It was the snoring that woke her.
They didn't show that on Supernatural.
The Winchester brothers were louder than jet engines. It was a wonder that the two actually slept.
Rian stared at the two sleeping brothers for a bit before realizing how creepy it was. She instead thought back to the conversation the three had had after Dean let her up from the floor.
It had gone better than she had expected. Sam and Dean had gone out into the walkway to have a small, heated, conversation and when they came back in Dean was at least civil. Rian found out that they had recently dealt with a Wendigo, the haunted lake, and the phantom traveler.
She knew they were somewhere between Phantom Traveler and Bloody Mary, but that was about it. She didn't know when most of the episodes actually took place. For all she knew it could be weeks before Bloody Mary even happened.
The fact that the brothers were in Aberdeen was proof that not every case they worked was shown in the series. Not that Rian was surprised, they'd have a lot of episodes if that were the case.
Another thing they hadn't shown was how boring the waiting was. Rian was awake for three hours before Sam stirred. She watched him walk into the bathroom and then amble around the main room for twenty minutes before he even noticed her.
"Holy shit." Sam exclaimed, causing Dean to jump out of the bed ready for combat.
When the brothers realized that it was just Rian they both blushed and apologized. Rian accepted the apologies before getting up to get ready for the day. She came out wearing light blue skinny jeans tucked into a pair of boot socks, the boots, a black three quarter sleeved shirt with the words 'First, I need coffee' printed on the front, a gray cashmere scarf, black fingerless gloves, and simple black casio watch.
It seemed that she and Sam shared a love of watches.
Her brown hair was neatly brushed to fall just past her shoulder blades with just a hint of anti-friz. The one non essential toiletry Rian had bought. She felt much better after her shower and the brothers both noticed how much straighter her stood now that she was comfortably clothed.
"Shower's open." Rian informed them needlessly before going to sit on the couch and pack away her spare clothes into the duffle bag. She filled her backpack with the essentials, a cheap wallet, her phone and laptop, and their new chargers. She had been lucky she had the iPhone 4 and that the chargers for the ipod touch worked on it. Her laptop was a revamped 2011 dell and used the same charger as the 2007 dells. She also put a spare change of clothes, some pads, the rest of her toiletries, and the pocket knife Dean had grudgingly given her last night, right before they went to bed.
Once that was done Rian just sat there, staring at the floor. She didn't notice the change in who occupied the bathroom, or the fact that Dean was now staring at her, until Dean cleared his throat.
"I'm, uh, sorry about last night." Dean said, almost turning it into a question. Rian nodded, accepting the apology, but didn't talk, which was just as well for Dean.
Once the three of them were ready for the day Dean drove them to Denny's for breakfast. Rian had added a gray cashmere scarf and black gloves. It wasn't even that cold outside, about 50 degrees, the norm for December in Grays Harbor, but Rian didn't care, she liked wearing scarves.
Rian ordered french toast with strawberries, Dean got a Grand Slam, and Sam got fresh fruit and some oatmeal. Rian also got coffee, which the boys were surprised to find that she drank black.
"Okay, so why are you two in Aberdeen, anyways?" Rian asked once everyone was nearly done. "And why were you guys climbing through my alternate universe window?"
"We're on a hunt, obviously" Sam said after a moment of contemplation, "We got a lead that led us to that room in that house."
"Yeah, but what are you hunting?" The boys shared a look and Rian sighed, "Look, I'm not an idiot, I know how risky hunting is. I know that I need training if I'm ever going to actually hunt. But I can help with research, it was kind of my job for y'know three-ish years."
Rian waited patiently as the two brothers had a silent conversation. She finished off her french toast and called for more coffee before either of them spoke.
"Alright, but you're off the hunt at the first sign of incompetency." Dean conceded and Rian nodded.
"Understood." Rian agreed, "now, what are you hunting?"
"Let's go back to the motel to talk." Sam said, looking around to see that Denny's was filling up.
"Sure." Dean agreed and went to pay while Sam and Rian walked out to the car.
"Hey Sam?" Rian asked once they were by the impala.
"Yeah?" Sam looked over at the young woman
"What are you and Dean gonna do with me?" Rian asked scuffing her boots on the ground and staring with seemed interest at a rock
"Honestly?" Sam asked, Rian nodded, "I don't know."
