Postcards From the Other Side of the Mirror
Rating. PG-13
Warnings. Spoilers for most of the series.
Disclaimer. Supernatural is Kripke's and the CW's.
Summary. Glimpses of a world in which Mary Campbell does not agree to Azazel's deal to save John's life, and Heaven and Hell have to make new plans. Several chess pieces are about to change.
A/N. hello supernatural fandom, i'm a recently converted member. i finished marathoning the show about a month ago. although i absolutely adore the main ensemble of characters, there were several minor characters whom i felt were not fully explored, and small plot-holes which i could abuse to do so. case in point, the premise of this entire fic: an alternation of canon wherein Mary says no to Azazel. i'm not doing a full-out epic here, just giving brief glimpses to the life of some side characters with one small change to the overall story. please enjoy and feel free to correct any mistakes!
"No,"
"No? Are you sure?"
Mary hesitated for just a moment, glancing down at the man she held in her arms, at the man she loved, at the man who was dead and refused to save. When she raised her eyes again, staring head-on at the yellow eyes on not-her-father's face, she was determined.
"No," she confirmed.
The change in not-her-father was immediate. Gone was the cockiness, the swagger and sense of self-assurance that was so predominant in demons when facing humans. Instead, its borrowed face morphed into an expression she had never seen on her father, and expression of pure fury and anger, contorting muscles until it did not even vaguely resemble a human, much less her father.
She thinks that's probably why she felt much better about throwing holy water at its face and then watching it recoil, hissing in pain. Cradling John Winchester's dead body to her chest, she prepared herself for a good cry. She was owed one, after all. She was therefore quite put out when the yellow-eyed creature inhabiting her father's (dead) body once more interrupted her, this time to hiss at her face. It was very unimpressive, not to mention intrusive.
What was more impressing and damaging were the claws it dug into her arms, causing her to cry out and throw more holy water at it. Amidst it's cries of pain as she continued her holy water assault, she began to make some sense of its words.
"I curse you, Mary Campbell, for wrecking all the carefully laid out plans, for being so goddamn stubborn, to live alone among humans, to never age and watch as all that you ever love dies!"
Fed up, Mary soaked her handy switchblade in holy water and stabbed not-her-father repeatedly. Finally, the yellow eyes were replaced with her father's empty, dead stare, and she stopped her brutal attack. Her breaths were coming out in short pants, and she realized belatedly that she was probably having some kind of panic attack. Within moments, she had broken down crying over the bodies of the two men she loved most, unaware of how many careful years of planning by both celestial and demonic beings she had just thrown out the window.
-o-
In the days following the funerals, Mary Campbell removed herself from most of the society of Lawrence, Kansas. She stayed put in her family's home, going out only to get the essentials since she refused to be the centre of gossip. Not that she could do much about that, the attack of a still-at-large psychopath on her family and boyfriend was the most exciting thing that had happened in the little town since the Mayor's unexpected death two years ago.
Eventually, after two months of sympathetic stares and whispers everywhere she went, Mary could not take it anymore. She sold her parents home and everything in it, keeping nothing save her clothes and weapons, and hit the road in John's Chevy Impala.
-o-
"Get down!" the man yelled.
Mary, of course, did the opposite. Throwing herself at the snarling, point-toothed figure, she exchanged blows until, through a skillful kick to its privates and dumb luck, she cleanly cut its head off. She allowed herself to relax under the corpse, ignoring the blood probably ruining her clothes, and took in large gulps of air as she came down from her adrenaline high.
The body on top of hers was thrown off by a man, who took one look at her, shook his head, and said,
"You're one crazy girl, Miss Campbell,"
Mary grinned, bubbly laughter following, as she took his offered hand. Allowing herself to be pulled up, she looked around the room. Three beheaded bodies, blood on the walls and a thankful group of civilians huddled in a corner. All in a days work.
"You're pretty crazy yourself, Elkins," she finally said, once they had sent the civilians home and buried the bodies.
The man chuckled and shook his head, his disagreement obvious.
"So, vampires huh?"
