Night had already fallen when Dean finished drawing the symbols. The campfire was burning, and Alina felt reassured to be able to grill the wendigo if he only tried to approach her again. Haley and Ben were taking care of maintaining the fire, while Roy was still making fun of the hunters and their methods, receiving yet another sarcastic remark from Dean. Alina was sitting on a rock when the hunter approached her with a first aid kit he had found in one of the abandoned tents. "Come on Frenchy. You didn't let me clean it up but I'm pretty sure your mom'll kill me if it gets infected."
"I've had worse Dean. It's okay, I just…"
She didn't get to finish, he crouched in front of her and maintained her leg still as she was trying to stand up. "Keep moving and I'll tie up to that rock."
"I'd like to see you try."
"Sure you would."
She smiled and watched him as he took out the bandages from the kit and began to wrap it around the wound to protect it. "That's why hunters don't wear shorts Frenchy."
"You kidding? I'd rather get hurt than let a wendigo tear one of my precious jeans."
"I'd buy you a hundred jeans if it meant you not getting hurt."
"I don't see you yelling at Sam every time he gets a scratch."
"That's different."
"How come?"
"He'd already be too busy complaining about hurting himself. I wouldn't be able to say anything."
The bandages done, he looked up just at the right time to see the young woman laugh. "You're annoying. But thank you Winchester."
He nodded, and completely sat on the ground in front of her. After a short time, she thought about the conversation they had earlier, and realized that now was the good moment to apologize, so she took a deep breath, and spoke. "By the way, I'm sorry for getting mad at you. And that you've been blaming yourself all this time."
"No, you were right, Winchesters aren't good at emotions." He said the last words while sadly looking at his brother.
Sam was sitting alone, away from the group. Alina remembered his sudden outburst with Roy, and just wanted to go talk to him, and tell him it was normal to feel that way. She was angry all the time, and was normally good at hiding it, but people like Roy just made it hard sometimes.
Of course, being a Winchester wouldn't help either. She thought about their dad, and felt a knot forming in her throat. "You know, I did blame John for the first two years." She admitted, making Dean raise his head to her in silence. "I mean it's true, I needed to blame someone for what happened that day. And since I couldn't blame you, it felt natural to blame him. But then he started to write me letters."
"Wait…dad sent you letters? When? For how long?"
She kept herself from laughing at his genuine reaction. It was like telling a kid he had just missed Santa because he had fallen asleep on the couch while waiting for him.
It was cute in a Winchester kinda way. But she remembered pretty well having a similar reaction, when she received the message from John Winchester in her mailbox.
"He sent me five letters over the past four years. I was too mad at him to read the first one when I got it, but a year after that he sent me another one and I decided to read them. Surprisingly, he was apologizing, which made me realize that I wasn't really mad at him, because he couldn't have done anything to stop my dad from going on that hunt. That's every hunter's fate, we do what we do, knowing damn well that it could be our last time doing it."
Dean listened to her, lost in the flow of emotions in his head. His dad had actually took the time to write to someone? And to apologize?!
"He also told me a lot about Sam and college, specifically that he wasn't able to look after him anymore and that it pissed him off."
Dean stayed silent for a moment, growing impatient as the burning question finally escaped his lips. "Did he say anything…about me?"
Alina smiled. "Of course. A lot actually. That's why I wasn't too worried even if you wouldn't talk to me, he told me everything I needed to know about your life as a hunter. You know I don't understand how you could eat so much junk food and still have a body like that! I'd have to do workouts every morning and every night if I ate like you!"
Dean chuckled at her remark, and briefly looked away, thinking that she was actually a beautiful woman no matter what she ate.
"You'd still be my type." He joked, looking back at her with the seductive smirk she knew all too well.
"Yeah? Too bad you're not my type." She shrugged playfully.
"Shut up Frenchy. I know I am."
"I mean…" She pretended to really think about it. "Yeah the car's definitely a turn on."
He smiled. "You've always loved her, even when we were kids."
"And I'm glad she's with you now. Because Sammy…obviously I love the guy but he drove her once and instantly crashed it on the side of a house."
