Work Text:
ONE MONTH AGO
IMAGE: Show us the setup for the spell you will use to summon the real Sam, Dean, and Castiel to the set of the TV show Supernatural. 30 points.
Misha grins as he adds the item to his growing GISHWHES item list. It’s always good to have a few things that are directly related to Supernatural, and this one seems like it will be a fun, easy, fairly harmless build item for the teams to do. Maybe a few will even put some research in, make something based on supposedly real black magic. Should be fun to see the submissions.
NOW
Sam slowly becomes aware that he’s face down on an unfamiliar, slightly dog-hair-covered couch, one arm and one leg dangling off the side, the other leg folded up slightly to fit on the not-quite-Sam-sized couch.
He props himself up on one elbow and looks around, taking in his surroundings, tensing up a bit so he'll be ready to move at a moment's notice if he does identify some kind of threat. He's in a very small house – no, a trailer – and, oh good, at least Dean and Cas are here too. Dean's in a chair, slumped over a table a little farther forward in the trailer from where Sam is, just starting to stir, and Cas is on his back, lying on the floor, currently blinking up at the ceiling.
“Cas, you okay?” Sam asks as he gets up off the couch.
The former angel thinks for a second, taking inventory, before saying, “I believe I am uninjured.”
“Dean?” Sam calls out to his brother as he helps Cas get up.
Dean responds with a groan, but by the time Sam has Cas on his feet, Dean's sitting up and looking around, taking in his surroundings. “What the hell...?”
“I don't know,” Sam answers. “Last I remember we were in the bunker.”
“Yeah, me too.” Dean gets up off the chair. “You guys all right?”
“Guess so.” Sam tells his brother, and Cas nods.
All three of them look around the trailer for some clue of what's going on. Dean turns over a stack of stapled together papers that were sitting on the table and his eyes grow a little wider. “The fuck, you've got to be kidding me.”
Sam goes over to see what Dean is looking at. On the top page is clearly typed, SUPERNATURAL, SEASON 9 EPISODE 4.
“Wait, seriously? Again?” Sam says incredulously.
“But it was completely different this time, no spell, no nothing.” Dean says. “And we were awake for the whole thing before. The trailer's completely different too.”
“Maybe this is, uh, Jared Padalecki's trailer, we only saw Jensen's last time.” Sam suggests. He looks around a bit more and, bingo, there's a family photo in a simple metal frame sitting on a shelf. “Huh, looks like fake me and fake Ruby are still together, that's good I guess, and they've got a kid.”
“Mazel tov.” Dean peeks out a window. “Looks like we're at the studio again. Do we go out and see what we can find out?”
“I guess so."
The two of them toward the door of the trailer but Cas hangs back, his brows lowered in confusion. “Who are Jared and Jensen? What am I missing? What's going on?”
Dean lets out a very brief chuckle. “Ah, of course you wouldn't know, you weren't there – er – here. Remember that time Balthazar sent us into an alternate universe as a distraction?”
Cas nods, looking saddened at the mention of Balthazar's name.
“Well we came here. A TV set where they film a show that's... our lives.” Dean explains. “Oh, and maybe we should disguise you a little, Cas, because fake you kind of died three years ago.”
They find a beanie for Cas to put on in order to hopefully not be immediately recognizable as Misha – at least he doesn't have the recognizable trenchcoat, and he doesn't dress like Misha, so Dean figures it will be good enough for them to walk around set at least long enough to get out.
Sam and Dean walk out of the trailer, followed by Castiel and they almost immediately see... Misha Collins.
Misha waves at them, then seems to do a double take, “wait, you guys were just...” he mutters, then he looks from Dean to Sam to Dean and then sees Cas, and lets out an “ohhhhhh fuck.”
“Oh hey, Misha, we just ran back to, uh, Jared's trailer to - “ Dean starts but Misha cuts him off.
“It's okay, Dean, Sam, Cas, I think I know what's going on.” Misha says, putting his hands up in an I'm-not-going-to-hurt-you (or possibly please-don't-hurt-me) position. “My trailer's the next one over, why don't we go in there and talk?”
