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Back up in Bobby’s living room, which was littered with dusty tomes, Rufus and Bobby looked at each other, silently communicating something. And then they both turned on Dean.
Dean looked back and forth. “Hey…hey, I don’t know what they want me for, okay? I didn’t even know demons existed until Crowley made good on his end,” he protested.
“Clearly you have no faith in anything beyond yourself. Don’t know why that surprises me,” Castiel’s voice came from behind Sam and Gabriel.
Dean growled and turned, glaring at him. “Alright, Cas. You tell me what you’d have done if it was Gabe that had died, huh?” he snapped.
“Mourn and let go, Dean! I wouldn’t have meddled with forces I didn’t understand, especially not trading off my soul in the process!”
“Guys—“ Gabriel tried to cut in, but it was Bobby that cut them all off.
“Would you lot shut up?! The fact of the matter is, we’re in this mess now. And we’ve got to figure out how to fix it!” the trucker-hat-wearing professor barked.
“The way I see it, we need to find a way to get Crowley to talk. I get the feeling he knows more than he’s letting on,” Rufus said.
“Maybe,” Bobby grunted in reply, moving to a pile of books stacked high along a wall. “But maybe we ought to see what has world-changing power like that first. If we surprise him by showing we know as much as he does, he might reveal more,” he said. He looked over at the sets of brothers. “Hope you idjits are good at research,” he said.
Three hours later and they were ordering pizza. Dean shut another book, rubbing at his eyes. “So…all these things,” he said, lifting the book in his hand. “In all these books…they’re real?” he said.
“I wouldn’t have you lookin’ through ‘em if they weren’t, son,” Bobby muttered, nose still buried in a book. Gabe was in another room on the phone, ordering their pizza, when Castiel suddenly spoke up.
“There’s…demons, and wendigos, and kitsune…all these evil creatures. What about angels?” he said.
Bobby looked up, then looked at Rufus. They stared at one another for a long moment before busting into laughter.
“Boy, if angels ever did exist, they sure don’t now. Or they just don’t give a damn. Much like God, I reckon,” Bobby said, nose going back into his book.
But now Sam’s interest was piqued. “Well, wait a minute…do you have anything about angels? About their power?” he said.
“What’s this about angels?” Gabriel spoke, walking back in the room.
Bobby was looking up again, a frown marring his face. “…I don’t have anything about angels. Always discounted them, since no one’s seen one,” he said. He shot a look at Rufus that had the other professor scowling, and then stood, heading down to his basement.
Rufus watched Bobby go, then looked at Gabriel, and then Castiel. Finally, his eyes landed on Sam. “…Sam, huh? Wouldn’t be short for Samuel, would it?” he questioned.
“Uh…yeah?” Sam asked with a confused frown.
Rufus’ response was to grunt and shut the book he was looking at, starting to pick through some others.
Sam looked over at Dean, who shrugged. The professors were acting kind of weird, now that Castiel had brought up angels.
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After eating, Sam had settled, stretched out on the sofa. Gabriel had almost immediately taken up a spot, sitting sideways across his moose’s lap.
Dean was sitting at the kitchen table, a book in front of him, but he was about to be nose first in the book from a food coma.
Cas had stopped looking at books, instead staring out through a window.
And the professors were huddled together, muttering back and forth to one another about whatever Bobby had gotten out of Crowley when he’d gone downstairs earlier.
When the sun set, Bobby stood up. “You boys should go on home, come back tomorrow with a fresh set of eyes,” he said.
Cas looked away from the window to glance at Bobby, then looked over where Dean had woken from the loudness of his voice and was trying to subtly wipe the drool from the book he’d had his face planted in.
Gabriel looked up at Sam, who was frowning as he reluctantly closed the book he was holding. “When can we come back tomorrow?” Sam asked as Gabriel moved off his lap.
“If you bunch of idjits show before ten, you’d best be ready to meet the business end of my rifle,” Bobby grunted irritably, earning a hearty laugh from Rufus.
After a bit of maneuvering and farewells, Dean, Sam, Gabriel, and Castiel, were in Dean’s Impala. They rode in silence, all of them thinking over the unbelievable things they'd seen in Bobby's books.