So I was rewatching Season 10 this week and fell asleep right after 10x21. Charlie is, and always will be, my favorite female character this show has ever produced and even though I know it's coming Dark Dynasty always crushes my heart into tiny little pieces. I miss her. But I fell asleep after watching that episode and then woke up from a dream of Charlie in the Roadhouse talking to Jo. Two women from two very different pasts, who have absolutely nothing in common except for that they, in different ways, loved the Winchesters. So I got up and wrote this. I haven't written a Supernatural fic in a LONG time and seeing as how this was written at 3 am I don't know if it's any good. But I couldn't get the idea out of my head. So here ya go! Enjoy.
She had tried. She had given it her all, but she knew that she didn't stand a chance against the Styne man. But Charlie Bradbury wasn't going to go down without a fight. She remembered the exact moment she knew it was over, when she closed her eyes and gave in and, despite everything, smiled. Because she had solved the encryption. Now Sam could save Dean. They would be okay. Her boys would be okay. And her job was done. Now all she had to do was wait until she could wake up, safe and sound and happy, in her heaven. The Christmas tree with its hundreds of twinkling lights, her mom's smile, hot cocoa, laughing as she dodged the wads of wrapping paper her dad threw towards her in their impromptu indoor snowball fight. That was what she expected. Instead she opened her eyes to bright sunlight, an empty dusty parking lot, the faintest sound of some old rock song that Dean would be appalled that she didn't know. She turned around.
It looked exactly like she thought it would. Wooden siding weathered and peeling, more grey than brown now. Clapboard shutters framing dusty windows, a swinging saloon style door barely hanging onto it's hinges. A rusty tin roof over the splintering front porch, gas pumps off to the side that hadn't been used in decades. But the sign was lit up like a beacon, red and white marquee letters calling out to her: Harvelle's Roadhouse.
Charlie smiled and ran towards the building. She slowed once her boots, because she was a hunter now and long gone were her days of pink Chuck Taylors, touched the porch. She took a breath, not quite believing that such hallowed ground was real, even in heaven, before pushing through the swinging doors.
It was small and dim and smoky, as any good roadhouse should be. A bar full of alcohol and mismatched stools front and center, a few tables, a small worn dance floor with a jukebox, and pool tables made up the public part of the building. She walked towards the bar and placed a hand against it's formica top. "Hello?" She called, not really expecting an answer, but not knowing what she was supposed to do alone in a bar for eternity.
To her surprise, the kitchen door swung open a few seconds later. A pretty older woman, brown hair, flannel shirt, and an apron tied around her waist, came around the bar. "Hi there, sugar. Welcome to Harvelle's." She smiled. "Name's Ellen."
"Oh. My Gosh. You're real!" Charlie practically squealed. "Hi. I'm Charlie. Charlie Bradbury and I know you! Which has to be super weird coming from a total stranger but I do know you! Well, not YOU, you, but I feel like I know you, you know, from the books…"
Ellen interrupted her rambling. "Woah woah woah. Slow down. Have a seat." She motioned towards the closest bar stool while she went around the bar and grabbed a couple beers.
"ELLEN!" A male voice called from the back. "Who's here? And do I have to be wearing pants to meet them?"
"No. Way." Charlie whispered excitedly, barely able to sit still.
"Yes, Ash. Always." Ellen yelled back, shaking her head. "You know the rules."
Footsteps could be heard, getting faster and louder the closer they got to the front of the bar. Finally he burst through the door, unbuttoned flannel shirt missing both sleeves, mullet disheveled, barefooted, nimble fingers attempting to button his pants.
Charlie couldn't contain herself any longer. She shoved her barstool back, her beer forgotten as she ran across the room and threw her arms around the man's neck. "Oh my Gosh you were my favorite!" She exclaimed before quickly stepping out of the hug. "Sorry. That was really weird. And forward. And you don't even know me." She laughed a little at her awkwardness before smiling and saying, "I'm Charlie."
A corner of Ash's mouth drew up in a slow smile. "Well it's a pleasure to meet you Miss Charlie. I'm Ash, but my friends call me..."
