Country Roads, Take me Home: Chapter 4
Characters: Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, Reader, Beth (OC)
Word Count: 2,605
Warnings: Dean being bad at giving advice, Sam being hardheaded, the reader being oblivious, and Beth pointing out the obvious. Some language.
A/N: This is chapter four of Country Roads, so if you’d like to catch up, chapter 1 is here, chapter 2 is here, and chapter 3 is here! This was written for @ravengirl94′s 1.5 K follower challenge. So a disclaimer: I know a lot about TALA, but there’s a lot that I can’t find so I’m trying to be as accurate as possible. (FYI, the ballroom conversation is accurate as far as what it was used for...so just keep that in mind. lol)
This was beta’d by my lovelies @pinknerdpanda: “mmmmhmmmmm to all of this. It is hard not to notice a man like Sam Winchester.” And @trexrambling: “This implies that things can be taken out of pants at a later point in time...” Thank you so much for all your help and your hilarious commentary. <3
I have added a secondary aesthetic since we have finally arrived at the asylum. All photos were taken by me, and I also made the aesthetic. I hope you enjoy! As always, tags are at the bottom and if you’d like to be added, please let me know. :)
I slowly woke up to the impressive facade of Trans-Allegheny as Dean drove cautiously down the long driveway to the mostly empty parking lot. As odd as it seemed, I felt more at home here than I did at my actual home. I’d always loved Trans-Allegheny. The architecture was beautiful; large, open common spaces, extravagant windows on the entrance so that the light could come through, throwing rainbows across the main hall, and spacious wings that stretched for acres. Although it eventually was horribly overcrowded, the original idea had been that the patients needed that space and light to help heal, instead of just shutting them away. I’d always kind of felt bad for the building, as weird as it sounded. The building itself didn’t deserve the stigma; it was the people that ran it and the practices they kept.
Dean eased to a stop next to the front door and I slipped out of the back seat, my eyes drifting from the immediately recognizable clock tower over to what used to be the tuberculosis ward. It still amazed me how much land this place took up. I felt the first drops of rain and looked up to the grey clouds swirling ominously over the building.
“Seriously? This is just stereotypical, isn’t it?” Dean complained as he wiped a raindrop from his forehead with the back of his hand.
“What?”
Dean gestured vaguely at the sky, “Dark rain clouds above an already depressing looking building? It screams horror movie material with the most obvious foreshadowing ever.”
I shut my door as Sam walked around to the trunk and began loading up one of the duffels. I couldn’t help but watch the way his flannel stretched tightly across his broad shoulders, and how his arms flexed as he stretched to reach his shotgun. Dean cleared his throat, and I looked at him questioningly. He raised his eyebrows, jerked his chin in Sam’s direction, then threw his hands out and shrugged. I shook my head, embarrassed that I had been caught ogling Sam. Before Dean could make it anymore awkward, I heard the front door open and someone shouting at me.
“Y/N!”
I quickly escaped the potentially embarrassing situation and turned towards the steps leading towards the front door. “Hey, Beth!” I jogged over, and she wrapped me into a rib crushing hug.
“I've missed you!” She paused for a moment, then continued in a whisper, “Are those the guys you've been telling me about?”
I pulled back and nodded, “Yep. The taller one is Sam, the one with the short hair is Dean.”
Beth looked them both up and down, then nudged me in ribs, “Sam, huh? I can see why you enjoy that one, he's a tall drink of water, isn't he?”
I could feel the blush creeping across my cheeks, “Beth, come on-”
“Have you told him? Please tell me you told him-”
“Told who what?” Sam’s deep voice interrupted our hushed conversation, and Beth looked slowly from me to Sam, her smile widening as she held out her hand enthusiastically.
“Told you about the ghosts, of course! Hiya, you must be Sam. I'm Beth!”
Sam cautiously shook her hand and smiled, although his eyes moved over to me as if trying to decide if that's what we were actually talking about. I shrugged, and Sam appeared to let it go.
Dean sauntered over and Beth’s attention shifted to him, “And you must be Dean. It's a pleasure to meet you, I've heard a lot.”
Dean grinned, “Hopefully good things.”
Beth smiled back and winked, “Oh, most of it was good. Got anything else to share with me?”
Dean raised his eyebrows and thought for a moment, “I can think of a few things-”
“Alright, let's keep it in our pants until this is done, huh? Come on, Beth, I wanted to get set up in the office.” I grabbed her arm and drug her up the steps, ignoring the look that passed between Sam and Dean.
