Author's Note: So I had a couple of readers suggest having Cali meet The Winchesters, and I decided, after many-a-insomnia filled night, that it really wasn't such a bad idea. After all, Cali's past is pretty much never spoke of, and well, it fit too, because the Winchesters had that whole AU, The End 'Verse were it was pretty much the Zombie Apocalypse. So, if you don't know who Cali is, that's fine! She's just someone new. If you do know who Cali is, now you know why she's this way.
Yes, I do spend my free time trying to connect things flawlessly like this XDD
So thank you to Kitkat83 and TripleLLL! You guys inspired this!
Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural…sadly… And since it's Cali, there will be swearing…and a shit tone of other things. There is Wyoming Bashing, but don't take it too seriously, because that's where I'm from, and if I can poke some fun, so can you!
Prelude to The End
"You know, I've cut you a lot of slack over the years." Dean Winchester snarled at his little brother while he opened his door. "But you go and do this to me."
"Dean-" Sam tried to answer, but couldn't keep the smirk off his face.
"Honestly Sam? Wyoming is shitty on a good day, but seriously? Powell? This doesn't even look like a town Sam! It's a small cluster of…things!" Dean exclaimed as he dropped his bag on the dusty parking lot and spread his arms around him. Sam would concede to that point. There was a lot more farmland than anything else, and they had yet to see a person…only a whole lot of cows. "No plain case is worth being cut off from humanity."
"Dude, chill. I don't understand your rabid hatred of Wyoming." Sam shook his head and looked around. "It's peaceful here, and besides, we're not vacationing…we're here on a case. Remember?"
"Yeah, a case that definitely doesn't have to do with the Apocalypse, or Lucifer, so why are we bothering?"
"Because, Cass said he couldn't find anything that needed our attention right now, and Bobby did. And in our chain of command-"
"Bobby beats out Angels of the Lord. I know, I know." Dean sighed and picked up his bag. "So, why are we here?"
"I already told you…like six times."
"I wasn't listening to you. I'm mad at you." Dean deadpanned, "So why are we here?"
"Two maids from this hotel have gone missing, and Bobby thinks that it's something down our alley." Sam explained as he grabbed his bag and started up towards the office. Dean rolled his eyes.
"Hotel my ass."
Dean glanced distastefully at the cowboy motif that engulfed the room, and dropped his weapon bag on the bed, and started cleaning his gun. "So, what exactly do you and Bobby think this thing is?"
"Not sure." Sam admitted as he booted up his laptop in the corner. "It could be a bunch of things. All we know is that the women started disappearing after the summer solstice, a month apart. And both their families released statements saying that right before they were killed, they became excessively paranoid. Convinced that something was coming for them. Their families just thought they were crazy."
"Which, they probably weren't."
"Right, probably not. But both women worked here, so here's a good a place to start as any."
"Okay, so how we going about this? Cops? FBI? CIA?"
Sam shook his head. "Those are big name for this small town, and people might not like that. I say, we just try being tourists, and see if we can get any information the old fashion way." Dean only stared at his brother, gun forgotten in his hands. Sam's eyebrows knitted together. "What?"
"Tourists?"
"Yeah."
"Seriously?"
"Yup."
"What exactly are we here to see, Sam? Tumbleweed?"
Sam resisted a smirk. "Well, there is a Japanese Internment Camp a few miles out of town."
"I hate you."
"Cody's a cool town, got a lot of historical stuff. And a bar. That serves alcoholic ICEES." Sam tried to sweeten the deal. Dean's eyes flashed over to his.
"ICEES huh?"
"In a concealed cup. Can't get busted for it."
"Alright then. Let's be tourists." Dean smirked and eyed the room again. It wasn't the dirtiest room they'd stayed in. (Far from it) but everything was coated in a thin layer of dust. The elder brother frowned. "Wait…no maids, so does that mean our room won't be getting cleaned? Because that's seriously the only upside to living out of motels. Someone else cleans our shit."
