A/N: Hi there. As the story continues it seems to veer pretty far off the show plotline and at this point I have no idea how far it's going to go. As of right now this is oddly set season nine-ish (heavy on the ish), Kevin is dead, Ezekiel doesn't come into play at all here, Charlie obviously didn't go to Oz, Abaddon is still buried in pieces, and Castiel is in full on angel mode. Honestly, this is all a jumbled mess in my head and I'm trying to straighten it out, wish me luck. Any who… if you have any questions about any of this I will gladly answer them! Enough of this nonsense, here's the next chapter.
It had taken about an hour and a bunch of convincing from Connor before Ana left her room to go talk to Dean. What he had said had felt like a knife to her heart, though in truth they were words she had always assumed she would hear once she found her father. Being the only one among the friends she had back home who didn't know their dad was something that had always haunted her, even if she would never admit to it. Sighing, she turned into the library to see Sam, Charlie, and John in the middle of a hushed conversation, which stopped once Sam had spotted her and cleared his throat.
"Hey, where's my dad?" Ana asked, not even going to comment on whatever they didn't want her to know they were talking about.
"Pretty sure he headed to work on the Impala." John offered, giving her a tentative smile.
She muttered her thanks as she left the room and made her way toward the garage, slightly worried about the mood she would find her father in. If there was one thing she knew for certain it was that if there was nothing wrong with the Impala and Dean was working on it he was most likely dealing with some sort of problem. The car was his therapy and she knew that it had been in perfect condition in Ohio so there was no reason for something to be wrong with it.
Walking into the garage, she watched Dean tinker under the hood of his baby, grease covering his hands. "Dad?" she pulled his attention away from the engine as she stopped by the side of the front end.
Dean looked up, honestly surprised that she had come to him so soon, he had assumed that he would have to apologize more than once before she would look at him again. The look on her face as she turned away from him in the library had broken him, he never wanted to be the cause of that look again. "Ana, hey." he grabbed a dirty rag and wiped down his hands, "Look, I… I didn't mean it. I wouldn't change what happened, ever."
Tears formed in her eyes as she nodded, she wasn't ready for this, wasn't ready to talk to him about their argument or why it had hurt her so much, "I know."
With a deep sigh Dean pulled her into a hug, "I'm sorry."
She hugged him back tightly, it was the most physical contact they had since they met and though she hadn't realized it until then, that contact was something she desperately needed. "My biggest fear has always been that I'd find you one day and you wouldn't want me." she admitted to him with a sniffle.
"I may have not known it at the time, but I have always wanted you." He whispered, placing a kiss on the top of her head.
Ana snuggled in closer to his chest, finding comfort in his strength and the faint smell of grease, "I love you, dad."
Her words made Dean smile and he sent a silent thank you out to whatever force in the universe that had brought his daughter in to his life, "I love you too, kid."
With a smile, she lifted her head to look up into the green eyes that nearly matched her own, "Don't you just love sappy moments like this?" she teased, mood seeming to lighten a little.
"If you ever tell anyone about this, I will deny it until my dying day." He warned her, placing a hand on top of her head and ruffling her hair.
The two slowly separated and Ana wiped her hands across her cheeks, ridding her face of the evidence of her break down, "So, what are you working on?" she questioned, gesturing toward the Impala.
"Just tuning her up a bit, making sure everything is still in good shape." Dean moved back toward the nose of the car, looking under the hood at the engine, "She needs an oil change, but other than that everything is looking good." he checked a couple of things before looking up at her, "Want to help?"
Ana's eyes grew wide in surprise, "You're going to trust me to help with your car?"
He nodded with a small smile, "Not a lot can be done wrong on an oil change. You know anything about cars?"
"I can change a tire and jump start a battery, but that's about it." She answered, those were the two things that her aunt had been adamant about her learning to do, but other than that her car didn't require much maintenance and when things like an oil change needed to be done on it, they would just take it to a mechanic.
"Well that's a start," he grabbed a ratchet and held it out to her, "but now's the time for you to start learning more."
She took the tool out of his hand and looked at it, she had basic knowledge of most tools but she had the feeling that it was nothing compared to what Dean knew or what she would need to know if he was going to teach her about working on cars. "So, I assume I'm going to be using this for something?"
