The Wheels On The Bus Chapter 26

They split themselves into teams, deciding on who goes with who as they continue to talk amongst themselves late into the evening. They need to familiarize themselves with exactly what they’re dealing with, and what cards they can play, so after hours of arguing, they settle on two teams, assigned with gathering information on Chuck, their possible allies, and the Cage.

Considering they can’t try to lure Chuck into the Cage and not know the state of it - if it’s still fit to hold a celestial being as big and powerful as Chuck himself, after every door in Hell has been blown wide open - the first team consists of Amara, Rowena, Castiel, and the Shedim, who are to go down to Hell (with the Shedim as their tour guide) and inspect the Cage. 

The second team consists of Sam, Dean, Jack, and Adam. Sam is to try and see if he can focus on his connection with Chuck and purposely dig up thoughts with it, Dean to try to talk to the Empty, while Jack and Adam stand guard over both of them, and Belphegor’s unconscious body. In case of any emergency, Jack is there to defend everyone and get them out of them.

Castiel, understandably, isn’t too keen on the plan, but Jack gives him a smile and a firm squeeze on the shoulder. 

“I’ll be alright,” he says.

His father doesn’t look convinced - although when is he ever, he’s been terrified ever since Jack died the first time - but he nods. 

They dismiss the meeting, around two in the morning, and get their rest. They’ll start their recon tomorrow, so they’ll need their strength.

“What about you?” Jack asks, turning to the Shedim, who’s dragging his chair to the side of Belphegor’s bed.

“Me?” the Shedim asks. He sounds spaced out, pausing suddenly, before the focus returns to his eyes. “I’ll look after the body.” He nods towards Belphegor.

Jack frowns, and shares a look with Adam, who’s also giving the Shedim a look of suspicion.

“Do you mind if we sleep here?” Adam asks.

The Shedim just smiles slightly. “Knock yourselves out.”

Adam snorts. Sam and Dean give the demon their own looks of suspicion, but say nothing else. If all the ghosts around the city haven’t gone berserk yet, then Belphegor has a good grip on Hell, comatose or not. They’ll know if they have to punt a demon straight back into Hell.

“I’ll get us pillows,” Adam says, to Jack, who nods and stays seated right where he is even as everyone disperses. Castiel gives his son one last pat on the shoulder, before he too, leaves. 

The Shedim makes himself comfortable across Jack, sitting on the other side of Belphegor’s bed. Neither of them say anything, Jack staring at the demon, and the demon staring at...the other demon the bed, the awareness in his eyes going distant again. 

Belphegor had said that the Shedim were a little harder to control than the ghosts, right? That they were all technically still functional, even if they couldn’t harm anyone. Could they harm Belphegor? Was that a loophole in their contract? It couldn’t be, they were supposed to help them while the apocalypse was ongoing. Even if they wanted to hurt him, they couldn’t hurt him right now.

“What are you thinking, Jack?” 

Jack snaps out of his musings. The Shedim has leaned his elbow on the edge of the bed, cradling his cheek on the palm of his hand, still with that thousand-yard-stare, looking at Belphegor.

Shit, maybe he’s not as spaced out as he looks.

Jack studies him for a moment.

“Why…” he starts, but his voice is shaky, so he clears his throat and tries again. “Why do you want your freedom?”

The Shedim snorts, a gesture so human it almost shocks Jack. “Who doesn’t want their freedom?” he asks him. “You and the humans want it. This demon wants it.” He points a finger to Belphegor. “What makes us wanting it different?”

A ton of things, but Jack doesn’t say that. Instead, he asks, “Do you want to hurt people?”

“Is that all freedom is, up here?” the Shedim asks, with a hint of amusement in his voice. “The freedom to hurt others?”

Jack pauses. “No,” he says. “But it’s something you can do.”

The Shedim nods. “I suppose we’ll think it over.”

“We’ll stop you,” Jack says. “If you try to.”

“And you’ll lock us up again?”

“Maybe,” Jack says.

The Shedim hums. He still doesn’t look at Jack.

“Why did you attack us?” Jack asks, after minutes of silence. 

“Winchesters.” The demon says, shrugging.

