A/N: There's a little surprise in here for you guys! Review and tell me if I did good with it or not.
Chapter Twelve
Ella
Sam and I get out of the Impala while Dean sleeps in the back. We sit on the hood and talk.
"Can you tell me about some old cases you and Dean have done?"
"Sure. It's pretty interesting going up against some of the weirder ones. Like the first hunt I went on with him was four years ago, I was in college with my girlfriend Jess at the time and it was for the weekend." He chuckles, hanging his head down a little. "Dean, he broke into my apartment like he does every where and he was real sarcastic about it till he was actually telling me why he was there. I remember it so clearly. Jess was standing next to me and Dean said 'Dad hasn't been home in a few days' then I said, 'So he's working overtime on a Miller Time shift. He'll stumble back in sooner or later.' And Dean being the sarcastic, serious guy that he is, said 'Dad's on a hunting trip and he hasn't been home in a few days'."
"So that's how it all got restarted?" He nods.
"That was the first time back in four years and I was going to become a lawyer and marry Jessica. I had everything planned out, I even had an interview set up that Monday. But naturally I went with Dean to hunt in Jericho and it was a Woman in White, sometimes called a Weeping Woman. Haven't really run across one of them in a while. They're scary when they're pissed off."
"I figured. What are they?"
"They're spirits of women. See, when they were alive, their husbands were unfaithful to them. And these women, basically suffering from temporary insanity, murdered their children. Then once they realized what they had done, they took their own lives. So now their spirits are cursed, walking back roads, waterways. And if they find an unfaithful man, they kill him. And that man is never seen again."
"Oh. Well I could take care of one of those. I'm a female. And I'm not unfaithful."
"Maybe. I've never heard of a woman going after a woman in white." I shrug. "Did Dean ever tell you that he thought he had a kid?"
"No, that's actually kind of funny. Boy or girl?"
"Boy."
"I want kids. Two boys."
"I wanted kids too when I was in college with Jessica. Then she died and I went back on the road again."
"That's sad. Well obviously. I just never know what to say when someone dies. But I can say I know how it feels."
"I know, I was there." I bump his shoulder to get him to feel a little bit better. "Alright, want to know some more cases?"
I nod. "Yes I do, Sammy."
He rolls his eyes. "I remember we visited mom's grave after dad died and when we were leaving, there was a large circle around one of the graves. A girl named Angela I think. She was a zombie brought back by a Greek ritual, used for necromancy."
"I wouldn't have worked that case. I would have hidden in the corner till it was gone, then I would of had to have one of you check the entire motel room and leave all of the lights on and one of you would of had to sleep with me to keep me sane." Sam laughs at me. "Hush gigantor. It's a real fear." He stops laughing after a few minutes and after I started laughing myself. We turn as we hear the backseat door open and Dean gets out.
"Hey, how'd you sleep?" Sam asks.
"How do you think? I'm starving. Let's get breakfast."
"Where? We're like two hours from anything."
"But I'm hungry now." I laugh at him.
"There's probably still a sandwich in the backseat," I offer. He sneers and I jump off the hood and drag him over to me. I kiss his cheek. I reach into the backseat, grab the paper bag, sniff it, and turn away. "It's tuna nevermind."
Then the phone starts ringing. We all check our's then Dean walks to the glove compartment and pulls out a phone.
"Isn't that dad's?" Sam asks.
"Hello?" Dean answers. "He can't come to the phone. Can I help you?" A pause. "Well, sorry to be the one to break this to you, pal, but John died more than two years ago. Who is this?" Dean walks away and starts talking to him. I look to Sam.
"Why is he so pissy today?" Sam shrugs.
"Far as I can tell, he needs to sleep in a real bed tonight." Dean walks back over.
"He said he was dad's son." Sam and I go quiet, really quiet.
We pull into Cousin Oliver's Hilltop Cafe and get out. We go to the back and Dean opens the trunk of the Impala.
