Chapter Three
"I thought you were hunting vampires not becoming them." Autumn jumped smacking her head into the bunk above her.
"Damnit!" Dean had his blade out and was looking for what had woken them so suddenly.
"Goodness."
"Marc, what are you doing?" Dean asked.
"Get your ass in the living room, I need to talk to you, almighty hunter sir." Marc bowed out.
"You're friends are the strangest." Autumn was still holding her head as she slid out of bed.
"My friends aren't the strangest, but they are a few French fries short of happy meal." Dean stood up pulling her hands away from her face.
"You're fine." On their way out they bumped into Sam and Athena who both looked like they'd been caught in the cookie jar.
"Don't ask." Sam muttered.
"Nice goose egg there, sis."
"Hunters are always complaining that trackers are slow," Marc teased from his seat on the couch.
"Hey, I'm a cripple you can't blame me." Athena maneuvered her way around the couch to drop into the arm chair, the others right behind her.
"How are you doing?" Will asked Athena, he was leaning against the widow frame staring into the main run between the cabins.
"I'm great Willy Wonka, tomorrow I'm going to be in a triathlon."
"Won't that be a little difficult?" he grinned. Sam sat on the arm rest of Athena's chair, while the other two hunters took seats on the couch by Marc.
"Eh, difficult ain't nothing. We do difficult all the time." she shrugged, Will shook his head at the carelessness of her statement.
"What d'ya have for us, Marc?" Autumn asked, ready to get to business.
"I thought I was right, but I had to look it up. The nest you're after is the one that killed his mom." Will's boots beat against the wooden planks on the floor steady as the drums of his forefathers, as he paced the floor in front of the fire. Marc shifted in his seat, Autumn slid a hand over his knee, knowing the feeling of losing your mother to something you couldn't fight. "Now, he's wanting to go on this hunt with ya. I've asked him to stay here with Teenie."
"No. Hell no!" Athena protested. "I'm going. You guys aren't leaving me here!"
"Athena look at it like this, if it were one of us with a broken leg you'd never let us go, right?" Autumn leveled with her sister.
"Then wait."
"Teenie, now you're just being selfish." the woman scolded her sister.
"Girls!" Will's voice snapped their spat like a whip. "If you'd let me finish." he continued when the pair had turned to look at him. "We don't know where they are. Marc's been working on that this week, but it's going to take a while."
"Not as long as it'll take to track anything else." Marc grinned. "There are only five nests in the western hemisphere. Three of those in North America, and only two in the Untied States. These two have divided the country off like two rival gangs in a city. There is the eastern nest and the western nest, lucky us, I know a lot about the western nest." There was unhidden malice in his eyes, Luther's boys had killed his mother and he'd never forgotten it. "Kudos to your daddy for killing their leader, but that does make it a little harder to track them."
"But you can still do it?" Sam asked.
"He said it was a little harder, Sam, not impossible." Will defended his friend.
"So what do you need?" Dean interjected before his brother and Will could start.
"I need the coordinates for their last nest, after that give me a couple of days and I'll have a list of their nests since then."
"They're like werewolves that way right?" Autumn questioned.
"Yes and no. Werewolves around here usually try to stay out of trouble, the vampires look for it. So, the werewolves make it top priority to move as soon as they get the human police on their asses. Vampires kick it up a notch and keep going until they lose someone important before leaving. That's why their numbers are so small. They're all idiots." Marc answered her.
"Okay," Will rang his hands, he was like Athena in that aspect they both need something to do at all times, ready for a fight. "Where do you want us until then?"
"Wait half a damn second!" Athena pushed herself up in her chair trying to make herself noticed.
"Athena, you don't have to swear so much." Autumn chided.
"I'm not two, Autty."
"What's wrong now, princess?" Will asked his ex.
"If I can't go you're not going."
"Baby, I'm going. Nobody hurts you and me not hurt them back." Will stopped his moving to sit in front of her on the coffee table.
"The vampires didn't hurt me, William." Athena grabbed for her crutches rocking out of the chair, putting as much distance between her and Will as possible.
"No, you're right. The vamps didn't hurt you but they hired someone to, and that's worse." he watched after her.
"Will, tables are for glasses not asses."
"Sorry." he stood up awkwardly.
"Is there anything else, Marc?" Autumn queried after getting onto the native.
"Yes, Gus and Andy say since Teenie can't work her shifts you need to pick them up."
"Marc, you can tell them I don't play barmaid."
"They said you'd say that, and said that if you didn't do it they'd show Dean the video." Autumn went stiff, nodding.
"I'll be there."
Will wrangled Sam and Dean into going out and training with him, which meant the three of them would be beating the life out of a bunch of poor first timers. Marc went straight to his room to start the search, after Dean had worked the coordinates out for him. Athena let her sister help her to the kitchen table where she continued working on her puzzle while the older Daemon went to start dinner.
