Part of this chapter has fragments of the episode 'Jump the Shark' (4x12).
"I thought you wanted to fix it yourself."
"I did, but I don't have the tools to fix it and I don't think I'll be able to drive all the way to Sioux Falls with this freakin' flapping sound," the green eyed hunter said to the woman sitting on the passenger seat as he was driving his car to some garage not even ten minutes away from the motel they were staying at.
"Flapping like the wings of a crow," Kate teased, her eyes glancing at him before stirring them back towards the slid open window on her right.
He turned his head towards her and watched her profile for a couple of seconds before turning his attention back to the road. "It's not funny," he said making her turn her head to him with an amused smile on her face.
"A little bit," she told him as he flickered his gaze back to her, immediately meeting her brown eyes that seemed to sparkle more than ever with the bright sun rays of this warm afternoon that shone through the windshield. He couldn't help the corner smile that grew on his lips as he returned his eyes in front of him.
"So, anything new?"
"Mmh?"
"Anything new with your research on how to get back home?" He asked and she shifted on her seat, dropping her gaze on the space between them.
"Not really," she replied, tucking a lock of hair that didn't want to stay still with the part of her hair that she had pinned on the back of her head this morning when Sam had joined her to have breakfast together. "Like I told Sam, I just haven't found any user manual on how to travel through dimensions yet. I've still got two books to read, though."
"And, what about Pamela's recordings?" He asked, throwing a glance at her as he turned his car at the corner of the street.
"Um, they're not bad," she said, looking up at him. "I mean, I haven't listened to all of them, but so far they're bringing up some interesting questions that might help me figure out why I'm here. And if I find the answer, then maybe I'll find the answer for how I got here. It's all just some presumptions, though. So yeah, I-I'm not sure when I'll go back to my universe… If I ever get to go back there, that is."
Dean glanced at her and noticed the almost too thoughtful expression on her profile. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to be this far away from home and not finding a way back. The thing is he never really had a home in his life. Being tossed around between motels and people's houses ever since his youngest age had never truly taken away the deep certainty that his home was the house he lived the four first years of his life; and nothing else was. However, when he grew up and his father started to leave him and his brother more frequently at Pastor Jim Murphy's or at Bobby Singer's, or even more when he went to Sonny's Home for Boys, Dean had realized something that made him see things very differently. He had realized that nothing mattered more than his little brother, and that was when he understood that he didn't need a home, because as long as he was with Sammy, he was at home.
Thus, if Dean was ever sent to another universe away from his brother, he knew he would never give up on finding his way back to him. Slightly frowning, Dean realized that Kate had never mentioned anyone from her universe that she wanted to find her way back to. Her father that she adored, had passed away months ago, and after walking down her memory lane he could say she wasn't truly longing to see her mother again. Maybe a friend would be the one thing motivating her enough to not give up on her research? Or a lover?
Dean couldn't explain why this last thought made his whole body tense a little bit. He shifted on his seat as he glanced down at his fingers tightly curled around the stirring wheel. He pulled one hand away, clenching and unclenching his fingers before gripping the wheel again.
"You're okay?" Her soft voice pulled him out of his thoughts.
"What? Yeah, yeah. I'm good," he replied as he glanced at her. "Just tired of the flapping wings."
"It's gonna be fixed very soon," she told him with a gentle smile as he looked at her. "We're almost there, look."
He glanced at the shop that she was pointing at, and then looked at her. He could feel it. He could feel the soft waves of serenity emitting from her when she spoke to him with a so melodiously gentle voice, when she gave him that pretty and tender smile of hers, or even when she was just there by his sides. He could feel it all the time, but there were times when the feeling was too intense that he couldn't focus on anything else but that. He had to focus on it in order to understand why he was feeling it. He had asked Chuck in their little one-to-one conversation, and the prophet had told him that no one else was feeling this way around Kate, although most of them felt very comfortable with her, but then again he had said that it made sense since Kate was an easy-going woman. However, this hadn't helped Dean to comprehend the whole thing. All he was sure of was that it wasn't some kind of supernatural thing happening to him. He knew that ever since he returned from Hell, the little touches of tenderness was something he craved for more and more. But still, this wasn't helping him to understand why he felt this comfortable and calm around this peculiar brunette, more than around anyone else. Maybe it was the fact that she was genuine and never asking anything in return? Or was it maybe the fact that she knew better than anyone what he had gone through in Hell?
"I said I'm at a garage!" Kate said loudly to the person she was talking to on her cell phone as her free hand was resting against her other ear to block out the loud noises of the engines. "A garage! Where they fix cars!"
"What?!" The voice said on the other end of the line. She groaned as she threw a glance at Dean a few feet away from her. He was talking to mechanic as they stood in front of his trunk, Dean's hands gesticulating at the empty space where the new rear-window was supposed to take place, obviously explaining things to the mechanic.
"One second," she said on the phone as she decided to walk out of the garage, passing by a few mechanics before she reached the opening. "Sorry Matt, I couldn't hear you over the noises in that garage."
"What are you even doing at a garage?"
"The rear-window of Dean's car got smashed yesterday," she replied as she walked a few steps away from the garage. "Anyways, how did the case go?"
"You mean the suicidal case you gave me?" He asked her and she frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"The coordinates you gave me, Kate. They led me and my hunting buddy to a house where a former doctor locked himself with six people paralysed by some muscle-relaxing drugs. He was going to carve their hearts out to do some kind of ritual. And when we came in, his wife attacked us and she jabbed us with the same drug! It was insane! If Ellen and Jo hadn't been around, already working on the case of those missing people, then we would all have ended up under his scalpel!"
"God…" Kate let out in a breath shaking her head. "I'm so sorry, I-I just knew there was going to be some ritual to summon some powerful demon there, but that's all I knew!"
"Yeah, well now I don't really care what you knew. I wanna know how you knew that," he replied and she bit on her bottom lip.
"Matt I'm sorry but-"
"No, Kate. I don't wanna hear any of that anymore. I wanna know how you knew something was going to take place right there. I deserve to know that. You've been asking me to check places for some cases and I've never said no. I've never even said to anyone how I knew the exact coordinates, so you gotta tell me now or I'll tell Ellen to give a call to your uncle so he can maybe tell us what this is all about."
"Who's that Ellen anyway?"
"She's a hunter. But, no changing subject. How did you know?" He asked her and she raked her teeth over her bottom lip. "Kate, c'mon, I'll keep that to me. Are you, I don't know, a psychic like Pamela?"
"No," she replied before taking a deep breath through her nostrils, throwing her head back as her eyes looked up at the bright sky. She let out a heavy breath, "Those cases… They are seals."
"What do you mean seals?"
"Seals that must not be broken if you don't want your world to end," she told him looking at the street across where a few people were passing by.
"Are you talking about the fuckin' Apocalypse?" He asked. "And, wait why did you say 'your world'?"
"What? No, I didn't say that," she replied as she realized the slip of the tongue she had done.
"Yes, you did."
"I didn't! Why would I even say that?"
"I dunno, you just did," he replied in a tone that Kate knew accompanied a shrug of his shoulders wherever he was at. "So, how do you know about this exactly?"
"I told you last time," she said, trying to sound as normal as possible. "I've done some research, that's it."
After a couple of seconds in which Kate could hear the greyish-blue-eyed hunter taking deep breaths, he spoke up, "So, the end of the world is coming, huh?"
"I-I'm not sure," she almost whispered as she looked down at her feet. "What I do know is that those seals must never be broken, if yo- we don't want the Apocalypse."
"Why don't you warn every hunters?"
"It's not my place to do so," she replied. "I'm sure, Bobby will warn everyone when it's time."
"Is that why Bobby is sending a few hunters here and there?" Matt asked when Kate's gaze was captured by the sight of a laughing man and a giggling young girl walking by his side. Certainly a father and his daughter… A father and a daughter. "I mean, I've met a couple of hunters who were sent on vague cases by Bobby lately."
