Daughter of the Moose (sequel to 'Married to a Moose')

Chapter 24

We weren't having much luck with finding cases, but we kept looking. After a few days, my dad was a lot better. He could walk without help, his headaches and dizziness were completely gone, and he just had a bit of limp. He hit his head pretty hard, but he hurt his leg in the fall as well. It wasn't broken, but it was severely bruised.

"Hey Dad?"

"Yeah?" He said, not looking up from his laptop.

"Tonight, can we have that father-daughter thing like we talked about?

"Yeah, sure." He said, spinning around in his chair to look at me. "We can go out to dinner. We'll have to tell Dean, but yeah."

"I'll go tell him. I could use a researching break anyways." I went to Dean's room where he was doing research as well. I knocked on the already open door.

" 'sup Alex?"

"I wanted to ask you.... Would you be ok with dad and I going out to dinner tonight? We just want a little father-daughter time."

"Yeah sure. Why would I mind?"

"Because you will be stuck here by yourself while we are gone and I don't know how long we will be."

"It's fine. You guys could use some time together to get to know each other better."

"Cool. Thanks. Any luck on a case Dean?"

"Nope. Nothing. You guys?"

"Nope. It's totally silent, which I guess is a good thing."

"Yep." He said, and I sort of awkwardly walked out and returned to my dad. "I told him." I said to my dad.

"He ok with it?"

"Yep. Totally cool with it."

"Cool. Well, let's head out. The restaurants get crowded." We told Dean we were leaving, and left.

We got to a little, yet expensive looking Italian restaurant. We were seated at a table after waiting around for about 20 minutes or so. We both ordered our food, and then began talking.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" He asked

"Ummm, if you're ok with it, first, I'd like to know more about my mom. I know you told me she was a lot like me and how she died, but I want to know about her. What made you fall in love with her? What kind of a hunter was she? That sort of thing."

"I'll tell you about her and I first. We were on a hunt. We were hunting a demon. We found the demon in the park and he had his arm around her throat and ended up stabbing her in the stomach. She was ok, but we took her back to our place and we stitched her up. She at one point loved both me and Dean, but ended up picking me to marry. This caused some problems with Dean, but we got through it. I was in love with her from the beginning. When we first saved her, and we killed the demon, she made a comment along the lines of 'why didn't you just knock him out and call the cops?' I just loved her innocence. I loved that she was so untouched by the world with no fears but for the lives of others. I see her in you a lot. She was so selfless and kind. She always looked out for us on hunts. She and I had a great relationship." I sensed a little inflection at the end of his story.

"Was something wrong between you two? You made a weird inflection at the end."

"No, but just before she died, we had one of our worst fights. We fought quite a bit, but we always made it through it. I never really got to apologize to her."

"It's ok. I'm sure she forgave you."

"I hope so. And in answer to your second question, she was a phenomenal hunter. She had great instincts and was always there to save our butts. I just hate that it's the reason she got killed." A look of sadness came across his face.

"It wasn't your fault dad. I really wish I knew her or at least could see a picture or something. She sounds like an amazing person. Dean said you don't have any pictures though."

"That's cause I told him to tell you that."

"Why?"

"I originally thought that you would be pissed about me not saving her, so I felt it best to not mention her or show her to you. The less you knew, the better, or so I thought. Since you are so interested, I have a picture." He said cautiously. " I keep a picture I took with her from one of our dates at this very restaurant in my wallet."

"You took her here? That's why you wanted to take me here too. It's like going back in time in a sense isn't it?"

"Yeah. This very table as well. When you were talking to Dean, I called and arranged for this table. I just miss her so much. You remind me so much of her that being here with you makes me feel like everything is ok again."

"I'm sorry you've been through so much. Can I see that picture?"

"Of course kiddo." He pulled the photo out of his wallet and slid it across the table to me. She was a spitting image, except clearly older.

"Wow. I finally get to see my mom. I can see how I look like her. We really do look a lot alike."

"Yeah. " He said. I slid the photo back to him. He folded it up just as neatly as it was and put it back in his wallet.

"I didn't mean to make this dinner so depressing and make you think and talk about mom. Tell me anything you want me to know. I feel like we hardly know each other."

"It's fine. I wanted to talk about her. It feels good to talk about her. And I don't know what to say about myself... Ummm I grew up with a dad who was out hunting all the time. He would be gone for days at a time and most of the time, I would never know where he was. Dean had to watch me all the time. Whenever dad would get pissed at me, Dean would take the hit and protect me. That's partly why he's so protective over us. My dad wasn't really a father figure. That role was taken over by my uncle Bobby. Sadly, he too is gone. Obviously, you know how you came about with you know, me and your mom. About Dean, he never had a steady girlfriend so he never got married, and I'm just about the only family he has in his life. I left once. I left him alone to follow my dreams, but I returned and I will never leave my brother again..... Also, question: do you know anything about what actually happens in hell? just curious. So I know how much background to give you."

"Wow, sounds like growing up was tough. Bobby sounds like a great man. A father figure is definitely something everyone needs regardless of who it comes from. And I know quite a bit about hell." I said that last part by accident. It totally slipped out.

"How do you know about hell?" I tried to avoid it. He could tell I was hiding something. "Don't you dare lie to me."

"Dean told me."

"What?!"

"I asked him to. It's not his fault. Some thing was eating him up and I told him to talk to me about it. He did, and hell was part of it." He mumbled something under his breath that I couldn't decipher. We paid for our food and left. The car ride was quiet.

"Dad. Please talk to me. Why are you mad?"

"Because Dean told you some messed up stuff, and also because you didn't tell me."

"I'm fine. I had nightmares for a couple of nights, but I'm fine. And I promised him I wouldn't say anything. Please, don't talk to him."

"I have to. He shouldn't scare you like that. He had no right to tell you about that." We stayed silent until we got back to the bunker. I instantly ran to my room and shut the door.