Chapter 14: No Place Like Home
Lebanon, Kansas was a small peaceful town, which sat at the crossroads of America. It was home to just over 200 people. Of course this meant that the community was tightknit, and everybody knew everybody.
Or more importantly, everybody knew everybody else's business – both good and bad.
The bunker had been part of the town for as long as anyone could remember. One said his father had been there when it was built, sometime in the 1930s. It had been abandoned for almost as long. There were a lot of rumors about the bunker and the people who'd originally lived there. But that's all they were, rumors.
Until the Winchesters moved in.
It came as quite the surprise when suddenly there were people living in the bunker again. Two boys who kept to themselves. A third came, who was always in a trench coat no matter the weather. In years they'd lived there, others passed through, though none really came into town or stayed long enough for the town to know them.
Overall, the inhabitants mostly kept to the themselves, which of course fueled the rumor mill.
Everyone by now knew the names: Dean, Sam, and Cas.
Little else was known. Except that they were a tad odd, wore a lot of flannel, liked old cars, and ate junk food. They were friendly enough if you happened upon them, but by no means were they social. To the rest of the town, these newcomers were separate and apart. Never quite becoming part of the community.
Then a werewolf came to town.
Like the rumors and legends of the bunker, the residents of Lebanon had their fair share of stories of monsters. Probably more than most towns, because of the past residents of the bunker. Luckily, one of those stories said the people of the bunker hunted the monsters. So the residents held a town meeting and the preacher was requested to go get help. And like that, the werewolf was gone, the Winchesters took care of it.
Life resumed as normal, except the town started to gather the legends and stories, started to retell them, this time as histories instead of tall tales. And the town welcomed their newcomers as members of the community, even if the Winchesters never knew about the difference. But there was one. People on the street smiled more openly and waved when they saw the Impala pass. The town store started to stock more…. interesting items. And a heck of a lot more salt.
More recently, the residents had seen a woman and a teenager. The people of Lebanon liked the two newcomers, as they came into town more regularly and were a bit more open to chatting.
It had been several months now, and Riley had been into town at least once a week. She'd gotten fairly familiar with a number of residents, and those she didn't know still treated her kindly.
It was a quiet Thursday evening that found Riley heading to town once again. The day was grey and cloudy, so it made a decent day for errands.
She had just gotten to town, and the wind whipped her hair about as she scrabbled to the store. Upon entering Ladow's Market, the bell gave a jaunty jingle announcing her presence. The two other customers glanced up and offered her smiles. The man behind the counter, Eric, greeted her. "Riley, good to see you. No nephew with you this time?"
"Good to see you as well. And no, Jack's out with his dad." Riley said as she grabbed a basket.
She had found that the people in town liked to talk, and Riley had never been one to avoid police conversation. So she hadn't really been thinking when she'd engaged with the people she'd come to know. Of course this had led to several lies. Sam had agreed they were necessary, because there was no easy way to explain any of their actual relations. Dean had groaned at the complications of it. Not that any of the lies were that far from the truth…. But he didn't like trying to keep up with them.
What the town now knew about the inhabitants of the bunker was that Dean, Sam, and Riley were siblings. Cas was Jack's father, and Gabriel was Cas' brother. How she was Jack's aunt…. well, no one had actually asked her that directly. But the town had an inclination that one of her "brothers" had a relationship with Cas. Cough. Dean. Cough.
Jack was more than happy to claim the lot of them as his family. So he had no issues keeping up the rouse.
"So, are your brothers off doing the Lord's work today?" One of the other customers, a 60-year-old woman by the name of Mimi, asked as Riley was pursuing the produce section.
Riley gave a soft chuckle, "They're doing what they always do."
"Mhm." Mimi clucked at her, "Make sure they know that my Shep can stitch up anything." Riley had come to learn that Mimi's husband was a retired doctor, who ran a small clinic out of their house.
"Thank you. I'll remind them."
"You should pick up some of this." She was holding a box of stain remover. "It's the best for getting blood out of clothing."
Riley offered a somewhat strained smile "I've got some at home."
It was weird. Or should she say, still weird. The first time Riley realized the town was aware of their situation she'd been a bit shocked. She'd run into the local pastor at the gas station. He'd said he prayed for her and the boys, and that if they ever needed help with exorcisms he had some reference books that might be helpful. Riley had thanked him and promptly gone home and confronted Sam about it. Sam had shrugged it off. Apparently, he hadn't really considered what the town thought about them.
Riley now did. And she'd learned that the town was aware of their comings and goings. That everyone knew what the Winchester's did for a living and were thankful for it. Further, they offered advice, even though they all played this cat and mouse game of never directly speaking about it. So Riley did the same, never admitting or denying exactly what she knew.
It was a bit odd. But she figured it was better than the citizens trying to run them out of town.
