Fic: And Justice For All (Except for Demonically Posessed Puppets) (1/6)
Fic: And Justice For All (Except for Demonically Posessed Puppets) (1/6)
By: Pen37
Beta: clarksmuse
Rating: PG-13
Fandoms: Smallville/Supernatural
Characters: Chloe, Sam, Dean.
Pairing: Chloe/Dean
Disclaimer: Not Mine, Fun only.
Summary: Hunting a demon brings Sam, Dean and Chloe to Elizabethtown Kentucky. While there, Chloe sees and old friend and the green eyed monster causes Dean to see red.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
This is part of the Special Projects series. The rest of the fics can be found here.
Written for the Crossovers100 challenge. Prompt #14 Green. The table is here.
The backseat of the Impala was for sleeping. Which was interesting. Because the only one who could comfortably sleep there was Chloe and she only slept for - at most - three hours at a time. Since Dean only slept in the car when he was simply too exhausted to drive, it was Sam who slept back there most of the time.
It was kind of funny to watch his gigantic baby brother try to get comfortable enough to sleep. But to Dean’s surprise, Sam had it mastered in under a week.
When all three were awake, Chloe would climb into the back, plug into her headphones, boot up her laptop and ‘give them space.’ Which meant that she was trying her best to not come between them and preserve their relationship as brothers. This, more than anything, endeared her to both Winchesters.
In exchange, when one of the boys was in the backseat, they either slept or pretended to sleep so that the tiny blonde felt more comfortable in opening up. It was an arrangement that preserved the illusion of privacy without actually giving them any real privacy. So it was strange that it actually worked well.
For the past few hours, Dean had been drifting in and out of sleep to the muted sounds of Chloe and Sam’s conversation and the crappy music that they both agreed on. John Mayer was one of those things that they would pull out while he was sleeping. He was closer to awake than asleep now, and the shades that he was wearing kept them from seeing that his eyes were open and studying the pretty blonde riding shotgun.
“So where did you see him play?” She asked Sam as she rested her cheek against the Impala’s backrest and watched him drive.
“Palo Alto,” Sam said quietly. “He was one of Jess’ favorite singers.”
“Sam, I’m sorry.” Chloe sat up straighter. Concern bled across her face as she reached for the radio. “We can change the station.”
“No,” Sam stopped her with his words and a shake of his head. He didn’t look all that upset which Dean figured was a good thing. “Remembering her this way - It hurts a little. But -- not like it used to. It’s a good hurt. I can’t forget her. But I would rather keep her in my memory for the good things. Not the way she died.”
Chloe resumed her former position, with her cheek on the backrest. “Tell me about her.”
Dean fought to keep his expression from betraying that he was awake. Sam hadn’t ever opened up about Jess. That wasn’t something they did. Dad - never talked about Mom. Dean only answered a few questions when Sam had asked about her. The general stuff, so that he knew who she was, and why they hunted. But that was as far as it went.
“I met her my first year at Stamford. My roommate drug me out to this mixer, and I ended up helping her get her roommate home.”
“A knight in shining armor, huh?” Chloe teased.
“More like worn-out flannel,” Sam snorted. “And I think she felt sorry for me. Because Becky threw up peppermint schnapps all over the front of it.”
Chloe laughed at that. And Sam was actually grinning back. “So when I got to their dorm, she made me take off my clothes so she could wash them as a way of saying thank you.”
“She sounds like she was sweet.”
“It would have been sweet. Except that I had to wait around in her room in nothing but my underwear --holding Becky’s hair back while she threw up in a trash can - while Jess was down in the basement of an all-girls dorm trying to hide the fact that she was washing a guy’s clothes.”
“Oh no. And I’ll bet she took hours.”
“Uh huh, because you have to guard your wash. If you leave -“
“And your laundry finishes. Then someone comes in while you’re gone, throws your stuff on the floor, and uses your machine.”
“Huh,” Sam chuckled. “Sounds like college dorms are the same the world over.”
“Pretty much,” Chloe said. “Until I moved in with Lois, there was an off-campus bar/laundry.”
“No kidding?” Sam laughed. “We had one of those too. Let me guess, the washer/dryers were in one room, and the bar was in the other?”
“Only in college,” she chuckled.
Sam clamped down on his laughter, and nodded wistfully. “Only in college.”
“Did you ever accidentally freak out your roomie?”
