They entered the cave. Dean and Catherine walked in first. Dean held a flare gun at attention toward the ground and Catherine had a blow torch and a flask full of gasoline ready to throw at anything that came near her. Sam followed behind, he had a flare gun holstered on his side as a precaution but his main priority was getting in and getting the boys out.
"Cat, you follow Sam. Keep an eye out for me, but make sure he's in and out smoothly." Dean whispered.
"Got it." She responded.
Dean headed straight and Catherine followed Sam as they turned a different direction, which looked to go deeper and probably held the boys. As they continued to walk deeper their surroundings got darker. Catherine grabbed at the trigger on the torch for some light, but Sam stopped her immediately.
"It'll hear you." Sam whispered.
"So what are we just going to be blind?" She whispered back.
"Your eyes will adjust. Just wait." He whispered back.
She rolled her eyes and continued to walk. He was right, after another minute of walking she could see again. God why does he always have to be right? She thought. Another few minutes passed and the boys were visible at the end of the tunnel. Sam looked back to make eye contact with Catherine to assure she'd seen them too. They walked forward in silence until Eli finally saw them and began to squirm. Both of the boys were tied up, hands bound above their heads and gags covering their mouths. Parker woke up to his friends noise and they both began to squirm and call for help through their gags.
"Sssshhhh" Sam rushed forward with his hand to his lips to quiet the boys. He reached them and whispered, "It'll hear you."
At his words the boys understood and shut up. Once Sam had reached them he saw they weren't alone. Behind them were 2 more boys and a young girl tied up exactly the same, and a bunch of bones piling up as far as the eye could see. Which in all honesty wasn't very far in the darkness, but probably extended farther than they could see. Sam worked on getting the boys free and Catherine rushed to the girl before attending the other boys.
Sam cut Eli free first, he fell onto Sam at first but then he helped him find his footing. "Can you walk?" Sam whispered and he nodded. "Go help the others." Sam said handing him a knife, before he moved on to help Parker.
Catherine cut the girl down, she looked to be only about 10, and fell into her arms immediately. She was covered in cuts and bruises and too weak, she could barely keep her eyes open. Parker couldn't stand on his own, and neither could one of the other boys. Catherine carried the girl, the boy who could stand carried his brother, and Sam helped Eli carry Parker because Eli was too weak to carry him on his own. They walked slowly as a group. Catherine walked in front and Sam held the back, making sure all the kids were safe. They were nearing the edge of the tunnel when there was a crashing sound behind them in the direction Dean had gone. They whipped their heads around to look at it but all they could see was darkness.
"Dean" Sam spoke in response, his tone worried.
"You take the boys. Eli, you carry her" She said passing the girl to Eli, forcing Sam to carry Parker who was nearly as tall as him by himself. "I've got Dean." she said raising her torch and starting in the other direction.
"Wait you don't know wh-" Sam tried to warn.
"I've got it Sam. Now go!" She spoke back to him before running after another bang.
Sam moved with the boys as far as he could get out of the cave and into the forest. As soon as he thought they were far enough out he set them all down and went to work on placing runes in the dirt to keep the Wendigo away.
Catherine caught up to Dean who was in the middle of fighting off the Wendigo on his own. He was on the floor holding a shot gun over his chest to keep the Wendigo at bay, the Wendigo was sprawled on top of him pushing down on his gun with it's long arms.
"Hey!" She yelled to get it's attention. It reared it's head and she flinched. She'd never actually seen one before and it's face was horrifying. She only took a second of fear before she put her game face back on. It slowly got up off the floor before running toward her. She reached for her flask but it wasn't there. She must've dropped it at some point along the way. She rolled forward in a summer salt just as the monster swung to grab at her. She looked up to face it and blasted the torch in it's direction. She didn't hit it, but it was enough to make it flinch and step back.
"Dean flare." She yelled at him, noticing his leg was injured and he couldn't get up.
"Gone." He responded.
She rolled her eyes "Then what are we supposed to do? I can't fight this thing on my own. Not without a way to set the flames."
"You figure it out, that's what hunters do." he responded.
She took a deep breath and lunged forward toward the monster. She passed behind it and kicked at it's back sending it to the ground. She lunged forward with the torch trying to get it on the ground but it it moved away.
"It's too fast" she screamed. Before lunging out of it's way again.
Suddenly Sam came running up out of the darkness and grabbed the Wendigo pulling it back so it couldn't get away. "Cat, torch!" He grunted as the monster struggled in front of him.
She sprung up to her feet and set the torch to it's stomach. It began to scream and after a moment of the torch it went up in flames. It turned to ash and Sam ran forward to Catherine.
"Are you alright?" He said grabbing the sides of her arms and looking her up and down with worry.
"I'm fine, but Dean could use some help." She responded.
