Dean Winchester (lovemesomepie) wrote in parabolical, @ 2008-07-24 01:50:00 |
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Entry tags: | dean winchester, sarah petrelli (née williams) |
WHO: Dean Winchester, Sarah Williams
WHERE: streets of L.A. near the beach, then an internet café
WHEN: July 24th, lunchtime
WHAT: Dean arrives and Sarah is a good samaritan.
RATING: PG-13 for language
STATUS: completed log
It was incredibly simple and yet impossible at once. One minute Dean Winchester was in hell and the next he was sitting on a bench near a street of some city in the clothes he had died in. He instinctively jumped to his feet, eyes narrowing as he expected to find the catch somewhere. He felt fine. Not fine except for this and that, not fine for someone who had just gotten out of hell, but great. His memories were still there, he could still remember what it had felt like to see that tortured look on Sammy’s face, he could still hear the snarling gnashing of the hellhounds’ teeth, but somehow there was no more pain. He felt normal.
Slowly, tentatively, Dean began to walk forward. It was as if with each step, Dean got a step closer to getting himself back. Hell, heaven or purgatory, this place was certainly a lot better than the place he had just been.
Maybe Sam was able to pull out a last minute miracle after all…
Pride and satisfaction filling him, Dean felt lighter than he had in over a year. He had gone through hell and back, his deal had been fulfilled, and if he was back then Sammy had been successful. Maybe he’d lay off of Sam for sticking his geeky nose in the books all the time…or maybe not. Still, whatever the case, he was alive and well and, judging by the gorgeous brunette he saw a short distance ahead, in a place far more like heaven than hell. Walking up to her, he only barely resisted the urge to use a tried and true pick up line—he had to find Sam and his car, after all. He was likely not too far from the town where Lilith let the hellhounds loose on him, though Dean couldn’t remember the name of it after all that had happened.
“Excuse me,” he said, his voice low and his mouth twisted into that typical cocky grin. “I’m looking for someone, and I’m…a bit new in town. Can you help me?” Somehow, Dean Winchester managed to turn the act of asking for a favor into more of a promise, a hint of what else he might give to her if she agreed with just a raised eyebrow and a small turn of his head. Yes, Dean was a natural at flirting, and even hell couldn’t change that.
Out running a few errands, Sarah's back was turned to the beach when the man arrived out of thin air. Not that, had she seen it, it would have been unsettling at all. That was pretty normal, as far as Los Angeles went and it wouldn't be the first person she'd seen arrive out of the blue, by themselves or with their space ships. When she caught the approach in her peripheral vision, she turned fully, eyebrow lifting in return at the appraisal she was receiving.
Still, the question was polite enough, and as always she was willing to lend a hand. She would have appreciated the same in another's place, especially having been in that place once.
"Sure. This is a big city, but I'm happy to help." She leaned back against one of barriers separating parts of the beach from the sidewalk and street running along it. "How new are you?"
She purposefully choose 'city' over 'L.A.' because it was possible he was a new arrival. He didn't look nearly disoriented enough for this place to have been a completely abrupt transition, but she'd rather be safe than sorry if it turned out Los Angeles was something he'd never heard of before.
Dean’s grin only widened when she offered him her assistance. Torn between asking her to take him back to her place for some specialized comforting and the more practical idea of finding Sam, the later only barely won out. Repressing the urge to groan as he congratulated himself for his restraint, he gave her a somewhat sheepish look. “You might think this is crazy, but I have no idea what ‘this city’ is,” he shrugged, looking around in the hopes of finding some last minute clues as to where he was and came up empty. “I’m just looking for my pain in the ass little brother, who has my car.” His mouth hung open for a moment as he intended to say something witty about finding the college boy and getting the hell out of Dodge, but he resisted.
You know, Sam, we are allowed to have fun once in a while. He glanced back at the brunette. That’s fun.
Smirking as he remembered his own words of wisdom, he shut his mouth quickly. He had to find Sam, certainly, but if he and his brother stayed in this city for a night or two, to recover, mind you, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.