“When I first moved in,” Sam nodded. “My roommate saw a couple of throwing stars at the bottom of my sock drawer. By the end of the first week, there was a rumor going around that my dad was some kind of Yazuka crime boss, and I grew up with ninja training.”
Chloe snorted. “Mine moved out after the first couple of weeks. She said that the Wall of Weird was - well, weird. That’s when I took it down and put it online.”
Dean thought about going back to sleep, but listening to Chloe and Sam’s conversation was like going to a museum. They’d lived the normal life that he’d only ever caught glimpses of. They never talked about this stuff when he was awake. So in a way, it was feeding his curiosity. He felt a little bad about the eavesdropping, but only a little.
“You ever miss it?”
“College?”
“Yeah.”
Sam shrugged. “I would have been finished by now: probably working my way up in some kind of law firm. That’s not the path my life took.”
“Do you think you would’ve been happy?”
“You ask the tough questions.”
“Reporter, remember?”
“Sam shrugged. “I guess so. I mean -.” He sighed. “The further I move from that kid at Stamford, the harder it is to imagine that life. We’ve done so many important things, saved so many people. I don’t think I would trade it. Yeah, I miss Jess. But-I got my family back. We killed the demon that killed my parents. Giving all that up - no, I’m happy with this.”
Dean felt a warm fuzzy feeling start in his stomach and work its way out. The tiniest of smiles tugged at the corner of his mouth. Happy. Sam was happy. No matter what else, Sammy was happy.
Chloe was also smiling at him. “So tell me about Jess, Mr. Happy.”
Sam snorted at the nickname. “Alright.” His voice sounded distant as he remembered things about the girl he loved so much. “Jess was quirky. She thought I took things too seriously. She made it her mission in life to make me relax when I got too intense.”
“Sounds like she was good for you.”
“She was,” he said. His eyes took on this distant look as a memory surfaced. He chuckled. “She bought me this Dr. Seuss hat. It was about two feet tall, and it looked ridiculous on me.” He waved his hand over his head. “I looked like a demented Abe Lincoln on ecstasy in that thing.”
The mental picture sent Chloe into fits of laughter. She leaned against the door and snorted.
“I had to sit down when I wore it, because it scraped the ceiling of our apartment. She called it the emo-boy hat. And she made me put it on for an hour anytime she thought I was being too serious.”
“So you must have worn it all the time during finals,” Chloe said.
“I never took it off. I’d just come home from studying, put it on, and then sit in front of the computer and study some more.” Sam nodded in confirmation. “Just before I took the LSAT’s, she was threatening me with Groucho Marx glasses as well.”
Dean could see by the way that Chloe’s neck muscles tensed that she was about to turn and look at him. He schooled his features in a pose of relaxation as she looked back at him. Through his dark sunglasses, he studied her as she checked him over, and then turned her attention back to Sam.
“Dean has been out for a while. Should we wake him up?”
“We can when we stop for gas in Paducah.” Sam threw a glance back his way. “He never wants to sleep when we’re traveling. Long trips really wear him out.”
“It would be easier on both of you if I drove some,” Chloe argued for what seemed to Dean to be the millionth time. “I don’t get as tired.”
“Don’t take it personally, Chloe. He only barely lets me drive” Sam shrugged. “That’s just Dean.”
She shrugged and leaned her cheek against the seat again, watching Sam drive as a new song came on the radio.
“So what’s your favorite line from this one?” Sam asked.
She shut her eyes and tilted her head in a pose of listening.
And God Help you if you are an ugly girl
‘course too pretty is also your doom.
Cause everyone holds a secret hatred
For the prettiest girl in the room.
And God Help you if you are a phoenix
And you dare to rise up from the ash
A thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy
While you are just flying past
Dean had had a bellyful of Chloe’s singing -- usually Irish drinking songs that her Grampy Sullivan taught her when she was a kid. But he hadn’t heard her actually try to sing before. He had to admit that when she wasn’t belting out songs loud and off key, Chloe actually had a pretty singing voice.
Sam grinned at her. “So were you the prettiest girl in the room?”
“God no,” she snorted. “That was Lana. Town fairy princess. Emo china doll sitting on top a pedestal. Everyone loved Lana. And when everyone loves you, then no one really cares for you. Because they can’t be you. That’s my theory, anyway. ”
“Then you were the phoenix?”
“Pretty ironic, huh?”
“What?”
“That I thought like that before the healing thing?”
