Chapter 34: Confessions
Kelly woke curled up on her side, lying beneath a set of itchy sheets and a very warm comforter. Groggily, she rubbed her eyes. Where am I? She wondered. Rolling onto her back, she yawned and stretched her arms. Her entire body ached and some numbness still lingered in her fingers, toes, and made her skin feel stiff. Her nails were tingly and her mind mumbled an incoherent Mmm… She started to sit up. Then, she stopped. Ship, Shifter, change… The words reverberated through her tired mind as it fumbled towards waking. I was naked. Kelly gasped and grasped the sheets around her. The images were hitting her clearly now. I got shot. She'd dreamed about home, or did she actually go? Kelly couldn't be sure on either count if one was more real than the other. They both seemed like reality. But I came back. The lump reformed in her throat, and she tried to swallow it. The memory of her family standing on the porch calling out for her not to go left a bitter taste in her mouth. I didn't belong there. Then, she'd changed. I chose my fate in this world. She'd come back for Dean. She loved him. I changed. She'd given in to the other side of her nature. But, the time she'd spent as the Dog only left a confusing jumble of competing sensory details. There was little other than the memory of her purpose that stuck with her. She had a basic understanding of her nature, but she knew it was more complicated. I still don't know why I'm really here. There were gaps, even in the generational memory the Dog had access to. That I have access to. It behooved her to think of the Dog as a creature separate from herself. It's more like my subconscious, the animal side of me. She paused, staring up at the ceiling as she tried to search what had happened. What happened to the demon? When she'd woken up as herself, Timothy had been gone. Only Lorna, the Shifter, was left. Kelly had finished her. Then, then… Dean saw me naked. A mortified flush turned her cheeks a rosy red as the embarrassment came flooding back. He saw me naked! Her mind freaked. However the subsequent panic following this realization was swiftly and abruptly halted by the more logical side of Kelly's brain. He's already seen you naked. It reminded her. On a hot steamy night in the Impala. He helped remove your clothes. Kelly's cheeks grew hotter at the memory. That's right. So, why was she freaking out? Because Sam saw me naked. Panic struck. A second wave of embarrassment washed through her, leaving her skin warmed but her soul mortified. Sam saw me naked. The thought repeated itself. Sam saw me naked! Kelly's fists clenched beneath the covers.
How had this happened? The change removed my clothing. She thought, recalling the fuzzy details of what had happened when she changed shape. This is going to be an awkward couple of days. Or however long it took for Sam to forget what he saw. Kelly sighed. I can't believe I fainted. She'd been trying so hard to prove that she was a competent hunter. And then I get shot, lose my clothes, and faint. "I must look like a real damsel in distress." She muttered. Her eyes flicked back up towards the ceiling. And what prompted Dean to blackmail me into agreeing to be his girlfriend. If everything else was a little fuzzy, that part she remembered clearly. This is such a nightmare. Her worst dream actualized. Not dating Dean. But waking up naked on a ship with her peers. It's like every high schoolers worst nightmare. Without the teachers or the gym class. Be my girlfriend. He'd said. Was he kidding? She shook her head. Dean's been drinking a little too much of the electric acid kool-aid. She paused and shook her head. He'd dangled a damn jacket in front of her, and all but forced her to agree to be his girlfriend. Anger surged through her gut, burning white hot and she nearly leapt out of the bed, ready to make him bloody. When she remembered that underneath the sheets, she was still naked. "Dean!" Kelly yelled. She sat bolt upright, careful to take the comforter with her. Tucking it under her armpits so that her chest was safely covered, she looked around the room. "You bastard, where are my clothes?"
"Here." Kelly's head snapped to the left at the sound of Sam's voice. She watched as he picked up the plaid duffle bag laying at his feet, and carried it over. Kelly met his eyes as he deposited it in front of her, and she found them unreadable. A chill swept up her spine. She'd always gotten along well with Sam. Until I got terrified, ran away and betrayed the people I loved. She didn't blame him for being angry about that. I would be too.
"Thanks." She mumbled. Reaching out with her free hand, Kelly grabbed her belongings and pulled them towards her.
