A/N: Hey guys! So sorry that this took so long to get up! I had the hardest time writing this for some reason, this chapter just didn't want to cooperate with me and if you can tell by the writing, again I'm sorry :( But, I hope you all forgive me and I promise to try and not let a chapter get away from me like this one did. Anyway, on to the important stuff which would be the chapter itself. I hope you enjoy :)
Happygoddess2003: I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for the review :)
eldaearien: Thank you so much! I'm glad you're still reading and that you're enjoying it!
By the time Dean and Ana had gotten back to the bunker that night everyone else was already there, taking the time to wind down and get themselves ready for bed. After a long, love filled hug the father and daughter went their separate ways to go to bed. There was no telling what would happen tomorrow with the tracking spell and they needed to be prepared for anything, which meant getting the proper amount of rest. Connor had already been in bed when Ana walked into his room and she didn't waste anytime taking off her jeans so that she would be comfortable through the night. Once she was laying beside the sleeping man she moved his arm so that she could lay on his chest and the even rhythm of his heartbeat lulled her to sleep.
-A-
Both witches slept peacefully through the night, but the sensation of Ana jerking out of his arms in the early morning brought Connor out of his deep slumber. Listening as the door to his room hit the wall with a loud bang, he sat up and rubbed his eyes, wondering what had caused her to leave the room so quickly. "Ana?" He called after her, standing out of bed and leaving the room as well. Pausing in the hallway to see Sam standing outside of the closed bathroom door that was closest to both of their rooms.
"Ana? You alright?" Sam called through the door, the look on his niece's face as she had rushed in the bathroom and slammed the door behind her had been pale. When the sound of her being sick came through the door he frowned, hearing someone walking up behind him he turned to see Connor. "Looks like morning sickness has begun."
The witch rubbed his hands over his face as he thought of what he could do to ease the nausea that Ana was feeling. She had put a weak wall up between their bond so that he couldn't feel exactly what she was feeling, but he knew it had to be pretty bad. Sighing he looked at Sam, "I've got this. Hopefully this passes soon."
"I can make a run to the store. Ginger ale and saltine crackers are normally a go to for this type of thing." Sam offered. Ana's pregnancy was going to be something they all would need to come to terms with, which also meant helping out where they could. Getting her something to help calm her stomach was the least he could do.
Pausing, Connor wanted to ask how Sam knew what helped with morning sickness, but the thought was interrupted by the sound of Ana getting sick again. "Yeah, that would be great. Thanks, Sam." The older man gave him a small nod and an encouraging smile before leaving him alone to help his sick soul mate. Trying to open the door he frowned when he found it locked, "Ana, I'm coming in." he warned, using a simple unlocking spell on the door. Walking into to the bathroom as the toilet flushed, Connor watched as she leaned back until she was resting on the wall. Her hair was pulled up in a crazy bun right on top of her head and she looked completely miserable. Frowning, he sat down next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and moving her so that she was leaning into him.
"I swear to Chuck, if this lasts through the entire pregnancy, I may find a spell so that you're the one going through all of this." She threatened weakly, resting the side of her face against his chest before taking in a deep breath and pushing herself away from him. "You didn't shower before bed last night, did you?" She groaned.
He raised an eyebrow at her, "No? I planned on showering this morning. Why?" There was no way that he could smell bad, it had only been a day since his last shower.
Grimacing, Ana continued to move away from him until she was stopped by the bathtub. "I can smell the cologne you wore yesterday. I don't think I'm going to be able to be next to you if you're wearing that." She informed him. The one thing that she liked about Connor when they first met was that he rarely wore cologne or anything that smelt strongly, most of the time the scent of the herbs he worked so closely with was the only smell that came off of him. Every so often he would put on real cologne, which never really bothered her then because it wasn't one of those terribly strong smells that could singe nose hair. Apparently her heightened sense of smell changed that because the need to throw up came back around the moment she had smelled it on him.
The look on Ana's face made him chuckle, "So I won't wear it." It was a simple enough fix if it was going to make her more comfortable. "Do you think you're done throwing up? Maybe you should go lay back down for a while. Sam went on a store run to get some stuff for your stomach."
With a nod, she stood up, "I think I'll be fine as long as I don't have to smell you until after you've showered. Which you should do once I'm out of the way, because seriously that smell is just terrible."
