Chapter 36
He had to slow his own roll because, if he was panicking, he was going to make it worst for her. Dean had not counted on actually liking the person he was working with. His usual jobs involved just… getting and sneaking back in, or getting someone out, or just… people he didn't actually care about. Why did she have to be different?
"Magic has a feel to it, Abs. I'm sure you felt it with that dagger of yours. Just… has a thing. Go down one tunnel a bit and, if it just doesn't have that 'feel' to it, try the other." Dean could only hope the cloak wasn't guarded or something.
"A feeling you say?" Abigail took the Mythril dagger from the holder around her thigh and held it up, watching it glint and change colors once she pointed it at the right tunnel, the unsafe one. "Then I'm going right."
"Wait WHAT?!"
"Calm down, the dagger has magical properties because it was made out of Mythril. It's going to guide me to the cloak. And I feel that…pull. I can't explain it, but I know it's down the right tunnel." She didn't wait for him to respond and started another flare, tossing it on the ground before stepping over it to continue down the narrow path. With every step she took, the Mythril dagger grew a little brighter, which also helped light wise. "It's here…Dean, I can feel it…I sense it. It's…oh my god…" In front of her stood a statue of sorts a few hundred feet away, but she could clearly see the cloak wrapped around the shoulders of it. "I found it, it's on a statue of some kind. Who the hell would put a statue down here?"
"Beautiful, you're chasing down a MAGICAL CLOAK, why shouldn't it be on a statue?" Really? In a world that had magic in it, she was all incredulous over a statue? He was grinning though because that was hilarious. "Be careful. If someone put a statue down there, with a magical cloak, it's most likely to have traps. Keep out that Mythril dagger."
"It's out, I have it in my hand right now and it's glowing brighter the closer I get to this damn thing."
So far, nothing had popped out and said 'boo', so that was a good sign. It couldn't be THIS easy to retrieve the cloak, right? Abigail was cautious, moving closer to the statue and stopped in front of it a few minutes later, her eyes gazing up at it. The cloak itself shimmered black, it was beautiful and reminded her of a night sky, minus the moon.
"Okay Dean, I'm gonna grab it. I don't see any traps around and nothing has popped out at me, so…I think we're good."
Slipping the dagger back into her holder, Abigail took a deep breath and reached up to retrieve the cloak. The moment the cloak left the statue completely, everything began falling apart, shaking and rumbling. The mineshaft was caving in!
"Oh shit!"
"I don't know what you did in there, Abs, but the ground up here…. is crazy!" Dean squawked, his eyes on stupid little things like stones and fallen branches, little sticks, just bouncing away on the ground. He could feel it rumbling almost beneath him and then he heard her rasping out something besides 'oh shit', cave in. "Don't forget that hole you have to jump across, toss a damn flare!" He ordered, bracing himself at the edge of the mineshaft. "C'mon, babe…"
Running as fast as she could, Abigail had stuffed the cloak in her backpack she brought down with her and vaulted over the hole when she came to it, the rumbling becoming more dangerous. She quickly yanked on the rope, looking behind her. All Dean could hear was heavy breathing, tears rushing down her cheeks.
"Dean, hurry!" She cried out, seeing a massive WAVE of dirt headed straight for her as he began pulling her up with the rope. Abigail struggled to climb back up, using muscles she didn't know she possessed and neither realized the rope was on the verge of snapping. Just as she was in arm's reach of him, that's when the thing snapped, and she screamed out, only for a strong hand to catch her by the wrist. "DEAN!" Snapping her head up, more tears fell as the dirt began rising quickly beneath her feet, knowing if he couldn't pull her up, she was done for.
Maybe she would die after all.
He had told her, after that freefall stunt of hers, that the rope could break because of the sudden pressure, causing serious friction on that rope against the stone edge. Now – now there was serious friction on top of shit hitting the rope. Dean had seen the strands giving and dropped, leaning over as far as he could without his own self slipping and probably nailing her. Abigail was right there within reach and he didn't think twice about leaning down, grasping her wrist in his hand.
