Chapter Eight

At least he didn't look like Sam.

It wasn’t much consolation but Dean didn’t think he could stomach seeing Lucifer in a Sam meat suit. It had been hard enough the first time to see his brother face and know the eyes staring back at him was a monster. Fortunately Lucifer had appeared to them in the body belonging to Nick, the human who had been his temporary vessel while he had been waiting for Sam to say yes. Nick had vanished into the ether after Lucifer had vacated the premises and Dean briefly wondered if the man was alive somewhere or had he been left a catatonic wreck like most vessels containing an archangel.

Dean didn’t have to look at Sam to know what effect this was having on his brother. Sam’s expression was one of sheer terror as he faced his greatest nightmare once more. For months after Sam had been rescued from the cage, he’d gone slowly mad as hallucinations of Lucifer nearly drove him to breaking point. If it had not been for Cas, Sam wouldn’t have survived and now he was not only back in the cage but Lucifer was standing before them both, large as life.

“Sorry we can’t stay,” Dean said clutching Sam’s arm even tighter, prepared to go through the son of a bitch if necessary. “We got plans.”

“Everyone has plans Dean,” Lucifer’s movement to counter him was slight but it was more than enough for Dean to get that he wasn’t letting either of them get past him. “I had the plan to bring an end to the war between heaven and hell but that got somewhat derailed, if you remember?”

Sam wanted to shut his ears, he didn’t want to listen to Lucifer talk, didn’t want to hear that oh so reasonable voice that could cajole you into thinking that everything was fine, even while he was stripping the flesh of your bones. Sam closed his eyes, not wanting to see where he was; not wanting to be reminded of how he had spent a year in this place, a year that felt like eternity while his soul was tortured by two enraged angels.

Lucifer was continuing to speak, nowhere near the end of his speechifying. “Instead, I get stuck in here with him." He cast a disdainful look at Michael who was now on the ground, being mashed to pulp by Buffy and her mace. “I mean I’m used to the cage from the first time around. I had time to read, catch up on my stories, you get good reception down here surprisingly enough and perfect my Tunisian strawberry crochet stitch but Michael’s not used to solitary confinement. I’m afraid it’s sent him a little bat shit crazy."

As he spoke, Michael had caught the mace, yanked it out of Buffy’s hand and tossed it aside. She retaliated with a high kick but he caught her foot and flipped her over, sending her crashing against the hard floor. Dean winced as she landed, wanting badly to rush to her aid but torn because he had to get Sam out of here. Whatever this was, hallucination or reality, the blood gushing out of Sam’s wounds was real. He need a doctor and soon.

“Oh that must hurt,” Lucifer said making a face at Buffy’s hard landing before turning back to Sam and Dean. “So I was saying, we had plans and thanks to you, we’re trapped in here with nothing to do but torturing your brother for entertainment.”

"Well boo freaking hoo!" Dean snapped furiously, angry because he had to choose between his brother and the girl he was staring to care about as much Sam. "If you guys weren't so hot to start your pissing contest, none of this would have happened!"

With that, Dean decided he was getting past Lucifer one way or another. He needed to get some out and so he could help Buffy. “Hang on Sammy,” he said gripping his brother tightly and made a run for the ledge he could see across the floor of the room. Sam struggled to keep pace with him but Dean could hear the grunt of pain, with each step he took. Unfortunately, he did not make it far as Lucifer was in front of them again, barring their way like an apparition. His arm shot out and struck Dean across the bridge of his nose, propelling him backwards and forcing him to relinquish his hold of Sam.

Without Dean’s support to hold him up, Sam sank to his knees and then onto his hands. Lucifer closed in on him, standing over the younger Winchester before grabbing hold of Sam’s cleft chin and hoisting him up effortlessly off the ground. Sam’s feet dangled inches off the ground as Lucifer held him up high by the chin, until Sam had to grip the angel’s hands to keep from breaking his neck.

"We could have created a new world," Lucifer said staring at Sam with pity, "I could have given you everything. Jesse, your father, I could have even been convinced to heal Dean after I was done killing Michael. Instead you decided to defy me and chain me up like an animal again. Didn’t your dad ever tell you that a chained animal is the most dangerous animal?" He punctuated that statement by jamming a finger in one of the raw wounds in Sam's thigh and pressed down hard.

Sam's scream caught Buffy's attention. The slayer looked up from her battle with Michael to see a new player on the field who had apparently waylaid Sam and Dean in their efforts to escape. She turned to Michael once more, having taken a few blows but delivering enough to drive him to the ground, disorientated from the pummelling he had received from her hands. She couldn’t waste time with him any further and threw another round house kick that connected with his jaw. He landed on the filthy floor on his belly and Buffy told herself that he wasn’t human when she brought down her foot down against his neck and snapped it.

