Save a Horse, Ride a Winchester
Save a Horse, Ride a Winchester
Chapter 7
Chapter Wordcount: 3363
Niki watched the flashes of light dance across the walls, listening to the rumble of thunder following soon after, but no rain had started falling from the dark clouds looming above the two-story ranch. She glanced at the clock by her head, curious as to the time, and sighed in frustration at the fact that it was only midnight. The younger of the two Winchesters was curled in close behind her, one arm secured around her waist, his forefinger tracing shapes on her stomach beneath his faded navy blue t-shirt. He knew something was on her mind, but he hadn’t been able to coax it into a confession yet.
“You gonna talk to me yet, babe?” he murmured against the skin of her shoulder, eyes still closed in a failed attempt to drop off to sleep.
“When your car’s up and running again,” she started, swallowing the lump in her throat, “are you gonna leave?”
Sam let out a heavy sigh, his bare, chiseled chest pressing tighter to her back with the intake of breath. “I dunno,” he mumbled. “I could maybe stay, but I’d still have to go on road trips every so often. If Dean is willing to leave without me, he might still want me with him sometimes, but I dunno if he’d be willing to just pack up and hit the road either. He’s becoming rather attached to your cousin.”
“Why would you have to go on road trips?”
Another sigh escaped his lips.
“What?” she asked.
Sam sat up and settled against the headboard, holding the sheets as Niki shifted to sit up and face him, eyes curious. “C’mere,” he said, gesturing for her to get comfy. She obliged and nestled into his side, one hand resting against his chest.
“I don’t really know where to begin, so I’m just gonna go ahead and say it…” he said but still hesitated. “Dean and I…we hunt…monsters,” he stated quietly.
“Na na na na na na Ghostbusters!” she grinned, glancing up at him, waiting for the punch line.
Sam’s lips tilted up ever so slightly, smile soft and sad and dropped his gaze to where his hand was gripping the bedspread.
Niki waited a second for him to crack a smile, to tell her he was just kidding, but he never did. “Oh…my god…you’re serious!” she said slowly, frozen to where she sat until he looked up to meet her gaze. Then she scrambled to get untangled from the sheets.
“Nik, hang on, before you freak out-”
“Before?! I’ve been sleeping with a guy that claims he hunts monsters for a living!” she forced out, running her hands through her hair. “Oh my god, seriously?!” She shot him a withering look as she snatched up her jeans.
“Niki, please just let me explain,” Sam rushed to say, hand reaching out as he started to get up to stop her, the move aborted when she shot him a glare.
“Monsters?” she repeated, voice low and dangerous. “I trusted you and come to find out you’re some kind of crazy…psychopath! Ugh!” she said, pounding down the stairs.
Sam would’ve followed, but he was only clad in boxers and it would most likely wake the entire household if it hadn’t already. “Nicole!” he hissed in a whisper, leaning out the door, but she was out of sight. The last thing he heard was the back door slam shut behind her.
Dean had heard the ordeal from the bathroom between their rooms. There was kinda no way he could have missed Niki’s shrieking about his brother being crazy and the way she’d stormed out of the house. He’d told Adrianna not to wake Sam in the morning, refusing to explain what they’d been arguing about but she reluctantly agreed.
Mr. Atkins didn’t say anything as to why he hadn’t seen his daughter at six that morning, nor did he comment on the younger brother’s absence.
Around eleven, while Adri was in the kitchen eating a sandwich for lunch, Dean took it upon himself to head on up to Nicole’s room to check on his little brother. Much to his dismay, Sam hadn’t even made it back into Niki’s bed the night before after she had stormed out. Instead, he’d crashed on the floor with the faded floral patterned comforter and Niki’s pillow. Dean plopped down next to him and sat in silence for a long moment.
“Sammy,” he sighed, shaking him a little and pulling the blanket down over his head. “C’mon, man, you’ve gotta get up, get some caffeine and grub in your system.”
“Where’s Niki?” Sam rumbled, somewhat miserably.
“I found her in the barn with Dayzee this morning…moved her to the couch,” he sighed. “You told her, didn’t you?”
“She thinks I’m fucking crazy.”
“She also says your name in her sleep and was asking me half-consciously why I cut my hair. What’d you expect? Her to not freak out?”
