CHAPTER TWO
"Are you sure you have to leave…?" Elizabeth pouted as the elder Winchester brother gathered his clothes from their second location that night, in the living room of her small one-bedroom apartment; the first being the backseat of the Impala to the envy of every girl's green monster. She was wrapped in a blanket on the couch, trying to pretend she wasn't watching him dress.
"Yeah, I'm sure," Dean sighed. "Gotta go find my brother and kick his date out of our motel room." He tugged his navy blue shirt over his head, found his button down draped over a kitchen chair and grabbed his leather coat off the floor. He dug around in his pocket for the keys for a second as the brunette watched him intently.
"Call me when you come back into town?" she asked hopefully.
He hesitated, but only for a moment before nodding. "When I come back into town," he repeated. "Bye!" he called over his shoulder and he was out the door.
Finally back in the Impala just as the sun was coming up, he whipped out his cell phone and scrolled down to his brother's number. Three rings later, Sam groggily answered the phone. "Hello…?" he slurred groggily.
"Mornin', Sammy!" Dean greeted him.
"Man," he groaned as he glanced at the clock on the nightstand, "it's 5AM; where are you?"
"I'm outside the motel room and I see a Mustang that's clearly not yours. Do you still have company?" he smirked.
He heard Sam huff, obviously annoyed. "No, I don't. I dropped her off last night on accident," he said sarcastically. "I just borrowed her car, Dean."
The motel room door opened and light poured in as big brother closed his phone and entered with a tired grin. "G'morning, Sunshine!" he chuckled.
"Go away, you ass," Sam grumbled into his pillow. He hung up his phone and tossed it on the bed next to him. "You got laid. That's great, but if I find any evidence in the damn car, I'll kill you."
Dean's grin grew. "Glad I got rid of it, then."
"Oh, ew! Dude!" And that was the start of the most eventful day they'd had in a month.
Motel, 9:30AM-
"So, we're off to the Magic 8 Ball again, huh?" Dean smirked. His brother had just emerged from the bathroom, freshly showered and dressed, with the most annoyed look on his face.
"Well, I've gotta give her the car back," he said.
"Mhm and you totally have a thing for her. What happened last night?"
"Nothin'," Sam shrugged. "We went to Starbuck's, we talked. We got kicked out of the library for being loud and ended up spending a few hours on the rooftop of an old building."
"Ahh," his smirk grew. "Few hours on the rooftop, huh?"
Sam gave him an exasperated look. "She likes to stargaze."
"Yeah, I'm sure she was seeing stars…"
"Would you get your mind outta the gutter!?" he exclaimed, finally fed up. He grabbed the car keys off the nightstand and stalked out to the black Mustang.
--♥
Pulling up to the bar, Sam's heart almost stopped. The window right above the bar and kitchen was broken, tiny glass shards splayed across the sidewalk like spilled blood. Dean wasn't far behind in the Impala. As they both got out of the car, Dean's playful, joking tone disintegrated.
"Sammy?"
"I don't know, dude," Sam replied quietly, moving to open one of the double doors to the right of the window. The bell over the door rang and a strawberry blonde messy bun popped up over the counter.
"Hello?" she called a moment before she stood up and both brothers were relieved to see it was Hallie.
"Hey, yourself… What happened?" Dean asked curiously, glancing over the bar to see a dustpan full of glass, and thankfully no blood.
"Well," the young woman let out a sigh, brushing a stray strand of hair from her eyes, "my brother decided to pay a visit. Damn spirits are so violent."
Sam's heart DID stop at that statement. "Spirits?"
"Yeah, y'know; like Casper?" Hallie said. "Only bitchier," she added with a soft chuckle as she picked up the dustpan and emptied it in a nearby metal garbage can.
Dean glanced at his brother's blank expression and gave him a nod, signaling it was probably a good time to explain what was going on; what their job actually was; why they were in town.
Sam swallowed and shook his head, clearing his thoughts. "Hallie, can I talk to you?" he asked as his brother walked away.
She smiled and leaned over the counter. It was then that he realized she was still wearing his hoodie, partially zippered. "About what?" she asked innocently.
"What my brother and I…actually do…" he managed.
Hallie gave him a curious look. "What do you mean?" Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"We uh… well, we hunt the paranormal."
Dean was nearby, listening in. He expected screaming, denying, and maybe even some more shattered glass.
What he got was a simple, "Oh."
"Oh? That's it?" Sam inquired.
"What were you expecting? A slap across the face? Because I'll give it to you if you really want it," she smirked.
