Madelyn Jones slowly became aware of a sharp pain in her left arm and a throbbing sensation in her head, hearing the song of a blackbird not far away. She tried to open her eyes, before instantly shutting them again as she was blinded by bright sunlight…sunlight…she'd been in the dark for such a long time she'd lost count of the days in the end. The sunlight gave her hope though, she must be out.
Somewhere in the distance, she heard three male voices, all speaking at different levels over each other. She felt a wave of panic hit her as she realised she really didn't know where in the world she was now. Unable to make out what the men were saying she tried opening her eyes again, slower, more cautiously this time and eventually she was able to make out the features of a bedroom. It was a small room, all that was in there was the single bed she was on, a chest of drawers in the corner by the door and a set of cushions propped up on the window seat to her right.
Madelyn looked around in complete confusion.
'Well this is different.' She mumbled, her voice sounding strange and a lot deeper than usual with lack of use.
What day was it? How out of it had she been to not realise she'd been brought here? A hundred questions raced through her mind and she desperately tried not to remember the last events before she fell unconscious.
A door shut loudly below her, jolting her out of her thoughts and she slowly pushed herself up with her right arm into a sitting position. She could hear footsteps crunching on gravel, travelling away from the house. A few moments later a car door shut and the sound of the motor gradually faded into the distance.
Downstairs the other two voices continued to talk before she heard loud steps ascend the staircase. Madelyn felt her heart skip a beat, panic freezing her in place. Someone was coming for her. Her mind raced with options - feign sleep? She'd never been a good actress. Attack? Well that didn't exactly work out too well for her last time. Fight or flight…She decided she was not going to without a fight against whoever it was coming up the stairs. Spying a picture frame on the dresser she figured it might at least slow down the attacker enough for her to try and run.
Madelyn threw back the covers, adrenaline making her hands shake as the steps came closer. Swinging her legs to her right and facing the window, she pushed herself up, ready to dive across the room and grab her weapon - and fell flat on her face tangled in the covers, limbs all over the place. Damn! Maybe she could hide under the bed? Too late she thought as she heard the door handle click, and spun round wide eyed to face her kidnapper.
Sam Winchester stopped outside one of the old bedrooms in Bobby's house. As he reached for the handle, he heard a thud and an 'oof!' from the other side of the door. Frowning, he turned the handle and cautiously pushed the door open, edging towards the door frame to peer into the room.
He was met with the sight of a young woman about his age, on the floor tangled in sheets, eyes wide. She had deep circles under her eyes that stood out vividly against her pale skin, her hair a matted mess, sticking out at all angles.
He held his hands up in a passive gesture trying to calm her down. Poor girl looked like she was about to pass out from fear.
'Hey. Hi, you're awake.' Smooth Winchester, way to state the obvious, he thought.
'Who are you, where am I?' She demanded, her voice shaking. She swayed slightly, attempting to keep her eyes focused on him.
'My name's Sam, you're at my friend Bobby's house.' He paused, not sure how much to tell her. He decided to test how she would take him trying to help her up, so took a small step into the room. She skidded back, hitting the wall behind her, drawing a sharp breath and clutching her arm as she did. Sam frowned to himself. 'We erm…well my brother Dean and Bobby rescued you from the lab. Well I was there but I was kind of out of it and-'
'The lab?' She cut him off sharply, as she stopped inspecting her arm and her eyes shot up to look at him, this time widened in surprise. Sam, caught slightly off guard at her abruptness carried on.
'Yeah, you were in one of the rooms there. You've lost a lot of blood so you'll be feeling weak. Dean had to stitch your arm up.' He indicated her injured arm and she went back to inspecting the bandage carefully. Sam looked at her, head tilted, frowning again. He'd offered to come up and check on her, to give Dean a break. He had to feel like he was doing something. The way Dean and Bobby had kept watching him, waiting for him to break down or something constantly had him on edge, he hadn't expected to find her awake. They'd thought with the amount of blood the girl had lost she'd be unconscious for another few days yet, but she was healing faster than they expected. He realised he'd been staring when he heard her almost whisper something.