“I don’t know what I was expecting, but I know what I got. So if you don’t mind,” Sam tugged the blanket back over his head, “I’m going back to sleep.”
Dean let out a relenting sigh, squeezing Sam’s shoulder gently before getting up to leave the room. He returned a few minutes later with a sandwich and a bottle of water. He left it for Sam on the end table and shut the door behind him as he went back downstairs.
Now, to talk to Nicole. When he had gone through the living room, the couch had been empty and the blanket he had tossed over her was twisted up on the cushions so he could only assume she’d gone back outside.
“She’s in the barn with Slevin,” Mr. Atkins said quietly, startling him a little bit.
Dean nodded a thank you in response and pushed the screen door open to head out to the barn. Lo and behold, Nicole was out behind the barn, trotting around on Slevin, perfectly calm, like nothing had happened between her and Sam the night before. The second she spotted Dean watching, though, her face fell and she stopped Slevin next to where Dean was leaning against the fencepost.
“Don’t look at me like I’m crazy,” he said. “I’m not. And neither is my brother.”
“Hunting monsters?” she hissed. “How does that not sound crazy to you?”
“Because it’s what we do. It’s our job.”
“There’s employers for monster-hunting?”
“No, there’s no employers…we, employ ourselves, I guess” he chuckled dryly. “Niki, it sounds crazy, I know. Believe me, he’s used to getting weird looks from the people we’re trying to help, but the fact that he trusted you with this…” he sighed. “Look, it’s just a big deal for him…a really big deal. And I get it, I do, I know it sounds batshit insane but…it’s the truth, there’s not much more I can say than that.”
“I apologize if this is a little much for me to swallow.”
“You don’t have to apologize. I know, okay, I mean it. But…I dunno what to tell you. It’s what we do, it’s real, all that shit out there is real. It’s what we were raised to do, what we’ve always done. And Sam can prolly count on one hand who outside of the job he’s ever trusted with that information.”
“And I called him crazy and basically told him he should’ve been locked in a rubber room by the way I acted,” she sighed, the earnest tone and the look of Dean’s eyes giving her pause, at least enough to go talk to Sam, even if it still was a little hard to believe.
“So go apologize,” he replied simply, with a shrug. “I can show you, if you want, we can show you, that this stuff is real, but…you still need to talk to Sam.”
The brunette stared at him for a moment, unsure of how to respond. Slevin nickered, as if in agreement with Dean. She sighed, “Is he still upstairs?”
“He hasn’t come out of the room yet today, that I’ve seen at least.”
She nodded, but didn’t move right away. “Does Adri know?” she asked after a few minutes of silence.
“No…” Dean sighed, “I…I haven’t found the right way or time to tell her yet…I plan to but well…I’m sure you can understand how I have to approach it carefully.”
Niki nodded, sighing again and looking up towards the house. She dismounted from Slevin and led him back out of the pasture and walked him over to Dean. “Can you untack him for me?”
“Sure,” he smiled softly, patting this horse on his neck, chuckling when Slevin nudged against Niki, making her stumble a step.
Nicole made her way up the stairs, rather slowly, and approached her room with as much caution as she could. She’d been thinking about what Sam had told her since she left the room last night, furiously confused. The whole conversation still rung crystal clear in her head. She’d gone from worrying about him leaving, to leaving him thinking he’d made a huge mistake by telling her the truth. He’d never judged her about anything she’d told him about her life. He hadn’t even really been all that worried about Michael, other than the two hour jealousy phase. But she’d thrown a nice, huge fit when he’d been nothing but honest. How easily was he going to accept an apology for that?
The half-eaten sandwich and empty water bottle on the end table and the lump of blankets she assumed was Sam only confirmed that she had definitely overreacted. After a moment of hesitation and nervousness, Niki laid down on the carpet behind him and tightened her arm around what she assumed to be his waist. She felt him tense, at first, and then relax once she spoke.
“I’m sorry I called you crazy,” she whispered.
She felt him exhale softly at her admission.
“Dean talked to me,” she continued, when it was clear that he wasn’t going to. “It’s still…it’s still a little hard for me to believe but…I believe you. Both of you…”
Finally Sam’s arm arched up, pulling the blanket down from over his head.
