A/N - Dean and Lady's fling is inspired by the song 'Sexual Abuse'. The original is by St. Madness, but the cover by Guttermouth is good, too.
May 25, 2006. Orlando, Florida
Lady fell into her normal dreamless sleep, and woke up hours later with the first chirps of the birds and the heavy rain that was beginning to come down. She showered and dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. The humidity was ridiculous because of the rain and the heat never seemed to completely dry it up. After giving Freddie a bath in the backyard she had to change into her remaining set of clean clothes, denim cutoffs and a tank-top.
Feeding Freddie while on the road was as easy as opening the trunk of her car and taking the lid off of the large rubber bin full of dog food. She had, at one time, tried to fill bowls for him and make him eat off the ground to keep the food from getting soggy with his drool but standing between a two-hundred pound dog and his food was a battle that Lady have given up on. She was letting Freddie eat his fill from the trunk of her Beetle while examining a dent in her front fender. She straightened when she saw the Impala coming down the road.
"Why are you two back?"
"Your years of searching and studying this coven is no match for a few hours of Sam on the computer," Dean said, sounding rather proud of his brother.
"I finally cracked Troy's password for his email. Twenty-first century, even witches are connected. They cover their tracks pretty well but I did find something. First, Troy wasn't Troy Derkwood. He's a spook, no identity. Angie was..."
"Get to the good part," Lady said.
"A few good parts," Sam said eagerly. "They have been renting a storage locker in downtown Orlando for the past few months, not far from where Tammy was found. Since we didn't find many witchcraft items at their apartment I think it's worth checking out. Not to mention Troy was planning, with someone else online, to get rid of Angie after she let Tammy's body get discovered. Planning it for the new moon, you were right about that. The other person set up a meeting with Troy somewhere out in the swamps. From what I read these people don't even trust each other."
"Would you trust them?" Lady questioned, before they could answer she continued, "Pretty clever plan. Either Troy and his new partner killed Angie, or Angie and Troy killed the new guy, or the new guy gets one over on both of them and kills them. Good job, Tweedle Dee, I'll take care of it."
"See we might not know much about this coven, but it is definitely our kind of job," Dean said. "And we're just too gentlemen-like to let a nice little thing like you go out into the swamp alone. We'll go together to the storage locker, all take a look around. Then we'll make plans to take out the other witch when they show up."
Lady narrowed her eyes on Dean. She was surprised that they actually came to her with the information instead of acting on it by themselves. She had given them no concrete reason to trust her, and she hadn't shown them much trust either. "You guys didn't check out the storage locker yet?"
"Dean wanted to," Sam said. "But this is your gig, Lady. We want to help you with it, and if there is anything in there that can help you we know you'll recognize it before we can."
"You are holding out a lot of information, which is stupid," Dean added. "But we're willing to work with you on this. It'll go faster with you along for the ride since you already have done a lot of the legwork."
Lady replaced the lid on the bin as Freddie dropped down to all fours and slammed the trunk down. "Let me grab my stuff," she said. "Come on in, I'll only be a few minutes."
"You going to tell us what you are holding back?" Dean asked as he followed her in.
"I'll wait until I see what we have at the locker," Lady said. She knew she wouldn't get the address from them, they would hold onto that to make sure she kept them in the loop. It may be nothing more than furniture and junk, or it may be a treasure chest of dangerous arcane objects.
The brothers waited in the kitchen as Lady grabbed a few things. She put her silver charm bracelet on and slid her butterfly knife into a front pocket. She had to dig deep into her bag to pull out a baseball cap, plain and a faded red, and pulled her hair out of the hole in the back and knotted it behind her head before setting her sunglasses on the bill of the cap for when she went outside.
She worked on putting on some strappy sandals as Dean began shifting impatiently. "Ready yet?"
"These shoes are more complex than a safe, give me a minute," she said as she crossed the straps across her ankle and tied them securely. "If you want to start bitching you can wait outside," Lady said as she worked on the second shoe.
Lady put Freddie into the backyard before leaving in the Winchester's car, watching out the back windows as she memorized the path they were taking.
"What's the deal with your car?" Dean asked he drove, he hadn't forgotten the fact that the car hadn't been spotted or the box of tools that had been sitting in the driveway when they stopped to get her.
"It's been a bit wobbly since you steered it into a giant mud pool," she said. "It's taken care of."
