A/N: One more chapter, I think. Song is "All Right Now" by Free.
Chapter Thirteen: All Right Now
There
she stood in the street
Smiling from her head to her feet
I
said "Hey, what is this"
Now baby, maybe she's in need
of a kiss
I said " Hey, what's your name baby"
maybe
we can see things the same
Now don't you wait or hesitate
Let's
move before they raise the parking rate
All right now baby,
it's all right now
All right now baby, it's all right now
Ty reentered Bobby's house, a hint of a smile softening her features. Her relationship with Dean was in no way fixed, but at least now she had a better idea of how he really felt. And now that she knew that, it was obvious to her that he hadn't really meant a lot of the things he'd said to her and that he actually did care about her. For the moment, that was more than enough.
As Ty walked back into the house, her ears almost instantly picked up on the sound of male voices. Seeking Sam and Bobby, she followed them, but before she'd gone far, she heard a third voice. Stunned, Ty hesitated a moment before racing around the corner and into the living room.
"Alex?" she asked in surprise, nearly skidding to a stop in the entryway.
The young hunter looked over at her, meeting her gaze. He smiled almost shyly at her and Ty almost blushed in response, thinking about the impression that she must have made on him while she was possessed.
"When did you get here?" Ty asked, looking away for a moment to hide her embarrassment. She hadn't gotten to know Alex too well, only what she'd gleaned when the demon hadn't kept her in the dark, but she liked him and she felt strangely connected to him by their shared link to the demon.
"Just now. I figured you guys might be here."
"I didn't know you knew Bobby." Sam said, not hiding his surprise at seeing the younger hunter either.
Alex rolled his eyes, "Everyone knows Bobby."
"I knew Alex's parents." Bobby explained, "Haven't seen you in a long time, though, son. How are you?"
"I'm…okay." Alex answered slowly, obviously considering his reply.
"What can I do for you?" Bobby continued.
"Actually, I came to talk to Ty."
Ty's eyes widened in surprise and her mind raced with the things that Alex might want to say to her as three sets of eyes turned towards her.
"Me?" she asked, hoping that maybe she'd heard wrong.
"Yeah." Alex confirmed, rising from his seat. He didn't move towards her, reading the hesitancy in her eyes, but instead added, "Please?"
Ty took a moment to answer. She could only imagine how much Alex must resent her and that was assuming that he didn't outright hate her. Even though someone else had been manning the controls, for all intents and purposes, she'd tortured him recently. And it was because of her that Alex would continue to be tormented by the unavenged shades of his parents that certainly must haunt his thoughts. Ty would like to shrug off the guilt that she felt, blame the demon and move on, but she couldn't. The vague memories she'd gleaned of his parents forced her to feel empathetic towards him, made her want to take whatever Alex threw at her if only it might bring him some comfort. She felt like she owed him that much.
"Yeah, sure." she finally replied, gesturing back the way she'd come in, assuming that Alex would prefer to step outside and have a private conversation.
Alex nodded and moved past her. Sam caught Ty's eye before she turned to follow. His eyes questioned her, asking if she was okay, if she needed him. Ty smiled her gratitude at Sam for the offer, but shook her head. This was something she had to do herself.
When Ty exited the back door for the second time, she was met by Alex's dark gaze. His expression seemed unguarded to her, but his eyes were sorrowful and not angry like she'd expected.
"This is…uh…kind of…" Alex began, shifting uncomfortably and transferring his gaze to his shoes, "I wanted to thank you."
Ty almost stumbled backwards. Her shock at that statement almost overwhelmed her sense of balance. As it was, she had to blink and shake herself out of her stupor to reply and that was only after some moments of silence had passed.
"What?" she coughed out, "Thank me?"
"Yeah." Alex nodded, continuing to avoid her gaze, "For telling me. About my parents."
"Alex, I…" Ty began quickly, reaching out almost instinctively. She caught herself and took a moment to really consider her words, "You don't owe me anything. I should be thanking you. I know what it cost you and you had no reason to stick your neck out for me. I mean, you don't even really know me."
Alex finally looked up. Ty briefly caught some turmoil in his expression before he repressed it. Instead, he offered her a hopeful smile and held out his hand.
"You're right. We haven't really met. I'm Alex."
Ty took his hand and shook it. This wasn't over for Alex, she knew. Whatever the demon was talking about when she'd said that Alex was disobeying his parents' wishes by hunting, she could tell that he wasn't about to stop. Not until he tracked that demon down again and ended it. Ty made a silent vow to help him do it.
