Chapter Text
It had been over a month after the Trickster case, the siblings working a ghost case (where the ghost didn’t know she was dead), a werewolf that Sam caught feelings for and then had to kill, a forcibly haunted movie set, a haunted jail, and Dean getting grabbed by a Djinn, living in a ‘perfect world’ where their mother, Mary, was never killed.
Now, the three pulled up to a restaurant called Sunnyside Diner, the sun already down.
“Hey, don’t forget the extra onions this time, huh?” Dean teased, handing Sam some money.
“Dude, Liv and I are the ones who are gonna have to ride in the car with your extra onions.” Sam shot back, opening his door. “You want your usual, Liv?”
She nodded with a smile. “Can-Can you ask if they have strawberry milkshakes?”
“Sure thing, princess.” Sam smiled at her, getting out of the car.
“Hey, see if they’ve got any pie.” Dean added as Sam slammed his door. “Bring me some pie!” He yelled out of his window, winking to Liv in the rearview mirror. “I love me some pie.”
Dean watched Sam walk inside, talking to someone behind the counter, while Liv looked back down at her activity book, trying to connect the dots to make Batman. The radio suddenly switched to static, making the two in the car jump. Dean reached down, trying to fiddle with it, before it turned itself off. Dean looked back up, freezing.
“Liv, stay here.” He said, dashing out of the car and inside the Diner, which was suddenly empty from the window.
Olivia watched him go inside, looking around with his gun drawn. He got to the other door, looking at something near it before running back to the front door and to the car. He yelled Sam’s name nearly a dozen times, getting no response. He got back in the car, pulling out his phone.
“D? D, where’s Sammy?” Olivia asked, already knowing the answer; gone.
Dean didn’t answer, putting his phone to his ear. He talked to Bobby, explaining what he could of the situation and deciding on a halfway point to meet-up and try and figure anything out.
It was nearing noon the next day, both cars parked on the side of the road, looking over a map Bobby brought.
“This is it. All demonic signs and omens over the past month.” Bobby gestured to the blank map.
“Bobby, there’s nothing there.” Olivia piped up, on her tiptoes to try and see the paper.
“Exactly.” Bobby nodded.
“Well, come on, there’s gotta be something. What about the, the, the normal, low-level stuff? You know, exorcisms, that kind of thing.” Dean asked, grasping for anything.
“That’s what I’m telling you: there’s nothing. It’s completely quiet.”
“Well, how are we supposed to look for Sam? What, do we just close our eyes and point?” Dean’s phone rang, cutting him off. He pulled it out of his pocket, putting it on speakerphone. “Ash, what do you got?”
“Okay, listen, it’s a big negatory on Sam—”
“Oh, come on, man! You’ve gotta give us something. We’re looking at a three thousand-mile haystack here.”
“Listen, Dean. I did find something.”
“Well, what?”
“I can’t talk over this line, Dean.”
“Come on, I don’t have time for this!” Dean huffed, trying to reign in his anger around Olivia.
“Make time, okay? Because this – “ Ash stopped, talking to someone else across the line. “Not only does this almost definitely help you find your brother, this is,ah, it’s huge. So get here. Now.”
Ash hung up, Dean angrily putting his phone away. “I guess we’re going to the Roadhouse. Come on.”
The drive was a few hours, Dean forcing himself to not go full throttle; it wouldn’t help anything if they got pulled over or into an accident.
He was regretting it as he and Bobby pulled into the Roadhouse’s parking lot, the entire building burned to the ground in smoldering black piles.
“What the hell?” Dean muttered, all three of them getting out of their cars and carefully walking among the debris.
Nothing seemed unscathed.
“Oh my god.” Bobby said, looking around the still smoking bits.
“You see Ellen?” Dean asked him, grabbing Olivia’s hand as she tried to walk up an ashen support beam.
“No. No Ash, either.”
“Hang on, Liv, go to Bobby.” Dean waved Olivia away, crouching to a pile of rubble at his feet. He grabbed something, pulling something shiny out, which was attached to more blackened debris. “Oh, Ash, damn it!”
