Picking Up the Pieces

Picking Up the Pieces
Date of Scene:	12 August 2017
Location:	Hyperion Hotel, Fred’s Room
Synopsis:	After the incident with the Vengeance Demons, Fred and Sam discuss the past.
Cast of Characters:	Winifred Burkle, Sam Winchester
Tinyplot:	Blood on My Name

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Sam Winchester has posed:
August 12, 2025

After defeating the six demons at NYU, Sam had noticed that Fred seemed a little spooked. So he made an executive decision. He asked Dean to take him and Fred back to the Hyperion. If they hadn’t gorged themselves at the diner prior to now he might have asked for a taco drive thru run too, but...they did, and he can’t imagine that she’s any hungrier than he is. For one thing soot, blood, and general nastiness isn’t always great for the appetite.

Now, safe in their hotel room, he gently folds Fred into his arms. “You okay?” he asks, with quite a bit of concern. “That one seemed to wig you out a little bit.”

Winifred Burkle has posed:
“I’m okay.” Fred is easily pulled into Sam’s embrace, arms wrapping about him. She smells strongly of smoke from jumping into the burning building after Dean. Now that they’re back in the hotel, she does seem less jittery. The adrenaline of the hunt is gone and has left in its wake a slight weariness. Despite that, though, her reassurance that she is alright rings true. This is not an ‘I’m fine’ situation.

“Just, I’m so bad at words usually. And those poor kids, they just were upset and angry. They had no idea what they were doing.” She knows a little something about saying the wrong thing and having to pay supernatural consequences for it.

Sam Winchester has posed:
Sam breaks the embrace but doesn’t go far. He rubs his hands gently up and down Fred’s arms as he looks down at her with those intense hazel eyes of his. They radiate gentle compassion.

He doesn’t answer right away, but when he does he leads her to the bed to sit her down. “I’ve never found you to be bad with words,” he says quietly. “You seem to have a knack for saying the exact things I need to hear, for example.”

There’s more to address, of course, but he doesn’t want to overload her with too much, too fast. He sits down next to her, wrapping an arm around her once more.

Winifred Burkle has posed:
Sitting down, Fred shrugs her shoulders and smiles when Sam tells her she always finds the right words with him. “Aw, no, that’s not on me. I just tend to open my mouth and whatever I’m thinking comes out. Usually gets me into trouble. Or weird looks.” Her expression is one of good-natured self deprecation. It seems that while she was a bit freaked out by the possibilities the vengeance demons presented, she’s feeling more normal now.

“How about you, you alright?” When Sam wraps his arm around her, she leans against him gently, glad for his steady warmth after the events of the day.

Sam Winchester has posed:
“Must be a sign I like your thoughts,” Sam murmurs, pressing a kiss to her temple. “The whole world doesn’t have to understand you, Fred, for what you’ve got to say to be valid, useful, and important.”

He glances out the window, more musing than anything else, and adds, “We did what we could for those girls. We saved lives tonight, and they won’t play with that stuff ever again, I bet.”

As for himself, a flash of guilt rockets across his mind even as a flash of a smile rockets across his face. “Me? Of course. I didn’t even get injured. You didn’t inhale too much smoke did you?”

Winifred Burkle has posed:
Fred smiles against Sam as he presses a kiss to her temple. “I know,” she says. “There was just so long where words were just words and didn’t mean anything. Wasn’t anybody around except me, so I would just talk. Sometimes it was complete gibberish, ‘cause who cared, right? It was a lot of equations, a lot of trying to figure out my way back. If I’d’ve had a vengeance demon in front of me at the time...” At that, she leans her face more against Sam, shaking her head just slightly.

“Some thoughtless words just got some poor kids killed.” Despite her assurances before, the fear returns again, the fact that something completely random and unintentional can have horrible and life changing repercussions. “And they’re going to have to live with that.” Just like she is still living with the fact that opening a book and reading a few words took away five years of her life.