"I got you, Abigail." He said through clenched teeth, seeing the fear in her wide eyes and began pulling her up.
One hand was holding onto whatever he could reach behind him, the other was holding onto her, pulling her up and he could feel muscles in that arm and shoulder protesting violently. When her head cleared the ground, he reached out with his other hand and began hoisting her, moving so he was on his knees and gave one last yank. She must have been scrabbling with her feet because it was like she came launching at him, causing them both to go flying backward. Sheer luck got his legs out from under him, though her sudden weight on him knocked what breath was left from his chest. Eyes wide, he simply stared into her rather dirty face.
"You scared me, doll." He informed her, his tone completely serious and then he was cupping her face in his hands, raising his head to capture her mouth with his.
Through the dirt and tears, along with her rapidly beating heart, Abigail registered Dean kissing her and could feel him trembling from head to toe. He broke it a few seconds later and she started laughing and crying at the same time, not sure what to make of that. Looking over her shoulder at the mound of dirt raising up, it finally stopped, and Abigail looked back down at Dean, seeing his face clear as day due to the headlight on her head.
"I-I told you, I'd be okay…" She stammered, trying like hell to stop shaking and pushed off him, pulling the headlight off her head. That had been…very scary, life-threatening, and downright spooky, but…it was all worth it. Pulling the cloak out of the bag, Abigail felt it in her fingers and held it up to her, not realizing only parts of her body were now seen by a bewildered Dean. "It's beautiful, right?"
"Uh sure, babe… here…" Dean reached out to grab… whatever, fingers feeling the fabric and then he saw it, cocking an eyebrow. "It is beautiful, Abbie." He said thoughtfully, running his fingers along it. "But, here." He dropped it back down and stepped away. "Look down at yourself." She was missing parts. "C'mon, put it away. Let's… let's get the fuck out of here before anything else caves in."
Nodding, Abigail agreed with him and stuffed the cloak back in the bag for safekeeping before swinging it over her shoulders, rising to her still somewhat jelly legs. "Are you okay?" She touched his arm, seeing he had also righted himself and stared into his electric blues, concern flooding hers. "Let's get away from here, find some place to bunker down for a couple of hours, preferably near a lake or somewhere we can clean up." Reaching up, she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and let a few more tears fall down her cheeks, which mixed with the dirt on her face. "You saved me, Dean. Thank you so much." She whispered in his ear and pulled back to take his hand, guiding him away from the now buried mineshaft to their waiting bike.
There wasn't a lake, but there was a river, and he knew of a little grove off the beaten path they could bunker down for a few hours. They were going in the complete opposite direction of Taker and company, so Dean wasn't worried about running into them, though he banked Taker was hauling his cookies as fast as he could. It was the DOV he was worried about. Though… Dean had always managed to evade them before. Once they had reached that grove, Dean cut the engine and dismounted, helping Abigail down and pushed the motorcycle into some bushes, hiding it. He simply stared at her, knowing what she thought, he had saved her. And sure, he had, but if he would have thought ahead, they would have been prepared for them both to go down and…. they both would've died. She was filthy, and he began to laugh. A strange mixture of relief and amusement in his tone and he took Abigail by the hands, dancing in a circle. Abigail couldn't help laughing along with him, moving with him and felt him pull her against him, resting his forehead against hers gently.
"You fucking did it, Abs!" Taker was an idiot.
"Because of you. I never would've been able to do this without you, Dean. You know that, right? If I went down there by myself, I would've died. We're going to save Malcolm for sure now." She caressed his face, which wasn't nearly as dirty as hers and pecked his nose. "I'll never be able to repay you." Extracting herself from his arms, Abigail began peeling her clothes and shoes off, leaving her bra and panties on before jumping into the grove, the water clear until the dirty began washing away from her body. "Grab my bag, will you? There's a plastic bag in there with my shampoo and conditioner." She requested, unraveling her hair before putting the tie on her wrist and dipped her head back, splashing water on her dirt-covered face.
