Dean and Arandi AU.
This is a one shot that I actually had a dream about.
Dean likes his simple life, his country home and classic cars but he's lonely and the rain brings him company.
WHEN IT RAINS
Dean Winchester sat on his porch swing listening to the night rain. He loved the rain, it always calmed him.
He sighed deeply. Maybe Joann had been right, maybe he was too young to act so old but it was what he enjoyed and isn't that what life is about getting to where you are enjoying waking up in the morning and what you're doing even if everyone else around you thinks you should be out having fun.
He had been a sheriff for fifteen years and had retired at the tender age of thirty five when his grandfather had passed away and left him and his brother Sam a substantial amount of money. Enough money to live on comfortably for the rest of his life as long as he didn't overspend. Which he didn't, he had already been paying on his home and had splurged only on buying the Impala that he was currently working on and the rest was just paying bills and staying fed.
He didn't need a fancy new wardrobe or a fancy brand new car.
Joann on the other hand had seen dollar signs floating and wanted to go hog wild and sell his house so they could move to million dollar home in Colorado when Dean had no intention of ever leaving Texas.
Thank God they had never gotten married because even as just his girlfriend she had tried to get her share of his money when he called it off.
She had said that he was boring and needed a life, needed to go and party more often.
Dean could only guess what that meant, he's suspected that she hadn't been faithful to him. Could have probably proved it if he had tried but it didn't matter now.
He had actually thought about marrying her and that thought made him cold to the bone, she would have taken him for everything he had.
She had raised hell when he told her it was over, demanding her money due to what she had to endure to date him had even had the gumption to take him to court and she had been laughed out of the courtroom by the judge.
It was safe to say that she hated him now and she had spread vicious rumors of his infidelity and lack of bedroom knowhow.
How quickly the tide turned when money was concerned.
He wanted to date but living here where everyone knew him it was hard to figure out if the women actually wanted to date him or just to see what they could get out of him.
He was alright for now but it wouldn't be long before his libido started aching for more than his right hand could offer.
He looked up at the sky. "I don't suppose you have any signs for me." He grumbled.
There was a low rumble of thunder and he caught movement from the corner of his right eye toward the gated entrance to his drive.
What would be out in the rain?
He saw it again and being an ex-officer of the law he had to investigate so he grabbed his shotgun and slowly made his way to the gate.
He wasn't quite prepared for what he found.
There was a woman soaked to the bone in jeans and a t-shirt missing one shoe. She was shivering uncontrollably and bleeding from her hands and her head.
"What in the hell are you doing out here?" Dean demanded keeping his eyes on the surrounding area to make sure he wasn't being set up.
"My car ran out of gas." She stammered. "My phone was dead so I tried to find help and I fell."
She looked at him with huge blue scared eyes.
He'd forgotten he was holding a shotgun. "Oh sorry about the gun but you can't be too safe these days."
She nodded but still looked scared. "I didn't mean to bother you." She said softly.
"Come inside and get warm it may be a while before we can get to your car." He smiled his most comforting smile.
"I shouldn't…..I….." She had begun to back away but something pained her because she winced.
"I'm Dean Winchester." He offered politely.
"Arandi Remington." She answered.
Dean chuckled. "What are the chances of meeting someone on a night like this with a gun last name just like mine while I'm holding a gun?"
She managed a small smile.
"Arandi I promise I won't hurt you, I'm just trying to help you I used to be the sheriff down the road."
She backed up further apparently not wanting to be involved with the law ex or not.
"I don't do background checks to sit by my fireplace I promise."
She put her hand to head, her body racked with shivers. "I don't know what to do." She whispered.
Dean rushed forward when he saw her eyes roll and he had to drop the shotgun to catch her.
She was super cold and wet and Dean grabbed his gun and lifted her easily. By now he was chilled too even through his waterproof jacket.
He got them inside his house and he took her to the sofa in his living room and laid her down. Her lips were tinged blue and with the light he could now tell just what a beauty she was even bedraggled as she was.
He tapped her face and she opened her eyes tiredly and tried to sit up.
"You need to rest ok, I promise I'm not going to hurt you and this is going to sound all levels of creepy but you need to take your clothes off."
She eyed him uncertainly.
"I'll wash them and dry them for you so that when we go get your car you'll have clean clothes." He smiled and handed her a couple of throws. "Take a warm shower and get wrapped up in these just toss your clothes outside the door." He helped her up and showed her where to go. "If you feel dizzy or anything at all call me and please don't lock the door, when you're done I'll check your head."
She nodded and went into the bathroom. Dean waited for the clothes and then took them to do what he had told her.
He heard the shower going for a few minutes and suddenly she was calling to him. He bolted to the bathroom flinging the door open to find her naked on the floor.
