Fic: A Town Called Rhoda (Sam/Dean, NC-17) Part 7 of 7

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Back to Part 6
****

The town of Rhoda gradually accepted Sam, especially after he started up a school along with some of the parents he met at the town meeting. They knew about his successful tutoring of Frank’s kid, and put him in charge. He devoted at least half of his week to the school, and the rest of his time to working the barley, hops and vegetable fields that Dean and he planted. It was backbreaking and hard and he realized that before Boom Day, he’d had no idea what he was taking for granted getting to just choose something off the shelf in a grocery store. But the town rallied, people shared supplies and distributed excess production from their own grows, and it wan’t easy, but it worked because they made it work. What else could they do? A lot of time Sam thought about telling people how well they were doing here, compared to what he had seen in the cities, but he stopped himself. People didn’t need to know about all that awful shit, having to live with that knowledge, it wouldn’t help anyone or fix anything.

Eventually there were some newcomers that passed through town, and then they quickly disappeared. It got talked about a few times at the weekly town meeting, but no one had a clue where they’d gone off to or who they were. A few days later, Blair’s parents went fishing without the twins or Blair. But they didn’t come home as themselves, Ed and Helen were acting strange, and Blair could tell something was up when Ed hit them over the head with the bat they always kept behind the store counter.

Blair knew they must have been knocked out, because when they came to, they’re tied up to the bed frame in their room. The first thing they heard was their mother’s voice, which sounded the same and somehow not.

“This one isn’t worth anything, just kill her,” Helen said.

“Mom, c’mon, what are you doing?” Blair asked, scared out of their mind, because they knew that wasn’t their mom anymore. It sounded like the demon thing Dean had told them about. They wracked their brain trying to remember if he’d said anything about how to get rid of them or get them out of a person. There was something about salt.

“I don’t know why you’re bothering telling me to kill her. You know we’ve got to find Sam Winchester or there’s no point to any of this. We’ll both get sent to the Empty, not even back to Hell, that’s what the boss said, remember?” Blair’s father, Ed said.

“Why the fuck should I care, all those assholes are still back at the prison near Vegas. They don’t give a rat’s ass about this Sam guy anymore, it’s been months and months,” Helen said.

“He’s The Boy King, remember? It’s the whole prophecy thing, that’s how we got back out of Hell after God himself took yet another powder, because Sam Winchester was still here on Earth to save us. Anyway, that’s how the boss tells it, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten that already,” Ed said.

“It’s just fairytales and moonbeams as far as I care, Sam fucking Winchester can fry in Hell or rot in the Empty, I don’t fucking give a shit. I want to get out of this podunk-ass town and back to where the action is. We can just avoid Vegas, go somewhere else, there’s got to be a city that survived, we need to get moving,” Helen said.

“All of that is besides the point, we were told this town was where Dean Winchester lived, and that means his brother will have come here at some point. The boss said they’re like God’s own magnets, they can’t be apart. And this one knows where Dean lives.”

Blair’s father was pointing at them, a horrible sneer on his beloved face. His eyes were tinged with an eerie yellow that didn’t make any sense.

“Look, she knows, she knows! Didn’t you see her face change when I mentioned his name?” Blair’s father asked.

Blair one hundred percent knew that this wasn’t their parents, besides the strange behavior and odd eye coloring, their parents never misgendered them. It had been years and years since Blair had been called she or her by their parents. “I know you’re not my parents, so don’t even bother pretending. I want you to leave them, now!” Blair shouted.

“Honey, we’re not going anywhere. Our last meat suits wore the fuck out just getting here from Nevada, your folks are nice and fancy-fresh. We’ll be keeping them for a long time,” Helen said with a horrible laugh.

“Tell us where Dean Winchester lives, and maybe we won’t possess you too just for the fun of it,” Ed sneered.

“No, I don’t know who you’re talking about! Leave my parents alone!”

“You’re lying, I’m inside your mother, and I know what she knows, oh m what she knows. All about the brothers Winchester, who are still up to their naughty naughty ways and oh my oh my how they’ve hurt her sweet baby child,” Helen said in a sing-song nasty voice.

