Simple Man
Gen Fic, but Relationships/Characters: Benny Lafitte & Elizbaeth, Benny Lafitte & OC (Katrina Black), Benny Lafitte & Dean Winchester, Dean/Katrina, Martin Creaser, Sam Winchester
Word Count: 15,361
Summary: Dean and Benny thought leaving Purgatory meant leaving each other behind and going it alone, but when Benny's latest attempt to find his own footing is jeopardized, Katrina challenges that.
Starts in Blood Brother (8.05) and mostly takes place in Citizen Fang (8.09). Part of the Long Winding Roads series (which can be found here) but can be read on its own.
Rating: M
A/N: Second ever bang fic, but the first one I signed up for! Hope y'all enjoy. I always thought Benny deserved better than he got in the show, so I decided to try and give him that.
Thank you so much to @xpurdyglambertx for claiming my fic and bringing it to life. The art you created is absolutely stunning, as always, your talent never ceases to amaze me, and I'm so, so lucky that I got to do this with such a great friend!
Also thank you to @justwhisperingfantasies for beta'ing and all your support.
Warnings: Canon typical violence/gore, Bloodlust struggle, canonical minor character death, Familial tension, Hurt/Comfort, Self-loathing, Post-Purgatory, Fix-it fic... I think that covers it, but let me know if I missed anything
“Why’d you do it, Dean?”
It was late… dark out in that way that made it impossible to imagine the sun would be shining down again in a few short hours… and it had been quiet as he and Benny had backtracked to the boat they’d used to get over to the island in the first place. Especially relative to the last few hours, everything had been feeling still, surreally so, but Benny’s question startled Dean back to life, and he eyed his friend warily.
It was a loaded question. One Dean didn’t particularly want to step into. The potential to say the wrong thing was too high.
“Do what?” he asked.
The answer he received was not one he'd been expecting, though it was probably even more telling. And although her name wasn't explicitly mentioned, Dean would have needed some heavy convincing to believe it had nothing to do with Andrea and what had just happened in the house.
“Resurrect me. You could have drained my soul into any culvert, and no one would have been the wiser.”
The thought to do something like that hadn’t even crossed Dean's mind, at least not since their first day or two together. But Dean realized that the question had very little to do with him, or even them, and everything to do with Benny.
“What the hell are you talking about?” he started to ask, his voice becoming more intense, more urgent, when he caught sight of his friend's expression. He’d seen that look on others before, and it never boded well. “Hey, you good?”
Benny paused, looking down to the boat. “Man… I don’t know what I am.”
Dean thought about pressing the issue further; he really did. But in the end, he helped Benny push the boat back into the water and climbed aboard without a word. Even knowing his actions had been necessary, guilt was bubbling in his stomach.
For all the shit he’d given Benny in the car, all the teasing he'd done, Dean got it in a way he probably wouldn’t have before.
If what had happened to Andrea had happened to Katrina… Dean didn’t even want to think about it.
The trip back to the mainland was equally quiet, though something in Benny seemed to ease, at least slightly, the further away they got. Of course, for Dean, it was the opposite. Out of habit, he went to check his phone before remembering it was broken.
He had no doubt that Sam and Katrina would be waiting for him when they docked, and while Kat hadn’t been quite as pissed on the phone as Sam was, she hadn’t been happy either, and both of them had definitely been worried. Going dark, even if it hadn’t been intentional, wasn’t going to have helped anything. Sam, he figured, was going to end up being even bitchier about the whole situation, and Dean was willing to bet Kat would oscillate between anger and concern.
Then, bigger than any of that, there was the Benny issue. Dean hadn’t told either of them about the vampire. And while, at the end of the day, it really didn’t make a difference to him what either of them had to say, he wasn’t naïve enough to think they wouldn’t have their opinions. Sam and Katrina were seasoned enough hunters that there’d be no hiding Benny’s nature even if Dean wanted to.
Sure enough, as the dock came into eyeshot, Dean spotted his baby brother and his girlfriend standing towards its edge. Even from a distance, Sam seemed to be a tightly wound ball of fury, standing stock still, staring out over the water as the dinghy approached. Kat was hovering next to him, a bit more fidgety than normal, her hair pulled into a haphazard braid with loose strands framing her face. She stood straighter when she noticed them, and Dean felt his stomach churn.
He didn’t care what she or Sam had to say about Benny because his opinion was already formed. Nothing they had to say was going to change how he felt about the guy or what he meant to Dean.
That didn’t mean he didn’t care what the fallout would be, though. Things were still relatively new with Kat. It had already taken them too damn long to get where they were… the thought of jeopardizing the small bit of happiness he’d found in her set him on edge.
Unsurprisingly, his feet had barely hit the dock before Katrina was pushing past Sam, unfazed by Benny’s presence, eyes set on Dean. She was glaring, a fierce expression on her face, but it didn’t stop her from throwing her arms around him. Dean caught her easily, still marveling at how natural it felt to have her in his arms and appreciating the warm weight of her body.
“You stupid ass,” she mumbled into his neck, her voice muffled but discernible to him. “Cleaning out a fucking vamp nest isn’t ‘personal business'.”
Normally, Dean probably would have laughed. He probably would have even teased her a bit. Tonight, however, he was too preoccupied, and instead he found himself holding her close, dropping a kiss to the top of her head while carefully watching the scene unfold between the other two in front of him.
“I’m Benny. You two must be Sam and Katrina. Heard a lot about you both.”
Dean could tell the exact moment that Sam put it together. Benny, it seemed, could too, and in that moment, Dean had no idea what to say or do, short of shaking his head at Sam when his brother went for the machete at his hip, even as he shook Benny’s offered hand. Sam heeded the silent warning, but Dean knew from years of experience that it was far from a done deal. His baby brother could be like a dog with a bone, and right now, Dean could tell his mind was already whirring with all the things he wanted to say.
Katrina, of course, noticed the tension and was quickly pulling back, taking care to keep her arms locked around Dean but turning to observe what was going on.
Her eyes flitted between the three of them, and Dean wasn’t sure how she did it, but he could tell she put the pieces together, too. He’d opened up to her a bit more than he had to Sam about Purgatory… not much, he hated talking about it, but she knew he’d had help getting out. And so when she ultimately looked up at him, her eyes burning with curiosity, Dean knew what she was asking without needing her to vocalize it. The small nod he gave in answer seemed to be all she needed.
“I can see you three have a lot to talk about,” Benny was saying as he dropped Sam’s hand. He hadn’t noticed Katrina’s shift in attention yet, and when he patted Dean on the shoulder, she took all of them by surprise, stepping away from Dean to wrap Benny in a hug instead.
“Thank you,” Dean heard her murmur. Benny returned the hug awkwardly, his hands hovering in the air a second before they actually settled on her back, like he wasn’t sure if this was allowed. Over her shoulder, he gave Dean a bewildered look. Dean was too relieved to do much more than shrug, but the tension in Benny’s shoulders eased ever so slightly all the same.
“There’s nothing I need thankin’ for, darlin',” Benny told her, but Kat was stubbornly shaking her head, even as she pulled away from the embrace and was reaching back for Dean.
“That’s bullshit,” Katrina stated bluntly. “He’s home, and he didn’t do it on his own. So thank you, and thank you for having his back in there.”
For a moment, Benny seemed taken aback, and Dean couldn’t blame him — he loved Kat, and she still caught him by surprise half the time. Slowly, though, a smile formed on Benny’s face, his eyes darting between the pair of them before they ultimately landed on Dean.
“You got yourself a good one there, brother,” he said, and Dean felt a flush of pride, instinctively tightening the arm he'd slipped around Katrina’s waist.
“The best,” he agreed, unable to hide the affection in his voice, even as a part of him felt guilty considering what Benny had just been put through.
Of course, Dean could still see Sam scowling in his peripheral, and it seemed Benny picked up on the lingering tension too, because he didn’t wait much longer before patting Dean on the shoulder again and backtracking towards the parking lot. The silence he left in his wake was uncomfortable, and Dean braced himself for the fallout that was all but inevitable.
Sam, of course, didn't disappoint, and in the days that followed, Dean found the bickering that had plagued them since his return reaching new levels. They were both pissed, and given how pissed he was and Sam’s own track record, Dean really didn’t have the patience to consider what Sam had to say about Benny. It wasn’t like Benny was dropping bodies, not since Dean had hauled his ass through the portal, and at least Benny had been there for him… which, after everything they’d fucking been through, was depressingly more than Dean felt he could say for Sam.
What Dean hadn’t expected was the way Kat had wholeheartedly and steadfastly had his back on the subject. She’d been quick, quicker than Dean, to lash out and make the point that he and Sam had allied with worse before, and that, comparatively, Benny had asked for nearly nothing in return to help Dean… and had given them more than enough to be appreciative of by getting him out.
Katrina had always been a little feisty, but she’d been particularly wired… a little extra… fiery… when she’d laid into Sam.
