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[Location: Random street in the Shelley district]

After several days to clear her head, Anna found herself willing to go out during the daytime. She'd even had a milkshake or two. Talking to people like Brigitta and Crowley had helped immensely. Speaking with Castiel, however, just made her brain hurt. He'd disobeyed their brethren to help Dean. Somehow...she wasn't that surprised. Dean could be very persuasive when he wanted to, even if he hadn't intended to be.

Anna had actually showered and changed her clothes - little human things that made her feel that she wasn't just sitting around twiddling her thumbs - and was currently walking down the street, hands tucked into the front pockets of her jeans. She wished there was a movie theater. She could use a viewing or two of "Gone with the Wind", one of several movies she'd enjoyed immensely while growing up. Which was odd. A seven year old that was able to sit through nearly four hours of Civil War drama was a strange child, indeed. But Anna was never 100% normal. Not if her fits when she was a toddler had any say in the matter.

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This is actually the first time that Dean has been outside without his Impala in about a week. But hey, he likes taking walks as much as the next guy, so he's strolling down the street near Buffy's house.

And that's when he sees Anna. He's coming up behind her.

"Hey, stranger. Remember me?" Dean says when he's close enough, peeking around her to give her a grin.

Edited 2009-06-16 23:09 (UTC)

Anna, a million miles away, jumps like he'd poked her in the ass with a cattle prod. A loud gasp escapes her and her eyes widen comically. Turning to face him, she exhaled sharply, slapping at his chest. "Don't you know not to sneak up on an angel? Flaming sword to the head, anyone?" Anna huffed.

It'd been nearly a week since the incident. She'd not spoken to Dean since then. Faintly, in the back of her mind, she wondered if he remembered her singing to him.

Dean can't help it; he laughs when she flips around and smacks him. It's actually pretty nice to sneak up on the angels for once, especially since they usually get the best of him with that whole bamfing thing. Smug Dean is smug.

"You've got a flaming sword? I wanna see!" Dean teases, nudging her. He can vaguely remember seeing her a week ago, and vaguely remembers the singing... but that seems more like a dream than anything.

"So, any reason as to why you've been avoiding me?"

Anna rolled her eyes at his laughing, "Yeah. Real funny," Anna scoffed, good naturedly.

She chuckled at his tease, nudging him right back. "I left it in my other jeans," Anna replied dismissively, with a small smirk.

The smirk fell slightly at his question. "Avoiding you? No, I haven't. Did Castiel tell you that?" Anna said, forcing a bemused smile to cross her face. "Just lost track of time, that's all."

"You're right, it's hilarious," Dean replies, grinning at her.

That comment makes him laugh again, and he makes a show of patting himself down. "Good, 'cause I left my fire extinguisher at home."

But then her smirk falls, and Dean raises one eyebrow slightly. Uh huh, Anna, he's got a built in bullshit detector and you just failed the test.

"Cas didn't tell me anything. Last time I saw him, he was real quiet," Dean says, folding his arms. "You didn't come see my car. I should be offended."

~~Because he doesn't remember having it the first time...~~

"You should take your show on the road," Anna mused, arching an eyebrow at him.

"Me without my flaming sword, you without your fire extinguisher. What a pair," she chuckled, returning her hands to her pockets.

"I'm sorry," Anna sighed, her brow furrowing a little. "I'd really meant to, but I got distracted by something stupid."

Wait. If he didn't remember having the Impala, did that mean he didn't remember their argument that led to carsex? Or was it just located somewhere else? It was always the little things that Anna wondered about when it came to the mindwiping.

"Already got my show on the road." What, he does.

"We'd be terrible firefighters, that's for sure." No, it doesn't make sense, but he still thinks its funny.

Nope. Car falls under 'memories related to Sam' as Sam was the one who had brought it. If Dean thought about it, he'd know he has gaps, because he's missing key things, but he hasn't focused enough. It's more like a jumble, and he doesn't want to sort it all out.

"Something stupid, huh?" Dean repeats, watching her carefully. "Hey, Anna. Question."

Anna chuckled softly, rolling her eyes. "How could I forget?"

Anna laughs at the absurdity of it, that bemused smile on her face. "I'd start more fires, you'd put them out. Supply and demand. But if we keep forgetting them.... Yeah, we're terrible."

Anna nodded at his repeating. "Answer. Hopefully," She replied, looking up at him.

"We'd probably be too distracted," Dean teases. But he's immediately sober after that, following up her answer with his question.

"Right. Do you think I'm stupid?"

Craaaaap. Damn his bullshit detector.

"I don't, no," Anna replied, shaking her head, a small frown crossing her face.

"Then why don't you tell me the truth and stop jerking me around, huh?" Dean says flatly, raising an eyebrow. ~~Go go gadget bullshit detector!~~

Damn it, Dean.

"I did something that I felt was wrong, and I didn't want to be around you for a while. I couldn't...I just couldn't see you and feel like that at the same time," Anna replied, as honestly as she could.

Dean's confused.

"... And I'm assuming if I ask you what you did, you're not gonna tell me, right?"

