(What's this? Another updated within a few days of the last one? *le gasp!* This is a rather short chapter, but it provides more backstory for Dani and sheds more light on the animosity between her and her brother, Matt.)

[Songs Used, Mentioned, and Suggested for Chapter 7]

~ 'Safe & Sound' by Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars (when Dani's remembering when she lost her mom)

Chapter Seven

"Today is Yesterday's Tomorrow"

Springfield, Ohio

February 13th, 2007

"Wait a second, Dani," Sam was saying as Dean slid the key into the lock of their hotel room. "Did you say your date with Charlie is tomorrow?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Isn't tomorrow Valentine's Day?"

"Phfft! Vtla. No. Valentine's Day is on the fourteenth and today's the –,"

"Thirteenth."

"…N-no. No, because the thirteenth's tomorrow…" Her words trailed off as she stared into the distance. "Oh no…"

Without warning, Dani nearly bowled Dean over on her way to the calendar hanging on the wall. Sam was right. Valentine's Day was tomorrow. Panic seized Dani's lungs. Of all days for a first date to occur! And, she realized, I have nothing nice to wear! She'd packed for a hunt, not a surprise date!

To Sam and Dean's surprise, she began to rapidly speak in Cherokee. Dean chuckled and nudged his brother. "Think she's swearing?"

Sam shook his head. "The Cherokee language doesn't have swear words. Dani told me that when we were kids."

Dean made a face. "What kind of language doesn't have a swear word or two?"

"Dani, just calm down," Sam advised.

"Calm down? I can't calm down! I am nowhere near calming down!"

"It's not like this is your first date," Dean offered. Dani's pacing stopped and she stared at him as if she wanted to strangle him. Dean cleared his throat awkwardly. "You – uh – have dated before, right?"

"So far, my love life has been D.N.E."

"D.N.E.?" the boys repeated.

"Does Not Exist."

The boys gave a unified 'ah'. Dani's pacing continued. "Okay, I've been on a date before, but it ended so badly that I'd rather forget it happened."

"It couldn't have been too bad," Dean assured her. "Everyone always thinks their first date is a disaster."

"Have these people also accidentally set their date's pants on fire?"

Dean's mouth open and closed a few times before he gave a very unconvincing shrug. "Some might have."

Dani heaved a great sigh and flung herself onto Dean's bed. "Oh yo… What if I accidentally set him on fire too?"

"Have him take you to a water park," Dean suggested.

"In the middle of February?" Sam reminded him.

"Riiight, right, right, right, right."

Dani rolled over and sat up with a forlorn look on her face. Dean fidgeted, unsure of how to go forward. "Look, Dani, Sam and I don't exactly have a lot of experience with this kind of situation. So, it's not that we don't care or feel for you, I just don't see how we can help other than us suddenly becoming Edward Lewis and taking you shopping to the sound of 'Pretty Woman'."

Sam side-glanced at his brother. "You watched Pretty Woman?"

"Two words; Julia. Roberts."

"Fair enough."

Dani stood up hands, held out, as if to keep their change of topic at a distance. "It's fine, guys. I'll figure something out."

"Alright…well, uh…Good talk."

"Oh yes, a real encourager, Dean."

She bid the boys goodnight and headed for her room. Once she was behind closed doors, she resumed her freak out session.

He's a heck of a lot older than you.

Osda. Maybe he'll be more mature about this. He barely even looked at my scars. They're usually the first things everybody sees.

Do people kiss on their first date?

I wish agitsi were here. She'd know what to say – what I should wear…

Dani sat cross-legged on the bed; a pillow hugged tightly to her chest as she thought back to that night in 1999. She had been thirteen; the age that the Callaghan children were to decide if they wanted to be a kanati – a hunter – or lead a semi normal life.

Each child had been taught from an early age the precautions, safety, and deterrents against monsters to keep them safe. But once they were thirteen, they had to make the decision to either become a hunter and further their training or choose to pursue a different profession. Neither parent had pressured their children about which choice to pick. Dani's elder brothers, Kenan and Matt, had chosen to be hunters. A week after her thirteenth birthday, Dani told her family she didn't want to be a hunter. She wanted to focus on medicine and healing and literature. Her parents accepted her decision and left it at that. Matt, the second eldest Callaghan child, was not as understanding.

