Save a Horse, Ride a Winchester
Chapter 6
Chapter Wordcount: 2709
Dean sighed, his arm tightening around Adrianna’s waist and buried his nose deeper into her hair.
After several minutes he realized with a groan that he wasn’t getting back to sleep. He grumbled and bitched about his body getting used to these six a.m. wake up calls and not knowing the difference between weekdays and weekends and slid his legs over the side of the bed.
“Where are you going?” Adri mumbled, rolling over and pulling the down comforter back up around her shoulders, watching the way the muscles in his back shifted under the worn black t-shirt he wore while he dug at his eyes.
“Coffee,” he grunted.
Adri smiled, pinching his ass and making him jump up. “Bring me some?” she smiled.
“That’s gonna leave a mark,” he glared, rubbing the spot. Finally he sighed, rolled his eyes and bent down to kiss her, sneaking in his own ass-pinch before bolting for the hallway.
“Asshole!”
He heard the muted whump of a pillow hitting the door just as he pulled it closed and chuckled, heading down the stairs to the kitchen.
Sam poured some of the fresh pot of coffee into a mug he’d pulled out of the nearest cupboard just as he felt a set of arms slip around his torso and Nicole’s head rest between his shoulder blades.
“Morning,” he said quietly.
She mumbled something into the fabric of his t-shirt he assumed was a response of “good morning,” but he couldn’t he sure.
“You sleep okay?”
Niki let go of him so he could turn to face her, coffee mug set silently on the counter, and rested her head on his chest. “Thank you,” she murmured softly.
“For what?” His eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
“Last night, for the dance,” she smiled. “I needed it.”
“You’re welcome,” Sam murmured against the top of her head.
“And thank you for not babying me about it afterwards,” she added.
He chuckled, “You’re welcome.”
Niki snaked her arms around his shoulders, standing on her toes to press a kiss to his lips. It lasted longer than she’d expected, with Sam hoisting her up and setting her on top the counter, nearly knocking over the coffee mug when she wrapped her legs around his waist.
“Where’s Dean and Adri?” Sam murmured against her lips when they finally broke apart.
“Upstairs, asleep.”
“Good,” he grinned, tugging off the t-shirt he’d thrown on the night before, just before the two of them had dropped off to sleep. Niki did the same just before-
“OH MY GOD!” Dean’s sudden shouts could’ve been heard outside. “MY EYES! MY EYES ARE BLEEDING!” He turned to run back upstairs, hands over his eyes as if they’d been scalded right out of his skull.
“You have to help me bleach my brain!” Dean cried, hands scrubbing at his face like he could clean the image from his eyes.
“What? And where’s my coffee?”
“Sam and Niki were getting it on in the kitchen. I don’t think the coffee’s safe at the moment. And don’t even make me make a comment about the cream.”
“Oh my god, that’s disgusting!” she said, smacking him in the head with a pillow as he collapsed on the bed and buried his face in her stomach. “Ugh,” she shuddered, “You just had to go and scar me with that didn’t you?”
“Just sharing the pain,” he mumbled.
She laughed from the vibration and settled her hand on his head, running her fingers through his hair.
“I kinda hate you, you know,” she said quietly.
“Mmm hmm,” he hummed, nuzzling into the soft tank top she had worn to bed and wrapping his arm around her hips.
“Sam, hurry your ass up! You had coffee and sex on the kitchen counter this morning, you should be ready to go!” Nicole called over her shoulder as she walked briskly down the dirt path towards the barn. Oreo, the recently named filly, was about to get a semi-free run in the paddock to give her wobbly legs a shot outside of the stall, but Sam was lagging. After Dean had run screaming back upstairs, they’d spent a few minutes laughing and then the next half hour destroying the kitchen in a newly located sex adventure, but ever since then…
“Sam!” she shouted again, her breathing more of a soft pant as she chased the filly around the large foaling stall, attempting to put the foal halter on the little horse. Rose seemed to find it amusing, occasionally making a sound or two when Oreo escaped Niki’s grasp. It took a few minutes, but finally she slipped it on, and took a breather before calling, even louder now, for Sam to get his ass in the barn while she got Rose and Oreo ready to go outside and into the sunshine.
After a moment, he came sliding in and tripped over his own gangly limbs, tumbling to the floor on his face, nearly taking in a nose full of sawdust from where he sprawled at Niki’s feet, right inside the stall door.
