Lurking in the shadows generally wasn't Sophia's style, but it was eleven o clock at night, so she didn't have much choice. Giles had insisted that she leave immediately. He had driven her down and dumped her on the doorstep of a man she'd never met before. If it weren't for the fact that Giles had saved her ass a whole mess of times, Sophia might have refused to disappear in the middle of the night with him. She pushed aside her thoughts and focused on the task at hand. Sophia knocked on the door in front of her.
As Sam turned away from his brother and walked to the front door, it occurred to him that he was having something of a bad night. First, his brother showed up on his doorstep completely unannounced, and now this late night visitor. Sam sighed and opened the door to a dark haired woman with piercing blue eyes and a look of mild interest on her face. "Hello?" Sam said, slightly annoyed.
"Hi!"Sophia said cheerily. The strangeness of the situation was not lost on her, but she was quite familiar with strange. "Introductions are in order, don't you think? I'm Sophia. I've been sent to protect you."
Dean laughed and walked to the door. "We don't need protecting." He said confidently.
"Your father's disappeared." Sophia said, her hands on her hips. "You don't know where he is. You need my help." Off Dean's expression, she added "Don't bother denying it. You've got my help whether you want it or not."
Sam sighed and stepped outside to get a better look at his visitor. "I'm Sam. This is my brother, Dean." Turning to Dean, Sam said "I'll help you find him." Sam turned around and headed back into his home. "I'll be right back."
Sophia chatted mindlessly to fill the silence. "So," she said "That car over there's nice. It's yours?"
"Yeah." Dean said conversationally. "Used to be my dad's"
Sophia walked in a circle around the car, her mouth set in a half smile. "'67 Chevy Impala." She said triumphantly. Guessing car models was one of her skills.
"Impressive." Dean murmured. "How'd you know?"
Sophia shrugged. "I guess you could say it's a...Talent of mine."
It was at that point that Sam came back out from inside. He brushed past Sophia and approached Dean. "Let's go."
xxx
Sophia sat up in the leather back seat of the Impala, rubbing the back of her neck. This was why she liked to hunt from her home. So much more convenient. She ran her hand through her hair and smoothed out her shirt. "Morning, Boys!" Sophia called out in a tone that was much more cheerful than the situation warranted.
Dean glanced out the rear-view mirror at the attractive, dark haired hunter in the back seat. There was something a little disconcerting about her overly sunny disposition. "Morning." He grumbled.
"So, what's the plan?" Sophia asked, ignoring the fact that Dean evidently was not a morning person. "To find your dad, I mean. Do you have anything to go on?" If he didn't, it would make finding the man a little more difficult. He could be anywhere.
Dean shook his head and frowned. "We can worry about that later. "First thing's first – Food."
Sophia slid across the seat and stepped out of the car. "I don't eat in the mornings" she said by way of explanation. "You and Sam go. I'll be here when you get back. I need to make some calls anyway.
xxx
The problem was, when Sam and Dean got back, Sophia was nowhere to be found. Sam frowned, furrowing his brow as he got out of the car and looked around. "Where is she?"
Dean shrugged and glanced over the pavement. "She said she'd be here when we got back..." he said slowly.
xxx
"The fuck is this?" Sophia demanded. Upon awakening she had made two observations. The first being that she was in a dungeon. The second being that her captor was a Fyarl demon. A Fyarl Demon. Sophia frowned – Fyarl demons didn't tend to plan out their course of action so carefully. It was generally just crush, crush, kill, kill with them. Which meant that this particular demon was working for someone – or something – a little more strategic. "Who do you work for?"
The demon just growled in Fyarl.
"Oh." Sophia said, slightly annoyed with herself for not realizing that Fyarl demons spoke Fyarl – And she didn't. "Right. Duh."
"Miss Summers." A dark figure said from a darkened corner, hissing the S's in her name like a snake. "Welcome."
"Uh..." Sophia blinked repeatedly. Mostly because she absolutely did not recognize the mastermind behind her kidnapping. "...Have we met?"
The dark figure ignored Sophia's question. "You're twenty-three, yes?"
In the dark, Sophia frowned "Yes, but what does that have to do with anything?"
"Have you been experiencing anything strange recently?" the figure asked. "Blackouts? Waking up in strange places? ...Premonitions?"
"What?" Sophia said, nearly screeching. "No. Why have you kidnapped me?"
The Fyarl demon whined at its master, who shook his head. "No." He said firmly, waving his hand at Sophia.
xxx
"Uh, Dean?" Sam called out nervously. "Abort the mission." Dean was gearing up to mount a rescue, but this was unnessacary, because the woman who had needed rescuing had just materialized in front of Sam.
"Saving damsels in distress just happens to be a perk of the job-" Dean started, before seeing Sophia – the aforementioned damsel standing with Sam. "Oh."
"Who ya callin' a damsel?" Sophia joked. The joke had been an attempt at breaking the ice and recovering from the shock of being kidnapped, and being faced with complete helplessness. And confusion.
Ignoring Sophia's joke, Dean wandered over to where she and Sam stood. "What happened? Where did you go?"
"I'm not actually sure." Sophia admitted, laughing nervously. "I think they may have had the wrong girl. They kept asking me these uber-weird questions."
"What kind of questions?" Sam and Dean both asked in unison.
Sophia shrugged. "Am I twenty-three, have I been blacking out, have I been waking up in strange places, have I been having premonitions. Weird psychic stuff. So I say no and this creepy guy waves his hand at me. Next thing I know, I'm back here. Having this conversation."
Dean and Sam traded confused glances.
