Author's Note: Any and all information about Abilene, Kansas is completely made up. I've never been to this place, so don't believe anything I have to say about it. I just needed a name of a nearby town and I landed on Abilene. Capisce?
Allison's just finished a Skype session with the ladies of the McCall Pack when two back-to-back knocks on her bedroom door draws her attention to it's source. Claire stands there leaning against the door jamb, arms crossed and blonde curls hanging over one shoulder. "Hey, what's up?"
"Sam and Dean are on a hunting trip and haven't been home for a few days. Jody went after them and hasn't checked in. Chris says we're up to bat."
Closing her laptop, Allison scoots towards the edge of her bed. "It's about time. What's the time schedule?"
"We leave in half an hour. Chop, chop, Argent. It's time to go save your boy toy and his idiotic brother." Allison huffs a laugh as Claire pushes off the doorway, the blonde playing with the ends of two braids running along one side of her head. "I'll meet you up front. Don't be late."
Taking a moment for herself, Allison picks up her phone and types out a quick message for Charlie.
To: Charlie
From: Allison
I need the GPS coordinates for the Impala and you to hack any cameras around the Impala for any information about Dean and Sam. Jody, too. They've gone missing and my dad's sending in Claire and I to find them.
Settling her phone aside, Allison starts putting together a bag. Sam and Dean are missing, so she's not going in as any type of out-of-town authority. She's going as the concerned girlfriend and Claire will most likely pass as the concerned younger sibling. Then after making sure she has a couple outfits to last her for the time away from the bunker, Allison grabs up another bag and heads for the weapons range. She grabs up her bow and personalized arrows along with all the gear she normally uses for archery, and packs a few guns, ammunition, daggers and holsters.
Up front, Allison finds Claire standing by the main table with a bag sitting in front of her. Placing her own two next to Claire's, she hip checks the younger girl before giving her dad her full attention.
"Okay," Chris sighs. "We got three hunters missing. While I give the Winchesters a lot of credit, it is odd that Sam hasn't checked in with Allison in over twenty-four hours. Even more so, Ms. Mills hasn't called in as she explained she would.
"Now I want you girls in and out. I've been going through the bestiary app to check Sam's latest inquiry and they've narrowed down the monster to a Wendigo. As you know, there are two different species of Wendigo's, so I can't stress enough that you two need to be careful."
Allison nods. "I have Charlie hacking any nearby cameras around the Impala's last GPS coordinates. She'll fill us in on the way."
"Good." Looking between the two huntress', Chris can't help but feel a little useless. He doesn't want to send them out on their own, but he knows someone needs to stay behind and Claire doesn't really know the layout of the bunker, and Allison would follow no matter her orders. "You two set?" He eventually asks.
"Yes."
"Yes, sir."
"Then get going. Send me the coordinates when Charlie sends them. I want an update every hour after you've found a temporary homebase."
The girls nod before gathering up their bags, they shouldering them as they head for the stairs. There are no sweet or heartfelt goodbyes, but it's something that every hunter must learn to get over.
"I like your dad," Claire says once they're outside the bunker and tossing their bags into the back of a black Range Rover. "He's very.. assertive." Allison gasps, scandalized and a little bit grossed out, but one look at her face and Claire throws her head back in a laugh. "I didn't mean it like that, idiot." She pauses briefly so they can situate themselves inside the vehicle. "I just meant- Dean and Sam, they still treat me with gentle hands. Jody, too, but she's recently gotten the hang of using her mom voice on me."
"But my dad-"
"Your dad doesn't care about my past. Well, he might, but he doesn't let it skew his judgement on how he sees me. He's got this no nonsense attitude and treats me like a hunter with no worry about hurting my feelings."
"And you like that?"
"Yes! I'm so tired of people walking on eggshells around me and handling me like I might break. Yes, I was angry before with how everything went down with my parents, but I'm not anymore. I'm a hunter now. I can handle my emotions."
Allison chuckles as she starts the engine, she intent on driving to the nearest gas station to fill up and wait for Charlie to send her the coordinates she needs. "Being in charge is kind of new to my dad, actually, so he's not as assertive as he should be. In my family, the women were always the leaders while the men were soldiers. My mom used to call the shots and then when she passed, the reigns were thrust upon me. It's not- it's not an easy job, but I'm glad I don't have to do it anymore. I'm shocked you actually like it. You don't seem like a person who'd choose to follow the rules."
