Winifred "Fred" Burkle (i_figure) wrote in we_coexist, @ 2013-03-26 14:04:00 |
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Entry tags: | dinah lance, winifred burkle, zz:status complete |
The truth is ready for you now (Dinah/Fred log)
Fred needed to see Dinah. She couldn’t go straight to Dean; she didn’t even know how. She thanked Jesse before leaving. He’d helped just by being there.
Once she was out of the Library, she walked a block before making a quick call for a cab. She was soon racing to a certain flower shop. Well, racing may have been an exaggeration. The cab driver wasn’t one to speed through the City; he preferred driving at the mandatory speed, set by the City authorities. Fred didn’t push him to go faster though because she needed to decide what she needed to say.
Jesse had offered to do more without saying as much, but Fred couldn’t let him, partly because she wasn't sure what to ask or how without stepping over some unspoken boundary. She had to figure this out on her own. She needed to. She sighed softly once the cab got where she needed, and she was glad that the City was being nice enough to put the cab fare in her pocket.
She hoped Dinah was by herself, and to make sure, she slipped to a nearby alleyway and sent Dinah quick text.
Are you able to talk? Alone?
She probably should have done sent the text before leaving the library. So much for trying to think ahead.
Dinah was home alone when she got the text message, though she wasn’t sure why Fred was concerned about talking alone. She shot a quizzical look at her phone before sending a text message back.
I can talk. Do you want to call me or do you need to meet me somewhere?
The text message was suspicious to some extent. There was even a chance that Fred wasn’t the one sending it but it was merely someone with access to Fred’s phone. Dinah didn’t want to think about that possibility, but if that was the case then she thought it was best not to tip the person off that she was thinking along those lines.
Some might say she was overly paranoid. Those people had likely never spent a day doing something along the lines of her night job.
----
I’ll be over soon. You’re home, right? Fred was very happy that she wasn’t going to have to talk to anyone else. She was happy that she could talk to someone who might understand; Dinah had had some crazy adventures after all. She was sure of it.
It was probably silly to think Dinah would just be home, but she hoped that luck was with her. Or maybe she was still trying to get her head around what was going on. Maybe.
“I should call Jack. Poor Jack.” She felt for the King of Hearts. He was a very good guy, and somehow in finding her, he had gotten involved in something that she couldn’t even begin to understand herself. She’d do her best to keep him safe. She had to; it was the least she could do for him.
----
Dinah hesitated before sending the text message, but she couldn’t just ignore the fact that Fred might need her. Especially with someone out there who had tried to kill Fred, and especially with the amnesia that was currently a concern.
I’m home.
She checked to make sure that the devil’s traps were in place, just in case. She also checked out the window to see if she could spot anything out of place. There was a little flash of relief as she confirmed that the statue of the Joker was still in its place. That was something.
All the same, Dinah was prepared for just about anything. Whether it was Fred remembering, Fred getting more confused, or someone or something other than Fred knocking on that door.
---
Fred should have cleaned up better. She should have prepared better. She should have done so many things, but she opted for being quick. She had to be. Something was very wrong, very bad.
Soon, the brainy female knocked on the door, holding to the phone she’d just used to contact Dinah; it was strange. She knew the phone was her. She knew that it wasn’t going to go away, but she still had that lingering feeling it might disappear at any moment. There were so many gaps in her memory, or pieces that didn’t fit right. She felt like the girl was still learning, getting used to the City, but she also felt like the woman who’d done quite a bit in the time she’d been here. She didn’t want to know it all, and she knew it was waiting to be known. All of it, even the bad things - those sad things that had nothing to do with the way her head had gone loopy.
She bounced a little with nervous energy and hoped that Dinah would really be the one answering the door.
---
At the knock, Dinah looked through the peephole first. She couldn’t see Fred very well, but what she saw concerned her. She opened the door quickly and looked at her friend.
“What happened? Are you okay?”
She stepped aside in a clear gesture that Fred should come in, though she didn’t speak the words out loud. Her time in the City and all of the creatures she’d encountered and learned about had taught her that spoken invitations into a home held power. By habit, she didn’t give those out loud any more.
