Chapter Text
Note: This chapter is more about introducing Grace, this is following from 5x02.
Dean pulled out one of his phones, he had the guns, so he wanted to re-join his brother. He didn’t trust his brother alone, not yet. When the line went straight to voicemail, he walked out of the store and went down the road to the convenience store, where his brother was meant to be getting salt. Dean was sure he could manage that, but he still hadn’t left the store. In a town swimming with demons, he feared what was going on in Sam’s head. Too long, he thought. He went into the store and called “Sammy?” He saw his brother stand up, and walked between aisles to get to him. The demon blade was soaked with the blood of the two demons before him. Dean looked around at the blood and then to his brother. Sam held a saddened yearning in his eyes, and he knew that Dean could tell. They made it back to Ellen and started to prepare everyone to fight off the demons. Just long enough to escape. A girl appeared, with black hair reaching her shoulders, and deep green eyes. This came as no shock to Sam and Dean, but the rest of the room were startled.
“Sam, Dean, I’ve been looking for you.”
“But- the enochian on our ribs- how did you find us?” Sam questioned.
“Bobby told me. This isn’t important, there’s something here that I’m supposed to stop. Or cause, I haven’t figured that out yet.”
“You’re an angel?” Dean asked.
“Grace, I’m with Castiel.”
Dean tried to hide the disappointment on his face with a look of surprise, but the angel could sense his jealousy. She reassured him that they were just friends, and Dean couldn’t help but to grin. Sam looked at Dean, confused, does he like Cas? Dean filled Grace in on their mission, and gave her a gun with rock salt.
“All due respect, but can’t I just blink in and kill the demons?”
Sam and Dean looked to each other, then the angel, and nodded. Grace muttered something quietly to herself, it seemed like an insult to Dean. He went to ask her what she said, but she was gone. She could see all of the demons, but something felt off about them.
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Back in the safe room, Ellen was growing impatient. She feared for the safety of her daughter and wasn’t sure what Grace was. Sam and Dean told her about the angel, and that although they didn’t know her, she was good friends with Castiel. Ellen asked Sam if he trusted Castiel as much as Dean did, but he had spaced out. His palms were sweating, and his hands couldn’t stop shaking. He could vaguely hear Dean calling his name, but everything around him seemed distant.
“Sammy!” Dean called, finally reaching Sam’s ears.
“Something isn’t right, she should be back. I’ll go check on her,” Sam insisted.
“Whoa Sammy, she’s got it covered, you’re staying here with Ellen and me. When she comes back, we get these people out.”
“If something happens to Grace, no one is getting out.”
“So, you’re the one that’s going to save us?”
Dean really didn’t want Sam to go out to help Grace. He tried to talk him around, but Sam was desperate. It wasn’t about the people, not really, he missed the feeling more than anything. He could sense Dean’s concern, but he wanted it so badly, he didn’t care. Dean struggled to find words to stop him, and before he could think of anything, Sam bolted for the door.
“Sammy?” Dean called out with a tone of anger. He tried to follow him, but Ellen stopped him from going anywhere.
“It’s just demons, Dean. Sam can handle it,” she said, oblivious to Sam’s addiction. Dean sighed but he knew that it was pointless to argue with Ellen.
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Sam headed straight for the house the demons were camped at. He could smell them from across the street. He busted through the back door, but there was someone waiting for him. He wasn’t a demon; he was sure of it.
“You’re right, I’m a horseman.”
“Are there actually any demons?”
“Of course not, what you want is here,” the horseman took a vial out of his pocket, and Sam’s heartbeat began to rise. He recognised that the horseman was War. The horseman pushed Sam against the wall and opened the vial.
“You want this, don’t you?”
He pushed him onto the ground, took the vial and ran to find Grace. He downed the whole thing in seconds, and felt it rushing through him. He felt strong again, like he could handle anything. He searched the house until he found Grace, who was trying to convince the people inside that there were no demons.
“Sam? How did you-” she could sense that he had been drinking demon blood, but she couldn’t understand how. There were no demons in the town. She looked to the empty vial in his hand and understood. He hadn’t had demon blood since he opened the cage, so his body was still adjusting.
“Grace, we need to warn the others,” he said with more tension in his voice than intended. She nodded, smashed the vial and suddenly they were back in the room.
“Sammy, what happened?” Dean was scared for his little brother; he was alone with demons.
“There are no demons. It’s the horseman, War. He can alter what we see though, so we have to take him down.”
While Dean was relieved that there were no demons, something in Sam’s eyes indicated that he wasn’t okay. For now, all that mattered was that he wasn’t drinking demon blood. Grace disappeared, and somehow, they just knew that this was their battle now.
“Okay, War. That’s fricken great. How exactly are we planning to do this?” Dean huffed.
“It’s the ring, he gets his power from the ring.”
“Great, so cut off the finger, and that bastard loses his mojo.”
“Sounds good to me,” Sam said, his focus getting lower by the second. Dean knew something was going on, but he shrugged it off. They had work to do.
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Grace looked around and she had been summoned in heaven. An angel in fishnets turned around to face her. She had short red hair and her eyes were hazel, but looked like they were burning. There was a bench just behind her, so she and the alternative angel sat down.
“Grace, I wanted to talk to you about Sam Winchester,” she said.
“Mercy? Why do you need to talk to me?”
“Because you’re close to Castiel, the Winchester boys trust you. Now, me? I get halfway through a sandwich and they’re hauling my ass back up here.”
“It’s only been a few months since we last spoke, why aren’t you allowed to leave heaven?”
“Apparently angels need to keep a clean mouth. As if waitresses give a shit that some customer curses a lot. Anyway, Sam Winchester. The amount of demon blood that the horseman gave him… Dean will try to detox him if he finds out. Do not let Dean find out, but you need to keep getting demon blood to him.”
“Isn’t the demon blood killing him?”
“Look, he doesn’t see it yet, but he will say yes to Lucifer. The only way we stand a chance of stopping this whole thing is if Sam is the vessel. Lucifer won’t take him if he isn’t dosed up on this shit.”
“But what if it kills him?”
“Sending Lucifer into battle will kill him anyway. He’s already a dead man walking.”
Grace knew that Mercy was right. If Sam lived through this, Lucifer won, which meant that his body would never be his again. She sat silently on the bench for a while, she didn’t think she could do it. No matter how good the outcome, this felt wrong. She noticed Mercy staring at her, and when she looked up, Mercy didn’t turn away.
“You look afraid,” she said, “and that’s okay. You’re strong enough to do this.”
Grace looked deeply into Mercy’s eyes, and she knew that she could be trusted. She nodded and, in a moment, Mercy disappeared. Grace wasn’t sure how she was going to do this, but she knew one thing. She had to get to Sam.