Huge shoutout to JustWhisperingFantasies for being my beta on this one - because seriously, guys, I hated this chapter so much I'm pretty sure you weren't getting it without her . Whisper, you're a lifesaver and I can't thank you enough ❤️
July 28th, 2006
"Sam, let's go. Go get your brother. I picked up a police call."
The morning after they arrived in Manning, Colorado, Sam Winchester found himself stirring to the sounds of his dad moving swiftly through their shared room and the irritating feel of John hitting the bottom of his foot. There was an urgency in his dad's voice, and Sam begrudgingly pushed himself into a half-seated position. He eyed the wall in front of him enviously, assuming Dean and Lorelai were still sleeping on the other side.
"What happened?" he asked, already knowing it would probably be an exercise in futility rather than yielding any results he wanted.
"A couple called 911, found a body in the street. Cops got there, everyone was missing. It's the vampires."
Sam tried to bite back a groan as he swung his feet off the bed and onto the floor.
"How do you know? What does it even matter? Lorelai said she's already got a lead on the nest."
John's eyes narrowed, but he hardly paused in his haste to get to the door.
"Just follow me, okay? And get Dean. We need him on this. I don't care if he brings that girlfriend of his or not."
Sam sighed and grabbed his jacket as the door swung shut behind John. Dean may have been aggravatingly loyal to their father at times, but he was still a good buffer, and Sam was somewhat hopeful that Lorelai's presence could help too. Sam didn't get the sense that Lorelai had a lot of tolerance for being pushed around, and John didn't have the benefit of holding the parent title for her. Not that Sam really thought it would matter if hedid.
A minute later, Sam was carefully easing the door to their room open, somewhat wary of what he may find inside. Dean and Lorelai could say they were done with each other all they wanted; Sam had seen enough by then to know that neither of them meant it in the slightest, and he'd gotten enough of an eyeful when he'd spotted them going at it in Chicago – before they'd disappeared, presumably to her room. He was hoping that in the absence of alcohol and in the presence of work, they may not be as… impulsive… but he wasn't ruling the possibility out either.
The scene awaiting him inside the room, however, was somehow more surprising. Dean and Lorelai had certainly ended up in bed together, but from the looks of it, they hadn't started out that way – the covers were pulled back and rumpled on the extra bed closer to the door – and it didn't seem that any kind of… debauchery… had occurred either.
Dean was on his side and curled around Lorelai, who was using one of his biceps as a pillow and, even in her sleep, was holding tight to the arm Dean had around her. They were both fully dressed as far as Sam could tell, with looks of contentment on their faces that Sam wasn't sure he'd seen on either of them before – though, granted, he hadn't spent nearly as much time with Lorelai as he had Dean. Still, it was striking.
He almost felt bad reaching over and shaking his brother awake. Almost.
Despite how deeply Dean appeared to be sleeping, his eyes flew open at the touch, and he lifted his head blearily, still holding tight to Lorelai. He glanced down at the woman in his arms, almost as if he were checking she were alright, before Dean turned his eyes on Sam, brow furrowing as he squinted against the early morning light.
"What's going on?" he asked groggily.
"Dad got something on the scanner, thinks it's the vamps," Sam answered. He watched the corners of Dean's mouth pull down and found himself unable to hold his tongue. "I don't get why he can't just stick to the plan."
"The man always has his reasons," Dean chided him. And before Sam could retort, a new wave of frustration building up, his big brother turned away, and it was like watching a flip being switched.
The exchange wasn't particularly long, but Sam was captivated as he watched Dean's attention shift to Lorelai, the expression on his face growing uncharacteristically tender. He pressed a gentle kiss to her temple, smoothing back some of her hair while he continued to hold her against him with his other arm.
"Wake up, sweetheart. Duty calls," Dean murmured, and Sam wondered if he'd hallucinated the part of the evening where Dean and Lorelai had assured him that they were very much still not together. Lorelai, for her part, let out a whining noise and nestled further into Dean, turning her head to shield her eyes from the light as much as possible.
"Five more minutes," came her muffled reply. Sam knew he would have gotten a flippant response if he tried the same, maybe a shove. His jaw nearly dropped when Dean did none of those things, a soft smile spreading across his face instead.
"C'mon," he told her gently. "You wake up for me and I promise I'll get you coffee."
"Strong coffee?" she asked after a beat. Dean smoothed her hair back again.
"So strong, it'll beat all the other coffee up," he promised. There was another pause, and Sam was sure Lorelai was going to clap back with some rebuke of Dean's cheesy joke. Apparently, however, it was the morning of surprises, because instead, she reluctantly but still willingly began disentangling herself from his brother's embrace.
"I'm gonna hold you to that," she grumbled, rubbing sleep out of her eyes and pushing to her feet. When she raised her head and lowered her hand, her eyes widened in surprise at coming face to face with Sam. "Oh no, the cavalry's here."
"Sammy says Dad's picked up something vamp related on the police scanner," Dean called out from behind her. Lorelai rolled her eyes but visibly perked up.
"Of course he did. Let me get changed. 'Morning, Sam!"
Lorelai paid him no further mind, brushing past him to grab her bag and head towards the bathroom. Sam stared after dumbly for a moment before turning back to Dean incredulously, who gave him a blank stare.
"What?" he asked. Sam felt his eyes bulge, and he pointedly looked in the direction Lorelai had just gone and then back to Dean, gesturing with his hands. Dean rolled his eyes and started to climb out of the bed.
"What?" Sam repeated. "Seriously? What happened to there's nothin' goin on between me and Lor?" he demanded, dropping his voice in an imitation of Dean. Dean, of course, just glared back and shouldered past him.
"There isn't."
It didn't escape Sam's attention that Dean's usual gruff demeanor was back in place, and Sam still found his eyes flitting between the bathroom door and his brother.
