That's Just How It's Got To Be (3/4)

[maggieremington]

Title: That’s Just How It’s Got to Be
Chapter: Three – Something Like Gabriel's Sunday Dinners
Author: pathsforme (Maggie Remington)
Beta: immortal_jedi
Rating: PG-13
Genre: AU, Adventure, Drama, Gen, and a dash of HET
Disclaimer: I don’t own Supernatural, Kripke does. Consort concept belongs to shadowglove88.
Warnings: AU, preseries, Stanford timeline, heavy OFCs and OMCs.
Word Count: 2,134

Morgan briefly wondered if this would be an appropriate time to make her escape back to her car and look for a hunt she could bury herself in, metaphorically speaking. Come on, Palo Alto had to have more to offer than college guys. Morgan was sitting next to Jess, the Jess, the love of Sam's life or should be said love. Sam sat across from Morgan and next to Dirk.

Morgan may have signed up to stop the Apocalypse but the current situation was not something she had been ready for at all. How do you prepare yourself for a reality that is unlike the one you've read about and were told about? She had no idea whether it was right to try and separate two blissfully happy people who seemed to be as love struck as if a cherub had aimed at them with a love guided missile.

“So where are you from, Morgan?” Jess asked, turning towards the eighteen year old.

“Different places, my family and I moved around a lot because of my family's jobs.” Morgan told them. It wasn't lying at all, it was just leaving blanks.

With those words, Sam found himself staring at the fellow college student.

“What are they? Traveling salesmen?” Dirk asked.

“Oh nothing like that. You could call them fix-it-men, so to speak,” Morgan offered. “Usually if someone needed help with one thing or another, they would fix it.” She never knew the grandparents that the other Morgan had tried to sell her soul for so readily. Morgan knew she would never have needed to sell her soul with who her family was. Her father was guaranteed a one way ticket to fields of glory and well Castiel, he was an angel. There weren't many ways you could kill an angel.

“So you grew up like a gypsy?” Jess asked, her brows furrowed.

“I guess from an outside perspective it would look like that.” Morgan said and noticed that Sam had said nothing. She could see it; he was studying her, as if he was looking into what she wasn't saying. She could have sworn she saw him smile at her briefly. 'Well, he knows now... I think.' She thought to herself. “What about you guys?” she asked.

“I grew up in Palo Alto,” Dirk offered. “Jess and I have been going out since we were in high school ,” he exchanged a smile with Jessica.

'Well that's just... Swell.' Morgan thought to herself as the waitress came to the table.

“Alright, what will you be having?” the woman asked holding up a pen and tablet. She looked like she was out of the Grease movie.

“Tuna salad with a tea,” Jessica said.

“Chicken tenders with a soda,” Dirk announced.

Sam looked like he was having trouble deciding. “Just a small salad and water,” he said.

Morgan didn't let them throw her off. “I'll have a bacon cheeseburger, onion rings, a soda, and a,” she began and looked at the menu in her hand. “Slice of your old fashioned Apple Pie.”

“I will be back in two shakes,” the waitress told them.

Morgan turned to them and said, “What? I have a high metabolism and whenever I come to a diner, me and my dad always order that.”

Sam shook his head and laughed. “Not a salad kind of girl?”

“Not really, closest thing I will get to a salad is the one on my bacon cheeseburger.” Morgan said.

“Have to admire a girl with an appetite,” Sam said with a chuckle.

Morgan couldn’t help herself, she smiled at his compliment.

“So Winchester, what about you?” Dirk asked. “Bet you grew up in quiet suburbs.”

“Actually, I kind of have the same story as Morgan, lived on the road with my dad and brother.”

'Same story Sam, different verse,' Morgan thought to herself and then realized how many ways you could take it. They lived similar lives and Morgan was from a different reality.

Jessica moved off of her seat. “I'll be right back, need to go to the lady's room,” Jess informed them but not without turning to Dirk and said, “Can you pick out a song?” And she got a nod leaving Sam and Morgan sitting across from one another at their table.

Sam leaned in and said, “You're a hunter.” It wasn't accusing, it was a fact being stated.

Morgan nodded and said, “Pretty easy to figure out, huh? So what is a fellow Hunter doing all the way out here?” She kept her tone low just as Sam was, leaning in to keep herself from having to do a higher volume. “You don't seem like you're on a Hunt.”

“Ex-Hunter, I left that all behind,” Sam told her. “Didn't have much of a choice.”

“Sure you do Sam, and you are making it. Anyways, I'm here not to quit hunting but to... Acquire new skills for later jobs,” Morgan told him. “Have any idea what you're going to do with yours?”

“My what?” Sam asked confused.

“Newly acquired skills by the time you graduate. Open up a law firm? Keep Hunters from rotting in jail on bogus charges?” she asked him.

“What makes you think I would want to be a lawyer?” Sam asked.

“Alright, here we go,” the waitress said as she laid out the food and drinks. “Where did the other two go?”

“They'll be back,” Morgan said and let the lady leave and turned her attention back to Sam. “I think you'd be a great lawyer.”

“Thanks,” Sam said letting a small smile draw up from his lips. “What about you?”

“Computers, I am thinking in majoring in that. Though I might change my mind in the middle of the semester,” Morgan said and relaxed in her seat and picked up an onion ring. “Onion ring?”

Sam took the offered onion ring. “Thanks,” he told her and ate it.

From the other side of the diner, Jessica and Dirk watched.

“Jessica, do you really need to play matchmaker?” Dirk asked his long time girlfriend.

“They seem a lot alike. Is it wrong to want to see people as happy as we are?” she asked.

