Chapter Ten, Wishful Thinking

November 3rd - November 5th 2008

It was a few days after the worst Halloween Harley and Dean had ever experienced, and they were currently sitting in a bar downing shots while their traitor of a brother Sam questioned Dean about his time in Hell while simultaneously ignoring Harley's arguments against it and her glares. Why was Sam a traitor? Well, he'd lied to their faces and continued to not only use his powers but to continue to drink Demon blood when he swore he wouldn't.
"It just doesn't make any sense, Dean. I mean, why would Uriel tell us you remembered Hell if you didn't?" Sam demanded.

"Maybe because he's a dick. Might have something to do with it." Dean and Harley said together, and then slammed another shot.
"Maybe, but he's still an angel." Sam said. Dean and Harley nodded in a so-so manner.
"Yeah, an angel who was ready to level an entire town. Look, I don't know what—" Harley argued only to be interrupted. Their overly cheerful waiter walked up to their table.
"Radical. What else can I get you guys?"
"Uh, I think we're good." Sam said quickly. The waiter smiled.
"Yeah?" The waiter asked. Sam nodded.
"Yeah."

"You want to try a couple of fryer bombs? Or a chipotle chili changa, doll face?" The waiter asked in a sickly-sweet voice while trying to check Harley out. Harley gave him a disgusted look while Dean glared at him.
"No, no, we're— we're still good. And if you want to keep your eyes, stop checking out my little sister." Dean threatened.
"Okay, awesome." The waiter nodded with a smile and then walked off again.
"Sam, honestly, I have no idea why Uriel told you what he did, okay," Dean said, and took another shot.
"Right." Sam scoffed.

"What?" Dean asked.
"Okay. Fine. Then look me in the eye and tell me you don't remember anything from your time down under." Sam said. Dean rolled his eyes and then looked into Sam's.
"I don't remember a thing from my time down under." Sam scoffed and rolled his eyes."I don't remember, Sam!" Dean retorted.
"Okay, give it a rest Sam! And can we stop with the third degree?" Harley snapped. said. Dean gave a grateful smile to Harley and kissed her temple and looked at Sam, who just sighed.
"Look, Dean..." Sam said quietly, "I just want to help."

"You know everything I do. Okay?" Dean asked. "That's all there is."
"Outstanding. Dessert time?" The waiter walked back over with a smile. "Huh? Am I right?" He looked directly at Harley, but she just shrugged.
"Dude," Dean said, annoyed. The waiter leaned down onto the table. "Listen, bros. You have got to try our ice cream extreme. It's extreme." Sam shook his head.
"Uh, no extremities, please. Just the—"
"Check?" The waiter placed our check down on the table with a huge smile. "All right, awesome." He walked away. Sam nodded.
"Thanks." Dean took a deep breath and rolled his eyes. "All right, so, where do we go from here?" Sam shook his head and pulled out his laptop.

"I'm not sure. Uh, looks like it's been pretty quiet lately. No signs of demonic activity, no omens or portents I can see." Dean and Harley nodded, both letting out a sigh of relief. Dean had been extra cautious with Harley's safety ever since Lilith started breaking the seals and since Harley was brutally attacked by the ghost of their mother.
"That's good news for once." Dean sighed, squeezing Harley's hand as he knew she was thinking the same as him and he hated he hadn't been able to protect her. Sam nodded.

"Yeah, just the typical smattering of crank UFO sightings and one possible vengeful spirit. Here, check this out." He handed Dean and Harley his laptop. "Uh... up in Concrete, Washington, eyewitness reports of a ghost that's been haunting the showers of a women's health facility. The victim claims that the ghost threw her down a flight of stairs." He nodded and smirked. "I can see you're very interested."
"Women, showers. We got to save these people." Dean said, with a smirk as he guzzled down his beer causing Harley to laugh and shake her head at him.

* * *

Sam and Harley were meeting with Candace, the victim of the shower ghost. So Dean dropped them off at Lucky Chin's Chinese Restaurant, while he drove off to check out the fitness center. Candace believed that Sam and Harley were writing a book about strange events.
"I'm not surprised the spirit world chose to make contact with me. I'm something of a... natural sensitive." Candace said. Sam nodded in agreement.
"I can sense that about you, Candace, that whole... sensitive thing."
"So, what did you say you're calling your book?" Candace asked.
"Oh, well, um..." Sam stuttered.
"Well, the working title is... 'Supernatural.' We've been crossing the country, gathering stories like yours. But, anyways, you were telling me about your encounter." Harley quickly interrupted.

