This wasn't exactly how she'd planned to spend her weekend - running after Bianca. How could this happen? Everything had been planned perfectly, were was the mistake made? It was a simple, get in - kill the sons of bitches - get the hell out, really, she'd been doing this all her life. 'Get it together!' she thought
"Move your ass, Mel!" Bianca shouts back at her. They were running for their lives here. "We're almost there… come on Melinda!" Melinda caught up to her friend, and Bianca grabbed her arm, saying, "Look, if anything happens to me, please tell you'll keep fighting." Her eyes plead.
Melinda sees the blood soaking her friend for the first time now. Melinda opened her mouth to speak, but Bianca cut her off. "You have to remember his name. Okay? Please… remember."
"What the hell happened?" Melinda whispered, shocked. "I didn't see you get hit! I would've tried harder to kill that… son of a bitch…"
"Are you fucking listening to me or what?" Bianca shouted. "Mel, remember his name. Sam Winchester, okay."
Melinda's hands fumbled around Bianca's side, trying to staunch the bleeding. She half answered, "Yeah. Winchester."
Bianca took off running again, which was surprising given how much blood she must have lost. "Mel! What the hell? You coming?" she shouted over her shoulder.
Melinda took off after her, trying to keep up and trying to figure out where they were running to. They'd left the car about three miles behind them. Her car, her beloved car. If those bastards do anything to it…
But there were more important things going on. She thought about Bianca's wound and how the hell was Bianca still running like that? Melinda knew she was strong, not just in will, but couldn't she slow down just a little?
When Bianca spoke next, she sounded breathless, "Just about half a mile up the road, okay?"
"Where are we going anyways? And what's up the road again… besides trees?" Melinda strained to get closer.
"This place called the Roadhouse." She was still moving forward. "We're meeting him up there."
"Wait!" Melinda made it to Bianca's side. "Who are… we meeting? And what's the… Roadhouse?" she panted, trying to keep her breath even.
"Sam!" Bianca said in an exasperated sigh. "The Roadhouse is a… bar." she was pressing a hand into her side, but kept moving.
They came to a clearing in the woods, and a light shown up ahead. Melinda was starting to outpace Bianca. Melinda realized she was getting to far ahead, and turned back to see Bianca drop to her knees, her hands clutching her side. Bianca was wavering on the brink of consciousness when Melinda made it back to her. She dropped to her side in the dirt, Melinda got down on her knees next to her.
"Oh my God…" She looked her friend over, looked at the blood seeping from between her fingers. "Bianca… look, we're here!" There was no response. Bianca was out cold. "Okay… okay, Ill go get some help. I'll be right back! Just hang on, please, just hold on."
Melinda took off towards the Roadhouse. She barged through the door, shouting, "Help! Please, we need some help! My friend is hurt, she needs help now!" Her eyes darted over the people sitting around the bar. "Anyone! Please, can you help!?"
Two men stood and ambled toward her. She smiled in thanks and bolted back out the door, the men hot on her heels.
The two guys were able to keep up with her, and the shorter of the two said, "Where's your friend at?" She could see his eyes darting around the dark woods. "And what the hell are you doing out here in the dark?"
She didn't feel like trying to explain everything to these to men, they probably wouldn't believe her anyway. "We need to get my friend and get out of here before what- whoever comes back." She hoped they didn't notice her slip up.
"Before who comes back?" He asked.
Of course, the only people nice enough to help had to be the type to ask tons of questions. She wanted to tell them, but decided not to. They'd think she was nuts and she didn't even know who they were.
She looked over at the taller man and back to the shorter man. "Look, we just need to get out of here!"
Taller and longer got to Bianca first, Melinda was a little disconcerted. She didn't know these guys, they may be good looking and nice, but that didn't count for much when you came from where she came from.
The taller mans hair flopped into his eyes as he bowed his head to look Bianca over. "She's still alive. Looks like she's bleeding pretty badly though."
"At least she's alive." Melinda whispered.
The shorter man, Melinda noted, had short, spiky hair. "Okay, well… let's get her back to the Roadhouse."
Shaggy nodded and scooped Bianca into his arms, and they started back for the bar. They made it back, and a dark haired woman offered them a bed in a back room. Once they got Bianca settled, Melinda turned to the two men.
"Oh my God! Thank you so, so much!" Then she finally thought to offer her name. "My name is Melinda."
He shot her a smile, "Melinda? Wow, that's a pretty name." His smile widened and she couldn't help but note how attractive it was. "I'm Dean. That's my little brother Sam." he nodded at Shaggy.
