Yay, I'm back! Sorry it's taken me so long to update, relatives and high school buddies are always distracting. But I return with treats... two new chapters! w00t, w00t! lol. Anyway, here's somethin new for the the story; I've decided to continue updating the whole myspace thing, just cuz it might turn out interesting and such... maybe, I dunno. Anyway, enjoy ch. 14!
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Last time…
"He's dead… oh god, he's dead… get away, run away from me before you die too!"
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What the hell is going on? He thought as he witnessed the first person he'd come to care for since Cassie was fighting him, fighting to get away from him. She looked so tortured, weakly sitting there pushing away from him while the scorching water rained down on the both of them. A few minutes after Dean and their siblings had barged into the bathroom, she was reduced to simply begging with her head turned. Sam and Emily had already left in pursuit of Missouri, thinking she'd know exactly how to deal with the situation. "Please…. Please, Dean…"
"Why… what's the matter, Dia? I'm not going anywhere, I'm not leaving you a—" then he noticed it, it had taken him a while since her hair was the same color… but there was blood snaking slowly in tiny streams between the fingers Dean had lightly placed on her back. "What the…"
"Dean, I think it would be best if you and your brother went downstairs… Emily and I will take care of this," Missouri's calm voice lulled, effectively pulling him from the terrified trance the blood had pulled him into, "…Dean, did you hear me, sweetheart?"
Nodding distantly, he allowed Emily to pull him up and guide him out the bathroom door before closing it behind them. "Dean… hey, are you ok?" his brother's voice sounded just as scared as he felt, "What the hell happened in there?"
"I dunno… but Missouri wants us to go downstairs while they take care of… whatever happened in there." Nodding Sam followed his brother cautiously down to the kitchen.
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"Nadia… Nadia, baby, I need you to look at me… what happened, what did you see?" Missouri inquired soothingly to the drenched and troubled girl. But she remained quiet, leaning heavily on her sister as she sat next to Nadia; hiccupping the last of her tears away.
"DiDi, you have to tell us what happened; otherwise we can't help anyone… if they can still be helped." The younger sister's worry began to grow rapidly for every second that Nadia lay slumped against her, "Your back is bleeding again, DiDi. Ya know… it hasn't bled like this since your first vision," she paused long enough to puff out the deep inhalation of air… or steam, rather, that she'd just filled her lungs with, "did you have your first vision again?"
Again silence, they sat waiting patiently for an answer, all she obliged them with was a shake of her head.
"She's blocking her thoughts… I can't read her."
"She doesn't want us to… I'll clean her up; we'll see if she feels like talking after that." The old reader nodded in understanding as she stood to leave the bathroom and join the brother's downstairs. As the door closed, Emily hugged her sister and pushed a few damp chunks of hair from her face. "Hey, I'm going to get up and get a towel… so we can clean up your back, it's just you and me… you can talk whenever you feel like it. Okay?"
Nadia sniffled.
"Okay, just sit still and don't lean back on the wall… I'll be right back." Em was amazed that her sister was listening to everything she'd asked her to do; usually she was impossible about things and went against everybody's wishes. What happened to you, Dia? "Whatever you saw… it's really got you scared, huh? You're even pushing the one guy you love away… you know he won't go, right? He'll get a little scared… but only for you, he'll get extremely defensive… for both you and Sammy… and their dad; but that's it, he turns an anti-social shoulder to the rest of the world. I don't know about you… but to me, that sounds just like my big sister…"
"No…" Emily immediately stilled from her gentle movements of wiping the blood from Nadia's shoulders, having grimaced at seeing the scratches that damned hobgoblin left her with all those years ago.
"No what, Na…" before she could finish, Nadia wrapped her pruned fingers around Emily's tattooed wrist; the girl flinched as warped images filled her mind, and a grim understanding set in. "Oh Nadia," she lamented softly, "you can't blame yourself for that, it wasn't your fault… you weren't that shadow-y thing that did it, are you?"
"…no…"
"No, that's right; you weren't… so it's not your fault, and you've no reason to push those boys away… his death wasn't your fault, you had nothing to do with it; besides, we've got time to save him, right?"
"No… I saw it as it happened, like the thing that did it was making me watch." Her words were low and barely above a whisper, but they rang clearly in her sister's ears. "And now, I have to tell them… they're going to hate me for what I have to tell them."
