AN: I got another favorite last chapter, yay! I know it was longer between updates this time, but I'm moving out of the country in September and I fly out west to visit my sister before I move so there was lots of traveling, packing, and jetlag the past few days. Enjoy! p.s. I dont edit my stuff before I post it. forgive any errors you may find!

When they got back to the hotel, waking up a cranky Sam when they walked back in, both of the brothers crashed immediately, but Nicole was too wound up to sleep. She had always been a girl with a plan, who pursued it with reckless abandon. That's how she had made it so far with medical school despite not being raised with a silver spoon feeding her, her whole life like most of her classmates. She'd be damned if she was going to let vampirism keep her from finishing her degree. With a new sense of purpose, Nicole opened up the laptop resting on the table in the motel room, which thankfully wasn't password protected, and pulled up her exam schedule.

By the time the sun rose and the brothers began to stir, Nicole had worked out the rest of her exam schedule so that she could take her exams and still go with the brothers to track down this Alpha and change herself back. It took a lot of lying through her teeth to her professors and early morning calls to their offices, but luckily they worked with her, believing that her mother was sick again and she had to go home and take care of her little brother. She felt bad using her mother as an excuse to get her exams changed, but if it got her to this Alpha, it would be worth it in the end.

Sam was the first to fully awaken that morning. He sat up, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. "Are you on my laptop?" He asked, incredulously.

"If yours was the one on the table, then yes." Nicole answered, meeting his eyes with a grin.

"Sure," he chuckled, "go right ahead why don't you."

"Thanks, Sam, I will!" she beamed at him saucily, "But really, I had to work out how to take my exams now that I'm a vampire and then go track down this Alpha to change me back."

"Woah, woah, woah," Dean was slowly sitting up over on his bed, his voice rough with sleep, "tell me I did not just hear you say the words 'take my exams now that I'm a vampire."

"You heard right, Dean-o. I am not dropping out of med school just because I have to survive off of dead animal blood now." Nicole leveled him with a hard stare, sensing that Dean was going to fight her on this.

"Absolutely not. Whatever drugs you are on right now, I'm gonna need you to share some with me because they are obviously really freakin good." Dean laughed without humor. "If you think that we are letting a newborn vampire run wild around a bunch of students and some dead bodies, you are seriously insane."

Nicole stood up glaring at Dean. "Excuse me, I have set up a really good plan to make this work. And anyways, who the fuck are you to tell me what I can and can't do? Some freaks that run around and chase after mythical creatures for fun?" Nicole snorted, folding her arms across her chest.

Dean stalked closer to her, stopping when he was nearly standing chest to chest with her. "We're hunters. We've been doing this our whole life and it's our job to protect innocent people, like your classmates, from things that go bump in the night, like you."

Nicole's jaw dropped open, and before she could even think about what she was doing, she shoved Dean hard in the chest and he went stumbling backwards. "I am not a thing that goes bump in the night," she growled, before turning and storming out of the door.

Nicole was pacing back and forth next to Dean's really nice muscle car parked in front of their hotel room when Sam made his way outside. Without a word he moved to sit on the trunk of the car and watched her pace.

"What?" she asked, stopping in front of him and putting her hands on her hips.

"Let's hear this plan of yours," Sam said, leaning back and crossing his long arms across his chest, "If it's a good one, I'll see if I can talk Dean around. Come sit." He patted the trunk of the car next to him and without a moment's hesitation, Nicole made her way to his side and began to explain what she had worked out this morning.

She told him about all the early morning phone calls she'd made to her professors, the lie she had made up about her mom getting sick and needing to take care of her younger brother. Her professors had been understanding and agreed to let her take all her written exams privately at the end of this week so she could go home an extra two weeks early before term ended. The only catch was that she would have to sit her practical exams last with the rest of the class on Monday because they couldn't arrange for a private practical exam… and the practical was on a cadaver, which had minimal blood, but blood none the less.

"But before you say anything, I thought about that too!" Nicole said quickly, catching the skeptical look on Sam's face. "I'm sure I'll be fine, but just in case, I can tell my classmates that you guys are my family friends waiting to take me back to my mom's house right after the exams, so you guys can wait outside and come make up some excuse to drag me out if things get messy."

Sam stared at her for a few moments. "This is really important to you, isn't it?"

"So important," Nicole breathed.

"Alright," he sighed, "your plan doesn't totally suck. Give me a second to try and talk Dean around." Sam got up to head back into the room, but Nicole caught his hand before he could get too far.

"Thank you, Sam. All I've ever wanted to be was a doctor and I can't give up on that." With a small smile, Sam squeezed her hand and then disappeared back inside the hotel room.

While she waited, Nicole took up pacing back and forth across the parking lot again, not caring how she probably looked walking around in a men's tee shirt and boxer shorts. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, but was definitely long enough for Nicole to start feeling uncomfortable in the sun, Sam and Dean both emerged, each holding a rucksack.

Nicole froze, hands hanging limply by her side, and stared at Dean. Dean looked skyward and sighed. "I really hope I don't regret this," he muttered and a huge grin broke over Nicole's face.

"Yes?" She practically squealed.

"Yes," Dean looked over at her shaking his head, "we can go take your damn exams, you huge freaking nerd."

Nicole quickly closed the gap between them and threw her arms around Dean's neck. "Thank you!" She whispered, burying her face in the crook of his shoulder. Taking a deep breath of relief, Nicole noticed that Dean smelled amazing. Not in the "she wanted to suck his blood" kind of way, but in the regular sexy kind of way. He smelled like something spicy, leather, and what she was pretty sure was gun powder, but she couldn't be positive because she had never shot a gun before in her life.

"Stop smelling my blood, vampy." Dean glared at her, disentangling himself from her embrace.

Nicole rolled her eyes. "I wasn't smelling your blood. I was smelling you."

Dean froze and cocked an eyebrow at her. "What? You smell good," she defended. Nicole couldn't be sure, but she thought she saw a pink tinge creep up Dean's neck and she smirked.

Dean glared at her in response and told her to get in the car, motioning to the back seat. "And just so you know," he said, leaning in after her, "If you lose control during this practical, I will gank you."

"Dean!" Sam exclaimed, punching his brother in the arm. "What the hell, man?"

"What? It's true."Dean replied, shrugging his shoulders and starting the car.

AN: Characterization is so hard... Am I doing Sam and Dean right? Do you guys like Nicole?