Weapons of Fate (Part Three)
Weapons of Fate
It wasn’t as easy as it sounded, of course. John wanted to see how well trained Sam was and Dean was prickly about the other man’s implied criticism of Dean’s training. After three weeks of brutal testing though, John finally decided Sam was well enough trained. Except for one thing.
“You didn’t teach him the one thing that made him different from any other thug off the street,” John bitched as Sam threw his hands in the air.
“This is fucking impossible,” Sam growled out, frustrations making his blood boil. It wasn’t that they wanted him to shoot a gun. He could do that just fine even before he’d met Dean, but this was totally different. It was insane to think he could hit a target behind a stone pillar. As hard as he tried, the pillar was starting to look like Swiss cheese and the target behind it was untouched.
“I taught him what I could, where I could. If you haven’t forgotten, I was trying to keep him under the radar. Taking him for training like this would have put him at risk.”
“The Fraternity has places you could have taken him,” John reprimanded.
“Yeah, well you weren’t the only one I was protecting him from.”
John’s eyes widened slightly but Dean pushed away from his resting place on the wall. The deserted parking structure was a great place to practice but it wasn’t exactly comfortable for any of them to be hanging around. And even after three weeks, none of them was at ease when they were all together. Dean looked like he was ready to spit nails, constantly stepping between John and Sam whenever John looked like he might advance on Sam. John grumbled under his breath whenever Dean touched Sam, no matter that Sam had made his position clear on what it would mean to be a part of his life. And Sam? Sam was tired and frustrated and he wanted the whole damn thing over with.
“This is impossible, Dean. No one can take this shot.”
Dean’s hand ran down Sam’s arm until his fingers encircled his wrist. He squeezed ever so slightly, and then took the gun from Sam. Sam watched as Dean turned, his back to Sam’s chest, staring at the target for a second. He moved quickly, swinging his arm in a wide arc as he pulled the trigger. Sam’s mouth opened wide in astonishment as the bullet’s trajectory bowed around the pillar and he heard the bullet tear into the pillar behind it where the target hung.
“Your turn, Sammy,” Dean said as he placed the gun in his hand. “I know you can do this.”
Dean pressed a kiss to Sam’s forehead, his hand tracing the path of San’s cheek before he walked over to the pillar and stood before it.
John was up on his feet, moving to Sam’s side. “Dean, what the hell are you doing?”
“Take the shot. I know you’ve got this, Sam.”
“Dean?” Sam’s voice was breathless but Dean didn’t answer. He just looked at Sam with all the trust in the world. He wanted to curse his brother for the damn fool he was, but at the same time he needed to do this, to prove his brother right. No matter what else happened, if he didn’t do this neither Dean nor John would ever allow him to be a part of their revenge.
He needed to earn his place in the family and Dean was the way to do it. Sam could feel his heart beating faster, remembering his brother’s words from so long ago, you’re working yourself up. He’d thought it was just a panic attack at the time, another damn attack that had ruined his life. He knew better now. Gotta let me train you before you let it all loose.
He closed his eyes for a moment, felt the ghost of his brother’s lips against his forehead and allowed his heartbeat to speed up, calling on the strength Dean gave him, the sheer confidence in his eyes as he waited for Sam to pull the trigger.
He growled as he opened his eyes, arm swinging wide as he took the shot. The bullet curved around his brother and the pillar, moving past them and Sam just stared at Dean as he heard the shot hit its mark on the other side.
Dean smirked as his eyes left Sam and he looked at John. “Still think I need help training my brother?” Dean pushed off the pillar then, done with John as he reached Sam and pulled him close. “Knew you could do it.”
“Do that to me again and I just might shoot you out of spite.”
Dean’s smile was brilliant. “Come on, Sammy. Let’s see it a few more times, without my interference, and we can get the hell out of here.”
Dean went back to his place on the wall, away from Sam and John, but John stayed at Sam’s side, watching and waiting. He didn’t say anything else, but when Sam emptied every bullet in his clip into the target, John finally smiled at him.
“Welcome to the Fraternity, Sam.”
**
Dean’s idea of celebrating Sam’s newfound ability was to spend the night fucking him senseless. Sam wasn’t complaining in the slightest. They had two days, according to John, before he would have everything in line for their mission and Dean seemed to want to spend it in bed. Considering how long Sam had been waiting for Dean to continue their exploration of one another, Sam was just fine with that.
