A/N: For those who are wondering, yes, my camp was GREAT! I central Australia is AWESOME! I was the only girl in my group to get to the top of Mount Sonda! And some idiots decided to see who could last the longest in 'Ellery Creek Big Hole'. The water was freezing and they became a legend while we were there. We had people walking up to us, asking who the five people where that had stayed in for 32 minutes: we had to leave after that time, otherwise they would have stayed in for much longer.
For anyone planning to go to central Australia, I give you the thumbs up. If you are planning on going on any walks or hikes, I would recommend going between May and September as that's when it's the coolest (tempeture wise).
LucyMariWinchester:
Thank you so much for reading! I'm glad you like Alex. I like her too, and I'm trying to update as quickly as I can.poolboyjackson: Once again, I thank you for reading! It's great to know I have at least a few people reading! As far as I know, you're the only one who's picked up on the lines, so I would like to say you know your Supernatural very well. my Beta's got me fixing that up, and she'll begin to become more of a pronounced figure as this goes on (I hope). I have a few more ideas for stories, but I'm trying to keep my focus on this one, but thanks for the tip!
Disclaimer:
I don't own Supernatural nor do I own Sam or Dean. I am, however, addicted to their show.Beta: Wingedteen
Defiance
Reunion. After an aging spook hunter falls prey to the vampires he thought he had long ago destroyed, John Winchester joins his sons (meeting Alex) to battle the bloodsuckers- and retrieve an unearthly gun they possess.
Dead Man's Blood
Manning, Colorado.
Alex sighed and threw the paper down on the table in frustration. She'd combed the damn thing for any sign of paranormal activity for the past hour, and the closest thing she'd found was someone teaching deaf puppies obedience. Not exactly a sign of the boogie man. Sam and Dean, after their last case, had decided that she had enough experience to search for things without their help. She was feeling restless, sitting in the little shop, and was itching to do something, anything, rather the stay here for much longer, looking for a hunt.
"All, right, either of you got anything? I sure as hell don't." she asked, itching to tear the paper up now that she'd read it. But that wasn't saying much, considering she'd been stopping herself from destroying it before she'd even gotten to page ten. After a few weeks on the job, Alex knew she'd rather be kicking whatever supernatural butt they were after at the time, but she valued the information they got from research. That didn't mean that if she had half a chance, she wouldn't leave it all up to Sam, though.
"Not a decent lead in all of Nebraska. What do you got?" Dean folded his paper and placed it onto the table, showing much more restraint then Alex had. They both turned to Sam, who had been searching on his laptop, and may have had the better time of them all, knowing what to look for.
"Well, I've been scanning Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota. Here, a woman in Lowa fell ten thousand feet from an airplane and survived." Sam read from one of the pages he'd found. Alex and Dean shared a look at the story, trying not to make Sam feel like a fool.
"Doesn't sound like our kind of gig." Alex responded. Sam and Dean had started to value her input, as, after hunting for the Striga, she generally knew what was up.
"Sounds more 'That's Incredible' than, 'Twilight Zone'." Dean agreed, adding in his usual flare.
"Yeah." Sam took their point turning back to his screen.
"Hey, you know, we could, uh—we could just keep it in the east. New York, upstate. We could stop by and see Sarah again, huh? She's a cool chick, man—smokin'." Dean whistled, reminding them of what he thought of the girl. "You two seemed pretty friendly. What do you say?" Sarah had been on a previous hunt, her father being an art dealer who sold a painting that was killing people. Obviously, she hadn't known at the time, but by the time they'd left, she'd been clued into the darker side of the world. She and Sam had hit it off, both having similar experiences in different circumstances. Alex and Dean had, at one point, both told Sam to marry her at the same time.
Laughing at the idea, Sam nodded. "Yeah, maybe, someday. But in the meantime, we've got a lot of work to do, Dean, and you know that." Dean and Alex shared a look, both rolling their eyes at Sam a moment later.
"Fine then, Romeo, what else you find?" Alex asked, knowing that if she'd had anything to do with Dean's earlier comment, Sam would have included her.
"Uh, Manning, Colorado—a local man by the name of Daniel Elkins was found mauled in his home." Once again, Sam read off the computer. Alex took a peek at the screen, seeing five open windows on his laptop.
"Elkins? I know that name." Dean turned to Alex, noticing that she didn't have a look of recognition on her face as well. "Surprised you don't Alex. You're the one who's been pokin' 'round in dad's journal the most."
