A/N: Omfg I didn't realize I was still getting so many follows and favorites! I haven't accessed my old email for this site so I just switched it over to my new one when I got in and saw all my notifications. So help me Gods I am seeing this series through to the end. I've just been so busy with life to update I'm so sorry!
Just for all of you loyal and amazing readers here comes a chapter spam as I weep 3
04: Black Impala Grooving.
"Are we there yet?" Zarya whined from the back seat of the Impala. She was slumped just beneath the windows with dark sunglasses concealing her eyes.
"Did you miss your pencil skirt that much?" Dean teased. Sam rolled his eyes.
She smirked. "Joke's on you - I got dress pants."
For the first time in quite some time with the trio in the car, it felt like their dysfunctional normal. After a Guns n' Roses song ended on the radio, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun came on. Dean immediately groaned and reached to shut it off. Suddenly, Zarya had popped up from the backseat and smacked his hand away. Sam laughed as she instead turned the volume up to the max and sang Cyndi Lauper at the top of her lungs. She was sure to keep her head right between the brothers as she yelled the lyrics and eventually they couldn't help but join in. Once they were about five minutes from the police station they were off to they stopped at a gas station to change.
Dean tried coming up with a 'were-pyre' theory after seeing the victim's body. Zarya punched his arm with as little strength as she could to still seem human. "They're just called 'hybrids' you twit. Or have you forgotten about Klaus Mikaelson?"
The three got themselves a motel room for the night but it wasn't long before Zarya and Dean were bored to tears with researching. Zarya was hanging upside down on one of the beds as she looked over at the brothers. Sam was intently scrolling through the internet and book pages while Dean was half asleep in a chair with an empty beer. Eventually she sighed and rolled off the bed to her feet.
"I'm gonna go find us something for dinner. Any ideas?"
"Mm, Chinese!" Dean announced tiredly with his eyes still closed. They only opened when he heard his car keys jingle off the table. "Whoa, whoa, where the hell are you going with those?"
Zarya blinked a couple of times. "Have you seen this backwoods town? I'm not walking over five miles just for dinner."
"Well you're not driving Baby. Gimme the keys."
"You were just about passed out from boredom and beer. You're not driving. I know how to drive an old car, you know. I have a freakin' Cadillac deVille."
Before Dean could argue again, Sam rolled his eyes and cut him off. "Just go with her if you're so concerned, Dean. Let the woman drive. She does have a valid license."
Dean turned from his brother back to the ravenette to find her already out the door. His eyes widened as he scrambled off the chair. "Zare! Zare wait up!"
Sam chuckled once his brother was out the door. Maybe things were finally going to settle down again.
The first half of the ride was silent. Both kept their eyes firmly on the road ahead. Zarya had both hands on the wheel somewhere around 11 and 5. Should she speak first? Would he? Would they both just ignore it and pretend it all never happened? Strangely enough, Zarya felt the courage to be the one to say something.
"I'm sorry," she spoke suddenly. Dean looked over immediately but she never removed her eyes from the road. "I… I'm not very good with any sort of confrontation unless it's just an all out fight. I can't… I can't give myself to someone emotionally because I'm just not ready to. To be honest, I've only ever done it once. And it was the biggest regret of my fucking life. I like being solitary, honestly. I like knowing that if anything ever goes wrong that it doesn't matter."
"But it does matter," Dean told her. "It's fine that you don't want to be with someone, I promise it really is, Zare. I totally get it and I'm not gonna hold it against you. But that doesn't mean your life doesn't matter to someone. Your life matters to plenty of people. Me, Sammy, Jody, Katia, Cas, Nova; Christ, Zare, you're important to an angel and a vampire who never cared about a damn thing. You've brought together this whole, dysfunctional, immortal family. So stop fighting like it's your last and start fighting like you've got something worth fighting for."
As she came up to a red light she finally looked to him with a gentle smile. Maybe things would be 'okay' again. They arrived at the Chinese restaurant and ordered their food for take out making jokes the whole time. Zarya almost got a compliment on her driving since she hadn't killed them, hit anything, or gave Dean anxiety. With their hands on the handles to the Impala's doors, however, a couple of strangers approached them. One behind Dean and one behind Zarya.
"Zarya Vasile?"
The ravenette kept her eyes on Dean's and countenance firm. "No, you must be mistaken." She replied calmly to the man behind her. "My name is Clarke Deighton."
"The Deightons are the saps who took in the monster child Zarya Vasile."
"You think there's only one Deighton family in the whole world?" Dean snapped. "Keep moving. You don't want any trouble from us."
