Chapter 11 – Take me somewhere new
Avril Lavigne – I'm With You
Sam rounded the corner to the motel in a comfortable, cooldown jog, stopping to stretch for a minute outside of the room before fishing his key out of his pocket, knocking and entering. The ugly brown – yet surprisingly effective – blackout curtains were still drawn, so he flicked the light on as he closed the door behind himself to illuminate the room. With a quick glance around, he noted Alla's absence, though it was no surprise to him.
He was glad his brother had already been up and coming over to find them before he had headed out for his run. It was kind of perfect, Sam wouldn't have been able to plan out the morning better even if he had tried.
It had been a simple equation really. On the one hand, Dean had wanted to go get grub. On the other, Alla had wanted to go get grub. Without much deliberation, Sam had arranged to send them off together, thus ensuring his peace of mind by having someone keeping an eye on the girl to make sure no trouble found her while he got his morning run in. A win-win all around, especially if Ivy was still asleep and he had gotten his – no doubt antsy – brother out of her hair too with the same move. Two birds, one stone.
Maybe it was last night's revelation about his abhorrent track record with love interests ending up dead that had him spooked, but he just had this… feeling… that something terrible might happen to Alla. Not on his watch, he vowed.
The younger Winchester grabbed a bottle of cold water from the mini-fridge and took a generous swig, relishing the rehydration even though this one was a relatively short run for him. He had barely broken a sweat, but they had to get a move on so it would have to do for now. The younger Winchester was just about to head to the bathroom for a quick shower when he heard the rattle of keys outside. His right hand automatically went for the gun at the back of his pants as he turned his attention towards the door, keenly listening to the conversation that erupted until he identified the voices on the other side. They weren't exactly keeping it down, so he was able to hear every word clearly.
"Do the knock first, Allie, or we are going to get a gun in our faces," Dean grumbled impatiently, not too eager for that prospect. Sam stifled a chuckle, shaking his head at the profound truthfulness of the statement. He released his hold on his gun, eagerly waiting to see how the argument unfolded.
"Stop bossing me around. I bet Sam isn't even back yet," Alla retorted, sounding just as irate. It made the younger Winchester wonder what had happened to tick her off so badly since – based on their brief acquaintance – the girl was pretty level-headed at most times, or at least avidly avoiding conflict when possible.
"Don't count on that," his brother huffed, knowing Sam all too well. The little shit could run for hours, but if they were in a hurry, he could also pack a full workout into just twenty minutes.
The shaky attempt at inserting the key into the lock paused for a second as their secret knock was rapped against the door with all the mocking and frustration the Ukrainian girl was probably feeling channeled into that one deed.
"Happy now? Go pester Ivy or something, and leave me be," the blonde said just as she opened the door finally.
Even though he had just eavesdropped on Alla and Dean bickering like siblings, Sam was definitely not expecting the positively livid scowl on her face. Whatever the issue was, she was taking it to heart.
The girl stopped in her tracks as she caught sight of Sam, taken aback for a second since she had indeed not been anticipating him to have returned yet. Before she could have said anything in ways of greeting, Dean beat her to the punch with a wide grin on his face.
"Guess what, Sammy! Allie has the nutcracker down to a pat!" Dean boasted as he set the plastic bag full of breakfast goodies and Sam's coffee on the table.
Sam had no idea what his brother had meant by that, but Dean seemed very pleased with himself for finding that fact out about her. Or more like proud of her if his quick glance to the blonde as he patted her shoulder was anything to go by. There was also just a hint of pain in the way he crinkled his eyes as he recounted the memory, which honestly had Sam even more confused.
"Yeah, guess what, Sammy?" the girl repeated with a derisive huff as she moved away from the man's touch, continuing before Sam even had a chance to correct her that only Dean got to call him that.
On second thought, he realized that the bitchy comeback would just have added fuel to the flames at that moment, so he counted his blessings for not getting the chance to say it out loud.
