Highway to Hell: Episode Three: "Burn in Hell"
Episode 3 : Burn in Hell
Chapter 3: Someday...I Promise
Chapter Wordcount: 2345
Dean and Sam did settle into the beds in the back of the Kenworth and dozed off pretty rapidly. Monte was riding shotgun with Rickey.
She sighed and leaned back after the boys got situated.
“Damn, I didn’t realize how much I missed this,” she smiled looking out the huge windshield.
Rickey laughed and opened a glove box by the shifter, opening a small cooler he kept in there and pulling out a bottle of Jack Daniels.
“What do you say to a toast to old times?” he asked with a wiggle of his eyebrows.
Monte rolled her eyes before standing up and twisting around to grab a couple collapsible shot glasses from a compartment overhead, smiling when she realized he still kept them in the same spot.
“You haven’t changed at all have you?” she asked as she poured them their drinks.
“What fun would that be?” he smiled, slamming back his drink.
She slammed back hers and poured another.
“So, what happened babe?”
She didn’t have to ask about what. He was talking about her brother.
“I caught up with him at home. Things went…sideways. He was killed.”
She wasn’t about to tell him how.
Rickey watched her quietly from the side.
“Why didn’t you tell me hun, you know I would have found a way back for the funeral.”
“There wasn’t one,” she whispered.
He, thankfully, left it alone. He probably knew better than anyone how emotional she got when it came to her family. She had ridden with him the year after Kevin had split.
He reached over and poured her another shot before replacing the bottle in its hiding spot.
She smiled at him and tilted back, letting the whiskey burn down her throat, and enjoying every second of the pain. At least it was proof she was alive.
“How’d you meet them?” he asked, throwing a thumb in the direction of the sleeper and the boys.
Monte chuckled. “I was changing a fuel filter on the way home; they pulled over thinking I needed help.”
Rickey laughed, “You? Need help with a car?”
Monte laughed too. “Yea I know, we kinda just hung out after that.”
“Uh huh,” Rick added not so subtly.
“Shut it,” she smiled.
“If I had to venture a guess I would say you’re with Dean. He seems more your type.”
“You don’t have to venture a guess and yes I am,” she said with a sarcastic grin. “What, you don’t watch enough soap operas, you gotta know about mine?”
“Hey now!” he smiled. “I’m just looking out for my little girl.”
“Yea, yea,” she laughed.
They got dinner in Aiken before Rickey had to leave to go pick up his shipment of cars. They said their goodbyes and walked him back to his rig and watched him pull away.
Monte wanted to stop at the Wal-Mart they had spotted down the road before finding a motel.
They were walking out with a couple bags when Monte stopped dead right outside the door. Dean twisted the cap back on his soda and followed her gaze to a skinny little teenager that looked like he was trying to break into her car.
Monte zoned out immediately, somehow still having enough coherency left to jam the plastic bag into Sam’s chest before full out sprinting over towards her car, Dean wasn’t too far behind.
But behind enough.
She screamed at the kid when she was within about twenty feet or so. The little hoodlum started to run; his baggy pants slowed him down considerably though.
Sam slid to a stop in the middle of the parking lot as he watched Monte tackle the kid like a frickin’ linebacker.
She slammed him into the ground, his skull bouncing off the asphalt with a sickening sound and the kid saw spots.
Dean still hadn’t made it to her as she began punching the kid in the face over and over again; blood began to flow out of his nose and collected in the crease of his lips as his lip was busted open.
To the kid’s credit, he tried fighting back, but Monte’s assault was so fast and furious there was no defense.
Sam and Dean finally made it over to the scene. Sam hurled the groceries unto the trunk of Monte’s car, Dean’s soda rolling all the way across and crashing down to the ground on the other side.
Dean slid to a stop behind Monte and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, silently thanking God that for some reason Monte hadn’t been armed at that particular point in time.
“Monte! Hey! Relax! Stop!”