Yeah, get her bag, Dean shook his head at the smarmy thought. He had known since day one that Abigail was a very beautiful woman and she was daring and ballsy, had no problem in doing things the sneaky way if she thought she was right…. the only obstacle was that idiot Taker. Still riding that adrenaline high, Dean got her bag and his own, out of the pack that never ended. It had been a long day, followed by an equally rough so far night. A bath sounded great and he stank like sweat and sour smell that he was associating with fear.
"Here."
Dean made sure she saw him set it down before starting to undress as well, his mind rolling back to that kiss. She hadn't gotten mad, or said never again, which was interesting since she was with Taker. Her mind was also on that kiss and Abigail chalked it up to him being scared and elated she had survived. Adrenaline sometimes made people do crazy things. She hadn't exactly kissed him back and it'd been chaste, not passionate the way Taker kissed her.
There was no point dwelling on it, Dean knew they could only be friends and nothing more than that. They were friends and friends occasionally kissed, right? Abigail washed her hair and began rinsing the soap out, staring up at the still night sky, wondering if Taker was staring at the same stars as hers at that moment. She missed him, it'd been a week and she found herself dreaming about him every single night, being in his arms, his touch and kisses…shutting her eyes, Abigail hoped he made it back to Wonderful unscathed.
By his reckoning, they were five days out from the hospital. They were going faster than usual, and it helped that there had been no signs of the DOV. Taker hoped Abigail was right about Wyatt giving her time to complete her 'mission', and less right about him getting impatient and coming for her. He really hoped she wasn't doing anything… insane, considering who she was with.
Dean took care of his own personal grooming, keeping his back to her to give her privacy. They had the cloak, now it was getting the rest of the way to the DOV and they were going to have discuss just how they were getting in there. Invisibility cloak or not, one wrong sound or being bumped into was going to raise some suspicions.
Once she was cleaned up and dressed in fresh, dry clothes, Abigail watched Dean get the fire going and helped by carrying pieces of wood they found throughout the current location they were in. After the fire raged with life, they spread their sleeping bags on the soft grass and set up shop for a few hours since it was just after midnight. The moon shined down on them with the stars twinkling in the sky. They bunkered down, ate some food, and laid on their respective sleeping bags with Abigail staring into the fire, leaving her hair down for the moment. They were far enough away from the fire to where, if something flew out of it, it wouldn't land on them directly. It was also small enough not to draw attention, which is what they didn't want to do.
So far, they hadn't run into any trouble and only had to sneak around one DOV roadblock in order to gain access to the mineshaft. She figured there would be more checkpoints on the way to the castle and hopefully, Dean could get them through. Getting inside would be a piece of cake, but getting out, not so much. Dean was laying on his side, a map on the ground, using the light from the fire and his small flashlight to study it. He had made a lot of unsanctioned trips outside of Wonderful over the years, but this was definitely a first in trying to get into a place like DOV headquarters.
"So, Abs, what was the route that brought you here, well, to Wonderful?" Since she had probably been dropped off somewhere relatively close, he was betting whichever she had originally come in from, was not the way they wanted to take.
She was half-asleep when he asked her that and popped her head up, stifling a yawn. "Hmm?" Crawling over to him, she looked down at the map and waited for Dean to reiterate his question. "It was a main highway, actually. I don't know why they did that, but…wait, there it is." She pointed at the 39 sign on the map and trailed it all the way up to where she knew the castle was located. "There, that's where we have to go. So where are we now?" When Dean pointed at the spot, she nodded and saw they had a long way to go still, about halfway there. "I'll leave the navigating to you, Dean, because I really don't know the roads very well. I just remember that was the road they took to get to Wonderful and dropped me off several miles before the town in a car. Speaking of cars…we're going to have to get one before getting to the castle or else we're sunk even if we get Malcolm out."
