DEAN'S POV
I look at the address on the piece of paper in my hand. I need a doctor and this is a grocery store...I've seen sketchier places.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." I say then walk into the store. There's a man standing behind the counter. "Hi, I'm uh, looking for..."
"Follow all the way back. All the way back." The dude says. I go all the way back to the store and up a set of stairs to an apartment.
"Dean Winchester." A guy dressed as a doctor says as I enter what must be the right room.
"You must be Dr. Robert?" I ask.
"Son, I stitched up your daddy more times than I can count, let me tell you. Oh, it's good to see you. Course that was ages ago, back when, uh, I still had my medical license. Right this way." No medical license, this place isn't even sanitary.
"Well, you know, I'm no germ freak, but..."
"Rent's cheap." A woman who looks like a nurse walks into the room. "Eva, my assistant."
"Hi." I say.
"Hop right up." I lay back onto a bed that you'd find in a doctor's office.
"Now, you...you have, uh, done this a lot?" I ask.
"Oh, many, many times."
"And your...success rate?"
"Oh, excellent, almost 75%. So should we get the, uh, preliminaries out of the way?"
"Yeah. Uh, yeah, right." I grab an envelope from my pocket and hand it to the doctor. Money, money, money. "So...listen, if, uh, something..."
"Goes wrong?" The doctor asks.
"Yeah. Would you mail this for me please?" I hand the doctor another envelope containing a letter that I wrote to Ben.
"Sure. Would've thought you had something for your brother or girlfriend."
"If I don't make it back, nothing I say is gonna mean a damn thing to them." The nurse puts an IV needle into my arm, making me flinch.
"Don't be a baby." She says.
"You know, a little bedside manner would be nice."
"Are we ready? Hmm? You've got three minutes." The doc says.
"No pulse, no sinus rhythm." I hear the nurse say.
"He's dead." And the next thing I know, I'm standing beside the bed I was on, looking at my own sleeping/dead body and the doctor and nurse
"Good times." I say then walk out back to the store part of the building. "This better work. Messorum evoco qui me tetigit." I recite the spell I found.
"Dean? What the hell?" Tessa, the reaper, suddenly appears in front of me.
"What do you know? It worked." I say.
"I was in the Sudan! What's with yanking me ov—wait, why are you dead?"
"Tessa, I need a favor." And you better be able to help.
"Oh, you're kidding. You died to ask me-"
"Tell your boss I need to talk to him."
"No."
"Please?" I will get on my knees and beg if that's what she wants.
"Where do you get the nerve?"
"Desperate times." I say.
"He calls us. We don't call him."
"You make an exception!"
"I can't."
"Can't or won't?!"
"Both!"
"Alright, Tessa. Thank you very much. Hello, Dean." Death appears.
"Hey."
"I'm busy Dean. Talk fast." Death says.
"I have something of yours."
"You mean my ring? I recall loaning you that temporarily."
"Well, if you want it back-"
"I'm sorry, you assume that I don't know where you've hidden it. Now we've established you have hubris but no leverage, what is it you want?"
"Lucifer's cage. I figure you're one of the few people that can actually jailbreak it." I say.
"Do you?" Death asks.
"Sam and Ash's souls are stuck in the box."
"I've heard."
"And our other brother is trapped in there, too. Michael rode him in." He may be Ash's soul mate and steal my girl but he's still a brother.
"Dean, quit shuffling and deal."
"I want you to get them all out."
"Hmm. Pick two."
"What?!" I ask.
"Leave one, Sam's, Adam's or Ashlee's."
"But..."
"As a rule. I don't bring people back. I might make this an exception. So...Pick."
"Sam and Ash. Their souls have been in there for a year, and I understand that they're... Damaged."
"Try flayed raw to the nerve." I get my brother and girlfriend back for this...
"Well, is there any way that you could, uh, I don't know, hack the hell part off?"
"Dean, Dean, Dean. What do you think the soul is? Some pie you can slice? The soul can be bludgeoned, tortured, but never broken. Not even by me."
