The Seduction of Scott, Part 16, R, Keeper!Verse
Fandom: Supernatural, Keeper!Verse (all Keeper!Verse can be found here)
Title: The Seduction of Scott, Part 16
Characters/Pairings: Sam/Dean, Dana/Scott, OCs
Rating: R for violence
Word Count: 3382
Summary: Scott discovers the world of the Supernatural and has a trial by fire. There's a new werewolf in town, and when it attacks Dana and her friends, it's time is up.
Warnings & A/Ns: We slowly progress toward the Prom. Between shotofjack and myself, we've got most of Dana's senior year and summer planned. Part 15 of the story is available here: here.
“Coffee.” Dana suggested, pointing toward the coffee shop as their breath puffed up the cold night air. At least it wasn’t snowing.
“Why is it we’re out here walking?” Erin asked, hugging herself and moving closer to Scott.
“Because my car’s in the shop and Dana couldn’t get Sam’s and you wanted to see that god awful chick flick.” Scott answered, slinging his arm around Dana to pull her close.
“Remind me next time I have a brilliant idea.” Erin said.
Dana heard it and turned toward Erin. A growl, a scream, shouts…a blur of motion to Erin’s right. Her stomach dropped. She pushed Scott back and wrapped her arms around Erin’s waist, falling to the ground and bringing Erin with her. It blurred over them, one long claw slashing at them and Dana felt hot blood spray over her face.
She got Erin under her and reached for the small gun in her sock, forgetting that she’d left it home because it didn’t fit under her boot. “Fuck.”
It was coming back for more, charging at Scott. There were shouts and shots from behind them. “Scott, stay down!” Dana yelled as she covered Erin’s face.
There was a yelp as one of the shots hit home and it ran off. Police and bystanders were rushing them as Dana pulled herself shakily off her friend. “Erin?” Her hands pulled at the ruined sleeve of her coat, then clamped down over the wound. “It’s okay Erin, just a scratch. You hear me?”
Erin’s eyes were cloudy and rolling, but she nodded. She felt a hand and looked up to find Scott standing over her. “It’s gonna need stitches.” Dana said softly.
“Ma’am, is she hurt?” The cop who squatted beside her was her father’s age, dark skin and concerned eyes.
Dana nodded. “It took a swipe at her, tore up her arm. She’s gonna need stitches.”
“I have an ambulance on the way. Do you want me to take over?”
Dana shook her head. “I’ve got it.”
“Did you get a good look at it?”
Dana shook her head again. She had, but she knew this cop didn’t want to hear it. She glanced up at Scott who licked his lips. “It was a…big….dog…or something.” Scott said. “Weird looking though.”
The cop nodded. “We chased it from down by the high school.” There were sirens and then the ambulance was stopping, two EMTs coming to take Dana’s place. They got Erin up into the ambulance and Dana moved to follow, sparing a glance to the sky to confirm what she already knew. Full moon.
Scott’s eyes followed hers, then looked at her. She smiled weakly as he joined her, sitting beside Erin.
“Dad, it’s me.” Dana stood outside the ER with Scott walking in circles around her. She was reaching out for Sam to relay the facts more clearly at the same time she talked to her father. “We’re at County General. No, I’m fine. It’s Erin. She’s getting some stitches in her arm. We were…attacked. By a really big dog.”
She looked up at Scott who had stopped walking and was looking at her strangely. Werewolf, big fucking werewolf.
Sam felt agitated. Where?
“We were walking home from the movies, across from the coffee shop and it just came flying out of the alley.” She sent the few images she had, the blur of fur and face and nails.
Your Dad will come and get you. I’ll call Papa and go out looking for it
She hung up the phone and stuck it in her pocket. “My dad’s going to come get us.”
“Looks like Erin’s Mom is here.” Scott said, pointing.
Erin’s mother hurried from her car into the ER without spotting them. Dana sighed and hugged herself. “Hey, you okay?” Scott asked, moving closer to hug her.
She nodded. “That was close. If I hadn’t seen it coming, we could all be dead.” Or worse.
They were quiet for a minute. “What was that, Dana?” Scott asked suddenly. “That wasn’t like any dog I’ve ever seen.”
She shrugged and buried her cold nose into his jacket. She didn’t want to lie to him. She was tired of lying to him. “I really didn’t get a good look,” she said finally. She was saved from having to say more by the sound of the Impala. Her father to the rescue yet again.
