Unlikely Partnership
"Ouch!" She tried to move her shoulder away from the old man as he dug the needle into her skin to damn hard.
"Stop moving you idjit." Rolling her eyes she took another swing of the whisky making it burn down her throat and help numb the pain in her shoulder blade. "What the hell do you think you're doing hunting by yourself?"
"Bobby..."
"Don't you dare start; your father would be rolling in his grave if he knew you were hunting." He pressed the dressing a little too hard on her back making her wince. "You need help; let me make some phone calls."
"I work alone!" She stood up to walk away before the conversation got out of hand.
"Not anymore, now sit your ass on the stool Amanda." She huffed back onto the wooden seat, leaning against the kitchen bench for support. "Eat." Bobby placed a bowl of pumpkin soup on the table adding a few cut slices of bread. "You'll do good to listen to me, or I'll send you packing to your sister." She let Bobby walk away without complaint, if there was one thing she remembered about her childhood it was Bobby's pumpkin soup, and the fact that it was always hard to beat one of the men when they were set on an idea, it made arguments twice as hard to win like this one. "Don't go moving." She got the finger pointed at her before she heard the slam of the screen door leding outside. Amanda stayed in her spot on the stool but couldn't help testing her back out, slowly moving her shoulder making her wince at the pulling of her skin from the stitches. She was tempted to take another swing of the alcohol instead she took a mouth full of the soup.
It had been a while since she had a home cooked meal; years she had been out on the field hunting the creatures that went bump at night. The best food she ever got was the homemade food at the local diners, even than she would be lucky to get something fresh and mouth-watering. She was telling the truth to Bobby, she worked alone, she didn't need the company of someone else, their life on her hands. Most of the time she could do the job right, no compilations but this one job seem to slip through her fingers. That slip led to her almost becoming the meal if she hadn't got herself out of dodge. She could have gone anywhere, there was plenty of motels that she had passed along the way but the pain that vibrated through her body made her realise that she couldn't do it herself. There was only one hunter she could trust with her life and it happened to be the one hunter that had no problem ripping her a new asshole for her actions.
The slam of the screen door alarmed her that Bobby had come back into the house. "You'll be staying in the spare room for tonight." Bobby went to the kettle when Amanda opened her mouth to speak her mind, she simply shut it at the pointed look from the older man. She hated to admit it but Bobby reminded her way to much of her father, it was painful to spend time with him but it also brought a sense of comfort to be around him. Bobby was a close friend of her fathers, he stepped up his role when her father passed, checking on her regularly. "They'll be here tomorrow."
"They?" She didn't like the sound of that. Bobby simply ignored her tone and continued making his coffee.
"Yes, they will be joining us." Bobby turned around with a mug in hand seeing the frown on the woman's forehead, she looked more like her father as days went by.
"Who are they?" And like her old man, the woman liked to know every tiny detail of the situation from the largest to smallest element.
"Don't you go questioning me girl, eat you damn soup and get some rest."
"But-" Amanda snapped her jaw close at the sudden tone of Bobby cutting her off, she felt ten years old again and caught touching her father's weapons.
"You're going to need your strength if you want to continue the hunt or have you grown that stupid in your age." Bobby knew he probably sounded harsh but sometimes he needed to be blunt with the woman to get through her stubbornness. Instead of saying anything, Amanda wisely hooked into the soup with her eyes focused on task. With a nod of approval from Bobby, he left the kitchen to go to his book case, the other idjits he was keeping an eye on needing a helping hand with information, no doubt they would continue hunting once they did this favour for him.
Amanda washed her bowl, putting it on the rack to dry before walking into the lounge where Bobby was seated at a desk, she didn't need to ask what kind of book he was reading. "I'm going to take a shower and go bed."
"The towels haven't moved." Was Bobby's response with a grunted tone, his eyes never leaving the yellow pages. Not wanting to course anymore trouble, she started to move up the stairs when he called her again. "Amanda?"
"Yeah?" She stilled on the stairs, trying to figure out what she had possibly done now.
"Good night." His tone had lost its hard edge making a smile reach her lips.
"Night." She slowly made her way upstairs, stopping at the door on her right and pulling out a towel before continuing down to the spare room. She had forgotten the number of times, her sister- Kelly had spent nights in this room while their dad was downstairs with Bobby.