"No they won't, DiDi," Emily stated confidently, "I will… you showed me the vision, and for once, it'll be me who announces the bad news because I've seen it, too. And I can make it subtle, so they never once think it was what you saw. I had to do this sort of thing all the time as a medic, it's hard, but with practice it's as much of an art as some of the things we've done."
"Like lock-picking?" Nadia mused with a grin.
"Lock-picking, lying, and subterfuge, oh my!" She cried animatedly, Nadia looked at her with amusement and the younger knew she'd be alright. "Ok… done with your trance-like self hatred?"
"What-ever, you'd like to think I hated myself for a split second!" Her sister snorted indignantly.
Yep, big sister is back on track.
"Never left, coño." (A/N: Cono is spanish for cunt, little interesting fact for ya)
No, sis, you never did. "GET yo naked ass dressed!" she cried before adding in a normal tone, "I'll go be the doomed messenger."
"K, but I'm going straight to bed, I'm not going back down there."
"The hell you're not," she said as she looked at he sister quizzically, "…Nadia, you need to stop running away from the things that hurt. Don't run from Dean because he's the best thing to ever happen to you, don't run from our destiny, and DON'T run from living a little. You need to go out and get your drink on, get dressed, I'll tell Dean you need a strong drink and a pool table… we'll drop the bad news on them tomorrow, okay?"
Nadia sat there for a moment, strongly considering the offer; shrugging stiffly she hefted herself up from the floor of the tub. "Fine… bitch." Nadia Coltier was never one to turn down a drink.
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Emily flew down the stairs thunderously and as the noise filtered into the kitchen all three within jumped to their feet expecting the worst. "Hey Dean!" She cried as she halted just past the kitchen threshold.
"Yea… what's the matter?" the words spewed out of his mouth before he even knew for sure that she was talking to him.
"Listen, she still won't say what she saw… but she is sorry for pushing you away; and if there's anything I know about my sister, a couple of drinks will cool her off and possibly even get her to open up about her vision." She offered, hoping he would take the hint… hell, they could all use a good beer or two; too bad the only alcohol Missouri willingly kept in the house was either ceremonial or reserved for her occasional potions and such.
Luckily, he did, "Ok… is Pool Room still open on Iowa St?"
"Uh… Pool Room? I was thinking Johnny's Tavern… that place always calmed her down; our parents met there during a hunt." Emily's eyes glazed over slightly when she began talking about her parents. "And besides… it's just over the bridge."
"K… if it'll calm her down… God, what the… what did she tell you while you guys were in there…anything?" Dean rambled, risking his brother later nagging at him for getting so worked up over something; though he didn't notice that his brother was silently witnessing a vision of his own while Dean and Emily were deep in their discussion.
He was at the end of a long dark hallway, lit by a brilliant white light at the other end. At first glance, he was afraid he'd died and the sayings were true about 'the white light' you have to move towards when you die. But the chiming of infant's mobile drew him onwards; after closely inspecting the hallway, he surmised that it only went on for about 70 feet… what kind of tunnel to the after life was only 70 ft? You'd think it would stretch on long enough to make you think thoroughly about the events that have shaped your life. Then he heard it…
The voice; it was lulling, peaceful… happy and giggling as it sang about being spoiled by 'poppa'.
The closer he got to the room the more he recognized the voice; he hadn't heard her sing in the past two days that he knew her… but somehow, Sam knew it was Nadia. Laughing and singing to someone.
Twenty feet away, he was beginning to see the movement of a long white nightgown, holding a small bundle in her arms, blood red hair floating about her head as she spun.
Two feet from the doorway, she stopped spinning and had begun to rock and smile sweetly at the bundle in her arms. When he came to a stop and leaned on the doorjamb, she looked up and her smile increased ten-fold; she seemed to glow, and not just from the blinding white light that bathed the room. "Hi Sammy," she spoke, her voice sounded a little strange, like it was split into two speeds: super-slow and super-fast, "I don't believe you've met your nephew. He's got his daddy's eyes…"
Her own were shinning, tearing up, dripping with pride that this beautiful little person in her arms was a piece of her; Sammy felt himself getting a little choked up as he took quiet steps towards Nadia and the child as she gently rocked him with a mother's grace, "My nephew…I'm an uncle?"
