Em woke up peacefully and looked around. Dean was obviously awake as his bed was made. She could hear them moving around somewhere else in the bunker. Someone was playing loud music. She yawned and stretched, and got up to hang Dean's jacket back on the bed.
Em went back to her own room and made her own bed, which was still messy from her attempt at sleep. She couldn't figure out how to get it exactly the way it was before, but she got it as close as she could. Then Em folded all of the clothes Jody had given her and stowed them in the dresser after picking a set to wear. She changed into her clean clothes and looked at the little pile of dirty clothes on the floor. She was pretty sure the set from yesterday was ruined, but nothing was ripped. She could try to wash it. She also needed to return Dean's shirt to him.
Also in the bag was something Jody called a "toothbrush." Em went to try to recreate what Jody had shown her with it, and to take care of some other tasks the land way. She didn't like the taste of the toothpaste (how was it…cold?) but decided she'd just have to get used to it. As she was exchanging her toothbrush for the small pile of clothes in her room, she heard someone walking down the hallway and peeked out to see Sam ducking into his room.
"Hi Sam," she called a little timidly.
"Hey!" he said cheerfully as he popped his head back out of his doorway. "Sleep good?" Em blushed a little and nodded. "Good! We tried to let you catch up on your rest."
"Thank you," she said. "Sam, would you mind showing me how to wash these?" She held up her dirty clothes.
"Oh, sure! I was just about to do some laundry myself."
Sam took her to the laundry room and very patiently showed her how to work the machines, and also how to get the blood out of her shirt. By the time they were done, the shirt was spotless and swirling around in the washer. Next, she led Sam into the library where she thoroughly interrogated him on all of the pictures she had found the night before. Em found out that the little furry creature was a rabbit, and the yellow one on the flower was a bee. Sam told her to be careful around bees; that they could hurt. Em promised to watch out. She also gathered that all of the little flowers on the ground were called lions and that trees could sometimes be even bigger than the ones in the woods, but also sometimes smaller. She learned that there are some plants that were poisonous and others that weren't, which was the same as underwater. In particular there was one with "leaves of three," but the only plants she remembered from the woods had hundreds of leaves on them. Em came to the conclusion that this plant must not be very common.
Before she could ask Sam any more questions, he declared it time for lunch. He took Em to the kitchen and showed her the refrigerator and told her which foods needed cooking and which she could eat as it was. He stacked several of these raw ingredients on some bread and called it a "sandwich" (it looked very similar to the burger Dean had given her the previous day) and walked her through making her own.
As they sat down to eat their sandwiches, Sam noticed that her wrists still looked a little raw. He had left the can of salve on the table and as he spread it on her wrists, she looked around.
"Where's Dean?" she asked. "Isn't he coming to eat lunch?"
"He's in the garage, working on the car. He'll come and get something when he's ready. He probably got busy and lost track of time," Sam told her.
"Thank you," Em said as Sam closed the can. "Should we take him a sandwich? Sometimes when my brother was sculpting, I would take him some food. Is that a nice thing to do here?"
Sam smiled. "Yes, that's a very nice thing to do. I'm sure he'd appreciate it." He showed her which ingredients Dean liked best, and then told her he had some other things to work on. He handed her a cold brown bottle and pointed her in the right direction and said, "Feel free to come and find me if you want to, ok?"
Em nodded and set off.
Dean was deep in concentration as he worked on the Impala. He had the classic rock station turned up just enough to where he couldn't think about anything too hard. All of a sudden he looked over and Em was laying next to the car, looking up at the machinery.
"Hello," she said. He started a little.
"Hey!" he said. "How are you feeling?"
"Good." She smiled a little and then frowned. "Are you stuck under here?"
Dean chuckled and looked back up at the underside of the car. "No, just fixing a few things."
Em nodded. "That's good. I brought you a sandwich."
"I was just thinking it was time for a break," he said as he slid out and sat up.
They each took a stool and Dean turned the music down. He ate in silence while Em studied the garage. She examined every vehicle in the room from her perch, as well as the equipment and doors. He only spoke once he was done eating.
"Thank you," he told her as he took another drink from the bottle.