"Vampires, miss,"
-o-
Mary didn't know why it kept happening, just that it did. Every new town she went to, even if she was just passing by or seriously considering settling in, seemed to be afflicted by some supernatural trouble. She had saved more civilians in the past three years than she had in her entire life with her dad, and wasn't that a scary thought.
She was fully convinced that every supernatural being was somehow attuned to her and every time she arrived at a new destination made sure to be extra crazy for her sake. Not that she minded, it gave her something to do, something she was good at now that all hopes of a stable, quiet family life had been dashed with John Winchester's death.
-o-
It wasn't long before the rest of the Campbell clan tracked her and all but forced her to join them. The first time, Mary made small talk with her family and then joined them on a hunt, but then politely declined the invitation and went on her way.
When she ran into them a second time, they all laughed and talked about coincidences. By the fifth time, Mary was getting tired. By the tenth time, she was actively trying to avoid them and was hiding her tracks.
It was the thirteenth time, several years later, after she had managed to keep them away with a shapeshifter that had changed into her when it died, that she decided to formally nip the family relationship.
She fought them until they couldn't get up anymore, and then very calmly explained that she wanted absolutely nothing to do with them, that she was only in the hunting business because she had people to avenge and that she was cursed and not interested in being their curse-guinea pig. The explanation was driven home by her nonchalantly playing around with a machete.
They stopped bothering her after that.
-o-
Mary might not have been the smartest girl in her class, but she was a hunter, and a Campbell, and therefore far from stupid.
She noticed how Elkins, Harvelle, Bobby and Rufus – the hunters she knew best and trusted most, although she remained a lone wolf – aged while she remained young and beautiful. While at first she had attributed it to genetics, when fifteen years had gone by and she looked exactly the same as she did on that fateful day when she resigned herself to John's death, she figured something was wrong.
Recalling the yellow-eyed demon's last words to her, the curse which she had filed away in her brain as mere demon intimidation, she was forced to look at it with new eyes. Neither Bobby nor Elkins, both having amassed large collections on the supernatural, commented when she began to borrow books on curses. In a similar vein, Mary never commented when they left her books or went to the length of finding some for her on purpose. The fact that she never seemed to age was also carefully ignored.
As far as hunters were concerned, they each had their own problems, their own demons to battle and unless they asked for help, no one would force it on anyone.
-o-
Around the time Harvelle settled down with a family, Elkins became a recluse – well, more than usual. His obsession on vampires grew to new levels, and he stopped talking almost to all of them. Mary still visited him occasionally, even if it was painful to watch him age and descend into near-lunacy.
As for Harvelle, Mary was insanely jealous and proud. To step away from the hunting life had often been regarded as impossible, but he seemed to have managed.
At least until he crawled to Bobby's one day when Mary was visiting and Bobby was out, to spill on the fact that he had just made a deal with a yellow-eyed demon to save his wife's life. Mary, to her credit, barely flinched, and Harvelle, in his current state, thankfully didn't notice. Once he had had enough drinks and calmed down, Mary asked him what the demon had wanted in return.
Harvelle had stared at her, eyes glassy and empty, before choking back a sad laugh and revealing,
"He didn't say, but I can't say it wasn't worth me going to hell if that is what will happen, Ellen deserves life,"
Mary quietly agreed and stayed with him until he left, composed and sober. When Bobby returned the next day, he found her pensively sitting on the couch, an old, black tome he had confiscated from a book seller once open in her lap. He had never managed to open it himself, and the language, from what he could see of it, was closer to chicken scratch than anything he'd ever seen. Obviously something big had happened.
"What happened?" he asked, breaking her out of her stupor. Mary blinked at him, surprised at his presence and that was unnerving as hell, she was the best, youngest hunter out of all of them and thus had the best senses. It had to have been something huge to distract her pretty much born hunter instincts.
"Nothing,"
Obviously, Bobby was not going to find out what had happened. Figures.
-o-
The same year Harvelle died was the year Elkins made contact with her after some time. By now, Mary had grown tired of the necessity of moving all the time as a result of her curse, and was trying to find ways to settle down somewhere.
When she heard of the Harvelle family fire, it was from Rufus. The possibility of Harvelle, an attuned hunter, to have died from something such as a fire in his child's nursery – a fire that had been mostly self-contained to said nursery – did not sit well with any of them. But the trail of clues ran cold in the Harvelle's home.
