A/N: Alrighty, loves, we just got the first taste of the Great White Death, here. At least first of the season. It's only 9 degrees with the windsheild out there, so warm my heart with some reviews please and maybe I won't become Frosty when I walk the dog.
Chapter Three
It was barely two hours later that the four hunters were on the road again, John tucked into the back seat of the Mustang. Autumn pushed through the night and was set to keep driving through the day after they stopped for a quick breakfast, but Dean insisted that Athena take the wheel and she sleep for a while. The drive from Montana to Kentucky seemed to take years, though it was just short of a week.
"Do we know what room she's in?" Athena asked shutting the car door, after tucking her gun in the back of her jeans.
"No," Autumn said her face falling. "I didn't think to ask."
"Okie dokie artie chokie." Athena bounced around to her sister's side of the car. "We'll grab a couple of rooms here, that way we're close by. Then someone can come down later and sneak a peak at the books."
"Where are the boys anyway?" Autumn asked looking around the parking lot.
"Stopped at the first gas station." Athena said dismissively. "Are we stopping to see the girls on our way out?" Autumn shrugged.
"Let's just find out what's going on before we start planning what to do afterward."
"Chicken."
"Bak, bak, bak." Autumn grinned rolling her eyes.
"Let's get those rooms Henny Penny." Athena laughed leading her sister toward the door.
Autumn let Athena handle the clerk, muttering under her breath about finding the percentage of hotel and motel clerks that go off their rocker. Athena got two double rooms on the second level, sliding a fake credit card and ID across the counter.
"You seen any scary lookin' women in here lately?" the man behind the counter looked up from his computer.
"Scary how?" he asked eyeing her.
"A friend of ours passed through here about a week ago, her hubby's a trucker and came back wasted." Athena shook her head sadly. "We're trying to tail her get her out to our folks until we can get the courts to do something about the bastard." the balding clerk shifted in his seat.
"I'm not supposed to tell you this, but… could you describe your girl for me?"
"About my height, black hair, hooked nose with a wart on the end of it."
"With hair in it right? She sort of looks like the Wicked Witch only not green?" Athena nodded.
"That's our girl."
"She's holed up in A 6." he grimaced. "But I didn't say it." Athena smiled batting her eyes.
"Of course, babe. Not a word." she picked up the cards slid them in her pocket, then tossed Autumn the keys. "Thanks."
"No problem Darlin'." Athena steered Autumn out, waiting until they were out of sight to punch the air.
"Who is being the bomb?!" she asked dancing around her sister.
"You are being the bomb, Squirt." Autumn slugged Athena in the shoulder. "Now," she hopped up on the trunk of her car. "We wait for the boys."
"Get your ass down, we're gonna take our stuff to our room, and get Johnny settled before he devours the back seat." Athena tugged her sister off the back of the car. "Then Sister dear, we'll go check out A 6." Sam and Dean arrived as the girls were coming out of their room fifteen minutes later.
"You are next door." Autumn said dropping the keys over the railing for Dean to catch.
"Did you find her?" He asked passing with his bags.
"Got a room number." Autumn answered.
"I got the number, Red." Athena reminded her sister pulling her hair.
"Tiny, only Dad gets to call me Red."
"Whatever." Athena shrugged. "So, you boys set? Can we go check Sage out?"
"Yea, what room?" Sam asked closing the motel door.
Autumn knocked on the door pressing close to it. There was no sound inside. She tired knocking again, still no answer. Sam knelt down and picked the lock, despite Athena insisting she could just go ask the clerk for the key. The four hunters entered the dead silence of the motel room hesitantly, guns withdrawn.
"Sage?" Dean called. No one was surprised at nothingness that reached their ears. From the corner of his eye Dean caught Autumn start to fidget. "Aut, check the bathroom?" he moved toward the tiny bathroom off the bedroom, and she followed.
"She's not here, Dean." Autumn told him before she even opened the door. Sure enough the bathroom was empty. The only thing out of the ordinary was a slip of paper folded up on the sink.
"What's that?" he nodded to the paper. He moved letting her slide in and get the note.
"Hey girls, You just burst into my room ready to blow the whole world away, right? See I know you. Meet me at the bar down on Stephen. Don't bring your lap dogs, just Mouth and Blondie. Sage" Autumn read aloud.
"That don't sound like our Sage." Athena and Sam had walked over to the older pair.
"She hasn't called us by our names at all." Autumn said wrapping her arms around herself.
"You're not going alone." Sam said. Dean nodded his agreement.
"No, you aren't." Dean took the note from Autumn. "You have anything with her handwriting on it?"
"I don't know, I think that stuff she gave me for the burns has her writing on it." Autumn furrowed her brow trying to think.
"Guys, lets get back to one of the rooms before we get caught breaking and entering."
"We didn't break anything." Dean pointed out.
"Dean."
