Chapter 4
After another trip to the bathroom (thanks to a diet of water, juice, and chicken broth), Sam Winchester collapsed onto his bed. He was over the worst of the 'flu, but his energy reserves were still low.
Yawning, he got under the covers. He'd been awake for a whole four hours this time, and was ready for another nap. The fact that he'd been so tired was the only thing that kept him from going stir crazy while Dean was gone. He'd slept so much, he hadn't had time to start climbing the walls from boredom. But he was glad Dean was on his way back. By tomorrow morning, he'd be ready to do something besides sleep, watch TV, and make short trips to the kitchenette for a change of pace.
Settling his head on the pillow with a sigh, Sam frowned. Dean had called a few hours ago to say he would be late. And he'd sounded…strange. Preoccupied. Not as cocky and hyped up as he usually got after a successful hunt. It made Sam wonder if getting the poltergeist out of that nursery school had been as easy Dean had claimed. It would be just like him to hide an injury so Sam wouldn't feel bad for not being there to back him up. And if Dean had been hurt because Sam wasn't there…
Before his guilt could work up a good head of steam, Sam heard the dulcet growl of the Impala's engine as it prowled into the parking lot.
Smiling, Sam sat up against the headboard. He thought about going out to help Dean bring his stuff inside—and seeing first hand whether his brother was hurt or not. But, since Dean would just order him to get his sick ass back inside, there was no real point. Besides, he was sick. He was allowed to be lazy a little while longer.
It wasn't long before he heard a key rattling in the lock. Sam opened his mouth, a greeting for his brother poised on the tip of his tongue.
And it stayed there, because the door flew open, and a figure much shorter and more slender than Dean flew inside. As this figure streaked past the foot of his bed, he got a brief impression of a yellow top, and long, wavy hair. Then, the whirlwind disappeared into the bathroom, the door banging shut behind it.
Mouth hanging open, Sam stared at the faux wood paneling. And was still staring when his brother came inside, a duffle bag in each hand.
"Hey, Sam," Dean said as he kicked the door shut.
"Uh, hey," Sam mumbled absently, eyes still on the bathroom door. What…? Who…?
"How you feeling?" Dean continued. Placing his gear on the bed, he studied Sam with a critical eye. "I know you said you were fine on the phone, but…"
"I am fine," Sam automatically replied. "Almost a hundred percent."
"Good," Dean smiled. Then, like nothing out of the ordinary was going on, he unzipped his a duffel bag and started to unpack.
Sam, still stunned by the yellow tornado that had just passed through, almost let him get away with it. Then…
"Hey!" he exclaimed as his brain kicked into gear. "What the hell, Dean?"
Dean gave him a look of complete innocence. "What?"
"What!" Agitated, Sam pushed the covers aside and sat up on the edge of the bed. "What about the girl that just blew through here?"
Dean frowned. "You mean Kira?"
Sam gritted his teeth so hard, his jaw popped. "Yes, I mean Kira."
Dean shrugged. "It's no big deal. She's a hitchhiker I picked up a few hours back. Had a bit of a bathroom emergency." He then started the familiar ritual of sniffing his clothes to see what had one or two more wears in it (which went into a pile on the bed), and what needed to be washed or torched immediately (which went into a pile on the floor).
"A hitchhiker?" Sam frowned. "You picked up a hitchhiker? And brought her back here?" Not that they'd never picked up hitchhikers. But said hitchhikers didn't end up in their motel rooms. "And…" Sam demanded. Because there had to be more to it than that.
"And. I, uh…" Suddenly, Dean seemed uncomfortable, almost embarrassed. And he was giving the clothes way more attention than they needed. "Well, she's a runaway. About sixteen, from what I can tell. She's got no money, no food. And her last ride dumped her in the middle of nowhere, then took off with her stuff."
His peace spoken, he went back to sniffing and tossing.
For a long moment, Sam just stared at his brother. Then, as what Dean had done (and why) sank in, a soft smile spread across Sam's lips. Hell, he would've said, "Awwww," if he didn't think he'd get beaten to death for it.
A long moment passed in silence. Finally, Dean glanced up from his clothes sorting. When he saw the expression on Sam's face, his brow crinkled into a forbidding frown. The look in his eyes said, Don't you dare make a big thing out of this.
Sam's smile turned into a grin. Nothing made Dean squirm more than revealing his heart-of-gold. Even though, as far as Sam was concerned, that was one of Dean's best qualities.
Still, they were brothers, so he had to rib him a little.
"That was really sweet, Dean," Sam said gently.
"Oh, shut up!" Dean hissed, throwing a shirt onto the floor.
"No, really!" Sam insisted earnestly. "A young girl, out there all alone? We both know what could've happened to her if you hadn't picked her up."
"Yeah, well…" Apparently deciding there weren't enough 'clean' clothes for it to make a difference, Dean dumped them all into the 'need to clean' pile. "It's no big deal."
