Chapter Five
Ivy woke to a ray of sunshine falling across her face and the strangest feeling that she wasn't alone in her room. She sat up, rubbing her eyes, and felt her heart stop when she saw Dean, now fully dressed, sitting in her reading chair with a book open on his knee and a tired frown on his face.
"Good morning," he said, raising his gaze to meet hers. "How did that sleeping potion work out for you?"
Ivy stared at him, dumbfounded and embarrassed as she scrambled to cover herself with her quilt. Not that there was anything indecent about how she was dressed: she was, in fact, totally covered by a ratty Iron Maiden shirt several sizes too big. Dean, in fact, had noticed it while she was asleep, and found himself approving on her taste in music as well as her taste in cars.
Charlie breezed in at that moment, her mood as sunny as the day outside. "Hey, did you sleep well? I hope your nightmare didn't – " She trailed off in shock when she saw Dean there. "What are you doing in here?" she demanded, voicing the question Ivy was still unable to ask.
"Before you try kicking my ass down those stairs, your house-faerie dog-thing made me stay last night." Dean shut the book and rose to his feet. "Now that you are here to save the day, I will be downstairs."
Charlie trudged across the muddy front yard towards the garage, already annoyed even thought it wasn't even ten o'clock yet. Life for the Griffin cousins was already stressful enough with the responsibility laid upon them both by their family legacy, not to mention their own personal problems. But after not even a day of dealing with the Winchesters and their guardian angel, Charlie felt as if her last intact nerve was fraying.
She opened up the garage and nearly decked Cas, who appeared from out of nowhere in front of her. A shower of expletives rained down on the Angel before Charlie regained her composure enough to speak.
"What the hell is your problem?" she fumed, her heart still racing.
"I don't understand," Castiel said.
Charlie stomped past him to get to her tools. She didn't have time to try painting a picture for an Angel. Her Ram was still in need of one last tune-up under the hood after her last trip out in it, and then one of the bikes needed major work. Besides, working in the garage helped relax her.
"Charlie, you can't expect to succeed if you do this alone," Castiel said.
Wrench in hand, Charlie turned halfway around to glare at him. "Don't tell me what I can and can't do," she retorted, brandishing the tool as if threating to bludgeon him if he didn't back down. "Ivy and I have been taking care of Pine Valley for three years on our own. Just as our family has done ever since we came here."
"I am only trying to guide you," Cas insisted. "I cannot make you do anything you do not want to do. But there is already too much at stake for you to not accept help."
Charlie slumped against the tailgate of her Ram, the weight of all the responsibility suddenly like an anvil on her shoulders. Castiel stood in front of her and put his hands on her shoulders, squaring them and making her look at him.
"Nobody is criticising you and Ivy," he said gently. "But you know just as well as I do that both of you are in danger, especially your cousin. It won't be long now before they realise what you are capable of doing."
"So what else do you do around here?" Sam asked. "Besides hunting and saving the town, I mean."
Charlie stretched and leaned against the front end of her Ram, wiping off her hands on a jaycloth. "We own the only garage in town. Brings in some extra cash."
"Not that we need it," Ivy quipped from under her deVille.
Charlie laughed in agreement. "We also pick up a couple of shifts here and there at the grocery and diner," she continued, "just to stay busy when hunting's slow. That's normally in winter when the veil is hardest to penetrate. Less Fey and their pets running around."
Dean was rather impressed, and perhaps even slightly jealous. They Griffin cousins had clearly been able to carve out a life for themselves that was relatively normal; it was something he'd tried but couldn't accomplish. Before any feelings of regret or sadness could rise up in earnest, though, he shrugged off the thought and tuned back to his Impala.
"So if you run the town's only garage," Sam began, "why is it that you're here on a Wednesday?"
"Well, it's not just us working there," Charlie replied. "Tuesdays and Wednesdays, Skipper Delahunty and Jamie O'Haurraughton take over so we can have a midweek weekend."
"Normally there's just one of us there anyway," Ivy added, "because of the hunting and all."
"Nice," Dean said noncommittally.
There was a question on his mind, though, and that question had been hanging heavily in the air ever since the previous night. "Why is it that you're able to live here, hunting as you do, without getting any unwanted tension?" he asked after a while. "I mean, how can people not notice?"
Ivy pushed herself out from under her car momentarily. She and Charlie exchanged one of their long looks, as if somehow they could discuss what to say without speaking out loud. Finally, she slid back underneath the car and replied, "It's a bit of a long story. Can your curiosity hold over 'til lunch?"
"Sure," Sam said quickly before Dean could huff and puff. He knew Dean was impatient to know what the hell was going on in Pine Valley, but his intuition told him that the girls weren't going to give into any pressure from either Winchester.
Castiel had been hovering around the garage, exploring things that piqued his interest from time to time. Occasionally he could hover around an open hood and an inquisitive hand would be shooed away from the motors.
Charlie slid underneath her truck and started tinkering around. Soon the only sound coming out from under the Ram was Charlie's frustrated grumbling punctuated by emphatic cursing.
"I don't think I'll ever understand why humans feel the need to swear on sexual intercourse and bodily functions," Cas murmured. "Are they really more sacred to you than anything else?"
"What?!" Ivy exclaimed.
Dean and Sam laughed in unison. It had taken them a while to get used to the Angel's observations about mankind, usually expressed in a way that belied his confusion without being immediately understood. That is to say, Castiel's way of explaining things didn't really explain anything.
"Cas has this…unique way of observing us," Sam said with a smile. "Just smile and nod when you don't get it."
