Fic: Finding Harm (Supernatural/Veronica Mars; PG-13)
Title: Finding Harm
Fandoms: Supernatural and Veronica Mars
Characters/Pairings: Logan, Castiel, Sam and Dean.
Rating/Warning: PG-13 for some language.
Spoilers: All aired episodes for both shows, though this will arguable be AU for Supernatural as of My Bloody Valentine. As this is a fic of another fic, you should also read In Harm's Way, by the ever lovely dark_roast.
Summary: It takes Logan seven weeks after Aaron’s death to actually ponder Sam and Dean and what they must do. He’s still not sure if all of it was the truth, but something in the air around Neptune smells off-faintly like rotting eggs-and he wonders if they really do hunt things that go bump in the night.
Disclaimer: Not associated with Eric Kripke, Rob Thomas, The CW, or Warner Brothers. I'm just borrowing them. No copyright infringement intended.
Notes: Betaed by the lovely starxd_sparrow and everything_inme, and written as part of challenge #7 at vmfic_gameon. I was going with the fic the fic prompt. You really should all give Philly some love with her original, and I really hope you see this as a working extension of the work she's done before. Any and all mistakes are my own at this point.
Most days, it rests in his pocket-the subtle reminder of one night, four beers, shared stories-even as days float by and nothing happens. He fidgets with it in class, rolling it between his thumb and index finger while he listens to lectures about economics, English literature and physics. His disinterest in the material is evident, he assumes, because the days where no teacher asks him a question increase, the same way the days grow longer as the weather warms the California coast.
Neptune’s fine, the world’s fine, no need to worry. The bar is his one solace as the town descends into madness around his father’s trial. For all the crap he has been in there, The River Stix is a comfortable place these days. No one bothers to ask him about the trial, and they could care less about carding his ass. And it's not like he has anywhere else to turn.
The bartender ignores him now, lets him enter and drink, no questions asked. Easier for each of them, Logan muses, as another bottle appears in front of him just as his finishes the final pull from his third beer.
“You plan on taking me home after this?” Logan asks with a slight slur. “I think Liam has some new plan for me.”
“Fat chance, kid. I just know you’re less trouble when you’re loaded.” The bartender turns away, picks up the dishtowel and goes back to the tumblers and highballs that glisten against the neon beacons in the windows.
Logan pulls out the bullet when the mood strikes and stares long at hard at it. Still trying to read the small print engraved around it, he examines it while the beer waits and warms.
That night, five weeks ago, still plays in his brain as he examines the small silver bullet. He’s still sure that that Dean guy was pulling his chain about the werewolf, but then he thinks about those stories as more like the makings of a clichéd television show and not the real life of any two brothers who road trip through the country.
“Boy, if you keep lookin’ at that bullet, I’mma gonna have to ask you to leave. Bad for business,” the bartender announces when he finally realizes Logan has picked up the beer in front of him.
“Sure thing, sir. I’ll just have my last glass and call it a night,” Logan says with a smirk before the ‘tender goes back to ignoring himself.
--
It takes Logan seven weeks after Aaron’s death to actually ponder Sam and Dean and what they must do. He’s still not sure if all of it was the truth, but something in the air around Neptune smells off-faintly like rotting eggs-and he wonders if they really do hunt things that go bump in the night.
He starts to listen to the news for stories of anything vaguely out of the ordinary, but only hears about some accident with a semi and a car. He's almost forgotten about the whole mess when the bullet rolls off his nightstand without warning. Examining it briefly, Logan wonders if there’s something to all of it.
--
In between classes, Logan finds time to investigate the paranormal through the library at Hearst. It’s not something he could say he’d wanted to do, but the news (when he pays attention) reminds him there’s always seriously fucked up shit happening. Not like he didn’t know it before, but these stories send a chill up this spine in a way he can't recall Aaron doing.
The corners of the library creep when someone else walks across the floor, and if Logan’s honest, he’s starting to believe all the stories from these books and Dean. There is evil in the world worse than a psychotic father, a dead girlfriend, a dead mother and a constantly broken heart.
Demons don’t just exist within people, but outside of them, angered and damaged more than anyone else Logan can imagine.
--
Despite a cold reception, Logan counts on Keith Mars more than anyone else in his life. He asks the older man for advice from time to time, ignoring the girl-shaped elephant in the room each time. Logan doesn’t reveal the reasons why, but asks for a good legal source to buy older guns, a few good knives, and the older man complies with few questions (Logan’s sure that Keith would do the same for anyone else).
The day he graduates from Hearst is the day Logan ditches the Range Rover for an older, slightly rusting Monte Carlo. Setting off opposite the setting California sun, Logan drives, trunk packed with all the tools he assumes are part of the arsenal, hoping to find the mysterious brothers from five years before.
