Title: Hunter's Crossing
Author: Signs Of Sun a.k.a. Raven Highway
Type: Series. Dean, Sam, angst, the supernatural, and a force that has become intertwined with fabric their lives.
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Hunter's Crossing
Chapter 1
Sapphire. The sky had suddenly been saturated, dyed, the intense gorgeous color. The Impala cresting the steep hill had revealed this sky to Dean's eyes. The distinct hue told of the passing of a perfect summer day into a long cool night. The last tangerine rays of the sun played amongst the tree tops off on the horizon, but the dome of the world displayed outside the windshield stretched out in a cool cloudless blue, over miles of empty tree lined roads and acres of land sprinkled with nice two story homes. The perfect seventy five degree June day had faded into a more tepid evening, one that sparked a piece of Dean's mind to wish he was in the backyard of the house he didn't own, cooking steaks on the grill he had never bought, and kicking back with a beer on the porch he didn't have. The smell of a barbeque wafting into the car never failed to trigger that thought inside his head. It was always fleeting though, something that departed as soon as his defenses recognized the face of the enemy, pointless and unrealistic thoughts. The sadness it inflicted on him only ever lasted a breath and there were things he valued more deeply and they made his heart and mind healed quickly. Because of those more precious things, he could have cared less about the nonexistent house and the grill and the beer on the porch.
The significant pressure of Dean's foot down on the gas pedal and the state of both front windows rolled all the way down to meet the door frames had flooded the car with a refreshing breeze. Although with the crossing of the sunlight beneath the horizon the temperature inside the Impala was beginning to teeter towards chilly. The crisp sensation sinking into the skin of Dean's face and bare forearms instinctively turned his gaze to the passenger side of the car. His brother was slumped there against the door, oblivious to the world. The wind tousled the longer strands of hair on the right side of his head, making them even more wild than those on the left already were completely undisturbed. Dean wrote a mental memo to deliver his younger brother to a good barber, preferably sooner than later. Glancing back to the blacktop in front of the bumper he found himself rethinking that plan though. Somehow that messy mop of dark hair suited his brother. It was unpredictable, almost artistic or expressive, and certainly unique. Dean allowed a faint smile to seep to the surface of his features. He snuck a few more brief peeks back at the sleeping form. The image of that wild hair mixed with the childlike expression on Sammy's relaxed face sealed the change of heart. He wouldn't kidnap his brother and deliver him to a clipper happy barber, Sam wouldn't be Sammy without that head of hair.
The accelerated motion of the Impala rocked Sam's head and right shoulder faintly up against and then slightly away from the doorframe they rested against. Then once again lulled them back. It was not surprising to Dean that his brother, inside his slumber, had not adjusted his position to avoid the motion. He knew the predictable pace of it was strangely comforting, the car in motion had always felt like one of the only safe places left for them, if safe was even a concept that was possible. The steady subtle motion was recognizable even in the haze of sleep. More than likely it was that constant that provided the chance to let their minds go and sleep deeper than they ever did in any hotel room. If that motion was present then you knew you were safely inside the Impala, en route to the next town on the map. Dean prayed that it would never be taken away, the Impala was more than a beautiful classic car or even a gift from his father. It was a beloved trusted haven from so many things; it was the freedom of the open road, it was an escape that had never failed to rescue him, it was a place flooded with the better memories of his life. It held almost everything precious to him, both physical and intangible.
The slight shifting of Sam's head and upper body was accompanied by a soft waking moan. Dean reacted quickly by reaching for the volume control on the radio and turning it lower, but it was too late. Sam's eyelids fluttered and a few beats later Dean's glance away from the road was met with his brother's eyes smiling back at him.
"Mornin'," Sam sloppily offered.
"Evenin'," Dean replied, bringing his attention to his driving.
"Oh," Sam responded in a dishevel groggy tone.
"Sleep much?" Dean inquired, drenching the entire depth of his tone in sarcasm. Dean delivered the remark without looking over to the passenger seat. It automatically thrust Sam into being wide awake and ready to toss back whatever big brother threw his way.
"Hey! I wasn't the one sawing down a forest last night," Sam instantly passed back.
