(Hello again! For those of you who were eagerly awaiting The Trickster/Gabriel's appearance, the wait is over.)
[Songs used, mentioned, and suggested for Chapter 6]
~ 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' theme music
~ 'Don't Ya' by Brett Eldredge
Chapter Six
"I Can't Help Myself"
Springfield, Ohio
February 13th, 2007
"Knock, knock!" Dani called as she rapped her knuckles on the door.
"Who else would have visited the Busty Asian Beauties website, Dean!" Sam snapped over his shoulder as he opened the door.
Dani's eyebrows rose. "Should I wait?" she asked.
"No, sorry, Dani," Sam apologized, stepping aside for her. "Come on in."
She slid inside and deposited her bags by the door. Turning to Sam, she held out her arms. "I demand hugs." Sam chuckled and bent down to do so. She took hold of his wrists as she stepped into the hug and guided them to her shoulders. She had yet to see how the Winchester's hugged and didn't want to risk them being the 'manly squeeze and slap on the back' types when it came to her scars. "Oh yo, Sam. It's like hugging a tree!"
"Gives new meaning to the term 'tree hugger', doesn't it?" Dean asked as he stood from the couch and approached her.
Dani repeated the maneuver then stepped back to look them over. "Okay, so should you fill me in on what's happened since you left me on the side of the road, or should you catch me up on the case first?"
"Case," Dean answered. "It's a shorter story."
"Got it." She hopped onto the couch and waited expectantly. They gave her a more detailed summary of what Dean told her over the phone. Except there was a recent addition to their tale.
"And just last night, that Curtis kid I talked to with the girl at the bar, he went missing," Sam said.
"Missing?"
"Vanished into thin air," Dean added.
"We could really use you right away," Sam said apologetically. "I know you just finished a long drive –,"
"No, it's fine. Let's get right to it. What can I do?"
"You'll go to the campus and investigate if there's a connection between Curtis' disappearance and the professor's murder, while Dean and I continue looking into the background of Crawford Hall and it's supposed haunted history."
"Can do."
Dani spent the whole day on campus and got zilch. She'd questioned students, searched the buildings, went to the library to do some research about the college's history in case there was a possibility of a legend of a curse or something along those lines, etc., but nothing turned up. By the time she returned to the hotel later that evening, she was dog-tired and hungry. The boys weren't back yet, so she took a catnap and woke to the sound of them arguing as they entered the room.
"I didn't put that skin-mag in there, Sam!"
"Then how else did it make it onto the counter, Dean? Admit it; you waited until I had my back turned and slipped the magazine with our stuff. I wouldn't be so mad if it wasn't for the fact that you had me pay for it unknowingly."
"Another fight, boys?" Dani asked with a yawn and a stretch.
"Hey," Dean greeted. "When did you get back?"
Dani looked at her watch. "An hour and a half ago."
"Did you find anything?"
"A whole lotta nadda." She perked up at the sight of grocery bags in Sam's hands. "Food?"
"Yeah, help yourself."
"Don't mind if I do."
As she fixed herself something to eat, she felt the tension in the room. Looking up from her plate, she saw the boys sitting far apart and glaring at each other. After nearly a minute of strained silence, Dani set down her sandwich with a sigh. "Okay, here's a little tidbit about me, guys. I can't eat when there's tension around me. So, unless ya'll want me to starve, I suggest you tell me what's been going on."
"It's nothing, Dani. Dean just won't stop messing with my stuff."
"And if Mr. Perfect here would take the giant stick out of his butt, he'd realize I'm not doing anything."
"You're the one who visits porn sites, Dean! Not me!"
Dani's brown eyes widened in embarrassed surprise at Dean. Out of habit, she reached for the silver cross around her neck. Dean flushed at the sight of the religious symbol.
"Because of him, my laptop's been unavailable to use for over seven hours while I run a debugging and virus cleaning program on it."
"Oh," Dani interjected. "I think that finished an hour ago. I heard it beep when I came in, but I didn't look to see what it was. I thought it might be rude since it's your laptop."
"See, Dean," Sam said sarcastically while gesturing at her. "Dani gets it. Why don't you?"
"Oh, stuff it!"
Sam went to his laptop and pressed a few keys. He let out a sigh of relief. "No damage."
"Did you guys find something on Crawford Hall or were you too busy arguing the whole time?" Dani chided good-naturedly.
"We found the same thing as you. Nothing," Dean answered. "History of the building is clean and as far as we can tell – there were no other recorded suicides that happened at Crawford Hall."
