Sam and Dean slipped quietly around the room, careful not to wake Ashton as they grabbed they got ready. Dean grabbed the duffel bag full of knives, holy water, and shot guns. Sam nodded to the door and moved quietly out of the room. Dean started to follow but paused and turned back to Ash. He leaned over to kiss her forehead before pulling the covers further over her. He followed Sam to the door, glancing back one last time as he shut the door gently.
Ashton tossed and turned, terrible dreams plaguing her. A hand gripping her shoulder, prickling pain edging her neck and arms, voice rasping into her ear like demons taunting her. She woke up in a cold sweat, blankets twisted around her, tieing her down. The alarm clock's red eyes blinked at her; it was three in the morning. Shakily, she stood up, wrapping a blanket around herself as she shuffled toward the fridge. The fridge light made her feel exposed and stung her sleepy eyes, so she blindly grabbed a can of ginger ale before slamming the door. A half-eaten sleeve of crackers still rested on the counter and she grabbed them eagerly. As she turned to waddle back to bed, Sam's computer caught her eye. It sat on the table, its lid shut, and she stuck it under her arm before crawling back into bed.
The bright screen hurt her eyes at first, illuminating the space under the cover. As she adjusted to the brightness, a beautiful woman stared back at her, eyes wrinkling as she laughed at the person behind the camera. She sat on the floor, legs crossed, a baby sitting in her lap and a young boy, maybe three, clinging to her shoulders. His green and yellow eyes stared at her like she was the best thing in the world. A smile tugged at her mouth- she had those eyes. This must be Dean and Sam and their mom when they were little. Scrolling to the bottom she hit an minimized tab, hoping to search for the disappearance of one Genevieve Ashton. The tab opened revealing some dark website, with an anatomical sketch of a mouth, but not a human mouth. Too-skinny teeth ended in needles, spikes jutting out of a strangely large mouth in no apparent pattern. Scrolling down the side, she saw pictures of more such mouths, rubbery skin wrinkled and stretched away. These weren't sketches, these were pictures; she felt her stomach drop and tore to the bathroom. Shakily, crawled back into bed and reexamined the web page. Clicking back to the top of the page, she found an article- Signs of a Vampire. Ash skimmed it, disturbed and disgusted by the topic.
"Holy crap. My father is insane," she whispered to herself. "I gotta get out here. I gotta…" She paused in her panic. "Where is he?" She crawled out of bed and flicked on the light, Sam and Dean were both gone. Panicking, she looked for a phone. "I have to call someone, I have to…" She felt light, breath coming faster and faster. "I need… I…" Spots filled her vision, black peppering her sight as she dived toward the ground. The last she saw was Sam, pushing open the door with a duffel bag in hand.
"Ash!" Sam tossed the bag to the floor, on his knees cradling his niece in his arms in a flash. "Hey, hey, hey." He shook her gently. "Hey, I need you here. C'mon, c'mon hon." Slowly, Ashton's eyes peeled open, confusion turning to fear. She scrambled backwards on her hands.
"Get away from me!"
Sam held up his hands. "Hey it's alright. You're gonna be fine. I think you just passed out. It's okay, why don't you get back to bed."
"I need you to get away from me. Right now. Get away." Ashton held her hand up, keeping him from getting too close.
"Okay. Look I'll stay over here. Just, tell me what's up." He stood up and backed up to the table. Without turning around he pulled out a chair and sat down. Ashton crawled backwards before climbing back into the bed. Her eyes were wild with fear, distrust. "Dean went to go get gas, he'll be back soon. What's up, talk to me."
Ashton shook her head. "I- I saw your computer. With… the… teeth… What the heck was that, Sam?"
"That's, uh- can we wait until Dean gets back? And we'll talk about this?"
"Fine. But you stay over there." Ashton watched him pull out his cell, mutter something to Dean.
Dean slammed his phone shut. "Crap." He tore off in the Impala, wheels squealing. Minutes later, the motel door slammed open, Dean in the doorway. "What's up?" He walked over to Ashton, making to sit on the bed, but she shot away from him, glaring at him from the other side of the bed. "Hey, okay, sorry." He sat on the edge of the recliner, glancing between his daughter and brother. "What's going on here?"