"That didn't look like nothing," Sam pushed. Dean shot him a look as he pulled on jeans, the irritation clear in the set of his jaw.
"Drop it, Sam. Nothing happened, and it's none of your business." Sam opened his mouth to argue but Dean, probably sensing as much, grabbed the keys to the Impala and threw them in his direction. "Go start the car. We'll be out in a minute."
Sam stood there for a moment, bristling a bit, but Dean gave him his back, and Sam was able to recognize a losing battle when he saw one. Not to mention, they likely had a long day ahead of them, and he didn't have the energy to handle dealing with their dad and picking a fight with Dean. So, swallowing the things he wanted to say, Sam gripped the keys and turned back to the parking lot. As he went, he couldn't help but wonder what he was getting himself into with this hunt.
"This is such a waste of time," Lorelai grumbled later that morning. It had slipped out without her meaning for it to, but both Dean and Sam heard her immediately. Sam looked eager at the prospect of having someone else equally disgruntled along for the ride, and Dean shot her a reproachful look – probably for inadvertently spurring Sam on.
The three of them were still at the scene of the 911 call, but John had instructed them to stay off to the side while he "handled" it.
Instructed, like she was a fucking five-year-old. Or a rookie. Something that seemed to get under Sam's skin the same way it did hers. But Lorelai was doing her best not to rock the boat. Not that she was confident her best would be enough. It usually wasn't… at least not with the interpersonal stuff.
"Working with us was your idea," Dean pointed out lowly, and Lorelai clutched at her half-drunk coffee as though it were a lifeline – mostly because it was – and reminded herself that Dean was right.
"She's not wrong, Dean," Sam jumped in, glowering off in the direction of the police and John. Lorelai chewed on her lip, feeling almost guilty. "If she knows where the vamps are, we shouldn't be sitting around.
"Yeah, well, you heard what Dad said."
Lorelai scoffed and Dean over towards her with mild disbelief. She quickly held her hands up in surrender, the best she could anyway while still holding the coffee, and Dean's face relaxed. The damage was done, though.
"Yeah, well, what Dad said was jacked," Sam argued, still sulking.
There hadn't been much of an opening – by the time she and Dean had made it out to the cars, John had already been behind the wheel of his truck, impatient to leave but willing to wait – at least for Dean. Dean had been standing by the front passenger door, talking to John through his open window about where they were going as he prepared to climb into the Impala, and that was when Lorelai had tried to remind John she already had a plan for the day, and that she had a decently good idea of where the nest was.
The dismissal had come quickly, and it hadn't left any room for argument.
"If you wanna stick to your plan, be my guest, but we're gonna go check this out. The vamps could have moved if they think you're onto them, and this is a fresh trail. Can't get better intel than that."
John rolled the windows up ending the conversation, and disbelief mixed with her anger as she turned to find Dean completely unfazed, opening the door of the Impala.
"This a joke, right?"
Dean had looked over his shoulder, surprised, and Sam angled his head from his seat behind the wheel to watch the scene play out, the interest clear in his eyes. Memories of Blairsville began coming back when she realized the confusion on Dean's face was genuine.
"What? C'mon, Lor, the old man knows what he's doing. Just get in, let's go."
Dean had then dropped into his seat, quickly closing the car door behind him. Sam shared a sympathetic look with her before turning over the engine, and Lorelai found herself reluctantly following Dean's example, with a muttered 'so do I' under her breath and her frustration mounting.
"He could have at least let us go over with him."
Sam's voice broke through Lorelai's musings, and she turned her attention back to the boys in time to see Dean looking at Sam in exasperation.
"Oh, don't tell me it's already starting."
"What's starting?" Sam asked innocently, the question seeming genuine.
Despite her frustrations, Lorelai felt a wave of sympathy for Dean. She was a newcomer to the family dynamic, but it hadn't taken her long to piece together that Sam did not have the same inclination as his older brother to follow John's orders, and that Dean likely ended up between them a lot as a result. It put her and Dean's argument the year before into better context, and she thought she might understand now why it had seemed like such a sensitive subject.
Her thoughts and feelings had been her own, but she could see with clarity now that they were things Dean had heard before… argued about before. And while she still disliked it, still thought it was… unsettling, the way Dean changed around John… it was hard not to understand why after what Dean had shared with her at the hospital in Fitchburg… about what had happened in Fort Douglas.
Before Sam could answer, John was walking back towards the three of them, diverting Dean's attention once more, as well as hers and Sam's.
"What have you got?" Dean asked as John came within earshot. Lorelai sipped at her coffee, regretting that she was below the halfway line, and willed herself to fade into the background.
"It was them all right," John announced. "Looks like they're heading west. We'll have to double back to get around that detour."
Because, of course, in addition to wasting the time in the first place re-doing work Lorelai had already done, they'd been further delayed by road work and detours. The fact that heading west lined up with exactly what she'd figured out on her own made her want to scream.
"How can you be so sure?"
It was a valid question, at least in Lorelai's opinion, but there was no mistaking the challenge in Sam's voice when he asked it. The anger simmering beneath the surface, just about to boil over, was impossible to miss too. Neither John nor Dean seemed surprised, though John seemed agitated while Dean looked… tired.
"Sam," Dean started to warn, but Sam cut him off sharply without looking away from John.
"I just wanna know we're going in the right direction."
"We are," John shot back simply, and Lorelai hid her mouth behind the to-go cup, biting the inside her cheek to keep from making a noise.
"How do you know?" Sam challenged.
For a moment John dug in his pocket, and when he withdrew his hand, he slapped something into Dean's palm rather than Sam's. Lorelai couldn't help but look over his shoulder curiously. It was a tooth, easily identifiable as a vampire's, and Dean squinted at it.
"It's a… a vampire fang."
