canon au } { post-6a, of grandmothers and contraband

[thisholyspark]

Ben: [and he will eventually find his way out of the drug-induced blackness to blink away in the hospital room. He groans and reaches up to rub at his face because he's still groggy]

Olivia: [hears that and she'll push up to lean over the railing at him] Hey. How you doing?

Ben: Less run over by a truck, and more bad hangover.

Olivia: There you go. Progress.

Ben: [and he will look over at her, focusing a bit] You guys didn't have to come all the way out here.

Olivia: [frowns] Lindsay called us for back up to help find you. I've been here the whole time.

Ben: Oh. [blinks and shakes his head] Things are still fuzzy.

Olivia: [she nods] It's okay. You were pretty out of it.

Ben: Still feel out of it. What did they give me?

Olivia: Just a sedative to help you sleep.

Ben: Strong enough to take down an elephant or something?

Olivia: Well, according to Linds you were refusing to sleep, so I don't think they wanted to take any chances.

Ben: [mutters because yeah, he was complaining but still]

Olivia: [pats his head gently] I think you'll live.

Ben: [rolls his eyes] You have to leave Hal early because of me?

Olivia: [she shakes her head] I was riding with Mary when we got the call.

Ben: [rubs his face] Talk about a great first meeting.

Olivia: She's been really worried about you.

Ben: I'm sure. [because that's what everyone says to him]

Olivia: She's still around if you want me to get her.

Ben: [and at that he looks hesitant because no, he really doesn't know if he wants that] I dunno.

Olivia: You don't have to do this now if you don't want to. [she'll make that very clear] But you may have to do it eventually. It doesn't look like she's going anywhere.

Ben: I'm assuming she's already gotten past the whole shock of how much i look like Dad, right?

Olivia: For the most part, yeah.

Ben: [licks his lips] What's she like?

Olivia: [she gives a small shrug] She's ... hardcore when she needs to be. But she's cool. She's just been really overwhelmed by ... everything. Kind of like how we were when we first got here.

Ben: I take it that's why you two are bonding well?

Olivia: [she nods] Sam and Dean ... expect her to be mom. But that's a lot of pressure, you know, especially when she missed so much. I don't have any expectations at all, so I'm easier to talk to, I guess.

Ben: Liv, you're the easiest of all of us to talk to.

Olivia: [and that gets him a look as she pushes up to sit on the edge of the bed] Why is that?

Ben: Because I'm the angry one, Mikey's the nerd, and you're the normal one.

Olivia: I'm not that normal.

Ben: Compared to me and Mikey you are.

Olivia: [shrugs] I don't agree with you, but whatever.

Ben: Which, for the record, seems no matter what reality I'm in, Mikey is always a nerd. Always.

Olivia: [she laughs] Good to know.

Ben: Well, if "grandma" can sneak me in some real food, I'm more than willing to say hi. [because hospital food sucks]

Olivia: [she laughs] I'll see what we can do.

Ben: Preferably red meat.

Olivia: [she nods before sliding off the bed] I will investigate. You stay here.

Ben: [looks at the bed and everything around him] Don't think I have a choice.

Olivia: [she smirks and will head back to Mary to investigate the food situation]

Mary: [and there will be some careful negotiation, and she will make her way in later, and nothing seems out of the ordinary] Hi. [she pauses for a moment, checking to make sure the nurses weren't following her before pulling out a bag from a fast food burger joint] Eat slow, so you don't make yourself sick. [because, still a mom]

Ben: [and he will look up from his phone and flash that Winchester smirk] Well, if I do get sick, I'm already in the right place. [but he will because he hates throwing up]

Mary: [oh, she knows that smirk. Some things just don't die with genetics] Uh-huh. And do you want them to keep you longer?

Ben: Not really. But I don't like tossing cookies so you don't have to worry about that. Not going to waste good beef.

Mary: Good. [and she moves to sit in the chair next to the bed] We haven't really had the chance to meet before now.

Ben: No, we haven't. Things tend to explode when Dean and I are in the same space for too long.

Mary: I heard the same was true for Sam and John. And it was also true for me and my dad too. [she smirks] Runs in the family.

Ben: So I've heard. Though to be honest, didn't really get a lot of stories about their childhood while I was growing up.

Mary: [she nods once before giving a small shrug] I haven't really either. I'm not sure I want to know.

Ben: Can't really help you there. At least when it comes to Sam and Dean. I only met these versions of them a few years ago. Now my own stupid antics... that I can talk about for days.

Mary: Oh yeah? [she smirks as she leans back a bit, resting her chin in her hand] Care to fill me in?

Ben: Depends on how bad Olivia has already painted me.

Mary: [she shakes her head] She hasn't said anything beyond you live in Beacon Hills with your girlfriend.

Ben: You know where we come from though, right?

Mary: I do. Sounds like you're in a better place now.

Ben: Yeah. Took me awhile to admit it. [rubs at his nose] But until we got here - my job was to keep Michael and Olivia safe, and that included not letting them get eaten by zombies.