“What, just that?”

“Is that not a good enough reason?” The demon turns to Jack, finally, smiling. “We had no idea why the fuck Hell popped open, but it did, and we crawled our way out of there as fast as we could. But the Winchesters existing meant they were gonna cram all of us back down there again.” It makes a vague motion with its hand. “Why not?”

Jack frowns. “They hadn’t even done anything.”

“But they were gonna, weren’t they?” the Shedim asks. “And they still do. I promise you, after this is over, they’re gonna turn the contract around, or break it entirely, and we’re gonna be back in Hell again.”

Jack says nothing. He’s right - he doesn’t know how they’ll do it yet, but he’s sure that Sam and Dean are going to find a way around the contract so that the entirety of Hell - the Shedim included - are put back into where they should be. He can’t really find it in himself to feel bad about it, but - 

The demon turns away again, staring back at Belphegor. 

The Shedim lifts a hand, and Jack tenses, prepared to slap it away, but it just pokes the sleeping demon’s cheek.

“What makes him different?” the Shedim asks. “Is it because he’s low-ranking, because he’s too weak to hurt anyone? Because the potential lies in his intelligence rather than his raw power?” It pokes his cheek again. “Because he’s a tame animal?”

“He’s our friend,” Jack says, frowning. “Maybe he’s not Sam and Dean’s, but he’s my and Michael and Adam’s friend.”

“And why is that?” the Shedim asks. “Because he came in declawed?”

“Stop talking about him like that.”

“Why not?” The Shedim leans forward slightly, grinning this time, teeth bared. “It’s the truth, isn’t it? If he came in a little more powerful, if he came in showing you that raw power had nothing to do with what he was and still is capable of - would you have treated him the same?”

“He’s not a threat!”

“Because he never gave you reason to be considered a threat,” the Shedim says. “He’s smart, you know this. He’s smart enough to think of so many things on his feet, smart enough to create weapons that Hell would hide away in vaults, and he’s smart enough to make sure you perceive him as one thing when he’s another. You know him as the class clown, don’t you? And yet - “ the Shedim spreads his hands. “Hell is under his control.”

Jack clenches his fists, vehemently keeping them rested on his lap. He can’t punch this demon. He can’t kill him, otherwise their plan would be ruined. 

The door to the infirmary opens.

“Do you hate him?” Jack hears Adam ask. 

Ah. He’d overheard from outside. 

“Belphegor, I mean,” he clarifies.

“Of course I do,” the Shedim says. “We all do. He himself knows it.” He leans back, slouching as he sits. “After this is over, if he survives, he’s going to be walking around Earth freely.”

Adam says nothing. Instead, Jack hears the sound of pillows being set on one of the empty beds behind him. The Shedim says nothing else either, instead going back, once again, to staring at Belphegor.

“Jack,” Adam says, eventually, gently setting a hand on Jack’s arm. His fists are still clenched. He relaxes them, realizing how much his hands hurt. “You need rest.”

Jack looks at the demon for a few more minutes, before he nods and turns away, missing how the Shedim’s hand drops from its cheek, touching Belphegor’s side.

“Yeah,” Jack says. “Sorry.”

-

Breakfast is spent reviewing the plan, going over what they’re supposed to do in case something goes wrong and what they’re to pay attention to when they carry out their tasks. Jack and Amara check up on Belphegor while they wait for Sam, Dean and Rowena to brief their networks as to what’s going down, and assign who’s to temporarily take their place.

Belphegor’s condition hasn’t improved. Amara tells them as much, when everyone’s gathered in the infirmary again. Surprisingly, though, it hasn’t gotten worse.

“It’s the same as it was yesterday,” she says. “He’s there, just faintly. Not fainter than he had been, though.”

“That’s...good? I guess?’ Jack shares an unsure look with Adam. 

Rowena pats his arm in comfort. “If he’s holding on like that while still keeping Hell in check, he’ll pull through,” she says.

After everyone’s confirmed that they’ve wrapped up whatever else they need to do before they leave, Jack connects a telepathic link between everyone’s minds - save Sam’s, in case Chuck will be able to get access to that via equalizer wound - similar to the one he and the others had been using from the very beginning of this whole mess.