"Yes. Well..." Candace sighed. "Once I saw the apparition, that's when I started to run." Harley noticed Sam was distracted for a moment, and followed his gaze until it landed upon a pretty girl kissing a man that looked like a cliché "nerdy" guy in a booth. Harley discreetly nudged Sam who cleared his throat and turned his attention back to Candace.
"And you said the ghost chased you?" Sam asked, but Candace shook her head.
"Not just that. It knew my name. It kept yelling, 'Mrs. Armstrong! Mrs. Armstrong!' And that's when I hit the stairs and fell."

"You fell? The ghost didn't push you?" Harley asked.
"Oh, I don't—" Candace sighed. "I don't know. I mean, I think it did. Maybe." Sam nodded while Harley rolled her eyes. Something didn't add up with this.
"Did you feel like it meant to hurt you, like it was violent, or—" Sam asked.
"It was a ghost. I'm lucky to be alive. Anyway, I was at the bottom of the stairs, and that's when it got weird." Candace chuckled. "It helped me up." Sam and Harley looked at each other.
"Come again?" Harley asked. Candace nodded.
"Yeah. It helped me up. And it kept saying over and over, 'Please, don't tell my Mum.'" Sam furrowed his brow.
"Yeah, that's weird."

* * *

Sam and Harley walked over to the Fitness Center, where they found Dean sitting on the front steps, reading a newspaper.
"Well, you pick up anything?" Sam asked. Dean shook his head.
"No EMF in the shower or anywhere else. This house is clean."
"Yeah. I'm not surprised. I kind of got the feeling back there that crazy pushed Mrs. Armstrong down the stairs. Something seriously didn't add up." Harley revealed. Dean shrugged.
"I got to tell you, I'm pretty disappointed." Sam sighed sharply.
"You wanted to save naked women." Dean nodded.
"Damn right I wanted to save some naked women." Sam chuckled softly, and Harley shook her head wryly at her brothers.

"Sorry, Dean, but I don't think anything's going on around here," Sam said. As they walked up to the path, a boy ran by, with three other boys who were chasing him.
"Come on, guys, get him!" one boy yelled.
"I got him! I got him!" another yelled.
"Run, Forrest, run!" Dean shouted after them. Harley glared at him and went to run after them to help the smaller boy, but Dean grabbed her hand.
"It's harsh but you gotta let him fight his own battles." Dean said softly.
"But it's three against one, Dean." Harley protested.
"Do you really think those three will listen to a strange woman they don't know? Or that they'll stop bullying him if you step in?" Dean countered.

Harley sighed and shook her head knowing Dean was right. As they were walking down the street they could hear shouting coming from up ahead.
"How the hell was I supposed to get a look at it?! It grabbed me from behind and threw me into a tree!" a man was yelling at an officer.
"Something's going on," Dean said, and then the three of them walked up to the men, with their badges ready.
"Yeah, okay, Gus. I understand you got shook up. Anyone would be. But don't you think it— don't you think it had to be a bear?" the officer asked.
"I know a damn bear track when I see one!" Gus yelled. "This thing didn't leave bear tracks! Its feet were huge!"

"Now, Gus—" the officer tried to calm him down.
"It was Bigfoot, Hal... The Bigfoot!" Gus yelled. The officer shook his head.
"Gus, you're not talking sense here."
"There's a Bigfoot out there..." Gus pointed to the woods. "Damn it, and he's a son of a bitch!"
"Excuse us," Sam said, as the three siblings held up their badges to the men. "FBI."
"What?" the officer asked. Sam nodded.
"Yes, sir. We're here about the—"
"Bigfoot?" The officer asked in shock. Gus crossed his arms like he had won the argument with the officer. Dean nodded.
"That's right."
"Sir, can you tell us exactly where this happened?" Harley asked. Gus nodded.
"Yes, I can." He sent a satisfactory smile towards the officer who just sighed.

