WHO: Dean and Elena WHERE: Blood Bank and Beyond WHEN: Ages ago because I'm a snail. WHAT: Dean finds some suspicious behavior WARNINGS: mild language, bad thoughts? vampirism type things idek STATUS: Complete
It was another one of those hop in the car and drive kind of evenings. Dean hadn’t bothered to go home, but he knew Sam could handle things for an evening. He might have even appreciated the quiet time without Dean checking in on him for the majority of the evening like he might implode at any moment. It probably wasn’t healthy for either of them if Dean obsessed that much.
Eventually, he’d found himself in Ravenmoore, and it was starting to get late. He probably needed to start heading back if he was going to have any hope of actually getting there. The place he’d opted to turn around in, though, was apparently a blood bank, and that brought back memories of idiotic things talking about how he wasn’t supposed to bite people after one of them had bit him. Great. He heaved a sigh, shaking his head at his thoughts and was about to start maneuvering the impala around to leave when he noticed someone stepping out.
Normally, it wouldn’t have held his attention for longer than a glance but the girl was actually carrying something that looked suspiciously like the bags from a hospital. Dean certainly wasn’t a doctor, but she didn’t look like a nurse and he figured that kind of thing was supposed to be refrigerated or something. Right? Something in him sparked and he stuck the car into park and got out for a closer look.
“What are you doing?”
Elena was trying to become more independant lately. Spend less time depending on Caroline for things, stand on her own two feet. And hey, borrowing blood bags was a lot better than biting actual people. She still wasn’t sure about her control issues, so actual teeth to neck contact was pretty much a no go. It was easy to lift the bags from the blood bank, especially at night. There was only one guard, and he was easily compelled to let her inside and forget she’d been there.
This time, though, Elena’s backpack had split open. She’d torn it on a nail inside the blood bank (seriously, that was a hazard. Someone could have been injured! They were supposed to give blood into bags, not get ripped open by rusty nails sticking out of walls!) and by the time it was stuffed full of blood, it was near bursting. When she got back out to the parking lot to walk home, the thing ripped the rest of the way. Now Elena was trying to figure out how to wrangle all her things back to her place, when some guy pulled up in a car. (A really nice car.)
“Would you believe me if I said I was out for a nighttime stroll?” Elena asked.
It probably would have been almost comical if there hadn’t been some serious biohazard stuff going on. Stuff that made the hair on the back of his neck stand, stuff that made him about five seconds from popping the trunk and grabbing something to attack with. That was probably getting ahead of himself, but in his line of work, or his past line of work, hesitating could get you killed.
“Yeah. I don’t believe that for a second. Try again.” Leaving the impala running wasn’t the best option, but he wasn’t about to duck back in and take his eyes off of her in case she decided to run. That wasn’t going to fix anything. Sure, he knew some creatures could be okay, Garth had been a damn good example, but it still put him on edge.
“You drinking it?” That was about the nicest way he could ever think to ask if she was a vamp. He was pretty sure he’d never met one that didn’t bite first and ask questions later.
Elena paused for a moment stuffing the bags into her ripped backpack to look over at the man who was there, the man from the Chevy Impala. She cleared her throat as she stood up a little straighter, hands gripping her items, and thankfully no blood bags fell to the ground. When he asked if she was drinking it, Elena blinked at him. Why would his mind go to that first? Did he know about vampires? Was he one?
"That's... disgusting." Elena lied, trying to sound convincing. "Ridiculous, actually. I mean, who drinks blood? Gross." The balance was off just slightly in her arms and one of the bags slipped. She struggled to catch it with her already too full hands, and a second bag fell to the ground. It didn't burst, just landed with a plop.
“You bathing in it?” Dean had to ask. Hell, there were a million and one bad things someone could do with blood. Crap voodoo and spells and drinking and who knew what else. None of it was good. He didn’t think she was going to randomly be taking a bag full of blood packs to the needy. He gave her a look. He wasn’t buying it. Damn. She looked young, too. Guess some other vamp decided he, or she, liked pretty things, too.
He bent down to pick up the bag. It wasn’t even very cold anymore. “Is it?” It wasn’t that crazy to him, and he was already calculating how fast he could get back to the car, and how he was going to start stuffing a knife in his boot when he went to work. “There’s a lot of crap in the world and right now it looks like you’re part of it.”
That question brought a look of actual disgust to Elena's features. Bathing in it? Gross. Totally gross. She shook her head. "No. No, I'm not." Damn! Why did someone have to come upon her in the middle of the night? She'd taken precautions to try and avoid this! And how did he know so much about what was going on, anyway?
"Listen, it's all just a big understanding," she offered, shifting the baggage from one arm to the other. "I need this. These. So I don't... lose control." She reached out a hand for the bag he was holding, thinking she'd just put on a little vamp speed to get close, then snatch the bag and compel him to forget it all.