Instantly, both men reached for the pair. With speed faster than them, Dean and Zarya had already whipped out their guns and shot them down. As their bodies hit the pavement, several cars revved suddenly with their lights shining on them. "Get in the car!" Zarya shouted at the elder Winchester.
They both scrambled in and locked the doors. Dean tried to make her switch seats quick but she ignored him and started up the car. A gunshot flew just past the Impala. "You might want that seatbelt for the first time in your life, Dean," she warned him as she slammed down on the gas. With precision that actually surprised Dean, she shifted each time she needed to and even drifted a couple of turns. Three cars raced behind them taking shots and narrowly missing. The speedometer of the Impala rose steadily while Zarya maintained the distance between them.
"Not a good time, Sam!" Dean yelled into his phone when it rang.
"So then you two found out about the bounty put on Clarke's head?"
"Bounty?!" The pair shouted.
"Remiel actually put a hit out on you, Clarke. Every monster and mercenary known to man wants to drag you to her and slaughter whoever tries to protect you. Cas thinks there's even angels who might come for you."
"Well that's just fucking fantastic. How the fuck did she manage to make me public enemy number one?! What the fuck does she get out of this?"
"Less effort to hunt you down herself," Dean offered. "Runa's body is dying faster everyday and you're not gonna say 'yes' so she's putting the heat on you. It's a fucking game just to harass you."
Zarya flicked her tongue across her teeth, careful not to show her little fangs. "Fine, then."
"Clarke, what does that mean?"
Her eyes flicked to the rearview mirror and the three cars gaining on her down the highway. She punched the gas and the clutch and zoomed between traffic with ease. Dean had dropped his phone on the seat of the car to hold onto anything stable. She reached down suddenly, still keeping astoundingly straight as she sped down the road, and pulled her talisman from the hidden pocket in her boot.
"Ah, come on," Dean half groaned. "You too?!"
"You might find that it comes in handy from time to time, Dean." Muttering various things in the Verbis Diablo, her eyes flashed red too quickly for Dean to notice. The wind began to pick up all around until it was borderline violent. Some cars had to actually pull over because they couldn't handle it. One of the three chasing them had been blown off the side into a ravine. As her voice got louder, the wind became stronger. A tree went crashing down which stopped a second assailant but the last one was able to whip under just in time.
"I guess my element is air," Zarya called over the loud engines and violent winds. Somehow she was able to keep the car stable and speedy enough.
The final car came speeding up nearly to her side. She cocked her gun with one hand and aimed it out the window at the car's tires. One of their bullets shot out the back window. Up ahead Zarya finally saw her way out. It was a risky idea given how fast the car was going with the winds pushing it along, but she had to attempt it. As the car finally made it alongside Baby, Zarya swiftly drifted right onto an exit and fired behind four times. One bullet actually popped a tire and sent the car skidding into a guard rail. As the Impala drifted at such a high velocity Dean began to panic, just picturing the car flipping over. Zarya surprised him by making a perfect drift on all four tires. She swiftly zoomed off the exit and down a back road.
"Woo!" Zarya exclaimed as she slapped the wheel. "You know, I have honestly always wanted to do that." She laughed. "Granted, the bounty on my head isn't exactly what I pictured with it but," she shrugged.
"Are you insane?!" Dean yelled. "Pull over right now. You are done driving Baby. You've abused her."
"Abused her?! Excuse you, I just saved both our asses from supernatural fucking mercenaries. You wouldn't have been able to do that drift."
"Where the fuck did you even learn how to drift?"
"Uh, New England? Duh? It's okay, I used to make Nick shit bricks too." She smiled fondly at the memories. "One time I hit black ice in this beaten down little Honda Civic we had while we were on the highway of all fucking places and drifted us safely - albeit in the wrong direction - through one of those cop turn-arounds and onto the other side of the highway."
"You're a fucking maniac, Zare. And you're done driving my fucking car."
"Ah, come on; I'll let you blow donuts in my Cadillac!" She laughed.
The look on his face made her begrudgingly pull the Impala over and trade places. She stuck her tongue out at him as they walked around the car.
"Somehow the daughter of Dominic Toretto got us about three hours away from you," Dean explained over the phone to his brother. "And thanks to the high speed chase I have to do some quick maintenance before Baby's tranny explodes."
Zarya grinned over at him without showing her teeth.
"You guys need to stay low until Katia and I can get this bounty down," Sam replied. "Who's to say how many more are in the area and ready for a fight?"
"We'll be alright as long as you two can get rid of that damn bounty."
