Hello dear readers! First of all, I want all of my followers to know that I have not given up on any of my other stories. I've hit a rather large road block in my head. So I've cranked out this story, and hopefully my writer's block is gone! But one can only dream...
Anywho, this is more of an origin story. There is no real plot besides the development of a relationship. I wrote it to hopefully serve as a basis for other stories in the same "universe".
There is some language, but not much. The M rating is for the epilogue.
It's Sam/OC, pre-Destiel, and a little bit of Charlie/Dorothy is mentioned.
I hope you all enjoy! Read an Review!
HonoraryAvenger
"Let's go."
Sam looked up at his brother when a newspaper was thrown on the table in front of him. It was late, and Sam was in the middle of some research for Kevin. "Where are we going?"
"Matthews, Virginia. Sounds like they have a werewolf problem." Dean walked the length of the table. They haven't had a case in nine days and he was going stir crazy. They had been recuperating from a particularly difficult case involving a vengeful child spirit. But now that they were rested and healed, Dean couldn't wait to get back on the road.
Sam frowned slightly at the article. "Dean, this could just as easily be a wild dog or a regular wolf. This article doesn't give us much to go on."
"We've gone on less." Dean pointed out. He put his hands on the table. "C'mon, Sammy! I'm going crazy here."
"That's not a big jump from normal." Kevin said as he walked into the room with a coffee mug clutched in his hand. Sam chuckled while Dean managed to look affronted.
"Don't you have tablets to read or something?" Dean asked him.
"Don't you have angels to flirt with?" Kevin shot back.
Dean sputtered for something to say but in the end, shook his head and turned back to a chuckling Sam.
"We could at least check it out."
Sam huffed but closed his laptop. "Okay, let's go."
With the kitchen stocked for their live-in prophet, Sam and Dean headed out towards Virginia.
It took them a day and a half of non-stop driving before arriving in a small, run down town. It was midday and people were milling about. Dean pulled the car over on a side street and the two brothers prepared themselves for an afternoon of impersonating federal officers. Today they were Agents Barton and Romanoff of the FBI.
Their first stop was the coroner, and while he was sure it was a wild dog, he did mention that it had to have been an abnormally large one. The only thing uncharacteristic of the attack was that the heart was missing from the body.
The Sherriff deputy informed the pair that the last two bodies were found in a warehouse just up the road.
"Is that where the killings took place?" Sam asked him.
"We don't believe so. There were no signs of it. In fact, it looked like the bodies were dragged into the warehouse." He looked skeptical for a moment. "Why is the FBI looking into a wild dog case anyway?"
Dean smiled at the deputy. "That's classified. Is it true that these attacks started a few towns over?"
The deputy nodded, slightly reluctant. "Yes."
"Have there been an increase of mugging reports?" Sam asked.
The deputy furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "How could you possibly know…"
"Well thank you for your time." Dean cut him off.
He walked away with a promise to call them with any updates.
"What are you thinking?" Sam asked.
"They're turning people, and the new ones can't control themselves. We should go check out this warehouse tonight and see what we find." Dean told him as they headed back to the impala. "Right now, I'm starving."
Sam and Dean stopped at a diner for lunch before heading to a motel at the center of town. Once inside the room, Sam whipped out his trusty laptop and got to work on some research while Dean crashed on the bed.
"I'm gonna get an hour or two of shut eye." He told Sam, who merely grunted in response, his fingers going a mile a minute over the keyboard.
When Dean woke, Sam bombarded him with information.
"Christ, Sammy, give a guy a chance to wake up."
Sam rolled his eyes at his brother. "Look, you dragged me out here, and I'm going to do my job."
"Alright, alright." Dean stood from the bed and walked over to the table. "What do you got?"
"Okay so we know the attacks started a few weeks ago here in town, and that there have been reports of attacks in other towns before then. So it looks like the werewolf has either been moving around, or we're dealing with multiple, like you said. I think it's the latter. The MO on the attacks here have been different, cleaner almost. It's like the werewolf know what it's doing is wrong but can't help to give in to the instincts." Sam told him.
"How do you figure?"
