sorry there's been a little wait for this chap but i've been busy building my very own library at home :) so here's the next chapter - where we all get to meet Bobby, i hope you think that ive done him justice! hope you enjoy it!
Chapter Nine
Hitting Out
Just as predicted the two hours flew past. Sam and Dean sung along with some of my songs, teased me about others and just plain skipped a lot of them. Both of them frowning at the classical music stored before skipping it, much to my delight. It reminded me too much of douche bag ex vampire boyfriends. Something that I'd been trying desperately to repress.
Soon Dean had slowed the car right down and was turning into what looked like a scrap yard with the words "Singers Auto Yard" above the double gates. The place was certainly imposing. Mounds and mounds of cars lined our progress towards what I assumed was going to be a house, though going on what I'd seen so far I wouldn't have been surprised to find a Sting of the dump style set up.
As we travelled further into the junk yard I started to feel slightly apprehensive. Especially as I listened into the brothers conversation. "Maybe we should have rang and told him we were bringing company first?" Sam said, not exactly sounding nervous but not totally relaxed with this either.
"Chill dude, it's Bobby, he'll be fine." Dean replied completely relaxed.
"I'm just saying man. Maybe we should have told him that we were coming. And bringing someone. Does Bobby even know Charlie?" Sam's nerves were rubbing off on me.
"Does it matter? You know Bobby, he'll be cool, he'll help." Dean was still un fazed.
"Yeah." Sam agreed making me relax slightly.
"So what are we going to do then? Tell Bobby everything, hope he helps and then go get a motel or something?" I asked the brothers eager to know how this was going to work now that I was fairly sure that Bobby wasn't a murderous, cranky old man, who was going to take off my head for daring to step foot on his property. In my head I had a less groomed version of Charlie, or an old Dean.
"Nah, we'll crash here till we've got something to go on." Dean said as though it was nothing.
"Here? Were just turning up out of the blue, asking for help and expecting this man to put us up too?" I asked incredulously, that seemed a little rude. And maybe a bit insane if any of what of Sam had said was true, you know about him being pissed that they'd brought me here.
"Yeah, but it's Bobby. He's like... Like our adopted dad or something." Dean said with real fondness and real feeling colouring his voice, as well as the smallest touch of sadness. Something else that I bet the brothers wouldn't elaborate on, not that it was any of my business though.
We pulled up outside of a big house, the outside painted a light blue, a stoop running around the side of it and hub caps decoratively adorning the wall. Sam and Dean instantly un tensed, the way I did after a long day when I got home. And I wondered, was this the closest thing they had to a home? Was this where they came to unwind, was this the man that I was about to meet that made them feel safe?
I dutifully followed the brothers up the steps and into the house, not really surprised when they didn't knock. You never knocked before you entered your home, did you? I was however surprised to find that I was happy for them, happy they had some where to go, someone to go to when things got really tough. Not that anything seemed particularly easy for these men.
"Bobby?" Dean shouted as he entered a kitchen. It was basic, just the bare essentials and it needed a bit of TLC but it was cosy, homely even.
"I'm here!" Shouted back a voice from another room, I was instantly on edge. The voice sounded gruff and annoyed. I worried about what he was going to think of me, his opinion obviously meant a lot to the brothers. What if Bobby didn't like me, or told Sam and Dean to take me back home? Would they listen?
I followed behind the brothers as they made their way into another room, still at ease. I however was anything but. I desperately wanted to make a good impression on this man. I wanted him to like me.
The second room we entered was a cross between a lounge and a study. There was a couch in the room, an old television set, and thousands of books piled up on bookcases around the room. It was decorated in a warm red colour, helped by the fireplace in the wall at the back. There was also a big cluttered desk in the room as well, sat behind it was the man I assumed was Bobby.
He wasn't what I imagined at all, defiantly not an older Dean, well unless he shrunk a bit, put on a hell of a lot of weight and looked as though he had no interest in what he looked like what so ever. The man was wearing a baseball cap, flannel shirt, t-shirt and jeans. He had a scruffy beard that was tinged with grey and greying brown hair peered out from under his cap. He looked terrifying.
"Hey Bobby." The brothers said together, which was a bit eerie, but they both had genuine smiles on their faces.
The man looked up from a book he was reading with a smile as well, apparently happy to see the brothers. That is until he saw me standing there though. Then he frowned, looking from Sam and Dean to me. "What you igits done now?" He asked, his voice sounding a bit fed up, a sigh accompanying the question.
"What? We haven't done anything!" Dean said, pretending to sound upset by the accusation but a smirk was on his face as he did.
