FIC: For Reasons Unknown (SV/SPN Xover 'Verse) Ch 2 - Six Foot Town
Crossover ‘verse strikes again. I’m usually hyper when I go to write this so, be warned. Sometimes it’ll be utter crack, and sometimes I’ll be trying to hit emotional cords. Don’t take this seriously, please.
Artwork by the incredibly gifted stealth__grrl
For Reasons Unknown
Chapter 2: Six Foot Town
Author: broken8
Fandoms: Supernatural/Smallville
Rating: PG
Words: 3,230
Pairings: None so far
Warnings: None really. Hence the rating
Summary: Sam makes friends, so does Dean… kinda
Spoilers: Only Smallville with Season 4 and I’m gonna go ahead and assume that most everyone can’t be spoiled on season 4 since very little actually happens in it. If I’m wrong, tell me and I’ll post a warning on it for the next one. If you know where Smallville is now or have any idea the basic plot line that Smallville takes, you can’t be spoiled no matter how hard you try.
A/N: I hold on to the right to twist the plot of the season and work it to my advantage. I’m bringing in the Winchester boys somewhere in episodes 3 of the season. There isn’t a lot of significance to that but hey, I do my research, for the most part, and that’s where I want to start this.
A/N: Beta-d by, (said to the sound of that guy who says “brought to you by…”) stealth__grrl and jedi_hand_porn. They rock. You guys rock!
Chapter 1: For Reasons Unknown
People are rushing about everywhere. It’s chaotic and intimidating, but he’s used to feeling this kind of nervous fear. He stares up at the front doors to the school building. A hand clamps down on his shoulder and he jumps a bit. He spins in the passenger seat of the Impala to face his brother.
“Sammy? You sure you don’t want me hangin around? I could always-“
“No.” Sam cuts him off. He sees Dean clench his jaw then nod shortly and face forward completely. Sam, slightly ashamed of himself for being so cruel (however unintentionally) to his big brother, grabs his back pack and slowly clambers out of the car. He closes the door behind him and as soon as it thuds closed, Dean speeds away. Sam watches him go then sighs and faces the ominous building before him again.
Here goes nothing. He thinks to himself before taking a deep breath and marching up to the front door.
~-
Dean curses himself as soon as he’s out of the school parking lot. He should’ve stayed. He should be there watching out for his little brother.
After he’s done beating the hell out of his self-esteem, he pulls into the parking lot of a local coffee shop. When him and Sammy left that morning, John had been passed out on the couch so he has taken it upon himself to talk to the locals and find out what he can.
The Talon, or the only coffee shop he could find, is very… eclectic. He takes a minute to look around the bright interior. Small towns, I’ll tell ya… He raises his eyebrows slightly then approaches the young teenage girl at the counter. He flashes his most charming smile before placing his order.
“Hey there. Can I get a - ” He doesn’t even get to the ordering part though when he’s interrupted by a very confused and surprised voice behind him.
“Jason?” Dean spins around to see a slender woman hesitantly stepping closer and closer to him. He just stares, wide-eyed and very lost at her as she reaches him. She’s smiling while still frowning at him. “What’re you doing here? Wait, what’s going on? Why are you looking at me like you have no idea who I am?” She takes a step backwards. Dean just stares at her incredulously. “Jason?”
“I’m gonna go with No.” he offers up. She frowns at him and takes another step backwards. They stare at each other for another minute before Dean understands. Jason. His notorious clone. His eyes unconsciously narrow. He needs to find this guy.
“What’s going on here?” Finally a worthwhile question.
“I’m not exactly sure, but I’m working on a few theories.” Dean grinds out through clenched teeth. The girl before him frowns deeper and crosses her arms, Dean can see the fearful confusion racing in her eyes. “This Jason guy, he’s a student at Smallville High?” Dean questions her.
She glares a bit. “No… He works there. Who are you? What have you done with my boyfriend?” She hisses, there’s more to what she’s saying but Dean stops listening. He gets caught on the word boyfriend. Boyfriend. This girl is dating his look-alike. Great.
He starts getting hit repeatedly in the arm not long after the frantic accusations begin to fly. “Whoa! Whoa-Hey! Hey! Sto-Stop it!” Dean wrestles with the crazed arms attacking him. He manages to grab hold of both of her wrists. She keeps flailing and fighting against him, while telling him to let her go. “Hey! I didn’t do anything to your boyfriend. I’ve never even met him!”
