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flawedamythystTitle: The Truth In The Lie: Day Five
Rating: PG this chapter, NC-17 overall.
Word count: 3,311/63,000 (this chapter/total)
A/N: Main header and notes: here.
Prologue, Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, Day Five, Day Six, Day Seven, Day Eight, Day Nine, Day Ten, Day Eleven (Part One, Part Two), Epilogue.
****
They were both still exhausted the next morning and ended up missing breakfast in favour of more sleep. They were the last ones onto the bus and Sam was still trying to wipe the sleep out of his eyes as they slumped down in the back seat.
"Looks like you two had a sleepless night," said Ray in an amused voice.
Paul turned round and grinned at them. "Wonder what you could possibly have got up to instead of coming to dinner?" he asked in lascivious tones.
Sam didn't need to look at Dean to know he was giving them his best smirk. "Yeah, Sammy kept me up all night," he agreed smugly.
Sam resisted the urge to groan and just leaned his head on the window instead, wondering if he'd be able to fall asleep as easily on the bus as he could in the Impala.
****
Two hours later, he woke up with a mouth that felt like it was full of cotton and the smell of coffee in the air.
"Sam, wake up," Dean was saying, "I got you a bagel." Sam cracked his eyes open slowly, focused on Dean's face and then sighed.
"I'm getting too old for this shit," he told him, taking the hot cup of coffee.
Dean snorted. "Dude, you're younger than me, and I'm fine."
Sam glared at him, but didn't bother replying, concentrating on his coffee instead. When he felt more awake, he glanced around at the Tim Horton's parking lot they were parked in. "What did I miss?" he asked.
Dean shrugged. "Not much. A whole heap of Canadian scenery, but it's not that different to stuff we've seen a million times before."
Sam nodded tiredly, stretched as much as he could, and resolved to stay awake for the rest of the trip. He might be able to fall asleep easily on the bus, but the amount of space made the Impala seem like a limo. Sleeping all scrunched up had left him feeling like a pretzel, with his limbs complaining loud and clear about the abuse.
On the next part of the trip it was Dean who fell asleep, dropping his head onto Sam's shoulder and nodding off as if it was something he'd done a million times before. Sam spent ten minutes slightly nervous about the weight of his head, sure that every tiny move he made would wake Dean up, then he caught Andrew glancing over his shoulder at them. Without a conscious thought, he put his arm around Dean, almost protectively, and pulled him closer against his side. Andrew's face twitched slightly, then he looked back round at the forest they were driving through. Sam let out a careful breath he hadn't known he was holding in, and tried to ignore it when Dean shifted even closer in his sleep.
****
Dean was grumpy when he woke up - either from not enough sleep, or because of the position he found himself in; pressed up against Sam's side and drooling gently on his shoulder. He pulled himself away with a jerk which he tried to cover by running his hands repeatedly over his face, as if just disorientated at waking up, but Sam wasn't fooled. He'd seen Dean go from a deep sleep to gun aimed at an intruder in a split second on more than one occasion, after all.
They had lunch in a tiny café on the other side of the causeway over the strait that separated Cape Breton island and the mainland of Nova Scotia. There was some more good-natured ribbing from the others about their tiredness, and what it was that they'd spent all night doing together, which Sam was able to take with a grin now that he'd had a bit of sleep. By contrast, Dean seemed annoyed by it in a way that he hadn't been that morning, scowling down at his sandwich as if it had the power to make this whole, messed-up situation disappear.
They started to drive round the Cabot Trail, Gerald waxing lyrical about the beautiful landscape that they were going to see and the popularity of the road with tourists from all over the continent. Sam stared out the window at the sea, and tried not to notice the careful distance that Dean kept between them.
They stopped for another hike, and Dean hopped off the bus and started up the trail without any complaining - without any comment at all. Sam tried to tell himself that Dean was just tired, and that there was no need to get pissed at his brother, but it was hard not to get frustrated, particularly when he could feel exhaustion in his bones and ached all over, both from the digging and from sleeping on the bus.
The trail took them up a hill, through some woods. Dean walked in silence, his eyes not really seeing the landscape, as if he was sunk so deep in whatever was pissing him off that nothing else existed for him at the moment. Sam sighed as he followed him up the path, wondering if the easy camaraderie of the last day had disappeared again, and trying to remember if he'd accidentally flirted with anyone, or done anything else that might piss Dean off.
