A/N: Anything you recognise from the Supernatural series is obviously not mine. I only own Avery and Aubrey Cooper and their story (and their parents, Noah and Olivia)

The hunt Bobby had sent Ava and Bree on had started as what they thought was a simple, cut and dry, haunting. Find a grave, salt and burn, all tied up with a little bow. In reality, it hadn't ended up this simple. From what Bobby had told them, they had a bunch of college girls turning up dead, after spending their last days claiming to have been stalked by their dearly departed. Sounded like a haunting to the Cooper girls, but when was anything in their lives that easy?

The police station had been quiet when they arrived, only one officer and a couple of clerical staff lingering in the offices. It was a small town, so they hadn't expected a full tactical unit, but even for a small station, it was understaffed. Much to the complaints of Aubrey, Ava had suggested the classic way in that they so often turned to - pretending to be FBI. Bree was correct in complaining that it was an obvious choice, and pretending to be FBI was getting a little boring at this point, but as Ava pointed out, they had everything they needed for that guise, and so she would have to suck it up and play the part if they wanted to get answers and finish this job.

"Why do I always have to deal with the cops? You know I hate cops." Ava rolled her eyes, dropping the forged FBI badge into her sister's hand and shooing her out of the truck.

"Because you chose heads, and the coin landed on tails, plus, most people hate cops. Get over it." Bree climbed out onto the street in front of the station with a groan, leaning back in through the door with a pointed stare.

"You owe me a burger for this."

"Yeah, sure whatever." Ava waved her sister away as the car door slammed shut behind her and she headed towards the station, the truck's engine roaring back into life as the eldest sister pulled away and made a move to her next destination.

Avery took a breath as she held her hand up to the dorm room door, rapping her knuckles against the wood confidently before straightening out the blouse she had decided would make her look more professional. She plastered a kind smile on her face as the door swung open, revealing the puffy eyes and frown of a curly-haired brunette girl.

"Can I help you?" She muttered, folding an arm protectively around her waist and keeping her free hand on the door.

"Hi, I'm so sorry to disturb you, my name is Doctor Angela Moore, I'm a grief counsellor with the college and I thought you might want to talk about recent events... can I come in?" The girl seemed to hesitate, and Ava hoped that her smile and kind words were sincere enough to gain her trust.

"Uh... yeah sure. Come in." She pulled the door open a little wider and stepped to the side, eyes cast down as Ava slipped into the room, where she noted there were two other girls, a petite blonde and a taller, black-haired girl. They both watched her with sad but curious eyes as she crossed the room and dropped into the chair that the first girl was offering.

"Who are you?" The blonde girl asked defensively.

"This is Doctor Moore, she's a grief counsellor she just wants to talk to us, Alice." The first girl explained, placing a comforting hand on Alice's shoulder.

"Please, call me Angela," Avery added with a smile, folding her left leg over her right and letting her hands settle in her lap. "And you're Alice Masters, Rebecca Crowe and Maria Adley, is that right?"

The girls nodded in unison as Avery gestured to each of them in turn, listing off the names she had found through a combination of online searching and hacking into the college's registration system.

"I just wanted to talk to you about Sophie, is that ok?" Though they seemed hesitant, they nodded, Rebecca being the first to speak up.

It was just as Bobby had described, a normal college girl, spending around a week freaking out about being followed before kicking it, in what appeared to be a suicide, though apparently, no one was buying this.

"She wouldn't have killed herself. She was happy, you know... she just got accepted onto an art course she had been desperate to do. Everything was going great for her, then all of a sudden she just..."

"Went insane." Maria finished Alice's sentence, earning a stern look from Rebecca as the blonde girl started to tear up.

"Maria."

"What?! She did go insane," Maria argued, turning away from Rebecca and addressing Ava. "She was freaking out, kept talking about how her ex was following her, showing up in her classes and just standing there staring at her." Ava frowned, shrugging with a quirk of her head.

"Is it possible that her ex-boyfriend was actually stalking her?" Maria laughed.

