Here's part two! Sorry if it annoyed anyone that I put it in two chapters, but it would have been a little ridiculously long compared to the first chapter if I had left it as one. Anywho, hope you like it!
She stomped into the diner, feeling another illusion settle over her as her dad turned her invisible again. She plopped down next to him, crossing her arms angrily, "What did I say?"
He sighed, snapping his fingers to freeze the scene again, "It's not my fault Dean-o got turned into puppy chow."
"Just end this, dad. It's cruel and unusual punishment, even for you."
He ignored her, snapping his fingers to set everything right. Clearly he didn't agree with her and was done discussing it. She watched Sam and Dean sit down at their table again, but instead of Sam going through the trouble to make his brother believe like last time, he pulled out his laptop and started clacking away at it. His eyes were alight with a hope Piper hadn't seen the day before. By the time Sam looked up again, Dean was already halfway through breakfast.
"So the police report said Dexter Hasselback is a professor but that's not all he is."
"What is he?" Dean asked, swallowing a bite of bacon.
"I talked to his daughter. The guy's quite the journalist. Columns in magazines, a blog." Piper saw her dad get up in her periphery to pay his bill. She decided not to acknowledge him, still too mad at him. "He writes about tourist attractions: mystery spots, UFO crash sites. Gets his kicks debunking them. I mean, he's already put four of these places out of business. Here." He turned the laptop to face his brother. Piper caught a sight of the professor's blog. The pompous ass had his picture taking up half the page.
"Dexter Hasselback: Truth Warrior?" Dean read, sounding disgusted. "More like a pompous schmuck, if you ask me."
"Yeah," Sam chuckled. "Tell me about it. I mean, I've read everything the guy's written. He must've weighed a ton, he was so full of himself."
"When did you have time to do all this research?"
Sam hesitated, shaking his head slightly, "Come on."
They gathered all their stuff, getting ready to go. Dean started chuckling, shaking his head.
"What?" Sam asked.
"Oh just – it's funny you know. This guy spends his whole life crapping on mystery spots, then he vanishes in one. It's kinda poetic, you know. Like just deserts."
Sam chuckled, "You're right. It is just deserts." He froze, staring at the abandoned plate of half-eaten pancakes. Strawberry syrup was spread around, the bottle still sitting to one side. Piper gave a small smile. Her dad may be an ass, but at least he was still giving Sam a chance to figure everything out.
Dean, seeing Sam's expression, walked back from the cashier, "What's wrong?"
Sam was looking out the window where her dad was walking down the street, picking his teeth with a toothpick, "Guy has maple syrup for the past hundred Tuesdays. All of a sudden, he's having strawberry?" Apparently he hadn't noticed the day before.
"It's a free country." Dean shrugged, not understanding. "Man can't choose his own syrup, huh? What have we become?"
"Not in this diner. Not today," Sam said, looking around. His eyes settled for half a second on Piper, stopping her heart. He couldn't suddenly see her right? Her father's illusion was still intact, wasn't it? Then his eyes moved on, letting her breathe. "Nothing in this place ever changes. Ever. Except me." His eyes went back to scanning around, once more settling on Piper for longer than she was comfortable with, until Dean managed to usher him out, still looking worried.
The moment they were gone, Piper ran out, pausing to watch them walk down the road before running in the opposite direction to where her dad had been heading. She found him a few blocks away, waiting for her. He was leaning against the side of a sports car, arms crossed but a small smile on his face.
"He noticed the syrup," she said bluntly. "Thanks for that."
He nodded, "Sure thing, cupcake."
She sighed, leaning against the car beside him, "I still don't like that you did this. It's not right."
"I don't see what the big deal is," he rolled his eyes. "If it was anyone else you wouldn't have a problem with it."
"Yes, I would." She hesitated, thinking of a way to explain what was going on in her mind in a way he'd understand. "What if it were me? What if my time was running out and someone trapped us in a time loop, making you watch me die over and over?"
