A/N: Holy views and comments, Batman!
The moment the words were out of Dean's mouth he knew they were true. Ana had left. She was gone and after Connor went into her room he had been able to sense that she had teleported out. Dean had gone into full search and rescue mode after that. After getting Charlie and Kellen out of bed, filling everyone in on what he knew, and then getting everyone to come to the general consensus that Ana wasn't thinking clearly he decided they wouldn't stop searching until they got her back. First he had sent Connor to follow the trail her magic left when she teleported, but he had come back shortly after saying that he landed outside of a town in Oregon and couldn't sense her anywhere near. His next idea was to have Cas and Gabe track her down, knowing that neither angel depended on the traces of her magic to be able to find her. Gabriel had been less than pleased to hear the news and hadn't taken any prompting before he began to search for her. Cas had left shortly after giving the group a few awkward words of encouragement, the fact that he now had a better understanding of human emotion and how to react in some situations made Dean smile, if only for a second.
No part of him could understand why Ana would just up and leave the way she did. There was no note, they had tried calling numerous times but the service to her phone had been disconnected, and she seemed to be purposefully leaving little to follow her on. She'd even gone so far to disable her phone's GPS. He shouldn't have been surprised that she knew to do these things, he and Sam had both taught her how to track a person if she needed to, but he never thought that knowledge would be used like this.
The first thing Ana had done when she found an open diner was go into the bathroom, dig through her make up bag for the liquid eyeliner she never wore, and used it to draw sigils on her arms. It hadn't taken long, something about having Gabriel's grace inside of her for so long gave her an excellent understanding of Enochian and she was able to remember the correct sigils without any trouble. With that finished she pulled out her phone and called the company that her phone was through to disconnect her service. The process took longer than she would have liked, having to answer a handful of questions about why she was cancelling and them trying to convince her to stay with their company. She finally had to pull out what she referred to as her 'scary Dean voice' and basically told them to shove it while making sure that they would cancel her service once their call was over. After hanging up she popped the back cover on her phone, pulled the chip out that made her phone traceable, and drowned it in the bathroom sink. Feeling as if she had sufficiently cloaked herself Ana gave her sigils one last check to make sure they were dry and then changed out of the short sleeve shirt she was wearing into something with long sleeves to cover the marks. She really didn't need people asking questions about what they were.
Giving herself a once over in the mirror, she frowned at her reflection. She didn't look like herself, but at least she didn't look as ragged and homeless as she had before her shower. Taking a moment to collect herself, she adjusted the strap of her duffle bag before leaving the restroom and making her way back into the diner to find a place to sit. The pit that had been in her stomach for the last four days was still there, filling her with a dread that she was able to ignore as long as she kept herself focused on moving forward, but because of it she didn't feel hungry at all. She'd have to force herself to eat something, with no archangel around to heal her when she passed out again she couldn't risk the dangers of such a thing.
"Morning, honey, what can I get ya?" A happy voice asked next to her, which caused Ana to realize she hadn't been paying attention to her surroundings as she should have been. She was going to have to do better than that if she planned to make it on her own.
Glancing up at the waitress, she gave the older woman a small, yet extremely fake smile. "Can I just get a cup of coffee with some fruit and toast?"
Not even bothering to write the order down on her pad, the waitress gave her a smile, "Of course. I'll have that coffee right up. You gonna need any cream or sugar?"
"Both, please." With a quick nod, Ana watched as the woman walked back toward the kitchen. Moving her eyes around the room she noticed that she was one of two customers there, a glance at the clock telling her that it was still pretty early in the morning, just coming up on eight. She wondered if anyone had noticed her absence yet. Remembering that time zones were indeed a thing, she took a moment to calculate the difference; it was only six at the bunker, which meant that Sam was most likely the only one awake. It would still be a couple of hours at minimum before someone went in to check on her only to find the room empty. Her heart ached at the thought of her dad or Connor being the ones to figure out she had left, but at the same time she wasn't entirely sure either of them wanted to see her. What she had done was unacceptable, even more so being a Winchester, something about having that name meant you had to do everything you could to protect your family. In that she had failed. Her thoughts moved back to where she was at as the waitress walked back toward her.
With a mug in one hand and a pot of coffee in the other, she sat the cup down and began to fill it, brown eyes glancing at the young girl who sat in the both with a large bag next to her. This wasn't an unusual sight for her, but something about the energy of the girl told her this wasn't the normal run away. "Oh, I forgot your sugar and cream. I'll be right back with that and your food." she shot the girl a kind smile before moving back to the kitchen.
