Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize, not Dean (sigh), Sam, or that gorgeous car.
Rating: Not sure yet, but I'm going with K+ for now. May be upped to T in later chapters.
Reviews: Pretty please. I would love any comments you have, especially suggestions for where to go with the story. Outside impute makes everything better. Also, if you have any ideas for a title, let me know.
I'm glad I talked Dean into this. He's been too brooding lately. He needs to lighten up before his head explodes. Besides, she seems like a nice girl. And a nice girl who we don't have to lie to. That's always cool because I'm really getting sick of all the lying. I have a good feeling about her.
I walk back over to Dana, smiling at her. She smiles back, gratefully and mouths the word "thanks."
"Sam." Dean says abruptly, "Let's get the hell out of here. We'll drive to Fort Tucker in the morning."
Dana quickly stands up, "Hey, where are you guys staying? I haven't found a place yet."
"There's a motel up the road." I tell her, "You want to follow us?"
Dean barely stifles a groan, making me shoot a glare back at him. He could at least be nice. I don't get him. He's either sweet-talking girls into sleeping with him or being a complete jerk. He can't just be civil. He's probably decided to try and tick her off to try and get rid of her. I hate that Dean always tries to do that. He always pushes everybody away and then complains that he doesn't have anybody but Dad and me. He doesn't see that he, not anything supernatural, is at least partly responsible for that.
"Sure." she agrees, ignoring Dean's rudeness.
"Alright, let's go." I grab my laptop and head for the door. I decide to try and excuse my brother, "Dean's got your drink."
"No, I…" she protests.
"Forget it." Dean says stiffly, marching over to the bar.
"Thanks." she says quietly, staring after him.
I feel kind of bad for her. She's obviously crushing on Dean and he's not exactly the relationship type. She's setting herself up for some heartbreak, but I don't feel like there's really anything I can do about it. I've seen it before in the towns we pass through. Dean always loves them and leaves them. He claims that he can't help it, that it comes with the territory, but I wonder sometimes if that's just an excuse. I wonder sometimes if he does it because he's really scared, scared to let anyone else get close to him, scared that they'll hurt him. And sometimes, when I think that this might be the case, I can't blame him because I'm afraid to get hurt again myself. After what happened to Mom, to Jessica…
"So, Dana…" I begin, trying to distract her and myself.
"It's not Dana." she interrupts.
"What?" I ask, confused.
"That's not my real name. I lied. Wasn't sure if I could trust you guys. Thought maybe you were trying to beat me to my story. My name's Lindy." she confesses.
I shake my head. She can be as bad as Dean when it comes to being paranoid, at least. I decide to shrug it off and keep things cool despite the fact that it bothers me that she lied about her name. Could she have lied about other things, as well? Well, even if she has, I still feel like she's a good person.
"Why Dana?" I ask.
She looks a little embarrassed, "Like Dana Scully."
I laugh. I have to admit, I like how she thinks.
"So, let me ask you this, what kind of music do you listen to?" I venture.
She shrugs again, "I'll listen to pretty much anything."
"Cool. Can I ride with you?" I ask. I love my brother, but sometimes you just can't pass up an opportunity like this to get away from him for a bit.
"Sure. That way you can tell me where to go."
Dean joins us and we head out the door. Rather than follow him as he heads for his precious Impala, I follow Lindy. Dean stops and looks back at me, confused.
"Dude, where are you going? Car's this way." he says, gesturing.
"I'm going to ride with Lindy." I tell him.
"Lindy?" Dean asks, looking at her now, suspicion back again.
"My real name." she admits sheepishly.
"Right." Dean says quickly like people using fake names doesn't even faze him anymore. And maybe it doesn't, "Just try to keep up, okay?"
With that he turns and heads off for his car. I stare at his back as he walks away, wondering if his quick dismissal means more than just what he actually said. I wonder, and not for the first time, what's going on inside my brother's head. Surprisingly, I hear something like a growl come out of the girl next to me and I turn to her to see her staring after my brother's retreating form, as well.
"Try to keep up? I'll show him keeping up." she mutters before spinning around and stomping off in the opposite direction.
I quickly hurry after her towards an indiscrete, little car in the corner of the lot. It's not much to look at compared to the Impala, but I don't really care a whole lot about cars anyway. Dean was always the one concerned with having the coolest car possible. Besides, she'll let me listen to something besides classic rock, which will be a nice change of pace.
"Hop in." she says as she unlocks the door and slides in the driver side.
I walk around to the passenger side as she reaches across and unlocks my door. She quickly tosses various articles into the back where a haphazard pile of possessions is already occupying most of the space to make room for me before I sit down. I carefully position my feet around the stuff still lying on the floor on my side as I make myself comfortable. I'm relieved to find a CD holder on the floor by my feet instead of a box of cassette tapes.
"Do you mind?" I ask as I reach down and pick it up.
"No, go ahead." she says, absently waving a hand in my direction.
She has both hands wrapped tightly around the wheel and is staring straight ahead. I look at her worriedly, wondering what's going through her mind when suddenly she turns the car on and throws it into reverse. The tires spin a little, kicking up tons of gravel before she pushes it into drive and hauls ass towards the main road.
"What the hell?" I exclaim as I quickly buckle my seatbelt, "What are you doing?"
"Proving to your brother that I'm not who he thinks I am." she says, curtly.
The Impala's right in front of us, just finishing pulling out onto the road. She barely slows as she swings the car around after it to follow him. We almost don't make the turn and I let the CD holder fly out of my lap, instead deciding to grab on to the car with both hands.
"Are you nuts?" I yell.
"Maybe." she allows as she swings into the oncoming traffic lane to speed past Dean.
I glance out my window, my eyes wide in panic as we pull up even with the Impala. I catch Dean's gaze for a second and we silently share a "what the hell is up with this crazy chick" moment, before she slams on the gas and cuts him off. I look over at her to see she has a satisfied smile on her face. I wonder what I've gotten us into with this lunatic, good feeling or no good feeling.
"So, how much further is this motel?" she asks casually.
I slowly calm down seeing as the high speed turns and swerving across lanes of traffic is apparently over. Slowly, I release my death grip on the car and take a deep breath.
"What the hell was that?" I ask as calmly as I can.
"I told you." she says, looking at me as if I'm a little slow, "I need to prove to Dean that I'm not some stupid girl who can't take care of herself. I need to show him that I belong here as much as you two do. And since I can't seem get any words out around him…"
"You thought you'd nearly kill us in the car?" I finish for her.
"Don't overreact, Sam. There weren't even any other cars on the road." she chides me.
I don't know what to say to that. My mouth just hangs open as I stare at her incredulously. She is a completely different girl from when she was around Dean. And apparently when she's not embarrassed, she's crazy. In fact, when Dean's not around she acts like the kind of girl Dean would really like. Weird.
"Is that the motel?" she asks, gesturing towards a rapidly approaching complex with a neon sign out front.
"Yeah." I nod.
She slows down and turns into the motel parking lot at a reasonable speed, almost as if she hadn't been driving like Jason Statham a moment before. We pull into a spot and wait for Dean who pulls in next to us a few moments later. Before getting out of the car, I turn to her and say, "Could you warn me the next time you're going to do that?"
"Sure thing, Sam." she says, offhand as she climbs out and shuts the door.
I shake my head at myself before following suit. Her casual response to me just now was so like my brother it's creepy. I'm going to have to talk to Dean about this. I still like the girl, I think, since my instincts about people haven't been wrong much before, but she's kind of... Huh, I'm not sure. Anyhow, tomorrow should be interesting.