His excuses seem to satisfy her. She calms down enough for Dean to think its safe to release her again. “Okay, you good now?” He leans down a bit to look into her eyes. She nods a couple quick nods. Dean stands up straight again and looks over her shoulder to the counter, desperately wishing he had that cup of coffee. “Good.”
Her eyes narrow. “Who are you?”
Dean moves away from her and up to the counter to finish the order he’d begun earlier. Once he’s paid he sighs and looks back at her. “Dean. New in town.” He takes his coffee from the pretty girl holding it out for him, smiling and thanking her. He turns around to face her again.
“And you, gorgeous? You got a name?” he smiles flirtatiously, befriending her in an attempt to get some dirt on his doppelganger.
She answers, “Lana,” in a small but confident voice.
“Well, Lana, care to sit? Chat a bit? I’ll make it worth your while.” He gestures widely to the empty tables around them, speckled throughout the chattered crowd of customers, and smiles widely.
She smiles up at him and then blushes a little, it is after all almost exactly like looking at Jason. “I don’t think so. I have to get back to school.”
Dean smiles lightly, “Fair enough. I need to get back to work myself. However, my offer stands.” He grins at her in his irresistible manner. He backs away a few steps before turning around and leaving.
He gets in his car and his smile is all gone. He needs to find out what the hell is going on in this fucked up town. Quickly.
~-
“Now when working backwards from your series into sigma notation you must remember that there is no one answer,” the ratty math 12 teacher tries to get through to his students. He slinks back and forth in front of the class room, gliding about in his over-sized tattered clothes, juice box firmly clenched between long spindly fingers. “In fact,” he continues after taking a slurp from his juice, “in most cases there are many answers. This does not mean that any answer is correct. Also keep in mind that your k value can be any number you wish so long as it applies to your equation and produces a correct answer.” He goes from yelling some words to just screaming others, all the while staring every student down with his creepy little shifty eyes.
Ring! The bell to end the second class of the day sounds. It’s lunch. Thank God. He gathers up his things and heads out of the classroom. His locker isn’t very far away. In fact, it’s right between his class and the cafeteria. He spins the dial until the lock opens, and dumps his things inside.
“Hey,” Sam turns to the voice, not expecting it to be directed at him but looking anyways out of instinct. It turns out the greeting is directed at him. A tall, built senior approaches him with a huge smile brightening his face. “You’re new here right?” The guy asks.
Sam’s taken aback but he answers a polite, “Yeah, I am.” The young man with the perfectly placed hair (almost eerily perfect) smiles even wider.
“Come on, why don’t you sit with me and my friends at lunch? I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
Sam can tell it’s a genuine offer and seriously considers excepting. Of course, part of him wants to hide in himself for fear of making friends. They’ll be out of Kansas within a few months in all likelihood after all, so why bother? “Uh…” He didn’t think it was an acceptance but apparently the other guy reads it as such, grabbing his shoulder and steering him into the thick of the school’s population, right into the heart of the cafeteria.
There’s a perky looking blond and a very annoyed and intimidating brunette already sitting at the table that his captor leads them to. Both women look up as they approach. The guy beside him is all smiles. He points first to the blonde, “This is Chloe Sullivan, reporter extraordinaire.”
She waves sweetly and gives him a friendly, “Hi.” Next he motions towards the brunette, her face barely brightens from the scowl that was on her face before.
“This is Lois Lane. Don’t mind her, she needs to find a better medication.” She smirks up at Sam’s self-appointed tour guide.
“Ha ha ha, you’re just a million laughs today, aren’t ya?” She drones with a glare. When she finally turns her gaze to Sam she smiles at him and salutes. “If this big lug gives you any trouble, I can take him easy. So just ask.”
“You wish Lois,” he says with a smile. He turns to face Sam and holds out his hand. “And I’m Clark Kent,-”
“Meat head extraordinaire and harmless farmer boy,” Lois finishes. Sam is stiff. This is the guy. The man being so friendly to him is the reason that he’s here in the first place. He studies Clark a little harder, trying to pick up on anything out of the ordinary. He can’t see anything. Maybe he’s just another regular kid who’s just always in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or right place at the right time. He snaps back to reality as he remembers that there’s still a world going on outside of his head.
