Plucky Pennywhistle’s Magical Menagerie Part 2

[onemetoo]

   PART 2   
That night things got weird again. Except that this time it wasn’t Dean. Emma had just finished taking a shower and was just changing into some sweats and a t-shirt burrowed from Dean when she heard some murmuring. At first she thought that Dean and Sam were having one of their ‘hushed’ talks but then she remembered that Dean had gone to the kid’s place after hearing that there had been another death there.

Emma opened the door a little bit to see but no one except Sam was there just like she thought. He was pacing back and forth, running his hands through his hair looking like he was about to rip it from his head out of desperation. Actually, he was alternating between that and wringing his hands, or rather digging his thumbs into his left palm. And he was murmuring under his breath. It was hard to make out the words but she caught something about Lucifer and the girl. She figured that he was referring to her but who knew.

Suddenly, Sam was facing her. She’d been caught so she stopped any pretenses and came out of the restroom, steam all around her. The room felt cold and uninviting. Sam was giving her a less than friendly look. The guy looked like he’d run a marathon. “You ok, Sam?” Emma asked casually as she dried her hair.

Sam didn’t answer. He just followed her movements with his stare, unnerving her. Were humans supposed to be that still? “Sam?” She repeated.

“It’s not going to work, you know.” Sam’s voice was low and strained.

Emma threw the towel to the bed in frustration and ran her hands through her own hair. So that’s what it was about, uh? “I know you don’t trust me but I haven’t slit your throat in your sleep, now have I? So give me a little credit here!” Sam still didn’t move, he just stared at her with panic and barely contained rage. What was his problem? Why the sudden change? This afternoon he’d been somewhat civilized and now this? Dude had some serious issues. You know, she never bothered to ask but it could be possible he was bipolar. They talked about the sudden mood changes and other symptoms on a commercial she watched.

Sam suddenly continued rubbing the palm of his hand like crazy. If he didn’t stop he’d actually rub the skin off. Emma eyed him warily for a moment before deciding that she needed to do something about it, or else Dean would get really mad if Sam got hurt. “Ok, Uncle Sam. Time to go to bed.”

“Don’t come any closer, Emma!” Sam threatened.

Emma stopped in the middle of the room and raised an eyebrow.

After a couple of deeps breaths, and more rubbing off the skin, Sam seemed almost back to normal. Almost. The wild look about him was still there, confusing Emma. “When did you have time to get drunk?”

Sam shot her a look and made a face. “You mention any of this to Dean and I slit your throat, got it?” Completely taken back by the threat Emma remained silent and let him get it out of his system. “Because you know what?” As he spoke, he closed the gap between them and got real up close. Emma tensed, ready to duck if needed and reach for her knife that was currently strapped to her leg. “I don’t trust your little goody-two-shoes façade. You don’t care that Dean is your father at all and so you’re taking advantage of his issues to save your sorry ass.”

“Go to hell, Sam.” Emma replied calmly.

Sam laughed bitterly. “Been there, done that. I didn’t even get a T-shirt.” He replied.

Emma wasn’t sure if he was kidding or not but since she really didn’t care, she just ignored him. “Too bad. I’ll be sure to get you one for Christmas, Uncle Sam.” Perhaps antagonizing him when he was mad at her wasn’t the best course of action but she couldn’t help herself. She wasn’t about to let him, or anyone else, treat her like a liar. As an Amazon, her word was true. And Emma had promised to herself not to hurt anyone, not to become like her tribe.

Just then the door opened and Dean walked in chewing some candy. He looked between the two of them, noted their defensive stances and frowned. “What’s going on?” Emma looked at Sam with a smug smile, taunting him.

“Sam, would you like to tell him?”

Sam visibly relaxed and rolled his shoulders. “Emma was just showing me her training.” He lied easily. “She’s… good.”

Emma snorted. “Good? I’m better than the two of you combined.”

Dean walked further in and looked between the two of them with suspicion. “Uh, huh. The two of you suddenly decided to have a powwow.”

Sam nodded. “Yup.”

“Well, while the two of you were having a blast,” Dean said sarcastically. “I went to see that janitor and, guess what? He’s dead. Killed in the ball pit by a friggin’ shark. Well, that’s my theory. The cops say it was the…” He chuckled. “ball washer. But no, I saw the body and judging from the radius of the bite, I’d say a twenty footer, at least.”

