Rallying the Troops
[Follows THIS.]
She had barely made it into the hotel before there was a presence behind her. She should have been paying better attention, but she was trying to get things organized in her head-trying to decide what would be the best set-up where, who would stand a better chance if things went south. Her brain was spinning tactics, so when the hand came down on her shoulder, she wasn’t prepared and it was about two seconds before she had whoever it was up against the nearest wall, knife to his throat. When she actually saw who it was however, she relaxed almost instantaneously.
“Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to sneak up on people?”
Nicky just gave her a grin as he reached up to pull the sunglasses slightly off his eyes, bright blue twinkling back at her. “Didn’t your mom ever teach ya ta pick on someone your own size, half-pint?”
She shook her head slightly, before nodding towards the elevator. “C’mon. I’m putting you on Winchester duty.”
“Wait, wait, wait-you called me all the way out here just so I can baby-sit?” The shades were back on again, but he had paused as he was putting them on, letting them rest halfway down the bridge of his nose. “Sweetheart, if I knew this was a domestic call, I wouldn’t have come.”
She spun around on her heel slightly, giving him a look. “The two men that I have you ‘baby-sitting’? Sam Winchester’s brother and nephew. Meg wants them dead. She actually succeeds? You have a very unhappy little Boy King on your hands, who happens to possess a nice and shiny demon killing gun. Never mind the fact that I would be very unhappy with you, and may get to you first.” She paused for a minute, letting it sink in, before giving him a look. “That better?”
Nicky rolled his eyes behind the glasses, before following her lead again. “Sometimes I hate that I owe you.”
“Oh, Nicky-I know you do.”
The two demons made their way upstairs, and Nicky leaned back casually against the wall while Ruby knocked on the door and got Dean to open it. “So tell me-Winchester’s brother. He got those shiny demonic based powers too, or is he not that lucky?”
Ruby threw him a look before shaking her head. “Not Dean. Meg just dosed Alec though, so he’s settling in to something new.”
“Fantastic,” Nicky shook his head. “Batshit little Princess.”
It was right after that that Dean opened the door, studying Nicky for a moment, before turning back to Ruby. “Who’s he?”
“Friend of mine,” Ruby said evenly as she made her way into the room, Nicky following close behind her. “He’s gonna help play bodyguard for Alec.” And you she added silently as she looked over at where Alec was sleeping on the bed. Jinx had perked up slightly when Nicky came into the room, checking him out as though he could be a possible enemy somewhere down the line, but Ruby reached up and scratched the dog behind the ears, letting him know that Nicky was a friend. “How’s he doing?”
“Better than he was before, but I think that’s mostly because Anna put him to sleep,” Dean said with a nod, still eying Nicky warily. The demon reached up and adjusted his shades before holding a hand out to Dean.
“Nicky.”
“Dean,” he said with a nod, before hesitantly shaking the man’s hand. “Friend of Ruby’s?”
“Ruby likes to use the word ‘friend’ loosely,” Nicky smirked as he made his way over and plopped himself down in one of the armchairs. “But we get along well enough, so I suppose she isn’t totally wrong.”
Dean nodded slowly, before turning back to Ruby. “Where’s Sam?”
“Took off,” Ruby replied quickly, starting to make her way back to the door. “Didn’t want to lose the trail.”
“Wait a second-” Dean began, giving her a look. “Sam went after Meg without me?”
“He’s a big boy, Dean,” Ruby shot back, starting to gather the things that she needed from her own stuff, and some of Dean’s gear as well. He could pick up some more of it later. “He can handle tracking down a demon-in fact, with his natural talents, he could probably do it better than you can.”
“That isn’t the damn point-we’re supposed to be doing this together.” Dean was pissed, and Sam and Ruby both had known he would be. But it was for the best-Sam had decided that a long time ago, and Ruby couldn’t help but agree with him. Dean had spent his entire life trying to protect Sam, now it was time he had his own dose of reciprocity.
“Look-Sam’s handling this. Take care of your son, and Sam’s going to do his best to save the other one. Alec needs you here.” Ruby had known from day one that Dean’s responsibility to his family was his Achilles heel, and she had absolutely no problem using it against him. It was her job after all. She started to make her way out the door, and Dean grabbed her arm tightly.
“If that bitch kills my brother-”
“I’m not going to let that happen,” Ruby said with a growl. “I’ve got his back.” Dean stared at her for a moment, before letting go of her arm, and Ruby continued to head out the door. “I’m going to send some back-up in for Nicky, and then I’m going to take off after Sam. Close the salt line behind me, and the only other people you can open it for is Amy and her ilk, got it? Nicky’ll know ‘em, so just listen to him, alright? Can you handle that?”
