Author's note: I guess I forgot a disclaimer on the first one! But I own nothing but Emily. Thanks guys for following and favoriting already! I woke up and was shocked to see a few people had already jumped on and read it! I'll try and update as often as possible!
We've only been in the car for two hours and I could already tell that this hunt was gonna drag. We pulled into a gas station and the boys jumped out to stretch and pump gas. Normally I'm jumping out and running for the food but this time I decided I'd sacrifice to not have to interact with Sam. What was I supposed to say to him? I can't pretend nothing happened. I can't just drop it. But Its not worth starting a fight knowing he's only gonna be here a couple of days.
"Hey Em," Sam said pulling me out of my thoughts, "Come inside with me real fast, I wanna grab some food and cup of coffee.
I rolled my eyes but opened the door and climbed out, going to follow behind sam who was already half way to the door. All of a sudden someone grabbed my arm and caused me to turn back to the impala.
"What do you want Dean?"
"Just be nice okay? For a couple of days I'm asking you to play nice… for me." The look on his face was half telling half pleading. He wanted to be able to just boss me around as usual but he also knew this was a touchy subject and not to push too far on this one. I rolled my eyes and shook my head up and down before skipping forward to catch up to Sam and his gigantor legs.
When we walked in I went straight for the candy isle while he looked through a basket of bananas and apples… some things never change I guess. We wound up meeting by the coffee machine, not that I drank that nasty stuff but I knew that's where he was headed.
"So.. how are you liking the whole hunting thing?" Sam asked trying to be polite.
"Its fine. Keeps me on my toes, you know how it is.
"Yeah, I guess I do. But hey uh, I just wanna say I'm sorry. I know you're pissed at me for leaving and I get it. But I missed you, and Its good to see you Em, you're so… grown up. It kinda blows my mind." Sam chuckled a little to himself before looking at me to wait for my response. I mean what the hell am I supposed to say to that? I know what I want to say, but that would go so far against Dean's request to be nice. Guess I'll just fake it these next couple of days. I gave Sam a small smile, "Thanks Sam. Do umm, you need anything else before we head back?"
"No, I'm good."
I took this chance to quickly end this little chat and return to my iPod in the backseat. If I just avoided him I wouldn't have to fake playing nice so much. I hated being fake, I'm not even sure he fell for it. We couldn't have been on the road for more than 5 minutes before I noticed that Dean kept glancing back at me while his and Sam's mouths were moving. Well, that's not obvious or anything. I turned the iPod on mute and loosened the ear buds so I could hear them.
"She didn't even yell at me Dean. What the hell have you done with my little sister? She's pissed at me and she's not gonna just drop it like that. She's not gonna get over this till she's honest with me."
Dean glanced back at me once more and this time I met his gaze, he quickly looked away. Geez Dean. You're terrible at hiding shit from me.
"I don't know Sammy. Maybe she's just more mature then you give her credit for. You have been gone for 4 years… a lot can happen in 4 years. She's not that little girl anymore. She had to grow a pair and move on in life. Was she nice to you at least?"
"Yeah. Too nice. That's how I know she's lying. I'm not an idiot Dean, besides not that much can change in 4 years. She's still Emily… I've known her for her whole life. She can't hide shit from me. She used to tell me everything without me even asking."
"You can't expect to just come back out of nowhere and things be like they used to be, she's seen stuff Sam. She's got some blood on her hands. She grew up."
Sam just sighed and turned to look out the window. I wanted to scream at him. How dare he talk about me. He left. He didn't care about me anymore, so why put on an act like he does now. What will it matter in two days when he's gone again? I was trying so hard not to speak up that I was biting on my lip and could taste the blood. He's back for 3 hours and already I'm losing my mind. I kept telling myself to just play nice… 2 days. You can play nice for 2 days.
A few hours later we were pulling into Jericho when we noticed a scene on some bridge. Dean pulled out fake badges for him and Sam and handed me an old crappy camera and a note pad. I knew the drill, I was a reporter for a local school, at least for the next 5 minutes. I quietly made my way around the scene trying to stay out of eye sight while Sam and Dean did the talking, I snapped a few shots before Dean's snarky attitude towards the sheriff caught my attention. I made my way back to the impala watching my brothers bicker the whole way back.