"Dean, look, best I can tell, Adam Milligan is real," Sam tells him looking at his laptop which is open on top of the car. "Um, born September twenty-ninth, 1990 to Kate Milligan. No father listed on the birth certificate. He's an Eagle Scout. Graduated from high school with honors and currently goes to the University of Wisconsin—biology major, pre-med." Dean was getting his weapons out the entire time and I don't think he was listening.
"Dean, you listening?"
"This is a trap," is all Dean says. He walks into the diner and we follow, dropping the computer into the front seat. Dean leads us to a table with four chairs. He pulls two next to the plant and a third on the other side of him. I sit on Dean's right side with Sam on my other side. They argue a little and the waitress comes over.
"Hi, welcome to Cousin Oliver's. Can I.."
"We're actually waiting on somebody," Dean says a bit harshly. The waitress slaps the menus down and I push mine away. Dean replaces his water with holy water and his silverware with actual silver and the meeting went by smoothly. Well almost he was looking at me a little too long, a little too inappropriately. Dean was ready to shoot him for staring at me to long. Better let Dean know that I'm not leaving him for his kid brother. Though Dean get's defensive at one point, spilling that Sam and him are his sons not Adam. I have to put my hand on top of him before he would calm down enough to not yell or attack Adam.
Though Adam wants to prove it. He takes us back to his house and Dean's shocked that John took Adam to a baseball game. Though I want to get straight down to business.
"Adam, you said you called Dad because your mom was missing," I say.
"Yeah."
"How long has she been gone?"
"Three days."
"Who was the last person to see her?"
"Mr. Abbinanti, our neighbor. He saw her come home Tuesday night, but she never showed up to work on Wednesday." I look around as he's talking then look back when he's done.
"Did you call the police?"
"Mom's supervisor at the hospital did. And then I drove down here as fast as I could. I should have been here."
"What did the cops say, sweetie?" I ask, hoping to make him feel just a touch better.
"That they, uh, they searched the house. They didn't find anything. She wouldn't leave without telling anybody. It's like she just dropped off the face of the earth, you know?"
He takes us to her room upstairs. "The nightstand was knocked over," Dean starts, "was there anything else?"
"Oh, not really. The sheriff said there's no sign of a break-in. What, you think the cops missed something?"
"Maybe. Yeah. They don't have my eyes."
"You're a mechanic."
"Yeah that's right."
"Dean, what else can you tell me about dad?"
"Trust me, kid, you don't want to know." Sam shows up with papers in his hands. "Give us a minute."
Adam sits on the edge of the bed looking at a picture of his mom, Kate.
"Are you okay?" He shakes his head. "Well don't worry about it. I know how it feels to lose a parent, even if she is only missing, she's still gone. I just recently lost my dad. Sam and Dean were there and they helped me through it."
They come back in and Dean is right there in his face asking questions again. "Hey, does your mom know Joe Barton?"
"Uh, I don't think so. Why?" I notice scratches on the floor leading under the bed, Dean does too. "What is it?"
"Watch out." Dean moves pillows and then asks for help moving the mattress. "Give me a hand with the mattress." We look at the vent in the floor and then Sam and Dean look at me.
"Come on guys, just because I'm small doesn't mean I'm that small."
A minute later, I'm crawling through the vent with a flashlight. It's a bit difficult because my hips are so big and I have to army crawl through and yet hold a large flashlight. I stop and see blood. I grab the pistol Dean let me use for this trip and I crawl around the corner quickly and I point the gun. I lower it when I see blood and pieces of bone and flesh and hair.
I curse and crawl back out.
We're at the motel and Dean is cleaning the shot-gun while I sit with him, rubbing his shoulders. We hear a knock and Dean puts the shotgun down and Sam opened the door, revealing Adam.
"Who the hell are you?" Adam says as he pushes his way in past Sam.
"Adam, hey," Sam says. Dean quickly flips the blanket over the shotgun. "Take it easy."
