Ch 36
"How about Mario and Luigi?" Dean said looking over at River. The Impala roared down the deserted blacktop. The trio of hunters raced towards a small town that seemed ripe with demonic omens. Another seven weeks had disappeared, gone in the blink of an eye. Three weeks remained until Dean's contract was up. The three had been following demonic omens, taking demon hostages and doing their own special interrogations.
"That's terrible, really, really terrible. Your suggestions are getting worse," River laughed. Dean and River's favorite way to pass the time during the long car rides was to try and name their twins. "Starla and Darla? Jack and Jameson?" River said after a moment. It was Dean and Sam's turn to laugh.
"Are you guys going to actually name them? Or just keep fucking around?" Sam sighed from the backseat.
"It's kind of hard to decide on something when we don't know what we're having," River told him. She rubbed her belly which had continued to grow substantially. Dean reached his hand over and laid it on her stomach also. He laughed when it started to move under him.
"They're kung fu fighting in there."
"I think they like Zeppelin," Dean said smiling.
"Zep just started. They were really moving when Bowie was on," River answered. The pair looked at each other across the front seat and shared some silent conversation.
"Yeah?" Dean asked.
She nodded her head smiling again, "Zeppelin and Bowie."
"Wait? What?" Sam asked, "You two aren't serious."
"Oh we are serious, Sammy. Zeppelin and Bowie Winchester, future badasses," Dean said.
The demon was easy enough to trap once the trio identified it. The demon had been following single women home and then disemboweling them. After a heated argument River played bait. She was able to lure the demon down an alley and into a devils trap the brothers had painted in blacklight paint. "I'll eat your liver you god damn bitch," the demon screamed as Dean shoved it into the trunk.
The hunters found an abandoned cabin away from town in which to interrogate the demon. "Who has Dean's contract?" River asked the demon. The demon muttered curses at her from where he sat chained to a chair in the middle of a devils trap. Dean and Sam circled the room silently. "Who has Dean's contract?" she repeated.
"I'm gonna rip your throat out with my teeth, bitch."
Sam splashed holy water in its face and Dean surged forward punching the demon in its jaw. The body it possessed was a young African-American man and between the two brothers they had turned its face to a bruised and bloody mass. "Give us a name and we'll stop. Let you go nice and easy," River smiled. The demon screamed more promises of torture and dismemberment. Dean gave her a look and she sighed walking away. Sam started the exorcism spell and the demon screamed, pulling at the chains that bound it.
"Go ahead and send me back. I'll be waiting for you Dean Winchester!" it yelled.
"Did he make it?" River asked when the screaming stopped. Dean walked over to her cracking open a bottle of beer.
"No. Nothin' left but a meat suit. They seem to be ridin' rough and dirty, burnin' through 'em," he answered.
"Why won't they just give us a fucking name? They're demons, how deep can their loyalties lie. Fuck!" she yelled, kicking a rickety wooden chair into the wall. She took a deep breath and rubbed her protruding stomach.
"Relax. Go and sit, we're gonna bury the body," he told her finishing his beer.
"I am relaxed. Don't get too tired you said we were gonna have sex later!" she called as he followed Sam out the front door.
"TMI!" Sam yelled as the door slammed shut.
River laughed as she sat on the threadbare couch; her phone range a moment later. "Hey, Jellybean. How are you? Busy tormenting mortals?"
"It keeps me busy," Loki answered, "Where are you, tootsie pop?"
"Middle of fuck all nowhere Virginia," she answered. A second later Loki appeared on the couch next to her.
"Wow you are huge!" he yelled laughing at her stomach, "I'll never get used to that. It's amazing really. You're growing a couple of little people in there."
"Yes being knocked up, basically homeless and unemployed is amazing," She smiled wanly, "What do you want? I already told you I can't go paintballing. Dean'd kill me."
"I want you to come with me," he leaned forward and looked over at her, "Get out of here, get away from the Winchesters."
"What?" she laughed looking at her friends whiskey colored eyes. He didn't smile back. " No," River pushed herself off the sagging couch. "How about you help me save him? You're a god. Help me! Put him in some time loop somewhere, keep him safe! We have nineteen days left, Loki!"
"I can't help him. I can't stop what's coming for him," Loki walked towards her. Dean and Sam walked back into the house and stared at River and Loki.
"Oh, what the hell is he doing here? She's not going to play paintball with you, she's freakin' pregnant you asshat!" Dean yelled.
"Shut your cake hole," Loki retorted, "I'm trying to get her out of here. Away from all of this. I can keep her safe, I can keep your sons safe."
Dean and Sam glanced at each other then at River. "I knew we were having boys," she murmured, "I'm not going anywhere. If I'm not safe with Dean and Sam fucking Winchester, I'm not safe anywhere. And if you can't or won't help us, then just leave."
"You have no idea what's coming," Loki disappeared and left the three hunters in silence. River sighed loudly and walked out the front door letting it slam on its rickety hinges after her.
"Where are you going?" Dean yelled after her.
"Getting some fresh air, Winchester. You coming?" she yelled back. Dean found her leaning against the hood of Baby watching the stars. "I got a doctors appointment in two days. I need a car," she said not looking down.
"I know," he replied standing in front of her. He snuck his hands under tight shirt, first running them over her stomach and then up her ribs.
"I put a blanket in the backseat, unless you're too tired…" she bit her lip coyly and glanced up under her eyelashes. He yanked on her shirt and pulled it up and over her head, tossing it on the ground behind him as an answer.
"Are you ok?" Dean asked quietly. They were laying in the back of Impala, Dean leaning up against the door and River laying with her back to his chest. Both still naked and and satisfied from their somewhat frantic lovemaking. She ran her fingers along Dean's forearms and legs, memorizing the feel of his skin, the tight muscles and raised scars.
"Yeah," she finally answered, laying her head back to rest in the crook of his neck, "Just miss having sex in a bed or least indoors."
Dean laughed, "Me too." They gathered their discarded clothes and got dressed in silence, walking back into the cabin just as the sun was rising.
"So, I think I got us a case," Sam called as soon as he heard the screen door bang shut, "Remember that story from the paper?"
"The one about the stripper with three boobs?" River called as she fished around in her bag for a snack.
"No, the other one. The one about the guy that stumbled into the ER missing his liver," Sam answered, "Well the body was covered in bloody fingerprints. Prints that match a guy that died in 1981…" River gave Sam a quizzical look, which he had come to learn meant "who the fuck cares".
"Maybe a revenant or a…zombie? Walking, killing cannibal corpses?" Dean asked, eyebrows raised.
"Might be. Probably worth checking out," Sam said.
"Zombies do like the Other Other white meat," River said between bites of a granola bar.
"We've been on soul saving duty for months and now I'm three weeks out and you want to work an actual case?" Dean said watching his younger brother as he packed his duffle bag.
"Hey man, I thought I was doing you a favor. You two have been all gung-ho to hunt anything and everything. If you don't want to kill any zombies…"
"He didn't say that," River told Sam sitting on the edge of the worn out couch next to Dean.
"Yeah, I didn't say that. Of course I want to hunt some zombies. We'll drop you off half way, is that ok?" Dean asked glancing at River.
"Yeah, Go kill some zombies."
Sam hot-wired a car for River at the designated half way point since she couldn't fit under the steering wheel anymore. "Call me when you get there and after your appointment, lemme know what the doc says," Dean told her.
"I will, go, get outta here already. I'm gonna be late," she kissed him quickly and climbed into the car, "I want details on the zombies, Romero versus Snyder who guessed right?" River drove the car towards Sioux Falls as the Winchesters headed to Erie, Pennsylvania.