Many thanks to Hemlockconium for the inspiration for this story!
Dean couldn't find Lou anywhere that morning. She wasn't in the kitchen baking, she wasn't in the library researching, and she didn't answer when he knocked on her bedroom door.
"Hey, Sam," Dean said leaning on the library door frame. "Any idea where Lou went off to? She said she had the day off."
Sam didn't even bother to look up from his book as he answered, "She's outside."
Dean perked up instantly. "What? Why?"
Sam shrugged. "How should I know?"
Dean frowned and left his brother to his book while he headed outside.
Sure enough, the garage doors were open, and Lou was standing by the doors with her hands on her hips looking agitated. The sound of the front door closing was enough to get Lou's attention, and she turned to see who it was. She had a phone up to her ear, and she didn't look terribly happy about it as she hung up.
"Mornin'," Dean offered with a smile.
Lou wrinkled her nose as she answered, "Yeah, but not a good one."
Dean walked out to meet her and was surprised to see the tarp pulled off the Chevy Bel Air. He gave a low whistle as he approached the vehicle.
"Oh baby, you weren't lying about that bubblegum pink thing," he commented as he ran his hand over the hood. The car was in excellent shape with a near perfect paint job and sleek chrome details. It had obviously been repainted at some point over the years, and the inside had been re-upholstered with bright pink and white leather.
Lou shook her head and sighed. "No, I was not."
"Hey, this is one of the convertibles!" he said excitedly. "Man! Ms. Roe was rolling around in style."
Lou threw her head back in a loud laugh. "Yeah, she was tres chic."
"You takin' her out for a drive?" he asked as he circled the car.
Lou frowned, "Well, she's supposed to lead the parade this weekend, and I was gonna take her over to Danny's Auto shop to get checked out ahead of time, but she won't start and Danny's booked up today, so he can't come over to check it out."
Dean held out an open hand. "Toss me the keys and we'll take a look."
Lou looked a little surprised as she threw the keys to him. "Do you think you could get it running?"
Dean grinned. "Sure thing, and I'll do you one better."
"What do you mean?" Lou asked as she followed him to the driver's side door.
"I'll tune it up for you," he said smoothly. "No extra cost."
He winked and Lou laughed again. "How generous of you."
Dean shrugged good naturedly and smirked. "Well you know, I'm a generous kind of guy."
Dean bent down to find the release for the hood and gave a satisfied 'ah-ha' as he found it. The hood popped up, and he handed his own keys to Lou as he went to inspect the mechanics of the bubblegum beast. "Get my tools out of the trunk will ya, Princess?"
Lou rolled her eyes at the nickname. "Sure thing."
She came back with his toolbox and he got straight to it. He worked slowly, enjoying the process and the company.
"Do you do all the work on your Impala?" Lou asked.
Dean nodded. "Yup."
"What if it needs something major? Like a part replaced?" she followed up.
Dean shrugged as he rifled through the toolbox for the wrench he wanted. "If it requires heavy duty equipment, I drive it out to Bobby's, but if you do regular maintenance it doesn't usually need stuff like that."
Lou nodded along and Dean added, "It also helps to drive it once in a while."
Lou bit her lip and gave him a guilty smile. "Yeah, I know I should drive it more often."
She turned away from him toward the house, and a lonesome look passed over her features. Dean immediately felt bad for giving her grief. Ms. Roe was clearly important to her, and the car was probably a painful reminder of her loss, particularly so soon after the discovery that the grave had been desecrated.
He cleared his throat before awkwardly asking, "So, uh, what was she like?"
Lou blinked slowly, confused by the question. "Ms. Roe?"
Dean nodded as he bent over the engine. "Yeah, she must have been a pretty cool old lady."
A smile spread across Lou's face as she agreed, "Very cool."
Lou sat down on the ground next to the toolbox and leaned back against the car, so she that was looking up at Dean while he worked. He looked down at her with an amused expression but kept to the job at hand.
"Well, she was born in the late thirties, and this car was her eighteenth birthday present," Lou started.
"Lucky girl," Dean commented casually.
"Very lucky," she said as she continued on. "Let's see, she was at Woodstock. She became a professor at a local college in her later years. She taught sociology and women's rights. Her brother died in Vietnam, so she was a pretty big activist. Her family founded the town way back in the day and owned most of the farmland around here. She never married but she fell in love once."
"Oh?" Dean asked with a chuckle. "Do I smell a fleeting summer romance?"
"Even better," Lou responded with a twinkle in her eye. "It was while she was traveling abroad."
"Oh la la," Dean teased.
Lou giggled as she continued, "She spent a few months in Italy for Carnival and fell for a charming young opera singer by the name of Bella."
Dean paused to quirk an eyebrow at her.
Lou gave a haughty one shoulder shrug and carried on with a dramatic hand over her heart, "They spent their last night together in Venice, the most romantic city in the world."
"Now hang on, I thought Paris was the most romantic city in the world?" he interrupted.
"Well, you thought wrong," she explained. "For one, Venice has Italian food, two they have gondolas, three they have beautiful architecture, four they have Rialto Bridge where Casanova met with his lovers, and of course they have the Theatre La Fenice where Bella performed."
"Right," Dean answered slowly. "So, what you're saying is that tv lied to me?"
Lou nodded regretfully. "They did. Take if from a pair of lesbian lovers from the sixties, Venice is way more romantic."
"Well, of course, I mean who would know better than them?" Dean agreed playfully.
"No one," Lou answered wisely.
