SO SORRY I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN SO LONG! If you know me then you know I foster rescue dogs on a pretty regular basis and the past two weeks I have had a particular needy foster and I have had tests so I haven't been able to write much. Also I want to thank you guys who are reviewing for your reviews, they really do help motivate me to write more. Oh and thank you to all fourteen of you lovely people who have followed this story, I hope you like it!
"Everything is going to be ok."
When Aubri woke up the next day Sam was gone, probably in the library again since he couldn't find his laptop, and Dean was sitting on Sam's now empty bed watching TV and eating a donut. Folsom was sitting on the bed next to him watching Dean's every move and waiting for a stray crumb of donut to fall so he could swoop in on it. She sat up slowly and stretched, "Morning." She said through a yawn. She smiled as she looked over at Dean who had mumbled some sort of greeting through the food in his mouth. "Folsom really likes you. He hasn't slept in my bed since we got here and he usually never leaves my side."
"Yeah the drool machine won't leave me alone." Dean said as he looked down at the dog who was now gazing up at him lovingly as his tail wagged. Dean smiled faintly and patted Folsom on the head, "I guess he isn't that bad though."
Aubri smiled as she went into the bathroom and changed and got ready for the day. When she came back out she headed to the door to take Folsom out, but stopped when Dean spoke up. "I already took him outside. I had to get donuts and there was a place close enough to walk to so I took him."
"Oh, um, thanks I guess." Aubri said running her hand through hair. She was used to her routine in the morning and it was kind of weird having someone do something for her.
Dean held out a donut to her, "Want one?" He asked through a mouthful of donut.
"Sure." Aubri laughed as she took the donut from him, there was food stuffed in his cheeks and she couldn't get rid of the image of a chipmunk in her head. "You saving up for winter?"
"What?" Dean cocked his head to the side slightly as he looked confused.
"Really Dean? You look like a chipmunk with all that food in your mouth. You can't sit there with your cheeks stuffed with food and expect someone not to make a chipmunk joke. You look ridiculous."
Dean quickly chewed and swallowed all the food in his mouth before he smiled, "Sweetheart, I'm adorable."
Aubri shook her head as she sat down on her bed, "Sure you are honey. You just keep telling yourself that. And remember Dean I'm not your sweetheart."
"So you can call me honey, but I can't call you sweetheart? I'm not really liking this double standard here."
"Ok let's make a deal that neither one of us can call each other anything but our names."
"Do we really have to set rules about this? I can't control it sometimes."
"Fine, just don't call me sweetheart in public, I don't want anyone getting the wrong idea and think that we are together." Aubri said crossing her arms. If he weren't such a pain in the ass maybe she would consider it because he sure was nice to look at and he had his funny moments, but dear lord the guy got on her last nerve.
"Oh that's easy, anything I can do to avoid that kind of confusion. Don't you worry." He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. Sure she was cute, but having her around was like having another Sam. She was too smart for her own good and she was annoying as hell.
A few hours passed, filled mainly with the two of them watching TV, only talking to each other when something needed to be said. It wasn't an awkward silence though; it was a comfortable silence, the kind of silence that can only happen between two people who don't really require all that much attention.
Folsom's head shot up and he stared at the door, growling quietly. Dean sat up straight and reached for the knife that was lying on the bedside table. Aubri looked cautiously between Dean and the door as she watched to knob on the door slowly turn and the door opened to reveal Sam holding three coffees. Aubri let out the breath that she didn't even know she had been holding. "What guys? Paranoid much?" He asked as he saw the knife in Dean's hand.
"Dude the dog was freaking out. How was I supposed to know you weren't something bad and nasty?" Dean said as he set the knife back on the table. "And that isn't paranoia, that's being prepared, like the boyscouts."
Sam shook his head as he set the coffees down, "Well while you two were stuffing your faces and watching TV, I was doing research and I heard about another death. Some research scientist who did animal testing.
"Well he fits the pattern for sure." Aubri said with a disgusted look on her face.
Dean's eye brows drew together, "How do you know?"
Rolling her eyes, she explained what shouldn't have to be explained. "Really Dean?" God he was annoying, but he was so cute too. "The guy did tests on animals, he is obviously a dick. Is your shampoo really that important to you that you don't care if it's tested on monkeys? They test lipstick on bunnies and while at first it sounds funny, I mean a bunny all dolled up with lipstick, those poor little bunnies have to deal with a lot and it kind of lessens the importance of lipstick in the long run."
"Ok so the guy is a dick. Did you get cause of death Sam?"