--
As he stops in bars across the country, Logan surmises that hunters are in short supply. He seeks out the haunts he knew were their water holes, but boards cover the windows, and there are no signs of life.
Determined, he keeps driving, knowing that at some point, he’ll find them, because they seem like the kind of hunters who do their job right and never fall into a bad situation.
The road, he finds, is not as lonely as he imagined from that brief conversation with Dean. There’s something in the quiet of his car, the radio stations mostly static, that calms him after years of being hyper-aware of certain news stories. Instead of paying attention to what movie is dominating the box office, Logan looks for stories about suspicious deaths and strange paranormal events towns try to push off as kids, alcohol-induced crazy, or both.
--
A phone call from Keith draws Logan briefly back to Neptune. He owes the man, and as he pulls into the familiar streets, Logan feels trapped. The stigma of being Logan Echolls returns, knowing that everyone in town will expect something from him.
But as he pulls into the Sunset Cliffs complex, Logan notices another older car just a few spots away from Keith’s sedan. Curious, Logan saunters towards the Mars’ apartment before he stops in his tracks-a pair of men sit near the pool, dressed too warmly for the spring evening-and Logan realizes that Keith has done it. Before Logan approaches the door, however, he notices another man near the pair, tan trench coat even more out of place than the leather jacket.
Polite to a fault, Logan knocks at the door, knowing full well what he was called back for is sitting a few feet away.
“Logan, I’m glad you made it quickly,” Keith says once the door opens.
“When you call, I come, Keith, you know that,” Logan says with a drawl, having missed conversation that wasn’t about demons or shapeshifters.
“Good. I did a little digging and managed to find those guys you’ve been looking for,” Keith continues before pointing towards the pool.
“Sort of noticed them before I knocked. I didn’t tell you to look for them, though.”
“You didn’t, but I still have those detective skills. I intuit.”
“Thanks, Keith,” Logan says before giving the man a one-armed hug.
“Tell me about it after you talk to them.”
Logan looks over his shoulder, sure that the trio has been eavesdropping on his previous conversation.
“Dean, nice to see you again,” Logan calls as he walks from the apartment towards the pool.
“Nice to see you, too, Logan. Still have that bullet?”
“Of course I do. Nice reminder of how I came to be what I am now,” he proudly says before patting the left pocket of his jeans.
“I don’t understand, Dean. Did you leave something out of this story?” the man in the trench coat asks.
“Cas, Dean met Logan a few years ago when we were on a case out here,” Sam interrupts, saving Dean from having to explain.
Logan watches as the man in the coat, Cas, stands between the brothers. Last time he saw the Winchesters, they were thick as thieves (and good ones). Dean’s eyes don’t meet his brothers’s, and the older brother is focused on looking at Cas and Logan, despite Sam’s entrance into the conversation.
“Oh, I see. But this trip is interrupting my quest still,” Cas says, eying Dean briefly before looking back at Sam for another social cue.
“We told you, you didn’t have to come,” Dean lets out with a sign. “You can go back to your search for the big man.”
“The big man?” Logan wonders.
“You aren’t getting good intel, Logan. There’s a war between demons and angels,” Sam comments, clearly ignoring his brother and focusing on Logan’s question instead.
“I knew that much,” Logan objects before continuing, “no one said anything about it being related to anything else.”
“Why wouldn’t it be connected to a power vacuum?” Dean asks, unsure of Logan’s attitude as a hunter and his skills for that matter at the nature of Logan’s question.
“Because we all know, go to Jersey, find a skeeball game, and voila!” Logan explains, waving his hands for dramatic effect.
Cas scrunches his nose and looks puzzled, clearly confused. Logan’s not sure who Cas is really, though he vaguely remembers a hunter outside of Austin mentioning that the Winchesters had an angel with them from time to time.
“Dogma, Cas, it’s a movie,” Sam says to help the other man.
“I’ve looked everywhere. I don’t think my Lord is in New Jersey.”
Dean shakes his head, trying to ignore the conversation entirely and draws his attention back to Logan. “Look, Logan, why’d we come out here again?”
“’Cause I know this battle is bigger than me, and in the last five months I’ve been on the road, every hunter I’ve known has gone down. Safety in numbers?”
“Do you see Castiel here? He’s more than enough for me right now,” Dean replies.
“Dean, come on,” Sam chides, “we could use the help.” Logan notices that as Sam finally addresses his brother, Dean’s body language says that he won’t give in.
“Not when we also have to worry about the other thing,” Dean says cryptically, as he finally addresses his brother in return.
