Over the next few months, I, Sam, and Dean quickly get back in the routine of working together. We go on hunts, fight Crowley, and rescue Kevin…a couple times nothing that we haven't done before. As odd as I sounds, I settle into it, start to enjoy life again. Dean and I become close again, basically picking up where we left off before he got sucked into purgatory. Sam and I also eventually make-up, our easy brother-sister type relationship rekindling. I even got to see Charlie, who I got along with easily, again. Life was, almost, like it was before Dean went to Purgatory.
It wasn't Dean leaving that changed me…changed my whole world. It was what happened while he was gone…the reason I had sought out Sam's help. Once I had it resolved, I thought I was good. Like I said, life was returning to normal. Until the man fell through our hotel room door…
~xxxxx~
I have to admit…sitting in the back of the Impala next to Sam and Dean's grandfather was strange. But, not as strange as the fact that he was probably as young as me. Oh, and the fact that him and a red-haired demon had busted through our closet door earlier that day.
After we had finished eating and making our way through the awkward introductions, we all piled in the car and headed down the road. We end up driving for almost four hours to Normal, Illinois, per Henry Winchester's orders. In the heart of downtown, we pull over in front of some stores, most boarded up. Out of the car, we all walk down the sidewalk mainly following Henry. Finally, he stops in front of a store and darts down an alley, looking up at the header above a doorway in confusion.
"What's going on here?" he says. I glance over his shoulder to see him looking at a strange symbol carved into the door. "No." he says in a low voice.
"All right, well, this was enlightening." Dean says, clapping his hands together. "Let's hit the road, huh?"
"Dean," I say, hitting him on the stomach. He stares at me, giving me an incredulous look. "Give him a minute."
"We just spent four hours driving, okay?" he says. "All he did was stare out the window and request Pat Boone on the radio. He had his time."
I start to argue with him, but Henry cuts me off. "It's just a facade, a way to rook our enemies into believing we are housed elsewhere."
"Okay, enough with the decoder talk." Dean says. "How about you tell us what this whole 'Men of Letters' business is, or you're on your own."
"It's none of your concern." Henry says, turning to look at us.
"Why, because we're hunters?" Dean says. "What do you have against us?"
"Aside from the unthinking, unwashed, shoot-first-and-don't-bother-to-ask-questions-later part," Henry says. "Not much, really."
"You know what? Wait a second." Sam says. "We're also John's children."
"You're more than that, actually." Henry says, letting out a sigh. "My father and his father before him were both Men of Letters, as John and you two should have been. We're preceptors, beholders, chroniclers of all that which man does not understand. We share our findings with a few trusted hunters – the very elite. They do the rest."
"So you're like Yodas to our Jedis." Dean says with a nod. Henry stares at Dean, not understanding the reference. "Never mind. You'll get there."
"Okay, but if you guys were such a big deal, then why haven't we – or anyone we know – ever heard of you?" I ask.
Henry looks at us for a moment before pursing his lips. "Abaddon." He turns and opens the door to the shop and walks inside. The three of us follow him, walking through the halls of the comic store.
"Henry. Why?" Sam asks. "Why'd she do it?"
Henry stops and reaches into his pocket, pulling out a small box. The box was a golden color, symbols carved all over it along with the same symbol that was on the door. "I think for this."
"Okay, what's that?" I ask.
"I wish I knew." Henry says, putting the box back in his jacket pocket. "Abaddon attacked us the night of my final initiation. All secrets were to be revealed then."
"Let me get this straight." Dean says. "You traveled through time to protect something that does you don't know what from a demon that you know nothing about?" Henry turns his head to look at Dean giving him a blank look before continuing down the hallway. "Good." Dean throws his hands into the air before following his grandfather.
I move to follow also, but stop when my head starts spinning. "Woah," I say, grabbing onto the wall for support.
"Lor," Sam says, placing a hand under my elbow and keeping me upright. "You okay?"
I turn my head to look behind me. I hadn't realized he was right behind me. "Yeah," I say shaking him off. The spinning in my head had gone as quickly as it came. "I'm good." I tell him. "Um, I think I'm just gonna head out to the car. I've, um…I'm starting to get a headache."
"You sure?" Sam asks. I nod my head before stepping around him and walking back out of the store.
I hadn't told Sam that I also felt like I was in an oven. Outside, the cool air feels amazing on my face. As soon as I feel that relief though, a coughing spell hits me. I double over, continuously coughing. Once I feel like I had coughed up both of my lungs, I stand up straight. A small smattering of red on my jacket sleeve catches my attention. I had a feeling I knew what was going on…but I was hoping I was wrong. Once by the car, I pull out my phone and call Kevin.
"Lorelei?" he answers.
"Kevin," I say. "Hey…um, I think it's happening."
"You think what- oh god," he says, understanding what I was talking about. "Have you told Sam and Dean yet?"
"No," I say, guiltily. He starts to yell at me, but I cut him off. "Hey, I'm sorry. I've been feeling really good these past few months so I though…I don't know, it went away or something."
