I blame college as the reason for me not updating in forever. It's hard to want to write outside of the classroom when it is my major.
Also, apparently there is a character limit for chapter titles so I can't fit the last word.
Chapter 9: Even Superheroes Need Saving Sometimes
November 10, 2005
Blackwater Ridge, Colorado
"De – " Ellie gains her brother's attention after Sam's withdrawal.
"You know how Samantha gets," he chuckles, withering some. "Total drama queen."
Something is stirring in Ellie's stomach. "It's bad, right?"
Dean mulls over the potential intensity of the situation. "Well, wendigos aren't the worst thing in the world," He turns and takes a step towards his sister. The forest wakes beneath him and grumbles. "But they can be a real mean son of a gun."
Ellie agrees. She thinks that wendigos – whatever the term fully symbolizes – are mean. It is wrong to judge, but she can't help but hate them; even though she has yet to come into contact with the creature. "It stole my Game Boy."
Dean dissolves the space between them, seeming to comprehend what the little girl needs without her vocalizing it. The noise that bubbles in his throat gives off the impression that he thinks the same way Ellie does. He crouches down with his rusting limbs and holds the edges of Ellie's wrists that are draped in her sweatshirt. "You know what? They are the worst."
What the nine-year-old sees in his face is enough to make her believe that she could speak a different language and he would still understand. After everything, Dean is a constant Ellie does not want a break from. When promises shattered around her feet and people left, he remained. Dean stayed.
She is starting to believe he might stay forever.
Sam is unkind and dark again. Ellie does not like it.
He almost lets it slip to Roy who they exactly are. Sam yells and pushes and shoves. He's just so angry. At the world, at Roy, at Dad, at the wendigos, at Colorado, at Dean, at her – Ellie does not know the exact root of it. She only knows that he is hurting. She wishes she knew how to make it stop.
They are staying the night in Blackwater Ridge. Haley will not leave the scene until Tommy is found. Ellie gets that, but she is hesitant because according to Dean, these monsters are even better hunters at night. A part of her misses the hotel room with thin walls and an ugly, stained carpet. She mourns simple cartoons and people watching. However, she will not let her thoughts slip because then her brothers will never allow her out of the four walls again.
Dean draws a circle around their camp and carves symbols into the dirt for protection. Roy thinks it is funny for some reason. Ellie consumes as much of the snacks and refreshments they packed that her fluttering stomach will permit. The animated fire in front of the child tugs at her bones and illuminates Ben and Haley's somber features. Sam is sitting away from them with his hunching back turned. He faces the blue-black night.
Whatever it is that is making Sam perform mental summersaults, rendering him too dizzy to be with his family, is something he certainly does not have to trudge through alone. It is the Winchester way; apart and together. Both ways. Ellie watches Dean join their brother. She wants to follow him but there is no invitation to. Ellie is also supposed to stay in the light. They are on the edge of falling into the hungry dark.
Her brothers are having an adult conversation. She finds it odd that she cannot hear them like she could from the car while they were outside. Even words are suffocated at Blackwater Ridge.
A wailing cry for help crashes the party. Ellie immediately bunny hops over to Sam and Dean and into their "adulting", not caring if her actions are reckless. The fire is still reaching out to her, but it does not matter. Her brothers are her light, anyways.
The voice continues to ricochet off nearby trees like bullets. It is begging for help with cracks in its vocal chords. Pleading that the Winchesters do their job: save. Ellie finds it difficult to do nothing because it sounds so human. The confliction is not overpowering, however, because she is afraid. Her heart aches from its fast pace and her limbs shake at their ends. Besides, wendigos can copy human voices in order to attract attention. Dean told her so and they experienced it firsthand when it was still daytime. It is one of their many talents, apparently; along with theft.
Ellie jitters around her brothers as they assess the situation. Sam pans his flashlight over the surrounding area. The trees somehow look larger in the concentrated light when compared to the wispy flames they were bathed in before.
The awful sounds continue in random bursts. Ellie twists and turns before Sam steadies her with his free hand and holds her there. She tries to remain within herself but quickly spills out again once she hears a distinct click from Dean's gun.
Dean must be attentive to her reaction – he always is – because he attempts to break the tension with his voice, "It's trying to draw us out," he explains. Ellie meets his eyes. "Just stay cool. Stay put." Her eldest brother looks and sounds calm. She feels herself leveling out because of it. Sam's arm around her helps, too.