"Well, for one, the reports from the other town claim that the bodies were left as unidentifiable mangled remains where they were killed, which was usually an extremely public place, all of them, the hearts gone." Sam wrinkled his nose at the thought. In his research, he learned that a third grade teacher was killed inside the school one night, only to be found by her students the next morning. "You saw the bodies here. Besides the fact that their stomachs were basically ripped out, every other part of them was untouched. And then they were taken to an abandoned ware house where they couldn't be stumbled upon by groups of unsuspecting people."
"So you're saying this thing has a heart." Dean pursed his lips and knew to tread carefully around this particular subject. "You know it doesn't change anything, Sam."
"Don't you think I know that, Dean?" Sam snapped, pushing unwanted memories to the back of his mind. "All I'm saying is that it's a start to finding out who it is."
Dean nodded. "Okay, so if the warehouse tonight ends up being a bust, we'll question some town folk tomorrow. It seems like a small enough town that somebody is bound to know."
The two piled into the impala and headed just outside of town. The warehouse loomed ominously on the river that ran around the town and Sam had to hold in a shudder. He wasn't afraid but he couldn't deny that the place was extremely eerie.
Neither brother said anything as Dean opened the trunk and propped up the false bottom with a shot gun. He gently opened a box and took out two silver bullets. He handed one to Sam, along with a gun, a flashlight and a silver dagger. With the same in his own hands, he closed the trunk and the pair moved towards the building.
They cautiously entered the building and walked through the vast room, guns aimed and ready to fire at a moment's notice. Sam looked around with the flashlight and saw that the warehouse wasn't empty. Boxes upon boxes were stacked high; almost high enough to reach the raised walkway that spanned the width of the room. Sam suddenly felt the hairs at the back of his neck stand. He felt like he was being watched.
"Dean,"
"I know, I feel it too." Dean slowed his already slow pace.
Suddenly, Sam was thrown into a tower of boxes, and they tumbled down on top of him.
"Sammy!" Dean shouted as he ran to his brother. He was grabbed by the throat and slammed against a pillar, claws digging deeply into his neck. Dean saw that is was a woman, and a very attractive one at that, if it weren't for the yellow eyes and bloody fangs. She was a black woman with a short bob haircut who couldn't have been any taller than five foot six. Yet she was still able to hoist his six-foot-one frame high enough that he could barely graze the floor with the toe of his boot. She looked up at him, almost as if she was studying his face.
Dean couldn't reach the knife at his belt, and the gun was knocked away from him when she grabbed him.
"Sam!" He managed to croak out when he saw the boxes moving. The werewolf snarled.
Right before its claws ripped Dean's stomach out, he heard something whizzing through the air and felt a small sharp pain in his hip. He looked down and saw a silver arrow tip sticking up out of the werewolf's chest and barely piercing his own skin. The werewolf looked down in shock and Dean swore he saw a wave a relief in her eyes. The grip on Dean's neck slackened and he fell down the pillar, landing in a heap. He saw the werewolf fall forwards, no longer moving. Upon her death, her features turned back to her regular human look.
Dean got to his feet and attended to his brother before he looked for their savior. He dug Sam out of the mountain of boxes and helped him to his feet. After seeing that he was still freakishly whole, his eyes snapped to the walkway.
Standing there was a woman with a bow in her hands. She wore tight black jeans and a black turtleneck. Her dark hair was pulled back into a high ponytail and her emerald green eyes fixed the brothers with a glare that could've stopped Death.
"Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?" She growled.
Dean and Sam were completely caught off guard. This woman just saved their hides with a bow and arrow and now she was yelling at them.
"We could ask you the same." Dean said defiantly. He didn't take well to being the damsel in distress.
She pulled her bow off of her back and aimed another arrow. "I asked you first."
Sam stepped forward with his hands up. "I'm Sam and this is my brother Dean. We were investigating the werewolf attacks and they led us here."
Her steady hands faltered slightly. "How did you know about the werewolf?"
"Dean and I are hunters, too."
"And what does that mean to me?"
He looked at Dean in confusion. "We hunt things like werewolves, vampires, and ghosts for a living. How did you know about the werewolf if you're not a hunter?"
She finally dropped her bow and climbed down to the ground floor. She walked past the men and knelt down beside the dead woman. With a heart wrenching sob, she tore the arrow free from her back and placed it on the floor next to her body.
Dean and Sam looked on, once again confused by this mystery woman.
