Time After Time

III

I was leaning between Sam and Dean on the Impala, John was talking to the police where the body had been found while the three of us waited. "I don't see why we couldn't have gone over with him," Sam said I watched Dean roll his eyes.

"Don't tell me it's starting again."

"What's starting?" Their conversation ended once John came back and Dean started to ask questions.

"What have you got?"

"It was them all right. Looks like they're heading west. We'll have to double back to get around that detour."

"How can you be so sure?" Sam asked

"Sam..." Dean butted into their conversation and I could tell where this was going.

"What Dean? I just want to know if we're going in the right direction."

"We are," John said sternly to the both of them.

"How do you know?" I watched John place something into Dean's palm.

"I found this."

"That's a vampire fang."

"Not fangs, teeth. The second set descends when they attack." Dean handed it to me and I looked at it for a couple seconds before I handed it back to John. "Any more questions?" John looked at Sam with his eyebrows raised. "All right, let's get out of here, we're losing daylight." I followed the boys to the Impala and John started walking to his truck. "Hey, Dean why don't you touch up your car before you get rust? I wouldn't have given you the damn thing if I thought you were going to ruin it." I saw Sam give him an 'I told you so look' and I snickered when Dean wasn't looking.

Vampires nest in groups of eight to ten. Smaller packs are sent to hunt for food. Victims are taken to the nest where the pack keeps them alive, bleeding them for days or weeks. I read out loud in the motel room. "I wonder if that's what happened to the 911 couple."

"That's probably what Dad's thinking. Course it would be nice if he just told us what he thinks." Sam said grumpily. I continued flipping through Elkins journal.

"So it is starting."

"What?" Sam sighed

"Sam, we've been looking for Dad all year. Now we're not with him for more than a couple of hours and there's static already?" I listened to them fight while copying this stuff into my own journal.

"No. Look, I'm happy he's ok, all right? And I'm happy that we're all working together again."

"Well good." I rolled my eyes at Dean's childish behavior.

"It's just the way he treats us like we're children." Sam blurts out unable to keep himself from saying it.

"Oh God."

"He barks orders at us, Dean, he expects us to follow 'em without question. He keeps us on some crap need-to-know deal." Still trying to write down the information that was useful I tried to tune out their fight.

"What reason?"

"Our job! There's no time to argue, there's no margin for error, all right? That's just the way the old man runs things."

"Yeah well, maybe that worked when we were kids but not anymore, all right. Not after everything you and I have been through, Dean. I mean, are you telling me you're cool with just falling into line, and letting him run the whole show?" I looked up from my journal to see give each other challenging looks.

"If that's what it takes." Sam storms out and Dean slammed his fist on the table. The table shook from the force.

"Dean.." I put my hand on his shoulder and he looked me in the eyes. Three harsh knocks on the old motel door made me jump and Dean stepped away laughing.