Fic: Moving on (5/6)
A/N: Like the banner? It's one of several that tehzo made for me. Please to be going to her journal and leaving much love.
Fic: Moving on (5/6)
Authors: muses-circle and Pen37
Series: Slayer!Chloe
Beta: muses-circle
Fandoms: Supernatural, Smallville, Buffy/Angel Verse
Pairing: Chloe/Dean
Rating: Pg-13
Wordcount: 2,362 words
Summary: With new friends and a new outlook on life, Chloe is settling into her role as a slayer post-Winchesters. But the Winchesters aren't completely done with her.
A/N: This one is written. Not sure how many chapters it'll be. But probably shorter than Getting Up was.
Ch. 1, Ch. 2, Ch. 3, Ch. 4, Ch. 5, Ch. 6
The old church had been wrecked. The structural damage was bad enough to keep the renovation crew away.
But Sam could still remember enough of his dream to find the heavy, iron bell amongst the wreckage - and something underneath it that was squashed, smelly with decay, scaly, and definitely not birdlike.
How the reporter from The Star had seen this and thought big, bird of the endangered species variety and not veloceraptor was beyond anything Sam could imagine. Unless that reporter was trying to cover up what really happened here.
Sam walked back to the Impala, and picked up the article again. According to the story, construction was halted when a large bird - possibly a large vulture or a small condor, flew into the bell tower, collided with a bell, and caused it to fall four stories, smashing to the ground and smushing the creature beneath it.
Sam rolled his eyes at that. People, it seemed, would believe whatever they were told. As long as they didn't have to believe that giant veloceraptors could menace the Kansas city suburbs.
As he scanned over the article, he thought he recognized the writing style. Words were like tools in a writer's toolbox. And just like Dean had a favorite gun, a writer might have a much-used turn of phrase. Something distinct as a fingerprint.
Sam looked back at the byline again, and something clicked.
Anne Gabriel.
Gabe Sullivan.
Chloe Anne Sullivan.
The newspaper slipped out of his hands, and he stared forward in blank shock.
"Son of a Bitch!”
* * *
Dean walked up to the reception desk of the Kansas City Star, and flashed the receptionist a winning smile.
"Hi! I was wondering if you could help me?”
The receptionist, an old prune of a woman who looked like she was sucking on a lemon, glared up at him from her computer. “Classifieds are down the hall on the right.” Then she turned back to her screen.
Dean glanced back to see Sam sneaking into a door marked Human Resources. Sam looked over at him with a constipated expression, and motioned for him to keep her busy.
Dean looked back at her again. From the look of things, YouTube was doing a good job of that on its own.
He sighed, and looked down at her nametag. “So is your name April? That's a pretty name.”
She glared up at him again. “I have a can of roach spray under my desk, sir. If you continue to harass me, I can hit you in the eyes from across the room.”
Dean put his hands up in surrender, and slowly backed away. He looked over at Sam again, in time to see his brother slip unnoticed into the HR room.
"Going. Going,” he said. Then he quickly darted back to the Impala.
Within fifteen minutes, Sam returned to the car with a couple of photo copies stuffed into his jacket.
"Anne Gabriel,” Sam said triumphantly, “has a press pass photo that looks a lot like Chloe Sullivan. Her address is in Midtown.”
"Let's go,” Dean said as he reached for the steering column.
* * *
Chloe leaned back in the desk chair of the home office and stared at the wall in front of her. She'd always kept a Wall of Weird - whether it was an actual wall or in virtual form. The process of organizing her clippings usually helped her think of new avenues to investigate.
Now, it helped her to find patterns. In the past week, she'd reconstructed the path of another vampire nest as it traveled through the city. And while the group had long since moved on - she had found the remains of their victims.
So the KCPD could close a dozen cases. And at least the families could find some kind of closure. Add to that, that when she'd notified Giles he promised to pass the information along to a group of traveling hunters that he knew. (At least he had in between bouts of asking her where she was and asking her to call Sam and Dean.) So hopefully in the future, there would be justice as well as closure.
