The coffee was bad, and the seats too narrow. Alina was sitting between the Winchesters, a cup of bitter coffee in her hand, praying that this little meeting would soon come to an end. Because she was pretty sure she was about to suffocate.
She usually loved hearing about Sam's knowledge of symbols, but she was more than relieved when Dean interrupted him to get straight to the point.
"Here's the deal, ladies. The way Troy disappeared, something's not right. So if you've heard anything..."
The girls both shared the same look.
"What is it?" Dean and Alina asked at the same time.
"Well, it's just... I mean, with all these guys going missing, people talk."
"What do they talk about?" The three of them spoke in chorus, to focused on the girl's story to notice it.
"It's kind of this local legend. This one girl? She got murdered out on Centennial, like decades ago. Well, supposedly she's still out there. She hitchhikes, and whoever picks her up? Well, they disappear forever."
The three hunters finally made eye contact, concluding that they had the information they needed.
And so their next stop had to be the library, where they all sat in front of a computer to find out more about the hitchhiking ghost. Alina and Sam, waited impatiently as Dean got zero results after typing "Female Murder Hitchhiking". He then replaced "Hitchhiking" with "Centennial Highway", but ended up with the same result.
"Let me try." Sam said, his hand reaching for the keyboard, and getting immediately smacked by Dean's.
"I got it."
Alina already knew what was about to happen before Sam shoved Dean's chair out of the way and took his place.
"Dude!" Dean complained, rolling back to them, and ready to hit Sam back, but Alina smacked his hand before he could even reach his brother.
"Really? You two are such control freaks."
"You're the freak." Alina replied.
"No you are!"
"You are!"
"You're the freak!"
"Guys?!" Sam interrupted them, making them realize that everyone in the library were looking in their direction with judgmental eyes.
"Freaks." Dean and Alina mumbled together, sharing an amused look.
"So angry spirits are born out of violent death, right?" Sam said still focused on the research. "Well maybe it's not murder."
And he was right, because as soon as he replaced "Murder" with "Suicide", an article about a certain Constance Welch appeared on the screen. They discovered her story, how she had thrown herself from a bridge after killing her children by leaving them alone for several minutes in the bathtub, then stopped on the photos. One of her husband Joseph Welch, another of the Sylvania Bridge.
"The bridge look familiar to you?" Dean asked his brother.
When they arrived at the bridge, Dean and Sam stayed on top of it while Alina went down to the river to inspect the surroundings. They had only been there for a few minutes, when Alina heard the echoes of the argument that broke out between the brothers about the youngest's life choices. She was relieved not to be with them.
She was happy for Sam, but couldn't be in conflict with Dean since she was obviously going to spend the rest of the trip alone with him. She therefore continued her investigation, until she no longer heard the voices of the boys on the bridge. She didn't like to hear them fight, but she hated not being able to hear them anymore.
"Boys?!" She yelled.
No response. But then she saw a white figure falling from the other side of the bridge, right into the water.
Without thinking, she began to run, coming face to face with Constance before she could even reach the place of impact. The woman dressed in a long white dress watched her for a moment without moving, then raised her hand to gently caress Alina's face with sadness.
"I can never go home." She told her just like in John's message.
"Why can't you?"
But Alina didn't get an answer, since the rumble of the Impala engine on the bridge grabbed her attention just long enough for Constance to disappear from her vision. She didn't care. She was too worried to care.
"Boys?!"
This time, her body froze completely when she saw the two brothers throw themselves over the railing. Sam managed to caught himself on the edge at the last moment, but Alina had to watch Dean fall down, and quickly became crazy with concern not to see him reappear.
"Dean?!" She screamed, removing her jacket to prepare to dive and search for him.
"Dean?!" She shouted again, finally getting an answer.
"What?!"
Her legs began to run instinctively in the direction of his voice, finally seeing him crawl out of the water and leaning down in the mud, exhausted.
"Hey, are you okay?!" She heard Sam asking from above.
"I'm super!"
Alina let out a sigh that she didn't even know she was holding, walking slowly towards Dean while Sam was laughing and climbing back in safety.
She crouched next to him, with a mocking smile on her lips. "Damn Winchester, look at what you did to your pretty face."
Still panting, he simply raised his arm to ask for Alina's help, but she hesitated.
