A/N: Hello my lovelies! I've been finishing these chapters later and later at night in hopes to get them up as fast as I can for you, but because of this I'm starting to notice some mistakes as I go back through and re read them. I will do my best to fix that! Thank you all so much for reading and sticking with the story so far! I already have plans for later chapters that I'm really excited to share with you, but it will all come around in due time! Reviews are welcomed and appreciated as always! Here is your latest installment.
Almost a full day had passed since Dean had found Ana unconscious on the street outside of the demon infested house and she still hadn't woken up. As time passed he became more worried, he just wanted to know that whatever magic trick she had pulled to save herself from the demon hadn't caused any damage. He sighed as he paced back and forth passed the foot of the bed in her room, he'd barely left her side the entire time.
Sam had been in and out of the room since he had woken up that morning, checking on both his brother and his niece while also trying to find any answers about why Ana's powers had seemed to surface way faster than they should have. He leaned against the doorframe, watching as Dean frantically moved around, no longer able to stay still. The number of times he had seen his older brother like this could be counted on one hand and it made him uneasy, but he understood that this was one of the rare times he would have to be the rock in the family, the one to keep it together. "Dean, I'll keep her company. Why don't you go eat? Or shower?" he offered, moving into the room and placing a strong hand on Dean's shoulder to stop his pacing, "You need to relax. Cas said that she would need to recover, give it a little more time then she'll be up and on your last nerve just like she had been before."
With a shrug of his shoulder, he turned away from Sam and walked over to stand closer to Ana's side, "She's hasn't even been with us for half of a month, Sam, and she's already been caught by demons twice." his words were tense and full of self-hatred, "I told Heather I would keep her safe, I swore to keep her safe and as far away from all of this while she was still in the womb. Just over a week and she's almost lost her life twice."
"We are going to keep her safe, you're not in this alone. She's going to need to know more than just self defense." Sam spoke as he moved to the opposite side of the bed as Dean, looking down at the unconscious redhead between them, "We're going to put an end to this plan and to Barbas, but she's too deep in to keep her out of it all. Hell the whole damn thing revolves around her. Just let her get better and then we will make a plan, one that stops this all now, then she can go back to having a normal life."
Dean scoffed, "Right, because teaching her what we know about demons, letting her in on whatever plan isn't going to bury her so deep in this supernatural crap that she can't get out. She's a witch, Sam, nothing is going to be the same or normal for her again, no matter how much rest she gets."
"I'm not going to get any damn rest if you two don't shut the hell up." Ana mumbled, not moving an inch as she interrupted their arguing.
"Hey, kid." Dean sat down on the bed next to her, being careful not to jostle her, "How are you feeling?"
Ana winced, slowly moving her arm that had been injured the night before, pulling it up to hide her face, "Like I got hit by a freight train." she groaned, pausing to slightly open her eyes, she looked at her arm. "So I've either been out for months or Cas healed my arm."
The comment made Sam chuckle slightly, his spirits lifting now that she was awake, "Yeah, Cas healed you."
"Then why the hell couldn't he have fixed everything else." she snapped, closing her eyes again.
Dean smiled weakly at her, "He didn't say, just said you had to do the rest yourself." he pushed her arm away from her face, "Do you remember what happened?"
Rubbing her hand across her forehead, she brushed over the cut that was still healing from her drunken stupor and winced, it was still tender, "Ah…" she thought, recalling a house full of demons and being led away from her family by the demon that had possessed the woman Ana thought she was meant to save, "She threatened to kill me," she remembered, "when she started to come at me with the knife I panicked… then it all goes black."
"When we got to you the demon was dead and you were unconscious. You don't remember anything about how you stopped it?" Sam asked, grabbing the desk chair to sit down.
Ana rolled her head over slowly, looking up at her uncle, silently wishing she had answers for him, "I… I remember feeling like I was going to have a vision, the weird tingle that comes before one hit me so strong… but other than that I don't remember much."
Sam reached over and grabbed one of her hands,"It's okay, Ana, we're going to figure this all out." he reassured her.
"And you are not going to be in danger like that again," Dean insisted, having made up his mind the night before, "I'm not chancing you getting hurt."
The girl groaned, "Da…" she caught herself before she uttered the word that almost slipped unwelcomed, "Dean." correcting herself, "I am not in the mood nor do I have enough strength to argue about this right now. Let's revisit this when I've had more sleep."