They dropped Scott off at home. The house was dark. “My folks are out of town,” he said as he got out.
“You going to be all right alone?” Dean asked, leaning over Dana. Scott nodded.
“I’ll be fine.”
Dean nodded and they pulled out, headed back toward downtown. “Sam’s working the trail back toward the school.” Dana said quietly, checking the load in the gun her father handed her.
“You sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine. Let’s just find this thing.”
Dean looked at her and she sighed. “It was close, Dad. Too close. And Scott saw and I think he knows it wasn’t some dog.” The look on his face outside the hospital said volumes.
“So we find it and put it down and Scott won’t have to worry about it.”
They pulled into the school parking lot. “Sam’s got a starting point.” She pointed toward the back of the school where the gym was. “There’s blood and clothes. No bodies though.”
Sam was coming toward them. “It definitely started here, tracks head straight for downtown. Dad’s down there, seeing if he can track it the other way.”
“It took off down toward the hardware store.” Dana said. “We should start at that end of the street.”
They parked a few blocks down from the hardware store and fanned out. The snow should have yielded good tracks, but it was packed down with footprints. Dana made a face as she tried to spot where she saw it run. “One of the cops winged it.”
They worked their way from the fairly quiet end of town toward the row of hang-out places like the coffee shop and all night diner. Sam. Dana stopped outside an alley in eye shot of a group of teenager near a bus stop. There was a low growling sound coming from the shadows. Dana turned, peering into the dark. She held her gun at her side, out of sight of the kids who obviously could hear the growling too now. “Good doggie.” Dana said softly, trying to calm her nerves.
Truth was, she hated hunting werewolves. The idea didn’t sit well, knowing it wasn’t their fault, knowing they couldn’t control it or remember it. She knew it was the only thing to be done, because sooner or later they would kill…and keep killing…but that didn’t mean she had to like it.
It growled, and she could see it now, a dark spot in the dark of alley. Sam. I found it.
She could feel his response, not so much words as a motion to indicate they were on their way. It was moving toward her now. She back stepped, raising the gun. It lunged and she tripped, landing in a sprawl on the street, her gun skittering away.
It was nearly on top of her before she managed a shield. Sam! Need you! Where the hell were they? She shoved the unbelievably heavy thing off her and heard it hit the wall with a yelp. She got up shakily and it was eyeing the now screaming group of kids a block away. “Oh no you don’t.” She picked up a stone and threw it, hitting the werewolf in the side. It turned back to her snarling. “Come and get me doggie.” She took off running with it close on her tail
Leading it away from people, lost my gun…hurry!
She glanced over her shoulder, making sure it was still with her. There was movement behind it, and she hoped it was Sam or her father. She had to get them off the main street though. She turned into the alley by Mr. Wiley’s drugstore. Somehow it caught up to her, raking claws down the back of one thigh.
Dana kicked at it and threw herself into the alley, scrambling for a weapon. All around her garbage levitated and she threw it at the beast, buying time. She sent images of the alley to Sam. It was nearly on top of her again. She held out both hands, generating an energy shield to hold it off. It wasn’t going to last long, she was already tired, and she was bleeding.
It was snarling and snapping its jaws at the shield. “Sam!” She screamed it in favor of wasting energy trying to reach him mentally. “Dad!”
A shot rang out and the werewolf jumped, whirled. Two more shots were fired and it staggered a few feet, then collapsed. Dana released the shield and collapsed backward into a pile of garbage, panting heavily.
There was the sound of the gun hitting pavement, then a soft voice. “Oh my god.”
Dana sat up fast, her eyes wide. “Shit. Shit. Scott.” She scrambled over the dirty pavement. Scott knelt beside the werewolf who had his human face back. His eyes stared up at Scott, his hand grasping weakly at the air.
“S-sc-cott? What…what happened?”
“Troy…Troy…I…I…” He looked up at Dana, but his eyes were vacant. There was blood all over Troy’s chest, all over Scott’s hands and jeans. He’d gotten close before he fired.
“Dana!” Sam’s figure filled the end of the alley, then stopped dead.
Dana took a deep breath. “Shh…Troy…it’s okay…You’re going to be fine. Just close your eyes.” She reached for Scott’s bloody hands. “Scott. Come on, Scott. Fuck. Sam!” Sam was there beside them, her father coming up behind him.
Dean picked up the gun, automatically wiping it free of fingerprints before deliberately putting his own on it and tucking it into his jeans. “Scott shot him.” Dana said softly. Scott was obviously shutting down in shock.
