"Max, what do you know about things like that?" Dean's voice comes out choked. 'Who explains sex to a kid her age?' His jaw clenches, in his mind he wonders if he's going to have to find her father and bury him early than thought.
Hell, He hadn't even discussed that with Sammy until he was twelve, and by then it was a conversation just between guys.
"My… Father informed me about mating. Relations between men and women after a certain age to produce new life and carry on a legacy." Her voice is soft and cautious, her head down as she stares into her lap.
Dean's eyes sweep over the Walmart parking lot momentarily and when nothing out of the normal catches his attention, they snap back to Max. He studies her thumbs circling each other, notes that she realizes the atmosphere in the car is now tense and how her eyes won't meet his.
"Did I say something wrong, sir?" Max questions lightly.
"No, no Max, you didn't. I just…" His voice catches in his throat; Dean has no clue what else to say to this little girl in his backseat. He looks to Sammy, who has always been better with kids. The brother's eyes meet and Sam shakes his head understanding Dean's problem instantly.
"Don't worry, Max. We just wanted to know, there's no trouble. You must be really advanced in school, your vocabulary is impressive." Sam jumps in reassuring her while changing the direction of the conversation.
"School?" She says it slow and deliberate, testing the word out. Max looks up and stares at them both with a questioning look on her face.
"Yeah, you know. The place of 'Higher education'. Where kids go to learn in a classroom together." As Dean says it sarcastically, his hands flare up adding quotations and Sam just rolls his brown eyes over his older brothers dramatics.
Max's eyebrows knit together though and her lips form a small 'o'. Both brothers notice her behavior and can tell she's thinking hard about something.
"So… Max. We have a few other errands to run, do you think you could wait in the car while we get them done?" Dean wasn't sure this was the best place to leave her waiting but it felt safer and wiser then leaving her in the motel room all day. 'Who knows what kind of trouble she could get into alone?'
"Yes, sir." She responds after a heartbeats pause.
Dean lets out a long sigh and runs his left hand through his dusty brown hair. He has got to get her to stop using 'sir' soon or else he might just go crazy, he had always hated having to call his father that. Respect or not, it made him feel like John; which hit a little too close to home for comfort.
"Max, no more calling me sir. I'm just Dean and he's just Sammy, we're all equals here." A smirk finds its way on to his lips As he speaks. It was light hearted, a way to loosen up the moment while getting her to understand.
"Does it aggravate you?" She pales slightly with worry.
"No, it's just what I want you to call us. Those are our names, you like being called Max, right?"
"Well, yes." She nods along with her words, seeming to come to her own realization.
"Good, so do we."
"It's Sam." Sammy finally speaks up from next to him with a frown on his face, giving Dean a death glare. Looks say more in the Winchester world than actual words sometimes.
"Sure it is, whatever you say Sammy." Dean laughs easily and leans forward to turn on the car.
The ride was considerably short, Dean knowing the exact way to get to the victim's home that she had shared with her husband who they needed to question. The brothers had left Max in the car with the engine running so she could stay warm.
Now Dean's eyes roam around the room superficially, what he misses Sam will catch. He focuses on questioning Paul about Janet, while his brother searches the bathroom for clues.
"She was so scared. I couldn't help, I couldn't do anything to stop it. And I've talked to the police, and the medical examiner and no one can explain it." Paul, who's sitting on the bed while he explains stare's blankly in front of him. His voice hollow.
"Well, that's why they put the call in to us Mr. Dutton."
"But the CDC, that's disease control right? What do you think? It's some kind of virus?" Paul stands; worry colors his features.
"We're not ruling out anything yet. Mr. Dutton, did Janet have any enemies?" Dean looks up momentarily, staring at Paul while waiting for an answer.
"I'm sorry?"
Sam had quickly made his way into the bathroom, ignoring his brother's conversation. He closes the door and looks thoroughly through everything. His eyes searching for clues as his hands work the Dutton's belongings. Sam wonders how Max is faring in the car alone, he didn't want to leave her sitting there but the case needed to be looked into.
"Anyone that might have a reason to hurt her?""Wait, what are you saying? That somebody poisoned her?":
Sam listens to Dean questioning the husband through the door and he realizes that Mr. Dutton sounds frightened as he replies. He then walks over to the sink in the bathroom and opens the cabinets, his hands find the hex bag almost immediately.
He pockets the cursed object and heads towards the bathroom door, leaving it open behind him as he steps back into the bedroom with Dean and Mr. Dutton.