"I'm Ty." she replied, "Nice to meet you, Alex."
"You too, Ty." Alex echoed. His eyes picked up a bit of a mischievous glint, "Hey, did you really hunt a chupacabra with a bow and arrow like they say?"
Ty sighed and cast her gaze heavenward. Would she never live those months of foolhardy hunting down? She turned to head back inside without replying. Alex followed at her heels.
"What about the zombies? That true?"
"Drop it, Alex." Ty muttered, but without any real anger behind her words.
Alex just grinned wider, sliding past her to walk backwards before her back to the living room, "Have you ever fired two guns whilst jumping through the air?"
"Alex!" Ty protested, but smiled despite herself at the reference to Hot Fuzz and at this picture of Alex as he probably was when a demon wasn't tormenting him with the memory of his murdered parents.
"How about one gun?" Alex persisted, undaunted.
"Well, look what the cat dragged in."
Alex turned to find that Dean had joined Sam and Bobby. He paused, meeting Dean's gaze as the two men sized each other up.
"I hope I'm the cat in this scenario." Ty commented, moving past Alex. Dean opened his mouth to answer, but Ty quickly cut him off, "No, don't say whatever you're about to say."
Dean raised an eyebrow at that, then shrugged, silently admitting that she'd read him correctly. He then turned and grabbed a bag that he tossed to Alex.
"You left some stuff at the hotel."
Alex looked at the bag in his hands, eyebrows raised, "Thanks."
Dean brushed the comment off, "Eh, figured we'd run into you again sooner or later. Saw your truck out front…" Dean trailed off for a moment before he cleared his throat and started again, "Look, sorry about before. I…uh…"
"It's cool." Alex interrupted him mercifully. He smiled, "You Winchesters are alright. I mean, you've got some of the worst luck on the planet and you can be kind of a dick, Dean, but you're alright."
Dean considered that, then nodded in agreement, tacking on a grin that seemed to say that you had to love him anyways. Ty rolled her eyes.
"Hate to break up this male bonding, but…" she moved forward and grabbed Dean by the shirt, pulling him after her towards the front door.
Dean smirked at Sam, Alex and Bobby as he followed. Alex shook his head as the door closed after them.
"What does a girl like that see in him?" he mused.
"What do any of 'em see in guys like us?" Bobby shrugged, "Just hope that stubborn idiot doesn't screw it up."
Sam nodded in agreement before steering the conversation back to what he'd been asking Bobby before Alex arrived.
Ty released her hold on Dean's shirt as they exited the house. Without a glance behind her, she stepped down off the porch and over to the Impala. She hadn't really noticed the damage to the hood before. She had no memory of how it had happened; the demon hadn't allowed her to see much of that last hour. And afterwards, well, she'd been a little preoccupied by her own problems. Now, Ty took the time to absorb the wounds Dean's precious car had sustained. Much like Dean had before, she ran her hand gently over the dented metal and scratched paint, wincing sympathetically as she did so. Dean watched her with his car, his baby, and felt like he couldn't breathe properly. This was his girl. It was obvious to him now. Dean swore under his breath. What the hell was he supposed to do now?
"You can fix her?" Ty asked, oblivious to Dean's personal revelation.
"She's made it through worse." Dean nodded, meeting her hopeful gaze and moving to join her by the car, "I just gotta pound out the dent and fix the paint. She'll be good as new."
"Can I help?"
"Sure." Dean said, pleasantly surprised by her offer, "Hop in. We'll move her around back."
Ty quickly moved to the passenger side and climbed in.
"So, I guess we still need to try and have that talk." Dean ventured hesitantly as he maneuvered the car around the house.
"You mean without lying and fighting this time?" Ty asked, only partially joking.
"Yeah, without that." Dean agreed, a sinking feeling coming over him at that very prospect. How to have an open discussion about feelings was definitely not one of the skills he'd picked up over the years. And yet he had to try because it was Ty. Besides, she knew him well enough to know he wasn't any good at this and hopefully she would be able to understand whatever he couldn't say.
Dean pulled the car up to Bobby's garage and parked it. He glanced at Ty before he got out so that she'd know he wasn't avoiding her. It was just easier for him to distract himself with working on the car. Ty didn't seem to mind at all. In fact, she almost seemed relieved for something to do, as well. They were silent for a few moments as Dean gently lifted the Impala's hood and began unscrewing the bolts securing it to the rest of the frame. Ty distracted herself by locating the sledgehammer Dean had asked for earlier, leaning against it slightly while she waited for Dean to remove the hood.