“Do you mean that?” he whispered, voice rough with exhaustion and worry.
“Yeah, I do,” she said softly.
Dean grabbed the handle of the old green toolbox and went to pull it out of the trunk when the lid popped open and spilled a majority of his tools over the floor and their bags.
“Son of a bitch!”
He picked up the pieces viciously, cursing under his breath the entire time because the last person to use the toolbox was Sam. And Sam had left the clasps open.
“I’m gonna fucking kill him, fucking stupid college boy, fucking doesn’t know how to close a fucking toolbox…”
Having picked most of the tools back up he pulled up on the false bottom and began digging through their guns and supplies to find the set of sockets that had rolled away when the box had been dumped.
He was too wrapped up in his own anger and frustration to look up when he heard the rustle of footsteps over the sawdust floor of the work shed.
“I swear to god Sam you better turn the fuck around right now before I kill you,” he growled, grabbing a screwdriver to threaten him with.
Except it wasn’t Sam who had come to check on him, it was Adrianna.
At about the same time he realized it wasn’t Sam, he watched her eyes go wide, smile fading from her face as she took in the vast array of weapons in the trunk of the Impala.
He dropped the screwdriver towards the open toolbox at his feet, the metal hitting with a clang and his arm shot out to slam the trunk closed.
Her own arm shot out at the same time to stop him, hand hitting with a smack against the false floor of the car and she finished her once over of the weapons before her eyes shot to Dean.
“What the fuck…” she whispered.
“Look, I can explain…” he hastily shot out, hands coming up in a nonviolent gesture.
She was already taking a step back though.
“You…I don’t even…I don’t even know you, do I?” she asked, lip pulled into a sneer before she spun and ran off.
“Damnit! Adri!”
He slammed the trunk closed, kicking over the toolbox in his haste and cursing up a blue storm again. He kneeled down, scooping the tools back into the box, sawdust and all, before slamming the lid closed and running after Adrianna.
He yanked the door open to the kitchen, startling Sam and Niki who were taking a break from working and drinking some tea.
“Dean, what the fuck man…” Sam started.
“Have you seen her?”
“What?” Niki asked, putting down her glass.
“Adrianna! Have you seen her?!”
“No, Dean, what’s wrong?” she asked, standing up.
“She saw…” he said, drawing in a deep breath, “Goddamnit, she saw the trunk…the guns, and the…shit!”
He didn’t finish his statement, just hit the doorframe and took off running again.
“Dean!” she started.
Sam grabbed her arm, stopping her from chasing after him and shut the door quietly.
“Trust me, I know you wanna run off 'cause it’s your cousin, but let him handle it,” he said quietly.
She sighed and let him wrap his arm around her, “Okay.”
Dean headed to the barn first. He didn’t bother slowing as his feet hit hard on the brick aisle way. Seeing Adrianna’s saddle still on its rack he ran straight out the back just to see Sin lift his head and look at him like he’d lost his mind.
Dean pulled in a shaky breath, relieved she at least didn’t grab her horse and ride off. There would be no way he could find her if she had taken off to the acres of land her uncle owned.
Feeling stupid that he didn’t think of it first he hopped the fence and cut across the yard just to make sure her truck is still parked out front.
He was pretty damned sure she wouldn’t go back to the Impala so instead veered to the larger barn set away from the house, where they keep the tractor and machinery, extra hay and feed stored in the loft.
The door was cracked open just wide enough for a body to slip through. The minute he shouldered his way through he knew she was inside.
He could hear country music, volume down soft, threading its way through the hay and metal.
He glanced around the shadows. She wasn’t sitting on any of the mowers or tractors, he saw a pitchfork on the wall and smirked to himself, at least he didn’t have that flying at his head when he walked in.
“Adri?” he called softly.
He could hear the hay up in the loft rustle and sighed, finally allowing himself to catch his breath.
Stepping softly on the rungs of the ladder he made his way up to the loft, pausing and meeting her eyes, making sure she wasn’t gonna push him back over before he let himself crawl across the wooden floor towards her.
He brushed some hay from his hands, settling down in the loose hay she was reclined in.