Sam and Dean exchange a glance, and then Sam says “okay,” and they follow Misha into his trailer.
Misha's trailer looks a lot like Jared's, same layout, different color carpets, different decorations, missing the thin layer of dog hair. “You guys can take a seat, um, can I get you something to drink? Coffee, tea, I think I have a few beers... I have some kale juice if you want it.” Misha offers as they walk into the trailer.
Sam considers taking him up on the offer of kale juice, but isn't sure how much Dean will make fun of him, and asks for coffee instead. Cas also takes a coffee, while Dean goes for a beer.
“You're... different. And also not dead, what's up with that?” Dean asks Misha after taking a first swig of his beer.
“Ah, French Mistake.” Misha laughs, then adds, “That was the name of the episode where you guys went into the real world before,” when Sam and Dean look at him quizically. “Yeah, that was a very fictionalized version of me. Of all of us, actually.”
“So this is a different alternate universe from that alternate universe?” Sam asks.
“Exactly. Man, this is getting extremely meta.” Misha remarks.
“Yeah, my head is starting to hurt a little.” Dean complains.
Cas clears his throat. “You said you think you know why we're here?”
“Uh, yeah.” Misha says a little nervously. “Last time I underestimate the capabilities of GISHWHESEANS.”
“Gishwizzy-whats?” Dean asks.
“I host a massive online scavenger hunt every year called GISHWHES – the greatest international scavenger hunt the world has ever seen.”
“And what does that have to do with us?” Sam cuts in.
Before Misha can answer there's a knock on the trailer door. “Do we hide?” Dean asks, looking around the trailer to see if there's even a place to conceal all three of them.
Misha peeks through the blinds on the trailer door. “It's just Jared and Jensen, I'll get rid of them,” he whispers at his guests before opening the door. “Hey, guys, I was actually just...” he got out before Jared just barged past him into the trailer.
Sam has to look down at his hands and assure himself that he hasn't been body swapped with someone again, because, man, Jared Padalecki looks exactly like him, but his demeanor is so different that it's not at all like simply looking in a mirror. If on-screen Sam Winchester is actually a good representation of the real Sam, he thinks, this guy has got to be one hell of an actor. “Wha-wha-whoa,” Jared says, “Ackles, you have got to see this.”
That brings Jensen Ackles also pushing in past Misha, and while Sam immediately knows that he's physically looking at a perfect facsimile of his brother, Jensen is almost as unlike Dean as Jared is unlike Sam. Dean swears under his breath. Jared looks like he isn't sure whether he should start laughing or not, and Jensen lowers his eyebrows, studying the three men in front of him as if he's looking for some flaw that will reveal that this is a trick. “Misha, what's going on?” Jensen asks.
“Jared and Jensen, meet Sam, Dean, and Cas.” Misha offers, his voice a bit higher than what seems to be his norm and an octave higher than Cas's usual tone.
Jared lets out a bark of laughter as Jensen says, “Seriously?” incredulously.
“Yeah, why don't you guys join our little party, I was just explaining to these three why I think they're here.”
The two newcomers shrug and sit on a couple of chairs opposite where the Winchesters and Cas and seated on the couch. Misha goes back to his explanation. “So there was an item on the GISHWHES list that asked the teams to take a picture of the setup for the spell that would allow them to summon the three of you, here.”
“Wait so you're telling how many people to try out witchcraft?” Dean says in a way that Sam knows that he's considering reaching for his gun at any moment.
“Thousands...” Misha answers, then quickly adds, “but that's not the point! It was a joke item, 30 points, they weren't actually supposed to try to summon you! It wasn't supposed to be possible!”
“Misha, you of all people should know not to underestimate what the fans can do when they put their minds to it!” Jared complains.
“And apparently someone did manage to do it.” Sam adds.
“Either that or we're having a mass hallucination.” Jensen suggests. “Or, you've gotten some very good doubles of us and this is all a clever ruse, in which case I have to hand it to you, Mish, they look exactly like us."
“It's really us,” Dean growls. “So how do we get our asses back into our own universe?”
