And Die In Thee - 6/7
And Die In Thee - 6/7
1,973/26,000 R, Het
Right doesn’t ever count the cost. Should it?
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
Part 6
Some days Dean thought that life sucked like a vacuum cleaner on steroids. Today was worse. In real life no departure was ever that easy. He’d been standing, baking to a shell of himself, across the street for much too long, staring at the Impala parked outside their motel. Just where he’d prayed and dreaded it would be. Home from the war, early.
Enduring, as the dry summer heat pulsed back up from the ground, trying to think how to deal with his father. Talking wasn’t something either of them did well. That was Sammy’s job. He and his Dad? Well, they were better at the action. Locking everything they felt deep inside? That was something they excelled at.
Dean had never been so glad to see the Impala. Just in time. Or wanted to see his father less. How could he explain this? His father would be furious at him for involving Sammy in an unsanctioned hunt. Let him decide. No. He’d somehow got them both into this mess, and he had to prove that he could finish it, alone. My gig, my problem.
He slowly crossed the road to the motel. Putting the confrontation off just that extra few seconds as he desperately tried to think of a way to explain things. Time to brave his father, he thought, knocking once, pausing and giving another single knock before he unlocked the door.
‘Hey, Dad,’ he said into the muzzle of his father’s Beretta.
‘Dean, Goddamn it! What the hell are you doing back here now?’ John snapped as he placed his gun back on the table. ‘You should be in school with Sammy. What’s wrong?’ he asked with sudden concern.
Shit. Time to make a choice. The lady or the Winchester? ‘Screwed up my timetable. Too busy running around after Sammy. Forgot to take my gym stuff for this afternoon. Thought I’d better come back for it. Don’t need another freaking detention this week,’ he grinned smoothly at his father. I can do this. What his father didn’t know couldn’t hurt any of them. He knew what he had to do now. There was only one imperfect solution. Time to bear the consequences later. The repercussions were going to be a bitch. His world was going to explode if he survived this. Dad’s gonna kill me.
‘Dean, you’ve got to learn to be more organised. Mistakes will get you killed. I taught you both better than that,’ his father said, seriously annoyed. Yup. Didn’t take much to set his Dad off. He hated the fact that having his father angry made it easier to lie to him. Use it. His father had taught him that, how to use everything and twist it to one’s advantage. Anything that gave you an edge in a hunt, in life. Time to grab what he’d “forgotten” and get out of there quick. Because the next step in his plan was going to blow the lie to hell and gone as soon as he took it.
‘I’ll just get my kit,’ Dean said as he walked past the kitchen table en route to his bedroom. Oh, shit! ‘Who’s the cute chick?’ Dean asked glancing back up from the photo his father had on top of his open journal.
‘That chick is a succubus.’
‘Huh! Didn’t know they made them so young,’ Dean remarked calmly.
‘Her name is Annie Lilin. She was at your school.’
‘They have names, and go to school now?’ Dean asked. ‘Who knew demons embraced education? Guess that’s progress for you.’
‘Her mother was the one I killed last month. You haven’t seen her around school have you?’
‘Well, I generally prefer blondes, but I’d have remembered if she was in my class,’ Dean replied. ‘What’s she supposed to be doing here if her mother was in Phoenix?’
‘They lived over on Beaumont. Looks like they knew enough to have their killing field elsewhere. I came back here after I killed her mother, but I couldn’t find anything. Then there were three more deaths in Phoenix. I went back and tracked down another succubus. Thought it was the girl, but it was her aunt. Got her,’ he said rotating his left shoulder in obvious discomfort. ‘But not before she cut me good.’
‘Let me look at it,’ Dean demanded, everything else forgotten in that moment. ‘Do you need me to stitch it?’
‘Nah, managed to do that there. I was bleeding like a pig, so I couldn’t let it wait. It’ll be okay,’ he said brusquely, pushing his son’s hands away.
‘The kid might have gotten a lift out of town with one of the snowbirds. I’ve been scouting other towns nearby, but no luck. I came back here to backtrack. Have to get her before anyone else gets killed. Once that’s done, we’re out of here.’
