AN: So... hi! Questions about my break? Go check the CtN website for some info! I still haven't written the next chappy, but I wanted to post this one now so no teasers this time! Sorry, guys! This one's a bit longer to make up for it ;]
And apologies to AnneValkyria for sending you no teaser from last time - though I think you'll agree that a chappy is better than a teaser :P
By the way, last chappy's reactions were hilarious. Poor Alice. I try to show her in a positive albeit misguided light and you all flame her. Shame on you! But yes, Eddie is an idiot. Agreed :D Also, this chappy is not beta-ed, so I'm sorry for any mistakes!
If you want to interact with me more and have input on future decisions regarding my stories (including this one potentially!) then head over to www. fanpirex. tumblr. com – without the spaces obviously.
Disclaimer: I have zero ownership over anything here.
Simon Said: Hunters, Wolves & Demons
September 13th 2006…
Sam and Dean were here again, asking Ash something about house fires. Bella had avoided them, her depression pushed deep down so that she couldn't feel it. She wasn't quite numb, but she was close enough.
It had been three weeks exactly since she'd last seen them, and every chance she got, she'd sneak a glance at Dean when he couldn't see her. The longing that hit her was almost consuming. Ellen would look at her sometimes; just stare at her as if she knew what Bella felt.
She can't know, the young hunter would assure herself. I haven't spoken to her or Jo about it yet. She can't.
Despite this, the intelligent glances Ellen would pass always threw her off. Jo, on the other hand, was oblivious to everything. Bella had thought this would be better; what she didn't count on was the blonde mentioning Dean again and again, a dreamy glint in her eyes. Jo wouldn't admit that she liked him – she wasn't that kind of girl – but Bella could see it.
It made her stomach lurch.
She was cleaning some glasses behind the bar, scoping the room inconspicuously. Ash was sitting down at one of the tables, tapping on his laptop at the speed of light. She'd overheard him and Sam talk about a Guthrie, Oklahoma.
She always kept one eye on Dean, feeling the continuous times he'd look over to her from where he'd stationed himself at the bar – just close enough to her that her heart pounded against her ribcage. She never gazed directly back; that would be completely too awkward.
Her mind registered that Jo was over by the jukebox, pressing buttons. When the blonde stepped back contently, the bar was filled with the opening cords to REO Speedwagon's Can't Fight This Feeling. Bella saw Dean's slightly horrified expression and smiled to herself.
The blonde had just set a tray on the bar counter when she looked over at the older Winchester. Bella now watched avidly, still remaining discreet. She really wished she didn't have to be subjected to Jo's flirting with the man she'd fallen for, but she supposed she'd been through worse.
"What?" the younger Harvelle asked. Dean looked at her in disbelief.
"REO Speedwagon?"
Jo nodded. "Damn right REO. Kevin Cronin sings it from the heart."
He smirked, holding his beer. "He sings it from the hair – there's a difference."
Bella saw Jo peek quickly over to both her and Ellen, and tried to keep her face impassive. The blonde turned back to Dean. "That profile you've got Ash looking for?"
Dean only hummed, his shoulders tensing just a tad – it seemed that, while Bella noticed this, Jo didn't because she continued.
"Your mom died the same way, didn't she? A fire in Sam's nursery?"
Bella shifted uncomfortably. She never felt at ease when Mary Winchester was brought up. Uncle John never liked to talk about her, so it was mainly Dean and Sam. The latter didn't say much, only talking about how much he would liked to have known her and whether or not she had wanted her kids to grow up the way they did.
Dean was nearly as quiet as Uncle John on the topic, only speaking of her in awe and reverence. Bella understood that the woman was precious to him; his mother, his carer, his God-given angel. Bella had seen the pictures too – the woman had certainly been beautiful enough to be heavenly.
"Look, Jo," Dean sighed, "it's kind of a family thing."
The rush of relief that surged through Bella was instant. He'd always trusted her with things to do with family (she was counted as family, after all), and hearing that he didn't trust Jo with those same things made her happy. She loved Jo, she really did, but this was her guy.
Sudden possessiveness overwhelmed her, making her freeze for a moment. That had never happened before. Maybe she was jealous of Jo – her looks and personality made her the perfect girl for any male hunter. Bella though…
"I could help," she heard Jo offering.
Bella felt those green orbs land on her for just a moment, before he replied. "I'm sure you could. But we've got to handle this one ourselves." The brunette bartender let out a thankful sigh yet again and twisted to glance at him and Jo. He was now looking at Ellen anxiously. "Besides, if I ran off with you I think your mother might kill me."
The bar owner must have sensed him staring at her because she returned the look. He gave her a nervous smile, making Bella's lips twitch into a grin.
Jo was amused too. "You're afraid of my mother?"
"I think so," he agreed out the corner of his mouth, still smiling anxiously at Ellen.