Her slip up hadn't gone unnoticed by the man and it made his chest tighten in a strange way, ignoring it, he looked down at her, brushing a hand through her red hair, "Alright, kid, get some rest. When you feel a little better I'll remind you that you're not leaving here until this is over and then insist on you being tied to a chair." he smirked at her and stood up.
Sam shook his head watching as the two before him bickered, "Don't you think you should eat something? You haven't eaten in a couple of days." he pointed out.
Ana tossed her head back and forth, "Sleep, Sam." she muttered, grabbing a hold over her blanket and pulling it up to her chin, "I'll eat when I feel alive."
"Alright." He responded, sounding worried, "Get some rest, we'll see you in the morning." he stood up, ready to follow his brother out of the room to let her get some rest.
"Wait… morning?" she sounded confused, "What time is it? How long have I been out?"
"Almost a full day." Dean told her softly, "Now go to sleep, we'll figure this all out when you wake up." he patted her back gently, she sounded weak and he didn't like that. Grabbing his brother's shoulder he steered him out of the room. Quietly closing the door behind him, he let out a relieved sigh.
Sam stopped and smiled at him, "She's awake, she's going to be okay."
"I know." he responded, turning toward the library, "Come on, we need a plan and I want it fast."
-A-
Ana woke up earlier than she was happy about the next morning, but she guessed that after sleeping for a day and a half straight she might as well get up. Sitting up in bed she assessed the damage across her body. The arm that had been broken by the demon was healed, thanks to Cas, but it seemed that he left the wounds that she inflicted upon herself during her drunken night. Was that really four days ago? It feels so much longer than that. The thought passed through her head as she grabbed her foot, wanting to cheek the stitches on the bottom.
With her foot on her lap, she paused, she knew for a fact that when she had blacked out that she had been wearing shoes… and now she wasn't. Sam or dad must have taken them off. Her words cycled back through her head and she swore out loud, remembering how she had almost let the 'd' word slip last night while talking to Dean. It made her uneasy. A part of her was more than ready to attach the title to the man that was without a doubt her father, but then there was the separate part that wasn't sure either of them were ready for that.
Pushing her stress out of her mind, she studied her foot carefully, it seemed to be healing okay so she let it go and stood up, wanting to test her weight on it. There was a slight tugging of skin as she walked, but there wasn't much pain, which she was thankful for. Smiling at her ability to walk without any limp at all, she crossed the room to her dresser and digging out clean clothes, she deemed it necessary to shower immediately.
-A-
The water had run cold before she got out of the shower and she felt instantly better the moment she was dressed, ready to face whatever the day had in store for her… Even if that included demons trying to capture her, learning that she was in fact a witch, or convincing Dean that she should be allowed to leave the bunker.
She was playing around with her phone as she left her bathroom, playing up her music app and starting all of her music on shuffle, not in the mood for anything in particular. The song that played first made her smile sweetly, Fly by Maddie & Tae, she wasn't much for the girlie side of country music, but the song was catchy. It had happened more often than not that people would comment on the strange variety of music she listened to. Her favorites were rock of any kind, though she was iffy about it when it was all screaming she couldn't understand, and the more upbeat country songs. From time to time she enjoyed classical music, Mozart and Beethoven, folk music when she was in the mood, and every now and then pop or rap would catch her attention; the girl just loved music.
While starting a pot of coffee she hummed along to the slower song, sing softly to herself as the chorus hit as she looked around for something to eat. Hearing a disgruntled sound from behind her, she spun around, laughing at the disgusted look on Dean's face, "What the hell are you listening to?" he grumbled.
"It's called music, Dean." she gave him a cheeky grin.
The man scoffed, "This is not music, this is… is… I don't even know what to call this crap. Turn it off."
Ana looked him over, noticing that he was clearly not ready to be awake, still wearing what she was beginning to realize qualified as Dean's pajamas, sweats and a plain tee shirt. She shook her head at him and grabbed her phone, hitting the next button until she came across a song she thought he might better approve of, "You know there's more to music than just hair bands, right?" she questioned as Burnin' for You by Blue Oyster Cult started.
"Now this is music!" He grinned as he walked over to where she was standing by the coffee pot, picking her phone up off of the counter, "What else do you have on this thing?" he began to scroll through the songs she had saved, "Please explain to me how you go from Moonlight Sonata by freaking Beethoven to Nothing Else Matters by Metallica?" he asked, raising an eyebrow as he continued to scroll.