“I’ve got him.” Sam said, pulling Scott to standing. “We should get out of here before the police show up.” Dana nodded, standing and looking down at Troy. His eyes were open, dull, dead…there was blood in his mouth…on his lips. She shivered and reached for her father. The wounds in her leg weren’t bad…but they’d make walking uncomfortable for a few days.
Sam settled Scott into the back seat with Dana. He was shaking, staring at his hands. “I’ll meet you at the house.” Sam said softly, kissing her father’s cheek.
Dana wasn’t sure what to do. She put and arm around Scott’s shoulders and pulled him close, murmuring to him that everything was going to be okay. At the house, her father helped him out of the car and inside. Sam and her Papa pulled in right behind. By the time she got inside, Scott and her father were no where to be seen. She sighed and collapsed into a chair, lifting her injured leg to get a better look.
Her Papa was on his knees beside her in a second, ripping her jeans open to get a better look. “It’s not bad.” Dana said, her eyes lifting to the top of the stairs when her father emerged.
“I’ve got him in a hot shower. He’s not hurt, just in shock.”
“Well, yeah.” Dana said irritably. “Tonight he found out werewolves are real, that his girlfriend floats things and oh, I forgot, he killed a teammate!”
“No need to get snippy.” John said beside her.
“Dana, he probably saved your life.” Sam said, touching her shoulder. “He was bound to find out sooner or later, with as much time as you two spend together.”
“Dean, I need a med kit. These don’t need stitches, but we should get them cleaned up.”
“If we’re lucky, the shock will make him forget.” Sam said.
Dana shook her head. Scott had come looking for her. He’d known they were going to go after it. Which meant he’d at least suspected that it wasn’t just a really big dog. He wasn’t going to just forget.
Dean helped Scott out of the shower and showed him into the spare bedroom. “It’s late, why don’t you get some sleep, Scott. We’ll talk in the morning, okay?”
“Dean?” He’d stopped shaking, but his voice was trembling.
“Yeah?”
“I shot him…it wasn’t him though…it wasn’t…I shot him…”
Dean nodded and squatted beside the bed. “You saved Dana’s life, Scott. He would have killed her.”
Scott nodded, hair falling into his eyes. “It was Troy.”
Dean shook his head. “Not really. Troy was a victim too.”
He felt Sam behind him. Got something to help him sleep.
“Scott, I’m going to give you something, a little sedative, okay? So you can sleep.” Dean held his hand out for the syringe and Sam set it in his hand. Scott didn’t really respond, and he flinched when Dean pushed the needle into this arm. In a few minutes, Scott was asleep and Dean pulled a blanket up over him before he sighed and stood.
“How’s Dana?” Dean asked as they got back to their bedroom.
“Honestly, pretty freaked out. I just can’t tell which is getting to her more, what Scott did or who the werewolf was.” Sam shook his head. “Last time I saw him was that whole party at the lake thing. Found him with Erin.”
“Well, we can bet it was his first cycle, or we would have heard about it before now.” Dean said, sitting down on the bed to pull off his boots. “Fuck Sam. I don’t even know what to say to the kid.”
“He’s a good kid. He’ll be fine.”
“He’s seventeen and he’s just killed someone. How does that make him fine?”
Sam came to sit beside him, one big hand rubbing warmly over his back. “He did it to save Dana. He loves Dana. He had us to help. He’ll be fine.”
Dean wasn’t sure he believed him, but the deed was done and short of asking Sam or Dana to take the memory away, there wasn’t much they could do.
Scott woke in the false dark of a room with blackened windows. The night before came crashing out of his dreams and into his reality. He was in a borrowed t-shirt and sweats, tucked up in a borrowed bed because he’d been so lost in shock the night before he couldn’t be trusted to take care of himself.
Shock. That was a good word for it.
He had an inkling that something wasn’t right when they dropped him off. It was something about the silences, and how they seemed to say more than the words. They were going back, and Scott wanted to know why…wanted to know what it was.
Dana had told him once that werewolves didn’t know, that they didn’t remember being the wolf. He thought she was a little silly.
Werewolves.
There was no denying that’s what it was, though less wolf-like than he had imagined. Scott could see it if he closed his eyes. It…more like him. Could feel the gun heavy in his hand. He’d seen her drop it, picked it up and followed. He could smell the blood, hear Troy’s voice.