"Dr. Badass?" Charlie interrupted him with a huge grin.
"Nobody calls him that." Ellen muttered from behind the bar.
"Dr. Badass, the one and only, at your service." he proclaimed with a flourished bow.
"Oh you are WAY cooler than I even thought!" Charlie squealed.
"I like this one, Ellen." Ash announced, as he slung an arm around Charlie's shoulders and guided her back to the bar. "We're gonna keep her."
"Ash you can't keep every stray that wanders into the bar." A new female voice said coming from the kitchen.
"Well I get to keep this one." Ash argued. "She gets me." He leaned closer to Charlie and placed a kiss on her cheek.
"Um, wrong team actually. Sorry. But still, mad love." She quickly explained, trying to lure the blush off her cheeks.
Ash nodded slowly, his face contemplative, before simply saying, "Respect." And holding out a hand for a fist bump.
"Rejected." The voice from the kitchen announced as the doors swung open revealing a beautiful young woman with blonde hair hanging in soft curls down the middle of her back. She was wearing a black tee-shirt that was just a bit too tight to appear casual and even tighter jeans. She slid the tray of glasses she was carrying onto a shelf beneath the bar before her brown eyes shifted to take in Charlie.
"You're Jo." Charlie told her, not giving the blonde a chance to introduce herself.
"Umm, yeah. You're obviously not a hunter. And I didn't exactly have a lot of friends down on Earth so I'm pretty sure I would remember someone so, well to put it honestly, someone as weird as you."
"Joanna Beth you be nice to our guest." Ellen scolded as Jo rolled her eyes and walked across the bar to wipe down the tables. "You'll have to excuse Jo, sweetie." Ellen said, kind eyes back on Charlie. "She's not exactly personable. You have a drink and collect your thoughts and then you can tell us how you know who we are."
"I read about you. All of you, and this place. In the Supernatural books." Charlie explained.
"Supernatural?" Ash asked as he popped the top off his beer.
""Yeah. By Carver Edlund. Except his real name is Chuck Shurley. He's a profit. Like, an actual Profit of The Lord. Tasked with writing the Winchester Gospel. He wrote their whole story."
"I'm in a book?" Ash asked excitedly.
"Yup." Charlie answered with a smile.
"And so the legend lives on…" Ash said with another lopsided grin. "Well cheers to that!" He exclaimed as he clinked his beer bottle against Charlie's.
"Hold up." Ellen interrupted the celebration. "The WINCHESTER Gospel? Winchester?"
"Yeah." Charlie nodded and took another drink. "The boys. Sam and Dean."
There was a sudden sound from the far side of the bar where Jo was still wiping down tables. A broken salt shaker lay on the floor at her feet. "You knew Sam and Dean?" She asked, her eyes locked on Charlie.
"Well I'll be damned." Ash said softly. "It's a small world after all."
"YOU. Knew the Winchesters." Jo repeated again, making her way back to the bar.
Charlie gave her a wry grin. "How do you think I ended up dead? Loving those boys is a death sentence. You of all people should know that."
"I don't…" Jo began to protest but her mother interrupted her.
"Are they alright?" Ellen asked, the look in her eyes could only be described as maternal. "Those boys, they're not gonna walk through those doors next are they?"
"I hope not. They were in a bit of a rough spot when I… left. But I think I got them what they need to fix it. I think they'll be fine." Charlie answered honestly. "Maybe you all can explain to me why I'm here." She changed the subject. "I mean, don't get me wrong, this is amazing, meeting all of you, but I know what my heaven is supposed to be and this is pretty far from Christmas morning when I was eleven."
Ellen smiled. "We don't really know what determines whether or not someone comes through our doors or not. All we know is we never get a non-hunter in here."
"I have a theory." Ash proclaimed, looking up from his second beer. "I think it depends on your body. How you're buried. You get a hunter's burial, you get to walk through these doors. You just get put in the ground and you go straight to your own heaven."