“Don’t tell me to fucking stop, that fucking prick!” she screamed, still resisting against his thick arms and solid chest that held her immobile.
Sam ran over to the kid while Dean yelled at him to get him the hell out of there, Sam had barely hit his knees to make sure the kid was okay, when the would be carjacker shot up and took off running.
Sam looked around and noticed a few customers that had witnessed the attack.
“Uh…guys, we need to go…like now.”
Dean’s brow was furrowed as he took Monte’s keys from her pocket and threw his own to Sam, there was no way in hell he was letting her drive right now.
At least a hundred miles down the interstate, and a safe enough distance away from any cops that might have responded to the little, disturbance, at the Wal-Mart, Dean finally broke the silence.
“You mind telling me what happened back there?”
Monte had been curled up in the passenger seat, staring out the window the entire time.
“I dunno,” she mumbled.
“Monte…”
“I don’t know Dean.”
“Look…that, well, that kinda freaked me out. Talk to me.”
“I just…snapped. I don’t know what happened Dean. Trust me; it freaks me out more than it does you.”
He glanced over at her and watched her warily.
“We’re getting pretty close to Columbia. You wanna stay there for the night?”
She sat in silence for a moment, finally leaning down and turning the volume up on the radio slightly before nodding. “Yea…let’s stop there,” she answered quietly, a plan forming in her mind.
*The Eagle’s “Desperado” playing in the background*
They pulled into the rest stop right outside the city limits and filled up both the cars.
Monte went inside to go to the bathroom and came back out acting normal.
Dean and Sam shot a look between each other.
“Stop walking on eggshells around me, geez. I snapped, okay, the kid was fucking with my car, I snapped.”
“Like a tree in a hurricane,” Dean pointed out.
She rolled her eyes and held out her hand. “Where’s my keys?”
Dean held them out hesitantly and let her take them.
“I’m picking the rooms tonight,” she said, getting into her car without offering anymore of an explanation.
Dean and Sam once again shared a look. Sam finally shrugged his shoulders. “Hey man, don’t look at me, she’s your girl.”
“Thanks…thanks a lot,” Dean shot back, getting into the passenger side of the Monte Carlo.
She drove for at least another twenty minutes before pulling into a very long shaded driveway with an elegant sign by the road declaring it the Wingate Inn.
Dean glanced over at her as they pulled into the small parking lot to the left of the quaint building.
“This isn’t exactly our style.”
She got out of the car without a word and leaned back down right as Dean’s hand was poised to open the door and follow her.
“Get the bags please,” she said sweetly through the downed window before heading inside. Dean heard the tinkling of a bell as the door closed behind her.
Sam parked a couple spots over and walked to where Dean had just gotten out.
“What’s she doing? Asking for directions?”
“She told me to get the bags, so I’m assuming getting rooms.”
“What? There’s no way we can pay for a place like this!” Sam pointed out with a worried wave of his hand.
“Yea, thanks Captain Obvious.”
She came back out with a couple room keys and fixed them both with a look.
“Am I gonna havta carry the bags myself?”
Dean grabbed her elbow as she walked past him and towards the trunk.
“Okay, A) you seriously freaked me out back in Aiken, and your freaking me out now, B) besides the point that this isn’t our normal dive, there’s no way in hell we can pay for this, even if you went on a little pick-pocketing spree…wait…you didn’t…”
“No I didn’t. I’m sorry about Aiken alright. That car is all I have left of my dad. No one fucks with it, and you know about my temper so that shouldn’t surprise you. Yes we can pay for this…and no I didn’t use a five-finger discount, okay? I want a break, and we need a damn vacation. We’re staying here, and I don’t want to hear another word about it. It’s taken care of, alright?”
“No.”
She rolled her eyes and grabbed her bag from her trunk and went stalking back towards the building.
“We’re in room seven if you boys feel like joining me,” she added over her shoulder.
Dean and Sam did grudgingly follow her into the homey building, finding their way down the hallway and to room seven.