"I'll shower, you lay down. Alright? Maybe get dressed if you're feeling up to it." Connor instructed, keeping away from her as she walked toward the exit. "You'll probably want to go to your room in case my sheets smell like this too." He offered, hoping that keeping away from the smell of his cologne would help calm her stomach.
Nodding Ana left the bathroom, only stopping in Connor's room long enough to steal a pair of his sweat pants. Thankfully Sam seemed to be so worried about the sick look on her face that he hadn't noticed she wasn't wearing pants when she had rushed across the hall. She would have to make sure that she was wearing at least shorts at night in case this became a regular thing. Once in her room, she fell back on her bed and curled up into a ball. The majority of the nausea had died down, but her stomach was still feeling a little weak, she wondered if she was going to spend her entire pregnancy sick. The sight of her dad stopping in the open doorway to her room pulled her thoughts away from how miserable she felt, "Hey dad."
Giving her a soft smile, Dean walked into the room and sat down on the edge of the bed, moving back a little further when Ana moved her legs to give him more room. "Rough start to your morning, huh?"
"You could say that." She answered with a frown, "Does everyone know already? It literally happened like five minutes ago."
"No," Dean laughed softly, word did spread around quickly when you lived in a place with five other people always around, "I caught Sam on his way out, he said that you ran passed him before you locked yourself in the bathroom."
Ana groaned and covered her face with her hands, "I don't think I'm cut out for this pregnancy thing if this is what it's going to be like. I'm only like a month and a half along. I can smell everything probably almost as well as a werewolf, I feel like my stomach is revolting, and my freaking emotions are already everywhere."
Dean sighed and rested a hand on her leg, he knew that the first few months of pregnancy were the worst. In his short stint living with Lisa he had watched one of her friends go through it and knew that though women got bigger the further along they were that most of the time it was easier than the first few months. "I know you feel like crap, but you'll get through it. In the span of things nine months isn't that long and you already have over a month in the books. Give it a little more time and I bet you're feeling better, let your body adjust and all that."
Ana smiled at her dad, knowing that he was genuinely trying to help her feel better, but all she heard was him rambling on. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see." She commented, resting a hand on her stomach though she had yet to notice a change in the size of it she knew that there was a very tiny human growing inside of her. "Maybe Iona knows a trick or two about helping curb these symptoms."
"Seeing as most of the witches I've run across are women, I'm going to assume that there is more than one spell or potion or whatever to help with pregnancy." Dean agreed, hoping that there was indeed something one of the other witches could do to help his daughter. He hated seeing her miserable and knew that if they were going to go up against witches or demons or angels while she was pregnant that she wouldn't be able to do it in the state she was in now.
Nodding in agreement, she snuggled against her pillow and sighed, "If this doesn't subside I'm going to be little to no help with that tracking spell." She grumbled. Nothing about being sick boded well with Ana; obviously it sucked in general anyway, but the young witch particularly hated feeling weak and useless.
"Sam will be back soon with some food that will hopefully help, until then just rest here. I'll give Caiomhe a call and let her know what's going on so that they can be prepared to change the plan in case you're still not feeling good." Moving to place a gentle kiss to her forehead, he promised that he would be back to check on her in a few minutes. Standing just outside of the library, he had his phone in his hand and was getting ready to make the call when he spotted Connor heading toward him.
"How is she doing?" Connor questioned, assuming that Dean had stopped to check on Ana. Sometimes seeing how deeply Dean cared for Ana even though she was completely human made the witch smile, thinking about how if he hadn't been actively in the situation that hearing the talk of Dean Winchester taking in his long, lost daughter who was also a witch would sound like a bold faced lie.
Dropping his phone to his side, Dean sighed, "She's pretty miserable. I told her to stay in bed until Sam got back, so hopefully that will help."
Connor nodded, hoping the same, "I'll go keep an eye on her." he assured the older man with a soft smile, knowing that it would help calm some of his worries. The two men went their separate ways, Dean moving into the library to join Charlie and Kellen while Connor continued on toward Ana's room. Just as Connor was about to turn to walk through the doorway, the redheaded witch came barreling around the corner with a smile on her face.
