Sins of the Father Ch. 2

Sam and Dean walked back into their hotel room. Their muscles ached and their wounds stung. Both boys needed a shower and rest. Though it didn’t seem like they’d be getting any when they entered the room and found a figure standing in front of the window. Dean flipped on the lights and his heart jumped and caught in his throat. “Dad,” he whispered.

“Dean,” a higher voice, obviously belonging to a woman, sounded from the corner. Dean turned his head and saw a fair skinned redhead sitting on the bed. Her emerald eyes seemed to glow in the dim light of the room. Dean smiled when he saw her. She stood and walked over to him, throwing her arms around his neck. Dean dropped the bag he had and wrapped his arms around the girl’s waist. He picked her up and hugged her tight, spinning her in a circle. “Mara,” he said with a smile once he set her down.

Mara looked up at him and smiled back. She looked behind him and finally noticed Sam. She hadn’t seen him in four years. Mara smiled and gave him a hug. “Hey,” he said with a smile, though his gaze was still on his father. Mara looked to see what he was looking at and stepped away. She sighed and waited for the fighting to start. To her surprise it didn’t. She watched the two embrace and a small smile formed on her lips.

Mara stole a glance at Dean. He was her best friend, the other half of her brain. They had been that way for as long as she could remember. She had been there for every painful part of Dean’s life, except recently. It killed her that she couldn’t go to them in Lawrence. That she had to watch him suffer. It killed her when she heard Sam’s message about Dean dying. She was terrified. Dean glanced over at her and smiled but there was something different in his eyes. It was almost like resentment. After Mara noticed it he turned away then began talking to his father.

Mara took her previous spot back on the bed and hugged her knees to her chest. He was upset with her and she didn’t understand why. She lowered her head and closed her eyes. They were talking but she was only half listening. Their conversation was cut short when they heard a piercing scream from Mara. She let out a loud scream when she felt something tear through her back. It threw her across the room and she slammed against the wall. She was knocked out but woke up a few minutes later. She was outside, in Dean’s arms. As soon as she woke Dean set her down and she leaned against the car. She looked at them. They both looked awful. There were huge gashes along Dean’s face, and Sam’s as well.

The voices around her were distant. She watched the three of them as they spoke but couldn’t hear their words. It was Dean’s expressions that told her what was going on. She looked back and forth between Dean and his father and the noise around her began to focus. He was leaving. Was she going with him? Mara didn’t think she could handle being torn from Dean like that again, especially not after that message from Sam saying Dean was dying. She had been so scared. Then she saw John walk away and the boys just stood there. She looked at Sam then at Dean. There was so much pain in Dean’s eyes. She took a step forward but Dean took her hand. She looked down at their fingers laced together then up at him. As much as it hurt to see John leave, Mara was glad he left her there with Dean. Mara saw the tears threatening to fall from Dean’s eyes. She smiled at him and gave his hand a comforting squeeze. He smiled at her before she climbed into the backseat of his car. Mara was asleep almost before Dean pulled out of the alley. She was so used to falling asleep in the backseat of that car. Dean smiled when he saw her through the mirror.

“We should go with him,” Sam said bitterly.

“I told you Sam, it would get him killed,” Dean answered through gritted teeth. Dean sighed and looked back at Mara.

Sam glanced over at Dean and then through the mirror at Mara. Her bright red hair and pale skin was just as he remembered her. It was a well-known fact among the Winchesters that Sam once had a schoolboy crush on Mara when he was younger. It wasn’t until now, though that he saw what his father and mother had seen for so many years. Sam wondered how long Mara and Dean had been like that. For as long as he could remember Mara was with them. There was never a time, save the last few months, when she was away.

Sam remembered being told Mara’s story. It still didn’t make much sense to him though. She was born the same night as Dean, half an hour or so apart. Dean told him that she lived down the street when they were growing up. He also told Sam that she was there the night of the fire. His parents had been babysitting her apparently it was quite common. Their father told him how her mother died the night she was born. Sam always felt like he could relate to her on that level. He didn’t remember his mother either.

All of that made sense though. It was the events after the fire that none of the Winchesters understood. Her father was supposed to return on November 4th but he didn’t. John waited a few more days, then a few more weeks, and finally a few more months. It passed into the New Year and they closed Mary’s case. That’s when he decided to leave, to hunt what stole his wife and his son’s mother from him.

John went to the hospital where his son and Mara were born. He hoped he would find what might have happened to her father. He had filed several missing persons cases by now but nothing showed up. They all came back saying that the man didn’t exist. John did all he could to find her father but there was no record that he was even alive. Beyond that though, there was no record of Mara’s existence either. He spoke with the nurses that cared for her at the hospital, the doctor that delivered her. No one remembered the girl, her mother, or her father. John gave up after a few months and when he left with his boys he took Mara with him. She’s been there ever since.

She had been the peacemaker. The peacemaker between Sam and Dean and also between Sam and his father when Dean was too afraid to step in. A lot of times she would indirectly choose Sam’s side. She was strong willed, like both Sam and Dean but Mara saw what Dean didn’t. Their father was human, just like them. He makes mistakes too and Mara saw that. When it came to Sam and college, Mara took Sam’s side. She understood what the boy needed, and understood that he would be safe. She never wanted to see him go and part of her hoped that he would have stayed. Sam was just as much her baby brother as he was Dean’s and it hurt her greatly to see him go.

