"NATALIE WINCHESTER!"

Natalie nearly spit out the vodka she had taken a swig of; her back arched and her facial features turned rigid with both surprise and fear. She didn't dare turn around and meet the eyes that were boring into the back of her head.

"That better not be you, girl!"

The young Winchester heard the heavy footfalls get louder and louder, closer and closer, until she felt a harsh hand slam down on her bare shoulder and reel her around. Plastering on her most charming smile, Natalie met the fiery eyes of Ellen Harvelle who looked between her and Ash who sat beside her, smiling just as innocently. Ellen crossed her arms tightly against her chest and kicked one leg out in a stance that clearly conveyed the point that she had a low tolerance for sorry excuses.

"What the hell are you doing?" She snapped with an even fiercer glare, abruptly turning to Ash. "And what the hell are you doing?"

Ash threw his hands up as if to demand why he was being blamed simply for association to Natalie. "I was just watching."

"No," Ellen snapped back before he could even get another word in edgewise, sticking a finger into his face. "You were sittin' here riling her on." She grabbed the bottle of vodka and held it up for both of them to see. "Girl, don't tell me you drank half the bottle by yourself."

Natalie's smile had long been wiped off her face. She silently pointed to Ash. "He helped."

Ash threw his arms up again, refusing to meet Ellen's eyes when she huffed and growled and adjusted her stance just glaring at her two guilty children. "You're in an ass load of trouble from me, Natalie Winchester. Imagine what your daddy's gonna do when he finds out."

Natalie sprang up to her feet with wide eyes though her face was unaffected. "But my dad's not going to find out."

"Oh, honey," Ellen grinned devilishly, slapping the young girl's face with a fond laugh. "If only that were true."

"You can't tell him. I wasn't doing anything wrong!" Natalie ran after her behind the bar, on her heel like a puppy. It scared her, to be honest. Her father was always easy going when it didn't have to do with hunting, but the thought of Ellen Harvelle retelling the story of what happened with her large gestures and strict motherly voice...Natalie didn't know how her father would react.

Ellen reeled around to grab a beer glass, nearly toppling the seventeen year old. "If you weren't doing anything wrong then there's no reason he shouldn't know, right?"

"Ash!" Nat spun around to get his attention. "Help me, would ya?"

"Sorry, baby sister." He shrugged, flipping back his hair dramatically. "no can do."

"But, Ellen!"

"Do me a favor," Ellen handed her a mug filled to the brim and pointed at a sloppy looking drunk at the end of the bar. "go give this to, Mr. Chuckles over there. And don't you roll your eyes at me, Natalie Winchester."

"I wasn't going to!"

"Oh, sure, you weren't. Get a move on."

Begrudgingly walking toward the end of the bar, Natalie eyed the rim of the glass itching not to spill the sticky contents onto her fingers. "Here you go." She carefully threw a coaster on the bar top and set the mug on it, waiting for a moment to see if the man would actually take a drink of it. She smoothed down her gray tank, adjusting the hems of her plaid shirt over it, slightly annoyed.

"You gonna stand there all day?" The man asked in a low, gruff voice, barely looking up.

Natalie considered this for a split second before leaning her elbows on the bar and replying, "I might." She propped her head up with the flat of her palm and watched him earnestly. "How's the beer?"

"How was the vodka?"

She shrugged, tasting her tongue and grimacing at the aftertaste. "Tasted like bleach."

The man raised his head to chuckle. "First time?"

"Something like that, yeah."

"What's your name, kid?"

"Winchester."

"Dean didn't tell me he had a little girl." The man lifted the brim to his lips and took a long drink.

"Funny, he usually never shuts up about me."

"Might be because me and your daddy haven't talked in years."

"Why's that?"

He finished off the glass and fished in his pockets for a hundred dollar bill, throwing it beside her hand and getting up. "That's for your troubles. Stay away from the vodka, stick to bothering people."

"Uhh, thanks," Natalie scowled after him in confusion, tucking the bill into her back pocket. She was about to leave his mysterious words alone but curiosity got the best of her. Jumping over the counter much to Ellen's annoyance, Natalie ran out into the parking lot, swivelling her head back and forth in hopes of seeing him or hearing the sound of a car engine rumbling to life.

Silence.

"You okay there, ace?" One of the Roadhouse's regulars sitting on the porch asked. "I'll give you a heads up when your dad drives around."

Natalie nodded and said a word of thanks, scanning the dirt roads one more time.

"Where you run off to?" Ellen snapped when she came back in.

"Who was that guy?"

Ellen shrugged dismissively and reached over to refill a glass. "Don't try and change the subject now. Get on back behind here. You have a lot of work to do before you win anymore brownie points to keep me from tell your pa what you did."

"It was just vodka," Natalie justified. "At least I wasn't dancing on the pool table at a some underground booty party."

"Okay, that's enough, young lady. God, you're starting to sound more and more like Ash everyday. Go clear those tables near the corner."