It was somewhere around then that Dean realized that, as angry as he’d been at Sam for not looking for him, Katrina may have been even angrier. And from the way Sam immediately backed down, Dean suspected it was something they’d argued about more than once in his absence. He’d been so caught up in his own crap with Sam, and figuring his shit out with Kat, worrying about Benny and the secrets he was keeping, that he hadn’t noticed it before. But once he had, it was something he couldn’t unsee.
Not that either of them seemed willing to talk to Dean about it. When he tried to bring it up with Kat, his girlfriend, who typically couldn’t hold her tongue to save her damn life, suddenly became uncharacteristically sweet, assuring him that she and Sam were fine and it was in his head, that he was just imagining things because he was pissed.
Sam was no more helpful, even after Kat had left to get back to Sioux Falls for work, leaving them on their own in Kearney.
It was weird… unsettling even… but despite whatever unresolved tension there was, Dean decided it could take a backseat to the other things he had on his plate. In the grand scheme of things, as long as no one was talking about what Dean had come to think of as their missing year, it didn’t seem all that significant.
Sure, he wished things were different. He didn’t like not having Benny around anymore; he missed Cas, he hated fighting with Sam… but this, what he had going with Sam and Katrina, that was the closest he could get to any sense of normalcy. And for now, that was going to have to do.
Benny Lafitte hadn’t expected to hear anything more from Dean Winchester after they parted ways on the dock in Washington.
They hadn’t talked all that much since Dean had sprung him from Purgatory anyway, and the look on Sam’s face had said more than any words could have. It didn’t matter the history between them, or even that Dean’s girl, Katrina, had rushed to embrace him — Benny knew Dean well enough to know that he and Sam were a packaged deal. It didn’t take a genius to figure that out.
And the surprise on both Sam and Katrina’s faces when they’d met him had only confirmed what Benny had already known in his heart — that Dean had been keeping his distance because anything that had happened in Purgatory? Including him? That was something Dean intended to keep there… away from the life he’d fought to come back to. A life Benny didn’t fit into.
He tried to tell himself that it suited him just fine — he didn’t need anyone. Hell, anyone he’d ever had in his life before had only let him down, even Andrea — so why in the world would he want to sign up for more of that? And it wasn’t like he’d had so many close pals in Purgatory.
No, he had grown used to living a rather solitary existence.
Used to it… though he wasn’t sure he’d ever grown to enjoy it.
So when Desmond showed up in Carencro, calling Dean for help wasn’t even a thought.
It had been a difficult two months since he and Dean had taken care of his old nest, and the two months before that hadn’t been all that much better. But as time wore on, the hunger he’d learned to control all those years ago, but hadn’t had to think about in Purgatory, became more intense, more acute… right on the verge of becoming all-consuming. He tried not to let it, but the truth about what had happened to Andrea, what she’d become… it tainted the memories that had helped Benny cling to the humanity she’d helped return to him. And then, without Dean… for a while, Benny couldn’t help but wonder what the point was? Why he was there? Why he’d wanted to come back?
Dean had used to say that Purgatory was pure. It wasn’t until after he’d been back topside that Benny finally understood what he’d meant, and he found he wished he’d appreciated it more before.
Going back to Carencro, however, had proven to be a good call. It was the homecoming he hadn’t realized he needed, and in the weeks following his arrival, Benny found himself feeling the best he had since Sorento had taken off his head.
Finding Elizabeth was a godsend — he hadn’t even realized how much he longed for family until he’d started to fill that hole. Sure, she didn’t know he was her great-grandfather, thought he was just another drifter… thought his name was Roy. But Benny knew, and that was enough. Suddenly, he had a whole new reason to hold himself accountable… to cling to that humanity the monster in him tried to take away.
Slowly, he had started settling into a routine — working his old job at the gumbo shack, forging something resembling a relationship with Lizzy, living off of blood bags, making do with the beat-up old camper that at least suited his needs just fine, and trying not to leave himself with too much spare time. It wasn’t much of an existence, but it was a start, and it was his. That was enough for Benny.
Enough to keep him going. Enough to make him feel like he could fit. Enough for him to do what was needed to defend and protect it.
Benny knew who was approaching as he washed the blood off his hands without looking. Even if his senses, heightened beyond those of any human, hadn’t been able to pick out Dean’s particular scent or recognize the unique sound of his gait, Benny still would have known. As soon as he had started ducking his friend’s calls, he had figured it would only be a matter of time before it warranted a drop by.
But he hadn’t wanted to bother Dean. And he had hoped to have the problem taken care of before it became Dean’s issue.
“It’s not me, Dean,” he said in the way of a greeting without so much as looking up, and the footsteps paused.
“Now, which ‘me’ are we talking about — Benny, or Roy?”
Benny turned to see Dean stopped a few feet away, hands behind his back and clearly holding a machete, even if he was trying to be subtle about it. He wasn’t surprised that Dean had already started doing his research and had discovered his alias. Benny hadn’t left him a lot of options, and Dean knew how to do his job.
He was, however, somewhat surprised to see that Dean was alone. Thanks to that heightened sense of smell he had, Benny could tell that Dean had been with that girl of his in the not too distant past. Katrina's smell was all over him, even though the woman herself was nowhere in sight, and, though he'd only met her briefly, Katrina hadn't struck Benny as the type to be comfortable with Dean going and doing something potentially dangerous on his own.
Either he’d misjudged, was missing something, or Dean’s girl trusted Benny a hell of a lot more than Benny would have expected.
“I’m just trying to blend in,” he said, drying his hands off.
“Blend in? Who’d you plant, Benny?”
And so Benny reluctantly told Dean the truth about what had been going on. Explained about Desmond, about the threat the vamp had made against him that Benny hadn’t taken seriously, the bodies he’d left behind, and, without meaning to, the life he’d been building there in Carencro for himself. That was when Dean finally sheathed the machete.
It wasn’t until they were strategizing that Dean finally brought up Katrina.
“Hang on,” he said lowly, almost as if he’d remembered something, while he pulled out his phone and began to tap out a message. Benny watched with raised eyebrows, and when Dean finally looked back up and clocked the expectant expression, he understood the question without actually being asked. “I called Kat when Sam told me about Martin. For backup. Sammy and Martin don’t know she’s in town. Probably best if she lays low with you while I try and talk to them.”
And that was how Benny came to find himself sitting on a tree stump about an hour later, with Dean’s girlfriend a couple of feet away in a folding chair she’d tried to insist he take before finally relenting and sitting down, with nothing to do but wait for news.
Every minute set him further on edge, and Benny felt about ready to burst out of his skin. It was nothing to do with the company itself — Katrina was perfectly fine — but Desmond had made this personal, and Benny was roiling to do something about it. Inaction had never been his style.
Nor, did he gather, was it Katrina’s, because as frustrated as he was becoming, it didn’t escape his attention that she seemed equally uneasy.
“You alright over there, darlin’?” he finally asked after about a half hour had gone by since Dean had left them, after he’d observed her twist and break off yet another loose thread from her jacket sleeve and flick it away. She looked up at the question, startled, before she tried to mask it with an unconvincing smile.
“Peachy,” she quipped, and Benny almost chuckled — he’d heard the same sarcastic sort of answer from Dean more times than he could count.
Briefly, he wondered if her unease had anything to do with him, but as if sensing the direction his thoughts were going, Katrina’s features softened into something more genuine, and she shuffled to sit up straighter. “Sorry,” she mumbled. “Just don’t like sitting around waiting. And I’ve been pissed off at Sam since Dean called me, but I haven’t been allowed to give him a piece of my mind yet.”
That surprised him, and he couldn’t stop his brows from rising. Even Dean hadn’t seemed all that angry with his brother, and to boot, Katrina didn’t exactly strike him as the type of woman who cared one bit about what she was allowed or not allowed to do.
“You and Dean’s baby brother not get along?” he asked. Katrina snorted but shook her head, her fingers starting to play with the ends of her hair instead of her sleeve. Sitting still, it seemed, truly was not her specialty.
“No, we get along great. I love Sam, he’s family, has been long before me and Dean got together. But he’s been pissing me off a lot lately.”
Despite the circumstances, Benny chuckled. She was blunt… something he imagined appealed to Dean.
“From what I understand, family has a way of doing that.”
Katrina pursed her lips, eyes widening, and she nodded emphatically in agreement. “That’s for damn sure.”
Something in the air around them eased a bit, and the next few minutes passed by a little faster, both of them talking back and forth, making casual conversation. Benny had already been thinking it, but it was Katrina who eventually suggested he call Desmond.
“Just tell him you want in,” she said, frustration coloring her tone again now that they had returned to the situation at hand. “Even if he’s smart enough not to tell you where the nest itself is, he’s gonna have to give you some kind of meeting place. And if he tries to ambush you, you’ll have me and Dean backing you up. At least. Unless you got a better idea, but we’re not doing anything, just twiddling our thumbs here.”
Smirking to himself, Benny pulled his phone out of his pocket and stood up to make the call.
It was later on, just after he'd gotten off a call with Lizzy — something about the fryer being on the fritz — and Katrina had come and sat next to him that his phone rang again, flashing Dean’s name across the screen.
