An Unlikely Duo

It was dawn. While Sammy was sound asleep in bed, Dean sat at the table, eagerly waiting. He tapped his foot, checking his watch, and then read the clock on the wall, as if that would present a different result. He tried not to get worried, since this was typical of her nowadays. Her only job tonight was to stay at the motel, help Sam with his homework, and tuck him into bed. It took Sam calling Dean in the middle of a Hunt to realize she’d done literally none of that, and he had to make up some excuse with Dad, so he didn’t find out what she’d been up to. Dean picked up the phone and was about to dial her number until…

Alison staggered in, the stench of smoke and alcohol looming from her body. Eau de Barroom Brawl by Calvin Klein, thought Dean, smirking to himself.

“Where the hell have you been?” he asked, trying to keep it quiet, so as not to wake up his little brother.

“Out,” Alison replied, smugly.

“That’s it? ‘Out?'”

“I’m an adult, Dean. I can do whatever the fuck I want.” Alison pushed past him.

Dean grabbed her arm to stop her and forced her to look at him. He said, “Don’t give me that shit. I’ve had it with your attitude as of late. It’s getting in the way of school and work, and now you put Sammy’s life at risk by leaving him alone in the middle of the night? What the hell is the matter with you, Ali?”

Alison scoffed and said, “Waitwaitwait, let’s go back to my ‘attitude as of late’ part. Since when do you talk like that?”

While she continued cracking up as if she had never heard of anything funnier in her life, Dean said, “I’ve had it with you, Ali. You’re hurting. Even I can see that, and…” He sighed, struggling to get out this next part, as if it were life-or-death, but she had to know one way or another. He continued, “I know things with us…we’ve been hurting each other ever since the breakup, and I’m sorry for whatever I’ve done that causes you to act this way. I love you, and if I’d known you’d end up–Ali…I need you to quit drinking. Alright? Your family needs you to quit.”

“‘My family’, huh?” All Alison could hear was Dean lying through his teeth (again), trying to manipulate her into doing something he wanted. Calling her a part this “family” was just one of those fibs he’d tell to get her to cave, to appeal to her feminine emotions. It was his favorite one to use, she’d noticed, to the point where it had just become habit. To him, the word was obsolete.

Just like that, all the pent-up rage she had inside her, from everything Dean had done to her, came out in one spiteful speech: “I have no family. You’ve never treated me like family–I mean, do you even know what that means? ‘Family’? It means you love and support each other; protect one another. Yeah, you may hate each other, but that’s because you love each other to pieces, that’s just how it goes. They don’t use each other for their own personal gain, or dump their deadweight kids onto someone else. And, y’know, I wonder when was the last time you used your family, Dean? Oh, that’s right, last week, when you dumped me like I was a piece of garbage.

“You know why I’m like this now, Dean? Because of you. You sold me out to that Witch, and then Dad had to swoop in and save me.”

“How many ways can I explain that?” Dean exclaimed defensively. “I sold you out, so Dad could save you.”

“And that made sense to you??”

“At the time, yes! You’re the one who had your phone on you, right? He was able to track you and take out that bitch!”

Dean had forgotten about the quiet time he was trying to enforce, because even Alison had told him to shush. He scoffed at the irony and continued, “Wow. So you did notice Sammy in the background. I thought he was just deadweight to you.”

“No, he’s not the deadweight, Dean…I am. From the way you treat me.”

And just like that, she dragged her body into the bathroom to wash up. Sam, who had been pretending to sleep the whole time, sat up and pouted at Dean, frightened by all the yelling. When Dean noticed this, he gave him his best, “sorry, bud” face and picked up the phone again.

“Who’re you calling, Dean?” Sam asked, trying to breathe evenly.

“Someone I never thought I’d want to talk to…”

Dean agreed to meet him at a nearby park. Public, with tons of witnesses in case the situation turned sour. He waited patiently next to a group of girls his age, who were making googly eyes at him. With all the drama with Ali, he’d forgotten what it was like to relax with a girl and just have fun. He missed that, but he had no interest in any of those other girls. He only had eyes for her.

Only the guy she was interested in was just pulling up to meet him. Dean stood up and gave a cursory nod as a way of thanking him for showing up.

Tony parked right in front of Dean and didn’t even give him a handshake, which was fair, considering the last time why were within six feet of each other was when they tried to knock each other out. Tony just cut right to the chase: “What’s this about Ali now?”

