Thank you all for your patience. I'm so sorry this update came so late. Thank you all for your continued support and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Chapter 30
After finding a truck that had better days, the three Winchesters piled in and drove back to the Roadhouse only stopping at a small convenience store for gas, snacks, restroom and to check on Christina's wound as she was trying her hardest not to complain. Sam walked into the convenience store and walked over to the small medical supply area and took a quick peek at her wound on her side and knew it wasn't life threatening but it would be hard to recover if it wasn't cleaned out and at least bandaged up before getting it properly fixed up.
"Why don't you go and get that cleaned off, and I'll do a quick patch up outside." Sam suggested grabbing a few supplies that were needed.
"Yeah. I'll be back." Christina nodded and headed towards the restroom and checked to see if anyone was inside. However, it was empty. She locked the door to keep anyone from walking in and took off her shirt to see the damage herself. She sighed as it wasn't bad but more of an inconvenience to her as it just was added to the other amount of scars and wounds she accumulated over the years. She didn't waste time and quickly washed the blood around her stab wound and carefully padded it dry with another clean paper towel before she put her shirt back on. She quickly tossed her bloodied paper towels and left the restroom. She spotted her brothers at the front near the cashiers and joined them before the three of them left.
"Alright lets get a bandage on those before they can get infected." Sam said, gently helping his sister with lifting her shirt, and Dean stood with his back to them to keep prying eyes off of them. "I'm glad it wasn't anything worse than this." Sam said after pressing down on the edges of the bandage to keep it from falling off. "But I think we should get on going."
"Yeah." Dean said, clearing his throat as he was fighting the sleep from his eyes. The adrenaline was wearing off, and his body could feel it.
"Want me drive?" Christina said, seeing how tired her brother was starting to be. "This wound won't let me relax long enough to do anything. But seeing how small the truck cabin is, none of us would get comfortable."
"Hey, it's a warm night," Sam said with a shrug. "I'll lay in the bed and just stay down low to not draw attention.
"No, none of us will be in the bed, and I will drive." Dean said as they walked back to the truck. "It's only a couple more hours, and I'm certain the truck drives faster than that van. So I'll be fine."
Christina and Sam looked at each other and figured they were all too tired to argue and settled into the cab, with Christina in the settled back into the driver's seat, and they pulled off. He glanced at his siblings after a couple of minutes to find Sam laying his head against the window, and Christina had settled with laying her head on Dean's shoulder. He couldn't shrug her off as she wasn't in the way and simply settled back into his driving groove.
~DSCWIN~
They arrived shortly after sunrise as Dean decided to pull over and catch a few z's himself and stopped the car in front of the Roadhouse. Dean hoped Ellen and Jo were in as it was still rather early and gently woke up his three looked like a tired family struggling to find a warm place to sleep after traveling for a long time. Dean reached out and grabbed hold of the handle and gently turned it, smiling that it was indeed unlocked and was standing behind the bar on the phone with someone while Jo was putting the chairs around the tables.
"You three looked like you need a good hot meal," Jo said, walking up and nodding to the bar. "I'll make you three something. Do you need anything else?"
"Just your first aid kit, please." Dean said as Sam went to find Ash. "Got to check on a stab wound she got."
"Glad to see you three made it back in one piece." Ellen said after she hung up. "Got a call from a hunting friend that lives in the neighborhood but couldn't help as he was injured on another case, but the deaths stopped, and the Carnival's not looking for you three. John would be proud."
"Yeah, thanks." Dean grunted and went to work on changing his sister's bandage. "Glad to have a good team." Dean added, not looking at Ellen and quickly placing a new bandage on his sister's nodded silently seeing that Dean didn't want to talk more as Christina fixed her shirt.
"Well, for what's it's worth you guys did good." Ellen smiled and headed to help Ash with providing another can of beer. She came back as Christina was by herself at the bar as Dean had gone to sit with Ash and Sam. "How are you doing?" She asked, seeing the depressed look on Christina's face.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just tired. Between the stab wound and not allowing me to relax and sitting in between two people in a cramped truck cab, I'm dealing with a lot of things." She took in a slow breath and glanced over at her brothers who were talking quietly with Ash. "I should probably go join them."
"That would be a good idea. Oh, one thing," Ellen said, walking to a back bar and grabbing an envelope that had ben hidden amongst a few bottles of liquor. "For the past few birthdays I missed because I didn't know where you were. Guess that fight before you left made it so you wouldn't call me."
"I guess I got that from my father." Christina chuckled graciously, taking the envelope and opening it up. Inside were some bills, and she looked up at Ellen.
"There's about two hundred dollars right there. Tips from those who came in. Plus, I had a few of the few dollars I had on me."
"Thanks a lot, Ellen. You know you didn't have to do any of this. I wasn't the best person at the end."
"But you at least grew out of it." Ellen said. "Don't be a stranger. You'll always be welcomed here. You and your brothers."
"Thanks, Ellen." Christina said with a smile. She glanced over at her brothers, who were talking quietly with Ash.
"Are you needing to be with your brothers?" Ellen asked, seeing that Christina didn't want to sit with them.
