Witching Hour | Winchester

Twenty-Nine

It's late when Dean and Roxanne return to the motel. She shuts the door behind her as she follows Dean into the room. He tosses his keys on the bed and shrugs off his jacket, wishing the last few days had been different.

"What'd you find out?" Dean asks, crossing the room.

Sam looks up from his laptop to see Dean. He glances at Roxanne fleetingly before eyeing Dean guiltily. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry about what?"

Sam avoids his brother's eyes. He stares into the distance, already aware of how upset both Roxanne and Dean are about to be.

"Marshall Hall died at 4:17," he says quietly.

"The exact time I was healed."

Roxanne feels as though the breath has been knocked out of her. It's not enough for her to be fighting with Dean. Now, this just turned into a case, which means it wasn't God that healed Dean. She runs a hand over her mouth as she sits on Sam's bed.

The revelation is a lot to take in. She felt that this was gonna be good for them. She knew this was a good idea. And now, somehow, she was wrong. And they have to find a way to try to make it right.

"Yeah," Sam nods. "So, I put together a list of everyone Roy's healed. Six people over the past year, and I cross-checked them with the local obits. Every time someone was healed, someone else died. And each time, the victim died of the same symptom LeGrange was healing at the time."

"Someone's healed of cancer, someone else dies of cancer?"

"Somehow. LeGrange, he's... trading a life for another."

"Wait, wait, wait. So, Marshall Hall died to save me?"

"Dean, the guy probably would've died anyway," Sam reasons. "And someone else would've been healed."

Dean pauses, shaking his head as he turns away. "You never should've brought me here."

"Dean, I was just trying to save your life!"

Dean whips around to look at his younger brother. "But, Sam, some guy is dead now because of me."

"He didn't know," Roxanne says softly, watching as Dean turns to look at her with a broken expression. "Neither of us did."

"The thing I don't understand is how is Roy doing it? How is he trading a life for a life?" Sam wonders aloud.

"Oh, he's not doing it," Dean responds. "Something else is doing it for him."

"What do you mean?"

"The old man I saw on stage... I didn't wanna believe it, but deep down, I knew."

"You knew what? What are you talking about?"

"There's only one thing that can give and take life like that."

Sam looks at Dean, raising his eyebrows. Roxanne puts the pieces together, her mind racing as she watches the two. It can give and take life, and all the victims die of the same illness being healed. Everything is exact and equal.

Perfectly balanced.

"A reaper."

Dean nods, and the three get to work. It takes time to brush up on the lore, and Roxanne knows they're in pretty deep. Reapers are serious business. She would know, since she's already dealt with one. Only once, but it was a very intense experience.

Reapers are very concrete. There is a clear objective, a task to complete. There is no emotion or moral ambiguity. No right and wrong. Only the job. They take and give life to maintain the natural order, and when that order is violated, it usually doesn't end well.