They had driven all the way to Bobby's in Sioux Falls without the girl's usual complaints. Dean thought maybe they would be worried about him telling them to leave again. He was never going to do that. Not now, not after he had seen what happened in the future. He knew he'd have to apologize properly, he just didn't know how. The girls walked straight up to their room, not bothering to give Bobby a proper hello. Bobby was just glad that everyone was alright.
The girls settled their bags on the floor of their room, they closed the door, and settled themselves on one of the beds.
"Do you think they know something's up?" Samantha asked.
"What does it matter? I feel like I can kick their asses anyway." Jess grinned.
"They still can't know, we have to protect him, so that he brings them back." Samantha said determined.
"Sammie, don't worry we'll be with them soon. He'll get his vessel soon enough. He is Lucifer after all." Beth tried to comfort her.
"What if he doesn't? What if we never get to see our families?" Samantha asked, tears brimming her eyes.
"Awh Sammie." Beth wrapped her arm around Samantha as tears fell down her cheek.
…
Bobby, Sam and Dean were downstairs in the study.
"What happened boys?" Bobby asked confused, the girls had walked in here and hadn't said a thing.
"I told them to leave okay, they deserve better than this life Bobby." Dean replied, upset.
"Then…" Bobby started before Dean cut him off.
"I'm not finished, look I knew they wouldn't just leave. I told them that we had looked after them because we had to. That Cas... made us do it. Which is true just by the way." Dean took a deep breath before he continued. He knew Sam and Bobby weren't going to be happy about this. "I told them that it was my fault that their families were dead, and that I had saved them because I felt like I had to. I told them that we didn't care about them, that they weren't our family, just some girls we helped out."
"You-" Bobby began, unable to get the words out. "You did what!?" Bobby yelled, his anger rising. "You go up there, and you tell those girls the truth. Those girls are your family. You are all my family. Those girls deserve better than you being an idjit."
"I'm sor-"
"Sorry ain't gonna cut it boy. Those girls are hurting. You boys know better than anyone what it's like to lose your family bloody. Those girls haven't just lost their parents, they've lost their brothers. How do you think Sam felt when he lost you? Huh? And then you went and made them feel like they had lost the only people they had beside each other. Get your stupid ass upstairs, and take them wherever they want, get them whatever they want, and you apologize, you bloody apologize till you can't apologize no more." When Bobby was done, he was breathing heavily. He stared at Dean expectantly. Dean gave Sam a glance, who was just staring at him sadly, before he turned back at Bobby. Bobby gave him another look. Dean turned around and left, going to the kitchen. He grabbed a bottle of whiskey, downing a glass before sighing and walking upstairs.
He knocked lightly on the door, hearing quiet whispers cut off instantly.
"Uh, girls, do you… uh…" He began, not sure what to say. He heard someone stand and walk to the door before opening it.
"What do you want Dean?" Jess asked, her head peering around the door.
"Do you girls wanna go to the uh... mall or something?" He asked awkwardly, thinking of the few times they had taken them to the mall, and they had seemed to enjoy themselves. Jess stared at him confused, before she opened the door fully, showing Samantha and Beth huddled on one of the beds. Beth was clearly comforting an upset Samantha. Dean's heart broke slightly, he knew he was probably the cause of her pain, and he hated to see her upset. He knew she struggled a lot with losing her family, especially her brother. He had talked to her on her nights when she woke up with a fright, while he stayed up on watch. Jess turned to Beth, knowing they had heard Dean's question, and gave her a questioning look. Beth nodded and looked down at Samantha who was wiping her eyes.
"Sammie, you wanna go to the mall?" Beth asked quietly. Samantha nodded, getting off the bed.
"You girls want some time to get ready?" Dean asked, knowing the girls hated people judging them in public.
"Nah, who cares about other people anyway." Beth muttered, grabbing a small bag. "Besides I'm super hot" Beth winked at Dean as she walked past him, the other two following behind her, amusement on their faces. Dean stared after them for a minute confused before he heard them yell.
"You coming hot stuff?" Beth yelled from downstairs. Dean quickly composed himself, and headed downstairs, telling Sam and Bobby he was taking them shopping before he went outside and jumped in the Impala.
….
Dean and the girls arrived at the mall shortly after. The car ride had been silent.
"You girls can get some new things if you want, we'll go wherever you want." Dean smiled at them, showing he was being nice, expecting that they'd be happy to finally go to hot topic. The girls all turned to look at each other, their expression cunning.
