Mary was quiet as Bobby drove them back to his house that doubled as his shop, keeping Dean on her lap. Neither of them spoke and she swore that you couldn't cut the tension with the sharpest knife. She glanced up when they reached a mechanics yard, passing the sign that said "Singer Salvage."
He stopped the tow truck in place, not looking at her before he spoke. "You guys can get out here, I'll bring the car in more into the garage to take a look." he said.
Dean tugged at her shirt, getting her attention. "Mama," he whispered to her. "I need the bathroom."
She heard Bobby breathe a laugh at that. "You can go inside, bathrooms on the second floor, first door to the right."
"Thanks." Mary managed to get out, stepping out of the car. She held Dean closer to her as they walked into the house, swallowing hard. The house was a bit of a mess, papers and books placed haphazardly around. She stayed firmly away from the kitchen and went upstairs, following his directions until they reached the bathroom. She set Dean on the ground.
"Alright baby, remember to wash your hands." she told him as he walked in, closing the door for him.
Mary rested her head against the wall next to the bathroom, softly banging it against the wood. She closed her eyes and placed her hands on top of her stomach.
Why? Of all the places to stop, of all the places for her car to break down and the only mechanic in the next at least hundred miles, did it have to be Bobby Singer? In all of the United States, how did it end up that she was going to not only run into him but need his help?
She believed in karma and universal justice, she just never believed that she had done something that was deserving of it.
She took a deep breath and slowly let it out, moving away from the wall and straightening up just as the doorknob jiggled and she opened the door for Dean to come back out. She picked him up again and just held him, letting him curl into her as she came back downstairs, stopping when she saw Bobby coming in.
"Your radiator has a hole in it." Bobby told her, tossing aside a greasy stained piece of cloth. He still wasn't looking at her. "Left unfixed it'll get bigger until either your engine falls through or the smoke causes it to break down. A temporary fix will plug it for a bit, no telling how long it'll last."
"What about a permanent fix?" Mary asked him, marveling at how her voice wasn't shaking.
"Replace the whole radiator. That'll take a while, need to order a radiator that'll fit your car and then take out the old one and put the new one." Bobby told her. "It'll take at least a couple of weeks and your car won't run until then."
Mary swallowed hard, mind whirling as she tried to figure out what to do and how much time she had to spare and just how much of a distance they still needed to cross.
The answer was, not that much. And in terms of distance…
She was sure that there would be another mechanic on the way to Canada that she could stop at if she needed more work. She just needed to pay more attention to the signs she passed to know where she was.
And a communicative radio wouldn't be a bad idea either.
"Can you do a temporary fix?" she asked, wishing she had her hands free to fidget with her fingers. "We're kinda on a tight schedule."
"Yeah I figured as much." Bobby said much to her surprise. "Your dad called me to see if I heard from you lately 'bout an hour ago."
Mary breathed out slowly, tightening her grip on Dean. "Did he?"
"Yep, told him the truth, that we haven't spoken since that...I don't know if it can even be called a date, it was a lunch meeting." Bobby said, finally looking up at her. "You two running away?"
"Something like that." Mary said, this time breaking eye contact to look away. "It's a long story."
"It's gonna take a bit to fix the car, even if it's a temporary fix." Bobby told her. "We got time."
"How about you fix my car and as you do, I'll talk to you." Mary told him. "We're on a schedule."
Bobby stared at her for a long moment before he turned and walked back outside. Mary hesitated for a moment before she followed him, breathing out a small sigh of relief as he led them to his small makeshift garage where her car was. He grabbed his tool-belt and leaned over her engine, giving her a pointed look.
Mary sighed as she put Dean back into the backseat of the car, letting him go so that he could crawl over to his things and rummage through them for his book.
"It's about his dad." she said softly as she walked over to Bobby's side as he worked. She had no idea what he was doing but he seemed to know how to fix it, she was just going to have to take his word for it. "He's a Man of Letters, you know about them?"
"Mostly what I've heard from other people, not the best grouping." Bobby said, getting up to grab a silver bottle from the shelf, pouring it into her radiator. "How'd you get entangled with them?"
"We were the same age and we saw each other a bit." Mary said, glancing through the windshield to see Dean calmly sitting there reading. "Getting pregnant...was a surprise we weren't expecting."
"And then it happened twice? Or is he not the dad to this one?" Bobby asked her. "Is that why you're on the run?"
Mary felt like hitting him. "He's the dad to both of them." she said coolly. "And this one is as much of a surprise as Dean was."
She could hear Bobby mutter something under his breath but couldn't make it out, gritting her teeth. "The Men of Letters want Dean to become one of them." she told him after composing herself after a moment. "And the dad is on board so...we're on the run."
"And where are you going to go?" Bobby asked, giving her a pointed look over her engine. "This'll only take you so far and if you want to constantly be moving, that'll take a lot of money. And you've got another in the oven. Don't have that many options here Mary."
"We'll figure it out." Mary said, omitting the fact that she did have a plan. "We just need the car to get us where we need to go."
"And where's that?"
"We'll figure it out." she repeated firmly. "Just...please fix the car."
Bobby was definitely muttering something under his breath but he worked on her engine, falling silent.
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