"I'm going to get some more water. Can I get you anything?" John asked Renee as he got up from their lunch table.
"Another water would be great, thanks," Renee replied.
"I'll be back, darling," John joked, kissing Renee's cheek. She laughed, rolling her eyes playfully. "Oh please, you love me."
"Really?" Renee challenged, playfully, raising one eyebrow.
"Yeah, actually. I think it has something to do with my dashingly good looks and my heart of gold," he joked.
"It just gets me every time," Renee replied, jokingly pretending to cry. The two exchanged glances before laughing.
"Awkward," Greer interjected, breaking the moment between John and Renee.
"I'm going to go now," John finally said.
"Hey, I'll come with you, man," Cole added, standing up too. "Greer, you want anything?"
"I'm fine, thanks," she answered, as she and Renee watched as the boys walked away.
"Mama Winchester so raised him right," Greer remarked about John, once the boys were gone.
"Uh, other Mama Winchester as well," Renee countered. "Cole is probably one of the last few, very rare gentlemen left on this planet."
"Yeah, but you two are so married," Greer said.
"What?" Renee exclaimed, her eyes widening.
"Uh yeah: the way you two joke around with each other, the way he calls you 'babe', the way he teases you… you and John are so married!" Greer exclaimed.
"No-, we're- we're so not- okay, slow down, girl," Renee stammered.
"Admit it. You notice it too," Greer said.
"Uh, I think this is very 'pot calling kettle black', missy. Do you really want me to bring up the fact that you have an apartment and Cole stays over like every weekend? I don't know. When two people practically live together, cook dinner together-," Renee started.
"Okay, okay! I get it," Greer laughed.
Renee was silent as she thought over what Greer had said about her and John. Did they really seem married? Her parents and John's parents had always joked about how one day they were going to get married, and of course she had thought about it for the future, but now that she thought about them now, how much would really change? Not that she was seriously thinking of marrying John now. But how cheesy would it be for her to marry her best friend, not to mention her high school sweetheart. And just out of high school? That would be ridiculous… wouldn't it?
"You really think we act like a married couple?" Renee asked, finally breaking the silence.
"Yeah, Walsh. I wouldn't have brought it up if I knew you'd go psychoanalyze yourself," Greer replied.
"I was not-," Renee protested.
"Please, I know you better than that," Greer shot back, playfully.
Renee chuckled, "Hey, since when do you know my psychoanalyzing face?"
"Since… I don't know," Greer shrugged.
"We're kinda friends, huh?" Renee joked.
"Kinda," Greer replied, before both girls laughed.
"I feel like we missed something," both girls heard a voice say.
"What? No," Renee said, shortly.
"You guys are weird," John said.
"Nah, we were just having a… female equivalent of a bromantic moment," Greer explained.
"Hey, they should have a word for that," Cole said.
"Right?" Greer asked.
"Mm. Girl on girl action. I'm down with that," John smirked. Greer laughed while Renee hit him playfully.
"Dude!" Cole exclaimed.
"What?" John asked innocently. "I'm just saying. The two of us happen to be dating some very attractive women."
"That's my girlfriend!" Cole protested.
"Thank you, baby," Greer smiled, leaning in and kissing him once.
"Aw, come on guys," John groaned.
Greer shook her head, "You started it with the whole girl on girl action thing, dude. This is kind of your fault."
John looked to Renee for reassurance but she just shrugged her shoulders innocently.
"You guys suck!"
After school, Victoria and Tyler had plans to hang out around his house. She knew they couldn't hang out at hers seeing as there was demon stuff all over the place and it would be way too easy for Tyler to see something. Victoria, cell phone in hand, made her way across her lawn, over to the Gallaghers'. She walked down the driveway and to the front door, knocking three times while she waited for someone to answer the door. Just then, she got a text.
Tyler: Hey, I'm running late. I'll be in there in five.
"Victoria," she heard a voice say, causing her to look up from her phone.
"I was supposed to meet Tyler but he's not home yet. You know, I can come back later if=," Victoria started.
"Oh no. It's fine. Why don't you come in?" Bryan proposed.
"Sure," Victoria answered, stepping inside the house and following Bryan to the kitchen. "Is Paige home?"
"No, she's out with uh… Ian," Bryan replied.
"Oh," Victoria sounded. Whore.Victoria tried not to laugh at her thought, but she still hated what Paige did to her brother. Not cool.
"I hope you don't mind. I was in the middle of making dinner," Bryan said, going over to the kitchen counter and resuming his slicing of vegetables. "Have a seat."
"Thanks," Victoria replied, wearily as she sat down at their kitchen table.
"You know, sometimes the secret to good cooking is just having a great knife," Bryan remarked, rather amused. Okay, what was going on?
