Ellie glanced back at the house as she climbed in the backseat of the old Chevy. She'd seen Wyatt and Piper at the window when her dad had pulled up, but she wasn't sure what to do about it. She'd explained why she'd been so late; finding the stash compartment and how she'd meant to be back earlier, but the idea of exploring the house was too tempting to pass up, which lead to another explanation of how she knew the occupants.
Her dad had been grateful to find her so easily and profusely apologized for yelling at her earlier. Although he never actually said he was sorry, she knew 'Dean speak' and was sure that her uncle had talked him into it. She wasn't going to be complaining, as she was thankful he was no longer mad.
In true Uncle Sam fashion, he dove into talking about the case to make them forgot they'd been arguing a few hours ago.
"It was good work, the research you did at the library." Sam said, glancing over his shoulders to let Ellie know he meant the words.
"Thanks." She said with a little smile.
"We still don't know exactly what this book of shadows is capable of though." Dean said, looking at his brother.
Sam shook his head. "You're right. The lore keeps mentioning that it's the source of the power, but is it an actual book? Like a spell book? Or is it metaphoric, just a point that they can channel through?"
"There was a couple more books at the library I didn't get to go through yet. I can go back tomorrow and do some more research if you'd like." Ellie volunteered.
"So," Dean started and Ellie wasn't totally sure she was going to like the question. "You gonna let us meet this Wyatt kid?"
Sam glanced over his shoulder back to Ellie, telling her he'd wanted to ask the same question.
"Uh… I mean, if you want to. You're probably gonna scare the crap outta him." Ellie commented.
"Good." Her father said with a nod.
"Why?" Sam asked, curiously turning around in his seat a little.
"His parents are very… laidback. Like, not that he runs all over and does whatever he wants. But he's got two siblings. So I think they're just… go with the flow kind of people." Ellie said, wondering if her father knew he was exactly the opposite. Dean Winchester was the kind of person to make his own road straight through instead of following the path fifteen hundred other people took.
Sam smirked, looking at Dean. "She's politely saying you're uptight and strict."
Ellie smiled at her uncle before glancing at her dad. "Yeah, well being a hippie parent doesn't exactly keep anybody alive." Dean said, obviously having taken the comment personally.
Ellie leaned forward and squeezed her dad's shoulder. "I think you're doing pretty good."
Dean looked unsure of the comment, reaching up to give her hand a gentle squeeze before letting go and maneuvering the car into the motel parking lot.
Ellie shook her head, looking over the papers and books she'd scattered over the bed. Something wasn't adding up. She was missing something and it was going to drive her crazy.
"You've been looking at the same pile of papers for ten minutes." Sam commented.
"They're not just gonna arrange themselves and spell out what we need." Dean commented, looking through a book from the early 1900's about witches in San Francisco.
"It's like I'm missing the center piece of the puzzle. I've got all the edges, the little stuff," She said, sifting through the papers. "But I'm missing the big piece that goes in the middle."
Sam sighed, stretching his long arms. "How about you go back to the library? See if you can find anything in those books you didn't get to yesterday?"
Ellie nodded, her gaze still on the papers before she slid off the bed and shoved into her boots.
"Hey." Her dad said, making her look up at him. He stood woodenly, like he wasn't sure how to move his legs. He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket; her cell phone, and shifted it in his hands before holding it out to her.
She carefully took the device from him without a word.
"I'm sorry I was so harsh you on. I know you think I'm a helicopter parent and I know you really just want time away from us every once in a while." He told her, gesturing to himself and Sam. "And I'm sorry I can't give it to you more often." He said, looking truly saddened. "But this is the only thing I've ever been good at." He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck. "And if I lost you to the life too, I don't know that I could come back from that."
Deep down inside, Ellie had always known that. After they'd found her mom and she'd been introduced to the life her father had grown up in, she'd known that was why he was always standing over her shoulder. She knew he'd take a bullet or five long before he'd let her do the same.
She nodded, looking up at him. She knew he was a better dad than a lot of people got. He didn't shelter her; he gave it to her the way it was and he never lied to her. He wasn't abusive, he didn't take after his father. He put her as far in front of himself as he could manage, every though it was still close enough to reach.