"You know, Dean is great with cars," Sam said helpfully.
"Good for him, but Derek is handling it," she said. "Are we there yet?"
"Almost," Sam said.
Dean pulled the car into a lot that had several rows of storage units. He went slowly as they counted off the numbers and stopped the car in front of storage unit fourteen.
"This looks promising," Lady said, pulling off her sunglasses and putting them on top of her cap again.
"Don't judge until we get it open," Dean said, on his knees as he worked to pick the lock. After a few moments the padlock clicked open. The door slid upwards and Sam pulled out his flashlight.
"Witch's altar, candles and I'm pretty sure I'm smelling incense," Dean said.
"Dean," Lady said urgently through clenched teeth, and he looked at her confused. "Never, ever, just strut into a witch's playroom."
Dean took a step back and Sam shined the flashlight at the ground to reveal a shimmering substance. "What is that?" Sam asked, kneeling down to get a closer look.
"How did you know that would be there?" Dean asked.
"I didn't. I saw you burst into flames the second you almost stepped over it," Lady said, getting on her knees and looking across the dark floor. She wished they had been there later in the day when the sun would have been on the other side of them. "Give me the flashlight."
Sam handed it over and she shined it across the floor, a few times she reached her hand towards the substance but always took it back.
"That back there, is that blood?" Dean asked.
"Can't tell," Lady said as she got to her feet. A deep frown settled on her face. She pulled her knife out of her pocket and knelt down, carefully sliding it across the threshold and scraping some of the shimmering substance. Slowly she took it back, watching everything carefully to make sure nothing decided to magically blow up. She sniffed at the tip of the knife, "Ah, Van-van oil," she said. "Mixed with some kind of fuel. Propane or kerosene, maybe," she said. "And fish scales."
"Break line on the threshold and we can pass?" Dean asked.
Lady shook her head, "No, way too dangerous. Give me a second," she said, closing her knife and drumming her fingers on her thighs as she walked back to the car. The brothers had come through, they had found a legitimate lead and had waited for her. A good thing, too, considering they would have been killed by the magical landmine Troy and Angie had protected their haven with. Now to gain access she had to figure out how to counter that magic.
She worked the type of curse backwards, trying to think of ways to get it activated and keep it ready for days at a time. Black magic with blood was most powerful during the midnight hours.
She remembered being eighteen, sitting in Bobby's house recovering from a counter-curse he had tried on her that had made her violently sick for days while leaving her hair shiny and breakage-free. She had been fully devoted at that time, too young to really understand death but old enough to know she didn't want to die. Anything Bobby suggested to her she tried fearlessly, dealing with the consequences later. It sucked.
Bobby was telling her of another counter-curse he wanted to try when she felt better. He was explaining to her how it worked. "See, kid, the blackest magic is done during the witching hour, midnight typically. To counter midnight magic you use the lightest magic, something done during noon. Of course magic that doesn't involve the moon isn't as powerful, but you get the right things together during the noon hour and things just might be light enough to counter that black."
Lady's lip curled into a smile as she turned to the Impala and reached in to grab her bag. "I have an idea," she said as she dumped the bluebonnets she had picked in Texas onto the ground. There were in several plastic bags, dried and brittle and broken. "Give me a beer," Lady said as she began opening the bags. "And a pair of socks."
"Are you kidding me?" Dean asked.
"Do you have a bowl, too?" Lady asked, her eyes wide and hopeful. "And salt."
"I'll grab the cooler in the back," Sam said.
"Wait a second. How do we even know if she's telling the truth?" Dean finally asked, he had been dying to ask it all damn day and what she was requesting was just too ridiculous.
Lady pulled her cap off and shook her hair loose from the knot, she ran her fingers through her hairs to grab several loose strands to put inside. She threw the cap into the storage locker and as soon as it touched the ground it burst into blue flames with a soft pop. "I knew that hat a lot longer than I knew you. I can get us in, I just need a few things to counter the curse."
Sam dumped ice out of the cooler and dried the inside with a dirty shirt before setting it beside Lady. She stripped the petals from the blue bonnets into the cooler and then poured a beer into it. The foam mixing with the flowers created an unpleasant odor. She poured half a canister of salt into it and sloshed the contents around counter clockwise. Then she soaked a pair of socks that Sam gave her in the mix before going to the threshold.