Alex shrugged at the eldest brother. She'd been copying out things on the creatures he'd written about in his book, skipping the newspaper articles and the diary-like parts. Dean pulled out the journal and leafed though it, looking for something only he remembered.
"It sounds like the police don't know what to think. At first, they said it was some sort of bear attack, and now, they found signs of robbery." Sam summarised the article he'd been reading, knowing that Dean was listening, and Alex was probably getting impatient. She'd practiced her powers more than she normally had in their last hunt, and she now had a firm grip on how to use them.
"Mm-hmm." Dean made sure that Sam knew he'd been listening to the babble of information. After a few pages, he came across what he'd been looking for. He turned the journal around so Alex and Sam could see it, pointing out what he'd found. "Here. Check it out."
Alex leaned forward to see what Dean was showing them. At the top of the page, above T. Eradferd and K. Jonson was a D. Elkins. His number followed, the 970 555 0150 somehow standing out on the paper.
"Same guy?" Alex asked, staring at the page. She knew Sam and Dean's dad had a lot of connections, and he'd given them more than a little help in their hunts, so she wasn't sure who the hell this guy was or how he would be helpful.
"It's a Colorado area code." They exchanged glances, before rushing out of the diner they'd been in, practically diving into the Impala in their haste to get on the road.
The house, when they pulled up, was covered in snow, and dark, slightly run down. Alex was the first to the door, her new hunting instincts getting her hand to fall to the gun on her hidden belt. She opened it, seeing nothing and turned in time to catch a torch Sam had thrown her way.
Moving in sync with each other, to the learnt rhythm that they'd formed in their few hunts together, Dean went in first, Alex following not far behind. She went her own way once they were inside, treading quietly, though there seemed to be no reason to do so. Sam took a look around the rest of the house while Dean poked around in what appeared to be Elkins' office. He picked up a leather bound book, one that could have been from a matching set of his dad's. He opened it, flipping through, noticing the news clippings that were stuck in.
"Hey, there's salt over here—right inside the door." Sam called out. Alex froze at the door to one of the rooms, the place this Elkins guy was most likely killed. Papers were strewn across the floor, adding to the mess of everything else that had been in the room. The only thing that hadn't been turned to rubble was a plain desk, and a few choice things on top of it. Glass scattered the room and something that looked like a bookshelf had fallen on one of the walls.
"You mean, like, protection-against-demons salt, or, uh, 'Oops, I spilled the popcorn' salt?" Dean asked, still flipping through the news paper clippings that filled the book.
"It's clearly a ring. You think this guy, Elkins, was a player?" Sam looked up from his crouched position on the floor, where he'd been inspecting the ring of protection.
"Definitely." Dean answered, staring at Elkin's journal. He'd stopped to read one of the notes scribbled inside, noticing the paranormal take on things.
"That looks a hell of a lot like Dad's." Sam voiced Dean's thoughts as he came up behind him, looking at the clippings. He was too far away to make out what Dean saw, so he didn't notice what Dean was staring at.
"Yeah, except this dates back to the sixties." Dean answered, staring at the date on the page. Alex rolled her eyes at the boy's stupidity. The way they were talking, you'd have thought they were the only hunters in the world.
"Well, when you both stop reminiscing about the good ol' times with your dad, you might want to get your asses over here." She called. Sam and Dean shared a look, knowing Alex didn't exactly have a high opinion of their father. But she was a hunter on the job, and a friend off of it.
They found her looking around them at the destroyed room. Alex hadn't taken a step in, not sure if she would destroy anything the boys might see. She was getting good at what they did, but she was no where near their level yet. The brothers looked around at what was left of the room, Sam noting the glass. There weren't any windows on the walls, so he looked up, trying to find where it had come from. Two windows had shattered inwards; the broken frames a testimony to that.
"Whatever attacked him, it looks like there was more than one." Alex and Dean followed his torch light, seeing the windows they'd missed.
"Looks like he put up a hell of a fight, too." Dean added, eyeing the room. They stepped into the mess that littered the floor, every scrap of flooring they found a rare treasure. Dean went to the desk, while Alex went to the far side of the room, looking for any clue on what had attacked the man.
She turned around when Dean crouched, attuned to the brothers' movements as she was. He ran his fingers across the floor, the rubble hiding whatever it was he was looking at from her gaze.
"What'd you find?" she called over. Dean glanced up towards her, spinning to look at Sam as well. Sam was looking at Dean, just the way Alex was, wanting to know what had caught his attention.
