A/N: Don't own OTH, SPN, or Deep Purple's song. I rewatched the OTH pilot and decided to go back in time with this fic. Jensen Ackles is always on my mind, so I dreamt this up. Enjoy.
Can you remember remember my name
As I flow through your life
A thousand oceans I have flown
And cold spirits of ice
All my life
I am the echo of your past
I am returning the echo of a point in time
Distant faces shine
A thousand warriors I have known
And laughing as the spirits appear
All your life
Shadows of another day
And if you hear me talking on the wind
Youve got to understand
We must remain
Perfect strangers
I know I must remain inside this silent well of sorrow
A strand of silver hanging through the sky
Touching more than you see
The voice of ages in your mind
Is aching with the dead of the night
Precious life (your tears are lost in
Falling rain)
And if you hear me talking on the wind
Youve got to understand
We must remain
Perfect strangers
Hi. I'm Dean. Dean Winchester. I'm feeling talkative today, but don't get used to it.
I was three years old when my mom burst into flames on the ceiling of my brother's nursery. Before it happened, dad worked during the day and mom stayed home with us. We were happy. After, Dad left. Sure, he would stop in on the weekends, I think mostly to make sure when we were old enough that we would be able to help. Anna and Larry Sawyer became our family. They took in a three year old boy and his baby brother, an infant. They didn't have any kids of their own, but they certainly knew how to be parents, despite my bitterness. I just wanted my mom to come home, but she never did, she was gone…forever.
The six years we spent with the Sawyers were great. I never appreciated until one day, it was gone. Anna's chocolate chip cookies, Larry's games of football in the front yard. Dad came, and he decided that we were old enough to be okay. We didn't need to intrude on the neighbors any longer. It didn't matter that Anna desperately wanted a family, or that we desperately needed a family. We moved to the next town, so that the Sawyers wouldn't know we living alone, stealing and everything else to get by. Dad was preparing us for the fight he wanted us join him in. To him, if we could survive on our own at nine and seven, we would be a hell of a hunter when the time came. He was right. We're both damn good at what we do, but I never really forgave him.
I snuck back to Tree Hill about 5 years later to see the Sawyers. She made me chocolate chips cookies, and I regretted never thanking her for all she did for us. They had adopted a little girl about a month after we left. A little girl with blonde curls had found herself in the hearts of two very deserving people. Apparently her mom couldn't take care of her, and Anna was able to have the family she needed, and no one could take it away from her this time. Except maybe God. Four years later I read about the accident in the newspaper, and that was the last time I cried.
I went to the funeral, stayed in back, afraid to let Larry see the bitter teenager I had become. I was 19, and the little girl with blonde curls was 9. The pain in her eyes reminded me of the pain I saw in my dad's eyes every time I looked at him. Larry was heartbroken, and when I could bear to look at him anymore, I found myself under a bridge, watching the water stream past me.
The curly headed child found me sitting there.
"Sorry." She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand in an attempt to stop the tears. She didn't succeed. Not that it matter, the tears were dropping from mine anyway. "I didn't know anyone was here."
"I'm sorry about your mom." Escaped my mouth. Was I really that stupid. I'm sorry doesn't help anything, and I know that, but I guess not much else comes to your mind when you don't know what to say.
"How do you know about my mom?" She whispered behind her sobs, while taking a seat about a foot away.
"We used to be neighbors, she was a very special woman." I said as I wiped my own tears, for her mom and for mine. "I lost my mom too. I was three, and you're mom was there for us a lot after that. Name's Peyton, right?" Her confused look prompted further explanation. "We met when you were like five or so."
"Oh." She stopped talking as her gaze shifted to the water as his did. Not that she could see through the tears. "What's yours?"
"Dean" The afternoon passed in silence until Dean finally decided to leave. It was back to the life of the hunting. "It won't stop hurting. But it'll get easier." He offered before walking in the opposite direction of the bridge.
That was the last time I saw her. I wasn't some kind of a perv though, so don't be thinking that. She was nine and she lost her mother, who was, hell she practically my mother for my formative years. It made an impression, it is not often that something links me to another person, so of course I remembered her. Now though, you can call me a perv, because the curly haired blonde standing in front of me is sending thoughts through my head that should not be there. I know it's her by the car, it was Anna's, and the blonde curls scream of the girl whose mother died eight years ago. Okay, so I am definitely a perv; I'm twenty-seven, so she's , what, seventeen. That's legal…almost.
