Chapter 2

Both the Winchesters and even Cas turned startled around and laid their eyes on a young woman. Her black as the night hair cascaded down her shoulders, ending below her chest. She was dressed completely in black from the form fitted leather jacket to her long leather boots. The only thing that broke all the black was her bright azure eyes and crimson lips.

"What the..?" Dean started, he had for a moment paused his hyperventilation. Sam just looked like he had trouble solving a complicated equation. Cas repeatedly eyed her from head to toe.

"It's me, Impala." She elaborated, her eyes dropped to the ground and she nervously bit her red lower lip before meeting the boy's eyes again. Her left leather boot scraped over the concrete floor as her eyes dropped again and her arms wrapped around her body.

Dean was the first to move, he hesitantly took a couple of steps closer. "You're the Impala?" He inquired, his tone had a hint of curiosity and disbelieve.

"Just Impala." She shyly corrected.

"But how..?" Sam had followed his brother's footsteps, but as he spoke the question, his words died in his mouth, unsure how to go on.

"Um…" Again, Impala bit her lip. "Rowena…" She shrugged and looked up at the boys through her full lashes. Unwrapping her arms, she nervously fidgeted with a loose thread on her black but worn jeans. Dean noticed that the hole in her jeans matched the place where he had made a dent the other day when escaping a werewolf. Her pale skin that was visible through the hole was scratched.

"Um, she said that I should tell you, 'have fun finding the bracelet now.'" Her eyes darted and she shuddered. "But I-I don't know what that means." She stammered and her voice quavered. Her eyes filled with tears.

"Shh. It's okay. We know what it means." Dean was the first to stop gawking. He quickly assembled himself, walked over to her, put his arm around her shoulder, and began leading her inside. "Come here." He hushed.

She let him lead her to the door but stopped in front of it. "I won't fit." She said almost inaudibly and looked frightened at the doorframe.

Dean looked confused between the door and her, a little smiled pulled up in the corner of his mouth though he tried to suppress it. "Yes, you will." He said and dragged her with him through the door. Even after they had passed it, she looked wonderingly back at it over her shoulder.

Back in the main room, Dean got her guided down in a chair after assuring her that she would actually fit. She wasn't a 3500-pound car anymore, but a 130-pound girl. Sam found a blanket to put over her shoulder while Dean poured a cup of coffee for her. Cas stood a few yards away, observing the obscure scene in front of him.

"What's this?" She asked as she sniffed to the coffee.

"It's coffee." Dean elaborated and pushed the coffee closer to her, encouraging her.

"Where's my gasoline?" She looked around like she would actually spot a gas station.

"You're human now. Humans get ill if they drink gasoline." Cas explained. This was the first time he said something since they had discovered the human-Impala.

"But…" She started. Clearly, she was confused about everything that was going on and what had happened to her. A tear spilled down her cheek. Instantly she wiped it off. "What's this?" She asked shocked. "Why am I leaking washer fluid?" Her tone rose another octave and she looked bewildered around when no one answered her question at first.

"Okay, we need a human 101 here." Again Dean couldn't help but smile a little. Circumstances and all, this was peculiar but in an interesting and a little funny way. His relief that no one had stolen the Impala after all, also played a part in Dean taking this lighter than he normally would.

After almost an hour, Dean and Sam – primarily, as Cas hadn't been of much help – had calmed Impala down, explained what had happened, and taught her a thing or two about how to be human. She had even dared to take a sip of the coffee at some point, and without encouragement finished it as well.

Dean and Sam had decided that the church candle would have to wait till tomorrow. First, they needed to see if any of the other antique cars in the garage were functional. And if not, then see which one was the easiest to fix, otherwise, they would simply have to steal a car.

"We should probably get to bed. All of us." Sam finally said. He was right, it was already in the middle of the night and they couldn't do any more about the ring or Rowena right now.

"You're right," Dean said as he got on his feet too. "Let's get you to bed." The last was directed at Impala. As she got up, still holding on to the blanket, she headed towards the garage. "Hey, where're you going?" Dean asked as he stopped her by her shoulder.

"The garage." She said, but as she continued her voice became unsure, "I always sleep there."

Dean fought to hold a smile off his face, Sam looked back and forth between Dean and Impala like he was asking if Dean needed help. "I got this. Just go to bed." Dean quickly said to Sam before he turned his attention back to Impala. "Human 101, we sleep in beds."

"Oh, okay." She frowned and pulled the blanket tighter around herself. By now, she had learned that listening to the humans was actually a good idea, otherwise, she would already have killed herself with gasoline.

"It's this way," Dean said and pointed in the direction of their rooms. When she didn't move immediately, he put his arm around her shoulder and led the way.