"No, the cops wouldn't release cause of death, which means they don't know what it was." Sam said shaking his head.
"Ten bucks says it was an animal." Aubri said smugly. When the guys looked at her like she was crazy she defended herself. "What? The professor who screws around with students gets pushed out of a window by a dead girl, the douche bag pledge master gets hazed, it only makes sense for the guy who did animal testing to bite the dust because of an animal."
"Well if the cops haven't released cause of death then there really is only one way to find out." Dean said.
"How?" Aubri asked, already knowing she probably wouldn't like the answer.
"We have to go check out the body ourselves."
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"You guys are not leaving me behind while you get to go do all of the interesting investigating stuff." Aubri put her hands on her hips as she protested being left behind while the guys when to check out the body. "You two can barely connect the dots between the deaths and you're going to leave behind the one person who picked it up? Plus I want to know if I was right about the death by animal thing."
Sam slowly let out his breath as he put on his jacket and looked at Dean with raised eyebrows, as if he was asking him to handle her. Dean rolled his eyes as he shrugged on his jacket and turned to face Aubri. "This isn't going to be a nice happy field trip. We aren't exactly being invited to look at the stiff and you do realize that if it was an animal attack the guy isn't exactly going to be in one piece, I doubt you can stomach that kind of thing."
"I can, I swear, I watched Dexter so a body in pieces is no big deal." Aubri said as she grabbed her hoodie off of the back of the chair where it had been hanging. She tugged it over her head quickly and then straightened her glasses on her nose and pulled her hair back into a sloppy ponytail since she was sure putting the hoodie on had taken how horrible it looked past the point of no return. "Well, what are we waiting for? Scoot!" She said waving her hands at the guys as she walked past them and out the door. "Be good Folsom!" She called over her shoulder.
"Good job convincing her to stay man." Sam said to Dean as they followed behind Aubri.
Dean shot Sam a dirty look, "How about next time you try reasoning with her. She doesn't listen once she sets her mind to something." Why couldn't Aubri just listen? He heard Sam laugh quietly, "What's so funny Chuckles?"
"Nothing, it's just she sounds just about as hard headed and stubborn as you are."
Dean scoffed, "Chick's a total nerd Sam, just like you."
Aubri was leaning on the hood of the Impala, one red Chuck wearing foot tapping the concrete impatiently as she waited for them. She was ready to get moving because the sooner they figured out what was happening to people around here, the sooner they would figure out what was happening to her, she hoped.
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When they pulled up to the building the body was being kept at all of the lights were off. "How are we getting in?" Aubri whispered.
"Window probably." Dean answered in a whisper. "Wait, why are we whispering? We are still in the car." He whipped around to look at Aubri.
She shrugged innocently, "I don't know, breaking and entering, felt like a situation that called for whispering."
Sam laughed and Dean rolled his eyes as they all got out of the car and walked around the side of the building. Once they got to a certain window Sam knelt down and peered through the glass. "This is the one." He whispered pulling out a knife and slipping it into the small slit around where the lock should be.
Aubri wrapped her arms around herself and bounced up and down, trying to keep warm as she watch Sam slide the knife around until they heard the lock creak open. He pulled the window open and climbed inside, Dean following close behind after tossing Sam his flashlight. Aubri went in last, slipping through the open window. The drop to the ground was a lot further for her than it was for the guys since they were both pretty tall, so when she dropped to the ground, the impact jarred her and she stumbled forward into Dean who had been holding a flashlight so she could see where she was going.
"Whoa there," He said as he grabbed her arms and steadied her, "you okay?"
She looked up into his eyes and her brain froze for a moment. She thanked her lucky stars it was dark and the flashlight wasn't on her face so he couldn't see the blush that spread slowly across her cheeks. She cleared her throat as she remembered how to speak and she pushed away from him quickly, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." She said as she brushed some imaginary lint off of the front of her hoodie.
Dean shook his head as he walked over to the metal door that had the remains of the scientist behind it. He pulled it open and looked at the small box inside. "Well this oughta be quick." He said as Sam and Aubri came up behind him.
How can one person's remains fit in such a small box? Aubri thought as Dean set the box on the examining table and pulled off the bloody sheet revealing the answer to Aubri's question. One person's remains could fit in such a small box because all that remained of that one person was an arm, a leg, and what looked like a brain. "Ok that is just nasty." He said as he as Sam looked away for a moment.
"Oh God." She said quietly as she put her hand over her mouth and tried not to gag.
"You ok over there blondie?" Dean asked looking at her, amusement and a little bit of concern in his eyes.
She nodded quickly; hand still over her mouth as she stared wide eyed at the mutilated remains.
