A/N - So I can't leave cliffhangers hanging for long...enjoy!
Early Morning February 5, 2007. El Paso, Texas
Dean had the TV on mute and lights off as he lounged on his bed. He had an alarm set for when he'd return to Bobby's room to give them a break, but he didn't think he'd fall asleep. He'd only been in his room fifteen minutes when there was a light knock on the door. He grabbed his pistol and opened the door far enough to see it was Lady standing there, and he opened it slowly for her to enter.
"Aren't you supposed to be in your room?" Dean asked as Lady walked through the door.
"I want to be here," she said, sitting on the edge of his bed. "With you," she said, her pale eyes looking up at him with need.
Dean shut the door and said nothing as he went to her. His left hand ran through her hair as he kissed her, moving her onto her back. He kept his right hand on the bed next to her to hold his weight. This he could do, kissing and more had always come very easily with Lady and was hard to resist when available. While being with her this way had definitely been on his mind but the memory of her looking ready to be taken home by half the men in the club made him pull back, "I just need to know..." She forced his mouth back to hers, her kisses were urgent and needy and he couldn't help but return them. It had been so long...
Dean broke the kiss again, groaning slightly as her hands were trying to pull him back down. He could do this, he wasn't sure if he could stop himself, but he couldn't keep doing this without knowing what she wanted. If they'd never be anything but friends with benefits he'd deal with it. If this was her way of answering him he just needed her to be a bit more clear. "Wait, just, wait," he breathed, his hands fisting the blankets under them.
"Oh, Dean," she breathed, her hand running up his chest and he couldn't even remember what he was doing in Texas.
He moved her up on the bed while kissing her as desire pulsed almost painfully through him. He paused, taking quick gasps and trying to clear his head. As much as he wanted this there was something wrong. Dean clenched his jaw as his hand moved over Lady until his right hand touched her face and he pressed the silver ring he wore to the soft skin there. Lady suddenly squealed in pain as the silver burned and cracked her skin.
Dean couldn't make a sound as the incubus pinned him down, holding the painful silver he wore away from her while straddling him. He tried to see through the illusion, through the fog it was making in his brain that was intoxicating and thrilling. He couldn't make any sound and lost the will to fight as its hands went to his jeans.
Lady had her hand ready to knock on Dean's door when she heard a sound inside, and she didn't bother knocking when she saw the door would be unlocked. She even saw what would be in there when before she opened the door. "Dean!"
The red and scaly thing was just like she saw in her vision, and it looked at her. Actually uglier, and it was hissing and snarling.
Lady grit her teeth as the monster flung itself at her. She saw herself moving out of the way, and it moving just as quickly to catch her movement. Its clawed hands gripped around her arms and slammed her into the wall. It wasn't extraordinarily large, and Lady pushed it right back, falling onto it and rolling around. "Dean! Kill it!" She grimaced as she got her hands around its neck.
Dean moved sluggishly as he reached his pistol but when he turned to take aim all he saw were two Lady's wrestling on the floor. They looked and now were even dressed identical as the succubus adjusted her illusion in his head to fool him. Dean had the pistol in his hand and was aiming uncertainly as he looked at the two Lady's wrestling on the ground. "Lady?"
"Dean, kill it," Lady gasped.
Lady's eyes got wide as her voice came from the things lips, "Don't listen to it, Dean!" she said, holding it down.
"It's an illusion. It's in your head. Kill it! Or it will kill me!"
"We can't let it get away. Just shoot something! If you get it wrong shoot the other one!" Lady snapped. She grunted as she kicked the incubus off of her and scrambled to grab Dean's jacket that was hanging on a chair. Her hand slipped into the pocket and pulled out a silver dagger. As the incubus made a move to flee Lady threw the knife, striking it right in the chest. It wailed once as it collapsed. Instantly the illusion failed, and soon the heap was shriveling up.
