Chapter 2
Sam frowned when he turned the knob but the door refused to open.
He'd locked it? Why?
"Hey, Dean." He bellowed, tapping on the wooden structure.
The complete silence prompted him to give it another try, this time applying a little more force in his blows. The process became circular and, eventually, with the continual lack of a proper response, Sam was soon banging away an exasperated rhythm.
His hand halted in midair when the door abruptly swung open and a petite blonde stood in front of him.
"Oh... it's you." Sam piped up, surprised to find Reggie.
'How'd she get up here without anyone noticing?'
His nose wrinkled at the unmistakable scent that assaulted his sense of smell. He might not know how she got there, but it was pretty clear what they'd been up to.
Her hair was a mess and she looked up at him through half-lidded eyes, clutching a sheet in front of her, barely covering her breasts.
"I-Is my brother-Oh!" He choked midsentence, suddenly presented with the sight of her bare ass when she dismissively turned around.
His cheeks burned bright red, his eyes bouncing off every available surface. Somehow, despite his best effort, they always seemed to end up landing back on her rear-end, watching it sway voluptuously as she walked back into the room, dragging the bedcovers behind her, while he remained dumbstruck at the threshold.
His stunned brain ultimately identified the symbol tattooed on her left cheek. It was similar to the one both he and Dean boasted on their chests and served the same purpose.
Still a bit dazed, his brother seemed to materialize in front of him out of the blue. He was barefoot and wearing only a pair of boxers. His shaggy hair was sticking up humorously in a couple of places, matching to a T his amused expression at Sam's obvious discomfort.
"Hey-ya, Sammy."
He was in a good mood.
'Wonder why...'
Sam clumsily tried to focus on Dean and keep his stare from wandering to more interesting sights. Thankfully, Reggie put an end to his torment by lying back on the bed and covering herself with the sheet.
Able to look at Dean, he found him sporting a wicked grin which made Sam blush further.
"Did you catch the tattoo?" Dean waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Gives a whole new meaning to 'cover your ass', huh?"
Sam swallowed awkwardly, shook his mind back into reason and stated gravely:
"They're here."
The confused expression on the green-eyed Winchester encouraged Sam to elaborate:
"The hunters that agreed to join us. They're downstairs."
Dean sobered up instantly. Checking his watch, he noted it was six in the afternoon. No wonder his stomach had been growling.
He disappeared inside and reappeared ten seconds later. He'd put on his boots, which were yet to be tied, jeans and was still buttoning up his chequered shirt on his way down the staircase.
"Nice job on getting some rest, by the way." Sam couldn't help jabbing.
"A man's gotta prioritize." Dean jeered.
The sly smile, however, disappeared from his lips once he reached the bar.
Ellen was in her regular spot, behind the counter, talking to a burly, brown-haired man, probably in his late fifties. The way he was dressed made him look like a trucker, but the outline of a handgun bulging out his vest right above his low riding jeans, told a completely different story. He was a hunter, and by the way he was chatting with Ellen it was obvious she knew him.
Dean figured him to be Cal Hanson. His father, John Winchester, and Bobby had mentioned him on a few occasions; no notable stories, just another hunter; a pretty decent one from what he'd heard so far.
As for the rest of the bar patrons, there was a couple sitting at a table - a man and a woman, both about fortyish, both with a nondescript appearance. It was important for a hunter to go by unnoticed. These two had that rule down.
'The Logans.' Dean concluded,recalling the info Bobby had given him the previous day.
And speaking of the junkyard owner, he was standing by the jukebox. Joining him, were two men; probably the two new hunters Bobby had referred to earlier that day.
By the time the Winchesters reached the last step of the stairs all seven pairs of eyes had drifted to them.
Without a word everyone gathered around the bar; the Logans picking up their respective beers as they walked over.
Dean cleared his throat before he spoke:
"Hi. Dean Winchester, this is my brother, Sam."
"Kevin Logan, my wife Nancy."
The four exchanged restrained nods. There was an obvious tension in the room.
"Cal Hanson." Said the burly guy.
Dean had been right so far in his assumptions.
More nods.
"This here's is Frank Moore, from Pittsburgh." Bobby introduced the short, skinny man to his right.
Though his hair was covered by a baseball cap, the abundant and merging freckles over his cheekbones and thin nose and the ruddy three-day-old stub along his jaw gave away the fact that he was a redhead.
