Every Now and Then

"The new girl's back," Ash remarked as he grabbed another beer, tossing it back. Ellen looked past him and saw that he was right –that girl had shown up three days ago and Ellen had been afraid she wasn't going to make it. But apparently she was tougher than she looked, but as near as Ellen figured, she wasn't a hunter. She wasn't exactly a kid either, but she was seriously underfed and she had… there was something about her eyes. It was though she was being haunted by something, but that wasn't exactly uncommon around the Roadhouse.

Ellen paid for the meal herself and dropped it off at the girl's table. It was hardly even a second of eye contact but those big blue eyes looked at her with a certain gratefulness that Ellen wasn't accustomed to seeing. And then she was digging into her burger with such slowness that she was pretty sure the girl was near starving. On Monday when she'd shown up first, she had eaten much faster and probably gotten herself sick in the process. If she was starving, which seemed entirely possible given how those clothes hung off her body.

Ellen turned away from the girl. Ash had started up a search to see what he could find out about her, but nothing seemed to be coming up. The new girl hadn't spoken a single word since Monday when she'd shown up and that haunted look n her eyes was the main reason Ellen wanted to know about her background. That and it was simply a smart move to make. And for some searches a name wasn't really necessary, especially when so many people were using aliases. She glanced over and spotted Ash at his computer. It was always good business to know as much about the people in her saloon as possible.

A group of rowdy hunters entered and Ellen was distracted as she went to serve them and pick up on what was going on for them, keeping track of the little bits of information that she overheard here and there. When she turned back to check on the new girl, she found that she had left behind an empty plate and was gone. Again. Ellen sighed, grabbing the dishes and dropping them off. She hoped that the girl would turn up again –she couldn't have been much older than Jo and whatever had left that look in her eyes was no good.

It was around closing before she got a chance to talk to Ash, and he was thankfully sober enough to tell her what she had been waiting to hear. "I found somethin' about that girl, alright" he laughed, leaning back in his chair and shaking his head. He angled his computer a bit so that Ellen could see the profile of their new girl.

Well, it certainly wasn't what either of them had expected. But it was obvious that the girl was in trouble that was way over her head. Ellen shook her head and turned away. It seemed she had kept her head on rather firmly despite whatever was going on, having run five states away and only been sighted twice. Both of the sightings were in Arizona, but apparently after her second sighting she had literally dropped off the radar. And it looked like she had been smart enough to stay low and be a little less noticeable.

Over the next several weeks she saw the girl again, and with a little prodding and several free meals, she won her over enough to be rewarded with her name. And from then on, Alyssa showed up more and more often. But knowing that if Ellen kept giving her free meals, she'd be broke, she found herself a new waitress. The odd broken dish here and there was about worth it, to see the extra pounds return to her and the smile that she occasionally graced the odd hunter with. Ellen was glad to see that the girl's health was improving rapidly, and soon she had a healthy complexion again. At the end of the day, Alyssa blended in with the crowd at the Roadhouse and made a pretty decent waitress and she had no problem with telling Ellen if she'd overheard anything of use.

Jo and Alyssa got along well enough too, and Ellen figured it was good for both of them. Alyssa hadn't made friends with any of the patrons, which was probably a good thing and Jo was able to draw her a little more out of her shell. Most of the time. But then the blasted Winchesters happened and not even Alyssa's level headedness could keep Jo from leaving. And then, something that was pretty much inevitable happened. Alyssa met the Winchesters.

Chapter One, Somebody I Used to Know

Alyssa glanced over at the unfamiliar man as he ordered two beers before going to join a taller man who was sitting with Ash. She got the two beers as he requested and set them down, safely away from Ash's computer. At times he could be almost reckless with his computer but mostly he was rather respectful of the machine and Alyssa tried to lessen the possibility of beer spills occurring near it. The man who had ordered didn't even acknowledge her and took a long gulp from it while the taller man turned to thank her, without really seeing her. For a long moment, Alyssa was frozen still.

She came back to herself when she heard the other calls for beer, but was mostly out of it as she brought them their drinks and worked at the counter while Ellen went around to check on everyone. The numbness that she had felt for so long gave a painful jolt and the past she'd been running from stirred within her mind. She shot a glance over at Sam whenever she could, wondering what he was doing in a place like this. But perhaps it should have been less surprising to her, of all people. She couldn't break her focus from Sam, checking to make sure he was there whenever she could, to ascertain that he hadn't disappeared on her while she poured another hunter a drink.

Her thoughts whirled in her mind, chaotic and disorganized and fear bubbled up from a place she had long since forgotten. It was too much all at once, for her to deal with. It had been over a year since she had last seen Sam, the boy she had graduated high school with. And through some luck, she managed to meet him again at Stanford. He was going to be a lawyer and she was going to be a forensic psychologist. But that all changed rather abruptly…

She tightened her grasp on the glass that she was supposed to be cleaning and a startled yelp escaped her when her grip caused the glass to shatter. A few of the hunters who she had met during her first few days working a the Roadhouse chuckled, while those like Sam who didn't know her turned to look at her. She hastily pulled the glass from her hand and swept it into the garbage with the others before disappearing into the back to treat her cut. It wasn't the first time. And thankfully this time, the cut wasn't deep enough that she would need fake stitches from a hunter. The hospital was completely out of the question, for many reasons. Alyssa patiently cleaned the cut, just to be safe, and wrapped it up.