“Guess so,” Sam said. “Why don’t you think you’re pretty?”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
Chloe sighed. “I never said I wasn’t pretty. I’ve just never been the one people stare at.”
Chloe was different with Sam than she was with him. She relaxed around his baby brother in a way that made Dean both envious and glad. Envious, because Sam could call up that part of Chloe that Dean couldn’t touch. Make her laugh in ways he couldn’t.
But the sarcastic reporter didn’t look at Sam the way she did Dean. He was the only one who got that slightly-challenging look. The one that put a bolt of awareness though him and made him remember that she was just the right size for holding, that she tasted like coffee and cream and sugar and smelled like vanilla shampoo.
He was still a little bit scared of her. Of letting Chloe in too far - not just under his skin but into his battered heart in a way that would absolutely rip it out if she were torn away. That kind of love was dangerous. Dad had it with Mom. Sam had it with Jess. Dean thought he had learned a lesson in that: don’t let a woman take that part of you. Give them your body, but guard your heart.
He’d met all kinds of women in his life. Most were happy with what he would give: a few hours time. A little bit of fun and the polite lies that they all recognized for what they really were.
One or two had been more to him than that. Cassie hadn’t asked for more, and when he’d hesitantly offered what little he could, she turned her back on him. There was a time that Jo would have gladly taken anything, but by the point he was willing to give even the smallest something, there were too many things standing in the way.
Chloe snuck up on him. She was an enigma guarded by thick walls and surrounded by heavy artillery. Dean was just starting to realize that it would be worth his effort to get past those defenses and breach that wall. Although he suspected that the heart that it guarded was as bruised as his own, the care that she showed for others told him that it was one of a kind. He knew he wouldn’t find a better one, and if he didn’t make it his, he would live with the regret.
He still didn’t like the way it left him vulnerable. But he was starting to recognize that he would always have those vulnerabilities. As long as he loved anyone, there was always the chance they would be taken. Mom was. Dad was. Sam was, and could be again.
But the thing he was discovering was that, just like Sam, Chloe was a source of strength more than a source of weakness. And unlike Sam, Dad, Mom or Jess, Chloe healed with the kind of speed that was almost supernatural. Maybe she couldn’t die.
So it was good that she was friends with Sam. Because he and Sam were a package deal. And if she could be friends with his baby brother, maybe she could be everything to him.
By: Pen37
Beta: clarksmuse
Rating: PG-13
Fandoms: Smallville/Supernatural
Characters: Chloe, Sam, Dean.
Pairing: Chloe/Dean
Disclaimer: Not Mine, Fun only.
Summary: Hunting a demon brings Sam, Dean and Chloe to Elizabethtown Kentucky. While there, Chloe sees and old friend and the green eyed monster causes Dean to see red.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6
This is part of the Special Projects series. The rest of the fics can be found here.
Written for the Crossovers100 challenge. Prompt #14 Green. The table is here.
The backseat of the Impala was for sleeping. Which was interesting. Because the only one who could comfortably sleep there was Chloe and she only slept for - at most - three hours at a time. Since Dean only slept in the car when he was simply too exhausted to drive, it was Sam who slept back there most of the time.
It was kind of funny to watch his gigantic baby brother try to get comfortable enough to sleep. But to Dean’s surprise, Sam had it mastered in under a week.
When all three were awake, Chloe would climb into the back, plug into her headphones, boot up her laptop and ‘give them space.’ Which meant that she was trying her best to not come between them and preserve their relationship as brothers. This, more than anything, endeared her to both Winchesters.
In exchange, when one of the boys was in the backseat, they either slept or pretended to sleep so that the tiny blonde felt more comfortable in opening up. It was an arrangement that preserved the illusion of privacy without actually giving them any real privacy. So it was strange that it actually worked well.
For the past few hours, Dean had been drifting in and out of sleep to the muted sounds of Chloe and Sam’s conversation and the crappy music that they both agreed on. John Mayer was one of those things that they would pull out while he was sleeping. He was closer to awake than asleep now, and the shades that he was wearing kept them from seeing that his eyes were open and studying the pretty blonde riding shotgun.
“So where did you see him play?” She asked Sam as she rested her cheek against the Impala’s backrest and watched him drive.
“Palo Alto,” Sam said quietly. “He was one of Jess’ favorite singers.”
“Sam, I’m sorry.” Chloe sat up straighter. Concern bled across her face as she reached for the radio. “We can change the station.”