“Shark?” Sam asked skeptically. “How does a shark get into a ball pit?”

Dean threw his hands up in the air. “You got me.”

“More importantly, how do you know about sharks?”

“’Shark Week,’ man. How do you not watch that?” Dean sat down on one of the beds and began pulling his shoes off. “Anyways, I went in there and looked around. Little Omar was afraid of sharks, I found his label on the wall.”

Sam leaned against one of the walls and avoided meeting Emma’s gaze, completely disregarding her. Emma was ok with that, but she wouldn’t remain silent for long. Dean would certainly be mad at her for hiding this. She didn’t need to know them long to see how much Dean cared for his brother. He was always watching out for Sammy.

“So this isn’t about ganking some duckweed parent? I mean, Saul isn’t connected.” Sam said.

Dean paused taking his other shoe off and looked up at Sam, a little wary. “Right. More like, uh, silencing a whistle-blower, then?”

“Great.” Emma said. “So whatever we’re looking for can literally fire off childhood fears at will. Wow. Watch out for the Boogey man.” She held up her arms and waved them around as if she was trying to fend something off then dropped them when neither of the guys even smiled. “Ok, so what’s next?”

In the morning, everyone got up too early. Well, too early for Emma. She wanted to keep sleeping but the last time she overslept, Sam brought her crappy breakfast and shrugged it off saying how he just guessed because she was still asleep. Yeah, right.

“Maybe a Tulpa?” Sam mentioned over his computer. “Or an Angel?” That interested Emma. She wanted to meet one of these so called angels.

Dean shook his head, though, and Emma’s excitement died down. “Doubt it. A little imaginative for the God squad, don’t you think?”

Sam sighed and closed his computer. “Ok, so… what?”

Emma wasn’t knowledgeable enough to even say anything. She didn’t even know what a Tulpa, or whatever, was. “Whatever it is, at least we know where it is.” She supplied. Whatever she did, whatever she said, Emma never really felt like she was in on everything. Emma felt… isolated. It was probably just an Amazon thing, Madeline had said something about sticking together to remain strong. Amazons were probably creatures that are supposed to stay together, like sociable and all. That was it.

“Plucky’s!” Dean said as he put down his coffee.

The smell of coffee wafted off towards Emma and she had to admit that whatever that thing was, it smelled good. Sam and Dean were always drinking it and they seemed to like it. “Can I have some?” Emma asked Dean.

Dean’s hand tightened on his coffee and Emma thought that he’d refuse but then he offered it up to her. “Sure, though I doubt you’ll like it.”

Emma took a small sip from it and it was like a mini explosion of something flavory and strong going off in her mouth. It was so good.

Sam clapped his hands once and got up. “Alrighty, then. I’ll play bad cop.” He walked towards the bathroom.

“And?” Dean asked.

Sam turned around. “And… when I’m done, then you watch them. See if any of them look guilty or somethin’.”

“So if somebody freaks out, then that’s our creep.”

Sam nodded. “Or he’ll lead us closer, and you can track him.”

“Ok, but what’s my cover?”

“I don’t know!” Sam replied. “Just hang back. Act normal.” He went into the bathroom and closed the door.

Dean went back to going through a notebook he had laid out in front of him. “Yeah, yeah. Guy in his thirties hanging out at Plucky’s alone-that’s normal. Not pervy at all.”

“What’s pervy?” Emma asked between sips. She really liked this stuff.

“Like, pervert.” Dean clarified. Emma just stared at him, she still didn’t get it. “Child-molester type of person.”

“Ohh.”

When Dean perked up a couple of seconds later Emma watching him warily. “Hey, you can be part of my cover.” He picked up his keys and gestured for Emma to follow him. “C’mon, we got an errand to do. I’ll even buy you more coffee.”

Emma really should have known better than to be bribed with coffee. No amount of caffeine was worth the humiliation of dressing up like a little girl, with two effin’ low pigtails, a pink shirt with hello kitty on it and jeans. At least the bangs helped a little, but it wasn’t enough. Emma still looked like a preteen or something and everything so Dean wouldn’t look like a pervy guy.