"Not crazy in the least," Sarah said, shaking her head with a laugh. If he thought that his arrival was crazy, she knew the rest of the information she could give him would be labeled pure insanity. Poor guy. The full measure of alternate timelines and fictional characters and scary things in the night was never really easy for those who weren't familiar with the fantastical or supernatural. "I take it you just found yourself here after being somewhere very different?" It wasn't question so much as verification, as she felt pretty certain that was the case, rather than him having some kind of amnesia.
She tilted her head in the direction of the city that stretched out before them. "You're in Los Angeles, and that's the most normal part about this situation." Then she held out her hand to him. "And I'm Sarah Williams, formerly of New York, until I ended up here a few months ago out of the blue."
Dean had heard of a lot stranger things than people unexpectedly going to another place, so Sarah’s brief explanation piqued his interest, not fear. He stuck out his hand, flashing her his most charming smile. “Dean Winchester, and the Sasquatch that I’m looking for is my brother Sam. He’s about this tall…” Dean raised his hand to an outlandish height above his head. “And if he knows what’s good for him he’ll be driving a mint condition black 1967 Chevy Impala that’s mine.”
He glanced at her curiously to see if she understood just what sort of car it was that he owned, or if she had seen it around. Hopefully Sam hadn’t let his baby go through too much after his death. He’d have to freaking kill Sam if the Impala was dirty or scratched or full of Sam’s chick music.
Sarah usually wasn't rude or badly behaved with strangers, especially not ones she had stopped to lend a hand to, but the moment after she put the name 'Sam' with Dean's last name, her eyes narrowed.
"The pain in the ass little brother you're looking for is Sam Winchester?" she asked. It would figure the guy by that name that she had just chewed out a few days ago, and been thoroughly insulted by in return, would be the one Dean was looking for, thus the person she had just committed to helping him find. Fantastic.
Yes, she definitely wasn't thinking about the location of his car.
Dean smiled affectionately, completely missing any clues Sarah might have given off that Sam Winchester wasn’t her favorite of persons. After all, he had just come back from hell, he was in a strange place that likely held another ‘case’ for him and his brother, he could be forgiven for being self-centered for a moment. All that was on his mind at the moment was the pretty girl, getting his brother and car back, and perhaps solving the mystery of people randomly showing up here..not the fact that someone could actually be angry at Sammy.
“He’s a geeky college boy, but every family needs a black sheep,” He said, grinning at her. “So, Sarah, care to show me around?” Perhaps in the process he’d stumble over the geeky college boy himself, maybe Miss Gorgeous Brunette knew where all the nerds in this place hung out. He took a second glance at her and then shook his head. Who was he kidding, she wouldn’t have any idea.
Trying another tactic, he lowered his voice to its most coaxing tone. “I worry about the kid, you know. He’s got a habit of stumbling into trouble.”
At that, Sarah's eyebrows both rose, melting the narrow-eyed expression but replacing it with a mild disbelief at the vast understatement that covered a greater source of it beneath the surface. "Head long, you could say," she said, folding her arms across her chest. She didn't say more about it, however, as even if she was still smarting from the encounter, she wasn't going to lead with 'Things Sam Winchester Did Lately' for his recently arrived brother. She wasn't that mean by half.
"There's a internet cafe just under two blocks away," she said, nodding in the direction of the closest street leading off from the oceanfront. "Go there, get on the message boards and you'll find him soon after you post. Believe me, he's around."
All right, so perhaps she wasn't completely over the entire thing.
Ouch. Dean might be pretty dense in the wake of his resurrection, but even he could see that there were some pretty hard feelings there? Ah, he thought with a wry smile, feels like home. Sammy’s pissing off the hot chicks and I’m left to do damage control. It was too bad that Dean really didn’t know what all of this technology she was talking about was used for. He could use the internet to do simple hunting for their jobs, but not much more than that. He still was trying to live down the fact that he thought Myspace was some sort of porn site.