"No problem." Sam said, his tone clipped as he turned and walked back to the small table by the window. Kelly peered and saw that he was cleaning his guns. The pieces were set out on the small wooden table, they glinted beneath the light cast by the incandescent bulbs overhead. Sam sat back down and picked up a dirty rag. Kelly sucked in a breath, it looked like he'd been at this for some time. He's angry at me. But why? Was he angry about what had happened? Had he overhead her conversation with Dean? Kelly had always wondered if Sam had feelings for her, but she'd never received clear enough signals to be sure. Did he and I missed it? If she had it didn't surprise her. After all I missed Dean's. While Kelly was aware of a lot of things, she'd always been bad at parsing apart the difference between friendship and attraction.
"You okay?" She asked. Kelly kept her voice neutral, but her genuine like of Sam seeped into the words. After all, she cared about Sam. She cared a lot. I just don't love him. If Dean wasn't around, she probably would be in love with Sam.
"I'm fine." Was the curt reply. Kelly sighed. Yes, he is definitely mad. Biting her lip, Kelly bent over her plaid duffle and began searching through the clothes. She pulled out a navy top, black bra, matching underwear, and some ratty oil stained jeans. Her hand came to rest on the boots she'd gotten from Ellen. It was still her only footwear, and she was glad they'd made it back into her bag. Beckett must have packed them. Unless either Dean or Sam had gone wandering in the lower bowels of the fishing boat. Which might explain how I got my stuff back. Kelly glanced back at Sam, and sighed again.
"Sam." She said.
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry." Sam swallowed the lump in his throat. He could hear the sincerity in her voice and it struck a chord in the more tender part of his soul. She does sound sorry. He thought, as his anger began to abate. And she doesn't even know what she's apologizing for. He knew it was unfair for him to be angry, but after the relief of discovering her safe and sound, all his other emotions had quite literally exploded in his face. There were a lot of things he regretted. Like not telling her how I felt. Even if it only meant he'd been rejected. I'd feel better if I had the courage to come out and say it. But he couldn't. He had to move on. She'd chosen Dean, and as much as that hurt, even though he didn't really understand why, he needed to respect her choice. There was a long pause between them, and Sam listened to the rustling of the sheets. She's changing. Sam didn't like the silence between them, it felt heavy and uncomfortable.
"I'm not angry." He said. Kelly's head popped back out from under the covers and he heard her snort. Sam looked down at the rag in his hand, trying to stop the smile that was forming at the edges of his lips. It was impossible to stay angry at Kelly for any length of time. She had a candid charm that melted away defenses, and if that didn't work her frankness would knock down any remaining barriers. She sneezed, and inside himself Sam couldn't help it. He laughed. Sam looked up from the table and over at Kelly, the edges of his lips twitching. She sat up and raised a questioning eyebrow. Sam laughed, he hadn't realized how much he'd missed her.
"Yes, you are." She said. "And I deserve it." She pulled her legs out from under the sheets and crossed them. Sitting Indian style, she perched at the edge of the bed, her eyes on him. "I really do, Sam."
"Now you're starting to sound like Dean." He said. Putting the gun barrel and the rag down, Sam fully turned to face her. He was suddenly very aware that since shouting for his brother at the beginning of the conversation, Kelly hadn't mentioned him. Even though he's her boyfriend. Sam thought. It left a bitter aftertaste in his mouth, but it was getting better. Kelly always was good about spending time with both of us. She was friends with both him and Dean. But she treated us like separate individuals.
"That's a bad thing?" Kelly asked. Sam watched her mouth quirk, and he knew she was joking.
"His style doesn't suit you." Sam said. He watched her smile broaden a little bit as she leaned back into the pillows. "And no, you don't."
"I do." Kelly said. "I abandoned you guys." Her knees tucked into her chest as she sat forward, a thoughtful expression on her face. "I ran away." Kelly bit her lip, and Sam realized that she wasn't apologizing for hurting his feelings. She's upset by her decision. But was that really it? She was a very different girl from the one he'd known three months ago. Hell, she was different from the girl he'd known a week ago. She's changed. That bastard, Beckett Cole had said that Kelly transformed into a large black dog. And that explains why she was naked on the deck. She was stronger, tougher, and there was confidence in her movements now. A confidence that wasn't there a week ago. Somehow, she seemed less fragile. "And I'm sorry about that." She met his eyes, and for the first time Sam could clearly see the change in her eyes. They had lightened, and the insides of her irises had a permanent yellow cast that glinted more brightly beneath the overhead bulbs.