"Well, no…but I thought you'd…freak out…" he stuttered for the words to explain his confusion, but she held up a hand to silence him.
"Sam, I'm not going to judge you," she stated. "Or slap you, for that matter. Sure, most people probably tell you you're a crazy bastard, right? Right, well, I'm not most people." She reached behind the bar, swiftly pulling a sawed-off into his view. She set it on the counter in front of him and looked up at him with a smile. "I get called crazy, too."
At that point, Dean butted in and grabbed the shotgun off the bar. "Crazy irony, Sammy!" he exclaimed through a bite of laughter. "She's a hunter, too!"
Hallie shook her head. "Not a hunter. Just a very cautious book-reader," she chuckled. "I'm mutual, I guess. I don't hunt them, but I don't like them either. I started reading this book. The Ghost Hunter's Strangest Cases. I had fun researching and eventually became paranoid of EVERYTHING," she laughed. "Now I just have to keep the sawed-off by my side at all times because my big bro just happens to be a ghost and I refuse to dust his bones."
"Ha, I never realized how dirty that sounded until someone else said it," Dean cackled to himself.
Sam rolled his eyes. "So you're really into this stuff, huh?"
"Oh, totally. I forced my dad to read the book and made him a sawed-off. He laughed, but I know…" she narrowed her eyes and jabbed her thumb in the direction of the stairs, "he uses it on my brother, even if he doesn't want to admit it."
"I can safely assume that means you told him about your brother, too?" Dean inquired.
She nodded. "He doesn't like to talk about his death so I just left it at, 'he's still here to bug the hell outta us,' and let it go. Dad knew what I meant; never doubted that for a second."
"If you don't mind me asking, how'd he die?" Sam asked, gently.
Hallie's eyes shifted to the shotgun in his brother's hands then glanced up at Sam for a moment, shaking her head. She looked as though she was about to speak when the bell over the door rang, startling the tears from her eyes. It was one of her brother's friends. Ironic, much?
"Hey, Luke," she greeted with a tired sigh.
"Hey, sweetie, can I get some of those amazing pancakes?" he smiled slyly. She didn't notice, but his eyes were wandering from her face to her chest.
"GETTTTTT OUTTTTTTT!" the ghostly echo rang out, causing the blonde young man to jump back from the counter, glancing around for the source.
Dean glanced at Hallie, his eyes asking if this was indeed her brother. She nodded, a small frown creasing her lips. He had her shotgun.
"GETTTT OUTTTT, LUCAS!" the echo called out again, closer this time. Hallie squeaked softly when she realized the ghost of her brother was standing next to her behind the bar.
"Holy shit," she muttered, jumping a little.
Sam watched her cautiously, afraid of what the spirit might do. It suddenly vanished and reappeared next to Luke who was cowering closer to the door.
"I SAID GETT THE HELL OUTTT!" the final terrifying voice of the spook scared the young man back to his car like it was intended and the spirit disappeared completely.
Everything was quiet for a moment.
"THANK YOU!" Hallie called out in hopes it would satisfy her brother enough to stay away for a while. She looked to Dean. She realized he was armed with her shotgun, gripping it tightly and his jaw was set in stone. "I thought you were a hunter," she chuckled.
"Oh, sweetheart, I am. But I'd prefer a warning…" he said breathily.
Sam couldn't help but burst out laughing. "He really scared you…"
"Shit, usually I know who and what I'm dealing with! And I'm armed!"
"You are armed," Hallie stated simply.
"Well!" he started to protest and his tensed shoulders relaxed. "Damnit, I am…"
This only made his brother laugh harder. "I should throw you in sudden situations like that more often…" he cackled, highly entertained for the moment.
"Yeah, shut up."
Soon after (around 10AM); Behind the building,
Clearing in the Woods-
"Sam, why am I being forced to do this?" she whined, glancing at the man standing above her as she lay sprawled in the soft grass.
He extended a hand to her and she reluctantly let him pull her up. "Because I want to see how good of a shot you are," he replied simply.
Hallie groaned. "Fine…"
He chuckled and handed her the shotgun. She clipped three cans off the fence, but when she moved to aim for the fourth, she felt muscles tighten around her and her grip on the gun.
"W-What're you doing?" she inquired, breathing hitching a little, which was totally out of character; Hallie Carson was generally labeled 'cool, calm, and collected', but she'd recently discovered that all that stopped when Sam Winchester came around.