“That's your great-granddaughter?” she asked kindly. Benny nodded and noticed a soft, understanding smile spread across her face. “Dean and I met her at the cafe. She was really nice. Seemed quite fond of you.”
“Yeah, Lizzy’s a good girl,” he agreed. “She doesn’t know who I am, but it’s helped, having someone to hold myself accountable to, after, uh… after Andrea, and with Dean off doin’ his thing with you and Sam.”
He’d hesitated for a moment, not sure she'd know who Andrea was, but he had no doubt she’d have wanted details from Dean about Bainbridge Island, and Andrea would have been part of that story. Watching her reaction, he figured he’d guessed right. There was something more there, though, too… an understanding that went beyond following along with his explanation. But that was when Dean called, effectively ending the conversation.
“What’d they say?” he asked, picking it up. Katrina hovered, interest clearly piqued, and her ears straining to listen. Noticing, Benny quickly switched it over to speaker.
“They didn’t go for it, and they’re on their way to you. Get scarce. They don’t know Kat’s with you.”
“No offense, Dean, but your little brother doesn’t exactly put chills up my spine.”
“Benny, listen to me. Do not underestimate my little brother, okay? He can and will kill you given the chance.”
Katrina scoffed. “He can try, but he wouldn't do anything to so much as hurt me.”
Benny hadn’t bothered to tell Dean that he was on with both of them, and there was a slight pause in which Benny had no trouble imagining the frown likely spreading across Dean’s face. But then his voice came through, clear and firm.
“If putting yourself in the line of fire between Benny, Sam, and Martin is your idea of a plan, Kat, we need to have a fucking talk.”
Katrina rolled her eyes, and despite the situation, Benny found himself smirking. “Don’t be an idiot. I’m just saying —”
“Yeah, yeah. Look, I get, Kat, that you’re not worried about Sam, but Benny should be, and Martin might not seem like much, but I’m not convinced he’s totally with it, which makes him dangerous.”
“Alright, so what now?” Benny pushed, jumping in before they could get much further off track. Dean’s answer was unsurprising and equally unsatisfying.
“I go find Desmond.”
“You take me with,” he corrected.
There was no denying that Benny appreciated Dean showing up. He appreciated even more that Dean trusted him and had his back. That Katrina seemed to have accepted him so easily and followed suit, too. But this was still his fight, his issue. This prick was trying to chase him out of his hometown, away from his family, and it was personal, to say the least.
He wasn’t about to sit out of this one. Not for anyone.
“Hey, I just told you —” Dean started to argue, “best thing you can do is lay low. You and Kat stick together. She’ll have your back and —”
“Dean, don’t be —”
“That ain’t gonna work this time, bub,” Benny interjected over both of them. “You take me with, or I don’t tell you where he is.”
Dean faltered, and Katrina caught Benny’s eye, smirking as they both waited to hear his response.
“You know where he is?” Dean finally asked. Katrina’s smirk widened, and Benny turned his attention back to the phone, his hand subconsciously moving towards his machete.
“He said he’s not gonna stop the killing till I join his little nest. Two bodies is enough. I told him I’m in.”
“Benny —"
“Dean, this is my fight. Are you in or are you out?”
There was another pause, but Benny knew the argument had been won. He could tell that Katrina knew too, and they both sat waiting for the confirmation. It came eventually, and after a short discussion, Dean agreed to meet them on the edge of town.
Till that point, Benny hadn’t let himself question it, but as he and Katrina started to head towards the agreed-upon destination, it was hard to totally shut out that little voice that had been nagging at him since the dock in Washington. Katrina hadn’t done anything to warrant a lack of trust, and it wasn’t that Benny thought she was being disingenuous… but her acceptance still seemed too easy. Like he was missing a step.
She had a certain spark about her that Benny appreciated, and he could see why she and Dean had been drawn to each other. He’d even go so far as to say he was developing his own soft spot for her. But Katrina had never fought by his side before. He didn’t have the history with her that Dean did. And on the precipice of a fight where he couldn’t afford distractions… understanding her motivations, what made her tick, seemed infinitely more relevant.
Basic survival instincts, really.
That was what pushed him to broach the subject at about the halfway point.
“Can I ask you something?”
It had been quiet in the car — Katrina’s car, since she’d pointed out it’d be less conspicuous. They’d moved his camper out of the way to throw anyone looking for him off the trail, namely Sam and Martin, and then set off with her behind the wheel. His voice filled the small space easily, which had been quiet aside from the semi-rough sound of the engine and the wind battling against her Jeep as she drove it down the road, and Benny watched her eyes flick in his direction, a mix of confusion and surprise clear on her face even as she refocused almost immediately back on the road.
“Yeah, sure, what’cha got?”
“Why're you helpin’ me?”
Katrina’s brow furrowed deeper, and she spared him another look, eyesight seemingly split between him and the windshield before she forced her gaze forward again.
“What kind of question is that?” she half-laughed. “Why wouldn’t I help?”
Benny couldn’t help the wry smile that formed on his face. “Oh, I don’t know. Could start with the fact that you’re a hunter and I’m a vampire… a fact that certainly seems important to baby brother Winchester. Then there’s the fact that you don’t really know me from Adam —”
“Maybe not, but you’re important to Dean,” she interjected simply, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and Benny looked back at her in confusion.
“So?”
“And you saved him, didn’t you? Dean certainly credits getting home to you… said you had his back in Purgatory,” Katrina continued on as if he hadn’t spoken. Benny frowned.
“Suppose you could put it that way… ‘s not like he didn’t do the same for me, though. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement.”
“So?” she asked, parroting him, and Benny smirked. “Look, I know there’s plenty of hunters out there that see things black and white… can’t fathom the idea of something supernatural not worth killing.”
“But lemme guess — you’re not one of ‘em?”
Katrina shrugged. “I’ve never thought so.”
“You still don’t know me,” Benny pointed out after a beat. She seemed to contemplate his words for a moment… Benny watched the corners of her mouth tug down into a frown as she did it… and then finally shrugged again.
“I don’t,” she admitted, “not really, anyways. But Dean… Dean doesn’t trust easy. Not just people, I mean, anything. He’s skeptical, by nature or nurture, who the hell knows, but probably both if I had to guess. But he trusts you, and I trust him. That’s enough for me.”
“Just like that?” he pushed, and Katrina shrugged.
“Just like that.”
Benny contemplated her for a moment, finally shaking his head. “You’re one of a kind, Miss. Katrina Black.”
Her eyes stayed pointed dead ahead on the road, but the smirk was back on her face. “So I’ve been told. Running theory is one too many blows to the head when I was a kid.”
It was dark when they finally got to the shipyard, and they got there a few minutes before Dean pulled up in the Impala. At Benny’s direction, Katrina made sure to park far enough away that Desmond wouldn’t be able to smell her while they waited, and as soon as Dean parked, they were both walking towards him and following him around to his trunk without a word.
“This the place, huh?” he asked as he opened it, clearly a rhetorical question. Benny noticed Katrina studying Dean’s face with narrowed eyes, but Dean seemed too busy taking in their surroundings and pulling out what looked like a syringe of dead man’s blood to notice for himself. “So, what’s the plan? Katrina and I hang back while you guys do some trust falls and binge-drinking?”
“Man, if I didn’t know you better, I’d say you have an extremely low opinion of us vamps,” Benny joked, and Dean smirked.
“Pssh. Call it healthy skepticism.” That was when he finally looked towards Katrina. “Hey, sweetheart.”
Katrina’s eyes only narrowed further, seeming to hone in on a spot on his forehead. Following her gaze, that was when Benny spotted the dried blood, and his own eyes almost widened in surprise that she’d caught it — he certainly wouldn’t have.
“What happened there?” she demanded, and Dean frowned.
“Nothing,” he dismissed, still pulling items from the arsenal in his trunk, but Katrina wasn’t deterred.
“Doesn’t look like nothing.”
Dean looked to Benny then, and Benny simply raised his eyebrows, feeling mildly amused and, now that Katrina had pointed it out, curious. Dean rolled his eyes, shoving one last thing into his pocket and slamming the trunk lid back down before giving his attention back to Katrina.
“Just Martin. C’mon, Kat, we got shit to do. You can take a look after, I promise.”
There was no more discussion as the three of them headed deeper into the shipyard, splitting up as they entered the building and making as little noise as possible as they moved — though Benny knew, more than the others, that it wouldn’t do much good. Desmond would still hear them, just like he could still hear Dean and Kat… smell them too. Still, better to make him work as much as they could to find their locations. And splitting up… the vamp couldn’t go three places at once.
The closer they got, the more the rest of the world fell away, and the thrill of the hunt, the instinct to kill, began to take over. It was a part of himself Benny hadn’t expected to miss from Purgatory, hadn’t expected to be so hard to leave behind, but he welcomed it back now. It was the side of himself he needed to tap into to come out on top.
