*UNEDITED*
Nicole POV
I woke up slowly, and smiled into my sheets at the memories of the last 24 hours. I sat up slowly, reveling in the feeling of Sam's soft flannel on my skin. After finding a clean pair of underwear, I lazily started to walk down the stairs. I stopped halfway when I heard Sam speaking, and a rougher voice response. I quietly went down a few more steps and saw Sam by the door.
He had the door open, and was speaking to a man through the screen door. It was the guy I called to in the courtyard yesterday, the one I, for some reason, called Dean Winchester, the name the voice in my head said a few days ago.
"I'm all for my little brother gettin' some, but there's a djinn out there that we have to deal with." 'Dean' said lowly.
"I can't leave her, Dean." Sam responded. Huh; his name was Dean. "I can't leave her for a hunt again."
"It's not even the real Nik, Sam." Dean half-snapped. "Yeah, I think something weird is going on in her head, but she's not her."
"Yeah, she is, Dean." Sam insisted. "Nikki's in there."
"How do you know?" Dean snapped back.
"You really wanna know? Well, Nikki did this thing where she put her hand between my-"
"Ew, dude! Seriously! I don't wanna think of Nikki doin' that!" Dean cut Sam off.
"What's goin' on?" I finally said, announcing myself. I slowly went down the rest of the stairs, with both Sam's and Dean's eyes on me. "Sam?" I asked, looking up at him as I got closer.
He looked at me with those intense kaleidoscope eyes as he swallowed. I stared up at him for what seemed like a really long time. Sam's large, warm hand came to rest on my face, his thumb stroking my cheekbone and his fingers curling under my jaw.
"I can't lose you twice." Sam finally said in a low voice. My brows furrowed at his words.
Dean rolled his eyes and pushed the screen door open, making Sammy bark and run up to the new friend who walked in. Dean batted my dog away, making me frown. "Take a seat Nikki, we have a lot to talk about."
I watched as Dean walked through my first floor to raid my fridge. I looked back up at Sam, who had a mildly irritated look on his face. "What's going on?" I asked again.
"The...Last night when I told you about the girl you remind me of," Sam explained, grabbing his wallet from the table. "Her name was Nikki."
Before I could snap anything at him for calling me by his dead girlfriend's name, he handed me a folded picture from his wallet. Sam flattened it out and held it out to me.
A girl was sitting crosslegged on a vintage car with two orange stripes over the hood. She was wearing an army green canvas cargo jacket, jeans, boots and what looked like a ratty tank top. Her hair was dark and curly—curly like mine when I didn't straighten it—and was shoved over her shoulder. She had chopsticks in one hand, and a white and red Chinese food container in the other. She was smiling wide at the camera, making her nose wrinkle when she smiled; just like mine did when I smiled.
I laughed once, taking the picture; I thought it was fake. But the more I looked at it, the more I saw that it was real. I pressed a hand to my temple, where a dull pain was starting to throb.
"What-What the hell is this?" I asked, looking back at Sam.
"A picture taken of you a year and a half ago." Sam explained. "It was taken somewhere in Kentucky..."
"A year and a half ago I was in France for my semester abroad." I corrected him, holding the picture back out to him.
"No you weren't." Dean said from the kitchen, popping the cap off a bottle of beer I don't remember buying from my fridge. "You were driving around with us."
"So, the painting over there-" I gestured towards the framed portrait of the Eiffel Tower. "-wasn't a gift from my host family."
"When was the last time you talked to them?" Sam asked. "It was before you left, right?"
"I have their phone number, I can call them whenever I want to!" I insisted.
"Go on then," Sam urged sarcastically, taking my landline and holding it out to me. "Call them."
I glared at him and grabbed the phone from him. I took it with me to my desk and pulled out my address book. I flipped through it until I found the number. I dialed for an international call, keeping my back to the men in my house, then dialed the number. I got a beeping noise, then a French voice telling me the number wasn't valid.
"No one's there, right?" Sam asked as I slowly put the phone down.
"What the hell are you doing?" I asked quietly, pressing a hand to my head again.
"We're telling you the truth," Sam insisted, putting a hand on my shoulder. His large, warm palm and fingers curled around my small shoulder easily; it was like he'd been doing it forever.
"No-" I barely got the words out before Dean slapped a file on the table.