Ignoring the glances that the woman shot her, Ana grabbed the mug between her hands, absorbing as much of the heat as she could. The woman came back quickly, setting the rest of her order down on the table before saying that she'd be back to check on Ana in a bit. Mindlessly picking at the fruit in the bowl, she popped a blueberry into her mouth and began to contemplate what her next move should be. She needed to get to an ATM to pull all of the cash out of her account, but once she did that she could no longer stay in the town since the transaction could be traced and it wouldn't take long before Sam and Dean got into all of her accounts, she knew that if they were going to look for her that they would use all of their tricks. That was if they even wanted to look for her, either way she wouldn't take the risk.
Finishing her small breakfast didn't take long and she paid with the small amount of cash on her, giving the waitress a tip and asking for the nearest ATM. A solid plan had formed in her head as she ate; pull all of her money out, catch the next bus out of town, and be far from it before her dad even had the chance to wake up and notice her absence.
"Okay, I was finally able to access Ana's bank account and it looks like she pulled all of the money she had in her savings account out in Ridgecrest, California." Sam told his brother, eyes still focused on the screen of his laptop. "Other than that there's no activity on it."
"She's going completely off grid." Dean observed, sighing as he sunk down into the open chair he had been up and down in multiple times in the past hour. Neither Gabe or Cas had come back yet and he was beginning to notice that his daughter was making it extremely hard to find her. "Why would she even leave like this? I don't get it."
Kellen cleared his throat as he entered the room, he had spent the past hour making phone calls to everyone he could think of back home that Ana might turn to, but no one had heard from her and he had successfully put his family and Heather into a tizzy of worry. "Knowing Ana she's probably got herself worked up over everything. If I had to guess I would say she's probably worried that she's disappointed everyone because of what happened, blaming herself as she normally does, but I'm starting to see that she gets that from you." he gestured toward Dean as he moved toward the table to take a seat. "This isn't the first time she's gone off to get some space. When we were kids she ran off for two days and hid in an old abandoned shack near where we grew up, all over a fight she had gotten into with Heather over some thing or another. She finally came home, won't be long before she comes back here."
Dean scrunched his face up in disbelief, "Yeah, she came back then, when she was a child. She's fully grown now, she knows how to take care of herself, though if the past few days have anything to show for that department maybe she doesn't. Either way I don't seem this as being some fit, if it were she wouldn't go through all of the trouble of keeping herself hidden."
"Hidden is fucking right." Gabriel spoke up as he appeared in the library, "I've searched the entire planet for that stubborn woman and there's zero sign of her."
Cas appeared next to him with a grim expression, "It's wise to assume that she's cloaked herself from us with sigils, similar to those I branded on your ribs. She doesn't want to be found."
"And she because of that, she won't be found." Connor spoke softly as he entered the room, he'd been trying any spell he could think of to track her and when none of those came to fruition he'd made a call to Niall. Maybe with the added power of more witches they would be able to find her. "She's smart and with the hunters training, her magic, and just general knowledge she could keep herself hidden from us for God knows how long."
Sam's head shot up at Connor's words, "Speaking of God, what about Chuck? He is kind of the creator of all of this, if anyone can find Ana it would be him."
Gabriel rolled his eyes as he began to pace the room, "Which is what exactly should be happening, but he's gone off the radar again. After he flashed out of here before Dean could beat him to a pulp neither of us has been able to sense him."
"Fucking useless piece of shit." Dean grumbled, not even worried that he might be invoking God's famous wrath with his words. "He just jumps in when he needs something done, but when we need something from him he's nowhere to be found." Standing up from his seat again, he looked around at the worried faces that filled the room. "Well what the hell are we supposed to do now? We can't just let her go off like this. There are still demons and angels out for her freaking head and on top of the fact that Gadreel is more than likely still working to open the cage to set Lucifer and Michael free she's basically asking for something to happen to her."
Silence filled the room as everyone thought about what they could do, having already tried their conventional means of trying to track people and coming up with nothing. "We wait." Charlie spoke up, she'd been sitting at the table with Sam and Dean the entire time, keeping her mouth shut as she tried to think of other things they could do, but they had covered all of their bases and this was the only option left. "She's hidden herself from angels, which means that Gadreel won't be able to find her and if she's smart, which we all know she is, she'll keep herself away from demons. Take it from someone who has been on the run before, either she'll slip up and we'll be able to find her, or she'll come back."