"That's fair," Rian said, finally looking at Sam, without turning her head "I mean, you two don't know me and there's no reason to believe what I say. For all you know I could have escaped from the looney bin."
"No." Sam said quickly.
"What do you mean?" Rian asked, this time turning to watch Sam closely.
"I mean," Sam started, he paused for a second and then sighed "I don't think you're crazy."
"No?" Rian asked hopefully
"No." Sam said, his tone implying that the conversation was over.
Rian turned to see that Dean was right next to her and nearly jumped out of her skin. She wished she had the guts to smack the smirk off of Dean Winchester's face.
As it was she just glared at him before finding her spot in the back of the Impala.
"So." Dean started, "What were you two talking about?"
"Looney bins." Rian answered honestly, "And whether or not I escaped from one. Y'see, Sam here doesn't believe that I did."
"Did you?" Dean asked, making eye contact with Rian through the rearview mirror.
"No," Rian said blandly, "I couldn't even find my way out of the children's corn maze out in Satsop. I was 21 the last time I went in there."
The brothers laughed and Rian relaxed a little. If they were laughing surely they wouldn't just dump her on the side of the road?
Then again, if they did that all Rian had to do was find a way to get to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
With no money, or ID. Yeah, she could totally do that.
When they got back to the motel Sam set up shop at the table and called Rian over from the couch when he had everything from the hunt placed just right. Rian set her phone down, she didn't have service anyways, and went over to Sam.
After reading through the papers Rian pulled the laptop to her and looked Sam for permission to use it. To which he nodded.
"You have any ideas?" Dean asked from his spot on the bed where he was cleaning his weapons.
"This sounds like Billy Gohl." Rian explained, "I mean, I don't know if he even exists here but in my world Billy Gohl was this serial killer in the early 1900s. He was only cited for two killings but they suspected his involvement in over one hundred unsolved disappearances and murders. I think he was anti union or something. But anyways, he would isolate his victims before shooting them. Which matched the MO on these guys too, right? Well, except the blood draining, that's more twilight than 1900 serial killer."
Rian looked up to see Sam and Dean staring at her. She raised an eyebrow at them.
"What? My job was research." Rian defended "and anyways, when I was in high school I had to do a project on a historical figure in Aberdeen. I was sick the day they assigned the person and got stuck with Gohl."
"Here," Sam said reaching for the laptop, which Rian slid to him. After a minute of typing he spoke, "Okay, his name's Dave Gohl, but the rest of the story is the same."
"What I don't get is the blood draining." Dean said, getting up from his spot on the bed, "Why shoot the vic and then drain their blood?"
"A vampire Gohl enthusiast?" Rian suggested with a shrug, "How's the blood drained?"
"Bite mark," Sam said absently, already working through an idea. He turned to Rian, "What else do you know about Gohl?"
"Not much, I mean, there wasn't exactly a lot on the guy." Rian said, filling through the papers Dean and Sam had gotten printed. "Wait, look up something about a cabin. I think he might have had one somewhere."
Sam did just that as Rian continued to look through the papers. Dean got a beer from the mini fridge and returned to his spot on the bed, relishing in the fact that there was nothing for him to do.
"The man was a well-known union worker who was born in Germany." Sam said after a few minutes, making Rian jump, "He was known for the murders as well as intimidating people to keep them from organizing strikes and having them join the union he was in. Sailors Union of the Pacific." He heard Rian grumble at the fact that Gohl was pro union, "Okay here's the part we need, In March 1912 they found a skull of a possible victim near the Cabin Gohl had owned. I think we should check that out."
"Alright," Dean said, once again leaving his spot on the bed. Rian was surprised that he hadn't left an imprint of his body there. "You're staying here though, pipsqueak."
"No I'm not," Rian argued, "And I'm not even that short, you're just freakishly tall."
"Yes, you are." Dean said again, glaring at Rian for arguing back, "No arguments about it."
"I'm not a child, Dean." Rian said, returning Dean's glare, "You can't order me around. I swear not to get in the way, just please, don't leave me here alone."
She was afraid that they'd leave her completely. Rian wasn't sure what she'd do if that happened. Probably just waste away in the room until the manager kicked her out for not paying.
