Hey, a new story.

This isn't an AU, but has a different plotline than what has happened or what is going on in SPN. Basically a lot of characters that are canon don't exist in this story.

This doesn't mean I won't be continuing my other, of course.

Bear with me, this story is placed six years back.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OCs.

Life With You

Chapter One: Cooper

August 23, 2012

"Don't look at me like that, Cooper. You do this every time."

The sable German Shepherd Mariah was speaking to just cocked his head innocently.

This was a regular routine for them; Cooper would try and pull his 'puppy-dog-eyes' act on Mariah to get out of being washed, and she would just shut it down as if she wasn't affected at all. Honestly, Mariah was surprised Cooper hadn't caught on to the fact his act never worked, yet, still he persisted.

With how many bathes Cooper needed because of his adventurous attitude, Mariah would probably admit to being jealous. With her typical line of work, showers were one of life's pleasures, despite the fact she'd usually come home with just a small amount of energy that only allowed her to drag herself to bed.

"I don't know what you did, but you smell horrid. You're not getting out of this. Not again."

With that, Cooper sighed and lowered his head slightly as if he understood, and reluctantly walked forward so he could be cleaned. Mariah praised him with a grin, and gave him a good scratch behind the ears before wetting his coat with the hose she'd been holding for the past ten minutes. Despite Cooper's usual stubbornness about bathes, he was thankfully compliant, thus easy to clean.

"I'm sure you don't care about the smell, but we humans definitely do."

As if knowing what she said, Cooper looked up at Mariah and gave her one of his dog grins. Mariah liked to call them shit-eating grins, because he'd always show them off whenever he did something he wasn't supposed to.

Once he was completely wet, Mariah released her grip on the hose and reached down for the bottle of shampoo. Cooper took this opportunity to shake his pelt out, successfully both showering Mariah with water droplets and smacking her in the face with his wet tail.

Mariah impulsively stood up straight and stepped back, face twisted into a look of mild disgust with her lips pressed together to prevent water from entering her mouth. Cooper looked up at her again, the innocent expression from before coming back. Mariah couldn't help but give him a small smile, wiping her face with her dry forearm and bicep.

"Thanks, dude."

In spite of Cooper's apparent childish nature, Mariah couldn't help but find whatever he did fairly funny. Watching him investigate where a squirrel ran off to or react weirdly to new objects was a small, yet huge thing in Mariah's life. She's only had Cooper for eight months, and she already decided she'd do anything for him.

Usually, being a hunter meant a larger amount of seriousness, sadness, injuries, death and just unpleasant situations on all sorts of levels to add what life already had to offer. However, Mariah didn't like that description very much, no matter how true it was. Yes, Mariah took her job very seriously and acted cold on the job, and yes, the job may be difficult, but Mariah always tried to look on the bright side of things; if she could. And maybe mutter a joke in the middle of a hunt when she knew it was safe.

Though, sometimes there would be a few times Mariah would work with other hunters, and it was difficult to have any sort of fun. Even a small joke would be shot down with a glare, and the rest of the day would be moody. One reason Mariah preferred to work alone. The other reasons, Mariah didn't like to dwell on, even if she did it involuntarily.

Looking up, Mariah spotted Cooper about ten feet away from her, daring her to chase after him. Mariah rolled her eyes and lifted her hands, letting them fall and slap against the sides of her legs. "Cooper, you can't run from your problems." She told him, almost laughing at herself for being an outright hypocrite.

Mariah glanced to her right then, and realized two men walking by witnessed her conversation with the canine.

The shorter of the two had looked away as soon as Mariah looked at him and attempted to continue whatever conversation he was having with the other, but the taller man raised his hand without a word and politely smiled at Mariah.

Mariah looked right through that smile, and could tell he was at least a little bit amused by her antics. Honestly, it wasn't that weird to talk to your pets, was it? Mariah noted he slowed down a bit, making the other become impatient. Though, Mariah copied his action and smiled back, even if it was an embarrassed smile.

"Beautiful dog." He complimented as soon as Cooper gained his attention by running in a circle at least twice. And as if understanding what the man said, he stopped and held his head high.

Mariah shook her head and chuckled. "Thank you." After that, Mariah was left alone with Cooper once again, and proceeded to do nothing but frown at him. It was easy to say, Mariah was unamused.

