[AU] dark gonna catch me here

[gavemea_45]

Not two seconds after the door closed, Dean started demanding answers. Sam explained pretty much everything, although he glossed over the part where Wynonna'd threatened to shoot him, and for the most part Dean took it pretty well.

Until he made the suggestion of bringing Wynonna - and Peacemaker - to a crossroads and forcing the demon there to give up Dean's contract.

By the time the fight's over, Sam's certain of two things. First, that Dean's not willing to listen to reason because he doesn't want to risk Sam. And second, that he's not going to let his brother go to hell.

He makes sure Dean thinks he's asleep first, and waits until he hears his brother start snoring... then waits another half hour to make sure. Once he's certain Dean's not faking, Sam sneaks out and borrows the Impala.

There's a crossroads three miles north, an isolated one with an abandoned gas station nearby that he can use to get to the bar.

It'll do.

Comments

[gavemea_45]

Dean's eyes brighten. "Damn right I do."

Sam flicks a sharp glance at Wynonna, but says nothing as Dean reaches for the gun. He knows perfectly well why it reacted to him, and Dean... well, Dean doesn't have the same problem.

His brother picks it up with care and turns it over in his hands with the easy familiarity of someone used to handling weapons. "Sweet. Oh, man, this baby's gorgeous."

[pacificator]

"Sure is."

She files away the lack of reaction as a mental note and meets Sam's glance with a bland one of her own before turning back to Dean. Wynonna reaches to tap the bottom of the grip. "Check the engraved initials. W.E."

[gavemea_45]

"The real deal," Dean marvels, as Sam tips back a swallow of his bourbon. "Wyatt Earp's Buntline Special. Did Sammy - no, I guess we'd already given it to Bobby when you two met."

[pacificator]

I do reckon I know that gun, she hears Doc drawl. Wyatt Earp christened it 'Peacemaker.'

"Bona fide," she says, like she'd said then, and cocks a smile back at Dean over her own bourbon. "And no. I haven't seen it. Heard about it, though."

[gavemea_45]

"Once we get it back, I'll show you." Dean's smile's a little more lazy than before. "If you want, that is."

Sam resists the urge to kick him in the ankle. "Bobby's working on making new ammunition for it," he puts in. "To solve that problem."

[pacificator]

She leans over to retrieve Peacemaker, her own smile growing in response to the one he sends her way. "If it's as pretty as that car, I'll want to get my hands all over it."

[gavemea_45]

Sam stifles a sigh. He can see which way the wind is blowing, and starts trying to figure out how he can make an exit before it gets awkward.

"You would, huh?" Dean leans forward a little over the table. "Always nice to meet someone who knows what to do with her hands."

[pacificator]

"Cowboy, I know what to do with everything."

Hard to say if it's some shift of movement or some sound he makes, but something breaks her focus on Dean and draws it back to his younger brother, who's sitting there making the kind of polite I need to get the fuck out of here face she's seen on Waverly too many times. "Like... with guns. Killing demons with guns."

She takes a too-large swallow of bourbon and grimaces, trying for easy. "Obviously."

[gavemea_45]

"Obviously." Dean catches the swift flicker of her glance toward Sam and slips her a wink before he sits back with his own glass. Maybe they'll have the chance for another kind of conversation when his brother isn't around.

"Sammy said you were gettin' shooting lessons from Doc Holliday." He raises his eyebrows.

[pacificator]

"The one and only."

Although if he'd put Waverly in danger with this whole Stone Witch connection, she'll use those skills to shoot him herself. "I regret to say he's exactly as good as they say he was. Fastest draw, best marksman in the West."

[gavemea_45]

"Why regret?" Sam asks. "Seems like that'd be a good thing."

[pacificator]

"Believe me, you'd say it too, if you ever met him."

She's conscious of being slightly – slightly – unfair to Doc, and makes a face, then lifts her bourbon for a drink. "No, it is a good thing. I could barely shoot, before."

[gavemea_45]

"From what Sam told me, you, uh, didn't get the chance for much practice until recently." Dean downs the rest of his glass and reaches for the bottle.

[pacificator]

"Sam told you right. I was never supposed to be the heir."

She tips another generous mouthful down her own throat, feeling the smooth burn of the bourbon track down to her stomach. "I'd only ever shot Peacemaker once before in my life."

[gavemea_45]

"And I guess you didn't grow up using any other weapons, or anything like that," Sam says. He trades a look with Dean. "It was a little different for us."

[pacificator]

"Willa was the heir," she reiterates. "So Daddy trained her. If he'd ever meant to teach me, he died before he could."

[gavemea_45]

Sam privately thinks it was pretty damn stupid of her father not to teach all his kids how to be prepared, given the curse and the danger it brings on them all, but he keeps that to himself. "I know," he murmurs, instead.

Dean shrugs. "Bet you're picking it up quick now though. That's what counts."

[pacificator]

"Amazing how quick you can learn, between the greatest gunslinger than ever lived and an ex-Marine teaching you how to shoot and fight," she points out, and sets her glass down on the table as she looks at Sam.

"Did you tell him about the Seven?"

[gavemea_45]

"Yeah, I did," Sam confirms. Dean makes a wry sound. "I grilled him after he and your sister woke me up. Once we got back, anyway. So I'm thinkin' you can assume I know pretty much everything you told him, ain't that right, Sammy?"

"You do now," he mutters.

[pacificator]

"Well, there's one thing you don't know."

(You can do it, Earp. You don't need me.

OK? You can break the curse, find the last of the Seven.

Believe that.)

She looks down at her fingers, tapping on her glass, then back up at the brothers. "I have a lead on the last of the Seven. But Dolls is gone. I don't know where. I'm on my own."

[gavemea_45]

Sam startles and focuses on her, suddenly intent.

"Gone?" Dean asks. "Like, what kind of gone we talking here - he left, or he was taken?"

[pacificator]

"Your guess is as good as mine."

She twirls the glass on the bar, then looks up at them. "He went to get us takeout for dinner. And then he called and said... there'd been a change of plans."

Her shoulders straighten and her chin drops as she quotes him. "And he had to go away for a while."

[gavemea_45]

"Did he sound like anything was wrong? Give a signal that he was under duress of any kind?" Sam asks.

[pacificator]

"He was real fucking cryptic, even for him," she says, with a shrug and a shake of her head. "He said he'd owe me dinner when he was back. And then nothing. But he's been – "

She exhales, an explosive sigh that drops her shoulders. "He's been acting weird. I think he might be sick."

[gavemea_45]

"Huh," is Dean's opinion. "Could be he had to go to the hospital or something and didn't want to be fussed over."

Sam gives his brother an exasperated look and focuses back on the problem at hand. "You're not thinking of going up against this guy alone."