"Your brother is a jackass!" she exclaimed with resentment, grabbing her amenities bag with way much more force than was strictly necessary, and headed off towards the bathroom. She slammed the door behind her, almost hitting Sam in the face since she hadn't realized he was turning to follow her to find out what was wrong.
Suddenly, the pieces fell into place for the younger Winchester, and his eyes went wide with comprehension. Did Alla seriously kick Dean in the balls? Why? What had happened to bring that on? Sam tilted his head to the side slightly as he glanced back from the bathroom door to his brother, his eyes full of accusation as he tried to read him.
"What did you do?" he questioned in bewilderment.
Before Dean could answer the bathroom door flung back open, the girl sticking her head out with narrowed eyes, trying to decide the best way to formulate her inquiry.
"Does Dean greet everyone you guys meet with early morning physical and psychological evaluations?" the Ukrainian girl cut in.
Her biggest concern was whether Sam had anything to do with her morning ordeals, or even if he just had prior knowledge of it at all. At this point either option would have probably earned him a hard punch in the shoulder, she was just that furious. Siccing his brother on her would be wholly unacceptable, and a warning would have been welcome even if it hadn't been his idea.
The complete and utter bafflement that bloomed on his face told her everything she needed to know. Her anger quickly deflated, replaced by self-reproach. She really shouldn't have doubted him, she knew. Sam was far too kind to suggest initiation rituals of this sort. He would have eased her into it, trained with her a couple of times before the idea of testing her on anything they had gone over until that point would have even crossed his mind.
"What? No!" Sam said sincerely and equal outrage, setting his hands on her shoulders calmingly before he glared at the older Winchester, demanding explanations. "Dean, what the hell did you do?"
"Well… there might have been a live exercise involving standard security measures and a quick self-defense lesson…" Dean tried to downplay his earlier encounter with Alla with a goofy, embarrassed grin and shrug of his shoulders that kind of said "my bad" but was far from a real apology.
"Don't forget the diner and your little experiment on whether I would crack under the pressure of an interrogation," the blonde amended flatly.
And just like that, everything made sense suddenly. Sam could picture the whole situation play out. Dean messing up the knock on purpose as he came to collect her to see if she was paying attention. Alla probably noticing that something was off, cautiously opening the door with holy water and maybe a silver knife in hand, and then Dean pinning her to the wall or something to prove how wrong that move would have been, had it been a real monster. He could see how she would struggle against Dean's hold in his mind, and could almost pinpoint the exact moment the ensuing panic would have kicked in. Nothing surprising given her issues with feeling trapped. Maybe that was when the swift kick to the groin came in, probably a desperate measure to get free. Sam had no sympathy for his brother for that. He kinda deserved it.
No wonder Alla was pissed as hell. He would have been too in her position, on the receiving end of early morning pranks. But Dean was his brother, not a practically complete stranger he had known for less than 48 hours. And he wasn't a girl either, facing off a guy nearly sixty pounds heavier than her. She must have been terrified out of her mind. Sam could even imagine what the interrogation must have been about. Him. Sleeping in a different room while on a case was just as foreign and jarring to Dean as it was to him. It didn't take a genius to figure that he would want to find out whether everything went down okay during the night. Or maybe he was just trying to get juicy, intimate details to tease his little brother with later. Either way, messing with his girl was unacceptable.
"I asked you to keep her safe and to start thinking about what would be the best way to get her up to speed, not jump her when she opened the door!" the younger Winchester admonished exasperatedly.
"Hey, she did well! I mean really, really well! And see? She didn't get hurt. She was safe at all times!" the older hunter defended lamely.
"Except she wasn't exactly aware of that at the time, was she?" Sam knew Dean and his antics way too well, a very similar scenario popping into his mind from the time when Dean came to fetch him from Stanford.