Troy. He’d shot and killed Troy.
Troy was dead. It didn’t quite seem real.
Scott opened his eyes. Dana was curled up in the chair beside the bed, her long legs over the arm, one leg sporting clean white bandages. He’d often wondered why Dana and her family always seemed to be sporting one injury or another…and after the whole bowling alley thing he thought he knew…but this went way beyond the bowling alley thing.
He sat up slowly. His hands were shaking. He took a deep breath and tried to be rational. He just wasn’t sure how far rational was going to take him with this.
Dana stirred, her eyes opening and a sleepy smile creeping over face. “Hey.”
“Hey.” He hated the way his voice shook, and he had trouble meeting her eyes.
“You sleep okay?”
He nodded and pulled the blanket up over his lap. “Your dad…he gave me something.”
She smiled, swinging her legs down. “He’s good at that.”
“How about you? How’s your leg?”
“I’m good. It’s a little sore, but I’ll be fine.” She leaned forward, then slid onto the bed, reaching for his hands. “You…you saved my life.”
He shook his head. “You were handling it, I saw…hell, I don’t know what I saw anymore.” He pulled his hands free and pushed the hair out of his face. “I’m not crazy right? He was…I mean…a wolf…a fucking werewolf?”
Dana sighed and nodded slowly. “Near as we can figure, Troy got bit last month. This must have been his first cycle.” She looked away and he got the sense that she was debating how much to tell him. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too.” He exhaled slowly and decided it was time. “So…it’s not just werewolves and gremlins, is it?”
She licked her lips and shook her head. “No. That isn’t all.”
“And you?” He looked up. She was blushing. “You’re…different. I get that.”
“Is it…okay?”
“You gonna tell me about it?”
She ducked her head. “I’ve wanted to, for a long time now. Didn’t think you were ready.”
“So…the floating stuff at the lake?”
She nodded, then looked at him. “I have gifts, Scott. Sometimes I use them to help my Dad and Sam fight bad things. Other times I’m just a normal kid.”
“I think maybe our definitions of normal might be different.”
Dana smiled and nodded. “Well, I am a Winchester.”
“So when you go ‘hunting’…I take it isn’t deer.”
“Nope. Ghosts, werewolves. Vampires once.” She sounded relieved, and yet worried.
“Vampires.” He shook his head. It was all too much. “That’s why you hate the horror movies I drag you to.”
“They don’t come close to the truth.”
There was a knock on the door and Dean pushed it open. “I heard voices. How you doing?”
“Considering everything…I’m okay, I think.” Scott answered. It wasn’t entirely the truth. If he thought about the way Troy’s face looked in the moonlight, the way his eyes glazed over, or the way his mouth bubbled with blood, he might freak out. He could feel himself hovering at the brink of that long fall. Dana touched his leg through the blankets and he sighed. “I mean….I’m a little weirded out and I’m fairly certain that I’m going to need therapy…but…well…I’m alive, and…and…” He blew out slowly. “Yeah…I’m…good.”
“It’s nearly noon. Your folks called. When you didn’t answer your cell or the house phone, they got nervous. They’re going to be delayed. They got snowed in in Chicago. I told them you were welcome to stay here.”
“Thank you. I don’t really know what to say.”
“Papa’s making lunch. You two feel up to coming down, or should we bring you a tray?”
Dana looked at Scott and he could tell she was waiting for him. “We’ll come down.”
Dean nodded, his eyes skipping over Dana before he closed the door behind him. “So, it’s your job to make sure I don’t go crazy over this?” Scott asked nervously.
She bit her lip and shook her head. “No job here Scott. What you did…I can’t…” She closed her eyes and pulled her shoulders back before she opened them. “I’ve killed demons, Scott. Gotten rid of ghosts. I’ve never…I mean, Dad or Sam or Papa always got the kill when it was a werewolf…or the vampire. Because they’re closer to human. I’ve never…and I can’t begin to know what it feels like.”
“It was Troy.” Scott said, shaking his head as he tried to wrap his head around it. “Troy of all people.”
“Troy was an ass, who nearly raped Erin.”
Scott frowned at her. “Does that make what I did any better? He was just a kid Just like us.”
Dana sighed. “No. I suppose not. I just want you to be okay.”
“This is going to take some time, you know that, right?”
Dana nodded. “I know. But I’m here, okay? Same me I’ve always been. And my Dads…even my Papa…we’re all here.”