"So, the legend of the girl that had an affair with a professor and killed herself when he broke it off –,"
"Is a load of crap," Dean finished for her.
"Okay, so it's not a haunting," Dani said, mentally scratching it off the list of possibilities. "Have ya'll considered witchcraft?"
Both young men gave her their attention. "You think it could be a spell?" Sam asked.
"Did either of you get a chance to search for any hex bags in the professor's office?"
"No. Janitor dude never left us alone," Dean replied bitterly. "Why a witch, Dan?"
"The professor was a womanizer, right?"
"According to the janitor he saw the man bring several young women to his office."
"Okay. So, he's bound to have broken some hearts along the way."
"Wouldn't a hex illusion only be visible to the intended victim? The janitor saw the mysterious woman too, remember?" Sam reminded her.
"True, but there are some illusion spells that can be seen by all."
San and Dean glanced at each other. Dean shrugged. "Only one way to find out."
"I'll sneak into the office tonight. You two try tracking down the women he's been with in the past and see if any of them have connections to witchcraft."
She told the boys to pick her up at Crawford Hall when they were done and walked to the campus. They discovered they'd be done sooner than they thought when it turned out that only three of the women were still living in town.
Unfortunately, Crawford Hall's doors were locked when Dani arrived. She circled the building and found a ground level window partially open. Well, ground level was a loose term to use in describing the window. It was located on the ground floor, yes, but it the windows were very high off the ground.
Dani gazed at it and contemplated her choices. After a moment, she let out a long sigh and shrugged. "Here goes nothin'." She approached the wall and looked for anything that could give her a boost. A thin ledge in the brickwork was eyed skeptically.
Stretching her arms, she reached for the window and found her hands could touch the bottom ledge. There was only one small problem. Her upper body strength was still lacking what it used to be. If she tried to do a pull up, she usually only managed to do three before her arms turned to jelly. That is going to change after this, she promised herself.
Taking a deep breath, Dani tentatively put her foot on the thin ledge and readied her arms to pull her weight up. She took another deep inhale through her nose and quickly lifted her weight by jumping as high as she could while using the ledge as leverage. She got her arms into the window, the edge of it dug uncomfortably into her armpits. Her legs kicked the air, struggling to hive her the momentum she needed to fling the rest of her body through. "Come on," she grunted.
She tried to plant her feet on the wall to climb up but only succeeded in wiggling her chest in. Now the ledge was biting painfully into the space just beneath her breasts.
Already feeling exhausted, Dani ceased her efforts and hung limply from the window. She tried to catch her breath, which was steadily becoming difficult due to the pressure of the ledge. That's when she noticed another dilemma. The room her upper body was currently hanging inside of seemed to be a faculty locker room and doubled as a janitor's supply closet. A gated doorway blocked her from further entering the building.
Despite the ledge cutting off her air, Dani still managed to heave a heavy sigh of frustration. "Oh, yo."
"Hello?"
Dani froze. She couldn't recall ever being more still in all her life. The childish part of her thought that if she remained as still as possible then whoever was coming wouldn't notice half a girl hanging inside the window. Once the logical part of her brain kicked in and berated her for being ridiculous, she began to wildly thrash her legs in order to get the rest of her inside. She'd gotten this far; she wasn't about to retreat and possibly lose her only chance of getting in.
The footsteps were coming closer, and Dani still hadn't budged – ah! A few inches of torso slid over the edge. Bracing her hands beneath her, she grasped the windowsill and tried to pull more of her body inside. Her arms began to tremble from the effort. "Wimp!" she hissed at herself.
A flashlight clicked on and settled on her. All movement stopped. A man stood behind the gate, looking at her in surprised amusement. Her footing slipped and her arms were seconds away from calling it quits, so she said the only thing she could think of in that moment.
"Help?"
She stared at him like a deer caught in the headlights; the upper-half of her body hanging inside the room and the lower-half outside the window. A few seconds of stunned silence ticked by as they both stared at one another. Her body suddenly gave a lurch and panic sprang onto her pretty face. Whatever she must have been using to support her outside must have slipped.
"Help?" she squeaked.
The Trickster held back a laugh as he pulled the keys from the drawstring at his side and unlocked the gate. He stepped into the room and chuckled. "Sooo many questions, kid," he said with a smile.
"And I swear I'll answer them as soon as I can breathe," she huffed and gritted her teeth as she shifted position.