Dean lowered his pistol as Lady caught her breath on the ground. And they both made a disgusted noise as a putrid smell started to come from the dead incubus. "Come on," Dean said, grabbing Lady and pulling her to her feet. "Oh, that's ripe."
Lady nodded in agreement. "Watch it, I'll grab Bobby and Sam."
Lady returned a minute later with Bobby and Sam.
"I thought this thing was an incubus," Dean said. "Why did it come after me?"
Sam shrugged, "I guess it can make you see whatever you want, man or woman."
"I'm sorry," Lady said. "I…I didn't know. I…sorry," she muttered.
"We'll get this cleaned up," Sam said, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"I'll help," Lady offered.
"Lady, you're standing here in your underwear," Bobby said. "Just go back to your room, we got this."
She nodded, "Okay, thanks." Walk back to her room and taking the opportunity to get away from the dead incubus that was letting off a rotting animal sex smell.
Dean went to the bathroom to splash water on his face. He had been completely powerless. He had even figured it out quickly enough, but it had him paralyzed and aching for whatever it was going to do to him.
"Dude, you okay?" Sam asked with concern.
"I'm fine," Dean said roughly.
"You were almost raped by an incubus," Sam said.
"Don't say that!" Dean snapped. "If you, either of you, ever repeat that, I'll kill you."
"Maybe it was because of your cheekbones," Sam joked.
"Funny," Dean said angrily.
Quietly and without humor Sam asked, "So, who'd you think it was?"
Dean glared at his brother, "You two got this covered?"
"Yeah. Take a break, Dean," Bobby said. "Come on, Sam, help me out here. This thing is heavy."
Dean walked away from the smell and looked between Bobby and Lady's motel doors, and tested her door first. The handle turned easily and the door swung open. Lady was sitting at the table with a beer and didn't look at him as he stepped in. "You okay?" she asked.
"No, not really," Dean admitted. "How'd you know?" he asked. "You were four doors down, did you have a vision?"
"No," she answered quickly. "If I had seen it I would have warned you, you know that."
"How did you know to be there?"
She shook her head, "I didn't know. I was just going over to talk to you." She finally looked at him. "Dean, what we have is all we can have. I mean, I have too much going on as it is." Dean rolled his eyes away, suddenly wishing that when he had her in his car he hadn't let her leave. That he hadn't let her think about it. Or that maybe he didn't go see her right after she had narrowly saved his ass from an incubus sex toy and given her more time to think. "I don't want to hurt your feelings and..."
"Like I said, I'm a big boy," he answered bitterly. He didn't feel like one at that moment.
"It'd be nice, for a change, to have something," Lady continued, looking at her beer. "But I just have to be realistic. I don't think I'm going to be alive much longer."
"You are still using your curse as an excuse? It's gone!" Dean said angrily.
"That's not it," Lady said. "If I can't find a way to kill Garrett, he will find me. I've seen my own death, and I don't know if I can avoid it. I got so lucky last time...you weren't there, you didn't see what he could do with just a thought. I came really close to dying, a few times recently. What it comes down to, Dean, is...I care about you a lot. I like being with you. But after this we're going to go our separate ways. I have my work, you have yours. And I know we'll keep running into each other, and I want to, it's just in the end I am not something you should invest time in."
"You think my life isn't dangerous?" Dean countered. "Any second I could have other hunters after me and Sam. There is a demon out there I still have to find. And the FBI is looking for me. I get what you are saying, Lady, believe me I do. And it's bullshit."
"When you put it that way, sure," she said, meeting his eyes again. Her face was hard and even. "You don't know me, Dean. You don't know my name, where I come from, nothing. And you are curious, you have asked before and you will ask again. I lie to you, everyone really. I'm never going to be close to anyone. And I haven't wanted to in a long time. Sorry."
Dean shook his head, "Whatever," he said, leaving the room and slamming the door angrily. A few moments later the Impala started up and tore out of the parking lot.
