notcomplete | Log - BNW - First Day

Entry tags:

bnw,
log

Log - BNW - First Day - excheerleader

What: Dean's first day on Company grounds
Who: Proto-demon Dean (

roads_end ) and Claire Bennet (

excheerleader )
Verse: BNW

There wasn't anything to pack.

That was really one of the bonuses of leaving Arizona - the only thing he'd really want to take, that he'd kill for - were those photos of home, the ones that showed his progress. Bringing them to New York would've been a mistake. They would've got damaged. So Dean really just had the clothes on his back and that was really even more than he would've needed. Clothes weren't real good at protecting him from injuries, and it was more for the humans' benefit than his. Hell, for the record, he'd been in his birthday suit until Sam shanghaied him away from the labs, so it wasn't like he'd freak out over something like clothes. Dean found himself picking at a loose thread in his shirt as he waited for Claire to wake up and escort him to the Company facility, wherever that was.

Why did she have to sleep anyway? He figured the chick was friggen immortal: wasn't like she could suffer any side-effects from sleep deprivation, and it was up to him to keep busy waiting for her.

Dean had long gotten bored of Girls Gone Wild. The problem with watching shitloads of TV? Meant you started to get preferences and he was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, TV at 5AM was pure crap.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Truth be told, Claire was a little upset that Dean was leaving. Sure, he was a demon and he had the face of the man she had some residual feelings for, but he was also one of her friends. And in a lot of ways, she thought of him as someone she needed to take care of, someone that needed her help. He was almost as much of a pet as Waffles was, on some occasions, even if Dean was more likely to bite than cuddle her. She didn't necessarily want him to leave, he had been around for so long now, that he was just a part of her every day life. It was habit to seek him out after a long day and just sit and snark or talk with him. And now, she wasn't going to be able to have that.

And what made matters worse was that they had to bring him into the Company so early, which meant she was going to be more emotional than usual. Which meant tears were probably going to happen, and Dean was going to be annoyed, and he was going to be glad to get the hell away from her.

She tiptoed into the living room, half-dressed, rubbing at her eyes. Waffles was at her heels, and came up to sniff at Dean before hopping up on the couch to lay near him. Claire joined her dog and just ever so casually glanced up at Dean, looking a little worn out.

"Are you really ready for this?"

Dean turned, not bothering to turn off the TV.

"Yeah. I mean, it'll make Sam more comfortable, so yeah. I'm ready." Dean's lip curled as the dog came too close to him, pulling away slightly. "Don't tell me you're bringing that thing."

Dean wasn't sure why it wasn't biting him and even if it did, it wasn't gonna do much damage - he reached out and nudged it further away, figuring it would get the point. And then the little bastard has to come right back and Dean gave up, figuring it was two minutes being close to the mutt and that was it. The proto-demon focused on Claire, black eyes unblinking.

"You look beat," Dean said, except it was more of a question than a statement. Half the time he didn't understand how her ability worked; if he didn't feel impressed by the fast healing, he probably would've been creeped out.

Edited 2010-05-09 02:10 (UTC)

She watched the interaction between her dog and Dean, and really couldn't help but laugh. Waffles was surprisingly cool with what Dean was, and it amused her at how uncomfortable a little animal could make the demon act. She looked up at him as he mentioned her looking tired, and she gave a little nod as she rubbed her eyes once again.

"It's just early, nothing I can't handle. It takes me a little bit of time every morning to wake up. Because I? Am so not a morning person." She pushed herself to stand, and made her way into the kitchen so she could find a soda and other sugary items that would help wake her up.

"We'll leave here in a few minutes, okay?"

"Sure," Dean didn't move to follow her. He was gonna stay on the couch but after glancing at the mutt next to him, got up and headed to wait by the door. Dean didn't see what she saw in that thing. Personally, Dean had a kneejerk reaction to anything that looked like a dog and if Claire hadn't owned this one, he probably would've reduced it to a red paste on the floor just 'cause he could. It wasn't exactly the same as finding those two hellhounds that mauled him, but hey, it'd make him feel marginally better.

She poured herself some soda and downed it quickly, and dug through the pantry until she found a chocolate chocolate chip muffin. She ate half and then shoved the remaining half into her mouth, and went to join Dean over at the door. Her shoes were nearby and were easily slid on, and she figured that she'd worry about pulling her hair up into a ponytail in the taxi on the way to the Company's offices.

"Leff go." She nodded toward the door, her words muffled by the muffin in her mouth. "Iff fime fo go." She was still pretty sad about that, but the delicious muffin was helping improve her mood.