That’s exactly how she ended up sitting on an awful table with squeaky chairs across from Dean. From where they were sitting, Emma could see Sam heading into a room to talk to the manager. And dang it, he looked like a mean thing.

“This is ridiculous, Dean.” Emma complained, looking all miserable. “I look like a teen-wannabe. I’m too old for this.”

Dean smiled. “Nah, you look perfect. This way nobody will ask questions. I brought you here to have fun so,” he waved his arms around. “go have fun.”

Emma glared. “Not having fun in this hellhole, Dean. I’m not even getting up dressed like this.”

A true little girl walked by their table playing with a giant colorful thing that Emma eyed with disdain and Dean perked up again. He looked back to see where the girl had come from and said, “Em, be right back. Just stay here and… do your thing.”

“What?” Emma wasn’t about to be left alone just so he could go and actually have fun.

Dean stood up and made his way to the back of the place where there were a bunch of giant, colorful things like teddy bears and other crap on display. Emma watched him get frustrated with the dude and come back defeated. “Couldn’t get that slinky.” He announced.

“I don’t see the point of any of this.” Emma said but she got up anyways and decided to do her good deed of the day already. “But I’ll see what I can do.”

//////

Then Dean left again a couple of minutes later to go see a little boy a couple of tables over. Emma listened in on their conversation and heard that the little boy hated the place quite a lot. The food was bad, too, apparently and his mom was a total bitch. Surprisingly, Dean tried to sympathize with the boy and told him to give his mom a break. He even talked about his dad with him. How come he could open up to a stranger and not… her? Wait, she was going down that dangerous path again. Not going there. It’s just temporary.

Just then a cheery man that Sam had been interrogating walked past and was pervy with a kid nearby. That guy was so… nice, it was sickening in Emma’s opinion. Dean came back to the table and texted the negative to Sam.

“So, having fun, yet?” Emma asked Dean.

Dean made a face. “Yeah, lots. Anyways, that kid is scared of robots.”

Emma raised an eyebrow. “And Sam is scared of clowns. Shocker.”

Suddenly, a yellow furry man ran past them and Sam yelled out for Dean to follow him. Dean got up but wasn’t fast enough and Emma got ahead of him by getting on top of two tables and leaping into the air, landing perfectly. Emma followed the man out a back door that lead to the street and caught up to him pretty quickly. She grabbed the tail, thinking that she had him, but the thing came off. Angry, she threw it away and jumped the guy from behind, which caused them to land on a stupid pile of tires. Those things were really bouncy and annoying, and the guy kept squirming. Finally, after some rolling, Emma pinned him down and he had the audacity to hold his hands, paws, up.

“If this is about the met lab that fireballed in Butte…” The Furry man began speaking hurriedly and Emma barely caught anything.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She told him. “Ok, uh… what’s your name?” that was the polite thing to say, right? Humans were all about politeness.

Just then Dean and Sam joined her. Dean threw her a thumbs up and a smile, he was panting as was Sam.

“Cliff.”

“Cliff, you’re not using kid’s nightmares to smoke people, are you?” Dean asked, finally catching up.

Cliff seemed confused, he looked between Emma and Dean. “Uh… don’t think so?”

Dean looked up at Sam and shook his head.

Emma looked down at Cliff who seemed to be enjoying having her on top of him and got up, disgusted. “Get up.” She told him.

Dean is the one that hauled Cliff to his feet because Emma refused to touch him again. Pervy, she thought.

“Ok, we don’t care about,” Emma waved her hands around in frustration. “whatever you were talking about earlier. But there’s some seriously weird stuff going on here.”

Cliff nodded. “You mean the sub-basement.”

“The place has a sub-basement?” Sam asked, quickly jumping on this new information.

“Sure. Door’s out back.”

“What’s in there?” Dean asked.

Cliff shrugged. “All I know is… Me and Saul used to come in after hours sometimes and…” Emma jumped a little when the guy let out a maniac laugh. “You ever shroom in a ball pit?” He asked her.

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about!” She told him, sure that she’d never done anything like that.

Dean pushed the guy backwards away from Emma. “Now don’t get too friendly, there.” He warned him and that wiped the smile off his face.

“Not that I… would, agents. It was Saul. Just Saul. All alone.” Emma glared at him and he cleared his throat. “Anyway… sometimes we’d hear, like, spooky stuff, through the vents… coming up from the boiler room.”

