Fic: Marveille (Sam/Dean, Sam/Dean/Delphine NC-17) Part 1 of 7

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She came back with him.

He was holding her as the power exploded through her, as she promised to get him home.

She came through, back to his time.

He held her so tightly through time’s tide, the swirl of motion and energy buffeting them like particles in a dust storm.

She somehow held onto him as God’s power moved through her, eyes all aglow with reflected light.

He had no idea if she was even alive, but he didn’t dare let go.

She came back with him.

He brought her back with him to his home. He brought her back with him to his Sam.

Sam and Cas were both shocked into immobility, their mouths hanging open, expressions turning quickly to concern as they saw the woman collapsed in Dean’s arms.

“Delphine!” Dean shouted, supporting her weight as he stumbled towards one of the easy chairs in the main room. He laid her down as gently as he could and felt for her pulse. “She's still alive, I don't know how, but she is,” Dean said.

“I'll just take this off your hands then. Seems like you two have a new friend to play with,” Cas said, grabbing the handkerchief-wrapped Hand of God from Dean.

“Cas? Where the hell were you on the sub?” Dean demanded.

“Dean, it's not him, it's really Lucifer!” Sam yelled from across the room. Dean could now see that Sam was pinned there, unable to move.

“Yep! It’s me. Hey Dean, long time no see. Like I said, good job grabbing this for me. I'll be able to take out Amara now, thanks to you.” Lucifer flung his hand towards Dean and he slammed into the closest wall, held by invisible angel power.

“No!” Dean shouted as Lucifer unwrapped the Hand of God. The angel held the old battered piece of wood in both hands and closed his eyes, waiting for God’s power to overtake him. But nothing happened.

“It’s kicked!” Lucifer yelled.

Dean looked relieved. “Well, who’d’ve thought the Hand of God would turn out to be a one-hitter?”

Lucifer threw the exhausted Hand of God on the table and stalked towards Dean, still vulnerable and pinned to the wall. “Oh buddy, are you ever gonna regret this.”

Everything went bright when Sam slammed his hand onto the angel-banishing sigil he’d managed to draw with his own blood. Both brothers cried out as they were released from Lucifer’s hold as he vanished with the light.

“Are you okay, Sam?” Dean asked as he crossed the room to help Sam stand up. He hugged his brother close and tight, one of those we’re-glad-we’re-not-dead kind of hugs that they unfortunately shared way too often. Dean didn’t want to let go, not ever again, not after all that loss and destruction. He’d thought he’d never see Sam again and here he was in his arms where he belonged.

Sam took a deep breath, obviously trying to relax now that Dean was back and Lucifer was gone. “No, I'm really not. Lucifer has been there in Cas, pretending for a while now, and we had no fucking clue.”

“How?” Dean asked, quickly wrapping a handkerchief around Sam’s bloody hand. Yet again, his brother had bled to save him.

“Cas broke through Lucifer’s hold when he was trying to kill me. Cas said he only wanted to help, so he said yes to Lucifer when we were all down there in the Cage. He bought Lucifer’s promise that it was the only way there was to stop Amara.”

“The idiot,” Dean said, shaking his head in amazement, the ways Cas had screwed up over the years seemed to get worse and worse. “I shouldn't be surprised I guess, but he always manages to come up with some creative new way to fuck up. We'll get him back, you know we will.”

“I don't know, Dean. Cas chose this, he might not want to come back,” Sam said.

“He let the goddamn devil walk out of Hell! Everything you went through, just poof, gone,” Dean said, gesturing with his fingers. Furious on Sam’s behalf since his brother didn’t even seem to be angry about his sacrifice being nullified in an instant.

“I know, believe me, I get it. But you know Cas, when he thinks he's doing the right thing, he's pretty damn stubborn.”

“Can we have this fight another day?” Dean asked, shoulders slumping with a complete exhaustion that came over him with surprising speed.

“So what happened with her? Is she really Delphine Seydoux?” Sam asked, pointing at the collapsed woman in the chair.

“Yeah, that’s her all right. She was using it, the Hand of God thing, to try and sink the German sub that was hunting us. The Nazi dude we thought she'd killed was actually still alive and his sub was behaving really strangely. He was bragging about the sub and his crew having supernatural powers. Delphine was trying to take it out because we didn’t think we could get the warding down in time to get me back here. She held the thing and was glowing with this crazy white-yellow light. Like an angel's grace, but even more somehow and then the next thing I know, bam, we’re both back here.”

“Huh, guess it was accidental good timing. It must have been right when Lucifer was doing the spell to bring you back. But I wonder what happened to the two subs then? Ours and theirs, especially if theirs was supernaturally enhanced somehow. I'll go check and see if anything's changed,” Sam said.