Dean just gave her a silent nod, before she turned and headed out the door again. Almost as soon as the door was closed behind her, there was another body in front of her. The woman, aside from the rapier style sword in her hand, was wearing a full length gown, and had her long hair pulled up behind her.
“This better be good,” Felicia sighed as she brushed a stray piece of hair out of her eyes. “I was in the middle of a great piece of American literature. Fabio was about to start ripping off some corsets.”
“Hope you brought it with you then,” Ruby replied with a smirk. “You might need it.”
Felicia was one of her oldest friends. They went back since before they were demons, and not may demons could say that. If there was someone she trusted explicitly, it was Felicia, which was why that sword in her hand was a little more than just your average sword.
“I knew I brought extra cigarettes for a reason,” were the next words out of the other demon’s mouth but at that point, Ruby was already moving, gesturing over her shoulder for Felicia to follow her. The girl did so without complaining, listening as Ruby explained the situation that they were in, and what she needed her to do. By the time Felicia had everything straight, they were at Lindsey’s door and Ruby was pushing it open.
“This is Lindsey-anyone tries to take care of him in a not-so-nice way, you take care of them.” Felicia was already moving into the room, peering at the figure on the bed carefully as she settled in to the space.
“You know, he’s relatively pretty,” she sighed, placing her sword down and leaning it against the wall of one of the armchairs near the window. “Aside from the giant hole in his chest, that is.”
“I’m glad you approve,” Ruby smirked, before pulling from the doorway and heading over to the armchair that Amy was curled up in, eyes half-lidded as the demon in question tried to fight off the very strong pull of sleep. Ruby reached forward, tapping the side of her face lightly to try and wake her up some. “Amy-up. I need your help. Then you can sleep.”
“Promise?” This voice wasn’t Amy, it was Anna, and Ruby softened slightly, before leaning in to help her to her feet.
“Yes-I just need you to call Seth and Roxanne, tell them we need their help and where we are. I’ll take you back up to Dean and Alec’s room and you can sleep there.” Mostly because she knew there were no salt lines in this room-at least not yet, and she didn’t want Anna sleeping where she couldn’t be protected.
“’kay,” she sighed softly, already pulling out her phone as she went. By the time they were through the hallway, she had the number dialed and the phone to her ear, waiting for the person on the other end of the line to pick up and Ruby had spotted the third and final member of the crew she had summoned standing in the alcove next to the elevator, leaning stiffly against the wall and looking down at his feet. She let Anna go, giving her instructions to have Dean let her in, before she made her way over to where the man was standing, looking him over critically.
“You’re late.”
Gordon’s eyes rolled up at her, blank and unyielding, and a lesser demon or person would have probably taken that as the sign to run the other way. Ruby, however, wasn’t scared of Gordon Walker-she never had been. She also knew better than to mention his name around either of the Winchester brothers, so the fact that she kept him close and had him working for her was more her secret than obviously well-known. In fact, most people didn’t know Gordon Walker had come back in demonic form, which left Ruby as having quite the fortunate ace up her sleeve.
“I didn’t know there was a time requirement.” His voice was low and calm, and he glanced around for a moment, before turning back to Ruby. “Where’s Sam?”
“Not here,” Ruby replied.
“You said Sam needed my help.”
“No, I said I needed your help,” Ruby said with a glare, before gesturing for him to follow her back towards the room where Lindsey was resting. “You and Felicia are to watch him. If anyone tries to kill him, you kill them.”
“What about Dean?” Gordon asked, tilting his head to the side slightly.
“Dean is covered. I want you here.”
“I think I might be of more use-”
“Gordon. Shut the hell up and listen for two seconds.” Gordon’s mouth closed-he didn’t look happy about it, but it did. “What Dean Winchester remembers about you the most from when he was alive? Was that you wanted to kill his brother, who was dosed with demon blood when he was a baby, and that was how he came into his powers. Now, the same thing has just happened to his son, and if you show up as your demonic self, Dean will hit the roof, and that is the last thing that Dean needs to be doing right now-understand?” Gordon didn’t respond, and Ruby took that as a yes. “Now go in that room, do your job, and maybe I won’t kill you when I get back. Got it?”
“Yes, ma’am.” There was a bit of sarcasm in that, but Ruby wasn’t going to complain all that much. Gordon was doing as he was told, and that was all that mattered. She made her way back out into the hallway, and after checking in with Anna that her back-up was indeed coming, Ruby made her way out of the hotel and left to track down Sam. There was no way in hell he was going to finish this completely all on his own.
Not if she had anything to say about it.
