A/N: Here is the next update for you all! I am hoping to get a couple of chapters up during the weekend but can't guarantee anything.
Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural
Breathe In. And Out.
Natalie thought to herself as she exhaled and slowly inhaled another breath. Her body was bent backwards in the formation of a bridge. Dean and Sam had gone off to get some information on a case that Bobby had told them about. But, the past few days she had been having horrible back pains. That was due to the fact that she was thrown around by that demon back in Nebraska. This morning she could hardly stand up straight, prompting Sam and Dean to force her to stay at the hotel and relax. Though being the stubborn girl that Natalie was, she was determined to fix her battered back.
She had called Marina and asked for tips on how to lower back pain and she had suggested, stretching out her spine as much as she could. Hence, the reason Natalie was now currently in a bridge position.
Natalie inhaled and exhaled once again, trying to make herself as calm as she could. She was never a fan of doing anything like this, but she figured that she would give it a try. Natalie closed her eyes and continued her slow inhales and exhales.
The door to the room opened, Sam and Dean walked in only to raise their brows in confusion at the sight of Natalie. Sam closed the door as Dean slowly approached her.
"So, what did you guys find out about the case?" Natalie asked, her eyes still shut and her breathing remained calm and even.
Dean looked over at Sam, who shrugged, then turned back to Natalie. "Um, well, it was actually kind of weird. A dude who was in his mid-twenties—" Dean stopped in mid-sentence as Natalie began to lower herself halfway and then would push herself back up to full bridge. His eyes narrowed and his brow raised at the sight of this, "...um, he was in his mid twenties and died of old age."
Natalie exhaled a deep breath and continued pushing herself up and down. "Well, then. That seems like a weird case to me." Natalie said offhandedly, her mind completely focused on the task at hand.
Dean looked over at Sam, his arms raised in a questioning gesture before pointing down at Natalie. 'What the hell?' Dean mouthed to Sam.
Sam shrugged, though there was a huge grin written on his lips. Sam walked to Natalie and knelt down so that he was leveled with her. "Nad...um, what are you doing?"
"You guys remember that I have been having, really bad back problems the past few days because of that demon." Natalie lowered herself down and then back up, straining a small grunt. "Then this morning, my back was so bad I could barely move. So, I called Mari and asked her to give me some tips to help my back...and this was one of them."
Sam nodded and smiled at Natalie's response before looking up at Dean. His eyes then fixed back down to her. "And, how is it working out for you?"
Natalie smiled and let out a small laugh, "Actually, my back feels a hell of a lot better now."
Dean pouted his lips as he watched her. "You know, Nad, I never pictured you being, well, you know...this flexible." Dean's eyes widened at the realization of what he just said. Sam slowly looked over at him with an unreadable look.
Natalie had paused her pushing and opened her eyes, turning her head towards Dean. At first she gave him a emotionless stare, but then her face softened into a big smile. "Well, Dean..." Natalie lowered herself gently onto her upper back then pushed herself onto her feet. "There are a lot of things about me that you would be surprised about." Natalie grabbed her water bottle from her bed before looking back at him, "And I'm gonna take that as a compliment."
Dean smirked at her response. "Well then, I am glad that you take it as a compliment."
Natalie smiled, shaking her head, before taking a drink from her bottle. "So, what else have you guys been able to gather?"
"Well, we just visited a woman whose husband went missing. Found a clue that might lead us to him." Dean offered.
Natalie nodded, twisting her body from side to side. "Alright, do you guys think that the death and these missing people are connected in some way?"
Dean shrugged, "Yeah, Bobby thinks so. Wouldn't hurt to check it out."
Natalie hummed to herself and nodded her head. "Right, then. Well let me just get ready then we can head out." She picked up her clothes and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.
Sam, Dean and Natalie made their way down the corridor of Madame Liu's Golden Palace. Dean had found a receipt in the pocket of the man who was missing, during his visit with Sam to his home.
"Well, at least he's consistent. Same room every Tuesday, hourly rates." Sam spoke up.