"I don't snore."
"Yes, you do."
"Dad, never once complained about me snoring. I don't snore." Sam let out a laugh at this, making certain that its volume was easily audible to his brother, then responded.
"He didn't complain because he was busy working his way through a forest of his own, Dean." For a heartbeat Dean's eyes are diverted out the driver's side window as if he had purpose for looking there, but the pouting goes undisguised. Sam recognized it for what it was and licked his lips, gearing up for some words he hadn't organized yet, but Dean's voice came first.
"At least I don't need a glass of warm milk before going nightie nightie-which is disgusting by the way."
"Once, Dean. Once!"
"Even once it's disgusting," Dean stated firmly, faking a shudder at the mere thought.
"Where'd you pull that one from anyways? Some book?" he added.
Sam turned his head away and stared silently out the passenger side window. He could feel Dean glance away from the highway and over at the back of his head, but Sam didn't offer a response. Dean let the verbal nothingness linger on for a handful of seconds as he directed his gaze out over the steering wheel.
"Sam?" he finally insisted, expecting a thorough dose of comeback, but it failed to be supplied. Dean's eyes drifted again from the road and over to the shaggy hair on the back of Sam's head. His eyes remained there for a beat before a very faint "oh" slipped out between Dean's lips as the answer awakened inside his mind. Dean shifted his body more dramatically, uncomfortably, this time and forced out his realization into the air between them.
"Jess."
"Yeah," Sam whispered in reply. His body rapidly tensed up, each muscle from his hands along up his shoulders all the way to his jaw became gripped into tightness. The silence proving too taunt to suffer through Dean resorted to clearing his throat, while preparing the words he was about to speak.
"Look, Sammy, I'm sorry. I…I didn't realize."
"It's okay. I'll forgive you on one condition," Sam offered, twisting left in his seat to face his brother.
"Oh yeah right? How stupid do you think I am? I'm not going to fall for that!" Dean laughed out, grateful for the opening to relieve the pressure building inside his heart, and looked to the passenger side of the car. Instantaneously Sam's expression molded into one of injury, a look so disappointed that Dean had never once been able to react any other way to it, but how he did this time.
"Alright…okay… what?" he conceded softly.
"Admit that you snore."
"I don't snore Sam," came the reply, annoyance unhidden in the faint growl of his voice.
"Then I don't forgive you," Sam mumbled out, roughly crossing my arms over his chest, to add effect.
"What are you two? Grow up Sam."
"You just don't want to admit it."
"Alright fine. If it'll make you happy. I might have snored once. Two times tops. But filling out all those fraudulent credit card apps, husslin' pool, and driving your sorry ass all over creation earns me the right to snore now and again."
"What?" Sam laughed out. There was a style to the reply that suggested that the statement was absurd in some many degrees they couldn't be counted.
"It made sense inside my head," Dean whispered reluctantly.
"Yeah in there I'm sure just about anything could make sense," Sam responded, grinning at him smugly.
"Bitch!"
"Jerk!" was the instinctive snap back. A little half laugh escaped Sam at the routineness of the exchange and Dean let his gaze wander out the driver's side to scan the landscape along the road. The deep sapphire hue of the sky was melting away into a near navy, a shade that extinguished some of the lightness that had touched his heart driving over the miles into that sapphire dome. The hard dark navy meant the arrival of nightfall, the long stretch of darkness before the next dawn that Dean sensed one day he would never come out the other side of. There would be a dawn he would never see. He would be vanished before the first orange rays of the sun's return crept over the horizon, dousing the world in light. There was no doubt in his mind that he would take his last breath inside the depths of night's blackness. He didn't know how he knew this, and didn't even try to, he simply knew it as fact. Time was wasted dissecting facts. He would cling fiercely to life as long as he could but when the moment came it would be somewhere out there in the dark. Everyone passed eventually, but Dean's time would most certainly in the night.
"So how long was I asleep anyway?" Sam's voice broke in through Dean's mental murkiness.
"Let's put it this way. We're in a different state now."
"We are? Which one?"
"Vermont."
