"So did you find anything?" Alina asked from the bathroom knowing she'd left Dean busy, doing the researches Sam had asked them to do on Meg. She secretly wished they'd find something strange about her, since she definitely didn't like the girl, but also didn't want Sam to feel bad for not seeing things earlier. She wasn't mad at him anymore, and as usual, she just wanted to protect him.
"No, she checks out." Dean replied from the bedroom, working on Sam's laptop. "There is a Meg Masters in the Andover phonebook. I even pulled up her high school photo."
"So she's not a monster. Just a bitch."
"Well what can I say, Sam's got weird taste in women."
They both heard each other laughing, when a loud noise suddenly came from the bathroom, making Dean stand up from his chair in the split of a second. "Alina?! You okay in there?!"
The young woman was supposed to be taking a shower, but he was now realizing that she'd been in there for a few minutes and he couldn't hear the water running. The noise sounded like she'd fell somehow, so he walked straight to the door and knocked on it worryingly. "Alina!"
"I'm fine!" She yelled behind the door in a struggling voice.
"Are you sure?"
Dean waited a few seconds in panic, until the door slightly opened and Alina's head peeked out with an embarrassed smiled. "Could you act like you didn't just hear that?"
"Why? What happened? Are you hurt?" Dean was worried that she would only let him see her head and not rest of her body, since he was already searching for any signs of injuries.
"I'm fine. I just..." Alina's face turned bright red and she let out a long sigh before opening the door.
Dean's jaw completely dropped the moment he saw the rest of her body. He wasn't expecting that. At. All.
Alina was wearing another police officer costume, but if she already looked hot in the first version, that one made Dean forget about absolutely everything else. Including Sam, their current job, and the researches he was working on just a few seconds ago. Less fabric, more latex, fishnet tights, high boots...and a beautifully, amazingly low neckline. She also had the handcuffs and the holster on her belt, with one of Dean's gun in it, and disappointedly put on the hat she was holding in her hand, with her curls gracefully falling on her naked shoulders.
Dean felt as if a heatwave had hit him the moment that door had opened, and couldn't take his eyes off of her anymore. She looked...incredible. Yet she couldn't look at him in the eyes, thinking about her stupid fall when she'd tried to put on her second boot.
"I just wanted to cheer you up but these heels are a freaking nightmare! I don't even understand how I'm standing right now!"
Alina looked down at herself and groaned angrily. "Just forget that, I don't even know why I thought this would be a good i..."
But before she could finish her sentence, and before she could turn around to go get changed, Dean rapidly closed the gap between them and crushed his lips onto hers, guiding her body to make her walk backwards, until she hit her back against the bathroom wall and felt his hand on her waist, trapping her in his eager embrace. She'd been completely taken aback back his move, but still kissed him with her whole body heating up at the way his hands were grabbing her. "Oh Frenchy..." Dean's lips slowly went down to her neck while he was talking against her skin. "I'll never...ever...be able to forget that."
Alina bit her lips at his words, glad that this costume was actually doing its job. Dean was acting like a beast and she loved it.
She succeeded to handcuff them together while he was too distracted by the rest of her, and laughed at his surprised expression once he felt the cuff around his wrist and stopped to stare at it. "You wanna hear a secret, Winchester?"
Dean licked his lips with envy, quickly nodding in response. Alina smirked and slowly got closer to his ear, to whisper in her most seductive voice. "The gun is loaded."
Dean didn't think she could be more attractive, but that information definitely made him lose the tiny bit of sanity that was left in his mind.
Alina laughed when he lifted her thighs so she could put them around his waist, and almost ran as he carried her to their bed.
LATER
Dean was holding Alina in his arms, happy to see her wearing his shirt so perfectly under the sheets. With her head resting on his chest, he was softly rubbing her arm with his thumbs, feeling her messy hair tickling his neck. He loved that she was still sweating from all the 'efforts' they'd made, and absentmindedly caressing his chest with her left hand.
She felt so safe with him. Although they were constantly moving from motels to motels, she always felt at home. Well...always...except...
