2615/Cold as Ice

Cold as Ice
Date of Scene:	27 September 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Sam Winchester, Winifred Burkle

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Sam Winchester has posed:
Somehow it came up in conversation-- Fred is a terrible liar.

Sam Winchester had grinned down at the floor with some amusement when it finally had come up. "You know SHIELD is trying to teach me to lie?" he says, as if he finds this hilarious. All he's done all his life is lie. "But I can probably teach you in spite of that. Let me get out of this suit and I'll show you how to run an easy one. Pool scam."

For a man who has tried to get out of this life, who had issues with breaking the law, he sure is teaching Criminal 101 to a lot of very nice ladies lately. Maybe he just needs to know he can keep his hand in...

And maybe he's not quite as sold on this new lifestyle as even he thinks he is. Maybe he has deep doubts and misgivings he can't shake. Maybe it's just a collection of really useful skills everyone should know.

He unbuttons his suit jacket and pulls off his crisp white shirt, revealing stitches on a bulletwound just above his collarbone. They look homegrown; they aren't the neat, precise work he'd have gotten if he'd followed May's exasperated standing order to go to SHIELD medical. He doesn't even seem to remember the wound is there as he goes after a t-shirt. The track marks are still livid on his arms as well, of course, and there's his tattoo, just under the livid bullet wound. Which at least isn't infected or anything.

Winifred Burkle has posed:
"You have a very innocent face," Fred tells Sam with a smile. As he tells her he is going to teach her a scam, she feels both excited, worried and curious. It's a whole melange of feelings. Learning new skills is always something she is interested in - hence the success of the lockpicking date. However, hustling? That's not something she's ever really done or thought of doing. "I don't really know how to play pool, though! Don't you need to play pool to be able to scam it?"

As Sam strips his shirt off, she can't help but watch. No matter how many times she sees him shirtless, it still is a bit of a thrill for her. This time, however, she notices the bullet wound that has been hastily sewn up.

Immediately, she is up and moving to Sam. "When did that happen?" she asks, worriedly. She stops herself from reaching out to touch just above the wound, her eyes focused immediately on it. "What happened?"

Sam Winchester has posed:
"You do. Guess we'd better start there," Sam says with a laugh. "You'll stomp me in three games I bet. Pool is all physics. Math. Angles, trajectory, force. I mean. When I do it, or when Dean does, it's just guys knocking balls around, but when you do it I bet it'll be a thing of beauty. All you really gotta do is learn to hold the cue and you'll be off to the races. Huh?"

The 'huh', of course, is for 'when did that happen.'

His face darkens as he looks down at it. "This morning," he says grimly. And then the more important matter. 'What happened.'

"My Dad tried to kill me," he says, with a casualness that belies the very real hurt and anger that still resides somewhere deep in his heart when he contemplates it all over again. "To be fair, I tried to do something awful to him back. After he did four or five awful things to my brother."

He pulls the t-shirt over his head. When it's in place his eyes are as black as the fabric of it is.

Winifred Burkle has posed:
Physics is certainly Fred's wheelhouse. And it does seem rather likely that after a few games she will be able to pick up the dynamics of pool if it really is just about angles and force. She's a very quick study and science is her forte. There might be a rejoinder, something else she says to him about pool, but there is something else that comes up that certainly takes her attention away from the fact that she can't play pool.

"What?" It's a gasp, a noise of someone who cannot at all believe that a parent can attempt to kill their child. She knew that John Winchester was a bastard, she already had so many words she wished to yell at him about the matter. This, though? This is something else entirely.

Though she hesitated before, she quickly closes the gap between them. "That's...that's not fair at all. Trying to shoot you is not fair no matter what you did."

Immediately, she notices the black eyes. Lately, it's a very good indicator as to whether a subject matter actually effects Sam or not. The fact that she is starting to use it as an emotional reader worries Fred, bu"t she still uses it. "I'm sorry. That's so horrible of him.

