Author's Note: Okay, there is no excuse for putting off an update for this long except that I have been super busy with my thesis. Please forgive. Anyways, on to the story!!!
Epilogue:
The morning after the grand fight, with fresh clean bandages and the discovery that she was yet again rendered with the inability to move, Dani called in sick to work once again…and was promptly fired by her asshole of a boss. It was all okay though, because Sam made French toast for breakfast and it was simply delicious…though it could have been the multitude of painkillers that Dean had given her that were putting her in such a carefree mood. She didn't really know; didn't really care.
The guys stayed with her a couple more days, waiting until she was mobile enough to actually function before packing up their stuff and preparing to say goodbye. Sam had even gone to pick up her last paycheck for her. She walked with them to their car on the morning that they left, wearing bright blue rain boots pulled up over the legs of her red sweatpants and a long sleeved tee shirt that she had somehow managed to steal from Dean, she looked ridiculous. She hugged her arms tightly to herself in attempt to ward off the winter chill. Sam threw his bag into the backseat and turned to face her.
"Well, I guess this is goodbye." He said.
"Guess so." She replied, a sad smile on her face.
"You gonna be okay here by yourself?" Sam asked.
"Awe, yeah. I'm tough." Dani joked, "Plus, Liv is on her way over even as we speak."
"Well, there you go." Sam laughed, "Better than a pit-bull, that one."
They stood there in silence for a long moment until a tear slid down Dani's cheek and she laughed and spread her arms out wide. "Oh, give me a hug already before I completely break down and look like a fool." She cried.
"In that getup, you already look like a fool." Sam chuckled as he leaned down and pulled her to him in a tight hug, giving her a gentle squeeze before he released her. "We'll see you again." He said.
"You better." Dani warned, her face serious.
Sam gave her another quick hug then slid into the car and shut the door. Dani turned and walked back to where Dean was propped against the trunk with his hands shoved deep in his coat pockets. She sidled up beside him and mirrored his stance, leaning back casually against the hood of the trunk, her hip pressed against his. He gave her a sideways look, which she also imitated right back at him; forcing him to break into a grin. He straightened from the car and wrapped his arms around her neck, pulling her snugly against his chest. Her hands twisted into the soft leather at the back of his jacket and she buried her face in his chest, inhaling his clean, warm scent. His hands dropped down, resting in between her shoulders and he gave her an affectionate squeeze as he pressed his lips to her hairline for a long drawn out moment, breathing in the sweet honey smell of her shampoo.
"You take care of yourself, kitten, you hear me." He said into her hair.
Dani chuckled at the nickname and responded the only way she could think to, "Meow."
"All right," he said, giving her another squeeze and then pulling himself away from her, "we gotta hit the road. We'll be in touch."
Dani nodded, crossing her arms over herself again as she adjusted to the loss of the warmth of his body. Dean didn't look at her as he turned away and walked to his door, and it was almost unbearable to see no more than his broad back retreating from her. So, she fell into step behind him. Once he was in his seat, she knelt down in the open door and peered in at the both of them, making sure to lock eyes with Dean. She wanted to see those amazing hazel depths just one last time.
"You boys be careful out there." She said with a grin.
She didn't wait for a reply; she had what it was that she had wanted, so she stood up and walked away from the car. She headed straight back for the apartment, not wanting to stand there and watch them drive away. It was too pathetic. As she reached the top of the first flight of stairs, she heard the familiar grumble followed immediately by the squeal of tires on pavement as Dean no doubt peeled away from the curb. Shaking her head and laughing quietly to herself, she reentered her apartment.
Dean shifted gears, then reached over and turned down the volume of the Blue Oyster Cult song that had been blasting at an ungodly level from the speakers. He glanced at Sam, who had a newspaper on one knee and an open road atlas on the other.
"What you got for us, Sammy?" he asked.
"Well, there's a couple a missing campers down in Kentucky. With the lunar cycle, could be worth looking into." Sam said, his eyes glazing over the paper, "There was a guy found in his locked apartment, dead, missing his eyes and tongue…"
Dean was nodding as he downshifted and slowed to a stop as they came to a stop sign. Sam stopped talking and looked up at the road. They sat there, not speaking, silent other than the steady idling of the engine. Slowly, they both turned to face each other, then burst into laughter.