"Cooper, you may be beautiful, but you don't smell beautiful." She took a step forward and leant down again to grab the shampoo bottle. "Now get over here and let me clean you, for Pete's sake."

August 24, 2012

The next day, Mariah busied herself with online news stories. No matter how hard she tried, Mariah couldn't stray too far from her job. She was always on her laptop, scrolling through obscure news stories.

Cooper occupied himself by either destroying a toy or trying to fit his large body into Mariah's lap. Usually the latter didn't work, even if he was determined beyond reason.

What was with big dogs and thinking they're lap dogs?

Mariah had been searching for a particular story that involved deaths in the town she lived in. She'd heard about four victims, but never had the chance to look deeper into the case because of her new part time job and forced procrastination. All she knew, was that the deaths weren't natural.

While scrolling through the news feed, Mariah found what she was looking for.

She skimmed through what she knew, and took in the information she didn't. The four victims were found dead, were said to have been killed the night before they were found, and they were reported as animal attacks because of what was left behind. The chest cavities were completely torn open; hearts missing.

This information wasn't all that unfamiliar to Mariah, as she's dealt with werewolves before, but she's heard about this in nearby towns as well. It started about eight months ago, a month just after Mariah moved into her house.

As soon as it made the news, Mariah started researching. The first death was located in a town pretty far from where she was, a good reason for why Mariah should let another hunter take care of it and remain on break. But the next death was in a town closer to her's, and the next was even closer. Then lastly, the four recent deaths were placed in her hometown, as if the monster had been migrating and suddenly decided to stop.

The deaths outside of Mariah's town caused Mariah to just force herself to forget about the entire thing, and spend time doing normal, human things. Like getting a job, and spending time with her dog. Though, when another death appeared on the news, Mariah couldn't take it, and went right back to her computer. But being out of the swing of things of hunting sure took a toll on Mariah's brain, because the first thing that came to mind, was a cougar. The town she lived in was located next to a forest, after all. But after more thinking, animals definitely did not act like that. Especially predators like cougars.

And as far as Mariah knew, the bodies were found out in the open, like the monster had no intention of hiding it.

There were pictures of the victims on the website, and Mariah's eyes raked over them more than once. One picture looked hauntingly familiar. Her interest was both shut down and heightened when she came across the list of the victims. Three of the names were very vague to her, but one stood out. Piper Watson. Piper was someone Mariah managed to meet when she moved to the small town, and Piper proved to be someone Mariah wanted to be friends with. The other names, Mariah figured, were people who she'd met in the very beginning, then saw very few times after that.

Mariah inhaled shakily and exhaled slowly.

She opened a new tab and individually searched up the vague names, with the town she lived in. She didn't find much, of course, but all of the victims seemed pretty successful in life. She couldn't find a reason why a monster would want to kill them, as they seemed like good people, and had no connections with each other. Though, each of them had a few nasty habits.

Mariah didn't need to look up Piper; she knew she was an alcoholic.

A few paragraphs later from the news story, Mariah came up with a conclusion. The monster was a Skinwalker. Despite the rarity of coming across one, it was only reasonable, because from Mariah has seen, werewolves typically ate more than just the victims' heart. And the four she was looking at had nothing missing but the heart.

Mariah desperately wanted to take care of this case, since it was right here in her hometown, but she forced the urge away and rested back against the couch with a sigh. Even though she wouldn't be dealing with it, Mariah figured this case wouldn't be easy. The town was small, and dogs were everywhere. Really, it wouldn't be hard to see someone chasing after dogs and touching them with silver coins.

Before the deaths had even started, Mariah tested Cooper with silver, because she'd rather be safe than sorry. Thankfully, Cooper passed.

Mariah was deep in thought when three knocks on her front door caused Mariah to nearly jump out of her skin; both because the noise was sudden and Cooper's loud, protective barks filled her ears before he leapt off the couch with unnecessary force and made a beeline straight for the front door.

Mariah quickly closed the tabs she was looking at and shut her laptop, sitting it on the coffee table before pushing herself up to stand, proceeding to chase after an excited Cooper. "Woah, woah, woah. Cooper stop, it's alright."

She reached down and grabbed his collar with an iron grip and pulled him backwards, the act of opening the door successfully quieting his barks down to eager whimpers. Mariah was instantly greeted with two tall, handsome men in suits, both offering a slight smile. The shorter of the two made nervous eye contact with Cooper when the canine began to strain against Mariah's grip to get a better whiff of them.

