Author's Note: I don't own Supernatural. I love Charlie. Felicia Day = Wifely Goals. This was a longer chapter, but all three of these episodes (the two listed in the title and the one between them, which was "Reading is Fundamental") didn't end up long enough to have their own chapter.
***Ember POV***
April 24, Night
Ember answered the phone at 12:57 PM from a dead sleep, but was wide awake within 60 seconds. "What the hell do you mean 'Bobby's a ghost!?'"
April 27, Morning
Ember fully intended on having a heated heart-to-heart with her father's ghost once she came in contact with it, but as it turned out, other things took priority. "Don't bother coming to us, we're coming to you," Dean told her the following morning. "We'll be in Chicago in a few hours. We've finally got Dick news." Ember smiled despite herself at the double entendre.
"Frank, our computer guy, got eaten, but we got an email that someone is hacking his hard drive in Chicago," Dean continued. "All the information he collected about the Leviathans will be there."
"Where in Chicago?" Ember asked suspiciously.
"Roman Enterprises," Dean said.
Ember rolled her eyes. "You're gonna need me, aren't you?"
"You're sure they can't see you if you're invisible?"
"Yeah," Ember said. "Otherwise I never would've gotten the jump on that one in February."
"Then yeah, we're gonna need you. You know all those buildings they've been building? Bobby says they're trying to create the perfect food source."
"What?"
"He's building a bunch of state-of-the-art slaughterhouses, and we're the beef," Dean said. "And he's going to start churning out those turduckens I told you about, or maybe all sorts of food that makes you docile."
"So the humans won't be able to put up a fight," Ember confirmed. "When is this happening?"
"No idea, but Bobby says he's bought a list of restaurants. Once you start eating that stuff, you get addicted to it. And, get this – they're curing everything, Bobby says. Cancer. Aids. Everything. They're engineering the perfect herd."
"Holy shit!" Ember said, taking it all in. "That's… everything fits! Everything we've been trying to put together! And you got all this from Bobby?"
"Yup," said Dean. "He got a look at Dick's files before he passed, but we kept missing each other. He keeps taking 'ghost naps', and he can't control them yet. He says that's common."
"I'm gonna tell him exactly what's 'common'," Ember said threateningly. "What the hell is he thinking, becoming a ghost?"
"I don't know," Dean said. "Trust me, Sam and I are throwing around the same question. Can you catch us in Chicago after work? I know it's a drive from Lafayette, but-…"
"I know, it's commutable," Ember said. "I might even be able to take part of the day off, if you need me to sneak in there at night, or something." She gulped.
"Nah, there's no way anybody's sneaking into Roman Enterprises, at night or any other time," Dean said. "We're gonna try to hook up with the hacker when we get to Chicago this evening, and go from there."
-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-
Ember liked the hacker immediately. Her name was Charlie, and she had a lot of the same interests as Ember. She had a tattoo which was Princess Leia in a bikini straddling a 20-sided die, and she loved Harry Potter. Ember enjoyed talking "nerdy" with her. This annoyed Dean, but it seemed to help calm Charlie, so Ember kept it up.
Charlie was horribly afraid of what the brothers were asking her to do. With Ember as a chaperone, she needed to go into Roman Enterprises and take back the hard drive. The brothers had also asked her to go into Dick Roman's office, where she could access his private email.
The mission was immediately complicated by the fact that Bobby somehow managed to smuggle the flask that his ghost was tied to into Charlie's backpack. This was particularly frustrating for Ember, who had yet to see Bobby since coming to Chicago. She understood that the brothers weren't telling Charlie about Bobby or the flask, as it would just be one more thing to scare the younger girl. She had just found out about Leviathans earlier today – this would be too much to handle.
"Do you want us to come back?" Ember asked the brothers after Dean pointed out the flask, which he had seen remotely from the cameras in the office.
"No, it's too late, we only have one shot at this," Dean said. "Charlie, just… look, it's a family heirloom. It's good luck charm, okay, so don't lose it."
Ember narrowed her eyes at the flask, but said nothing.
On the top floor, in front of Dick Roman's office, Ember made some noise in another location, luring the guard away from his position so that Charlie could go into the office. She managed to get the information off of his email, then headed down to her own desk to get the hard drive and the rest of the data.