Lady let out a breath and slumped in her chair. She wasn't sure what would happen the next time she saw Dean, if a friendship could survive something like that. Her life was full of superficial relationships and she didn't know what was supposed to happen next. Times like these she wished her future-sight gave her more than just a few seconds. She wondered if Dean would be there in the morning, if he'd even look at her let alone talk to her. She sniffed and pulled out her cell phone to call North Dakota. Thomas answered sleepily. "Hey!" She said in her best happy voice. "Just calling to check in on my favorite man. How's Freddie?"
"Lady? It's three in the morning," Thomas mumbled.
"Yeah, I know. I just...I really needed to check on Freddie," Lady said, finding it hard to keep her happy voice on.
"He's at the clinic," Thomas answered. "He's fine."
"Is anyone at the clinic?" she asked. "Think I could call there?"
"Lady, it's three in the morning," Thomas repeated.
"Okay, I get it," she said, wiping at her eyes and hanging up. It didn't matter if Dean was still there in the morning, she wouldn't be. She'd be on her way back home. Freddie was still locked in a kennel but she'd be locked inside it with him. She didn't have to explain herself to him, he didn't care about her past. He wouldn't judge her or even ask her why she was in a sad mood when she arrived. He'd just be happy to see her and let her hold onto him until she felt better.
Bobby and Sam were still cleaning up the incubus when she got out of the shower and started packing her bags.
She froze in the middle of the room a few seconds before the door opened. "Just leave, okay?" she said as Dean stepped in.
"I'm not going anywhere, Lady," he said, closing the door with a well placed kick and grabbing her.
As horrible as she felt she wanted something to lift her up, and Dean's kiss did that. She didn't know if it meant he had rethought what she had said and agreed with her, deciding to keep their original arrangement. But she wasn't even sure she could handle that arrangement anymore.
She let out a soft moan as he got them on the bed. She could feel his frustration still there in his kiss as he left rough marks from his stubble across her lips and jaw. He was angry with her still, teasing the line between pleasure and pain because of it. And she saw him grabbing her arms and holding her tight enough to leave bruises, holding her down.
"Whoa, wait," Lady said, pushing him back. "Something isn't right."
"No talking," Dean breathed roughly, bearing his weight down on her.
Lady went to push him back again, and started thrashing about as he pinned her down with one arm across her chest and the other clamped over her mouth. Dean bared his teeth at her and hissed, "You killed my daughter."
Lady let out a muffled cry as a forked tongue slipped through the illusion of Dean and moved to fight harder.
"I was going to wait until you gave up the chase," the incubus hissed as she fought against his weight. "But she couldn't wait, she needed to feed. She got his scent, his need…she needed him to survive and you killed her. I'm going to tear your soul from you….slowly."
Lady struggled, and with a rough movement the incubus slammed her head against the bed's headboard. She let out a moan of pain and went weak as she fought to stay conscious from the hit.
The real Dean paused outside of Bobby's motel room, ready to grab his brother so they could get the hell out of Texas, when he heard the noise from Lady's room. She was the last person he wanted to see but he pounded on her door and called, "Lady? You okay?" He glanced down the row of rooms and saw Sam coming out of it with a garbage bag of dead incubus.
The incubus let out a low growl and then in an unfamiliar voice it said, "We're busy!"
Dean's lips parted in surprise and for a moment he believed Lady had called one of the several men she had met that evening. But he looked down the row of rooms, Bobby was coming out of the motel that had held the dead incubus. But that wasn't right. It had a dead succubus, because it had gone after him.
Dean took a step back and kicked the door in, not surprised to see the red-scaly monster struggling to keep Lady down. It looked at him with feral eyes and a deep growl. Dean grabbed his gun from his side and aimed, "Get off of her, ugly," he snarled back.
There was only one way out of the crappy motel room, and Dean was blocking it.
The incubus snarled as Lady managed to sink her teeth into its hand, and it moved its forearm into her throat to choke her. He wrestled with her a moment to keep her too close for the real Dean to shoot him, and then pulled her off the bed to stand in front of him as a shield. "She killed my daughter, she is mine," the incubus growled at him.