"So that would mean that Sam and Dean… Do you really think they would have given me an actual hunter's burial? I mean, sure I liked to think that I was a hunter but I wasn't really. I only took out a vamp and a couple weres. And the Wicked WItch and Wizard of Oz. Other than that I just did research. I know they loved me but… Did they really think of me as a hunter?" Charlie asked, more to herself than the other three in the room.
"Darlin' you said you went out fighting to help them. To save them. Same way we all did." Ellen said as she looked around the room. "You gave up your life for those boys. If that don't make you a hunter nothing does."
"I'd do it again." She said, trying to discreetly wipe away the tears that had formed in her eyes. "I'd die that death a thousand times over as long as it meant saving them. Because the world is that much a better place with those two still living in it."
"Damn straight." Ash agreed.
"So," Charlie said, forcing on a smile. "If anyone given a hunter's burial ends up here, why are there only the three of you? Shouldn't this place be swarmed with hunters?"
"Think of this as like a second heaven." Ellen explained. "We like to joke that it's our reward for taking care of so much evil crap down on earth. You walk out that door," She pointed to the saloon door Charlie had entered through, "And you are in your heaven. But whenever you want to come back, just walk out your heaven's door and you end up right back here."
"Good music, great company, and the free booze never runs out." Ash told her. "What could be better?"
"So I can come back?" Charlie asked excitedly. "Whenever I want?"
"Of course. You're always welcome." Ellen said. "Though it's probably just gonna be us here unless you come on the third Saturday of the month."
"What happens then? Charlie asked.
"It's party night!" Ash yelled.
Ellen explained, "This place is always open to any hunter who wants it, but the third Saturday of every month they all come over. It's like a loud, crazy, family reunion."
"I'll totally be here." Charlie grinned. "But, um, if it's okay, I would kinda like to see my parents? It's been a while."
"Of course, sweetheart." Ellen walked around the bar and gave her a hug. "Come back and see us, okay?"
Charlie nodded and then hugged Ash. She was planning on just giving Jo a silent nod goodbye since she hadn't spoken for so long, but the blonde stood up from where she had been leaning against the far side of the bar and surprised everyone by looking at Charlie and saying "Come on, I'll walk you out."
They walked silently out the door, stopping at the edge of the porch, right before the road that Charlie assumed would take her to her heaven. Jo sat down, so Charlie followed.
"Thank you. For taking care of hi… them. For taking care of them." Jo said quietly, trying to hide the break in her voice.
Charlie nodded, not quite sure what to say. FInally she decided to just go for it, she was already dead, what's the worst that could happen. "You did love him." She said gently. "Dean. You did, don't deny it. I can tell."
"How?" Jo asked, not looking at the other woman.
"Because I loved him too. And Sam. Not the way you did, but I did love them."
"Do." Jo said so softly it was almost a whisper. "You DO love them. Not did. It's not past tense, it's not over. You can still love them from up here." She smirked and looked at Charlie. "I would know, right?"
"You know how I knew you really loved him? Cause I did know, I knew the moment I saw you." Charlie said, answering Jo's question with one of her own.
"How?" Jo asked.
"Because you have that same look in your eye that I see when I look in the mirror. That little glimmer of something that nobody else can tell what it is, but we know. It's because of them. Because we love them. Because they stumbled into our lives, battered and broken, and we tried our best to help them even when it seemed hopeless and somehow along the way we fell in love with them. Romantic love, family love, it doesn't matter. Love is love. And yeah, they changed us, they turned our worlds upside down, but I refuse to believe that that change was negative. They made us better."
Jo didn't comment, just sat there, staring out at the sunset from the porch of the Roadhouse. So Charlie stayed there with her. Her heaven could wait, she thought. She knew she had found friends here. A new family. She also knew that one day Sam and Dean Winchester would eventually make their way through those Roadhouse doors again. It was inevitable. But Charlie hoped they weren't reunited for a long time. She had meant what she said. The world was a much better place with the Winchester's still in it.
So there you have it! My first Supernatural fic in years. Let me know what you thought?