She had barely made it into the hotel before there was a presence behind her. She should have been paying better attention, but she was trying to get things organized in her head-trying to decide what would be the best set-up where, who would stand a better chance if things went south. Her brain was spinning tactics, so when the hand came down on her shoulder, she wasn’t prepared and it was about two seconds before she had whoever it was up against the nearest wall, knife to his throat. When she actually saw who it was however, she relaxed almost instantaneously.
“Didn’t your mother ever teach you not to sneak up on people?”
Nicky just gave her a grin as he reached up to pull the sunglasses slightly off his eyes, bright blue twinkling back at her. “Didn’t your mom ever teach ya ta pick on someone your own size, half-pint?”
She shook her head slightly, before nodding towards the elevator. “C’mon. I’m putting you on Winchester duty.”
“Wait, wait, wait-you called me all the way out here just so I can baby-sit?” The shades were back on again, but he had paused as he was putting them on, letting them rest halfway down the bridge of his nose. “Sweetheart, if I knew this was a domestic call, I wouldn’t have come.”
She spun around on her heel slightly, giving him a look. “The two men that I have you ‘baby-sitting’? Sam Winchester’s brother and nephew. Meg wants them dead. She actually succeeds? You have a very unhappy little Boy King on your hands, who happens to possess a nice and shiny demon killing gun. Never mind the fact that I would be very unhappy with you, and may get to you first.” She paused for a minute, letting it sink in, before giving him a look. “That better?”
Nicky rolled his eyes behind the glasses, before following her lead again. “Sometimes I hate that I owe you.”
“Oh, Nicky-I know you do.”
The two demons made their way upstairs, and Nicky leaned back casually against the wall while Ruby knocked on the door and got Dean to open it. “So tell me-Winchester’s brother. He got those shiny demonic based powers too, or is he not that lucky?”
Ruby threw him a look before shaking her head. “Not Dean. Meg just dosed Alec though, so he’s settling in to something new.”
“Fantastic,” Nicky shook his head. “Batshit little Princess.”
It was right after that that Dean opened the door, studying Nicky for a moment, before turning back to Ruby. “Who’s he?”
“Friend of mine,” Ruby said evenly as she made her way into the room, Nicky following close behind her. “He’s gonna help play bodyguard for Alec.” And you she added silently as she looked over at where Alec was sleeping on the bed. Jinx had perked up slightly when Nicky came into the room, checking him out as though he could be a possible enemy somewhere down the line, but Ruby reached up and scratched the dog behind the ears, letting him know that Nicky was a friend. “How’s he doing?”
“Better than he was before, but I think that’s mostly because Anna put him to sleep,” Dean said with a nod, still eying Nicky warily. The demon reached up and adjusted his shades before holding a hand out to Dean.
“Nicky.”
“Dean,” he said with a nod, before hesitantly shaking the man’s hand. “Friend of Ruby’s?”
“Ruby likes to use the word ‘friend’ loosely,” Nicky smirked as he made his way over and plopped himself down in one of the armchairs. “But we get along well enough, so I suppose she isn’t totally wrong.”
Dean nodded slowly, before turning back to Ruby. “Where’s Sam?”
“Took off,” Ruby replied quickly, starting to make her way back to the door. “Didn’t want to lose the trail.”
“Wait a second-” Dean began, giving her a look. “Sam went after Meg without me?”
“He’s a big boy, Dean,” Ruby shot back, starting to gather the things that she needed from her own stuff, and some of Dean’s gear as well. He could pick up some more of it later. “He can handle tracking down a demon-in fact, with his natural talents, he could probably do it better than you can.”
“That isn’t the damn point-we’re supposed to be doing this together.” Dean was pissed, and Sam and Ruby both had known he would be. But it was for the best-Sam had decided that a long time ago, and Ruby couldn’t help but agree with him. Dean had spent his entire life trying to protect Sam, now it was time he had his own dose of reciprocity.
“Look-Sam’s handling this. Take care of your son, and Sam’s going to do his best to save the other one. Alec needs you here.” Ruby had known from day one that Dean’s responsibility to his family was his Achilles heel, and she had absolutely no problem using it against him. It was her job after all. She started to make her way out the door, and Dean grabbed her arm tightly.
“If that bitch kills my brother-”
“I’m not going to let that happen,” Ruby said with a growl. “I’ve got his back.” Dean stared at her for a moment, before letting go of her arm, and Ruby continued to head out the door. “I’m going to send some back-up in for Nicky, and then I’m going to take off after Sam. Close the salt line behind me, and the only other people you can open it for is Amy and her ilk, got it? Nicky’ll know ‘em, so just listen to him, alright? Can you handle that?”