"Lady, you okay?" Dean asked.
"Not really," she said hoarsely, bruises already forming around her neck. Lady's eyes moved around the room, and he waited. Her eyes fell on the table, and he saw out of the corner of his eye a beer bottle and a silver dagger. Lady's hands were free, and he knew they were quick. He didn't even have to reach the dagger, he had a silver knife up his sleeve.
Dean lowered the pistol with one hand as he felt his blade slide down to his palm. He studied Lady's face, it appeared calm and ready. As fast as he dared throw the dagger he did, and it aimed right at her free hand. Lady snatched it by the handle and stabbed the incubus in the leg. It snarled in pain and let her go, and she turned to stab it in the chest.
"I'm fine," Lady said before he could ask, backing away from the dead shriveling thing.
Dean grimaced at the smell the body was making, it was worse than the succubus from earlier.
"What the hell are you two…oh god," Sam grimaced as he stood in the doorway.
"Yeah, this one is really ripe," Dean said, cleaning his bade off.
"That looks horrible. What happened," Sam asked, going to Lady who was leaning against the wall.
"My wish of being incubus bait came true. Don't touch me," Lady said. "God, my skin is crawling. Where the fuck is Bobby?"
"Lady, are you okay?" Sam asked seriously. She nodded, then shook her head, then nodded again. He pulled her into a hug that she didn't return or fight. "Hey, it's okay," he said gently.
"Great job," Dean said. "Two of the suckers in town."
"We missed it too, Dean," Sam said. "I'll get this cleaned up. Lady, are you sure you are okay?"
Lady pulled herself out of his hug and resisted the urge to break down, "Yeah. Just, uh…a little freaked."
Lady grabbed her bags she had been ready to leave with and went into Bobby's room, needing a second to breathe. Sam and Dean were cleaning up the mess the incubus had left, and as soon as it was done all of them needed to leave. Put as many miles between El Paso and them as possible. Her and Bobby would go north, and she had no idea what direction the Winchesters would take.
The incubus had looked like Dean, the perfect double. For a few moments she had been fooled by it, but that was only because it was giving her what she wanted. She didn't want to go back to not knowing where Dean and his brother were, not hearing how they were doing, no chance of seeing them. Maybe she was even tired of having the closest people in her life be an over-the-hill grumpy hunter and a two-hundred pound dog. She may live for several more years, and those years were going to be rather lonely if she didn't put herself out there.
Sam and Dean worked together to carry a heavy garbage bag full of dead incubus to the dumpster while Bobby was working on getting rid of some of the stench. Lady stood next to the Impala. Sam smiled happily at her, so far he had managed to ignore his brothers most recent foul mood. "It was a bit messy but we got the job done," he said.
"Sam, grab your stuff. We're leaving," Dean said.
"Yeah, just be a few minutes," Sam said.
"Dean, hold up," Lady said.
Dean waited until his brother was in his motel room and glared at her, "Job is done, Lady. Go back to your dog."
"I plan to," Lady said. "Listen, I'm a bitch, I know. And I'm sorry because I..."
"I don't need a pat on the back, Lady. I'm going to be just fine," Dean said. "In fact, better this way."
Lady looked at him painfully, "Dean, I'm a freak. I am so twisted that I don't even believe there is a way for me to even resemble someone normal anymore. It never really bothered me, but with you I am, uh, it's just a relief not to have to pretend. You knew more about me the first day I met you than I ever give up to anyone. I'm scared to death what the next few months are going to hold for me, because for the first time in years I'm actually looking forward to staying alive. Don't get cocky, it isn't just because of you. But the thing is, that incubus came after me looking like you and for a moment I let it. But I knew it couldn't be you, because with you I feel something. I don't know what, I can't explain it. Thing is I don't know what I'm doing half the time. I wing it, like I am now...thing is, when I'm with you, I'm with you. I don't want to be with anyone else. When I'm on my own, when you aren't around, I think about you, I look forward to seeing you again." Lady swallowed hard, Dean's harsh glare and set jaw hadn't softened. She licked her lips and nodded, "Well, guess that's it. Drive safe," she said, walking back into Bobby's motel room and shutting the door. She got halfway to the bathroom when the door opened and Dean was slamming it shut.