"What are you thinking about Frenchy?"
The hunter raised her head and smiled back at him. How long had she been silent? Too long probably. "I guess ever since that spell...I've realized how great it actually feels to be with you."
Dean didn't like to think about that short period when Alina had treated him like a stranger, but it was good to know that she felt the same way about it. He never wanted her to forget about him again. He wouldn't let that happen, and he'd make sure she always felt safe and protected with him.
But now that she'd mentioned it, there was one thing he was still curious to know.
"Hey so about that spell...do you know why you forgot about your dagger?"
Alina smiled again but this time Dean didn't see it, since her head was back on his chest. She knew he'd ask about that eventually, and was actually surprised it'd took him so long to do it. She freed her arm from his embrace for a second, grabbed her dagger on their nightstand and rubbed her thumb on the engraved word. "Did you know my name means 'night' in Malagasy?"
"In what?"
She chuckled at his immediate response. "It's the national language of Madagascar. My parents went there a few times before I was born. And before you ask, yes they also speak French there."
She handed him the dagger and he took it to carefully analyze the object. He'd seen it so many times in his life but it somehow looked different now.
"As to why my dad gave me the dagger...well I used to be afraid of the dark when I was a kid."
Dean frowned at that. "Wait you were? I never knew that."
"Yeah, I never told anyone but when I was alone in my room, I would always leave a light on so I'd see any monsters coming to hurt me. I guess my dad noticed it pretty quickly, and one day he asked me why I was so afraid when I was in France, but not in America."
She smiled at the memory. She remembered the day she had that discussion with her dad and could've cried if Dean wasn't right next to her. His presence was so comforting.
"I told him that in America, I couldn't be afraid because I knew you were here to protect Sam and I from the monsters, since we would always share the same bedrooms. Now that I think about it, it was almost as if I was telling him that I didn't trust him or my mom, to protect me correctly in our own house." She laughed, not noticing Dean's astonished look behind her. "But anyway...the day of my tenth anniversary, my dad told me that 'his little night' couldn't be afraid of the dark if she had a 'light'. That's the word he engraved on the dagger in Malagasy. He gave it to me so I could protect myself whenever you wouldn't be here to protect me. And I stopped being afraid a little while after that. So...I guess in my fake memories without you, I had to learn how to protect myself sooner, which means that I was never afraid of the dark, and that my dad never gave me the dagger. But honestly I don't really care about a life I never lived and never wanna remember living."
She finally noticed Dean's silence once she was done telling that story, and was worried that she might've said too much, but when she looked at him, she instantly recognized the look on his face. He was touched by her story and the part he had in it. Alina knew this would be the moment when he'd kiss her as a 'thank you' for giving his life so much importance, so she simply rolled her eyes and sat up on the bed, facing him with a faint smile. "You're an idiot."
"What?" Dean also sat up against the headboard, with an interrogating gaze. "Why?"
"Because I just told you about how you'd make me feel safe when we were little, and you're reacting like you're the most grateful person here! Stop doing that! I'm supposed to be the most grateful one, Winchester!"
Dean raised his eyebrows in surprise at the girl's words, and couldn't help but smirk at her logic. She was adorable. He watched her as she put her attention back on the dagger, trying to hide the smile on her face since she was pretending to be angry at him. She took the weapon in her hand, and once again brushed her fingers on the engraved word. Seeing that made him realize that maybe, it was time for him to also tell her the truth about it. "Hey remember the night of your return, when you found it in the trunk of my car and thought I'd stole it from you? I didn't."
Alina looked back at him, confused by his sudden statement. Of course she remembered that night, and she also remembered being mad at him because that dagger was the most precious memory her dad had left her. She'd spent five years thinking she'd never see it again, so finding it in Dean's car was relieving and infuriating at the same time. Stealing her stuff was his way of messing with her when they were kids, so she'd instantly suspected him but...
