Dean took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he tried to calm his nerves. This was utterly ridiculous. He'd faced Wendigos, Demons, Spirits, and everything in between without so much as breaking into a sweat but faced with the prospect of dancing with a girl he barely knew he was a gibbering wreck.
"Get a grip." he muttered to himself, annoyed he was letting himself get so worked up over this.
He'd been up since the crack of dawn, which was more than a little unusual for him, and he'd nearly driven Sam mad pacing the room until it was time to leave. He could tell Sam actually felt a little guilty about him having to do this, as he'd gone overboard on the whole 'you'll be great at this' speech. Hell, he'd sounded like Dean's own personal cheerleader. Dean was just glad his brother wasn't going to get a chance to see this.
Glancing at his watch and seeing it was almost 9am he took one last deep breath and walked into the hall. He'd seen Cara's car in the parking lot, shuddering at the mere memory of her driving, so he knew she'd already be there. Fixing his most charming smile onto his face, he pushed open the door and went in.
Cara looked up from where she was stretched out on the floor and glanced at her watch.
"Cutting it a little fine aren't we?" she said and Dean rolled his eyes.
"And good morning to you too. What did I tell you about being so nice to me? I'm really not sure I can take it." he said, taking off his jacket and laying it on one of the chairs.
"I'm not here to be nice to you, I'm here to teach you this routine so you're somehow going to be ready by the day after tomorrow. Which if you ask me will be a minor miracle." she said, shaking her head.
"Hey!" said Dean indignantly. "What makes you think I'm going to be so bad at this?"
"How about the fact you've turned up to dance practise in jeans? They're not exactly flexible, Dean." said Cara and Dean looked down at what he was wearing.
"Well, my leotard was in the wash so what can you do?" he said dryly and Cara glared at him.
"If this is some big joke to you then you may as well leave now and save us both the bother. I happen to take this stuff seriously you know and I've worked damn hard at it. There's people who come to these things who could be useful to me in actually getting a career in this industry, and I won't see you screw that up for me!" she said, getting right up into Dean's personal space.
Dean stepped back a little, holding his hands up. "Hey, I'm not here to screw anything up for you ok? I'm taking this seriously, honestly, I'm just not really a spandex kinda guy. But I am ready to learn this stuff, alright? Just give me a chance." he said earnestly.
Cara looked at him for a long moment before sighing. "Fine. Just do exactly what I say and we'll take it from there."
Dean shook his head as she turned away to do something with a cassette player that was on the window sill. Man, she was more than a little scary about this. He was torn between wanting to prove to Cara that he could do this and hoping that they'd get a chance to exorcise the spirit before Friday. Except of course that would leave Cara in the lurch, and he found himself feeling guilty about that, now she'd made that little speech.
"This so sucks." he said under his breath.
"What?" said Cara, walking back over to him.
"Nothing." said Dean, smiling brightly. "So what do you want me to do?"
3 hours later Cara finally agreed they could stop for lunch. Dean was starving and, although he wouldn't have admitted it, his muscles were feeling the burn a little from all the hard work they'd been doing.
It had been easier than he'd thought to pick up the moves. He'd applied the same tactics he'd used to use when John was teaching him a new hunting technique, or a new fighting move. Once he approached it in that way, it just seemed to flow. He'd always been quick at picking stuff up and he was in pretty good shape thanks to the job. He could tell Cara had been surprised, although she'd still hadn't let up on the digs of course.
Handing him a bottle of water, which he gratefully took a long swig from, Cara looked at him appraisingly.
"So you're not a total disaster, which is something." she said thoughtfully.
Dean rolled his eyes. "Gee, you're too kind." he said, taking another big mouthful of water.
"Well you can't blame me for being a little sceptical. You don't exactly look the type, do you?" said Cara and Dean raised an eyebrow.
"That's a little judgemental isn't it?" he said and was pleased to see her blush a little.
"Yeah, well." she said, sounding defensive.
Dean chuckled. "You shouldn't make assumptions you know." he said with mock seriousness and Cara whacked him lightly on the arm.
"Thank you, Yoda." she said and Dean looked a little surprise.
"You don't strike me as the Star Wars type." he said and Cara smirked.
"What was that you were just saying about assumptions?"
Dean smirked back. "Touché." he said and Cara laughed.
It was actually quite nice to have a conversation that didn't involve insults for 5 minutes. She was still possibly the most annoying woman he'd ever met, but maybe she wasn't all bad.
"So I'm just gonna grab some air and get some food." said Dean, wanting to take the opportunity to see how Sam was getting on with the research.
"Alright. Just be back here in half an hour ok?" said Cara and Dean rolled his eyes and saluted.
Stepping outside he made his way over to the park that was next to the dance hall and sat down on one of the benches. Making sure no one was nearby he dialled Sam's number.
"Hey Dean." said Sam when he answered, after only one ring. Dean grinned, wondering if Sam had been sat there staring at the phone.
"Hey. How's the research going, geek boy." he said, practically able to hear Sam rolling his eyes.
"No luck so far. How's it going with the dancing?" said Sam, sounding apprehensive.
"It's going great – I told you I'd be awesome, remember?" said Dean cockily.
Sam chuckled. "Well, maybe you ought to think about taking it up then – I mean in case the hunting thing ever dries up one day." he said.
Dean snorted. "Yeah, alright – I don't think we need to go that far, Sammy." he said.
"So you and Cara haven't killed each other yet then?" enquired Sam, the grin clear in his voice.
"No, we've managed to resist the urge so far. She's not been too bad although she's a worse drill sergeant than Dad. She really takes this stuff seriously dude." said Dean.
"What are you going to do about the competition? I mean if we can track the spirit and get rid of it before Friday, you're not gonna actually go through with it are you?" said Sam and Dean sighed.