* * *

After Gus gave them the coordinates to where he had seen Bigfoot, the Winchesters hiked into the woods.
"What the hell's going on in this town? First, there's a ghost that's not real, and now a Bigfoot sighting?" Harley asked.
"Well, every hunter worth his salt knows Bigfoot's a hoax." Sam scoffed.
"Well, maybe somebody's pumping LSD into the town water supply." Dean suggested. As Harley went to open her mouth to offer a reply she unexpectedly spotted giant footprints in the dirt in front of them.
"I wouldn't be so quick to judge." Harley muttered, Sam and Dean followed to where she was looking and was as shocked as Harley was.
"Okay. What do you suppose made that?" Harley asked.
"That, uh..." Sam shrugged.

"Is a... big foot." Dean nodded. "Okay." He sighed. They followed the tracks out of the woods and into a liquor store that had been torn to shreds.
"So, what... Bigfoot breaks into a liquor store, jonesing for some hooch? Amaretto and Irish cream. He's a girl-drink drunk." Dean said, as he helped himself to a bottle of whiskey off of a shelf and slid it into his jacket giving a wink to Harley who let out a little laugh. Knowing the pair of them would be drinking that later.
"Hey. Check this out," Sam said, pointing to an empty magazine rack.
"He took the whole porno rack?" Dean asked. Harley grabbed a tuft of hair off of the rack. Dean nodded.
"Well, I'll say it again. What the hell is going on in this town?" They walked outside and sat on the bench in front of the store.

Harley sighed resting her head on Dean's shoulder.
"I got nothing." Harley sighed.
"It's got to be a joke, right?" Sam asked.
"Some big-ass mother in a gorilla suit?" Harley suggested but Dean shrugged.
"Or it's Bigfoot. Ya know, and he's some kind of an alcoholo-porno addict. Kind of like a deep-woods Duchovny." A little girl passed by on her bike and accidentally dropped a magazine out of her basket. The siblings all looked down in shock at what the magazine was.
"A little young for Busty Asian Beauties," Dean said. They walked around the back of the liquor store, where they found a box full of liquor and magazines, sitting on the back step, with a sorry note on top. So, despite it seeming to be creepy, the Winchester siblings decided to follow her to her house hoping to get to the bottom of what was happening in this town. Only to end up with more questions than ever.

***

The Winchesters pulled up to the little girl's house and climbed out of the Impala.
"What's this, like a Harry and the Hendersons deal?" Dean asked, as they walked up to the front door and knocked on it. A moment later, the little girl answered the door.
"Hello?"
"Hi sweetie, are your parents home?" Harley asked with a smile. The little girl shook her head.
"Nope." The little girl replied, concerning Harley and Dean.
"No?"Dean shook his head. "No? Um... have you seen a really, really furry—"
"Is he in trouble?" the girl asked, looking upset.

"No." Sam chuckled. "No, no, no. Not at all. We just—"
"We wanted to check on him. Make sure he was okay and you were okay." Harley said gently. Dean beamed at Harley.
"Exactly."
"He's my teddy bear. I think he's sick." The girl looked down sadly.
"Wow. Uh... amazing. 'Cause you know what?" Dean asked. "We... are, uh... teddy bear doctors."
"Really? Can you please take a look at him?" the girl asked excitedly.

Sam nodded. "Sure." Dean and Harley nodded in agreement.
"Sure. Yeah." The three siblings followed the little girl into her house and up the stairs.
"He's in my bedroom. He's pretty grumpy." She knocked on her door. "Teddy? There's some nice doctors here to see you." She opened the door to reveal a living, giant, drunk teddy bear watching television.
"Close the friggin' door!" the teddy bear slurred. Harley raised her eyebrows in disbelief of what she just saw. The girl closed the door sadly.
"See what I mean?" The little girl asked sadly.

The three siblings looked at each other, confusion all over their faces. The girl sighed.
"All I ever wanted was a teddy, which was big, real, and talked. But now he's sad all the time... not 'ouch' sad, but ouch-in-the-head sad. He says weird stuff, and smells like the bus." Dean nodded, taking everything in.
"What's your name?" Harley asked her.
"Audrey!" she replied. Dean nodded. "Audrey. How exactly did your teddy become real?" Audrey shrugged.
"I wished for it."
"You wished for it?" Sam asked. Audrey nodded.
"At the wishing well." She clarified.

