Author's Note: Hey again! How's everyone doing? Good I hope. Me, I'm hanging in there. Anyway, here's chapter 7 for ya. Chapter 8 will follow shortly, but not as soon as I had hoped. I'd wanted to post 7 and 8 close together as I had done with 5 and 6, but I don't quite have 8 ready yet. Sorry about that. That's called real life getting in the way. Dang old real life! Seriously, how dare it stop me from writing! Oi. But anyway my whole point is I'm mainly a weekend writer because that's the only free time that I get, and sometimes I don't always get so lucky on the weekends as far as writing goes. Either plans come up with the family or I get that really disgusting thing called writer's block. So yeah, that's why it takes a bit longer to churn out a chapter and if I bite off more than I can chew and try to write two, sometimes I don't win that battle. So I do apologize and I will torture you no more with my rambling.
Oh wait, there is one more thing! I posted a short bio on Rivan and Eden on my profile, so if you're interested please go read it because it contains some information that may not make it into the story, or if it does I will just write from the angle that everyone knows what I'm talking about because of the bio information I posted. Or something like that. Anyway, shutting up now, thank you all so much for reading and reviewing, and as always forgive any mistakes you might find while reading! Now back into the world of Rivan and Eden! Hope everyone enjoys this chapter! :-)
"I finally found a place for you to stay," Bobby's voice came from Sam's cell phone, which Sam had placed on the table next to us and put on the speaker. I had just gotten out of the shower and for some reason experienced a weak spell, and Sam had insisted that I sit down and rest a moment. So I sat at the small table the hotel room provided, and Sam had gotten a dry towel and was now standing behind me as I sat, drying my hair for me. His hands were gentle as he rubbed at my dark brown hair, or my mahogany brown hair as Sam called it. Anyway, I felt my spirits lift at Bobby's words. He had been looking for a place for us to stay for days now and had not had much luck. Now it seemed his luck had changed.
"That's great Bobby," Sam was saying as he put the towel down and picked up my hair brush that was sitting next to the cell phone. Slowly and carefully he began to pull it through my thick hair. I never thought anything could be so relaxing, and soon I began to feel drowsy. In the room next door I could hear Dean talking to Eden, but I couldn't make out what he was saying. So instead I concentrated on the conversation Sam and Bobby were having, content to just listen at the moment as Sam continued to brush out my hair.
"It's in Dedham, Maine, on Green Lake," Bobby continued. "Real nice place. The guy that owns it usually rents it out as a vacation home, but he's retired it from that, at least for this year. There's plenty of room, five bedrooms I think he said. There aren't any other houses nearby, so you'll have plenty of privacy. I'm telling you kid, you lucked out with this place
Sam was silent for a moment. "And this guy, this friend of yours, is willing to let us stay there for three whole months, and he doesn't want any kind of payment for it?" he asked, and I could hear the frown in his tone.
"Nope," Bobby said easily. "He owes me big time. I literally saved his ass about five years ago, and then saved his son's ass not more than two years ago. He's an ex hunter trying to live a normal life, something he wouldn't be able to do if I hadn't been around five years ago."
Again Sam was quiet as he tossed all of this information around in that brilliant brain of his. "And you trust him?" he asked next, quietly.
"Hell boy, if I didn't I wouldn't have called you and told you about the house," Bobby growled. I had to smile. I completely adored Bobby, but he could get cranky sometimes. He was a rough, tough old cob, but he was loyal and wonderful, and one smart hunter.
"Okay okay," Sam soothed as he put my hair brush down and picked the towel up again. "Point made. Sorry. So, Dedham, Maine huh? We're actually in Maine now. We aren't far from Dedham. Shouldn't take us long to get there." We'd been on the road four days now since Eden and I were rescued, and we'd traveled up through New York and into Maine, making our usual stops at night. We'd had no idea where we were going. We were just driving.
"Good. I'm gonna meet you there and give you the keys to the place. Here, let me give you the directions." I could hear papers being rustled around as Bobby searched for what he needed.
"Hang on Bobby, I'll let you give them to Dean," Sam told him. "I kind of got my hands full right now," he added as he started to run the towel over my hair again.
There was a pause on the other line. "Okay," Bobby replied. "But first, how are those girls doin'?" His voice turned gruff as he asked, trying to mask his worry, and I smiled again. Bobby had taken well to me and Eden, and like he considered Sam and Dean sons, I think he considered us daughters.
"They're all right," Sam said, and I could hear the frown in his voice again, and I shifted slightly in my chair. "Rivan didn't have a good night last night, and she's feeling a little off this morning."
"What happened last night?" Bobby demanded sharply.
