Get It While You Can
Disclaimer: I don't own anything Supernatural. All I got to my name is Jayne and Lynn.
Rating: T
AN: Thanks to ThreeMoons, Padme4000, angeleyenc, legrowl, and Little Rock'n'Roll Queen for the reviews!
"Bugs"
Chapter 20: Bugs
Sam sat in the driver's seat of the Impala, his eyes focused on the road in front of them. Old brick buildings, grassy greens and mature trees flew past as he drove through the community college campus. Dean was in the seat beside him, and Jayne and Lynn were sitting in the back. He could hear the three of them talking, but he made no move to join the conversation. He didn't feel like talking. He was annoyed. Dean had annoyed him. His father had annoyed him. Lynn had annoyed him. This whole damn job had annoyed him. And he was going to keep being annoyed, even if it killed him.
The scene in the woods between him and Dean had been bad enough. The fact that it had happened in front of everybody only made it worse. Then he had blown up at Lynn, and admittedly not for a very good reason. He supposed she hadn't meant to sound so dismissive, so… disapproving. It was probably bad word choice, and in his already foul mood, he had read too much into it.
He caught sight of the anthropology building out of the corner of his eye and pulled over, parking the Impala against the curb under a shady tree, and then shutting down the engine. Doors swung open on all sides, and everyone clambered out of the car. Sam made a move to head for the backseat and grab the box of old bones from the clearing, but Jayne had already beat him to it. She bumped the back door shut with her hip and headed for the crumbling brick university building, holding the box under her arm with her flannel shirt draped over it. Lynn jogged after her, following close on her heels.
Sam frowned after them, watching them both take off for the anthropology building and leave the brothers behind in their dust. He started to wonder if maybe he'd upset Lynn when he'd gotten all confrontational in the woods; he wondered if he owed her an apology, regardless of how pushy and nosy she'd been. He started walking after them, and Dean fell into step beside him.
"So, a bunch of skeletons in an unmarked grave," Sam said, watching Lynn and Jayne duck through the front door of the building.
"Yeah, maybe this is a haunting," Dean replied, and Sam grimaced at him. He'd heard what his brother and Jayne had said back in the clearing, but there was something about all this that didn't scream haunting to him at all. "Pissed off spirits? Some unfinished business?"
"Yeah, maybe," Sam allowed, still not on board. "Question is, why bugs, and why now?"
"That's two questions," Dean replied. "Hey, so with that kid back there. How could you tell him to just ditch his family like that?"
Sam's stomach sank. He should have known when Dean offered to let him drive that this sort of conversation was imminent; Dean almost never let him drive, not unless they'd already been on the road all day, and he was too tired to see straight. He looked up, into the sky, and then straight ahead, determinedly not making eye contact with his brother. "Just, uh… I understand what he's going through."
"How about telling him to respect his old man? How's that for advice?"
Sam stopped short. "Dean, come on." Dean stopped too, whirling around to glare at him. "This isn't about his old man. You think I didn't respect Dad. That's what this is about."
Dean rolled his eyes, clearly uncomfortable. "Just forget it, all right? Sorry I brought it up."
But Sam wasn't letting him off the hook that easy. His brother might not want to have this conversation, but he'd started it, picking at him about Matt and Larry Pike, and they were going to talk it through, all the way, whether Dean liked it or not. "I respected him," Sam said. "But no matter what I did, it was never good enough."
"So, what are you saying? That Dad was disappointed in you?"
"Was. Is. Always has been," Sam retorted.
"Why would you think that?" Dean demanded incredulously.
"Because I didn't want to bow hunt," Sam returned, not missing a beat. "Or hustle pool. Because I wanted to go to school and live my life… which in our whacked out family made me the freak."
"Yeah, you were kind of like the blonde chick from The Munsters," Dean quipped.
Sam shook his head, ignoring his brother's ill-timed jokes. "Dean, you know how most dads are when their kids score a full ride? Proud. Most dads don't toss their kids out of the house."
"I remember that fight," Dean replied. "In fact, I seem to recall a few choice phrases coming out of your mouth."
He stared at Dean. His brother didn't back down. Sam shook his head again, huffing out a short sigh and breaking eye contact. "You know," he murmured, hesitantly giving voice to one of his worst fears when it came to this whole mess. "The truth is… when we finally do find Dad… I don't even know if he's going to want to see me."
Dean took a deep breath. "Sam, Dad was never disappointed in you. Never. He was scared."
Sam scoffed. "What are you talking about?"
"He was afraid of what could have happened to you if he wasn't around!" Dean shot back. Sam shook his head, but his brother had more to say. "But even when you two weren't talking? He used to swing by Stanford whenever he could. Keep an eye on you. Make sure you were safe."
Sam stared at Dean for a long moment, stunned. "What?"
"Yeah."
He scrambled to hold on to his anger and frustration. "Why didn't he tell me any of that?"
Dean just tilted his head, not giving him an inch. "Well, it's a two-way street, dude. You could have picked up the phone."
Sam didn't have an answer for that. He blinked at Dean, swallowing. His brother tilted his head again, jerking it towards the anthropology building. "Come on," he said. "We're going to be late for our appointment."
He turned away and headed for the door. Sam stared at his back, and then took a deep breath, pushing aside thoughts about Dad and hunting and all the plans he'd had for his future that were now indefinitely on hold. He followed Dean inside.
They still had a job to do.
Inside the community college's anthropology building, it was cool and dimly lit, with cherry wood paneling on the walls and dark brown and black marble tile on the hallway floor. Jayne and Lynn walked down the long, empty, too quiet hallway, their clacking footsteps echoing through the building. When they reached the anthropology professor's office, Jayne plopped the cardboard box down on a fake wooden bench outside the door, wincing as she heard the bones inside rattle. She adjusted her flannel shirt over top of it, and then frowned over her shoulder, down the long marble hallway, towards the glass door at the end of it where she and Lynn had entered.
"Where the hell are they?" she demanded, annoyed. Both Sam and Dean were missing, apparently still outside the anthropology building.
Lynn sighed, taking a seat on the bench beside the bones. "I don't know. I think they're fighting or something."
"Now?" Jayne retorted, getting more annoyed. "Great. What is their problem?"
"I think it's the Pikes," Lynn replied, shrugging. "I guess the Larry and Matt, father and son issues thing are hitting too close to home or something."
Jayne rolled her eyes. "So stupid," she whispered, folding her arms over her chest and leaning impatiently on the wall across from the bench.
It wasn't that she didn't understand, and it wasn't that she didn't know what Dean's problem was, at least. He'd been weirdly open about it back at the empty house, and again in the clearing, where the creepy bug congregation was happening. Actually, they'd both been weirdly open with each other back in that clearing, and she regretted it a little. It hadn't been her intention to spill about Russ raising her because her bio-dad was nowhere to be found. Dean had been talking, and she'd been trying to talk back, be understanding, get better at this talking to people thing... and it had just popped out, really. It's not like it was important. So, her bio-dad split on her and she didn't even know the bastard's name? Big deal. She was fine about it, really; can't miss what you never had. It wasn't a key component of understanding her tragic back story or something stupid like that. Why had she even bothered mentioning it?
She was trying to relate, she supposed. Why she had bothered doing that, either, she really couldn't say. Jayne shook her head, trying to push all thoughts of the conversation she'd had with Dean out of her head. The point was that she got where he was coming from. She really did. But this was the middle of a job, they had a meeting with a college professor in literally two minutes, and they didn't have time for this drama.
She heard the door swing open at the end of the hall, and swung her head to the right. Dean and Sam were stepping inside the building, finally, and they jogged down the dark marbled hallway, right up to the bench where Jayne and her sister were waiting for them.
"Sorry," Sam apologized, wrinkling his nose a bit. Lynn smiled at him, a big understanding smile with wide brown doe eyes. She gave him a sympathetic, forgiving nod. Jayne choked back a a gag.
"Whatever," Jayne grunted at him, pushing herself off the wall. "Let's just do this."
Dean knocked on the door, and then swung it open without waiting for an answer.
The anthropology professor turned out to be an older man, with graying hair and five o'clock shadow, and the kind of heavily lined, weathered face one associates with a lifetime of hard work outside, under the sun. He used a cane, and he wore an old tan jacket. When they showed him the bones, he sent them to wait in his classroom while he examined them.