Dean pushed the bedroom door open so they could see the teddy bear sitting on the bed, drinking whiskey, and watching the news.
"Look at this." The teddy bear chuckled sadly. "You believe this crap?" Dean shook his head.
"Not really."
"It is a terrible world. Why am I here?!" The bear cried.
"For tea parties!" Audrey yelled.
"Tea parties? Is that all there is?" the bear asked, and started crying into his paws. Dean shut the door again. Sam looked down at Audrey.

"Audrey, give us a second, okay?" Audrey nodded, and they walked down the hall a little ways with Sam."Okay. Are we— Should we— Uh, are we gonna kill this teddy bear?" Sam asked Dean and Harley. Harley shrugged, feeling like that it would almost be merciful to kill the bear.
"How? Do we shoot it? Burn it?" Dean asked. Sam shrugged.
"I don't know. Both?"
"How do we even know that's gonna work? I don't want some giant, flaming, pissed off teddy on our hands." Dean said. Sam nodded.
"Yeah. Besides, I get the feeling that the bear isn't really the, you know, core problem here." They turned back to Audrey.
"Audrey. Where are your parents?" Harley asked gently. Audrey shrugged.

"My Mum wished they were in Bali, so I think they're in Bali." Sam nodded.
"Okay, well... I'm really sorry to have to break this to you, but... your bear is sick. Yeah, he's— he's got—"
"Lollipop disease." Harley intercepted the first thing that came to her head. Sam nodded.
"Lollipop disease."
"It's not uncommon for a bear his size. But see, it's— it's really contagious." Dean added.
"Is there someone, maybe a grown-up, that you can stay with while we treat him?" Harley asked.
"Mrs. Hurley lives down the street." Audrey said. Dean nodded.
"Perfect."
"We'd like you to stay there for a few days, okay?" Harley asked. Audrey nodded.
"Okay."
"Oh, and Audrey? Where is this wishing well?" Dean asked.

* * *

Audrey told the Winchesters that the wishing well was in a Chinese restaurant, so we drove back to Lucky Chin's. When they walked into the restaurant, the boy who had been bullied was walking out with a black eye. They walked right up to the fountain at the back of the restaurant and stared down at it.
"Think it works?" Dean asked. Sam shrugged.
"Got a better explanation for Teddy back there?"
"Well, there's one way to find out." Dean pulled out a coin.
"What are you gonna wish for?" Harley  asked bemused.
"Shh!" Dean tossed his coin into the well. "Not supposed to tell."

"Somebody order a footlong Italian with jalapeño?!" a man called out from behind them. The three siblings turned to see a delivery man holding a sub at the door. Dean raised his hand.
"That'd be me." The man walked up and handed Dean the sub.
"On the house."
"Thanks." Dean nodded, and then the man left the restaurant. "It does work." He pulled another coin out of his pocket. "Wanna try?"
"Wait." Sam tried to snatch the coin in mid-air but missed. He sighed. "Maybe, we shouldn't be making wishes until we know what's going on." Sam sighed. "No more wishes, either of you." Dean shrugged and sat down at a table to eat his sub.

"I think it works, dude. This was pretty specific." Sam and Harley joined him at the table. Sam nodded.
"The teddy bear, the sandwich..."
"I'm guessing this." Harley said, pointing to a sign about someone who won the lottery that lived in town. Sam nodded.
"I'm guessing that." He pointed to the pretty girl and nerdy guy they saw the other day. They were sitting in a booth kissing again.
"Well, that definitely goes on the list. What are we supposed to do, huh?" Dean asked.
"Stop people's wishes from coming true? I mean, it sounds kind of a douchey thing to do, even for us." Harley muttered.

"Yeah, maybe. But come on, man. When has something like this ever come without a price tag? And usually a deadly one," Sam said. Dean shook his head.
"I don't know. It's a damn good sandwich." Sam gave him a look. Dean sighed. "All right. Fine. We'll put a hold on the wishing 'til we figure out what's going on."
"Uh, excuse me gentlemen, lady. I'm sorry. We don't allow people to eat outside food here." A man said from behind them.
"Well, I am certainly not gonna eat the inside food here," Dean said, "Health Department. You, my friend, have a rat infestation. We're gonna have to shut this place down under emergency hazard code 56C."
"Rats?!" the man yelled.