"There you are." Ana smiled up at Connor and took his hand, moving around him and tugging him toward the library.
Frowning at her, he pulled her to a stop, "I thought you were going to rest in bed?" he questioned, taking a moment to study her, realizing that she seemed perfectly fine. "Did you try a spell?" It was the only explanation that came to mind as to why she was suddenly fine.
Ana shook her head, "I wasn't sure if any would work and with how crappy I felt I didn't think I had the focus to try something." She shrugged, "Morning sickness is supposed to be pretty random, right? I mean I've heard about it coming at random times of the day for no reason at all, it would make sense that it could just as easily go away."
"You have a point." Sam's voice came from behind Ana as he was walking down the hallway with a grocery sack in his hand. "I knew a woman who was pregnant and she would get sick randomly, feel horrible for all of five minutes and then be perfectly fine again." he offered with a shrug, handing the bag out to Ana.
"That was quick, how'd you get to the store and back so fast?" Connor questioned, there was no way that Sam had gone to town, went through the store, and gotten back in fifteen minutes.
"I didn't want to take too long with how bad she looked," the taller man gestured to his niece, "so I called in an angel favor." Sam shrugged, it hadn't been hard to convince Gabriel to fly him to the alley just behind the store and then take him back to the bunker.
Ana nodded before giving her uncle a questioning look, "When have you ever known any pregnant women?" Ana couldn't recall ever seeing a time in Sam's life when someone he knew was pregnant. None of the women he had dated ever ended up being pregnant and other than that she wasn't sure Sam had much other interaction with people who weren't family.
"In the time I was with Amelia. One of her friends was pregnant, they talked about it a lot." He answered, confused that she didn't already know that. Sam had grown so used to his niece knowing almost everything about him that it was odd when she didn't know random things about his past. "Which is why I know that these will help." he pointed to the bag.
Letting go of Connor's hand Ana turned and gave her uncle a hug, "Thanks, Sam." she smiled at him before taking Connor's hand again and pulling him toward the library. "We still have work to do. Let's get ready to teleport everyone to the Council."
As the group entered the library they found Dean on the phone, pacing in a small circle as Charlie and Kellen sat at the table watching him. Once his eyes landed on Ana standing there he paused in his conversation and raised an eyebrow at his daughter, "I thought you were going to rest in bed?"
Ana playfully scoffed at her father, "I'm a Winchester, we bounce back fast." she gave him a wink and then moved to sit at the table by Charlie. "You guys ready to witness some kick ass tracking magic?" she questioned the other redhead and Kellen.
Dean turned to Connor, "Is that normal?" he pointed in Ana's general direction, not taking his eyes off of the witch in front of him.
"I'm going to say no, because if there's anything I've learned it's that nothing about her is 'normal', but Sam said it is so…" Connor shrugged as he let the sentence trail off, glancing back and forth between the elder men for a moment before moving to join the others at the table.
The brothers shared a look and a small shrug before Dean quickly returned to his phone to inform Caoimhe that they would be there shortly. Rubbing his fingertips against his temples Dean looked at the table where everyone sat, laughing about something he had missed. "Are you sure you're feeling up to doing this? Caoimhe said that the spell you're all going to be using is going to take a lot of energy, if you're feeling sick maybe you shouldn't do this." He worried as he moved toward the table.
"Dad, I told you I feel fine." Ana gave him a soft smile, knowing that he only had her best interest in mind. "We'll do this spell and then we can continue to plan from there. It's going to take a good amount of energy from every witch participating, afterward we won't be much use in a fight. So we'll let everyone recuperate and then we'll take care of the rogues."
The eldest Winchester took a moment to study the five people sitting at the table, observing them all to figure out what sort of mental state they were in. Caoimhe had mentioned that if even one of them wasn't well enough to focus on the task at hand that it be best they didn't come with the group; even if they weren't participating in the spell the people in the room would affect it just the same. Coming to the conclusion that they were all ready, he nodded, "Alright then, let's get moving."
Ana was the first to stand from the table and she waited patiently as everyone began to move to the wide empty space that they had quickly become used to teleporting from. Once everyone was in position, hands linked with the person on either side of them, both of the witches focused their power and within seconds they had moved from the bunker to the old castle that they were all becoming more familiar with.
