\\ the clock isn't the only thing ticking // talon

[Dean Winchester]

When it came to raising his children, Dean Winchester had only ever had two rules. Number one, family is everything, and number two, you never, under any circumstances, sell your soul!! In the past year, Dean had to wonder why he even bothered trying to instil these things into his children’s heads, it would have seemed as though rule number one had gone to pot a long time ago, he just never expected rule number two to be broken. He wasn’t a strict father, he wasn’t a nasty father, in fact he was always the easy parent. His kids had him wrapped around their little fingers and he did everything he could to make their lives so much better. He didn’t put his rules in place for the hell of it, or because he was being over cautious. Getting a Winchester soul was like hitting the bulls eye for most of the demonic world, but Dean had been there. He’d sold his soul, he’d gone through the insanely painful death, he’d suffered hundreds of years in hell and he’d spent the rest of his life trying to find a way to make those memories go away with no luck. More importantly, Dean’s little trip to hell? It wasn’t just bad, it was apocalyptic bad. Literally. In the sense that he started one. He didn’t want his children to go through that and he REALLY thought they’d got the message. A swing and a miss for daddy Winchester.

Since Christmas, he’d found himself unable to settle. Everything just felt wrong and he knew it wouldn’t be okay unless he found out that his son was safe. But worse than that, Dean had nothing to distract him. He’d promised his daughter he wouldn’t go off and hunt and he didn’t exactly have that many ‘normal’ hobbies. The only thing the elder Winchester really knew about, was cars. God, he remembered days of relaxing at Bobby’s with an ice cold beer and his head under the hood of the Impala. He missed that car, despite knowing it was in good hands with Ben. Newer cars just seemed too complicated for him. He’d been having trouble with his car lately, it had been making weird ticking and clocking sounds, yet every attempt Dean made to fix it, had been met with failure. Maybe it was the car, or maybe it was just him getting old. Either way, he was out of ideas. So after a day of sitting around the house, trying to find the TV entertaining, Dean got himself to his feet, grabbed his keys and headed out. Something his daughter had been talking to him about was still fresh in his mind and Dean had an idea. No, Dean had a plan.

Pulling up at the James estate, Dean parked up and headed to the door, pressing the bell and waiting for the blonde bombshell that was Lexi James to appear. They went back such a long way but sometimes it was like seeing the same twenty year old woman that Dean once knew poking her head round the door. She’d offered him to come in out of the cold and with a nod, he ventured into the house. Wiping his feet on the mat, and rubbing his hands together in an attempt to warm them, Dean asked Alexis if Talon was home before being pointed towards the kitchen. To say this amused him would be an understatement, in fact an infamous Winchester smirk slid across his face as he made his way towards the place where the food lived. He knocked gently on the door before gently pushing it open, looking in with a slight smile. “Hey Talon, don’t know if you remember me, we met at Christmas? But I was having a bit of car trouble and was told you might be the guy to come to. If I’m not interrupting anything that is. I mean I’ll pay, I just don’t like taking my car to some of these mechanics out there these days. They’ll break your car to make themselves a tidy sum before thinking to just fix the problem.”

[talon]

It was midday, but Talon had long since lost time of the hour. The grey sky outside did little to convey how much time had passed, but one need only know that he had heated up his hot chocolate twice and been to the bathroom once since he had settled himself at the kitchen nook. Of course, there was a grand dinning area for formality, but Talon preferred the more comfortable parts of the house to tuck himself away in. Thaila was not the only one who liked to lose herself for hours on end, and since the morning he took her to the beach to see the sunrise, he had diligently been working away on an idea that had occurred to him. It seemed so simple and suddenly the dent in the driver’s front quarter panel revealed itself as a godsend. Talon did have qualm about messing with the one thing he had left of his parents, but if work had to be done on it anyway… it was like a father’s spiritual response to the night he beat the crap out of his car. It made him feel a great deal better about losing too.

Proper piece of sketching paper in front of him, which he had gotten off of Thai since she had taken up drawing, Talon’s pencil tapped with a crudely shaped eraser. Usually, he took to sketching concept car ideas and only when he actually had one. It was rare that he was at pause over a drawing, and not only because he liked to keep them to himself. For the last week he had only done partial sketches of his own car’s general resemblance, with primary concentration on a few customizations that one would not be able to find at the average auto body shop. For the moment, this did not concern him. The how would come later, and when it did, Talon suspected it would be high time to meet these Jordans he had heard tell about. They did seem highly spoken of and long time friends of the family. More importantly, however, Talon was interested in their ‘trade’. While Talon might be adept to working and modifying cars, theirs was a specialization that he still lacked in.

Absent mindedly grabbing a chocolate chip cookie from the plate in front of him, Talon was just about to stuff the whole thing in his mouth when a knock came at the kitchen door. For a moment, he did not look up as his brow furrowed. It did not strike him at first, why this was odd, but as the door drifted open he instinctively slapped his hand on the drawing and swept it down into his lap. Casually taking a bite out of the cookie and looking up as Dean Winchester walked in and started talking at him. Chewing slowly, his eyebrows gradually raised in mild surprise as Dean continued. [white] “Mm.”[/white] He murmured, but took a moment to register. Not because he still found it odd that heaven forbid someone talk about him in this circle, but because there were a number of other connections that could do the work just as well as him. However, Talon had to admit that he was probably one of the few with no other commitments. Setting his cookie on the rim of his cup and wiping the crumbs from his hand and onto his jeans, he nodded and knit his brow thoughtfully. [white] “You were another Dodge, yeah? Transmissions go ta shit on those things fast. If ya haven’t replaced it once already I’m surprised.”[/white] Grinning gently,[white] “Don’t get me wrong… they’re cool. But nothin’s perfect, right?”[/white] Looking down, he began folding his now creased piece of paper,[white] “Lex’ll kill me if we do anythin’ ‘bout it in here. Go out to the garage.”[/white] He muttered before standing, sliding the small square in his back pocket and grabbing his coat off the adjacent chair and walking towards Dean and smiling lightly in amusement.