She used the soggy sock, that now smelled like a mix of beer, bluebonnets and dirty feet, and began wiping away at the curse on the floor using counter-clockwise motions as she worked her way inside. Unable to help herself she grinned as it worked, countering curses was something she knew a lot about. Not enough to save herself, but at least enough to get rid of the piece of nasty that was in there. There was a great sense of pride, and a bit bitterly she admitted arrogance, to being able to accomplish something like this with so little. Of course if Max hadn't told her to get the stupid flowers to begin with she wasn't sure what else she would have been able to do.
Once the whole floor had been mopped by the dirty sock she stood up in the back of the storage unit and faced the brothers. Both of them, who had been given five minutes of her on her hands and knees as she worked on cleansing the curse, looked up at her quickly and adjusted themselves. She could have told them that it was too dangerous for them to go inside with her, but she nodded to them that it was safe.
The three of them all went up to the altar, and Lady examined the set-up. "Long term altar, probably did animal sacrifices here. It's small enough to drag outside if they needed open air," she said. "The one on the roof last night wasn't set up as well but not that different. Really no earth-shattering information."
"What about this?" Sam asked as he opened a box full of jars with various things inside.
"Might be able to determine what they were practicing," she said, walking over and picking up a jar. "Careful, don't open or break any of these."
"I thought you knew what they were practicing," Dean said. "You've been studying them for nearly ten years."
"Each cell of the coven is different. Some focus on ancient Egyptian rituals, others mix pussy Wicca with demonology, and the one your father killed was into Greek rituals." Lady rubbed her forehead. "Just let me look through this for a few minutes."
"So this coven doesn't even stick with one cultures mythology or rituals?" Sam asked quietly as he glanced at jars and making a face when one turned out to be a few eyeballs in some sort of gel. "That makes no sense."
"Look through all the mythology. A lot of it is all parallel to one another."
"Pagan worship," Dean said flatly. "They are drawing on power of pagans?"
"As far as I know," Lady said and let out a breath as Dean was about to call out her lie. "Yeah, they are. America was immigrated by all countries, all of them brought a little of their religion here. It's a prime place to capitalize on a dozen different pagan deities that are too weak to stop anyone from drawing on their power."
"Huh," Dean said, and Lady had to fight a smirk. "That situation with the Vanir suddenly got more ironic."
Lady set down a jar and went back to the altar. She grabbed the corners of the altar cloth and tied them together. She hefted the make-shift bag of the altar's atrocities, candles, herbs, and partially used parts and moved it to the floor. The table it the altar had been erected on was an old antique desk, blood had soaked through the cloth several times and stained it. She looked through the drawers, finding spare candles, silver daggers, ceremonial bowls and a small Playboy calendar. Before finishing she walked back over to Sam and caught a jar that slipped through his fingers before it could crash to the ground. "Careful, please."
"Sorry," Sam said, taking the jar back. "Is any of this useful to you?"
"I wouldn't use any of it. I don't know where they got it, how they got it, or what they did to it before they put it in jars." Lady muttered. "But seems this pair was into some African craft watered down with Middle East."
"You can tell just by looking at what they used?" Sam asked.
She met his eyes, "Yes. I've been researching witchcraft for a long time, longer than some of the witches I've killed. I know what I'm talking about and dealing with." Lady pulled the same gem from her pocket and it was swinging back and forth while beginning to turn black. "Everything in here needs to be torched. If no one is around to keep it in check it might cause problems. Blow up, cause the dead to rise, something bad."
"Can't torch the unit, cameras everywhere," Dean said. "Loading it up in the car and take it somewhere abandoned would be safe. What about that curse in here?"
"It's too broken up to cause damage anymore. If I missed a spot someone might get some hair singed, but nothing too bad," Lady said. She began pointing out the items that were too dangerous to leave and helped them fill the trunk and backseat of the Impala.
It was early afternoon when they returned to the house, smelling of smoke and gasoline. Derek was in the driveway working on Beetle's engine. "Was wondering where you went," he said as they got out of the Impala.
"I was wondering if you were ever going to wake up," Lady said. "You almost done?"
"Yeah. Took her to my pal's shop and got her realigned, just tuning you up now."
"Good. I'm buying you a plane ticket, where do you want to go?"
Derek looked like a small child who had been refused dessert, "What? No!"
"One-way to North Dakota it is," she said. "Sorry, but you mom will have my ass otherwise."