"I'm sorry," Mariah started. "I promise he's harmless; all bark and no bite." She said with an apologetic grin, her statement directed more so to the shorter of the two.

Despite her assured tone, the shorter man still looked skeptical and the taller one just looked amused.

Mariah's eyebrows knitted together slightly. Somehow, they looked oddly familiar, but she was sure she's never met the two in her life.

"What can I do for you?"

"Alice Hill?"

Mariah's eyes widened slightly, and took only about a second to remember that Alice Hill was the fake name she gave herself. "Yep, that's me." She replied easily. Mariah was told specifically if she wanted to take an actual break from hunting, she'd need a fake name. There was always a chance someone would recognize Mariah and turn her in to the authorities because of her record in the database.

Really, all hunters had some sort of problem with the authorities, because it wasn't unlikely to be caught in a predicament. In reality, Mariah had been charged with murder because she was found looking at a victim that just died because of a witch's spell. The woman was on the phone with a first responder when she died, and Mariah arrived just a tad too late, and right before the police arrived.

That case was only sort of difficult to get out of.

"I'm Agent Robinson and this is my partner, Agent Brown." The taller man introduced calmly, the FBI agents pulling out their badges in unison. Mariah's eyes quickly scanned the badges, before they were folded back up and stashed into their coat pockets. Mariah almost asked if their first names were Will and Charlie. "We'd like to ask you a few questions about those who were attacked. You knew Piper Watson, correct?"

A multitude of expressions ranging from sadness, confusion and surprise flickered across Mariah's face all at once. She was only a little surprised that they knew she knew Piper, but she assumed someone at the crime scene was close to Piper, and told them. Probably her sister.

"Yeah, I did." Mariah replied quietly, eyes hardening and eyebrows furrowing. Cooper almost instantly noticed her mood change, proceeding to take a step away from the strangers so he could plant himself next to her and lean against her legs in attempt to cheer her up.

But it wasn't long before Mariah opened the door wider and pulled Cooper back with her. "Come in." They obliged, causing Cooper to lean forward slightly, touching his nose to their legs as they passed by. "Please, sit."

Mariah released her grip on her companion's collar, and as soon as the agents sat down, Cooper went to investigate. He was rewarded with pets from Agent Robinson. "I'm sorry," Mariah sighed. "Cooper, leave him alone." She pointed to another room, sitting herself across from the agents on the other couch.

Cooper reluctantly obeyed, and Mariah watched as both her dog and the agent looked solemn after he retreated to the other room to do his own thing.

Agent Brown went right to business as soon as Cooper left. He leaned back and folded his hands in his lap. "Tell us what you know."

Mariah rubbed her cheek and averted her eyes to the floor. "Oh, I don't know. Piper and I became friends a while back, but we didn't hang out all that often because of her busy schedule." She admitted, crossing her ankles. "I knew she volunteered at an animal shelter twenty minutes from here, but I'm sure none of the animals there would have the ability to do whatever happened to Piper." Mariah spilled, her mind suddenly getting filled with memories of small cats, dogs and rabbits. "Actually, I can't think of any animal that would take the heart and leave the rest."

There was a moment of silence after Mariah's words, and Agent Brown's only reply was a sigh. Robinson leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "We're trying to figure that part out."

"Although, I'm a little confused on why the FBI would be apart of something like this." Mariah voiced honestly, tilting her head a fraction and crossing her arms.

"Small town. We're just being thorough." Agent Brown said on impulse, a little too quick for Mariah to completely believe his words. But Mariah made sure to keep her weird and suspicious looks in check and just gave a small nod in agreement and gratitude.

"We suspect it could be a possible virus, causing changes in wild animals' behavior." Robinson went on softly. "Have you seen anything like that around town?"

Mariah suppressed the urge to shrug. Sure, it could be possible for an illness to be going around, but she wanted to tell them exactly what it was and be done with it. Though, if the two were really agents, they'd call her insane.

Mariah inhaled slightly. "Um, I'm not so sure about the wild animals, but I do know there are quite a few stray dogs. But none of them have shown any sort of behavioral changes." She paused. "As well as those that are pets."