They rounded a corner to find Gerald and half the group standing in silence, gazing off into the forest. Jerry was clutching at his camera but hadn't brought it up to his face, as if whatever they were looking at was too enthralling for him to concentrate enough on something else to take a photo.
Gerald turned to them and smiled, pointing off into the forest. "There's a moose over there," he said quietly.
Sam moved closer, gazing into the woods, trying to pick out what the others could see. For a moment he couldn't see anything, then there was a movement behind a tree, and like a picture becoming clear in a magic eye painting, he could suddenly see the dark shape of a moose. He blinked, and then found himself grinning slightly to himself. Something large and wild in the woods that isn't trying to eat us - how novel. He turned to look at Dean, wanting to share this with him and forgetting that maybe Dean wasn't in the most receptive mood. Dean was staring at the moose blankly, but he must have sensed Sam looking at him because he turned to meet his gaze.
He rolled his eyes at Sam's expression and whispered, "Dork," but he looked amused rather than pissed off. Sam just grinned wider and turned back to watch the moose.
They all stood staring at the moose until it got bored and wandered off, back behind the trees. They started walking again, slower and talking quietly.
Sam overheard Jerry say to Thomas, "That has made the whole trip worthwhile."
Thomas chuckled. "You and your crazy moose obsession," he said fondly.
Jerry bounced slightly on his next step forward. "Thomas, we just saw a moose. A real, live moose. The only way it could have been better would be if Indiana Jones had been riding it."
Thomas laughed out loud and put his arm round Jerry's shoulders. Sam glanced over at Dean to see if he'd heard, but was distracted by a dark shadow moving far off in the forest. Another moose? he wondered, but it was moving too fast and disappeared before he could identify it.
****
They saw the moose again on the way back from the look-out at the end of the walk. Dean spotted it first, and cursed quietly before leaving the trail and running into the forest. Sam followed him, and felt a sick feeling rising up out of his stomach when he realised what Dean had seen. The moose was in pieces now, limbs torn off and blood splattered all the way up the trees around it. Sam didn't need to get too close to see that the heart was missing.
"Fuck," said Dean with feeling. Sam nodded his agreement. "We gotta get this thing," added Dean in a low voice.
"Yeah," said Sam. He heard footsteps on the path, and glanced back to see Thomas and Jerry walking down. "Come on," he said to Dean. "Nothing we can do here, and maybe they won't see it." He grabbed Dean's jacket sleeve and pulled him away from the corpse, back towards the path. Dean followed him.
Thomas gave them a puzzled look as they emerged from the woods. "What have you two been up to?" he asked.
Dean grinned and slapped Sam's back. "Sometimes Sammy just can't wait, you know?"
Sam tried not to choke, and ducked his head. "That's not me," he muttered defensively, because he knew how to sell a lie when you'd already over-reacted to it. Dean just grinned wider, but Sam could see the falseness behind it; the hard gleam in his eye, and figured that he was as fed up with this charade as Sam was.
****
No one else saw the dead moose, and when the bus continued round the Cabot Trail, the mood was relaxed and happy. Sam sat in the back and hoped that no one noticed that he and Dean weren't as content as the rest of the group. For what felt like the millionth time he ran through all the lore on creatures who ate hearts, trying to find the clue to crack the case open, but there was nothing specific enough to point to one monster over another.
The B&B they pulled up at that night was set back from the road and surrounded by woods. Dean glanced around as they got out and muttered, "This looks like the perfect hunting ground for this thing. Want to bet there'll be dead wildlife nearby by the morning?"
Sam nodded his agreement and pursed his lips. "Maybe we should go for a walk later," he said, over-emphasising 'walk.' "Maybe we'll spot something."
Dean nodded and grinned, slightly ferally. "I like your thinking, Sammy. Maybe it's time we got a line on something we can shoot."
Sam smiled to himself at the predictability of Dean's mood perking up at the prospect of something to shoot and followed him inside to check in.
****
Four hours later, they were wandering around the woods surrounding the B&B and Sam was beginning to think this wasn't such a great plan after all, even if it had cheered Dean up. He wondered how long they'd have to tramp through thick forest, getting attacked by undergrowth, until Dean decided that there wasn't anything out here.
They'd been at it for a couple of hours, and Sam was beginning to feel exhausted, lack of sleep from the night before starting to tell on him, when they heard a noise. They both froze.