Her eyes traveled over the blood on Fred, silently checking for the source of a wound. When she didn’t see any, she was glad that her friend seemed to be physically unharmed but more concerned about whose blood it could be and what might have happened.
---
“It’s not mine.” Fred couldn’t read minds; she didn’t get that with the shot to the head. It could have been great, maybe. Reading minds could be very unhappy making, or so she’d guess. She stepped in, but she didn’t go too far because she didn’t want to mess up Dinah’s floors. She didn’t think she was dripping blood, but she wasn’t exactly perfectly clean.
“And, no, I’m not okay. Jack had a cop walking me around. She died. Some girl helped us when we were attacked by vampires. My vampires, not the other kinds of vampires.” She knew there were others. She knew that they came in all shapes and sizes, just like she remembered that there were some very deceptive demons.
“The girl. She looked like a Slayer. Or seemed like one, but I don’t know. I didn’t know too many Slayers before.” Her hand lifted slightly to indicate the gun wound. “Just met one? One.” In true Fred fashion, she was taking her time getting to the point.
----
Luckily, Dinah was used to Fred giving out huge amounts of information without stopping to take a breath. Even so, this was a lot to take in. Dinah frowned and looked at the clothes, which were stained with blood.
“I’m sorry, Fred.” she winced at the idea of someone doing their job and dying in the process. It wasn’t a foreign concept to her, but that didn’t make it any easier and that didn’t make her grieve any less for the departed officer. Dinah’s dad had been a cop and she was doing her best to try not to think of what the policewoman’s family would feel when they were notified.
For now, however, Fred was her main concern.
“Do you want something to drink? Or a change of clothes?”
If there was something else Fred was getting at, Dinah was unaware at the moment. She did wonder why Fred had come to her instead of Jack but she didn’t question that too much. She was just glad that Fred felt comfortable calling her with this. She wanted her friend to have someone that she felt she could trust.
----
“Clothes. Clothes. A shower. Food. Tacos. No, you don’t have to do food.” Fred looked around and gave Dinah a slight smile. “Dean and Sam aren’t here, are they?” Dinah had said she was alone, but Fred needed to be sure. She didn’t know what Dean knew, and she wasn’t sure what Dinah knew. Just...Jack couldn’t get involved. He couldn’t.
“I don’t want to interupt anything if he..they’re here.” She gave Dinah a slight smile. “Sam was there. He was at the ...he saw the cop get killed. So did the girl. He aimed his gun at the girl. He probably thought she was a vampire too, she moved like one. Fought like one, so she could have been, but she didn’t get all bumpy foreheaded like my vampires. I keep saying ‘my vampires’ like I own them, I don’t. I don’t have any vampires here, not anymore. Angel’s gone. He came and went. He wasn’t even a vampire when he was here. He was once, but not anymore. I remember that.”
Yes, she could drop that bit of information just that quickly and without warning.
----
Dinah was a little surprised that Fred asked again to be sure that Dean wasn’t here. She was more surprised that she’d brought up Sam, though Dinah supposed that it was safe to assume that if one brother was here, the other might be as well. Even if Sam hadn’t really come around much since Thanksgiving and not at all before then. Of course, that was a line of thinking for another conversation entirely. That wasn’t the important thing at the moment.
The blonde was already moving down the hallway, ready to help Fred with whatever she needed. She knew that her friend was still feeling lost because everything she remembered now had changed, and all of the people she remembered being in the City weren’t anymore. Dinah had lost enough people to the City over a period of time to know how much it hurt.
She looked over her shoulder at Fred.
“Dean and Sam aren’t here,” she said. “And even if Dean was home, you would still be welcome here.”
She ducked into her bedroom and returned with clothing. She held that out to Fred.
“Why don’t you get cleaned up and I’ll see what I have in the fridge. Have you called Jack yet?”
She wasn’t going to force Fred to go back to Jack’s, but she thought that the mayor would want to know where she was. And if Fred hadn’t called anyone else, he definitely needed to know what had happened to the officer on duty.
----
Fred followed Dinah slowly. She appreciated that the comic book heroine would treat her so nicely; Dinah didn’t have to do any of this. It felt weird to have a girlfriend - to go from having mostly male friends to having a female friend, a good one too, was odd.