His older brother was a bit like their father in this regard, believing that the best way to learn was by actually doing. Building up muscle memory. Making sure you'd made every mistake only once and while still in "training." In other words, getting tossed straight into the deep end. And he was surely not going to pull his punches now, not after losing Charlie. Dean had regretted not getting her more prepared for the life a thousand times over.
While the brothers were arguing, Alla quickly gathered all of her stuff – her meandering two pieces of clothing and toiletries that had been lying around – into her bag. The idea of getting refreshed or even brushing her teeth was thrown out the window. She hadn't realized that jumping in on Dean's flippant comment would lead to the brothers' head-butting with each other. This wasn't the outcome she had desired at all, even if Sam coming to her defense was sweet, but she just couldn't listen to the siblings' squabble anymore. She had always been quick-tempered, but it also always faded almost as fast as it came and now the steadily raising voices around her just made the atmosphere stifling.
"Give me the key to your room. I'm gonna get Ivy up and ready, while you guys sort this one out among yourselves, okay?" the blonde suggested softly, desperate to get out.
"Alla, wait…" Sam's attention was on her instantly, his primal need to take care of her overshadowing everything else.
"I'm fine now, just… no more surprises, okay?" she sighed tiredly with the weak deflection, the fact that she hadn't slept enough catching up with her fast.
"Sweetheart, hunting is full of surprises and unexpected turn of events, most of which just turn shit into even shittier. If you can't handle that…" Dean butted in with a severe face, prepared to go on a whole new spiel regarding the family business. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was hoping she would choose the smart option and get out before she got irreversibly sucked in, even if it meant a little heartache for Sam.
"I know!" Alla snapped at him exasperatedly before catching herself and toning her voice down. "I know, but can we just focus on Ivy for today? We can figure out where to go after we made sure her douchewad husband isn't going to kill her with his freaky supernatural remote control."
The girl sighed, pausing for a moment because she knew she couldn't really blow off this confrontation either, even if she really wanted to. "I mean, we haven't even actually talked about me staying with you guys. Not that I don't want to, but shouldn't that be a conversation first to see what everyone's expectations are before going into this? Whether there's even a capacity in which I could be useful to you guys and not just freeloading before everyone starts jumping their guns regarding training and tackling me to the floor around every corner?"
"Wait a minute. You tackled her to the floor? She is like half your size and has a healing tattoo on her shoulder, man!" Sam latched onto the most inconsequential detail of that rant.
Alla sighed heavily again. For whatever it was worth, this little scene forced her to realize that she absolutely loathed the idea of the brothers fighting, especially over her. She vowed that she would do everything she could to prevent a scene like this happening again from now on.
A quicknote to self: Tattling on Dean's shenanigans, either accidentally or purposefully were both a definite no-no in the future.
"Yeah, you could have given me a heads up about that!" the older Winchester retorted angrily, matching Sam's tone.
"Okay, chill the fuck out, everyone!" Alla cut in sharply, already feeling a headache coming on from all the barely contained shouting around her. She was surprised none of their neighbors had started banging on the walls yet, complaining about the noise they were making so early in the morning. "Geez, do you guys seriously let random girls come between you like this?"
"You are not a random…" Sam began to answer the rhetorical question, but the blonde quickly interrupted him.
"Shut up, Sam. I'm not finished," she stated pointedly, taking him by utter surprise with her assertiveness. Just because she was usually a conflict avoider, it didn't mean that she didn't put her foot down from time to time. "I'm fine. I'm not angry anymore, you don't have to defend me. And you Dean, just communicate next time, hm?"
Alla could tell that Dean didn't exactly understand what she was getting at.
"If I am to stay, then I'm supposed to feel safe around you guys, right? That means that you can't do things to me without my consent, or I won't be able to trust you," she glanced at Sam then back at the older Winchester, seeing their expressions turn ashamed at her statements.
Oh boy, this was a regular occurrence in the Winchester household, wasn't it? Just how many times had they done things behind each other's backs or flat-out gone against each other's wishes?