Scott reached for Dana, pulling her close to kiss her gently. “Thank you.”
Title: The Seduction of Scott, Part 16
Characters/Pairings: Sam/Dean, Dana/Scott, OCs
Rating: R for violence
Word Count: 3382
Summary: Scott discovers the world of the Supernatural and has a trial by fire. There's a new werewolf in town, and when it attacks Dana and her friends, it's time is up.
Warnings & A/Ns: We slowly progress toward the Prom. Between shotofjack and myself, we've got most of Dana's senior year and summer planned. Part 15 of the story is available here: here.
“Coffee.” Dana suggested, pointing toward the coffee shop as their breath puffed up the cold night air. At least it wasn’t snowing.
“Why is it we’re out here walking?” Erin asked, hugging herself and moving closer to Scott.
“Because my car’s in the shop and Dana couldn’t get Sam’s and you wanted to see that god awful chick flick.” Scott answered, slinging his arm around Dana to pull her close.
“Remind me next time I have a brilliant idea.” Erin said.
Dana heard it and turned toward Erin. A growl, a scream, shouts…a blur of motion to Erin’s right. Her stomach dropped. She pushed Scott back and wrapped her arms around Erin’s waist, falling to the ground and bringing Erin with her. It blurred over them, one long claw slashing at them and Dana felt hot blood spray over her face.
She got Erin under her and reached for the small gun in her sock, forgetting that she’d left it home because it didn’t fit under her boot. “Fuck.”
It was coming back for more, charging at Scott. There were shouts and shots from behind them. “Scott, stay down!” Dana yelled as she covered Erin’s face.
There was a yelp as one of the shots hit home and it ran off. Police and bystanders were rushing them as Dana pulled herself shakily off her friend. “Erin?” Her hands pulled at the ruined sleeve of her coat, then clamped down over the wound. “It’s okay Erin, just a scratch. You hear me?”
Erin’s eyes were cloudy and rolling, but she nodded. She felt a hand and looked up to find Scott standing over her. “It’s gonna need stitches.” Dana said softly.
“Ma’am, is she hurt?” The cop who squatted beside her was her father’s age, dark skin and concerned eyes.
Dana nodded. “It took a swipe at her, tore up her arm. She’s gonna need stitches.”
“I have an ambulance on the way. Do you want me to take over?”
Dana shook her head. “I’ve got it.”
“Did you get a good look at it?”
Dana shook her head again. She had, but she knew this cop didn’t want to hear it. She glanced up at Scott who licked his lips. “It was a…big….dog…or something.” Scott said. “Weird looking though.”
The cop nodded. “We chased it from down by the high school.” There were sirens and then the ambulance was stopping, two EMTs coming to take Dana’s place. They got Erin up into the ambulance and Dana moved to follow, sparing a glance to the sky to confirm what she already knew. Full moon.
Scott’s eyes followed hers, then looked at her. She smiled weakly as he joined her, sitting beside Erin.
“Dad, it’s me.” Dana stood outside the ER with Scott walking in circles around her. She was reaching out for Sam to relay the facts more clearly at the same time she talked to her father. “We’re at County General. No, I’m fine. It’s Erin. She’s getting some stitches in her arm. We were…attacked. By a really big dog.”
She looked up at Scott who had stopped walking and was looking at her strangely. Werewolf, big fucking werewolf.
Sam felt agitated. Where?
“We were walking home from the movies, across from the coffee shop and it just came flying out of the alley.” She sent the few images she had, the blur of fur and face and nails.
Your Dad will come and get you. I’ll call Papa and go out looking for it
She hung up the phone and stuck it in her pocket. “My dad’s going to come get us.”
“Looks like Erin’s Mom is here.” Scott said, pointing.
Erin’s mother hurried from her car into the ER without spotting them. Dana sighed and hugged herself. “Hey, you okay?” Scott asked, moving closer to hug her.
She nodded. “That was close. If I hadn’t seen it coming, we could all be dead.” Or worse.
They were quiet for a minute. “What was that, Dana?” Scott asked suddenly. “That wasn’t like any dog I’ve ever seen.”
She shrugged and buried her cold nose into his jacket. She didn’t want to lie to him. She was tired of lying to him. “I really didn’t get a good look,” she said finally. She was saved from having to say more by the sound of the Impala. Her father to the rescue yet again.
They dropped Scott off at home. The house was dark. “My folks are out of town,” he said as he got out.
