Chapter 9
(I do not own anything please read and review)
"I did something wrong didn't I?"
"Hell no Bells come on now you know how he is. He'll catch up to us soon enough."
"I just got you both back and it seems like he couldn't get away fast enough."
Dean wasn't sure what to say. He knew when he saw that letter Bella would blame herself. That she'd take it wrong. Honestly though Dean wasn't sure how to take it himself. But deep down he was relieved. He'd rather it be him that trained her. Sure John has more experience. The rate he was going at however Dean feared it'd send Bella back rather than forward.
"Hey the way I see it his loss my gain, I got ya to myself now just like old times."
Bella nods but Dean could see the sadness in her eyes. He didn't blame her for having her feelings hurt. He'd known what that was like a few times. However Dean was never abandoned… He thought of this as well his heart sinking. He knew it was going to take a lot for Bella to overcome all this. Dean's greatest fear though was that living life the way they do… She may not ever fully heal.
He drives out to the area they were at yesterday.
"Remember posture, light on the trigger, focus, remain calm and have fun with it." Dean says he then leans over and cuts on the radio. He turns it up blaring it.
Bella looks to him oddly.
"Trust me it helps."
Bella grins as Metallica's One is playing.
"Let's go kiddo." He says with a wink opening the door.
Dean waves her towards the trunk of the Impala. He lifts up the hood.
"Pick your gun. Go with what you personally think you'd be comfortable with and we'll go from there."
Her eyes widen.
"You've got like an entire weapons department in here!"
Dean chuckles and watches as his sister scans the guns. He nods as she finally picks up the semi-automatic handgun.
"It's a fast one but light. With that one you certainly have to keep your trigger finger from getting too happy."
He shuts the trunk and sets up. While he does this he has her practice loading and unloading. He wanted her to get down the speed of it. He knew that was very important to be able do this quick as possible. There have been times he's gotten in a jam just because he wasn't quick enough. Once he's done with the bottles he motions her over.
"Safety on. Gun down when you're facing someone." He reminds and she lowers her gun looking to see the safety was already on.
"You got 10 cans and 6 bottles." I want you to try and take out as many as you can with one shot each.
He steps back and watches as she takes aim and turns off the safety. He gives her the go ahead approving of her stance. Bella certainly does better but he notices she's letting her gun jump entirely too much causing her aim to be off. She needed a sturdier hold or she'd never hit anything.
"Hold on." He calls out and makes his way over.
He notices how she lowers her gun and turns on the safety without being told. Dean also took notice her hands didn't seem to shake near as much as yesterday.
"I want you to watch me. Watch how I hold my gun and keep it steady." He shoots three of the cans and stops.
"Now you try again."
After an hour in Bella finally is getting the hang of it… She takes out 8 of the cans and 5 bottles.
"That's awesome." Dean says noticing how she's improving.
"Want to try the disc now?"
She makes a face that causes Dean to laugh.
"Oh Bells just focus on that music. You're gonna do fine. Just fire before they get too far away the smaller they get the harder the aim."
This takes her a bit more time but unlike John Dean is patient. He watches closely so he knows what she's doing wrong. He fixes the issue by showing her each time she makes an error. This takes about three hours before Bella finally can hit 3 out of 5.
"Not bad… Not bad at all." Dean says taking the gun from her hand.
"This one seems to suit you a lot better. But I do want you to practice with others. It's good to get the feel of each gun. The more experience you have with these weapons Bells the longer your survival rate. I'm not saying that to scare you but if I'm to do this and properly. I'm not going to lie and sugar coat any of this. If you're doing something that's going to get our asses killed then I'm gonna point it out and make you repeat the steps until you get it perfected. There are no second chances on a hunt, no extra lives to draw from. Once you mess up that's it you can't take it back. I don't just mean with our lives Bells I mean with those we're sworn to protect. John and I have lost a few and it weighs on you and it never quite goes away. You always go back and think what could I have done differently? But once it's done that's it. That's another thing. Dean says making an uncomfortable face. You're gonna have to learn how to fight sis. I don't mean being able to pull a good punch. I mean you're going to have to learn to be able to full on knock out drag out fight. The mere idea made Dean sick to his stomach but it was true and she needed to be aware of that.
Bella swallows nervously looking to her brother.
"Who's gonna teach me that?"
He sighs and raises a hand as though he's in class.
"Um how?"
"I suppose I'll be your guinea pig so to speak."
Her eyes widen a bit.
"Are you gonna…"
"Hit you back?"
She nods.
"No but I am going to defend myself. I'd never hit you even in training but you do need to know how to go about it when someone else fires back. You'll see what I mean. I don't have to hit back in order to teach you that."
