Title: Kismet Story One In a Town, Called Karma
Author: Jeanine Stice
Summery: The night after Sam shot Dean at the Asylum, John Winchester calls and they end the episode. This is my postulation as to why John called his boy's so soon after the Home Episode. John needed to tell Dean to help a girl he's come to consider like a daughter to him. An Ex of Dean's who couldn't call Dean for help because of their past history. Can Dean help her friends and save her soul or will he never get a chance to make up for his past sins and show her how much he loves her? Will he be fated to kill his one love after she becomes one of the things he hunts?
Warning: This story contains a small bit of drunken domestic violence and graphic descriptions of rape in. Be warned.
Author's notes: An Ex of Deans enters the picture that calls John for help. My way of explaining the end of Asylum since I just can't wait till the next damn episode to find out what happened. (As Booth on Bone's would say) I just had to postulate on what had happened. Since it was too soon after the 'home' episode for John to have found the truth I had to find something very important for him to pop his head out of hiding for.
Also in the Asylum Episode Dean mentions that the only thing that made him more nervous then a pissed off spirit was the pissed of spirit of a psycho killer. A nightmare/flashback sequence of Dean's in this story explains what happened in his past to make him nervous about pissed off spirits of psycho killers.
In Episode Windingo Dean mentions the possibility of the creature they are hunting being a 'Black Dog' or a 'Skinwalker' when the only clues they had about the creature was that it moved too fast to be seen and had claws. So in this story I have a Black Dog in a nightmare sequence of Cyn's a full explanation will be forthcoming later on in the stories. It tie's into how Dean and his father meet Cynthia after Sammy leaves for collage and help her with a Black Dog situation.
Last but not least while this is a work in progress I reserve the right to change anything in the story so just be prepared. Enjoy. Please Read and Review! I'm begging you, on my hands and knees!
Kismet
Story One
In a Town Called Karma
Chapter One, Desperate Measures
The night was clear and bright the moon full and high in the star filled sky. In most small towns in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains it was a good night for a stroll or to go star watching. In the large two-story house alone atop of the hill in a town called Karma, the atmosphere was less then calm. A lone young woman paced in the front section of the wrap around porch, a cell phone clutched tightly in her hand.
Finally she stopped mid-pace as though coming to a decision taking a deep breath and dialing her cell phone. Sweeping her long black hair out of her pale face her green eyes burning in the moonlight as she listened to the phone ringing mentally keeping a tally of the number of rings.
"Come on." She muttered to herself, counting off two rings. "Pick up the phone, please."
After the third ring it clicked over to a message and for a moment she thought he'd picked up the phone, drawing breath to speak to him.
"This John Winchester, if this is an emergency please call my son Dean…" Those were the last words she registered, echoing teasingly in her head. Dean. My son, Dean. Then she heard the beep that signaled it was beginning to record her message.
"John, it's Cynthia. I know your not available but I'm praying your checking your messages. I need a little consultation as I'm in a bit of a situation. People have died, some friends and I might be in danger but I don't know what is going on. I don't know how to fight it. I-I can't ask Dean this. I can't. Not after…Please, John, call me back if you get this. I need help." She said voice pleading before she hung up the phone walking inside.
She looked out the dinning room window to the beautiful calm night that didn't seem to spread past her windows, like some eerie painting. She looked down at a picture of her with another smiling young girl their arms wrapped around each other, and then glanced down at a picture of the same young girl in the obituary's that announced her death and funeral in three days. It looked like she and her friends might be the one's haunted and hunted this time and the one person that could help her was the one person she never wanted to see again. Dean Winchester.
Eighteen Months Ago
West Virginia
Cynthia walked into the hotel barely refraining from slamming the door closed behind her before standing facing the bed hands fisted as she fought to maintain control. One of them had to try and remain levelheaded and after he was done drinking Dean would be anything but. She knew she'd make him angry when she didn't listen to him but she was too worried to.
All she knew was he was getting in over his head and she couldn't just stand by and watch. She'd tried not to follow after, at first sure she was just letting her feelings for him get the best of her. In the end her waiting while he went off to the woods alone to face the ghost of some psycho killer while he hunted down the remains had been too much to ask.