“You going to be all right alone?” Dean asked, leaning over Dana. Scott nodded.
“I’ll be fine.”
Dean nodded and they pulled out, headed back toward downtown. “Sam’s working the trail back toward the school.” Dana said quietly, checking the load in the gun her father handed her.
“You sure you’re okay?”
“I’m fine. Let’s just find this thing.”
Dean looked at her and she sighed. “It was close, Dad. Too close. And Scott saw and I think he knows it wasn’t some dog.” The look on his face outside the hospital said volumes.
“So we find it and put it down and Scott won’t have to worry about it.”
They pulled into the school parking lot. “Sam’s got a starting point.” She pointed toward the back of the school where the gym was. “There’s blood and clothes. No bodies though.”
Sam was coming toward them. “It definitely started here, tracks head straight for downtown. Dad’s down there, seeing if he can track it the other way.”
“It took off down toward the hardware store.” Dana said. “We should start at that end of the street.”
They parked a few blocks down from the hardware store and fanned out. The snow should have yielded good tracks, but it was packed down with footprints. Dana made a face as she tried to spot where she saw it run. “One of the cops winged it.”
They worked their way from the fairly quiet end of town toward the row of hang-out places like the coffee shop and all night diner. Sam. Dana stopped outside an alley in eye shot of a group of teenager near a bus stop. There was a low growling sound coming from the shadows. Dana turned, peering into the dark. She held her gun at her side, out of sight of the kids who obviously could hear the growling too now. “Good doggie.” Dana said softly, trying to calm her nerves.
Truth was, she hated hunting werewolves. The idea didn’t sit well, knowing it wasn’t their fault, knowing they couldn’t control it or remember it. She knew it was the only thing to be done, because sooner or later they would kill…and keep killing…but that didn’t mean she had to like it.
It growled, and she could see it now, a dark spot in the dark of alley. Sam. I found it.
She could feel his response, not so much words as a motion to indicate they were on their way. It was moving toward her now. She back stepped, raising the gun. It lunged and she tripped, landing in a sprawl on the street, her gun skittering away.
It was nearly on top of her before she managed a shield. Sam! Need you! Where the hell were they? She shoved the unbelievably heavy thing off her and heard it hit the wall with a yelp. She got up shakily and it was eyeing the now screaming group of kids a block away. “Oh no you don’t.” She picked up a stone and threw it, hitting the werewolf in the side. It turned back to her snarling. “Come and get me doggie.” She took off running with it close on her tail
Leading it away from people, lost my gun…hurry!
She glanced over her shoulder, making sure it was still with her. There was movement behind it, and she hoped it was Sam or her father. She had to get them off the main street though. She turned into the alley by Mr. Wiley’s drugstore. Somehow it caught up to her, raking claws down the back of one thigh.
Dana kicked at it and threw herself into the alley, scrambling for a weapon. All around her garbage levitated and she threw it at the beast, buying time. She sent images of the alley to Sam. It was nearly on top of her again. She held out both hands, generating an energy shield to hold it off. It wasn’t going to last long, she was already tired, and she was bleeding.
It was snarling and snapping its jaws at the shield. “Sam!” She screamed it in favor of wasting energy trying to reach him mentally. “Dad!”
A shot rang out and the werewolf jumped, whirled. Two more shots were fired and it staggered a few feet, then collapsed. Dana released the shield and collapsed backward into a pile of garbage, panting heavily.
There was the sound of the gun hitting pavement, then a soft voice. “Oh my god.”
Dana sat up fast, her eyes wide. “Shit. Shit. Scott.” She scrambled over the dirty pavement. Scott knelt beside the werewolf who had his human face back. His eyes stared up at Scott, his hand grasping weakly at the air.
“S-sc-cott? What…what happened?”
“Troy…Troy…I…I…” He looked up at Dana, but his eyes were vacant. There was blood all over Troy’s chest, all over Scott’s hands and jeans. He’d gotten close before he fired.
“Dana!” Sam’s figure filled the end of the alley, then stopped dead.
Dana took a deep breath. “Shh…Troy…it’s okay…You’re going to be fine. Just close your eyes.” She reached for Scott’s bloody hands. “Scott. Come on, Scott. Fuck. Sam!” Sam was there beside them, her father coming up behind him.
Dean picked up the gun, automatically wiping it free of fingerprints before deliberately putting his own on it and tucking it into his jeans. “Scott shot him.” Dana said softly. Scott was obviously shutting down in shock.
