Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or the characters of Dean and Sam (pouts). I do own the character of Aidan though.
"6:30. What the hell." I groaned sitting up in bed. After untangling my headphones from around my neck, I got out of bed. Surprisingly Sam was still sleeping. He was usually up by 5 or so. Then again, his nightmares have calmed down a lot. I had a lot of trouble sleeping last night. Every time I closed my eyes I saw his face, heard his voice. It didn't matter how loud my I-pod was, his voice was louder. I was already exhausted, I can't imagine more nights like these. I looked back over at Sam.
"Sam get up." I whispered, hovering over him. Sam stirred but didn't get up. "Sammy get up." I said a little louder with a shove of the shoulder. Sam mumbled something into his pillow. I think he said, leave me alone or something along those lines. I rolled my eyes. Since when was Sam such a sound sleeper? I kneeled next to him and started to shove him. "Get up!"
"What do you want?" Sam finally got up. He was trying to ignore me earlier.
"I want to talk." I got off the bed and waited for him to get up.
"Right now?" He looked over at the clock. I nodded. "Are you crazy? You're never up this early."
"It's about last night." Sam's expression softens a little. He finally started to move out of bed.
"Meet me outside." He told me moving to put clothes on.
I was sitting on the steps of the motel waiting for Sam to come out. The morning air was cool. I rubbed my bare arms to warm them up. I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my chin on them. I heard footsteps behind me. I felt something warm fall on my shoulder. It was a sweatshirt. I pulled it off and looked at it, it was Sam's Stanford hoodie.
"I knew it was cold out and you wouldn't have a sweatshirt. I didn't want to go through your bag." Sam explained when he saw my confused look.
"Thanks." I pulled the sweatshirt over my head and instantly felt warmer. I could pretty much swim in it but that was all right.
"You wanted to talk." Sam sat down next to me.
"How did you deal with your nightmares?" I asked looking out to the distance. Sam stayed silent for a moment.
"I didn't at first but then you and Dean kind of made me deal with them." Sam pushed against my arm, which made me smile. "Truthfully it helped to talk about them."
"Yeah, I figured." I pulled the arms of the hoodie down over my hands.
"You went through something pretty traumatic. I would have been surprised if you didn't have nightmares. All you have to know is that Dean and I will always be there to protect you." I looked at Sam for the first time.
"But what if your not?" My voice was barely a whisper. "I couldn't fight off a simple guy. What if someday I have to fight off some evil supernatural son of a bitch and I can't do it and you and Dean aren't around. What then?" I looked at Sam with pleading eyes. Sam searched for some sort of answer that would make me feel better.
"You shouldn't worry about that." Sam told me as he kicked a pebble off the stairs. I didn't say anything. I just pulled the sweatshirt closer to my body. "We should probably go back in. Dean wanted an early start." Sam stood up and I followed.
The plan was to go to the local high school, which happened to be the only school in town. The elementary, middle and high school were basically one big building. We would go in and pretend we were someone from the state and that we wanted to look at the records to make sure everything was up to date. We would look through all the records of the girls and see who was being raised by a single parent.
"I can't believe you couldn't find the address to the school." Dean yelled at Sam as we walked into the diner for breakfast.
"The school isn't on the web Dean. There wasn't much I could do." Sam yelled back. I pushed ahead of my brothers and went up to the counter.
"Coffee please." I ordered from the older lady behind the counter.
"Now we have to drive aimlessly around this town." Dean came up beside me.
"As strong as you can get it." I called after the waitress. "We will find the school Dean. The town isn't that big." I turned my attention to Dean who was stealing a doughnut. I took the doughnut from his hand and took a bite.
"That was mine you thief." Bellowed Dean. I just grinned as I licked my fingers. My coffee was placed in front of me. Before I could take a swig, Dean had the cup to his lips.
"Oh god it's like drinking mud." Dean pushed the cup back toward me. I swished the liquid back and forth in the cup before adding some milk and sugar to it.
"That's how I like it." I took a big gulp of the hot liquid. I forced myself to swallow it, just to prove my point to Dean. I could feel the coffee grounds in my teeth. I pushed the cup away from me.
"So the school is probably located near the library." Sam suggested finishing the coffee that was left in the mug. "That's really bad." He pointed at the now empty mug. I just rolled my eyes and shook my head ignoring him.
"Excuse me." I waved my waitress over. "The school is located in that direction right?" I waved my hand behind me. I had no idea what was actually located behind me.
"No hunny. The school is right on Ross Street. Just make a left out of here and you will find it." The waitress said putting the bill in front of me.
"Oh right. Can we get a dozen doughnuts to go?"
Getting into the school was easy. Finding the main office was easy. Trying to find the principle that was the hard part. Dean, Sam and I waited outside the main office while the secretary tried to track him down. When she passed us the third time Sam suggested that she use the loud speaker to call him. Apparently the loud speaker has been broken for a month. A bell rang signaling an end of a class. Students flooded the hallways. The girls checked out Sam and Dean while a few guys gave me lustful stares. My attention was on a tall, lanky girl with long tangled auburn hair. She couldn't have been more then 14 or 15. She was a loner. I could tell by her body language. She fumbled with her books as she tried to get her locker open. A snotty blonde walked by knocking her books out of her arms. I saw the girl's back stiffen has she took a deep breathe.
