In an Altered Key, 2/?
Title: In an Altered Key, 2/?
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are property of Eric Kripke et al.
Genre: Drama
Characters: Dean, Sam, Bobby, Ruby, OMC.
Rating: T this part, probably M overall.
Spoilers: Nnnot really. I suppose the overall S4/5 premise could be inferred.Summary: Sequel to ‘After These Things, I Saw’. Ruby arrives at the survivors’ hideout - with a proposition.
A/N: It is a question how Ruby can eat chips in this story (crisps in British English), given the well-attested demon sensitivity to salt. I can only assume that it is by the same means she enjoys french fries in canon ;) .
Saturday, November 15th (New Calendar)
Now I am still talking about what happened yesterday, even though stuff has happened today which I have to catch up with. I can only write until my candle gets down to the next line, because that’s how we ration them. By the time I finish my chores these days, it is dark.
So yesterday, when Ruby stepped in the door over the threshold, she kind of grimaced. Then she saw Mr. Singer and put her smile back on.
“And this must be Bobby,” she said. “I’ve heard so much about you. Most of it bad, but then that’s the hellish perspective.”
“And who would you be?” Mr. Singer snarled.
“Ruby,” Dean said.
“The Ruby?”
“I come on peaceable terms!” she said. “Jeez, you people are suspicious.” Ruby flung herself into a chair and Dean turned his back to do the salt lines again. “Well?” said Ruby after a minute, “Anybody gonna offer me a drink or something?” I looked at Mr. Singer and he nodded, so I got her a coke and some old chips out of the storage bin. She sat on the couch with her legs apart like a boy, eating with both hands like she was starving hungry. Mr. Singer raised his eyebrows at Dean and Dean looked sideways.
I heard a noise behind me. Emily was peering around the door at Ruby, all wide-eyed. She hasn’t seen a lot of other girls - none, I think, since I found her.
“Well hey there,” Ruby said. Emily’s mouth opened a little, then she ran away. Ruby laughed and carried on eating.
“Okay,” she said when she was done. She brushed her hands off and swallowed a mouthful of crunched-up chips. “Let’s do this. Show doctor where the patient’s at!”
“Upstairs,” Dean gestured with his head towards the door and waited for Ruby to go through before he followed her. No-one told me to stay behind, so I followed - but they closed the door to the sleeping room, which is thick wood. So All I heard was:
“Jesus, Ruby, take it easy!” Then,
“Sam? Sammy?”
And then there was quiet, but I felt like something was happening. Then Dean said, “Oh my God,” And there was another pause - almost, I thought, a sound like crying, but it can’t have been, because the three people inside that room wouldn’t cry.
So that was yesterday. And today, I came downstairs and the first thing I heard was voices from the kitchen. It was Dean and Sam, but not Sam like he normally is - Sam, but like a real person. They were arguing.
“All this time,” Sam was saying, “And you didn’t even try to fix the generator up?”
“Well excuse me if it hasn’t been a priority! We got gas for the stove, candles - what more do you want?”
“Um, the internet, for one thing!”
“What for?”
“How else do we find leads? Or just - what’s going on in the world?”
A chair creaked and I heard a thud like someone sat down hard.
“Sam we don’t…” I came close to the door and saw it was Dean that was sitting. He looked - surprised - not surprised - I don’t know what the word is. Like things weren’t going the way he wanted, or expected them to. “We don’t do that anymore.”
“Hunt?”
“Go looking for trouble. Hell, we got two little kids here! And Bobby ain’t-” Dean stopped, looked guilty and lowered his voice - “You know. Healthy . The world will just have to take care of itself. Haven’t we done enough?”
“There can never be enough. And I’m healthy now, as you put it. I’m not around to just sit around waiting to die, Dean. That’s not us. We weren’t raised that way.”
Sam’s back was to me, so I couldn’t see his face, but everything about the way he stood was different.
Dean made a short, barking laugh. “What, back before the apocalypse?”
“There was no apocalypse. We stopped it.”
Dean raised his eyebrows and looked around, I guess at the grayness of everything, how the windows were taped and the floors covered with devil’s traps, how the sky outside was just grey rolling clouds with occasional flashes of red.
“We’re still here,” said Sam, and sounded determined, and suddenly I felt bad for eavesdropping so much. I made some noise like I’d just arrived and pushed the door open the rest of the way.