“Her drinking. It’s causing a problem with the family dynamic at home,” Dean explained. “I was hoping you could help me convince her to get some help.”

“From what I’ve heard, the only family you care about is the ones you’re related to.” As a representative of Alison’s, Tony felt the need to establish his allegiance. “You’re just coming to me because it affects your needs, when at the end of the day, you’d leave her out in the sun to rot.”

“Well, fuck you too, buddy, but I’m trying to tell you we’re on the same side here, bro,” Dean was getting desperate. Something told him to reach out to him, which Tony did not approve of.

Tony had backed away and shoved Dean in response, saying, “I’m not your bro, Winchester.”

Dean held his hands up, indicating a truce. He continued, “I’m sorry. Look, man, I’m not here to fight, alright? This is about Ali and getting her the help she needs. She’s going down a dark path, and I’m scared of what’s gonna happen if we don’t do something about it.” Dean tried to keep a brave face, but his voice had a mind of its own, since it got shaky at the mention of how scared he really was for her. “So what do you say? You in?”

Dean offered his hand, and after careful consideration, Tony shook it and said, “Let’s go take care of our girl.”

Tony had texted Ali, so she should’ve been on her way to the library. He booked them a private meeting room; she was under the assumption that they were there to hook up, but when she saw her ex there, she had a feeling they weren’t there to propose a threesome.

“Son of a bitch…” she said as soon as she saw Dean step out from behind a mobile whiteboard.

“Hear us out, Al,” begged Dean as Tony snuck up between her and the door.

“What is this?” Alison demanded as she crossed her arms.

“You have a problem, baby,” Tony stated.

“You need help,” agreed Dean.

Alison shook her head and rubbed her eyes. She was itching to get out, so she replied, “Alright then, what’s it gonna take for me to skip this lecture and be on my merry way? Huh? Who do I have to blow? I’d be happy to take either of you. Or both. I’ve got two holes down there, fellas. I can take you both at the same time. What do you say, boys?”

“For Christ sake, are you hearing yourself?” Dean broke. “Alison, you are literally whoring yourself out as a get-outta-jail-free card right now!”

“Whoa, Dean…” Tony tried to talk down his former nemesis.

He couldn’t take it anymore. There was something she needed to hear and Dean wasn’t gonna keep it from her this time. She had to know how royally she screwed up.

“No, I’ve had it, Ali, I mean it.” Dean felt himself getting choked up, but he had to push past it. If tiptoeing around her about it wasn’t going to wake her up, then maybe just airing his grievances–unfiltered–would knock some sense into the woman. “You think you’re just hurting your own body by torturing yourself this way, you’re wrong. This hurts me, it hurts Tony, it even hurts Sam. Yeah, you thought you were being all secretive about it with him, but he knows. He knows how much you’re hurting, because he sees that you are destroying yourself. Coming home so late at night it ends up early morning, stealing vodka from the minibar and refilling it with water… That shit hurts all of us, Ali. And I don’t want any part of it any longer. I’m done. So you either get your shit together starting right now, or we’re leaving town without you, and you’re on your own. It’s your choice, sweetheart.”

Ali made a piss-poor attempt at preventing her tears from falling. He was right. She was just lying to herself, and she was the only one getting fooled. She finally allowed herself to break down and wrapped her arms around Dean where she felt most at home. (This act confirmed something in Tony, which he had kept to himself.)

“I’m so sorry, Dean,” whispered Alison. “I know I’m so fucked up inside.” Step 1 out of 12 achieved.

“Shh, no, you’re not. It’s not you.” Dean kissed her head. “Listen, next town, we’ll find an AA meeting and we can go to one together. How’s that sound?”

Ali smiled, feeling like she finally had her old life back, with Dean at her side. She said, “Yeah, let’s do it.”

“Yeah?”

“I wanna get better.”

“Ok,” Dean smiled victoriously and looked into her eyes. He saw the life in them again, and knew she was back. Right when they felt a kiss coming, they heard a cough next to them. Crap, Tony…Dean thought.

“It’s good. I’m good. Looks like you got this, so I’m just gonna…head out.” Right before Tony took off however, he looked at them in defeat and offered his hand. He said, “Take care of her, Dean.”

Dean looked at the hand with the slightest bit of skepticism, but trusted that they had some form of bond over this. He shook Tony’s hand; a gentleman’s promise.