As soon as we got inside, my jaw dropped. The first time I had ever been in the building, they were still trying to repair the roof, some of the wings weren’t even accessible to the public because of the asbestos, and the buildings out back were too dangerous to walk through. The owner had clearly put a lot of work into it since then; the walls were painted and the bottom floor was set up much like it would have been when it was open. “Wow,” I whispered as my eyes took in all the changes.
Beth grinned, “Right? They’re working on the third floor right now. I knew you’d love it. We’ve even got the medical building and the morgue open now. Still can’t go through the TB ward, but that’s just because of all the haunted house props. They’ve really done a great job.”
“What’s wrong with you?” Dean asked as he and Sam caught up, taking in my slack jawed appearance.
“Nothing, it just looks a lot different than the last time I was here.” I walked into the office and dropped my bag. “So, the third floor, huh? That could explain it.”
Sam leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms, “Why does that explain it?”
I sat down behind the desk and logged into the computer, “Because the third floor is where the two patients murdered their roommate with the bed. It’s also where some of the most violent patients were kept, not to mention the shadow figures by the Nurses’ Station.” I looked up suddenly, and Beth raised an eyebrow. “Beth...is the ballroom on the list?”
She nodded, “Yep, they’re wanting to reopen it to the public again.”
I sighed, then clicked through the several video feeds that were pulled up in front of me, stopping on the ballroom. “There ya go. They’re remodeling, of course it’s disturbing all of them. To my knowledge no one died in there, but that whole floor...it could be almost anyone.”
Dean waved his hand, “Wait, wait, wait....reopen it to the public? There’s a ballroom on the third floor that was open to the public? Are you freaking kidding me?”
“Nope. They held school dances, plays, movies… At one point, it even housed the chapel. It was the biggest place to have town gatherings, so they used what they had,” I said with a shrug.
Dean looked at me as if shocked, “That’s crazy! They brought townspeople onto the floor with the most violent patients, like nothing bad could come of that?”
Beth shook her head, “Nothing ever happened, at least that we know of. It’s not a big town, Dean, and it was a long time ago. It’s not like they had a fancy community center, we don’t even have that now.”
“Okay, so getting back to the point, how are we supposed to figure out who’s responsible for this? Are any of these people actually buried on the property? Were they even buried? Do you even have any burial records?” Sam asked as he walked around to look at the computer screen while I flipped through different files.
“We have some records, but not all of it is online. We found some filing cabinets in the doctor's quarters, and I think we have some in the back here.” Beth smiled at Dean, “We could always split up, two of us look here, two of us look in the doctor’s quarters.”
Sam nodded, “Sounds good. Beth, why don’t we take the quarters, and Dean can help Y/N here?”
Beth looked at me sharply and raised her eyebrows, to which I replied with a shrug. “Sure. That’s fine.” I glanced at Dean, who had opened his mouth to argue, but then shut it when he saw the look on my face. I looked back at the computer and tried to pretend that Sam dismissing me didn’t hurt.
“Great. Beth, lead the way?” He motioned for her to go and Beth walked out ahead of him, giving me one last look over her shoulder. Dean let the two of them disappear around the corner before he turned back to me.
“What the hell was that about?”
I shrugged, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Dean put his hands on the edge of the desk and leaned over the computer, “Sam never gives up researching with you, not willingly. You guys have been weird all day, so I’ll ask again: what the hell was that?”
I shifted in my chair, unsure of how to answer him. We had been weird all day, ever since Bear Town, but I had no idea what had caused it. “I honestly don’t know, Dean. We were fine earlier today, we’ve been fine this whole trip, but then all of a sudden he didn’t want to talk to me.”
Dean walked around the desk and sat on the corner of it, his arms crossed across his chest, “All of a sudden? You can’t think of a single thing that may have happened today that would have made him act like that?”
I thought back to what we’d done that day, up until the moment we had been alone in the woods. “We talked a little while we waited on you to catch up, and how I was glad you guys were finally getting to see some of my favorite places.”
Dean raised an eyebrow, “That’s it? Other than making fun of me, which, screw you by the way, you didn’t talk about anything else?”
“No, I just mentioned how you guys were my new family and then...oh…” I looked up at Dean with wide eyes, “He might have been holding my hand at the time...and I may have said how both of you were my life. The hand holding didn’t last long after that.”
