A/N: Whoo! Okay, so... this is where I'm starting to get nervous about where the story is going and how readers will accept it. *fingers crossed*
I don't own Supernatural. :(
Hope drove with a fury. Turning corners on two wheels, running stop signs, and stopping with skidding tires. It was a miracle she didn't get pulled over by the cops, but she had no choice. The little boy she had tucked into the back seat was sick.
Finally at the motel, she stopped the car, shoving the keys into her pocket and pulling the small boy into her arms. She threw her back against the motel room door, yelling inside, "Guys! Let me in!"
"Didn't you take a…" Bobby froze when he saw the limp child in her arms. Shoving past him, Hope carefully set him on her bed. She pulled off the boy's jacket and her own before pulling him onto her lap, cradling him. "I was driving back and I saw him behind a dumpster. I- I think it's Joshua. He reacted to the name, but he could just be…. Hey!" she exclaimed as he opened his small eyes. Brushing his black fringe out of his eyes, she stroked his cheek. "Are you Joshua?" He blinked his bright eyes slowly before nodding once. Hope smiled, relieved. "Hi, sweetie. My name is Hope. Are you hungry?" Joshua nodded again.
"Er… we don't have any food," Dean muttered.
Hope glanced up at him. "There are two pizzas out in Bobby's car." Dean was gone in a flash.
Joshua squirmed slightly, and Hope helped him sit up. Then she gasped. The boy's face was covered in scratches. "What happened to you?"
The child sniffled. Lowering her voice, Hope tried again. "Joshua? Can you… can you please tell me what happened?"
His lip trembled. He was terrified. The girl was so nice, but so was the other girl at first. The girl with the black eyes.
"Joshua, I promise we won't hurt you."
He looked up at the man. He was standing a few feet away and he was very tall. He looked like he was telling the truth…
"The girl with the black eyes hurt my mommy," Joshua muttered quietly. "She said that I wouldn't get hurt if I didn't scream. But I was so scared." Tears began leaking out of the corners of his golden eyes. "I screamed for my mommy and she scratched me." Hope wanted to run out and strangle the demon herself, but the boy looked like he just needed to get it out. "Her friends locked me in a little room. It was dark, but I could still see. Then she- she said she was gonna take them." Joshua sniffled. "So at night, I snuck out of the room. All the lights were off, so they couldn't see me."
Dean entered quietly and set the pizzas on the table. "What was she gonna take, kiddo?"
Still sniffling, the child mumbled something incomprehensible. Hope suddenly felt something moving beneath her hand. Reaching his hands up, Joshua tugged off his t-shirt, revealing two beautiful, white wings speckled with black spots. He snuggled up against Hope, his nose in the crook of her neck. "You smell like my mommy." At that, the traumatized child fell asleep.
/H/
"Well, now I see why Tim said that he's an angel," Bobby muttered, leaning against the counter.
"Did you hear what he said? 'The girl with the black eyes hurt my mother'? For some reason the demons wanted him. What the hell? I just don't get it. Why are they so interested? They have nothing to do with demon/angel mythology." Hope said as she ate a piece of the pizza.
Joshua mumbled something in his sleep and Hope was by his side in an instant, leaving the three hunters to talk. "Joshua? You alright, sweetheart?"
Bright yellow eyes fluttering open, they fixed on Hope's blue ones. "You're like me," He whispered. "I can smell it. Did they hurt your mommy too?"
Blinking back tears, Hope nodded. "Yes…. What do you mean I'm like you?"
Now he looked confused. Reaching a hand behind her, he pressed on the bruises on her back. Then he smiled at her angelically.
/H/
The next morning Hope awoke to the sounds of whooshing air and fluttering wings. She groaned, sitting up and being met with the sight of Castiel standing in the middle of the room. Bobby, Sam, and Dean were already awake, sitting at the table and talking over cold pizza. Joshua was still asleep beside her.
"You all must leave…" Castiel stopped, staring at Hope.
Looking uncomfortable, Hope shifted awkwardly. "What?"
Gathering his thoughts, Castiel continued, "There are demons on their way. They are coming for Hope and Joshua." Then he disappeared. Three heartbeats passed, and then the motel room was a flurry of movement. Bobby gathering randomly placed weapons, Sam gathering duffels and Dean grabbing any talismans for wards they had set up. Hope turned and shook Joshua awake and tossed his shirt to him, pausing to watch as his wings folded themselves against his back as he tugged the shirt on. Pulling a jacket over the sweats she slept in, she grabbed her duffel with one hand and Joshua's hand with the other. "C'mon, sweetie."
Running out to the car lot, Joshua held tight to Hope's hand. Climbing into their respective cars, the little band tore out of the lot. Hope let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. Twisting in her seat, she asked, "You alright?" to Joshua, who had settled himself into the back seat of Bobby's Chevelle.
Eyes wide, he nodded. "Why did we have to leave so quick?"
"An angel friend of ours stopped by and warned us that demons were coming for you." Hope sighed, resting her cheek against her chair. "I'll help you get cleaned up once we stop. You want something to eat?"
When he nodded, Hope gestured to a McDonalds they were driving by. "Can you pull in there for a second?" Once through the drive-thru, they were back on the road, Hope munching on a large fry, and Joshua eating a mcnugget kid's meal. Drinking his coffee, Bobby talked on his cell phone for most of the ride to the next motel. After their second pit stop (Bathroom, coffee, junk food) Hope sat in the back with Joshua, and they proceeded to entertain each other with any car game they could think of. They managed to spend an entire hour playing rock-paper-scissors before Joshua dropped off to sleep, his head in Hope's lap.