"What's going on?" he asked.
She gave him a smile, "I think you know. Hey, ease my mind and just listen, okay?" Lady gave Derek an adorable look of pleading, and he melted. "Thanks, bro."
"I want to go to Atlantic City, though," he said.
"Fargo it is," she said as she went into the house.
"Nice kid," Dean chuckled as they stepped into the air-conditioned house.
"Derek is sweet," she said, going to open the back door and let Freddie back inside.
"You got him wrapped around your little finger," Dean commented.
Lady frowned at him, "Mason and his family are good friends." She could imagine what Dean thought, that she was using them for her own benefit. What else could she tell him? The rest was none of his damn business. "What do you know about the area Troy was supposed to meet the other witch?"
"Few square miles of swamp land in the wildlife preserve," Sam said.
"We'll make sure you get there. With us." Dean said.
"No trust?" Lady arched an eyebrow.
"You are a cocky bitch that tries to handle this on her own and doesn't seem to really care if she lives or goes out in a blaze of glory. This isn't about trust, this is about trying to help you do what you say you want to do, lift that curse and destroy this coven." Dean said.
Lady stared at him thoughtfully, not shocked or angry at what he had said. Well, she had known she had problems with being too sure of herself, and she had barely gotten over dealing with Loki in Nebraska and she had noticed signs of it happening again. She could tell herself that she was trying to prevent Sam and Dean from getting caught in the crossfire, that she'd rather be the only casualty than have to worry about them, but they knew what they were doing. "You know what would happen to me if I had to call your father to tell him one or both of you got killed helping me on this?"
"Yeah, you'd get his voicemail," Dean answered.
"You guys are already in on this hunt. I can't get rid of you, and the best way I can make sure you don't get killed is to be honest with you and go in this with you," Lady said. "You guys can stay here, next few days we'll work together to get ready. It would help us if I can get a map of the area to narrow down places where they would be meeting."
"You need to follow our lead on this," Dean said.
"You get to tag along or I'll make your life living hell until the new moon," Lady countered. "I don't want to resort to fighting dirty, but I will."
"We work as partners," Sam negotiated between the two of them. "We all have something to bring to the table on this."
Lady smiled at Sam. "I like you, Sam, you know when to get out of a pissing match. There is an empty room upstairs, one of you will have to take the couch until I can get Derek out of here tomorrow."
"You mean you two don't share the bed?" Dean asked.
"The only man I enjoy sleeping with is in this room," she said, giving him a sly smile before putting her hand on Freddie's head. "And it isn't you."
Sam couldn't help the chuckle but quickly bit it off at the dark look Dean gave him.
Lady examined a map of the swampland that was their area of interest. She circled spots she thought were the best options for the witches to meet before Dean secured the map in his back pocket for safe keeping.
The night wound down and Dean was trying to get comfortable on the couch. The air conditioning kept the house comfortably cool but the humidity leaked in making him stick to the blankets. There were several reasons Dean couldn't sleep and the humidity was the last on the list. He was used to motels, one door, maybe a window in the back. The living room he was in seemed too open and unsecured. Upstairs Sam had a smaller bedroom with a real bed, the jerk had won the rock-paper-scissors match when deciding. Across the hall from Sam was Derek who was in the master bedroom. And down the hall from the living room was Lady and her giant mutt. All of those small irritations combined to make sleep impossible.
Instead of fighting it he got off the couch and went into the kitchen with his father's journal in his hand. Surely his father must have had more information on this coven, something to give them a better advantage when the new moon rose on Saturday. He grabbed a cold beer and sat under the light as he flipped through the pages.
Dean looked up when Freddie trotted into the living room. The dog sniffed around a bit and then into the kitchen before sitting next to Dean and looking up at him with large brown eyes. Dean went back to his journal but now he couldn't even sit and decipher his father's chicken scratch with the strange dog's eyes on him. "Go away," Dean said quietly, trying to shove Freddie's head in a nudge to get the dog to move but Freddie was solid muscle and took Dean's rough shove as a pet and licked his hand eagerly. "Ugh, damn it," Dean brought his drool covered hand back in disgust. He went to the sink to wash his hand off and smirked when he saw a bowl. "Ya thirsty, boy?" Dean asked as he set the bowl on the ground. Freddie's claws clicked on the linoleum as Dean poured his beer into the bowl. Before Dean had emptied the beer Freddie was lapping up the amber liquid. Dean chuckled, "Maybe you aren't so bad after all," he said. "Still a cock-block, though."