"What? So once you retired, you figured knives were for cooking, not for shapeshifters?" Victoria asked, jokingly. Bryan looked up from his cutting board. "Sorry… joke. Sometimes I do this thing where I speak way before I can even process what I'm about to say."
Bryan sighed, "It's okay. I uh, I had a feeling you'd say something like that. That's what I wanted to talk to you about."
"Oh?" Victoria asked.
"Yeah," Bryan replied. And then he left a silence in the room, not saying anything as he chopped up the vegetables.
Chop. Chop. Chop.That's all Victoria heard and it was about to drive her crazy.
"You don't like the fact that I'm getting involved with this, do you?" Victoria asked, breaking the silence. Tyler, where are you, damnit?
"Honestly?" Bryan asked. Victoria nodded. "No. I hate it. That's why I kept our children away from it. That's why I'm… keeping them away from it."
"Fair enough, but this has nothing to do with me," Victoria said.
Bryan shook his head, "You don't get it, do you?"
"Get what?" Victoria asked back, crossing her arms over her chest. She knew it was a physical defense mechanism of hers and she honestly didn't care if Bryan noticed. He was making her feel uncomfortable by putting her on edge like this.
"You're a huge part of my son's life. He likes you a lot, Victoria, and you being around him, especially with this battle on the horizon, he's bound to find out eventually," Bryan explained.
"I've been really careful around him, you know? I have to lie to him every time he asks about something… it's not easy…" Victoria trailed off, trying not to get defensive. She had been working her ass off to try to keep the family secret from Tyler and it bothered her that Tyler's dad acted like she was blatantly flaunting it in front of Tyler.
"What happens if you slip up?" Bryan questioned. It was a fair question but it still bothered her.
"I-," Victoria started, but stopped talking. She knew what Bryan was suggesting. "So that's it? You want me to break up with him?"
Bryan finally looked up once more from his cutting board, "All I'm asking you to do is to leave him out of this. Don't drag Tyler into it. Your family may be different. You may be able to balance normal and the hunter's life, but Tyler was never meant to be a hunter."
Victoria opened her mouth to say something but she didn't know what to say. Bryan had a point – a very important point – and part of her couldn't help but feel like he was right.
"Just something for you to think about," Bryan replied, simply.
That hit Victoria like a ton of bricks. It stung like a thousand wasps. It was a verbal slap in the face. How could he be so heartless about this? Then again, he was protecting his family just like she would protect hers. Could she really blame him?
But it sure didn't take away from any of the pain…
"Hey, so sorry we're late. There was a huge line at the grocery store but we're back now," Kitty said, coming through the front door with Tyler. The two came into the kitchen, bags of groceries in their hands.
"Hey, Dad," Tyler said, casually, dropping the bags on the counter. He then shot Victoria small smile, "Hey, you."
"Hey," Victoria replied, shooting him a faint smile. "Need any help, Mrs. Gallagher?"
"Oh no, sweetie, I've got it! Will you be staying for dinner?" Kitty asked.
"I-, I don't know," Victoria stammered, glancing over at her boyfriend's father. He really had given her something to think about.
The next morning, Jude awoke to small kisses being left on his neck. The all too familiar mouth traveled down to his collarbone, then his chest. Jude smirked, as he opened his eyes.
"There's a girl in my bed!" he exclaimed, jokingly.
"Wouldn't be the first time," Anna winked.
"Good morning," Jude said, as Anna moved back up, kissing him on the lips.
"Morning," she giggled, smiling into the kiss. Jude grabbed the back of her head, kissing her deeply but shortly after, Anna pulled away. Jude looked at her questioningly. He hoped he hadn't done something wrong. "As much as I'd like to spend all day in bed with you, I can't. I've got a class in an hour and we haven't even had breakfast yet."
"So skip breakfast and we'll spend that hour in bed," Jude suggested, a lazy, sexy grin plastered on his face.
Anna's heart skipped a beat. Damn, that grin! That grin was going to get him everything, but not today. She knew it was important for her to go to class today since they were covering something she knew would be on the upcoming final.
"I can't. Some of us have classes before twelve, you know? Come on. I'll make your favorite," Anna replied.
"Waffles?" Jude asked.
"Of course," Anna answered in a 'well-duh' tone. Jude chuckled. This woman knew him so well. He sat up, stretching out. He was still extremely sore from the hunt he had gone on last night… and those stitches…
"Oh my God, Jude!"
Jude guessed that Anna had seen his little self-stitching work, "What?"
"Did you do this last night?" She asked, crawling across the bed and over to a shirtless Jude, who sat at the edge of the bed.
"Yeah," Jude shrugged, casually.
"Jude!" she scolded.
"What? I'm a med student!" Jude defended.
"Almost a med student," Anna corrected.
"Speaking of-," Jude started.
"Don't change the subject! Why didn't you wake me up? I could've done it for you," Anna asked.
Jude shook his head, "Nah, I didn't want to wake you up. It's fine. It's not like it's the first time I've done it."