"I'm just saying, Teenie."
Autumn dug the first aid kit out of her trunk and joined the others in her motel room. Athena was draped across on of the beds hanging upside down, Dean had out the phone book and was looking for the name of the bar, and Sam was leaning against the wall just inside the door.
"Sam, sit and relax." she told him as she entered dropping on the bed next to her sister. Autumn sifted through the jars of salves, tubes of ointments, bottles of aspirin, and sandwich bags of Band-Aids before coming up with the container from Sage. "Here." she tossed Dean the cream.
"Sam, you're good at this." he handed his brother the jar and note for inspection. Sam looked at the two handwriting samples. "They match?"
"Close, but no cigar." Sam sighed. "So, someone is pretending to be Sage."
"Aut, what did she say again?" Dean asked.
"Umm a man that looked like Rick, barged into her house, attacked her, she barely got away." Autumn repeated for the millionth time since they'd left the cabin.
"Are you positive she didn't mention why Rick was back?" Athena mimicked so many previous conversations.
"Rick isn't back. You don't come back from the dead."
"So what's going on, Sis?" Athena sat up and steadied herself.
"Teenie, if I knew that I'd tell you, I swear." Autumn said defeated.
"Ladies," Dean interjected.
"We know, stop fighting, got it Dad." Athena rolled her eyes.
"No, I was going to ask if you're up for a beer."
"Totally." Athena grinned hopping up from the bed. "Just let us grab a shower, sitting in that damn car of hers makes you feel very dirty."
"Don't insult Scarlet! She's gotten us through some tough times. You're ass would have been tanned along time ago had it not been for her." Autumn wagged a finger at her sister.
"Yea well without me where would that car be?"
"Shower, squirt." Athena stuck her tongue out before scooping up her bag and disappeared into the bathroom.
After Athena had showered they headed toward the bar mentioned in the note. It wasn't as run down as most the bars they frequented, definitely a place where Sage would stand out, though. Dean and Sam fell back and played invisible, so whoever wanted to meet the girls would show themselves. Autumn found a two seats at the bar and ordered their drinks.
"So is the honeymoon over?" Athena asked mischievously, sipping at her margarita.
"You tell Sammy you're crushing on him?" Autumn countered.
"Uh… no. Why would I do that? I'm not completely insane."
"But you're not denying you've got a crush on him…?" Athena chewed on the skinny straw, that no one could really get anything out of, trying not to make eye contact with her sister. "Athena!"
"Who do you think it is that wants to see us? Or do you think it will be a guy? Maybe a girl… maybe someone we lost contact with. Maybe it will be John." Autumn cocked an eyebrow at her sister.
"It's not going to work. You know that right?"
"What's not going to work?"
"You with Sam, me with Dean. It just never works like that. Oh, and we don't know if it's a shape shifter or a necromancer. It might just be Sage, we don't know."
"Yeah well, I never said it would work. Besides, it's just a crush. I've got more than one, none of them like me or for that matter even know I exist." Athena drank what was left of her frozen strawberry drink and then began moving her finger around and around on the rim of her cup.
"Ma'am?" The bartender asked.
"Yeah. What's up?" Athena asked looking up from her glass.
"The man at the end of the bar asked me to give you this." The bartender handed Athena another margarita.
"Oh. Thanks." Athena smiled at the bartender who smiled back at her and walked off.
"Ooh, someone's got the hots for my little sister!" Athena glared at her sister.
"First one in like twenty-three years." The younger girl leaned back and looked at the end of the bar to see a man about her age wink at her. She shot back into her seat quickly.
"Well, is he cute?" Autumn asked. Sounding a little too excited for her baby sister.
"He's easy on the eyes. Definitely not the ugliest guy I've ever seen."
"So go talk to him!"
"Why?"
"Because, I'm your elder and you do as I say. Now go."
"I don't want to."
"I don't care, now go." Athena looked towards Dean and Sam. Dean, of course, was checking out all the women that walked by. Sam on the other hand, was watching Autumn and Athena carefully. Athena gave Sam the 'please don't make me' look. But Sam just shrugged and motioned for her to go talk to the guy.
"Ugh! Even Sam is making me go. This isn't fair." Athena jumped off her seat and grabbed her margarita and walked over to the guy, walking as model-like as she could. "Hey!"
"Hi." The man said.
"I'm Athena."
"I'm Aiden."
"Nice name. So is anyone sitting here?" Athena nodded towards the empty seat next to him.
"No, sit, please. Help yourself." She sat her drink on the bar and got on the seat next to Aiden.
"So, what was the drink for?"
"For you."
"Well yeah, I know that. But I mean why did you buy it for me?"
"Because you're the most gorgeous woman I've ever seen. Every girl I've ever liked hasn't liked me back. So when I make my move I get slapped, drinks in my face, angry boyfriends. The works." Athena laughed.
