A/N: Hey! So I'm getting back into the swing of things. Mostly because I'm awake from 8AM to 2AM with a stolen Z here during a bad cartoon and there during a trip to pick up some random nonsense from WalMart. I'm doing some..."tutoring" trying to get my baby into first grade so while he's working so am I. I REALLY hope to get this fic finished up and posted in the next two weeks. Then I MIGHT give you the first chapter of the next fic which is currently being called "Bread Crumbs." If I get ten more reviews for this fic before its finished I will add a special temoprary scene to the end of it that's a MAJOR sneak peak into the next. Where we get lots of Dean/Autumn drama and the L word is planned to drop. In fact the sneak peak will BE the L word drop. Anyway R&R!
Chapter Seven
"Autumn, I want you to hand the case over." Jen told her after she'd presented the case. She knew she looked shocked, maybe even horrified, because Jen kept talking. "You won't remain level headed about this one. I know you, and its great you care so much and get so involved in some cases. But this one will get you hurt. What hurts you hurts Dean. I can't have two of my bests out of commission and I won't deal with the call I get from John for not keeping you two clear of this."
"I'm not going to get that involved. I go. I kill the SOB. I come back. No more injury than usually sustained on hunts." The auburn haired woman argued. The native closed her eyes but only for a heart beat while she found another route. She picked up the pictures of the victims and showed them to Autumn.
"Give me your phone." She ordered and Autumn did so. She wasn't going to call anyone. Jen already knew all her numbers. The wheel chair bound woman flipped the cell phone open and brought up the pictures. She didn't have to dig deep to find what she needed. She laid the phone, image showing, next to the victims' photos. "All blonde haired blue-eyed girls. All without a mother. All between the ages of 3 and 6. I know you, Autty. You'll get there see the vic and suddenly go into that mother bear mode. You'll let yourself think that the girl and your girls are the same. You will get hurt. Hand over the case." Autumn shook her head.
"I know better. I'd never do that and I can't just hand over this case." She argued and Jen wanted to reach out and smack her.
"Finish your researching, Autumn. Do what you have to do. But you are not going on this hunt and neither is the rest of your family." She smirked slightly at a thought that ran through her mind and Autumn found herself wishing for the first time she was Darcy. She would love to know what Jen was thinking. "You already have one big bad demon. You have to share with the rest of us. You can't be selfish and take them all." Having decided her friend was done, wrong, and crazy Autumn left in the corner of the library doing her own work. She gathered her research and phone and went to the bar sorely tempted to get a finger or two of whiskey.
"Hey," Will greeted as she approached the bar. For once he was actually working behind it. His greeting sounded like he was thought they were fighting and wanted to make up. Which to Autumn's knowledge wasn't true so she nodded and sat down.
"You look good in an apron." She told him teasingly.
"I look better out of it," he sent back almost flirtatiously. She corked an eyebrow and he laughed. "What can I get you, Autters?"
"Something that'll make your sister change her mind would be nice." she quipped.
"Haven't got anything like that. How about a beer and you tell me what's she got her panties in a twist about now?"
"Do I look like a settlin' girl to you?"
"You settled for Winchester, so yeah." He grinned.
"I'm going to kick your ass." She threatened as he sat a beer in front of her.
"Sure you will." He nodded dramatically. "So what's Jenny done now?"
"I have this hunt. Demon's bopping around the country killing motherless girls who, happen to look like my nieces. I want to predict his next locale and go take care of him. Jen says I'll get carried away and end up hurt." Autumn explained and Will was quiet for a long moment.
"You just can't stop playing with fire can you?" He finally asked and she looked up. "Look, you're good. But you let your emotions get in the way at all the wrong moments. I read the report on that hunt in Georgia you did, the girl whose mother summoned a spirit to use as a weapon. You admitted to tying the woman up for smacking her daughter. That was a little extreme. You know you are another chick you could have just hit her back."
"That's not extreme?" she challenged.
"My point is, when something on a hunt reminds you of Pinecrest you get a little caught up in the moment." He told her.
"So you agree with Jen? I should finish my research and hand the case over?"
