Snack on the Go

Mary joined the hunt for the howler while Ashley barricaded herself and Justin in the child's room. Any other family would have said that was a wolf or a coyote, but the Winchesters could tell the slight difference. A werewolf's howl was one riddled with pain and with the slightest tinge of a human cry for help. She was itching to go track down the creature with her parents and brother, but someone had to take care of Justin. Ben was still unsure about his shots and Max wasn't sure on how to best protect someone, so that fell on Ashley's poor, tired shoulders. She eased herself down on the bed next to Justin when she thought he was sleeping. She just needed to sit down, she wouldn't lay down and risk falling asleep. "What's happening out there, Ashie?" Justin yawned as he climbed into Ashley's lap next to the revolver loaded with silver bullets. Guess he was awake.

"Nothing baby, go back to sleep" she muttered with a faraway look in her eyes. There was a quick tentative knock on the solid wood door before it was opened a crack.

"Gun down?" Max asked from around the thickness.

"Yeah, lemme open it up" she sighed as she sat up without moving Justin while he drifted back to sleep. She had gotten better at that with the amount of time she spent with the child while he was growing up. Of course now that he was older it was slightly harder. "How's it going out there?"

"Fine," he whispered "the guys went into the trees while your Mom and Ben are on guard with shotties."

"Man, I'd love to see that" Ashley chuckled as she settled back down into a seated position in Justin's twin bed and willed her ears to hear better. Outside, she could just barely make out Mary's soft voice and Ben's sweet laugh over the blowing wind. She was worried about her boys, but perhaps the silence was best. Ashley allowed her eyes to close on that thought, but she didn't dare join Max and Justin in sleepy town.

It couldn't have been more than a few hours later when Ashley's eyes popped open to the sound of a gunshot in the distance. "Mom!" she yelled as she scrambled towards the cracked window.

"We are fine" Mary replied quickly. "Ben and I'll go check on the boys. It's fine, Ash, just have an eye on the front!"

Mary and Ben had gone running into the tree line only a couple minutes ago, but there hadn't been any sign of anyone and Ashley was officially on edge. "Babe, you gotta sit down! You're wearing a groove into the floor" Max chuckled as he slid up behind his pacing girlfriend.

"No, something's not right, Max. I can feel it. Something happened, something bad! The energy around here isn't right all of a sudden." Max turned Ashley to face him and that is when he saw the raw fear in her usually strong face. This is the side of Ashley Winchester Max only heard rumors about.

"The sun will be up soon. Werewolves don't stay that way, right?" he purred into her ear once she was in close for the hug he knew she desperately needed.

"Yeah" Ashley confirmed for Max as she melted into his arms.

"So then you leave Justin with me and go check things out. Alright, baby?"

Ashley nodded as she relaxed even more into Max's strong arms. She was quickly taken out of that embrace however, when a familiar voice hollered out her name. "Open up, we need your hands!"

Max quickly released Ashley and followed her downstairs. "It's not as bad as it looks" John cringed as Sam and Dean eased him down in one of the kitchen chairs.

"My god, it that a bite?" Ashley gawked momentarily at the mark on her father's neck.

"Yeah" he whispered "b-but I'm okay. We can talk to Castiel, o-or maybe there's a cure like the vamp one."

Ashley was weary and about ready to crumble under the emotional anvil that just dropped on her back. She started to clean the extra blood around the chunk missing while Mary worked on the scratches littering his scared arms.

"Are you two okay?" Ashley threw over her shoulder to Dean leaning against the fridge.

"Better than him" he whispered.

"What? What happened!" she barked while still focusing all her attention on John's bite.

"Just one mad son of a bitch. Bobby got him trapped after he freaked on us. He's getting some information out of him now."

"I think we may have a problem though. He was a newly turned one, that's obvious" Sam interjected. "So, that means we have at least one old timer… best case scenario."

Ashley was thinking the same thing but didn't want to admit to it. Admitting it would make it real and mean they were suddenly not so safe here again. "Wait, I can fix this" Ashley realized just as she put the last bandage on John. She found a slightly complicated spell the other day while she was flipping through an old Wiccan book Bobby gave her and her brothers years ago.

"Fix? How?" Mary asked a little too excitedly once she realized what Ashley said.

"A spell. It's kind of complicated and slightly dangerous, but it's better than watching Dad turn tonight."

"What do we need?" Sam asked as he handed Ashley a pad and pencil to write down the ingredients.

Sam and Ben ran out to get what Ashley would need while she went upstairs to try and take a nap to replenish her energy as best as possible. She was too nervous and worked up to just fall asleep and Dean needed to watch Justin, so Max climbed into the bed next to his girlfriend. He wrapped his long body around Ashley's short, curled up one and pulled her close against his bare chest.

"Just like old times, Ash. Back in Louisiana before I knew what I do now" he comforted the tense woman in front of him.

"Thank you for sticking with me" she sighed as she finally relaxed against her man.

"I wouldn't dream of anything else."

Ashley fell into a restful sleep next to Max and dreamt of life as a civilian. Her family was whole and happy; Ben was dating a pretty brunette while Justin was playing with kids his own age, instead of Sam and Dean. The best part of her dream was the ring on her finger and her swollen belly. Ashley could feel the baby move inside of her and was woken up by a strange muscle jerk. She was still drowsy and quickly forgot about that dream, but under Max's hand, she felt a warmth- which she mentally attributed to the warmth from his body temperature.

AN: Wow! When will things ever go right?! Stay tuned and tell me what you think as always! ~Ash