When they got back inside, the little boy that Dean talked to earlier was exiting the place with his mom. Dean rummaged through the boy’s stuff and when he didn’t find what he was looking for, he looked worried.

“What is it, Dean?” Sam asked.

“I think the bitchy mom plus, uh, sad kid plus place mat with something nuts written on it… equals wacky corpse.”

“So she’s next on the list?” Emma asked, busy undoing her left braid since the thing holding the other one had just snapped. She didn’t want to look weirder with only one braid.

Dean nodded. “All right, I’ll tail them just to be safe. Emma, you’re coming with me.”

Emma looked at Sam with surprise. “So you’re that impressed with my fighting skills, uh?”

Sam gave her a dirty look. “Yeah, amazed, really.”

Dean looked between the two of them and shook his head. “I’m not even gonna ask right now. I’ll go check out the boiling room, you two go.”

They walk off but then Sam turned back to ask what the boy drew.

“Robot.” Dean told him.

“Robot?” Sam echoed.

“Yeah, about the size of a house. Shoots destructo beams out of its eyes.”

Sam turned back around and walked with Emma. “At least we’ll see it coming.”

Dean went to the sub-basement of Plucky’s by himself and the whole time he hoped to finally find something good. His instincts were telling him that he was in the right direction, and he always trusted his instincts. Thing was, he couldn’t wait to get out of this whole Plucky’s mess. It made him feel guilty for leaving Sam in one of these places when he was a kid. It was probably why the kid was afraid of clowns. And here he thought he’d been doing a good job.

It didn’t take Dean long to find an altar with a fire going and a symbol on the floor. That wasn’t it, though. There were children’s pictures all over the walls, one had a boy under water and more clown figurines. Ugly things. Besides the creepy drawing there was a picture of two boys celebrating a birthday. Next, he found a book with symbols. Underneath it was Tyler’s missing drawing. Bingo.

“Drop it.” Came a voice from behind him and Dean froze. He knew that voice. Slowly, he turned around and wasn’t surprised to see Howard there. What surprised him was that he was holding a gun. “Drop it!” Howard yelled again, a little more desperate.

Dean lowered the gun to the floor, trying to buy some time. Surely, this guy wouldn’t shoot. He didn’t seem to have it in him. Instead, he seemed to have others, like, nightmares, do his dirty work.

Howard calmed a little bit then. “Mm-hmm. Now kick it over.” Dammit, Dean had been counting on his stupidity. Reluctantly, he slid the gun towards Howard with his foot. What else could he do? It was either that or get shot.

“Some pretty heavy hoodoo you got here.” Dean casually commented, looking around. “I gotta say, as far as I know, none of these things, uh, can poop out a Unicorn.” Or an Octovamp.

Howard eyed him warily and walked closer. Dean felt a little more confident because now the pot of crap was between them, he could probably escape.

“There’s a lot of power in fear. When a child draws what he’s afraid of, a little of that… mojo ends up on the page.”

Alright, so he was talking now. Dean could find out what was going on. “So what, you set fire and some bed wetter’s horror show comes to life?”

“I have to have something of the parent, too.” Howard clarified. “Something they own. That bit gets tricky.”

Dean gave him a sarcastic smile. “That doesn’t seem to slow you down.” Mistake, Howard got fanatical.

“I’m just doing what I need to!” He said vehemently.

“Okay, I get it.” Dean then reached back and grabbed the book from the table, hurling it at Howard to distract him while he ripped Tyler’s drawing in half. “No drawing… no Iron Giant.” And thank god for that. Sammy and Emma wouldn’t have been able to fight against it. He needed to protect them.

Pissed off, Howard raised his voice. “Oh, that b-word is still on the list!” After his little outburst, he calmed down a little. Dean was a little disturbed by how calmer he seemed. That was never a good sign. In the movies, that meant they had an ace up their sleeve and Dean wasn’t in the mood for that kind of thing right now. He had too much on his plate as it was. “But not tonight. Bigger fish.”

Dean decided to make him nervous again, then. More likely he’d make a mistake. “What, are you gonna shoot me, Howard? You really want a body on your hands? Blood everywhere!”