Mary: Seems like you did pretty well there.

Ben: Yeah, though a lot of times the best way to get the zombies away from the kids was to be a distraction to draw the zombies to me so they could run the other way.

Mary: [winces] But at least you all were safe in the end.

Ben: .... Most of the time.

Mary: [and there's that mom look you probably haven't seen in a while, Ben. It doesn't matter that it's not your mom, some looks are universal]

Ben: What, you never were unnecessarily reckless when hunting? [two raised eyebrows]

Mary: [and there's another look] I was never suicidal.

Ben: Neither was I. But I had a good insurance policy.

Mary: And what was that?

Ben: I had angel grace running in my veins. You can't see them anymore, but there were tattoos all along my left side that kept the energy inside me.

Mary: That sounds ... dangerous. Is that anything like a Nephilim?

Ben: No. It was a modification of the whole sword of Michael thing. I refused to be possessed, so they just gave me the power boost. But I was still me the whole time. Still am, just depowered now.

Mary: Uh-huh. [not that she really understands any of it, but she's trying] So they were basically using you.

Ben: I think we were using each other.

Mary: I'm not sure that makes it better.

Ben: No, but when you get to jump off sixty foot waterfalls to avoid a horde and walk away with barely a crick in the neck, it's kinda worth it.

Mary: [winces a bit in response] I'll take your word for it.

Ben: Come on, you know you've wanted to try that, just for fun at one point in your life.

Mary: No, I don't think I was ever suicidal. [though some days now she's feeling it a little]

Ben: Oh come on, that's not suicidal at all.

Mary: [and there's another mom look]

Ben: [laughs] See, now I heard you were this epic kickass hunter. You seriously don't have any awesome stories like that?

Mary: [she laughs] I have stories, sure. But none that involve throwing myself off waterfalls.

Ben: Different times call for different measures.

Mary: You're probably right.

Ben: [and he's done with the burger and turning to the fries] But hey, you've got a second chance at life here. Who knows what kind of trouble you're going to get yourself into. [smirks]

Mary: [she laughs] Hopefully not too much trouble. I don't want to give your father and your uncle a heart attack.

Ben: Eh, they can take a few after everything that they give others.

Mary: Yeah, but they've already lost me once. Not sure I want to force them to do it again.

Ben: Yeah, I get that.

Mary: [she nods] They're not doing well with me needing space though.

Ben: Of course they aren't. But that's today. I wasn't fond of things changing and Mickey and Liv getting their own lives when I spent almost twenty of mine protecting them, but I got over it in time. They showed me that I didn't have to freak out when they took their times away. It just takes time.

Mary: [she nods] I know. But I think they're worried that I don't want them, which isn't true.

Ben: But they take you not wanting to be there as you not wanting to care.

Mary: [she nods] I just ... I need time to adjust to the idea that the little boys that they were when I left aren't the ones I came back to. That I missed their entire lives.

Ben: Believe it or not - Dean's kinda gone through that already.

Mary: With you?

Ben: I didn't spontaneously go from a ten year old to a thirty year old in this world, but to him I did.

Mary: [she nods] It's just different when you're the kid. [she pauses before holding up her hand for a moment] And it doesn't help like there's this weird sense of deja vu.

Ben: I know it's going to suck, but give them time. You'll also probably get Sam back easier than Dean because Dean's a stubborn ass.

Mary: Just like his father.

Ben: Yeah, like father, like son.

Mary: I'd hoped they wouldn't get all of John's bad habits.

Ben: [laughs] Can't fight your genes.

Mary: I guess not.

Ben: Trust me, I spent a good portion of my life trying to be anything but Dean... and guess who I ended up becoming.

Mary: [she laughs] He doesn't seem so bad.

Ben: He's not. Can't tell you if he's had it better or worse than my version of him, but still pretty much how I remember him. Though somehow for all the shit he's been through, this Dean at least remembers how to enjoy life now and then.

Mary: At least there's that.

Ben: Just give him time. And text him once a day to let him know you're still alive.

Mary: Already do that. [she smirks] We play Words with Friends.

Ben: [snorts] See, that's something.

Mary: It is. Just ... hunting is at least something I still understand.

Ben: Hey, I've been there, man. That's all Mikey, Liv or I knew when we arrived here. And I at least had a few years under my belt as a kid in a normal world before the apocalypse, but this place... some things are familiar and some things are just so... different. Trying to reconcile what I remember about here and my childhood... doesn't always match up.

Mary: [she nods] It's not a fun experience.

Ben: And I ain't gonna lie - it won't ever stop happening. I've been here years now, and I still don't get all the social norms.

Mary: I'm not so worried about that. I don't do a lot of socializing.

Ben: You still need to learn how to interact with the world. Use computers. Phones. Drive an automatic.

Mary: There's not much to learn with driving an automatic.

Ben: I had to teach myself.

Mary: Me too. My dad wasn't exactly the hands on type.

Ben: Funny, neither was mine. [smirks] But to be fair, I didn't know Dean was my dad until I was ten.