"Yeah tell me about it."
They both laughed, looking back at the young Winchester. Alina loved to spend time with Dean, but she couldn't watch her friend suffer like that any longer without doing anything. Her smile slowly dropped, and she turned to Dean. "Hey one of us should go talk to him."
He sighed, and stood back up. "I'll go. Stay here and get some rest."
She wanted to go with him, since Sam had always preferred to talk to her when they were kids. He knew she could never mock him like his brother would.
But they weren't kids anymore, Alina was well aware of that, yet she still needed to say something important to her friend. "Dean?" He turned around and didn't have to wait too long for the girl to talk again. "Just so you know, your dad was also really proud of you in the letters."
Dean didn't move for a few seconds. He couldn't believe the things she said, and yet, he just knew she wouldn't lie to him about something like that. So he simply nodded, smiled at her, and walked away to join his brother.
Alina watched them from afar, wondering what they could be talking about, then turned to look at Haley and her brother seating in front of the fire. Since they were dealing with a wendigo, their missing sibling could still be alive in some creepy cave or abandoned mine. She really hoped they would be able to save him and at least get this one little victory.
She took her mother's journal out of her jacket, and opened it on the first page for the third time since her disappearance. She had already tried to read it starting from the beginning, the end, upside down, jumping words... it was an ordinary bestiary. Every details about monsters and the different ways to hunt them had already been taught to her all her life. She feared to go crazy by rereading the inventory of the hunter's waking nightmares again and again, but couldn't stop. First, she had to find something useful that could help her get to her mother.
She was starting to read about the shapeshifters, when the wendigo suddenly shouted around them, mimicking the human voice of what Alina assumed to be his last victim. "Help me! Please!"
Dean stood up, readying his gun, and Alina ran towards Haley and Ben to grab a stick and plunge it into the campfire, burning it on one end. At least she knew that weapon would be useful.
"Help!"
Sam shined his flashlight to try and get a look at it, but the wendigo was too fast.
"He's trying to draw us out. Just stay cool, stay put." Dean ordered in a serious tone.
"Inside the magic circle?"
"Shut up Roy!" Alina snapped, still checking her surrounding.
"Help! Help me!" The voice changed into a threatening growl that gave Alina goosebumps. She was able to picture the wendigo's disgusting appearance in her mind, and didn't want to face it in the middle of the night.
Unfortunately, Roy was fast to point his gun at the sound. "Okay, that's no grizzly."
"Geez put the gun down!" Alina yelled again.
She then heard Haley's voice behind her, reassuring her young brother. "It's okay. You'll be all right, I promise." She guided him to the ground, and sat in front of him to shield him with her body, but shrieked when the monster rushed past them and growled.
Alina immediately crouched, and raised her free arm in front of them, ready to protect them from the thing.
"It's here." Sam said, on his guard like the rest of them.
Roy suddenly shot it, and when Alina was about to yell at him, he shot again, causing moans of pain that made him jump on the spot. "I hit it!"
And he quickly ran to go see his trophy.
"Roy, no! Roy!" Dean tried to stop him, before turning to Alina. "Stay with them. Don't move."
And then he and Sam were gone, chasing after the stupid man that Alina swore to kill if he was still alive. She could hear the two siblings behind her, breathing heavily with fear.
"It's okay I got you." She reassured them. "You're safe here."
She waited a couple of minutes that felt like an hour, before she finally saw the Winchesters coming back, alone. She immediately understood why, and knew that this would be a long sleepless night for everyone.
The next morning, Alina let Dean answer Haley's questions while she went to look for Sam. Fortunately, she didn't have to go very far to find him sitting against an old tree stump, John's journal in his hands. "Fancy meeting you here Sammy." She joked to grab his attention and stood in front of him.
Even if he seemed lost in his thoughts when the young woman spotted him from afar, he managed to smile slightly when his eyes met hers. "Long night?" She asked, already knowing the answer.
"Yeah. Didn't miss the job for sure."
Alina sadly smiled back and gave him a hand to help him get up. As soon as he was back on his feet, she wrapped her arms around him and locked him in a tight embrace. It took him less than five seconds to hug her back.
