No appreciation of distance

Who: Dean and Aiden
Where: Along the road to Negaunee
When: Early afternoon

Dean remembered snatches of the dream he'd had the night before - not a huge amount, but enough that he was sure that that was what had been bothering him all day. He'd been in a foul mood all morning, the house just felt claustrophobic and he'd moped until Sophie had near enough thrown him out of the house. He'd started by heading into town, but somehow he'd ended up going the other way - whether he'd gotten lost or something, he wasn't sure, but somehow this direction didn't feel lost - if felt like the right way to be going. And he had nothing better to do, so he'd walk this way for a bit. Maybe to the next town or something. After all, how far could it actually be?

Of course, being that that question was coming from someone who had lived all his life in Britain, where nothing was ever very far from anything else and you could drive from one end of the country to the other in less than a day, Dean wasn't in the best position to be answering that question and it was with a certain amount of naivety that he began his walk, hvaing to step out of the road every few minutes to let cars go by. It was after about half an hour, when he got a stone in his shoe, that he stopped at the side of the road and sat down. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all...

After driving out of town early that morning to meet up with Cyrus as planned, Aiden was returning to Marquette, some of his sister's letters on the seat beside him that Cyrus had picked up for him in New York, along with a few more months supply of pain meds for his shoulder. It hadn't been a convenient trip, but a necessary one and after downing two of the pills with a bottle of water, he lit up a cigarette and focused on getting back to town.

With his window rolled down, music blaring, he let his foot press a bit harder on the the accelerator. It was a pain in the ass driving through Marquette when there were so many damn lights and stop signs. He never got to push his baby anymore.

As he neared town, his gaze drifted to the lone figure he was approaching rapidly on the side of the road. It looked to be some kid sitting there and Aiden slowed his car to a stop after checking to make sure there were no cars coming up behind him. Reaching over, he rolled down the passenger side window while flipping down the car stereo.

"Need a ride?" he asked after pulling the cigarette from his lips. Idiot kid was going to get flattened if he kept walking on this road.

Dean looked up as he thrust his now stone-less trainer back onto his foot and started with the laces. "Which way're you going?" he asked, looking up at the guy in the car. His tone was wary, even though it hadn't been a flat 'no' - where he grew up? You didn't accept lifts from strangers. Or, well, you didn't without being desperate and damn sure what you were doing. Right now, Dean knew he was edging towards the former, but he still had to cover the latter.

Aiden gave a brief nod in the direction toward Marquette, noting the wary tone in the kid's voice. Not everyone willingly got into cars with people they didn't know, and he could understand that. Though he wasn't sure there was a very big difference between hitching a ride and walking alone on the side of a road like this. If someone was going to hurt you, they didn't necessarily need you in the car to do so.

"Was headed back to Marquette," he explained, glancing over his shoulder out the rear window to make sure the road was still clear. "But if you're headed not to far out of town, I can take you where you need to go. Otherwise you've got quite a walk ahead of ya."

Dean mused this. "I wasn't going back into town," he said, eventually. "Was headed that way." He gestured down the road. "Dunno where yet. How far's the next town?" he asked, not sure that was where he wanted to go, but figuring it would be a good start.

Runaway? Maybe. Aiden wasn't sure, and he didn't really care. If the kid wanted a ride, he'd give it to him. "Negaunee is, say eleven miles from here. I can drop you off there, if you want."

Eleven miles - that was a lot further than he'd thought it would be. Fuck, he'd never be able to walk that. "It's in completely the opposite direction," Dean pointed out, looking a little sceptical, but standing and walking over to the car. He felt a bit better, not looking up at the guy. "Why'd you do that?"

"Yeah, it is, but it's only eleven miles." And if he went just slightly above the speed limit, he'd make good time. Aiden eyed the kid curiously before turning to flick his cigarette out his window. "Why'd I do what? Offer to help you out? Because you were sitting on the side of the road and looked like you could use a ride." His lips quirked slightly. "Up to you what you wanna do. I'm no ax murderer, or pedophile, in case you're wondering."