The Trickster walked towards a small step ladder and set it up at the base of the window. Meeting her gaze, his grin widened, and she rolled her eyes. Stepping onto the ladder, he raised his arms. "Okay, I'm going to pull you in. Grab my shoulders," he instructed. She grabbed a fist full of his uniform shirt and he gripped her beneath the armpits. "Alright; one, two, three."
It was a bit precarious on the step ladder, but he used a little bit of his mojo to keep it upright as he pulled her through the window. Taking a step down, he embraced her upper body once most of her was on his side of the window. She clung to him as he gave a final pull and her legs slid over the windowsill. He quickly shifted her body so that he could hold her bridal style.
A wary, guilty smile graced the girl's face as she looked up at him. "My hero," she joked.
The Trickster chuckled as he carefully maneuvered down the ladder and crossed the small room to place her on a stool. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Better start providing some answers, babe, or I'll call you in."
"Right, well –," she moved to stand and suddenly hissed in pain as her hand went to her lower abdomen.
The Trickster's brow creased. "You hurt?" he asked, crouching down.
The girl stiffened and waved him off. "It's fine. Just sore muscles from hanging in the window." She flashed him a pretty smile.
"If you say so, kid." He flashed her a boyish grin of his own. "But you ain't fooling me." His eyes drifted to her legs. Blood dotted the material. "You've got a cut on your leg," he pointed out.
The girl looked down and her face twisted to an aggravated expression. "Oh, come on," she groaned.
The Trickster stood to his feet. "There should be a first-aid kit in the closet over there. Promise you won't run away when my back is turned?"
The young woman snorted. "I'm too out of breath to run."
He laughed and turned to the closet. As he rummaged around for the kit, his mind raced. He'd gotten a good look at her face and there was no doubt about it – this was that Callaghan girl those two hunters had brought in to help them with the case.
He'd been watching her from afar all day, trying to gauge how much of a threat she was to him. She was fairly thorough in investigating her theories. There was a moment when he suspected she was nearing the truth, so he tossed the few red herrings her way and it worked like a charm. This wasn't his first time dealing with hunters, but he wasn't the kind to eliminate his potential enemies immediately. He didn't see the point in killing a hunter who was just doing his or her job, just like he was doing his own. As for the girl, well, she was adorable. And he had a weak spot the size of Texas for cute girls.
She looked to be freshly twenty and he could tell right off the bat she was a Native. He would have thought pureblood, but the last name in the slight waves in her hair hinted that one of her parents was non-Native. High cheekbones, dark brown eyes, a round face; she was a natural beauty.
Finding the kit, he turned and walked back to her. Kneeling, he opened the kit and began to open a packet of cotton balls and a bottle of disinfectant. He wet the cotton ball and held it over her injury. "Don't kick me, 'kay?"
Without further warning, he pressed the cotton ball to her wound. The young woman inhaled sharply and gripped the undersides of the stool. "Oooh. Ayo,that smarts," she muttered.
"Speaking of 'smarts'," the Trickster began with a smirk, "Were you using any of yours a moment ago?"
"Not as many as I thought."
He hummed in the back of his throat as he dabbed at her bloody knee. "Care to explain?"
"Would you believe me if I said I was trying to get a homework assignment?"
His eyebrows arched and an amused smile made the corners of his eyes crinkle. "Must be some homework assignment," he replied, deciding to play along. Hey, she was cute, and he was already a sucker for her.
"Yeah, it's worth, like, twenty percent of my grade and it's due at midnight. I did the assignment, but I left it in another class and not in my bag like I thought."
"But if your professor's gone home –,"
"I figured I could leave it in his box."
"So, you came back to campus, found the doors locked and decided to jump through a window?"
"When all else fails, right?"
Sweet nougat, this girl was quickly becoming interesting and cuter by the minute.
The janitor kept the disinfectant bottle and put it back in the kit. He plucked a box of large band-aids and select one. "What – no band-aids with flowers?" she joked.
"Sorry, we're out." He placed it over her knee. "There."
Their eyes met and Dani finally got a good look at the janitor's eyes. Never had she seen such eyes before. To say they were gold didn't seem accurate enough. Honey, amber, or tiger's eye, all came to mind. It was almost inhuman just how stunning the man's eyes were; they left Dani slack jawed. How on Earth was it possible for someone to have eyes like that? …Or maybe not someone… Something?
Before she could pursue that train of thought, the janitor waved a hand between them and whistled to get her attention. "Whoo-hoo. You still there?"
Dani quickly shook off her shock and spluttered out an apology. "I'm s-sorry. I – uh – your eyes –,"
"Oh, that." The janitor chuckled before casting an embarrassed glance at the floor before meeting her gaze again. "I, uh, I get that a lot."
