Who: Dean, Lisa, Alex What: drinking. Getting to know each other Where: the White Wyrm When: after the kids left Warnings: should be low Status: closed/g-doc
Alex got through her work day. By which she threw herself into her work. Work felt like a good distraction to the empty apartment she found. Before Claire, the apartment felt like a good escape. Now, though, it felt too empty and lonely. So much so that Alex considered a pet for the first time in her life. Probably a cat or two, so they could entertain themselves while Alex worked.
It also seemed like a good time for Alex to think about buying a small house. But, she would start to think about that tomorrow. Tonight she was having a drink with Dean and Lisa. It had come to Alex’s attention she could use a few more friends in town, and at least this felt like a good start.
When she saw the pair walk into the bar, Alex waved to them from the table where she sat. Alex considered not drinking tonight, but like the last couple nights, she found herself having one to help her forget. She knew a slippery slope when she saw one, which is why she only had a small glass of a slightly too sweet red wine.
When Dean told her Alex invited them for a drink, she was up for it. She knew that the women that had kids with Dean were having a rough time of it. They were living with a future that might never happen because she existed. It couldn’t be easy and Lisa did feel guilty about it. She was essentially taking away someone’s future by existing in this town. It was sad and just proved how cruel this place could be at times despite how wonderful.
When the two walked in, Alex waved them over. Lisa offered a smile as the two sat down. “Hey, Alex. It’s nice to meet you,” Lisa offered.
Dean really felt for Alex, as he knew exactly what it felt like to be alone. Or, at least feel that you were alone. After waking up in bed with her months ago he had avoided her at all costs, and he now felt guilty about that. It wasn’t until they walked in and found her at a table with a drink already that Dean recalled what Claire had said to him. That he would help her during a relapse, and while it had been a drug addiction, alcohol wouldn’t be beneficial. But, he wasn’t sure how to broach that subject and he didn’t want to make her feel awkward, so he decided to make sure she didn’t get too carried away. “Hey, it’s good to see you again.” Dean greeted her with a smile and a brief hug before taking a seat next to Lisa at the table. “How’s it going?”
Alex didn’t want Lisa to feel guilty. In fact, Alex thought it a good thing that these two found each other. Growth if you asked Alex, who didn’t usually care about such things because no good ever came from close relationships. In truth, Alex wanted the future with Claire, but not to be in a relationship with Dean. She liked Dean, but didn’t want to date him. Hell, artificial insemination sounded perfectly good to Alex. Obviously she kept such things to herself.
“It’s nice to meet you, Lisa,” she responded with a small smile, but a smile nonetheless. Smiling still felt foreign to her at times, but she did try.
“Good to see you again, too, Dean.” She didn’t add anything about this time with probably fewer questions given their daughter wasn’t here talking about ghosts.
“How are you two?” God small talk sucked. “I know what Dean does in town, but I’m not sure I actually know what you do?” Inwardly, Alex cringed. Great. Onto talk about work. Swell. “I mean, outside of work too.”
Lisa didn’t expect any kind of depth to the conversation unless Alex wanted it to go that route. She wasn’t about to broach any kind of difficult subjects even the future kids unless either of the others wanted it. After everything that had happened the last few days, she was fine with keeping it light, even artificial to a point.
“Not bad. Obviously, we miss our future kid.” Well, so much for not mentioning future kids, but it was kind of the biggest thing that happened and probably the reason they were all hanging out. “But I know we’re not alone in that.”
Obviously, Alex missed her future daughter too. It was hard not to miss them; they were here for a week. How could you not become attached?
“I work at the gym as a yoga instructor,” Lisa added. “Outside of that, I usually do a lot of boring homemaker stuff. What about you?”
The waitress on duty was familiar with Dean, and before he could even ask, she set down a glass of whiskey for him and Lisa’s usual. “Thanks, you’re the best.” Taking a sip, he turned his attention back to Alex, and at the mention of them missing their kid, he reached under the table to take her hand in his, giving it a gentle squeeze.
Boring homemaker stuff. He turned his head to look at her in surprise, wondering if she was actually bored, or it just wasn’t exciting enough to mention. When Lisa asked what Alex did, he realized he had no idea himself, and was curious. “I work at the Off Broadway Taproom as well, chef and bartender. I am a man of many hats. There’s nothing I can’t do, really. Well, aside from become president, maybe.”
“I should give yoga a try,” Alex commented, as she briefly returned Dean’s hug. Much to her delight, the bartender knew Alex well enough to set down a pint sized glass of water in front of her. She set aside her wine for a moment to sip some water. It occurred to Alex that Dean might remember the whole addiction thing. While it technically wasn’t his business, Claire kind of made it his.