Dean gave hearty laugh, and Lou laughed along with him. They chatted back and forth like this casually. She talked more about Ms. Roe and the upcoming parade, and Dean told her about his Dad teaching him to work on cars and the summers he spent at Bobby's place.
While it must have been at least an hour, maybe more, the time flew by, and Dean stepped back from the car wiping his hands on a rag.
"Give it a whirl," he said gesturing to the car.
Lou hopped up to her feet and ran to the driver's side door. She slipped in the car and it started with a rumble before roaring to life. Lou cheered and stepped out of the car with a grin.
"You did it!" she exclaimed.
Dean chuckled, "Yup, it just needed a little tune up. I'd leave it running for a minute though."
Lou nodded and then asked with a flirtatious smile, "Wanna take it for a drive?"
Dean smirked. "I thought you'd never ask."
Dean ran inside to get cleaned up, and to let Sam know they were going out, before disappearing through the front door again. When he got back outside Lou had driven the car out of the garage and pulled the top down. She was waiting on the passenger side with pair of big white sunglasses and a 'come-and-get-me-grin' that made his heart skip a beat.
"You comin' or what?" she yelled over the engine.
Without a moment's hesitation Dean ran around the front of the car and hopped over the side like it was a bad eighties flick.
"Let's ride, baby!" He revved the engine in emphasis, and Lou threw her head back with a laugh.
They drove into town to get some gas and Lou went in the station to get some old fashioned, glass soda bottles. Then they rolled around town for a bit before driving out into the surrounding farmland.
Lou pointed him toward a gravel road and Dean dramatically peeled off the highway. He drove like Bo from the Dukes of Hazzard and he felt just as wild and free while he did it, but as the open farmland and orchards gave way to mountain sides, he slowed down. The Vermont roads weaved through bright green foliage and curled around large rock formations at the base of the mountains.
They drove a good ways, the gravel road carrying them up and up until Lou gestured to an observation point just ahead of them.
"You should pull over there," she said.
Dean did as he was told, and the second he got out of the car and looked out, he was struck by a breathtaking view of the valley below.
Lou smiled and followed him out to the edge. She pulled her sunglasses up on top of her head and stood quietly beside him.
The view was a mix of trees and farmland, with a lazy mountain range crawling across the landscape. The subtle variations of green swept over the countryside, and Dean could only imagine how beautiful it must be in the fall, when all trees began to change color. The sky was the perfect shade of blue above them, and a kind breeze kept the summer sun from becoming overwhelming.
"Pretty, huh?" she asked softly.
Dean nodded, at loss for words.
"Do you come here a lot?" he finally managed to ask.
Lou shrugged. "When I can."
Dean just nodded again and after a moment Lou admitted, "It's a nice place to come after a hunt."
Dean looked over at her and was again struck with a breathtaking view. This time admiring Lou instead of the landscape. She stood with her hands in her pockets and a lazy, nostalgic smile was on her lips. The drive had mussed her hair and several fly away strands had fallen out of her ponytail. They curled dramatically in the breeze and gave her a wild look. Her brown eyes flashed gold in the sunlight as she turned to look at him and he swallowed a lump in his throat.
"You want a root beer?" she asked.
The question was so casual Dean answered on instinct, "Sure."
Lou nodded and made her way back to the car. Dean followed dumbly and took the drink he was offered, easily popping off the cap. The soda fizzed pleasantly at the release of pressure and he felt a strange kinship with the bottle as he relaxed back against the car.
It was a bit odd to drink a soda like this when he normally would've picked beer, but it was nice in a way. There was an innocence to it that made Dean smile.
"What?" Lou asked as she caught the amused expression on his face.
Dean just shrugged in reply, the smile growing broader. "Nothin'."
"Oh, come on," Lou pressed. "What's so funny?"
He chuckled. "I just can't remember the last time I had root beer."
Lou snorted a laugh and he found the action strangely endearing.
"Root beer and long drives in convertibles are perfect companions," she explained.
Dean nodded along, taking another slow sip.
They stood there for a while, taking in the scenery in silence. Dean felt unusually serene- standing there, drinking root beer, and admiring the view.
"So," Lou started innocently. "You gonna paint the Impala bubblegum pink, or what?"
Dean nearly did spit take with his root beer, choking on a laugh and causing Lou to fall into a fit of giggles next to him.
"You know, I don't think my baby could pull it off near as well," he finally answered.
Lou nodded sagely with a mischievous smile still playing on her lips.
"It was a pretty good look for you though," she teased.
Dean smirked. "Well you know, I make everything look good."
Lou laughed again and turned to look the car over. "We might have to take it through the car wash on the way home."
He stepped back to examine the car with her. "Yeah. She's not quite parade material at the moment."
"It was fun though," Lou pointed out. "You should've been a stunt driver."
Dean grinned. "Maybe in another life."
She gave him a knowing smile and a small nod. The lifestyle of a hunter was closing in on their conversation rapidly, and he refused to let it overtake them.
"You hungry?" Dean asked.
Lou blinked in confusion but then smiled broadly. "Starved."
Dean gave a tight nod. "Let's go get some grub before we get this lady cleaned up."
Lou nodded and the two of them climbed back in the car.
Dean drove back slowly, taking every minute to enjoy the company. They talked the whole way back, and Dean found himself daydreaming again about what it would be like to live in the sleepy town of Marietta. To live with Lou even, taking long drives on her days off and attending local parades on the weekend. He imagined it must be a nice way to live and figured that must be why Lou always smiled so brightly, and why his heart seemed to skip a beat when that smile was directed at him.