Howard waved the gun around dangerously and Dean took a step back. That moron probably didn’t even know how to use one of those properly. “I’d shut up!” Bingo, he was rattled again. “’Cause I got lots of ways to take care of bullies. Don’t worry. Like that FBI guy and the girl.” Dean clenched his jaw. Howard must have seen his reaction because he smiled a little and it wasn’t nice. “They’re your pals, right? The girl, she’s not FBI, too young. But I saw you chase Cliff down.” He nodded, as if it all made sense. Truth be told, the guy was definitely off his rocket. He looked all sorts of crazy. “Five minutes ago, his card was torched. His and that girl’s hair pin. Along with something from my… personal collection.” Still pointing his gun at Dean, Howard picked up several papers with children’s drawings from a nearby table. “I picked it out real special for them, too.”

“I assume that you’re not bringing me along to chat about unicorns and clowns.” Emma took a little satisfaction from seeing him flinch at the mention of clowns. “So what is it that you want to talk about?”

Sam’s grip on the wheel tightened to the point that his knuckles whitened. “You didn’t tell Dean what happened.” He stated.

Emma tilted her head to one side. “No, so?”

“Why?”

“Because I want to avoid as many conflicts as possible.” She said honestly. “And I have nothing against you. Well… except perhaps a little grudge for the fact that you tried to shoot me. But I can forgive and forget.”

Sam’s hold on the wheel loosened and he rolled his shoulders trying to relax. “Thanks, anyways.”

“Is that it?” Emma asked.

“Not really. I want to know what exactly you’re doing here. What I said last night…” He trailed off and sighed. At least he did sound remorseful. “I said it all wrong, Emma. I was… out of it. I apologize but if you truly don’t mean any harm then I’d at least like for you to be honest.”

Emma threw her hands up in the air in frustration. “I told Dean the truth.” Her hands clenched into fists on her lap and for the first time in a couple of days she dared stare at the brand on her wrist. It was just an old-looking scar now, completely healed, but to Emma it still felt raw. If she closed her eyes and concentrated, she could still feel the burn of the hot iron.

“Dean didn’t tell me much.”

With a sigh, Emma took the hint. Dean probably did tell him everything, but he just wanted to make sure. “I didn’t escape the institute. I told myself that I’d really do it. It’s what I’ve been trained for, you know? But then I got to the hotel where you guys were staying and… I saw him. Dean, I mean.” She let out a small, humorless laugh and nervously scratched the brand with her nail. “You’d have to be blind not to see the resemblance between me and him. Then we talked and even as I said my lines to him, the ones I’d practiced on my way there, I found myself speaking the truth. I don’t want to be like them and do terrible things. Even at the institute I was a freak. The daughter of a hunter.”

Sam’s expression was understanding and Emma wondered if she’d misjudged him. His live wasn’t an easy one either and whatever had gone down the night before couldn’t be good. “You’re preaching to the choir about identity problems.”

Emma mustered up a little smile. “Sam, I have nothing against you. Or Dean for that matter. I wouldn’t, literally, be alive if it wasn’t for him. The thing is, I’m not going to turn against you. I just want to be normal. As soon as your friend Frank can get me some papers and a new life, a real one, I’ll be out of your lives.”

“Emma… Dean doesn’t want you out of his life.” Emma snorted. “If you don’t believe me…”

“We’re here.” Emma really didn’t want to talk about any of that right now so as soon as the car stopped, she was out. He’d stopped the car across the street from where a woman was getting out of her car with the boy that Dean talked to earlier. It was getting dark, but Emma could see quite clearly. One of the perks of being an Amazon.

She turned to see Sam also getting out. Since Emma was looking in his direction, she spotted the freaking clown first. It was standing right behind Sam. For a second she didn’t know what to say, that thing was ugly and, well, scary. Sam must have noticed her expression because he turned around and gasped.

Suddenly the clown let out a laugh that seemed to wake Sam up. He sprinted across the lot and the clown followed him. Confused, Emma tried to keep up with them but she lost them for a moment. That is until she heard a gunshot coming from the building to her right. She got there just in time to see not only one, but two clowns beating the heck out of Sam.

“Hey, you ugly… face!” Emma already had her knife out and ready to strike.

The taller clown that was holding Sam from behind only laughed while the other one came at her.  She sliced him open at the belly. Or at least she thought she did. The only thing that came out was glitter, though. “What?”

