Frousin

Irene bounced her knees up and down nervously in the passenger front seat of the P.I.'s car. Her mind was racing a mile a minute and it was killing her that she had to sit still with no way to let any of her nervous energy out. Dean would've understood her predicament. They had both been hyperactive and always needed to be in constant motion which was one of many reasons why they played so well together.

Dean. Irene bit down on one of her fingernails nervously as she tapped her other hand on her bouncing knee as she stared out the window. From the moment that the P.I., Brian Tarey, had spoken her cousin's name she felt as if she was in a dream. It was all so surreal. She had never stopped hoping that she would see Dean again but after so many years the logical part of her brain was starting to doubt her feeble hope.

Irene let out another deep sigh. While she had instantly packed up her possessions and got into the car with a perfect stranger at the mere mention of Dean, she still didn't fully believe that this Brian was telling the truth. She couldn't allow herself to believe it. Not until she actually saw him would she believe it.

"I texted him," said Brian to break the silence.

Irene looked at Brian and squinted her eyes at him.

Brian started to squirm a bit under her intense stare but valiantly tried to continue to make small talk, "soooo…Mr. Ambrose or Dean, said that he's on the road but he would make a detour and meet us outside of my office in Vegas, if that's alright with you?"

Irene simply nodded and turned to stare back out the window again. That didn't prevent the P.I. from continuing to carry on the one-sided conversation.

"You know you were extremely hard to track. Not uncommon but your records were so incomplete even for a foster kid and that's saying a lot," said Brian as he sort of chuckled to himself, "I never said this to Mr. Ambrose, of course, I like to spare my clients the painful details when I can and keep on trying to find their loved ones no matter the odds."

Good for you, thought Irene sarcastically to herself as she rolled her eyes, the guy sounds as if he's auditioning for a Hallmark movie.

"You know the two of you look nothing alike. I mean you are cousins and not siblings, but still, I was thinking that perhaps you would have some similar features…"

Irene stopped tapping her knee and instead clenched her hand into a fist and then released it. She repeated this action over and over as she gritted her teeth. The sound of Brian's voice was really starting to grate on her nerves. She needed to think and process this information that had just been dumped on her not even an hour ago. But this guy's annoyingly high voice was not letting her focus and was disturbing her thoughts.

"You know my aunt always said…"

"Brian."

"Yes?" asked Brian as he looked over to the young woman who fixed him with a hard glare.

"Shut up."

Brian was left speechless for a few moments as Irene turned back to the window.

"Well the two of you may look nothing alike but you both share the same poor manners," sniffed Brian obviously insulted as he turned his eyes back to the road.

I couldn't care less what you think about me, Brian, thought Irene scathingly, just so long as you keep quiet.

Dean paced back and forth furiously as he checked his watch for about the billionth time today. He then looked down the road again and not spotting what he was looking for let out a frustrated sigh and continued to pace. Seth and Roman shared a knowing glance. Dean had been doing this for the past two hours and they were really starting to wonder what the hell was going on.

They three of them had been hanging out backstage after another taping of Smackdown when Dean had gotten a text. Normally Dean would just glance at a text and either scoff at the offending phone and put it back into his pocket, or send a short reply. However this particular text had all the blood rushing out of Dean's face and he had raced outside roughly stating that he needed to make a phone call.

Then things had gotten even stranger as Dean came back about a half hour later and hurriedly asked if Seth and Roman would come with him.

"Can you guys come with me? I…I need to do something and I can't do it alone," Dean forced out as he stared almost pleadingly as his two friends. "But you can't ask any questions," said Dean quickly as Seth began to open his mouth to do just that, "at least not right now. I promise I will explain… but later," finished Dean as he nervously ran his fingers through his hair.

"Ok." Said Roman simply and Seth nodded in agreement.

The two of them then followed the Lunatic Fringe out to the car. Roman offered to drive and Dean silently agreed and handed Roman the address. Seth put the address into the GPS and the three of them rode the whole way mostly in silence.

Seth's mind was bursting with questions as he watched his friend pace up and down the sidewalk. He was really trying to respect Dean's wishes but he couldn't help but wonder what had his friend acting even crazier than normal. And that's saying a lot.

"Should we be worried?" whispered Roman to Seth as the two of them continued to keep an eye on their friend's movements.