Dean followed her outside, remembering the shades right as they stepped out onto the sidewalk. This early, it was still fairly chilly and while he didn't think it was enough for his corpse to freeze up, he could still feel that stiffness creeping up slowly. The proto-demon hunched his shoulders, pulling the jacket Buffy got him closer to his body and all too aware that this was one of those times that having body heat at all would've probably helped.

"Will you visit every now and then?" Dean glanced down the street, looking for any sign of the taxi. He wasn't sure how things stood between him and this Claire - she was trust as frustrating sometimes as the one he knew back in Arizona - but he still tolerated her, which had to mean something. She wasn't bad, as humans went. Could've turned out a whole lot worse, even if she had some funky ideas she needed to lose.

By the time they were out of the building, she had finished off her muffin, and was wiping her mouth with her fingertips as he questioned her. She was taken by surprise, as she had figured that he was eager to get the hell away from her, and just dumbly nodded at first. But then she realized that he was probably a little worried, possibly even a little upset that his entire life had been turned upside down and he was going to have to stay within Company walls in order to obtain Sam's trust. So she put a smile on her face and nodded a little more encouragingly.

"Yeah, of course I will. I go by to visit Peter and everyone else a lot, so I'll be sure to come see you, too."

The taxi rounded the corner, Dean tracking it for a second. "Just don't bring that thing of yours."

"I'm not going to bring my dog." She reassured him, rolling her eyes. As the cab stopped before them, Claire climbed in first, and gave the driver their destination as Dean got situated. Once they were on their way, she glanced over at him, curious.

"Are you sure about doing this?"

"Yeah. I mean, it's gotta be done."

It wasn't like he thought it was gonna be particularly dangerous. That other Claire had made it more than crystal clear that whatever staff they had in the Company? Weren't skilled or creative enough to pose a threat at all; there was little to zero chance that he could risk another wipe and lose that obedience to Sam. Not when he'd already been broken once and built up a resistance. So yeah, he was pretty sure this was gonna be a cakewalk in that aspect. The hardest part was probably gonna be waiting, and hoping that Sam didn't get into anything major while he was separated.

Dean glanced out the window, the city flashing by the windows as the taxi sped down the streets.

"How long 'till we get there?"

"Traffic is moving okay, we should be there in a few minutes." She fell silent for the rest of the ride, glaring out the window as she watched other taxis and buildings blur past. They reached the bottle factory that was the Company's cover within a few minutes, and Claire paid their driver and received a few odd looks as she ushered Dean out of the cab.

"It shouldn't take you too long to get fully checked in, since you already filled out the paperwork." She explained as she led the way inside the building, and made her way through the factory to the side door. She typed in the code that unlocked it, and gestured for him to go through first. There wasn't any turning back now.

He stepped inside, reaching up to remove the shades.

"They change the code frequently, right?" Dean asked. "How reinforced is this place?"

He couldn't say for sure without testing it himself, but if this place knew what it was doing, it should at least be as reinforced as home. At least, that's what he would've done, except he'd learned not to expect too much of this new, "improved" Company with their soft stance. It still blew him mind that they weren't conducting experiments to be thorough.

"I guess they do. I think each person has a different code, maybe?" She just shrugged, not really sure how the code worked. All that she knew was that she had her own, and if it needed to be changed, Angela would let her know. "It's pretty secure, I guess. Unless you work for the Company, you won't ever know what's back here, they keep a really good cover. Before this, they were a paper company."

They made their way down the long hallway that eventually led to the front desk, and Claire motioned for Dean to wait behind her as she asked the girl working where Dean was supposed to go to check in. A short conversation later, she turned back around to face Dean, frowning.

"She's going to call for an agent who can escort you to where you'll be staying. So I guess once they get here, that's it."

"Okay," Dean said. He was silent for a few minutes, listening for any foot steps. It didn't smell much like home, "Well, it's not like you don't know where to find me, Claire."

He turned to her with a small smile. This was gonna change things between Sam and him, he was sure of it. Hell, Claire should totally join him, it beat sitting around with that dog of hers and maybe she could help turn this place around. Make it more efficient, more thorough. He'd believed in her in Arizona and he believed she had that potential to get serious about this kinda crap even now.

"I know that I know where to find you." She snapped a little, letting out a little huff. "I just got used to you being around, that's all." And it was more than that, but like Hell she was going to freely offer him up that factoid right now, not when he was smiling like that. He looked so optimistic and like he was really looking forward to this, like it would make a difference. She wasn't so sure it would.