"I don't want to hit you."
"I'll be wearing protective gear if that makes you feel better."
"Not really."
He laughs.
"Come on Bells let's call it a day and grab some grub."
Bella and Dean stretch out their vocals to Blaze of Glory by Bon Jovi. Dean pulls into a café.
"Ya ready to eat?"
They order their usual burgers and sodas.
"Thought I'd call Ellen and Jo when I get back to the hotel." Bella says stuffing a fry in her mouth.
"Hey anytime you want to talk to them Bells you just let me know."
Bella smiles at this and sips from her soda.
"D?"
"Yep?"
"How is it that you spent all those years with dad but act nothing like him?"
"I've my moment's Bells and I'm sure you'll see that. It gets to you sometime ya know. All I can really say is my philosophy on life… You gotta laugh Bells, let things go, make jokes when you can. With what we do we can't afford to lose that. It's gonna swallow you alive if you let it. Buckle down when you need to get things done but at the end of the day that's it. You need to find at least one reason every night before you go to bed to smile to love at least some aspect of your life."
"That was like really deep."
"Yeah don't always count on that either." Dean says and bites into his burger.
Bella laughs shaking her head.
"I won't." She taunts back.
"You know what you need?"
"What's that?"
"A good ole game of paint ball."
She raises a brow at this.
"Hell yeah it makes for good practice."
The next morning that's exactly what Dean does. He drives her out to a paint ball field. He gets out tossing her a gun.
"Looks like we're the only one's here."
Bella looks around at the many different obstacles all made of logs.
"Awesome." She says surprising Dean as she gets out of the car.
"Yeah it is." He tosses her a bag.
"That's all ya need, that there's the ladies room. Come find me when you're done." He says with a devilish grin.
Bella shrugs and makes her way towards the restroom. She looks to everything figuring it all out as she gets dressed. She then grabs the gun and loads up the blue paint balls. She tucks her mask under her arm and heads out.
"D?" She calls out not seeing him anywhere.
"Hey!"
Bella walks closer towards the obstacle course looking around. Suddenly she feels something hit her in the leg. She looks down seeing the neon yellow mark. Dean raises his mask and nods.
"Gotcha!"
"Jerk!"
"Butt!" Dean laughs and puts his mask back on.
Bella hurriedly moves and puts on her mask. She scurries about finding a place to hide. She walks around in squatting position peering around and listening for him. She feels a shot to her butt.
Her jaw drops as she turns and Dean waves to her.
"GRRRRRRR!" She fires but misses as he dodges.
"Nice try." He says pointing his gun about.
He takes off as she fires again.
"Firing when angry isn't always the right answer." She hears him but says nothing.
She makes her way about only she starts to notice something. She runs a couple fingers along the grass and smiles. Quietly she turns and fires.
"Damn!" Dean jumps and looks to her.
"How'd you find me?"
"Your boot left a mark in the grass."
He rears back.
"You actually looked for that?"
She shrugs.
"Hell I didn't even think of that at your age. That's awesome actually."
She nods but fires at his leg.
"HEY! I wasn't ready." She laughs and takes off.
"Neither was I Jerk."
She hears him laughing.
Dean finds himself more and more impressed as they continue. She begins to find him faster and is quick to aim and fire. This was what he needed out of her. He couldn't think of a better way than to get her to have fun with it. That and this was head to head just like it would be on the hunt. He felt this was far better of an experience than shooting at bottles and cans all day.
Dean goes to get one last shot however before deciding to call it a day. He finds her and tries not to laugh as she peers the opposite direction. He grabs her from behind with his arm around her shoulders and chest. He aims the gun at her back.
"Whaddya gonna do?"
Bella fires at his feet as she shoots down her hands breaking free. He goes to comment on this and she fires three rounds across his chest.
"Damn!" He bellyaches and fires back hitting her chest.
Bella falls back and Dean throws his mask off as she acts like she's hurt.
"Hey you ok?" He leans down to check on her and she looks up with a smile and fires one last round.
"Gotcha!"
He shakes his head grinning.
"You really are a butt you know that?"
"Not my fault you fell for it."
"I have to admit you got me pretty good." He sighs shaking his head.
Once they get changed and cleaned up Dean tosses their bags into the trunk.
"Now get your ass in the car." Dean says trying to sound severe.
Bella laughs.
"Yes sir." She salutes as she hops in.
He didn't want to say it out loud. But he was right and he knew it. Bella was doing better without their father around. She had more confidence, tried harder it seemed and smiled more. This saddened him however. John hadn't a clue just what he was truly missing out on.
Bella entered the hotel room her body feeling like a giant bruise.