His jaw clenched as he straightened, "That'll never happen."
"But do you understand where I'm coming from now? Just because Sam'll have to deal with Dean's death at some point in time, doesn't mean he should have to now. Especially as many times as he has. Besides, he won't be alone when it actually happens. We both know that."
"Fine," her father finally conceded. "If the moose doesn't figure it out before the next Tuesday ends, I'll come out in the open and explain."
She smiled, feeling the same tug from yesterday. Dean must have died again. She leaned forward before time reversed and gave her father a peck on the cheek, "Thank you, daddy."
And she was back outside the diner. That was annoying. Couldn't he at least let her start out in the diner. She sighed, making her way back in as the illusion to hide her fell back over her. She sat down with her father as usual, and stole some pancake again.
"Remember," she mumbled, watching the Winchesters enter. "No matter what, this ends today."
She turned to look at the boys, seeing Sam sitting tense in his seat, his eyes continually following her father's movements. Even when Doris went over to get their order, he just waved her off. And when she returned, he let the hot sauce fall to the ground, too busy keeping an eye on the trickster. Dean seemed to notice his brother's tenseness as he ate, his green eyes staying locked on the younger man.
"So you think you're caught in some kind of what again?" They must have talked before coming to breakfast.
"Eat your breakfast," Sam snapped, turning back to the trickster.
Dean just shrugged and continued eating.
"This is too much," Piper groaned. "Freeze the diner and make me visible so I can talk to him."
Her father frowned.
"Daddy, please. He's about to snap, and if he catches up to you like that…"
He sighed, snapping his fingers so the diner froze except for Sam, Dean, Piper, and the trickster. Dean and Sam quickly realized they were the only ones able to move and jumped up, reaching for whatever weapons they had on them. Dean had his gun in hand in a second and Sam whipped out a wooden stake from a brown paper bag on the seat next to him.
The trickster snapped his fingers again, bringing his daughter back into view, "Happy?"
"Delirious," she rolled her eyes.
"You," Sam's voice had her turning towards him. His eyes were wide and incredulous, his mouth hanging open slightly.
"So you did recognize me, then."
"Excuse me," her father raised an eyebrow at her. "Want to explain?"
"At the college, you know the one with the swan diving professor and slow dancing aliens?" Dean made a choking/laughing sound that everyone ignored. "Sam saw me when I went to meet Henry. They were talking to him about Curtis. Then a couple Tuesdays ago, when I first got here, I was gonna tell them what was happening but got kinda sidetracked. Anyway, he saw me then too."
Her father rolled his eyes, "You are horrible at this, I hope you know that."
"You're the one who trained me, so basically it's all your fault."
He opened his mouth to retaliate, only to be cut off by Sam's sharp words, "So you're one of them too?"
"One of what?" her dad smirked, playing with the boy.
"I know what you are. We've killed your kind before."
His smirk grew, "Actually, bucko," Piper felt the shift in the air, signaling that his father was dropping his disguise. Dean and Sam's jaws dropped, surprise radiating from their massive forms. "You didn't."
There was an intense stare down as Piper tried to think of what to say.
"Why are you doing this?" Sam finally asked in a low voice.
"You're joking, right? You chuckleheads tried to kill me last time. Why wouldn't I do this?"
"And Hasselback. What about him?" Dean demanded.
"Dropped into a wormhole," Piper shrugged, pointing to her father when both Winchesters stared at her. "I just got here a couple Tuesdays ago, I swear. And I've been trying to stop it since. I'm not into the whole, uh, killing people thing. Though, I did think up the slow-dancing-aliens-thing."
Dean made another aborted attempt at a laugh while Sam scowled at her father.
"So this is fun for you?" the taller man asked. "Killing Dean over and over again?"
"One: Yes, it is fun."
Piper made a loud buzzer noise, like on Jeopardy when the contestant gets the answer wrong. Dean started to turn red, he was trying so hard not to laugh.
