Head First For Halos

1: El Camino Royal

Hope was elbow deep in the engine of a cornflower blue 1974 El Camino, reaching for a socket she dropped while removing the timing belt. She was a short girl of twenty three years, her wren brown hair constantly fell into the path of her hazel eyes. She was constantly trying to tuck the strays behind her ear. Causing grease streaks across her left cheek, matching her streaked forearms. She cursed and wrenched her arm from the small crevice she had managed to wiggle it into, the socket capped the tip of her pointer finger. She removed it and began fumbling to place it back onto the wrench.

"Hope. You were supposed to come and eat lunch two hours ago." She said standing on the patch of gravel near the entry way of the shop. The sudden intrusion of silence caused her to drop the socket right back into the engine. Luckily instead of getting caught between the block, and the transmission it fell through to the concrete. She sighed heavily and ambled over to the stool behind her pulling the mostly empty bottle of Jim Beam to her lips and swallowing it down like water. Holding the empty bottle in front of her, examining it like it was foreign.

"I'm not going to sit here and watch you self destruct." Said Leanie Drew Harlan, she was Hopes best friend. The person who held her hand through the worst of times, and was trying now. The soft look on her face only tore deeper into the fresh wounds Hope was nursing.

"Don't you understand that I fucked up too badly to get back in this time. I let my feelings get the best of me and now I can't fix it. " Hope grasped the neck if the bottle tightly. Speaking through clenched jaws, and taut lips. Her eyes bloodshot, and red rimmed. "Lee he's dead."

"Hope. I didn't know it would happen." Hope sniffed a tear back. Holding her palm to her forehead. A whimper escaping her strangled vocal cords. Her hand rubbed her cheek and then ran down to her chest, it settled there and toyed with the thick gold band attached to the black cord around her neck.

"I should have known better. Look what happened to my Daddy. My Momma. Lee, I was just lying to myself."

The wedding had been only two months ago.

Of course! No one could have known that my fiancé would have gotten possessed. No one would have known that the demon riding him had jumped off of a thirteen story building in his body just so Jackson would die when it was pulled from his body. No one could have possibly known that.

"Don't. I know you're hurting." Leanie continued coolly. She was a master of holding off, she knew Hope needed a dose of reality after spending two days back to back alone in the shop, drinking herself into a coma. "Or did you forget that we both lost him?" Hopes face turned up to the skyline in the shops roof, her eyes screwed shut, biting her own two lips fighting back sobs. Leanie walked over to her friend, pulling the bottle from Hopes fist. Looking at her friend before walking over to the long table on the east side of the open metallic room. Surveying the collection of liquor bottles ranging from Vodka, 40's of Wild Turkey, and Jim Beam scattered across the table. All of them had been sucked dry. "Break em. You'll feel better." Lee set the bottle on the table, handing Hope the .45 that had been tucked into the lining of her battered carhart jacket.

Hope held the gun in a white knuckled grip as she raised the gun and fired all nine shots. Missing twice, when she turned Leanie was standing next to her. Hope was wrapped in Lee's warm embrace before she could even pull away.

"Come inside. I made you a BLT." Hope just nodded into the taller girls shoulder. "You smell like road kill."

They sat at the table across from one another. The smell of burnt sage coursed throughout the house,along with the fading smells of bacon that had been recently cooked. There was a comfortable silence between the two women, there was no shifting around in their seats, nothing needed to be said. The pictures on the wall were old, pictures of Hope before she disappeared, pictures of the Winchesters, The Singers all together. The newest picture up there was one that Lee, had put up herself. It had been taken of Hope, Lee, and Jackson at their wedding. Hope in her wedding gown, Lee in a light blue dress, and Jackson in a tie and a dress shirt. Their little family. It was a memento. After countless hours of no sleep, hunting, and running the Cami on less than best; It was a constant reminder of how they needed to carry on.
Leanie thought about the recent articles she had been reading before approaching her friend. She was glad to see some improvement, ready to get back into the swing of things.

Hope was the first to break the silence by stating she was going to shower. Lee nodded and watched her go. She stood near the bathroom door listening for any disconcerting noise. she waited a moment before she heard singing. It was Hopes thin voice faintly putting out the words.

Players only love you when they're playing.  Women they will come and they will go, when the rain washes you clean you'll know.