AN: Third chapter this week as promised :)
Also, we need to apologize. I (Dark) am very new to posting fanfiction and all the etiquette associated with doing so. I failed to warn you anytime our work took a dark or twisted or heavy tone, and I am sorry if the darker context took any of you by surprise. I will be going back through to add better ANs.
39.
"Uh Lilly what are you doing?" Sam demands, forgetting why he came to the kitchen, when he sees Lilly with a butcher knife, hovering over a very large hunk of prime rib.
"Making burger meat." Lilly explains absently, still formulating her attack plan.
Sam all but screams out "What! Why? Why would you do that?"
Lilly shrugs, attempting to seem nonchalant even though his reaction surprised her. "Dean wants to make burgers. I should have assumed he would, but I was busy with other things, so prime rib burgers it is." She says gesturing to the grinder sitting next to her, with the knife.
"Heh, no. Put down the knife Lilly, you can't just give him everything he wants because… Wait did Dean tell you?"
Lilly watches Sam as she puts down the knife and turns her undivided attention to him, a proverbial light bulb flickering to life in her mind's eye, as she leans against the counter arms crossed as she carefully responds "Yes, yes he did. I can't believe you two would keep us in the dark about this! It's been completely fucked up. Why would you do that? I thought we were family?" I knew it! They've been keeping something from us, assholes.
"What, wait, no. I was all for telling you both. Dean doesn't want anyone feeling bad for him." Sam covers his eyes with his hands and leans back against the nearest cabinet. "Even Bobby wanted him to tell you. I'm sorry." Is that why Dean was drinking so much last night?
"Seriously? Bobby knew too, and you couldn't trust us? Seriously?" Lilly asks feigning intense hurt, hanging her head in disappointment.
"That's not fair and you know it Lilly. It wasn't a lack of trust. We didn't want you guys counting down the days. Dean doesn't want you to try and figure a way for him to get out of it. He doesn't like that I'm trying." Sam tries to explain, though asking for logic at this point felt like too much.
Counting down the days? Get him out? Out of what? Lilly's quiet for a moment trying to figure out the next thing to say, her fingernails digging into her arms, in frustration.
"He even tried to keep me from finding out. Actually, yeah, you have a right to be mad. I was. I am still. It's my fault. He did it to save me. And now I don't how to fix it." He rubs at his eyes.
"Fuck Sam, of course I'm pissed I can't believe you would leave us in the dark about something like this! We've been worrying for months about the two of you. You should have let us know sooner! Mae and I could have helped you! We don't want this for Dean, or for you Sam." Lilly says baiting him on, hoping to every god she had ever prayed too that her morose thoughts were wrong.
Why am I still so angry about it, I thought I had made peace with it. Shit, just angry. Angry… Oh god, how long have I been in here… "Lilly! I need to leave. Just. Just give. me. a moment." He turns his back to her, ready to force himself to crawl away if need be.
Damn it! So fucking close...Damn it. At least I know something is wrong now… Knew it. Lilly thinks to herself letting out a frustrated breath as she turns back to the prime rib, slamming her fist on the counter. Sorry Sam. I want, no need to know. Guys what is going on? Fucking damn it.
"Hey, did you need some help with the drinks?" Mae asks as she walks into the kitchen.
Sam wraps his arms around her, hoping that direct contact would make it end faster. "Mae." He breathes her name, just holding on as the unruly anger begins to fade.
"Um… Are you two okay?" Mae asks wrapping her arms around Sam and rubbing his back.
"We were just talking. My me-ness kicked in. I need to grind up dinner." Lilly responds acridly. No way in fuck she's going to go with it. Damn it.
"Oh… Uh. Should I step back out?" Mae asks quietly, pulling back a bit so she could look between Sam and Lilly. Her usual headache from intense emotion beginning behind her eyes.
"No, it's cool stay. You need to know anyways, Sam want to do the honor of telling Mae what your stupid brother did? Or should I?" Lilly says stabbing down at the large hunk of meat harshly causing the other two to flinch. Too much? Not enough? What are the two dumb-asses keeping from us? Oh and fuck you too Singer.