Mary made sure to introduce Ellen to Bobby, and then gave Bobby instructions to look after both her and her daughter. She then went back to hunting and researching with renewed vigour. She could feel the slight changes in the air which indicated something big was coming, that chess pieces were being moved and key players were appearing. But she did not know what was coming or how to prepare for it.
It was when she was finishing up one of her hunts that Elkins called her. Mary was surprised, and did not keep the surprise and slight aggravation hidden.
"What, you decided not to creepily obsess over vampires?"
"Shut up Campbell, I have a situation,"
"I miss the days when you called me miss,"
"Campbell I told you I have a situation-"
"Why Elkins, it sounds like you're asking for a favour, but the big, bad, lonely vampire hunter would never need my help now would he?"
"Campbell I'm serious-"
"Maybe if you say please I'll-"
"Campbell I have a child!"
"..."
"Campbell?"
"Who did you blackmail to sleep with you?"
"That's not what- oh, just come over and look at it will you,"
And because Mary would never leave a child to someone like Elkins, Mary went.
'It' proved to be a young girl, barely a few months older than Harvelle's girl, who was giddy and well-mannered. Mary cooed at her while Elkins stared at them helplessly, holding what appeared to be a baby bottle and a soft toy. She turned to him after a while, the baby slowly falling asleep in her arms.
"Since I can't believe this little angel came from you, I want to know what house you stole her from and why,"
"Campbell I didn't steal her, why on earth would I want to steal a baby?"
"You've done crazier things tracking vampires," Mary shrugged, then her eyes narrowed, "you don't think she's some kind of vampire baby and were planning to kill her but are now regretting it because she's gorgeous and innocent?"
"What? No! Vampires can't have babies as far as I know, and isn't that a scary thought but – that's not the point!" Elkins huffed, voice raised slightly causing the baby to stir in Mary's arms. She cooed softly at it, lulling it back to sleep, turning back to Elkins with judgement in her eyes.
"Then what is the point, Elkins?"
"The point...the points is I don't know what to do with her," Elkins sighed, taking a seat, "I saved her from a vengeful family spirit, but I couldn't save her parents, so here we are..."
Mary nodded, understanding, humming lightly to ease the baby into a deeper slumber.
"Her mother died entrusting her to me, and I can't even figure out how to give her milk," Elkins sat back, and air of defeat surrounding him.
Mary gazed at him sadly, and sat down next to him, the baby still cradled in the safety of her arms. Elkins stared back, sad smile in place, as he said,
"You would have been a good mother, you know...you're obviously cut out for it, it's a pity that-"
He cut himself off, flinching and staring resolutely at the floor. Mary didn't say anything, but silently nodded in understanding, unseen by him. She had wanted to be a good mother, to lead a normal life and have children, preferably girls but she wouldn't have minded boys if they were anything like John. Now though, it was completely out of the question.
"I know, why don't you take care of her? You're already bonding, maternal instinct and all that," Mary's eyes snapped right back to Elkins. He shrank back slightly under her disaproving eyes.
"What?"
"You said yourself that her mother asked you to take care of her, you're not dumping this on me,"
"Oh come on, Campbell! You can't be serious! You know what a mess I am, I couldn't possibly-"
"Yes, you can, and you will," Mary stood, shushing the baby in her arms, before critically analyzing Elkins' house, "you're obviously going to have to make some changes to take care of her, like a nursery and less time on the job, but you'll do fine,"
"No, no, I won't, I'll go away on hunts and who will stay with her then-"
"You'll bring her over to me, I'm opening an inn, besides, she'll need some female guidance in her life and I'm fully prepared to offer it,"
"You're...opening an inn? Settling down? Where? How can you even do that with...you know?" he gestured to her youthful figure.
"Oh, don't you worry about that, you just bring little Jess here over to me and I'll make sure to keep her fed and up-to-date with everything she needs to know as a growing girl," she grinned at the baby, "and I was thinking of setting up on the outskirts of Lawrence, nothing really happens there anyway, they won't notice one new inn far away enough from the main plaza, I can be Mary Campbell's younger cousin,"
"Jess?"