"Maybe," she said in a distant voice, as her eyes followed the father and the daughter.
"Hey look, I'm sorry for pushin' you to tell me this, even though I gotta say I'm not really sure why you didn't wanna tell me," he told her when the father and the daughter turned to a direction making them out of her sight.
"Um, yeah, I know... It was stupid," she told him when she realized it was her time to answer. "And, um, I'm sorry too... For almost getting you killed, again."
"Ha," he chuckled. "It's alright, I'm used to almost gettin' killed. It's a hunter thing, you know?"
"Yeah, I guess," she replied before turning her eyes back to the garage's opening.
"Look, I gotta go now, but I'll call you later so we can talk about this whole thing… Okay?"
"Sure, yeah," she nodded.
"Okay, take care," he told her before hanging up. She sighed as she pulled the phone away from her ear and looked down at it, before she turned her head to where the father and the daughter disappeared.
She licked her lips and pressed them together as she breathed deeply through her nostrils, her hands shaking as she started to type the number she hadn't called for months now. She could feel her heartbeats getting quicker and almost rougher, as her thoughts went wild in her head. She knew she shouldn't be doing this, especially since she had recently accepted his death. But, deep down, she was a little bit curious and somewhat hopeful. Pamela had warned her not to contact anyone in this universe that she knew from her own universe, and she had been very clear on not contacting one particular person…
"So, Dean gave me exactly nine minutes for our little tête à tête before he drives me home," Pamela had said as she had approached the woman trying to put on her socks without tearing the bandage of her two feet away.
"Really, not ten minutes? Nine?"
"Well, with angels and demons trying to get a hand on the red head downstairs, it's understandable that Dean doesn't wanna lose any minute," Pamela had replied before sitting down next to Kate. "So, wanna talk about what crossed your mind earlier?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Kate had mumbled, pretending that nothing had happened back in the living room when they had been talking with the fallen angel named Anna.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Kate. I'm not a mind-reader but I'm not stupid either. And I'm a pretty good psychic too. So, those two combined were enough to make me understand that you thought about your family… Your father more precisely."
"I-I did, yeah… I just can't help but wonder if he's alive in this universe… Maybe, he's never smoke here, and never had this cancer and just maybe he's alive. Happy and alive."
"Maybe, I don't know, honey. But I understand the way you feel… Anyone at your place would feel the exact same things. But, you gotta understand," Pamela had gently said, her hand reaching for Kate's. "You gotta understand that the man in this universe is not your father. Your father is dead."
"I know… But, what if he's alive here? What if I was brought here to have the chance to see him again? Like a-a second chance?"
"No, I'm sorry, Kate. But, this whole world is completely different, and there's zero chance that your father is the exact same man here that he was back there. You gotta understand that even though there's some points in common with your dimension here, there's still big differences. You don't exist in this world and this is a difference as important as the existence of supernatural creatures in here unlike their lack in your world. The fact that you don't exist here, that your father never had you here, that just makes his personality and his whole life completely different from where you come from."
"I… I just wish I could see him again…"
"I know, honey, I know. But, seeing a man who looks exactly like your father, but isn't your father, will only tear you apart. It will destroy you," Pamela had told her, her thumb rubbing on Kate's back hand. "This is why, I'm going to ask you to promise me something." Kate had looked up at the psychic whose face was directed to her even though she was blind. "Bobby told me you promised him not to get in touch with someone here that you knew back home. But, I can feel how truly and fully you still love, respect and miss your father… So, Kate, you gotta promise me to never, ever, try to get in touch with Anthony Anderson, because he is not your father here."
Kate frowned as she stared at the phone number displayed on her phone screen as that flashback dated of a close time before her first encounter with Zachariah, slowly faded away. As hard as it was, Kate decided to keep the promise she had made as she slipped her phone back in her jeans pocket before turning around and walking back into the garage.
When she arrived near the Impala, Kate stopped in track at what she saw. Dean had taken off his jacket and his flannel shirt as he was now in a black t-shirt while a mechanic gave him a few tools. As the mechanic left, Dean turned his head towards his car. He did a double take when he saw Kate standing there, watching him with a bit of curiosity. She walked towards him, folding her arms over her chest as she passed by a couple of mechanics working on a truck nearby.
"Next time tell me before walking out of my sight," he told her once she approached him. She gave him a light huff.
"I didn't want to interrupt you while you were talking with the mechanic," she told him. "Besides, I was just right outside."
"Who was it on the phone?" He asked her as he walked to his trunk and put the tools on the top of it.
"Matt," she replied making his green eyes immediately look up at her. She looked down at the tools, "He just wanted to hear from me," she replied shrugging as he watched her whole face. "What is going on here?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, what are you doing? I thought we were going to leave your car here for a while and then come back," she replied as he reached for a greasy towel with which he rubbed, all along the edges where the rear-view was going to be stabilized.
"Like I could trust someone else touching my Baby," Dean scoffed. "Besides, with what's in the trunk I'd rather do it myself."
"So, you're paying them to do the work yourself?"
"Kinda, yeah," he replied as her eyes followed the movement of his hand.
"How long is it gonna take?"
"An hour, maybe an hour and a half," he replied as a mechanic strolled a table with little wheels towards Dean, on which there was a tiny vacuum among other items that Kate wasn't really sure what they were called. "Thanks," he said to the guy who gave a nod before walking away. "You can wait in the car if you want. Put on some music or call your Matt-"
"Call my Matt?" Kate asked cutting him off as her eyebrows were shot up in surprise and confusion, as she stared at him.
"Yeah, or whatever! You know, just do whatever you wanna do, as long as you're not out of my sight," he told her as he waved one hand in the air, before leaning on his car, his eyes focused on what he was doing.
Kate studied his freckled profile for a second before her eyes travelled to his short dirty blond hair and then to the back of his neck. She couldn't help but remember what he had said to her, about this calm she apparently brought him. No matter how little she knew about this, there was one thing she was sure of and it was that this man deserved some peace of mind. And if, as oddly as it was, she could give him that by her simple presence, she knew exactly where she was going to stay for the time coming.
She walked to the passenger door of the car, taking her jacket off before tossing it in the car and returning at Dean's sides. She walked back to him rolling her sleeves up as he watched her curiously.
"I know nothing when it comes to cars, but instead of just twiddling my thumbs till you're done, how about you show me if Sam's words were true?"
"What did he say?" He asked her, his green eyes locked with her brown eyes.
"That you could dismantle a whole car and just put it all back together. Blindfolded," she replied and his lips curled into a smirk.
That night.
The six foot four tall, young man pulled the door of the bar open as he gentlemanly waited for the brown-haired young woman accompanying him and his big brother, to walk in first. It was in Sam's nature to be as gentle and respectful as possible to people, and Kate liked the fact that he felt so compelled to keep on doing those things even when it was to hang out in the least classy place. She gave him a smile before walking in the crowded bar, closely followed by Dean. She stopped right in front of the doorway and turned her attention to Dean as Sam made his way next to them.
"Lots of people," she commented.
"Saturday night," Dean shrugged.
"C'mon, I spotted a few free seats over there," Sam said tilting his head to the left before making his way in between the people standing with drinks in their hand while laughing and talking very loudly over the music blaring loudly.
"Your brother really is the Jolly Green Giant," Kate told Dean, earning a chuckle from him as he looked down at her. She grinned up at him before sneaking in between the people. Dean stood there for a moment, watching the brunette from top to toe from the back, he couldn't help when his eyes darted longer on a particular part of her body that was lower than her lower back. Suddenly, a very young man bumped into him as he made his way in the bar, and this distracted Dean from the rather interesting view he was capturing with his eyes.
Kate was trying to follow Sam through the crowd, but when a woman bumped into her and a man almost spilled his beer over her, she realized that she had lost him. She cursed at herself for deciding to wear her flat sneakers instead of high heels, because even though she wasn't a very short woman she knew that those few inches that her high heels could provide her, would have been the inches to make her spot Sam in the crowd. She stood on her toes, hoping that since he was a very tall guy, she wouldn't have that much trouble to find him. Out of the blue, she felt a large hand land on the small of her back. Right when she was going to turn her head around, she saw from the corner of her eye Dean's face leaning down right above her left shoulder.
