John Winchester (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} daddywinchester) wrote in ![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} parabolical,@ 2009-04-03 20:05:00 |
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| Entry tags: | john winchester, ruby |
WHO: John Winchester, Ruby
WHERE: Pavilion at a park
WHEN: Monday 3, April, 2006; night
WHAT: A forced 'chat'.
RATING: PG-13
STATUS: log; COMPLETE!
The night before, John had come to the park to set up for his talk with Ruby, utilizing the enclosed pavilion for his purposes under the guise of the building being good for a talk, as it had power running to it, thus light, but was a neutral area that wouldn't see much action at this time of night, so it would be private. The household at large didn't need to know they were meeting or eavesdrop on what they were talking about, as far as John was concerned.
The Devil's Trap already carefully laid out and then concealed by the astroturf carpet set up in the pavilion under a layout of chairs and tables, John was waiting on Ruby near the archway of the structure. The Colt wasn't on him, and neither were any books or his journal, but he was far from unprepared if this turned in a way that told John he needed to act and send her back.
For Ben's sake an for the sake of Sam and Castiel's tempers, John wasn't aiming for this to end in an exorcism. It was just meant to be a reminder and a warning, as well as a talk.
She hadn't expected anything like what John was planning, not because she didn't know the legends about the man, not because she'd hadn't listened to the demons down in the pit, not because she hadn't watched. But simply because with Castiel, and with John Winchester's own son firmly in her corner she didn't think he'd be dumb enough to shoot her or anything.
So she moved across toward where she had spotted John with only minimal wariness. She was still a demon and he was still John Winchester. Not to be at all wary would have been dumb.
"So...do you want to rant at me about my intentions toward your youngest now or shall we sit and have coffee first? Pleasentries and all."
Standing up straight with a slow motion, as though unhurried, John simply lifted one eyebrow as he looked at Ruby.
"Talking. Not ranting, not pretending this is a social call," he said, moving further into the building toward some chairs on the carpet. He didn't look back at her as he did, not as first, just walked forward as though entirely unconcerned as to whether she followed him right off, or at her own pace.
"So 'talking' about my intentions toward your youngest." she clarified aloud, "Thats much better. Can't say it hasn't been expected though. I was working out odds on if it would be you or Dean that tried this little chat idea first"
She followed John into the pavilion looking upward at the mention of Dean. Once bitten and all that. They likely sat around discussing tactics before this, who knew. And she'd been stuck in that dammed trap for a while.
"Sorry" she said still scanning the roof and walls. "Its not that I don't trust you, well, no actually it is. I'd do the same for any Hunter if its any consolation to you"
Finding nothing she stepped forward confidently.
"Not surprised Dean hasn't, yet," John said, turning back once to catch Ruby looking up, just as he'd imagined she would. "You and Ben put him in a sticky situation, one I'm not in because I don't really mind if anyone gets angry about what I do concerning you."
It was a bluff, for the most part, as he did care if Ben would be upset by Ruby being sent back to Hell or just plain killed, but if anyone got angry about this talk, it was the least of John's problems.
To her mention of trust and a lack thereof, he just nodded and then sat down in one chair, gesturing toward another within speaking range, but affording them both plenty of personal space.
Of course, there was the fact that if she kept on the path to said chair, she'd stop a good three feet short of it whether she wanted to or not, but as far as it would appear, john was just inviting her to sit.
She liked the honesty. It was refreshing even if she was about to lie as easily as she ever did. She'd pretty much planned a lot of it out in her mind already, what he might ask, what he might say, even any interesting threats he might make, and she'd planned just how she'd turn it back to use on Sam if she felt the situation required it. Its just how her mind worked.
So all this in mind she walked towards the chair.
And promptly bounced off an invisible wall. He'd hidden it.
He'd hidden it well.
She could have screamed, kicked, thrashed, threatened. All of the stuff she'd done when Dean had pulled this trick with the rooftop trap. What she did instead was shake her head in irritated bemusement and sit down where she was forced to.
"Now that was just uncalled for? Did you really think I was going to attack you or something or is this just a chance to show off. Because I don't think you're going to send me back. I don't think you want to deal with the explainations. So I'll just sit here, and you can yell at me and then let me go, sound fair?"
John had actually been expecting some screaming, cursing and general fit-throwing when Ruby realized what she'd done, so the lack of it did solidify his certainty that the order of things needed to be restated. Ruby was too confident about her place alive and near his family and he wanted her to get back to the careful respect that should come with a hunter and a demon doing anything near each other - that either could turn on the other for their own good reasons.
"And that's the thing, you don't think I'll send you back, but why do you think it?" he said, the question mostly rhetorical as he leaned back in the chair, the position almost lazy if one didn't know John Winchester.
"The way I see it, everyone's forgetting how things work, what we all really are, and how we should all handle that. You're a demon. We're hunters. You and I have both been in Hell. No matter what you've done for this family, or this family's done for you, those things will never change. But instead, you've gotten complacent, thinking I won't stick a bullet in you, and I've gotten complacent, letting you run roughshod over my family."