“I’ve got him.” Sam said, pulling Scott to standing. “We should get out of here before the police show up.” Dana nodded, standing and looking down at Troy. His eyes were open, dull, dead…there was blood in his mouth…on his lips. She shivered and reached for her father. The wounds in her leg weren’t bad…but they’d make walking uncomfortable for a few days.
Sam settled Scott into the back seat with Dana. He was shaking, staring at his hands. “I’ll meet you at the house.” Sam said softly, kissing her father’s cheek.
Dana wasn’t sure what to do. She put and arm around Scott’s shoulders and pulled him close, murmuring to him that everything was going to be okay. At the house, her father helped him out of the car and inside. Sam and her Papa pulled in right behind. By the time she got inside, Scott and her father were no where to be seen. She sighed and collapsed into a chair, lifting her injured leg to get a better look.
Her Papa was on his knees beside her in a second, ripping her jeans open to get a better look. “It’s not bad.” Dana said, her eyes lifting to the top of the stairs when her father emerged.
“I’ve got him in a hot shower. He’s not hurt, just in shock.”
“Well, yeah.” Dana said irritably. “Tonight he found out werewolves are real, that his girlfriend floats things and oh, I forgot, he killed a teammate!”
“No need to get snippy.” John said beside her.
“Dana, he probably saved your life.” Sam said, touching her shoulder. “He was bound to find out sooner or later, with as much time as you two spend together.”
“Dean, I need a med kit. These don’t need stitches, but we should get them cleaned up.”
“If we’re lucky, the shock will make him forget.” Sam said.
Dana shook her head. Scott had come looking for her. He’d known they were going to go after it. Which meant he’d at least suspected that it wasn’t just a really big dog. He wasn’t going to just forget.
Dean helped Scott out of the shower and showed him into the spare bedroom. “It’s late, why don’t you get some sleep, Scott. We’ll talk in the morning, okay?”
“Dean?” He’d stopped shaking, but his voice was trembling.
“Yeah?”
“I shot him…it wasn’t him though…it wasn’t…I shot him…”
Dean nodded and squatted beside the bed. “You saved Dana’s life, Scott. He would have killed her.”
Scott nodded, hair falling into his eyes. “It was Troy.”
Dean shook his head. “Not really. Troy was a victim too.”
He felt Sam behind him. Got something to help him sleep.
“Scott, I’m going to give you something, a little sedative, okay? So you can sleep.” Dean held his hand out for the syringe and Sam set it in his hand. Scott didn’t really respond, and he flinched when Dean pushed the needle into this arm. In a few minutes, Scott was asleep and Dean pulled a blanket up over him before he sighed and stood.
“How’s Dana?” Dean asked as they got back to their bedroom.
“Honestly, pretty freaked out. I just can’t tell which is getting to her more, what Scott did or who the werewolf was.” Sam shook his head. “Last time I saw him was that whole party at the lake thing. Found him with Erin.”
“Well, we can bet it was his first cycle, or we would have heard about it before now.” Dean said, sitting down on the bed to pull off his boots. “Fuck Sam. I don’t even know what to say to the kid.”
“He’s a good kid. He’ll be fine.”
“He’s seventeen and he’s just killed someone. How does that make him fine?”
Sam came to sit beside him, one big hand rubbing warmly over his back. “He did it to save Dana. He loves Dana. He had us to help. He’ll be fine.”
Dean wasn’t sure he believed him, but the deed was done and short of asking Sam or Dana to take the memory away, there wasn’t much they could do.
Scott woke in the false dark of a room with blackened windows. The night before came crashing out of his dreams and into his reality. He was in a borrowed t-shirt and sweats, tucked up in a borrowed bed because he’d been so lost in shock the night before he couldn’t be trusted to take care of himself.
Shock. That was a good word for it.
He had an inkling that something wasn’t right when they dropped him off. It was something about the silences, and how they seemed to say more than the words. They were going back, and Scott wanted to know why…wanted to know what it was.
Dana had told him once that werewolves didn’t know, that they didn’t remember being the wolf. He thought she was a little silly.
Werewolves.
There was no denying that’s what it was, though less wolf-like than he had imagined. Scott could see it if he closed his eyes. It…more like him. Could feel the gun heavy in his hand. He’d seen her drop it, picked it up and followed. He could smell the blood, hear Troy’s voice.
Troy. He’d shot and killed Troy.
