Author's Note: I wanted to add on to details of Adam's character that were mentioned in Jump the Shark. So, a dab of Boy Scouts, a touch of academia and Voila! Enjoy! ^^
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural.
Chapter Seven
Saturday afternoon, Nicole sat alone in her apartment at the island between the kitchen and living room, a cup of yogurt and thin manila file open before her. She was dressed in shorts and an old t-shirt with her hair down and gun close by on the couch. Adam was at a Boy Scout function with tons of witnesses and a boys-only attitude. Nicole had all afternoon to herself. She wasn't worried so much anymore: John had killed the monster haunting the town and as far as she could tell, there were no new spooks. She had her school work finished and now looked over her real work.
She'd gotten the file from a lonely single file clerk at the hospital where John had gotten patched up eighteen years before. She'd had lunch with the guy, cheered him up and asked for the file. Easy. While she was at it, she got a hold of Adam's medical history. As it turned out, Adam's mom was a nurse at the hospital and was on duty when John came in. Nine months later, Adam came along with an empty spot on the father's line of his birth certificate. Connecting the dots, Nicole had it figured: John was Adam's father. She was here to protect the only one of his sons that couldn't protect himself. John had kept him out of the hunting life and Nicole suspected out of Sam and Dean's lives too.
Her thoughts came to a halt when there was a knock at her door. Putting down her yogurt cup and spoon, she reached for the gun before going to the door. A peak out the peephole and she found Adam standing on her door step. Glancing at the clock to confirm that he should still be at Boy Scouts, she hid the gun under a dish towel and opened the door.
"Adam," She smiled, "What are you doing here? I thought you had scouting today."
"I do," Nicole moved aside to let Adam in, quickly glancing down the hall before closing the door. Adam's gaze swept around the room as Nicole took her seat, quickly sweeping the medical records into the manila envelope before Adam could see them. "But Nathan said you might be able to help. He said something about a potato."
Nicole blushed slightly, "Did he now?"
Adam stepped closer, his eyes drifting down her legs before coming back up to her face, "Yeah. See, we're doing this project with some of the younger scouts, showing them how to make things with things that you can find in nature, like pine cones and sticks. It's supposed to help them get their arts and crafts badge without them thinking that arts and crafts are lame. Only the scout master that was supposed to be in charge of the station didn't show up, we have a bunch of scouts eager to make something and we've got nothing."
"And Nathan told you I could help?" Nicole couldn't help but run her fingers through her hair to make sure it wasn't messed up as Adam gazed at her.
Adam nodded, "If you're not busy, could you help us out?"
When Adam looked that good, his clear blue eyes locked on hers, Nicole couldn't refuse. "I'm very good with kids, though." She warned.
Adam grinned, "Thank you so much."
Nicole changed into jeans and pulled on her jacket. Adam was waiting in the lot by his mom's van which he had borrowed for the day.
"You pulled your hair up," He commented as they buckled in.
Nicole reached up for her hair and shot a nervous glance to Adam, "Should I leave it down?" When hunting, it was best to pull your hair back. Your line of sight was un-obscured; you didn't have stray locks getting in the way when fighting. Every good female hunter kept her hair away from her face.
Adam shook his head, "No, it's ok. I just thought-"He hesitated for a moment, keeping his eyes on the road. "I just thought it looked nice down."
Nicole felt her cheeks warm as she too turned her gaze to the road. Almost without thinking, she slipped the elastic from her hair and let the tresses fall. She ran her fingers through a few times and tucked a lock behind her ear. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw Adam smile.
The Boy Scouts met at the YMCA down the block from the high school. It was the annual county-wide Scouting Fair that brought dozens of troops together for workshops and training courses. There were several stations with different activities that would earn the scouts different badges: first aid, arts and crafts, survival skills, compass reading. Adam and Nathan were set up in a back room of the YMCA with boxes of leaves, pine cones, sticks, some pipe cleaners and a whole shoe box full of odds and ends, Nicole guessed from a grandma's craft closet. A troop of a dozen boys about ten years old were running around the room, screaming and laughing when Nicole and Adam got there.
"Nathan!" Adam shouted, making his way to his friend who was trying and failing to get the kids to calm down.
Nathan turned to them, pleading, "I tried to keep them calm but as soon as you left, they just exploded."
"Alright," Adam held his hands out to keep Nathan calm before turning to the boys, "Hey! Guys! Come on! Settle down, we're going to start."
The boys ignored Adam and kept on with their obnoxious game. One boy, who seemed more obnoxious and the cause of the ruckus, chased a small kid around the room, passed Adam, Nathan and Nicole. With lightning reflexes, Nicole grabbed the kid held him back.
"Shut up!" She yelled, whipping the kid around and leveling a serious stare with him. "Knock it off and pay attention."
"Woah, did you see how fast she was?" One of the boys said as silence descended on the room.
"Told you she is awesome," Nicole heard Nathan whisper to Adam before he cleared his throat and addressed the scouts. "Alright, boys, we're going to learn how to take seemingly boring leaves and pine cones and turn them into something amazing." Nathan spread his hands in a grand gesture to impress the boys but only got bored stares.
"We're going to be doing arts and crafts?" The obnoxious kid asked, "That's lame. Why can't we build a fire or shot a bow and arrow."