Mary: [sighs] I loved my father. But he was fairly set on the fact that hunting was the only course.

Ben: And you wanted to have something more.

Mary: [she nods] I wanted a life.

Ben: And you got one, for a little while.

Mary: Yeah. One that I made a deal for and cost me my parents.

Ben: But would you trade the time you had with John, and your two boys, to take that back?

Mary: [she shakes her head] My dad and mom were dead anyway. I could either make the deal to save John or I could be alone.

Ben: And you made a choice.

Mary: [she nods, quiet for a moment] I also made the choice to go back into Sam's room that night, even when I was warned not to.

Ben: And no one would blame you for that. You were trying to protect your kid.

Mary: Hard to see it that way when you think of everything they've been through and all I had to do was go back to bed and they wouldn't have lost me.

Ben: Maybe not, but Sam would have still had the demon blood. Yellow eyes would have still come for him. Only difference is that no one would have been able to know how to find or protect him.

Mary: I would have been there. I was always a hunter.

Ben: You'd have been retired what, 25 years, maybe near thirty at that point? Still doesn't give Sam any of the skills that would have helped him survive that hunger games shit he went through.

Mary: Who said I retired? [her eyebrows go up a bit, almost challenging the question] I just didn't travel. If there was something local, I took care of it. [but he's right about Sam]

Ben: Listen, can you just trust the word of the guy who lived in a world where one choice changed the outcome of the entire planet? Sometimes the choice you make doesn't mean it was the wrong one. Just means that you think the other choice had a better ending - but you don't know.

Mary: [she's quiet before giving a small shrug in return] Seeing how isolated they are, aside from you all ... it's hard to not see it as better, I'll admit.

Ben: They aren't isolated. Last couple of years have been hard on them keeping friends alive, but they've got people. They just happen to be across the country instead of all in one small town. Sam's got a wife. Dean's got... his car, I guess since I've heard he fucked things over with my mom here pretty bad but that was his choice too.

Mary: [she shrugs. It's still not the life she wanted for them. And while she's happy for what they do have, things still could have been different.]

Ben: [and he is going to finish his fries and drink his soda before laying back in the bed, because he knows there's two sides to every coin. She just has to experience it herself] You know, here I was thinking you were going to give me the third degree about who I am, not sit around and gossip about dad and Sam.

Mary: [she smirks a bit] Would you have preferred the former?

Ben: Long as it's not about my feelings, Liv'll tell you I enjoy talking about myself quite a bit. [smirks]

Mary: [she laughs] I'm sure.

Ben: So I live up in Beacon Hills with Lindsay. You've met her by now, I'm sure.

Mary: [she nods] She's a Slayer.

Ben: Yup. She's also a deputy up in Beacon Hills where the dimensional rift that I came through is. She found me on I think like, day one being here. How she puts up with me I got no clue.

Mary: [smirks] I'm sure you've got some charm in there somewhere.

Ben: [laughs] Yeah, but that first day I was probably the angriest person you've ever seen. Stripped from home and everything I knew with no return ticket and being forced to stay here - didn't take that well.

Mary: Did she punch you in the face for it?

Ben: Not really. We killed some vampires. Then did some other stuff. [that smirk tells it all]

Mary: [she laughs] Some things never change.

Ben: No they don't. But it worked for us. [still smirking] Still works for us.

Mary: As long as you're happy, I think that's all that matters.

Ben: I am. [there's a moment] I just have to keep reminding myself where I was before all this happened. Helps repeating it all out loud, honestly.

Mary: [she nods] Well, if you ever want to tell me about it, to help remind you, I can give you my number. Might help to have someone who wasn't here for it.

Ben: Only if you promise not to grandma me. [smiles]

Mary: [she laughs] I won't so long as you never call me grandma.

Ben: I won't. Hell, I barely call Dean “dad.”

Mary: Then we should be good.

Ben: Good. But don't be expecting me to play words with friends. I've only got a 5th grade education.

Mary: [she shakes her head] Don't worry. That's a me and Dean thing. [a beat] There is one where you draw pictures though.

Ben: [laughs] Yeah, you'll just end up with stick figures and dick pics. You probably don't need that.

Mary: Can't say I didn't try.

Ben: I'm good with text messages.

Mary: I can do that. [and she'll pull out the phone] What's your number?

Ben: [and he will read it off]

Mary: [and she will add it to her phone before texting him hers] There you go.

Ben: [and his phone will buzz from his lap] I got it.

Mary: Good. Anyway, I should probably destroy the evidence and let you rest.

Ben: Yeah, before I have a girlfriend or a nurse raising a fuss. [smiles] Thank you

Mary: My pleasure. Hopefully they'll be able to spring you out of here soon.

Ben: I think if they try to hydrate me any further, I'll grow gills.

Mary: Good point. I'll see you later.

Ben: See ya.

Mary: [and off she goes to dispose of the fast food and let him get some sleep]

Ben: [which he will with happy hamburger filled belly]