Natalie looked around her, folding her arms across her chest. "Yeah, well, he may like this place. It makes me feel uncomfortable."
Dean smirked and laughed, "Yeah, you know what. Hope I got that kind of kick when I'm his age."
Natalie closed her eyes and cringed. "Alright, Dean I don't need that mental picture in my head. Besides, you got years to go before you reach his age."
Sam scoffed lightly, "Yeah, like either of us will live that long."
"True." Dean answered back.
Natalie looked between the brothers and shook her head. "Well aren't you boys just a couple of Debbie Downers."
The three of them come to the door that the man should be occupying. Natalie eyed the door hesitantly, not wanting to walk in and find an old guy...lying in a bed.
"What do you think's in there?" Sam asked.
"A wrinkly, gooey corpse." Dean answered.
Natalie scrunched her nose and bit her lip, "Mmm. Not really a sight that I want to see right now."
Sam walked towards the door, pulling out his lock pick kit and begins to work on the door. A man from inside suddenly begins to shout. The three of them look at each other, before Sam and Dean slam the door open.
"Hey! What the—"
They were greeted with the sight of a man, obviously naked, lying in the bed with a woman, who was barely dressed herself.
Sam's eyes widened. "Oh."
Another woman pops her head out from under the covers and Natalie could see the shocked look on her face. Both the women look at each other, before rushing out of the bed and run out of the room.
Natalie stands in place, her face frozen from shock and surprise. "That was definitely something that I didn't need to see."
"Sorry. Uh, got the wrong room...really sorry." Dean stammered on his words and turned around quickly, ushering Natalie out of the door.
Sam offers the man an apologetic smile and goes to leave when he notices something. "Hey." Sam notices that the man has a USMC tattoo that Cliff Whitlow had in the picture back at the house. "Nice tattoo." Sam said, walking back over to the bed.
Dean and Natalie walk back into the room just as Dean caught glimpse of the tattoo on his arm as well. "Happen to know anybody by the name of Cliff Whitlow?"
The man shakes his head, "Never heard of him."
Sam hummed and pouted his lips briefly. "Well, that's weird." Sam then pulls out an ID from the wallet that was in the man's pants. "'Cause you're carrying his wallet."
Natalie smirked and watched as Dean walked over to the bed, lifting up the covers to look underneath. "Huh." Dean then drops the sheets. "Your wife told us about your, uh, birthmark there." Natalie widened her eyes and her smile grew. She kind of wished that she had gone with them to the man's home.
Dean smirked."That's nice. Well, you look great. Cliff. Did you get some work done?"
Cliff shakes his head and looks over at the women who are now robed. "Could you give us some privacy?" Cliff gets up and puts on a robe, handing the women money. The women walk out of the room as Cliff closes the door.
He turned back around, with a hint of panic in his eyes. "Please don't tell my wife."
Dean raises his hands, "Slow down."
"I'm begging you. As far as she knows, I'm dead. For the love of God, let's keep it that way."
"How can you possibly be Cliff Whitlow?" Dean questioned.
Cliff sighed, his gaze falling. "I can't tell you."
Natalie scoffed, forming a slight annoyance towards him. "Well, if you don't tell us, then we will tell your wife about all of this. I'm sure she deserves to know what you've been up to these 'late nights'."
Cliff's eyes widened, "Okay! Okay! It was a game."
"Like...XBox?" Sam asked.
"What's Xbox? No. Poker. High stakes. Instead of cash, you play for years." Cliff answered.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Dean asked.
"Look, I know it sounds crazy. Guy comes up to me at a bar, invites me to play. Gives me twenty-five of these weirdo poker chips, right? Chants some mumbo humbo over them, says now they're twenty-five years. I'm laughing, but then I come out up. And look at me." Cliff motioned towards himself.
"What was he chanting?" Sam asked.
Cliff lets out a laugh. "How should I know? All I know is, my bad hip's good, I threw away my glasses. One of those ladies was here for free! Man's some kind of miracle worker."
Dean nods and looks over at Natalie and raises his brows to her. Natalie looks at Dean raising her brows and shrugging her shoulders. Dean looks over at Cliff, "What does this miracle worker look like?"