Monte had left the door cracked open and Dean nudged it open with his boot and stopped dead one step into the room.
Sam wasn’t paying too much attention and almost slammed right into his back.
Right ahead of them was a small sitting area, with a couch, coffee table, big screen TV and even a fireplace. To the right was a small kitchenette, where Monte was putting some sodas in the fridge and a door past that that looked like it led to a room.
Dean’s brow crunched in confusion, as he turned his head to the left and saw a door that looked like it led to another room.
Sam whispered over Dean’s shoulder, “How did she pay for this?”
Dean whispered back, “I dunno,” somewhat hotly, he wasn’t sure how she had managed to land this, but damned if he wasn’t going to find out.
Sensing the tension that was crackling in the air Sam used the excuse of wanting a shower to excuse himself.
Monte turned from the fridge and pointed to the room on the left, “That one’s yours hun.”
Sam nodded with a small smile and quickly scurried off.
Dean eyed her warily when she pointed to the other room, “You can put your bags in there, unless you just feel like holding them.”
He stomped over towards the room and dropped them unceremoniously by the door, granting himself a quick glance.
Okay, so it wasn’t such a quick glance, at least not once he saw the actual room.
Another large TV, king size bed, dressers, and what looked like a huge bathroom. His gaze stopped when he spotted the Jacuzzi tub sunk into the floor.
The corner of his lip twitched into a mischievous grin when he entertained the thought of how that tub might be used.
He quick snapped himself out of it and replaced the scowl on his face before stomping back to the kitchen area and leaning against the dining table across from Monte and crossing his arms across his chest.
“Spill.”
She took a sarcastic look at her soda. “Sorry, don’t feel like cleaning a sticky mess up right now.”
Scowl.
She stared at him right back.
More scowling.
Did he seriously think he could win this? Monte suppressed a chuckle.
“Dean…I’m tired. I want a break. We’re taking a vacation. Get over it.”
“How?”
“How what?”
“Don’t ‘how what’ me. You know damn well what. How the hell did you pay for this?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Monte!”
“Do you trust me?”
He stopped. Of course he trusted her. But her secrets kept nagging at the back of his brain.
“You know I do,” he mumbled.
“Good. Then just let it be.”
“No.”
“Dean…you didn’t like what I did in Tennessee, but I asked you to trust me and everything worked out didn’t it?”
“That’s not the point.”
“Look, I can’t…I can’t tell you.”
“Why?”
“Just trust me.”
He took one long stride in his jeans and slammed his hands on either side of the counter next to her.
Her eyebrow arched in challenge. Next thing he knew her knee was ever so slightly brushing against where his family jewels were nestled in his jeans.
“Don’t try me boy.”
Okay Dean, breathe, they’re okay.
“You wont hurt ‘em, they mean too much to you,” he bit out with a sarcastic grin.
“Don’t be too confident there honey, I survived long before you showed up.”
Scowl.
She couldn’t help it, she smiled.
“Dean…please. I will tell you, okay, just…when the timing’s right.”
“And when will that be?”
“I don’t know. “
“That’s comforting.”
“Look, we all have our secrets. I know there’s shit about you and Sam that I don’t know, and sometimes I wonder if I ever want to know. Trust me, we can afford this, I got it covered. Hell, I’m not even doing anything illegal. And I do want to tell you, but I can't, not right now, someday, but not now. You know how much you boys mean to me so don’t you dare try guilt tripping me Dean Winchester, I’m doing this for you guys, for us. So please…I’m asking you to trust me.”
Dean stared into her smoky blue eyes, eyes that seemed a little deeper at that moment.
He sighed, letting his scowl disappear from his features and leaned in to kiss her softly.
“You know I trust you,” he whispered.
She continued to stare at him.
“Just promise me you’ll tell me.”
“I will…I just can’t right now.”
He sighed again. “Okay,” he relented, pulling her into a hug, where she rested her cheek on his chest.