"I know that." She told him quietly. "You're doing the best you can. You're a good dad, even though you don't think so sometimes."
Dean scoffed. "What? I'm a great dad." He told her, but she knew the underlying tone in his voice was unsure. She knew he beat himself up ten times more than any other living person ever could. She knew his insides were a wreck after yesterday and she knew his inner turmoil showed through in the liquor bottles he'd tried to hide in the trash can.
"Yeah, you are." She told him sincerely, making him pause a little. He ducked his head before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. She hugged him back and he was all hunter mode as soon as he stepped away.
"Alright, go to the library. See if there's anything we're missing on this book of shadows. See if you can dig up anything about a…" He paused, moving to the table. "Melinda Warren. Some of this stuff keeps referring back to her, like she was the first of the line or something."
Ellie scribbled in her notebook so she wouldn't forget. "Warren. Got it." She said, heading for the door.
"Eleanor?"
Her dad's use of her proper name made her pause. Her mom was the only person who ever called her Eleanor. Her dad, since she'd been able to talk, had called her Ellie. She looked back at him carefully.
He cleared his throat, shuffling his feet. "And if you… if you want to take a couple hours to do that, um… you can do that. Just uh… just call me? If you leave the library. Let me know if you're going off with that Wyatt kid."
She smiled gently back at him. "You really are a great dad." She told him with a nod, closing the door behind her.
Ellie sighed, looking around the pile of books. Why couldn't she just figure this out? It was never this difficult. She was good at research, she loved doing it and she loved that her dad let her help. But here she was; hip high in books about lore and she couldn't find much of anything she didn't already know. It was like the legend of this book of shadows had been wiped from the books.
She knew it wasn't possible, but it was the only conclusion she could come up with.
"Back at it, I see."
Ellie looked up to see a tall guy with dirty blonde hair and a knowing smirk. She smiled up at him. "Stalking me again, I see."
"Actually, if you remember correctly, it was you who was standing outside my house." Wyatt said.
She conceived, nodding. "I guess that was right."
"This is turning into a hell of a research project." He told her, squatting down to take in the books she'd scattered around her.
She gave a kind of choked chuckle. "You have no idea."
Wyatt watched her for a moment, making her feel a little uncomfortable. What was he looking for? "You really do this all the time."
She nodded. "I wasn't telling you that just for the giggles."
Wyatt smirked. "No, I guess not."
"Whatcha up to?" She asked, leaning back against the wall and looking up at him.
He shrugged. "I may or may not have been wandering around hoping you'd show up again. Probably not, but there's always that possibility."
"Very non-committable stalking, I'd say." Ellie said with a smile.
Wyatt shrugged. "What can I say? I'm a romantic."
Ellie smirked, grinning up at him.
"So," Wyatt said. "My mom's in love with you." He was obviously trying to sound nonchalant, but was failing miserably.
"Oh yeah?" Ellie asked.
Wyatt nodded. "Asked if I could invite you back, in case you know of a place they stashed diamonds during World War Two or something." He shrugged.
Ellie grinned at him, ducking her head a little as a gentle blush graced her cheeks. "They uh… didn't generally use metro houses to hide diamonds."
Wyatt smiled. "I knew you'd say something like that."
Ellie shook her head a little, looking back up at him. "Already know me so well?"
Wyatt shook his head firmly. "Not really. But we could get ice cream and you could tell me your life story."
"I um…" Ellie started, looking down at the books around her. "I really… I kinda need to finish this research first."
"Well, can I help? If it'll make it go faster." Wyatt said, moving to sit on the floor next to her.
"You don't have to." She told him.
He shook his head, pulling one of the books on the floor onto his lap. "Nah, I want to. Besides," He said, leaning a little closer. "I think this stuff is really cool, but I get funny looks all the time when I talk about it."
"Me too." Ellie said with a smile.
Wyatt grinned. "Alright, so what exactly are we looking for?"
Ellie brought up her notebook, having taken notes from the other books on things she thought would be important. "So, online there was a couple mentions of this Book of Shadows. It's supposed to be the all-time power house for witches powers everywhere, right? But I can't find anything about it in any of these other books." Ellie told him.
She went about shuffling through a book to find one with the blank sections she'd found before and because of this, she'd completely missed Wyatt's shocked expression.