Dean nodded, "That," he pointed to the tool in her hand, "is a ratchet and you're going to be using it to take the bolt out of the oil pan so it can drain."
"Ratchet, bolt, oil pan… got it." she grabbed the small, open ended cylindrical piece that came off of the ratchet and twisted it, her mind pulling from TV shows and movies where she'd seen the tool being used, "And the oil pan would be… Where?" her eyes moved to the engine, having no idea what most of the stuff was.
"You're almost as bad as Sam was when I started teaching him." He muttered, shaking his head, "The oil pan is under the car, so we're going to have to jack her up so we can get underneath."
Ana nodded, "Makes sense. Let's get to work." she smiled at him. Learning about cars had never been a thing she was really interested in, but she knew that mechanics was something Dean loved and if it could bring them closer together she wouldn't mind learning.
After effectively draining the old oil, changing the oil filter, and adding the new oil, they were finally done. The whole process should have taken thirty minutes, or at least that's what Dean said, but with Ana doing most of the work and having no previous knowledge of the procedure, it took a little longer. Grabbing a stray rag, Ana began to wipe off the grease and oil that covered her hands, watching as her father double checked her work.
"Everything looks good." he told her as he began to lower the car back down to the ground.
"That was pretty easy." She commented, tossing the rag on the rolling tool chest they had near. Her hands were still dirty, but it didn't really bother her.
Dean smiled, "Yeah, that is one of the more easier things to do, but you gotta start somewhere. Why don't you close the hood and we'll head back inside?"
With a nod Ana removed the rod that held the hood up and closed it, "Are you worried that we haven't heard from Cas or Gabe yet?" the worry hadn't left her mind since it appeared and she assumed it wouldn't until they were contacted by the angels.
"Honestly? A little." He answered, shrugging his shoulders, "It's not like Cas hasn't gone off the grid before, but with what we're dealing with… I've considered that they've gotten themselves into some form of trouble."
"I've been thinking that too. I don't know how many times I've prayed to them and I've gotten nothing in response." She sighed, "Waiting around and not knowing what's going on sucks."
Her words drew a sad chuckle out of Dean, "No kidding." he draped an arm over her shoulders and led her back toward the rest of the bunker, "They'll make it back, somehow they always do." he assured her, hoping that he was right.
-A-
The rest of the day had gone smoothly. There was no more information on Knights of Hell in the bunker and neither Sam or Charlie could find anything on the internet about it, so they had all decided to take a break. Ana had offered to make everyone dinner, sending Dean and Charlie to the store to get what she needed for a proper meal. It was silently decided that Ana wouldn't be leaving the bunker and that if anyone else did that they had at least one other person with them, there was just too much that they didn't know for them to be out alone or for long periods of time.
The pair had returned from the store quickly, everything Ana needed to make chicken alfredo and a couple other odds and ends in the plastic sacks they carried in. She shooed them out of the kitchen when they had finished putting the stuff she didn't need for the meal away, "I work alone." she told them, directing them both back to the library where the rest of their little group was.
After setting the water to boil on the stove for the pasta, she grabbed her phone and plugged in her headphones, placing them in her ears before she sifted through the music in her library, settling on a playlist full of random songs. She bobbed her head to the beat of the song that began and grabbed one more pot and a pan, setting them both on the stove so she could begin the sauce and the chicken. The process of cooking the meal was something she was very familiar with. Ana had never been much of a chef, but there were a few dishes she could make extremely well and she had done so many times.
A couple of songs later and she had everything cooking on the stove, an accomplished smile playing on her lips as she watched it all slowly come together. She was preparing the bread to go into the oven when the song on her phone changed to her most recent favorite, Stitches by Shawn Mendes. Something about the guitar and the beat made her want to listen to it on repeat. As she placed the bread in the oven she began to hum with the song and then moved toward the refrigerator with a little jig in her step, gathering everything she'd need for a salad and placing them on the counter.
Ana continued her little dance as she closed the refrigerator door, turning around and letting out a small squeak as her eyes landed on Connor, who was leaning against the doorframe and watching her with a smile. "Could you be more creepy right now?" she asked with a frown as she pulled out her headphones.
"Could you be any cuter?" Connor countered as he crossed the room to stand near her, "I wasn't being a creep. I came to see if you wanted some help."