"Doubtful, seeing as the dude is dead." This caught Ava's attention, and Maria continued. "The guy died a few weeks ago, overdose. We thought her seeing him everywhere was just some kind of grief thing, her way of coping, you know? But she definitely wasn't coping."

Avery nodded. "And what about you? Are you guys coping? It can be hard losing a friend, and so suddenly."

"We're not gonna kill ourselves if that's what you're worried about," Rebecca replied with a sigh, folding her arms over her chest with a shrug. "I just wish she'd asked for help."

The motel the girls had booked was, as usual, nothing to write home about, but it provided the much-needed privacy for them to discuss what they'd both found through their respective investigations. As it turned out, Aubrey found much the same story as that of poor Sophie Mitchell, in the form of another college girl, Alexa Martinez. In an extremely similar series of events, Alexa had (allegedly) taken her own life after a week or so of complaining of being haunted by the spirit of her recently deceased sister, who had passed only a week earlier in a car accident.

"So what, we got multiple, completely unrelated, hauntings driving people to suicide? That doesn't sound likely to me." Bree mumbled through a bite of her burger, which Ava had stopped to pick up on their way back to the motel.

"No, you're right, I can't see it being that."

"Then what? Some kind of random spirit, or demon, trying to spook the girls? But why?"

"Hell if I know. I think we need to do a little more digging on these girls." Bree nodded, pulling out her laptop and typing with one hand, while her other still clung to her burger.

Avery had been thinking, for the past couple of days, about her odd and unexpected run-in with Dean Winchester; an interaction she was still yet to tell her sister about. She wasn't sure why she hadn't told Bree yet, it was Bobby's feelings she was trying to protect.

"I spoke to Dean." Aubrey's head shot up and turned towards her sister, brow furrowed as she twisted in her seat.

"You spoke to Dean? Dean Winchester? When?" She dropped her burger back onto the paper wrapping, wiping a smudge of ketchup from the corner of her lips and giving her sister her full, undivided attention.

"Well, actually I saw Dean. He came to Bobby's the other day." Ava began explaining, discarding her phone, on which she had been looking up anything she could find on the girls, and sinking back into her seat.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Avery shrugged.

"He didn't stay for more than fifteen minutes, he just wanted to know if Bobby had seen John."

"And you didn't tell Bobby this because...?" It was obvious that Bree was somewhat put out by this revelation, probably due to what Ava would say was her little sisters' inappropriate attraction to the eldest Winchester brother.

"Come on Bree, you know how devastated Bobby would be if he knew Dean showed up and didn't stick around to say hi. Those boys are like sons to him." Bree's quiet hum confirmed that she agreed, though it didn't mean she was any less bothered that Ava had also kept her in the dark.

"So..." Bree started with a smile, and Ava narrowed her eyes.

"So what?" She replied unenthusiastically.

"He still hot?"

"Aubrey Rose Cooper." Avery frowned at her sister, a tone of warning to her words, though it did little to discourage Aubrey's thoughts.

"No way... he got hotter?!" She interpreted her sisters' unwillingness to answer the question as confirmation. Avery remained silent for a moment, locking her sister in a stern gaze before rolling her eyes with a smirk.

"Way hotter."

"I knew it! Ugh, little Dean Winchester all grown up huh, I'd like to take a look at that." A french fry bounced off Aubrey's head, launched at her by her unimpressed sister.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll stick to just lookin'. That boy is trouble if ever I saw it."

"Nothin' wrong with a little trouble," Aubrey muttered, turning back to her laptop with a quirk of her brow.

"Focus. Research." She held up her hands in defeat before getting back to her research, silence falling between them as they re-discovered their focus.

The next couple of days had been split between following up with the girls and the police and continuing to research via news articles, testimony's from other students, and anything else of relevance they could find. It wasn't until Aubrey came across a specific news article in the library that they had much more to go on.

"Hey, Ava." She started, pinning the phone between her shoulder and ear.

"Bree, what's up? Did you find something?"

"Actually I think I did." Aubrey was exiting the library through the front door as she spoke, the newspaper she had uncovered clutched between her fingers as she glanced between it and the pavement.