~~~
It was only the second time Dean had stolen a car for real, apart from lifting them as part of his father’s training schedule. Still it was kid stuff, something even Sammy could do (and had on more than one occasion) with his eyes closed.
So, stealing the Impala should have been easy. Dean had literally been born in that car on a Kansas back road, when he’d decided to crash his birthday party three weeks early to get first dibs on the chocolate cake. And hell, he - they - had all lived in it pretty much ever since. He’d bled on her, thrown up in her, fixed her, slept in her, and loved her like the fourth member of the family that he thought of her as. He’d even been known to borrow her every now and then when he just needed to drive things out.
‘Come on baby,’ Dean crooned as he turned the spare key in the ignition and pumped the clutch. ‘That’s my girl.’
Dean’s slow, quiet, reversal of the car out of its spot in front of the motel was calculated to arouse no-one’s interest, least of all his father’s.
What he’d neglected to factor in was that John Winchester knew the sound of his car even better than his sons, and the speed with which he ran out of the room with his gun already up and focussing on the driver, proved that Dean had a long way to go before he’d ever be that good.
As he floored the accelerator, Dean didn’t need that quick look back to see that his father was already altering his aim for one of the tires. He took it anyway. Dad was pissed.
Should was one of those verbs Dean that was going to have to be more wary of in future.
~~~
Screaming the car to a stop in front of the public library right in view of Mrs Friedman, the town’s elderly but still feisty parking inspector, was not a good move. But at this stage Dean had given up subtlety in favour of speed, and not getting shot.
Standing in the foyer shouting ‘Sammy, get your ass out of there!’ was also guaranteed to get him banned from libraries for life. Dean was just fine with that.
Luckily his brother was already dragging a reluctant Annie and their packs out of the children’s section. By the way the incoming librarian backed down, smiling warmly at his little brother, Sammy had put his charm to good use that morning.
‘Come on!’ Dean grabbed the packs and tossed them in the back, and barely restrained himself from doing the same with Annie. He settled for pushing her in the front before he and Sammy swung onto the bench seat on either side of her and neatly fenced her in.
‘You lifted the Chevvy?’ Sammy’s voice was a little faint as Dean spun the car around in front of a hyperventilating Mrs Friedman, before speeding towards the outskirts of town. ‘Please tell me Dad was asleep at the time?’
‘Let’s just say he can aim a gun real well while he’s sleepwalking,’ Dean replied, eyes torn between the road ahead, and the very real possibility of John Winchester in the rear-view mirror.
‘He shot at you?’
For a moment Dean thought he was going to have to go back and take Mrs Friedman’s brown paper bag away. Sammy was that upset. ‘He was ready to put a bullet in me till he saw who I was, then he was going to take out the tires. I’m not sure what stopped him pulling the trigger. The last time I saw him that mad was Toledo and …’
‘Oh fuck,’ Sammy groaned. ‘We’re dead.’
‘What happened in Toledo?’ Annie asked timidly, curiosity overcoming her other fears for a moment.
‘You truly don’t want to know,’ Dean said, watching his brother’s mop of hair bob up and down on the other side of Annie in silent agreement. ‘Toledo was bad.’
~~~
‘I can’t believe he didn’t shoot. Do you suppose Dad’s finally getting soft in his old age?’
‘Sammy?’
‘Yeah?’
‘I’m going to pretend you never asked me that.’
~~~
‘You do have a plan don’t you?’
‘Of course, I have a plan.’
~~~
‘Can you see him, Dean?’
‘No.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Not yet.’
~~~
‘So what’s the plan?’
~~~
‘Dean?’
~~~
‘What do you mean, I can’t go with you?’
‘You’re getting out at the next corner, and that’s the end of it!’
~~~
‘I mean it. The very next corner!’
~~~
‘Sammy!’
~~~
‘Don’t even give me that look. It doesn’t work on Dad, and it’s not going to work on me.’
~~~
Fuck.
~~~
‘Oh, God. Now don’t you start.’