"Yeah right. So you're just turning up here without ringing first, bringing a girl with you for the first time ever and you expect me to believe you're just here to say hi?" Bobby asked, his voice still sceptical, sarcastic even.
"Er yeah?" Dean smirked again.
"Bobby this is Bella." Sam said stepping back so that he was level with me.
"Hi." I said trying to smile but failing, my voice holding the nerves I was so desperately trying to hide without success.
Bobby nodded at me while looking me over from head to toe. I had the weirdest feeling he was assessing me for something, though I had no idea what.
"Bobby do you know a hunter called Charlie Swan, he was a friend of our dad's?" Dean said, getting straight to business, his voice serious now.
"Yeah, sure. I've met Charlie a couple of times. Helped me out with a skin walker once, good man, good hunter." Bobby said lightly.
"Well he's missing." Sam said bluntly. "Went on a hunt and never came back. This is his daughter." He motioned to me.
"Isabella? But I thought she was in the dark about... Well everything." Bobby frowned, ignoring me and looking between the brothers again. I realised the only way I'd make an impression on this man was if I spoke up.
"I didn't. Not until Charlie didn't show up, he left me a letter telling me to ring John if he didn't turn up. And then these two arrived at my doorstep." I said motioning with my head to Sam and Dean.
"So you igits just thought that you'd bring her along, tell her all the trade secrets and drag her to my doorstep?" Bobby growled sounding a little angry and making me even more nervous. "I guess this is your fool idea boy?" He glared at Dean, who took a step closer to me and crossed his arms.
"Bobby, there were demons attacking her when we arrived. And a vampire tried to kill her that night too. Couldn't exactly leave her on her own and hope she'd make it while we were out looking for her old man could we?" Dean asked the older hunter.
Bobby looked me up and down and sighed. "You igits better take a seat then." He said while nodding to sofa.
Sam and Dean sat at either end of the comfy looking couch and made me room for me. I sat between them, still feeling a little out of my league as we all looked toward the old man behind the desk.
"So what you need help with then? Finding Charlie or babysitting?" Bobby asked while shooting me a glance. I had a feeling he was testing me somehow, I didn't know what I was supposed to do, but I got angry. Babysitting? How dare he?
"I don't need babysitting thanks, I need help tracking down my dad." I said, the anger I was feeling coming through in my voice. "Can ya help me or not?"
"If you're asking someone for favours girl, you might want to speak to them with a civil tongue." Bobby said, but his face had lightened a bit, I think that I may have passed whatever test he'd set for me.
"I'm sorry, you're right. I just want to find my dad, he's been gone for almost three weeks and for the last week I've been on the road with Sam and Dean. I've been attacked by demons, vampires and almost sacrificed in some messed up ritual by some satanists, I'm a little tetchy and a little tired and I want to find my dad. Sam and Dean said that you might be able to help find him, if you could I'd be grateful, if you can't just say and I'll look for someone who can." I said, my patience finally wearing out as everything started wearing down on me again.
Dean and Sam were sat looking at me with surprised but amused looks plastered across their handsome faces. "What?" I mouthed at them both with annoyance. They both smirked and shrugged at the same time before looking back at Bobby. The older man was watching our exchanges with a smile which he was trying to hide in that bushy beard of his unsuccessfully.
"What have you got to gone on so far then. I'll see what I can do." Bobby addressed me.
"Thank you." I said with a small smile.
"Don't thank me yet girl, I haven't done anything. Just tell me what you got." The man growled at me with a frown.
"We traced Charlie's police cruiser to a hotel in Boston." I started only to be interrupted by Sam.
"Bells traced the cruiser." He added for me with a smirk making me blush slightly.
"Alright I traced the cruiser. Then the guys tried to find out if he was actually working a hunt or not. He was, but he wasn't there when they found out about it." I carried on talking only to be interrupted by Dean this time.
"Well B found it actually." He smirked at me as well, making me flush again, this time though from embarrassment.
"One of you two want to tell him about it?" I asked the men.
"Ok." Dean said still smiling and barely taking a breath as he told Bobby everything from our search for Charlie so far. In detail. Leaving nothing out, not even my little fifty shades quip, or how I'd asked to be trained by the men so that I didn't die. Can't say I was grateful for that.
"Ok, so let me get this straight then." Bobby started saying sounding a little angry with the situation so far. "You found out that Charlie's dragging his ass around the USA, you don't know why or if it's even on his own back or not. You don't look for stolen cars in the area, you don't check any of his aliases or see what name he used on his credit card when he checked into the hotel? And then you two igits agree to train his only daughter how to be a hunter, when ya didn't even cover the basics on a routine job?" The man growled out. "Freaking geniuses you boys. And you Sam, I'm surprised at you."