The sex was amazing, Dean took absolute care with him, learning his body in ways that no other lover ever had. When he thought back to Jess and the way they’d been, even in the beginning, he knew that he would never be able to go back. He could never find another lover who would understand him the way Dean did, who would cater to him the same way.
It wasn’t just the sex either. Dean seemed to keep a running tally of things he didn’t know about Sam in his head and he was constantly asking questions and filing away new information to pull back up later when needed. Like remembering how he took his coffee, or that he liked the color blue, or how he noticed Sam couldn’t sleep anymore without Dean pressed against his body somehow.
He stared up at the ceiling of Dean’s bedroom, the dark fitting his mood.
“Sammy?” Dean whispered his name as his lips moved over Sam’s shoulder. He was on his back with Dean half on top of him, his hand running up and down Sam’s stomach as he spoke. “When this is done, we’ll just leave, okay? You and me, wherever you want to go.”
“You really think you could leave all this behind?” Sam asked. It wasn’t the apartment he meant or even the city.
“Yes,” Dean said without hesitation. “I’d have gone a long time ago if I knew you were alive. I never wanted this, you know? It was all I had though and I was good at it. You know what I want Sam? I want to take you somewhere no one will ever find us. We could buy an island somewhere or just live on a boat. Sail around the world and go wherever we pleased. Hell, we could move to the arctic and stay in bed all the damn time because it would be too cold to do anything else and I’d be happy there. I just need you.”
Sam closed his eyes as he turned his head, waiting patiently as Dean leaned up, pressing his lips against Sam’s. “I don’t care, Dean. I don’t’ have anything holding me here anymore.”
Dean nodded. “Alright, so we take care of this tomorrow and then we’re off the map.”
“John isn’t going to like it.”
“No, he’s not,” Dean said with a sigh, “but he should have thought of that before he kept this secret. I get that he was trying to protect us,” he cut Sam off before he could say anything, “but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have told me later on.”
Sam wrapped his arms around Dean, pulling him closer. “I don’t care about that anymore either,” he said softly. “I’ve got you now and that’s all that matters. We get through this tomorrow and we’ll leave. And we’ll get in touch with John when we figure out where we’re gonna land.”
Dean pressed his lips to Sam’s forehead then and pulled until he was on his back with Sam pressed against his chest. “Good night, Sammy.”
He didn’t bother to answer. He just closed his eyes and tried to relax. He needed his sleep after all. In the morning they were paying the Fraternity a visit.
**
“Samuel, you son of a bitch, come on out!”
Of all the ways to get the Fraternity’s attention this was sure to do it, Sam thought as he watched his father approach the main gate of the textile mill. He’d walked the last half mile so no one would see them approaching together. No one had any reason to suspect that John had gotten to them but they had no way to guarantee that no one had been watching them either. It was better to keep the surprise if they could.
“John Winchester.”
From the top of the gate walls, Samuel bellowed down to John, his voice carrying to where Sam and Dean sat in the bus waiting. He had no idea where John managed to get a bus from, let alone one painted in camouflage colors to hide them among the tree lined road that led up to the textile mill but he refused to ask. What he knew about the business could fit into a bucket while Dean and John knew rivers. He was prepared to let his brother hold onto those details.
“Why don’t you come on down, Samuel?” John asked with a smile. “I think we have some business to discuss.”
“John,” Samuel was shaking his head. “I always took you for a damn fool. I tried to get Mary to see that but she was blind in her devotion to you. Do you really think you’re going to walk away from this?”
“You’d be amazed at the things I’ve walked away from Samuel. The Fraternity is just another bad memory I’m gonna have to live with once it’s all over.”
“You have a funny way of walking away,” Samuel answered from up on the wall.
“I just want the truth.”
“Which truth is that, John? You want to know about the weave and where it came from? You want to hear about-“
“Cut the crap, Samuel. I just wanna know how long you’ve been ordering the kills yourself.”
Samuel laughed, shaking his head. “For twenty-some years you’ve been taking your kill orders like a good soldier. Now you start asking?” John didn’t answer and Samuel’s laugh died. “Alright. I’ll play along, John. I’ve been calling the shots for a year now. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve handed out kills that came from the loom as well, but I added my own.”