"Dean and I were pretty pissed about that." Sam agreed. "In fact we still are." Kelly's head tilted, and Sam suddenly realized that she only felt remorse over the pain and worry she'd caused them. She doesn't actually regret leaving. It didn't stun him the way it should have. He understood needing to get out on ones own. But the fact that she hadn't trusted them, hadn't trusted him, hurt.
"I know." She said. "And I'm going to make up for it."
"You should have trusted us." Sam said. "You should have at least told someone where you were going. Ellen's had half the hunters on the West Coast out looking for you, and Bobby's been beside himself." He stared at her. "He thinks you're leaving was his fault." Kelly blinked, and then her expression saddened.
"If I'd realized…" She trailed off, then she looked up at him. "No." She shook her head. "Sam you and I both know that if I'd told Ellen, she would have told you, and you would have come." Sam opened his mouth, but she cut him off. "I'm not going to make excuses for the choice I made. But the reality is that even if I told you guys not to look for me, you would have anyway." Her expression gentled, and the creases of her face softened as she said the words. Sam looked down at his hands, knowing that she was right. "I needed time away from this to think." She said. "And I don't regret coming out here." She looked down at her fingernails, and then she lifted her brownish yellow eyes to examine his face. "I am sorry if my decision hurt you, hurt Dean, and hurt Bobby. You guys are my family, and I love you. But this was something I needed to figure out by myself." And besides that I didn't know where I was going. She paused. Not after I woke up on the bus after the Yellow Eyed Demon talked to me. But how could she have explained that? Those threats the demon made on Dean's life still came to the forefront of her mind whenever she thought about the yellow eyed son of a bitch. And I'm not going to risk him hurting the Winchesters. They were too important to her.
"We could have helped you." Sam said. He genuinely didn't understand. He had a grip on what had driven her to go, and he knew that if Dean had known where Kelly was well… No power in heaven, hell, or on earth could have stopped him. But why didn't she want their help?
"I needed to know who I was." Kelly said. "I had to test myself without you, Dean, or Bobby watching my back." She looked at him, her eyes earnest. "A part of me always felt suffocated when I was hunting with you." Sam swallowed, she was making sense. "I was always protected, and you never…" She paused. "I wanted to be able to help you." She said. "Both you and Dean, I wanted to stop feeling like a tag-along and start feeling like a member of the team."
"You are a member of this team." Sam said. But even as he said it, he knew that a part of it wasn't true. Dean charged in blind in Iowa, we tied her up and locked her in a car in Mississippi. Kelly raised an eyebrow.
"I know you two are the Dynamic Duo, like Batman and Robin." She said. Her voice was patient. I know why she's talking about this with me. Dean still saw her as someone who needed to be protected. And she's ready to start doing the protecting. Sam didn't know much of what had happened on that boat, but one thing was clear. She handled herself. She'd killed the baddies and saved the day. Without our help.
"I'm not a Robin." Sam snapped. He listened as Kelly laughed, tossing her darkened hair back over her shoulder.
"Listen to the metaphor, please." Kelly grinned. "All I'm saying is that you've gotta let Batgirl into the group." Sam laughed.
"And if we do that," Sam looked at Kelly. "Does it mean you won't run away again?" Kelly smirked and crossed her arms over her chest as she leaned into the pillows. Her lips twisted mischievously. She knew, like he did, that she'd have a harder time convincing his brother. But I can't help but agree with her. It meant they'd have to change their playing style. But… Sam returned her smile. It'll be nice having someone else to rely on. He was also certain that Kelly wouldn't break up the team dynamic.
"I make no promises on the disappearing act." Kelly said. Her tone was lighter now, and Sam knew she'd jumped from serious to whimsical. "But I'll try to let you know where I'm going." She winked at him. "Until then, you're stuck with me." Sam laughed.
"We'll try to keep up." He said.
"You better." Kelly replied. "I hate people who slow me down." Suddenly, her brow knitted together into a frown, and her lips pursed. She looked around. "Speaking of sods who slow me down," She said. "Where's Beckett?" She hadn't really expected him to stick around. And I have serious doubts about him putting a bullet in my brain with the Winchesters around. But knowing Beckett… He probably tried to get them to do it for him. She wasn't surprised when a very satisfied and amused expression took over Sam's face.
