Dean and Duke
Dean waved his hand at Duke, off to his side, as he noticed Esme’s eyes turn to what he only recently recognized as…off the edge rage. He reached toward his best friend, tempted to push him away and force him to go take a shower. Anything but piss Esme off further. But then she grabbed Duke and pushed him into the empty chair in front of him, Duke’s bodyweight rocking the chair briefly onto its back two legs, and then down onto the floor with a loud ‘bang’ that caused Dean to release the back with a flinch.
“Oh Jesus Christ…” Dean sighed as Duke’s demeanor changed from proud and slightly confused to irritated and annoyed. There were times that Dean forgot Duke even had those emotions, with how he carried himself. Luckily for Duke, when Esme threatened the cowboy, he did indeed shut his mouth, simply glaring up at her as he folded his arms across his chest like a petulent child. Dean’s gaze was brought back up to Esme, when he felt her eyes burning into his and he took a deep breath through his nose, preparing to, at least, attempt to explain himself. But once again, Duke chimed in, when Esme insulted him by calling him a moron, a verbal knife wound that Duke couldn’t have let go if someone had a gun to his head.
“Ouch! See that’s hurtful. You don’t even know me!” Duke scolded Esme and Dean’s instincts kicked in to protect his best friend. He reached down, wrapping his arm around the back of Duke’s head and instantly covered his mouth, holding firmly, and knocking Duke’s hat off in the process. He held the back of Duke’s head tightly to his stomach and sighed, closing his eyes for a brief second, and then opening them to try and smooth this over.
“Now. Would you believe me…” He started, suddenly distracted by the blood trickling from Esme’s eyebrow. He knew that if he didn’t finish his explanation, just to check on her, she would explode all over again. So, he chose to keep his attention on what seemed to be a very touchy subject…recklessness. “Would you believe me, if I told you that we didn’t go in half cocked…at first?”
“You wanna elaborate on that, Dean? I think we’re both all ears.” Bobby grumbled from his desk and Dean gave an awkward nod, tightening his hold on Duke’s head as he cleared his throat.
“We found one of them, right? We followed it back to this old building, and sure enough, there were two of them. Just two. Well, it turns out that the others were just…not outside.” Dean winced at how awkward the sentence was, coming from his mouth. “Two vampires, we could have handled in twenty minutes, no problem. We would have been back by dinner. But it was like they were calling them in. They kept showing up. By the time we fought our way back outside, there were ten…maybe twenty of them? I don’t even know anymore. I just know that I went on hacking and slashing…and we got separated. You know how that can go. They work on you. They separate you from your people, and that’s how they kill you. I know that. You know that. Well…Duke got snatched.”
Bobby grumbled for a moment, not wanting to interject too hard, but with Duke quiet, he had to help Dean. He believed him. Things simply hadn’t gone as planned. “And any reason you couldn’t use a phone? Call for backup?”
“I couldn’t just leave him behind, Bobby.” Dean’s eyes broke into sadness as the thought of Duke being ripped apart, just so Dean could call back up crossed his mind. He turned his eyes back to Esme. “I couldn’t take the chance and leave him behind. I fought. I killed. I brought him home with me.”