"You do?"
"Yeah."
"They're just so…unique."
"It's what scientists label as a genetic mutation."
Dani's brow furrowed. "How could such a beautiful result be considered a mutation?"
"Trying to sweet talk me out of calling you in, kid?"
Dani's face paled. "Oh yo, I said that out loud?"
"Yeah, but, uh," the janitor shrugged, "keep talkin', sugar, I don't mind listening." He sent a rakish wink her way and Dani blushed.
As he went to return the first aid kit to the closet, Dani took a moment to study him. He was about average height with an almost boyish charm to his face that made it difficult to guess his age. His hair was golden brown with gentle waves Dani found herself wanting to run her fingers through.
When the janitor returned, he leaned on the wall behind him, arms crossed, and smiled. She smiled back. When almost thirty seconds of awkward silence ticked by, Dani spoke up. "This is quite a stimulating conversation." The janitor laughed and Dani noticed he looked good when he laughed. Good and a tad mischievous.
He extended his hand. "Charlie Daniels."
Dani quirked an eyebrow. "Really?"
"Parents picked it, not me."
She chuckled and clasped his hand. "Dani Callaghan."
"Dani?" Charlie repeated.
"Short for Danielle."
"Ah, well; Dani suits you."
They both appeared to notice at the same time that they hadn't let go of each other's hand. "Um, I should go get that project before it's too late," Dani said, surprised at her reluctance to leave. Judging by how Charlie took his sweet time releasing her hand, she wasn't the only one to feel that way.
He tilted his head from side to side, as if considering something. "Hmmm…Tell ya what; I've got to finish cleaning the bathrooms on the West side of this floor. Then I'll be done. How about after you deliver that paper you meet me at the front entrance, and we can go out the doors together. You know, instead of taking the window?"
Dani laughed. "Hawa."
"Hm?"
"Okay."
Charlie led her out into the hall after he gathered his mopping supplies. "Don't hesitate to get me if you come across any more locked doors."
She waved her thanks as she walked down the hall and the moment she rounded the corner, out of his sight, Dani whipped out her cell phone and dialed Dean's number.
"Charlie Daniels" couldn't stop grinning as he pushed the mop cart ahead of him. He'd been introducing himself by that name for six years and not once had anyone made the connection to the Charlie Daniels Band. Hadn't anyone ever heard 'the Devil Went Down to Georgia'? Dani knew her music. Another point in her favor. And had a sense of humor too, which gave her even more points.
All the points, actually.
The Trickster wasn't a fool, though. He knew what Dani was really here for. He wondered if she knew how to pick locks because he'd locked the professor's office himself before finishing his cleaning duties on that floor. He figured those previous two hunters would want that room to be more thoroughly searched since they've been inhibited by his presence: thinking Charlie to be an average guy. He hadn't been lying when he told them he was there the night the professor was murdered. Certain details were left out, of course.
Hunter professions aside, the Trickster found he was coming to like the trio. Hence why he'd only been trying to throw them off his trail with harmless pranks. They seemed like fun kids.
Kids, he thought with a chuckle. He'd been alive for centuries, millenniums, nearly since time itself began. Dani was a newborn infant compared to him. Quite the babe, though.
The bathrooms were located in the opposite direction of the hall Dani had taken. Choosing to clean the ladies room first, he discovered fresh writing in one of the stalls. He rolled his golden eyes. Beautiful, she called them. He couldn't help the goofy grin that spread along his face.
The Trickster snapped his fingers, and the writing vanished. The mop dipped itself into the bucket and proceeded to clean the floor by itself. A rag and a bottle of Windex floated towards the mirrors, spritzing the glass. A toilet scrubber and cleaning solution did its work on its own.
He smirked and gave a long stretch, popping a few vertebrae in the process. He began to whistle the tune to The Sorcerer's Apprentice.
Working in Crawford Hall for as long as he had, the Trickster knew where the security cameras were located, knew each of their coverage angles and how long it took them to rotate. He knew the places where he had to clean things by hand and where a snap of the fingers could get the job done. Honestly, he didn't mind the work that much. Cleaning windows, sweeping and mopping floors, emptying trash bins; that didn't bother him. But no way would he ever cleaned the bathrooms by hand. Nope! Gross!
