Haunted (Dean Winchester x Original Character)

CHAPTER 3

The next morning I had a debate in my own head if I should get up and research more, or just stay in bed all day because I was going nowhere. The presumable lead I had last-night appeared to be just a fake article on the Internet, and it completely demotivated me. Plus, I really needed a break. I went for the latter only instead of sleeping the day away, I showered, got a decent pair of clothes on, and decided I was going to spend the day reading, just for fun. 



As I stepped into the kitchen, I found Dean drinking a beer and ironing some shirts. It wasn't even 8 am, and it worried me. He seemed so caught up in his mind that he didn't realize I was there. And I used that to my favor to observe him. He looked so concentrated that was almost funny for a second, but I wondered what he was thinking about. Was he thinking about us? About what I said last night? Had I ruined everything? 



Sam startled me from behind as he stepped down to the kitchen as well, and gave me a small, warm morning hug when he passed by me. Dean looked up to the both of us right at the moment when our bodies collided, and I could feel my cheeks blush. It's not like I was doing something out of place, Sam and I hugged a lot. But I can see now how it must have felt to have the girl who just told you hours ago she has a crush on you, to run into your brother's arms. Definitely not a pretty picture. I walked beside him, fake yawning, attempting to hide the fact I had been staring at him for a couple of minutes.


"How's it going?" he spoke up a bit shut down. He tried to hide it, but I could see it all over his face that something was going on. And I got the feeling it was something about last night.


"Trying not to go crazy" I joked, grinding a couple of coffee grains and setting up the coffee maker. Sam started chopping some vegetables beside me and scrambling some eggs for a big breakfast for the three of us. Neither of us said anything else, and the silence soon turned deafening. For a moment, I worried. Panicked, even.

"Everything okay?" I mouthed to Sam in absolute silence, then moved my eyes towards Dean, so he knew I was talking about him. He just shrugged, then locked his eyes on the beer his brother was holding and sighed. It was too early for a beer, and the bags under his eyes told me he didn't exactly catch sleep at all last night. 



"Jody called" Sam decided to spoke up. "She—uh, she needs help with a case, I thought we could go and—"



"What about Leah?" Dean cut him off abruptly. "We have her case going on, and we can't keep leaving her all alone."



"I don't mind," I reassured, actually liking the idea of them heading out for a hunt. It would mean I'd had the bunker to myself. "I'm sure we could all use a break from each other."

It took me a moment to realize how bad that must have sounded to them, almost as if I was sick of them and I couldn't wait for them to be gone. I wasn't. But Dean and I... we were in this endless loop of wanting something to happen, and not having the courage to make it happen, that I thought that maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't be such a bad thing if we were a couple of days apart.


His eyes swayed briefly, and his jawline tightened. "Alright, then."

It was all he said before dropping everything he was doing, and storming off to his bedroom to pack. Just like that, in an instant. Sam and I exchanged a concerned look but decided we weren't going to push it.



"He does this sometimes, you know... this shutting-down thing. Don't take it personally because it isn't, most of the times its just hunt related crap that—"



"Comes with the job," I cut him off.

Sam half-smiled and nodded. Yeah, I knew all about those days. Days when your mind gets the best of you and wonder what it would feel like to lead a healthy life for a change. To worry about a douchebag boss, and blind-dating being the worst thing that could happen in your week. I knew the feeling, and I get pissed off too sometimes. But Dean's mood had nothing to do with that and judging by the way his eyes never dared to lay on me for more than 10 seconds, or how he said 'alright then,' sounding almost disappointed and even hurt for what I was implying, I knew it was all my fault. 

It took him less than 15 minutes to reappear to the scene with a duffel bag over his shoulder; Sam had already his things gathered by the garage door, breakfast packed in brown paper bags. As I usually did whenever they left off to a hunt, I hugged Sam tight. And I waited to hug Dean too, but it never came. He didn't bother to say anything to me, not even a wink as he'd done times before.