"Do you need another pound of salt?" Eric asked. "I got some of the larger grain stuff that'll withstand a bit of wind."
"Thank you, yes." Riley smiled.
"I'll deliver it if you don't have the car?"
That was one of the other things the town overlooked – the whole appearing randomly without any sort of vehicle. Sure some of them probably put it down as her being an avid walker, but others just smiled and offered to drop any big things back at the bunker for her. Riley wondered what they'd come up as an explanation for her sudden appearances.
"That'd be great."
The bell jangled again, signaling another customer. "Riley! Just who I wanted to see." It was Elenore Murtle, a 50ish widow. Riley had learned the sweet lady had the biggest crush on Sam.
"Mrs. Murtle." Riley greeted, "How are you today?"
"Oh, just lovely, dear." The woman fanned herself, "Though feels unseasonably warm."
Riley hummed, not really agreeing, and went back to looking at steaks.
"Anyway dear, I ran into the preacher and he said that if I saw you, to tell you he'd whipped up a fresh batch of holy oil. Just in case." Mrs. Murtle made it sound like she was talking about muffins - as if someone needing holy oil was a common occurrence.
"That's very nice of him. I'll pop by later." Riley said. She chatted amicably with both Mimi and Mrs. Murtle while she finished shopping. Eric offered to drop it all by later, but Riley took it all but the salt. It wasn't like she couldn't handle heavy things at this point.
Eventually she left the store, heading toward home.
As the days passed, Riley recovered and found she had more energy then she expected. She'd started sleeping less, like only five or six hours a night. This of course made her days seem much longer. And made her incredibly restless.
She had cut way back on her hours at work, as she was not in the office and was focused on being – as Sam put it – team captain. In other words, coordinating and keeping track of the ingredient list. Sure, she still did 20-30 hours a week of work, but most of it was done from the bunker.
She still cooked and took care of the errands. She also cleaned the damn bunker again.
She also trained. But there were only so many laps, so much target practice, and so many forms she could run through before she got fed up with doing them by herself.
And there were only so many hours one could waste on the internet.
All of this equaled a very stir-crazy and lonely Riley. Which was why she basically going to town once a week.
She'd gotten so used to spending time surrounded by one person or another from their little family that with everyone off looking for the ingredients or on hunts, she found herself lonely. She missed their pseudo-family dinners. Jack underfoot, dogging her heels. Castiel appearing out of nowhere. Dean's constant begging for pie. Sam appearing with something about what the lore said. Or Gabriel with a trick, a lesson, or if she was lucky, candy and flirty smile.
Heck, she'd even listen to Dean tell her how he killed Hitler again. Okay… maybe not. There were only so many times she could hear that story. Even if it made Dean puff up with pride.
Basically, she just missed the guys.
Even though Sam and Dean weren't looking for ingredients per se, they were still gone much of the time hunting.
On very rare occasions she went with them, but neither she nor they were confident in her abilities yet. Which wouldn't matter if they were facing something fairly straight forward, but they'd been hunting some pretty big bad things - mostly demons.
With no real leadership in Hell, there had been an increasing number of demons running around on earth, trying to rack up misdeeds. Castiel had mentioned there were around five factions vying for control. And by control, they meant death and destruction. So lots of black eyes about that needed to be sent back to Hell.
Her powers were growing, which was good, but Castiel said she was still what amounted to a fledging. Consequently she was restricted to basic hunts or trips when they went meet up with other hunters. No demons for her.
She was not unhappy though, as the fact they had faith for her to go on normal hunts was a pretty big step. Not that Riley had yet to actually see anything. Most of the time she was tasked with interviews and the safer stuff, leaving the actually fighting to the Winchesters. She hadn't actually seen anything supernatural up close and personal – excluding angels. Though, more often than not she stayed behind, since most of the hunts these days were demons… Hence it was the bunker for her.
Not that her moves were restricted to the bunker per se. She could still go out shopping and pop back to work once in a while.
But she missed Gab…. People. She missed people. Her people.
Still, she wouldn't complain. Everyone was working hard.
When the Winchesters were in residence in the bunker, Dean was on Riley's ass about her training. He did not want her to ever be in a fight and not be able to handle herself.
Today, Saturday, was one such day. Dean was currently putting her through the paces.
The thunk sound that resulted from Riley's fist connecting with the pad was satisfying. She smiled viciously as Dean staggered just a step.
Dean reset his bracing position and motioned for her to go again. Riley shook out her arms, curled her hands into fists and struck at the pads Dean held again. Dean thought she was progressing well and had added some new moves.
Although neither Dean or Sam were classically trained in any particular fighting style, they knew a decent amount. Thus she was being schooled in various self-defense techniques. Dean and she were currently working on some kick boxing forms.