He folded his hands in his lap, eyeing her. "That ends now."
Okay so this wasn't going as she'd planned. Really she'd have rathered Dean. He'd listened to her about her remembered humanity, John, he didn't care. And more to the point maybe he would send her back consequences be dammed. But kicking a dog down and not expecting to be bitten, well that just wasn't smart. And with her in many ways her bark was a great deal worse than her bite.
"I know how things work. But then this isn't a normal situation for a Hunter and a Demon is it?. Because I'm close to Sam. Because I'm helping Sam, training him, teaching him control. So there already there's a difference. Something you can't just define by saying, Me Hunter You Demon. You could send me back right now. I am fully aware of that and have been since sitting down here. But you have to ask yourself why you're so threatened by me. By my friendship with Sam. You're worried about him aren't you?. About the one you never quite knew how to deal with. The one Azazel got to as part of that fun little deal. Is it that he talks to me? Is that what gets to you? That he confides in me maybe? Or is it just that I exist, that there is a demon around that not even an angel is willing to kill because she's something different, something new. That maybe, just maybe she's doing some good."
She crossed her own hands in her lap, matching John's gaze.
"I get the point you're making. I do. And I'm appropriately nervous for my pretty little demonic self. But tell me why we're really here. How close to the mark did I get?"
John had been prepared for Ruby digging up whatever she could to fight back verbally to being a caged creature, so rather than leave him grinding his teeth and counting the reasons not to kill her, he just reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
"I don't give a damn what you heard me scream down in the Pits, let's get that straight right now," he said, carefully unfolding it, the actions deliberate, the words in Latin written on it clear. It wasn't a book, after all - just a slip of paper.
"You don't know me, so you can talk all you want about my past and Sam's past, but it makes no difference. What I'm here to talk about is how on the mark I think our old friend Alastair was about you. Demons lie, of course," he said with a slight shrug, "but the true hurt comes sometimes when demons tell the truth. The others might have been willing to ignore him because they're sentimentally attached to you, but I am not, so I did listen."
She knew what was on the paper. And suddenly wasn't quite as confident as she had been not that she was in any way about to let him know it. So this, all this was cause of what Alastair had said. Those things he'd told the Winchesters. The son of a bitch was dead and gone but still causing problems.
"Put that away and we can talk for as long as you want about all the nasty little things Alastair might have whispered in your ear." she told him trying to sound casual. If she wanted to talk about John and hell she could do, for hours. But that would likely only start him reading off that paper and she didn't want to bet on him finishing versus Castiel getting here.
"Do you think he was telling the truth? You think I'm trying to drag Sam down into the dark with me? That's ridiculous"
Demons did sometimes do more damage with the truth but Ruby by far preferred lies. Especially for this.
Despite her request, the paper stayed out, as John really wasn't feeling the urge to tuck it back in his pocket right now.
"I don't think you want to go back to Hell any more than any other demon - except Alastair - wants to go back, so what I do think is that the idea of you using Sam as your weapon to keep your demonic backside covered isn't all that farfetched."
He looked at her, gaze as steady as it ever could be, a gaze far more knowing now that the one of the man he'd been before Hell, because he knew all the tricks now in ways most others never would.
"Didn't need any demon to point it out to me, either. I've thought it all along, even while you were helping him. It's not whether you're using Sam or not that's got you in that trap, because you are and I know it. You're a demon. You use everyone, and when that using is mutually beneficial, like Sam learning control, I don't put a stop to it the way I would have before I died. But I don't really feel so confident that it's still beneficial now."
He held up one hand slightly. "I know. You're really doing this for Sam, because you care, because you know he can handle it, because you believe in him, because he's different from those other kids and you're different from other demons. Spare me the feel good movie of the year plotline, Ruby, because I can see right through it."
Ruby was liking this conversation less and less as it progressed, his complete refusal to believe her anything other than just another demon out to screw with his family could be a problem. She'd have to keep that in mind when the time came. But for now, she had to work a way out of all this.
"You're a very cynical man John, has anyone ever told you that?." Yes, apparently sarcasm was one of the ways to go about getting out. "Believe it or not, I'm in this for Sam. I'll admit down in hell I heard the stories and I saw you and yes, my first thought was weapon against Lilith, but things change. Demons aren't just black and white you know, we don't all want the same thing, we don't all pray for the day Lucifer walks. We're different just like humans and me, I'm even more so, and feel good movie or not, Its how it is, and I don't know why. I don't know why I'm different sometimes I think it would be so much easier if I wasn't but I am, and truth is, I got to know Sam. And now, he's actually a friend, someone I care about, so if you send me back, I'll go still thinking that and I will find a way to get back to this damn city."
She shifted her posture slightly in the confines of the trap but kept her eyes firmly fixed on John.