Sam Winchester has posed:
"I don't know.I did try to use Halfrek to transfer Dean's contract to him so he dies in a year," Sam says, deadly quiet as he gathers her into his arms for a second. He needs comfort, though he's loathe to admit it, and holding onto her helps. He grits to teeth. "Did I tell you he led me on a wild goose chase? I could have found Dean under the ocean, but he laid false trails. He was proud of doing it. Proud!"

His teeth grind, and he flares his nostrils, exhaling. "And then he just-- he was so callous. We have to go hunt Azazel, he says. Dean only has a year left so we'd better go handle that revenge now. He didn't even care that Dean was going to die. I'd already been considering trying, but that just sealed it. I did it right in front of him. Or tried."

He smiles, now, with a hard edge. "Turns out John's soul isn't worth very much, especially not when compared to Dean's. Surprise, surprise, right? So she can do it, but only if somehow the case can be made that it's of equal value. And I don't even know by what metric souls //are// valued."

He stops, suddenly, looking chagrinned. It's genuine enough to bring a bit of green back to his eyes, fading them back to pine. "I-- must sound pretty awful right now," he admits.

Winifred Burkle has posed:
Sam gathers her into his arms and Fred doesn't argue. Instead, she automatically wraps her own arms about him. Even if she didn't know how much Dean meant to Sam, the knowledge that a father would allow his son to suffer for a year is something so alien to Fred, so hurtful. It makes her hold Sam all the more tightly against her.

"I can't imagine." She truly cannot. Her own father is a wonderful man - the fact of him being possessed by a demon and tortured nearly unravelled her. She has heard that Sam's own father was not supportive, but to hear the details? It only makes her angry and protective. "I'm sorry."

She's not sure if she's being callous herself, but she tells him, "Dean's more of your family than John is." It's a simple fact that she has seen and now this story only demonstrates it more fully. "I think that might be taken into the value. Someone who's willing to let his own son suffer? That doesn't sound like a soul I would value. Compared to Dean? Who made a deal to save you? I can see it and that means any demon can: Dean's a good soul, something worth stealing."

She knows that might hurt, especially as that soul is worth stealing because of the sacrifice he made to save Sam. However, she holds Sam all the tighter, especially when he says that he must sound pretty awful. "No. John sounds pretty awful. If I saw him now I'd slap him so hard I hope his head would spin."

Sam Winchester has posed:
Sam holds her tightly in turn, and swoops in for a kiss. The fact that she gets him and doesn't judge him produces a surge of love so powerful he can't help himself. He lets it go a good long while before he squeezes her gently and lets her go. She's heard the whole story, and he'd rather take her to play pool than stand here and rant about it. "Maybe there's a way to make up the difference," is all he says, as he pulls down a red and black plaid shirt to go over his t-shirt, and starts looking around for jeans.

Slowly transforming himself back to drifter and grifter, a man of the road. He looks equally comfortable in both get-ups, as it happens. Dual natured, it seems, in more ways than one.

"I like your parents," he adds, because he's seen in them the image, the shape, at least, of what parents should be. In them, and on television sitcom parents, which he spent a long time studying when he was a kid. And parents in books. Enough exposure to teach him that John is one messed up puppy.

"Dean //is// a good soul."

Winifred Burkle has posed:
Sam's head dipping down for a kiss is met eagerly. They've had a rough couple of days and the physical comfort and closeness generally helps Fred feel more steady on her feet. Whens he finally pulls back, her eyes remain closed for a few moments longer, happy and content to hold and kiss him.

The mention of making up the difference is met with a bit of a tilt of her head. "Make up the difference? How?" She can't imagine it possible - how a father willing to allow his son to suffer for a year could ever reach the same level as a brother willing to sacrifice the rest of his life for his brother. It simply does not compute.

As for Sam's assessment about her parents, she beams a bit. "They're great." She can't help but love them and that love shines through more than a few things. Despite the attempt to tarnish Feigenbaum, it was her parent's love that started his own comfort that she passed on to Sam. "I think they liked you," she says with a grin. "And I think they liked Dean, too."