"I'm not a kid - and I can handle myself," Dean told him, reflexively. Which wasn't entirely true, but the areas he'd grown up you got to set store by appearances and attitude - and you never admitted to being defenceless. He looked back down the road. He could walk home, he knew, but he still had that twitch telling him to go in the apposite direction and it was irritating, like a bass line he couldn't quite hear. The difference was that this wasn't coming into focus, no matter how much he concentrated. "I... don't exactly know where I'm going," he told the guy in the car eventually.

"Yeah, I know you can," Aiden said, his tone not at all skeptical. Fuck, he was able to take care of himself at that age too, who was he to judge or doubt? "It's not a matter of taking care of yourself, man, it's about walking eleven miles on foot. You wanna do that?" If he did, so be it. "Even if you don't know where you're going, at least you're getting somewhere a bit quicker, yeah?"

"No, I don't wanna," Dean grudgingly acknowledged. "Thanks - if it's not too much trouble..." He reached for the car door.

Aiden pulled back and straightened again in his own chair as the kid opened the door. "What's your name?" he asked, lightening another cigarette and shoving the car into drive, ready to take off whenever the kid was settled.

Dean settled himself into the seat, reflexively pulling on his seatbelt and shuffling further down in his seat, affecting a slightly slouch. "Dean," he told the guy. "You?" he asked. His attitude and tone were defensive and it was obvious he was on edge, being in a car with a stranger, but he'd made the choice and now he'd have to live with it.

With a brief glance in his rear view again, Aiden pushed on the accelerator and did a wide u-turn in the road and headed back toward Negaunee. "Aiden." He could tell by the kid's demeanor that he was on the defense, which Aiden didn't mind. Meant he had good sense, didn't it? "Where you from, Dean?" He offered Dean a cigarette, because, well...manners and everything.

"England," Dean told him, glancing over at the guy. Aiden - he filed the name away for reference, along with giving him a sweep, noting his appearance. Just in case. "Y'know - with the accent and everything." It was obvious that he wasn't from around here - very obvious.

"No shit," Aiden replied with a quick roll of his eyes and the tiniest hint of sarcasm in his tone. Of course it was obvious the kid wasn't from around here - hence Aiden's question about where he was from. "I suppose I should have been more specific." Apparently. "Where abouts in England."

Dean raised an eyebrow and even a hint of a smile at that. "Well, you'd be surprised - some people think I mean 'New England' when I say that or some bollocks like that." He paused. "Manchester," he supplied.

Aiden glanced at Dean briefly. He had an accent of his own, and he liked to think he wasn't as slow as some Americans were. Dean's accent was nowhere near how New Englanders sounded. At least not to Aiden. "Manchester? What're you doing here?"

"Staying with me cousin. Probably gonna be going to school here as well," Dean told him, loosening up a little bit. "You're not from round here either, are you?" he asked. He didn't know much about the local accent - he hadn't got used to it yet, but this guy wasn't local, he was sure of that.

"No. I'm from Galway. You know - with the accent and everything." Aiden gave a tiny smirk before throwing his partially smoke cigarette out the window. "If you're staying with your cousin, and going to school, what are you doing heading out of town?"

Dean chuckled a little at that. "Fair enough - you've got some yank in there though, don't you?" Dean asked him, shifting to lean a little against the door so he could better keep an eye on the guy. "I'm exploring - this felt like a good direction to go in." Which was actually fairly close to the truth.

"Little bit, yeah. Moved to the States when I was sixteen, so I suppose I've picked up a bit." Aiden was going well above the speed limit, though he didn't consciously observe it. Might as well get there quickly than to mosey along and make the kid even more uncomfortable. "Exploring. Got bored with Marquette already?"