"Nah," Seth said a little more confidently than he felt, "It'll probably make sense soon enough."

"And if it doesn't?" asked Roman quietly.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," whispered Seth back, refusing to believe that his friend had legitimately gone insane.

Sure, Dean was eccentric, no question about it, but Seth had found, in being his friend, that Dean always had a reason for everything he did. It just wasn't always clear in the beginning.

Dean froze as he turned to look back up the road and finally spotted Brian's car in the distance. Shit, shit, shit, Dean thought as he wrung his hands thinking about what he would say, play it cool, Dean. Don't freak her out. Dean told himself furiously as the car pulled up and parked on the side of the road outside the office where Dean, Seth and Roman were waiting.

Dean didn't move but watched as the car door opened and out stepped a tall, young woman. Wait, she's not Teensy, she's too tall. Dean thought instantly but then internally smacked himself. Of course, she's tall, you idiot! Everyone in our family is so why shouldn't she also grow up to be tall.

Dean's doubts ceased though when the young woman turned and caught his gaze. It was her. A lot of her had changed but her big, brown eyes were the same as well as her frizzy hair which was barely contained in a high ponytail.

Dean also observed how at first, Irene was also confused not recognizing him as well. But then confusion turned to recognition and her eyes widened slightly as they both stared at each other for the first time in 15 long years.

After a few minutes of just staring, Dean decided to make the first move and walked up to her slowly. She didn't run. Which Dean took as a good sign but he did notice her tense up ever so slightly not sure what he was going to do.

Dean had thought of this moment for years. He had envisioned that he would make some spectacular gesture or a grand speech that would be worthy of the history books but there was no gesture that could communicate his feelings or any words that could express how his heart felt. Instead Dean settled for the simplest of greetings.

"Hi," said Dean softly holding out his hand to Irene like he did that first day they had met and he had asked her if she wanted to play with him.

"Hi," whispered Irene softly as she gazed up at her cousin almost in wonder. Irene looked down at his hand and then let herself smile as she remembered the significance of the gesture and without a further thought placed her hand in his. That small touch then seemed to unfreeze the two of them because as soon as their hands touched they both realized that it wasn't enough and they, after all this time, were finally together again.

They both pulled each other into a fierce hug both squeezing each other as if their life depended upon it.

"I'm sorry, forgive me, I'm sorry," Dean whispered into Teensy's ear over and over again as he rocked them back and forth.

"I knew you'd find me, I knew you'd find me," whispered Irene back at Dean as she struggled to blink away tears. She didn't want to cry. Not now. Not when she was so unbelievably happy.

The two of them stayed in that embrace for a good ten minutes until the clearing of a throat alerted them to the presence of those who were hanging back and watching them.

"Perhaps, you would like to step inside," suggested Brian the P.I. as he gestured to the front door of his office.

"Actually we should get back on the road," said Dean quickly as he was brought back to reality, "Teensy you're coming with, right?" Asked Dean as he looked down at his cousin who was still hugging him and he her.

"Yep," said Irene with a smile, "Do you have room for my stuff?"

"Depends," said Roman walking up to the two cautiously still thoroughly confused, "how much stuff do you have?"

"Not a lot," said Irene breaking up the hug and walking to the back of Brian's car to open up the backseat and gesture at the few boxes and bags within it.

"That's it?" asked Roman incredulously, "There's not anything in the trunk?"

"Nope," said Irene with a shrug as she reached in the back to grab the first bag and hoist it onto her shoulder, "That's it."

"Yeah, cous, we've got room for it," grinned Dean as he went to the other side of the car and opened up the opposite door so he could help move her stuff to their car.

"Hi, I'm Seth," greeted Seth as he held out a hand for Irene to shake.

"Hey, I'm Irene," said Irene to Seth as she shook his hand.

"Sorry, I'm Roman," said Roman as he also remembered his manners and held out his hand to her.

"Oh yeah, my bad, guys, I'm sorry," said Dean coming back from their car in order to get the last box from the back of the car. "This is my cousin, Irene, whom I haven't seen in 15 years. She'll probably be on the road with us for a bit. Right, Teensy?"

"Right," confirmed Irene with a grin as they loaded the last of her stuff into the trunk of the car.

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