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“Family meeting. Get the word out.” Castiel ran off at Dean’s words, leaving him to help his brother into the house. Physically, there was nothing wrong with Sam, but unless Dean was there propelling him, he wouldn’t move. “C’mon, you big moose, move your ass. You’re too big for me to pick up and throw on my hip or over my shoulders like the old days.”
Normally, that would’ve gotten some kind of glare from Sam to hide the smile that he didn’t want to admit was trying to poke out. Today… nothing. Just dead eyed acceptance as he started shuffling his feet in the direction Dean was pushing him.
Surprisingly, every single one of Dean’s family was in the living room by the time Dean got in with Sam, even the Colonel. Dean got Sam to a seat in the biggest, fluffiest chair they had, and the Colonel came and sat beside him, head in his lap. That did manage to get an independent reaction from Sam, as he started stroking the German Shepard’s head exactly as Dean had hoped. Score one for the dog.
“So what’s up, my dudes?” Ash asked, tablet open in front of him and hands hovering over the keyboard. “Sam’s usually a quiet guy, but this is just plain creepy. How do we fix it?”
“Right now, not sure anything but time is gonna change things for Sammy,” Dean answered after a beat to let Sam answer for himself if he wanted to. “I’m in vengeance mode. The five of us are going to ruin the bitch who did this to my brother.”
“Fair.” Andy rubbed his hands together. “Target name, appearance, and something I can make her do that will help?”
“Let me guess,” Aaron said. “Ruby finally proved the truth of what you’ve said all along, that she’s no good and Sam should break up with her.”
“In Sam’s defense, Dean has said that about all of the people Sam’s been with,” Castiel interjected, earning a grateful look from Sam. “He was right about Ruby, but he’d cried wolf too many times with Rachel and Jessica and Madison and Amy and… okay, he was right about Tyson, too, but one out of five is not enough to make someone listen on the sixth.”
“Still. Bitch cheated on Sammy,” Dean snarled. “So what if she didn’t know he was coming home early because of the power outage at work, cheating’s a line you don’t cross. So we’re ruining her. Ash, the name she gave Sam was Ruby Cassidy, but the asshole she was with called her Kristy, so be sure to check for aliases.”
“Yeah… Kathryn Cortese, looks just like her.” Ash smirked. “What? I remembered her name and had already searched. Getting to work on confirming the match and then ruining both identities. Anything special you want, Sam?” No response from Sam, so Ash just shrugged and got on with his work.
Andy got up and sat on the arm of Ash’s chair, head on Ash’s shoulder as he examined the screen. “Okay. Got the face. Pretty sure I can find her. Ideas for what I should make her do? Nothing too evil, please, I don’t want to be Ansem.”
“Instead of me cleaning out her bank accounts, suggest that she donate all her money to a good cause,” Ash suggested. “If you really wanted to be not-evil, something that’ll help her out once Aaron gets her fired and I ruin her credit score.”
“She’ll just run home to her sister,” Aaron argued. “Lilith’s rich enough to set her up somewhere else, and with no other way to get Ruby not crashing in her mansion, she’d do it no matter how much Ruby says they hate each other.”
“Wait,” Castiel said. “How are you going to get her fired, Aaron? She’s self-employed.”
“Oh, that’s easy. Self-employed means she relies on clients, so I just orchestrate a social media and meatspace campaign that makes her unhireable.”
“Okay, so Dean, you’re going to stay here to take care of your brother,” Castiel said, getting a nod from Dean. He’d have thought that was obvious. “What can I do? I don’t know how to help in this situation.”
“Smiting’s probably out of the question,” Dean had to admit, although it was grudgingly. Same reason he hadn’t just pulled his gun when he walked in and saw Sam staring at the closed door, and then opened the door to see Ruby with whoever that dude she was fucking was. Didn’t matter, really. It might matter to Sam, but if it did, Sam wasn’t giving him any answers on it. He was pissed, but he had a job to do, and doing it from prison wasn’t gonna work. “Help me out here. Sam’s really bad, and he may be able to talk to you about things before he can talk to me, because you’re the one who’s better at listening how he needs sometimes.”
“Maybe you could go over there since you’re the one of us least likely to hurt anyone or indulge in petty ridiculous vengeance like accidentally spilling the juice from the jalapeno jar in her underwear drawer, get as much of Sam’s stuff as you can before Ruby figures out what we’re doing and get it out of her reach for revenge,” Andy suggested. Castiel nodded thoughtfully at that. “Great, we have a plan!”
“Thank you,” Sam whispered, and five heads turned in shock. “For letting me stay here until I’m back on my feet, anyway. Don’t go after Ru…”
Dean rolled his eyes. “Sam.”
“What?” Sam looked up, meeting his glare. “Ruby’s awful, but is it really worth ruining her life over? Just let her go.”
“Too late,” Aaron and Ash both chorused.
“There we go,” Dean informed Sam. “Plan’s already in action. Andy, Cas, might wanna get going before Ruby catches on.” Andy slipped out right away, Castiel leaving only after pausing to whisper to Sam that his part was protective, not harmful, or he would back out.
Sam looked down at the Colonel. “My brother and his boyfriends… they’re all psychopaths.” The Colonel answered with puppy dog eyes almost as effective as Sam’s. “No, not you. You are a Good Boy.”