It's a Terrible Life
Chapter 4
Sam's phone went straight to voicemail. Dean ended the call without leaving a message. There wasn't anything he could say without sounding like a lunatic. He tried to ignore his rising anxiety about his brother's safety, thought about calling Bobby and then decided that he couldn't face being yelled at again. Calling Cass wasn't an option either. Zachariah had found him too easily and the only explanation was that Cass had been a good little angel and told his boss what was going on. Dean had to accept that it was his fault that Sam was alone and vulnerable and he'd find a way to deal with it.
He began to pay more attention to his surroundings. The walls were painted a truly hideous green, which didn't match the colors in the worn carpet or the covers on the beds. Maybe it hadn't been so bad to think he was Dean Smith. At least he'd had a comfortable, state of the art apartment. Shame about the Prius... Something about the mismatched furnishings triggered a sudden memory flash. "I'll be damned," he said.
Dean strode to the closet and opened the door. The clothing inside belonged to him and Sam, and their bags lay on the floor right where they'd dumped them right before Zak had grabbed them. This was the room they'd checked into after he'd been discharged from the hospital. That meant he was only a couple of hundred miles away from Sam.
He tried to remember where he'd left the car keys, finally locating them in the nightstand drawer. He scooped them up and headed for the door. A genuine smile lit up his face when he saw the Impala still parked in the space outside their room.
"Oh, baby, it's good to see you. Did you miss me?" He checked round the car quickly, running his hand over the smooth paintwork. There were no dents or scratches, although she looked like she needed to be cleaned and waxed. He unlocked the trunk, checked that was no-one near enough to see what was in there, and lifted the cover from their weapons cache. When his fingers closed around his gun he began to relax. With practised ease he ejected the clip, checked that it was full and snapped it back into place.
He had no idea who had paid to keep their room, and didn't care. Zak's over-confidence had finally given him a break and he was going to take full advantage. He tried Sam's number again without success. Five minutes later he was packed up and on the road.
SNSNSN
The Impala ate up the miles, shattering every speed restriction and carrying Dean steadily closer to his brother. Dean's luck held for less than a hundred miles before he heard the sound of police sirens. A quick glance in his mirror confirmed the presence of a sheriff's car on his tail.
"Give me a break," he yelled.
His urge to floor the gas pedal was overcome by good sense. There was no point in making this worse and a flat out chase could only end in disaster. He slowed his car and pulled onto the side of the road, then wound down his window and waited. Through his wing mirror he watched the officer get out of his car. The man looked to be in his mid-forties and he walked with the confident stride of a seasoned cop.
"In a hurry to get somewhere?" the officer asked when he reached the side of the Impala.
Dean kept his expression neutral and his mouth shut. He was going to get a speeding ticket, which he would ignore just like all the others he'd ever been given. All he wanted was to get this over with and be on his way.
"License and registration."
Dean reached over to the glove box and pulled out the registration document. It was as much of a fake as every other piece of identification in his possession, but he never stayed anywhere long enough for that to be a problem. He waited...and waited while the police officer studied the documents in minute detail. Then he began to get twitchy and, finally, a very bad feeling crept over him.
"Out of the car," the officer said.
"Look, I know I was speeding..."
"Out of the car."
Dean chewed his bottom lip while he weighed up his chances of making a break, and decided they were non-existent. The driver's door creaked when he opened it. The officer stepped back to give him room to exit the car and Dean took the opportunity to slip his gun behind his seat. He didn't need the added complication of explaining why he was armed.
"Turn round and put your hands on the car."
He knew that he could take down the officer without any effort, but that wasn't what he had been trained for. His father had spent years telling him that his job was to protect people from the evil of the world. He'd often thought it was a shame that most of the people didn't know enough to be grateful. It would never have been his choice to walk on the wrong side of the law, but it was all he'd ever known. He held still while he was frisked. It was unlikely that any of his hidden knives would be found. That would need a more thorough search.
"Hands behind your back."
"What?" Dean started to turn, changing his mind when he felt a gun pressed between his shoulder blades. "You can't arrest me for speeding."
"I'm taking you in on suspicion of vehicular homicide. A car matching this description hit a pedestrian earlier today and the driver failed to stop. The pedestrian died in hospital an hour ago."
"I didn't hit anyone," Dean said, flinching when the officer secured a cuff around his right wrist. "You've only got to look at my car to see it hasn't been in an accident." The second cuff tightened around his left wrist securing his arms behind his back.
"We'll leave that to the forensic boys."
Dean's stomach tightened unpleasantly as the officer read him his rights and he was let toward the police car. He wasn't guilty of the offence for which he was being arrested, but when the forensic team found the arsenal in the trunk he could kiss any chance of freedom goodbye. And, any hope of reaching Sam would disappear.
SNSNSN
Sam rolled over in bed and opened his eyes. Ruby was lying by his side with her back to him, her pale skin glistening with sweat from their frenetic sex. He'd felt like he was riding the most incredible high after drinking her blood and she hadn't objected when he picked her up and carried her into the bedroom.
A wave of shame swept over him. What was wrong with him? He looked away when he heard her turning over, unwilling to look her in the eye.
"I told you everything would be alright," she said.
He looked up, surprised. "How can this be alright? I...I don't know you and I drank your blood." He reached over and grabbed her arm, his panic rising. "Tell me what's happening to me."
"You have a destiny, Sam. It's your job to stop Lucifer from rising."
"You're out of your mind. I'm an IT geek, not a hero in some fairy tale." It disturbed him that his words lacked a certain amount of conviction and his thoughts kept returning to the nightmares he'd been experiencing for the last couple of weeks.
Ruby laughed. "It's no fairy tale."
"What about Dean?"
Her expression hardened. "Dean's the one who did this to you. Don't you remember? He wants you to fail."
Ruby sounded so sincere, yet Sam felt that something was wrong. In his dreams he and Dean had been hunting together. They'd been close friends, almost like brothers. Except that now he was thinking about it he was almost sure that there had been a disagreement, a time when they had wanted to follow separate paths. Yes, that made sense. Ruby had been helping him, and Dean had been holding him back.
"What do I have to do?" he asked.
Tbc
Caroline
Sept 2010