"Thanks Dean." They all spoke at the exact same time. The girls had done nothing but act strange ever since they got back, and it worried Dean immensely. He didn't want them to lose who they had been, the girls he knew and loved. He hoped it would go back to normal soon, as annoying as they could be, their fighting and complaining often made him smile. It was so normal, so far from the monsters and demons and angels. It was family banter, and he loved it. They all piled out of the Impala, and Dean followed the girls inside.
The girls walked around the mall, looking at all the stores. Dean was surprised as they made their way past hot topic without batting an eye. The girls walked into a store, and it took Dean a moment to realise he had followed them straight into Victoria's Secret. His face immediately turned to terror.
"Um, girls…" Dean began. They all turned to look at him, seeing the expression on his face, they all laughed.
"Can't handle some bra shopping Dean?" Samantha asked before cracking up laughing. He changed his expression, putting up a mask of confidence. The girls continued to laugh as they looked at various garments. Dean somewhat awkwardly followed them. Samantha picked up a navy lace bra and panties. Beth was over looking at some corsets holding up a black lacy one. Jess found some red baby dolls that she liked the look of. Whilst the girls were trying things on Dean stood awkwardly by the changing rooms waiting for them to come out.
"Excuse me sir?" A woman who obviously worked there said as she approached him "Is there a reason you're in here you're making our shoppers uncomfortable" she stated bluntly.
"Oh uhm I'm just waiting for my little sisters," he said the lie sliding out of his mouth.
"Would you mind waiting outside?" The women asked folding her arms.
"I'm paying for their stuff" he said quickly. Although there was no threat for the girls anymore he still felt uncomfortable leaving them alone. He'd spent around half a year always having them by his side always protecting them that leaving them alone in a shop just felt wrong.
"Dean just give us the cards, we'll meet you at the food court" He heard Beth say. Dean and the women turned around to see the three girls standing there topless wearing different push up bras.
"Oh er yeah good idea" he said taking his wallet out of his pocket and handing it to Beth. He felt uncomfortable seeing them in such provocative lingerie; they were his sisters and it was weird.
"Oh my gosh they look amazing on you!" The woman gushed "how's the fit?" she asked walking towards the girls as Dean hurried out of the store relieved to be out of there. The girls finally made it to the food court about an hour and half later laden down with bags from various stores.
"Thanks Deanie" Jess said smirking as Beth handed him back his wallet
"Thought you were just going into the one store" Dean stated gesturing to their many bags.
"We needed clothes as well" Samantha said.
"Right well we need to get some food then we'll head back" he said standing up
"Can we go put our bags in the car first? They're heavy" Jess said pouting. Dean sighed and headed in the direction of the car park. The grocery shopping went off without a hitch until they reached the hygiene aisle where the girls happily and carefree chucked tampons and sanitary towels into the shopping cart.
"Uhm" Dean said unsure of what to say for some reason it had never come up that the girls would need these things.
"We are women Dean, we have needs" Jess said
"Yeah we usually go get them ourselves" Samantha stated
"Got a problem with it? Get Cas to have a word with his dad" Beth said smirking causing the other girls to snicker. Once they paid for all the groceries they all piled into the car and headed back to Bobby's. Dean couldn't help but wonder what was going on with the girls, they weren't themselves. Surely this wasn't because he had betrayed them? This reminded him, he would have to apologise. Should he do it now, while they were in the car, or once they had arrived at Bobby's? He thought it was only fair to wait till they arrived at Bobby's, that way, they would be able to escape him. They pulled up in the Impala, the girls grabbed all their bags and headed inside and upstairs. Dean got out of the car, walking slowly up to the front porch. Bobby rolled in his wheelchair up to him.
"You apologise yet boy?" Bobby asked.
"Geez Bobby, cut me some slack." Dean replied walking past him and up the stairs.
"I'll cut you some slack when you're dead." Bobby yelled after him. Dean ignored Bobby's comment, and walked up to the girl's room, knocking on the door.
"Hey girls can I talk to you for a minute?" Dean asked through the door. He heard footsteps approach and the door swung open, revealing the three girls in shirts and underwear.
"Sure" Samantha smiled, standing by the door.
"Um, you girls wanna…" Dean began, feeling rather awkward.
"Put some clothes on? No, it's hot, and we were uncomfortable." Beth finished for him.