She quickly went across the hallway and used the shower, careful to keep the stiches out of the water as much as possible as the skin was feeling sensitive but relieved to wash the grim from the recent hunt from her body. With a towel wrapped around her, she wasted no time going back to her room to get fully changed and lay flat on her stomach on the mattress before passing out.
Amanda could feel the afternoon heat on her back as she leaned into the hood of the car, it was a vehicle that Bobby had obviously started but hadn't gotten the chance to finish and she needed to keep her hands busy. Having her mother die when she was young, Amanda was very much like her father in the personality and that included the knowledge to fix a damn car. Her father, Jeff never wanted her to be vulnerable, teaching her everything he knew because Jeff didn't want a repeat of his wife.
"Well if it ain't Mandy Griffins." She didn't hold back the groan at hearing the arrogant male's voice from behind her, there was only one person who called her 'Mandy' and she hadn't seen the boy, man in years. She turned around with a rag in her hands, wiping away the oil as she faced Dean Winchester.
"And what do you owe the pleasure of your presence Winchester?" Her father and John had done a few hunts together back in the day. Of course her sister and Amanda would be stuck with the Winchester brothers for the night and Dean happened to be the oldest of the four, making it his mission to annoy her ass.
"Well I received a 911 call from this location." The man had a smug smile across his face that she was very tempted to smack off. She wouldn't have hung around if she knew Bobby had contacted these idiot for help, Amanda would have left early the next morning.
"Bite me." She threw at him with frustration, she hadn't been in his presence for five minutes and the guy was already getting on her nerves.
"Would love too." She tried to stop the rapid beating of her heart at watching him admire the length of her.
"Amanda?" At the slightly more high pitched voice, she saw Sam over Dean's shoulder. Her eyes widening at the sight of the man, he had grown a few inches since they had last seen each other at the age of ten.
"Jesus Sam, you aren't a stick in the mud anymore." Unlike Dean, Amanda got on quite well with Sam and reached forward to embrace him for a few seconds.
"Where's mine?"
Amanda rolled her eyes at Dean. "Please tell me you're suddenly just dropping by?" She looked between the two men, hoping Dean had been playing some kind of a joke beforehand but unfortunately it all made sense.
"Nope, Bobby mentioned you have a vampire problem." Dean popped the 'P' of the 'nope' as he started to walk around the car Amanda had been working on a few moments ago.
"You should have given us a call earlier." Sam's tone was full of concern, it still annoyed her.
"I work alone." She stressed the words out, maybe somebody will actually start listening to her.
"Well why don't you hand the job over to us and we'll finish it." Dean came back to the front of the car, leaning against it. "Threes a crowd."
"Over my dead body! This is my job Winchester."
Dean only fuelled the fire within the woman with his next words. "It seemed you almost did get sucked dry the other night."
"Dean." There was a warning held in Sam's voice as he watched the two in front of him, it was like old times.
"Trust a woman to get herself hurt." Dean knew it was an idiotic thing to say and the punch to his gut emphasised it. Amanda went to take another swing at him but Dean managed to recover and move out of the way before her fist could collide with his cheek.
"Are you idjits done horsing around?" Bobby's voice from the porch, stopping Amanda from trying to take another hit. "Get your asses inside, we finish this hunt." Bobby turned away from them, going back into the house while shaking his head - he hoped that he hadn't made a mistake in getting Amanda to join with the Winchesters. Whether the boys saw it yet, Amanda would be a great asset to them and he wouldn't have to worry about her being alone.
Sam cast one more glance between Dean and Amanda before following the older man into the house. He could remember the time when the two girls would stay with them while their fathers where out hunting, the hours seem to go faster when it was the four of them whether it was playing cards or creating a cubby house with the blankets.
He also knew that Dean somewhat enjoyed having their company, it was nothing sexual between them because like Sam, Dean thought of Amanda as a kind of sister. What else would explain them coming out here? They had been setting themselves up, looking for a new hunt when they go the call from Bobby. The old man only had to mention Amanda's name and Dean had been repacking their belongings back into the bags. Whether Amanda realised it or not, she had become a Winchester with those 'stay overs'. Sam also knew that Amanda and Dean were both stubborn to the bone, it was a rare occasion to get either of them to express a softer side.
