Summary: Dean tests out his abilities in undercover work in an effort to save his brother’s future and life... but the real test is going to be dealing with Y/N’s cover as his girlfriend.
Pairing: AU—Mechanic!Dean x FBI Agent!Reader
Word Count: 2,305
Warnings: None, really. This is setting up suspense that will happen later.
Author’s Note: This series alternates narrator, and this part is in Dean’s. This is the sixth part of my first AU series, and it has been a ridiculously long time coming. Thank you to my readers who have (mostly) been very patient with my lack of progress. I hope this gets you right back in to my story and makes you want more. :) Feedback is always appreciated. Fluff, smut, and lots of suspense-angst on the way! To get caught up, click the Masterpost link at the end of this header.
*Tagging Note* Since this series is so different from most of what I write, I made a separate tag list from my forevers; if you would like to join this tag list send me an ASK and mention the JAC series instead of my Forevers list. Okay, that’s it. Enjoy and please leave feedback!
The Just Another Case Masterpost
It was dusk, and the sunset was spectacular, but Dean had more important things on his mind than a pretty skyline.
Y/N’s voice was all business, even if her outfit wasn’t. Two “associates” of hers had stopped by earlier, bringing her another bag and taking her Charger with them. She’d refused to answer his questions, disappearing with her new small suitcase into the bathroom for twenty minutes and emerging as “Jo Harvelle”. She was wearing a tight blue jean mini-skirt, a midriff baring tank top and large spangly earrings. Her makeup was applied a little too heavily, and she’d put in some gum to chew, completing her look.
It was certainly distracting to him anyway.
“Remember your cover and don’t get inventive. Don’t sound too eager, either; they’re bound to be suspicious of you on a first meet like this. It’s better to be standoffish--willing to do the work, but a bit paranoid is the way you want to play it.”
He was nervous, but he did his best not to let her see it, nodding in acknowledgement and keeping his eyes moving. They were parked in a strip-mall lot, waiting for that lowlife Gabe’s contact Balthazar to show up.
If he passed Balthazar’s preliminary, he’d call in one of Crowley’s men for the real job interview. Dean had to pass both if he was going to have a chance to help Sam.
“Here we go. You’re up, Mr. Campbell.”
A black Ford Escalade with some modifications judging by the sound of the engine, had pulled into the deserted lot and headed straight for Dean’s Impala.
The taller vehicle came to a stop about three foot away, the driver’s side window even with Dean’s. When it lowered, Dean felt more than saw Y/N’s tenseness and heard her flip the safety off of her handgun, held beside her thigh out of sight.
“Lower your window; he wants to talk.”
Dean complied, keeping his face still as he got a glimpse of Balthazar.
He wasn’t what you’d call intimidating. Wiry, a scraggly beard, and tufted dirty blonde hair was all he could make out through the square of the window. His voice, when he spoke, had a distinct British accent, which was surprising to Dean, but he hid his reaction.
“You Campbell?”
“That depends. Who’s asking?”
She’d told him to be standoffish.
Balthazar raised an eyebrow, then raised a .45 and pointed it right at Dean.
“That would be me, the one with a gun.”
He could almost feel Y/N’s hand start to come up, and he instinctively turned his shoulders to face the threat and block her movement. He could do this.
“Then I hope you can aim that peashooter. If you damage my Baby, I’ll make it a point to kick your ass before I kill you. Now, I’m Campbell, and I’m here for a job interview. Why are you here?”
Balthazar’s other eyebrow rose to join the first one, and the gun dropped out of sight, though Dean had no doubt it was still loaded and pointed towards him. He thought longingly of his ivory-handled piece that was in the glove compartment. Y/N had told him that going armed would seem like a threat to these guys, though he’d thought it would fit his cover.
“Well, frankly, I’m here to make sure you’re not a cop. Which I’m pretty convinced of. Who’s the girl? She doesn’t look like a baby to me.”
Dean chuckled and shifted in the seat enough for Y/N to be seen again.
“No, my car’s Baby. This is my girl, Jo, and you’re interrupting date night. Can we move this along, please?
Balthazar cracked a smile for the first time.
“Well, I’d hate to keep you from your date. Start up that antique Baby of yours and follow me, and we’ll get your interview started.”
Dean smirked and cranked his car, deliberately revving the engine so the growl completely masked the sound of the Cadillac.