"Hunting's a dangerous job," Claire shrugs. "I was reckless in the beginning and learned my lesson. As long as who ever is calling the shots knows what they're doing, I don't mind orders."
Allison's phone chimes. "Can you get that?" She asks of Claire.
The blonde grabs up the phone from the cup holder between them and reads off what's on the screen. "It's from Charlie."
"Read it."
Claire opens the text message. "Uh, we are headed to Abilene. It's just a little over a two hour drive."
"Perfect."
"Yeah. She also booked us a room at the local Super 8 Motel. Only downfall is the available rooms only had one bed."
"That's not a problem. I doubt we'll get much sleep, anyway."
xXx
By the time the girls check into their hotel room, Claire's torn between wanting to punch someone or laughing her head off. "He thought we were a couple," she deadpans while tossing her bag onto the nearest chair. "Do you think Sam and Dean get the same treatment?"
"Yes," Allison snorts. "I've heard stories. No one ever believes Dean when he stammers out that they're brothers."
The blonde finally huffs a laugh and starts to pull out their laptop and tablets to set up. They need to check-in with both Chris and Charlie, and see if either of the two have any more information about Dean, Sam and Jody so they know where to start looking.
"Charlie is still looking to see just who we're up against. She found some fishy footage and can't tell if our monsters are actual monsters or humans." Claire clicks through the information Charlie's sent, bringing up some footage to show to Allison.
"If they look like humans, then we're either dealing with actual humans or the second species in which the bloodline is diluted. But just because the bloodline's diluted, they're still very lethal."
"So are we hunting them as we would any other monster?"
"Yes. We protect those who cannot protect themselves. Whether it be monster or a monstrous human we end up coming across, they have three of ours and they will not get away with it," Allison says. "The monster will show it's face and we'll take care of it like we do all monsters who've killed before. If they turn out to be human, we knock them out and tie them up to be found by the local authorities."
"I can work with that." Claire turns to the tablets to read up on the breed of Wendigos they now know for sure they're hunting. "Don't forget to check in with your dad. Our hour's almost up."
Allison sighs. "He's ridiculous. I hope he understands we intend to get some sleep. I won't be setting hourly alarms just for his peace of mind."
Claire laughs.
The entire first day entailed the girls settling in and coming up with a plan instead of rushing in head first without an idea of what they were going to do. Back at the bunker before they had left, Claire had worked side-by-side with Chris to print out flyers with Dean and Sam's face on them, though instead of going by Winchester, Chris named them Argents. And when Allison asked where the flyers for Jody were, Claire informed her they couldn't make Jody a flyer given her Sheriff status. If word got out a law enforcement officer was missing, they'd bring down unwanted attention on them.
Charlie couldn't find anything else worth mentioning and after checking in with Chris, Allison and Claire left to pick up some food for dinner while also keeping an ear out for clues as to where their family was.
The following morning had the girls getting ready and talking through their cover story if anyone questioned just who they were to the missing men. And when Allison had walked out of the bathroom in quite the adorable white, sleeveless lace dress, Claire had laughed.
"A dress? Really?"
"Yes, really." Allison rolls her eyes while shoving her dirty clothes into her bag. "You and your leather jacket, and flannel and jeans will make people wary. I, on the other hand, will appear sweet and innocent, and totally approachable." Claire scoffs, but says no more. "And besides, I'll get a lot of movement in this dress. I've got tights on underneath, so I don't mind getting into a fight in this." A couple daggers get strapped to Allison's thigh beneath the skirt of her dress and she gathers up her archery supplies to hide beneath the back seat of the Range Rover.
Then it's Allison's turn to scoff as Claire shamelessly tucks a gun at the small of her back and a blade in her boot. She slips on an odd holster that rests against her back, but doesn't slide anything in it and instead pulls on her leather jacket. But as she continues to rummage through her bag, Allison finds that Claire's weapon of choice is a silver short sword. "This I'll have to hide in the Rover as he walk around the town," the blonde shrugs.
"Yeah. No kidding."
