Fallen Angel – Chapter 2
"Would you like a coffee Stacey?" Zara said. Her face a mask of concern as she watched the woman in front of her fiddle nervously with her hands. She had been full of angry attitude in Bobby's study when battling Dean, but now she just seemed scared.
"I'm fine." Stacey replied with a small smile "Thanks."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, don't trouble yourself Zara. I'm –"Stacey stopped suddenly as Sam and Bobby entered the kitchen, her gaze once again falling nervously to the table.
Sam immediately sat in the chair beside Zara, his arm falling loosely over her shoulder. Bobby stood for a moment looking down at his niece, his heart torn. He was glad to see her, but as anxious as all Hell to find out where she'd been. Taking the empty seat next to Stacey, he covered her hand with his.
He stared at her for a moment, unsure where to start.
"Okay, Stacey. How about you tell us where you've been these past years?"
"I can't."
"Why can't you Stacey? There isn't anything that you can't tell me." Bobby said gruffly. His eyes shone brightly as he remembered the little girl that she had been. Bright as a button and as bubbly as all get out, he found it hard to reconcile the serious woman in front of him, with the girl that she had once been.
"I can't tell you because I don't know Uncle Bobby."
"What you got some sort of amnesia?"
"Something like that, the last two years are just a blank, there's nothing there. Sometimes I get flashes, but nothing definite just images that I can't explain."
"Why don't you start with what you do remember and we'll take it from there, okay?"
Stacey looked up at Bobby, her eyes hooded as she considered what she could tell them. Sighing softly she met her Uncles gaze.
"There's not really a lot to tell-"
"Why don't you start with why you climbed in the window instead of ringing the door bell sweetheart?" Dean said angrily as he walked into the kitchen, relishing the sight of Stacey's guilty flinch. His face still hurt like a son of a bitch and he wasn't about to make it easy for her. She had ploughed into him like a pro and he wasn't about to be fooled by the waves of nervousness he could sense from her.
Ignoring Zara's shocked "Dean!" he pulled a beer from the fridge and popped the cap before turning back to the group. He met Stacey's gaze, her eyes once again flashing dangerously at him. Oh yeah there's definitely more to her than meets the eye he thought. Those doe eyes may have everyone else fooled, but not him.
"Still a dick I see Dean."
Not replying Dean sat beside Zara, ensuring that she was flanked between each of the brothers. He wasn't taking a chance with her safety, Bobby's niece or not.
"Dean, come on give her a break and let her explain." Sam said. Surprised by the level of animosity he could feel charging the air, sure they had been kicking the shit out of each other in Bobby's study but still, Dean usually had a bit more charm, even with the evil chicks.
"Sure, why don't you explain Stacey?" Dean said sarcastically. "I'm sure that you're story will be fascinating."
"Okay, I'll do my best...but first, Dean how's your face? I didn't break anything did I, because I'd hate to do any permanent damage to all that pretty." She grinned, her eyes glittering with suppressed humor.
"Oh don't you worry about my face sweetheart it's just fine." Dean snarled "Stop stalling and get on with it."
Laughing openly now at Dean's obvious embarrassment over being taken down by a woman Stacey taunted him further.
"Does it hurt that much Dean? I swear I didn't hit you that hard. You must have a really soft jaw."
"You b-"
"That's enough, both of you... for the love of God. What are you twelve?" Bobby shouted as the two continued to glare at each other across the table. "Stacey, start at the beginning and tell us what you do know."
"Sorry Uncle Bobby." Stacey said softly. Pulling her gaze away from the angry looks being thrown her way "I'm sorry."
"Yeah I'm sure-"
"Dean you idgit back off and let her talk." Bobby interrupted Dean's outburst.
Dean sat back and snapped his mouth shut, arms folded across his chest. His whole posture screamed his displeasure as he stared unwaveringly at the woman in front of him. He didn't know why she got his back up so much, but she was annoying the hell out of him with her smart comments and flashing brown eyes.
Stacey thought for a moment, pulling forth memories which seemed clouded in shadows. "As I said, I don't remember anything from the last two years. I was hunting a group of demons-"
"What do you mean you were hunting demons Stacey. Hunting!" Bobby interrupted, "You were supposed to have been in Maine on business. You're parents said... hunting, since when did you hunt?"
"Since I was 16... I started training after I spent the summer here. Sam had told me all about the life and I wanted to be a part of it." Stacey said sheepishly, having forgotten that none of her family had any idea that she was a hunter. She had kept that secret to herself, not wanting to risk disappointing or worrying her parents, or the wrath of her Uncle Bobby.
All eyes at the table turned to Sam, who shrugged.
"Hey I was 14 and she was my best friend. I didn't want her to get hurt so I told her everything. I didn't know she'd be fool enough to start hunting. Dammit Stacey!"