"Ok so yeah, definitely mutilated. Looks to me like something was hungry, so Aubri was probably right." He said with a slight nod to her.
"And this is the research scientist for sure?" Aubri asked from behind her hand.
"Yeah, and guess where his office was."
"Crawford Hall?" Dean asked.
"Yeah, same as the other professor."
"And right where the frat boy had his close encounter." Dean added.
"Yeah," Sam said as he bent down closer to the remains, squinting at something. "Hey Aubri, hand me that thing next to you." He said pointing at what looked like a magnifying glass on wheels.
She pushed it to Sam, staying as far away as she could from the remains in the process. She was a little embarrassed because she thought she could handle this, but seeing chopped up remains in person was a lot different from seeing them on TV.
Sam continued squinting at whatever it was he saw through the magnifying glass, looking as if he didn't quite believe what he saw.
"What is it?" Dean asked, tired of waiting for Sam to quit squinting at whatever this thing was.
"It looks like a… a belly scale?" Sam said, not quite sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him.
Dean raised his eyebrows in disbelief, "A belly scale? Off of what?"
"Uhh… an alligator?"
"An alligator in the sewer." Dean said, still not quite believing all of this.
"What come on Dean. It's a classic urban legend. A kid flushes a baby gator down the toilet and it grows huge in the tunnels."
"Yeah, but no one has really ever found on. I mean it's not real."
"Well neither are alien abductions or parallel universes." Aubri said, walking up behind the two guys, finally able to stomach the sight of the remains.
"Yeah, and I mean something had to chomp down on this guy." Sam added.
Dean shook his head, looking at the remains once more. "This couldn't get any weirder."
"Yeah," Sam agreed, "maybe we should get some help. I'll call Bobby, maybe he's heard of something like this before."
"Oh yeah I'm sure he has, just your typical, haunted campus, parallel universe, alien abduction, gator in the sewers gig. It's just so simple." Sarcasm dripped off of Dean's every word.
Sam rolled his eyes, "Let's just go check the sewers man, you take one end I'll take the other."
"And I'll stay here and rot with this guy." Aubri added as she looked at the two of them with pursed lips and her arms crossed over her chest.
"Do you really want to go walking through the sewers?" Dean asked.
"It beats watching crappy soap operas while you guys get to do all of the interesting stuff."
"Ok, well let's get a move on then Blondie."
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So maybe going with Dean in the sewers hadn't been Aubri's best idea, but she still thought it beat watching crappy soap operas. They had argued practically the whole time, mainly because Dean kept asking her if she wanted to turn back and go hang out with the "drool machine" in the motel room every five minutes. Every time he asked her she would tell him she was fine and that she was having the time of her life walking around in the dank sewer tunnels with Mr. Sunshine himself.
By the time Dean pushed the cover off of the man hole and climbed out, her following close behind, she was about ready to strangle him. He was infuriating. She couldn't understand how one person could make her so mad. She also couldn't understand her odd desire to prove to him that she could handle all of the crazy stuff that was happening.
After they climbed out of the sewer tunnels Aubri and Dean walked back to the Impala in silence since Aubri was desperately fighting the urge to shake him until he teeth rattled or kiss him. Kiss him? A blush spread across her face as she banished the thought from her mind. Why the hell would she want to kiss Dean? He was the most infuriating man she had ever met. Slapping him across the face would probably bring her more joy than kissing him. Still, she couldn't even look at him without her face heating up for the rest of the walk back to the Impala, so she trailed behind him so he wouldn't be able to see her face.
Without any warning, Dean stopped in his tracks. Aubri, who had been studying the concrete quite intently up until that moment ran right into Dean's back. He was so frozen to the spot by what he saw in front of him that the collision didn't even faze him, but it knocked Aubri back onto the ground. She winced as she fell back onto the concrete. That's gonna bruise. She thought as she glared at the back of Dean's head. "What the hell Dean?" She questioned angrily.
Dean could hear Aubri, but he ignored her as he felt the anger well up inside of him. Someone had touched his baby. Someone had let the air out of her tires. Someone was going to die. "Son of a bitch!" He muttered as he circled the car. Something glinted in the sunlight and caught his eye. Bending down to pick it up he saw that it was a very familiar money clip, Sam's money clip. "SAM." He yelled in frustration.
Aubri was still sitting on the ground, turning and flexing her wrists, checking to see if they were sprained from catching her weight when she fell back. She saw a shadow come over her and there were two boots in front of her. As she slowly looked up she saw Dean standing above her, hand stretched out to her, "Come on," He said gruffly, "I've got to go kill my brother."