"Has Dean talked to you about anything recently?" Sam asks Mae, dreading being the one to tell her, but knowing there was no way out of it now.
"We talked about getting meat for him to grill after Christmas?" Mae answers, unsure if she wanted to know where this was heading.
Sam attempts a smile, "Yeah, that sounds like Dean." He runs a hand through his hair, taking hold of her hand with the other. "Um, So. I feel like Dean should be the one to do this. Why in the world did he tell you and not her?" He asks, turning to look at Lilly.
"Why does he do anything?" Lilly asks Sam with a shrug fingers drumming on the counter not needing to feign her frustration.
"Whats going on? What's wrong with Dean? Is this about what's been bothering the two of you since you made base here?" Mae tugs gently on Sam's hand to get his attention.
"Uh, yes." Sam takes a long deep breath. "So. God, nothing is going to make this easier to say or hear, but let's sit down and talk about this."
"Yeah, let's sit down and talk about this, I'll finish this when we're done." Lilly agrees, as she walks over to the table and plops down in her chair staring her two friends down, almost challenging. Fuck, this is more difficult than I originally anticipated, fuck being me. This sucks… I need to know. This seems like epically crucial. Gods Sam is going to be so pissed at me… but worth it.
Sam guides Mae to a seat and sits next to her. "I don't even know how to start this."
"Where Dean did, from the beginning." Lilly snaps folding her arms and staring at Sam's nose, with serious attitude. "I feel like Mae deserves to know all of it." Oh Gods help me, Sorry Sam. School my features. School my features. Act like me, like a me who knows whatever it is needs to be known… Do I really want to know? Shit. Yes. Yes I do.
Of course he did. Sam groans inwardly. "Ok, from the beginning. This is why we don't like talking too much about what we do though. It's dangerous, and I feel like our family just has this curse hanging over us. Our Dad became a hunter the day the yellow eyed demon killed our Mom. He killed her because she walked in on him when he was gifting me with abilities. He did that with a lot of kids. He called us special. He told me that we were being trained to lead the demon army. But only the survivor would be the general. We all were taken to a freaking ghost town to battle it out. Bobby and Dean figured out where I was and got there just as I was talking to the only other survivor." Sam pauses when the garage door opens.
Son of a motherfucking Bitch. I'm so dead. This fucking close. This fucking god damn close. Lilly thinks to herself as she facepalms, dragging her fingers down her face with several curses. "Sam maybe you should tell Mae about your feelings for her later, I have to go grind the meat." Lilly says swiftly moving back to the large chunk of expensive cow on their counter.
"Sup?" Dean asks as he walks over to the sink and begins washing his hands.
"Just grinding up meat for burgers, that's what you wanted for Dinner tonight right?" Lilly says overly cheery. "We still have stockings for later too. Watcha doing? Thought you were working on Baby?" Lilly says nervously cutting off a piece of the roast in throwing it in the grinder, before she begins turning it.
"Uh, I said I wanted to make burgers. But Mae and I… what are you doing?" Dean asks, watching her turn the handle.
"Making ground meat?" Lilly responds mimicking his tone.
"You're grinding up the roast beast?" Dean continues to question, not understanding.
"Prime rib actually. It's what I usually cook for Christmas, but I'm down with burgers." Lilly shrugs.
"Yeah, but it's prime rib Lilly." Sam nearly whines.
"But he wanted burgers…" Lilly pouts as she continues grinding the expensive meat.
"STOP!" He shouts, worried that he might have ruined Christmas. "Mae and I are going out tomorrow to get meat to grill and make hamburgers with. Make a real Christmas dinner for me please." Dean pleads teasingly.
Lilly pauses, hives and blush full force as she inhales deeply, shooting a look at the two at the table, Dean, and the meat. Damn it, I just want to know what's going on...What's Dean wrapped up in? Sounded like a deed or restriction or something… Gods. "Sure Cowboy, no problem."
