Chapter 25
The miles stretched out in front of Dean. The last few hours had passed without much incident. It was just Dean, Baby, and the open interstate; with J dead to the world in the backseat. Dean had left Sam behind a couple of hours back, putting the pedal to the metal as they wound their way through another small town. They both texted each other when they stopped, but they had not seen each other since the truck stop that morning.
Dean pulled Baby into a little gas station off the interstate. There was nothing for miles in every direction. There were still maybe 300 miles left until they were anywhere near The Roadhouse. It was time to stretch and gas up. Maybe grab a snack if everything was already pre-packaged.
"J. Wake up. We're stopping for gas, among other things. You want out or do you want to keep sleeping this time?" Dean called over his shoulder. He was used to waking her up now.
There was movement in the backseat and J's arms wrapped around the driver's seat headrest as she pulled herself forward.
"I need out. I can't be back here another second." Dean heard from the backseat.
"And I need a brush. Leather and hair don't mix well. It gets hot back there, man." J said slightly dazed as she sat up. Dean could hear the grumpiness in her voice. She sounded rough and gravely like she had been deeply asleep.
Dean pulled the Impala up to a pump and put her in park before looking over at J who was hanging her arms around the passenger seat looking dazed and confused, to say the least. He couldn't help but start laughing.
A silent belly laugh that shook the whole car.
"Shut the fuck up, Dean Winchester. Or I will find something to hold against you!" She pointed into her eyes with two fingers and then pointed them back into his in the universal sign of 'I am watching you/ I have my eyes on you.'
"But you look like a rocker from the 80s!" Dean managed to choke out in between gasping breaths. It was true. All of J's hair had been messed up, teased up, and charged up with static electricity from the leather seats. She was rocking some mad 80's Glam Rock hair right now. All she needed was the headbands and some crimping.
"As I said, my hair and leather seats don't work. Now shut the hell up before I knock some sense into you." J warned as she began to try and gather and tame her mane into a ponytail at the base of her neck.
Dean was still giggling when she was finished restraining her hair.
J looked at him for a second. She sighed and rolled her eyes. Then she reached over and smacked him over the back of the head and crossed her arms. The fire in her eyes returning.
"Hey! What was that for!?" Dean palmed the back of his head and looked at J, slightly affronted that she would actually follow up on her word of literally knocking sense into him.
"That was for laughing. I warned you to stop. You did not. A slap to the face is an insult. A slap to the back of the head is a wake-up call. There's a big difference. Remember that." J raised her eyebrows at Dean, almost daring him to say something as she grabbed her bag.
"That's what I thought." J said with a crooked grin as she went to get out of the car.
It took Dean's breath away and he was momentarily stunned. He was out of it long enough for J to get out of the car and start heading towards the little run-down convenience store attached to the gas station.
"What a woman…" Dean said softly to himself.
"I heard that!" J called over her shoulder. That same crooked smile on her face grew wider.
About an hour later Dean found himself in a very familiar situation. Two-lane highway, hardly any cars for miles, and rolling green hills as far as the eye could see. He had decided to take the more scenic, less direct route back to The Roadhouse.
J was asleep in the backseat again. Dead to the world with her headphones in and music blasting.
Dean had some serious thinking he was getting done today. He did not often find he had time to himself like this. A lot of things that had been prying on his mind for a while. Some things that were more pressing than others. All in all, Dean's mind was a very messy place at the moment and he was determined to sort through it all.
What Dean would lose in extra miles on his detour; he would gain back in speed. By his own calculations, he bet he would still beat Sam by a good half hour. At least.
The roar of the engine and the hum of the tires soon lulled Dean into the all-too-familiar stupor he longed for. His mind unfocused, distant, and his driving instincts kicking in.
Auto-pilot engaged. Dean half-heartedly thought to himself as he smiled at the thought before it, too, was distant.
These were the moments Dean lived for. The serene calm of The Open Road. The rhythm and the hum of his tires and Baby's engine purring steadily. His mind going blissfully blank as the miles passed. Time seemed to stand still. All the pressure was off.
It was nice, here in these moments. Dean felt more at ease now than he had in a very long time. He was grateful he had decided to take the long way at the last minute.
Nothing mattered now.
Not the woman in the backseat, nor his ever-growing, and ever more complicated feelings that were developing around her. Not the feeling in his gut that something was just off about her. Not the fact that there will always be another monster to kill. Not the fact that there always seemed to be another threat to the human race that he and his brother would somehow manage to get wrangled into. Not the next hunt. Not his next move. Not even his next thought.