"You mean inside the magic circle?" chuckles out Roy even though his body carries zero traces of humor. He does not believe in what Dean sketched out in the dirt to protect them before the night fell upon them. Ellie still does not understand why. She is getting a lot of mixed messages. It's annoying.
Growling erupts from the darkness. The underbrush dances as something darts back and forth within it. Ellie spins and slams her head into Sam's chest. Her nose hurts from the impact and she tastes the material of her brother's hoodie. She doesn't want to see.
Gone is the human approach from the wendigo; at least that is what Ellie believes the monster to be. It is replaced with animalistic screeching, pounding on trees and ripping vegetation from its roots with a touch. Ellie does not want to look but it is also scary to not have that sense to her disposal. The fear she is experiencing is different than what Constance stirred in her gut. This feeling is urgent and rapidly throbbing in her ears. She wants to climb to higher ground, sprint away as fast as she can, and shatter into a million pieces. Constance's presence paralyzed the young girl and turned her soul to ice. At least ghosts are predictable.
Ellie could scramble up under Sam's skin. She springs up onto his boots and puts her weight on his toes when a gun begins firing. She is faintly aware of Sam trying to smooth her out with his voice and her feeling a strong wave of gratitude for him swirling in her heart. Haley shrieks, Roy announces that he hit the wendigo, and then it is quiet once more.
Breaking out of her Sam cocoon, Ellie notices Roy is gone. Dean repeatedly calls out to the missing man, anger splashing into his sound. Ellie cannot necessarily say that she is upset about it. Roy had a sour attitude. He was not exactly on her list of favorite people, or even favorite people from cases.
Dean and Sam are leaving to look for him.
Ellie chokes up. "No, no, no – don't go – " She doesn't want them to leave her.
Dean regards her, gripping her arms, "Shh, El, it's fine." he assures the nine-year-old. "We'll be right back. Stay here and don't leave the circle." he finishes with a gentle squeeze to Ellie's limbs. She watches intently, foggy-brained and half hoping that he will change his mind, as Dean sets a stick alight by brushing it through the campfire. He passes it over to Haley. "Keep her safe."
Blackwater Ridge is so famished it instantly devours Ellie's brothers the moment they exit the circle. She can't see them because the foliage is so intense. She wants to see now.
"C'mere, honey," Haley directs the girl to exist behind her larger form with Ben. The torch flickers in pity. There is no more noise except for their breathing.
"Please." Ellie whispers into Haley's spine. She does not know if the word is for her brothers, or herself, or anyone, really. Maybe it is for someone she cannot see or will not meet for years to come. She pleads for something, anything, in life.
When Dean and Sam come back empty handed after a terrifying four minutes, Ellie hugs them extra tight. She doesn't think Roy is coming back. She doesn't know if she is upset about it, but Roy could have someone like Amy was to Troy back in California who will be forever missing him. For every Amy there is a Troy. Everyone knows at least somebody.
November 11, 2005
Blackwater Ridge, Colorado
Ellie ends up passing out somewhere during the odds and ends of the night. She did not mean to but her sleep driven brain pulled her down under regardless. She wakes smelling of moss and sweat with the sun peeking into her eyes. Dad's coat is draped across her – courtesy of Dean. Since Ellie is only nine, she doesn't feel the full blast of the repercussions from sleeping on the forest floor, back pressed against the bark of a pine tree. There is a distant soreness, but it is fleeting.
However, her hair is not fairing quite as well. The braid itself never had much substance since Ellie's hair is only beginning to stretch below her shoulders, but now there is hardly anything to it at all. Her light brown hair hangs in lumps and any baby hairs have completely abandoned their mission. When she untangles her hair with stubby fingers it stings her scalp.
The five of them eat what they can manage and take turns going to the bathroom; which Ellie concludes as the worst camping activity in the world after Dean forces her to at least try to go. She talks back to him over it and he lets her get away with it, unlike John. She feels kind of bad about it. She didn't mean to. Never does. Some feelings are just too strong to reign in and she must be explosive and sharp.
Her brothers update the group on wendigo lore. Ellie tries to gather what she can from it but some of it still flies out the window. The short version is that wendigos are monsters because a person ate another person – gross – which makes them less human over time. Guns and knives are useless for defense against wendigos, which is why Roy did not have any luck. The secret weapon to combat a wendigo is fire; more specifically a Molotov cocktail to disintegrate the monster entirely. It is why Dean armed Haley with a torch before Sam and himself left to look for Roy. Tommy could still be alive because wendigos like to play with their food, since they need it to last. Wherever Tommy is, it has to be quiet and dark.
