Second Nature 10/?
Chapter 10
"He knew your …? Dean threw her a side-glance. "What?"
For a second Dean thought she was talking about that ridiculous name Sam had come up with. Then he realized she was talking about her real name and Dean mentally kicked himself for giving her that one in the first place.
"He didn't know your name." Dean explained. "It's a term men use to address random women."
"Am I just a random car to you?" For being a woman for less than 24 hours she had the suppressed outraged tone down to an art.
From the backseat Dean heard his brother snickering.
"It's also a term for somebody you care about." Sam helped him out nevertheless and Dean threw him a grateful glance through the mirror, generously ignoring his amused expression.
"For example between lovers." Sam added, holding Dean's gaze. Silently Dean promised him murder in his sleep but Sam seemed unimpressed.
"Do you love me, Dean?" Baby asked in awe, oblivious to the seriousness of that question.
"You're family." Dean answered and hoped Baby knew him well enough to catch the deeper meaning of that statement.
They arrived at the motel before the conversation could become even more awkward.
"Let me have a look at that."
Baby sat down and tilted her head so that Dean could examine the small cut on her cheek.
"It's not that bad." Dean reassured her and took the alcohol Sam handed him. Their big first aid kit was in the Impala's trunk and as such not accessible, but they always had some basic stuff in their bags.
"This might sting a little bit." Dean warned her before he cleaned the wound with the alcohol. He knew the feeling way too well and he was impressed that Baby only hissed out a short breath but didn't flinch away from him.
Sam had a band-aid ready and traded it for the used pad of gauze.
"See?" Dean leaned back to admire his handiwork. "Good as new."
Baby probed the band-aid with her fingertips.
"You're going to actually repair the paint-job when I'm a car again, right?" She asked. "I'm going to rust if you don't do this right, you know that."
Now Dean couldn't hold back his laughter.
"Don't worry." Sam answered instead. "Your human body takes care of the repair by itself. Humans heal."
"Right." She nodded in understanding but was seeking confirmation from Dean.
"You're going to be fine." He reassured her. But the mention of her human form brought back the old question of how long she would stay like this. He glanced at his watch, past midnight. Baby was human for over 24 hours now. Somehow he'd expected for her to change at midnight.
"Why am I still in this form?" Baby caught on on his thoughts and held her hands out to inspect them. They looked like normal human hands as far as Dean could tell. If he didn't look close enough to notice her tire mark fingerprints, that is.
"Normal werewolves." Sam started and stopped with a shake of his head.
Yeah, normal werewolves, that was hilarious.
"Anyway. They usually turn for three nights at the full moon." Sam finished his explanation. "I'm going to start worrying if you haven't turned back after 72 hours."
Dean thought about that and it made sense. In the twisted kind that had become their normal.
"Okay, let's turn in and get over to Bobby's in the morning." Dean rubbed his hands. He couldn't wait for the old man to see Baby. That promised to be fun.
"Dean?" Baby stood up but hesitated now. "Are you mad at me?"
"Why should I?" He was honestly surprised by that question.
"I went off with that guy and his friends." Baby explained with her eyes on the ground. "I should have ..."
"No, no, don't beat yourself up over that." Dean closed the distance between them in one big step and held her at the shoulders. "You didn't know what they were up to. To be honest, I'm not sure you know now what they were up to." He tried to joke but it didn't feel like a joke.
"You should have told us were you're going." Sam threw in which wasn't helpful at all.
"Yeah, but otherwise you were awesome. Like the frigging Terminator." Dean reassured her but Baby didn't seem to really listen to them. She showed a sharp line between her eyebrows, thinking.
"What were they up to?" She finally asked and Dean wasn't sure if he wanted to explain that to her.
"Sex." Was his simple answer. He doubted beating around the bush was the right way to explain this to her. She was more of the straight forward kind of personality.
Now her frown deepened.
"That's not the way you express your interest if you want to have sex with a woman, Dean." She tilted her head and Dean reinforced his promise to murder Sam in his sleep when he heard him snorting with suppressed laughter behind him.
"Well." Dean cleared his throat. "There is the right way to do this and the wrong way. Today you found out about the wrong way. But you were awesome. They got what they'd coming." For a moment he marveled over the beauty of that fight. If you could call it a fight, those guys pretty much knocked themselves out without much help.
"Okay." Sam clapped his hands. "Let's turn in, shall we?"
Baby left after promising to come over, or just scream for Dean, if she needed anything over the night, and a few minute later Dean lay in his bed and stared into the darkness. Next to him he heard Sam breathing and had no doubt that the same thoughts were running through his brother's head.
This had been close. Too close. Baby might not fully realize what could have happened but Dean knew way too well. He didn't want to think about the what-ifs and maybes but he couldn't stop them from running through his head.
