37
"So learn a lesson?…" Mae asks her friend as she continues counting the inventory.
"Um, define 'learn'?" is the easy response back as Lilly frosts another cupcake with a smirk, ignoring the twinge of pain the simple facial expression caused her.
"Like, not pissing off random men? Especially when they are threatening you with a shotgun?" Mae asks; she's now looking pointedly at her friend.
Several moments of silence pass as Lilly stares at a cupcake in silent contemplation.
"Honestly?" She sighs. "The thing I learned was yes, there was a gun, and I'm not crazy. Don't know why we had to give it back by the way… I want to start a trophy collection. We can make a wall of it entitled 'All the shitty scenarios we survive' it'll be, like a memory wall, it'd be neat."
"Lilly!" Mae shouts in complete frustration feeling the need to throttle her friend.
"Mae!" Lilly mimics back, using the same tone, with a light smile on her face as she frosts another cupcake. "See? Look! I can sound like a scornful mother hen too… Sounds better with you though. Fits you, harpy."
"I hate you." Mae smiles, sticking her tongue out at her sister.
"Love you too." Lilly smiles back.
"I thought we were done talking about this. You've been asking about that for two whole days. I'm back in the shop, everything is clearing up. It's fine." Well medically anyways… really need to fit in a visit with my shrink soon; bitch will have a field day with this one… She should really be paying me. "Hey Mae… do you think I can get Marie to start paying me for the visits?" Lilly asks innocently, as she picks up a different shade of icing and continues her task at hand.
"No Lilly. As humorous as your antics are, I don't… However if you ever had a study done on you…" Mae leaves off, finishing up the inventory and placing it on a desk to be later entered into their accounting program. I think I'm done with office work for today though.
"Oh, shut it. You know I'm awesome. If I ever did one of those they'd never give me back to you, and where would that leave you? Alone, and bored to tears, I assure you."
"Or, I don't know? Sane, perhaps is the word I would use." Mae responds as she pulls up a stool and goes about decorating the last batch of the cupcakes. She winces and shakes her hand out when her first attempted grip pulls at the stitches on her palm.
"Oh Mae, how you wound me." Lilly says clutching at her chest in a display of overdramatized heartache.
"How did you trick me into counting inventory again anyways? We both know you don't have the attention span to frost cupcakes…" Mae asks looking at the cupcakes in question with a careful eye, if only to humor her friend.
"Shut it. You know I only suck at detail work… And because you love me…And, obviously, the fact you have stitches, cause, yeah, that too…." Lilly remarks with a smirk as she finishes the last of her batch.
"So, on a completely different note… Do you think the boys might stop by… Or, I don't know, pull a John…" Mae asks pausing mid pipe to look at her friend who stilled at the words.
"I think that those two are barely like John. Well, Sam's got a bit more of John, I suppose. But, no. I'm not sure…. So, do you really not think it's gross that I was drooling all over his boys? Cause, like, if you ever mention it to John I might kill you…." Oh God, this is super awkward; of course it would be Mae's surrogate father figure's sons I would completely make an ass out of my self over… Fuck me.
"Why? I think it's fabulous you are finally showing interest in boys. Maybe it's a good thing; I needed some leverage on you anyways. What better blackmail than the way you tomato-ed over the two of them." Mae responds playfully just as Lilly gets up to take the pies out of the oven when the timer buzzes.
"So, how obvious do you think that was…. Mae?" Lilly asks, surprisingly insecure about how much verbal diarrhea she had exhibited. Not to mention the ugly rash that had developed since she had met them, which increased tenfold once she found out she had been salivating over John's kids. Cause like, ew.
Wow, with me teasing like that, she should have done… I don't know, something. Is she really that upset? Mae stays quiet for a moment, thinking of the best way to answer her.
Lilly is silent as she pulls the pies out. Why isn't she answering me? Oh Gods, it was bad wasn't it? I can never look at any of the Winchesters again. Oh fuck, did they tell Bobby what I did? Should we just move? Would Mae move if I told her not moving would kill me? We could totally start over, I mean it would suck, kinda, but we'd deal. She has people skills. I have… my awesome ability to….to… be awesome. Yeah I like that. Moving doesn't seem that bad...
