Chapter Text
The Road So Far…
After getting torn to shreds by Hellhounds four months prior, Dean Winchester woke up in his coffin perfectly healthy and without a scratch on him. If the impossibility of that wasn't enough, when he dug himself out of the grave, he found that the entire forest had collapsed in a perfect circle around it. It left him stunned. Only something powerful could do that; more powerful than any demon in Hell, and Dean was determined to find out what it was and get some answers.
His search led him to Castiel, an insanely powerful being that claimed to be an Angel of the Lord. Dean wasn't sure how much he believed that claim, but there was no denying the truth behind his power. Although he was stuffed inside the body of an unassuming human man, Castiel was far from it. His true voice could shatter glass and rupture eardrums, and just one glimpse at his true form would burn a person's eyes in their skull. He easily had the power to pull a soul out of Hell.
His power wasn't what Dean was afraid of, though. It was the memories that he kept flashing back to every time he encountered anything having to do with Castiel. Part of it was because it didn't make sense given that he'd never met Castiel before, but the other part – the most important part – was because the memories were of Castiel seemingly dying right in front of him. He told Dean he loved him before pushing him out of the way to be swallowed by a black mass. The image frightened Dean to his core. So much so, that he ended up passing out when he finally came face-to-face with the supposed angel.
While Dean was confronting Castiel, his brother Sam was off on his own mission. Earlier that day, he and Dean had walked into a diner full of demons; the same ones he had been tracking before he was reunited with his newly-resurrected brother. At the time, Dean had threatened the demons into backing off, but Sam wasn't satisfied with just that. As soon as he could, he snuck away and went back to the diner. After a brief confrontation, Sam used his powers to exorcise the last demon left alive, impressing Ruby.
Yes, Ruby. She was back, in a new body, and helping Sam to harness his powers. The way she was doing that was by feeding him her blood. It seemed to strengthen his powers and made him feel amazing, and that wasn't the only thing…
After getting physical with Ruby, Sam started receiving several alarming phone calls from a barely coherent Dean. Leaving his demonic lover behind, Sam set out to find his brother and tracked him down to an abandoned barn on the outskirts of town. There, he found Dean unconscious, along with their family friend, Bobby Singer.
Bobby came around with some prompting, but Dean did not. Fearing that Castiel had done something to seriously harm Dean, Sam and Bobby rushed him to the Emergency Room. The doctors were quick to admit Dean and get him treatment. While waiting on word of his brother's condition, though, Sam ran into someone he didn't expect: Skye.
Skye had been at the gas station that Dean had tried to take refuge at after he dug himself out of his grave. She also had been at the hotel where Sam and Ruby had been staying. Both times, she seemed to know what was going to happen before it happened, and at the hospital she provided Sam with an explanation; she had a manuscript that foretold the events of those three days for the Winchester brothers.
Naturally, Sam didn't believe her at first and didn't want to hear her out. Skye did eventually manage to convince him to look at it, though. Sam did have to admit it was a little eerie reading the events of those days adapted into a narrative prose, but he wasn't entirely convinced. He wanted to see what Dean thought of it before he made a final decision. Before that, though, they had more serious matters to take care of.
Ghosts had risen and had started to stalk the four of them. They weren't just any ghosts; they were ghosts of people they knew and had failed. Bobby was stalked by a pair of twin girls he failed to save from being eaten by a monster, Skye was stalked by a set of foster parents who died defending her, and Sam was stalked by Victor Henricksen and Meg Masters – two people he and Dean failed to save from demons. Even Dean got a visit from a ghost.
Castiel had appeared before Dean in his hospital bed. Dean wasn't sure if it was a dream or not, but all the same he could do nothing but sit and listen as Castiel blamed him for his apparent death and stopped his heart. The doctors were able to bring Dean back, but it still didn't change how confused and terrified he was afterwards.
Meanwhile, Sam, Bobby, and Skye did their best to fight off the ghosts. Bobby found out that the ghosts had been awakened by a spell and there was a way to reverse it and send the spirits back to the other side of the veil. It wasn't easy, but the three of them managed to do it. Although, not before people got hurt.
Castiel came to Dean in a dream. It was the real Castiel this time. Dean knew it because he had no idea what Dean was talking about when he brought up what had happened with the ghost. Regardless, he did not come bearing good news.