With a roll of her eyes she moved around him to grab a large bowl for the salad, "I'm almost done, but thank you."
"Well let me help you finish then. I'm a pretty good cook." He offered, walking over to the stove and stirring the noodles.
"Fine, but if you ruin my food, I'll hurt you." she began to cut up vegetables for the salad, glancing up at him for a minute, she sighed, "So about earlier…"
Connor glanced over his shoulder at her as he stirred the sauce, "What about earlier?"
She gave him a pointed look before turning her attention back to what she was doing, "The.. that.."
"The kiss?" He questioned, turning to look at her, eyebrow raised. There were a lot of ways the conversation could go from there and he was honestly curious as to what she had to say about it.
"Yes, that." Ana didn't look up from what her hands were doing, conversations like this were not her strong suit, "That was a one time thing, a moment of weakness."
Connor stifled a laugh, "Was it now?" he watched her a moment before turning his attention back to the food on the stove, it was clear that she wasn't going to make eye contact with him. "It sure didn't seem that way to me."
"Well it was, okay? It's not going to happen again." Her tone wavered and she mentally cursed herself, she had to be stern about it otherwise it would get out of control. "So don't go trying anything."
"Whatever you say, Ana." He muttered, focusing on the food with a slight frown.
They didn't talk again after that, each moving around the kitchen to finish the meal without saying a thing. Once everything was finished they began to carrying things toward the library, there wasn't enough room at the kitchen table for their entire group to eat so they had taken to eating in the larger room.
"That smells so good!" Dean was basically drooling at the mouth as they set the food on the table.
Ana laughed softly, "I'll go grab the plates." she offered, looking around Connor to Charlie, "Wanna come help grab drinks for everyone?"
Charlie gave her a questioning look before nodding slowly, "Sure?" she turned to follow Ana back to the kitchen. "What's up, Little Red?" she breached the question when they were safely away from everyone else.
"What's with the Little Red Riding Hood nicknames? Did a wolf eat my grandmother?" She grumbled as she pulled plates out of the cabinet.
"Well, no, but it's less of a Riding Hood reference and more of a fun name. I'm Big Red, your Little Red." Charlie explained as she pulled some beers and sodas out of the fridge, "They're like code names or trucker handles!"
Ana laughed softly at that, "Charlie, we are neither spies nor truckers."
The older woman just shrugged her shoulders with a goofy grin, "A girl can dream." she sighed happily, "But back to my previous question, what's up?"
"Nothing's up."
Charlie scoffed, "Right and Connor couldn't come help you with this like he did the rest of the stuff?"
"I just don't think he's very happy with me right now." Ana told her as she grabbed silverware.
"And he's not happy with you because…?" Charlie trailed of, the question implied.
Before Ana could answer there was a slightly familiar ruffling sound just across the room and both women quickly turned their attention to the two angels who had just appeared. The two angels who looked completely fine, one of which was wearing a ridiculous grin. "Where the hell have you two been?" Ana questioned, quickly moving across the room to stand in front of them.
"We've been looking for information on the demon that attacked you. You were aware of what our plans were." Castiel answered, tilting his head slightly to the side, giving her the confused 'puppy-dog' look.
She rolled her eyes, "Well yeah we knew what you were doing, but we didn't expect radio silence. I was worried about you guys, you could have freaking picked up your phone, Cas!"
"Actually, he couldn't." Gabriel spoke up, a mischievous glint in his eye, "I may have made it implode on itself."
Charlie shook her head, "Can we finish this in the library with everyone else? I'm hungry and I have a feeling there's going to be a lot of raised voices."
"Good idea." Ana agreed, moving back to where she left the plates and silverware then heading toward the library. "Look who decided to stop by for a visit." she announced to the room as she walked in followed by the two angels and Charlie.
"Bout freaking time!" Dean exclaimed, not sure if he was more excited about the plate to put his food on or that his friend had returned in one piece. "What'd you guys find out?" he asked, taking a plate from Ana and beginning to serve himself food.
Gabriel scoffed, "No, Dean, we're fine. The big, scary demon didn't try to roast us on a spit or anything. Thanks for the concern."