[Dean Winchester]

Dean looked over at the young boy, noting the way he chewed the measly bite of cookie he’d taken, and couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. Dean knew that slightly put out look when you know you just wanted to demolish said cookie as soon as humanly possible. Knowing Dean though, he probably would have thrown the whole thing in his mouth and offered the person as smile as he proceeded to chew. He didn’t know what the piece of paper Talon had hidden was, he didn’t really think it was any of his business, but hopefully the kid didn’t mind the intrusion. Dean listened intently as Talon told him what he thought could be wrong with his truck. “Yeah, gotta say I’ve had trouble with it in the past, I just left the kids to deal with it. They enjoyed being used as slaves.” A slight smirk appeared across his face as he shrugged, remembering. But his features soon darkened at that same memory.

Rubbing at his forehead, the senior member of the Winchester clan nodded his head. He turned ever so slightly before waiting for Talon to overtake him. After all, it would help him to get to the garage, if he knew exactly how to get there, and he suspected Talon knew all too well. Patting the young boy on the back firmly, Dean looked down at the ground and started to walk. His hand moved to the back of his neck, rubbing it slightly awkwardly as he tried to think of something to say. As the most obvious thought came into his head, Dean shrugged his shoulders and welcomed the words to his lips. “So, how ya been kid? Know it’s been kinda hectic around here lately. You been keepin’ out of trouble?”

[talon]

Talon laughed sharply when Dean called his kids slaves, before having one of those ‘oh’ moments and realizing what the comparison implied. It cut his laughter off for a moment, but the further suggestion, whether he meant it or not, brought a little grin to the corner of his mouth. He would feel bad for smiling if he had seen that brief look on Dean’s face, but he was already headed down the hall to head outside and take the truck down the drive to the detached garage.

A similar awkwardness shot through Talon as he felt Dean’s hand clap against him, and he tried to ignore the foolish hope that always flooded through him at the slightest gestures. He had certainly been disappointed far too many times to allow himself to look back and see how Dean might look in doing that, and continued to walk. It did not occur to him to chitchat, focused on the ‘reason’ Dean came.

[white]“Two different questions, yeah?”[/white] Laughing, Talon glanced back briefly as his feet drug slightly against the hardwood floors. [white]“’ssume ya mean ‘bout Simi. Been sorta just keepin’ out and lettin’ things happen. Loads-a talented people ‘round ta deal with things,”[/white] snarling slightly because he did not exactly like having to take a backseat and just playing spectator to the insanity, he shrugged. And then it dawned on him that Dean was in the situation from the Ryder end of things and he frowned because his tone had been so callous. [white]“Mean… ya’ve prob’ly been in worse situations, yeah? Figure if anyone knows what ta do…”[/white] It was actually pretty weird to just be walking down a hall with Dean Winchester, now that he thought about it.

[Dean Winchester]

Okay, so cool, he hadn’t forgotten how to be social with a teenager; Dean thought with a smidgeon of pride. It had been a little while since he’d been around any guys under the age of 21 and was glad to know that he still had those coveted ‘skillz.’ If anything, Talon hadn’t started rolling his eyes and doing that ‘psh’ thing that Chey had grown fond of during her hectic years, so all in all, this was turning out to be an alright trip down to James Land.

Shoving his fingers through his hair again, he cut the younger man a glance and gave him a solemn nod. ”Yeah well, I’m sure that you being around does them all some good,” He said, feeling the need to reassure the kid. He wasn’t exactly Mary Poppins over there, but the thought of being a stranger in a house full of hectic drama…Talon probably needed to hear that he wasn’t being a burden, or being ignored in favored of the ‘real’ James kids.

Then again, he could have been watching Dr. Phil a bit too much, when those motel TV’s ate his ‘special shows.’ Dammit, he knew he should’ve sprung for the Holiday Inn…

He missed the little snarl, instead thinking that the sharp tone in the kid’s voice was due to the fact that he was also a bit uncomfortable with the ‘let’s share our emotions!’ crap. His eyes flickered back to the path in front of them and he opened his mouth to answer that little statement; to impart some Winchester wisdom about the fact that every problem was always a bitch slap to him…

But he never got the chance. With a guitar-scream, his ringer went off and Dean stopped abruptly to dig around in his pocket for the smaller appliance. Frowning at the ID, he apologized to Talon, opened it up and cursed. Well, speaking of bitch slaps…

”I’m sorry to do this, kid, but I’ve got to run,” He said quickly, after the panicked conversation was over. ”I appreciate you fixin’ up my ride; just give me a call at the house when you’re done? We can talk a bit then, maybe. Thanks again!”

He felt like a heel, but what was he gonna do? Life was never slow around his family.

-FINISHED-