Previously: Dean and Jenna are taken to a large mansion by demons and locked up in a room in the basement. That night, demons attack Sam and Quinn back at the diner. They work well together but are both suspicious and distrustful and after hearing the demons say they want Sam alive, Quinn demands they lay low in a motel room and wants Sam to come clean.

CHAPTER 4 – PEELING THE ONION

Dean and Jenna were left alone in the small room for hours. In an attempt to keep from climbing the walls, Dean focused on trying to get his new roommate to trust him enough to spill what she wasn't telling him. The demons hadn't just been after him and Sam; in the van they had specifically mentioned her also. She had been in Sam's freaky vision and she was a hunter - all just a little too coincidental for Dean's liking.

That and Dean trusted his gut and his gut was telling him she was holding something back.

Despite their common situation, she wasn't opening up much, definitely not one for sharing. She clammed up every time he steered the subject to demons. He decided to drop the personal prodding for a while, instead pulling out the deck of cards and using casual conversation and friendly banter to put her at ease. After all, charming women was one of his strongest skill sets. Regardless of the crappy circumstances, he found himself enjoying her company. She may have been exceedingly guarded and private, but she was friendly and she had a nice laugh. And psychic freak or not, she was easy on the eyes.

She yawned widely and he suggested she get some shut-eye, offering to move to the floor so she could take the bed. She shook her head, claiming she couldn't sleep. "And you don't have to sleep on the floor," she added.

"Oh?" he grinned, arching an eyebrow.

She rolled her eyes. "I mean we can take turns. Just let me know when you want to crash."

Dean couldn't even contemplate sleeping - not stuck in here surrounded by demons with Sam out there somewhere, probably worried as shit and a breath away from doing something reckless. To top that off, the friend that Jenna kept insisting would stop at nothing to find her, Quinn, was a hunter and after Gordon Walker... Dean didn't trust other hunters and he didn't trust Sam to keep his vision crap to himself.

Food was brought to them around one o'clock in the morning, delivered by a sullen demon who simply threw the drive-thru bag at Dean and slammed the door back shut. They ate ravenously, both having skipped lunch and supper, and went back to their card game feeling much better.

"So your mother died when you were young, huh?" Dean asked her flippantly, tapping his king to indicate wanting another card. Poker had given way to Black Jack at her insistence, presumably because she was tired of his continuous urging to turn it into strip poker.

"Uh-huh," she said absently, turning up a three of clubs and laying it on his king with a satisfied smirk.

"Me too," Dean continued, tapping his cards again. They were sitting facing each other on the bed, her cross-legged and Dean with a foot on the floor on either side. "I was a couple of months shy of five. How old were you?"

"Just a baby," she said. "Like six months." She flipped over a seven, pursing her lips at Dean's twenty. Dealer only had eighteen.

Dean didn't even notice his win. "Six months old?" he demanded sharply. "Were you exactly six months old?"

She nodded and her mouth dropped open, the cards in her hand instantly losing her attention. "Yeah, it was my six month birthday. Why? How did you know that?"

Dean wiped a hand down over his mouth. "Call it a hunch. How did your mother die?"

She hesitated for a moment but told him. "In a fire."

Dean frowned, tilting his head. "I don't buy it. Ash only found four kids whose mothers burned in their nursery and they're all accounted for. He searched the entire country from 1980 to 1986. Ash doesn't miss things."

"Well, I don't know who Ash is but my mom died in Cambodia."

"What?"

"She was a doctor. Her and my dad both were. Before she died, they used to do a lot of work in third world countries. Mobile hospitals, Red Cross, mission hospices, that kind of thing. I was actually born in Cambodia."

That explained why Ash hadn't dug up a record of the incident. "Did it start in your nursery?" he pressed.

"I didn't have a nursery. The entire hospital burned down. One of the missionaries carried me out of the fire." She threw down her cards and got up off the bed. "Why all the questions about my mom?"

Dean knew what question he wanted to ask. What's your psychic ability? He had very little doubt she was one of Yellow-Eyes's 'special children', whether she knew it or not. But he decided to work up to it. She was pacing in front of him, shoulders stiff, head tilted in agitation.

"How did your dad die?" he deflected.

"How did your mom die?" she countered quickly.

He rolled a shoulder in a casual shrug. "House fire. Your dad?"