"Where to now boys?"
"Well we are going to talk to some chick named Amy, the vic's girlfriend. Word has it she's putting up posters all over downtown." Dean said as he pulled away from the scene.
"Do you wanna drop me off so I can book us a room while you go and chat with the lady?" I offered. I knew that me coming along doesn't do any good when Dean's pulling lead on talking to women. Besides, Sam would go where Dean goes, and I had some looking around of my own I wanted to do.
"Yeah I guess so." Dean pulled into the closest motel and left me there with my fake ID and the credit card to match. I walked to the desk and booked a room, when the guy looked at my card he looked back at me and spoke.
"Family reunion in town?"
I looked at him confused as hell, "Im sorry?"
"Another guy with the same last name booked a room a few weeks ago, still has it."
I froze momentarily before speaking again, "Oh yeah, that's my uncle. Hey he said he would be back late tonight but he has some stuff for me in his room. Would you mind pointing me in the right direction?"
This was going to go even better than I thought. I wanted Dean to ditch me so I could focus on finding dad while the boys handled the case, and here I already have a good idea on where he is. I walked into the room and had to hold my nose as the door swung closed behind me. Dad's not been here in forever… I wonder how long he paid in advance for the room. He must have thought he would be in town for a while, so what the hell made him take off and leave all this shit behind? I spent the next few minutes digging around for a sign of where he might be or where he might have gone… no luck. The phone in my back pocket began to ring.
"Hey we're headed back what room are we."
"Well we're in room 512, but Dean… you need to come to room 317 when you get here. You gotta see this."
"See what? Emily you better not be getting into shit while no ones there to help you."
"Chill, I'm fine. Just. Hurry up."
The impala pulled in 10 minutes later and there was a knock on the door, I opened it up and watched as both my brothers went to cover their nose. I laughed, "Don't worry, you get used to it after a few minutes… Dad was here Dean." He looked at me and then began to go through all the papers on the walls and the stacks on the desk.
"Salt, cats-eye shells...he was worried. Trying to keep something from coming in." Sam said.
"What have you got here?"
"Centennial Highway victims. I don't get it. I mean, different men, different jobs—ages, ethnicities. There's always a connection, right? What do these guys have in common?" Dean pondered outloud.
"Dad figured it out." This caused me and Dean to both turn to Sam for an explanation.
"What do you mean?" Dean eyed him curiously as if there's no way Sam saw something he didn't.
"He found the same article we did. Constance Welch. She's a woman in white."
"You sly dogs."
"All right, so if we're dealing with a woman in white, Dad would have found the corpse and destroyed it."
"She might have another weakness."
"Well, Dad would want to make sure."
"He'd dig her up. Does it say where she's buried?" Dean asked Sam.
"No, not that I can tell. If I were Dad, though, I'd go ask her husband. If he's still alive."
"Well start on getting an address Sammy. Hey kiddo you gonna come with this time or are you wanting to lay low?" Dean asked eyeing me, he knew exactly what I was doing. I couldn't care less about this spirit. I wanted to find Dad.
"I think I'll lay low and keep an eye on things." He looked at me like he was gonna object but he didn't. He hates leaving me alone but knows I'm doing my best to tolerate our current situation.
"Okay, but we're gonna go check out that bridge later tonight, So I'll be coming back to get you."
"Yeah okay." I wasn't gonna press my luck.
I went around to the local store, popped my head in at the diner, asked a few people on the streets. No one had seen dad around for atleast 2 weeks. I was getting frustrated. Dean texted, I was walking back to meet them at the room when I heard the Impala coming down the road. I smiled. Saves me the walk.
"So this is where Constance took the swan dive." Dean was so nonchalant.
"So you think Dad would have been here?" I asked.
Well, he was chasing the same story."
"Okay, so now what?" Sam was getting impatient.
"Now we keep digging until we find him. Might take a while. "
"Dean, I told you, I've gotta get back by Monday—"
"Monday. Right. The interview."
"Yeah."
"Yeah, I forgot. You're really serious about this, aren't you? You think you're just going to become some lawyer? Marry your girl?" Right, like Dean forgot anything. He was just trying to bait Sam into sticking around.
"Maybe. Why not?"