"Yes, so if you and your staff could get everyone to leave it would be much appreciated." Harley said, causing the man to mutter angrily in Chinese. Dean cleared his throat, and then stepped into the fountain, Harley close behind him.
"Let's get to work then." He started picking up the coins in the fountain.
"Typical fountain, plaster Buddha. Nothing I can see." Harley muttered, showing them to Dean. The owner came rushing up.
"Yes, nothing. We keep a clean place here."
"Sir, I'm gonna have to ask you to leave during the preliminary investigation, okay?" Sam asked. The owner nodded sadly and left them alone again. Sam nodded. "Thank you."

"I'm just curious, Sammy, what would you wish for?" Dean asked. Sam shook his head.
"I'm not wishing for anything."
"He's not asking you to do it. Obviously, you shouldn't. We're just wondering what you would wish for." Harley said. Sam shrugged.
"Oh, come on, if you could wish yourself back, you know before it all started... think about it. You'd be some big yuppie lawyer with a nice car and a white picket fence," Dean said. Sam shook his head.
"Not what I'd wish for."
"Seriously?" Harley asked. Sam shrugged.
"It's too late to go back to our old lives, Harley, Dean. I'm not that guy anymore."
"All right, well, what, then? Hmm? What would Sammy wish for?" Dean asked.

"Lilith's head on a plate. Bloody." Sam said, straight-faced. Dean and Harley nodded, secretly a little disturbed especially as they knew about his Demon blood drinking addiction.
"Okay," he said, leaning down and brushing coins away from a larger, thicker coin. "What is that?" Sam furrowed his brow.
"Some kind of old coin. I don't recognize the markings." Dam muttered, as Dean tried to pick it up, but it wasn't budging.
"Damn."
"Lift with your legs." Sam chuckled.
"Is that little mother welded on there?" Dean asked, after he failed to pick it up again.

" Huh." Harley muttered, after she tried to remove the coin but it was stuck tight. The siblings walked out to the car and grabbed a crowbar and a mallet, and marched right back to the fountain. Dean stuck the crowbar as far under the coin as he could get it and then started wrenching at it. The owner came running over, with fury in his eyes.
"Hey, hey, hey, what is this?! You are gonna break my fountain!"
"Sir, I don't want to slap you with a 44-16, but I will," Sam said, with a straight face, but looked at his siblings nervously, unsure whether the owner would buy it or not. The owner glared at Sam. Harley nodded.
"He'll do it. He doesn't mess around when it comes to a 44-16." The owner frowned and walked away. Sam nodded at him and smirked at Harley.

"All right, thanks." Dean nodded at the mallet in Sam's hand.
"Let me see that. I got an idea." While the crowbar was still in place, he hit the end of it with a mallet, but instead of the coin being dislodged, the head of the mallet flung off and just barely missed the owner's feet.
"Oh!" the owner yelled, shocked by what had just happened. Dean raised his eyebrows.
"Damn!"
"Coin's magical." Sam said.
"Gee, you think, Sam?" Harley scoffed. Dean nodded.

"I think it's Hoodoo that's protecting the well. I don't think we can destroy this." Sam bent down with a paper and a pencil and scribbled over the coin so we could research the image.
"All right, here." He handed Dean the paper. "You got to look into this." Dean furrowed his brow.
"Where are you going?" Dean and Harley asked.
"Something just occurred to me." Sam said and then left.

***

When Dean and Harley walked into the hotel room, Dean ran to the bathroom and slammed the door. All she could hear for the next ten minutes was him throwing up. While Harley waited, Sam had arrived.
"Dean? Are you all right?" Sam asked, as heard the bathroom door open after the toilet flushed.
"The wishes turn bad, Sam. The wishes turn out very badly."
"The sandwich, huh?" Sam asked.
"The coin was Babylonian. It's cursed. We found some fragments of a legend." He started to gag and then covered his mouth. He took a deep breath and went to shake it off but Harley interrupted.

