Hey everyone! Man, it's been a while since I've written anything! Ah well, such is life, but I'm back and I'm starting with a new fandom! This is my very first Supernatural fic so I'd love to hear any and all comments on it. Well, let's get the show on the road. Hope you all enjoy! :-)
One. Two. Three. Four. Five.
Five salt rounds were fired into the chest of a siren, two from that barrel of Sam's gun and three from Dean's. Haley Matone, a siren in disguise that had been wreaking havoc in Velmington, Illinois, and her latest puppet, Michael Mulaney, lay dead in the living room of the latter's home. With the kill taken care of and the rest the town safe, the last thing the Winchesters had to deal with was the girl in the next room who was clutching her own gun.
"Hey sweetheart, my name's Sam and this is my brother Dean. We're here to help you." Sam said sweetly as not to frighten the young woman further. "We just need to know exactly what you saw and how much you know."
She looked to be about nineteen with black-brown hair that was straight until it flipped out at the bottom. She was only a few inches shorter than Dean so she couldn't have been less than 5'7", or 5'8". Her eyes were only a few shades lighter than her hair, a deep dark chocolate brown that was warmed and softened by medium sized pale pink lips. She had a petite, yet sturdy build that matched the rest if her body. All in all, she was an attractive girl, but the Winchesters didn't have time to think about that. They had bigger worries at the moment.
Snapping out of her shocked stupor, she gave him a sour look. "First of all, don't "sweetheart" me. I'm twenty five, not six. Second of all, don't even bother with all of that patronizing bull."
Seeing how Sam was slightly taken back, she sighed and ran her hand down her face. "Look, I'm sorry, okay? It's kind of been a shitty night, but that doesn't give me the right to be a raging bitch, so I'm sorry."
Now it was Dean's turn to cut in. "What's with the salt rounds?" He said, referring to the ammunitions that were scattered on the floor. He knows that he only shot three and he only heard two other gun shots from his brother, so the four on the ground didn't belong to either of them.
"It's the only way to kill a siren. Salt rounds, then you burn the body." She said with a look that clearly said "duh".
"Yeah, we got that. What we want to know is how you know that." Dean replied.
Sighing again, she folded her arms across her chest and leaned against the wall. "You go burn the body, I'll make some coffee."
The girl strode out of the room, leaving Sam and Dean to stare at each other, trying to figure out what exactly in hell just happened.
An hour later the three found themselves sitting in the living room, the two brothers on the couch and the girl sitting across from them in an arm chair. Between them was a small coffee table with three mugs of, surprise, coffee.
"Okay" said the girl, leaning back in the chair, mug in hand. "What do ya wanna know?"
"Well first, how about your name?" asked Dean.
"Easy, Mulaney. Nicole Mulaney. Or Nic, or Nicky. Whichever you prefer." She replied, still maintaining the same even, careless, almost cocky tone.
"Alright Nicole," Sam said, trying out the name on his tongue for the first time. "So that's your ….. umm ….."
"Dad in there?" She finished for him. "Yeah."
"How is it exactly you know how to kill a siren? And how do you know what a siren is?" Dean questioned, getting straight to the point.
Nicole took a sip of her drink, put the mug down on the table, and leaned forward. "Well if I didn't know how to kill a simple siren, I would be one crappy hunter, wouldn't I?"
"Both my parents were hunters. I shot my first gun at five years old, made my first kill at ten, and I was reading about hunting. I even kept up on it throughout NYU."
Both Winchesters were silent.
"Now, if you're wondering why I'm not bawling over daddy dearest's corpse, I'll tell you. He told me not to. He knew hunting would get him killed one day. He knew it from the start. Told me that from the start too. He said to move on, so I'm going to honor his wishes and do just that. It's actually kind of ironic. Dad always thought he'd die killing a monster. Instead he kicks it dating one. He's been working this case all week too, wouldn't let me help though. "
Taking the odd situation in stride and pushing concerns aside, Sam finally asked the question he had been wanting to for a good twenty minutes. "So you actually like hunting?"
Nicole looked shocked and somewhat affronted at the question. "Yeah, you don't?"
The question caught Sam off guard and instead of providing an intelligent answer, he just responded with a chorus of "umm"s and "well"s, all while opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water.
Looking a little guilty, Nicole spoke again. "Sorry if I hit a sore spot. I know this life isn't for everyone. I like it though. Just think about it. There are billions of people on this planet and almost all of them live these boring, unhappy, unexciting lives. But us hunters? We get to kill the monsters that live under the beds of those boring people. I don't know, maybe it's just the thrill, but I can't imagine just living a normal, average life. Just not for me I guess."
"So you're just gonna ride it solo from now on?" Dean asked.
She smiled sarcastically back at him. "Nah, I was thinking about putting some adds up around town. Monster hunting partner wanted. No pay, and you may die. They'll come running. With a straight jacket that is."
Her smile grew genuine after she saw him grin back at her. "Yeah, I guess I'm flying solo now. I just need to finish things up around here. You know, make arrangements for dear old dad, pack up, sell the house and most if the stuff in it, bag the cash and hit the road with a rifle and some salt rounds."
Before he knew why he was saying, Sam cut in. "You could come with us." The younger hunter blurted out.
Dean's brow furrowed in confusion and Nicole's face was practically identical but the more Sam thought about it, the more sense it made.
"But you just met me literally three hours ago." She said. "Why would you want me to go with you guys?"
"Well," Sam began, "there's safety in numbers for starters. You don't really know how to go solo yet, so we could teach you. Plus, we almighty enjoy the company." In all honesty, Sam had no idea where any of this was coming from. Sure, logically it sort of, kind of made sense, but he was a hunter, dammit. First rule of hunting, don't trust just anyone. But for some reason, something in his gut was urging him to do so, telling him that this was a good idea.