Logan sighs as he watches the three of them bicker with each other. “This normal?”
“More or less,” Sam says before shuffling his hand through his hair in pointed concern.
“Then explain what happened in the last four years? You and Dean seem...” Logan pauses, finding the right word immediately but wary of using it. Discretion is not always the better part of valor, so he finishes bluntly: “Tense.” He’s never missed the chance to figure out why people act the way they do towards each other in the last five years. A certain blonde girl who may be fifty feet away, the reason he’s more than a little hyper aware of body language and the spoken word.
“The brothers are destined to be the vessels of Lucifer and Michael in the battle of Heaven and Hell,” Castiel says purposefully. “They don’t want to, which is why I’m still looking for the Lord.”
“This is one ride I want to be apart of,” Logan says, looking at the three of them, trying to contain his excitement at the newest mission for the brothers. He’s been alone on the hunt for months, but he's eager to be part of something again. Casting about and stumbling into whatever trouble he could scrape up was a lonely, often disheartening life.
Dean scoffs at Logan, who he’s sure is still as awkward as he was in that bar. “Can you protect yourself?”
“Did you miss the part where I said the hunters I’ve met aren’t here and I am?” Logan asks, standing tall - neophyte though he was, he'd left scores dead in his wake, and Logan knew his worth as a hunter.
“No, that just means you’ve been under the radar. With us, it’s the big time,” Dean retorts flatly.
“You forget I’ve seen enough other evil before this. I say bring it on.” Logan gives Dean a pointed look, the one that says he understands more than enough about the evil in the world and that his new job hasn’t killed his instincts about people.
“Whatever, man. If you’re in, we’re out of here. I can’t stand this weather right now,” Dean adds, shielding his eyes from the California sunset.
Logan watches as Castiel stares at Dean, and then Sam. The trio stare at each other, or Dean stares and Castiel, or the angel at both of the brothers, and finally and Sam eyes Castiel. Logan muses wryly that his has the potential for more awkward moments than that surprise party Aaron threw for him years before.
Finally, the group seems to arrive at an unspoken agreement - or an impasse -and they walk towards their car and away from the pool, Castiel takes the passenger seat as Sam slides into the back.
“You comin’?” Dean asks as he starts to pull the door shut to the Impala.
“Bet your ass!” Logan calls. He plans to call Keith and thank him for this meeting when they stop for the night.
--
fin
Fandoms: Supernatural and Veronica Mars
Characters/Pairings: Logan, Castiel, Sam and Dean.
Rating/Warning: PG-13 for some language.
Spoilers: All aired episodes for both shows, though this will arguable be AU for Supernatural as of My Bloody Valentine. As this is a fic of another fic, you should also read In Harm's Way, by the ever lovely dark_roast.
Summary: It takes Logan seven weeks after Aaron’s death to actually ponder Sam and Dean and what they must do. He’s still not sure if all of it was the truth, but something in the air around Neptune smells off-faintly like rotting eggs-and he wonders if they really do hunt things that go bump in the night.
Disclaimer: Not associated with Eric Kripke, Rob Thomas, The CW, or Warner Brothers. I'm just borrowing them. No copyright infringement intended.
Notes: Betaed by the lovely starxd_sparrow and everything_inme, and written as part of challenge #7 at vmfic_gameon. I was going with the fic the fic prompt. You really should all give Philly some love with her original, and I really hope you see this as a working extension of the work she's done before. Any and all mistakes are my own at this point.
Most days, it rests in his pocket-the subtle reminder of one night, four beers, shared stories-even as days float by and nothing happens. He fidgets with it in class, rolling it between his thumb and index finger while he listens to lectures about economics, English literature and physics. His disinterest in the material is evident, he assumes, because the days where no teacher asks him a question increase, the same way the days grow longer as the weather warms the California coast.
Neptune’s fine, the world’s fine, no need to worry. The bar is his one solace as the town descends into madness around his father’s trial. For all the crap he has been in there, The River Stix is a comfortable place these days. No one bothers to ask him about the trial, and they could care less about carding his ass. And it's not like he has anywhere else to turn.
The bartender ignores him now, lets him enter and drink, no questions asked. Easier for each of them, Logan muses, as another bottle appears in front of him just as his finishes the final pull from his third beer.
“You plan on taking me home after this?” Logan asks with a slight slur. “I think Liam has some new plan for me.”
“Fat chance, kid. I just know you’re less trouble when you’re loaded.” The bartender turns away, picks up the dishtowel and goes back to the tumblers and highballs that glisten against the neon beacons in the windows.
Logan pulls out the bullet when the mood strikes and stares long at hard at it. Still trying to read the small print engraved around it, he examines it while the beer waits and warms.