"And how long are we supposed to wait for one of those things to happen?" Connor asked, knowing that he wasn't the only one thinking it in the room. Charlie's idea was insane, they couldn't just wait around for her to come back or for the possibility that she might slip up and use magic or screw up her warding against Gabe and Cas.
"As long as it takes." Charlie answered, her expression giving away that she wasn't any happier about her suggestion than the rest of them were, but right then that seemed to be the only option they had left.
The first bus out of Ridgecrest was set to make many stops along the way, but Ana decided that she would take it as far as Bountiful, Utah before getting off. Something about the city on the bus' route sticking out to her and since she had no reason not to, that was where she would get off. It was going to be a fourteen hour drive with only one transfer stop, but she cared little about that fact. She was able to board shortly after buying her ticket and they were on the road ten minutes later; putting distance between herself and the small California city.
Thankfully the number of passengers on the bus was slim, just enough to fill at least one spot on each row, meaning that everyone pretty much kept to themselves. She made sure to keep her duffle bag with her instead of putting it in the storage space under the bus, with her pistol tucked safely in between clothes she wouldn't chance being without it; there was no telling when she would need it. Even though she had slept for hours after her fight with Gabriel, she still felt tired, her body still taxed by all that she had put it through. Opening her bag that took up the seat next to the one she sat in, she dug around in it until she pulled out her favorite purple hoodie and after closing her bag back up, she bunched up the fabric in her hands and used it as a cushion between her head and the window. Closing her eyes, Ana thought it would take a while before she was able to relax enough to fall asleep, but it had been only a few minutes before she was drifting off.
It had only been a few hours of waiting before Dean swore he was going to explode with anger and worry. "That's it, I can't just sit here." He grabbed his phone, which had been sitting on the library table since he'd given up on trying Ana's number over and over again. Quickly finding the contact he wanted, he sent the call through and placed the device to his ear, ignoring the confused look of his brother who sat across from him. "Garth, hey man. We have a situation." he paused, listening to the other man's voice, eyes flicking up to meet Sam's before he continued, "Ana's missing. We've tried everything we can think of to track her, but we're coming up with nothing. I know you have a pretty wide web of connections in the hunter community and I was hoping you'd get word out. Have everyone keep their eyes open for her." Another pause and he watched a look of understanding cross his brother's features. "That'd be great. I'll let you know if anything changes on our end. Thanks, Garth."
Sam watched as Dean ended the call, "Do you think that was necessary?" If Kellen was right, Ana would probably return to them before she even had the chance to run into another hunter.
"She's not going to come back unless something happens or she's found." Dean spoke matter-of-factly, "All we have to run off is the fact that Connor is still able to tell she's alive and not in any immediate danger through their bond, but she's even closed him down enough so that he can't track her that way. If we're not able to find her, maybe someone else will catch sight of her and we'll at least have an idea of where she's at." Giving a small shake of his head, he hid his face in his hand, taking a moment to regain his composure because he was slowly losing it. "I've just got to do something. I can't just sit around and wait."
Reaching across the table, Sam gave his brother's shoulder a reassuring pat, "We won't just stop looking. Gabe and Cas are going to keep checking to see if they can find her, Connor is with the Council now seeing if they can track her with a spell, and we've got warnings set up on her cell phone and bank account should she use either. We'll bring her home, Dean."
"How?" Connor questioned, looking at Caoimhe as if she were speaking another language. "It's a blood spell, there's little that can stop that from being tracked. This should have been our shot at finding her location!"
Elliot moved closer to Connor and placed a calming hand on his shoulder. The younger witch had shown up after the search for Ana on their end hadn't given any results, hoping that Caoimhe would have been able to find the woman with a blood tracking spell. He knew that Connor would have prefered Iona or Fenrick be there with him, there was no secret that he was closer with those two than many of the other witches there, but the Calhoun family was still grieving the loss of Gavin and none of the remaining family had left their home since the funeral. "There are ways to throw off even a blood spell. Ana knows her craft well, she could easily block such a spell or even give it misleading results."