"Look, I don't know what's happening," Sophia admitted. "But I know it's not good. I get the feeling I'm not the first hunter to be abducted against her will like that."
xxx
Sophia looked around the pitiful hotel room, her eyes focused on the tacky 70's wallpaper. Sam was at the library, researching her little 'experience' with the unnamed demon.
"Hey, Dean?" Sophia asked
"Yeah?" Dean looked up from his position on the edge of one of the beds.
"I was wondering if, um, you would mind if I, uh, asked you a question...It's kind of personal." As she was saying this, Sophia got up from her spot on the couch and sat next to Dean, who glanced up at her.
"Yeah, sure."
"Are you ever...mad at your dad? For dragging you into all of this? For not letting you have a childhood?" Sophia knew that her question was prying, socially awkward and presumptuous, but even since Giles had told her about the Winchesters, she'd been painfully curious.
Dean looked up at Sophia. She hadn't been kidding about her question being "Kind of personal." He pulled his glance from the hunter's face and stared at the floor, trying to think of how to answer her question. "Yeah. I mean...A little. But not for me...I just...I wish that Sam could have had a normal childhood. Instead of...This." Dean gestured around at the room they were in. Hoping to take Sophia's attention off himself, he added "What about you? How'd you get involved in...This?"
"My sister." Sophia explained "Buffy. She's the Vampire Slayer. One girl in all the world. Oh, and my cousin – Summer – is a hunter." What Sophia had left out was that Summer was actually half demon. Sophia had no way of knowing how Dean would react to the discovery that she, Sophia, was related by blood to a demon. Best case scenario, he wouldn't be able to trust her, worst case scenario...He'd want to hunt Summer.
At that point, Sam returned. He saw where Sophia and Dean were both sitting and shot his brother a look which he hoped would warn him against trying to sleep with the attractive, dark haired, young hunter. "I think I've got something!" Sam called out, hoping to draw attention to himself.
Sophia got up and walked over to Sam. "Really? What have you got?"
"Based on your description..." Sam started slowly "I think it's a shapeshifter."
Sophia frowned and looked from Sam to Dean and then back again. "A shapeshifter? Wha...What's a shapeshifter?"
Sam thrust a pile of printed paper into Sophia's hands and turned to Dean, "everything's there. I need to get back."
"Yeah. Right. Of course." Dean said, "Tomorrow. First thing."
"It's Sunday night." Sam said "I need to get going now. I have an interview Monday morning."
xxx
Dean was sitting outside Sam's house, staring at the door his little brother had gone in. The radio was off, the engine was off, and he paid no attention to the dark haired woman in the back seat.
Sophia idly wondered if she should take her shirt off. That tended to get people's attention. She decided against it, due to having some semblance of self respect. Instead, she leaned forward and placed her hand on Dean's arm, hoping to convey her sympathy. "Dean..." Sophia breathed softly.
What Sophia was going to say next was cut off by screaming coming from the house. Dean raced out of the car, and into the house. Sophia followed.
Nothing could have prepared either of them for what they saw next. Fire, nearly consuming the entire roof. "Oh, god..." Sophia murmured when she saw the young, blonde woman pinned to the roof.
Dean dragged his brother out of the house. Sam screamed the blonde woman's name, helplessly. Sophia followed them, still in shock.
"Jessica," Sam sobbed, falling to the ground aside the Impala.
Not knowing what else to do, Sophia wrapped her arms around Sam and pulled him into a tight hug. She thought it might feel strange, as they had just met, but it didn't. When Sam responded by wrapping his arms around her petite body, Sophia knew it wasn't strange for him either. He just needed comfort after the hell he'd been through.
"Come on," Sophia murmured, breaking the hug and helping Sam into the car. He lay down on the back seat, and Sophia climbed into the seat next to Dean.
xxx
Sophia was back in her bedroom at 1630 Revello Drive. Her mother's house. She hugged her pillow and closed her eyes tight.
"Sophia..."
Sophia heard her younger sister's voice calling her. Without opening her eyes, she moaned and rolled over, "Buffy, shouldn't you be asleep?"
"Sophia..."
Sophia sighed and rolled onto her back, opening her eyes. She saw her little sister, drenched in blood, surrounded by fire. "NO!" Sophia screamed, "Buffy! Oh, god, this isn't happening. Buffy!"
She woke up.
Sophia found herself lying on a tacky couch in a badly decorated motel room, staring at the inscription on the back of the guitar her sister's vampiric ex-boyfriend had given her for her 21st birthday. It read;
"Happy Birthday, Sophia. You have one of the biggest hearts I have ever known,
Angel."
Sophia smiled a small smile and leaned back into her pillow. She frowned a little. The nightmares were something of a concern. Sophia sat up and ran a hand through her messy brown hair. She looked over to the other side of the room. Dean, already dressed, was staring at her from the edge of his bed.
"What?"
"You were screaming in your sleep. Nightmares?"
"Yes," Sophia whispered, so quietly she was barely audible.
"Was it about..." Dean trailed off. He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't need to. She knew exactly what he was talking about. Sophia nodded and looked down, bringing her knees up to her chin.
"Ah," Dean murmured, sitting next to Sophia on the couch. "Well, it was a pretty traumatizing experience."
Sophia nodded again. "I've never seen anything like that before."
"I have," Dean said under his breath.
Sophia raised her head to look at Dean, her ice blue eyes surprised, "You've seen that before?"
"Yeah," Dean whispered, "Yeah." He shook his head and smiled at her. "Anyway, I never thanked you for what you did for Sam."
Sophia smiled shyly, "You don't need to."
"Yeah, I do." Dean insisted, "He's my little brother. I should take care of him. So thanks, Soph."
"Anytime," Sophia whispered, blushing at his use of her nickname.