If you've been waiting... sorry! This chapter took awhile to get right, even though I'm not sure I'm happy with it. But it is what it is, and after rewriting it too many times, swapping out sections here and there... I'm leaving it alone.
Hope you don't find Dean a bit too soft in this one. I'm trying to give him that balance where it's just enough to not make him too unlike how he might be.
Dean awoke to find himself in a bit of an entangled spooning position with Manda. He had one arm over her that was protectively holding her close to him, and her arm rested lightly over his. His other arm was stretched out across the bed and her cheek rested on it instead of on the pillow.
He smiled as he thought about how amazing last night had been, and how good this moment was right now. It'd been awhile since he'd had anything this good, and right now he wanted to relish it. He knew it wouldn't last for much longer, these kinds of moments never did.
Manda was warm and soft, and even though he'd only woken up to her handful of times, he missed it a little. If he was honest with himself, he wanted this to happen a bit more often if it could.
Dean had never had the urge to sneak out before she woke when he was with her, and he never would. And as much as he enjoyed the fleeting moments they shared that allowed for no commitment, he felt he could get used to this and her. They would have to work out something that let them see each other a little more frequently though. But while a part of him wanted that, he had his reasons for being reluctant to try it, and he knew she had her own too.
He lay there for a little and thought about much he cared, but how he kept it to himself, and how the feelings he had for her had only deepened a little more after last night.
He raised his head, and then slowly slid his arm from under her cheek to reclaim it. Manda moaned sweetly, and titled her head down more. Dean stopped moving briefly because the last thing he wanted to do was wake her since she needed the sleep she was finally getting. He was relieved to see she didn't wake up though.
Once his arm was free, he raised himself a little more to look at her. Manda was in such a deep sleep that he knew he wouldn't wake her at all. She had to have felt safe with him there, and known he'd told the truth when he had said he wouldn't let anything happen to her to finally let her exhaustion win.
Dean was finally ready to say the words he should have said last night then. It was easier this way for him, even when he knew it was wrong to do it while she was slept. The words were still hard to admit to, but if she had been able to say it, then he knew he had to too.
He bowed his head over hers. "I missed you too," he barely whispered over Manda's ear. He gave her a light, quick kiss on the top of the head, and then gently removed his arm around her.
Dean sat up completely and stretched. It was another day, and while it had started off better than a lot of them had lately, there were still answers that needed to be found for the woman he had just admitted a difficult truth to. But first he wanted to enjoy a shower in a bathroom he knew would be better than the ones he was used to, and pretend life was more like this for just another minute or two.
-
Chuch was making breakfast, and Sam was sitting at the table drinking coffee when Dean strolled in.
"I knew he'd come running as soon as he smelt food," Chuch joked as she dumped a pile of bacon on a plate.
Sam laughed.
Dean stole some bacon off the plate, took a good bite, and poured himself a coffee. "I could definitely get used to this."
"How do you put up with him, Sam?" Chuch asked as she placed a bunch of food on the table.
"I'm used to it," Sam chuckled.
Dean sat down and instantly helped himself to everything.
Sam and Chuch both watched him and tried not to laugh at the scene.
"What?" Dean asked as another slice of bacon hit his mouth.
"Dude…" Sam raised a brow at his brother, and looked at him funny.
Dean ignored Sam, and kept eating.
Sam and Chuch helped themselves to what they wanted then.
There was silence between them for awhile, each of them finding this a bit strange, and not knowing what to say.
"So… do we get to the business as to why we're all here or what?" Chuch asked.
Dean nodded. "Got any theories?"
"Nothing that sticks, so I guess it's back to searching for something today," Sam answered.
"Manda didn't say anything to you about it or remember anything else, did she?" Chuch put forth the question to Dean. She knew Manda might have been more open with Dean when it was just the two of them last night.
"She wasn't in much of a talking mood last night actually…" The satisfied smirk leaked through on Dean's face as he thought about last night for a moment.
Sam choked a little as the laugh escaped from his throat. Dean wasn't shy about his sex life, and apparently they needed to know that Manda wasn't that exhausted after all.
Chuch shook her head a bit, and held back the laugh at how open Dean was about some things, but so closed off about others. "Okay… so she didn't mention anything then, and I take it she finally let herself get some sleep?"
Dean nodded. "It took awhile, but trust me… she'll be out for quite a bit still."
"Then we'll let her rest since she needs it. So the question is… where do we start? We need to find out where she was first, and then what she did," Chuch said.
"We don't have much to work with. All we really know is where Manda was before, and where she found herself after," Sam spoke up.
"I thought about that… I'm gonna go through her phone and see what else is on there that she may have overlooked. One of you should take her laptop and see what she was up to before and during those days, and one of us should go through all her stuff she had on the road with her." Dean had worked out that this was the best bet at finding something that might be useful. It was also the area where in a panicked state of mind, Manda might have missed something small or not even realized it was there.