Well, that was easy. My charm must be getting better. Dean smiles to himself, pleased that she was listening to him at last. "Cool, so… yeah. I'll be out changing the oil. Sam, you know you really should be learning how to do this stuff."
"Yeah, I know. I'll be right out." Sam said, looking from him to Mae.
Sam doesn't know how to fix the car? Wait why… this is bad isn't it. Shit. Whatever this is I'm not going to like it. Mae's extra not going to like it. Bawls. "Didn't you come in here for something?" Lilly asks fingers drumming on the counter as she starts prepping the meat her usual way, as she starts gathering herbs and butter to make a paste to shove into the stab wounds.
Dean winks at Sam and gives him a small thumbs up. "Yes I did." He responds, nodding to Lilly, turning towards the refrigerator with a snap of his fingers. "One beer, two delicious sandwiches." He grabs the beer and sandwiches, one ending up in his mouth as he closed the door. "Fanks." he mutters before disappearing out to the garage
Mae takes in the room watching Lilly as she taps her fingers on the counter frustration obviously mounting as her eyes follow Dean around the kitchen, all but willing him out. Sam frowning at the door Dean just shut.
Sprinkles! What's going on? Lilly what are you doing? Did Dean actually talk you or what? This is odd. "So that other survivor? What happened?" Mae prompts Sam gently after several moments wanting to hear the rest of the story.
"So uh. I was trying to convince him, Jake, that we could both just walk away. Dean and Bobby showed up. And uh… Jake stabbed me." Sam pushed through, dreading the response but knowing that she needed to know the whole story. And I'd rather she heard it from me anyway.
Okay, stabbed. How bad. Sam mentioned whatever Dean did was for him. How bad. How do I- "Where? Where were you stabbed? Dean skimmed over the parts about you, he couldn't… You know. Shocker." Lilly statess as she rushed over to the sink washing her hands, and races over to the table, nearly tripping on her skirt.
"Uh, here." Sam pulls the back of his shirt up to reveal a healed large scar.
Lilly runs a finger lightly over the large ugly scar, over his spine, as she exams it clinically. No way. He shouldn't have survived this. Its too big, oh my gods it looks like the blade twisted. How the hell is he walking? How the hell is he still breathing? His spinal cord must have… wait he said Dean did this for him. He traded? How? How do you cheat death? She withdraws her hand holding it to her chest, knowing for sure now that she wasn't going to like Sam's next words as she goes and washes her hands in the sink, and absently continues with dinner, even as her stomach twists.
"It killed me. I was dead and all hell was about to break loose because of Jake and that yellow eyed bastard."
"You died?" Mae interrupts, eyeing him and Lilly for confirmation noticing their grim and serious expressions. She shuddered as bile claws it's way way up her throat, feeling rather ill as she reaches out to him, grasping his hand, and clutching it tightly.
"Yes. I'm sorry Mae. I knew I was going to have to tell you eventually, but Dean didn't want you guys to know and there really isn't a way to explain this without being allowed to fully disclose what happened." Sam puts his other hand on top of hers, willing his heat to warm her freezing cold hands.
Mae simply nods, words failing her for the moment.
Sam closes his eyes and finishes the story. "Dean told me that he just couldn't face it. That he couldn't keep up the fight without me. He made a deal with a crossroads Demon. My life for his. Most people usually get ten years, but, well, we're Winchesters. They gave him one. He has till May."
Mae pales even more, her eyes a stark contrast in her now white face. "I… I don't understand. You're fighting against the demons, but they made a deal with you- him. In return for bringing you back he's going to… to…" Tears begin to fall down her cheeks. "He traded his life. And that life is over in May."
Son of a motherfucking bitch. Lilly can't stop her body from paling, nor her hands from shaking as she quickly does her best to shut down her emotions on this new, shitastic, information. She finishes up the roast and shoves it into the fridge to set as she begins tossing several pies into the oven, and setting the timer. She pulls out a bag of potatoes and begins peeling them. Kay, so December, January, February, March, April, May. Four-ish months. He has four fucking months to live. No one was going to tell us, and he has literally four months to live. He traded his life for his brothers. Kay I can understand...John.