~~~
‘Sammy, stay.’
Sammy just stood there beside the car, mutinous.
Annie looked as if she was about to join the revolt too. ‘You can’t leave him here. He’ll never get back home. He’s twelve, for goodness sake!’
‘He’s a Winchester. If he felt like it, he could walk to Kansas, and take out everything along the way!’ Dean didn’t look at Sammy, because he just knew he’d be standing there grinning at the unexpected defence.
‘But …’
‘He’s going to be fine. Sammy is the last thing you need to be worrying about right now.’
‘But …’
‘Annie, stay. I’ll just calm him down, and then we have to go. We don’t have much time.’ Dean tried one of Sammy’s looks on her, but it didn’t work as well for him. Sighing he got out, and tugged his brother towards the back of the car. He didn’t bother keeping his voice down. It wasn’t like they could hide anything from her.
‘I meant it Sammy, I want you to stay here.’ Dean rummaged in the trunk. ‘Just take your stuff and go.’
‘This is your plan?’
‘Uh huh.’
‘I hate your plan.’
‘I know, and you hate me too.’ Dean was getting used to it.
‘I don’t hate you,’ Sammy mumbled.
‘Yeah, you do.’
‘Okay, maybe a bit. Whatever happened to me being on your team?’
Dean rolled his eyes. ‘I just need you to sit this round out. You’re still my backup. Whatever happens.’
~~~
‘I can’t believe you just left him there in the middle of nowhere!’
‘It was a gas station. He’ll be fine.’
‘I didn’t even get to say goodbye, he took off so fast I didn’t even see him go.’
‘Kid’s Wonder Woman when he needs to be. Stop worrying about him. We’ve got worse problems, Wickenburg isn’t that big, and even with the way I drive we haven’t got that big a lead on my Dad. He’ll do the logical thing and check the route to Phoenix first.’
‘We’re not going to Phoenix? I know he … found my mother there … but if I had enough time I could get a bus anywhere. Couldn’t I?’
‘No, Annie, there’s not going to be enough time. For anything.’
~~~
Part 7
1,973/26,000 R, Het
Right doesn’t ever count the cost. Should it?
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7
Part 6
Some days Dean thought that life sucked like a vacuum cleaner on steroids. Today was worse. In real life no departure was ever that easy. He’d been standing, baking to a shell of himself, across the street for much too long, staring at the Impala parked outside their motel. Just where he’d prayed and dreaded it would be. Home from the war, early.
Enduring, as the dry summer heat pulsed back up from the ground, trying to think how to deal with his father. Talking wasn’t something either of them did well. That was Sammy’s job. He and his Dad? Well, they were better at the action. Locking everything they felt deep inside? That was something they excelled at.
Dean had never been so glad to see the Impala. Just in time. Or wanted to see his father less. How could he explain this? His father would be furious at him for involving Sammy in an unsanctioned hunt. Let him decide. No. He’d somehow got them both into this mess, and he had to prove that he could finish it, alone. My gig, my problem.
He slowly crossed the road to the motel. Putting the confrontation off just that extra few seconds as he desperately tried to think of a way to explain things. Time to brave his father, he thought, knocking once, pausing and giving another single knock before he unlocked the door.
‘Hey, Dad,’ he said into the muzzle of his father’s Beretta.
‘Dean, Goddamn it! What the hell are you doing back here now?’ John snapped as he placed his gun back on the table. ‘You should be in school with Sammy. What’s wrong?’ he asked with sudden concern.
Shit. Time to make a choice. The lady or the Winchester? ‘Screwed up my timetable. Too busy running around after Sammy. Forgot to take my gym stuff for this afternoon. Thought I’d better come back for it. Don’t need another freaking detention this week,’ he grinned smoothly at his father. I can do this. What his father didn’t know couldn’t hurt any of them. He knew what he had to do now. There was only one imperfect solution. Time to bear the consequences later. The repercussions were going to be a bitch. His world was going to explode if he survived this. Dad’s gonna kill me.