"I'm sorry Sammy. You know I would give anything for you to get that boring college life back."
She felt him chuckle against her, and smiled before pulling away and raising her right hand to softly cup his cheek. The more she was looking at him, the less she could see the sweet little boy that used to be her best friend. But it was okay, because she had changed too, and she was glad that their friendship was still here after all this time, and all the messed up things they had witnessed. "Remember when we were kids, you would always bring me chocolate from a vending machine whenever I was upset or hurt?"
Sam nodded.
"You better get me a beer after we kill that wendigo."
He laughed again, and shook his head as he put his arm on her shoulders and walked with her toward the campsite to join the other three. Haley stood up when she saw them coming back, probably waiting for instructions.
"So we've got half a chance in the daylight. And I for one want to kill this evil son of a bitch." Sam said.
"Well, hell, you know I'm in." Dean replied immediately.
They both turned to Alina, waiting for a response that came pretty quickly. "Oh you're definitely not doing this without me."
The three hunters then made sure to give all the informations they could to Haley and Ben, about what they were about to face. Basically what a wendigo was, where they would be able to find him, and by doing so, find their missing brother, and most importantly, how to kill it.
"We gotta torch the sucker." Dean proudly said, Molotov Cocktail in hand.
And so, the group was now walking through the woods, following the trees with claws marks and blood. Alina slowed down to match Haley's speed and make sure she was okay. "How are you feeling? I know it's a lot to learn in such a short time."
"Well I'd be lying if I said I was okay, because I'm freaking out. But I can't let Tommy down. I have to find him and bring him back home. My brothers…they're all I have."
"Yeah. For what it's worth, I think they're lucky to have you too."
She nodded, and gave her a thankful look. "What about you? Have any siblings?"
"No I'm an only child. But even if we're the same age I've always considered Sam like a little brother. We kinda grew up together, we would see each other on holidays since we were born."
"And Dean?"
Alina glanced at the boy leading the way, amused as she saw him trip over a rock, managing to keep his balance as he kept walking like it never happened.
"Dean is…he's more like this irritating friend that always knows how to really get on your nerves, but at the same time would do whatever it takes to protect you because he thinks he's some kind of stupid knight in a shining armor. You know what I mean?"
Haley nodded again, seeing perfectly well what she was talking about, and refraining herself from making a comment about this obvious relationship.
"Yeah they're both really different, but I love them like family. So I understand why you're doing this for your brother."
The girls smiled again, quickly stopping when they saw the brothers talking and looking at one of the bloody trees a little further away. "Everything okay?" Alina called them, getting an answer when she heard the wendigo growl, and trees rustle around them.
Haley pushed her brother behind her and walked with him under a tree. Alina was the first to see the blood dripping on her shirt, and jumped to push her out of the way, as Roy's corpse landed a second later at the exact same place. Sam and Dean ran to the two women laying on the ground, Sam helping Haley, and Dean grabbing Alina's hand to get her up.
"I'm fine." She said. "Roy?"
Dean quickly examined the dead body. "His neck's broke."
They heard more growls, and Dean gestured to them to leave now. "Okay, run, run, run, run, go, go, go!"
They all started to run across the woods. Alina saw from the corner of her eye when Sam stopped to hurry back and help Ben that had fallen behind them. She stopped too and looked at them. "Come on guys! Let's go!"
They were fast to get to her level, when they heard a scream that made Alina hold her breath for a moment. Haley. She ran with the boys towards the scream, but only found a broken bottle on the ground, that used to be Dean's Molotov Cocktail.
The young woman felt like her heart was about to completely stop beating, realizing that the wendigo had them.
"Dean!" Sam desperately shouted.
No response, but Alina couldn't let the tears fall. "Dean!" She called again.
"Fuck!" She snapped, running a hand throughout her hair in despair. It didn't took her too long however, to get her act together and look at the boys. "Come on we gotta find them."
"Our only weapon's gone." Sam pointed out.
"I don't care! If I have to get that thing's heart out of its chest using my bare hands, I'll do it! But I'm not letting it use Dean as some emergency food! So come on!"
