the_rabbithole | Started from the bottom

Started from the bottom

Based off of this masterpiece. Since we didn't start with a proper freakout ;)

Baby wasn't entirely sure how it happened. It was a sudden thing, like flicking a switch - one second he wasn't there, and then he was. He'd actually laid in the parking spot for a good ten minutes, just taking stock of everything. He had...hands. A body. He was breathing. The only reason he finds to move is the rather aggressive driver who honks at him. Oh, they want the space. Right, he didn't...need it anymore?

It takes him a second to figure out how to sit up, but once he does, it comes easy. His controls may be mixed around, but they're all there somewhere, and Baby manages to get a little bit of practice in, going back and forth on the grass. People shoot him strange looks, but no one is going to engage the weird man walking a rut in the grass.

When were Sam and Dean going to be back, anyway? Baby eventually finds himself sitting on a bench, taking in the people passing with unconcealed interest. Again, with the strange looks, but he couldn't help it. Was this what the human world was like? It was so...energetic, so busy. Baby takes it all in with relish, inhaling deeply. What a...time to be alive.

And then, there they are. Baby smiles, relieved, and stands, getting ready to go over and say hello for the first time. Oh, shit, he didn't check if his radio worked.

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They stopped for lunch at a nice little diner by the park. Nothing too fancy, or anything, and Dean had, of course, fed the meter. Like he had before. So when they were seated somewhere he couldn't keep an eye on the car to make sure it stayed put and nothing happened to it, he was two seconds from fighting that argument before Sam put a hand on his shoulder telling him it'd be alright.

So naturally that meant he had to eat as quickly as possible while craning his neck to fail to see his car with Sam giving him a bitch face that only he could pull. "Hurry up and finish your damned food."

"Nothing's gonna happen" There was a heavy sigh and an eyeroll before the glare he got in return was met with the next few minutes trying to get a box for the rest of his food.

"If there was somewhere we didn't need to pay the damned meter that'd be even better but no" There was definite huffing at the idea that nothing was going right in his mind right now. So there he sat, waiting for his brothers box. His knee started bouncing a bit, arms crossed over his chest. Sam giving him a death glare to try and calm him down. After that came the wait for the check because the waitress didn't think it would be necessary all in one go. Then. Finally, he was able to get up and stalk out of the building, leaving Sam to apologize for the rudeness.

And of course when Dean got to where he knew he parked his Baby, there was a different car. Definitely not Baby sitting there. So he groaned, running his hands through his hair, fingers interlocking at the back as he paced. And then Sam got there and rolled his eyes with a sigh, looking around for any sign of where it could have gone while attempting to help Dean not hyperventilate.

... Again...

"I know I paid the goddamned meter, Sammy. This is where I parked 'er and she ain't here!" Well, there was more pacing. But Sam, thankfully, was not as focused on the missing car incident as the fact he saw someone standing up to head their way, it seemed. "Dean." No response, just more pacing. "... Dean"

"What?" The response was snapped before he looked to where Sam was, not knowing what to think exactly about the stranger approaching them.

Baby started walking towards the boys with renewed purpose when he saw them reach the parking space and contemplate his replacement. Dean was very obviously freaking out a bit, and Baby's smile was both relieved and pleased. This was kind of incredible - who would have thought he'd ever be able to talk?

"Hi," Does he look surprised by his own voice? Maybe a little. Baby is staring a little too much, but he can't help it. Dean looks...different. Well, not different, but it's like look at him from a different angle - his memories as a car are strange; not like this, through his own human eyes. "...Winchesters."

Sam looked both wary and confused, floundering for something to say. Instead, he decided to leave it to Dean, glancing down at his brother with the silent what the hell? evident in his expression.

Dean didn't know how to react beyond putting his hands in his back pockets. Or, at least, seeming to, more like going to where he had a knife settled, but ready to grab it if this turned dangerous with the man who approached them. He looked the man up and down briefly, judgement going from 'misunderstood guy that somehow got our information and needs us for something' to 'potentially dangerous angel or demon who we need to look out for'

"Who the hell're you?" It was the middle of the day and if a fight broke out, there would be extreme hell to pay. Not just from the Winchesters combined forces, nevermind Dean being incredibly pissed off his car is missing, but the fact that the cops could easily come by to try and break it up and that was just more people that didn't need to be involved in anything like this.

"I'm - I'm - " Baby opened his mouth a few times before realizing he wasn't entirely sure. He had a name, of course, and he dug it from the new memories. "I'm Baby."

"Baby, it's what you call me." He grinned, excited that he'd figured it out. See, he could do this! Not suck, at the whole human thing. "Hi, Dean."