"I resent that, Sam," Cas wheedled. "I try to understand humans and I just end up more confused. You don't help, either."
"Better get used to having him around," Dean said, passing by Ivy on his way to the sink. Instinctively, he nudged her toe with his as he passed.
Ivy, still under the car, froze for a split second as she felt Dean's boot tap hers. She shrugged it off quickly and tightened the last bolt she was securing before sliding out from under the car. "There we go," she said to nobody in particular.
"Fixed it?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah, should turn fine now." Ivy joined Dean at the sink to wash off her grease-covered hands. She looked over her shoulder at Charlie. "And yourself?"
"Argh. There's not enough oil reaching the pistons," Charlie growled, completely oblivious to Castiel lurking around the top of her hood. "I need somebody to loosen up the hose."
"Oh, I can get that," Cas offered. Before anyone could stop him, he reached in and pulled.
Charlie's scream split the air and everyone froze in place as she shot out from underneath the truck. They all burst into peals of laughter: her face and chest were covered in engine grease.
"Oh my God," Ivy wheezed, grabbing onto Dean's arm as she bent nearly double with laughter. "Oh my God."
"I said 'loosen' not 'disconnect'!" Charlie fumed, getting to her feet and stalking over to the cabinet where the garage cloths and towels were kept.
"I was trying to help," Cas pleaded.
"Just…just go sit. Over there. In the corner." Charlie's voice was so sharp nobody bothered trying to question her. Even Castiel did as he was told, and retreated to a stool in the corner farthest from her.
Although the day had started off sunny, just before lunch the clouds rolled back in and a wind shook the leaves on the trees. Sam had disappeared into his room, presumably to do some reading, and Ivy was upstairs, while Castiel wandered about the property and Charlie cleaned herself up. Dean found himself hunting in vain for a clean, warm sweater, but all of his clothes were in need of a wash. For the umpteenth time since arriving at the Griffins' he found himself wishing a little bit more that he, too, could enjoy the comforts of home while hunting.
Stop it, he told himself, kicking a shirt into his laundry pile a little harder than he intended. You've got more freedom than most.
Ivy padded across his doorway with a laundry basket. She backtracked a couple of steps, having noticed Dean in his room with a pile of laundry.
"Want to add it?" she asked, holding out the basket.
"Thanks." Dean scooped up his clothes and dumped them into the basket, then took it from her. "Lead the way."
They trooped down to the basement, where Ivy gestured towards a washing machine in the corner. "Detergent's in the top shelf," she said, opening up the dryer and removing a load of sheets and towels. "How's your room? Everything to your liking?"
Dean found himself smiling at this unexpected side of his host. "It's great," he said, crouching to open the front-loader. "It feels like heaven compared to the motels I'm used to." He chucked the clothes in by the handful and straightened up. "I feel kind of bad though." The words were out of his mouth before he could think.
"Why?"
He frowned for a moment, kicking himself mentally. "Well, we're kind of…invading your space, aren't we?" he started. Trying to lighten the mood, he added, "If you want to get rid of us, we do have a tent."
"Don't be stupid." Ivy flicked a sheet out expertly and started folding it. "We wouldn't let you do that." She paused for a second, then said, "Like I said yesterday, I'm sorry if we're a bit hostile sometimes. We're totally fine with you staying here. And don't mind us when we're in a snit. We're Irish. Tempers and all that."
Dean laughed. "If you say so."
They went back upstairs after they finished the sheets. "Can I put these away for you?" Dean wanted to know.
"Right there in the cupboard," Ivy replied, pointing down the hall. "Just put the basket on the floor inside the cupboard. Thanks." She wandered off into the kitchen as Dean put the sheets and towels in the linen away.
"It gets cold suddenly, doesn't it?" he remarked, coming into the kitchen a few minutes later. "It was such a nice day outside earlier."
"Welcome to Pine Valley," Ivy responded, up on her tiptoes as she tried to grab a teakettle from a high shelf in the cupboard. Dean came up behind her to get it down and made his way over to the sink to fill it.
While the water boiled away on a hotplate next to the stove, Ivy started removing food from other cupboards and the fridge.
"Soup and sandwiches alright with you for lunch?" she asked.
"That sounds great." Dean hadn't realised how hungry he was until then.
The scene that greeted Sam when he came down half an hour later made him do a double take. Dean was standing at the kitchen island slicing cucumbers and peppers while Ivy stirred a giant pot on the stove. They were laughing, Ivy having just told some joke whose punch line Sam had missed.
It was weird to see Dean looking so at ease in a domestic setting, Sam realised. Of course, Dean had settled into the domestic life for a year, but that felt like a lifetime ago. What had happened between then and now had hardened Dean so much that sometimes Sam felt as if he no longer really knew his brother.
"Hey there, good-lookin'. Whatcha got cookin'?" Sam sang, somewhat off-key, to announce his arrival.
"Hey yourself," Ivy replied. "Potato-and-leek soup with sandwiches. Assemble your own; Dean's almost done with the fillings."
Sam was impressed. He grabbed two slices of bread and started piling.
Charlie came in soon after, barefoot and clad in a pair of yoga pants and a tank top, her blond hair hanging in damp waves around her face. "Smells great," she remarked, sniffing the air. She joined the brothers at the island and soon everyone was assembling a sandwich. They moved into the dining room and sat down together.
"If I recall correctly," Sam ventured after everyone had started eating, "you owe us a bit of a story."
"Oh, yeah," Charlie and Ivy said in unison.
"Well," Charlie continued, "where to begin, but the beginning? Ivy, would you do us the honour? You're so much better at storytelling."