"Like, look at this." She said, holding up one of the books about spell casting. "There's three-quarters of a page that's blank. It's like… somebody just erased it from ever being there." She told him quietly, looking over at him.
He quickly arranged his face to be more pensive than stunned. Of course, Wyatt knew that his father had once wiped all the books in California from anything mentioning anything too closely resembling real witchcraft. "That's weird." He commented, taking the book from her.
"Okay, good. Because I thought I was going crazy or something." She said, relaxing against the wall a little bit.
"No, that's insane. How can a printed book by like… wiped clean?" He asked, flipping through the book to see if there were any other pages blanked out. Of course, he was doing it for show.
"But I lucked out and found this." Ellie said, pulling a history book closer to her. "There was this lady, right? Her name was Melinda Warren and some of the lore I keep finding has referred to her a couple times. So… I don't know, maybe she's important?"
Ellie wasn't going to go and play all her cards; she just didn't want to do this bookwork by herself and if Wyatt was willing to help her, she had to make it look like a real research project.
Wyatt looked at the book for a moment. "Well if she's mentioned more than once, she's gotta be somebody's important." He nodded, confirming her suspicions.
"I think she was like the first of a coven or something." Ellie told him.
"I think… I think I heard about her once." Wyatt said, picking up one of the other books and flipping through. Ellie watched as he scanned the pages before pausing. "Here." He said, handing the book over.
"Melinda Warren was burned at the stake." Ellie murmured, reading the entry in the book about how she'd been accused of witchcraft. The rest of her family scattered, including her daughter, after Melinda had been accused, fearing being accused as well. Her daughter must've continued the line.
"Well, that was enough bookwork for one day. You wanna get ice cream?" Wyatt asked with a smile.
Ellie grinned back at him. "I would love to, but my dad's gonna rail me if I don't finish this."
Wyatt sighed, leaning his head back against the wall and looking over at her. "Your dad's uptight."
Ellie smirked. "I told him your parents were more laidback and he called them hippie parents."
Wyatt scoffed. "Hippies. Hardly. If you'd ever seen my mom mad… It probably makes your dad look like a kitten."
Ellie knew there was no way Piper could get madder than her dad, but she wasn't going to argue so she just shook her head.
"Alright, alright. How about this?" Wyatt spoke, making her look back over at him. "I help you gather enough info to make your dad happy, and then you get ice cream with me? And if we have enough time, you can come back to the house for a real tour."
Ellie smiled, thinking about it for a second. "Yeah, alright. That sounds nice." She conceded.
He grinned, pulling another book into his lap. "Alright, so what are we looking for?"
An hour later, they sat at the ice cream parlor. Ellie was telling Wyatt stories about her family, which she'd broken down and left out the important details like hunting, and Wyatt was telling Ellie about how he lucked out in not getting a name that started with P, as was the family tradition with the girls.
When they'd finished, Ellie reached for her phone. She hadn't told her dad about leaving the library, but she sent him a text, saying she was going over to Wyatt's to get a tour of the house.
Her phone dinged and Wyatt paused his story about one of his aunt's. "Your dad?"
Ellie nodded, quickly reading the text that said 'be safe.' "Yeah, he wanted me to let him know if you swept me away from the library."
"He doesn't trust me." Wyatt said with a nod.
Ellie smirked, shaking her head. "My dad doesn't trust anybody but my uncle. My mom used to say it was one of his fatal flaws."
"Fatal flaws?" Wyatt asked, looking over at her as they walked.
Ellie nodded. "My mom used to believe everybody had a fatal flaw. If you found out what a person's fatal flaw was, and you could live with it, you could stay friends or be with them forever. If you couldn't overlook it, then there was no point."
"What's yours?" Wyatt asked.
Ellie chuckled uncomfortably, running a hand over her arm as they continued the walk down the road. "Um… I'm not sure, I guess. I don't think about it a lot."
"Mine's probably second chances." Wyatt said with a nod.
"Why so?" Ellie asked.
"I see the good in everybody, even if they're bad. Don't get me wrong, I don't associate with bad people." He said with a chuckle. "But I could probably overlook anybody's fatal flaw, give them a second chance."