She sighed wearily before she continued, getting a strong sense of déjà vu. Was it really just yesterday that this issue had arisen with Sam as well? Seemed like a lifetime ago. "If you think surprise training sessions – or whatever else you come up with later – are what's going to get me prepared then tell me. Discuss it with me. Then I'll decide if it's something I want or if staying with you guys is not a good option for me after all. I'm done with people deciding things for me without consulting me first!"
Deafening silence settled upon them. Alla had left the boys speechless apparently. No smart-ass wisecrack from Dean either? That's gotta be a world record.
"Good talk, glad to have this out of the way…" the blonde muttered after a minute. "By the way, it's a courtesy you should also give each other too."
"Allie…" Dean spoke up first, finally a hint of apologetic tone coloring his voice.
"It's fine, Dean, really. We are good," Alla said with a small smile that suddenly turned into a knowing smirk. "I think your throbbing crotch is a good enough lesson and punishment already."
The girl winked at him conspiratorially, laughing out at the dismay that appeared on his face at the reminder. She quickly grew somber though from the expression on Sam's face. Ultimatums and threats of leaving were a low blow for sure, but she needed them to understand that she wouldn't tolerate being manipulated.
"Hey, I'm not going anywhere. It's not that easy to get rid of me," she reassured him, taking a guess at the source of his anxiety.
"Maybe it's not in your best interest to stay though," he said with a sad look on his face.
"Well, it's something for me to decide, isn't it?" Alla grinned at him cheekily, trying to drill the notion of not taking her choices away into their heads.
"I don't even get a say in it from now on?" Sam's mouth curved into an amused smile despite himself.
"Not unless you don't want me anymore," the blonde stated.
Despite the things Alla had said during her outburst, she wasn't sure there was anything short of his flat-out refusal that could get her to leave Sam anymore. She was seriously falling for him fast and hard, and there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it.
"I just don't want you in danger," the younger Winchester confessed, confirming all his fears out loud.
Alla's heart was aching for him, and she stepped closer, circling her arms around his waist. His shirt was a bit clammy with sweat, but she couldn't come to care about that right now.
"That's not something you have total control over. I could be in danger with or without you for all you know. Wouldn't it be better to keep me close so that you could do something about it?" she proposed, looking up into his eyes.
"How very comforting," the sardonic comment left his mouth before he could stop it. He circled his arms around her anyway because honestly, he was about just as powerless at resisting her as the tides were against the gravitational force of the moon.
She reached up, taking his face in her hands. She wished she could take away all of this apprehension that was plaguing him.
"Sam. It's going to be okay. I'm not afraid," Alla asserted, not a shadow of doubt in her mind. There hadn't been anything in her life she had been more sure of.
The girl got on her tippy toes to press a reassuring kiss to Sam's mouth when Dean loudly cleared his throat, effectively breaking the magic of the moment between them.
"Khm," the older Winchester quirked a brow at them, utterly unamused by the display of affection right in front of him. Seriously, they were acting as if he wasn't even here. He had to realize they probably did forget for a moment about his presence.
"Get lost, Dean," Sam quipped with a quick glance in his way, miffed by the interruption. He was promised kisses upon his return, and all he got so far was a seriously pissed off girlfriend because of his brother's nonsense. He was severely disappointed and intending to collect what was his sooner rather than later.
"Fine. Car in ten minutes or I'm leaving your sorry asses here," the older Winchester threatened with all the seriousness of an angry chipmunk.
"Sounds good, Dean," the younger brother mumbled with a grin, already engrossed in Alla's eyes again.
Dean grabbed the brownies for Ivy, then left with huffs and grumbles about annoying little brothers in his wake as he closed the door forcefully behind himself. Sam and Alla chuckled simultaneously as they shared a look, pressing their foreheads together.
"We probably should get ready," she suggested reluctantly.
"Yeah, we should," he agreed, though not moving a muscle to break away from her.
"You kinda stink," the blonde crinkled her nose teasingly, earning herself a scandalized look from Sam.
