Part 38 – The next day
(November 29, 2009)

Liz woke up alone in the noon day sun. Dean was gone. After the second run through of the story, his eyes had glazed over and she had given up on making him understand… mainly because she still didn't understand. She hadn't meant to get into any of it in the first place. She had wanted sex and Dean had offered. It had worked out… until she had to deal with him hanging out in her bed and eating her ice cream. Then the night had exploded.

--

Dean helped his brother down the narrow staircase to eat at the table like a normal person. Sam shook his head at his brother. "You look like shit."

"I feel like shit. Thanks for reminding me." Dean bit out.

Sam began eating with a vigor even he didn't know he had. "What's up with you?"

"Nothing, tired." Dean shook his head. He sat there, stewing until Sam finished eating. So, he took a chance on the only sounding board he had available. "How much did Liz tell you about her life? You know… before we met them all."

"Quite a bit."

"But not everything?"

"Probably not. What's up?"

"We were talking and she told me some things." He took a deep breath. "And I've been turning them over in my head ever since. I don't think I understand it. Not the way she means me to."

"Well… gravity is what makes you fall and go boom."

"Shut up. I'm being serious, Sammy. Listen to me, Dipshit. She has a theory about her visions and what started her on this… I don't know, alternative view of… I don't know. I don't get it and I need some help."

Sam stared at his brother. He looked tired. Like he hadn't gotten any sleep. "She told you about her visions? The ones she got before she met us?"

"Yeah. She told you?"

"Parts." He sat back. "What's her theory?""That what she sees is an alternative version of her life. So like… she has a vision of bliss with me but that never happens because Max died and came back and so I didn't meet her until after Dad died and she was married."

"Huh." An alternative version of this universe.

"Right! I hear it and it's just words. I don't know what they mean."

"Dean… why are you so worked up over this?"

"Because she was so…" He groaned and stood up, raking his hands over his face. "I don't know. I don't know why." He stared out the window where he could see Liz coming out of her cottage and heading to work. She didn't look upset but he had snuck out when she'd finally fallen asleep. It was a dick move. "Look. She listens when I talk. I mostly ramble and I know I don't make sense and she doesn't understand half of it. I figured I could do the same but I feel like I gotta go kill something now." He took a deep breath and tried to calm down. "She comes at me with aliens and resurrections and freaky powers."

"Wow." Sam blinked at his brother. "Aliens?"

"Yeah. Aliens from… I forget where. Nathan, Gary… Amanda. All aliens." Rolling his shoulders, a series of pops and cracks made him wince. He was never this tense. "If she doesn't understand it, how am I?"

"You aren't supposed to. You listened. You asked her questions, probably. You made her think with new eyes. You listened. That's what you were supposed to do."

"Whatever."

"Did you ever wonder why she makes you talk about things?"

"No. She's nosy." Dean scoffed."No. She senses that there's something bothering you. She asks questions. You answer. You feel better. It's cathartic to talk." He rolled his eyes at his brother's blank face. "Therapeutic."

Dean rolled his eyes. His little brother was the second person in a day to subtly accuse him of being illiterate. "So, what are you saying?"

"She just wanted to talk. All those times you yelled at me for staying up, talking to her… we were making each other feel better about the things we cannot change. Everyone feels like that about something in their lives. It's universal. Aliens or demons. It doesn't matter. Our lives are not normal. As well adjusted as she is, there are still things she doesn't understand about herself." Sam sat up to look at his brother's profile. "There are things I don't get about you and you're my blood."

"Right back at you. I mean, really… opera?"

--

Liz stretched before picking up the food-laden tray for the guys who had gotten off early at the body shop. Kyle stared at her as she delivered their meals in silence. "Are you okay?"

"Didn't get much sleep last night." She shook her head and waved him off.

"You know what gives me a good night's sleep?" Billy piped up.

"The fact that both halves of your brain only do half the work one half of mine does?" Liz shrugged and moved on to her next table. When she made it back to the bar, Kyle was waiting. "What?"

"Are you okay?" He watched her wipe down the bar harshly. "Did something happen? A vision or something horrifying? You hit pretty hard with that cut on Billy."

"I'm just sleepy." She shook her head. She didn't dare give Billy a look of apology. She had enough on her plate with the one guy; she didn't need to add another. "Maybe I shouldn't have come in today but I can't just lounge around all day and hope my bills get paid."

"Are you okay? I mean. I keep asking the question but I keep thinking you're hiding something." Something was different about his best friend but even he couldn't figure out what it was. Maybe it was Thanksgiving. She hadn't done it the year before because she had still been grieving pretty hard. "Was it the holiday? Did it hit you?"

"Kyle. I didn't sleep. That's it."

He gave her a warning look about using his real name and lowered his voice. "Yeah but why didn't you sleep?"

"Because I was theorizing on my existence and I didn't come to any decent conclusions." She blurted out more harshly than she had intended and immediately looked apologetic about it. She took a deep breath and let it out.

"Oh. Okay. I'll stop. I do enough of that myself. Scares the crap out of my lady. Now I know what she means."

Later that night…

Liz let herself into her cottage and nearly started when she felt the figure step in right behind her. "Sneaky. You're lucky I know your cologne or else I could have planted your face in the floor."

"You would do that?" Dean shut the door and leaned on it. The banter was over before it began. Neither had the energy for it. "Look… I've been thinking and turning it over in my head." Taking a deep breath did nothing to relax his tense body. "I don't know what any of it means."

"But you think it's freaky."

"Yeah but… okay, so there's like aliens and resurrected human beings running around and there are weird sexual visions, which I want details on later… My world is equally fucked is what I'm getting at. You have barely scratched the surface of that Outer Limits experience, alright? I died." When she looked like she was going to say something, he pushed off the door and stepped forward. "My dad sold his soul to the yellow-eyed demon to save my life."

