The sudden loudness of music he didn't really like anyway scared the crap out of Sam. He jumped dumping the pile of papers he'd been going through in the process.
"Damn it, Dean," he cursed, as he bent to gather up the papers. He heard Dean give a sarcastic chuckle as he pointed at his ear, pantomiming like he couldn't hear Sam. Sam reached over to turn the volume down but Dean slapped his hand away. "You know it's one thing if you want to make me deaf but in case you've forgotten we have a passenger and your speakers are right next to her head," Sam yelled above the music. Dean turned the music down only slightly as he glanced at Melanie in the rear view mirror.
"You're welcome," Dean said to her in the grating sarcasm that Dean reserved only for those who'd either pissed him off or were possessed. Sam punched him in the arm.
"Don't do that," Sam said to him. Dean's response was to roll his eyes. Melanie didn't deserve the full experience that was Dean Winchester when he was agitated. She was already getting the experience that was both of them against her will. Most people had a choice and the lucky ones knew what they were in for.
Sam shifted in his seat to look back at Melanie. In almost three hours she hadn't said a word. "Hay," he said to her, drawing her attention from the window to him. "We're going to be stopping soon. And just ignore my brother, he's always been a pain in the ass." Melanie just nodded.
"Who's older?" she asked quietly before Sam could turn fully back around in his seat. Sam almost smiled at the question. He'd been hoping for an opening to a conversation with her. If he could get Melanie to talk they could start to explain to her what was really going on and hopefully get her to trust them.
"He is," Sam replied. Melanie nodded again as she faced the window.
"I have an older brother, too," she said softly. "He and his wife just had their first baby. I haven't been to see her yet." Sam didn't miss the catch in Melanie's voice as she spoke. "Please just let me go," she said. Her voice was barley audible and Sam wondered if she realized that she'd spoken out loud. There were so many things that Sam wanted to say to her. He knew though that none of them would make a difference and that most were lies. He could say it was okay but it wasn't. He could tell her again they wouldn't hurt her but Sam knew if she tried to make a run for it they might have to. So he said nothing but turned back around in his seat rubbing his hands over his face.
A small roadside motel appeared up ahead.
"Dean, just stop up there," Sam said. "The sooner we stop the sooner we can start to figure out what's going on." He was fully prepared for an argument and was therefore surprised when Dean pulled into the motel's parking lot. Without saying anything Dean got out and went into the manager's office.
"What are we doing?" Melanie asked from the back. Sam turned to face her. Gone was the quiet subdued woman. In its place was the woman who'd tried to fight off Dean in the office. She sat straight up, her whole body tensed, her eyes filled with a mixture of worry and defiance.
"Remember when I said before that we needed your help?" he asked. Melanie hesitated before she nodded. "Well we're stopping here so that we can explain to you what's going on and see if you can't help us."
"You need a motel to do that?" she asked, her gaze going over Sam's shoulder. He turned around. Dean was making his way back, a key in hand. Sam turned back and watched as her gaze went from Dean to the front seat where he'd put his gun before exiting the car. Melanie's breath caught. Sam tried to see this from her point of view. She was one woman, kidnapped and held by two men who had now pulled over at a motel in the middle of nowhere.
"Melanie, remember what I told you in the office? About not hurting you?" Sam reminded her, praying that she wouldn't try and run and prove him wrong. She shook her head.
"I don't believe you," she said. The driver's side door opened and Dean slid back into the seat, he restarted the car and pulled around to the back of the motel. He parked the car in front of a room on the opposite end of the old building.
"Got us the honeymoon suite," Dean joked as he giggled the room key in the air. Sam grabbed the key out of his hand. "Hay," Dean protested.
Sam got out of the car and slammed the door as hard as he could knowing that the abuse of Dean's precious car wouldn't be tolerated. Just as Sam suspected Dean got out of the car.