‘Dean, you’ve got to learn to be more organised. Mistakes will get you killed. I taught you both better than that,’ his father said, seriously annoyed. Yup. Didn’t take much to set his Dad off. He hated the fact that having his father angry made it easier to lie to him. Use it. His father had taught him that, how to use everything and twist it to one’s advantage. Anything that gave you an edge in a hunt, in life. Time to grab what he’d “forgotten” and get out of there quick. Because the next step in his plan was going to blow the lie to hell and gone as soon as he took it.
‘I’ll just get my kit,’ Dean said as he walked past the kitchen table en route to his bedroom. Oh, shit! ‘Who’s the cute chick?’ Dean asked glancing back up from the photo his father had on top of his open journal.
‘That chick is a succubus.’
‘Huh! Didn’t know they made them so young,’ Dean remarked calmly.
‘Her name is Annie Lilin. She was at your school.’
‘They have names, and go to school now?’ Dean asked. ‘Who knew demons embraced education? Guess that’s progress for you.’
‘Her mother was the one I killed last month. You haven’t seen her around school have you?’
‘Well, I generally prefer blondes, but I’d have remembered if she was in my class,’ Dean replied. ‘What’s she supposed to be doing here if her mother was in Phoenix?’
‘They lived over on Beaumont. Looks like they knew enough to have their killing field elsewhere. I came back here after I killed her mother, but I couldn’t find anything. Then there were three more deaths in Phoenix. I went back and tracked down another succubus. Thought it was the girl, but it was her aunt. Got her,’ he said rotating his left shoulder in obvious discomfort. ‘But not before she cut me good.’
‘Let me look at it,’ Dean demanded, everything else forgotten in that moment. ‘Do you need me to stitch it?’
‘Nah, managed to do that there. I was bleeding like a pig, so I couldn’t let it wait. It’ll be okay,’ he said brusquely, pushing his son’s hands away.
‘The kid might have gotten a lift out of town with one of the snowbirds. I’ve been scouting other towns nearby, but no luck. I came back here to backtrack. Have to get her before anyone else gets killed. Once that’s done, we’re out of here.’
~~~
It was only the second time Dean had stolen a car for real, apart from lifting them as part of his father’s training schedule. Still it was kid stuff, something even Sammy could do (and had on more than one occasion) with his eyes closed.
So, stealing the Impala should have been easy. Dean had literally been born in that car on a Kansas back road, when he’d decided to crash his birthday party three weeks early to get first dibs on the chocolate cake. And hell, he - they - had all lived in it pretty much ever since. He’d bled on her, thrown up in her, fixed her, slept in her, and loved her like the fourth member of the family that he thought of her as. He’d even been known to borrow her every now and then when he just needed to drive things out.
‘Come on baby,’ Dean crooned as he turned the spare key in the ignition and pumped the clutch. ‘That’s my girl.’
Dean’s slow, quiet, reversal of the car out of its spot in front of the motel was calculated to arouse no-one’s interest, least of all his father’s.
What he’d neglected to factor in was that John Winchester knew the sound of his car even better than his sons, and the speed with which he ran out of the room with his gun already up and focussing on the driver, proved that Dean had a long way to go before he’d ever be that good.
As he floored the accelerator, Dean didn’t need that quick look back to see that his father was already altering his aim for one of the tires. He took it anyway. Dad was pissed.
Should was one of those verbs Dean that was going to have to be more wary of in future.
~~~
Screaming the car to a stop in front of the public library right in view of Mrs Friedman, the town’s elderly but still feisty parking inspector, was not a good move. But at this stage Dean had given up subtlety in favour of speed, and not getting shot.
Standing in the foyer shouting ‘Sammy, get your ass out of there!’ was also guaranteed to get him banned from libraries for life. Dean was just fine with that.
Luckily his brother was already dragging a reluctant Annie and their packs out of the children’s section. By the way the incoming librarian backed down, smiling warmly at his little brother, Sammy had put his charm to good use that morning.
‘Come on!’ Dean grabbed the packs and tossed them in the back, and barely restrained himself from doing the same with Annie. He settled for pushing her in the front before he and Sammy swung onto the bench seat on either side of her and neatly fenced her in.