After a moment, she sighs, side of her face still pressed against him. “No, I’m alright. I used my sweater as a mask. It’s your brother that went leaping headlong into a burning building.”

Sam Winchester has posed:
“Yeah, he can be an idiot like that sometimes,” Sam sighs, though for all his exasperation the love is obvious.

And then, words he will have cause to regret in a few short days: “Even after all he’s been through, he thinks he’s immortal.”

He is carefully considering the rest, knowing her history as he does, which is why he addressed Dean first. “You know so much more than you used to,” he points out gently. “You’re more careful now. And even if you do make a mistake...we will, both of us, sooner or later...you have people now, people who can help. Angel, Mercy, me, Dean.”

Winifred Burkle has posed:
“Reckless for sure,” Fred agrees about Dean. “Tried to get me to go back to check on you.” Of course, she’s not the type to just let her boyfriend’s brother dive into a burning building without making sure he’s alright, so she ignored him. “I think he just does things without thinking if he thinks it’ll save people.” At least, that seems to be the case in the few times she’s gone into a fight: rushing the Winter Soldier, running back to hack at the hydra tongue, leaping into a burning building. It statistically leans to a pattern.

As for knowing more than she does, Fred nods. This is helping, but that fear is still lodged in her chest a bit - rising with worst case scenarios and falling with Sam’s faith in her. “But, if things’re random and anything can happen, maybe how much I know or who I know doesn’t mean anything. Maybe no matter what I know…”

The fear rises again and she presses her forehead against his chest. “I just picked up a book at a library and I disappeared for five years. I can’t ever go back there, Sam. Ever.”

Sam Winchester has posed:
Sam takes both of her hands. He really gives that some thought, too. He wants to be careful, to avoid saying anything at all which may make anything worse. Trying to do as well for her as she has done for him.

At last he pulls Feigenbaum out of his coat pocket and mines kissing her cheek with the bunny. He sets the bunny in her lap and smooths back a lock of her hair.

“Things might be random,” he murmurs. “But they still have meaning, Fred. Did you find any meaning? From your time there?”

Winifred Burkle has posed:
When Sam takes her hands, Fred holds them tightly. As a woman with a brain that goes a mile a minute, she tends to either think her way into or out of situations very quickly. It can be a boon when in a tight spot, but emotionally at times it means she leaps into what she sees to be an unsolvable problem.

The appearance of Feigenbaum from Sam’s jacket is met with a bit of surprise and then a short - warm - chuckle as he kisses her on the cheek with the bunny and then puts it in her lap. Looking first to Sam and then the stuffed animal, she thinks for a moment.

“In Pylea? No, not there. That’s where I got so lost.” And nearly didn’t come out the other side. “But, after Angel found me, knowing what I know now, helping people...I’m good at that. I like to build things just as much as I like the theories. I’d never’ve met Angel or you.”

Sam Winchester has posed:
“I think anyone who wasn’t as brilliant or resourceful as you would not have survived her time there. Would not have come out of the other side of it able and willing to help others,” Sam says gently.

“So you met us, and you help people, and those people would have died without you. So maybe it wasn’t exactly random. Maybe someone had to go to Pylea-- it was always going to happen that way; Chekhov’s Event, just waiting for someone to pull the trigger. And maybe some positive force in the universe says, look, there are 10 people who could pull that trigger, and only one of them is strong enough: Winifred Burkle. So maybe we let her pull it, because she’ll not only survive it, but she’ll bring good out of that evil.”

He smiles at her and says, “And even if that’s not how it happened at all, you’re still a first-class bad-ass, and you should be proud of that.”

Winifred Burkle has posed:
The hands tighten on Feigenbaum as he speaks. The connection to Sam - through the bunny - helps. Being told that she is strong, and his faith in her ability to survive horrible things helps, even as she looks at the familiar stuffed rabbit with the wire glasses in her lap. One of her hand reaches up to stroke one of Feigenbaum’s soft ears.

