Invisible String

Empty nest

When we arrive back, Bobby's car isn't there and I become slightly concerned. I get out of the car and fling my bag over my shoulder. Sam and Dean get out and look confused too, I guess for once we are all on the same page about Bobby and none of us know where he is. I lead the boys inside subconsciously while still looking for Bobby. 

"That's so weird.. he said he would be back by now.." I pause and turn to them for a second, I'll call him again in a bit, we should get settled, there must be a good reason why he's not back yet. 

They nod and go to set their bags down on the couch. 

"Oh, no, Bobby has a guest room now you can stay in. We get a lot of injured hunters coming back so it's always ready." They seem to perk up at the idea of a proper room. 

"Oh okay, thanks but don't go through any trouble for us." Sam says while Dean picks up their bags. 

"Like I said, it's always set up so it's really no trouble." I start to lead them upstairs to the room. "I'll make some food for us once I've called Bobby and found out what's going on if that's alright."

Dean sets down the bags but seems to be in a bit of a better mood than earlier when we were all being so awkward, maybe it was the mention of food. "Yeah, that sounds amazing, this is better than any service we could get at a motel anyway." 

"Thanks, you guys unpack, I'll call Bobby and get some extra blankets and stuff." I rush out before I can have any further argument from Sam about how I don't need to fuss over them. I head down to the kitchen and use the house phone to call Bobby instead so he knows I'm home. 

It rings a couple times but this time he picks up at least. 

"Hey, you alright kid?" His voice sounds gruff and tired. 

"You were meant to be home by now." I didn't feel like beating around the bush today, he had really worried me and I was annoyed that he was keeping a woman secret from me. 

"Crap.. that was today?" 

"Yep."

"Right, I'll set off first thing tomorrow morning and I'll be back on the evening." 

"Alright, Sam and Dean are here with me just so you know." He exhales, he probably guessed that they had told me about his lady friend and he would be right but I wanted to hear it from him. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, just really wiped from this job and didn't realise the time."

"Uh huh.. well see you tomorrow.." 

"See ya-"

I hang up on him, he had pissed me off and honestly I just wanted to get to bed so I started grabbing the blankets for Sam and Dean, I balance them awkwardly to get myself up the stairs. I couldn't see anything over them when I was heading up the stairs and down the corridor. Suddenly I hear some shuffling on the other side of the blankets.

"Huh?" 

"Oh watch out.." I hear Dean's voice, I could tell he was pretty close. 

"Sorry.. I uh.. can't really see anything."

"No worries, let me help with some of them." He grabs some of the blankets off the top without waiting for a response from me which makes me stumble back slightly. 

When he tries to catch me, I fall back fully and he seemed to forget about all the blankets so he just pushes me back quicker and ends up falling too on top of me. Most of the blankets fall either side of me and the rest fall kind of on my face.

"Oh.. oops.. god are you ok?" I had never heard him all awkward like that but he was on top of me so I could kind of understand.

"Y-yeah.. are you?"

"Yep, all good, let me help you up." 

I blush slightly as he gets up and I feel his hands briefly brush against my hip. He was so easy to recover from things like this and yet I could only assume I was a blushing mess. I shove the blankets to the side and take his hands to help me get up. He puts a little too much force into it and pulls me against his chest which makes me blush even more. 

"Oh." 

He chuckles at my awkward reaction and pulls away to help me pick up the blankets.

"Thank you.. um I suppose I'm not used to sharing my space with other people.."

"It's alright really but you didn't need to grab quite so many blankets."

"Right yeah.. maybe it's a bit much but it does get pretty chilly in that room at night so I figured it would be nice."

"Thanks." He grins and we both take a more reasonable amount of blankets each into the guest room. I set them down on Dean's bed where he told me to and notice Sam unpacking their stuff. He seemed very neat while Dean's stuff was haphazardly thrown on the bed and his side of the room.

I show them both around, I knew they had a rough idea of where the downstairs stuff was from visiting with John but they probably never got a good look around. When we got to my room I let them in, expecting they would want to hang out for a bit but they seemed surprised at me letting them in so maybe they didn't want to. 

"Uhh.. nice room." Sam commented awkwardly. 

I find myself thinking about how they probably never had a real room since their dad started hunting and dragging them up and down the country. Quickly I tear my mind away from that thought process, besides I was sure that Sam must have a room of some kind when he was at Stanford.

"Thanks, umm.. well this is where I'll be if you need me.."

Dean looks between Sam and I with a mischievous look in his eye. He does a clearly fake yawn and backs towards the door. "Well, I'm going to go get ready for bed now." 

Sam shoots him a look I didn't quite understand but he didn't seem too happy with him. I watch them curiously but didn't want to intrude on something they clearly didn't want me to know. Besides I felt my curiosity finally bubbling over. 

"So.. umm.. you taking a break from college?"

He looks slightly taken aback that I was asking about that but he didn't look surprised. I guess people must ask him about it a lot. 

"Oh.. yknow, I don't think Winchesters are meant to have normal lives." His face seemed to kind of darken for a second before he snapped himself out of it. I guess he didn't want to talk too much about it to someone who he hardly knew. "Dad was in trouble so I dropped out to help Dean sort it out."

His vagueness confirmed everything. He was forced out by the usual thing, the hunter thing. It wasn't fair, it would have been easy to blame Dean but I didn't, I blamed john. He shouldn't have these poor boys chasing round after him and cleaning up his messes.

"Oh.. I'm sorry, hopefully you'll be able to go back at some point and finish it off." 

He smiles and shakes his head, pretending it was no big deal but I could tell in his eyes that he was really pissed about it all. "It's no big deal, get to join the family business rather than get student debt." 

"Right..well... I should start getting food ready. I'm sure you guys are hungry." 

Dean sticks head in almost like he heard us talking about food. It made me jump slightly when he suddenly interjected and Sam seemed annoyed at his intrusion. "Sounds great, what you making." 

"Is pizza alright?"

Dean's face lights up and this seemed to make Sam's annoyance disappear and turn into amusement. They both disappear into their rooms to unpack and I head down to the kitchen once I had changed into my pyjamas.