"The serpent is Tiamat, which is the, uh, Babylonian God of Primordial Chaos. I guess their, uh, priests were working some serious black magic."
"They made the coin?" Sam asked. Dean and Harley nodded.
"Yeah, to sow the seeds of chaos. Whoever tosses a coin in the wishing well, makes a wish, it turns on the well. Then it starts granting wishes to all comers."
"But the wishes get twisted." Sam shrugged.
"You ask for a talking teddy—"Dean nodded. "You get a bipolar nut-job."
"And you get E-coli," Sam said. Dean raised his eyebrows.
"Mm-hmm. This thing has turned more than one town upside-down over the centuries. It's even wiped a few off the map. I mean, one person gets their wish, it's trouble, but everybody gets their wish—"

"It's chaos," Sam said. Dean nodded.
"Mm-hmm."
"Any way to stop it?" Sam asked. Harley nodded.
"Yeah. One way. We got to find the first wish. Whoever dropped the coin in and made the first wish, they're the only ones who can pull it back out and reverse the wishes. So, for now, we've got a couple of nutso dreams come true, but once the word gets out about the well, things are just gonna get crazier and crazier."

* * *

Dean had passed out while Sam and Harley did some research.
"Find anything?" Sam asked, without looking up at her.
"Nope. Even Gabriel is looking, that's who's been texting me. He warns that some of the wishers may try to stop us from reversing this whole mess if they find out what we're doing." Harley explained.
"Great. Just what we need." Sam snarked.
Suddenly, Dean gasped, and his eyes started fluttering. Sam and Harley shared a concerned look.
"Dean, wake up!" Harley shouted. Dean shot up.
"What? I'm up. What?"
"Sleep well?" Sam asked.

"Yeah." Dean picked up a whiskey sitting on the nightstand and took a swig. "Tan, rested, and ready." Sam shook his head.
"Dean, come on, man. You think we can't see it?"
"See what?" Dean asked.
"The nightmares, the drinking. We're with you 24/7. We know something's going on," Sam said. Dean rolled his eyes.
"Sam, please." Sam shook his head.
"Uriel wasn't lying, but you are. You remember Hell, don't you?"
"What do you want from me, huh?" Dean scoffed. "What?"
"The truth, Dean. I mean, we're your family. I—" Sam shrugged.
"I just wish you'd talk to us." Harley sighed. Dean looked over at her.
"Careful what you wish for." Sam rolled his eyes.
"Cute."

"Come on, can we stow the couples therapy, huh?" Dean asked. "We're on a job. Now a very important one." He pointed to Harley. "I want to work. What do you got? Please?" Sam sighed as Dean started flipping through the newspapers in front of him.
"We got a teddy bear, uh, lottery guy, invisible pervert guy. They all must have wished sometime in the last two weeks. But who wished first, and how are we supposed to know who else wished for what when?"
"And Gabriel warns that some of the wishers may try to stop us if they find out." Harley added.

"Well, it helps when they announce it in the paper." Dean held up an engagement announcement of the pretty girl and nerdy guy. "Goes back a month." Sam took the paper out of Dean's hand.
"Wesley Mondale and Ms. Hope Lynn Casey have announced their surprise engagement."
"Ah, true love," Dean said. Sam chuckled.
"Best lead we got."

* * *

The Winchesters arrived at Wesley and Hope's house. When they rang the doorbell, Hope answered with a huge smile on her face.
"Hi! How can I help you?!"
"Wesley called us to discuss the flower arrangements for your wedding." Harley said sweetly. Hope's eyes widened with excitement.
"He did? That's so sweet. Please... please come in." She ushered them to follow after her into the living room, where they found Wesley sitting on the couch watching TV. "Wes! You didn't tell me that you called the florists for the wedding." Wesley looked up at the Winchesters, confused.
"Huh?"
"You're the best!" Hope leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. "Ah! I'm gonna go get my folders." Then she ran off into another room.
"Uh, o— okay," Wesley said, still confused by the situation.

"Wesley, how's it going?" Dean asked, intimidatingly.
"It's We— Wes," Wes stuttered.
"Aren't you the guys from the Health Department?" Harley nodded.
"My brothers help me in my flower shop on the side."
"Plus the FBI. And on Thursdays, we're teddy bear doctors." Dean smiled. Wes furrowed his brow.
"Huh?" Dean shook his head.
"Doesn't matter who we are. What matters is what we know." Sam spotted a glass cabinet next to Wes that was filled with coins.
"So, coin collector, huh, Wes?" Wes lit up with excitement a little bit.
"Oh. Yeah. My... grandfather gave them to me."