"I'm just saying we have to cover every base here." Dean sighs and holds the pen close to the paper.
"Well, I mean, what kind of poison? You think a person could have done this?"
"Would anyone want to?" Dean senses Mr. Dutton's holding something back; the worry on his face is just too much to not notice.
"What?! No, no, there's just no one that could've…" Mr. Dutton cuts off and begins to pace, his head shakes as Sam renters the room.
"Uh, everyone loved Janet." His words are soft, his face pale.
Dean spots the tiny lie and looks to Sam, who nods once to let him know that he's finished.
"Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Dutton. I think we've got everything we need, We'll be getting out of your way now." Dean snaps the pad closed.
Meanwhile, Max lays out in the backseat of the car called an 'Impala', she listens to everything going on in the house that Sam and Dean had walked into. Her stomach rolls and tightens into knots.
Max has a bad feeling about this neighborhood, she'd felt an unease wash over her as they had passed the welcome sign. Her instincts were telling her to be ready for a fight, to run if things got out of control.
Max had been quite on the way there, her mind mulling over what the brothers had told her. To call them by their names, about being equal.
Was she more then what they had drilled into her? Could she be normal like the brothers? Back at Manticore she wasn't even considered human to the men in uniforms. Max realizes that this must be how people treat each other on the outside. 'No one is just a number; no one out here is just a soldier. Normal.' She smiles slightly and enjoys the thought that she can just be Max. 'Whoever just Max is.'
Now Max's head rests on her right folded arm as she listens to the rain drizzle down onto the roof of the car and decides she really enjoys the sound, the steady tempo of tapping has a calming effect on her. 'Is this what freedom sounds like?' She could definitely get used to it.
'At Manticore, no one relaxed, laid down and just enjoyed the rain.' Max would barely register it as she did her routine work. 'I'll remember everything I can about that place but I'm never going back.' She silently promises herself.
Max hears the front door open and close quickly after a short goodbye to someone named Mr. Dutton. She sits up and watches the brothers stand on the sidewalk, speaking to each other in hushed tones.
"That dude seem a little evasive to you?" Dean questions lightly as his eyes meet hers and he waves. Max watches with intense curiosity trying to understand what they are up to.
"A bit but I was kinda busy under the sink pulling out this." Sam who knew she was watching them, steps in front of Dean blocking from view whatever he was pulling out of his pocket. She watches as Dean moves to take it, 'What is It?'
"Hex bag." Whispers Sam as his head bends to look down at his hands.
"Ewww gross." Replies Dean.
"Yeah, there are bird bones, rabbit's teeth; this cloth is probably cut from something Janet Dutton owned." Sam lists off a few things. Max doesn't understand what their talking about though, 'why would anyone put bones and teeth into a bag? Were they praying to the blue lady too?'
Dean stares back at the house for a second, Max watches as he seems frozen in thought.
"So we're thinking witch?" Dean looks back to Sam as he hands him the hex bag.
"Uh, yeah, and not some new age wicked water douser either. This is old world black magic Dean, I mean, warts and all."
"Ugh, I hate witches; they're always spewing their bodily fluids everywhere." Dean sighs, his cheeks puffing out and his weight switching from one boot clad foot to the other.
"Pretty much." Sam lets out a few chuckles.
"It's creepy, you know. It's downright unsanitary. So, someone snuck into that house and planted the bag. What are we thinking; we're uh, looking for some old craggy Blair bitch in the woods." Dean shakes his head, drops of water flick off his short hair.
"Yeah, well someone definitely had it out for Janet Dutton but it could be anyone. Neighbor, co-worker, man, woman that's the problem Dean, they're human, they're like everyone else. This wasn't random though. Someone in Janet Dutton's life had an ugly axe to grind." Max watches as Sam pockets the 'hex bag', readjusts his suit and wipe off his hands onto the legs of his pants. He turns and smiles tensely at her, Sam holds up one finger.
"Great, so we find the motive, we find the murderer." The brothers start walking closer to the car.
"Yeah."
The boys get back into the car and for a moment everything is still, Dean then turns to the stoic Max in his backseat.
"Seatbelt." He reminds her with a nod of his head and a quick, tight lipped smile before turning back to the steering wheel, then proceeding to put the car in drive and pulling away.
"So, Max. How about some lunch?" Asks Dean as he parks the car out front of a building, its sign reads Molly's in large blue letters.
"Yes, Dean." She quietly replies and tugs at the top of her head where a purple sun hat sits. Max isn't used to having her head covered up, but Dean and Sam seemed to think it was a good idea.