"Well... do you wanna share with the class or is this a game?" Bree rolled her eyes at her sister's attitude laced response but chose to ignore it and continue anyway.

"Remember sweet little Alice Masters? The pretty blonde who couldn't stop crying when you spoke to her?"

"I remember her fondly."

"Well turns out she isn't as innocent as she looks. I found an article about her, and how she managed to kill a guy a month back. Drink driving hit and run. From what I can see, she got off thanks to daddy's money."

"Oh Alice, honey. So what, you're thinking this is a revenge thing? But why go after her friends, not her?"

"Turns out Sophie and Alexa were both in the car that night, they all played a part." Avery hummed in response as Bree climbed into the truck and made to head back to the motel.

"Okay, I'm gonna go talk to them, I'm not far from the campus. I'll let you know what I find."

"Okay, stay safe sis." Bree ended the call with a click of a button, dropping the newspaper onto the seat beside her and tapping her foot against the floor in thought.

Unfortunately, her thoughts hadn't been on the job as much as they had been on Dean Winchester, and Sam for that matter. Avery had always been much closer with the boys than Aubrey had, what with her being older and Bree being the annoying little sister. Sam had always been nice to Bree but he had something with Ava that couldn't be matched. In honesty, it wasn't just Bree who had thought there would end up being something between Ava and Sam, even their parents had their suspicions. But things didn't work out like that for hunters, they never did. A part of Aubrey had always held a little sadness for the way things had ended for the Winchesters, and a day hadn't gone by since where she didn't wonder if they were okay. At least Dean's little impromptu visit meant he was still alive, and as far as Bobby had told them so was Sam. The same certainty couldn't be shared for John's current status, but somehow that didn't bother Bree quite as much. Brushing the thoughts from her mind, she turned the key in the ignition and started back to the motel.

"Alice?"

Avery had been knocking on the dorm room door for a couple of minutes now, receiving nothing but muffled sobs in response. It was clear from the crying that Alice was in her dorm, but regardless of what Avery said, she wasn't opening up.

"C'mon sweetheart, open up. We can talk, I'm here to help you." Ava was surprised when she actually received a response.

"No one can help me..." The words were muffled and stuttered through breathy sobs, but they were audible, and so Avery placed her hand on the door, tapping quietly with her fingers.

"I promise you, Alice, I can help you. You just gotta let me in."

There was silence from the other side for around 30 seconds before the lock clicked and the door opened slowly, revealing the tear-stained cheeks of an extremely dishevelled and upset girl. She peered out into the hallway and glanced either way cautiously, before gesturing for Ava to come in and locking the door behind them with shaking hands.

Avery stood across the room from Alice, watching her with careful consideration before breathing out a sigh and gesturing for the girl to take a seat.

"You need to tell me the truth, Alice. The whole truth."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I think you do. I know about the hit and run." The girl's eyes widened at this and she straightened defensively.

"I wasn't charged for that. It was an accident." Ava held up her hands in a show of peace, succeeding slightly in calming the girl.

"I know that... but I gotta ask. How?"

"It was an accident. This is a small town the sheriff knows me, he knows I would never intentionally hurt anyone."

"So... you got off because you have friends in high places?"

"That's not how it was!" Alice was, understandably, defensive. But Ava didn't have the time to argue the finer details.

"I'm not accusin' you, Alice. I just need to know who it was. Who did you hit?" The girl hesitated for a second before shrugging.

"His name was Marcus Harding. I didn't know him, he was just some kid. No one knew him he kept to himself. Why would anyone even be out on the road in the middle of the night anyway?!" She ended, in a feeble attempt to justify herself.

"Did he have a family? Anyone who might want to hurt you and your friends for killing Marcus? I know Alexa and Sophie were there that night and now everyone who was in that car with you is dead. I hate to say it but I think you're next."

"I think he had a brother. But no one knew anything about him. He kept to himself, he was a weirdo, you know."

"Yeah well, thanks to that 'weirdo' you're gonna die just like your friends unless we figure this out." The girl fell silent, slightly stunned by Ava's words as her lips fell apart with a shaky breath.