Her father ignored her, "And two: This is so not about killing Dean. This joke is on you, Sam. Watching your brother die every day. Forever. Ow!" He rubbed the back of his head where his daughter had just smacked him.
"Stop that!" she demanded.
"So what about you?" Dean growled, his face studiously not amused, though the laughter in his eyes gave it away. "Where do you come in to this? You his student or something?"
She thought about that, "Yes and no."
"Huh?"
"It's traditional for fathers to teach their children what they know," the trickster said calmly, smirking at the shocked faces of the hunters. "You two should know that better than anyone."
Piper raised her hand to smack him again for that comment but he caught her wrist easily. She scowled at him instead.
"Anyway," she turned back to the Winchesters, changing the subject before they could ask anything. "What my dad was trying to point out, oh-so-subtly, was that when the time comes, Sam, you won't be able to save Dean. He made a deal. At the end of his year, he will die. You can't do anything about it." Sam was staring at her, looking ready to argue. "I'm sorry. And I know you're going to try. Hell, I would too. I don't blame you for that. Just don't get your hopes up. And be careful. You get too invested in saving him, and it could…well…How do I put this?" She turned wide eyes on her father, knowing the puppy dog look always worked magic on him.
He sighed, "Sam, there's a lesson here that I've been trying to drill into that freakish, Cro-Magnon skull of yours."
"Hey," Piper frowned playfully, "It's not freakish."
"Yeah, actually," Dean chuckled. "It kinda is."
Sam rolled his eyes, "What lesson?"
"This obsession to save Dean? The way you two keep sacrificing yourselves for each other? Nothing good comes out of it. Just blood and pain." Piper reached out to squeeze her father's hand briefly, knowing he was speaking from experience, that he too missed his brothers, missed his wife and the daughter that had been taken from him, and that he had tried to get it all back once, only to have it blow up in his face. "Dean's you weakness. The bad guys know it too. He's gonna be the death of you, Sam."
"He's my brother," Sam said faintly.
"Yup," he shrugged. "And like it or not, he's gonna die."
Piper sighed, seeing the crushed and angry expressions in front of her, "Not really how I'd put it, but yeah. Sam, Dean will die. That's an established fact. What isn't, is how you react. No one will blame you for falling apart a little, or even expect anything else. But letting that loss, that pain consume you and become the only thing you live for, is only going to insult the life your brother gave up to save you."
Sam nodded slowly, his eyes locked with hers. She could see a spark of understanding in their depths and hoped she'd gotten through to him, even just a little. Even if it didn't, this small meeting here could help with their future, after Dean was gone. She'd have to ask Grandfather about that.
"Well this has been nice," the trickster said sarcastically, straightening his suit as he stood. "Lovely little heart-to-heart. We should do this again."
"Where are you going?" Piper asked suspiciously.
"Home," he winked at her, making sure she knew 'home' meant the villa in Tuscany she had loved as a teen. He pressed a kiss on her forehead and turned to the hunters, "When you two wake up, it'll be Wednesday."
"And I'll be there to escort you out of town, just in case," she assured.
Her father turned to her, looking hurt, "You don't trust me? Do you think I would lie about this?"
She gave him a 'bitch, please' face, something she didn't often use.
"To you. Would I lie to you?"
She turned back to the Winchesters, "Just in case."
The brothers chuckled, finally breaking the tension that had settled over them. The trickster shook his head, raising one hand and snapping his fingers, causing the boys to disappear.
"I wouldn't lie to you," he said, pouting.
"No, but they don't know that. Plus, it made them laugh," she shrugged. "Do you mind snapping my car home? I wanna see if I can hitch a ride in the famous Impala."
He chuckled, "Sure thing. You be careful with those boys. Who knows what they get up to when their alone. And now they know what you are."
"I'll be fine. I don't think I piss them off enough for them to kill me."
