A/N: Hello everyone! Here's the original chapter as promised. Sorry if it's a little late. Hope you enjoy!
Dean woke up at around 2 am to find the other side of the bed empty. Sam was sleeping for once on his bed, looking peaceful. Maybe his nightmare hasn't started yet. Dean averted his gaze from his brother to look around the room for Lyra. She wasn't in the room. He got up from the bed and went over to the bathroom to check there but it was empty. Dean furrowed his brows and peeked in the small kitchenette of their motel room but Lyra was nowhere to be found. He picked up his loaded gun and went out to search of her. He didn't want to wake Sam up so he decided that he'd look around the parking lot and if he couldn't find her there, then he'd take Sam with him.
Dean walked to the door to find that it was ajar. He raised an eyebrow in suspicion and cautiously stepped out, closing the door behind him silently. He had already picked up the keys so he didn't need to worry about disturbing Sam's sleep to get in. Once outside, he scanned the whole lot but it was empty as was expected at this time of the night. His eyes lingered around the Impala as that was the most probable place Lyra could be found, if she had gone out on her own. 'If' being the highlight here. 'What if she has been taken by someone or something? God knows how long she has been gone,' he thought warily. Shaking his head to clear the despairing thoughts, he concentrated at the task. He couldn't see anyone in or outside the car but he swore that he saw something move behind the trunk of his car, out of the corner of his eye. Shrugging it off as a trick of his anxious mind, he turned around and swept the motel building with an experienced sight of a hunter.
Dean's mind became alert when he felt rather than heard someone behind him. "Dean?" a voice called uncertainly. He could never mistake it. It was Lyra's. He whipped around instantly, gun raised and when his eyes set upon her, he sighed in relief, setting the gun down.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, pocketing the Impala keys.
"Looking for your missing ass," he replied harshly.
"When did I go missing?" she asked innocently, playing dumb.
"What the hell were you thinking Lyra?" Dean bellowed. His anger had got the best of him, or was it worry?
"Jeez, relax. I was just retrieving the first aid kit from the trunk," she answered him calmly.
"Have you lost your mind?" he shouted. "It's freaking 2 in the night. Don't you think it would have been wise to wake me up before you decided to take a nocturnal walk?"
"I ran out of pain meds. That's why I came out to get this," she held up the first aid box in her hands.
"Why can't you act like a grown up for once? Sam was a lot easier to handle at 4 years than you at 18," he remarked. That comment was all it took for Lyra to lose her cool composure.
"Well I'm sorry that I don't want to depend on you for every little thing," she snapped. "Isn't it enough for you that you are the one controlling my life? And now you want me to take your permission for even breathing? You have my strings in your hands; one snap and I'm finished. So, sue me if I want some independence and do things on my own without you around." She ended her rant with a huff and crossed her arms across her chest.
Dean sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. He opened them with a small smile and spoke softly, "Look, I know it's hard to let your life rest in someone else's hands but I'm not controlling you in any way. You are the most independent one can ever be in a shitty situation like this." She looked up at him questioningly and he nodded to confirm that she had heard right. Now that he had eye contact with her, he continued, "I'm not stopping you from doing things on your own. All I ask of you is to inform me where you are. That way, if God forbid something was to happen in that short duration, I'll know where to find you. The risk is high here. And your life is more vulnerable than mine or Sam's. Only you can ensure your own safety. And I know I do a sucky job at keeping you alive; you've been strangled, you've almost choked to death, and you almost died in a plane crash. You deserve a better life than this sorry excuse."
"Yeah, you're right. This life is crap," she said. "I'm in ten times more danger than my mom was, but I like it nonetheless. Something is better than nothing, right? I'm that kind of person who loves loneliness but is afraid to be left alone." She frowned and muttered, "That didn't make any sense." Dean chuckled at her and shook his head fondly. She cleared her throat to continue, "As I was saying, what makes this life bearable is that I know I have someone who cares for me." She pinned him with an unwavering look and her eyes screamed her gratitude towards him.
Dean shifted uncomfortably under her intense gaze and quickly changed the topic, "It's cold out here. Let's head inside." She smiled at him and he gestured for her to go first.
Once inside, Lyra immediately sat on the bed and closed her eyes. Dean noticed her exhausted state and suddenly realized what she had said outside. She had gone out to get pain meds but why, was the question.
"Why'd you need pain meds at this hour? Are you hurt?" he asked and quickly looked her over for any injuries, taking a seat beside her.
"No Dean, I'm not hurt," she replied with a small smile but it was strained. Dean noticed that she was clutching the bed sheet in her fist a little too tightly.
"Why are you clutching the sheets?" he questioned, motioning to her hands.
"To keep the pain from showing on my face," she answered simply.
"What pain?" he asked getting a little irritated by her incomplete answers.
