Supernatural [Reader Insert]

49. It's Clean-Up Time

Dean called Bobby and explained everything that happened. Bobby seemed... overwhelmed from this side of the phone. You were sure you'd get a better sense of how he felt when you saw him again. He told all of you to come home. He didn't trust that the angels were entirely done with you, either, and he was still worried about the demons. You heard him shout something about not knowing what else would crawl from the woodwork now that you'd had an entire conversation with God. Even though you had your new 'nowhere' tattoo, he wanted you close by the panic room. Gabe and Cas teleported everyone home.

You spent a week helping Bobby clean and re-organize his basement while the brothers were tasked with the garage. Bobby told the angels they were free to go, but if they weren't there when they were needed he would find new, more painful ways to kill them than the ways he was already aware of. Calls came in throughout the week about monsters that needed hunting, and Bobby redirected them to other hunters.

In the course of going through Bobby's basement belongings you learned a lot about hunting. You had of course done the obvious of helping him clean and store the guns and knives, but there were shelves of substances and tools that he had kept over the years meant for specific monsters or enemies, along with a host of identifying information for his and other hunter's aliases. Whenever you looked at something like you didn't know what it was, Bobby would explain it to you. He wanted you to know what purpose it served.

Curiously, you grabbed a jar full of small copper coins. It jingled over the sound of the radio in the background. "Are these pennies?"

"Full copper coins," Bobby said. "Not pennies. Useful because you need to shove one in the mouth of a Nachzehrer before you decapitate it to kill it. Killing the alpha turns everyone they turned back to human." He said it as if he were reciting a memorized dictionary entry.

"What about that?" you pointed to what looked like an antique sword.

"That'll kill dragons. Didn't have one when we needed it, but I do now."

Your eyebrows rose and you returned to your dusting for a moment.

"How did you get to know all of this stuff?" you gestured at the shelves lining the room.

Bobby sighed. "I've seen too much, killed too many things."

After his serious response, you tried to lighten the mood. "Well, at least you're good at it."

Bobby shook his head but the corner of his mouth drew up. "I better be. I've got those two idjits making a constant mess and now you've joined the ranks."

You smiled a moment, then said, "Listen, Bobby–"

"You aren't going to get all sentimental on me, are you?" he asked without looking up.

You felt like rolling your eyes, but avoided it. "A little. I just wanted you to know I'm sorry. I should've listened to you and stayed here. It was selfish of me to go."

He remained quiet, cleaning the blade in his hands.

"I wanted to thank you, too. I know you knew my dad, but you've been taking care of me, even when I don't deserve it or when I don't listen. I want you to know I appreciate it."

He set the blade and the rag he was holding on his lap and cleared his throat. "Yeah, well..." You waited for some joke about the boys or about the times you hadn't listened, but you got something different. "Your daddy cared about you a lot. That's why he left, and that's why he didn't tell you. You might not see that as the right choice, but for him it was the right choice at the time. To you, it was the right choice to go with 'em." He nodded in the direction of his garage.