“Hey you guys are the actual hunters and ex-angel, I just play one on TV. But I'd guess our best bet is to track down the team who did it and hope they can come up with a spell to send you back.”
“Okay how do we do do that?” Sam inquires.
“All the teams are submitting pictures as we speak, hopefully whoever summoned you guys has already uploaded the picture of their spell. So we just need to find the ones that look like they might be real, and get in touch with them and hope whoever did it is cooperative and has a reversal spell.”
“Could work.” Dean nods.
There's a bit of a pause, after which Jared says, “wait, why is Cas wearing my hat?”
“We thought at first that we were in the same... alternate universe as the last time we ended up on a film set, and that Misha would be dead.”
Jared laughs. “French Mistake? That's... well, not actually any more impossible than this happening. Yeah, this is weird.”
***
Tracking down the guilty GISHWHES team is going to take time, so they decide to split up in order to stay inconspicuous, sending Sam home with Misha, Dean with Jared, and Cas with Jensen. Dean's not too sure about not staying together but somehow he feels like they can trust the three actors, and it does make sense not to risk anyone being seen with their doubles.
Clif drives Jensen and Jared home as usual and Misha leaves a little later with Sam, Dean, and Cas in tow, dropping off Dean and Cas on the way to taking Sam to his own house. Jensen's apartment is the closest to the studio so they go there first, Dean telling Cas to call if he needs anything, Misha walking his doppelganger up to Jensen's door, Jensen welcoming Cas in. Then it's a short drive to Jared's house, which ends up being much more normal than the other Jared Padalecki's house. The door opens as Dean is getting out of Misha's car and Jared walks out holding his kid who looks so much like him – so much like Sam – and there's a big yellow dog following him and Genevieve is looking gorgeous in the doorway and Dean suddenly wishes that Sam wasn't sitting there watching all of this this because Jared seems to have everything that Dean wants Sam to have, that he knows that Sam has wanted for himself all of these years. Dean waves as Misha drives away with his brother and then it's just him and the Padalecki family.
Thomas is seventeen months old and therefore has no reason to believe that Dean isn't Uncle Jensen, but they've decided that everyone's wives get to be in on what's happened, so they go inside and over dinner they explain everything to Gen the best that they can. “If I didn't see the extra Jared – Sam – in Misha's car, I'd say you guys were just dicking with me,” she says a little incredulously, but overall she takes it pretty well, and offers to help them look through photos of potential spellwork. Dean's a little skeptical that she'll be much help, but he likes her, and hey she did play the demon witch bitch on the show so maybe she remembers a few prop setups.
Misha emails Jared a zipped up folder full of images, and the three of them go through them one by one, separating the probably-not's from the definitely-nots. Most of the photos are obviously not doing any real magic whatsoever and it just takes a cursory glance for all three of them to agree that that isn't the one before moving on to the next. They get through all the photos, send a short list of the ones that might possibly be real magic back to Misha and Sam to take a look at, and by a little before 10 they're at the point where there's not much more they can do for the night and Jared suggests that they go out for a few beers.
“You really think that's a good idea?” Dean says a little skeptically.
“Sure, I don't have to be at the studio until noon tomorrow, and I know all the crap you go through, you certainly deserve it. We'll go somewhere they don't know us and if someone does recognize us off TV they'll have no reason to think you're not Jensen.”
It doesn't sound too risky, and Dean could certainly use a bit of unwinding, so he agrees and fifteen minutes later they're out the door.
Jared knows what kind of bars Dean likes, of course, and they end up at a local dive bar that's far enough out of the way that Jared's only been there once or twice before. It's a decent place, enough people there that they can just be part of the crowd but still quiet enough to sit and talk. Dean lets Jared buy him drinks because 1. they're in Canada and Dean has no Canadian money and 2. Jared is the big rich actor guy out of the two of them, and pretty soon they're both on their way to tipsy.
“Dude I have to tell you, you're way cooler than Sammy.” Dean tells Jared after finishing his fifth whiskey.
Jared laughs. “Hey, don't be too hard on your brother, I'm quite partial to him.”