"And anyways," Rian continued before either of the brothers could speak, "If you leave me here I'll just hotwire a car and purposely get in your way.."
"Do you know how to hotwire a car?" Dean asked, looking mildly impressed.
"No, but I could figure it out." Rian said with a shrug. "I'm not a child you know, let's make this clear. I may be younger than you but that does not make me stupid or ignorant. I may not know exactly how to make holy water but I know more about this kind of stuff than was normal in my world. Either you let me go with you or I go to the police and get charges of kidnapping against you two. And believe me you may disappear but I'll know exactly how to find you."
"But if you're from another universe or whatever how would you get charges against us?" Dean asked, he was smirking and now more than ever Rian wished she was willing to follow through on a threat of physical violence. She really wanted to punch that smirk off Dean's face.
"I'd find a way." Rian said with another shrug, "My job was research, I'd figure it out."
"You keep saying research but what exactly was your job?" Sam asked curiously.
"Uh, I was trying to be a forensic researcher specializing in homicides before I had to drop out of college." Rian explained, "After I dropped out I got an internship at the police station in criminal research."
"Sounds violent." Dean said blandly.
"It sounded like an adventure to me. I wouldn't actually have been a part of investigations, I just would have made calculations about blood splatter and trajectory and shit like that." Rian said, "Instead I got to look up statistics and laws. It was boring."
"Sounds like Sammy's kind of deal." Dean said, pointing at his younger brother who had started packing their belongings at some point.
"Anyways, Dean Winchester, can I go or not?" Rian asked, getting them back on track.
Dean scrutinized Rian for a moment and she couldn't help but shiver. He looked like he was staring into her soul and judging every choice Rian had made in the past. Finally Dean looked away to have a silent conversation with Sam.
It was fascinating, watching them communicate by facial expression in person, if not a little creepy.
"Fine," Dean conceded, "you can come, but you have to do everything we say without argument. The moment things get dicey then you're getting confined to Baby."
"Sweet." Rian said before rushing to get her things packed. She donned her coat, gloves, and scarf and shoved her things into the seat next to her before grabbing her phone and opening it up to notes.
There she wrote down everything she remembered from season one of supernatural. It wasn't much, mostly the car crash at the end of the season, and a few minor details here and there. She remembered most of the episode titles, and what she didn't remember she could figure out later.
That is, if she didn't find a way back to her own universe.
Rian was wondering what was taking the boys so long when she looked up to see them talking to someone at the door. The girl was short, about 5'4, with long blonde hair and nearly elvish ears. She was wearing black slacks, a white button up, and heels. Rian almost thought she recognized her.
It wasn't until she turned around that she did recognize her. The girl was Cam, well, in Rian's universe her name had been Cam. In this one Rian had no clue what her name was. Even if it was Cam, Rian couldn't talk to her. She wasn't from this universe, Cam wouldn't know her.
Rian ducked down in the back as the Cam look-alike walked past the Impala. It wasn't until the doors opened and the brothers got in that Rian sat up properly in her seat.
"Who was that?" Rian asked, sticking her head between Sam and Dean, her voice was slightly shaking and Rian was hoping the boys wouldn't notice.
"She said her name was Louis." Sam explained why the girl was there. Apparently someone had seen a "Kate" walk into the room of the motel and Louis was looking for. This "Kate" person had been missing for several days.
Rian kept the fact that Louis looked just like her best friend Cameron to herself. She also kept the fact that she was about to have an anxiety attack over the thought of never seeing Cam again to herself. Rian decided that she was going to have to keep a lot to herself if she was going to survive this.
Taking deep breaths Rian leaned back into her seat and put the seat belt on. The impala was silent as Dean drove, using directions from Sam's laptop, to the cabin in the woods. Rian was focusing on breathing, timing her breaths to those of Sam. Dean was driving, and occasionally changing the song that was playing from his tapes. And Sam was staring out the window, trying to figure out what the brothers were going to do with their ward.
"Any theories on who this Kate is?" Dean asked after about fifteen minutes of silence.
Rian startled and nearly hit her head on the window what her elbow slipped from its perch. She had calmed down enough to watch the scenery as they made their way to the cabin.