She then left without making sure that Sam and Ben were following her. She walked straight ahead, hearing Ben's voice after a short while. "If it keeps its victims alive, why would it kill Roy?"
"Honestly?" Sam answered since Alina was too focused on the road to talk. "I think because Roy shot at it, pissed it off."
"We warned him." Alina groaned in frustration. "People like him, they just won't listen to us and stupidly die."
Sam kept himself from trying to calm her down. He knew she had witnessed a lot of deaths, just because people would think she was crazy while she was actually trying to save them, just like Roy. He knew she hated to see someone die on her watch.
"They went this way." Ben stopped them.
Alina turned around and ran to the boy who handed over an M&M he had found on the ground. The two hunters watched the trail of M&Ms with a smile.
"It's better than breadcrumbs." Sam joked. "But I thought I took the bag away from you guys."
"I gave him mine." Alina sighed in relieve. "I'll never complain about sharing food with him, ever again."
Sam smiled and the three of them followed the trail. They finally arrived in front of a mine entrance with a sign that said : WARNING! DANGER! DO NOT ENTER EXTREMELY TOXIC MATERIAL.
"As if…" Alina shrugged and they all went inside.
Sam and Alina shined their flashlights, but quickly shut them off and pulled Ben against a wall when they heard the familiar growling. Sam covered Ben's mouth to keep him quiet when the wendigo came close to them, before taking a different tunnel at the crossing. Alina was holding her breath the whole time, so she softly let out a sigh and took a look at the tunnels.
They kept walking, until the floorboards suddenly creaked, making them fall through the floor and land in a pile of bones. Alina and Sam grabbed Ben's shoulders when he leaped backward after spotting another pile of skulls nearby.
"Hey, it's okay, it's okay." Sam reassured him.
"Don't worry, we're here." Alina continued with a smile, before raising her head and feeling a wave of relief coursing through her body when she saw Dean and Haley, hanging from the ceiling by their wrists.
"Dean!" She jumped up and ran to grab his face in both her hands to look at him closely. "Dean wake up!"
Sam came right next to her to look at his brother with the same concerned eyes. "Dean!"
Alina gently caressed his cheeks to try and wake him up. "Come on Dean! Don't make me punch you!"
Finally, Dean's eyes opened, and found hers almost immediately. "You're supposed…" He winced but kept talking through the pain. "…To kiss the sleeping beauty."
Alina and Sam scoffed, and she pulled her dagger out to cut him down, while Sam was helping Ben with Haley. Alina felt Dean's heavy body fall on her shoulders, but did her best to help him get to the floor and sit down against the wall. She apologized when he let out a groan of pain, and sat down next to him. "You okay?"
"Yeah." He grimaced. "But we're gonna need more Band-Aid."
"I can see that." She joked with him. "Looks like you're the damsel in distress now."
"Yeah…You know I still feel kinda sleepy, so where's my kiss?"
She couldn't believe that even in that physical state, he was still able to give her a flirtatious smile and a wink. Her smile just had to get wider at the sight. "If you want me to kiss you Winchester, you'll have to take a shower first."
He immediately winced at the pain, and Alina regretted making him laugh. So she apologized again and put her hand on his cheek to calm him down. Sam had just finished helping Haley when he joined them.
"Hey, you sure you're all right?" He asked Dean who got his serious face back.
"Yeah. Yep. Where is he?"
"He's gone for now."
They were interrupted by Haley when she started crying. "Tommy…"
They all looked in the same direction as her and spotted a young man's body, also hanging from the ceiling. Haley stood in front of him to touch his cheek, but jumped back in surprise when his head snapped up. "Cut him down!" She told Sam who quickly went to help them.
Alina was relieved that the boy was still alive. They hadn't done all this for nothing, even if they now had to manage to get out of this sinister place without crossing the wendigo's path.
"Check it out." Dean said to her and Sam, showing them the pile of stollen supplies next to them.
"Flare guns." Sam said with a smile. "Those'll work."
The hunters each took one, Dean and Alina twirling them proudly in their hands.