When Sam took a seat on the couch, he wasn't surprised to find that Amanda and Dean had followed behind him, each acting like the last few moments hadn't happened as they focused on Bobby. "How many are in the nest?"
Amanda answered Bobby's question. "Fifteen." She knew the number was quite high for a nest of vampires. The look Bobby threw in her made Amanda question why she thought she could possibly destroy a nest that large by herself. Bobby's next words didn't make her feel any better about the situation.
"And because of your stunt the other night, they'll be prepared."
"It will be simple." Dean made it sound so easy.
"We have a few ticks up our sleeve to surprise them." Sam shared a look with Dean that had even Bobby assessing the two of them. "Where are they?"
"About a five hours drive from here, in a barn."
"Typical." Dean's voice filled with sarcasm. "Sammy here will get it under way." At his announcement, Sam didn't seem too happy about it. "We can't send Amanda in, they knew her scent."
"We can leave tomorrow morning, we'll get there early afternoon to put it in action." Amanda didn't like how Dean and Sam were both talking, not cluing her in on the actually plan.
"Would someone tell me what the hell you guys are planning?" She vented out her frustration but it seemed to have no effect on Dean and his smug smirk.
"You'll just have to wait and see Mandy." She was very tempted to slap that smirk off Dean's face.
She turned her attention to Bobby, excepting him to ask about their plans - he did no such thing. "Now that's sorted, scramble! I've got some research to do." Without another word to either of the men, Amanda moved from the lounge and headed back outside to the car to vent out her frustration.
Early the next morning with a travel mug of coffee in her hands, she was slouched in the backseat of the impala behind Sam. She was far away from the review mirror but that didn't stop Dean from shooting looks in her direction. "You better not spill that Amanda." His eyes flickered to her in the back seat before going back to the road ahead.
Amanda had realised that Dean only ever used her name if he was dead set serious, the other ninety percent he used the dreaded nickname that set her teeth to grind. "So what is this surprise plan?"
"Something dear Ash has cooked up." Her eyes focused on Dean as she tried to remember the last time she had seen Ash, it had been a while since she went to the road house.
"How is he?"
"Still has the mullet." Sam replied.
"Good to see some things haven't changed." She relaxed further into the seat, Deans eyes watching her movements with the coffee. "So what has dear Ash got this time?"
"A bomb." Amanda merely stared at Dean in shock.
It was a relief when Sam finally spoke to explain. "That's a bit dramatic. It's a device that has its own... weapon, when it goes off it fires out with nails, the explosion should successfully kill them. Nothing else gets damaged except them." He mumbled the next part. "Well I hope so."
"Hope so?" She questioned Sam, hearing the mutter.
"It hasn't really been tested." Dean's voice was filled with eagerness, like a child at Christmas. "If it doesn't work, at least it will injure them." Sam threw his brother an unimpressed look. "Tonight, we'll be standing outside the barn, if any escape the explosion we'll finish them off." Amanda wasn't sure how she felt about relying on something that could very well fail them.
They stopped to fuel up a couple of hours later, Dean was in the petrol station paying when Sam turned around in his seat to face her. "Don't worry about the hunt. Dean has it handle, he'd never go in without a plan B." With those words, the man turned back around.
Dean got into the driver's side, he threw a Mars bar at each of them. "Eat up kiddies." He started the Impala and drove back onto the road, ACDC coming through the speakers. Maybe, Amanda had underestimated Dean and he had more brain in that skull then he let people believe.
The impala pulled up at a familiar stop for Amanda, the barn standing still in the fields with the sun in the blue sky, giving the hunters the amount of time they needed to set up by Ash. "Let's get this show on the road." Dean was out of the car first, going around to the back of the car and pulling out a backpack. "You two can set up the area and I'll sneak inside to plant these babies." Dean patted the bag on his shoulder before heading towards the barn. Yes, the vampires could go in the sunlight but they were more night creatures and preferred to sleep during the day.
"What exactly are we meant to do?" Amanda questioned Sam who grabbed a smaller bag from the back.