"A couple." Rian said blandly, "Nothing concrete, of course, but theories, yeah."
"What are they?" Dean asked when Rian didn't explain.
"Well, theory one is that this Louis in the alternate version of my best friend Cameron. Now, before you debunk this she looks exactly like Cameron. Same rockstar body, same fashion sense, same looks. I mean, she even had the same teardrop tattoo on the back of her hand." Rian said, trying her hardest to hold back tears, "The rest of this theory is that this Kate is the alternate universe version of me and Louis is looking for her because that's what best friends do."
The brothers were silent for a few minutes before, finally, Sam spoke.
"You said you had two theories?" Sam asked, prompting Rian to continue.
"Kate doesn't exist and Louis was actually trying to sell you a sad story to hook up with you." Rian said and she smiled as Dean guffawed.
"Was that really your other theory?" Sam questioned
"No," Rian conceded, "My other theory was the Kate was a normal runaway and Louis just happened to look similar enough to Cameron that I just filled in the rest of the details."
The rest of the trip was made in silence. Rian was surprised at how fast the hour drive to the cabin seemed to go. She had expected it to take longer, considering that she had started to feel car sick about 25 minutes in.
Not that she would ever tell Dean Winchester that there was a very real possibility of her throwing up in his car.
The area around the cabin was cleared. Rian couldn't see any stumps so she had to assume that the cabin was built in a natural clearing. The cabin itself looked like something straight out of a horror film. There was ivy growing up the side, graffiti on the door that was hanging off its hinges. The window panes were broken and Rian could see tattered curtains blowing in the mild winter breeze.
Rian was suddenly very glad that she had decided to wear the scarf and gloves. She wrapped her arms around her stomach to hold back the shivers. If either of the brothers noticed how Rian strategically placed herself between them they didn't mention it.
"Someone's been here recently," Dean said, almost to himself.
He was kneeling next to a set of footprints. Rian knelt next to Dean to examine them.
"I'd say female, judging by the size of the brint, a pair of boots, hiking, not dress boots, and she was carrying something of moderate weight, I'd say around fifty-ish pounds." Rian looked up to see that the brothers were staring at her, "Forensics."
"Yeah, but you said you dropped out." Dean told her, shaking his head.
"Doesn't mean I stopped learning," Rian said, "I just didn't have to pay to learn anymore."
Rian was surprised to find herself suddenly on the ground. She hadn't heard her attacker come up behind her. Nor had she had the time to register the arms that had wrapped around her waist in order to throw her to the ground.
What she did register was the heavy weight on her back and the breath on her neck. Rian tried to roll over so that she was facing her attacker but the other person was too heavy.
When her ears stopped ringing Rian registered the sounds of Dean and Sam fighting and realized that she would have to deal with her situation on her own.
So Rian racked her brain for any useful information, ignoring the shivers that ran down her spine as the person on her back sniffed her. It was when she nearly gave up on getting herself out of the tough spot that Rian remembered something she had learned in her six months of karate at the age of twelve.
If you're caught become a dead weight it could surprise your attacker.
With no other ideas Rian did just that. She stopped struggling and let her body become as heavy as it could.
But it didn't work.
Rian could still hear the fighting as she felt soft hands push her hair away from her neck. The person, vampire, Rian realized, was roughly Rian's size. If she could just shift her position a little.
Rian screamed.
The pain that came with a vampire bite was worse than anything Rian had felt before. She knew that she had a pretty high pain tolerance. When she had stepped on the zipper of a pair of her younger brothers pants and punctured her skin Rian had barely batted an eye.
This was like stepping on a thousand legos at once. She felt a searing pain in her throat and it was made worse by the rapid beating of her heart. Rian could smell the metallic tang of blood and was about to pass out when suddenly the weight on her back was gone.
Rian felt, more than heard, Sam calling her name. She knew he was holding her but she couldn't clear her mind enough to figure out why. Her head was spinning and Rian was pretty sure she was high on something.
She'd taken pain meds with a worse high than whatever had been in that bite.
When Dean poured whiskey into Rian's wound she passed out.
When Rian came to she was surprised to find herself staring at a concrete ceiling that was nearly thirty feet from her head. She was laying on a bed of some kind and Rian was also covered in blankets.