“No,” Sam stopped her with his words and a shake of his head. He didn’t look all that upset which Dean figured was a good thing. “Remembering her this way - It hurts a little. But -- not like it used to. It’s a good hurt. I can’t forget her. But I would rather keep her in my memory for the good things. Not the way she died.”
Chloe resumed her former position, with her cheek on the backrest. “Tell me about her.”
Dean fought to keep his expression from betraying that he was awake. Sam hadn’t ever opened up about Jess. That wasn’t something they did. Dad - never talked about Mom. Dean only answered a few questions when Sam had asked about her. The general stuff, so that he knew who she was, and why they hunted. But that was as far as it went.
“I met her my first year at Stamford. My roommate drug me out to this mixer, and I ended up helping her get her roommate home.”
“A knight in shining armor, huh?” Chloe teased.
“More like worn-out flannel,” Sam snorted. “And I think she felt sorry for me. Because Becky threw up peppermint schnapps all over the front of it.”
Chloe laughed at that. And Sam was actually grinning back. “So when I got to their dorm, she made me take off my clothes so she could wash them as a way of saying thank you.”
“She sounds like she was sweet.”
“It would have been sweet. Except that I had to wait around in her room in nothing but my underwear --holding Becky’s hair back while she threw up in a trash can - while Jess was down in the basement of an all-girls dorm trying to hide the fact that she was washing a guy’s clothes.”
“Oh no. And I’ll bet she took hours.”
“Uh huh, because you have to guard your wash. If you leave -“
“And your laundry finishes. Then someone comes in while you’re gone, throws your stuff on the floor, and uses your machine.”
“Huh,” Sam chuckled. “Sounds like college dorms are the same the world over.”
“Pretty much,” Chloe said. “Until I moved in with Lois, there was an off-campus bar/laundry.”
“No kidding?” Sam laughed. “We had one of those too. Let me guess, the washer/dryers were in one room, and the bar was in the other?”
“Only in college,” she chuckled.
Sam clamped down on his laughter, and nodded wistfully. “Only in college.”
“Did you ever accidentally freak out your roomie?”
“When I first moved in,” Sam nodded. “My roommate saw a couple of throwing stars at the bottom of my sock drawer. By the end of the first week, there was a rumor going around that my dad was some kind of Yazuka crime boss, and I grew up with ninja training.”
Chloe snorted. “Mine moved out after the first couple of weeks. She said that the Wall of Weird was - well, weird. That’s when I took it down and put it online.”
Dean thought about going back to sleep, but listening to Chloe and Sam’s conversation was like going to a museum. They’d lived the normal life that he’d only ever caught glimpses of. They never talked about this stuff when he was awake. So in a way, it was feeding his curiosity. He felt a little bad about the eavesdropping, but only a little.
“You ever miss it?”
“College?”
“Yeah.”
Sam shrugged. “I would have been finished by now: probably working my way up in some kind of law firm. That’s not the path my life took.”
“Do you think you would’ve been happy?”
“You ask the tough questions.”
“Reporter, remember?”
“Sam shrugged. “I guess so. I mean -.” He sighed. “The further I move from that kid at Stamford, the harder it is to imagine that life. We’ve done so many important things, saved so many people. I don’t think I would trade it. Yeah, I miss Jess. But-I got my family back. We killed the demon that killed my parents. Giving all that up - no, I’m happy with this.”
Dean felt a warm fuzzy feeling start in his stomach and work its way out. The tiniest of smiles tugged at the corner of his mouth. Happy. Sam was happy. No matter what else, Sammy was happy.
Chloe was also smiling at him. “So tell me about Jess, Mr. Happy.”
Sam snorted at the nickname. “Alright.” His voice sounded distant as he remembered things about the girl he loved so much. “Jess was quirky. She thought I took things too seriously. She made it her mission in life to make me relax when I got too intense.”
“Sounds like she was good for you.”
“She was,” he said. His eyes took on this distant look as a memory surfaced. He chuckled. “She bought me this Dr. Seuss hat. It was about two feet tall, and it looked ridiculous on me.” He waved his hand over his head. “I looked like a demented Abe Lincoln on ecstasy in that thing.”
The mental picture sent Chloe into fits of laughter. She leaned against the door and snorted.
“I had to sit down when I wore it, because it scraped the ceiling of our apartment. She called it the emo-boy hat. And she made me put it on for an hour anytime she thought I was being too serious.”
