AUTHOR'S NOTES: Since I started doing the running gag of Stella smacking her head on a car when someone sneaks up on her I figured I might as well keep it going with Samuel.
CHAPTER SUMMARY: Family bonding for Samuel and Dean and family squabbles for the Monroes.
Next chapter: Stella's grandfather shows up and is not only in a chatty mood, but also spills the beans on demon and hunter activity in DC.
Chapter 9
Samuel Campbell had known of the Monroe family for years. In fact, truth be told, the Monroes were some of the few hunters he actually liked. But the idea that Sam was going to marry Jack Monroe's oldest daughter seemed unsettling for some reason.
Getting to Washington, DC, Samuel felt a bit uneasy. The place was a twisted hive of demons trying too hard to act like humans and hunters who were drawn to this area for that exact reason. Pulling into the Monroe Auto Shop, Samuel got out of his car and walked into the repair bay. "Hello?" he called, looking for anyone around. "Anyone home?"
There was a metallic thud followed by a curse and a young woman came out from under an old beat-up SUV. "I swear to God! What is wrong with you people? Haven't you ever heard of ringing the damn buzzer?" She gave Samuel a glare as she straightened up, rubbing her head, and added, "So what is it with you damn Winchesters and trying to give me a damn concussion?"
Samuel gave Stella a look and said, "Try the other side of the family tree."
Stella gave him a knowing look as she grabbed a towel off the SUV's hood and wiped her hands off. "Right. Campbell, right?"
"Samuel," he said, holding out a hand. When she shook it, he said, "So you're Stella?"
"Yep," Stella replied, going over to the desk and grabbing the car's paperwork. After making a note, she turned back to Samuel. "Hungry? Whole family's over at the diner."
Samuel raised an eyebrow at that and asked, "Family meeting?"
Stella shook her head and headed for the door. "I wish. Try yearly eviction."
xx
In the diner, Heather had set up two long tables together in the back and was starting to bring out dinners when Stella and Samuel came in the door. "Stella. Have a seat. I'll be there in a second, honey."
"Take your time, Mom," Stella replied, grabbing a cookie from a tray in the dessert case. Going over to the table, she gestured to Samuel. "Guys, Samuel Campbell-Dean and Sam's grandfather." Indicating the table, she said, "My Dad, Jackson; my brothers, Jeff and Kyle; My sister, Laura; and my uncle Jonathan. The others are Kelly Gibbs, Ziva David, and Ellen and Jo Harvelle. All of them are hunters."
"Uh-huh," Samuel said, curiously. "So what's with the get-together?"
"Haunting at the lodge," Jack replied as Samuel sat down next to Sam and Dean and Stella sat next to her brothers. "Every year my father's ghost starts acting up. We've been trying for years to figure out what's up but nothing works. Salted and burned his bones after the first time. Year after we burned every thing he ever owned. Couple years ago he started throwing people out of the house."
"That's when you started holing up here?" Samuel concluded as Stella's mother came up.
"Here and at the auto shop. Or Laura's apartment," Heather replied. "What can I get ya, sugar?"
Samuel looked uneasy at the woman's nickname but he just said, "Uh, burger and fries. Coffee, black."
"Club sandwich and onion rings. Coffee, black with sugar," Stella added. "Thanks, Mom." Reaching across the table, she stole a few French fries off of Sam's plate. "So what's the living arrangements this time?" Looking at her siblings, she added, "Because the four of us are not sharing a bed again. That was just ugly the last time." Pointing an threatening finger at Kyle, she added, "And if you ever share those pictures again I will road-haul you from the bumper of my Mustang."
"Hey, that wasn't as bad as Laura practically shoving her foot in my mouth in her sleep," Jeff countered.
"Yeah, and you were sucking on my toes, and moaning your girlfriend's name," Laura snapped.
"Hey, Tommy was the one who took the picture," Kyle said, digging into his burger.
"Thank God he's not here this time," Heather said, bringing up Samuel and Stella's plates.
"Heather," Jack said, wearily.
"You may not like it, Jackson," Heather replied, a hand on her hip. "But yes. I am happy our son is at college fulfilling his dreams, living his life."
"What's wrong with being a hunter?" Jack asked, looking at his wife. "You save lives, kill evil crap…"
"It's not who he is and you know it," Heather snapped. Glancing at the others, she huffed and left the diner, her husband right behind her.
"Welcome to the family," Jonathan said, smiling at Samuel.
Samuel gave the other man a nod as he looked at the rest of the Monroe family. There had been quite a few times he and Deanna had considered having more children after Mary was born. But looking at Jeff, Kyle, Laura, and Stella, Samuel wondered if this is what would have happened. Looking for a distraction from his thoughts, he looked at Kelly who was eying Dean in a way that reminded him of the way Mary used to look at John Winchester. "So, are your family hunters, too?" he asked, her, casually.
Kelly choked on a sip of her soda and when she stopped, she started laughing. "Uh, no. No, my parents are definitely not hunters. Mom… Mom died when I was 18 and Dad's a federal agent."
That made Samuel blink in surprise and raising an eyebrow in curiosity, he asked, "What agency? Don't tell me he's FBI."
"NCIS," Ziva and Kelly said together. "I work with Kelly's father," Ziva added at Samuel's look. "My mother was also a hunter, in case you were wondering."
Eating in silence, Samuel felt a bit overloaded sitting in this diner, trying to make small talk with everyone like he was at some sort of hunters' convention. "I need some air," he muttered, getting up and heading for the door. Outside, he leaned against the cement wall, lost in his thoughts. The world was so complicated now.