Before he could voice his protests to her assessment, she pressed herself closer, claiming his mouth as hers finally. Despite the salty tang of sweat on his lips, it was everything it promised to be, and more. The world could have probably ended right beside them without notice, they were so absorbed in each other. There was no tentative gentleness as he kissed her back either, one hand holding her by the waist, the other snaking up to firmly cup the back of her neck to keep her in place as he dominated her mouth. She moaned, left breathless within a minute, forcing her to pull away way too soon to catch her air.
"Go take a shower, Sam," Alla nudged with a playful smile. "There's breakfast on the table waiting for you when you get out."
Truth be told, Sam was starving so he couldn't really come up with a counterargument in favor of continuing their impromptu make-out session. Not right then anyway, but he had a feeling this wasn't his last chance yet.
The roller-coaster-like constant fluctuation of ups and downs that had characterized their early morning permeated into the second stage of their road trip.
It had started out just fine, if not surprising, with Dean tossing the keys of the Impala to Sam again without so much as a word. He had opted to play it safe and keep Ivy company in the back, even though she was doing better that morning. The brunette had been able to get ready without assistance, only a mild lingering headache reminding her of last night's torture. As needed as that reprieve was, Dean had a feeling it would be short-lived.
Well, as predicted, the lucky streak lasted for about two hours, after which Dean was thanking all that's holy for the few self-activating ice packs he had a mind to stock up on and stash in the footwell of the back seat. He had wrapped one in a towel and placed it on the girl's forehead to keep her temperature at least somewhat in check while Ivy rested with her head in his lap.
Good morning to you too, Aaron. At least he wasn't an early riser, allowing them to get a head start. They were well into Kentucky by the time the hardcore worsening of the symptoms hit.
With the help of the various cooling methods Dean had devised – including pills and fluids and whatnot – and his constant supervision Ivy had stayed stable enough, so they hadn't had to take unplanned pit stops till almost 10 AM, around Wickliffe, close to the Kentucky-Missouri-Illinois border over the Mississippi. Which was awesome because they were cutting it close on time as is.
The tentative status quo ended just a little while after their first gas station break when the brunette asked for them to switch to the radio instead of Dean's Metallica cassette tape because the heavy metal was getting a bit too much for her pounding head.
"Well, you know, house rules," Dean glanced at Sammy knowingly, a smirk playing at the corners of his lips as if he had been waiting for a decade to use that line again. "Driver picks the music…"
"Don't be a jerk, Dean," Sam interrupted him flatly with an unamused expression on his face, complying with the brunette's request and popping the cassette out, fiddling with the buttons to find a decent station. "Besides, you are not driving. You are not even riding shotgun."
Dean's grimace told quite a tale about his opinion regarding that arrangement. But the girl in his lap clearly required constant monitoring, and it had been his own decision to take on that role anyway. After yesterday's near-puking episode he was sure they wouldn't get anywhere far with Alla sitting in the back, and it also seemed kind of cruel to suggest breaking up the lovebirds – especially since he was trying to avoid pissing the blonde off even more after the morning's misguided mishaps. So that left him in the back by the process of elimination. Although that didn't mean he had to like it.
"Sorry," Ivy mumbled listlessly, shifting a bit to hide her face in Dean's plaid shirt in embarrassment. She knew the situation was less than ideal and that Dean was sacrificing a lot of his ironclad habits to accommodate her. If she were to make it through this, she vowed to make it up to the hunter in any way she could. That pie she had been thinking of would just have to be the start.
The annoyance the older Winchester felt at being stuck in the back seat melted away instantly as he glanced down, hearing and seeing the raw vulnerability of the girl in every little gesture of hers.
"How's the head?" he asked, running his hand lightly through her sweaty hair. Her fever was starting to climb again, and he had a feeling he wouldn't be able to do anything about it once her husband decided to really put his mind to this little game of his again. This was just the warm-up exercise.