The spell – which had been cast by Lilith – brought about the Rise of the Witnesses, one of the sixty-six seals keeping Lucifer locked in his cage. If all the seals were broken, Lucifer would walk the Earth free, and the Apocalypse would begin. Six hunters had died at the hands of the Witnesses and dozens of angels were killed trying to protect other seals. Castiel impressed the seriousness of the situation onto Dean by telling him that he was the one who pulled him from Hell, and he could just as easily send him back.
Dean then woke up in the hospital. Sam was by his side and soon Skye joined them. She presented Dean with the manuscript, and he only had to read a few pages to confirm that it was real. That just left the three of them with one question hanging in the air.
"So, what now?"
Now
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Skye put her van in park and slumped back a bit in her seat. It was a long drive and she needed to shut her eyes and relax for a few seconds. She needed it, especially when she didn't know what was going to happen next.
Dean had been in the hospital for almost five days. After he had that little cardiac episode at the hands of the Witnesses, the doctors wanted to monitor him and run tests to make sure that it didn't happen again. That didn't sit well with Dean. He tried to slip out a couple of times, but it didn't work out so well with the alarmed heart monitor. After four days, Sam and Bobby were able to convince the doctors that they would be able to take care of Dean themselves and would bring him back to the hospital if he started having problems with his heart again.
In those four days, Skye mostly hung around with Sam and Bobby at the hospital. She didn't say much and felt awkward the whole time. It was like meeting a new foster family all over again. The only difference was that she was a legal adult with a driver's license and could leave any time she wanted to.
Despite that, she didn't. She stayed with the Winchesters and Bobby, even though she felt about as useful as a dry mop. The only legitimate reason she hadn't was because she kind of wanted to see how this was going to pan out. Yes, criticize her for being curious, but after spending a whole week doing nothing but reading that manuscript over and over, she kind of wanted to see how the story ended.
She was right to stick around, though. After Sam and Bobby convinced the doctors to let Dean go, they invited her to follow them back up to Bobby's house in Sioux Falls. It wasn't out of niceties, though. They wanted to question her further and more candidly about the manuscript.
Skye wasn't sure what else she could tell them, though. She already told them everything she knew about it. She found it in her backpack after she woke up in a field in Canton, Ohio with no memory as to how she got there, and only believed it was real after he demon-possessed ex-boyfriend tried to kill her. Okay, maybe she left out the parts about waking up in a field and the demon-possessed ex-boyfriend, but she was still processing those things and wasn't quite sure how to talk about them. Particularly the demon-possessed ex-boyfriend. That was still messing with her a bit.
To calm her nerves, she took a deep breath in, held it for ten seconds, then let it go. It didn't help as much as she thought it would, but it was something. She tapped the little hula girl she kept on her dashboard, watching her hips sway for a few seconds before getting out of the van.
Her feet hit the ground hard, kicking up a small cloud of dust. Slamming the door behind her, she started heading over to where Sam and Dean were getting out of the Impala. Hoping she looked more confident than she felt, she pushed her hair out of her face and smiled.
"Well," she said. "We're here." She looked around. "Is it me or is this place smaller than I imagined it?"
"It's you." Dean slammed the Impala's trunk shut – having retrieved his duffle bag from inside – and started towards the house. The smile left Skye's face.
"Okay," she said. "What did I do to piss him off?"
"Exist," Sam suggested. "It seems to be why he's pissed off at everything today."
"Fantastic," Skye remarked.
"I wouldn't take it personally," Sam said. "He just spent five days in the hospital. I think that's the longest he's ever stayed in one place in his entire life."
"Me and him both." She directed her gaze to her feet. "Be honest with me, what are my chances of leaving this place alive?"
"If you're honest with us, good."
"And if my honesty sounds like insanity?" Skye asked.
"Welcome to the club."
Skye's shoulders slumped. She had hoped that she'd at least get some form of reassurance. Instead, she was just more nervous than she was before. The rest of the way to the house, she kept her gaze directed at her feet, watching herself put one foot in front of the other.