She shrugged, "I like variety." she stated simply, grabbing two mugs out of the cupboard and filling both with coffee.
"How'd you get into 'hair bands' any way? Looks like you have a lot of eighties rock." he set her phone down.
"Heather." the name being her answer for years to the question, "She never really left the decade music wise. Honestly, I'm thankful for it, some of my favorite songs are classic rock songs." she explained, sipping at her mug.
Dean grinned, "Well at least she did something right raising you." he teased.
Ana reacted quickly, slapping his shoulder with the back of her hand, "Hey! My upbringing was perfectly fine. I turned out to be an amazing person." she chided him.
"I like to think that it's our shared DNA that makes you amazing." He continued on, enjoying the peaks he was slowly getting of her true personality. They had been so focused on the ritual and her family history that it was hard to determine what she was like other than pretty smart and quick to anger.
"Right… that's all you, Dean. Without you as my father I would have been the most dull person on the planet! Thank you so much for gracing me with your genes." sarcasm dripped from her dramatic words.
He smiled down at her, "Glad to see that being attacked by a few demons didn't take away your ability to be completely sarcastic." Turning around, he glanced at the clock that hung on the wall across the room and groaned, "You gonna be good for a while if I go get some shut eye? I didn't sleep too well in your desk chair the night before last and I didn't get to sleep until a couple hours ago."
She studied him a moment, "You slept in my desk chair?" his statement obviously confusing her.
"You had your arm broken, had been taken by a demon, and then I found you in the middle of the road next to said demon who was dead." he stated, "There was a split second where I thought I'd lost you and it scared the crap out of me. Not to mention that when I found you, you were unconscious. I was worried, Ana." his voice was soft, eyes sincere as he explained himself to her.
They stared at each other a moment, the words processing in her mind. Then before she could stop herself, she had set her mug on the countertop and closed the small space that had been between them, wrapping her arms around him in a hug. Her head was perfect level with his chest and it rested there, "Thanks, Dean." she told him.
The hug itself had taken him by surprise, but it didn't take him long to respond by wrapping his arms around her as well, resting his cheek on the top of her head, "Anytime, kid." he assured her, before clearing his throat and pulling away. "Alright, I'm going back to bed. Don't do anything crazy."
Ana nodded and watched as he turned to leave the room, just as he reached the door a thought struck her, "Hey, Dean." he paused, turning to look at her, "I know you're not a fan, but you should prepare yourself for a bunch of 'chick-flick' moments." she quoted him, grinning. She received only a glare in return before he left out the door.
-A-
After eating a small breakfast and starting on her third cup of coffee Ana sat at the large table in the library, a book about her family's history on the table in front of her. The book was a sort of documentation of the one wicked witch from her mother's side. At the beginning it made it very clear that Charlotte wasn't the only evil in the Good blood line, but that she had been the only actual witch to go dark side. The author of the book had been Charlotte's elder sister Annabelle, she herself had the ability to get nothing but the truth out of anyone she asked which made it incredibly easy to write about her sister's evil acts.
Charlotte returned home late in the night covered from head to toe in blood, a strange giddy smile made the whole thing more unsettling to me. When I questioned her about what had happened there was no hesitation to try and lie, she had given up months ago on trying to hide what she did from me. She told me how she had ran into a group of men in town around my age, when they bothered her she said she warned them, but that they continued on. Seeming it fit to punish them for not listening to her, she pulled the skin from their bodies with a wave of her hand. I fear that it won't be much longer before I am to be punished for something she deems wrong.
The passage made Ana shutter. The sisters lived during the 1800s, but the thought of anyone in her family being able to do that sort of thing didn't sit right with her. She shook her head and closed the book, gripping tight on to her coffee cup as she brought her legs up to her chest. What if that happened to her? It was the only thing she could think about. What if something happened and she went evil? Would her father and her uncle be able to kill her if it came down to it? She knew how much family meant to them and though they had known each other a short amount of time they were all growing more comfortable with thinking about it that way. They were family, end of story.
Hearing footsteps pulled her thoughts away from her possible future and to Sam who was walking into the room, she gave him a forced smile, "Morning."
"Good morning. Glad to see you up and around." He grinned, walking over to where she was sitting, "Let's try and keep instances like that few and far between." he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, I am a Winchester, if the record you and Dean have is anything to go off of I'm practically doomed to almost die a handful of times." she joked, hoping to lighten her own mood. Nothing made her more annoyed than being grumpy, which only made her more grumpy, it was a never ending cycle.