Previous: Chapter Two | Next: Chapter Four
Highway to Hell Master Post
Chapter 3: Someday...I Promise
Chapter Wordcount: 2345
Dean and Sam did settle into the beds in the back of the Kenworth and dozed off pretty rapidly. Monte was riding shotgun with Rickey.
She sighed and leaned back after the boys got situated.
“Damn, I didn’t realize how much I missed this,” she smiled looking out the huge windshield.
Rickey laughed and opened a glove box by the shifter, opening a small cooler he kept in there and pulling out a bottle of Jack Daniels.
“What do you say to a toast to old times?” he asked with a wiggle of his eyebrows.
Monte rolled her eyes before standing up and twisting around to grab a couple collapsible shot glasses from a compartment overhead, smiling when she realized he still kept them in the same spot.
“You haven’t changed at all have you?” she asked as she poured them their drinks.
“What fun would that be?” he smiled, slamming back his drink.
She slammed back hers and poured another.
“So, what happened babe?”
She didn’t have to ask about what. He was talking about her brother.
“I caught up with him at home. Things went…sideways. He was killed.”
She wasn’t about to tell him how.
Rickey watched her quietly from the side.
“Why didn’t you tell me hun, you know I would have found a way back for the funeral.”
“There wasn’t one,” she whispered.
He, thankfully, left it alone. He probably knew better than anyone how emotional she got when it came to her family. She had ridden with him the year after Kevin had split.
He reached over and poured her another shot before replacing the bottle in its hiding spot.
She smiled at him and tilted back, letting the whiskey burn down her throat, and enjoying every second of the pain. At least it was proof she was alive.
“How’d you meet them?” he asked, throwing a thumb in the direction of the sleeper and the boys.
Monte chuckled. “I was changing a fuel filter on the way home; they pulled over thinking I needed help.”
Rickey laughed, “You? Need help with a car?”
Monte laughed too. “Yea I know, we kinda just hung out after that.”
“Uh huh,” Rick added not so subtly.
“Shut it,” she smiled.
“If I had to venture a guess I would say you’re with Dean. He seems more your type.”
“You don’t have to venture a guess and yes I am,” she said with a sarcastic grin. “What, you don’t watch enough soap operas, you gotta know about mine?”
“Hey now!” he smiled. “I’m just looking out for my little girl.”
“Yea, yea,” she laughed.
They got dinner in Aiken before Rickey had to leave to go pick up his shipment of cars. They said their goodbyes and walked him back to his rig and watched him pull away.
Monte wanted to stop at the Wal-Mart they had spotted down the road before finding a motel.
They were walking out with a couple bags when Monte stopped dead right outside the door. Dean twisted the cap back on his soda and followed her gaze to a skinny little teenager that looked like he was trying to break into her car.
Monte zoned out immediately, somehow still having enough coherency left to jam the plastic bag into Sam’s chest before full out sprinting over towards her car, Dean wasn’t too far behind.
But behind enough.
She screamed at the kid when she was within about twenty feet or so. The little hoodlum started to run; his baggy pants slowed him down considerably though.
Sam slid to a stop in the middle of the parking lot as he watched Monte tackle the kid like a frickin’ linebacker.
She slammed him into the ground, his skull bouncing off the asphalt with a sickening sound and the kid saw spots.
Dean still hadn’t made it to her as she began punching the kid in the face over and over again; blood began to flow out of his nose and collected in the crease of his lips as his lip was busted open.
To the kid’s credit, he tried fighting back, but Monte’s assault was so fast and furious there was no defense.
Sam and Dean finally made it over to the scene. Sam hurled the groceries unto the trunk of Monte’s car, Dean’s soda rolling all the way across and crashing down to the ground on the other side.
Dean slid to a stop behind Monte and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, silently thanking God that for some reason Monte hadn’t been armed at that particular point in time.
“Monte! Hey! Relax! Stop!”
