Beginning of the End Δ SPN [ 3 ]

chapter thirty-one

Evie walks into the kitchen, using her phone flashlight to help her see. She puts the phone face down letting the light show in the room. She climbs up onto the counter and reaches for the top of the fridge, grabbing the box of unhealthy cereal. Evie gets down, grabbing her phone and turning around, jumping.

"Jesus! Jack. Don't do that." She harshly whispers, smacking his chest.

"Sorry. I won't. What did I do?" Jack asks.

"You scared me. God, make some noise would you?" Evie grumbles.

"Sorry. I wanted cereal." Jack says.

"Mm. Grab two bowls and spoons, then." Evie says, getting the milk out of the fridge. Jack does so and they sit across from each other at the table, getting their own helpings of the cereal and eating in the near dark, the only light coming from the hallway.

Jack adds more cereal as the light flicks on, both freezing like deer in headlights.

"Don't tell Sam."
"Don't tell dad."

"Jack, Evie, it's the middle of the night." Cas says, sitting next to the young hunter.

"I know. I couldn't wait till breakfast. Sam says this stuff will rot your teeth, but I like it." Jack says.

"Jack. If you couldn't sleep, that's understandable, given recent events." Cas says.

"You mean dying and coming back to life." Jack says.

"Yeah, we've all been through it. It's something of a rite of passage around here." Cas says.

"Not a Winchester unless you die and come back alive at least once." Evie says.

"That's not-- I've been thinking about Heaven. My mother. You think she's safe?" Jack asks.

"OKay, this turned into a father-son talk, so I'm gonna dip. Bye." Evie grabs her bowl, phone, and the box of cereal before leaving.

+++

Jack and Evie sit at the map table with Ketch on video chat. Sam, Dean, and Cas walk over.

"Mm. Valko's compound was a breeze, as it turned out." Ketch says. "Jammed the security system from the outside, sedated the guard dogs -- Rottweilers, naturally."

"Ketch." Dean says.

"Hey. You have it?" Sam asks.

"Sam, Dean. What, no "hellos," "how are yous"?" Ketch asks.

"No time." Dean says.

"The egg, Ketch." Cas says.

"And as I was just telling Jack and Evie, I did, in face, manage to expropriate the egg from a certain Hungarian rare weapons collector." Ketch says.

"Yeah, uh, uh, Arpad Valko. W-We got the messages, but so?" Sam asks.

"Unfortunately, once I got back to Budapest, where I was intending to catch the red eye back to the good ole U.S. of A., he unleashed a swarm of mercenaries upon me." Ketch says. "I was cornered, and so I was forced to, I'm afraid, drop the egg like well, to mix a metaphor, like a hot potato."