“They’re not real, Emma!” Sam yelled from between two cars on the right where he was fighting the clown and failing miserably. “You can’t kill them!”

“Great.” The clown laughed on her face when she got in another slash, this time to his arm and more glitter was sprinkled on her. It made her sneeze and that’s when the clown took the opportunity to punch her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her. Emma doubled over and tried to move out of the way when she saw the clown’s intention to kick her in the face. But she was too slow. The clown at least got her on the shoulder instead. The knife flew out of her hand to somewhere to her left and she was now weaponless with a clown that couldn’t be killed.

Emma wiped the blood from her mouth as she lay on the floor and kicked her legs out to stand up. Taking a defensive stance, she made a c’mere gesture to the laughing clown. “Let’s see what else you got, ugly face.”

With two consecutive punches to the face and a kick to the stomach, both powerful enough that if the thing had been human it would be dead, the clown went sprawling a couple of feet away. Emma didn’t miss any time and went to help Sam who had just been headbutted. She pulled back the clown by the neck of his shirt and also sent him flying across the room where he landed on the windshield of the truck with a loud thud. What annoyed her was that it kept laughing. That creepy, maniac laugh.

“I hope Dean has this under control.” Sam said from beside her. “Or else…” He didn’t get to finish because just then the shorter clown whirled him around and sprayed him with something white that came out of a flower on his chest, instantly getting the upper hand as Sam struggled to see again. Some of it landed on her clothes and soaked her, too.

Pissed off, she took a step closer to kick his butt back to the nearest circus, but the clown turned to her with a gun in his hand. The clown began to close in on her and so for every step he took she retreated. Tall came from out of nowhere and kicked her in the face, making her stumble on something and fall down on her butt. “Point that thing somewhere else, Shorty.”

The clown giggled and shook its head. Emma took that opportunity to try to get up but a gunshot rang out, startling her and stopping her. Smoke was coming out of the gun that Shorty held and it was still pointed at her. Looking down at her own shirt, Emma noticed the red stain on it that seemed to be growing bigger and bigger right in the middle of Hello Kitty’s eyes. “Crap, I just bought this.” She murmured and fell backwards, hitting her head on something.

“Emma!” She heard Sam scream.

But all Emma could see was the clown approaching her slowly as he pinched his noise and the most annoying sound rang out. The gun was still pointed at her, now at her head and Emma couldn’t help but let out a hysterical laugh herself. So this is what it came down to for her. Death at the hands of a freaking clown. That was the last thing she saw before everything went black.

/////////

Dean knew that he didn’t have much time if he wanted to save both Emma and Sam. Howard’s plan was already in motion it seem and he already had a plan but without time…

“Well, hey, these are, uh, really nice dolls.” Dean picked up a Plucky’s figurine and pretended to inspect it. “Did you… paint them yourself?” Howard didn’t respond, he was looking at Dean like he just grew another head or suddenly started dancing Macarena. The Plucky looked awful, ugly and… smiley. It was creepy. “Oh, uh, friggin’ Plucky.”

That got a reaction out of Howard and Dean had his answer. “Plucky helps kids.” He quickly said in a whiny voice and Dean wanted nothing more than rip his friggin’ head off right then and there. But he couldn’t, yet. “It’s all I ever wanted to do. And when the management slot opened up…” Howard shut his mouth and frowned, as if the fact that he hadn’t been chosen was still a puzzle to him. “but they passed me over!”

“Shocker,” Dean said sarcastically looking at the clown doll wondering why in the hell anyone would ever bother with this clown who was ugly.

“I told them, no one cares more than me, but suits never listen.” Dean reached back and pretended to put the doll down, instead he put it in his back pocket, saving it for later. “So I’m doing it my way.”

“Let me get this straight.” Dean said, sort of amused at the guy’s idiotic logic. “You didn’t get the good parking space, so you start dropping bodies?”

“Those parents were horrible! They deserved what they got.”

“Some guy hits on the babysitter and all of a suddenly he’s the world’s worst dad?” Ha, this dude clearly didn’t know dysfunctional. That was nothing.

“A good parent puts his kids first.” And Dean couldn’t agree more but… oh, hell. Emma, he thought as realization hit him square on the face.