The sound of Cooper's heavy footsteps from the other room filled the air, before the sound of a toy getting shaken and ripped apart followed suit. Mariah didn't know whether to smile awkwardly or offer another apologetic grin. And the dog's actions didn't go unnoticed by the agents.

They exchanged glances. "What about your dog?" Brown asked, expression hardening.

A look of concern instantly plastered itself on Marian's features. "Cooper? Oh, no. No, he's still the same." Mariah answered quickly; too quick for her own liking.

At the sound of his name, Cooper came trotting into the room and hopped easily up and onto the couch, plopping himself down carelessly on top of Mariah's legs. His head rested on the arm rest, and he relaxed into his position with a sigh. Mariah quickly rolled her eyes and exhaled silently.

"Besides the fact he's a bit of an escape artist and disappears for hours at a time, he's your typical dog." Mariah went on after a moment, running her hand from the top of Cooper's head and down his back gently. She looked up, noting how tense Agent Brown looked. She supposed he didn't like dogs.

"Hours at a time?" The agents said in unison.

She nodded slowly, patting Cooper's back. "Yeah. The first time scared the hell out of me, since he literally disappeared for five hours. The next few times weren't as long, but still nerve wracking." She recalled, eyes narrowed. "Yet, he always returned. Now it's a bad habit, and I can't break it. He's gotten better, though. Now he's only gone for about an hour. I think it has something to do with his past."

The agents remained silent for a moment, and Mariah felt her heart speed up with their eyes on her. "Alice," Brown started, causing Mariah's eyes to quickly slide over to him. "Has Cooper ever shown the slightest amount of aggression. To anyone?"

Mariah frowned. "No."

"Has he ever bitten you?"

"Never."

"Has he ever returned home and you noticed something different about him?"

Before Mariah could deny the question yet again, she paused and shut her parted mouth. She eyed them suspiciously, causing them to look at her with concerned expressions. "You're not FBI agents, are you?" She asked slowly, the corners of her lips turning upward slightly.

The exchange of worried glances was all Mariah needed. "Ma'am, we're just trying-"

"It's a Skinwalker," Mariah outed, the agents looking completely shocked. "But you already knew that, didn't you?" Mariah said with a small grin.

"You're a hunter?" Robinson asked quietly.

"Was taught by a friend of mine at the age of ten." She replied firmly. "What about you?"

"Born and raised." Brown replied, a dark look in his eyes.

Mariah nodded sympathetically and grabbed Cooper's scruff gently. "I tested him with silver. He's good."

"Do you have any idea who it could be?"

"Maybe," Mariah started slowly. "There's a woman not far from here who ones own dog: a Husky named Maggie. The woman is never really around, and as far as I know, she's not very popular in town." She went on. "I'm pretty sure I've heard two people talking, then barking and just the woman speaking. I'm just going out on a limb, I haven't done much about this case."

"Could you give us directions?" Robinson asked.

"'Course. Go right for two blocks, then turn left at Hudson street. Her house is the second one on the left after you turn," Mariah paused and grinned. "It won't be hard to miss, it's a horrid shade of blue."

"Could you walk with us?"

Mariah's eyebrows raised at the question, but she smiled. "If you want me to."

"How long have you lived here?"

The agents, well, actually just guys now- Mariah didn't know what to call them at this point.

Hunters.

The hunters were proving to be actually pretty interesting, even though they didn't really reveal very much about their life. Mariah could tell they were tight knit just by the way they spoke.

At this point of meeting new people, Mariah would feel like she was being scrutinized. Especially since Cooper's tugging caused Mariah to be two steps ahead of the boys, and could practically feel their eyes staring at the back of her head every time she spoke. Unless, she turned to look at them. When she did, they'd turn away so they'd be looking straight ahead. Weird.

It also didn't help because they were both much taller than her, and Mariah would be quite literal if she said she had to look up to them.

Speaking of which, Mariah felt uncomfortably short while walking next to them. The shorter man was probably a little bit over six feet, while the other was easily 6'4".

Mariah stood at a solid 5'5".

She wouldn't say she was really short, but Mariah would constantly be teased about her height at family events, especially since she was shorter than her younger sister. This, she didn't care about. But when hunters started teasing her, Mariah wouldn't have it.

The fact that the two hunters were pretty much strangers, something about them caused Mariah to feel relaxed. Which should be making alarms go off in her head, but it didn't. Being able to speak freely about their job was sort of relieving.

