Second Nature 7/?
Chapter 7
"You going to … what?" Baby asked in clear disbelief. Her outrage would have been rather cute if it hadn't been for the murder in her chrome eyes.
"We can't walk to Bobby's." Dean backed off with his hands raised in a deflecting manner. "And you're not in the right shape to bring us there. Don't worry, I won't ditch you for a younger one."
"You better not." She muttered but couldn't really say something against it. With one last warning glance in his direction she followed Sam who didn't even try to hide his amusement.
"My car is getting jealous of another car I don't even have." Dean threw up his hands and turned on his heel to go and find said car. In his mind he was already pondering his options, as if a small town like this would offer many options.
"Would love to see her face if I come back with a Ferrari." He chuckled softly and had an eye out for an opportunity. An old Volvo was parked a bit down the street but when he came closer he noticed the dirt, which was probably the only thing keeping it together, and the rust that was eating it away. The combined weight of two grown men and one human looking car would crash this thing for sure so Dean passed it without slowing down.
His boots squished with every step and he couldn't really feel his toes anymore and he longed for a hot shower. And dry clothes, his jeans were wet and coated with mud up to his knees and Sammy's hadn't looked better. Maybe they should stay the night at a motel somewhere and drive to Bobby in the morning. One day wouldn't matter that much or so Dean hoped.
Decision made his cold feet didn't bother him that much anymore and his steps got a little more of that swagger the ladies loved.
One of the two bars of the town came in sight and just like Dean had hoped, the parking lot wasn't as deserted as the rest of the street. Not that full, it was fairly early in the evening after all, but there was a Jeep and two trucks and a couple of junkers, nothing fancy or out of this millennium and that was exactly what he needed.
Hanging back a little Dean observed the lot from afar, making sure nobody would notice him. There was a group of young people standing at the corner of the building, not old enough to go inside but old enough to pretend they were. Dean wasn't in a hurry, it would take some time for Sam and Baby to finish their task, so he waited patiently for his chance. He had his eyes on an old Dodge Charger.
When the group of young people finally left, Dean was across the street, inside the car and out of sight in less than a minute. In a small town like this it was most likely that everybody knew who this car belonged to so Dean left the town on the quickest way.
He parked out of sight and while he waited for Sam to call to pick him and Baby up, Dean used the time to clear out his new vehicle. Whoever it belonged to loved fast food and didn't care about taking out the trash. Dean couldn't do much about the smell, though, old grease and stale cigarette smoke.
That task done Dean sat in the car and regretted that Sam had taken their bags and he couldn't change into dry socks and pants. By now Dean was shivering from the cold creeping up from his numb feet but he didn't want to burn too much gas, they were tight enough on money as it was, so he sat in the cold car and waited. What took them so long anyway?
"Finally." He sighed in relief when his phone rang.
Dean didn't know what he'd expected, he doubted there had been much to choose from in the first place, but the sight of Baby standing next to Sam took him by surprise. Okay, he hadn't pegged her for the pink skirt kind of woman but biker girl hadn't been on his list either. Thinking about it, it should have been.
"Looking good." Dean stood in the open door of his substitute car and had an over the roof look at his real car. She wore biker boots, black jeans and a leather jacket over a tank top and she wore it with the natural badassness of a muscle car.
"What is this?" Baby didn't spare a glance in his direction, she had only eyes for the car.
"It's a car." Dean stated the obvious. "And we should get moving before somebody recognizes it."
"You traded me in for this?"
"It was the first I found." Dean defended himself. At least Sam did something productive and stored their bags in the trunk. Baby on the other hand just stood there on the sidewalk with an expression somewhere between disgust and outrage. "It's big enough for all of us and it's not a rolling ball of plastic, it'll do until I get you back." It sounded lame in his own ears and he threw a glance at Sam, searching for help.
"You want shotgun?" Sam jumped in and held the door open for Baby who reluctantly settled down in the passenger seat.
"This is so wrong." She shifted in search for a comfortable position.
"Don't worry, we'll have you back in no time." Dean started the engine.
"I'm sitting inside a car." Baby emphasized. "I am a car and I'm sitting in another car."
Okay that was kinda weird, however, on his list of weird things happened in his life this didn't even make it top five.
"You'll get used to it."
"It smells."
From the backseat Dean heard a chuckle but he pretended to not hear it. Just like he pretended to not notice Baby wrinkling her nose at the smell.
Dean only drove to the next town and stopped at the first motel he saw. Until then Baby had pointed out a barely noticeable clunking noise from the engine, that the car had a slight pull to the right, the passenger side window was drafty and her seat was uncomfortable. Oh, and don't forget the crappy speakers.