"No, don't tell me to take it easy, okay? My house is a crime scene, my mom's probably dead, and you two, well, you tell me to call the cops, but you got to bail before they show? So, who are you really?" None of us say anything. I stop rubbing Dean's shoulders and I sit back on the bed. Dean reaches over and takes my hand, it's so unlike Dean. "Cops didn't know where to look for my mom, Dean, but you did. And I heard you talking earlier, something about grave robberies." Adam looks over and sees the end of the shotgun. "You're not mechanics. I just want to know what's going on." Again, no one says anything. "Please."
Sam's the first to drop the ball. "We're hunters."
"Sammy!" Dean and I say at the same time.
"He deserves to know, Dean, Ella."
"What do you mean 'hunters'?" We spill the beans and tell him everything. While we do just that, Dean and I end up moving to the dining table and we are drinking beers and holding hands, again. Which is definitely weird for Dean but I instigated it and I doubt he's going to deny some touching. "Okay, so, basically, you're saying that every movie monster, every nightmare that I've ever had, that's all real?"
"Godzilla's just a movie." Dean says.
"We hunt them. So did dad."
Adam nods. "Okay."
"Okay? That's it?" Dean says. I hit his arm. "What?" He says. I roll my eyes.
"What am I supposed to say?"
"That we're liars, that we're crazy. Nobody just says okay."
I hit Dean's arm again. "I just say, okay. You didn't question me."
"Well you believed us because of the circumstances." I rolled my eyes.
"Well you're my brothers and one of my brother's girlfriend. You're telling me the truth, right?" We all agree. "Then I believe you. Now, what took my mom?"
"We're not sure. Something's in town stealing bodies, living and dead, but we don't know what," Sam tells him.
"There's a long list of freaks that fit the bill," I tell him.
"You think maybe she might still be alive?" We all look down. I shake my head. "Oh," he says realizing it. "How can I help?"
"You can't," I tell him. "I'm barely helping and I'm better trained than you."
"This thing killed my mom. If you're hunting it, I want in.
"No."
"Dean, look, maybe.."
"Maybe what?" Dean asks.
"He lost his mother. Maybe we can understand what that feels like," Sam tells him.
"Why do you think Dad never told us about this kid, Sam? Huh? Why do you think he ripped out the pages?"
"Because..." Sam didn't get to finish.
"Because he was protecting him, Sam," I tell him. Dean and I are on the same page here. We usually are.
"Dad's dead, Dean."
"That doesn't matter! He didn't want Adam to have our lives, okay? And we are gonna respect his wishes."
"Do I get a say in this?" Adam asks.
"No," The three of us yell at him. Dean gets up and unlinks his fingers from mine.
"Babysit the kid, Ella."
"Where are you going?" I ask kindly. Dean grabs his jacket and makes his way to the door.
"I'm going out," he tells me in the same tone I used with him. Good.
"Is he always like that?" Sam and I laugh.
"Welcome to the family," We say.
"Here." Sam pulls out his gun, takes out the clip and tosses it to me. He waves me over and I come sit with him on the bed. "I'm gonna teach you a few things."
"Uh, Dean said.."
"I know what Dean said. Sam's teaching me how to defend myself a little bit better behind Dean's back. It's fine Adam." Sam holds the unloaded gun out to Adam.
"And I know what it's like to want revenge," Sam tells him.
Adam learns how to disassemble the gun and Sam is showing me how to clean the shotgun.
"Sam, how did Dad really die?" I turn to Sam and I place my hand over his because I know it's hard for him.
"Demon."
"You hunted it down? Got revenge?"
"Dean killed it."
"So it's over for you."
"It's never over." After Sam tells him that, the lights go out. I'm immediately in action.
"What the," Adam starts but Sam quiets him down.
"Stay here," Sam says, as he loads the shotgun. He walks toward the bathroom door and opens it. He aims and nothing is in it. I take the gun out of Adam's hands and I slide the clip in. Sam and I both hear a noise and we turn toward the vent. "It's in the vents. Go!" Sam tells us. We do.
