Mother of a Hunter

Lisa Braeden: Tried Hunting, but it's not the thing for me but now I run a bed and breakfast called Luck of the Draw. Drop by if you need anything. {THE ABOVE IMAGE IS NOT MINE. CREDIT TO WHOEVER MADE IT] (Part of the Salt and Burn RP and I track the tag #greetingcardperfect)

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Cliched Encounters || Dean and Lisa

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Dean knows that she isn’t happy. He can see that she isn’t happy. She wants him to come back with her too, but he just can’t. He can’t let anyone else get hurt because of him, and in this case, it’s just too much to risk,

"So… goodbye, I guess."

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Lisa stops chewing at her cheek, gives him one long, hard look, nods. 

"Yeah, I guess it is."

And she can't help that she sounds so bitter--it's not like she's trying to, she just doesn't know how to stop it right now. She doesn't really want to, either. Dean's always tried to play it safe with her, but that was never his choice to make. 

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Cliched Encounters || Dean and Lisa

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He should go, he needs to go, but he really, really doesn’t want to. He wishes that she hadn’t offered him a place to stay; it’s just so tempting. But he can’t afford to be in the same place as her. If he does, he won’t be able to stop himself from trying to pick up where they left off. 

"Sure, I’ll keep that in mind."

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"Great." 

Her teeth stab sharply into the inside of her cheek as she gives him a smile that screams the truth. You'll keep it in mind but you won't come.

She doesn't say anything else, just watches him carefully and tries to sort out her own thoughts.

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Why am I feeling so guilty?

Why am I holding my breath?

Worried 'bout everyone but me

I just keep losing myself

-The Civil Wars, "Falling"

Inspired by this thread

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Cliched Encounters || Dean and Lisa

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"I should go." He leans away from her touch, because it hurts. It hurts that she still seems to trust him, and it hurts that she feels sorry for him. He can’t stand the idea of her pitying him, even after all the shit he’s put her through.

He really should go, before he breaks down and asks if he can go home with her, before he asks her to fix this mess. Before he asks her to fix him.

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She nods, one short, clipped movement. That look, that tone and guilt and don't touch me I'm poison posture will  be the end of her one day. It's downright painful for Lisa to watch him like that, all self-doubt and destructive and aching. 

And there's a small part of him that hates him, that thinks he's acting properly and he should  be conflicted and self-destructive and he is poison because he ruined her family goddammit and that's something he should have to answer for. But that's maybe .05% her body and the entire rest of her is reeling at the pain she sees in him.

"Right, um, well if you need somewhere to stay the night... just, uh, swing by, okay? I've got room..."

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Cliched Encounters || Dean and Lisa

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The look on her face is devastating. She looks so pained, and it kills him. He’s the one who should be apologetic. He’s the one who fucked up their lives, and he’s the one who should be paying for his mistakes. Not her, and definitely not Ben. God, he wants to see Ben. Actually, he wants to see Ben and Lisa, together, and happy, and safe. Whether he’s with them doesn’t matter anymore.

"I don’t know."

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Lisa nodded slowly, lips twisting into a forced smile. It was going to be okay, one way or the other. With or without Dean. With or without Ben. But in the exact same moment, the look on Dean's face made it pretty damn clear that he was kicking himself internally. 

Gently, she reached out and touched his arm. "Dean..."

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Cliched Encounters || Dean and Lisa

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Lisa’s right, of course. She always is. But this is something about him that will never change. If something’s his fault, he can’t be talked out of that. He wonders how much Lisa’s changed, how much Ben’s changed. Hunting changes a person, and you can never predict how.

Part of him wants to know; part of him wants to go home with Lisa and get to know her again, to see if there’s some way they could make it work. But the rest of him knows that he can’t. Ben’s hunting because of him, and that was after a year. Lisa wouldn’t want him back anyway. Throwing him out was the smartest thing she ever did,

"Yeah, you’re right there."

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Part of her wants to fix him this. Part of her wants to make everything better like she used to, but an invitation back into her house won't fix Dean this time. It won't stop him from holding all that emotion so tightly and a beer in his hand won't fix anything and even if it would help, Ben's not around to see him. 

(But she can't, won't think about that. She's already thought about Ben too much--there's only so much pretending Lisa can do.)

"You staying in town long?" 

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Cliched Encounters || Dean and Lisa

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"Oh come on Lisa, you know me better than that." It’s a terrible joke, and it’s sure as hell not funny. It’s true though; Ben is an adult now, and it could very well have been his decision, but Dean put the idea in his head. It doesn’t matter how you look at it, this is Dean’s fault, and he’s always going blame himself for it.

God, if only he hadn’t showed up on Lisa’s doorstep. If only there hadn’t been a case in her backyard. If only he’d never met her. Ben would be safe, and she would be happy. Dean remembered her once saying that the year he’d spent with them was the best year of her life.

He wonders if she would still say that.

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A sharp clench in her jaw--his words searing through her like a bullet, which was less of a figure of speech and more of a description of a pain she knew. ...you know me better than that.

Do I?

She managed a small, tart laugh in response. "Yeah, well... y'never know how people change."

And she meant it, with all its sublayers of context. She'd changed. He'sd changed. Ben had changed. It had all changed and Lisa couldn't see hide nor hair of the people they all used to be, which scared her more than anything with claws or talons or she-devil screeches.