"Dean's taking care of it." Sam said. Oh, he pissed off the wrong people. She thought as Sam started to chuckle.
"What happened?" She asked. Dean taking care of Beckett could really only mean one thing. One of two, either they struck up a great friendship, or Beckett got himself beat up. She couldn't say she felt sorry for his fate. The other hunter was a cocky pain in the ass. He's not stupid, but he's not more careful he's going to wind up very dead. And then he'd never fulfill his promise of putting a few rounds between her eyes. Still most everything that comes out of his mouth is hot air. She didn't really like Beckett. In fact, he's so incompetent I don't feel all that sorry. Maybe a few rounds with Dean would teach him a worthwhile lesson. She could only hope.
"Dean beat him into a bloody pulp." San said. "He was pretty pissed after the phone conversation…"
"Phone conversation?" Kelly asked. "You mean Beckett actually called you?"
"Well, he called Dean." Sam said, and Kelly sighed. Loudly. "Did you tell him to?"
"Yes." Kelly said. "I was bleeding out, and I didn't know what else to do. So I freed Beckett and told him to call…" She paused. "Someone, you guys I think, before I passed out." She glanced up at Sam, a wicked smile on her lips. "Dean really hit him?"
"Several times."
"Over my honor?" That had her giggling. Sam couldn't help it, his smile widened. What had happened between Dean and Beckett was marginally serious, but Sam also knew that the other hunter wasn't likely to report what happened.
"He also insulted our dad." Sam said.
"Then he deserved his beating." Kelly said. She knew it was taboo to talk about John Winchester around his sons, especially Dean. No one had ever taken the time to fill her in on the details though. I should know. But like everything about her previous life, except the recent dream and the car crash, it eluded her.
"What happened on that boat Kelly?" Sam asked. Kelly's ears perked as she listened to the silencing of a rumbling engine. Is Dean back? The thought sent butterflies humming through her stomach. Her insides flipped topsy-turvy and her eyes shot to the door. How would she greet him? Were they really dating? Had it been a joke? Should she be mad about that stunt he'd pulled on the boat? Well, yes, she was still angry. Kelly shivered excitedly. Dean. The name reverberated in her skull. Swallowing a deep breath and tearing her eyes away from the door, she glanced back at Sam.
"We should wait until Dean gets here." She said. "Before we talk about that." This is probably something he'll want to hear. Kelly knew it would be a long uphill battle before Dean finally treated her like an equal. And he wouldn't be in love with me. The man had a strong protective instinct. Sam nodded as the lock on the door clicked, and Dean Winchester walked inside.
"I dropped him off at the hospital." He said as he entered. "He'll be fine after a little anesthetic." He seemed oblivious to her as he walked across the room. Kelly's eyes found his bloody knuckles. She sniffed, curious. Kelly wasn't surprised to discover the blood wasn't his. "And the doctors'll need to reset that shoulder." He walked over to the sink and turned on the faucet. Before the water was even warm he stuck his hands under it. Slowly, the blood started to wash away. He was so intent on his hands that he didn't hear Kelly come up behind him. The next thing he knew her fingers were moving down his arm, as she took hold of his wrist.
"What happened?" Kelly asked. Her body was pressed close to his and Dean sucked in a deep breath.
"Nothing." Dean said. Kelly reached past him and grabbed one of the white hand towels resting on the counter. "You're pal Beckett's face just met my fist."
"Multiple times." Kelly responded. Her voice was very dry as she wet the towel and started to wipe the blood off of his knuckles. "Give me your hand." She said.
"I'm fine." Dean replied.
"Give it!" She snapped. Dean complied, and she led him back to the bed. Sitting him down, she sat beside him and started cleaning off his hands. Dean smirked.
"If you think that looks bad." He said. "You should see the other guy."
"Given that most of this isn't your blood, I don't want to see the other guy." Kelly said. Instead she used the warm cloth to continue cleaning away the excess, and once it was gone, she began dabbing gently at the cuts.
"I didn't realize you cared." Dean said. "Will you kiss it and make it better?"
"Shut up." She muttered. Dean grinned. He knew that if Sam weren't sitting right across from them, he'd be kissing her. Still, he didn't want to rub the relationship in Sam's nose. Still, having Kelly sitting next to him cleaning off his hand nearly made up for it. Damn am I glad I got the girl. He thought as she put his hand down.
