Well, I know you all want action, and I promise, it's coming, just not in this chapter. You have to have a few filler chapters to set the basis for something big, you know?
On the bright side, I have pretty much completed the website I was making for this page. It's a bit rough, but not that bad, considering the small amount of time I have to work on it. The link is on my bio, so take a look! A word of warning, it comes up all messed up and wonky when you look at it on a phone. It's fine, I guess, but I'm a perfectionist.
~Christianne
PS~ Still accepting faceclaims!
Nikki POV
I had my head resting on my arm, which was resting on the table. My other had was turning over a piece of blue glass.
I'd waited at Cold Oak until the fire was done burning and dug around for anything that made it. The piece from the left hand corner had survived, after a little polishing on my shirt, it was shiny and clear again.
Then, I drove for a full day to get to San Francisco, where Sam and Dean had gotten a case. When I got there, Sam was gone, pretending to be a reporter or something, leaving me to sit with Dean as he cleaned various guns.
"What is that?" Dean asked me.
"Glass." I said simply, carefully setting it on the table. I sat up in my chair, wrinkling my nose as the smell of smoke filled my nose after I ran my fingers through my hair a few times. "I'm gonna take a shower." I said, getting up, grabbing some clothes from my bag and shutting the door.
One thing I liked about Dean; he could tell if I needed to be left alone.
It took me almost 20 minutes to get the smoky smell out of my hair. I got out of the now cold water, wrapped a towel around my torso and started to rake my fingers through my curls to work out the knots and tangles. As I pulled my fingers through my wet curls, I slowly started to slow my hands and lean towards the mirror.
I blinked a few times before opening my eyes wide to really see the color of my irises.
"Ah damn." I said under my breath, realizing my eyes were more green than hazel now. I leaned back and quickly braided my hair and pulled on clean panties and jeans. As I was clasping my bra behind my back, I looked around the bathroom for the clean shirt I thought I brought in here. "Ah damn." I hissed, hitting my head on the wall lightly. I groaned and took a deep breath before opening the door a crack.
"Dean? Still just you out there?" I asked.
"Yeah." Dean said simply.
"Ok. Good. Turn around." I told him.
There was silence. "Why?" he asked, sounding a little childish.
"Just do it!" I snapped.
I heard some laughing. "You forgot pants, didn't you?" he laughed.
"No!" I said defensively.
"Ok, then you forgot a shirt?" He guessed, still laughing.
"Will you just shut up and turn around?" I half yelled at Dean through the door.
"Ah, c'mon Nik! I've seen you topless before!" Dean laughed. I opened the door just enough for my head to poke out.
"When?" I asked incredulously.
"In Wisconsin, stripped right behind my car." He said, a shit eating grin on his face.
"Yeah, well, I'd been detained and interrogated and was just done. Now, I'm tired and cold. Turn around." I snapped again.
"Sorry Nik. Nothing I haven't seen, and probably won't see again." Dean said as he put a now clean shotgun on the floor. He caught my eye and winked. I rolled my eyes, but opened the door and walked to my duffle bag.
"You're an ass." I informed him as I started to go through my bag for a shirt. I just heard him chuckle. When I finally found a shirt, I let out a groan when I had to pull it right-side-out.
I was still struggling with the sleeves when the motel door opened. I just looked up, frustrated with my shirt. "Damnit." I huffed, throwing it back into my bag with more force than necessary.
"What's with you?" Dean finally asked as I threw a second shirt back into my duffle bag.
"Nothing." I snapped.
"You're acting like someone just pissed in your coffee." Dean pointed out.
"Oh, right, and you never act like that." I said sarcastically. Thankfully, Sam came back, saving me from having to talk to Dean more, but I still didn't have a shirt on, so there were a few awkward seconds of Sam standing at the door, a surprised, stunned look on his face. I just kept looking for a shirt; ignoring him.
"Uh..." Sam said, stammered, quickly looking away.
I breathed a sigh of relief when I finally found a shirt. I pulled the long sleeved thermal over my head and fell onto the bed next to Dean.
"This lawyer guy the first heart-free corpse in town?" Dean finally asked, breaking the awkward silence.
"First man." Sam said, getting a beer from the fridge. "Over the past year, several women have gone missing. Dead bodies washed up later in the bay, too deteriorated to draw firm conclusions." Sam pulled a chair over to us, straddling it so he was leaning on the back.
"But no hearts?" I asked, it was muffled by the bed.
"Huh?" Sam asked, not understanding my muffling.
Dean looked down at me, and grabbed the top of my braid at the back of my head, pulling my face out of the blankets. "But no hearts?" I repeated.
"No hearts." Sam confirmed, trying to hold in a smile at the citation. I let out a small 'Oof!' when Dean let my face fall back into the matrass.
"They were all hookers working at Hunter's Point." Sam continued. I rolled on my side just in time to see Dean with that smile on his face, probably at the mention of hookers at 'Hunter's Point.'
"Cops are trying to keep things under wraps, but they're looking for a serial killer." Sam further explained.
"And the lunar cycle?" Dean asked.
"Mm-Hmm." Sam confirmed. "Yeah, month after month, all the murders happened in the week leading up to the full moon."
"That's this week." I said, sitting up.
"Hence the lawyer." Sam said, nodding a little.
