The Wheels On The Bus Chapter 25

I'M LATE BUT AHHHH

-

“Bel’s still asleep,” Jack says, before Adam can close the door of the infirmary behind him. The young man is frowning at the bed, when Adam turns to face him. “He was fine when I got here. I haven’t eased his headaches, but he’s fine.”

“That doesn’t seem normal,” Adam says. In any other situation, this should be good news, but instead, it just makes his stomach buzz with anxiety. 

“I don’t think it is,” Jack says. 

Adam makes his way to the bed, taking Belphegor’s wrist to check for a pulse. It’s steady. He hovers a hand right below Belphegor’s nose. He’s breathing fine. 

“Is he okay?” Jack asks. 

“I’m not sure yet.”

Adam heads for one of the doctors’ offices to the right of them. No one’s been using them, but all their volunteers have agreed to keep the doors unlocked in case they needed to grab equipment or needed the spare space for the injured. 

He shoves the door open and immediately heads for the desk, pulling out drawers in search of a pen torch. He finds one on the topmost drawer, thankfully, clicking it on and off experimentally before hurrying back to Belphegor and Jack. 

Carefully, he pries one of the demon’s eyelids open. 

“Dilated pupils,” he says, out loud, out of habit. He clicks the pen torch on and shines it at Belphegor’s eye. 

The demon’s pupils stay dilated. 

“Shit, he’s unresponsive,” Adam says, shutting off the torch and turning on his heel, running towards the door - and then stopping. 

They can’t send him to the hospital. They probably won’t even know what’s wrong if they sent him to the hospital, because they can’t trust that his bodily functions would be the same as a human’s. His body is originally a Nephilim’s, after all, and he doesn’t even need to breathe and only does it out of habit. 

“Adam?” Jack asks. “What’s wrong?”

“I - “ Adam forces his shoulders to relax, noticing that they’ve been tense. “I don’t know.”

He turns, slowly, turning the pen torch over slowly in his hand. Belphegor’s pulse is steady and he’s breathing, but that might just be him putting the body on autopilot. He did heal the body’s lack of eyes. Maybe he’d healed the rest of it too, and now it's just in a vegetative, unresponsive state. 

“I’m not sure, since, he’s a demon and all. He doesn’t need bodily functions,” Adam says. “But his eyes are unresponsive to light.”

Jack frowns, and then gently tries to shake Belphegor awake. “Bel?”

No response. 

Jack shakes him harder. “Belphegor.”

Still nothing. 

Jack stares down at his friend in dawning horror. 

“He might be in a coma,” Adam says, “I think. I don’t even know how that’s possible. He’s a demon.”

Jack’s not listening, though. Instead, he’s staring down at his hands, mortified.

“Hey.” Adam rounds the bed to get to his side. “Hey, hey, hey - it’s not your fault.”

“But - “

“None of that,” Adam says, putting a firm hand on the kid’s shoulder. “You were trying to ease his headaches. We don’t know for sure if he’s in a coma. For all we know, he could just be actually sleeping.”

Jack doesn’t quite look like he believes him, but he nods anyway. 

“What do we do?” Jack asks.

“We tell everyone else,” Adam says, “And we make sure he’s safe until he wakes up. We’ll find a way to wake him up.” 

Jack is blankly staring down at his shoes. 

“Jack?” Adam asks. 

He blinks, snapping out of it. He nods again.

“Yeah,” he says. “Yeah, we’ll...tell the others.”

“We’ll find a way,” Adam says, squeezing his shoulder, before letting him go to run down the hallway and tell Sam and Dean. 

He doesn’t see Jack’s shoulders slumping, like the boy is collapsing in on himself, thinking, Not again.

-

“He’s comatose?” Castiel asks. 

“He might be,” Adam says, “I’m not sure. We didn’t cover nephilim physiology but with a demonic entity in med school.”

After the initial news had broken, they’d all come to the infirmary to check up on how Belphegor was doing. As Adam had told them, he had a pulse, he was breathing fine, but his pupils were dilated and unresponsive to light. He also wouldn’t wake up even if someone tried to shake him awake.

Rowena had offered to look into a few things, see if she could find anything on awakening demons from slumber, because there had to be something on that, outside of what movies said. Dean had said he'd talk to Amara to see if she could do anything once she got back from town. 

It’s the afternoon, currently, so she should be back soon.  Castiel, Jack and Adam are sitting by the unconscious demon’s bed, waiting for the others, as Rowena’s still wrapping a few things up with a call, Sam’s trying to send a few more files to some of their hunters on the field, and Dean’s waiting for Amara so he can tell her there’s been a change of plans.

Hopefully someone’s got something. Jack hopes they do. 

He stares down at his hands again. He’s been picking at them all day, crescent nail-marks all over his palms. A few scabbed scratches here and there. 

Of course he’d fuck up badly again.

What went wrong, though? He was trying to soothe and quiet down the voices in his friend’s head. That was all. Did he use too much Grace? Did he completely quiet down Belphegor’s brain functions instead? That shouldn’t have affected him, though - he didn’t need bodily functions. He was a demon. 

So what happened?