"Keep walking," his low voice said against her ear, the closeness making his breath tickling the skin of that quite sensitive spot of Kate's body.
She didn't say anything as he pulled away, but kept his hand on the small of her back in order to guide her through the crowd. Quickly enough, they spotted Sam sitting on a stool around a tiny round table as he finished talking to a red-haired waitress. Once the waitress left, Sam nodded at them, a gesture that Kate returned before making quicker steps towards him which made Dean's hand drop away from her.
Dean watched her as she sat down on a stool and said something that made his little brother laugh fully. He approached them and sighed.
"Damn, we should have chosen another bar. I hate it when there's too much people."
"They'll all be gone in less than half an hour," Sam told him and Dean questioned him with his eyes. "The waitress told me there was some community party later, and most of them are just here for one drink before going there."
"Great," Dean nodded as he tapped his fingers on the table. "You ordered?"
"Yeah, three beers for now," Sam replied as Kate shrugged her leather jacket off, showing off the blue t-shirt she had changed into after her red shirt got grease all over the front during her time at the garage with Dean.
"That ain't gonna be enough to help me get this whole Chuck craziness off my mind," Dean groaned, rubbing a hand over his face.
"Oh c'mon, Dean. We said we forget all about this tonight," Sam said and Kate gave a nod of agreement.
"Yeah, let's celebrate the fixing of your car's window," she told him with a smile.
"Yeah," Sam nodded as he opened his hands towards Kate. Dean looked at his brother who gave him a pointed look. Dean rolled his eyes before giving a slight nod of the head.
"Alright. But when the waitress comes, I want three shots all for me, on you," he pointed at Sam.
"Deal."
Kate laughed out loud when Sam and Dean finished recounting their adventure with the rabbit's foot that brought a complete luck to the owner as long as they had it. From the beginning of this story until the end, Kate hadn't been able to stop laughing, and this had made the brothers laugh too. They hadn't thought about those silly things they had been through until Kate crashed into their life. Every once in a while she would ask them something that would lead to them recounting a whole memory. It seemed as though she managed to make them focus on the rightest and happiest moment of those memories, and both of the brothers liked this even more than they let it show.
"And where's the rabbit's foot now?" She asked as she calmed her laughter down.
"Ashes. We burned it off. It was the only way to undo the curse," Dean replied as he brought his beer to his lips.
Kate shook her head as she looked down at the almost empty beer she was nursing in one hand. "And this thief? What happened to her?"
"Um, we don't really know," Sam replied as he glanced at Dean whose brows furrowed a bit thoughtfully.
"Well, I've never been really superstitious, but your world is turning me more superstitious every day," she replied before taking the last sip of beer that was left in her bottle. "I don't really know if that's a good thing, though."
"Well, I don't think that's not a bad thing either. I mean, as long as you don't become paranoid about it," Sam told her as he shrugged, with a little smile.
"I'm already paranoid enough I think," she smiled before settling her empty bottle down on the table and quickly standing up. "Alright, I'm gonna get us some more beer. Do you want anything else?"
"Nope. Beer will do," Dean replied as he grabbed the last one shot put in front of him and gulped it in one go. She nodded and made her way to the long bar counter as the brothers followed her with their eyes.
Sam shifted his hazel gaze towards his brother whose green eyes were glued to the brunette with an expression that he couldn't decipher.
"She really is something else, huh?" He told Dean whose eyes moved to meet his brother's. "I mean, any girl at her place would have freaked out and called the cops on us or just ran away from us. I mean if I hadn't grown up in this mad world, that's what I would have done… But she didn't. She's here with us… For us."
"She's not supposed to," Dean simply replied, his voice almost hard as he took a sip of his beer.
"Yeah, yeah. I know. But still," Sam said as he threw a glance at Kate who was standing at the counter waiting for the barmaid to come back from the other end of the bar. "There's so many reasons that would have convinced everyone else to just walk out of it all. I mean, we're not the most stable and easy people to stay with."
"Yeah, well you know what I think? I think that's stupid of hers. For her own sake, she shouldn't be here with us."
"Then why did you ask her to tag along with us for a few more days?" Sam asked as he stared at his brother, his forehead slightly wrinkling as the expression of confusion showed on his face.
"Be-because… Because it's our duty to keep her safe," Dean faltered a bit.
"What? Our duty? Because angels asked us to? Dean, so far all angels have shown us was that they were big dicks."
Dean huffed as he leaned back, watching his brother's face with a bit of astonishment, "You sure changed your mind a lot about them, lately."
"I just feel like they're not doing the right choices…" Sam trailed off as Dean's eyes scanned his face.
"About what?"
"About a lot of things."
"It you're talking about what happened with Uriel, you gotta keep in mind that was because he was tryin' to lead his own little rebelled army. And, he was the biggest dickhead of them all, too."
"You think?" Sam scoffed before he turned his head towards Kate who was talking with the blond barmaid. "Angels said that she was to be protected, yet you saw all the things that happened to her."
"Yeah, I can't disagree with you on that. But, she ain't a kid, Sam. We can't stop her from wanting to go on hunts or whatever she wanna do when we're not around," Dean replied.
"Yeah, but, Dean. There's gotta be more than that. You heard Chuck too. Other things are happening to her, and I know she's not telling us any of that but I'm sure something huge is happening to her."
"Yeah," Dean nodded as he shifted his gaze to the brunette, still standing at the counter. "You think it has something to do with what I found when I was in her head?"
"Your memories of Hell you mean?" Sam asked and Dean tilted his head slightly as he looked at Sam. "Maybe. I mean, even though you said Cas took all of this away from her, maybe it's still somewhere in her subconscious. I don't know, man, we'll have to ask her. But she doesn't seem to wanna talk about any of those things."
"Yeah, we'll just have to keep doing what Pamela asked us to, I suppose."
"What do you mean?"
"We gotta keep her safe," Dean replied as he shifted his eyes back to the curly brunette who was laughing fully at the bar.
A few hours later.
The sharp blade ran slowly and painfully all along her bare left leg, craving deeper with each inch made. She kept on screaming as she tried to break free from that rack burning the whole back of her naked body. The blade started to twist deeply in her knee, almost as if it was trying to pull out what was behind the knee cap, while the long dark figure hovering her kept on laughing fiendishly. The indescribable voice growled at her as he kept on telling her that as long as she didn't accept to torture other souls, she would have to receive the torture again and again. As she cried a loud broken 'no!', she felt the rack getting hotter and hotter underneath her, until she started to smell her own flesh burning.
"No!" Kate screamed as she sat up in her bed, sweat covering her pale face. She ran her hands through her wild hair, brushing back the limp strands as she breathed heavily. With one hand still clung to her hair, she reached with the other to the bedside lamp on the nightstand. Switching it on brought a dim light in the motel room, that enabled her to make sure she was at a safe place. Nonetheless, Kate frowned as she realized that she couldn't remember why she needed to make sure that she was somewhere safe. The memory of the nightmare that had waken her up, had already vanished suddenly. All that remained was the deep feeling of a raw and deep pain. She was sure that she had just had a nightmare about one of Dean's memories from Hell. Indeed, ever since Castiel had lessened the apparition of flashbacks within her, she had realized that all the nightmares she had about Dean's time in Hell had somewhat lost their intensity. All that remained really was the feeling of an aching pain deep inside of her, but not a flashback of those nightmares ever appeared. Kate was relieved of that of course, but the feeling that remained after was somehow unbearable and too intense for her. It made her feel not safe, and she hated that.
The sound of flapping wings pulled her out of her thoughts, as she looked up to see a tall and familiar silhouette standing in the middle of her motel room.
"Castiel?" She asked in a shaky whisper.
"Kate."