"John, did this too didn't he? That's why he died with just a broken arm. That's how Dean got out of his coma. That's what happened right?" Lilly suddenly hisses out, pausing in her dinner prep as she stares down Sam, putting her knife down feeling a bit outraged at the audacity of the Winchester's playing with death. How they just made their lives forfeit. Wasn't it bad enough they put their damned life on the lines, they had to go make fucking deals with fucking Demons.
Sam had been over Mae trying to calm her down, but he turns to Lilly as her question brings another round of silent sobs from Mae. "Yes, but we were never able to prove it, until after the demon gate opened."
She gently places down her utensils as she scratched the back of her head in frustration, trying to calm her thoughts but fails miserably. "I need to go grab a shower." Lilly says as she waltzes out of the kitchen, unable to handle her own emotions let alone Mae's, trusting Sam enough to take care of her. Clean, need to be clean. Clean of the thoughts. Clean of the meat. Clean of the rampant amounts of fucking stupidity. I need clarity. This is so, so, so, fucking stupid. Oh gods what can we do? What can I do?
Sam watches her go, but quickly returns his attention to Mae. He talks to her soothingly and rubs her back. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have turned my back on Jake. Dean shouldn't have pulled a dad. We shouldn't have pulled you so far into this. But I don't think I'm strong enough to let go now. He just holds her, worrying.
Dean walks into the kitchen frowning when he hears sobbing, and quickens his pace. "Sammy? Mae? What's going on? Where's Lilly? Are you okay?" Dean asked his eyes darting around the kitchen feeling incredibly confused, as he walks over to the two of them.
"Dean!" Mae sobs, pulling him into a hug as she stands up. Calm down, oh my god, calm down. Stop being a cry baby. This is about Dean.
What? Dean glares at his brother, even as he gingerly wraps his arms around Mae. "What did you do?" Did they break up? I'll smack him if he's already ruined this.
"Well, you didn't give me any warning that you had talked to Lilly already." Sam says around clenched teeth.
"Talked to Lilly about what Sammy?" Dean says glaring at his brother as his stomach begins turning, his whole body tensing. Please tell me you didn't you damned idiot. It's fucking christmas.
"About hell. You and-"
"WHAT! What gave you that impression?" Dean snaps, stomach finally dropping.
Mae tenses in surprise and pushes away from Dean. In her attempt to distance herself from his raw emotion she lands on the table.
"Well I mean… the way you acted last night, and she had said… Shit. Dean, man I'm so sorry." Sam tries to explain realizing his mistake. Unsure how to really apologize for his slip up.
"Wait? Acted last night? Oh that bitch…" Dean hisses under his breath even as he wipes at his face roughly and walks away. I discover she's cutting herself and she uses it to her advantage! That bitch, and here I was common courtesy because it's god damned fucking Christmas, and she, oooh that, that fucking lying slut. A deep growl is ripped from his throat even as he spits out "Where is she?"
Mae crawls to the other side of the table and slides off to the ground, desperate to either help Dean deal or get as far away as possible. His turbulent wave of emotions overwhelming to the point her head spun. Like this situation isn't caustic enough. Oh Lilly, I love you so much. I know you don't like lying, but I don't think he cares right now, and I don't know how to diffuse this. He's so pissed. She slowly moves to the wall and sits against it, keeping both brothers in her blurry vision.
"Dean. Don't, you're obviously not in type of any condition to talk to anyone. You need to calm down. Maybe you should just go take a walk." Sam tells his brother trying to be rational, as he gets up from the table and makes his way over to Mae.
Dean's eyes follow his brothers movements, causing him to catch sight of Mae's form on the ground. The tension in the room drops several degrees as he realises he doesn't even know how she got over there, or why she looked like she was in pain. He takes a deep breath, working hard to get his throbbing anger under control. "Yeah. You might be right. I'll be outside, cooling off. Mae, I'm- Sorry." With that he takes of out the back door, slamming it shut behind him.