"What about that one?" came a loud, British voice from behind them. Dean sighed and rolled his eyes at Sam, and they both tucked their guns away quickly.
"Jerry, that's an oak," replied an amused voice. Sam started to head towards the voices, figuring that as they might as well say hello, especially if it broke up the monotony of hiking through the woods. After a moment, Dean followed him.
"How can you tell?" asked Jerry, and Sam could see him now, inspecting a large tree.
"There's old acorns all round the base," pointed out Thomas.
"Oh, right," said Jerry, sounding disappointed. He spotted Sam and his face lit up. "Hey guys!"
"Heya," said Sam. "You guys just out for a walk too?"
"We're looking for a maple tree," said Thomas, with a grin.
"Can't tell the folks back home that we came all the way to Canada and then didn't see a maple tree," added Jerry.
Sam looked around at the trees surrounding them. "I don't think you're going to find one here," he said. Jerry's face fell.
Thomas slung his arm around his boyfriend's shoulders. "We'll ask Gerald about it," he said, comfortingly. "If there's any around, he'll know where to look."
"Are you guys heading back?" asked Dean. "It's getting kinda late."
"Yeah," said Thomas, looking around, "We were just about to." He looked slightly sheepish though, and after a moment Jerry rolled his eyes.
"Okay, so we might have got a bit turned around...which way is the B&B again?"
Sam suppressed a smile. "That way," he said, pointing. "I think it's about fifteen minutes away."
"Right," said Jerry, uncertainly.
"Just keep heading for that mountain," advised Dean.
Thomas frowned. "Are you not coming back as well?"
"Uh," said Sam, mind working fast, "We've got a couple of things we want to do first." He glanced over at Dean, wondering what lie to spin, and saw that he was smirking. Oh God, not the sex card again.
Thomas raised an eyebrow. "Wow, are you two trying to outdo Paul and Ray?"
Sam felt his face grow red. "It's Dean's fault," he said defensively, trying to get some revenge for Dean pulling this stunt twice in the same day. "He's got this weird woods thing...I'm still hoping he'll encounter some poison ivy one day and learn his lesson."
Jerry sniggered. "Well, uh, I guess we'll just head for that mountain then," he said. "Have fun." He winked broadly. Sam felt his blush deepen.
Thomas took Jerry's hand as they walked off, and threw a final comment of, "Don't forget, kids, always use protection," over his shoulder as they disappeared.
Sam groaned with embarrassment and put his face in his hands.
"Cheer up, geek boy," said Dean, still grinning, "I'm just helping you get that reputation that you always wanted in High School."
"Dean," said Sam, slowly, "I've never wanted to have a reputation for having sex in the woods with my brother."
Dean flinched almost imperceptibly, but his grin didn't fade. "I guess you really are the disturbingly vanilla one."
Sam started to retort, but was cut off by a yell from the direction Thomas and Jerry had disappeared in. Both the brothers pulled out their guns and started running towards the sound. There was another shout, then a crashing noise followed by a growl.
Sam burst into a clearing to find Thomas wielding a branch as a large, fast-moving, black shape rushed at him. He shot quickly at it, and the bullet clipped its back leg at almost the same time as Thomas hit it solidly round the head with the branch. The creature snarled but halted its charge, then abruptly turned and ran off into the woods.
"God, oh god," gasped Jerry, from Sam's left. He rushed forward on unsteady feet. "Thomas, Thomas are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Thomas said reassuringly. Jerry didn't seem to be willing to take his word for it, and ran his hands all over Thomas's body, as if checking for injuries. Sam blinked with the sudden realisation that it was the same thing Dean did whenever Sam got attacked by something. He glanced over at Dean, who'd tucked his gun away before Jerry or Thomas could notice it.
"I don't think it's coming back," he said. "What happened?"
"It just came out of nowhere," said Thomas, sounding as if shock was beginning to set in. "It just...we were walking, then it suddenly attacked. I thought bears only attacked if you antagonised them?"
Dean meet Sam's eyes with an amused eyebrow twitch. Civilians will convince themselves of anything.
"You think it was a bear?" said Jerry.
"Well, what else would it have been?" asked Thomas.
Jerry hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so," he said, almost reluctantly. "It just...didn't look like the pictures."
"The pictures never tried to kill us," muttered Thomas. He looked up at Sam. "Thanks, man, you scared it off."
Jerry looked at Sam as well, with an over-whelmingly grateful expression on his face. "Yes, thank you," he said. Then he frowned slightly. "How come you have a gun?"