"What are you doing here?"
"I came to see if you were alright."
"Can you really do that without getting in trouble?" She asked him as she dropped her hands on her lap.
"You mean getting in trouble with Zachariah?" He asked her back, his head tilting a bit as he stared at her, despite the very dim light.
"Yeah. Or with any other angel who thinks I'm to be protected but still feel the need to torture me or to threaten me," she replied, with a bit of sarcasm. Castiel looked away for a couple of seconds.
"I'm sorry, I can't help you any more with that," he said in his very grave voice before turning his gaze back to her. "Are the memories still very clear?"
She shrugged as she pulled her blanket off her and swung her legs to the side of the bed, "It depends. I don't have any flashbacks anymore, and whenever I get a nightmare about Dean's time in Hell I kinda forget about it, er, well it's more the detail of it that I forget… But, I still got this weird feeling deep in me that reminds me of what I dreamed about… It's almost heavy and suffocating."
"I am sorry," he said and she looked at him as she wondered if he truly felt that way.
"Castiel," she started licking her lips as she stood up from her bed, crossing her arms over her chest as she approached him. "What happened with Lilith… It changed a lot of things, didn't it?"
"It changed what was written by the Prophet of the Lord, yes," he replied, his blue eyes looking deeply into hers.
"Doesn't that mean that what Heaven wanted from Dean is, uh, well compromised?"
Castiel's eyebrows frowned as he stared at her intensively, "Dean is destined to stop the Apocalypse, Kate. It is God's will and no matter what, it will happen."
"Then, why does Zachariah need me that much? Why does he think I can help you? I-I don't get it," she told him, her voice emphasising the expression of frustration on her face.
"I don't know," he replied making her sigh as she nodded her head slowly and spun around. She took a few steps away from him, biting on her bottom lip thoughtfully. "There are many things I don't know about, Kate. But, what I can tell you is that it seems that you can be very useful to Heaven."
"Useful for what purpose?" She asked, turning around to look at him.
"I am not certain," he replied looking away. "I am not certain of many things, lately."
"You have doubts?" She asked softly, analyzing his face.
"I shouldn't. I feel torn and I am not supposed to feel anything. I am just supposed to obey, but lately it's been harder than what it used to be," the angel confessed before he looked up at her. "I shouldn't even be here. I wasn't ordered to see you. I am disobeying…"
"Castiel, it's alright," she replied approaching him. "You were just checking if the woman Heaven wants to use later, is still okay. You haven't disobeyed. You have just anticipated, that's a good thing. And I'm sure that all the people upstairs think the same way."
He stared at her, and frowned his eyebrows even more before he looked to the hex bag on her nightstand, "You have to be careful of the things you choose to do, Kate."
"What do you mean?" She asked when he suddenly vanished into thin air.
Five minutes later, as Kate washed her face in the bathroom, she heard a few faint knocks. Frowning in uncertainty, Kate shut the tap and turned her head towards the bathroom's doorway that gave her a view on the room and the front door. Another couple of audible knocks echoed. She grabbed her brown towel and wiped her face dry as she made her way to the front door.
Standing right behind the door, with one hand on the lock while the other was clinging on her towel, she asked in a very suspicious voice who was there since there wasn't any peephole on this front door. Once she got the answer, she unlocked the door and pulled it open to look at the hunter standing there in a white t-shirt, a pair of old black joggings and his boots not tied correctly. She looked up at his short hair that was a bit messy as his apple green eyes travelled up and down her body, taking in her oversized grey t-shirt and a pair of black joggings hanging down to the floor.
"Dean, what's going on?" She asked him with questioning eyes.
"Couldn't sleep and I kinda knew you were awake too," he replied and she nodded with a soft smile as she stepped aside to let him in.
When he made one step, she abruptly stopped him as she stood in front of him, "Wait. How did you know I was awake?"
"Um, Cas visited me in my dreams to tell me."
"Oh. Alright," she nodded stepping aside. Right when Dean was going to take one step further, she stopped him again. "Wait, that means you were asleep. You said you couldn't sleep, Dean."
"I lied, yeah. You can sue me once I'm inside, if you don't mind Kaitlin. I'm freezing up here."
Kate let out a soft sight as spun around and walked to her bed, throwing her brown towel on the untouched side of her king-size bed, right next to her duffle and a few clothes laying around on this side. When she heard the door shut close, she turned around to face the hunter.
"So, what did he say else?"
"Nothing," Dean replied as his eyes scanned the room, focusing more on the salt lines she had done all along the windows. "Just that you couldn't sleep, and that I should come here and check on you."
"Well, I'm alright. I was actually sleeping until I-" she stopped herself. Dean's head turned to her, as he wondered why she had stopped talking abruptly. "Until I got a nightmare…" She trailed off in almost a whisper. When she met his eyes, she shrugged in order to make it look all random.
"Wanna talk about it?"
"Not really. Besides, I don't really remember it."
"It seems to happen to you a lot."
"What?"
"Nightmares that you can't remember, but still they frighten you when you're awake," he told her, his voice sounding gentle and serious.
"What makes you say that they frighten me?" She lightly scoffed, as she frowned at him and her lips curled into a tiny mocking smile.
Dean approached her, his eyes dropping down to look at her hands as he cupped them in his. Her brown eyes never looked away from his freckle face as he brought her hands up in the tiny space separating them.
"You're shaking," he almost whispered to her. "After every nightmare that you say you can't remember about, you're shaking."
Kate looked down at her hands in between his, and then looked up at him. His face held a softness that the young woman found pretty rare to see on his features. As a matter of fact, it seemed that this gentle side of him only showed up when they were alone. And, she couldn't help wondering if he acted this way when he was alone with some other person or if she owned this rare privilege. This reminded her of what he had confessed to her. That supposedly calm she brought him. She wanted to ask him about it. It was itching her so badly to find out what he had meant exactly. She needed to know, so she closed her eyes for a second and parted her lips ready to ask him.
When she opened her eyes, she noticed an expression of confusion and question painted all over his face full of freckles as his green eyes were fixed at her hands. Looking down, she realized that he had turned her hands over and her palms were now display. The four faded scars made by her own fingernails a couple of months ago, still showing off quite well despite the time that flew by since, and also despite the dim light of the room. She watched as his thumbs slid over each scar, connecting them with an invisible line he was tracing with the calloused fingertips of his thumbs. She could feel her heartbeats increasing at his soft and almost intimate touch as they stood quietly in the middle of her motel room.
"How did you get those?" He asked her in a low whisper.
She immediately looked up, her brown eyes meeting his green ones which were holding some concern among the confusion and question, "I don't know… On-on a hunt with Matt, I think."
"You don't sound really sure," he noted, his tone still gentle as his thumbs kept on sliding over her scars.
"Yeah, well, like I told you, I don't really know," she said trying to shrug off this conversation as she pulled her hands away from his and took a few steps back. He watched her do, trying to understand what she was hiding. Kate tucked her hair behind her ears nervously as she glanced at the clock on the wall opposite her bed. It was past three in the morning. "Wow. It's really late… Or rather, really early. Maybe, you should go back to your room and get some rest. I mean you checked on me, I'm alright, so yeah, you better go back to your room and sleep," she rambled nervously.
"I was actually hoping we could spend the night together, just like we've already done, you know? No funny business, just sleeping next to each other. I mean I've been needing some really good and calm sleep after what happened with Chuck and Lilith…" He trailed off, his hand rubbing the back of his neck as she stared at him quietly. He let out a scoff, shaking his head, "No, you know what? This is gettin' stupid. All of this, it's just-"
"Shut up," she told him which surprised him. "It's not stupid. Just let me get those things off my bed and then we can sleep or watch TV or whatever you wanna do."
"Kaitlin, you don't have to always agree on whatever I ask you," he told her as he watched her gathering her clothes in her duffle bag.