She climbed the stairs to the front porch and thanked Sam as he held the front door open for her. She only really looked up when she stepped into the living room. There, she found Bobby waiting with a glass of water in-hand, and Dean standing with his hands on the back of a dining chair. Skye blinked dumbly at them both.
"Well," Bobby said. "You gonna take a seat?" He gestured to the dining chair. Not knowing what else to do, Skye complied. As she sat down, Dean took his hands off the chair and stepped into the periphery of her vision.
Yeah, that's not intimidating in the least, she thought. At the same time, Bobby held out the glass of water to her. Skye raised an eyebrow.
"Come on," Bobby said. "You've got to be thirsty."
Admittedly, Skye was thirsty. She couldn't help it. It was in the high eighties' temperature-wise, and they hadn't stopped anywhere on the way up. So, she took the glass, but she didn't drink it right away. Instead, she eyed Bobby warily.
"If I drink this," she said. "I'm not going to wake up tomorrow in a bathtub full of ice without my kidneys, right?" Bobby scoffed at the notion.
"I ain't got the back for organ trafficking anymore." Taking that as assurance enough, she sniffed the glass before taking a gulp of water. It was only seconds after she swallowed that she noticed the slight aftertaste the drink had to it. Her eyes went wide, and she dropped the glass on the floor. It was only by sheer luck that it didn't shatter.
"Oh my God!" she exclaimed. "Oh my God, what was that?"
"Truth serum." Skye's eyes almost bulged out of her skull.
"What?" She whipped her head back and was surprised to see that Sam just as confused as she was.
"Yeah, Sammy," Dean said. "Truth serum. That stuff that forces you to tell the truth no matter what." Something must have clicked with Sam, causing him to remember.
"Oh, truth serum," he said. "Isn't that stuff really powerful?"
"Incredibly," Bobby said. "Ain't one person out there that's ever been able to resist it."
There was shaking. Skye was unsure if it was just her body or if she was making everything around her shake. She tried her best to get control of her heartrate, but she could already feel the serum buzzing through her body, mind, and soul. Bobby was right, she wasn't going to be able to resist this.
"Now," Bobby said. "We're just going to start with some easy questions. What is your name?"
"Mary Sue Poots," she said. "But I prefer to go by Skye."
"Why?" Skye turned her head, raising an eyebrow at Dean.
"Would you want to spend your whole life walking around with the name 'Mary Sue Poots?'"
That thought certainly hadn't occurred to Dean before that moment. He must have taken a moment to imagine having to do normal things like having to open a bank account or get a driver's license under that name and visibly shuddered, conceding her point.
"Where are you from?" Bobby asked. Skye shrugged.
"Lived all over New York State as a kid," she said. "Most recently, I was living in Austin, Texas."
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-one-ish."
"Ish?" Sam questioned.
"I don't know when my birthday is," Skye explained. "I grew up in foster care. They didn't get much information about me when I was surrendered. All I know is that I was born sometime before January of 1987."
"Alright," Bobby said. "Now that we've gotten that out of the way, we're going to move on to the harder stuff."
Skye swallowed hard, gripping the arms of the chair as she tried to steel her nerves.
"How did you hear about us?" She hadn't expected Dean to ask the question, but she answered it, nonetheless.
"I read about you in the manuscript," she said.
"And where did you get the manuscript?" Bobby asked.
"I found it in my backpack."
"You found it?" Dean questioned.
"Yeah," Skye said. "I found it."
"No one gave it to you?" Dean questioned. "It just magically appeared?"
"Pretty much," Skye said. "I know I didn't get it from anyone. It was just in my bag."
"That seems convenient," Dean remarked.
"It was," Skye admitted.
"And what made you think it was real?" Sam asked.
"I didn't," Skye said. "At least, not at first. I just thought it was some crappy, rejected fantasy novel. You know, some wanna-be hack's attempt to try and ride the coat tails of Buffy and Twilight. I never for a second thought it was real."
"What changed?" Skye hesitated a moment, trying to gather her thoughts.
"I saw someone get possessed exactly how this book describes," she said. "Black smoke, dark eyes, the ability to throw people around like a ragdoll with just their minds… The whole she-bang."
"Jesus," one of the Winchesters remarked.
"How did you get out of it?" Bobby asked.
"I didn't," Skye said. "Another demon came and screamed at the first one to do as she ordered, or else she'd force them back to the pit and let someone named Alistair work them over."
