Tracking
"I do..." The cell rang at the same time and L picked it up. As he listened, his eyes grew wider, then angry. He dropped the lollipop into his teacup and strode to the door, opening it and giving a few words to Mello. The blond exited, obviously on alert. The detective turned to Bobby. "We go, now. Mello will stay for protection with Watari. The cabin was prepared for that."
Bobby grabbed the two shotguns, walked to his truck, picked up two more handguns. He looked at L who had walked outside. “Demons?”
"Yes," was the short answer. It was obvious the slender male was angry.
Bobby pulled out a backpack and filled it with rock salt cartridges and bullets. “What are you carrying? If I don't have the ammo, Dean will.”
"The cartridges Dean gave me."
“Okay. Try to wake up Castiel and see if he has enough mojo to do one whammy and heal Dean. We need the boy.”
"We can handle this. Dean has had enough. He is not ready to face her yet. The voice was flat. "We are wasting time."
“We going around back up that mountain?”
L gave him the directions, climbing into the vehicle.
Bobby blew his horn for the blond teen, who came running out front. He leaned out the window.
“You wake that damn angel up and tell him to conjure up enough mojo to heal Dean. Tell the boy demons got the other two and this is where we're going. Don't even think about it, L.” Bobby put the truck in reverse and pulled out.
Mello frowned, heading back inside. L gave a low stare to Bobby. "We are wasting time. Now go."
“I'm doing 80 on winding gravel roads. When I find paved roads, I'll go over a 100.”
When Mello entered the cabin, Dean was standing in the doorway of the bedroom, holding a blanket around him. “What was that?”
"Bobby and L." He went to the angel, poking him hard."Wake up you! Wake up or I'll roast you and fry your wings."
“Bobby's here? Where'd they go?” He watched Mello poking Castiel. The angel groaned but sat up, his eyes glazed a little, but finally focused on Mello and Dean in the background. He could see all the bandages on the hunter and his eyes widened.
"Wake up damn it!" Mello was getting pissed.
The monotone voice spoke, “I am up. Dean are you all right?”
The hunter looked at the angel and then down at himself, the pain almost excruciating, tearing him apart as he tried to control what he felt. “Oh yeah, Cas...everything is just fantastic!”, the sarcasm dripping from his voice.
The blond glared at him. "He looks like a mummy, barely moving, and you ask an idiotic question like that?"
L was tapping his fingers against his knees, mentally willing them to get there sooner.
Bobby finally pulled onto a two lane black top and his foot floored the gas pedal. L grabbed hold of the dash board and then the momentum pushed him back against the seat. He was almost scared to ask what the older hunter had under the hood.
Dean looked at the Mello's face. “What's happened?”
"They got Near and Matt...Matt managed to sneak a call out. Bobby wants you healed and us following." It was obvious Mello had no patience right now and was trying to keep calm enough to answer Dean
Dean stared for a second, thoughts whirling in his pain wracked mind. Matt could handle himself, but Near. Near who was afraid of being in situations where he was touched, stared at, or made fun of. Dean panicked for him, and moved fast for someone in his shape. He reached down and dragged the angel up, a groan of agony coming from him.
“Cas, I know you are not up to snuff, but damn it, I need what ever mojo you got right now. You can always work on more, but I got to be healed right now. I need everything man. Those are my kids out there. Mello, get me clothes. My boots are gone, but I got tennis shoes. It's in my duffel. They got my guns? Then I'll need to raid the Impala. Cas, now!”
"L took what you gave him." The blond went scurrying, popping his head into the room to talk to Watari before going to get what Dean had requested. The elderly gentleman looked angry as he came back. "I have some firearms that you can modify, Dean. Get our boys back."
“I got plenty in the Impala, Watari. They're my kids too. Dean was angry and tears were going down his face. He turned the angel. “Two minutes ago is too long, Cas. Now!”
The angel looked into the face of the hunter, placed a finger on his forehead, and closed his eyes. Dean hit the floor, but rolled over and stood up. Cas had collapsed.
“I'm sorry, Cas, but the boys.” Cas looked up...”Bring them back, Dean. Get the demon bitch.”
Dean did not wait on the clothes. He ran outside with no shoes or clothes and began taking things out of the trunk and filling an extra duffel with them. He loaded the rest of the duffel with salt and holy water, swearing under his breath when he stubbed a toe.
Mello joined him outside, throwing the clothes and shoes at him. "Dress, I'll check the weapons. We don't have time to stop."
Dean started pulling on clothes and telling Mello that the weapons didn't need checking...he went over them once a week, cleaning and making the sure the ammo was fresh. Underwear and jeans on, he tossed the keys to Mello.
