Nikki POV
I walked down the stairs, back to the lobby. After a little wandering around I found the library. I smiled as I entered the large room full of old books.
"Where have you been all my life?" I asked, walking in, then spinning on a heel to walk backwards into the room.
"Don't let your boyfriend hear you say that." I heard the woman, I think her name was Susan, say as she walked in.
"Please," I scoffed. "If you gave me all of these, I'd leave Sam here." I joked, looking at the spines of the leather books. "Some of these predate the house." I pointed out, frowning as I thought, trying to remember facts about the paper I wrote.
"Wasn't there another house here before this one?" I asked, turning around.
"Yes, there was." Susan said, sounding as surprised as Sherwin did.
"I wrote a paper on this place for a collage course a few years ago." I told her, shrugging a little. "American History major."
"Oh, well, yes. There was another building." Susan said, going over to a few framed pictures on the wall. "It burned down in 1925." She said.
I followed her to the wall and looked at the grainy picture, dated 1920. It was a much older style, and had a group of people standing by the front door. "Who are they?" I asked, pointing to the people.
"The owners of the house. The Hart family." Susan told me.
"The Hart family?" I asked, turning to look at her in shock.
She looked at me oddly, but nodded. "Yeah, they owned the land since the late 1700s. Sold it when the place went up in smoke in the 20s to my family." I nodded along.
"You wouldn't happen to have any of the original Hart family documents around here would you?" I asked, getting another odd look. "I-I'm just a real history nerd." I said with a slightly nervous grin.
Susan chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, in the back." She said as she left.
"Thanks!" I called after her.
About 10 minutes into my looking through the books, I stopped dead.
I had a bad feeling. Like before Meg got the jump at me at Bobby's. I dropped the old books on the table with a roughness that made me want to wince, but I had to get to Sam and Dean.
I jogged up the stairs and met up with them as they were about to go back to the room. I put a hand on each of their backs and gave them each a hard shove into the room before shutting the door.
"What was that for?" Dean complained, while Sam just looked at me, concerned.
"Something's wrong." I said simply, starting to pace in the room.
"What do you mean something's wrong?" Sam asked me.
"I mean something's wrong! My Spidy-sences are tingling!" I added with a sarcastic edge as I glanced at Dean. "You guys find anything?" I asked.
"The chick that runs this place has a crap load of creepy ass dolls." Dean said with a shrug.
I rolled my eyes and looked more towards Sam. "Anything about the hoodoo?" I asked.
"No, not really." Sam said with a shrug.
"Well, you gotta look again. I'm doing my own digging in the library, but you-you guys just look again." I said, still pacing.
"We already talked to Susan and the kid." Dean said. "What? You want us to just go ask them the same stuff again?"
"Yes, if that's what you have to do. Something's wrong here!" I snapped at him.
"Nikki, we can't really do anything right now." Sam said calmly. "And you need to relax." He said, lightly pushing me into a chair.
"I can't relax!" I said, getting out of the chair to pace around again. "Something is gonna happen! Soon! Something bad! I just know it! And-And on top of that, I just found out that the friggin' Hart family owned this place way back when." I stopped and ranked my hands through the messy curls on top of my head.
I saw Sam and Dean looking at me with wide eyes, shocked. I shook my head.
"I need a drink." I muttered to myself, walking out of the hotel room and into the bar.
A few hours later, I sipping a rum and Coke, and was sitting in the library again, cross-legged in an old, high-backed chair with some bound newspapers and photos in my lap.
Any information on the Hart family was valuable to me; it was an insight to Jane. And I just wanted to know. But even with all the old books, I didn't really learn anything I didn't already know.
I only looked up from the book when I heard sirens outside.
Keeping my rum and Coke in one hand and the book in the other, I looked out the window. A coroner's van was out there with a police car.
I had to set my glass down when a pinching pain came in my temple. I rubbed it, muttering the healing incantation under my breath before I could think. The pain went away after that. Dean walked into the library.
"You should trust my Spidey senses." I told him, taking a drink of my rum and Coke. "Who was it?"
"Some corporate douche workin' for the people who bought the place. Maid found him hanging from the ceiling fan." Dean said, nodding his head out the door, signaling me to follow him.
I sighed and took another drink of my rum and Coke as we walked up to the room. I frowned a little when I saw the door open and the key still in the door. Dean went in first, grabbing the key.
"There's been another one. Some guy just hung himself in his room." Dean said, walking past Sam who was lazily sprawled out in a chair.
"Yeah. I saw." Sam said, his tone low, and frankly, just hearing it made me want to give him a hug. I set my book down and narrowed my eyes at Sam as Dean kept talking.
"We gotta figure this thing out fast." Dean said. "What did you find out about Granny?"
"You're bossy." Sam said randomly. I spun around from the desk to look at Sam.
"What?" Dean asked simply.