"Dude what the hell?" he demanded.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Sam said to him. Dean shrugged imitating that he didn't know what Sam was talking about. "Have you forgotten that we've kidnapped and are holding a woman against her will? We pull into an all but abandoned motel and then you make that remark about the Honeymoon Suite thirty seconds after I've tried to reassure her we aren't going to hurt her."
"Okay first of all, Mr. Sensitive, unless she does something stupid before we can get her to help us we aren't going to hurt her and second of all it was a joke."
"It wasn't fucking funny, Dean," Sam said, as he pulled the back passenger door open. Sam ducked his head down. Melanie was still sitting in the same tensed position she'd been in. "Come on, Melanie," he said, offering his hand to help her out of the car. "We owe you an explanation."
Melanie slowly got out of the car and ignored Sam's outstretched hand. Hearing him say that they'd owed her an explanation was the last thing Melanie expected to hear. Reluctantly she followed between the brothers to the door of the motel room. Neither one had pulled a gun on her or made any kind of threatening gesture. Still the idea of walking through that door almost made her sick to her stomach. But there had been something in what Sam had told her in the car before his brother showed back up. And it wasn't just the words, it was the way he'd said them. He seemed almost desperate for her to believe him. Not just believe that they wouldn't hurt her but that they needed her help. Before she could try and make a decision for herself about whether to go in or try and get away she found herself in the room, the door closed behind her.
The brothers walked to the center of the surprisingly spacious motel room and dropped their bags. Melanie noticed that Dean had her purse, which he set on one of the two double beds. The room had a small kitchenette off to the side. A large round dinning room table and chairs circa 1973 sat off to the other side. Sam went to this table and set a backpack on it, pulling out a pile of papers and a laptop. Dean was placing the other bags at various points around the room. Once again Melanie had a feeling like they'd done this many times before. The tone of the laptop turning on made her jump. She'd never been this close to coming completely un-spooled in her life. Every movement each of these men took put her more and more on edge.
"Can I show you this?" Sam asked from across the room. It took her a moment to realize he was talking to her.
"What is it?" she asked, not moving from her spot near the door.
"The land records we took from your office. We're trying to find a pattern," Sam replied. Melanie shook her head.
"A pattern, what do you mean? A pattern of what?"
"We're not exactly sure," Sam replied.
"Is this seriously your name?" Dean's amused voice came from the other side of the room. He sat on the edge of one of the beds, credit-card sized piece of plastic in his hands. Melanie noticed that her purse was open and Dean had her wallet out. She didn't answer him. Melanie had spent the past four hours thinking that every minute was going to be her last, trying desperately to figure out how she could get away from these two and he was going to mock her name. "Dude, you have to look at this. If anyone will appreciate it it'll be you College Boy," he said to Sam. Sam walked over and took the piece of plastic out of his hand.
"It doesn't matter what her name is," Sam said as he reached for her wallet which Dean pulled out of his grasp.
"You're not even curious?" Dean asked him. Sam let out a long suffering sigh and looked at the license. He shrugged.
"So what?" he said. Melanie watched as Sam did a double take at his brother. "Okay wait, are you telling me that you actually watched this movie?"
"No," Dean replied. "I read the book." Sam took a step back from his brother. He actually laughed out loud. Melanie wanted to start screaming and not stop from the tension that filled her and these two were laughing over her name. It was no secret that her full name came from her mother's love of the book and the movie "Gone With the Wind." She loved it so much she wanted to name her children after the characters. Her father had drawn the line when it came to his son but indulged his wife with their daughter, the only concession being that the heroine's name be Melanie's middle name. And so she was christened Melanie Scarlett. Her father often joked with Melanie that while she'd mostly had the personality of her first name's-sake, she could be just as stubborn as her middle name's-sake.
"You read the book? The entire 300 plus page book, you read it? I don't believe it," Sam replied going back to the table. Melanie still hadn't moved. The entire interaction was like a sketch-comedy routine thrown into the middle of a horror movie. Only this was really happening. And it wasn't funny.