"So- Mae, seriously how obvious?" Lilly pouts as she settles in next to her, setting up several of the pies, frown firmly in place as she pins her best friend with the saddest set of puppy eyes she can muster.
"Um, well… not that…" Mae begins arranging then rearranging their products right as their front door chimes. Oh thank God! "Welcome to Cakes, Cookies, and Pies, Oh My!" Mae says grateful that her prayer was answered as she stands up to talk to customers. She smiles when she sees two familiar figures taking a closer look at the 'paraphernalia' on the walls.
38
At the look on Mae's face, Lilly's stomach plummets and her never ceasing rash returns with a vengeance as she sinks lower to the floor. Oh Gods why? She thinks as she tries with all her might to communicate telepathically with Mae to not draw attention to her.
"Still convinced we're witches, huh?" Mae asks in a teasing manner.
Both men look up as she's talking; a small smile displayed on Sam's face, and a goofy grin on Dean's.
"Nah, I was just admiring your Rock music memorabilia. Very nice collection of the most awesome bands ever." Dean walks up to the pie tower to admire the offerings of the day.
"Well, most of that is stuff Lilly collected. She loves rock music, especially Metallica. Right, Lilly?" Mae says as she shoots a look at Lilly and tries to pull her friend up from the floor behind the counter. Lilly looks at Mae with betrayal and fights her off before realizing that she's making a bigger fool of herself and just rises as if nothing had just happened. The rash, however, was now even brighter.
"That right? They're one of my favorite bands too. Classic rock is the best." Dean smiles, taking his eyes from mount pie-ness to look at Lilly, but frowns when he looks over the several bruises still marring her face. The bruises I put there.
"Can we get you guys anything?" Mae asks, trying to give Lilly another moment to compose herself.
"Like my pie?" Lilly questions playfully; her eyes widen in mortification at the innuendo-laced words that just spilled out of her mouth, yet again. Why?! Why do I hate myself? They're John's kids for fuck's sakes. This rash is going to be permanent. Great.
"Like some pie, she meant some pie. Or maybe lunch?" OH MY GOD! Are we really doing this again?
"Sure, I'd like some pie. Which one did you make Lilly?" Dean begins a more thorough investigation on the displayed pies, apparently oblivious to the earlier statements.
Lilly's blush darkens as she begins to mutter "Cherry." unable to stop herself.
Mae's hand stretches out, quickly covering her mouth and saying louder "Apple. She just made some apple."
Sam rolls his eyes and Mae smiles when she realizes that either Dean doesn't care, or didn't even catch it.
"Actually, we got a call to go do another investigation. But, we wanted to come apologize again for the bad mix up. And, getting you both hurt. And, exposing you to our work. And traumatizing you both. And-" Sam continues their list of sins against the girls.
"No, it's fine. Please don't list everything." Mae interrupts, holding up her hand. She pulls out a couple of delivery boxes and hands them to Lilly. "Here. Whatever they want."
Lilly looks from the boxes, to the boys, to Mae with a look of trepidation. Why do you hate me? She sighs and just begins loading the boxes up with slices of pie. Even going as far to alternate them so more can fit in the box, happy for the distraction. Pie-Tetris, my favorite game; they fit so nicely together. Oh, and no talking. Yay! Oh... Mae knows me so well.
"That's so very kind of you ladies." Dean says, almost to the point of drooling. "Oh, can I have a few extra of the cherry? That was so good the last time I ate here." Oh, please let Lilly start ramble flirting; she's fun to mess with.
Lilly literally stops and breathes in deeply for a moment. She swallows the many different lines she would normally shoot out, since she's unsure if Dean was purposefully fucking with her, or he legit liked the cherry pie. Her skin all-but-glowing again from embarrassment; she nods quickly, just grabs a larger to-go pie box and slides the whole thing in.
Dean's eyes crinkled in appreciation. He watches her place the containers gently in a bag and pile napkins and cutlery on top. Before he can tease her again, she disappears to the back without saying another word. Such a weird chick...
"While we're here though, we wanted to give you some help. You know, in case anything ever goes bump in the night around you two." Sam pulls some paper out of his pocket and hands it to Mae.
Mae smooths the papers out to find a handwritten list of seemingly random items.
"What's this for? Salt? Iron?" She looks up at Sam, confusion evident in her eyes, along with a small amount of fondness.