He let her go and rushed to Dean. "Can you walk?"
"No. Where are the boys?"
"Outside. We found a few more too." Sam responded.
They helped Dean to his feet and walked him out of the cave, resting an arm over Sam and Catherine's shoulders to stand him up.
Hours later, they were boarding the kids onto a rescue helicopter. Dean's leg had started to recover and they made their way out before the cops arrived and could ask any questions. Dean was walking ahead of them using a stick to trek through the woods for balance, mumbling to himself about how much he hated the woods.
"You were great back there" Sam said to her as they walked.
"I told you I could take care of myself." She joked. He nodded and laughed along with her. "Seriously though, thank you. I couldn't have done it without you."
"Hey, dean and I couldn't have gotten those boys in and out on our own either."
"You're such a sap." She said lightly leaning toward him to shove him with her shoulder. "So, where you guys headed next?"
"Not sure." He responded. "We have some-" he paused, "uh- stuff to deal with."
"Why do you always say that? Why's it always stuff, or a long story?" She asked.
"Because that's my life. Everything about what we do is complicated and a long story."
"It's not though, at least it isn't for me and it didn't used to be for you. It's just a case after another, it's saving people and kicking ass. What's complicated about that?"
He laughed lightly. "I wish that's all it was anymore. It used to be just that simple, but- it's just so much more now."
"So tell me about it. Make it less complicated." she encouraged him.
"Trust me, you don't want to know." He said lightly laughing at her.
She stopped walking for a minute and grabbed his arm turning him to look at her. Her face was serious and she looked him straight in the eyes. "Trust me, I do."
There was a moment of silence as they stared at each other. "You really wanna know?"
"Sam, you know you can always talk to me."
"Ok, where to start. We found the demon that killed my mom. He's dead." He started talking as they began walking again. "So's my dad. And Dean almost died, then I did die and now Dean's going to hell because he couldn't just let me go. Oh, yeah, and did I mention I'm psychic."
She was silent for a moment to process everything he said. "Ok, well that was a lot. So I'm just going to respond in order. Congratulations on finally getting revenge on your mom" she paused, "and Jess. And I am so so sorry about your dad. I know that must be hard for you, especially since the last time we met you were torn up about him and you were just looking for him. I'm happy that Dean didn't die, and you're going to need to explain the you dying some more later. That idiot seriously made a deal? And what the hell do you mean psychic?"
"Oh, you have no idea."
They continued to walk as Sam talked and explained and Catherine listened to him. Even though this was only the second time they'd met they had a bond. They understood one another. Something about her made Sam feel at ease. He knew he could talk to her about anything and somehow she'd understand. It felt good getting all these things off his chest. He couldn't talk to Dean about it, at least not really, not about how he really felt. Catherine didn't judge him the way Dean did when he spoke about his powers.
Finally they got to the edge of the woods where the Impala was parked.
"Think you boys could give me a ride." she asked.
"Our pleasure." Dean responded walking toward the drivers side of the car.
"Uh uh uh" Sam said putting a hand against Dean pressing him back. "I'm driving, you'r leg needs to rest." Dean tried to protest but knew he wouldn't get anywhere.
They drove along the rode to a separate pullout about 4 miles away where Catherine had parked her bike.
"You know, you could come with us." Dean offered. "It's not safe out there on your own."
She paused for a second and looked at the brothers warmly. "You have no idea how great that sounds." Sam began to smile at her. "But I can't. I need to figure this stuff out on my own. Plus if your guy's lives are half as messed up as Sam described them to be I think I'd better steer clear. Keep it to the basics." She said the last two sentences lightly joking with the brothers.
"Fair enough," Dean responded lightly.
She got up out of the car and leaned onto Dean's open window. "Good luck out there, I hope everything works out for you." She said to him leaning in to kiss him on the cheek.
She walked across to the drivers side, she went to bend to his window but he opened the door and got out. "So where do you think you'll go next?"
"I don't know, heard about a vamp nest down in Burlington, thought I might check it out." She replied.
He nodded then reached out and hugged her tight. "You keep yourself safe out there you hear me?" He spoke into the top of her head.
"I will." she replied looking up at him. "And right back at you ok? You need something and you call me right away, got it?"
"Yeah, I got it." He chuckled.
They let go of each other and she reached up to peck him on the cheek. She walked over and sat down on her motorcycle placing her helmet securely on her head before turning to face the Impala. "Don't be strangers, you hear me!" She yelled at the brothers before pressing the gas and speeding away.
Sam and Dean waved after her before driving off in the opposite direction.
A/N: Hey guys, back for a second installment. We're no where near done so just keep your eye out. And don't forget to comment and tell me what you think. Things you like, things you don't like, things you want to see me work in. I want to hear it all.