Nat grabbed a dish cloth, cursing all the way to the tables. The things she had to do to make up for one mistake. She'd have to sweep the entire roadhouse, take out all the empty bottles, and if that wasn't enough, Ellen would have her clean up the vomit left behind by drunk hunters. She tied her plaid shirt around her waist in preparation for the rough night that laid in front of her, just hoping her Uncle Adam would pick her up soon so she wouldn't have to go through the muck of having Ellen complain about the vodka incident.

"Hey," A voice broke Natalie out of her vapid thoughts.

She looked up to meet the hunters chocolate brown eyes and charming smile. He leaned one hand on the table she was clearing, moving inches back when she threw him an irritated look.

"The bathroom's down the hall and to the left."

"My name's Aidan."

"The bathroom is still down the hall and to the left."

He chuckled and twirled his finger around a strand of hair that had escaped her ponytail, his wrist brushing against her bare shoulders. In turn, Natalie jerked her shoulder out from under his touch, not wanting to make a scene.

"You're a challenge, aren't you, sugar."

"Not interested, tough guy."

She gathered the empty beer mugs into a group and was about to gather them up into her hand when he slid behind her, folding his body over hers and nuzzling his nose into the nape of her neck. Natalie stuck her fingers through three of the handles on the mugs and swiftly swung the glass around so it shattered against his skull, blood immediately being drawn from the gashes. Aidan stumbled back on impact.

"The bathroom's down the hall and to the left, asshole."

Before he could throw a punch, Ellen stood between Natalie and Aidan, pointing him down toward the bathroom while shouting out, "If you get any blood on my floors, you're scrubbing them off."

Natalie half-expected to get chewed apart once Aidan disappeared into the bathroom and slammed the door shut behind him. When Ellen turned around she had a worried look in her eyes.

"We gotta work on that anger of yours."

Natalie nodded grimly, reaching into her back pocket and handing Ellen the hundred dollar tip to cover the expense of the shattered mugs. "Can I go back to work now?"

"No," Ellen remarked pointedly, grabbing the washcloth from the young Winchester's hand. "go work on getting the kegs until that little brat heads down wind."

Grudgingly agreeing to the plan, Natalie stalked toward the back, making a sharp turn towards Ash's room and barging in.

"Ever heard of knocking?" Ash looked up from his rinky dink laptop and patted the chair beside him when he saw her face fall. "Havin' a rough day?"

"Yes," She whined and leaned her forehead against his shoulder.

"What happened out there?" He continued to prod at his laptop, writing in lines and lines of intricate coding. "You know what always cheers me up?"

Natalie answered honestly. "Weed?"

He reached his hand under his desk and grabbed a bottle of whiskey, unscrewing the cap and motioning it to her. "When you find yourself in times of trouble, baby sister, turn to Jim, Jack, and Jose. They make the problems disappear...until the morning."

Nat raised her eyes and stared at him with her mouth hanging open slightly, clearly bored. She staggered to her feet and walked toward the walls covered in news articles and bits of pictures in between. She found something new on those walls every time she went around to look at them.

"Who's this?" Natalie pointed at the picture of the man she had spoken to at the bar. He didn't have as much dirt on his face but was clean shaven instead with the smallest inclining of a smile on his mouth.

Ash craned his neck up. "That is John Winchester."

"Hmmm," She mused quietly and took the picture off the pushpin to fold and put in her pocket, catching the faint sound of the Impala's engine in the distance. A smile spread across her face as she ran out of Ash's room and toward the door in time to see her Uncle Sam coming up the stairs onto the porch.

"Natalie, please," He immediately shrugged out of his jacket and draped it around her shoulders to cover up her tank, kissing her forehead and walking into the Roadhouse.

She ran toward the driver's side of the car and opened the door for her father who was fiddling with his phone. "Whatever Ellen tells you happened, didn't happen. I swear."

Dean looked up at her evenly. "Why do you smell like vodka?"

"Well," She shrugged and pointed her palms up. "it's like this, right, I was cleaning up the tables and this total douchebag was…"

Her words were interrupted when her father put his hand up to stop her. "Why does your breath smell like vodka?"

"Ash and I drank some this morning. No big deal, right?" Natalie didn't even convince herself.

"So," Dean's face stayed stony. "it was you and Ash drinking vodka. Not you and said douchebag?"

She nodded reassuringly.

"Okay," A smile broke out on Dean's face, putting her fears to rest. "at least it was with Ash."

"So you're not mad?"

"No."

Natalie tried to hide her own smile, leaving her father's answer as it was. As she followed him into the Roadhouse, meeting Ellen's bright gaze and eyeing the swept up shards of glass in the corner, a new hesitancy rose in Natalie's chest. This time it wasn't for her own sake, it was for Aidan's.

Next chapters:

1. Natalie and Cas go bowling

2. Nat and Uncle Sam hunt the sock monster

3. Sixth Sense Part 2

If there are any ideas that you'd like to read, please let me know :)