After a week,
Dean and Henry climbed out of the sewage onto the night street, and the smell came with it.
Henry sat down on the curb like a man who had made peace with his choices and found them wanting.
He stared at the road in front of him with the expression of someone cataloguing the most humiliating moments of their life and adding a new entry.
"Dean," he said. "Did you get something in your mouth?"
Dean didn't answer. He was bent over a trash can at the side of the road, vomiting.
Henry nodded slowly. "Yeah."
He leaned back on his hands and looked up at the sky. Thankless job. That's what it was. They'd come to this town a week ago because there were murders, missing hearts, pattern clean enough that it took them about an hour to call it.
Werewolf.
Straightforward enough, except this particular werewolf had decided the sewer system was a perfectly acceptable place to hide and operate out of, which meant Dean and Henry had spent the better part of tonight wading through things that should never be waded through to get to it.
During the fight Dean had gone face first into something Henry was choosing not to identify.
He genuinely could not understand how that werewolf had lost its sense of smell badly enough to voluntarily live down there.
Dean straightened up from the trash can, wiping his mouth, looking like a man whose dignity had left the building entirely.
"We don't get paid enough for this," Dean said.
"We don't get paid at all," Henry said.
Dean thought about that.
"Yeah," he said. "That's the problem."
Sam pulled up in the Impala, climbed out, and immediately his hand went to his nose.
"Oh God," he said, muffled behind his fingers. He took one look at Dean, then Henry, both of them soaked and reeking on the curb. He took a step back. "What happened to you two?"
"Do you even need to ask?" Dean said, turning straight on Sam. "The job went to hell, that's what happened. You were supposed to stop that werewolf from entering the drainage area but you missed the shot and look what it brought us."
"Dean, I said it was an accident—"
"An accident," Dean repeated. "Sam I had something in my mouth. Do you understand what I am telling you right now?"
Sam didn't have a response for that.
"I want a bath," Dean muttered, turning toward the Impala. He reached for the door handle, then stopped himself. He stood there for a second, hand hovering, looking at the interior through the window.
His baby.
He couldn't do it. Not smelling like this. Not to her.
Henry walked around and pulled the back door open without hesitation.
Dean spun around. "Hey. No. Get out. You are not getting in my baby smelling like a sewer."
"Dean—"
"Out."
"The motel is five kilometres from here," Henry said, not moving. "The car is the fastest way."
"I don't care—"
"Dean I want a bath," Henry said flatly. "You want a bath. Get in the car."
"That is my baby you are sitting in—"
"You only care about your baby," Henry said. "Do you know how many disgusting things I've dealt with for this team without complaining—"
"Oh here we go—"
"The vampire nest, Dean. The sewers. The tree bark—"
"Nobody told you to eat tree bark—"
"Someone teleported me to Wisconsin—"
The argument carried all the way to the motel and probably through the walls.
***
An hour later, Dean and Henry were still occupied inside. Sam stepped out, file in hand, working through what he'd dug up on his mother's past. It was quiet out here. That's why he came outside.
Then Ruby appeared.
"Looks like you actually took my advice," she said.
Sam looked at her for a long moment.
"I'm starting to think you have some kind of tracker on me," he said.
"Because I'm noticing a pattern. You always know where we are, but you only show up when certain people aren't around." He stepped closer. "So tell me what you want with me, or I will hunt you down myself."
"Are you capable of that?" Ruby asked.
"Maybe not," Sam said.
"But I know someone who scares you enough that you disappear every time he's nearby. You only come around when Henry or Dean are gone because you know they'd put a knife in you before asking a single question." He held her gaze.
"So what is it? What do you actually want?"
"I want to help you, Sam," Ruby said. "Not be your enemy."
"Then start by telling me who you are," Sam said. "What you are. And what you want with me specifically. All of it."
Ruby's eyes went black.
Sam took a step back immediately, demon knife out and up before she could blink.
"I'm Ruby," she said. "A demon."
"That's why I didn't want to reveal my identity," she added, nodding at the knife.
"Give me one reason I don't kill you right now," Sam said, not lowering it.
"Because I saved your ass," Ruby said, completely calm. "Remember? And I'm not attacking you. I'm standing here having a conversation. That should count for something."
"You're a demon."
"Very observant."
"I don't trust demons," Sam said. "Not one. Not ever."
"Yeah I got that from the knife pointed at my face," Ruby said. "But think about it Sam. I once saved you and your brother."
*****
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