The nice thing about teleporting into a group of witches is that for the most part they're prepared for it. The magic works in a way where any witch powerful enough would be able to sense the moment before the bodies of the witches teleporting actually arrived. Which was one of the reason that no one in the group was particularly surprised when they were immediately met by a woman who had been to all of their meetings but they had yet to be introduced to. "Connor." the witch greeted the only person standing within the circle that she was familiar with a bright smile, turning her attention to Ana slowly. They hadn't been properly introduced and though the younger witch seemed nice enough, Iona was still careful about her choice of words as she spoke, "Caoimhe said that the morning sickness has begun. How are you feeling right now?"
"Better. It was over with pretty quickly." Ana answered, studying the woman who stood across from her. Iona was taller than Ana, which wasn't a hard feat as she was beginning to realize that most of the women that were part of the Council families were taller than herself. The older witches complexion was fair, seeming more so compared to the darkness of her long dark brown hair. Her accent would have given away her family line had Ana already not known which Iona came from, each line coming from a separate part of Europe, the only expectation being Connor and Ana's families. The reading Ana had done on the Council families was interesting; Iona's family, the Calhoun line of Scotland, had been in a feud with the Mohr line for decades over something that Ana could never find documented. Then suddenly about forty years ago all of the anger had dissipated between the two lines, proof of that being in how close Niall and Connor seemed to be with the whole family.
Iona gave the young witch a genuine smile, "Great. If you don't mind I would like to check on you after we've tried the tracking spell. I know that you have those angels to check up on you, but it will calm my mind if I could take a peek as well. I might be able to suggest something to help with that morning sickness also."
Smiling in return, Ana nodded, "Sure. We'll find you after the spell is over." she agreed, her hand gripping a little tighter onto Connor's as she hadn't let him go after they arrived. Iona gave her a quick nod before turning away to help the busy witches who were trying to prepare everything for what was about to happen.
"Alright, so since there isn't really anything for the rest of us to do, we're just going to take a seat and watch this whole thing." Dean offered, knowing that they weren't completely useless as all of the hunters were there to aide the witches after the spell was completed as the one's who didn't participate could use more helping hands in taking care of the ones who had.
Watching as her family moved toward the back of the room where they had scooted the pew like benches to, Ana wondered if this would work. The witches participating were powerful enough to do a lot of things and that power connected should be able to break through any protective barrier the rogues were using to hide themselves, but if they were missing some important piece of information it may not go as planned and that worried her. Turning to Connor she gave him a soft smile, ready to turn and help the witches finish preparing the spell, but the vision that hit her like a freight train put a stop to that. Unlike a normal vision that would leave her a little awareness of the real world this one pulled her all the way in, much like the one that she and Connor had shared when they had first met. All worry over the possibility of what was happening around her disappeared as she watched the scene play out in her head.
The place that Ana was in was unfamiliar, though it looked to be some sort of log cabin if what she could see of the walls was anything to go by, but what pulled most of her focus was the amount of people inside of the cabin. From what she could see from the angle the vision was happening from there were sixteen- make that seventeen people moving around in a hurry, an almost eery silence plaguing the space as each person was so set on whatever task they seemed to be focused on. With a suddenness that shocked Ana, every person stopped and turned to look at a tall, older man whose clothes were completely black as was everyone else's in the room and long, silver hair that was pulled into a ponytail at the base of his neck.
"It is time." The man spoke, addressing everyone in the room, "Our instructions are very clear. We are to take out as many of the Council members as we can, but our main targets are Anastasia Winchester and Connor Mohr. We separate them, making them slightly weaker, and we use numbers against them. If not both, at least of them dies tonight."
With silent agreement everyone began moving at once, grabbing things that they had been putting together, collecting weapons. Watching as they prepared themselves for the battle that they were about to wage against Ana's family, she finally focused enough past her own fear to see that part of the objects being packed were spell supplies. These were the rogue witches and they planned on coming for her family.
Coming out of the vision was an experience that Ana wasn't fond of, the more detailed and in depth the visions were the more uncomfortable it was for her to transition from her head back to reality. Blinking her eyes, she tried to focus on what was going on around her, but the raised voices and swarm of people around her was making it difficult. "Will you guys calm down for a couple of minutes. Let me adjust. Damn." she grumbled at them, knowing that she wouldn't be able to focus properly until she wasn't being overwhelmed.