"Okay." Sam snorted and opened his palms in surrender. "Dean, is there something you need to tell me?" Hardy har, at least Sam was bemused by it.

He shot his brother a glare at the comment before turning to the stranger in front of him "Only person I call- don't say anything, Sammy, I swear to god I'll beat your ass" He stopped because out of the corner of his eye he could tell Sam was about to argue 'car' does not equal 'person' before continuing "Only person I call Baby is my car and last I checked, Impalas ain't human. You seem pretty damned flesh and blood, buddy."

Edited (Because I suck at word choice and grammar) 2015-08-09 21:18 (UTC)

"I am your car," Baby insisted seriously, eyes wide as he watched the exchange between the brothers. "Not usually, no. I woke up there." He's pointing at the parking space with the shitty Toyota van instead of Dean's Impala.

"I woke up there and I had to get up because this lady was honking at me." Baby tilted his head, looking between them. "You don't believe me?"

Sam raised an eyebrow. "No. We really don't."

[shhh you're perfect]

Dean felt his jaw clench, not believing the man in front of them yet before looking to Sam "Go look for the car. You find anyone that even looks like they coulda taken it, kick their goddamned ass." His tone held something that more than read 'Don't argue this Sam, just go' and the message was received relatively loud and clear. There was hesitance before the younger Winchester left.

If anything happened out in the open, Dean would have witnesses that he was using self-defense. He turned to fully face Baby, looking him up and down in a very judging way. "So what the hell has you thinkin' you're my Baby?" This was where he figured out if this was a demon trick or some loony bin escapee.

Baby watched Sam go without protest. He knew they wouldn't find anything, so fine, let them search. He's not going to mention he's a little insulted they don't recognize him. Not like he carted them around for almost 30 years or anything. It doesn't occur to him that this human body wasn't what they were expecting.

"Just what I know, Dean. My name is Baby. I'm a 1967, Chevy Impala SS. 8 cylinders, helluva a lot of horsepower. Stained with blood more times than you know to count." He was staring, eyes searching Dean's expression. "Weapons in the trunk, legos in the radiator. You could take them out, but you leave them there anyway."

Dean was unamused and came to a new question "So where're the weapons from the trunk?" He rose an eyebrow, unable to help but hide the bit of a smirk that crossed his face, thinking he trumped the stranger because there was absolutely no way those weapons could have made it without killing the man in front of him.

"Well..." Baby blinked, then shoved his hand into his jacket pocket. A handful of salt, some stray bullets. Sam's army man. It didn't seem like much had made it out; it had been swallowed into the void, evidently.

"Ah, wait a second." Baby patted down his body, eventually coming up with a serrated knife and a handgun, which he proudly presented to Dean. "That's all I have."

He frowned, looking at the items presented to him and crossed his arms over his chest. "So you have an army man and stuff that can be found in the car. Tell me somethin' only my car would know. Or show me somethin' to actually prove it." The initials or something, even.

"...you used to hold Sam at night, when you were little." Dean asked, so Baby obliged, watching him cross his arms. "While he was sleeping, and your dad was driving. You'd listen to my engine to fall asleep, and I'd purr quietly to help."

"Or there was that time with the Miranda girl when you were 17. In my backseat." Baby grinned a little, raising an eyebrow.

His jaw clenched, belief in his eyes now, his chest tight as well. The only people who would know about the first would be his dad and brother besides him, and with Miranda... Well...

He pulled his phone out of his pocket to call Sam and tell him to stop searching for the Impala and just look for a motel room or something in the area. At the end of the call right before hanging up on his younger brother, though, he realized something.

"Wait you've been a guy this whole goddamned time?!" Needless to say Sammy was confused by the statement but had exactly zero time to question what with being hung up on like that. Dean, meanwhile, pocketed the phone and looked to the Impala turned human.

"Technically, I was a car the whole time," Baby pointed out, grinning and not smug in the least. Okay, sue him, it was kind of exciting to talk with a mouth. Kind of awesome, in a way. And Dean believed him now, so there was that, too. "I don't really have a gender. I mean, this is my first time in a human body, but I'm sure being a woman would be just as interesting."

"It makes sense, though," Baby shrugged, thinking about it. "I'm a muscle car. With a stick shift. You can still use female pronouns if it makes you feel better." He really doesn't care.

Never had Dean been more frustrated with his car than right now. Never had he thought he would think something like that and actually mean it entirely. Of course, imagining what Baby would look like as a woman was briefly distracting, as well. He looked down to his phone as he got a text from Sam with the address for the motel he found and a rental car place. That part definitely earned him making a face.