"Right well uhm I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for what I did to you girls, I didn't mean any of it. Of course you're my family, I wasn't protecting you because I had to. I was protecting you girls because I wanted to; because I love you" Dean said
"That's nice, dear" Beth said. Dean sighed and looked at the other girls. They both still looked angry, sadly he turned and walked out of the door.
"I tried, Bobby, they're not having it" He said sitting down glumly and opening a bottle of beer.
"They'll come round, Dean, I know they will" Sam said patting his older brother on the back.
….
"Remind me why we agreed to come back?" Jess asked after Dean had left.
"Because they can't realise that something is up, plus we need the protection." Samantha replied, having closed the door, she sat down on one of the beds.
"But we could kick ass anyway." Jess pointed out.
"Look Lucy said it was best if we were with them…" Beth said it with disgust, throwing her head back in a gesture that said 'those guys out there'. "...whatever he meant by that." She added shrugging her shoulders.
"Besides Jess, they're hot… well not Bobby, and we get free stuff, like clothes." Samantha pointed back to their many bags of clothing they had brought earlier with Dean. He had clearly done it because he felt bad, and the girls had taken advantage as soon as they realised.
"Okay I can live with that. Anything for Lucy right." Jess smirked. This had benefits for them "Okay ya bitches, I bags the shower." Jess said standing up and walking out of the room.
"Fuck you." Beth muttered, falling back on the bed. Sam came up a while later, asking if the girls wanted to cook dinner. Not wanting to alert the boys they agreed. Truth was they couldn't care less, they would have happily binged on whatever later. Dinner was an awkward occasion, no one really making any effort to talk. As soon as the girls had cleaned up, they took off to their room.
"Is it just me, or is something not quite right with them?" Dean asked, opening another beer.
"They're probably just worried about getting to close to you, just for you to chuck them out again." Bobby muttered, still mad at Dean for what he had done.
"Bobby's probably right Dean." Sam agreed with Bobby.
"Look, just you boys be nice. Especially you Dean. They'll come around." Bobby ignored their comments. "Just keep an eye on them." Dean sighed, taking his beer and walking outside to get some fresh air. Sam followed him out a few minutes later.
"Dean-" Sam begun before he was cut off.
"I'm telling you Sam, something's not right." Dean interrupted.
"Okay so maybe you're seeing something we're not, what happened while you were out?" Sam questioned, not wanting to argue.
"I told them they could go to whatever shops they wanted. We go into the mall, they completely bypass the shop they've been begging to go into for months…" Dean really emphasised this point. Sam furrowed his brows, this confused him slightly too. "And then they go and drag me straight into a friggin lingerie store."
"They what?" Sam asked confused.
"Exactly my point Sam. When have those girls ever been comfortable enough in front of us or any guy for that matter to go in bloody Victoria's Secret? I mean they're like sisters it's just weird. And then the sales lady comes over and asks me to leave and they walk out half..." Dean couldn't finish that sentence, but Sam understood. "And in case you didn't notice, they gave no shits about their appearance. Beth said she was hot anyway and then proceeded to call me hot stuff when I asked if they wanted time to get ready" Sam thought about it for a minute.
"I mean it does seem a bit weird Dean, but when have those girls ever made sense. I mean you said it yourself ages ago, they fight, and then they're fine. Maybe you kicking them out and them being alone made them realise something."
"And what would that be?" Dean asked not believing a word of it.
"I dunno, maybe that they have to love themselves because they thought no one else did. Maybe they've shut out what other people think about them because they don't want to know anymore. You could almost look at it as a good thing you know, they're… finally confident in themselves." Sam finished. Dean was looking like he didn't quite believe it. "Are you really going to criticise them for that? Because they're not who they use to be? They're still the same girls Dean, like Bobby said, they'll come round. We just gotta show them that we care."
"And how are we gonna do that? Because they don't seem to be having anything of what I've got to say." Dean asked, giving in, maybe Sam was right. Wouldn't stop him from keeping an eye out though.
"Spend some time with them, bond over something, maybe we can spend a couple of days before we start hunting Lucifer, I mean Bobby can keep an eye out for us right. We could take them somewhere. It's not like they've really had the chance to enjoy much of the country." Sam suggested.
"We can't just take time off from hunting the devil, we have to find the colt. Cas says it still exists. It's our best shot." Dean argued.
"Okay, we'll see if we got any leads, but any spare time we have, we gotta make it up to them." Sam, not wanting to argue anymore walked inside, leaving Dean outside by himself pondering.