“So you must have worn it all the time during finals,” Chloe said.
“I never took it off. I’d just come home from studying, put it on, and then sit in front of the computer and study some more.” Sam nodded in confirmation. “Just before I took the LSAT’s, she was threatening me with Groucho Marx glasses as well.”
Dean could see by the way that Chloe’s neck muscles tensed that she was about to turn and look at him. He schooled his features in a pose of relaxation as she looked back at him. Through his dark sunglasses, he studied her as she checked him over, and then turned her attention back to Sam.
“Dean has been out for a while. Should we wake him up?”
“We can when we stop for gas in Paducah.” Sam threw a glance back his way. “He never wants to sleep when we’re traveling. Long trips really wear him out.”
“It would be easier on both of you if I drove some,” Chloe argued for what seemed to Dean to be the millionth time. “I don’t get as tired.”
“Don’t take it personally, Chloe. He only barely lets me drive” Sam shrugged. “That’s just Dean.”
She shrugged and leaned her cheek against the seat again, watching Sam drive as a new song came on the radio.
“So what’s your favorite line from this one?” Sam asked.
She shut her eyes and tilted her head in a pose of listening.
And God Help you if you are an ugly girl
‘course too pretty is also your doom.
Cause everyone holds a secret hatred
For the prettiest girl in the room.
And God Help you if you are a phoenix
And you dare to rise up from the ash
A thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy
While you are just flying past
Dean had had a bellyful of Chloe’s singing -- usually Irish drinking songs that her Grampy Sullivan taught her when she was a kid. But he hadn’t heard her actually try to sing before. He had to admit that when she wasn’t belting out songs loud and off key, Chloe actually had a pretty singing voice.
Sam grinned at her. “So were you the prettiest girl in the room?”
“God no,” she snorted. “That was Lana. Town fairy princess. Emo china doll sitting on top a pedestal. Everyone loved Lana. And when everyone loves you, then no one really cares for you. Because they can’t be you. That’s my theory, anyway. ”
“Then you were the phoenix?”
“Pretty ironic, huh?”
“What?”
“That I thought like that before the healing thing?”
“Guess so,” Sam said. “Why don’t you think you’re pretty?”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
Chloe sighed. “I never said I wasn’t pretty. I’ve just never been the one people stare at.”
Chloe was different with Sam than she was with him. She relaxed around his baby brother in a way that made Dean both envious and glad. Envious, because Sam could call up that part of Chloe that Dean couldn’t touch. Make her laugh in ways he couldn’t.
But the sarcastic reporter didn’t look at Sam the way she did Dean. He was the only one who got that slightly-challenging look. The one that put a bolt of awareness though him and made him remember that she was just the right size for holding, that she tasted like coffee and cream and sugar and smelled like vanilla shampoo.
He was still a little bit scared of her. Of letting Chloe in too far - not just under his skin but into his battered heart in a way that would absolutely rip it out if she were torn away. That kind of love was dangerous. Dad had it with Mom. Sam had it with Jess. Dean thought he had learned a lesson in that: don’t let a woman take that part of you. Give them your body, but guard your heart.
He’d met all kinds of women in his life. Most were happy with what he would give: a few hours time. A little bit of fun and the polite lies that they all recognized for what they really were.
One or two had been more to him than that. Cassie hadn’t asked for more, and when he’d hesitantly offered what little he could, she turned her back on him. There was a time that Jo would have gladly taken anything, but by the point he was willing to give even the smallest something, there were too many things standing in the way.
Chloe snuck up on him. She was an enigma guarded by thick walls and surrounded by heavy artillery. Dean was just starting to realize that it would be worth his effort to get past those defenses and breach that wall. Although he suspected that the heart that it guarded was as bruised as his own, the care that she showed for others told him that it was one of a kind. He knew he wouldn’t find a better one, and if he didn’t make it his, he would live with the regret.
He still didn’t like the way it left him vulnerable. But he was starting to recognize that he would always have those vulnerabilities. As long as he loved anyone, there was always the chance they would be taken. Mom was. Dad was. Sam was, and could be again.
But the thing he was discovering was that, just like Sam, Chloe was a source of strength more than a source of weakness. And unlike Sam, Dad, Mom or Jess, Chloe healed with the kind of speed that was almost supernatural. Maybe she couldn’t die.
So it was good that she was friends with Sam. Because he and Sam were a package deal. And if she could be friends with his baby brother, maybe she could be everything to him.