He made a shooing motion, urging Balthazar to go ahead, then let out a sigh of relief as he rolled up the window and put the vehicle in drive. Dean pulled his car around to follow the SUV, his quick eyes noting the route and mentally mapping where they were in the city as they drove.
“You did good, Dean. This was expected, remember? It was likely they’d take us to a secondary location to meet Crowley’s guy. They’ll want to make sure there weren’t people waiting for him at a location we knew about, and they’ll want to make sure we aren’t being followed.
“Now, they’ll mostly be suspicious of me--they didn’t plan on you bringing someone along. They’ll probably ask you about me, maybe search me, maybe even threaten me. How will you play it?”
Dean thought back over the different scenarios she’d drilled into him over the course of the day, the tension in his stomach sitting heavily on the drive thru double cheeseburger he’d inhaled on the way to the meeting.
“You’re my girlfriend; I’m possessive and territorial, but willing to brag about you. I follow your lead on the level of flirtation between us. If they get handsy, I protest, but not enough to actually cause violence.”
He saw her nod at his plan, and he smiled grimly, though his fingers tightened on the steering wheel. He didn’t like the concept of standing by if they got rough with her, even though he knew she could take care of herself.
He wasn’t thrilled about being cast as a neanderthal either, and he wondered if that was how she really saw him. The thought made him unhappy for some reason.
He shook his head, refocusing. Y/N was an ice-lady robot who cared more about the job than the people around her. What she thought about him and his ability to behave like a gentleman didn’t matter. What mattered was getting Sam back.
Brake lights flared in front of him as the Escalade turned into the parking lot of a bowling alley. The place wasn’t overly busy--maybe fifteen cars in the lot, and the SUV headed straight for the back row where a 1980 red Chevrolet El Camino was parked. Dean couldn’t help admiring the car, even as he parked his baby two or three spots away, with Y/N on the far side from the potential threat.
“I need to be as non-threatening as possible, so I’ll stay in the car unless they ask for me to get out. Leave the window down so I can see and hear, and cover you if it becomes necessary. Stick to your cover ID and don’t overplay your role. They’re just feeling you out.” Y/N’s voice was an undertone, and her eyes watched the two men who were getting out of their cars as she spoke.
Dean nodded, swallowing the fear that was rising in his throat and clenching his jaw. This was for Sammy.
He unbuckled and opened the car door, closing it behind him as he strode confidently towards Balthazar and the taller black man who were waiting for him.
Balthazar was still unimpressive--thin, with thinner hair, his clothes draping over him and obviously trying too hard to seem like he didn’t care what others thought of him.
The other guy raised internal alarms in Dean the moment he got close enough to see his eyes.
They were cold, and serious, and intelligent--they looked Dean up and down, almost x-raying him in their intensity, analyzing his movements and everything about him.
Dean fought to keep a relaxed posture and spread his hands away from his body.
“Like what you see?”
Silence greeted him.
Dean let it go, waiting them out. He wasn’t supposed to seem too eager.
“Who’s the girl, Campbell?”
The man’s voice was low, and he had a slower accent, maybe southern? like every word was planned and well thought out. Deliberate.
Dean raised an eyebrow and hooked his thumbs into his belt-loops, spreading his legs in a relaxed but firm stance.
“If we’re doing introductions, why don’t we start with you, since you already know my name.”
The eyes that had been fixed behind him on Y/N redirected back to Dean, piercing as they met his gaze. Dean did not flinch, blink, or glare. He held the man’s gaze and projected calm assurance as much as he could.
No way was he going to be intimidated into blowing cover. He had more backbone than that.
The man nodded, making Balthazar--who had been tensed tighter than a corset since Dean had started speaking--relax.
“I’m Gordon Walker. And at least you’re not a coward, Campbell. I still want to know who your guest is though. I’m not fond of unexpected visitors as a general rule.”
Dean shrugged nonchalantly, “that’s my girl, Jo. I took her out to dinner before the meeting and we hadn’t picked a hotel for the night yet, so I figured she could sit in the car till I was done conducting business. I assume we do have business to conduct?”
Gordon was looking at Y/N again and let the silence stretch a bit longer than Dean was comfortable with.
“Not quite good enough. Have her join us, Dean, if you wouldn’t mind.”