"Not that long," Mariah answered. "About nine months now, I think." She adjusted her grip on Cooper's leash. "I wanted to take a short break from hunting, and gave myself a temporary name." Mariah elaborated, eyes sliding to the left just in time to see a dog run and jump in the air to catch a frisbee. "It was about a month after I moved in when I adopted Cooper." By the end of her sentence, she felt tension behind her.

"Temporary name?" The shorter of the two asked after a moment.

"Yeah," Mariah looked back at him. "My real name is Mariah Daniels." She offered a polite smile.

"Dean Winchester," he said almost instantaneously. "That's my brother, Sam."

Mariah looked over her shoulder to look at Sam and grinned, who just mirrored her expression.

"Winchesters," she looked back ahead. "It's nice to finally meet you. I've heard lots."

Mariah could almost hear Dean shrug behind her.

"Tell me about Cooper." Sam said, sounding genuinely interested in the crazy dog.

Mariah raised her eyebrows as Cooper looked back and seemed to grin at Sam. "Cooper is a piece of work. I rescued him when he was about...two years old?"

"Rescued?"

"Yeah." Mariah nodded slowly. "From what I was told, he was used for dog fights. The shelter I got him from hemmed and hawed when I asked about his background, so I decided to not press any more than I already was." She explained. "Despite that, though, he's pretty friendly to whoever he comes across, even dogs. And he has one hell of a pain tolerance." Mariah sounded exasperated. Usually dogs with high pain tolerances weren't one the most helpful things. "He once came home with a fractured leg and I didn't know about it until the next day."

Mariah felt tension build behind her again, but she dismissed it.

They came up on the woman's house, and Mariah gently pulled against Cooper's leash to signal him to stop. "Well, here we are. I wish you luck."

"Luck?" Dean asked, a concerned expression plastered on his face.

Mariah smiled slightly. "She doesn't answer the door much."

Mariah watched as they made their way up the stairs, and continued on her walk once they reached the door. The muffled noise of Maggie barking reached Mariah's ears, but the sound of a door opening never did. Only about a minute later, she looked back over her shoulder and saw Sam and Dean's figures heading back down the stairs.

She could just hear Dean's irritated voice saying something along the lines of, "Well, that was useless."

August 25, 2012

It was nearing ten o'clock at night.

Dean looked around with narrowed eyes as Sam leaned over and pulled out the tool that would allow him to pick the lock to the door of the woman's house.

They had seen the dog peer out the window, duck down, and a human silhouette replaced the dog's.

It was quiet inside, until the sound of glass breaking and the sound of snarling abruptly started.

Sam worked quicker, and shoved the door open and they quietly entered the house.

Movement upstairs caught their attention, and soon, the brothers were scaling the stairs two at a time.

They shoved their way through the door to the woman's bedroom, and were greeted with her heartless corpse.

Glass from the broken window near the woman's bed littered the floor, and Maggie was guarding her body with a defensive stance and threatening snarls.

Maggie looked beaten up, as if the woman had tried to fight back, but there wasn't necessarily a lot of blood on Maggie's muzzle. It was hard to see in the dark room.

Either way, it didn't stop Dean from pulling the trigger when Maggie lunged at him.

Mariah was finishing up preparing for bed by forcing her dark hair into a messy bun a little rougher than necessary. Her attempts didn't work, and she ended up yanking the hair tie out along with a few strands of hair, and decided to just leave her thick hair down.

She was irritated, because Cooper had left again. And she was one hundred percent sure the dog door that led into the backyard was locked. Honestly, this whole thing was getting out of hand.

Rustling downstairs made her stop her actions. Was he back?

"Cooper?"

Shit, he better not be getting into those crackers she left out.

She was out the door and into the hallway in only a moment, moving quickly downstairs and using the railing to throw herself towards the kitchen with one hand. She slowed to a stop, frowning at what she saw. The crackers were untouched, but the dog door was swinging, as if someone entered, then left.

Had Cooper come home, then left again? Mariah bit her lip and let out a frustrated sigh.

She needed to deal with this problem.

"Something's not right."

"What makes you say that?"

"The glass in the woman's room was broken as if someone entered from the outside, and Maggie didn't necessarily look like she was the one that killed her owner."

"So you're saying Maggie was a normal dog?"

"It's a possibility. Skinwalkers don't really stay near those they killed."