Oreo found him interesting enough to walk over and sniff the top of his head, which made Niki start to laugh.
“And he sticks the landing,” she grinned. “Oreo likes you.”
Dean was washing up at the kitchen sink for dinner, cleaning the dust and grime from his hands after a day of working on the Impala and ranch chores.
Adrianna came up quietly behind him, putting her hand on the small of his back and making him turn to look at her.
“Pack a bag for the weekend, we’re going somewhere after dinner,” she said quietly.
“Umm, okay…”
She nodded once and walked off to help set the table.
Adri was unusually quiet all though dinner. Dean kept glancing between her and Niki, trying with eye twitches and head movements to ask Niki what the hell was going on.
Finally Niki just shot him a glare that he clearly understood as ‘I don’t friggin’ know!’
She had seen her packing a bag and rolling up their camping mattress before dinner though so she nonchalantly offered to do the dishes tonight.
Adri smiled softly in thanks before heading out to the front porch.
Not knowing what was going on Dean quick ran up the stairs to grab the bag that he had thrown together after her cryptic comment.
By the time he made it out onto the front porch Adri was tossing her bag into the bed of her truck and rolling the foam camping mattress up along side of it.
She didn’t say anything to Dean, which just made him feel more uneasy, before climbing into the cab. He threw his own bag over the side before climbing in beside her as she started the engine.
Dayzee ushered them off, trotting along beside the truck until Adri drove it over the cattle grate and off towards the rear pastures.
“Son of a bitch…” Niki whispered, with a plate in her hands, covered in soap.
“What?” Sam asked, sidestepping so he could look out the kitchen window over the sink.
Adri’s black truck headed towards the rear of their property, driving down one of the many dirt tracks that criss-crossed their acreage.
“What’s she up to anyways?”
Niki swallowed, shoving the plate in Sam’s direction to dry.
“There’s a river that cuts across the back of our land, through the wooded section that we left. After Adri’s parents died she used to go out there all the time, sometimes we wouldn’t see her for a couple days,” she paused. “She’s never taken anyone out there.”
“Wow,” Sam whispered, looking back out the window just in time to see the truck go over a hill and out of sight.
Niki suddenly turned to him, wielding a wet, soapy fork, “If your brother breaks her heart, I will hurt him and you’re not allowed to hold it against me.”
He nodded albeit a bit hesitantly and pushed the fork back towards the sink.
Dean could tell something was up and kept his mouth shut the whole ride. He could tell that Adri was barely keeping it together.
He propped his arm up across the back of the seat and let his fingertips rest against the back of her neck.
Adri glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and smiled half-heartedly. He smiled back and slid over until he could wrap his arm around her shoulders, staying there the rest of the way.
She navigated her way through the trees, following some barely-there paths until the trees gave way to the crushed gravel and clay of the riverbank. She swung the truck around and backed it up so the bed was facing the water.
She shut off the engine and sighed, staring at the Chevy Bowtie on the steering wheel before getting out.
Dean blinked after she slammed the door and hesitated a split second before he got out on his own side.
She had climbed over the side of the bed and was digging in her backpack, finally yanking out a pair of swim trunks, throwing them at Dean and giggling when they smacked him in the face.
He cocked his eyebrow at her and then grinned devilishly when she started unbuttoning her jeans.
“Such a pig,” she grinned, rolling her eyes, yanking down on the denim to show of her boy short bikini bottom.
Dean had seen the tied neck of her top peeking out from under her t-shirt before they even left, but if acting like a horn dog could make her smile then he was more than willing to play it up.
She pulled off her shirt next and kicked it and her pants to the corner of the truck bed before hopping off the tailgate and heading towards the water.
“You comin’?” she asked, feet sloshing in the cool water as she waded out.
Dean quick changed from his jeans and shirt to the swim trunks she had brought and followed her out to the small strip of rapids the stretched from bank to bank.
Adri settled herself down into one of the dips in the rocks, leaning her head back and closing her eyes, letting the water rush over her skin before it carried on down the river.
“Pretty nice place,” Dean said, glancing around and running his hand through the clear water before settling himself down into a hole next to her, bumping her foot with his own.
“Yeah,” she said quietly, finally tipping her head back forward and playing with the class ring she always wore.
“What’s up babe,” he rumbled.
She heaved a sigh and continued playing with her ring, not making eye contact with him.