"What's new?" He asked, looking from his sibling to his girl. At the moment, Dean didn't want to push his luck with Kelly, the girl hit hard when she was pissed. And I object to getting caught in a superhuman fit. It hadn't really hit him yet that he was dating a girl most would be hunting gladly. And somehow it didn't really bother him. He knew that it should, but it didn't.
"Sam wanted to know abut what happened on the boat." Kelly said. She'd gotten up and gone to the sink. The water was running again, and he could see that she was rinsing off the towel. His cuts were still oozing, but they would be scabs soon. Dean raised an eyebrow.
"What did happen out there?" He asked. He watched as Kelly put down the towel and sighed. He smirked.
Kelly looked back over her shoulder. "Bad stuff." She said. "Near as I can tell the Shifter, Lorna Pimm, was torturing and killing runaway teens on the boat." Kelly looked away from them, and Dean watched as she stared at herself in the mirror. "She took anyone she deemed an irreprehensible sinner."
"Well, at least now it's proven." Dean joked. "Kelly, you are a very bad girl."
"Dean!" Sam snapped.
"Well Dean, you'll be joining me in hell." Kelly said. "So I don't get why you're happy." Dean laughed.
"She sounds like one crazy bitch."
"She was." Kelly nodded.
"Where did the Demon come in?" Sam asked. He'd picked his rag up again, and was cleaning the barrel of his Glock 17L 9mm. Kelly squeezed the water out of the towel and turned around. She lifted her hand, and brushed her bangs back behind her ears, before crossing her arms.
"The demon lead me to the house." She said. "Which is where I met Beckett." On the queen sized bed closest to the bathroom, Dean snorted. Kelly watched him shake his head and mutter something about a 'dumb fucker' but she decided not to pry into it. Instead she continued. "We ran into the demon later when we were searching the house."
"And I'm guessing at this time, he didn't know that you were…" Sam trailed off, as Kelly growled.
"I don't broadcast my status as a nonhuman, Sam." She snapped. "I like blending in." Kelly paused, and then added. "Besides the fewer bullets I have rammed down my throat the better." Sam winced at the last part of the statement. Dean watched her muscles tense as she glanced down at her hands. Then, she moved off the counter and walked to the unoccupied bed. Flopping down onto it, she covered her eyes with her forearm. "When we ran into the demon again, I managed to exorcise it." Dean whistled. "But I didn't do it right or something, because the demon possessed Lorna."
"The Shifter?" Sam asked. Kelly nodded. She suddenly felt very tired. She didn't really want to talk about what had happened on the ship. It was over and done with, and she hated being reminded of it. Still, they need to know about the transformation. She owed them that.
"The rest of it's not really important." Kelly said.
"You getting shot is pretty damn important." Dean said. He glanced over her at his brother. Sam nodded.
"And the shape shifting part." Sam added. Kelly laughed.
"Yes." She said. "That I'll talk about it."
"How did you know to load the gun with silver rounds?" Sam asked. "You didn't know she was a shifter going in there right?" Silver rounds were expensive, and hard to come by. Usually you had to order them through a special source or make them yourself. It was very strange that Kelly would have gone into a situation with those rounds in her gun.
"It was dumb luck." Kelly said. She sounded more than a little sheepish. "They were the only rounds I had, so I loaded them into the gun." When Dean raised his eyebrow at her, Kelly shrugged. "I didn't plan on actually using that weapon." She said. "I have the Match, and it's recoil is easier on my hands."
"Beckett didn't have a gun did he?" Sam asked. Kelly shook her head.
"Nope." She said. "And then the Shifter shot me with my own weapon."
"On the boat?" Dean asked.
"Yes." Kelly said.
"Did silver initiate the change?" Sam asked. He sounded sincere, but the question only made Kelly laugh.
"I'm fairly sure it wasn't the silver, Sam." Dean said as Kelly continued to laugh. "It might have been a survival thing. You know, her being on the brink of death."
"Shut up." Sam said. Kelly sucked in a few deep breaths, trying to force the hysterical laughter to stop. When she finally managed it, she sat up and looked at Sam.
"I was dying." She said. On the bed next to hers, she heard Dean mutter something. She glanced at him, and he looked at her. When there eyes met, they both looked away. Kelly didn't want to admit how close she'd come to losing herself, and she was certain that Dean had no intention of contemplating it. "So I made a choice." She looked down at the bedspread.