“Did you think we wouldn’t figure it out?”
“You’re assassins. I honestly didn’t figure you’d care. None of the others did, but you had to go and grow a conscience and I couldn’t have you around poisoning Dean with that. The boy is a true believer. If he knew what I was doing he’d have pulled the gun on me himself. As good as you are, John, your boy is even better. I can’t wait to see what happens when he trains up that brother of his. If we can just get them to stop fucking long enough to train.”
“You’ve got that to answer for as well,” John said coldly.
Sam rolled his eyes at the grandstanding but Dean was already setting the bus in motion. John was moving to the side, though his rambling motions throughout the confrontation were designed to keep anyone from realizing he was staying out of the way. When Dean hit the gas pedal the bus ate up the ground between them quickly. He didn’t slow as they got closer to the walls and Sam braced himself for the impact.
The whole bus shuddered as it crashed through the wooden gates, strings dancing around the ceiling as the balloons shifted around them. Sam got a quick flash of Samuel’s surprised face before he was running from the walls. Sam held himself steady, as they hit the gate. The noise was deafening but even as they pushed through Sam was already moving to the back of the bus. The bus crashed through the gate and then in through the front wall of the building. When it stopped moving, Sam ran to the back and threw open the door. John came running through and Sam slammed the doors closed again.
“Think the boys are ready to play yet?” Dean asked as John and Sam joined him at the front of the bus.
The sound of gun fire hit the top of the vehicle and John smiled. “Time for some fun boys.”
“Jesus, what the hell type of family did I get myself involved with?”
Dean moved away from the front and came up to stand beside Sam in the walkway. He grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled him close, kissing him deeply. He was smiling when he pulled away. “You’re a Winchester, Sammy. It doesn’t get more fucked up than this.”
Sam laughed, though he noticed the way John watched them with slitted eyes. John’s scowl didn’t go away but Dean ignored it as he moved back to the front of the bus. “You ready for this, John?”
John smirked as he grabbed a handful of balloon strings. “Let’s take this fucker down.”
Sam raised his gun and shot out the front window of the bus. When it was gone, he grabbed a handful of balloons as well and they shoved them out the front. Dean opened the side door and John ran out with the balloons as cover.
Bullets rang around them but the balloons were doing their job. Dean pulled Sam with him out the door and towards the stairwell where John was waiting. They could hear the other assassins trying to fire from the open wall that afforded them the ability to look down from the second floor to the first. “We’re good, John,” Dean called as he and Sam started running up the stairs.
No one said anything as they went up the stairs. Then Sam and Dean were waiting on one side of the door and when John reached them he looked down at his watch. He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and hit the speed dial. As soon as the call connected, there was a large explosion. The bus had been rigged with a bomb, but beside that each of the balloons carried a small detonation as well. With the others confused as the bombs went off around them, the Winchester’s headed out of the stairwell and onto the second floor.
The noise of the bombs drowned out everything. The door slammed out as John led them through. Sam had his gun up but he was behind John and Dean. When the people saw them come through the door they turned their guns on them. John and Dean were in front of him so he couldn’t shoot through them, but as they moved into the room someone came up from the side. He didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger.
It was the first time he shot a gun at someone. It was the first time he killed a man. He thought he should probably feel bad about it but all he could feel was relief that it wasn’t Dean on the ground, or himself.
Two, the shot rang to the left side and his second kill was down. He couldn’t count the shots from John and Dean, too much noise from the explosion and his ears rang from it, but he knew his own.
Three, a shot right between Dean and John.
John looked over his shoulder at him, a brief glance that showed Sam his surprise. Dean didn’t look back but he could see the smile that pulled at his lips.
It took him a minute to recognize the silence and they were alone. He turned, giving his back to Dean and John as they continued to creep forward, covering them. They moved quickly, with a precision that spoke of years of working together and Sam was astonished at how right it felt, tucked into a protective cell with his father and brother.
“Where the hell are they?” John demanded.
“You know where they are,” Dean answered in a quiet voice. His anger was palpable, but underneath that Sam heard his brother’s anxiety. “They’re waiting.”
Sam took a deep breath and Dean looked back at him. “Sam, this could get messy.”