Sam looks into her eyes for a moment, not sure what he saw flash there. "Well, like I said, we feel responsible for dragging you both into this. The least we can do is give you some tips. And, you know, you can always ask Bobby for help too."
Ignoring the duo having a conversation, Lilly returns and puts another bag next to the one full of confections. Her face now wet but less red, as she scratches at the back of her head.
"Well, not that meeting the both of you hasn't been the longest, singular most awkward moment of my young adult life, though by far the least damaging, we wanted to thank you… Well, mostly Mae, but still, um, yeah… We kinda hoped you might stop by… Or some shit..." Lilly says and then quickly makes her exit back to the safety of the kitchen, where she proceeds to lament her inability to communicate with other humans.
"The pies are very appreciated. Sammy, I'm glad the best pie in the world happens to be right here near Bobby. Ladies, we'll be back." He ends the statement using his best 'Terminator' voice on the last three words. With that, he grabs the bag of to-go pie and heads out.
Sam shakes his head, smiling at his brother's antics. He turns backs to Mae, who is also smiling.
"He's not wrong though, we will be back. In the meantime," He points to the pages he gave her. "Instructions are on the back. Plus, our numbers, in case you need to reach us. But, you'll probably have to leave a message; the job and all that. But, uh, yeah. I guess we'll be seeing you."
Mae hugs Sam quickly before he turns to walk out. "Thanks." She says quietly into his chest.
Sam's confused by her gratitude; he holds her out at arm's length to look her in the face.
"Why are you thanking me?" He asks, tilting his head slightly to the side, while his eyes search hers.
"For listening to me when I told you to stop hurting Lilly. I never got the chance to thank you. And you know, for doing what you do. It's kinda cool, in a saving-everyone-from-bad-stuff-and-no-one-even-knows-super-hero-kind-of-way." Oh my God I'm picking up bad, bad habits from Lilly. She blushes at her realization. "Um… Here, don't forget this." She turns to grab the bag from the counter and hands it to him. "It's not much, but we hope you like it." She smiles up at him, blushing again. "And we really do expect to see you again soon. That pie won't last Dean long."
Sam stands there for a moment, happy to finally find friendly people that know what they do, and appreciate it. "Thanks Mae." He gives her a quick side hug, then turns and leaves.
"What took you so long?" Dean asks as Sam slides into the passenger seat, a piece of pie already half-eaten in his hand.
"Oh, umm, just saying bye. Weird week, right?" Sam distractedly begins looking through the bag. "Huh…" Sam smiles as he pulls out a few containers with labels on them. "Looks like we won't be stopping for a bit."
"Of course we don't have to stop for a while; we got pie." Dean glances at the food container in Sam's hand. "Oh, righ… I mean. Oh, well, wasn't that nice of them to make a lunch for us? What'd they make?"
Sam just shakes his head and smiles at his brother's overpowering love for pie. Is that considered an addiction? When the Hell did he even develop that?
"Well, looks like a few salads, some wraps, a few bacon burgers. And uh…Candy. And junk food. Like someone bought a small convenience store." Sam informs as he begins pulling chocolate bars of all different flavors and other candies one would find at the checkout counter of a grocery store.
Dean tilts his head "Candy?" he says as he attempts to grab the bag from his brother only to have Sam tug back.
"Hey, you got pie, this is obviously meant for me." Sam teases his brother as he pulls the bag back towards himself.
"But… It's unhealthy…And totally not salad." Dean all but pouts as he tugs on the bag again wanting to see what type of sweets it contained as Sam frowns at him.
"Dude, there's like eighteen different flavors of pie, I call dibs on the candy… and I don't only eat health-conscious foods." Sam continues to tease as he further investigates the bag of food. "Oh look, Apples. I bet these came from their garden."
Dean shakes his head in obvious disagreement but doesn't say anything else as he pulls out of the parking lot and heads towards the highway. He smiles when his brother shows his obvious interest in the fruit. It's kinda odd the girls did this… I mean we broke into their house and beat the shit out of one of them… Why were they being so nice, what did I do to deserve this? I mean when was the last time someone got me a gift? Dean wonders with a frown; his mind going down memories he cherished as much as feared, as he fingered the last gift he'd received, his ever-present amulet.