Dean thought quickly through what Y/N had said, then shrugged like it was no big deal. Turning, he called to her through the open window, “Jo, sweetheart, come here for a minute.”
Y/N opened her door and stepped out, walking at a leisurely pace around the end of the Impala, then towards Dean. Her easy stride and the strappy heels she wore with that denim mini-skirt emphasized her long legs and made Dean’s mouth go dry.
When she reached him, she wrapped an arm around his waist and snuggled in next to him, her earring dangling against his pec. He put his own arm around her shoulders, casually claiming her in the gesture before turning back to the two men.
“Jo, this is Balthazar and Gordon. They wanted to meet you.”
“Hello.” Y/N waved, the picture of dim-witted innocence. “I hear you might have a job for my Dean?”
Y/N’s voice had changed--higher pitched and softer, with a midwestern accent, her natural drawl undetectable. The hand that wasn’t nestled at his opposite hip had landed on his chest, and when she looked up at him and smiled, even Dean almost bought that they were in a relationship with each other.
It was Balthazar’s British accent that answered her. “Maybe. If your boy can handle it.”
“Oh, my man can handle anything.”
Y/N’s voice had dropped an octave as she curled into him, gazing adoringly up into Dean’s eyes. He responded naturally, dropping his hand from her shoulder down to her hip, cupping the curve he found there and drawing her even closer.
He was aware enough of himself and his reactions to recognize the heat sizzling through his blood and pinpoint her as the reason for it, not the danger. Dean had been feeling flashes of that heat since he saw her on the phone in the kitchen at Sam and Jess’s place, when he first got a real good look at her.
It had been simmering beneath the angry surface of their discussions all afternoon.
But now, with her curved into his side, clinging and looking up at him like she couldn’t wait to get him alone--Dean forgot that this was the same ice-lady robot who could make him angry enough to yell in under a minute and couldn’t stop himself from wondering what her mouth would taste like… her skin….
Snapping out of it, he looked back and met Gordon’s dead-eyed stare straight on.
“Now that you’ve gotten a chance to see me and my girl, do we have business to discuss, or do we need to move on to our hotel room for the night?”
Y/N giggled into his chest and drew a distracting pattern on the fabric over his abs.
Gordon blinked, for the first time that Dean noticed, and his eyes redirected back to Y/N. Dean internally tensed but made sure not to show it.
“Do you trust her, Campbell?” His voice was flat enough, and Dean could hear the threat dripping off of it. If he couldn’t convince Gordon that “Jo” was not a cop or something, either they’d miss out on this opportunity, or she’d end up hurt or worse.
“Jo? She’s been with me for almost a year now. My girl and I have no secrets. She’s good.”
The silence stretched out long enough while he thought it over, and Dean was reminded again of his first impression. The man was deliberate--there wasn’t an impulsive bone in his body, but he also lacked empathy. Looking at him was like looking at a coiled boa constrictor--dangerous, sure of itself, and totally willing to wait until the absolutely perfect moment.
“Fair enough. There is a job opening. Tomorrow evening, 6 o’clock, meet me here. We’ll see if you’ve got what it takes.”
Balthazar wouldn’t make much of a poker player. The relief on his face was almost comic.
Dean nodded, turning Y/N and giving her a little push towards the car. He turned to follow her, the hairs on the back of his neck standing up as he turned his back towards the two criminals behind him, both of which he assumed were armed.
“Oh, and Campbell?”
Dean turned, raising an eyebrow at the older black man.
There was a smile on his face for the first time, and Dean thought it looked unnatural there. A predator’s grin over captured and wounded prey.
“Bring your girl along, since you trust her so much. There’s a way she can be useful too.”
Part 7 is on the way!
Author’s Note Pt. 2: I did a tag update list a while back, and many of my prior tags didn’t sign up. If that’s you, and you want back on, just send me an ASK and I’ll add you. Please specify if you want on my Forever List or my JAC list or both. The ONLY ones who get tagged in this series are those who are on the JAC list. Please spread the word!
IF you like my writing and are impatient for more, check out MY MASTERLIST while I finish up the next part of this series. There’s plenty there to amuse you in the meantime ;)
(I’m cheating here and tagging those who have commented awesome feedback on prior parts--you’re not on the taglist, and if you don’t ask, you won’t be tagged on the next part!)