"Probably not, no," Anna shook her head. She hated keeping secrets from Dean, but if he knew what she and Castiel had done....

She'd probably have to adjust his memories herself, to make him think that bits and pieces of this conversation never happened.

... He'd flip out, of course. She's doing the right thing, but Dean doesn't know it, and he's a bit exasperated.

"Is it really that bad?"

Anna looked to her feet, her brow furrowing and she nodded. Lifting her gaze to his, she gave him her version of the puppy eyes, completely sincere.

"Yes. Please, don't ask me anymore, Dean."

Oh dear god, not the puppy eyes. Dean blinks a bit, and then sighs, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Fine, whatever. Cut it out with the eyes already, I get it. It's a no-no."

"Thank you," Anna nodded, blinking and looking off to the side for a moment, the wild-eyed shininess leaving her gaze.

Looking back to Dean, she flashed him a small smile. "Wanna get a drink and you can show me that car of yours?"

Dean gives her a bit of a grin in response, and throws his arm around her shoulders, with a mock-sigh.

"I guess so. I don't have anything else to do," Dean teases.

Anna grinned, spirits lightening at his throwing his arm around her shoulders. "Good. Milkshake sound good?" She asked.

"Where's your baby, anyways?" Anna looked around them, not seeing the Impala in their immediate area.

"Milkshake sounds fantastic," Dean nods. And then they're walking, Dean's arm still comfortable around her shoulders, other hand in his pocket.

"She's resting around Buffy's place," Dean explains. "Didn't want to wear her out three days in."

Anna starts in the direction of the Summers household, having been keeping tabs on Dean. Just because she didn't want him to see her, didn't mean she didn't see him. So he was rooming with that Xander guy. He seemed nice enough and reminded Anna a little bit of Dean. Funny.

Stopping in front of a hatch, Anna lifts her hand. "What flavor do you want?" Anna asked, not moving away from Dean's arm around her shoulders.

"Vanilla," Dean answers, not bothering to remove his hand. He likes it where it is, thanks, and hell, if she's not complaining, he's not either.

"Coming up," Anna nodded as she placed her palm against the panel. Ten seconds later, she removed it, opening the hatch. She reached in, pulling out two white styrafoam cups, with lids and straws already in place.

Holding Dean's out to him, "One vanilla."

She grinned, lifted her own to her mouth, taking a sip from her straw. "One vanilla-butterscotch mix."

River had taken to wandering around Taxon in search of her brother in large sweeping ellipses around Serenity, picking the streets she went down at what seemed to be random. Just skirting the edge of the Wilde district, too, while never quite stepping foot inside it.

She was also doing her best to avoid people, the Known Factors, as she went. But, considering her split focus (tablet, street, windows, alleys, tablet, street, windows, alleys, trees, corners, tablet...) on top of the general agitation of finding nothing, running into someone became unavoidable.

Which is how she came to be on a street in Shelley, peering curiously at Anna from behind a tree.

Anna, no longer trapped under her cloud of self-loathing and 'oh, god, what have I done', could sense the girl behind her. Anna continued walking for a while longer, to see if River was going to follow her.

After walking down a ways, maybe a block or so, she turned to face the girl --who was indeed, still following-- a small smile on her face.

"Hi. I'm Anna."

When she turned, River stopped in her track and looked at the woman ahead of her. She was quiet. Not just in walking down the street and letting her follow without a word, but there was nothing floating off from red hair and tangling itself up in River's.

And while meeting anyone new required a certain level of confusion, the kind Anna was providing was on an entirely different level for River.

It took a few seconds of just looking for her to notice that Anna had spoken, and another moment long enough for a slow blink to remember what it was she'd said.

"River."

A beat.

"You're quiet."

Arching an eyebrow, Anna looked at the girl, whose big eyes seemed to stare into, almost through her. There was something off about her. Like how there'd been something different about Toby.

"It's nice to meet you," Anna nodded.

Then at her comment, Anna stopped. "Well, I occasionally whistle when I walk, but I couldn't pick between the theme of the 'Andy Griffith Show' or 'Jeopardy'."

At first, River shook her head. Then she nodded, mostly to herself, and balled her free hand up at her side to avoid pointing. It was rude.

"Not those. Whistles, kettles all are teeming over and--" she stopped, then looked up at the sky in mild frustration before looking back at Anna. This next part as important.

"There isn't any steam."

There...was something wrong with River. Anna could just feel it, on the edges of her sense. It wasn't a terrible thing. She was just confused.

"No steam?" Anna repeated. "I'm sorry, sweetie, I don't understand."

For an angel, she was kinda dense at times.

She'd get closer, as if the lack of distance would help her be understood, but that would require moving and River isn't quite in a state to move closer to someone she doesn't understand.

The quiet may be refreshing, but as far as the unknown in an unknown place, she'd avoid sudden movements until she could figure things out.

"Steam," River said, insistent but frustrated that communicating was so rutting complex sometimes. "You haven't got steam."

Yes, like repeating it is going to help.