Ana made sure everyone had a plate before she turned her attention to the angels, "Seriously, what did you guys find out? There's a demon out for my blood and I would feel a lot better if we knew for sure what we're up against."
"Oh, we are fully aware of the situation, cupcake." Gabe gave her a concerned look before he sat down, "The demon who came after you… we didn't think it was possible." he looked over to Castiel for some help.
The younger angel took a moment before he spoke, seeming uncomfortable with what needed to be said, "The demon that is searching for you, Valac, is a brethren of Abaddon. He is a Knight of Hell."
"That's what we were afraid of." Ana winced at the news, sitting down in her chair, but not touching the food.
"I thought all of them were supposed to be dead, right?" Dean raised an eyebrow, "After the run in with Abaddon I'm pretty sure you told me that all others but her had been taken out. So, what, you missed two?"
Gabriel scowled at Dean, "It appears that way, but once I find that bastard I'm going to run him through." his attitude quickly shifting from the Trickster they were familiar with to an angel with a mission from God.
"Can we even kill a Knight?" Sam asked the question that was plaguing most of the group, "The best we could figure out with Abaddon was to cut her up and bury her parts separated. Is there a way to actually kill them?"
Castiel looked to his older brother, the younger angel having not been involved in the mass murder of the race of demons. Gabriel sighed, "When we eradicated them it took Heaven's deadliest fighters, Michael himself was in on that fight. With me being the only archangel left alive and free, I don't think it can be done."
"Freaking awesome." Ana grumbled, by the way it sounded this wasn't going to be over quickly and she would be stuck in the bunker for the unseeable future.
"We'll get this figured out, Ana." Dean said with the look that said there would be no arguing about it, that there was no other option.
She simply nodded in response, eyes avoiding contact with anyone. There had been many instances where the Winchesters ended up in a situation they didn't know how to get themselves out of and in the end they would always figure something out, even if it wasn't the best solution. They had some time to come up with a plan, Ana was safe as long as she stayed inside of the bunker, and as long as the rest of them stayed inside as well there wasn't a lot of room for things to get worse. "I need some time alone." She announced, standing up and leaving the room before anyone could argue.
Dean exchanged a look with his brother before he sighed, "We need to put an end to this once and for all."
"Can't you just do with this Valac what you did with Abaddon?" John spoke up for the first time since the angels returned, "If we can't kill him, we can just cut him up and bury the pieces away from one another."
"In theory." Dean nodded, looking over the both pensive angels, "You think that could work a second time?"
They both thought on it a moment, "I believe if we can surprise him, we may be able to trap him and do what needs to be done with little to no damage to ourselves."
"How do you suppose we surprise a Knight of Hell?" Connor questioned, his own thoughts had been filled with worries for Ana, but Castiel's words had brought his attention back to the conversation at hand.
"Me. As far as the majority of Hell knows, I'm dead." Gabriel stood up, plans circling through his mind as he tried to figure out the best possible way to attack Valac without losing any of their own in the process. The angel had never been one for clinging to things that could eventually hurt him, but it seemed since his grace spent so much time in Ana that he cared for her more than he'd admit and that meant that he also cared for those she considered family. Family like everyone in the room with him, the same people who would be going up against one of the most feared kind of demons there has ever been. "We find a way to lure him to a location of our choosing, place a couple of devil's traps in different locations. He'll be expecting one, but I can draw him toward the other and trap him there. From there it's easy, devil's trap bullet in his body and we can tear him apart."
There was a shared look around the room before they turned their attention back to Gabriel. "Woah, calm down there, Kujo." Dean had seen the angel in many moods, but bloodthirsty was one that he wasn't comfortable with.
"It is a sound plan." Castiel agreed, "We will have to take every precaution we can to ensure he doesn't get the upper hand. Knights of Hell are ruthless killers, once he has the chance, Valac could easily kill us all."
Charlie pushed her barely touched plate of food away and leaned back in her chair, "That's a happy thought."
"We should move fast on this." Connor commented, thinking about how tense Ana had been the past few days. It was understandable, her life was in a mass amount of danger, but he could see it slowly turn from worry for her life to her being tired of dealing with it. This was the second time in less than a month that a demon was after her.