"I know I should, but they seem to not need me. Also, I'm sure they'll tell me what's been going on.
"Ellen gave her a mother's soft scowl but understood what Christina had said. "I just don't want tension between you three. But I guess it comes with any family."
"More times in others," Christina joked, wincing at the pain her laugh had caused. "I remember the horror stories you used to tell Jo and I about, the three of them. I guess I was still blind by the similarities to connect the dots.
"Ellen shook her head. "Trust me, you weren't blind. I think you mostly didn't want to get your hopes up. Being unsure of your past will do that to anyone."
Christina nodded with a smile. She had indeed been burned before trying to find her family and was nearly taken by a family of ghouls. She still kept scratching her head on how she survived that night, as when she woke up the next morning, she was not only alive, and her wounds healed the family of ghouls were dead.
"Hey Christy," Sam gently smacked her shoulder to get her attention. "We're heading out."
"Alright, I'll be there in a second." Christina said, folding the envelope and shoving it into her back pocket. "Thanks for everything, Ellen. See you later!" She waved as she left the bar and joined her brothers inside the truck for another uncomfortable ride.
~DSCWIN~
The Winchester siblings had to take a personal day to recover before Dean went back to fixing his car. Christina had offered to help, but Dean said he wanted to be alone, so she reluctantly agreed and helped Bobby with helping other hunters with research. Sam made himself do some more research from the information he had received back at the Roadhouse.
"Hey, Christy, can we talk for a bit?" Sam asked when Bobby went for a house supply run a day after they came back from their last hunt.
"Yeah, what's up?" Christina followed her bother into the kitchen to pour herself a glass off water before silently offering one to Sam. When he nodded, she poured her brother one and sat down across from him so they could talk.
"First of, why didn't you join me and Dean around Ash to talk?"
"I'm still in a weird "not used to having a family" phase. So, I felt I would be intruding. Plus, Ash kind of creeps me out. Not that he will be able to do anything to me...it's still uncomfortable to be around him."
Sam nodded, accepting her excuse. "So now my second question... Do you think you can see if you can get Dean to talk? I remember you able to get anyone to talk if we knew they were hurting."
"I can see what I can do." Christina said with a sigh. "But I can only do so much. I can't help those who don't want help."
Sam nodded and started to feel a small stab of guilt in using his sister to get into his brother's head. But he knew how difficult it was to talk to Dean growing up. But now, he had a younger sister that could easily get close to people.
"So, are you wanting me to go out and talk to Dean?" Christina asked seeing the question buzzing in his head.
"I'll try one more time." Sam said standing up. "I just feel a little guilty using you and all."
"Sam, you need to understand that if you're starting to feel guilty then maybe you shouldn't try and meddle into his life." She turned and looked back down at her glass. "But whatever happens I want no part in it unless I'm needed."
Sam wanted to say something but instead just left the house. Christina sighed and stood up, taking her glass to the sink, she walked out having the feeling to try and make some progress on her motorcycle that she felt was close to finishing. As she neared the gate to the garage she noticed Sam walking back and with a few seconds of eye contact, he continued to walk towards Bobby's house. Christina took a few steps when she stopped hearing the sound of glass shattering, seeing Dean taking a crowbar and began to smack it into the outer shell of the Impala. As soon as he finished his spout of anger, he tossed the crowbar off to the side before he noticed his younger sister standing there tense as if being stiff would protect her.
"There was a bug." Dean said quickly wiping the back of his hand next to his eyes as if he had to hide any possible tears. "Had to make sure it was dea-"
Christina rushed and threw her arms around his waist burring her face into his chest. After a few minutes she felt her brother wrap around her. "It's okay to cry, Dean." She said her voice breaking slightly with pain after seeing her brother to abuse his car. "I know you're hurting. Between Dad, and whatever is going on with Sam I know you're hurting. I'm here. You have me and Sam. Let us help you out."
Dean hesitated but wrapped his arms tight around her and felt himself start to tremble but he was happy knowing she wasn't going to judge or say anything unless he was ready. But when she pushed him away she looked up at him.
"Talk to me when you're ready Dean. You're not alone in this." Christina said and headed towards her motorcycle project.
"Thanks." Dean said not going further in what he was thankful for. But Christina just smiled at her brother and started to work on her motorcycle while he took several deep breaths and began to work on fixing his car. He was happy he could talk with someone but something also scared him thinking she wouldn't understand and that support would be severed, but when she had mentioned something dark with Sam he felt he could trust her.
"You can tell me anything, Dean." Christina said seeing the shuffling. "It would do you good to talk."
Dean sighed and cleared his throat. "Dad said that Sam's a possible danger." He said bluntly. "He told me somethings that I'm not sure I can handle. So please don't tell Sam. I hope things work out so we won't have to worry about what Dad told me to do."
"I get it," Christina said giving Dean a reassuring smile. "I'll keep this secret."
Dean sighed and was relieved to know he had someone behind him. "Thanks again."
"Not a problem. Now lets get these running. I don't want to hear you complain about sucky vans anymore." She chuckled making Dean smirk and momentarily forget about his whole war that was raging in his mind.