"Well, there's gotta be something." Please, please, please.
"Maybe. Can't erase their hell, but I can...put it behind a wall...if you will."
"A 'wall'?"
"In their minds, a dam to hold back the tide. Nasty, those memories. You don't want to know what they'll do to them. Believe me."
"Okay, uh, a wall. Sounds good."
"But it's not permanent." Tessa says.
"She's right. Nothing lasts forever. Well, I do, but..." Death says.
"Okay, so that's the choice. Sam and Ash with no soul or both with some drywall that if or when it collapses they're... done?"
"Yes."
"Do it."
"I never said I'd do it."
"Well, then what the hell have we been talking about?" I ask.
"Your prize. If you win the wager."
"Great. What's the bet?"
"Don't roll your eyes, Dean. It's impolite. Now, when you fetch my ring. Put it on." Wait, what?
"What?"
"I want you to be me for one day."
"Are you serious?" I ask.
"No, I'm being incredibly sarcastic. Take the ring off before the 24 hours are up, and you lose. No soul for Sam or Ash. Clear?"
"Okay. Yes. But...but why?"
"Simple, Dean. Because-" And then I'm awake in that bed again.
"Oh, thank Moses." The doctor says.
"You couldn't have given me 5 more seconds?" I ask.
"Son, you were gone for seven minutes."
"I was?"
"Mm-hmm. I thought for sure death had you by the twins." After I'm able to actually get up I head back to Bobby's where Sam and Ash are and explain what I did.
ASH'S POV
"You what?!" I ask Dean.
"Just hear me out." He says.
"We heard Cas and Crowley when they said it would either kill or turn us into jello, Dean! I heard enough!" Sam says.
"Death said he can put up a wall."
"A wall?" I ask.
"Yes, yes, a wall, that basically, neither of you would remember hell."
"Really?" Sam asks.
"Really."
"For good? Like a cure?" I ask.
"No, it's not a cure. It... he said it could last a lifetime."
"Great. So, playing pretty fast and loose with our lives here, don't you think, Dean?"
"I'm trying to save your lives!"
"Exactly, Dean! It's our lives! It's our lives, it's our souls. And it sure as hell ain't your head that's gonna explode when this whole scheme of yours goes sideways!" Sam says.
"Just curious. I presume Death's not doing this out of the goodness of his heart. So what's your half of the deal?" Bobby asks. Dean looks nervous or hesitant to say. "I'm sorry. I didn't get that."
"I have to wear his ring for day."
"Why the hell would he want you to do that?"
"Get his rocks off. I don't know. But I'm doing it." I start walking towards the door. "Where are you going?"
"Look, I hear you, alright? I get it. I just need a minute think and wrap my head around this a bit." I say then walk outside straight to where we buried Death's ring in the first place and there's already a hole which means that Dean already dug it up.
"Looking for this?" Dean asks as he comes up beside me and shows me the ring.
"Just taking a walk." I say.
"Ash. I'm your boyfriend. I'm not gonna let you get hurt. I know what I'm doing here." Dean quickly grabs my face and kisses me, pushing me against one of the old cars in Bobby's scrapyard. I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss this, but I don't feel anything. With my soul there was a spark or warmth or something with him but right now, there's nothing.
"What if you're wrong?" I ask, pulling away from the kiss.
"I won't let it go wrong."
"Fine." I say quietly.
"Fine? So, you're-"
"I'm trusting you here. Barely."
"You sure?" Dean asks.
"You're the one with the compass, right? Just don't mess it up." We walk back into Bobby's house. Dean whispers something to Bobby before leaving.
"So this is the part where you pull a gun on us and lock us in the panic room?" Sam asks Bobby.
"Do I have to?"
"No. I guess Dean's gotta do what he's gotta do."
"Guess we all do, kid."
DEAN'S POV
Back outside in the scrapyard.
"Well, here goes everything." I say then put the ring on and suddenly I'm in a different town.