No amateur was going to kick him out of his hometown. He wasn’t going to be bullied into going back to the monster he used to be. And two bodies, Desmond’s collateral, weren’t going to go unanswered for. They might not have meant anything personally to Benny, but they meant something to someone, and what they represented was enough.
Dean was the one that got found first. Benny saw it happen from a distance, but he hadn’t been worried — he’d seen his friend take on worse before. Much worse. If anything, he was almost disappointed, figuring it would be Dean that finally got to separate Desmond’s head from his neck.
Too soon, however, it became apparent that Dean was struggling to recover from Desmond getting the drop on him.
Katrina got to them first, temporarily distracting the vamp from Dean, but it was short-lived. They grappled, and Benny had to admit, the woman did a decent job of holding her own, but she’d tried to take him on without dead man’s blood, and in the end, Desmond’s strength won out. As soon as he found his opening, Desmond batted her away as if she were nothing more than an annoying fly, sending her flying into a pile of crates just in time to pin Dean back down, who had been clambering back to his feet.
He probably could have gotten the upper hand at that point, but Benny could see, even from a distance, the concern that had taken hold of his features, and noticed the way his eyes flickered towards Katrina’s prone form some feet away. It was that brief distraction that cost him and gave Desmond the opportunity to start in on his throat.
Benny finally got there, just as Desmond was licking Dean’s blood from his horribly long fingernails. He reached down and pulled the vamp up with ease, bringing his machete down in another smooth motion, and watched as his head fell with a satisfying thud and rolled.
Dropping the body, he looked down at Dean, lying on the ground. In his peripheral, he could see Katrina pushing back to her own feet, moving only a little gingerly but seemingly with no real damage done.
“Son of a… it took you long enough,” Dean swore, then complained. Benny raised his eyebrows, a smirk teasing at his mouth.
“You’ve lost a step, friend,” he called him out, offering a hand. Dean glanced towards Katrina first, only easing and accepting once he saw she was coming back towards them. “You need to lay off the junk food,” he continued, helping Dean back to his feet.
It wasn’t like the motion had brought Dean all that much closer, but it was just enough to make a difference. As soon as he was standing, placing a hand to the cut openly bleeding on his neck and wincing, the smell of his blood in the air hit Benny like a wall, and despite everything his friend meant to him, he had to try hard, to battle back the instincts that rose up.
Just like when they’d been infiltrating the building, it was like the rest of the world started to fall away. All Benny could hear were the two human heartbeats surrounding him — Dean’s louder and more familiar, Katrina’s complementing it and adding to the din, making it impossible to shut out. All he could smell was the fresh blood, more appetizing than the bagged blood he sustained himself on and infinitely more appetizing than the animal blood he knew some vamps tried to live off of. Still high on the kill and satisfying that bloodthirsty part of his brain, Benny could feel his fangs trying to descend on their own, aching to rip into human flesh.
He bit it all back, though, gritted his teeth, and did what he could to ground himself. Benny didn’t hurt humans, didn’t kill them. Especially not Dean, or his girl. They were the only two humans that knew what he was and were still willing to go to bat for him… still willing to not only lift a finger, but bend over backwards and put themselves in danger to help him.
For a moment, he ached for Purgatory and the way he hadn’t needed to worry about the hunger there.
Then there was a gentle touch to his elbow, and Benny was jolted back to reality, turning to find both Dean and Katrina looking at him, each with an arm around the other, but their attention clearly diverted. It was Katrina’s hand that was retreating from his arm, but Dean that spoke when they saw they’d gotten his attention.
“You okay?”
His better demons were taking control back, and he nodded, taking a deep breath. “I’m fine.”
But he wasn’t fine, and the reality of not just the past few days but the past few months started to come crashing down like a ton of bricks. Before he could crumble, Benny quietly turned and headed towards the building exit.
The quiet outside, combined with the cool night air, was something like a balm, and Benny let it wash over him as he approached the fence, separating this part of the shipyard from the water. When he was a ways from the building, far enough that he could think clearly again, he stopped, hands in his pockets, and stared out into the darkness. The air filled with sounds he'd grown up with and followed him through most walks of his life, so familiar they were almost a lullaby — crickets and some other kind of bug chirping their music, water gently breaking against the surface, the light breeze that was always present at the shoreline carefully rustling anything and everything that wasn't one hundred percent secure…
He'd been happy to come back here… it had been like reclaiming a piece of himself he'd missed sorely but had thought would be out of his reach forever… had thought what he'd been turned into had precluded him from having. And he supposed, given recent events, he'd been right in a way, even if it had felt like it was working at first.
Benny heard them before he saw them — Dean's slightly heavier steps, Katrina's light breathing, returned back to its normal rate, both of them hesitant in a way that didn't suit them and bringing a heaviness Benny had been hoping to avoid but knew was inevitable.
"My life here is over, isn't it?" he asked without looking away from the water. He could still smell the fresh blood on Dean, but it was easier to ignore now, and not as strong out in the open air.
"Afraid so," Dean admitted, his voice quiet, heavy with the weight of what they were discussing and what sounded like regret. "Once word gets out… the machete swingers that'll come for you… You can't take them all. It's impossible. And even if you could…"
Even if he could, one of those machete swingers would be Dean's baby brother. The same brother Dean would and had died for. Had died for, actually.
"We'd have a problem," Benny finished for him, finally turning to look over his shoulder and meet the other man's eye. There was understanding there… regret, just like Benny had suspected… and a solemn, broken expression Benny wasn't accustomed to seeing. Blood was still smeared across his neck, but the wound wasn't actively bleeding anymore. Katrina, though she hadn't said anything yet, was standing just past Dean's shoulder, watching them with an expression Benny couldn't quite read.
It didn't matter. What did matter was the nod Dean gave him in confirmation.
"Guys like us," Dean said after a moment, drawing both Benny and Katrina's attention, "we don't get a home. We don't get family."
"You got Sam," Benny pointed out morosely, ironically realizing that was part of the problem. He turned back to the water at that point, but if he hadn't, he might have noticed the way Katrina's eyes were narrowing.
"Yeah. Benny, you got to go deep underground, where nobody knows who you are."
He knew Dean was right. That if he wanted a chance at anything better later, he needed to disappear. He needed to get Sam off his ass, and Martin, as much of a half-wit as he was, and any other hunters that were bound to come sniffing around. Benny was on the verge of agreeing when another voice entered the conversation, angry and incredulous, but firm.
"That's fucking stupid."
Surprised, Benny turned to find Katrina staring at both of them with narrowed eyes and arms folded over her chest, though most of her ire seemed to be directed at Dean. For his part, Dean looked equally taken aback as Benny and shot her back a challenging look.
"The hell do you mean, 'that's fucking stupid'? It's what we're dealing with here, Kat."
The creases in Katrina's brow deepened; her frustration was palpable in the air.
"No, it isn't," she disputed. "And what the hell do you mean 'guys like you' don't get home or family? Benny's right! You got Sam. You've always had Sam, and you had Bobby. And you have me, and our home, and we make it work."
Dean looked deeply uncomfortable, and Benny could see his jaw twitching with the effort of holding back whatever it was he wanted to say.
"It's not that simple —" he finally started, but Katrina appeared to be having none of it.
"Oh yes, it is," she interjected. "Benny hasn't done anything wrong, and this go-it-alone thing you two seem to have decided on is beyond ridiculous." She turned to him then, her features softening something, though the fire she'd had with Dean was still detectable, not wholly burned out. "Come with us. I have a house, Dean and Sam have been 'crashing' there for years when they aren't on the road, and there's plenty of room. It's not safe for you to stay here, but that doesn't mean you have to go 'deep underground.' We'll figure something else out."
"Darlin', I appreciate what you're offering, but —"
"But what?" she cut him off, some of the edge that had been in her voice with Dean coming back. Dean signed.
"But Sam, Kat. And even if Sam got over his bullshit —"
"Screw Sam, I've been itching to give both of you a piece of my mind lately —"
"Even if Sam weren't a concern, coming with us is just gonna be putting a bigger target on Benny's back."
"On all your backs," Benny agreed, and Katrina looked between them skeptically.
"And how exactly do you figure that?" she finally asked.
"A fang, hanging out with a bunch of hunters?" Benny questioned gently, letting out a soft, sad chuckle as he shook his head. "Now that is just inviting trouble."
"Benny got killed by his own kind for going off with a human last time he was topside," Dean informed her, leaving out, Benny noted, any mentions of Andrea. Katrina frowned, seeming to deflate just a bit, but eventually she gave a stubborn shake of her head.
"Okay, so maybe it's not the easiest road, but we'll figure it out. We always do, that's what you do for family. And Benny's on his own right now; who the fuck's gonna come after him for sticking with us? He's not part of a nest. And we don't need to go advertising what he is. There's no way he's safer on his own than he would be with us."
Benny was still reluctant, and more than that, he was surprised at the ease with which Katrina was welcoming him in. It went with the theme of the day — she'd been a constant surprise, after all, but seemingly determined to treat him as one of their own.
