Selfless // Dean Winchester

2. A Rainy Day

   Y/N had first met the Winchesters when she was sixteen. John had brought them along on a case involving several vengeful spirits, which caused them to stay for several weeks. She never was sure where she first saw Dean, but one evening, driving home after staying late at school to study, she spotted him and his brother walking on the sidewalk. It was raining. Y/N pulled over next to them and rolled down the window.

   "Need a ride?" she called.

   "No, thanks," replied Dean. He had given his jacket to Sam.

   "C'mon," she insisted. "It's freezing. Where are you going?"

   He named a motel on the edge of town.

   "That's on my way," lied Y/N. Giving them a lift would mean a twenty-minute detour, which would result in one of those nasty tempers of her dad's when she arrived home late, but she felt it was the right thing to do. "Just get in."

   Dean finally yielded and opened the back door for Sam before climbing into the passenger's seat. Y/N glanced in the rear-view mirror at the shivering kid. "What's your name?"

   "Sam," he answered hesitantly.

   "Nice to meet you, Sam. I'm Y/N."

   She drove them to the motel every day after school for the next couple of weeks. She and Dean became study partners, which quickly turned into something else. She was aware his family traveled a lot, and wondered if she was only one of many girls he pretended to be interested in to pass the time, but nevertheless, she loved having his arm around her shoulders as they walked through the hallways. She loved the thrill of sneaking around between classes. And every night when she got home, she was able to tune out her father's angry words by thinking about the good times she had with Dean.

   Y/N grew close with Sam, too. One weekend while Dean was helping John, she ran into Sam at the arcade and they spent the day together. She had no siblings, herself, but she knew the relationship Sam and Dean had was special. They were lucky to have each other. She was lucky to have them. And she knew that she shouldn't be getting attached to them because at any moment, John's job could call him elsewhere and she'd lose them.

   Soon enough, the inevitable happened. One day, her phone rang. It was Dean. She answered.

   He gave her an explanation; brief and straight to the point. Y/N's heart sank, but she tried to keep the tremble out of her voice when she replied with, "If you're ever in the area again, feel free to drop by and say hello."

   "Okay." Dean was silent for a while, but he didn't hang up. Then, "Goodbye, Y/N."

   "Goodbye, Dean. Tell Sam I'll miss him."

   They didn't drop by for another nine years.

   The jingling of the bells on the diner door snapped Y/N out of her daze of memories. She and Dean glanced up. A tall, not to mention handsome young man in a suit similar to Dean's walked toward them. It took Y/N a moment to register that it was Sam. She smiled, then remembered  she needed to get them to leave as soon as possible. But a little joy couldn't hurt. Despite the fact that if they knew what was in the basement of her house at that very moment, they would hate her forever, she couldn't pretend seeing them again wasn't the best thing to happen to her in years.

   "Hi," she said, rather nervously.

   Dean moved over so Sam could sit beside him. Sam smiled- a smile that would have given Y/N butterflies if she could see him as anything other than the thirteen year-old kid from years ago- and returned the greeting. Y/N explained her knowledge of the paranormal, and the conversation turned to the Montgomery case.

   "It's definitely a vamp," said Sam. "I just got back from checking out the body. The bite marks match."

   "Y/N, you've lived here for a long time. Has anyone you know been acting strange lately? Has anyone new shown up" asked Dean.

   She shook her head. "I keep an eye out for that sort of stuff. Nothing."

   Dean sighed. "So, there's nothing to do except wait for it to kill someone else?"

   "Not necessarily," began Y/N. "The kids who found the body said Montgomery spent a lot of time behind this place. You've seen his house- he certainly wasn't dumpster diving."

   "He was meeting someone," said Sam, catching on.

   "And that person may know something. Or even be our vamp."

   "How do we get to them?" asked Dean.

   Y/N thought for a moment. "I don't know."

   "We should head back to the motel," Sam told Dean, sitting up straight. "I can look into past incidents that could be vamp-related around here...unless you've already checked it out."

   She shook her head. "Give me a call if you find anything." She scribbled down her phone number on a napkin and slid it across the table. Sam reached for it, but Dean was quicker.

   "We will," he said.

   They stood up.

   "It's really good to see you again," Sam said.

   "Right back at you," she replied. Her eyes met Dean's, and he smiled awkwardly. "I'll keep an eye out for anything related to John, okay?"

   Sam clenched his jaw slightly. "Thanks."

   As she walked out of the diner and back toward the parking lot between the police station and diner where she'd parked her car, she couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt at how much they wanted to find their father. In her eyes, John was a piece of trash for raising kids in the hunting life, but she knew how much Dean looked up to him.

   You can't feel guilty, she scolded herself. They can never know the truth.