Claire and Allison then load up the Rover with all they need, they being careful to hide their weapons on the short trip from their room to their vehicle, and then hide them really well under the back seats so no one can find them.
They grab the flyers before locking up their room and then head out to grab some breakfast before starting their day of playing the grieving little sister and girlfriend.
A majority of the day turns out to be a bust, not a single local recognizing either Sam or Dean in the flyers the girls are flashing around. They make sure to not leave a single flyer behind less someone connect Sam and Dean Argent to Sam and Dean Winchester, and the girls break for a late lunch. And it's during the end of their break that they actually get their first and significant lead.
The workers at the ice cream parlor are switching out, and the girls decide to take a chance and ask the new faces if they've seen Sam or Dean. Allison decides to ask this time around since she has the more friendlier appearance and Claire keeps watch from their table.
The manager of the ice cream parlor is a kind, elder gentleman and Allison doesn't waste a second to question him about her boyfriend and boyfriend's brother who appeared to have gone missing for the last couple of days. He listens to her words and takes a moment to study the flyer, and just when Allison thinks he's going to give her bad news, his eyes light up in recognition. And then they turn even brighter as he points out Tommy, a teenager in line behind Allison who was actually seen talking to Sam the other day.
Allison talks to the kid, her heart pounding as she patiently waits for any piece of information that will point her and Claire in the right direction, and she senses something off almost immediately. The second Tommy glances at the flyer in Allison's hand, his eyes widen and he starts stammering. She asks when he last talked to Sam, what they talked about and what direction he went in. Tommy couldn't keep his answers straight and started sweating in the air-conditioned establishment, and immediately left after only two minutes of Allison questioning him.
Following him out of the parlor, Allison frowns at the teen's back. "Did you see that?" She asks Claire. "He knows something."
"Already on it," Claire mumbles, typing away on her phone. "I'll have Charlie track his license plate."
The vehicle screeches around the corner down the street, and Allison and Claire wait rather impatiently for Charlie to get back to them. Less than five minutes later, Charlie texts them back.
"Okay, so we're looking at Thomas Reed. I got a picture and an address, and this is our guy." Allison looks at the picture, nodding in agreement that it is their guy before gathering up their trash to throw away. Claire follows and then the girls rush to situate themselves in the Rover. "So how are we playing this?"
"We wait for a half hour or so," Allison says. "We wait and then we creep as close as possible to the address Charlie gave us. We scope out the place, look for anything suspicious and run in if we feel like we got the right place."
"Aye, aye, Captain," Claire sloppily salutes her. "You're the seasoned hunter here. I'll follow what you think is best."
xXx
The address Charlie sent them is not-so-surprisingly down a secluded dirt road. They drive around until they find a spot to hide their vehicle, the girls then hurriedly holstering weapons to their person's before trekking through the woods towards what they hope is the property where Dean, Sam and Jody are being held.
A house and a barn come into view not twenty minutes into their walk, the property being surrounded by a rundown wooden fence. The property is rather muddy and the trucks, plus a very familiar car, all seem rather rustic and way too old to be running.
"Do you think they're here?" Claire murmurs.
Allison shrugs and pulls a small pair of binoculars from her jacket pocket. "There's only one way to find out." She plops down next to an overgrown bush, settling her bow over her thighs. "Get comfortable, Novak. We're casing this joint."
Huffing in amusement, Claire brushes her foot along the ground to clear out a small sitting area. She makes sure to balance her gun on her thigh so it's easily accessible should she need it and keeps her gaze straight forward on the house for any sign of movement.
Every now and then someone walks in and out of the house to enter the barn, and Allison quickly catches on to the fact she's only seen males. There seems to be only one female, an elder woman who passes by the kitchen window every now and then. The kid from ice cream parlor scurries between the barn and the house as if terrified, and the woman from the kitchen is constantly looking him over with a concerned expression.
"The kid's human," Allison states. "As is the woman. They seem scared."
"Scared of what?"
"The wendigo?" Allison guesses. "The wendigo could be using this family as a cover. Threatening them so he has a place to eat his meals that won't draw too much attention."
"But just one wendigo?" Claire frowns. "That seems unlikely. There's too many men in and out of this place."
"Could be a pack. The father could be one of them or he could be a human who doesn't see a problem with a monster eating other humans on his property."