He misses Michael. A lot. Good to know he’s alright, but still.

Wow, is one of Dean’s thoughts that filter in through the link. I hate this.

You’ll get used to it, Jack thinks back at him, which causes the  man to turn around towards him, alarmed. Jack grins nervously. Whoops. Looks like Dean hadn’t meant for that to come through.

“Like I said,” Jack says, “You’ll get used to it.”

“It’s freaky,” Dean says. 

“But it’s efficient,” Rowena says. 

“It’s not like we’ll be able to hear much of your thoughts while you’re in the Empty, anyway,” Amara says. “I imagine the metaphysical distance would be too great.”

“Right,” Dean says, remembering he’s supposed to go half-dead, or something, in order to have a chat with the Empty. He looks at the bed beside Belphegor’s, lips pressed to a thin, unamused line, before he sits and lies down on it. “Hit me, I guess.”

“You sure you’re ready?” Amara asks, taking her place beside him.

“I never am, but that’s how I do things, in general,” Dean says. A thought from him zips through the link. I’m more concerned whether this will work out or not.

“It will,” Adam says. “You’re one of the literal centers of this universe, and its way of fighting back its own collapse. If you ask for it, the universe will do everything in its power to make sure it works out.”

“I fucking hate this mind link shit,” Dean says. “This is creepy.”

Sam laughs, to which his brother throws him the middle finger.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” Dean sits up a bit to look at him.

“Oh yeah,” Sam says, grinning. “Absolutely.” 

Dean throws a pillow at him. It misses and hits the wall.

“Settle down, children,” Rowena says, pushing Dean back so he lies down flat on the bed. “We don’t have time to waste. Michael can only bait his father so much.”

“Right,” Dean says, settling back down. 

Amara turns to him, eyebrow raised. He nods.

She lifts a hand up, placing two fingers right on his forehead. Dean’s eyes roll to the back of his head - all the muscles in his body go slack, hand falling off the edge of the bed. 

He looks dead. Jack looks away, swallowing thickly, nervousness in his stomach. Dean’s alright. He knows this. Jack himself has been in a state of near-death every time he visits the Empty. 

Amara pulls her hand away, and closes her eyes, concentrating. There’s a pulse of power in the room. 

“When they’re done talking, the Empty will push him back into consciousness,” she says, opening her eyes again. “I’ve instructed it to. Don’t worry.”

Jack, and everyone else in the room, nods.

They can only hope it will go well, now, but Jack knows it will. It has to. Like Adam had said, if it’s Sam and Dean asking for it, the universe will do everything in its power to make sure it falls into place. 

The problem lies with everyone else’s missions.

Sam moves to the bed right beside his brother’s, sitting on it and taking a deep breath. 

“Are you ready, Samuel?” Rowena asks.

“As I’ll ever be,” he says, looking down at the ground. He thinks it over for a moment again, before he nods. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m ready. I’ve had powers before, it’ll probably be the same thing. Kinda.”

A pause fills the room. 

Sam lies down.

“Let’s get this over with,” Castiel says, nodding to Amara and Rowena. The Shedim, sitting in the corner of the room, stands and heads over to the door as everyone else in Team A does as well.

Jack moves his chair between Dean and Belphegor’s beds, while Adam moves his between Dean and Sam’s.

“Good luck,” Jack calls out, as Team A starts to leave. 

His father nods. “Keep safe.”

“We’ll try,” Adam says.

The door shuts behind them. Jack hears their footsteps going distant.

His stomach turns, the nervousness in it before that’d started with watching Dean’s body going limp increasing trifold. 

But it’s fine, right? They’re not even trying anything today other than making sure that their plan can go as smoothly as possible. They’re just checking the Cage, making sure the Empty is up to date with what they’re planning, and trying to figure out how much Chuck knows of what they’re doing. 

It’s fine.

Jack looks down at his hands, curled up on his lap, clutching the hem of his shirt if only so that he doesn’t dig his nails into his palms to draw blood. 

He’d pray if he could, in this situation, but the most he can do is just wait.