“Don’t tell me to fucking stop, that fucking prick!” she screamed, still resisting against his thick arms and solid chest that held her immobile.
Sam ran over to the kid while Dean yelled at him to get him the hell out of there, Sam had barely hit his knees to make sure the kid was okay, when the would be carjacker shot up and took off running.
Sam looked around and noticed a few customers that had witnessed the attack.
“Uh…guys, we need to go…like now.”
Dean’s brow was furrowed as he took Monte’s keys from her pocket and threw his own to Sam, there was no way in hell he was letting her drive right now.
At least a hundred miles down the interstate, and a safe enough distance away from any cops that might have responded to the little, disturbance, at the Wal-Mart, Dean finally broke the silence.
“You mind telling me what happened back there?”
Monte had been curled up in the passenger seat, staring out the window the entire time.
“I dunno,” she mumbled.
“Monte…”
“I don’t know Dean.”
“Look…that, well, that kinda freaked me out. Talk to me.”
“I just…snapped. I don’t know what happened Dean. Trust me; it freaks me out more than it does you.”
He glanced over at her and watched her warily.
“We’re getting pretty close to Columbia. You wanna stay there for the night?”
She sat in silence for a moment, finally leaning down and turning the volume up on the radio slightly before nodding. “Yea…let’s stop there,” she answered quietly, a plan forming in her mind.
*The Eagle’s “Desperado” playing in the background*
They pulled into the rest stop right outside the city limits and filled up both the cars.
Monte went inside to go to the bathroom and came back out acting normal.
Dean and Sam shot a look between each other.
“Stop walking on eggshells around me, geez. I snapped, okay, the kid was fucking with my car, I snapped.”
“Like a tree in a hurricane,” Dean pointed out.
She rolled her eyes and held out her hand. “Where’s my keys?”
Dean held them out hesitantly and let her take them.
“I’m picking the rooms tonight,” she said, getting into her car without offering anymore of an explanation.
Dean and Sam once again shared a look. Sam finally shrugged his shoulders. “Hey man, don’t look at me, she’s your girl.”
“Thanks…thanks a lot,” Dean shot back, getting into the passenger side of the Monte Carlo.
She drove for at least another twenty minutes before pulling into a very long shaded driveway with an elegant sign by the road declaring it the Wingate Inn.
Dean glanced over at her as they pulled into the small parking lot to the left of the quaint building.
“This isn’t exactly our style.”
She got out of the car without a word and leaned back down right as Dean’s hand was poised to open the door and follow her.
“Get the bags please,” she said sweetly through the downed window before heading inside. Dean heard the tinkling of a bell as the door closed behind her.
Sam parked a couple spots over and walked to where Dean had just gotten out.
“What’s she doing? Asking for directions?”
“She told me to get the bags, so I’m assuming getting rooms.”
“What? There’s no way we can pay for a place like this!” Sam pointed out with a worried wave of his hand.
“Yea, thanks Captain Obvious.”
She came back out with a couple room keys and fixed them both with a look.
“Am I gonna havta carry the bags myself?”
Dean grabbed her elbow as she walked past him and towards the trunk.
“Okay, A) you seriously freaked me out back in Aiken, and your freaking me out now, B) besides the point that this isn’t our normal dive, there’s no way in hell we can pay for this, even if you went on a little pick-pocketing spree…wait…you didn’t…”
“No I didn’t. I’m sorry about Aiken alright. That car is all I have left of my dad. No one fucks with it, and you know about my temper so that shouldn’t surprise you. Yes we can pay for this…and no I didn’t use a five-finger discount, okay? I want a break, and we need a damn vacation. We’re staying here, and I don’t want to hear another word about it. It’s taken care of, alright?”
“No.”
She rolled her eyes and grabbed her bag from her trunk and went stalking back towards the building.
“We’re in room seven if you boys feel like joining me,” she added over her shoulder.
Dean and Sam did grudgingly follow her into the homey building, finding their way down the hallway and to room seven.