"Kinda overwhelming, isn't it?" Dean said, coming outside and joining his grandfather. "You're part of you own little unit, think you know what's going on… Then you really start reaching out to the others who live in this life and you find that… you really don't know as much as you think."
Samuel gave Dean a half-hearted smile and nodded. "I look at Stella and her family and I wonder if that's what could have happened to Deanna and me. Maybe Mary wouldn't have been an only child."
"It's living in the past Samuel," Dean replied, shaking his head at the thought. "And I get it now. I do."
"Dean," Samuel interjected.
"No, I mean it," Dean said, cutting him off. "I've wanted a normal life more than anything in the world. Anything. And do you know why? Because I still remember. I can still remember sitting at the kitchen table in Lawrence, Kansas eating PB&J with the crusts cut off and a glass of milk and Mom asking me if I wanted a piece of pie." Taking a breath and trying to reign in the hot bubble of emotion deep inside, Dean didn't say anything for a moment. "But that's gone now. Gone because now I know what's out there. And as long as I know I can never go back to a regular apple pie life. And even if I could just wipe the slate clean I know that one way or another I'm going to get sucked right back into it."
Not sure of what to say, Samuel was quiet for a while before saying, "I kinda felt like I was looking back in time in there."
"How's that?" Dean asked, looking a bit puzzled.
Samuel turned to Dean, a smile on his face. "The way Kelly was looking at you in there. I remember Mary looking at your father the same way."
"No way," Dean laughed, shaking his head. "No, she's…" But he couldn't help the smile on his face as he said, "It's not like that."
Turning to look at his grandson, Samuel gave him a smile. "Okay. Whatever you say, Dean." After a pause his expression grew pensive and he said, "Sometimes I wish you had that normal, apple pie life. I wish I did, too, sometimes."
"You?" Dean asked, surprised by the confession. "How come?"
The older man shrugged, turning back to look at the semi-busy street. "Watching Mary grow up I always had this… twisting in my gut. I knew that being born in this life wouldn't be easy and there was a part of me that was always uneasy raising Mary to be a hunter."
Dean thought about that for a while before finally asking, "So why do it? Why bring your kids into this?"
"Because I was afraid of what would happen to your mother if she didn't know what was out there," Samuel replied.
xx
Inside the diner, Sam looked at Stella. "So how long does your grandfather usually hang around?"
Stella let out a breath as she thought. "Never longer than a couple days. Four days, tops."
"Four days?" Sam repeated. "So what does he want?"
"Damned if we know," Jeff mumbled around the last bite of his burger. Swallowing, he continued, "Papaw never talks to anyone when he shows up. Just stomps around the house and lately kicks anyone around out of the house."
"Like he's trying to protect you from something?" Sam suggested.
"Like what?" Laura said, scoffing. "First thing Mom and Dad did after buying the land was lay down iron and salt lines. Even used some heavy duty silver wire to put the house itself in the middle of one huge devil's trap."
"Okay," Sam said, thinking again. "Maybe he wants something inside the house."
"Sam, we've thought about all this," Jonathan said, wearily. "I appreciate you thinking. Really. But this has been going on for 6 years now and we're still no closer to figuring out what's going on."
Thinking of anything that could give him a clue, Sam asked, "How's he die?"
"Demon," Kyle said, quietly. When Sam looked at him, he sighed. "Weird one, too. Didn't have black eyes. Or red."
Sam's gut started doing flipflops as he asked, "Were the demon's eyes yellow?"
The Monroe family focused on Sam as Kyle nodded. "Yeah. How'd you know?"
"I know the demon who killed him," Sam admitted. "Azazel. He…"
"Laura," Stella said, cutting Sam off quickly. "Research. Take Kyle and Jeff with you."
"I'm sorry, who died and made you boss?" Laura snapped, annoyed.
"Just do it," Stella replied, getting up before pulling Sam to his feet. Without another word she'd led him across the street to the auto shop. Once in her office and the door was closed, she turned to Sam looking nervous. "Okay, tell me you weren't about to just tell my family about your whole demon blood issue."
"I wasn't going to bring up the whole 'drinking demon blood' thing, but yeah," Sam replied, not understanding what the issue was.
"Sam, my dad likes you," Stella said, pointedly. "He has never liked any guy I've dated. Never. If you tell him he's not going to like it which means he probably won't like you."
Realizing that it wasn't just his former activities that had set her on edge, Sam waited until Stella wasn't an nervous before asking, "What's going on, Stella?"
Stella sat down behind her desk and sighed as she slumped in the chair. "I've tried, Sam." Looking up at him, she shrugged. "I've tried to walk away. I hate hunting. I may be good at it but I hate it. I love fixing cars." Standing up, she said, "When Bobby Singer got stabbed he called me, asked if I wouldn't mind taking over the salvage yard. I turned him down, spouting a bunch of crap about my family."
Sam gave her a wry smile. "South Dakota's pretty far away from DC." Taking her hand, he asked, "So is that what you want?"
"Yeah," Stella replied, after thinking for a moment. "I mean, I'll still be in the loop which will make my family happy. And you can settle down if you want or hunt locally… or whatever."
"I just want to be with you," Sam replied, pulling Stella to her feet and into his arms. "I don't care where." After they shared a long, sensual kiss, Sam slowly unbuttoned Stella's flannel shirt. "So how long until your family comes looking for you?"
"Don't know," Stella replied, a devilish smile on her face as she started undoing Sam's button-down shirt. "Don't care."