“You planning on standing all lunch, cutie or you gonna sit down?” Lois asks Sam as she picks up a french fry from Clark’s plate to shove into her mouth, Clark’s glaring at her even though she isn’t looking.
Sam smiles sheepishly and sits down. The three of them start to ask him routine questions while picking at their lunches. Sam offers up the rehearsed responses; grew up Detroit, Dad was offered a job here, he’s an electrician, the normal set of lies. Soon enough the conversation falls into the daily style of these three. Sam reclines in his seat and listens. He throws in his two cents every now and then, but mostly he just lets himself enjoy the company. He smiles genuinely, hoping that they stay here for a while longer.
“Clark?” Four heads turn to look up at whom the voice belongs to.
“Lana,” Clark says, smiling instantly. “Sam, this is Lana. Lana, Sam. He’s new around here.” Clark introduces them, gesturing and smiling. Sam nods to the new face and tries to log her name away.
“Hi,” She smiles at him. A small crease crinkles her forehead. She looks as if she’s about to ask Sam something but instead just says simply a kind, “Nice to meet you.” She turns back to Clark now. “Can I… talk to you for a minute?” She asks. Sam notices that Lois and Chloe have both looked away. He can feel some sort of tension built up around the table.
Sam traces Clark’s nervous gaze from Lana to the floor then around to his friends. A small smile twists Clark’s lips before he answers, “Sure, Lana,” and gets up to follow her somewhere quieter.
Once they’re gone, Sam hears a whistle from Lois. “Man, because they’re not awkward to be around.”
Chloe snorts a small laugh. “No kidding. What do you think she wants to talk to him about?”
Lois sighs, “Who knows with that girl. Hey, have you met her new ‘Paris Passion’?”
“No,” Chloe admits sadly. “You’d think she’d tell me. I am her best friend after all.” She seems very indignant over the whole ordeal.
“Maybe, she’s waiting for the best time to tell you?” Sam offers before he can help himself. The girls both turn to look at him. Chloe is smiling and Lois has one elegant eyebrow raised. “I mean, she probably wants to be on a sound foot and know where the relationship is before telling you.” He looks between them a few times before getting embarrassed of opening his mouth when he shouldn’t have. “Not that I’d know or anything. I’ve never even met her. You’d know best,” he rambles while blushing.
Chloe makes an attempt to save Sam, saying, “You know you’re probably right, maybe she’s just waiting for the right time.” She smiles sweetly at him. He returns the smile with his own grateful one. Chloe looks over at Lois for agreement. Lois is staring at Sam, turning his cheeks pink again.
“Are you gay?” she asks bluntly. Chloe sputters and smacks Lois’ arm.
“Lois!” she hisses. Sam flushes deeper. He babbles something resembling ‘no’ but it kind of gets lost. He drops his head to the table.
“That would be a resounding yes if I’ve ever seen one,” Lois mutters, maybe a little bit of guilt in her voice but not really.
Sam feels a hesitant hand on his shoulder and looks up. Chloe is smiling down at him as sugary and bright as ever. “Don’t worry,” she soothes, “We’re not going to tell anyone. Right, Lois?” They both look over at Lois who shrugs before smiling.
“Of course,” Lois says. “If anyone can keep a secret, it’s me.” Chloe tries to hide her giggle and Lois glares. A light hearted conversation full of childhood anecdotes follows, calming Sam down as completely as possible for just having come out to two strangers.
This is turning out to be a first day for the books.
~-
John wakes up to an empty house and a clock glaring at him with the red eyes of 1:24.
“Jesus fuck,” he mumbles before rolling off the couch, literally. Where had the day gone? He tries to stand but stumbles half way up and lands back on the couch. No, this is no way for a marine to act. He gets up again and charges through the hangover. He goes first to the bathroom. There’s an urgent call he has to answer. After that, he brushes his teeth. Now, he had been planning to get some research done around town but when he opens the door, guess what isn’t there. His car.
“Dean,” he growls. It might be the headache talking but all of a sudden he’s not feeling all that fatherly. Stomping back into the house, he starts throwing things around in search of his phone. He finds it and scrolls through his contacts for his son’s number.
It rings twice before Dean’s voice breaks through the line. “Hello?”
“Dean, get your thieving ass back here right now, boy.” Click. There’s this pull from his conscience, telling him that maybe he shouldn’t blame Dean right off the bat. Of course he tells it to shut up because it’s making his hangover worse.