"Yup, she's a Jess, aren't you?"
Elkins promptly gave up arguing when the baby cooed back to Mary, apparently enchanted with her hair.
"And Elkins?"
"What? Any baby surnames I should know about? A christening?"
"Don't be jealous, it doesn't suit you," she chastised, not even glancing at him, "give her a chance at a life outside of hunting, she can still make the choice, but let her make it herself,"
"You didn't have to tell me that, I wouldn't do it any other way," the two seasoned hunters shared a look, before the baby began to babble and then they both promptly began to concern themselves with feeding her.
-o-
Mary bought a property in the outskirts of Lawrence, Kansas, which came complete with an attached barn and farmland. She quickly organized herself into making it look like a picturesque, family inn, and avoided Lawrence itself for as long as possible. When the sign proudly proclaiming Campbell's Inn finally went up, she resigned herself and went to the town.
She introduced herself as a far-off relative of the Campbell's, and was relieved when she found out most people seemed to have forgotten her. A few commented on her remarkable likeness to Mary Campbell, which she stated was a family name, and then ignored her existence completely. Mary was quite happy with the arrangement, and was soon settled in quite nicely.
Her inn was a nice enough place, and both civilians and hunters would stop by to rest. Mary herself was still up for the occasional hunt, but nowadays she devoted herself mostly to the inn and researching. The yellow-eyed demon was a constant nightmare.
-o-
In retrospect, Mary was not sure how Bobby kept Ellen in the dark for so long. Harvelle had married her, so she was an exceptionally insightful and intelligent woman, after all. Both Ellen and her daughter, Jo, thus learned some tricks for self-defence, but at the insistence of Ellen did not hunt themselves. They stayed with Bobby, who went on less hunts and was mostly an informant and cover for several hunters, Ellen adjusting to a new life and Jo going to school.
Mary had the interesting experience of watching Jo and Jess grow parallel to each other: one fully in the know of the world of hunting, capable and quite good at it under Elkins' and Mary's careful tutelage, and the other fumbling through it without much knowledge since both the adults in her life were against it.
Inevitably, the two girls met when they became teens, and hit it off promptly, sharing bizarre stories anybody outside of their world would be hard-pressed to follow. Slowly, Mary realized she had gained her own sort of family, and was desperate to keep it safe and protected. Thus, she offered both girls hunting lessons, and was pretty sure Bobby turned a blind eye.
-o-
It was years later, some months after Elkins died leading to Jess dropping out and Jo had left Bobby's home to become a hunter, that Mary saw both girls fully grown again. They had both turned out beautiful, and, to Mary's chagrin, into hunters.
But as the girls that she had come to think of as her own crowded her doorway, going inside and immediately talking about the Colt, fires in nurseries, a gateway to Hell and a yellow-eyed demon, Mary allowed herself a smirk.
Having amassed quite a lot of information on yellow-eyes, she was not surprised with some of the stories they told her, but some of them were also completely new. Either way, something big was happening, the pieces were moving and everything would soon come to light.
As she closed her inn and guided the girls towards the Impala, gun in hand, Mary allowed herself another shit-eating grin.
The hunt was afoot. And the prey was one nasty, yellow-eyed demon.
A/N. this is waaaay longer than i thought it would be. i will be re-reading tomorrow morning, my time, and correcting any glaring mistakes. um, please do not expect all the chapters to be the same length, i merely let go and allowed myself to write as much as i wanted to set Mary's background and to cover my bases. the next chapter will probably centre on Jess and growing up with Elkins, going to college, his death, the Colt, meeting up with Jo, etc.
again, these are only glimpses of this alternate take on canon. i will try to make it so they make sense, and i might revisit some of the characters (Mary, for example), but i will limit myself within the chapter to a single character's journey, much like i did here.
at the moment i do not know what the length of this fic will be. i want to end when they stop the apocalypse, so S5, but i don't know if i'll get there – i rather doubt it, i have a bad track record with overachieving chaptered fics, partly why i'm doing glimpses.
anyway, please let me know what you think, reviews regarding characterization and the idea itself are much encouraged!