Out of the corner of her eye, Skye noticed Dean stiffen. She almost said something, but at the last second she decided not to. Instead, she figured it better to just finish the story.
"After that they did the smokey-thing out of the mouth, and I was left to figure out how to explain the dead body to the cops."
Sam must have caught something in her voice because he asked, "was it anyone you knew?"
"My ex-boyfriend," Sam's face turned sympathetic.
"I'm sorry." Skye shook her head.
"He was my ex-boyfriend," she said. "I mean, he didn't deserve to die, but I'm not shedding tears over him, either."
Well, any more tears.
"Okay then," Sam said.
"Do you know why demons were after you in the first place?" Bobby asked.
"My ex traded my life for his," Skye said. "That's how he became my ex. I don't know what the full details of everything were, but after that second demon showed up, I guess it went back to the original terms of the deal and my ex ended up dying."
"Sounds like you got lucky, then," Bobby remarked.
"Yup. Really lucky." Skye took a deep breath, needing to distance herself from that part of the conversation. "Anyway once I found out that demons were real – like in the book – I searched your names and I found out you're not only real, but serial killers that are wanted by the FBI." She gave Dean and Sam each a hard look. "I hope there's a reasonable explanation for that, otherwise I should probably go seek mental help. …And call the police." Sam and Dean looked at each other.
"Well, a shapeshifter framed Dean for murder," Sam said.
"Then a dirty cop framed me for his girlfriend's murder," Dean said.
"Then we both got framed for robbing a bank," Sam continued.
"And a demon blew up a police station and we probably took the blame for that, too…" Skye gave them both an unimpressed look.
"Well, that all sounds convenient, doesn't it?" Dean gave her an unamused look and Skye smiled in response.
"That it was." She could tell that wasn't what he really wanted to say, though.
"That's the whole story, though?" Bobby asked. "You're not leaving anything out?"
"No," Skye said.
"Are you sure?" Skye almost said no again, but then she remembered.
"Oh, uh, four months ago I woke up in a field in Canton, Ohio with no memory of how I got there." Dean scoffed.
"Sounds like an average Friday night to me." Skye frowned.
"I wasn't drinking," she asserted.
"Still sounds like an average Friday night." Skye gave him a sour look.
"But that's everything?" Bobby asked, just to be sure.
"That's everything," Skye confirmed. "Unless you want to hear my whole life story up to and including my first time." Bobby held up a hand.
"I think we're good," he said.
"Good, because it was terrible." Internally, Skye groaned.
Oh damn truth serum!
"Yeah, let's just leave it at that." Skye could, just as long as she pulled the subject along to something else."
"So, be honest with me, am I going to die now?" Bobby looked confused.
"What?" he asked.
"Or are you going to throw me in the dungeon for the rest of my days or something? Because I must be honest, I'm scared to find what happens next here." Skye laughed uncomfortably.
"We're not going to kill you," Sam said. "I already told you that."
"You said if I was honest, I'd be good," Skye said. "And I was honest – I had no choice but to be – but I have no idea if you guys think I was being honest because I was, and now I can't stop saying what's in my head."
"We're not going to kill you," Bobby said. "And just for clarity's sake, we believe you."
"I'm still skeptical," Dean interjected. Bobby gave him a side-eye.
"The majority of us believe you," Bobby corrected. "And that's enough for now."
"So I'm not going to die and I'm not going in the dungeon?" Skye asked again.
"No," Sam assured.
"We don't even have a dungeon to put you in," Dean said.
"Well…" All eyes went to Bobby.
"What do you mean, 'well?'" Dean asked.
"It's not a dungeon per se…" Sam raised an eyebrow.
"Per se?" Bobby sighed and moved to open a door on the other side of the room.
"Been meaning to show you all anyway," he commented before descending the stairs on the other side of the door. Sam and Dean exchanged looks before following, and Skye hesitated for a few moments before deciding she didn't want to be left out and followed as well.
Going down the stairs, Skye saw Bobby standing in front of a giant, cast-iron door, turning a tumbler to open it. Once he pulled the door open, he let Sam and Dean walk in first, and their noises of astoundment made her pick up the pace to see what all the fuss was about.