"Does Jessica know the truth about you? I mean, does she know about the things you've done?"
"No, and she's not ever going to know."
"Well, that's healthy. You can pretend all you want, Sammy. But sooner or later you're going to have to face up to who you really are."
"And who's that?"
"You're one of us."
"No. I'm not like you. This is not going to be my life."
"You have a responsibility to—"
"To Dad? And his crusade? If it weren't for pictures I wouldn't even know what Mom looks like. And what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom's gone. And she isn't coming back."
Dean grabbed Sam by the collar and shoved him up against the railing of the bridge. Great. Here we go again. I stepped between them my back against sam and trying to pull Dean's attention to meet my gaze.
"Dean! Stop! We don't need to do this right now…"
"Don't talk about her like that." Dean's glare was glued to Sam's face. Sam was not backing down.
All of a sudden I looked up and saw her. Standing on the rail and looking down over at us.
"Umm.. Dean… Sam…."
I instinctively grabbed Sam's hand out of shock and maybe even a little fear. They turned just in time to watch her fall. We all ran over to the edge and looked down searching for her in the water.
"Where'd she go?"
"I don't know."
Then out of no where I heard the impala start up. We all turned to look and I fell back into my old habit of hiding behind Sam. I couldn't help it. It was like an instinct. He grabbed my with one arm pushing me further behind him, but still keeping me close to his body, protecting me.
"What the—"
"Who's driving your car?"
Dean pulled his keys out of his pockets and we all shared a quick look of panic before the car lunged forward and came for us.
"Dean? Go! Go!"
I was a fast runner, but it was doing any good against the car, it was catching up quickly. Before I could understand what was happening I was being pulled side ways and flung over the railing. I heard the car come to an abrupt start right in front of us. It was then I realized I was dangling a solid 40 feet or more in the air, only being held up by one of Sam's hands.
"Oh my god.. Sam! Sam pull me up! Please! Sam!"
"Hold on, I gotcha… I gotcha I won't drop you."
He finally pulled me back onto the railing. Then I started to look around for Dean.
"Dean… Dean?"
"What?" I heard it off in the distance. I looked down to see a body crawling out of the muddy water and onto the bank.
"Hey! Are you all right?" Sam asked.
"I'm super." Dean replied with heavy sarcasm.
Sam and I laughed as we watched Dean slowly make his way onto the bridge and go straight to inspect the impala.
"Your car all right?"
"Yeah, whatever she did to it, seems all right now. That Constance chick, what a bitch!"
"Well, she doesn't want us digging around, that's for sure. So where's the job go from here, genius?"
"Now we figure out how to gank the bitch." I smiled as I said it, this was after all my favorite part!
"Hey Dean…" I said cautiously. "You smell like a toilet."
Dean looked down before mumbling a string of profanities under his breath. We headed back to the motel room to regroup and figure out how our next move. Dean decided to go out and grab food, I was perfectly content watching the back of my eyelids.
"Hey, Emily.. come on we gotta go.. now." Sam's voice pulled me awake.
"Sam what's wrong?" I asked drowsily.
"Dean's been made, 5-0s here, we gotta go fast."
Me and Sam were out the window in the next 60 seconds running for the cover of the tree line a ways behind the building.
We waited for the cops to bail out and went back to get the impala from the parking lot. Now its just me and Sam… alone. The one thing I've been trying to avoid this whole time. He put in a fake 911 call to let Dean have a chance to escape. They seemed to discuss something rather important but I figured I'd get the information from Dean when we caught up to him. I didn't wanna ask Sam. He pulled out of the lot and drove out towards the edge of town, the silence was awkward to say the least. Then Sam broke it.
"Hey are you okay, Em?"
"Yeah… I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be." I tried to say as nice as possible but it came out kinda bitchy.
"You just seemed a little scared on the bridge, I didn't mean to toss you over so far. I'm sorry kiddo."
"Well I didn't end up covered in mud like Dean so I guess I should thank you for that."
"Emily I wish you would just get this over with… I know you're trying really hard to be nice but you're still pissed at me. I'm sick of tip toeing around it. I left. It pissed you off… just admit it already!"
I turned to look at him, glare at him really. Wow. Get a load of the sack on this kid. How dare he.
"You really think I'm this fucking pissed just because you left to go to college Sam?"