Now that the dog was occupied with a full bowl of beer Dean grabbed himself a fresh one and sat back down. He found the page he had read a few times since he had realized it was about the day his father had saved Lady and held it with his fingers as he flipped through the rest of the pages. He found a reference to his father taking the little Lady to Missouri after a few pages. Dean flipped through the last few empty pages of the journal, not finding anything else. When he closed his eyes from the strain of scanning through hundreds of pages he could still see his father's handwriting as if it was burned into his eyelids. He had finished his second beer and Freddie was looking up at him hopefully. Dean finally gave into rubbing the dog's ears.
"I was wondering where he went," Lady muttered as she walked sleepily into the kitchen wearing a t-shirt that went down to her thighs. Freddie abandoned Dean's knee and whimpered until Lady scratched his back for a few moments. "Sorry if he woke you up."
"Nah, I was working on something," Dean said.
Lady opened the fridge. Dean tilted his head as she bent over reaching for something in the back. The t-shirt rode up almost enough for him to see if anything else was under there before she straightened. She sniffed a take-out container of Chinese food and dropped it on the floor. "There you go, buddy." Freddie's nose wasn't small enough to fit into the cardboard container but he tried, busting it open and quickly eating the contents and half the box. Lady then opened a cupboard and stretched up to take down a box of crackers. "What are you working on?"
Dean looked away from the smooth thighs she exposed and back at the journal, "Just seeing if my dad wrote about this coven," he said, closing the journal. "Didn't find anything."
Lady went to fill a glass with water and saw the bowl on the floor. She picked it up and sniffed it, "Serious? You gave my dog beer?"
Dean shrugged, "He seemed to like it. He had three."
Freddie made a noise and rolled onto his back looking at the two of them hopefully for a belly rub. Lady nudged him with her foot and he flopped onto his side. She just shook her head and sat across from Dean at the table and worked on opening the box of Ritz. "John was pretty straightforward in how to handle witches. Shoot them in the head, twice if you can spare the ammo, and burn them along with everything they had."
"What's your approach?" Dean asked.
"Find out as much as I can before I shoot them in the head, twice if I can spare the ammo," she smirked.
Dean opened his mouth to remind her that she had shot Troy in the chest but Freddie was curled up by his side while licking himself noisily. "Well now you are just showing off," Lady said, glancing under the table. "Don't mind him, just like any guy after a few beers he gets a little frisky."
"He learn that habit from you, too?" Dean asked, looking away and trying to contain the laughter that wanted to bubble up.
"Even I'm not that flexible," Lady said, getting up to open the backdoor in the kitchen. Freddie got up quickly and ran outside. Dean let his eyes wander up her ankles to her thighs until he reached her face. "You've been a royal prick since I saved your ass, don't even think about it. Or I'll toss you out like a dog."
"I'd almost like to see you try," Dean said as she put away her snack.
"I'm going back to sleep," she said.
"Sure you don't want some company?" He offered. "I bet I'm just as cuddly as Freddie and I love to be pet." Lady fought back her grin. "I don't hear you saying no."
Lady took a few steps toward him, "You understand that this is only because you are an extremely easy lay."
"You think it's any different for me?" Dean asked her.
"Just making sure," she said, swinging a leg over his lap and running her hands through his hair. Dean let out a slow breath as his hands moved up her thighs and around her back to see if there was anything under that extra large t-shirt, and found silky underwear. Lady tilted her head and touched her mouth to his and he quickly slipped his tongue into her mouth, tasting the sweet crackers she had been eating.
He lifted her onto the table, knocking the chair he had been sitting on over, leaning into her while pulling at his shirt. She ran her hands over his chest as her mouth moved across his jaw and down his neck. She wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him closer to her.
"Sam," she breathed.
Dean leaned back from her, "What the hell?"
"No, Sam," she said.
The living room light came on and Sam appeared on the steps with his pistol in his hand. "Everything okay?" Sam asked urgently, and Lady started giggling. "Oh, oh god, uh...sorry, uh...oh god!" Sam ran back up the steps.
"I think we need to go into the bedroom," Lady said, her hands were already working on the button of his jeans.