Sam smiled at Dean, taking pity on his brother’s distress. He knew Dean wasn’t worried about his own life, or about John’s. He’d brought Sam into the world of assassins and he was afraid Sam would get hurt now. “Not turning back now, Dean. I’m not leaving without you.”
Dean gave him a tight smile. “Alright, Sammy. Let’s get this over with then.”
John didn’t look at Sam, but he could see his father looking at Dean for something. When Dean nodded, John started moving forward again.
“No matter what happens boys, I’m glad to meet it with you at my side.”
Sam didn’t answer. He wasn’t sure he could. He didn’t really know John and he’d tried to keep from thinking too much about it, but when he was tired the thought crept up from time to time; what life would have been like if he’d been raised with his father and brother. He couldn’t change that, but he had hopes that they might be able to walk out of this alive. He had hopes that he’d get to see what life with his father and brother was really like, not just what the last few weeks of training was like.
“John Winchester!” Samuel’s voice boomed through the upper level and Sam cringed at the volume.
“Yeah, he’s always been the subtle type,” Dean said with a smirk.
They moved without hesitation though, moving into the room at the end of the hall. Sam remembered it from his visit there, a circular library with books all the way up to the vaulted ceiling. It was a place that reminded Sam all too much of the life he’d left behind, of library stacks and law school on the horizon.
John pushed the door open, stepping through it without waiting. “You want a piece of me, Samuel, why all the charades?”
He walked in at John’s left hand side, his brother on John’s right. The door closed behind them and Sam saw Samuel across the room from them. Around them, circling them, were seven other assassins that Sam had briefly seen when he came in with Dean.
“Well, well, well, you got them to stop fucking after all,” Samuel sneered.
“Why, you looking for a free show, Gramps?” Sam asked.
“You got a mouth on you, boy.”
John looked at Sam and gave him a crooked smile before looking back at the other man. “Just like his mother.”
“Don’t you talk about her, Winchester. Mary was the best of all of us. If she hadn’t left she’d still be alive.”
“You mean if she hadn’t taken a bullet for me?” John asked. “Perhaps you should have thought about that before you sent a man to kill me.”
“What?” Dean’s voice was deathly quiet, the intensity of the one word making his skin crawl.
“I know Sam told you what he found out about Mary,” John said, never taking his eyes off Samuel. “Her father decided she would be better off in the Fraternity though, than if she stayed married and tried to raise two kids. He didn’t care that she was happy, or that she had been looking for a way out of that life. He just wanted her with him. It took me years to figure it out, and by the time I did I couldn’t do anything about it. He had his claws all over you and I had to bide my time. The real question is, why now Samuel? Why did you bring Sam into it now?”
“Mary called me the day he was born. She said both her boys were born with it and I knew I had to make sure they joined us. They have a destiny to fulfill, Winchester. I thought I lost Sam, but then there you were. You led me right to him and I knew I had to have him. Look at him, John. Tall, strong, and utterly broken where you’d left him. And we had Dean who was oh so needy. Dean who would wrap little Sammy up in his arms and turn them into something even I couldn’t have managed. It was fucking poetic, how broke you made them, and I knew it was time to get rid of you John.”
“Yeah, well you’ve done a bang up job of it.”
“Time I remedy that then.”
Samuel didn’t have the words out before Dean and Sam both moved. Sam swung his arm out wide, pulling the trigger and hoped to hell he got this one right.
The bullet began slicing through the air, spinning with an arc that made its way straight through the skull of the first assassin. It didn’t stop, the bullet stronger than typical bullets and the propulsion all the more forceful. It exited the other side of the first’s head and hit the second. Sam spun around, turning his back on the bullet’s trajectory even as he heard it hitting the second target. In front of him, Samuel was pulling his gun and John was meeting him head on, but Sam’s eyes were on his brother. Dean’s gun was in his hand also, the bullet making its way around the room in the opposite direction to his. They were on a slightly different trajectory but Sam could see where they were going. He heard bodies hitting the floor around him, their bullets hitting the seventh assassin as they speed through the air, Sam’s angling slightly up while Dean’s angled slightly down.
A shout came from John but Sam ignored it as the bullets moved through the air without anything to impede them, still angling for another target. Sam jumped on Dean, pushing his brother to the floor but even as they fell through the air he felt the sting of metal.