"That is why I hated high school." I pointed to the girl. Sam and Dean took in the girl.
"You hardly went to school." Sam said looking around.
"Hey I went enough to pass." I shot back.
"By one point." Murmured Sam.
"Hey let's stay professional here." Dean scolded as the secretary walked by again giving us an apologetic smile.
"Unbelievable." I groaned leaning back against the wall.
"Hey Jenna!" I heard a male voice shout down the hallway. I looked to see a guy standing there. He was an older, probably a senior. He was the popular jock type. I wondered what a guy like him wanted with a girl like her. He came dangerously close to her with his goonies hanging in the background. "Tell your mom I will see her tonight." He gave her a wink before slamming shut her locker that she had just gotten up. It took all my strength not to strangle him. Before I could react to anything the secretary came back with the principle beside her.
"I found him!" She nearly yelled as she tried to catch her breath.
"Great." Dean gave her a small, strained smile.
"I'm Mr. Miller. Miss. Reed has already informed me of the situation. Let me just lead you to the room where we keep the files." Mr. Miller led the way down the hall. I looked over my shoulder to give one last look at Jenna.
The room was filled with filing cabinets separated by date. That made our job easy. We each took a section of files.
"Were looking for a Jenna." I said flipping through my pile.
"The girl from the hall?" Sam asked setting some files aside.
"Exactly." I said with a snap of my fingers.
"You don't know she's our girl." Sam argued with me. I sighed and rolled my eyes at him.
"Gut instinct." I replied going back to my files.
"Yeah your gut instinct has gotten us into a lot of trouble." Dean said not looking up from his pile.
"In my defense I truly believed that cop was in some sort of costume." Both Sam and Dean scoffed.
"It was the middle of July." Dean said throwing his pile aside.
"People are weird." I shrugged my shoulder. I shrieked when the name Jenna Royce appeared in front of me. "I found her!" I held up the file with her latest school picture paper clipped on the front.
"Well?" Sam gestured to the file. "What does it say?"
I opened the file and started to scan through the paper work.
"It only states her mom as her guardian. She's an only child and she has a terrible attendance record." I flipped through some other papers.
"This is our girl then." Dean said putting some files back in into the cabinet. I shoved Jenna's file into my coat.
"Told you." I said to Sam jumping to my feet.
"All right, you were right." Sam bowed to me. "All hail Miss Aidan Rose Winchester."
"No need to mock." I feigned being offended. I walked by Sam giving him a hard punch in the stomach. It took him a few seconds to catch his breath. Once all the files were back in some sort of order, we left the school without saying goodbye.
I sat in the motel room looking at all the research that we had found. Missy Keller was fifteen when a robber murdered her in the late 1970's. Her mom was at work at the time. Her dad left when she was five and her mom struggled to support them. She was an only child so she was left alone a lot. She was buried in a local cemetery. Everything was pretty quiet in the town until five years ago the town decided to build apartment complexes where the cemetery was. They town moved all the headstones and bodies to another part of town. After that girls between the ages of 13-18 started to go missing. One a year on the anniversary of Missy's death. The town believes that it's some sort of genius serial killer.
"What I don't get is why this spirit decides to wait all those years to start this." I questioned pushing the research aside.
"Well spirits can become angry when there bodies are messed with." Sam answered laying on one of the beds.
"So why don't we find her and salt and burn her bones?" I asked going to lie down on the other bed.
"Were not entirely positive it's the ghost of Missy that were dealing with." Dean said. I cocked an eyebrow at him.
"What else can it be?" Dean just shrugged his shoulders at my question.
"Let's just talk to the girl and go from there."
"What can she tell us?" Sam asked walking over to Dean.
"All the other victims said that they heard voices, flickering lights, the works about a week before they disappeared." Dean explained showing Sam his latest findings.
"Let's go talk to Jenna." I hopped off the bed and ran toward the door.
"So we just knock on the door and go from there." Dean explained the plan to Sam and I. I glared at the back of Dean's head.
"You're going to scare her, you moron." I smacked the back of his head. "We just can't waltz up to this girl's house and say, Hey were going to protect you from the big bad ghost."
"You got a better idea?" Dean spun around in his seat to look at me.
"Well no but we have to be careful." I hated that Dean didn't have some kind of plan. He was always the one that made up our cover-up. I didn't understand why he didn't have one for this.
"Let's just go." Dean got out of car. Sam and I followed him to the door. The house was a little run down and the lawn was in serious need of a trim. Dean gave the door a firm knock. I just shook my head at him in disgust. The doorknob slowly turned and the door opened ajar.
"Can I help you?" Jenna stuck her head out of the door.
"Were from the state. We just need to talk to you." Dean said motioning to each of us. Jenna swung the door open a bit.
"Listen my mother is a great mom so you can just leave." Jenna went to slam the door in our faces but I caught it. I know I said that we weren't going to tell her the truth right away but the look that Jenna had in her eyes made me second guess myself.