The sound that woke her was the twinkle of chains. Or rather, the clang. Rian tried to lift her wrist to find it chained to the ground. She tried again with her other limbs to find the same result. Once she realized that she was trapped Rian gave up and stared at the ceiling.
She could feel a dull ache in her throat and she knew enough about first aid to know that someone had had to stitch her up. She wondered briefly what eating with the stitches would be like. She gave that up quickly and instead focused on figuring out how the hell she had gotten there.
When she tried to call out she found that her throat was too dry for such things. Instead, Rian went into a coughing fit. She was concerned that her stitches were going to pop until someone gently raised her head and brought a glass of water to her mouth.
Rian gulped at the water greedily, relishing in the cool feeling as it slid down her throat. Her head was propped up onto a makeshift pillow and she was about to speak again when Sam beat her to it.
"We weren't sure if you were going to change or not, so we had to chain you." Sam explained as her moved into Rian's view. She was about to bitch at him when she saw how disheveled he looked. There were several scratches on Sam that clearly had not been seen to.
"Fuck you." Rian growled.
She expected shit like this from Dean, but not Sam. At least not Sam so soon after losing Jessica.
Then again if Sam thought she was a threat to Dean then she was lucky to be alive.
"I have to feed to change, idiot." Rian said, tears running down her face. "And I'm not feeling the urge to feed. All I want to do is beat the shit out of you and Dean and then sleep for ten thousand years."
Sam chuckled.
"Scratch that," Rian continued, "All I want to do is go home."
Sam had let Rian out of the shackles after she had told him at least fifteen times that she wasn't going to try to bite him. She was in the middle of rubbing feeling back into her ankles when Dean came in, struggling body in tow.
"Why is she free?" Dean asked Sam, barely sparing Rian a glance.
Rian rolled her eyes, and decided to ignore Dean for as long as she possibly could. She didn't care how childish it was. Rian had broken better men with her silent treatment.
"She didn't turn." Sam explained, "Guess the bite wasn't enough."
Dean just grunted, turned his attention to his captive, and set about tying them to a chair. When he was done he stepped back to admire his handiwork before removing the cloth of their head to reveal someone who looked exactly like Rian. Well, exactly how Rian had looked when she was a teenager.
Kate, because Rian knew that's who it was, her first theory had been correct, was gagged. Rian could see her struggle with the bindings but they were too tight for her, for all she was a vampire.
Rian was speechless, all she could do was stare at the girl who could very easily be her sister. She was chubbier than Rian, although she looked exactly like Rian had when she was in her teens. She saw traces of blood on her face and nearly gagged. It was her own blood.
"Who is she" The girl spoke, Rian hadn't even noticed that Dean had removed the gag.
"She is none of your business." Dean said, "What were you doing by the cabin."
"Hunting for the ghost of Dave Gohl." Kate sneered. She didn't seem at all daunted by the two very tall, very well practiced, hunters.
"Gohl didn't even die here." Rian said, "There was nothing to attach him to this place."
"There was a shoe." Kate said, lifting a shoe that looked like it could have come from the early 20th century.
"You think he was emotionally attached to a shoe?" Dean deadpanned.
"She's lying." Rian said after examining Kate and seeing her own tells. The slight widening of the eyes and the twitch of the left eyebrow, "why were you really there?"
"Well, considering the three of you were there then I'm assuming you know about the victims." Kate said, her entire demeanor shifting. She looked younger now, closer to 13 instead of the 16-18 that Rian had previously thought her to be. "They way they were isolated and shot reminded me of Dave Gohl, I just wanted to check it out."
"Then why did you attack Rian?" Sam asked. He was standing next to where Rian sat almost protectively. Rian couldn't help but smile.
Suddenly Kate started crying, "I didn't mean too. I just, I was…" She looked up to stare pitifully at the three adults in the room, "I was attacked walking home from school about three months ago. Someone bit me and when I woke up on the ground with a burning craving for blood. Next thing I know I'm next to a body with a bite mark on their neck."
"And the bullet wound?" Sam asked kindly.
"The man had a gun. I decided to shoot him." Kate said, a manic glint in her eyes, "I figured they'd assume the bullet was the cause of death and the bite mark was a wolf or something."