Melinda turned to him, her eyes going wide. "As in Winchester? Sam Winchester?"
The brothers shared a look, and Dean stepped between her and Sam just slightly. "Yeah. Why? You know him?"
"No." she said, looking around Dean, at his little brother. "Bianca does." Dean stepped back into her line of sight, obscuring Sam. She looked him right in the eyes - which she also noted, were very pretty - and said, "She told me that if anything happens tonight… to try and find him. That he could help."
Dean's eyes went wide. "What? That's Bianca?" he asked in disbelief.
"Sam, did you even notice who this is?" Dean asked, and looked down at Bianca's unconscious body. Sam approached the edge of the bed, knelt down and moved hair out of her face.
"No! Bianca!" There was shock in Sam's voice. He looked up at Melinda with pain filled eyes. "What the hell happened?" he shouted at her, anger and pain clear in his voice, he wanted answers and he planned on getting them.
"Nothing, we we're just doing a job." Melinda said as she started walking around the room, going over everything in her head. "And I guess we missed something… then by the time we realized what was happening, the trap was already set! We got the hell outta there, and she said to find you." She looked at Sam, crossing her arms.
"Me? Why?" Sam asked with a funny look on his face.
She looked Sam dead in the eyes, and said, "Bianca said if anything happened, that I should find you, because you'd help me out, then I noticed her wound. But she kept running, and here we are."
Sam pulled up Bianca's shirt to reveal a huge burned gash across her ribs, where she had been hit by an energy ball. He let out a quite curse, and started to clean and dress Bianca's wound. Melinda decided watching Sam work wasn't something she was inclined to do, and started to leave. Dean followed her.
They walked over to the bar and sat down. She looked over at Dean and he gave her the most beautiful smile she has ever seen. It made her feel like everything was going to be okay. She just hoped so.
"Hey, you okay?" Dean asked. He looked into Melinda's eyes and only then does she notice he was truly concerned.
She let out a deep sigh, "Yeah, but I could do with a drink or two."
Dean motioned to a short blonde, he exchanged a few words with her before the blonde walked away, shooting Melinda a look. The blonde went behind the bar, and in short order produced two beers. Before Melinda could say another word, Dean handed her one of the cold beers. The blonde wandered away after that.
With a small smile on her face, Melinda said, 'Thanks. I needed one."
"Kind of figured you would, after what you've probably been through." He commented.
~*~*~*~
Bianca was starting to come around. She opened her eyes, blinking a few times, trying to get them to focus. All she could see was the most sweet and innocent smile staring down on her.
"Haven't we been here before?" she asked, smiling up at the man she'd been hoping to see.
"Yeah… about six months ago." Sam said, trying not to laugh. "How do you feel?"
"Better now… that you're here." She blushed through the pain in her side.
Sam smiled. "Really? How about now?" he said as he leaned in and delicately kissed Bianca.
He broke away. "Oh… just a little." Bianca winked.
Sam just laughed at her. "Oh, well I can fix that." He moved back in again, and gave her another kiss on the lips.
Sam pulled back from the kiss once more, and looked straight into her eyes. "You sure you're going to be alright?"
Bianca placed her hand on Sam's cheek. "Sam, don't worry so much about me, I'll heal. I'm going to be fine in a few hours."
With a shake of his head, Sam got up, off the bed while placing little kisses on her lips.
Bianca looked up at Sam, wondering why he was leaving her, she asked, "Where you going?"
Like it was the most obvious thing in the world, Sam replied, "To go tell Melinda and Dean the good news." he smiled.
He was almost to the door when Bianca stopped him. "Hey…"
Sam looked back at her. "Yeah?"
"I love you."
"I love you, too." He walked back to her and kissed her. Then he made his way right back to and out the door.
~*~*~*~
Melinda watched Sam walk across the bar to where she and Dean were sitting.
"Everything okay?" His older brother asked.
Sam sighed. "Yeah… she just started to come around; she'll be healed in a few hours."
Dean raised his eyebrows and gave him an odd look. "Really. How? I mean, I know how… she's a fast healer what with the being a Phoenix, but with a wound like that wouldn't it take her days? At least?"
Melinda added, "Yeah, he's right." She looked at Sam after taking a drink of her beer. She placed her drink on the bar and leaned in so only the brothers could hear her. "But lately she's been getting stronger somehow. Like, her powers are getting even stronger then my brothers."
Sam took a deep sigh and shrugged. "I don't know how she's going to heal so quickly. She just told me she'll be healed soon, so just don't worry."