"I'll open up whatever needs to be on her computer, I know her passwords," Chuch offered.
"Open it up, I'll scan through everything on there, and you can go through her stuff." Sam looked at Chuch.
"Thanks for breakfast, Chuch." Dean had finished eating and got up from the table with his plate. He owed her the gratitude for cooking.
"No problem," Chuch replied.
Sam and Chuch took awhile to clean up before they got started.
Dean went and found Manda's phone. He scrolled through the call lists, and he let out a deep chuckle when he saw how he was listed in her phone. "Mr. Right" had called a few times in the past couple of days. Either she had done that for a laugh, which he knew was likely, or she was just that good at hiding how she really felt about him. He made sure he'd remember to tease her with it later.
But other than Chuch, a few other names he'd never heard her talk about, and a few random numbers, there wasn't much to go on. Most of the activity on her phone had happened prior to the missing days, and besides his calls during that time, there was nothing else.
There was nothing in her text messages, emails or even where the photos were either, so he didn't know why her phone had been on during the whole time if it hadn't been used at all.
Chuch had gotten Manda's laptop started up. She opened up whatever needed a password, and went through a little of it before Sam asked to check out the browsing history, things like the calendar, and whatever notes she might have kept on there for jobs.
Dean was digging through a bag he had grabbed from her room before he had come downstairs earlier. She hadn't bothered to unpack anything, and he figured she probably never did when she was home, because she never stayed here for long.
He was reaching for a few things out of the bag when Chuch came to help him. "Come across anything on the computer?"
"Sam's having a better look at it, but nothing so far. Have you found anything interesting yet?" Chuch laughed a little as she saw the look on Dean's face when he came across a lace bra and matching panties set before he put them aside on a small pile of clothes.
Dean cleared his throat. He wasn't embarrassed, but quite a thought had crossed his mind. "Uh… no."
"If that's all clothes, I can take over," Chuch offered.
"It's not, there's a bunch of books and some other stuff in here." Dean shook out a shirt and then placed it with the other few items of clothing that had come out of the bag.
Sam came into the living room where Dean and Chuch were. "So, she's got no browsing history for the missing eight days, which means she either didn't use it or it was deleted."
"Her phone wasn't used either," Dean said as he looked up from the pile of books he'd just put on the table.
"So she just vanished then?" Chuch asked.
"It's starting to look that way." Sam watched Dean as he flipped through books fast and waited for something to fall out.
"Aliens didn't take her, so she was somewhere. Is there anything else on there, Sammy?" Dean kept flipping through the books Manda took with her, a few novels, a few old books that had to do with things they hunted, and three journals. There was also a small lockbox filled with treasured items.
"Her calendar only had a reminder on it to call you this week about meeting up in about two weeks, but nothing else. I haven't started on her notes yet, she's got plenty of files though," Sam answered.
Dean held back the grin at learning she had been planning on asking him to meet up soon. "Get started then."
Chuch gave Sam the 'give me a moment' look. "I'll help you in a few minutes. She has a bit of a weird system for keeping track of things."
Sam nodded. Then he left to go back to the laptop and for another cup of coffee in the kitchen.
"Shit… Dean?" She looked over him.
"Yeah?" Dean looked up as he finished flipping through the last book, wondering what Chuch wanted.
"Two weeks from now, do you know what that is for Manda?" Chuch knew what was coming up soon. A month ago while working a job together, Manda had finally told her the secrets of her past, what had actually happened to her before they had met eight years ago on Manda's first job back into the hunting world after a year's attempt to live normally. And after she had learned the truth, a lot became clearer on why her friend was the way she was sometimes along with the way she dealt with certain things.
Dean tried to figure it out, but was coming up blank. "No…" He raised his brows at Chuch questioningly.
"Her parents… it'll be ten years." Chuch knew Dean knew the truth, and that he'd known it before she had. While that had pissed her off a little considering they treated each other like sisters, she saw how her friend looked at him.
"Oh…" That was all Dean could say. He had forgotten that was coming up for her.
Chuch got up, left to go help Sam look through Manda's computer and left Dean to continue doing what he was doing.
Dean sat there for a moment not doing anything. Manda had wanted to meet up with him during a hard time, and that would be saying a lot for her and what she felt.
He got up from where he was and went to get her revolver he'd agreed to look at for her last night that he had brought down with him this morning.
He walked out to the car and got the things he needed, then sat on the porch and started looking at what needed to be done to it.
Dean knew he should have kept searching for a clue, but right now he had to do this small thing for her first. It was routine and something he could focus on without thinking too much about the feelings that were getting a little harder to keep inside the more he learned about how Manda felt. It was also a small way for him to show he cared without having to say the words.