Along with the hat, she now wears a plain, light purple, fitted long sleeved shirt and dark jeans with a pair of 'tennis shoes' as Sam called them. She feels dressed up, special. Max has never worn anything so pretty.
"Where are we?" She asks quickly, leaning forward in her seat to study her surroundings. A few cars are parked in the otherwise empty lot, the building itself doesn't look to bad either. A tiny sign on the door reads 'open for the best lunch in town'.
"At a diner, we're going to go in, sit at one of the booths and eat. Do me a favor and keep your hat pulled down in the back." Dean replies before pushing himself out of the car.
Max follows them in, her eyes widen at the people. All dressed differently, the walls are painted a light pink and the smell. 'Oh blue lady, that mouth-watering smell.'
The diner is lit up with light and activity, a woman who wears a yellow outfit motions for them to find their own seat.
Her stomach growls as her feet follow the brothers, who stop by a bright red booth. Dean takes up the seat that faces the door and Sam waits patiently as she scoots in before sitting down next to her.
Soft music plays from a machine close by, Max stares it down in wonder. Its sides are lit up in a fluorescent green and after a moment a disc slides over and a new sound begins to play.
"What is that?" Her right hand finds Sam's jacket, giving it a hard tug before pointing to the contraption that's holding her attention.
"Oh… it's a jukebox. Would you like to go pick out a song? I think I have fifty cents in my pocket that I can spare." Sam smiles at her and pulls her up with him as he stands. Max momentarily looks to Dean who just shakes his head and watches them walk over.
"Sam, what's a song? How does this work?" She didn't have a clue what she was supposed to do, how to handle the machine to make it play a song. Worry suddenly creeps up her spine and rests on her shoulders that sag slightly. 'What if I get this wrong?'
"Well, you hear that sound? That's a song, it was written by someone who wanted to express their feelings with instruments. Don't worry I'll show you what to do." Sam stands next to her for a second before clicking a little button off to the right side that makes the discs flip over.
She stands there unsure of what to do, until she slinks closer and puts her ear onto the cool glass. She listens closely, at first she only hears the song playing out, than she hears the machines gears grinding together creating movement, and hears Sam still clicking away at the discs.
Her eyes close and she purrs as she feels the warmth radiating off the jukebox. Suddenly, there's a knot in her stomach. Her honey brown eyes snap open and she points down at one of the discs.
"Stop, play that one." Is all she tells Sam before stepping back.
"Ok." He replies but she can tell there are unanswered questions behind his eyes.
Max returns to her seat without him, her eyes though stay glued to the jukebox. She watches Sam closely as he puts in two shiny circles, civilian currency and presses a button before coming to sit next to her. The music begins to play softly.
I put a spell on you
'Cause you're mine
You better stop the things you do
I ain't lyin'
No I ain't.
"Hello, I'm Nina and I'll be you server today. May I take your drink orders?" A young woman with long blonde hair comes to stand close to the table, her yellow outfit matching her bubbly personality.
Max instantly dislikes this 'Nina', her eyes move from the music box towards the waitress. A glare firmly in place on her childlike features.
"Yeah, I'll take a coke and a SoA burger, she'll have an orange juice with a number two chicken finger basket. Sammy?" Dean jumps in first ordering for Max and then himself quickly.
"Well, I'll have an egg and cheese bagel with milk please." Sam hands the waitress the two plastic menus that he and Dean were using.
"Alrighty, I'll be right back with your drinks." She smiles more at Dean than anyone else at the table, finishes writing their order down in her pad and then rushes off leaving a strong smell of flowers in her wake. Dean whistles after a moment, his eyes glued to the waitress and Sam just shakes his head before he looks to Max.
"So, how do you like the song? Have you ever heard it before?" Sam questions, his eyes zeroing in on her face.
"I've never heard it and I don't like it." Max replies while picking at a tiny piece of lint on the left sleeve of her shirt. The song gave her the same feeling she had earlier in the backseat of the car; it put her on edge.
"Then why did you pick it out?" Dean pipes up from across the booth.
"I don't know, it was just… I had a feeling about it." Max looks up, deep into Dean's hazel-green eyes. She wishes she could tell them the truth, her extra Manticore given instincts were kicking in. Warning her of possible danger, that there's a predictor lurking in the shadows and no one but her could sense it because she's different.
Max can't though, she can't say any of that because the brothers wouldn't understand. What if they tried to send her back to Manticore, back to Lydecker? No, she couldn't say anything at all.