The crunch of bone was heard amidst Sam’s cries and Buffy raced towards him, barely keeping herself from skidding across the blood soaked floor as she left the sight of Michael’s motionless body behind her. His glazed eyes staring into nothingness.

Retrieving the mace, Buffy raced across the floor and swung it at Lucifer, intending to deliver the blow to his shoulder so that he’d let go of Sam. However, at the last instant, Lucifer’s other hand shot out and caught the mace by the handle before it could connect. His grip was like iron and he turned to Buffy, his expression more amused than hostile. As he rested blue eyes on her, Buffy found something oddly disconcerting about his gaze as if he was looking right through her as he stared. His gaze moved up and down her body like he was committing every part of her to memory.

“Now that is something you don’t see every day,” Lucifer remarked throwing a glance at Sam, “A cute blond in the pit wearing Tweety bird pyjamas and fuzzy slippers.” Turning back to her, he said with a patronising tone. “This is kind of a boy’s club, girls aren’t allowed.” He retorted and then shoved her so hard, Buffy went tumbled backwards, the weight of the mace pulling her along and scraping her on the cheek as she fell.

Lucifer resumed his torture of Sam, continuing to burrow through the wounds on Sam’s limbs with his fingers. Sam gritted his teeth, refusing to scream and forcing himself to rein in the pain so he could speak. “Alright,” he gasped, “you win. Just Let Dean and Buffy go. I’ll stay behind. You can tear me to pieces if you want but just let them go.” The demand escaped him in a sob of defeat. He never wanted to live through this nightmare again, never wanted to endure the agony but he couldn’t let Dean and Buffy suffer it too. They did nothing to deserve this while he had done everything to do so. I'll do whatever you want; just let them go... please."

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew this couldn’t be real. He couldn’t be in the cage if Buffy and Dean were here too. This was the same kind of hallucination that had produced Angelus and most likely the monsters that had killed Sherman and Benson but Sam didn’t care. It felt real and if there was even the slight possibility that it was real, Sam had to do all he could to parlay freedom for his brother and the slayer.

However, the devil wasn’t dealing today.

"I begged you once Sam," Lucifer retaliated with those sad eyes that made you believe that he was a wounded animal, wronged and persecuted when in fact he was the worst monster of them all. "I begged you to let me in and you paid me back by locking me in here for all eternity. I'm sorry Sam but no one leaves here, not ever."

"Says you, you son of a bitch!" Dean Winchester growled and swung the rusty axe he’d gone searching for.

There was just enough time for Lucifer to turn around and catch a glimpse of the blade before it sliced through his neck in one powerful blow. Dean put everything he had into that swing; wanting to make sure he got it right the first try. Lucifer had no time to cry out or react as the blade cut through flesh and bone with such force that his decapitation resulted in his severed head flying off his body. His head spun in mid-air once before it landed on the floor with the rest of the blood and gore with a sickly squelch. Sam tumbled to the floor as Lucifer’s headless corpse relinquished his hold on him and joined him there a second later.

"Nobody messes with my brother or my girl…" Dean spat at Lucifer's dead form unaware that the last bit slipped out of his lips without his realizing it.

Sam struggled to his feet; his knees feeling like rubber and his body so filled with this constant pain that he was actually starting to manage it. He heard Dean’s comment and blinked, looking at his brother as Dean approached him to help him up.

“Your girl huh…?” It was easier to joke with Dean right now then face the horror of where they were.

“Cut me some slack, I just saved your ass,” Dean grumbled, embarrassed that he’d said that out loud.

Buffy shook her head from the blow that Lucifer had delivered, recovering enough to see Dean deliver his killing stroke before she got to her feet and hurried to them, wanting to help him with Sam so they could get the hell out of this place. She paused a moment, noting the exchange of looks between the brothers before she saw Dean dropping the axe, the rest of him was splattered in blood.

"Gross,” she commented at the state of him. “Now can we go?"

"Hell yeah," Dean retorted, wiping the blood on his face with the back of his hand. His forehead was smeared with blood that was not his own and all three of them looked like the leads in a splatter flick.

Flanking Sam, Buffy and Dean hauled Sam to his feet and crossed the bloody floor, headed towards the wall where the doorway back to her hallway still remained opened for them to enter. With their help, Sam started to recoup enough strength to be able to help in their escape instead of hindering them. His limbs felt heavy from blood loss and the pain was considerable but he was damned if he was going to be carried out of this place. Moving as best he could, he took note of their surroundings, the cage that wasn’t really a cage and tried to process some of this with what they had encountered already.