"Giving you some pointers," he whispered huskily in her ear. Not enough to send her reeling out of his arms, but enough to send nervous chills down her spine like a lightning bolt. Goosebumps pricked up on her arms and her neck, especially on the skin his breath was tickling. He was talking, but she couldn't concentrate; only felt tingles whenever he pressed a warm hand to a different place on her body to guide her. The fog in her head cleared the instant a sudden gunshot went off and the slight recoil scared the crap out of her.
"Sam!" she squeaked when she realized he'd pulled the trigger at the discovery she wasn't paying attention. Oh, he was way too smart.
"You listening now?" he smirked.
"You nearly gave me a heart attack!" she exclaimed, relaxing against his chest.
"Kind of the point," he replied.
Most the day was spent in the field with hands on learning and mind fog until the echo of someone calling her name broke through the giggles of the two lying in the grass, finding shapes in the clouds like little kids. Sam glanced at his watch.
"It's almost six thirty," he stated, glancing over at the nineteen year old lying next to him, still giggling over nothing.
Her laughter subsided with a sigh. "Coming!" she called back to her father, eyeing Sam as he got off the ground and brushed the dirt off his butt.
"I think he meant now," he chuckled, outstretching one long arm to help her up. She grabbed hold of his hand so he could tug her to her feet though when she did, she found herself close enough to him to smell his cologne again. "Hey," he breathed, dimples back in place as they should be.
"Hi," she replied with a grin.
Sam stalled for a minute, his breath tickling her skin as he hesitated to kiss her. It took a long moment of staring inquisitively at her to realize she was anticipating it eagerly, clinging tightly to him in their tangle of arms.
"You're one of those guys who like girls who make the first move, aren't you?" she inquired smartly, brushing her lips against his own.
That one statement brought his hesitation's reign to end as he captured her in a kiss just before her father's voice rang out again.
"Hallie! I need you in here, please!" he called, aggravation evident in his voice.
They broke apart reluctantly and she starred at him for a long moment then raised a finger to prod him in the chest gently.
"There's something wrong with the fact that that's the only kiss I've gotten all day from you," she stated with a smile.
Sam was about to reply, but she bent down to pick up the shotgun off the grass and grabbed his hand to lead him back to the bar.
Upon returning, Hallie had discovered that it was pretty crowded for that time in the afternoon. Her dad was working behind the bar with several customers and she'd spotted Dean flirting with, unbeknownst to him, her cousin who was trying to work. He was quite the worthy distraction.
"Well, I guess I'll leave you to your job," Sam whispered in her ear.
She let out a sigh and nodded. "Yeah, sure. I'll catch up with you later," she stated. He slipped away to find a game of pool to play.
Hallie's realization was that most of these people were her brother's friends, which made her nervous after what had happened that morning with Luke; especially since he was there, lingering by the bar, despite those happenings.
"Sorry it took so long," she chirped as she slid in behind the bar and hastily tied her black apron sideways around her waist. "Need me to take over back here?"
Charlie, her father, shook his head. "No, I've got this covered; just wait on the two tables of your brother's friends back there for me."
Hallie made a face he didn't see before escaping the bar to approach the six rowdy guys at the back of the room. She passed Sam at a pool table on the way there and made sure to get his attention with a simple gesture; trailing her fingernails across his back, very subtle to everyone but him, as she passed. He shot another dimpled grin over his shoulder at her as she stopped at the table of guys.
"Hey, guys, what can I get you?" she greeted, all smiles.
One of them looked up at her with sharp blue eyes through jet black bangs. He was the kindest of the gang, but the rest all had their appetite for sex and most of the time she was the main course of their mind's menu.
"You with a side of fries," the supposed leader said with a smirk, twirling a lock of her hair around his finger. "Think you can manage?"
The nineteen year old swatted his hand away and tried to walk off, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her into his lap, pinning her with his other arm around her waist like a seatbelt.
"Let go of me," she tried but the words were strangled as she was struggling to get away from him.
"C'mon, Kevin, let her go," the shy blue-eyed boy on the opposite side of the table argued.
Amidst her struggling, Hallie knocked a glass of water onto the floor and that caught everyone's attention. Yet, he continued to be a jerk until Sam came to her rescue and just as he did, Kevin noted that he was taller and more built and let her go.
The strawberry blonde scrambled away from him, cowering behind the Winchester as her father stormed over.
Neither Sam nor Charlie had time to do anything to him, though, because the cold chill that ran in the air. Sam felt it and glanced over at his brother, making sure Hallie was tucked safely by his side. Dean answered with a nod.
The ghost appeared in front of Kevin, its hand immediately reaching out to grab his throat in a close to successful attempt at strangling him.
A/N: So… Kind of a cliffy…
;) Hope no one minds.
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