She nodded her head; she was so full of life and cheeriness as she handed the fragile child to him, "Yes… his twin sister is over there in the other crib, she's sleeping right now."
"A niece?" he felt his voice quiver, he didn't really know how to handle the good news other than coming pretty close to crying, "How old are they?"
"They're both six months old today." Her smile never wavered as she announced their age… but his did, he remembered what had happened to his family when he turned six months; any chance for happiness burned away on the ceiling of his nursery.
"Six months?" he frowned, she didn't seem to notice his reaction; she just kept up her angelic-motherly glow, face bright with an ear to ear smile.
Before he knew it, he was watching—at an over-head view—Nadia and his brother sleeping on a king sized bed with both infants sleeping peacefully between the two; he felt a displacing amount of fear and panic build as he realized what he was about to witness, the life of the infants and his brother were about to take a turn for the worst as the ceiling exploded with Nadia stuck to it. He watched waiting, not being able to do anything else; he waited for hours in horrified suspense… but nothing happened, and the sun slowly filtered into their bedroom as Dean's eyes slowly opened, observing what was still lying next to him. They'd made it through that night, the nightmare was really over.
Again, there was a change of setting… the happy parents, who seemed to have aged a few years, sat at a table drinking coffee and reading the newspaper, 'Like normal parents might… I think…' A few minutes later, two healthy looking ten year olds ran in greeting their parents as they sat. The girl handed Nadia small box, neatly wrapped, while the boy handed her an envelope; Dean grinned smugly behind his newspaper as he reached for his coffee. "Happy 39th birthday, Mommy." The girl squealed.
Nadia returned the smile as she accepted the parcel, "Thank you baby… and from now on it's 35th… every year 35th until I'm a grandmother... having a 35 year old grandmother raises a few undesirable questions." Dean spat out his coffee laughing. There were tears of joy as she opened the box revealing a rather pricey piece of jewelry inside, Dean must have run a credit card scam and maxed it on the gift alone. Sam couldn't help but silently chide his brother for winding up in the exact apple-pie normal life he'd sworn would never be his. "Where's your cousin?"
"Cleaning up… she kinda had an accident while making bullets this morning…" the little girl spouted.
"Huh, well, one of you run up and tell her to be quick about it… her breakfast is getting cold." At that, both kids ran off screaming something that more than caught Sam's attention: 'Jessica!'
"Sammy… how many times do I have to ask that you at least send me a postcard when you off and visit la-la-land?" Dean asked, pseudo-belligerently, "I mean, that hurts man, it really hurts! Seriously, dude… what'd you see?"
"A possible future… not your typical three hours down the road future… I mean a couple of years or so kind of future." He recanted softly.
"Good or bad?" the huntress asked with a double sided curiosity.
"Good… really good." He smirked goofily.
"Good how? Big bad gone and defeated kinda good… us retired kind of good… you runnin' a law firm sort of good… what?" Dean asked.
"Yea… well, I don't know about that last part… it wasn't necessarily about me so much as it was about you," he scratched his head as he mumbled the rest under his breath, "… and Nadia…" slyly, he handed his brother the small leather pouch of bullets that Nadia had directed him to retrieve; hold on to these… just in case…
"Great… though I highly doubt I'll ever retire from this life, but all the same, great." Dean said as he grabbed his jacket from the back of a chair, "So, Johnny's Tavern it is… I'm ready whenever she is…" barely having time to finish, Nadia came skidding into the kitchen, bumping into the doorjamb with a soft thud and a hushed 'Oof'; clad in her favorite ripped and frayed jeans, a red tee with a silk-screening of a schoolgirl holding a gun on the front upper right side of the shirt slightly covered by a black leather jacket.
The four in the kitchen stared as she clambered into her black knee high boots, "What…? Just because I'm a psychic doesn't mean I don't have my clumsy moments!" by the look on her face she was more baffled and defending herself than scolding them. "… We going?"
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The drive to Johnny's was quiet… conversation-wise; without fail, Dean had his 80's metal blaring. It struck him as odd, seeing as she was so much like his brother, he assumed that she, too, would strongly dislike his taste in music. She had been noticeably tense when they first got in the car, but as soon as Dio came screaming from the Impala's stereo… Nadia eased up a considerable amount.
