Simple Man

Sasha had cancelled plans with Amanda to go to the coffee shop so her and Sam could hang out more, which was fine with Amanda. Dean had gone back to the hotel to freshen up a bit and told her he would come back immediately after. The whole time Dean was gone, Amanda hurried around cleaning as much as she could. She also started some laundry and left the door unlocked in case she didn’t hear him knock. She was in a wonderful mood; smiling, singing and dancing through her small one-bedroom apartment. As she started to do the dishes, she looked at the clock and saw it wasn’t quite time to start dinner yet, so she kept on with the dishes as “LoveStoned” by Justin Timberlake blared through her stereo.

As Dean walked up the stairs, he could hear a familiar song playing loudly, but couldn’t put his finger on it and quickly realized it was coming from her apartment. He smiled to himself and slowly opened the door, careful for her not to hear. He didn’t see her at first, but as he took his coat off and hung it up he could hear her voice coming from the kitchen. His breath caught in his throat; she was still in his t-shirt and just panties. He stared as she swayed her hips while washing the dishes. He really wanted to cut in and stop her right there, but he was enjoying it way too much. It didn’t last long, though as she dried her last dish and turned around so she could put it away in the cabinet. She froze in place and gave Dean a deer-in-the-headlights look, then quickly put the dish away and walked to the stereo, turning the volume down. Dean chuckled lightly with a huge grin on his face. “I see you don’t need me to have fun.”

She shook her head and rolled her eyes, “How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough,” Dean smiled as he walked closer to her. “You are so sexy.”

Amanda took a deep breath, “Well. I still need to shower, so,” She started to walk away from Dean and he thought that meant he was invited. “Make yourself at home. Give me like twenty minutes.” Amanda knew he was pouting but couldn’t stand to look at that face because she would give in. So she kept walking, but made sure to take his shirt off with her back turned toward him. She smirked to herself as she could hear him breathe heavily.

“Now that’s not fair at all.”

Twenty minutes later, Amanda emerged back into the living room with wet hair, sweatpants and a t-shirt on. She sat down next to Dean on the couch and smiled at him. “So what do you wanna do? It’s way too early for dinner and I already at a little bit for lunch.”

Dean glanced over at her and smiled, “We could watch a movie.” Amanda nodded and told him to pick a movie out. They discussed the different genres, eventually settling on a horror movie. “How about House of Wax?”

“Sure,” Amanda smiled. “Do you want anything to drink?”

“No, I’m okay,” He smiled as they started the movie. He didn’t hesitate at all as he put his left arm around her. Amanda got comfortable as she curled up next to him. “You’re freezing.” Amanda shrugged her shoulders, telling him she didn’t mind but he insisted, standing and walking over to the fireplace, grabbing the largest blanket he could find. When he returned, Amanda blushed as he covered her with it.

“Thank you,” She smiled and cuddled back up next to him.

As the movie progressed, Amanda could feel her eyes starting to get heavy. Dean was so comfortable and it wasn’t helping that he was brushing his fingers lightly up and down the center of her back. It was so relaxing that she couldn’t help but fall asleep on him. Dean finally looked down and smiled lightly at the sight of her, then turned the television off, careful not to wake her. He wasn’t going to complain; he was kind of tired as well and wouldn’t mind taking a small nap, so he stood up carefully from the couch and picked Amanda up from the couch. He heard her chuckle and smiled.

“What are you doing?” She said ever so cutely.

“Come on, let’s take a nap,” He smiled as he laid her down on the bed. “You couldn’t even make it ten minutes into the movie, Amanda.”

“But I want to spend time with you,” She almost whispered, pulling him closer as he crawled into bed with her.

“And this isn’t spending time together?” Dean laughed and placed a kiss on her cheek. They both looked into each other’s eyes and smiled, baffled that this was truly happening. On one hand, Amanda had never had a man treat her so wonderfully in her twenty-two years of living. Not even her father. He was a good man, but never showed the fatherly affection she always dreamed of. Her brother was never really there, of course; and all the men Amanda had gone on dates with were just plain boring or inconsiderate. On the other hand, Dean was falling for this girl only two days in. It was dangerous, sure, and it would probably never work out with his lifestyle and what he did for a living. But it was nice to feel good for once; to not have to worry about the next case or where he was going to sleep the next night. He felt almost normal for the time being.