"Just a guy. Maybe thirty-five brown hair. Irish accent. His name was Patrick." Cliff answered.
"All right. Where's this game at?" Dean asked.
"He said he likes to keep moving. Never stays in one bar long. And he finds you." Cliff responded.
Dean nodded, "Thank you, Cliff." Dean ushered Sam and Natalie to the door. He then paused and turned back around to Cliff. "Oh, and, uh...stay classy. Cliff."
"It sounds crazy, right?" Dean asked into the phone. He, Sam and Natalie were walking along the street. After their little conversation with Cliff, Dean decided to call Bobby to give him the info they had received.
"No. There's lore on back centuries. Traveling card player pops into town. You beat him, you get your best years back. 'Course, most folks lose."
Dean hummed in response. "Well, that would explain the crunchy corpse."
"Supposedly, this player's hell of a card shark. Got a lot of years in the bank. You find the bar he's working in yet?"
"There's a lot of dives in this town. We're gonna have to split up." Dean said, looking over at Sam and Natalie who both nodded in agreement.
"Well then, why are you still talking to me?"
Dean pulled the phone away from his ear when Bobby hung up and put it in his pocket. He paused and turned to Sam and Natalie, "Alright, so let's split up and see where we can find this guy. Nad, you and Sam go and see if you can find him. If you get anything, call me."
Sam and Natalie nodded before turning and heading down the opposite direction. Dean stands in place for a few seconds, scouting out his surroundings. He let out a sigh before turning and walking down along the street.
"Find anything?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, a whole bunch of squat. What about you and Nad?"
Sam let out a tired sigh, "So far, not a thing. Nad is in one of the bars now, checking it out."
"All right. Well, you come up dry, circle back to the motel in two. Your turn to grab dinner."
Sam nodded with a slight roll of his eyes. "The usual?"
"Extra bacon."
Sam nodded and hung up the phone. He turned back around to the bar Natalie had gone in and saw her walking out. "Any luck?" Sam asked once she reached his side.
Natalie shook her head and huffed out a breath, "Nope. Completely clean in this bar."
Sam looked up at the bar and then around their surroundings. "Alright, well since we couldn't find anything we should head back to the motel. But, we have to pick up dinner first."
Natalie shrugged and stifled a small yawn, "Sounds fine to me."
Sam and Natalie turn and head down the sidewalk back towards the town. The walk was filled with nothing but silence between the two of them. But, with Sam, Natalie never felt she had to keep a conversation going with him. It was almost as if they could just sense what the other was thinking or feeling. She felt that way with both boys as a matter of fact. But, it was much stronger when it came to Sam. They both were comfortable in silence when they were together. It suited them perfectly.
Natalie gazed down at her wrist and began to unwrap the bandage that Dean continued to insist she wear. She had told him constantly that her wrist was a lot better than it was before. Certainly, better to the point she didn't have to continue wearing this damn thing.
Sam looked down at her messing with the wrap. "How is your wrist doing?"
"It's fine. Still a little sore, but not as bad as when I first got it." Natalie tightened the bandage's hold on her wrist and brought the end back around, clipping it in place. "Though Dean insists that I keep it on until the soreness is gone." Natalie said, the hint of annoyance was picked up by Sam.
"You know, Dean really acts like that annoying big brother." Natalie added causing Sam to laugh and nod his head.
"Are you just now figuring that out, Nad?" Sam asked with amusement.
Natalie smiled up at him. "I mean, from how long I've known you both. I have never actually seen him really baby you before. For example." Natalie smacked her lips together and thought for a moment. "Oh! Like that time when I had the fever. He was all over me with the whole," Natalie cleared her throat, "'You need to sleep' and 'Make sure to take the medicine I got you'." Natalie said her voice had lowered to mimic Dean's.
Sam laughed at Natalie's imitation of Dean's voice.