"Huh. There's another bag in here." Sam says as he pulls out a bag that had been hidden underneath the large amount of food.
Dean eyes the package and his brother from his peripheral vision as he takes the proper exit but can't keep from being curious. His eyes darting from the bag to the road several times as his brother stares at it like a lost puppy.
"You gonna open it this year, Sammy?" he asks gruffly, his curiosity creeping.
Sam chuckles at his brother's impatience as he opens the bag. His face blanks before he begins chuckling. A copy of 'The Most Haunted Places in America' with a picture of Alcatraz on the cover, was just staring at him and he couldn't deny the humor in the girls' literary choice. Why did we ever think they were witches?
Dean looks over at his brother, brow raised; he snorts at the cover and rolls his eyes.
"Really?"
After several moments Sam is able to regain his composure and takes the book out placing it on his lap, smiling at the next book. The new title was not nearly as ridiculous and boasted the title 'Must Eats' in All Fifty States'.
"Please don't tell me there's another book about ghosts?" Dean asks. He's looking at the bag skeptically; his excitement's dropping as he worries it holds another crap-like-that book. Sam shakes his head and pulls it further out of the bag to give Dean a better look. At seeing the picture and the title he smiles.
"Awesome."
Sam thumbs through a couple of pages in the book as Dean taps his thumbs on the steering wheel conflicted. It had literally been years since he had received gifts. Maybe Sammy had gotten some in his years at Stanford, but he had been alone for the most part. Sure there was Dad, but he was 'Dad'. John never remembered holidays or gifts and he was fine with it, he really was… But it was nice, to get gifts. It was a weird feeling, and one he hadn't expected. He thought of asking Sammy if there was anything else, since it was a fair sized bag and the only thing to come of it were two books.
Several long moments passed before Sammy finally put the second book on top of the first and pulled out a vintage Batman lunch tin and Dean's eyes widened.
Batman. "Awesome!" Dean exclaims grabbing the tin from his brother and swerving his baby.
"Damn it Dean! Watch what you're doing! Eyes on the road!" Sam yelled eyes wide with terror as his brother nearly killed them.
Dean smirked and held the box for closer inspection as he straightened out the wheel.
"But Sammy, it's Batman." He says, looking at the box with mixed feelings. The memory of how much he had wanted one as a kid being very close to bubbling over the top before he squelched it, and steeled his gaze. He handed it back over to his brother, who, in a very Winchester-like fashion ignored the brief look of hurt, so Dean could save face.
Oh the joys of strolling down memory lane. Sam thinks sardonically, as he opens the tin and looks at the compartmentalized lunch box. There were several bags along with several small containers, all marked with neat scrawl. He couldn't stop his head tilting in curiosity as he picked up the first bag which was neatly labeled with the name, ingredients, effects, and directions; he sniffed it before laughing. This is why we thought they were witches, I remember now...
With one look at the box's contents, Dean could not help the derisive snort as he eyed the items. Yeah, of fucking course they would make actual potions and brews. "We really need to talk to them about this, Sammy? If that wasn't in dime bags, a Hunter could mistake them for hex bags…"
"Dean, it's just tea…" He looked over the containers which were very similarly labeled. "And balms. New age and holistic followers brew this all the time. It's not exactly normal, no. But it's certainly not witchcraft either." Sam explains, his head shaking at Dean's bleak outlook. He continues sorting through the teas and found a steeper to prove his point holding out the ball and chain for his brother to see.
"I still feel justified for thinkin' they're witches." Dean says petulantly as Sammy pulls his bitchface. "Not saying they are, just saying they are not helping…"
The brothers sit in silence for several moments letting this whole trip to Sioux Falls sink in. So much had happened in under a week. They attacked the wrong suspects, Dean literally beating one of them, missed their father (yet again), came up empty handed on an important case, and felt no closer on any leads as to what killed their fellow Hunter. They were both sick of being one step behind their dad… It was just a lot to take in, for each of them, and both for very different personal reasons.
On the plus side, though, they had made friends. Well, at least as close to friends as Hunters could get. People who knew of their lifestyles, were even heavily influenced by it, and took it in stride. It was nice. They may not have been the most normal, but that didn't matter to either of the young Winchesters.
