Eye of the Beholder (2/3)

Rating: PG-13 for some swearing. Gen with hints of het, but not quite.
Characters: Dean, Lori (OC), another OC, mentions of Sam.
Author's note: This was supposed to be a two-parter, but somehow got longer and longer. Part of my Blind!Dean 'verse.
Summary: AU, Dean was badly injured in the last fight with The Demon, and has to readjust to life. No beta, all mistakes are mine.
Warnings: Angst.
Words: Around 1,300.
Disclaimer: Don't own them.

"You should call her." Lori said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I'm not going to call her!" Dean said, wiping his face and neck with his towel.

"Why not?"

"It's a stupid idea," Dean replied, putting the towel down.

"Dating? Yeah, it's kind of stupid. Still, better than your parents matching you."

"You know that's not what I mean," Dean said.

"I know," Lori sighed, "but you've been climbing the walls since I moved in, and probably before that, too. You should go out, for the sake of my sanity if not yours."

He wasn't climbing the walls, not really. Okay, so maybe he was a bit bored, but that didn't mean he wanted to go outside, where everyone could see him and he could see no one. And why would that Casey girl want to date him, anyway?

"She's ugly, isn't she?" That was it; She was the Shtriga's long-lost sister.

"What? No!" Lori slapped his arm. "She looks perfectly fine, and you're incredibly shallow."

"Well, can't see her myself…" He missed looking at girls, especially at summer, with their tank tops and mini-skirts and those very short shorts.

"You know, I think it's an advantage."

"An advantage?"

"Yeah. Gives you a more objective point of view."

"Actually, it's lack of view."

"Dean," Lori gave a dramatic sigh, "you wouldn't know romance if it hit you in the face."

"I know romance. It's Valentine's Day cards and flowers and chocolate and all the shit I don't do."

"If you don't go out with her, you probably won't do those things for a while," Lori said.

That was a low blow. Not because of the 'romance' but because of certain physical needs that haven't been satisfied since the accident. He made a mental note not to mentioned that to Lori. He tried switching strategies.

"I can't take her anywhere."

"She has a car."

"I'm not letting a girl pick me up." Sight or no sight, he still had his dignity.

"I'll drive you."

"I'm not letting a girl drive me to a date." Didn't she get it would be almost as bad?

"We'll wait till Sam comes home, then he can drive you."

"I'm not letting my baby brother drive me to a date."

"I'm out of ideas." Lori's tone was suggesting he was the one being unreasonable, which was, of course, ridiculous.

"Didn't you say something about that chip they implant in blind people's eyes?" Dean said hopefully.

"Dean, the first chip won't come out till 2009, and it would be years before they would be able to make you see good enough to drive."

"I'll wait," Dean stated, folding his hands across his chest.

"Dean."

"I'll think about it, okay?" He said, just to get her off his back.

"Promise?" Why did she have to sound so damn hopeful?

"Yeah, promise. Just let me get my shower; I'm all sweat."

On his way to the shower, he realized he had no idea what Lori looked like.

"These jeans must be a decade old," said Lori, awe and despair mixing in her voice.

Dean smirked. "More or less." He didn't have to see which it – he always wore his clothes till they wore out, and sometimes after that.

"Sam bought you four new pairs last month, and you still haven't worn any of them."

"Wearing geeky Gap pants is bad for my reputation."

"They're not geeky. There's a great black pair…"

"No geeky pants; Forget it." Dean still remembered what happened when twelve-year-old Sammy and their dad went to that Salvation Army store without him.

"It's a bad idea, you know," he said, listening to hangers' rustle as Lori moved them.

"Come on, it'll be okay. Just tell her you want to take a walk, instead of going somewhere. You know the way to the park and back."

"And what if she'd want to go somewhere?"

"Then you'll say yes, and order something that isn't too complicated for you to eat."

He ended up wearing his old jeans, but with a new v-neck shirt – black, according to Lori. It was hot enough to go outside without a jacket. He used gel on his hair, for the first time since his injury. He had his cell phone, cash, and a credit card (real, for a change). He was ready as he'd ever be.

"I'll be at home, okay?" Lori said as she walked him to the gate. "Just call if anything goes wrong."

Before he had a chance to say anything, he heard a car stopping by.

"That's Casey," Lori said.

Great. Why was he doing that again? Oh, yeah - he wanted to get laid.

"Hi Lori, hi Dean," Casey called.

Lori squeezed his arm reassuringly before Casey took it, then she was gone.

"So, how about a walk?" he asked Casey.

Casey rang their door bell. "I hope you'll feel better soon," she said earnestly.

That was why the demon left him alive, thought Dean, so he could be humiliated for the rest of his life.

"Thanks," he said through his clenched teeth.

"You'll let me know about the interview?" She asked.

"Yeah, sure." He'd be damned if he was ever going to talk to her again in his life.

The door was opened.

"You're home early," Lori said.

"Dean had a headache," Casey explained. "I have to go – see you!"

"What happened?" Lori asked as soon as she closed the door.

"What happened?" Dean mimicked her voice. "I'll tell you what happened: She wanted a guinea pig for her research, that what happened, and I fell for it."

"What research?"

"She has to interview five people with disabilities for her 'Qualitative Research' course, whatever that is, and I guess you knew about that, which makes you both cold bitches."

"Dean, I had no idea she was doing a research. I swear…I mean, we don't take the same classes! How was I suppose to know?"

He knew she was being sincere, but that didn't make him feel anymore charitable towards her.

"So, you're saying you're not a bitch, just stupid?"

"Hey!"

"Come on, Lori. Look at me. Those scars are bad, and the blindness doesn't help. Did you really think she was asking me out?"

"Yes! You're a nice guy, even though you're not acting like one right now, and those scars are just on the surface."

If she'd start talking about 'inner beauty' he'd have to kill her. "You're delusional, you know that?"

"Because I was wrong about Casey?"

"Because you think everybody is nice and sunny and sweet. I've got news for you – it doesn't work that way. If you're not careful, they're going to eat you alive."

"How did this become about me?"

"Because if you haven't been so stupid as to move in with two men you don't even know, none of this would have happened. Hell, we could have raped and murdered you at your first night here."

"So, I'm stupid because I trust people?" Lori asked, and that little tremble in her voice only made him angrier. Stupid chick.

"That, and the whole volunteering thing. Going around playing Good Samaritan. Instead of minding your own business like every spoiled princess, you had to come and pushed yourself into our lives."

Lori was silent for so long he started to wonder if she left the place.

"Sam's coming back tomorrow morning," she said eventually, "I'll leave then."

"Good." It would be just he and Sam again, like it should be. No annoying strangers.

He had a nightmare again that night. She sat with him till he fell asleep again. They didn't talk about that in the morning, though – they neve did. When he let her know that Sam would be back home in an hour, all she said was that she put what was left of the household expenses' money on the kitchen's counter. Then she was gone.

TBC