This is the longest chapter yet, and there are misunderstandings abound! Barretta is a bit traumatized, but hopefully the brothers can help her. Sam is starting to warm up to her a bit, even if she doesn't realize it right away. Hope you guys enjoy!
Dean visually checked her wing, as she wouldn't let him get close enough to touch, and he declared that it looked okay before closing the door. Sam was just outside the car behind Dean, stretching. She watched as Dean reached into the driver's seat and grabbed a water bottle before walking around the back of the car to grab what looked like a pill bottle from a bag.
He opened her door again and gently put one of the pills down on a napkin before he waved the water bottle to catch her eye. As she was watching the bottle he cracked the seal on the cap, proving it wasn't drugged. He clicked his tongue once to bring her attention back to him,
"The pill is a painkiller for your wing. I'm sure it's hurting."
He put the cap back on and set the bottle down on the seat and closed the door, backing up to around six feet away from the car. She looked at the pill and the water bottle. She knew what to do, but she was having trouble deciding whether or not to trust them.
They'll probably punish me if I don't take it. I don't want to risk it. She thought, and grabbed the pill and downed it with the water. Plus, my wing does hurt something fierce right now. The brothers got back in the car and they started on again, the music just a bit louder this time. She could identify it as rock but not what kind. As the hours droned on she found that she rather liked the music the older brother played, and she started to doze off, lost in the music when Dean spoke,
"Barretta, how'd you get trapped under that big-ass rock out where we found you?"
She jerked up from where she'd been slumped comfortably (as much as she could be around two unfamiliar people in close quarters) half asleep,
"Hm, what?" She sputtered, not having been prepared for a question. He met her wide eyes in the rear view mirror and repeated the question patiently. She just looked at him, debating whether or not to answer. She didn't want to but she didn't want to elicit punishment from either of the two men if she didn't answer. So she cleared her throat quietly, "Oh, uhm," She looked back at her broken wing, shifting it as it aches slightly. "I was sleeping in a tree when the shaking happened and I fell out. The shaking must have dislodged the boulder and it must have caught me as I was trying to stand."
There was no mistaking the fear in her voice, even though it had been steady as she talked. Dean spoke,
"That it?" Panic welled in her chest.
"Yea," now a slight tremor shook her voice and she watched as the brothers glanced between each other. She was telling the truth! They had to believe her, right? What if they don't believe her? Her fear caused her to shiver, making her feathers shuffle quietly against one another.
"Hey, easy back there. What's got you so scared?" Dean's voice broke her out of her thoughts eliciting a low keen from her. She pressed back into the bench seat behind her when Sam turned around and started to reach back. He quickly pulled his hand back with a slightly look hurt on his face. This time it was Sam who spoke,
"It's okay, we believe you. We were just checking to make sure you knew what you were doing before the quake. You had a pretty big bump on your head, but no concussion. Trauma, like the bump on your head and your broken wing, can make people forget what they were doing before the incident that injured them." She looked at him, tentative curiosity in her eyes as she processed what he said. She was still pressed back into the seat, but she relaxed, giving a quiet 'oh'.
She looked at the rear view mirror and caught Dean's eyes before looking back down quickly. Her wing was starting to hurt again and she would love some more of those painkillers Dean gave her earlier, but she didn't want to anger either of the brothers by speaking out of turn or asking for something they clearly had a limited supply of.
"Barretta?" She looked up at Dean. "We have about five more hours before we get home. Why don't you try and get some shut-eye?" Her distrust of him was palpable, but she didn't want to test him, even if that sounded like a suggestion and not an order; nevertheless, she settled against the door behind Dean, the gentle rocking of the car calming her. As much as Sam had been gentle with his words and hands since she woke in the car, he still gave her an unsettling feeling. Plus, he'd tried to touch her. She didn't want any kind of physical contact yet, if at all, and he kept trying to initiate it.
Dean hadn't tried to initiate any contact outside of stopping her from hurting herself and soothing her delirious self in the woods. Soon her eyes slipped closed and she fell into a restless sleep, curled against the door, thoughts bouncing around, her mind catching onto the lyrics of the rock songs as they rang out through the speakers.
When she woke, she was still in the car, but it wasn't moving anymore. Tolerable pain radiated consistently from her wing and she winced as she shifted it, looking around. The brothers weren't in the car, but they were standing infrin if the hood talking, if their hand gestures were anything to go by. All of the windows were up but their low voices, though indistinguishable, were still audible within the car. Taking her chance to look around, she found that the space they were in was large, with cars and a motorcycle parked in spaces divided by low walls. The ceiling was high enough that she couldn't see it from inside the car, and the whole place looked old but well cared for.