"Because even men need to be creative," Nicole put in when Adam and Nathan were lost for words. "Sure, you guys are scouts and can find your way when you're lost and shot a gun, but what's really impressive is when you can be creative with those skills and produce more than just a deer mounted on the wall."
The boys all turned to Nicole, suddenly interested. Adam and Nathan exchanged a look, even if they were learning how to iron a shirt, if there was a girl involved they were pretty sure the boys would be interested.
"So, what are we going to make?" One of the kids demanded of Adam.
"Well," Adam glanced at Nicole who glanced at their boxes of supplies. She picked up a pine cone, began gluing leaves to it, added some pipe cleaner, found some wiggly eyes and added those and presented her creation. The leaves were wrapped around the base like a tribal skirt while the pipe cleaner shot off the head like crazy dread locks. The crazy eyes and a stick made him look like a savage hunter with his spear ready to strike.
"Hunters," Nicole showed off her warrior, a grin of pride on her face, "We're making pine cone hunters."
The boys all gathered around, even Nathan and Adam, "Wow, cool. Show us how."
Once they got started, the boys got into it adding shields and clubs to the arsenal. With ten minutes left in the class, they broke into groups and played war with the pine cone warriors. When time was up, they dashed off to join their friends, proudly displaying the creations.
"Do you have another group coming?" Nicole asked as she helped Adam and Nathan pick up the scraps.
"No," Adam tossed a rogue pine cone into the box, "They only sign up for two classes, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. We didn't have a class this morning so we tried to come up with something, but couldn't."
Nathan chimed in, "That's when I told him you could help."
"Yeah and thanks for helping. I really appreciate it," Adam met Nicole's gaze and held it until Nathan cleared his throat.
"I appreciate it, too," He said, throwing an arm around Adam's shoulders, "Maybe not as much as Adam, but I still do."
Nicole smiled, "Anytime, guys."
When she turned to leave, Nathan pushed Adam forward, giving him an encouraging nod.
"Hey, Nicole," Adam hurried after her, glancing back annoyed at Nathan. "We're having the award ceremony now and after that, Nathan and I were going to grab a bite down at Oliver's, if you want to stick around and join us."
Nicole thought of her empty apartment and the frozen dinners in the freezer and found she didn't want to be alone. Suddenly, her solitary hunter's existence seemed suffocating. "I'd love to," She smiled and followed Adam down the hall toward the large auditorium where the ceremony was being held. A hundred boys filled the seats surrounded by parents and scout leaders. The ceremony wasn't fancy but each troop took its turn presenting the awards and congratulating their scouts. Adam and Nathan went up to present the arts and craft badges and a balding middle aged man with a beer gut stretching the top of his scout uniform announced that Adam would be working for his Eagle Scout award. There was applause and soon the ceremony was over.
"You guys did a great job," Nicole congratulated as they climbed into Adam's mom's van.
"You bet we did!" Nathan punched the air. "And they thought arts and crafts would be lame."
"And it would have been," Adam reminded, "If Nicole hadn't saved our butts."
Nathan leaned forward so his face was between Adam and Nicole in the front seats, "For sure. And the way she handled that kid, snatched him right out of the chase and told him to shut up. That was epic. Now, I'm starving, let's get to Oliver's."
Adam pulled out of the parking lot and headed down the street, "Alright, but I've got to pick my mom up from the hospital at eight."
"Hospital?" Nicole asked. It was hard to remember what Adam did and didn't know she knew about him. She already knew that his mom was a nurse, but he didn't know.
"She's a nurse out at Windom Memorial," Adam explained. "I took her this morning so I could use the car."
"A nurse, interesting," Nicole nodded.
Nathan clapped a hand on Adam's shoulder, "Yep, she's the reason Adam wants to get into medicine himself."
That was new. Nicole glanced to Adam, "You want to be a doctor?"
He nodded, "I'm going to apply to University of Minnesota next year, at least if my SATs are good enough."
Nathan scoffed, "Of course they will be, Adam's a genius."
"When are the SATs?" Nicole had never given a thought to going to college but suddenly, she found herself interested. She told herself it was for the job, John hadn't put a time frame on it so she had to think of life after high school. That in itself was a weird enough thought so she stopped herself before she could examine the real reason she was interested.
"End of the year," Nathan answered, "Then next year, we'll start applying for colleges and by graduation, we'll have a plan for where we're going."
"Are you going to take the SATs?" Adam asked, parking in front of Cousin Oliver's Diner.
"I've never thought about going to college," Nicole admitted, hanging back with Adam as Nathan rushed into the diner. "With all the moving we've done, I never thought about settling down and getting a real job." Nicole caught herself and stammered, "I mean, a really good job."
"Do you want to go to college?" Adam asked, not sounding judgmental or demanding an answer, just asking, as a friend.
Nicole didn't know how to answer; hunting was all she'd ever know. No one had ever given her the choice, no one asked what she wanted and not even she knew if she knew what she wanted. Looking up at Adam, the one giving her a choice, the one offering a different life even if it would just be a cover for her job, she found herself replying, "I don't test well."
Adam smiled, "I guess we'll have to work on that."
"I guess so," Nicole agreed as she followed Adam into the diner. For the first time in her life, she didn't glance around to survey the crowd or find an escape route if anything went wrong. She didn't sit with her back to the wall in the corner of the room. She sat beside Adam, a smile on her face, her shoulders relaxed and ordered the BLT which, according to Adam, was the best thing on the menu.