She headed back out and found that Ellen was working the counter, she shook her head and Alyssa could only offer her an apologetic shrug before heading out to check with everyone. She gave Ash's table a wide berth, and she knew that the computer genius wouldn't have missed it but she trusted that he wouldn't bring it up until the men he was with had left. A part of her desperately wanted Sam to look at her and realize who she was, but a larger part of her that was attached to self-preservation wanted him to keep his focus on whatever conversation he was currently having with Ash.

She was halfway across the room, offering a few comments to a group of hunters who were celebrating a kill when she felt eyes on her. She looked up and saw that the shorter man was turning away, back into the conversation with Ash. Recognizing when someone was looking at her like that, with suspicion, was often the difference between a successful runaway and an unsuccessful one. Arizona had taught her that. And sure, it had been a while since she was officially on the run, but some habits had stuck with her. Like that one.

She made her way over to Ash's table, aware that he was there but not about to let him stop her. She gently tapped the shorter one's shoulder, offering him a sweet smile and a few conversational words to check on him before moving on to another table. She glanced at the clock and was more than excited to see that closing time was almost here, as other hunters slowly eased out of the establishment.

"You got something against them boys?" Ellen asked, glancing towards Ash's table.

"No," Alyssa retorted hastily. She knew she owed Ellen a lot, but she couldn't tell her that. It was something she had spent nearly a year thinking about and another year trying to never think of it again. And there sat Sam Winchester, the epitome of freedom himself. The one who had taken hers away. Her eyes narrowed and she turned to look towards Ash's table again, unable to help herself.

This time she met Sam's gaze. His brows furrowed and she knew that he had actually seen her this time. It was more instinctual than anything else, and it had her running out the doors of the Roadhouse and looking for a place she could disappear to before she was recognized. There was a part of her that wanted to race back inside and slap him, to shout and scream at him for everything he had cost her but she was more concerned about staying off the radar. Not making any scenes and staying low. Her hair helped with that, since she had died it black and kept doing so whenever she saw even a hint of gold peeking through. She had hoped that she could have made it through the night, but it probably would have been smarter to disappear the second she saw Sam without giving him the chance to see her.

Alyssa was racing towards her motel on foot, seeing as it was only a few blocks away. She ran heedless of the frosted ground, nearly losing her balance on several of the icier patches. What she didn't take into consideration was the possibility that upon figuring out who she was, that Sam might try to follow her. It didn't even register as a possibility, but it should have. If she had considered, she might have found a place to hide that wasn't quite so far away. But as things stood, Alyssa was trying to make it to her motel on foot in slippery conditions when Sam chased her down.

Alyssa found herself knocked down by a six foot four giant and didn't try to fight her old friend, too busy trying to regain her breath. There was a time when they had been friends, up until his disappearance and the curse he had left her with. Sam was barely even winded as he helped her up, against her wishes and held her tight. It didn't exactly make breathing any easier.

"What are you doing here Alyssa? In a place like that?" he asked, the worry in his voice poorly disguised as he let her go.

She shot him a scowl, "What am I doing there? I think that's something I should be asking you!"

Guilt flashed across his face, but he didn't answer her question. "Why aren't you back in Stanford, getting your degree?"

"Why aren't you?" she snapped. "It's where you should be!" It was where he should have been more than a year ago. But instead he just up and disappeared.

Sam grimaced and shook his head, almost regretfully, or perhaps sadly. "No, no Stanford is the last place I should be right about now."

Alyssa scoffed harshly, turning away. "I don't want to talk to you Sam. Okay? Can we just… leave it at that?"

Sure, they'd been friends for a long time. They went to high school together, for about a month and became fast friends. And then they went to Stanford for four years. It wasn't as though a year and some misunderstandings between them would actually sever their relationship, but Alyssa wanted it to. Very badly. She knew what his reply would have been, if she had let him have it. He would have told her no, because they were friends. And no doubt he had the idea in his head that she was safe and sound back in Stanford, graduating next year with her degree.

A part of her wished she could go back to that, but it was because of Sam that her dreams had been crushed. And she didn't want to have to deal with it. But it was a surprise enough for her to see Sam there, in the Roadhouse. She knew what it meant. The only people who stepped through those doors knew about the supernatural. And that wasn't entirely accurate, because most of the people who walked through those doors hunted the supernatural that no one else believed in. Well, Alyssa had never hunted those evil things but she had spent a long time running from them. It was sort of a crash course in how to be a fugitive.

"I'm sorry."

She looked back at him, eyes wide and she stumbled back a step. Sorry? Sorry could never make up for what had happened because of him. The side of herself that she did everything to keep hidden and powerless was who spoke the truth to him. Alyssa was torn between wanting to rejoice at seeing her old friend, but she was angry too. And she didn't understand.

"Sorry?" She turned to him, directing a glare in his direction. "Sorry doesn't begin to cut it, Sam." She felt the tears in her eyes and took that moment to turn away and continue towards her motel.