Silence plagued the room for a solid three minutes before Dean being, well, Dean, broke it. "Sammy have you lost your mind? You want to bring some random chick along with us? Like picking up a stray animal off the road?"
Sam's eyes widened and he clears his throat, alerting his semi-insensitive brother to the fact that he may have just offended the girl sitting not ten feet away from him.
Taking the hint, the older Winchester looked over at said girl with something of a guilty look. "Sorry" he said.
She shrugged. "Hey, no problem. We're all hunters here, I get where your coming from."
Sam cleared his throat again to get his brother's attention. "Dean, can I talk to you privately?"
"What's going on Sammy?" Dean asked.
"I don't know." Sam admitted. "I just think we should take her along."
Dean shot his brother a confused look. "Why?"
"I don't know man, I mean, we could always use an extra pair of eyes, an extra gun, an extra researcher." Sam said.
"But we've got that covered. We always have." Dean argued.
"I know we have, but..." Sam sighed, trying to gather his thoughts.
"But what Sam?" Dean questioned.
"Look, just trust me on this one." Sam told his brother, choosing not to tell him about the nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Can you do that?"
Dean took a minute to think before responding. "You really think this is a good idea?"
"Yes" Sam answers immediately.
Dean sighs and nods his head at nothing in particular. "Alright."
The two brothers decided to head back to the living room and sat back down on the couch across from Nicole.
"It's all up to you now, Nicky. Do you want to come with us?" Sam asked her.
She hesitated for a moment before finally answering. "Sure. Why not?"
"So how long do you think it'll take to sell the house and stuff?" Dean asked.
"It shouldn't take long. I'll take tonight to pack my essentials, tomorrow morning I'll go through the shed slash arsenal, then the rest of the day I'll pawn the valuables for cash and bring the rest to the town junk sale. Whatever I can't sell there, I'll bring to the Goodwill to donate. I've got one of those 'Will buy houses for cash" guys. We've always had him in case we had to skip town fast. I'll take the cash to the bank and then we can be on our way. It shouldn't take more than four days max. Should be enough time for you guys to find a new hunt. How's that sound?"
"It sounds like you've done this before." Sam said.
She smirked at them. "Once or twice."
Four days later, Nicole stood outside her house, leaning against the newly hammered in "Sold" sign, a large black backpack on her back, a medium sized red duffle bag on her left shoulder, a gray laptop case on her other, and three large black boxes of riffles, handguns, salt rounds, silver bullets, wooden stakes, ancient Latin texts, and anything else a hunter may or may not ever need. She waited there for the black '67 Chevy Impala to pull up in her driveway so she could start her new life with the Winchesters.
When they finally did arrive, both brothers got out of the car and helped her load the black cases into the trunk.
"Everything set?" Sam asked her as she slid into the back seat, putting her duffle next to her.
"Yup, all good." She replied.
"Hope you like Metallica." Dean said, starting up the car.
"Love it." She answered, buckling her seat belt. "So, what's the new hunt?"
"Reports of a spirit attacking in the showers of a women's fitness center. We're going to go check it out." Sam told her without looking up from the notes that were in his lap.
"Sounds good. Well, after the sales, our grand total added to the bank is pretty good. The house sold for seventy grand and the rest brought in about ten all together, so about eighty big ones." Nicole said.
Dean nearly slammed on the brakes. "Eighty thousand dollars?" He asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, houses aren't cheap Dean." She says, smirking at him. "That reminds me, how do you guys make money while you hunt? No offense, but you guys don't seem like the "desk job by day, hunters by night" type. Are you guys strippers?"
"What?" Sam laughed. "No, we're not strippers."
"Oh, prostitutes then." She laughed right along. "I get you, there's more money in that anyway."
"We play poker. Or more like I poker. Sam is shit at poker." Dean said.
"How do you know about the money in stripping?" Sam asked playfully. "You have experience in the field? Hmmm? Have you felt the rain?"
"Bitch please, with these looks, it pours." She said with a completely straight face before the entire car burst out laughing.
"You were right Sammy, I like her." Dean said through his laughter.
Eventually the laughter died out and the day passed. They stopped for lunch at a dinner where Sam and Nicole had a completely serious, epic French fry battle and somehow, they managed to drag Dean into it. The battle only ended when Sam was mortally wounded by a fry to the chest and Dean waved his ketchup stained white napkin in surrender, mourning the loss of his dear brother and comrade. Only four hours after the official start of their journey together, Sam and Dean were sure that bringing Nicole was one of the best decisions they had made in a long while. Neither of them could remember the last time they had that kind of carefree fun, especially on the way to a hunt. They had left the diner sometime around noon and the day continued to change from what the Winchesters were used to. Rather than the silence in the car, the rest of the afternoon was spent talking, laughing, and playing the stupidest road trip games they could think of. Hours passed quickly and soon, the moon had traded places with the sun. Sam had dropped off to sleep nine highway exits prior and in the rearview mirror, Dean saw that Nicole would probably only last about two more before following suit. Enter Sandman by Metallica played softly through the speakers of the car as the three hunters drove down the road together, leaving Dean Winchester to wonder how in just four days, his family had grown so much.
Well, what'd you think? Love it? Hate it? Let me know! Also, like the genre says, this story will have romance in it. Nicole will have romance, but I won't say who with. Guess in the comments and as the story goes on, see if you are indeed correct. Well, that's all for now. See you all next update, but for now, this is RA88, signing off with a smile. :-)