Something moved in the corner of her eye and Buffy didn’t have to know if Dean saw it, she had and that was enough. It came from where she’d left Michael and without even waiting to see if it was an aberration, Buffy reacted.

"MOVE!" She barked at Dean who followed her gaze and realize she had good reason for the order.

"Fuck!" Dean swore, “Come on Sammy.” He urged his brother faster and hastened his pace in hauling ass. He still had no proof they’d be safer once they were through the door but at least, they'd be back in the real world.

"What is it?" Sam asked weakly.

"Trust me Sammy, you don't want to know." Dean retorted not voicing the worry that if Michael was getting to his feet then it might not be long before Lucifer would be doing the same, sans head or not.

Sam took his word on it and they soon found themselves beneath the doorway that had previously been the door to Buffy’s spare bedroom but was now the entrance to the cage. The light pouring through from the hallways light felt almost like heavenly after the sinister red that bathed the cage.

"You first Counsellor!" Dean ordered her as Sam braced himself against the wall. Before she could protest, Dean had his hands on her hips and was lifting up her small frame to the door frame. “Get over, you can help Sam up!”

He need not have lifted her but it made things simpler nonetheless, Buffy caught hold of the edge and pulled herself over with ease, turning around to see Michael starting to get up, his neck still hanging in that crooked angle. Something else was moving down there and her stomach clenched. God, she thought. No, not God, Lucifer.

“Hurry up,” she said to Dean, “don’t make me come down and get you.” It wasn’t a joke. She would.

"I love you when you get all bossy," Dean quipped and then turn to Sam, securing his hold on Sam and steering him to the wall so he could help his brother.

"My God, it’s like Moonlighting..." Sam groaned before he raised his arms painfully, his height more than allowing him to reach the door frame. However, in his condition, he would need help climbing over.

Buffy was already on her knees, reaching down to grab hold of Sam's forearms. She tried to avoid the wounds but there was no helping it. He'd been in pain when she lifted him up but at least, he'd be out of that hellhole. Making full use of her slayer strength, Buffy dragged Sam up, her teeth gritting as she pulled him over the edge. As soon as Sam was able, he used his elbows to haul himself the rest of the way. Behind him, Dean pushed at his legs to give him the boost needed to scramble into the hallway.

Groaning as he lifted, Dean felt the chords of his neck strain as he put his back into lifting Sam off the ground. Sam was doing his best to help but the trials and these new injuries had taken its toll Sam and he was weaker than Dean had ever seen him and that terrified Dean more than he cared to admit. More than even the cage scared him.

Once Sam had started to pull himself up on his own power thanks to Dean's effort, Buffy clamped onto his shoulder and hauled him the rest of the way. No sooner than he was past the threshold, she was leaning over the edge to see where Dean was.

"Dean hurry!" She called frantically when she saw Michael and now Lucifer were fast approaching him.

Dean was away ahead of her as he made a running jump towards the edge now that Sam was safe. Dean had risked a glance over his shoulder before he leapt and saw both Michael and Lucifer coming in for the kill. Lucifer was now whole; having recovered his severed head but it was Michael who would reach him first.

Screw that, Dean thought and hoisted himself through the door. Buffy was there immediately to help, grabbing his t-shirt and pulling him the rest of the way when suddenly he felt Michael's hand clamp around his ankle in a last ditch effort to drag him back into the cage.

"You're not going anywhere Dean!" Michael hissed, "We were just starting to have fun!"

"Sorry I'm all partied out!" Dean snapped and lashed out, kicking out his foot and striking Michael square in the face. The archangel released his hold and fell back down. Buffy yanked Dean towards her in one massive effort, until he collapsed onto top her. Wasting no time, he swung his foot at the door and slammed it shut with a loud thud.

For a few seconds, no one spoke as they waited with breath held to see if Lucifer and Michael would try to come through. Seconds became minutes and it soon apparent that the two archangels would not be intruding Buffy's home.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean swore loudly, exasperated and enraged as he saw Sam trying to sit up, ragged wounds in his forearms and thighs. Buffy lay beneath him, bruises on her face where she'd battled Michael, her cute pyjamas ruined with blood and God only knew what else.

Recovering himself, he looked down at her, "you okay?" He asked, his voice gentle, a stark contrast to his curses a few seconds.