"Where's you car?" I ask.
"Over here."
"All right, keys." He tosses the keys to me and I grab them. I go to the driver's side and I am about to unlock the door when I'm pulled down. I hit my head, I'm going to have a major concussion. It pulls me under the truck till I stop myself by putting my hands on the side of the truck.
"Ella!" Adam yells. He runs around the side of the truck and grabs my arms. "Dean, help!" Adam yells again. My hands slip from Adam's and I'm about to be pulled under when Dean grabs my arms again and I scream from the claws digging into my legs. Adam and Dean end up pulling me out. Sam comes barreling towards us, slides over to us and reaches down and shoots. Dean is cradling me in his arms and I'm panting.
I hiss when I feel the pain in my legs. Damn it, I was wearing nice jeans too. Dean carries me to the Impala and sets me down in the back seat. He checks my ankle and I cry out in pain when he moves it the wrong way.
"You're not bleeding. You have a sprained ankle though."
"Thank God, but I hit my head pretty hard."
"Might have a concussion too."
"I'm okay Dean. You don't have to worry about me."
"I'm sorry, who's the one who almost got dragged under a truck and down probably into the sewer? And got a concussion in the process?"
"Hush." I lean forward and I capture his lips with mine. Dean pulls away after a few seconds. I pout.
"You've got a concussion missy. No need to be kissing me."
"There's always a need to be kissing you." I lean forward and pull his lips to mine, this time he enjoys it and savors it because Sam and Adam could always walk up and interrupt. Which happens. But by Dean. He pulls back, tells me he needs to back Adam's truck up so we can see what's under it, and kisses me quickly. He gets up and I watch him go to the truck.
The sewer grate is mostly open. I get up and lean onto the Impala with Sam. Dean gets out and stands over it with the shotgun pointed at it. I can tell there's blood.
"I winged it. Did you see anything, El?"
"I didn't get a good look." Dean puts the shotgun into the car and comes up to lean against the car with me. His arm is wrapped around me and his hand on my hip.
"What the hell is this thing?"
"Should we go after it?" Adam asks.
"No, no. In that maze? That thing's long gone," I tell him.
"All right, so, we don't know what it is, but we do know who it's going after. Joe Barton, Adam's mom—
"And Adam. It was under his truck, just waiting for him," I tell him. "It set a trap, and I walked right into it."
"You're not to blame, El. But it doesn't matter. You're right, there's a pattern. Joe Barton was a cop. I'm pretty sure he helped out Dad. So we've got him, Dad's girl, and his son."
"All the people Dad knew in town."
"At least we know why it's back," I say. "It wants revenge."
We head back to Adam's and Dean leads me to the kitchen table where I can wrap my ankle.
"Grab your stuff we'll hit the road."
"We shouldn't leave," Sam tells Dean.
"Yeah, let's stay here, where the kid's mom got ganked. Good one."
"I'm serious."
"No, Sam, we're gonna take the kid, we're gonna drop him off at Bobby's, and then you and me and Ella are gonna come back here and finish what Dad started."
I stop what I'm doing and I turn to Dean. "How? We got no leads, no witnesses," I tell him.
"We do have what this thing wants," Sam finishes.
"You want to use the kid as bait? That's why you want to stay here?"
"Maybe this thing will come back. We could train Adam, get him ready."
"He could die, Sam."
"We could all die, Dean. Even if we do kill this thing, there are tons of other freaks that want revenge, on Dad, on us. What if they find the kid instead and he's not ready?" I finish rolling the ace bandage around my ankle and foot and I limp over to Dean. I lean on his arm and sigh. I'm exhausted and I just want to sleep.
"I'll do it. Whatever it takes, I'll do it. I want to do it," Adam announces. I stand up straighter and look at Dean, who's looking at Sam who's looking at Adam. Dean finally agrees.