"And you changed." Sam said. It wasn't a question, hell, it was a statement. But still he had to wonder, what had she given up? Seeing the hollowed cast in her eyes, he was certain that it was a little more complicated than just living or dying. He glanced at Dean, but his brother's eyes were on Kelly. Still, Sam was certain his brother was thinking the same thing.
"Yes." She said. "I became…" She trailed off. There was a long pause, and both men hung on bated breath waiting to hear her answer. "I don't know what I became." She said. Sam began to open his mouth to clarify again, but this time Kelly cut him off. "I know what shape I took." She said. There was a thoughtful expression on her face. "But there isn't really a name for what I am." She looked up at Dean. What I've become. She was committed now, to this world. There's no way I can go home. After all, here with Dean and Sam, this was home. Kelly swallowed. "Sorry if that ruins the research mode." She said, seeing Sam's hand, which was ritually reaching for his computer drop away.
"Don't worry." Dean said. "Sammy can geek out another time." He glanced at his brother, who frowned. "After all he's practically married to it." He laughed. "Sleeps with it under his bed." Kelly giggled as Sam shouted.
"Dean!" Sam looked from Kelly to his brother and then looked away. "We should get back on topic." He grumbled.
"Whatever you say Grumpy." Dean said. He turned to Kelly. "What else about your mystical dog form can you tell us?" Kelly lifted an eyebrow, she got the feeling that Dean was nearly out of patience with the discussion. I'll admit I am too.
"This is important Dean." Sam snapped.
"I don't see how, Sam." Dean said. "We're going to see what she can do on the next hunt, and there will be time enough for evaluation there." He glanced at Kelly. "So did this new revelation tell you whether or not you're evil?" He asked.
"I'm pretty neutral." Kelly said. "I exist to hunt the supernatural."
"Then that's good enough for me." Dean said.
"Dean!" Sam exclaimed.
"Sam, we still have a job to finish." Dean said. "And that ones on a shorter time frame."
"What job is it?" Kelly asked. She'd scooted to the edge of the bed, and was looking at them both with curiosity. "Do you know what we're hunting?" Dean didn't say anything about Kelly's including herself on the job. For all that his instincts were screaming at him to tell her she wasn't coming, he knew it was probably better for their fledgling relationship, and his sex life, if he didn't. Besides that nose of hers can come in handy.
"Werewolves." Dean said.
"Werewolves?" Kelly asked.
"Yeah." Dean said. "Don't you love it?"
"Dean's being a major geek about this." Sam said. He glanced at Kelly apologetically, and she just shook her head. Sam looked back at his brother. "You should seriously stop before you hurt yourself." Kelly laughed.
"Hey, werewolves are bad ass." Dean said. "Sam and I haven't seen one since we were kids." Dean stood, wiping off his pants, he walked over to his canvas duffle bag and pulled out a cartridge. Popping it open, Kelly watched as he lifted out a pure silver round. "And the best part is we already know how to kill them."
"Silver bullet to the heart." Kelly said. "This is getting fairly reminiscent of my near death experience."
"Hey." Dean snapped. Kelly met his eyes as he stood. "It's still a little to early to joke about that." Sam raised an eyebrow. "What?" Dean asked. He brushed off his jacket and looked at Kelly. "I still haven't quite got all of the panic out of my system."
"That's really sweet, Dean." Sam said. His voice sarcastic as he watched his brother lean against the hotel desk. But Dean's eyes didn't leave Kelly.
"He really is geeking out." Kelly said. She glanced at Sam as she spoke. Then she looked back at Dean, mimicking the tone of voice he'd used when he was teasing her on the boat. "You're adorable." She said. "You really are." Sam couldn't help it, he burst out laughing.
"I never thought I'd hear someone refer to adorable and Dean in the same sentence." He snickered. "Man, you are so lucky you got the girl."
"Shut up." Dean growled. "Just what is it about a normal by day, freak killing machine by night that you two don't understand?" He asked, looking from one to the other. Sam only shook his head winsomely as Kelly raised her hand.
"Maybe because I am one." She said in a very small and innocent voice. That made Sam laugh harder, as Dean glowered.
"That's real funny." He said.