“I’m sorry you had to find out that way,” he started, unsure of how he planned to finish.
“Do I even wanna know what I just found out?” she asked quietly, leaning forward and wrapping her arms around her knees, one wrist clasped in her hand in front of her.
He stared at her back for a minute, wondering if she leant forward to try to put some space between them.
“Maybe not,” he said slowly, watching her inhale. “Me and Sam are hunters.”
Even sitting behind her he could picture her sarcastic smirk as she dropped her head and shook it cynically.
“I’ve been around hunters my entire life Dean, none of them have a hidden compartment in their car with an arsenal big enough to equip a small army. So how ‘bout you don’t lie to me?” she spit out, turning her head to pierce him with her blue eyes. “I think I deserve that much.”
He sighed again, dropping his own gaze to where he was spinning the silver band on his finger.
“I’m not,” he said quietly. “You just didn’t let me finish. We hunt…monsters.”
He looked back up just in time to see her eyebrow arch.
“Ghosts. Demons. Monsters under the bed. All those scary stories you heard as a kid. They’re real. And me and Sam…we kill ‘em.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Honestly, no, I don’t expect you to. But I hope you do, ‘cause it’s the truth,” he said, holding her eyes. “I know I fucked this up Adri but…I won’t lie to you,” he finished quietly. “You do deserve better than that.”
She looked away in silence, arms wrapped around her knees.
Dean hesitantly reached out, letting his fingers brush softly against her elbow.
“What are you listening to?” he asked, grinning as he finally paid attention to the lyrics: ‘don’t let our love start slipping, love start slipping away…’
She laughed, “Vince Gill,” she grinned with a shrug, letting the silence fall back down between them.
“Were you gonna tell me?” she finally asked quietly, turning to look at him again.
“Yeah,” he answered just as quietly. “It’s just,” he smirked cynically, “it’s kinda hard to bring into a conversation.”
She looked away again, but he didn’t remove his touch from her arm and felt bolstered by the fact that she let him keep it.
“I didn’t want you to find out this way.”
“Does Niki know?”
“Yeah,” he nodded, even if she didn’t see him. “Sam told her.”
“You believe me?” he asked quietly.
She huffed out a laugh and scrubbed her hands over her face.
His hand fell away from her elbow with the movement and he let it fall, slipping his first two fingers into the back pocket of her jeans, letting out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding when she didn’t pull away.
“I shouldn’t…god, this is so fucked up…but,” she sighed, “Yeah, I do,” she said softly, turning to look at him again.
“So,” she sighed again, “This is what you do…you hunt, things.”
He didn’t answer right away, just let his thumb sweep back and forth across the small strip of skin that showed where he shirt had rode up.
“My mom was killed, our Dad raised us this way, it’s what we’ve always done,” he finally answered, making her turn to look at him again.
He finally leaned forward himself, softly resting his forehead against hers and watched her close her eyes.
“I swear I was gonna tell you babe,” he rumbled, “Just wanted to make sure you trusted me enough before I laid on the crazy.”
She grinned but kept her eyes closed, hand coming up to curl in his shirt.
“We okay?” he asked quietly, watching the way her lip twitched into a grin at the corner.
“Yeah,” she sighed, fingers tightening in his shirt when he let his lips brush across hers.
He pulled back with an arched eyebrow when, yet again, he realized what the little radio in the corner was belting out: ‘oh my petty little Adriana…’
“Seriously?” he grinned.
“What?” she smiled back, “It’s my song.”
He laughed, but let his hand come up to cup her jaw and leaned back in to a soft kiss.
Her own hand came up to slip behind his neck and pull him down with her as she laid back in the hay.
Dean’s knee slipped over her own denim clad leg and he lowered himself over her, holding her eyes.
“You sure?” he rumbled, feeling the flutter of her stomach, pushed flush against his own.
“Yeah,” she whispered back, her heel running up his leg as her eyes closed and he slipped his fingers under the hem of her shirt, right before he leaned in to kiss her again.