***
Castiel isn't sure what to think about his host. He looks so much like Dean, but is so obviously not Dean, which makes Cas uncomfortable despite Jensen's obvious effort toward putting him at ease. Jensen's wife Danneel and their baby daughter are in LA, so it's just the two of them in the apartment for the night.
Jensen puts a plate of food in front of Cas before sitting down across from him with his own plate. Cas thanks him and then they eat in silence for a few minutes before Jensen asks, “You doing all right, Cas?”
Cas looks up at him questioningly.
“I know things haven't exactly been easy for you lately,” Jensen shrugs. “And then having all this thrown in your face.”
“I'm okay. But you're right, it has been difficult.”
“You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to dude, I get that I'm a total stranger to you.” Jensen says gently, “But I've kind of known you for years and if you need someone to talk to, I'm here.”
Cas nods, taking another bite of his dinner. Once he's chewed and swallowed and considered for a bit whether or not he actually wants to open up to Jensen he says, “If I were still an angel we might all be back in our own universe by now.”
“Hey, it's okay, we've got a plan. You'll be back there in no time.”
“Yeah, I know.” Cas isn't completely sure he believes it. “I've just messed up so many things, and I can't fix anything. I don't know why the Winchesters even want me around anymore.”
Jensen puts down his fork, puts both hands on the table, and looks Castiel straight in the eyes. “You do get that you're family to them, right? I know Dean pretty well by now, and I can guarantee that when he says he wants you there, when he says he needs you, it's never been just because you can fix things.”
Maybe it's just because he's hearing these words from someone with Dean's face, but Jensen's pep talk does make Cas feel a little better. By the time they're done eating, the conversation has moved to Jensen asking questions about Cas's thoughts and motivations at various points over the last five years, but not in the often accusatory way that Dean would do it, but rather because, as he explains, it's both helpful and interesting to him as an actor. Cas knows Jensen wouldn't push it if he didn't feel like answering, but it's actually very cathartic to open up to someone who wants to know just for the sake of knowing.
“Well, Misha's probably sent those pictures by now,” Jensen says as they finish up the dishes. He gets his laptop and they spend the next hour sitting side-by-side, looking through the photos of (mostly fake) summoning spells.
***
Misha welcomes Sam into his house and introduces him to his wife Vicki and their two little kids. Vicki doesn't seem to have a problem believing that Sam is actually Sam, remarking, “well it's not the weirdest thing Misha's ever gotten himself into.” West, who is almost three, asks if Sam is Jared's brother and they go ahead and tell him yes.
They want to get the photos sent to Jared and Jensen as quick as they can so they go straight to Misha's computer and with his admin access to the GISHWHES website he downloads every submission so far for that particular item.
“And if they haven't submitted yet?” Sam asks.
“Then we wait another day and look at the new ones that come in.”
Misha emails different sets of photos to Jared and Jensen and then, with Misha's 10-month-old daughter Maison perched on his lap, Misha and Sam start looking through their share.
“I don't really watch the show,” Misha admits, “and usually the angel episodes haven't also been witchcraft ones.”
Sam laughs despite himself. “So the guy who broke it is not exactly equipped to be the one to fix it. Story of my life.” He shrugs. “It's okay, I know what to look for.”
They narrow it down to about a dozen of theirs, and a similar sized batch that each of the other pairs send. Then they get Jensen and Misha on speaker phone – Jared and Dean apparently decided to go out to a bar which is okay, Dean probably needed it – and the four of them manage to narrow it down to a half-dozen that have sigils or latin or something that are actually saying something relevant (Cas is still very helpful for that kind of stuff), have materials that look genuine, and aren't a copy of something with a completely different purpose shown on the show (when in doubt, check Netflix).
Then Misha sends out urgent but hopefully not too panicked emails to the teams that submitted the possible real magic, not actually saying that they have brought living breathing Team Free Will to Vancouver but asking about what exactly they did for their submission. Then all they can do is wait and hope the culprit is willing to fess up.
“I have to say, man,” Sam tells Misha when they're done, “you're way cooler than the other Misha.”
