The next morning, I paced back and forth across my room, Sam's number in my hand. I spent two hours contemplating calling, and when I finally decided to, I plopped down on my bed, biting my thumb nail as I listened to the phone ring.
"Hello?" The voice that answered was much deeper than Sam's was, which could only really mean one thing.
Dean Winchester had answered the phone.
I couldn't bring myself to speak. I wanted to tell him to talk again, to hear his voice. I wanted to yell at him. I wanted to hang up. A million things I wanted to say ran through my head, but I couldn't say anything. The surprise of him answering the phone left me speechless, and I didn't know what to do but sit there with my mouth opened.
"Anyone there?" he asked, annoyed.
"Yeah- Uh- Is agent Anderson there?" my voice came out high and unsteady, and I squeezed my eyes shut, smacking my forehead with my palm.
"Yeah," Dean said slowly. "Yeah, he's right here."
There was a shuffling noise before Sam was on the phone. "Hello?"
"Hi. Um, you drove me home last night, and I just wanted to talk about what I remember."
"Okay, give me a minute," Sam replied. Then a couple seconds later. "He can't hear us anymore."
"Good," I sighed. "Can I see you?"
"Now?"
"If it's not now, you'll probably take off again without warning."
"Audrey-"
"Don't."
"Don't what?"
"Don't you dare try to justify what happened over the phone."
Sam sighed. Finally, he said, "I'll meet you in twenty minutes. Do I pick you up?"
"No. Meet me at Cafe 42."
"Okay, see you soon."
—
Cafe 42 was extremely popular, so I left right after I got off the phone with Sam. I sat in the bar area, at a high table with a seat on either end of it. I ordered a soda while I awaited Sam's arrival, trying to control the knots I felt in my stomach.
After what felt like an eternity, he stood in front of me, the same kind smile I remembered on his face.
"Would it be completely inappropriate to hug you?"
"Sam," I breathed, standing and squeezing him tightly as I wrapped my arms around him.
"God, it's great to see you." Sam said, his voice muffled by my hair.
"You too," I said honestly, smiling. We sat down, grinning at each other. "Does he know you're here?"
"He knows I'm with you. He doesn't know you recognized us."
"Did he- did he recognize me?"
"I don't know. He didn't say so, but he started acting really weird, which makes me think I did."
I couldn't contain the stupid smile that threatened took over my face. I bit my lip, trying to hide it. "You have some explaining to do."
"I know, I know. Audrey, I'm so sor-"
The waiter came by, asking Sam if he wanted anything to drink. He left menu's, too, telling us to order when we were ready.
"I don't want to start with apologies. I want to start with what happened." I said simply.
"Yeah, of course. Uh. Well, I have to start with before that summer to tell you why we had to leave so soon."
"I don't care. Start wherever."
Sam's drink was placed in front of him. "We're not ready to order," Sam smiled. Our waiter nodded, walking away.
"Alright, so as you probably picked up, we're not federal agents-"
"You don't say?"
He smiled, averting his eyes. "We're hunters."
"Like ghost hunters? That's why you were there last night."
"More than just ghosts. But yes."
"Okay," I nodded slowly. "What does that have to do with why you left?"
"Well, because um- Wait, you believe me?"
"Sam, last night something tried to attack Janelle and me. I don't know if it was a ghost, but it definitely wasn't a human."
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that. Okay, well, I'll spare you the boring details. When I was about six months old my mom was killed by a demon. Since then my dad's been obsessed with finding it and killing it, which meant moving around a lot. And wherever he went, Dean and I went."
"I'm sorry-"
"It was a long time ago. That's not what we're here to talk about. Anyway," he sighed. "My dad found a case here five years ago that he thought would lead him to the demon. When he realized it was a dead end, he packed up and we left. We didn't have a choice, Audrey."
"But you knew you'd have to leave eventually, right? You told me he's a marine, which means you knew you wouldn't be staying here."
"Yeah, we knew. But I swear to you, I thought we'd have until the end of summer. I thought it'd be at least another month before we left. So when I asked if you knew about the 'family business-'"
"You were trying to ask if I knew you would be leaving."
"That was part of it."
"Why didn't Dean tell me?"
Sam shook his head, his expression showing pity. "I don't know."
I stayed quiet. It wasn't fair of me to take out whatever anger I had left from that summer on Sam. It wasn't his fault.
"I'm really sorry, Audrey."
"You didn't know," I sighed. "I can't blame you."
There was a silence between us. I waited to see if he would break it, looking up at him through my eyelashes. He looked genuinely apologetic, almost sad.
"So, Sam," I said, trying to break the uncomfortable silence. "What happened to Stanford?"
He laughed shakily. "That's kind of a long story."
"Well, I don't know about you, but I've got nothing but time."
He smiled, licking his lips. "I think I've got some time to spare."
"If we're going to stay here, we might as well order lunch." I grinned, handing him one of the two menu's on the table.
—
i messed up the ages bc i forgot i had to correspond audrey's age to theirs so she's actually 23 turning 24 ok ok