***
AN: See? Not really an ending...not really finished. Did the Impala get fixed? Did the boys stay? Did they make it home-base? Did they leave? Do the girls get involved in hunting?...WHO KNOWS LOL XD But I still like what we did manage to write, so now it's posted for safe-keeping. :)
***
Previous: Chapter Six
Chapter 7
Chapter Wordcount: 3363
Niki watched the flashes of light dance across the walls, listening to the rumble of thunder following soon after, but no rain had started falling from the dark clouds looming above the two-story ranch. She glanced at the clock by her head, curious as to the time, and sighed in frustration at the fact that it was only midnight. The younger of the two Winchesters was curled in close behind her, one arm secured around her waist, his forefinger tracing shapes on her stomach beneath his faded navy blue t-shirt. He knew something was on her mind, but he hadn’t been able to coax it into a confession yet.
“You gonna talk to me yet, babe?” he murmured against the skin of her shoulder, eyes still closed in a failed attempt to drop off to sleep.
“When your car’s up and running again,” she started, swallowing the lump in her throat, “are you gonna leave?”
Sam let out a heavy sigh, his bare, chiseled chest pressing tighter to her back with the intake of breath. “I dunno,” he mumbled. “I could maybe stay, but I’d still have to go on road trips every so often. If Dean is willing to leave without me, he might still want me with him sometimes, but I dunno if he’d be willing to just pack up and hit the road either. He’s becoming rather attached to your cousin.”
“Why would you have to go on road trips?”
Another sigh escaped his lips.
“What?” she asked.
Sam sat up and settled against the headboard, holding the sheets as Niki shifted to sit up and face him, eyes curious. “C’mere,” he said, gesturing for her to get comfy. She obliged and nestled into his side, one hand resting against his chest.
“I don’t really know where to begin, so I’m just gonna go ahead and say it…” he said but still hesitated. “Dean and I…we hunt…monsters,” he stated quietly.
“Na na na na na na Ghostbusters!” she grinned, glancing up at him, waiting for the punch line.
Sam’s lips tilted up ever so slightly, smile soft and sad and dropped his gaze to where his hand was gripping the bedspread.
Niki waited a second for him to crack a smile, to tell her he was just kidding, but he never did. “Oh…my god…you’re serious!” she said slowly, frozen to where she sat until he looked up to meet her gaze. Then she scrambled to get untangled from the sheets.
“Nik, hang on, before you freak out-”
“Before?! I’ve been sleeping with a guy that claims he hunts monsters for a living!” she forced out, running her hands through her hair. “Oh my god, seriously?!” She shot him a withering look as she snatched up her jeans.
“Niki, please just let me explain,” Sam rushed to say, hand reaching out as he started to get up to stop her, the move aborted when she shot him a glare.
“Monsters?” she repeated, voice low and dangerous. “I trusted you and come to find out you’re some kind of crazy…psychopath! Ugh!” she said, pounding down the stairs.
Sam would’ve followed, but he was only clad in boxers and it would most likely wake the entire household if it hadn’t already. “Nicole!” he hissed in a whisper, leaning out the door, but she was out of sight. The last thing he heard was the back door slam shut behind her.
Dean had heard the ordeal from the bathroom between their rooms. There was kinda no way he could have missed Niki’s shrieking about his brother being crazy and the way she’d stormed out of the house. He’d told Adrianna not to wake Sam in the morning, refusing to explain what they’d been arguing about but she reluctantly agreed.
Mr. Atkins didn’t say anything as to why he hadn’t seen his daughter at six that morning, nor did he comment on the younger brother’s absence.
Around eleven, while Adri was in the kitchen eating a sandwich for lunch, Dean took it upon himself to head on up to Nicole’s room to check on his little brother. Much to his dismay, Sam hadn’t even made it back into Niki’s bed the night before after she had stormed out. Instead, he’d crashed on the floor with the faded floral patterned comforter and Niki’s pillow. Dean plopped down next to him and sat in silence for a long moment.
“Sammy,” he sighed, shaking him a little and pulling the blanket down over his head. “C’mon, man, you’ve gotta get up, get some caffeine and grub in your system.”
“Where’s Niki?” Sam rumbled, somewhat miserably.
“I found her in the barn with Dayzee this morning…moved her to the couch,” he sighed. “You told her, didn’t you?”
“She thinks I’m fucking crazy.”
“She also says your name in her sleep and was asking me half-consciously why I cut my hair. What’d you expect? Her to not freak out?”