"How you doing?" Frank actually made an effort to be pleasant, going so far as to throw in a smile.
Sam was the only one of the two boys to offer one back, and still it was a tight and closed-mouth one.
Next, Bobby turned to the tall, dark skinned man on his left. He was absolutely... monstrous! Taller than Sammy and, if possible, bigger, he was quite intimidating. The scowl he bore didn't help.
"And this is Johnny Walker."
Dean did a double take and blurted, with a chuckle:
"Come again?"
He had to be joking! Right?
The solemn look on whiskey-boy's mug (Yep, Dean had already named him!), told him this was no joke.
But Dean couldn't help himself:
"Funny parents. Let me guess, you got a sister named Betty Ford?"
Apparently, the sense of humour hadn't trickled down the genetic pool, 'cause JW sure as hell wasn't laughing at the little quip.
Dean gulped dryly looking around the room for the slightest hint of a snicker.
Nothing; even friendly-Frank wasn't smiling anymore.
Dean could have sworn he heard crickets in the background.
"Tough crowd." He whispered over his shoulder at Sam.
"How about we get down to business?" Bobby thankfully intervened, slicing through the brutal silence.
"So what's the plan?" Kevin inquired, bringing the mouth of the beer bottle to his lips and guzzling down a generous amount of its content.
The group gathered around the table, Reggie having joined them a few minutes earlier. All eyes were on the small spot Dean singled out on the map.
"We've already got a small group working out of Sacramento." He explained.
"How small is small?" Cal wondered sceptically.
"Four guys, maybe five." Sam answered.
"That's pretty small." Nancy pointed out exchanging worried glances with her husband, who seemed to agree, much like everyone else in the room.
"Who's heading that batch?" Frank questioned.
"Dan Gunther." Bobby supplied.
This bit of information appeared to loosen up some of the tension. Dan was an old, experienced hunter, well known and respected in their community. Having him on their side was a good thing.
"What about the eastside?"
At Kevin's query Dean straightened up. He tried to sound unfazed when he responded:
"We're still working on that."
And the tension was back in full force.
"No one? I thought you said you had three fronts - here, one on the Westside and one on the East." Kevin voiced out everyone's concern.
"Well... that's the plan." Sam fought to keep the anxiety from his voice. "But no one's willing to join."
"Great!" Kevin puffed, flailing his arms in defeat as he backed away from the group. "This shit blows up in Maryland and you've got no one to work that area."
Sam's back went rigid.
Kevin was referring to the incident, three weeks before, in Ilchester, which had triggered this reunion in the first place.
By now, probably every single member of the underground hunter community knew about it. After all, the devil himself walking out of hell was pretty big news. But the details, particularly the extent of Dean and Sam's part in setting off that event was known only to themselves, Ellen and Bobby. And according to the eldest of the Winchesters, they were gonna keep it that way.
"Like I said, we're working on it." Dean half-growled, narrowing his eyes at the blond man.
Ten minutes into having made his acquaintance and he already didn't like this guy. It looked like he was more interested in pointing out the flaws in Dean's plan than actually providing solutions.
The two men remained fixed on one another, neither willing to back down. Sensing the escalating stress level, Ellen intruded on the conversation.
"Frank, Bobby said you're from Pittsburgh. You know anyone who'd be willing to join?"
"Ah..." The redhead scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Well, folks back home aren't really my number one fans, you know?"
All eyes fell on the skinny man, waiting for him to explain. It only served to unnerve him further and he dropped his gaze under the group scrutiny.
Reggie's left brow shot up.
This wasn't good. It was precisely the problem. When it came to hunting, you needed to trust the people you worked with completely. Your life depended on it. Though no one said it, it was plain all were thinking it. This would never work - hunters, who didn't know each other, coming together to work side by side? Not gonna happen.
"I know someone who can help us round up a few guys in Hudson, North Carolina."
At the cavernous tone, everyone turned to the tall, dark skinned man who'd remained completely silent up to this point. Colossal arms crossed over his chest, with massive triceps bulging through his T-shirt, Johnny Walker stood, unyielding and with an unreadable expression on his face.
"Who?" Kevin asked clearly unconvinced.
"Rufus Turner."
Bobby's head shot up at the familiar name:
"That hermit? He's never gonna join."