"Nah!" they said in unison.
"I mean," Dean said, "it's not like we could ever get her to agree to it."
"The notion alone is ridiculous." Sam chuckled.
"Yeah."
"But, you know, having a psychic along with us…an experienced one not directly correlating to the yellow eyes demon, I mean…"
"Could definitely come in handy."
"But, she'd never go for it."
"Not in a million years."
"So, where're we goin'?"
Dani sat curled up on her sofa. The apartment suddenly felt so empty. Amazing what a week of living with two guys could do to a girl. She yawned and kept flipping t.v. stations back and forth between Law and Order: SVU and Grey's Anatomy. She hoped Liv would get there soon. She was bored out of her head and to be perfectly honest, she hadn't expected her friend to take this long getting to her apartment. She had spent practically the entire morning after the incident at the Wyatt house on the phone with Liv, listening to her go on and on about how insane it had been for her to stay behind in that house and how she had been knowingly putting herself in danger…she had halfway expected Liv to bust down her door to give her the live show. So, what the hell was taking her so long? As if on cue, a gentle knocking at the door came breaking into her thoughts.
"It's about time." She muttered under her breath, hopping up and trotting over to the door. She swung it open with her hand on her hip, "What took you so…"
"Okay, so here are the reasons that you don't wanna stay in this town." Dean said, cutting her off mid sentence, "One: there isn't anything really all that great around here."
"Except for Liv." Sam said from over his brother's shoulder.
"True," Dean acknowledged, "Liv is pretty hot. But, I doubt she has our sparkling sense of humor."
"Or adventure." Sam added.
"Two:" Dean continued, "there's a lot of bad around here for you."
Sam nodded, "Yeah, like that psycho guy…Freddie."
"Eddie." Dani corrected.
"Whatever!" Dean countered, "The point of the statement, the guy's nuts."
"And three:" Sam chimed, "we already got you fired from your job, so that's out of the way!"
"Wait." Dani said, trying to absorb everything that was being said to her.
"So, you may as well tag along with us." Dean grinned.
Dani took a moment to simply stare at them. Actually, she took the moment to stare at them like they were two of the craziest men she had ever met in her life; which was exactly what they were.
"You want me to come with you?" she asked.
"Yeah." The brothers said at the same time.
"To go driving across the country with you…hunting ghosts and boogiemen of various shapes and sizes?" she continued.
They nodded simultaneously.
Dani felt herself breaking into a smile, "Guys…in case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit of a coward."
"Ah, you're brave enough when it counts." Dean said, charming half smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"Guys!" Dani exclaimed, "I can't just drop everything and go traipsing across country with you two!"
"As we already pointed out in our very organized list of reasons, from what we've seen of this town," Sam said, his voice the epitome of logic and rationality, "there isn't a whole lot here for you to drop."
Dani regarded them both with a sideways look. She didn't know what else to do, so she stepped to the side giving up enough room to let them enter the apartment. She hadn't even gotten the door fully closed before Liv came bounding into the apartment. She paused just inside the doorway when she spotted Dean lounging on the couch. He grinned and waved at her.
"I thought you guys were gone." The brunette said shrugging out of her faux fur lined jacket; then she saw the stunned look on Dani's face, "What's wrong with you?"
A week later, Dani handed her apartment keys to her rude, overweight, balding landlord. When she told him at the beginning of the week that she would be moving out, he had refused to give her back her security deposit. She smiled brightly at him. Last night, Dean had taken a sledge hammer to the drywall in the bathroom while she sat on the sink painting her toenails. All of her stuff had been sold, leaving her with a rather large wad of cash. Everything other than her grandmother's antique coffee table; Liv was keeping that at her place for her. She stood on the sidewalk in front of her now former apartment building with a large athletic bag stuffed to capacity at her feet. Liv stood beside her, trying her best not to cry.