Sam Winchester has posed:
"Anyone who can like us both is A+ in my book," Sam says. He grins, then grabs her wrist just to spin her in for //another// kiss. Kissing Fred makes him feel pretty much human and right with the world again.

But to her question, he can only shake his shaggy head. "I wish I knew," he says grimly. "I didn't really have time to quiz her on what the difference would even be."

Cause he and his Dad suddenly entered a fight to the death.

Slacks off, jeans on, and then he's stomping his way into his trusty construction boots instead of his shiny shoes. "Alright. Let's go find ourselves a pool hall. There's a place called Josie's down the street that looked pretty promising. I can teach you there, then we'll hit another spot to actually work on this."

He is more than capable of multitasking, after all.

Winifred Burkle has posed:
The first kiss Fred had expected. The second? She had not. The grab on her wrist and twirl is met with a surprised noise, but certainly no resistance. She easily molds herself against Sam and that kiss until they both pull away. "Either way, we'll figure it out," she says. There's a pause, something she hasn't said yet. "There's...there's a legal firm. Angel and Wesley don't like them. But this is a legal contract, right? Maybe...maybe we can use them to free Dean. I've been trying to talk to Wesley about the possibility."

The mention of Josie's is met with a nod. Despite all the time that Fred has stayed in Sam's apartment, she actually hasn't explored much. That might be due to the fact that the longest time period she stayed here she simply could not leave the apartment. "That sounds great. Grifting in a bar close by seems like it's inviting trouble! Teaching me to play pool, there, though, sounds like part of the neighborhood."

Sam Winchester has posed:
"You won't have trouble as long as I'm there," Sam says stoutly. And he believes it. He's a big dude. Very few other dudes want to cause trouble with him, despite his boyish face and long hair.

He listens about the law firm, and he says, "That sounds like a group that might have the answers. Hopefully they wouldn't want anything to onerous in return for their help." But so what if they do? Dean sold his own soul for Sam. There doesn't seem to be much that deserves to be off the table when it comes to seeing to Dean.

In any event, he opens the door for her. No need to drive; the place isn't far, and he //has// explored it. Enough to know Josie herself is as likely to keep trouble off Fred's back as he is, once he thinks on it. He offers his arm to her like a gentleman, which might be a little out of place for a visit to a dive bar. "Official next date," he decides with a wink. Even established couples should date. And...well. If it seems strange that he can flip between grim contemplation of death, contracts, and Hell to joking about a trip to a bar...

Well, it's just because that's his life. His whole life. If he didn't know how to compartmentalize he'd straight up be in a mental institution by now.

Winifred Burkle has posed:
Despite herself, she knows that there will not be a lot of guys that will attempt to accost her with Sam as her guardian. Fred can't help but like that thought.

"They might," Fred agrees. "But, if Wesley and Angel don't like them, there's a reason. They might be just another form of the Crossroads. Not that it's off the table, but I'd want to bring one of them with us."

As the door is opened for her, she steps through it and then follows him to Josie's. The fact that this is their official next date is met with a grin. "Our dates are starting to have a theme," she tells him, not at all seeming to mind that. She likes learning things and she likes spending time with Sam. That all seems to lend to a date such as this.

As they move into Josie's, she looks about and assess the space and people. Unsure of whether she should make her way immediately toward the pool table, she looks to Sam for guidance.

Sam Winchester has posed:
A flash of a sheepish grin. "They are. I'd say we should go to like an amusement park next, but with our luck it will be haunted or something."

He navigates her to the bar first. "I'll just have a light beer," he tells Josie. This is definitely a //beer bar//, so this isn't too bad. He glances at Fred, waiting for her to get whatever she wants while he pulls out money. Both for the drinks, and, "Can I get some quarters for the pool tables too?" Because they're required to actually get the balls. It's a good night for doing this; there aren't too many people crowding around the tables. Weeknight that it is, there aren't too many people around //at all//, which is all to the good as far as Sam is concerned. Fewer people //also// reduces the amount of trouble they're likely to encounter.