"I don't know, just some scratches in the floor." Dean responded. He looked around, among the crap scattered around him, looking for a pencil and paper to make sure.
"Death throes, maybe?" Sam asked, thinking of the pain before death. In a severe state of agony, people do strange things just before they die. He may have just clawed at the floor, producing scratches in a useless attempt to get away from the pain.
"Yeah, maybe." Finally finding what he'd been looking for, Dean threw the paper over the top of the scratch marks and ran the pencil over the top of them, copying what ever was there. After a while, he pulled the paper off and looked at it carefully, reading what was there. "Or maybe a message." He handed the paper to Sam, Alex being too far away for him. She headed back to look at the paper. "Look familiar?" Dean asked.
"Three letters, six digits—the location and combination of a post office box. It's a mail drop." Sam summarised looking at the message in confusion, remembering their dad doing the same thing. Alex looked at it, not seeing anything but a bunch of random numbers and letters.
"That's just the way Dad does it." Dean agreed. Alex understood the reason the brothers seemed to be so incredulous. Still not seeing anything, she followed the boys out the door, grabbing the book that could have been mistaken for the one she'd just recently finished copying. She was used to looking for any extra information- after all, she didn't even know half the stuff they did. Dean noticed the book and rolled his eyes.
"Well, at least I'll have more information than you." She replied.
They slipped out of the Impala in front of a post office, Alex taking watch while the boys went to get whatever it was they were breaking in for. A few minutes later, they slipped back into the Impala, showing a letter to Alex. Initials stated the letter was addressed to a 'J.W.'
"J.W.—you think? John Winchester?" Sam asked. Alex shrugged. Honestly, she hadn't known the significance of the letters until Sam had spoken.
"I don't know. Should we open it?" a loud knock on Dean's window made them all jump and Alex's hand went to the hidden gun on her belt. As a look of recognition fell across Dean's face, Alex pulled her hand away, wanting to have the element of surprise should she need it. "Dad?" Dean asked, making the man smile. As he tuned to sit in the back with Alex, Sam sent her a feeling of calm at the same time as sharing a confused look with Dean.
"Dad, what are you doing here? Are you all right?"
"Yeah. I'm okay. Look, I read the news about Daniel. I got here as fast as I could. I saw you up at his place. Who's she?" John jerked his head in Alex's direction, and she rested her hand where her silver knife sat, still concealed. She ducked her head down and hid she glare behind her hair, fairly sure that the man across from her would see it as an act of defiance. In a way, it was, but she'd rather not have to attack this man, as he was obviously someone special to Sam and Dean.
"Why didn't you come in, Dad?" Sam asked, ignoring the question and thinking about how close their dad had been. It annoyed him to think that he didn't trust them enough to let them know he was there.
"You know why—because I had to make sure you weren't followed, by anyone, or anything. Nice job of covering your tracks, by the way." Dean nodded, gratefully, taking the compliment from their father.
"Yeah, well, we learnt from the best." Dean replied. John jerked his head at Alex before speaking again.
"And then you brought along baggage. Who is she?" Alex threw her arm out to punch John, but Sam, anticipating her reaction, grabbed her before her fist collided with his father's face.
"There's this thing called courtesy. Maybe you should look into it." Alex hissed at him. John turned in his seat to look at Alex, taking in her appearance, and seemed surprised by it. She was half hidden in the shadow of the car, eyes burning behind the darkness that hid them. Alex ignored the look, forgetting about it as soon as it disappeared from his face.
"Ok, what's your name?" Sam and Dean looked at each other in astonishment. No one had ever talked to their dad like that, and they were sure that she wasn't going to get away with it. Alex's eyes blazed with triumph, as she saw she'd won a small piece of this guy's respect.
"Alexandra Bashter." She replied, relaxing, but never moving her hand from the knife in her belt. Sam noticed it, but as he understood her reasoning, didn't call her out. If John told them to ditch her, there was no doubt in Sam's mind that Dean would do as he said without a second thought.
"Wait, so, you came all the way out here for this Elkins guy?" Sam asked, pulling to a safer subject, trying to keep Alex with them. She relaxed back into her seat, in a pose Sam knew. She looked like she could sleep like that, but her body was tense, ready to move if need be. John turned back to Sam and Dean in the front of the car, ignoring Alex, and Sam was sure she preferred it that way.
