Deanna/Caleb

20 – "It's her nature."

Caleb Bailey nodded to the ruffian whose hair was flying behind her as she made her escape. Caleb's toes were still smarting. "Cute kid."

"Looks like her mother." Jim Murphy nodded and poured beer for the both of them. "I've got a hunter on the case. I told you to call me first."

"I was bored." Caleb sipped his beer. "How long you had that kid?'

"A while."

"Never seen her before."

"She lived with a foster family for a long time. The Life followed her and her foster parents couldn't handle it. Her mother's a hunter and was never… cut out for full time motherhood."

"I can see that." He waved his mug at the 10 year old tumbling around the yard. "Does she hate my toes in particular?"

"Her grandfather was supposed to be here today and you showed up instead. It's not personal. She's a lot like her mother that way. It's her nature."

"Her mother must be a firecracker."

"She was once."

The conversation moved on to the hunt Caleb had missed out on. They were chatting about dragons and pirates when the youngster joined them with a root beer. She told Caleb a tale about Blackbeard that he felt shouldn't be such a gleeful subject for a little girl.

"Laurie, go wash up please. It's almost time for dinner." Jim informed the girl.

"But I'm having fun with my new friend Caleb."

"Caleb will be staying for dinner. Go wash up." Jim pointed. She trudged off.

"You have a way with children."

"Just that one."

Halfway through dinner, while Laurie was standing on her chair, arguing with Caleb about the fate of a teenage saint-to-be on television, Jim was laughing until a dragon head landed on the table. Laurie's eyes went round. "Cool!"

"Deanna!" Jim barked and chased a slim figure into the kitchen.

Caleb tried to distract Laurie and deal with the dragon head while a roaring fight went on in the kitchen. Laurie didn't even seem to register the fighting. "It's so gross."

"Well, it's a severed head… of a terrible dragon." Caleb pointed out as he examined the creature's oozing head.

"I thought they had, like, three heads."

"Only the really old ones."

"Deanna got one with three heads. She brought all those with her that time too."

"Who is Deanna?" Caleb pointed to the kitchen in question.

"Pastor Jim's hunter friend." Laurie poked the dragon's eye with her fork.

Caleb looked up and Deanna was standing in the doorway, hissing something at Jim. When she turned her head, Caleb fell in love. He had never been one for the love at first sight deal. He was too old for her, probably. The way her hair fell around her face, the fire in her eyes while she argued. She was angry and beautiful and a hunter.

"Who the fuck are you?" Deanna's eyes fell on him.

"Caleb Bailey."

"Deanna Winchester." She barked and stormed out.

"She does that a lot." Laurie informed him as she stroked the scales on the dragon's face.

"Laurie, dear, take the head outside with the others." Jim instructed. "And wash your hands afterward."

Caleb cleaned the blood off the table and washed the dishes. He was finishing up and listening to a story about pirates from Laurie when Deanna wandered back in. She sat at the table and opened a beer. Laurie finished her story and helped him put the dishes away. Deanna stared into space when Laurie stood in front of her. "It's bedtime."

"Then get going." Deanna tipped her beer into her mouth.

"You're always such a bitch." Laurie deadpanned, then turned to Caleb. "Goodnight Caleb."

"Night, kiddo." Caleb told her and she disappeared up the stairs.

Deanna continued to stare into space. "Did he call you here to take her?"

"What?" Caleb crossed his arms. "No. I got a message about a hunt. I showed up too late. Looks like he sent you on it, instead."

"I've never seen you before."

"I keep busy."

"Me, too." She laughed and finished off her beer. "She likes you. She doesn't really like anyone except for him." She gestured toward the pastor's study.

Caleb got them both a beer as he processed all the random bits of information. "She's your daughter."

"She came out of me. I'm not her mother." Deanna shook her head.

"How old are you?"

"How old do I look?"

"22."

She laughed. "I'm 26."