"Perhaps this is something you need to let her do." Caoimhe offered, having faith that Ana wouldn't do something to put herself in danger. "So much has happened to her in the past two year; she went from being a normal person to being a Winchester and a witch, both of those things completely out of her realm. Adding the loss of your child along with the prophecy you both face and the possible release of Michael and Lucifer, she could just need some time to process everything." Standing from her chair behind the long table, the elder witch walked until she was standing in front of Connor. Reaching for both of his hands, she held them in her own and looked into his eyes, "Be happy with the fact that you at least know she's alive, you're bond is giving you enough information that you will be able to know when the time will be to worry about her wellbeing."
Using every ounce of control left in his body, Connor only gave a stiff nod instead of yelling out in rage. What good was being a witch if nothing about it could protect his child or track down his soulmate. Retracting his hands from Caoimhe's grip Connor teleported out of the room. He was going to lose his mind before they would find Ana, there was no doubt about that. Appearing on the cliffside that she would so often come to, he looked out at the restless ocean and tired to understand even a little of what made Ana leave. Those thoughts quickly drove him back to his anger. How could she leave me after everything that just happened? The question was basically on repeat in his head, the loss of their baby wasn't just Ana's; he felt it like a blade stuck in his chest, Dean was plagued with regrets of letting Ana go to the battle in the first place and not assuring that someone was at her side the entire time, even Sam, Charlie, and Kellen all felt the loss. The baby had been all of their family and none of them had been prepared for the possibility that something like this would happen, that it was even possible. But Ana hadn't been thinking of any of them when she decided to leave, that much was clear.
Shortly after Sam's pep talk, Dean had stormed out of the library and headed off in the direction of the garage. There was no doubt in the younger Winchester's mind that his brother was off to work on the Impala, even though the car probably didn't need it. Dean was having a hard time trying to keep his emotions straight and under control while underneath the tense, calm facade the man was raging with panic, anger, and worry on the inside. Sam was able to tell all of that just by looking in his brother's eyes, little had ever affected Dean this much and it was hard for Sam to see him in such a way.
Though his worry for his brother was at the forefront of his thoughts, Sam was still trying to process everything himself. It had only been four days since the fight with the rogues and in that time they had to process the loss of the baby, his great niece, but now they were being struck with a whole different set of pain and fear. He and Ana weren't the closest out of the people in the bunker, he knew that and understood why their bond had never really grown much further than the familial bond of love, but he thought that they'd had the type of relationship where she knew she could talk to him should she need to. She had come to him about Chuck sending her soul to Hell, even if she hadn't told him exactly what was going on, he just assumed that she would return to him in a situation like that again. Apparently he'd been wrong, maybe she didn't trust him as much as he thought she had. He just wished that she'd gone to someone instead of leaving the way she had, this was the last thing they needed with everything else going on and part of him couldn't understand how idiotic she had been with her decision. Gadreel, the demons and angels working with him, the rise of Lucifer and Michael; there were too many dangers in the world geared toward Ana that he thought she'd have enough sense to not leave one of the two places she was completely protected from all of it.
With a sigh he pushed the book that was laying on the table in front of him away, he hadn't been paying attention to it for a while now and there was no reason to pretend as if he was. Sam had hoped that he could find something on the spell that had been used on Ana, just so they would know what exactly happened to the baby, then maybe they could all properly grieve. Iona hadn't been able to tell anything other than the fact that the baby was gone and none of the other witches could give them answers as to what actually happened to the child. There was something they were missing, of that Sam was positive, but he could find nothing in any book they had to suggest that his gut feeling was right.
He was about to stand up from the table when his phone began to ring in his pocket. Acting quickly he pulled it out of his jeans, hoping that it would be Ana on the other end of the line, but when the screen informed him that it was Valera his hopes fell. Calming himself down, he answered the call, "Hey, Val."
"Connor just left in a fit of anger, everything that's happening is becoming too much for him." Her voice filtered through the speaker, her tone filled with worry. "How are you doing? This has to be really hard on all of you."
"Dean, Connor, and Gabe are taking it the worst, which isn't all that surprising. Charlie and Kellen are positive that she'll come back when she's ready and that until then we just have to wait." He answered, leaning back in his chair and tilting his head back, hopefully Ana's returned would happen sooner rather than later.
There was short, humorless laugh from Valera as she considered his words. "I didn't call you to check on everyone else, though I do care about their wellbeing. I called to ask how you were doing, Sam Winchester. So out with it, how are you holding up?"
He paused a moment to think on the question, how was he holding up with everything that was going on? That was something he hadn't stopped long enough to think about until now and he came to find that he was more than just worried for his niece, "I'm mad," He answered, the emotion filling him more now that he was focusing on it. "And hurt. Out of all of the people here I probably understand the need to get away from family so that you can process things more than anyone and she didn't turn to me. I wouldn't have stopped her, not that I could have, but I just wish she would have trusted me enough to tell me where she was going."