"Not fangs, teeth," John corrected, and Lorelai couldn't help but roll her eyes. Considering Dean hadn't known vampires were real until less than twenty-four hours ago, she personally felt correctly identifying the thing as belonging to a vampire was enough. "The second set descends when they attack. Any more questions?"
John's last statement was clipped, and clearly directed at Sam, who looked away. Lorelai, however, narrowed her eyes, thinking. When she opened her mouth, however, John was already moving, clearly ignoring her.
"All right, let's get out of here, we're losing daylight. Hey Dean, why don't you touch up your car before you get rust? I wouldn't have given you the damn thing if I thought you were going to ruin it."
Without waiting for any kind of reply, John was climbing back into his truck, leaving the three of them standing around the Impala. Lorelai, hovering by the rear door on the passenger's side, caught Dean's eye and raised a brow in his direction, but waited for Sam's door to close to say anything.
"Your dad's a real charmer. I can see where you get it from."
Dean pursed his lips, clearly annoyed, and rolled his eyes. Inside, Sam turned the key and the Impala roared to life, the rumbling of her engine filling their ears outside.
"Don't be a smartass," he complained. "And do me a favor? Quit eggin' Sam on. He's enough of a handful all on his own, I don't need you helping him along."
At that, Lorelai reformed her features to look repentant and instinctively moved in, brushing her lips against his in a chaste kiss the way she would have before.
That had been the weird but nice part of this whole thing, falling back into old patterns and routines she didn't know they still remembered. It felt familiar and comfortable, even if it was just an act. Something, it felt, had shifted overnight, too... something they hadn't acknowledged but was impossible not to notice. Dean certainly didn't seem to mind it, and he squeezed her hip, letting her stay in his space.
It was almost like they'd hit an imaginary pause button on all their drama and baggage, and though she'd never admit it, Lorelai found herself wishing it could be something more permanent. The wheels Dean had gotten spinning in her head weren't helping anything either, but those particular thoughts were ones she refused to let see the light of day.
"I'm sorry," she murmured against him, meaning it. "I really didn't mean to."
Dean seemed mollified, some of the tension easing from his shoulders.
"Don't worry about it."
His hand gripped the door handle and Lorelai eyed him hopefully.
"If we've gotta double back, can we stop off for more coffee? This one's almost done." She lightly swished the remaining contents of her cup to demonstrate the point, and Dean gave an affectionate shake of his head before brushing his lips against hers one more time and finally releasing her.
"Yeah, I think I can make that happen."
Back inside the car was tense. True to his word, Dean made sure they stopped for coffee, but if Lorelai hadn't needed caffeine the way most people needed water, she probably would have felt bad about it. John grumbled when Dean called – enough that it was obvious even to her and Sam, who weren't on the call. Lorelai suspected if it had just been her and Dean, she may have been shit out of luck. Thankfully, it wasn't, though, and Sam didn't leave it up for debate, loudly calling out that they needed gas anyway, and he was stopping regardless.
The whole thing only served to put Sam in a worse mood by the time they were all piled back in the car. Dean tried to distract him by going over some of the lore they had on vampires – a mix of things she and John had given him – but Sam wasn't having any of it. Lorelai had hardly been paying attention, working on typing out a message to Nick on her phone, after having just finished answering one from Nolan, but Sam's grumpy voice cut through her own thoughts, as well as whatever Dean had been saying.
"That's probably what Dad's thinking. Course it would be nice if he just told us what he thinks."
Dean looked up, a flicker of his exasperation from before crossing his face mixed with something more… resigned.
"So it is starting," he said, and Lorelai deliberately lowered her eyes, tuning them out best she could and determined not to get involved.
Of course, it was impossible to tune them out entirely, and she felt something uncomfortable twist inside her. Lorelai understood all too well how Sam felt – after all, she'd made remarks herself that were… strikingly similar. Understanding Sam, though, didn't help. The problem was, she understood Dean better now, and understanding Dean made the guilt start to churn. Understandingwhy her frustrations and words had cut so deep only made seeing how bothered Dean was by it all hit harder… even if he was trying to hide it. And then there was the point Dean had made back then, about John knowing what he was doing, and his argument now that it was just the job and there was no margin for error. Fuck, it just struck a different chord knowing what had happened with the striga and seeing how much Dean had fully taken on the blame and internalized that guilt.
So when Sam turned to her, clearly hoping for backup, Dean's eyes flitting to her too, she shifted uncomfortably, feeling torn. The way Dean looked at her, like he already expected her to have Sam's back instead of his, managed to make her feel made sense – she was sure she wasn't the only one that remembered that argument, and she'd made it plain how she felt, even if they had buried the hatchet at the time. But just because it made sense didn't mean it felt good.
"There's no way you haven't noticed it too. I've been watching you bite your tongue all morning," Sam pointed out, eyes still on the road but glancing back to her through the mirror. "There's no way you're cool with how he's been acting."
"In all fairness," she protested weakly, "I don't really work well with anyone. I can get you a list of names to corroborate that if you want."
Dean's expression morphed into one of surprise, but he let out a soft snort of laughter. Sam looked betrayed and his jaw twitched, his hands tightening around the steering wheel.
"Oh, come on," he complained. "You work with us just fine even though you and Dean want to kill each other half the time."
Even Lorelai smirked, and though they shared a somewhat awkward glance, there was no mistaking the fondness in Dean's eyes.
"Not exactly a fair comparison there, Sammy," Dean joked. "That's an entirely different kind of tension. And you know what they say – thin line between love and hate."
Lorelai felt her stomach flip at the implication. Sam rolled his eyes, but Lorelai hardly noticed, too caught up in the faint flush that spread across Dean's cheeks when he realized what he'd said, even as he tried to play it cool and return to casually flipping through the book in his lap.