Hope ran her fingers through the boy's dark hair absently. As she thought about what was happening, she realized that she was terrified. So… was she going to have wings too? That would explain the bruising on her back, and Joshua seemed pretty convinced. Would her eye color change? She tried to think of different attributes birds had. Please God, don't let me have a beak. She shook her head, horrified by that thought. At least wings can be covered by a shirt. Besides that wings were pretty badass. Hope sighed, leaning her head back on the headrest, eyes drooping closed. God, I'm tired...
/H/
"Hope? C'mon, kid, wake up."
Hope groaned, rubbing her cheek and sitting forward. "Hmm? What's up?" She turned her head to see Bobby standing just outside the door, silhouetted by the car lot streetlamp.
"We're at the next motel. Joshua's still asleep, but you're too old to be carried in." He winked.
Sighing, Hope clamored out of the chevelle, stumbling slightly. "Where'r my bags?" she mumbled.
Bobby smiled slightly, chuckling. "They're in the room. Now c'mon, you can go back to sleep once we get inside." Leaning into him for support, the two made their way to the motel room, being met with an equally-exhausted-looking Sam at the door. Stumbling through the door, Hope plopped down on one of the beds beside Joshua.
/H/
I'm sitting in a dark room, huddled in a corner with my knees tucked up to my chest. Where am I? I was just in a motel room with everybody. I turned to look at the wall to my right. There's a girl with platinum blonde hair standing there. She looks about my age... One of the girls who would be considered "perfect" at school. She has black eyes.
"Wh- who are y- you?" I stutter, hating how my voice shakes. It's just so damn cold.
The girl smiles coldly. "I am Abaddon. Do you have any idea who you are?" she crouches in front of me, reaching out a hand to brush my cheek. I slap it away, jumping to my feet.
"Get the hell away from me!"
Abaddon smiles cruelly, and suddenly there was a large machete-like knife in her hand. "You have no power here. Although, it's not like you have power anywhere else. You simply surround yourself with people to use as shields. Your mother for example."
Tears begin to well up in my eyes. She's right. My mother didn't have to die. If I just hadn't gotten her from the basement, she would have been fine. All of this is my fault, I realize with an irrational wave of pure guilt. I drop to my knees as I feel all my fight give out.
"You're just a worthless piece of trash," Abaddon continues, "You are nothing. We are coming for you and little Joshie. Maybe not tonight, but we will find you eventually." Junging forward, she jabs the knife toward my face, but I roll out of the way. I scream. I'm so damn scared. Why did this have to happen to me?
"Please! Please don't!" The tears are running down my face now, sobs wrenching themselves from my chest, and when I see the knife coming down to plunge itself into my back, I don't fight. I let the pain come.
/H/
"HOPE! WAKE UP!" Bobby shakes her shoulders as she sobs, eyes screwed shut. Hope's eyes fly open and she stares at him, unable to communicate to him what just happened. She looks across the room. Sam is holding Joshua, who's eyes are wide with confusion. Dean is sitting at the table, looking sad and tired.
Suddenly the feeling of the knife penetrating her back washes over her again and she cringes, curling in on herself, trying to protect herself from the pain. "NO! PLEASE STOP! PLEASE!"
"Bobby! We have to get her to be quiet or we'll have the cops here in minutes!" Sam says worriedly.
"Hope? Sweetheart, what's happening? Why are you screaming?" Bobby asks, beginning to panic.
Hope looks up at him as the pain ebbs. "She- she just kept stabbing over and- AAH!" she screamed again, another wave of excruciating pain radiating through her body. Blood began pooling on the motel bed sheets.
"What the hell?" Bobby yelled, rolling her over onto her stomach to reveal her back drenched in blood. Joshua ran over and tugged her shirt off, leaving her in a blood-soaked tank top, revealing her bloody skin. In the center of the barely discernable bruises two white things were shoving themselves up through her skin.
"Her wings are coming in," Joshua said quietly, eerily calm now that he knew what was happening.
"But- she's too old to be a bird-dude," Dean argues.
Joshua nodded solemnly, looking far to wise for his age. "Which is why it is so painful for her. They have been developing beneath her skin, and there's just not enough room for them inside her anymore."
Bobby motioned for Sam and Dean to join him beside the bed. "Gimme a hand here." Following Bobby's careful instructions, the three gently wrapped Hope in the sheets from the bed and carried her into the bathroom, gently laying her in the tub. Hope writhed in pain, choken sobs escaping her throat as big hot tears ran down her face.
"I'm worried about her losing too much blood," Sam muttered to Bobby, who was seated on the toilet lid beside the bathtub, gently stroking Hope's hair.
"She'll be okay. If not I'm O-Negative," Bobby answered quietly.
Hope was lying on her side, with her back towards the wall, sobbing quietly. Over the next hour Joshua brought in a few pillows to support her head. When Bobby left to get a cup of coffee, Joshua took his seat. Taking Hope's hand, he began to sing.
This one goes out to the man who mines for miracles
This one goes out the ones in need
This one goes out to the sinner and the cynical
This ain't about no apology
This road was paved by the hopeless and the hungry
This road was paved by the winds of change
Walking beside the guilty and the innocent
How will you raise your hand when they call your name?
Yea, Yea, Yea
We weren't born to follow
Come on and get up off your knees
When life is a bitter pill to swallow
You gotta hold on to what you believe
Believe that the sun will shine tomorrow
And that saints and sinners bleed
We weren't born to follow
You gotta stand up for what you believe
Let me hear you say
Yea, Yea, Yea, Oh, Yea….
Aw, little Joshie being all touching. Please review! constructive criticism and suggestions are wonderfully welcome!