They set out when the sun is at its highest, trying to suppress the fuzzy dark as much as possible. Though, shade from the trees is permittable to touch. After a while of walking, Ellie does not see much of a difference to where they were before or an end to their journey.
Sam halts once he takes a few steps into a clearly marked new section of the forest. Ellie is happy that they finally got somewhere but the distinction between these trees when compared to the others is disturbing. Each tree has a crisscross slash in them from what seems to be claws. Blood runs down from the marks, settling into the ridges of the bark and staining it crimson.
"Should we keep going?" Ellie asks her brother, unsure. The two of them are at the head of the pack and Sam spares her a glance as Dean, Haley, and Ben enter the branded area.
"Dean," begins Sam, "these claw prints are so distinct and clear. They're almost too easy to follow."
Blackwater Ridge suddenly explodes into life again. The howling and gusts of wind tearing at the foliage like a tornado return. Something heavy drops from a tree. Haley screams and Ellie practically trips over herself trying to scramble back away from the object. It is Roy. Nothing is left encased in him because it is spilling out on the forest floor. Blood topples over itself. Rushing away.
Ellie disliked Roy, but she didn't want him to die. Not really, anyway. She feels sick and floaty.
Dean pushes everyone away from Roy and further into the blood branded trees. They flee the crime scene. Ben is closest to Ellie and she slides to a stop when he loses his footing and tumbles, rolling across the ground on impact. She wants to ask him if he is okay, but Sam is there to help Ben stand before she can get the words out.
Another scream causes Ellie to whip her body in the direction it was thrown out of so swiftly she almost falls, too. Her brother puffs out an "oh no" before he sweeps up the nine-year-old's hand in his and they are running again. The only thing to greet them when they arrive at the source is a beer bottle with a white rag sticking out of the top. Dean's Molotov cocktail is so neatly placed – distantly mocking them – that Ellie wants to kick it over. Sam picks up the carefully crafted weapon and yells out to their absent family member. Ben calls for his sister. There is no answer on the other end; just like all those calls Sam did not pick up while he was in Stanford and John had been missing for weeks.
Ellie wants to shut down again. It is how she always feels when Dean is away, like everything could leak out of her. She mournfully stares at the Molotov cocktail in Sam's hand.
"I don't understand." admits Ben. "If it keeps its victims alive, why would it kill Roy?" He sounds defeated and lost. His arms hang heavy.
"Honestly? I think Roy pissed it off when he shot at it." Sam builds some sort of a rationalization. Ellie turns away from the two of them, fighting off the urge to cry. Her eyes lock onto her sneakers. "Wendigos thrive during the night so it is uncommon for it to show itself in broad daylight. I think it was trying to prove a point."
Ellie figures Sam must have caught on to her distress signal because she hears him approach. At least, she thinks it is him because the footsteps sound the same. He attempts to get her to look up, or turn around, or something because "they gotta get moving if they are going to find Dean" but his words only sound underwater and miles away.
When Ellie does tilt her head slightly in the direction of reality, she catches something colorful in the endless sea of green. "Sam, look," she says, pointing at the ground a few feet away.
Brushing past, Sam crouches down and picks up a tiny rainbow. He chuckles for what his lungs can manage. "Ellie, this is better than breadcrumbs," He presents M&M's. Dean's M&M's. "They must have gone this way." Locking eyes with his younger sister, Sam runs a finger over the bridge of his nose. "Great job, bug."
Ellie happily returns the gesture. She is filled with a new sense of determination. Dean saves her everyday just by being present in her life. This time she gets to save him.
The trail of candy tampers off at the bottom of a steep drop off. Ellie, Ben, and Sam carefully slide down. Brushing the dirt off that did not get embedded into their clothes, they face an eroded gate covered in moss. There is a sign on the front. Ellie does not have the time to sit down and pick the words apart to make sense, but she does formulate "DANGER". It does not look good.
Sam nudges at the wooden door and it splits in two without complaint. He pokes his head in the stale darkness beyond the gate. When he resurfaces, he shrugs at the kids and reaches for Ellie's hand. She doesn't want to go in there, but if it means saving Dean, it is all the reasoning the girl needs.