The next day, Dean and I are at Adam's house while Sam and Adam are at the shooting range. It was fun having Dean teach me how to shoot after that shape shifter Dracula was going to make me his and kill Dean in the process. Dean did the cliché thing and put his arms around mine and the lingering looks, the kiss on the cheek when I made the bull's eye after God knows how many shots.
"Hey Dean?"
"Yeah?"
"Sam and I were talking a couple of days ago about some cases.."
"Which cases did he tell you about?"
"That's irrelevant. Except for one. The changelings, and Lisa and Ben."
"You found out about that?"
"Well I could of read it in those books but I decided to respect your wishes to not read them. Sam is the one who told me. I didn't go asking about it."
"Damn it Sammy," Dean mutters under his breath. "What did he tell you?"
"Just that you thought you had a kid. But he's not your son." He hangs his head down. "Hey, if you don't want to talk about it, we don't have to. But it will get brought up again later in life, if we're still alive."
"Ella, this would be hard for several reasons. One, we are together and it's great, we just aren't to the point of being serious enough to talk about that kind of stuff, like kids. Two, I don't do well with relationships. This is my first in a long time. Three, who's to say we will be together however many years from now?"
"I get it Dean, I do. I'll just not talk about it." I turn away from him and I limp to the couch in the living room.
"Ella," Dean says walking to the couch, sitting next to me.
"It's fine, Dean. I get it, you don't want to talk about it. I don't want to talk about a lot of things and you don't push at it. So I won't push at you to tell me." He sighs and rests his forehead on my shoulder.
"Ella, I want to talk to you about it, I just want to wait a while. Till we're more serious."
"How can we get more serious? We already share the same bed, have sex, have deep and intense conversations, I wear your shirts all the time. I've told you most everything about my life, same with you to me. There's really not much else we can do. At least while we're hunting. We already live together. It's not that hard to not be serious."
"Well there's a big problem with all of that."
"And what is that?" Dean lifts his head and stares me straight in the eye. I see it now. I see how his eyes twinkle and how they're filled with happiness instead of the sad I used to see. "Oh. I get it now." He means the L word. I never liked that sentence, I lo... I can't even think it. It's too drastic. "Without that sentence, I think we're serious enough."
"But that's the thing Ella. This is the most serious relationship I've had since Cassie."
"I know." I kiss his lips.
"I can't lose you, El." His forehead is resting against mine.
"You won't. Speaking of, Sam's teaching me some defense moves."
"Ella!"
"What? I'd keep myself safer if a monster decided to come after me." He sighs. I giggle. I kiss him again and I smile at him. He can't help but to smile back.
After a couple of hours Dean leaves and goes to check out the tomb again to see if he missed anything. And since I've got a twisted ankle I can't go with him. We salt and board up everything in the house. I'm downstairs when I hear Adam's mom scream his name.
Then all I hear is, "She's not your mother." I get up with my gun in hand and I aim at Kate.
"Look, Adam," I say. "That's not your mother." I limp over and I aim at her head. "Shoot it! It's not human," I tell him.
"I know." He hits Sam with the gun, knocking him out and Kate elbows me in the face.
I don't know how much later it is, but I'm tied to a table with Sam. He's on a different one. I start to move to sit up a little, but I'm tied down at the waist with duct tape. Sam's awake. I groan and he does too.
"Silver," I say. "No wonder none of the other tests worked. You're not shapeshifters." I say, "you're ghouls." Sam's curious as to how I know.
"You know, I find that term racist." She walks over to me and I turn my head away from her. She sniffs my neck and bites my ear. "Mmm. Fresh meat. So much better than what we're used to."
"I should have known. It was the fresh kills that threw me. Ghouls don't usually go after the living. See, you're just filthy scavengers, feeding off the dead—taking the form of the last corpse you choke down," Sam says.
"And their thoughts. And their memories. Like Adam, for instance," Ghoul Adam says.
"Well we are what we eat."
