If Heaven Wasn't So Far Away

Back to Work

They were in no rush to leave. They meandered slowly through breakfast and packing, then slowly loaded their guns.

"Can we please change the station?" Sam asked.
"The driver picks the music and the passenger shuts his cakehole."
"Help me out here." Sam said to me.
"I like the music."
"Ha!" Dean exclaimed triumphantly.
"Let's go to the beach." Dean said a bit later.
"Or we could do our job." I suggested casually.
"Oh. Yeah. I guess."
My phone rang.
It was Alysa.
I was tempted to have Sam or Dean answer it to see what she wanted, but that would definitely show weakness, so I answered it. "Hello?"
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, why?"
"You said you were sorry. You don't do that unless you feel like you've done something wrong... And you don't feel like that."
"Recent events have taught me that I shouldn't allow pettiness to ruin a relationship." I said in the tone of a scientist giving a report.
"What happened?"
"Nothing. Just stuff."
"What kind of stuff?"
"Nothing. I just decided that I should at least try to make an effort before it was too late." And I hadn't expected her to call me back, so....
Silence. "Why?"
"Just reasons. I'll tell you later. Maybe."
"Okay."
I was quiet.
"I'm sorry I've been blaming you for everything."
"It's okay."
"I love you."
Definitely not what I was expecting. I was shocked into silence. "I love you too." I finally said.
Silence. "Well... Bye."
"Bye."
"Call me and tell me."
"Okay."
"Bye.
"Bye."
Well, that was quite the change of heart.
Neither of them asked who it was, or what we were talking about, but I told them anyways. "It was my sister." I said. "I called her the other day."
"Why?" Dean asked.
"I decided that I should try to make an effort. Thank you." I added.
"What did we do?" Sam asked.
"Showed me what I'm missing. Alysa and I can never be like you guys, of course, but I figured we could at least not hate each other."
"You never hated her."
"Not after I left, but I did before that a little."
"Really?" Dean asked, disbelieving.
"Yeah, it was sort of hard not to."
"That's hard to imagine." Sam said. "You're so nice."
"Outwardly."
"Do you hate us?" Dean smiled.
"Sometimes." I said. "Just kidding. No, not at all. Y'all are wonderful." Most of the time, at least.
"If you ever want her to do anything, just let her know about the pain you're in and she'll do it." Sam said. "Ohh! That's why you like Dean so much."
"I'm not in any pain." Dean said.
We both stared at him.
"Well, we're about five minutes away." He said, trying to change the subject.
"Why were you guys talking about religion?" Sam asked.
"What?"
"Last night. You said you were talking about religion." He said. "What religion?"
"Islam." I said. It was the first thing that came to mind. Christianity probably should have come first, maybe Atheism. I guess Islam works.
"Why?" He gave me a weird look. "You're Christian. Dean's... Not Muslim."
"Her friend's Muslim." Dean said, giving me a grateful look.
"Yeah. Hadeer. She lives in Egypt."
"And what do they believe, Dean?"
"Allah. Jesus was a prophet. And Mohammad Ali is the greatest prophet. I decided Islam is not for me. I mean, look what the women have to wear."
"It's Mohamed." Sam and I said. "And yes, it's extremely sexist, in my opinion." I added.
"You just had to pick Rosa Parks, huh?" Dean grinned.
We both stared blankly at him.
"You mean Susan B. Anthony?" I asked.
"Same thing."
"Not exactly. Rosa Parks was a Civil Rights activist. Susan B. Anthony was a Women's Suffrage activist. I suppose Rosa Parks could kind of count as Women's Suffrage, but..."