Chapter 8
Angel awoke extremely early, Her soreness kept her from a peaceful sleep, she groaned softly as she sat herself up, she gingerly swung her legs over the side of the bed and placed her feet down on to the cool floor, she lowered her head,
"Heay!" She heard Dean softly say, "you okay?"
She turned to find Dean looking at her from the couch,,He'd heard her moving about and had woken ,he had only been sleeping lightly just in case she needed him.
Angel glanced over at him, there was a small table light on beside him, she could see he was awake, His lower half laid nearly the length of the couch and his upper half was in a sitting position,
" Can't sleep " she replied softly " I was gonna take a walk"
"do you want some company ? "
She smiled back at him, " That would be good "
He raised from the couch and helped her put on a jacket, Dean thought Angel would've objected to his suggestion and help but she didn't , He grabbed his own jacket and pulled it on ,grabbing some keys on there way out of the main door, which closed quietly behind them.
Outside was dark, The air had a chill to it , Both Angel and Dean walked slowly ,Angel was unable to take up her normal fast pace, the tenseness and bruised body prevented this happening, They walked to the now closed store , It had a bench outside and Angel signalled to Dean that she was going to use it to sit down and have a rest, again Dean asked " are you okay?" , she sighed but laughed gently "will you just quit" she said,
"what?" he exclaimed innocently , "Asking if I'm okay, Do I look okay?"
"well, sort of "
"What do you mean ,Sort of?"
"Well, um, I guess you look okay, But inside you feel like crap, Right " Angel stared hard at Dean," Just saying, I know that's how I'd probably feel if it was me standing in your shoes" He finished
A smile wrinkled across her lips , He's a hunter of course he'd know how she felt ,she thought.
She stood back up , no matter where or how she placed herself it hurt, Dean stood up too, "I'm so damn restless when things like this happen, Glad it's not that often," She said
Dean knew exactly what she was saying, He'd been there many times himself,
They started to move off , But only got a couple of more feet, as a sharp pain shot through her side , it took her by surprise and she grimaced in pain and took in a deep breath, she stopped half double over her good hand reaching to touch her damaged side, She was suddenly aware of Dean standing very close, his arms supporting her "Heay" he said with a worried look on his face " you wanna go back?" he asked
She looked up at him , "No,I'm fine now, it was just a twinge"
"you sure?" Dean asked again the worry really showing on his face and in the tone of his voice,
Angel straightened up and turned to face him, "I'm fine, Really" her voice firm yet gentle.
Dean looked down at her, he placed her good arm up around his neck and lent into him, She kissed him tenderly on the lips, only pulling away slightly to say "thank you" he replied in the same soft tone that she had spoken in, "you're welcome" this time Dean lent into her and kissed her, they walked for a little while longer and then returned to the motel room , where they both laid fully clothed on the bed , Dean held on to Angel his touch soft and gentle , he was a puppy in her hands, the hard nosed hunter that he was disappeared when he held her, she was content to allow this tender moment, it had been a very long time since she felt such tenderness with another person,
This time she felt even more comfortable ,he was a hunter too, he would know how she felt, they could relate to each other,and although hard, could walk away from each other with no regrets, only hunters could be like this,
Angel felt contented for once , warm and protected whilst laying being held by him, she snuggled into Dean and fell peacefully asleep,
Outside the morning was damp and wet it was raining hard, tapping on the rooms window , Sam woke and stretched , he got out of his bed and went to the bathroom, he'd put on his jeans and was washing then cleaning his teeth and then shaved , as he returned to the main room he became aware of Dean and Angel asleep on the other bed,It had been a long time passed since his brother looked so peaceful asleep , he allowed a smile to form on his face , It was good to see his brother like this , arms wrapped around Angel, who's head was rested on Dean's chest and she too had an arm around Dean, infact Sam thought they both looked very peaceful.
Sam made himself some breakfast , and sat at the dinning table firing up the laptop as he ate.
There was a groan from the other side of the room, Dean was easing himself out from Angels grasp, trying very hard not to wake her nor cause her any pain, he accomplished his goal and stood up , yawned and stretched then scratched his head with both hands. He twisted his head to look down at Angel who had snuggled down into the pillow still fast asleep, a smirk reached his face , then he looked around at Sam who just glanced up at Dean with that , I Know look on his face, Dean gave a similar look back before disappearing into the bathroom to wash up and shave once the usual tasks had been done he re-appeared looking more alert and awake than before his senses sharpened by the cold water that he'd used,
He grabbed a coffee and some cereal and sat opposite Sam ,catching Sam's gaze as he sat at the same table " What?" he asked as Sam gave that Same look that he had before Dean had entered the bathroom , "will you quit, with the look" he said
"what look?" Sam replied
"That exact look that you're giving me now"
"Huh,"
"That look, The questioning look "
"Dean, I've nothing to question you about,especially in a look, if you're sweet on Angel that's entirely up to you "
"I'm not sweet on her, I just understand where she's at ,That's all,She just needs a friendly shoulder at the present, I mean we've both been there where she is now,so won't hurt to support her"
Sam was smiling "Whatever,Dean" Sam said still smiling,
Dean decided he needed to change the course of the conversation very quickly he's brother knew him too well , Dean had thought long and hard about Angel but this was different she was a hunter too that made everything totally different , they would understand more about things as they shared the same life and knew the difficulties that that life brought, Dean knew he was falling for Angel and wondered how that would pan out, she had taken his wall apart piece by piece brick by brick he didn't really know how she'd managed it either as he was very good at building, she was nearly climbing over the wall that she'd so carefully been knocking down ,
He was slightly afraid of what he would do or become once she had fully climbed inside the wall, when she would be fully in his head and heart.
"we got anything new to go on?" he finally asked, Sam shook his head "No, nothing" he took another mouthful of cereal " if only we could find out where it's hiding?"
another mouthful of cereal " would make things a tad easier" he finished
Angel stirred and moaned softly "Morning" she groaning as she pulled herself into a sitting position,
"Want something for the pain?" Dean asked her,catching a sideways glance of a Smile on Sam's face, Dean threw him a sideways stare as if to say Quit with the teasing , He went and fetched a glass of water and some pain relief tablets, "Here" he said as he handed them to her, "I suggest you stay put today,you need to heal and besides it'll probably be more comfortable for ya"
"I'd normally argue with you on that one" she said " But I think you could be right laying low for a few days wouldn't hurt, it'll only get me dead otherwise, so guess my wings have been clipped for awhile" she smiled up at him and handed the glass back which was now empty,
he didn't smile back , he knew just how useless she would be feeling, The smile would be a front hiding the true feelings again another thing hunters did , they could hide a lot of there true feelings very deep inside, Angel allowed herself to drift back off to sleep.