They did as instructed, and it was a long, silent, awkward wait, with no one really talking or even looking at each other. Whatever Sam and Dean had talked about outside the anthropology building must have been a serious issue and a serious talk, because they were both silent and didn't seem to want to talk to each other, or even sit by each other. It was a relief when the professor returned.
"So, you four are students?" he asked as he limped to his desk with the help of his cane, holding the box of bones under his other arm.
"Uh, yeah," Sam returned brightly. "We're in your class! Anthro 101?"
He and Dean got up, heading over to the professor's desk, and Jayne raised an eyebrow as Lynn vaulted out of her seat as well, following them eagerly. Jayne did the man the courtesy of leaning forward in her chair to listen. That was all.
"Oh, yeah," the professor murmured, as though he might recognize him, but Jayne knew he couldn't possibly.
"So… the bones?" Dean asked, quickly diverting the subject away from their identities.
"These are quite an interesting find," the professor replied. "I'd say they're 170 years old. Give or take. The timeframe and the geography highly suggest Native American."
"Were there any tribes or reservations on that land?" Sam asked.
The professor shook his head. "Not according to the historical record," he said, but his tone suggested he found the historical record to be a load of crap. "But the relocation of Native peoples was quite common in that time."
Sam frowned. "Right. Well… are there any local legends? Oral histories about the area?"
"Well, uh… there's an Uchee tribe in Sapulpa," the professor replied. "It's sixty miles from here. Someone out there might know the truth."
With that lead to follow, they collected their bones, thanked the professor, and headed back to Dean's car. Jayne folded her arms over her chest, taking up the back of the line as they all filed down the hallway, towards the building's front doors. She was trying to hide, to earn a few minutes of quiet and solitude before they all got crammed together in the car again.
Lynn ruined that plan, as she usually did, slowing down in order to fall into step beside her. "Well, that went better than I expected," she started to ramble. "At least the professor knew where to send us for more information."
"Mm-hmm," Jayne murmured, noncommittally. She waited a beat. "We're not going to make this a regular thing, are we?"
"What do you mean?"
"I know you want to stay in touch and work together when it matters and… I'm not objecting to an occasional hunt with them."
"Ok…?"
Jayne shrugged. "I just realized, you know, we've actually known them for over four months now. Almost five, technically. Six or seven hunts in five months... that's not too high a number. But you're not... you aren't going to like… up that number? That's not in the plan?"
Lynn screwed up her face incredulously. "What is wrong with you right now? Is this like a commitment-phobia thing? Like you realized how long we've actually known them, and you're afraid you'll accidentally become real friends with them or something?"
Jayne pressed her lips in a tight, firm line, taking a deep breath. "No," she replied, but in all actuality, Lynn had hit the nail right on the head. That was what was wrong with her right now, she realized. "I mean… it's fine. I just… wouldn't want them to be our regular hunting buddies or some shit like that."
Lynn whistled low. "You have issues," she said, sing-song, and Jayne knew she hadn't fooled Lynn at all; her stepsister knew damn well she'd been right the first time. "But don't worry; we're not taking this show on the road full time, ok?"
Jayne nodded, letting some of the tension ease out of her shoulders, and releasing the breath she'd been holding. "Ok."
Sam pressed his forehead against the car window, watching the scenery fly past as Dean navigated the Impala through Sapulpa, towards the Uchee reservation. The car was mostly silent, with nothing coming from Lynn or Jayne in the backseat, and Dean's classic rock cassettes turned down low on the radio. He felt like they were racing the clock, trying to find answers for the Oasis Plains bug death phenomenon before another swarm could kill another resident. But that was just life in this line of work; Sam always felt like they were racing the clock. Maybe Dean got off on that kind of adrenaline, but it was one of the many reasons Sam had bailed in the first place.
He was still reeling from the showdown on the college green with Dean. He knew Dean had been pissed about the way Sam had spoke to Matt Pike; he knew Dean would connect it back to their Dad. He wasn't wrong; Sam had been thinking about Dad when he'd been giving encouraging pep talks to Matt. But when he'd tried to lay out why he felt the way he did, well… in the end, nothing Sam said made a difference. Dean accused him of not respecting their father; Sam pointed out that their father had always been disappointed in him. Sam had even gone so far as to lay out his worst fear on the line for Dean; that if they did find their father, he wouldn't even be happy to see him. But Dean had thrown him, telling him that Dad had just been scared... which was difficult enough to believe on its own, because Sam couldn't remember ever seeing Dad scared… and that he'd swung by Stanford all the time, keeping an eye on him, watching his back.
Despite everything, that hadn't made Sam feel good. Knowing that his father wasn't disappointed in him, knowing that he still cared and he still wanted to protect him… Sam knew it should have made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside. But it didn't. It just made him feel like crap. Because even knowing all that, even finally understanding where he was coming from, Sam was still mad at his father. And that made him feel like the most ungrateful son in the world.
He loved his dad. He wanted to find his dad. And if something had happened to the man, it would rip him up inside. But he was still so angry, and no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't let it go.
Dean had heeded the advice of an Uchee man they'd passed on the street and then driven to the reservation's most popular diner. According to the random pedestrian, there was a man who frequented the place called Joe Whitetree… and if anyone had answers about those bones in Oasis Plains, it would be Joe.
Dean pulled into the gravel lot of the rundown, narrow greasy spoon and parked the car. It was a long building, with dark pinkish brown siding, fake wood paneling along the front and a tacky sign that read Sapulpa Cafe. A large satellite stuck out of the roof, and a small outdoor bar or kiosk or something was right by the dirty screen door. There were Uchee residents manning the kiosk, with colorful blankets or mats hanging over the side and dream catchers hanging from overhead.
Sam got out of the car and slammed the door. Dean followed him out. "Hey! Watch the doors!"
He took a deep, steadying breath and let it out slowly. No matter how much he wanted to, ripping Dean's head off was not allowed. "Right. Sorry."
Jayne and Lynn clambered out of the back. Jayne closed her door gently, but Lynn slammed hers nearly as hard as Sam had.
"What did I just say?" Dean exploded.
Lynn blinked. "Huh?"
Dean's eyes narrowed. "Do. Not. Slam. The doors."
Lynn rolled her eyes. "It's a car, you loser."
Dean looked ready to kill her. Jayne intervened. "She's sorry," she grunted irritably. "Can we go inside now?"
Despite the murderous expression Dean still wore on his face, Sam's older brother nodded his concession and led the way to the diner. The rest of them followed him across the large, muddy lot, more dirt than gravel in all honesty, and Sam frowned at his brother's back. He found it odd that Jayne of all people was playing peacemaker between Dean and her stepsister… he normally would have expected things to play out in the exact opposite way… but here she was, acting the mediator. She was also walking right behind Dean, talking to him in a civil manner. And when they reached the diner, Dean held the door for her. A courtesy not extended to either him or Lynn.
Frowning, he looked at Lynn. She was avoiding eye contact with him, and he guessed she was still reeling from the fight in the woods. Sam took a deep breath and whispered, "When exactly did they start getting along?"
Lynn looked up at him in surprise. "Who?"
"My brother and your stepsister."
She continued to frown. "Are they?"
Sam almost laughed, but found himself too annoyed. He had just witnessed true civility between the two most pigheaded people in the world – no, it was more than civility. It was downright friendliness. And Lynn was too oblivious to recognize it.
"Never mind," he muttered, walking inside.
Lynn followed silently, but he felt her piercing gaze on his back.
They filed inside the diner, as narrow and greasy, rundown and tacky as its exterior, and Sam's eyes immediately alighted on an old Uchee man having coffee at a table by himself, right inside the door at the large window overlooking the parking lot. He had long silver hair, and he was playing Solitaire. This had to be Joe.
Sam nodded in his direction, and then led the other three hunters to the table. "Joe Whitetree?" he greeted the elderly man.
The man looked up from his Solitaire and nodded once.
"We'd like to ask you a few questions, if that's all right," Sam went on.
"We're students from the University," Dean jumped in. "And…"
"No you're not," Joe interrupted, fixing a stony glare on Dean. "You're lying."