Dean smiled at her confusion and shrugged. "You looked so sad about losing it after your dad died, and I knew I couldn't bring him back for you no matter how much I wanted to...so after you went back to France, I spent days trying to find it even if I didn't know whether I'd see you again or not."
Alina couldn't believe it. She was convinced that...
She looked at the dagger, then Dean, then the dagger again, then shook her head to clear her mind from all the confusion and find her words. "Wait...so where was it?"
"Remember that spirit you insisted on hunting with us back in Iowa?"
Iowa? Alina hadn't done a lot of hunts with the Winchesters back when her dad was still alive, so she could easily remember that one. It was a farm, haunted by the spirit of its previous owner. Alina had indeed suspected to have lost her dagger there when she was running for her life across the large field with Dean. But if that was true, then...
"Wait but...you would've had to search more than 10 acres of land all by yours..."
She cut herself short once she realized that he wasn't going to contradict her. She was right about that, and completely stunned. She couldn't believe what he'd done.
Alina chuckled in utter shock, before she slapped his bare chest angrily. "Why would you let me think that you stole it?!"
She was even more frustrated now that he was laughing at her reaction, holding up his hands in front of him to stop a possible second attack. "I knew you wouldn't believe me if I told you the truth!"
Alina kept staring at him for a moment, trying to decide whether she should kill him or not, before sighing one last time and leaning towards him to give him a 'thank you' kiss. It was a long, passionate, tender, warm, and sweet kiss that Dean instantly deepened by laying her back on the bed with a hand on her cheek.
The young woman chuckled under him, until her phone's little 'bip' made them pull away from each other in annoyance.
"That's probably Sam." She said looking at her phone on the nightstand. "We should be working right now."
"Oh come on, we're allowed to take a little break, Frenchy."
Alina smiled at the wink he gave her, then pushed him away gently to jump off the bed. "Well although you look incredibly hot right now and it's really hard for me to get out of that bed, I think our little break was already way longer than it should've been, Winchester. Let's get back to work."
Dean watched her grab her shorts in her bag to put them on, still wearing his shirt on top of it. She looked just as hot as when she was wearing that sexy costume. He wished he'd took a picture now...
Alina quickly sent a text back to Sam, informing him that they were 'still' busy with the researches. She really needed to find what that weird symbol meant, and where she'd seen it before. She was once again trying to think about it, ready to head back towards the kitchen table where Sam's laptop was, when her gaze stopped on her pillow, where her dagger was.
And suddenly...it all clicked.
She'd been searching for the symbol in her mom's journal, but she hadn't found anything because she'd actually seen it somewhere else. In one of her dad's old books...when she was learning about demons and how to hunt them like her dad used to.
Dean noticed the way her smile completely dropped when she saw her dagger, and frowned, worried about her sudden change of mood. "Hey, you okay?"
The young woman's heart was beating so fast, she had to take a deep breath to calm herself down before looking back at the hunter, talking in an hesitant voice. "It's a sigil..."
Dean went back to his serious hunter mode the second he realized what she was talking about. "What, the symbol? So you know what it is?"
She nodded in despair, wishing she didn't have to remember that kind of stuff. But if she was right, she didn't have any other choice. "Yeah, it's for something really, really bad. Ever heard of a Daeva?"
THE NEXT DAY
A Daeva, or Zoroastrian 'demon of darkness'. Savage, animalistic, bloodthirsty...Alina could finally remember why after all the researches she'd done a long time ago, this sigil in particular hadn't left her mind. They'd terrified her when she'd read about them in one of her dad's journal.
They had to be summoned, which was a risky thing to do for the person controlling them since, they'd often bite the hand feeding them. Along with the rest of the body. No one had ever been able to see their true form, so the hunters couldn't even know what the threat looked like.
However, when Sam finally came back the next day, after spending the night following Meg around, he informed them of a very important and shocking detail he'd witnessed inside of an abandoned warehouse.
"So, hot little Meg is summoning the Daeva?" Dean asked in disbelief.
"Which means she's not just a bitch." Alina pointed out, even more annoyed by that woman's existence now. "She's also stupid."