Movement caught her eye and she watched as Dean walked around to the door she'd been leaning against while Sam hovered over by the hood, arms crossed casually over his chest. They'd obviously come to a decision about her. Barretta shifted so that she was mostly across the car from Dean when he opened the door. She eyed his form with mistrust, wincing when the pain in her wing spiked as she moved.
Dean immediately noticed her distrust and his eyes narrowed, making fear start to push into her mind again. She didn't know if they narrowed in thought or anger, and she wasn't going to chance it by getting closer. He sighed and waved Sam over, closing the door slightly so he could talk over it to his brother, throwing glances her way every once in a while.
Suddenly there was the sound of flapping wings, a sound that didn't come from her and there was a man in the front seat that wasn't there before. Barretta immediately lashed out at the man in front of her, claws extended but he caught her wrist in an iron grip. She struggled wildly, letting out a distressed whine, teeth bared and wings flapping as much as they could in the confined space and the splint as the grip on her wrist got slightly tighter, refusing to let go of her.
The man cocked his head, not unlike a bird, and ignored her struggling to snap out with his other hand and grab her injured wing. Barretta heard Dean trying to tell the man to let go of her, but the man didn't listen and Dean couldn't reach into the car without risking hurting her further. She thought she could hear Sam's voice as well, but she couldn't tell.
As soon as the man grabbed her wing she quieted and immediately became as still as she could, but terrified shaking still rocked her body. A warmth shot through her wing and she could feel the bone snap completely back into place and meld together, healing completely and causing the splint to slide smoothly off of her wing. Then he let go of her wing and she instantly lashed out with her other hand, claws extended, this time clawing him across his face. His grip loosened on her wrist in surprise and she launched herself toward the open door, knocking into Dean uncaringly in her haste to get away from the man.
Dean shouted in surprise and stumbled back as one of her wings clipped him upside the head, his brother catching him as she scrambled past him. She leapt up towards the high ceiling and saw rafters, and she flew as quickly as she could to the farthest one away from the car, and thus, the man. Luckily, it was a rafter that connected to a corner, creating a dark, secluded alcove that couldn't be seen from the ground if you didn't know where to look, but if one sat right, they could see the entirety of the room from above.
She could hear Dean's low tones as he (presumably, he looked like he was pretty loud and this was a large space) yelled at the man in the car. Sam looked content to let his brother do all the yelling and he'd returned to his position hovering over the long black hood, arms crossed over his chest. This time, though, his face was serious and he was scanning the room and he met her eyes once he found her in the corner then returned to watching his brother yell at the man. Barretta looked at the car she'd madly scrambled out of.
It was a beautiful car; it was long, black and classic. She didn't get to look much longer as Sam suddenly stood alert, eyes shooting to her hiding spot as his brother flipped around from the car to frantically look for her. She flapped one of her wings slightly for balance, wondering what might have happened to make them alert when the man from the car appeared abruptly in front of her.
The smell of ozone slammed into her nose, but this time she didn't lash out. No, this time, she spread her wings aggressively, her feathers puffing up. She bared her sharp canines and hissed as loud as she could in warning, sounding for all the world like a pissed lion. Her whole stance screamed "fight me, I dare you." She wasn't going to let him grab her like that again, even if she knew he could, so she was doing everything in her power to scare him off before he could even attempt to. The man jerked back, startled and looking at her wings with wide eyes before disappearing. Instantly her wings sagged, her aggressive stance devolving as the seriousness of what she'd just done sunk in. She'd hissed at and even clawed someone she didn't know.
She didn't know if the man was a friend of the brothers or someone completely different. If he was a friend of the brothers then she was sure she was going to be punished when she came down from her spot. She'd have to at some point. Backing up into the wall behind her, she let herself slide down until she could bring her knees up to her chest and wrap her wings around herself like a blanket of impenetrable safety. Then she started to sob, her head buried in her knees, not registering Dean trying to get her attention from the ground or even realizing as she started to fall asleep cocooned in her wings.
I feel bad for Sam, all he was trying to do was give her a comforting touch, but Barretta didn't realize it. She just needs a bit more time to understand the boys. Hopefully Cas's introduction was good. Feel free to review if you want! I love constructive criticism, and if you have a suggestion, I'm open to those too!