“Don’t worry. I only ever have one drink. I know my limits.” This Alex directed at Dean. She noticed the look he gave her glass of wine. However, she didn’t mention the part where she’d fought real hard not to get high with Kenny when they last hooked up.
To Lisa she responded, “Oh. I work as an assistant at the museum. It’s…not exactly like what I did back home, but it works and I like my boss..” And kept Alex fed. Even after her time at Yale, and her sixish months here, Alex still couldn’t quite believe she could eat whenever she wanted. That her salary more than covered groceries for a week. Plus, she wasn’t buying drugs, so that probably helped.
“I never saw a kid as a possibility in my life and now that I have, I miss her a lot. I’m sorry you miss yours too. Fucking sucks barely covers it.” No, Alex planned on keeping things light, but she knew it sucked for her, so it probably wasn’t great for others. Except probably Kenny, based on things she read the week of the kids…and Kenny.
“I sort of guessed the bartender part, given you were my bartender when I…on my birthday,” she lamely said as a way to deflect her age. No idea if Lisa knew and she definitely realized Dean could be old enough to be her father.
“You’re welcome to come by the gym and sit in on a class if you want,” Lisa offered as the waitress set her drink in front of her. She took a sip, briefly glancing between Dean and Alex at the comments about knowing her limits. Well, she should expect it given that Dean and Alex already knew one another. However, the feeling of Dean’s hand in hers, squeezing the fingers gently, was comforting and she pushed anything else aside.
“We should go check out the museum some time.” Lisa looked over at Dean with a small smile and then back at Alex. “Maybe you could give us a tour?”
Lisa offered Alex a sad smile. “They do grow on you and when they are gone, you feel like there is just an emptiness nothing can really fill.” Even though Ben had been gone for months now, she still missed him terribly.
The way Alex cut off mid sentence had Lisa glanced between them again. When I what? Though Lisa didn’t know exactly how old Alex was, she sensed whatever was on the tail end of that statement had to do with how young Alex actually was. Madison Valley certainly knew how to make things awkward, didn’t it?
Jesus Christ. It was like Alex just blurted out the first thing that came to mind and didn’t stop to think about it. At the mention of her twenty-first birthday party, he cleared his throat, coughing loudly into his hand. He definitely was aware of Lisa glancing between him and Alex a few times now, though he didn’t acknowledge it.
“Yes, we should definitely check out the museum, hmmm.” He agreed with a nod, taking a sip of his whiskey, already needing another. The museum was probably the last place he would want to be, but he wasn’t about to protest. Nope. No siree Bob. “Lisa is an excellent instructor, although I guess I might be a little biased.” Dean admitted with a crooked grin and a shrug. He still felt awful over the fact that Alex would likely never get to see Claire again, but there wasn’t much he could do about that.
“So, uh…” he reached up to run a slow hand through his hair, his fingers rubbing at the back of his neck. There was a lot that he wanted to ask Alex about, but he wasn’t comfortable doing it in front of Lisa. As far as he was concerned, the less she knew, the better. “Read any good books lately?” Of all the dumb fucking questions to ask.
Alex grinned at Lisa. “I’d love to come check out the class. And you should come to the museum. March 5th one of our artists has a show, Alyssa. It’ll be busy, but we’ll have h'dourves and alcohol. But text me whenever you want to come and I’ll be happy to give you a tour.” She rarely gave tours, but she’d be happy to practice her museum tour skills for these two.
Was Lisa meaning someone besides the kids from last week. Her expression said she missed someone terribly, but Alex planned to not ask.
“I’m sure Lisa is an excellent yoga instructor.” Alex chose to say nothing else about the kids. To her, really, Claire was hers. Dean just happened to be her father.
She blinked at Dean for a few seconds and actually laughed, which caused her to snort water. “Well then.” Great.
“Um…” she thought for a moment. “I have been reading some Jane Austen, to see what the fuss is all about.” Personally, she liked the sass, but period novels didn’t really suit her.
“Just let me know when you want to come by,” Lisa replied with an easy smile. She was always up for new students. Yoga was great for centering yourself and finding that inner peace that a lot of people struggled with.
“And we’ll stop by for her show. It sounds like a good way to check out the museum.” She was sure Dean would survive with their being food and alcohol. Besides he must not hate the arts that much…he did just ask Alex what she was reading. What? Since when did Dean care about books, particularly about reading them?
Lisa arched a brow. “Since when do you care about books?” Lisa asked boldly. “I mean that’s great if you’ve had a change of heart. Means you’ll enjoy our trip to the museum even more if the arts are growing on you.”
Oh yeah, Lisa was not dumb. She’d raised a teenager for God sakes and she could tell when something was going on that she wasn’t meant to know a thing about. It all made her feel slightly uncomfortable and she took another drink.
