She was asleep in the back seat of the impala; her small slender frame allowing her enough room to curl up and still be comfortable. She seemed to be having no problems with the situation that had been laid before her. Granted she had always been good at molding herself to fit anything thrown at her. She had no troubles adjusting to a situation; she knew how to accept it and move on because in this life you couldn't exactly stand on solid ground, things were constantly changing and you had to be able to change with it. The boys were different. They weren't much for change, and they most certainly didn't adjust to it well when it came. It wasn't that they didn't like change, they didn't like what change insinuated. Change insinuated new and unknown things and neither of the brothers cared too much for the unknown. Part of their job was knowing about things that went bump in the night so when they discovered something they didn't or don't know much about it always put them on edge, and the sleeping girl in the backseat was no different.
If you had told Dean a week ago, or even a day ago, that Bobby Singer spawned himself a child, he would have laughed in your face and told you that's the biggest bullshit he had ever heard, but now he couldn't believe he didn't catch it sooner. There were signs, signs he didn't see until now. The times his father argued against the two boys staying at Bobby's led him to believe those were the times Bobby had the little girl. The times when Bobby's phone would ring and he'd move to the other room to talk led him to believe those were the times she would call for her father's assistance. Even now watching her in the rearview mirror, he didn't understand why he didn't piece the dots together sooner. She held a lot of her father's features. She had his nose, his ears, hell she even had his eyes. She was no spitting image, but she defiantly favored her father. She was, as much as Dean felt wrong thinking it, stunning. Bobby Singer was no head turner, but his daughter, his daughter could cause necks to break.
Sam, on the other hand, still couldn't piece together how Bobby Singer could have a child. Firstly, she couldn't have been any older than Dean, she could barely be older than him, and Bobby's wife had died before Dean and he were even born. Secondly, Bobby was a man, but Bobby was a cautious man, and there was no way he would accidentally get a random woman pregnant. Thirdly, no timeline fit together correctly. According to the age Sam assumed her to have, Bobby was avidly hunting around that time, so he couldn't have held a long relationship with someone, or a strong enough relationship to agree to have a child. The only logical answer was that Bobby accidental got a woman pregnant, but even Sam knew Bobby wouldn't let that happen, let alone let himself get strapped with said child. Sam knew there had to be a bigger picture, more of an answer than the current facts were providing him. He also knew that there was no way that wasn't Bobby Singer's child, either. She looked too much like him, but hell did she act like him. She had the stubborn, I'm always right look about her, and she sure as hell knew how to push buttons. She acted too much like the old man to not be the old man's kid. Within minutes she had managed to piss off Dean, and impress him all in one go, and the only person besides himself who was able to do that was Bobby. Sam could also tell she had her father's mannerisms; there was the narrowing of the eyes, the unimpressed facial expressions, and most importantly the cursing under the breath accompanied by cold hard stares.
They had been in the car for hours, most of which Katherine was sleeping comfortably in the backseat. Neither boy understood how she could be calm enough to sleep, but there she was curled up in the back snoring softly. When she did wake up though, all she did was piss Dean off. She was quite intelligent. She was also blunt, rude, irritating and sarcastic. She wasn't necessarily trying to piss off the older brother, it just happened, that didn't mean, though, that she stopped once she realized what she was doing.
"Will you just shut your yap for 5 minutes, we are almost there," Dean sneered staring at her in the rear view mirror. She smirked and let a small smile come over her lips. She liked this. Call it a twisted sense of sadism but she really enjoyed watching Dean squirm, especially knowing she was the one making hunter extraordinaire Dean Winchester flip his shit.
"I know where we are dipshit, I grew up here, remember?"
"I am so glad I didn't know you, in fact I wish I still didn't know you," Dean grumbled. Katherine smiled, and chuckled lightly.
"Are you still pissy that I shot you? Would it help if I apologized?"
"Maybe 9 hours ago it would have helped, but now you just won't stop pissing me off."
"I get bored on long car rides," she said simply. Sam tried and failed to stifle his chuckle. Dean shot him a glare and tightened his grip on the steering wheel. No one had ever spoken to Dean this way, ever. He wasn't used to it, and honestly the sooner that smart mouthed pain in the ass got out of his Impala the better.
And finally, she did get out of the Impala. For Dean those last five minutes could have gone as slowly as the last five years, but once those five years passed here they were, and he could finally get away from her for 5 minutes. She smirked at him as she walked towards the door to Bobby's. He hated how natural she looked here. This was his safe place, the one place he could come and relax, if even for a few days. This was the only place he could even remotely call home, but here she was walking like the owned the place and shattering how he viewed this place.