Then, shortly after that Dean met Cassie. Mara felt abandoned but she never said anything. Everyone else always came first with her. When Cassie dumped Dean, Mara was angry. Dean had been devastated. Cassie was the first person that Dean ever gave his heart too. He had been with many women but he had never really loved them. Cassie was the first; therefore she was responsible for his first heartbreak. Mara was there for him all the way through and she was ready and willing to hurt that girl for what she did to Dean but she wouldn’t. That would be admitting how strongly she felt for the boy and Mara would never do that.

She woke up several hours later when Dean shook her. Mara wearily opened her eyes and looked around. She had no idea what town they were in. The Impala was pulled up to a hotel and Sam was digging through the trunk, getting their bags. Mara didn’t even remember putting hers in there but it was. She climbed out of the car and walked into the hotel room. Her wounds looked bad but most of them were superficial. Mara set her things down one of the two beds and opened her bag. She found a t-shirt and a pair of pajama pants that at one time had belonged to Dean. Then she grabbed a towel and walked into the bathroom. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it for a moment, trying to wake up. The night had been horrible but at least she was with Dean again. She could keep an eye on him now.

Mara sighed and pushed herself away from the door. She started the water in the shower and slowly removed her clothes. The fabric was stuck to her where she was wounded and it hurt greatly to remove the clothes but she did anyway. Then Mara sighed and climbed into the shower. She closed her eyes and let the warm water soak over her skin. She ran her hands through her hair and slowly opened her eyes. She watched the water run red for a moment then it ran clear once more. It was relaxing, calming. Mara lost herself in her mind and her happier memories of her and Dean. The three of them, early in their life were lucky to get a few normal moments. She remembered walking through the zoo once. On one side of her she held a three-year-old Sammy’s hand, on the other side she held Dean’s. She remembered how watching how much Dean cared for Sam.

Mara was lost in her memories. She didn’t hear the door open. It wasn’t until it closed that she jumped. She turned to see who it was and looked through the clear shower curtain. Mara breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it was Dean. Most in her position would be angry but that was what made Mara and Dean’s relationship different. They had no boundaries, they had never had boundaries and that was all right with them. She sighed and closed her eyes. Mara hadn’t really spoken to him at all since she saw him again. “How… how ya doing?” she asked quietly.

Dean splashed water on his face and sighed. He leaned against the wall opposite the sink and glanced over at her. He just barely noticed that his heart seemed to skip. He wondered if it was she, or what had happened to him months earlier. “I’m all right,” he said softly. He had never really taken notice of the girl that stood before him. But now he did as she climbed out of the shower and turned the water off. She stood in front of him and smiled. Then she grabbed the towel and wrapped it around herself. Dean found his heart racing. Why?

Mara studied him for a moment. He looked different. Mara looked down for a moment. Dean took his shirt off and turned the water in the shower back on. “Sorry,” she said glancing back over at him. “I didn’t know you were-”

“It’s okay,” Dean said quickly. Dean took notice of the fact that the temperature in the room seemed to rise exponentially. He also noticed that both of them were breathing heavily. He removed the rest of his clothes and looked over at her as removed the towel to get dressed. “Mara,” he whispered and she turned to him. Dean stared at her for a moment. He kept remembering his words as a young boy, one of the last things he remembered before the fire. What he said about her.

Dean studied her for a moment, and finally realized how truly beautiful she had become. She was always just a girl to him, just a friend. He was so used to her it never phased him but he supposed the time apart did something to their relationship. He walked up to her slowly as she put on her clothes. They were a bit too big for her but she didn’t mind. Dean stopped just inches from her and looked into her eyes, her beautiful emerald eyes. Then he did something he didn’t expect, he hadn’t planned, he never thought he’d do. Dean leaned forward, placed a hand behind her head and kissed her deeply.

Mara seemed just as shocked as he was but she didn’t fight it. She slowly wrapped her arms around his neck. Dean leaned forward and they fell back against the door, quite loudly. From the room Sam heard them hit the door and he looked up. He heard, what sounded like a soft moan, but it was muffled. He sat down on the bed and couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. It was about time Dean did something with that girl.

Dean kissed her neck and picked her up. He set her down on the counter. As Dean kissed her his hands slid under her shirt and his fingertips grazed her skin along her back. She arched her back slightly, jumping at his touch. “Dean,” she whispered through the kiss. She pushed him away slowly and looked into his eyes. Mara’s heart pounded in her chest and she forced herself to slowly shake her head. “Not now,” she whispered. Dean stepped away from her and nodded. She jumped off the counter and forced a faint smile on her face.

“I’m sorry,’ he whispered.

Mara walked to him and ran her hand along his face, over the cuts. “Don’t be,” she whispered with a smile. Then she turned and walked out of the bathroom. Mara met Sam’s gaze and he had a smile on his face. “Wipe that smile off your face Sam Winchester before I do,” she snapped at him. Sam simply laughed and lay down on the bed. Mara rolled her eyes and curled up on the other bed. She closed her eyes.

She slowly drifted off to sleep and when she woke she was sitting in the back seat of the Imapla. She was still covered in blood and wearing the same clothes she had been wearing in Chicago. Mara looked at Dean as they climbed out of the car. Dean went to shake her but noticed she was awake. She stared at him, confused as to what happened. Had it been a dream? It seemed so real. Mara sighed and climbed out of the car.