Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Fight or Flight ❯ Troubles ( Chapter 5 )

Anonymous/Mediaminer Reviewer(s):

Raven Black: Thanks, as always, for your review! Y'know, it's kinda funny—I noticed in reading your review that you mentioned all of my favorite parts. I laughed so hard when JJ and Dean collided…but I'm not sure if it came across that I love and adore JJ above all things…I hope it did, because it's true, but now that I look back I might have made him more annoying than anything. Oh, I hope not…he's my favorite…but whatever, you didn't come here to listen to me whine! I'll let you read the chapter now…

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Previously:

“You wouldn't happen to know if those two boys are planning to…uh…what did they call it? Oh, yes…hunting. You wouldn't happen to know if they plan to hunt anytime soon, would you?”

“Commissioner, they don't exactly trust us, you know,” Ryo replied, neatly dodging the question.

“Mm-hmm…well, you realize that you'd be legally obligated to turn them in if you caught them breaking any laws—say, vigilante laws, for instance. Don't you?”

Ryo's heart fell—his scrupulously honest nature wouldn't allow him to dodge that bullet. “Yes, sir.”

“Oh, and Ryo?”

Ryo froze with his hand on the knob, trying not to wince. “Yes, sir?”

“I'm supposed to be in meetings all day, so don't even bother trying to contact me after you finish your shift.”

Ryo looked at him for a long moment, then smiled gratefully and said, “Yes, sir.”

 

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“Ah, sweet freedom…” Dean breathed as they stepped back through the doors of the 27th precinct and stepped out into the day, and stopped, clustered together by the door.

 

“I know,” Dee said, not even noticing who he was agreeing with. “Being around him is exhausting.”

 

“And creepy. You didn't mention how creepy he is. That staring thing he does…”

 

“Try being holed up with him in a meeting room for hours on end, watching him go after your man and not being able to do a thing about it—”

 

“Dee!” Ryo said sharply, causing Dee to start and look at him guiltily. Dean and Sam looked, too, and Ryo began to blush. It started out as a pale pink tinge, but it darkened the longer they looked, until he was flushing scarlet. “Oh…I…uh…I…” he stammered, searching for something to say and failing miserably. The look he leveled at Dee very clearly promised a whole host of interesting tortures, followed by a very violent death, as soon as they got away.

 

But Dee simply smiled at him—not mockingly, but he certainly didn't regret what he'd said.

 

Ryo may very well have died of embarrassment right on that very spot outside the 27th precinct, if Sam hadn't been the only one to take pity on him, and change the subject.

 

“So tell me something,” he said, making it sound like he was talking to both the cops but directing his request mostly toward poor Ryo.

 

“If I can,” Ryo said gratefully.

 

“Who's Maria, and why is she mad at you, Dee?”

 

Dee grinned widely, and abandoned teasing his love in order to latch onto the new subject. “Sister Maria Lane—she's a nun at a church near here. She runs an orphanage there. Well, it's not strictly an orphanage—it's more a place for kids who have nowhere else to go. Whether or not they have parents has nothing to do with it. She'll shelter anyone with half a reason to be away from home.” He positively beamed with pride, and it was perfectly obvious what he thought of the nun.

 

“How did you meet her?” Sam asked, absently scratching at his injured wrist.

 

“Don't do that, Sammy, you'll make it worse.”

 

Sam sighed and dropped his hand, still looking at Dee.

 

“I grew up at the church,” the black-haired man explained. “Maria is…my mother, for all intents and purposes.” That he had just let slip the fact that he was an orphan didn't seem to bother Dee in the slightest—in fact, Sam got the feeling that he didn't particularly want it mentioned at all. “Oh, she's the best woman alive—but scar-r-ry. And I just realized when JJ mentioned it that I haven't been there since the disaster with the—the shapeshifter thing. I mean, Ryo called to let her know I was alive, but I haven't gone over there yet. Oh, she's gonna be on the warpath tonight…”

 

He looked positively delighted by the idea.

 

“Bikky will want to come too,” Ryo said. “We'll have to call to ask if Mother minds.”

 

“Is Bikky your kid?” Sam asked.

 

“My adopted son,” Ryo replied, and now it was his turn to grin with pride.