"Sam I loved being a hunter. I just kept it to myself that's all; I stayed away from anywhere the Winchesters were rumoured to be so as not to run into you and just got on with my job. I'd been hunting on my own for ten years Sam, and I was good, am good."
"So you were hunting a group of demons, where?" Dean said, bringing the conversation back to where Stacey had disappeared. He was sure Bobby was going to rip her a new one about hunting in private when they were done, but for now they needed to get back to the point.
Stacey turned an almost thankful glance in Dean's direction, forgetting for a moment that she was pissed at him "Pontiac, Illinois –"
Sitting forward abruptly Dean frowned, his gaze flying to Sam who had gone still and quite pale. "Two years ago you were in Pontiac, Illinois hunting a group of demons?"
"Yeah, I'd been tracking them for weeks and finally caught up with them in Pontiac. I remember checking into a motel intending to scope out the town but beyond that there's nothing. The next thing I know I'm waking up in hospital three hundred miles away and it's two years later. The doctors said that I'd been found in a scorched field covered in blood and barely alive. Everything in between is gone."
"Son of a bitch!" Dean said. "You're lying!"
Confused Stacey's gaze flickered between Sam and Dean, and then back to her Uncle Bobby who were all looking at her with identical expressions of disbelief.
"I'm not lying. I was there, I remember checking into The Lucky Charms motel, it had garish wall paper and crummy lighting-"
Closing her eyes Stacey struggled to remember. "Room 109 ground floor. I left my bike parked in the Motel Car park. I'm telling you I was there. I checked in under the name Olivia Stratham using a fake id... that's it there's nothing after that."
"Stacey, we were in Pontiac two years ago. I killed those demons and you weren't with them." Sam said his expression softening as he noticed the genuine look of confusion on her face. She genuinely believed that she had been there.
"Then you must have gotten there after ... because I was there."
Dean felt his stomach twist as Stacey's breathing turn erratic. Despite his earlier annoyance and disbelief, he was beginning to get a sense that something was very wrong with her, that the bitch act was just that an act, a protective shield. She had turned ashen and looked to be on the verge of having a full blown panic attack.
"Stacey calm down, we'll figure it out." He said green eyes softening as they met rich brown, placing a hand over hers he ran his thumb in gentle circles over the erratic pulse in her wrist. He was more than a little surprised when she didn't pull away or slap him away, but instead took a calming breath, then another before pulling her hand away from his a grateful look on her face.
"Stacey, why'd you come in the window instead of the front door?" Dean raised his earlier question, almost certain that he knew the answer.
"I... I never intended to see Uncle Bobby or let anyone know I was back. I was looking for a spell, something that would bring back my memories. I.. I wasn't going to stay and I would have been gone before morning if you hadn't been in the study. I need to know where I've been and what I've done, if I've hurt anyone-"
"You think you were possessed?" Bobby said, his expression pained. The thought of his niece having spent the last two years as some demon's meat suit making the old hunter nauseous. Especially as they had all been in Pontiac, Illinois at the same time going after the same demons.
"What other explanation could there be?" Stacey shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. "I think I must have done some terrible things Uncle Bobby."
Bobby pulled his niece towards him as the first tear fell, wrapping the trembling girl in his arms.
"Stacey anything you may have done when possessed wouldn't have been your fault. You have to know that."
"... but I should have been stronger-" Stacey said brokenly "I should have been stronger."
Zara looked on in silence as Bobby comforted his niece, she remembered Sam telling her that Dean had been buried just outside Pontiac and when Castiel resurrected Dean, he had been in Pontiac chasing down a group of demons. It couldn't have been a co-incidence that Stacey had been there too and had just disappeared. She knew how guilty Sam felt over that time, how the demon blood in his system had made him an enemy to his brother forcing him to turn his back on everything and everyone he cared about. If his friend had been possessed whilst he was there at that time, then the guilt was going to eat at him. Placing her hand in Sam's she squeezed lightly, offering what comfort and support she could.
"Come help me make up the spare bed in Dean's room, Stacey's going to need somewhere to sleep."
"Yeah okay." Sam said as he stood and pulled Zara to her feet, pulling her tightly towards him. "Come on Dean; let's give Bobby and Stacey some privacy."
Dean pulled his gaze away from where Bobby was holding a quietly sobbing Stacey, his stomach in knots. He stood, following Sam and Zara from the kitchen up to the first floor and into his room.
"Wait... why are we making up the spare bed in my room?" Zara didn't honestly think he was going to share with Stacey.
"Because it's the only spare bed in the house, where else would she sleep Dean?"
"The sofa in the study... I don't know, but not in my room."
"Dean, if we put her in the study she'll run, which will make Bobby unhappy. Right now she needs someone to look out for her and that's you."