Anna bit her lip as her stomach churned. She hated the fact that Jude was being sucked back into all of this hunting. Ever since the attack on Jude's brother's birthday, Jude had been hunting almost every week, sometimes several times in just one week, and she knew it was killing him.
"How does that feel?" she asked, as she began to massage his shoulders.
"So good," Jude sighed, closing his eyes. Jude had always been told he had a choice when it came to hunting, but he knew in this, that he really didn't. This was his family and if something was trying to mess with them, he was determined to stop it. And maybe this was it. Maybe this was the big thing that he and John were supposed to stop – maybe this would fulfill that prophecy. Stupid prophecy. "I have to do this don't I?"
"Yeah," Anna sighed.
"I mean, they're my family. I can't just turn my back on them like this," Jude said. It was almost as if he had to explain himself to her.
"No, no. I know…" Anna trailed off. "It's okay. You don't have to explain yourself to me."
"Get out of my head, woman!" Jude thought to himself.
"Besides, it's kind of hot. You're kind of like my own superman," Anna said, a smile spreading across her lips. She was always good at finding the bright side of things. To be honest, Anna hated that Jude had to hunt, but she knew that it was important to him. She wanted to support him, even though she didn't really support hunting. Jude had had a normal life. They had talked about it many nights before all of this started. He wanted a normal life and to rock the whole white picket fence thing. She just wanted what was best for him.
"Well, when you think of it that way…" Jude smirked.
"Uh huh," Anna said, kissing him on the cheek. "Come on, Superman. Let's go make breakfast."
"I like it when you call me Superman," Jude grinned.
"Yeah, alright. I'm going to go before your ego suffocates us both," Anna teased, before walking out of the room. Jude laughed, rolling his eyes playfully and in a second, Anna was back, standing in the doorway, with a confused look on her face. "So does this make me Lois Lane?"
"I think so," Jude chuckled.
"Alright… so what are we missing?" Meredith asked, as she, Sam, and Dean sat across from Meredith's demon hunting bulletin board, just staring at it.
"Uh, how to kill it, for one," Dean replied.
"Dean, it's a demon. Don't all demons die the same way?" Sam chimed in.
"Yeah, but it's some kind of "first"," Dean replied.
"Okay, I've been thinking about this a lot lately. How can it be the first demon? Lillith was the first but all of the demons that we've faced have all referred to it as 'the first'," Meredith pondered.
"Don't hate me for bringing this up, but what if we can't kill him? What if it's like Lucifer where the only way was to trap him back into hell?" Sam asked.
Both Meredith and Dean looked over at Sam like 'really?'
"Sorry. Just a thought."
"Yeah… happy thoughts, Sammy. What happened to the Mr. Sunshine you used to be," Dean trailed off.
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe part of him disappeared when I was trapped with Lucifer in his cage," Sam shot back.
"Alright, boys!" Meredith exclaimed, breaking it up. She had to admit, they were all a little on edge with this oncoming demon problem. "There's got to be a way… I guess that's the next thing we have to look for."
The three sat in silence, thinking it over. There was something they were overlooking – something they were missing. And that's when it hit Sam. His eyes widened and he straightened up.
"What? You got something, Sammy?" Dean asked.
"Yeah. What if Lillith wasn't really the first? What if Lillith was the first successful demon? You know. The devil tries to create demons but he need a couple of test dummies first – to get it right before he makes his 'first'. So what if this 'first' is really just Lucifer's test dummy," Sam offered up. He was definitely on to something.
"And if this 'first' guy was just a test dummy, it means he's a failed demon… so what if we can't kill him… you know the same way we usually kill demons?" Meredith asked.
Sam and Dean exchanged glances and both men said, "The colt."
"Okay, and where are we going to get the colt?" Meredith snapped. She bit her lip. She hated that she had been so on edge, but this whole demon problem was getting so frustrating.
"Crowley?" Sam suggested.
"Yeah…" Dean trailed off.
"Look, why don't we just wait a little. Gather more information. It's not like the first's demons are of shortage. You guys said you're getting attacked at least every week so we find out, get some answers, and then we go after the colt," Sam proposed.
"It's the best we have at the moment," Meredith agreed.
"What happened to punch first, ask later?" Dean asked.
"And risk someone getting hurt? Not this time, Dean," Meredith reasoned.
Dean sighed, "Alright then. Well, let's get some answers, get the colt, track down this son of a bitch, and kill him."
Author's Note: Thank you so much to Deangirl93, Angeles, the two guest reviewers, MissECharlotte, elisitax21, and Dancing Dynasty for reviewing the last chapter. You guys seriously rock my socks off! I know that's an age old colloquialism but I still love it! There is much drama on the horizon so I hope you guys aren't getting too bored... I promise. The story is definitely ending with a big finish :)