Wanted Dead or Alive | 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐍 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑

10 - STAIRWAY TO HELL

SEASON 1, EPISODE 20

"Hold on a second," Dean announced, his mouth half full of food as he waved his hand in the air. "Sam, stop whatever boring research you're doing and pay attention. We have more important things to deal with."

Sam's eyes drifted up from his laptop to land on Dean, and Mara couldn't help but think that if eyes could contain the blazing fires of hell, Sam's glare would do just that. His brows fell into a flat, unamused expression as he said, "What could possibly be more important than finding a case?"

"Mara has never had a bacon cheeseburger."

Dean spared a glance in Mara's direction, causing a bubbly grin to inch its way onto the reaper's lips. Dean offered a grin in return, and he only broke their unofficial mockery of a staring contest when Sam groaned.

"Yeah, I'm still not getting how that's more important than saving someone's life," Sam noted.

When Dean responded with a simple "Getting her a cheeseburger is saving her life,'' Sam's shoulders deflated, the lines of his face morphing into a disgruntled expression. Mara didn't understand why he'd even thought he could win an argument against Dean - an argument about food, nonetheless - in the first place, and her assumption that Dean had won was proven true when he got up to order a cheeseburger.

Mara had been travelling with the Winchesters for a week, and at diner after diner, she refused to order any food. She was a reaper - she didn't need to eat to survive, and she didn't want the Winchesters to waste their money on something that would only be for her pleasure and not her necessity. Kat had already spent money on Mara's clothing, and Mara already felt indebted to the young girl for that. She didn't need to add anything else to the list of things she needed to repay the Winchesters for. Even though she felt a surge of anticipation coursing through her veins at the thought of the bacon cheeseburger, it would be impossible to ignore the feeling of trepidation that lied in the pit of her stomach. The well-renowned burger would only add to her list of debt, no matter how minuscule and unimportant it may be, and she didn't know if she could afford that;.

She already owed her life to them for letting her accompany them on their hunts which had, in turn, granted her with the most joyful week of her decades-long life. What more could she really ask them for?

"Guys," Kat spoke up. Mara let out a hushed laughed at the sight of a half-eaten cheeseburger in her mouth. It seemed that she had more in common with her older brother than she usually liked to admit but, at least, she had the decency to cover her mouth with her hand while she spoke. "I can't find anything in the local newspapers that screams 'ghost' or 'vengeful spirit' or anything. Does anything interesting happen in this town?"

"Same here," Dean muttered as he leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table. "Not a decent lead in all of Nebraska. What do you got?"

Sam, whose gaze had returned to the screen of his silver laptop, didn't bother to look up as he recited, "Well, I've been scanning Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota...here." His voice grew louder as he presumably read part of an article he'd found. "A woman in Iowa fell 10,000 feet from an airplane and survived."