“Hi Joe,” said Sam when he saw me, the same time Dean said, “Joey.”
“Hi,” I said, and went to the cupboard, got my bowl out. There was no bread, but some new dried beans, and I got the water to boil them. I could feel the new Sam was watching me. It made me feel weird.
“Listen Joe,” Sam said, “I’m sorry I’ve been acting so strange. I’ve just been - sick, kind of. But I’m better now. I hope you’re not scared of me.”
“No,” I lied. I kept watching the stove so I didn’t have to look at him.
“So how old are you now?”
“Ten and a half,” I looked at Dean, but he didn’t help.
“That’s cool. I got my first gun around your age.”
“I have two guns,” I told him.
“Yeah?” He looked pleased. “You know how to use a machete?”
Monday, November 17th (New Calendar)
Yesterday was Sunday by our reckoning. Sundays, we have a kind of Service, not cause anyone believes in God so much, but Mr. Singer says its better to be safe than sorry. Some French guy figured it all out about a billion years ago, and he said if you feel like you can’t believe, if you like go to church and smell candles enough, eventually you will.
After service Sam wanted to train me. Dean trains me, and they had an argument about it, which Dean won so he trained me like usual and Sam went off to look at the generator.
Ruby is still hanging round. She is Emily’s new favorite person, which I guess I understand on account of them both being girls. Emily didn’t want to go to Service and wanted to hang out with Ruby instead, had a tantrum about it, but they wouldn’t leave her alone with Ruby. I guess they think Ruby’s a bad guy, even though she helped us. Nobody tells me anything. But in the afternoon, Emily must have snuck away from Mr. Singer who was minding her, because I heard both the girls in the kitchen together, whispering. And Emily giggled.
By night we had electricity. For one hour. Sam got a little computer out and connected to the internet. It still exists - Mr. Singer said it was designed to survive the end of the world, and I guess it did. Dean didn’t look happy, but didn’t say anything until, when the hour was up, Sam closed the laptop and turned to me:
“Hey Joe,” he said, “How would you like to put all of that training to good use?”
“Like what?” I said.
“Like your first mission as a real hunter. Looks like I’ve found us a case.”
TBC.
Please leave a review, it makes the elves in my brain write more.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are property of Eric Kripke et al.
Genre: Drama
Characters: Dean, Sam, Bobby, Ruby, OMC.
Rating: T this part, probably M overall.
Spoilers: Nnnot really. I suppose the overall S4/5 premise could be inferred.Summary: Sequel to ‘After These Things, I Saw’. Ruby arrives at the survivors’ hideout - with a proposition.
A/N: It is a question how Ruby can eat chips in this story (crisps in British English), given the well-attested demon sensitivity to salt. I can only assume that it is by the same means she enjoys french fries in canon ;) .
Saturday, November 15th (New Calendar)
Now I am still talking about what happened yesterday, even though stuff has happened today which I have to catch up with. I can only write until my candle gets down to the next line, because that’s how we ration them. By the time I finish my chores these days, it is dark.
So yesterday, when Ruby stepped in the door over the threshold, she kind of grimaced. Then she saw Mr. Singer and put her smile back on.
“And this must be Bobby,” she said. “I’ve heard so much about you. Most of it bad, but then that’s the hellish perspective.”
“And who would you be?” Mr. Singer snarled.
“Ruby,” Dean said.
“The Ruby?”
“I come on peaceable terms!” she said. “Jeez, you people are suspicious.” Ruby flung herself into a chair and Dean turned his back to do the salt lines again. “Well?” said Ruby after a minute, “Anybody gonna offer me a drink or something?” I looked at Mr. Singer and he nodded, so I got her a coke and some old chips out of the storage bin. She sat on the couch with her legs apart like a boy, eating with both hands like she was starving hungry. Mr. Singer raised his eyebrows at Dean and Dean looked sideways.
I heard a noise behind me. Emily was peering around the door at Ruby, all wide-eyed. She hasn’t seen a lot of other girls - none, I think, since I found her.
“Well hey there,” Ruby said. Emily’s mouth opened a little, then she ran away. Ruby laughed and carried on eating.
“Okay,” she said when she was done. She brushed her hands off and swallowed a mouthful of crunched-up chips. “Let’s do this. Show doctor where the patient’s at!”
