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The righteous keep moving forward and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger.
Job 17:9
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'The doctor should be with you shortly, Agent Cooper.'
Slowly nodding, Micah straightened her black business jacket and took a seat outside the morgue. The white hall was empty, illuminated by bright lights, one of which flickered casually every twenty seconds. Sighing she leant back on the wall, eyes burning from staring at the light.

Impatiently Micah retied her hair into a tight bun, brushing her blonde fringe from her eyes. She hated waiting in hospitals.
Too white, too clean, too quiet.

Micah was cold.
Huddling into her mother's coat, Micah breathed in the scent; sweet spice and rain. She was alone, the hospital seat under her hard, feet tucked up under to give some sort of comfort; the floor a long way down. Not far away she could hear people arguing, yelling that she was too young, that there were other ways of confirming identities. But none were as quick as Micah having a look.

Micah knew what had happened, was there when the man killed her mother, there as her father tried to fend of the other two.

Screaming.
That was all she could hear.
Pain, laughter, sorrow… it all sounded the same now.

He had screamed at Micah to run, so that was what she did. Still wrapped in her mother's coat, from when it was draped over her to protect her from the rain, Micah ran until she could feel her feet bleed and lungs beg for air.
Now she was here, cold and alone a day later. She could hardly remember anything, didn't want to blink or sleep because the darkness behind her eyelids revealed the truth of what had happened.

'Miss Wymond?'
Micah didn't want to look up, didn't want to see another false smile.
She was a child, five years old; why did they keep calling her miss?
'Micah?'

Moist eyes looked up into the man's old face. He was different. His hazel eyes didn't have that forced happiness, he actually cared. Sniffing, Micah nodded, slowly dropping her arms as the man held out a hand to her.
'Micah, I am going to ask you to do something. If you do not want to or cannot, just say so, alright?'
With a slow nod, Micah took the hand, getting to her feet as she was lead into the morgue.
'I need you to look at these people, can you tell me who they are?'

It was the first time Micah had seen a dead body.
White as snow and yet blue like ice. Eyes were open, staring at the ceiling and as Micah was held by the doctor to look down at the empty shells over her parents, Micah couldn't cry.
Why were they lying on the table? She tried to touch her mother but the doctor turned away, nodding to the men.
'No, I don't want to leave them!' she screamed, kicking at the doctor as he carried her out into the hall again.

Micah tried to run back in but the doors were shut. Beating against it, she couldn't feel any tears, only a rage she thought was never possible.
'What have I done? Why are they leaving me? Mummy!'
A strong hand lifted her and Micah was ready to scream again but a familiar scent made her calm.

'Come now Micah, would your parents be happy with the way your behaving?'
Burrowing her face into her cousins neck, Micah finally cried. Her young sobs made even the doctor with the hazel eyes shed a tear but Micah didn't care. As her cousin carried her out of the hospital, Micah didn't realise that it was the last time she would cry.

'Miss Cooper?'
'Yes?'
Micah snapped her head up, dragging her thoughts together as she stood, shaking the doctors hand firmly.
'Forgive me for being so late, we had another body.'
Nodding in understanding, Micah gestured for him to enter the morgue first, sliding on gloves as he wheeled out two victims.

Catching her breath, Micah spun around and focused on the two women lying before her.
'So what can you tell me doc? Where these made by punctures?'
Micah gently tilted one young girls face away from her, inspecting the bite on her neck.
'I don't know what I can say, I have not seen anything that can make such a wound. It is almost like a bite, but this ring,' the doctor leant over, following the outside of the wound with a pen, 'it has the details of something like shark teeth.'

Pretending to be surprised, Micah raised an eyebrow as she knelt down, looking closer at it.
'So what do you think? Animal attack or could someone be hurting these women to make it look like something satanic?'
As the doctor murmured something, rummaging through his draw to find his report, Micah gently prodded around the neck. She had seen enough vampire bites in her life to know whether they were a male or female, even how old and what race.