"C'mon Dean, I barely agree to anything you ask me," she told him as she threw her duffle bag on the floor, and grabbed the edge of the blanket on the untouched side of the bed. She looked up at him and gave him a little smile, almost hesitantly. "Besides, if you leave me on my own tonight, I'm not sure I'll find sleep."
Dean looked at her, his lips curving into a tiny corner smile as she returned her attention to the bed. He took off his left boot by pushing down with his right foot, and did the same with the other. His eyes never looking away from the wild curls cascading on the back of the young woman as she put a few things near the corner chair. He walked towards the bed and sat down on the side she had just quickly prepared for him. She turned around and found him staring at her attentively.
"What?"
"Nothing," he just said as she let out a light huff before circling the bed to get on her side. Once she was standing next to her side, he turned his head and looked up at her, "You wanna watch TV-"
"I don't get it, Dean," she interrupted him and he spun his upper body around on the bed to have a proper look on her. "I still don't understand what kind of calm touching me would bring you?"
He sighed, looking away, "It's stupid, Kaitlin, really…"
"This isn't a fair excuse, Dean. And, honestly, I'm just trying to hear it from you. I mean, I could totally just take one of Chuck's manuscript and find it out by reading, you know?"
"Alright, okay," he told her and she just stared at him. "I don't even know how to explain this to myself, but there's this thing about you… Maybe it's just with me or maybe everyone feels it, or maybe I'm just over-feeling things," he said, almost confusing her more. He opened his hands and gestured them to her. "But you give off this thing… It's relaxing, soothing. It feels good," he finished, his voice slowly becoming a whisper. His eyes shifted back to hers and he cleared his throat. "That's why I thought touching you would help me calm down back then."
"Did it work?" She asked in a little voice and he tilted his head to the side.
"Not really," he lightly chuckled. "Not like I thought it would, but you still got it."
"Do you think it has to do with the fact that I'm not from here?" She asked him, looking down as she tightly crossed her arms over her chest, suddenly feeling as if she wasn't a normal human being anymore. "I mean my soul is already different, so maybe I'm a full freak-"
"Hey, no. Don't say that," he told her as he swiftly stood up and went to her side. He put his large hands on her shoulders and turned her around so he could make her face him. She looked up at him, and his eyes studied her face before falling down to her tightened hands. "You're not a freak, Kaitlin… You're far from that… I just- I think I used to feel the same when I was a kid… I used to connect this calm feeling to when I was with my mother." She looked up at him, an expression of surprise on her face. "Not that you remind me of my mother. Just that you're caring and kind just like-"
"Like a mother?"
"Sort of," he replied and she couldn't help the soft smile that appeared on her lips. "I mean, I don't remember her that much. And sometimes, the few things I remember about her, I feel like they ain't real, that it's just me creating them 'cause I need them… And, I suppose whenever I think about her, I just think that she'd be as soft and caring as you are."
"You know, Dean, I've read just a few chapters of the first 'Supernatural' book, but from what I read, I'm sure your memories of your mother are real," she softly told him and he gave her a little gentle smile. "And she was certainly nicer and more caring to you than I'll ever be. I mean, I've kinda called you names more than once."
"Yeah, I deserved that," he chuckled. Kate stared at his face, before she pulled one hand out and hesitantly reached out towards his face. He watched her do as she cupped his cheek and rested her soft hand on it for a moment before gently stroking with her thumb.
"Does-does that make you feel calm?" She whispered hesitantly.
"Actually, I've been feeling calm ever since I got in here."
"So, you're not feeling like your mother is stroking your cheek right now?" She asked him and he stepped back as he laughed out loud. "What? What's funny?"
"Kaitlin, I told you, you don't remind of my mother. It's just the fact that I'm, uh, I'm not used to have anyone this care for me the way you do..."
"Oh," she said realizing what he meant. "So, I really don't remind you of your mother, do I?"
"Far from it," he smirked. He noticed the way her brown eyes scanned all over his face, trying to fill the gaps he was giving her.
"Alright," she muttered before turning around to get in bed. He watched her do and sighed as he made his way to his side of the bed. She switched off the light leaving the room to be lighted up by the moonlight entering through the tiny spaces between the curtains.
Once he was under the blanket, he instinctively turned his body to lay on his side, facing her. He found her, laying on her back as her eyes were glued to the ceiling. He couldn't help but watch her profile lighted up by the soft moonlight as he wondered what she was contemplating. He could see her eyebrows a bit frowned in a focused expression, and the way she was chewing on her bottom lip were enough giveaways that she was contemplating something. Suddenly, the seemingly deep thinking she was deeply in, disappeared as he noticed a little smile form on her lips.
She rolled on her side, facing him. He looked at her as she put her hand on the top of his arm that was resting in between them. Closing her eyes, she wrapped her fingers around his wrist as he watched her with confusion. She whispered to him, "This way you'll have a nice and calm night. Or at least what's left of it."
"What's making you smile?"
"I don't know," she whispered as she started tracing soft circles on the skin of his wrist with her thumb. "I just feel good, I guess…"
Kate bit on the insides of her lips to help herself from smiling even more. She didn't know exactly why but the fact that she knew she brought him something that no one else was bringing him, made her feel good. But deep down, she knew that it was much more than this. She knew that right when he told her that she didn't reminded him of his mother, her heart had started beating faster and louder. She knew that those three words he had pronounced with this smirk of his, had somehow made her feel special. But, there was no way she would admit it to herself or to anyone else.
'Far from it,' he smirked.
Three weeks later.
Middle of nowhere.
It had been weeks since the Winchester brothers dropped Kate back at Bobby's. Truth be told, the elder brother hadn't really wanted to, but the old grumpy man had called, asking them to drop her at his house as soon as possible. Indeed, he had found out something interesting for her situation. However, the next day, Kate had called them to say that what Bobby had found ended up being not as useful as it had seemed to be. Dean had immediately offered to pick her up after finishing the simple case of salt and burn they had found back then. The young woman hadn't been able to, though. Bobby and Rufus had brought her a few documents, books and manuscripts to study which had got her stuck in her bedroom for hours long every day while Bobby worked on the Breaking seals downstairs. A week later, when Sam and Dean had had a complicated encounter with a werewolf, the elder brother had decided it'd be wiser to stop asking her to tag along with them, thinking she'd be safer at Bobby's for the time being. Sam had retaken his old routine of calling her as often as possible, and this even when Dean was around him. As for Dean, he'd give her a few rare calls now and then, or just ask about her whenever he had Bobby on the phone. The thing was that Dean wasn't really the kind of guy to spend all of his time calling people to chit-chat. However, he'd be lying if he ever said he didn't like it when she called on his cell phone and not on Sam's.
Yet, it had been three days since the last time they heard about her. Dean had brew over it for long minutes the previous night as he had tried to fall asleep on the front seats of his Impala. Even though, he had already slept inside his car more than a thousand times, he had never succeeded getting used to it, or at least when it came to sleeping in the upfront seats. If he and Sam hadn't been too tired last night, they would have drove to a motel instead of parking next to a lake in the middle of nowhere. On the other hand, they were a bit bankrupt at the moment so they couldn't really afford a motel room until they made another new credit card or made money in some other not honest work like hustling pool.
That's what Sam was thinking about as he brushed his teeth outside the car, his hazel eyes enjoying the landscape and the calm of it, along with the fresh breeze of an early morning of this not so cold month of March. Meanwhile, Dean woke up with some pain on his back as he had his head and shoulders against the door. Twisting around, the first thing he thought of doing was checking his phone. He tried to reach for it to see if Kate had called or sent a short message. She did that quite often. Short messages telling them to be safe at their hunts, or to ask them what time it was wherever they were. Today again, there was none. As he put the phone on the dashboard, he twisted again trying to sit up when the door suddenly opened, nearly dumping him on the ground.
"Hey," Sam told him, a toothbrush in his mouth. "How'd you sleep?"
Dean climbed out of the car, and groaned, "How do you think? I'm starving. Let's get breakfast."
"Where? We're like two hours from anything."