“ - Jack?” 

“Huh?” Jack looks up at his father, who’s staring at him in concern.

“Are you alright?’ Castiel asks.

“Oh.” Jack forces a small smile. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

The concern on Castiel’s face doesn’t ease. Jack looks away from him, avoiding Adam as well, instead focusing on the bed sheets. The folds look interesting.

His father sighs, but doesn’t press. Jack’s thankful.

They spend the next few minutes in silence, punctuated only by the infirmary door opening and closing as a few volunteers flit in and out, grabbing headache or cold medicine for a few people who’ve asked for them. None of them approach the group, but a few do give them a sympathetic glance. 

Jack hunches in on himself further. Some people probably overheard Adam talking to the others, and the news just spread fast. He wouldn’t be surprised if the whole town knew about this by the next day. 

Finally, the others file into the room, grabbing some of the extra chairs piled on the side to sit on. 

“Find anything?” Jack asks as Rowena settles across him. 

Her gaze softens, pity flashing across her face for just a second before it’s gone.

“Nothing yet, I’m afraid,” she says. “You’d be surprised by how little there actually is about awakening demons since most demons are already awake, just locked off somewhere." She smiles slightly to herself as she thinks of a joke, but mutters it out of respect for the situation. "Although I imagine that’s not the case these days. 

“Nothing’s changed?” Sam asks. 

Adam shakes his head. “Nothing.”

Amara, careful, makes her way around the bed, close enough to inspect Belphegor’s seemingly peaceful, sleeping face. 

“This is Belphegor?” she asks. 

“Yes,” Castiel says.

“He looks familiar,” she says. “Aside from - “ She looks at Jack, who manages to crack a small smile. 

“He stole Jack’s original body,” Adam says. “The one Jack’s wearing is a new one.”

“Seems par for the course for all of you, to be honest,” Amara says. She places a hand on the demon’s forehead, a look of concentration on her face. 

Jack looks up and watches, eyes flickering between her and Belphegor’s sleeping form. 

“He’s here,” she says, but frowns before Jack can allow himself to feel any relief. 

“What is it?” he asks.

“He’s very faint,” Amara says. “He’s still in his body, but…”

“Is he fading?” Adam asks.

“I can’t tell,” Amara says. “I don’t have any reference for if this has been worse than it has been a few days ago. When did this start?”

“Just yesterday,” Jack says.

Amara nods. She takes her hand back. “We’ll keep an eye on him, then.”

“Can you do anything?” Dean asks. “You brought mom back - once.”

Amara shakes her head. “It was a matter of moving your mother from Heaven to Earth. If he were in Hell, I could simply pull him back here. But he is here,” she says. “I’m not made of whatever demons are made of. I can’t give him anything to give him a boost.”

Jack’s hands, set on his lap, clench into fists. Demons don’t take to Grace very well. He likes to think he’s got a good grasp of his powers - they’re instinctual to him, after all. Even with abstract concepts, as long as he means it, it will happen. He’s proved that again and again, with grabbing his father from the Empty and effectively resurrecting him ; making the world stop lying with just a thought. He doesn’t have to think of the semantics, he just has to make sure he wants it. 

Was that where he fucked up? Relying too much on his instincts and not knowing he was doing damage?

“A part of the plan relied on him,” Rowena says. “We’re gonna have to find a way to wake him up.”

“Yeah, he said he had a way to get Michael back, right?” Sam says. 

“And the stupid bingo cards,” Adam says.

“I see,” Amara says. “Michael’s on the run from my brother, still, right?”

“Yeah.”

The voice doesn’t belong to any of them, so everyone turns to it, immediately on edge, chairs scraping on the floor with how fast they all stand. 

On the bed across them, there is a young man, dramatically lying down on his side on the bed, one leg crossed over the other while his arm that isn’t leaned on the mattress is poised so that he can place a hand on his hip.

“Who the fuck are you?” Dean asks.

“Shedim,” Castiel says, immediately recognizing the sheer power coming off of the man.

“Hey,” the Shedim says, lifting the hand on his hip into a wave. “I got a message from Michael.”

“How?” Adam asks.

The demon pushes himself up so he can sit, and then hops off the bed. “Ran into him while looking for her. Good to see she did get here.” He motions to Amara. “He’s fine, by the way. A little beat up, but fine. Also on the run, so I have no idea where he is now.”

Jack sighs with relief. Across him, Adam does too. That’s one thing going right, at least.

“That’s not the message though,” the demon says, the carefree demeanor dropping. “He says Chuck has a blindspot.”

“A blindspot?” Sam asks.

“He’s weak enough to only be able to focus on one thing at a time,” the demon says. “Which is why Michael thinks it’s of utmost importance that you don’t summon him back.”

Adam frowns. “What - “

“He’s distracting him, Milligan,” the demon says, crossing his arms. “Now unless you’re all ready to go at him guns blazing, I suggest you think this all through.” He grins. “We’re back on the bus, boys.”

Adam steels his jaw, but says nothing else. Jack keeps his mouth shut as well. The demon’s right. They have to be careful. He especially has to be careful. He’s messed up enough as it is.

