MIAKODA
Sam remained unconscious.
Dean had put an IV into him so that he could receive fluids and Miakoda kept an ear on his chest, listening to his steady breathing and his heart. For the next ten days, the only thing that changed was the fluids. There was a sharp burning smell of o-zone and the sound of wings when Castiel had arrived. Miakoda let her nose flare a little as he went passed her into the basement, Dean following.
"He seems stressed."
"Who? Dean?" Bobby asked as he sat skimming through a text. "Sam ain't woken up yet. I'd say that was the reason why."
"No…" Miakoda shook her head, cocking her head a little, tracking the Angel as he stepped into the panic room. She stirred the big pot of chilli that had been bubbling since she got up around 8 that morning. "Not Dean, Castiel."
"Yeah well, after the Apocalypse didn't happen, Heaven's been throwing a bitch fit. Cas's been on the front lines in dealing with it."
The sound of feathers came again and soon Dean came up the stairs, troubled and stressed himself. Miakoda bit back the urge to go over to him and offer physical support. Whilst they may have been friends, and he might have gotten used to her occasional hand on him when she went passed or sat by him, Dean didn't know what she was then and just put it down to her being a tactile person. She sort of was, all Wolves were, but it was more than a grounding touch for Miakoda. Not only did it soothe another Pack member, but it also lets other Creatures know that she – although she hated this word – claimed them. It was a scent marker.
"Like my daddy always said, just 'cause it kills your liver don't mean it ain't medicine."
Miakoda gave a slightly amused puff of air through her nose, shaking her head lightly before turning back to taking the rice cooker out of the microwave and stirring it. On the kitchen table, her laptop sat open where she had been scrolling through newspaper articles for anything weird. Maybe that'll help Dean get back into the swing of things, get his spirits up.
"Sam still asleep?"
There was genuine curiosity and concern in Bobby's voice as he and Dean both took a drink of the bourbon that Bobby had poured from the bottle he had by his elbow. Miakoda declined hers, it wasn't her thing and it wouldn't do anything to her anyway.
"Yeah." Dean sounded defeated as he let out a heavy sigh, shoulders slumped.
"He'll wake up."
Miakoda cocked her head as she read through a case, having put the rice in for another five minutes, double-checking the title of it 'SMALL PLANE CRASH KILLS TWO'. The Portland Chronicle. She set her laptop down and made her way over to the table, the same paper. Oh, well at least Bobby could tell Dean about it if it had even drawn his attention enough to print it. Though was it just an older person thing where they were just opposed to technology?
She propped her hip against the table and gave it a scan through, absently keeping both an ear on the conversation, curiosity burning as she wasn't given the full run down when Dean had stayed with her, and Sam down in the basement.
"You find the same thing?" Bobby asked Miakoda as she handed the print out to Dean to get his opinion.
"Yeah," she absently nodded, "a couple of other news sites are running it – Oregon Local, Portland News – now that they've seen it garner people's attention."
Sam's breathing shifted.
He was awake.
Miakoda shifted again towards the hall, trying to make it natural as Bobby and Dean discussed what was in the article. Sam's heartbeat and footsteps came closer and closer to the living room.
Bobby was talking. "Girl's just gone. No body, no nothin'."
"Okay," Dean spoke, curious as to where the case was heading, "I'm not changing the channel."
Shock became strong in the room from both Sam and Dean, when Sam spoke, in a whisper as though he didn't believe what he was seeing. "Dean?"
The tumbler nigh on smashed onto the floor with how fast Dean not only put it down but also how he turned to see his little brother standing there. Miakoda moved out of the way, towards the sofa.
"Sam?" Sam ate up the distance between him and Dean within several strides before grasping Dean into a tight hug. Relief joined both of their scents as they hugged each other. It reminded Miakoda of how the twins were when Daniel had been away at a baseball camp for a few weeks of the summer. They always acted as though they hadn't seen each other in years.
Miakoda let her eyes travel over to Bobby who had been watching the scene himself, having slowly gotten up. She didn't even need her nose to work out that he was wary of how Sam was going to react, she wasn't exactly going to have him throw a ball for her. Not that she chased them.
Sam noticed his father figure at that moment, relief in his face as well and hugged him all the same. Bobby gave a few wary and awkward pats on his back. "Good to see you too."