‘You lifted the Chevvy?’ Sammy’s voice was a little faint as Dean spun the car around in front of a hyperventilating Mrs Friedman, before speeding towards the outskirts of town. ‘Please tell me Dad was asleep at the time?’
‘Let’s just say he can aim a gun real well while he’s sleepwalking,’ Dean replied, eyes torn between the road ahead, and the very real possibility of John Winchester in the rear-view mirror.
‘He shot at you?’
For a moment Dean thought he was going to have to go back and take Mrs Friedman’s brown paper bag away. Sammy was that upset. ‘He was ready to put a bullet in me till he saw who I was, then he was going to take out the tires. I’m not sure what stopped him pulling the trigger. The last time I saw him that mad was Toledo and …’
‘Oh fuck,’ Sammy groaned. ‘We’re dead.’
‘What happened in Toledo?’ Annie asked timidly, curiosity overcoming her other fears for a moment.
‘You truly don’t want to know,’ Dean said, watching his brother’s mop of hair bob up and down on the other side of Annie in silent agreement. ‘Toledo was bad.’
~~~
‘I can’t believe he didn’t shoot. Do you suppose Dad’s finally getting soft in his old age?’
‘Sammy?’
‘Yeah?’
‘I’m going to pretend you never asked me that.’
~~~
‘You do have a plan don’t you?’
‘Of course, I have a plan.’
~~~
‘Can you see him, Dean?’
‘No.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Not yet.’
~~~
‘So what’s the plan?’
~~~
‘Dean?’
~~~
‘What do you mean, I can’t go with you?’
‘You’re getting out at the next corner, and that’s the end of it!’
~~~
‘I mean it. The very next corner!’
~~~
‘Sammy!’
~~~
‘Don’t even give me that look. It doesn’t work on Dad, and it’s not going to work on me.’
~~~
Fuck.
~~~
‘Oh, God. Now don’t you start.’
~~~
‘Sammy, stay.’
Sammy just stood there beside the car, mutinous.
Annie looked as if she was about to join the revolt too. ‘You can’t leave him here. He’ll never get back home. He’s twelve, for goodness sake!’
‘He’s a Winchester. If he felt like it, he could walk to Kansas, and take out everything along the way!’ Dean didn’t look at Sammy, because he just knew he’d be standing there grinning at the unexpected defence.
‘But …’
‘He’s going to be fine. Sammy is the last thing you need to be worrying about right now.’
‘But …’
‘Annie, stay. I’ll just calm him down, and then we have to go. We don’t have much time.’ Dean tried one of Sammy’s looks on her, but it didn’t work as well for him. Sighing he got out, and tugged his brother towards the back of the car. He didn’t bother keeping his voice down. It wasn’t like they could hide anything from her.
‘I meant it Sammy, I want you to stay here.’ Dean rummaged in the trunk. ‘Just take your stuff and go.’
‘This is your plan?’
‘Uh huh.’
‘I hate your plan.’
‘I know, and you hate me too.’ Dean was getting used to it.
‘I don’t hate you,’ Sammy mumbled.
‘Yeah, you do.’
‘Okay, maybe a bit. Whatever happened to me being on your team?’
Dean rolled his eyes. ‘I just need you to sit this round out. You’re still my backup. Whatever happens.’
~~~
‘I can’t believe you just left him there in the middle of nowhere!’
‘It was a gas station. He’ll be fine.’
‘I didn’t even get to say goodbye, he took off so fast I didn’t even see him go.’
‘Kid’s Wonder Woman when he needs to be. Stop worrying about him. We’ve got worse problems, Wickenburg isn’t that big, and even with the way I drive we haven’t got that big a lead on my Dad. He’ll do the logical thing and check the route to Phoenix first.’
‘We’re not going to Phoenix? I know he … found my mother there … but if I had enough time I could get a bus anywhere. Couldn’t I?’
‘No, Annie, there’s not going to be enough time. For anything.’
~~~
Part 7