'Sorry, what did you say?'
'I said, how long have I been out for?' Her voice was tired sounding and she looked completely weighed down by the emotional crap she must be going though, Sam knew how that felt.
'Almost a week, as far as I know. You've been in and out of it. Bobby said it was hard to make out anything you were saying though.' Sam slowly took another step forward, almost in line with the bed now, his tall frame casting a slight shadow over her small figure that seemed to deflate as she frowned to herself and sighed. Sam wanted to help her, wanted to do something to make her feel better.
'Here let me help you.' He offered, reaching out a hand to her. She instantly shrunk back against the wall like a cowering animal, her green eyes darkened and shot up to glare at him.
'No! I don't need your help, get away from me. You think I'm gonna trust you? I don't even know you, leave me alone.' Her outburst had Sam backing up the last three steps he'd taken, bumping lightly into the dresser.
'Hey look,' he reasoned with her, 'I just want to help.' He held up his hands in surrender again, leaning further back against the wooden furniture behind him as her voice got louder and more high pitched in panic.
'Then let me go, you have to let me go-'
'Sammy? You ok up there?' Dean's deep voice boomed up the stairs, cutting her off.
'Yeah Dean I'm fine…erm, the girl you rescued is awake?'
'Girl…' Madelyn muttered to herself as she heard the other man grumbling as he stomped up the stairs, rounding the corner of the bedroom a few moments later and her eyes locked with a tall man with light hair and dark green eyes. She looked from him to the much taller man next to him, Sam, then back again. Well, neither of them were wearing a suit or a trench coat so it was a good start she guessed. She saw the men exchange looks, the taller one shrugging and giving a faint smile, while the other one rolled his eyes.
'Let me go. You have no reason to keep me here.' Madelyn demanded, eyes flashing in anger. She wasn't going to trust anyone again any time soon, and just wanted to be away from these men, even if they had rescued her. How did they do that anyway, she'd thought she was never getting out of there alive.
Dean smiled to himself at her attempt to sound authoritative. Stepping further into the room, he took on a tone as if he was speaking to a child, coming down to her level and looking her in the eye.
'Now look sweetheart, you've lost a lot of blood, you're not going anywhere just yet.'
'But I-' She could feel her resolve melting as his deep green eyes bore into hers. She really must have lost a lot of blood, it was not like her to back down from a fight.
'You wanna try leaving, be my guest, we'll see how far you get. Sammy, I bet you she can't make it past me.' He glanced over his shoulder at the man behind him, giving him a smug smile, Sam just rolled his eyes.
'What happened?' She said weakly.
'Well get back into bed, rest up and we'll tell you a bedtime story about it,' he said in a tone that left no room for argument. Madelyn sighed, glaring up at him.
'You're really patronising you know that? What makes you think I won't just get out after you go?'
'Oh sweetheart I'd love to see you try.' He grinned at her.
'Well I will, you just stay back there and keep your distance. How do I know you two aren't more demons or something?' She'd meant to keep that to herself, not the sort of thing you want to go blurting at normal people. She cringed the moment she said it when Dean's eyes widened slightly and he turned back to Sam raising his eyebrows. Huffing she turned, grabbing the side of the mattress and tried to pull herself up with her good arm. She'd just about managed to kneel when her legs gave way and she felt herself falling to the ground. Strong hands grabbed her side and effortlessly lifted her back on to the bed. Muttering about getting the hell off her, Madelyn turned seeing Sam give her a small smile and reach for the covers to tuck her back in.
'What do you know about demons?' Dean questioned, his voice getting deeper in a serious tone, his grin from a moment ago gone. She looked up to where he was now standing leaning his weight against the wall next to the window.
'Enough.' She stated, raising an eyebrow in defiance. At seeing their serious faces she sighed, weakly pushing Sam's arms away.