"But I'm hungry now," Dean whined as he went around to the front of the car.
"There's probably still a sandwich in the back seat," Sam told his brother who turned around, rubbing a hand over his face, as he reached in through the open back window, pulling out a paper bag. He opened the bag and sniffed, then leaned his head back inhaling deeply.
"It's tuna," Dean groaned before he glanced at his brother. "Talking about tuna. You got any news about Kaitlin?"
"Actually, yes. Bobby told me she's kinda in a quest for something in Maine. It has to do with different realms and universes," Sam replied. "But, uh, sorry, I don't see the relation with Katie and Tuna?"
"She likes tuna," Dean shrugged when a phone suddenly rang inside of his beloved car. He tossed the bag back into the back seat and put his hands to his jeans pockets as Sam spit out toothpaste foam. He leaned in through the front window and rummaged in the glove compartment, pulling out the ringing phone. Dean hit his head on the roof as he tried to get out. Groaning, he looked at the phone in his hand.
"Isn't that Dad's phone?" Sam asked him. Dean flipped the phone open, pressed a button, and put it to his ear.
"Hello?" He said, suspicious.
"Uh, is this John?" The voice of a young man asked on the other end of the line.
"He can't come to the phone. Can I help you?"
"No no no—I really—I need to talk to John. This is Adam Milligan. He knows me."
"Well, sorry to be the one to break this to you, pal, but John died more than two years ago," Dean replied as Sam watched his brother attentively. This Adam Milligan made a shocked gasp on the other end making Dean frown a bit, "Who is this?"
"I'm his son."
Meanwhile,
100-miles wildness, Maine.
The young woman kept on throwing glances at the blue-eyed hunter, walking a couple of steps away from her. Both of them were wearing brown hunting boots, parka coats and a bag on their back with everything they needed for their little trip. They had left everything not necessary in his car, but had made sure that they had enough weapons to defend themselves if they had to. They weren't quite certain what they were going to find in the location that she had found in one of the manuscripts that Bobby had given her to study. But, what Kate was sure of was that if the knife she had in her boot wasn't going to be used to defend herself against a creature, it would be a good use to cut the thick tension hovering her and Matt. Indeed, the young man had been very distant and upset ever since Bobby had told him about Kate's true identity. He had agreed on accompanying her to Maine since Bobby trusted him to take good care of her. But, the road trip from South Dakota to this place was full of very little talk between them which was rather uncharacteristic of Matt, and Kate hated that.
Deciding that enough was enough, Kate stopped walking and asked him, "How long is it gonna take?" Matt turned around and looked at her, questioning her with his eyes. "How long are you gonna stay mad at me for not telling you?"
"Oh that," he exclaimed, feigning understanding. "Well, let's say five months? That's about the same time it took me to know you're not who you pretended to be," he spun around and continued to walk. But Kate didn't move as she watched him, her eyebrows frowned in hurt and frustration. She took her bag off her back and tossed it on the ground, the collision making a loud noise in the quiet forest which drew Matt's attention as he turned around and stared at her.
"This is not fair!" She shot at him. "I didn't choose not to tell you. I was told not to tell you, because Bobby thought it'd be safer if not everyone knew about me."
"I know. Bobby told me he had make sure he could trust me completely if he wanted to keep you safe. But, still, Kate we spent weeks together. Weeks! And, you never thought I was trustworthy enough to tell me? Bobby didn't know me very much back then, but Rufus trusted me and that's why Bobby agreed on me watching after you. And I did! For weeks, I made sure you were learning everything you needed to while still keeping you as safe as possible. And still, you kept saying you were Bobby's niece. You kept lying to me! Was I making you feel so unsafe or what?"
"It wasn't just about me, Matt!" She shouted at him, as frustration increased in her just as much as it increased in him. "It was for your safety too!"
"So you did choose, Kate! You chose not to tell me," he told her and she scoffed as she put her hands on her hips.
"You can speak! How many things did you choose not to tell me about yourself, huh? How many things did you keep from me? Like for instance how you never told me how you even became a hunter?!"
"Don't you turn tables on me," he told her through gritted teeth as his grey eyes seemed to tear up as he stared at her intensively. "This has nothing to do with that and it is nothing compared to you pretending to be someone you're not!"
"I haven't pretended to be anyone! All I did was tell you that I was Bobby's niece. But, everything else that was really me."
"You still chose to lie to me!"
"I am from another universe, Matt!" She shouted as she brought her hands up to her head in frustration. "I-I don't know what I'm here for and I don't know what I'm supposed to do! But early on, I understood that because I'm from another world, I'm different from all of you. And, without this bracelet, demons would see how different I am and they would just kill everything that's trying to keep me safe to get to me! So, yeah I chose to obey Bobby when he told me not to tell you. I chose to lie to you because that meant at least one person I care about isn't going to be in danger because of me!"
Matt sighed, shaking his head, "Did you really think not telling me was going to keep me safe? Kate, I've been teaching you some fighting and defending tactics, and how to use weapons against creatures because we all know that someone unaware of a possible danger, is likely to be even more in danger… Not telling me was putting me more in danger than anything else."
"I… I know," she nodded as she felt tears forming in her eyes. She looked away, doing her best no to cry, but Matt noticed and that saddened him. "I just didn't want you to get in danger because of me… You're one of the only friends I got here. Well, actually you're one of the only friends I got period… I'm-I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry too… You had good intentions, I just…" He trailed off as he walked towards her. He wrapped his arms around her and she rested her head against his chest as she closed her eyes and tried to calm herself down. "I'm sorry… This must be so hard and so frustrating to be stuck in a world as mad this one. I would have gone nuts if I were you, but you… You've been brave, really brave," he pulled his arms away and cupped her chin to raise her head. He wiped the tears away from her cheeks as she watched him quietly, "Chin up. I promise to you that I'll help you find your way back home. No matter what. You'll get back to your safe world."
One day later.
Windom, Minnesota.
At Kismet Motel.
Sitting on one of the two queen size bed, Dean grabbed another shotgun, ready to clean it when Sam tossed his phone on the other bed, sighing.
"She still ain't answering?"
"No. It goes straight to her voicemail," Sam replied and Dean looked at him with frowned eyebrows. "I mean, I know Bobby said she was really busy lately but still, she usually sends a short text when she doesn't have time to speak on the phone."
"Alright, you know what? I'm gonna call Bobby and ask him to give me the number of that jackass who's accompanying her," Dean said as he pulled his phone out of his jeans pocket.
"Dean, you don't have to. Bobby told me the last time he got a call from Matt was yesterday right before they got in 100-miles Maine. I'm sure they just don't have any signal there," Sam shrugged. Dean sighed heavily as he put his phone back in his pocket and grabbed the shotgun.
"Is Bobby even sure that there's something helpful in that forest?"
"I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have send Kate and Matt there if it was rubbish," Sam replied which made Dean huff as he kept cleaning the shotgun in his hands.
Suddenly, a knock on the door pulled both of the brothers' attention. Dean watched Sam walking to the front door.
Sam opened the door and the young man who had declared being their brother the day before, stormed in without waiting for an invitation to come on in.
"Who the hell are you?"
"Adam, hey," Sam told him as he closed the door behind Adam while Dean flipped a cloth over the shotguns displayed on the bed. "Take it easy."
"No, don't tell me to take it easy, okay?" Adam said as he walked to the middle of the room, agitated. "My house is a crime scene, my mom's probably dead, and you two—well, you tell me to call the cops, but you got to bail before they show? So, who are you really?"
Sam and Dean stayed silent as Sam threw a glance at his elder brother still sitting on the bed, as he gave his back to Sam. Adam watched the both of them, as he continued, "Cops didn't know where to look for my mom, Dean, but you did. And I heard you talking earlier—something about grave robberies," Adam stopped talking when he spotted the end of one of the shotguns poking out from under the cloth. He turned his eyes towards Sam, "You're not mechanics. I just want to know what's going on." Sam looked down for a moment contemplating. "Please."