“I’d never wish Pylea on anyone,” she says softly. “I’d rather die than go back there.”

Maybe, though, she is stronger for it. Still broken, still scared, but she can also still recover. She’s healed quite a bit since her return, but some things still remain there: the fear, the desire to hide herself away. However, a hand reaches out to rest on Sam’s arm instead of pushing herself away to hide under the bed.

Sam’s last assurance that she’s a world-class bad ass is met with a soft laugh. “Oh, I don’t know about that. Got lucky a lot, ironically. But, thank you, Sam.”

Sam Winchester has posed:
“Didn’t you know? Luck is /the/ underrated secret bad-ass superpower,” Sam says with wide-eyed earnestness, though he’s grinning at her. Certain swear words sound patently ridiculous in his mouth; ‘ass’ as it happens, is one of them. He just doesn’t have the rough, tough delivery on most of them that Dean does. But sometimes only one word will do.

He wraps both arms around her and smiles into her shoulder. He doesn’t see broken. He sees a survivor. Who has coping skills some people might find strange, but...he doesn’t, really. They make perfect sense to him. A retreat into the rational world of math. A sort of emotional insulation that she wraps around herself in a way that makes her seem out of it. Only she’s not out of it. She picks up everything important and uses it brilliantly.

As it is, he has a feeling if ten women lined up right in front of her and someone said ‘you go or they do’ she’d go, because she’s got a hero’s spirit. But really, pushing that Pylea button anymore strikes him as a bad idea. Instead, he focuses on being that anchor for her, that physical presence.

“But for all that, I think it’s your mind that carries you through, as much as the luck. You worded that wish just right to end things quickly, for example.”

Winifred Burkle has posed:
Though generally not the swearing type, Fred doesn’t find Sam’s swearing ridiculous - it’s the juxtaposition of it along with his earnest expression is what tickles her a little. “My mama would make you put a nickel in the swear jar if you keep talking like that,” she teases just slightly - seemingly starting to feel better, on more solid ground.

As Sam wraps his arms around her, she hugs Feigenbaum close to her chest and leans against him, resting her own head on his opposite shoulder. If posed with the question of going to Pylea again to save another person? She most likely would do it. It might break her, but she wouldn’t let someone else suffer what she went through if she could stop it.

When told that she worded the wish right to end things quickly, she smiles. “I just thought ‘If I were a vengeance demon, what wouldn’t I want other people to wish for if I wanted to stay hidden?’ I’m glad it all worked out and I accidentally didn’t wish someone into the bottom of the ocean or something.”

Sam Winchester has posed:
Sam digs out a nickel.

Grins like a small boy about to do something naughty.

And then carelessly pulls her shirt collar out a little so he can drop the nickel right into her bra, hazel eyes twinkling.

Yes, he can be an ass sometimes.

“If you had, it probably would have been Dean. He has a real...ocean issue.” Though he will have this answer in a few days, it is a puzzle to him today. “Rivers too. I am starting to think he picked up a curse somewhere and just doesn't realize it.”

Winifred Burkle has posed:
Curiously, Fred tries to figure out what it is that Sam is doing with her shirt. Then, there is a soft yelp as she pulls back a little from Sam in surprise as the nickel slips down her shirt and into her bra. “Sam!!” she scolds, though she’s laughing as she does it. Pulling up at her shirt, she unabashedly fishes the nickel from her bra. “I’m not a swear jar! I barely even say damn!” Despite her attempts to discipline him, she’s clearly grinning. Feigenbaum remains tucked into her left arm as this goes on.

The mention of sending Dean back to the bottom of the ocean is met with a slight wince. “Yeah, that seems properly cruel. ‘Course that means he’d’ve had to mistreated or jilted someone. Or, maybe they meant he’d’ve had to have jilted me, either way, I’m glad it worked out.” The fact that both oceans and rivers seem to have it out for Dean is met with a bit of a curious expression. “Maybe. Maybe he pissed off some sort of water demon.” She’s not exactly serious, but if all water hates him, that could be some sort of explanation.

