Dean's POV

Satan Junior was stretched out asleep in the back of the Impala while Ellie was laying in the front with her back against my side and her feet in Sam's lap. Despite the fact I wasn't in the best headspace after seeing both Crowley and Cass die, I had been trying to be strong for her. She had lost a lot more since her mom got trapped in the other world with Lucifer, so I couldn't afford to also go off the rails at the moment. It also didn't help that both she and Sam were advocating for the creature in the backseat.

"Hey, we still got probably twelve hours until we're home," Sam addressed me in a low voice. "You want me to drive?"

"Do I ever want you to drive?" I snapped, also keeping my voice quiet.

"Look... losing Cass, and even Crowley, that's a lot to process, Dean, especially on no sleep. And the kid-"

"'The kid'? Come on, man, you know how this plays out. Look, when we bend the rules, pretend the bad guys aren't so bad or that things will get fixed, that's when people that we care about get hurt. And then we end up doing what we should've done in the first place, which is end the problem. So this time, let's start with the obvious. Soon as I find a way to take care of... It."

"Dean, 'the problem' might be our only shot at saving Ellie's mom," Sam pointed out.

"You heard Ellie, Sam," I hissed. "Her mom's gone. There's no fixing that."

In between us, Ellie shifted in her sleep and I stiffened briefly, waiting for her to wake up. When it was clear she wasn't going to, however, I let myself relax once more. Reaching around her, I switched on the radio and let the sounds of Metallica carry quietly through the car. It was mostly for her benefit, but also for mine. Metallica always calmed both of us down, and I knew it would help her sleep better.

Sam opened his mouth, looking like he wanted to argue further, but then seemed to think better of it and resorted to staring out the window into the darkness.

⁘

"This is a bad idea. We should've just kept driving," I grumbled.

"Dude..." Sam scoffed, "you were hallucinating sheep on the road. We need a few hours."

I rolled my eyes, opening the door to our motel room and flipping on the light.

"This is nice," Satan Junior said, looking around the room.

"Let's ward the room, get a bite, get a few hours of sleep, hit the road first thing," Sam suggested.

He hit a button on the remote and Scooby Doo turned on the TV. Satan Junior sank down on one of the beds, staring at the screen in awe.

"It's... wonderful."

"Hey, no," I protested, picking up the remote.

"But... Y-"

I glanced at the TV, chuckling a little before shaking my head.

"No."

I turned off the TV, throwing the remote back down.

"And you're on the couch, sport. Alright? So why don't you go over there? Sit down, and..." I chuckled, picking up a black book. "Here."

I threw the book- a copy of the Bible- at the creature on the couch.

"Read a book. We're out of here in a few hours."

I ignored Sam's pointed glare in my direction, instead looking over at Ellie. She was rubbing at her eyes tiredly and looked awful. The lines on her face were a bit more defined and the bags under her eyes were darker than I'd seen them in a while. After handing over the keys to the Impala so Sam could go get us some food, I led my wife over to one of the beds. While Satan Junior read on the couch, I held Ellie close while we snuggled on top of the covers.

I started humming Metallica quietly, rubbing a hand up and down her arm in a soothing gesture. She let out a little noise of contentment, closing her eyes as she used my chest as a pillow. Continuing to hum, I rested my chin on top of her head, briefly pressing a kiss to the top and then closing my eyes myself. Despite my protests, Sam had a point. I was pretty exhausted and it felt better than I cared to admit to rest in an actual bed, albeit a questionable motel one.

All too soon, Sam was shaking both Ellie and I awake to eat some dinner. I groaned, starting to move out of the bed, but Ellie tightened her grip on me, burying her face further into my chest.

"Come on, Ellie Bear. We need to eat something," I whispered, trying to coax her into consciousness.

"Mm mm," she protested groggily.

Sighing, I grabbed the pillow out from behind me and worked to replace my body with it in her grasp. Once I was free, I headed over to sit by Satan Junior while Sam finished warding the room.

"You can slow down, you know," I told him. "That stuff's not gonna disappear."

"Ever seen you eat, Dean?" Sam quipped.

I gave him a bitch face, opening a beer bottle. Beside me, Satan Junior imitated my actions.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," I grabbed the bottle from him. "How old do you think you are?"

"Three days, seventeen hours, and forty-two minutes," he replied.

Still eyeing him skeptically, I allowed him to have the bottle, watching as he copied me when I took a sip from my own bottle. Across from us, Sam had sat down, watching the whole exchange with amusement.

"This book," the creature picked up the Bible, "it mentions my father. Not Castiel, but Lucifer."

"Oh, yeah," I nodded. "Yeah, he's- he's big in the Bible. Lotta screen time."

"And you... knew him?"

"Well, he's not an easy guy to know," Sam said. "He's, um, he's kind of rough around the edges."

"He's Satan," I added, taking another pull of my beer.

"And that's... that's bad," Satan Junior said slowly, trying to make sense of what we were telling him.

"Damn straight. See... he turned on his father, God."

"God, he's in here, too," Satan Junior looked down at the Bible in his hands. "Is he famous or something?"

I picked up my own burger, letting Sam take the lead on explaining once more.

"Yeah. Um, God basically... created everything."

"Yeah, and then he skipped out, leaving guys like us to clean up his messes like Lucifer," I said around a mouthful of food.

"So, God's like my grandfather," the creature stated. "He's family, and that's... That's good."

"Sometimes."

I leaned back, beer in hand, and placed a foot up on the table. Beside me, Satan Junior mimicked the actions once more, starting to get on my nerves.

"Okay, alright, will you stop?" I snapped at him.

"So, Jack, we know Kelly taught you things before you were born," Sam changed the subject. "And obviously, you can, you know, make people or things move with your mind. But, um... what else can you do?"

"I... don't know," he responded.

"Okay," Sam nodded. "For instance, say you wanted to- to be someplace else right now. Could you?"

"Can you teleport?" I asked more bluntly.

Ellie did say the thing had wings, she just didn't know if he knew how to use them.

"Teleport," Satan Junior echoed the word.

"Yes. If you wanted to be on the other side of that door right this instant, what would you do?"

The creature stood up, walking over and opening the door. Sam and I stared incredulously as he stepped out and closed the door behind him.

"What..." I started. "Great."

There was a knock on the door, and Sam stood up to let him back in.

"You know, it's possible he's more human than we thought," he told me.

"Mm hm," I rolled my eyes, concentrating on my food.

Sam opened the door, Satan Junior coming back in with a giant grin on his face.

"Like that," he said proudly.

"Come on. You're trying to tell me you didn't pick up anything before you were born?" I pressed. "That your father never reached out to you?"

The thing's eyebrows knitted together, appearing to remember something.

"What?" I asked.

"Jack?" Sam put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey. You alright?"

"Yeah. Uh, good," he nodded. "I'm good."

"All right, I say we, uh..." Sam sighed, glancing over at Ellie's sleeping form on the bed, "get some rest. It's been a long day. We're startin' early tomorrow."

The floorboard creaked outside the door and Sam and I went into immediate alert. He pushed Satan Junior behind him, drawing a gun while I moved to open the door. Grabbing the man on the other side, I threw him into the room.

"Donatello?" Sam asked, lowering his gun.

"Sam? Dean? Is God with you?"