Melinda looked Sam over, decided he was being honest. "So… anyways, how do you guys know Bianca? I mean, she mentioned you guys once, but she didn't tell me you did the same things as we do… the whole hunting thing." Melinda said curiously.
Dean answered with, "Well… about six maybe…seven months ago. She ran into us, telling us this crazy story about how she could help us stop it from happening, and that she knew everything about us and what we do. She told us she was only here to help us, not hurt us and so on."
Sam adds in, "And that she's a 'good' witch. She told us a little about herself… well, it took her a while though. Then, knowing her past, she told us about her 'destiny'. That she needed to help the Charmed Ones in the big, bad fight against evil."
Melinda raised her eyebrows and her eyes went wide. "Wow! You guys must mean a lot to her for her to tell her whole life story. I mean, I knew she went through hell and back when she was about two years old. When I got older and was able to understand better she told me everything. And she never, ever told any of her best friends that we're witches, but to tell two guys she doesn't even know?"
Sam shrugged his shoulders. "Well, she did."
Dean changed the subject, leaning in closer to Melinda. "Well, while we're talking about life stories, what's yours?"
Melinda didn't really know what to say. "Oh, I don't know. Like, where to begin? Well, Dean, what do you want to know?" She gave him the cutest smile she could.
"Oh, I don't know, are you also…?" Dean trailed off.
Melinda smiled. "A witch? Yeah, from a long line of witches… but the funny thing is that my brothers, Wyatt and Chris are the only two boys ever born into our bloodline."
Dean chuckled in amusement. "Yeah, that is funny. To try to fill in women's shoes like that."
"Well, it's okay, because we're charmed…" she said in manner that made it seem like she meant nothing by it.
Dean had shock written all over his face. "What? You mean… your mom… oh my God! Is your mom one of the Charmed One's?"
Melinda laughed at him. "Yeah, I have charmed blood and powers. So, that means that every week there's a new demon that wants my head, but fails each time." She leaned in again, taking another swig of her drink. "It's like, when are they going to learn they can't win." She said, laughing and taking another drink.
"So… you only have demons trying… you know… to kill you?" Sam asked.
Melinda nodded. "Yeah, and it's so easy to kill those sons of bitches. A little spell goes a long way."
"Ha ha… that's great, so what? They go something poof or something?" Dean asked, waving his hands in the air, trying to make a joke.
"In a way." Melinda said. Wow, she thought to herself, Dean was really handsome and it would be nice to get with him for a night or two. She tried to get a read on Dean, she thought he was thinking the same, but Melinda was trying not to make it noticeable that she knew that he was in to her, too.
Just then, Bianca walked in. Melinda couldn't help but know what Bianca was thinking about. She could feel that Bianca was in love.
Melinda watched Bianca make her way over to the boys and herself. "Hey girl, how you feeling, better I hope? Your wound looked pretty bad." Melinda said.
"I think I'll be fine… I've got a great doctor." Bianca walked over to Sam and held on to him and looked at him, gave him a knowing smile, then he kissed her forehead. "Yeah, I'll be fine, now." She said.
Dean faced the two lovebirds. "That's great… soooo do you girls have a place to stay?" He looked at his watch. "It's kinda late… if you don't have anywhere to go, you … can come back with us." the way he said it was kind of like he wanted them to come with them.
"I don't know." Bianca said. She looked at Melinda and continued, "We should really get back to your car, Mel."
Melinda shook her head and rubbed at her temples. "Yeah, but we don't even know if 'they' are still there waiting for us to come back."
Sam shifted from one foot to the other. "Melinda is right, you have no idea if they are just waiting for you guys. You girls should come with us and in the morning we'll all go to check everything out, okay?"
"I really-" Bianca starts.
Sam stopped her, "Come on, it will be like old times."
Dean adds, "Yeah… old times, you and us on the road..." he says laughing.
"What do you say Mel? I'm okay with staying." Bianca looked at Melinda.
Melinda sighed, and gave in. "I guess, but if my car is messed up tomorrow, I swear I'll kill you!"
"Fair. So, boys you goanna lead the way to our hotel sweet?" Bianca laughed, because she knew damn well they were going to a motel.
"Wait… Bianca, come with me to the ladies room." Melinda said, taking Bianca's hand and leading her away.
~*~*~*~
Sam watched the girls walk to the restroom. "Wow, I wonder who she sounds like?"
"Who?" asked Dean, smiling. Sam let out a short huff of laughter, Dean knew exactly what Sam was saying.
Sam said, "Don't play dumb, dumb ass."