"I love fireworks in the middle of the day." Alina announced before they all got up and started to head down a tunnel. The brothers had taken the lead, and Alina was standing right behind Haley, Ben, and a limping Tom, with her own gun.
Unfortunately, the growls made them stop again.
"Looks like someone's home for supper." Dean said.
"We'll never outrun it." Haley pointed out.
Alina joined the brothers in front of the group, not liking what she soon recognized in Dean's eyes. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Yeah, I think so." Sam answered.
"Absolutely not!" Alina protested. "I didn't come all the way here to rescue your ass so you could go alone on a suicidal mission!"
Dean looked at her for a short moment, hesitating, before turning back to Haley and her brothers. "All right, listen to me. Stay with Sam. He's gonna get you out of here."
"What are you gonna do?"
Dean simply winked, then stared at Alina impatiently. "Come on, move before I change my mind."
She nodded and followed him while he was already screaming to make a diversion.
"Chow time, you freaky bastard! Yeah, that's right, bring it on, baby, I taste good!"
"Yeah?! Ever had any French food?! I'm pretty sure I taste way better than him!"
"You wish…"
"Do you really wanna argue about that now princess?"
"You're always so funny to piss off, Frenchy." He then shouted again to the wendigo. "Hey, you want some white meat, bitch! I'm right here!"
She laughed and kept walking with him for a few more seconds, when they suddenly heard Sam shooting behind them, and shared the same look as they ran towards the hunter. "Come on, hurry, hurry, hurry." They heard him yell at the siblings.
Alina and Dean were able to easily follow his voice throughout the tunnels, and found him at the end of one of them, standing in front of the three siblings to hide them from the monster that was now approaching them. Alina felt repulsed to see the monster's ugly body move slowly, as if it was taking its time to feed of their fear, but she was glad it didn't notice the two hunters when they arrived behind it, and shouted in chorus. "Hey!"
The second it turned around, they both shot. Dean in the stomach, and Alina in the head, causing the monster to instantly go up in flames. Its screams of agony made Alina wanna throw up, but they all waited, watched it fall to the ground, and die.
"Not bad, huh?" Dean asked, making them all smile.
"It kinda stinks though." Alina pointed out. Then she realized something else. "Hey you guys know how to get out of here, right?"
She didn't get any answer, which was actually a bad one. She sighed and grabbed Dean's arm to put it on her shoulders and help the injured man. The simple gesture made him smile because he thought he'd done a good job hiding his pain, then laugh. "Getting all physical now, aren't we Frenchy?"
"Yeah Winchester. I'm totally horny for the smell of dead monster's burning flesh."
They smiled at each other, mostly relieved to be able to joke about the situation now that it was over.
LATER
It was dark outside when Alina watched Tom, the missing brother, being load up in an ambulance. Sam was standing behind Ben while he was talking to police officers about the 'giant grizzly' that attacked them. The girl jumped off the ambulance once the paramedic was done with her, and went to join Dean and Haley, both already patched up. She heard Haley complain in a smile. "Must you cheapen the moment?"
"Yeah!"
Alina rolled her eyes and punched him in the arm, making him slightly wince in pain and lose his charming expression. "Told you they were rookies." She echoed what she'd told Haley just before they began their long journey together.
The girl laughed, looking between the two of them in amusement. Dean was rubbing his arm when a paramedic came up to Haley and asked her if she was riding with her brother, before heading back to the ambulance. She turned to Ben, gesturing that it was time to go. And right after that, she approached Dean to kiss him on the cheek.
The hunter was quite proud of himself, until she pulled Alina into a tight embrace. "Thank you for everything. I hope you find your parents."
"Take care of your brothers." Alina replied as they separated.
Haley then headed for the ambulance with Ben, thanking Sam on her way there.
Alina and Dean were already sitting on the hood of the Impala when Sam came next to them.
"Man, I hate camping." Dean said.
"Me too."
"Me three."
They watched the ambulance drive away.
"Sam, you know we're gonna find dad, right?"
"Yeah, I know. And we'll find Alina's mom too."
"Thanks Sammy." She was relieved to see him at least a little back to his old hopeful self.
