"I mean, come on. You can't just break in in the middle of the night and expect me to hit the road with you!"
Watching grown men arguing like children as they made their way down the stairs would be a strange thing to witness if you weren't Mercy who had heard every whining tone either of them could possibly make.
"You're not hearing me Sammy. Dad's missing; I need you to help us find him."
"Remember the poltergeist in Amherst, or the Devil's gate in Clifton. He was missing then too, he's always missing and he's always fine!"
"Not for this long, now are you going to come with us or not?"
Mercy rubbed her forehead in hopes to soothe the oncoming head ache. She was thirty years old and still had to put up with her kid brothers arguing. Was it really too much to ask them to grow up and discuss things like the adults they're supposed to be. In fact, the two of them argued less when they were kids and if they did, it was never in front of her.
"Mercy, you know as well as I do that dad is just out drinking somewhere!" And now they're dragging her into it.
"You know something's wrong! Tell him Mercy!"
She snapped and glared at the two hot heads, enough was enough. Was it really that impossible for her to relax and let the boys look after themselves for once?
"That's enough! You've been together for no more than ten minutes and already you're arguing! Now Sam, Dean's right." Said brother opened his mouth to retaliate but was silenced with a warning finger. "It's not like Dad to go on such a long trip without telling me. Yes it might be nothing but something just doesn't feel right and you know just as well as us that a Hunter's instincts should never be ignored!"
Sam looked angry but subdued and Dean was smiling victoriously until Mercy set her sights and finger on him.
"And Dean, Sam's right. He has a normal life now, he has responsibilities, and as much as we don't like it, he can't just drop everything and go on a hunt with us! I thought I taught you brats better than this!"
She took a deep breath to calm down and think rationally. It's hard to make decisions when your head is filled with emotions and this needed to be resolved then and there. She rubbed her head in an attempt to distract from the stress of the situation.
"Be that as it may, we really need you Sam. You're good when it comes to finding people. As long as you don't have anything too important then we should head off."
Mercy knew she had won by the look on the youngest face. His ever famous Bitch Face making it very obvious just how much he'd prefer not to go, but he had no argument against her.
"Fine, but I need to be back here by Monday!"
Hours passed and Mercy was once again fast asleep in the back of the car. The two other Winchesters sat in an awkward silence listening to the soft snores of their older sister.
The scenery passed by and became boring for Sam to watch. He turned his attention to his two siblings, hoping for something to relieve the mind numbing nothing.
"Hasn't Mercy been sleeping properly?" Sam broke the silence, unable to withstand being left to his own thoughts.
"We're hunter's Sammy; sleep isn't really something we do." Dean replied. Silence enveloped the Impala once again. It wasn't like Dean to not have any music on, but Sam just assumed it was for the sake of Mercy. She seemed to be tired and cranky when they were at his place, and a bit of sleep could do her good.
"She didn't want you to come with us you know." Sam blinked a few times before he processed that his brother was talking to him.
"What do you mean?" He felt a small pang of hurt at the thought that his sister didn't want to be near him.
"She didn't want to drag you from your normal life. Man, you know as well as I, that all she's wanted for us is to have at least a semi normal life, or for us to follow what we want to do."
Dean avoided facing Sam to keep a sense of stoicism in the car. He focused intently on the road, making sure not to drive into any ditches so his car didn't get damaged. It wasn't because he didn't want to disturb Mercy, not at all.
"What was it like after I left?" Sam asked, his voice almost a whisper, like he was unsure if he really wanted to know the answer.
"Dad wasn't happy obviously. He was either cursing your name or acting as if you never existed, either way he became stricter and didn't want us out of his sight. He didn't even let Mercy shower without knocking on the door to make sure she was still there. Mercy said it was because he was afraid of losing us like he lost you."
Sam snorted with frustrated laughter.
"He didn't lose me. He told me to never come back so I didn't."
"Mercy thought he was being stupid as well, but put up with it. I think she understood where he was coming from, we all felt that way. Sam you're our family, you should have ignored what dad said and at least called us."
Sam said nothing. He knew Dean had a point, but he was too stubborn, he didn't want to go back to the hunting life. He didn't want anything to ruin what he managed to build. Even now it was just a onetime thing, he was going back to Stanford and life would go on like normal.
