Chapter 16
"Dude, turn the light out," Dean mumbled covering his face with his arm, trying to block the light that shone on his face.
"It's the sun, Dean," Sam told him.
"Then close the curtains."
"Why don't you?"
"You're closer," Dean pointed out, raising his head up a bit to look at him.
"You're just too lazy to get up and close it yourself," Sam said matter-of-fact.
"Am not," he protested.
"Then why don't you do it if you aren't too lazy?"
Dean groaned out of annoyance as he pushed the covers off his body. He stood up and made his way to the window, grabbed the dark blue curtains, and pulled them closed before he went back to the bed, and flopped down on it. "What time is it, anyway?"
"It's almost eleven."
"When did we get back last night?"
"Twelve-Thirty," Sam told him. "Speaking of last night…" he looked at him closely. "Do you remember anything?"
Dean sat up slightly with a confused look on his face. "No… why, should I?"
"Oh, well… it's just," he cleared his throat before he did one of those coughing while speaking things. "Just you and Summer kissing."
Dean sat up even more. "Come again?"
"You and Summer kissed."
"When did that happen?"
"While we were at the bar, you two were dancing. I leave the room for a couple of minutes, and when I come back, you are kissing on the dance floor," Sam explained.
Dean brought his hand to the back of his neck and rubbed it a little. "That's… unexpected."
"You're tellin' me," Sam agreed. "I think you two should talk about it before too much time passes."
"Where is she?"
"She is in her room."
Dean nodded slightly as he climbed off the bed, grabbed his clothes out of his bag that sat beside a chair and went into the bathroom.
--------------
Dean stood in front of Summer's motel room door trying to decide if he really should talk to her. "I could just act like it never happened…" he whispered to himself. "But if she remembers what happened, and sees me acting like that, she would probably be pissed." After deciding to do it, he lifted his arm up to the door and knocked.
The door opened a few moments later, and she stood there in a pair of blue jeans, her white tank top, and her hair up in a ponytail.
He cleared his throat before speaking. "Can we talk?"
She nodded as she stepped away from the door, and then walked back to the table where Sam's laptop sat.
He made his way over to the bed, sat down on the edge of it while he kept his eyes fixed on her. After a few more minutes of silence, he finally spoke up. "Shouldn't we talk about this?"
"I thought you're not the type to talk about things?" she asked as she looked away from the computer screen and let her eyes meet his.
"Well, yeah, I'm not," he admitted. "I just thought… it would be what you'd want."
"We don't have to talk about it. I mean, why bring it up when it was a one time thing, and didn't mean much since we were drunk."
"You're making it sound like we slept together when all it was only a kiss."
"Yeah, right, it was just a kiss, and I'm glad that's all it was."
"You are?"
"Yeah, I mean, it's not like we like each other that way."
"That's uh, true," he nodded. "And like you said, we were drunk so we didn't have control over our actions."
"Those songs didn't help either," she added.
"Definitely not," he agreed when he remembered the songs they danced to.
"So, then… we'll just pretend it never happened."
"Is that what you really want to do?" he asked not sure if it was what she wanted to do.
"Yeah," she told him. "It is."
"Alright, so then we'll both pretend it never happened," he said as he stood up. "I guess I should go see if Sam has any jobs for us to do."
"Ok," she answered also standing up. "I'll see you later."
"Yeah," he gave a small nod as he walked to the door, opened it, and was half-way out of the room when he faced her again. "I hope this won't make things awkward between us?"
"No," she shook her head. "I don't think so."
"Good."
She closed the door after he walked away. She pressed her back against it while she leaned her head back "I hope things won't be awkward," she whispered to herself. She stood there for another moment before she stepped toward the table and started to use the laptop again trying to keep herself from thinking about the kiss.
Nebraska
"Alright, so there are no leads here in Nebraska," Dean said to Sam and Summer while they sat at a diner trying to find the next job. "Got anything?" he asked glancing over at his brother.
"I've been searching things in Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota. Here – a woman in Iowa fell 10,000 feet from an airplane and survived."
"That sounds more like 'that's incredible' than 'the twilight zone,'" Dean said.
"Yeah," Sam agreed while he continued to search on his computer.
Summer sat there, not joining in the conversation. She just listened, wondering what type of job they will have next. Her eyes landed upon Dean for a second before they went to Sam. She wondered if they really did like doing this stuff, hunting things that go bump in the night. She wondered if they wished they could just be normal people. 'Sam, I know he wants to live a different life. He never wanted to be part of this, but then that demon killed his girlfriend, and for what?' she thought as she glanced back down to her coffee and stirred it with the spoon that sat in it.
"Are you alright?"
Summer raised her eyes up, and saw both men looking at her. "What?"