"Wait," Sam said, confused, if a little scared, pulling away from him. "I saw you-I-I felt Lucifer snap your neck."
"Well, Cas kind of-"
"Cas is alive?" Sam breathed remembering having seen the Angel become Holy jam in the field.
Dean sent a wide-eyed look to Miakoda. Oh shit.
He stepped towards Sam, as though he was a wild animal. "Yeah," he nodded, a furrow to his brow, "Cas – Cas is fine. Sam, are you okay?"
"Actually, um…" Miakoda heard his stomach growl. "I'm starving."
The timer for the rice went and she stepped forward. "I've had chilli bubbling all morning. You're awake just in time."
"Dr Hart?" he asked confused and she held up a hand.
"We'll explain after lunch. C'mon, kitchen."
Ushering them all into the kitchen, Miakoda sat about serving them all food. Over the past week or so, she'd fallen into the whole 'Pack Mom' thing. That wasn't to say that she didn't get Dean to do the cleaning up if she'd cooked but her Wolf relished in the fact that she could start to provide her Pack with sustenance that wasn't dripping in oil or fats. They had established a bit of a pattern from when Miakoda had been working. On the Sunday morning of the next week, they would brainstorm ideas for dinners for the next week. It would mean that they would be able to a) keep track of what they had in the fridge and b) not have to go out every day for ingredients.
Bobby and Dean didn't care what they ate, as long as it was edible but she knew that they both liked having home-cooked meals. Currently, Miakoda had made a few different soups and a beef and veggie pie that had been put into the cleaned out freezer with instructions on the cling film of what to do. The chilli would do for that night and tomorrow, or even – if she popped out to get wraps – be turned into burritos or enchiladas if they wanted.
If they were headed to Oregon for the case, it made sense to her to have several easy-to-eat things on hand that would keep everyone full until they got to a diner. Sliding Sam a heaping bowl of warm rice and chilli, Dean took the spoon from her after she got her own and served both him and Bobby.
She smiled when Sam near cried at the taste. "Your brother near made the same noise when he had it."
"It's good chilli." He defended, setting his bowl down beside Sam before grabbing a couple of beers. He handed Miakoda a Smirnoff. He'd noticed she wasn't much of a drinker. "Better when left for longer."
Noticing that Sam was shovelling through the chilli, Miakoda slapped together a quick ham sandwich and slid it towards him. She ignored the amused look Bobby sent her as they both leant against the counter. Sam hadn't eaten in over a week, he was bound to be hungry.
As he fired through the sandwich, and the other three had finished, Dean started to ask Sam questions.
"So Sam…" he started tentatively, hands deceptively lose around his beer bottle.
"Yeah?" he answered, mouth full.
"What's the last thing you remember?"
Sam shrugged after thinking on it for a second, sandwich still in his fingers. "The field. And then I fell."
"Okay…" Dean took in his face, trying to see if he could catch any sign of the potential side effects that both Castiel and Death had spoken off. Miakoda could hear his heart rate, still galloping in his chest from anxiety. "And then/"
"I woke up in the panic room." Sam looked between all three of them and Miakoda couldn't help but make a connection between a confused puppy and his expression as he tried to work out what was going on.
"That's it?" Bobby asked, dumbstruck. "You don't remember—"
Dean cut him off, sending them both a look of saying 'Shut up.' "Let's be glad." He turned a strained smile back to Sam, who watched confused. "Who wants to remember all that Hell?"
Oh, that'll go down well.
"Well, how long was I gone?" Sam said, most likely trying to establish some sort of timeline.
"About a year and a half."
Dean then went on to defend himself as Sam asked how he got out. Miakoda had a feeling that by not telling Sam straight out of the gate, what could potentially happen to him, he might start scratching without realising. He was a naturally inquisitive person, who had had a year and a half of his life wiped clean from his mind, he was going to start searching.
"Is there anything else I should know?"
Bobby and Dean both looked at her. She looked at Sam. "I'm a werewolf."
To say that Sam didn't know how to respond was an understatement. He went to draw his gun then realised he didn't have it and lunged for a butter knife. Dean grabbed it and lowered it down.
"That was subtle." Bobby drawled, amused.