"Me, why?" Sam sounded upset that he was being singled out in this chastastation.
"Cause you're suppose to be the smart one college boy!" Bobby barked out.
"We were worried about B Bobby, we had to get her out of there." Dean tried to defend their actions, his voice slightly harder than normally.
"Yeah and never has the phrase out of the frying pan into the fire been so apt. You drag her out of a hunt alive and then say you'll train her? Why not sign the death warrant now? You know it's true Dean don't give me that look. She aint gonna hack it and we're gonna have another body on our concious." Bobby said before standing with a sigh and walking out of the room, only to come back seconds later with four bottles of beer in his hand.
He passed one each to the brothers and then one to me. I took it gratefully, downing almost half before the older man had sat behind his desk again.
"They've told me all this. That I shouldn't be doing it. But I need too. Did you not hear what's happened to me within the last week? I need to know how to protect myself, otherwise you really are going to have another body on your hands." I said looking at Bobby, the beer rushing around my veins and making me feel bolder. Dutch courage at it's best.
"Girl, I'm sure that you think this is the only way. But it aint. You got a shot at a normal life you should take it. Cause this life style, no matter what those boys make it look like, it aint easy. It's hard and sucks ass, and your friends, your family, the people you love they die from it. And you have to watch it. Then you die bloody and painfully. This isn't a life for a young girl." Bobby told me, his tone serious and morose.
"Wow, all you guys are cut from the same cloth aren't you, that's almost exactly the same thing that Dean told me." I said while shooting Dean a smile, his face was creased with a frown though. I rolled my eyes before facing Bobby again.
"These guys, they don't make it look easy, they make it look like it's hard and painful and that you get seriously messed up from it. I haven't got a shot at a normal life, believe me, I wish I did but I don't. And as for watching my friends and family die from this lifestyle? What you think that I think Charlie's run off to Mexico with his beautiful yet down to earth lover? And he's all I got at the minute. I can either sit at home on my own and pretend everything's gonna work itself out and that Charlie's one day gonna magically reappear while hoping nothing supernatural attacks me despite my home town being over run with that stuff. Or I can help find Charlie and maybe help to save myself and other people too. Learn to not be the victim in my own life story anymore. So that's what I've chose to do." I finished my little monologue before finishing my beer.
"Least you've thought it through I guess." Bobby said with a sigh while leaning back in his desk chair. "And you two fools, you're gonna train her?" He asked the brothers.
"We're gonna give it a shot." Sam said making me frown at him but Dean let out a little chuckle.
"Fine. I'll look into Charlie, do the leg work you igits should have done." Bobby grunted while pulling out a phone, and a couple of what I recognised as fake Id's. We sat watching him for a minute before he looked up. "Well what you waiting for, a solid gold invitation to the party? Get to work!" The man snapped at us, his voice commanding.
~0~
Sam was right, there were times that week at Bobby's when I hated the Winchesters. Seriously hated them. Like when Sam woke me up at five in the morning to go for a three mile run, despite the fact that Dean said there was no point to that bullshit. Dean's theory was that if you needed to run you would whether you'd been practising that or not. I liked that theory, that theory didn't have me up before the sun and on a three mile run with a drill sargent.
Dean was just as easy to hate though. The boys had brought and installed me a punch bag in the spare room that Bobby had so graciously let me sleep in. And Dean had taken it upon himself to make me practise on it before I was allowed to spar with him and Sam. In movies and television hitting and kicking a punch bag looks easy. It's not. The things are hard and heavy, making every kick and punch tiring. Add that to Dean shouting at you when you got something wrong and it made for a very unhappy Bella. Or 'precious' as Dean had taken to mockingly calling me during our little practise sessions.
The week was hard and gruelling, hand to hand, running, weapons training, latin and reading books after books on monsters and all the other things that went bump in the night sure took it out of you.
We worked hard in the day but at night we played hard. We played poker, pool, darts. We sat and drank and talked, we watched movies and generally enjoyed ourselves, I'd never laughed so much in my entire life. Bobby and Sam were normally the first to call it a night and then Dean and me would sit and chat, we'd drink a bit more, eat pie and put the world to rights. It was symoltaniasly the worst and best week of my life.
Day six of staying at Bobby's though and my biggest test yet was upon me. I was sparring with Sam.
We faced each other in Bobby's yard, with Dean and Bobby looking on with beers in hand while they leant against a pile of junk cars. Bobby had warmed to me slightly since my stay here, he'd even started calling me an igit as well. Something that I thought was almost a compliment from the hard faced man.