"And your friends?" Dean asked, "What did they have to do with this?"
"You mean the Cullens?" Kate asked, "They were friends of the vamp that bit me."
"Cullens?" Rian asked, "Like, Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Cullens?"
"Twilight?" Kate asked, "I don't know what you're talking about."
Rian wasn't paying attention anymore. She knew that Twilight came out some time in 2005 but the fact that in this universe the Cullens were actual vampires was somehow too much for Rian to process.
"They're books." Rian muttered before she fell silent. "About vampires."
Sam and Dean proceeded to have a whispered conversation about what they were going to do with both Rian and Kate. Dean was all for ganking Kate and leaving Rian but Sam wanted Rian to come with them.
"She's smart, Dean." Sam said, not for the first time, "And she doesn't have anyone here."
"If she's so smart she can figure something out on her own." Dean argued, "She's not our responsibility."
Sam looked over at Rian who was staring blankly down at her hands. He was worried about how pale she looked. The bite had been their fault. They hadn't been paying enough attention to their surroundings and Rian had paid for it.
"Dean, she's injured because of us." Sam said, "The least we can do is take care of her until the wound heals properly."
Dean was silent for a moment and Sam began to worry that this was one of the things that he wouldn't budge on.
"Fine, but she's your responsibility." Dean said, poking Sam in the chest, "If anything happens to her it's on you. But the vampire's gotta go, Sam. She's killed people."
"Fine, I'll take Rian out to the impala and you can take care of Kate." Sam agreed before going over to Rian.
Rian didn't notice Sam until the large man was picking her up. She startled at the unexpected contact but was otherwise still.
"I can walk, y'know." Rian finally said when they were already out of the building. She was finding it hard to care that Sam was carrying her bridal style.
"This was easier." Sam said by way of explanation.
Rian was asleep in the backseat by the time Dean exited the building. For which he was grateful, even if Dean didn't want the girl along for the ride he also didn't want her to see that he was covered in blood.
"We just gonna leave the body there?" Sam asked quietly after checking to make sure Rian was actually asleep.
"There was a garbage shoot" Dean said, no emotion in his voice.
Sam let the conversation drop as they drove away from the abandoned warehouse.
They were nearing Olympia when Rian woke up from her nap. She stretched out the kinks in her back that accompanied sleeping in the backseat of a car. When she was properly woken she noticed the dull throb in her neck.
"Thanks for stitching me up," she said, not addressing either man directly because she wasn't sure who had gotten stuck with that task.
Dean just grunted, and instead of responding Rian settled down for a long drive.
Rian didn't notice that she had started to him until Sam commented on it.
"What are you humming?" He asked, making Rian blush.
"Hey Jude, It's something my mom used to sing to me" Rian said. She couldn't remember the last time she had so much as thought of the song. It reminded her too much of her mom.
"Oh." Dean said, turning to face forward with a clenched jaw.
Instead of thinking about her current situation Rian decided it was a better idea to pester the brothers with questions. Mostly this was to see how much of the show was accurate and how much of it was cut for TV.
Rian wasn't surprised to find out that a lot more time passed between hunts on TV. And she was starting to figure out that the majority of that time was spent on the road, driving from one random location to the next.
What she was surprised to find out was that Sam and Dean had a lot more connections to other hunters than she thought they would at this time. Granted, most of the connections had been their fathers before they were Sam and Dean's.
"Have you been to Lawrence recently?" Rian asked, trying to figure out if the episodes happened in order.
"Why would we go to Lawrence?" Dean asked, now more suspicious of Rian than he was before.
Sam wouldn't make eye contact with her.
A/N: Thought you should know that I hardly ever stick to posting schedules... oops. I'm halfway through my editing of It's Not Possible so I thought 'Why not post the second chapter'. I know I said I would post one chapter a month until I was caught up but I want to know what you guys think about it.
NOTE: Title has changed from It's Not Possible (Edited) to She's a Believer
Also, I'm writing another fic... oops. This one is going to be CasXOC and I'm really excited for it. This one I will wait to post until I have more written. So that, unlike the Archangels story, I don't have to put it on hiatus because I lose inspiration.
Sorry this was so long
-Ryn.