Miakoda shrugged. "Big whoop. I grow a tail and find rodents fun to chase; humans do weirder shit, Singer." She grinned at him over her drink bottle. "' sides because of me, you don't have a raccoon problem. Or possums. Or rats."
"You couldn't have gone about that a little softer?" Dean looked at her as everything calmed down.
"Of for fuck's sake…" she muttered, putting her bottle down on the counter and stalking out into the hallway bathroom. Repeating what she had done beforehand, Miakoda shifted and trotted into the living room, plonking down onto the carpet.
Bobby snorted. "If that wasn't a resting bitch face if I ever saw one."
Sam took in Dean's reaction. Then Bobby's. Seeing as they weren't drawing their weapons and recalling how relaxed they were around her, she must have been okay. Dean put a hand on his forearm. "Relax, Sammy, Koda's a friendly."
"Even though she sheds all over the damn sofa."
Miakoda snorted in annoyance before coming back minutes later, pulling on her – or rather the one she hadn't given back to Dean yet – flannel. "Okay first off, I can't help that my winter coat is coming in. Secondly, at least I don't get fleas."
"But do you chase tennis balls?" Sam sassed.
"No!" that they knew of.
"She did get pissed off at that squirrel the other day though." Dean grinned at her.
She gave them a resting bitch face. "It's squeaking hurt my ears."
Bobby left them all to settle in, even though she could still smell that he was apprehensive around Sam. Dean soon left, making up some stupid excuse to go and tune him Baby.
Miakoda sat across from Sam. "…is Baby—"
"The Impala."
"Humans are weird." She sighed, leaning back and picking a little at the sticker on her bottle. "I mean, I knew that anyway, but then things like that come about and wham!" she waved her hand, "even weirder."
Sam took a pull from his new beer that Dean had left on the table before he went out to the garage. "So how did you end up here?"
"Um," Miakoda tucked a loose strand that had fallen out of the half up-do she'd chucked it in after her shower that morning, "Maybe a few months after you two left Cambridge, Dave—"
"The photographer?" Sam answered shocked.
She nodded slowly. "Yeah…turns out he was sending intel to another group of Hunters. Had been for a while. I couldn't tell because of how intense his scent was. Anyway, one day after I'd come home from work, I heard people in the house and, I could have fought back but that would've drawn attention to them and even though it would've meant I wasn't kidnapped—"
"What?"
"it would've meant that I could've potentially dragged innocent people into the know and I'd rather have not done that. SO, carrying on. I was doused with several concentrated darts of wolfsbane and I woke up in a prison. The Hunters that had taken me had been working for Crowley," seeing as he was about to interrupt, Miakoda held up a hand, "let me explain. Crowley's looking for the location of Purgatory. It's where Creatures go when they die as they don't belong to either Heaven or Hell, only Humans get to go to either. We go to Limbo. To find the location, Crowley needed Alphas – either the start of a Creature's line – like your Vampires or Djinn – or, in my case, the head of a pack."
"You're an Alpha?"
Miakoda let the red eyes glow in response before dropping them to the table. "I wasn't supposed to be. My older brother and sister were being trained to be able to take up the mantle. It passed to me when I was 16 because Hunters burned my Pack alive in my house."
"Which was why you didn't tell Dean straight away." Sam realised and nodded in recognition.
"That's not to say he wasn't pissed when I did. But he ended up at the Prison I was at, having betrayed by the same Hunters that had taken me and we both got out."
"What about the rest of the monsters?" he then realised what he'd said or implied and guilt welled up. Miakoda held up her hands.
"No, it's okay. Not all Creatures want to stay in the shadows. You and Dean, and the majority of the Hunter community, you lot take care of the outliers, the ones that come close to exposing us. If we were exposed, a majority of humans would potentially react as they have in the past and well…" she shrugged.
"That hasn't ended well." Sam leant back in his chair and a yawn broke through.
Miakoda smiled a little and got up, tipping her head towards the door. "Go and get some actual sleep."
"I was asleep for what?"
"10 days."
"I was asleep for over a week," he sighed and Miakoda herded him towards where Dean had put his things. "I shouldn't need more sleep."
"You'd be surprised." Miakoda laughed a little, leaning on the doorway. "I'll get Dean to get you for dinner if you aren't up before then."
"You're a really good cook."