“No, don’t call Jack. Or call him and tell him I’m okay. I’ll be okay. Eventually. Right now I don’t want him anywhere around me. He’s not the reason I’m like this. Not even close. It’s just that I don’t want him involved. I really don’t because there’s something very bad out there, and you could be part of it. I’m hoping you’re not because if you’ are, I’m in really big trouble.” She wasn’t trying to insult her friend. She didn’t want to do that even a little bit.
“Dean wouldn’t be. I didn’t know him very well. I did, do, have?” Fred winced. “No, I knew Sam. Sam was very nice. He held my hand when I met Norman Bates. Well, actually I knew Norma before I knew Sam, but he still held my hand when things went grey. I had a crush, would still have a crush, may have a crush. Even with Jack and Jake...” Here the brainy female paused.
“Oh.” Her knees started to give as if she were about to faint.
----
Dinah wasn’t insulted so much as concerned that Fred thought she could be part of what was going on. She frowned as the babbling turned to what sounded like memories. There was a part of her that tried not to grab onto the hope that Fred might be starting to remember.
She rushed forward when Fred’s knees buckled and reached out in an attempt to steady her.
“Fred?” she asked quietly, not wanting to interrupt the potential remembering but wanting to let the other woman know that she was there, and wanting to make sure that she stayed upright.
“Maybe you should sit down.”
----
“I probably should.” Fred leaned against Dinah as they found her a place to sit. The floor looked like just the spot at the moment. She settled down and just breathed for a little bit. The breathing might have sounded like something Dinah had taught Fred before the brainy female got a little less brainy.
“Sam may not be Sam. If he is Sam, he’s a bad Sam. Or maybe it wasn’t Sam but a Sam look-a-like. Have there been any Sam evil twins? I don’t know. I saw him. He had a gun. Then I saw him with a gun, but it wasn’t pointed at a vampire, the girl, well a girl, not so much a girl. I haven’t been a girl in a while. I think it was him. I could be wrong, maybe it was a Sam like person, being, creature? It’s not Sam, but it was Sam. I’m pretty sure it was. So what if it is Sam?” She looked up at Dinah, hoping the woman would understand. Fred wasn’t even sure she understood.
“I broke his heart, and he’s still nice.” Yes, Fred jumped from one male in her life to another.
----
Dinah was trying to follow the ramble and failing. Though, something struck a chord. There might not have been an evil twin, though Dean had mentioned shapeshifters. He’d also mentioned Sam not having a soul during the time he’d been taken from.
But this Sam... that wasn’t what was going on? She frowned.
“You broke Sam’s heart?” she asked, though she shook her head slightly. That wasn’t the important part of all of this. “So Sam tried to shoot the woman who saved you? And that triggered a memory?” she asked.
Her brain was still trying to process the gaps that Fred hadn’t quite filled in. The picture that was starting to emerge was one that every inch of her wanted to reject. If she was right about either option-if a shapeshifter had taken on Sam’s face, it would have to be holding Sam somewhere or it would have killed Sam. And the other option... Well, either would tear Dean apart.
“There are creatures in Dean and Sam’s world that could take on someone else’s shape,” she confirmed.
She still wasn’t sure what memories might be surfacing about Sam and she needed to hear it from Fred. She couldn’t even bring herself to ask for confirmation of the worst fears that were currently running through her mind.
----
Fred nodded slightly then shook her head.
“No, not his. Sam’s, not Sam’s heart. Jack’s heart.” Fred didn’t mention Jake; he wasn’t around, and she didn’t want to focus on the bad. Well, not all of it. Jack was here, and he was her friend. He protected her, or tried to. “Sam doesn’t have heart.”
That wasn’t true. She knew it wasn’t; it couldn’t be true. He had to have heart; a Winchester without a heart was wrong on so many levels. But, there was something very wrong with Sam. There had to be. Unless she was very confused or broken.
----
Dinah’s very first instinct was to defend Sam to Fred, to point out that that was really harsh. But something stopped her. Maybe it was that things had seemed a little off with Sam for awhile then. Or maybe it was that the pieces were starting to fall uncomfortably into place.
“Did Sam hurt you?” she asked. It was hard to get the words out, but it needed to be asked.
