Supernatural Crack🩹tober
Day 30 - Bunker’s New Mascot
Dean hadn’t screamed. It’s a fact. Something he cannot do. Even if he wanted to, his voice prevented that. Deep baritone could never reach the high falsetto notes that rang throughout the Bunker’s halls. He bets Sam was making tea – in four different teapots. Each whistling in harmony at the exact moment he opened his hamper and saw unblinking, beady eyes staring up at him.
And again, when those seemingly lifeless eyes blinked.
“Dean? Dean!” Sam sped into the room, Cas and Jack at his heels, “What is it? What’s wrong?”
He points, voice cracking as he pushes against the upper limits of his range. “That!” Three gazes follow his finger, landing on the possum making its nest between Dean’s dirty drawers and sweat-soaked undershirts. Each have their own, unique reaction.
Sam, who held a gun at the ready, dropped it while leaping backwards. Hiding behind a stoic Cas. Angel squinting in confusion over their intruder. Meanwhile Jack, the most interesting member of this group, offered a guilt-ridden smile. Brows bent in an awfully suspicious angle.
Dean immediately attacks. “Jack,” he growls, “what did you do?”
Jack winces, hands flicking upwards in a defensive gesture. “Don’t get mad,” he starts, albeit too late, “but I… I didn’t intend for her to get out of my room!”
“Your room?” Sam asks, glaring, “You brought that… that thing in here?”
Castiel nods towards Sam, whispering. “It’s a possum, Sam.”
“Oh…” He huffs, “I wasn’t sure.” Cas looks at the possum, frown more severe than earlier. “Why would you bring a possum into our home, Jack? They aren’t pets.”
“They can be!” Jack argues, “I remember reading articles about how people can domesticate all sorts of things… that dogs and cats weren’t pets but after years of training. That some people keep raccoons as pets…” He strides close, snatching his quarry in firm hands. Despite how it wriggles and struggles, scratching at skin that heals in seconds. Biting at impervious fingers. “And what’s even better than a racoon? A possum.”
His reasoning doesn’t receive the fanfare Jack expected. Dean whirls on Sam, pointer aimed at him. “This is your fault.”
“Me!” Sam squawks, “How is it mine?”
“You’re the one always picking the animal flicks during movie night. Of course Jack’d get the crazy idea from one of those.”
“Excuse me, but in none of those movies did the main characters befriend a freakin’ possum!”
“You have to admit though,” Cas adds, “you don’t help matters when, after we watch these movies, you start getting wistful about owning pets.”
Sam shoved himself away from Cas, scowling. Bleeding from the knife Cas stabbed into his back, “You too, Cas?” He scoffs, shaking his head. “Why am I even surprised, you always take Dean’s side.”
“That’s not true,” Cas tells Sam, “Just the other day I slipped vegetables into Dean’s dinner like you asked –“
“You what?” Dean yells, “Cas! How could you?”
“It’s for your own good, Dean. Don’t you want to be healthy?”
“Do you wanna sleep on the couch tonight?”
“Can we stick with the subject?” Sam claps, stopping any further battles. They turn on Jack, younger boy cradling the possum in his arms. Sheepishly attempting an air of innocence, batting eyelashes in a faux Bambi act that would work if not for the snarling, spitting, hissing pile of fur he clutches. “Jack,” he says, “you can’t keep that animal in the Bunker.”
“Because this Bunker is not the best environment for a possum,” Cas explains, “they belong in forests, with trees and leaves. Or neighborhoods… with trees and leaves. It wouldn’t be happy here.”
“And we wouldn’t be happy with it here, either,” Dean says, “Possums are breeding grounds for diseases… I don’t care how many times you use your angel mojo on me, if that thing even touches me I don’t think I’ll ever feel clean.”
“But… but…” Jack pouts, searching for a life preserver. He tosses one out blindly, shouting, “He’s like us?”
Dean’s expression falters. “You think we’re like possums, Jack? After everything we’ve done for you?”
“No, no, I…” Jack smiles down at the possum, stroking its head. “When I found her, she was curled on the side of the road. Looked like she was dead and I… I was about to bring her back to life. But then she popped up like it was nothing –“
“One of their defense mechanisms,” Cas explains, “to keep them safe from predators.”
“I know that now. Back then… her coming back to life, how could I not take her with me?” He holds it out, bottom half dangling. “We’ve all played possum one way or another in our lifetimes, maybe even more than once! She’d be the perfect pet – the perfect mascot!”
It’s a sweet sentiment. Adorable logic that makes Dean’s next words even crueler. He grabs for Sam’s gun, flicking the safety off. “Either she’s out of here in the next few minutes,” Dean says, “or she won’t just be playing.”
Jack disappears with a flutter, gone from Dean’s room. He hands his brother’s gun back, ignoring his and Cas’s stares. “Dumb rodent,” he mutters, circling his hamper, “don’t know whether I should wash these or burn them.”
“Y’know, you could’ve gone about that a bit nicer,” Sam says.
Dean rolls his eyes, “It worked didn’t it?”
“Still you owe Jack an apology.”
“Dean, stop being so obstinate,” Cas orders, arms crossed. Wearing a mask that usually means Dean is in boiling water, the flame underneath getting hotter and hotter as the dial spins. “Otherwise you’ll be the one sleeping on the couch.”
“After seeing Jack’s idea of a mascot in here – I was already planning to, angel.”