Connor waited until the group that had formed around them moved away. Once the vision had taken over it took all of his fast reflexes to catch her before she hit the ground and once he had lowered her to the ground, he placed her head in his lap and let her lay there as the family that had come with them from the bunker and a few of the other witches fussed over what was going on. Dean and Sam had explained that unless it was a particularly powerful that Ana didn't ever completely fall like she just had and it caused Iona to fret over Ana and the baby, while Caoimhe was worried about why some of her visions were stronger than others. Taking in a deep breath, Connor focused on Ana's green eyes and gave her a gentle smile, "Are you alright?"
"A little better." She assured him, bringing her hand up to her forehead and rubbing her fingers across the skin as if it would rid her mind of the vision that seemed to be burned at the forefront of her head. "It's going to be in our best interest to track these witches down and deal with them quickly." Connor hadn't said anything, asked about the vision, he had grown to understand that once she was ready to tell him that she would. Nothing was kept from the other, particularly when it came to magic, her visions included.
He frowned down at her, ignoring the people that began to form a circle around them again, "What's going to happen?" If there was one thing that he had learned from the last vision that had affected Ana so strongly was that not only were they extremely accurate, but that the strongest ones were the most dangerous scenarios.
"The rogues. They've been instructed to attack us, all of us." Ana spoke, her eyes focused on the ceiling as she replayed what she had seen in her head. "There's a man leading them. The ones that were there, since I'm going to assume there are more purely on the fact that we have more on record than were there, were told to take down as many of us as they could-" She broke off, her eyes moving to meet Connor's, "but that they're to specifically take out the two of us."
A growl emitted from Dean's throat at the thought of someone else coming after his daughter, "Why does that not surprise me?" he shook his head and turned away from the group before he completely lost his cool. Damn witches and angels and demons, why couldn't they just leave his family alone.
"Dad?"
The sound of Ana's voice calling to him pulled Dean out of his head and he turned to see that she was now sitting up, her eyes focusing on him in a worried way that he would never get used to. It still surprised him that someone so young, that had known him for such a short amount of time in the span of things, could hold so much emotion toward him. The only other people he had ever seen that amount of care and worry from were Sam, Bobby, and Charlie, but that was also because those were the only other people he would actually let worry about him like that. Taking a deep breath, he moved toward Ana and knelt down next to her, "We're not going to let anything happen to you, kid." The small smile paired with her reaching for his hand made Dean's heart twinge.
"I know." Ana squeezed his hand, a look of determination settling into her eyes. "Because we're going to make a move on them before they can get anywhere near us." With that thought in mind, she made her way to her feet and looked around the room, noticing that now everyone in the room was focused on her, which wasn't surprising since she had just spoken about how the lot of them were going to be attacked. "We need to make sure that this spell can get a location on them. Once we have that, we form our plan and we make our move."
"Those of us working the spell aren't going to have the energy to fight against anyone after we're done." Kye spoke up. The youngest of the three dusty brown haired men of the Harlow line was just as worried about the potential attack as the rest of the Council was, but he also knew the amount of energy a spell of this magnitude could take from a witch and how long it could take to get that energy back.
Turning to focus on Connor's childhood friend, Ana nodded, "Which is why we won't plan to do anything until tomorrow. If we have a solid plan and everyone can get their strength back up by tomorrow, then I don't want to wait."
"The longer we wait the more time the rogues have to plan against us, even make their own move." Sam spoke up, following the train of thought that was leading to Ana's urgency.
"Exactly." She shot her uncle a quick smile before turning to look at the witches in the room. "We should get started on the spell, after that we can figure out our next step."
With those words everyone began to move, the hunters and those witches who weren't helping with the spell moving toward the sides of the room so those who were working the magic had room to do so. As they began to set their space and pull the last minute things together, Dean watched Ana thinking about how proud he was of her being able to take charge of a situation and urging the people around her in the right direction. Part of him wanted to say that she got that from him, but he knew that though he was a pretty good leader, that she had a different approach to it that made her much more classified for the title than he would ever be.