Monte had left the door cracked open and Dean nudged it open with his boot and stopped dead one step into the room.
Sam wasn’t paying too much attention and almost slammed right into his back.
Right ahead of them was a small sitting area, with a couch, coffee table, big screen TV and even a fireplace. To the right was a small kitchenette, where Monte was putting some sodas in the fridge and a door past that that looked like it led to a room.
Dean’s brow crunched in confusion, as he turned his head to the left and saw a door that looked like it led to another room.
Sam whispered over Dean’s shoulder, “How did she pay for this?”
Dean whispered back, “I dunno,” somewhat hotly, he wasn’t sure how she had managed to land this, but damned if he wasn’t going to find out.
Sensing the tension that was crackling in the air Sam used the excuse of wanting a shower to excuse himself.
Monte turned from the fridge and pointed to the room on the left, “That one’s yours hun.”
Sam nodded with a small smile and quickly scurried off.
Dean eyed her warily when she pointed to the other room, “You can put your bags in there, unless you just feel like holding them.”
He stomped over towards the room and dropped them unceremoniously by the door, granting himself a quick glance.
Okay, so it wasn’t such a quick glance, at least not once he saw the actual room.
Another large TV, king size bed, dressers, and what looked like a huge bathroom. His gaze stopped when he spotted the Jacuzzi tub sunk into the floor.
The corner of his lip twitched into a mischievous grin when he entertained the thought of how that tub might be used.
He quick snapped himself out of it and replaced the scowl on his face before stomping back to the kitchen area and leaning against the dining table across from Monte and crossing his arms across his chest.
“Spill.”
She took a sarcastic look at her soda. “Sorry, don’t feel like cleaning a sticky mess up right now.”
Scowl.
She stared at him right back.
More scowling.
Did he seriously think he could win this? Monte suppressed a chuckle.
“Dean…I’m tired. I want a break. We’re taking a vacation. Get over it.”
“How?”
“How what?”
“Don’t ‘how what’ me. You know damn well what. How the hell did you pay for this?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Monte!”
“Do you trust me?”
He stopped. Of course he trusted her. But her secrets kept nagging at the back of his brain.
“You know I do,” he mumbled.
“Good. Then just let it be.”
“No.”
“Dean…you didn’t like what I did in Tennessee, but I asked you to trust me and everything worked out didn’t it?”
“That’s not the point.”
“Look, I can’t…I can’t tell you.”
“Why?”
“Just trust me.”
He took one long stride in his jeans and slammed his hands on either side of the counter next to her.
Her eyebrow arched in challenge. Next thing he knew her knee was ever so slightly brushing against where his family jewels were nestled in his jeans.
“Don’t try me boy.”
Okay Dean, breathe, they’re okay.
“You wont hurt ‘em, they mean too much to you,” he bit out with a sarcastic grin.
“Don’t be too confident there honey, I survived long before you showed up.”
Scowl.
She couldn’t help it, she smiled.
“Dean…please. I will tell you, okay, just…when the timing’s right.”
“And when will that be?”
“I don’t know. “
“That’s comforting.”
“Look, we all have our secrets. I know there’s shit about you and Sam that I don’t know, and sometimes I wonder if I ever want to know. Trust me, we can afford this, I got it covered. Hell, I’m not even doing anything illegal. And I do want to tell you, but I can't, not right now, someday, but not now. You know how much you boys mean to me so don’t you dare try guilt tripping me Dean Winchester, I’m doing this for you guys, for us. So please…I’m asking you to trust me.”
Dean stared into her smoky blue eyes, eyes that seemed a little deeper at that moment.
He sighed, letting his scowl disappear from his features and leaned in to kiss her softly.
“You know I trust you,” he whispered.
She continued to stare at him.
“Just promise me you’ll tell me.”
“I will…I just can’t right now.”
He sighed again. “Okay,” he relented, pulling her into a hug, where she rested her cheek on his chest.
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Highway to Hell Master Post