Both of them were all too aware of what effects changing past events could have on the present. Cas himself had made sure they'd remembered that after the whole Titanic debacle. Dean briefly let himself think about Bobby and Ellen, how they’d been so happy together.

“Wait, are you okay, Dean?” Sam asked, holding onto Dean’s shoulder.

Dean tried to shrug him off but Sam was in one of those stubborn moods which he was probably entitled to given the circumstances. “Uh…yeah, I think so. I mean, it was hard just watching all that, knowing all those guys were gonna just die. I went into it knowing I couldn’t do anything about it, but it was still damn hard. And Delphine, I almost killed her, Sam. I mean she straight-up asked me to kill her,” Dean said.

“What?” Sam asked, completely confused, looking between the unconscious woman and his brother.

“She had this weird warding painted inside the ship and also carved on her body. It was tied to her heart somehow, so she had to die to let the ward down.”

“That’s what Lucifer meant when he said he couldn’t get onto the sub. But how is she still alive? And here?” Sam asked.

“Maybe the God power or whatever blasted away the ward without killing her? I don't know how this shit is supposed to work,” Dean said.

“Me either, I'm at least going to go check that the Nazi sub stayed sunk. I'll be back as soon as I find something.”

Sam left the sitting room area and headed back into some other part of the bunker, undoubtedly to wherever his laptop or tablet was. Dean pulled up another chair next to the one Delphine was collapsed in. She was breathing steadily now, and her color seemed to be coming back.

“Delphine? You in there?” Dean asked quietly, unsure if she was asleep or comatose or what.

She heard a voice, familiar, strong and sure. It was him, the one who had been shouting her name before, but now he sounded gentle and worried. Her eyes flung open as she remembered—the Hand—the submarine! “Dean!”

“It's okay, Delphine. You're safe, I swear, you’re safe now,” Dean said, hand on her shoulder to steady her.

She sat up straighter in the chair and smoothed her hair down trying to compose herself while her eyes flew around the room in a panic to understand where she was. How was she in a room and not in the submarine?

“Dean? Where...where am I?” Delphine asked, surprised to hear how shaken she sounded to her own ears.

“You're where you were heading, the Men of Letters bunker. But, uh, bad news, you're in my time now,” Dean said, his hand still a gentle, comforting weight on her shoulder.

“How?” Delphine asked, unashamed at sounding completely gobsmacked.

“Hell if I know! I was holding you as you were collapsing and going angel-nuclear or whatever the hell that was, and then my transport back here finally worked. And so…uh…here we are,” Dean said.

“Your transport back here, the angel you said was helping you?” Delphine asked.

“Yeah, kinda,” Dean said. “We'll get into all that later. Are you all right?”

“I guess I am. The submarine though, Gumprecht! Did we get him?” Delphine asked, panicked at the thought that bastard, Gumprecht and his sub had survived.

“Sam is checking for us right now,” Dean said.

“Who is Sam?” Delphine asked, staring around the room now and noticing all the books, a library similar to the one in the Men of Letters house she’d visited in London.

“That would be me,” Sam said, walking towards both of them with a welcoming smile, holding something that looked like a thin book, but the front of it was glassy and brightly glowing. He put out a hand to shake and she took it, looking up at him in awe. She hadn’t seen such a beautiful man since…well since she’d met Dean. But he was so very very tall.

Sam smiled even wider. “It's very nice to meet you, Mademoiselle Seydoux. I’ve read a lot about you,” Sam said.

“It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Sam. Please do call me Delphine. I am to assume you are a man of letters also?” Delphine asked, looking between Sam and Dean.

“Yes, I am. And I have some good news for you. Herr Gumprecht is dead, both subs were lost, no wreckage was ever recovered, so hopefully nothing has changed in this timeline.”

“Except for my presence here,” Delphine corrected, brain whirling at the thought of traveling through time to this unknown future.

“Right, good point, except for you being here,” Sam said.

“And also the Hand of God that I brought back with me,” Dean added.

“Where is it, Dean?” Delphine asked.

Sam and Dean looked at each other, and seemed to have a wordless conversation that entranced and frustrated her, these two were so intense. She watched as Sam made a tiny nod towards Dean and hoped it was meant as some sort of encouragement to tell her the truth.

“Remember how I said an angel was how I got onto and off of your sub? Well, he’s the one that wanted it, and he tried to use it, before you woke up. But it’s kicked. It didn’t work again,” Dean said.

“Why would an angel want that power? Does it not already have its own power?” Delphine asked, still not convinced that angels were a reality.

