There But For Grace
Chapter Eight
Episode Eight – Bugs
Waking up, the severe crick in her neck was enough to inform Grace that she'd been sleeping in the Impala again, not something she enjoyed doing. When she had fallen asleep they had been in south Missouri, but, looking out of the window, it didn't seem as though they were there any more.
Massaging the back of her neck, she leaned across the back of the front seat to look out of the windscreen. There was a light drizzle falling and she was surprised to see Dean and Sam through it. They were standing talking to a man at the front door of one of the few completed houses.
Curious as to what they were doing on what was effectively a building site, Grace clambered out of the car, turning up her collar against the weather. As she walked up the path, she just caught what the man in the suit was saying.
"Let me just say – we accept homeowners of any race, religion, color or… sexual orientation."
As Sam and Dean turned to look at each other in confusion, Grace couldn't help but smile as they finally caught the guy's drift.
"We're brothers," Dean told him firmly.
"Our father is getting on in years," Sam elaborated and Grace raised her eyebrows, knowing how John would react to that kind of comment. "We're just looking for a place for him."
"Great, great. Well, seniors are welcome, too." The man enthused before looking past them to Grace, who had reached the step. "Er – " he gestured towards her and the brothers turned around, surprised to see her standing there.
"Oh, this is Grace," Sam introduced her.
"Nice to meet you, my name's Larry."
"Hi," Grace replied, taking his outstretched hand.
"Well, come on in." He stepped back and they all passed into the hallway.
"My neck is in agony and it is all your fault," Grace hissed in Dean's ear as they walked through to the garden. He only grinned in reply.
Ahead of them, Sam began to question Larry about the house and area. Grace took the opportunity to ask Dean what was going. He explained quickly about the mysterious death and the bugs Sam had found down the hole. At the mention of bugs, Grace wrinkled her nose. Spotting her reaction, Dean smiled again.
"Oh, yeah, I'd forgotten about that," he looked delighted.
"Shut up, it was a freaking massive cockroach. Do not bring it up."
He laughed at her and went to catch up with Sam as a dark haired woman approached him.
"Hi. I'm Lynda Bloome, head of sales."
"Hi, I'm Sam," he replied, shaking her hand. "And this is my brother Dean, and Grace."
"Nice to meet you. I take it you are interested in becoming homeowners."
"Er, well – " Dean shifted uncomfortably on the spot.
Sam shot him a look. "Yeah, yeah, well…"
"Well, you couldn't have picked a better place. These would be fantastic homes in which to raise a family."
All three of them stared uncomprehendingly for a moment, before registering the shift of her eyes between Grace and Dean. Sam fought to hide a smile at the look of disgusted disbelief on Grace's face and consternation on Dean's.
"Right." Dean finally recovered. "Um… I'm gonna go talk to Larry. Okay, honey?" and, as he walked back towards the house, he slapped Grace on the ass. Her expression quickly changed to one of anger as she turned to stare after him, while Sam continued to fight his laughter.
Lynda's salesman's spiel quickly got dull for Grace and she let her attention wander, trusting to Sam to pick up on anything that might be useful. Glancing around the garden she was surprised at how out of place she felt, not that she generally spent that much time looking for a house, but still.
All the people at the barbecue were so normal, so white picket fence, so suited to these houses. It had been about five months since she had met Dean and John for the first time, but already her life before seemed unreal, like an out of focus dream.
The drizzling rain had stopped and, glancing up, Grace could see some blue sky through the clouds. Deciding she should at least pretend to be listening, as apparently it was her and Dean who were looking for the house, she turned her attention back to the sales pitch.
"Who can say 'no' to a steam shower? I use mine everyday," Lynda declared, smiling at them both. Grace managed to smile back.
"Sounds great," Sam replied, sounding distracted. Grace glanced up at him in surprise, he was usually the one who preached about concentration, and saw that he was looking at something behind Linda. Following his gaze she saw that crawling towards Lynda's hand where it rested on the table was a massive, hairy tarantula.
Her stomach plummeted at the sight of its slowly moving legs and she shivered as it grew closer.
Sam abruptly reached out for Lynda's arm and moved her gently out of the way. "Excuse me," he told her and she looked at him in surprise, but moved away to accost another couple all the same.
