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Sam and Dean drive through the Iowa cornfields, watching the tall stalks rippling in the August sunshine as they head down the road. They're on a couple of days' break, traveling to nowhere in particular, but planning to end up at Bobby's. It feels timeless here - the unchanging scenery under a bright, summer sun, heat shimmering up from the road. Dean, of course, cracks a joke about Children of the Corn. Sam rolls his eyes.
As the evening draws near and the sky begins to purple, the boys keep an eye out for a place to spend the night. Some miles later, they see a sign indicating a vacancy at the Corn Cob Inn. Dean pulls over into the gravel parking lot of a long, low building punctuated by grass-green doors. They get out of the Impala, stretching as the kinks from the road make themselves felt, and go into the office to get a room.
They stand at the counter and tap the rusty metal bell. "Just a minute," calls out a low female voice from the back. She steps out a moment later, apologizing as she comes. "I'm so sorry for making you wait. What can I do for you? One room or two?" She runs her hands through dark hair to push it back and looks expectantly between Dean and Sam.
"One room, two doubles," says Dean, thumbing in his wallet for a credit card as he half-waits for a snarky remark about the beds. They get that a lot for some reason. He doesn't look very closely at the young woman assisting them. Sam, however, does.
"Lenore?" he asks wonderingly. "What are you doing here in Huskerville, Iowa, Lenore?" He gestures vaguely around the office.
"Sam? Sam Winchester! And Dean! Wow, I can't believe it! What are you guys doing in these parts?" Her smile drops a moment. "Are you on a hunt here?"
"No, no, no," Dean hastens to reassure her. "No hunt! We're just coming off one, taking a day or two to recharge our batteries, then we're heading to Bobby's."
Sam nods in agreement. "What about you, Lenore? How did you end up here? Is the rest of your group here as well?"
Lenore hands them their room keys, each one attached to a little dried corn cob as a key fob. "Listen, why don't you guys get settled, then come back here and we'll have a beer, catch up?"
"Great!" Dean perks up at the thought of a cold one. "We'll be back in a few minutes."
The Winchesters leave the office and walk to their room. Sam slides his key into the lock and opens the door. They pause for a moment to take in the decor. Or course, it's horrible. A cornfield mural hangs over the beds, replete with corn stalks, tractors, and plump, pink pigs. The bedspreads features fat ears of corn in bright green husks, and Dan figures the dark brown carpet must represent the dirt, as well as being practical for hiding stains. Dean knows a lot about stains.
The boys look at each other and shrug. They've seen worse.
They sling their duffel bags onto the beds, turn on the AC unit that immediately begins growling, and return to the motel office.
Lenore is as good as her word and has cold beers for them all. She waves them into the tiny room behind the office, where there are four chairs, a little coffee-table, a small desk against one wall, and a short bookshelf crammed with books and papers. She gestures to indicate they should sit, and then they all sip their beers for a moment in somewhat awkward silence.
Dean breaks the quiet, asking her as he tips his beer toward hers, "So, you can drink that?" He's curious, since she is a vampire.
Lenore nods. "I can't sustain myself on human food and beverages, but I can enjoy some for taste. A beer now and then, a little chocolate once in a while. It doesn't provide anything nutritional for my body, but it's yummy." Lenore runs more on AB negative and O positive than Corona or Hershey's.
They talk more easily after that, with Sam & Dean sharing some of their more amusing hunting and traveling anecdotes. Lenore tells them about traveling with her group for a while, after they left Red Lodge, Montana and the whole altercation with Gordon Walker, but eventually they split up. Everyone started choosing a different direction, gradually splintering into smaller groups. She just wanted to find someplace small and quiet. She's been here for a year or so, acknowledging that she might not stay here forever, but it's a lovely little place to just be for a while. She works the night shift at the Corn Cob and has a little farmhouse nearby. She's taking some online courses for college credit. She's happy.
Sam and Dean get up after the beer - they're hungry and ready to find some dinner. Lenore points them toward a diner about a quarter of a mile down the road. They thank her for the beer and wave as they left, promising to see her before they depart the Corn Cob for good.