The speed they were travelling at didn't bother Dean as he cast the odd glance out of the window. The road looked strangely familiar, though he didn't remember travelling down it before. Maybe it was because none of it looked like home - everything looked so different here. He turned back to Aiden when he asked the question. "Not much to it, is there?" he shrugged. He saw a sign for an intersection come up and frowned a little. "Can you get off here?" he asked, impulsively.

"No, there's not." Unfortunately. Aiden was spending most of his free time drinking when he wasn't searching for the fucking elusive fiend. "Here? Yeah. Which way?" He slowed down a bit, waiting for direction.

"I...." don't know. "Er - right?" he suggested. He turned that way a little. "No - left. Left is better." This was weird. He should just have the guy drive him back to town, go back to Sophie's, forget about all of this and get back on nagging her about driving lessons - then he could bring himself out here another day.

Aiden went to turn right then slammed on the brakes and went left, cocking an eyebrow at Dean in the process. "So you weren't lying then? When you said you didn't know where you were going. You looking for somethin'?"

Dean was quiet for a moment before answering. "I'm not sure," he admitted, eventually. He paused, before turning to the other man. "You ever woken up with a feeling that you should be somewhere?" he asked.

Aiden used too. In college. And that somewhere was usually class. But this kid seemed to be on a completely different level than that, so Aiden gave him a look and a brief shake of his head. "Not really the kind of somewhere that leads me eleven miles out of town on foot, man. Maybe you just dreamed that you had to be somewhere and it carried over into consciousness."

Dean laughed a little. "Maybe," he agreed. "Been bugging me though. All bloody day - so, checking it out." He felt stupid saying that. This guy probably thought he was crazy. hell, right now he thought he was crazy.

The crazy thing was beginning to seep in a bit. Somehow this had turned from playing good samaritan and dropping off a teenage hitcher at the next town, to something else entirely. Resting his wrist on the top of the steering wheel, Aiden shot Dean a pointed look. "You want to check it out, but you don't know what you're checking out, or where it is." Shifting his gaze out the window, he didn't really see anything of much interest. He might start charging the kid per mile. "Any of this look familiar to ya?"

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Dean said, all bravado despite his internal doubts. He looked around, not expecting anything to look familiar - he'd never been here before in his life, after all. "And, maybe. Yeah - stop... That - that road there!" he exclaimed as they passed a dirt road off to the right. "Stop, go back - that road!" He was sure of it, it looked so damn familiar. And up there, he knew, suddenly remembering a snatch of the dream. There was a fence up there, old and rusting. With razorwire. It was up there. He knew it.

Aiden was pretty sure at this point that the kid was crazy, but they'd come this far, and Aiden was curious now, so instead of tossing the kid out, he slammed on his brakes and threw the car in reverse. After backing up to the road Dean had pointed out, Aiden maneuvered the car onto the road, his wheels kicking up dirt and rocks.

"How far?" Aiden asked, fishing out another cigarette from the pack between his seats.

"Dunno - while maybe. But there's gonna be a fence up here. Dunno if you'll get the car through there," Dean shrugged. "You know, you can always leave me - I can walk the rest," he offered. Fuck knew who he'd get home, but he'd think of something. Worse case, he'd phone Sophie and she could come and get him. Long as his phone worked out ehre, that was, of course.

Aiden didn't answer, but lit his cigarette and noted the fence ahead. He couldn't get his car through there, and he wouldn't even try it. He wasn't sure what was up here, what this kid was looking for, or how long he'd be. Slowing his car to a stop next to the fence, he put the car into park. To Aiden, it didn't look like anything worthwhile was up here.

"It's up to you, man. It's a long way back to town. You got a phone?"

"Yeah, I got a phone." He took said phone out of his pocket and checked - some signal, not a great one though. Hopefully it'd hold further up the road. He wasn't sure if he'd prefer for the guy to stay, or leave him. Hell, he wasn't even really sure what he was doing here.