Sam was trying to speak to me before I opened the manilla file open, but I ignored him. I let out a strangled gasp and threw the pictures down. With my hands over my nose and mouth, I stumbled back until my thighs hit the back of the sofa.
It was me.
The girl had dark hair, but she was me.
She was wearing an army green canvas cargo jacket, and her entire chest was bloody. It was as if someone went at her with a chainsaw. Her guts and organs were spilled over her torso, and her head was lolled to the side so her blank, waxy, expressionless face was looking at me. There were bruises on her face, and a smear of blood under her nose. Dark red, almost black, dried blood was over her lips with two clean trails over the corners of her mouth. They trailed over her cheeks, and the left trail went into her curly hair.
"Nicole, calm down." Sam said sternly.
I was gasping for air behind my hands. The pain in my head was throbbing harder. I pinched my eyes shut and shook my head from side to side, chanting No no no no over and over.
"This life you have, living in a church, going to college and the dog, it isn't real, Nik!" Dean half-yelled at me.
Sam spoke before I could. "Look, there are things in the world that aren't...good, and we can get into that later, but now, we're telling you that you had a whole other life."
"What?" I half yelled at him.
"You were Nicollette Blake, or Nikki." Sam said calmly. "I-I don't know what happened, but you don't remember the last few years—you don't remember meeting us."
"That's because I didn't know you 'till you found my dog!" I yelled back at him.
"You have a scar on your left are? 'Bout three inches long, cures from the inside to the outside?" Dean asked, taking a swig of beer.
My brows furrowed; I was wearing long sleeves, there was no way he could see that scar. "I...I got it..."
"Where?" Dean pressed, walking closer. "Where'd you get that scar, Nikki?"
"My name's Nicole." I insisted, making Dean roll his eyes.
"Nikki just listen to us-!" Sam started.
"No!" I yelled at him. "You're saying that my whole life, my brothers, adoptive parents, friends—even my dog—are fake?"
"We're saying you used to be someone else." Sam corrected me. "You used to be Nikki—You ate Chinese food and told dirty jokes. You used to sharpen your knife when you got bored, you drove over the speed limit, hated light beer, only drank black coffee with too much sugar, didn't like to be called by your full name and you saved people!"
"You need to go." I got out; my head was pounding.
Dean rolled his eyes and put the beer down. As he passed Sam on his way to the door, he mumbled something like 'I told you it was too soon.' Sam was looking at me with pleading eyes.
"Nik-Nicole, please you have to remember." He pleaded with me. I'd dropped the picture on the table. He took it and held it out to me. "I don't know what happened to you, but you need to remember her-"
As he spoke, I walked him closer to the door. I gave him a shove to the door, and yanked the picture from his hands.
"This is all I'm going to do with her." I said, tearing the picture in half. I threw it at Sam's chest and slammed the door shut. I locked the knob, deadbolt and put the chain on the door.
My head was pounding with pain, and I slid to the floor. Sammy came to my side, nuzzling his furry body to my side. I hugged his neck tightly and let him lick my cheek. I frowned as something wet, that wasn't Sammy's slobber, on my face. I wiped under my eyes and frowned at the tears.
I was angry, not sad. Sam and Dean were clearly crazy, so why was I crying?
A few times during the day, people knocked on my door.
Sam knocked and stood there for a good hour after I slammed my door in his face; Dean knocked a few times too. The mailman knocked once or twice for a package; it was probably the floral dress I ordered from a shop in Milwaukee for graduation in a few months. Willow knocked once, literally once, then left.
All through that, I sat by my door, my back pressed to the seam of the door and the wall. Sammy came and laid next to me. He rested his head between my pulled-up knees and chest. When I didn't pet him, he pawed my leg. I latched onto my massive dog and didn't let go for hours.
I remembered my road trip with Gabe before I went to college.
I remembered going to the mystery spots, eating at the 'possessed hot dog stands' and singing along to 90s music with my older brother.
I didn't, however, remember getting wristbands for the mystery spots, waiting in line to touch the clairvoyant crystal in South Dakota, or even sleeping in the hotels we stayed at. I didn't remember eating breakfast in the hotel, stopping at gas stations or even changing clothes.
Sammy whimpered as I started to cry, and nuzzled my neck with his silky head.
I ran my fingers over his ears and down his back.