Riley was finally getting a handle of the amount of force to put into punches. And with her growing angel strength it had been a steep learning curve. She'd actually managed to knock Dean on his ass a couple times.
The thunk of several rapid strikes sounded as she hit the pads in quick succession. Dean grunted as one of the blows made him shift back onto his heels again.
"Hey guys." Sam appeared in the doorway. "How's it going?"
"Better." Dean said. "She'll be able to kick both our asses pretty soon."
"That's me. Kicking asses and taking names." Riley pulled her arms over her head in stretch.
"You'll be hunter level in no time." Dean acknowledged. "Ready to take down demons and everything."
Riley wasn't sure how she felt about that. Although she'd come to terms with the angel thing, and she really really wanted to be an advantage.
Yet…she hadn't really reconsidered herself as an actual hunter. Sure she'd been out on a couple smaller hunts, and she'd vowed to get stronger and be an asset. But being termed a hunter made her cringe slightly. She'd not wanted to get to that point.
But stepping back and looking at her life objectively she was already almost there. And she couldn't find it in herself to be upset.
Things changed. Priorities changed. People changed. She could either run away or roll with the punches. And she had decided not to run.
After training, Riley hit the showers and washed the sweat away. When finished she threw on a cute top and shorts. She even took the time to apply a bit of lip gloss and do more than finger comb her hair.
She tried not to consider why she was spending a bit more time primping these days. She certainly didn't want to consider that she was trying to impress a certain archangel. But she was.
Even though Gabriel wasn't around much, Riley made as much as she could out of the time they had. Mostly they trained. Though flirting was a huge part of it too. She figured he really enjoyed that she could tease him as much as he teased her. Their banter had become almost constant. But Riley was slightly surprised that Gabriel never escalated things passed being flirty. Barring, the symbol on her wrist of course. But who counted that? 'I do.' She thought, but pushed the thought away quickly.
If he was as much a womanizer as Dean had said she would have expected Gabriel to jump on it… er, her, by now. Riley wondered if her skills were just that rusty.
She'd even started using the candy scented shampoo. And of course the bit of gloss and hair care.
Not that she was trying to entice him into making a move. But…. She wouldn't be upset if he did. And if he did, it wasn't like she was hoping he'd just jump her in the middle of the bunker, more like a date at some point.
Did angels date? Did angels do anything? She knew that Gabriel had been with Kali. So he at least had done some form of date like thing. It had been implied that they did other things too – ie Casa Erotica – even if Gabriel denied it was the real him. So, did anyone have any firsthand knowledge of this? Other than Cas and Gabriel, both of whom Riley would be too mortified to ask.
She knew Gabriel liked physical affection. Lately when he would sit near her, she'd begun playing with his hair. Running her nails through it. At one point, she'd tugged on it, mostly by accident. But oh he liked that.
As a new form of teasing she'd resorted to tugging his hair every time she walked by him now. His eyes would always snap to her, a slight darkening in them the only visible sign of reaction.
Well visible to everyone else. Also visible to her were his wings' reaction.
That had been a surprise. His wings seemed to reach for her, every time she got near. Or if she was near him, they would curl around her. But he never acknowledged it.
It was getting super frustrating.
Because damn it, she liked him. Really liked him.
Was it so wrong to hope that he might like her too? Even if he was an archangel, way out of her league, well… you couldn't blame a girl for dreaming.
Shaking off her thoughts, Riley found Dean and Sam in the war room. They both looked up when she entered and offered their unique versions of grimaces.
"Do I look that bad?" She asked, trying to survey herself.
"Not you." Dean qualified.
Now that she wasn't fawning over her own self image she noticed the boys were pouring over a map. "Got a call from another hunter, there's been a super suspicious death in Topeka, about four hours from here. We're the closest."
Riley hummed as she came around to look at the map. "Any idea what it is?"
"Supposedly a wraith." Sam said.
"We're going to hit the road here in a second. You wanna come, or okay here?"
She leaned against the table with her hip, considering.
"You can come, you're getting really good." Sam said.
"But if you guys need backup, won't you want the seats free for Cas or Gabe?" She hadn't meant to shorten the names, but they'd slipped out.
"Eh. It's fine." Dean shrugged.
"You guys need a bigger car." Riley offered, though she was joking. Dean's reaction was exactly what she'd pictured, he jerked back like she'd physically hurt him. And his face was hilarious, nose all scrunched up and eyes narrowed.
"Easy there Dean, she was joking." Sam offered.
Riley giggled, "Don't worry, I'd never really suggest you'd trade Baby in."
He nodded, but mock glared, "Damn straight."
"Let me go change."
Eventually the boys packed up and started to head out, Riley with them. She'd just been thinking how stir crazy she was, and so a touch of adventure would be good.