That night, five weeks ago, still plays in his brain as he examines the small silver bullet. He’s still sure that that Dean guy was pulling his chain about the werewolf, but then he thinks about those stories as more like the makings of a clichéd television show and not the real life of any two brothers who road trip through the country.
“Boy, if you keep lookin’ at that bullet, I’mma gonna have to ask you to leave. Bad for business,” the bartender announces when he finally realizes Logan has picked up the beer in front of him.
“Sure thing, sir. I’ll just have my last glass and call it a night,” Logan says with a smirk before the ‘tender goes back to ignoring himself.
--
It takes Logan seven weeks after Aaron’s death to actually ponder Sam and Dean and what they must do. He’s still not sure if all of it was the truth, but something in the air around Neptune smells off-faintly like rotting eggs-and he wonders if they really do hunt things that go bump in the night.
He starts to listen to the news for stories of anything vaguely out of the ordinary, but only hears about some accident with a semi and a car. He's almost forgotten about the whole mess when the bullet rolls off his nightstand without warning. Examining it briefly, Logan wonders if there’s something to all of it.
--
In between classes, Logan finds time to investigate the paranormal through the library at Hearst. It’s not something he could say he’d wanted to do, but the news (when he pays attention) reminds him there’s always seriously fucked up shit happening. Not like he didn’t know it before, but these stories send a chill up this spine in a way he can't recall Aaron doing.
The corners of the library creep when someone else walks across the floor, and if Logan’s honest, he’s starting to believe all the stories from these books and Dean. There is evil in the world worse than a psychotic father, a dead girlfriend, a dead mother and a constantly broken heart.
Demons don’t just exist within people, but outside of them, angered and damaged more than anyone else Logan can imagine.
--
Despite a cold reception, Logan counts on Keith Mars more than anyone else in his life. He asks the older man for advice from time to time, ignoring the girl-shaped elephant in the room each time. Logan doesn’t reveal the reasons why, but asks for a good legal source to buy older guns, a few good knives, and the older man complies with few questions (Logan’s sure that Keith would do the same for anyone else).
The day he graduates from Hearst is the day Logan ditches the Range Rover for an older, slightly rusting Monte Carlo. Setting off opposite the setting California sun, Logan drives, trunk packed with all the tools he assumes are part of the arsenal, hoping to find the mysterious brothers from five years before.
--
As he stops in bars across the country, Logan surmises that hunters are in short supply. He seeks out the haunts he knew were their water holes, but boards cover the windows, and there are no signs of life.
Determined, he keeps driving, knowing that at some point, he’ll find them, because they seem like the kind of hunters who do their job right and never fall into a bad situation.
The road, he finds, is not as lonely as he imagined from that brief conversation with Dean. There’s something in the quiet of his car, the radio stations mostly static, that calms him after years of being hyper-aware of certain news stories. Instead of paying attention to what movie is dominating the box office, Logan looks for stories about suspicious deaths and strange paranormal events towns try to push off as kids, alcohol-induced crazy, or both.
--
A phone call from Keith draws Logan briefly back to Neptune. He owes the man, and as he pulls into the familiar streets, Logan feels trapped. The stigma of being Logan Echolls returns, knowing that everyone in town will expect something from him.
But as he pulls into the Sunset Cliffs complex, Logan notices another older car just a few spots away from Keith’s sedan. Curious, Logan saunters towards the Mars’ apartment before he stops in his tracks-a pair of men sit near the pool, dressed too warmly for the spring evening-and Logan realizes that Keith has done it. Before Logan approaches the door, however, he notices another man near the pair, tan trench coat even more out of place than the leather jacket.
Polite to a fault, Logan knocks at the door, knowing full well what he was called back for is sitting a few feet away.
“Logan, I’m glad you made it quickly,” Keith says once the door opens.
“When you call, I come, Keith, you know that,” Logan says with a drawl, having missed conversation that wasn’t about demons or shapeshifters.
“Good. I did a little digging and managed to find those guys you’ve been looking for,” Keith continues before pointing towards the pool.
“Sort of noticed them before I knocked. I didn’t tell you to look for them, though.”
“You didn’t, but I still have those detective skills. I intuit.”
“Thanks, Keith,” Logan says before giving the man a one-armed hug.
“Tell me about it after you talk to them.”
Logan looks over his shoulder, sure that the trio has been eavesdropping on his previous conversation.
“Dean, nice to see you again,” Logan calls as he walks from the apartment towards the pool.
“Nice to see you, too, Logan. Still have that bullet?”
“Of course I do. Nice reminder of how I came to be what I am now,” he proudly says before patting the left pocket of his jeans.