"He had pancreatic cancer. Why all the questions, Dean?"

"And your brother? How'd he die?"

"Car accident. What's this all about? Do you think there's some connection between our mom's dying in fires?" She was clearly shaken by the line of questioning.

Dean sighed and swung both his legs off the side of the bed to face her. "Could be."

She was quiet for a moment, staring at him. "What does that mean?"

"It means these demons wanted you for a reason, Jenna and I think you need to tell me what that reason is."

"I don't know!"

"Lefty seemed to think you did."

"Lefty knew you by name, not me," she fired back, clearly getting defensive.

"But you're the one with the weird psychic thing going on." He blurted it out a little more harshly than he had intended, his hope being to catch her off guard. He studied her face for a reaction.

She looked scared. "What psychic...?" Her sentence stopped abruptly when heavy footsteps sounded outside the door and the metal lock released with a sharp clang.

Dean was on his feet instantly, pulling Jenna slightly behind him as he faced the door. It swung open to reveal the redhead demon who had ordered they be locked in here upon their arrival. Lefty and Righty entered a few steps behind her and a fourth demon in a dark suit brought up the rear, the first three moving aside as soon as they were inside to allow DarkSuit to pass through to the front. He took one look at Dean and started cursing loudly.

"...mother fucking incompetent brainless asswipes," he finally finished, his fists clenched.

Dean felt Jenna right up against him, her fingers wrapped around his arm just above the elbow. He threw a cocky smile at the demons at the door and snorted. "Well, I know I'm not you demons' favorite person but I don't usually get that bad of a reaction."

DarkSuit gritted his teeth, his jaw flexing visibly with anger. He ignored Dean and turned sideways to address Redhead. "That's the wrong one! This one's useless!" He threw his arms in the air. "How does the boss expect me to get this done when he keeps sending me clueless morons to work with? The whole bunch of you are about as sharp as a fucking cue ball. If we weren't shorthanded, I'd send you all back downstairs for a decade on the fucking rack."

Redhead's cheeks turned a deep shade of red at getting dressed down in front of her prisoners and her subordinates. As amused as Dean was to be witness to it, he worried her wounded pride would come back to bite him in the ass later.

"So can we kill him then?" Lefty ventured, sounding way too eager.

DarkSuit practically growled. "No. We may need him to make his brother cooperate."

Oh crap. Dean didn't like the sound of that at all. What was going on here? Was this Yellow Eyes's big plan being put into action? For Sam and all the other children like Sam. He spared a desperate thought to hope his brother was still safe.

"I'll send men back to the diner to see if the other Winchester shows up, sir," Redhead said tersely. "We'll get him."

DarkSuit glared at her. "You do that." He looked back at Dean and Jenna, who were both standing silently watching the dispute. "In the meantime, bring the girl. We may as well get started with her."

Dean's stomach lurched. Jenna may be hiding something but he wasn't about to let anything bad happen to her. He felt her tense up behind him and he took a protective step forward, bracing himself. "Whoa, bring her where?" he demanded.

Redhead moved swiftly, giving him a sharp jab in the mouth he didn't have time to dodge. "None of your business," she seethed.

Looked like that wounded pride was doing its biting already. Lefty and Righty moved towards Jenna, who danced sideways and threw a decent punch at Righty before jumping on the bed in an attempt to get around them. Dean charged Lefty but the demons were strong and within seconds, he was on the floor taking repeated kicks in the gut and Jenna was being dragged out the door kicking and screaming.

"Jenna!" he gasped, kicking back up at Lefty in desperation. He made it to his knees only to receive a blow to the side of the head that had his vision blurring and his ears ringing. "Unnngh," he grunted. "Wait... where are you taking her? Leave her alone!"

One more punch and he was spitting blood onto the linoleum. He pushed his chest up off the floor just in time to see the door slam shut, the sounds of struggling in the hallway fading quickly and leaving him alone in guilty silence.

~X~X~X~X~X~

Quinn came out of the motel office waving a room key and pointed to a nearby door adorned with a brass number eight. Sam nodded and pulled the Impala around back to park it out of sight from the road. He popped the trunk and slipped a 9mm into the back of his pants, a knife into his sock, and a couple of zip ties into his pockets. Quinn may be a hunter and no fan of demons, but she seemed distrustful of him and her main objective was clearly to find Jenna, not necessarily Jenna and Dean. Sam supposed he couldn't really blame her for that one because if he could save Dean, he would, even at the expense of Jenna. He wasn't particularly comfortable with that ugly truth but after losing Jessica and his father in the span of a year, Dean and revenge were all Sam had left.