"Or, like that one time when Jake and I met up. Dean was acting like Jake was some kind of jerk that needed to get away from me." Natalie added. Natalie smiled at the thought and soon her face turned slightly grim. "You know...I haven't had someone act like that since, Andrew. I hardly got to experience that with him." Natalie folded her arms over her chest and sighed. "I guess it's safe to call Dean, my big-overprotective-brother."
Sam's amusement slowly diminished and his smile faded slightly. The whole incident with Andrew was something that was never brought up between the three of them. Dean and Sam would never think to initiate it and Natalie never wanted to talk about it. But, Sam felt like what happened with Andrew happened almost an eternity ago. Though really it has only been a couple of months. A couple of months.Sam thought to himself.
Sam slipped his hands into his pockets and looked down at his feet. "And what does that make me?" He asked curiously.
Natalie puckered her lips in thought. She looked up after a moment of thinking and gazed over at Sam, "You...are not really like a brother to me, but yet you kind of are. Confusing right? I mean with you, I just feel more...comfortable with. I feel like I can talk to you about almost anything, not that I can't do that with Dean. Just with you...I feel a lot closer with. You seem to understand me better."
Sam gazed at her with an understanding look. "That...actually makes sense to me." Sam broke his gaze from his feet and focused on what was in front of him.
"Good. It felt like I was just rambling on and on." Natalie answered with relief.
They both commenced once again into their familiar silence. But, something was poking at the back of her mind. Natalie several times would go to ask Sam a question but would stop herself. What did he think of her as? It was something that she was curious about and wanted to know the answer. Her mind was beating itself over and over again. One side was saying to ask the question and the other berating her from doing so. After what felt like an eternity, Natalie decided to leave the matter be. She didn't want to seem like she was prodding for answers to something she wasn't sure she wanted to know.
Even though they decided not to ask the question, Natalie could feel her heart begin to race. She gazed over at Sam, only to feel a sense of adrenaline rush through her. Natalie focused on her racing heart, trying to calm it down only to find a new unfamiliar feeling beginning to appear. The best way she could describe it was some sort of fluttery feeling that made it feel like she had 'butterflies' in her stomach. From her knowledge of that phrase, it meant that she was anxious. But there was nothing about this that would make her feel anxious.
This feeling of anxiety came right after she notice her heart racing. Perhaps, her fast working heart was causing her anxiety to rise. But, what about this situation would make Natalie's body to react this way? She spared another glance at Sam, noticing her heart increase it's speed, feeling like it would skip a few beats. Everytime she glanced over at Sam, it would only cause everything to work faster. This little experience was something Natalie had never had before and she had no idea why it was happening. Maybe if I don't think about it, everything will calm down.
Natalie and Sam made it back into the thick of the town and made their way over to a small restaurant. Sam opened the door, allowing Natalie to walk in first, then followed. Sam looked around and then down at Natalie, seeing a pensive look on her face.
"Hey, are you alright?" He asked, nudging her softly with his elbow.
Natalie snapped herself out of her trance and looked up at him, "What? Oh, yeah I'm fine. Just...thinking." Sam nodded his head skeptically and walked up to counter, leaving Natalie to her own bustling thoughts.
Natalie opened the door to the motel room and set down the takeout tray that was filled with burgers. Sam followed, closing the door, and then setting down the tray carrying their drinks.
"Hey, Dean? You find anything?" Sam called out.
"Uh, you might say." a voice answered.
Natalie picked up her soda and began to drink out of the straw, turning around to find an old man in a bath robe. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell agape, "What the hell?!"
Sam looked up to find the same thing and draws out his gun aiming at the old man, all the while pulling Natalie behind him. "Who the hell are you!" Sam exclaimed.
The old man raised his hands in an attempt to calm Sam. "Dude, relax. It's me."
Natalie's brows furrowed, her mouth opening more when she recognized the familiarity of the man before them. "Dean?" Both Sam and Natalie asked.
"Hi." Dean said with a unenthusiastic attitude.
Natalie and Sam side glanced at each other, not sure what to make of this. Natalie snapped her mouth shut and cleared her throat. "So, uh, Dean...what the hell happened?"
Dean fidgeted slightly, "I, you know...found the game." He then walks over to the table and picks up a burger.