Claire's nose wrinkles in disgust. "So gross."
A male shouts, a woman screams, a creature roars and then there's a loud commotion from the house. The woman in the kitchen window cringes, as does the teen who covers his ears that's in the same room as her, and Allison and Claire tense as the screen door is thrown open. Two males stomp out the door, eyes glowing white and snarling as they each grasp the bicep of a struggling woman between them.
"It's Jody," Allison breathes in shock.
Claire snatches the binoculars from Allison's grasp, she following the trio as they drag a beaten and bloodied Jody towards the barn. "Why is it always a barn?" The blonde sneers.
"Believe it or not, a barn is a first for me."
The barn door slams behind them and the girls climb to their feet. "How are we doing this?" Claire asks.
"So far I've counted five males, not including the kid. If you're positive the person you're fighting is a wendigo, aim to kill. They're strength is about the same as an alpha werewolf. If he's human or you're not sure, aim to injure. We got to get these men out of the way before we can rescue our own."
"Got it."
Fortunately for Allison and Claire, the sun's already dipping behind the horizon and the sky is darkening, they having watched the house a lot longer than expected. Allison has a moment to curse her choice of attire and Claire briefly laughs at the white dress and boots, promising to get Jody to replace it if they all make it out alive. Allison scoffs and then both girls' amusement melts away and their expressions harden for what's about to happen.
Allison nocks an arrow and Claire grips her gun in hand, making sure the safety is off. Picking the moment that feels right, Claire and Allison leave the safety of the woods and start creeping towards the barn. They make it there without a single problem, and choose to enter through a side door that Claire points out instead of using the main door that would draw too much attention. Though the second they enter, they're ambushed. The bow and arrow is ripped from her hands, and another person knocks away Claire's gun.
Neither male has glowing eyes or sharp teeth, in fact they appear of normal strength, and both seem to startle at the sound of the gunshot that goes wide. Several roars echo deeper into the barn, and Allison and Claire use the men's split second of hesitation to their advantage, and hand to hand combat ensues.
Allison surprisingly does well, she blocking wild punches and kicking out when she can. A few hits land to her arms and rib area, but she pushes on and manages to knock her attacker down to one knee. Dazed, Allison then swings with a mighty right hook and knocks the guy out.
"A little.. help.. over here!"
Whirling around, Allison finds Claire being pinned to the wall by her throat. She's struggling back against her attacker, one of her own hands choking the male back but she doesn't have nearly as much strength as he does. Allison jogs towards them, picking up the gun from the ground and pistol whipping the guy across the back of his head.
As he goes limp, Claire pushes him off with a grunt. "Yeah. Okay. I'm definitely taking you up on those hand-to-hand skills when we get back."
Allison grins. "Told you you needed to learn how to properly fight. Weapons will only get you so far."
"Yeah, yeah. I'm totally shooting the next guy no matter if he's human or not."
"Come on, let's go." Allison rushes to pick up her bow and nocks another arrow.
Side-by-side, the girls stomp deeper into the barn. The stalls are built in an odd maze of sorts and the girls quickly find who and what they're looking for.
Both beaten and bloodied, Sam and Dean are chained to wooden pillars on one side of the barn. On a table, Jody is chained down and a wendigo is growling as it licks the blood from the side of her face.
Claire raises her gun, but Allison beats her to it. The arrow whistles as it's loosed, embedding itself into the shoulder of the wendigo above Jody. Jody yelping draws the attention of two other wendigos who'd been crouching nearby, and Allison and Claire prepare for battle. Unfortunately, Claire empties the barrel or her gun fairly quickly and she readily reaches behind her head for the hilt of her sword.
"Now this is a fight," she mutters as she twirls the sword once before taking a fighting stance.
"Are you two crazy?!" Dean barks. "Get out of here."
Allison nocks another arrow before going back to back with Claire. "For doubting our skills, you're making your own food for a month, Winchester."
"Allison. He's right," Sam admits. "You're outnumbered. Go!"
"Like hell." Claire swings her sword at the wendigo creeping up on their side and Allison looses another arrow.
Arrow after arrow gets loosed at the other two wendigos, but they easily dodge and roll out of the way. One wendigo decides to crouch over it's wounded prey- Jody- and Allison engages the one she'd shot. The bow is knocked free yet again, but Allison is quick to reach under her dress for the Chinese ring daggers. She can hear Claire holding her own, but knows to not let her eye off the wendigo in front of her.