She wore Dean down first, who finally ran a hand down his face and looked towards Benny, a silent communication passing between them. Despite having been months since they'd been in Purgatory, side by side day in and day out, Benny could still read him like a book. The look said that Dean was sold on what Katrina was pitching, that he trusted her, but that it still mattered to him what Benny thought of it. That he'd back Benny's play, whatever it was.
Feeling like it was a losing battle, Benny let his own eyes shift back to Katrina, eyeing her assessingly. Despite the back and forth, she hadn't softened a single bit, that determined, 'so what' look on her face, and arms crossed over her chest. It didn't take her long to realize he was staring, and she stared back, unblinkingly and raising her eyebrow in silent challenge.
"You're inviting more trouble than I'm worth," he told her. "This is my cross to bear, my life to figure out. You and Dean have your own life to square up."
"If it weren't for you, Dean and I would have a life to 'square up'. In my book, that means you're worth whatever trouble you might bring," she said firmly.
Benny opened his mouth to protest again, but Dean shook his head, a mix of affection and exasperation clear in his features. "You're not gonna change her mind, man. Chick's more stubborn than the both of us put together sometimes."
"Damn right," Katrina agreed easily, swiveling her head to give Dean a pointed look. "And don't you forget it."
"Alright," Benny finally capitulated. "I think you're both crazier than hell for this, but I'm in. There's just one last thing I got to do."
It was still hard to pack up the life he'd been building and say goodbye to it, even if the packing was largely metaphorical. But by the time Benny walked out of the cafe for the last time, having said the best goodbye to Lizzy he could manage without actually saying goodbye, even he had to admit the fact that he had somewhere to go to softened the blow at least a little.
He, Dean, and Katrina had all gathered around the cafe — Dean with the Impala, Katrina with her Jeep, and Benny with his truck and camper. There'd been a very brief consideration given to leaving the camper behind, but in the end, he'd decided to bring it, liking the idea of having an escape route and something that was his, even if maybe he didn't need those things.
Both Dean and Katrina had ducked back outside first, giving Benny a few minutes to himself before walking out the door, and when he went to join them, he found their heads bent together, whispered and almost tense conversation passing between them.
"You did what?" Katrina was asking. Despite the effort she made to keep her voice low, it carried in the quietness of the parking lot, clear as day. Neither she nor Dean, however, seemed to notice Benny approaching, and Dean scratched at the back of his neck. He looked unapologetic, but Benny suspected it was a front based on the discomfort detectable just beneath the surface as he shifted in place.
"'S not a big deal, and it worked, didn't it?"
Katrina's nostrils flared, and she narrowed her eyes back at him. "And how would you take it if he pulled that kind of crap with you about me?"
Dean ground his teeth. "That ain't the same."
"It's exactly the same," Katrina refuted, jabbing him in the chest, shaking her head in exasperation as her hand dropped back to her side. "Honestly, the both of you are driving me up a fucking wall these days. Do you have any idea —"
"Not interrupting anything, am I?" Benny asked as he drew level. Dean and Katrina looked up, both of them seeming surprised, but whatever tension that had been brewing seemed to dissipate.
"Nope," Dean answered quickly, a tad too quickly. "Kat was just asking where Sam was."
Something that might have been nerves stirred in Benny's gut. Despite Katrina's reassurances and ultimately Dean's, Benny wasn't convinced the youngest Winchester was going to be won over, or happy with the plan.
"And where exactly would that be?" he pressed.
"Uh, probably more than halfway to Texas," Dean admitted while Katrina's face soured. "Wanted him out of the way… might've sent a fake 911… anyway, I'll let him know what's going on while we're all on the road. He'll be fine."
Benny still wasn't convinced it would be fine, but they'd talked about it enough, and he nodded instead of rehashing things again.
"And the half-wit?"
Dean gave a humorless smirk. "I'll take care of Martin. Asshole needs a new line of work."
There was one last short round of discussion — Katrina making sure Benny had the address right, Dean going over the directions again — before all three of them started to head towards their vehicles. Katrina pulled away first, and Benny caught Dean's eye, hesitating between his camper and where Dean stood by the driver's door of the Impala. Dean quirked an eyebrow, silently begging the question 'what?' and Benny took a breath.
"You sure about this, brother?"
Dean nodded without hesitation, a genuine expression crossing his face that was clear even in the dim lighting of the parking lot.
"Yeah, man. Positive. Kat's right… she usually is. Not that she needs to hear that. But… family don't end in blood. We might not be a damn Hallmark movie or anything, but it's better than going it alone."
Benny paused for a moment, the weight of Dean's words hitting him harder than he expected, and then nodded. He was used to living his solitary existence… had stopped counting on the idea of 'family' a long time ago. Being offered entryway into a new one, even as fractured and broken as Dean and even Katrina claimed it was, felt too good to be true.
"Thanks, Dean. Thanks for not giving up on me."
Dean smiled. "Don't give me a reason to."
Without waiting for a reply, the hunter then wrenched his door open and dropped down behind the wheel of his beloved car. A year in Purgatory and Benny had probably heard about the damn Impala nearly as much as he'd heard about Sam and Katrina.
With a shake of his head, Benny followed suit and climbed into the driver's seat of his truck, a wry smile tugging at his lips as he went. He still had his reservations, but something unfamiliar and dangerous was starting to take hold in his chest… something that felt suspiciously like hope.
The drive itself was uneventful. Given the late hour, there weren't many other people on the road, and Benny even lost Dean when the other man turned off to fill up at a gas station. He thought about turning the radio on, but there was something oddly soothing about the quiet, and so he didn't fiddle with it. Instead, he focused on the yellow lines and the miles of asphalt he was eating up, wondering, despite his best efforts not to, what might be in store for him next.
A vampire living with a bunch of humans… a bunch of hunters. He'd been deemed crazy enough by his kind when he went off with Andrea, so much so that it was what had gotten him killed. Benny supposed that at least this time, there was no nest he was abandoning for this new life of his, no one that should come looking for him or take it as a personal betrayal, but it still felt risky. And Sam was more than enough proof that there would be people in Dean and Katrina's circle likely to take issue with the arrangement.
Martin was even more proof… even if he was a half-wit.
Benny was curious how things would shake out when push came to shove, because he had no doubt that it would. He already knew he wouldn't hold it against Dean or Katrina if they changed their minds… if they decided he was more trouble than he was worth… but damn did he hope they might come through.
A little ways into the drive — long enough that Benny had lost track of time but not so long that he felt like he'd made real progress — when his solitude was interrupted by the shrill sound of his cell phone ringing next to him. He fished the damn thing out of the cup holder where he'd tossed it, glancing at the screen before flipping it open.
He was expecting Dean or Katrina, maybe with something to tell him about traffic or the route they'd suggested, but instead he saw Elizabeth's name flashing. It was bittersweet, and for half a beat, he thought about not answering, thoughts of a "clean" break, or as clean a break as he could manage, dancing in the corners of his brain. But Liz was family, and that seed of hope Dean and Katrina had planted was already growing, spreading, and some stupid, self-indulgent part of him thought that maybe, just maybe, there was a way to stay in touch.
A smile forming on his face, he hit the green button to accept and held the phone to his ear, keeping his eyes on the road and his other hand on the steering wheel. "Hey, Liz. How's your shift going?"
The voice that came through from the other side of the call, however, was definitively not that of his great-granddaughter.
"Mm. I'd say she's covering for you just fine… Benny. But us regulars — we miss you."
It was a man's voice, not familiar enough for Benny to clearly identify, but he had his suspicions… none of which were good. "Who is this?"
"I think you know who this is."
Benny mentally cursed, his grip tightening on both the phone and the wheel as his whole body tensed. Fucking Martin. Fucking Desmond.
He should have seen this coming. But he'd thought with Desmond out of the picture, removing himself from the situation was the safest option for her. Hunters went after monsters, not people… certainly not innocent people… and Elizabeth was as innocent as they came.
"How the hell did you get her phone?"
There was movement on the other side of the call, and instead of Martin's low voice, Benny heard Elizabeth's — a bit distant, but still clear and present, easing the panic that had gripped his heart at least a fraction.
"You enjoy the cherry?" she asked.
"No! Sorry," Martin said, his voice shifting to something brighter, and Benny could tell he was holding the phone a bit away from his mouth. "Not quite done yet."
"Oh. Did you, uh, reach your friend okay?"
Benny quietly listened to them speaking, already calculating the best route back to the cafe and how quickly he could make it. No one was going to hurt Elizabeth. Not on his watch. Not because of him. And so when Martin came back and asked how far away he was, Benny was ready.
"An hour," he answered, breathing deeply, intentionally overstating it in the hopes of buying himself some time. He was glad he did.
"You got forty-five minutes."
The line went dead, and Benny tossed the phone aside, already turned around and pressing his foot to the floor, pushing the old truck as fast as it could go as he headed back to Carencro.
