10. War (Part 2)

"Everyone know where they're going?" Ellen asked Dean and me once we went over the plan.

We weren't that far from the house, but we scouted beforehand. There were bombs on the windows on the front of the house. Sam had to be in there somewhere. Hopefully they haven't done anything serious to him.

"Dakota, you're with me," Ellen told me. "I'll take care of Jo, you go and try and find Sam. Dean will take care of Rufus."

"This is a little dangerous, going without weapons," I said wearily. "What if they're armed and we're not?"

"We'll manage." She smiled ruefully. "All right, Dean, you're first."

Dean snuck his way to the porch to set off the bomb while Ellen and I laid in wait. I tried to picture the interior of the house. It had at least two stories, so most likely Sam was upstairs.

BOOM. I had the delayed reaction of covering my ears with my hands.

"Now!" Ellen told me.

We both barreled for the porch and leapt up the steps. Ellen crashed through the front door and turned left. Just as we saw Rufus being pulled out the window by Dean, a voice shouted "Rufus!" and had her back to us. Ellen got a hold of her first.

This had to be Jo, if I had to take a wild guess.

Jo only saw me and trained the gun on me. I went for the gun, yanking it out of Jo's hands. My head snapped up painfully when Jo's foot met under my chin. I fell back on my ass long enough to see Ellen go in to attack her daughter. Up close, they looked nothing alike: Jo's hair was much blonder than her mother's, her face was shaped a little differently. I couldn't compare eye color at the moment, but the one similarity I could see was the determined scowl on both women's faces.

"Go, Dakota!" Ellen shouted.

Right. Sam. I needed to find Sam. I got to my feet and was temporarily dazed by mother and daughter fighting each other. I stepped back in horror as Ellen pinned her daughter against the wall. She noticed I still hadn't gone.

"Go, Dakota!" she bellowed. I nodded frantically and spun around, heading for the stairs. I could hear Ellen's loud rumble of "Now you listen up, Joanna Beth Harvelle" as I took two steps at a time. My hand slid up the railing, and I nearly fell back down the stairs.

I dove for cover when I heard the gunshots go off. Shit. Don't go back down. Find Sam. I pushed myself up off the floor, finding a closed door. I knocked it open to find Sam strapped down in a chair. I recognized the Devil's trap he was stuck in.

"Dakota," he breathed.

"Long time no see, Sam," I joked bitterly as I went to untie him. I hissed as one of my nails ripped. "I'm glad to see you're okay."

"Okay-ish. Dean." Loud feet told me the older Winchester finally caught up. "It's not demons."

"It's War," the brothers said in unison.

"I just can't figure out how he's doing it," Dean snarled. "Stand back, pixie." I moved out of the way so Dean could cut his younger brother free.

"The ring," Sam murmured.

"The ring," I repeated. "The ring-that's right. He turned it right before he made everybody hallucinate and go hellbitch."

"Right."

"We got to move," Dean said urgently. "Come on."

Bullets continued to rain near the house. I had no idea where we were going, I was just following the leader. In all the chaos, we managed to slip away. It wasn't until we went into town and saw the shiny, red Mustang that I understood.

We were going to stop War.

Speaking of the man, he was walking nonchalantly to his ride with almost a swagger in his step. If you think you're walking away from this, think again, douchebag. The boys exchanged a look and grabbed him. War only laughed. Dean took over holding War, Sam slipped out a knife.

"Whoa. Okay," War said. "That's a sweet little knife. But come on. You can't kill war, kiddos."

"Oh, we know," Dean told him.

Sam took War's right hand, slamming it atop the red Mustang. My eyes bulged as the knife came down on the four fingers of War's right hand. They all clattered onto the pavement. I kept a hand over my mouth so I didn't vomit.

Like Castiel had a thing for doing, War and his shiny ride vanished without a trace. Dean went to grab War's ring. Sam and I looked around. The horseman was nowhere in sight, almost like he was just a figment of our imagination.

"So, it's over?" I breathed.

"Yeah, it's over," Sam confirmed.

I looked back towards the house, wondering what happened with the others. I looked to the brothers. "Shall we investigate the damage?"

* * *

The pastor perished in all the insanity. Fortunately, he was the only casualty. The man behind the gun who shot him wasn't fairing too well. Outside of that, everyone turned out fine.

I got properly introduced to Rufus and Jo, which felt like a privilege. Of course, both of them asked the basic questions like everyone had since I started showing up with the Winchester brothers. I was happy to tell them what they needed to know: that I knew Sam from high school, and unfortunately I got roped into this mess by being at the wrong place at the wrong time. Both of them respected my privacy and didn't inquire further.

Following the aftermath of the thing in River Pass, we were back in the Impala. Dean drove for a little until we stopped at a mountain rest area. The scenery was lovely, as was the temperature. It was a nice day to have after the incident in River Pass. We all sat at the picnic table. I sat next to Sam.

Dean still had War's ring, observing it.

"So, pit stop at Mount Doom?" he said. Sam didn't give a response for a long minute; he seemed to be getting into that habit.

