed. “We both know the truth here. You’re not a piece of me. You’re Lucifer and you want me to say ‘yes’, which would pull you out of the cage.”

“I’m a piece,” he insisted.

“Then if I call out to Michael and accept him, it won’t make any difference.”

Malevolence bled into Lucifer’s eyes. “You’re connected to me, Sam, not the cage.”

“Now that’s where I think you’re wrong or just lying to me. I think I’m connected to both you and the cage.”

“You can’t accept him. Your body is tainted. I made sure of that long ago.”

“Is it? It’s my understanding that when we’re pulled out, all our scars and such are healed. We’re pulled clean. Castiel pulled my body out and healed everything. I’m a new man.”

“Quite a theory.”

“Let’s test it.”

Did he want to loose Michael on the world? No, but at this point there was no one else to put the world to rights. If Castiel’s theory was right, Michael could erase the loophole on Sam’s soul by his residence in Sam’s body and the cage could be closed again. Forever.

“You’re a dreamer, Sammy boy.”

He took a deep breath, his heart pounding so hard he felt sick. “Michael, if you can, I accept you.”

Would it work? After all, there was still that connection Sam had with Lucifer. Could Michael override it? Castiel thought it was possible. Sam prayed it was. He prayed desperately that this would work.

For long moments, nothing happened.

Sam looked around. Were they wrong? But it had made sense. A tiny bit of panic began to rise the longer nothing happened.

Lucifer broke into peals of laughter. “Oh, the look on your face! So hopeful.” He pretended to wipe away a tear. “I’m tearing up here, really. So, let’s get down to the real business of you saying ‘yes’ to a fresh partnership between us. Here’s my idea --”

Light, white and hot, rose from the ground in a circle around him, Lucifer’s pleased grin turning to a snarl. Heat enveloped him and Sam felt the familiar heaviness of angelic force inside his body. It was familiar, yet at the same time a different sensation entirely. Lucifer’s presence had made him feel dirty and covered in grime, while Michael’s presence was almost calming.

White light lifted in an arc to the sky, a light he realized was Adam’s soul. Michael had pulled him out with him.

“Don’t get all sentimental,” he heard his own voice say. “Adam did his job. I have no problem with sending him back off to heaven.”

He watched himself appear and walk towards him from across the garden. “Am I hallucinating?”

“No, Sam,” his twin replied. “You’re in a trance state. The garden is convenient, though if you prefer another location to speak face to face, I can switch it.”

“This is fine. I’d prefer a different face. This is creepy.”

Michael changed forms and Sam was confronted with his dad, the older one who’d died in that hospital, not the younger version he’d met later. “How is this?”

“Still creepy. Can you pick someone random?”

With a sigh that was almost too soft to notice, he changed forms again to a lean, dark haired man Sam didn’t know.

“Who is he?”

“You mean ‘who was he’. He’s your grandfather Winchester in his glory days.”

“How do you know him?”

“He’s an image once plucked from your father’s memory. Your father was briefly my vessel.”

“Right.”

“We need to have a discussion.”

“I suppose. What do you plan to do now? Can I ever go back? Be myself again? Or is this it? Am I your suit for eternity?”

Michael ignored the questions, pacing in front of him. “Quite a feat we pulled off. I didn’t think it’d work.”

“Why did it? I thought I was Lucifer’s true vessel.”

“You are, but you were right. Your body doesn’t have the corruption of the demon blood inside it so I could use you to escape and lock him back in. Your gamble paid off. You were lucky, Sam.”

“We both were,” he reminded him. “You do know that he could have taken over my perceptions and obtained demon blood? I would have drunk it without knowing I was.”

“Yes.” Michael stopped pacing. “I suppose I was gambling as well. I wasn’t idle in the cage, Sam. I distracted him from you when I could, argued over meaningless things, and attempted to keep his attention divided.”

“Thanks. How could you hear me,” Sam asked.