She stood with a quick swipe at her face and turned to the brothers. "My name is Maria and this," She gestured to the woman. "This is Amber, my best friend."
Sam and Dean knew all too well the pain of having to kill loved one turned monster. They didn't know this woman but couldn't help but to feel sorry for her. Sam felt a pang in his chest.
Sam looked around the room and saw a tarp lying in the corner. He walked over, picked it up, and headed back to the group. He cautiously approached Maria and Amber with a question on the tip of his tongue. She nodded her assent with a raised eyebrow.
With her approval, he gently wrapped Amber up in the tarp and lifted her, before heading outside by the edge of the river. Dean and Maria followed silently behind.
Dean pulled crates together to form a type of altar, which Sam gingerly placed Amber. Maria stood off to the side with a questioning look on her face. "What are you doing?"
"We don't know the circumstances of the situation." Sam told her. "All we know is that she was your best friend and we'll give her a hunter's burial."
"We burn the remains to ensure they won't come back as vengeful spirits." Dean explained. "Sometimes, that can be harder to see." He thought of Bobby but quickly shook his head.
Maria had silent tears streaming down her face and Sam wrapped a long arm around her as Dean lit the pyre. They watched as Amber's body went up in flames, lighting up the nighttime sky and the surrounding forest.
Afterwards, Maria turned towards them. "Thank you, for this. I can explain everything to you if you both want to come back to my apartment."
They both nodded and followed her in her car to an apartment complex a mile up the road.
She had them sit on her couch and she went and fetched them beers from the fridge. Before she sat, she made herself a vodka tonic.
"I needed something stronger than beer." She explained after the first burning sip hit her belly. She welcomed the pain before setting the glass on the table.
"I was the one always interested in folk lore." She began. "Mythical creatures, magical lands… Amber used to laugh at me, kiss my cheek and told me she loved me despite how nerdy I was." She laughed bitterly. "We've known each other for twelve years. She was like my sister." Maria took another drink. "I used to be on the force up until six-months ago so naturally, when all of the killings started in the neighboring towns, I was curious. I got a few of my old colleagues to slip me some information but nothing made sense. They thought it was a wild dog or a wolf but wolves don't specifically target the heart. So I started looking into lore and came across werewolves."
"So you figured it out before the attacks even started here?" Sam asked her.
"Actually, just after the first one." Maria clarified. "I put my research on hold after Amber was attacked. The hospital thought she had just been mugged, and so did we, at least for a while."
"So the first killing wasn't Amber. It was the wolf that turned her." Dean said and Maria nodded.
"Then Amber started disappearing in the middle of the night, and she would come back in the morning with blood all over her clothes. She was terrified because she couldn't remember anything." She stopped the slow ebb of tears when she downed the rest of her drink. With a sharp intake of breath, she continued. "I had already told her my theory and she got it into her head that it had been her along. Of course I told her she was being ridiculous. We didn't even have any proof that she was a werewolf. That night, against my better judgment, I tied her up and we waited together. Sure enough, around midnight, claws broke through her finger tips and her teeth grew. She broke free and ran off. Another body was found that night."
"Amber was distraught because it was her hurting all of these people. She asked me to…" She choked up.
"To kill her." Sam finished for her, thinking back to a similar situation with a woman named Monica.
Maria nodded. "She didn't want to be shot by a gun. She knew too many people who fell that way. She wanted me to shoot her with a silver arrow, straight through the heart. Thought it would be some form of closure for me." She shook her head. "It was a load of shit to try and make me feel better about the fact that I had to kill the only person I had left in this entire world."
"So were you always so good with the bow?" Dean asked.
Maria nodded. "I've been shooting since I was twelve. I took a weird fascination with it and have ever since. She knew I wouldn't miss. And she wanted it to be me instead of some random cop."
"What about the other wolves?" Dean asked.
"They tried to recruit Amber. Of course she said no, but she had their names and faces. They are no longer an issue." Maria said darkly. She would never feel remorse for killing those bastards.
Dean nodded. "I'm sorry for you loss, but we aren't needed here anymore. It looks like you have things well in hand." He stood and Sam followed, albeit reluctantly.
She looked panicked for a second before she composed herself. "You're leaving? Now?"
Sam shoved his hands in his pockets awkwardly. He couldn't explain it but he didn't want to leave her.