The rest of the day, which then bled into night, was a complete waste of time and an extreme test of Lorelai's patience – one that nearly broke her, and likely would have if not for the steady stream of coffee Dean kept her supplied with and the small touches that made her head spin. Every time she started to get antsy, Dean would quietly point out that she didn't have to work with them, and while the thought to slip off and just handle the situation on her own was tempting she wasn't sure how easily explainable it would be. Especially if she crossed paths with the Winchesters again. Especially if she got her hands on the Colt before them and John realized she'd taken it. She'd gotten herself in too deep, so she resigned herself to her fate and tried to reason that at least this was something that was more important to her than MACUSA.
The excuse it gave her to hang around Dean had nothing to do with it.
Sam was another story entirely, and as the hours passed, Lorelai quietly observed the anger and tension building in the younger Winchester brother. She was more accustomed to seeing Dean get worked up, but Sam was proving to have a temper fit to rival his brother's that was, if anything, less restrained. It didn't bother Lorelai, only took her by surprise – she was the last person that got to be judgmental about someone's temper, she knew – but she could tell it was keeping Dean on edge, and she was at a loss on how to help aside from keeping her own prickliness at bay. So she settled into the backseat, digging around in her bag and working through other active files to pass the time, at that point knowing any attempts to actually go after the vampires would need to wait until morning, and not really caring what hoops John made them go through to track them down.
It wasn't until John called Dean to tell them to pull off at the next exit – instruct them, really, like he had earlier – that Lorelai found herself getting pulled back into it. Not happy with the laissez-faire answers Dean had for him, Sam gunned the car and swerved in front of John's truck, bursting out the door as soon as he had the Impala in park. A glance over her shoulder told Lorelai that John was already clamoring out of his own vehicle, and Dean was hot on Sam's heels before she'd even turned around. It was on instinct that she followed him, tossing her files into the seat next to her as she went for the door.
They were already screaming at each other by the time she came around to the trunk of the car, with Dean standing between them, trying to diffuse the situation. Despite the instinct to follow, she was distinctly aware it wasn't really her place to get involved and so intentionally hung back, but she stood, ready to spring into action.
Dean almost had it under control – almost.
He'd been pushing Sam back towards the driver's door when Sam had muttered something under his breath that set John off. Something that sounded suspiciously like This is why I left in the first place.
She was perhaps missing the full context, but Dean had told her enough about Sam's departure for Stanford that she could pretty easily understand what was going on.
It was another situation where she'd been on Sam's side of things, even if one look at Dean left her feeling pretty sure she understood how he felt too.
"Stop it, both of you!" Dean tried, but Sam was too fired up to hear. He and John were in each other's faces, looking ready to come to blows.
"You're the one who said don't come back, Dad! You closed that door, not me! You were just pissed off that you couldn't control me anymore!"
The words hit just a bit too close to home and for a moment she wasn't looking at Sam or John but she was seeing her own heated arguments… with Jack… with Howard and Helena a few years later. But then she blinked, and Dean was shoving them apart, forcing them each back towards their own vehicles.
"That means you too," he added with a pointed look at John, and though it was tense, both Sam and John returned to their corners, leaving her and Dean out in the night air on their own. Dean looked between the two cars before his eyes caught on her, and Lorelai could see his exhaustion, and then somehow when he met her gaze, he seemed even wearier. She offered him a sympathetic frown, and he ran a hand tiredly down his face, shaking his head.
"Sorry, I didn't think –"
But Lorelai took a step forward so that she was on the outskirts but still just inside his bubble of personal space… just close enough to still be able to subtly reach out and twine her fingers through his, letting their hands stay down at their sides, out of the light shining on them from John's truck.
"Dean," she interrupted, and he stopped talking abruptly, eyes snapping to hers. "Don't worry about it. Trust me, I've seen my fair share of family melodrama. You Winchesters got nothing on the Baudelaires."
Dean barked out a laugh before catching himself and trying to stifle it, and Lorelai found herself smiling back. Shaking his head, he started to walk towards her, dropping her hand in favor of draping his arm along her shoulders. He pulled her with him as he walked back around to the passenger side of the Impala.
"I dunno, Lor," he challenged. "Aside from that sister-in-law of yours, you all seemed to get along pretty good to me."
Lorelai snorted and gently bumped into him as they each reached for a doorhandle.
"Oh yeah? Remind me to tell you about the screaming match Mary and I got into at my brother's funeral. Or the argument Nolan and I had when he and Jane got engaged… and then again right before they got married. Or any one of the arguments between me and Jack – those were pretty legendary. If you think you've seen me angry… think again."
Dean eyed her skeptically for a moment before seeming to decide she was being serious. Curiosity brimmed for a moment, but it mingled with the same sympathy she was sure was detectable on her own face, and he squeezed her hand.
"Gonna take you up on that later. I'm also gonna pretend that's not a terrifying thought," he half joked. Lorelai smirked back and pulled the door open.
"Oh, it should be," she teased. "It definitely should be."
Dean chuckled but followed her lead, and before long Sam was, once again, trailing John's truck down the road and Lorelai had her files back in her lap. Behind the wheel, Sam was quietly fuming, but eventually the tension in his shoulders began to ease, fatigue seeming to steadily set in instead. The silence was punctuated by a few fits and spurts of quiet conversation between the boys that Lorelai only barely registered.
Eventually, the feeling of being watched came over her and she looked up to find Dean staring from behind the bench seat. Their eyes locked and, realizing he was caught, he offered her a small smile. Lorelai froze, torn between quirking an eyebrow and returning the gesture.
It scared her that it was starting to feel less like an act, and more like they just… were again. It scared her the way they still fit, and it scared her that she thought she might know why. She smiled back anyway, though, and for a fraction of a second, the rest of the world fell away. Then Dean's brow furrowed, his eyes squinting.