He stood, the three checking for any sign of Ellen or anyone else before migrating back over to the cars.
“What the hell did Ash know? We’ve got no way of knowing where Ellen is. Or if she’s even alive. We’ve got no clue what Ash was gonna tell us. Now, how the hell are we gonna find Sam?” Dean rambled.
“We’ll find him.” Bobby tried to reassure.
Out of nowhere, Dean’s hands snapped to his head, clutching it in pain with a groan.
“Dean?”
“D?” Bobby and Olivia asked, both trying to catch him as Dean doubled over, almost collapsing.
“What was that?” Bobby asked, as Dean slowly stood up again, leaning on the car.
“I don’t know. A headache?”
“You get headaches like that a lot?”
“No. Must be the stress.” Dean forced a chuckle, putting a hand on top of Olivia’s head. “I could have sworn I saw something.”
“What do you mean? Like a vision?”
“Like Sammy?” Olivia asked, still grasping at his jacket.
“What? No!”
“I’m just saying.” Bobby shrugged
“Come on, I’m not some psychic.” Dean grumbled. Suddenly, Dean groaned again, falling against the car.
“Dean? Dean! Are you with us?” Bobby asked, catching Dean with Olivia again.
“Yeah, I think so. I saw Sam. I saw him, Bobby.”
“It was a vision.” Bobby muttered.
“Yeah. I don’t know how, but yeah. Whew. That was about as fun as getting kicked in the jewels.”
Olivia furrowed her brow; who would kick jewels and why would that hurt so bad?
“What else did you see?”
“Uh… there was a bell.”
“What kind of bell?” Bobby pressed.
“Like a big bell with some kind of engraving on it, I don’t know.”
“Engraving?”
“Yeah.” Dean nodded.
“Was it a tree? Like, an oak tree?”
“Yeah, exactly.”
“I know where Sam is.” Bobby nodded, leading the way to the cars.
“Bobby…hang on, shortstop.” Dean stopped Olivia next to her door, stepping closer to her. Dean and Bobby talked quietly for a second, before hopping in their respective cars. “Okay, Princess? We’re gonna stop at Bobby’s really quick, you’re gonna stay there while we go get Sammy.”
“But D!”
“No buts, little lady. We don’t know what we’re walkin’ into, I don’t want you gettin’ hurt.” Dean shook his head, quickly making eye contact with her in the rearview mirror. “We’re gonna go get Sammy, it’ll be fine. Same rules as a motel room, yeah?”
“Yeah, I got it.” Olivia pouted, pulling Dennis out of her bag to cross her arms around.
Dean pulled to a quick stop outside of Bobby’s house, Bobby hopping out of his car to grab a few things. “Okay, food’s in the fridge, you got your shakes. Don’t touch anything that looks like it’ll hurt or break, got it?”
“Got it.” Olivia huffed, still clinging onto Dennis.
“Try and get some schoolwork done, okay?” Dean pressed a quick kiss to her hair, Bobby messing it up immediately after and the two men running out.
Olivia waited to hear the car engines roar away to lock the door behind them, trudging to the kitchen table. She sat Dennis on the table, putting her head on her arms in front of him.
“Looks like it’s just us again, huh Dennis?” She asked the panther, not expecting an answer.
Without much else to do, Olivia did quite a bit of schoolwork, putting off the word-pages for when someone could help her read them. She had some chili Bobby had in the fridge, ending up curled up on the couch to sleep, Dennis in her arms and a blanket half thrown over her curled up body.
They didn’t get back until the sun was rising. Olivia stirred when a car pulled up, not the Impala, sitting up when the door opened. Bobby walked in, alone.
“Hey Rugrat, how’d you sleep?” He asked, sounding like he hadn’t.
“Okay. Where’s D? And Sammy?” She asked, rubbing her eyes.
She missed the way Bobby flinched at Sam’s name. “They, uh, they’ll be along, squirt.” He sighed, slowly taking a knee in front of Olivia. “Now, listen to me kid, Sam…he got hurt, pretty bad. Dean’s with him now.”