Misha laughs. “I'm glad you think that, because we did intentionally make him a douche bag.”
***
Jared is a little hung over in the morning, and Dean isn't, thank you very much. Dean ends up sitting in Jared's kitchen wearing Jared's clothes with Jared's son in his lap, reading him his favorite book, while Jared nurses a cup of coffee across the room from them. Dean reads all eight words or whatever is written on each page and then Tom points at the pictures and Dean gives a commentary (“yeah that's a car!”) of what's on the page before turning to the next one. Pretty soon Jared's grinning.
“I bet you did this with Sam when he was little, right?”
Dean was more expecting a you? good with kids? kind of reaction, but Jared does have a valid point. “Well, I didn't quite have the reading part down when he was this age, but yeah, I guess so.”
Jared gets a call on his cell phone, and after he's done talking he tells Dean that it was Misha and they're meeting up at his house because he and Sam are pretty sure they found their person. Dean reads the last few pages to Tom while Jared lets Gen know what's going on, and then they're leaving.
They have to go pick up Jensen and Cas on the way to Misha's because Jensen apparently doesn't own a car. Dean isn't sure if a guy who doesn't own a car should be allowed to portray him, but then Jared informs him that Jensen is angling to get the Impala when they're done with the show, so maybe he's all right. They get to Jensen's house and he and Cas get in the backseat. Dean had been worried about how Cas would be handling everything, but he seems pretty okay, maybe even kind of happy which is unusual for Castiel, so another point for Jensen.
“So get this,” Sam says to Dean as he walks into Misha's house. “Misha's fans call him their overlord.”
“Really, dude?” Dean asks Misha.
Misha makes a face and shrugs. “Hey, I didn't start it.”
“You have the reversal spell?” Jared asks, bringing them back on topic.
Sam nods. “Turns out it was a couple of 15-year-olds, one of their dads has a collection of old occult books and they set up a spell out of one of those.”
“So I told them that they're getting a ton of bonus points in exchange for telling us how to get you guys home.” Misha adds. “We've got iPhone photos of the the relevant pages, and the materials are pretty simple, we already made a grocery store run for some herbs and then we just need a photo of you three and a splash of blood at the end.”
Jared and Jensen start drawing out the symbols from the book (“if we can do it on camera we can do it in Misha's living room”). Cas and Dean start mixing herbs in a metal bowl that Misha grabbed from his kitchen while Sam looks over the Latin for the spell and Misha prints out a photo of Sam, Dean, and Cas. Soon enough everything is ready and they gather around to start the ritual.
“Wait,” Misha says, holding up his camera. “Let me get a photo of you three with the setup for the GISHWHES website.”
Dean raises his eyebrows.
“They'll think it's the three of us, of course. Just for laughs.”
They pose for the photo and then there's twenty lines of Latin to read and Dean cuts open his hand over the bowl and...
Nothing.
“Shit.” Dean growls. “Are you sure you got the right person?”
Sam's looking over the photos of the book, seeing if they did something wrong. “Wait!” He says before Dean has a chance to knock Misha around a little. “The blood has to be from someone other than the subjects of the spell.”
Jensen, Jared and Misha look at each other, then rock, paper, scissors it out and Jensen loses. He hold out his hand for the knife and repeats the motion that his doppelganger had done a minute before. Dean hears him say, “wow, that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be,” and then everything goes black.
***
Next thing Dean knows he's lying on a couch in the bunker and Kevin Tran is shaking him awake.
“Where were you guys last night?” Kevin sounds a little freaked.
“Uh, parallel universe, or something.” Dean tells him.
“Oh, of course,” Kevin retorts in that why-is-this-my-life kind of way.
They go wake up Sam and Cas, who have also made it back in one piece, and the three of them let Kevin in on what they've been up to.
“We really need to stop getting sucked into alternate universes where our lives are a TV show.” Sam remarks when they've gotten through the basics.
“And stay in our universe where our lives are a book series?” Dean chuckles to himself.
Sam suddenly looks like he's thought of something horrible. “Let's just hope that those don't ever get a TV adaptation.”