Inside the crowded tavern was no different; as soon as she crossed the threshold and the establishment's familiar smells and tidal wave of smoke crashed over her… she looked like any normal bar-going patron inside the joint. A group of old men and women varying in ages as young as Missouri to people who would better fit in as residents of a nursing home waved her down hollering all sorts of things; and with a jovial, youthful smile Nadia sauntered over to them, hugging and shaking hands with all of them. 'I feel like the sore thumb,' his mind grumbled as he slowly and awkwardly shadowed his drinking companion.
"Aw shit, how rude of me… guys, this is my… boyfriend, Dean; Dean… this is Joe-Joe, ol' Lady Langley, Tessa, and her husband Marcus, Stella-Lee, brotha Drake, Mean Maureen, Lars the Lawless, Chubs and Nino. They're old friends of the family…" Nadia announced, amazingly without having to take a breath amongst all the names.
"Very old friends of the family… some of us have had the privilege of hunting with her granddaddy, Noland Coltier; fine man, good hunter… did a damn fine job teaching that boy of his the basics of hunting." Said the man, Chubs, whom Dean had nicknamed 'Father-Time,' "It really was no surprise to any of us the first time Nadia and her sister came in, saying they were Nicky's girls. Why if I was still young enough to hunt… I'd be lucky to have the sister's watchin' my back!"
"Dia darlin', you've snagged a handsome one; my question is… how'd he tame you enough to the point of admitting to a relationship?" Ol' Lady Langley drawled out.
"What's your family name, boy?" Joe-Joe demanded.
"Winchester, sir." A collective gasp silenced the group, followed by a hushed murmur of: 'Well that answers my question…' from Langley.
"Winchester, huh?" Mean Maureen growled testily, "You John Winchester's boy?" For a wrinkly 50-something, Maureen effectively scared the crap out of Dean.
"One of them, ma'am." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Nadia smirk and wink at him.
Instead of drilling him for more information, she let out a chuckle that startled Dean more than her glare had. "I remember when the fire happened… that musta been you runnin' out the house with that poor baby. You could see the hunter potential in him at four years old… Little Missy, you've got my vote of approval." Nadia was ready to let some snarky comment loose on the elderly hunters when Lars put away the phone she hadn't noticed him using… he looked worried.
"Phillip just called, 'nother fire broke out in Jefferson City tonight," both hunters paled, "… stupid people tossing out false explanations to make everyone feel safe… bad wiring in the walls my ass! We all know what started the fire in that hospital." Lars announced, glowering through his one good eye.
"A hospital in Jefferson City, you say?" Dean asked carefully.
"Yep, DiDi-doll, didn't you say little Emmy ran off to be a medic there?" Tessa inquired sweetly; aside from Nadia, she was the only hunter that didn't have an extremely threatening demeanor.
"Volunteering EMT, yea… but I dragged her away from that weeks ago." Damnit, damnit, damnit… these guys are going to blow everything!
"Which hospital caught fire?" Nadia let out a small sigh of relief; he wasn't catching on to her.
"St. Mary's… why, you know someone there?" Once Lars got out the hospital name, Dean had his phone out dialing St. Mary's number. He got half-way through the number when his phone started ringing.
"Hello?"
'Hey Dean, its Emily… How's she doing?'
"Fine… hear anything about a fire at St. Mary's hospital in Jefferson City?"
'Just that it was in the ICU… why?' he sighed in relief, Dad's okay, then.
"Nothin' just wondering… we ran into some old friends of yours…"
There was static veiling what he heard next, 'Oh neat, tell the gang I said Hi!'
"Alright, talk to you later… bye." Clicking his cell shut, he returned his focus to the crowd that was now watching him, "Emily says hey."
As if on cue, the entire group exploded in different forms of happiness. "You kids go get a drink… whatever you want, it's on the house… you damn well look like you need it." Brotha Drake cried, giving Dean the impression that he owned the lively tavern. Nadia pointed over to a secluded booth in the back corner as she headed behind the bar. She graced him with a secret smile when, as he sat, he turned his attention back to the old, glossy wooden bar; she plucked up two beer glasses with a hidden bartender's grace, smiling and laughing and adding to jokes and jabs from the senior hunters a few feet from her as she expertly poured Dean a beer and shook up her usual drink: a double vodka/cranberry.
