Thanks to all have read and all who have reviewed x I totally 'forgot' to add a disclaimer, but thats mainly cos in my little world they are mine all mine!
Now, on with the show.
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The light inside the supermarket began to fail as the storm overhead cleared its lungs in preparation for the big show. The lazy bulbs overhead doing nothing to stave off the failing vision of the day. A small group sat huddled along one isle, the isle that led directly to the lone cash register and beneath that, the safe. Two men were arguing, each convicted in his point of view. One was tall, not quite Sam height but not too far off, he had ripped and dirty jeans and a deep, gravely voice. His face was covered in scars and carried within its lines many years of pain and violence. The younger man, much shorter than his counterpart, wore dark jeans, a white t-shirt with dirt and what looked to be blood smeared across it. His face bore no scars but in his eyes only hardness and revenge lived. The kind of look that only dwelled within the depths of those truly lost to the light. Dean knew from experience that those kind of men cared little for consequence and even less so for life.
Nicki sat between the brothers, to the side of Dean was Ben, from the barbers across the street, he was in his mid fifties and liked by all. Ever since the brothers had arrived in Grace's life Ben had seen it his personal mission to get Sam to have a haircut. So far he'd failed. On the other side of Sam was Mrs Wells, an elderly school teacher who shared many coffee mornings with Grace whenever she could. She worked part time and preferred to teach the new classes. 'To prepare the children for school' as she explained it., ease them into the system with hope and promise and pray that those values stayed with them throughout their academic careers. Across the aisle sat Charlie Green, a young guy who had just turned sixteen and started working in the supermarket with Karen. Karen herself was sat next to Charlie with her eyes squeezed tightly shut.
"Karen?" Ventured Dean.
Karen shook her head.
"Karen."
"What?"
"Open your eyes."
"No."
"What? Why?"
"If I open my eyes and those men are really here then that makes all this really real. Ya know?"
Dean rolled his eyes and took a calming breath. Sam jumped in before his brother had a chance.
"Karen, listen its ok, nothing bad is gonna happen to you, those guys are clearly here for one thing only so we need to let them do what they wanna do and then go."
Karen slowly opened her eyes, barely contained tears threatening to spill. Nicki saw something in the blue depths and leaned as far forward as she could.
"Karen hon, what is it?"
"Those guys are here for money right? And they think there's money in that safe. But there ain't. Old man Jenkins who owns the market, he keeps only the good whiskey in that safe. Ain't nothing else in there."
"Shit." Nicki closed her eyes as a wave of pain washed over her. Dean passed a look over her to Sam. Sam shrugged, he had nothing. No plan, no insight. Nadda. Those guys were here for money and all they were gonna find would be old bottles of whiskey and what was in the cash register.
Dean cleared his throat, Sam groaned inwardly.
"Hey? Hey man." Dean shifted until he was resting on his haunches, leaning further into the aisle and waving.
The taller of the two men dropped his head and breathed heavily.
"Did I not tell ya to keep it quiet? Didn't I ?!"
"Yeah, you did. But there's a pregnant lady here and I think you should let her go. Ok?"
"You asking or telling?" Tall guy strolled slowly up the aisle. Dean took this as a good sign and stood carefully.
"I'm asking. You're in control here, no doubt about that. But this lady is in labour, and I don't think you want that kind of complication."
"How would you know what kind of complication I want?"
"I'm only suggesting. Just trying to make this go smoother for all of us."
Tall guy stepped right up to Dean, Sam tensed and had it not been for Nicki's hand on his arm, he too would have stood.
"Listen." Tall guy poked a hard finger into Dean's chest. "We're here for money, fact you people were here is wrong time, wrong place as far as I'm concerned. Ain't nothing but bad timing. So why don't ya sit down with your buddies, let us get what we came for and keep your big mouth shut. Got it?"
Dean looked down at the finger still poking into his chest, he looked over at Nicki, at Sam and considered his options, of which there was only one. Slowly he sat back down. Risking his own life was one thing, but Nicki's and the baby's was a whole road he didn't want to go down unless absolutely necessary.
Sam gave a relived look Dean's way. Nicki leaned into him.
"Didn't think you'd back down." She whispered.
"Didn't have a choice, you were too close if a fight broke out."
Nicki swore later that the tears that welled in her eyes were strictly down to contractions. Nothing else. Nope, nothing at all.
The hostages sat quietly for what seemed like an eternity, the men had resumed their earlier discussion which was fast approaching argument status. From what Sam could gather they were on the run, had to stop for cash and figured the supermarket and its safe would be the perfect place for funds, the shorter guy was losing the argument. He wanted to about face and get as far away from the town as possible. Taller guy was determined to find a way to open the safe, grab the thousands he believed to be in there and then blaze outta town.
