Chapter 22

Serra

Sam spent the morning telling me that there was a fucking werewolf on our property last night and he didn't even have the decency to wake me up. I could have taken it out from the window, but now, the fucker was running around, unchecked, where my family lived. I was pissed at him.

"I can't believe you didn't wake me up," I repeated, still bitter. I poured myself a cup of coffee as Sam ran his hand through his hair again.

"Serra, you don't have any silver bullets. All you would have done is piss it off."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Of course I have silver bullets," I said, putting my hands on my hips. "What kind of hunters do you think we were?"

Turning away from me, Sam rolled his eyes and walked towards Levi, who had started fussing from his place on his blanket in the middle of the living room carpet. "We need to figure out some stuff first, Serra. We can't just start taking shit out from our window." I sighed at him and turned away, looking out the window at the road in front of our house. He continued to my back, not quite scolding, but definitely having an edge to his voice. "We need to figure out who it is, where they're from, how many are in the pack and where the pack lives. We start taking them out without doing the research, we're gonna end up with a whole bunch of pissed off werewolves on our hands."

I mocked him from my place in front of the sink, making faces and rolling my eyes. When I turned around, I was composed, but still upset. "Fine, but when we get all that figured out, we're going hunting together."

"Serra—"

"Are you kidding me? I haven't been on a hunt since the rougarou. The vampires were exciting, but that was two years ago. I'm bored." I set my mug on the counter next to my matching set of silver on black Colt 1911s. I couldn't find the clip of silver bullets I knew I had somewhere, but I knew it was either with me or Grace, but considering we had moved twice in the last three years, it could be anywhere.

Sam came closer and put his hands on the countertop. "You are a mother now, Serra. You aren't the same person you were three years ago. I can't have you going after a werewolf. What if something happened?"

"Then Grace fixes me and we move on with our lives."

Shaking his head, Sam was ready to argue with me again. "You can't use Grace as a reset button, Serra! Someday, there might be something that Grace can't fix!"

Leaning forward on the countertop, I raised my eyebrows, speaking quietly. "Then she and Cas can come and drag my ass home, just like they did for you."

I knew as soon as I said it, I had crossed some invisible line. Sam looked as if I had physically slapped him across the face. He backed away from me and turned towards Levi again. After a minute or two, he spoke quietly. "Levi and you are the only things that matter to me, Serra. You can't expect me to support you running off after monsters anymore. I get it—domestication has been hard for you, but you and Grace agreed years ago that you were out of the game."

"Only because she made me."

"So you regret this?" he asked, spreading his hands as he turned back towards me. "You regret getting married and settling down? Having Levi?"

"Shut up, you know I don't." I said, irritated.

He tilted his head as he continued, "Well, you can't have it both ways, Serra. You can't be a hunter and a mother."

I picked up my guns and headed towards the back door. "Watch me," I said, letting the door slam behind me.

He let me go and I knew he thought he was just letting me cool down, but really, it just pissed me off more that he didn't follow me out into the wheat. I put one of my guns into the waistband of my jeans and bent to pick up the cans that were scattered around the logs from the winter and spring target practice from when maternity leave started. There were bullet holes in each of the cans I picked up and I flashed to bundling up in the snow while Levi slept with the twins at naptime and I came out to shoot. The first time I fired, Dean and Sam came running out of the Big House, fearing the worst, but I laughed when they came out to me holding my gun, aiming at the cans filled with water. Dean had doubled over in laughter, then, but Sam was upset that I hadn't been tamed. Or at least that's the way it felt.

We hadn't brought it up again, but I knew it was on his mind often. Grace had let it slip a few times that he thought of me as wild and unpredictable. I secretly enjoyed having that sort of title in my husband's mind, but at the same time, I was angry that he thought he could change me.