"Hey! Well who then?" Dean questioned.
He glared at his older brother. "She sounds like you Dean, about the whole car thing. I do remember you saying the same thing to me not too long ago." Sam reminded Dean.
Dean shrugged. "And? She loves her car… And it's true, if you fuck with my car, I'll kill you. Simple as that."
Sam waved his brother off. "Yeah whatever dude, but HEY the way you're looking at her, don't even!" he warned.
"What? Don't even what?" Dean pushed.
"Don't even try do your one night thing or whatever."
Dean looked surprised "What!? Dude I'm a professional. I can't believe you'd… I'm offended." Sam gave him a look. "Fine! Well whatever happens." Dean gave Sam a cheeky smile.
"Well, I hope you know she isn't like any-other girl."
Dean closed his he eyes. "Oh God… I hope so."
"Dean! You know what I mean!" Sam growled.
Dean let it slide. "Yeah whatever, but I don't think I need you telling me what to do."
~*~*~*~
In the restroom, Melinda and Bianca were cleaning dirk and grime and blood off their bodies. Melinda's jeans were torn, blood and mud on the t-shirt, but at least her favorite dark brown leather jacket was not all ruined, just in need of a nice wash. Bianca on the other hand, had jeans covered in mud from when she'd passed out and her long sleeve shirt was covered in blood and burned where she had been hit with the energy ball the demon threw at her trying to kill her.
"Damn it! These are my fucking favorite pair of jeans… RUINED!" Melinda said as she looked down at her jeans, pissed off and looked over to Bianca.
Sighing, Bianca told her, "You act like you can't go out and get another pair."
"Yeah, well it's not like I've got my inheritance, so I got to make do with what I got, and if the Elders want to pay for replacements, that's a different story." Melinda glared at the ceiling.
"Yeah, well if they were to pay us for going on hunts, that would be different too. I don't know, but we need to hurry up and get clean." Bianca moved over to the sink and
turned on the water to wash her face.
Melinda leaned over the other sink and washed her face with soap and water. While she was washing off some mud and dirt, below her left eye on the side of her cheek Melinda could feel a cut and it burned with the addition of soap on her skin.
Melinda grabbed a towel and held it against the cut to stop bleeding and threw it away when she was done.
They turned the water off and dried their faces with paper towels. Melinda took one good look at her hair and sighed, she grabbed it all together in her hands and put in to a ponytail.
Bianca did the same.
Bianca looked over at Melinda. "And I saw the way you were looking at Dean."
Melinda gasped, and smiled. "Well, I can't help it. He's a really good-looking guy, I mean, come on."
Bianca shrugged. "Nothing wrong with it, just know he's a lot older that you."
"What, like twenty-four?"
Bianca smirked. "Try twenty-seven. His birthday is January 24, 1979."
"Well, I always like my man older than me." Melinda stuck out her tongue out at Bianca, laughing. "I mean I'm twenty-two, it's no problem."
Bianca looked into the mirror, catching Melinda's eyes in the reflection. "Well this is the best we're going to get until we get a real shower. Let's go." She led the way from the restroom.
"I guess so." Melinda responded, and followed Bianca out the door.
~*~*~*~
In the bar room, at a table closed the main door; the boys had sat with the last of their drinks, waiting for the girls to return.
The girls nodded at the guys to show them that they were all done with what they were doing.
The brothers got up and waited for them to get closer. Dean downed the rest of his beer and then gave a tip to the bartender.
Sam held the exit open for them. Dean lead the way to his beloved '67 Impala.
The four hunters walked across the parking lot in the dead of night. Melinda was glad to have had some light from the moon and the light posts.
Parked right under the streetlight was what Melinda called a car! When she saw it, she stopped dead in her tracks to admirer its beauty: the midnight black, the sleek look. Melinda fell in love.
Melinda stared wide eyed. "Now that's what I call a car."
Dean smiled. "Thanks."
Melinda looked at him. "She's yours? Wow. I bet she sounds nice."
"Oh, she does. Purrs like a beauty."
Melinda smiled wide. "Oh, I can't wait to hear her."
Dean looked over at Sam and with a big cheeky smile and winked.
Dean fell into step next to Sam and whispered, "I can't wait to hear her purr too." It was obvious he was talking about Melinda, and Sam just shook his head.
The four of them piled into the Impala, Dean behind the wheel, Melinda riding shotgun, and Bianca and Sam in the back. Dean started the car and backed out of the parking space and left the lot.
The Impala made a left turn, driving down the road into the shadows, only it's headlights and the moon to guide their way.