Disclaimer: Neither Jordan nor I own Supernatural.

A/N: So hola. We live!

Jordan: Yeah, we actually wrote half of this chapter last night but couldn't finish it…

Me: But now we have finished it! And are plotting for further chapterness! So yeah!

Jordan: So review! XD

Chapter Four – An Early-Morning Conversation

Jordan sat up in bed, feeling strangely not tired. It was so dark that she couldn't see anything in front of her. There was a muffled scream coming from the bed next to her. When it suddenly ceased, the stony silence took its place. Jordan shot up in bed, grabbed the knife from under her pillow, and leaned her hand on Lyn's bed, whispering, "Lyn? Are you okay?"

The only reply was an audible squish.

With shaking hands, Jordan groped around for the light, and it came on with a click. "LYN!?"

Lyn was lying in her bed, which had soaked up the blood from her deep neck wound. Her eyes were staring unblinkingly at the ceiling, so glassy that it was hard to make out their natural green hue.

Something grabbed her shoulder. "Whaddya say we get rid of the body, huh?"

There in front of Jordan stood… herself. Covered in Lyn's blood, and with solid black eyes, leering to reveal teeth that looked like they had been sharpened. Jordan let out an ear-piercing scream.

Jordan shot up in bed, still screaming. Beads of sweat mingled with tears tricked down her already flushed face.

"Shh, shh, shh -- calm down, JJ," Lyn said quietly, her silhouette barely visible in the near darkness as she put a hand gently on Jordan's shoulder. "You've been having a nightmare, I couldn't wake you up. You okay?"

Jordan's breath came unevenly and heavily. "N-n-nightmare? It… wasn't real? Oh, God!"

She abruptly threw her arms around Lyn and started crying into her shoulder.

Lyn was rather shocked by the sudden action, but hugged her friend, anyway. "JJ… Jordan… It's okay. You're just stressed, I have horrible nightmares when I'm stressed…"

"God… I thought you were dead. You were dead. So much blood…" After a few moments, Jordan pulled back and wiped the tears off her face. "I'm… gonna go to the bathroom. Take a cold shower."

"All right," Lyn agreed, though there was a deep crease between her eyebrows. "I can't sleep anyway, maybe I'll get my European history book… read for a while…" She sighed, then attempted to make a joke, as per usual when she had no idea what to say. "But if you start screaming again while you're in there, screw the rules of etiquette – the rules of hunters come first."

Jordan attempted to smile, though it came out as more of a grimace. She walked into the bathroom with a pair of comfortable sweatpants and a form-fitting black t-shirt.

The click of the lock was heard, followed by the sound of the shower running a few seconds later.

Lyn had been reading for about five minutes when there was a shave-and-a-haircut knock on the door, followed by muffled arguing.

Her right eyebrow raised, and she immediately let the book fall to the bed and pulled the knife from under her own pillow. She found it odd that she was actually vaguely amused by the sound; she wasn't sure whether she should check the door or yell 'two bits!'

Being already barefoot, Lyn's feet made no sound on the floor. There was no spyhole on the door; she made a mental note to never rent a room without one again, it was really pretty stupid for a hunter. Grimacing, she pocketed the knife and grabbed the nine millimeter off her bedside table before suddenly sliding back the deadbolt and throwing the door open as far as the six-inch chain attached to it would allow.

"Hey there, sunshine! Did you sleep well?"

Dean seemed unusually chipper, while Sam just stood there, not looking happy at all.

"Jeez – do you freaking jerks have a death wish or something?" Lyn growled through the door, lowering the weapon slightly but still not putting it away or unhooking the chain on the door.

Dean rolled his eyes. "Come on… Let us in. We just want to tell you guys about a hunt. And make you an offer. We think you should consider it. It would benefit us all."

Sam, once again, didn't say anything, but had a permanent 'bitch face.'

"Yeaaah," Lyn said slowly, nodding in mock agreeance. "I should really just put my gun away and let two random guys into my motel room at six o'clock in the morning. I don't think so. See, I don't seem to recall any law which states that not being a demon automatically assures that you're trustworthy. And need I remind you that you freaking tried to kill me, moron?"

Dean leaned his forehead on the door. "Fine, I'll talk through the door. We caught wind of a demon. Not far from here. Nasty son of a bitch. It's killed ten people so far, and it's only been a week. Imagine what could happen if we let it keep killing people. According to our friend Bobby, we need as much help as we can get. He's gonna meet us at a motel there. We could really use your help."

Lyn scoffed and raised an eyebrow. "This the same friend who talked you into putting a gun to my head and trying to exorcise me?"

"Look, this goes beyond you and any disagreement you have with me. This is about dozens of people who may die if we don't kill this thing!"

Dean actually looked angry, but Lyn's gaze only hardened, and her voice came out in a low hiss. "Excuse me if I've seen too many people die by stupid mistakes and am somewhat reluctant to listen to someone who already tried to kill me and, quite frankly, has no business knowing what room I'm in to start with. I guess I just have this fatal flaw called a survival instinct."

Before Dean could answer, Jordan came out of the bathroom. Upon seeing Lyn standing with gun drawn, she asked cautiously, "Lyn, who's at the door?"

Sam's interest was suddenly piqued and he pushed himself off the wall.

"Idgets from yesterday," Lyn answered in an annoyed sort of voice. "Dude who tried to kill me now apparently thinks we're trustworthy enough to invite along on a hunt." She paused here to smirk before adding, "Don't that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?"

Jordan appeared beside Lyn, a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach. "Heh… yeah… What kind of hunt?"

"A demon… it's killed ten people in a week. But… your friend refuses to see anything other than herself," Dean answered, throwing a half smug and half dirty look at Lyn.

Jordan looked right at Sam. He seemed to know everything. It scared the hell out of her, made her uneasy.

"Oh, believe me, hon, I'm not the one here with a Narcissus complex," Lyn shot back at Dean. "Now, JJ and I are gonna go talk, and your answer will be whether or not we're still around by check-out time. By the way, just a hint – if you're attempting to catch me in an agreeable mood, 'right after you've tried to kill me' and 'before I've had my coffee' aren't good times. Yeah, and you might wanna try not being incessantly rude. So buh-bye, now."

Flashing a falsely sweet smile, she slammed the door, huffed exasperatedly, and growled, "I knew I should've shot him…"

Jordan smiled slightly and sat down on the bed.

"That girl… She's gonna drive me insane…" Dean grumbled and walked off.

Sam stared at the door for a while longer and then, sighing, followed Dean.

"So, what was that all about?" Jordan asked.

"You know how I once thought I'd never meet anybody as infuriating as a sugar-high Jacob Farrow?" Lyn asked darkly. "Yeah, well, it turns out I was wrong. Which reminds me… loath though I am to ask for their help again after that whole Erin McLemore fiasco, we really should call the guys and see if they know anything about Jay and Silent Bob over there…"

Jordan blinked a few times. "Okay… Maybe it's 'cause I didn't get a lot of sleep, but I have no idea what you just said."

"Dean… something's off… with that one girl. Jordan? I think that's what her name was. There's something wrong with her."

Sam wrinkled his brow at the girls' motel room, where you could see them talking through the window. (A/N: The curtains were open.)

"What do you mean… off?"

"Like… she flinched when you said cristo, and when I sprinkled the holy water on them. Like she was in pain."

"I said we should call Joey and check up on these guys," Lyn said, frowning slightly. "Can't call Jesse without waking Jamey – and April, for that matter – Becky'll be at work by now, and Jay… well, seriously, Joey's just more reliable than Jay. And even assuming they check out… what're we gonna do about the jerks and their alleged demon?"

"I dunno. I mean, Lyn… if I really am… a… demon, if they do an exorcism or pull another 'cristo' on the thing, won't it affect me, too? I really want to help, but I'm just afraid of what might happen if they figure out… all this stuff."

Dean wrinkled his brow and turned to the window, where he could clearly see Jordan sitting on the bed and Lyn standing over her. God, she's so young – too young… If it comes down to it, I don't know if I could kill her. Demon or not.

"There's no two ways about it, though," Lyn said slowly. "You can't have it both ways. Either we take the chance and get you out of the way before any actual exorcising takes place… hopefully… or we high-tail it out of here like our hair's on fire. But whichever way we go, we're still gonna have to have Joey check up on these guys." A pause, then a sigh. "I'd rather not risk it, JJ, but it's your choice."

Jordan cradled her head in her hands. "This sucks ass…"

She thought about it for a few seconds. "Let's get these guys checked out, but… still, I think we should haul ass out of here. God… I hate this…"

Lyn's eyes were sympathetic, her voice kind. "I know."

Dean watched as Jordan held her head in her hands and then looked back up at Lyn. "Strange," he muttered under his breath.

Sam, too, watched the girls' exchange. When they both grabbed their duffels and started to stuff their things into it, alarms went off in his head.

"Dean, I think they're bailing!"

"Yeah, Sammy, I noticed…"

"You know they're gonna get suspicious, right?" Lyn asked, shooting her friend a look as she threw her bag over her shoulder. "And I mean those jerks and my family."

"Well. Yeah. We don't really have any other options, do we? I mean… I can drop you off back at college and just go on my own. I will not be mad or anything if you want to do that. You have a life and everything. I don't want to drag you into this…" Jordan adjusted the duffel strap on her shoulder and shoved her cell phone into her pocket.

"Dean, what do we do!? I mean, do we let them go?" Sam asked frantically.

"No… We find out what they're hiding."

Dean started quickly walking to the front desk, followed by Sam a few seconds later.

"If you honestly believe I'd do that, you really are out of your dadgum mind," Lyn said with a faint smile. "I haven't had a life since I lost Kyle… I've just been chasing shadows."

Flipping open her cell phone, she hit speed dial number three and waited through three rings before a low voice on the other end of the line answered groggily, "'Ello?"

"Hey, Joey," Lyn said, an excuse already forming in her head. "We've got a situation…"

"What kinda situation?" Joey asked, suddenly sounding more alert. "I swear, if you and Jordan got in trouble for hustling again –"

"No, you idget! Like we'd need to call you for that. It's these guys who're hounding us. They claim they're hunters, but that was only after one of 'em slammed me into a car and threatened to kill me."

"Gotcha, so you wanna know if they really are or if they're just some jumped-up, whacked-out demons."

"Now you're getting it."

"All right, so describe 'em for me."

"Well, they're not quite as tall as Jay, but then again, who is? Names of Dean and Sam… I think they're related, maybe brothers. Just check up on it for me, will you, and give me a call back? Maybe ask the Coltranes while you're at it, if they'll talk to you these days."

"Keith hit the road same day you did, and Mrs. Coltrane never was very fond of us, much less now…"

Lyn's brow furrowed. "He's gone? … Well, thanks for telling me, Joey. Anyway, let me know, okay?"

"All right. You two steer clear of 'em until we're sure of who they are, you got me?"

"Of course. Hurry, if you can, I've got a hunch we won't lose 'em easily and I wanna know what steps to take, y'know?"

"Gotcha. Talk to you soon, Lyndi."

"Bye, Joey."

"Bye."

There was still a crease between Lyn's eyebrows as she grabbed her bag and opened the door. "Kyle's brother hopped town the same day we left," she said with a sideways glance at Jordan. "Why would he leave their mom alone like that?"

Jordan raised her right eyebrow. "Hell if I know…"

"Okay, Sam… When they drive off, get ready to get in the Impala… We gotta stay far enough behind them that they don't see us, but not so far that we lose 'em. Got it?" Dean looked over at his brother.

"Uh… yeah…" Sam looked slightly confused.

Jordan motioned for Lyn to follow her down the back stairs of the building after they spotted Dean and Sam hiding near the front desk. It wasn't hard to creep up behind the guys upon knowing they were there, and Lyn and Jordan, guns in hand, slammed the butts of the weapons into the back of the guys' heads. The blows weren't hard enough to cause any real damage, just enough to knock them out for a few hours.

"All right… let's go," Jordan said quietly, and ran toward her car. Lyn was half a step behind, and as she got into the passenger seat, Jordan started the car.

A minute later, they had backed up and were pulling into the highway.