"Are you seeing this?" she whispered into the headphones while Ember stood guard.
"It looks like Dick stopped digging days ago," Sam replied.
"Why?" Charlie whispered.
"Guess he found what he was looking for," Dean answered. "Can you check?"
"Way ahead of you," Charlie said, scrolling through emails. "Looking at travel reports, expenses… here we go. Something in his suitcase left Iran this week. Spent the last 72 hours in armored cars and private planes. Whatever it is, it's coming here, for Dick, tonight!"
And so, Sam and Dean set off to claim the package and switch it out with a Borax bomb, and Charlie and Ember set about clearing up the hard drive and leaving the building. Just when they were almost done, Dick came to say hello and ask Charlie how she was doing with the hard drive. Ember panicked. She barely had any Borax – just enough for a quick squirt in an emergency – and she didn't have any sort of sword on her, because no sword would attach close enough to her body to stay invisible with her clothes. She only had a pocket knife, and that wouldn't do for beheading. It was best to stay silent.
And then it became cold, and Ember knew that Bobby was with them, and she prayed that her father would keep his cool… but finally, Dick left to go upstairs. Ember knew they had moments. Dick must have received the package he was expecting (or what he thought was the package he was expecting), and was going upstairs, where he would hopefully be greeted by Sam and Dean's Borax bomb.
Unfortunately, Dick was quicker. Ember heard the giant explosion. Dick called ahead to lock down the doors, just as Ember and Charlie ran up to them. Charlie ran to the doors and shook them; they could see Sam and Dean on the other side. Just as Ember was about to attempt to break the glass on the doors, it broke on its own, and she realized that Bobby had done it.
"Hold on, there, Charlie," said a voice, and it was Charlie's boss, who she said had been taken over by another Leviathan. Dick was right behind him. Ember made toward him, giving Charlie time to run, but he flew across the room suddenly, and hit Charlie, trapping her against the wall.
"Bobby!" Ember said angrily. She knew it had been her father throwing him aside to get to Dick. That was why they hadn't wanted him on this mission… Dick went flying as well, and Ember threw out her arm to finish breaking the glass doors and then scrambled over to help Charlie. Sam and Dean ran through the opening Ember had left in the glass doors.
Dick started toward all four of them, along with a security guard. "That would explain it," he said. "You've been hanging with the wrong crowd, kiddo." Ember squirted Charlie's boss with the tiny bit of Borax she had, and Sam picked up Charlie.
"Not so fast, Dick," Ember heard Bobby's voice say, and suddenly she could see him. She barely stopped herself from crying out, "Dad!" because she knew Dick still hadn't seen her.
Together, she, Sam, Dean, and Charlie all made for the car. The last they saw of Dick Roman, he was being hurled against a stone decoration. "You gotta do that again! That tickled!"
-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-
Ember hated saying good-bye to Charlie, and she hated even more that Charlie never wanted to speak to them again. She couldn't say she didn't understand it, however. She gave Charlie some tips, in case she needed help creating another life.
"We gotta talk," Sam said, as soon as Charlie had gotten on the bus.
"You bet we do," Ember said.
"Before we get back to the car," Dean said, "and the flask."
"What the hell happened back in the lobby?" Sam asked.
Dean shook his head. "If I had a free shot, I'd have bitch-slapped the hell out of Dick," Dean said.
"Dean, he threw that man aside and broke Charlie's arm," Ember said.
"He didn't mean to do it," Dean said.
"Exactly," said Sam. "He's not in control, not about Dick. That was vengeful spirit crap."
"When we were trying to wrap up at the computer, Dick came up to ask Charlie how she was doing," Ember filled in. Sam and Dean looked shocked.
"Everything was fine, and Charlie was a pro," Ember continued. "And Dick wasn't on to us yet, but I could feel it get all cold… I knew he was trying to keep control. But what's going to happen when he can't, Dean? Because we both know he can't keep it up forever… ghosts are a one-way street, you know that."
"I know," Dean said, "But it's still Bobby."
"But if he really goes there, he won't be anymore," Sam said. "And then we won't be able to pull him back. And then what are we supposed to do."
"I know," Dean admitted, and they were all silent for a second. "Look, let's just figure out what that thing we stole is, and then we'll figure out what the hell to do with Bobby."
