iris, supernatural [ 2 ]

009. lunch ladies

It's been a few days since they've been back at the bunker. Larissa is sleeping in a spare room, the mattress extremely uncomfortable for some reason. She isn't sure if it's actually the mattress, her missing Sam, her guilt, or her nightmares that prevent her from sleeping much.

Larissa gets up and goes to Athena's room, having the plan to give her breakfast. But when she goes in, she finds the room empty.

"Thena?" Larissa calls. She looks around before quickly going to Sam's room, also finding it empty. Larissa walks through the halls until she gets to the kitchen. She stops in the doorway when she sees Sam cleaning up Athena's high chair. Athena is sitting in the high chair and drinking some milk.

"Hey." Larissa softly greets.

"Hey." Sam barely spares a glance.

"Um... wha-- what are you doing?" Larissa asks, walking over. She softly runs her hand over Athena's head, the baby smiling around her sippy cup. Larissa softly smiles at her.

"I got her breakfast." Sam says.

"I told you I was okay with-- with doing that last night. That I planned to do it." Larissa says.

"Yeah, well, I was up." Sam shrugs. He doesn't at all look at her when he talks. Larissa watches him clean the mess up, her gaze drifting to his left ring finger.

"You're not wearing your ring."

"Yeah. Yeah, well, you know, it's... it's a hassle. Gets in the way." Sam says. "C'mon, baby girl. Let's get you cleaned up and changed." He picks Athena up.

"I can--" Larissa starts to offer.

"I got it." Sam dismisses her and he walks out.

Larissa looks down at her wedding ring, twisting it back and forth.

+++

"Hey." Sam walks into the kitchen where Dean is. 

"Hey." Dean greets.

"You go to bed last night?" Sam asks, noticing Dean's tired look.

"What? Uh, no. No, "Rudy" was on. "Unforgiven," and then I was too jacked to sleep, so... research." Dean says.

"Gadreel?" Sam asks, getting more coffee.

"And Metatron and the Mark of Cain and..." Dean realizes Sam isn't paying attention. "Crickets. I did find us a case, though."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah, was a strange death in Stillwater, Minnesota. A competitive eater died after a hot dog eating contest."

"So, what? Death by tube steak?"

"If only. He got attacked in his car, but, uh, get this -- he shrunk from 300 pounds to 90 pounds."

"Witchcraft?"

"Or a heavy duty laxative. You game?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Looks like it's a whore's bath for me. I'll be ready in five."

"We can drop Athena off at Jody's on the way. She agreed to babysit whenever we need." Sam says.

"Or Larissa could stay back with her. Or at the motel or whatever." Dean says.

"No. No, Jody's good." Sam says.

"Okay, I-I get that you hate her right now, but you don't have to keep her away from her kid." Dean says.

"She's my kid, too." Sam says.

"All right. Did Larissa bring Athena on our mission to find Gadreel? Yes. Was it the smartest thing to do? No. Does Larissa hate herself for it? Yes. And it's not like she took her into the house where Gadreel was. The baby wasn't around Gadreel until we had him -- slash you -- chained up to that chair... where you couldn't hurt Athena or anybody else... aside from you, I guess. And Athena's safe, so... no real harm done. It's not like she saw or heard anything."