At least Sammy was real; I remember every single second I spent with him.
Omniscient POV
Zack was still getting used to the new body he'd acquired few months before. His previous one had been through an altercation with a Russian hooker and a two-by-four and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't quite get the shattered bones in his jaw to get back in the right place.
He ditched Blondie in the woods, and found a nice candidate in northern Alberta. The guy was a logger, and became paralyzed from the neck down when a truck turned over, sending a massive tree on his torso. Zack grabbed the guy from the ICU, gave him a shave and a haircut, and now no Russian hooker would even think about whipping him across his face with a bed post.
By the time he was back in commission, Dean Winchester was dead, Sammy-boy was off doing God-knows-what, and Nikki was missing. Zack volunteered to look for Nikki; he'd be a little nicer than other demons out for her. After six weeks, he was reassigned to follow Sam.
He'd never praised a God he didn't believe in so much in his life When Sam Winchester showed up with his brother and found Nikki.
Zack had 'borrowed' the next door house to keep an eye on Sam and Nikki (this new Nikki was a bit of a slut; sleeping with a guy she just met). Sam and Dean left a while ago. He told his boss, then sat back to wait for Nikki to leave and follow her.
Sam and Dean left around 10 am, it was well past 6:30 in the evening, and Nikki hadn't left. She hadn't even opened the door to let that mutt out to do it's business. When 9 rolled around, Zack cut his losses.
The house he was staying at blonged to Hope Oliver; a divorcee who liked men in suits. Zack gave Hope one more kiss, ignored her pleas for him to stay, and had a new suit on with the snap of his fingers.
He jogged across the street and peered into the windows of Nicole's church apartment, and saw nothing. Taking a deep breath, Zck prepared himself to cross the threshold of a church. It wasn't impossible for a demon like him, but it wasn't exactly easy. He turned the doorknob, and with his extra strength, he turned it so hard that the deadbolt pushed through the wood.
Pushing the door open, Zack peered into the house.
The big black, white and orangey-red dog ran up to him. Zack waved a dismissive hand towards the dog, who rolled over and barked happily, wanting Zack to rub his belly.
Nikki was on the floor. The jacket he'd seen Sam wear when he went into Nikki's apartment the night before was haphazardly next to her. As Zack went closer, he examined how Nikki was on the floor. His best guess was that she'd been carrying the jacket, then collapsed onto her stomach.
Zack squatted down next to her. It was weird seeing Nikki with blonde hair. She had something shiny wound around her fingers; Zack had to pry her fingers apart to look at the necklace.
His brown brows furrowed at the worn chain the two oval pendants hung on. They were saints or something, but he'd already dismissed the necklace to the floor. He checked Nikki's pulse, and used the pad of his thumb to gently lift her eyelid.
"Damn." Zack sighed, letting her lid go back down.
He really didn't want to have to involve the Winchesters.
Sam and Dean were walking out of an abandoned office building around midnight. Dean was wiping the bloody knife he'd used to stand the djinn on a rag he snagged from a janitor's bucket, and Sam had a roll of clear tape. He was carefully trying to fix the picture 'Nicole' ripped by trying to line it up and tape it.
"Hey, maybe it's better this way." Dean shrugged as he pushed the glass door with CONDEMNED spray painted over it. "Nikki was never built to be a hunter...Couldn't even reach the top shelf of Bobby's cupboards.
Looking at the picture, Sam shrugged. He carefully put it back in his wallet, and got in the passenger's seat without a word. He was thinking a lot though; in the week Dean was dead, he reached the top shelf for Nikki.
By the time Sam said anything, they were on their way out of town. Dean pulled into a gas station, got out of the car pretty quick and made a beeline for the bathroom, leaving Sam to get gas. He'd just put the nozzle in the car when someone cleared their throat.
A dark haired guy in a very expensive looking suit was leaning against the dirty side of the building. Sam couldn't get a good look at his face because of the newspaper he was holding. He didn't say anything, so Sam turned away.
He cleared his throat again, and Sam turned to look at him. The guy still said nothing.
By the fifth time the guy cleared his throat, Sam was a little annoyed.
"What?" Sam snapped, turning to the guy a fifth time.