"You know, you're not a very good grief counsellor." Ava patted her on the leg with a forced smile.

"Uh-huh yeah, that's because I'm not one." It was at this point Avery expected her to up and leave, getting as far away from her as she could, as most people tended to when things got weird like this. But no, she simply crossed her arms with a narrowed, judgmental eyes.

"Then who the hell are you?"

"I'm the girl riskin' her life to help your stupid ass. Now, tell me everything."

It was during this, in-depth, re-telling of events from Alice that Avery received a call, and by the sound of Bree's hurried tone, something was up.

"Oh man Ava, you are gonna HATE this." Ava groaned, dropping her head back with a wince and sparing a glance at Alice, who was sitting as still as possible on the bed, her mind very clearly elsewhere.

"Ugh, get it over with."

"It's a shifter." Avery winced, a quiet groan leaving her lips.

"You're positive?" Bree barked a laugh down the line.

"Uh yeah I mean, unless something else is runnin' around town leaving a big pile of gooey skin behind it. Definitely a shifter."

Avery hated shifters. Ever since she and her sister dealt with one on a job in California. They weren't hard to kill, that wasn't the problem. The problem was that they were gross. And the fact that they were complete assholes who just loved to screw with people.

"Okay, it's gotta be the brother, Scott Harding. Gettin' some kind of twisted revenge for his brother's death."

"Seems pretty convenient that these girls have recently deceased family for him to impersonate."

"Yeah, a little too convenient... the boyfriend's suicide, the sister's 'accident', sounds pretty suspect to me."

"So, just to be even more of an asshole, he's killing their family members AND impersonating them, purely to fuck with them before he finishes the job. Wow, this guy is a dick." Avery nodded with a dry laugh.

"Okay meet me at the college, we're gonna lock Alice in her dorm and you're gonna stay with her while I go deal with this shifter."

"Why do you get all the fun?"

"Because I'm older. You've found where he's hidin' out?"

"Yeah, a creepy abandoned warehouse... classic bad guy location."

"Oh fun, I'll see you in a bit."

"See ya."

Avery hung up the phone, slipping it back into her pocket and taking a moment to think. It wouldn't be hard to kill this guy, shifters didn't require any kind of special treatment when it came to offing them... remove the heart or the head, simple. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to put up a fight. Avery rubbed her eyes with a tired sigh, leaning back against the wall and allowing her head to fall back against it with a quiet thud.

"It's my mom." The quiet words startled Ava slightly, and she re-opened her eyes, head lolling to the side to observe the girl.

"What's your mom?" The girl looked up at Ava with eyes that sparkled with fresh tears.

"The person that's haunting me. That's coming after me." Avery's expression softened, and she crossed the room, taking a seat and placing a comforting hand on the girl's arm.

"Your mom passed away?" She nodded.

"About three weeks ago... car accident. There's been a lot of those going around lately."

"I'm so sorry Alice. I don't think it was an accident." Strangely, the girl didn't seem phased by this revelation, only nodding softly with a small shrug.

"I figured as much." They sat together in silence for a while. Alice appeared lost in her thoughts once again, and Avery thought it rude to interrupt, so she simply sat beside her, offering silent company. That was until a knock on the door broke them from their musings. Ava was across the room in a few quick strides, peering through the peephole before opening the door and ushering her sister inside.

"Alice, this is my sister, she's gonna stay here and make sure nothing happens to you." Alice nodded quickly, her eyes darting between the two women.

"Where are you going?" Alice questioned, and Bree nodded at Avery as they shared a knowing look, conversation passing between them via their eyes before Ava turned back to Alice, a look of determination on her features.

"I'm going to end this."