"Yeah. He was… he was a good man. He taught me a hell of a lot about hunting." John answered, sadly. Sam and Dean exchanged a look, trying to think of the guy.
"You never mentioned him to us." Sam realised finally. Dean and Alex looked at each other, Alex remembered a warning Dean had given her a while ago.
"Look, Alex, if you're gonna stay here, I'll be the first to tell you. Sammy and dad don't get along so well. I might need your help, stopping them from ripping each other's throats out."
Alex nodded at Dean, letting him know she remembered the cautionary words. She'd back him up if he needed it.
"We had, uh….we had kind of a falling out. I hadn't seen him in years." The eldest Winchester still sounded sad, but Alex couldn't see herself warming up to him. "I should look at that." John nodded to Dean, and he took the letter out of his pocket, handing it to his dad. John took the letter out of the envelope and Alex saw a lot of crap mentioning a gun. John read the beginning of the letter before realising what the rest of it said. "'If you're reading this, I'm already dead.' That son of a bitch."
"What is it?" Dean asked, surprised by his dad's outburst.
"He had it the whole time."
"Dad, what?" Sam asked not seeming to understand why his dad was acting like that. The one real line Alex had been able to read before John had moved it was: it can kill anything.
"When you searched the place, did you see a gun? An antique—a Colt revolver, did you see it?" John seemed anxious about this. He put the paper into his pocket, hiding it from Alex's view. She was sure he hadn't noticed her peeking at it over his shoulder.
"Uh, there was an old case, but it was empty." Dean thought back to the trashed room they'd only just left. The case had room for extra bullets, more than the five that could fit into a colt revolver, but there had been no bullets scattered on the floor that he remembered. Alex watched passively, trying to understand what had just happened.
"They have it." John seemed horrified at the thought. Sam, Alex and Dean shared looks of confusion, and John didn't miss it.
"You mean, whatever killed Elkins?" Dean asked, trying to get information. He knew that, out of the three of them, he was the most likely to succeed. John obviously didn't trust Alex and he argued with Sam more than anyone else Dean and seen.
"We've got to pick up the trail." John declared as he got out of the car. Surprised, Alex watched as John got out o the car and walked to his truck, parked behind them.
"Wait." John walked back to the Dean's window. Dean rolled it down, and Sam asked the question Alex could see burning in Dean's eyes. "You want us to come with you?"
"If Elkins was tellin' the truth, we've got to find this gun." John answered. Alex nodded to herself, letting the pieces fall into place. From what she'd seen of the letter, she was fairly sure that she knew what was going on. Sam noticed her nod, and decided to talk to her about it later. He didn't want to alert his dad to Alex, didn't want John to think she was even more of a risk to keep around.
"The gun? Why?"
"Because it's important, that's why."
"Dad, we don't even know what these things are yet." Sam tried to reason with their dad, but he seemed to already be on his own case.
"They were what Daniel Elkins killed best—vampires." Alex pulled the other journal out from under the seat in front of her and began flipping through it. Sure enough, one of the first things in there was vampires.
"Vampires? I thought there was no such thing." Dean exclaimed. Alex watched the interaction between the family with interest. This was a side of the brothers she'd never seen. They had someone telling them what to do, and, by the look of it, they were going to follow.
"You never even mentioned them, Dad." Sam agreed
"I thought they were extinct. I thought Elkins and others had wiped 'em out."
"Well, guess what. You were wrong." Alex growled from the back seat. John once again surprised Dean and Sam by ignoring her, and walking to his truck, calling out for them to follow. As Dean started the car and began to follow, Alex turned to Sam and Dean, incredulous. "So, wait, let me get this straight. It took Sam nineteen years to rebel against him, and you still haven't, Dean?" Alex asked. Sam and Dean shared a glance.
"Alex, he's our dad. Other than Dean, he's my only family left." Sam defended. Alex shook her head.
"I don't care who he is, I'm gonna rip his head off if he continues to treat me like that!" Alex cried. At Dean and Sam's worried glance, Alex sighed. "Figure of speech, guys." Sam and Dean visibly relaxed, and Sam turned to Alex, remembering that she may have been able to see the letter.
"So, what's going on?" Sam asked. Alex smiled, shrugging. She could tell that Dean was frustrated with Sam, and how he didn't seem inclined to become a sheep and follow the flock.