Unsurprisingly, by the time Benny made it to the cafe, only forty minutes later, the building was dark, the lot empty, and it sat there, for all intents and purposes, looking like it had simply been closed up for the evening. If he hadn't known better, if he hadn't received that call, it was the kind of scene Benny would have gone past without thinking twice about. No doubt the impression Martin had been aiming for.
But Benny did know better, and he pulled right up to the front door, not caring what kind of attention he might draw or how loudly he was announcing his arrival. He'd taken on far worse than the likes of Martin. And while he didn't want to hurt a human, while he worried about how the situation that was unfolding could jeopardize the tentative new beginning he'd been heading towards for himself, those concerns weren't nearly enough to stop him from doing what needed to be done if push came to shove.
Still, there was a part of him, and not a small one, that hoped he could resolve it without resorting to the worst-case option. It would have been easy to storm in and tear out Martin's throat, but Benny didn't want to be the thing that did that anymore… didn't want to scare Elizabeth… didn't want to prove Sam and Martin right… didn't want to let down Dean or Katrina… didn't want to dishonor the memory he still held of Andrea, the one of her before…
He couldn't go back to being human, couldn't ever really have normal… but he didn't want to be the monster the old man had turned him into either. There were still vestiges of his humanity left, and Benny wasn't sure what would happen if he stopped clinging to them.
Of course, the scene waiting for him inside put those notions of his to the test immediately. It was dark, cleaned up for the day with tables turned upside down atop the tables, and all the equipment powered down, the board with the specials wiped clean. Everything was still, everything in its place… except for Elizabeth, tied to a lone chair off to the side of the counter, terrified in a way Benny had never wanted to see her, heart beating fast and eyes wild.
It didn't take long for Martin to make his appearance, popping up from behind Elizabeth, holding a large knife to her throat in a way that made Benny's jaw twitch. With all the self-control he could muster, Benny tried to de-escalate the situation, to find a way to make the hunter see reason. In any other circumstances, Benny suspected he would have snapped, but Elizabeth was as good an anchor as he could have asked for, and more important than his base instincts were the voices shouting at him not to scare her any more than she already was.
All of it was futile, though… as big a waste of time as anyone could have predicted. Martin wasn't interested in reason or facts, seeming to be fueled entirely by misplaced emotion, fear, and righteous indignation, and he didn't seem to care about collateral in a way that all too closely mimicked behavior hunters reviled from 'monsters.'
Benny did care, though, and in the end it was the fear on Elizabeth's face, the confusion and betrayal detectable in her eyes as she stared at him, that made him break.
He'd been kidding himself, thinking this could all work out. It had been a beautiful, brief dream, but it was just that — a dream. Dean had said it right the first time: guys like them didn't get homes or family. He'd just been wrong to lump himself into the same category.
Despite himself, tears gathered in his eyes as he went to the counter and lay his head down, inviting an end to his story that he hadn't wanted. He sent a silent apology and thank you Elizabeth — guilt churning that she had to witness this, knowing it would be something that stayed with her for the rest of her days but more appreciative than he could articulate for everything she'd been for him and that even in these last moments her presence could ground him, give him that anchor he so desperately needed. And as Martin came towards him, machete in hand, Benny thought that at least he knew what he was going back to, what was waiting for him.
At least Purgatory was pure… even if it was bloodier and messier than hell.
He took a deep breath and braced himself, waiting for the blow to come, already anticipating the feeling of the blade slicing through his skin and remembering what it had felt like the first time. But then, just when he was sure it was about to be delivered, there was the sound of glass shattering and a deafening BANG that rang through the room that no one had been expecting.
Katrina Black was about an hour outside of Carencro when it happened. She was starting to really settle into the drive, feeling comfortable with where she was going, the music having worked its usual magic and pulled her into that bubble she loved so much where it was just her, the open road, and whatever daydreams her brain felt like coming up with that day, when she absentmindedly went to run her thumb over her ring and realized it wasn't there.
It was a small thing, but her stomach dropped, and without hesitation, she pulled off to the side of the road, quickly throwing the interior lights on and beginning to search the inside of the car even though she already knew it was in vain. Back at the cafe, she'd used the bathroom before getting on the road, and as soon as she felt the absence of the familiar metal, the memory came back of taking it off and setting it aside to wash her hands. But before she'd put it back on, Jenna had called, distracting her.
The call had just been her little sister checking in, but after years of crises after crises, Katrina was still trained to fear the worst when she saw a call instead of a text, and in the fog of adrenaline, she was almost positive she'd forgotten to retrieve the ring.
Cursing when she didn't find it, Katrina fished her phone out instead, dialing Dean's number even as she was already turning around, heading back towards Carencro.
The thing wasn't particularly valuable, and for all she knew, it might have gotten swept up with the trash during closing. Going back felt silly, stupid even. But it wasn't just any ring.
It was her mother's ring. The only thing the woman had passed down to her before she'd died. And Katrina had been wearing it every day since her teenage years. She felt fucking naked without it, even if that made her feel ridiculous.
The phone only rang twice before Dean answered it, his low voice carrying a teasing lilt to it as it filled her ear. "Can't be a good sign if you're calling me this soon. You calling to give me more shit about Sam, or you just miss me that much already?"
Katrina scoffed, unable to stop from smirking, despite how lame the joke was. Dean had always had that effect on her.
"Yeah, you caught me. I miss you desperately. Like a hole in the head, actually."
Dean chuckled, and, on his side of the call, she could hear distant music that sounded suspiciously like Lynyrd Skynyrd. "Yeah, yeah. Not what you'll be saying when we get home."
Home.
Just like she'd told Benny, Dean and Sam had been staying with her for a long time — since the Leviathans had burned down Bobby's house a couple of years ago and the salvage yard had been left to rot. But it still did something to her in the new context of their relationship to hear Dean refer to her house as home… their home.
Even if she still hated the damn house.
"Maybe not," she conceded.
"Definitely not," he snorted. "But what's up? I assume you called about something."
Katrina sighed at the reminder, feeling a flash of annoyance with herself for her own stupidity and the time she was going to have to waste as a result.
"Left my ring at the cafe," she admitted, "in the bathroom, I think —"
"Your mom's ring?" he asked without missing a beat. A smile threatened to overpower her irritation. For how gruff and tough Dean liked to act at times, he had a way of always making her feel seen.
"Yeah."
"You want me to go back for it?" he offered, his voice colored with sympathy. "I'm probably not as far out as you. I had to stop for gas."
"No," Katrina dismissed automatically, though the gesture warmed her heart further. "I've got it covered, but thanks. I just wanted to keep you in the loop… didn't want you worrying when you beat me to the house."
"Oh, I was gonna beat your ass home regardless," he teased. "Between my lead foot and your inability to drive anywhere without taking a wrong turn —"
"Oh fuck off," she cut over him, and Dean laughed.
"Just tellin' it like it is, sweetheart."
"Uh-huh, whatever you say, asshole. Love you."
"Love you too, Kat. Be careful." She was about to hang up when Dean's voice called out again, pulling her back. "Hey, Kat?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks," he said, his voice shifting to something more solemn, serious in a way they often weren't with each other. "I, uh… just thanks. For having my back and coming down here, and then with Benny. I didn't… I didn't expect… most people wou —"
"I'm not most people," she interrupted gently. "You don't have to thank me for any of that, Dean. I love you, and I trust you, and I appreciate what Benny did for you. I've got your back. Always."
"Yeah," he said quietly, "I know, and I have yours. It just… it just means a lot, and I thought you should know that."
"I do," she assured him. "But I appreciate you letting me know."
They got off the phone after that, and Katrina passed the rest of the drive back to Carencro listening to her music and feeling torn between the lightness that seemed to settle over her these days whenever she talked with Dean and her frustration at having to backtrack in the first place.
It had already been late when she, Dean, and Benny had all left the cafe, and she had fully expected that by the time she made it back, the place would be closed and empty. Before pulling back onto the road, she'd even made sure to set aside what she'd need to pick the lock and slip inside to search for her ring, so she was surprised to see the lot wasn't empty when she approached.
She was even more surprised that she recognized the truck sitting out front, and frowned, wondering what had made Benny double back, too.
Deciding to err on the side of caution, she parked across the street, cutting the engine and killing the lights of her Jeep far enough away that they wouldn't have been spotted from inside.
She'd meant it when she'd said she trusted Benny — each time she'd said it to Dean, and just as much when she'd told the vampire himself. Still, it was odd that he would have doubled back. Not unfathomable — after all, she'd ended up back at the cafe too — but definitely odd. Definitely eyebrow-raising. And it was probably safe to assume he hadn't said anything to Dean about going back, or Dean would have mentioned it on the phone.
Something was off. Katrina didn't know what, but something was, and, letting her instincts take over, she grabbed both her gun and machete before slipping out of the car and starting to make her way over to the building.
Gravel crunched beneath her feet, despite her best efforts to make as little noise as possible, and she winced. The sound was loud against the backdrop of the otherwise quiet night, and not knowing what she was walking into, the element of surprise seemed potentially important.