Sam Winchester has posed:
Sam starts laughing as Fred reacts so beautifully to his juvenile joke. “But you make such a beautiful swear jar!”

He flops back on the bed, trying to pull her right down with him, though right now his intention is snuggling. That’s not to say he won’t get properly amorous eventually, but her company and conversation are making him happy right now. “Dean,” he says dryly, “Has jilted a /lot/ of women.”

But his mind works on the problem, and he nods. “I’d ask him about it, but he’s being really cagey lately.”

Because pot. Kettle.

“I keep trying to introduce myself to Angel by the way, but I haven’t been able to catch him.”

Winifred Burkle has posed:
Sam’s laughing reaction to Fred’s attempt to pull the nickel he slipped down her shirt is met with a wrinkle of her nose and a shake of her head. Perhaps there would be more of an argument, but the pull backward is met without any sort of resistance. Instead, she falls over, partly on top of him. She certainly doesn’t seem to mind this arrangement, curling more comfortably about him.

“He mentioned before that you both have a bit of a type,” Fred says. Is that her prying just a little? Maybe. There’s not jealousy there, exactly, but curiosity.

“He tried to re-introduce himself to me as an Agent Cooper after the hospital,” she tells Sam, somehow not getting the Twin Peaks reference. “Like I wouldn’t remember him. I have a feeling he might not start out with the truth a lot.”

As for Angel? She nods. “He’s got cases sometimes. And, you know, the nocturnal vampire thing. You’ll meet soon. He might be trying to give us our space.”

Sam Winchester has posed:
“Dean? No, Dean was taught-- I was taught-- that information is always on a need-to-know basis. That you hide it first, and reveal it only after a lot of careful thought.”

He curls his arm around Fred, staring up at the ceiling. This topic has him very sober indeed. “Sometimes that was a straight up lesson, and sometimes it was more...indirect. He didn’t react well to things sometimes.”

An understatement.

His face creases into a smile as he detects that curiosity-- jealousy? “I haven’t dated enough women to have a type,” he says gently. “Jessica was very intelligent, but she wasn’t intelligent the same way you are. She was a business major, and more of an extrovert. Before that my first serious relationship was with a kitsune which really pissed Dad and Dean off, but she wasn’t evil, and she had to leave. And I was. You know. 14.”

He squeezes her. “And a few one night stands,” he admits. “Probably, he’s just giving you a hard time for being really intelligent. He thinks I’m a raging nerd and wastes no opportunity to call me one. He might also have been complimenting you, in a way. Saying you were good for me. I don’t know, Dean can be an ass.”

Winifred Burkle has posed:
They were taught that information was need-to-know. Though Sam doesn’t bring up his father, it seems pretty obvious from their previous conversations who it was that taught them that particular lesson. “I’m sorry,” she says, as that is the only proper answer she can think of to that. “I guess he thought he was protecting you.” By the tone of her voice she doesn’t seem to be trying to defend his father, just trying to understand the situation.

He hasn’t dated enough women to have a type. For some reason, that reassures Fred. However, her forehead creases with a frown as he talks about the kitsune. She knew about Jessica, of course, but this is a new revelation. “A fox?” she’s more confused about that.

As for Dean giving her a hard time, she isn’t sure if he would or wouldn’t do that. He did seem to say that after she talked a lot about science. “Maybe. At the time he seemed more worried than complimentary.”

Sam Winchester has posed:
“Werefox,” Sam murmurs. “It was a long time ago, and I was young.”

He doesn’t seem to realize that he’s young /now/, but there it is. Neither of them are exactly old. But. He was young/er./

But this idea of Dean being worried makes one of his dark eyebrows lift. “What was he worried about? Do you know?” Because that need-to-know thing often applies between the two brothers as well. Sometimes it takes a little digging to know what’s going on with Dean.