Dean looked over his shoulder at Sam. Sam felt a small smirk forming on his face, but tried to rein it in. His older brother turned back to Joe and said, "Well, the truth is…"
"Do you know who starts a sentence with, truth is?" Joe interrupted him again. "Liars."
Sam again tried not to smirk. Beside him, he heard Jayne muffle a snigger.
Dean looked at the other three with impatience. Sam took a deep breath and leveled with the man. "Have you ever heard of Oasis Plains?" he asked. "It's a housing development near the Atoka valley."
Joe looked at Sam, and then looked at Dean again. "I like him," he announced. "He's not a liar."
Dean looked pissed, which in all honesty, just made Sam enjoy the whole thing more. Now if only Joe would talk to them about the bones they'd found…
"I know the area," Joe admitted.
Sam mentally breathed a sigh of relief. "What can you tell us about the history there?"
"Why do you want to know?"
Sam waited for someone else to field that question, feeling he'd spoken enough. But no one seemed willing to speak up… so Sam kept going.
"Something… something bad is happening in Oasis Plains," he said. "We think it might have something to do with some old bones we found down there." Joe reacted to the mention of bones, although very slightly, and Sam knew he had him. "Native American bones," he pressed.
Joe didn't look surprised at all; he looked resigned. He nodded, sighing. "I'll tell you what my grandfather told me," he announced. "And what his grandfather told him. Two hundred years ago, a band of my ancestors lived in that valley. One day, the American cavalry came to relocate them. They were resistant, the cavalry impatient… as my grandfather put it: on a night when the moon and the sun shared the sky as equals, the cavalry first raided our village. They murdered, raped. The next day, the cavalry came again, and the next, and the next. And on the sixth night, the cavalry came one last time. And by the time the sun rose, every man, woman, and child still in the village was dead."
Everyone was dead silent for a long moment, listening to Joe describe the evil done to his ancestors by regular old human beings… not monsters, not ghosts, not demons, but people. Sam swallowed too hard, glancing at the other three. But the tale wasn't over yet; Joe was still talking. "They say that on the sixth night, as the chief of the village lay dying, he whispered to the heavens that no white man would ever tarnish his land again. Nature would rise up and protect the valley. And it would bring as many days of misery and death to the white man as the cavalry had brought upon his people."
"Insects," Dean spoke up. "Sounds like nature to me."
"The cavalry attacked for six days," Lynn murmured softly. "So… nature attacks for six days?"
Joe nodded. "And on the sixth day, none would survive."
Dean marched out of the old diner, into the chilly, early spring weather, anxious to get back to Oasis Plains in light of Joe's story. He led the way across the rough, uneven parking lot, skirting his way around a huge puddle, fingering his keys impatiently, and walking just a little faster than everyone else.
"When did the gas man die?" Sam asked out of nowhere.
"We got here Tuesday," Dean replied. "So, uh…"
"Friday the twentieth," Lynn interrupted him.
"March twentieth," Sam pointed out, sounding as though he'd had a thought bulb go on over his head. "That's the spring equinox."
Dean stopped short, his boots kicking up loose gravel, as he had a light bulb moment of his own. "The night the moon and the sun share the sky as equals."
"Which is why the only person to kick it before Dustin and Linda was that surveyor a year ago," Jayne spoke up, getting in on the theory as well. "He was the only person who'd been on that land before the six day mark was up."
"So every year at about this time, anyone in Oasis Plains is in danger," Sam summed up. "Larry built his neighborhood on cursed land!"
"Shit," Lynn spoke up, and Dean glanced in her direction, catching her with her eyes on her cell phone's date and time display. "Today's the twenty-fifth. That means…"
"Tonight's the sixth night," Dean finished.
"If we don't do something," Sam exclaimed. "Larry's family will be dead by sunrise!"
Jayne made a small, barely audible scoffing sound. "Ok… so how do we break a curse under a deadline of tonight?"
Dean shook his head, unlocking the car and swinging open the driver's door. "You don't break the curse," he informed her. "You get out of its way. We got get those people out of there, now."
He slid behind the wheel. Jayne and Lynn piled in the back and Sam climbed into the passenger seat. Dean turned the engine over and shifted out of park.
"So…" Lynn murmured hesitantly. "How exactly do we get the Pikes out of their house?"
Dean hit the gas and tore out of the diner parking lot, spraying muddy water and loose gravel everywhere as his back tires slid. "If you got any ideas, Lynn, lay them on me."
A glance in the rearview mirror showed Lynn clutching the car's back door as he whipped the car out of the lot and back onto the road that led out of the reservation. "Well, for starters, you could drive less like a maniac?" she suggested tersely.
He chuckled dryly at her expense, and ignored her advice. Lynn might not like his driving, but they didn't have much time to argue about it or for him to respect the speed limit. It was getting late, and the sun was already sinking low in the overcast sky, long streaks of gold appearing along the horizon as they peaked out through the clouds. Dean shifted nervously in his seat behind the wheel and pressed down a bit harder on the gas. He found the highway that would take them out of Sapulpa, turned sharply, and then once he was off the ramp hit the gas twice as hard, tuning out Lynn in the seat behind him, who was clearly mumbling complaints under her breath.
They were quiet too long as Dean sped down the road, and the sun sank lower in the sky. He turned the headlights on, swallowing a little too hard, trying to ignore the growing pit in his stomach. Sam shifted around in the passenger seat beside him, peering nervously through the front windshield and then out his window before turning to Dean. "We better hurry. It's going to be dark soon," he observed needlessly. "Dean, I don't know if we're going to make it back in time. There has to be some way to talk them out of that house now."
Dean had hardly been staring blankly out the windshield since leaving the rundown diner in Sapulpa. He'd been thinking too, thoughts running in the same direction as Sam's, and he slapped his brother in the shoulder. "Give me the phone."
"Dean…"
"Phone, Sam!"
His brother sighed harshly, but handed over the phone anyway. Dean auto-dialed Larry's saved number, and then waited.
"Hello?" Larry Pike answered his home phone after a few rings.
"Hello, Mr. Pike?" Dean replied. "This is Travis Weaver, with Oklahoma Gas and Power. I'm calling you about a gas leak in your area."
"Travis Weaver?" Larry repeated dubiously. "Gas leak?"
"Yes, Mr. Pike," he said into his cell phone. "There's a mainline gas leak in your neighborhood."
"God, really? And how big?" Larry asked.
"Well, it's fairly extensive," Dean replied. "I don't want to alarm you, but we need your family out of the vicinity for at least twelve hours or so, just to be safe."
"And who is this again?"
"Travis Weaver," he repeated. "I work for Oklahoma Gas and Power."
"Uh-huh," Larry returned, and he did not sound impressed. "Well, the problem is I know Travis Weaver. He's worked with us for a year. So who is this?"
Dean froze. "Uh…" he returned eloquently. Then he panicked and hung up.
Sam sighed harshly. "Give me the phone," he ordered, snatching it out of Dean's hands. Dean tamped down the twinge of annoyance that followed and let Sam take over the phone. He returned his focus to the road and hit the gas harder.
"Who are you calling now?" Lynn demanded from the backseat. Sam ignored her, but that didn't stop her. "Sam? Who are you calling?"
He didn't answer. Someone picked up on the other end and Sam said into Dean's cell, "Matt? It's Sam."
Dean could hear Matt Pike through the receiver of the phone; the clearly panicked kid was practically shouting. "Sam! My backyard's crawling with cockroaches."
"Matt, just listen. You have to get your family out of that house right now, ok?"
"What? Why?"
"Because something's coming," Sam said.
"More bugs?"
"Yeah. A lot more."
"My Dad doesn't listen under the best of circumstances! What am I supposed to tell him?"
"Look, you've got to make him listen, ok?"
Dean rolled his eyes. "Give me the phone," he snapped. Sam hesitated. "Give me the phone!"
Sam finally handed it over. "Matt, listen," Dean ordered in a no-nonsense tone of voice. "Under no circumstances are you to tell the truth. He'll just think you're nuts!"
"But… but he's my…"
Dean talked right over the kid's protests. "Tell him you've got a sharp pain in your right side and you got to go to the hospital, ok?"