“Drive while I dress. When we get to the black top, we do a Chinese fire drill. I take it from there. Hell, you can drive?” Dean climbed into the passenger seat pulling on a t-shirt, then grabbing socks and the shoes, he leaned into the floorboard to take care of shodding his feet.
"I've known how to drive since I was eleven," came the answer. He jumped in, adjusted the mirrors slightly and revved the powerful engine before taking off like a bat out of hell. The teen obviously knew what he was doing, taking curves with speed but taking care not to fishtail the car.
Dean was slipping into his jacket and mentioned that the car was heavy and would fishtail and slide in loose gravel or mud. He slipped the amulet from his jacket pocket and put it over his neck. They soon hit the blacktop, “Okay put her in park, we change seats.” Dean opened the passenger door leaving it ajar and ran around the front for the driver's side, passing Mello on the way.
As the car doors slammed shut, the rear tires squealed as Dean floored it. “Tell me when to leave the road.”
Mello slid onto the bench seat, checking his gun before holstering it. "All right." Be okay, he thought to himself of the other two.
Dean kept seeing gray eyes and white hair, and with each thought, his grip on the steering wheel grew tighter until his hands were white. The trees and rocky points blurred by them. Mello looked at the speedometer. Dean was doing 120.
"Thirty seconds, turn left." He was watching the road and surroundings.
Dean's foot hit the break, and the car spun, doing a 180 on the highway, facing the opposite direction, he turned onto the dirt and gravel road, cursing no blacktop. He did about 50 which was best he could do on the turns. He finally saw Bobby's truck in the distance . Sighing, he pulled in next to the vehicle.
“How much time did they have ahead of us?” He reached into the back seat and pulled out his favorite gun. “Don't slam the doors. They don't know I'm healed.” Dean opened the back passenger door and pulled out the duffel.
“Which way?”
"North by north-east." L was using the tracking device he'd installed in each of his heir's cell phones and other things. Matt's goggles for one had a tracking device too. "As far as time, I'm not sure. Matt said they'd been able to get the burning done." He was mentally berating himself for this.
Bobby could see what L was doing. “Let's just get them back, L. We can discuss faults and things later. Dean is always taking the blame for something, but he puts it on the back burner til the job is done. We have to fight Winchester style right now.”
Dean began searching the ground looking for something from Bobby that should show where they left the grassy area into the wooded and rocky terrain. He finally spotted a broken branch pointing in a northeasterly direction. It was a new break and nothing else had been disturbed. “We go this way. Put your phone on silent mode. We don't need it going off,” Dean said as he did his.
"Already done," Mello and L responded at the same time, each to a different hunter.
Mello watched the hunter work, as Dean kept a fast pace, gun out, cocked and ready. Eyes searching for any sign of L and Bobby, or the boys and the demons. He slowed, set down the duffel, and looked at a rocky crag. There was a slight yellow on it. Dean wondered if Bobby had noticed, has he touched it with a finger and smelled it. Mello heard him murmur under his breath, “Sulfur.”
He squatted down and found the scraping in the grass to the right beside the crag. He moved around it, looking. Standing up. “I don't know if Bobby and L saw this, but they went this way.”.
"L probably has," Mello murmured. "He's more observant than he seems."
“Of course he is. He's a detective, Mello, and a damned good one, but his jungle is mostly in the city. This is mine, and he wouldn't have seen the scuffs in the grass and gravel trail on the other side of the crag unless he understood that yellow streak. Let's hope he did because if he missed this and he's tracking electronically, which I imagine he's doing, he's going to be coming around from another direction and we'll get there first.”
Blue green eyes caught sight of footprints. "They're tracking non-electronically. Take a look. Those are prints left by trainers."
“Thank God for that. If we'd gotten there first, it would have been all over for all of us. There's a trap set for L. Ruby still wants me ruined or dead, and Sam back. She does not know Bobby is with him but she will enjoy both of them. What she is not expecting is you and me. She knows what shape Cas is in. She thinks she knows my emotional and mental state right now. Maybe a little bit, but I have a job to do and neither Sam or Ruby seem to understand that. We got to be real quiet and find another way to where they are. We can't follow this trail any longer. They'll spot us. We're going up and over; catch them from above. By the way, that was damned good tracking, worthy of a hunter.”
A grim smile was given in exchange. "Thanks. They're going to bite off more than they can chew if they think they can corner L." It was obvious the boys adored their mentor, Mello especially. And the blond was right. Both the detective and senior hunter had paused, quietly discussing what needed to be done. L had realized that a trap was inevitable. The problem was tripping the trap without causing harm to Matt and Near.