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Dean barged into the motel room, Aubri following closely in his wake. She had never seen someone more mad that Dean was about Sam letting the air out of "his baby's" tires. "You think this is funny." Dean questioned angrily as he walked quickly over to Sam.
Aubri sat in a chair at the table and Folsom trotted over to her, tail wagging as he plopped his head in her lap. "This is going to be interesting bud." She said as she absentmindedly rubbed his big head.
Sam looked up at Dean, a confused look on his face, "Depends, what?"
Dean mumbled something mockingly before he spoke, "The car!"
"What about the car?"
"You can't let the air out of the tires you idiot, you're gonna bend the rims!"
Aubri nodded at Folsom, "That is true." She whispered.
"Whoa wait a minute," Sam said sitting up straighter in his chair. "I didn't go near your car."
"Oh yeah? Huh, then how'd I find this." Dean held up Sam's money clip.
A look of panic crossed Sam's face as he stood up and felt his pockets. "Hey, give me back my money."
Dean chuckled, "Oh no, no, consider it reparations for emotional trauma."
"Yeah very funny, now give it back." Sam followed Dean to where he was now standing by the bed and went to grab the money from Dean.
"No!" Dean said as he snatched his hand away from Sam.
"Dean, I have had it up to here with you."
"Yeah? Right back at you."
Aubri stood up quietly as she moved a little closer to where to guys were. She had a feeling things were about to get nasty between the two of them and she might just be able to stop it. Sam made a few more grabs for the money before he grabbed Dean and tackled him onto the bed. Dean was trying to keep the money away from Sam and Sam was trying desperately to get to it. "Stop it!" Aubri yelled as she walked closer to them, avoiding their flailing legs. "Guys cut it out!" When they didn't listen to her she took a deep breath, fed up with their arguing. "I said STOP!" She yelled as she smacked the back of Sam's head, causing him to let go of Dean and look at her incredulously.
"What was that for?" He asked, rubbing the back of his head as Dean went and sat on the other bed.
"You two are acting like children and if you are going to keep acting like children I am going to treat you like you are." Aubri said as she put her hands on her hips and glared at Sam, then Dean. "Sam go sit over there."
"Why?"
"Because I said so damnit!" She roared.
Sam got up and when to sit in the chair Aubri pointed at. She could hear Dean snickering at the fact that Sam had gotten yelled at and she crossed over to where he was sitting. She smacked the back of his head too. "Hey!" He protested, rubbing his head.
Aubri held out her hand, "Give me the money Dean."
He looked at her like she was crazy, "No way, he owes me for messing with my baby."
Aubri rolled her eyes, "Dean, you don't even know that he actually did it." He opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off. "No, do you really think Sam is stupid enough to just leave incriminating evidence lying about after messing with your precious car? I've only known you guys like two days, but I don't think he is. So shut your mouth and give me the money." After Dean begrudgingly handed the money clip over Aubri slid it into her hoodie pocket. "Now you stay right here on this bed. Sam is staying in that chair. I don't want to hear a peep out of either of you until you decide to act like the grown men that you are supposed to be. Is that understood?" When both of them nodded Aubri went and sat back at the table, "Good. Sam did you call that Bobby guy?"
"Yeah." Sam said quietly.
"And he said he was coming here?"
"Yeah he'll be here in about an hour."
"Ok good." Aubri said as she put her head down on the table and let out a sigh. She did not sign on for babysitting two grown men who were bickering like kids. They were supposed to be helping her, she wasn't supposed to be their referee.
The hour passed slowly. Dean was being obnoxious from the bed where he was sitting, chewing his food loudly and turning up the radio even louder when Sam asked him to be quiet. Sam was trying to do research, but every time he hit a dead end in the books he blamed Dean for stealing his laptop. Towards the end of the hour their bickering got to the point to where Aubri couldn't get them to stop and that is when she heard the knock that had to be the person coming to her rescue.
She walked to the door quickly and threw it open to see the old man who lived in the junkyard on the show standing in front of her. "Are you Bobby? Please be Bobby." She begged sagging against the doorframe as she looked up at him.
He eyed her carefully before looking at the brothers sitting on their separate spots and then back to her. "I'm Bobby. Are you the poor girl these two idjits have holed up in here with them?"
Finally Bobby is here! I told myself I wouldn't end the chapter until I got Bobby involved and now my sweet angel in a trucker hat is here. I will try to have a new chapter up soon, but I am getting a new foster who needs some extra TLC because he is so skinny so no guarantees. As always review at will!