Sam shrugged. "Dunno. Would you want to work at a motel where coworkers drop like flies? It'd be almost stupid to work here, don't you think?"
"Probably, kind of asking to be kidnapped by some mysterious supernatural force." Dean agreed.
The door to their room swung open and Sam and Dean immediately grabbed a gun, and had it cocked before the figure in the doorway had even turned around. When the figure did turn around, and Sam and Dean were face to face with a short, black haired girl in a maid's uniform, iPod plugged into her ears, and brown eyes wide with shock, well they felt a little sheepish.
To their surprise, the girl only smiled and popped out an ear bud. "Awh Sorry! Manager didn't tell me anyone was renting out today, or I would've started with your room first." She eyed the guns in their hands. "You boys hunters?"
"What?" Dean asked, and shared a glance with Sam. "How'd you know?"
"Huntin' season started up not too long ago. Why else would you be here, and ya'll have your guns out already." She smirked at them. "Although, I don't think I know many guys who use Colts for their huntin' guns."
Well duh. Both brothers thought to themselves as their heart rate slowly returned to normal.
"We like to live on the edge." Dean answered, and he and Sam both set their weapons down.
"Oh yeah." She smiled. "Well, them Bighorns can be nasty." She turned back to her cart and pulled out some towels. "Well, Welcome to Powell. My name's California. But please, call me Cali." She pushed between the two of them, and walked into the bathroom. Dean glanced over at Sam and mouthed California?
"Sam."
"Dean."
"Well, pleasure to meet you Sam and Dean." Cali grinned. "And once again, I'm sorry I just busted in here. Boss man didn't tell me we had anyone in any of the rooms. I've been picking up a lot of slack lately, or I would've been here immediately."
"Oh yeah?" Sam asked. "Why's that?"
Cali came back out of the bathroom, and pushed her hair into a knot at the base of her neck, and secured it with a rubber band. "Usually there are two other girls, but those dumb asses went and ran off."
"Ran off?" Dean echoed. "I thought they were missing."
Cali snorted. "Yeah right. I worked with them. They were both dating a couple of the dealers in town. Might not look it, but we've got some drugs running around. Probably got themselves in the middle of a transaction and are hiding it out somewhere." She knelt down by her cart, and pulled out a bucket of cleaning supplies. "That's the only reason I can think of for those two not to show up to work would be because they're high out of their fucking minds somewhere." The maid immediately covered her mouth. "Sorry! I'm not supposed to drop that kind of language in front of guests. Please don't tell my boss! I've already got a couple strikes, and I need this job."
"Yeah, it's real glorious." Dean smirked and fell back on the bed. Cali rolled her eyes.
"I'm heading out to Atlanta in a month, and I've been working all summer for spending money." Cali informed him. "I'm not dependent on the stupid job, and believe me, cleaning up after a bunch of grimy hunters is the last thing I want to be doing."
Sam smiled. "Do we look grimy?"
She eyed them both. "No, but then again, you don't look like Hunters either." Her eyes lingered on Sam's shirt to make sure her point got across. He narrowed his eyes, and she smirked again. Girl was kind of a bitch. "Excuse me, I gotta clean your bathroom." She disappeared from the room, and Dean got up, and looked at Sam.
"Less monster, more druggie then?" He asked. Sam frowned.
"I dunno. Bobby's pretty sure that something's going on around here…"
"The maid says that they're druggies."
"The maid doesn't know about monsters Dean. I doubt she'd factor that little piece in." Sam responded before glancing towards the bathroom. "But, she has a pretty loose tongue."
"Yeah, but we ask too many questions, I've got no doubt it'll raise her suspicions. After all, we're not supposed to know too much about this. We're not from here."
"As Cops-"
"-She'll just wonder why we're in a motel instead of downtown." Dean responded. "Or whatever they have for downtown here." Sam growled.