Sam came up behind them, peeking once at Bella. She gave him a small smile. He turned to Dean. "We have a match – we've gotta go."
His brother nodded to him. "All right, Jo. See you later."
Bella held her breath as he stood up, her gaze locking with his despite her attempts to look away. He opened his mouth to say something, staring at her. She waited, a spark of hope creeping into her heart.
In the end, he cleared his throat and looked down at the floor. He glanced up at her with a faint smirk. "Uh, happy birthday."
She bit her lip, smiling, and nodded. He remembered. His eyes softened and his jaw relaxed, both of them now ignoring Jo and Sam. There was a pause before he smiled genuinely, even if it was barely visible on his defined lips. "See ya around… Isa."
Her entire body felt lighter. She was helpless to do anything other than return his soft smile. "Bye, Dean."
She watched him leave, lingering as if he wished to stay, and when Emmett strolled through the door, she held her breath. It was unneeded; Dean simply gave the vampire a strained nod, eyes alight with hostility, and left the Roadhouse. She let out a relieved sigh.
What has happened to change his reaction to them? she wondered, but was distracted by Emmett.
"Happy birthday!" Emmett grinned at her as he hopped up lightly onto the bar counter beside her. She raised a brow at him, amused, but continued cleaning the glasses. The bar was surprisingly empty tonight, so there weren't any hunters around to glare at the vampire coldly.
This was the first time in a few days that one of the Cullens had actually approached her. After being called naïve, her thoughts at night centred on whether she had let them in too quickly. She supposed she had – she didn't openly talk to them or happily hug them like Dean had suggested, but she did settle with their constant presence.
She'd already forgiven them; she couldn't change her feelings on that. But she would definitely watch them carefully from now on, lest she be reckless and start trusting them completely.
"So, Bells," he began cheerfully, "you hunt things that go bump in the night, huh?"
"I'm trained to, yeah," she smirked, shaking her head at his eagerness.
"Does that mean you could kill me?" he prodded.
"Yes," she replied slowly, dragging out the vowel.
"And so can I," Ellen told him sternly when she passed them, "so get your ass off that bar top."
He sheepishly jumped down from the counter, choosing to sit on one of the chairs instead. Bella smiled to herself, stacking up the glasses she'd cleaned.
"Why'd you wanna know, Em?" she asked.
He beamed at her. "It's just so awesome! Imagine, my clumsy human friend Bella being able to take down a strong vamp like me!"
"Not so clumsy anymore," she reminded him. He made a face, scrunching his nose up, before he brightened again.
"I've never met a hunter before. Didn't really know they existed. What kinds of things have you killed?"
She shrugged, not wanting to tell him too much. "Demons, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, those kinds of things."
"Demons and ghosts are real?" He sounded excited. "That's so cool! I mean, I knew about the werewolves, and obviously vampires, but I always thought that was it."
Bella put away some of the stacked glasses she'd cleaned, frowning, and turned to look at him. "How did you know about werewolves?"
"Oh, La Push," he waved it off.
"What about La Push?"
"The tribe descends from werewolves," he told her, his head titling. "You didn't know?"
Shocked, she shook her head, but suddenly stopped. She did know – of course she did, Jacob had told her. She'd asked about the Cold Ones and he'd talked about his tribal stories. She didn't think the tales were real.
"Last time I was in Forks," – he took a moment to grimace, thinking back to her eighteenth birthday party; it had been eight years to the day since he'd left – "only Sam Uley, Paul Lahote and Jared Cameron were wolves. Bet more have phased now though."
"Sam Uley?" she repeated.
"Yeah, he's the leader."
She'd heard that name. He'd been the one to find her in the forest after Edward left. No wonder he'd been able to; he probably sniffed out her scent with his heightened senses. She pondered what type of werewolves the La Push pack were before coming to a startling realisation. Jacob might have phased. He might be a werewolf, which would explain the questions he'd been asking Charlie.
Why now though? Perhaps he'd only just phased. He'd be around twenty-three years old now – that would be older enough to phase, wouldn't it? Bella didn't know. She thought back to the tribal stories. They made it seem like the pack were merely some kind of shifters rather than werewolves. She'd have to do some research on the topic later.
But wouldn't Charlie have known that La Push harboured supernatural creatures? It was true that he'd given up hunting when Renée left him, and it was possible that he wasn't as sharp as he used to be, but surely he wouldn't worry about Jacob asking hunter-like questions.
Then what the hell was going on?
"Em, can I talk to you later?" she looked up at him, reaching for the cell in her back pocket. She felt the need to ask Charlie about this now, rather than some other time. The vampire lifted one shoulder in a shrug.
"Sure. See ya, Bells." With that, he was out of the bar. She momentarily wondered where exactly the Cullens were, before dialling her father's number on her cell.
"Hello?" Charlie's voice was hushed and hurried.