"Ok," Matt breathed. "Yeah, ok."
Dean hung up the phone and handed it back to his idiot brother. "Make him listen," Dean scoffed. "What are you thinking?"
Sam looked pissy about the rebuke, but not as pissy as he looked after Jayne grunted from the backseat, "Hardly the best plan."
Sam sighed, sounding harassed. They all lapsed into silence and Dean gunned it down the road, hoping Matt Pike was smart enough to do as he said, and that all the Pikes would be gone from the neighborhood by the time they made it back to Oasis Plains. But clearly the night was not on his side, because when Dean finally parked his car alongside the curb in front of the Pikes' house, every light in the place was still on and the family car was still sitting in the drive.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Jayne groaned from the backseat.
"Damn it," Dean added. "They're still here. Come on."
All of them clambered out of the car, and a very pissed off Larry Pike rushed out of the front door, storming down his tiny yard to greet them, with his son hot on his heels. "Get off my property before I call the cops!" he shouted.
Dean sighed inwardly. Well, so much for my great appendicitis cover…
"Mr. Pike," Sam said calmly. "Listen."
"Dad," Matt added. "They're just trying to help."
"Matt, get in the house!" Larry thundered.
Matt sighed, and looked over at the four hunters forlornly. "Sorry," he murmured. "I told him the truth."
"We had a plan, Matt," Dean retorted. "What happened to the plan?"
"Look, it's nearly twelve am," Sam cut in smoothly. "They're going to be coming any minute now. You need to get your family and get out of here before it's too late."
"You mean before the biblical swarm," Larry spat sarcastically.
Lynn rolled her eyes and stepped forward. "Mr. Pike, we don't have time for this. You can either stand around outside and argue with us, or you can do the responsible thing and get your family out of here. Don't take chances with your wife and kid's lives."
"Don't you threaten me," Larry snapped, advancing.
"It's not a threat," Lynn returned calmly, but Dean could hear the pained, strained note in her voice. "It's facts. I'm trying to save your life."
Dean was impressed that she was coming off so cool, calm and collected… it wasn't the sort of thing he generally associated with her. Sure, she tried to be patient, but it was usually easy to tell how close to losing her cool she was. He pushed his way into the exchange, hoping to help hammer the point home. "Larry, what do you really think happened to the realtor?" he asked. "And the gas company man? You don't think something odd's going on around here?"
Apparently, Larry didn't think that at all. "I don't know who you people are, but you're crazy. You come near me or my boy again, and we're going to have a problem."
"Well, I hate to be a downer," Dean snapped. "But we've got a problem right now."
"Dad, they're right," Matt spoke up. "We're in danger."
"Matt, get inside right now!" Larry practically screamed.
"No!" Matt hollered back. "Why won't you listen to me?"
"Because this is crazy! It doesn't make any sense!"
"All right, that's it!" Jayne barked, stepping forward so suddenly that Larry retreated backwards in alarm. "Look, no one really gives a damn if you believe us or not. You have two options; get your family, get in your car and get the hell out of here, or I punch you in the head and stuff your ass in the trunk. Pick your poison."
Dean widened his eyes and swung his head around to appraise her with appreciation. Larry bristled, but seemed momentarily at a loss for words. "You know," Dean murmured, tilting his head as he considered Jayne's proposition. "That's not a half bad idea."
He took a step forward, and Larry stiffened noticeably, but stood his ground. Whether or not anyone was getting punched in the head, however, was not a question that was getting an answer. Lynn stepped in between them, hands out, and yelled at them. "Stop it!" Everyone in the front yard turned to her in surprise. She stared back at them, her eyes wide. "Do you hear it?"
Dean frowned, falling quiet and listening intently. It took mere moments to pick out the sound as it came closer and closer to where they all stood: a loud, roaring, buzzing noise of positively biblical proportions.
The bugs had finally arrived.
"What the hell…?" Larry murmured.
The blue bug zapper hanging on the porch began to crackle. Countless bugs were hitting it and bouncing off. The buzzing noise grew louder. Dean swallowed too hard, his stomach churning, and immediately took charge. "All right, it's time to go," he announced, chancing a look over his shoulder in the general direction of the noise. "Larry, get your wife."
Suddenly, Larry was a lot less argumentative. Instead of shouting or fighting with him, Larry nodded and raced for the front door. He hadn't even opened it when Matt spoke up.
"You guys?" he said, his voice wavering. The teenager gestured towards the horizon. Dean followed his hand, turning slowly in the Pikes' front yard towards the west. He swallowed again, too hard, eyes widening as he stared at night sky. A large, black, buzzing cloud was swarming towards them, so huge and dark that it blotted out the stars and the moon, and it roared towards them at speeds they couldn't possible outrun.
They were so completely screwed.
"Oh my god," Larry muttered.
"We'll never make it," Sam said.
"Everybody in the house!" Dean ordered. "Everybody in the house, now! Let's go!"
This time, no one argued. All six of them tore up the porch steps and ducked inside the house. Dean slammed the door and locked it behind him. Through the door, through the windows, through the wall, he could still hear the incessant buzzing of the approaching insect swarm, getting louder and louder, and then he heard the thunk of their bodies hitting the sides of the house.
He swallowed too hard again, looking over his shoulder into the house. Sam was right beside him, and Jayne was standing by the small table in the tiny square entryway, head tilted like she was listening to the approaching swarm. Lynn had migrated further into the house, arms folded tightly over her chest as she wrinkled her nose, stepping towards the living room and making a face at the ceiling.
Dean looked at Sam, who immediately looked at Larry. "Is there anyone else in the neighborhood?" Sam demanded.
Larry shook his head. "No, it's just us."
His wife suddenly appeared in the foyer. "Honey, what's happening? What's that noise?"
No one answered her question. The buzzing was still getting louder. "Call 9-1-1," Larry ordered his wife. She didn't move, staring up at the ceiling in horror. "Joanie!" Larry shouted.
"Ok," she said frantically, racing for the phone.
Dean wasn't sure why either of them were bothering, or what they thought emergency services could do in a situation like this, but he didn't bother voicing that out loud, figuring the point would be moot once dispatch laughed Larry's wife off the phone. Instead, he took a deep breath and looked around the foyer, trying to think up a plan to survive the onslaught until sunrise.
It was going to be a long night.
Jayne felt herself being pushed and pulled and jostled from all sides as she crossed the threshold, into the Pikes' home. The movement was a blur, accompanied by the deafening roar of the approaching, buzzing swarm, and then suddenly she was inside, in the front entrance, breathing hard and squinting against the bright light from a table lamp in the foyer, as Dean barked orders from somewhere behind her.
"I need towels," he announced, grabbing Larry's shoulder. The developer ran past Jayne, around the corner of the entrance, headed for his linen closet with Dean hot on his heels. In the living room, Joanie Pike was dialing 9-1-1 on the house phone.
Sam grabbed Matt. "All right, we need to lock this place up," he ordered. "Doors, windows, fireplace, everything!"
Jayne glanced over at Lynn and caught her checking the floor around her, cautiously lifting up first one shoe and then the other. She rolled her eyes. Trust her sister to fear an ant attack when the bees were already swarming outside the door. She caught Lynn's eye as Sam hauled Matt upstairs. Lynn nodded at her stepsister, and then raced off to lock up the lower level. She turned the corner, following Dean and Larry towards the downstairs closet and snagging a towel off the stack in Larry's arms. Dean snatched one too and ran for the front door, stuffing the towel under the crack. Jayne headed for the kitchen.
"The phone's dead!" she heard Joanie exclaim.
"They must have chewed through the phone lines!" Dean called.
Jayne pushed through the swinging door in the dining room and raced into the kitchen, skirting around the black marble-top island and launching herself at the back door. After making sure it was locked up tight, she began stuffing her towel underneath it, sealing it as best she could. Seconds later, the lights flickered and went out.
"And the power lines!" she heard Dean announce from the front of the house.
There was a fluttering sensation in Jayne's stomach that she could only describe as panic. She finished stuffing the towel under the door and double checked the windows around her.
"I'm getting my cell!" Larry exclaimed from the foyer as Jayne made a beeline for an open kitchen window, steps away from the door. Moments later, he announced, "There's no signal!"