“What are you trying to tell me?” He asked suspiciously, raising an eyebrow at her. “When you say Sammy’s been around, because if we’re talking about the same guy, Sam couldn’t get lucky on his luckiest day.” How well he knew that…damned Bela.
Sarah couldn't help it. She snorted. "I don't have any idea about your brother's personal life," she said with a roll of her eyes. The expression held for a moment and then slipped away as she sighed softly. It certainly wasn't Dean's fault she'd felt compelled to defend Trance and give Sam Winchester a few home truths in the process, nor was it his fault the words had fallen on deaf ears – or, in this case, blind eyes.
"I'm sorry, I'm probably not coming off very welcoming, considering you just arrived here." She considered her words before continuing. "He threatened a friend, I wasn't okay with that or where his black and white philosophies will lead him in this city and told him so."
Awww, damn it Sam…
“Have you seen him?” Dean asked carefully, his entire posture changing. Gone was the playful, flirting tone, and in its place was something tense and full of worry. They had the tattoos for a reason, so that they wouldn’t be possessed by fugly demons. It was impossible, but unless this girl liked to play with things better left dead, then Sam threatening her friend only meant one thing.
“Were his eyes…normal, did he act abnormally?” He coughed, swallowing the rest of his questions hurriedly. No use in her sending him straight to the nut house after he had just escaped from hell. “I’m just worried about him, that’s all.” The worry came through naturally, making him sound like a concerned older brother. “It’s not like Sam to do things like that.”
It was the posture change that spoke to Sarah more than his cut off questions, as well as the understanding that Sam Winchester didn't get his opinions of demons out of thin air. Not that she knew the younger brother's whole story, as her willingness to listen hadn't come to any fruition, except to form hurt feelings in addition to her worry for Trance, but she could tell concern when she saw it and she also wasn't stupid – Dean was asking about things that weren't exactly 'bad attitude' signs.
She cast a look around her and then stepped closer to avoid any passerby getting an earful. Not everyone in Los Angeles knew what was going on in this city, after all, and even if it was all real, she didn't need the funny looks.
"You're asking me if he was possessed," she said quietly and shook her head. "No, he wasn't. We had a difference of agreement, not me and someone along for the ride." That said, she studied him for a reaction, as her scoreboard of correct judgments wasn't exactly flawless.
Dean let out a slow breath of relief. Oh, so she and Sam had just had an argument for the sake of arguing. Well, that wasn’t entirely unlike Sam when you figured in the huge explosive fights he used to get into with their father, and, besides, if Sam was intent on turning all the hot chicks in this city against himself, that still didn’t stop Dean from enjoying them.
“Thank you,” He said gratefully, his smile and relaxed stance returning. He tried to remember what it was she had suggested to do to find Sam before, and failed. “Now what was it you said that I could do to hunt him down, go on some internet board and look for things he’s been writing?”
The expression on his face when discussing the message board would have been almost comical to Sarah if his intent hadn't been distinctly unfunny in terms of 'bad' ideas. "Not exactly," she said carefully. Great, if she let him go wander now, the poor guy would likely find out what had just gone on with his brother before he even found Sam Winchester. Talk about a welcome to Los Angeles. "You should definitely post something new and let him respond to that first." Looking around would be very bad when he hadn't had things explained to him yet, even if it seemed he'd likely take the rest a little better.
She debated a moment and then swallowed a sigh. "Come on, I'll take you there, get you set up. Have you ever used a message board before?"
Dean swallowed, remembering the one time he had gone onto the message board of bustyasianbeauties.com to find out if the platinum membership package was available as a gift. It had been close to Sam’s birthday, after all, and Dean wanted something that would embarrass the hell out of him, but the idiots on the site had only made fun of him. Definitely not something to be telling the pretty, helpful brunette. “Erm…no…” He said awkwardly, running a hand through his hair. “Sammy, he was always enough of a techno nerd for the both of us."