Some part of Dean was relieved that she wasn’t going to do that. The sharp response seemed legit that time. Still, it didn’t explain what the hell she was doing. Dean really did have all the luck in the world when it came to this sort of thing. Try to get out all he wanted, he just happened to find a monster even here.
He opened his mouth to speak again before the bag got snatched and it felt like every muscle in his entire body went rigid and he took on a defensive pose. One too many things were quick like that, yet, again she didn’t outright attack him. Confusing as hell. He’d know, he’d been there. “Whoa. Calm down. I just wanna know what you are. If you’re drinking that stuff you’re not taking it from some guy out there down on his luck.” Wasn’t that everyone here? In a way… “I respect that.”
Elena paused, one arm wrapped around her broken backpack full of blood bags, the other hand carefully holding the one she'd just snatched from him. She cocked her head to the side when he said he respected it. Her toes, which had been curled a little in her shoes in anticipation, relaxed. Her shoulders lowered. Maybe this wasn't a bad guy. Maybe he wasn't a danger to her.
"You know what I am?" She asked. This was always the hardest part. Admitting what she'd become, what she'd chosen. She could have let herself die instead of turning. Vampires from her world had that option. She'd never asked to become a vampire, she was just trying to make the best of it here.
Dean could almost visibly see her relax and while that was comforting in a sense, he sure as hell wasn’t going to. “Got a pretty good idea.” He’d seen his share, some too close to ever be okay about it, but he’d also met some of the good guys. He’d even been friends with a couple, even when he was sort of the thing that went bump in the night for monsters. He wasn’t that here, there didn’t seem to be that big of a problem.
“You kill anybody?” Part of him knew it came with the territory, but another knew there was some choice. Even the gross dude that turned him once encouraged his kids not to bite or feed off of anyone except at first while he was out turning everything he thought was pretty. It still made him sick to think about.
Elena wasn’t sure if telling someone else what she was was a good idea. She should probably compel him to forget all of this, but something about this man made her feel like… like he wasn’t going to say anything. That was a good thing, because Elena didn’t really want it getting out that she was a vampire.
She shook her head. “No.” It didn’t necessarily make her any less dangerous, did it? She motioned with a quick nod at the backpack and blood bags practically spilling out of her arms. “This is it for me.”
Giving a small nod, Dean looked back at her bag then up at her. He definitely never learned the finer details of how much blood vampires actually needed. He probably didn’t even believe her on some level, but if she was taking that much blood, she wasn’t obviously hunting. Even if she had a donor, she wouldn’t be doing that. He’d, unfortunately, seen his share of those situations, too. Just thinking about them made his gut clench.
“Good.” He nodded, not sure it was good, but it was...okay. Knowing she was here, though, made him wonder how many more there might be, or what else. Guess that outstanding offer wasn’t just for humans. He took a deep breath, taking another step back but trying to at least look relaxed. “I’ve probably got a store bag in the console. Let me get it...and you can go on your way?” No harm done, right? He’d definitely have to keep an eye on local news now, though.
He was backing away, looking incredibly nervous. Did this guy have experience with Vampires? He must have… he knew too much to be your everyday civilian. Elena took a couple of steps forward, perking up at the offer of a bag. That would help her situation immensely tonight.
“That’d be pretty amazing, actually.” She went quiet for a moment, letting him do whatever it was he needed to do, and then decided to ask her question. “How do you know about what I am?”
The girl stepping forward both relieving and the sort of thing that made Dean go on high alert. Though, as the seconds ticked by, it seemed obvious that she wasn’t going to attack him. Relaxing right now would be an awesome thing to do, if he could just do it. He turned, trying not to think about turning his back on a vampire before digging around in the console and pulling out one of the plastic bags wadded up on the bottom that he usually kept for trash.
When he turned back around and held it out, he tried to remind himself that she really wasn’t threatening him, and she could probably have made a snack of him had she wanted. “I’m… a hunter. Used to be. Things like you. When they pop up on the radar for being bad. Don’t go killing people, and you won’t have to think about me ever again.”
Elena reached out to accept the bag, but her hand stilled when he mentioned he was a hunter. She almost recoiled. Almost. Used to be was a good caveat. Her expression went from surprise to concern, to curiosity. There was a brief pause before she took the bag from him and stepped back again.
"All right." Elena started to clumsily fill it with the blood bags from her arms, keeping one eye on the man in front of her. She got the hang of it quite quickly, and in a moment she wasn't burdened by the armfuls of blood bags. "This is so I don't ... have to be bad." All of the blood was in the bag now, along with her ruined backpack. She turned her full attention to the man again.
"I'm not planning on killing anyone. This isn't... this wasn't my first choice." She said. "You don't have anything to worry about with me."