It saddened Micah as she stood back up again, staring down at the young girls face. She couldn't have been much older than Micah, lush black hair spilling around her as a frame. The other woman however was in her mid-thirties, short brown hair cropped neatly back.
This was a male vampire attack, but why kill the women?

The doctor had finished talking and was now looking at Micah, waiting for some sort of response.
'Sorry?'
He cleared his throat, folding his arms and the file behind him.
'They have been well drained of blood, that is obvious to see, but when they found the body there was no evidence of mass blood loss. It is almost as if it had been caught or cleaned away.'

Micah nodded, snapping off her gloves as the doctor rolled the bodies back into their slots.
'Thank you doctor. Please call me if you find anything else.'
She left her number down on a piece of paper for him, smiling as she left.
As soon as the doors shut behind her, Micah was out of the hospital before anything else could catch up to her.

Pushing open the door, Micah sighed and clicked it behind her, placing the bag of food on the table. Stripping off her black jacket, she untucked her white shirt from her pants and tossed her badge and keys onto the bed.

Castiel was lying on the bed, eyes shut as he slept.
He was awake before she left that morning, asking why she was dressed so smartly and why he name was Amy Cooper. It had been difficult to explain to him that she needed to do so in order to find out information and Castiel seemed to take it alright.

The whole trip to the hospital she had been thinking of all the different possibilities that could happen; Castile could have been spying on her and been working with the police or he could have reported her or he could have run away…

But he hadn't done any of those things and her respect for him kept rising. He was a decent man, and one that was ready to listen to a stranger such as Micah and be keen to help her hunt. Kicking off her heels, she slowly walked over t Castiel, not wanting to wake him but he was becoming restless again, moaning and mumbling words she couldn't make out clearly. His dreams were plagued, and Micah knew what that felt like.

As he lay there, Micah took the chance to properly look at him, trying to commit each detail from his slopping eyebrow to the way his hair line hooked around his temple, his fringe spiking up in all directions.
She liked him, the way he looked, the way he sounded and moved, the way he made her feel; like she wasn't alone.

'Cass,' she spoke gently, trying not to frighten him. When he didn't move, only rolled away from her, Micah put her hands on her hips. 'Cass!'
Still he didn't respond, even as she shook his shoulder. There was nothing serious, Micah knew what it was like to simply be able to ignore someone but grabbing a burger from the table, she leant over him and waved it in front of his nose. Sure enough he twitched, eyes opening to stare at her before noticing the food. She snatched it back and rolled her eyes, taking a seat at the table before eating it.

'Men and their stomachs.'
With a groan Castiel sat up, ruffling his hair and fixing his shirt.
'What time is it?'
'Time for me to give you another lesson on vampires.' She mumbled around a mouthful, pushing his meal in front of him as he sat in front of her. Reaching into her bag, Micah pulled out her laptop and a black leather bound embossed journal. Making room for it among the burger and beer, Micah flicked through the pages until she flipped it and slapped it down in front of Castiel.

He was half way round a mouthful of bun when he looked at the journal, pulling it closer to read.
'So it is a case?'
Micah nodded, swallowing her mouthful as she waited for her laptop to turn on.
'Went to the hospital and saw the bodies, vampire bite alright. But it is rough, no clean like experienced hunters. Any ideas?'

She wanted to see how his mind worked, how he could process all of the information that she had given him.
'You said that there were only female bodies, the men still missing?' he looked at his burger oddly and placed it back down in the wrapped, wiping his hands as he turned the page. 'The bites are not of one experienced… they are eating their partners?'
'Bingo.'
Micah wiped her hands clean as well, typing in a few words until FBI profiles filled the screen, those missing and dead from around Black Forest.

'Some vampires choose certain types, whether it blood type or hair colour to make part of the family.' She gave Castiel a quick glance, making sure he hadn't finally lost it before she smiled, continuing. 'All tourists, all hiking in Black Forest in the evening. My guess is that the head turns the men, and makes their first kill their partners, no links to the history.'
Pulling up a map on her screen, she noted down all the possible places the nest could be but where the bodies had been found were all erratic, leaving her unable to pin down where exactly ground zero was.