 

“Oh, that's cool! How old is he?”

 

“Fifteen.”

 

“And the bane of my existence,” Dee muttered. “Little brat.”

 

“If you can't tell, he loves the boy more than just about anything,” Ryo said, smiling.

 

Dee glared at him. “Payback?”

 

“Yep. Hell, isn't it?”

 

“Uh…Ryo?” Dean spoke up, startling them all—he'd been unusually quiet since the conversation started.

 

“Hmm?” Ryo replied, turning his attention to the older Winchester.

 

“Uh…when you…call this nun, could you…um…?” He trailed off, looking uncomfortable.

 

“Could I…?” Ryo asked in polite puzzlement.

 

Dean took a deep breath. “Could you ask if me and Sam could come?” he asked quickly, as if trying to get something acutely painful out of the way quickly.

 

It was hard to say who was more surprised—Ryo, at being asked such a polite question by the man who had done nothing but bite his and Dee's heads off since they'd met, Dee, at the idea that Dean had any interest at all in orphan kids, or Sam, at the fact that Dean had actually made up his mind to ask at all.

 

“Oh…well, sure. I'm sure she won't mind, but…uh…well, why?” Ryo asked carefully.

 

Dean shrugged, but didn't say anything except, “Thanks.”

 

Ryo still looked puzzled, but he didn't ask again. Sam, though, thought he had a pretty good idea of why…

 

“Ryo, Dee, there you are! What are you doing out here?”

 

Dee closed his eyes slowly, and opened them again, before turning to face the man who had just poked his head through the doors—the same random guy who had walked past Dean and Sam in the precinct.

 

“We're tap dancing.”

 

“Who're they?” the man asked, eyeing Dean and Sam.

 

“Assassins we hired to take Rose down. What do you want, Drake?”

 

“Chief's looking for you,” the guy replied. “He's ticked.” Then he disappeared back inside.

 

Dee groaned theatrically. “Well, obviously he's ticked…must be Tuesday…”

 

“Well, we were supposed to be back on the clock ten minutes ago,” Ryo reminded him. Then he turned to Sam and Dean. “We get off shift at three. I'll call Mother then. Uh…how should I contact you to let you know--?”

 

“I could put my number in your phone, if you want,” Sam offered, and Ryo grinned and surrendered his cell.

 

“So…uh…what do you guys plan to do now?” Ryo asked as Sam fiddled with his phone.

 

“You know exactly what we plan to do now, and you know where we're going, and there's nothing you can do about it, so get over it,” Dean snapped, his eyes daring them—especially Dee—to say anything about it. “Weren't you guys supposed to be getting reamed right about now?” he asked pointedly, neatly ending the conversation in a style that was uniquely…Dean.

 

XXX

 

Meanwhile

 

Some Random Apartment

 

“Hunters are such idiots,” Judas scoffed in delight, downing a shot of whiskey while he watched his family put the finishing touches on their little joke.

 

Lilah smiled her cold smile and came to wrap herself around him, coaxing the bottle out of his hand and taking a swig. “I love when you find these things out. It makes everything so much fun.”

 

Inwardly, he smiled at her praise, but outwardly, he remained modest and serious. “It's just lucky that the sings were so obvious—otherwise we may have been caught in an ambush.”

 

Jude's brother, Brutus, the only other one in the room, stepped back to examine his handiwork, and smiled in satisfaction.

 

“How do you know they'll be there, though?” he asked, taking his turn with the whiskey bottle. None of them had any use for the stuff, but that didn't mean they didn't like it.

 

Jude shrugged. “A simple understanding of the human condition. We haven't exactly been subtle—we never had any reason to be—and they must have picked up our trail by now.”

 

“You don't sound too unhappy about that,” Brutus observed noncommittally.

 

“Why would I be? There are only two of them, and they're both vulnerable. It doesn't matter to me if they find us.”

 

“Do you remember the days when we cared what they thought?” Lilah asked, her teeth grazing his shoulder.

 

He let a small sound emerge as she flicked her tongue over the mark, lapping up the blood. “I do, a little,” he replied distantly, quite a bit more than half his mind focused on what she was doing. “I would have been so ashamed to let them see what I do for food, back then.” He chuckled. “But that was because I didn't know my power then.”