The bathroom was done in ten minutes. In a blink, he was in the men's room, so the cameras wouldn't see him leaving the ladies bathroom so soon. The first week he had gotten the janitor job and did that, he was scolded for doing a half job. The supervisor had thought it impossible for one man to clean a large bathroom so quickly. Since then, the Trickster would teleport to the next restroom, and when he was done, he'd conjure an illusion of himself leaving one bathroom to enter the next, and then have the illusion leave that one as well once an appropriate amount of time passed.
As the Trickster watched the men's room being cleaned, his thoughts drifted back to Dani. Easy, boy, he warned himself. She's too young.
When you're over a Millennium, age kind of ceases to matter.
Yeah, but you don't look to be in your Twenties, you know?
She's over seventeen.
She's a hunter.
Very cute hunter.
It's a bad idea.
YOLO!
That phrase does not apply to you.
Who cares?! It certainly applies to her, doesn't it?
At the time the bathroom was clean, the Trickster made up his mind.
"Alright, guys, I don't have much time to look around, so tell me what you weren't able to search."
"What's the rush, Dan?" Dean asked over the phone.
"I ran into a janitor when I tried sneaking in. He could be the same one you guys were talking about. I told him I'd left an assignment in a classroom, so I bought a little bit of time."
"Wait, he actually believed that?" Sam asked with a light laugh.
"I could be quite a convincing actress."
"Or he thinks you're hot," Dean added.
"Phfft! Please."
As the boys mentioned, some places to search, Dani nosed around the office. She did a quick search of the file cabinets and dug around in the desk for a bit. No signs of a hex bag, she noted.
"If that janitor hadn't been in the room," Dean complained.
"Hey, easy on Charlie. He was just doing his job," Dani said defensively as she flipped through the professor's desk calendar.
"Charlie?" Dean repeated.
"Yeah, contrary to popular belief, janitors actually have names."
"Oh well, pardon me for not knowing your boyfriend's name," Dean said.
"He's a nice guy – whoa, hey! He's not my boyfr –,"
"Get your panties out of a twist, Dan. Geez, I was just kidding."
"Leave my underwear out of this," Dani sniffed with dignity. Both boys chuckled. "Ugh! I'm hanging up. Suddenly, I can't concentrate." She snapped her phone closed and stayed in the room for twenty more minutes. She didn't think she could stay much longer without arousing Charlie's suspicion. She sent a quick text to the boys to let them know she found nothing unusual in the office and that she was leaving.
All the lights in the halls had been off when she arrived, but when she approached the hall that would take her to the front doors of Crawford Hall, she found it lit. Charlie stood at the double doors, a navy jacket on with his hands in its pockets. He waved when she came into view.
"Did you find your paper?" he asked once she was closer to him.
"I did and I turned it in. Now my shoulders feel lighter."
"Great. How's the leg?"
"Cut stopped bleeding a few minutes ago."
"No damage done?"
"Nothing that will scar," Dani said without thinking. The moment the words left her lips, she wished she could grab them from the air and swallow them back down. In the darkness of the storage room, her scars had been hidden, but now, under the bright lights, her facial scars were bared for all to see. Charlie's golden eyes went to them now, the lines that marred her neck and face. Something flickered in his eyes, then vanished.
Just like before, a boyish smile presented itself. He bowed at the waist and opened the door for her. "Shall we?"
Dani stared at him, momentarily stunned. That was his response? Usually, people asked about her scars the moment an opportunity arrived. "Wado. Thank you," she said once they were outside, and Charlie finished locking the doors.
"For what?" he asked. "For pulling you through the window? For cleaning your cut? For not calling the police? For holding the door open?"
Dani chuckled. "Yes to all." The wind picked up and blew strands of hair into her face. She stalled a moment by tucking them behind her ear. "But I really meant…thank you for not asking about my scars."
Charlie appeared to hesitate, and Dani braced herself for the question to come anyway. But instead...
"Do you get asked often?"
"Let's just say they're not only a conversation starter, but they're real attention getters too," she answered wryly.
"That must be rough." Charlie stuffed his hands back into his jacket pockets and considered her. "Look, I didn't ask because we've just met, sugar. You don't know me, so you owe me no explanation. People shouldn't ask you something like that just to satisfy their curiosity."
Dani didn't know what to say, but there was no mistaking the flood of relief she felt at knowing she didn't have to lie about how she got them.
"There is something I want to ask you, though. Completely unrelated," he assured her.
"Oh? Um –,"
Buzz!
Dani flinched when her cellphone vibrated against her. "One second," she apologized to Charlie as she took out her phone and opened the text message from Dean.
Just around the corner. Pulling up.
