Standing Outside the Fire

58

[The Great Escapist]

Kevin woke up in the boat, a note still stuck to his face. He got up and stuck it onto the wall with the rest of his notes. There was a bang on the door and he approached it warily.

"Kevin!" Dean called. "Come on, it's us. Open up." He continued banging. "Bleeding out here!"

Kevin cracked the door as Dean said, "Come on man, it's me." Kevin sprayed him with water. "Now it's wet me."

"You forgot to knock. What's the point of a secret knock if you don't use it?"

"Sorry, Kevin," Sam and Francesca apologized. Kevin sprayed Sam and Francesca with the water gun. "We got it."

Kevin took the chain off the door and Sam, Dean and Francesca entered the room. "Got what?"

Dean smirked lightly. "We got a tip that Crowley was shifting his earth-side operations, so we, uh, laid ourselves an awesome trap."

"And it worked," Kennedy added.

Dean took the other half of the broken Demon Tablet from his bag. "We got the other half of the tablet."

"What?" Kevin asked.

"It's the light at the end of your tunnel, kid. Don't say we never got you nothing." Dean handed Kevin the tablet.

"Holy crap. Are you kidding? We can get the third trial. We can finally figure out how to close the Gates of Hell on Crowley's ass forever."

"Sounds good to me," Sam replied. "So, we digging up the other half of that thing, or what?"

"Don't need to," Kevin said, pointing to the wall of notes.

"So, uh, Special K, you keep your nose to the God-stone, we're gonna drive out and make a lotta noise a long way from here, keep the safe boat for you."

Kevin ignored him, scribbling more notes.

"We'll be back as soon as we can, okay?" Francesca said.

Kevin continued ignoring them.

Dean looked between Sam and Francesca. "I guess he's okay." He turned to Kevin. "All right, don't forget to lock up after us."

Sam, Dean and Francesca exited. They walked onto the pier and were engulfed by a rippling and were transported.

The three of them entered the building and transformed back into demons.

"So, it's three trials," Crowley reiterated. "Three trials and the Winchesters, get to lock the door on me. Ha!" He turned to the first demon. "You. Fake Sam. If you're gonna tip our hand, I'll have to scrub Kevin's short-term memory again. And that's risky, so watch the patois in there."

"Patois?" Demon One asked.

"Your slang. Special K, nose to the God-stone, that's the way Dean speaks. Sam is... more basic, more sincere. Frankie is a mix between the two of them with a light accent. Remember, I want three distinct, authentic characterizations."

"Yes, sir."

Crowley waved them off and the three demons exited. "I was born to direct."

INT. BUNKER - LIBRARY - DAY

Dean entered, carrying a tray of food. Sam was seated at the table, next to Francesca, who was rocking Oliver, huddled underneath a blanket as they looked at some documents. Talia was asleep in a portable crib Francesca had brought out.

Dean handed Sam a cup of coffee and set the tray in front of Sam, who pushed both away.

"Yeah, we do the whole airplane thing with the spoon?" Dean asked. "When was the last time you ate?"