"You're not gonna pull me in the mud, are you?"
"Seriously?" No answer. "I won't!"
After one or two more seconds, Alina grabbed Dean's outstretched hand, making sure to keep her balance just in case, and helped him get up. She then shook her now dirty hand with disgust. "That's gross."
"Yeah." Dean replied as he approached her, and before she could react, put his hands on the cheeks of the motionless young woman, giving her the Dean Winchester flirtatious grin. "Thanks Frenchy."
"You didn't just do that."
"I did." And with a finale wink, he was gone, making his way back to the bridge.
"You didn't!" She repeated angrily.
"I did!"
" Enfoiré !" (Asshole!)
Back on the bridge, Dean's first reflex was to check the condition of his car, which Constance had used to try to kill them.
"Your car all right?" Sam asked him.
"Yeah, whatever she did to it, seems all right now. That Constance chick, what a bitch!"
"Well, she doesn't want us digging around, that's for sure."
"She seemed pretty calm to me." Alina informed them, making the boys raise their heads to look at her.
"You saw her?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, right before she did the voodoo thing with the Impala. She just appeared in front of me, caressed my face and said she could never go home. At least we know she doesn't wanna kill women."
"Hear that Sammy? You should be safe now."
Sam rolled his eyes at his brother's comment, which made Alina chuckle just loud enough that Dean could hear it and smile.
"So where's the job go from here, genius?" Sam resumed, leaning on the hood of the car next to Dean. But the only response he got was Dean throwing his arms in the air, before flicking mud off his hand.
"You smell like a toilet." Sam said after sniffing his brother.
"Look like one too." Alina added, still angry at him even though she had been able to get most of the mud off her face.
They quickly found a motel where Dean could clean up, but when the man at the reception read the name on the credit card, he informed them of the presence of a certain Burt Aframian, aka John Winchester, who had already bought out a room for a whole month.
They made their way into the room after Sam had picked the lock, finding the walls covered in photos, notes, maps and articles linked to Constance's case.
The salt and cats-eye shells made them understand that something was worrying him, and the burger half eaten in a corner clearly indicated that he had left the place for a few days already.
Dean observed the wall covered with informations about Constance's victims, while Sam inspected the papers taped to the other wall. Alina searched among the books scattered on the desk, looking for the slightest sign that her mother had been there.
"Dad figured it out." Sam grabbed their attention. "He found the same article we did. Constance Welch. She's a woman in white."
"You sly dogs." Dean said while looking at the photos of the victims.
"Now we know why she didn't hurt me back at the bridge."
"All right, so if we're dealing with a woman in white, dad would have found the corpse and destroyed it."
"She might have another weakness."
"I'm with Sam on this one, she has a weird obsession about not being able to go home."
"Well, dad would want to make sure. He'd dig her up. Does it say where she's buried?"
"No, not that I can tell. If I were dad, though, I'd go ask her husband. If he's still alive."
"That son of a bitch." Alina snapped, surprising the brothers who looked at her in shock. "What?! That cheating bastard! If he's still alive I should hunt is ass down to his grave!"
"Okay easy there!" Dean tried to calm her down by putting his hands on her shoulder. "We're hunting the ghost, not the husband. All right? Why don't you and Sam, uh, see if you can find an address, I'm gonna get cleaned up."
He quickly pinched her cheek, reminding himself to ask her later about that sudden outburst, and if it had anything to do with that Charlie guy. He couldn't take the risk to mention him now and get his ass hunted to a grave. So he started to walk away, but Sam stopped him.
"Hey, Dean? What I said earlier, about Mom and Dad, I'm sorry."
It was Dean's turn to stop him by holding up a hand. "No chick-flick moments."
Sam laughed and nodded. "All right. Jerk."
"Bitch."
"Idiots."
Sam laughed again, as Dean disappeared into the bathroom, leaving the two friends alone. The boy carefully turned to Alina who was already looking through the mess to try and find the address they needed. He hesitated for a moment to ask her if she was okay, but then noticed something that made his smile disappear. Stuck into the mirror frame on the other side of the room, was a photo of John sitting on the hood of the Impala, next to Dean wearing a baseball cap, Sam on his lap, and Alina at the front pulling her tongue out. Sam remembered that Alina's dad was the one who took that photo, and smiled sadly, taking it in his hand.