She wasn’t just talking about tonight. She hoped that Fred would realize that. Once the question was out there, she felt like she was holding her breath as she waited for confirmation or denial of the fear that was now settling into her chest.
----
“Yes?” Fred really didn't want to think Sam had. She didn’t want to believe that her memory had gotten that right. Maybe what she was remembering wasn’t a memory at all. Maybe she’d misunderstood. She’d dreamt it, but...
“He held a gun, and I felt it. I felt he’d done it before.” Her eyes got big. “Maybe he didn’t mean to. He was protecting me from the woman, girl, person. Who could be a slayer or something else, but I dont’ think so. Maybe he was there, I don’t know. I feel like it’s real, but it can’t be real. That’s not Sam. Sam’s brooding, pensive, and sometimes a little quiet, but he doesn’t hurt his friends. Unless I’m not his friend, which doesn’t make any sense. He was mine. I think.” She leaned against the wall, trying to focus. Why did her mind have to be so difficult sometimes?
----
“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time something’s used the face of a Winchester to try to hurt someone,” Dinah said gently. “Maybe you should get cleaned up and see if any other memories shake loose.”
She wasn’t trying to brush Fred off, but she could see that it was hard for her friend to remember this clearly.
“You’re safe here, I promise.”
Dinah needed time to think herself. She would need to talk to Dean about this, but she wanted to be sure of what Fred remembered.
----
“ Thank you. I need to tell Jack. Not this, but that I’m okay. He worries.” Fred tried not to wince at the pain in her memories. It was as if she were living it all over again, and perhaps she was. Maybe she deserved it. Maybe.
“Dinah, he’s not...there’s something wrong with Sam. I dont’ think I’m that crazy or hurt or broken in the head. But, there’s something wrong.” She was more than a little nervous and anxious. “I don’t know if I should just go home, or stay with you. I don’t have a home, but I mean Jack’s place. I probably shouldn’t. He could be in trouble. He may do something if we tell him. I hope he doesn’t. I don’t want him hurt. I don’t want either of them hurt. Sam would have to have a good reason. He has to.” She looked so hopeful and sad at the same time. This was not at all how she saw her life. Even in just imagining what might have come of it.
----
Dinah nodded gravely.
“I need to tell Dean about this,” she told Fred. “I know that he’s still... Dean. Together, we’ll find out what’s wrong with Sam and take care of it. I’m going to make sure that he doesn’t get a chance to hurt you, I promise.”
She thought about the options. She didn’t know if Fred would be safe with Jack and she didn’t want Jack involved in this any more than Fred did. But if Fred stayed here, Dinah would stay too. She didn’t want to send Dean out to take care of this on his own. She really didn’t. He had a blind spot a mile wide where Sam was concerned. She knew that. Not that she didn’t trust him to do the right thing if it came down to it, but she didn’t want him to have to make that decision. She wasn’t sure what she was hoping this was-if Sam was without a soul, they didn’t know how to fix that. And if it was a shapeshifter, that could mean that Sam was already dead.
No. Neither of those options were acceptable. She needed to stop speculating and talk to Dean so they could start figuring things out.
“I’ll call Jack and tell him you’re okay while you’re cleaning up,” Dinah told Fred. “Unless you’d rather call him before you shower?”
----
“You. No, I should.” Fred couldn’t hide from it. “He needs to know I’m okay. I need to tell him about the cop. Poor Caroline.” She would not forget that woman. She would remember her always.
“Thank you, Dinah. I remember. Not everything. Kind of wish I didn’t remember about Jake.” She still didn’t know what to make of the feelings when it came to that man. “I’ll call Jack. Then get cleaned up. We’ll go from there.” It was the best idea. Take it slow. Nice and slow. Sam wasn’t out killing people as far as they knew, save for herself, and that would have to do.
----
Dinah nodded her acceptance of that plan.
“I’ll go get you some clothes and towels while you call Jack.”
She wanted to give Fred a little bit of privacy to talk to her current roommate. She did give the other woman a sympathetic smile. She could only imagine how difficult it was to have all of the memories rush back at once, especially in regards to the confusion over Jake and Jack. She wasn’t sure about Jack’s motives in allowing Fred to stay with him, but it was clear that he cared about her. Whether that care was platonic or feelings were still there was a different story entirely.