This seemed like a good plan to Ember.
-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-
At 8:00 the next night, Ember, Sam, and Dean broke open the stolen parcel from Dick, which turned out to be a tablet of some sort, with writing on it. It was almost comical. Dean and Sam both had safety glasses, and when Dean first hammered on the stone surrounding the tablet, a bolt of thunder crashed outside.
"That sound like somebody saying 'No, wait, stop' to you?" Dean asked Sam and Ember.
"Uh… yeah," said Sam and Ember.
The group thought for a minute. "Oh well," said Dean, and Ember rolled her eyes.
"This is the reason we broke up," Ember whispered to Sam, who, in turn, rolled his eyes.
Suddenly, as Dean finished cracking open the tablet, an almighty thunderstorm began outside.
-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-
Late the next morning, Ember was headed south when she got a call from Dean.
"We're following you down," he said. "We're just about an hour behind you."
"What? Why? I thought you guys were going back to Rufus' cabin to hole up?"
"Meg called," said Sam, who was on speakerphone. "Cas is awake."
On the plus side, Castiel was awake, and able to explain to them what was going on. He explained that what they had found was "the handwriting of Metatron… he's an angel. He's the scribe of God. He took down dictation when creation was being formed."
On the minus side, Castiel was unable to read the tablet. "It's not meant for angels," he told them. Due to Lucifer's interference, he was also completely crazy. "Did you know a cat's penis is sharply barbed along its shaft? I know for a fact that the females were not consulted about that."
In the end, however, Castiel, Meg, Sam, and Dean ended up leaving the hospital along with Kevin, a prophet who had been drawn to the tablet. The five of them headed for Rufus' cabin, while Ember switched apartments (yet again) and headed back to work.
"You'll let me know when you figure out what it says?" Ember asked them.
"Yeah, we'll let you know as soon as we know anything," Dean promised.
***Ember POV***
May 12, Day
Ember didn't see Sam and Dean again for over two weeks. During that time, Castiel and Meg both left Rufus' cabin for different reasons, and Kevin headed back home with two angels. Fortunately, however, it was not before he had been able to translate the tablet for Sam and Dean.
To send the Leviathans (or, at least, Dick) back to Purgatory, Sam and Dean explained to Ember that they would need "a bone of a righteous mortal washed in three bloods of the fallen," which apparently meant "blood of a fallen angel, blood of the Ruler of Fallen Humanity, and blood of a Father of Fallen Beasts." Castiel gave the brothers a bottle of his blood before he left, which took care of the fallen angel. Crowley (the "Ruler of Fallen Humanity") agreed to provide Sam and Dean with his blood only after they had obtained blood from the other two. Crowley also tipped them off that the Alpha vampire, the only known Father of Fallen Beasts, was currently in Hoople, North Dakota.
Originally, the brothers had turned down Ember's offer to meet up with them in Hoople, but she ended up heading in that direction anyway. First, she identified when her clients (and then, later in the day, the staff members) had become docile and were beginning to act like what Dean had described.
"It's in the corn syrup," Sam explained when he called Ember, who never ate the company food and always brought her lunch from home. "You can't avoid it in the stores."
"I guess it finally happened," she told Sam over the phone. "We knew it would, eventually. I'm bringing all the food I've stored in my cabinets, and I'm heading your way. It's no use staying here, anyway… they won't even miss me."
"She says she's bringing all the food she's been storing," Sam repeated to Dean, who was driving.
"Thank God!" Ember heard Dean yell. "Ask her if she saved any pie!"
"I think I may have a pie in here, a frozen one," Ember said. "It'll take me a couple of days, though. I'm sure as hell not jumping on a plane with these stoned morons, so I'll have to drive."
"The sooner you leave, the better," Sam said. "In another couple of days, you won't get by with driving the speed limit anymore. The more time passes, the slower people will drive, and the less people will drive overall. And stay out of Leviathan territory."
"I know, Sam," Ember said sarcastically. "I'm still alive, aren't I?"
-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-
It was nearly two days before Ember met the boys in Missoula, Montana, where they had tracked the Alpha vampire to his mansion. "Are you sure you just want to charge in there, machetes blazing?" Sam asked. "Last time it took a dozen hunters to take down the Alpha, and most of them didn't make it out."