"Something to do with the gun." Alex responded. Sam waited for the rest of the information, knowing she knew more than she was letting on. "I didn't see much. I think most of the letter was yabbering on about the gun though: how and when it was made. But there was one line that caught my eye." Dean had shifted in this seat, his interest rising. Alex smiled and flicked her eyes to him, letting Sam know he was listening. Sam and Alex stayed silent until Dean sighed, realising they'd caught him.
"What'd it say?" Dean asked. Alex smiled in triumph, as Sam's brows rose, asking the same question.
"It wasn't much. Four words, actually, and I'm not sure if I've put this together properly. But if I'm right, this gun can kill anything." Alex responded. Sam and Dean looked at each other as John pulled into a motel. Dean eased the Impala in behind John, and they got adjoining rooms, having four people instead of three. Alex claimed a bed, glad to have one again. For the time she'd been hunting, she'd been sleeping on the floor, not that she was complaining. The floor was fine, but she missed the soft mattresses.
"So, what do you know about vampires." Alex asked once everyone was in the room. John turned to her, surprised that she seemed to have temporarily taken control. Generally, the lead shifted between them: Sam and Dean holding it more often then not.
"Most vampire lore is crap. A cross won't repel them, sunlight won't kill them, and neither will a stake to the heart. But the bloodlust—that part's true. They need fresh human blood to survive. They were once people, so you won't know it's a vampire until it's too late."
"Ok, so, how are we going to find them?" Alex asked. John shook his head, and Alex resisted the urge to roll her eyes. He was starting to piss her off, what with the fact that he didn't trust her.
"I'll find them. I just need you for backup." John told the younger hunters. Alex shook her head and popped her shoes off her feet.
"I'm sick of hearing this crap. 'Night." Alex said before rolling into the bed she'd claimed. John watched impassively, Sam noting that she was only faking being asleep. Understanding, he acted like she was asleep, shaking his head at Dean to let him know.
"Amateur." John said after half an hour had passed and he was sure Alex was dead to the world. "She shouldn't be so at ease with me here. She doesn't know who I am." Sam and Dean exchanged a look, Sam hiding a smirk that the 'amateur' was fooling the professional.
"You don't trust her." Sam answered his dad's searching gaze. John shook his head, not knowing how long Alex had been with his boys and not liking it either way.
"You shouldn't either. Why's she with you, anyway?" John responded. Sam snickered, thinking about how to phrase his answer.
"The demon killed her sister." Dean beat Sam to the punch on one of the reasons. John watched his sons, knowing, from Sam's reaction to the question, that there was more to it.
"She'd have been safer with the rest of her family." John pushed for the rest of the story. Sam looked up at John's apparent lack of concern. The bowl behind him lifted and Sam sent a warning to Alex through their link. The bowl settled silently, and Alex sent Sam an apology.
"The rest of her family died." Sam didn't elaborate on how that had happened. He let his father come to his own conclusion on that. "We heard her screams and managed to get her out."
"That doesn't explain why she's here." John retaliated, knowing there was something they were keeping out of their story.
"Dean lost a bet." Sam's smirk was painted on Alex's face and she struggled to keep one of her own off her face as well. John looked at his watch, sighing.
"Why don't you boys get some sleep. I'll wake you when something happens." John sat on the other bed in the room, his point getting across. Dean and Sam headed into the other room, leaving the door open. If something happened, they wanted to know about it. Although he was trying to hide it, Dean was beginning to get protective of Alex.
Alex stayed where she was, listening to Sam and Dean leaving. She knew she'd placed herself in slight danger for information, but she hadn't found anything out really. She settled herself down to actually go to sleep, and John sighed.
"Could it really be her, Mary?" he breathed. Sensing something near her face, Alex's hand shot out and grabbed John's wrist just before his hand made contact with her skin. It hadn't been anything menacing, rather, she was fairly sure it was the opposite.
"I'm no amateur." Alex hissed quietly at the Winchester. John nodded, conceding the point and Alex rolled over, happy that her point had been made.
"Unit twenty-two, let me confirm. Mile marker forty-one, abandoned car. You need a workup?"
"Copy that. Possible two-oh-seven. Better get Forensics out here."
Alex opened her eyes as John turned the walkie-talkie off. He'd found the police's frequency on it, and had been listening to it, hoping to get something on their vampires. Seeing Alex awake, John threw her coat at in her direction before disappearing into the boys' room.
"Sam, Dean, let's go. Picked up a police call." Alex wondered how he'd managed to wake them up without a knife or bullet for his trouble. She'd been trying to do that for weeks now. She got out of the warm covers with a moan of regret and pulled her boots on.
