They drove for hours in silence. Well, there were bouts of small talk, but nothing about what was going on, or really meaningful, just about the songs on the radio and Dean asking if anyone was hungry. No one was.
Red looked at the backseat where Alice was laid down asleep. "She is dead to the world back there," Dean commented.
"Yeah," Red said, turning back to the front, "She always was a good sleeper. Even when she was a baby."
There was a moment of silence then Dean said, "Hey, um, can I ask you a somewhat-personal question?"
"Yeah," Red said, "Shoot."
"What's your real name?" Dean asked.
Red paused as if thinking on it, then said, "You promise not to laugh?"
"No," Dean said, really wondering now what her name could possibly be.
Red let out a sigh and said, "Valentine."
Dean didn't say anything for a minute. "Well," He said finally, "That's a pretty name. Not exactly one you hear a lot nowadays-"
"And this is why I don't by it," Red said, "Well, that and when I was a kid I got picked on for it. Especially around the actual day."
"So instead you chose to go by Red?" Dean ask, thinking that was just as bad.
"That wasn't my choice either," Red said, "People just started starting calling be that and pretty soon I figured I'd be stuck with one or the other, and in the end Red won out."
"Oh," Dean said, "Well as far as stories behind people's names goes yours is...interesting."
"Yeah," Red said, "That's one thing to put it."
"Why didn't you just start going by your middle name or something?" Dean said, "At least when you moved to Salem's Rock?"
"Because the ship had already sailed in Salem's Rock," Red said, "It's where I grew up."
"Oh, really," Dean said, "So that's your home town?"
"Yeah," Red said, "My parents passed on before Alice was even old enough to walk and my husband had ran out on me, I was stuck at a dead-in job so I figured, why not try a fresh start? Six years later I'm working two jobs, Alice had started asking questions about her pathetic excuse for a father like where the Hell he is, and to top it all off, monsters are trying to kill me!" She threw her hands in the air and slapped them back down on the leather apolostery. Then she looked over at Dean and said, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't unload all of this on you."
"No, it's alright," Dean said, "You've a stressful day. And between you and me, I don't know how I keep from losing it some days, and you said it yourself, I'm one of the professionals."
Red was quiet for a moment then said, "How'd did you wind up doing this anyway? This whole monster-killing thing I mean. How does someone get involved with something like that?"
Now it was Dean's turn to be quiet. "Well, " Dean began, "There are a couple of different ways, at least, in my experience. Sometimes by pure matter of chance people find themselves up to their eyeballs in this shit and for some reason once they're out come back for more, some have people they love killed by monsters and go after any of the son-of-bitches they find for revenge, and sometimes it's a family thing."
"And which one of those are you?" Red asked.
"Family thing," Dean said, not taking his eyes off the road, "Me and Sam are brothers."
"Oh," Red said, "Come to think of it, you two do kind of have a slight resemblance. Now I know why. "
That got Dean back to thinking again. Back to Sam. What kind of supplies was he getting? What was this plan of is and why would Dean freak out if he knew? "I really hope he's not gonna go off on his own and do something stupid," He thought.
"You okay there, Dean?" Red asked
"Me?" Dean said, snapping back to reality, "Yeah, I'm fine, I'm just thinking- just thinking about Sam."
"Why'd he stay behind anyway?" Red asked.
"Apparently," Dean said, "He's got some sort of plan to stop the monsters. He needed to stay behind to get some supplies."
"What kind of supplies?" Red asked, "What plan?"
"He wouldn't say," Dean replied, "Just that he'd call me when he got it together."
"Don't worry," Red said, "I'm sure he'll be find. He seems capable. The both of you do."
"Thanks," Dean said.
Red let out a yawn. "Sorry," She said, halfway through the yawn.
"It's okay," Dean said, "We've both been up for a while. We still got a little ways to go so why don't you get some sleep?"
"Alright," Red said, leaning her on the back of the seat, "but wake me up if anything important happens."
"Sure thing," Dean said, but Red was already asleep.
An hour or so latter they finally arrived at the bunker. "Red," Dean said, gently shaking her awake, "We're here."
Red jutted awake.
"We're here," Dean repeated.
"Oh," Red said in a haze of sleep. She got out of the car, and went to the back picking up the still-sleeping Alice. She followed Dean down the steps to the bunker door, as Dean unlocked it. "Wow," Red said, looking around at the inside of the bunker. Lying in front of her was a large room, bookshelves lining high-end wooden tables on a lacquered floor.
"How'd you find this place?" Red asked, incredulous.
"We sorta...inherited it, too," Dean said, walking through the library, "Now, come on. This way."
Dean lead Red to his room. "This is mine," Dean began, "Figured it'd be okay."
"I'm assuming it's not a good idea to touch any of the wall decoration." Red said, sitting Alice down on the bed.
"You assumed correctly, Dean said, starting to remove any mirror from the room. Any reflective surface at all, just to be safe. Once he was done he went to Red and said, "Alright, I'll be back as soon as this is over with."
"Okay," Red said, "Be careful out there."
"Don't worry," Dean said, giving her his best cocky smile, "We know what we're doing."
However, as he drove on back to Missouri, Dean became less and less confident. In fact, he was down right, anxious. It had been three hours since he and Sam had parted ways and he still hadn't called. "How long does it take to get supplies?" Dean though. And he still couldn't shake the feeling that Sam really hadn't gone to get supplies, the he was trying to ditch him and go off on his own to pull some kamikaze stunt that was going to get him killed. Dean couldn't stand it anymore. He grabbed his phone, dialed, Sam number and put it to the side of his head. "Dam it," He swore, when he got Sam's voice mail, trying to remain calm as he said, "Sam, it's me. I dropped Red and Alice off at the bunker and I'm heading back now. Call me when you get this."
Dean hung up and slammed down on the gas pedal.