"You won't get one!" Dean returned, as Jayne rattled the window screen, knocking loose the bugs trying to eat through it. Then she yanked the window shut and locked it. "They're blanketing the house."
Jayne froze at his words and stepped back from the window. Eyes wide, she took a look around, at the window she'd just shut, at the glass in the back door. Sure enough, the bees and beetles and cicadas were dive-bombing the house. As she watched in horror, she saw them gluing themselves up against the window, one on top of the other. Their segmented bodies and multiple legs swarmed around one another as they squished themselves together, blocking both the cell phone reception and the light from the moon outside.
Her stomach was sick, and her throat started to swell up, and Jayne forced herself to take deep breaths. She had to stay calm, because she'd be no good to anyone if she panicked. She barely noticed she'd been backing away from the window, back around the island, towards the door to the dining room, until she backed smack into a hard body behind her. Sucking in a sharp gasp, she whirled around with her hand clutching at her throat. Dean. Stupid, stupid Dean.
He frowned at her, his hand grabbing hold of her shoulder. "Are you all right?"
She nodded furiously, swatting his hand away. "I'm fine!" she snapped. "You just… you just startled me. Jerk."
He rolled his eyes at the immature comment and raced for the kitchen sink, across the room from the bug-covered windows. As she stood uselessly in the center of the room, Dean threw open the cupboards and began rooting through their contents. Jayne frowned at his back as he hunched over, making noise and shoving shit around. When he stood back up, he held a black aerosol canister in his hand.
Jayne crinkled her brow incredulously. "Bug spray?"
Dean shrugged. "Why not?"
He thrust a long, floppy green object into her hand. Jayne stared down at the object in her hand, and then she looked back up and stared at Dean, unimpressed.
"This is a fly swatter," she announced, in a dry, annoyed tone.
He shrugged again. "Would you rather have nothing?"
"No," she retorted defensively, cradling the fly swatter to her chest.
He shook his head, looking at the kitchen window again. She followed his gaze. The bugs were still swarming on the glass, covering the window, blotting out the moonlight. Their buzzing sounds echoed in her ears, drowning out almost everything else. Dean made a grossed out face that echoed the churning in her stomach. "Still think this case is lame?" he asked her.
"Yep," Jayne returned, popping her p. Outwardly, she tried to stay calm, impassive, and somewhat sarcastic; inwardly, she felt none of that. Actually, she was starting to get more annoyed by her circumstances than afraid, because dying inside this mini McMansion due to an insect attack, with the freaking Winchesters of all people, was not how she'd planned to go out. "And I'll tell you what; if this lame ass case is the one that kills me, I am going to be so pissed off."
Dean smirked, but it only lasted a moment, and then it was right back to business for both of them. He clapped his hand on her shoulder again. "Come on," he ordered, steering her out of the kitchen and back into the living room.
She supposed it was a testament to the shittiness of the situation that she didn't bother shrugging him off.
The Pikes' living room was getting darker and darker by the second, and the buzzing from outside was getting so loud, it drowned out everything else, making conversation impossible unless they shouted. Lynn swallowed, watching the windows with wide eyes, shuddering at the creepy-crawly sensation she was getting on her skin from watching the bugs congregate on the glass. Their gross, segmented bodies were climbing and crawling all over the window and the other bugs... Lynn shuddered and tamped down a whimper, turning it into a quiet squeak. She did not like bugs.
She took an unconscious step backwards. There wasn't a whole lot of room to be doing things like that; they were all still huddled in the entrance hall, right where it met the stairs and the living room, except for Jayne, who was still in the kitchen, and Dean, who'd suddenly darted off towards the kitchen as well. Why, was anyone's guess. She could only hope he'd thought up some genius plan to escape the wrath of nature or something. Honestly, though, she doubted it.
Swallowing too hard, she took another step back from the window and collided with Sam Winchester. She muffled another squeak, but he heard it anyway, if the way he took her hand was anything to judge by. She looked over her shoulder in surprise, but Sam's eyes were hard on the window, watching the bugs block out the moon. He was tense and on alert, and he still took her hand and gave it a gentle, reassuring squeeze. Lynn stared at him, and then at their hands, and then at him again.
"What do we do now?" Larry asked.
"Try and outlast them," Sam answered him, still not looking at her. His eyes were on the grossness just outside the window. "Hopefully, the curse will end at sunrise."
"Hopefully?!"
Lynn rolled her eyes and glared sideways at the man. "Hey, you know, we tried to get your stubborn ass out of here," she reminded him. "Tried pretty freaking hard, as I remember it."
She heard the door to the kitchen swing open right about then, and looked up to see Jayne and Dean storming back into the living room and rejoining the rest of the small group standing in the foyer, still watching the windows with wide eyes. Larry stood with his wife and son, as Joanie hugged Matt close to her side. Lynn saw Jayne's eyes go straight to her and Sam's enjoined hands... and then Sam abruptly let go.
Joanie looked at Jayne and Dean as they hurried back to the huddle and asked incredulously. "Bug spray?"
Lynn blinked at her, and then at Dean, who was holding up a black canister of RAID. "Trust me," Dean returned.
He'd barely gotten the words out before there was a loud, creaking sound coming from the fireplace. Lynn turned towards it, the twisting, churning, sick panicked feeling in her stomach growing increasingly worse. She could hear the creaking getting louder, and the pitter-patter of the bugs landing on the flue. The flue was going.
Sam turned towards the fireplace as well, nearly stepping on the back of her boot. She felt his arm brush against her back. Exactly how freaking close was he standing to her, anyway? Lynn squeezed her hands into fists, trying to keep them to herself. "The flue," Sam murmured, as he took a step towards the fireplace. Behind them, Larry stepped in front of his wife and son, backing them towards the stairs. Sam kept inching towards the fireplace, and Lynn started forward too, moving on adrenaline fueled autopilot, as she grabbed at anything that she could use to plug up the fireplace... towels Larry had left in the foyer, cushions from right off the chairs... Sam froze suddenly, but she kept going, edging past him with an armload of crap.
"All right, I think everyone needs to get upstairs," Dean announced uneasily.
And then it was too late: the flue dropped down with a heavy clang, and a swarm of insects flew directly at Lynn's face. She screamed, dropping towels everywhere as her hands flew up instinctively towards her face, to block the bugs, not that it was going to do her any good at all... but the bugs flew around her on all sides, streaming past her yet never touching her, never landing on her, never stinging her or biting her, and instead avoiding her completely. Lynn froze, eyes wide, too shocked to move. She heard the relentless buzzing roar ringing in her ears; she felt the draft from their countless wings as they bulldozed on by her. But nothing happened to her, nothing at all.
Behind her, everyone else started shrieking and running for the stairs, slapping at the attacking bugs, but Lynn was fine. She frowned, regrouping, replaying Joe Whitetree's story in her head; no white man would ever tarnish his land again. Nature would rise up and protect the valley. And it would bring as many days of misery and death to the white man as the cavalry had brought upon his people.
Dean whipped out the bug spray and a lighter, and started hollering as he released the nozzle and lit the spray from the aerosol can on fire, spraying burning poison at the attacking swarm. Sam was backing away, towards the stairs, pushing the Pikes ahead of him. "Everybody upstairs now!" Dean thundered. "Now! Now! Now! Go!"
Lynn let his voice turn into background noise, like the humming of the insects, and narrowed her eyes at the fireplace, still spitting out bees. She had seconds to move, so she did, shutting down the squeaky, panicking side of her that was screaming ew, bugs, run, bugs, and she ran to the fireplace, hitting the floor on her knees in front of it. A basket of firewood sat on the hearth, off to the side of the fireplace, and Lynn dragged it towards her as she shoved one hand in the fireplace and shut the flue with a loud clang! She propped it up into place with logs from the basket, cramming them lengthwise into the fireplace to reinforce the door. She could hear the buzzing and thumping of more bees from inside the chimney and honestly, it freaked her out... but she pushed the panic down, ignoring it, focusing on how the insects in the house were still not attacking her, and she grabbed the nearest piece of furniture, an endtable, and knocked off a lamp before lifting the table onto the hearth, turning it on its side, and blocking off the open fireplace with the tabletop.