Dean nodded, everyone was looking to him to move this plan forward. Ana was his daughter and therefore it made the most sense that he'd make the final decision on things. "We'll go over a couple of things tonight and then find a place to hold the showdown tomorrow."
"There's that old barn a few miles down the road." Sam offered, "I've never seen signs of people there and it looks pretty abandoned."
Dean stood up, grabbing his almost empty plate, "Good, we'll start there in the morning. For now let's get this all cleaned up and see what else we can figure out."
At his words everyone stood up and began to help clear the table, everyone except for John, who left the room to go track down his granddaughter. He first tried her bedroom, but when she wasn't there he made his way through the hallways, stopping in any room he thought she might be in. There was the sound of gunfire and he made his way toward it, knowing that it had to be her since everyone else was on the other side of the bunker. Slowly opening the door, he peaked in and waited for her to quit firing before stepping in all the way. "Ana?" he spoke to get her attention, not wanting to spook her while she had a loaded weapon in her hand.
The girl looked over her shoulder, "I don't want to talk right now, John." she told him before focusing her attention on loading the magazine for her pistol.
"I'm not really giving you a choice." He responded without pause, walking over to stand next to her, "If it all works out this should be over in a couple of days at the most, which means I don't have much time left here, and I don't want to waste that. God knows that I wasted enough of it while my boys were growing up."
She sighed at that, John had his rough times as a father. Alright, if she was being completely honest, a large handful of those times were rough, and part of her wanted to hate him for that. The compassionate part wouldn't let her judge him too harshly though. He had lost his wife, been made the sole provider and caretaker to his two sons, and basically been thrown into the world of the supernatural all in one night; that couldn't be an easy thing to process. "They grew up to be good men and they both know that you were doing the best you could."
"I could have done better and we all know it, but you're right. They grew up good even if it was with little help from me." John watched as she finished loading the magazine and then slid it back into the gun.
Placing the gun on the table she turned her attention to her grandfather, "You know that they love you, right? They may have never said it in so many words, neither did you, but they love you and when you died it about tore them apart."
John was silent for a moment, contemplating what Ana had just said, but that was something he couldn't talk about. The Winchester men were never very good at expressing their feelings. "So if this mess with Valac is over in a couple of days, what are you going to do then?"
She rolled her eyes, of course he would change the subject, "I'm not sure." she answered honestly, turning her back on the range and leaning against the counter that her gun was on, "I'm probably going to be hanging out here for a while. Connor and I still have a lot of work to do magic wise and I would like to spend more time with my dad and Sam." Ana shrugged, grabbing the boxes of ammo she had pulled out of the cabinet and moving to put them back, "At this point I think it's best not to plan. There's no telling what's going to happen next."
"What about school? You mentioned it earlier." He offered, watching as she cleaned up after herself.
"I still have about a year before I'd want to start, so I have time to figure things out." She answered, moving back over to where he stood to grab her gun, "Things don't always turn out like we plan, especially in this family, so as of right now I'm not getting my hopes up."
He smiled sadly at that, she had a point, even if it was a crappy one, "You know what Mary would tell you if she were here?" John looked into the eyes that almost mirrored his eldest son's, "She would say that it's just another reason to do what you want today. There wasn't one day that she took anything for granted, there was always the chance of something going wrong, even when she wasn't hunting anymore." he sighed, "Don't let this lifestyle take the happiness out of life, alright? I did that, the boys did that, I don't want that for you too."
Ana gave him a soft smile, "I'll do my best." she promised, turning to head toward the door, knowing John would follow. "Now, let's go figure out how to kill this bastard without one of us dying with him." she looked over her shoulder and gave him a grin as they walked out of the room. If there was one thing Ana was sure of, it was that in that moment she held the same determined protectiveness for her family that Mary had when she was alive. It wouldn't be long before word spread around the supernatural world that no one messed with Anastasia Winchester's family and got away with it.
A/N(2): So another chapter done, kind of a filler, but the 'showdown' with Valac is quick coming so there will be some action soon. Just curious, what does everyone think of John? I honestly believe that in a scenario like this that he would be changed a little, softened by spending so much time in Heaven with Mary. And what about Connor and Ana's maybe budding relationship? Do you like the prospect of a little romance or do you think it would be better if they didn't get together? I just love hearing what you have to say about this stuff!
Thanks for reading :)