Sam glanced down at his gun and then winced slightly. "Um," he said, eloquently.
"Sam's a bit of a gun nut," said Dean, easily. "Never goes anywhere without one."
Jerry frowned slightly, but Thomas was nodding. "Americans, remember?" he said to his boyfriend. "They all have guns."
Sam was taken aback by the blatant stereotyping, but decided it wasn't a good time to protest when he had a loaded revolver in his hands. He clicked the safety on and tucked it away. "Uh, it's not really legal for me to have one in this country," he said. "So could you maybe not mention it to the others?"
"Yeah," said Dean, "Wouldn't want him to become the prison bitch of a burly Canadian mass murderer."
"Uh," said Thomas, "Sure, I guess."
"You did save our lives," agreed Jerry.
Sam let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks," he said. He glanced around at the woods, wondering where the creature had gotten to. "Let's head back."
****
They were nearly back at the B&B when Sam, on high alert in case the monster came back, noticed a suspicious shadow at the base of a tree. He glanced at Dean, who was also frowning at it, one hand hovering near his concealed gun. Sam was moving to put his hand on his own gun when the shadow moved, stepping forward to reveal Nick.
"Are you guys okay?" he asked, frowning at the mud on Jerry's clothes and the scratches on Thomas's arms.
"We got attacked by a bear!" said Jerry, excitedly, the fear clearly already forgotten.
Nick frowned. "A bear? Here?"
"Yeah," said Thomas. "It was pretty scary. Sam chased it away though - he was amazing."
Nick turned an oddly evaluating gaze on Sam, making him feel uncomfortable. He shrugged. "It's nothing anyone else wouldn't have done."
"Right," said Nick. He turned to look back at the woods. "Well, if there's an angry bear out there, I guess we'd all be safer inside."
"Yeah," agreed Thomas with a shudder. "I think I've had enough of woods for the moment."
****
Thomas and Jerry insisted on telling the receptionist, the manager, and everyone who was still in the common room the events of the evening in great detail, changing Sam's part slightly so that he now crashed into the clearing throwing rocks and, in at least one version, giving a wild war cry. Sam stayed for the first three renditions, but when Jerry started to act parts out, he gave up and went to bed. Dean followed him up.
"Well, crap," he said as he shut the door of their room. "I've never seen anything like that before."
"No," agreed Sam with a sigh. "It did look more like a bear than a wolf."
"Still didn't like silver bullets though," pointed out Dean, "So maybe it doesn't matter that we don't know what it is."
Sam huffed out a deep sigh and sank onto the bed. "Hopefully," he said. He was exhausted, and his muscles still ached from digging last night, and sleeping on the bus this morning. "I just want to go to bed and not think about it," he said, tiredly, and fell backwards onto the bed.
"Yeah, I hear you," said Dean.
Sam let his eyes fall shut, just taking a moment to relax. He'd get up and undress in a minute, he was just going to rest a moment first...
Ten minutes later he half woke up enough to become aware that Dean was undoing his laces. "Hmmm?" he asked, questioningly, too tired to manage proper speech. Dean pulled his shoes off and tugged the blankets over him.
"Go to sleep, Sammy," he said.
Sam shut his eyes again and drifted off again.
****
Day Six
*
Rating: PG this chapter, NC-17 overall.
Word count: 3,311/63,000 (this chapter/total)
A/N: Main header and notes: here.
Prologue, Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, Day Five, Day Six, Day Seven, Day Eight, Day Nine, Day Ten, Day Eleven (Part One, Part Two), Epilogue.
They were both still exhausted the next morning and ended up missing breakfast in favour of more sleep. They were the last ones onto the bus and Sam was still trying to wipe the sleep out of his eyes as they slumped down in the back seat.
"Looks like you two had a sleepless night," said Ray in an amused voice.
Paul turned round and grinned at them. "Wonder what you could possibly have got up to instead of coming to dinner?" he asked in lascivious tones.
Sam didn't need to look at Dean to know he was giving them his best smirk. "Yeah, Sammy kept me up all night," he agreed smugly.
Sam resisted the urge to groan and just leaned his head on the window instead, wondering if he'd be able to fall asleep as easily on the bus as he could in the Impala.
Two hours later, he woke up with a mouth that felt like it was full of cotton and the smell of coffee in the air.
