Still, 5/?
Title: Still, 5/?
Verse: The Libation Bearers
Fandom: Supernatural
Author: reading_is_in
Characters: Ben/Adam, Bobby.
Genre: Drama
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: All recognized characters from ‘Supernatural’ are property of Eric Kripke/CW. This fan fiction is not for profit.
Summary: Follows Orders of an Elder Time. The year is 2019. Ben is not the only one to know loss and irresolution. A series of strange killings in Colorado will come haunt Adam in unpredictable ways.
Warnings: Major characters...are dead, violence, more angst than you can shake a very angsty stick at.
When Ben got back to the inn, David was gone.
“Rachel Tracer’s alive,” was the first thing Adam said: “She’s working with David. Apparently they met about a year ago, on another wolf case, and since Rachel can’t exactly show her face around these parts any more due to people like our friends the Walders, he’s doing the onsite investigation stuff and she’s researching in private.” His hands were busy, arranging their files and then actually taking their plates and cups to the sink, but he didn’t have any trouble looking at Ben.
“So David’s...nice,” Ben offered, which was exactly not his impression.
“I’m not sure about nice,” Adam grinned. “His heart’s the right place.” Then he stopped moving and sat down on the end of his bed. “Listen...I get that this is - awkward - obviously - but can we make it as not-weird as possible? I mean we’re all here for the same reason, right? And David really is good at what he does. Not to mention the fact that he now has a Tracer with him.”
“Okay,” Ben breathed out. “Sure. We can.” There was no reason not to.
“So....I don’t want there to be any secrets about this. You know David is my ex. Only ex, really. Is there...anything you want to ask about - that time? Within reason, obviously?” He tried for humour.
“Well - how old were you?”
“Eighteen when we met, nineteen when we broke up. David is ten months older than me.”
“Why - did you like him?” Internal facepalm. But seriously, Adam had invited. What question wouldn’t sound stupid under the circumstances? “I mean how did you get together?”
“Well....we met in North Dakota, and...initially, I thought he was hot. He is hot,” said Adam slightly defensively. “And we got talking...pretty soon realized we were both hunters...hell, how does anyone get together? We liked each other and had stuff in common. Lonely life on the road and all that,” he was back to the slightly awkward humour.
“Sure,” Ben said.
“It was good for a while.”
“But?”
“But it got to be more work than it was worth to keep it together.” Adam raised large candid eyes to Ben.
“Hmm.”
He had never considered his relationship with Adam work. He was pretty sure Adam hadn’t either. He had just never put too much thought into what sort of thing it was, only - given the circumstances - whether they would or they couldn’t. He had never conceptualized it.
“David’s hard work,” Adam elaborated.
“Yeah he kind of seems like it - um. That didn’t come out right.”
Adam chuckled. “No, I said it first. He is. That doesn’t mean he’s not a good guy - or a great hunter. Anything else you want to ask?”
And there wasn’t. Not really. It wasn’t like he had - or wanted - an exclusive, total claim on Adam’s heart, soul, past and future (probably you couldn’t be that crazy twice, unless you were actually a psychopath). Only:
“When you were with him, did you still think about....?”
“Sam? Sure. Sometimes. But by then I understood that he was dead. It was probably the first time I did understand it - after two years.”
‘And how long will it take me?’ Ben wondered. He suddenly needed this conversation to be over. God. People. When he was fifteen, he’d come home from his first real date - as in, not a date where his Mom or the girl’s Mom drove them to a pizza place and then sat upstairs in the same house while they watched a movie - and it had been less than a startling success, and Dean had put his arm around Ben’s slumped, dejected shoulders and advised,
“Relationships, man. They’ll mess with your mind.” For which Mom had scolded him.
It was, of course, the heat of that touch that had messed with Ben’s mind that night. Little fuck-up.
“What was your news?” Ben shook his head, suddenly remembering Adam’s text.
“That the Tracer place has been trashed - vandalized.” Adam woke his laptop up from hibernation - his cell phone was connected to the USB port. On the screen were photos of what looked like the interior of an old farm house, broad beams and rafters and furniture that looked to come from someone’s grandmother’s drawing room. Chairs and tables had been overturned, crockery smashed, and the walls spray painted with brilliant red: Ben could make out the words ‘freak’ and ‘killers’ in the scrawl. He whistled softly.