"We're hunters," the taller brother admitted.
"Sammy!" Dean exclaimed, surprised that his brother would revealed that so quickly and so easily.
"He deserves to know, Dean."
"What do you mean, 'hunters'?" Adam asked and Dean shook his head slightly.
As Dean walked out of the motel, he was fuming because of Sam's decision to lay out everything about hunting to Adam. He thought it was a complete treason to their father's will which was obviously to keep Adam out of all of this madness that was their life. He couldn't believe that Sam had revealed it all to someone so innocent and so foreign to that kind of world. He abruptly stopped in front of his Impala as he realized that it was what had happened with Kate as well, somehow. He could still say that her situation had made it all a bit more justifiable. Crashing in Bobby's salvage yard the way she had done and everything that had happened on the first couple of days of her arrival, there had been somehow no way to avoid telling her about demons, monsters and hunting. However, Dean still felt as though they hadn't done the right thing with Kate. Maybe they shouldn't have let her get this close to their life. Maybe they should have looked for an alternative way to protect her until they would have found a way to send her back to her monsters-less universe.
He let out a heavy sigh and rubbed one hand down his face. All of this thinking was only increasing his frustration. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and quickly dialled her number, hoping to reach her but he only reached the voicemail. It wasn't even her voice that announced no one could answer. It was this freaking digital voice of that phone company. He decided not to leave any message and simply ended the call. He got inside his car, throwing his cellphone on the passenger seat as he sat down in front of the stirring wheel. He raked his teeth on his bottom lip as a million of heavy and complicated thoughts rushed in his mind.
Were they doing the right thing with Kate? And were they doing the right thing with Adam now? What if all of their choices led them to another disaster? Because that was what it was, wasn't it? Everything they touched always ended up being damaged one way or another, didn't it? But still, Dean wondered if they were destroying Adam's life? Maybe they could prevent this. They could prevent destroying Kate's life too… Or was it too late for her?
"Here," Matt said as he stopped in the middle of a rather vast and tree-less part of the forest with an assisted-GPS in his hands.
Kate looked up at him before quickly making her way towards him in the middle of the area. Even though it had rained a bit earlier, the green grass under their feet wasn't as slippery as the muddy path they took to get here. There were also a few colourful flowers standing out beautifully because of the sun shining brightly above the whole wild section of the Appalachian Trail they were in.
As she approached him, her brown eyes fell straight away to the device he was holding, "So this is the right place?"
"That's what it reads," Matt replied simply. Without saying a word, they both looked up and around them. There was nothing out of ordinary to see. As they tried to notice something that came out of the blue, a loud silence surrounded them. This silence was almost broken by the faint birdsong and the sound of the leaves dancing in the trees as the wind blew quietly and invisibly.
"Gotta admit, I thought there'd be a giant rock with some inscription graved on it, you know something like that," she said almost pouting.
"Well, I thought there'd be a sort of archway too," he replied shrugging. She glanced up at him before taking the device in her hands.
"Are you sure this is working well?" She groaned. "I mean there's no signal here, so maybe it's not working?"
"I've already told you, this kind of GPS doesn't need signal to work."
"Maybe I misread the coordinates then, or maybe they weren't even coordinates" she sighed as she handed him back the device.
"Where did you even find those coordinates?"
"A Professor who knows a bunch about parallel worlds gave Bobby a few books and a couple of manuscripts. I found those coordinates in one of the manuscripts where there were a few mentions of a place connecting this world to another world, and this latter world is like a passage to get to my world actually," she replied as his blue eyes stared at her attentively. "I got a copy of the manuscripts in my bag, wait," she took her bag off her back and put it down as she knelt in front of it.
"But, I thought there was another way to get back to your universe? Bobby told me about some spell with some blood of lamb, a bone and a sigil," Matt said as he tried to remember what Bobby had told him exactly.
"It's actually salt, blood of lamb, a bone of a lesser saint and well the sigil," she told him as she dug onto her bag. "But, we don't have the incantation to say and we're not sure of how to make sure it will help me get to my universe and not another one, and also at the right time," she replied glancing up at him before she pulled the manuscript out and stood up. "I don't wanna end up in the Dinosaurs' era."
"It'd be a fun time," he joked as she handed him the manuscript and he immediately looked down at it. "So, I suppose these are the coordinates?" He asked pointing at a line of numbers.
"That's what I thought," she replied nodding her head. He checked the assisted-GPS with what was written on the manuscript.
"Well, as far as I know, we're in the right place. However," he said as his eyes raked over the few lines surrounding the coordinates. "I'm not sure this will be the safest way to go back to your universe... You sure you didn't find any other way than those two?"
"Um, yeah, I'm pretty sure," she replied before looking up at his face where a deep expression was painted as his eyes never stopped reading what was written on the manuscript. "Why?"
"You read ancient Greek?"
"Not really. Just a couple of words," she said and he pointed at a line.
"Here, it says that this passage is one of the most dangerous one among the others already existing."
"Oh," she let out as she stared at the line before looking up at him. "I gotta admit I stopped translating the manuscript after I read the line up here saying that this was a location to this passage," she explained, pointing with her forefinger to the lines above the coordinates.
"If you finished translating it all, you'd have found out that there's a giant creature with three bobbing-heads that will wait for you once you step there," Matt said almost nonchalantly. Kate's head snapped up at him as her eyes widened.
"You're not serious?!"
"Of course, I'm not serious, Kate!" He replied rolling his eyes. "What I'm trying to say is that when you've got a manuscript to translate, you do it completely. You never let one word untranslated."
"I know," she mumbled looking away.
"Then why did you do this? Why did you botched it up?"
"Because there was too much to translate and I was kinda busy reading other things…"
"Oh no, not those 'Supernatural' books again," he sighed as he looked at her with a tired look.
"Well, yes the 'Supernatural' books!" She replied in a defending tone as she folded her arms strongly and tightly against her chest.
"What are they even about?" He asked her, his eyebrows brought together in confusion.
"It's complicated…" She trailed off, biting on her bottom lip as her brown eyes travelled to the manuscript in his hand. "Besides, this manuscript was the hardest thing I had to work on! There's at least fourteen different ancient languages! It was a horror to translate the half I did! And the professor didn't think to give me the translations before she left for Scotland!"
Matt shook his head as he returned his eyes back to the page in his hand while putting his GPS device in his coat pocket with his other hand. "Look, I think we should go back to the car and I'll try to translate what you haven't done while you'll continue listening to Pamela's recordings."
"What? We walked for an hour to get here and we're just going back to your car?"
"There's nothing we can do here if we don't know what half of this manuscript says. We'll come back here, once we know exactly what this manuscript says. I mean I could still translate the ancient Greek, Akkadian or even the Paleo-Balkan right now, but there'd still be quite a lot of other words and phrases untranslated," he told her as she watched him. When he looked at her she gave out a little huff. "What?"
"You know Paleo-Balkan language?"
"I do. I used to study ancient languages back in College," he replied as he handed back the manuscript to her. Her face lighted up with surprise. "What?"
"I-I didn't know that you went to college," she replied softly as his blue eyes drifted away.
"It was a long time ago," he replied as he spun around and started to walk towards the direction they came by.
"Wait! Were you serious when you said we have to go back to your car right now?" She asked him and he turned around, walked to her until he was standing just half a step away from her.
"Kate, haven't you heard what I read just underneath the coordinates?"
"I've heard you. You said it was one of the most dangerous way to get back to my universe."
"Among the others already existing," he told her, his eyebrows raised as he fixed at her. "Don't you get it? If there were only two ways. All that would have been said was that this way here is the dangerous out of the two."
"But, it's written others already existing… There's more than just two ways," she finished realizing what he meant. He nodded at her.
"Yeah, and it might be written in the part you haven't translated."
"Holy crap! Let's go then!" She exclaimed as she grabbed her bag in one swift movement and shoved the manuscript in it before quickly putting the bag on her back.
One day later.
Windom, Minnesota.