Later, when Dean finally came out of the bathroom to grab his jacket and put it on, Alina was silently reading her mom's journal while Sam was listening to a voicemail message from Jessica.
"Hey I'm starving." Dean said, only getting a reaction from Alina as she raised her head with interest. He smiled, and turned to Sam. "We're gonna grab a little something to eat in that diner down the street. You want anything?"
"No."
"Aframian's buying."
Sam simply shook his head this time.
"Come on Dean let's go." Alina said, already at the door. "Let's give Romeo some privacy."
She winked at Sam, and opened the door, waiting for Dean to walk out with her and shut the door behind them.
"So you wanna talk about what happened earlier?" Dean asked almost immediately, still in front of the door.
"What happened?" She said, knowing exactly what he was talking about.
"You know the 'hunting cheaters down to their graves' thing. Is this about the Charlie you don't wanna mention?"
"It's not." She tried to walk away, but he grabbed her arm and easily pulled her back in front of him.
"Come on Alina! It's me! You can tell me anything!"
"Not anything, obviously." She hesitated. She didn't want to talk about Charlie, but she also knew that Dean had no intention of letting go, unless she gave him a little something. So she shrugged, annoyed. "Fine. Charlie's my ex. Happy? 'Cause I'm still hungry."
"Yeah, I'd already figured out the ex part, you have to give me something else. Anything! Like...how long were you guys together before he..."
"Nobody cheated on me Dean!" She snapped, more and more annoyed by the conversation. "The cheater was my friend Lucie's boyfriend. She's like the sweetest girl ever, and that son of a bitch literally tried to assault me the night of her birthday party. So after I warned him for the third time to get his disgusting hands off me, I took a knife and I stabbed him in his butt cheek."
Dean eyes opened wide at the last statement. "You what?"
"I stabbed him in his butt cheek. I didn't hit any artery so he's still alive, but my friend dumped him after I told her everything, and he never even dared looking at me again. So it's a happy ending, right?"
Dean wanted to laugh so bad, but he refrained himself from doing so and simply smiled at her, impressed and proud of the way she had handled the situation. "That's definitely a happy ending, Frenchy."
She smiled back at him. "Great. 'Cause now I'm starving Winchester." And she started to walk away, Dean still amazed and watching her from behind for a short moment. She had became one hell of a woman. But when he finally got back to his right state of mind and caught up with her, they almost bumped into each other. She had stopped in the middle of the street, and was now facing him.
"Cops, 3 o'clock." She said.
And when Dean looked to his right, he immediately spotted the police car, where the motel clerk was talking to the officers, before pointing at the two hunters. Dean turned away to pull out his cell phone, not waiting too long before he heard his brother's voice in the device.
"What?"
"Dude, five-oh, take off."
"What about you guys?"
"Uh, they kinda spotted us. Go find dad."
He hung up as the deputies approached the two friends innocently smiling at them.
"Problem, officers?" Dean asked.
"Where's your partner?"
"Partner? What...what partner? "
The man didn't buy his lie, glancing over his shoulder, gesturing to the other officer to go check the motel room, which he did, leaving his partner with Alina and Dean.
"And who's she?" The deputy asked, looking at Alina.
"What? Her? She's..."
"Excusez-moi monsieur, qu'est-ce qu'il se passe ?" (Excuse me sir, what is going on?). Alina said with her most convincing scared and innocent face. "Est-ce qu'il y a un problème ?" (Is there a problem?).
"The motel clerk already told us you were with them when you tried to get a room. So I know you can speak english perfectly miss."
"Damnit!" She shouted disappointed. "But how was it? I mean I would've been able to convince you without that motel clerk jerk, right?"
Dean was the one to answer her question with a grin. "You almost convinced me Sweetheart."
"Really?! Thanks I've been practicing a lot you know!"
"I can see that."
The deputy cleared his throat, glancing at the two with impatience. "So. Fake US Marshal. Fake credit cards. You got anything that's real?"
Alina tried to hold her laugh, but failed when as expected, Dean said the two words he just had to say "My boobs."