She would have liked to have hunted them down personally, but a new set of disappearances already had her attention, and ironically enough, she thought they might be related to some new activist group that was recruiting over at the KU campus: OAM (Occultists Against Mothers).
Just as she was settling into deep thought, she heard a distinctive creak. Out on the old porch, someone had stepped on the loose board on the fourth step.
Her hand strayed to an axe that she kept under her table. She picked it up, and headed toward the door.
Out in the living room, Andy was playing Guitar Hero on the Slaypire's home entertainment system, while Ava wore a pair of shooter's ear muffs while she read a copy of Pride and Prejudice.
Chloe rolled her eyes. Then she crept over to the door. She could sense that their unwanted caller was just outside. Quickly, she yanked the door open, grabbed whomever it was, pulled them through the door and onto the floor.
Then she braced her foot on their neck and raised her axe high.
"Chloe!” Sam was suddenly there, wrestling the axe from her hand. “It's Dean! It's us!”
Shock ran through her. “Sam?” Chloe let him pull the axe from suddenly nervous fingers, and looked down at Dean. “Dean?”
On the floor, Dean lay with both hands braced on her foot to ease the pressure on his neck. As soon as she lifted her foot, he breathed out explosively. He sat up, rubbing his neck and glared at her. “Nice.”
The sounds of scuffle ended the music from the next room, and brought Ava and Andy rushing to the entryway. Ava had grabbed up a Louisville slugger, and Andy had his gaming console held in a similar way.
Chloe waved them off. “It's okay guys, this is Sam and Dean. They're friends.”
"Friends?” Andy looked from Dean on the floor to Sam holding Chloe's axe. “Any chance that the two of us can just stay passing acquaintances?”
"Who are they?” Dean glared at the two.
"That's Ava and Andy. We've been helping each other.” Chloe looked from Sam to Dean. “How did you two find me?”
Dean turned his scrutiny away from Chloe's roommates to stare her down. “We read your story,” Dean said. “Anne Gabriel?”
Chloe slumped and put a hand to her forehead in a tired pose. “I left you guys. When someone leaves, you aren't supposed to leave with them.”
"Says who?” Dean asked.
"Says everyone, Dean. That's the point of restraining orders!” Chloe snapped.
"Look,” Sam said in a conciliatory tone. “Can we just talk, for a few minutes without arguing, please?”
"Fine,” Chloe said tiredly. “In the kitchen.”
The boys followed her into the kitchen, and sat around the table while she made herself a mug of coffee. Then she sat across from them, and absently drummed her fingers on the side of the cup.
"So why did you come looking for me?” she asked at last.
Sam put his chin in his hand and stared at her. “Because, like it or not, our destinies are linked, Chloe. I'm supposed to be a Watcher, like my mom. And whether you like it or not, I'm going to help you. Any way I can.”
"The last batch of Watchers didn't want to help me, Sam. They wanted to control me.”
"That's not me, Chloe.” Sam put his hands on the table. “I'm sorry that I looked into your past. I was trying to figure out how to do this. But if all you need is a friend, I want to be that.”
Chloe looked down at her hands, and nodded slowly. “That's fair.”
Suddenly, Dean jumped in a way that made Chloe suspect that Sam had kicked him under the table. He cleared his throat. “And I -- we - Aw, hell.” He crossed his arms and slumped in his seat.
"What Dean means is that we're sorry for blowing up at you. And we should have trusted you more.” Sam said.
Chloe favored him with a sad smile. “I think there is more than enough blame to share, Sam.” She said. “For what it's worth, if I had known that my actions back in Cleveland would have hurt you, I would have talked to you first before starting the research. And I was wrong to dig all that back up.”
"Great,” Dean said. “Well, this has been affirming. Can we have our group hug now?”
Sam shot Dean an exasperated glare. When he turned back, Chloe nodded to the kitchen door. He gave her a tight smile, and then got up and left. As he opened the door, he collided bodily with Andy and Ava. The three of them stumbled backward, and fell into a heap in the hall.
"You guys okay?” Chloe asked.
"Yeah,” Ava groaned out. “We're good.”
"Then could you shut the door?” She rolled her eyes.
In response, Andy kicked the door closed.