"Wow."

"Long story." She shrugged. "Look… I don't really want to talk. He's pissed at me. She hates me. I think you're hot but he doesn't let me fuck in the house. You want to take this outside?"

Caleb would like to say that he would do the right thing and just say no but she offered. Outside, there was nothing but earth and sky and a few trees for cover. She led him out to the group of trees and got on her knees. Caleb would have liked to say that he was tempted to walk away then but he just couldn't. He desperately wanted to be inside her and she offered. Afterward, she sat up and leaned against a tree. He could see the scars on her belly in the moonlight. Old scars.

"She looks like you."

"Really?" Deanna laughed and reached for her bra. "I don't see much of me in her."

She was dressed in a flash and walking away before Caleb could even find his pants.

The next couple days involved Deanna stalking quietly around while Laurie did her best to entertain Caleb, then Deanna tugging him into a dark corner to fuck him as hard as she could. Jim didn't say anything if he noticed. The woman was broken, Caleb had been around long enough to figure that out but he didn't know how or why and he wanted to protect her. The problem was that women as broken as Deanna couldn't and didn't want to be fixed or protected. Caleb could see the end from here but it wasn't enough to make him stop the chasing.

Laurie hung from Caleb's shoulders as he worked to sharpen a few of the swords for the old man. She told him stories about pirates and ninjas and somehow wove a tale involving the two. The sun beat down on them as they sipped lemonade during a break. Laurie made a friendship bracelet with some thread and a safety pin on her knee. "Pastor Jim says my mom loves me but doesn't know how to show it cause she gave me up when I was a baby."

"That could be true." Caleb nodded and watched her braid the threads together. "What do you think?"

"I think Deanna hates me but knows she's not supposed to."

"Why do you think that?"

"She never looks at me." She looked up at him. "Am I pretty?"

"Sure are."

"Pastor Jim says I look like her."

"You do."

"Do you think she's pretty?"

"I think she's beautiful."

"She doesn't look at you either."

"I don't think she looks at anyone, much."

"oh." Her eyes lowered back to the braids between her fingers.

Caleb was asleep in the guest room downstairs when his door popped open and a warm body slipped in beside him. He woke to the feel of hands sliding up his chest. Caleb woke and her mouth was on his. "Deanna…"

"Shh… I need you inside me."

"I thought you weren't allowed to do this in the house."

"Then be very, very quiet."

Afterward, she lay beside him. Caleb kissed her shoulders and ran his hand up and down her back. He knew she wasn't sleeping but she stayed. She had never done that. Was usually gone by the time he was pulling up his pants and before he could see if she had gotten what she'd needed out of it. When he was rolling on top of her, she was digging her fingers into his biceps. This round was urgent. Far more than any round that came before. This time he watched her come and it was beautiful and she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

In the morning, he woke up and she was still asleep next to him. She looked like a teenager in her sleep. It blew his mind that she was as old as she said she was and even more that the cute little girl down the hall was her daughter. She said it was a long story and it must be for all the bits and pieces Caleb had gleaned about the event. He watched her wake up and she had to hide a smile before she yawned morning breath in his face. "You freak."

"I'm a freak?" He laughed.

"You are. Don't go falling in love. That's something I don't do."

"What if it's too late?"

"You were warned." She reached between them to run a finger down his penis. The kisses were dizzying as she stroked him until he was ready to pop. Then she sat up and flung the sheets off the bed. She bent over him and took his erection in her mouth.

Caleb sat to breakfast with Pastor Jim. Little Laurie was moody and picked at her eggs until it was time for school. Deanna gulped down a cup of coffee, tied back her wet hair and disappeared out into the barn for some training. Jim sat with Caleb for a long time. "Deanna doesn't sit in one place very long."

"She's said as much."

"She doesn't make commitments."

"I'm not fond of them myself."

"This is the longest I've ever seen her entertain a man… especially since Laurie has come back into her life."