He quickly grabbed the throws and covered her before lifting her to take her to the sofa.
"I'm sorry I just don't feel good." She murmured.
Dean frowned as she scooted away from him his trained eye had picked up numerous bruises before he had covered her. "Arandi are you ok?"
She wouldn't meet his eyes. "I haven't eaten since yesterday." She admitted.
"Well I can fix that how does some soup and grilled cheese sandwiches sound?" He smiled.
"I'd like that."
"Ok let me check out you head and your hands first." He got to work checking how bad the injuries were then cleaned them and dressed them, talking to her calmly the entire time.
Nothing was too serious so he left her to go get her the soup and sandwiches. When he returned she was wrapped up warmly looking as if she was going to drift off.
"Here eat what you can and then you can rest, we won't be able to get to your car until morning anyway."
Dean saw the shadow that passed over her face. "Thank you." She said slowly.
"You can sleep here or I have a guest room you can use?"
"I'll be fine here." She ate slowly but Dean could tell she was hungry.
He left her again to get her clothes in the drier and when he came back, she was asleep.
He got comfortable on his recliner having no intention of leaving her alone.
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The wonderful smell of warm chocolate stirred him awake and he groaned at his stiff neck.
He sat up straight when he noticed that his guest was no longer on the sofa and everything was tidy and in its place.
He made his way to the kitchen and stopped stunned seeing Arandi padding barefoot through his kitchen in a pair of his black sport pants and a white t-shirt.
She was beyond beautiful now that she was dry and refreshed and she smiled at him brightly.
"I'm sorry that I invaded your clothes in the wash room but I didn't want to put my clothes on while I was cleaning. I hope you don't mind?"
"No that's fine, they look better on you anyway." God had he just said that out loud.
She ducked her head shyly.
"Cleaning?" He deterred.
"I clean when I'm nervous." She shrugged. "And cook." She motioned to the piles of chocolate chip pancakes she had made.
"Why are you nervous?" He asked leaning against the wall.
She sighed deeply and sat down at the kitchen table. "I was just going to get dressed and go but I figured you being an ex-cop you would follow me and find out the truth anyway so I just decided to eliminate the middle man."
"The truth about what?" He prodded.
"I didn't run out of gas." She whispered. "I don't even have a car."
"So what the hell were you doing out on a night like that?" He demanded.
Tears began to run down her cheeks and Dean took a deep breath and sat across from her waiting for her answer.
"My boyfriend Daniel he got mad at me." She hitched.
"Ok so you walked out on him and got lost?"
Arandi shook her head as she cried harder.
Dean got it then and he felt his blood boil. "Are you telling me he left you out here in the middle of a country road in the dark, in the rain?"
She wouldn't look at him.
"What's his last name?" Dean demanded as he stood up.
Arandi stood up wide eyed. "No you can't look for him he'll…"
"He'll what Arandi hurt me? The way he does you? Not in my lifetime." Dean growled. "Who the fuck does that to their girlfriend? My girlfriend had some issues but I wouldn't even do that to her. Please tell me you're not thinking of going back to this jerk?"
"I don't have anywhere to go." Arandi murmured.
Dean stared at her. "Oh hell no there is no way that I'm letting you go back to that, you'll stay here with me till we figure something out."
"He has all my things, my purse, my phone."
"I will get them for you just promise me you will not go back to him."
"I've been trying for so long to leave but I was trapped." She sobbed.
"You're not trapped now." Dean assured her pulling her into a hug.
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Dean drove the forty five miles to get Arandi's things getting more pissed by the second. Had the son of a bitch really driven nearly fifty miles to ditch Arandi?
What kind of dirt bag ditched a beautiful woman like that?
"You're not a cop anymore remember?" Sam snapped him out of his reverie.
"I still have certain privileges and you're Sasquatch ass is my backup, you are intimidating especially when you haven't eaten." Dean poked at his not so little, little brother.
"He's going to be so mad." Arandi whispered.
"Unless he turns green and busts out of his jeans we're good." Sam grinned and flexed his muscled arms.
They arrived at their destination and Arandi was trembling.
"Oh no." She sobbed jumping from the car and rushing to the curb where boxes and bags of things lay out in the open.
Dean and Sam exchanged glances, it didn't take a genius to figure out that Arandi had found her things left out in the rain and ruined.
"Is there anything you can save?" Dean asked softly.
"I hardly had anything to begin with." She whispered.
Sam pulled a laptop from the mess and she sobbed harder.
"Hey don't worry my little brother is a computer wiz he can save your hard drive." Dean offered.
Arandi began to dig frantically through the piles and pulled out a thick book that was soaked through, still she opened it revealing a hollowed out center stuffed with money and pictures in zip lock bags.