The deputy was fast to arrest them and bring them to the police station where they were put under surveillance inside the sheriff's office for a few hours, during which Alina had fallen asleep on Dean's shoulder. The boy was wondering how she could sleep so well in a situation like that, when the door opened, and the Sheriff entered the room with a box that he put on the table, waking Alina up with the sudden noise.
"So you two want to give us your real names?"
"I told you, it's Nugent. Ted Nugent." Dean said with a proud childish expression on his face.
"And I'm Ann Wilson." Alina also repeated in a fake irritated tone.
"I'm not sure you realize just how much trouble you're in here."
"We talkin', like, misdemeanor kind of trouble or, uh, squeal like a pig trouble?"
"Come on Ted be serious." Alina suddenly told him. "Sheriff he lied, and I can be a witness, okay?"
Both the Sheriff and Dean looked at her in expectation, until she finally revealed the truth. "His boobs are actually fake."
Dean snorted but was fast to hide his amusement when the Sheriff smacked his hand on the table. "You got the faces of ten missing persons taped to your wall. Along with a whole lot of Satanic mumbo-jumbo. You two are officially suspects."
"That makes sense." Dean said. "Because when the first one went missing in '82 I was three."
"Tell me about it, I wasn't even born yet."
"I know you've got partners. One of 'em's an older guy. Maybe he started the whole thing. So tell me. Dean."
Alina immediately frowned at the mention of his real name, both of their smiles disappearing when the sheriff tossed a familiar brown leather-covered journal on the table. "This is?" He asked and flipped through the journal filled with notes, drawings, and newspaper clippings.
Alina felt uneasy at the sight of John's journal, hoping that Sam had left with her mom's before the police could find it. It was the only clue she had.
"I thought that might be your name boy. See, I leafed through this. What little I could make out—I mean, it's nine kinds of crazy. But I found this, too."
He opened the journal to a page that only read "DEAN 35-111" in a circle. Alina tried her best not to look at Dean but she could only imagine how confused he must've been feeling.
"Now. You're stayin' right here till you tell me exactly what the hell that means."
And this little game continued until nightfall. Dean had already repeated for the hundredth time that the numbers on the page were the combination of his locker in high school, when an officer finally appeared at the door, saving the hunters from the torture.
"We just got a 911, shots fired over at Whiteford Road."
The Sheriff turned to Alina and Dean. "You have to go to the bathroom?"
"No." Dean responded.
"But I'm still hungry." Alina mumbled.
The Sheriff didn't wait any longer to handcuff them on each side of the table and leave with the officer.
Dean spotted a paper clip poking out of the journal, and pulled it out, smiling. "We're getting out of here." He said turning to Alina who had already freed herself, staring at him with a big grin. "How did you..."
"Oh please Dean, as if it was my first time getting handcuffed." She copied his flirtatious smirk and got up from her chair to discreetly look through the window in the door.
Dean's mind was still wandering towards the possible scenarios involving Alina and handcuffs, when he finally managed to free himself and joined her, his dad's journal in his hand.
Once outside, Dean called Sam from a phone booth, since both their phones had been taken by the police. He was too focused on his conversation with his brother to see Alina move away to the nearest bar.
"Sammy, would you shut up for a second?"
"I just can't figure out why dad hasn't destroyed the corpse yet."
"Well, that's what I'm trying to tell you. He's gone. Dad left Jericho."
"What? How do you know?"
"I've got his journal."
"He doesn't go anywhere without that thing."
"Yeah, well, he did this time."
"What's it say?
"Ah, the same old ex-Marine crap, when he wants to let us know where he's going."
"Coordinates. Where to?"
"I'm not sure yet. Alina and I should just..." He stopped talking when, taking a look around, he noticed the disappearance of the young woman. "Alina?!"
"Dean what's going on?" Sam asked after hearing the panic in his brother's voice.
Dean kept looking around, but Alina was nowhere to be found. "Alina?!"
"Dean where's Ali..." Sam's voice was suddenly covered by the sound of the drifting car and the phone dropping.
"Sam? Sam!" Dean shouted through the device without getting any answer.
It was at this moment that the rumble of a motorcycle was heard around the corner of the street, and Dean almost dropped the phone, recognizing the brown hair floating in the wind, the black leather jacket, and Alina's clever smile as she parked near him.
"What did I miss?" She asked.