The oven rings out loudly, causing both Sam and Mae to jump in surprise. "She left the oven on?" Mae questions out loud as Sam walks over to the oven, peeking in.
"Looks like she was baking dessert before starting dinner. How do you tell if they're done?" Sam asks letting out a deep breath, running his hand through his hair.
Mae looks at the ground, a blush forming across her cheeks, "I have no idea. Golden brown crusts?" I really wish she never stuck with that particular lie. I just wanted her to omit it. Oh Lilly, you don't do anything half-assed do you? Just very harshly. Oh and sometimes thoughtlessly.
"You own a bakery… I mean they look brown-ish." Sam says tone coated in confusion, unsure what to do.
Mae pulls herself up and searches for oven mitts to take the pies out of the oven with, "She can fix them if they're not done." Mae explains, turning the oven off. She rubs at her aching temples with her warmed hands, glad that the assault was over.
"Are you ok? What happened?" Sam asks as he rubs her shoulders gently.
Ugh, I might get sick. I can't anymore, why the hell am I keeping these things from him? The cooking? Am I just embarrassed that I always mess it up? I guess I'm still keeping the empath thing from all of them because I was told to, but Mom and Dad aren't here anymore, and I have to start thinking of who I can live with knowing about it. "I can't cook, and I feel other people's emotions." She blurts out, coming to a decision. "My mom said I was an empath, and your brother just swamped me to the point of nausea." Mae admits just putting everything she had been lying about out there. I can't even look him in the eyes.
"Wait, what?" Sam asks. She's an empath? Like psychic empath… well she obviously wasn't one of Azazel's, is she like Missouri?
"I can't cook. I'm sorry, I know I should be able to, but I burn and spill everything, everywhere whenever I go near it. I'm so sorry. The only things I can make are simple salads. I'm like the worst female ever. Lilly barely lets me near the knives." Mae laments close to tears again as she covers her face with her hands.
Sam chuckles as he pulls her back into him for a hug. "You're not the worst female ever, stop being silly. It doesn't matter to me if you can or can't cook. I was actually referring to your ability to feel other's emotions." Sam explains rubbing her arms, then after a moment adds,"I like salad."
She turns in his embrace to look up at him. "Oh." She smiles, feeling very silly for her emotional outburst. "What do you want to know about it?"
"Well how it works, how it affects you, and when it started. This is something I thought would have been under the odd quirk category. Does Lilly know?" Sam teases lightly with a smile, as he rubs his chin against her hair.
"It's not odd to me. I've been able to do it as long as I can remember. And my mom and dad told me I was just gifted. Mom could do it too. I just know how people are feeling and depending on the depth and type of emotion it's effect to me varies. For instance joy makes me feel… inebriated I guess, where anger and other darker emotions make me feel nauseous and give me a migraine. As for Lilly, yeah she knows, however I can't, I dunno, read her? I guess would be the best way to describe it. Mom couldn't either. She also said not to tell anyone, but I trust you, Dean and Bobby." Mae explains simply, never really having put it into words and unsure if it was helpful or not, his caress not helping the formulation of words.
"Ah. Anything else you may have forgotten in that vein of things?" Sam asks hugging her tighter in a playful reprimand, filing away the new information.
"Not that I can think of." Mae smiles as she hugs him back. "But what are we going to do about Dean? And Lilly? He seemed especially wrathful towards her, and betrayed."
"Dean really didn't want you two to know. God I'm such an idiot for falling for that." He lets his head fall gently on hers.
"To be fair Lilly can be quite crafty when concerned about her friends. I've fallen into that trap many times. She's not an empath but she's amazing at reading people. She has to be, and we've been super worried about the two of you for a while now. We knew you two were keeping us in the dark about something. I doubt she thought it would be so dire, I certainly didn't." Mae says feeling the need to defend and explain Lilly's motive.
"That bad huh?" He lets her go and walks over to look out the window.