"What video could a couple of bartenders have that would scare my fearless big sis?" Athena asked innocently. "A bad porno?"
"Yes, Teenie, when you and Will went on a salt'n'burn I made a porno with Duck." Autumn said cheekily pulling out a frying pan.
"Really, Duck? Can his hips even move anymore?" Autumn winced at the image this produced of the drunk and found a quick come back.
"Oh believe me he can move!"
"Eww! Autumn, that's totally disgusting!" Athena rubbed her eyes, "God, the images won't go away! Damn!" Autumn laughed at her sister's antics.
"Yea, can you imagine what goes on in my head? I thought it up."
"You poor thing. Would you like me to kill you?" Athena asked with genuine concern.
"No, I'll be okay." Autumn shook her head sadly and looking through the freezer.
"I won't, will you get me a shot of whiskey?… No, screw that, I need the whole bottle."
"No, kiddo, you have to live with that image."
"Why, what'd I do to you?"
"Nothing to me personally, but you could have been nicer to Will, he's just trying to help. He still cares about you."
"When we talked, back at the motel, he told me that he wanted to marry me." Athena confessed, she'd never told her sister what she and Will had talked about.
"I know, I helped him pick out the ring."
"You knew! You never told me, and you knew!?!"
"Well duh. Dude, I'm not going to run to you and tell you your boyfriend has an engagement ring and wants to get hitched."
"I'd tell you." Athena pouted.
"You just like to ruin my fun."
"Johnson, Strait, and Brooks, if you want to live through your first hunt you have to learn to run." Will said dropping his whistle.
"Dude, we've run five miles now. Give me a break." Strait complained.
"And you're running another one. You don't call your superior officer 'dude'." Dean pointed off in the direction of the makeshift track.
"Gawd this sucks." Strait panted before chugging down his water bottle and taking off running.
"Anyone else have a complaint?" Dean turned to the other boys. Johnson and Brooks both shook their heads.
"Sir, no. Sir." they saluted smartly. Sam shook his head, cascading droplets of sweat.
"At ease men." he walked up behind his brother, and Athena's ex. "Don't you think you're being a little hard on them?"
"No, dude." Will said indignantly. "They've got as much chance at surviving a hunt as a worm has crossing a driveway in the noon sun."
"Yea, Hiawatha, and we were better our first hunts?" Will balled up his fists and Dean stepped away from his brother.
"Hiawatha? That's good. That's really good." Will turned stepping closer to Sam. "You want to tell me how your first hunt went? Because mine I ended up knocked on my ass and would have been dead had Jen not stepped in. I'd bet my last breath that you weren't any better. It's our damn job to teach these maggots to do better than us!" They were in each other's faces now, and Sam wasn't backing down.
"You learn from your mistakes and no body goes out alone their first time."
"That demon that killed your mom and pretty little girl toy ain't the only bad ass out there. He's stirring up everything!"
Sam drew back and decked Will. Tackling him to the ground, the other man didn't take it kindly, hitting back. Neither paid attention to the crowd just trying to beat the shit out of the other. Brooks ran for Jen, and Dean tried to get in, with out getting himself hit, to drag his brother out. Will managed to pin Sam, smashing his fist into the taller man's face. Sam flipped him over his head, providing Dean with the perfect opportunity to drag his brother out.
"Sammy! Stop!" he wrapped his arms around his brother to keep Sam from hitting anything else. "Johnson, take Will in to Jen. Everyone else!" Dean started half carrying Sam back to the cabin. "Show's over."
"What the hell happened to you?" Athena was up out of her chair and hobbling to the freezer for ice the moment she saw Sam.
"College-boy decided to fight Will." Dean shoved his brother into Athena's vacated chair.
"Autumn, bring the first aid kit in here!" Athena yelled bringing Sam the ice for his eye.
"I don't need it, Autty!" Sam hollered over her.
"Sam," Athena sighed sitting down next to him and gingerly touching the cut over his left eye. Sam hissed but didn't pull away. "What were you thinking?"
"He wasn't." Dean wouldn't even look at his brother. "What is going on with you two? Will's a good guy, he's one of the few hunters I've met who has his head on straight."
"He's just like your dad." Autumn said coming in the room, kit-less. "He thinks by leaving the people he cares about most he'll keep them safe, and that insane drills will make you strong enough to survive anything." She went straight for the oven where she was baking potatoes, too lazy to peel and mash them today.
"Let him talk." Athena cupped Sam's face in her hand taking the ice to hold it for him. "You're hair is nasty, Sammy." she teased brushing away his bangs to get better access to his forehead.
"Dean go cool off. Take a shower or something, you stink." she poked the potato, she'd extracted from the oven, with a fork. "Athena, after you're done icing Sammy down could you put your puzzle away?"
"No, Sammy and I worked hard on this." she nodded toward the still incomplete puzzle.
A/N: Leave a review and I promise there will be more Sam/Will angst.