Slash after slash, punch after punch, Allison soon finds that she's no match for a wendigo up close and personal. She takes more than her fair share of hits and ends up with a split lip for her efforts, and she keeps getting knocked back step after step only to take yet another punch to the jaw. The punch sends her reeling which sends Dean and Sam into a frenzied panic against their binds, but just as Allison works up enough strength to lunge back at the roaring wendigo, Claire jumps to her rescue.
The tip of the sword protrudes from the wendigo's chest, it shrieking in pain before falling dead at her feet. Allison glances at Claire in shock and the blonde grins as she wipes blood from her mouth. "You're welcome."
The last standing wendigo roars both in anger and in hunger, and just as Allison starts to glance around for her bow yet again, an even more bone-chilling roar answers the first. Her heart seems to cease beating for a second as she looks towards the source of the second roar, but the shockingly familiar sight of blazing red eyes, razor sharp teeth and claws, and canine facial features turns out to be a very welcomed sight.
"What the hell..?" Claire breathes in awe.
The wendigo jumps over Jody to lunge at the alpha werewolf and once they're locked in battle, Allison scrambles for Sam while shouting at Claire to untie Dean. The two girls notice the locks on the chain and spend a handful of minutes trying to jimmy them open while keeping an eye on the gruesome fight going on.
"Should we- do we have to worry about.. that?" Claire grunts as she yanks at Dean's bindings.
"Shut up and untie me. Don't worry about him."
Allison flinches when both wendigo and werewolf roar from the wounds they're inflicting upon one another, and hurries to free Sam when Jody starts to call out for help next. Claire surprisingly gets Dean free first and the both of them rush to Judy's aide. Allison frees Sam a moment later and after Sam yanks the chains free from around him, he reaches around and grabs Allison around the biceps to pull her into his lap.
"You're so stupid. So stupid," he mumbles while cradling her injured face in his own bloody hands. "What were you thinking?"
Allison gulps. "I was thinking that I needed to save my idiot boyfriend and his brother, and Claire's mother figure."
"You should've waited for backup."
"We're hunters, Sam. We are the backup. Now shut up, kiss me and lets go make sure Jody is okay."
Huffing a laugh, Sam does as he's told before letting Allison go and letting her pull him up. Just as he's steady on his own two feet, a triumphant roar resonates around the room and Allison slumps in relief at the sight of the victor.
Dean's still struggling with Jody's binds and as the red-eyed victor glances around the barn, Claire takes a moment to unsheathe her sword and lunge for the last standing monster.
"Claire, no!"
The wolf dodges the first swing of the sword and knocks it from Claire's grip with a backhanded swing towards her wrist. Clawed fingers wrap around her pale throat, bringing her forward so she's inches from a snarling face before he twirls her around so her back is to his chest. "Quit it," he growls in her ear.
One hand goes to pry the fingers from her throat which aren't exactly cutting off her supply of oxygen, but still bothersome nonetheless, and as Claire swings back with the other hand it's caught in a firm grip.
"Claire, quit!" Allison yells as she jogs towards them. "Derek, let her go."
The blonde's eyes pop wide open as the monster holding her does as he's told, but as she whirls around to give it a piece of her mind and possibly throw in a few punches, she finds a rather handsome man staring back at her. "Wait.. what..?"
"If you hadn't ran in like our huntress in leather armor, you'd have realized that this is Derek Hale. A friend."
"But he was- it was-"
"Not all monsters do monstrous things," Allison tells her softly. "Derek was an ally from my life before, but now he's a friend. Which, by the way," she says and whirls on the werewolf, "when were you going to tell us about this new development?" she asks while gesturing to her own eyes.
Sheepishly shrugging, Derek flashes her a grim smile. "It's fairly new," he grumbles. "There was a rogue, lone alpha stalking me. He wouldn't take no for an answer."
"This is cute and all," Dean shouts, "but can someone come help over here? These chains are ridiculous."
Allison and Derek start walking towards the table with a reluctant Claire following, but Sam gestures behind them. "I'm gonna go check on the mom and her kid. Someone needs to tell her they're safe now."