“If you’re in there reading her mind, then you’d know where Dean lives,” Blair said.

“Aha! I knew you were lying, have some of this to encourage you to spill,” Helen said, drawing a thin knife along Blair’s throat. She ran a thumb over Blair’s skin and then stuck it in her mouth. “Mmmm, this is one tasty little girl.”

Blair could feel the knife cutting through their skin, the blood seeping out from the shallow cut. They tried to hold in the scream of pain, but then their mom pressed the knife into their shoulder. Blair screamed, long and loud, hoping against hope that someone would hear.

Over the noise of their own screaming and the laughter of the two demons in their parents, Blair heard a scuffle of footsteps, like someone running into the store and stopping in the hall near their bedroom. Then they heard a new deep voice shouting some language they didn’t really recognize, Latin maybe? There was a lot of black smoke, what was on fire, Blair would swear it smelled like a candle being snuffed out, it smelled so strongly of sulfur. Demons. Right, Dean had said, salt, and sulfur. Finally, through the pain, Blair realized it was Sam they’d heard yelling in the hallway, he was leaning over them, untying them from their bed and holding a folded up pillowcase to the wound on their shoulder.

“My parents okay?” Blair managed to ask.

“Hold this, keep pressure on it, I’ll check them,” Sam said. He stepped over some dark shapes on the floor. “They’ll be okay, they’ll wake up in a bit and they can tell us what happened.”

“The demons, they said they were looking for you, they’d come from Nevada. Something about how the boss in Vegas had said you were the salvation of demons, the whole Boy King thing you told me about. They were saying you were the reason they were able to get out of Hell.”

“Shit,” Sam said, sitting back on his heels, his hand stroking Blair’s leg. “Shit, shit, shit. I never should have come here.”

“That’s insane, Sam, c’mon, you belong here, Dean needs you,” Blair said.

“No, no, no one needs this, I shouldn’t have brought the danger here to Rhoda. I should have known someone would follow me.”

“Just…don't do anything rash, Dean would kill me if you left or something stupid like that,” Blair said.

“I can’t stay, Dean will understand. It’s too much to ask of everyone, surviving a fucking apocalypse and then to have demons as a surprise dessert. I can’t stay, I have to go, will you be okay, Blair?”

Blair wished more than anything that they had a cellphone right now to get Dean here to round up his dumb brother. But it was just Blair, and they had to stop him, otherwise Dean would never survive. “No, I won’t be, look how much I’m bleeding. You have to take me to Dorothy, she can stitch me up.”

“Fine, but then I’m gonna go,” Sam said.

“What about my parents?” Blair asked.

“You’re right, you are bleeding a lot, Blair we better hurry. Your folks are really out for the count, we can leave a note or something in case they come to,” Sam said. “Where are the twins by the way?”

“Mom told me this morning they were having a sleepover at Frank’s place,” Blair said, as Sam helped them get on their feet. Blair found a notepad on their desk and wrote their parents a note explaining what had happened and where they were going. Blair left it folded in their dad’s front shirt pocket. They were both breathing steadily and didn’t look like they were in pain. The pain from the shoulder stab wound was taking their breath away. They were really really glad that Sam was there. “Thank you, for coming in and saving me by the way.”

“Something told me I needed to be here, I was supposed to be delivering the first batch of hops to your uncle Bill. But I came here first, seemed like the right thing to do,” Sam said.

“Was this like one of your death visions? Did you see me dying or something?” Blair asked, unsteady on their feet as they walked down the sidewalk towards Dorothy’s clinic.

“Not quite, it was a lot more gentle, more like a nudge instead of a sledgehammer instant migraine,” Sam said. “I’m glad I got there in time before they hurt you more or did something even worse.”

“Me too, Sam,” Blair said, “And that’s exactly why you can’t go. We need you here in Rhoda. If the demons found us once, they’ll come again. They knew it was where Dean lived, that’s why they came, said you two were like God’s own magnets.”

Sam barked a laugh at the idea of being magnets. “True, a good description of us. And you’re right, I’m not going to be the one to make Dean move. Where would we go anyway?”