"Did you happen to lose one of those coins lately?" Dean asked.
"And by 'lose,' he means drop into a wishing well at Lucky Chin's and make a wish on it?" Harley added. Wes shook his head nervously.
"No, I— I don't know what you're, uh, talking about." Harley rolled her eyes.
"Don't lie to us, Wesley." Hope came back, excited, with a stack of papers and folders.
"Okay, now. I have a lot of ideas, but ya know, we don't have all the money in the world. Wes is between jobs right now. Means more time for me." She smiled lovingly at him and started flipping through some of the papers as she showed us. "Ya know, I'm thinking a Japanese ikebana kind of thing." Dean nodded with a smile.
"Yes. I can see it."

"Yeah. So, Hope, uh, tell us how you two lovebirds met." Sam smiled. Hope's smile and excitement grew.
"Oh, best day of my life."
"I bet," Dean said sarcastically.
"Yeah!" Hope shouted happily. "It's the funniest thing. We both grew up here, but I never really knew who he was. Not by name anyway. Until one day last month, it was like I just—" She sighed. "I just saw him for the first time. He was just... glowing." She looked at him lovingly. "Oh, just glowing." Wes shifted around in his seat, uncomfortably.
"Uh, babe, can you— can you get us some coffee?"
"Yes. Yeah." Hope nodded happily and kissed Wes all over his face.
"Oh. Okay. Okay. Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay. Okay," Wes said, as she kissed him like crazy.

"Yeah." Hope finally stopped and walked off.
"Wes, we know. So, tell us the truth," Sam said. Wes sighed.
"My— My grandfather found the coin in North Africa, ya know, World War II. And, uh, he brought it back. He, um, he said it was a real wish-granting coin, but that nobody should ever use it. Um... it was all I had, and when he died..." He shrugged. "I thought, 'Well, ya know what? Why not give the coin a shot?'" Sam nodded.
"Yeah, well, now you're gonna wish it back."
"Oh." Wes chuckled. "Oh. Ha. Ha, no, I'm not."

"Dude, yes you are," Harley said. Wes furrowed his brow at her and shook his head.
"I need you to wish it back." Dean added. "If you don't stop it, something bad's gonna happen." Sam nodded.
"Something bad. Like us." Sam continued.
"We really wish you'd come with us." Dean threatened, as he pulled out his gun. Wes's eyes widened, and he swallowed hard. 

* * * 

Wes reluctantly agreed to go with the Winchesters back to Lucky Chin's. Unfortunately, Harley had to sit in the back with him. It just irritated her to be so close to him, when he knew what he had caused to everyone in this town, but didn't care enough or was too selfish to actually want to change everything back. Wes shook his head with his arms crossed, pouting like a toddler.
"I don't get it. So, my wish came true. Why does that have to be a bad thing?"
"Because the wishes go south, Wes. Your town is going insane," Sam said.
"So, some people made a bad wish, that's not my fault. Why should I have to take back my wish 'cause other people didn't think it through before they tossed their coins into that fountain?"

"Come on." Dean scoffed. "You're gonna sit there and tell me that your relationship with Hope is functional? that 's what you wished for?"
"I wished she would love me more than anything," Wes said. Sam nodded.
"Yeah, and, uh, how is that going? Does that seem healthy to you?"
"Well, it's a hell of a lot better than when she didn't know I was alive," Wes snapped.
"You're not supposed to get what you want, man, not like this. Nobody is. That's what the coin does. It takes your heart's desires, and it twists it back on you," Dean explained.
"You hear of the whole, uh, 'be careful what you wish for'?" Harley asked.

"'Careful what you wish for,'" Wes mocked, and rolled his eyes. "Ya know who says that?" he asked. "Good-looking jerks like you guys, the ones who've got it so easy because you happen to be gorgeous and handsome."
"Easy?" Sam, Dean and Harley asked in unison. Wes nodded.
"Yeah. Women— Women look at you, right? Men for her case. They notice you." Sam shook his head.
"Believe us, we do not have it easy." Dean nodded.
"We are miserable. We never get what we want. In fact, we have to fight tooth and nail just to keep whatever it is we got."
"But ya know what?" Harley asked. "Maybe that's the whole point, Wes." Dean nodded.