"Oh, Sam," Val paused, thinking of the man on the other end of the call, "if I know anything about being a young woman in a tough situation, which I do know some about, it's that when making a decision like this you tell no one. I'm not going to even try to pretend I know Ana well enough to try and explain why she's done this, but I can assure you that she didn't keep it from you because she doesn't trust you. Ana loves you Sam and values your opinion more than you probably think, whatever caused her to leave the way she did also caused her to talk to no one about it. Not just you, but everyone."
Taking a moment to let her words sink in, Sam wondered if the woman on the other line was able to read his mind, she had just assured him that all of his worries were over nothing. Well most of them, his worry for Ana was entirely valid, "Thanks, Val, I needed to hear that."
"Of course, someone has to have enough sense to talk you down from whatever ledge you get yourself worked up to in your head." The smile on her lips could be heard in her words, "I know that you're probably going to be busy with trying to find Ana and dealing with all of the angel and demon stuff, but if you need anyone to talk to while you're trying to stay strong for everyone else, you can give me call. And don't even pretend that you're not putting up a facade that says you're mostly fine while trying to comfort everyone else, I watched you do enough of that in the one day we were here after the fight that I have no doubt it's what you're doing now."
Sam grimaced, "Is it really that obvious?" He hoped that none of those in the bunker were able to see through him like Valera apparently was able to. Dean probably could if he tried, but his brother had other things on his mind right now.
"No, but I like to study people and while there was chaos surrounding everyone in your family there you were, like a pillar in a storm, ready with compassionate words and comforting hug to keep everyone else going." There was a pause and Sam deducted that Val was trying to chose her next words very carefully. "You can't be the strong one all the time, Sam, and when the time comes that you need to just be not okay, you better give me call. You're not alone in any of this."
Her words brought a small smile to his lips, "I'll remember that. Thanks, Valera."
"Anytime, Winchester. Now get back to whatever book I'm sure you were reading, I've interrupted long enough." With those words, Val ended the call, hoping that she had indeed helped Sam. No one person deserved to try and be strong for so many people without having someone to worry over them as well.
Pulling his phone away from his ear, Sam placed it on the table, wondering how the witch he had just spoken to seemed to know so much about him. Maybe he was that easy to read when he wasn't purposefully blocking himself off from other people or maybe he and Val had just spent so much time together that she had picked up on all of that, she was really intelligent and they had spent a lot of time together researching. Either way it didn't really matter to him, he was just glad that she had called.
A/N: Another chapter down ladies and gents. What are you all thinking of what's going on? Ana is out on the run, will she be alright? How long will she keep herself hidden from everyone else? Dean and Connor are obviously both wrecks, but do you think that Charlie's idea of letting Ana do what she needs to was a little cold? Or maybe she just has more faith in Ana than the others do at the moment. Also, what's going on with Sam and Valera? Is it a one sided crush? Maybe a crush on both ends? Or is Val just trying to be a good friend?
So many questions and most of them will be answered eventually! Seriously, I'd really love to hear what you all are thinking about this. I love getting feedback from all of you!
Happygoddess2003: Yes! All of the angst, it's going to get a little more angsty before it starts to get better. Also, I really loved your feedback on Sam! It never really occurred to me how little faith I've put in Sam with this story. I feel he is a very capable character and now that I've got it in my head, be prepared for Sam stepping up here in the next few chapters. Thank you so much for the review! I love hearing from you :)
JediCat1965: I agree that running away is not the right answer for Ana right now, but some great things are going to come out of it. Also, I felt like it was time for her to make some mistakes, she's been having a pretty good run with decision making. Had to change it up ;) Thank you so much for the review!
catetay: Holy crap that's a lot of reading! I tried really hard to make both Ana and Connor characters with depth. Back stories that caused their strength and weaknesses, family outside of what I've given them with the Winchesters, and all of these little things that make them just who they are. I'm really glad that you're enjoying them :) Gabriel's stored grace plot actually happened on a whim, I wanted something more than he just tricked his brother, because come on, Lucifer would have seen through it. That's what I think at least. Thank you so much for the lovely review, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as you've enjoyed the rest. :)
I hope you ALL enjoyed this chapter :) Until next time my lovely readers.