“No, I suppose not,” Dirk said as he picked out the most girly romantic song he could find. “Just don't go overboard, please.”

~ * ~

Dean had been watching the whole time. He just stood there in the shadows watching Sam and a new group of friends and with the way he was leaning towards the brunette, a new girlfriend too. He was still a bit bitter towards Sam for abandoning Dad, for abandoning him, but one thing Dean wanted above all others was Sam's happiness and he looked happy.

Dean wasn't sure what was going on in his dad's mind besides there was supposed to be a Hunt here. Though he noticed how intensely his dad was watching the scene unfold. It hadn't escaped Dean's notice how sad John Winchester looked.

John Winchester had always seen how much Sam and he had been alike. After coming back from the war and meeting Mary, he had wanted nothing but a normal life. However following the Sam’s birth, things hadn't been as easy as he had made them out to be to Sam. Now the scene before him felt like he was watching two different people, himself and Mary before this, before Samuel Campbell had been killed. He noticed as the brunette left to go to the bathroom.

“Where'd the chick go?” Dean asked.

“Behind you,” Morgan said standing in the exit with her arms crossed. “So who are you and I'm guessing you've been watching Sam Winchester.”

Dean wasn't sure what to say to the woman.

“Morgan, this is my dad and brother,” Sam said from behind her.

'Okay so he noticed them too, not too rusty for an ex-hunter,' Morgan thought to herself mildly but keeping a serious expression on her face.

“Oh don't give me that bitchface Sammy, shouldn't you introduce your new girlfriend to us?” Dean asked burying his anger for his brother. Sammy always came first when it came to Dean, even when he was pissed.

“Morgan and I'm not his girlfriend,” She said bluntly not that it hadn't crossed her mind but she was not Becky, ready to pounce on Sam Winchester nor was she Jessica Moore, slated to be with Sam. She was just the girl here to help avoid the Apocalypse altogether. “We just met today.”

Morgan hated playing the fool. She knew who these two men were, and that that someone needed to hit John Winchester really hard, in the face or gut. However, here, Morgan Faith didn't know that John Winchester was a shitty dad, that Dean had sacrificed his entire life for Sam, even before he made the deal with the crossroads demon. This royally sucked.

Dean knew the look in Sam's eyes as he looked at their dad, it was hope.

“We're just passing through,” John told them. “There is a Hunt in town.”

However, when the hope disappeared from Sam’s expression, Dean couldn’t help it, he didn’t like it. He wanted his little brother to be happy but he wasn’t happy.

“Hunt?” Morgan interrupted with a raised brow.

“What my dad meant is--,” Dean began.

“She's a Hunter Dean,” Sam said, his tone clipped.

“Really?” Dean said, outwardly appreciating Morgan while internally was at war with himself. He wanted to protect Sam and knew what their dad had said was hard to take for Samuel.

“What reason are you with my boy?” John demanded.

Before Morgan could say anything it was Sam who got between her and John.

“None of your business,” Sam told him.

Morgan knew this could get bad, she could remember the arguments from the books. “Sam, we have to go eat.” She said pulling on his arm. “It was nice meeting you Dean, Mr. Winchester.” She told them.

“I sincerely doubt that,” John Winchester commented.

Morgan gave a harder tug to Sam knowing the gigantor needed to avoid fights with his dad. “Sam come on,” She told him and finally got some recognition.

Sam turned to Dean and said, “Good bye Dean.” He let himself be dragged back inside and once the door closed, the two of them were just standing there.

“You alright Samuel?” Morgan asked.

“Sam, Morgan, just call me Sam,” He said in a monotone.

“You dad is a jerk,” Morgan tells him.

“Tell me about it,” Sam muttered.

“Come on, I was serious about us needing eat,” Morgan told him still having a grip on his arm. “There is still pie, promise to share.”

Sam couldn’t help it; he smiled despite the situation.

“There is something we need to talk about though,” Morgan said. “If you honestly want to avoid demons, you have to get an anti-possession sigil.”

“Anti-possession sigil?” Sam asked.

“This,” Morgan told him as she tugged at the neckline of her shirt. She revealed the tattoo that the Sam and Dean she had met previously had worn.

Sam eyes trailed to the tattoo and then looked away. “That keeps you from getting possessed?” He asked.

“Of course,” Morgan said. “I'll take you to the tattoo parlor after lunch to get you one done, so we don't have to worry about someone wearing you to the prom.”

“Whose wearing what to a prom?” Dirk asked and smirked noticing Morgan still had a hold of Sam's sleeve and watched as she immediately let go.

“Nothing,” Morgan said as she slid into her seat and Jess sat back down as the brunette starting eating her burger that was starting to get cold.

“So where did you two go?” Dirk asked as Sam sat down in his seat and began to eat his salad. Both Sam and Morgan promptly kept their mouths busy to avoid said question.

Jess couldn't help but laugh at the both of them. Someone caught her eye and she said, “Isn’t that Amy?”

“Amy?” Dirk asked.

“Hey.” The girl identified as Amy told them.

“Jess! Did you hear, Professor Masters collapsed from a heart attack!” The copper haired exclaimed.

Morgan finally swallowed the last bit of her burger and took a large drink of her soda. “Which one is Professor Masters?”

“Short, overweight, he teaches Human Anatomy and Physiology,” The young woman told them.

“That's like the fifth professor that has died of a heart attack in the last week.” Dirk said, exclaimed his eyes big as saucers.

Morgan looked towards Sam and received a nod. 'Wonder if this is what John and Dean Winchester came here for,' she thought to herself. Like she was going to just let them get to the Hunt before she was. 'Wonder if Sam would be willing to help on a research project.'