"Set a couple of these up around the entrance of the doors." Sam reached into the bag and handed a couple of the circular devices to Amanda. "Press the button on the side and it will be ready for the next comer."
"Isn't this sort of taking the fun out of hunting?" Amanda wiggled her nose at the device in her hand, it was going to suck the fun out of the night.
"If fun to you is almost getting bitten by a vamp, than yes." Sam replied, a small smile on his face at the woman's comment.
Without another word to Sam, Amanda started going around the area placing the device down in the hidden grass and turning the button on. Like Sam said, it was going to ruin the fun but she had no desire to get hurt again – her shoulder still hurt like a bitch.
When she reached around to the door she'd seen Dean come through, she leaned against the wooden barn waiting for the eldest Winchester to get out before setting up the device.
Dean came out of the barn a few moments after she had gotten comfortable. "Sleeping like babies." He said as Amanda bent down and set the device on.
"If they're such big babies, I don't know why you didn't just kill them." Amanda replied getting a sour look from Dean. Amanda knew from her first time here that there was more than a handful in the barn, this was a large nest and she had underestimated that the other night.
Dean was tempted to argue with her but thought otherwise, despise his words he didn't want to wake the 'babies'. "Let's find Sam." He didn't wait for her reply and walked past her back to the impala.
Dusk was slowly falling across the barn, each hunter was laid out on side of the barns giving them each an area and a view of the fellow hunter if any trouble raised. The whole situation made her nervous, she blamed it on not knowing how Ash's device was actually going to work but her thoughts trailed to the sharp nails that had drag into her back and the millions of teeth that had been bared near her face. She hated vampires, Amanda just wanted to the job to be over and dusted.
She didn't need to be told what was happening when the sound of chatter started from the barn- they were waking up and Amanda knew that anytime soon, if all goes correctly, Ash's device should go off.
The burst of force from the devices surprised her, she was half excepting it but the small force surprised her for a moment, screams filling her ears before the sound of the barn doors slamming open and the other devices clicked into action when they stepped outside the doors. Her back was against a tree, waiting for moment to strike. She couldn't help but take notice of one of the nails imbedded in the tree trunk, she thanked Sam for the idea of hiding behind the trees.
A few vampires had managed to get out, escaped the impact and she made a mental note that Ash needed to make the perimeter reach further out or more nails as she got up from the ground and shot her first vampire for the night in the head before aiming for another run away.
And like Amanda gathered, those devices did suck half the fun out of the hunt as it was twenty minutes and the nest was cleared out. With a frustrated expression, she made her way towards the Winchester brothers.
"What? Not enough fun for you?" Sam questioned at her facial expression.
"Pretty simple." Amanda stated.
"If only all of them were like that." The youngest brother said, shouldering the gun on his shoulder.
"Life would be too damn easy for that." Dean started to make his way towards the barn, the other two youngsters following him. Amanda couldn't help but agree with Dean, a lot of hunters would probably be out of the job and truthfully, Amanda wouldn't know what to do with herself in the world of education and happy families.
Some of the vampires were still very much alive or pinned in place by the nails and the hunters simply decapitated them – the best way to kill the suckers. "Clear." Sam's voice came from her right as he walked back into the center of the barn.
"Same here." Dean answered from somewhere else in the barn.
"Seems emp-" Amanda didn't get a chance to finish her sentence when a hand grabbed around her throat making her choke on her breath.
"You were here the other night." The male voice said from behind her. "Let's go see your friend so I can rip all your intestines out for killing my nest."
She had to warn the brothers' somehow. She gather just enough strength to make him loosen his grip on her throat. "Dean!" Amanda managed to yell out his name before she was harshly slammed in the side of her head, the impact making her fall to the ground. She could feel the blood trickle down the side of her face, dizziness taken place.
The sudden smell of her scent distracted the male vampire, it gave Dean the perfect moment to raise the cross bow and take a shot. The vampire moved at that moment, missing the aim at vampire's chest but getting him in the shoulder. "You came to the wrong nest." The vampire moved with speed, this time holding Dean by his throat his feet dangling from the ground.
At the corner of her eye Amanda saw Sam creeping over with a blade in hand. "You messed with the wrong hunters!" Dean fired back, keeping the vampires attention on him.