'What are you doing I'm not staying here.' Sam gave her a look of Oh yes you are. Before moving to give her the covers again.
Too tired and weak to argue any more, Madelyn settled back against the pillow, her eyes growing heavier. She tried fighting it, but her eyes kept sliding in and out of focus.
'So, I'm Dean and that's my brother Sam. What's your name sweetheart?' Dean continued.
'Stop calling me that…it's Madelyn.' She tired to sound angry enough that he wouldn't say it again but just sounded tired.
'Madelyn, cute name. So Madelyn, why were you in that lab with a demon?' Sam stopped fussing over her covers and tugging her pillow in to shape to spin round glaring, shoulders tense.
'Dean! What happened to 'be subtle Sammy'.' Mimicking his brother's deeper tone of voice.
'Oh relax Sam,' Dean sighed at him, then reasoned 'that was before she accused us of being demons - which we're not by the way.' He ended slightly louder, looking back to her.
'And why should I believe you!' She snapped. Dean gave her a hard look before glancing away.
'Sammy, go get the Holy water.' Sam nodded and strode out of the room.
'So what happened to me?' She filled in the awkward silence, aware that she was pretty much whining for answers now.
'We were at the lab on…business, Sam collapsed, got him out, heard you, saved you.' Dean summed up a week's worth of events in no time, adding with another smug smile, 'you're welcome by the way.'
Sam returned with a bottle of Holy water, took a swig and handed it to Dean who did the same before holding the bottle out for her too.
'Your turn…sweetheart.' Madelyn snatched the bottle out of his hand, glaring in Dean's direction.
'How do I know that's even Holy water and not just normal water?' She asked as she slumped back in to the pillows again.
'Get some rest, we'll talk more when you wake up. Come on Sam.' Dean took the bottle back and turned to leave the room.
'What no bedtime story?' Madelyn commented sarcastically, as he left the room and Sam moved to pull a blanket up around her legs, giving her a small, kind smile.
'Get some sleep, we'll tell you everything tomorrow.'
'Thanks…hey Sam?' She questioned as he turned to leave, and gave her an expectant look.
'That demon and the angel are gone now right?' Sam sighed, a frown creasing his forehead.
'Just get some rest,' he smiled and left, closing the door gently behind him. On the other side, she heard him and Dean talking quietly as her eyes grew heavier, slowly closing again.
'You heard that right Sammy? She knows who Cass and Crowley are-what they are. Did they tell her why they took her?'
'I don't know Dean, she didn't say, but she's got that slice on her arm and she looks like she's maybe lost more blood than you and Bobby thought. I doubt she just happened to fall and slash an artery, that was done deliberately.'
'So they needed her blood, and a lot of it…well that's something to tell Bobby I guess. We'll quiz her more tomorrow.'
'What do we do now?'
'Well you can do what you want - stand watch or something, I'm going back to work on the Impala.'
The rest of the conversation was lost on Madelyn, as she slowly fell unconscious again. On the other side of the door, Dean strode back downstairs, and Sam took a seat on the floor, head resting back against the wooden panel as he listened, hoping she'd be ok, her waking up was a good sign at least.
They needed answers. Dean needed answers. Cass disappearing like he did, after everything he did, maybe she could fill in the blanks about how Cass had managed to get so out of control. The last memories of being in the lab came back to Sam again, he thinks he's God! Sam thought, shaking his head at the magnitude of the situation. He hoped to whatever deity was still out there that Cass wasn't so far gone he'd stand by and let Crowley drain some poor innocent girl's blood, but why go to all that trouble, what would they need it for? The questions spinning round in his head were slowly pushed aside by the distant sounds of screams and chains rattling. Sam squeezed his eyes shut and thudded his head lightly against the door trying to break the train of thought, and stop the sounds that he started plaguing him more often in the days since he'd woken up.
Oh well, he sighed, nothing could be done now, they'd just have to wait and see what she had to tell them tomorrow.