"Sam's in trouble, we gotta go."
He jumped behind her on the motorcycle, still perplexed. "Where did you..."
"I stole it." She explained quickly. "Hold onto me!".
He wrapped his arms around her, touching her breast with an incorrigible naturalness. She sighed as she pushed his arms down to her waist and started the engine.
"So handcuffs, leather and motorcycle, huh?!" Dean teased her on the road. "What did that Charlie boy did to you?!"
"Nothing! She learned everything from me!" Alina said with a smile.
Dean first nodded impressed and astonished of her honest response, until his brain registered the crucial information she had just given him, and his jaw instantly dropped like never before.
"She?!"
Satisfied, Alina sped up to prevent Dean from adding anything, and they arrived very quickly in front of Constance's old house, in front of which the Impala was already parked. Dean jumped off the motorcycle when he heard Sam screaming inside and took out a gun that Alina hadn't even noticed, to shoot several times at the ghost of Constance leaning over Sam. When Alina got off the motorcycle to approach the car, it began to roar again as Sam drove forward and smashed the car through the side of the house.
"Sam?!" Alina and Dean screamed, sharing a worried look as they both rushed inside to get to the passenger side.
"Sam?!"
"Yeah?" Sam groaned inside the car.
"You okay?" Dean asked.
"I think..."
"Can you move?"
"Yeah. Help me?"
Alina watched the boys as Dean was leaning inside to get Sam out.
She then noticed Constance from the corner of her eye, and turned to see her pick up a large framed photograph of her and two children. She looked up right after Dean had closed the car door, angrily throwing the picture down. Alina just had the time to move to her right when a bureau scooted towards them, pinning Sam and Dean against the Impala.
The young woman didn't hesitate to jump in front of the boys as soon as she saw Constance approaching them with threatening eyes. She opened her arms, blocking the ghost from getting closer.
"Alina!" Dean yelled at her. "Get out of here!"
She didn't listen, she just let Constance approach her, look at her, not seeming to understand her gesture.
"Alina!" Dean shouted again, trying to push the bureau with all his strength.
"It's over." Alina simply told Constance with a reassuring look. "You're home now." And just as she said those words, the lights started to flicker, water began to pour down the staircase, and Constance looked around scared. At the top of the staircase, a boy and a girl appeared out of thin air, holding hands and speaking in chorus "You've come home to us, Mommy." They then disappeared, reappearing behind her, and embraced their mom tightly as she screamed and flickered, the three of them melting into a puddle in a blinding light, and vanishing.
Still panting, Alina let out a relieved sigh and turned around to help the boys shoving the bureau over, Dean's strong arms wrapping around her and pulling her into his chest before she could even realize what was happening. She first stood still, not really sure of what to do with her hands, then put them on his back to reassure him by giving him small taps.
As if the taps had brought Dean back to his body, he quickly pulled away, clearing his throat in embarrassment. "You never do that again, Frenchy!" He snapped, pointing an accusatory finger at her.
"Geez Winchester, I just protected you with my own body, get that finger off my face, idiot!" She slapped his hand and checked on Sam who was still leaning against the car with exhaustion. "You okay Sammy?"
"Yeah. You?"
"You're kidding, right? Didn't you see how badass I was?"
Sam laughed, putting his arm on her shoulders, mostly so she could help him stand up properly.
"So this is where she drowned her kids." Dean said, looking at the puddle on the ground.
"That's why she could never go home" Sam nodded. "She was too scared to face them."
"And you two figured it out?"
"Of course." Alina proudly answered, lifting her open hand towards Sam without looking at him. "We are the Wonder Twins after all." Sam gave her a high five, which made her chuckle.
A slightly annoyed Dean simply walked back towards them. "You found her weak spot. Nice work."
He slapped his brother on his injured chest, making him laugh through the pain. "Yeah I wish I could say the same for you. What were you thinking shooting Casper in the face, you freak?"
"Where did you even get that gun?" Alina asked.
"I stole it."
"And where did you guys get that motorcycle?"
"She stole it."
"And I'm still waiting for you boys to thank me."
Dean ignored her since he was already leaning over to look at the car, also trying to hide his grin. "I'll tell you another thing Sammy. If you screwed up my car? I'll kill you."
