Cherry Pie

Ten Minutes

[Sam]

Rayne had slept through half of the trip, woke up midway to complain about the pain, obtained a few more pills from Dean, prattled incoherently about Pixar films for a bit longer, and then slept for the rest of the trip — all while swathed in her stolen duvet.

"Dude, if I told you a few months ago that right now we'd be driving to Bobby's with a drugged up girl in the backseat so that you could nurse her back to health..." I trailed off — thinking it was the craziest turn of events.

"I wouldn't have believed you," Dean answered, one hand on the wheel and the other draped over the back of the seat. "And I'm not 'nursing' anyone."

"Dean, if it was me, you would've told me to rub some dirt in it and go help you kill the poltergeist."

"You've been stabbed before." My brother rolled his head to look at me, blinked once with a pronounced lack of urgency, and rolled his head back to face the road. "She hasn't."

I scoffed at him. "Yeah, I'm sure that's the only reason." 

"Yeah. It is. I don't want her getting hurt further and preventing us from going on future hunts. Besides, if you recall-" He paused to glance up in the rearview mirror. "She asleep?"

I looked back at Rayne; she had the duvet wrapped around her head, her legs were pulled up to her chest, and her mouth was slightly hanging open. "Looks like."

He must've not been convinced however because he reached one hand over the seat to tickle Rayne's exposed feet. She didn't stir or laugh so he turned back to face the road, seemingly satisfied. "If you recall," he repeated in a hushed voice, "Castiel ordered me to keep her safe."

"Right, and since when do you listen to what people tell you to do?"

"Since they're fricken angels and not people!"

I quieted in admittance that he had a point. However, I wasn't totally sold on his explanation. I had a suspicion that ulterior motives were at play...or perhaps ulterior feelings. I couldn't deny it; Rayne was good for Dean. She grounded him, kept him in check, made him reevaluate some of his poorer life choices. I never would've thought that one day a girl would come along that Dean would have to keep up with, rather than the other way around.

It came as somewhat of a shock when I saw him comfort her at Missouri's place. The only person I ever saw him let his macho guard down with was with me...and even then it was only for a few minutes at a time, and only when I was on the brink of death. It was strange to see that softer side of him. And he didn't seem to mind it too much, either.

Watching him take care of Rayne was also rather interesting. First, when she got drunk, and then after the stabbing. I remembered thinking that I must have still been dreaming when I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night after Rayne's drinking only to find her curled up in Dean's lap, his hand stroking her hair — an almost peaceful expression on his face. And all of the previous day he kept checking Rayne's forehead for a fever when he thought I wasn't looking.

I'd always suspected that he enjoyed taking care of people more than he let on. He didn't like to show it around me, but Rayne somehow brought his guard down and slowly started to etch away at the hardness that he'd built up around himself over the years. I felt an odd sense of pride at watching Dean begin to reveal to Rayne all of the things he'd been carrying around inside of him all those years. And I was grateful for her for presenting him with the opportunity to do so.

[Rayne]

Someone's hand was shaking me awake from my cozy sleep, so naturally I growled and snapped my teeth at it. I really hadn't meant to, but I could still feel the painkillers eating away at my inhibitions, so my actions were a bit questionable.