“Better to stay and fight. Help us get ready,” Blair said.

“I’ll think about it, let’s get you fixed up first, okay?” Sam said, opening the door to the clinic. “Dorothy, got a bleeder for you!”

Dorothy popped her head out of the office. “Be right there. Blair, oh no, you get up on the table.”

Sam helped them up onto the paper covered exam table. “I’m going to go back to Dean’s place and tell him what happened. We’ll come back later and explain everything to your folks, okay?”

“Yeah, it’s okay. Go to him, Sam, but you gotta come back too. Promise?” Blair asked.

“Promise,” Sam said, giving them a brief hug. “I’m glad you’re okay.” He looked up as Dorothy approached, “Thanks, Doc.” He left through the door at a flat out run back towards Blair’s family’s store.

Dorothy flipped on the exam light and put a pair of gloves on. “What the heck is going on? And what in the world have we got here?”

“Uh…a stab wound, long story,” Blair said.

“You and Sam finally get into it?” Dorothy asked.

“Nah, nothing like that. Has to do with the out of towners from last week. Long story, kinda hard to believe,” Blair said.

“Well, I’ve got plenty of time, this is going to take a bit of time, you’re going to need interior and exterior stitches.”

Blair grimaced as Dorothy checked their range of motion and thought hard towards Dean and Sam, wishing with all their might that Sam wouldn’t do anything stupid like run.

***

Sam untied Poppy from the fence near the store, he mounted up and set her off back home, back to Dean as fast as she could take him. She seemed to sense his urgency and went faster than he remembered her going anytime before.

Dean looked up from where he was fixing the side of the barn at Sam and Poppy’s wild approach.

“Whoah, whoah, where’s the fire? Wait, there’s not a fire, right?” Dean asked, instantly worried by the expression on Sam’s face.

“Demons, there were demons inside Helen and Ed. Blair’s okay now,” Sam said all in a rush.

“What the hell, Sam? Okay now, what happened to them, why were you even there?” Dean asked.

“I got this idea that I needed to go to their store before I headed out to Bill’s place with the hops delivery. I heard Blair’s parents yelling and Blair screaming. Then I heard what they were saying to Blair. Luckily I remembered the exorcism and it worked on them. Ed and Helen are okay, and Blair is at Dorothy’s getting stitched up, the assholes stabbed them in the shoulder.”

“Shit, what the fuck are demons doing here in Rhoda of all places?” Dean asked.

“Looking for you, because they figured that was where I would be. Called us ‘God’s own magnets’. Guess they must have tracked me all the way here from Vegas,” Sam said. “They were talking about me being the Boy King and how I was the reason they were able to get out of Hell again.”

“And let me guess, now you feel like you need to leave just to keep the town safe?”

“Well, it makes sense,” Sam said.

“No it doesn’t make any fucking sense! Dude, if they came here once, they’ll come again, right? Why would you want to leave all of the people in town completely unprotected by just taking off?” Dean asked.

“So, stay and fight and risk everyone?” Sam countered. “I just don’t want to endanger everyone even more than they have been. It was bad enough getting through an apocalypse but to have demons on top of it is too much to ask of all these people…and you. I don’t want them to come for you, Dean. If I go, and make a big stink out there somewhere else, they’ll probably leave you and Rhoda alone.”

“No, no way, Sam, I can’t just let you run away with who knows how many demons on your tail, that’s not happening.”

“And I’m not staying here and watching them rip you and everyone you care about apart limb from limb. You know how demons are—dumb and relentless. It’s not gonna end.”

“Then I’m coming with you,” Dean said.

“No, we don’t have anywhere to go, and I can’t make you leave all this, I just can’t do it, Dean. Not with how bad I know it can get out there. If it was that bad six months ago, who knows how the rest of the western US is doing.”

“We’re staying, and we’re fighting,” Dean said. “End of story. And if it takes nailing your ass to the barn door, I’m doing it. I can’t lose you again, Sam. You can’t leave me again, you promised me.”