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As Dean reaches for the remote, a thought strikes him. He could go chat with Lenore. She's up - it's high noon for her. A little late night - or very early morning - conversation seems like a great idea. It sure beats the alternative of infomercials, bad movies, and Headline News. He pulls on a tee shirt, slips into his boots, grabs his key and softly opens the door, being sure to step over the salt line. He checks that Sam doesn't stir before he closes and locks the door.
He pushes open the door for the rental office, and sure enough, Lenore is there and awake. She's sitting on a stool at the counter with a book and a spiral notebook in front of her, yellow highlighter in her hand. She looks up and sees him, surprise registering on her face. "Dean! What are you doing up at this hour? Is your room okay?"
He leans an elbow on the counter. "Room's fine. Woke up, couldn't go back to sleep. Didn't feel like computer or tv. Thought maybe you might be up for some company?"
Lenore looks at him soberly, then a smile spreads across her face. "Don't want Sam to catch you on the porn sites?" She winks at him, and Dean actually feels a blush steal across his face. He rubs his hand across his mouth, and Lenore laughs. "Sure, I'd love some company. Gets pretty quiet at night except for the odd check-in now and then. Come on in the back and I can just leave the door open in case someone comes in for a room."
Dean comes around the counter and follows Lenore into the little back office again. She offers him a beer, which, of course, he takes. Settling onto the chair, he asks her, "So, what are you studying there?"
"It's a fiction course. I'm taking some creative writing courses, and they recommend fiction classes as well. You know, reading and studying other writers in order to learn more about writing your own stories. I figured, I've been alive a while, plan to stay alive a long while still - I have lots of stories I could tell."
Dean nods - makes a lot of sense to him. He had a shitload of stories himself, but he didn't think anyone would want to read those. "You going to be an author someday, then?"
She nods. "Hope to! In the meantime, this place works out well. Little lonely sometimes, but I'd rather have that and quiet than have to pick up and run all the time, you know?" Dean does know - she and her group had had to run from Gordon Walker, a hunter who'd gone off the deep end and ended up hunting Sam. Dean and Sam had learned how non-threatening vamps could be, and they'd let Lenore and company flee safely. Looking at her here, happy and busy, he knows they made the right decision.
They talk a little more as they enjoy their beers, and Dean is struck by what a pretty girl Lenore really is. She's not flashy or cheap like most of the girls he picks up at bars; she's wearing hardly any makeup, just a little mascara and lip gloss. She's dressed in a snugly-fitting cotton top and jeans, showing a nice figure, but not a flat-out sexy one. It's Lenore's features that draw him in. She has large eyes with an almost sleepy look to them, and a wide, mobile mouth with full lips. Her smile brightens her whole face, and her laugh is hearty and unaffected. Dean feels some stirring down below as he surveys Lenore. Little Dean is waking up and he approves of what he sees. Suddenly the night's possibilities are expanding.
Dean suggest they put the radio on for some music, and Lenore clicks it on. There's only a couple of stations, she tells him, and the other is all sports and farm reports. The music one is playing "Lasso" by The Band Perry, and Lenore hums along a bit. Her voice is very pretty, much more so than Dean expected.
He gets up and takes her hand, pulling her to stand up with him. They start to slow-dance, Lenore smiling and laughing a little, Dean giving her his 100-watt-special smile as he holds her close. He can smell her now, something light but spicy that hangs around her. "Lasso" ends and Adele's husky voice covering The Cure's "Love Song" swells, and Dean snuggles into her. His nose is in her hair, his lips by her ear, and Lenore's fallen quiet now. Dean Junior is getting into the game now, tenting his sweat pants a bit as they continues slow-dancing. Lenore's body, all soft curves, is rightnext to his. Her breasts are brushing his chest, her thighs moving against his, and goddamn, she feels good. He pulls his head back just enough and there's her mouth, those plump lips so close, no breath exhaling, of course, but they're so tempting. Dean closes the remaining distance between them and his mouth is on hers, he's pressing against those soft lips, moving across them and delicately sliding his tongue into the seam of her mouth. He's never kissed a vampire before, and he momentarily wonders if he has to watch out for her fangs descending. Her lack of breathing is mildly odd, but he doesn't think that will still be on his mind in another minute.