"Sam, wake up," Dean was saying, "I got you a bagel." Sam cracked his eyes open slowly, focused on Dean's face and then sighed.
"I'm getting too old for this shit," he told him, taking the hot cup of coffee.
Dean snorted. "Dude, you're younger than me, and I'm fine."
Sam glared at him, but didn't bother replying, concentrating on his coffee instead. When he felt more awake, he glanced around at the Tim Horton's parking lot they were parked in. "What did I miss?" he asked.
Dean shrugged. "Not much. A whole heap of Canadian scenery, but it's not that different to stuff we've seen a million times before."
Sam nodded tiredly, stretched as much as he could, and resolved to stay awake for the rest of the trip. He might be able to fall asleep easily on the bus, but the amount of space made the Impala seem like a limo. Sleeping all scrunched up had left him feeling like a pretzel, with his limbs complaining loud and clear about the abuse.
On the next part of the trip it was Dean who fell asleep, dropping his head onto Sam's shoulder and nodding off as if it was something he'd done a million times before. Sam spent ten minutes slightly nervous about the weight of his head, sure that every tiny move he made would wake Dean up, then he caught Andrew glancing over his shoulder at them. Without a conscious thought, he put his arm around Dean, almost protectively, and pulled him closer against his side. Andrew's face twitched slightly, then he looked back round at the forest they were driving through. Sam let out a careful breath he hadn't known he was holding in, and tried to ignore it when Dean shifted even closer in his sleep.
Dean was grumpy when he woke up - either from not enough sleep, or because of the position he found himself in; pressed up against Sam's side and drooling gently on his shoulder. He pulled himself away with a jerk which he tried to cover by running his hands repeatedly over his face, as if just disorientated at waking up, but Sam wasn't fooled. He'd seen Dean go from a deep sleep to gun aimed at an intruder in a split second on more than one occasion, after all.
They had lunch in a tiny café on the other side of the causeway over the strait that separated Cape Breton island and the mainland of Nova Scotia. There was some more good-natured ribbing from the others about their tiredness, and what it was that they'd spent all night doing together, which Sam was able to take with a grin now that he'd had a bit of sleep. By contrast, Dean seemed annoyed by it in a way that he hadn't been that morning, scowling down at his sandwich as if it had the power to make this whole, messed-up situation disappear.
They started to drive round the Cabot Trail, Gerald waxing lyrical about the beautiful landscape that they were going to see and the popularity of the road with tourists from all over the continent. Sam stared out the window at the sea, and tried not to notice the careful distance that Dean kept between them.
They stopped for another hike, and Dean hopped off the bus and started up the trail without any complaining - without any comment at all. Sam tried to tell himself that Dean was just tired, and that there was no need to get pissed at his brother, but it was hard not to get frustrated, particularly when he could feel exhaustion in his bones and ached all over, both from the digging and from sleeping on the bus.
The trail took them up a hill, through some woods. Dean walked in silence, his eyes not really seeing the landscape, as if he was sunk so deep in whatever was pissing him off that nothing else existed for him at the moment. Sam sighed as he followed him up the path, wondering if the easy camaraderie of the last day had disappeared again, and trying to remember if he'd accidentally flirted with anyone, or done anything else that might piss Dean off.
They rounded a corner to find Gerald and half the group standing in silence, gazing off into the forest. Jerry was clutching at his camera but hadn't brought it up to his face, as if whatever they were looking at was too enthralling for him to concentrate enough on something else to take a photo.
Gerald turned to them and smiled, pointing off into the forest. "There's a moose over there," he said quietly.
Sam moved closer, gazing into the woods, trying to pick out what the others could see. For a moment he couldn't see anything, then there was a movement behind a tree, and like a picture becoming clear in a magic eye painting, he could suddenly see the dark shape of a moose. He blinked, and then found himself grinning slightly to himself. Something large and wild in the woods that isn't trying to eat us - how novel. He turned to look at Dean, wanting to share this with him and forgetting that maybe Dean wasn't in the most receptive mood. Dean was staring at the moose blankly, but he must have sensed Sam looking at him because he turned to meet his gaze.
He rolled his eyes at Sam's expression and whispered, "Dork," but he looked amused rather than pissed off. Sam just grinned wider and turned back to watch the moose.
They all stood staring at the moose until it got bored and wandered off, back behind the trees. They started walking again, slower and talking quietly.
Sam overheard Jerry say to Thomas, "That has made the whole trip worthwhile."