The pair drove for a while to make sure no one was on their tail before getting what Dean needed for the car and something to eat. It would be far too easy to be found if they got a motel so after they ate they parked somewhere secluded in the dark for at least a nap. Zarya laid outstretched across the back while Dean laid across the front.
"What's your biggest regret?" Zarya asked suddenly. Her voice was soft yet distant.
Dean was silent, not particularly wanting to answer her random question. "What's yours?"
She laughed a little as she rolled her eyes. "Do you really want to be a child right now?"
After a moment, Dean sighed. "Tracking you when I came back as a demon. If I hadn't done that then… then the Mark never would have mirrored onto you, I'd like to think we wouldn't be the way we are right now, and that son of a bitch never would have…" He trailed off as his fists clenched and jaw set tightly.
"He was going to find me either way, Dean," she told him gently.
They shared the silence for a couple of minutes before Dean spoke again. "So what about you then? What's your biggest regret?"
Zarya's greener-than-blue eyes stared emptily at the roof of the Impala. "I would have taken the night off," she admitted.
"What do you mean?"
"The night that Nick went missing… the night Lucifer took him…" Her voice had begun to crack and waver. "Nick asked me to take the night off. Just one night. He was feeling particularly depressed. I promised him it was just going to be a quick shift; I was out at nine. Just a few hours, and he could come have dinner at the diner. But he never came. Then he never showed to pick me up. If I had just stayed home… taken one fucking night off…"
Dean's heart ached each time her voice cracked. "You couldn't have done anything," he tried to tell her.
"Sure I could have. I would have been there with him. I would have had his focus. I would have had him grounded to reality. Lucifer would have said who he was and Nick would have laughed. He would have woken me up so we could laugh together and get wasted because it was just unbelievable. Instead, I left him vulnerable. I left him with the belief that he couldn't protect me. I left him to die."
"I shot him in the head, Zare." Dean's voice was low and gruff with his own self-hatred. "I only cared about the chance of killing the devil. I didn't even stop to think that there was still a human soul inside. He didn't have to actually die."
And that was Dean's other biggest regret. If he hadn't been so reckless and Nick still lived, maybe Zarya could have had a chance at a normal life. Passed the supernatural onto a future descendant.
A single, silent, red tear escaped Zarya's eye. "What do you think we would be like if the bad things never happened to us? If Azazel wasn't trying to get Sam, your mom got to live, all of it. Where would I be if Nick never said 'yes'? Or… or if Sarah never died…?"
"It was Nick, wasn't it?" Dean asked suddenly. Once it started, there was no putting it back in his mouth. "The person you loved who broke your heart forever."
Though he couldn't see her, she nodded and let another tear fall. "He was always my hero. Always keeping me on the best path for myself. He taught me how to stand up for myself. He treated me like I was the best thing on this Earth. He made me feel like I truly belonged and deserved to live. As teenagers we agreed to lose our virginity to each other so we would never have to regret it or be awkward with someone else. He always took care of me, showed me kindness, and loved me. Just… not the way I loved him… I've never been able to not compare another man to him. I knew no one would live up to those expectations; Nick Rowell was one of a kind to me. I couldn't feel for anyone the way I felt for him…"
I'll bet Lucifer knew that, he thought bitterly. That bastard knows her every possible weakness and how to capture her focus just like Nick used to…
In an attempt to lighten the mood, but also satisfy his own curiosity, he tried to playfully ask, "So… how do any of us compare to Saint Nicholas Rowell?"
She finally wiped the tears away with a mournful smile. "That's actually why I've always been so drawn to - what do you call yourselves again? Team Free Will?" She snickered. "All three of you have your own qualities that make me feel like I'm at home with Nick. Cas reminds me of the way Nick's face would scrunch up when I was being annoying and always coming when called no matter the situation. Sam reminds me of what a big teddy bear Nick was. They always try to say the right thing to maintain peace. But you, Dean…" She trailed off teasingly.
"Oh yeah? What about me?"
"When I got scared as a kid, Nick would always put me behind him and let me hold onto his shirt for dear life. He always led me through the dark on my own two feet. He had the biggest hopes for me and helped me achieve whatever I put my mind to." She sat up and leaned on the top of Dean's seat to look down at him. "That's how you remind me of Nick."
Dean smiled up at her. "You know how they say a guy usually likes women who remind him of his mom? Don't worry, it's actually the highest compliment." They shared a laugh. "Maybe it's because your mom was apparently her best friend, or maybe it's chance but you've been exactly what Sam and I have needed all these years. You're family, Zare. And a wise man once said-"
She smiled with a heartfelt sorrow as she spoke with him, "Family don't end with blood."