"Dean, are you sure about this? Maybe we should make her do a few more days of practise before I spar with her. No offence Bells." Sam said as he stood in front of me. No offence was taken, in fact I was more than ready to agree with him. Dean must be crazy to make me fight Sam, he was huge, his muscles straining his t-shirt as he moved. Or maybe Dean just wanted to see me get smacked down, he did have a really odd sense of humour after all.
"B's got this Sammy, don't worry. Or are you scared of being taken by a girl?" Dean mocked from the side lines.
Sam raised his eyebrows and made a half hearted lunge at me. I moved out of the way with a spin while kicking out my leg in a spinning side kick. Dean had said that the move was more for show than actual damage but as it connected Sam stumbled a bit. Making my confidence grow slightly.
Sam turned to face me again, his face with a frown on it. He obviously hadn't expected me to land anything on him, let alone land a kick in the first few seconds.
The tall hunter charged me again, sending a right handed cross to my face. I caught the punch with my left hand and sent a right handed punch back. He yanked his hand out of mine and dodged my punch with ease. He sent a cross to my face which I dodged before sending a body shot to his kidneys. It connected making the hunter bend over, I sent a kick to his head which he rolled onto the floor to avoid.
"Sammy you're having your ass handed to you!" Dean shouted out with glee in his voice.
The taunt seemed to egg Sam on, he came at me fast sending punch after punch at me. I dodged, caught and bobbed out of his way, sending as many punches back as I could. I realised that I wasn't going to touch him with my punches as he caught one after another. He was too good.
So I leant back to avoid one of his huge fists and shot my foot out at the same time in a forward kick. He caught my foot and twisted making me smash into the ground.
As I lay in a pile at his feet I swept my legs across his but he saw the move coming and jumped them. I got up un steadily, being thrown to a hard floor hurt, like hell.
Again Sam lunged at me, I blocked one of his punches while sending one back as fast as I could at the same time. He caught it and sent an elbow to my face that I didn't even see coming. Even if I had he had hold of my wrist I couldn't have got away.
His elbow connected sending shooting stars of pain through my eye socket, the force of it making me crash to the floor for the second time. The world a little blurry.
"B?"
"Bells?"
"Bella!" Three voices called my name from above, but everything was still a little blurry. If this had been real I'd have been dead by now. The realisation made me open my eyes and look up.
"You ok B?" Dean stood above me, Sam and Bobby at his side, everyone looked concerned except for Sam who looked upset.
"I'm good." I said, my words a little on the slurred side. I got to my feet painfully, every bone and muscle in my body protesting at the movement.
"You did good sweetheart." Dean said softly as he led me over to a scrap car and sat me down on the hood. "Can you fetch me some ice?" He asked Bobby who immediately left the makeshift ring Sam and I had been fighting in.
"I didn't, if that was a thunder dome style showdown I'd be dead." I said bitterly, knowing what was really at stake here.
"B, you did ok, really. I thought Sam would have taken you in seconds, you lasted seven minutes." Dean said sounding both surprised and proud, a small smile across his amazing features.
"Yeah Bells, you were brilliant." Sam joined in, regret clear in his voice, he obviously hadn't meant to hurt me.
"Like I said, I'd still have been dead." I replied bluntly seeing Bobby coming back from the corner of my eye.
"What you belly aching about now?" Bobby gruffly said as he passed Dean something before passing me a beer from the cooler he'd brought with him.
"Thanks." I muttered.
"Here put this on." Dean insisted passing me a cloth that was freezing cold, it was wrapped around some ice I was guessing. I pressed it to my sore eye socket, hissing between my teeth as it made contact and burnt.
"Bells was just complaining that she would have been killed if the fight was real." Sam explained as he took a beer off Bobby as well.
"Good thing it wasn't then." Bobby growled out.
"Sweetheart, there's not much out there that's trained in multiple types of martial arts since they could walk, by loads of different people. Besides Sammy here is freakishly big and your almost a midget. You did good." Dean told me before drinking from his beer, his tone soft, his deep voice making my stomach leap and my bones feel like jelly.
Over the last few days those stupid feelings that I'd been having, the ones I'd been desperately trying to ignore had just gotten stronger. I lived for the nights when we sat together drinking, laughing and joking. Every time that I looked at him my heart leapt, when he laughed the noise touched some part in me that I wanted to ignore. When he looked at me my skin scorched and when I looked at him it was all I could do to stop myself from reaching out and touching him.