 

“Like Lestat,” Brutus offered, and Jude allowed another short laugh.

 

“Yes. Exactly like Lestat.” Then Lilah moved away with one last lick, and he suppressed a disappointed sigh and got back to business. “It's all ready, Brother?”

 

It was a rhetorical question, but Brutus answered anyway. “Now all we have to do is wait for them to show up.” He sounded as if he wasn't looking forward to it—Brutus had never been great with waiting.

 

Jude nodded, and spoke with the absolute certainty of one who has lived long and seen all. “Don't worry. It won't be long.”

 

XXX

 

“That's it,” Sam said with certainty, pointing toward the large building across the street as the Impala crawled along. “That's where they stay.”

 

Dean looked at him for a long moment, stopping the car as he did so. “Y'know, Sammy, it's about time you stopped getting new abilities. I'm almost sure we talked about that…didn't we?”

 

“Uh…sure,” Sam said vaguely, trying not to look like he was hurrying as he climbed out of the car. Luckily, Dean didn't press the issue, instead getting out and going to the trunk in silence. “So what's the plan?” he asked, a little cautiously, lest he rouse Dean's questions again.

 

Dean shrugged. “Get crossbows. Bust in there. Crush, kill, destroy. You know the drill, Sammy.”

 

“And if there are more than we can handle?”

 

Dean scoffed. “When have there ever been more than we could handle?”

 

Sam shrugged, trying not to take offense at the tone. “I just thought…in case.”

 

Dean matched Sam's gesture, and sighed. “If we get in over our heads, we bail and come back with more ammo. Simple as that. Now let's—”

 

And then a car rounded the corner.

 

“—Go. Damn it!” the older Winchester swore. “What are they doing here? What the hell are you doing here?” he repeated, the second Dee and Ryo emerged from the car.

 

Dee smiled charmingly. “Checking out the scenery. It's not bad, as far as falling-down buildings go.”

 

Ryo shook his head. “Dee.” Then he bestowed his own smile on the Winchesters. “The truth is, we're supposed to be at lunch, but…well, we wanted to come see this for ourselves.”

 

Dean groaned. “That better not mean what I think it means—”

 

“We're going in with you.”

 

“Of course you are.” Dean sighed heavily, then ducked into the trunk and pulled out two crossbows, handing one to Sam and keeping the other for himself. Then he pulled out a jar of thick red-black liquid, and he and Sam took turns dipping their bolts into it. All this they did in silence, ignoring the bemused looks Dee and Ryo gave them. Finally, though, Sam took pity on them.

 

“Dead man's blood,” he explained, as calmly as if he were explaining that the sky is blue. “It's poisonous to vampires. You immobilize them with a well-placed shot, and then you use one of these—” He pulled one of the machetes out of the trunk and held it up. “—To take off their heads. Simple as that.”

 

Dee looked as if he was seriously questioning the idea of going into the building. “That…is anything but simple…”

 

Ryo, though, just shrugged. “I assume you're both experienced at this. You certainly sound experienced at this…”

 

Dean shrugged. “Pretty unavoidable in our family.”

 

“So…while you two are going all Buffy, what are we supposed to do?” Dee asked.

 

“Well, first of all you're gonna stop referring to us as `Buffy.' I have nowhere near that many curves…” Dean seemed to space out for a moment, then suddenly snapped to as if he'd only just remembered the subject. “And then you're gonna stay outta the way and let us work. And if you get to the point where you absolutely have to scream like some kind of damsel in distress…take it outside, okay?”

 

And then he was off, before Dee had any time to screech at him, though the black-haired man was right on his heels. Sam and Ryo spent a long moment staring after them, and so were a few yards behind when the other two reached the building.

 

Perhaps that was lucky—although if you asked Sam and Ryo later, they would certainly deny it—because they were still a couple yards from the entrance when Dee and Dean went in.

 

And then Sam's world went white, and he was lying senseless on the ground by the time the sound of the explosion split the silence.

 

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AN: Okay, I know it's a short chapter, but many sensible people have told me time and time again not to worry so much about the length of the chapter, and to just stop when it feels right. And it felt right then, so I stopped. Don't let that keep you from reviewing, though!!!