Hope: to cherish a desire with anticipation : to want something to happen or be true

Emilia liked that word.

Hope.

The girl lifted her eyes from the dictionary she held in her hands and looked around Bobby's junkyard.

There was a word etched on the backside of her necklace that she noticed a few days ago. It was Elpida, the greek word for Hope. It was now her favorite word like it was a gift from her mother.

Two weeks had passed since Emilia found Sam and Dean. At first, she couldn't figure out what made them so repulsed by her. As far as she knew, she hadn't done anything wrong. She tried being pleasant, she tried being helpful, she tried staying out of the way, but nothing seemed to work. Every day, Emilia woke up and hoped it might be the day their icy demeanor melted away. She began to think it was just how they were, but when she saw them interact with each other while they thought she couldn't see, it was clear that wasn't the case. One day she overheard them discussing the prophecy.

"Her describing quality is light vanquisher. What are we supposed to make of that?" Sam had said to Dean in a hushed voice.

Vanquisher.

Emilia was not familiar with that word. When Bobby first read the prophecy out loud, she heard him say it, but she didn't think anything of it. She knew the word light and it meant bright. It meant the sun shining and a lantern illuminating darkness. It sounded like a good thing. So she only assumed light vanquisher was good too.

But when she looked up the word in a dictionary laying around, she discovered her assumption was quite wrong.

Vanquish: To defeat thoroughly.

To vanquish light was to destroy it.

After this discovery, she was beginning to understand their mistrust. She understood why they watched her like a hawk, just waiting for her to blow her cover, or show her true intentions. Dean especially, couldn't seem to bring himself to accept that she might just be a kid.

His kid.

He could barely stand to be in the same room with her and after a few days, he and Sam decided to take off and continue working cases. Whether they were willing to admit to themselves that it was all just a distraction was another matter entirely. The brothers were hesitant to leave her with Bobby at first, but after a week of watching the kid, the older hunter seemed to be pretty convinced she was harmless. Perhaps it was the way she mimicked their movements as though she thought there might be a correct way to eat a sandwich or sit on a chair. She listened to what they said like they were the most important words to ever be spoken. Emilia was fascinated by everything she saw, much like a baby discovering the world for the first time. Although Bobby thought Emilia to be harmless, he couldn't deny she was the strangest child he had ever met. If not disturbed, she could spend hours upon hours with her nose in a book. He had no idea how she could speak much less read, but there she was, flipping through book after book. What he couldn't see was the inner workings of her brain, capturing every word and storing it away for later use. She was painting a picture of this brand new world in her mind to learn and understand.

Emilia didn't mind staying with Bobby. He was often times grumpy and kept himself inside working, but he was kind to her. He answered her questions and explained to her what he was doing when working on a case. Every once in a while Bobby would let her help with what he was doing, but he'd never realize what that meant to her. How such a small task could make her feel so important. The two of them managed to create a rhythm during those first two weeks. So despite her disappointment about Sam and Dean, she was content with her life in Sioux Falls.

Emilia walked back into the house after an hour of reading outside and made her way to the living room where Bobby sat at his desk. The older man was deep in research when the young girl walked in.

"Hey, kid." He greeted, keeping his eyes on the page.

"Hi, Bobby." she smiled and put the dictionary on one of the tables. She picked up one of the huge books on supernatural lore she was looking at the day before, and Bobby lifted his eyes to see her struggling to place it on the couch as it was nearly twice the size of her head. She eventually succeeded and climbed up next to it before starting to read. Every so often the hunter would glance up again in curiosity. He watched how she scanned the pages and he wondered if she actually understood anything she was reading.

After about twenty minutes, Emilia closed the book and frowned to herself.

"Bobby?"

"Hm."

"All these books have stuff on different creatures, but… I can't seem to find what I am."

Bobby looked at the girl and wasn't entirely sure how to respond.

"Well, the thing with most of those creatures is that they are pretty straightforward. A ghost is a ghost. A vampire is a vampire. A wendigo is a wendigo. But you, you ain't like them...for a lot of reasons."

"Why not?"

"Well mostly because you're half human."

Emilia nodded and listened intently.

"And uh… that means you got a soul."

"What's a soul?"

How in the hell was he gonna explain that?

"It's the part of you that makes you who you are."

"Like the heart?"

"Uh sorta. You can't see the soul but it's there."

"Oh, so I'm not in this book because I have a soul."

"Well that, and you-what you are...it's a little too complicated for a book, there aint a whole lotta information on demigods to begin with."

Emilia nodded slowly, and she was silent for a minute or two, her mind whirling with questions.

"Why are you nice to me?" She wondered, surprising Bobby.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"I know what light vanquisher means now, I know it's a bad nickname to have. And it's probably why Sam and Dean always leave. Do they not know I have a soul?"

Bobby was way in over his head. He didn't know the first thing about children and was well aware of that. He felt like he was capable of babysitting temporarily, but he was not equipped to handle these types of situations. Especially since whatever his answer was, could shape her as a person.

"Like I said… complicated."

Emilia wished to know what he meant by "complicated", but she nodded nevertheless. After a long silence, Bobby looked back up at her, unable to concentrate on anything else.

"Milly."

She looked up at him with a puzzled look.

"That's your new nickname. It doesn't have any secret meaning or confusing back story, it's whatever you want it to be. Okay?"

"Okay."

Milly would mean hopeful. She hoped Sam and Dean would someday trust her, that she would find out what happened to her mother, and she would find out why she was born.

She was hopeful.