"This helps." Dean says tossing her some Epsom salt.
"You can go first. I suggest you soak for a while and take a couple of Tylenol."
Bella nods and heads that way.
Dean takes off his shirt and see's the marks. He shakes his head poking at them sorely. He stretches his arms out and lays down closing his eyes for a moment. Bella comes out once she's done and she's Dean's fast asleep. She covers him up and gets in the other bed. Bella glances upon the phone and reaches for it.
"Ellen?"
"Hey sugar bug!"
Bella smiles.
"How you doin'?"
"I'm doing good." She says a lump forming in her throat.
"Are you really?" Ellen says with a certain tone.
"Yeah…" Bella was glad she couldn't see her tears as they fell.
"I miss the hell out of ya."
"I miss you too."
"Hunt anything yet?"
"No still training."
"Oh and how's that going?"
"It's going good."
"How's the boys treating ya?"
Bella bites her lower lip looking to Dean. She thinks of John and wipes her eyes. She wasn't about to tell Ellen John had left her… yet again.
"Good, I'm learning a lot."
"That's good to hear."
She could tell Ellen was crying.
"I know it's late but wanted to check in."
"You call whenever you can it doesn't matter the hour sug."
"Ok."
"I love you."
"I love you too."
"Jo's out she's gonna be pissed she missed your call."
"I'll call again soon."
"You had better talk to Bobby or he'll have your neck."
Bella softly laughs.
"Hey idjit!"
"Hey Bobby."
"How you holdin up kid?"
"Not so bad."
"You been on a hunt yet?"
"Nope still training."
"Ah, well how's that going?"
"Good."
Bobby sighs.
"He'll come around Bells. You'll see." Bella narrows her eyes. Did Bobby already know?
"Um ok."
"How's Dean?"
"He's doing good."
"You two every need an extra hand you know who to call. I mean it Bells I'll be pissed if you don't."
"K."
"Promise me…"
"I promise."
"Good deal. You take care Bells."
"You too Bobby."
Bella hangs up the phone and covers her face with her pillow. She brings her knees up and wraps her arms around them. Dean cracks an eye open at this having heard everything that was said. He watches as she rocks her body back and forth crying into the pillow. A trick he knew… He'd done it before around her age to. It was to mask the sound. Eventually, she lies down and finally manages to go to sleep. Dean rose up and rubbed his face tiredly. He gets up and takes a shower knowing they'd have to get up early again and start all over.
"Harder!"
Bella grits her teeth swinging her elbow the way he showed her again.
"Come on Bells!"
She shakes her head pouring with sweat. Even the chill in the air couldn't keep it at bay. Dean blocks again and she finally breaks through.
"Good."
They'd been at this for nearly 2 hours now her body was already sore from yesterday. She wanted to quit now. She was exhausted and hurt all over.
"D…"She whines.
He shakes his head.
"Keep going we're not done."
"I'm tired!"
"There's no time for being tired when you're getting your ass kicked. You can't just give up and go to sleep! Now again Bells go!"
The blood rushes to her face as she's beginning to get mad at Dean.
"There you go!" He praises as she makes her hits.
Once she finishes the set of moves she takes in a breath and leans over.
"We're not done one more time."
"D!"
"Knock it off Bells let's go!"
She shakes her head and begins to walk away.
"Where do you think you're going?"
"To the car! I hurt all over, I'm tired and hungry!"
Dean shakes his head.
"We're not going anywhere until you finish. I want you to get this down."
"I have it down!"
"Not yet you don't! You're still to slow!"
"Kiss my ass!"
Dean throws off the protection suit and rushes towards her. He grabs her and takes her down to the ground.
"Now what are you going to do? Huh?"
She grits her teeth and brings up her feet against his chest shoving him off her. Dean takes out his gun as he stands before her.
"And now you're dead." He says shaking his head.
"That's not fair you know I didn't have my gun on me!"
"But you allowed me enough time to get to mine and blow your damn head off!"
Bella shakes her head and kicks out her ankle swiping Dean off his feet as he falls on his ass.
She rolls over quickly and brings out her knife holding it to his throat. Dean grins.
"Awesome!" He beams.
Bella rolls her eyes and rolls back over laying back down catching her breath.
Dean gets up dusting himself off.
"Now where was that?" He questions helping her up.
"Don't be a jerk!" She snaps.
"Then don't be a butt."
He quizzes her on the ride back about the uses of holy water, salt, sulfur, demon traps anything he can think of. He tells her about vampires, wendigos, spirits etc… Dean knew it'd soon be time to hit the road and take Bella on her first case.
Little was he aware it was just around the corner…