"Wow. They'll just let any slack-jawed haircut be Death these days." Tessa says from beside me.
"Well, you're all charm today, aren't you?" I say.
"Let's be clear so that we get through this with a minimum of screw-up. I don't like this, and right now, I'm not crazy about you either."
"This is your boss' idea, not mine."
"True. But you have a long history of throwing a wrench in everything, so let's just stick to the rules. Deal?"
"And the rules are?" I ask.
"For the next 24 hours, you kill everyone whose number's up."
"Well, how am I supposed to know who to..."
"Kill?"
"Yeah."
"I have a list." Tessa says.
"Let me see." I say.
"No. You touch them, they die, I reap them. Are we clear?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"Remove the ring, you lose. Slack off, you lose. Got it?"
"Yeah." Let's get on with this already.
ASH'S POV
"Hey, Ash. Wanna go for a drive?" Sam asks me. I look at him questioningly. He cocks his head to the side motioning for me to follow him.
"What's up?" I ask once we're outside and Bobby can't hear us.
"Neither of us want our souls back, Dean said that Death can put up a wall, what if we can put up a wall to block our souls from going in?"
"And who do you think would do that?"
We get all the summoning ingredients together and find an abandoned warehouse to do the ritual. Sam starts the incantations.
"Sam... and Ash... This had better be good." Balthazar says as he appears. "Why here's one of the dumbest things ever. Summon the angel who wants to kill you."
"Desperate times. We need your help Balthazar." I say.
"Interesting... since the last time we met, you wanted to... what was it? Oh yes, fry my wings 'extra crispy'."
"Well, that was a misunderstanding." Sam says.
"Some misunderstanding."
"We need some advice." I say.
"Advice?"
"Angel advice."
"Well, then go ask your boyfriend. You know, the one you've been sleeping with."
"Cas can't help us. We need to know if there's a spell or a weapon, anything that can keep a soul out...forever." Sam says.
"Oh. What's going on?"
"It's for us."
"Well. The plot thickens. Where's your souls? Good god, no. They're not still... they are." And he catches on.
"My brother found a way to put it back in us. We don't want them."
"No, you don't. No, no, because Michael and Lucy are hate-banging them as we speak."
"Can you help us?" I ask.
"Oh, yes. The question is, will I?"
"Set you terms." I say.
"I'll do it for free."
"Free? Why?" Sam asks.
"Well, you seem like a capable young man and woman. I'd love to have you in my debt. And I have to say, I'm not a fan of your brother, so screwing him would delight me. Anyway, to business. The spell, yes. So, finding the ingredients are easy enough, but, uh, there's one tricky part, however."
"Okay." I say.
"You need to scar your vessel."
"Meaning what?"
"Meaning something that so pollutes it, it renders it uninhabitable. Calls for something very specific."
"Great. What?" Sam asks. Just get to the point already.
"Patricide."
"Our dads have been dead for years." I say.
"To be clear, um, you need the blood of your father, but your father needn't be blood. Comprende?" Me and Sam look at each other, we're both thinking the same thing.
After bidding adieu to Balthazar, we head back to Bobby's.
"Woke up and you were gone. Where you been?" Bobby asks us as we walk through the door.
"Just driving around. No biggie." Sam says.
There's a poker game set up at a table that me and Sam sit at and play with Bobby.
"Pair of aces." I say.
"Want another one?" Bobby asks, offering me and Sam another bottle of beer.
"Yeah, sure." Sam says. Sam hands me a wrench. I quietly walk towards Bobby while he has his head in the fridge, but before I get the chance to knock him out, I get knocked down first.
Sam wakes me up quietly. I must've been out for like 15 seconds. We hide somewhere in the house so Bobby can't find us.
"Not good. Let's not do anything hasty here." I hear Bobby say. Sam finds an axe by the front door. We hear Bobby slam a door shut. That was a closet door. Sam walks over to the closet and starts trying to chop through it.
"Don't say, 'here's Johnny'." Bobby says.
"We have to do this Bobby. I'm sorry. You shouldn't have concerned yourself." I say.