Sam chuckled softly, "Yeah, well as long as you don't start trading your soul for someone else's life I think we'll call it a win." he gave her shoulder one more squeeze before turning toward the direction of the kitchen, "Is there more coffee?"
She lifted up her foot and used her toes to scootch the book across the table, she didn't want it any where near her, "Uh, yeah. I made a full pot, there's still some left." she answered over her shoulder. With her head cocked to the side, she glared at the book, as if that could change the possibility of her going evil. There was the sound of ruffling wings behind her as she took a sip of coffee, "Hey, Cas." she greeted the angel, knowing it had to be him.
"Anastasia, how are you feeling?" his gruff voice was the same monotone it normally was, but if she didn't know better, she might have caught a very small hint of worry. He walked around so that he was standing in front of her, his brow furrowed in concentration. "Your energy seems to have improved drastically."
As she stood up from the chair, she looked him over, wondering if there was something he knew about what she did to the demon that he wasn't sharing with everyone, "I'm feeling better. Not quite one hundred percent, but almost." Sam walked back into the room as she spoke, "Can you fill in any of the blanks I'm missing? Do you know how I killed the demon?"
Castiel frowned, "When I healed you that night, I could feel the residual energy lingering in you and at the time I couldn't identify it. So I returned to Heaven and asked those who I can trust, but the answers I received I'm afraid may upset you."
"I need to know, Cas, whatever it is I have to know."
There was a pause from the angel as he seemed to consider his next choice of words carefully, he didn't wish to cause her to have another anxiety attack, "I had assumed that it was magic that killed the demon, magic that you some how conjured, but as I said I wasn't certain. My assumption was correct, the form of magic you used has never been accessed by a witch with so little training. You produced a white light so pure that it killed the demon."
Ana's eyebrows furrowed in concentration as she processed his words, "A pure white light? How?"
"I do not know." Castiel answered, "It was something similar to the reaction of an angel blade on a demon. Those I spoke to in Heaven didn't think it was possible for you to do such a thing, but that is the only explanation."
Sam glanced back and forth between Cas and Ana as their conversation came to a grinding hault. It was obvious that Castiel didn't have any other information for them and Ana was clearly trying to process the news without freaking out. The younger Winchester had no idea what to do, so when he saw his brother walk into the room he let out a small relieved sigh.
Dean paused mid-stride as the mood of the room seemed to sink in. He glanced long and hard at his daughter's face, brushing a hand through his still damp hair before walking over to where she stood in front of Castiel. "What's going on?" he questioned both of them, not really caring who answered as long as he got one.
"I have just informed Ana that though I am certain that what saved her life the night of the fight with the demons was magic, it was magic that no witch without training would be able to do such a thing." Castiel explained, slowly turning his gaze from the girl to her father. "From what I understand it is akin to what happens when a demon is struck with an angel blade. Something so good and pure that it literally tore the demon to shreds."
It took a minute for the angel's words to sink in for Dean. When it all began to fall into place he looked at Ana, noticing that in that moment she looked considerably younger than she normally did, fear seeming to make her shrink into herself, "Ana…" he spoke her name softly, waiting before her eyes flicked up to look into his own before continuing, "Are you okay?" his own words made him frown, what a stupid question. Of course she wasn't alright, he could tell just by looking at her.
At first she didn't seem to hear his words, her gaze shifting back to the angel that stood in front of her, "So, was it just a freak thing? Maybe it happened because I was in danger and my body just reacted to save itself?" she asked, not being able to consciously making the decision to use magic. "Or was this more of the tip of the iceberg sort of deal? Do I know have access to that power all of the time?" the questions continued to roll of her tongue before she could stop herself.
Castiel's face tensed slightly in concentration as he carefully thought about what she was asking, thinking back to what he felt inside of her that night when he looked into her body and soul while also using his senses to get a reading off of her as she was in front of him. "The power that I felt that night, it is still inside of you. It's not as sporadic as it was that night, so I believe it's safe to say that part of it was a sort of safety mechanism, but you are correct in your 'tip of the iceberg' analogy. The power is still very active inside of you, I have no doubt that if you focused you could use it."
Ana considered his words as she fell back into her chair, "I'm gone full blown Harry Potter." she mumbled as she put her head in her hands.
Dean shook his head, quickly falling into his normal role of joking in tense situations, "Nah, not Harry Potter, you don't have a wand."