"Well, you'll have to tell me what mine is when you see it and choose to overlook it." Ellie commented as they reached the bottom of the walkway for the manor.
"Alright, so where do you want to start? Or should we just start at the bottom and work up?" Wyatt asked, holding open the door for her.
Ellie paused, seeing two new faces in the dining room. Both women had been arguing when the door had opened, but had since stopped and turned to the newcomer.
"Aunt Paige. Aunt Phoebe." Wyatt grinned. "When did you get back?"
"Just about an hour ago." The brunette said with a smile. "Who's your friend?"
"Yeah, this makes the… second time we've ever seen Wyatt bring home a girl." The red head commented, moving forward to stand with Wyatt and the brunette.
"Uh, this is Ellie. She's new in town and in love with the house." Wyatt said to the two before looking at Ellie. "This is my Aunt Paige," He said, gesturing to the redhead. "And my Aunt Phoebe." He said, gesturing to the brunette.
"Ellie! You found the wine under the stairs!" Phoebe said with a grin.
Ellie ducked her head, feeling a little embarrassed. "I uh, yeah I guess I did."
"She really is shy." Paige commented, mock whispering to Phoebe.
"Don't be rude." Phoebe said, swatting at Paige before turning to Ellie. "So you like the house?"
Ellie nodded quickly, glancing around the foyer. "It's really beautiful."
"Ya know, Wyatt was born right here in the house." Phoebe commented.
Wyatt's face went slack before turning to his aunt. "What are you doing? She doesn't need to know that."
"Actually," Ellie cleared her throat. "It's scientifically proven that if a person was born in a house, and then lives there throughout their teenage years, they tend to be more emotionally stable, have a stronger will so they're less likely to be influenced by outside forces, and they are very family orientated."
Wyatt slowly turned to Ellie like he wasn't sure what to say. But Phoebe grinned. "That explains me too." She said, elbowing Wyatt's side. "I like her. Can I keep her?"
"What? No. I saw her first." Wyatt defended.
Paige smirked and shook her head. "It's like she's a Halliwell, but smarter."
Phoebe scoffed. "And what does that make her then? A Matthews?" She said, rolling her eyes and looking at Wyatt like she couldn't believe the comment.
"What is your last name? Those things hold all kinds of power." Paige said, looking at the brunette.
"Winchester." Ellie said with a nod. "Like the gun."
Phoebe and Paige stiffened. "Winchester. Like…" Paige started before Phoebe waved her off.
"Don't mind her. She's new to the family and she likes to talk a lot about stuff she doesn't know anything about." Phoebe said, giving Paige a pointed look.
Wyatt watched his aunts carefully, trying to decide what was going on.
"How about that tour? C'mon. Have you seen the upstairs yet?" Phoebe asked, gesturing Ellie closer.
"What's going on?" Ellie whispered to Wyatt as Phoebe led the way upstairs and Paige moved towards the kitchen.
"Good question. When I know, I'll let you know." He whispered back, following her up the stairs.
Ellie nodded, carefully watching Wyatt's Aunt Phoebe, who gave a tour of the upstairs like it was part of the Smithsonian. Ellie enjoyed her flare for the dramatic, but she remembered the way her and the other aunt had stiffened upon hearing her name. That's obviously what it'd been, her last name, causing them to go into a panic.
And they wouldn't have gone into a panic hearing that she was a Winchester unless… But Wyatt's family was normal. They weren't evil or whatever… Were they? She'd never seen such normal supernaturals, if they were.
"Did you want to see the attic?" Phoebe asked.
"What? No. She can't see the attic." Wyatt said, looking at Phoebe before turning to Ellie. "There's… rats, in the attic. Thankfully they haven't spread, but the exterminator should be coming tomorrow or the day after."
Ellie watched him carefully. "There's something in the attic you don't want me to see."
"What? No." He scoffed. "That's insane. I'd hate for you to get lime disease."
Ellie looked at Phoebe. "I'd love to see the attic."
Wyatt's face kind of drained as he looked over at his aunt, who was already on her way up the second set of stairs. What was she doing? The Book of Shadows was in the attic and Wyatt had conveniently not told his mother that the girl he'd met at the library was doing research on him and his family.