As she edged closer to the building, though, the sound of raised voices — too muffled to make out words or assign identities — reached her ears, and the noise from the gravel seemed less concerning. It did, however, introduce its own list of concerns, so she was careful to stay low beneath the windows and ease along the wall until she was directly below one, straining her ears all the way.
Benny's voice was the only one she recognized, though it was the softest of the bunch… almost as if he were trying to be placating, which made her frown. There was a woman's voice that sounded vaguely familiar, and after a moment she realized it was Elizabeth — Benny's great-granddaughter she'd met earlier with Dean and then again when Benny had gone to say his goodbyes.
It was the last voice that she couldn't ID that was angriest and the loudest, tinged with an undercurrent of fear that made him sound angry and somewhat unhinged. Katrina hadn't heard the voice before, but it didn't take a genius to put two and two together.
She'd have bet just about anything she had that it was Martin on the other side of the wall, and her stomach lurched.
Carefully, she eased herself up the side of the building, doing her best to get a peek inside without fully giving herself away. Gripping the lip of the windowsill, she squinted through the dark, and the scene that met her eyes was somehow worse than what she'd been imagining.
Sure enough, she recognized both Benny and Elizabeth, and there was a third man that she hadn't seen before, but matched the way Dean had described Martin. Elizabeth was tied to a chair and looked terrified. Martin was holding a large knife, and by the looks of it had already used it to wrought some damage on Elizabeth.
Benny was standing a few feet away by the counter, not a weapon to be seen — not that he needed one to do some damage if he wanted — and with a look on his face that twisted something in Katrina's chest.
Her hand was already wrapping around the grip of her pistol, instinct telling her she needed it more than the machete in that moment, when it happened.
Benny, staring at Elizabeth, leaned towards the counter, placing his head atop it and offering his neck out in a way that left no interpretation as to what he was about to allow. And then Martin, seemingly acting with all the deliberation she'd expect given the totality of everything she'd heard thus far, was lunging, moving towards Benny with a swiftness that made Katrina's blood run cold.
Impossibly, time seemed to speed up and slow down all at once, and Katrina found she had little choice but to act on pure instinct. It was so quick that, afterwards, she hardly remembered doing it, but in what felt like one smooth motion, she found herself drawing the gun and firing, eyes set on the target and feeling like she'd been doused with ice water as the body hit the ground and blood began to pool.
It took a moment for the sound of the gunshot to fully register, for Benny to realize the hit he'd been bracing for wasn't coming. But once it finally sank in, he straightened back up, eyes moving around the space while he tried to piece together what had happened.
Elizabeth was still tied to the chair, eyes still wide with terror. Martin was on the floor, staring lifelessly at the ceiling, with a hole in his head and blood already forming a puddle under him. The window was broken, but there was nothing to be seen outside aside from the familiar sights of the parking lot and the trees.
Benny's eyes were already moving towards it when the door swung open with a ring that sounded disproportionately loud in the quiet aftermath of what had happened. For just a moment, Benny tensed, not sure what was coming. Then Katrina appeared in the frame, gun still in hand, and eyes darting around the room before falling on Benny. It seemed to take her considerable effort to do so.
"Are you alright?" she asked. Benny nodded, but his mind was still trying to catch up to the fact that she was there at all.
"Yeah, I'm — are you alright?" he broke off, catching the way her eyes had now dropped to Martin's corpse. She didn't react to the question, and Benny noticed her grip at the doorframe, almost as if to stabilize herself.
"Roy?"
The sound of Elizabeth's voice re-alerted Benny to the totality of the situation they were dealing with, and he turned to look at the young woman who had unknowingly been his rock these last few weeks. She was scared, confused, still bleeding, and watching him with some mix of hope and fear that Benny didn't want to dissect too carefully. It all only served to make the guilt in his stomach bubble and churn worse than it already had been, but he did his best to try and push it down.
Now wasn't the time. They had bigger fish.
His gaze moved between Katrina and Elizabeth, concern mounting as he noticed that Katrina seemed rooted to the spot, eyes still frozen on the fallen hunter. It wasn't hard to pick up the signs, signs that some type of shock was setting in, but Benny wasn't entirely sure what to do with that.
He did know how to untie rope, though, and so he moved towards Elizabeth, carefully sidestepping the body and gentling his voice as he crouched down to start working at the binds.
"'S alright, Lizzy," he soothed, trying to split his attention between her face and what he was doing, looking for any signs that she might not be as traumatized as he expected. "No one's gonna hurt you. I promise."
"Roy," she repeated, voice cracking with tears, "who was that? What… what was all that stuff he was saying?"
Benny's stomach gave an unpleasant lurch, and he swallowed hard, his fingers momentarily fumbling over the knots he was working. They were questions he knew he had to answer, that she had a right to ask, but ones that he didn't know how to answer.
"It's… it's complicated, Liz. You're alright now, that's what's important."
"Roy —"
"Just gimme a minute, darlin'. Let me get you out of this mess and check on Katrina, and then you can ask me whatever you want."
This seemed to appease Elizabeth, and Benny was grateful for the temporary reprieve, even if his mind was still reeling.
Freeing her from the rope went easily enough, though, and Elizabeth, still teary-eyed and shaky, exhaled upon being released. She was already rubbing at her wrists as Benny stood back to his full height and scanned the room again.
Nothing else had changed. Martin was still on the floor. Katrina was still frozen in the doorway.
"You alright?" Benny asked Lizzy, continuing on when she nodded. "Why don't you take a moment to go look at your neck? We've got that first aid kit in the closet by the bathroom."
The cut Martin had made needed attention, but Benny didn't wholly trust himself to tend to it… wasn't sure if she'd want him that close anyway. Thankfully, Elizabeth nodded, and Benny watched as she stood, making sure she was at least steady on her feet before turning around.
It was then that Benny slowly approached the door, taking care to make sure Katrina saw him coming. She blinked once, then twice, before finally seeming to see him, shifting subtly for the first time in minutes. Her eyebrows raised, and Benny stared at her in concern.
"You alright, there?" he asked quietly. Surprise was still written across her features, but at the question, a mask of sorts shuttered over it, and Katrina nodded, her expression hardening.
"Yeah, of course. I'm fine. How are —"
"I'm fine, cher. Thanks to you, by the looks of it."
Before he could say anything else, Katrina's whole body stiffened, her posture becoming defensive along with the rest of her. "I didn't have a choice. He was going to kill you. I saw him with the knife, and Eliz —"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down there. We're good, yeah? You saved my hide, I'm not upset with you."
Katrina seemed to deflate a bit at that, her eyes moving around him to the rest of the room, almost as if seeing it for the first time. Benny noticed she seemed to deliberately avoid Martin.
"Where's Elizabeth. Is she okay?"
"She's fine, just cleaning up in the bathroom. Why don't you go help her?" he added on an impulse. It would kill two birds with one stone, both easing his own guilt for not being up to the task himself and getting Katrina away from the body — which, despite her claim that she was fine, she had yet to stop eyeing uncomfortably.
Katrina seemed to hesitate for half a second, but then she nodded, moving as if on autopilot towards the back. "Yeah, alright. I'll, uh, I'll be back and we can…"
She trailed off, but Benny shooed her on, and she nodded again, this time disappearing the same way Lizzy had, without another word. Benny watched her go for a moment, only taking a deep breath and letting the situation fully hit him once she was out of eyesight.
He'd tried to do everything he was supposed to do. He'd stayed on the straight and narrow since he'd been back from Purgatory, even when it had been hard. He'd shot Desmond down when he'd come knocking, left Martin alone when he'd recognized him as a hunter, worked hard at the cafe, had done something about Desmond when the vamp had started dropping innocents, and, after all of it, had still tried to pack up and leave his hometown behind again because that was what seemed like it would be best for everyone.
Benny had tried to avoid violence. He hadn't even been the one to kill Martin. Even after everything the bastard had done.
Yet, somehow, none of that made Benny feel any less guilty… any less like the weight of it all rested on his shoulders… any less like it was his fault.
He doubted Lizzy would ever be the same again after this. There was an innocence that had been taken from her tonight that couldn't be gotten back. Martin was dead. Benny was sure that reasons or things like who pulled the trigger wouldn't matter all that much to Sam, or to any other hunter, for that matter. They'd blame Benny, and trying to pretend otherwise was useless. And Katrina… Katrina, who had just saved him without hesitation, was clearly not alright.
If Martin being dead didn't bother Dean, and Benny thought it might not, Katrina being so rattled certainly would.
They definitely wouldn't want him coming with them anymore. That was for damn sure.
Shooting one last look in the direction the girls had disappeared, Benny sighed and pulled out his phone, dialing Dean's number. There was no sense in delaying the inevitable. He answered on the third ring.
"Benny? Everything alright?"
Was everything alright? It was a hell of an opening question, and Benny decided to just tackle it head-on.
"Uh, you might wanna turn around, brother. We got a bit of a situation back here."
"Situation? Back — back where… are you back in Carencro?"
At least he wasn't slow on the uptake. Never had been. "Yeah. It's a bit of a story. I'll explain when you get here, just… just come."