"No privacy at all,” Chloe muttered. She shook her head as she poured a cup of coffee for Dean, and then slid it across the table to him. “You like it black, right?”
In response, he turned tired, dead eyes on her. “Yeah.” He picked up the cup, and took a deep drink. Then he set it down, and stared into the inky blackness. “So, what now?”
She mashed her lips together, and tilted her head sideways in a shrug. She figured that he was asking what about them, as a couple. But she chose instead to answer more generally. “I'm pretty sure that something big is following me,” she said. “I've talked to Spike a time or two, and Cleveland emptied out of things to slay when I left. Not-so-coincidentally, activity in this area picked up. Although that could be because we're near a hell gate.”
"Wasn't Cleveland a hell gate?”
"Hellmouth. There's a difference.”
"What's the difference?”
"Mostly size,” Chloe said. “Anyway, I'm not going back to Cleveland. The way I see it, if something big is coming for me, the last place I want to be is sitting on the mouth of hell.”
"So that's it,” Dean frowned. “You're just going to wait for something to come get you?”
Chloe tilted her head and looked at him sadly. “Dean.”
"No, dammit!” He flung his coffee mug across the room. Chloe shut her eyes as the ceramic mug shattered against the refrigerator. He slammed his fist down on the table. “What's wrong with you? Don't you want to live?”
"Of course I want to live. Living has nothing to do with it.”
"Then why the hell are you just going to stay here and wait for whatever's coming?”
"Because I'm sick of running.” She sighed. “It seems like I've been doing it my whole life. Maybe it's time I made a stand.”
"And where do Sam and I fit into this?” Dean raked his fingers through his hair. “I thought we meant something to you. You left us and now you've got this whole other life that we're not even a part of. I feel like I don't know you, Chloe. Did I ever? Really?”
Chloe looked down at her hands, and then back up at him. Slowly, she extended her hand. “Hi. My name is Chloe Sullivan.”
Dean stared at her, and for a moment, she thought he wouldn't accept her gesture. Finally, he grasped her hand tightly, and dipped it in the barest of handshakes. “Dean Winchester.” He made no move to let her go.
Chloe swallowed as his intense hazel eyes remained focused on her. “I'm a reporter and I kill monsters.”
"I'm involved in the family business,” Dean said. “Have been all my life.”
Chloe shut her eyes and whispered. “I miss you.”
It was all the opening that Dean needed. In seconds, he pulled her across the table and into his lap. His lips crashed down onto her own. Chloe wound her arms around his neck and let her own tears wet his cheeks.
When they finally broke apart, he looked up at her with a face still guarded. “I'd like to think we can make this work, Chloe. But I just don't know where we go from here.”
She framed his face in her hands. “Stay,” she said. “You can hunt here just as well as you can from the road.”
"I want to,” Dean's voice was strained. “But you've already left me twice, Chloe. I couldn't take it if it happens again.”
"Just stay,” Chloe whispered. “You don't have to trust me yet. But I'll be here tomorrow. And the next day. As long as I'm alive.”
In response, he pulled her down to cover her lips with his own. He stood, taking her with him. Automatically, her legs locked around his waist.
"Bedroom?” he muttered between kisses.
"Upstairs,” she muttered back.
"Right,” he set her back on the ground and took her hand, pulling her out of the kitchen. In the hallway, they met Ava, Andy and Sam, who were trying hard not to look like they had been eavesdropping.
"Dude, you got nothing better to do than stand around here listening to us make up?”
Ava scoffed at that. “Not like we've had a lot of introductions all around.”
"Here.” Dean dug his keys out of his pocket and tossed them to Sam. “Go get our stuff. We're moving in. We can play the get-to-know you game later.”
Sam twisted his face into a frown. He rolled his eyes and walked out.
"What are you going to do?” Andy asked.
Dean's grin turned lecherous.
Ava looked from Dean's grin to Chloe's reddening face. Then she grabbed Andy's arm and steered him back toward the living room. “I think they want to play the get-to-know-you-better game.”
Chloe shook her head as Dean pulled her up the staircase. “No privacy at all.”