Claire Winchester (née Bennet) (regenerating) wrote in parabolical, @ 2009-11-05 23:48:00 |
|
|||
Normally road trips were Dean Winchester's specialty. It was an equation that equaled him, his baby, delicious, greasy diner food, and hopefully good company. This roadtrip, however, was not something that he was looking forward to. He couldn't see a way that this could turn out ok for Claire. Either she somehow managed to save New York from being destroyed and took a HUGE chance of exposing the fact she was special, or she failed and bore the guilt of not stopping the inevitable for the rest of her long life, or they were jerked back once they got to the end of the bungee cord the PTB placed them on before they could reach New York and she was frustrated AND guilty. Dean didn't like no win situations, and normally tried to avoid them at all costs, but Claire was too deadset on this to convince her otherwise. Trying to distract himself as well as her, Dean turned off the tape and searched through the radio stations. They were in between signal areas of two major cities, so most of what he could find was staticy and full of interference, but somehow Dean found a 90's station playing the Spice Girls. "Great." He groaned, momentarily leaving the station there. "Backstreet boys. Tell me you never listened to them." "If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give, taking is too easy and that's the way it iiiiis~," Claire sang, injecting more levity into what was about to become a standard Humorus Moment About Music. Her eyes had been closed for about an hour now, but she hadn't fallen asleep and had continued. She was, in some ways, less tense since leave L.A., and yet more. As she'd been afraid this wouldn't work with Dean along, she had asked to walk through L.A.'s 'barrier' on her own, to be sure she 'caught' whatever time-space inconsistency that had been used before by others, but he and the Impala hadn't vanished when he'd driven through the same point and pulled up next to her, she'd decided the PTB must have been okay with Dean being along for this and let the concern rest. But now her thoughts were all forward, to the two day, almost straight-through, drive needed to make it into the city by the late evening before The Day, and then the Plans A, B and possibly C to either get 2006 Claire to do what was needed or pretend to be her long enough to still make ABC's timeline come to be. For what concerns were laid to rest, or concerns were only growing. Could she do this? Would she fail, again, to see New York remain as it was meant to be. No one understood this drive to fix this, not really- at least, that's what Claire thought. Some probably understood parts of it, but to her there was no one, not even her sister, who knew what it felt like to fail five million people in a single moment, especially after being told that saving her meant saving the world and then finding out that it was true because of one fateful phrase she had been meant to say and wasn't there to say it. This time she would be, no matter which Claire Bennet it was that stood before Nathan Petrelli. "Almost as much as I listened to Justin Timberlake and NSYNC," she finally said, as she opened her eyes and turned her head so she could see him... and so he could see the smirk. "Terrible, Bennet...Just terrible. You're such a girl." Dean rolled his eyes, taking one hand off to rest it on her shoulder. If he had a lot on his mind during this trip, she had to have ten times more on hers. He knew how guilt had the habit of sticking around with you, especially how it dug right in when you had a chance to make past mistakes right. There was never any fixing them, just like him taking care of the Striga the second time around didn't fix that his carelessness had almost got Sammy killed, but you could sometimes do something over again and prove you had learned from the past. Dean wasn't going to let her get herself in too deep though, and he sure as hell wasn't going to follow the stupid promise he had made to her before they left. His mission on this trip was to make sure that his Claire got through this in one piece, that she was alive and whole and as happy as possible on the other end of it. He didn't care what else happened. That wasn't to say that he wanted New York to be destroyed, he spent his whole life protecting people, but knew that protecting your family had to come first. Claire was nothing if not family. "So when should we stop for dinner?" They were only a few hours outside of LA, and he had eaten before they left, but Dean knew every good diner and mom and pop joint across the continental United States, and he hoped he'd both distract and impress her with his knowledge. Shifting her hand to rest atop his for as long as he left his hand there, Claire considered but eventually shook her head. She knew he was looking forward to showing her the country in the way he'd known it, which was a way she hadn't been able to experience it even though she'd lived all over it, even if it was only as a last attempt to try and convince her to make the road trip not end up in New York, but she wasn't ready to waste time yet. She had refused to leave the city while Cathy was missing and she or Dean could be needed for the rescue, but they hadn't been needed, so though they were behind schedule, they could still aim to be in the city by the night before. "Mary packed some food for us," she said, nodding to the backseat, as really, anyone who thought they could leave for a place without Mary's cooking without her packing a basket was probably a crazy person, "so I don't think we need to stop right away. If you get hungry, I can take over and drive while you eat?" She squeezed his hand and smiled. "But you could pick someplace for breakfast and we'll see if it's the same here?" Dean nodded. He realized she was resisting him, but he had anticipated as much. Claire was going to get to New York on time--and with time to spare--come hell or high water, and he wasn't going to be able to distract her. But just as she wasn't ready to take a detour, he wasn't ready to give up the driver's seat. As long as he sat there, he felt like he was in control of this somehow, like he could pull a U-turn and keep her safe if need be. Dean wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to give that up on this trip. "Nah." he said softly. "Just toss me a soda and a sandwich, I've been eating and driving since I was twelve." Just as he realized she was resisting him, Claire realized he was resisting handing over control of the car. For now, she wasn't going to make a big deal of it, since she'd made sure he slept before they left, and by the time he was tired, she'd be able to convince him it was safer for her if he let her drive. It was a bit manipulative, sure, but it was mostly to be sure he didn't run himself ragged trying to keep in what control he could have of this. She understood that was what this was. "Okay," she said, then slipped out of the seatbelt, kissed him on the cheek and then turned in the front seat. She could reach the food in the back from here, so stretched over the backseat, backside near Dean, and pulled the packed food to her. After flipping open the basket lid for the bread, and then the lid of the cooler for the sandwich things and the soda, Claire started to dig. "Turkey, ham, the roast from last night or the meatloaf you had at lunch?" she asked, looking over her shoulder at him, though she expected him to keep his eyes on the road. |