“I don’t know what I was expecting, but I know what I got. So if you don’t mind,” Sam tugged the blanket back over his head, “I’m going back to sleep.”
Dean let out a relenting sigh, squeezing Sam’s shoulder gently before getting up to leave the room. He returned a few minutes later with a sandwich and a bottle of water. He left it for Sam on the end table and shut the door behind him as he went back downstairs.
Now, to talk to Nicole. When he had gone through the living room, the couch had been empty and the blanket he had tossed over her was twisted up on the cushions so he could only assume she’d gone back outside.
“She’s in the barn with Slevin,” Mr. Atkins said quietly, startling him a little bit.
Dean nodded a thank you in response and pushed the screen door open to head out to the barn. Lo and behold, Nicole was out behind the barn, trotting around on Slevin, perfectly calm, like nothing had happened between her and Sam the night before. The second she spotted Dean watching, though, her face fell and she stopped Slevin next to where Dean was leaning against the fencepost.
“Don’t look at me like I’m crazy,” he said. “I’m not. And neither is my brother.”
“Hunting monsters?” she hissed. “How does that not sound crazy to you?”
“Because it’s what we do. It’s our job.”
“There’s employers for monster-hunting?”
“No, there’s no employers…we, employ ourselves, I guess” he chuckled dryly. “Niki, it sounds crazy, I know. Believe me, he’s used to getting weird looks from the people we’re trying to help, but the fact that he trusted you with this…” he sighed. “Look, it’s just a big deal for him…a really big deal. And I get it, I do, I know it sounds batshit insane but…it’s the truth, there’s not much more I can say than that.”
“I apologize if this is a little much for me to swallow.”
“You don’t have to apologize. I know, okay, I mean it. But…I dunno what to tell you. It’s what we do, it’s real, all that shit out there is real. It’s what we were raised to do, what we’ve always done. And Sam can prolly count on one hand who outside of the job he’s ever trusted with that information.”
“And I called him crazy and basically told him he should’ve been locked in a rubber room by the way I acted,” she sighed, the earnest tone and the look of Dean’s eyes giving her pause, at least enough to go talk to Sam, even if it still was a little hard to believe.
“So go apologize,” he replied simply, with a shrug. “I can show you, if you want, we can show you, that this stuff is real, but…you still need to talk to Sam.”
The brunette stared at him for a moment, unsure of how to respond. Slevin nickered, as if in agreement with Dean. She sighed, “Is he still upstairs?”
“He hasn’t come out of the room yet today, that I’ve seen at least.”
She nodded, but didn’t move right away. “Does Adri know?” she asked after a few minutes of silence.
“No…” Dean sighed, “I…I haven’t found the right way or time to tell her yet…I plan to but well…I’m sure you can understand how I have to approach it carefully.”
Niki nodded, sighing again and looking up towards the house. She dismounted from Slevin and led him back out of the pasture and walked him over to Dean. “Can you untack him for me?”
“Sure,” he smiled softly, patting this horse on his neck, chuckling when Slevin nudged against Niki, making her stumble a step.
Nicole made her way up the stairs, rather slowly, and approached her room with as much caution as she could. She’d been thinking about what Sam had told her since she left the room last night, furiously confused. The whole conversation still rung crystal clear in her head. She’d gone from worrying about him leaving, to leaving him thinking he’d made a huge mistake by telling her the truth. He’d never judged her about anything she’d told him about her life. He hadn’t even really been all that worried about Michael, other than the two hour jealousy phase. But she’d thrown a nice, huge fit when he’d been nothing but honest. How easily was he going to accept an apology for that?
The half-eaten sandwich and empty water bottle on the end table and the lump of blankets she assumed was Sam only confirmed that she had definitely overreacted. After a moment of hesitation and nervousness, Niki laid down on the carpet behind him and tightened her arm around what she assumed to be his waist. She felt him tense, at first, and then relax once she spoke.
“I’m sorry I called you crazy,” she whispered.
She felt him exhale softly at her admission.
“Dean talked to me,” she continued, when it was clear that he wasn’t going to. “It’s still…it’s still a little hard for me to believe but…I believe you. Both of you…”
Finally Sam’s arm arched up, pulling the blanket down from over his head.