"I doubt that." The vampire tightened his grip around Dean's neck making Amanda move forward, capturing his attention. "I would stay in place woman or your husband won't be breathing for much longer." Amanda had no doubt that he would kill Dean whether she moved or not. "I am sick of your kind hunting us down, you should just leave us in peace."
"What?! So you can hunt my kind?!" Dean fired back with as much strength as he could.
"Exactly, we are th-" Amanda watched as Sam swung his arm back and cropped the vampires head off, it rolled to the ground and his hand let go of Dean making the man lean forward heavily on his knees trying to catch his breath.
"Good work Sammy." Dean said between breathes.
"I think the place is clear now." Amanda said, bringing herself into a sitting position and holding the bottom of her shirt to the side of her head, begging for the dizziness to disappear. She made a smile creak on Sam's lips as Dean merely shook his head before getting to his feet and coming over to her. He held his hand out and she reached forward, getting pulled up and bracing herself as the dizzy spells hit her. She leaned her head against his shoulder to catch her breath before pulling away, not missing the cheeky smile on Sam's face at watching the two of them.
"Let's get out here." Dean made sure Amanda was steady before stepping away and heading out of the barn. Amanda didn't miss the light bruising around Dean's throat and knew that it would only get worse, he'd be cursing her later on. "You coming Mandy?" Dean yelled, making her rolled her eyes before catching up with the Winchester brothers.
The three of them were back at Bobby's house, it had been two days since the destroying of the nest and the bruises were showing on Dean and Amanda's bodies. Bobby leaned against the rail of his veranda observing the three young hunters, he could see the nervous manner in the woman as sheleaned against the back bumper of the impala, watching Dean and Sam put their bags in the back."What do you plan on doing next?" She said casually.
"We're searching for yellow eyes, in between we're doing hunts on the way." Dean shrugged his shoulders like the topic didn't mean anything to him but Amanda saw the tension in his back because she felt the same crawl up her spine.
"Think you could do with an extra pair of hands?" She was breaking her own rule here but Dean had caught her attention when he mentioned yellow eyes. The bastard had taken her mother, very much like he had done with Deans. It was the reason why her father and John hunted together so often- they had the same goal. If Dean and Sam were hunting for yellow eyes, she wanted in to make sure the bastard got what he devised after taking away not one but both of her parents.
Sam knew her history, it was the main reason the woman had started hunting, it seemed to be the way most hunters were brought into the job. "Extra pair of eyes wouldn't hurt." Sam looked to his older brother.
Amanda had her doubts about Dean's answer, the hard line between his eyebrows told her he didn't like the idea. "We could use someone to do the washing."
She pressed her lips together at his comment but in his own twisted way, Dean had just agreed to her coming with them so she let it pass. With her backpack on her shoulder she started for her car. "Where do you think you're going?" Dean's question made her stop - had he changed his mind already?
"Getting into my car." She raised her eyebrows at him.
"No point in taking two vehicles." Dean opened the driver side door while Amanda frowned at him. He did make sense, there was no need but that would mean she was going to be stuck with them without a solid back plan - maybe she was making the wrong decision.
"Amanda," The woman looked over to Bobby. "I'll look after your car while you're gone." Amanda fiddled with the keys in her right hand thinking it over. After a moment, she let out a loud sign and walked up the stairs to Bobby, handing him her set of keys.
"Take good care of it." Her vehicle was nothing like Deans but she had worked her ass off when she was at a legal age to buy the car, not to mention her father had helped her with the engine.
"Of course I will, now get into the car." She rolled her eyes at Bobby and turned to the Impala. Sam stood at the boot waiting for her, she put her backpack in there and Sam closed it before taking the front passenger seat. Amanda got into the passenger side closest to her and rolled her eyes when she saw Dean grinning at her from the review mirror.
"Let's get this show on the road." Dean turned the ignition on, the roar of the impala making her insides tingle as they started down the driveway. "Welcome to the Winchesters Mandy." The woman's eyes darted from the window to the review mirror and glare at the man for the nickname - it's going to be a long trip ahead of her.
AN: Just a one-shot I had playing in my head. Comments are always welcomed :)