Grabbing her gear she'd gotten on her bike and took off after him. Finding him had been easy, too easy but she was too worried about him to realize the spirit was leading her into a trap. She'd walked right into it almost getting the both of them killed. Dean nearly forced to watch her death at the spirit's hands but for his quick reflexes saving them and destroying the remains.
He hadn't said a word to her as they made their way to the Impala and her bike in the parking lot. He didn't need to say anything one cold seething look had been more then enough. Then he'd parked the Impala in front of the hotel and walked across the street to the bar without a word to her. It was something Dean only did when he was furious, and to her knowledge the alcohol never improved his mood.
She was sitting nervously on the foot of the bed still dressed in her ridding leathers an hour later when Dean came in the door. He slammed the door hard behind himself making her jump slightly as he swayed around to look at her. His eyes were still seething or (she imagined) seething even more then before…if that were possible.
She tried to brace herself uselessly against the coming on slot. She didn't handle Dean's disapproval and ire well that was why she so often avoided it. It was clear now she'd never seen him angrier and never at her.
"So, are you going to tell me?" He asked her semi casually.
"Tell you what?" She asked him softly as if it would forestall the sudden impending outburst.
"What the hell you were thinking? Not that there is much point to it, it's pretty clear there wasn't much thinking involved on your part. I'm mean, I knew you weren't a genius Cyn but I didn't know you were truly stupid." Dean said sneering at her. She pulled back in her seat feeling almost as if physically struck by the words, brow furrowing as she stood.
"All I was thinking about was you!" She said angrily.
"Yeah the same me you nearly killed showing up like you did. Nearly getting your own dumb ass killed in the process!" He yelled angrily.
"You want me to say I fucked up? Fine, I fucked up! I'm sorry, it's not like I did it on purpose!" She pleaded in an angry voice.
"Of course not babe, not even you could be that stupid." He said in a cool voice.
"Christ Dean. It's not like you've never made a mistake." She said beginning to get truly angry at his insults.
"I told you not to go." He growled angrily.
"But you refused to tell me why! You kept the helpful fact that the spirit had a predilection for female victims to yourself." She growled back at him. "We're supposed to be partners damn it fifty-fifty not sixty-forty Dean. You're not allowed to just make choices for me, you're not my boss!"
"Like it or not I'm the most experienced of the two of us. If you can't take my orders and follow them then you need to take your bags and leave. Now." He said voice cold.
"What?" She asked pulling back sharply sure she'd misunderstood.
"You heard me, leave." He said in the same cold voice.
"You're kicking me out? Just like that? I thought I meant a little more to you then that!" She cried in shocked disbelief.
"Yes, well, nearly being killed by your stupid mistake was enough of you for a lifetime." He told her voice emotionless and icy.
"I guess I never really knew you, if you can just throw me out like this! Maybe it's a good thing your mother isn't alive to see this." She said without thought, regretting the words almost instantly except for the vicious backhand that knocked her off her feet knocking that regret right out of her head.
Cheek throbbing she climbed to her feet her own face now cold and devoid of emotion. She allowed the thin stream of blood falling down her chin to drip off sure for a moment she saw regret stamped on Dean's face. It just didn't matter to her anymore suddenly and she smiled coldly at him not caring it split her lip open farther and made it bleed more.
"Thank you Dean. Seriously, you have no idea how happy I am that you did that. At least I know now what kind of a basterd you are, before I wasted more years on you." She said coolly.
She gabbed up her saddlebags and duffel glad for the first time she never bothered to unpack much as often as they had to move around. After loading up her bike she started it revving up the engine still strangely numb about everything that had just transpired. Dean and his father John had been her life since her parents deaths that and the hunting. She thought she heard Dean calling out to her as she pulled away but she didn't look back to see, just opened up the throttle and vowed not to stop or look back till she was out of town.
Present Day
Karma Cemetery
The whole service was morose and depressing, the worst part of it the open casket. Always the strong one of the girls Cyn had to go up and say their goodbyes for them all, none of the others could make it and one of them had to. Sandy's mother's sobs echoed jarringly threw the large church as she stood looking at the vessel that had once held her friend. It was clear that whatever had made Sandy, Sandy, was no longer present and it was heartbreaking to her. Especially since this was the second friend she'd buried in as many weeks.