Dean just gave her a silent nod, before she turned and headed out the door again. Almost as soon as the door was closed behind her, there was another body in front of her. The woman, aside from the rapier style sword in her hand, was wearing a full length gown, and had her long hair pulled up behind her.
“This better be good,” Felicia sighed as she brushed a stray piece of hair out of her eyes. “I was in the middle of a great piece of American literature. Fabio was about to start ripping off some corsets.”
“Hope you brought it with you then,” Ruby replied with a smirk. “You might need it.”
Felicia was one of her oldest friends. They went back since before they were demons, and not may demons could say that. If there was someone she trusted explicitly, it was Felicia, which was why that sword in her hand was a little more than just your average sword.
“I knew I brought extra cigarettes for a reason,” were the next words out of the other demon’s mouth but at that point, Ruby was already moving, gesturing over her shoulder for Felicia to follow her. The girl did so without complaining, listening as Ruby explained the situation that they were in, and what she needed her to do. By the time Felicia had everything straight, they were at Lindsey’s door and Ruby was pushing it open.
“This is Lindsey-anyone tries to take care of him in a not-so-nice way, you take care of them.” Felicia was already moving into the room, peering at the figure on the bed carefully as she settled in to the space.
“You know, he’s relatively pretty,” she sighed, placing her sword down and leaning it against the wall of one of the armchairs near the window. “Aside from the giant hole in his chest, that is.”
“I’m glad you approve,” Ruby smirked, before pulling from the doorway and heading over to the armchair that Amy was curled up in, eyes half-lidded as the demon in question tried to fight off the very strong pull of sleep. Ruby reached forward, tapping the side of her face lightly to try and wake her up some. “Amy-up. I need your help. Then you can sleep.”
“Promise?” This voice wasn’t Amy, it was Anna, and Ruby softened slightly, before leaning in to help her to her feet.
“Yes-I just need you to call Seth and Roxanne, tell them we need their help and where we are. I’ll take you back up to Dean and Alec’s room and you can sleep there.” Mostly because she knew there were no salt lines in this room-at least not yet, and she didn’t want Anna sleeping where she couldn’t be protected.
“’kay,” she sighed softly, already pulling out her phone as she went. By the time they were through the hallway, she had the number dialed and the phone to her ear, waiting for the person on the other end of the line to pick up and Ruby had spotted the third and final member of the crew she had summoned standing in the alcove next to the elevator, leaning stiffly against the wall and looking down at his feet. She let Anna go, giving her instructions to have Dean let her in, before she made her way over to where the man was standing, looking him over critically.
“You’re late.”
Gordon’s eyes rolled up at her, blank and unyielding, and a lesser demon or person would have probably taken that as the sign to run the other way. Ruby, however, wasn’t scared of Gordon Walker-she never had been. She also knew better than to mention his name around either of the Winchester brothers, so the fact that she kept him close and had him working for her was more her secret than obviously well-known. In fact, most people didn’t know Gordon Walker had come back in demonic form, which left Ruby as having quite the fortunate ace up her sleeve.
“I didn’t know there was a time requirement.” His voice was low and calm, and he glanced around for a moment, before turning back to Ruby. “Where’s Sam?”
“Not here,” Ruby replied.
“You said Sam needed my help.”
“No, I said I needed your help,” Ruby said with a glare, before gesturing for him to follow her back towards the room where Lindsey was resting. “You and Felicia are to watch him. If anyone tries to kill him, you kill them.”
“What about Dean?” Gordon asked, tilting his head to the side slightly.
“Dean is covered. I want you here.”
“I think I might be of more use-”
“Gordon. Shut the hell up and listen for two seconds.” Gordon’s mouth closed-he didn’t look happy about it, but it did. “What Dean Winchester remembers about you the most from when he was alive? Was that you wanted to kill his brother, who was dosed with demon blood when he was a baby, and that was how he came into his powers. Now, the same thing has just happened to his son, and if you show up as your demonic self, Dean will hit the roof, and that is the last thing that Dean needs to be doing right now-understand?” Gordon didn’t respond, and Ruby took that as a yes. “Now go in that room, do your job, and maybe I won’t kill you when I get back. Got it?”
“Yes, ma’am.” There was a bit of sarcasm in that, but Ruby wasn’t going to complain all that much. Gordon was doing as he was told, and that was all that mattered. She made her way back out into the hallway, and after checking in with Anna that her back-up was indeed coming, Ruby made her way out of the hotel and left to track down Sam. There was no way in hell he was going to finish this completely all on his own.
Not if she had anything to say about it.