I loaded a clip into my gun and flicked off the safety. Doing the same for the second gun in my jeans, I raised my pistols and aimed. In rapid succession, I upended all ten of the cans with five shots from each gun in tandem. Smiling lightly to myself, I nodded in approval. I hadn't lost my touch.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Grace standing on her back porch, arms crossed, watching me. Walking the thirty yards back to the logs and cans, I stacked them up again, spreading them out a bit more and adding two more cans that I found in the dirt.

He's right, you know.

Hearing my sister's voice in my head got annoying every once and awhile. Ever since realizing that she could push thoughts into my mind from a distance, she always had to throw in her opinion, regardless of my feelings. Obviously, she had been listening to our argument from the kitchen, which made me wonder about her range. How far would I have to go to lose her?

Farther than you're willing to go.

"Oh ha, ha," I said aloud. I turned away from the cans and began my trek back towards the barn, almost fifty yards away. As I approached it, nesting birds scattered from the rafters and I hesitated, watching them take flight. I closed my eyes as the sound of flapping wings grew faint and took a deep breath, releasing it slowly. Without opening my eyes, I turned back towards the cans and aimed. I opened my eyes to check my aim and I wasn't disappointed. In rapid succession, I unleashed six more shots from each gun and toppled twelve cans, starting from the outside edges and working my way in.

I smiled again, happy with my work. Grace still watched from the porch and I glared at her. You should be thanking me. I'm the one who taught you to shoot.

I shook my head, annoyed. "Yeah, you taught me how to assemble and dismantle. You taught me to clean them. You taught me to set the safety and pull the trigger." I gestured to the cans, now on the ground, lost in the wheat. "But you can't teach that kind of talent. That shit is natural."

Right, she thought at me, her internal voice dripping with cynicism. I forgot. You can do everything yourself.

"Oh, shut up, Grace," I said, stuffing my left 1911 into my jeans again, heading back towards the cans. I held my right pistol and fiddled with the grip as I struggled to keep my cool. "You're always so high and mighty, making the 'responsible' choices, but let me tell you something, big sister. You were just like me, once." I approached the cans on the ground and shook my head. "You and I were free. We went where we wanted and did what we pleased."

I could tell she didn't approve of my thought process, but at the same time, she seemed to understand where I was coming from. I know, and I miss it too, sometimes, but what we have is so much better than what we had. Sammy loves you, and now you have Levi. We can't just drop everything anymore to go after a monster.

"Don't you want to?" I asked, glancing up at her.

Not really. I never wanted to be a hunter. I just was because we were good at it and it's what you wanted to do.

I pursed my lips and nodded. She was right, we were good. Fighting in Hell together had proven that. "What about the werewolf, Grace? You really wanna leave that alone to do 'research'? What happens when it comes back and you're home with the kids?" I shook my head and went back to stacking cans. "What happens if we're all at work, in the grip of routine and you've got four kids to contend with, along with a werewolf?"

We stick it out in the panic room and wait for the cavalry.

Walking away, back towards the barn, I couldn't help myself. "What the hell happened to you, Grace?" I turned to face her, almost one hundred yards away, my hand on my hip with my gun hanging at my side.

I became a mother.

Without aiming, I whipped towards the cans and unloaded the rest of my clips into the cans, knocking them into the air, single file, from left to right. As the cans settled into the grass again, I saw that I had missed one, dead center. It stood on its own, mocking me from the stump. I raised my left hand, intending to drop it with one final shot, but my gun clicked with finality. I was out.

Turning to stare at my sister, I sighed, defeated. "Then why don't I feel the same way?"

Because you're Serendipity. Not Grace.

"That's supposed to make me feel better?"

No, but it's supposed to explain that we're two very different people. You are overly protective and sometimes too dedicated and a little crazy.

"Hey!"

But it's what makes you, you, Lucky. I wouldn't have it any other way. You are so much like Dean; it's a little scary. Domesticated, sure, but when you hear that call, you wanna hit the door running.

I nodded to myself and turned towards the Small House, seeing Sam's face in the living room window. "I find it strange that you're so attracted to someone so much like your sister."

Don't say it like that. It creeps me out.