"...damnit. Now what?"

"Back to the drawing board."

"I think it's Mariah's dog."

"Cooper? She told us specifically she had already tested him with silver."

"Leaving for hours at a time? For all we know, the dog was out of the house the time of the victims' deaths."

"Dean,"

"What?"

"Look."

A German Shepherd laid casually in the spotlight of a streetlamp on the sidewalk, chewing away at something tucked firmly in it's paws.

"Tell me that doesn't look like Cooper."

There was a short pause, and the dog's ears shifted towards them, and it's head raised almost in a panicked manner.

"Hey, hey!"

Dean's shouting startled the dog to the point it suddenly jumped to all fours and turned on a dime, running the opposite direction from them.

Sam and Dean jogged over to the dog's previous resting spot, and grimaced at the half-eaten heart that bleeding out on the sidewalk.

"We need to go."

The whole complication with Cooper entering and exiting caused Mariah to become restless, and laying in bed attempting to force herself to fall asleep wasn't working in her favor.

She decided to just sit on the couch in the dark, and wait for Cooper's return. It wasn't like she had anything to do the next day, anyway.

Mariah was pretty much nodding off to sleep when a loud noise jolted her awake, just before Cooper's body just about slammed into Mariah's. She would have screamed if the wind hadn't been knocked out of her. When she recomposed herself, her arms circled around Cooper's body. "Cooper? What's wrong?" She asked, as if she expected him to answer.

Noise that sounded like a doorknob forcefully trying to be turned right and left caused Mariah to tense up and look at her backdoor. Was someone after Cooper? She slid him off her lap and rounded the couch, making a beeline for the door. She unlocked it before the would-be intruder could, and wrenched the door open with a glare.

But her face fell when she was greeted by Sam's surprised expression.

"Sam?" She questioned, her tone both confused and angered.

"Mariah-" Before he could finish, the sound of her front door being forced open caused Mariah to whip around, the banging being followed by Cooper's defensive barking.

Mariah quickly headed back to the living room without another word to Sam, and pretty much slid to a stop when her eyes landed on Dean's gun, that was pointing directly at Cooper. She held one hand up, subconsciously recognizing the sound of Sam's footsteps coming up behind her. "Dean, stop!" Mariah's voice gave away that she was angry. "I told you, he's a normal dog!"

"And I'm a woman," Dean hissed back, casual enough to lead Mariah to assume he had said it before in a different situation. But it also made Mariah's face morph into a somewhat offended expressions. "What did you say yesterday?" Dean went on. "High pain tolerance? Disappearing for hours at a time?"

Mariah couldn't argue, because that was exactly what she said. She chose to remain silent, but continued to glare daggers at the older Winchester.

"Did you even put two and two together that you got your dog eight months ago, when the deaths first started?" He pressed, gesturing at Cooper with his gun; Mariah subtly flinched and Cooper remained still. "Also, didn't you say he used to disappeared for almost five hours? The town the first death was placed in is two hours from here."

Mariah stayed silent, but from the way her face hardened and the way her eyes averted to anywhere but him, Dean could tell the gears in her head were turning.

"Mariah," Sam quietly began, inching just a centimeter closer. He sounded cautious, and Mariah firmly believed he should be. He could practically see anger, confusion and hurt radiating off her in waves.

Mariah whipped around. "What?" She hissed, her hair swinging around to hit her in the face. She was sure if Sam were any closer, her hair would have hit him in the face, too.

"We saw Cooper at the park right before he came back to your house." He started slowly, watching Mariah's distrusting expression carefully. His stance was tense, as if he was waiting for Mariah to lash out at him any second.

But really, Mariah didn't care too much about Sam; he wasn't the one pointing a pistol at her dog.

"He was…eating…" Sam paused, and Mariah peered at him curiously. Her hands, which were still held out in front of her, lowered marginally.

"Eating…what?"

"Someone's heart." Dean suddenly blurted, figuring Sam wouldn't have the heart to tell Mariah. Mariah turned to look at him, and Dean couldn't tell whether she was offended or disgusted. Either one could have been an appropriate reaction.

Mariah's eyes rested only a moment on Dean's face, before they went lower and landed on his hands, which were tightly gripping his gun. Slowly, Mariah's angry and confused expressions faltered into a dejected one.