"She's fine." Sam said in a low voice. "You got there in time."
Dean thought about faking to be asleep but hmmed instead. Sometimes Sam was like a mind reader or something, a thought which lead to another can of worms he really didn't want to open right now.
"And she was holding herself pretty well against those guys." The amusement was clearly in Sam's voice, chasing away the dark thoughts in Dean's mind about special children and psychic abilities.
"She's badass." Dean said in a dreamy voice and with that thought in mind he drifted off to sleep.
He woke up to a phone ringing. His foggy mind identified it as Sam's and was about to drift back to sleep but Sam took too long to answer and Dean was more on the awake side by then.
"Hello?" Sam answered and that really got Dean's attention. That was a questioning hello which meant Sam didn't know who was on the other end and with them working no case at the moment, and he didn't count Baby as a case, there were very few people out there who had Sam's number but weren't on his contact list.
"Shelly?" Sam asked and both brothers sat straight up in their beds at that name.
"Yeah, we're at the motel." Pause. "No, we weren't at the hospital." Pause. "Wait, what?" Longer pause and Sam was pacing the room now with one hand raking through his sleep tousled hair.
"Don't worry, it's just a misunderstanding." Sam reassured her but his face told a different story. "Are you okay, Shelly?"
By now Dean was out of the bed as well and struggled to get in his jeans.
"We come in and speak to the sheriff. We clear this up, no problem." He said his goodbyes and ended the call. "We have to leave. Now."
"Dude, you gave her your number?" Dean wasn't sure if he wanted to know why they had to leave but he was already packing his stuff. There wasn't much to pack anyway.
"So she could call me if she got in trouble on her way home." Sam said it as if that made perfectly sense. In some way it did, Dean had to admit.
"And we're leaving in a hurry … why?" Dean came out of the bathroom with his toiletries. Looked like he had to skip shaving today.
"Because …" Sam fought his foot into his shoe and tied it angrily. "One of the assholes yesterday is the son of the sheriff. And the doctors say no way the injuries the three fine young men are sporting could have been caused by beating up a girl. And not just because they would never do such a bad thing." Sam spat out the words and Dean felt for the abused shoelace when his brother tied his second shoe.
"Let me guess." Dean teared his gaze from his brother torturing his footwear and stuffed the rest of his belongings into his bag. "We're the bad guys now?"
"It's Shelly's word against the three of them plus the doctor." Sam rolled his shoulders and nearly ripped the zipper off his bag.
"You know we can't help her out." Dean reminded him. "We're both wanted and Baby doesn't even exist. Besides, the last thing I want is the sheriff taking her fingerprints or a doctor having a closer look at her."
"I know." But he didn't like it, that much was clear. "It's just that we're leaving Shelly with this mess."
"Are they accusing her of anything?" Dean asked because that would change things.
"No." Sam shook his head and Dean let out a breath. "She's no scratch on her and the guys haven't said anything about her being involved."
"I can live with that." Reassured Dean had one last look around to make sure he hadn't missed something, zipped his bag close and then leaned over the bed to get his gun from under the pillow. Before he could put it in his waistband, the door burst open.
For a second everybody just stared at each other, the witty words on the sheriff's lips visibly died when he saw the gun in Dean's hand.
Dean's mind provided the very unhelpful but amusing fact that the sheriff looked exactly like Sheriff Buford T. Justice from that old Burt Reynolds move. Complete with Junior at his side but this had to be another son or just a regular deputy because except for the dumbfounded expression he didn't show any injuries.
Dean didn't wait for the "Drop the gun!" or until the officers of the law got their guns fumbled out of the holsters. Without hasty movements he placed the gun on the bed and stepped away from it with his hands stretched out.
"Everybody keeps calm." He said and out of the corner of his eye he saw Sam in a similar position, trying to look as harmless as possible.
"Hands where I can see them." Sheriff Justice had finally found his voice and his own gun which he was now pointing at the brothers. "On your knees."
Hands still in the air Dean got down on his knees and he wondered how long it would take for the FBI to get invited to the party.
He wasn't that worried about himself, he'd been in a tight spot before, same for Sam, and he'd always found a way out. However, he was worried about Baby. He didn't want the sheriff to remember her and he hoped she was smart enough to stay out of this but on the other hand he had no idea how she would cope with being alone all of a sudden. Hell, she didn't even know how to use a phone but he doubted she knew Bobby's number anyway.
Sheriff Justice held them at gun point while Deputy Junior made a hesitating step closer towards Dean, handcuffs dangling from his hand. However, before the cuffs snapped close there was another figure in the doorway.
"Nobody messes with my boys!"
continue to chapter 11
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