Down the Rabbit Hole

Labour of Love

Soundtrack:
Golden Earring – Radar Love
Dire Straits – Romeo and Juliet
Berlin – Take my breath away

The following morning arrived way too quickly for Lacey's liking and she wearily dragged herself out of bed when her alarm went off at 7. She grabbed some breakfast, noting that she was running low on almost everything in her fridge, and got dressed. She opened a portal and stepped through to Mr McCoy's lab.
"Hey, Mr McCoy." She said, picking up the paperwork she'd left on the bench the previous day.
"Lacey, you're no longer a student, I've told you before, you can call me Hank." Mr McCoy smiled at her. A smile that may have scared some people if they didn't know him.
"Okay then, Hank. I want to run a different test this morning." Lacey told him.
"Fire away, what are we testing?" Hank asked.
"Me. Last night I astral projected, which I can't normally do. I want to see what happens to me if I try and do it again."
"Well there's no safer place to test this out." Hank nodded. "I'll get everything set up, you get up on the table." Lacey climbed onto the leather clad examination table and moments later Hank was attaching a high-tech EKG machine to her temples.
"I don't know how long this will take, I'm not entirely sure how it works." Lacey told him.
"That's fine. I have some other experiments to get on with, the machines will alert me if anything goes south." Hank nodded.
"Okay." Lacey let out a breath and closed her eyes. She lay there for several minutes, trying to fall asleep or whatever she had done the previous night, but nothing seemed to happen.
"Hank, I don't think..." She opened her eyes and was surrounded by blackness. "Okay..." She realised quickly it wasn't blackness, she was standing outside in the wilderness, at night. She heard a crackling noise and turned to see a large wooden pyre, the flames flickering and rising in the breeze. As she got closer she could see two people standing on the other side. A voice drifted over to her.
"Before he... before, did he say anything to you? About anything?" Lacey realised it was Sam.
"No. Nothing." Dean stared into the flames, not looking at Sam. Dean spotted Lacey through the flames and clenched his jaw before striding towards her.
"Dean." She smiled at him, but her smile quickly faded when she saw his expression. He kept walking towards her until she was backed up against a rock formation.
"Why didn't you tell me?" He spat.
"Tell you what?" Lacey frowned at him.
"About my Dad." Dean's voice broke slightly. Realisation dawned as Lacey looked over his shoulder at the flaming pyre.
"Dean I.... I didn't know this was when it happened. I didn't even know how it happened. You don't talk about his death." Lacey told him.
"But you knew it would happen!" Dean shouted; his eyes wild. "You could have warned me."
"I'm not that proficient in time travel but I'm fairly sure I shouldn't be changing things." Lacey said gently.
"You're already changing things just being here!" Dean told her.
"I'm so sorry, Dean. I'll go." Lacey closed her eyes and when she reopened them she was back on the table in the lab.
"Are you ok, Lacey?" Hank was standing beside her. "You're heart rate went up considerably."
"I'm fine. I just needed to take a break." Lacey said.
"Whenever your ready." Hank carried on with what he was doing and Lacey closed her eyes again.

When she opened them again it was broad daylight and she was standing in Bobby's junk yard. The crushed remains of the impala were laid out in a clearing and Dean's legs were sticking out from underneath it.
"How is she?" Lacey asked quietly. Dean cursed as he hit his head, startled by Lacey's voice. He rolled out from under the car, blinking up at her in the light.
"You're back." He noted. "It'll take some time, but she'll be fine." He said, getting to his feet and wiping his hands on a cloth. Lacey couldn't help but notice how well his t-shirt fit. She cleared her throat.
"I'm sorry about last time, I don't really know what I'm doing with this whole time travelling thing yet."
"I'm sorry I yelled at you. I was angry and you were the only thing I could find to blame besides myself."
"Dean, his death wasn't your fault." Dean shook his head.
"Let's not talk about this." Lacey nodded, not wanting to upset him. Sam appeared, walking through the piles of wrecks.
"How's the car coming?"
"Slow."
"Yeah? Need any help?" Sam offered.
"What, you under a hood? I'll pass." Dean glanced at Lacey. "Sam this is Lacey, Lacey, Sam, although she already knows who you are." Dean grimaced slightly. Sam blinked at Dean looking confused.
"Dean, what are you talking about?"
"I know, I know, its weird." Dean shrugged.
"No... I mean... who are you talking about? There's no one here except me and you." Dean frowned.
"Yes there is, she's standing right there."
"Are you feeling ok?" Sam asked as Lacey walked over to him and waved a hand in front of his face.
"He can't see me." She looked confused.
"I'm fine, she says you can't see her."
"Well that doesn't make me feel any better. Dean, there's no one there."
"You got any dirt on Sam? You know like the Rhonda thing you pulled on me?" Dean asked, resting his elbows on the tool chest.
"What do I look like? An encyclopaedia of all your hook ups?" Lacey rolled her eyes. "Tell him Susie something from Biology class."
"She says Susie from Biology class." Dean turned to Sam.
"Dean, you were there, you just pulled that out of your memory." Sam rolled his eyes. Lacey squinted at Sam, racking her brains.
"Tell him Flagstaff, the dog, Bones." She told Dean.
"She says to tell you Bones the dog, Flagstaff." Dean repeated. Sam's expression dropped and he went white.
"How did you..."
"Told you." Dean shrugged.
"Either you're psychic or there really is someone there." Sam looked around, warily. He shook his head. "I take it from the way you're talking, she's not a threat?"
"Not as far as I can tell." Dean looked Lacey up and down. She stuck her tongue out at him and he chuckled. "No. No immediate threat here."
"Ok. Need anything else then?"
"Stop it, Sam."
"Stop what?" Sam frowned.
"Stop asking if I need anything, stop asking if I'm okay. I'm okay. Really. I promise." Sam sighed.
"All right, Dean, it's just... we've been at Bobby's for over a week now and you haven't brought up Dad once."
"You know what? You're right. Come here. I'm gonna lay my head gently on your shoulder. Maybe we can cry, hug, and maybe even slow dance." Dean replied sarcastically. Lacey smirked a little.
"Don't patronise me, Dean. Dad is dead. The colt is gone, and it seems pretty damn likely that the demon is behind all of this, and you're acting like nothing happened." Lacey's smile faded.
"What do you want me to say?"
"Say something, all right? Hell, say anything! Aren't you angry? Don't you want revenge? But all you do is sit out here all day long buried underneath this damn car."
"Revenge, huh?" Dean looked down at the floor, his expression Stoney.
"Yeah."