This was a rare moment. Dean Winchester was completely at peace.
The sun had started to sink lower in the sky when Dean finally came back around. He slowly snapped out of the reprieve he had been in. He was completely relaxed now. Almost as if he was just waking up from a much-needed nap.
A mental one.
He didn't know how long he had been, what had J called it? Meditating? He had given up on thinking, analyzing everything, what felt like forever ago. Either way, he was tired of the lack of music so he reached for the dials of the radio. Hoping that he was close enough to a major city to catch some radio waves and a station that wasn't just AM talk radio.
Static filled the air as he turned the dials left and right trying to adjust the volume and find a station.
Finally, he caught one that seemed to be promising. It must have been the local 'hard-rock' station. Breaking The Habit by Linkin Park filled the cab. Remembering J asleep in the back, Dean turned the radio down a bit, not wanting to disturb her.
After Linkin Park, an old Metallica song came on. Dean was really starting to like this station. Next was some Judas Priest, some newer Slayer, and Kansas. Classic and more modern. This was a station he could rock out to for a while.
The cover of Simple Man by Shinedown came on and Dean let out a little exclamation of excitement.
He loved this song and this cover.
He found himself singing along to the track, turning up the volume just a bit so he could better hear the song.
By the end of it, he was giving it all he had, pounding his hands on the steering wheel and dashboard along with the music.
The last note came to a close. In that second between songs, there was another sound that took Dean entirely by surprise. Clapping.
Dean was caught so off-guard that he swerved, causing J to fall over into the seat next to her.
"Jesus fucking Christ don't kill me!" came J's muffled yell from the back as she picked herself up from the heap she was flung into by the force of Dean's swerve.
"Hey, it's been silent back there for hundreds of miles and most of the day and out of nowhere, you start clapping. Who does that!?" Dean shot back as he caught her glare in the rearview mirror with his own.
"Sorry, man. I just… I did not know you could sing." J said flatly. Looking at him evenly in the rearview.
"I can't." Dean said just as flatly, avoiding eye contact with the rearview mirror now.
"Uh, bullshit Winchester. That's like me telling you that I can't sing. Then tell me what the hell you would call that? What I just heard?" She sighed exasperatedly.
"Screw this. Hold onto the steering wheel. I'm about to make a maneuver." J grabbed her bag and flung it onto the floor of the front seat before Dean could register what was happening.
"What the…" was all Dean managed to get out before J flung a leg over the passenger seat and started slinking her way into the front seat.
Yes, slinking. Dean watched from his peripheral vision as J lithely slithered one leg between the two front seats, followed by her arms for support. She then slid her torso smoothly after it, finally followed by the other leg.
J was agile as a cat and just as flexible. She effectively climbed into the front seat and was turning around and adjusting to sit properly, without so much as bumping Dean. Before he knew what had happened, she was sitting shotgun and strapping herself into the seatbelt.
Dean wished he had had more time to study exactly how she had done that. It was something out of a spy movie. Or Cirque Du Solei. J wasn't exactly short, and there wasn't exactly that much room to move around in. And she wasn't exactly slow about it.
"There, that's way better! So, as I was saying. Dean Winchester can sing, huh? Tell me more about that." J smiled slyly at him as she angled her body more towards him, flinging an arm out the window she rolled down.
Dean looked over, a response at the ready. But the scene in front of him literally took his breath away. His response that was on the tip of his tongue was forgotten entirely. What he was about to say just went out the window with her arm.
J was smiling at him now. Her hair was blowing in the breeze coming from the windows. Her ripped jeans and t-shirt looked perfectly comfortable, and perfect on her.
This was almost exactly as his daydream back in the cave. Only this was real. And it was so much better. The sudden flash of the memory left Dean stuttering.
"Umm. Y-yeah. I... I guess I'm not bad. I don't get much practice." Dean mumbled out, averting his eyes back to the road in front of him trying to clear his head before she could get a read on him.
"Give yourself a little more credit, dude. You have talent. I enjoyed listening to you. And you were obviously having fun." J said as she too looked out of the windshield.
"How long have you been awake?" Dean asked pointedly, giving J a suspicious look.
"Right around Judas Priest. So, not long to answer your question. I'm not that much of a creep. But I also did not want to interrupt." Responded J. Dean caught the edge of her smile out of the corner of his eye.
"So, you've been listening in on me this whole time?" Dean shot at her, slightly embarrassed to have been caught.
"Well, it's not like I had anywhere to go, Dean." J said sarcastically.
"Touché." Countered Dean. "I'm sorry I just feel like someone was listening in on me. I forgot you were back there."