He found an empty room for her and let her inside. "This can be your room for now. That's a bed." He told her and pointed at the bed with a smile.

"Okay." She looked curiously at the bed, then felt on it with her hands.

"I'll leave you to it. Goodnight." Dean said and was about to close the door after him.

"Wait," Impala called. "You're leaving me? All by myself?" Her tone rose an octave as the panic shined through, her big azure eyes looked back at him.

He sighed, right now, she wasn't the 3500 pounds heavy car with 115 hp. Right now, she was a scared girl in a whole new world. She was cute, but right now he cursed Rowena.

"Then come, you can sleep with me." He finally said. He couldn't help but pity her a little.

Dean didn't have to say it twice before she scuttled out of the room and planted herself next to him. When he led the way down to his room, she followed closely by.

Inside his room, Dean undressed to boxers and t-shirt. He had purposely refrained from looking in Impalas direction as he had assumed she was undressing, but he stole a glance at her and saw she was still standing in the exact same spot as where he left her, still fully dressed with the blanket around her slender figure. Her eyes didn't avert from Dean's body for a second and he found himself a bit self-conscious as she stood there gawking.

"Do you need any help with your… clothes?" He finally asked while scratching his neck, but flung his hand out towards her when he said 'clothes.'

With a frown, she looked down at herself, back at Dean, then let the blanket fall to the floor, and began tugging helplessly in the leather jacket.

Dean couldn't help but hide his face in his hand, half-annoyed, half-amused. "Okay, stop." He said and walked over to her. "This is a zipper." He tried to sound strict but didn't really pull it off. Then he unzipped her leather jacket, revealing a black tank top underneath. As he pushed the jacket off her shoulders, he noticed a couple of scars that looked oddly familiar. He couldn't help but push the strap of her tank top and bra aside to take a closer look. Over her left collarbone to her shoulder were scars that spelled S.W. D.W.

Sam and Dean's initials they had carved into the interior as kids. It stood clearly out on her pale skin. Actually, her skin was the same color as the interior; light buckskin. His fingers ran over the scars, felt the contours.

"I clearly remember it." Her azure gaze had followed his hand and now she looked up at him with a smile.

"Did it hurt?" Dean asked lowly.

"I have suffered much worse than that." With her tone, she could just as well have said 'don't worry about it.'

Now that he studied the scars, his eyes couldn't stop scrutinizing. Since they found her, he had restrained himself from gawking too much. He didn't want to make her uncomfortable, but he couldn't stop. Her body was slender but with beautiful curves. Her face was oval with prominent cheekbones. Her lips were full and crimson, but it wasn't like she had lipstick on, it was like it was just the natural color of her lips. Her nose was small but fine and straight. The lashes that encased her azure eyes were long and thick. Her curved eyebrows were the same shade as her ebony hair. She was beautiful. His eyes moved back to her lips and lingered there.

No, it was wrong. He wouldn't take advantage of her, he was just helping her out of her clothes because she was a bewildered car that had gotten hexed into human form.

He swallowed thickly before he unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans. When he bent down to take them off, she sought support on his shoulders. On purpose, he left her black tank top on.

"All ready," Dean said and gestured towards the bed. Impala just looked from the bed to Dean and back again. So he crawled under the duvet himself and then she followed suit.

"Goodnight, Dean." She said but before he could answer, she had crawled closer. Now instead of lying on each side of the bed, she clung to his side.

She was scared. It was her first day as a human, so Dean released his arm from under the covers and put it around her. "Goodnight, Impala." Then he frowned and couldn't help but enlighten her about his thoughts, "Actually, it feels weird to call you Impala."

"Then just call me what you've always called me." She suggested.

"What?" Dean couldn't figure out what she meant at first.

"Baby, of course." She said like it was the most obvious thing. And somehow it was.

"Goodnight, Baby." He whispered.

"Morning, Dean." A couple of knocks made Dean's head snap up from the pillow, then he heard the door open. "Hey, where's Impala sleepi–" Sam stopped midsentence when he opened the door and eyed Dean and Impala together in his bed. He sent Dean a blaming stare and mimed, "Outside, now."

Oh, Sam was definitely getting the wrong idea here, Dean thought as he snuck out of bed to prevent waking Baby. Putting on his robe, he closed the door behind him and stood face to face with Sam in the hall. He couldn't decide if Sam was looking mostly blaming or mostly angrily at him right now.

"Dude, you screwed your car?" Sam asked in disbelieve.

"What? No, of course, I didn't." When Sam continued to look pointedly at him, Dean continued, "Look, I showed her to a room, but then she got all panicky by being left alone so she slept in my room, okay?"

Sam looked at him for another couple of seconds to see if he would find other than the truth in his face, then nodded, "Okay."