“I’ve thought about what you said, Dean,” Amanda said quietly, looking up at him. He gave her a confused look and she took a deep breath. “Sure, I would love to be a nurse. Good job security, good pay. Something to come home and be proud about. But at the end of the day, when I come home and relax after a hard day at school, I sit on the couch and pick up my guitar and I feel…happy. Truly happy when I’m playing music.” Dean smiled, knowing he was getting through to her. “So I’m going to graduate college in May and move to Nashville to start my music career.”

Dean’s eyes widened and he sat up, looking down at her with confusion in his eyes. “What?” She nodded her head and smiled, sitting up with him. “What are your parents going to think about that, Amanda? Not that I’m not happy for you. But I know what it’s like to disappoint your parents,” He laughed.

“I…” She stood up from the bed and brought her hands to her head. “I don’t give a shit! I could care less what they’ll think of me, Dean. I’m so sick of doing what everyone else wants me to do; I never do anything for myself. Well, besides, you. You are the first thing I’ve truly said fuck it and gone for, if that makes sense. I know my parents want what’s best for me, and maybe they’re right. Maybe a good job with good pay is the safest route to go, but I wanna take risks. I’m done being safe.” She took a deep breath, “And if I fail, then at least I have a nursing degree. I can come back here and get a job and be set. But I won’t know if I don’t try. I know that much.”

Dean stood up and slowly made his way toward her with a smile, “I know we just met. But don’t tell your parents I’m the one that convinced you to do this,” He laughed. “I need to stay on their good side, don’t I?”

She smiled, “You have nothing to worry about, Dean. Now how about I make us some dinner?”

“That sounds wonderful,” Dean winked and put his hand on his belly.

Suddenly, his phone rang and Dean pulled it out, noticing it was Sam. Reluctantly, he answered the call and brought his phone to his ear, sighing. “Dean,” Sam said quickly as he paced around the motel room. “We have a problem.”

Dean leaned his head back in frustration, “Dammit, Sam. What? I’m having a normal life right now.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. But it’s getting cut short,” Sam put his hand to his forehead with tears in his eyes. “Now I don’t know if you want to tell Amanda or not, but Sasha’s gone, Dean.”

“What do you mean, she’s gone, Sam?” Dean said rather loudly, catching Amanda’s attention as she put some water on the stove to boil. He cursed himself quietly and gave her a worried look. “What happened?”

“Well, we were on our way to get some pizza, walking down the street and this man walked out right in front of us and took her, then disappeared; into thin air.”

“You mean?”

“Yes, Dean. A demon took her. I didn’t have time to even react. I can’t believe I let this happen,” Sam sighed as he sat down on the bed. “This is why we can’t have normal lives.” Sam and Dean conversed as Amanda sat down at the kitchen table, giving Dean a worried look. He couldn’t bring himself to look at her. “Listen, I’ll head to where you are. Where is that exactly?” Dean gave him an address and hung up the phone, trying to think of the words to say to Amanda.

“Amanda,” He breathed, looking into her eyes. “I want to tell you what’s going on, but you’re going to think I’m crazy and I don’t want that. So I’m going to give you the choice; you can let me tell you the honest truth, or I can give you the much simpler, more believable version.”

Amanda gave him a confused look and shook her head lightly, then took his hands. “Tell me the truth, Dean.”

He took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts together, “Sam is on his way here. It’s time we told you the truth about ourselves. Whether you want to believe us or not is your choice, but we don’t have a choice but to tell you. Now listen to me very carefully.” Amanda’s eyes widened as Dean told her, “Sasha’s gone. Someone took her while she and Sam were going to get dinner. We are going to find her, Amanda, but I don’t want you to freak out.”

Amanda was oddly calm about it, “What does that have to do with you and your brother?”

Dean sighed, lowering his head, “We should wait until Sam gets here. Until then, you need to eat something, and so do I.”

She stood up and shook her head, “I don’t understand how I could eat at a time like this, Dean. This doesn’t make sense. Why would someone just take Sasha when Sam is right by her side?”