Dean grabbed her in his arms and she wrapped her legs around his waist tightly as he hurried to the bedroom, trying not to knock her into a wall or a door frame as he tried to return her kisses. The bedroom door shut with a bang and he dropped her onto the mattress so he could pull the shirt off of her. Freeing himself from his jeans he joined her on the bed, teasing her breasts with his tongue while her hands ran down his back and her legs rubbed against his own.
Her fingers bit into his shoulders as he entered her, she buried her mouth in his neck and moaned as he thrust into her. Her hips lifted to reach him as her legs wrapped around his to pull him farther into her. They moved with each other in aching desire while trying to stifle their sounds of passion. Their anger at each other was still there in their movements and harder than necessary kisses.
Both of them were gasping for breath when it was over and Dean settled into the pillow next to her, letting his hand run over her ribs and feeling her heart pounding under his hand. "I wasn't going to say anything, but you smell like a dog."
She laughed as she tossed part of a blanket over him, he took it and wrapped it around the both of them. "You aren't exactly a flower yourself, pal." She moved to the edge of the bed to give him room and rolled to put her back to him.
Dean slid across and put the length of his body against hers, and she leaned against him as he draped an arm around her waist. "What is the deal with the dog?"
"You never had a dog growing up?" she asked, her voice sounding tired.
"No," Dean said.
"I never did, either," she admitted. "But I have one now."
Dean nuzzled the back of her neck to move the hair so he could rest his face against the soft skin there, kissing it briefly as he felt the sleep that escaped him earlier begin to fall on him. His breaths matching Lady's and her warm body secure against his. "Okay, you need to pick half the bed and stay there," she said, making his eyes open and pulling him away from sleep.
"You don't want to spoon?"
"The humidity is over a hundred percent," she said.
Dean moved over on the bed and put his hands behind his head. "Works for me," he said, settling into the cool pillow and letting the sleep pull at him again. But before the sleep could grab him his eyes opened as the memory of something his brother said was so clear in his head it seemed like Sam was in the room, 'Can you even admit to yourself that you have a thing for Lady?' Thinking about Sam or even his voice was the last thing Dean wanted to do after having sex and while laying naked with a woman, it was just wrong, but now it was stuck in his head. But he knew that there was nothing between him and Lady except an occasional working relationship and some fun in the sack. She was officially the best expert they had on witchcraft and probably not too shabby in her Pagan worship, that was useful. She would be just as useful if she was a guy named Leland with a beer gut, just without the benefit of sex.
Lady woke up when half the blankets got torn off of her as Dean rolled in his sleep. Sunlight was filtering in through the curtains and there was the dull sound of an early-morning rainstorm. She slid out of the bed and quietly went to the bathroom to take a shower. When she was done she exited the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her body and one around her head and went back into her room to find some clothes that were moderately clean, she'd have to work on laundry soon.
Freddie had made his way back into the house and was stretched out on the bed next to Dean. "Hungry, buddy?" She asked quietly as she pulled on her shorts from the previous day and searched her bag for a shirt.
"What time is it?" Dean asked sleepily, his face buried in a pillow.
"Half-past six," Lady answered as she pulled her shirt on.
Dean made a noise and Lady held back a laugh as she saw Freddie was licking his back and nuzzling his head. Dean began to turn over to wrap Freddie in his arms and he jerked when he found fur, "Jesus Christ," he groaned.
"I think he likes you," Lady chuckled as she gathered up her dirty clothes. "Try to keep it down, you two."
"That's just wrong!" Dean called as she left the room.
Lady found Sam sitting in the living room working on his laptop. He glanced up to see who it was and quickly looked down with a red face when he saw it was her. "Good morning," she said.
"Hi," he said tensely.
The laundry room was between the living room and the kitchen, Lady kept the door open so she could see Sam as she began to fill the washer. "Did you sleep okay?" She asked, hiding her smirk.
"Yeah," Sam answered shortly. "Fine." Lady waited until he said, "I'm really sorry about..."
"Sam, no worries," she laughed. "You didn't see anything."
The washer started and Lady fell into the empty couch that Dean had been using as a bed before he got invited into hers. She turned the television on and not long afterward Derek shuffled down the stairs. "You guys are noisy," he complained as he walked into the kitchen.
"Ordered your plane ticket," Lady said. "Leaves at noon so get ready and get out of here."
"Yeah, fine," he mumbled.
