𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐄𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆

『2.1』

      Riley looks intently out the window of the backseat of the impala. Sam is sleeping. A rare occurrence throughout this past week, so Dean said no music. Which is fine. Riley knows other ways of keeping herself entertained. As a car goes by she sees it's red color and reaches over the front seat and punches Dean's shoulder before he can manage to do it to her.

      "Jesus, you have punch hard." Dean mutters as he rubs his arm. They are playing a game similar to slug-bug. It's just the same, but applies to any car with red on it. Riley is in the lead with 10, and Dean with only 5. He's letting her win. She's bored. And bored Riley isn't a fun person to be around.

      "You taught me to punch. What do you expect?" Riley whispers back. She's becoming bored again. And she's hungry. Bored and hangry Riley is a monster.

      Suddenly Sam jerks awake. Riley and Dean look at him with concern in their eyes. Sam blinks his eyes, getting whatever he saw out of his mind. Nightmares. He can't sleep without having them lately. "You okay?" Dean asks as he glances at Sam. Sam nods. "Yeah, I'm fine."

      Riley lets out a breath. Bullshit.

      "Another nightmare?" Dean asks, already knowing the answer. Sam clears his throat. Riley sits back and pulls her sketchbook out. She knows just what to draw.

      "What to drive for a while?" Riley and Sam look at Dean in shock. Sam laughs and Riley continues to stare in disbelief. "In your whole life, you never once asked me that." Sam glances back at Riley and she hides the start of her sketch. "You even taught Riley how to drive with one of the cars in Bobby's yard." Riley hums and nods. "And it stunk like piss."

      "Just thought you might want to. Never mind." Riley smiles as she goes back to her drawing. Dean isn't good with emotions, and neither is she, but they both try and help in any way they can. Dean offers Sam to drive and Riley- Well, she's still working on it.

      "Look, man, you're worried about me." Sam looks at Dean. "I get it, and thank you, but I'm perfectly okay."

      "Mm-hmm." Dean mumbles.

      "Bullshit." Riley says in a sing-song voice. Sam glances back at her and gives her a glare, once again trying to get a glimpse at her art. Riley hides from his view again.

      Sam sighs and grabs the map in front of him. "All right." He clears his throat. "Where are we?" Riley holds her sketch away from her face and narrows her eyes. She's better with art when she has a reference, so this is a bit hard. But it has to be perfect.

      "We are just outside of Grand Junction." Sam sighs as he looks at the map. "You know what, maybe we shouldn't have left Stanford so soon." Dean meets Riley's eyes in the rear view mirror. "Sam, we dig around there for a week. We came up with nothing." Dean glances at Sam and also tries to sneak a peek at Riley's drawing.

      She literally growls at him and he looks away. She doesn't like people looking at her art until it's done, and even then she doesn't like people looking at her art.

      "If you want to find the thing that killed Jessica..." Sam sighs and nods. "Got to find dad first." A burning feeling hits Riley's chest. She's been talking to John since he gave her the number to contact him with. Somehow he wasn't surprised when Riley told him about Jess. It made her wonder what he'd found.

      "Dad's disappearing, and this thing showing up after 20 years? It's no coincidence." Riley swallows hard. She knows it's not. John confirmed it, but Riley can't tell them that. He's trusting her not to tell them and Riley is going to retain that trust.