"What?" she asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"Nothin'," he started, trailing off and then giving a small shake of his head. By then, they'd caught Sam's attention, and he was clearly listening too, but Dean didn't seem to notice. "You just get this look on your face when you're concentrating on somethin.' It's adorable."
Lorelai felt her cheeks flush at the gentle teasing, and quickly rolled her eyes.
"Jackass," she muttered. Dean smirked back and leaned forward - or towards her anyway - and she could practically hear the retort she knew he was thinking. The one that likely would have slipped out if Sam weren't there. Instead, Dean held out a hand.
"What're you working on?"
Lorelai bit her lip, debating with herself. In the end, all it took was a glance in his direction and she found herself shifting forward, passing over the reports in her hand and leaning in to explain what she was looking at. And despite the fact that just seconds before he'd been teasing her about how intensely she'd been concentrating, he immediately shifted into his focus mode, and Lorelai found herself unable to resist stealing glances as he poured over her notes.
The day had been a complete waste, and she wasn't happy with the prospects for the night ahead, but it was hard to argue the fact that even with all the frustrations there was something deep in her being that felt at peace in a way it hadn't for quite some time. And that, she supposed, had to be worth something.
"This is fucking ridiculous."
It was early morning, with the sun shining bright above, the ground still dewy and soft, and Lorelai found herself creeping towards a crappy old barn with Dean and Sam, while John went around the other side. Lorelai had tried to suggest that maybe it would be better to split up two and two, but John hadn't been interested. She'd actually tried to suggest quite a few things, but they'd all fallen on seemingly deaf ears.
Dean glanced over her way. She'd muttered so only he'd heard, as Sam was a few feet away, and he looked wary.
"C'mon, Lor. Don't start."
They'd trailed the vamps through the night, or John had anyway, directing Sam via Dean to follow him. Lorelai had dozed off at one point in the backseat and woken up to Dean's jacket draped over her like a blanket. Any warm feelings had dissipated quickly, however, as the four of them had stood around coming up with a game plan.
"Oh no," she hissed back, narrowing her eyes, "don't even. I am not the problem here, and you know it. This is stupid. We should have at least gone back for the dead man's blood."
Dean didn't seem to have a response to that, looking away awkwardly and grunting as they carefully navigated around a bunch of fallen branches on the ground.
"What do you want me to say? I already told Sam, and I'll tell you – this is the way the old man runs things. You wanted to work with us, so deal."
The dismissal had her fuming, but Dean didn't leave any room for argument, picking up his pace to get ahead of her. Lorelai glowered after him, itching to draw her wand but knowing it wasn't the time. Instead, she tightened her grip on the machete and begrudgingly followed behind him.
All things considered, the plan started out going well enough. The boys, after all, knew what they were doing, and so did she. And it wasn't like the vampires were expecting them.
It was more than a little frustrating to not be able to just summon the damn gun, but Lorelai knew it was out of the question. Not only would it be inexplicable to John, but not knowing where she was summoning it from, there was a good chance she could make enough ruckus to raise the whole building. It was also only one thing on a list of frustrations.
That she hadn't been able to cast her modified homenum revelio charm was another, and possibly ranked even higher. She'd considered doing it after John had split off from them, but in the end had decided the risk wasn't warranted.
That John hadn't let them go back for the dead man's blood was up there too. They were clearly outnumbered and going in with no lay of the land and on no sleep. It was unnecessarily stupid. Especially considering that if this gambit failed they'd be at a distinct disadvantage going forward, assuming they all got out. The vampires would have each of their scents. And, technically, Lorelai could do something about that – but none of the Winchesters knew she could.
As she had said to Dean, it was fucking ridiculous.
She was poking around a desk when it happened. A horrible, other-wordly-type howl rent the air, and chaos erupted with it. By the time she'd spun around, it was just in time to see Sam and Dean running towards her. The other vampires were already popping up, awake and becoming alert faster than was comfortable. Lorelai reflexively gripped the handle of her machete, but before she could even think about standing her ground, Dean's hand grabbed hers and he was pulling her with them. A different kind of instinct kicked in then, and she followed as the three of them retraced the path they'd originally woven through the room, coming in from the window.
As they went, however, more and more of the vamps were on their feet and coming after them. And they were everywhere.
They could have made it back to the window – in hindsight, Lorelai realized that. But as they were swerving around a pole one of the vamps lunged, and even though he missed, it was entirely too close for Lorelai's comfort, and something protective roared to life so deep inside she had no hopes of combating it.
Without thinking she tightened her grip and sped up, stashing the machete and grabbing for her wand instead. Sam wasn't that far ahead, and hauling Dean with her she lunged, grabbing hold of the back of his jacket and rolling off to the side, pulling both of them with her. And in the fraction of a second, just enough for her to notice the bewildered expression on Dean's face, Lorelai gripped her wand and twisted, holding as tightly as possible to both the boys while she envisioned the stretch of dirt near where they'd left the cars.
The three of them materialized there just a moment later, fully in tact and with no vamps in sight. Sam and Dean were both gasping for air and Lorelai released them, stowing her wand once more while Dean hunched over, bracing his hands on his knees, and Sam braced a hand against a nearby tree. They both turned to look at her with wide eyes, though Dean looked distinctly more alarmed than Sam.
It was fair – she knew that. But she looked back coolly anyway, refusing to apologize.
"What the fuck was that?" Dean demanded, eyeing the boot she'd just slipped the wand into. Lorelai shrugged.
"Apparating. You're welcome."
Dean blinked back in disbelief, even as his breathing began to even out again, and Sam, at least, stood back up straight.
"Apa -what?"
"A little warning would have been nice," Sam interjected, not sounding as worked up as Dean but certainly not happy. Lorelai narrowed her eyes at both of them.