"Dad? It's Bella, I was just calling to ask –"
He cut her off, "Sorry, Bells, this is a bad time. I'm kind of in the middle of something."
"Oh, are you still on that case?" She was curious about who those 'nutters', as he'd called them, were.
"Yeah, that's it. Look, I'll talk to ya later."
She smiled. "Actually, I was thinking of visiting soon –"
"No, don't come to Forks," he interrupted again. "I'm too busy right now, honey."
"Oh, okay," her smile dropped. "Well what's going on in Seattle?" She hadn't heard anything about the murders on the news, so she'd assumed it had all blown over.
"I'm sorry, Bells, I've gotta go. Love you."
"Love you too," she tried to say, but he had already hung up.
September 15th 2006…
Bella had just finished checking the storage room when she came out into the front bar to see Ellen staring down Sam and Dean who both sat on bar stools. They all looked up at her when she entered and she glanced between them all warily, heart pounding at the presence of Dean.
Ellen stared at her for a moment and then looked back at the brothers. "Jo?"
The blonde hummed from behind the bar.
"Go pull up another case of beer," she ordered.
"Mum…" Jo protested, clearly seeing that she was being left out of the loop. Bella frowned, unsure what was going on.
"Now please," Ellen replied firmly. Jo unhappily walked out of the room, throwing a raised brow at Bella who only shrugged in confusion.
She leaned up against the bar counter, watching the three of them curiously.
"So," the bar owner began briskly. "You, uh, you want to tell me about this last hunt of yours?"
Dean glanced at Bella before replying in a low, gruff voice. "No. Not really. No offense, it's just kind of a family thing."
"Not anymore." Ellen slapped a stack of papers onto the bar top and Bella edged closer to see what they were. "I got this stuff from Ash. Andrew Gallagher's house burnt down on his six month birthday, just like your house. You think it was the demon both times, don't you? You think it went after Gallagher's family?"
Bella held her breath. So this was what had the two so eager for Ash's help. She felt somewhat hurt that they hadn't mentioned anything to her. Was she not 'family' anymore?
"Yeah, we think so," Sam murmured in answer.
Dean gave him a look. "Sam –"
"Why?" Ellen asked, interrupting him.
"None of your business," Dean snapped. He looked over to Bella, his eyes softening.
"You mind your tongue with me, boy," Ellen shot back. "This isn't just your war, this is war. Now, something big and bad's coming and it's coming fast, and their side holds all the cards. Now, at best all we got is us. Together. No secrets or half-truths here."
Sam sighed. "There are people out there, like Andy Gallagher, like me. And um, we all have some kind of ability."
Bella looked at him sharply. Ellen asked the question she wanted to.
"Ability?"
The older Winchester rolled his eyes, obviously uncomfortable with sharing the information. She felt downtrodden that they didn't trust her with it.
"Yeah. Psychic ability," Sam said. "Me, I have, um, I have visions. Premonitions." She momentarily thought of Alice and then shook her head minutely. "I don't know, it's different for everybody. The demon said he had plans for people like us."
"When did he say that?" Bella finally spoke. They all looked at her. Her tone was neutral – not angry, or disgusted, but not happy either.
"Uh, a few hours before we got into the accident," Sam told her, shifting on his chair. She bit the inside of her cheek.
"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, feeling almost betrayed.
"I was going to, Bells, but it just never seemed the right time…" The younger Winchester sounded remorseful and sad.
In a way, she understood what Sam was saying. The only times they'd seen one another was at the hospital, their mourning of Uncle John and at a short meetings in the Roadhouse when the boys passed through. It didn't make her feel better though.
Ellen cleared her throat, wanting to get back on track. "What kind of plans?"
Sam turned, his shoulder still drooping. "We don't really know for sure."
"These people out there, these psychics," the bar owner elaborated; "are they dangerous?"
"No," Dean responded. "Not all of them."
"But some are," his brother agreed. "Some are very dangerous."
"Okay," Ellen nodded, "how many of them are we looking at?"
"We've been able to track a clear pattern so far." Dean's eyes shot to Bella and then back to Ellen. "They've all had house fires on the night of the kid's six month birthday."
"That's not true," Sam suddenly said.
The older brother looked at him, "What?"
"Weber? Or Ansen Weems, or whatever his name is. I looked at his files, and there was no house fire. Nothing out of the ordinary."
"Which breaks pattern," Ellen deducted. "So if there's any others like him, there'd be nothing in the system. No way to track 'em all down."
Dean smiled grimly. "And so who knows how many of 'em are really out there?"
His green gaze rested on Bella now and she returned the stare, her insides melting. Despite how serious the conversation was, she couldn't help but let her mind drift: Would he say something to her? Would they be able to talk normally? It seemed he'd calmed down since he called her naïve. Things weren't perfect between them, but they were getting there.
"Jo honey?" Ellen called as her daughter appeared again.
"Yeah?"
"You'd better break out the whiskey instead."