To the silence, she stood too. "Look, I don't know you guys. I mean for all I know you guys could be serial killers with a weird fetish for the supernatural. But I have nothing left in this town. My parents both died of cancer when I was fifteen and I was brought up my grandparents, who died eight years ago. I only had two friends … I'm drowning here and the only thing that was saving me from going under was Amber. I need a new start, something different. You guys can give me that."
Dean looked at Sam. "Look, Maria, you can't come with us. This, what we do, it's not the best life."
"I know. I can't imagine it would be. But you could teach me." Maria insisted. "Please, I want to prevent anything like what happened to me to anybody else."
"Dean, a minute." Sam gestured to his brother and the two stepped away.
"I know what you're going to say, Sammy and the answer is no." Dean told him straight out.
"Look, she seems like to type who's going to do it anyway. She saved our lives…the least we could do is train her so she doesn't die on her first case." Sam said.
"You're right, I am going to do it regardless of if I have your help or not." Maria interjected. "You really need to work on your whispering skills."
Dean sighed in defeat. "Fine. We'll train you how to be a hunter. And just so the both of you know, this goes against ever fiber in my being." He looked pointedly at them both before leaving the room.
Sam tried to hide the triumphant smile on his face but failed miserably. "Do you have a pen and paper?" Maria rummaged around in the end table and produced the materials. He thanked her and wrote down the address of the Men of Letters bunker. "Here, once you get everything settled here, go to this address. It'll take you about a day and a half to get there if you don't stop. If you're ready to go by tomorrow morning, call this number and you can just follow us back."
Maria smiled at him before bringing him down for a hug. "Thank you so much for this." She whispered into his shoulder.
Dean walked back into the room with a knife and a small bottle. "If you want to come with us, there are a few things we require. Drink this." He handed over the bottle and she drank it with no protest. "Well we know you're not a demon. Hold out your hand." She did as she was told, but warily. Dean took it and as gently as he could muster, slit her arm with the silver knife. She winced slightly and Dean quickly wrapped it up in a piece of fabric.
He nodded in approval. "Sorry about that. Standard procedure. Look, there is one more thing you have to do before you can come with us…" He rattled off an explanation and Maria was surprised at the odd request but informed him that she would do it.
He left again and headed to the car to wait for Sam.
"It'll all be okay." Sam never liked saying that because in his experience, it was never okay. But in this case, he had a distinct feeling that everything may just turn out fine.
She kissed his cheek. "I'll probably not have everything settled by the morning," She wrote her number down and handed it to him. "But if you don't hear from me, give me a call."
"I'll see you soon." Sam said with a slight blush as he backed out of the house. Maria waved in response with a sad smile.
"You're pathetic." Dean said when Sam finally got into the impala. "You always were a sucker for a dangerous and pretty face."
Sam shoved him. "Shut up jerk."
"Bitch."
The next morning while the brothers were packing up to leave, Sam pulled out his phone and noticed that Maria had yet to call. He walked a short distance away and called her.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Maria? It's Sam, from uh, last night."
"I know who it is." He could hear her smile through the phone. "Good morning, Sam."
"Good morning. I hadn't heard from you so I figured I'd call." He drummed his fingers on the fence in front of him.
"I know, I'm sorry. I've been getting everything in order." He heard rustling. "I'm probably going to get on the road in a few hours. So I won't be too far behind you."
"That's great. If you get lost or need help, just call me."
"I will." She promised. "I'll call you when I'm about an hour out."
"Okay. I'll wait up for you. You know, so that I can unlock the door. Because you wouldn't be able to get in…" Sam rambled. "Sammy! Time to roll!" He heard Dean yell and he sighed in relief. "Look, I have to go but call me later okay?"
"Don't worry, Sam. I'll see you soon." She hung up. He refrained from hitting himself. He was thirty years old for god's sake. He'd been to hell! Why was he so flustered talking to a girl he met the day before?
On the other end, Maria set her phone down on top of a box and pinched the bridge of her nose. She didn't know what it was about Sam that she found so endearing. Of course it was his height, and his voice, and how flustered he got whenever he talked to her and his smile and… who was she kidding? Sam Winchester was the epitome of endearing.