"She had a nightmare," Sam told him, and I shivered slightly at the memory of it. "It was the first time since we rescued them that either one's shown a sign of what happened to them. But still, she's doing okay considering. And so is Eden. If it hadn't been for Cas they would be much worse by now. But because of what he did for them, they're able to handle things pretty well."
"Well good," Bobby grumbled. "They're tough, I'll give em that." Again I felt my spirits lift. That was a big compliment coming from Bobby. "But they're stubborn and what they did was just plain stupid," he continued in his rough voice. Well. So much for the compliments. "I'm willing to bet you and Dean haven't paddled their asses yet, have you?"
I jerked so hard in my chair I would have fallen right off it if it hadn't been for Sam. Dropping the towel, he caught me by the shoulders and held me steady. I whipped my head around to stare at the cell phone with a look of hurt and outrage, as though I was actually looking at Bobby. Obviously Castiel wasn't the only one that felt Sam and Dean should stick to the promises they made us. Irritated, I twisted around in my chair and looked up at Sam. He shrugged as though saying, "Well, what did you expect?" but I could see the amusement in his eyes.
I narrowed my eyes at him, then turned and gave the phone a dirty look. "Bobby! I can hear you, you know!" I snapped, trying not to pout.
"Good!" Bobby replied instantly, not sounding at all surprised or embarrassed at being caught talking about me. "I ain't ashamed of what I said. You two scared the hell out of all of us, and you both deserve to have your asses beat. So have you done it yet, Sam?" Bobby asked again as my mouth fell open so far I nearly found it in my lap.
"Uh, no Bobby, we haven't done that yet, to be honest," Sam answered the older man as he picked up my hair brush again. Catching my shoulders, he made me turn back around and once I had he began to run the brush through my hair again, but I no longer found it relaxing. I was sitting there with my arms crossed over my chest, no longer trying to fight back a pout.
From the phone came a snort of aggravation at Sam's answer, and I shot it a dirty look. "Well you boys better get to it," Bobby told him bluntly. "They almost got themselves killed, and nearly gave you and Dean a stroke, and me a heart attack. You can't have them doin' that again, Sam."
"I know Bobby," Sam said, and suddenly he sounded way too serious for my liking. I stiffened in my chair and thought about getting up and going into the bathroom, but I was still feeling a little off, so all I could do was sit there and listen to the crazy conversation. "Dean and I are going to take care of things," Sam continued, and he put my hair brush down and dropped a kiss on the top of my head before coming around and dropping his long body into the empty chair across from me. He leaned back and gazed at me with hard eyes, and I stared back as long as I could before I had to give up and study the ugly painting that was hanging on the wall behind Sam.
"Good. Because like I said, they deserve it," Bobby growled out. I gave the phone yet another one of my dirtiest looks, and Sam made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a laugh before he covered it up with a cough.
"Trust me Bobby. I know all about it," he said, back to serious again. I could feel the color rush to my cheeks, and I dropped my eyes from the painting and glared at the floor. "Here, let me get Dean," Sam added before Bobby could reply. "Hey Dean!" he called. "Bobby wants to talk to you! He found us a place to stay. Wants to give you the directions." In an instant Dean appeared at the door that joined the two rooms, which had been left open. Sam picked up the phone and held it out to him.
"Talk to you later Bobby," he said, and took the phone off the speaker and gave it to Dean, who took it without a word and walked back to his room. As he passed through the door I could see Eden standing there, peering in at me. She made a face at me, which led me to guess that whatever Dean had been saying to her earlier did not agree with her. I gave her a helpless shrug and glanced at Sam, who was watching me with those keen eyes of his, and looked back at Eden with a look that said, 'I know, I've got one in here too.' She eyed the back of Sam's head and then made another face before turning and moving out of sight.
I sighed deeply and leaned back in my chair, running my hands through my hair, which was now completely dry and silky soft to the touch. Despite the annoying conversation he'd had with Bobby, I couldn't help but give Sam a tiny smile of thanks, which he answered back with his own half smile.
We sat there quietly and listened as Dean talked to Bobby, and as I did I studied Sam and he studied me back. Over the last few days he had been nothing but gentle, sweet, and patient with me, and Dean had been the same with Eden. Well, as gentle, sweet, and patient as Dean could be. Now though, after hearing that conversation with Bobby, it seemed like things were going to change, and fast. Frowning, I decided not to give that much thought at the moment, because for one thing I couldn't really handle it. Or didn't want to. Whatever. Instead, I turned my thoughts to the past few days.