"What are you doing?" Jayne's angry voice suddenly demanded in her ear, her hand grabbing Lynn's arm. Lynn was already panting, out of breath, as her stepsister yanked her away from the fireplace and back towards the staircase. "What the hell are you doing?!"
Dean appeared then and set off his bug spray blowtorch again, and the room was filled with flickering orange light and a disgusting, astringent chemical smell, and Lynn considered that even if the bugs didn't kill her, the poison Dean was spritzing all over the place might.
The Pikes were already gone, upstairs, and Sam must have gone with them because he was nowhere to be seen either. Jayne dragged her upstairs by her arm, two steps at a time, Dean covering them by shooting off his flaming bug spray. When they reached the upstairs hallway, Lynn saw Sam at the foot of the ladder that led up into the attic, waiting for them, ushering Larry Pike up the ladder after the rest of his family.
"You first!" Lynn snapped at her stepsister, yanking her arm free. "They're not attacking me! You go first!"
"What?!" Jayne snapped back, looking at her like she was nuts, but Lynn shoved her at Sam, who pushed Jayne ahead of him on the ladder, and then hurriedly climbed up after her, not giving her an opportunity to argue about it. There was no time to argue, and unfortunately there was no time to explain. Lynn knew Jayne must be dying to argue with her about what she was doing, but she was just going to have to wait.
She turned on Dean, grabbed his bug spray, and pushed him towards the ladder. He looked startled but didn't argue with her; instead, he hauled ass up the ladder as Lynn lit off another round of RAID, spraying the fiery stream of poison at the swarm as she clambered up the rungs of the ladder after him, and finally into the attic. Sam was kneeling on the floor by the trapdoor, and he grabbed Lynn around the waist, hauling her up the last two steps into the attic.
Lynn stumbled into his chest, breathless, her boots skidding on the attic floor, and for a moment, he held her there. "You all right?" Sam demanded.
She nodded wordlessly, swallowing hard and pushing herself off him, onto the attic floor by his side, trying to ignore and forget the feeling of his chest through his shirt, how he felt warm and comfortable and... oddly safe. She lit the bug spray again and kept shooting the stuff down into the hallway at the approaching bees as Sam and Dean struggled to shut the trapdoor behind her. The moment the door shut, Lynn heard the thump of the buzzing swarm below as they hit the hallway ceiling and bounced off the trapdoor, and she swallowed down sudden panic-induced nausea, releasing the nozzle on the bug spray. She sat still on the attic floor, trying to catch her breath, trying to tune back into the world, to unblock her ears and clear her tunnel vision.
Dean snatched back his bug spray, like it was a security blanket she'd stolen from him, and Lynn rolled her eyes but let him take the stuff, not at all interested in arguing about it. She took a quick look around the dark, cramped attic, still trying to catch her breath. Everyone was still trying to catch their breath. All around Lynn, everyone had been stung or bitten at least once... but there wasn't a scratch on her. The Pike family was huddled in the corner farthest from the door, Matt sandwiched between his parents, all three of them clearly terrified. Sam was crouching beside her on the floor, his knee a little too close to her shoulder, but Lynn wasn't going to think about that. She looked across the trapdoor, through the pulley system, squinting in the dark at Dean and Jayne, who were both crouching on the floor where the ceiling was at its lowest point. Jayne was staring at her, clearly thunderstruck, and Lynn cringed.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Jayne exploded once again.
Lynn took a deep breath, turning to her sister and raising herself up on her knees. "They're not attacking me!" she explained, a tad too loudly. "I'm not the white man, I guess, so they're not attacking me!"
Everyone gawked at her a beat. Jayne gave her head a small, incredulous shake. "What are you talking about?!" she shouted back.
"They're not attacking me!" Lynn shouted too, feeling like a broken record or a talking parrot that only knew one sentence. "No bug bites! No stings! Nothing!" She gestured vehemently at herself. "Not the white man!"
Everyone gawked at her some more. Then Dean scoffed rudely. "What, so just because you're Mexican, you get a pass? How's that fair?"
Lynn glowered at him, folding her arms over her chest. Dean faltered a little, his eyes going wide as he scooted back from her on the attic floor. Jayne snorted and shook her head. "Now you've done it," she muttered.
"First of all," Lynn snapped. "I am Puerto Rican."
Dean swallowed visibly. "Uh... er... sorry..."
"Second of all..." she began frostily, but her second of all never made it past her lips, because suddenly, a whole new fresh hell broke loose.
The attic should have been pitch dark, but it wasn't. Moonlight was streaming into the cramped space under the eaves from somewhere, and Lynn could hear a crumbling, crunching, crackling sound coming from somewhere overhead. She instantly fell silent. They all looked up at the ceiling, blinking. There, in the center of the attic, was a small, bare spot in the roof - a weakness in the wood that was quickly starting to give way, getting barer and barer by the second. Light from outside filtered in through the small cracks appearing in the ceiling, and sawdust snowed down on them from the beginnings of an actual hole.
"Oh God," Joanie exclaimed in horror. "What is that?"
The four of them got slowly to their feet, all eyes trained on the balding spot in the roof. Sam and Dean stepped into the sparse patch of moonlight in the center of the attic, squinting up overhead, and Lynn exchanged a look of concern with her stepsister before joining them underneath what could only be called a very serious problem.
"Something's eating through the wood," Dean announced incredulously.
"Termites," Matt supplied.
"Great," Jayne grumbled from the shadows.
"All right, everyone get back!" Dean ordered, waving his hand at the Pikes. "Get back! Get back!"
The Pikes crowded into the very far corner of the attic, crawling under the eaves, away from the rapidly deteriorating weak spot in the roof. The family had barely taken cover when the wood suddenly gave way, a small chunk of roof plummeting to the attic floor and a jagged hole the size of Lynn's head opening up in the ceiling. Instantly, a swarm of bees attacked the small opening, spilling into the attic. The buzzing was like a dull roar in her ears, and she watched the insects dive bomb all the other people in the attic with her, skirting around her to reach them. Dean whipped out his bug spray and his lighter and started spraying RAID fire into the swarm. His whole strategy looked like a pointless endeavor to Lynn.
Sam had a better strategy, though, kicking loose the metal cover on the attic fuse box. Lynn watched him snatch it off the floor and rush towards the hole in the roof. Really, it should be her rushing into the swarm like that, seeing as she still wasn't a target, but there was no way she could reach the hole, at the highest point in the attic's sloping ceiling. Dean ditched the flaming bug spray and ran for a two-by-four laying on the attic floor. Jayne jogged after him, and Lynn grabbed the bug spray, pulling out her lighter and sending another continuous stream of fire and poison into the attacking horde of bees and wasps.
Jayne and Dean wrestled the two-by-four off the ground as Lynn covered them, and then they dragged it over to the hole, where Sam was holding the fuse box cover against the opening. Once the two of them had squeezed the long wooden pole into place, he let go of the cover and darted backwards. Lynn watched the quick fix with trepidation as Sam stumbled backwards from the hole, breathing hard, but the cover miraculously held. She relaxed, sighing heavily, and stopped spraying the bug spray at once.
They'd barely caught their breath, however, when suddenly, there was loud cracking and buzzing noises from a different part of the attic. All four hunters swiveled towards the sound, finding yet another weak spot in the roof where the termites had chewed their way through.
"Seriously?" Lynn panted.
"Shit," Jayne spat.
The wood gave way in moments, and a second hole opened up, this one even larger than the first. More bees and wasps instantly swarmed inside the attic through the new opening, and Lynn looked all around her in a panic. There was nothing to cover the new hole. They were screwed.
Dean held his hand out like he expected her to hand over the bug spray, but Lynn ignored him and lit up the aerosol spray again, spitting fire into the new swarm of insects. Her stomach sank as she sprayed; there were far too many of them. "Get back!" she snapped at Dean, stepping in front of him with her poison fueled flame torch. "Not a target, remember? You, white dude, definitely still a target!"
That seemed to wake him up and Dean bolted back, letting her ward off the attacking bees and wasps. Lynn focused on trying to keep the majority of the bugs from attacking the people behind her. She could hear the Pikes screaming and yelling; she heard people slapping away the insects. A quick glance over her shoulder revealed Sam, Jayne and Dean all huddled in the corner of the attic with the Pikes, on their knees with their coats open. They formed a circle around the tiny family, holding their coats wide open and up around their faces, clearly trying to shield the Pikes and themselves from the bugs that were getting past Lynn and the bug spray, and maliciously dive bombing her sister and her friends and the little family of three.