They drove for several hours stewing in their thoughts and somberly eating the food the girls provided for them before pulling up to another sleazy hotel to spend the night. It was only then that they looked through the rest of the contents in the second bag.
There were two wrapped packages; one labeled for each of them with their name written on it.
Sam's was wrapped in an emerald green silk scarf with his name in the same neat scrawl with a note.
I know you guys haven't had an easy life. You and your whole family are constantly surrounded by death and darkness. But I'm glad to know that in a world with evil lurking in the darkness, there are people like you, Dean, Bobby and John. I want to apologize for how strange we acted at times, and also wanted to take this chance to explain. I'm very protective of the relationship I have with your dad. He's been a 'tough love' kind of mentor since my family passed away. And Bobby has always been there for me. Hopefully one day, if you all are ever in town at the same time, we can sit down and talk over coffee or something. In the meantime, I found something in my house and, after meeting you, I'm sure you need it more than I. It's an amethyst and it's said to help with dreams, helps guard the wearer, and aids in healing. Good luck out there, Sam. –Mae
Sam pulls a box from the scarf. Inside he finds a very clear purple stone surrounded by silvery grey beads. He slides it over his wrist, realizing it's just too big to be a bracelet.
The second package was wrapped in a blood red piece of silk that had Dean's name written in chicken scratch. The letter was a lot shorter; Dean wasn't sure if the writing was bad out of nervousness or crappy penmanship, but it was the sentiment behind the words that caught Dean off guard.
Hey, sorry about the trouble we caused, Cowboy, I wish you the best of luck in the world… I've always been a bit obsessed with… well any ways the pendent represents truth, justice, morality, … It just seemed to fit you. Thanks for not killing me, or harming Mae. Also, sorry if shit got weird.-Lilly
Dean read the note several times with a small frown, while guilt flooded his system. How ironic that the girl he beat to the point of a concussion would write such a note. Curious now, he slowly, almost tentatively, unwrapped the package and just stared at the odd looking crimson feather on a long leather throng, with another smaller note.
Seriously Cowboy, I'm over it. Go be the hero, just you know, make better decisions.
Flashbacks hit the two brothers hard as they stare at their assigned gifts before Dean finally breaks the silence.
"I thought guys were supposed to buy the jewelry? Of course those two hippies would buck the trend. Feminists." Dean spits out the last word as if it were a curse, masking his true thoughts on the peculiar girls and the gifts they had given them.
Sam just rolls his eyes at his brother's flippant behavior. It was obvious that neither brother was taking the odd, 'over-generous' gifts well.
Sam even went as far as swallowing hard as he barely whispered "There's still more."
Thus earning a groan and face palm from Dean."Seriously? Man, what the fuck? We beat them and they send us off with delicious food and gifts? I think they are witches."
Sam just stares at his brother blankly before shifting his weight and sighing. "Look man, they aren't witches… They are just normal girls, well cursed, normal girls. When I was at Stanford, girls gave going away packages to their friends all the time. It's normal Dean." Sam says even as he agrees that it was still odd that the girls had gone through this much trouble especially when he pulled out the last two items.
One was a CD caddy and the other was most obviously a pocket photo album with the word Family written over it, in a very generic fashion. The two men just stared at the items with quirked eyebrows before Dean picked up the CD's with an apprehensive look and quickly put them and the "Most Haunted" book behind his seat as Sam reached for the photo album and flipped through the pages. Bobby and John were obviously the main focus, but the girls showed up in some of the pictures as well. On the front cover a letter was attached, starting in the small neat writing Sam was beginning to become familiar with, which read;
'Hey, sorry if this is overload, but John and Bobby
have been talking about you both for years, and we
figured that the two of you probably lack certain mementos,
it's not much, but it's the only thing we could scrounge at
the last minute. As you could probably guess neither John nor
Bobby are much for photos but we happen to be very convincing.
Hope this is more of a help than a hindrance.
-Mae
P.S Enjoy the music.
-Lilly
P.S.S. You bitches better visit soon.
Mae's a worrier and a Harpy modes a bitch…
Also Good luck, with what you do.
Don't tie up any more innocents and then
make empty threats with rock salt.
- Lilly again
P.S.S.S. Also, please don't die.
-Still Lilly
P.S.S.S.S. Sorry I didn't put as much thought into this as Mae
before writing.
-Yep it's Lilly'