This had been the town she'd grown up in and most of the girls she'd grown up with. Karma Washington, population thirty thousand a place she never spent much time in after she turned eighteen. When she heard about the work needed on her childhood house she went down to oversee it and decided to finish up some of her collage classes at the local University during that time. It and been great to visit and make a few new friends while getting to know old ones again. Until the strange deaths started first Glory dying and then Sandy.
Maria and Kimmie stood with her as they watched Sandy's grave being filled in with dirt and the other mourners left. Finally they turned for their long walk to the cars. All of them thinking about the same thing, it didn't take long for it to come up.
"What if he doesn't call?" Kimmie asked her eyes on the ground ahead of her feet.
"He's never let me down before. He was a father figure for me for years after I lost my parents." She assured her friends privately worried the same thing herself. She saw no need to worry the others with it.
"But you said he was busy." Maria pointed out and Cynthia sighed nodding at her sideways glance.
"Yeah. I know. If he doesn't call then, Dean's the last ditch effort." She said his name coming out on the ghost of a whisper. It didn't matter the girls didn't need to hear his name to know who she was referring to.
"We could always beat the hell out of him, after he saved us of course." Kimmie said brightly.
"That's if John doesn't call, Kimmie." Cyn reminded her.
"How long will you wait?" Maria asked hand going self-consciously to her scarf-covered throat. The thing that killed their friends had attacked Maria the night Cynthia had called John. It came into her home and attacked her just like the others. Leaving a bruise-like handprint on her throat that would apparently finally fade away after her death at his hands. Just like the others.
"If I don't hear from him by dinner…I'll call Dean." She assured her friend not willing to wait longer for their sakes, knowing she was being selfish not calling Dean the night she didn't reach John. No matter how much they hated each other he'd never turn her down if she needed help, not if something supernatural was involved.
They were almost to the near by lot when she saw the car pausing mid step as it caught her eye. Her brow furrowed as she recognized it, registered it was empty and herd Kimmie's playful voice.
"Oh, nice, who're the hottie's over by your car, Cyn?" She said nodding their way. She turned from the familiar Impala and looked over at her Minnie Cooper and blinked her heart stopping at the first sight of him.
"Shit." She said emphatically.
"Well, yeah, they are good looking but come on? Who can think about guy's at a time like this?" Maria asked in bewilderment. Cynthia put some speed in her steps leaving the girls in the dust with her longer legs. She didn't notice them slowing behind her knowingly, coming to a stop in front of Dean sitting on her car's hood and the younger man leaning on it next to him.
"Dean, what're you doing here?" She asked in mild annoyance as he slid off the hood of her car onto his feet, she had still been holding out on John.
"Dad called. I don't know what you said to the man. He'd been incommunicado for months when he suddenly calls out of the blue and tells us to get down here ASAP he said you were in trouble." Dean said troubled eyes never leaving her his brow furrowed in deep thought.
"Of course, I never talked to him. I left him a message telling him I needed help, said I couldn't ask you. Guess he took it upon himself to ask you for me." She commented ruefully as she looked off into the distance. Normally she'd have thought it was sweet of him like when John tried to intervene when they were fighting in the past but in this instance, she was less then pleased.
"Dad always considered you like a daughter to him." Dean replied softly.
"Obviously," The younger man beside him commented snidely. "When he's been missing for half a year and finally pops up to order us to go help her and refuses to tell us what's going on or what he's been up to." The younger man next to him complained angrily.
Then she registered how he was talking about John and the only thing that could mean. It would also explain why he looked familiar; she'd been shown a few pictures of Sammy and had heard Dean and John talk about him.
"Sam, I take it? Nice to finally meet you." She told him offering him her hand assuming at his age he wouldn't want some strange chick referring to him as 'Sammy'.
"Hi, eager to learn how you know so much about my family." Sam said, smiling politely at her as he shook her hand before throwing a glare Dean's way.
"What you mean he didn't tell you? Dean and I dated and hunted together for a year." She explained.
"Cyn, babe, is this what I think it is?" Kimmie asked from a few feet behind her.
"Kimmie, Maria, I'd like you to meet, Sam Winchester. That's his brother, Dean."
"Um, that wouldn't be Dean,Dean, would it?" Maria asked from beside her.
"Yes, it would." Cyn said meaningfully.
"Speak of the devil, can I geld him for yeah, babe?" Kimmie asked wrapping a comforting arm around Cyn's neck.
