Summary: Takes place directly at the end of 5x13, The Song Remains the Same – in which Team Free Will is stuck in 1978.
Characters: This is a third person story that will follow Dean, though there is plenty of Sam as well, Castiel, OFC
Warnings: Language and marijuana use for the whole story
Word Count: 1,650
A/N: I took some creative liberties with time travel here, so just roll with me. This is also chock-full of references to music in the 60's and 70's – there will be a companion Spotify playlist when the story is complete.
April, 1978
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
This was the fifth day in a row that he had woken up with that goddamn Bruce Springsteen stuck in his head.
He hummed it in the shower, heard it while he drank his coffee.
There was a record store called the Love Garden a couple blocks from the bookstore, he'd driven past it several times, and it was his first stop today, his day off.
As he stepped inside the shop, he heard the Temptations' Papa Was a Rolling Stone fade out and David Bowie's Golden Years begin to play. He felt overwhelmingly, and not for the first time, like he belonged here.
Iowa, 1978.
He shook his head, a smile creeping on his face at the absurdity of it all - but there was a shadow in the back of his mind, desperately trying to remind him not to get too comfortable. He pushed it further back.
"Hey, brother," a young man with long hair and a goatee called from the behind the counter. "Can I help you find anything?"
"Thanks, man - I'm just browsing," Dean answered, wandering between the rows of records.
"Right on, let me know if you change your mind," he replied, going back to fiddling with a broken record player.
After winding in and out of the records, he found the cassette section and began casually scanning through them.
There was a lot of disco and he rolled his eyes - there was something he could do without.
He started plucking the interesting tapes and before he realized it, he had a stack of ten.
Deciding to stop himself before he got too out of hand, he headed to the checkout.
"Find everything alright, man?" the guy with the goatee asked, and Dean nodded.
He laid them all out on the counter - Creedence, Led Zeppelin, the Doors, Joe Walsh, Bruce… - and Goatee started writing them up for him.
Pulling his wallet out of his back pocket, Dean flipped through the dollar bills there, hearing a door open as someone else joined Goatee from the back room.
"I heard that's a good one," a Georgia drawl said, a finger tapping the Born to Run deck.
Mouth immediately dry, Dean froze and shifted his gaze to the familiar face, a crooked smile on his own. "Yeah, I heard that too. How you doing, Evie?"
"Oh, just living the dream, Dean," she replied, leaning on her elbows with a lazy smile.
"You work here?" he asked, though the answer to that was already apparent with her behind the counter.
She nodded.
"Hey, any friend of Evie's is a friend of mine," Goatee said, reaching a hand out to Dean, who shook it.
"Roger, this is Dean," Eve said, gesturing between the two of them with her index finger. "Dean, that's Roger."
"Nice to meet you," Dean said, offering a polite smile.
"You too, man - I'm gonna give you a discount…" He started scribbling on the receipt.
"Oh, no - you don't have to do that," Dean said, shaking his head. "I'm happy to -"
"I insist," Roger replied, not looking up from the paper he was scratching on.
Dean looked back up at Eve, shrugging. "I won't argue with you, I guess."
She smiled and shrugged back in response.
Shifting weight from one foot to the other, Dean glanced briefly around the room and then back at Eve, who still had her gaze fixed on him.
He cleared his throat, suddenly feeling his stomach flip over as he opened his mouth to speak. "Listen, I, uh - I don't want to be too forward or anything, but…"
Why was he hesitating? He had asked his fair share of women on dates.
She made him feel something different.
At this point, Roger glanced up at him and a crooked smile was spreading across Evie's face.
"No, that's okay," she said, crossing her arms, her smile growing bigger. "Go ahead, ask me out."
He chuckled. "Okay, would you wanna have dinner with me?"
"Yeah," she said, nodding. "Yeah, that would be nice."
"Great," he replied, wearing a smile of his own now. "You free tonight?"
"I get off at 6, if you wanna swing by here?"
"I'll see you then," he answered, nodding.
Roger, who had watched this entire exchange with a wide grin, handed Dean his cassettes in a bag.
"Don't have her out too late."
"Alright, Roger, can it," Eve said, shaking her head as she rolled her eyes. "I'll see you tonight, Dean."
=
Dean had putted around town for a few hours after that, then went back to the motel to shower and get ready.
When he pulled up to the curb outside the record store, Eve was already sitting outside, smoking a cigarette on the bench.
He rolled his window down, calling out, "Am I late?"