Her anger isn't hidden as the steam floats up from the obviously overheated motor of the black car. Her curls are blowing in the wind, and her Ramones shirt is covered slightly by a red tinted leather jacket, hanging slightly over her fitting jeans. Has it really been that long since I've been with someone, she's seventeen and I don't seem to care. My car approaches her slowly and I take careful care while pulling my own baby into the grass. I gently shut the door to my car and stand in front of hers. I try to be cool, not say anything, just pretend I am checking out the blown motor, but I am really just liking the pissed off look she is giving. You can just see how feisty she is. It's kind of sexy.
"It's blown." I say.
"Why thanks, Sherlock." Was accompanied by a pointed look in my direction, to which I gave a smirk. Next thing I know, she is dialing her phone, obviously more pissed off at the person on the other end than she is with me.
"can't you just leave the gym… It'll take like 10 minutes." The other person must've hung up because she is annoyed and she closed her phone without any more words.
"Need a ride?" I say breaking her from her thoughts.
"I don't know you. I'll pass. I'll just call the tow truck now." She said dialing another number.
"Yeah, I'm on river road, just around the bend….A black comet…uh huh. Ok, thanks."
She notices me still standing there and pulls the hair from her eyes to say "You can leave. I said I didn't need a ride." She is feisty, and kind of rude.
"You don't remember the bridge after the funeral. I guess not, that was ten years ago." I say to myself more than to her, and begin walking to my car, yelling behind me. "Oh well, suit yourself." I close the door and roll the window down when I see her approaching my car slowly. She is really hot. Damn it, Dean, stop it, seventeen. "What?" I say when she stops by my window.
She doesn't say anything for the longest, just looks at me confused, and I can tell she is remembering. "Sorry, wasn't my best day, and I couldn't really see you then. Blinded by tears." She said turning back around to walk towards her car. Is that all she really wanted, to see if she remembered me.
"Okay, so now that we're not strangers. Do you want a ride?"
"Why not? Nathan won't leave his precious gym." She just slammed the door to my Impala.
"Watch it. Baby, she didn't mean to be so rough." I say patting the dashboard. Why are women so rough on cars. It's really no wonder hers is smoking on the side of road.
"Sorry, it doesn't have feelings, you know." Who does she think she is?
"Yes, it does. And you can quit pretending that you don't either. Who's Nathan? Sounds like an ass."
"He is." She shrugged.
"Okay. So do you still live on sunshine drive?" Funny, right? Cause she's just a ball of sunshine.
"How'd you know that? Oh yeah, you were a neighbor. The house is fine." She goes back to looking out the window. Man, talking to her is like pulling teeth. Okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating.
"So…ten years? How've you been?" I try to make small talk. I wouldn't mind getting to see Larry when I take her home, if I'm not nice she won't even think about letting me. Letting me, what am I saying? She won't tell me about him, if I'm not nice. Can't tell old Larry about how sexy his teenage daughter is though. That would no be okie dokie. Did I ever mention how much I like people who say 'okie dokie'.
"We don't have to talk. I've met you twice, we're not friends or anything."
"You're kind of a wench, you know that. I was a part of Tree Hill once, maybe I was wondering how you're dad is. There was a time when he was more of a father than my own."
"A wench, huh? You don't know me, so don't act like this 15 minute conversation makes you an expert on my character, Dr. Phil. Dad is fine, out on a sea fishing boat, as usual." Sea fishing, huh? Sea fishing , hunting, sea fishing, hunting equals absentee father. Add that to the dead moms and we are peas in a pod.
I pull up to her house, and it looks exactly the same. The same bench is on the porch that Anna and Larry used to sit on in the summer to tell me and Sam stories. I shake the thoughts away when I hear the door opening and her leaving the seat beside me. I also notice the black SUV in the driveway and an angry teenage boy leaning against it. I guess she noticed too, because she turned around and stuck her head back in the car. She kissed my cheek, and says kind of loudly "Don't let it be ten years before I see you again, Dean." She did it to make him jealous. It worked. I heard him yell "Who the hell was that Peyton?" as I drove off. I didn't care. Ten years and she still remembered my name.