"Looks like she was using that black altar to control the thing." Sam still looked pretty shaken by what he'd seen. Yes, he'd found her suspicious but he definitely wasn't expecting that.
"So, Sammy's got a thing for the bad girl." The eldest Winchester chuckled at his own joke while Alina was too busy overthinking everything to pay attention to him, or Sam.
Sam told them about the bowl she was using to communicate with someone. Someone who couldn't be the Daeva due to these monsters' savage attitude. Someone who had to be giving her orders. Someone who was coming to that warehouse. That actually made Alina's whole body shiver.
"Shit..."
"What?" Sam asked her, concerned of her current state, and Dean's similar reaction.
Alina shared a worried look with the eldest when he came sitting next to her at the table, filled with researches. She then looked back at Sam. "Last night, after we called you...I went back to the two victims' records I stole from the police station yesterday, just to make sure we hadn't missed something the first time we investigated, and..."
She didn't even know how to say it, so when Sam came over to look at the records of the two previous victims, Dean decided to continue with the explanation. "The first victim, the old man...he spent his whole life in Chicago, but he wasn't born here. Look where he was born." He pointed at something on the page Sam was already reading, and they both saw the hunter's eyes widen at the location.
"Lawrence, Kansas."
Dean nodded and gave him another document. "Meredith, second victim, turns out she was adopted. And guess where she's from."
Sam eventually decided to sit at the table with them once he read the words 'Lawrence, Kansas', on the second victim's record. He was as shocked as his brother and his best friend were when they'd found that the previous night. "Holy crap."
"Yeah." They both replied in a serious tone, unable to joke about the situation anymore.
"I mean, it is where the demon killed mom. That's where everything started. So, you think Meg's tied up with the demon?"
"I think it's a definite possibility."
"But I don't understand. What's the significance of Lawrence? And how do these Daeva things fit in?"
"Guys..." The Winchesters both turned to Alina who was now nervously staring at her researches on the Daeva. She looked...afraid. "If this is related to your mom's death...I know you're gonna want to go and get the truth. I wouldn't be able to ignore this if I were you but...I hope you realize how serious this is. We can't just get in that warehouse, destroy the black altar, and interrogate Meg hoping everything would simply go as planned."
Dean hated to see her like that. She probably knew more about demons than the two brothers combined, and he wished there was something he could say to reassure her. But there was nothing. She was right, this whole situation was risky.
"You're right." Sam also agreed after a short moment of watching his best friend being affected by her past traumas. "We've gotta stake out that warehouse. We've gotta see who...or what, is showing up to meet her."
"And I'll tell you one thing." Dean added, taking the researches off Alina's hands to prevent her from watching them any longer. "I don't think we should do this alone."
LATER
Alina and Sam had left Dean inside their room to go get as much weapons as they could from the car trunk, while he was calling John to ask for his help. Alina doubted that John Winchester would actually come when he'd spent the previous months hiding from his sons, and although she'd been able to count on her mom just as much as the brothers with their dad recently, she felt like she had to at least try too.
While she was supposed to hold the bag for Sam to put the weapons inside, the hunter noticed how distracted she seemed by the phone she was hesitantly holding in her hand. So he stopped for a moment and turned to her with a comforting smile. "You should call her."
Alina wasn't surprised that he'd instantly read her mind, but she was still not convinced about it. "Wouldn't that be a total waste of time? I mean...my mom's been acting like a totally different person for the past few months. Something's been bothering her and I probably shouldn't..."
"Alina."
The young woman looked up in her friend's eyes when he put his hands on her shoulders and give her a serious look. "This whole demon thing...I can see how it's affecting you. And I get it, okay? Dean and I, we won't force you to come with us tonight if you don't..."
"Don't say that." Alina instantly shook her head. She could never let them do something like that on their own. "I'd lie if I said that demons aren't...a difficult part of my past. But you guys are the most important part of my past, and present. So I'm totally in, no matter what you'll try to say to make me change my mind."