The morning went by quickly after Derek left, Lady and the Winchesters freely discussed their plans for the next day. Checking their weapons, sharpening knives and cleaning guns.
As the night wound down Sam and Lady lounged in the living room while waiting for Dean to return with a pizza for supper. "Hey, Lady, can I ask about your mark?" Sam asked.
"What do you want to know about it?" She asked tensely.
"It's just…it is the mark of the coven. I get that you were nearly sacrificed by them, why do you have it?"
Lady had been unusually honest with the Winchesters, not that she didn't still have a lot of information she hadn't given away, but she hadn't been refusing to answer their questions, either. "They brand just about anything they have with the symbol," she said. "Special sacrifices, too."
"Special?"
Lady shrugged, "Unfortunately I don't know much about what they did to me. Sort of one of the big questions I've been looking for an answer to. All the time I've been doing this I haven't heard of anyone else going through what I remember happening."
Sam frowned in thought and looked back at the television.
Lady was satisfied that she hadn't flat-out lied, but there was a lot of missing information. She was surprised though that it bothered her, like she maybe should have told him more. She fidgeted with her charm bracelet and focused on looking at the dangling charms. There was a cross, pentacle, unicursal hexagram, Buddha, star of David and a Hindu charm. There were a few empty rings where charms in the past had fallen off and never been retrieved, but they hadn't been lost by her.
"That's a pretty nice bracelet," Sam said.
"Yeah, I like it," she said.
"Real silver?" he asked.
"If I say yes are you going to melt it down?" she asked.
Sam cracked a smile and shook his head, "No, just, those charms in silver gives it pretty powerful protection. Why don't you wear it all the time?"
"I leave it with Freddie when I leave him," she said. Sam looked confused as to why she'd leave a valuable piece of jewelry with her dog. "I don't have any particular reason, I mean the best I can come up with sounds corny as hell. Freddie is a dog, I know, but he's my best friend. Considering how I live if I keep him at home I may not come back, at least if he has this he has something of mine."
"Sounds sweet," Sam offered, but she could tell he didn't get it. "You know it's pretty surprising, for how out of the norm everything is for you, you actually have it pretty normal. House, dog, all that."
"You have no idea what my life is like," she said. "Far from normal. Not my house, and the dog is no Lassie."
"You don't seem to have it too bad. Even if you do you keep a pretty good attitude," Sam said.
"I don't have much going for me but attitude and a bitchin' shoe collection," Lady smirked. "Your lot isn't so bad, Sam. You got family."
Sam shrugged, "I know, but sometimes I...I don't know. Before all this started up again for me I was real happy, you know? I mean, I love my brother and my father, but I don't want the same life as them. If your situation was different would you want to do this?"
"Not sure."
"Not sure? Come on, do you like doing this? Hunting for witches?"
"I don't know what I would do instead, to be honest." Lady laughed a bit, "You know what I did before this started for me?" Sam smiled a bit and shook his head. Lady had to bite back the nervous laughter, she wasn't sure why she was offering this information but before she could come up with a lie she told the truth, "I hustled. I was fifteen and I hustled tourists in Las Vegas. I wasn't half bad, either. Shell game, magic tricks, pick-pocketing, all that. And, uh…I knew it was wrong, of course. I wasn't stupid, but I was fifteen, my next choice was hooking. Hell, maybe if I hadn't gotten picked up by the witch I would have ended up doing that, too, I don't know. It's been nine years and some of this stuff still scares the crap out of me, but I would rather be doing this than what I was working my way up to. And I do enjoy knowing that when I've taken a few of them off the map that more people will never be hurt by them again. And sometimes things I know helps others out. Maybe I don't know as much as I should after being at it for so long, but I feel like this is something I should do. Someone has to, right?"
Sam nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, you're right."
Dean hurried inside as rain poured down, "I hope this crap doesn't keep on through tomorrow," he said as he shook water out of his hair. "Soggy pizza, anyone?"
The excitement before a hunt was surging that night. They were ready to go out in the morning and begin a hike to find the witch's ritual sight and hopefully find it in time to set up an ambush for them. It was difficult to sleep as their minds all worked over the plan, back-up plan, and the 'oh shit' plan to see if there were any holes that could be filled. Sam took Dean's advice to take Freddie on a long run around the neighborhood and Dean worked on filling one particular hole until he and Lady were so physically exhausted that they had no choice but sleep.