"Yeah!" Dean snorted. "No amount of lip-smacking Johnny Walker is gonna make that freak come out and play."
There was a resounding intake of breath and Dean found himself the target seven jaw dropped gawks.
The only one's not partaking of the collective gobsmacked look were Bobby, who was shaking his head and Johnny, who remained unaltered by the comment.
"What?" Dean frowned and turned to Sam, hoping he'd shed some light on the current situation.
"Dude, you got a death wish or something?" Sam hissed.
"Huh?" Dean looked around the room and then his eyes suddenly shot open once the double meaning of his own words hit home. "Oh, no-no-no. I-I didn't- I didn't mean-" He stammered ineptly. "Blue! The drink! The guy's got this creepy fixation with Johnny Walker Blue!"
He clumsily tried to clarify what he'd truly meant but only managed to bury himself further:
"I-I didn't mean- That-that wasn't an obscure gay reference or anything. Not-not that I'd have a problem if you were gay."
More gasps.
"I mean, I-I'm not saying you're gay. Just that if you were, it would be-" All that stuttering and confusing back paddling was making him dizzy and out of breath, so he decided it was in his best interest to put an end to his little rant.
He paused and scanned everyone's face - more crickets and baffled stares.
Slumping his shoulders, Dean finally mumbled uncomfortably:
"O-kay... I'm gonna shut up now."
Bobby hastily tried to divert the attention from the boy and turned to Johnny.
"I don't think you're gonna have much luck with Rufus. He's retired."
"I'm not saying he's gonna join. But I can get him to pull some strings, make some calls. I think we can get a pretty solid group."
Bobby eyed the large man suspiciously.
"Ok, say, by some miracle, we manage to get these three places operational." Kevin was intent on poking at the plan, aggravating Dean further. "What then? We just sit around waiting for something to happen?"
He stood up, walked over to the bar and helped himself to another bottle.
"For the last three weeks there's been nothing. Not a peep, not so much as a boo." He swung around and lazily slouched against the counter. "Are you even sure this actually happened?"
"What?" Sam asked surprised.
Was he questioning that Lucifer was out of his cage? Really?
"Maybe this whole thing was just a hoax." He concluded with a fresh sip of his beverage.
"What are you sayin'? This whole year was just a wild goose chase?" Dean snarled getting another shrug and a swig from Kevin.
The last response peeved even Bobby and he stepped up to the younger man.
"Olivia and Jed were good friends of mine. So were a lot of other hunters who died during the rise of the witnesses, so don't you come around denying that it happened. The seals were real and Lucifer's out." By the time he finished his sentence he was in Kevin's face, daring him to utter another discouraging word.
Nancy hurried over to her husband's aid. She rubbed his shoulder while trying to excuse Kevin's behaviour:
"He didn't mean anything by it. It's just... it's hard to believe that something this big would go down without any consequences. You gotta admit it's strange." She looked at Sam and Dean. "You two said it yourself, nothing came out of that church. Who's to say it happened? Maybe that wasn't the last seal after all. Maybe we still have a chance at stopping this."
"Oh, believe it, Pollyanna. It happened." Dean assured her.
Out of the blue Frank jerked up and all turned to him with questioning frowns. Hastily, he scrambled his cell phone out of the back pocket of his jeans.
"Set on vibrate." He explained, stepping away from the group to answer the call.
"Look, we need to prepare for whatever's coming." Sam resumed the discussion.
"I'm getting kinda tired of waiting." Kevin whined.
Man, he just wouldn't let up! What a dick!
Dean was about to reply when a ringing sound drew everyone's focus to the wall phone next to the cash register. Ellen excused herself and walked over to pick it up.
Soon after, a similar sound was heard, this time coming from the inside of Cal's vest.
Sam and Dean exchanged a look.
Frank closed the lid on the small device in his hand.
"Gus Hanson was just found in his apartment." After a brief pause he added ominously: "Hacked to bits."
"Melanie and John Seeger's house burned down, with them in it." Ellen announced.
Simultaneously, everyone turned to Cal.
"Ok, thanks for letting me know. See ya." He inhaled sharply, looked about the room and once secure that he had the group's full attention, he informed: "Four other hunters just bit the dust; one down in Florida, two in Arizona and one in Utah.
"I guess were done waiting." Dean notified, sending a poignant glower in Kevin's direction.