Written for comment_fic on livejournal

The new roadhouse hadn't been up long. It was late, though, and even hunters sleep sometimes.

Except Sam and Dean apparently, who were still drinking in the corner. Still taking verbal shots at each other. Still "not fighting."

But their bickering stopped as an unfamiliar woman came over and said "Hello boys," as her eyes turned black. It was then they noticed that the empty roadhouse was suddenly full, and not with friendly faces.

But before they could pull out their weapons, the possessed woman in front of them started jolting and sparking and then fell to the ground, apparently alive, as the demon hightailed it out of there. As the woman fell, another one came into their sight, one with strong features and an incredibly pissed off look.

Ellen. With a Taser. With the wire dipped in salt, she explained. Painful to the demon, safe for the host.

But their appreciation had to wait, since the other demons wouldn't. The three of them stood back to back and fought the things that came their way until they had to retreat to behind the bar.

"Got anything back here?" Sam asked Ellen, looking for her ammo stash.

"Damn right I do," she said as she lifted a wood panel and took out a modified grenade launcher, braced herself, and shot several times into the crowd of demons."

"Salt in a grenade," Dean said with a smile. "That's damn pretty."

"Shoot as long as you can, just keep them away from the bar for a minute," she said. Quickly she got out the gear to bless a pipe. "Built-in access to the main water main," she told them, before switching on the sprinkler system and making most of the demons go up in smoke.

One, though, stayed, leering at the three of them through the water and smoke, clearly too powerful to be dealt with with holy water. Sam got ready to try his power, but Ellen gave him a look that made him think better of it. She opened a box of throwing stars, each with a binding spell written on it, and told them they only had to get one in the demon to make it too much of a hassle to stick around. Luckily for them, when they launched their attack, the demon ended up with three weapons lodged in him at once, Dean's in the neck, Sam's in the heart, and Ellen's in the right side of the face.

As the three of them caught their breath and checked each other for injury, Dean started laughing.

"Holy shit, Ellen!"

"What?" she answered, wiping sweat off her forehead, "Got my roadhouse taken from me once. Think I'd let it happen again?"

She started walking toward the confused and mostly still-living hosts on her floor, as Sam said with a grin, "The hunters all know don't nobody mess with her, but they forgot to tell the demons that."

After they sent everyone either home or to the hospital, Ellen told Sam and Dean that they didn't have to drive all the way back to the motel, that they could stay with her that night. She smiled and said, "One in the twin bed in the storeroom, one up in my room. And honestly, boys, after a night like this, I don't even care which one is which."

As she headed toward the stairs to her room, she noticed Dean and Sam throwing rock-paper-scissors.

"What the hell, Dean? You ALWAYS pick scissors." Sam said, irritated at losing for the first time, and wondering at Dean's timing for his sudden change of strategy.

But Ellen gave a loud sigh and said, "Oh, who do you boys think you're fooling? Both of you, knock off your stupid games and get up here."