“Started coming out here after I moved in…after my parents. Just sorta my spot to get away, ya know?” she said, glancing up at him for a split second with a forced smirk before looking away again.
“Used to pack up the truck, take a cooler and just camp out for a few days,” she said quietly, tipping her head back into the water again.
Dean reached over and grabbed a hold of her wrist, pulling her over and onto his lap, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her back against his chest.
“Never brought anybody out here before,” she mumbled and he could feel the way she tensed against him.
“Thanks,” he said quietly, kissing her temple.
He watched her drag her fingers through the muddy riverbed before he reached down to run his finger over a thick scar that ran up the inside of her thigh.
“How’d you get that trophy?”
“That car crash my parents were in…I was there too.”
“Jesus,” he sighed, pulling her tighter against him.
“Don’t remember much, got knocked out…blessing in disguise I guess. Dunno how I would have handled it if I had been awake.”
Dean didn’t know what to say, there wasn’t really anything to say. She had taken a big step and shown a lot of faith and trust in him by just bringing him out here, let alone telling him what she had. He had a feeling not many people outside her cousin and uncle really knew the ugly details.
“What about you?” she asked, turning her head to look at him. “You’ve got an awful lot of war wounds.”
Dean forced a chuckle, slipping his bullshit mask on as much as he didn’t want to.
“Oh you know, military dad, rough and tumble boys. I’ve done my fair share of stupid stunts,” he grinned, biting the inside of his cheek and hoping she would buy the lie.
It’s not that he wanted to lie to her, but at the given moment he was pretty sure it wasn’t a good idea to spill the whole sordid monster hunting tale.
She held his eyes just long enough for a hot spike of nervousness to light up in his chest before turning back and leaning back into him.
He sighed, pulling her closer and listened to the water rush around them.
They built a fire on the bank of the river and relaxed by the heat, drying off and sipping some beer that Adri had packed in a cooler.
Once the fire started to die down they headed back to the truck where Adri threw the bags with their clothes through the cab window and unrolled the foam camping mattress out over the truck bed.
She turned around to see Dean sitting on the tailgate wiping the sand off his bare feet before he crawled into the bed.
She grinned at him, laying back and letting him crawl over her, where he dipped down to kiss her softly.
He broke the kiss to open his eyes and look at her when he felt her fingers start to untie the bow of the drawstring on his board shorts.
“You sure?” he asked, quietly.
She just looked up at him and nodded, one hand wrapping around the back of his neck to pull him back down into a kiss while the other finally undid the string holding the shorts around his hips.
Dean slid his hand around to pull at the tie around her neck, slipping the straps down off her shoulders.
He broke the kiss again, holding her eyes as he pulled the fabric away.
Adri grinned at him and he smiled back before kissing her again, her legs looping around his hips, successfully pushing his trunks the rest of the way off.
Niki and Sam were washing down Slevin and India after their ride. More like Niki was washing Slevin, India patiently waiting his turn, while Sam chased Dayzee around with the hose.
All of a sudden he slid to a stop almost face-planting into the mud when he saw Adri’s truck…or what looked vaguely like Adri’s truck coming over the cattle grate towards the barn.
“What the hell…”
Niki stopped, soap bubbles all the way up to her shoulder and stepped around Slevin who snorted his annoyance at the interruption, to see whatever had caught Sam’s attention.
It was Adri’s Chevy, but it was accompanied by what looked like an extra ton of mud.
“Oh my god,” Niki started laughing, tossing the sponge into the soap bucket and walking over to stand next to Sam.
Adri climbed down out of the truck, just as dirty as it was except for the bright white smile that was plastered across her face.
Dean groaned and jumped down from the other side and Sam busted out laughing. He was covered from head to foot in mud and didn’t seem to be as thrilled about that as Adri was.
“You just had to, didn’t you?” Niki laughed, planting her soapy hands on her hips and grinning at Adri.
“Had to initiate him sometime,” she shrugged, heading for the barn. “Hurry up and finish the horses, I need to wash my baby.”
“You talking about the truck or Dean?” Sam laughed.
He was promptly rewarded with a ball of mud to the back of his head and turned shocked to see Dean laughing his ass off, one clear stripe on the truck’s fender from where he had scooped off his ammunition.
***
Adri's truck
and on the way back to the ranch ;)
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Chapter Five | Next:
Chapter Seven