When we stopped for the night at yet another hotel, Sam and I had taken one room, and Dean and Eden had taken the other, which was different for us. Usually Eden and I shared a room while Sam and Dean took the other one. But right now all we wanted was to be with our men, and so we were. Neither one of us had strayed from them since we'd gotten back, not that they'd let us any way. Sam and Dean had kept a constant, sharp eye on us, never letting us go anywhere alone. We didn't mind. Like I said, we just wanted to be with them. And it was a good thing I had been with Sam last night, because as he had told Bobby, I'd had a rough night. Despite the fact that Cas had "numbed" my memories of my time with James, I found that they still haunted me, as the Angel had warned would happen. Last night had been the first time, and hopefully the last. I had had a terrible, vivid nightmare where I relived what Eden and I had gone through, and had woken up crying and shaking. Sam had held me and soothed me, dropping kisses on my face, head and neck as he did. Eventually I had drifted back to sleep, clinging to Sam the way a survivor clings to the only life boat in an ocean of terror.
And then this morning after I had taken a shower and gotten dressed I just got…horribly weak and pale. As white as a sheet, as Sam had described it. I felt a little better now, but not one hundred percent. And now, after that conversation he'd had with Bobby and the way Sam was looking at me, I really wasn't feeling well. But this time I could tell it was just nerves. Sam was thinking about things I didn't want him to think about, and I didn't know how to stop it. So I decided to try and at least take his mind off of it for a little while.
"So how far are we from…Dedham?" I asked. "Isn't that what Bobby called it?"
Sam sat there for a moment and studied me, and I could tell I had not fooled him. But after a few more seconds of silence he decided to play along. "Yeah. That's what he said. And if we leave soon we should be able to get there by this evening," he told me.
"Oh," I said with a frown. "But…Bobby said he was going to meet us there. It'll take him longer to get there from his house."
"He's not home," Sam said. "He's on the road, and he's not far from us. He's a little ways ahead of us, actually."
I blinked. "Really? What's he doing here?"
Sam was quiet for a few moments, and then he sat up and leaned over to the table where he had placed a tray of food earlier. This was one of the few hotels we'd stayed at that offered continental breakfast, and while I had showered Sam had gone to get us something to eat. I watched as he selected an apple off the tray, and then watched as he pulled a rather wicked looking knife seemingly out of nowhere. With casual ease he leaned back in his chair and slowly began to peel the apple with the very sharp knife. I knew for a fact Sam and Dean always kept their knives sharp. I had spent many an evening watching them sharpening them.
"When Dean and I found out where we needed to go to get you and Eden back, Bobby came with us," Sam said as he peeled the skin from the apple. "He was there in the field when we came for you," Sam continued quietly. "He was our back up. Ellen and Jo were out there too," he added as he shaved off the last of the apple peel.
I had been watching this while listening, and now I looked up sharply. "Jo and Ellen were there too?" I asked in surprise, though I really don't know why I was surprised. "Where were they?"
"Far enough away to where the vampires couldn't smell them, but close enough to help if we needed it."
"Oh," I said, and then suddenly something occurred to me. "While Eden and I were…were running…you and Dean were tracking us using the GPS on our cell phones, weren't you?" I don't know why I hadn't thought of that long ago, or why it suddenly popped into my head now.
"Yep," Sam said simply. "There were several times we came close to catching up to you two. But it always seemed like something got in the way."
I blinked. "Oh," I said again, not sure what else to say to that at the moment. Then my eyes went wide. "Crap, that reminds me! My cell phone! Eden's! You need to look at them in case James did something to them before we got them back!"
"Already done," Sam said calmly, not looking up at me. "There's nothing wrong with them."
"Oh. Really? Wow. Well that's good," I said. Sam didn't reply, and for a few uncomfortable moments we were both silent, and then something else occurred to me. "How did you get around while you were tracking us? Did you rent a car?"
Sam glanced up at me briefly and then back at the apple. "No. Those are too easy to trace. Bobby had a car that he'd just finished. We used it."
"Oh," I said for the fourth time, my voice soft. That was a dumb question. Of course rental cars are easy to track. That's why Eden didn't want to get one when we ran off. Duh. Sighing, I leaned back in my chair and watched as Sam began to slice the apple up. He got rid of the seeds quickly, and soon he had a nice pile of sliced apple. He grabbed a napkin and began piling the slices on it, and as he did I looked up at him. I saw that he was wearing his charm again, something I had not noticed until now. But it wasn't just the charm that was hanging on the leather cord around his neck. With it he had my mother's ring, the one that James wanted so badly.
"Here," Sam said suddenly, drawing my attention to him. He picked the napkin of apple slices up and set them on the table by me. "Eat. It'll make you feel better. You didn't eat much yesterday," he added with a frown.
I looked at the apple slices, found them unappealing, and looked back at him. "When do I get to have my mother's ring back?" I asked him, nodding at it.
"You don't," he said, his tone flat. "I'm going to carry it from now on."
My mouth fell open. "Why?" I demanded. I'd had the ring since I was a teenager and I had grown attached to it, even if it did have the power to make the entire human race slaves to vampires.