Sam shrugged. "I came in, she was on the floor, and I grabbed her. She woke up and shoved me off. Ash asked me to stay over here, keep away from her."
"She- you- you were on the floor? What happened?" Dean bore into Ashton, who stared defiantly back at him. "Ashton. Talk to me."
"I saw your computer." She glared him down.
"What?" Dean looked at her in confusion.
"Your computer. The… teeth." Ashton's voice shuddered and broke.
Dean shook his head. "Sweetheart, I don't know what you're talking about."
"I do." Ash and Dean turned to look at Sam. "I was doing research." Sam shrugged at Dean. "It's a theory, I was checking on something. I didn't think she'd see it."
Dean set his jaw. "Sam, what the heck were you thinking? Research? What were you looking for in the first place?" He shook his head. "I can't believe you, Sam. We'll talk about this later." He turned to Ashton. "Are you okay?"
"No, yeah, I'm swell. It's just I can't remember anything about my life and I'm stuck with a psychotic father and uncle." Dean flinched. "I wanted to see if there was anything on me or my mom. So I took your computer. I'm sorry. But what were you even looking up? What is wrong with you two?" Her eyes darted between them, more fear than anger now. "And where were you guys at three in the morning? Exterminating?" Tears threatened to spill over.
Dean closed his eyes, too many thoughts running through his mind. "Okay. Alright. We have to tell you something. We are not exterminators. We hunt things, not deer and crap like that. We hunt monsters. Ghosts, demons, vampires… everything. It's all real. And we save people from all that. That's our job. That's where we were tonight, and that's how we found you. You were in a vamps' nest and we busted it and found you."
Ashton's was fully crying now, silent tears spilling over in full. "Okay you know what? I get it. I'm not an idiot, Dean. Okay? But if you didn't want me, you should have left me at the hospital for some foster family. You should have walked out of my life and never made yourself known to me."
Sam jumped in. "Ashton he's not lying, there are journals on all of this. Our father-"
"So I come from a family of insanity? Even better." Ashton swiped at her tears. "Whatever. I'll call 911 in the morning and say you guys left me here. They'll take me to a foster care and we can pretend this never happened, okay?" She looked tired, disappointed. Her eyelashes were muddied down with tears. "Please, just, can you be gone before I get up?" She rolled onto her side, facing the wall. She tried to stay awake, fighting the exhaustion that wieghed on her. She felt like kicking herself- how could she be so stupid to believe that this would actually work out? Silent tears continued to pour down her cheeks until she lost her fight and sleep overcame her.
Dean's head rested in his hands, elbows propped on his knees. Sam turned from Ashton to him, desperation in his voice. "C'mon Dean, call Cas. Take her to the bunker, something. I mean-"
A quiet "no" cut him off. Circles darkened Dean's eyes, wrinkles forming under his tired eyes. "I can't do that Sammy." Tiredness seeped from him- his voice, his slow movements, his eyes.
"What are you talking about, Dean?"
"No, Sam. This is our world. She shouldn't have to live in it. If it means losing her I'll lose her," he said.
"Dean, that's not fair. That's not right, she's supposed to be with us. We're her family!" Sam protested.
"No!" Dean scoffed under his breath. "I love her too much to put her through the hell we go through. We'll leave in an hour or so. I need some sleep first."
Dean slammed the trunk of the Impala before heading back into the room. Sam was already in the car; Dean had asked to say goodbye alone. Quietly he walked to the bed. Ashton ws still asleep, dried tears leaving trails down her cheeks. Her forehead crinkled between her eyebrows and her lips were set in a frown.
He bent down to be level with the bed. "Hey sweetheart. Look, you're right. I really do love you, and I mean desperately love you, but I was selfish. I wanted to be around you, get to know you… I wanted you. And I didn't want you to be alone. But I think…" He paused, setting his jaw. "I think being alone is better than being stuck with your screw-up dad. So I'm sorry. You're right. I should've just left you at the hospital and walked away and never let you get your hopes up about me, Sam, any of this. Please, just forget what I said last night. Please don't ever think about it again. Just walk away and pretend these past few days never happened. Have a good life, kiddo." He kissed her forehead and walked away.