"What happened?" Sam's sleepy voice echoed through the room loud enough for Alex to hear, and she wondered the same thing. Sure, she'd heard the last part of what John had been listening to, but that didn't mean she understood what the hell they'd said.
"A couple called 911. They found a body in the street. Cops got there, everyone was missing. It's the vampires." Alex checked her belt of weapons, making sure they were all in good order. She hadn't taken them off like she normally did, not wanting to let John know about them yet and her body wasn't going to let her forget it.
"How do you know?"
"Just follow me, okay?" John left through the boy's door. Hearing the truck start, Alex scrambled to piece together something that even Dean would at least recognize as breakfast. She tried finding coffee, thinking it would help Dean even if he had to eat the beans straight, but there was nothing close to the reviving stuff.
As they rumbled down the road, Dean's familiar music playing, Alex handed out the rations she'd been able to grab. Once done, she chewed on the muesli bar as she copied the information that was in Elkins's journal into her own. Like John's, this was mostly possible hunts and newspaper clippings.
She looked up as the distinct rumbling of the engine slowed, and stopped. John got out of his truck, parked behind them, and met them at the hood of the Impala.
"Look, I want you three to stay here, you got that?" John waited until everyone had nodded before moving off to talk to the 'big, bad' police. Alex shook her head at the man and joined the brothers, leaning on Dean's pride and joy.
"I don't see why we couldn't have gone over with him." Sam complained. Alex rolled her eyes, not used to this side of Sam. Dean, however, seemed to know it really well, and seemed to be grieving the Sam that Alex had come to know.
"Oh, don't tell me it's already starting." Dean complained. Knowing what he was referring to, Alex nodded her head glumly.
"Yeah, probably." Alex agreed.
"What's starting?" Sam looked back and forth between them, not understanding what they were referring to. Instead of answering, Dean turned to their dad as he came back.
"What do you got?" Dean asked. Alex kept her head down as the words John had murmured before she'd grabbed his wrist flickered through her mind. Could it really be her, Mary? She hadn't thought about it before she'd slept, spent as she was. The words came filtering back into her consciousness at the familiar look that passed over John's face that mirrored the one she'd seen last night. Having no idea who Mary was, she decided she'd ask Sam later, as he was the one that was more likely to answer her.
"It was them, all right. Looks like they're headin' west. We're gonna have to double back to get around that detour." John looked in the direction they'd come before turning to the one they needed to go in.
"How can you be so sure?" Sam asked, and Alex sighed. Oh yeah, Dean had been right to warn her. If she was to judge things, she'd have said that she was surprised they hadn't blown up already. The wick had been lit, and it was just a matter of time before it got to the bomb.
"Sam-" Dean tried to warn Sam off the subject, but Sam cut him off.
"I just wanna know we're goin' in the right direction."
"We are." John seemed sure about it and, for now, Alex ok with following his lead.
"How do you know?" Sam was challenging John, refusing to be a sheep. He'd follow, sure, but he wouldn't do it blindly. He needed information, proof that it was a good idea. Sure, when he was little, he followed unquestioningly, but back then, he didn't know any better. Sam held his father's gaze before John dropped it to pull something out of his pocket.
"I found this." John responded, holding the small object out. Dean took it and Alex stepped forward, trying to see what it was. White, long and sharp, it resembled a canine tooth, only on a smaller scale.
"It's a vampire fang." Dean was surprised at the thing; after all, yesterday he'd believed that vampires never even existed.
"No fangs—teeth. The second set descends when they attack." John corrected his oldest son. He levelled his gaze at Sam, sending the challenge right back. "Any more questions?" Sam didn't say anything, but Alex noticed the tell-tale twitch that told her his jaw was clenched. She rolled her eyes and sent him a calming feeling that he threw off. Once John was sure his youngest was dealt with, he continued. "All right, let's get out of here, we're losin' daylight." John began to walk back to his car, turning back almost half way there, almost as though he'd had an after thought. "Hey, Dean, why don't you touch up your car before you get rust? I wouldn't have given you the damn thing if I thought you were gonna ruin it."
Alex turned to Dean, not sure what to expect. He shrugged his shoulders in a way that told her he was surprised. Alex got into the car, knowing that John had been unfair to Dean. She didn't know anyone who took care of their car half as much as he did. For whatever reason, Dean got in shotgun, while Sam drove. She had a feeling that it might be Dean's way of trying to get Sam to burn off some steam.
