To say that the brothers weren't surprised about Tom's change of heart the moment he and Aline came back to the Thunderbird would be untrue. Still, neither of them questioned it on the drive to the mines. The four of them rode up there in the Impala instead of Tom's truck (one of them would've had to ride in the back, and nobody wanted to do that).
As Dean parked in front of the mine, Aline saw Martin talking to one of the people that worked in the mine. She yanked Tom down to hide from him, earning questioning looks from the brothers. Tom looked confused before she mouthed Martin's name, realization dawning on his face. The two cousins had gone to school with him, and they both knew that, if given the chance, Martin would kick their asses from Harmony to Vancouver and back.
Once Sam confirmed that Martin was gone, the brothers and the cousins got out of the Impala. Aline held her hand out, motioning to Sam and Dean that they wanted to do this alone. Sam nodded in understanding. Dean, on the other hand, tried to go with them, probably remembering her panic attack from the day they arrived in town.
"You'll be the first one I call if something happens, Dean. Don't worry," Aline said with a reassuring smile. "Hell, I'll even call you when we're on our way back up. You've got my word."
Dean nodded, and she and Tom approached two miners that were talking about paperwork. The two miners got quiet real fast and just glared at the cousins.
"Tom? Aline? What the hell are you two doing here?" one of them asked as the other took the paperwork and walked away.
"Where's Ben?" Tom asked. "We need to talk to him."
"You can't. Neither of you can. He's down in the mine."
Tom and Aline didn't even need to look at each other before beginning to walk away from him. "We're goin' down," Aline said.
"Like hell you are," he said, stopping their forward motion.
Tom glared at him. "We grew up in these mines, Riggs. I think we'll be just fine." That was the truth. Uncle Eli had brought Aline to the mines every day until she was old enough to go herself. She'd learned a lot from the experience and had even started working there in the summer. From the moment she started working in the mines, Tom and Aline had become attached at the hip, the miners getting used to the sight of the two cousins working together. Just like outside the mine, you never saw one working without the other somewhere close by or within cell range.
Riggs sighed and led the cousins down to the mine. They both put on blue jumpsuits as they walked.
"Who's bleedin' the line on three?" Riggs asked. A man with a bandaged hand waved at them. Riggs looked over at Tom and Aline and smiled. "Red'll take you down there. I'm sure you three will have a lot to talk about."
Tom and Aline exchanged a look before getting into the cart with Red. Red was one of the guys that tried to kick their asses at the bar the night before. She could only imagine what he'd do for revenge. Fortunately, they rode in silence until about half way.
Aline grinned at Tom as she asked, "So...how's the hand?"
Tom smiled back at her until Red glared at the both of them, which caused Aline to shut up quickly.
"Don't touch anything," Red growled as they arrived at his station. It was much like the one that Aline worked in five before Harry and the other miners were trapped inside. "I'll call for Ben." Red went to the phone in the wall and began to talk to one of the other miners as the cousins looked down the dark tunnel. Aline had mainly worked on five with Tom, but they both had worked on three a couple times. They slowly made their way towards the metal box where the line bleeders all worked.
"I know my job, Harry," Tom whispered.
They spied the valves that ran the methane. A dusty and dirty miners mask hung next to them. She felt her palms sweating as she stared deep into the goggles. It was still too fresh for her. She turned around only to have both a demon blade swung at her, the demon blade cutting through the fabric of her jumpsuit. She hissed in pain and froze at the sight of the person wielding the pickaxe.
It was Harry.
The one next to Harry (that was wielding the demon blade) kicked her in the stomach, bringing her attention back to him. The attack sent her into the metal office, right on top of Tom.
It was Red Hood, looking exactly as he did in her nightmare the night before. Black eyes and all.
Harry shut the door and jammed it so neither of the cousins could get out. Then he and Red Hood headed for Red. Aline shook the door, trying to get Red's attention. When that didn't work, she tried kicking down the door, her heart pounding in her chest.
Red turned around before being psychically shoved into the wall, the phone dropping from his hand. Harry covered his mouth with his hand while Red Hood cut up his body with the demon knife. Red's screams of pain were muffled, unable to be heard by the phone dangling inches away from the ground. He tried to fight out of the psychic hold, but it was no use.
Harry removed his hand when Red Hood was finished and bashed Red with the pickaxe.
Aline took out her gun and tried to shoot the two killers, but the bullets only grazed their arms. Beside her, Tom quickly pulled her cell phone out of her pocket with shaking hands, attempting to call one of the brothers.
"Shit," he muttered.
"What?" she asked, looking away from the murderers.
"You don't have any service!"
Aline kicked the door hard, shouting curses into the otherwise empty air. The two of them banged on the door of their cell.
Red continued to fight Harry and Red Hood. He had Harry down and was about to kill the killer with his own weapon when Harry kicked it back and embedded it in Red's head just as Red Hood stabbed him in the back with the demon knife with the precision of a hunter. He fell to the ground in a puddle of his own blood.
*~*~*~*SPN/MBV*~*~*~*
"Dammit! Answer your phone!" Dean stated, annoyance and worry seeping into his tone. It had been twenty minutes since Aline and Tom entered the mine to talk to Ben, and he still hadn't gotten a call as to when the two of them were coming back up.
"Maybe she doesn't get cell service down there. Remember that mine we were in for that hunt last year?" Sam reminded him.
Before Dean could even answer, he heard a gun shot, followed by another. The brothers glanced at one another before running into the mine. They were stopped by a miner.
"You can't go in there," he stated.
"But my friend and her cousin are down there!" Dean shouted. "They wanted to talk to Ben Foley."
Just then, another miner ran up to the three of them, focused only on the miner. "There's trouble down in three," he said. "Red's into it again. Riggs' said we gotta get down there. He's down there with Hanniger and Peverell."
Dean froze, his heart stopping in his chest.
"We're coming with you," Sam stated. "We're friends with Aline and Tom."
The miners nodded and took the brothers down to tunnel three. Dean heard the resounding sound of someone banging on a door.
"Red!" one of the miners called as the four of them ran to the tunnel. "Red?"
The bloodied, unmoving body was the first thing Dean saw (he rightly guessed that it was Red), but he couldn't bring himself to care.
"Jesus Christ." One of the miners (the nametag on his uniform ID'd him as Riggs) lowered while others murmured, shocked, and put two fingers on Red's neck.
"Is he dead?" Dean heard Tom ask, catching his attention.
"Riggs! Is he dead? Get us out of here!" Aline questioned.
Dean ran over to the cage, grabbing her hand as he breathed a sigh of relief. "Don't you dare do that again," he said. Then he added as the men moved closer to the cage. "What happened?"
Neither Tom nor Aline answered, but he could see that their faces were pale like they had seen a ghost.
"Get us out of here," Tom demanded.
Dean tried to open the door, along with another miner, but they didn't manage to open it.
"It's jammed. Give us a hand," the miner stated. Someone else took his place and tried to open the door while the cousins were getting more impatient.
"Get us the fuck out of here!" Aline shouted, her jaw clenching in anger and impatience.
The door eventually opened, and the cousins could get out. However, Riggs grabbed Tom and pinned him against the cage, much to Dean's shock.
"What'd you two do, Tom? What did you do?" Riggs asked, clearly pissed off.
Aline roughly yanked him off of Tom, glaring darkly at the miner. "We didn't do anything!" she yelled before running her fingers through her hair. "Shit!"
What happened?
