A/N: Hello beautiful peoples! So school is starting which means I might be updating a little slower but I feel like I got this one up in a decent amount of time. Enjoy!
Chapter 3: The Instrument
Saint David's Memorial hospital was in the quieter part of downtown Des Moines, Iowa. Though it was small, it was the best hospital to go to in the state. If people in small towns were fatally injured, they would be air-lifted to Saint David's.
It was a busier night in the emergency room and the head nurse, Belinda Sharp was exhausted from running up and down the hospitals corridors. She was looking forward to the end of her night where she could go home, have a drink, and cuddle up with her husband, Don and their cat.
"Belinda, I have a patient in the ER with a fractured wrist that needs attention," said a voice through her walkie talkie.
"Be there stat," Belinda replied as she turned around in the long hallway and made her way to the emergency room. She suddenly was stopped by a pale, young boy.
"Hi, sweetie. Can I help you?" Belinda asked sweetly to the little boy. She always had a soft spot for little kids.
"I don't know..." He said hesitantly.
"Oh, come on. I've seen everything. I'm sure whatever it is, we can fix it."
The little boy smiled hopefully.
"Really?" Belinda nodded.
"Now, what's wrong, sweetie?"
The boy smiled even wider as he raised a hand to touch his head. As soon as he did, his head tipped over and fell off his body onto the ground and rolled over, still looking up at Belinda, smiling sweetly.
The nurse screamed.
Castiel and Madeline appeared in front of the entrance to the emergency room of Saint David's Memorial hospital.
"Oh, god I am never doing that again," Madeline said as she wobbled on her good leg despite the angel supporting her. Her eyes started to flutter from the blood loss and she looked dangerously pale. Madeline then hobbled over to the bushes, dragging Castiel with her and proceeded to vomit into the bushes. Castiel, unsure of what he should do, took his hand that wasn't supporting her waist and held her hair out of her face. When she finished and stood back upright and leaned against the angel.
"Does that normally happen when you vanish into thin air?" She asked Castiel.
"Perfectly normal for most humans," he replied as he helped her into the emergency room.
"She needs help!" Cas shouted. A nurse immediately came up with a wheelchair and helped Madeline sit down.
"What happened?" The nurse asked.
"Demons," Castiel responded. Madeline gave him a surprised look that seemed to say 'What kind of an idiot are you?'
"Uh, um, he means the guys that attacked me. Ya know, they're...like demons," Madeline said quickly off the top of her head.
"O-okay," the nurse stuttered as she started to roll Madeline off down the hall.
"Now I need to ask you a couple routine questions, okay honey?" The nurse said once Madeline was dressed in a hospital gown and was sitting on the hospital bed with Castiel leaning on the doorframe. The nurse picked up a clipboard.
"Name?"
"Amelia Husher."
"Date of Birth?"
"December seventh nineteen-ninety."
"Social?"
"Look, can we do with the questions later? I got stabbed in the leg and my head is bleeding and fuzzy," Madeline demanded.
"Do you have anyone who can fill out these forms for you?"
Madeline pointed at Castiel.
"Him."
"Is he family?"
"He's my brother-in-law," Madeline said right as Sam and Dean ran into the room. Madeline pointed at Dean.
"And there's my brother. His husband." Dean had a confused look on his face. He and Cas looked at each other and then back at Madeline who had a hint of a smirk on her face.
"Oh, no, no no we're not-"
"Oh!" The nurse exclaimed. "Sir, please don't feel the need to hide. It's all fine!" The nurse said who then frantically ran out of the room and giving the clipboard to Sam.
"Was that really necessary?" Dean asked.
"Yes," Madeline said shortly. Sam looked down at the clipboard.
"Here. Use this." Madeline handed a plastic insurance card to Sam.
"Amelia Husher?" He asked.
"One of my favorite aliases."
"By the way, what is your real name?" Dean asked.
"I told you. It's Madeline."
"Your last name," an annoyed Dean said. "What you don't expect us to think its Winchester, do you?"'
"What if it is?"
"Then you've done a damn good job at staying alive with that name," Dean said.
"And I don't expect your mom would give you our dad's name," Sam chimed in.
Madeline looked at them from her hospital bed.
"You're right," she glanced at Castiel.
"It's Devereaux," she said. "Madeline Devereaux."
Sam went on filling out the papers on the clipboard.
"Crap," Dean whispered.
"What?" Sam asked looking up from the clipboard.
"Devereaux. Your name is Devereaux," Dean said. "Fantastic."
"What? What's so bad about the name Devereaux?" Sam asked.
"The Devereaux's are an entire family of notorious thieving, lying hunters. And she's one of them!"
"Watch it, Dean. That's my family you're talking about," Madeline hissed.
"Yeah well, it's true, Madeline. You're 'family' are a bunch of lying thieves."
"Dean," Castiel interrupted.
"What," Dean snapped at Cas.
"Just listen to her." Dean turned back to Madeline who looked so angry, steam was practically coming out of her ears.
"If looks could kill..." Sam muttered.