Sam lets out a breath. "You f—I thought you said that you were good at poker."
"I am. Shut up. So, you were gonna shoot some old guy? Is that it?" Dean began to accuse.
Sam scoffed. "I didn't know what you were. I mean, have you seen you? You look like—"
Dean takes a bite out of the burger, "Yeah I know. I look like the old chick from Titanic. Shut up."
Natalie tilted her head to the side and pressed her lips together in a thin line. Her eyes gazed over at Sam, who shrugged in response. "I was gonna say Emperor Palpatine." Sam responded back.
Natalie tried her best to stifle the laugh that was caught in her throat and bit down on her lip, trying to rid of her smile.
The door opens again and Bobby wheels himself into the room. "I see you both have met John McCain there."
"Yeah. Either of you want to tell us what happened?" Sam asked.
"Bobby's an idiot. That's what happened." Dean offered.
Natalie looked from Dean and over to Bobby, curiosity laced in her eyes. "Hey, nobody asked you to play." Bobby retorted.
"Right. I should have just let you die."
"And for damn sure, nobody asked you to lose!" Bobby replied.
Sam and Natalie grin at each other, somewhat enjoying the back and forth bickering going on between Bobby and Dean. "It's like Grumpy Old Men." Sam said. This time Natalie made no attempt to hold back her laugh which caused Sam's grin to grow.
Bobby and Dean looked over at Sam, their eyes narrowing. "Shut up, Sam."
"What the hell were you thinking, Bobby? He's a witch. He's been playing poker since guys wore tights." Dean said, focusing his attention back on Bobby.
Bobby sighed in annoyance. "You just don't get it."
"Yeah, I get it, Bobby. You saw a chance to turn the hands of the clock back and get out of that damn chair. Pretty tempting. I can imagine." Dean answered back.
"No, you can't." Bobby defended.
"You got me. I never been paralyzed. But I tell you something—I've been to hell, and there's an archangel there wanting me to drop the soap. Look at me! My junk's rustier than yours! You hear me bellyaching?" A small gutteral sound soon began to emanate from Dean.
Sam's brows furrowed towards Dean, "Uh, actually, yeah."
Dean holds his hand up to his chest, "Oh!" He sits down on the bed, still holding the burger in his hand. "I'm having a heart attack." Natalie and Sam began look at Dean with worried looks.
"No, you're not." Bobby replied.
"What is it?" Dean asked.
"Acid reflux. Guys your age can't digest certain foods. You're gonna need to put that cheeseburger down." Bobby said.
Dean looks down at the burger sadly and then sets it down. "So, you want to keep emoting, or you want to talk about solving this little issue of yours? It's got to be about the chips."
"I slid 'em across, Patrick did his little witchy number, and you prettied up in a hurry." Bobby replied.
"Do you remember what he chanted?" Dean asked Bobby.
"Yep—every word."
"All right, then let's find out where he stashes his chips." Sam stated.
"And steal me fifty. Benjamin Button me back into burger shape. What do you think?" Dean asked.
"I think you ought to put some clothes on." Bobby retorted.
Dean walks out of the bathroom, now fully dressed, and goes to answer the door when he hears a knock. A young pretty maid with a cart is standing on the other side.
"Ready for housekeeping, sir?"
Dean grinned. "Born ready."
The maid smiled and laughed as she walked in. "You're just like my grandfather." Dean's grin fades quickly. Natalie pressed her lips and turned to look at Sam, giving him a wide eyed look.
"He hits on anything that moves, too." The maid said before walking past him into the room. "You're adorable."
"And dangerous." Dean added. The maid laughs again and heads back towards the bathroom.
Natalie had to bite the inside of her cheek to hold back her laugh. Sam and Bobby both look at Dean, huge grins written on their faces.
Dean glared at the three of them with annoyance. "Can we just go?"
Alright, another update! I actually liked writing this chapter. The beginning of this chapter and the little scene with Sam and Nad was really fun. So what did you guys think? How did you like the little conversation between Sam and Nad? Don't forget to leave me a review! Xx