He tossed back the last remnants of his whiskey and before he even set the empty glass down, another was in front of him. “Damn, you’re really good at this.” Dean complimented her with a grin, fully intending to leave her a good tip. He turned his attention back to Alex and his smile faltered. Jane Austen? Of all the fucking books she could have been reading. “That Mr. Darcy, he’s quite the fellow, isn’t he? Super charming bastard.” He wasn’t completely ignorant to her work, but the little he did know had been picked up while watching various movies.
“I care plenty about books, what are you talking about?” He turned to look at her in faux shock, as if he had no idea what she was saying. Yes, he had fucked up majorly, but he was not walking back on this one. “Yes, absolutely, I am very much looking forward to the museum.” There was a brief pause and he looked over at Alex. “It’s not an art museum, is it? With those stupid paintings where you have one black dot on a giant white canvas and everyone stands around it marveling at all the things they can see, when there’s literally nothing there?”
A history museum he could probably deal with, those could definitely be fun, depending on what they had displayed.
Alex actually laughed. To Lisa she said, “Dean isn’t telling you our daughter told him he helps me through a relapse at some point. I’m a recovering drug addict who can see and talk with ghosts.” She didn’t mention the part where Alex could also experience ghosts who could touch her and nobody in her life believed her, until she got to Yale. And at Yale she realized the people who needed her hadn’t told her how to protect herself growing up.
“I generally prefer mysteries, like Agatha Christie. I’ll probably stop once I finish Persuasion.” Then she would have read three Austin works and that felt good enough. “I haven’t read Pride & Prejudice,” she admitted.
At the mention of art she stared at Dean for a moment. “There’s some art. Some artifacts. I promise you’ll like Alyssa’s art better than a black dot on a white background. She paints friends and family in town, sketches them, and creates collages of Wonderland.”
Lisa glanced at Dean. “What’s the latest book you’ve been reading then?”
He wasn’t about to back down and Lisa wasn’t about to let him wiggle his way out anyway. He’d walked into it and now he could deal with it. After all, Lisa felt as if she’d been in the dark on most of the conversation between them aside from the points about yoga and the art museum. Part of her didn’t really like that either. It made her feel very much the outsider and while she was used to feeling that way when it came to the supernatural world, she wasn’t used to feeling that way when it came to other women in Dean’s world.
Well, that little nugget of information would have been nice to know. Lisa was still wary of both of them, but she was a tad softer around the edges now.
“I’m glad he helps you,” Lisa commented in return. It sounded like a Dean thing to do; he’d been helping people his entire life and if they were friends, of course he’d reach out to help her.
Lisa took a much needed sip of her drink. “Alyssa gave me a painting of Ben after he left. You’ll definitely prefer her style over the black dot and white background.”
“Do I look like I’ve had the time to read lately? Between the two jobs and all the work I do around the house, I don’t have time for that.” Dean scoffed and shook his head. “I’ve been thinking about doing some reading, but I haven’t actually gotten around to it yet.” He was starting to regret bringing Lisa along, but in the interest of transparency he had figured it would be better to include her. Damned if he didn’t, damned if he did.
“Oh, right, yes. It’s really good, I didn’t make the connection right away.” At the mention of their son he reached out to place his hand on her knee and squeezed gently. He was a little surprised when Alex openly admitted her addiction, and the fact that she saw ghosts, but he was glad she had. It felt wrong for him to reveal such personal things about her, but at the same time he didn’t want Lisa to think he was keeping secrets from her.
“What kind of food will there be? I went to this super fancy gala thing, once, and I had to wear a damn tux. It was awful, but the food was incredible.”
Alex knew how it felt to hide things from loved ones and no way in fuck did she want to be the reason Dean did with Lisa. The two seemed to be in love and Alex had no intention of messing it up for the two of them, even for an evening.
She bit her lip and said words she generally found difficult, given the armour she generally wore to protect herself emotionally and mentally. “I’m sorry. The point of this was to maybe make a couple new friends. Something I’ve realized I should try and make, not to try and hide parts of myself. But I appreciate being given the option to tell my story and not have it decided for me”
And then, her guard went back up and she rolled her eyes at the food comment. “I promise the food will be delicious. Claudia would order nothing less than the best on Irina’s orders. And a little reading might do you some good.”
Lisa patted his hand under the table. “Thinking about reading is at least a step in the right direction,” she teased.
Not that Dean reading mattered to Lisa. She mostly found it amusing that he’d ask about what books Alex was reading since she just didn’t peg Dean as someone who cared that much for literature. Obviously, it surprised her and she was only trying to figure out how long his secret obsession with what other people read had been going on.
At Alex’s words, Lisa looked over at Dean with a small smile and nodded. Dean had allowed her to tell her own story. Lisa could appreciate the significance of it even if parts of tonight had made her slightly uncomfortable.