Dean felt like Sam finally believed him. But a little twinge of guilt formed in his stomach as he thought back on when he had undressed her and how he had stared at her lips. He close to shuddered, but shook it off. "I better get dressed and wake her. See you down in the main room in ten." Dean said before going back into his room.

"See you," Sam said a bit warily.

Why did he always think the worst of me when it came to women? Dean thought exasperated but then pushed it aside.

Fifteen minutes later, Dean and Baby entered the room where Sam and Cas sat waiting. Sam greeted with a cheerily, "Good morning," The cheery tone definitely aimed at Impala. They were late because even though Dean had tried to tell Baby that she just had to do the opposite of what Dean had done when he took off her clothes, she still found it difficult, and in the end, he had to help her get dressed.

"Impala," Cas greeted. "How are you feeling, as a human?"

Dean almost face palmed himself but stopped at the last second. Cas could be so tactless sometimes. Baby was probably self-conscious enough as it was right now, Cas didn't need to point it out to her.

Impala's eyes dropped and she bit her full lower lip, a mix of shyness and thoughtfulness. Dean's eyes couldn't help staring at her teeth biting her lip. "Um, it's weird, to be honest. But it's getting better." She lit up in a smile at the end of the sentence.

Cas gave her an overly formal nod to accept her answer. "I was human once, you know…" He started, but trailed off, unsure if this was the right approach to such a story.

"Cas, I don't think it'll help much. You didn't change form, you lost your grace. I don't think it can be compared." Sam quickly told him off.

"Oh, you're right. I didn't think of the differences." Cas awkwardly apologized, then looked around like he didn't know what to do with himself and then sat down.

"So, church candle." Sam started.

"Yep, I'll go see if one of those car's in the garage can be used." Dean instantly said. He poured a cup of fresh coffee from the pot Sam had made and took it with him. Halfway to the garage, he heard footsteps behind him. With a glance over his shoulder, he saw it was Baby following in his heels.

In the garage, he found the keys to the lime green Ford Thunderbird. It was the 'newest' one, only from 1965. He got in the driver's seat and turned the key in the ignition. The car sputtered, but the engine didn't come to life. He tried again and the sputtering was weaker.

Probably the battery, Dean thought. But he had barely gotten out when Baby put her hands on the hood and closed her eyes.

"What are you doing?" Dean asked curiously.

"The battery's flat and the spark plugs needs an overhaul." She told him when she opened her eyes and straightened up again.

"The car told you what was wrong?" Dean asked baffled.

"Um, yeah?" Baby said uncertainly like she was unsure if she had done something wrong. "Car intuition, I guess you can call it." She shrugged. Dean shook his head like he could shake the confusion off and then smiled impressed at her. Her whole face lightened up with a return smile.

"Can you tell me what's wrong with the others?" He pointed at the black Ford Model B from 1934 and the red MG Model A MK 1 from 1957.

"I can try." She said with a shrug, then put her hands on the hood of the red MG. "Needs a new carburetor, oil filter, and a cleaning its hoses." Then she walked over to the black Ford, "Well, this one would need to be taken apart completely or simply a new engine."

Dean popped the hood on the lime green Ford, found a charger and connected it to the battery. Then he found some tools and started taking it apart to get to the spark plugs. He heard Baby starting to rummage around in some boxes, shelves, drawers, and what else there were here in the garage.

A couple of minutes later, she placed a little cardboard box next to him, Dean looked curiously at it and saw it contained spark plugs. "Thanks." He said surprised. Baby had seemed so ignorant at being human, but it seemed like she knew what she was doing around cars. Though Dean quickly realized the logic in it, Baby was a car. Just not right now, but it was still her original form.

"It's been some time since you've had your hands inside me like that." Baby unexpectedly said, which made Dean bump his head into the open hood.

"Excuse me, what?" He coughed baffled and turned to face Baby while rubbing the back of his head.

"I just like when you care for me." She told him sincerely. She took a step closer, bringing her under a feet away from his body. Her voice was lower when she spoke again. "I never forget how you restored me after we got hit by that truck. You know, back with all that trouble with Azazel. I was so beaten up, I never thought I would be back on the road. But you took care of me. Fixed me one bit after the other until I was brand new. Your hands are always so gentle when you touch me." Her azure eyes held Deans green ones captive as she talked. At the end, she took his dirty hands in hers.

Dean didn't know what to say. He was still processing everything Baby was telling him. Her honeyed voice was mesmerizing to listen to when she talked about her memories, how she talked about him.

"There's something I always wanted to try." She said so low Dean could barely hear her. Her eyes dropped momentarily from his and she shyly bit her full lower lip. Then her eyes locked on his again. She rose to her toes and her lips met Deans gently.