“There’s a reason that I can explain later. Like I said, we’re fighting an even bigger war here in this time,” Dean answered.

“Explain later? I insist you tell me right now. Using that thing should have killed me. I had to have been dead for the ward to have come down. So why is it that I am here and why am I alive?” Delphine demanded, anger rising up through her body so that she had to control a sudden shakiness.

Dean looked to Sam maybe for confirmation or support Delphine thought. She watched as he took a deep breath and prepared to deliver what was probably bad news given how his face looked.

“Okay, this angel, we’ve known him for a few years now. His name is Castiel, and he’s pulled both of us out of Hell.”

Delphine didn’t say anything, but raised her eyebrows which stopped Dean for a moment, but then he continued, “He’s what we’d call an ally, even a friend. But since he’s an angel, he has a different way of looking at things. You could say he’s a bigger picture kind of guy. So he makes what we’d call bad choices sometimes.”

“What was this bad choice? To send you back in time?” Delphine asked, knowing that challenging Dean, when he seemed so hesitant, in this way was rude, but she was desperate to understand their situation.

“No, uh that wasn’t it. Apparently it was something he did before that,” Dean said, rubbing at the back of his neck. “He…uh, he said yes to allowing Lucifer to possess him. And before you ask, yes, The Lucifer.”

“So you are telling me Satan himself, also known as the former angel Lucifer is the one who wanted the Hand of God then? Not your friendly angel?” Delphine asked.

“Right. But we didn’t know that it wasn’t Castiel, not until just now when he tried to kill Sam. And it’s hard to explain, but there is maybe some upside to Lucifer being out there now and why he wanted something so powerful like the Hand of God, because there’s this thing happening here in our time. Remember how back on the sub I said we were fighting a war here in our time? It’s hard to explain, but this entity called the Darkness was released, and as far as we can tell she’s God’s sister. God had her locked up since the time he created everything, and she got out and she’s pissed. Basically she wants to undo everything God ever created.”

“How did she ever manage to get out?” Delphine asked.

Delphine watched as Dean looked to Sam yet again and wondered what Sam’s tiny negative head shake meant. She didn’t know these men well enough to guess this time, but she could tell these two had a whole lot of history between them.

“That’s a really long story, which I promise I’ll tell you,” Dean said, flinching as Delphine struggled to control her anger again. “I promise, Delphine. But I really need to change into some of my own clothes and eat some dinner that isn’t an MRE and have a drink, and I bet you do too.”

“You are right, Dean. I understand, but I will hold you to your promise for the whole story,” Delphine said with a shake of one finger.

Delphine watched Sam grin at seeing Dean be reprimanded and she wondered why that would be.

“Delphine, let me show you where the bathroom is in case you need to freshen up. From experience I know that’s something you need to do after time traveling,” Sam said, leading her down the hall towards the bathroom as Dean headed off to their bedroom to change.

Delphine looked at him surprised that he also knew about time traveling and Sam laughed.

“Don’t worry, we’ll tell you all about it if you really want to hear. Being a hunter and knowing an angel ends up creating a lot of opportunities for time travel.”

Delphine didn’t say anything, just shook her head and followed along the hallway with Sam, matching his long strides easily.

“There it is through there. Towels and robes are in the cabinet on the right, feel free to use the soap and stuff if you want. Anyway, I’ll just go and let you get situated.” Sam said, suddenly and adorably flustered.

“I thank you, Sam,” Delphine said, smiling at him even though she felt so unsure. She turned towards the bathroom and shut the door behind her.

Sam heard her begin to cry but decided he’d give her the privacy she probably needed. He was down the hallway and in their bedroom in a few strides. Dean was in the middle of changing his shirt and Sam gasped at the bruises on his back. He reached out to touch them lightly and Dean hissed at the contact.

“Sorry,” Sam said, backing away.

“No, ’s okay, Sammy. You just surprised me,” Dean said, pulling his brother back into his arms. They held each other and didn’t say anything, just reconnected through this simple touch.

“I’m so glad you’re back Dean, he…he said you were gone,” Sam whispered into Dean’s neck.

“Of course I’m back,” Dean said in a soft voice. “I always come back, right?”

“And you brought company this time,” Sam said with a chuckle. “She’s really something.”

“I’ll say. Did you check out the gams on that dame?” Dean asked.

“I think you were stuck in the forties too long again, dude,” Sam said, biting at Dean’s neck possessively, sucking the flesh into his mouth until he could feel it warm with blood. Something about Dean still noticing women got under his skin, and Dean knew it too. It pissed Sam off, not knowing if Dean was trying to rile him up or if he really was attracted to Delphine. Honestly, he wouldn’t blame him if he was.