After a while of silence, Sam turned to Alex, flicking his gaze to the road every few seconds, seeing her writing in her book, copying from the dead hunter's journal. The only other person they'd seen on the road so far had been their dad. Feeling his gaze, Alex looked up and smiled at him, not sure what he was looking at.
"What have you found?" Alex raised an eyebrow and turned back to Elkins's journal. Flipping through a few pages, she sighed and rubbed her eyes.
"Alright, let's see… uh, first off, they're called a nest of vampires. Or, according to this, they are. They send smaller packs out hunting for food. Those they find, they take back to the nest and they keep these poor souls alive, drinking from them for days or weeks." Alex sighed, rubbed her eyes again and flipped though a few more pages, getting back to where she'd been reading. "That's all I've got so far."
"I wonder if that's what happened to that 911 couple." Dean tried to keep the conversation in safe grounds: vampires. He shook his head, laughing inwardly. What normal people thought was an insane topic, he took as safe.
"That's probably what Dad's thinking. Of course, it would be nice if he just told us what he thinks." Sam growled. Alex sighed in exasperation at Sam's single-mindedness. It was annoying her, and it had barely been a day. She had to give it to Dean: he'd had one hell of a childhood. Between the hunting, having the weight of protecting Sam and this, she had no idea how he came out of it sane. She was fairly sure that she'd have killed one of them at least by now, especially with her abilities. She winced at the thought as she remembered killing her own dad and sister. She wasn't sure how she managed that, as right now, she could barely lift a bowl. When she looked back, however, she seemed to feel another presence, one that she hadn't felt when she was actually there. She'd put that down to knowing the demon had killed her sister and was trying to pin the rest of the killings on him.
"So, it is starting." Dean looked at Sam, knowing full well that his dad and Sam would be at each other's throats. He'd just thought it'd take longer. He'd gotten between them before, but the last time he'd done that, Sam had been nineteen. He was thankful that he had Alex by his side now. He had help.
"What?" Sam shifted, uncomfortable under his brother's gaze.
"Sam, we've been lookin' for Dad all year. Now we're not with him for more than a couple of hours, and there's static already?" Dean was disbelieving, but he knew that he should have expected this. After all, it's what they'd been doing for as long as he remembered.
"No. Look, I'm happy he's okay, all right? And I'm happy that we're all workin' together again." Sam responded. Alex knew there was a but… coming, and, apparently, so did Dean.
"Good." He cut in before Sam could go on.
"It's just the way he treats us like we're children. He barks orders at us, Dean, he expects us to follow him without question. He keeps us on some crap need-to-know deal." Sam ranted. Alex rolled her eyes through it, although she agreed with him, she wasn't that frustrated with it. True, it wasn't like she expected any better, but she thought he'd at least tell his sons what the hell was going on.
"He does what he does for a reason." Dean tried to soothe his younger brother, holding back his own frustration. For once, just once, he wanted not to have to get in between Sam and John. He'd stopped the arguments from turning to blows countless times, using force more times than not.
"What reason?" Sam demanded of his brother. He couldn't believe Dean was defending John. Not after hunting on their own for a year, looking for him for a good part of it. Hell, they'd practically picked up their own protégé along the way.
"Our job! There's no time to argue, there's no margin for error, all right, it's just the way the old man runs-" Dean remind Sam. Alex closed Elkins's journal, thinking it'd be good for smacking the Winchesters over the head. It was full of paper, and, while she'd prefer a hardcover, this was the best she had.
"Yeah, well, maybe that worked when we were kids, but not anymore, all right? Not after everything you and I have been through, Dean. I mean, are you tellin' me you're cool with just fallin' into line and lettin' him run the whole show?" Alex shook her head at Sam, knowing he didn't want the real answer, not the one Dean would give him.
Dean was silent for a moment, long enough for Sam to have already guessed his answer. "If that's what it takes." Sam turned back to the road, shaking his head. Alex sighed, and put the books down, getting comfortable in the back seat. While they were ignoring each other, she may as well take advantage of the quiet to get some sleep. It was going to be a long hunt, she could tell that much, between having next to no information and the Winchesters arguing.
A/N: I would like to give a huge, massive,super-human and paranormal
thank youto Wingedteen for her giftfic 'Just one of Those Days'. (remove spaces ) http: /www. fanfiction. net/s/6199324/1/