He gave Ash a quick call and asked him to dig up information on an ex-Army woman with the name Quinn, same person in the photo he'd sent earlier, since researching her while she was in the same room might prove difficult. As soon as he entered the surprisingly nice digs and closed the door behind him, Quinn started hounding him for information on the demons' motives and why they would want him. Sam remained tight-lipped, giving her evasive one-word answers and stalling until he heard back from Ash.

He was surprised how easily he was managing to not let Quinn's impatience and bossy attitude get to him. Hmph, he thought to himself, mildly amused. He must be used to it. Living with Dean had its perks after all.

"Damnit Winchester!" she exclaimed in frustration. "You're holding back!"

Sam snorted from where he sat sprawled in one of the chairs at the table in front of his laptop, reading the impressively quick email reply from Ash. "I'm holding back?"

She let out a tired huff and sat down on the end of one of the beds, her argument losing her steam. "I just want to find Jen," she sighed. "I don't mean to be... you know."

"Bitchy?" Sam supplied with an innocent smile.

That earned him a frown. "Look, I'm not saying I think you're in on it I just..." She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees, biting her lower lip. "Jenna's brother, Jason, wasn't just a hunting partner," she said more quietly. "We were together. For five years. See, Jenna's like a little sister to me and Jason would have wanted me to look after her. I just really need to keep her safe."

Sam gave her a curious look. He had a feeling this was the first glimpse he was getting of honest feelings from her. "Well," he said pointedly, "I'll trust you when you start trusting me." He turned his laptop around to face her, her Army ID photograph displayed on the screen. "Sergeant First Class Talise Everett Quinn."

She pursed her lips but never said anything, prompting Sam to repeat more of the information Ash had dug up.

"You were court-martialed and given six months in NAVCONBRIG Miramar for striking a superior officer."

Her face broke out into a wide grin and she leaned back on her hands. "I have a problem with authority."

Sam snorted and shook his head. "And you thought joining the Army was a wise choice?"

"Seemed like a good idea at the time."

"You were dishonorably discharged."

"There were extenuating circumstances," she defended. "Of the supernatural variety. I respected my uniform but I just couldn't explain what happened."

"Why wouldn't you just tell me this?" he questioned. "I mean, I'm a hunter. I'm not going to judge you based on what I see in the official records."

She gave him a long, hard stare before answering. "I didn't tell you because I had a... let's just call it an altercation with a couple of hunters about three months back. More than words were exchanged and now I'm on a few shit lists. You know how hunters talk – it's a tight community sometimes and I didn't want any hard feelings or fratboy-reprisals getting in the way of finding Jen."

Sam let the information sink in. It made sense. "Okay," he acknowledged. "But don't worry, my dad kept my brother and me out of the hunter loop growing up. We only found out last year that there were so many hunters – this giant network across the country. So I'm not going to hassle you over any beef you've got with other hunters."

She looked relieved and her shoulders relaxed just a bit.

Sam couldn't resist one more dig. "Though I can't imagine how you would get on the wrong side of anyone, what with your sweet disposition and all."

"Smartass."

He laughed but felt a sudden hollowness at the memory of being called 'bitch' a hundred times over and always replying with 'jerk'. The notion brought the mission back to the foreground - he needed to find Dean. "I still need to know about Jenna's link with demons," he said evenly. "I know she's involved."

"She's innocent."

"I'm not arguing that, but there's more to it than that. They targeted her too."

"How do you know?"

"Because she was in that vision," Sam answered. "Those visions only involve people who have a link to a certain yellow-eyed demon." He paused. "It's the same demon who killed both my mom and my girlfriend."

"Why? Why did it kill them?"

Sam shrugged. "It told me they got in the way."

"What's the demon's name?"

"I don't know. My brother just sort of dubbed it Yellow-Eyes."

"Jason was killed by a demon," she disclosed, a sudden sadness filling her eyes. "It was a car accident but I found sulfur at the scene. A year ago last December."

Sam sat up straight at the interesting revelation. Jessica was killed in November of the same year, one month before Jason. No way was that a coincidence. His girlfriend, her boyfriend... Could Quinn be the psychic?