"I don't mean for you to feel that way. If you want, I can get inside your head and make this seem like unequivocally no big deal." J said with eyebrows bouncing complete with a face-splitting grin.
"Absolutely not I will not have that!" Dean said with a finger pointed at J and a grin starting to creep through his resolve.
Both of them ended up laughing at the joke. Both of them were grateful for the break in the tension.
"Has Sam ever heard you sing? Have you done any karaoke? You've heard me and not a lot of people can say that." J asked as she put her foot up on the seat and leaned back into the corner to better look at Dean.
Dean was momentarily distracted by this movement. The way the setting sunlight caught J's hair made it look like fire. He watched as she tucked a stray strand that was floating in her face in the wind behind her ear. The movement was so minute, yet held all of Dean's attention.
"Sam had heard me, yeah. He says the same thing you do. Yeah, I have heard you sing, and I must say you got some pipes on you, sweetheart. You are not hard on the ears." He said matter-of-factly.
Before he could stop himself, he added, "Since you got to hear me sing, will you sing for me?"
J looked over at him with the sweetest smile she had given him yet.
"I think that's fair." She said nodding in agreement. "Just not right now. I still am half asleep. My voice is going to sound like shit. Unless you want me to sing, more like scream, something like Dimmu Borgir, or something super metal like that. Let's talk for a bit first so I can warm up, shall we?" She added with a bark of a laugh.
She really did look good riding his shotgun. She looked at ease. Hand out the window catching air currents as her hair blew around her.
Dean looked over at J. He looked into those honey-covered emeralds for only a second; afraid he would get lost. J looked back at him, she had another knowing look on her face. The spark in her duo-toned eyes had abruptly changed. She knew what he was thinking. Dean would bet money on it.
"I keep seeing flashes of my hair." J looked down like she was admitting a secret she swore she would never tell.
"I can tell that you like it. Thank you. I guess. I don't take compliments very well. Sorry… I really don't mean to be reading your mind or whatever. It just kind of happens. Sometimes I still don't have full control of it." She smiled a very small smile to herself as she almost whispered that last part.
"I think it looks like fire right now. To go with your eyes." Dean said as he remained eye forward on the road.
Dean could see J out of the corner of his eye. She put the back of her hand up to her face to lean her chin on it as she looked out the windshield, too.
"I get that from my mom. It's the German. My hair comes out red in the sun." J said almost absentmindedly, grabbing at a piece of hair and winding it around her fingers.
"So that was a different language I heard back there in the cave? It was German?" Dean asked, remembering J working on Sam in the cave.
"Yeah, my mom was German. My dad traveled for work for the same company. They met when he was on a trip in Stuttgart. He only ever remembered enough to get by." J laughed at the thought as she looked off into space. "My aunt Chris, her sister, made sure I could speak and write fluently growing up." J replied.
"What happened to you mom?" Dean asked without thinking. He cringed inwardly at his lack of tact.
"She died when I was four. I barely remember her. It's always been my dad, my aunt, and me. Now it's just me and my aunt now." J sighed.
"I'm sorry," Dean said quickly. "I didn't know. I remember you said you dad had died, I never did get to tell you my condolences for that. I'm sure that was a lot harder for you."
"Yeah, it was just a few years ago. It's still fresh…" J's voiced trailed off as she looked out her side window, away from Dean. He could see her jaw clenching as he snuck a peek over at her while she was looking away.
He was afraid that he had gone too far this time. She turned back around, running her hand through her hair and she sighed again, seeming to force herself to relax.
"If it's anything, I'm sorry about your mom, and now your dad, too. Ellen told me what happened."
Dean cleared his throat, not prepared for the sudden change in conversation. "Uh, thanks."
Desperately looking for something to change the subject he said the first thing that came to his mind, "Want to play 20 questions: Get-to-Know-You style?"
J looked over at him quizzically. "Explain." Was all she said.
"Meaning we each get 20 questions to ask. It can be anything, about anything. Passes are excepted, but only with some kind of explanation. A simple "Not going there" will suffice. I don't mean to pry." Dean smiled as he told her the rules of the little game. He was getting more and more confident now.
"Hmmm. It sounds like fun. How about you also have to answer the same question you are asking of the other person. Deal?" J almost challenged.
"Deal. I still haven't forgotten about you singing for me." Dean replied. Smile growing wider now.
"Ah, shit. I thought I was going to get away with that!" She said with a dramatic sigh. "Fine. Ask away, Herr Fuehrer." J said with a flawless German accent, and a smirk.