He stepped closer to her still, reasoning that if they were going to be walking around in a strange unfamiliar city, he owed it to her to be near her in case something dangerous happened. “You should let me take you out to dinner sometime,” He said smoothly, gracing her with a lopsided smile as he tried to change the subject to something he was a bit more comfortable with. “To let me thank you for how helpful you’ve been. I might even bring a signed apology from my idiot brother as well to sweeten the deal.”
"You're sweet, but I doubt this dinner offer you have in mind would include my boyfriend," Sarah said, tossing him a knowing look as she adjusted her bag and prepared to cross the street. She wasn't really looking for an arm-wrestled apology from Sam Winchester either, as that meant admitting her feelings had been that hurt and that his patronizing air had gotten to her just as much, though in a different way, as what Trance had originally told her had happened.
"I'll get you set up, help you find Sam and you can consider it part of the no-strings-attached welcome committee," she said as they crossed and headed down the street the internet cafe was on. She didn't really mind, especially if he wasn't familiar with using things like that. "Before you get another surprise – what was the year, when you left where you were last?"
No strings attached, now there was the sort of deal that might work…but somehow Dean had the idea that a girl like Sarah Williams wouldn’t go for it. He shrugged, accepting the offer for what it was and deciding that he would find Miss Williams again in the future to see if anything had changed there.
“It was 2008,” He said, thinking back to the last and best year of his life. He could still remember it all, from the oil and candy bar that Sam gave him for their first real Christmas in years and the shaving cream and skin mags Dean gave him in return. He remembered that damned rabbit’s foot that nearly got them both killed, and the phone call he had been so convinced was from his father. Dean remembered teaching Sam how to take care of his baby, because he would need to know when the deal came due. He remembered it all, the good, the bad, the sad…
He forced his attention back to the pretty girl. “What are you going to tell me next, it’s like back to the future around here? I always hated that show anyway, and that pansy ass Delorean.” Of course, Dean was a bit biased, owning the best car imaginable. Nothing could compare to a classic Impala.
Sarah grinned at him, as it was becoming clear he had a very definite opinion on cars and she felt safe in guessing that the opinion went something along the lines of his car being greater than every other car out there. But he'd seemed to take his arrival in Los Angeles with a decent amount of grace, so she didn't soften the revelation.
"Sort of," she said, navigating around a group of people coming the opposite way down the sidewalk. "It's July 2005 right now. And again, not the strangest part, at least for most."
Dean’s mind went quickly to do the math, and he sighed in relief. In 2005 their father had been alive, in 2005 Sam had never been stabbed. In 2005 Sam was just another average kid at Stanford studying law with his girlfriend.
“I need to find him.” he asked tensely, not navigating the group of people nearly so well as she had in his haste. “We should probably hurry.”
Suddenly it mattered a great deal if the Sam here was his Sam or just another version of him. The dijin had offered him that once, in his ‘perfect’ timeline. He had offered everything but a Sam who was his brother, his best friend. Another Sam could never be his brother, never know half the stuff that they had went through together, half of the things they had done for one another. “Where the hell is this internet place, anyway, halfway across the country?”
Impatient, wasn't he? Sarah supposed she couldn't blame him, just knowing there was someone he knew in this city likely made his arrival easier. In his place, she'd be eager to find her brother, with or without knowing all that was going on here. It seemed he did, somewhat, given his worries about Sam.
"Less than a block. If you want to run, go ahead," she said, slanting him another glance, this time amused, "but I'm not going to do the same, not in this weather." Earlier in the day, sure, but not during the hours Los Angeles was hot enough that even summer clothes were suffocating at times.
Though he was sorely tempted to run, the thought of passing up the internet booth or coffee shop—café, he remembered, smirking at the sissy sort of word that Sam would use—and having to wait longer as he turned around kept him impatiently at her side. He still walked a good step or two ahead of her, trusting that she would tell him if they were getting near it or if he was in any danger of passing it up. Dean hated the heat as much as anyone, but he wasn’t going to let a little sun keep him from finding the truth about Sam and this place. Maybe Sam would even be at the café, he did have a tendency to hang out in nerdy places. Wherever he was, Sam would be here, not on a break from Stanford. He had to be.
