(Untitled)

[wayward_dad]

After he and Dean had gotten Moss to the clinic, John made sure everyone was all right and everything was under control before heading back home. Dean and Angua mentioned something about going to the Hub but he didn't feel like staying out and drinking. John was exhausted, coming off of the adrenaline high kind of a bitch after being practically

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[blessed_by_god]

Sharon heard fairly quickly about the shooting because she lived in New Atlantis, and so many of the people around her were ITF or IPD.

She didn't know either man involved, or as far as she was aware, anyone who lived in the boarding house. However, John's name was brought up, and that made her wonder.

Starbuck was gone, off to check on a friend, and Sharon thought it wouldn't hurt to do the same.

The Winchester's hut was dark when she got there. She knew it, she'd been there one time before. She remembered where his bed was and leaned against the open window that should have been his.

"John? You in there?" she said, voice low so as not to disturb his boys if they were around.

She hoped he hadn't landed himself in the clinic.

[wayward_dad]

He had gone to his room and set the shotgun on top of his trunk. It would need to be thoroughly cleaned before he put it away and there was no way in hell he was going to hit the sack with a dirty weapon.

John was in the middle of getting out cleaning rags when a familiar voice wafted in from the window.

"Sharon?" he said, a puzzled look on his face as he crossed to the window. "Is everything all right?"

[blessed_by_god]

Sharon put a hand on the windowsill and lifted her gaze as the shadows gave way to John's familiar face. She searched each seam of darkness for injury, a hint of red, but couldn't find any.

"I heard there was a shoot out. Your name came up..." She didn't tell him she was concerned, but the tentative smile on her face (which was really more of a frown) probably gave it away.

[wayward_dad]

He stepped closer to the window, the light of the moon glinting off his skin as he looked down at her.

Listening carefully as Sharon spoke, John nodded to himself, missing nothing in her expression. Returning her small smile, he bit back the desire to ask if she had been worried about him. It was obvious she had been, for whatever reason.

"Did it, now?" he asked, interested.

[blessed_by_god]

"Yeah..."

There it was.

Sharon reached up and gently cupped John's chin in her hand, tilting his head to the side to get a better look. There was a shallow cut, and some scrapes. She ran her first two fingers under it to make sure it wasn't worse than she thought, but it wasn't bleeding.

"Are you okay?" she asked, hoping that was all he had to show for whatever had gone on at the boarding house.

[wayward_dad]

He didn't close his eyes when Sharon's hand cupped his chin. John watched her face carefully as she inspected his own, dutifully tipping his head to the side to give her a better view of his cheek. It had been a very long time since a woman had taken his face like that; John was surprised to realize that maybe he had missed that.

"I'm fine," he said, his voice a low murmur.

[blessed_by_god]

"Good." Sharon's smile eased, but she glanced around, realizing they were talking through a window. She lowered her hand, surprised at how reluctant she was to.

"Can I come in? I know it's late..." And he didn't live alone, she reminded herself.

[wayward_dad]

Taking a step back, John nodded. "Yeah, come on in. You don't need to stand out there."

Not waiting to see if she would move from the window, he headed to the front door. After opening it wide, he stood in the doorway, squinting against the bright moonlit sky.

[blessed_by_god]

Sharon met John at the door, feeling her stomach give a ridiculous sort of flip to see him standing there, whole and safe. Beyond that she really couldn't deny the attraction she felt toward him, though she tried. There was something about him tonight, she wasn't sure what, but she couldn't get enough of the sight of him.

"Are Dean and Sam here?" she asked, lowering her voice to a whisper.

[wayward_dad]

The corners of his mouth lifted when Sharon came into view. For whatever reason she'd come all the way here from New Atlantis, she was a welcome sight after all the blood and mayhem he'd dealt with earlier that evening.

Though John knew both boys were gone, he glanced over his shoulder toward the depths of the hut out of habit. "No," he said slowly, looking back to her. "They went out."

[blessed_by_god]

"I wouldn't want to wake anybody," Sharon said with a faint smile. She stepped past him and into the hut, but not far.

"So what happened?" she asked, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darker insides of his home.

[wayward_dad]

That earned a soft laugh from John. He moved past her to shut the door.

"Dean's friend Angua had asked us to help her out, to track down the man who'd killed Ginger and another woman. A few of us were out tonight when the man and another got into a gunfight. We tracked them, shots were fired, he died. A few others also got hurt, but the boys and I are fine," he explained, stepping away from the doorway and further into the hut. "It's a damned shame we didn't get there sooner."

[blessed_by_god]

"Thank God you're all okay. I heard the murderer was dead," Sharon murmured, honestly relieved. She felt like she lived in a fairly safe place, New Atlantis was a close community of huts, not like having a lone hut out in the middle of nowhere. And she had weapons. But that didn't mean all that much when it came down to a sociopath with a gun.

"Shots were fired? Who killed him?"

[wayward_dad]

"He's dead," John confirmed. "He won't be hurting anyone anymore." Though he thought Sharon might appreciate that Angua had kicked the bastard in the face afterward, he kept it to himself. He would have done the same damned thing, though, if the man had killed someone he cared about.

"A man named Llewelyn Moss killed him. Seems like they had a beef with each other from back home. Moss is in the clinic; he doesn't look too damned good. All banged up and shot to hell, though one of those shots came from me, was meant to get him to stop his damned firing."

[blessed_by_god]

Sharon's eyes lit on John's a moment, mouth parting before she spoke. "You must have been right up in it." She knew, though not from first-hand experience, that John was capable, but she hadn't expected that all his military capabilities had been called into question just hours ago.

She tilted her head slightly to the side, regarding him. He was so calm, so matter of fact. "Could have been you in the clinic."

[wayward_dad]

"But it wasn't," he said simply. True, one of the man's shots had come pretty close to him but John had been too quick; it missed. Not by a whole hell of a lot, but the important thing was that it had missed. John had enough close calls in the past, so much so that he wasn't even bothered by the one he encountered tonight. It came with the territory of fighting evil sonsofbitches and trying to save people.