Instead of answering, he waved his hand somewhat dismissively, and a happy bark made Sam straighten up. One corner of his mouth turned up in a tiny bit of a smile as he got to one knee to catch the big Berner that was bounding towards him from the other side of the building. Sammy put a massive paw on Sam's knee to lick his face. He was scratching Sammy's silky neck when he realized what exactly he was doing.
He checked the dog's tags twice. Etched into the purple tag was N. Lani along with Nicole's address. Sam looked back up at the guy with a death glare. "Who are you?"
The man folded up his paper and chuckled once. "I know you Winchester's see a lot of demons, but you really don't recognise me?"
Sam stood, keeping a grip on Sammy's collar, and looked more closely at the guy. Even if a demon switched bodies, there were signs to look for; how they stood, how they spoke...
With narrowed eyes, Sam took a guess. "Zack."
The dark haired man smirked. "I'm sorry, the correct answer is Who is Zack?"
Sam reached into the open trunk and aimed the sawed-off shotgun at Zack, who rolled his eyes. "I've been nothing but nice to you Winchesters, and this is the thanks I get."
"What the hell are you doing here?" Sam demanded.
"Same thing you are," Zack said with a shrug. He got off the wall, brushed off his suit, and took a few steps towards Sam and the Impala. "Looking for your little girlfriend."
"Found 'er." Sam said, throwing the shotgun back in the trunk. "She's gone."
Zack snorted. "Didn't your brother tell you about angels?" He asked, getting a narrow-eyed nod from Sam. "Then you should know they can do some pretty wild party tricks."
The hunter and the demon just stared at one another for a moment. Sam's grip was tight on Sammy's collar, and the dog whimpered, pawing at Sam's foot. "What happened?"
"I don't know specifics, but I know that she's unresponsive on her floor, last time I saw." Zack shrugged. "Might want to head back."
When Dean got back a few minutes later, Sam was still talking with Zack. Once they explained what was going on, Dean got in the driver's seat faster than Sam had ever seen.
Zack hung back with Sammy while the Winchester's went inside Nicole's church apartment. Sam went straight for Nikki on the ground while Dean cleared the rest of the place.
Sam was frantically looking over Nikki; checking her pulse, listening to her breathing, feeling over her neck to make sure she didn't snap it or something. He jumped back, startled, when he lifted Nikki's eyelid. A bright, burning blue flashed in front of Sam's face instead of the deep brown. It didn't even seem real; the blue was too deep, instead of a metaphorical light in Nikki's eyes, it was like there were flashlights shining in her head, and though it was beautiful, it was terrifying.
"I know, right?" Zack said from the door, laughing once. Dean shot the demon a look, and Sam ignored him altogether. He was leaning over Nikki with a hand gently stroking her cheek.
"Hey...C'mon...Wake up Nikki." He said softly.
Nikki gasped and arched her back up suddenly. The gasp was a ragged, painfully choked inhale that stuttered now and then. Sam had seen Nikki's (and Nicole's) back arch enough to realized that it must have hurt. When she fell back down, she was convulsing and shaking.
"Dean!" Sam yelled, trying to keep Nikki still. He let Dean try to keep her legs down, while he put one arm over her shoulders, crossing her collarbone, to keep her torso down. His other hand forced her hands under her, then went to try and keep her neck stable.
This went on for a little more than half an hour. Nikki's back arched up suddenly, easily pushing Sam's weight with her, and she slumped down, motionless, to the ground again. Both brothers sat back, a little exhausted, and looked at each other.
Dean called Bobby and told him what was going on. Sam was sitting back on one hand, and the other was stroking the back of Nikki's hand.
"She was holding this when I found her." Zack said, taking the necklace out of the inner pocket of his jacket. He tossed it to Sam, who caught it easily. He examined the tarnished silver necklace and the to pendants. He'd taken it off before he met Nicole at the coffee place, and put it in his jacket pocket. She must have found it.
Sam pulled the necklace over Nicole's way (not curly) hair, and straightened it out over her neck so the pendants were between her collar bones.
In Sioux Falls, Bobby Singer was waiting with a shotgun and some holy water on his porch.
Dean called a few minutes ago and told him he and Sam found Nikki. With the condition she was in, they couldn't drive her to his place, and she couldn't stay in her place in New Haven. A voice in the back had suggested a rather unorthodox way to get Nikki to the panic room.
Zack, a demon Nikki met a while ago, was going to bring her to Bobby's.