"So…uh…" Dean muttered without looking at her.
"Can I ask you something?" Ty asked suddenly, ignoring Dean's floundering attempt at a conversation.
"Shoot." Dean nodded, relieved that she'd taken the lead on this talking thing.
"Forget all the crap that the demon said about both of us, all the doubts I know we both have about ourselves. Forget all the reasons why it's not a good idea or whatever. Simple yes or no: whatever happens in the future, do you want me around? Just tell me the truth. When you think about tomorrow, am I a part of it?" Ty asked, staring down at the sledgehammer as she spun it against the ground, too embarrassed to look at Dean.
Dean glanced back at her and was startled to find that answering her question was easy. If he took all the things he was worrying about out of the equation, if it was just a question of what he wanted, he knew the answer. But what he wanted for himself hardly mattered. They didn't live in a perfect world. Dean had known that ever since he was four years old and his mother had been murdered over his baby brother's crib. Besides, how could Dean even think about his own desires when he knew that keeping Ty with him endangered her?
"Stop it." Ty commanded, looking up and deducing from the look on Dean's face what he was thinking, "Just yes or no. I know the rest. I just…I need to know this."
"What difference does….?" Dean began, bitterness creeping into his tone.
"Winchester, I'll beat it out of you if I have to, now answer the question!" Ty threatened.
A fleeting smile crossed Dean's face at Ty's threat and he looked back down at his car to hide his reaction from her.
"Yeah, maybe." Dean mumbled, pretending to inspect the engine, "It's either you or Sammy yelling at me with his girlie bitch voice telling me I'm an idiot. Guess I'd rather it be you."
"You are an idiot." Ty affirmed, but she couldn't suppress the grin on her face.
Even though there were still a million things standing in the way of any variation on happily ever after for her and Dean, the number one problem being that they were both emotionally retarded, it was at least possible now that she knew that he cared about her and he wanted her to be a part of his life, his future. They could work on everything else in time. Someday, maybe she could prove to Dean that he wasn't a danger to her and convince herself that she wasn't a danger to him, either. Maybe they could both learn to believe that like Dean and his family, they're stronger together.
Ty leaned the handle of the sledgehammer against the Impala's bumper and moved to stand next to Dean. She pulled on his jacket, turning him to face her, smiling up at him with what she hoped was the most open expression she'd ever worn.
"But…I love you." she said, leaning into him and kissing him.
Dean tensed at her words, but at the same time it felt like there was an electrical current passing between them because that was the first time she'd admitted that to him while not possessed or in the heat of an argument. Maybe it was for that reason that this kiss felt unlike any other Dean could recall. And yet, he wasn't sure he could answer her back with those same words. He wasn't ready. He worried for a second about how Ty might react at his inability to reciprocate, but something in her kiss convinced him that he didn't need to be concerned about that. She wasn't expecting anything from him. She knew him and she wasn't going to push him. Damn, and to think that he hadn't wanted her tagging along back when he first met her!
There was one thing that he could tell her, though, something he should have told her before rather than trying stupidly to push her away. Dean pulled away just a little to seek Ty's eyes, knowing he had to look her straight in the eye when he said this or she would never take it to heart, "The demon was wrong. Whatever she said to you about you not being good enough is bullshit. You are seriously one of the best people I know and I'm amazed you even want to be around me."
Ty had to blink back some moisture threatening to become tears in her eyes. She'd never expected Dean to be so giving, never thought that he would be able to say what she so needed to hear. She was struck once again by a certainty that she didn't deserve this man, but she pushed it aside.
"Diddo." she shot back at him, her eyes daring him to challenge her.
Dean forced an embarrassed smile, "So, talk over?"
Ty nodded quickly, "Talk over. Let's get this beauty of a car fixed up, huh?"
Dean flashed Ty a grin, relief shining through his eyes as he moved to comply. Ty helped as he carefully lifted the hood away from the frame and moved it onto a nearby work table. She then spent most of her time trying to stay out of the way as she watched Dean hammer out the dents. Ty's thoughts wandered as she gazed idly at Dean. A lot had happened in her life recently and although she'd managed to work some things out okay, there were still other things left unresolved. As she thought about it, Ty realized that there was really only one way to approach her remaining major issues. Dean wouldn't like it, but it was necessary. She had to go home.