"It was two months later when Mercy finally lost it. You know what she can be like, stews in her anger for a while before exploding on who ever pissed her off. This time it was Dad. He was drunk of his head and said a ton of things he didn't mean, it was enough to make her twitchy. Then he said something about being disappointed in you and Mercy lost it. There was a lot of yelling and things being thrown across the room. They got louder and things got really heated, I don't think they even knew what they were saying at that point. Then Dad…"
Sam narrowed his eyes in suspicion as Dean clenched his jaw. The older brother was obviously uncomfortable about what he was about to say, hesitant to even tell Sam.
"What did Dad do?" Sam had a dangerous edge to his tone. It only ever happened when he was angry with Dad.
"Look Sammy-"
"It's Sam." Dean sighed.
"Look, they were both being stupid and said some bad things."
"Dean, just tell me already!" Sam instantly quieted. Both listened for the tell-tale sound of their sister waking up. When all they heard was the quiet snores they sighed in relief and continued their conversation in hushed tones.
"Dad said some crap about Mercy not raising you right which pissed her off even more."
Sam couldn't stop the laugh that rose from his chest.
"She shouldn't have had to raise us." He muttered under his breath knowing that Dean could hear every word. The older brother chose to ignore the younger and continued with his story.
"So Mercy told him that Mum would be disgusted with how he was treating us."
Every muscle in Sam's body froze with that one statement. Even he didn't broach the subject of their Mum. It was a taboo subject that should never be used.
"Dad completely lost it and hit her." Sam's eyes widened in shock as he tried to digest the information he had just been given.
Their Dad had never been the best but he never hit any of them outside of training, and even then he held back a lot of his strength. He even went as far as telling him and Dean to protect Mercy because, whilst she was a great fighter, men were built bigger and she was small, more so than the average woman.
"The worst part is that he wouldn't stop. He knocked her to the ground and kept hitting her. It scared the crap outta me Sammy, and you know I don't scare that easy. I managed to pull him away from her but he wouldn't stop screaming at her."
Dean took a deep breath to calm down, and relieve some tension from his body.
"The funny thing is, she just got up like she hadn't just been whaled on and beat his ass seven ways to Sunday. He tried to fight back of course. Dad would never let a woman beat him down. But he couldn't, she knocked him to the ground and held a knife to his throat."
"She did what? Dean, why are you telling me about all this?"
He only just heard the faint frustrated growl from Dean as he searched for the words.
"You're better at this whole emotional stuff okay. Sam, after she beat him she said something that doesn't sit right with me. She said "It seems old habits never die.""
Sam finally figured what Dean was trying to say.
"You think he abused her when we were kids."
The silence was all the answer he needed.
Mercy wasn't a happy bunny at that moment in time. Gone were her comfy leather boots, gone were her sturdy jeans and thin flannel and most important, gone was her trusty over the shoulder bag that had everything you could need on a supernatural hunt. Like a smaller compact version of the Impala's trunk with more salt, holy water and silver knives than guns. (No Dean, it was not a purse. It wasn't her fault that the chances of getting girl's clothes with some decent pockets were next to impossible.)
It was all for the sake of getting tossed in a suit to look like FBI, she even had to put on make-up because nothing says professionalism like just the right amount of powder. Luckily she got to keep her wavy dark chocolate hair up in a ponytail.
"No offence agent, but your partners seem a bit young to be FBI don't you think."
Mercy carefully kept her face blank as she conversed with the local authorities. It was the only way they took her seriously, so she had to stand tall and basically act like a stuck up bitch with an ice cold attitude.
"Excellent observation there sir, but if you actually took your time to think about it you'd realise that that is exactly why I'm also here. I'm here to supervise, if you have any problems with that then please take it up with me at a later date."
That was enough to get the idiots to realise that she meant business and answer the questions they had. Unfortunately they had to take a swift leave as Dean had been Dean and managed to irritate the men.
It was in the nick of time it would seem, the real FBI walked past the three siblings and went to talk to the police. Knowing when their cover is blown the Winchesters bolted to the Impala and drove off.
-
"Really Dean, of all things you could have said it had to be boobs. Do you really want to be on the receiving end of police brutality? Because I think those cops were very close to punching you."
"Come on Mercy, I escaped didn't I?" Mercy swore she had no idea where the strength to not hit him came from. But it had been Dean's saviour for years.
"Yes, yes. You're amazing." Dean gave a wide smile and Mercy didn't have the heart to continue through with her sarcastic comment.
Sam may have got the puppy eyes, but Dean got the innocent smile that was too filled with joy to force away.
It was a surprise that she had been able to refuse them anything when they were small.
