Author's Chapter Notes:

Hi

Another one of these, this seems to be the only thing that I can write at the moment!

Life In A Box

Three days it took him to take his car in off the street and then Lisa was sure that it was only a near miss by the garbage truck that prompted it. Still he finally was and she watched as he manoeuvred her round her own little VW hatchback then swung her into the drive with an ease that she had never quite managed herself. The engine growled, almost sounding like a protest as he backed her up towards the garage and slotted her home against the wall opposite where Lisa was standing.

Lisa was sure the thing had almost scowled at her on the way past.

He sat there then, hands gripping the wheel, not moving until she stepped forward and leant in to turn the ignition off. The death of sound seemed to snap him out of wherever his head had taken him. "So, she fits," he commented as he stepped out, cranking up the window before he slammed the door shut.

Lisa walked round to the back of the car that was only just off the back wall of the garage. "Barely. I take it Gilbert's sleeping outside from now on?"

"Gilbert?," he inquired and she cheered internally as a little smile quirked at his lips. "You named your car?"

"You didn't?," she retorted.

"Hell no! My baby don't need a name. She's family." He ran his hands lovingly over the paintwork on her roof and Lisa wondered briefly if it was wrong to feel jealous of a car.

"Like baby isn't a name," she muttered, and alright she decided she had a right to feel a little jealous. Picking up the tarp she chucked it at him. "Do you want a hand to do the honours?"

He shook his head. "Nah, I got this." His eyebrow raised. "Coffee would be nice though." She was getting dismissed, she could tell.

Lisa rolled her eyes playfully and then went to him, kissing his cheek and then hitting him on the arm. "All I am in this house is a maid servant. One coffee, black and bitter, coming up." She stopped at the doorway, her eyes serious as they lit on him. "Don't stay out here too long," she requested, "your coffee will get cold," she used as the excuse to ask him not to.

Dean nodded his agreement and then watched as she disappeared off into the house.

The only noise in the garage now was the slow tick of the engine cooling, the sound like a heartbeat in the quiet. He stood there drinking her in, filing her in his memory, before he realised that he really should be moving.

"It isn't for forever," Dean whispered as he started to drape the cloth over the rear end of the car. "I just can't you know." He pulled it up to mid way and then stopped, hands again finding the paintwork, his touch a caress. "You hold too many memories old girl and this is gonna be tough enough without seeing you every day and knowing that Sam…well Sam ain't here, where he should be, riding shotgun." His head found the cool metal between his hands and the tarp. "So I'm sorry."

He flicked the tarp up and then pulled it down over her screen, the cloth sliding effortlessly down the smooth paintwork of her hood, shrouding her completely. Dean sorted the tarp down over her, making sure all her paintwork was covered. "I wouldn't make you suffer the indignity of being a shopping car anyway, you're more an open road kinda girl," he said fondly as he stepped to the door and took a final look back.

Pulling down the door he locked it and leant back on it, breathing deeply to calm the rising pain in his chest. "Another part of me locked away in a box," he uttered quietly, his hand giving the door a small tap as he stepped away, "but it wont be forever."

Chapter End Notes:

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