"We still need to talk to the other's families."
"As tourists?"
"Fine." Sam rolled his eyes. "FBI probably. It'll be the least we could do without causing waves."
"Waves over a couple of druggie chicks." Dean sighed. "Maybe Bobby's just losing his touch."
"Just because you don't want to be here doesn't mean you can just try and kill this case every chance you get. In fact, if you helped me, we could get out of here faster, and we wouldn't have to worry about sticking around town. Get it?"
"Fine, fine. Quit your bitching. Seriously, you whine more than any other woman I've ever met."
"Yeah well, it's a gift." Sam muttered and went back to his computer.
"You should return it."
"God you're a dick."
"Bitch."
"Jerk."
Cali yawned, and walked back out of the bathroom, and she smiled at the two men. "Okay, you're bathroom's good. So, you guys wanna tell me when you'll be out of here so I can scrub everything down real good?"
Sam and Dean looked at each other. "Uh, can we get back to you on that?"
"Yeah," Dean agreed. "We're not really sure what our plan is here just yet. We're still…settling in."
"A'course. No problem for me, I'll be back tomorrow morning anyways."
Sam looked at the descending sun. "You work from sun up to sun down?"
"I work until all the rooms are clean, and kept in order. There was a massive baseball tournament in Cody last week, so I'm still pulling gum out from under the tables." She rolled her eyes. "Kids rock, don't they?"
"Oh yeah." Dean smirked. "Little Angels." Dean shot his brother a look, and Sam laughed. Yeah, kids were just like the Angels.
"Yeah well, I prefer the little Angels to the Bikers that'll be here in a week for that convention. You know how hard it is to get whiskey stains out of bedding?" She looked at the brothers, who only looked at each other, before back at her. "Right, I forgot. You're not women." Her eyes went skyward, and she sighed. "Damn, I'm doing the equality state proud."
Sam shook his head and eyed the strange little maid. She only grin her response when there was another knock on the frame of their door. A guy stood there this time, and he made eye contact with the Winchesters in a very dominate fashion. He was almost as tall as Dean, with brown hair that came to his eyelashes, and a pair of jeans with a white shirt. He held a hat in his hand as he leaned against the door.
The men kept up their show of dominance, until Cali turn around and smiled as wide as she possibly could. "Wade! Hey! What're you doin' here?"
"Came to pick you up." His resolve broke, and he smiled back at her. "Figured you'd want some company to the Kegger tonight."
"God yeah." Cali grinned, and then gestured to the Winchesters. "Oh hey, this is Sam and Dean. They're in town for the season starter."
Wade looked at the two men, and frowned. "Yeah, they really look like hunters."
"Oh and you're an expert on hunter appearances now?" She rolled her eyes. "Sam, Dean, this is my boyfriend, Wade."
They all nodded at each other, and Cali accepted the fact that she wasn't going to get any better than that. Oh well right, at least the Macho Staredown had ended. "Wade, my clothes still in your truck?"
"Yeah hon."
"Alright, then we are good to go." She smiled at the Winchester brothers again. "Nice to meet you guys, I'll see you around right?"
"Oh yeah." Dean nodded. "Enjoy your Kegger."
"Of course." Cali rolled her eyes. "And make plans, seriously, don't just sit here and twiddle your thumbs."
"What is there to do in this town?"
Cali and Wade grinned at each other. "You can go check out the Lamplighter."
"What they hell is that?"
"Drive through liquor store."
Dean's jaw dropped, and he stared at the two kids. "No way."
"Way."
"They have those?"
"They do here."
"Oh my God! Sam, get in the car!" Dean ordered as he pushed between the two kids and made his way down to his car. Sam sighed and glared at the young couple.
"I hate you."
Hey! So I hope you guys review :D And I know, I have a crap ton of other stuff I could be updating...but this Plot Bunny grabbed me by the throat, and wouldn't let me go, you know how that is right? :)