Yes, it is, Sam wanted to say, but he knew Dean didn't take praise well. Not unless it was about either his hunting prowess, or his way with the ladies. So, instead, he just sat there, watching Dean unpack the rest of his stuff, smiling a proud and slightly teasing smile.
Eventually, it was just too much for his big brother. "Oh, for crying out loud," Dean huffed, rolling his eyes in exasperation. Bending down, he started to stuff the dirty clothes into a large plastic bag.
As Dean mumbled about needing to hit the Laundromat, and how much he doing laundry, Sam's eyes went back to the closed bathroom door. Slowly, his amusement faded.
"What are we going to do?"
"No idea," Dean said without hesitation. "I'm hoping we can convince her to go to a runaway shelter. They can give her a safe place to stay. And they'll know what to do if her home is really too bad for her to go back to. Only, you know how it is. We can't just drop her off. She has to want to go or…"
"Or she probably won't stay." Sam nodded in agreement.
"The good thing is I think she's smart enough to decide to go to one on her own. She just needs time to think about it."
"Time not spent starving and sleeping on the streets," Sam concluded, frowning at the closed door. She was taking a long time in there. Probably doing some personal girl stuff. Stuff Sam had been ignorant about until he moved in with Jess. "You know what, Dean?"
"Yeah?" Dean looked up expectantly.
"What you did? It really was sweet."
Dean's disgusted groan was drowned out by Sam's delighted laughter.
Kira splashed another handful of cold water on her face. She was feeling light-headed and panicky again, which seemed to be the emotion on special today. The dizziness hit every time she thought about how far she was from home. From everyone she knew.
Although she wasn't feeling quite as panicky as she had before. Because it seemed that, completely by accident, she'd picked up—or been picked up by—a guardian angel. At first glance, one wouldn't peg Dean Winchester as a do-gooder type, but that was what he was turning out to be. Which was better than him turning out to be a psycho freak.
Turning off the water, Kira straightened up. As she used her hands to dry off her face, her eyes fell on the reflection of her 'bracelet.' As she stared at the yellow stone in its center, her Dino Gem, she had the sudden urge to shout, "Dino Thunder, power up!" just to see what would happen. But all that's probably do was convince Dean and his brother she was nuts.
"His brother," Kira remembered. She hadn't gotten a good look at him during her mad dash to the bathroom. Now, she was curious to see what Dean's brother was like.
Opening the bathroom door, Kira took a step out into the main room.
Dean's brother—-who was wearing sweat shorts and a t-shirt-—spotted her immediately. Standing, he gave her a friendly, almost shy smile. "Hey."
"H-hey," Kira said as she looked up at him. And she did mean up. While Dean was tall, his brother was huge! Kira was used to being one of the shortest people in any group. But, next to Sam, she felt like a munchkin.
"Kira," Dean said, "this is my little brother Sam."
"Little?" Kira muttered under her breath. Luckily, neither brother seemed to hear her.
"Nice to meet you, Kira," Sam said. "Dean tells me you're going to be riding with us for a while."
"Yeah, I guess so." Then, a worried frown creased her brow. "As long as you don't mind."
"No, of course not," Sam assured her. Then, he grinned. "Of course, it probably won't take long for us to start getting on your nerves. Well, mostly him," he said, nodding towards Dean.
He got a glare from Dean in return.
Kira smiled. Okay, Sam was a giant. But he seemed like a friendly giant.
Still glaring, Dean said, "Alright! Now that everybody knows everybody else, I need to head out for a few minutes." And he started for the door.
"Where are you going?" Sam asked as he collapsed onto his bed. And Kira remembered Dean saying he'd been sick.
"I need to see if I can rent a cot from the manager's office since Kira here is taking my bed."
Kira froze, letting out an almost audible gasp. As her heart started to pound in her chest, she finally, fully understood certain facts that should have been obvious to her long before now. Like she was about to share a motel room with two men. Two men who were total strangers. Even if she wasn't getting creepy vibes off of them, that didn't change the whole "shacking up in a motel room with two strange men" thing.
"Why don't you just share a bed with me?" Sam was asking. "We've done it plenty of time before."
"Yeah," Dean agreed. "But, those other times? You didn't have 'flu cooties."
Caught in the midst of puritanical panic as she'd been, the last thing Kira expected to do was laugh. But that did it. Chuckling, she put her hand up to cover over her mouth.
Sam, however, didn't seem to think his brother was funny. "I'm not contagious anymore, Dean."
"Yeah, whatever, Dr. Know It All. I'll be right back."
Before Sam could come up with a clever come back, Dean was out the door. Glaring after his brother, Sam snorted in exasperation as he folded his arms.
Kira smiled, and her panic drained away. Okay, she was definitely in a strange situation here. And, after the months she'd spent as a Ranger, that was saying something. Still, if nothing else, it looked like her stay here was going to be entertaining.
TO BE CONTINUED