Thomas chuckled. "You and your crazy moose obsession," he said fondly.
Jerry bounced slightly on his next step forward. "Thomas, we just saw a moose. A real, live moose. The only way it could have been better would be if Indiana Jones had been riding it."
Thomas laughed out loud and put his arm round Jerry's shoulders. Sam glanced over at Dean to see if he'd heard, but was distracted by a dark shadow moving far off in the forest. Another moose? he wondered, but it was moving too fast and disappeared before he could identify it.
They saw the moose again on the way back from the look-out at the end of the walk. Dean spotted it first, and cursed quietly before leaving the trail and running into the forest. Sam followed him, and felt a sick feeling rising up out of his stomach when he realised what Dean had seen. The moose was in pieces now, limbs torn off and blood splattered all the way up the trees around it. Sam didn't need to get too close to see that the heart was missing.
"Fuck," said Dean with feeling. Sam nodded his agreement. "We gotta get this thing," added Dean in a low voice.
"Yeah," said Sam. He heard footsteps on the path, and glanced back to see Thomas and Jerry walking down. "Come on," he said to Dean. "Nothing we can do here, and maybe they won't see it." He grabbed Dean's jacket sleeve and pulled him away from the corpse, back towards the path. Dean followed him.
Thomas gave them a puzzled look as they emerged from the woods. "What have you two been up to?" he asked.
Dean grinned and slapped Sam's back. "Sometimes Sammy just can't wait, you know?"
Sam tried not to choke, and ducked his head. "That's not me," he muttered defensively, because he knew how to sell a lie when you'd already over-reacted to it. Dean just grinned wider, but Sam could see the falseness behind it; the hard gleam in his eye, and figured that he was as fed up with this charade as Sam was.
No one else saw the dead moose, and when the bus continued round the Cabot Trail, the mood was relaxed and happy. Sam sat in the back and hoped that no one noticed that he and Dean weren't as content as the rest of the group. For what felt like the millionth time he ran through all the lore on creatures who ate hearts, trying to find the clue to crack the case open, but there was nothing specific enough to point to one monster over another.
The B&B they pulled up at that night was set back from the road and surrounded by woods. Dean glanced around as they got out and muttered, "This looks like the perfect hunting ground for this thing. Want to bet there'll be dead wildlife nearby by the morning?"
Sam nodded his agreement and pursed his lips. "Maybe we should go for a walk later," he said, over-emphasising 'walk.' "Maybe we'll spot something."
Dean nodded and grinned, slightly ferally. "I like your thinking, Sammy. Maybe it's time we got a line on something we can shoot."
Sam smiled to himself at the predictability of Dean's mood perking up at the prospect of something to shoot and followed him inside to check in.
Four hours later, they were wandering around the woods surrounding the B&B and Sam was beginning to think this wasn't such a great plan after all, even if it had cheered Dean up. He wondered how long they'd have to tramp through thick forest, getting attacked by undergrowth, until Dean decided that there wasn't anything out here.
They'd been at it for a couple of hours, and Sam was beginning to feel exhausted, lack of sleep from the night before starting to tell on him, when they heard a noise. They both froze.
"What about that one?" came a loud, British voice from behind them. Dean sighed and rolled his eyes at Sam, and they both tucked their guns away quickly.
"Jerry, that's an oak," replied an amused voice. Sam started to head towards the voices, figuring that as they might as well say hello, especially if it broke up the monotony of hiking through the woods. After a moment, Dean followed him.
"How can you tell?" asked Jerry, and Sam could see him now, inspecting a large tree.
"There's old acorns all round the base," pointed out Thomas.
"Oh, right," said Jerry, sounding disappointed. He spotted Sam and his face lit up. "Hey guys!"
"Heya," said Sam. "You guys just out for a walk too?"
"We're looking for a maple tree," said Thomas, with a grin.
"Can't tell the folks back home that we came all the way to Canada and then didn't see a maple tree," added Jerry.
Sam looked around at the trees surrounding them. "I don't think you're going to find one here," he said. Jerry's face fell.
Thomas slung his arm around his boyfriend's shoulders. "We'll ask Gerald about it," he said, comfortingly. "If there's any around, he'll know where to look."
"Are you guys heading back?" asked Dean. "It's getting kinda late."
"Yeah," said Thomas, looking around, "We were just about to." He looked slightly sheepish though, and after a moment Jerry rolled his eyes.