"I'm having cramps Dean," she said and then added sarcastically, "One of the perks of being a girl."
Dean's eyes widened in mortification and he, not so discreetly, leaned away from her. He wasn't used to dealing with this kind of stuff. Truth be told, he had never heard a girl or woman talk about this. Hell, he had even bunked the class when they were teaching about this stuff. So yeah, his reaction was not surprising.
"You're acting as if I told you I'm pregnant with your child," Lyra taunted with a roll of her eyes. Dean's eyes widened even more if that was possible and he full on flushed.
"And you call Sam a prude," she commented when she noticed his state. She shook his head in amusement and took out the pain meds. She then walked over to the glass of water on the bed side table and downed the pills in one gulp. "Good night Dean," she said and got under the covers.
Dean shook himself from whatever daze he was in and followed Lyra's example to get some sleep. He lay on his side and watched Lyra as she curled into a ball. A soft whimper escaped her lips and Dean fought the urge to comfort her.
'What's the harm in comforting her right now?' he thought. 'Sam is not up to witness the exchange and Lyra never teases me about being soft.'
Yes, that was true. Dean had been always somewhat soft with Lyra and she gladly welcomed the touching gestures. And for some unknown reason, he was a little more open around her. She wouldn't force him to share his feelings but he always ended up doing that. If not the whole, he'd at least let her have a glimpse of his emotions. To Dean's relief, she never treated him differently but she also wouldn't pretend like nothing had happened. She'd always manage to do just the right thing.
'But what about the 'no chick flick moment' rule?' another voice reasoned in his head and Dean reconsidered his options. He heard another soft moan from Lyra and that made his decision.
'Screw the rule,' he responded to that opposing voice. 'She could really use a little comfort right now.'
He moved closer to her and wound his right arm around her waist. She gave a startled jolt but then relaxed and lifted her head up to let him put his left arm under it. She settled back with a sigh and clutched his right hand when a sudden wave of pain hit her. He responded by tightening his hold and stroking back her hair by his bent left hand. She turned her head to press it against his strong biceps and waited for the meds to kick in. He rubbed soothing circles on her belly to lull her to sleep; the motion was relaxing to him as well.
When Dean was sure that she was in a deep slumber, he pressed a kiss to her head and carefully slipped his arms back trying not to jostle her too much. He couldn't let Sam see him cuddling to her; it was just against his rules. He lay on his back, still staying closer to her than usual but he can live with that. Lyra turned on her left and he smiled at her peaceful face. 'She looks so young and innocent when she sleeps,' he thought before letting sleep consume him.
The next morning, Sam woke up before them as usual and went to get them coffee and breakfast. Lyra woke up next, rubbing her eyes sleepily. She groaned and went to take a nice warm shower. Hot water was all she could think about to sooth her aching body. When she returned from the bathroom, Dean was sitting up on the bed, with a dumb expression on his face.
"Good morning, sleepy head," she greeted him while drying her hair with the towel.
"Morning. How are you today?" he asked, getting up and stretching his body.
"Slightly better," she replied just when the door opened to reveal Sam holding bags.
"Hey! Morning guys," Sam said with a cheery smile.
"Looks like someone slept well," Dean commented, gathering fresh clothes.
"Yeah, actually I did," he admitted.
"So, no nightmare last night?" Lyra asked him.
"Just one," he replied, setting the bags and cups of coffee on the table. "It was around 5 when I woke up. So yeah, I got some really good sleep last night."
"That's good," Dean remarked and closed the bathroom door behind him.
Minutes passed in comfortable silence as Lyra drank her coffee while Sam searched for some new case on his laptop.
"Thank you Sam," Lyra said, lifting the coffee and doughnut she was eating. Sam smiled at her and shrugged, resuming whatever he was reading on the screen.
"Got anything?" Dean asked Sam as he settled on the small dining chair.
"Not exactly," Sam answered. "But there's something interesting here."
"What kind of interesting?" Lyra questioned. Everyone has their own definition of interesting and Dean's definition was not something she'd want to hear in detail. She wasn't sure about Sam's definition though.
"Annulment cases reach an all time high in Vegas," Sam started reading. "What can be labeled as the strangest case in the history of matrimonial records of Vegas would be the soaring number of annulment applications being filed. For the last 3 months, there has been at least one couple in the courthouse to file for an annulment. It is not new for Las Vegas to have a high number of annulment cases than other cities but what makes this stand out is the regularity of the process. Everyday, you can see a baffled newly married couple outside the court waiting for the filing to get completed. When asked about the reason, one said, "I don't know when or how I got married. It's just a blank, no memory. I just woke up the next day with the marriage certificate. I don't even know the guy I supposedly married." There have been 91 applications since 31st August, enough to leave the authorities wondering."