“It will all make sense when Sam gets here, I promise.” Amanda’s eyes filled with tears as she took Dean’s advice and made them both a quick bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios. She sat back down at the kitchen table and slowly ate, not saying a word to Dean. He had obviously been keeping something from her, she just couldn’t figure out what it was. A few minutes later, she stood up and grabbed both their bowls, setting them in the sink. Dean watched her sadly, knowing this was the end of his vacation. He tried to think of all the ways this could work out between them, but all of them were unrealistic. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door and Amanda waved at Dean, motioning for him to answer it for her. She knew it was Sam, and she wasn’t quite ready for what their big story was. She braced herself with a beer and tossed one to Sam and one to Dean as they all sat down at the kitchen table. “Amanda, when we tell you this…please don’t call the police. It will sound crazy, but I promise we aren’t lying to you. And you are going to ask us to prove it to you, and that’s something we don’t want to have to do.”

“Enough of this,” Sam sighed and set his beer down. “Amanda, I’m going to come right out and say it. We hunt,” Amanda looked between the two of them and rolled her eyes, “Monsters. We hunt monsters, Amanda. Demons, vampires, werewolves, and many other things. You name it, we hunt it. We grew up like this; our father did it before us and taught us everything we know. There’s more to it than that, I just figured that was the simplest way to put it.” Sam paused, trying to read Amanda as she rested her head on her chin. He didn’t really know what to expect from her, but got a little scared as she stood up from the table and walked to her bedroom, shuffling around through her purse. Dean started to get up to follow her, but Sam stopped him. “Just give her a minute, Dean.”

Amanda returned and put her coat on, not making eye contact with either of them. She needed a minute to process, but she figured Dean was going to try and follow her as he stood up. “Just…” She held a hand out to him. “Leave me alone for a minute, alright?” Dean gave her a sad look and slowly sat back down as he watched her walk out on to her balcony, pulling her coat closer to her and almost slamming the door shut.

“Well that went well,” Dean sighed, rubbing his head with his hands. “I wonder if she believes us.”

After about fifteen minutes, Dean decided to finally go outside and talk to Amanda. He put his coat on and slowly opened the sliding door, causing Amanda to turn her head towards him as she leaned her forearms on the balcony. She didn’t say anything, so he assumed she didn’t mind as he leaned against it next to her. They stood in silence for a minute, both trying to think of what to say to each other. Finally, Amanda couldn’t stand it any longer and pulled the pack of cigarettes out of her coat pocket and lit one up, confusing Dean. He didn’t say anything, though, and just watched as she inhaled deeply, letting a single tear roll down her cheek. He couldn’t stand it, seeing her like this. All he had known so far was happy; he hadn’t seen this side of her, yet, and he wished he never would have.

“I don’t do it all the time. Just when I’m stressed,” She pulled the pack back out and held it out in front of her. “This one is about four months old.”

“You’re saying this like I care about the fact that you smoke,” He laughed lightly. “I don’t care, Amanda. It’s your life.” He moved a little closer toward her. “Are you okay?”

She shook her head, “No. But you all said you’re going to find Sasha; and that’s enough to get me by.” Dean nodded again, pulling her in for a hug. He could hear her lightly crying and could feel her body shaking with her breaths. “I understand why you didn’t tell me.”

“I know,” Dean said. “And I am going to find Sasha, okay? You can help if you want, but I understand if you don’t want to. And I’m really surprised that you’ve been so calm about this.”

“Can I be honest?” Amanda asked, flicking her cigarette off the balcony and turning towards him. “A few years ago, maybe about two or three, I was sitting at home studying when all of the sudden it got extremely cold in my apartment. I could see my breath,” Dean knew where this was heading. “I went and checked the thermostat, but it wasn’t broken. I turned around and there he was, standing right there in front of me,” She let a few more tears fall. “My brother, Alex, was standing right in front of me, Dean. And I thought I was crazy so I closed my eyes, hoping it was all a dream, but I opened them back up and he was still there,” She was sobbing at this point. “He didn’t say anything. He was pale and his lips were blue, black circles under his eyes. He looked like he was trying to tell me something with his eyes. He was crying, but he couldn’t talk. He was so helpless, Dean. And I couldn’t do anything about it.” She took a few breaths, trying to calm down. “Then he was gone. Just like that. And I still thought I was going to wake up,” She looked over at him, tears still falling. “But I never did. So when Sam told me all of that, I believed every word he was saying. Because I’ve experienced it and it felt so nice to know that maybe I wasn’t crazy.” She had stopped crying and had a small smile at this point. “Damn, I’m sorry.” She wiped her eyes and looked up at Dean.

“No,” He pulled her in for another hug, “I’m so glad you told me.”

“So what do you need me to do?”