"Yeah, you both would go sad at times. It was just noticeable. It's kind of hard to explain."
"You said Dean felt betrayed by something. Do you know what?" Sam asks not really enjoying the psych evaluation, or being told that he and Dean were that obvious. He'd have to work on it.
"I'm not a mind reader. I just feel the emotions, not the reason behind them. I'm sorry, it's not really something I can turn off." Mae explains, worried she had freaked him out.
"She didn't mention anything or act strange? It's alright. Don't apologize, it's not your fault. Why can't you read Lilly. Has she found a way to block you somehow?" Sam says turning around to look at her, as he runs both hands through his hair.
"This morning she acted kind of off, but I thought it was because she didn't expect me to get her up so early. That and, I was worried about what happened to her last night, so I thought that might have had something to do with it. And I don't know. I've just never been able to read her, and she tends to temper the affects others emotions have on me. We're kind of symbiotic. I help her, she helps me."
We were right, there is something wrong. Lilly's just overshadows Mae, and Lilly protects her like she protects Lilly. Interesting.
"Sam?" Mae asks frowning up at him, concerned.
So now the question is whether or not Mae is cursed or has some strange ability? And why do they interact the way they do? And where did Lilly get her curse from?
"Sam?" Mae repeats a little louder moving closer placing her hand on his arm, gripping gently.
He shakes his head when he feels Mae's hand. "Sorry, line of thought." He smiles down at her.
"I was just wondering what we should do about Lilly and Dean. That seems a bit more here and now." She smiles back at him, wondering what epiphany he'd had.
Sam frowns "I'm not sure, Dean just needs to blow some steam, and well I don't quite understand Lilly the way you do."
Mae laughs "I think you give me way too much credit. I may know her the best, but when it comes to why she does things I'm still pretty unsure. Most of the time."
"Well that's comforting." Sam mutters out.
"We've both been worried about you and Dean. Maybe she just needs some time too?"
"Huh, okay. And you can't feel her emotions?" Sam says dragging his hands through his hair.
"I never have. She was confusing at first. A blank spot in a classroom full of emotions. I liked being around her at first just because I could think and not be completely overwhelmed. She really didn't like me, but I just kept pushing till she finally let me sit with her, but it took a while. We eventually started talking to each other and found out we had books in common. When I described her to my mom, she took an immediate interest in her."
"Ah. Makes sense." Sam nods his head when he looks up towards a noise.
"Hey you two still in here? Time to move the party, got to finish dinner." Lilly says hand on her popped hip as she gestures for them to leave with the other. "Now. Out." She finishes with a smile.
"You!" Sam shouts, surprised by her sudden reappearance.
"What? Who?" Lilly says looking around wildly with obvious concern and confusion, shifting into a defensive position.
Mae puts a hand on Sam's arm as she steps towards Lilly. "Dean didn't talk to you about anything, and now he knows you figured out what was going on. He's... " She pauses for a moment, attempting to find a word for the flurry that was Dean's reaction, "not happy." She finishes lamely.
"Oh." Lilly says dropping out of her stance with a shrug and walks into the kitchen starting to pull things out for dinner.
"Oh? That's it? Oh? How did you even… What… Mae?" Sam gestures his exasperation at her before appealing to Mae.
"Yep." Lilly responds popping the 'p', as she pulls out several pots and begins adding water and herbs to them.
"I think the important thing to do here is realise that there is no taking it back, and we move forward accepting that we now know, and want to help." Mae says diplomatically. "Not that Dean is going to see it that way for a while." She admits quietly.
Lilly pauses in her prep to shoot an incredulous look to Mae, hands out, gesturing her exasperation. An unspoken 'And?' ringing off her, as shakes her head and continues her prep.
Mae pulls her hands through her hair as she rolls her head in frustration. She holds her hand up, barely an inch of air between her thumb and forefinger. Not even a little?
Lilly glares an evident and quick 'No'.
"You know you could pretend a little." Mae finally breaks the silent animated exchange.