“Do you mean that?” he whispered, voice rough with exhaustion and worry.
“Yeah, I do,” she said softly.
Dean grabbed the handle of the old green toolbox and went to pull it out of the trunk when the lid popped open and spilled a majority of his tools over the floor and their bags.
“Son of a bitch!”
He picked up the pieces viciously, cursing under his breath the entire time because the last person to use the toolbox was Sam. And Sam had left the clasps open.
“I’m gonna fucking kill him, fucking stupid college boy, fucking doesn’t know how to close a fucking toolbox…”
Having picked most of the tools back up he pulled up on the false bottom and began digging through their guns and supplies to find the set of sockets that had rolled away when the box had been dumped.
He was too wrapped up in his own anger and frustration to look up when he heard the rustle of footsteps over the sawdust floor of the work shed.
“I swear to god Sam you better turn the fuck around right now before I kill you,” he growled, grabbing a screwdriver to threaten him with.
Except it wasn’t Sam who had come to check on him, it was Adrianna.
At about the same time he realized it wasn’t Sam, he watched her eyes go wide, smile fading from her face as she took in the vast array of weapons in the trunk of the Impala.
He dropped the screwdriver towards the open toolbox at his feet, the metal hitting with a clang and his arm shot out to slam the trunk closed.
Her own arm shot out at the same time to stop him, hand hitting with a smack against the false floor of the car and she finished her once over of the weapons before her eyes shot to Dean.
“What the fuck…” she whispered.
“Look, I can explain…” he hastily shot out, hands coming up in a nonviolent gesture.
She was already taking a step back though.
“You…I don’t even…I don’t even know you, do I?” she asked, lip pulled into a sneer before she spun and ran off.
“Damnit! Adri!”
He slammed the trunk closed, kicking over the toolbox in his haste and cursing up a blue storm again. He kneeled down, scooping the tools back into the box, sawdust and all, before slamming the lid closed and running after Adrianna.
He yanked the door open to the kitchen, startling Sam and Niki who were taking a break from working and drinking some tea.
“Dean, what the fuck man…” Sam started.
“Have you seen her?”
“What?” Niki asked, putting down her glass.
“Adrianna! Have you seen her?!”
“No, Dean, what’s wrong?” she asked, standing up.
“She saw…” he said, drawing in a deep breath, “Goddamnit, she saw the trunk…the guns, and the…shit!”
He didn’t finish his statement, just hit the doorframe and took off running again.
“Dean!” she started.
Sam grabbed her arm, stopping her from chasing after him and shut the door quietly.
“Trust me, I know you wanna run off 'cause it’s your cousin, but let him handle it,” he said quietly.
She sighed and let him wrap his arm around her, “Okay.”
Dean headed to the barn first. He didn’t bother slowing as his feet hit hard on the brick aisle way. Seeing Adrianna’s saddle still on its rack he ran straight out the back just to see Sin lift his head and look at him like he’d lost his mind.
Dean pulled in a shaky breath, relieved she at least didn’t grab her horse and ride off. There would be no way he could find her if she had taken off to the acres of land her uncle owned.
Feeling stupid that he didn’t think of it first he hopped the fence and cut across the yard just to make sure her truck is still parked out front.
He was pretty damned sure she wouldn’t go back to the Impala so instead veered to the larger barn set away from the house, where they keep the tractor and machinery, extra hay and feed stored in the loft.
The door was cracked open just wide enough for a body to slip through. The minute he shouldered his way through he knew she was inside.
He could hear country music, volume down soft, threading its way through the hay and metal.
He glanced around the shadows. She wasn’t sitting on any of the mowers or tractors, he saw a pitchfork on the wall and smirked to himself, at least he didn’t have that flying at his head when he walked in.
“Adri?” he called softly.
He could hear the hay up in the loft rustle and sighed, finally allowing himself to catch his breath.
Stepping softly on the rungs of the ladder he made his way up to the loft, pausing and meeting her eyes, making sure she wasn’t gonna push him back over before he let himself crawl across the wooden floor towards her.
He brushed some hay from his hands, settling down in the loose hay she was reclined in.
“I’m sorry you had to find out that way,” he started, unsure of how he planned to finish.
