Maybe Someday; Sam Winchester

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Completely exhausted with what the universe was trying to play, Cielo and Sam slid into the booth in front of Dean and Diana. Cielo put her head on his shoulder and sighed, feeling the urge to cry and scream.

Sam looked through his laptop and Diana tiredly sipped on her coffee. Sam was talking mostly to Cielo and Diana since they were the ones stuck in the time loop and not Dean. "So, the police report says Dexter Hasselback is a professor, but that's not all he is," Sam reads.

"What else is there? Cop? Supernatural being who we can kill and get out of this hell hole?" Diana suggests.

Cielo snorts and moves her head from Sam's shoulder and lays her head on the table.

"I talked to his daughter. The guy's quite the journalist. Columns in magazines, a blog." Cielo looked at the man who stood up from the bar and left his pancakes. She furrowed her eyebrows. "He writes about tourist attractions. Mystery spots, UFO crash sites. He gets his kicks in debunking them." She sits up and eyes the place the man was sitting at. "I mean, he's already put four of these places out of business. Here."

Sam spins the laptop so that it's facing Diana. Dean tries to look, but Diana ignores him all together. ""Dexter Hasselback: Truth Warrior"?" She reads. "More like a pompous schmuch, you ask me."

Something wasn't right. Something was different that the past hundered-and-one Tuesdays.

"Yeah, tell me about it," Sam chuckles. "I mean, I've read everything the guy's ever written. He must have weighed a ton, he was so full of himself."

Cielo hums and stands up. Diana and Sam don't notice.

"When did you have time to do all this research?" Dean finally says. Diana and Sam exchange a look.

Cielo examines around the place the man sat at and it clicks. The syrup. It wasn't maple. It was always maple and it's suddenly strawberry. "Uh... S-Sam? Diana?" Cielo calls, turning around to face him.

Sam looks at Diana and they both walk up to her. "What is it?" Diana asks her.

Cielo picks up the syrup holder and shows them. "Either I've had one too many Tuesdays, but this syrup was maple the entire time."

Sam's face falls in realization and he looks outside the diner to see if the man was there. Diana speaks up. "Guy has maple syrup for the past 100 Tuesdays— and all of a sudden, he's having strawberry?"

Not knowing what anyone was talking about, Dean shrugs. "It's a free country. Man can't choose his own syrup, huh? What have we become?"

Sam shakes his head at Dean. "Not in this diner. Not today. Nothing in this place ever changes — ever."

"Except us," Cielo adds, setting down the syrup. "We gotta catch up to the guy."

⛧⛧⛧

And suddenly, the sounds of Heat Of The Moment are playing in Cielo's ears and she's back in the same place she wakes up in every Tuesday. Her, Sam, and Diana are staring at each other while Dean is tying his shoes and dancing to the song. "Dean didn't die, did he?" Cielo questions over the music.

Diana shakes her head. "You were onto something," she tells her. "We gotta catch up to that guy."

The three are completely avoiding Dean as they get ready. And when they arrive to the diner, their focus is solely on the man eating pancakes at the bar. "So, you think you're caught in some kind of what again?" Dean questions the group.

"Eat," Cielo demands, glancing at Dean for only a second and back at the man. Dean only obeys and continues to eat. Once the man stands up, the three wait for a second before getting up and following him out of the diner. Sam carries a brown bag with the weapon to kill what they think it is.

"What's in the bag?" Dean questions, watching as the three walk out of the diner.

The group of four follow the man into an alley and Sam rushes up a few steps to push him against the gate. "Hey!" The man calls out.

Sam is immediately holding the wooden stake against the man's throat. "I know who you are. Or should I say 'what'?"

The man is whimpering, trying not to move against the stake. "Oh, my God. Please, don't kill me."

"Uh, Sam..." Dean trails off.

"Took us a Hell of a long time, but we got it," Diana snaps.

"What?" The man questions.

"It's your M.O. that gave you away," Sam says. Going after pompous jerks, giving them their just deserts. Your kind loves that, don't they?"

"Yeah, sure. Okay," the man nods. "Just put the stake down."

"Sam, maybe you should —"

"No!" Cielo snaps at Dean. "There's only one creature powerful enough to do what you're doing — making reality out of nothing, sticking people in time loops. In fact, you'd pretty much have to be a god." She's is breathing heavy, her fingernails are digging into the palm of her hand due to her anger. "You'd have to be a trickster."

"Listen, my name is Ed Coleman. My wife's name's Amelia. I got two kids. For crying out loud, I sell AD Space!"

"Don't lie to me!" Sam screams. "I know what you are! We've killed one of your kind before!" That seemed to trigger it because what once was an older man with white hair, was now the trickster from last year.

All four people are shocked at the view in front of them. "Actually, Bucko," the trickster tells Sam, "you didn't."

"Why are you doing this?" Cielo asks.

"You're joking, right?" Loki asks her. "You chuckleheads tried to kill me last time. Why wouldn't I do this?"

"And Hasselback—" Dean says. "What about him?"

"That putz? He said he didn't believe in wormholes, so I dropped him in one." Loki starts to laugh, expecting them to laugh with him. "Huh? Then you guys showed up. I made you the second you hit town."

"So this is fun for you?" Diana asks him angrily. "Killing Dean over and over again?"

"One — yes, it is fun, and two — this is so not about killing Dean. This joke is on you three. Watching Dean die every day. Forever."

"You son of a bitch," Sam spits.

"How long will it take you to realize you can't save Dean... no matter what?" Cielo's shoulders fall and she feels the pain from when she made that realization what felt like ages ago. It feels like it's coming back brand new.

"Oh yeah?" Sam says. "I kill you, this all ends now." He starts pressing the stake more into Loki's neck.

"Oh, hey! Whoa. Okay. Okay. Look. I was just playing around. You can't take a joke, fine. You're out of it. Tomorrow, you wake up, it'll be Wednesday." Loki looks at the hunters in front of him. "I swear."

"You're lying," Diana says.

"If I am, you know where to find me— having pancakes at the diner."

"No. Easier to just kill you."

"Sorry, kiddo. Can't have that."

Loki snaps his fingers and suddenly, they're back in the room with a completely different song playing.

a/n;
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