Sam shrugged a little, raising his hands up before they fell over the arms of his chair. "You're bossy." Sam repeated innocently. "And short." He added a second or so later, breaking out in a little chuckle.
"Are you drunk?" I asked, thinking it was the only obvious answer for all of this.
"Yeah. So?" Sam asked, acting somewhat like a bratty teenager. I rolled my eyes at him.
"Dude, what are you thinking? We're working a case." Dean reprimanded his brother.
Sam looked away from me and Dean. "That guy, who hung himself…I couldn't save him." He said a moment or two later.
"What are you talking about? You couldn't have done anything." Dean told his brother.
"That's an excuse, Dean." Sam said, looking almost tearful. "I mean, Nikki knew something was up...I should have found a way to save him. I should'a saved Ava too."
"You can't save everyone." I told him, leaning on the desk behind me, crossing my arms lousy over my chest.
"No, Nik you don't understand!" Sam said, slamming a fist on the side table. "The more people I save, the more I can change."
"Change what?" I asked him, almost challengingly.
"My destiny!" He said loudly, leaning towards me in his chair. "To change your destiny!" he added, looking at me with big, watery hazel-blue eyes that made my breath hitch.
"Alright, time for bed. C'mon Sasquatch." Dean said, grabbing Sam's shoulders and pulling him up
"I need you to watch out for me." Sam slurred as he tried to push away from Dean to stand on his own.
"I always do." Dean said as he lost his hold on Sam.
Sam ended up crashing into me, a hand on either side of my waist on the desk behind me. I stopped breathing and looked up at him wide eyes, waiting for him to move first.
"Watch out for Nikki." He said, speaking to Dean. Then he tilted his head to one side a little, leaning a little closer, making me suddenly hold my breath. "Your eyes are different." Sam said lowly. "They're more…more green than before." His lower lip jutted out the slightest his he furrowed his eyebrows and gave a little pout-like frown as he leaned closer still. I had my hands behind me on the desk, making myself lean back from him.
I couldn't lean back very far, my drink was on the desk, as was my backpack and herb bag. When I couldn't lean back anymore, Sam's chest was pressed flush against mine, his face literally inches from mine. When he breathed, alcohol-laced breath fanned my face.
"You have pretty eyes." Sam said in the same low voice. I doubt Dean heard. "I liked them btter when they were browner."
"Sam." I said slowly, gaining his attention. "Get off me…Please." I said in a less than steady voice. He seemed to pout a little, but took a stumbling step back.
"This way, genius." Dean said, grabbing the back of Sam's collar. "And yeah, I'll watch out for you and Nik."
"No no no no no. No, you have to watch out for me…alright?" Sam said. "And if I ever turn into something I'm not…You have to kill me."
I gasped a little, just a sharp inhale through my nose.
"Sam…" Dean started.
"Dean, dad told you to do it. You have to do it. And you have to watch out for Nikki." Sam insisted. That's when I realized before, when he told Dean to 'watch out' for me, he meant look out for me. And from what he just said, he meant from himself.
"Yeah, well, dad's an ass." Dean said harshly.
"I concur." I mumbled, still behind the brothers by the desk.
"He never should's told me that. You don't lay that crap on your kids." Dean finished.
"No, he was right to say it." Sam retorted. "Who knows what I might become? Even now, everyone around me dies. Everyone close to me dies!"
"Yeah, well I'm not dying, ok? Nik's not dying. And neither are you. C'mon, sit down." Dean said, grabbing the front of Sam's shirt and pushing him onto the creaky bed.
"No, no, Dean, you're really the only one who can do it. Promise." Sam asked, grabbing Dean's collar.
"Don't ask that of me." Dean said flatly.
"Dean, please. You have to promise me." Sam begged, looking up at Dean.
After a few seconds, Dean spoke. "I promise."
"Thanks." Sam said, nodding a little before he grabbed the sides of Dean's face in his hands. "Thank you."
"Alright," Dean muttered, pushing Sam onto the bed, then grabbing his ankles and tossing his longs legs onto the small, full sized bed. Sam wriggled around on the bed, eventually ending up on his stomach, his face buried in a pillow.
Dean made sure Sam wasn't gonna roll off the bed or something, before slowly looking over at me. I was still leaning over the desk, unable to make myself move. I did see the look in Dean's eye, and pushed off the desk quickly.
"Stop looking at me like that." I mumbled, sitting on the other bed. Dean just gave me an exasperated look before leaving.
I stayed on the bed, eventually getting up to get one of my books from the desk and paging through it. I looked up when Sam started to mumbled and squirm again, his face pushing deeper into the pillow. I got up and grabbed the blanket at the end of the bed and pulled it over his body. Sam turned so he was more on his side, and let out a very uncharacteristic sigh, grabbing the blanket and balling it up under his chin like a little kid.
After tossing my jacket, over shirt and belt on top of my duffle bag, I collapsed onto the other bed, curling under the covers and finally letting sleep overcome me.
Dean was takin' the floor tonight.