"I don't know how someone could say no to you. I mean, you've got big blue eyes, shaggy dark hair. And hey, bodies don't get that good."
"That's wrong. I really don't want to watch this." Sam complained. He was still keeping careful watch on Autumn and Athena.
"Which one, Barbie or Midge?" Dean asked turning towards his brother from another hottie in short shorts at the table next to theirs.
"Athena. And it's wrong that you know Barbie's friends names."
"How do you know they're even Barbie related?"
"Because, it's you. I wouldn't be surprised if you went out and bought Barbie dolls just to see their plastic boobs."
"I'm not that low Sammy. Besides that, there's no detail." Sam shook his head.
"Look at that!" He pointed at Athena who was playing with the man's tie. "Why is she even doing that? It's Sage we're waiting on."
"We don't know if it's a necromancer or shape shifter. That might be the thing we're looking for. Just let her do what she does."
"She's making me sick! I don't want to sit here and watch this. It's annoying, and I don't trust that guy."
"Athena and Sammy sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes sex, then comes a little… Sam and Athena."
"You're not very good at that. And no, first comes crush, then love, then marriage, then MAYBE kids. I'm not dad material though."
"So why are you in a bar? Don't you have a girlfriend or a wife or something? What's wrong with you?" Athena asked, finishing her third margarita. She'd gotten a buzz half way through her second one.
"There's nothing wrong with me. I've just not had the greatest day and so I came here. What's wrong with you?"
"Oh, nothing. My sister and I are here waiting on someone. But, since it's been a while I don't think she's coming." Athena downed her last margarita and slid the margarita towards the bartender.
"Oh. Like a guy?" Aiden asked.
"No. No, not like a guy. Like.. A witch. Only she's kind of white-ish yellow. Like Caucasian instead of green."
"She sounds lovely."
"No! Her hair looks like a damn rats nest and she's got a really big wart on the end of her nose… with hairs growing out of it." Athena made a disgusted face and then burst out laughing. "I'm not kidding! It's gross!!"
"Hey sis. How's it going? Good?" Autumn asked. Athena jumped in surprise from the sudden noise in her ear.
"Oh, hey. Yeah it's going great. Autumn this is Aiden. Aiden, this is my sister; Autumn."
"Hi Aiden. How're you?"
"I'm amazing. So glad your sister came to see me, today was a day from hell and I really needed someone to relax with."
"Well, I guess Athena's your girl. Hey, so I just came over here to tell you that I'm going to the bathroom and I will be RIGHT back. So Aiden, don't let anything happen to my baby sister."
"Yes ma'am." Aiden smiled at Autumn as she walked off.
"Damn, I thought Autumn was finally going to break them up. Son of a bitch!" Sam complained.
"Why do you care so much? It's just Athena…"
"Rude Dean, rude." Sam looked over at his brother. "It's not just Athena. She's like one of our best friend and you say it's just Athena? So not cool."
"It's just Athena to me. It's who you want."
"I don't want her."
"Yeah you do smartass."
"Do not! You're not being nice Dean."
"You're strange choice of words just convinces me more and more that you want her more and more. Sam's don't say 'You're not being nice, Dean.' They say, GROW UP DEAN! Or SHUT UP DEAN! Or something like that."
"Okay, if you say so."
"This is such a girly conversation."
"Hey, so while your sister's not around and your two guy friends aren't staring at us anymore, how about you and I get out of here?" Aiden asked.
"How'd you know about Sam and Dean?"
"The fact you look at them a lot, and the tall one has been staring. But now he's not looking anymore, so let's get the hell out of here." Athena looked at Sam and Dean who were clearly arguing.
"Yeah, okay. So where are we headed?"
"My car first. After that, I don't know. I guess we'll decide when we get there." Athena jumped off her seat and tried not to fall over. She rarely drank alcohol, and when she did, never that much. Aiden wrapped his arm around her waist and the two walked out the door.
"Sam, the relationship between Cookie Monster and The Grouch is totally different from the relationship between Cindy Lou-Who and The Grinch." Dean argued. Sam laughed and shook his head and went back to watching Athena.
"Dean?" Sam looked around the bar, Athena and the man were gone. Nowhere in sight.
"What? You realized I'm right?"
"No Dean, Athena's gone. And so is Autumn. Did you see them leave? Dean where is she?"
"Autumn probably went to the bathroom, as for yours. I don't know. Come on we've got to go find her." Dean stood up from the table to go find Athena and looked across the table where is brother… wasn't. Sam had already left and was searching the entire building for Athena. "I swear to God one day he'll admit he's nuts about her." Dean looked around. No familiar faces.
A/N: Yea don't you just hate these things? I'm supposed to be doing my homework but that's okay, Katie has made her come back. Most of this chapter was hers! So yea, anyway hope ya'll liked it! We'll have Chapter Four up asap, probably tomorrow.