"It's true. It's true that Devereaux's are known as thieves. And that we are probably the most untrustworthy family of hunters out there. And that's why my mom left that. After I was born she ran away from all of that. Look, I may be a Devereaux and you have no reason to trust me because of that. I am not my family. But I'm also half Winchester. So keep that in your hollow skulls," she finished.
Dean leaned up against Madeline's bed.
"What if I don't believe you?" He asked.
"Why, because I'm a lying, thieving, stinking Devereaux?"
"Well you did break into my car and steal our guns."
"Which I gave back."
"Would you have if I didn't notice they were missing?"
"Absolutely," Madeline looked past Dean at Castiel.
"Cas? Is she lying?" Dean asked, still looking his half-sister. The angel stood next to Dean but was looking at Madeline right in the eyes with his ice blue stare.
"No," he said. "She is not lying. She is Madeline Devereaux, her mother is Katherine Devereaux, and she and her brother and her two children ran from their family's life of thievery."
"Wait..." Sam started. "Two children? Mad, you have a sibling?" He asked with a gentle look in his kind, green eyes.
"A brother. Unfortunately, he is dead," said Castiel. Suddenly all eyes in the room were on Madeline. She opened her mouth to speak, yet no words came out. Silence flooded her ears, her breathing increased rapidly and her wide green eyes started to water.
Madeline thought she would pass out from all the silence flooding around her under a horrifying scream cut like a knife through it. Though it was a scream, Madeline breathed a sigh of relief. When she looked in front of her though, she and her brothers found that Cas had disappeared.
After the scream had ripped through the hospital, a doctor came to Madeline's aide and politely asked Sam and Dean to wait in the upstairs waiting room. As for the scream, they decided to blow it off as nothing, as they were after all, in a hospital.
Dean was pacing around the entrance to the hospital.
"Dean, what are you doing?" Sam asked.
"What does it look like I'm doing, Sammy?"
"Dean, she's gonna be okay-"
"I could care less about her right now! She lied to us. And I don't know if I should just walk out of this damn hospital right now," Dean shouted. A nurse looked at him with a surprised look.
"Yeah, you heard me!" Dean shouted at her, causing her to scamper off behind her desk.
"So, she lied about her name. Probably because she knew you would flip out if you knew who she was," Sam said, trying to reason with his hot-headed older brother.
"Well she was right about that." Dean sat down in the itch, uncomfortable hospital chair adjacent to Sam.
"Look. This is the apocalypse. The end of the freaking world. I'm not thinking we really need a sister right now. Much less a reckless, arrogant seventeen-year-old sister with anger issues."
"Will the brothers of an Amelia Husher please stand up?" Called the scampery nurse from behind the desk. The doctor that had been in Madeline's room stepped out from behind the swinging doors.
"Gentlemen? Doctor Johnson. Your sister, Amelia is being discharged as we speak," said the doctor.
"Is she gonna be alright?" Sam asked with a worried look.
"She'll be good as new. I patched up that stab wound in her leg, but she'll need to stay in bed for a while," the brothers nodded with understanding. "Now, we did have to give her a CT scan due to her head injury. She suffered from a mild concussion which explains the vomiting that occurred earlier. But what's really interesting is that we found that she's suffered from several untreated head injuries before. So many in fact that she's lucky to be alive. Keep an eye on her, will you?" Sam and Dean nodded and the doctor walked back through the hospital doors.
Minutes later, Madeline was wheeled out, by a terrified looking nurse, with several bandages on her face and gauzy bandaged wrapped over her jeans. The nurse helped her to stand up and held out a pair of crutches to her, which was of course, mistake.
"Look, lady you look like a really nice person. But if you try to make me use those things I will bash your brains in with them," Madeline hissed at her. Instead of trying to reason with her, the tired looking nurse simply left the crutches by the wall in case Madeline changed her mind.
Across from Sam and Dean, they heard a whistle from a guy who looked to be about nineteen. He looked over at the brothers.
"Man, she is hot. And feisty. I'd love for her to bash my brains in with those crutches, wouldn't you?" He said cockily.
"Hey, watch it man. That's our sister," Sam said defensively.
The boy scoffed.
"Sure, dude." Madeline then hobbled over to Sam and Dean where they saw that she had made the wise choice to pick up the crutches. The strange boy leaned forward and winked at Madeline.
"Hey, baby. How ya doin'?" He said flirtily. Madeline turned her head with a nasty scowl.
"Listen, douchesickle. Go screw yourself before I break that pretty little girlfriend of yours," Madeline snapped.
"Baby, what girlfriend?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I meant your right hand." Sam held back a laugh and Dean smirked at Madeline's remark. She turned to her older brothers.
"Are we gonna go or what, dumbasses?" Deans smirk immediately disappeared at his sister's words as he and Sam stood up and followed her to the door. Dean was suddenly stopped by Madeline's doctor who leaned in and whispered;
"Listen, I slipped her some pain medication. She should be out like a light in about twenty minutes," he said. Dean breathed a sigh of relief, looked at the doctor and said,
"God bless you, man." He followed his siblings out the door.