The brunette shrugged noncommittally. The bit of silence was like heaven, but she didn't want to tell them to turn the music off altogether. That would have left them with two very bored and worried hunters with nothing to even remotely occupy their minds as they ate away the miles. She had a feeling that was something to be avoided.
Isn't anyone trying to find me?
Won't somebody come take me home?
Right in that instant, the music came back on, and Avril Lavigne's I'm With You had just started playing on the station Sam deemed decent enough for his tastes. Hearing the familiar lyrics made Alla perk up from her curled up position by the passenger side window.
She'd been very quiet and withdrawn this whole time too, though as far as Sam could tell sleep had eluded her despite her best efforts. She had also been muffling an odd sneeze or two in her sleeve, which made him wonder if she was feeling alright or possibly coming down with something.
"No, no, no, Sammy. We are not listening to pop-rock," Dean's head snapped up at the exact same time, though with the complete opposite reaction of dismay.
"Don't change it, please," the blonde pleaded quickly, placing a hand on his thigh. She then twisted towards the back, catching Ivy's eye, wanting to make sure she was awake and aware of what had come on the radio. "Ivy, it's our anthem."
The other girl's mouth curled into a tiny smile of acknowledgment despite how shitty she felt. Satisfied with that reaction Alla promptly turned back forward, closing her eyes and letting the music wash over her for a minute.
"You know the house rules, Dean," Sam smirked as he glanced into the rearview, finding the cold-served brotherly revenge way too sweet. "Driver picks the music, shotgun – but especially the back seat – shuts his cakehole."
"Yeah, more like driver sucks up to shotgun in hopes of some little late night quid pro quo," the older Winchester grumbled, though the vehemence had evaporated from his tone after seeing that Ivy was enjoying herself somewhat too. He was starting to develop a real soft spot for the girl.
"Someone's using their fancy Latin, I see," the driver laughed at his brother's miffed mood. "Come on. It's not that bad."
By this time a whole verse had gone by, and Alla was quietly singing along with the chorus as she focused on the scenery of shrubbery and wheat fields to the right on High Way 62 after they crossed the Cairo Bridge.
It's a damn cold night
Trying to figure out this life
Won't you take me by the hand?
Take me somewhere new
I don't know who you are
But I... I'm with you
I'm with you
She wasn't an excellent singer per se, but with the barely whispered words her version sounded like a lullaby, something she would sing to herself at night to ease the throes of nightmares. The younger Winchester also couldn't help but feel that there was a distinct reference to him in this song for the girl by his side.
While Sam's attention was divided by the road and the blonde on his right, Ivy quirked a brow at Dean who – despite all the grouchy quibbling he had put on for a show not even a minute earlier – seemed to be enjoying, if not rocking out quietly, to the tune.
When the older Winchester realized that he had been caught, he pressed his index finger to his mouth conspiratorially, begging the brunette to keep this little scene a secret between them. She seemed amiable enough with that course of action, finding this newly learned tidbit about Dean way too endearing to share with the class yet. Her very own sneak peek on all that's Dean Winchester. Tough façade on the outside but all heart on the inside.
The little lull of good-humouredness lasted until they hit I-57, on which right after Charleston they ran into a massive traffic jam.
"What's the holdup, Sammy?" Dean kvetched, wishing internally that they had taken backroads instead like they always did. Nothing good came of the interstates. Ever.
"I don't know, Dean," Sam gritted his teeth, just as irritated as his brother was, but counting their blessings that it was him driving in this gridlock instead of Dean. The older hunter tended to handle the constant start and stop with the patience of a Chihuahua, accelerating way too fast then inadvertently slamming on the breaks jarringly to avoid colliding with the car in front of them. Like that would do either of the girls any good at the moment.
Alla, deciding that she wouldn't risk nausea in the almost complete standstill, looked up traffic reports on her phone, trying to find out if there was an accident or something that caused the pileup. It was too late for the morning rush hour by now, and she doubted lunch time warranted traffic like this on the interstate.