She laughed lightly as he gave her a questioning glance at the glasses she placed between them, "Ok… this one I KNOW is beer… but what the hell is that?"
Sighing indignantly, she shook her head and took a gulp of the clear red liquid. "Vodka Cranberry… double… works quicker than a friggin' beer."
Oh now she's just taunting me… "Really now? Let's make a bet, I'll chug one of these… things, you chug a beer… whoever is less sober in the end has the pussy drink, you in?"
Tilting her head as she narrowed her eyes, the beer glass filled to the brim with the red drink sloshed forward to Dean, "Mmm, why… are you in the mood to lose and get drunk?" Without another word, she snatched his drink raised it a bit before throwing the beer back just as he began inhaling her beverage of choice. In the end, Nadia sat grinning evilly at a slightly disoriented Dean.
"Okay, you win… once you stop spinning!" he would have gone further, but his cell began to ring where it rested on the table. "Oop… gotta get that… Hello?" he said, beginning the static laden conversation.
'Dean… are you drunk?'
"Saaaaaaaaaaaammyyy! Hey baby brother, what's up?"
'Yea….re drunk… Dia?'
"What… sorry Ssssam didn't quite catch that?" He slurred, dude, the reception in this place sucks out loud!
"…Dean, this place arguably has the best reception in town… why would you say that?"
"There'sssssssss a lot of static…" He mumbled, stumbling over the words as she yanked the cell phone from his hand, "… hey!"
"Sam… Sammy, what's going on? Where are you, the reception isn't this bad at the house…" Panic swiftly pumped its way into her veins as an unshakable feeling of danger filtered its way into her senses, the overwhelming static spilling into her ears from Sam's phone wasn't helping her in the slightest. And the twisted, inhuman cackle (that was so not Sammy) bore her deepest, darkest fears into reality.
'Emmy… I believe your sister is trying to say hello to you…' it was hushed and spoken at least five feet from the phone, but her strained ears didn't miss it; the blood drained quickly and painfully from her face as she thought back on a discussion she'd had with her sister at some point since she met the Winchesters.
Flashback
'It's big enough that they're going after hunters… going after people in hunting circles… Caleb's dead… Jim's dead… Elkins is dead…whoever is doing it tried to off these guys; we've got to be extra careful Emmy…' She preached sternly.
'…but…' Emily had attempted.
'NO but's, Emmy, we're not safe anymore… not anywhere. They're going to try to separate us, weaken us, and possibly even take us out one at a time. I know while you were living a normal life… you still kept a sharp eye on the shadows… but now you've got to go back to keeping a weather eye open… just like Jim taught us, the time to make the old Pastor proud is now… got it?'
Flashback over
"Emmy…" she breathed fearfully, having now caught Dean's full attention, her look of utter fear throwing him violently back to sobriety. But firm hands clamping on her shoulders and a head of blond hair stopping inches from her face detained Nadia from leaping up and sprinting home if need be.
"Unless you want all three of them to join the old man… you'll come with me, and come quietly…" Cristin whispered emotionlessly with a sharp undertone threatening every precious thing in the young huntress's life. When Cristin moved to threaten the young man sitting across from Nadia, they were both shocked and a tad thrown off when they discovered that Dean wasn't there anymore. "…Damnit… Deeaann…. Now's not the time to be playing hide and seeeeek! We just want the gun… and Sam… and her… are you really willing to sacrifice all three of them to keep that damned Colt safe? We're still going to find you and the Colt… and when we do you can join them."
What Cristin and her black, soul-less eyes hadn't been expecting was a tavern full of seasoned hunters; all pointing shotguns, and talisman's at her, mumbling exorcism chants and curses straight out of a Key of Solomon. Nadia actually began to laugh at the spectacle. "Didn't think you'd find yourself in this sticky sort of situation, huh Cristin? Now take me to my sister… if she's hurt… at all… you'll wish you had never crawled from the hell you came from!"
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Tee-he, hope you guys are enjoying the direction I'm going in... cuz it only gets crazier from here... yea, so, reviews... awesome little things... yea, yea, on to the next chapter, lol.
love.