"Were not from the state. My brother is just an idiot." Dean gave me a glare. "Have you heard about those disappearances in the town?"
"Yeah of course. It's big news." Jenna let go of her firm grip of the door. "That's why all my doors and windows are locked.
"We believe that you might be next. Were here to protect you from that." Sam said to her. I looked at Sam for a second. We must be spending too much time together because it was like he was reading my thoughts.
"How do you know?" Jenna's face showed all evidence of fear. So much for not scaring her.
"That's not important. We just want to talk to you." Dean replied. His voice was a bit softer. Jenna eyed us up for a while.
"Come in." She led us into the small house. "Sorry for the mess. We don't get a lot of visitors."
"It's fine. You should see our room." Sam tried to sooth her worries about the mess. Jenna gave him a shy smile. Now that's just cute, Jenna has a crush on Sam.
"You want a drink or something. I think all we have is water though." Jenna offered.
"Were fine." Dean responded. Jenna just nodded. She sat down opposite from us in a rocking chair. After introductions an awkward silence filled the room.
"So what does your mom do for a living?" I asked taking a look around. I was trying my hardest not to judge. It couldn't be easy raising a child by yourself. Jenna stayed silent for a along time. Her response was going to be a lie. I could read people like a book.
"Nurse." She finally said. I looked at Dean and Sam who were sitting on the couch. They also knew that was a lie.
"What does your mom really do?" Sam asked. Jenna looked at him surprised then looked down in embarrassment. She let out a un easy breath.
"She's a stripper." Her voice cracked a bit. It was almost as though she was ashamed of her mother. "She works nights. I haven't seen her in weeks."
I looked at her sadly. "How can that be?"
"She's gone by time I get home from school and asleep when I get up for school. Sometimes I fake sick just to see her." Jenna sighed. "She does her best, she really does."
"I'm sure." I leaned back in the chair I was sitting in.
"Listen Jenna, we really want to help you here. Has anything weird been happening lately?" Dean questioned standing up and taking a look around the living room.
"No." She answered a little to quickly.
"We won't think that you're crazy. I promise." I tried to reassure her. This couldn't be easy for her. Three complete strangers coming up to her door and asking her all these questions. I had to make her as comfortable with us as possible. Jenna looked at Sam for reassurance. Sam gave her a smile and nod that told her it was all right.
"The lights have been flickering lately. I thought it was just the electricity or whatever. This is an old house." Jenna stood up from her chair. "Then I have been hearing these voices. They started out as mumbles. I thought it was the wind. Then each day they grew clearer."
"What are they saying?" Dean asked Jenna squeezed her eyes shut. Her hands were trembling.
"I'm going to protect you. Don't worry I will save you." Sam guided Jenna back to her chair to sit down before she fainted or something. "I'm going crazy or something." Silent tears began to run down her face.
"Your not crazy." Sam told her, kneeling in front of her. Jenna looked at Sam, then to me and then Dean all of us reassuring her that she wasn't in need of some kind of mental institution any time soon. "I need some water." Jenna pushed past Sam and made her way to the kitchen. We all watched her leave in silence.
"She likes you." I said to Sam.
"What? No she doesn't." Sam replied sitting back down on the couch.
"She totally does. I see the way she looks at you. It's cute really." I grinned when I saw how uncomfortable Sam was. "I think she's a cute girl but I would wait until she was out of high school to make your move." Sam glared at me but I just smiled.
"I don't think now's the time to be joking about this." Sam said crossing his arms over his chest. He was so uncomfortable I couldn't help but to continue.
"You two will make a lovely couple." I winced when Dean smacked me in the back of the head.
"Knock it off." He hissed. I turned to see Jenna re-entering the room.
"You're here to protect me from some kind of ghost aren't you?" All of us straightened up a little. How on earth did she know that? Dean cleared his throat.
"How did you know?" He questioned, looking at her strangely.
"I'm kind of into this paranormal stuff. I did a lot of research when those girls started to disappear. It all just added up." She answered with a shrug of her shoulder. "So ghosts and vampires and things along that nature really does exist?" The look on Jenna's face told me that she really wanted us to answer no but that she knew better anyways.
"It does." Sam answered. Jenna just kind of nodded.
"I'm pretty sure now that we are dealing with the ghost of Missy Keller. All we have to do is salt and burn the bones and stick around to make sure." Dean stated. "We should get going. Thanks for talking with us Jenna. We will come back in a couple days to make sure everything is all right." Dean led the way to the door.
"So now I just wait around and hope this ghost doesn't attack?" Jenna asked, fear dripped from her voice.
"We will salt and burn the bones tonight. You should be fine. The anniversary of her death and the other girl's disappearances is in a couple of days. One of us will be by to stay with you, just in case." Sam comforted her worries. We said our final goodbyes and left the house.
"That was good advice. You will make a fabulous boyfriend for her." I said to Sam. I laughed when he gave me a firm push down the driveway.
A/N: So what did you think? Next Chapter: We will find out how Aidan really feels about being the only girl in the family when she is volunteered to stay with Jenna for the night.