"Thank God he didn't find these." She sighed.
The door to the house opened then and a tall man with black hair and blue eyes stepped out. "What are you doing here?" He demanded.
Arandi instantly stepped behind Dean and Sam.
"Already whored yourself out?" The man sneered.
Dean stepped forward pulling out his old badge. "Would you like to tell me why I found this woman out in the middle of nowhere in the rain?"
"She threw a fit when I broke up with her and jumped out of the car, I wasn't going to kiss her ass officer." Daniel replied easily.
"So you had to take her out there to break up with her?" Dean pressed.
"We were coming back from Dallas on the back roads."
"Why are you lying?" Arandi sobbed. "I've never done anything but take care of you."
Daniel laughed. "The only thing you ever did for me was annoy me so sheriff if you want her take her."
Dean stepped forward fire in his eyes but Sam's calming hand on his shoulder brought him down a notch. He turned to look at his brother who winked at him and he knew his little brother's brain had come up with a plan.
"Since you ruined her things I believe that you should pay for them." Dean said.
"She should have picked them up when I told her to." Daniel yawned.
"For a man that seems to have a brain you're an idiot." Dean said smoothly.
"Hey I don't have to ta…." Daniel started and then found himself pinned to the wall by a very pissed off two hundred pound six foot one officer and backed up by a just as pissed off over two hundred pounds six foot five man mountain.
"I wouldn't suggest that you push the situation Daniel." Dean growled staring him in the eye.
Daniel scrambled for his wallet and pulled out all the cash he had and thrust it at Dean. "That's all I have on me."
Dean grabbed it seeing that it was about eight hundred dollars he passed it to Arandi. "If I even think that you look in her direction I will find you but no one else ever will." Dean threatened smoothly.
Daniel gulped and nodded.
Dean backed away. "Let's go."
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Arandi sat quietly in the back seat holding the book with what she hidden.
Dean and Sam were laughing because while Dean had occupied Daniel Sam had managed to throw a scrambler near enough to the house to scramble all of Daniels phones and computers and most everything electronic permanently.
"A blue tooth for a blue tooth." Sam chuckled.
"Damn that's lame even for you geek boy." Dean snickered. "So who's up for shopping?" He looked at Arandi in the rear view.
"You don't have to…." She began.
"I know what I don't have to do thank you very much now shut up and let's shop till we drop." He smiled reassuringly at her.
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Arandi gave up trying to tell Dean no because every time she did he would buy her something anyway.
He made her put up the money she had already saved and he bought her everything she would need while she stayed with him in exchange for her cleaning and cooking.
Clothes, shoes, toiletries, books, and a new laptop and as long as they were already in town they bought groceries.
Dean watched Arandi as she slowly opened up and had fun getting things she would use.
Anything that she looked at longer than five seconds went in the cart.
"I live in a man cave so if you want to add some touches while you're there go ahead."
So Arandi had gotten some lace curtains and floral bed linens and colorful dinner ware. "I love flowers." She sighed.
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They had dinner in town then headed back the house. Sam helped them unload and then headed to his own home just up the road from Dean.
Dean helped Arandi put everything away and helped her fix up the guest room as she put all her new things away.
"Thank you for helping me." She said when Dean was about to head to bed.
"I have all this extra room why wouldn't I?"
"How can you not be sure that I'm not trouble?" She asked.
"I'm sure." He smiled.
"So you did do a background check to let me sit by the fireplace?" She smiled back.
"Busted." Dean laughed.
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And it was that easy, Dean would work on his car or whatever needed to be done on the house and Arandi would clean and cook. She even started a garden.
"I'm not having much luck finding a job." She said one night at dinner.
"I'm not rushing you to get out actually I've been thinking this is working out rather well I enjoy the company and I have the room so just be my roomie."
Arandi stared at him. "Won't your girlfriend get freaked?"
"Haven't you noticed I don't have one of those and I'm in no rush to get one of those." He sighed.
"I never want to date again." Arandi huffed.
"So see we should live like this keep each other sane well publicly anyway."
"You got a deal."
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Just like that three months slid by and Dean thought things just couldn't get better.
He was putting the last touches on the Impala when it started to rain and he stepped out to let the cool water take some of the heat off his skin.
Arandi was in the back yard taking down some things she had hung out to dry because she loved the scent of air dried linens.
Dean's eyes fell on her and he stared. Maybe it was that he hadn't had sex in forever maybe it was just the day of the week or maybe it was just the fact that Arandi was so damn beautiful you had to be dead not to feel something and even then if a corpse came back to life near her he wouldn't be surprised.