“You could hear me. The cage is an open area. You remember? Your voice filtered through like a…” he smiled, “PA system.” There was amusement in Michael’s voice.

“So what now?”

Michael sighed. “I determine just what that foot soldier did to the planet and what can be fixed.”

“You mean Castiel?”

“I do. So…. He opened Purgatory, took in all the souls, thought he became a god.” Michael’s smile faded. “Purgatory. That place was closed off for a reason and he went and ate all of the souls?” He snorted. “Certainly not smart of him even if Raphael was goading him. But I see God intervened and punished Castiel already. Personal involvement. After all this time, he’s showing himself. Why now?” His frown was puzzled.

“He never abandoned us, Michael,” Sam told him. “He merely stepped back to see how we’d all behave. Even the angels, and you guys have behaved pretty badly. Smite me if you want, but that’s how I see it.”

“I can’t smite you, Sam. You’re needed to carry on the line. You and Dean both.”

“He helped me and Dean a few times. I can see it pretty clearly now.”

There was a long period of silence and then, “I suppose He did.”

He watched a struggle on Michael’s face. For beings that weren’t supposed to be emotional, he was seeing several emotions from him. Sadness, happiness, anger, fear. “You’re going to fix the world?”

Michael’s head dipped in a cautious nod. “I will.”

“What does fixing it entail?”

“You want a detailed list?” The humor returned to Michael’s voice.

“If you don’t mind. It’d be helpful to know what to expect from you.”

“Very well. I’ll right the weather balance and calm the creatures that have been riled up. I’ll gather the angelic host and return them to our original orders. We’ll work on being the stewards we were supposed to be. Lesson learned.”

“And the PD’s?”

“What about them?”

“Get rid of them. Put them back in Purgatory where they belong.”

Michael shook his head. “No. They’re released. You can hunt them like everything else.”

“You owe me. You could have been in the cage forever.” He swallowed hard as Michael stepped very close.

“Do you really want to play that card, Sam?”

“I mean, do it as a favor, wiping the slate clean between us.”

“Let’s discuss that slate, shall we?”

Their haggling on the terms seemed to go on forever, but Sam knew it couldn’t be that long really. He made the points he knew had to be made. When everything was hammered out to their mutual satisfaction, he felt Michael lift from him and felt a sense of great relief.

His thoughts were clear for the first time in months and Sam felt whole. The hallucinations that had been the worst were from Lucifer and now they were gone. The rest he could deal with. He smiled to himself. Funny to think that being naturally nuts was a relief.

From behind him came the clearing of a throat and he turned. “Dean. Hey.”

Dean adjusted his stance and raised the gun in his hands. “Don’t move.”

He blinked. “What are you doing?”

“I’ve been standing here for like ten minutes just watching you. You’re talking to him aren’t you? In your head? Fight him, Sammy. We did this once before, we can do it again.”

“Fight? Dean it’s me. Sam. I’m fine. I’m better than fine --”

“Trick. It’s a trick. Please, fight him. Say no. Don’t let him take control. We can do this. I know we can.”

The desperation on Dean’s face gutted him. He thought Sam was possessed, a reasonable assumption given how he’d left camp, and Sam didn’t know how to convince him otherwise. Their argument on the subject became heated. He was vaguely aware of another car approaching and a figure leaving it before it had even stopped.

Dean shook his head and took aim. “I’m sorry, Sammy. I can’t let this happen again.”

~~~~~~~~~~

The scene they arrived to was one Castiel had been afraid would happen. Dean had a gun trained on Sam and Sam appeared to be trying to talk him down. It was Sam, too. Castiel could see it. Why couldn’t Dean?

He opened the door and was out before Jo could stop the vehicle, sprinting towards Dean and Sam. Those hours he’d spent running in the woods were put to good use. “No! Dean, don’t! Wait!”

He threw himself in front of Sam as the crack of a gunshot sounded.