It was annoying to try and wake Baby up after he slept for a few hours. He was apparently a very deep sleeper and not easily awakened.
"Baby. For the last time, get your ass up and get in the truck." Dean growled, nudging him a little with the toe of his shoe. "Baby!"
"Just climb in already. Stop kicking me." Baby groaned, shying away from Dean's foot.
"Newsflash; I can't 'climb in' because you're not a car anymore!" Dean groaned. He and Sam had been trying to wake him for ten minutes now.
Baby rolled onto his belly. "Vroom vroom bitches," He mumbled before smacking his lips and supposedly falling asleep once again.
"Ugh. Fuck this. Sam, help me lift him to get in the car." Dean grabbed his ankles and Sam snaked his arms under his armpits and they lifted him, shoving him into the bench seat of the truck.
"I swear to God it better not be like this every morning." Dean shook his head. "Let's go get some coffee and breakfast, maybe you can store some offline reading webpages with the coffeehouse wifi, we can start trying to figure out how to get him back to normal."
Baby finally groggily woke up around halfway to the coffeehouse, groaning and rubbing his eyes. "Fuck. You guys didn't even jumpstart me properly."
"You'll feel better with some caffeine in your system." Sam assured him, as he pulled the laptop open and booted it up.
They finally parked and piled out, Sam in the lead, followed by Dean, followed by Baby. They were about to go inside when Baby grabbed Dean's arm and wrenched him backwards. "Dean!" Baby hissed excitedly.
"What?" Dean said irritably. "Geez, no need to be so rough."
"What's that?" Baby pointed to a man leaning on the side of the building, smoking a cigarette and checking his phone with the other hand.
"Um, a phone?" Dean spoke up, and Baby gave him a look.
"I know what a phone is, Dean. I meant the other thing. With the exhaust coming out of it. The exhaust-stick." Baby pointed at the cigarette again.
"Oh. That's not exhaust, it's smoke. And it's called a cigarette." Dean explained. Why was Baby so excited about it?
"Dean. I must have one of these 'cigarettes', please." Baby pleaded, his blue eyes way too innocent for a guy like him. "I haven't felt hot exhaust flowing through my system in a whole day. I feel dead inside. Please?"
"We'll see what we can do." Dean said gruffly before taking him by the arm and leading him inside, because the smoking man was starting to give Baby a glare as Baby stared at him.
It was much more peaceful with the three of them than Dean had thought it would be. He thought that it might be awkward with the three of them because he was so used to only Sam, but it wasn't the case.
Dean felt at ease as Sammy clacked away at the computer keys, pausing every few minutes to take a sip of his coffee or take a bite of is bran muffin. Baby ate his bagel and checked out the automobiles section in the newspaper, not caring that Sam and Dean laughed at him at first. Dean drank his own coffee, and out of habit scanned the newspaper for any strange happenings.
The air was full of the whirr of coffee grinders, clinks of forks on porcelain or cups clinking against tables, a peaceful din, and the rich aroma of coffee beans saturated the air. Dean hadn't felt this at ease for a while, especially that they were on a case now with trying to fix Baby.
"Well, I haven't found out much, but I'm pretty sure we can rule out witches." Sam said, twisting the laptop around so that Dean and Baby could see. "It says here that witches don't have the means to transfigure inanimate objects into living objects They also wouldn't have been able to create a living human body using other means either ."
Dean pinched his lower lip on thought between his thumb and pointer finger. "So, we're thinking it might be a trickster, or maybe even Gabriel?"
Sam shrugged. "Or something we're not even thinking of yet. We just don't know."
Dean furrowed his brows. "So not witches? One-hundred percent?"
Sam nodded. Dean sighed a little. "Well, at least we won't have to be dealing with psycho bitches this time."
"Who says it won't be a female trickster?" Sam shot Dean the ulimate bitchface.
"Who says it will be?" Dean shot back.
"I'm just saying it could be either gender." Sam shut his laptop and shrugged, pretending to be nonchalant.
"Ladies, ladies. You're both pretty," Baby put down the newspaper with a papery rustle, and flicked his pale blue eyes from Sam to Dean's face. "I say we get back home as soon as we can. Cas or Kevin might know what to do."
Dean and Sam perked up. "You know Cas?" Dean asked, and Baby made a face.
"Are you guys forgetting who I am?" Baby huffed irritably. "Seriously though."
The three of them stood up and began to make their way out the door.
"Dean-don't forget the exhaust stick!" Baby said as he saw the smoking man once again on the way out, tugging on Dean's sleeve a little right above the elbow like a little kid. "Dean I need my exhaust!"
Needless to say, Sam looked extremely confused.
Dean riffled through his wallet and grudgingly took a few rumpled bills. He rested his elbows on the checkout counter and looked at the man behind the counter, who gave him a bored stare.
"Can you give me a pack of cigs that most resembles car exhaust?" Dean said in a low voice.
The man blinked at him with unamused eyes. "Is this a joke? Are you one of those health activists or something?"
Dean scowled. "We can always go to another store, buddy."
"Fine," The guy turned around produced a pack of cigarettes. "$5.50 please."
Dean payed and they went out of the little gas station store, Sam had finished filling up the pickup's tank and they were ready to hit the road again. Baby lit up on the walk back to the car, using the old metal lighter the brothers always used for burning the bodies.
"Oh, my god." Baby spoke up in disbelief. Dean looked at him, not sure if he was saying that because he hated it or because he loved it.
"This is perfect! Thank you Dean!" He smiled brightly and clapped Dean on the back, sucking desperately on his 'exhaust-stick' as the embers lit up and crackled orange. Dean coughed to stop the smile on his face.
"I guess that's saying something about health then, huh?" Dean chuckled to himself. "Okay, ground rules, no smoking in the car. Or in the bunker when we get there. Only outside."
"Yeah, okay." Baby agreed dismissively, waving his hand as if to push the words away, and taking another long drag, smoke spilling opaque from his lips. "Oh, thank God humans invented this."
He frowned at looked at Dean with sad grey eyes, finally taking the cigarette from his mouth. "Dean..I miss being a car." He said dejectedly, his lower lip wobbling a little. "I don't want to be human anymore."
"Sorry, man. We're trying, okay?" Dean opened up the truck door and stepped up into the seat.
Baby waited outside the store until he smoked the cigarette down to a nub, finally climbing back into the truck and heading back down the road.
"I have another sensation." Baby said about five minutes later, embarrased as he crossed his legs in front of him.
"Dammit. We just left the bathroom stop." Dean groaned.
"Coffee'll do that to ya," Sam snorted into his hand and Baby pinched his earlobe like a scolding parent (or a pissed off older brother).
"Ow!"