Dean shrugged. "Yeah, well, you got a better idea?"
None of them did.
"Ember, are you sure you want to go along with us on this one?" Sam asked.
Ember rolled her eyes. "I don't know if you've noticed, but practically everyone I know is moving at a snail's pace," Ember said. "My affairs have been settled since before the apocalypse. I know the risks." She was more scared than she said – it had been a long time since she'd done this. Still, she knew what she had to do.
They crept slowly up to the door to the mansion – but it was already open. Ember had a syringe full of infected blood with her, and she was invisible, behind the two brothers. "Maybe we're too late," Dean said slowly as Sam crept inside. No sooner had he said it, however, than Sam was pulled aside by an unseen hand, and Dean by a separate set of hands. Ember ran to them, ready to shoot the attacking vampires with the infected blood, but she realized that the vampires weren't attempting to kill Dean and Sam, but to lead them elsewhere. So, Ember followed.
Sam, Dean, their captors, and Ember wound up in a large, open room with high windows. There was a long table in the middle of the room, at the head of which sat a man who fit Dean's descriptions of the Alpha vampire.
"We're here to talk. That's it," said Sam.
The Alpha vampire laughed. "Now that my guys have taken your blades and your syringes of tainted blood. Is that what you mean?" And then he looked right at Ember. "I can see you too, girl. That's a nice talent you have there. But you haven't used your weapon yet… perhaps you are here to talk, then." He seemed to consider a moment. "I suppose even if you were just here to talk, bringing along weapons is only smart."
Ember still didn't show herself. The Alpha vampire might not seem inclined to attack unless she attacked first, but she doubted she could say the same for his two cronies, who were sniffing the air in vain. She had worn a blend of scents – she wasn't stupid.
"Well, we figured you might hold a grudge," said Dean to the Alpha, who was still eyeing Ember. She eyed him back, then broke eye contact in deference, and he smiled, nodding.
"And why would I?" said the Alpha, turning his gaze back to Sam and Dean. "Because you captured me, tortured me, sold me to the King of Hell?"
"That was more our Grandpa," Dean said fairly, and one of the other vampires in the room shoved him forward, causing him to hit his head on the table. Ember jumped forward, and the Alpha vampire stood up from his chair threateningly, but then everyone stopped. The tension resumed.
"I'm going to peel off your faces and drink you slowly," the Alpha said. Ember knew he would at least listen to their pleas, however; he would have already disposed of them otherwise.
"Just listen," Sam said, obviously thinking along the same lines. "You need us!"
"Oh, yes," the Alpha said. "I am thirsty."
"The plague!" Sam yelled. "We know what it is! What do you know about Leviathan?"
The Alpha stopped, and smiled slowly. "A bit," he said, non-committally. Still entertaining them, then.
"You know they're poisoning the food supply?" Sam asked.
"Roman didn't mention that when we met for dinner last fall," the Alpha said. This surprised Ember, and she knew that the Alpha, at least, could see this on her face. "We made lots of plans. We are on excellent terms, he and I."
"You sure about that?" Dean asked. "Did he mention he was going to, uh… Maui Wowie the human population?" The Alpha had glanced at Ember, and she knew that all three vampires and all of the humans in the room were scoping out possible exit strategies. She had two syringes, one in either hand, which was enough to take down two of the vampires who couldn't pinpoint her exact location.
"Oh, of course," the Alpha said. "He said grabbing a snack would be easier than ever."
"He said you'd all live together, didn't he?" Sam said, as Ember came to the same realization. "You really believe him? You think your children are dying by accident? There is pesticide in the formula!" As he said this, Ember held up one of the syringes, pointing at it. It's not vampire blood… it's human blood. She knew he would get the message.
"It suits you to think so," the Alpha vampire said. "You need me on your side." But he took a long look at the syringe in Ember's hand as he said it.
"Look, we're not the ones burning from the inside out," said Sam. "Think about it, whatever deal he made with you was crap! Trust us!"
"Why are you telling me this?" asked the Alpha. Ember smiled ruefully. She supposed he hadn't survived this long being stupid.
"Because we can stop Dick," Sam said emphatically. "Stop all of it, we just… we need your blood – for the weapon."