Dean watched her struggle with the bags, almost tempted to offer some sort of assistance. It was strange, to see a vampire acting like she did. Then again, he never really sat and chatted with any other than Benny, and he’d had his own set of specialties about him. He nodded a little as she seemed to finish up. “I know. That’s really good.” He tried for a smile, though, it was small. It was hard not to be wary. The only vampire he ever trusted was one, and that was hard earned after a year spent fighting together against every other thing that wanted to eat him.
His expression changed slightly as she continued, dropping a little and taking a turn for almost sad. He definitely got that. He’d felt like that most of his life, not vampire stuff included, and he definitely hadn’t had a choice there. “Yeah. No. I get it.” He nodded, going for another smile and it came a little easier this time. “It’s cool.” He looked back at the car, then back to her, taking a breath. “Don’t make it a habit, but I was on my way home, and if you need a ride, I can drop you off somewhere.”
Elena was a little relieved. The smile on the man’s face was better than the frowns, the anger, the confusion, the concern. She glanced down the street in the direction of her place when he offered to give her a ride, then turned back to him. “All right. Thanks. It’ll save me some time.” Taking a ride from a stranger was something she never would have considered before she became a vampire. But now? Not a big deal. She was pretty confident she could take him should he try any funny business. Though she didn’t expect that at all.
“I’m Elena, by the way.” She moved closer to the car to climb in the passenger side.
Giving a small nod, Dean turned back to the impala, moving to tuck himself in and get settled again. He would have never thought he’d be giving rides to a vampire, but it was probably better that no one else saw her smuggling blood. That would undoubtedly cause more questions and harm than anything.
“I’m Dean.” He offered, letting her get settled in as well before backing the car up and driving back out to the main road. “This way, right?” He asked, gesturing in the way she’d looked earlier before pulling out and leaning back to drive.
“Yeah.” Elena rattled off the address. If he was familiar with the area, he’d know it was about a mile away, up and down a couple of different streets. Not too far to walk, but he’d have her home faster than she could walk it. “Thanks for… well, for the ride, and the bag, and … everything.”
By “everything” she meant “keeping this to yourself.” There may have been some residents of Preya who were out of the closet, so to speak, but Elena wasn’t ready for people to know that she was a vampire.
Dean nodded, smiling a little, even if it was still a bit tense. He wasn’t exactly from the area, but he’d done enough driving to feel like he knew where to go. If not, he was sure she’d point out if he took a wrong turn somewhere along the way. He’d just drive until they got there.
“Yeah...no problem.” It honestly wasn’t much, regardless of what she was. “Look...I came here to get away from that life, and so far it seems like I can. Like I said...no bodies turn up, we’ll have no reason to be at each other’s throats...literally.” Probably not in best taste to be making jokes like that, but Dean’s humor definitely wasn’t ever very light and fluffy.
At each other’s throats, eh? Well, Elena didn’t want to be at anyone’s throat. Just because she was a vampire didn’t mean she actually wanted to bite anyone. She was still Elena, just… now with some strict dietary restrictions. She was glad to have someone else there, though, someone else who knew. It felt like a relief.
“I promise I’ll keep it up on my end,” she said, quite genuinely. There was a quick pause while Elena’s mind whirred. “...and if, for any reason, I don’t?” She turned to look at him. “You’d better find me. Take care of it. Stake through the heart, cut off the head.” ...that got dark really fast.
Dean nodded, and he really, really, hoped that was the case. As much as he liked running around and killing things, he knew it was good. That didn’t mean he wanted to keep doing that in a place that seemed pretty stable. Then again, home had seemed stable to just about everyone but those ‘living the life’.
Her words made him glance over at her, raising a brow before giving a nod. “I’ll take care of it personally.” The fact that she was saying that, probably said more about her character than blood bags. Any vamp could get a blood bag and still be a vicious predator in the right situation. Hell, Dean was a vicious predator in his own right. It still amazed him when monsters or demons or even angels didn’t know who he and his brother were.
“Good.” Elena motioned to the corner. “You can let me out here. My building’s just two doors down over there.” Hey, now he knew where to find her. That was a step in the right direction. She was glad to know that she had someone watching, just in case. Not that Elena thought she could ever… go bad. But Stefan was a Ripper, and he wasn’t bad by nature. Anything was possible.
When he pulled over, she climbed carefully out of the car, keeping the blood bags safely in the bag he’d given her. She closed the door behind herself, giving him another “thank you,” and “nice meeting you.” Really, all she wanted was to get home.
Once Elena gestured, Dean simply pulled along the curb to park for a moment. He nodded, looking to where she pointed, somewhat wondering if she was lying, but he doubted it. What reason did she have to lie now? Besides, it was probably the nice guy thing to do to make sure she made it inside, anyway.
He leaned a little giving a slight wave. “No problem. Keep out of trouble.” It probably shouldn’t have been amusing as it seemed in that moment but once she was headed home and seemingly safe and off the street, he could get himself home.