"My spare room has been turned into the slaughterhouse from hell but other than that, I'm just peachy," Buffy retorted sarcastically, trying to ignore the intimacy of their positioning.

Dean too noticed it and if it wasn't for Sam looking like Death, he might have had something glib to say about but the only thing he cared about was getting to his brother. "Sammy needs help," Dean declared and got off her, crawling on his hands to Sam who though conscious, looked desperately in need of an emergency room.

As Dean tended to Sam, Buffy got to her feet and contemplated the shut door in front of her. The fact that Michael and Lucifer had not come through was telling and she put her hand on the doorknob, bracing herself for the worst when she twisted it open. She needed to know if her suspicions about what she would find was right. Opening it slowly, Buffy widened the crack and stared inside, her shoulder slackened at her findings.

"Dean," she said, "look."

"What?" Dean demanded, glancing away from Sam for a moment when he did a double take at what she was showing him. Where only a few minutes ago, there had been the entrance to Lucifer's cage, now all that appeared beyond the threshold was a bedroom, decorated in Ikea furniture with Sam's duffle bag at the foot of the bed and his clothes draped across a chair.

There was no sign of the cage.

*********

They couldn’t take Sam to the hospital even though Dean wished liked hell they could. Thanks to the Leviathans, Sam and Dean Winchester were still wanted criminals. Furthermore, the nature of his injuries almost guaranteed the police would be called in to determine how he had sustained them. Fortunately, Buffy had other resources to draw from and though it had been some time since she had used any of it, Giles made sure she always had access to them. After all, she was the Chosen One.

The Watcher Council had their own healers and physicians on the payroll because although slayers healed fast, they were still susceptible to injuries that not even their remarkable recuperation abilities could overcome. And like the predicament the Winchesters now found themselves, the slayers could not afford to involve the authorities if they were to go to a hospital.

Buffy had called Faith to find out where the nearest Watcher Council physician was located and was pleased to learn that there was one in Kansas City. Faith who was presently in Texas, was clearing up a case of demonic parasites that had supposedly tainted the water supply in a small community, and was burning with curiosity to get the details on the job Buffy was working. Knowing how astute Faith could be when it came to any discussion about men, Buffy resisted giving her even the slightest details about the Winchesters, especially Dean.

In any case, Faith provided her with the information and Buffy learned, to her pleasant surprise, that the doctor was someone she knew. Caridad Esteban had been a potential slayer when the First Evil had been slaughtering them on mass during Buffy's last year in Sunnydale. What was left of the Watcher Council had smuggled the remaining girls to Sunnydale in the hopes that the slayer would be able to protect the girls. After training the potentials and Willow's spell activating all dormant slayers, they were able to defeat the First Evil although the resulting battle had destroyed Sunnydale for good.

Since then, Cari had completed her education and gained a medical degree, settling in Kansas City at St. Luke's Hospital. When Buffy had called her in the middle of the night, Cari had wasted no time getting in her car and arriving at Lawrence within the hour. It was strange that even after all this time, Cari behaved like she was still Buffy's to command even if Buffy hadn't been a fully-fledged Slayer in years.

*****

Dean had gotten cleaned up in the main bathroom and was sitting across Buffy in the arm chair Sam had occupied earlier that night. He was wearing a clean tee and jeans while she had switched to her satin blue pyjamas since her Tweety ones needed to be burned just on principle. He was drinking coffee and she was sipping on chamomile, trying to come to grips that the world had returned to its civility after what they'd seen earlier tonight.

“Okay so it’s definitely the antique store,” Dean declared, needing to talk about something or else he’d be tempted to barge into Buffy's room and demand the doc tell him how Sam doing again. "So should I expect some freaky ass thing to come jump out at me since I was in there too?"

"I guess so," Buffy frowned, feeling as if she was missing something. "That means you and I spending the night out here, where I can keep an eye out on you. I've had my turn in the Twilight Zone so you’re up next."

"That was not the way I planned on spending the night with you," he grumbled before a small smile crossed his lips and he met her gaze with what she was calling classic Dean Winchester innuendo. "Although if you want...."

Buffy rolled her eyes at him. "Focus, Winchester." Buffy said sternly, "we're not going to be caught with our pants down when this thing comes at us again." She saw his grin and groaned before tossing a cushion at him. "If this thing comes at you, what are we likely facing?"

"The Easter Bunny," Dean retorted, knowing perfectly well what frightened him.

"Come on," Buffy stared at him, seeing through the lie immediately. She wasn't a trained counsellor for nothing. "I won't consider it a slight on your alpha male status if you tell me what you're afraid of."