“Is Sammy gonna be okay?” Olivia asked, fingernails digging into Dennis’ stitching.
“...I’m not gonna lie to you, I don’t know, kid.” Bobby ruffled her hair, pushing himself to stand. “C’mon, let’s fix somethin’ up for breakfast, yeah?”
Bobby made them eggs and bacon, helping her with some homework before going to check on Sam and Dean. Despite her attempts at begging, Bobby made her stay behind.
“Sam’s in really rough shape, he’s…not quite up to visitors. I’m just takin’ them some food, rugrat.”
Bobby returned, somehow more upset than earlier. He refused to tell Olivia much, making her focus on the homework.
The next morning, Bobby made half-burned pancakes, but they tasted good enough Olivia let it slide. Later in the morning, a knock startled the two; Bobby from research, Olivia from math. Bobby opened the door, freezing.
“Hey, Bobby.” She heard Dean’s voice.
“Hey, Bobby.” Sam said after
“Sam. It's good to ... see you up and around.” Bobby sounded more surprised than expected.
“Yeah...thanks for patching me up.” Sam pat Bobby’s shoulder, walking around him into the kitchen.
“Sammy!” Olivia hopped out of the chair, carefully latching onto his leg. “Bobby said you were really hurt!”
“And I’m all better now, thanks to him.” Sam hauled her up, hugging her tightly. The two turned, noticing how Dean seemed to be shying away from Bobby’s staring.
Dean coughed. “Well, Sam’s better. And we’re back in it now, so…what do you know?”
“Well, I found something. But I'm not sure what the hell it means.” Bobby lead the group to the living room, pulling out what he’d been working on.
“What is it?” Sam asked him.
“Demonic omens... like a frickin' tidal wave. Cattle deaths. Lightning storms. They skyrocketed from out of nowhere. Here. All around here, except for one place... Southern Wyoming.” Bobby pointed to the state on the map.
“Wyoming?” Dean raised a brow.
“Yeah. That one area's totally clean – spotless. It's almost as if…” Bobby trailed off.
“What?”
“The demons are surrounding it.”
“But you don't know why?”
“No, and by this point my eyes are swimming. Sam, would you take a look at it? Maybe you could catch something I couldn't.” Bobby asked him.
“Yeah, sure.” Sam nodded, moving closer.
“Come on, Dean. I got some more books in the truck. Help me lug 'em in.” Bobby gave him an odd look.
“Yeah.” Dean agreed, slowly following Bobby outside like he was in trouble.
Olivia tried to help Sam, standing on a chair to see over the desk, but it all made her head spin. She resigned herself to sit next to Sam, leaning on him.
“I’m glad you’re okay, Sammy.” She muttered, getting a laughed huff and an arm wrapping around her.
“Me too, bug.”
When Dean and Bobby returned, they weren’t alone, Ellen between them, looking worse for wear. Her and Bobby sat at the table, Bobby pouring a shot of water from his flask and pushing it toward her.
“Bobby, is this really necessary?” Ellen asked, picking the glass up.
“Just a belt of Holy Water. Shouldn't hurt.” Bobby shrugged.
Ellen downed the holy water, with no problem, maintaining eye contact. “Whiskey now, if you don't mind.”
“Ellen, what happened? How'd you get out?” Dean asked her.
“I wasn't supposed to. I was supposed to be in there with everybody else.” She scoffed. “But we ran out of pretzels, of all things. It was just dumb luck.” She downed the whiskey Bobby handed her, exhaling sharply. “Anyway, that's when Ash called. Panic in his voice.” Ellen sighed, fiddling with the glass. “He told me to look in the safe. Then the call cut out. By the time I got back, the flames were sky-high. And everybody was dead. I couldn't have been gone more than fifteen minutes.”
“Sorry, Ellen.” Sam muttered.
“A lot of good people died in there. And I got to live.” Ellen scoffed again, tearing up. “Lucky me.”