"Lorelei," Kevin says. "This kind of thing does not just go away. You heard what they-"
"Yeah, Kevin, I know," I say. My hands start to shake as I sit on the hood of the car. "I just…I don't know…I'm scared. I'm scared of it."
He lets out a sigh. "You have to tell Sam and Dean," he says. "There may still be time to reverse it."
"We're in the middle of a case right now…a pretty hairy one," I say. "I'll tell them, everything, after we got this taken care of…okay?" Kevin reluctantly agrees to my decision and tells me by before hanging up the phone.
~xxxxx~
As we walk through the cemetery later that night, I could feel Dean's eyes on me. Back at the comic store, Sam had told him what happened to me. I felt better now though, albeit a little shakey. "Dean, stop," I mutter under my breath. I hear him let out a grunt, challenging my order. "I'm fine. I said I'm fine, so I'm fine, okay?" He doesn't say anything, just picks up his pace, walking to the front of the group.
Finally, we reach a group of headstones and stop in front of them, each of us shining a light on them. "These were my friends," Henry says. "My mentors, our last defense against the Abaddons of the world."
"Here's your buddy Albert Magnus." Dean says, shining a light on the middle stone.
"Albertus Magnus. He was hardly a buddy." Henry says with a half chuckle. "He was the greatest alchemist of the middle ages."
"Okay, so why is he buried here?" I ask.
"He's not." Henry explains. "His was the alias we'd use when going incognito. I believe someone planted his name in that article... so that if a Man of Letters came looking for answers, he'd know something was amiss."
"So someone wanted you to come to this grave." Sam says.
"The question is why." Henry says.
We all step closer to the headstones, Dean's flashlight beam training on the hexagram-type symbol we'd been seeing all day with Henry. "What is this?" Dean asks.
"Our crest. The Aquarian Star, representing great magic and power." Henry say. "They say it stood at the gates of Atlantis itself."
"Hmm." Sam nods his head, moving his beam of light down the row of headstones, stopping on the last one. "It's on all the tombstones except for this one – uh, Larry Ganem."
Henry crouches down in front of the tombstone and looks at the cross-like symbol. "The Haitian symbol for speaking to the dead. This is the message." Henry says. He turns around and looks at Sam and Dean. "You boys ever exhume a body?"
~xxxxx~
My wide-eyes, trained on the ceiling, finally move away from it and downwards to the sleeping figure next to me. After talking with Henry, for what seemed like hours, Dean and Sam finally decided to get some shut-eye. I agreed with them, but I was too scared to sleep. Pushing Dean's arm off my waist, I sit up to see Henry still sitting at the little dining room table our hotel room provided. I crawl off the bed and walk over towards him. "Not tired?" I say, pulling at chair out and sitting down.
He shakes his head, still looking at John Winchester's journal. "I just keep looking through this…" he says, flipping a page. "Thinking of all my son went through, because I wasn't there."
The corners of my mouth turn down a little. "I never met John," I say. "But I think you would've been proud of him."
Henry nods his head, finally looking up at me. "Are you feeling better?"
Back at the cemetery, I had almost passed out again…right into the open grave on top of everything. I shrug my shoulders. "Yeah, kind of," I say. "I guess I've just been running myself too hard lately."
He nods his head once and then shakes it again. "I'm sorry," he says. "I just never would've imagined there'd be female hunters."
I let out a chuckle. "Yeah," I say. "Four years ago, I didn't even know all this stuff existed."
"Do you mind me asking…how-"
I shake my head. "I don't mind," I say. "It was a 'wrong-place, wrong-time,' sort of thing. I used to be a school teacher, kindergarten actually, and during my summers off I worked as a waitress. One night I was closing up, it was just me and the bus boy still there, kid was only seventeen if that. He attacked me and was going to use me as part of some ritual. Before he could though, Dean and Sam came busting in and killed him. He was a witch or something like it. Anyways, after that, I caught the bug, wanted to know everything I could about the supernatural. Started out on my own, then crossed paths with Sam and Dean again." I let out a quiet chuckle. "I thought Dean was going to kill me when he found out I was hunting on my own."
"They asked you to join them then?" he says.
"Yeah," I say. "It was only just going to be for a week…so they could show me some pointers on how not to get myself killed mainly. Then…I just never left."
"They grew to care about you," he says, nodding his head. "Especially Dean."
A small smile curves up the corners of my mouth. "Don't let him hear you say that though," I say. "As weird as it is, and as untrue as it is…he'll vehemently deny anything is going on between us. I have a feeling he feels it'll make me a target or something."
Henry nods his head. "That's the thing about us Winchesters…"
"When you love someone, you'll do anything to save them," I say, also nodding my head. "Yes, I've been witness to that quite a few times." We sit in silence, me gazing at Henry, Henry gazing at John's journal. I let out a sigh, recapturing his attention. "You're thinking about going back to John…aren't you?"
"He's my son," he says, turning his eyes back towards the journal for a brief second. "In your weakened state…I'd rather not stop you from trying to stop me."