"Denton, man we don't even know there's money in that safe. Come on, we need to get out of this here half horse town and get to mexico, or cananda, anywhere where the cops ain't gonna find us."
"Carter, for the last friggin time, we need us some funds. This place here got some funds. I heard a guy up in Coopersville say this market had one neat stash in the safe so we ain't going no where till we get it. Got it?"
Carter nodded reluctantly and ran a hand through his hair. From his place up the aisle Sam could see his fingers were stained with blood. He looked back toward Dean and knew he'd seen it too.
Denton marched up the aisle and grabbed Karen up onto her feet by her hair. She struggled and fought, Dean resisted the urge to interfere until the tall, scarred thief punched the small woman in the stomach.
"Whoa, man there isn't any need to beat up the lady. She'll go with you, all you had to do was ask."
Denton let go of Karen, who fell to the ground clutching her side. He stood in front of Dean and smiled. Had he not been so incensed by the attack on Karen the older Winchester would have thought better about his course of action. Instead he brought his fist up hard into the taller man's abdomen, it took but a minute for him to recover and connect firmly with Dean's jaw. He then grabbed him and with a crack like wood breaking, head butted the younger man. Sam tensed and was almost on his feet when Nicki pulled him back down firmly. She gave him a stern look, clearly telling him that now was not the time. He'd get his revenge soon, but now they needed to play it safe.
Very much unlike Dean's plan.
Dean spat out a mouthful of blood and swayed unsteadily on his feet. The shorter guy, Carter, had his gun drawn and pointed determinedly at Dean's head.
"Go on." He said quietly and calmly. "I want you to carry on with the fight. Give me a reason to pull this here trigger. Go on."
Dean held the man's gaze and saw nothing but blackness, even darker than that of a demon.
"No reason to pull the trigger." Dean ignored the roughness of his voice. "Just make sure your partner doesn't hit Karen again."
"Oh yeah, and what if he does? What you gonna do tough guy?"
Inside Sam and Nicki were both chanting the same phrase .
Shut up Dean. Shut up Dean. Shut up Dean.
Dean smiled around the blood streaming from his nose and took a small step forward. He said nothing, but his eyes did the talking for him. Carter nodded, a glint of something danced around his eyes. Dean liked to think it was fear but he knew better, Carter was accepting the challenge. No matter how this night ended Dean knew he'd be fighting off Carter at some point, he just hoped he could disarm the guy before all hell broke lose.
Carter took a step back, while he held Dean's gaze he called across to Karen.
"Ok darlin, ain't no one gonna hurt ya, just need you to open that safe there. Ok?"
Denton had walked back to the front of the store, a hand to his ribs. The storm outside had kicked up a notch and the rain was falling heavily. He squinted into the gray evening light and could have sworn he saw men sitting in a car parked in the street. He focused his gaze but couldn't make out anything other than the cars parked along the kerbside, the rain interfering with his line of sight. He turned and glared at Dean as Karen made her way past him and toward the counter. Karen stopped by the cash register and turned to Carter, hoping she could make him see sense, find a way to end this quickly before the situation got any worse. She took a careful breath, her belly aching from Denton's blow.
"Listen, there isn't anything in that safe except old whiskey."
Carter gave her a disbelieving look.
"I'm telling you the truth. I'm gonna open it for you, but I need you to know that its empty of cash. The register though, that's got a couple hundred you can have."
Carter leaned his hip against the counter like an old friend. "I'm sure you're right honey, but I want you to open that there safe anyway. I got sources that say different so why don't we move this along and end the speculation."
Karen closed her eyes for a few seconds then ducked down to open the safe. From their position on the floor neither brother could see her . Dean wiped the still flowing blood from his nose and squinted through the pain trying to get a better idea of what was going on by the cash register. The store was quiet, all holding their breath in anticipation. The only sound being the rain outside and Nicki's quiet pant's of breath. Dean gave her a sideways glance and noted the sweat, the paleness and the pain. He didn't know much about childbirth but he knew they were running out of time. She needed help. He was ripped from his wanderings by a scream from the front of the store.
"I told you. I told you there was nothing there. Its not my fault. PLEASE!."
The brothers watched as Carter brought his hand up, gun poised over the position where Karen was hunkered down. In the time it took for him to cock the gun Sam had barrelled into Denton, taking the man flying through the tins of soup and packets of candy carefully stacked by the display windows. Nicki heard a crack and prayed it was Denton's head and not Sam's ribs that had given way. Dean barrelled up the aisle, full speed aimed directly at Carter and his gun. Mrs Wells, Ben, Charlie and Nicki could do nothing but pray as the gun went off and the store fell deathly silent.
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Muhahaha!! Evil cliffie! Ya think that bullet found a target???