The two friends shared a smile, until Sam eventually pulled her into a hug that she quickly reciprocated. She was acting all tough, but she hadn't realized how bad she truly felt about the situation until that simple gesture from her best friend. It was both reassuring and terrifying, because she didn't want that hug to be the last one they'd ever share. She couldn't bring herself to call her mom so she would come and help her. So she had to do it for them, for her boys. She had to try.
"Okay Sammy..." Alina faked a laughed and pulled away from him. "I've got a call to make, you're gonna be okay with all that stuff?" She pointed at the bag already half full of weapons.
"Yeah I'll be fine."
They smiled at each other, knowing perfectly well how terrified they really were, but chose not to add anything else when Alina walked away from the car, hesitating for a moment before dialing her mom's number. As expected she instantly heard the same voicemail, telling her to leave a message. Alina had already heard these words numerous times before she'd given up on trying to reach her. But this time she simply waited for the little 'bip', to start talking without any expectations.
"Salut maman...je sais que tu m'as demandé de ne plus t'appeler, et...je sais aussi ce que tu essayais de me cacher pendant tout ce temps, sur ce que je suis. Sur ce que papa était..." (Hi mom...I know you asked me to stop calling you, and...I also know about what you've been trying to hide from me all this time, about what I am. About what dad was...)
Alina felt her heart skipping a beat at the mention of her dad. She didn't mean for it to be the first thing she'd bring up in her message, but it was just too hard not to talk about it. Her mom had to know. She had to know how serious Alina was about that phone call, even though she knew things that could've stopped her from wanting to talk to her mom ever again. She'd kept her Empathy a secret for so long...
"Enfin bref, je ne t'appelle pas pour ça. Même si j'ai hésité à t'appeler des centaines de fois depuis que j'ai découvert la vérité. Je suis à Chicago avec les garçons et...on a peut-être trouver le démon qui a tué Mary. C'est peut-être...c'est sûrement, une fausse piste, mais ils veulent quand même vérifier et je dois y aller avec eux." (Anyway, this is not the reason why I'm calling. Although I've hesitated to call you hundreds of times ever since I found out the truth. I'm in Chicago with the boys and...we might've found the demon who killed Mary. It's probably...it has to be a false lead, but they still wanna check it out and I have to go with them.)
Alina felt her hand shaking, so she quickly put it in the pocket of her jeans, trying not to break down now. She wanted her mom to come, but not because her daughter sounded desperate in her message. She was better than that.
"Parfois je regrette de ne pas t'avoir écouté quand tu m'as dit de ne pas suivre les traces de papa. Peut-être que si je l'avais fait, je ne saurais pas tout ce que je sais déjà, et je ne serais pas aussi inquiète que ma peur m'empêche d'aider les garçons ce soir. Donc si tu es proche de Chicago..." (Sometimes I regret not listening to you when you told me not to follow dad's path. Maybe if I had, I wouldn't know all the things I know now, and I wouldn't be so worried that my fear could stop me from helping the boys tonight. So if you're near Chicago...)
She didn't know how to say this. She didn't know how to ask. So she didn't.
"1435 West Erie. C'est l'adresse de l'entrepôt et...on a affaire à un Daeva. Donc peut-être qu'on se verra là-bas ou...peut-être pas. Mais si tu reçois ce message, s'il te plaît fais au moins attention à toi. Et donne-moi un signe que tu vas bien, d'accord?" (1435 West Erie. It's the warehouse's address and...we're dealing with a Daeva. So maybe I'll see you there or...maybe not. But if you get that message, please at least take care of yourself. And give me a sign that you're okay, alright?)
She smiled sadly, staring at the ground, fighting against the tears in her eyes when she finally hung up and put the phone back in her pocket. Sam had already left to bring the bag to their room, and she was now alone in the middle of the street, feeling like a complete fool. Her mom would never get this...
The hunter let out a small chuckle, as if she was laughing at herself, then finally entered the building to go find the brothers. She still felt terribly bad about this and wanted nothing more than to see the brothers' comforting faces right now. But the moment her hand touched the door handle, Dean's voice on the other side stopped her from opening the door.