"Yeah, people are people 'cause they're miserable bastards, 'cause they never get what they really want."
"Yeah," Harley agreed, "The more you get, the more you want. No one will have everything they want or have everything easy." Sam nodded.
"Then you just get a whole lot of crazy."
"Take a look at Michael Jackson. Or Hasselhoff," Dean said.
"Ya know what? Hope loves me now... completely. And it's awesome. Besides, look around. Where's all this, uh, insanity you guys were talking about?" Wes asked, right before they spotted the boy who was being bullied, pick up a large SUV with his bare hands and pin his bullies between it and another car. Dean nodded and pointed at the scene.
"Well, that should cover it."

"Kneel before Todd! Kneel before Todd!" the boy yelled, as he continued to tip the SUV toward the group of boys. Dean opened his door and got out.
"All right. I'll handle Todd. You two get Wes to Lucky Chin's." Sam nodded and slid over to the driver's seat.
"Right." Dean slammed the door and ran off to Todd, and Wes leaned over the front seat in disbelief as he watched the kid continue to move the SUV. Sam quickly drove us over to Lucky Chin's, and we all piled out of the car.
"That— That— That kid turned over that car like... like it was nothing," Wes said, still looking over at Todd's direction in disbelief.
"You should have seen the teddy bear," Sam said, as he walked around the front of the Impala and pointed to the restaurant.

"Now, come on. Fun's over. Time to pull the coin." Wes looked down, shaking his head, and sighed.
"Wes!" Harley shouted.
"Well, why can't we just get what we want?!" Wes shouted back. Sam sighed. "Because that's life, Wes." As he stepped forward to try and usher Wes into the restaurant, he was knocked out of his shoes by a lightning strike, which landed him on the ground, unmoving.
"Sam!" Harley screamed, running over to him as fast as she could and even then it felt like she was too slow. Wes stepped over his head and quickly walked into the restaurant. "Wesley! Fix this!" Harley shouted, as she put Sam's head in her hands and checked his non-existent pulse. She shook Sam. "Sammy... please wake up..."

Then Sam gasped and sat up immediately.
"It worked." He smiled.
"Yeah." Harley said with relief. "And you're alive." The two hugged quickly and then stood up as Hope walked out of the restaurant, looking totally confused. Wes walked out a moment later and handed Sam the coin sadly without saying anything and then walked away.

* * * 

Dean and Harley sat on a bench by the pier as he flipped through a newspaper, and I read over his shoulder. The top headline was Winning Lottery Ticket A Fake. Harley looked up to see Audrey walk past us with a normal-sized teddy bear in her hands and a bandage holding its stuffing in its head. Two very sunburned people, who she could only assume were her parents back from their vacation, were trailing miserably behind her. She waved to the two with a huge smile on her face, and they nodded back at her. Sam walked over to us.
"Well, uh, coins melted down. It shouldn't cause any more problems."

Dean nodded.
"Audrey's parents are back from Bali. Looks like all the wishes are gone. And so are we." Harley added, as they started walking toward the Impala, Dean stopped.
"Hang on a second." Sam furrowed his brow while Harley looked concerned. "What?"
"You were right," Dean said. Sam shook his head.
"About what?"
"I shouldn't have lied to you guys." Dean nodded. "I do remember everything that happened to me in the pit. Everything." Harley could see the pain and torture of the memories in his eyes.
"So, tell us about it," Sam said sympathetically.

Dean shook his head.
"No." Sam furrowed his brow. "Uh—"  Dean shook his head. "I won't lie anymore. But I'm not gonna talk about it." Sam sighed.
"Dean, look, you can't just shoulder this thing alone. You got to let us help."
"How? Do you really think that a little heart-to-heart, some sharing and caring, is gonna change anything?" Dean asked. "Hmm? Somehow... heal me? I'm not talking about a bad day here."
"I know that." Sam sighed.

"The things that I saw... there aren't words. There is no forgetting. There's no making it better. Because it is right here..." Dean tapped his head, as Harley launched herself at Dean and wrapped her arms tightly around him, Dean wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Forever. You wouldn't understand. And I could never make you understand. So, I'm sorry." He put his head down with tears in his eyes, squeezed Harley tightly and then continued walking to the Impala.