The blood just fell from her face. "What?"

"That's what…" The confusion and horror on her face spoke volumes but he couldn't understand about what. He gestured to the junk yard outside her window where the original Impala sat rusting. "You didn't know?"

"No." She shook her head slowly. It all started to make some sense. The guilt that Dean carried with him and the intensely conflicted feelings he had about his father. The darkness that had accompanied her vision in the backseat of that salvaged Impala.

"Anyway, I'm alive now… So. Here we are. Dead people. Good looking but formerly dead people. I kill evil things… you know where they turn up and kill… it makes more sense to be united than not."

"Okay. Where does that leave us?"

"I don't know. It'd be a waste of good sex if we stopped meeting in dark alleys." He joked with a nervous smile. "And you know… tested the limits of your new mattress."

"What if this doesn't work?" She motioned between them. He had to be sweating because she could smell his cologne even though she'd taken a few steps back. "Sam and I are friends."

"Yeah… and you and Sam need friends." He stepped forward, matching her progress across the cottage.

"Do we charge ahead with this regardless of the consequences?"

"That's how I like to do things." He stepped forward and into her personal space once more.

"Do we tell him?"

That made him stop and think. "Well… it's none of his business, really. He'd kick my ass for even thinking about it… forget that we're already doing it."

"So, we don't tell him and what? We just see where it goes?"

"That's my vote."

"We're talking this to death." She shook her head. "Do we shake on it?"

"I think we're better off sealing this deal the old fashioned way."

"And what way is that?"

He grinned and shrugged. "Depends."

"On what?"

"How flexible you are."

Two days later…
(December 1, 2009)

Liz glared at the frost on the window and snuggled deeper into her warm bed. "South Dakota is too cold."

"Not my fault." He grumbled. His voice sounded like gravel, even to his own ears.

"You said whiskey would get us warmed up last night." She complained even as his body turned into hers to combine their heat. "Now, I'm cold."

"I suggested whiskey cause it makes you frisky and that leads to warm bodies."

"You are so…"

"Sexy? Hot, right?" He teased with a wide smile though he had yet to really open his eyes.

"Stupid. Do you think with anything other than what's between your legs?" She murmured even as she tucked her head between his shoulder and chin.

"Sometimes I get hungry and I think with my stomach."

"Right and as soon as you're fed, then it's right back to your penis."

"Are there any real complaints this morning?" He rubbed her back and let her warm breath dispel some of the cold around his exposed neck.

"Your feet are cold."

Pot. Kettle. "Your feet are colder."

"Dean…" Liz whined. "I'm cold and I don't want to be cold anymore."

Three days later…
(December 4, 2009)

Sam sat down at a table, relishing the lack of a need for a booth or an extra chair. He was slow to get around after being confined in bed for so long but he was mobile once more. Sure, he had taken advantage of Dean's lengthy absence and conned a ride to Baxter but it had been well worth the scolding he'd gotten. He grinned at Liz. "So, catch me up in the world. Bobby doesn't get cable."

"Well, Billy has it bad for our little Lillian." Kyle answered and shot her a look. "She keeps burning him even though I know he's exactly her type."

"No, he's not. Billy showboats too much." Dean shook his head. "He'd have to tone it way down and sprout a brain."

"Wow. That's bad." Sam shook his head.

"What is?"

"We just found someone who even Dean thinks is stupid."

Liz set a beer in front of the younger Winchester. "Be nice to your brother. Maybe Dean is not what is considered traditionally intelligent but he's quick witted when it counts."

"Thank you, Lil." Dean sat up, chest puffed out in pride.

"Just because he quotes Zeppelin instead of Confucius doesn't make him stupid." Liz finished with a ruffle of Dean's short locks.

"And she turns on me like a bulldog." Dean scoffed, patting down his hair, and finished his beer.

"I got a lead." Sammy announced. "We can head south and get out of the snow."

"Yeah…" Dean nodded as he put on his jacket, avoiding Liz's questioning gaze. "We'll talk about it later."

"Where are you going? I just got here."

"We're not five." He scoffed. "I don't have to tell you every time I'm going to leave the bar." His eyes flicked to Liz's for a moment before he removed himself from the group.

"Lillian, you have to tell me what this girl looks like." Sam demanded. "He's hardly been around the last week or something. I know it's a woman. Have you seen her?"

"I am not his keeper." Liz shook her head.

"Really? The town's been pretty dead." Kyle frowned and watched Dean go. "I hope he hasn't been checking out the Quickie Mart parking lot after hours. There are some hound dogs who work the late shift."

"Stan." Liz barked at him.

"I'm just saying that he used to have better taste."

--

"I know you're hiding in the bathroom." Liz called back when she got home from work. She was answered by the door opening and Dean leaning in the doorway. "You okay?"

"I'm fine."

"You've been drinking." She commented as she pulled the blinds and closed the curtains.

"Yeah. I have."

"So, I ask. Are you okay?"

"You know that I have to leave, right? It's been cool staying in one place but Sam and I are on a mission and he's got his cast off. He's feeling strong."

"And you have a demon to kill." Liz nodded and sat on the edge of the bed. "I knew that you would have to go. It's not a huge surprise."

"You gonna be okay?"

She shrugged. "I won't have you getting crumbs in my bed anymore."

"Or confusing your ass for a pillow."

"Right."

Dean stepped further into the room. "Hey, I won't have you nagging me to eat vegetables and to pick up my socks."

"Sam will do that for me." She nodded to herself. "Besides… you won't be gone forever… the Impala is an old car… and your track record is poor."

"One for the road?"

"Just one?" She snorted and motioned him closer. "That's not like you."

TBC