"Yeah that's more like him." Alina whispered, smiling as she kept looking at Dean.
Later that night, the three of them were back on the road when Alina woke up from her nap in the backseat. She heard Dean and Sam talking, not noticing her.
"Hey, if we shag ass we could make it by morning." Dean announced.
"Dean, I, um..."
Alina felt her heart break a little, guessing the answer that he clearly didn't want to say out loud.
"You're not going." Dean concluded with disappointment.
"The interview's in like, ten hours. I gotta be there."
Alina wanted to tell him how much she wanted him to stay with them. She needed her best friend to find her mother without going insane. She didn't even know how long she would be able to stay calm before picturing the worst scenarios.
"Yeah. Yeah, whatever." Dean said, trying to sound like he didn't care. "I'll take you home."
Alina chose this moment to yawn as if she was just waking up. "Hey boys."
"Hey welcome back Frenchy. Did you dream of me?"
"Dreaming of you would be more of a nightmare Winchester."
"Ouch!" He said, looking at her in the rear view mirror. "Oh yeah I almost forgot we were on the same team there."
And she almost forgot that she had revealed that part to him on the road to Constance's house. Sam quickly looked at her, obviously surprised. "You told him about Charlie?"
"I was locked up in a room with him all day, clearly I wasn't in my right state of mind." She responded before talking to Dean again. "And just so you know, we're only half in the same team. I like women AND men, genius. Sometimes both in the same bed."
Dean swallowed hard at the images his brain had instantly pictured, and although he was still staring at the road in front of him, Sam had to hit him in the arm when the car began to slip on the side of the road. He blinked, coming back to his senses, and hit Sam back as if his twisted mind hadn't almost caused an accident. Alina simply scoffed, enjoying the last couple of hours she had with the both of them before they had to say goodbye.
When they pulled up in front of Sam's apartment, Dean was frowning, and Alina was looking down at her boots before getting out with Sam, to hug him one last time sadly. "I'll miss you Sammy."
"I'll miss you too. I hope you'll find your mom soon."
They were trying their best to smile at each other without showing any sign of weakness. Sam then leaned over to look at his brother through the window. "Call me if you find him?"
Dean simply nodded.
"And maybe I can meet up with you later, huh?"
"Yeah, all right."
Alina already knew that the drive to their next destination would be a very silent one.
Sam opened the car door to let Alina take his place, then shut it, glanced at her one last time, and walked away.
But Dean abruptly leaned toward the passenger door, one arm going at the back of Alina's seat.
"Sam?"
Sam turned back to look at them.
"You know, we made a hell of a team back there."
"Yeah."
They both looked at each other for a few more seconds, and Dean started the engine to drive away silently. It didn't take too long for him to get a strange feeling in the back of his head, making him check his watch that wasn't ticking anymore. Alina noticed it too.
"Are you okay Dean?"
"Yeah I just..." He didn't know how to phrase it, but he just knew something strange was going on.
"Yeah me too. Something's not right." Alina said as if she had read his mind.
So she didn't stop him when he braked in the middle of the road, and turned around. She didn't even realized that she was nervously bitting her nails, feeling nauseous as she was the first to get out of the car once they got back to the apartment.
"Stay here!" Dean told her while running toward the staircase.
She wanted to follow him and hated being given orders, but for some reason, she stayed near the car and watched him disappear behind the front door. Her heart accelerated when she saw flames coming out of the window through which she had surprised the boys two days earlier. After what felt like an eternity for Alina, she was ready to run inside when Dean's figure reappeared a little further, pulling with him his little brother desperately screaming the name of his girlfriend.
"Sam!" Alina's legs took control and began to rush towards the two men. Dean was trying to hold Sam to prevent him from going back inside, which Alina managed to do when she took the youngest Winchester in her arms, both of them falling on their knees, and hugged him with all her strength.
Sam grabbed her jacket in despair, crying on his best friend's shoulder who couldn't hold back her own tears. "I'm sorry Sammy." She whispered softly, holding him with all her strength to confort him. "I'm sorry..."
That's the end of episode 1! Did you like it?!
What's your favorite episode in Season 1? Mine is Skin, and I just can't wait for shapeshifter Dean to interact with Alina!
Also? Fuck you Yellow Eyes!