"Okay, so we might have got a bit turned around...which way is the B&B again?"
Sam suppressed a smile. "That way," he said, pointing. "I think it's about fifteen minutes away."
"Right," said Jerry, uncertainly.
"Just keep heading for that mountain," advised Dean.
Thomas frowned. "Are you not coming back as well?"
"Uh," said Sam, mind working fast, "We've got a couple of things we want to do first." He glanced over at Dean, wondering what lie to spin, and saw that he was smirking. Oh God, not the sex card again.
Thomas raised an eyebrow. "Wow, are you two trying to outdo Paul and Ray?"
Sam felt his face grow red. "It's Dean's fault," he said defensively, trying to get some revenge for Dean pulling this stunt twice in the same day. "He's got this weird woods thing...I'm still hoping he'll encounter some poison ivy one day and learn his lesson."
Jerry sniggered. "Well, uh, I guess we'll just head for that mountain then," he said. "Have fun." He winked broadly. Sam felt his blush deepen.
Thomas took Jerry's hand as they walked off, and threw a final comment of, "Don't forget, kids, always use protection," over his shoulder as they disappeared.
Sam groaned with embarrassment and put his face in his hands.
"Cheer up, geek boy," said Dean, still grinning, "I'm just helping you get that reputation that you always wanted in High School."
"Dean," said Sam, slowly, "I've never wanted to have a reputation for having sex in the woods with my brother."
Dean flinched almost imperceptibly, but his grin didn't fade. "I guess you really are the disturbingly vanilla one."
Sam started to retort, but was cut off by a yell from the direction Thomas and Jerry had disappeared in. Both the brothers pulled out their guns and started running towards the sound. There was another shout, then a crashing noise followed by a growl.
Sam burst into a clearing to find Thomas wielding a branch as a large, fast-moving, black shape rushed at him. He shot quickly at it, and the bullet clipped its back leg at almost the same time as Thomas hit it solidly round the head with the branch. The creature snarled but halted its charge, then abruptly turned and ran off into the woods.
"God, oh god," gasped Jerry, from Sam's left. He rushed forward on unsteady feet. "Thomas, Thomas are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Thomas said reassuringly. Jerry didn't seem to be willing to take his word for it, and ran his hands all over Thomas's body, as if checking for injuries. Sam blinked with the sudden realisation that it was the same thing Dean did whenever Sam got attacked by something. He glanced over at Dean, who'd tucked his gun away before Jerry or Thomas could notice it.
"I don't think it's coming back," he said. "What happened?"
"It just came out of nowhere," said Thomas, sounding as if shock was beginning to set in. "It just...we were walking, then it suddenly attacked. I thought bears only attacked if you antagonised them?"
Dean meet Sam's eyes with an amused eyebrow twitch. Civilians will convince themselves of anything.
"You think it was a bear?" said Jerry.
"Well, what else would it have been?" asked Thomas.
Jerry hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so," he said, almost reluctantly. "It just...didn't look like the pictures."
"The pictures never tried to kill us," muttered Thomas. He looked up at Sam. "Thanks, man, you scared it off."
Jerry looked at Sam as well, with an over-whelmingly grateful expression on his face. "Yes, thank you," he said. Then he frowned slightly. "How come you have a gun?"
Sam glanced down at his gun and then winced slightly. "Um," he said, eloquently.
"Sam's a bit of a gun nut," said Dean, easily. "Never goes anywhere without one."
Jerry frowned slightly, but Thomas was nodding. "Americans, remember?" he said to his boyfriend. "They all have guns."
Sam was taken aback by the blatant stereotyping, but decided it wasn't a good time to protest when he had a loaded revolver in his hands. He clicked the safety on and tucked it away. "Uh, it's not really legal for me to have one in this country," he said. "So could you maybe not mention it to the others?"
"Yeah," said Dean, "Wouldn't want him to become the prison bitch of a burly Canadian mass murderer."
"Uh," said Thomas, "Sure, I guess."
"You did save our lives," agreed Jerry.
Sam let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks," he said. He glanced around at the woods, wondering where the creature had gotten to. "Let's head back."
They were nearly back at the B&B when Sam, on high alert in case the monster came back, noticed a suspicious shadow at the base of a tree. He glanced at Dean, who was also frowning at it, one hand hovering near his concealed gun. Sam was moving to put his hand on his own gun when the shadow moved, stepping forward to reveal Nick.