“I did, I know I did, Dean, you’re right,” Sam said, curling into Dean’s arms. “I can’t do it, I don’t want to. But we have to keep everyone safe. You didn’t see them, Ed and Helen, it was awful what they did to Blair. What they said to them was even worse.”

“We’ll explain it to everyone, Ed and Helen can help us. We’ll make those protective charms we had at first, the one’s Bobby gave us, remember, before we got the tattoos?”

“What, we’re going to line everyone in town up for an anti-possession tattoo?” Sam asked.

“If that’s what it takes, then yeah, Roddy needs the work anyway,” Dean said.

“He’s the retired tattoo guy, used to work on Frank’s grow, right?” Sam asked. “You think he’s up to tattooing a whole town full of people all at once?”

“He can train someone or something, it’ll work out,” Dean said.

“I promised Blair we’d come back into town, explain everything to their folks. You’ve never been possessed by a demon, but you’ve seen the aftermath.”

“Yeah, it ain’t pretty,” Dean agreed.

“Yes, it totally sucks, and it’s very confusing too, especially if you don’t even know that possession is a thing that can happen,” Sam said. “Maybe we can get Roddy in on the conversation too, get him on our side from the beginning.”

“So you’re not leaving?” Dean asked.

“No, I’m not, like you said, I made you a promise that I'd stay for good. And—maybe more importantly, I don’t want to go, Dean.”

“You don’t?” Dean asked, heart in his throat at Sam’s words.

“I love being here, being with you,” Sam said.

Dean grabbed him and pulled him in close for a hug that he hoped said everything he should have been saying out loud.

“So…guess that means you’re okay with me staying?” Sam chuckled into the top of Dean’s head.

Dean pretended to sock him in the stomach, but ended up just staying in his brother’s arms, being in the hug even longer than usual. Demons, Boy King, all that shit again. He didn’t want Sam to have to deal with it at all. The kid needed a damn break, at some point, something would have to give.

***

Over the next few months, every resident of Rhoda got their anti-possession tattoo, and they got their demon fighting training as well. Large quantities of salt were procured and distributed and the exorcism was memorized by all. Ed and Helen were the voices of experience, the people of Rhoda trusted them, knew them from before everything had changed. So when they haltingly explained what it was like to be invaded and taken over by that oily black smoke, people believed them.

The main thing to Dean was that Sam didn’t leave. Just like he had promised, and even more importantly, now that he knew for sure that Sam had chosen him over something else ‘out there’, Dean was finally able to let himself be content. The choices they’d each made had always led them back to each other, but this time, it seemed like it wasn’t just a choice made in the moment or just because of the circumstances. It was more like both of them accepting the partnership and relationship as what their life had been meant for. They’d spent all this time, resisting and fighting against that obvious truth. There was contentment and peace and a whole lot of love now, but it wasn’t an easy thing to get used to, after a whole lifetime of waiting for the other shoe to drop, it took some adjustment.

*****

One evening out on the porch of Dean’s cabin, he was sitting comfortably inside the vee of Dean’s legs, the cup of the last of the whisky they were sharing now almost empty. He could hear Poppy munching on the grass nearby and the muttering of the chickens as they scrabbled in the gravel of the pathway. The wind soughed through the tops of the redwood trees, building in intensity and setting all the old needles to spin through the air. The sun was almost done setting and it was finally starting to cool off after the hot afternoon.

It hit Sam all of sudden, he’d finally gotten what he’d been searching for, all that time pushing himself to make here back to Dean. This moment was what he’d been holding out hope for even in his lowest moments in the Reno casino, where he’d barely been human.

“You okay, Sammy?” Dean asked.

Sam hadn’t even noticed that he was shaking from trying to hold back the tears of relief that were threatening to spill over. An immense feeling of relief that he’d made it, mostly in one piece back to Dean. “Yeah, sometimes it just hits me that I’m actually here, and you’re safe. I really made it.”

“Yeah you did, and we’re safe. You and me, little brother, you and me.”

***

Happily ever after—not exactly, not even close, but at least they were together, and they were prepared as they could be if the demons ever came back. Leave it at that. Good enough had to be good enough.

~FIN~