Once inside, Sam takes out his flashlight and toggles it on with the hand not attached tightly to his sister. They start walking down what looks like train tracks to Ellie. She sniffles in the heavy congestion of the tunnel.
"Looks like a mine," Ben comments. Sam agrees. Ellie glances back at the boy until she is tugged forward again. She half wishes she could get to know Ben better because right now he feels only there in the background. He is nice, though, and he let her listen to his music.
There isn't much to see in the area. Everything appears in browns and grays through the illumination of Sam's flashlight. That is, until a growl slithers down the tunnel. Sam presses Ben and Ellie to the wet wall. The rumbling continues as a gigantic figure materializes at the entrance, backlit by the sunshine.
Ellie feels a spike in her brain and her brother releases her to slam his hand against her mouth, catching a scream between her teeth. He shushes Ben who is squealing in the back of his throat. Air forms in clumps in Ellie's nostrils, quick and featherlight. She tilts her head back to rest on the wall when the creature leaves.
There is not time to process the unearthly encounter because the floorboards beneath them give one last creak before they give out entirely. Ellie shrieks when she feels herself free fall. She spins out at the bottom of the pit. If she is hurt, she does not feel it yet. Her skin is jumpy and prickly as she takes notice to a couple skulls by her face. She kicks one while crawling over to Sam.
Ellie grabs a hold of her brother's hoodie, rustling him. "Sammy . . ." she coughs out.
He sits up immediately. Sam presses his palm to her right cheek. She feels a combination of hot-cold and stuffy. "Hey – it's okay, it's okay. We're alright." he reassures her, whispering.
Ben scrambles to his feet and shuffles away from the skulls. Sam peels Ellie's bangs from her forehead while she says, shakily, "There's bones over there."
His fingers come back from her sticky skin with faint red dots. She stares at the liquid substance, borderline horrified.
"It's just a scratch," claims Sam, bringing his lips into a painfully tight smile. She hopes so because the wendigo stole their medical kit.
The Winchesters are interrupted by Ben breathing Haley's name. Their attention pivots to identify Dean and Haley on the back wall of the cave. They are hanging limply by their wrists; the ropes bounding them are attached to the ceiling. Thankfully, both adults wake after a few good shakes and pleas from their family members. Sam cuts them down.
Ellie is at Dean's side when Sam shuffles him across the space and slowly to the ground. She kneels in front of him. Dean groans into a heaving laugh from all the movement. His face is covered in dirt and scratches. Ellie regards him sadly because he seems to be in a lot of pain.
"I found your M&M's." she tells him.
Dean smiles, grunting out, "Look at you, sweetheart," He swallows. His voice is raspy from the cruddy air. "You're a real hunter, huh?" He coughs and winces. Ellie doesn't feel like one. Dean is hurt and all she wants to do is go back to the Impala.
"You sure you're alright?" Sam asks, standing over his siblings.
"Yep." Dean bites down on his lip, rearranging his body against the dripping wall. "I will be, anyways. Where is the ugly freak?"
"It's gone for now."
A commotion breaks out in the cave the moment Ben and Haley spot their missing sibling; the last piece to their family puzzle. He is buried even further back than Haley and Dean were. Visibly dead bodies dangle around Tommy. The stench hits all at once, making Ellie's eyes water, along with the realization that they are encircled by corpses in all varying stages of decay.
"Ellie." croaks out Dean.
She returns her attention to him. "I – I thought that the win – the wendigo got you – "
"No way!" scoffs out Dean. "It's gonna take more than a wendigo to defeat Batman."
Tommy gasps awake and both of his siblings erupt into joy. Ellie is thankful he is alive.
Dean reaches over and begins poking through something on his right. Ellie becomes aware that it is their packs and supplies. She guesses that it makes sense that the wendigo would keep everything in one place. He unzips her backpack, rummaging blindly around in it for a moment, before beckoning Ellie to come closer. He delicately presses something into her hand. "Check it out,"
Ellie's beloved Game Boy rests peacefully in her palm. Not a scratch on it – besides, of course, the ones that already previously existed from it slipping from her grip numerous times. She grins down at the device.
Equipping her backpack, Ellie watches her brother pull something out of the depths of his own bag. "Awesome!" he cheers, smiling. There are two orange gun-looking objects. They are flare guns. Ellie knows because John taught her the mechanics of one in case she was to ever be in a dire situation with no motel room or car in sight. They could locate her if she shot it towards the sky. "Never leave home without it, right?"