"I don't know. Before I would have said no, hands down, but now. I feel kinda bad about letting her down."
"That's sweet, but come on Dean. There's bound to be press there, even if it's local, and we can do without your picture being in the papers. All it takes is one eagle eyed cop to spot it and we'd be in real trouble." said Sam, sounding worried.
Dean smiled at the fact Sam had said 'we'd be in trouble' and not 'you'd be in trouble', knowing Sam couldn't see him. He knew Sam was right about the publicity aspect though, but it didn't change the fact he didn't want to let Cara down.
"Look, there's no point worrying about this right now. We've still gotta find the damn spirit first." said Dean and it was Sam's turn to sigh.
"I take it there's been nothing weird happening at the hall this morning?" he said and Dean shook his head before remembering he was on the phone.
"No. I was thinking of running up and down the stairs for a bit, see if I could tempt it out again."
"Dean!" said Sam, sounding annoyed. "That's not funny, man."
Dean rolled his eyes. "Oh relax, would you? The damn thing's either given up or it's the laziest spirit we've ever come across. I wouldn't mind getting pushed down the stairs again just to get it out in the open."
"Yeah, well I'd mind Dean – just watch yourself ok?" said Sam and Dean sighed.
"Alright, alright – I said I'd be careful didn't I? Look, I gotta go – I'm starving and the slave driver wants me back by 12.30. I'll call you later ok?" he said.
"Sure – good luck." said Sam.
Dean shut his phone and dropped it back in his pocket. Crossing the road he went into the store and bought some food. Twenty minutes later, as ordered, he was back inside the dance hall.
They carried on working on the routine all afternoon, and the time actually flew by. By the end they were pretty much able to get through the whole thing with only a few fumbles and Dean found himself feeling surprisingly pleased.
Cara was in a slightly better mood too and actually went as far as to say "not bad" after their final run through.
Dean bowed at the faint praise and Cara stuck her tongue out at him.
"So we've only got this room for a couple of hours tomorrow afternoon, so we'll need to really go over the parts you're still a bit rusty on." she said, putting her stuff back in her bag.
"You mean I won't have to be stuck in here with you the whole day? I'm gutted." said Dean, leaning back against the window sill.
"Don't tempt me." said Cara, without looking round.
As Dean put his jacket back on the doors at the end of the room suddenly swung open and then slammed shut.
Cara jumped and whirled round. "What the hell was that?" she said.
"Probably just a gust of wind." said Dean, but his hunter senses were on alert as he scanned the room for anything else unusual. As much as he'd been hoping for a sign of the spirit all day he really hadn't wanted it to be while Cara was around.
"So you ready to go?" he said, grabbing hold of Cara's arm and practically dragging her across the room.
"Hey! What's with you? Am I keeping you from something important?" she said, trying to pull her arm away from Dean's grip.
"No, I just figured you'd be keen to get home, you know relax for the evening after working so hard." said Dean distractedly.
Cara frowned at him. "You're weird – you do know that, don't you?" she said, sounding more than a little exasperated.
By now they'd reached the doors and Dean grabbed the handle and pulled. Nothing happened. He frowned and pulled harder, but there was no doubt about it. The doors were firmly staying closed.
"Oh you've gotta be kidding me." he said and Cara looked at him.
"What's wrong?" she said, looking a little worried now.
"Uh, nothing's wrong. Just the doors seem to be jammed. Could've been the lock shifted when they slammed shut like that. Come on, lets use the other door." said Dean, pulling Cara towards the emergency exit at the other end of the room.
"Would you stop pulling me around like child? I'm perfectly capable of walking on my own." said Cara, sounding more than a little annoyed.
Dean ignored her and didn't loosen his grip despite the fact she was trying to pull her arm away from him. He mentally crossed his fingers as he reached for the door but his heart sank when it stayed as resolutely closed as the others had.
"Great." he said, rubbing his hand over his face and scanning the room for another way out.
"What's wrong with these doors? They shouldn't ever be locked, it's a fire exit." said Cara, pulling away from Dean finally to try them herself and frowning when she couldn't open them.
Suddenly at that moment the wooden shutters on the windows that lined one side of the room slammed shut, one after the other.
Cara shrieked as the room was suddenly plunged into darkness. Dean reached into his pocket and grabbed his ever present flashlight.
"It's ok, don't panic." he said, grabbing his phone with the other hand.
This time Sam answered after 3 rings and Dean didn't bother with niceties.
"Sam, you need to get down here right now – we've got company." he said, shutting the phone before Sam had time to start asking questions.
He shone the light at Cara and saw her staring at him. "What the hell is going on? Why are the doors locked, what the hell closed those shutters like that and what do you mean we've got company?" she said, sounding more mad than scared.
Dean swallowed. "Ok, this is gonna sound crazy but I'm not really here for the dancing competition." he said, trying to decide if he could make up something plausible or if he was gonna have to go with the truth.
"I knew it! You said you were taking this seriously, but I knew you weren't a proper dancer. Who are you? And what the hell are you playing at?" she said, sounding really pissed now.
Dean winced. This wasn't going well.
"Look I am taking it seriously, I swear, it's just there's another reason I'm here. Why we're here, me and Sam. You see what's shut us in like this? We think it's what's been causing all those deaths over the last 5 years." he said and Cara raised her eyebrows.
"And what exactly is that?"
"Well, since you ask. We're pretty certain it's a spirit." said Dean.
Cara blinked and looked at him.
"Oh my God – you really are insane aren't you?"
Author's note – Thanks so much to everyone who's sticking with this despite the email alerts STILL being down mutters about under her breath I hope you're still enjoying it and I promise you will get more of a description of Dean's dancing later on! This just seems to keep growing... Next one won't be too long... :)