"Well if that's not it then what is it Emily?! Tell me! You used to tell me everything! You used to open up and be honest with me! You trusted me!"
"YEAH BECAUSE YOU USED TO LOVE ME SAM! I get why you left! I would have done the same thing If I was you, I didn't get mad because you left me Sam I got mad because you stopped loving me! To be honest I wasn't near as mad as I was fucking confused! What in the fuck could I have done at 11 years old to deserve that?! I called you every day for WEEKS! You never once called me back Sam! I needed you! I wanted my brother to love me but you just didn't care anymore!"
Wow. There went my play nice plan… If I'm being honest it felt good to say it all. I've held it in for 4 years. I Took a deep breath, deeper than I have in a while it felt like. It was then I noticed my face was wet… what the fuck? Seriously? I let this make me cry. Sam just stared at the road for a minute. I glared a hole into the side of his head. Waiting for him to answer me. He finally took in a sharp breath and looked over at me. His face was… indescribable. It was like I broke him. Just like he broke me.
"Emily do you honestly think I don't love you anymore?" He finally asked.
I sucked up the tears that were trying to escape, "Yeah Sam. I couldn't explain it any other way. You just… forgot about me."
He pulled off to the side of the road and turned his whole body to face me.
"Emily I could never stop loving you. You mean the world to me, Em. Seriously… look at me."
I finally looked up and held his gaze in mine. "Leaving you was the hardest thing I ever did. Do you remember Dean having to drag you back inside? I replayed you screaming my name for days in my head. I almost came back… several times. I knew if I answered that phone I wouldn't have the will power to stay. But I had to stay Em. I needed that for me. You were the one thing that could have sucked me back in, I'm so sorry Emily. I'm so sorry you felt that way. I just figured it would be easier on you to just not call, I didn't wanna drag your emotions around by not answering and then calling out of the blue when I had finally convinced myself nothing would make me leave. I thought I was doing the right thing."
"Sam. I needed you…. I still need you. I love Dean and Dad, but I love you too. Theres only certain things I could tell Dean and Dad. I could tell you anything. You were the one who told me it was okay to cry when Dean rolled his eyes and dad told me to suck it up. You were the one who snuck me pain meds when I tried to tell Dad and Dean I didn't get hurt. I felt like I always had to impress them, but with you I could break a little and know you wouldn't judge me. Then when you left I had to suck it up, be tough.. all the time. I didn't have you to go to anymore. Dean came around after a couple years, but its not like you could be replaced." I was just letting the tears fall at this point, Its not like I was sobbing or anything. But it was like I was releasing all this pent up… emotion. The words, the tears. I felt 20lbs lighter by the time I was done.
Sam reached across the seat and pulled me into his chest. This time I didn't stop him. I never realized how bad I wanted this back until I let myself be vulnerable to him again.
"Emily, I swear. I'll never bail on you again. Even while I'm at Stanford, I swear this time I'll use the phone, the computer, I'll come meet up with you guys. I won't leave you again, okay?"
I pulled away from him, "Yeah, okay." Then I got the sudden chill and heard her voice behind me.
"Take me home." It was Constance, sitting behind Sam and I. I reached for Sam's jacket and had a death grip on his sleeve.
"No." Sam glared at her in the rearview mirror and said the words.
All of a sudden the doors locked themselves. Me and Sam both tried to open them but had no luck, then as if it couldn't get any worse the car began to drive forward against Sam's control.
"Sam." I yelped. He grabbed my hand and held it tightly, not sure where we were going.
We ended up in front of an old large run down house.
"Don't do this." Sam pleaded with her.
"I can never go home." She said.
All of a sudden she was sitting in the seat between Sam and I, I screamed as the door flew open and I was flung out of the car into the gravel below.
"Hold me. I'm so cold." She said as she climbed into Sam's lap.
"You can't kill me. I'm not unfaithful. I've never been!"
"You will be. Just hold me."
She leaned down to kiss him as I went around to reach for my gun, what the hell?! It must have fallen out in the floorboards. I began to look around for something to use as a weapon when I heard the sound of a shot gun go off. The next thing I knew Sam floored it and ran the car straight into the living room of the old house.
"Emily!" I heard Dean coming closer to me.