"I didn't." The next thing I know is that Sam and I fall through the floor and we're in the basement. Stupid trap door. I grab a crowbar and start hitting the door with it. "Reinforced steel core, titanium kick plate. Get comfy. You want to explain what this is about?"
"We just, uh... we have to do this Bobby." Sam says. Sam gets me to stop and points to an air vent in the ceiling.
"Says who?" Bobby asks. I very quietly pull a chair to right underneath the vent.
"If Dean shoves those souls back in us, think how bad that could really be? I can't let that happen, Bobby. I mean, it's not like we want to kill you. You've been nothing but good to us."
"So... what, demon deal or something?"
"Spell." Sam says.
"You're making a mistake."
"We're trying to survive." I say back at the door.
"Dean's got a way to make it safe."
"Oh, yeah, what, some wall inside our heads that maybe stays up? Come on." I point over to the vent for Sam to undo the hinges.
"It if works-"
"Yeah, what if it doesn't? Dean doesn't care about us. He just cares about his little brother, Sammy and girlfriend, burning in hell. He'll kill us to get those other people back." I feel Sam tap me on the shoulder.
"Look, I ... I know how scary it is. But you know what's scarier? You right now. You're not in your right heads. You're not giving us much choice here." Sam helps me up into the vent quietly then pulls himself up. "Sam? Ash? Balls!" I hear Bobby say. "Ain't nobody killing me in my house but me. I don't want to blow your legs out, but I will." Me and Sam are able to get outside without being caught but unfortunately we both end up accidentally cutting ourselves on a few sharp edges in the vent. This is perfect, Bobby will follow it and then we'll take care of it. Me and Sam hide in the scrapyard of cars. We can hear footsteps coming towards us. Sam steps out of his hiding spot with a wrench and knocks Bobby out. I help him drag Bobby back inside.
DEAN POV
"You there?! Tessa?! I lost! Sam and Ash are screwed! You happy?! Least you can do is zap my ass back home! Hello?!" Why didn't I just kill that little girl...oh right because she's a kid.
"Sorry about your brother and girlfriend." Tessa says.
"Let's just go."
"Go where, Dean? We're done. What are we-" I walk to that girl's room that I was supposed to kill.
"Unfinished business."
"It's over. You took the ring off. Anyways, thought you wanted the girl to skate by."
"No one really skates by. Do they? You should say your goodbyes, man." I say to the father who's sitting by the girl's bed.
"Hey, honey. I must have dozed off. Hilary? Somebody!" The father starts yelling.
"I'm dead." The little girl, Hillary says...well, her spirit.
"I'm sorry." I say to the kid.
"But what about my dad?"
"He'll be fine."
"Really?"
"I have no idea."
"I can't just leave him. It's not fair!"
"I know."
"Well, then why?" The kid asks.
"Because... There's sort of a...natural order to things."
"Natural order is stupid."
"Well, I agree with you there."
ASH POV
With Bobby tied to a chair, this is easier. We wait until he wakes up before we kill him. Me and Sam do rock paper scissors for who is going to kill him. I win!
"Listen to me. You don't want to do this. Ash. I've been like a father to both of you. Somewhere inside, you've got to know that." I walk towards Bobby holding a knife.
"Well, that's just it. Sorry." I say. I raise up my knife to stab Bobby but I get pushed to the ground and the knife falls out of my hand.
"Hi, Ash. I'm back." Dean says then knocks me out.
When I finally come to, I'm tied to a cot in the panic room and Death is coming towards me with a bright glowing thing in his hand.
"Get away from me! No! Don't. Don't!"
"Now Ashlee. I'm going to put up a barrier inside your mind."
"No. Don't touch me. Get away!"
"It might feel a little...itchy. Do me a favor, don't scratch the wall. Trust me, you're not going to like what happens." Death puts his hand in my abdomen area.
"Please. No. Please, don't do this. Dean! NO! You don't know what will happen to me!! Dean, please! NO. NO!!"