I was trying with everything that I had to stop these feelings, to stop feeling those warm fuzzy thoughts towards a guy who was fast becoming my best friend. I had to try, I knew he didn't feel like that about me. And unrequited affection sucked, especially when I knew it would make things super awkward if he ever found out how I felt.
"Hey B! You still with us?" Dean said from my side making me snap out of my thoughts with a jump.
"Yeah, sorry." I said smiling at him, and fighting the warm feeling that it gave me when he was so close to me.
"I gave you an insult and ya didn't bite back, you ok?" Dean asked me with a smirk.
"I'm just ignoring you and hoping you go away." I teased back with a smile.
"I've been trying that one for years Bells, trust me it doesn't work." Sam said with a smile.
"Dude, you'd be lost without me." Dean said while giving Sam a shoulder shove.
"Aww..." Bobby said sarcastically with a smile on his face. "You three are gonna make me lose my lunch if you don't stop."
"We love you too Bobby." Sam, Dean and me all said at the same time. That wasn't freaky at all.
"Ok..." Bobby said looking between us and looking a bit freaked out. Not that I blamed him. "I'm gonna make some food." The older hunter mumbled before leaving quickly for the house.
Sam, Dean and me sat in silence with our beers for a few minutes. All of us crowded onto the hood of the scrap car that Dean had sat me on. The metal uncomfortable under my butt. I moved the ice away from my face as it was warming and leaking out of the cloth now. Making it look like I was crying from one eye.
"Jeeze B. You're gonna have one hell of a shiner there." Dean said with concern while taking the ice out of my hand and pressing it gently back against my eye. I watched as his green brown eyes took in every aspect of my face, blushing as he did of course. "You're still beautiful though." Dean whispered shocking me completely.
"What?" I stuttered out. Had he just called me..? I thought he had... Maybe I was losing it.
"What?" Dean said back to me looking shocked as well.
"What?" I asked again, confused now. Maybe I had imagined it after all. After all I was a lot of things, but beautiful wasn't one of them.
"What?" Dean said, but this time the slightest blush touched his face and he looked away from me. He'd obviously not meant to say what he'd said, if he had actually said it at all of course.
I took the ice out of his hand and pressed it back in to my eye, looking away from him. My heart beating frantically and completely confused again.
It took me a few minutes to realise that at some point Sam had left the car and walked back to the house. I wasn't sure when that had happened. When I was this close to Dean every fibre of me was in tune to him and every thing else went ignored. Other people, other friends included. I had to get over my little crush, I had to, I just didn't have any clue as to how.
"I'm gonna go see if the grubs ready." Dean muttered getting up off the car and walking away, his shoulders tense and his muscles bunched together. I watched as he walked away from me, he got twenty paces before his shoulders dropped. "You coming sweetheart?" He called over his shoulder to me with a small smile.
"Sure." I smiled back before jumping off the car. I stumbled a bit as I landed, my depth perception completely off now that I only had one working eye. Dean was next to me in an instant, his hands on my shoulders steadying me, feeling like they burnt against the skin they rested against.
"You ok sweetheart?" He asked me gently as I took the ice pack away from my eye, it was probably safer that way.
"Yeah, thanks. One working eye coupled with clumsiness means that I'm gonna have to work on the stunt act." I smiled trying to hide my embarrassment. Why did I have to act like such a spaz around this gorgeous man all of the time?
Dean's hand rough yet gentle went to my eye, tenderly tracing where the bruise started. "Sorry sweetheart I didn't think Sammy would take it so seriously. I thought he'd go easier on a woman." He said softly to me.
"S'all good." I said, my voice low and surprisingly husky, shivers running up my spine.
Deans eyes traced my lips before he looked into my eyes. Something burned deeply in them, I couldn't figure out what only that I liked it, that it made me tingle in all the right places.
His hand still rested on my face, his fingers curling to cup my cheek. He leant in and my heart stopped as I stood on my tiptoes and leant into him as well.
Our lips were so close that I could feel his sweet breath tickling me. Our eyes locked onto each other, both of us hesitant as we leaned in ever closer. The moment sweeter from the anticipation.
"Foods ready, come and get it ya igits!" Bobby's voice rung out shattering whatever moment we'd been about to have. Dean jerked away from me and coughed out a nervous laugh.
"Good, I'm half starved." He said while turning away from me. I followed behind him as he walked toward the house that was starting to become my home as well. Dean unable to see the hurt and confusion that must have been clear on my face.
well, i hope you all enjoyed that, sorry that i left you all hanging again, but that wasnt the right time! it will come eventually i promise ya! so people, let me know what you think, good, bad and all inbetween, i love hearing from you all and it does make me write quicker! until next time, love always tametiger x