Lenore pulls her face back, breaking the contact between their mouths. "Dean?" she asks softly. "Are you trying to seduce me?" Her soulful eyes gaze into his.
"Uh . . . maybe? If you'd like?" he says with a half-smile. "I think the word 'trying' in there means it's not going too well." He keeps hold of her, but stops moving to the music.
She puts her hands on his face and gently turns his head a little, placing a kiss on his cheek. The Kiss of Death - he knows it's all over now. He releases her and takes half a step back. Dean Winchester has never pushed himself on a woman, and he's not starting now. He doesn't want to just drop her like a hot potato, but he's immediately giving her some space.
Lenore smiles at him and sits down, patting his chair as she does so. "Dean, I'm flattered. You're a very handsome man, and I'm sure you have plenty of women to choose from anytime you want. Please don't be offended that I'm turning you down."
Dean smiles and looks at the floor for a minute, feeling rather awkward about sitting there in his sweatpants with half a hard-on. "It's fine, really. I just, uh . . . well, the dancing, and you're a babe, and . . . y'know? My apologies for taking it someplace you didn't . . ..um, yeah." He scratches the back of his head, hating the awkward feeling that's fallen.
She puts a cool hand on his arm and squeezes. "Dean, it's fine. It's fine. You didn't know. No big."
"Didn't know . . .what? Is it a vamp thing? Vamps don't have sex with humans? Does it make y'all too hungry?" Dean asks.
Lenore laughs, throwing her head back in amusement. "No!! Nothing like that! And yes, there IS vamp/human sex, it happens all the time." She chuckles as she regains her composure. "It's not that I'm a vampire, Dean. It's that I'm gay."
Dean stares at her. Then he chuckles heartily as her words sink in. "You're gay? No kiddin', you're a carpetmuncher? Well, damn, no wonder I couldn't score! I thought I was losing my touch or something! I thought the slow dance was going well, but then when you shut me down, I didn't know what was wrong." He's still chuckling, but softer now. Lenore cracked up watching his reaction, and now she catches her breath as he shakes his head.
Lenore takes a deep breath, still giggling. "I'm so sorry, I thought you knew! Even when we started dancing, I thought 'hey, we're just having a little fun'. But then you kissed me - and for the record, Dean, that was an awesome kiss! - and it dawned on me that you were really making a move. I'd have said something sooner if I had realized you didn't know."
Dean takes a swig of his beer. Little Dean has gone back to sleep, now that he's no longer in the picture. "Hey, it's not like we really had time to discuss our sexual orientations when we were dealing with psycho Gordon. It just never occurred to me." He paused. "Hey, we could go out and pick up some little farm girl hotties. You get lucky, maybe I can watch." He winked at Lenore, who choked on her beer.
"It's 4 a.m., Dean. Around here, that means it's almost time to get up and feed the animals. No pick ups tonight, unless they're Ford flat beds." She picks up the empty bottles and takes them into the bathroom. "Why don't you try to catch some z's before the night is over? Maybe you're relaxed enough to sleep now."
Dean nods. "Yeah, not a bad idea." He comes over to her, and they hug. Now she feels like a friend in his arms, like a sister. He can't imagine trying anything with her, no matter how lovely she is. He kisses the side of her head before he lets her go, and she smiles up at him. "Thanks," he says gruffly.
"Anytime," she says back. "Anytime you two find yourself in Iowa, come look me up."
They both know it's good-bye. When Sam and Dean leave in the sunny August morning, spinning down the corn-lined, country road, she'll be tucked safely away in a dark place deep inside her farmhouse.
"You know it," Dean says, knowing that it probably will never happen. "You take care now, Lenore." She bobs her head and smiles, although the glaze on her eyes belies her cheerful expression.
Dean leaves the office, making sure the door shuts soundlessly behind him. He walks back to their room, where he unlocks the door and enters silently, making sure the salt line is still unbroken. Sam is sawing wood, sprawled on his back across the bed. Dean smiles at his little brother and gets into his own bed, pulling the blanket up as he settles on his pillow. He does feel more relaxed, and there's a half-smile on his face as he slips into sleep.