Siren's Song
Disclaimer" Same as always. Don't own, I'm broke.
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Dean gave a short nod. "Alright, we'll get right on that." He closed his eyes and leaned against his pillows, rubbing his aching sinuses. "Question is, how?"
"That's pretty simple. One of us will have to go out there and listen to them sing without drowning ourselves."
"Right, and the other one of us will have to go along and make sure his brother doesn't die. Not quite sure how, though." He sniffled and rubbed at his temples.
Sam bit his lip. "Well, in one legend, the sailors used bee's wax."
"Bee's wax? I'm kinda willing to bet that there's not a surplus of that waiting to be stuffed in people's ears in a moment's notice. Besides, it's hard."
Sam smiled. "We have ear plugs nowadays."
"Earplugs yeah, but you can still hear through them." His eyes brightened a bit. "Okay, fine, let's get working on this." Dean was on his rather shaky feet and reaching for his beloved leather jacket before Sam could protest. "You coming?"
"Where are we going?"
"Well, that store rents boats. We'll get one for tomorrow, pick up a pack of earplugs and we'll be set."
Sam frowned. "This store rents boats?" He was back on his bed typing in a few things on his computer. "That's interesting."
"What's interesting? I swear you have the attention span of a moth." Dean sat back down on his bed and blew his nose.
"Well, the boats that were found, they were all rented. From the same place." He looked at Dean as if he'd blow open the whole case.
"Well, Sammy, it's not as if there were lots of other places to choose from. This is a small place with a freakin' big lake."
"Yeah, but there could be a reason that it was those people. Like, if someone knew they were going to be out there before they were actually out there, they could just wait for them."
"Whatever. I don't see that as much of a connection, but at any rate, we need to go. We're going out on that boat tomorrow." He got to his feet again and waved for Sam to follow, but stopped at the door to cough roughly, which brought on a sneezing fit. Hissing, Dean eased himself into the plastic chair right by the door. "Damn..."
If Sam hadn't been listening, he wouldn't have caught the complaint. "You gonna live?" He handed Dean the tissue box and waited for him to blow his nose again.
"Not dead yet." Dean forced a smile and got back on his feet, albeit somewhat slowly.
"Yet being the operative word." Sam muttered to himself, following Dean out the door.
For the third time in two days, Dean set foot in the small store. Sparrow, who had been cleaning the windows, took a few seconds to watch him, her keen eyes glowing, before she showed herself. She smiled at him. "Just can't stay away, can you, Dean." Her voice was relaxed and showed no sign that they had parted ways in anything but the best of terms.
"How's that? oh, yeah." He smiled back, more than willing to let bygones be bygones. Holding up a finger, Dean cleared his throat painfully before trying to really talk. "Well, you know, this is the only store around. I'm actually looking for earplugs."
A puzzled frown crossed her face. "Earplugs?"
"Yeah, my little brother, he seems to think I snore at night. Says he can't sleep."
"I see. The earplugs are right down there, next to the car air fresheners."
"Air fresheners? Huh, I wouldn't have found them in a million years." Dean flipped through the display, finding the most obnoxious color of pink, then took them up to the front and tossed them on the counter. He tried to summon his best "Lady's Man" smile, but set himself to coughing instead.
A tall figure stood at the door. "Dean, you rent that... damn..." Sam was at his brother's side quickly.
Sparrow gave him a small, false smile. "You must be his brother. I thought you'd be younger."
"Has he paid yet." Sam sounded rather exasperated and rolled his eyes. Dean seemed to have trouble forgetting that he was a grown man.
"No, Sammy, I didn't pay." Dean leaned against the counter top, catching his breath.
"Okay then, add a bottle of water to this, and we're gonna need to rent a boat for tomorrow, please."
An eager look flitted over her pretty face, making her look greedy, almost evil, but Sam was too busy keeping an eye on his brother to catch it. "Really? What time?" She had the boat log out quickly, and was leafing through it. "I need you to fill on of these out, if I can find it."
Dean's eyes grew huge as he focused on her hand. He took a deep breath, but didn't disturb Sam while he was writing. Instead, Dean fished out his own credit card and handed it to her. "Thanks. you ready to go, Sammy?"
"Um, yeah." He took the receipt, which he was to give to the man at the boathouse when they got there. "Dean, if you really feel the need to call me that, can't you at least wait until we're out of public?"
"Let's go, Sam." He sniffled and fairly collapsed into the passenger seat. "That Bird-like bitch! What the hell?!"
"Um, actually I think 'What the Hell' is my line. As in what the hell are you even talking about, Dean?"
Dean covered his mouth with his hands and went into another sneezing fit, which only seemed to make him more agitated. When he was done, he sniffled and gave his brother a weak glare. "You can't tell me you didn't see her hand, or rather, the feathers above her hand. They were under her sweat shirt."
"Bless you like a million times." Sam's voice was very worried and he reached to feel Dean's forehead again, only to be shoved off, again. "We're gonna get you back to the motel and you're gonna go right back to bed. You're... what... seeing things now?"
"I am not seeing things, Sam, I swear to God, I'm not."
"Okay, Dean, you're not seeing things. Just try to relax."
"Will you stop treating me like I'm six years old and sick in bed? I went along with you about this whole crazy Siren thing to start with. How was I supposed to know it was gonna get very real? Just, listen to me, will ya?" There was something almost urgent in his voice.
Sam blinked, then nodded. "Okay, Dean, I'll listen to you, but you have got to lie down and take it easy while I do, deal?"
Dean sniffled, all the fight seeming to go out of him in one blow. "Deal." He unlocked the motel room door and sank down on his bed, rubbing his aching eyes. "You said that in some legends, they can turn from bird to chick, right?"
"Yeah." Sam busied himself by digging through the toiletry bag, looking for the thermometer.
"Well, they can, or at least, she can. She had feathers, Sam. I know it sounds crazy, but I swear to you she did."
"Feathers? So you said, but Dean, if she could change the way she looked, why didn't she change everything?" He found it and sat on Dean's bed.
"Get the hell away from me with that thing, Sam. I'm not delirious, I'm not even that sick."
"Can you just... damn it Dean, can you just let me find out for sure, please?"
"Will you believe me if I let you?"
"It would help."
Dean leaned against the head board and let Sam take his temperature, scowling up at him as he did so. "Well, am I healthy enough to trust my own eyes?"
His brother nodded, almost reluctantly. "Yeah, you're warm, but you aren't raging fever hot yet. Alright, so we have a good idea as to who's doing it, now we need to go stop them."
"That's an easy one, Sammy." Dean tossed the package of earplugs to him. "Those are yours."
"What do you mean, mine?" He threw them back. "I'm not the one who's wearing them."
Dean chucked them at Sam with more violence than was strictly necessary. "Yeah, you are. I'm gonna be the bait, Sammy."