"It'd be funnier if it wasn't true." Kelly smirked, crossing her arms as she watched him. She enjoyed giving Dean a hard time, and she found that making jokes about her own apparent lack of humanity eased the tension. Sam just laughed even harder.
"Shut up, Sam." Dean snapped.
"Do we have any leads?" Kelly asked.
"Yeah." Sam said. He straightened. "Madison Sinclair. She found the body of her employer at the office where he died. We think there might be a connection." Kelly raised an eyebrow. "A tenuous connection."
"As in she's connected to the case because she found the body." Dean said. "Sam's got a little crush on her."
"I do not." Sam protested.
"I bet he thinks she's pretty." Kelly laughed. Shaking her head she looked up to see Dean smiling at her. I forgot how much fun it is to hang out with the Winchesters. She thought, smiling back. "So?" She asked, a moment later. "Have you talked with her yet?"
"We were going to do that after we found you." Sam said. "Dean made you his top priority."
"Sam!"
"She deserves to know the truth, Dean." Sam replied. Kelly just sighed.
"Well." She said. "You found me." She watched as both brothers glanced at one another, they both looked uncomfortable. Kelly sighed again. "Okay, you two decide whether or not you want to kill this thing before the completion of the lunar cycle."
"Where will you be?" Sam asked. "I thought you wanted to be part of the team."
"I'm going to be in the shower, washing brine out of my hair." She stood and headed towards the bathroom. "If you want my vote it's yay!" She called back over her shoulder. Then she disappeared inside.
"She's…" Sam trailed off, glancing at Dean.
"A handful?" Dean replied. His eyes were still on the door. "That's like saying an enchilada is an enchilada without hot sauce and peppers." Sam raised an eyebrow, but Dean shook his head. If his brother didn't catch the reference he wasn't going to bother explaining. "So, Sammy." He began, knowing he was about to ask for a very large favor. Sam shrugged. He had a decent guess on what Dean wanted.
"Yeah?" He asked. Dean tossed him the keys to the Impala.
"Could you run to a local mini-mart and get me a box of doughnuts?" Dean asked. "The powdered kind." Sam knew better than to get in the way when Dean was about to make a booty call, he also understood that it was best for his sanity if he stayed away. Far away.
"Sure Dean." Sam said. "How long?"
"How? What?" Dean's eyebrows rose as he glanced back at his brother.
"How long should I be gone for?" Sam clarified.
"Fifteen minutes."
"That's all?" He figured that Dean would request an hour. Which would still give them plenty of daylight to find and talk to Madison. Sam hoped they'd get a beat on the werewolf before nightfall. Then maybe I'd get some sleep tonight. But they were working a job, and he knew the chances of that weren't likely.
"I can be quick." Dean said. Sam nearly bit his tongue, his brother sounded a little defensive.
"And what if she decides to be difficult?" He asked. Dean paused for a moment and then clapped his brother on the shoulder.
"Better make it thirty." He said. Then he headed towards the bathroom. Sam, who was fully capable of recognizing the signs, vamoosed. Dean, intent on his goal, didn't look back as the door shut, and the Impala's engine revved. He paused to listened to the sweet music of the engine. He'd know her hum anywhere. After all, he'd spent most of the past few years fine tuning and working on her. It was the longest relationship he'd ever managed. Dean's hand closed around the knob of the bathroom door, and he listened to the sound of water beginning to run. Still, he waited. Finally, he heard the whisk of the shower curtain, and a happy murmur as Kelly stepped underneath the water. A smirk played on his lips as he turned the knob, pushed the door open, and walked inside. This was going to be fun.
AN: Welcome! The next chapter will be entitled Heart, for the episode it's named after, but don't worry I won't skip Dean and Kelly in the shower. The discussion anyway, I'll leave your imaginations to fill in the naughty details. Sam will finally meet Madison in the next chapter, and there will also be another appearance by the YED, three guesses what he wants. Dean also promises Kelly a date, but will she enjoy it? Things are really heating up now and lots more monster hunting abounds. As usual, tell me how you liked it because I love, love, love reviews. They keep my muse bloated and happy, and when she's happy she chains me to my desk and forces me to write. I kid you not. It's very frightening.
Anyway, feed the muse and she will give you chapters. If you spoil her, she will spoil you. So leave reviews. : P