When he first found out about Ben and thought that he could be his son, Dean hadn’t been more scared or thrilled in his entire life. Thrilled because, hey, he was a dad and Ben was a great kid. Scared, though, because he’d never been there for him and it was almost like abandonment even if he hadn’t had any idea of his existence. Dean thought of himself as the worst dad ever. And now that he had a daughter, his own blood, and Dean was acting no better than the people that Howard was killing. He’d neglected and almost ignored Emma the entire time she was with him like he always did with stuff he couldn’t deal with. No wonder she wanted out as soon as possible.

Dean stepped closer to Howard despite being held at gun point. “A little girl watching her dad get ganked by the monster in her closet is putting her first?” Or having her own dad ignore and practically call her a monster wordlessly? Dean had really screwed up, too.

The gun in Howard’s hand shook the closer Dean got. “In the long run, they’ll be better off.”

“You think so?” he doubted it.

“I would have been!” And there was the million dollar answer. He turned to look at the pictures taped to the wall, his gaze falling on the one with the kid drowning and the birthday party one with two kids. “So, your brother. What happened to him?”

“It’s not my fault, it’s theirs!”

“Looks to me like he drowned.” Dean said.

“They let him die.” Howard murmured, pain in his voice but Dean couldn’t allow himself to feel bad for the poor bastard. It wasn’t his fault that he drowned, or that he had irresponsible parents, but he’d been the one doing all the hoodoo crap that left two children without their parents.

Dean walked over to the wall and ripped one of the drawings, holding it up for Howard to see as he made his way back with small, careful steps. “I bet you still have nightmares.” If there was something he was good at, it was psychological damage. He deserved a freaking prize for that. “In fact, I bet you haven’t been in the water since.”

“Shut up!”

In that moment, Dean decided to act, and fast. “Because you’re afraid.” He took out the Plucky ugly ass clown and dumped it on the fire along with the drawing and watched as it caught fire.

Howard watched with horror as the thing burned, too. “No!” He tried to pull it out of the fire, but it was too late for him. Knowing that things were about to get ugly, Dean launched himself off to one side and that’s when Howard started to fire at him. None of the bullets hit him, thankfully, they reached a little boy that appeared out of nowhere between him and Howard. It was the same boy from the birthday picture, except that this version of him was dripping wet and didn’t look so happy.

As the boy advanced on Howard, Howard tried to apologize but nothing that he said even fazed the boy. He reached out and touched Howard’s hand that was holding the gun, bringing him to his knees gasping and water poured out of his mouth like a faucet. Dean was now standing up and could only watch with horror as Howard drowned and fell to the floor dead. The boy disappearing at the same time.

It was over.

/////////

Emma came awake with a headache and a freaking wound on her stomach inflicted by that stupid clown. Surprised that she wasn’t dead, Emma sat up only to grunt in pain and fall backwards on the backseat of a car.

“Good, you’re awake.” Sam said from the front seat.

“Sam, you’re alive.”

Sam chuckled. “Barely, yes.”

Ignoring the pain in her abdomen and clutching at the wound to stop the bleeding, Emma finally sat up. “Where’s Dean?”

“Dean’s fine, I just got off the phone with him and he’s waiting for us at… Plucky’s.”

Emma nodded absentmindedly. She looked down at her abdomen and noticed that the bleeding had slowed down, all of it absorbed by the gauze that was over it. It hurt, but Emma was able to embrace the pain and draw force from it. As an Amazon, pain was part of her life.

“How are you feeling?” Sam suddenly asked sounding awkward.

“I’m fine, nothing I can’t deal with.” She looked up and met Sam’s gaze on the rearview mirror to assure him. “It will need stitches, though. And you better take the bullet out quickly. I don’t like the idea of living with a bullet inside me.”

Sam’s eyes widened. “It’s already healing?”

“Yes. By tomorrow I’ll probably be back to normal.”

Sam took a left and Emma was able to make out Dean’s form in the distance leaning against a car. She let out a sigh of relieve, somehow feeling lots better as if that man standing there would really give a crap about her. Oh, he cared. But not like a father would care for his daughter. At most he was probably helping her to alleviate some of his guilt.

Emma watched as Sam got out of the car and talked to Dean. They laughed a little bit but Dean sobered up pretty quick. She opened the door on her side but before she could even do so much as move, Dean was there picking her up in his arms. His expression was a mixture between anger and frustration. Why in the world was he mad now?