"Truck spill about ten miles ahead of us near Sikeston," the blonde announced as she skimmed through the headline of the latest report pertaining to their current area.
"Great…" Dean groaned, followed by a sigh. "Any way we can escape this hellhole?"
"We can get back on 62 in five miles," the Ukrainian girl supplied helpfully after a quick check on Google Maps, though she could tell even that was way too long in a traffic jam for the older Winchester's tastes. "No intersections before that, sorry."
"It's not your fault," the guy waved her off from the back seat, trying to occupy himself by making Ivy more comfortable instead of working himself up to a high blood pressure induced stroke or heart attack.
It turned out that the intersection that was supposed to be their salvation was completely closed off because of another accident. Three cars had collided in their hurry to get off the interstate highway. Go figure. Alas, they had no choice but to slowly inch their way all the way to the spill and hope that nothing else happened that would impede their steady 80 miles per hour from there on out because Kansas was still roughly five hundred miles away with barely six hours left to make it.
"Son of a bitch," Dean commented in a deadpan manner when they finally laid eyes on the notorious turned-over truck in the trench. With crates of semi-broken Jim Beam bottles and what they could only guess as hundreds or even thousands of gallons of whiskey soaking the concrete and earth everywhere.
"Wow. Never, ever, say again, dude, that I'm the one wasting your booze," Sam chimed in with wide eyes.
"Pull over. I'm sure there are a bunch of not so broken bottles all over this place," the older Winchester exclaimed already sizing up the area to see how he could snatch up a few free helpings of the stuff.
"Dean, I'm not stopping so that you can loot whiskey off of a truck spill. We are going to be late as is and the cops are here," the younger hunter asserted, stepping on the gas pedal as they finally made it past the bottleneck of the lanes near the accident after spending nearly an hour on a piece of road that should have taken them about ten minutes.
"Seriously? You are worried about the cops? Of all things?" Dean narrowed his eyes at his brother.
Before he could get an answer, the brunette in his lap decided to put her two cents in regarding this topic of conversation, instantly derailing it.
"So glad I'm not the one who's gotta file the paperwork for this one," Ivy mumbled with a smile in a half-asleep state, equally amused by this particular happenstance even if it had delayed them quite a bit, thus putting her at even more risk. Her time was ticking and who knew when it would run out.
"What?" the dirty-blond haired man looked down confusedly at the girl.
"I work as an assistant from home for an environmental company that handles spillages like this in the DC tri-state area," she explained with a frown, for some reason equally baffled by the reason why Dean wouldn't know this. Hadn't she told him already? Or was that Alla? She couldn't remember.
"Really?" the older Winchester asked, intrigued by any information the brunette cared to share with him. Though not her intention, Ivy had remained sort of a mystery to him all this time. They hadn't had too much time to talk between the constant sleeping and feverish ramblings.
"Yeah. Though whiskey is not even the weirdest shit that gets regularly spilled on the roads… Even shit is not the most bizarre shit that gets spilled on the road… There was a truck with $70,000 worth of bull semen once… Or one with ten thousand gallons of fat," the brunette muttered on, finding it harder and harder to concentrate on a singular thing or even filtering the cuss words from her speech.
Her mind was running off on tangents without her consent, which incidentally hadn't evaded her faithful guardian's attention either. He pressed the back of his hand against her forehead, noting what he had already known.
"Sammy, how about we find a nice backroad and floor it?" Dean suggested not so subtly, even though they were now able to keep a nice steady pace. He didn't trust that it would be without interruptions though.
"Unfortunately, the fastest route is the one we are currently on," Sam said, casting a worried glance to the back from the rearview, catching his brother's eye.
They didn't have to say it out loud. No more stops except for gas, and they were gonna eat in the car. Their only hope was waiting for them in a motel of their choosing, and they had no idea just how long that someone would be willing to tolerate them being late.