"You said it first," I said, popping the empty clips out of my guns and shoving them into my pockets. "How mad is Sam?"

She hesitated before answering me, which worried me slightly. He's not mad; he's worried, and really impressed with your aim.

I smiled at that and nodded. "He'd better be. I'm fucking amazing."

Shut up, she thought, laughing.

I laughed too, glancing back up at my half-angel sister, realizing that we had an entire argument and resolution telepathically. "We can do some pretty crazy shit, Gracie."

She agreed with me, leaning against the doorframe. Of course we can. We're the Winchesters.

"I love you, big sister."

I love you back.

Turning on my booted heel, I trudged back into the house and stood in the dining room, waiting for Sam to release his breath in the puff of air that I was so used to hearing. He turned to face me, holding our son on his hip and lifted his eyebrows expectantly.

"Oh, shut up," I said, striding over to him and hugging him. He chuckled as he embraced me with his free arm and Levi blew raspberries into my hair.

"I wish I could have seen you in your hunting days," Sammy said quietly. "Something tells me you were hell to contend with."

I smiled and tilted my head. "Obviously," I muttered into his shoulder.

He pulled back slightly and gestured toward the Big House with his head. "You and Grace have a good talk?"

"Was it that obvious?"

He laughed as he pulled Levi's fist from my hair. "Considering it looked like you were talking to yourself, yes." He watched me head to the fridge and pull out two beers. "Grace had a lot to say."

I knew he was feeling me out, wondering if Grace had been able to convince me to chill and wait out the hunt until we knew more details. I smiled over my shoulder at him as I grabbed the bottle opener from the drawer and slid the bottle across the counter to him. "Yeah, she did."

"Cut to the chase, Serra."

I rolled my eyes. "Long story short? I'll wait it out, but when the time comes, I'm still locked and loaded, ready to defend this family."

Sam nodded slowly, knowing that was as good as he would get from me. "And Levi?"

"Grace will take him while we hunt."

"What happens if Dean wants to take Grace?" Sam took a deep breath, turning to face me completely. "She's handy in a fight."

"So we call Jody. Or Cas." I paused and took a deep breath. "Or both, considering there are four of them."

Sam shook his head slowly, disapproval rolling through his body. I knew then and there that if it came down to a hunt, he would tell me after the fact that he and Dean had gone without me and Grace, calling us from the road, to make sure that we were safe with the kids. I realized that he would never purposefully include me in a hunt again, and I both hated and loved him for it. Right now, more hated than loved, but I'm sure the time would come that I would appreciate the gesture.

Silently, knowing she was listening, I told Grace that if we saw the opportunity to take the werewolves out, we should jump on it. I was surprised when I didn't hear back from her. I didn't get the chance to hear her overwhelming disapproval.

…

"They're hunters. I knew they were," Cecelia snarled as she burst through the house. "Why would you choose to move into a town where hunters are married to each other."

Cade shook his head, "I didn't know they were fucking married. I heard that the Winchester brothers were here and I've wanted a bite of them for the past eight years or so."

"We all did," Cecelia said, still pacing around the room. "But they're married to other hunters? The women are hunters, too?"

"Who are they?" Cade asked, watching his sister pace around the room furiously.

Cecelia shook her head. "I don't know the women. When I was in the shop, the older brother's wife and…kids came." She turned back to her family and rolled her head back and forth to release the tension that had gathered at her neck since they arrived in this god-forsaken little corn town. "There are three." She smiled evilly. "Kids are so much more tender than adults."

Dylan spoke for the first time. Cecelia stared at her youngest brother and tilted her head, listening. "Just because they're hunters doesn't mean that they'll be able to fight us off. The women are probably out of practice, anyway." He paused and smiled at his sister. "Motherhood makes you soft."

Cecelia handed Dylan her phone and raised her eyebrows. "Then if we're going to do this, take on the Winchesters and their hunter wives, we need the whole family." She paused and took a breath, running her long-nailed fingers through her hair. "Call the cousins. Get them out here, too."