"Yeah, and not going in with a dumbass plan from the start would have been nice too. What the hell happened in there anyway?"
Sam and Dean shared a look while Dean finally straightened up too, and Sam scratched at the back of his neck.
"Uh, I'm not totally sure. There was a woman, tied up and bloody. I went to go help her and when she woke up… that happened. I'm guessing they turned her," Sam explained. Lorelai let out an exasperated sigh, but before any of them could say anything more, there was a rustling that had them all freezing. Dean and Sam both gripped at their weapons, and Lorelai pulled the machete back out, readying herself for what might be coming.
When John appeared a moment later, looking winded but no worse the wear, there was a collective breath of relief amongst the group.
"Dad!"
John came towards them, his own eyes darting around, assessing they were all alright. He then looked between them and the barn and shook his head.
"They won't follow," he theorized. "They'll wait till night. Once a vampire has your scent, it's for life."
"You don't know that," Lorelai retorted immediately, her earlier frustration bubbling over to outright anger. "There is absolutely nothing stopping them from following. You think sunburn would keep you from going after a bunch of people that just tried to invade your home and kill your family? Because that's how they're gonna see it."
John bristled, but Dean was already stepping between them.
"Alright, alright, don't start – either of you," he added, looking pointedly at John, and Lorelai bit her lip, still furious but pleasantly surprised. "Either way, we need a plan. The hell are we gonna do now?"
"Well, we're gonna need dead man's blood," John began, and despite Dean's call for civility, Lorelai found herself shooting him a withering stare.
"You mean like the dead man's blood I told you I already had in my room?"
John glared back and Dean looked at her with utter exasperation. Sam, she noticed, seemed to be trying not to smirk.
"Lor," Dean warned lowly, and she finally turned away from John to meet his gaze, rolling her eyes when she did.
"I'm not wrong."
"You're not helping either, sweetheart."
For a moment they seemed to be locked in a silent battle of wills, both of them glaring at each other, but it was Sam who finally broke it up, slipping back into the voice of reason Lorelai was used to him being. Even if that particular side of him had been largely absent on this trip.
"Maybe we should all head back to the motel," he offered. "Regroup. Lorelai, we can get the blood you have. We all probably need food; we can grab something on the way. And we can come up with a new plan."
It was the only real option they had, and they all knew it. So the four of them begrudgingly climbed back into their vehicles, tossing weapons into the trunk as they went, and – at least in the Impala – doing their best to ignore the newest tension settling over them.
They were just pulling back onto the road when Sam sighed and glanced towards Dean.
"We're gonna need gas too. I'm gonna pull off at that station we passed that had the convenience store just outside of town."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll tell Dad," Dean agreed. He shot her a disgruntled look, the kind that let her know she hadn't heard the end of it, before putting the phone to his ear and turning ahead to look at the windshield while he talked to his dad.
Sure enough, as soon as he hung up, he was turning around again.
"Is this how it's gonna be for the rest of this hunt?" he asked, irritation coloring his tone. "If Sam's not picking a fight, you are?"
"Hey!" Sam interjected, but Dean rolled his eyes.
"C'mon man, I've been fucking refereeing this entire time."
"Going in there was stupid," Lorelai reiterated as if Sam and Dean hadn't begun their own bickering. At the interruption, Dean's gaze swiveled back to her and even Sam's eyes flickered back through the mirror.
"Yeah, and so was grabbing us with no warning and freaking teleporting us out of there or whatever the hell you called it," Dean shot back.
"Apparating," Lorelai supplied patiently, but Dean wasn't listening.
"What if my dad had seen, huh? And why the hell did it feel like I was gonna fucking suffocate?"
"I told you it wasn't comfortable," Sam added.
"It's not the most pleasant sensation," Lorelai conceded. "But it just takes some getting used to, and it's perfectly safe. We were outnumbered. I think a thank you might be in order rather than a bitch session."
She refused to acknowledge it had been an emotional, knee-jerk reaction to seeing Dean almost get hit. Dean shook his head but turned forward, muttering something under his breath that sounded like impossible, but Lorelai let it go.
"Do you really think they're gonna come after us?" Sam asked a minute later, drawing both hers and Dean's attention. Lorelai glanced forward and met his eyes in the mirror before ultimately shrugging.
"I wouldn't rule it out. They do have an advantage at night, so they might wait, but if I were them, I wouldn't give us the chance to blow town."
"You got anything you can do about them having our scent?" Dean asked. Much of the frustration from before had faded, but his tone was still gruff. Lorelai sighed.
"Sure. With magic. Pretty sure that might tip off your dad, though." Both the boys frowned, but Lorelai continued on. "Don't forget, we still need to figure out how I'm gonna get some time to look at that gun once we finally get our hands on it."
At that reminder, Dean scoffed.
"You ever stop to think that might be a little easier to pull off without picking fights?"
Lorelai glowered back at him but swallowed her retort about how many fights she'd deliberately avoided in the past twenty-four hours.
John got to the gas station first, and by the time the Impala pulled into the lot, he already had a sandwich in hand and was finishing up filling his truck. Sam pulled up to the pump behind him, and all three of them got out of the car, the air between them still thick with tension. She and Dean made a beeline for the little shop after Sam gave Dean his order and then reiterated it to Lorelai after seeming to decide Dean couldn't be trusted to deliver, while Sam stayed outside with John, filling the Impala. Despite the tension, Lorelai found Dean's hand coming to rest on the small of her back as they went, and when he ducked to murmur in her ear, she couldn't help but get goosebumps down her spine, feeling his warm breath ghost along the back of her neck.
"Hey," he started, waiting until she glanced up to continue. He held the door for her but stayed close, slipping inside right behind her. "I know this isn't how your normally do things, and I'm sorry."