'So how are we going to stop them? It's a stake through the heart right?' Castiel asked nervously and Micah chuckled.
'Sure, maybe in movies but here in the real world, the only way to get these bastards is to chop off the head.'
Again she had been expecting him to pale or to ask to leave but instead he scrunched his nose briefly and flicked through her journal.
'Messy.'

Micah was amazed by this man and with a disbelieving laugh she took another mouthful, pulling up all the local houses and sites of importance around the area.
'It should be easy right?' Castiel asked and Micah looked up at him, food half chewed and eyebrow raised as she waited, 'a bunch of new vampires, they won't be used to being one so soon right?'
'Wish it was that easy. That makes them more reckless, more dangerous. They don't know or care about the consequences, they're just hungry.' Micah looked at the time, half past one. She had been hoping to get out there before dark, to search the area, but she would just have to go when ready.
'I can't leave this any longer, another body turned up at the morgue while I was there. I'll have to head up tonight.'

'Alone?' Castiel blurted, concern tattooed all over his face. Piercing eyes glared at her and for a moment she couldn't take him seriously.
'Yes alone, I can't watch my back and yours in the dark… No offence, but I don't think you're ready to go into a hunt.' She returned the scowl she received, but eventually took another bite of her burger, rolling her eyes to allow him to speak.
'Micah please, I have proven that I can stand up against you. I don't want you on your own, not with six new dangerous vampires. I can handle a machete.'

It didn't matter what he said, how what he did Micah was still nervous about bringing him. What if something happened to him, died on his first hunt? She would never forgive herself. Locking eyes with him again, Micah thought of all the other times she had been stubborn, when she begged to go on her first hunt…

'Alex… why can't I come?'
Micah was standing in the door frame, arms crossed and eyebrows burrowed deep as she watched her cousin load the sixty nine dodge charger. He was hardly stopping to listen to her and Micah huffed, stepping down the back steps and leaning on the car, softening her features.
'Please Al? You know that I am ready enough.' Alex paused to look at her, considering before he shook his head.
'Micah, to hunt isn't just a onetime thing, it becomes your life.' He stopped and gripped her shoulders weakly as he made her look up to him. 'Dammit your only twelve, you have your entire life ahead of you…'

'I want to hunt.' She snapped, short blonde hair falling across her face and with a huff she pulled away from Alex, moving it from her eyes as she looked up to him. His own green eyes were sparkling and dark hair was longer than Micah's, but she could not see him any other way.
He had shown her so much in all the years she had lived with him; she had managed to go to school and become a straight A student as well as passing his tests on lore and gun practice.

'I can shoot, I can fight. It's a where-wolf, one shot to the heart and that's it. Please Alex, it's in my blood.'
He had only given her a forced smile, a had heavy look in his eyes as he handed her his gun.
'Guess that's the only way you're going to learn. Just know it isn't as easy as point and shoot, Micah, it is much harder than that.'

Alex had been right.
On that hunt, Micah had dropped her guard, the beast tormenting her about her parent's murder and her life on the road.
The scars down her back served her a painful reminder of that day; never to feel safe and that hunting was not something like a switch. Once on it stayed on and she couldn't dwell on the past. What was done was done, there was no way it could ever change.

Now she looked at Castiel, knowing now why it was such a hard decision for her cousin to make when she had begged to come.
Micah guessed it was the only way to help him learn. And in a way, it helped her as well.
She just hoped they both had the strength for what was to come.
Because while she was trying to forget, Castiel was trying to remember.

May change the chapter name... Next chapter up soon, and promise it will be more exciting than this ;) And just to point out, as my sister did for me, Castiel is not in character, but this is on purpose, he will be changing because that is just the way he is at the moment so don't worry.
I do not own Supernatural.

Silver-Kirin
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