Dean turns off his baby and slips the keys in his pocket. The Stable Inn Motel looked like all the other places a hunter would pause for sleep. After getting out of the car both brothers approach the rooms. Walking down the row of doors, they locate room one-oh-five. They chamber the bullets in their guns with a click. Sam silently reaches for the door knob and finds it unlocked. He gives the door a gentle shove and lets it swing open. Stepping into the room with Dean they scan the place.

Upon seeing nothing they walk farther into the room. Sam checks the bathroom as Dean walks to the window. "Sammy, come look at this." He shakes his head as Sam comes up beside him.

Sam follows his brother's gaze to the window sill. "Salt. She was defiantly here. The question is what was she trying to keep out there?"

A voice seeps out of the corner from behind the door. "Now wouldn't you two love to know that."

The boys spin around with their guns already raised. Dean smirks. "Found her."

"I'd take it easy with those. You wouldn't want to get any new buckshot tattoos, would you?" She nods at the boys' guns and raises her shotgun a little higher. Dean quips. "Same goes for you. Don't want any extra piercings do you, princess?"

She bristles at the nickname. "It's Alex, not princess."

Sam interjects into the conversation. "Alex Whitmer?"

"I take it your Bobby's friends?" Sam nods and she sighs. "About damn time." She lowers the shotgun and moves slowly to set it on the bed. In the full light the boys get their first real look at her. She's a little shorter than Bobby with dark brown hair cut short and spiky into a boyish hairstyle. Dark green eyes watch the boys' gazes trail up her petite muscled frame and land on her hair. She grins. "Easier to manage."

Dean puts his gun in the back of his waistband. "So you're Bobby's niece?"

"Yeah, I am. How about you two?"

As Sam closes the door she eases herself onto the edge of the bed. Dean takes note that she keeps an arm around her torso. Sam answers her question.

"I'm Sam, that's Dean."

"Oh, you're the Winchesters. I've heard about you two."

Dean steps closer. "Funny, we haven't heard of you before."

"And that's somehow my fault? I didn't know I even had an uncle until a few months ago when I started hunting."

"I never said that."

"Good."

Sam interrupts their glaring contest. "What were you hunting?"

She shifts her sitting position and winces. "Hellhound. I exorcised a demon about a week ago. It mentioned it had left a pet here."

Dean glances at the salt in the windowsill and shoots another question. "Did you kill it?"

"Yeah, it's gone. Trust me."

Dean gestures at her ribs. "Just not it's effects?"

"That's right but we need to leave before I worry about that."

"Agreed. Dean, we can head south into Arkansas."

Dean looks Alex up and down. After years of patching up Sammy he knows what injuries can and can't wait. "Alright let's go then." The boys walk outside to the car as she puts the money for the room on the pillow. Slowly she swipes the salt out of the window and gingerly picks up her bag and shotgun.

She walks out to the muscle car and puts her things into the backseat. Dean starts the engine and Sam waits patiently in the passenger seat.

She slides into the backseat and almost yelps when the leather touches her back. She leans forward slightly but the back of her bloody shirt still sticks to her raw, clawed skin. Dean pulls out of the parking lot and heads south.

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