"It's a fucking car." Dean finally snapped. "I'm not going to marry this thing."
Dean glared at Baby who glared right back and in the backseat Sam cracked up laughing.
"Not helping." Dean said to his brother without breaking eye contact with Baby. He could have tried to have a staring contest with an actual car for that matter and in the end it was him who looked away first.
"Why did we stop anyway?" Sam sobered and had finally noticed that they'd stopped.
"I don't know about you but I'm wet and cold." Dean got out of the car. "I need a shower and we could hit a bar afterwards. Have something to eat and who knows, maybe I can raise a little cash. We can drive to Bobby in the morning."
"I don't know, Dean." Sam had opened the door but was still mostly inside the car. "You think this is a good idea?"
Dean had wanted to show Baby some of the perks of being a human but with her nagging all the time he wasn't so sure anymore. But he wasn't going to sit in the car for another three hours in his wet boots either.
"Don't tell me you're not freezing your feet off." Dean shut the door before Sam could answer and headed for the office. He paid for two rooms, maxing out his last credit card. Except for the meager left over money from his shopping trip Sam had in his pocket, they were broke. It was enough for a meal and a drink or two and to start a little pool game, which was more than enough to work with.
Dean called first shower and under the hot jets of water, for once the water was actually hot, the cold finally left his body. Freshly showered and dressed in dry clothes he emerged the bathroom.
"All yours." Dean smirked at his brother.
"You want to bring her to a bar." Sam didn't get up from the edge of the bed he was sitting on. He had lost his shoes and socks in the meantime, though.
"We could use something to eat and we need some cash." The boots were his only shoes, his spare pair was in the trunk and he didn't want to think too closely about where they might be now, so he put his clammy boots back on.
"You could go alone."
"All she's seen since she's human is a cabin, the woods and a nearly deserted town." Dean pointed out. "Is it so wrong that I want to show her some of the good things?" He fully expected Sam to object to his definition of good things but Sam said nothing.
"Take your shower." Dean grabbed his jacket. "I check on her."
She didn't answer to him knocking, she probably didn't know the concept behind this, so he just opened the door and stepped in. She stood in the middle of the room, facing the door, and did nothing.
"What you doing?" Dean asked. She hadn't anything to unpack and this time she hadn't been the one wading through mud so she wasn't in need of a shower but just standing there was kinda creepy. She hadn't even bothered to switch the lights on so the lamps in the parking lot were the only source of light and a poorly one, that is.
"Waiting." She said without moving. Dressed in black she was only a silhouette against the even darker wall but her chrome eyes caught the dim light like the eyes of a cat and for a second Dean wished he hadn't left his gun in the other room. It was irrational, he knew it, but for a moment she was so obviously not human that his survival instincts kicked in. Then he turned the lights on, she blinked against the sudden brightness and the moment was over.
"Humans don't just stand in the dark and wait." He closed the door and had a look around the room. Not much to occupy a person in here, he had to give her that. "I'll show you the wonders of television later."
Dean pointed at the two chairs the room offered. "Let's sit down for a moment, it'll take a while till Sam has his hair ready anyway."
Over the day they'd only eaten a shared bag of M&Ms so it wasn't a surprise when Baby's stomach grumbled.
"Running on fumes again?" Dean asked but when he saw her worried expression he hurried to add: "You saw that Bar n Grill down the street? That's where we're going. We'll have something to eat, a few drinks and lots of fun."
"You always seem to have lots of fun at places like that." She nodded in understanding but Dean doubted she really understood. Until now her place had been outside.
"Believe me, it's more fun on the inside." Dean rubbed his hands in anticipation and hoped the place wasn't a dump. "But we have to set some ground rules first."
"Okay?"
"You stick to Sam or me." Dean set the first rule. "I don't want you to get lost. But if so, you come back here." If this lasted longer they should think of buying her a phone, Dean thought.
Baby nodded.
"You never had alcohol so take it easy, I've carried you enough for one day." On the other hand, drunk Baby could be fun but the last thing he wanted to do was to deal with a hung over Baby. "And watch your drinks, if you've the feeling somebody has tampered with them, don't drink it."
She frowned at that but nodded again.
"Not all monsters are supernatural." Dean explained but left it with that. "One last thing, if somebody does something you don't want, comes to close, touches you without your permission, anything, you tell him to fuck off."
She thought about that for a moment. "What if he doesn't fuck off?"
"Then it's perfectly fine to break his fingers."
Chapter 8
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