Cooper was facing away from her, staring straight into Dean's gun with a tense stance; so tense that his legs appeared to be shaking if Mariah looked hard enough. She was surprised he hadn't attacked yet, if what they really said was true. He just…stood there. There would be occasional growl coming from him if Dean shifted, but that was it.

Only the light from outside street lights and the small lamp above her stove was the only light that was provided, and Mariah was having a hard time trying to figure out if the brothers' statement was true.

Still, Mariah persisted.

Mariah shook her head slowly, hands lowering all the way down so they hung at her sides. "No. No, no, no I don't believe you." Her voice was quiet; strained. "There are lots of German Shepherds in this town, I'm sure you're both mistaken." She flashed a small grin, but everyone in the room knew it was forced.

"Oh, I know it's him, sweetheart." Dean answered before Sam could, and Mariah's suspicious and unforgiving expression came back. "Only one German Shepherd came running back to this house with its tail tucked."

Mariah shook her head again. "No…" This time her voice was even quieter than before, and her eyes began to feel watery.

It was hard to miss that the older Winchester in the room was getting irritated with Mariah's unwillingness to accept the truth, and just plain annoyed at the fact he'd been pointing a gun at the defiant dog for the past…five minutes?

"Don't believe me?" He inquired, slowly detaching one had from his gun and reaching behind him. Mariah became tense again, and watched as Dean pulled out a small, silver knife. Mariah saw Cooper visibly become uncomfortable, and prepare to snap at Dean's hand when he attempted to touch him. Dean leaned back before his hand was bitten, and resulted to 'plan B'. "Catch."

Mariah focused on Dean, and readied her hands. Dean tossed the knife, and she caught it easily by the handle. She realized that there would be no way in hell Dean could have been bribed to just walk around Cooper. Mariah didn't move to use the knife.

"Touch him."

"Dean-"

"Do it."

The forceful tone Dean had made Mariah develop the urge to just use the knife on him. But of course, don't bring a knife to a gunfight.

Instead of following through with Dean's instructions right away, she slowly turned to look back at Sam. She saw his solemn expression hadn't changed, but he didn't make eye contact with her. Actually, he made eye contact with everything in the room but her. She saw him swallow nervously, as if he was afraid to just be within a ten foot vicinity of her.

He should be; who knew if Mariah was suddenly going to go for his neck.

But Mariah sighed, and looked back ahead. She gripped the knife tighter, and sank down into a crouch. "Cooper," she called softly, and grimaced when she saw him flinch. "Cooper, come here." She tried again, and this time she succeeded. She couldn't see it, but she could definitely smell it. Blood. She almost jerked back just from that, and Cooper had a look of innocent confusion.

How no blood had gotten on Mariah's yellow shirt or her white and gray joggers was beyond her.

Quickly, she reached forward and pressed one of the flat sides of the knife against one of Cooper's most sensitive parts; his nose. She retracted her hand as quick as she had when she reached forward as soon as his nose began to sizzle and burn. Cooper growled, whimpered and jerked backwards because of it, but made no move to snap at Mariah for what she did.

Mariah jerked back as well, throwing the knife off to the side haphazardly when she saw the new burn Cooper was sporting.

She froze; a lot of things made sense now.

Apparently Cooper's shoulder wasn't very sensitive.

She felt tears form in her eyes again and stood, stumbling backwards and away from Cooper. She went farther than she intended, and ended up backing into Sam. His tense figure seemed to loosen, and his arms automatically encircled Mariah's smaller form in a loose grip. Mariah didn't move to break away, but gripped his forearms with strength that was produced mainly from her emotions.

She leaned forward slightly, her knees almost buckling under her. "Wait, wait! Don't shoot him, please!" She begged, her voice breaking. As she spoke, her grip increased and her nails dug into Sam's skin through the fabric of his jacket.

"I don't have a choice," Dean muttered darkly, shifting his posture slightly. Cooper turned in place to face his opponent and slid into a threatening pose. Dean's eyes widened slightly, but he didn't falter. "I'm not making the same mistake twice."

Mariah disregarded whatever Dean uttered, because she didn't give a shit about what he had to say. "He can change!" She tried to persuade him; but she could tell her efforts weren't working in her favor.

"Skinwalkers live off people, he'll never change!" Dean hissed, gesturing at Cooper again with his gun. Cooper reacted differently this time; he leaned back slightly and crouched just a little lower. "I'm sorry," Dean said quietly, completely missing Cooper's body language.