“I don’t understand, Dean. Did you leave something out of this story?” the man in the trench coat asks.
“Cas, Dean met Logan a few years ago when we were on a case out here,” Sam interrupts, saving Dean from having to explain.
Logan watches as the man in the coat, Cas, stands between the brothers. Last time he saw the Winchesters, they were thick as thieves (and good ones). Dean’s eyes don’t meet his brothers’s, and the older brother is focused on looking at Cas and Logan, despite Sam’s entrance into the conversation.
“Oh, I see. But this trip is interrupting my quest still,” Cas says, eying Dean briefly before looking back at Sam for another social cue.
“We told you, you didn’t have to come,” Dean lets out with a sign. “You can go back to your search for the big man.”
“The big man?” Logan wonders.
“You aren’t getting good intel, Logan. There’s a war between demons and angels,” Sam comments, clearly ignoring his brother and focusing on Logan’s question instead.
“I knew that much,” Logan objects before continuing, “no one said anything about it being related to anything else.”
“Why wouldn’t it be connected to a power vacuum?” Dean asks, unsure of Logan’s attitude as a hunter and his skills for that matter at the nature of Logan’s question.
“Because we all know, go to Jersey, find a skeeball game, and voila!” Logan explains, waving his hands for dramatic effect.
Cas scrunches his nose and looks puzzled, clearly confused. Logan’s not sure who Cas is really, though he vaguely remembers a hunter outside of Austin mentioning that the Winchesters had an angel with them from time to time.
“Dogma, Cas, it’s a movie,” Sam says to help the other man.
“I’ve looked everywhere. I don’t think my Lord is in New Jersey.”
Dean shakes his head, trying to ignore the conversation entirely and draws his attention back to Logan. “Look, Logan, why’d we come out here again?”
“’Cause I know this battle is bigger than me, and in the last five months I’ve been on the road, every hunter I’ve known has gone down. Safety in numbers?”
“Do you see Castiel here? He’s more than enough for me right now,” Dean replies.
“Dean, come on,” Sam chides, “we could use the help.” Logan notices that as Sam finally addresses his brother, Dean’s body language says that he won’t give in.
“Not when we also have to worry about the other thing,” Dean says cryptically, as he finally addresses his brother in return.
Logan sighs as he watches the three of them bicker with each other. “This normal?”
“More or less,” Sam says before shuffling his hand through his hair in pointed concern.
“Then explain what happened in the last four years? You and Dean seem...” Logan pauses, finding the right word immediately but wary of using it. Discretion is not always the better part of valor, so he finishes bluntly: “Tense.” He’s never missed the chance to figure out why people act the way they do towards each other in the last five years. A certain blonde girl who may be fifty feet away, the reason he’s more than a little hyper aware of body language and the spoken word.
“The brothers are destined to be the vessels of Lucifer and Michael in the battle of Heaven and Hell,” Castiel says purposefully. “They don’t want to, which is why I’m still looking for the Lord.”
“This is one ride I want to be apart of,” Logan says, looking at the three of them, trying to contain his excitement at the newest mission for the brothers. He’s been alone on the hunt for months, but he's eager to be part of something again. Casting about and stumbling into whatever trouble he could scrape up was a lonely, often disheartening life.
Dean scoffs at Logan, who he’s sure is still as awkward as he was in that bar. “Can you protect yourself?”
“Did you miss the part where I said the hunters I’ve met aren’t here and I am?” Logan asks, standing tall - neophyte though he was, he'd left scores dead in his wake, and Logan knew his worth as a hunter.
“No, that just means you’ve been under the radar. With us, it’s the big time,” Dean retorts flatly.
“You forget I’ve seen enough other evil before this. I say bring it on.” Logan gives Dean a pointed look, the one that says he understands more than enough about the evil in the world and that his new job hasn’t killed his instincts about people.
“Whatever, man. If you’re in, we’re out of here. I can’t stand this weather right now,” Dean adds, shielding his eyes from the California sunset.
Logan watches as Castiel stares at Dean, and then Sam. The trio stare at each other, or Dean stares and Castiel, or the angel at both of the brothers, and finally and Sam eyes Castiel. Logan muses wryly that his has the potential for more awkward moments than that surprise party Aaron threw for him years before.
Finally, the group seems to arrive at an unspoken agreement - or an impasse -and they walk towards their car and away from the pool, Castiel takes the passenger seat as Sam slides into the back.
“You comin’?” Dean asks as he starts to pull the door shut to the Impala.
“Bet your ass!” Logan calls. He plans to call Keith and thank him for this meeting when they stop for the night.
--
fin