nilchance | 5 Things Meme: Vol. 1, for bkm5191 (Reply)

1. Werewolves of London, Warren Zevon. It comes on the classic rock stations sometimes. When Sam's riding shotgun, Dean pushes a tape in as soon as he catches the intro, and Sam looks at him funny but seems to figure it's because of the hunt.

The thing is... well, the thing is that Dad used to be different. Before the fire. When that song came on, it brought with it the game of Dad's arms scooping Dean up, Dad mock-growling as Dean laughed hard and tried to squirm away. The two of them used to howl together on the chorus as Mom rolled her eyes and grinned. Used to be Dean's favorite song.

That part of Dad died with Mom. When the song comes on and Dean sings along, he sings it alone, and he knows it.

2. Lying Eyes, The Eagles. It was a job, one of the couple Dean did after Dad left but before he got worried enough to approach Sam. The woman called from Kentucky. She'd been an amateur hunter who aimed a bit too high, tried to see if she could exorcise some of the bad mojo from Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Dean figured that angry spirits came standard in any place that had a friggin' body chute, and anybody dumb enough to try fucking with that many dead people kinda deserved what they got, but he'd gone in to talk her out of it anyway.

They had sex. A lot of it. He'd spent a few days longer than he meant to, wound up in her sheets with rain drumming on the roof of her tin-can trailer. She played some (bad) acoustic guitar, and Lying Eyes was the only one she knew all the way through. She watched Dean as she sang it, her smile saying that it wasn't just coincidence. After he left, she never called for help again. Dean forgot her name, but he remembered that damn song whenever it rained too hard to drive.

3. Yellow Submarine, The Beatles. Mom sang it to Sam when he got fussy. It made Sam laugh and wave his chubby little hands, patting at Mom's face. After the fire, Dean tried singing it, but it only made Dad wince and Sam cry harder, so he stopped.

4. Just Go Ahead Now, Spin Doctors. It has nothing to do with Sam liking it. It's catchy, is all. Gets stuck in your head.

Shut up.

5. All right. So there was this one job after Sam left. Dad had sent Dean out after one damn thing or another, with orders to meet back up in a few hours. Dean had gone out, done the job (couldn't even remember what it was). He hadn't been after the siren, but walking past her on the street had been enough, apparently. Spiteful bitch. By the time he'd noticed her, she was already a block away, and the cheery little whistle was worming its way into Dean's head like a barbed arrow burrowing towards his heart.

By the time he'd gotten to the car, the melody was stuck in Dean's head. It'd been irritating, but a normal irritating. It wasn't until Dean started the car and was winding his way through the fucked up looping knot of Missouri backroads that it started to get louder, a throb like a rotten tooth. That Dean's vision started to flicker, and that he could feel himself pressing too damn hard on the gas. He could hear the tires squeal, like the Impala was in pain, every time he took a curve.

There were no words. And if he heard (your mother was alive when she burned) any words (you'll die alone) then it was only (your father wishes it was you) the pounding of (so listen to me, boy, follow me home and you won't hurt anymore) his own heart.

If he'd stopped to gas up before heading back to the motel, he'd be dead. If he'd driven any slower, if the farmer who heard Dean's screaming hadn't thought to check his cell for any contacts, if Dad hadn't been carrying iron rounds...

Anyway. In the end, the worst Dean had was a burn on his shoulder where Dad pressed the cold iron bullet, jolting Dean out of the reverie with pain and fire, drowning out the song with the rough, urgent chant of old Russian. Dean had gotten up, sweating like he'd run a marathon, no worse for wear. They'd gone on.

Sometimes, though. Sometimes, in the backwoods where trees hang low over the road and his headlights cut through darkness like tar, when he's bruised and alone, he'll catch himself humming her song.