"Let's just get to the damned motel and meet up with Sam." He moved to lead the way in the direction of the motel. He supposed he would have to rent a car, or buy a new one, or steal cars, until Baby was Baby again and not a human.

"Okay." Baby nodded emphatically, following Dean closely. No, he didn't look like a lost puppy. Okay, only kind of. At least he wasn't tripping over his own feet ~~yet~~. "Ha. I can steer myself."

Now, that might not go over well. Not that Baby was the jealous type - except that he kind of was. Sam might have to drive for a while if they didn't want him pouting.

Dean glanced over his shoulder, huffing a soft chuckle at the line itself. He was making sure the man - his car. This was his car still not just some guy - wasn't going to trip over his own feet. And if he did, he wanted to be there to keep him from getting hurt.

The entire car situation up to the potential need to hotwire it, would be Sam's decision. Dean would be the pickiest son of a bitch when it came to the choice of car.

I'm not saying he'd take 3 hours to pick a car. I'm saying it'd take closer to 6. And that's just for a maybe

Baby was all too happy to go wherever Dean did. That was...kind of the point of him, as a car. But now, he got to go to the places he normally couldn't; he was small enough. It was all very exciting for him.

Well, at least they have that in common. But Dean handling another steering wheel? It just didn't seem right to Baby, at all. "This is it, right?"

He blinked at the question before looking to see the motel was there. There was then a nod "Yeah. This is the place." It was proven when Sam poked his head out the door of their room. He walked over and into the room with Baby, looking around the room for a minute.

"I seriously just.. I swear to god we've gotten the same room at like every goddamned motel we've gone to, Sammy." He shook his head a bit before flopping down onto the couch as he sat.

It was a whole new world to Baby, and he took it in like a kid at Disney World. It was unexpectedly colorful, and while pink and seafoam weren't exactly what Baby would call style, who was he to judge?

"Woah." Baby poked at the drapery on the window, and Sam just looked between the car-turned-man and his brother with profound confusion. "Why are you covering the windows?"

Dean still didn't look happy with the situation in any way shape or form, but he also wasn't taking his eyes off Baby, out of concern for this going wrong. At the question, he rose an eyebrow and shrugged "More privacy and cheaper 'en tintin' 'em."

Or in Deans case with tinting windows since he would never pay someone else to touch his car, less frustrating to just buy covers for a motel room window. He shifted on the couch for now, kicking his feet up onto the small table there.

The two brothers were quiet for a moment before Sam awkwardly cleared his throat before speaking up "So what're we gonna do about actually getting around?" Dean shot him a look with a raised eyebrow in response that could easily be read, but he spoke up anyway.

"You wanna temporary car, you're in charge've findin' it, Sammy." Dean refused to drive another car. He was making that much clear now. "And before you say anything, of course I'm still gonna be throwin' my two cents in so you can deal with it." There was a shrug, all he spoke was truth.

Ah yes, Baby remembers the cursing that came along with that particular DIY project. Dean was not a happy man; Baby enjoyed it, although he did get a little messy in the process.

The smile Baby grants Dean is one no man would be able to fake. Good. He didn't have any plans to be driving anyone else. Not that Baby was jealous...

Sam just huffs a little, annoyed but already knowing this was a lost battle. "Alright, but what about - him?" Sam shoots Baby a befuddled look. "I mean - don't let me overstate this - what the hell?"

At the smile, more doubt of this man being his car faded and he wasn't entirely sure why a sincere smile like that would be what it took. A small smile twitched at his lips before Sam spoke and he shrugged, shifting a bit in his seat before speaking.

"Why not share a story about Sammy he'd know?" He looked to Baby, not saying any pet names or anything like that. That would have been weird. This was two different things. A way to put more concrete evidence of this being his car as well as getting leverage on his brother.

"And he's gonna be with us. We'll figure out what the hell happened and go from there."

"I know about the piss bottle, Sam," Baby says ominously, and Sam blinks at him, thoroughly surprised. "But don't worry, I think the iPod jack ranks higher on the list of sins."

"...so I'm gonna go find that car now..." Sam tries his damnedest to squirm out of the conversation, and Baby watches with fond amusement.

Dean rose an eyebrow, just listening and watching for now as Sam fled the conversation and motel room with his laptop and called after him "You show me some bitch car I'll beat your ass, Sammy!" But he was closing the door as the last word left the elders lips.

So he sighed and rolled his eyes before his focus was back to Baby. "Take a seat so I can go over some ground rules for bein' human with you." He couldn't lose his car. Even if his car was human right now, Baby was still right there. Just a bit harder to keep track of personally. So, he supposed he'd have to go through the obvious facts of don't drink motor oil or anything.

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