She had a melancholic smile. "It was my dad's recipe I think. Everything was lost in the fire so when I went to make it, I went by memory and taste. I'm glad you liked it. Night, Sam."
"Night, Koda."
She closed the door as Sam went to strip off the shirt he had on. After washing the bowls and leaving them to drip dry beside the sink, Miakoda pulled on her slippers – a grey-blue suede, fur-lined pair with a hard sole – and grabbed a cardigan and made her way out to the garage. Even though autumn was well on the way, because she ran just slightly warmer than normal humans, she wasn't bothered by the bite of the wind.
Miakoda came out to Dean and Bobby debating over whether or not Sam was completely in control of what he was doing when he didn't have a Soul. Though there wasn't a door or walls surrounding the garage, she wrapped her knuckles on a pale worn bench. Both of them turned to look at her.
She pointed her thumb towards the house. "Sam's conked out. In his bed. I wasn't carrying 200 odd pounds of dead weight. Again."
Stepping in, Miakoda came up slightly warily to the table where the two were opposite each other. Bobby looked to her, taking in her face. "How are you okay with this? He had you chained and broke your jaw."
Dean's head snapped to her and Miakoda batted his hands away from where he went to take her jaw to find the non-existent marks. Miakoda gave Bobby a dark look. "As long as you don't expect me to go into the shed of yours, everything after what the Campbells did…well, it wasn't pleasant but it was a walk in the park compared to the rack. When he went deadweight was probably the worst bit. Fuck, is he heavy?"
They both made a knowing noise.
"So," she scratched her nose with a knuckle, "what do we think about the disappearances?"
"Won't more until we get there." Dean shrugged and took in what she was wearing – jeans, a t-shirt and a big pale cardigan with slippers. "Aren't you cold?"
Miakoda made a face. "No," she shrugged. "Wolves run slightly higher temperatures than humans do so this is fine."
Bobby pointed to her shoes. "Hard shoes in the garage."
Using Dean's shoulder as a balance thing, Miakoda lifted her foot to reveal the hard bottom. "Proper soles. Boom."
"Do you wanna come on the Hunt?" Dean asked when the two of them had brainstormed what it could potentially be as Bobby did mechanic things under the car, doing the job that he got paid for.
Miakoda jerked her head back, shocked a little at the suggestion. "I don't think I would be much help?" she gestured with her hand a bit, "With the lying bit."
Dean raised an eyebrow at her. "Stayed with you for a month and you didn't give any signs of being a Creature."
She sucked her teeth in a tease, pointing. "None of my cutlery was silver. Those burns suck."
"Campbell?"
"Yeah," Miakoda nodded slightly and then remembered that it hadn't been the only time and laughed a little. "Oh, and one of the older cousins who were human, Caleb, dared us Wolves to touch it. I was, Gods, nine I think. Mum was not impressed. Wolves got a week, humans got two weeks."
"Why?"
"Because we got silver burns?" she laughed a little with a slightly furrowed brow. "Mum thought it was punishment enough."
"Anyway," Dean waved a hand, leaning forward on his elbows, "you comin' or what?"
"I might stay here?" she glanced back to Bobby, getting his nod of approval, "Keep an eye on Sam. Make sure he doesn't start scratching."
"Good point. You up for it, Bobby?"
Bobby finished what he was doing from the raised car and chucked the wrench and cloth down. "I ain't been out for a while, as long as you're good with manning the phones and such?"
Miakoda shrugged. "Lying's easier on the phone than it is in person. And if he's awake when you lot are gone, Sam can help."
"Let's go then."
Sorry this is late. Assignments have started to come up and whilst I havent gotten anything written on latest chapter for Koda, I thought I'd get this up. Hopefully I get the second part of ...And Then There Were None done soon so I can keep up with stuff. I am however working on another new story idea - another SPN one but a Winchester!Sister fic because I apparently love a good cliche - so depending on how I go with that, along with assignments, I'll see if I'll post it. I mean, I've got a name for each part of her story - the good thing about SPN ending (I get emotional thinking about it) on 15 seasons is that I can split it into three separate links of her arc.
Anyway, we are currently at just over 2000 views, 2,000. Holy fuck. Thank you all so much for those who've read it, followed, favourited and reviewed, I really appreciate everything.
Enjoy,
K xx