"Would you like to go out for a drink?"
Danny's head snapped up. Did she hear him right? Just over Charlie shoulder, Dani could see the front of the Impala beginning to peek around the corner of the building. Her fingers were moving over the phone's buttons before she even realized it.
"Dude, the janitor's still with her," Sam said.
Dean pursed his lips. "You think she needs us to rescue her?"
Beep.
Dean held up his phone to find a text from Dani.
ABORT PICK UP! STAND DOWN!
Dean's brows knitted together. "What do you make of that?" he asked his brother, angling it for him to see. Sam also made a face at it.
Both boys looked up in time to see Dani making furtive "go away!" gestures, masking the movements to look as though she were swatting a fly. They got the hint. Dean quickly put the Impala in reverse and backed up until Dani and the janitor were out of sight.
"Soooo, how about it? You. Me. Drinks?" Charlie asked.
Dani blinked at him. "Um…Forgive me if this is a ridiculous question, but…are you asking me out –,"
"On a date?" Charlie finished for her. "Hellz yeah."
"Oh."
"Oh?"
"I mean, uh," Dani distractedly ran a hand through her hair as she scrambled to come up with words. "It's just that – I haven't been asked out on a date in a long time. Not since…" She caught herself reaching up to trace her facial scars. Too late, she swiftly drew back her hand and couldn't bring herself to look him in the eye.
After a moment of feeling him intently observe her, Charlie spoke up. "Can I be blunt?"
Dani tensed, but shrugged. "Sure."
"If those scars are what keeps men from asking you out, then they must be out of their ever lovin' mind to let something so small get in the way."
"…It's not just my face." She cautiously lifted her gaze to meet his; waiting for the look of unease that always followed. It never came.
"My opinion remains the same."
For a moment, Dani forgot how to breathe.
"You and me. Drinks tomorrow night?"
"I'm not one for drinking –,"
"Dinner then?" He wasn't going to give up on this one. He liked this girl. Really, really liked her. And after finding out that guys had been treating her like a leper after whatever accident left her scarred? Well! A hot chick was a hot chick.
"You do realize I'm twenty, right?" Dani asked, not even bothering to hide her amusement at his persistence.
"Yep."
"And you're how old?"
"Young at heart."
She laughed at that and the Trickster grinned at the warm sensation it brought him. She was being cautious and dang it – He couldn't really blame her.
"Look, I know that there's a glaringly obvious age gap between us. But I'm not the type to date college girls."
"Bull," she replied with a smirk.
He bowed his head, hands spread to show defeat. "Okay, so maybe I flirt a lot. But I really would love to get to know the girlwho was willing to break into school by climbing through a window." He gave a hopeful smile. "So, what do you say?"
Dean and Sam would have had to be blind not to see the giant grin on Dani's face when she appeared around the corner. Dean waited until she got into the back seat of the Impala. "He asked you out, didn't he?"
Dani leaned forward, elbows resting on the edges of the brothers' seats. "We're going out for dinner tomorrow night."
"Called it," Dean announced.
"What – no, you didn't! I did!" Sam argued.
"I said he liked her."
"And I said he was going to ask her out."
Dean opened and closed his mouth few times before scowling. "So?"
Dani rolled her eyes. "Be quiet; both of you."
Dean wrinkled his brow. "So, why did you accept? Do you think he knows more than what he's telling?"
Dani let out a quick scoff as she flopped back in her seat. "I said 'yes' because I like the guy."
"Wait…" Dean quirked an eyebrow at her. "Like…Like him – like him? Seriously? The janitor?"
"Yep," Dani answered, nonchalantly popping her 'p'. She settled down and pulled out her well-read copy of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and resumed where she'd left off.
Sam and Dean looked at each other. Obviously, the boys didn't know how to proceed with this new development. They never had a sister to tease and protect. How would Bobby react to this? "Erm –," Dean sounded, trying to think of something authoritative to say.
Dani peeked up from her book. "Shouldn't we get going?"
Dean awkwardly cleared his throat. "Right."
"Be sure to back up and go the way you came from so Charlie won't see us," Dani advised without looking away from her page.
"I know what to do," Dean replied with some irritation.
"Mmmh-hmmm," she sounded, eyes on the book.
(Let me know what you think! Until next time, Dear Readers!)
Ayo – Ouch!
Hawa – Okay (hah-wah)
Wado – Thank you (wah-doe)
Yo – [This word can be used in a variety of ways, but it is an equivalent to saying, "Oh gosh, oh man, oh geez," etc.]