-
Manda felt the sensation of something scratching hard down her back, and heard faint whispering she couldn't make out in her ear. Her eyes shot open and she rolled over quickly ready to strike, but nothing was there.
Touching her shoulder first, and then her back, she didn't feel anything new there. At the moment the itching was gone from her scars, but they did have a slight tingle to them still.
Pulling the sheet tighter around her, Manda touched the symbol hanging from her neck, and assured herself it had just been the left over remnants of a dream that crossed over into the waking moment. She let her face fall into the pillow, tried to push the feeling of dread out, and wished Dean was still there beside her so she could go back to sleep since she was still tired.
Dean had taken care of her last night. He had definitely helped her with not thinking, taken care of the longing she had for him, and then held her close to remind her that she was safe while he was there. She had felt his protectiveness and his warmth. It had been easy for her to fall asleep then, knowing Dean was right there watching over her.
And that was what she wanted right now, to feel the security he offered as the dark feeling inside her held on.
Manda got out of bed wrapped in the sheet, picked his shirt up off the floor, put it on and did up most of the buttons. She tossed the sheet over the bed and then lied down on top since she was feeling a little warm.
It didn't take long for her to feel safe then. His shirt smelled like him, so did the pillow she had her face pressed into, and she could almost feel him beside her still. The slumber took her over again, and Manda was back to dreaming before she knew it.
-
Dean had fixed her gun, cleaned it, and then went back to digging through the stuff inside. He'd come up empty handed though, and went to check on Sam and Chuch who were still sitting behind Manda's laptop in the kitchen. "Tell me you found something, Sammy."
"Nothing yet… did you?" Sam asked.
"No," Dean sighed. He didn't understand why there was nothing that held a clue as to where she had been.
"Did you check her car?" Chuch asked then as she put on another pot of coffee.
"Yesterday…" Dean paused in thought. "But I didn't get to the trunk."
"She might have missed something in there," Sam said as he stretched in the chair.
"I'm going," Dean said as he left. He found Manda's keys where she had left them by the door, and caught a quick glance of the matchbook and lip gloss near them.
Once he had popped open her trunk, he searched around it first before he opened up the weapons arsenal that was similar to one in his trunk.
Everything seemed in place from what Dean remembered since he'd been through here once before. She had let him have a look through all her stuff the last time they'd seen each other, talking about weapons and what was best for getting certain jobs done.
He took his time and looked over all of it slowly.
No guns were missing as far as he could tell. He took out the two rolled up collections of daggers and odd knives she had, and started on those next. All the slots were filled for the first set. The second one had an empty slot though, but he wasn't sure if Manda had whatever usually filled the spot somewhere else or if she had lost it.
Dean searched around a little more, and then the flash of something way back in the corner caught his eye. He leaned in and pulled out the fabric that was shoved up behind the hinge. He felt the hardness it in instantly as he yanked it out.
The tank top in his hand was rolled up tight, so he unrolled it slowly not sure of what he was going to find.
The silver dagger was the perfect size for hiding in a boot. The blade still had blood on it, there was even a little on the pearly white handle too, and underneath it laid a pack of matches. The writing on the tank top had blood smeared on it either from the knife or from something else. He knew it was her shirt since she'd worn it the last time they'd been together, and that the dagger belonged to her too. It had the same handle as another one he'd just seen in her collection.
As for the matches, Dean had never heard of the place, and as far as he knew, she didn't collect them from bars or hotels. Then he thought back to what he'd seen inside on the table by the door, a pack of matches next to the tube of lip gloss, and his mind started connecting the dots.
Dean's jaw tightened and the anger ran through him as he thought about what this meant. Some bastard demon had used her to commit murder, probably like when Meg had possessed Sam and killed another hunter. He knew it as he stared at what was in his hands. He just didn't know the reason why, but he would have to find out quickly.
He knew Manda would want to make this demon pay for what it had done to her, especially if it turned out to be related to her scars like he had the feeling it would turn out to. Coincidence was rarely ever just that in their line of work, and how her scars had acted up before the possession and now after it – there was no way it was a random coincidence.
Dean knew it was all connected somehow, but he just didn't know how the scars fit in with the possession yet. That bugged him quite a bit as he thought about it though, and he didn't like it at all. His hunter instincts were telling him this whole thing wasn't over with yet, and he would make damn sure now that nothing else happened to Manda until it was.
He closed the weapons arsenal, slammed the trunk shut, and stood there for a moment.
Dean's sigh was heavy and hard as he wondered about how Manda would handle this and whatever else it was they were going to find out now that they had a place to begin tracing her steps from.
He rolled the tank top with the dagger and matches in it up a little, and then headed inside with what he'd found to get started on finding out some answers.
We're going to start getting to the mystery of the missing days...
Hope you enjoyed it. Comment if you will. If not, thanks for reading :)