"Yeah, Autty. I do." Will answered as if this pained him to say.
"Uh, sir?" Autumn was stopped before she could answer. Will looked up from where he was leaned over the bar. A raven haired woman in her early twenties stood beside Autumn looked more than a little lost. "I need a room. Who do I talk to?" Will swept his eyes over her in what he hoped to be a bored fashion but Autumn knew what he was doing.
"Me," he replied simply. "Autty can you handle the bar for a few minutes while I get her set up?"
"If I say no what will you do?" She challenged.
"I'll cry." He pouted.
"Well, I guess." Autumn sighed. "You don't really leave me any choice. Do you Raining?" The girl went wide eyed.
"You're Will Raining then?" Will nodded.
"Oh, wow. I knew you owned the place but no one told me you work here too." She said in awe. Will grinned his infamous tooth paste commercial smile.
"Of course. How better to know what my costumers need than to do the work myself?"
"Bullshit." Autumn choked in a coughing spasm. The girl flicked tiresome grey eyes at her.
"And who are you?" she prompted with a sudden snooty tone.
"The Queen of Hearts, as fate would have it. You are tiresome for me. Off with her head!" Autumn ordered Will.
"This is Autumn Daemon." He supplied ignoring Autumn's display.
"Oh, the Winchester Girl. I've heard about you." She nodded with a bit of respect returning to her features. Autumn decided right there that she didn't like the girl and was determined to keep Will's brain upstairs with this one.
"Yup, my girl here is building herself a little name with them." Will told the still unnamed hunter affectionately as he patted Autumn's head.
"As a leech." The girl shot.
"Oh and do you have name?" Autumn asked.
"Lily Hastings, I'm from the Carter's up in Maine." She said proudly. Will beamed coming out from behind the bar and swung an arm around Lily. He wasn't stupid. Will was separating the girls quickly as possible. Autumn had home field advantage no one would give Lily a chance if Autumn spoke against her.
"I know the Carters." he told her in a big fashion as he led her to Jen's little office to fill out the paper work and find an available bed.
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"You took her to the beach last night." Sue told him after Dean left with Athena. "I forgot how much you hunters like danger."
"How do you know that?" Sam pushed shocked. He hadn't seen anyone on the beach last night and he'd been looking.
"I saw it." Sue told him tapping his temple. "He was watching you too. From the water." Sam furrowed his brow.
"He was in the water the whole time?"
"From what I saw." Sue nodded.
"Who spends that much time on the beach?" Sue gave him an even look. He lived in a houseboat on the beach it was pretty obvious to him the kind of people who would always be here.
"If you can't keep her off the beach you need to leave. He's got it in his head that you're going to be taken out too." Sue warned. Sam nodded understanding, and more than ready to leave. Something about Sue weirded him out. He was more than ready to take off. "Okay, sit. Relax. Clear your mind."
Thus his class began. It wasn't long before flashes of scenes yet to play out came into his mind in bursts of pain. They went too fast for him to focus on any one. He couldn't tell you what he was seeing to save his life and Sue pushed him to focus. His head was throbbing. Zeus hadn't had this much of a headache when Athena had sprung from his noggin. Sue got up to get him something for his head and instructed him to lay down. Sam didn't fight this thought at all laying down on the couch and waiting for
Sue to return with his aspirin. His relaxing, however, had a worse effect than he'd anticipated and a real vision hit him.
Athena shrieked and fell into the sand, a man standing behind her. He was tall, with mournful eyes, and a disturbed twist to his lips. Sam had only just turned from her long enough to be sure no one was with them. "Sammy-boy." The man sneered. "We have business to attend." Sam cast a glance down at Athena, there wasn't any obvious damage done to her but she was unconscious. He looked to the man's hands. He held no weapons. Sam swallowed.
"What business?" He asked. In the pit of his stomach he knew this was more a fight for Athena than any real business.
"That," he pointed to Athena. "Is mine."
"Over my dead body." the hunter responded. The other man seemed to shrug before launching himself on him taking him to the ground in a cloud of sand.
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