han_solo | (no subject)

"Family?" Dean asks, but he's already dropping it, returning his gaze to the road ahead. "Won't take too much longer, anyway."

One of the Impala's special powers is that it can travel any distance within the United States in the length of a commercial break. No, it's true.

(30 seconds later: HAWAII! ...maybe next time.)

She's already shrugged to the question, grateful when he drops it. The Ellimist's words have been repeating themselves in her head pretty much ever since she heard them and it's happening again.

A world that needs warriors.

Tobias wasn't here. He couldn't be here. What Mort had shown her... she's not sure what it meant but she was certain that Tobias wasn't meant to fight in that war, no matter who his father was. He deserved more, the Ellimist knew that.

She glances to Dean once, lifted brows in question and her hand reaching for the volume on the radio.

Just in time for Highway to Hell.

Huh.

Rachel, Dean decides, is not the worst driving companion to have.

"Yeah, seems appropriate."

Okay, that she grins at, turning up the music and shrugging. "From what I hear about the coasts, yeah, probably."

"We goin' all the way to the coast? Cool. Always wanted to see a kraken."

He's not, actually, being sarcastic.

"Santa Barbara," she clarifies, grinning at his totally genuine excitement. "I didn't get far enough to the east to see Krakens there."

This was obviously a huge disappointment to her.

Seriously, it was.

"Sweet," Dean says, grinning. "We'll stock up on big-ass guns before we get there."

Rachel blinks and snorts at him, amused.

"I've got everything I need."

And he's seen her shoot. But at least the mystery of how Jo agreed to go hunting with a novice is revealed.

"Wolf claws ain't gonna help you against a squid th'size of a skyscraper," Dean points out, raising an eyebrow.

Rachel stares at him for a moment.

And grins slowly.

"You said 'shapeshifter,' not 'werewolf.' You think I've only got one morph?"

"...apparently not." Dean frowns, drives for a moment.

"Werewolves I've fought, they don't turn full wolf like you did, just grow claws."

"I've never seen a werewolf," she points out - and then decides to clarify on that. "Or a ghost or any of the... what'd you call it? Supernatural stuff. That doesn't exist on my world."

"Probably does," Dean says mildly. "You just don't know about it because people like me -- like Sam -- make sure y'don't need to."

She laughs, just a little scoff as she turns back to the window. "Trust me, if it'd been out there, I would have seen it."

Any suspicious deaths, strange activities, they always always checked for Yeerks. They would have noticed something else new and strange.

"Sure," Dean agrees placidly.

And doesn't mean it at all. He just isn't interested in arguing again.

"So what'd you do, then? Back there?"

Rachel's getting to really hate this question. Luckily for those who ask it, she hates liars more.

"Fought in a war."

"Sounds like fun," Dean says dryly, glancing at her.

Doesn't ask anything else.

He still gets to see her smile. Not wide, but definitely there.

"Sometimes."

Just-- sometimes.

"You ran around killing ghosts and stuff?"

"Basically, yeah." Dean smiles faintly. "Ghosts, demons, what-the-fuck ever."

Rachel nods absently, but she's glancing to him again.

"Fun?"

"Sometimes."

Dean's expression is grim.

"Sometimes not."

That's enough.

Her conversations with Dean tend to be short, but Rachel comes away from them knowing a lot more than she expected to with a guy like him. Or the kind of guy he acts like, at least.

Rachel goes back to examining scenery, glancing every once in a while to a map she'd retrieved from the glovebox. They might be going to her city but she has no idea how to get there.

But, after a few moments, "Huh."

"Huh?" Dean repeats, looking over at her. "What's up?"

"Nothing." Her finger is resting on the map, idly tracing the road they're on due west.

"We're gonna hit the Grand Canyon in like two hours."

"We are?"

Dean isn't looking at her, but that doesn't mean she can't see the small smile that grows and then is gone.

"...cool. I've never been."