Six minutes and 42 seconds later Dean pulls up to the house. John’s sitting on the front steps, waiting. When Dean cuts the engine and gets out, John stands. Dean is all nervous anxiety and embarrassed guilt. “Sir, I was just-”
“No, excuses. You took the car without asking. You’re washin’ and waxin’ her for two months, daily.” John crosses his arms over his chest. All business.
“Yes sir,” Dean grumbles.
“Good,” John says, calming down a lot. “Now go find me about a zillion Tylenol would ya?”
“Yes sir,” Dean says again, louder this time and with a lot more anger. He walks by his father, teeth gritting together. John follows him inside while clutching at his head.
“Where’s Sam, Dean?” John asks, collapsing on the couch again. Dean is bustling around the bathroom looking for the medication.
“At school, Dad,” he answers, re-entering the kitchen with the bottle in hand, now pouring a glass of water. “Dropped him off this morning, with the car, before talking to the locals about our job.” Dean stretches the truth a fraction on the ‘our job’ bit. Jason is not their job. Clark is. But somehow, Jason is interesting Dean a lot more than Clark is right now.
“Hmm,” John grunts. Accepting the water and pills from his son. “You get anything?” He asks, there’s an apologetic tone to the voice that Dean laps up. He sighs a grateful sigh. In Winchester-land, an apologetic tone is the most of an apology you’re ever likely to get.
“Nothing yet, Sir,” Dean replies with the smallest of smiles playing on his lips.
John stands up again, not falling over despite what his legs want him to do. “Let’s go then. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.” He walks out the door, not checking if he’s even being obeyed, just expecting it. Dean mumbles his customary response of ‘yes sir’, knowing that it wasn’t even heard, before following his Dad outside.
~-
Sam has been subconsciously looking around all day. In between every class. When he walks into a new class. He’s nearly certain he pulled a muscle in his neck during lunch. Most of the time he doesn’t realize he’s doing it. Just checking out a new school. Making sure there’s nothing supernatural lurking around the place. The thing is that he’s not looking for anything out of the ordinary. He’s looking for a specific face. A very familiar face.
When the bell ending the school day chimes, Sam is relieved and disappointed. He trudges out of his last classroom, still keeping an eye open up and down the halls, and goes to his locker. Clark appears beside him as he closes it.
“You play ball, Sam?” Clark asks, smile firmly attached to his face.
For a split second Sam thinks that Chloe and Lois told Clark his little secret. Then he remembers sports. “Depends what kind you’re talking about,” Sam replies.
“Football,” Clark elaborates. Pulling one out of his bag and brandishing it with a huge grin on his face. “Tryouts are today. I just thought if you played…”
Sam smiles at him before laughing and running a hand through his hair. “Nah, not my game.”
Clark holds up his hands, one still gripping the football. “No problem. If you stick around until after though, I can give you a tour of the town.”
Sam seriously considers this. Clark is the person he’s supposed to be getting information on. “Sure,” he chirps.
“Great!” Clark says, backing away. “I’ll see you on the sidelines.”
“Yup!” Sam calls after him. Here we go, hours and hours of football. Fun. He walks off in the direction he saw Clark head, only kind of knowing his way around yet. After a couple wrong turns, he manages to find his way onto the back field. There are dozens of buff boys punching each other and trying to prove their masculinity. He sighs to himself and saunters to the bench where he sees Lana sitting with Chloe.
“Hey Sam!” Chloe chimes in her twinkling tones. “Here to watch?” There’s a small hint in her voice like she’d ask this to any of her other girlfriends. He blushes with a smile.
“Just hanging out,” he answers, sitting down beside her. He goes all awkward like before leaning over Chloe to say “Hi,” to Lana.
“Hey,” she says back, smiling sweetly. “We never really got to meet each other earlier. I’m Lana Lang,” she holds out her hand for Sam to shake. He does so gingerly. The regular questions start to flow from Lana, the ‘Where’d you grow up?’ and ‘Why’d you move here?’. Sam feeds her the customary answers.
A whistle snaps their attention back to the football field, where the couch and his assistant are walking up to the group of eager guys. Sam’s breath catches. Lana’s does too but no one notices either of their reactions. The young assistant couch, Sam’s mild obsession who possesses his brother’s features. Oh, God. Sam thinks. This is not good.
Chapter 3: Superunknown