“He’s running his father around?” Rowena asks.

“Purposely slowing down and drawing attention to himself, I think,” the demon says. “Carrots and horses and all that.”

“Of course he is,” Adam mutters.

“He’s buying us time,” Dean says. “And we have to use that - we don’t know when we’re running out.”

“Well, we’re almost there,” Rowena says, motioning for everyone - including the demon - to sit down. "Don't lose your heads over it so far into this now."

The Shedim blinks, but grabs a chair to sit. 

“We’re going to have Amara and whichever angels we have on our side fight Chuck in the Cage," Rowena says. "Hell’s open, so it should be easy to get there. Jack’s still going to be fixing the rifts.”

Amara says nothing. Jack catches Dean giving her a glance, but she just nods.

“We’re gonna have to close the Cage, though,” Sam says. “But - “

“I can handle that too,” Jack says. “I can just - close everything.”

That he can definitely do. He has to be able to pull it off. He can’t not pull it off.

“You told the Empty it was gonna be speaking to Sam and Dean next time,” Adam says, motioning to Jack. “They can talk to it, convince it to send some of the angels back.”

“It can’t say no if it’s Sam and Dean,” Jack says, nodding. 

“How’re we going to do that?” Sam asks. “The Empty’s for angels and demons, right? Even if we tried to put ourselves in a state of near-death, we wouldn’t be able to get there.”

“Good thing you have me, then,” Amara says, smiling. “I wrote the Empty. I can easily make room for you there.”

“You what?” Dean asks.

Amara laughs. “Back when my brother and I used to agree on things - the first time, I mean - I tried to help him with his world. Heaven was for good human souls, Hell for bad human souls, and Purgatory for monsters. If the universe needed a sink for its consequences then on the chance that angels or demons died - “

“You made the Empty,” Sam finishes.

“Correct,” Amara says. “I...am surprised he didn’t take it out after we fought.”

“Plagiarism,” Dean says.

Adam snorts. Sam lets out a small laugh.

“After you two get the angels,” Rowena says, “We lure Chuck in, however we can, into the Cage. You and the angels make sure he’s there when we close the Cage - “ she points to Amara. “ - but you get out of there as fast as you can before it fully closes. Jack then fixes the rifts.”

“We find a way to get Hell back to where it belongs,” Castiel says, turning to Belphegor. “We wake Belphegor up.”

“And we avert the apocalypse,” Sam says. “For good.”

“For good,” Dean echoes. “For actual, final good.”

“Yeah,” Sam says.

Both of them quiet for a moment. Jack can’t blame them. Years and years of their lives, finding out that they were all just pawns from the start, and it could all be over for good if they can pull this off. Chuck’s story is down, the Winchester Gospels are done. It’s over, for real this time. 

It must be freeing. It must be terrifying.

“How will we know that Chuck hasn’t gotten bored of chasing Michael?” Castiel asks.

“We don’t,” Dean says. “That’s why we gotta act fast.”

“Wait,” Sam says. The whole room turns to him.

“Sam?” Dean asks.

“Remember when I - “ Sam turns to everyone else, then seems to realize that whatever conversations he and Dean have had in private, they haven’t heard it. “I was - I shot Chuck, at the cemetery, after he killed Jack.”

“Met your maker and shot him,” the Shedim mumbles. Jack gives him a stern look, but he just grins and lifts his hands in surrender, in a way that’s so strikingly familiar that it gives Jack a sense of deja vu.

“And that gun was supposedly like - “

“An equalizer,” Dean says, with distaste.

“It could kill anything,” Sam says, “For the price that whatever injury the victim has, the shooter takes.”

“So you shot him,” Rowena says, “And you took the injury too.”

Sam points to his shoulder, wincing. “Yeah,” he says, and then slowly unbuttons the top of his shirt, pulling it aside, along with the t-shirt underneath, to reveal a nasty wound on his shoulder. 

“How long has that been there?” Amara asks.

“Weeks.”

“It doesn’t look like it’s had weeks to recover,” Adam says. “What the fuck.”

“Yeah,” Sam says, giving another nervous, mirthless laugh. “Wasn’t the only thing I’ve gotten from him.” He pauses for a moment, setting his shirt back and re-doing his buttons. He looks down at the floor. 

Finally, he says, “I’ve been...getting visions.”

“Psychic visions?” Adam asks.

“No, I - I don’t know - “ Sam says. “I think...I think they’re Chuck’s thoughts.” He pauses again. “I’m not sure, but I keep seeing visions of how the apocalypse can turn out. How Dean and I turn out.”

“Like, writer’s drafts?”

“I...guess,” Sam says.

“Exclusive content,” the demon mutters again, and it’s ridiculous enough that Jack can’t help but snort and turn to him, expecting Belphegor - 

Except Belphegor is possibly comatose.

Jack sobers. He turns away and misses the curious look on the Shedim’s face.

“But, if they are Chuck’s thoughts, then we have a link,” Sam says. “And if I can find a way to control it, then…”

“You’re our inside man,” Dean says.

“Yeah,” Sam says, grim smile on his face. “I’m your inside man.”