"What happened, preacher?"

"I'm not really sure. She was a teenager when Laurie was born and it was a good idea to get the girl away from the baby but now… she doesn't even see her as a person."

Caleb was balls deep in Deanna's mouth when the door burst open. Laurie and her grandfather were in the doorway. The door slammed shut and Deanna didn't miss a beat. Her head bobbed and Caleb tried to shake her but she took him deeper until he had no choice to but come. Showered and dressed, they joined everyone else for drinks.

Laurie kept her eyes on her root beer from where she sat on John Winchester's knee. John Winchester was not afraid of eye contact but Caleb was more than ready for anything the man had to say to him. Deanna had resumed her drinking and staring through everyone.

"Did you get it?" John asked Deanna abruptly. She nodded and took a gulp of whiskey. "Well? Any lies to swap?"

"No lies. Deanna brought the head back, it was this big." Laurie jumped in and described the miserable thing. She was back to the animated girl who had stomped on Caleb's foot because he'd accused her of being six years old. Caleb smiled at the story she'd made up to go with the hunt. Deanna hadn't uttered word one about the hunt itself.

"Bailey, right?" John asked him.

"Caleb."

"Caleb Bailey. Right." John looked to his daughter. "You staying?"

"A while. Then I'd thought I'd drop in on Sammy." Deanna shrugged.

"Have you met your uncle Sammy?" John asked Laurie. She shook her head and melted against her grandfather. "He's an egghead."

Deanna laughed at that and got up to refresh her whiskey and brought one to Caleb. He stared at it a minute before he sipped it. They all chatted for a long time. Then came dinner and then Laurie was sitting in Caleb's lap and showing off a trinket John had given her. After Laurie had gone to bed, Caleb helped Jim with the dishes and they both eavesdropped on John and Deanna.

"She's your daughter. You're her mother."

"I gave birth to her. I'm not her mother."

"You're drinking in front of her, dragging dragon carcasses through the house and fucking men in Jim's house. You know how the preacher feels about that."

"I'm not hurting anyone."

"Except you. Deanna… You're gonna have to take her on. She's yours."

"She's an abomination. She's safer here." Deanna growled. "I'm here. Okay? Right now. I'm here."

"But you're not. You can't raise a kid from another room."

"You did. You raised us both that way. I took care of him. I bathed him and fed him and made sure he got to school and did his homework and you left us there. You left us there."

"Deanna…"

"I can't look at her without remembering what happened there. You left us there and… she happened."

"I can't change what happened. You know that if I could, I would. It happened. You're alive. She's here. Take care of your girl."

"Like you did me."

"If you hate the way I raised you, raise her different."

"I can't. I won't."

"That man's taken a shine to the both of you. What's gonna happen when you run out on her? You think he'll stick to someone who don't take care of their own?"

"Who said anything about him? He's a port in a storm."

"Deanna. That's a little girl who could use a mom."

"So was I! Instead, I had you." Deanna's boots sounded on the floor as she stormed out.

Caleb woke in the middle of the night to find Deanna asleep beside him and a little girl with a pair of scissors in her hands. The open scissors poised over Deanna's heart. Caleb rolled over Deanna and took the scissors in his shoulder blade. Deanna woke in a panic and Caleb watched Laurie's eyes change from demonic to shocked. "I'm sorry!"

She ran from the room and Caleb moved slowly to get off of Deanna and to find something to staunch the bleeding. After a moment, Deanna was there, pulling the blade out and holding his flesh closed. After a moment, he realized Deanna was crying. She sniffed and found a needle and thread. She had him stitched up in no time. After about 20 minutes, John Winchester was standing in the doorway, face white and confusion on his face.

Deanna bound up the wound and leaned on Caleb as she addressed her father. "She's an abomination and she knows it. She's not like us. She's not a person who fights the darkness. She is the darkness."

"Deanna… She's a little girl."