"I asked if you are alright?" Sam asked again.
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking," she answered.
"You've been pretty quiet since we got here," Dean said matter-of-fact.
"Yeah, I just… I haven't really been in a talkative mood," she told him.
"Why is that?" Sam asked.
She shrugged. "Just haven't exactly felt like talking."
Sam nodded in understanding; he has had those days. He looked back at the computer screen and continued to look for the next job. "A man in Colorado, local man by the name of Daniel Elkins, found mauled in his home," he said a couple minutes later.
"Elkins, I know that name," Dean said while he tried to remember where he heard that name.
"Doesn't ring any bell," Sam said. "The police doesn't know what to think of it…"
Dean reached down to the brown bag that sat beside him, and pulled out John's journal. He opened it up, flipped through the pages, and finally found what he was looking for. "Here, check this out," he showed Sam the page.
Sam looked at it before looking up at his brother. "Do you think it's the same Elkins?"
"It's a Colorado area code,"
"Looks like we're going to Colorado," Sam said a few seconds later.
Manning, Colorado
Dean parked the Impala in the driveway in front of a house, Daniel Elkins' house. He turned in his seat and faced Summer. "Do you want to stay in the car or come in?"
"I'll come in."
The three of them climbed out, walked toward the house and went inside. They searched the place for any clues as to what exactly happened to Elkins. Sam stood by the desk while Dean stood in front of it with Summer, and he looked down and saw something on the floor. He got down on his knees and stared at the blood and scratching on the floor.
"Got something?" Sam asked him.
"I don't know. Some starches on the floor," Dean replied as he reached up to the desk, grabbed a piece of paper and pencil and began rubbing the pencil over the paper after he lied it down over the spot on the floor. He lifted the paper up off the ground and stared at it for a moment before showing Sam and Summer. "Look familiar?"
"Three letters, six digits - location and combination of a post office box…" Sam said.
"Just the way dad does it," Dean told him.
The three decided to go to the post office and find out what is there that would make Elkins leave the message. They made sure they covered their tracks so nobody found out they were there before they left.
Once they got what sat at the post office, they went back to the Impala and Dean held the letter in his hand.
"J.W. Do you think… dad?" Sam asked.
"I don't know… should we open it?" Dean asked.
Suddenly there was a knock on Dean's window, causing the three of them to jump.
There by the window, stood John, whom walked to the backseat door, opened it and lowered himself inside.
"Dad?" Sam asked. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," John replied as he looked over toward Summer, gave a look that told them he wondered who she was, before he looked back at his sons. "I heard about Daniel Elkins and I got here as fast as I could. I saw you at his place."
"Why didn't you come in?" Sam wondered.
"You know why, I had to make sure you weren't followed. Nice job covering your tracks, by the way."
"We learned from the best," Dean said.
They talked about Daniel Elkins for a minute before John takes the letter from Dean and opens it up to read it. "If you're reading this, I'm already dead. That son of a bitch."
"What is it?" Sam asked him.
"He's had it the whole time."
"He's had what, dad?" Sam asked again.
"When you searched the place, did you find a gun? An antique, a Colt revolver?"
"There was a case but it was empty," Dean told him.
"They have it," John told them.
"You mean whatever killed Elkins?" Sam asked.
"We have to pick up the trail," John said as he opened the door and climbed out.
"Wait, you want us to come with you?" Sam asked surprised.
"If Elkins was telling the truth, we've got to find that gun."
"The gun? Why?" Sam asked.
"Because it's important, that's why," John told them.
"Dad, we don't even know what these are yet,"
"They were what Elkins killed best – vampires."
"Vampires?" Dean asked. "I thought there were no such thing?"
"I thought they were extinct. I had thought Elkins and the others wiped them out. I was wrong," John said before he stepped away from the car and went to his own.
Sam, Dean, and Summer all shared a look before they followed John down the road and to a motel.
--------------
"So, that's you're father?" Summer asked Sam and Dean while she sat on a chair in their motel room.
"The one and only," Dean answered.
"And these… vampires, you haven't dealt with them before?"
"No," Sam shook his head. "We never knew there could be any walking around. It's news to us."
"So, this means we'll be dealing with them now?"
"Yeah, apparently," Dean nodded. "I don't know exactly how we'll deal with them, but I'm willing to bet it's going to be a hard gig… maybe you should—"
"I'm not sitting this one out. I'm part of this now, and I'm not going to sit on the sidelines while you take them out," Summer interrupted him. "You can forget keeping me out of this."
"Ok, fine," Dean sighed. "But you're going to stay behind one of us just in case it gets too heavy, which I'm sure it will."
"How hard can it be to take out a few vampires..."