Sam glanced at Dean, who was at his side, turning his eyes back toward the witches in the center of the room as he spoke softly to his brother. "Stop." he commented, glancing at the confused look Dean shot him before returning his gaze forward. "You've got that look on your face that says you're criticizing yourself. So stop. Whatever it is that you think you're not good enough for or at doing, you're wrong."
"How-"
Sam cut off the rest of his brother's question with a scoff, "Because I've been around you my entire life. You're my brother, I can read you like an open book."
The response that he wasn't as easy to read as his little brother thought died on the tip of Dean's tongue as the witches began their ritual. While he had been focused on Sam, the witches had all taken a seat on the ground and spread themselves out so that when they held their hands out toward their sides that their fingertips were barely touching. Valera began to chant, she was one of the few chair holders of the Council that was taking part in the spell and had taken it upon herself to lead it as she had done the most research on it. Her chant was picked up by the other eight witches within their circle, the volume of it filling the room and the power that they were working with vibrating through Dean. He didn't understand why they weren't using more witches, Ana had mentioned something about the number nine being important, but he couldn't remember why. All that made sense to him was that with more bodies they would have more power.
From the viewer's point of observation the whole thing lacked in a little luster. There was no big explosion, nothing set fire in the room, not even the ingredients they used for the spell held anything special for those only watching. The only difference that could be sensed by those near the edge of the room was the magic vibrating through the room. For the nine witches doing the spell it was a completely different story. Their senses heightened the moment they all picked up the chant, their conjoined magic taking a moment before they were able to focus it on locating the rogue witches. Once it had been focused, it took every ounce of control Ana had not to gasp as she was able to see the spell working behind her closed eyes. Her mind's eye was able to follow the spell as it raced out of the castle, searching for the traces of magic the rogues were using to keep themselves hidden and once the nearest trace of it was found their spell raced along its trail until it found the source.
"I saw the inside of this building in my vision." Ana spoke, once they had collectively stopped chanting, no longer needing to urge their spell on as they had found what they were looking for. Keeping her eyes closed she was able to focus on the large cabin, "I saw seventeen witches inside of it's walls."
Niall stepped forward from where he stood near the wall, "There are upwards of thirty rogue witches on file. This may not be all who are allying with the angel to put an end to you and Connor."
"You have a point, but this is a start." Valera spoke, her eyes still closed just like the rest of the witches. "This cabin is not far from here, we will be able to find it easily once we have a plan." she added.
"Good." Niall stepped up, moving so that he was behind Connor. Turning he gave the hunters a look that told them to be prepared to take their places behind a witch. He waited until there was someone with each witch in the circle before speaking, "Val, release the spell."
Giving the other witches a moment to prepare, Valera took in a deep breath before dropping her hands and opening her eyes. Those actions being enough to lose their collective concentration paired with their connection cut the spell off. The weakness that settled in once everyone was disconnected set in quickly and Valera would have fallen back, hitting her head on the hard concrete floor had it not been for the tall hunter at her side. "Thank you." she muttered to Sam as he wrapped his arms around her to keep her steady.
"Rest." He instructed, pulling Valera's body closer to his own so that he would have her just in case she fell completely unconscious. Looking across the circle his eyes landed on Dean and Ana, his brow furrowing when he noticed that Ana was sitting straight up and looking unaffected by the spell.
"Dad, I'm fine." Ana told her father, who was trying to get her to lean against him or at least stay sitting. She didn't feel weak at all and wanted to use her energy to begin to start their plan.
Dean took in a deep breath, trying to not get angry at her as she argued with him. "Everyone else is spent and even if you feel fine, I doubt that you are completely fine. Just take it easy, alright? It's not just you I'm worried about, you've got my granddaughter growing inside of you and I don't want her coming out with two extra toes because you wouldn't rest after a particularly powerful spell."
Trying to stand up for the third time, hoping that Dean wouldn't try to pull her down again, she grumbled. "I said I'm-" fine was the word on the tip of her tongue as the dizziness set in. Thankfully she hadn't made it far off of the ground as she slumped back down on it and fell against her father, his worried face the last thing she saw before everything went black.
Round Two: Again, just really sorry that this took so long to get up. It literally hurts me that I couldn't get this done. Thanks for hanging in there guys, you're the best. Xoxoxoxo! All of the love!