"You're monsters," I spat. Kate sticks the tip of the knife into my arm and pulls down. She draws a lot of blood. But instead of inflicting more pain or just stopping, she bends and starts sucking my blood.
"You know, you use that word a lot, Ella. But I don't think you know what it means," Ghoul Adam says. He slams the knife down into the wood next to Sam's head. I gasp.
"Her blood, it tastes different," Kate says. "It's delicious."
Ghoul Adam continues with his rant. "Our father was a monster? Why? Because of what he ate? He never hurt anyone, Sam, Ella. Living, anyway. No. He was no monster. But the thing that killed him was. A monster named John Winchester."
Kate stabs the knife into my side and pulls it out. I scream out in pain. Sam's protests are unheard. Adam sticks his finger into my side and pulls out a lot of blood. He licks it off of his fingers and moans in appreciation.
"Thanks to your daddy, my brother and I grew up on our own. At least we had each other," They say talking to Sam. "Like you and your brother. Inseparable. Actually, it was very hard to get you on your own. Like you said, Sam, the only thing you can count on is family," Kate says before drawing more blood out of my wounds. "And for twenty years, we lived like rats. Graveyard after graveyard, all that stinking flesh. Then we thought, 'hey, why not move up to fresher game?' And we knew just where to start."
Adam digs the knife into my cuts on my arms.
"Revenge, it's never over, is it, Sam?" Adam questions. "First, it was John's cop friend, and then his slut, and then his son. Then I called John, but the son of a bitch was already dead. So I guess you and Dean and Ella will have to do instead. Dean won't interrupt us this time. We're gonna feed on Ella nice and slow, like we did with Adam. Oh, and, by the way, he really was your brother. You should know that." They suck at my wounds.
"He was still alive when we took our first bites." They cut into my arms again and let my blood drip out into bowls placed under my arms to catch the blood. "And he was a screamer." I struggle against my restraints. "Ella, the more you struggle, the faster you're gonna bleed out. So you might as well lie back and relax."
"Hey!" I hear Dean's voice but my eyes are closed. He takes a shot and I don't know who he hits.
"Dean, they're ghouls!" He fires again.
"Which means headshot." I hear lots of fighting.
"Ella, come on, Ella. Stay awake just a little bit longer," Sam says. "Just a little bit longer. Dean's helping us. I promise, just fight to stay awake."
I remember what Dean said just hours earlier. 'I can't lose you, El.' I open my eyes and Sam looks somewhat relieved. I give him a weak smile and he shouts at Dean. He stops what he is doing, unties Sam's restraints, then mine. Sam isn't all bloody like I am. Dean grabs some towels and wraps me in them.
He takes me to the Impala and sits with me in the backseat murmuring things in my ear. Things like 'don't leave me' or 'I can't lose you Ella' or 'Stay with me Ella.' It was all very heartbreaking and I was conscious and I heard everything, my eyes were just closed.
Dean
Damn it! Why did I make her stay with Sam and Adam? Friggin' sprained ankle of her's. I set her on the bed in the motel and I lift her shirt up to inspect the damage and it's bad.
"Sammy, she needs stitches."
"Where?"
"Her side." He nods and gets what he needs out of our first aid kit. I take off her shirt and lay her back down on top of my legs. I hold her and I make sure all Sam can see in her stab wound. He cleans it and she hisses in pain. She buries her face into my arm and bites down on my jacket sleeve as he slides the surgical needle through her skin.
Once he's done, he bites off the remaining string and I sigh. He gets up to get the gauze bandages for her arms and her side. She's all bloody and injured. We should head up to Bobby's for a while, let her recover. Sam puts the gauze pads on and then goes to the bathroom to shower.
"Dean," Ella mumbles once the shower is turned on.
"Yeah?"
"Did you kill those sons of bitches?"
I chuckle. "I did. Rest, El. We'll be at Bobby's tomorrow night." She sighs and turns her head and gets comfortable. I hope she doesn't get this badly hurt again.