"Are you guys okay?" he asked, frowning at the mud on Jerry's clothes and the scratches on Thomas's arms.
"We got attacked by a bear!" said Jerry, excitedly, the fear clearly already forgotten.
Nick frowned. "A bear? Here?"
"Yeah," said Thomas. "It was pretty scary. Sam chased it away though - he was amazing."
Nick turned an oddly evaluating gaze on Sam, making him feel uncomfortable. He shrugged. "It's nothing anyone else wouldn't have done."
"Right," said Nick. He turned to look back at the woods. "Well, if there's an angry bear out there, I guess we'd all be safer inside."
"Yeah," agreed Thomas with a shudder. "I think I've had enough of woods for the moment."
Thomas and Jerry insisted on telling the receptionist, the manager, and everyone who was still in the common room the events of the evening in great detail, changing Sam's part slightly so that he now crashed into the clearing throwing rocks and, in at least one version, giving a wild war cry. Sam stayed for the first three renditions, but when Jerry started to act parts out, he gave up and went to bed. Dean followed him up.
"Well, crap," he said as he shut the door of their room. "I've never seen anything like that before."
"No," agreed Sam with a sigh. "It did look more like a bear than a wolf."
"Still didn't like silver bullets though," pointed out Dean, "So maybe it doesn't matter that we don't know what it is."
Sam huffed out a deep sigh and sank onto the bed. "Hopefully," he said. He was exhausted, and his muscles still ached from digging last night, and sleeping on the bus this morning. "I just want to go to bed and not think about it," he said, tiredly, and fell backwards onto the bed.
"Yeah, I hear you," said Dean.
Sam let his eyes fall shut, just taking a moment to relax. He'd get up and undress in a minute, he was just going to rest a moment first...
Ten minutes later he half woke up enough to become aware that Dean was undoing his laces. "Hmmm?" he asked, questioningly, too tired to manage proper speech. Dean pulled his shoes off and tugged the blankets over him.
"Go to sleep, Sammy," he said.
Sam shut his eyes again and drifted off again.
*
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 10:21 am (UTC)N'AWW DEEN. SO ADORABLE.
Hee! I love Jerry and Thomas. I like the excitability.
♥
no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 10:29 am (UTC)I'm curious, is this a real tour that exists in real life?
no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 10:39 am (UTC)Sam's reputation is never going to be the same XDDD
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Date: 2009-01-26 10:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 11:02 am (UTC)Ok, enough with the personal drama. Great chapter again! I just want to be inside Dean's head to know what he's thinking.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 01:55 pm (UTC)cant wait for the next chapter
keep up the good work:)
lots of love
no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 02:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 04:04 pm (UTC)by the way love the pictures you've attached
no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 04:10 pm (UTC)And I wonder what kinda creature we're looking for here... I wish I had my Book of Monsters around. *lol* I'm glad nothing happened to Thomas and Jerry, because I like them. And great comparison there, with Jerry checking for injuries just like Dean always does. :)
no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 06:23 pm (UTC)plus I think I know who the monster is! *dances* :] (although I could be incredibly wrong =P)
Can't wait for more, your daily updates make me smiiiile! :]] ♥
no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 06:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 07:06 pm (UTC)So IC and it's really funny too! Can't wait for more!
no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 08:20 pm (UTC)Cat
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Date: 2009-01-26 08:32 pm (UTC)Also, way to employ Emotional Whiplash. I go from AWW LOOK A MOOSE to YAY THE MOOSE IS BACK... WAIT... OH MY GOD
That poor moose. :-( Also, will Sam figure out what was pissing Dean off so much in the woods? I have an idea, but I won't say anything. ;-)
no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 08:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 09:02 pm (UTC)And, it's vaguely based on a backpackers bus tour I did of the same area, but that was only 6 days, involved a lot more hostels and a lot less gay dudes. When I originally had the idea, I realised it was going to have to be somewhere I knew well enough to write about, but I've had to add places in that I've never been to, and play around with itinerary a lot. The pictures are ones I took there.
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Date: 2009-01-26 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 09:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 09:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 09:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 09:08 pm (UTC)And, you know what? For a while I was playing with making the line:
"A real, live moose. The only way it could have been better would be if Indiana Jones had been riding it dressed as a Mountie!"
But I decided I needed to pushing my own obsessions on other characters.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 09:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 09:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-26 09:08 pm (UTC)