He watched as the drops of rain ran down her face over her neck and down into her ample cleavage and just like that he was so hard it hurt.
It was then he heard the snap of the tree branch and he was running knocking Arandi out of the way but not getting himself clear and the world slipped away.
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Dean opened his eyes to the very familiar scents and sounds of the hospital. He tried to move and regretted it as the nausea rolled through.
"Easy bro." Sam murmured close to him.
"What…" Dean started.
"You fought a tree and the tree won." Sam indulged him fluffing a pillow behind his brother's head.
"Arandi?"
"You scared the hell out of her because you wouldn't wake up and the phones were going ape shit because of the weather. She dragged you're dead weight ass onto the porch made sure that you were going to live and drove to my house, that was three days ago." Sam huffed. "By the way you scared the hell out of me too."
"Three days?"
"Tree branch literally knocked you into next week."
"Where is she?"
"Room down the hall." Sam replied.
"Wait a minute why is she in the hospital?"
"She collapsed."
"What are you suddenly brain damaged Sammy get to the fucking point already." Dean snapped.
"Promise me you'll stay calm."
"Sammy!"
"Joann found out you were in the hospital and she came to see you found Arandi hovering over you and threatened to have her removed by the police. I reminded Joann that you had broken up with her months ago and that Arandi had every right to be with you because she lived with you." Sam took a breath and continued. "Joann was livid actually had the gall to call Arandi a gold digger and attacked her. Funny thing is that Arandi is a closet MMA fighter or was channeling Rocky and kicked her ass three ways from every Sunday in the time space continuum and I guarantee you Joann will never bother you again."
Dean stared at Sam as if he was possessed. "The part where she collapsed like now Sam!"
"Umm well the doctor said 'if' you woke up and she took the 'if' more literally than it was meant and she blamed herself for it because the tree branch was meant for her and she kind of just collapsed."
"Great just fucking great." Dean moaned.
"What I don't get is if she could fight like that all a long why didn't she ever kick Daniel's ass?" Sam pondered out loud.
"That's probably why he dumped her on a country road in the rain."
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Dean wanted Arandi to rest when they went home but she insisted on taking care of him so he let her and she relaxed tremendously.
He was really going to have to exercise because she made the most awesome pies which he ate the majority of.
Things were different though, an underlying tension that Dean couldn't quite put his finger on and he watched Arandi closely.
He woke up one morning to the soft patter of rain and he stretched to shift back to sleep, he could sleep heavenly when it rained.
He heard a sniffle and that meant tears. He slowly made his way through the house until he found Arandi on the porch staring at the rain crying.
"Arandi what's wrong?" He asked softly.
"It's time for me to go isn't it?" She replied hugging herself.
"No I don't want you to go." He answered without hesitation.
"Then why have things changed between us why don't you talk to me the way you did when I first got here." She turned to face him, her big blue eyes pools of confusion.
He reached to touch her face gently. "Because I don't want to hurt you, because I don't want to lose you, and because I think I've fallen in love with you."
Arandi leaned into his touch. "You barely know me."
"I want to change that and I've been too afraid that if I said these things to you that you would walk away and I'd be all alone again."
"I think I'm in love with you too." She whispered.
"Let's find out together." He pulled her into a kiss and it was every kind of great awesome fantastic he could have hoped for and he finally understood what they meant by fireworks.
They spent hours on the porch getting to know each other's bodies while the rain fell gently and calmly.
They spent more hours making love and for both of them it was like they had never known a damn thing about ecstasy until they were together. It was an indescribable bliss that he wanted oh yeah he wanted and often.
He had found her again in the rain.
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The rain fell harsh and stinging against their heated skin as he lifted her up moving aside everything to get to her to sink into the heat he so needed so badly and was never ever going to be away from her again.
It was like drowning, suffocating, strangling without her kiss, without her touch, without her sweet, sweet I love yous.
The way she cried out his name when he brought her one release after another and the way she brought him to his over and over again, he had never known such completion and he loved her now and forever.
One day she showed him where Daniel had left her that night long ago in the rain and he asked three times if she was sure.
What she described would lead her in a whole different direction than where she ended up at and she furrowed her brows.
"I was scared lost and cold and I prayed that I could find a place to be warm and safe." A faraway look entered her eyes as she added. "And loved then I fell down and suddenly you were there."
Dean remembered that night too how he had prodded for a sign and soon after found her. Still he searched wanting to figure out how she got to him but he would never know what magic that rainy night held.
She had told him she had lost her shoe when she fell and stood back up and he was there.
He found her shoe seven miles from his gate caught up in vines and felt a chill that their coming together had been planned by something other worldly divine.
A year to the day they were married by the gate to their home.
In the rain.
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Thanks for reading!