"Awesome." Dean said, smiling as he got up.
"Dean, could you be a bigger geek about this?" Sam chuckled. I laughed with him in agreement.
"Hey, I'm sorry, but what about a human by day, a freak animal killing machine by moonlight don't you understand?" Dean asked us. I rolled my eyes, too tired to give a good, sarcastic comment. "Werewolves are badass."
He turned around from the bag he was going through, a box of silver bullets in his hands. "We haven't seen one since we were kids." Dean told me.
"Ok, Sparky. Then you know what?" Sam asked, leaning forward in the chair and putting his hands on to back. "After we kill it, we can go to Disneyland!" he finished. Normaly, that would knock me on my ass laughing, but I barely smiled.
"Know what the best part about it is? We already know how to bring these suckers down." He paused and held up a silver bullet. "One'a these bad boys right to the heart."
"So, what's our next move?" I asked.
"Talk to the girl who found the body." Sam said.
"I don't understand. I already gave my statement to you." The dark haired brunette, Madison, said.
"Well, we just need to verify a few things." Sam lied easily as he, Dean and I walked into Madison's house.
"This is my neighbor, Glenn." He introduced a man a few years older than her with dark hair and a beard. "Glenn, this is detective…?" she trailed off, looking back at and Dean.
"Landis." Dean answered. "And detective Dante."
"And you?" she asked, turning towards me.
"Just call me Nikki. Not a detective. Yet, anyways." I said, acting the part of the 'eager but slightly disgruntled and overworked newbie detective in training'.
"Well, guess I'll leave you to it." Glenn said, walking towards the door.
"Ok, and thanks for the casserole." Madison said, touching his shoulder as he left.
"Oh, how thoughtful." Dean said as he passed.
"Just call if you need anything." Glenn said, looking at me with a sidelong glance before he left. It was just a glance, but it made me shift my weight and look away.
"He's sweet. He came over to check on me." Madison said, a smile on her face. "Uh, have a seat." She said, gesturing towards her kitchen table. One chair had mail and other work stacked up on it, Sam had taken a chair, Madison the other, so I went for the last one. Dean caught my shoulder.
"Stand in the background, probie. Show your superiors some respect." He said, taking the chair. I glared at him as he sat down. Madison caught my eye and I laughed once, silently. 'Men' I mouthed, making her smile a little and roll her eyes.
"You must be pretty shaken up." Sam said. "You were Nate Mulligan's assistant, right?"
"For two years, yeah." Madison said, nodding.
"So you knew all about him." Dean stated.
"Probably more than he did." Madison sighed. "Nate was…He was nice."
"But…" I trailed doff for her, knowing that tone of voice.
She glanced at me. "But, you get a few scotches in him, and he started hitting on anyone in a five mile radius. You know the type." Sam and Dean chuckled, just rolled my eyes.
"Yeah. I do, actually." I sighed, looking at the back of Dean's head. Sam laughed a little more, and Dean turned around to give me a glare. I just lifted an eyebrow at him, he narrowed his gaze before turning back to the table.
"Did, uh, did he have any enemies?" Dean asked.
"What do you mean? Sure looked like an animal attack." Madison said, looking at Sam, confused.
"We're just covering all bases. You know, protocol and everything." I said calmly, shrugging in a 'What are you gonna do?' sorta way.
"Anyone that might have had a beef with him—A former client, an ex…" Dean picked back up. Madison noticeably stiffened.
"What?" Sam asked, picking up on her uneasiness.
"Well, this is embarrassing, but my ex-boyfriend, Kurt." Madison started to explain, but trailed off and looked down at her lap.
"Kurt have a last name?" Dean asked.
"Mueller." Madison mumbled, not really answering, and kind of starting to drift.
"Hey," Dean said, laughing a little. "You wanna talk about embarrassing ex-boyfriends, you should talk to this one." He said, jerking his head towards me.
"I have a gun." I reminded him in a sing-song voice. He just snorted and rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, so Nikki's ex-" he started again.
"And really good aim." I added lowly. After this, Madison was trying not to giggle, and Sam was out rightly laughing.
"So, Kurt…After we broke up, he went kind of nuts." Madison started. I guess my embarrassment was enough to get her to talk a little more. "He's…Well, he's kind of been stalking me. It got in his head that something was going on between Nate and I. He showed up at my office."
"What happened?" Sam asked.
"Kurt got into it with Nate. Threw a punch before security grabbed him. I was lucky to keep my job." Madison said, shaking her head.
"When was the last time you saw Kurt?" Dean asked.
"A few nights ago…Actually, the night Nate died." Madison realized. "We were all grabbing drinks at this bar, and Kurt showed up.
"And?" I asked.
"Nothing." Madison shrugged. "It was…like he was watching me. Then he was gone. To tell you the truth…He scares me."
…
"So, what do you think?" Dean asked as we left Madison's.
"Stalker ex-boyfriend." Sam started. "Hates the boss. And he was there that night."
"Think he's our dog-faced boy?" Dean asked, glancing at me.
"Well, it's a theory." Sam said, shrugging.
"What about you Nik? Got anything you wanna share with the class?" Dean asked, turning towards me.
I shrugged. "Wouldn't hurt to pay Kurt a visit…Something isn't sitting right with me."