“What the hell happened, Sam?” He asked gruffly.

“Uh, one of the clowns must have picked up my gun and shot her.”

“I’m right here!” Emma said.

Dean looked down at her and his expression softened. “I’m sorry, Emma.”

Emma frowned. “For what?”

“For… everything.”

He placed her inside the other car and closed the door. Outside, he was talking to Sam loud enough that she could hear, too.

“Ok, tell me everything.” Dean hissed. “How in the hell could you let them shoot her?”

Sam’s posture was rigid and he didn’t look happy at all. “Oh, I’m sorry but I was getting my own ass kicked to look out for much. Sorry if I thought that an Amazon could take care of herself.” Emma was feeling a little insulted now. Of course she could take care of herself but she made the grave mistake of underestimating her opponent. A mistake that she would never make again. Apparently, clowns could kill.

Dean seemed to be about to explode and he opened his mouth to probably yell back. At the last moment he thought better about it and took a deep breath to calm himself. “Sammy… she could have been killed.” He said slowly, a hint of something almost like pain in his voice. “She’s not an Amazon, ok? She’s just a girl right now. A badass, yeah, but still a girl.”

“I-I hadn’t considered that.” Well point to Sam for taking her seriously.

“Hey, guys!” Emma made sure to yell loud enough for them to hear her. Dean bent down to look in through the window with his eyebrows raised. “I’m sure you’re having a nice chat out there but I’d really appreciate it if I could get a first aid kit.”

Dean popped the trunk open and came back with the first aid kit. He opened the back door and told Emma to scoot over. “Hey, I can do it myself.” Emma tried to protest. “It’s not a big deal” Inside, though, Emma was feeling a little weird. A warm feeling was spreading through her when Dean ignored her comment and pulled up her shirt to take out the bullet and stitch her up. The procedure barely even stung her but she couldn’t take her eyes off Dean, her father, who seemed to want to help her now. Emma knew that the circumstances in which she was conceived weren’t normal, yet here was Dean helping her. Could it be possible that he could actually feel something for her like fatherly love and not just pity her? Emma didn’t know a lot of things about human behavior, everything she’d learned so far came from watching TV and listening to Sam and Dean, but she wanted it all.

“You’re wrong.” Emma whispered as Dean put a new gauze on top of her wound.

Dean looked up at her face and smiled a little. “I’m usually wrong about a lot of things, but what exactly are we talking about here?”

Emma gathered up some courage and hoping that she wouldn’t make a fool of herself, she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Dean’s neck in an embrace that she didn’t know she needed until that moment. To her surprise, Dean didn’t hesitate to wrap his own arms around her and hugged her tight. “You are a good man… Dean.” Emma replied, thinking best to say it like this. “I know you now and I can say that you really are a good man, don’t doubt it.”

/////////

As Dean drove away from Kansas with Emma in the backseat sleeping, he couldn’t stop thinking about what she’d said to him. Dean wasn’t stupid, he knew that hunting helped people. But he’d never considered himself as an actual good person. His idea of a good time was booze and women, something he’d recently sworn off due to the circumstances. One kid was enough.

But Dean had to admit that having Emma say something like that was nice. For some reason Dean swelled up with pride like a stupid balloon when he heard her say that. Whether Dean admitted it or not, Emma was his daughter and he had to protect her until his last breath. There was no doubt in his mind that the Amazons were probably laying low but keeping an eye out for them. So Emma needed him.

He could still see that broken girl that knocked on his hotel door saying that she would kill him. Even then Dean hadn’t believed it. There was no trace of malice in those green eyes of hers, no evilness. As a hunter, Dean had seen a lot of that over the years in many people. Sometimes even in himself. But not in Emma. Despite whatever she went through at the hands of the Amazons, she remained good.

And so Dean promised himself that he’d keep her that way no matter what. Soon, he’d let her go and have a chance at the normal life she wanted, away from him so nothing could hurt her. It was the only way. Dean wouldn’t make the same mistake his own father did. A life on the road was no life for someone so innocent and precious as Emma where she could get killed by anything. Tonight was proof of that. Dean wouldn’t put his own baggage on her shoulders.

If it was the last thing he did, Dean would get her to safety.