It hadn't been hard for Ava to find the shifter's hideout, and it had been easier still to find the shifter himself. He wasn't exactly doing a great job at hiding. She had remained quiet, hardly listening as he spouted his excuses, argued his case and attempted to justify his actions as many of the monsters the Cooper girls faced often did. It never made a difference. He could plead humanity all he liked, the fact of the matter was that he had no humanity to offer, not any more. Yes, there may be some supernatural creatures out there who were better, those who stuck to the shadows, fighting to live their lives in peace. But Scott Harding was not one of those. At this point Avery counted five deaths, five - mostly - innocent humans who's lives had been ended by his hand, and that was enough for Ava. There wouldn't be any mercy today.

It had been quite the fight, as was to be expected. Most monsters they faced weren't especially keen to die, much to the hunter's dismay, but Avery Cooper knew what she was doing. She'd been doing this for as long as she could remember, and she was a force to be reckoned with. She'd stood above the body, her face expressionless as she re-sheathed the knife she had used to do the job, catching her breath before taking a few steps back. Another job well done. She often thought to herself, at times like these, that she was disappointed in what she had become. Not because she thought being a hunter was a bad thing, but because she had once been so full of hopeful determination that she wouldn't end up this way. It had been naive of her to think that, she knew this now, but now and then she allowed herself a glimmer of hope that perhaps one day she would get to have a normal life. But as she left the warehouse in her rearview mirror, she accepted that today was not that day.

The sisters had stopped at a grubby looking rest-stop after packing their things up at the motel and showering, of course. Despite the scalding water, Avery was sure she would never get the stench of dead shapeshifter off her skin. Aubrey picked at her fries, using one to poke the others around on their plate with a grimace. Neither of the girls had much of an appetite after today. Shifters always left them feeling queasy.

"I know shifters are evil bastards but pretending to be their dead loved ones, purely to screw with them before they died...? That's just a real dick move." Aubrey muttered, dropping her fry onto the plate and sinking back into the squeaky leather chair of the booth they occupied.

"Don't try and rationalize it Bree, you know that never gets us anywhere," Ava muttered in return, taking a sip of her coffee in lieu of the half-eaten burger that suddenly looked wholly unappetizing.

"Yeah, yeah. Monsters are monsters, I know." The eldest sister pushed her mug away from her, slipping out of the booth and gesturing for Aubrey to follow.

"Come on, let's go grab our things and check out of the motel. We got a long drive home." Aubrey nodded in agreement, following her sister out of the rest-stop and back to the truck.

It was just as they pulled into the motel parking lot that Aubrey's phone rang, both sisters remaining in their seats as she pressed the speaker button and held the phone between them.

"Hey Daddy, what's up?" Bree called into the phone with a smile.

"Hey sweetheart, I got a job for you. Ava there?" Ava leaned towards the phone as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail.

"Yeah Dad, I'm here."

He went on to explain that Olivia had received a phone call from a friend, sounded like some kind of haunting. Given the girls' current location, they weren't too far from where the job was, so it made sense to pass it on to them.

"Come on dad, have a little faith. We did just take down a shifter we can handle more than a little salt and burn." Ava snorted at her sister's words, quirking a brow to which Bree rolled her eyes adding, "Ava just took down a shifter."

"I know what you can handle, Bree. I'm just givin' you something to pass the time."

"While you do what? Put up some more shelves?" Noah's laughter rang through the speaker before he dismissed the comment.

"Actually, your mom and I have a job too."

The sisters shared a curious look as Ava responded with a questioning "oh?"

"An old friend needs a hand, his town's being terrorised by something he just can't seem to put a bullet in. We're heading down there tonight, probably be gone for a few days at least."

"Okay well, we'll see you when you get back, be careful," Bree responded sternly, as though she was the parent talking to her child, not the other way around.

"Who's the kid here huh? You be careful too."

"We're always careful." Aubrey raised a finger to her lips, shushing her sister who was no doubt about to comment on their very clearly reckless nature during hunts. "Love you, daddy."

"Love you too Bree, and you Ava."

"Love you, dad, speak soon."

With that, the call was ended and Aubrey sunk back into her seat with an exaggerated sigh, the sisters sharing a look that conveyed exactly how exhausted they were right now.

"At least it's a simple job..." Aubrey offered, a hopeful air to her tone as Ava shook her head and unbuckled her belt.

"It's never a simple job."