"Me? That woman hates my guts; she'd skin me in my sleep. No way little sis that won't do."
"Fine, Sam you'll need to sleep in with Dean and I'll share with Stacey. She needs to have someone with her and since Dean is being an ass..."
"What no way I've not seen you in two weeks!" Sam said incredulously. He turned a pleading look on Dean. "Dean you need to share with Stacey there's no other option."
Dean looked from his brother to Zara and huffed "Fine, don't come crying to me if she guts me in my sleep."
xxOOxx.
Stacey looked around the room that she had spent so much time in as a child and then that one summer as a teenager. It hadn't changed all that much, still home to twin beds and an ancient dresser. Grabbing the boxers, t-shirt and toothbrush that Zara had left on the bed she walked across the hall into the bathroom and locked the door.
Leaning against the basin she stared at her reflection in the mirror; her face was still slightly blotchy from the tears that she had shed earlier. The puffiness had receded but her embarrassment at falling apart in front of the Winchesters and her Uncle Bobby had not. She had spent the last weeks fighting against the panic of not knowing what had happened to her, but imagining the worst, that she guessed the stress of the night had caught up with her. Her Uncle Bobby had promised to help find a way to get her memories back, but has stressed that whatever they found out would not be her fault. He had said that he wouldn't tell her parents that she was alive, for now, but that was as far as he would go stating that they had been devastated when she had gone missing and that they would want to know that she was alive. She had promised that she would tell them when she was ready but just not yet. The expected lecture about hunting had been interrupted by Zara, who had pulled her away and upstairs, stating that everything else could wait till morning.
Sighing she pulled off her dirty clothes,folded them, then placed them on the small stool by the bath. Getting into the shower she turned on the spray and stepped in, allowing the pulsating spray to sooth her tired nerves. Taking the soap, she rubbed some into a cloth and began running it over her tired body, wincing as her hand connected with what was sure to be a spectacular bruise on her thigh, Dean had not held back when he aimed that kick earlier. She continued to wash, ignoring the angry red scar stretching across her small waist, a souvenir of her time away. There would be time to think of that later, right now she just needed to sleep.
Stepping from the shower she quickly dried, puting on the shorts and t-shirt before brushing her teeth. After a final look in the mirror she left the bathroom and walked slowly back across the hall. She paused for a moment at the door to her room, a small smile forming as she heard the soft words and light laughter coming from what was obviously Sam and Zara's room.
Chuckling she stepped into her room, only to stop as she saw Dean, sitting on one of the beds removing his boots.
"What the hell are you doing in here Dean?"
Dean looked up, his stomach dropping as his eyes raked over Stacey, dressed only in the smallest pair of shorts and a tight t-shirt which did nothing to disguise that fact that she had grown up into a woman, with a stunning body. There was nothing size zero about her, impossibly long legs, a tiny waist and full breasts, which he was sure would fit perfectly in the palm of his hands. Dammit he thought as he shifted slightly hoping to cover the effect the sight of her had on his body.
Plastering on a grin he met her flashing eyes. "What does it look like sweetheart. I'm going to bed."
Sputtering Stacey said "What ... in here?"
"Only room with two beds in it, so yeah roomie we're sharing." A challenge clear in his eyes. "Unless I make you nervous. Do I make you nervous Stacey?"
Stacey groaned internally, she hadn't expected to be sharing and was nervous, but there was no way she was backing down to that cocky, arrogant son of a bitch. "Nope can't say you do Dean... you're ego really is the size of Texas isn't it?"
To prove her point she strolled further into the room; turning her back on Dean she bent over to pull back the bedding. She did not see the pained expression appear on Dean's face as he got a full view of her butt. Grinning, he couldn't have stopped the next words which poured out of his mouth even if he had tried. "Nice ass!"
"What the..." Stacey said indignantly as she turned on Dean. "Keep your perverted eyes to yourself Winchester!"
"I just call em as I see em sweetheart and you have a great –"
"Do not finish that sentence if you want to live Dean!"
Raising his hands in defeat, knowing that he probably shouldn't push her any further. "Okay you win I won't say you have a great ass, but damn it's fine."
Stacey grabbed a pillow from her bed and threw it, hitting Dean straight on the face.
Laughing openly now Dean stood and began to unbuckle his pants, his eyes challenging as he lowered his zipper. He saw the moment that he'd won when a blush began to form on Stacey's cheeks and she turned, quickly getting into bed, her face turned away.
Grinning widely, he removed his pants, leaving on his boxers and t-shirt and got into bed. He turned out the lamp and closed his eyes.
"Good night Stacey."
"Jerk!"
Life's going to get really interesting around here! Dean thought as he fell asleep.
TBC