Matthew Adahy Callaghan – or Ma-du as he was called in Cherokee – had resented his sister almost from day one. Galilahi's father, Wohali Black Fox, shunned his daughter for marrying a white man and forbade members of the tribe from ever seeing her. When Dani had been born, Onida Black Fox paid little heed to her husband's anger and went to see her granddaughter in order to bestow on her the blessings and title of the next medicine woman. Matt resented the fact that his own elisi – his grandmother – had risked disobeying agiduda for Dani, but not for him or Kenan?

"You think you're better than us, don't you agido?"

Three months later, in early September, after Matt had been particularly cruel to Dani, Galilahi asked her husband to have a long talk with Matt while she took her daughter out for ice cream in order to cheer her up. Dani's spirits were high on their return home. It had gotten dark while they'd been away. One of the tires blew out. Galilahi pulled over to take a look. They were in a wooded area and hardly anyone drove out that way, only residents. The beam of Galilahi's flashlight revealed the stump of a black arrow protruding from the rear tire.

"What is it, etsi?" Dani asked, opening the door.

"Close the door! Now! Ha!"

Dani barely had time to obey before a ghoul appeared out of nowhere and barreled into her mother. Galilahi shouted for Dani to lock the doors, Dani obeyed immediately, and watched in horror as her mother fought the ghoul. In the end, the ghoul pierced Galilahi's heart with a black blade and leered at Dani's horrified face before stepping towards her. He stopped suddenly, his red eyes searching the woods beyond him, then turned tail and ran.

Dani barely registered the four goblin soldiers that had come to her rescue. Two kept watch while one somberly covered Galilahi's body and the other coaxed a dazed Dani from the car. They were her Uncle Reshen's most trusted soldiers. They wore his symbol plainly on their chest. She wasn't afraid of them.

It wasn't until they personally delivered Dani to her father that the tears began to flow and wouldn't stop. Reshen arrived less than an hour later to share in their grief and explain the motive behind the attack. He told him about the war and that he hadn't informed them about it before because he didn't want them to worry. He never dreamed the war would reach them.

Matt waited until he caught Dani alone to lay the blame of their mother's death on her. "If you'd chosen to be a kanati, Da would have began training you to fight! You could have protected her!"

A knock on the door startled Dani from her memories. She leapt up from the bed and hurried to the door. Opening it as far as the chain would allow, Dani found a young man holding a few bags that supported the logo of a fancy restaurant she and her uncle had spotted on their way into town. Upon further inspection, the man also wore a uniform with the same logo.

"Are you Danielle Callaghan?" he asked, reading her name off a notepad.

"I am."

"We got a call and were told to deliver this to you along with this letter." He handed her the letter first. She recognized her uncle's handwriting on the envelope instantly.

"Thanks," she said, taking it and the food bags. "Wait here, I'll get you a tip."

"No need. Already taken care of. Have a good night, miss."

"You too." She closed the door and set the bags on the coffee table. Opening the letter, she burst into laughter as she read the message.

My dearest goddaughter, I beg of you – DO NOT EAT THE RUBBISH FOOD IN THE VICINITY OF THAT TRASH HEAP THEY CALL A HOTEL!

Love, Uncle Reshen.

Dani slipped the letter back inside the envelope. "Aaaw, how sweet." She opened the first bag only to find another envelope taped on the takeout box. "Oh yo," she said with a light laugh. Taking the envelope in her hands, she extracted the note inside and dissolved into giggles again.

I'm not joking in case you were wondering. I forbid you from eating anything the staff of that building tries to push on you!

Dani sighed and said aloud, "Okay, Uncle Reshen. I promise not to eat their food."

Soft sound of paper sliding on the floor caught her attention. She turned to the door to find a note card coming to a stop a few inches away from the bottom slit. Then he took a look at the message scrawled upon it and rolled her eyes.

That's my girl.

(Told you it was a short chapter. But don't worry, the next one will be much longer.)

Cherokee words and Phrases:

Agido – Sister (ah-gee-doh)

Agiduda – Grandfather (ah-gee-doh-dăh)

Agitsi – My mother (ah-gee-chĭ) [chĭ as in chip]

Elisi – Grandmother (āā-lēē-sĭ)

Etsi – Mother (aa-chee) [This term is used when speaking directly to your mother]

Ha! – Now! (Hah)

Osda – Good / It's all right (ō-s-dăh) or Ostu (ohs-tuh)

Vtla – No (un-tlah)

Yo – [This word can be used in a variety of ways, but it is an equivalent to saying, "Oh gosh, oh man, oh geez," etc.]