"This is what she did to them." She pointed to Caleb's back. "She tried to kill them in their sleep. That's why they couldn't keep her. She's wrong, Dad. Wrong. I should have aborted her."

"Deanna."

"You keep saying that I'll grow to love her but she's evil. What they did to me was evil and you made me have her. She's going to kill Jim if she stays long enough."

"She's just a little girl."

"She's demon spawn."

"I'll take her." Caleb announced to the room.

"No. It's signing your death certificate." Deanna barked at him. "She has to die."

Caleb walked with John around the perimeter of Jim's property. "Deanna was a good girl. I didn't do all I should have. I left her with a friend. They had Sammy go off on a school trip. I was off on a hunt. They used her in a satanic ritual of sorts. She was… mass raped by the entire male congregation and they invited a demon to do the same. I got there after they lost control of the demon and it slaughtered everyone but her. She was the only one left and she'd been… tied to an altar. She was starving and bleeding and covered in blood."

"How old?"

"15… I wasn't paying so much attention in those days. I know she'd… "become a woman" and she was a pretty girl… I thought they were my friends. They were trustworthy… When we found out she was pregnant… it was a gamble. We had no evidence the ritual was completed. We had no evidence it wasn't. When Laurie was born… she seemed normal enough. She passed all the tests. Deanna couldn't stand to look at her. We sent her off to be raised by a family that Jim knew. It seemed best. I could barely handle Deanna and her brother… I was too old to raise another baby and them."

Caleb glanced at the house. "Laurie seems like a good kid. She was fine until Deanna showed up. She knows Deanna can't stand her. I think it… makes her worse."

"I think so, too. This… midnight stabbing… it only happens when she's upset. Maybe some of the demon got in her but she's… passed every test."

"I like Deanna. I'll be honest… I only just met her this week and we don't do a lot of talking but I like her. I like Laurie and Laurie likes me… I guess. She's had a rough couple of days."

"10 years old is tough for a girl. Especially one without a mother."

"I'll take her with me. I can handle it."

"I wouldn't advise it."

"I know that Deanna's going to take off and I might never see her again. I'm a bit taken with her." Caleb admitted. "I like Laurie. She likes me. I think it will be a good fit and I have the means to test her daily if that needs to be done. I can protect her from demons… or herself… or Deanna."

"That would be preferable. Deanna… feels a lot. She doesn't… say a lot. She's a… doer."

"I figured that out."

"I don't know you. You could be from the same cult that turned the phrase gang-rape into an understatement."

"Let… Deanna decide."

When the men returned to the house, Deanna was standing at the stove making hot chocolate. She shooed them away and took a mug and a book to the couch where Laurie was doing her homework. Caleb watched them. Deanna hugged the girl and they giggled at the book. Laurie drank her hot chocolate and cuddled in close. John kissed their heads and wandered away to talk to the pastor. Caleb sipped a beer and watched them. Deanna kept her eyes on the book and read softly. Laurie looked like she was in heaven.

They looked so much alike. Then Laurie fell asleep and Deanna kept reading. Caleb stood and picked Laurie up to take to bed. She hung like a ragdoll. He tucked her in and found Deanna in the doorway. She dragged him to her bed. Surprisingly slow and intense, Caleb fell asleep with her head on his shoulder.

Deanna got breakfast going. John ran out the door on the trail of something nasty. Jim stood at the stairs and called up for Laurie repeatedly. Then Caleb heard the man's feet pounding on the stairs as he raced for the phone. "She's not breathing."

"What?" Caleb raced up the stairs and there she was, just as he'd left her. She hadn't moved and inch. He felt for a pulse. There was none and she was cool under his fingers. He carried her down the stairs and he found Deanna with her eyes on the floor in the living room. "Did you do this?"

"Caleb… she… was…" Deanna breathed out and lifted her gaze. "It was for the best."

"She's your daughter." Caleb held the girl against his chest.