Winifred Burkle has posed:
“I understand. Foxes are pretty adorable with those tails.” That might not actually be what a werefox is, but Fred is now just picturing a girl with a red tail.

“What was he worried about?” Fred replies softly against Sam, shifting a bit. The answer comes immediately. “You. Last time we talked all alone, it was right before we came to rescue you. He told me he was Agent Cooper and that he’d been stuck on that case in Virginia, which is why he didn’t get any of my messages trying to find him while you were gone. We were both pretty frantic to find you.”

Sam Winchester has posed:
Sam opens his mouth to explain the lack of tails, but he just leaves it. She’ll find out or she won’t, and Kaylee isn’t important right now.

He is sober and quiet when he thinks about that. His brother, Fred, frantic. “I’m lucky to have people like you two in my life,” he says quietly. “Really lucky. You were both brilliant that night you came to get me. I’ll never forget that, how you’ve come for me twice now.”

Even if they promised each other this was exactly what they’d do. It still means a lot to him.

He takes a deep breath.

“I’m-- really scared I’m going to do something to let you down. It-- seems to be a pattern with me. Letting people down, eventually. And then you’ll be thinking I wasn’t worth all that pain and risk.”

Winifred Burkle has posed:
“We just care about you,” Fred says, automatically, warmly. She hasn’t said ‘love’ yet. Not just yet. However, the truth of that caring is easily heard in her voice. It’s not just the warmth of being wrapped up in his arms and Feigenbaum being close by that makes her respond this way. She feels safe with Sam - and the world at large generally does not feel safe to her.

“I dunno about brilliant. I was almost eaten. But, we’d come for you. I’d come for you. I promised I would. I meant it.” It’s a promise she seems intent on keeping, not only for that time but moving forward.

The fear of letting her down is met with a shake of her head. “It’s like you just said, Sam. We’re both gonna make mistakes. But, you’re worth it to me.”

Sam Winchester has posed:
He opens his mouth. He almost finds it in him to /tell her/ about what he pulled tonight.

But she’s shaken. She finally seems okay. This is not the time to drop this bomb. “You’re worth it to me too.” He hasn’t said the ‘l’ word since the dream, conscious of not pressuring her, or making things weird. A thing said in a dream while in a scary circumstance is not a thing that should be brought up again until she’s ready. If she ever is. It doesn’t change his feelings, but those very feelings make it possible for him to accept her right where she is.

Instead, he shifts to kiss her in earnest, a hand cupping her face as he moves on from chaste and gentle ones to something considerably more passionate. He can’t banish the dark, but he can keep it at bay for awhile, he thinks. Tonight, that seems the right thing to do.

There will be time enough to reveal that he’s sick. That he’s unclean. That he’s messed up in every way, and he has no idea what to do about it. He has no idea if he even wants to do anything about it anymore.

He’s been fighting it all his life after all. Now it feels like an inevitability.

But this? This is pure. This is clean. This is right. He can have this, can’t he? They both can.

Winifred Burkle has posed:
From her state back on campus, Fred has calmed down significantly. Though that fear of being sent back to Pylea will never leave her, it’s been quelled for the time being. Instead, she smiles when he says that she’s worth the risk, worth the crazy, worth it.

When Sam’s shift of attention turns more passionate, she does not pull away. Instead, she seems just as eager to banish the fears and the insecurities of her mind away. As he cups her cheek, she responds in kind.

The fire and comfort sparked between them is quickly reciprocated. Those hands immediately start to go to work on the buttons of Sam’s flannel. Despite her rambling, her fractures, her fears of being too broken, Sam has moved through all that and settled in a place of safety and warmth.

Maybe she should hide, shut herself off again. Instead, she wants to stay with Sam. That means something. In fact, she realizes, that means quite a bit.