“Upstairs,” Dean gestured with his head towards the door and waited for Ruby to go through before he followed her. No-one told me to stay behind, so I followed - but they closed the door to the sleeping room, which is thick wood. So All I heard was:
“Jesus, Ruby, take it easy!” Then,
“Sam? Sammy?”
And then there was quiet, but I felt like something was happening. Then Dean said, “Oh my God,” And there was another pause - almost, I thought, a sound like crying, but it can’t have been, because the three people inside that room wouldn’t cry.
So that was yesterday. And today, I came downstairs and the first thing I heard was voices from the kitchen. It was Dean and Sam, but not Sam like he normally is - Sam, but like a real person. They were arguing.
“All this time,” Sam was saying, “And you didn’t even try to fix the generator up?”
“Well excuse me if it hasn’t been a priority! We got gas for the stove, candles - what more do you want?”
“Um, the internet, for one thing!”
“What for?”
“How else do we find leads? Or just - what’s going on in the world?”
A chair creaked and I heard a thud like someone sat down hard.
“Sam we don’t…” I came close to the door and saw it was Dean that was sitting. He looked - surprised - not surprised - I don’t know what the word is. Like things weren’t going the way he wanted, or expected them to. “We don’t do that anymore.”
“Hunt?”
“Go looking for trouble. Hell, we got two little kids here! And Bobby ain’t-” Dean stopped, looked guilty and lowered his voice - “You know. Healthy . The world will just have to take care of itself. Haven’t we done enough?”
“There can never be enough. And I’m healthy now, as you put it. I’m not around to just sit around waiting to die, Dean. That’s not us. We weren’t raised that way.”
Sam’s back was to me, so I couldn’t see his face, but everything about the way he stood was different.
Dean made a short, barking laugh. “What, back before the apocalypse?”
“There was no apocalypse. We stopped it.”
Dean raised his eyebrows and looked around, I guess at the grayness of everything, how the windows were taped and the floors covered with devil’s traps, how the sky outside was just grey rolling clouds with occasional flashes of red.
“We’re still here,” said Sam, and sounded determined, and suddenly I felt bad for eavesdropping so much. I made some noise like I’d just arrived and pushed the door open the rest of the way.
“Hi Joe,” said Sam when he saw me, the same time Dean said, “Joey.”
“Hi,” I said, and went to the cupboard, got my bowl out. There was no bread, but some new dried beans, and I got the water to boil them. I could feel the new Sam was watching me. It made me feel weird.
“Listen Joe,” Sam said, “I’m sorry I’ve been acting so strange. I’ve just been - sick, kind of. But I’m better now. I hope you’re not scared of me.”
“No,” I lied. I kept watching the stove so I didn’t have to look at him.
“So how old are you now?”
“Ten and a half,” I looked at Dean, but he didn’t help.
“That’s cool. I got my first gun around your age.”
“I have two guns,” I told him.
“Yeah?” He looked pleased. “You know how to use a machete?”
Monday, November 17th (New Calendar)
Yesterday was Sunday by our reckoning. Sundays, we have a kind of Service, not cause anyone believes in God so much, but Mr. Singer says its better to be safe than sorry. Some French guy figured it all out about a billion years ago, and he said if you feel like you can’t believe, if you like go to church and smell candles enough, eventually you will.
After service Sam wanted to train me. Dean trains me, and they had an argument about it, which Dean won so he trained me like usual and Sam went off to look at the generator.
Ruby is still hanging round. She is Emily’s new favorite person, which I guess I understand on account of them both being girls. Emily didn’t want to go to Service and wanted to hang out with Ruby instead, had a tantrum about it, but they wouldn’t leave her alone with Ruby. I guess they think Ruby’s a bad guy, even though she helped us. Nobody tells me anything. But in the afternoon, Emily must have snuck away from Mr. Singer who was minding her, because I heard both the girls in the kitchen together, whispering. And Emily giggled.
By night we had electricity. For one hour. Sam got a little computer out and connected to the internet. It still exists - Mr. Singer said it was designed to survive the end of the world, and I guess it did. Dean didn’t look happy, but didn’t say anything until, when the hour was up, Sam closed the laptop and turned to me:
“Hey Joe,” he said, “How would you like to put all of that training to good use?”
“Like what?” I said.
“Like your first mission as a real hunter. Looks like I’ve found us a case.”
TBC.
Please leave a review, it makes the elves in my brain write more.