Mariah knew exactly what Cooper was doing; he was preparing to attack.

Mariah watched with wide eyes as Dean aimed his gun more accurately, instantly feeling her anxiety build up and cause her to begin hyperventilating. She backed up more into Sam, but didn't get far. Sam did them the favor of turning them both away, and Mariah struggled minimally.

Mariah shut her eyes and waited for the familiar sound of a gunshot, but the sound of someone tumbling and then a gunshot hitting the floorboards threw her off. That was when Mariah detached herself from Sam and saw Cooper getting hit in the head by Dean's gun and proceeded to be thrown off of Dean, who had been knocked on his back.

Sam moved forward, and Mariah stayed frozen, but before the younger Winchester could have done anything to help the older, Cooper lunged again, jaws wide. Dean rolled over and pulled the trigger.

The bullet went through Cooper's throat and out the back of his head.

The sight of Cooper dropping like cement caused Mariah's hands to fly to her mouth and promptly scream into them, her hands barely muffling the ear-splitting noise. She dropped to her knees, the unforgiving, hard floor causing pain to explode in her kneecaps. But the pain was minimal, and couldn't compare to how she felt now. Tears were streaming from her eyes.

Dean's face flashed with guilt when he looked between Mariah and the dead man beside him, but Mariah only looked up at Sam, who resumed his position beside her, crouched, and wrapped his arms around her.

Mariah didn't return the embrace, but leaned into it.

August 26, 2012

The next day, the brothers came back for a revisit.

It was Sam's idea, and Dean hesitantly agreed to participate.

When they reached her house, their steps seemed to become hesitant as they made their way up her porch stairs. Then, they promptly stood outside her door for approximately five minutes, bickering about whether or not they should follow through with their little plan. The Winchesters spoke quietly, however, because Mariah sat at her kitchen table without a clue in the world.

They did end up knocking, but the knock sounded unrhythmic. Doubtful.

What they assumed would happened next, would be Mariah opening the door, telling them both to fuck off, and shoo them away before either of them could say one word. Sam and Dean were both prepared for that, but they weren't prepared when she opened the door, gave them a tired smile, and invited them in.

Sam and Dean stood in the doorway for a few seconds, frozen from surprise, before accepting the invitation and walked in.

The house looked normal, clean even. It was as if everything from last night never happened.

Mariah saw their observant expressions, and revealed she buried Cooper in a graveyard not far from her house. Last night, the boys had offered to take care of Cooper after she had calmed down, but she wasn't having it, and wanted them out.

The brothers felt intrusive and awkward, but Mariah was oddly relaxed. She wore large clothing and held a warm mug of tea, and looked content. But if you were to look a little closer, her eyes were cold and held a faraway look.

Sam had nervously asked how she was doing, and Mariah just shrugged, blinked slowly, and replied with a simple, "I'm fine, actually."

She ended up explaining when she realized how weird it must seem, crying over the death of a Skinwalker that caused the death of her friend. Sam and Dean just reassured her the best they could, but Mariah knew they thought it was weird just as much as she did.

After they worked together to break the awkward wall between them, they talked for what seemed about an hour about whatever topic came to mind. Most things they talked about was hunting, or places they've gone that seemed sketchy even to them.

When it came time that they had to leave, Mariah followed them out to the car, and stopped them before they left.

"I want to thank you, both." She started quietly, eyes trained on the ground while hugging herself.

"For killing your dog?" Dean replied obliviously, causing Sam to elbow him in the ribs none-too-gently. A curse followed suit.

Mariah looked up at that, a sour expression planted on her face. "No, asshat." She hissed, then sighed. "I want to thank you for opening my eyes. I've become a better hunter just by this experience because I now know to look for even minute details." She explained.

"You're welcome." The brothers replied in unison.

"I also want to thank you, Sam, especially." Mariah went on, shifting her weight to one side. Dean almost looked offended.

Sam looked confused. "Why?"

Mariah grinned. "For not being a total asshole."

Sam instantly grinned at that. "Any time."

"We're leaving." Dean grumbled, turning around.

Mariah watched them drive off, her arms still tightly hugging herself. When their car was out of sight, she reluctantly turned around, and walked back and up the steps to her house. When she entered, it was then she noticed how empty her house really was.

What didya think?

- Pastel