“Fuck,” he screamed as he landed heavily on his brother’s chest.
“Sammy?”
His shoulder burned like a motherfucker where both bullets had entered his flesh, stopping on impact with one another. “Son of a bitch!”
“Dean? Sam?” John was stumbling to his knees as he looked down at his sons.
“I’m alright,” Dean said as he pushed Sam off him and onto his back. “Sammy?”
“I’m okay. Jesus, you never said it hurt this much to get shot.”
Dean smiled at him, “You can’t be a Winchester unless you get shot at least once.”
“Guess that makes me extra badass, right? Since I got shot twice at the same time?”
“It doesn’t count if one is your own bullet.”
“Well if you’d gotten out of the way,” Sam demanded.
“How the hell was I supposed to know you were aiming high? Thought they’d take out the gunsmith together and end the journey.”
“Yeah,” Sam conceded because he’d never shot high before.
“Come on boys, let’s get the hell out of here.”
“Samuel?” Dean asked as he helped Sam up to his feet.
John nodded to the floor behind them and Sam looked over to see the man with a bullet in his head.
“Looks like we’re just about done here.”
“Just about,” John said with a nod. “You go take care of Sam and I’ll take care of this.”
“What are you gonna do, John?’ Dean asked.
“Burn it all down.”
Sam just nodded as he let Dean lead him away. Whatever had happened there, his father needed to finish it on his own.
He and Dean had some plans to take care of anyway, bullet or no.
**
The sun settled high in the sky, the blue waves beneath parting as Dean’s powerful strokes brought him out of the water. Sam looked up from his reading to stare at his brother, dripping wet as he sat next to him on the edge of the boat. He didn’t think he’d ever get use to that sight, his brother dripping wet and half naked. Surrounded by nothing but water, they could do anything they wanted and Sam smiled at the thought as he ran his hand up Dean’s spine.
Dean shivered with the touch, turning his grin on Sam. “Sammy, you done reading yet?”
“You done swimming?’
Dean pulled the book from his hands and Sam would have protested the way Dean’s hand left big waterprints on the pages, except that Dean’s lips were pressed to his. Instead Sam opened up under him, tasting the saltwater on Dean’s tongue.
Dean pressed him back until they were both lying on the front nose of the boat and Sam couldn’t care less that he was getting wet. Instead, he worked his hands under the waist of Dean’s swim trunks and let his fingers dig into the flesh a little.
“Sammy,” Dean moaned his name against his lips and Sam knew he’d never gotten harder faster.
“Jesus, Dean,” he whispered in response.
“You still think this was the best path?” Dean asked. “Three months of sun and sailing. You getting tired of it yet?”
Sam laughed as he pulled Dean close. “I think even a weapon of fate deserves a vacation every once and a while, and just so long as you’re ready to stay with me, I’ll take it.”
“A weapon of fate, huh?”
“Yeah. Whatever the loom was weaving, whatever future you were working towards, it was fate’s hand that led you there.”
“And now that we’re free of it?”
Sam stretched his body out under his brother’s and smiled at the moan Dean let out at the subtle friction it caused. “You got me now, Dean. And if there ever comes a time that fate needs to wield a weapon once again, well, you won’t be doing it alone.”
“So you’re gonna keep me around for a while?”
“forever, Dean,” Sam whispered. “You were fate’s weapon, but it was her choice that gave you to me. She drove us together and if she ever calls, we’ll be there. But for now, Fate’s weapon can relax.” He said kissing Dean. “Take a break,” he continued as he slowly rolled them over until Dean was pinned underneath him. “And enjoy the view.”
Dean’s fingers caught in his hair and Sam smiled at the feel of it. There were no more words between them as Dean pulled his lips back in for a kiss. Sam let himself be pulled and all he could think about was where his life had taken him and how he couldn’t for the life of him remember why he’d ever been so worried. Fuck, he had Dean. They were weapons of fate, instruments of her divine will, and they were brothers. There was nothing he couldn’t do, nothing he couldn’t face. When the morning came they’d pull up the anchor and go where the water took them, trusting to chance and luck to pick their next destination. It’d worked well for them so far.
After all, they were the weapons of fate. The world was theirs on a fucking string and they held the scissors.