"Flare guns," Sam observes, light crossing over his face. "Those will work."
Once Tommy is extracted from the wendigo's death chamber, Ben and Haley support his weight as everyone moves towards the exit. Ellie's ears pick up on the distinct growling again. All her cells stand up on end. The monster must have realized they infiltrated its home to take their friends back. Her brothers have an unspoken plan as usual. She looks at them in bewilderment, trying to decode the two men.
When Dean is ready, he addresses the party, "Alright, listen up; stay here with Sam. He's gonna get you out of here."
"What about you?" Ellie jumps to ask. Dean is injured. He heaved for a step or two after Sam assisted him to stand. Now he is slouched over with one hand resting on his ribs. He must be aching, and Ellie does not want him getting taken away again.
Dean presses his knuckles to hers and winks in response. He turns, flare gun in hand, and hobbles down the corridor. Sam doesn't stop him. When Dean turns the corner Ellie can hear him shouting at the wendigo about him being dinner, or something. This plan is stupid.
Sam rushes them in the direction of the exit. They stop dead in their tracks at the low rumbles vibrating through the tunnel. Ellie notices that Tommy does not look too good. His head hangs low, so his hair covers most of his features. He gurgles at the ground.
"Get out of here." orders Sam. His face changes when Haley opens her mouth in a breath. "Go!"
Hesitantly at first, Haley and Ben maneuver around Sam before breaking into a brisk walk. Ellie holds her ground. The soles of her shoes melt into the damp dirt and she adjusts the weight of her backpack in a nervous gesture. She bites down on her lip once Sam turns his attention her way. She shakes her head rapidly to fling away tears. "No – "
"I'm not arguing with you – "
She is not having it. Sam is finally starting to act like a shadow of the person Ellie remembered. He is coming up for air, regaining consciousness. She is not losing that. Again.
"I'm not leaving you!" screams Ellie, stomping her foot down hard enough that it makes a squelch sound.
As if on cue, the wendigo screeches back. Sam reacts in a flash and smothers his little sister flat against the wall. She cries into the stone and whispers sorry until it loses all meaning. Sam hushes her. Ellie did not mean to mess up and attract the monster. She just knows what it means – splitting up. Her brothers don't think she does but she does. All her energy flew out the window from her outburst. Her muscles pulsate.
The leaking cave drips onto Ellie's hair. Her brother is as still as the dead and taking shallow breaths. She tries to copy him to be as lifeless as she can. She thinks about what it is like to be a rock plastered on the sides of the tunnel.
Ellie squeezes her eyes shut. The wendigo is near. The chirps the creature is producing are in octaves she has never heard before. When she feels ghosts of puffs of air brushing over her face, she allows herself to see again. Ellie's voice breaks in two as she screams.
Sam yanks his sister backwards using the handle on her backpack. He sends his only flare skittering across the glistening rocks in the process. The monster hops and snarls to avoid its poison. At this point Sam is in a frenzy. Ellie does not believe her feet touch the ground when her brother acquires her hand in a bone crushing grip and sprints down the way the rest of the group were sent – minus Dean.
It does not even take a minute to reach the others. Some words are exchanged before they are moving again. The nine-year-old is in a daze during the interaction because she is still trying to process what she saw. It was . . . something.
The five of them are thrown off course. The wendigo is hunting them down. Sam diverts direction and dives into a side tunnel in hopes to lose the monster. However, instead of being greeted with the welcoming outside light at the end of the trail, there is only another dark wall. They are trapped. Ellie can hear the wendigo ripping up the cave to find them. She is breathing so fast and hard she worries her heart will fall out of her dry mouth.
When the monster locates its prey, Sam herds everyone behind his larger body and spreads his arms out. Ellie hides in the space at the edge of his back and left outstretched arm. She tucks her fingers in his clothes, creating wrinkles in the fabric and feeling him breathe. The wendigo creeps closer and this new image clears the dust from the first sighting Ellie had of it. It is tall, much taller than Sam, and has limbs so elongated its arms almost touch the ground. The thing is paler than any human and splotched in blood and mud. Ellie begins trembling because the creature is so alien it is uncomfortable. It is ugly.
The wendigo roars and shakes the ground it walks on. It has so many teeth; rows and rows of them.