"Talise..." he began.

"Whoa, kid, it's Quinn!"

He rolled his eyes. "Then it's Sam."

"What are you, twenty-three?"

"Almost twenty-four and you're barely twenty-nine so you don't get to call me kid."

"Winchester it is then."

"Do you deliberately try to be difficult?"

She shook her head and grinned at him. "No, that just comes naturally."

"You know, you would really get along with my brother," he groaned and raised a hand in a gesture of peace. "Okay, Quinn, I'll tell you what I know. Yellow Eyes is an upper level demon who has a special interest in a group of people who have some kind of psychic powers."

"What kind of powers?"

"It varies. I've run into a few of them in the past year."

"Are you one?"

"You answer that one first."

"What do you mean?" she gave him a puzzled look.

"Do you have any psychic abilities?" he asked bluntly, tired of beating around the bush.

She shook her head. "No I don't, but I'm willing to bet that vision of Jenna on the runaway bike didn't come to any reclusive third-party psychic. That was you."

"You're right," he said and he could have sworn she almost sighed in relief at the admission. "So if it's not you, then it's Jenna."

She stiffened.

"I'll take that as a yes. What can she do?"

"Nothing. She just has dreams; that's all."

"Dreams?" That was how his visions had started, just after he had turned twenty-two. "When did they start?"

"Just over a year ago. When she turned twenty-two."

Snap. "Is there a yellow-eyed demon in them?"

"No, not that she's ever mentioned."

"Do they come true afterwards?"

"No. But they really shake her up."

"What are they of?"

"Hell." She blinked slowly. "Jenna dreams of Hell."

~X~X~X~X~X~

Jenna was brought back into the room a couple of hours later. Dean had given up his banging on the door and was stretched out on the narrow cot, his exhaustion on the cusp if winning its battle for sleep. At the first click of the lock, however, he was on his feet again, tense and ready for whatever came in.

Lefty appeared in the doorway for only an instant, pushing the blonde girl roughly inside the room and slamming the door back shut. Dean immediately turned his attention to his returned cellmate, who looked shaken and weary. Closer inspection revealed a purpling bruise on the left side of her face, scared eyes, and stiff movements.

Jenna had taken her jacket off earlier during their card game and was wearing just a t-shirt and jeans. As Dean took her arm to guide her gently to the cot, he noticed another fresh bruise extending from her elbow to her wrist.

"What did those bastards do to you?" he seethed through clenched teeth.

"I'm okay," she murmured, practically falling onto the cot and curling up facing the wall.

"Hey, Jenna," he said softly, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder as he perched on the edge of the bed behind her. "Can you talk to me? What did they want?"

"I didn't do it," she said simply, closing her eyes. "I won't do it."

"Do what?" he pressed, not wanting to push but needing answers badly.

She just shook her head, her eyes still closed. Dean pulled the blanket up over her torso and sat back down, his back against the wall at the top of the bed and his hand still resting on her shoulder.

"Dean?" she whispered after a long, quiet minute.

"Yeah?"

"Is your brother... different?"

Alarm bells went off and he sat up straight. "Sam?" he blurted. "Of course not. He's perfectly normal." He couldn't bring himself to admit the truth about his brother out loud, especially when he didn't know who was listening. "What does this have to do with Sam? Why are you asking me that?"

She remained silent and just curled more into herself.

"Jen," he practically pleaded. "You have to tell me what's going on here."

She opened her eyes and twisted her top half over to face him, propping herself up on her elbows. "Do I?" she challenged, her voice having found a sudden strength. "Actually, I don't. I don't know you, Dean. All I know is you're a hunter and they're not all good people. I mean, you show up at the diner looking like you do and insisting on sitting with me. Then you know my order and the demons out in the alley insist on waiting for you to come out. Then you act all fearless and funny and cute so I'd like you and then we just happen to be thrown in here together. It's all just a little too pat, don't you think? How do I know you're not planted here to gain my trust, convince me to do what they want?"

Dean was speechless for a moment, hearing her accusation but not completely missing the 'funny and cute' and the 'so I'd like you'. Before he could think of what to say to defend himself, Jenna turned away and curled up again, pulling the blanket up to her neck and closing her eyes. "Just leave me alone, please Dean."