"Because if I wear it with the charm, it will be better protected," he said.
"And because it will keep me from running with it again?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.
That had been the wrong thing to say. He looked up at me, his eyes hard and sharp. "Yeah," he agreed, his tone equally hard. "There's that too."
I sighed deeply. "Sam, I'm not going to run away again."
"I know you're not, Rivan." He sat there and stared at me, and I could see the anger growing in his eyes, causing the hazel color to darken just a bit. I flinched and looked away, twisting my fingers in my lap. I considered staying quiet, but then I couldn't help it.
"You know, I only left to protect you," I said in a small voice, not looking at him. Again a terrible silence rang throughout the room, and I forced myself to look up at him. I was rather sorry I had. He didn't look too happy.
"We're not going to talk about that right now," he told me very quietly. "There will be plenty of time to discuss what you did later. Now eat," he ordered again, pushing the apple slices a little closer to me. "I'm not going to tell you again, Rivan," he added, his tone full of warning.
I felt my temper flare, and I glared at him. "Yes daddy," I sneered sarcastically. Yeah, I know, stupid thing to say, but hey, I was mad.
Sam's eyes darkened a bit more, and silently he cleaned his knife off and put it away. "You know, it would probably be a real good idea for you to watch your mouth," he told me as he stood up. His 6'4 frame towered over me, and for the first time since I met him I found his incredible height more than a bit daunting.
But even so I found I still could offer up a good helping of stubborn defiance. "Oh yeah?" I snapped back at him. "And why is that?"
Still gazing at me darkly, he crossed his muscular arms over his chest. "Because if you don't, I'm going to figure if you feel well enough to be a smart ass, you feel well enough for me to haul you across my knee and show you daddy," he told me, his tone crisp, clear, and completely lacking any kind of bullshit whatsoever.
My eyes went wide and my mouth fell open. Crap. The man had never sounded so serious or looked more intimidating to me. I felt myself shrink away from him and I hated myself for it, but hell, with a man like that standing there warning me that he was going to…going to…damn I couldn't even think the word. But anyway with him standing there saying that and looking dead serious, what was I supposed to do? There were probably a lot of women out there who would have wanted to jump up and kick his ass, but I knew I couldn't do that. Despite all of the self defense lessons he had given me over the last two years, I had found that I couldn't ever take him down. I had tried a few times. The simple fact was that he was bigger, taller, and stronger than me, and had been fighting all his life. I knew I'd never be able to take him.
So I did the only thing I could do at the moment. I backed down. "I don't think I feel quite that well," I told him in a tiny voice, risking a peek up at him. He still looked seriously pissed.
"Good," Sam said as he stared down at me. "Because we don't have time for that right now. Eat your breakfast," he added as he moved over to the bed, where he had his bag opened and half packed.
"I thought you weren't going to tell me that again." The smart ass words were out of my mouth before I could even think, and Sam paused in the middle of packing and slowly turned to look at me, his eye flaring again.
I jumped. I couldn't help it. "Apple!" I cried out, snatching the nearest slice and jamming it into my mouth. "I'm eating, I'm eating!" I added, my words coming out funny due to the fact that I was trying to talk around half an apple slice.
The corners of Sam's mouth seemed to twitch just a little, and after watching me intensely for a few more moments he finally turned back to his packing. I relaxed a little and slowed down on my chewing, trying not to choke. I sighed deeply and leaned back in my chair.
It would appear that my Sam was very serious about this whole…punishment thing. I mentally shook my head. Once again I found I couldn't even think the word, let alone say it out loud. The Sword. I smirked. It was like a dirty word to me. But whatever it was, Sam really couldn't be serious about it. I was, after all, an adult. A twenty-five year old grown woman, for crying out loud. He really, seriously couldn't sp—
Ugh. Stupid S word. I hadn't had problems thinking it before now. But I realized before now I had never truly taken him seriously when he warned me, which may be the reason why I hadn't thought much about the S word. But now that it seemed like such a thing was a great possibility…no a great probability, I had a mental block on the word. But really, could he? Would he? Had I pushed him too far in running away from him? Far enough for him to take action? To punish me for it? That little voice inside me answered quite simply. Yes.
I closed my eyes as I swallowed my mouth full of apple. Damn. Was I ever in trouble.
A/N: Well there you go! A bit short and perhaps a filler, but I hope you liked it anyway. Chapter 8 will come soon so keep an eye out. These last few weeks and weekends have been kind of rough and this was all I could get ready and post right now. I figured it was better than nothing, and along with nothing you would have had a longer wait. Yuck! So I wanted to post this chapter at least. Anyway, as always thank you so much for reading, and thank you to those that review! Please leave one if you have a moment! Thank you, you're all awesome!