If she saw the Book of Shadows, the game was over. She'd know he was a witch and he didn't know why Aunt Paige or Aunt Phoebe froze up when they heard Ellie's last name, but Wyatt wasn't stupid. He knew it meant something and as soon as Ellie was out of the house, he was going to have to ask them.
But for now, he had to make sure Ellie didn't see the Book.
Phoebe gave a bunch of little tidbits of information as she swept through the attic and when Ellie was examining his aunt's old doll house, he waved his hand, and blue and white light surrounded the book and he orbed it out of the attic.
Ellie turned around and paused, looking towards the stand the Book had previously been sitting on. "There… wasn't there a book here a minute ago?"
"Book?" Phoebe asked, coming closer to Ellie.
"A big book. On this stand." She said, looking between Phoebe and Wyatt.
"Wyatt!" Piper's voice could be heard from downstairs.
"I'll be right back!" Wyatt said, moving out of the attic and down the stairs.
"What is the Book of Shadows nearly doing in my soup?" Piper asked, pointing to the empty gas burner that the book had landed on, right next to the burner with a pot of soup at a rolling boil.
"Aunt Phoebe took Ellie into the attic and didn't give me time to hide the book. I had to orb it out when she turned her back. You know I'm still working on the specific location orbing!" Wyatt said, moving close to his mother to hopefully keep the conversation quiet.
"Why is Phoebe showing the attic off?" Piper murmured. "When did Ellie come over?"
"I ran into her at the library again. Do you know anything about a Winchester?" He asked.
Piper gasped, turning to Wyatt. "What?"
"Ellie said her last name was Winchester and Aunt Phoebe and Aunt Paige freaked." He said. "Why? Where have you heard the name before?"
"Oh my god. There's a Winchester in the house. We have to get her out. Tell her I came down with Mongolian Flu because of the dish I'm making tonight." Piper said, turning and pushing her son towards the door.
"What are you talking about? Why?" Wyatt asked, turning around to look at his mom. He'd never saw her look as worried as she did now.
"Grams always told us we had to watch out for hunters, like supernatural hunters. Demons and witches and vampires and the whole shebang." Piper whispered. "She ran into one, when we were young. John Winchester."
Wyatt's look of surprise was only increased when he heard footsteps walking through the foyer into the dining room. He turned towards the door and flicked his hand at the Book of Shadows, still on the stove top. He'd tried to get it to go into the attic, but he knew it probably wouldn't end there.
Ellie and Phoebe came around the corner the next moment, with Paige trailing behind into the kitchen.
"Hey. You alright?" Ellie asked, looking between Wyatt and Piper.
"Yeah." Piper said, with her 'I hate talking to customers at the restaurant' smile. "I wanted to make sure Wyatt was driving Chris and Melinda to school tomorrow because I have to be at the restaurant early."
Ellie nodded a little, knowing she didn't believe Piper, but not sure why Piper would be lying about such a thing.
"So what about your dad? Heard he's kind of uptight. You're not gonna get in trouble hanging around us, right?" Phoebe asked, a hesitant smile on her face.
Ellie raised an eyebrow at her, glancing at Wyatt. "Well, I mean. I told him I was hanging with Wyatt."
"And your dad let you?" Phoebe said with a little bit of a relieved smile.
"Phoebe, did you try the soup?" Piper asked harshly, giving her sister a look who moved over to the pot.
Ellie gave Wyatt another look as they started harshly whispering, just quiet enough she couldn't hear what they were saying over the bubbling soup. "I uh… should get going. I've been gone a while." Ellie said to no one in particular, throwing her thumb over her shoulder and moving out of the doorway.
"What? No. Ellie." Wyatt said, moving after her. He got to the foyer before he caught her. "You don't have to go."
"What was that?" Ellie asked, sounding exhausted. "I know I'm just the freak who found some wine bottles under the stairs, but they couldn't even leave the room to talk about me."
"Ellie, I swear. That's not what this is." Wyatt said, frantically trying to figure out a way to get her to stay.
"Then what is it, Wyatt? They heard my name and all but jumped out of their skin. I wouldn't be surprised if they…" She said, waving her hand around before she paused, straightening up a little and looking at him a little different.
"Were witches?" Wyatt asked quietly, hoping she wasn't going to shoot him.