A dark haired guy flashed onto Bobby's porch holding an unconscious blonde. Zack and Bobby just stared at each other for a moment. Bobby stood, and put his shotgun over his shoulder. He jerked his head to the door, gesturing for Zack to follow. Bobby took Zack down to the panic room, opened the door, and took Nikki from the demon, since he couldn't get in.
"Might wanna restrain her," Zack piped up from outside the room.
Bobby glared over his shoulder. "Why?"
Zack just raised his brow and crossed his arms. Grumbling under his breath, Bobby restrained Nikki's wrists and ankles with handcuffs connected to the side of the cot in the middle of the room. He stood straight and looked at Zack with an irritated 'So what?' look.
After bringing a loose fist to his mouth to cover his cleared throat, Zack spoke. "Nikki."
Just like in New Haven, the blonde's chest arched up and she began thrashing around wildly. It went for only 15 minutes this time, then she slumped down, completely still.
Bobby frowned, and looked at Zack.
The demon nodded slightly. "Weird, right?"
The Winchesters were still more than half a day from Bobby's. Zack was around Sioux Falls, going from bar to bar and seeing exactly how much alcohol it would take for him to get drunk. Bobby had dug up some walkie-talkies in his attic and was using them to monitor Nikki down in the panic room, but he'd fallen to sleep hours ago.
He didn't hear the soft, almost audible sound of fabric rusting.
In the panic room, there were now two people; the blonde Nikki passed out and cuffed to the cot, and the dark haired, trenchcoat clad man standing next to her.
Castiel turned his head slightly to one side. Since he let Gabriel take her several months ago, he'd been following his orders, and his orders were to get her back. His actions with Dean Winchester had taken him away from his search for some time, and Dean led him to her.
He raised a hand, fingers relaxed and splayed, and moved it towards Nikki's head. It pulled the left side of the oversized shirt she wore up to reveal parts of her pale pink underwear, the band of her matching bra, and her ribs. Castiel was focused on her ribs, not the exposed undergarments.
Gabriel had done a thorough job at erasing most of the identifying markings on Nikki's body; any obscure scars she'd gotten from her years with the Winchester's were gone, including the hellhound wounds and the remains of the mark over Nikki's ribs.
Of course, Castiel didn't call her 'Nikki' in his mind. She was Concupivi Filia Celi Telum to him, and all other angels. Castiel reached down, and let his hand hover over her side. A light started in his palm, and connected with her skin.
Nikki whimpered as the angry red mark appeared again. It stretched across her ribs, and puckered over the rest of her smooth skin. Once the long scar was again on her skin, Castiel reached into his coat and pulled out a gold box. Before he arrived at Bobby Singer's home in Sioux Falls, Castiel had been in Egypt. There was a secret room known only to angels, as everyone else who knew of it was dead, in an undiscovered tomb. When Concupivi Filia Celi Telum fled from heaven without her grace, it was hidden away.
Castiel used the ankh on top of the box to lift the lid. Briefly, he admired the energy and power within the box. The Concupivi Filia Celi Telum's mother was human, and her father an angel. Normally, a union between the two resulted in a Nephilim, but not her's. Her human mother truly loved the angel with which she conceived Concupivi Filia Celi Telum, and the angel loved her as well. Their union created a being with both an angel's grace, and the soul of a human.
She, aside from God, was the most powerful being of the world.
Castiel lifted the box over Nikki's body, and began speaking Enochian. While he spoke, he tipped the box towards Nikki. The swirls of blue and gold light poured from the corner of the box like water, and pooled around the mark on her ribs. Castiel then said the most important part of the spell.
"Welcome back, coveted daughter, weapon of heaven."
Red symbols began to glow through the grace that pooled on her side. Blood trickled down her ribs as the symbols opened up, sucking the grace and soul in. Once it was all inside her body, Nikki coughed out a whimper.
Castiel pressed two fingers to her forehead, rendering her unconscious. He waved his hand once more, and the wounds and scars from her days as a hunter returned.
Sam, Dean and Bobby would be so concerned with the blood pouring from her hellhound slashes, bruised knuckles and bleeding lip and head to noticed the scabbing Enochian symbols that went in a line perpendicular to her ribs.
Sorry for the wait! Really!
Also, just so you know, Nikki will regain her memories in the next chapter!
~Christianne