"That's it?" he snapped at her. "What am I supposed to believe, Lady? I watch you wrap people around your little finger all the damn time and I've been trying to figure out if I'm one of the suckers here."
Lady looked at his angry face, "You want me to say I'm sorry? I am. I was just supposed to meet you once. Check in with you and report to John, get out and never see you again. Instead it's turned into the craziest damn ride since I found out witchcraft was real and easier to pull off than a card trick. What I said before, it's true...mostly. You don't know me, Dean. Anything closer than what we already have, you are going to want to know. I don't see how I can be anything more than what I already am. But I also know whatever is between us nearly got us killed tonight."
"There are a lot of things I don't know about you, Lady, but I know a hell of a lot," he said. "A lot more I bet I can make a real good guess on. Anything else, I'm more than happy to roll with. I don't care where you came from, but I like knowing where you are so that if you are close by maybe I can see you." Lady studied his face as it softened. "And I'll give that you are a good liar, but I had that figured out the day I met you...and like you told me there isn't much you can lie about to me anymore. I don't give a damn about who you used to be, never have. You want to leave that person dead and buried, I'm not planning to grab a shovel." Dean studied her tense shoulders and the almost scared look on her face, and again he wondered just what was so horrible in her past that she had ran away from it. But it didn't matter, none of it did. "I don't care what you're real name is, because you are just Lady. Like just Fabio, with smaller breasts."
Lady looked down and tried not to smile, "That's a good one. I'll have to use that one day." She looked back up and said softly, "What do you want, Dean?"
"I don't know," he admitted. "I'd say the normal stuff, but you just killed two sex-fiends in one night. We're far from normal, Lady. But…let's give this a shot. Classic let's be together. Even when we're in different states."
"I can do that," she said. "I don't know if I'll be around for long. But I don't want to be alone if I survive."
"Me either," Dean said, stepping into the middle of the room with her. "We'll figure this out," he said as she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her face on his good shoulder.
Lady let out a breath as he put his arms around her shoulders and held her against him. She would have rather been up against the incubus again than have to go through that roller-coaster, an incubus wasn't half as terrifying as this, but it was over. "You'll let me know where you are, what you are doing? Call to check in, that sort of thing?"
"Yeah," he said. He could feel his heart pounding and the smile on his face felt good. "When you stop at the Roadhouse and Roy tries to pick you up are you going to let me nail him?"
Lady moved her hand up to cup his face and kissed him slowly before saying, "No."
"No? I want to be able to nail the son of a bitch," Dean snapped.
She kissed him again and looked at him seriously, "Let it go."
Dean looked into her eyes, he was going to do it anyway if he had the chance but it didn't matter. He had her. He smirked a bit, "We go out together and a hot woman comes onto me will you get in a catfight?"
She grinned, "Dean, I often carry a knife, frequently a gun and always fight dirty. That's not a good idea."
He thought about it but before the thought could process she kissed him again. The kiss only stopped when there was a loud knock on the door. His hands had only made it down to her hips and he gave them a bit of a squeeze in frustration before going to see who was at the door. Sam was standing there with a bag over his shoulder, "Ready to leave?"
"The room clean?" Dean asked.
"Yeah, we got that thing out of there before the smell could soak in," Sam said.
"Give me your key to the room," Dean said, holding out his hand. Sam dug it out of his pocket and handed it over. He pointed at Sam, "You call me or knock on that door for any reason but the world collapsing in on itself, I'll kill you." Dean wrapped an arm around Lady's waist and walked her down to Sam's room.
"Where am I supposed to sleep?" Sam asked.