"I can't believe you're actually leaving." Liv said, tugging on the long red scarf that was wrapped around Dani's neck.
Dani smiled sadly at her friend; taking a mental picture. She always looked like a supermodel. She belonged on a New York runway, not in this rinky-dink town. She wore a pair of skintight straight leg jeans tucked into a pair of knee high velvet four inch stiletto boots, a short waist puffy ski jacket with a black scarf and gold hoop earrings playing peek-a-boo from behind her flat iron straightened dark hair. And, Dani could tell that she was trying not to cry, but her mascara was already starting to run down her cheeks.
"It's not like I'll never be back, Liv." Dani said.
"But, you were like, the one cool person in this town." Liv stated, "Everyone else here sucks."
Now, the tears came from Dani's eyes. She tried to blink them back, tried to distract herself from it by unbuttoning and re-buttoning her heavy black pea coat, but to no avail; she started to cry. Dani reached over and caught hold of the puffy sleeves of Liv's jacket.
"Promise me you'll call me everyday." She demanded, her voice cracking.
Liv pulled her friend into a hug and replied, "Sometimes twice."
"Every hour on the hour?" Dani pushed with a laugh.
Liv laughed as well, wiping a gloved hand under her eye, "Right up to the day they cut my cell phone off cause I can't pay my bill."
The Impala pulled up and came to a stop at the curb. Sam and Dean both climbed out of the car, leaving the engine running.
"Hey, Liv." Sam said, grabbing Dani's bag up off of the ground and tossing it into the back floorboard.
"How's it goin'?" Dean asked.
"I don't like you." Liv hissed.
"Good to see you, too." Dean said, casting Dani a sideways glance with one cocked eyebrow.
"Sorry," Liv said, "I'm just bitter."
"Yeah, I know." Dean grinned, "We'll see you again, though."
"Count on it, pretty boy." Liv replied.
Dean chuckled at the brunette, then reached over and rubbed his hand over the back of Dani's neck. "We gotta get goin', kitten."
"I know." Dani sighed.
"We'll see you later, Liv." Dean said, giving her a one armed hug before walking around the front of the car and sliding into the driver's seat.
"Yeah," Sam said, pulling Liv into a hug, "glad we got to give you a proper goodbye."
"You call that a proper goodbye?" Liv laughed. She reached up, cupped his face in her hands, and pulled him down into a nice long kiss. Sam's eyes widened in surprise at first, but about two seconds later, he was kissing her back. Dani had to press her lips into a tight flat line in order to keep from laughing out loud. When Liv finally broke the kiss, Sam had a kind of stupid wonder look covering his handsome features. He licked his lips and took a wobbly step back; opening and closing his mouth several times.
"Okay," he croaked, "Yeah."
With that, he turned and got into the passenger seat beside Dean, who the girls could see was laughing his ass off. Dani crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows expectantly at her friend.
"Okay," Liv said, "you have got to bring the tall one back again."
"They're both tall." Dani deadpanned.
"The taller one."
"What am I gonna do without you?" Dani giggled.
"You?" Liv said incredulously, "What about me? At least you'll have cute and cuter with you! What have I got? Janie and…dear God save me…Todd!"
Dani shook her head and wrapped her arms around her friend one last time, just as Sam's window rolled down.
"Kitten!" Dean shouted, "Move your ass!"
The two girls broke apart and Dani rolled her eyes before saying, "Call me."
"You know I will." Liv said, "Bye, Dani."
"I'll see you, later." Dani said, then she turned around and climbed into the backseat of the car.
Dani waved again through the window as she watched Liv getting smaller and smaller as the black '67 Chevy Impala pulled away from the curb and on down the road. Then, she turned ahead in her seat and gazed up at the brothers in front of her as AC/DC came pouring from the radio. She lay her head back against the seat and closed her eyes as the question floated through her mind that seemed to have been ever present since she met up with the Winchester boys…what the hell had she gotten herself into now?
Author's Note: Well, that's it. If you liked it, let me know and stay tuned for a possible sequel. That really depends on the feedback that I get about this story, though. Thanks!!!