“Dean’s all about free will,” Lisa replied simply and then added “And free food. I’m sure whatever they have will be delightful.”
While secrets were never any good in a relationship, Dean was full of them. Sometimes, the less others knew, the better. “Yes, that’s exactly what we called ourselves back home. Sam, Cas, Jack and myself. Team Free Will. Of course, that was when I actually mattered to Cas.” The comment slipped out inadvertently, and he had no idea why the hell he had even mentioned it. “Sorry, pretend I never said that last bit.” He looked at Alex with an apologetic smile.
“But yeah, Lisa is right. I know what it’s like to not be in control of your life, and it fucking sucks.” His fingers tapped against the rim of the glass and he looked down into the amber liquid with a faint smile, thinking about how angry he had been when he realized his personal story was being told to the entire world. “Anyway,” he paused to clear his throat and shifted against his chair to get comfortable. “Making friends is good, and you can still make them while hiding other parts of you. It’s really about what you want in the end.”
Alex nodded at Dean’s words. Her past was hers to divulge as she wished. Some day it might be to a therapist, but for now, she took another sip of her wine.
“I like the idea of free will.” Free will without ghosts. At least the ghosts here mostly left her alone. One tried to slide in next to her and she said, “Not right now. I’ll talk to you after.” The ghost nodded and meandered over to wait.
“Is Cas here?” How Dean mentioned the name told her something happened, but maybe it was back home? However, the name sounded familiar to her.
“Dean, have you considered a little less time at work and a little bit more time with your lovely partner?” Alex didn’t charm people or shit, but she spoke her mind so she meant what she said. “Maybe I should get a pet.”
Lisa frowned at Dean’s mention of Cas. She didn’t think the angel was avoiding him on purpose, but maybe that he was busy. They did all just get visited by a plethora of future kids after all. Then again, maybe Lisa was going too easy on Cas. She loved the angel, he’d given her memories back to her and helped her relationship with Dean blossom again. However, she didn’t like how his absence clearly affected Dean. They were best friends; Dean deserved more.
“Maybe he’s just been busy with future kid shenanigans,” Lisa offered, squeezing Dean’s arm gently.
Before reclaiming her memories and living here, Lisa might have been a little freaked out by Alex’s interaction with the ghost, but she merely watched it with fascination now. It was just a reminder how powerful some people were here.
Lisa offered a smile to Alex at her comment about Dean spending more time with her. “It’s okay. He’s here for me plenty and once we start planning the wedding, we’re going to be spending a lot more time together.”
Lisa took a sip from her drink. “A pet’s a good idea. Are you thinking of a cat or a dog?”
"No, it's been a while. The asshole never even said anything about our engagement." When Alex randomly said she would talk to someone after, he could only imagine there was a ghost there, and it left him a little unsettled. His demeanor changed a little, suddenly on high alert.
"Yeah, he's here. Castiel, the angel who" he dropped his voice ridiculously low to mock the other. "Gripped me tight and raised me from perdition. Stupid fucking prick." He muttered under his breath and rolled his eyes, taking a drink from his glass. Dean could have gone off about Cas for hours, but nobody wanted to hear that.
"Right, the wedding planning." Dean nodded his head and casually focused on Alex, wanting to see if her gaze wandered off to a particular location. "Get a dog, they are so much better than stupid cats. I'm allergic to those little fuckers. I had a dog and he was the best." He smiled fondly at the thought of Miracle, his arm moving to rest over the top of Lisa's chair. "Big, white and fluffy thing. Perfect for licking the dishes clean."
Alex noticed how Dean sat after she spoke to the ghost. “This particular ghost thinks of himself as a bartender and likes to run drink ideas past me.” Half of the drinks already existed and the other half didn’t for a reason, in Alex’s opinion.
“I’m sorry your friend didn’t congratulate you. But I’m happy you two are engaged. You seem happy.” Alex’s gaze didn’t drift anywhere else at the moment.
Lisa didn’t say anything else on Cas. It was true that the angel didn’t congratulate them on their engagement, but, again, she wanted to hope there was a reason behind it.
At the mention of the dog licking the plates, Lisa swatted his shoulder playfully. “No licking of the plates. By anyone.”
She gave Alex a genuine smile. “Thank you. We are.”
Dean looked at Alex with an amused grin and eased up a little. He couldn't imagine what it was like for her, though. There were plenty of ghosts around, and even if they weren't violent, it would still be frustrating to deal with. "If he comes up with anything good, you be sure to let me know."
He turned to look at Lisa with a pout. "That's disgusting, Lis. I'm not about to lick anyone's plate clean but my own." He decided to drop any mention of Cas and moved on from it. "It's been a very bumpy road, and I have fucked up left and right. I mean, I met her like twenty years ago and I never expected to get this far. So, yeah, we're pretty damn happy."