"What's the point? They, yes this includes you, you damn behemoth, should have told us!" Lilly defends as she walks passed them grabbing a large basket of potatoes and starts washing them, leaving on the dark red bandages.
"It wasn't my call. I wanted to, obviously." Sam says, hoping to get at least one of them to the rational level. I know it isn't going to be Dean.
Lilly continues washing the root vegetables methodically as she turns to look at Sam "Bull shit. You died first. Don't even." Lilly demands with a glare.
"God, you think I like being lied to? He wasn't even going to tell me. I'm his damn brother, and he wasn't going to tell me he sold his soul to hell to bring me back from the dead. Or that he didn't even get the whole ten years out of it. No, I don't like being lied to, and I don't like lying to you. Either of you."
Lilly narrows her eyes and 'mm hmm's' him before she pulls out a paring knife and skillfully begins peeling the potatoes.
Mae frowns, saddened by the grief Sam was going through. She reaches towards him with an outstretched hand, and smiles when he takes it.
Lilly watches the act with her own frown, before rolling her eyes pointedly. "Look, I don't care what the reasons were, it's dumb. Were you just going to call us and be like 'Hey just to let ya'll know Dean died, so how's the shop?' Or were you not going to tell us at all? Just drop off the face of the earth?" She demands scornfully.
"No, he said he planned on telling you." Sam retorts, pointedly ignoring her blatant attempts to needle him. "But come on, that's not a phone call conversation, and we've seen you twice since it happened. The first time I was arguing with him, Bobby was too, telling him that he had to find the time to tell you." Sam starts, laying out all the reasons, feeling defensive of his brother while also angry that he was left with this mess.
"Cause of course Singer knew, how about the Harvelle's? Ash? Is that why they accepted the invitation, not that I care why, but yeah, did they know too?" Lilly asks as she begins scalloping the potatoes, no real hint of anger in her voice, as she knifes them into a large glass serving dish and moves to get carrots.
"Well, I guess. I mean, Ellen was at the gate, I know Bobby has been doing research and calling in favors trying to find a way out of the deal for Dean. I'm assuming that means a few hunters would figure out what was going on. But I don't think they know the whole story like you guys know now." Sam grips Mae's hand, attempting to be reassuring.
"Cool." Lilly says blowing her bangs out of her face as she begins washing and peeling the carrots, ignoring the soggy weight of her bandages, refusing to take them off with people in her domain. Especially with the emotions she was feeling. She needed as much of her 'armor' on as possible.
"Am I missing the party?" Dean growls out, coming back in from outside.
"The party doesn't start for another four hours. This is a house meeting. I guess." Lilly quips as she begins slicing the carrots into another pot.
"Ah, cool." Dean claps his hands together loudly, "So, I vote we forget the whole thing until after Christmas. That's how these kinds of things work right? All in favor?" He raises a hand.
"Great. What he said." Sam says jumping on team Dean and raising his hand.
"Works for me?" Mae responds, raising an unsure hand looking imploringly to a silent Lilly.
"Whatever… is anyone in this house even Christian?" Lilly relents as she begins working on the cheese sauce for the potatoes.
"I am." Sam says quietly.
"My dad was." Mae smiles, "So I'm half?"
Sam snickers, "Can you be half a religion?" he whispers in her ear.
"Sure you can." Mae answers with a smile. "I've prayed. I also pay homage to the earth. Two religions"
"Super. If this is on the shelf, all of you can get out so I can finish then. Please and thank you." Lilly says dismissively.
"You sure you don't need Mae to help you cook?" Sam says impishly, happy to divert the conversation.
Mae playfully smacks him on the back. Her glare barely covering the smile tugging at her lips.
"Sure, Mae get the men out of my kitchen." Lilly smiles pleasantly, although it stops short of meeting her brown eyes. "We need dinner done in less than four hours."
AN2: Can't just be a normal Christmas can it ;)
We hope you're enjoying our work. Twisted and I are working on a new chapter for our Slice of Pie collection that directly deals with this Christmas. Look for it sometime in the next few days as we're almost finished. Until Tuesday then.