"You never met her father." Her eyes burned something fierce. "I did. She takes after him and the next time, those scissors wouldn't have missed. She would kill you in your sleep and wouldn't even know it's wrong."

"Deanna." Jim set the phone down. "What did you do?"

"I poisoned her milk last night. I was kind." She told them. "I held her, even though it killed me. I told her I loved her, even though it could never be true. I saved all of us. She was Cambion." She looked right at Caleb. "You saw her eyes when she stabbed you. It's inside her and there's no containing it. We're lucky she's been underdeveloped. She should have had her powers by now."

"We could have tried." Jim breathed in harshly.

"Put her down. I'll… cremate her."

"Do you know what you've done?" Jim stared at her.

"My immortal soul was burnt the moment she was conceived." Deanna took the girl from him and sat on the couch with her daughter. "She was so pretty."

Caleb watched her touch the still girl's face and stroke her arm and be the mother everyone had apparently been waiting for her to be. Her entire demeanor had changed. A smile on her face. Rocking her daughter tenderly. "Deanna…"

"You know… when she was born, they… looked me over and said I never should have made it full term. I was so young and they had hurt me so badly." Deanna kissed the cold forehead. "She's all I could ever have. The nightmares when she was inside me… They stopped the night she was born. I ate raw meat and drank blood. She was wrong. Always wrong." Her arms drew Laurie closer. "I was always afraid for that family. When they first called and said she did things at night… I just knew they were going to find that family dead in their beds." She sniffed and tears slid down her face. "I always wanted to be a mother. A real one. I just… couldn't do it… knowing what she was."

"Deanna." Jim knelt beside her. "She never…"

"She stabbed Caleb and she was aiming for me." Deanna kept her eyes on Laurie's still face. "She put house cleaner in the kool-aid they served at her birthday party. She let her brother fall and break his arm. They grounded her and they woke up when she was about to drop a vase on her foster mother's head. You saw how she was with the dragon heads."

"You were like that with dragon heads." He reminded her.

"You're such a dreamer, Jim." She sniffed. "There was no saving her. We should have killed her at birth. You should have talked him into the abortion."

"What are you going to tell him?"

"The truth."

Caleb touched Deanna's face. "Let me go get a pyre going."

"Thank you." She nodded and cradled Laurie closer.

Caleb tried to wrap his mind around everything while he cleared an area and built the pyre in a place that looked like it had one before. When he was about halfway done, Deanna walked outside with Laurie in her arms. They were both freshly washed and dressed. Deanna sat down and leaned over her daughter's body. "She was a really cute kid. Jim's right. She's a lot like I was when I was growing up. She lived with that family so she could be normal. I grew up with guns and swords."

"Are you okay?" Caleb risked the question. She seemed very calm through this whole thing. Tears slipped down her face but that was very composed.

"No." She stroked Laurie's face. "I'm not happy about what I did. It had to be done. No one has been willing to do it. I was too young to get it done when it should have been."

"Why now?"

She was quiet for a long time. She looked at him. "The knowledge that she's out there has kept me from being me. Then here you came. You won her over and then me and I knew… I was competition for your attention. She proved it when she came after me. What would she do to you if she couldn't get me out of the picture?"

"You think she went after you because of me?"

"She walked in on us and suddenly she's quiet and shy and then she came after me. It makes sense to me." She kissed the girl's face. "Now that she's gone. I love her. I couldn't when she was breathing but I do now."

It was all starting to catch up to Caleb. "How could you do what you did and then… come to me the way you did last night?"

"Just in case it was my last chance." She answered honestly as she straightened the blouse on her dead daughter.

They didn't speak again until after she'd placed her daughter, lovingly, on the pyre and bathed her generously with holy water and salt. She lit the fire and watched it burn high. Caleb laid his hand on her shoulder. "I'm leaving tonight."

"I know." She nodded. "I'm sorry."