Troy was dead. It didn’t quite seem real.
Scott opened his eyes. Dana was curled up in the chair beside the bed, her long legs over the arm, one leg sporting clean white bandages. He’d often wondered why Dana and her family always seemed to be sporting one injury or another…and after the whole bowling alley thing he thought he knew…but this went way beyond the bowling alley thing.
He sat up slowly. His hands were shaking. He took a deep breath and tried to be rational. He just wasn’t sure how far rational was going to take him with this.
Dana stirred, her eyes opening and a sleepy smile creeping over face. “Hey.”
“Hey.” He hated the way his voice shook, and he had trouble meeting her eyes.
“You sleep okay?”
He nodded and pulled the blanket up over his lap. “Your dad…he gave me something.”
She smiled, swinging her legs down. “He’s good at that.”
“How about you? How’s your leg?”
“I’m good. It’s a little sore, but I’ll be fine.” She leaned forward, then slid onto the bed, reaching for his hands. “You…you saved my life.”
He shook his head. “You were handling it, I saw…hell, I don’t know what I saw anymore.” He pulled his hands free and pushed the hair out of his face. “I’m not crazy right? He was…I mean…a wolf…a fucking werewolf?”
Dana sighed and nodded slowly. “Near as we can figure, Troy got bit last month. This must have been his first cycle.” She looked away and he got the sense that she was debating how much to tell him. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too.” He exhaled slowly and decided it was time. “So…it’s not just werewolves and gremlins, is it?”
She licked her lips and shook her head. “No. That isn’t all.”
“And you?” He looked up. She was blushing. “You’re…different. I get that.”
“Is it…okay?”
“You gonna tell me about it?”
She ducked her head. “I’ve wanted to, for a long time now. Didn’t think you were ready.”
“So…the floating stuff at the lake?”
She nodded, then looked at him. “I have gifts, Scott. Sometimes I use them to help my Dad and Sam fight bad things. Other times I’m just a normal kid.”
“I think maybe our definitions of normal might be different.”
Dana smiled and nodded. “Well, I am a Winchester.”
“So when you go ‘hunting’…I take it isn’t deer.”
“Nope. Ghosts, werewolves. Vampires once.” She sounded relieved, and yet worried.
“Vampires.” He shook his head. It was all too much. “That’s why you hate the horror movies I drag you to.”
“They don’t come close to the truth.”
There was a knock on the door and Dean pushed it open. “I heard voices. How you doing?”
“Considering everything…I’m okay, I think.” Scott answered. It wasn’t entirely the truth. If he thought about the way Troy’s face looked in the moonlight, the way his eyes glazed over, or the way his mouth bubbled with blood, he might freak out. He could feel himself hovering at the brink of that long fall. Dana touched his leg through the blankets and he sighed. “I mean….I’m a little weirded out and I’m fairly certain that I’m going to need therapy…but…well…I’m alive, and…and…” He blew out slowly. “Yeah…I’m…good.”
“It’s nearly noon. Your folks called. When you didn’t answer your cell or the house phone, they got nervous. They’re going to be delayed. They got snowed in in Chicago. I told them you were welcome to stay here.”
“Thank you. I don’t really know what to say.”
“Papa’s making lunch. You two feel up to coming down, or should we bring you a tray?”
Dana looked at Scott and he could tell she was waiting for him. “We’ll come down.”
Dean nodded, his eyes skipping over Dana before he closed the door behind him. “So, it’s your job to make sure I don’t go crazy over this?” Scott asked nervously.
She bit her lip and shook her head. “No job here Scott. What you did…I can’t…” She closed her eyes and pulled her shoulders back before she opened them. “I’ve killed demons, Scott. Gotten rid of ghosts. I’ve never…I mean, Dad or Sam or Papa always got the kill when it was a werewolf…or the vampire. Because they’re closer to human. I’ve never…and I can’t begin to know what it feels like.”
“It was Troy.” Scott said, shaking his head as he tried to wrap his head around it. “Troy of all people.”
“Troy was an ass, who nearly raped Erin.”
Scott frowned at her. “Does that make what I did any better? He was just a kid Just like us.”
Dana sighed. “No. I suppose not. I just want you to be okay.”
“This is going to take some time, you know that, right?”
Dana nodded. “I know. But I’m here, okay? Same me I’ve always been. And my Dads…even my Papa…we’re all here.”
Scott reached for Dana, pulling her close to kiss her gently. “Thank you.”