“Do I even wanna know what I just found out?” she asked quietly, leaning forward and wrapping her arms around her knees, one wrist clasped in her hand in front of her.
He stared at her back for a minute, wondering if she leant forward to try to put some space between them.
“Maybe not,” he said slowly, watching her inhale. “Me and Sam are hunters.”
Even sitting behind her he could picture her sarcastic smirk as she dropped her head and shook it cynically.
“I’ve been around hunters my entire life Dean, none of them have a hidden compartment in their car with an arsenal big enough to equip a small army. So how ‘bout you don’t lie to me?” she spit out, turning her head to pierce him with her blue eyes. “I think I deserve that much.”
He sighed again, dropping his own gaze to where he was spinning the silver band on his finger.
“I’m not,” he said quietly. “You just didn’t let me finish. We hunt…monsters.”
He looked back up just in time to see her eyebrow arch.
“Ghosts. Demons. Monsters under the bed. All those scary stories you heard as a kid. They’re real. And me and Sam…we kill ‘em.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Honestly, no, I don’t expect you to. But I hope you do, ‘cause it’s the truth,” he said, holding her eyes. “I know I fucked this up Adri but…I won’t lie to you,” he finished quietly. “You do deserve better than that.”
She looked away in silence, arms wrapped around her knees.
Dean hesitantly reached out, letting his fingers brush softly against her elbow.
“What are you listening to?” he asked, grinning as he finally paid attention to the lyrics: ‘don’t let our love start slipping, love start slipping away…’
She laughed, “Vince Gill,” she grinned with a shrug, letting the silence fall back down between them.
“Were you gonna tell me?” she finally asked quietly, turning to look at him again.
“Yeah,” he answered just as quietly. “It’s just,” he smirked cynically, “it’s kinda hard to bring into a conversation.”
She looked away again, but he didn’t remove his touch from her arm and felt bolstered by the fact that she let him keep it.
“I didn’t want you to find out this way.”
“Does Niki know?”
“Yeah,” he nodded, even if she didn’t see him. “Sam told her.”
“You believe me?” he asked quietly.
She huffed out a laugh and scrubbed her hands over her face.
His hand fell away from her elbow with the movement and he let it fall, slipping his first two fingers into the back pocket of her jeans, letting out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding when she didn’t pull away.
“I shouldn’t…god, this is so fucked up…but,” she sighed, “Yeah, I do,” she said softly, turning to look at him again.
“So,” she sighed again, “This is what you do…you hunt, things.”
He didn’t answer right away, just let his thumb sweep back and forth across the small strip of skin that showed where he shirt had rode up.
“My mom was killed, our Dad raised us this way, it’s what we’ve always done,” he finally answered, making her turn to look at him again.
He finally leaned forward himself, softly resting his forehead against hers and watched her close her eyes.
“I swear I was gonna tell you babe,” he rumbled, “Just wanted to make sure you trusted me enough before I laid on the crazy.”
She grinned but kept her eyes closed, hand coming up to curl in his shirt.
“We okay?” he asked quietly, watching the way her lip twitched into a grin at the corner.
“Yeah,” she sighed, fingers tightening in his shirt when he let his lips brush across hers.
He pulled back with an arched eyebrow when, yet again, he realized what the little radio in the corner was belting out: ‘oh my petty little Adriana…’
“Seriously?” he grinned.
“What?” she smiled back, “It’s my song.”
He laughed, but let his hand come up to cup her jaw and leaned back in to a soft kiss.
Her own hand came up to slip behind his neck and pull him down with her as she laid back in the hay.
Dean’s knee slipped over her own denim clad leg and he lowered himself over her, holding her eyes.
“You sure?” he rumbled, feeling the flutter of her stomach, pushed flush against his own.
“Yeah,” she whispered back, her heel running up his leg as her eyes closed and he slipped his fingers under the hem of her shirt, right before he leaned in to kiss her again.
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AN: See? Not really an ending...not really finished. Did the Impala get fixed? Did the boys stay? Did they make it home-base? Did they leave? Do the girls get involved in hunting?...WHO KNOWS LOL XD But I still like what we did manage to write, so now it's posted for safe-keeping. :)
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