Then came the dreaded sound of more cracking, splintering wood, and Lynn's eyes snapped to the left. The hole they'd covered with the piece from the fuse box was growing wider as the termites continued their work on the roof, and she could see moonlight streaming in through the cracks, around the edges of their makeshift patch. Sawdust was streaming down from the ceiling again. Then another big chunk of the roof gave way and their support system failed, and both the two-by-four and the fuse box lid tumbled to the attic floor, leaving a yawning hole behind. More angry bees came swarming into the attic through the new entrance, and Lynn tried valiantly to keep up with the onslaught, still shooting fire and RAID at the attacking insect army. She kept spraying until the can was empty, and then she swore loudly and threw the bug spray away, running for the back corner of the attic.
Lynn shrugged out of her coat and dropped it over Jayne's head, trying to spread it out enough to shield both Jayne and Sam. After all, there was no need to shield herself. Even with the bees currently filling up the attic, she still wasn't getting stung, and Lynn couldn't help marveling at that. Her own safety was a guarantee at this point, but she had other concerns. How much longer until dawn? Would they make it until then? Or was she going to have to watch her stepsister die? And the Winchesters? And this innocent family?
They stayed huddled like that for a long time. Too long. Lynn was starting to panic. Her stomach twisted up and she began gnawing her lip. The bugs kept swarming, the buzzing loud in her ears, the creepy crawly things landing all around them, on the coats they were using as cover, on her, and even though she knew to her the bugs were harmless, it made her want to scream and run away. Just as she was starting to really freak out, the buzzing noises suddenly grew softer, and the attic seemed to get lighter. Frowning, Lynn looked over her shoulder at the swarm of bees filling the attic. Slowly, the swarm began to thin. Light shone down into the attic from the termite holes.
She sagged in relief, releasing a harsh, heavy breath. It was the bright gray light of dawn. As she watched the sun rise through the holes in the roof, the bees and wasps began to retreat. Slowly, watching the insects carefully, Lynn stood up and pulled her jacket away from Jayne and Sam's heads.
"I think it's over," she announced shakily.
She walked carefully towards the hole in the roof. The bees were now mostly gone, flying off through the hole. Behind her, she heard Jayne, Sam, and Dean's footsteps as they followed her to the center of the attic. All of them stood under the nearest hole, watching through the roof as the sun rose and the swarm of insects flew away towards the bright pinks and oranges on the horizon. Lynn watched the phenomenon with wide eyes, more than a little surprised. After all, as Joe Whitetree had put it, on the sixth night there were supposed to be no survivors.
And yet here they were, all seven of them, alive and well in the face of the approaching dawn.
Janis rumbled as Jayne took the turn down Larry Pike's street, past the barren, half developed lots that surrounded his finished, new and shiny house. Parked directly in front of his property was a long white moving van. Outside the home, all three Pikes were busy, loading up the van and their cars with their belongings, and throwing some items into the trash. She sidled up alongside the curb, across the street from the van, and Jayne threw the pickup into park before shutting down the engine. Dean's Impala sped past her, horn blaring, and then he parked directly in front her, swerving like a maniac.
Jayne rolled her eyes. "He is so mature," she announced flatly.
Her stepsister smirked at her. "The two of you seemed to be getting along all right yesterday," she pointed out. "There was minimal bickering. You even took one another's sides on occasion. And I seem to remember him opening a door for you… which is a vast improvement, because a few weeks ago, I would have bet he'd let the door smack you in the face."
Again, Jayne rolled her eyes. "Whatever." She gave Lynn an appraising look. "You know, I still can't believe you walked away without one damn bug bite. The rest of us look like we caught the pox, and here you are, skin as smooth as can be."
Lynn shrugged, smirking. "Sorry. I can't help it if my ancestors were better than yours."
Jayne scoffed at her, and then allowed herself a half a smile. "Guess we better say bye to the Pikes."
Lynn sighed. "I guess. You know, last night could have ended a lot differently if that dumbass had just listened to us and left."
"Yep," Jayne agreed. "But, hey. That's the job. Saving people who don't want to be saved and are downright rude when you try."
"This gig is seriously getting to be a thankless task."
"Let's just get this over with."
They hopped down from the cab of the pickup and made their way towards the Pikes. Dean and Sam climbed out of the Impala as they passed by, and joined them on the walk over to the house. Larry stood at the back of the moving van, its doors wide open, as he loaded up the trailer with boxes. "What?" Dean called as they got closer. "No good-bye?"
Larry looked up and smiled as they joined him at the back of the truck. "Good timing," he returned, shaking hands with all of them. "Another hour, and we'd have been gone."
"For good?" Sam asked.
"Yeah," Larry replied. "The development's been put on hold while the government investigates those bones you found. But I'm going to make damn sure no one lives here ever again."
"Good call," Lynn said, smiling gently.
Larry gave her a half-hearted grin.
"You don't seem too upset about it," Sam pointed out.
"Well, this has been the biggest financial disaster of my career," Larry said. "But somehow…"
He glanced over at the house. The other four saw Matt Pike walking towards the trashcan, a cardboard box in his arms.
"I really don't care," Larry finished.
Jayne mustered up half a smile for the developer. Sam smiled at him too, nodded, and then he headed over to say goodbye. Lynn gave Larry a last smile, a whispered good luck, and then she followed Sam up the driveway. Jayne tried really hard not to roll her eyes.
"I really don't know how to say thank you enough," Larry continued, addressing Jayne and Dean. "You kept me alive, kept my family alive… despite everything I did to stop you."
"Yeah, well," Dean smirked. "We're stubborn like that."
"You are," Larry agreed. "And I'm grateful."
"Don't mention it," Jayne murmured, starting to get embarrassed. She honestly hated the hunts that ended like this. It was nice to get a thank you, but… a simple thank you, see you around would suffice. She hated when things got this emotional, or reflective, or just plain wordy. She wasn't too good with emotional scenes, or lengthy goodbyes.
Larry smiled. "Although, I am curious as to what would have happened if those bugs hadn't shown up at just the right moment," he joked. "What with you threatening to punch my lights out and all."
"Oh, I would have done it," she assured him, giving him a smirk. "Wouldn't be the first time either."
Dean laughed beside her. "Yeah," he agreed. "I'm with her there."
"So this is what you guys do?" Larry asked. "You go from town to town, state to state, just saving idiots like me who get themselves into crazy situations like this one?"
"Pretty much," Dean replied.
"Wow," Larry sighed. "Sounds like a stressful job. At least you've got each other, though. I've got to say, I'm impressed your marriage has handled the strain so well. You guys seem pretty happy together."
Jayne was pretty sure she just flushed about ten shades of red. "Oh no," she said quickly – possibly too quickly. "Actually, we're not really married."
Larry looked surprised. "You're not?"
"No," she assured him, shaking her head. "Not even a little. Actually, we rarely even hunt together."
"Yeah," Dean added, also sounding rather flustered. "That was sort of a lie."
"Yeah," Jayne agreed, deadpan. "He's a liar."
Dean glared at her.
Larry smiled, not the least bit thrown... and who could blame him, really, after the insect showdown in his attic the night before? "Well, you could have fooled me," was all he said.
They said their goodbyes to Larry, shook hands one last time, and then left him to his packing, crossing the street and stopping between the truck and the Impala, where they stood together uncomfortably, waiting for Lynn and Sam to finish talking with Matt. They fell into an awkward silence.
"So, uh… Larry really thought we were married," Dean said.
"Yeah," Jayne replied. "Go figure."
They fell quiet again.
Jayne swallowed. "Look, um… this hunt was kind of… well, this hunt sucked, but…" she sighed. "I guess working with you wasn't the equivalent to pulling an impacted tooth."
Dean laughed. "Wow," he chortled. "Coming from you, that's as good as a compliment."
"Yeah," she shrugged. "Don't let it go to your head."
"Too late," he smirked.
She tried not to, but she laughed.