She shook her head, stubbing her cigarette out on the ground before standing and walking over to the car. "Right on time," she replied, opening the door and taking a seat. "So, Roger wanted me to tell you that he's in a Led Zeppelin cover band and they're playing tonight, if we wanted to go after dinner," she said with a laugh. "I think he's desperate for audience members."
Dean chuckled and nodded. "Sure, we can do that - I love Zeppelin."
"I had a feeling you might," she answered, winking at him. "His friend David sounds just like Robert Plant, they're actually pretty good."
"I guess I'll have to hear it for myself," he replied with a grin, turning into the downtown area. "Hungry?"
"Starving. Did you have a place in mind?"
He didn't really, so after a brief discussion, they ended up at a bar and grill - burgers in front of both of them, immersed in conversation.
She was 27 - her father had died at war when she was young and her mother remarried about a decade later, prompting the move to Iowa. She had a teenaged sister, Kate, who lived with Eve's mom and stepdad a few towns over.
She wasn't what he would call a hippie, but he had a sneaking suspicion her mother was - Eve was very much a product of the flower child age.
"I like your pendant, necklace thing," Dean said, gesturing to his own neck. "Is it a marble...?" It kind of looked like it had been one once, it was blue glass with swirls of gold, but it was smashed almost flat.
"Oh!" she said, laughing as her hand closed around it. "Yeah, it is a marble - it's kind of silly, actually. When I was kid, back home my grandpa owned a marble factory. I was watching him one day and accidentally dropped a heavy book on some of the marbles that weren't cool yet. Ruined the lot of them, in case you couldn't tell." She laughed again. "He made one into a necklace for me and I never took it off."
He smiled back at her as he listened.
She seemed so authentic when she spoke, obviously comfortable with herself, and Dean felt as though she were a magnet.
He had never met anyone like her, and the way she talked compelled him to tell her about himself as well.
He told her about his life, as close to the truth as possible. That his mother had died in a fire, his father after a car accident - all the facts without the supernatural details.
After they were done eating, they walked down the main street through town to the bar that Roger and his band were playing.
A deep bass resonated in Dean's chest as they stepped inside, the music already pouring through the speakers.
If it keeps on rainin', the levee's goin' to break
When the levee breaks, I'll have no place to stay
Eve let out an emphatic groan, clutching her chest. "This is my favorite Zeppelin song."
Dean nodded in agreement, the two of them ordering drinks and taking a seat at a table in the half full bar.
"Do you have a favorite?" she asked, speaking loudly above the music.
"It's a tie," he called back, leaning closer, "between Ramble On and Travellin' Riverside Blues."
Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "I don't think I know that one - which album was it on?"
Dean quickly realized the song he was talking about hadn't been released on an album yet and he gave a nervous laugh. "Oh, you know what? I'm thinking of a live cover I heard them do - it's an old song from the 30's."
Her eyes lit up. "Ooh, you've seen them in concert? Was it last summer?"
"Yes," Dean lied quickly, nodding. "Yeah, last summer - it was far out."
Smooth.
She laughed and nodded enthusiastically. "I bet!"
They spent the next two hours singing and laughing themselves hoarse from their table, now several drinks in.
The slow guitar strumming signaled the beginning of another one of Dean's favorites, and he leaned his chin in his palm, elbow on the table.
He watched her sitting across from him in the dimly lit bar as she lit a cigarette, a lazy smile on her face as she mouthed the words.
Made up my mind to make a new start, Someone told me there's a girl out there,
Going to California with an achin' in my heart
With love in her eyes and flowers in her hair
"If I had to pick a third favorite, this would be it," he said, voice gravelly as he spoke above the music. She nodded.
The sea was red and the sky was gray,
Wondered how tomorrow could ever follow today
When the song ended, the band took a break before their second set and Dean's ears were ringing in the sudden silence.
"You know, I gotta tell you, sweetheart - I am having a great time tonight," he said, leaning back in his chair.
There was no posturing with her, and she would've seen right through it anyway. Something about her made him want to be genuine, so he said what he felt.
"Is it me or Led Zeppelin?" she asked with a smirk and he laughed.
"Can it be both?"
She grinned. "Absolutely."
It was so normal, he couldn't wrap his head all the way around it.
Dinner, music, conversation.
He sat forward again. "I have to be honest, I - I'm not really sure how long I'm going to be here, and when I leave, I won't be back… but, I think you're a lot of fun and I'd like to see you again."
"Sure, that would be great," she answered with a smile. "And hey, nothing lasts forever anyway, right?" She winked.
He smirked back. "I will drink to that." They clinked their beer bottles together and Dean finished the last of his drink.