Anna sighed softly, trying to think on how this girl would believe Anna to be different. There'd been a very small handful of psychics in the past that, when they'd come face to face with an angel, had fallen short.

They couldn't read them. There was nothing in them that could be read. Perhaps River was a telepath? Someone who could read minds, or something along those lines.

Either that, or Anna was completely reaching and River was just insane.

"I'm sorry?"

Actually, it was an interesting cocktail of both, with one causing the other and both feeding into one another like a mobius snake devouring its tail.

River frowned at Anna and shook her head.

"Kettle or the tea, there isn't... You don't have steam. Without the pressure the whistle doesn't blow. It doesn't," she spoke like she was explaining a math problem, a plus b is x but without a y nothing would balance.

"Doesn't matter."

For as confused as Anna looked, it was strangely disconcerting for River to not feel it.

"You aren't a teapot."

Anna's brow furrowed as she listened to River's "explaination". Talking about making tea and the steam causing the whistle. Angels, for the most part, were very, very knowledgable and could quickly understand many, many things. But this girl was a riddle. Wrapped in an enigma, with a gooey confusing center.

"Not a teapot..." Anna repeated.

Maybe she knew. Maybe River somehow knew that Anna might look human, might act human (for the most part), but she wasn't...human.

"No," she said, and ducked her head a little before looking up at Anna through her hair.

"But I might be backwards."

Where there was smoke, there was fire, yes, but River wasn't sure what held true when there was no steam from a teapot.

All that River could tell about Anna, all she could suss out of the silence that was knocking River from her sea legs, was that she was different. Quiet.

Just how different remained to be seen.

Anna sighed, lifting a hand, raking her fingers through her hair before looking to River's face. There was really no point in keeping it a secret.

Anna wondered why she hadn't just told Toby when she'd put Dean in a deep, dreamless sleep, to keep the nightmares at bay. It's not that she was ashamed.

She just...didn't want people looking at her different. But then she'd end up blabbing to someone or another and boom, secret would be out. Weird look on the person's face. It was just how the world worked. Well, her world.

"I'm an angel of the Lord."

An angel of the Lord.

River lifted her head and let it tilt to one side as she looked. She knew what angels were. Or, she thought she did. From art and literature and Book's symbol.

Slowly, her head tilted over to the other side. She had imagined more wings and glowing. Loudness, even, but...

"Oh."

Well, it was an explanation, if not one she was expecting.

That had to be the most not-reacting reaction Anna had ever gotten. She hoped she hadn't broken the girl's brain. She seemed like she might be a sweetheart, except for all that...teapot talk.

"Yeah. Long story short. I was an angel. Got tired of it. Became human. Lived until I was twenty-three years old. Started hearing the angels talking. Was committed. Demons and angels went after me. Was saved by the Winchesters. Became an angel again."

She was thorougly impressed with her 'long story short'ing. It'd gotten better since her explaining to Brigitta about what she was.

River's brain comes conveniently pre-broken, so no worries there at least.

As the story came to an end, she stood and furrowed her brows a little as she considered it and all the implications. Angel became a human became an angel, coming full circle from was to is to are. Book would be amazed.

The bit, though, that she latched on to, that caught her voice up in response, was somewhat less philosophical.

"You weren't crazy," she said with a small smile. Yes, Anna, River knows that feeling well. She would, however, have to put up with a justification for her own voices that was far less divine in nature.

Anna's smile matches River's.

"No, no, I wasn't. I just didn't know how to handle or understand being able to understand my brethren." Anna tucked her hands into the pockets of her jeans.

"And in this day and age- well, the time that I'm from- being able to hear angels is kind of a 'go straight to the nuthouse, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars' card."

River's expression turned serious and, finally, she took a step forward and leaned in just enough to give what she said next a conspiratorial feel.

"Solar cycles become irrelevant but the tendency remains," she said with a serious little nod at the end for emphasis.

Her eyebrows furrowed a bit as she leaned back. And then, because there obviously hadn't been enough allusions to people being teapots already, "Change the spout, the tea, and the whistle is at a different pitch. Inaudible but present."

Anna stayed where she was when River leaned forward and she studied the young woman's face as she spoke. So completely intent on her words and the meaning behind them.

After a few long moments, Anna's head tilted to the side and a small chuckle escaped her.

"Now, I'm beginning to wonder if my being an angel helps me in understanding you or just that you're starting to make sense."

River answered that with a confused smile. Laughing, chuckling, was a good sign. As far as Godly Things and River went, she hadn't forgotten about that one time with the pyre. That there were no signs of a repeat performance was a thing to be happy about.

"I made sense."

And, as far as she was concerned, the whistle thing had been perfectly clear. Though, if one was to follow the implications, she had kind of compared angels to dogs.

"You did." Anna agreed.

"It might take me a little bit, but with time, I hope there'll be little to no confusion concerning your...particular way of speaking," Anna nodded.

It was all a matter of relating her words to the situation and add a pinch of LSD. Or some other mind-altering drug.

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[Location: Random street in the Shelley district]

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