"So you tell me what exactly it is you want from me. Because to get me out of Sam's life, you'll have to kill me, and you know Castiel would be here before you got the Colt and got back. I'm a permanent fixture like it or not, and there's no point in promising you I'm not here to hurt Sam cause you won't believe a promise from me anyway, so, really, we've got ourselves a good old fashioned stalemate"
John still didn't buy a word of what she was saying. He left room for the possibility that she believed a good deal of it, because she wanted to be something more than a demon, but he knew what she was underneath it all. Eventually, all roads led back to her nature, and that nature was demon, whether demons had human-like feelings and connections or not.
"You think the threat of Castiel sending me back to my fate will stop me if I think you're turning Sam for the worst? Because it won't. In case you weren't paying attention down in the Pits, I went there to save one son. I'd die again if it would save the other from turning into something that's not him, so I wouldn't go betting on your permanence if I were you."
And that was, in essence, the point. While John was itching to get rid of her, just to slow down whatever extra Sam was reaching for, he wouldn't right now. But if he started to think Sam was edging close to that cliff, or had to watch him stumble off the edge, he'd kill Ruby without hesitation and face the likelihood of Castiel killing him.
Something that wasn't him. No. She was turning him into what he was supposed to be, what he was destined to become. Not even turning, she had the right word with training. He had the potential. What Azazel had done had ensured that. He had been the one that Lilith had feared, the one she hadn't been able to hurt. What could he do if they ever were sent home, what could he do if Lucifer rose. Even in this city, he could be such a force for...
For her, and for him. Thats what she focused on. It was for Sam's own good.
"I'd never do anything bad to Sam, John. Not ever. Believe what you want or not but believe that much. I consider him a friend, a good one. And yes, its possible for me to feel emotion like that. My...permanence. Fine, right now thats in your hands, and if I do anything that isn't in Sam's best interests. I'll feed you the exorcism lines myself."
Ruby shrugged, relaxing her posture slightly within the confines of the trap.
"Now can you let me out of this thing so we can get to the important glowering at each other and backing away slowly soon, because I'm hungry and that burger place on the next block over closes soon"
If this had been early on in his hunting career, back when he wasn't even certain demons were real, John might almost have believed her. There was just enough conviction there, just enough passion - but it was precisely that, that it rang as 'too perfect' to the opinion of a man who'd known demons and damned near been one himself in the end. But it wasn't about believing or disbelieving her, it was about making certain his message was clear.
"You might think you wouldn't do anything bad to him, but your point of view and another's," and his tone made that another sound clear as the difference between demons and people, "are likely wildly different in spots."
He rose from the chair, nudging the carpet aside to reveal an edge of the Devil's Trap. "I'm not threatening, I'm not swearing in on anyone's life, I'm just saying flat out - if Sam starts to go dark, starts turning away from the man he is, the man he's supposed to be, you're dead. Simple as that."
Pulling a knife from his pocket, he leaned down. "And for now, I've got my eye on you. When you're with Sam, when you're around Ben, when you're near Mary or Dean, even if it's Bobby or Heather or Claire or Faith, even with this baby on the way - you better damn well be on your best behavior because I'll defend my family without hesitation."
That said, he reached down and carefully scraped the line, breaking the trap, then stood.
Ruby said nothing more, she understood the threat well and hoped, really hoped, John wouldn't end up being a threat to her plans for Sam. That just wouldn't do anyone any good. She waited unflinchingly until the knife scraped through the trap. He was watching her. Of course he was.
Ruby stepped back out of the now broken trap, and took a step or two back from John before speaking.
"Alright fine, good, point taken. But you really should wonder why out of your family of Hunters, why its only you that can't entertain the possibility that I'm on the level. That I'm helping Sam get control. Why it is that Mary and Dean, Dean? Who knows me as much as anyone bar Sam and Castiel, Dean who really is his fathers son, doesn't think I'm a threat to Sam. You defend whoever you think you need to, but if I really wanted to screw with your family. I've had countless opportunities since being here. Why wait. If I wanted to turn Sam darkside, make him what you're terrified I will? Why wouldn't I have taken you all out already. I've lived in your house, and I'm fairly powerful with the Infernal Magic. You work that out in your little demons are all the same analogy and I'll go get fries. Let me know what you come up with."
That said she turned on her heel and started to make her way out of the gazebo.
There were several things John could have responded to, but he'd made his point and he wasn't here to debate the whys of what his family felt, or what he'd done in the past, like let her stay in his house. It had been a warning, and for now he was leaving it as that.
He already had his theory as to why she hadn't just killed them off and it kept coming back to the fact that people came here from all places and times. He believed one of the reasons he'd been brought back was for his son, so Sam would be useful to these Powers That Be, so he was sure that if she killed them all, the PTB would just bring in other versions from other timelines. Even if she was attached to Ben, John didn't know if that extended any further, but he knew that he and Dean would be the first on her list of people who would get in her way.
So for now, it meant watching and waiting and trying to get Sam to not abandon all the things in a 'normal' life, like an education and a girlfriend someday, because with every connection he cut, Sam demolished his reasons to pull himself back if this went too far. John would deal with Ruby when he had to, but not before.
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