"Hey!" In the entranceway stands no other than Dean Winchester. Ellie's heart soars. He has his flare gun aimed at the monster when it twists to confront him. "Eat this!"
The sparkling flare embeds into the wendigo's stomach. It throws its head back and emits something that can only be described as every animal at once. Ellie's ears only catch a cheetah before she is forced to stuff her fingers into them because it is too much. The wendigo begins melting and sizzling as it burns. Flailing around, the flames cause boils to rise from inside the monster until they burst. The creature disintegrates into the dirt, the fire lapping at its body before everything disappears like a switch was flipped.
Ellie is convinced that everything they hunt dies disturbingly.
When Ellie unclogs her ears there is a dull buzz. She looks at her eldest brother. Her forever hero.
Dean grins, taking some pride in his work, "Not bad, huh?"
Her brother is definitely Batman. How lucky is she?
November 11, 2005
Lost Creek, Colorado
Ellie stares down at her shoes caked in crusty mud. She did not realize they were that gross.
Her legs dangle out of the open back of an ambulance. It is nightfall but she is not scared this time. Ellie doesn't like ambulances; it reminds her too much of that night, of before.
The ranger station is bathed in blue and red with tints of white from Lost Creek's police and paramedics being at the scene. Sam called the police as soon as they crawled out of the woods and had a bar of service. The story they give the cops is that they were attacked by a huge grizzly while camping. It is believable, considering the picture inside the ranger station with the gigantic bear. Ellie wishes it were the case.
The paramedics – a man and woman – are nice. They clean and bandage up her cuts. The man cracks jokes periodically, trying to make Ellie feel the same way she does when her family cares for her. The other paramedic, the woman, drapes a soft and warm blanket over her shoulders. She talks about how she has a daughter back home about Ellie's age. Ellie pulls the blanket so the material is wrapped more firmly around her and breathes it in. It feels like a warm hug.
Once she is cleared, Ellie is lifted and placed on the pavement softly. She thanks them; more people she will probably never see again.
Ellie weaves around a police car to get to her destination: the Impala. Her brothers are leaning against the hood. When she approaches Haley is pulling Dean into a hug.
"I don't know how to thank you . . ." she says when she breaks out of the embrace. Dean is littered in bandages. He doesn't reply. Ellie climbs onto the hood of their car and weasels her way to sit in between her older brothers. She settles back into her blanket.
Tommy is being wheeled into an ambulance beside Baby as Ben onlooks. Haley changes her course of action and makes eye contact with the nine-year-old.
"Your brothers are good men," she confirms, water behind her eyes, "You're in good hands."
Ellie nods in response because yes, of course. Haley smiles solemnly. "I hope you find your father." This is directed at all of them. John. As bad as it sounds, Ellie had almost forgotten why they are out here in the first place due to everything that had happened.
Haley thanks Sam before wrapping an arm across Ben's shoulders, guiding him. They both slink into the ambulance to join Tommy. Paramedics shut the doors and Ellie can no longer see her camping buddies. The ambulance squawks as it pulls away, gravel crying under the weight of its tires.
"I don't want to go camping again." Ellie declares, quietly. She does not know how she could have ever been excited. She'll take a boring motel room or the backseat of Baby any day.
"You and me both." Dean adds, sighing. "Man, I hate camping."
Sam agrees, "Me too." At least they are all on the same page.
Car doors swing closed and engines cough to life. Law enforcement is packing up for the day. Ellie yawns. She blinks at her glassy eyes. Her hands brace on the Impala, leaving smudgy fingerprints on the raven colored paint. The blanket slinks down her shoulders.
Dean stares longingly yet sadly at something she cannot see. It is an unusual sight for Ellie. His voice wavers into the night, "You guys know we're gonna find Dad, right?"
Ellie narrows her eyes at him. She is confused. This whole time Dean's faith in Dad has been a given.
"Yeah, I know," acknowledges Sam. He speaks as if he is in the headspace of something that happened before Ellie's time. Her wires are all crossed. There is so much she doesn't know. "But in the meantime . . ." A grin crawls up his lips. "I'm driving."
Dean closes his eyes. He throws the keys over Ellie's head to Sam.
There is an abundance of things for Ellie to think about when she wiggles into the backseat of Baby. So much so that she only gets to unlace her muddy sneakers and kick them into the footwell before she discovers her brain is too tired to process anything else.