“Ellen, you mentioned a safe.” Bobby reminded her.
“A hidden safe we keep in the basement.” Ellen nodded.
“Demons get what was in it?”
“No.” Ellen pulled out a map from her pocket, unfolding it and setting it on the table. The map had several black lines and X’s on it.
“Wyoming. What does that mean?” Dean asked, pointing to the lines.
No one knew, Bobby turning to a book he remembered from earlier. He lugged a large book out of a stack flipping through it till he got to the page he wanted. “I don’t believe it.” He walked back to the kitchen, setting it on the table.
“What is it?” Olivia asked, peering over the edge of the table at the book.
“You got something?” Sam asked him, looking over.
“A lot more than that. Each of these X's is an abandoned frontier church, all mid-19th century. And all of them were built by Samuel Colt.”
“Samuel Colt— the demon-killing, gunmaking Samuel Colt?” Dean clarified.
“Yep. And there's more. He built private railway lines connecting church to church. It just happens to lay out like this.” Bobby pointed to the black lines on the map, connecting the points to make a star shape.
“Tell me that's not what I think it is.” Dean muttered.
“It's a Devil's Trap. A 100-square mile Devil's Trap.” Sam marveled.
“That's brilliant. Iron lines demons can't cross.”
“I've never heard of anything that massive.” Ellen shook her head.
“No one has.” Bobby agreed.
“And after all these years none of the lines are broken? I mean, it still works?” Dean asked.
“Definitely.” Sam nodded.
“How do you know?” Olivia asked, peering at him over all of the papers.
“All those omens Bobby found. I mean the demons, they must be circling and they can't get in.”
“Yeah, well... they're trying.” Bobby grumbled.
“Why? What's inside?” Ellen asked.
“That's what I've been looking for. And, uh, there's nothing except an old cowboy cemetery right in the middle.” Dean pointed out.
“Well what's so important about a cemetery or... what's Colt trying to protect?” Sam asked.
“Well, unless…”
“Unless what?” Bobby asked him.
“What if Colt wasn't trying to keep the demons out? What if he was trying to keep something in?” Dean pointed out.
“Now that's a comforting thought.” Ellen sighed.
“Yeah, you think?” Dean huffed.
“Could they do it, Bobby? Could they get inside?” Olivia asked him.
“This thing's so powerful, you'd practically need an A-bomb to destroy it. No way a full-blood demon gets across.”
“No…but I know who could.” Sam shook his head.
Sam told them about one of the guys from where he was taken to, a guy named Jake who had crazy amounts of strength from the demon blood, not to mention giving in to the abilities gave them more abilities and power.
They made a plan, once again, leaving Olivia at the house. This time they had a vague idea of what they were walking into, but it was nothing they wanted her anywhere near. Bobby showed her how to work the call-radio, told her what to call them with, but only in case of an emergency if she couldn’t get ahold of them with a regular phone call. And if any of his phones went off, to leave them be, he’d deal with it later.
She was alone for a few days, bored out of her mind with only school, coloring books, Dennis and the few TV channels Bobby had to keep her company. She wished she could open the windows; with May just starting, she knew it was somewhat nice outside, but Sam, Dean and Bobby all told her to leave them closed, just in case.
This time, all four of them came back, Ellen and Bobby relieved and proud, Sam and Dean looking more upset.
“Liv, c’mere a sec.” Dean called her over, pulling her onto his leg next to Sam.
“What happened?” She asked; Bobby had told her they saved the day, but a lot of demons got loose, but this seemed different.
“Well, Bobby told you that a lot of demons got out, right? A lot of souls got out of Hell, too.” Dean asked her, getting a nod. “Well…we saw Dad, too. He got outta Hell and, we think, he managed to make it to Heaven.”
“Really?” Olivia asked, eyes wide.
“Sure did, Princess.” Sam nodded, movements jerky.
“Boys, get in here and eat something!” Ellen yelled, the five eating pick-up they’d gotten together, most leaving the next day for the next hunt.