Author's Note: Ok, I made myself a deal. If I can get caught up in my story as far as getting it to season 4 where Sam and Dean met Adam, then I can watch the season 5 episodes with Adam in them. Slight Spoiler – my story lines up with what happens in a roundabout- almost sort of way so I just need to get caught up and then it will be super special AWESOME! *goosebumps*
Disclaimer: I don't own Supernatural.
Chapter Six
There are lots of ways hunters approach their targets: they could be authorities, professionals, experts in the field, lawyers, insurance providers, even clergy. But sometimes the best way to get your information is to just be yourself. And that's exactly what Nicole planned to do as she pulled up the straps on her backpack and entered the local bar where ex-deputy Joe Barton now bar tendered.
Business was slow at three-thirty in the afternoon and the lone bar tender, Nicole assumed it was Joe, was cleaning the counter, refilling nut bowls and stacking glasses getting ready for the rush that would come after a long day at work. One look at his first customer of the day and he shook his head, "I don't even need to ask for your ID to know I can't serve you."
Nicole hurried to the counter and lifted herself into a stool, "I'm not here for alcohol, I'm here to talk to Joe Barton about a case he worked when he was a cop."
Joe stiffened slightly but stayed calm and uninterested, "I'm Joe Barton. But I'm not allowed to talk about any cases I worked, specially open ones."
Reaching around to pull out the newspaper clipping from her bag, Nicole slid the article across the counter. "You worked the case with the missing bodies in ninety. You were the one that found the bodies."
Joe glanced at the paper but stayed silent so Nicole continued, pointing to John's shadowy figure, "This man, he helped you find them, didn't he?"
"Look," Joe put down the glass he was cleaning and looked Nicole in the eye, "I don't know why you're asking about that case, but we done took care of it. No use pulling it outta the bag now."
"Took care of it?" Nicole leaned forward and lowered her voice, "What was it?" When Joe only shook his head, she gestured again to John, "This man, I'm in the same line of work as he is. I need to know what it was that stole those bodies and what John did while he was in town. Please, it's important."
Joe looked taken aback, "You're in the same line of work? Aren't you a little young?"
Nicole wanted to roll her eyes, but she held Joe's gaze, "Think of me as a trainee if you want. I still do the job. Now, Joe, please, I need to know."
Even though he looked uneasy, Joe sighed and leaned closer to her, dropping his voice, "John came to me and said he could help find the bodies. He told me what done it, we hunted it down and killed it."
"What was it?" Nicole asked.
Joe looked around for eavesdroppers, "A ghoul. He'd been stealing the bodies and eatin'em, had a whole stash where we found the rest. John only stayed long enough to get patched up and then he split."
"Patched up?" Nicole pried for more.
"The ghoul didn't go down without a fight," Joe whispered, "John took a pretty good beating. I drove him to the hospital before returning to find the bodies, left him in the ER but didn't stick around."
Nicole nodded as she filed the information away in her mind. The ER would be next on her list of places to visit. It would be harder to get information there, but if she played her cards right, she could get in. "Joe, was there anyone else involved in the case? Or did you two work alone?"
"Oh, we kept it quiet," Joe hurried, "It ain't exactly something you want getting around, you know. It was just me and him."
Nicole thought for a moment, her mind turning to the picture she saw in Adam's room. On a hunch, she asked, "Do you know if John saw any women while he was in town?"
Joe shook his head, "John was strictly business far as I could tell. He talked to the cemetery owner, the mortician, some of the families, other than that, I don't know."
Getting up from her stool, Nicole muttered a thank you. He was hunting a ghoul, he did the job, went to the ER and then left. Very straightforward case. But then, why did John care about Adam and why was Nicole really here?
"Be careful," Joe called as Nicole left the bar, his brow crinkled with worry and memories.
…
They were sitting in the living room, books spread out on the coffee table and papers shuffled around. Adam was focusing on the subject, Carla was focused on him. Every now and again, Carla would gently touch his hand, give him a welcoming smile. When he rejected it, she'd move in for a different approach, bump their thighs together, giggle and gaze up at him sweetly.
Outside the window, crouched in the bushes, Nicole was fuming. She knew how to shot a gun with near perfect accuracy could disarm a man in three seconds, exercised demons and had even taken out a few shapeshifters but she had no idea how to fight against Carla and her stupid girlish antics. She was huddled outside in a bush fighting her instinct to break in the window and beat Carla to a pulp because even if she didn't know what to do, she knew what she couldn't do.
"Hey, Nathan," She whispered to the boy huddled beside her, "What does foolhardy high school tradition call for us to do in this situation?"
Nathan glanced at her, "I thought you had a plan?"
Nicole sighed, "I had a plan to smother Carla with her own pompom but I didn't think that would be acceptable."
Nathan chuckled, "This is going to be funner than I thought. Good thing I came prepared."
He pulled out a backpack and began rummaging through it, pulling out duct tape, sticky glue, toilet paper, some string and a potato. "Follow me," He whispered before darting out of the bushes and running toward the street where Carla's shiny white Taurus sat.
Nathan crouched down at the rear of the car and pulled out the potato.
"What are doing?" Nicole demanded.
"I'm going to stick the potato in her exhaust pipe. I saw it in a movie once, coolest thing ever, I'm telling you," Nathan grinned.
"Are you crazy?" Nicole snatched the potato from his hands, "We're not trying to kill her. You can't put a potato in the exhaust."
Nathan looked put out, "Sorry."
With a sigh, Nicole glanced at the car, "Tell you what, Nathan, you keep an eye out. I've got a plan."
Nathan followed Nicole around to the front of the car, where Nicole popped open the hood and gazed down at the engine. "What are you doing?"
As Nicole began tinkering, she explained, "I'm fixing her engine up. How far does she live from here?"
"Couple of miles," Nathan shrugged, "She lives out by the hospital far as I know."
"Perfect," Nicole grinned, "That's far enough that her engine will die before she gets home but she can't turn around and walk back to have Adam help her." Nicole finished working under the hood and stood up, "Now, let me see that potato."
Twenty minutes later, Nicole and Nathan stood back and admired her handiwork. In the passenger's seat of Carla's car, the potato sat buckled in with stringy yellow hair, a frown-y face and a toilet paper cheer outfit. A note taped to the shoulder strap warned Carla to back off.
"You have got to be the coolest chick ever," Nathan stated, "I'm going to work extra hard now to get you into the high school tradition spirit and get Adam to ask you to Homecoming."When Nicole started to protest, he shushed her, "Uh-uh, none of that 'I'm not jealous' crap. We just sabotaged her car and made a potato voodoo doll of her. You like Adam and I'm going to set you guys up whether you want to admit it or not."
Nicole was about to answer when Adam's front door opened and Carla stepped out onto the porch.
"Hide!" Nicole shoved Nathan into the bushes and they held their breath until they were sure they hadn't been seen.
"See you in school tomorrow," Carla's airy voice floated over.
"Sure, Carla," Adam muttered before closing the door and sliding the dead bolt.
Nicole and Nathan watched as Carla flounced over to her car and climbed in. She spotted the potato, pulled it out of the seat and stared at it for a few minutes. Her gaze swept around the yard, along the trees and over the bushes before she rolled down the window, dropped the voodoo potato onto the road and drove away.
Before heading to her own car, Nicole picked up the potato and rewrapped its toilet paper skirt around its bloated body. Slipping it into her bag, she glanced to Adam's house and grinned. She could fight demons, monsters, and now snobby teenage girls.