Lorelai sighed, pausing at one of the shelves, her fingers already outstretched towards a bag of chips, and looked at him. There was an earnest expression on his face, and she deliberated – they weren't together, not really, and she wasn't sure she had the right to feel the way she did. But there was a part of her, a big part, that was tired of watching her words, tired of second guessing everything.
"It's not how we do things, Dean," she corrected gently. "I like working with you. We made a good team before we blew everything up, and even these last few cases I've worked with you and Sam…"
She trailed off, not sure what to actually say, but Dean seemed to follow her train of thought anyway, and after wrestling with himself for a moment he nodded.
"Yeah, I know. I like working with you too… even if you are a major in my ass sometimes."
"Takes one to know one," she smirked. Something passed between them and then Dean was scratching at the back of his neck.
"I'm, uh, gonna go grab the stuff Sam asked for. You good?"
Lorelai grabbed the things she wanted off the shelf and passed them over.
"Get me those? I'm actually gonna run to the bathroom. And I gotta check in on Katie."
"No problem," he agreed. "I'll meet you out by the car."
The bathroom was about as clean as any gas station bathroom could be expected to be – so not at all – but Lorelai was so relieved for the privacy and the moment to herself that she wasn't about to complain. Unable to resist, she drew her wand, quickly warding the door before firing off a battalion of cleaning charms. It felt like breathing again, being able to do magic so freely, and once the place was clean enough the stench didn't make her gag, Lorelai exhaled and went about her business.
On a whim, she decided to pull her phone and dial Katie before she left, figuring that with the warded door, it was as much privacy as she could get. Everything was fine, though she nearly got into it with Nolan at the end when he took the phone to let her know he wouldn't be able to bring Katie home himself because Jane needed him at some function. They both knew she was quite serious when she informed him that he was lucky she loved Harry so much, who'd be bringing Katie in his stead, or she'd have come over to London herself to hex him for bailing.
As she hung up the phone, she gave one final wave of her wand before stowing it again, cancelling out the wards and bracing herself to return to reality. The sight waiting for her, however, was quite different than the one she'd left.
The first thing she noticed was the broken glass spread across the floor a few aisles down from where the bathroom door was, and a glance to the side told her it was from a refrigerated door that had been obliterated. The second thing she noticed was the shelving towards the front of the store that had been knocked over, bags of snacks spilled out all around it like a truck had overturned. The final thing she saw before her eyes darted towards the window was the mess by the register, where everything had been knocked off the counter's surface, and blood smeared the mirror behind it. In the same mirror, though somewhat obscured by the mess, she could see a lifeless body – throat slashed and bloody, eyes fixed, open and unseeing.
Lorelai cursed and went to reach for a weapon that wasn't there, and she cursed again, realizing she'd left the machete in the Impala. She could see through the window that it was still there, but John's truck was no where to be found. Worry began to grip at her heart, and when she nearly collided with Dean at the door she couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief, despite the wild look in his eyes.
"Dean!"
"Where the hell were you?" he exclaimed at the same time, grabbing both her arms while his eyes scanned her over. She realized with a start that he looked as relieved as she felt, even if it was tinged with irritation. Lorelai felt her mouth drop open, her brain struggling to form words as she tried to catch up on whatever she had missed.
"What? I, I was in the bathroom. What the hell ha-"
"You were right, one of the vamps followed. Fuck, Lor, didn't you hear shit was going down? When you didn't come out I thought…"
Lorelai felt her stomach drop, following where he was going without him needing to say the words. She bit her lip, guilt bubbling, and shifted uncomfortably.
"Shit, I uh… I warded the door so I could clean the bathroom. I didn't hear –" Dean swore and ran a hand down his face, and Lorelai frowned, looking around. "What happened?"
Dean released her then, taking a step back frustration clearly roiling under his skin once more. He was quiet for just a beat too long, and Lorelai was about to step forward, ready to prod him again, but just before she could he began talking. He explained how the vamp had come in through the back door and approached him. Dean had managed to figure it out, but not quite fast enough, and ended up getting thrown into the dairy case – which explained the smashed door and broken glass. The store wasn't big and the fight had led them towards the front of it. That was when the cashier had tried to get involved.
Dean had tried to stop it, but the vamp had been too quick and took the cashier down in seconds, and it was around then that John and Sam had noticed from out front what was going on. Dean had managed to grab a piece of the shelf that had broken when it was knocked over, the closest thing to a blade he could get his hands on, and went for him.
The vampire had then ducked and rushed outside, and with three against one, the Winchesters had managed to subdue him – even without the dead man's blood. That was when John and Sam had decided to take the vamp and find somewhere to hole up and figure out a plan, and Dean had stayed behind for her.
When he was done talking Lorelai couldn't help but shift guiltily, though instead of acknowledging it, her eyes swept the wreckage. They lingered on the cashier, unmoving on the floor, and she frowned. Over the years she'd had to learn how to compartmentalize… find a way to desensitize… but casualties never felt good.
"We need to get out of here," she pointed out, glancing back towards the window. The lot was still empty, and the road the gas station was located on wasn't busy, but there was no use in pressing their luck. Sighing she started to move towards the counter, drawing her wand as she went. "Keep an eye out?"
Dean watched somewhat apprehensively, his attention split between her and door.
"What're you doing?" he asked. Lorelai knelt down by the corpse, conjuring a bottle and beginning to set to work.
"Dead man's blood. It really should sit a while, but I can speed up the process. And then I'll cover our tracks. Where'd your dad and Sam go with him?"
"Uhh, not sure. Told them I'd call when we got on the road," Dean called back, his eyes still flitting back and forth.
It didn't take long to take care of what she needed at the gas station. Siphoning out the blood and speeding up the aging process was simple enough with magic, as was removing any evidence that she or Dean had been there. As Dean was pulling back out onto the road she sent Nick a quick message so he could alert the Muggle authorities, and then she sat back as Dean put some space between them and the scene before ultimately calling John.