Sure enough, the doctor had been right. While driving through downtown Des Moines in search of a motel, Madeline had passed out laying down in the back seat of the Impala with her bad leg propped up. They drove in silence with the sound of Madeline's soft breathing in replacement of music until they found a nice enough motel with decent pricing. Dean had carried her inside the room carefully so as not to wake her though she was sleeping deeply. He thought she looked peaceful in her sleep even though she still had the essence of a scowl on her face. Still, it was the most peaceful she had looked since they had met her two days ago.
After Dean had lain his sister down on one of the full sized beds in the motel room, he told Sam that he would sleep on the floor instead of him. It had been a long day and they both fell asleep immediately, still dressed in their clothes.
They weren't asleep for long. About four hours into the late night, Sam awoke to a thumping coming from the opposite wall to the beds. Eyes still closed, he grabbed the gun from under his pillow and slowly sat up. Three small knives were lodged in the opposite wall. A fourth flew into the wall as Sam started to wake up. He looked next to him and saw Madeline sitting up in her bed with several knives laying out next to her unraveled from their bag she kept them in. Madeline looked to her left and saw Sam with the gun raised at her.
"Certainly hope you're a better shot than Dean," she said. She picked up another knife and without looking, flung it at the wall where it lodged itself next to the others. Sam put his gun down.
"You'll wake up the neighbors," he said.
"Nobody's next door."
"How could you know that?" Sam asked.
"Trust me. Anyone would've heard that first knife and woken up. I've gotten five and nothing." Sam got up out of bed and went to retrieve the knives. As he looked closer, he saw that on the criss cross wallpaper, each knife was stuck into the tiny point of intersection where two lines crossed. Every single one.
"I got bored," Madeline said as Sam started yanking her knives out of the wall.
"What?" He asked, still dizzy from the memory of sleep.
"I woke up, couldn't sleep, got bored and had knives in my jacket that I forgot about. And I figured I was a little rusty so I might as well practice so I can teach Dean here the proper aim. Been meaning to do that when he tried to kill me and got my arm instead," she said.
Sam put the knives back next to Madeline next to her several others.
"Speaking of teaching...shouldn't you be in school?" Sam asked curiously.
"What makes you think that?" Madeline asked adjusting her bad leg.
"Well for starters, you're seventeen. Wouldn't that make you in high school?"
"I finished high school."
"What?" Sam asked, bewildered.
"I graduated. Last year. Early. It happens," she replied.
"Wow," Sam said. "You've gotta be pretty smart to finish high school at sixteen."
"I have my moments," she said.
"So you're a brilliant thief then," Sam said.
"I'm not a thief."
"Really?"
"So you don't trust me either," Madeline glared at Sam.
"You did steal from Dean's car."
"To gank a demon. Seriously we've been over this like four times."
"And you come from a family of thieves."
"I ran away from that life."
"I thought your mom ran away and took you and..." Sam didn't finish that sentence.
"No. I told my mom to run away from it. I hated it and I forced her to run away from that life. So we moved around for awhile," Madeline said. "But I was still brought up like that. I was a thief. A really good one too. But I hated it. I made a lot of enemies, ya know. Anyways, my entire family's based in North Dakota so...basically been moving around since I was thirteen." Sam sat back and looked at his sister.
"Um...anything else I should know about you?" Sam looked over at Dean who was sound asleep on the floor at the foot of Sam's bed.
"Nah. Not right now anyways." Sam opened his mouth to protest but Madeline immediately cut him off.
"But I really do need you guys to trust me. I could help you out a lot with the whole apocalypse situation you've got goin' on. After all, I am a brilliant thief," Madeline smiled a bit. Sam was happy at the thought that he at least knew a little more about his half-sister than he did before. He clicked the safety on his gun and set it on the nightstand.
"Quit it with the knives by the way. Go to sleep. You got a freaking concussion," Sam said.
"No shit, Sam," Madeline said back.
Suddenly, a whoosh came through the room. Dean stirred and sat up. It was Castiel.
"Uhhhh...what time is it?" Dean said sleepily.
"Four o'clock, sunshine," Madeline said in a snarky tone.
"Cas, what the hell?" Dean said as he stood up and faced the angel. The room had chilled instantly as if the angel had brought in the crisp November air with him.
"I've figured it out," Cas declared.
"Figured what out?" Sam asked. Castiel pointed at Madeline.
"Madeline. Or at least partly figured her out." Dean looked at Madeline, then Cas, then back at Madeline again.
"What about her," Dean said rather than asked.
"She's a part of this. She's an instrument."
"An instrument to what?" Madeline asked. Castiel looked at her.
"An instrument of the apocalypse."
DUNH DUNH DUUUUUUNNNNHHHHHHH! And the plotline begins!
I'd like to say that constructive criticism is totally welcome here. I would love to hear you guys' thoughts on the story, and your advice to make it better as long as you're nice about it. If you're not nice about it, I may just write you into the story and kill you off. (Not really)
Review! =)