"You wanna go back to school?"
He sounded surprised. And hurt...
"Yeah, once we're done hunting the thing."
Alina sadly bit her lips. She knew Sam didn't want that life. He'd stayed with them all this time because he wanted to find the thing that killed his mom, and Jess, and yet...even Alina was starting to hope that things could be different.
"Why, is there something wrong with that?" Sam asked his brother.
"No. No, it's...great. Good for you."
"I mean, what are you gonna do when it's all over?"
She just hadn't thought about this either. About their lives after that demon.
"It's never gonna be over. There's gonna be others. There's always gonna be something to hunt."
"But...what about Alina? Are you sure that's what she wants too? And what about you? There's got to be something that you want for yourself..."
"Yeah, I don't want you to leave the second this thing's over, Sam."
Alina felt her heart ache a little when she heard Dean's voice breaking.
"Dude, what's your problem?"
Dean stayed silent for a while, unable to respond. And Alina felt bad about listening to their conversation like that. She should've left them alone or...at least get inside and try to make things better. She just couldn't move right now.
"Why do you think I drag you everywhere? Huh? I mean, why do you think I came and got you at Stanford in the first place?"
"'Cause dad was in trouble. 'Cause you wanted to find the thing that killed mom."
"Yes, that, but it's more than that, man. You, and me, and dad, and Alina, I mean...I want us...I want us to be together again. I want us to be a family again."
Alina really hadn't thought about it. But she herself, wasn't even sure that could be possible. She loved Dean and Sam, of course, but...if John were to come back in the picture, things would never be the way they were before.
"Dean, we are a family. I'd do anything for you. But things will never be the way they were before."
Alina flinched when she heard her best friend say out loud the exact same words she had in mind. The same words she'd never be able to say to Dean, because she could only imagine how heartbroken he had to be feeling right now.
"Could be..." His voice was so low, she almost hadn't been able to hear it. The young woman let her head rest against the door, feeling a tear rolling down her cheek.
"I don't want them to be. I'm not gonna live this life forever. Dean, when this is all over, you're gonna have to let me go my own way."
Why hadn't she thought about all of this sooner? Why was she realizing just now that...this could be the end of the life she'd been so happy to live ever since she'd came back. Dean was and will always be his dad's little soldier, he would never leave his side. Yet, even if Alina had stopped blaming John Winchester for her father's death, she would never be able to work under someone's orders. Especially not John's. It wasn't the type of person, or hunter, she aspired to be.
It took her a moment to pull herself back together and finally open the door with a serious face. No tears, no smile...she just wanted to get this over with, and she didn't want the brothers to know that she'd heard this entire conversation.
When she entered the room, she found them preparing the weapons in silence, and she didn't need to be an Empath to feel the tension.
"Hey." Sam greeted her with a forced smile. "You called your mom?"
She'd almost forgot about that. "Yeah...voicemail."
Dean looked surprised. He didn't know Alina was trying to call her mom, so when he noticed that she was trying to hide how troubled she actually was, he instantly assumed that was the reason of her current state. He didn't point it out. He knew it'd be too soon for her to want to talk about it, and that she'd rather focus on their job. At least he was right about that...
I felt so bad for Dean in that scene! For once he was actually able to talk about his feelings, asking Sam not to leave him, and THAT'S ALL HE GOT IN RETURN FOR BEING FREAKING HONEST AND VULNERABLE?!
Okay I might be biased, because Sam also deserved to have the normal life he wanted...
BUT WHY DID HE HAVE TO BE SO MEAN?! Okay I'm gonna stop now or I'll- WHY SAMUEL?!
Well I hope you liked the cute moments in the first half of this chapter, and that you don't mind the French dialogues between Alina and her mom sometimes. It's just that the two of them are French and obviously talked in French back in France, so it wouldn't be natural for them to communicate in English when there's no one around that needs to understand their conversation.
Anyway, that's it for this chapter and my unnecessary justifications! As usual, have a beautiful day/night!