She couldn't believe she talked them into letting her go with them. She could be driving to nowhere for all she knows. But somehow, she didn't think Sam would do that to her. She rubbed absentmindedly at her wrist, where a new tattoo lay, raw and bleeding. It was the only other stipulation from the brothers before she could go with them. Apparently the odd pentagram would keep demons from possessing her. So she drove to the only tattoo parlor in town that was, thankfully, opened until midnight, and got it done.
It wasn't her first tattoo. The first she had gotten with Amber when they vacationed in California, after their graduation from college.
Amber was basically all Maria had after that bastard had cheated on her with his secretary. She planned on going down to the station to say goodbye to her only other friend and prayed that she wouldn't see him.
Most of her apartment was packed up and she planned on leaving everything in a storage unit while she was gone. She was bringing all of her clothes (and few personal items) but, most of her possessions were being left behind, including all of her furniture for the next family. She knew it was the best option. She couldn't imagine that this new life that she was starting had much room for material possessions.
A hunter. Never in her wildest dreams would she have believed that the things that she's read about her entire life were real. And that there were people out there, like Sam and Dean, who killed them and have probably saved countless numbers of lives. The real question was could she do it? Could she kill the creatures that she has romanticized for 20 years?
She shook her head clear. She had to get this packing done. The only thing left was her beloved bookshelf. She grabbed her most cherished books and added them to the pile of things she was taking with her, while the rest went into a box.
It took an hour to load the boxes into her SUV, and another hour to unload them into a storage unit. She headed back to her apartment for the last time and grabbed her remaining things. She looked around mournfully. Lots of memories, both good and bad, played through her mind. She shut the door, and bit back tears.
Her next stop was Amber's apartment. Her friend at the station had called her that morning telling her that Amber was missing. She told him that she had left the country indefinitely and it very nearly killed her.
She used her key to unlock the door, stepped inside and this time, she couldn't hold back the tears. The overwhelming guilt was licking at her insides like flames. She killed her best friend.
She stepped over to the closet and pulled out a box. Amber had given her instructions to only take this box after she passed.
"I love you, Am. I'm so sorry." She whispered to the emptiness of the apartment.
She drove to the station and braced herself. Luckily her friend was at the front desk. He came around and gave her a bone-crushing hug.
"I'm sorry Amber just up and left." He told her.
"Thanks, Joey. It was the best thing for her." She bit the inside of her cheek. "I'm leaving too, Joe." He pulled her back and held her at arm's length.
"Why?"
"I don't have anything left in this town. Besides you, of course." She added quickly seeing the hurt look on his face. "Ever since the divorce…"
His face darkened. "Maria, it wasn't your fault."
She shook her head. "I know that, and you know that. That's all I care about."
"It's not fair. The whole town turned on you even though it was him…"
"Maria," Came a surprised voice. "What are you doing here?"
She inwardly cringed and Joey quickly let go of her.
"Hello, Matthew." She turned to her ex-husband, the Sheriff of their small town.
"It's nice to see you."
"I wish I could say the same." She said with a smile. She turned back to Joe. "I'll keep in touch."
"Wait, you're leaving town?" Matthew asked. Maria turned on her heel to walk out of the door. He followed her. "Maria, wait, talk to me."
"Why should I? You haven't spared me a phone call in the past six months." She turned on him.
"You told me never to speak to you again!" He said hotly.
"Matt, you cheated on me with a woman ten years my junior. And when I filed for divorce, the whole town turned on me without knowing the whole story. I can't stay here anymore." Maria said.
"I didn't mean for any of this to happen." He had the decency to look ashamed.
Maria sighed. "Matt, I'll never stop loving you. But what you did was unforgivable. I still don't understand why you did it. I don't understand what I…Nevermind." She didn't mean to show so much weakness in front of him.
"It was never anything you did. It was because I was a stupid selfish bastard." Matt told her.
"Well, in any regard, I'm leaving. I wish you the best." She said with sincerity.
He looked almost sad when he wished her the same. He watched her until she pulled out of the parking lot before heading back inside the station.
She would miss him but she was glad she was able to get some closure with him before she left. They didn't have a bad marriage. In fact, she loved the time that she was married to him. They had the most fun together. Up until he cheated on her.
But that was now in the past. She was driving out of the only town she's ever truly called home and while she was sad, she knew a greater journey awaited her.
That's the first chapter. Everything is written and will be all posted today.
Please review!