"I thought we agreed not to hurt him if he came to help, at least not until after he saved us?" Cyn reminded her chidingly.
"Aw, darn, guess I'll have to wait then." Kimmie said winking playfully at Dean who was smiling at her with a look like he wasn't sure if he should laugh or be offended.
"Yeah, I'd like not to meet our friend the attacker again." Maria said Cynthia looking at her in time to see her cup her throat again.
"Look why don't we get together at my place, where we can talk out of the cold, yes?" Cynthia asked glancing at Sam and Dean who nodded in agreement.
Normally, the drive took folks forty-five minutes in good traffic but Cynthia made it in twenty-five, Dean close behind her. Her friends sitting quietly in the vehicle with her, all of them heavy with there own thoughts. She pulled in next to Maria's white Saturn and Kimmie's BMW electric blue Beetle, Dean pulling in alongside her in the Impala.
Sighing inwardly she let everyone inside hanging up coats by the door before they all sat in the living room. She gathered her thoughts a moment as she decided what she needed to tell them before taking a deep breath and bracing herself. The last two weeks had been hard for her, and the added distraction of Dean being back in the picture was just something she didn't need.
"Three weeks ago our friend Glory called nine, one, one around half past midnight, she'd been attacked by a man who'd suddenly appeared in her home. After investigating and finding no signs of forced entry and no signs of the man the police filed a report and left writing it off as some crazy girl looking for attention. Two nights later she called again, they wouldn't even come this time and the only evidence he'd even been there was a bruise-like marking on her throat. Seventy-two hours later I went to her house when she missed our lunch date and found her upstairs in bed, dead.
"In the next week the pattern continued and my friend Sandy was found dead in her bed. I've buried two friends in as many weeks, and I have no idea what it is. The only clue is the hand print." Cynthia said looking over at Maria who looked down at her feet and pulled off her scarf to reveal her marked throat.
"And I'm next." Maria said softly.
"Not if we can help it." Cynthia assured her.
"Sounds vague. No other clues?" Dean asked her.
"There's nothing I haven't already told you." Cynthia assured them hands up in the air helplessly.
"You can't think of anything to add about your attack?" Sam asked looking at Maria.
"No." She said shaking her head eyes still lowered. "Only that when we say he 'suddenly appears' we do mean that literally." She added with a shrug.
"Hey Cyn, babe, you still planning to feed the animals?" Kimmie asked her after a few moments of silence.
"Coarse, Kimmie, wouldn't want you to waste away to nothing, would I?" Cynthia joked standing up. "Food'll be off the grill in about an hour."
About ten minute's later she stood outside keeping an eye on the charcoal starter when she heard the back door in the kitchen open and looked over to see Dean stepping outside and watching her with those intense eyes of his as he walked over. Sighing she fed the charcoal starter more newspaper a little early so she could avoid him for one more moment.
Then she stood and watched the flames shoot out about half a foot from the top rim.
"Cyn." Dean said meaningfully and she looked over at him with cold eyes.
"If this is going to be more comments about my intelligence I think I've heard enough, Dean. We fought, you kicked me out and we went our separate ways. I need help now, and that's all. If you want, I'll pay you for the job, but I think you and I should keep our distance." She told him keeping her narrowed gaze on the fire only glancing at him occasionally as she spoke.
"I won't accept any money from you." Dean said sounding offended.
"My money's not good enough for you anymore? Fine Dean. Whatever." She said stuffing more newspaper in the bottom of the charcoal starter.
"That wasn't what I meant." Dean said sounding exasperated and sighing deeply. "I owe you this, if not a hell of a lot more." He told her softly. She looked over at him shrewdly before raising a brow in question. "I'm sorry, I was wrong." He said shrugging helplessly.
"Your sorry…Dean Winchester is sorry? Your not going to talk about how I…disobeyed your ordersand nearly got us killed…or how you backhanded me at the hotel for a snide thoughtless comment made after you repeatedly insulted me and kicked me out on my ass in the middle of the night?" She said scathingly.
"The only words I can think of to say are, I'm sorry Cyn." Dean said looking down.
"Oh, well then, you apologized, so that just makes everything all better. It's like it never happened." She mocked him.