Dean dropped his head as he ran a hand across his eyes, “You’re clueless, you know that? Both of you are idiots. Okay, well, we don’t have time to worry about this right now, and I don’t have the coping skills to deal with it, so let’s just get this done, get home, and you two can sort your shit out later.” Dean moved towards the back of the office and opened the closet door, “I think I found those files. What do you want, computer or paper?”
“Computer, it’lI go faster. I don’t think there’s a lot on here, and I can come over and help you once I’m done with this.”
“Great.” Dean grabbed a chair and dragged it over to the closet, then yanked open the top drawer. “You owe me, Y/N. This isn’t exactly what I imagined when we decided to go on a road trip.”
I sighed, “Me neither.”
Sam strode quickly down the hall and towards the main staircase, and Beth ran to catch up.
“Hey, slow down there, Sasquatch. Your legs are as long as my entire body, and this girl isn’t as in shape as she used to be.”
Sam stopped at the foot of the stairs and turned to face Beth, “Oh...sorry.”
Beth shook her head and continued up the stairs past Sam, “So, what’s your deal, huh?”
“What do you mean?”
She laughed as she hit the second floor landing and slid her hand up the worn banister, “So you normally just blow off Y/N like that?”
Sam cleared his throat, “I didn’t blow her off. We needed to split up to speed things up, so...that’s what we did.”
Beth rolled her eyes even though she knew Sam couldn’t see her, “No, see that’s where I think you’re full of shit. No offense, string bean, but I think we both know that there’s something else goin’ on.” They hit the fourth floor landing and she motioned for him to follow her. “Y/N didn’t say anything, of course she won’t because that’s how she is, but if you’re upset with her about something you should mention it to her.”
“I’m not upset about anything-” Beth had stopped in front of a closed door, but turned and put a hand on Sam’s chest.
“Listen, I may have been born at night, but it wasn’t last night. I can see how you look at her. So do us both a favor, and quit lyin’ to yourself and start thinking about what’s got you so upset.” She pulled a key ring out of her pocket and flipped through the keys, “So, what is it? What’s got you torn up?”
“Nothing. We had a conversation earlier today that didn’t go the way I thought it would. Wasn’t a big deal.”
“Right. Not a big deal, got it.” She slipped the key into the lock and the door creaked open. “So there aren’t any working lights up here, so we’re going to have to use the light from the windows.” She pulled the filing cabinet closer to the window and pulled open the top drawer. “I don’t know the guys’ names that we’re looking for, but look for patient’s records from the third floor, murder, you know the drill.” She began flipping through the folder and Sam knelt down and pulled open the bottom drawer to begin his search.
“You know, it’s funny...I’ve known Y/N my whole life, and I’ve never heard her talk about anyone the way she talks about you two.” Beth paused and Sam hummed in response. “She talks about one of you specifically, but she never says a name. See, she’s pretty private, so even someone she’s known her entire life has to pull that out of her. I get the impression he’s pretty special though.”
Sam paused as he flipped through a manila folder, “Huh.”
Beth pulled out a folder and sat on the edge of the nearby desk, “Whoever it is though...they should be proud of themselves. Even before the whole thing happened with her mom and Alex...she was pretty closed off. She never needed anyone. I think it had something to do with her dad dying. Alex took over a lot but Y/N really kept them all together. She just never...she was really independent, you know?”
Sam nodded and tossed the folder to the floor, then went back to flipping through the drawer, “I've noticed.”
Beth laid down her charts and crossed her arms as she watched Sam dig through the records. “What I'm saying is...whoever it is she's been talking to me about...she needs them. Honest to God, pretty sure she would go to the ends of the earth for this person kind of needs them.” Sam flipped his long hair out of his face and looked up at her, and Beth knew in an instant why Y/N had fallen for this one. “I just hope that the person in question understands how lucky they are to have Y/N, and her trust. That's all.”
“They know.” He smiled at her gently, then looked back down at the open file still in his hand. “Holy shit...I think I found something.”
Beth clapped, “Well, hallelujah, string bean! Why don't we get downstairs, see what your handsome devil of a brother has found, and get this damn show on the road?” She winked, but immediately jumped off the desk when a blood curdling shriek echoed through the halls. “What in the ever lovin’ hell was that?”
Sam stood quickly and took off for the door, “It sounded like Y/N.” Beth scrambled after him and the two raced downstairs, terrified of what they might find.
Read Chapter 5 HERE.
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