"Look, let me get a picture." Her tone and expression softened, and she pulled out a small digital camera from her bag. She held it up and motioned for him to pose, and she realized he probably didn't have any idea why in the hell she was doing this.

"I keep an album of all of my friends and family. You need to be in it too."

Dean had started to reach out to touch the camera even as she was talking, taking it and turning it over in his hand. "Like evidence?"

Oh, like a photo of him in one piece. He figured if he ever needed to get bolted together again, he'd really rather have someone who had some kinda roadmap to follow and a picture was a lot better than guessing. Dean nodded and handed it back to her.

"Go ahead," he said with a shrug. He reached down, fidgeting uncomfortably with the clothes he had on and while it'd be a lot more accurate to strip down so the photo would be more useful, he figured it was probably best to avoid going right down to his birthday suit right there in front of the receptionist's desk.

"Not exactly like evidence, no. It's just for memories." She was really amused that he had no idea what pictures would be used for in normal circumstances, but she quickly realized he had no need to. What use were pictures to a demon? So she sighed and took back her camera from him, and watched as he toyed with his clothes.

"You know, you could try smiling or something. Just a suggestion." She smirked a little, grinning as if to show him how it was supposed to be done. "I can't have the picture I remember you by looking like a mugshot."

Dean frowned. "It's easier to identify me," or pieces of him, he guessed, "if you've got it like a mugshot," he pointed out.

But he gave a smile anyway. It wasn't a real big one, but she was still Claire. For a human she wasn't that bad and it wasn't like she was asking for anything like the skin off his back; just one small muscle movement and that was it. The camera's red light in the corner blinked and then it flashed in his face, Dean dropping the smile now that she'd got what she wanted.

"I'm not trying to identify you. I know who you are, I just want a good picture to put in my album." She explained, and waited until he was smiling a little before taking the picture. She looked at the preview of the image that showed up on the little screen, and she laughed at it, glad that it was a decent picture. "See? Not a mugshot at all." She turned the camera around so he could see, but kept her hold on it so he wouldn't accidentally press a button and delete the picture.

"Do you have anything you want me to get and bring back here for you? I can print out a copy of the picture for you."

Dean squinted at it a little. It was a little comforting to be able to see a picture with normal eyes, even if he'd mostly gotten over Claire's weird ones whenever he looked at her. "A picture of Sam. Like this, but it don't matter if he's smiling or not. But I need that on me at all times."

He didn't need a picture of his own face. He knew what he looked like and that wasn't how the freak obedience worked. If he was gonna be away from Sam for extended periods of time, he needed something to ensure he was still tied to the kid and that meant having something to reinforce it. Something visual. Wasn't gonna be as good as Sam there in person, but it could slow down the degradation.

"I have a few I can bring you." One of which was a picture of human Dean with Sam, but she didn't think that he'd mind all that much. It was a cute picture, one that maybe could spark some happier memories for the demon. It wasn't that she wanted to force sunshine and happiness upon him, she just figured that maybe seeing his face with Sam would inspire him to work hard to do good things to prove himself.

She shifted a little awkwardly, and before she had the chance to talk herself out of it, she moved over to stand next to him, and motioned for him to crouch down. "I want a picture of us, too."

The proto-demon followed suit, crouching down a little awkwardly. "Why?"

Great, she was bringing more pictures of Sam to try to slow that degredation down but why did she need more pictures of him? Dean knew perfectly well that she didn't need 'em, not like he did, and probably wouldn't ever, not with her healing and inability to feel pain. Dean shot Claire a baffled look, reaching out to balance himself against the receptionist's desk.

Pleased that he was giving in to what she wanted, she held the camera up and out, and stood up high enough to put herself cheek to cheek with him as she snapped a couple of pictures. "These are just for me to have. Because I want them." And wasn't that all that was important here?

She pocketed her camera at that point, and then helped him regain balance, and reached up to adjust the collar of his shirt. "Someone should be here any minute now." This was followed by a frown, but she forced herself to look as optimistic as possible. "You have my number, right? Call me if you need help or anything."

Dean stood still as she straightened his collar, tolerating it.

"I remembered it," Dean said. He didn't exactly have a photographic memory - for all he knew, they hadn't got to that part yet back home - but it wasn't like he needed to know a ton of phone numbers or nothing. "I'm not expecting any real problems here though."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Log - BNW - First Day - excheerleader

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Sorry for short tag, gonna sleep

it's okay, enjoy your sleep! <3

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

sorry for the delay in tagging. I'm having trouble writing Claire ATM. ):

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject