Chapter 31

February 2005

Stockton, Utah

"We're FBI," Dean told the man at the front desk. That was new; usually it was a woman sitting at the secretary position. "I'm Agent Adams and this is Agent Feldon."

"Are you here with Agent Tucker?" The man asked. Dean and I glanced at each other. I could tell we were thinking the same thing. Who is Agent Tucker?

"Has Agent Tucker been here recently?" I asked, trying to be nonchalant.

"Agent Tucker is in the morgue right now."

Again, Dean and I shared a telepathic thought. This one being 'oh shit'.

"Well, we'll wait outside for him." Dean told the man. He led me away with his hand on the small of my back.

"I thought I'd be seeing you two," Dean and I stopped, turning slowly.

"Agent Tucker!" I exclaimed, seeing John in his professional getup. "Agent Adams and I were just going to wait outside for you."

"Well, let's go outside then." John said. The three of us went outside and I finally just noticed his truck parked outside. I was a little surprised that we hadn't noticed it before, but we really hadn't been looking for it. We walked over to his truck and I pulled out my sunglasses and put them on.

"What did you find?" Dean asked.

"All victims are married women. I've talked to some of their families all ready and they all say that these women were nice, innocent and had never done anything to create enemies." John said. "They've all been torn to shreds."

"So, some sort of beast?" I asked. John nodded.

"It's possible."

I tried to remember anything I had come across during my years of researching that matched the victims but I couldn't think of anything.

"We might as well work on it together," Dean said. It had been a couple months since we'd actually met up with John, but we always managed to call a few times a week to check in and make sure everything was going okay. We never had to wait longer than a few days for a call from John and vice versa. The usual protocall was that we each called when we found a job and after we finished it. We hadn't yet known if this was going to be a job which was why neither of us had called each other.

"Have you all ready checked into a motel?" John asked. We shook our heads. We had just arrived a little over an hour ago and had immediately started investigating. John told us to follow him and we'd get a room at the same motel. It would be easier to work together that way.

...

John and I were in his motel going through our journals and books and I was looking through the internet on my laptop. Dean had gone back to the morgue to take a look at the corpses for himself but I had opted out. John gave a good enough description of them and I didn't think I needed to see, or smell, them. Gruesome sights were usually never a problem for me, but smells were a whole different subject.

"You finding anything?" I asked. I looked up to see John shake his head. He paused for a second and then started flipping through his pages.

"I've encountered Bicorn's before." He said. I gave him a confused look, having never heard of a Bicorn before. "They feed on good men, husbands who are faithful. But they feed only on men, never on women."

I looked up Bicorn's on my laptop and smirked when I found an extra link.

"How about the Chichevache?" I asked. John came over to look over my shoulder.

"A human-faced cow that's usually skin and bones that feeds on good woman. It's so skinny because apparently there aren't very many good, faithful, innocent women." John nodded and patted me on the back.

"I think you found it." He said. He went to call Dean to tell him and we met up with him at the library.

...

"So how is this thing supposed to be killed?" Dean asked. "And a cow with a human face? Where the hell is this thing hiding?"

"I don't know, Dean," I muttered sarcastically while going through the list of where each murder like this happened to try and find a pattern, "why don't you pick up a book or go find a computer and do some research."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "Someone woke up on the side of bitchy this morning."

"Enough, both of you," John snapped. "Just try to find anything."

We both continued on with our work in silence. John wasn't really used to our bickering. It happened every now and then but really it was because most of the time we were stuck around each other all day, every day in small spaces and we just got on each other's nerves. It happened, especially around my time of month.

Dean scooted his chair closer to mine and I smiled as I resituated myself so my legs were in his lap. See? We were all ready back to normal. I could feel John rolling his eyes at us and it made me smile.

I got out a map of the town and started marking where all the attacks had happened to see if there was a way to gauge where the Chichevache was hiding or where it was going to attack next.

"Finding anything Rose?" John asked. I shook my head as I studied to map.

"I can't find any correlations between the attack sites." I said. John and Dean both looked over the map and John held out his hand for my pen. I handed it to him and he started drawing lines and connected the sites. I cocked my head but still couldn't see what he was doing.

When he finished he turned the map around for us and I raised an eyebrow.

"It's seriously doing this in a circle?" I asked. John nodded. "So then where next?"

John marked a spot on the map that was across from the latest attack.

"Why is it doing it like this?" Dean asked. "It has to mean something."

"It's hiding right in the middle and it only feels comfortable going that far out." John said. Dean and I stared at him like he was crazy. "It's a cow," he explained. "It may have the head of a human but it still has the brain of a cow. There isn't a complicated answer to this one. It really is this simple."

I shrugged. "Will it be this easy to kill it?"

John shrugged. "Probably not. If they're anything like Bicorns, they move really fast and they're good at hunting."

...

When we went back to the motel we started taking care of our weapons. John and Dean were doing some simple maintenance on their guns and I was reassembling my crossbow.

"Two of us should stake out the middle and see if they can find where it's hiding and just in case I'm wrong about where the next attack is going to be." John said while looking at Dean and me. I knew that meant that was our job. Dean and I nodded. "I'll stake out the next place then, in case I'm right."

When Dean and I got to the supposed hiding spot we looked around. It was pretty much an open field with a few cows. They all had cow heads so we knew they weren't the Chichevache. There was a barn a few yards away that looked, and smelled, like it hadn't been occupied for a while. We crept up and I looked into one of the windows. I gagged at the smell and moved away for Dean to look.

There were piles of raw, rotting, bloody flesh and bones everywhere. This was definitely the hiding spot.

"Oh my god that's disgusting," Dean muttered. I nodded and looked around the field for the thing.

"Hey, Dean," I said suddenly, thinking of something.

"What's up Rosie?" He asked, motioning for me to follow him. We started walking around the barn, looking in all the windows.

"This thing goes after women who are faithful, right?" I said. Dean froze and then quickly turned towards me with a narrow stare. "I'm a faithful woman."

"So?" Dean asked.

"So," I mocked, "I fit the profile."

Dean looked pissed as he stared at me.

"No. Way. In. Hell." He spat. "We are not using you as bait."

I was about to reply when Dean's cell phone went off. He answered it and I kept my eye out on everything around us, making sure we wouldn't get taken by surprise.

"Yeah," Dean answered. It was obviously John. "No, it's not here. We found it's hiding spot though."

Dean paused as John said something and he glanced at me, his jaw tensing. I could tell John had thought the same thing that I did.

"Absolutely not." Dean said. I grabbed the phone from him.

"What were you thinking John?" I asked, walking away from Dean.

"It got away, but I shot at it before it could attack. I missed but it got scared away. I have a plan though. We'll set you up a little ways away from the Chichevache's hiding spot as bait. Dean and I will be close by." He said.

"That sounds good." I said. I looked back at Dean to see just how pissed he was. He wasn't even looking at me. He was pissed beyond all hell.

"I'll be there soon. Wait in the Impala for me." He hung up and I went to give Dean his phone back. He took it from me and stormed past me. I rolled my eyes and followed quickly after. One of the reasons it sucked to have short legs was that it took a lot of energy to keep up with the Winchester's sometimes.

"Dean, come on." I said as we made our way back to the Impala. "It's the only way."

He turned around and finally looked at me, glaring holes through my head.

"It's not." He said. He turned back around and got into the car. I sighed and got in as well.

We didn't say anything for a while and we both just stared out the windows.

"Do you know how fucking scared I was that night when the Harpy took you?" He asked softly. I turned to look at him and he looked up at me. I shook my head. We hadn't really ever talked about it. "I thought that it had taken you to Hell."

He shook his head and looked back out the window. I didn't know what to say.

"I swore when I got you back that I wouldn't leave you out of my sight, ever." He said. "That included you being used for bait, intentionally or not."

"I'll be okay Dean," I said. He laughed bitterly.

"You said that before you got taken. When you were convincing me to let you go onto the roof of the parking garage. You told me that you would be okay." He looked back up at me again and I could have sworn there were tears in his eyes. My heart skipped a beat and I started to feel horrible for putting him through all that. "And then you were trapped in a storage box for days and almost died from dehydration and suffocation."

"You and your dad are going to be watching me the whole time. I'll have a gun on me and you guys won't let anything happen to me." I grabbed his hand and held it tightly. "I trust you guys."

He took a deep breath and nodded. He leaned over to kiss me gently and we saw the headlights of John's truck coming towards us. He parked a few yards away and got into the back of the Impala.

"Okay," he looked out into the field and pointed to a small stack of hay bales. "If you sit on top of those we'll be able to see you and keep an eye on you. Dean will stay here and I'll go around to the other side."

"How do we know it's going to try and eat me?" I asked. Dean winced at my choice of words.

"Because I interrupted it from attacking someone else."

"Cock blocker," I said. He narrowed his eyes at me but I saw Dean smirk.

"It's hungry and it's on its way home. It'll smell you and your faithfulness to Dean and it'll try to attack you." John said. I nodded and grabbed my Smith and Wesson from the glove box. I checked to make sure it was loaded before I tucked it into the back of my jeans.

"It should be here soon." John said, getting out of the car. I nodded and turned to face Dean. He took another deep breath before grabbing the back of my head and pulling me towards him. He kissed me hard and passionately and I was definitely out of breath when he pulled away.

"I never thought I'd be so angry to know my girlfriend's not cheating on me." Dean said. "I love you. I'll keep you safe."

I pecked his lips again quickly before getting out of the car and walking away from him. When I reached the hay I sat down on top and waited.

...

Dean and John had moved their vehicles but I knew they were hiding out of sight and watching. After about an hour of sitting in the cold, dark, smelly field, I had the strongest urge to tip over one of the sleeping cows nearby but I stayed on the bale of hay. I knew neither Dean nor John would be even half as amused as I would be about it. Well, maybe Dean but only after he lectured me about it for a while.

I sighed and looked around, shivering. I wished that I had taken Dean's jacket with me because I was starting to get really cold. It was February after all. I was just thinking that we should go somewhere with snow next when I heard hooves walking around. I tensed and looked at all the sleeping cows until I saw an angry human face among the cattle. It was attached to a frail, dirty cow body. What was it with these creatures with barn animal bodies and gross human faces?

"Hi Chichevache," I said quietly. I reached behind me to grab a hold of my gun but the cow-man leaped at me and knocked me back. "Holy shit!"

I heard gun shots and I pulled out my own gun, shooting at the thing above me.

It made a wretched noise before it slumped over on top of me, cutting off my air supply. I tried to push it off, but for such a skinny thing it was damn heavy.

"Rosemary!" Dean called. I reached my hand up so he could see where I was.

"Help," I cried out. Dean and John jumped over the hay and lifted the thing off of me and I sat up, gasping for air. Dean kneeled next to me as John started to light the thing on fire. He ran his hands over me and checked to make sure I didn't have any injuries.

"Are you okay?" He asked. I nodded.

"Yeah, my head hurts a little from the fall, but I'm fine." I told him. He let out a relieved sigh and helped me up and back to the car. John followed behind.

"There's another job, in Oregon, if you guys wanted to join me." John said as we reached the vehicles. I looked at Dean and he nodded. I knew he felt better when we were all together. The most important thing to Dean was his family and knowing they were safe.

"Yeah, we'll follow you." Dean said, opening the passenger door for me.

...

...

So after I posted the last chapter, I realized I was being a bit hypocritical. I get at least a few reviews for every chapter I've posted and I usually don't respond to any of them. So I decided from now on that I'll respond to every review I get :)

John's back! And it sounds like they'll be working together for a little while, at least. A lot of people are asking when/where this story is ending and when Sam's coming back so I figured I'd let you all know. There's only a few more chapters left for Life of a Hunter but the story is far from over. Sam's not going to come back until they pick him up from Stanford, which is where the sequel picks up :)

Please leave me bunches of reviews! I'll be sure to respond.

-Erin