"I'm home." Sam walked through behind Katherine and Dean followed slowly behind. Katherine opened the fridge and pulled out a few beers. She tossed one to Sam and handed one to Dean. Bobby rolled into the kitchen and went straight for Katherine. He reached for Katherine's hand and hugged her as she leaned down to him.
"I'm fine. These idjits ruined my hunt though," she said pulling away from her father and moved to sit at the kitchen table.
"That's not what I heard," Bobby said. "I talked to Dickerson."
"Well Dickerson was a dick."
"Katherine, what the hell were you thinking?" Dean smirked, a move that did not go unnoticed by Katherine. She narrowed her eyes at him and then looked to her father.
"I didn't want the Winchesters to kill the people," Katherine said and Bobby sighed. He knew her quest to save everyone. He didn't quite understand it though. He knew that it was impossible to save everyone, and if he had to kill a few meat suits to kill the demons he was alright, but his daughter could never deal with it.
"We were doing our job," Sam said speaking up. He had hardly spoken three words to Katherine. She didn't mind though, she could tell that he was trying to process, he seemed like the smarter of the two.
"And I was trying to do mine." Bobby grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly. She took a deep breath and stood slowly. She glanced at Sam and Dean before turning to her father.
"I'll leave you to your favorite boys," she said. Dean couldn't help but notice the way she said those words, she sounded bitter, and he couldn't begin to imagine why. "I'm going to go see Mom. Cook real food tonight, alright? No more frozen meals."
After she walked out the door both Sam and Dean turned to face Bobby, their faces expectant. Bobby ran a hand over his face and adjusted his hat. He gestured towards the kitchen table and waited for the two men to sit.
"She's the best thing that ever happened to me, beside you two boys," Bobby said. Bobby moved to the refrigerator and pulled out a beer for himself. "She's a year older than Sam, she was an accident. She's the product of a brief relationship I had with a former high school flame. When she was growing up we shared custody. A month here and then a month there, up until she was 18."
"How'd she get into hunting?" Sam asked. Bobby chuckled lightly before rolling over to sit with the boys.
"I've been teaching her self-defense and how to shoot a gun since she was in elementary school. She got into hunting when she turned 14. She found some of my books and started getting curious, and I couldn't lie to her. Once she knew the truth she was determined to help. She would help me when she was here with the behind the scenes shit and then when she turned 18 I started taking her on hunts. Even sent her with your father sometimes. She's a damn good hunter."
"Her mother?"
"Thinks she lives in Chicago and works as a police officer. Her mother doesn't know anything about this life, and Kat doesn't want her to know, she thinks it keeps her safe. When Kat is in town, which is hardly ever, she goes from one place to another, she makes sure to visit her mother."
"Why didn't you ever tell us?" Dean asked. He couldn't explain what he was feeling. He felt lied to and in a way he was lied to. In some ways he felt betrayed, if he didn't know this part of Bobby's life what else didn't he know. He was hurt that she had worked with their father, but mostly he was pissed. He was pissed Bobby hid this from them, he was pissed that his father had worked with the girl, but mostly he was pissed that she even existed, and he couldn't even explain why.
"I always thought she would change her mind, choose a different life. I kept her away from other hunters, especially you two. You two grew up with this shit, it's what you live for, she chose to do this, she has other people, she has another life outside of hunting, and I always thought if she met you two she wouldn't ever stop hunting. I told her about you though, sometimes I thought she'd seek you out and try to hunt with you two and that was my biggest fear, because once someone gets involved with you boys, they either die, or get stuck with your cause."
"So you kept her away from us because we're a bad influence?" Sam asked the hurt somewhat evident on his face. He loved Bobby and saw him as a father, but to hear that he kept his actual child away from them because he viewed them as toxic hurt.
"I kept her away from you two because if she met you two she would have been sucked in. I know that girl, she wouldn't have been able to walk away. She may seem tough and harsh on the outside but once a bond is formed with that girl, she has a hard time letting go. I wanted her to still have an escape clause."
"What did you tell her about us?"
"That you two were damn good hunters, probably the best in the business. I told her you two worked alone, and that she was better off staying away from you two, because those who surround the Winchesters don't end with a particularly good fate."
"He's not wrong Sammy, we can't hate him for trying to keep his daughter safe," Dean said his tone harsh. He was offended too, but in some ways he understood. He understood that Bobby would do anything to keep this girl safe, even if it meant keeping her away from them.
"Who's her mother?"
"A woman named Jody Mills, she's the town's sheriff."
A/N: And there you have it! The second chapter. I am so excited about this story and hope that you all are enjoying it as well. Please tell me what you think! So you got a little bit of background on Katherine, next chapter you will see her reaction to the Winchesters and what she actually thinks of them, and then we're going to jump into hunting. To give a little background we are about to pick up in season 5 episode 5 "Fallen Idols". Thanks for much for reading!
