The Weapon
Chapter 26 – Don't you remember what it was like?
Dean pulled in to a parking space outside the morgue, but he didn't move to get out of the car. He glanced into the mirror and spoke to Kaida's reflection. "Hey K can you give us a minute?" She shrugged and leant over to whisper into Sam's ear before she moved to get out of the car. "Give him a chance Sammy, I'm fine and he was only trying to help." The confusion on his face told her he hadn't noticed what Dean had that night in the bar, and why should he. Sam had his own worries, his own problems, and maybe he needed someone or something to be mad at, something to fight, and Dean was the closest thing at the moment.
Once she had shuffled out of the back seat, Kaida took a deep breath and walked slowly towards the door. She understood why Sam was angry, she had been furious then in the moment. But as always Dean's intentions had been good. Sam just couldn't see that at the moment. So she would let them talk it out, and possibly find out something about the case while they did.
When he finally saw Kaida disappearing inside Dean turned to face his brother, who was still stubbornly looking out of the window. "Sam..." he began to say, but he was interrupted. "Dean, don't you remember what it was like? How manipulative dad could be, what could have happened to her? What nearly happened to her?" Dean nodded. He remembered, he remembered all too well. He remembered the anger coursing through him whenever his dad played that particular card; he remembered the protests and the arguments. And he remembered that time it had nearly all gone wrong.
The tension in the room had been incredible as they played the final hand. John had been lucky the few times that he had done this before, the few times he had used Kaida had currency in a poker game. Mostly the move intimidated his opponents, assuming as they did that no man would bet his daughter on a game of cards, unless he was certain of the outcome. But they didn't know the faith he had in the female hunter. Even if things went horribly wrong, he was not worried about Kaida. Kaida could hold her own, and would not let anyone near her, especially in the way that some of these greasy men looked at her. This man however had John worried. He would not back down, and the way that he openly leered at her made disgust rise in his throat. He had to win this hand. If ever he had needed luck to smile on him it was today.
Sam and Dean were hovering nervously next to the door, but Kaida was standing calmly by John's side. She was watching the other man closely, her finger tips twitching. Then John took his last card and that triumphant grin spread across his face. Luck was on his side once again, and every single one of them let out a sigh of relief. All except the other man, His face was sour and accusing as John's cards were revealed and he won the game. Without a word Kaida turned away from the table and headed for the restroom.
Kaida took a moment to splash water on her face. But it was a moment too long, and so she had missed the argument that had started back in the bar. For once she was unprepared for what happened next. As she stepped through the door and began to walk back through to where her family would be waiting for her, someone grabbed her arm and there was a hand over her mouth. Her eyes narrowed and her senses were suddenly sharper than they had ever been before. She could smell the alcohol on the man's breath and feel the moisture of every exhale against her ear. "You're mine cutie, no matter what your cheating daddy says." She could hear laughter and arousal on his voice, but even with the repulsive bulge she could feel on pressed into the small of her back, she wasn't worried.
Without even thinking she twisted the arm that he held as she simultaneously bit the bitter sweat tasting hand in front of her mouth. Then gripping both of his arms as he stepped slightly away from her she snapped them quickly and cleanly, leaning forwards and kicking back sharply she hit the bulge that had been digging into her back with deadly accuracy and he buckled to the ground screaming in pain.
Without turning around Kaida rotated her shoulders once to stretch them out after the sharp movement, she strode confidently past her brothers who had come running at the scream of pain they had heard. She didn't even turn back to look when first Dean and then Sam kicked the man as he lay on the ground. They only managed it once each before John ordered them into the car. But it was a full five minutes before their father came back out to the car himself and his knuckles were badly bruised.
Dean shook the memory away and shifted in his seat so that he was facing Sam completely. "Yeah Sammy, I remember. And I remember what she did to him before we even knew what was happening back there. Kaida can look after herself." But that wasn't what had stuck in his mind all these years; they had always known what Kaida could do. What he remembered most clearly was sitting in the passenger seat of the Impala as John had gotten into the driver's seat flexing his fingers. He remembered seeing the other mans blood drying on his father's knuckles, and realising for the first time just how important Kaida had become to them all. And as his father glanced back at Kaida beside Sam in the backseat, Dean saw something that he had never seen before or since in his father's eyes when he looked at her. He saw Love there mixed with the admiration, the Love of a father for his daughter. "And I would not let anything happen to her anymore than dad would." Sam was shaking his head, but Dean continued anyway. But that isn't our biggest problem..." And he poured out his worries for their baby sister to his brother.