Milligan House.
Adam opened the backdoor of his house, and walked in, followed by Dean and then Sam. After finding out that the thing that got Adam's mother was actually the thing their father had come here for in the first place, and after it almost got Adam at the motel, Dean had decided to take Adam away from this town. Sam hadn't been very okay with the idea of running away, and Dean knew that but he couldn't let Adam get in danger.
"Grab your stuff. We'll hit the road," Dean told Adam who flipped on the lights before heading upstairs.
Sam sat at the kitchen table as he spoke up, "We shouldn't leave." He thumped his ankle on another chair. It had gotten injured by the attack of the monster earlier.
"Yeah, let's stay here, where the kid's mom got ganked. Good one," Dean replied sarcastically.
"I'm serious."
"No, Sam, we're gonna take the kid, we're gonna drop him off at Bobby's, and then you and me are gonna come back here and finish what Dad started," Dean said as he walked to the fridge and looked at the picture of Adam and his girlfriend on it.
"How? We got no leads, no witnesses. We do have what this thing wants," Sam replied as he took an ace bandage out of his bag. Dean looked at him with frowned eyebrows.
"You want to use the kid as bait? That's why you want to stay here?" Dean asked him.
"Maybe this thing will come back. We could train Adam—get him ready."
"He could die, Sam."
"We could all die, Dean. Even if we do kill this thing, there are tons of other freaks that want revenge, on Dad, on us. What if they find the kid instead and he's not ready?" Sam exclaimed as he unrolled the ace bandage and started wrapping his ankle.
"I'll do it. Whatever it takes, I'll do it. I want to do it," Adam said as he had returned downstairs, a backpack over one shoulder.
The black wooden front door of the motel room Kate was sharing with Matt slammed open all of sudden, startling the young woman whose brown eyes snapped widely at the door. The black-haired hunter burst in, his back bag hanging on one shoulder, an open book in one hand and the room's key in the other. He shoved the door close with his foot, and quickly crossed the short distance between the queen size bed Kate was sitting crossed-leg on while listening to one of Pamela's recording and taking notes on one of the many notebooks laying around her along with other books. She watched him, her eyes big as he approached her, dropped the room's key nearby her notebooks and took a seat right next to the woman before pulling the cable connected to the tape-player taking the earphones out of her ears.
"What the-"
"Shh," he cut her off as he showed her the book in his hand. "Line twelve."
Kate looked at him quizzically before looking down at the book he was holding above her lap, accepting to do as told. She sighed and then read, "'Thus, it would be this Yog-Sothoth holding the keys of every world.' What?"
"Keep reading."
"'As insane as this might seem, this name does not appear only in that famous fictional book, but also in other manuscripts centuries old aged, along with the entities mentioned on the previous paragraphs, Chronos and the Cleaner'," Kate stopped, her brown eyes glued to that last word before looking up at Matt, not knowing anymore how to formulate a sentence, let alone how to ask one of all the questions that were rushing in her mind right now.
"You got it?"
"The Cleaner…" She mouthed, still a bit dumbfounded by what she had just read.
"Yeah. The one you told me you met," he nodded. "And you recognized the Yog-Sothoth guy?"
"Not really," she replied shaking her head, "I just froze at holding the keys of every world. And at the Cleaner. I- how- What… I don't know what to ask first."
He chuckled before taking the book and putting it on his lap. He looked at her with a deep seriousness that held her whole attention, "This book I've been reading back at the library is a collection of thoughts written by some man called David Ackers who died years and years ago. It was published by his grandson just one month ago. The grandson actually called it 'collection of mind's escapades' saying that his grandfather had imagined it all. That it was all a fictional book, but I think his grandfather was a hunter or at least someone who knew about hunting and all the things that just go bump in the dark. There's actually two of those books, the first one, I got it in my bag, there's a whole dissection of werewolves. And, it's accurate and there's also things I didn't know about and I'm not sure any hunters know about," he let out a light sigh as the ghost of an impressed smile appeared on his lips. "Anyways," he coughed as he returned his blue eyes straight into her brown ones. "In this book, all of David Ackers' thoughts and questions are exposed; it's literally his journal. And there's a whole part where he tries to analyse what he had apparently found out, which is a sort of bond between those three entities. Chronos, Yog-Sothoth and the Cleaner."
"Alright," she nodded slowly, taking in all of the information he was giving her.
"In Greek Mythology, Chronos is the God of Time."
"Yeah, I kinda got it," she replied, urging him with her eyes and her tone.
"The Cleaner, you know who that is."
"Yeah. Big terrifying creature who takes the wandering souls of the in-between world on the night of Halloween," she nodded frantically. "But this Yogo-Sothotho, I dry up."
"Yog-Sothoth," he corrected her. "Have you ever read H.P Lovecraft?"
"Um, a couple of books ages ago, why?"
"Yog-Sothoth is a fictional entity created by Lovecraft," he explained to her and she stared at him with a bit of surprise and a pinch of confusion. "He's a sort of Outer-God in Lovecraft's books. He's supposedly omniscient, and he's also known as the Beyond-One or the Opener of the Way."
"Are you telling me that Lovecraft's writing isn't fictional… It's real?"
"That, and I'm giving you the name of the one holding the keys to your home, and also" he said before turning the page and showing a pattern surrounded by writings, to her. "The way to summon him and have him to help you get back home."
Kate looked up at him, meeting his gentle and happy eyes staring right back at her. She didn't know how to react. She was finally going back to her universe and still she wasn't feeling the slightest happiness that she had been waiting to fill her with this kind of news. She knew she was supposed to be excited and relieved, she had been waiting for that, but somehow, right now, she wasn't feeling any of that.
"I told you, I'd get you back home, Kate," Matt told her smiling.
Her eyes travelled down to the book laying right next to one of her notebooks. The book she had finished reading a couple of hours ago. The book that had concluded a series of books she had promised not to read. The book that had made her understand why they were so close and they were so ready to sacrifice so much for one another. The book that made her weep more than she had thought it would. The book that had made her realize why they were so in need of support, comfort and love. The book that had made her understand why he loved the calm and softness he claimed she brought him.
She could feel something now as she stared at that very book.
No Rest for the Wicked, Calver Eldund.
As long as she had been waiting for this, she could feel something now but it wasn't happiness and it wasn't relief.
'I can't let you do that, Kaitlin… Help me… listen to me, heal me, fix me.'
The feeling that went through her was indescribable. But, it was there she knew that. And it wasn't on its own. A thought was accompanying that feeling.
'… I'm not used to have anyone this care for me the way you do…'
And as much as she couldn't describe that feeling, it was the complete opposite for that thought. She knew exactly what that thought was. It was a question. No, it was more than one question but it still revolved around the same and unique thing.
'Help! No! Somebody help me!'
What will happen to them now? Who will take care of them now?
Who will take care of him?
Author's note:
I am sincerely and deeply sorry for this very late update! Life has been so crazy lately that I couldn't find some proper time to focus on this story, and I feel terrible for making you wait for so long while it was my attention in the first hand to not make you wait at all…
Anyhow, I really hope you enjoyed this chapter! It's not very long, but as you could see it was eventful! So yeah, I'm not gonna make any promise on when exactly I will post the next chapter but it's totally not going to be posted as late as this one! I hope to have it all ready for Monday… But yeah still no promises!
Gotta say that the wonderful 'Igotzapped' edited the whole part before we get in the actual episode storyline, so kudos to her! :)
Please don't be shy to leave a review in which you tell me all of the thoughts you've had about this chapter. Because, I gotta say that the very last review I received this morning, was a short simple one in which the reader just said they loved the story, and well it kinda reminded me of all of the other sweet and supportive reviews you guys leave me and it really motivated me to update tonight! So yeah, I may sound needy of those little reviews, but believe me when I say they help the writer get back their inspiration and motivation.
And thank you very, very much for those who already leave so much reviews all of the time, I truly hope you enjoyed this chapter. :)
Much love,
A.