"Dean-" Sam began.

"Sam, let's not."

"No, listen. This is important."

"Dakota, mind giving us a minute?"

I looked at Dean in surprise. It was the first time he used my actual name. I wanted to make a snide joke, but I lost it.

"No, no, she can hear this," Sam told him. "I know you don't trust me." Dean looked away, clearly uncomfortable. I kept myself silent, as I knew this wasn't my place to talk. "Just, now I realize something. I don't trust me either."

Dean and I looked at Sam. I felt the wind brush my hair around.

"I'll owe you an explanation later, I know, Dakota. From the minute I saw that blood, only thought in my head...and I tell myself it's for the right reasons, my intentions are good, and it, it feels true, you know? But I think, underneath...I just miss the feeling. I know how messed up that sounds, which means I know how messed up I am. Thing is, the problem's not the demon blood, not really. I mean, I, what I did, I can't blame the blood or Ruby or...anything. The problem's me. How far I'll go. There's something in me that...scares the hell out of me, Dean.

"In the last couple of days, I caught another glimpse..."

"So what are you saying?" Dean finally chimed in.

"I'm in no shape to be hunting. I need to step back, 'cause I'm dangerous. Maybe it's best we just...go our separate ways."

I swallowed hard, taken aback by Sam's news. This wouldn't be as shocking to me if he had told me what was going on. I asked, but he wouldn't tell me anything. But he'll tell me this. So why leave me like this, with so many questions?

"Well," Dean said after some deliberation, "I think you're right."

"I was expecting a fight," Sam admitted.

"I was too," I accidentally voiced.

"The truth is I spend more time worrying about you than about doing the job right," Dean confessed. "And I just, I can't afford that, you know? Not now."

"I'm sorry, Dean."

"I know you are, Sam."

Sam stood up beside me. I wasn't sure what to do about this.

"Hey, do you, uh, wanna take the Impala?" Dean offered.

"It's okay." Sam took a few steps before turning to us. "Take care of yourself, Dean."

"Yeah, you too, Sammy."

"I'm sorry about this, Dakota."

I pinched the bridge of my nose as Sam headed for the Impala. I bit down hard on my lower lip. I jumped off the bench and looked over at Dean.

"I won't stop you," he told me. "I was actually gonna convince you to go after him, if not follow him, but I think he might let you in."

"I won't have a phone to call you with. If I go with him, I'll try and steal his."

Dean nodded. "Keep an eye on him."

"That's the whole point of me going." I bolted for the Impala as Sam was shuffling for his backpack out of the backseat. If I had enough strength and was willing, I could have shoved him inside. "You mind grabbing mine too, while you're in there?"

"Dakota-"

"I'm not letting you run away from me this easily."

"I'm taking a leave, I'm not running away from you."

"Look, you may not want to be around your brother, but that doesn't mean you have to shut me out too."

"Did you not listen to me? I'm dangerous."

"So what? I'm living a dangerous life now. Why not add a little more?"

"Why are you so insistent on following me?" He was out of the Impala, the pack slung over his shoulder.

"You owe me a lot of explanations, Sam. I'm not going anywhere until you tell me everything. And besides, you helped me out. I know you won't think of this as helpful to you, but it's worth a shot."

"Dean put you up to this."

"He didn't," I said honestly. "This is my idea, one-hundred percent. I want to understand, Sam, and the only way to do that is to come along for the ride."

His eyes went down to the grass.

"If you can reach out to give me support, I can do the same. I want to return the favor." I kicked at a patch of grass. "Please?"

"I hope you know what you're getting yourself into." His hazel eyes went up to me.

"I'm not entirely certain, but I have a rough idea." I smiled ruefully. "Now, what do you say you toss my pack to me and we get going?"

It surprised me how little it took for me to convince Sam to bring me along. As he dove back into the Impala to grab my pack, I looked back to Dean and gave him a thumbs up. He had to at least know I wasn't going to have to follow his baby brother around the United States.

The impact of my pack nearly forced me on my ass in the ground. It almost got Sam laughing, my reaction. I rolled my eyes at him. We walked side by side to the nearest pickup truck.

"Excuse me, sir?" I asked politely. "Mind if we catch a ride?"

"Where's your car?" he asked curiously, not spitefully. A good sign for us.

"We don't have one. We've been hiking for a while."

"Oh, well, hop in, then."

Well, that was easy. I didn't need to do any extra work, like bat my eyes or try and flirt to get a ride. It almost seemed too easy, but I dismissed it as anything suspicious. There were still decent people in the world, they were just hard to come by.

I couldn't help but feel a little triumphant as Sam and I went around the other side to climb on in. I was generous to give Sam the shotgun position while I stuck myself in the back. I rested my left arm against my pack.

The driver looked in the mirror at me. "Where to?"

**It should have been obvious that Dakota would go with Sam. Trust me, it was planned from the get-go that she'd go with him, because what happens there will trickle/domino effect into what transpires later in the story for the both of them.

So, at this point, there will be no Dean presence for a few chapters, just Dakota and Sam. Pretty sure nobody will object to that, right?**