He and Sam had found another abandoned building on the other side of town, far enough away from both the motel and the barn where the vampires were holed up. When Lorelai asked what they were doing to deal with covering their smell, already mentally trying to calculate what she could do without tipping her hand. She was relieved that John had come up with his own solution – some combination of saffron, skunk's cabbage, and trillium that, when torched, helped block scent. Dean caught her eye, silently asking for her opinion, and seemed to ease when she gave him a small nod. It was a hunter's trick she'd heard of before but had forgotten about – it wasn't as effective, but it would do.
When they arrived John already had the fire going outside, off to the side of the building where it wouldn't be conspicuous. Sam was waiting for them, looking perhaps a little grumpy, but otherwise alright, and he clapped Dean on the shoulder as they approached.
"Fucking Christ, this shit stinks," Dean complained.
"Yeah, well, Dad said you gotta put the ashes on your clothes," Sam informed them, his eyes ultimately landing on Lorelai. "Glad you two are alright."
"Yeah, yeah," Dean dismissed. "Someone just decided to take a breather."
There wasn't a ton of heat in his words, but he definitely wasn't over the incident at the gas station, and Lorelai rearranged her face into an expression she hoped came off as apologetic.
"Where's your dad?" she asked instead of actually addressing it.
"Inside," Sam nodded towards the building. Lorelai conjured up a syringe and passed it over with the bottle of blood from the clerk.
"Great. That's dead man's blood. Why don't you go dose up our friendly stalker while Dean and I deal with our clothes. I'll let you do the honors of coming up with a story to tell your dad about how I got it."
Sam grumbled something but took the items and headed back towards the front of the building. Grimacing, Dean went towards the fire with her. They were quiet at first, moving around each other with that easy familiarity though the tension was still thrumming beneath the surface. Then Dean caught her eye as they both went for the same pile of ashes. He gave her a rueful smile, moving for a different spot and shaking his head.
"You'd 've already had this wrapped up if you kept workin' it solo, wouldn't you?" he mused. Lorelai tried not to let the surprise register on her face but once her brain caught up she snorted and continued about what they were doing.
"I don't know," she answered honestly. "I would've been pretty outnumbered going in alone, even if I could've used my… usual methods. But I'd probably have the Colt by now."
Dean sighed but nodded. There was something on his mind, Lorelai could tell just from the look on his face, but he didn't give her a chance to ask, and she knew it wasn't really the time.
"C'mon, we'd better get in there," he grunted. Lorelai frowned, but didn't argue, and less than a minute later they were trekking down the same path Sam had taken moments before.
They'd hardly made it past the threshold when Lorelai felt her heart sink. Sam and John were inside, standing off to the side by a dented metal desk, eyeing the figure tied to a support beam like they were trying to figure out a puzzle. They still had machetes in hand, just like her and Dean, and looked over in their direction as they entered the space. The problem wasn't Sam or John though. The problem was that she was fairly certain she recognized the vamp tied to the beam.
And the bigger problem was that when the vamp finally laid eyes on her, trailing behind Dean, she knew he recognized her too.
"What took you?" John started complaining, directing the question at Dean, who had yet to realize anything was amiss. By then, however, it was all in Lorelai's peripheral, and the sounds of the Winchesters' conversation became nothing more than faded background noise.
She was too focused on the twisted smile forming on the face of the monster staring back at her… the sound of her heart beating in her ears… her body tensing on instinct, her hand already itching towards her wand, carefully concealed in her boot. It was like being under a full-body bind and watching an Erumpent charging at her in slow motion. She knew with absolute certainty what was coming, and as fast a thinker as she prided herself on being, she had no idea how to stop it.
"Well, well, well," the vamp drawled, gaze fixed unwaveringly on her. Lorelai had stopped in the middle of the room, putting them straight across from each other while the Winchesters were off to her left. All three of them fell silent immediately, and from the corner of her eye, she thought she might have seen Dean already reflexively tightening his grip on his machete… she definitely saw him take a half step back towards her. And she definitely noticed the viscerally dark look on his face. None of it, however, was anything she could afford to pay attention to in that moment. "If it isn't our famous Auror Baudelaire. Didn't think I'd rate attention from MACUSA's finest… then again, I didn't think a witch of your caliber would be slumming it with no-maj hunters, either."
And in the space of a heartbeat, everything changed.
In one motion, Lorelai drew her wand and moved the machete to her left hand, casting a shield charm between herself and the Winchesters as she went and all the while keeping her main focus on the jackass that had just sold her out. Meanwhile, John spun from the vamp to her, and while Lorelai was too focused on other matters to clock every detail, she could tell the shield charm had been a good instinct.
She wasn't surprised when John pulled the gun – after all, he wasn't the first Winchester to have such a reaction. She wasn't surprised when Sam, from behind him, reached for his arm, either – for how the two of them had been going at it for the past twenty-four hours, she was pretty sure Sam would have taken any excuse to square off with his dad. What did surprise her was the way that, seemingly as instinctively as she'd thrown the shield charm up, Dean had stepped between her and his father. And this time, she was quite sure there was no imagining the way he tightened the grip he had on his weapon.
Of course, in that moment, Lorelai couldn't let herself dwell on any of that. There'd be time for it later - maybe, she hoped. For now, she had a job to do, and the reality to deal with that for all the care she'd taken, she'd just been outted, and the fallout was going to come.
Oh what she'd give for just one fucking thing to go right. But, then, she'd always had some of the worst luck.
I don't think I've done a cliffhanger before... hopefully y'all don't hate me too much for it.
Anyway, I'll be back 2/23 with the rest of Dead Man's Blood Hope you enjoyed!