"I don't care," Dean called back.
Lady returned Dean's kisses happily once they were locked inside the room. "Not to be a killjoy, but both of us were nearly raped within the past hour. This is sort of in bad taste."
"Yeah, but watching you kill those things was sort of a turn on," Dean said, making her grin.
She ran her hands over his chest and under his jacket to pull it off and gave him room to carefully pull off his t-shirt. The gunshot wound to his left shoulder was still healing, ugly and red with a dark bruise around it. Lady pushed him on his back and kissed him slowly while his hands moved up her shirt. "Oh, careful," she muttered, pulling back a bit. She pulled her shirt over her head and pulled a thin silver dagger she had hidden in her bra before getting rid of that, too.
Dean grinned as he pulled her back to him for another kiss, and unable to help himself started to laugh. Knife in the bra, he had struck gold in his mind. He ran his hands up her bare back, his fingertips running over old scars he knew were there. Gently he rolled and she moved with him, her legs rubbing against his eagerly while he worked on her jeans. His pants were only around his knees before she pulled him to her. Dean's breath caught in his chest as her hot wetness wrapped around him. Lady's eyes closed as her hands squeezed his arms and she moved her hips to his and met his rhythm. Dean's breath exhaled in a moan and he kissed her firmly until she was gasping his name. Every dream of his she had starred in put together did not match what they did together. The feelings she brought out in him acted out when they were making love, from the frustration of their bickering to the longing love he'd been harboring for her mixed and was sending them both over the edge as they moved faster in a race for ecstasy they gave each other. When they reached it they could barely move, and neither of them wanted to.
"Wow," Lady finally said with a dopey smile spreading across her lips.
Dean wrestled with the blankets that had been pushed to the bottom of the bed until he got them over them and held Lady close.
Lady woke up, still smiling. A look at the clock on the nightstand said it was nearly nine in the morning. She stretched slowly as she looked at Dean on the other side of the bed sleeping on his stomach. He made a noise as she moved a hand over his lower back and a quiet chuckle as she covered his back with her front and went to kiss his ear. "I haven't slept that good in months," he said in a low voice.
"We have to get out of here," Lady said, running a hand across his back before swatting his butt. Before she could jump out of bed he had an arm around her waist and pulled her down.
"Are you coming with us?" Dean asked.
"I have to get Freddie. I can't," she said in a small voice, and Dean let out a breath. "I've been thinking," she said, running her fingertips through his hair.
"I don't like the sound of that," Dean said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and looking at her seriously.
"We want to try this," she said. "We are doing this, but, c'mon, if I want to have a chance at nailing Garrett you know I have to lock myself up at home and research this. Next few months we aren't going to see each other that much."
"Yeah, I know," Dean said, rolling onto his back. "Pretty much like normal."
"I guess," she muttered. "But when there are no more witches to hunt I'm going to be really bored." Dean's mouth stretched in a grin. "I'm actually very serious, Dean. If we're going to try a serious relationship, and I have nothing to keep me busy, you might have me and Freddie following you around job to job."
"I sort of like that idea," he said. "We'll figure it out." Dean let out a breath as his cell phone rang and he reached off the bed for his jeans to retrieve it from the pocket. "Sam, what did I say? Just go pick up some breakfast, we'll be ready to leave in an hour."
Saying goodbye in the parking lot almost led to renting the motel for another night, their kiss continued for several minutes until Sam finally laid on the horn of the Impala impatiently.
Lady was flushed and fighting back the smile as Bobby drove them out of town. There were so many concerns in her life that she was trying to forget so that she could hold onto the feeling. There were so many things wrong with her, and Dean knew a good portion of them, and he didn't give a damn. This was better than finding a treasure chest full of designer shoes.
A/N - I super enjoyed writing the whole incubus 'episode' and I have a few more songs for this specific chapter. Songs are:
Staplegunned, by The Spill Canvas
Speaking in Tongues, by Eagles of Death Metal