"I wish I could, make it so it never happened. That I'd gone for a drive to cool off or done anything but drink before talking to you about what had happened. Nothing I can say or do will take it away, I know that. I just wish it wasn't so. All that I have left is those words. I'm so sorry." Dean said voice rough and sincere.
"What do you want?" She asked him voice sounding lifeless.
"What?" Dean asked seeming momentarily confused.
"I asked what you wanted Dean? You said no to money, and we both know you just don't do that. So you want something else. All these tender moments are making me think you're after a certain something else. What is it? Got a hard on for the old day's Dean? All you had to do was say so, it's not like I'm in a position to argue, am I? I do after all need your help." She told him coolly.
They look he gave her was completely new, the wide stunned eyes, quirked troubled brows and offended tight lips.
"I would never do that to you…or to anyone." Dean said voice laced with disgust. "Do you really think so little of me?" He asked her.
"Was once a day I would say I knew you like the beat of my own heart, but then I also would've said you'd never lay a hand on me or any woman in anger. Seems I recall a backhand knocking me a few feet to eat carpet that proved me wrong on that night." She told him tossing the hot coals into the barbeque. "Now if you don't mind I have a dinner to cook, seems I have more guest to feed then I originally intended. Though I seem to recall you liking my cooking and unless Sam turned veggie on you he should be happy too." She said spreading the coals out. She half heard a murmured reply and the back door opening and closing as she focused all her attention on the grill and dinner.
The food went quickly as it usually did everyone spreading out with beers after agreeing until this was over they all should stay under the same roof. It was darkly ironic, she had a house big enough and empty enough to room all of her unexpected guests comfortably. Dean and Sam settled onto the office desk Sam on a laptop while Dean navigated on her computer.
Kimmie was being Kimmie and dancing around the living room listening to her mp3 player and getting some cardio aerobics in. By unspoken agreement all of them were keeping mainly to the same floor, Maria over in the reading chair with a book from her overflowing shelves. She sighed when she heard the doorbell ring surprised to have a visitor this late aware of Dean's silent eyes on her as she got up and left the room.
Glancing out the peephole she was surprised to see Sandy's father a medium sized box in his hands. Brow furrowed in confusion she opened her door and greeted the man with a forced smile motioning for him to come inside surprised when he shook his head and motioned for her to take the box from him, automatically doing so.
"Sandy wanted you to have these things. She had a list she made, damn girl was always so practical, and she planned for the worst." He said wiping suddenly runny eyes.
"Tell me about it Jake, you're sure you won't come in?" She asked genuinely concerned for the man she had known since she was a small child.
"No, got to get home to Ginny, she's not taking this well. I try not to leave her alone for long, just wanted to give this to you before she got curious about this stuff and nosed around. Sandy didn't want us mucking threw these things…she's left the clean up to you. Take care of yourself Cynthia you're dearer to our hearts now then you know." Jake said giving her a soft peck on the cheek before turning and leaving the porch to climb in his pickup wave and drive away.
"Well since your standing there, eavesdropping, you might as well make yourself useful and take this box upstairs to my room for me, Dean." She commented casually before turning around and raising a brow at Dean's surprised look that she'd known he was there. "Here." She said thrusting the box into his arms. "I'm sure your eager to nose around my room, just stay away from my underwear drawer." She commented with a pointed look, he avoided with a mischievous grin before following her up the stairs.
She led him silently into her room watching as he took it all in motioning for him to put the box down on her bed. After doing so he moved over to the vanity and began to finger things making her roll her eyes. He was always so hands on, had to get into everything and play (not that it wasn't enjoyable in bed).
"Think there might be anything worthwhile in here?" Dean asked after he was done motioning towards the box.
"Doubtfully but I'll go threw anything that looks interesting." She assured him forcing herself not to think about her and Dean…together. "So you're just going to plan on keeping this up? Being my shadow while you're here?"
"Sorry, old habits die hard, Cyn." Dean replied shoving his hands in his pockets and looking down at his feet.
"Well then, I guess I'll just have to do my best not to verbally abuse you every ten minutes. I don't know Dean, it's going to be hard…my head just might explode." She commented airily shrugging regretfully, as close as she would get to apologizing for being a bitch. Dean rolled his eyes but couldn't hold back a small smirk and a chuckle shaking his head.
"Some how I think you'll manage." He replied winking.
tbc