“Sam?” Delphine asked, knocking lightly at the mostly open door. She gasped in surprise as she saw them in their tight embrace. Sam looked up from over Dean’s shoulder, teeth letting go of his hold on Dean’s neck, flashing a nervous smile.

“Hey, what do you need, Delphine?” Sam asked.

She wrapped the grey wool robe tighter around herself, not meeting his eyes. “I am sorry to interrupt. I can wait in the…” Delphine trailed off as she backed through the doorway.

“No, wait, hold on, I’ll show you your room,” Sam said stepping towards her, he paused and turned back to Dean. “I’m going to put her in the one Charlie had fixed up, if that’s okay with you, Dean?”

Dean nodded and turned away, not sure why he was so embarrassed to be caught in an embrace with Sam. Delphine didn’t know them, or who they were to each other. And sure she was from the forties so it was probably a shock to see two men together. But she wouldn’t be here for too long, and Sam and he had needed that moment. She’d just have to get over it. He listened to Sam lead Delphine away down the hall and collapsed on his bed, stretching out and trying to work the kinks out of his back. Time travel always did a number on his back.

He stared up at his familiar ceiling with eyes that soon clouded over with a film of tears, he’d known this was coming, but was glad he was alone for this. One of his only friends left was now hosting Lucifer. Cas had chosen that! He shook his head on his pillow frustrated that his clueless angel friend was still...so damn clueless after all this time. How did he not know that letting Lucifer free was the worst thing he could possibly do to Sam, to them—to the whole freaking world? Dean felt for the old wounds of losing Sam to that hole in the ground for more than a year, they were still there, he knew they always were going to be there. Nothing could ever wipe that loss away from his memory of watching his brother throw himself away down into that pit to save the world, to save him.

The tears continued for a while until his ears were filling up with them which was almost as annoying as crying itself was to him, he hated how powerless he felt just then. He turned his head back and forth on his pillow to wipe them away and wrapped his arms around himself. Dean tried to calm himself down with what was the most important thing, he was back here in the right time with Sam, and that’s the only thing that ever mattered to him. Everything else was just details compared to having his brother by his side. Although Delphine was a rather large detail, he wondered how she would adjust to being in the future, he hadn’t known her long, but she seemed like a curious, well-read person who was adaptable and pretty handy in a fight. A lot like Sam really, and that made him wonder again, but for a different and even more unsettling reason.

Sam led Delphine out of Dean’s room and several doors down the hall to the room Charlie had always stayed in when she visited. “I’m not sure of the state of the room, but I know Charlie had at least cleared out most of the left-behind Men of Letters junk, hopefully it’s livable at least for tonight.”

“Who is this Charlie, is he another Man of Letters?” Delphine asked as she passed by Sam and entered the room. It was small, tidy, and utilitarian. The quilt on the bed was in shades of green that seemed to be silk. She ran her hand over it and sighed at the softness. At least her sleep would be pleasant, a room to herself, no gigantic Nazi officer to pretend to be attracted to, and surrounded by these two men who were the most beautiful men she’d seen in a very long time. She had held herself back from flirting too much with Dean on the submarine, but that was because she’d been on a mission. Now, well, now, there was no mission, she had been successful in a way, even if she was out of her time, with no way back.

“Charlie was…uh…she was our friend, and an unofficial Woman of Letters. She died in battle not too long ago. She was one of the smartest people I’ve ever known. We both miss her. If you wouldn’t mind, don’t mention her name around Dean, okay?”

“Was she his lover?” Delphine asked.

“No,“ Sam coughing in evident surprise at the idea. “Uh…no, she wasn’t into men. Dean said he felt like her older brother, so it was like losing a family member, for both of us really.”

“Well, I am truly sorry for your loss, Sam. She sounds as if she was a quite interesting person, I regret not having the opportunity to make her acquaintance.”

“She’d have enjoyed meeting you, I can just imagine you two together, you would have driven Dean crazy,” Sam said.

“I also apologize for earlier, for interrupting you with Dean. I know all too well what it is like to return from a mission to reunite with your lover. I can only imagine what it was like to have him gone into the past with no method to retrieve him.”

Sam blushed immediately, which Delphine found both adorable and charming. “Thanks, you’re right. Having Dean go back into the past isn’t something I’ve ever managed to get used to. He’s always made it back to me, so far. But…the idea of him being stuck somewhere without…”

Delphine crossed the room and took one of Sam’s big hands in hers, she felt overwhelmed at how big he was up close like this. But even more striking was the enormity of his relief at not having to grieve. She squeezed his hand several times and looked up into his face. It was adorable how he was trying and failing to hide his emotions. “I quite understand, Sam. I have lost people I have been very close to, and it never gets easier in my experience. But Dean is back home here with you, right?”