“Yeah.” Adam said. “It’s pretty recent - a lot more dust on the undisturbed stuff. Didn’t surprise David - he said Rachel has been expecting something like this since the killings started.” He shrugged.
“Humans,” Ben grimaced.
“That’s what I thought at first. But check this out.” Adam clicked through to pictures of a well-stocked library, shelf upon shelf of leather books, more ordered and better arranged than Bobby Singer’s. “Untouched. The dust in here was a foot deep, and nothing out of place. Now you’d think an occult library would be the first place targeted by vigilantes. But,” Adam changed the picture one more time and raised his eyebrows at Ben. “There was a crucifix on the door.”
“So something didn’t want to pass it.”
“Or couldn’t pass it.”
“Werewolf vengeance?”
“But that doesn’t make sense. When werewolves change, they’re feral. No reason. No language. And in human form, they don’t remember anything. Something or someone with at least a small amount of rationality did this.”
Something twinged at the back of Ben’s mind, nagging. ‘I can take care of it’, he heard his own voice say with what seemed inordinate confidence: ‘I’ve killed lots of things’.
“David didn’t have any ideas,” Adam closed the photo display, and Ben suppressed an irrational twinge of jealousy that Adam had shown the other hunter first, “But I emailed him a copy to show Tracer. He said he’ll call back if she has anything.”
At this point Ben would usually ask, ‘What do we do next?’ but he reminded himself of his resolution to handle things, of the prickly mixture of defensiveness and protectiveness he’d felt sure in just yesterday. “We could look for connections between the victims,” he suggested. “If it isn’t a werewolf, there might be a pattern."
“Sure. Have to pick it up tomorrow though. Town library will be closed by now, and I’m not picking up any wireless signal.” Adam flipped the laptop shut and flopped back on his bed. He raised his eyebrows to Ben in casual invitation, but Ben was feeling pretty far from the mood. Instead he clicked the small TV on to a local news channel. Adam sat up straight at the reporter’s words:
“A third gruesome killing has sent shockwaves through the peaceful town of Elbert, fuelling fears of a Satanic cult….”
Part Six
Verse: The Libation Bearers
Fandom: Supernatural
Author: reading_is_in
Characters: Ben/Adam, Bobby.
Genre: Drama
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: All recognized characters from ‘Supernatural’ are property of Eric Kripke/CW. This fan fiction is not for profit.
Summary: Follows Orders of an Elder Time. The year is 2019. Ben is not the only one to know loss and irresolution. A series of strange killings in Colorado will come haunt Adam in unpredictable ways.
Warnings: Major characters...are dead, violence, more angst than you can shake a very angsty stick at.
When Ben got back to the inn, David was gone.
“Rachel Tracer’s alive,” was the first thing Adam said: “She’s working with David. Apparently they met about a year ago, on another wolf case, and since Rachel can’t exactly show her face around these parts any more due to people like our friends the Walders, he’s doing the onsite investigation stuff and she’s researching in private.” His hands were busy, arranging their files and then actually taking their plates and cups to the sink, but he didn’t have any trouble looking at Ben.
“So David’s...nice,” Ben offered, which was exactly not his impression.
“I’m not sure about nice,” Adam grinned. “His heart’s the right place.” Then he stopped moving and sat down on the end of his bed. “Listen...I get that this is - awkward - obviously - but can we make it as not-weird as possible? I mean we’re all here for the same reason, right? And David really is good at what he does. Not to mention the fact that he now has a Tracer with him.”
“Okay,” Ben breathed out. “Sure. We can.” There was no reason not to.
“So....I don’t want there to be any secrets about this. You know David is my ex. Only ex, really. Is there...anything you want to ask about - that time? Within reason, obviously?” He tried for humour.
“Well - how old were you?”
“Eighteen when we met, nineteen when we broke up. David is ten months older than me.”
“Why - did you like him?” Internal facepalm. But seriously, Adam had invited. What question wouldn’t sound stupid under the circumstances? “I mean how did you get together?”
“Well....we met in North Dakota, and...initially, I thought he was hot. He is hot,” said Adam slightly defensively. “And we got talking...pretty soon realized we were both hunters...hell, how does anyone get together? We liked each other and had stuff in common. Lonely life on the road and all that,” he was back to the slightly awkward humour.
