A Spike in the Family
1
"Fuck, are you sure about these coordinates?" Dean asked, scowling at his surroundings. Here they were, back in the God damned wilderness. He just hoped it didn't turn out to be another Wendigo because one Wendigo in a lifetime? Was one too freaking many.
"You checked them the same as I did," Sam answered impatiently, scanning the dusty, rocky and generally unwelcoming area with an assessing stare. They'd gotten the text message from Dad three days ago. A tiny little strip of town called Blackdust up in the foothills of North Dakota. The actual coordinates had been up past the sprinkling of weathered buildings that made up the town, going into the hills themselves. The Impala hadn't had a chance of making the journey, so they'd been hiking for the past three hours, Dean's increasing litany of complaints and Spike's occasional yips and yelps the main audio accompaniment to their reluctant nature walk.
Sam's usual avenues of research, the internet and local libraries, hadn't turned up any helpful information. There was a legend about some great battle, occurring hundreds of years before the white man had ever ventured into the hills. The tale involved a great sacrifice; a sacrament of blood from three righteous men on holy ground. But there wasn't any indication of anything bad happening in the area. If anything, the tales were about protections and miracles. Not a single sign of anything evil to clean out.
"Spike! Don't…even…think about it," Dean gritted out and Sam turned to see Spike on the verge of plunging off the narrow foot trail they'd been following for the last three hours. Spike looked back at Dean, furry black head cocked inquiringly and let out a questioning "yip?"
"No," Dean said firmly. "You don't know what kind of evil's out there. Hell, a regular old cougar could make a snack of a little dude like you."
Sam watched Spike look yearningly at the scrabbly bushes that appeared to be issuing a powerful doggy call before heaving an almost human sigh and scrambling back onto the main trail, heading over to where Dean was frowning down at him. Seeing Spike stepping back on the trail, Dean let go of his annoyance at being in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere long enough to lean down and smooth his hand over Spike's tufted head in gentle approval. "Good boy," he murmured, before straightening back up and frowning at Sam. "Dude, are you sure you've got the right coordinates?"
Sam shot his brother an unfriendly look. "About another half mile should get us there," he gritted out after manfully biting back the first five replies that crossed his mind.
Dean heaved out a sigh and reached down to offer some water to Spike who had abruptly run out of steam and collapsed on the dusty path, wide pink tongue stuck out, panting heavily. Once Spike finished lapping at the water, Dean took a few swallows himself before reaching down to scoop the tired puppy into his arms. "Fine, let's go then. Daylight's burning."
Sam rolled his eyes at his brother's back. He wasn't the one who'd stopped now was he? Whatever.
Half a mile further along the trail, climbing up, the path abruptly ended at an entrance to a small valley and Sam stopped there, his aching feet momentarily forgotten as he took in the beauty of the small clearing.
"Are we there yet?" Dean asked, the sarcasm plain in his sing-song voice as he scrambled up the incline to stand beside Sam, still playing mule for Spike. At the sight before him Dean forgot the sarcastic remark he'd been about to utter, startled out of it by the open expanse of emerald green dotted with thatches of brilliant wildflowers, made even more beautiful after the contrast of hours of dull red dust. Even he was impressed at the unexpected beauty. Spike, upon seeing the wide open field, green and shimmering in the sunlight, immediately began squirming in excitement and when Dean gently dropped him down took off on an excited tear, yipping madly as he ran to investigate the cool green play area that Sam and Dean had brought him to.
"Spike!" Dean yelled in exasperation after the streak of black fur. Shaking his head, Dean grumbled "stupid dog is gonna be eaten by a bobcat." He looked over at Sam who was engrossed in the map he'd picked up in Blackdust. "Of course he has more sense than you did as a little kid."
"Bite me," Sam responded absently as he compared the map and coordinates programmed into his PDA one last time. Looking up he met his brother's gaze, a puzzled expression showing. "Well, this is it."
"You're sure?" Dean asked skeptically.
Sam gave him a 'look.' "Yes Dean, I'm sure."
"Huh." Dean reached up to scratch at his ear as he looked around at the enclosed valley. "I don't get it. Nothing bad seems to be going on. No unexplained deaths in town. And now we get to a nice, sunny meadow which, don't get me wrong, is a nice change of pace from falling down haunted houses but…not exactly our gig."
"Well, maybe it's the…" Sam paused as he ran the facts through his brain one more time. "It could be that there's a…" he sighed and shrugged. "Dean. I don't know."
Just before Dean could crack wise about how geek-boy Sammy was supposed to know everything, the sound of frantic, high pitched yelping pierced the air. Instantly both brothers were on alert, eyes cold, mouths grim as they scanned the large clearing for signs of Spike and the reason behind his terrified barks.
Dean had drawn his gun from instinct the minute he'd heard the fear in Spike's voice, and he raised it now as he called the puppy's name, worried eyes searching for the hound. "Spike!" He yelled out.
Sam seconded the call as he shoved his PDA into his back pocket and brought out his own gun. Where the hell was the puppy?
They both saw the blur of moving grass heading towards them at the same time; and with true dawning horror, the figure rapidly catching up to the hound with a deadly hunter's speed.
Their reactions were instant and explosive as they shouted in unison.
"Dad, NO!!"
--
A/N - So I started this story about a year ago and never got around to finishing it. I figure I'll just start posting it already since I know if I've started posting it, the pressure will make me get off my butt and just do it! This is a little longer than the previous Spike stories but will still only be about 3 - 4 chapters. Boy, it's been so long since I've done a Spike story I don't know if anyone even remembers! But anyhow, in honor of Season IV (of which the first episode was AWESOME!)