Sam nodded, “Thanks for being so understanding.” He impulsively swept her up into a big hug.

“Why…what are you hugging me for?” Dephine asked in surprise.

“I’m not really sure why, to thank you for caring, and maybe because you sounded so lost and alone,” he hugged her even tighter. “Thank you, Delphine, for bringing him back to me.”

Delphine couldn’t breathe anything but Sam, this enormous man engulfing her senses, blanking out any memory of another who had ever held her. No one had ever held her like this. She melted into him, winding her arms around his neck and pulling him down to kiss him gently on the cheek.

They pulled apart when they heard the scuff of a boot at the edge of the doorway. They both caught sight of Dean’s swiftly departing back.

“I…uh, I gotta go. You have a rest, Dean and I’ll figure out something for dinner and let you know.”

“Thank you for your kind welcome, Sam,” Delphine said with a nod, smiling a little at his urgency. He was going to have to explain their embrace, and she wondered what he would be saying to Dean.

Sam caught up to Dean in the main library room, holding a tumbler nearly full of whisky in one hand and poking at the exhausted Hand of God with one finger.

“Dean? You okay?” Sam asked.

“Just relaxing, thinking, having a drink to celebrate being back,” Dean said, saluting him with the glass and shooting back almost half of its contents.

“Slow down and I’ll catch up with you,” Sam said, stepping towards the bar cart and pouring himself a few fingers of whisky into his own glass. “Here’s to you making it back to the right year.”

Dean nodded and raised his glass a token amount, mouth set in a hard line that relaxed into a one-sided smile. That teasing smile that Sam knew so very well. “Didn’t think I’d be seeing you out here for a while.”

“What? Why?” Sam asked.

“Just figured you were ‘getting to know’ Delphine, that’s all,” Dean said, making one handed air quotes around the ‘getting to know’ part.

Of course Dean would be fixated on that, Sam thought, internally grimacing. “I was just thanking her for bringing you back to me. And she kissed me on the cheek. That’s all it was, pretty sure it’s a French thing.”

“Oh, I don’t think so, I saw how she was lookin’ at you, Sammy. I can’t blame her,” Dean said.

“Dean, why do you have to fixate on something like this? Just…god, be glad you’re back for a second, okay? That’s what I’m doing.”

Dean saluted him with his glass and drained it completely. He stood up and leaned against the table a little unsteadily then made it to the bar cart, refilling his glass so it sloshed over the edge.

“You really okay, Dean?” Sam asked, concerned that Dean’s retreat into drinking so much meant something more than jealousy or worry about him starting something with Delphine.

“No, no I am not okay. I just found out my friend was dumb enough to let Lucifer in, the Hand of God I went back in time for is used up and useless against Amara, I had to watch an entire submarine of people I couldn’t save just die, you’re all beat to shit by Lucifer, Amara is still out there, oh and we’ve got this poor woman stuck in our time now.”

“It’s a whole lot at once. But we’ll make it through, one step at a time, right?” Sam said, smiling encouragingly.

Dean snorted and drank half of the whisky in his glass.  He sat down across the table from Sam and looked at his brother for a long moment without saying anything. “It’s okay if you want her, Sammy, it really is. She’s beautiful, smart and into research and history and languages and she’s also a kick-ass fighter. She’s totally your type, man, I’m just puttin’ that out there.”

“Well, there’s no need. Not like there’s going to be much time for something like that to happen. Besides we need to get her back to her time, right?”

“Do we? Wouldn’t that screw things up, since she was supposed to die along with all the other people on those two subs? If she goes back there and keeps kicking ass for the Men of Letters, who knows what that could change?” Dean asked, staring into the depths of his whisky glass.

“Huh, you’re probably right. And now that I think about it, we don’t have anyone around to send her back anyway,” Sam said. “Why are you always so good at figuring out this time-travel stuff?”

“Schwarzenegger man, taught me all I ever needed to know,” Dean said with a laugh.

“So, you are not going to send me back to my time then?” Delphine asked from her spot leaning up against the hallway’s arch.

“Did you hear that whole thing?” Dean asked.

“The part about the time travel, or the part about how I’m a…what was it? A kick-ass fighter?” Delphine said with a small grin.

“See, I told you, she’s a keeper, Sam,” Dean said, pointing back and forth between the two of them.

Sam crossed his arms over his chest and rolled his eyes at Dean.

Part 2