“Sure,” Ben said.
“It was good for a while.”
“But?”
“But it got to be more work than it was worth to keep it together.” Adam raised large candid eyes to Ben.
“Hmm.”
He had never considered his relationship with Adam work. He was pretty sure Adam hadn’t either. He had just never put too much thought into what sort of thing it was, only - given the circumstances - whether they would or they couldn’t. He had never conceptualized it.
“David’s hard work,” Adam elaborated.
“Yeah he kind of seems like it - um. That didn’t come out right.”
Adam chuckled. “No, I said it first. He is. That doesn’t mean he’s not a good guy - or a great hunter. Anything else you want to ask?”
And there wasn’t. Not really. It wasn’t like he had - or wanted - an exclusive, total claim on Adam’s heart, soul, past and future (probably you couldn’t be that crazy twice, unless you were actually a psychopath). Only:
“When you were with him, did you still think about....?”
“Sam? Sure. Sometimes. But by then I understood that he was dead. It was probably the first time I did understand it - after two years.”
‘And how long will it take me?’ Ben wondered. He suddenly needed this conversation to be over. God. People. When he was fifteen, he’d come home from his first real date - as in, not a date where his Mom or the girl’s Mom drove them to a pizza place and then sat upstairs in the same house while they watched a movie - and it had been less than a startling success, and Dean had put his arm around Ben’s slumped, dejected shoulders and advised,
“Relationships, man. They’ll mess with your mind.” For which Mom had scolded him.
It was, of course, the heat of that touch that had messed with Ben’s mind that night. Little fuck-up.
“What was your news?” Ben shook his head, suddenly remembering Adam’s text.
“That the Tracer place has been trashed - vandalized.” Adam woke his laptop up from hibernation - his cell phone was connected to the USB port. On the screen were photos of what looked like the interior of an old farm house, broad beams and rafters and furniture that looked to come from someone’s grandmother’s drawing room. Chairs and tables had been overturned, crockery smashed, and the walls spray painted with brilliant red: Ben could make out the words ‘freak’ and ‘killers’ in the scrawl. He whistled softly.
“Yeah.” Adam said. “It’s pretty recent - a lot more dust on the undisturbed stuff. Didn’t surprise David - he said Rachel has been expecting something like this since the killings started.” He shrugged.
“Humans,” Ben grimaced.
“That’s what I thought at first. But check this out.” Adam clicked through to pictures of a well-stocked library, shelf upon shelf of leather books, more ordered and better arranged than Bobby Singer’s. “Untouched. The dust in here was a foot deep, and nothing out of place. Now you’d think an occult library would be the first place targeted by vigilantes. But,” Adam changed the picture one more time and raised his eyebrows at Ben. “There was a crucifix on the door.”
“So something didn’t want to pass it.”
“Or couldn’t pass it.”
“Werewolf vengeance?”
“But that doesn’t make sense. When werewolves change, they’re feral. No reason. No language. And in human form, they don’t remember anything. Something or someone with at least a small amount of rationality did this.”
Something twinged at the back of Ben’s mind, nagging. ‘I can take care of it’, he heard his own voice say with what seemed inordinate confidence: ‘I’ve killed lots of things’.
“David didn’t have any ideas,” Adam closed the photo display, and Ben suppressed an irrational twinge of jealousy that Adam had shown the other hunter first, “But I emailed him a copy to show Tracer. He said he’ll call back if she has anything.”
At this point Ben would usually ask, ‘What do we do next?’ but he reminded himself of his resolution to handle things, of the prickly mixture of defensiveness and protectiveness he’d felt sure in just yesterday. “We could look for connections between the victims,” he suggested. “If it isn’t a werewolf, there might be a pattern."
“Sure. Have to pick it up tomorrow though. Town library will be closed by now, and I’m not picking up any wireless signal.” Adam flipped the laptop shut and flopped back on his bed. He raised his eyebrows to Ben in casual invitation, but Ben was feeling pretty far from the mood. Instead he clicked the small TV on to a local news channel. Adam sat up straight at the reporter’s words:
“A third gruesome killing has sent shockwaves through the peaceful town of Elbert, fuelling fears of a Satanic cult….”
Part Six