"You good kiddo?"
"Yeah I'm good… we gotta get Sam!"
We both ran into the house and helped Sam climb out of the car, it was moments before she reappeared and we were all being flung against the car with a dresser. She stared at us with hate in her eyes, but then I heard something else….
"You came home to us mommy." Oh what in the actual fuck! Ghost toddlers?
She seemed terrified as the children approached her, they grabbed her hand and they all fell into a puddle in the floor. It was disgusting. I honestly felt like I could puke. The boys pushed the dresser off of us. I could finally catch my breath.
"So this is where she drowned her kids." Dean said.
"That's why she could never go home. She was too scared to face them."
"You found her weak spot. Nice work, Sammy."
"Yeah, I wish I could say the same for you. What were you thinking shooting Casper in the face, you freak?"
"Hey. Saved your ass."
"I'll tell you another thing. If you screwed up my car? I'll kill you."
Sam and I both laughed and he swung his arm around me. Dean looked at me and smiled. I sent him a genuine smile back for the first time in days.
We quickly hit the road with nothing but a busted headlight, Sam got off easy. Dean finally shared with the group about his conversation with Sam earlier. Dad left us his journal, with coordinates. That was kinda the final say on the fact that dad had left on purpose. He didn't wanna be found yet. But he wanted us to keep hunting. We were going somewhere in Colorado. Well, after we dropped off Sam. Dean tried to get him to stay, but I knew it wouldn't work.
We pulled into Stanford pretty late again. Sam got out and pulled his bag from the trunk. I jumped out and wrapped my arms around him. He returned the hug, squeezing the breath out of me and lifting my 5'2 self off the ground with a chuckle. " I love you Sammy."
"I love you too Em. I'll call and let you know how the interview goes okay?"
"You better or I'll have to come back and kick your ass." We all laughed.
Sam and Dean said a short goodbye and that was it, Sam went inside and I curled up to Dean's side as he turned on some ACDC and pulled out of the parking lot.
"So I see you either got really good at playing nice or you and Sam finally talked."
"Yeah yeah yeah. You were right Dean. I'm glad we got Sam's help."
He looked at me with pure shock.
"I'm sorry, could you repeat that for me? No wait, where did that recorder go?"
I punched him in the arm and we both laughed. All of a sudden it got cold again, I got this horrible gut feeling, the radio went staticky and I turned to look at Dean.
"Dean! Its Sam! Go back!"
He flung the car around and we were flying back to Sam's apartment. This knot in my stomach grew tighter and I felt the panic in me rising. Dean noticed and grabbed my hand, squeezing it tight. Letting me know he was there.
We pulled in and Dean flew up the stairs, I was fast but couldn't keep up. I heard Sam's screams and Dean yelled at me to run back to the impala. I was trained to obey, and I was terrified. I trusted Dean. So I ran. I ran and locked myself in the car, turning to watch Dean drag out Sam as the apartment building erupted into flames.
No… No where is Jess?!
As Sam and Dean grew closer and I heard Sam's cries, I already knew the answer to my question… I jumped out and ran to Sam. I locked my arms around his waist. Letting him know he wasn't alone. The sirens grew louder as they all pulled into the previously quiet parking lot.
Poor Sam. I knew he would take this extremely hard. I was so relieved we had cleared the air before we left him again… I couldn't imagine the situation if we were still at odds. My brother needed me. I was gonna do everything I could for him. Dean and I both were, we shared a look of pain as we watched our brother fall to pieces in our arms.
Days past, the funeral came and went. I watched Sam cry more than I ever have before. We stuck around for a week or two trying to figure out what exactly had happened. Sam was keeping to himself for the most part, but he would sometimes talk to us about it. More often then not I was there to be a silent comfort. Just to sit with him so he wasn't alone. He wasn't sleeping, and when he did he had nightmares. Dean suggested it was time to head out, get away from this town and get a new perspective on things. I think he didn't want me to know but I overheard him and Sam discussing that the thing that killed Jessica was the same thing that killed Mom. In order to find that we'd have to find dad.
So here I sit in my usual spot in the backseat. Carefully watching Sam. I wanted him back, I was glad he was back. But I hated that the events that got us here. I closed my eyes waiting to doze off, next stop, Colorado.