"I don't know okay!" Dean insisted, feigning ignorance. "Look I've seen a lot of weird shit in my life, I mean a lot! It could be anything."

Buffy folded her arms and stared at him impatiently, her eyes fixed on him, showing her displeasure. "Dean, we need to know." She insisted.

"Look it’s not going to happen, not if I can help it. So it’s pointless talking about it." Dean snapped before getting up and storming out of the living room, not wanting to discuss the subject any further.

However, Buffy was neither letting him out of her sight nor was she letting him avoid the issue. Their lives depended on it. She followed him out as he stepped onto the back garden through the sliding doors in the kitchen. She found him standing on the grass as staring at the moonless sky.

"Dean I don't want to press you but you know you got to tell me what it is," Buffy insisted. "What we've seen of this thing that it’s pretty damn good at getting inside our heads. If we can get ahead of it, maybe it won't end up so messy." She was no longer the Counsellor or the girl whom he was attracted to, Buffy now faced him as the Slayer and the slayer had no patience with the niceties when lives were at stake.

"Goddamn it!" Dean swore at her, “it’s nothing that can hurt us okay? If I wasn't sure of that I'd tell you but it’s not going to happen so there's no point in telling you." Dean knew that was a bullshit answer but he didn't know her well enough to reveal that much of his inner self to her. Sure they'd traded stories and he was sweet on her, no contest there but telling what terrified him the most? Hell he couldn't even tell Sam.

She wasn't going to take that as answer, not when she had spilled her heart out to him about Angel. "Oh I get it, that's fine. You're not into the sharing. It’s okay for the rest of us have our insides spill out in front of you but you're too good for that right?" She turned away from him, her disappointment clearly showing in her eyes.

Dean swore beneath his breath, feeling like he'd been gut punched by just the way she looked at him, like he was as much a dick as that Angelus guy and Dean hated how that felt. "Wait a minute," he went after her grabbing her wrist before she got too far away from him. "It’s not like that Counsellor," he tried to explain.

"Oh sure it isn't!" She snapped, pulling her wrist away from him and striding towards the house once more.

Dean was tempted to let her go. Who was she other than a piece of ass he'd hoped to nail? They were working a job together, that's it. He didn't owe her a goddamn thing. Yet as she drew away from him, the threads between them remained, pulling him towards her. The memory of her smile, the one that Sammy didn't recognise because he hadn't met Mary Campbell, Dean had seen that same smile in the diner that morning and knew in a way he could not explain, that life was never going to be the same again.

"It's me alright!" He shouted after her and Buffy paused, turning to look at him, her brow knotted because she didn't understand.

"What scares me most, is me." He confessed. "Because there is nothing, nothing I wouldn't do for my brother. I've gone to hell for him and I've been ready to die a thousand times for him. I was ready to let the world burn just to save him. He's my brother, it’s my job to take care of him and I have never been able to sacrifice him. When I was forced to, it was like someone had carved me out with a knife, there was nothing left inside. It scares the hell out of me what I'd do save him."

And that she understood. Completely.

She walked to him, sadness and understanding in her eyes as she paused in front of him. "You're such a moron Winchester," she reached up and held his face in her hands. "That that I get. You're not the only one who’s got the market cornered on what you're willing to do for family. I died for my sister and I'd do it again. So yeah, I get it."

"I get that we're both fucking damaged," Dean retorted but there was no malice in his voice just acceptance that they were kindred spirits.

Dean lifted her chin and lowered his lips to hers. When she didn’t pull away, Dean boldly claimed her mouth for his own, exploring the sweetness of her with growing intensity. He conducted a sensual game of thrust and parry as their tongues duelled for dominance. Wrapping his arms around her slender back, he drew her close to him while at the same time feeling a surge of pleasure at her fingers raking at his back.

Since they’d laid eyes on each other, there had been this connection. He was accustomed to threating women as disposable because the ones he cared about always got hurt or worse. However, Buffy was capable of taking care of herself without any need for him to protect her thought he still wanted it to some degree because like him she hid the vulnerable parts of herself beneath a facade of stoic resignation.

That was the price of loving as hard as they did, the agony of the loss that came from it.

*****

Cari emerged from the house, seeking out Buffy and her patient’s brother to provide them with an update on her patient’s condition only to find the two lip locked in the middle of the backyard. The former slayer, now doctor, let out a sigh and retreated discreetly into the kitchen once more, thinking that her news about Sam Winchester could wait until they were done with their personal moment. Besides Cari approved of Buffy’s new (she assumed) boyfriend.

At least this one wasn’t a vampire.

TO BE CONTINUED