The Alpha chuckled again. "So now you want to prevent the extermination of the vampire race?"
"No," Dean said, looking seriously at the Alpha. "But it beats going down with you."
The vampire looked as though he might be considering this, but was interrupted by a young boy. Ember knew the Alpha kept virgins to supply him with virgin blood – this must have been one of them. The young boy informed him that Edgar was here. Ember looked at Dean, before remembering that he couldn't see her. Dean and Sam were shooting each other similar meaningful looks, however. This could either be very good, or very bad.
"Wow, what a funny coincidence," Dean said. "Alright, we need soap, cleanser, anything with Borax in it. We need knives."
"Put them in the study," the Alpha said.
"No, wait," said Sam.
"Word of advice, boys," said the Alpha. "You do not live through centuries of fire and ice and continental divide by jumping to conclusions." He was speaking to the brothers, but he was looking at Ember. She understood – she was to follow them, if she wanted them left alive. He would consider Sam's words.
"Why didn't you do something?" Dean yelled at her when they were all alone in the study.
"And get us all killed?" Ember snapped. "It was three of them, including the Alpha, against three of us, and we'd lost all of the element of surprise except mine. And he's considering our words, Dean. We need to regroup and think of another plan."
"Ember's right," Sam said.
"Any way out of here?" asked Dean, who was looking for a way to get back through the doors.
"Nothing," Sam confirmed from the windows. "Do you think Edgar's here for the same reason we are?" Sam asked. "I mean, if they figured out that we're here to get Alpha blood for a weapon…"
"I think any way you slice it, you got Pac Man and True Blood in the same room, and that's bad news," Dean said. "I mean, he's not stupid, why the hell do you think he locked us in here?"
"Dean, we're his enemy," Sam said. "I mean, they're like… monster cousins or something. Who would you give the benefit of the doubt to?"
"Edgar will have to answer to what we said," Ember reminded the brothers. "The Alpha would be stupid not to ask him about it, and it's a little too late for him to lie. If we're lucky, they'll come to blows."
"But maybe the Leviathans are poisoning the vamps on accident. Maybe they'll fix it," Sam said.
"I think you got the oldest monster on Earth thinking that he can hold his own because he always has," Dean said.
"Edgar's gonna eat him alive," said Sam.
"I'm not so sure about that," mumbled Ember, shaking her head. They were silent for a moment.
"Hey," Dean said, picking up the needle to an IV nearby. "Think we can pick a lock with this?"
"But we only have Vamptonite for two of us," Sam said.
"Do we?" Dean asked, lifting up his pantleg. In his sock, he had stored an extra syringe.
-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-SPN-
Dean, Ember, and Sam all managed to stab a variety of different vampires with the Vamptonite on their way through the mansion. They could hear snarls and yells from the large room they had been in earlier. "Guess the Alpha found out what the real plan was," Dean grumbled. They entered the large room just as Edgar was about to eat the Alpha vampire, but Ember ran up and beheaded the Leviathan first.
"Grab a glass, we're juicing this freak," Dean said, but one of the female virgins, the one who had led Sam and Dean to the Alpha in the first place, yelled, "No!"
"Stay back!" said Dean, but the Alpha vampire threw him backward.
"Leave her alone," the Alpha said. "She's been through quite enough."
"Now that's rich, coming from the guy who took her off the swing-set!" yelled Sam.
"Do you want to do this fight?" the Alpha asked them, looking from Sam and then to Ember, who was still invisible. "Or do you want my blood?" He cut his wrist, and bled into one of the goblets from the table. He held it out to them. "For taking care of Edgar. Now go."
Sam and Dean looked at Ember, and then at each other. "What about the little boy?" asked Sam determinedly.
"Are you joking?" the Alpha said, scoffing at them.
"Do we look like we're joking?" Dean asked. "How many other kids you got in here, you freak?" Ember looked at him, and in that moment, she remembered that she loved him. Truthfully, nobody else she'd dated – nobody she'd ever dated – had compared to Dean.
But this wasn't the time for that. The Alpha sighed. "At the moment, just him."
The Alpha looked again at Sam and Dean's determined faces. "Emily," he said, "Help Allan with his coat, he's leaving with Sam and Dean." He handed Dean the goblet of blood. "Now take it."