"You're welcome," she said as she turned back without looking directly at him. "Is poison ivy very common here?" she blurted out.
Dean squinted at her and held one of his arms out. "See these spots? Those are from poison ivy a couple weeks ago. So yes, it's everywhere. I fell into a huge patch of it yesterday, but I had long sleeves on so I probably won't get it from that."
Em frowned at the healing scars. "But Sam said it only had three leaves. I didn't see any plants yesterday that only had three leaves. They all had a ton."
"Oh, Sam meant that their leaves are in groups of three. So, lots of leaves but in little sections of three together."
Em was still frowning, but she nodded. They sat a few more minutes without talking. Dean noticed she had started fidgeting and her eyes landed on everything else but him.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
Em suddenly became very interested in her own hands, and it didn't seem like she was going to answer him. Just as he was about to ask again, she said, "I have to tell you something." He nodded and it all spilled out. "I snuck in and slept in your room last night. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to invade your space, I was just… I just…" she sighed and finally her hands went still. "I'm sorry." She stood up and turned around to make a quick getaway but somehow her feet got mixed up. Dean was there in a fraction of a second to help her up. Her face was flushed red and he could see tears in her eyes.
"Are you hurt?" he asked with furrowed brows. Em pulled away from him and shook her head. "Just your pride?" When she nodded towards the ground, Dean realized Em was embarrassed and also worried about his reaction to her apology. "Hey," he said as he laid a hand on the back of her arm, "it's okay. I'm just glad you got some decent sleep. You're welcome to come in whenever my door is open." A few tears were escaping the corners of her eyes now and he leaned down to where he could look her directly in the eyes. She started back into his without blinking. "It's been a big few days for you. Are you doing okay?"
"I'm…overwhelmed," she whispered. "It just kind of… hit me in the hallway."
"Hey, I get it," he said gently. "Take it slow. You've got as much time as you want. Tell you what." He gestured to the car. "I'm going to be working in here the rest of today. You can chill if you want," he shrugged.
She gave him a very small grin. "Only if you turn up the Metallica."
Dean was shocked. "How do you know Metallica?"
Em shrugged. "They used to play music all the time. Daniel played Metallica all the time. It was one of my favorites."
"Okay then," Dean smirked. "Crank the rock."
Dean got back to work. After a little while, he found that Em was a pretty good tool gopher. She already knew what some things were and she was pretty good at figuring it out from descriptions if she didn't. He wasn't sure how she knew what a ratchet was but was confused by poison ivy. He was pretty sure that he probably wouldn't like the answer.
He found her presence pleasant. She didn't feel the need to fill the silence with conversation and she seemed to be at the tool box before he even knew he needed something else. With her help, he finished much sooner than he thought he would. Em helped him gather all his loose tools and he scooted back out from underneath the car. As he wiped his hands with a grease rag, she drew a symbol on the hood with her finger. Just like at Jody's it glowed bright blue and then faded, like it was never there.
"What did you just do to my baby?" he asked her as nicely as he could manage.
Em thought for a moment. "I don't know what you would call it here, but it'll keep the small things running smoothly. It should also keep the fae away."
"Fae? Like fairies?" he asked. Em nodded. "We've run into those sons of bitches before." An odd thought hit him. "Wait. Is that what you are? A fairy?"
"Of course not. I'm what you would call a mermaid. But we are, technically, fae," she said matter of factly.
"That's - I - nevermind." Dean shook his head. "So how does that work? Do you automatically grow your tail if you go out in the rain?"
She shook her head. "The only time it's automatic is if I'm unconscious and I've got the wrong form. For example, when you found me, my body changed to legs because otherwise I would have eventually dried out. When I'm conscious, it's a choice. Or else every time I accidentally stepped in a puddle I'd be screwed."
"Huh." Dean cocked his head. "Okay then. Well, I'm going to get cleaned up. You good?"
"Actually," Em said tentatively, "do you think I could take the music to the pool? It's kind of soothing."
"I could not agree more. I've got a little boombox in my room I can put in there if you want," Dean offered.
"Thanks," she smiled. "I think after I check on my laundry, I'll take a swim."