Dean and Lyra exchanged looks when Sam finished reading the news article. The woman's story highly resembled their own. They were hoping to get some memory back of their drunken night but they never did. And they didn't pay much attention to that fact until now. What if their marriage wasn't just a drunken mistake?
"So what do you say?" Sam asked breaking the heavy silence.
"What's there to say?" Dean countered. "It's just some strange random fact."
"People don't just marry and then file an annulment for fun, Dean," Sam reasoned. "At least not this many."
"What are you implying?" Dean asked. "That we check out what's going on?"
"Why not?" Lyra butted in. "It's not like we have a case right now. And it sounds weird enough."
"What's the point in checking this out?" Dean argued. "No one's getting hurt. I don't see any reason in wasting our money and time." He didn't like the idea of going back to Vegas to find out how they tied the knot. He wanted to forget that little, no scratch that, big fact of his life. 'Why do they want to research about it? Are they going to write a freaking thesis on it?' he thought sourly.
"We don't save people from just getting hurt," Sam said. "We save them from any kind of supernatural they might encounter and cause them inconvenience."
"That's right," Dean replied. "But I still don't think there's any supernatural element here. So, no need to bother."
"Why are you reluctant to go?" Lyra asked him.
"Why are you so eager to go?" Dean asked back.
"'Cause I want to know and maybe even kill whoever got me married without my consent," she answered honestly.
"Touché," Dean remarked. "If it really wasn't my fault, then I too want to gank whatever son of a bitch did this."
"So, we going?" Sam asked them.
"Oh yeah," Dean said. "Vegas, here we come."
They packed the Impala and settled in for a long ride to Lyra's hometown. After a few hours, Sam asked what was on his mind for so long, "So, how exactly did you two meet?"
"Once upon a time," Dean started and Lyra burst out laughing. He made it sound like their story was some kind of fairy tale while it was actually the opposite in reality.
Sam scowled at him, "I'm serious Dean."
"Alright, so here it goes," Dean said and smirked at Lyra through the mirror.
Flashback:
Lyra entered the bar-cum-restaurant behind a waitress who happened to be her friend. She was more like an acquaintance but desperate times call for desperate measures, right? Lyra wanted entry in the bar and so she had to befriend Christy to get that. Or more like, do her a favor and gain one in return. The place where Christy worked required an ID to enter and that was when she helped Lyra. She convinced the security to let her enter and they didn't argue much. Lyra could have chosen any other bar without such security but she preferred someone she knew to be around if got drunk too much. She was a loner, so you can't expect her to have a large company. Her only best friend was not in the city at that time, so she had to go on her own.
"Well, you enjoy. I'll be around if you need anything," Christy said and excused herself.
Lyra gave the place a once over and chose a table in the far corner to sit. Her heels clicked on the floor but the music drowned any small noise in the packed place. She sat elegantly on the chair, adjusting her dark blue dress around her legs. A waitress came over to take her order, exaggerating her smile. Lyra returned the smile and ordered a beer to start her evening. She didn't drink much but these past months haven't been easy for her without her parents be her side.
Dean watched as the people mingled with each other in the large room of yet another beer and grill. He was in Vegas for a simple salt and burn. John had directed him here because he was busy elsewhere to do this himself. Dean hadn't objected, in fact he wanted a little time away from his dad. It wasn't easy to follow that man around.
He could see girls laughing and moving to the rhythm of the music on the dance floor. A certain blond one had caught his attention and he was tempted to join her there. He won't dance much but he can surely get her to a motel in the shortest time. By the way she was glancing at him, he was sure she was interested too. He winked at her when he caught her eye and she smiled seductively in return. He smirked and turned his head around to pick up his beer when he noticed a pretty brunette sitting by herself. Something about her attracted him; maybe the fact that she was lonely just like him at the moment. He finished his beer with a large gulp and walked over to her table.
Lyra knew that the hot guy was approaching her but she kept her face neutral. No need to give away the fact that she appreciated his looks. He took a seat directly opposite of her and flashed the most charming smile she had ever seen.
"Hey, you don't mind if I sit here, do you?" he asked her sweetly.
She wanted to say yes and make him leave but she couldn't. She instead said, "No, not at all."
"I'm Dean," he introduced, extending his hand forward.
"Lyra," she replied, shaking his hand. She wasn't sure if that man was a good one or not but her sixth sense told her that he was harmless, at least to her.
"So, what is a young girl like you doing in a place like this alone?" he asked gesturing with his hands.
"I think you need a mood to enjoy and not some company," she said, sipping her beer.
"And I think a little strange company makes it even more interesting."
End of flashback
A/N: So guys, what do you think? I'm writing this like a case so, I'm sorry if I disappointed you. Please review and let me know your opinion. I'll get the next part up soon.