Bobby looked at the trail. “You know an idjit would see this for what it is after awhile. They never counted on you being savvy or me being with you. Ruby is bright, L. If someone doesn't go down that trail, she's gonna figure there's a trap being set. Find another way, I'll take the trail and tell her I convinced you to stay and guard the boys. After all, I'm a hunter. “ The older man winked at the detective. “She thinks we're stupid or totally messed up. Well, in our business, that happens a lot, but we are still damned good at what we do.”
The hunter headed slowly down the trail, leaving the detective to find a way and set a trap.
The detective set to work. He'd looked over the journal that Matt was putting onto Sam's computer and thanks to his memory, was drawing seals on the stone with the marker he had in his pocket. He drew several of the devil's traps, covering them with leaves. This would have to work.
Mello nudged Dean as L's white shirt came into view.
“Well, isn't he all shiny in the morning sunlight. Can't tell what he's doing, but we need to find some way up there so we can go around. Wonder where Bobby is?”
"Let's find out." Mello spotted a small overgrown path that would take them to him.
“Go slow. They may have seen all those white clothes.”
They came up even with L, and Mello went out to talk to him, but Dean remained where he was, watching. He'd told the boy not to mention him in case L was being watched.
L's voice was low, giving Mello the information and the blond headed back.
Dean held a finger over his lips and motioned for Mello to follow him. They went back about ¼ mile and the hunter turned to the teen.
“Okay, what is going on and was he making devil's traps?”
"All four of us have almost photographic memories. And yes, he's making devil's traps. Bobby went around to try to draw their attention and lead them towards L."
“Let's get up that rock and head across. Not all of them are going to follow Bobby. Ruby won't. We are going take them from above.”
He nodded, following Dean. "Anything to thin their numbers out at this point is a good thing."
“Yeah, but it's a good thing we're here though. Someone to take the rest while they are trapping those who follow Bobby to L.”
Another nod. It was obvious Mello was all business. "L said they couldn't see Matt or Near though."
“Let's hope it's not a trick and she has them elsewhere. I'll find a way down and check it out to be sure.”
"L keeps tracking devices in several items we keep near us at all times. Cell phones for certain but other things as well. For Matt, it's his goggles and his game machine."
“I bet that puts a cramp in your style when you're trying to meet girls. Anyway, does he say they're there?”
"He said the objects were there. He hasn't spotted them though, so that doesn't ease his worry."
“I'm going down then.”
Mello grasped his wrist. "Wait for the signal. L's not finished yet."
“It's all right, Mello. I'm not stupid. I'm waiting for at least half the camp to follow Bobby, then I'm going to sneak in and find the boys. Okay?”
"I'll be with you. If both are hurt, you'll need the extra set of hands." He was watching the camp, waiting for the right time.
Dean smiled softly. The kid was good, he'd give him credit for that. L's team was exceptional. He watched the camp and saw Ruby come from around a large formation. He would head there when the time came.
"Chances are good she's got them under cover somewhere. Near's hair and outfit are easy to spot. Matt's hair as well, though it's a bit easier to hide."
“The odds are they're where she just came from. She's gonna taunt, poke fun, whatever she finds amusing. She's not as bad as Lilith but she's bad. She might try to play them, get them to think she's the good guy and I'm the evil one in this. It's been done before.”
He shook his head. "I'm worried about Near," he admitted. "Matt is pretty clever and can really twist things to make it seem like he's playing along. Near, though devious in his own right, just doesn't have the emotional aspect to do the same."
The strain in Dean's voice was noticeable as he answered, “I know. He's too innocent.”
"He can be a devious little shit when he wants to be," he remarked with a grin. "Three bets he's pissed her off at least four times."
Dean smiled back, slightly, “Yeah, but let's hope she hasn't decided to barbecue him by leaving him out in the desert sun.” Mello noticed that the smile never reached the hunter's eyes.
"There is that." He'd seen some of Near's nastier brushes with the sunshine. He hoped the demon hadn't thought of that.”
Dean muttered low under his breath, “She hurts that kid, I swear she'll wish she'd never known me. I'll skin her alive, nice and slow.”
"You'll be fighting L and me for that...especially L. He's very protective of us."
The hunter thought back over the conversations he'd had with Near. He cared about all three boys, even if he barely knew Matt, but Near. Dean loved him. He had no idea how it had come about, but he felt like a father to the boy. No one except Near and himself understood what was said and understood the times they were alone and talked. None of the others would be in line, because there would be no time for one. Near was his kid, in Dean's mind and heart.
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