There was half a beat, and Benny could sense the tension increase through the phone. "Is Kat okay?"
Benny hadn't realized Dean even knew she'd turned around, but he nodded before remembering Dean couldn't see him. "Yeah, she's… she's fine. Little shaken up, maybe, but she's fine. Promise."
Dean didn't press, though Benny could tell he wanted to, and they ended the call, leaving Benny to turn back to the mess he'd made, his mind already spinning trying to pull together what he needed to do.
His first stop was to check in on Elizabeth and Katrina. They were still in the bathroom, Lizzy seeming to still be in shock, though taking care of her seemed to somewhat snap Katrina out of it. She was still talking to Elizabeth softly, taking care to check her wrists where they'd been bound, but looked over her shoulder when Benny poked his head in. A silent understanding passed between them, even before he uttered a quiet 'how're you girls doing?'
Katrina just gave a small nod, a gentle, reassuring look on her face. "We're good," she'd said, but Benny had been able to pick up on the silent, 'I've got this' too.
He gave her an appreciative look and backed out of the room, leaving them to it, and finally took stock of his own state. He'd been doing his best, but the events of the day, the last few days, were catching up with him. The hunger and the bloodlust were becoming real tests of his restraint, pushed closer to the edge than they had been in a while, between what had happened with Dean and then Elizabeth. Martin's body needed to be dealt with, but Benny needed air more, and to do something to take the edge off if he wanted to stay in control.
So instead of dealing with the body, he slipped out of the building and went around to his truck, knowing he had blood bags in the cooler he kept and eager for fresh air.
By the time the Impala was pulling into the lot, Katrina and Lizzy had come out from the bathroom, and Lizzy had situated herself on the front steps of the cafe, still in shock, but seeming mildly better than before. Benny had been going between the two women, checking in on Elizabeth best he could, while also trying to figure out how to help Katrina. She'd regained some of her nervous energy from before, seeming to be thrown off every time she caught sight of Martin, yet insisted she was fine any time Benny tried to address it. The pair of them were standing just inside the door when they heard the rumble of the engine pull up, and Katrina looked at him curiously, obviously having recognized the noise.
"You called Dean?"
Benny just nodded. "Seemed like a good idea."
She seemed surprised, not annoyed, and slowly nodded her own head. "Right. Yeah… probably a good call. You, uh, you go ahead. I'm gonna start… cleaning up."
Benny hesitated, not sure that leaving her alone would be any sort of benefit to her, but then he wasn't sure what benefit forcing her outside would be either, so he ducked through the door, just as Dean was exiting the Impala and coming towards the cafe. His eyes took in the other vehicles in the lot, Elizabeth sitting stock still on the stairs, and Benny walking forward, and his eyebrows shot up before Benny could even say anything.
"What the hell happened?"
His voice was more confused and concerned than angry, but Benny wondered how much that might change by the end. He sighed, looked meaningfully in Elizabeth's direction, and quietly began explaining everything to Dean. The call he'd gotten from Martin and the ultimatum he'd been given, the scene waiting for him at the cafe… how he'd stuck his neck out, only for Katrina to swoop in at the last minute, shooting Martin dead through the window. When he was finished, he was too afraid to look and see what was waiting for him in Dean's expression, so he was surprised when his friend spoke, and there was no trace of anger. At least not any that seemed to be directed at him.
"Are you alright?" Dean asked, and Benny finally met his gaze again, out of surprise more than anything, blinking back.
"I'm fine. Katrina saw to that. Hell of a girl you got there, brother."
Dean nodded, his eyes roving around. "Yeah, that's for damn sure. Where is Kat?"
Benny sighed and nodded towards the door, still expecting that this would be the straw to break the camel's back.
"She's inside… said she was gonna start cleaning up, but…" he trailed off, not really sure how to explain it, but Dean seemed to understand anyway. Or at least get a general sense of what might be going on, because he got a determined look on his face and went straight for the door, wrenching it open and making a beeline for Katrina.
Benny followed but trailed behind, watching as Katrina startled from where she'd been frozen near Martin's body when Dean approached, and as Dean immediately pulled her into his arms, his eyes already scanning her from top to bottom, looking for anything amiss. He said something, too quiet for Benny to hear, that had her biting her bottom lip but nodding, and then he was pulling her closer, pressing a kiss to her forehead and cradling the back of her head, murmuring what Benny was sure were some kind of reassurances meant just for her.
He backed out of the cafe, feeling like he was intruding on something private and not sure he wanted to be there, as everything inevitably caught up to Dean, not sure he could handle witnessing the moment he and Katrina decided that their original offer had been as ridiculous as Benny had originally tried to tell them. He'd known from the start it had been too good to be true, but for that brief moment, he'd allowed himself hope.
Elizabeth was still sitting on the step, but Benny still wasn't sure where they stood, either… suspected any attempts he made to comfort her were liable to make things worse. So he gave her some space and paced back out to his truck, leaning against the back and staring up at the stars, trying to wrap his head around it all and figure out what he might do next. Dean's original sentiment, that he needed to go 'deep underground' came back to him, and Benny knew his friend was right, even if he wished he weren't.
Benny wasn't sure how long he stayed out there like that, but when he heard the sound of the door opening and familiar footsteps treading across the gravel lot, he braced, preparing himself for what was to come.
"Hey, Kat's gonna go build a pyre so we can torch Martin. Can't say I feel much like giving him a hunter's funeral, but I'd rather not chance the whole coming back as an angry spirit thing. You wanna give me a hand with the cleanup? Or maybe help direct Kat somewhere can set it up we won't get spotted right away? You do know the area better."
It was so different from what he'd been expecting, that Benny couldn't help the dumbstruck look on his face. "Wha —"
Dean didn't seem to realize, though, or misread what Benny was concerned about, and kept on. "Figure you and me can burn the body, and while we're doing that, Kat said she could take Elizabeth home… make sure she gets situated okay before we all get back on the road. We'll cover our tracks best we can, but definitely better to get —"
"Get back on the road? Dean, you can't possibly still want me taggin' along."
It was Dean's turn to look taken aback, confused even, and his brow furrowed.
"Benny, what the hell are you talkin' about? This wasn't your fault. Why would it change anything?"
"Somehow, I don't believe everyone will see it that way."
Dean seemed to catch on then, and his eyes narrowed. "You let me deal with Sam. This isn't on you, man."
"But Katrina —"
"Kat's fine. Like you said — little shaken up, but she's good. She's used to killing monsters, not people, and she hasn't been at it as long as we have. But she knows she did what she had to do. It's not on her either. Martin brought this on himself, and Sam had no business getting him involved. C'mon. We got work to do, so we can get the hell out of dodge. I need you on this."
There it was again — this offering being made, or really in this case a demand, that was too good to be true, and Benny didn't want to trust it. But he recognized the look on Dean's face. He'd seen it before, many times before, and frequently in Purgatory, every time he'd so much as implied trying to bring along Cas was a bad idea, or when the angel himself had tried to beg off. It was a look that told him Dean had made up his mind, and whatever anyone said, he wasn't willing to leave Benny behind.
He wasn't sure when he'd gone from someone Dean didn't trust enough to blink around to warranting the same kind of loyalty he had shown Castiel, but he knew better than to try and pass it up, and so after a moment, he nodded, pushing back off the truck and steadying himself for what was ahead.
"If you insist."
The next few hours passed by quickly with tasks keeping them busy and Benny's mind occupied. It was hard to say goodbye to Elizabeth, made harder by the fact that she still clearly wasn't okay by the time Katrina went to take her home, but it was a small comfort that she asked if she could call him later, once she'd had a chance to wrap her head around everything. He'd been tempted to tell her no, tell her she was better off keeping her distance, but he hadn't had it in him, and Dean and Katrina had jumped in, making sure she had ways to get in contact with them too, letting her know they'd be there for any questions she had or anything she wanted to talk about.
Benny wasn't sure she actually would call… but that she'd wanted to leave the door open added to the bubble of hope Dean and Katrina had given him back.
It was still dark out, but closer to morning by the time they were all standing back outside the cafe, ready to leave town again, this time agreeing to get far enough away and crash for a few hours before finishing the drive to Katrina's home. Benny hesitated by the door of his truck, his eyes darting back to the building that had given him so much in the last few weeks. He'd found a piece of himself again here, and he was sad to be leaving it behind… scared, even, of what might come next. But then Dean and Katrina were there, Katrina carefully reaching out to touch his arm, and Dean standing just behind her, both of them with looks of both understanding and what might have been sympathy on their faces.
"None of this should have happened," Katrina murmured, "but we'll figure out what comes next. You don't need to do it on your own this time."
Dean clapped him on the back then, nodding to what Katrina had said. "She's right. We've got you. For better or worse, and with our luck it might be worse, but… we always find a way."
When Benny finally pulled away a couple of minutes later, following the taillights of the Impala down the quiet road towards whatever his next chapter was, he couldn't help but reflect that as much as he'd gotten used to a solitary existence… maybe it would be okay to get used to something different instead.
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