She brushed her red hair away from her face as she looked up at him, eyebrow raised, "I'm sure I could work on getting one if that will make you feel better." she teased dryly.
"Hey," he spoke softly, closing the distance between them and crouching down in front of her, "Don't let this get to you. We're going to help you figure this out. Cas said that it was a good, pure magic that came from you, focus on that. I know you've been worried about going to dark side, do you think that is still a possibility after what he just told you?"
Focusing on his green eyes, she took a moment to think about it before her face scrunched up with worry, "I have all of this power, Dean, and I apparently have access to it way sooner than any other witch in my family did. What if it's too powerful? What if I can't control it and it starts to control me?"
Reaching out, he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "That's not possible." his tone was a little stern, he would have no arguing on this matter, "You are from one of the most powerful bloodlines in witch history, not to mention that we Winchester's are very stubborn. This power will not control you. We will find everything you need to learn to control and understand it, there will be no possibility for you to lose control after that."
"Magic isn't an invading force in your body. Your magic is a part of you, as long as your intentions stay pure so will your power." Castiel spoke up, moving over to a chair near her to sit down, "You are not an evil person, Anastasia, I can feel that inside of you. If I had to guess, I would say that you are going to do great things with the magic you have been given." he spoke the truth, hoping it would comfort her.
Ana watched Cas a moment before giving him a weak smile. A thought struck her and she looked back to Dean, who was still in front of her, "Think about how much easier it will be to take out demons when I learn to do that light thing without having to be threatened with death."
"Nu uh," he pointed a finger up at her, almost poking her nose with it, "You are not going to start going after demons. If they come after you, then you can do your firework witchy mojo, but you are not going to start hunting because you can do this.
"Uh… Dean," Sam interrupted, "At this point I don't think we can really keep her out of this. She's the target for a world shattering ritual, she has crazy power, and she's a Winchester. That's all working against your plan to keep her out of this."
Dean glared at his younger brother, "There is no way in hell I'm letting her become a hunter!" he yelled as he stood up, stalking away from the table.
Ana stood and followed him, "I wouldn't be a hunter! I'm a freaking witch, that throws me in the world of the supernatural whether you like it or not. Add that on to being your daughter and I'm pretty much screwed if I don't get a handle on my powers and learn to use them." she grabbed his elbow, stopping him from walking. "I'm giving you two options here. You can either hop on the same train of thought that Sam and I are on which means I learn to protect myself and help you guys or you can tell me no again and I can figure this all out on my own, without your help."
"You're giving me options?!" he spun on her, "That's not how this works, Anastasia! I am your father and when it comes to this stuff I'm going to decide what's best for you."
"In case it slipped your mind, I'm a fucking legal adult, father." she snapped at him, "I have the right to make my own decisions and if you keep treating me like a child I will leave! What would be worse? Me learning to keep myself safe here while I learn how to control my powers or being completely unprotected while I try to figure it out, on my own, out in the world?"
"Would you two stop fighting?" Sam shook his head at them both, moving across the room to where they stood, he had enough of their constant bickering, "You," he faced Dean, "Need to get over the fact that whatever plans you had for her have gone out the window. She's an adult, she's a witch, and I won't let you push her away because you're too damn stubborn." He turned to look at Ana, "And you are being just as stubborn as he is. I get that you're still trying to process through the whole long lost father/ being a witch nonsense, but you need to give him some time to figure it out too. He never wanted this for you, Ana. He wanted you safe and now he can't guarantee that you will be. Now go to your rooms and calm down." he snapped, glaring at them both.
Dean raised an eyebrow at him, "Sam, I am not a child."
He scoffed, "Well you're freaking acting like one. Until you both come to terms with what is going to happen I don't want to see either of you."
"Sam…" Ana whined.
"GO!" he ordered, crossing his arms over his chest, glaring at them both and daring either of them to argue.
Ana and Dean glared at each other before turning on their heels and storming off toward their rooms. "We are not done with the argument, Anastasia Marie." he warned her as she reached for her doorknob.
She wheeled on him, "Do you think I want to argue with you like this? I just find out that you're my father and you think that I'm doing this to just be difficult? I'm not a kid, Dean. You have to let me make my own decisions, I've been doing it for years now and that's not going to change because you're in my life now." she sighed, defeated and tired, "I don't want to leave, but if you don't come to terms with this I will." she warned one last time before walking into her room, closing the door behind her.