"But in the meantime? I'm driving."
Alina was shocked to see Dean toss the keys of his precious car to his brother. "Wait…how did this happen? Did I miss something?"
They looked at her, amused. She was sleeping in the back of the car when they had this conversation a few days ago, and was definitely confused to see Sam in the driver's seat when she got in the car. "This is definitely scarier then a wendigo."
"Don't make me regret this, Frenchy."
"Yeah Alina." Sam told her, looking at her in the rear view mirror. "Didn't you say you wanted to have a beer?"
Alina's eyes lit up with joy at the sentence. "Sam, I love you so much right now."
"Freak." Dean whispered loud enough to be heard.
"Bitch." She whispered back as Sam was starting the engine, rolling his eyes at their childish exchange.
BONUS SCENE
The boys watched Alina finish her third beer of the evening in one go, then put the empty bottle back on the table as if nothing had happened. She noticed it, and gave them a confused look. "What?"
"Maybe you should slow down." Dean said in a concerned tone.
"I used to work in a bar, remember? I think I can handle a couple of beers without passing out."
Sam smiled softly, but Alina could easily see the sadness he was trying to hide behind this fake happiness. Dean had seen it too, but didn't want to point it out when they were finally having a good time together. He shared a knowing look with the young woman, who decided to do something about it anyway.
She remembered how she used to cheer him up when they were kids. She would sacrifice herself by doing something awfully embarrassing just to make him laugh. And after a quick look of her surrounding, she decided that the band on the little stage behind them would be able to help her achieve her goal.
So she waited for the song they were playing to end, and instantly jumped off her seat, surprising the boys.
"What are you doing?" Sam asked. But she was already running to the stage and said something to the band before the lead singer gave her a hand so she could climb up with them.
Dean immediately understood what she was doing, and why she was doing it, when he saw her grab the mic and whisper something in the singer's ear. "Oh boy…"
"Tell me she's not gonna do what I think she's gonna do." Sam begged his brother.
"Yeah she's definitely doing that." He answered, taking another sip of his beer to hide his big grin.
Soon enough, the first notes of electric guitar were heard, then Alina began to dance to the rhythm of the drums, letting her brown hair fall on her shoulders so she could shake them on the familiar AC/DC tune.
They had stopped at a motel just before going to the bar, to change their dirty clothes, and the young woman was now wearing jeans that hid her injured leg, and a leather jacket that she took off, revealing the black lace bustier that made Dean almost chock on his beer as soon as he saw it.
"What the hell is she wearing?!" Dean asked between two coughs.
But he didn't get any response as the girl was starting to sing 'You Shook Me All Night Long', in a surprisingly beautiful voice. "She was a fast machine, she kept her motor clean! She was the best damn woman that I've ever seen!"
The brothers were impressed by her voice and confidence, but also by the way she had grabbed everyone's attention in the bar. Many clients were now looking at the singing and dancing girl. "Cause the walls start shaking, the Earth was quaking! My mind was aching, and we were making it and you!"
"Shook me all night long!" The band sang in chorus with her.
"She's actually good!" Sam laughed at his friend, who just kept jumping as she saw a real smile on his face from afar.
Dean couldn't believe his eyes. The shy girl who would always run towards the danger, but hide behind him when it came to social interaction with other human beings, was now singing a song about sex, women, and cars, in front of a crowd, wearing a revealing outfit, and dancing like she couldn't care less about everyone else. The atmosphere in the bar had actually changed for the better as the clients were now all singing, and Sam was actually laughing. He wasn't just pretending to be happy like he had for the past few days.
Dean felt mesmerized by what Alina had accomplished with a single song, and quickly joined the crowd, shouting at the girl, raising his beer, and singing along with her.
His friend had definitely changed over the years, and the more he was getting to know her all over again, the more he was glad to have her on the road with them.
The bonus is actually one of the first ideas I had for this fanfiction, so I was really scared that the final result would be disappointing, but I like it! It's the perfect description of Alina's old craziness, her seductive new personality, and her unchanging love for the Winchesters. And of course, I just love writing the little dialogues between Dean and Alina!