"Jenna," he pleaded softly, getting no response. "Jen? Jenna, I'm on your side. Will you just talk to me?"

She gave him a barely perceptible shake of the head but didn't turn around. He gave up after a few minutes and moved to sit on the floor, leaning against the wall with a sigh and giving her the space she wanted. In the silence of the small room, he could tell the moment she finally succumbed to sleep and he took the time to throw her jacket over the lamp to dim the light. He stared at her back for a long time, wondering what he could do to make her trust him and what could have happened to her to make her so distrustful and closed off?

~X~X~X~X~X~

It was past six o'clock in the morning by the time Ash called with a licence plate for the van. Sam had been taking a shower, unable to sleep even after Quinn had dozed off on one of the beds. He was just pulling his jeans back on when he heard his cell buzzing on the table out in the room. He dashed out, snatching it up and for a fraction of a second, allowed himself to hope it was Dean having found some way to call.

Quinn rolled over, blinking her way to lucidity as Sam answered, gushing a greeting into the phone as he stood bare-chested and wet-haired in the room. Ash gave him the licence plate and had also taken the initiative to track the registration to a numbered company based out of Los Angeles. It was a realty development company but the M.I.T.-dropout-turned-barfly had his suspicions about the validity of the business.

"I would bet the first beer of the day for the rest of my life that it's a dummy company," he told Sam. "And the first beer is always the best so that's saying something."

"You mean like a shell corporation used to hide illegally obtained money?"

"Give the man a peanut. I forgot, you were pre-Law. You know your corporate loopholes."

"Uh, yeah, the basics. You get an address?" Sam pressed.

Ash gave it to him, pointing out that even though he believed there was a real office there, it didn't open until eight o'clock. Sam hung up and relayed the information to Quinn. She was sitting up on her bed with her back up against the headboard and a grin on her face.

"What's so funny?" he demanded. "This can barely be considered a lead."

She laughed. "I apologize, Winchester. I will never, ever call you kid again." Her eyes roamed appreciatively up and down his bare torso. "Because that is definitely all man. Jesus, what do you do, crunches in your sleep?"

Sam was sure he turned a hundred shades of red as he grabbed a clean shirt from his duffel and pulled it on. "So we need to go to this company's office and see what we can get out of them," he deflected. "It won't open for a couple of hours so you've got time for a shower if you want one."

She swung her legs of the side of the bed, still grinning. "I'll need a cold one now."

More blushing. Crap, why couldn't he just come back with some witty remark like his brother would have?

"I want to go get my car and Jenna's bike away from the diner if the cops haven't seized them yet," Quinn continued, heading towards the bathroom. She stopped just inside the door and peeked back out at him, her expression suddenly serious.

"You trust this Ash guy?" she asked him.

Sam nodded. "Yes," he said truthfully. "Why?"

"Be careful who you trust," she said. "I'm just saying because… you know, not all hunters are very accepting of psychic abilities. Especially demon-related ones."

"I'm aware," Sam said wryly, the memory of Gordon Walker trying to blow him up still very fresh.

"That altercation I mentioned…" she continued, "with the hunters a few months ago? It was Walt Lindberg, Glen Speight, and Roy Olsson. Regular hunters, I'd even met them before. In the end, I had no choice but to kill Glen. See, they found out something about Jenna and her dreams and… and they came after her. They tried to kill her. They said she was a freak and no better than any other monster they hunted. They were so convinced she deserved to die. Fuck, they almost had Jenna convinced."

Sam swallowed and nodded. He had actually met the three hunters she had mentioned also. They had worked a hunt with Dean and his dad when Sam had been in his mid teens and still in high school. He hadn't cared much for them back then – even less now. "I've learned my lesson," he assured her. "I don't tell people I can't trust about the whole visions thing."

"Good," she nodded, moving into the small bathroom but giving him one last concerned look before closing the door. "Keep it that way."

~X~X~X~X~X~

A/N: Not even a cliffhanger – yay! A lot more is explained next chapter. I know this chap was a bit OC heavy but I had to get the backgrounds laid out before things get worse for the hunters. Yes, the hunters that survived the attack on jenna were Walt and Roy, the two who shot Sam and Dean in season 5 Dark Side of the Moon. I'm sure you recognized the last names I made up for them too, lol. I hope all the American readers had a good Thanksgiving weekend :-) Thanks for reading!