Chapter 16

I'll Make A Man Out Of You

(Season 1, episode 8 - Bugs)

Dean pulled up to a rundown diner. This is where they were going to find the answers they were looking for. At least, that's what they hoped for. More deaths were going to occur if they couldn't figure out what they're dealing with.

Sam approached an elderly man playing cards at a table next to the window. Dean stood next to his brother while Sarah was pushed behind them. Being a shorter girl, she had trouble seeing over the boys. "Joe Whitetree?" Sam asked him.

The old man looked up from his cards and he nodded.

Sam shoved his hands in his pockets. "We'd like to ask you a few questions, if that's all right."

Dean jumped in with the normal lies. "We're students from the university."

Joe caught on pretty quickly. "No, you're not. You're lying."

"Um... well. The truth is-" Dean tried to redeem himself, but Joe wouldn't allow it.

"You know who starts sentence with 'truth is'? Liars." He continued to play with his cards.

Dean was stumped. He had never been caught so quickly before. He looked to Sarah for advice, but she only shrugged. She had no idea how to dig themselves out of this. He then looked to his brother and Sam took over.

"Have you heard of Oasis Plains? It's a housing development near Atoka Valley."

Joe looked from Sam to Dean. "I like him. He's not a liar. I know the area."

Sarah tried her best to hide her smile, but the look of annoyance on Dean's face was making it difficult.

"What can you tell us about the history there?"

"Why do you want to know?" Joe questioned.

"Something... Something bad is happening in Oasis Plains. We think it might have something to do with some old bones we found down there... Native American bones."

Joe hesitated. "I'll tell you what my grandfather told me, what his grandfather told him. 200 years ago, a band of my ancestors lived in that valley. One day, the American Calvary came to relocate them." The trio shifted their weight. They all had a feeling they knew where the story was headed. They had learned about the relocation of native people in their history classes, but it didn't have the same effect as this man telling the story. "They were resistant... Calvary impatient. As my grandfather put it, on a night the moon and the sun shared the sky as equals, the calvary first raised our village. They murdered, raped. The next day, the Calvary came again, and the next and the next. And on the sixth nigh, the Calvary came one last time, and by the time the sun rose, every man, woman, and child still in the village was dead. They say on the sixth night, as the chief of the village lay dying, he whispered to the heavens that no white man would ever tarnish this land again. Nature would rise up and protect the valley, and it would bring as many days of misery and death to the white man as the Calvary had brought upon his people."

Dean knew exactly what that meant. "Insects. That sounds like nature to me. Six days?"

"And on the sixth night of the sixth day, none would survive."

They thanked him with sincerity for the information he gave to them and exited the diner. They had urgent work to do and every second counted now.

"When did the gas-company man die?" Sam wondered.

Dean looked to the sky in thought. "Let's see, we got here Tuesday, so Friday the 20th."

"March 20th. That's the spring equinox."

"The night the sun and the moon share the sky as equals."

"So every year about this time, anybody in Oasis Plains is in danger. Larry built his neighborhood on cursed land."

"And on the sixth night - that's tonight," Dean realized.

"If we don't do something, Larry's family will be dead by sunrise. So how do we break a curse?"

"You don't break a curse. You get out of its way. We got to get those people out now." Dean pulled the driver's side door opened, but stopped. He glanced to his side and realized they were missing something. "Where's Sarah?"

Sam's head moved quickly around and spotted the young woman standing back in the front of the diner. "She's over there."

Dean, already agitated with this girl, shouted at her. "Sarah, come on. What the hell?" Immediately, he regretted the decision to shout as he watched her reaction. She was startled, but still didn't join them. "I'll go get her," he told Sam. Without wasting anymore time, Dean jogged over to her. "Hey, we need to get going." His expression dropped after one look at her face. "Hey, what's wrong?"

Sarah shied her eyes away, not wanting him to see the tears forming in her eye. "Nothing. Just taking a second."

"Okay, I know I haven't known you that long, but I can tell that you're lying." He gently placed his hand on her shoulder and used his other to lift her chin. "Now, I'm gonna ask again. What's wrong, kiddo?"

"This ones really getting to me, Dean. After that story he told us in there, I just... I don't know. It really messed me up. Who knows how many people have died at the hands of this thing. And by the sound of it, it seems like we can't do anything about it. I'm just lost."

"Hey, listen. You don't have to be. You don't have to be lost anymore. You got Sam and me. The three of us are going to figure it out, but right now, there's a family back in that valley who need our help. We need your help."

Her eyes lifted to me. "It didn't sound like it a couple hours ago when we were arguing in the car."

"That's our thing, isn't it? The two of us fight until we need to get down to business."

Sarah smiled. "To defeat the Huns?"

Dean's face scrunched up in confusion. "What?"

Her eyebrows raised and her mouth dropped. "Did you even have a childhood?"

"What are you talking about?"

She tapped his shoulders. "Okay, when this is all over, we're going to sit down and watch Mulan and probably all the other Disney movies and I'm going to educate you. No, I'm going to make a man out of you." Her smiled shined at her own references even if Dean didn't understand them.

"I don't think so."

"Oh, I think so.

Dean gave up at the hands of her smile. How can I say 'no' to that smile? I'll agree to anything if I can just see that smile. "Fine. After we finish this case, I'll watch Disney movies with you. Can we just get back to the case right now?"

"Yeah, yeah. Let's get down to business."

Dean threw his arm around her shoulder and the two started to walk. "To defeat the Huns."

Sarah's laugh was silent, but loud to Dean. "Exactly. Thanks, Dean."

"No problem, Kiddo."

"Stop calling me that."

"Okay, Sweetheart."

"Dean."

"Okay, okay. Sarah."

"Thank you."

With that, Sarah and Dean got into the car with Sam and sped back to Oasis Plains to save the family currently residing there.


A/N - Hope you all enjoyed the latest chapter! A new one should be up a little later. Please leave a review or two. I would to hear what you all think about this story and the direction it's heading.

The song this chapter was named after is I'll Make A Man Out Of You from the movie Mulan.