Allison waves him off and Derek wastes no time in grasping Jody's binds in hands and ripping the chain links with barely any effort at all. Jody refuses to move a muscle as she stares at Derek and with a sigh, Derek backs off so everyone else can surround her and help her off the table.
"Who's he?" She finally rasps.
Rubbing the back of his neck and refusing to meet anyone's gaze, Allison grins and links her arm around one of his. "This is Derek Hale; Alpha werewolf and a very good friend of ours."
"Yeah, yeah," Dean grumbles tiredly. "Cujo's cool. Don't worry about him."
"Oh." Jody seems to perk up a little bit, but Claire still looks hesitant, even more so when Derek glowers at Dean.
Chuckling at everyone's response after such a fight, Allison then nudges Derek's side with a furrowed brow. "Not that I'm not thankful for the save here tonight, but how exactly did you know we were here?"
"Made a new friend who grabbed my number from you, apparently," he shrugs. "Kind of annoying and reminds you of Stiles? Said her name was Charlie." Dean and Allison snort. "She's helpful. She found out I was close around here and sent me to check things out since someone forgot to check in with Chris."
Claire and Allison both grimace. They thought that leaving their phones in their vehicle as to not attract attention and forgetting about their check-ins would be their best option. Boy were they stupid.
"Right," Allison finally drawls. "So we're in for some mothering later. What do you say we get out of this barn and go grab some hot showers? I'm beat."
xXx
On the way back to the bunker, Dean took the Range Rover with Claire and Jody, and Allison and Sam persuaded Derek to head back with them for a decent's night rest without having to worry about looking over his shoulder.
As expected, Chris fussed over not only Allison, but Claire and Jody as well. Everyone, except for Derek who wasn't in the loop, snickered and smiled when Chris ended up patching up Jody's facial wounds himself while leaving the two younger girls to fend for themselves. So while Derek was given the okay to wander around the bunker and get comfortable, the other four injured hunters went to shower and change.
Then in fresh clothes, Allison moves cautiously as to not upset her already tender bruises and scoots back on Sam's bed until she's resting comfortably against the mountain of pillows up by the headboard. She's running her fingers through her damp hair when Sam stumbles in, a towel draped over his head and pajama pants slung low on his hips. "You know, I'm kind of grateful for Jody being here. My dad's more occupied with her than he is with making sure there's at least three feet between us at all times."
Sam huffs a laugh. "That doesn't bother you? Your dad being in interested in another woman, I mean."
"Not at all. If my mother's death was recent, then I'd be uncomfortable with my dad moving on so soon, but it isn't. My mom passed a long time ago. And besides, who am I to tell my dad who he can or can't see? At least Jody is familiar with our line of work," she shrugs. "Makes things a lot easier for them."
"I hear you on that," he groans as he stretches. Tossing the towel aside, Sam crawls into bed and pillows his head against Allison's abdomen while laying his arm over her legs. "That's one of the reasons why I'm so comfortable in this relationship. There aren't really any secrets between us since we have the same job."
Allison grins. "Ditto."
The two lapse into a brief silence, her fingers tangling in Sam's own damp hair as her nails lazily scratch at his scalp. She's content in their current predicament and it's Sam who has a little too much on his mind.
He is comfortable in their relationship, hell he's more than comfortable seeing as he doesn't have to keep it a secret about who he is or what he does, but after the evening's events he's been a little on edge. He loves the girl, he does, and after the close call with the wendigo he'd been terrified that he'd never get to tell her. So taking a deep breath and stepping outside his comfort zone, Sam squeezes Allison's legs before telling her. "I love you."
Her fingers freeze in his hair. "What?"
"I love you," he says again. He turns his face so his chin rests against her stomach, his gaze boring into hers. "I'm in love with you and I'm sorry it's taken me so long you finally tell you."
She barks a watery laugh, eyes misty. "I love you, too." Her hand that been in his hair moves down so she's gently running her fingertips along his cheek. "And as much as I'd love to celebrate said love, I'm really tired and sore, and would rather not give our resident werewolf a show. Derek's hearing is even more sharper given his new alpha status."
Sam snorts again before burying his face against her stomach once more. "Yeah. We're definitely celebrating after Hale leaves."