“This brother of mine, have you actually seen him before? Did he look like a college kid to you? Was he with anyone, maybe a grizzly looking redneck by the name of Bobby?” If Sam was with Bobby, if he looked like hell, then he was probably HIS Sam, but if he looked like Mr. Ivy League 2.5 Kids with a house in the suburbs, he was probably not. Damn it, could she go any slower?
"In person, no," Sarah said, shaking her head before she considered his questions. "And the other guy you're describing doesn't seem familiar. The message boards use images, though, so I have seen your brother, and I'd say he looks a bit older than typical college age? Around my age, I'd guess, so 25, 26?"
When they neared the café, she slowed, but as Dean was in such a rush, he continued on. Laughing, she reached out and snagged the back of his shirt before he got much further away. "Whoa, speedy, you walked right past it," she said, tilting her head toward the window of the café with the bright sign that indicated there was wifi and computers inside.
“Wifi?” Dean asked, a slightly sheepish look on his face from the way he had stormed ahead without even noticing the café. “What the hell is that?” Deciding that it was some form of technology mumbo-jumbo, he shrugged, holding open the door for her. He could be a gentleman on occasion, and he did appreciate what she was doing for him. The sooner he found his brother the better, even hearing that Sam sounded a lot like HIS Sam put him more at ease.
Walking toward the first available computer he saw, he sat down, staring blankly at the screen. He knew how to work Sam’s computer to do basic things, but this one looked completely different. Taking a guess, he clicked on the little blue ‘e’ to pull up the internet, and looked to Sarah for help as to what to do next
"Wireless internet, so people can use their own laptops in here," Sarah tossed over her shoulder as she moved inside. When Dean moved to a computer, she took out her wallet, paying the woman at the counter before walking in the same direction. Pulling up a chair to his station she sat and then leaned in, navigating quickly to the message board the residents of Los Angeles so often used for everything from answers to the inane.
"Pretty much every new arrival has an account on here," she explained quietly, pulling up the registration page. "It's where the people in this city – the ones who have no idea about the higher powers pulling people here, that is – send the arrivals to learn that most of us have no idea why we're here, as well as learn about all the things some people might call crazy – vampires, demons, people who are considered fictional in some realities."
That said, she sat back. "Go ahead and register – name and password, it'll provide you with an email as a new user," she said, then covered her eyes with a hand. "There, I won't peek."
Dean was shocked to see Sarah go and pay someone, as he had assumed that the person at the counter was there strictly to monitor things and ensure they didn’t get out of hand. He couldn’t believe you actually had to fork over money in order to geek up your time. Not that Dean’s money was earned the old fashioned way, but he still didn’t want to waste it.
He listened carefully to her explanation, then typed in his username and password (The same thing he used for everything from his pin number on all the fake credit cards to his voicemail code) and looked at her expectantly. He didn’t like admitting when he didn’t know what the hell he was doing, but when it came to this sort of thing he had no choice but to admit that he didn’t know anything. Finding Sam depended on it.
When the sound of keys being pressed had stopped, Sarah uncovered her eyes and smiled, gesturing to the screen. "Now, we let L.A. know you've arrived, hopefully your brother sees it soon," she said, taking the mouse again to get him to the compose screen. "Type your message and hit post – best to just start with a public one." It was the easiest to instruct him on without risking more of that impatience from before. Filters could come once he needed them.
Dean scowled at the screen for a moment before deciding what he wanted to say, then typed the message in with a hint of decisiveness. Waiting was never his strong point, particularly when so much depended on what would happen next, but he really had no choice. Tapping his fingers impatiently on the desk he waited on someone to reply, and hoped beyond hope that that someone would be his little brother.