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Hey sweetheart, it's your mom. I know you're busy, but call me when you have the time, okay? Just because you grow up doesn't mean I stop worrying--or that you can stop calling. I will hunt you down if I have to.

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Being around you, Dean, it was never a bad thing. It taught me survival. Either you fight or you die...

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Cliched Encounters || Dean and Lisa

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You. 

Dean doesn’t need to hear the rest of the sentence to know what Lisa was going to say. Ben is hunting. Ben is hunting and his life is in danger and it’s all his fucking fault. The whole reason he’d left them in the first place was so that they would be safe. Finding out that Ben is hunting, and hunting because of him, feels as though someone dropped a block of ice through his stomach.

"Lisa… I’m so sorry." It’s not enough, not nearly enough, but there’s nothing else he can say.

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"There's nothing to be sorry about." She said firmly, though her gut writhed with the comment, disgruntlement and disagreement working through her body. "Like I said, he's legally an adult; he made his own decisions."

She never wanted to blame him, never wanted to give him this sort of pain. But she'd never wanted to lie to him, either, and wasn't that basically what she was doing now? Lying to him to make him feel better? Or was it the truth? Was this really on Ben? 

"Don't beat yourself up over it..."

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We were young, then... young and stupid and reckless. And now... well, now we can't be.

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Cliched Encounters || Dean and Lisa

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Dean simply stops. His mind is blank for a moment, before the word “hunting” filters through. Lisa was hunting. Lisa was hunting. He really has no idea how to react to this information. He wants to yell, but they’re in public, and he knows better than to embarrass Lisa that way. He’s clinging to the fact that she got out and survived; she got out and she seems happy, and that’s all he can ask for. It’s then that he realises that she hasn’t mentioned Ben,

"What about Ben?"

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One short sigh as she looked down, hand clenching tighter around the bar of the cart. If that--all the pain filtering through his eyes and out through a question--is how he took her path, how would he deal with...

"He's Hunting." Lisa said finally, gritting it out through clenched teeth. She hated it. Hated this. Hated that all of this was happening at all, but it was... "Ben's legally an adult now, Dean, I couldn't stop him. Besides, it wasn't about me or what I wanted, it was about..."

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Cliched Encounters || Dean and Lisa

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Dean smiles. It’s a tight, pained little smile, with no joy in it. Ben was fine; he had to be fine, or Lisa would have called him, wouldn’t she? She would have asked for his help, surely, despite the tension that lingered between them,

"What have you both been up to?"

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For a brief two seconds, Lisa froze. That question that one specific question, while typical, was one she had hoped to avoid. How could she tell him that she had been Hunting? That instead of going to college, Ben had picked up a knife and started trekking across the country killing things? How could she tell him the complete and utter truth?

But how could she lie to him?

Lisa, don't. You'll rip him apart. You'll kill him. You'll...

The internal battle waged on as she opened her mouth.

"I was Hunting for a while... figured out it wasn't for me..." She laughed--a short, hard sound--as she met Dean's gaze. "Now I run a bed and breakfast just outside of Sioux Falls... see a lot of Hunters..."

A brief thought ran through her mind, an impulsive blurt out...

"Garth says hi."

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Restless Mind || Lisa and Ruby

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Ruby felt an invisible wall go up as she crossed the threshold. She could feel the barriers containing her. 

Devils Trap

How could she be so stupid?  A mother of a hunter would have the place on tight security... Ruby was losing her touch. Of course, the woman coming down the stairs was hardly a threat to Ruby... Even if she was stuck in this trap. Ruby forced a smile and tucked her hair behind her ear.

"Good evening...Sorry to have you up at this hour..." Ruby said in a sweet voice, playing off an innocent image. She needed to think of a way out before she pissed anyone off. 

"I was wondering if you had an extra room..I've heard so many great things about this bed and breakfast, and I'm just darn right exhausted!" Ok, maybe Ruby was pushing the sweet thing a bit too far...

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"Right..." Lisa said evenly, hand easing back to the gun tucked into her waistband. "Well we've got plenty of room tonight..."

There was something... off about the girl standing there, pretty and cute and dangerous. There was something dangerous about her...

Demon.

D e m o n.

[angelradios]

"I’m built to fade like your favorite song"

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Lisa Braeden -- Then and Now

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Restless Mind || Lisa & Ruby

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Ruby paced around silently outside of the bed and breakfast. She didn’t personally know Lisa Braeden, but Ruby had heard enough that she had ties with Dean Winchester. She thought of calling Wren up to take her with her…But decided to go at this alone.

The next question was should she barge in, or do this a bit more…Peacefully.

Ruby quickly decided on the latter and walked up the steps and into the bed and breakfast, tapping the bell to signal someone to come help her. She would play the innocent part, get her information, and leave.

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God bless technology, the bell wasn't an actual sounding bell, it was one that Elizabeth had wired up to ring straight to Lisa's phone for occasions just like this--midnight visitors.

Pausing for a moment, back tense, hands fumbling under her pillow for her gun, Lisa breathed out sharply. If it was a demon, the devil's trap painted under the carpet would hold it tight, and if it was anything else... well, she was protected.

Unless it was an angel... but she tried not to think about that.

Making her way down the stairs, Lisa offered a good-natured smile. "Evening."