Despite the subject, I let out a quiet chuckle. "Well, I'd rather you not go, because you know as well as I do that if you go back…the man I love could quiet possibly disappear from existence." Henry nods his head, giving me a soft stare. "But, like I said, I learned long ago not to try and stop a Winchester from saving someone they love." I stand up from the table, Henry standing up with me. "The boys aren't big sleepers, so they'll probably only sleep for an hour or two more."
Henry nods his head before extending his hand. I also reach out, letting his warm hand envelope my cold one. "It was lovely meeting you Lorelei," he says.
I give him a smile. "You too, Henry."
~xxxxx~
I wipe away an errant tear from my cheek as Sam hammers the cross into the ground, marking Henry's grave. "I get it now." Sam says, coming to stand in front of me and Dean.
"Hmm?" Dean says, still staring at the marker.
"What Cupid said about heaven busting ass to get Mom and Dad together." Sam says.
I nod my head. "The Winchesters and the Campbells – the brains and the brawn."
"Well, I'm glad you see it. All I see in our family tree is a whole lot of dead." Dean shakes his head as he reaches into a pocket and pulls out a photograph. "Hey, I, uh... found this in Henry's wallet."
I watch as Dean passes the photo of young John and Henry to Sam. "Dad looks happy." Sam says, handing the photo back to Dean. It hurt my heart to think this was such a foreign concept to them.
"Kind of makes you wish he knew the truth, huh?" Dean says. "I mean, all those years thinking his old man ditched when the poor son of a bitch really came here and saved our bacon. Freaking time-travel, man."
"You think it would have made a difference?" I ask.
"What?" Dean says, turning his head towards me.
"John," I say. "If he'd had his own father around."
"What, in how he raised us?" Dean says. "Lorelei, despite how we were raised, he did the best he could."
"I know that." I say, nodding my head. "I – I do. They all did."
Sam pulls the boxed key out of his pocket, turning the box over in his hand. "What are the chances that place is still standing?" Dean asks, talking about the Men of Letter's headquarters.
"A chance we've got to take, I guess." Sam says. As he puts the key back in his pocket, the three of us start to walk back towards the Impala. "I mean, we are legacies, right?"
"Um, you two are," I say, earning a small laugh from each of the boys. "What about me? This place going to stop me-" Before I can finish, a cough spell hits me. I only walk a couple more steps, but then stop when I realize the coughing wasn't easing any.
"Lor, you okay?" I vaguely hear Dean above me. I double over, still coughing. After a few seconds the coughing quickly turns into hacking dry heaves, huge blood clots spewing from my mouth and onto the ground. "What the hell?"
"Is this curse?"
"A demon?"
"Check her for a hex bag!" I push whoever it was that was checking me for a hex bag away from me.
"Not. A. Hex. Bag." I say, in between coughs. I reach out, grabbing onto someone's hand for support. I felt like I was dying. I think I was. "Get. Me. To. A. Hospital." I choke out. "Call. Kevin."
The last thing I remember is the familiar feeling of Dean's arms curled under my shoulders and knees, running me to the car and Sam shouting on the phone at Kevin…
~xxxxx~
I look to my left, seeing my brother pacing the hallway of the hospital. Hospitals had never really made either of us antsy. But today, we were both on edge. Neither one of us had a clue why Lorelei had collapsed in the graveyard. We couldn't get ahold of Kevin, who apparently knew what was going on with her, so we were left in the dark…waiting on a doctor.
"Maybe we sould call Cas?" I suggest. Dean nods his head before sending up a quick prayer.
A minute later, Castiel appears, looking at us both confused. "Why are you two here?" he asks.
I wait to see if Dean was going to say anything, but he remains silent, staring off into space as he paces. I quickly explain to Cas what had happened in the graveyard, and the day before at the comic shop. "She told me," Dean says, finally speaking up. "Right after I got back from purgatory, that she had a health scare while I was gone. She wouldn't tell me what it was. Did you know anything about it?"
"No," Castiel says, shaking his head. "I thought something might had been off about her…last time we met. But, I didn't inquire further."
I could tell Dean was beyond pissed off. So pissed…he was speechless. The three of us continued to wait in the hallway for another hour, until finally, a nurse came and told us the doctor was ready to talk to us. We follow her to a small room with a few chairs and one of those tall fake plants. A few minutes later an older man in a long, white coat enters the already cramped-feeling room. "Your Lorelei Hasslehoff's family?" he says, looking at all of us.
"I'm her husband," Dean says. "This is my brother," he says, pointing at me. "And he's her brother," he says, gesturing towards Cas. "Now tell us what the hell is going on with her."
"Well, her counts are all elevated, mets have spread every-"
"Wait, wait, wait," I say, stopping the doctor. "What are you talking about?"
The doctor gives us a confused look. "Don't you…do you not know?" we continue to stare at him, not understanding what he was talking about. He settles his eyes directly on Dean, mustering as much compassion in his eyes as he can. "Mr. Hasslehoff…Lorelei has cancer."