Aiden knew damn well the signal would be worth shit up here. Worse if this kid got out and started walking further. "You got anything on you to protect yourself?" Not to say the place was dangerous. To Aiden, it looked incredibly tame. But that's usually where the surprises came from.

Protect myself? "Er... No. From what?" he asked, before he remembered the talk that he'd had with Oz. Shit. "No - no I haven't," he admitted.

Anything? Everything? Even if they were several miles out of Marquette, that didn't mean a goddamn thing in regards to what was lurking around. "I can give you something, or I can go with you. Which would you prefer?" Because frankly, he didn't care either way. But he'd taken the kid this far, so a part of him wanted to see what exactly was at the end of the yellow brick road.

Maybe you should just take me back to town. Shit. Shit, shit shit. Except he'd come this far and dammit, but it felt like something he was meant to do, he couldn't turn back now. Come with me. He shrugged. "Dunno," he muttered, unable to admit that he would feel better not going on alone. Anyway, what would this bloke give him to protect himself with? He had no idea, but like as not he wouldn't be able to use it anyway.

"You'll have to lead the way, since I have no fucking clue where we are." Not that Dean did either, but he seemed to know more than Aiden. Putting the cigarette between his lips, Aiden turned off the engine, motioning for Dean to get out of the car just as he was. Indecisiveness on the part of a teenager usually meant they didn't want to admit something - and in this case, Dean probably didn't want to admit he wanted Aiden to stay. He had his gun tucked safely away, but hopefully he wouldn't have to use it.

Dean looked over and gave something akin to a grateful smile to Aiden. "'kay," he agreed, before getting out of the car. He looked at the road ahead - if it could really be called a 'road'. It had been properly laid once, but Dean doubted that anyone had really been up here for years. The weeds and grass were growing around the edges and a few had even come up through the tarmac, fracturing it and sending pieces this way and that.

Ahead of them was a gate - over six foot tall and heavily chained, rusted and leaning as it reached the fencing that it was a supposed break in, but still a significant obstacle. Both fence and gate were topped with razor wire and signs warned people to keep out, that this was private property and that the ground was unstable. "So - any ideas about how to get round that?" Dean asked, looking round at Aiden.

Aiden squinted as he looked up at the top of the fence with the razor wire. Climbing was out of the question. Whoever had put the chains up quite obviously didn't want anyone trespassing. Well, shit.

His mind mulled it over even as he looked at Dean with a smirk. "Nothing in your dreams that showed you how to get past this part, then?"

Dean looked at the gate, frowning. "Er... Nope." Damn. "I ahve no idea what to do now," he admitted. He didn't know how to get over the fence - and he didn't have anything to cut the chain that held the lock in place either." Good excuse to turn back now. You've hit a problem, you can go without losing face...

He judged the length of the fence, and the thickness of the chains. He had stuff to cut through shit like that, but he wasn't sure if it would work on this. Looking over at Dean, he could see the uncertainty a bit on his face.

"You want to get in there?" Aiden asked. "Or you want to go home?"

Dean looked between Aiden and the gate. "I can't get through there," he said, shaking his head and turning away. Damn, but this was going to bug him now. But he couldn't see a way through there - he'd just have to deal. "No, sorry mate - look, this is a big waste of time," he admitted, feeling about two foot tall and massively embarrassed.

Tossing away his cigarette, Aiden returned his gaze to the gate again. "Look, you want to get through this thing, you know what's between ya now. Next time you just come prepared. I can take you home, but if you want me to drive you up here later, I can."

Dean considered this - the guy was right. He knew there was something here now, some kind of connection. There was no other explanation for the fact he knew what would be here. If he came back, he'd just ahve to come prepared. "You'd do that?" he asked, frowning as he looked over at Aiden. "Why?"

He shrugged, not really sure himself except for pure selfish reasons. "Because now you got me curious as to what's back there, if anything. And I'm always up for a challenge," Aiden said, motioning to the chains. "What do ya say?"