Before Grace could work out what Sam was doing, he reached forward and picked the spider up. This was the last straw for her and she moved quickly away, back towards the house, glancing over her shoulder every now and again, to check if the spider was following her or something.
As she reached the door into the house, she met Dean and Larry coming in the opposite direction. Dean caught her arm.
"Hey, Grace, what's wrong?" His mind had already to demons, vengeful spirits, vampires, werewolves and how long it would take him to reach the Impala and some sort of useful weapon.
"There is a freaking massive spider over there," she fought hard to keep her voice under control, but even the thought of it made her brush her hands over her arms and legs as she felt imaginary spiders crawling all over her.
Dean's dark, and maybe slightly paranoid, thoughts faded immediately and he smiled at her reaction, but Larry looked suddenly furious and went storming over to where Sam stood with a teenage boy.
"Matthew!" he called and the pair looked up. "I am so sorry about my son and his…pet," he apologized as Grace and Dean walked up to join them, Grace making sure to keep Dean between her and the spider at all times.
"It's no bother," Sam reassured Larry.
"Yeah, Grace is totally girly about stuff like that," Dean added. Grace reached out and hit him on the arm in annoyance.
Larry gave them a brief, tight smile and took hold of Matt's arm and began to lead him away. "Excuse us."
The brothers watched them go, while Grace looked around anxiously for any more bugs.
"Remind you of somebody?" Sam asked as they watched Larry yelling at his son. Dean raised his eyebrows in confusion. "Dad?" Sam said as if it should have been obvious.
"Dad never treated us like that," Dean replied, dismissing the comparison.
"Well, Dad never treated you like that. You were perfect. He was all over my case," there was a hint of sarcasm in Sam's voice, but it was obvious it still bothered him. "You don't remember?"
"Well, maybe he had to raise his voice," Dean conceded. "But, sometimes, you were out of line."
Sam drew himself up, hands going to his hips as he grew angrier. Grace's attention was drawn away from possible insect attacks to look with worry between the two brothers.
"Right." Sam agreed sarcastically. "Right, like when I said I'd rather play soccer than learn bow hunting."
"Bow hunting's an important skill." Dean replied forcefully, not wanting to hear Sam's problems with their father or his question's about John's parenting technique.
There was an expression of disbelief across Sam's face and Grace had the feeling that if this was allowed to spiral there would be some serious accusations made, and now was definitely not the time.
"Listen, can we go? I do not want to hang around here until the next disgusting, creepy thing attacks me."
They both stared at her for a moment before Dean shrugged and lead the way out of the garden, his shoulders still tense from what Sam had said.
Over the next few days the tension built still further, Dean continuing to back his father's philosophy of family before everything but taking it more literally and Sam proposing that Matt should do his own thing, not be cowed by his father's wishes. When they left Oklahoma, however, Matt and his father appeared to have made a break through, come to know each other better and become more accepting of the other and with that example before the Winchesters it couldn't help but effect their outlook.
Grace had missed a lot of the hunt, notably the most bug ridden moments, and there had been many, and she was happy to rejoin with the boys as they made their way north, having spent a couple of nights sleeping in a protective salt circle. She was happier still to find that they had somehow managed to sort through some of their issues at least, scraping the surface even if they hadn't managed to get beneath the water level to the hidden iceberg below. The mere fact that Sam acknowledged that he wanted to apologize to his father was a huge step.
Even with those developments, the atmosphere in the car as drove away was heavy, each occupied with their thoughts. Eventually, Sam sighed and, glancing at the other two, broke the silence.
"So?" he asked, as if he was prompting a conversation they had all been engaged in.
The other two shared bemused glances, before Dean asked, "So what?"
"So – where did you guys meet? What was the wedding like? Where did you go on honeymoon? How many kids are you gonna have?"
The rest of his questions were silenced as Grace grabbed him in a headlock from the back seat, scrubbing her knuckles over his forehead as he tried squirm away, attempting to defend himself through his laughter. Dean looked over them both with a smile, after delivering a cursory punch to Sam's arm, and reached forward to turn up the music as the Impala roared into the distance.