"Wait a minute I thought we were headed for Pennsylvania."
"We were. Now we're not. If you didn't need so damn much beauty sleep, unlike myself of course, you would have known that."
"Shut up!" Sam simply stated then continued on
"Where are we headed?" he added.
"Once again I take Vermont for $200, Sammy."
"No, Dean, where specifically?"
"Cranky, cranky. Hunter's Crossing."
"Never heard of it."
"Tell me about it. It took me ten minutes to find on the map. They should change the name to Really Freakin' Hard To Find."
"Thank goodness for small favors," Sam stated under his breath. Dean hadn't quite caught all of the words, but had glanced over just in time to catch the smirk come and go on his brother's face.
"What?" he griped insistently.
"I said thank goodness you're not in charge of naming towns. Because, well, I gotta tell ya bro you'd suck at it."
"Hey! My ideas for towns would be very cool!"
"Oh yeah? Like what?" Sam replied, challenge and amusement in his voice. A long span of seconds strung together while the only voice inside the Impala was the one emanating from the speakers.
"Hells Bells. Back In Black," Dean finally suggested with a near wince on his face. Upon Sam posing the question any good names he might have thought of had instantly hightailed it into hiding. Music had saved him on numerous occasions in the past so it had been worth a shot, but all it drew from Sam was laughter.
"Hey! Those are perfectly good names! Nothin' wrong with 'em."
"AC/DC, Dean? Hell Bells? Now what state would that be in…Hells Bells, Minnesota…or should it be Hells Bells, Ohio?"
"I'm going to hurt you. I'm going to pull this car over and kick your ass."
"No you're not."
"I so am."
"Is that your perverse idea of bonding?" Sam inquired. The laughter had faded away and his expression was now one of utter lack of understanding. Dean recognized the taunt jaw and scrunched up forehead right away.
"Whatever, dude."
"You're weird. Very very weird," Sam offered, staring at his brother's profile intently, almost looking as if he thought if concentrated hard enough or waited long enough the mystery of Dean would unravel somehow right before his eyes.
"I know I'm good looking, but awestruck jealousy really doesn't work for you," Dean finally attempted a self rescue with. The feeling of being under a microscope was one he loathed.
"Funny," his brother replied and shifted his gaze out to the horizon. Stretching out the last of the kinks from his body Sam shifted up straighter in the seat then scooped the map from the floor between his feet.
"So what's in Hunter's Crossing?"
"Oh Sammy, my boy, I have a surprise for you."
"A surprise?" the reply was mumbled, heavy with confusion.
"Okay, maybe surprise isn't exactly the right word, but it's definitely unexpected."
"I think I liked it better when it was a surprise. I sounded more like a good thing. Unexpected…makes it sound…well…not good."
"Trust me little bro."
"Dean Winchester's idea of the unexpected. That's right up there with Dean Winchester's idea of bonding." The words that left a smirk on Sam's face earned a lethal glare from his brother. Dean opened his mouth and was about to shoot back a sharp dagger of a comment, but the muffled ringing of the cell phone in Dean's shirt pocket halted the words from being spoken. The glare lingered for a beat before Dean looked back out through the windshield, pulling the phone out and flipping it open.
"Hello!" he stated rather formally, even though he had glanced at the caller id display.
"Yes," he continued after a few beats of listening. Then another quick breath of silence followed by another short reply.
"Sorta of. Started to, but…..yeah about right…...feel free, he doesn't really listen to me," Dean said before holding out the cell in Sam's direction. Instead of reaching for the phone Sam squinted at his brother a bit bewildered.
"Take it," Dean instructed, shoving the phone into Sam's right hand. Sam's reacted just by staring timidly at it grasped inside his hand.
"The unexpected," Dean offered and nodded his head in the direction of the cell. Finally Sam placed the phone to his ear.
"Hello."
"I hear you're not listening to your brother," John Winchester's voice answered back.
"No sir…well…okay maybe a little."
"Well maybe if you had he would have been able to tell you to expect me in Hunter's Crossing in two days."
"You're coming…here?"
"Yes, son, the three of us have a very important job to do there."
To Be Continued…