They stood around awkwardly in the wet, mud-smeared street for a few more seconds and then Jayne announced, "Good bye, Dean. I'm sure if Sam and Lynn have anything to say about it, I'll be seeing you again fairly soon."
He smiled at her. "I'll see you around, Jayne."
She nodded, gave him a short-lived half smile and an awkward wave, and then she headed back to her truck. Dean turned and headed for his car as she hopped up in the cab of her pickup. Finally at ease behind the wheel of her beloved Janis, Jayne leaned back in her seat, staring absently out the windshield as she waited for her stepsister. Too late, she realized that staring absently actually meant staring at Dean's ass as he walked away.
Giving her head a furious shake, Jayne quickly focused her eyes on the ceiling. Dean leaned up against the side of his car, but Jayne refused to look at him again. What the hell was the matter with her?
They really needed to stop hunting with the Winchesters.
At the top of the Pikes' driveway, Lynn stood awkwardly and out of place under the warm springtime sun as Sam exchanged a few jokey quips with Matt, and a few words of advice. Something about sticking by your family even when you disagreed, but not letting it mean you couldn't live your own life. The strangest part was Matt was giving most of the advice.
Lynn examined the sky overhead, blue and streaked with thin, wispy white clouds, and said goodbye when Matt and Sam finished their powwow. Matt disappeared into the garage with a final smile and a wave, and Lynn turned to Sam to say her goodbyes.
"I had a good hunt," she told him as they ambled down the driveway.
Sam crinkled up his nose in a skeptical smile. "Really?" he asked.
He looked adorable doing that, but Lynn didn't tell him so. "Yeah," she said. "Remember, I'm the only one nothing stung. It was awesome."
He laughed. She smiled slightly, looking down at her shoes. They came to a stop where the driveway met the curb, and Lynn turned towards him. "Look, Sam," she said suddenly. "I've been thinking about what happened in the woods. That little talk we had about your dad…"
"It's ok, Lynn," he interrupted her. "I was probably a little out of line that day."
She paused, staring at the ground. "Not entirely."
They were quiet. "I just want you to know that I understand," she told him.
Sam blinked.
"I mean, I fought with my dad plenty growing up," she pushed on. "Hunting wasn't exactly my first career choice either."
"Really?" he asked again. "What was?"
Lynn scratched awkwardly at her hair. "Uh… well… I guess this is where we're different, Sam, because… I don't know. I didn't really know then, and I still don't know. I know I wanted to go to school. Get a degree in something… you know, after I did the whole college party scene… but if I'm being honest? It was always this vague start of a goal, nothing concrete, and then… it just didn't happen."
He frowned at her sympathetically. "Why not?"
She froze. Maybe it was stupid, maybe it was short-sighted, but for some reason she hadn't expected that question. She bit her lip, studying her boots. Why? No one had ever really asked her why before.
He was watching, waiting expectantly, and finally, Lynn shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, my dad never approved. When I was still in high school, he was pretty determined that I follow in his footsteps, and gave me all kinds of hell when I told him I might want otherwise. But then… then he died. I was eighteen, and… I'd been accepted by a decent school, I had a little scholarship money coming my way, and I was in the clear when it came to loans, but…"
She paused, taking a deep breath. "Jayne made it clear I could go. She wasn't going to stand in my way. She didn't guilt trip me or anything. If I wanted to leave, I could leave." Lynn tore her eyes off the driveway and met his. "That's when I realized I didn't really want to go. I kind of don't think I ever did."
Sam blinked. "Never?"
"I don't know. I mean… when you're a teenager, sometimes you just rebel to rebel, you know? And sometimes I think that's what it was. I don't know. Maybe it wasn't even that I didn't want to go; I couldn't go. I couldn't leave Jayne. I couldn't bail on Steve. I just... my family needed me. Steve wasn't even halfway through high school, and Jayne couldn't chase him around all on her own, and… there were people like the Pikes who needed people like me to step up to the plate and do the right thing."
He stared at her. Lynn wasn't sure he was buying what she was putting out there, and that was okay. She wasn't sure she was even making sense. She stared back, fiddling with her necklace, and then she dropped her eyes to the pavement again. "Besides," she went on. "School? Nine-to-five job? Three kids and a husband and a dog? What would I have even done with that? I… don't know if I could have ever just lived my life. I think I would have always been looking for the next hunt, even if I had struck out on my own and tried to live… normal, I guess."
She didn't get an answer out of him, at least not right away. Lynn hadn't really expected one, she supposed. What was he even supposed to say to that overshare? Sam stuffed his hands in his coat pockets and frowned down at the driveway. He nodded once. "Look," she sighed. "Um... I'm not trying to take sides here or talk you into anything. I was just... telling my story, that's all. And if you don't want to live this life forever, you shouldn't. But... I mean, living your own life shouldn't have to mean turning your back on your family. And... I'm just sorry, Sam. I hope when you find your Dad, he's figured that out."
He smiled at her. She was rambling, and she clamped her mouth shut tight, shoving her hands in the back pockets of her jeans. They fell silent, and Lynn stared at him a moment, unsure how to say good bye. She remembered him holding her hand the night before, and she impulsively went in for the hug. Standing on her tiptoes, she wrapped her arms around him at the highest point she could reach and gave him a squeeze. Sam stiffened a little, mostly in surprise she assumed, because he relaxed pretty quickly and wrapped his arms around her loosely, hugging her back. Lynn closed her eyes, trying not to get too wrapped up in Sam's strong warmth, because that was a nonstarter; he was cute, and she knew he was cute, and he was unavailable and she was just not going there, hug or no hug.
They separated, and Lynn gave him a farewell pat on the arm. "Don't be a stranger," she said, opting for what she hoped was a brilliant smile.
He gave her a wide, genuine grin in return. "Never," he agreed.
Lynn smiled at him one last time, and then headed back to her stepsister's truck. Sam made a beeline for the Impala. She chanced a last glance over her shoulder as she rounded the truck's front bumper, eyes traveling down the length of his back, watching him walk away from her... and then she bit her lip, hard, and averted her gaze, staring straight ahead. She practically frog-marched the rest of the way to the passenger side door.
This road goes nowhere, Lynn Juarez, she reminded herself, sighing up into her bangs. This is a guaranteed crash and burn. Don't go there. Make better choices.
She pushed Sam Winchester to the back of her mind and climbed up into the cab of Jayne's truck. Janis was already running, engine rumbling and old folksy rock tunes playing on the stereo. Jayne nodded at her and she nodded back, and then Jayne put the truck in gear and pulled away from the curb. Lynn gave the Winchesters one final wave as they passed them, and then flopped back in the seat, sighing again.
Maybe next time Sam invited them on a hunt, she told herself, she ought to say no.
Sam glanced up at the blue sky overhead, and then took a look down the empty street, first one way and then the other. He crossed the road, moving away from the Pikes' house and their rental van. Dean was waiting for him, leaning against the side of the Impala, with his hands jammed in his coat pockets, looking bored and restless and ready to go. Sam joined him against the car, taking up leaning space next to his brother, and offered up a wave as they watched the rusty old Nissan rumble past them. Jayne's truck got smaller and smaller as it traveled farther down the street, finally disappearing from view entirely. They were silent for a moment, standing by the car in the cool spring air, watching Larry and Matt interact at the top of the driveway.
"I want to find Dad," Sam said suddenly.
"Yeah," Dean agreed. "Me too."
"Yeah, but I just…" Sam trailed off and swallowed. He thought about Matt and Larry, and the fight he'd had with Dean at the community college, and he thought about everything Lynn had just told him. "I want to apologize to him," he decided.
Dean turned and frowned at him. "For what?"
"All the things I said to him," Sam replied. "He was just doing the best he could."
There was a short silence. "Well, don't worry," Dean said. "We'll find him. And you'll apologize. And within five minutes, you guys will be at each other's throats."
Sam laughed out loud. "Yeah, probably." He sobered, and they were quiet for another moment. "Let's hit the road," Sam said.
"Let's," Dean agreed.
The two of them stood up straight, pushing off the Impala, and then climbed into the old black car. Sam settled down for a long ride, and Dean turned up the radio, and then they headed off down the street, leaving Oasis Plains behind.