The Huntress -Chapter 1
Chapter 1
visited thPortland, December 24
Rania Suleiman was holding the pregnancy test, staring at it like she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing.
“So,” she started, then closed her mouth.
Sumiko wiggled in Sam’s arms and tried to catch the woman’s attention by screaming and smiling at the same time.
Dean’s face was beet red and he was looking down at his feet.
“So,” Sam said, speaking loud enough to cover Sumiko’s babbling. It startled her for about half a second before she went on with her little show.
“The curse has remained on Dean since Sumiko’s birth?”
“That’s the only explanation.”
“When did… what happened exactly? Was this the first time you guys…”
Dean cleared his throat and mumbled something about Sam being the usual bottom in their relationship. Sam would’ve protested if he hadn’t been busy trying to stop Sue from grabbing a clump of his hair in her chubby fist.
“Okay, so, basically, you had sexual intercourse with Dean being on the receiving end and the symbols of the curse reappeared.”
“Basically. I thought I could use a counter-curse, you know, because now I have some idea of what we’re dealing with, but huh… we couldn’t go through with it,” Sam said, starting to feel as embarrassed as Dean.
“When did this happen?”
“December fifteenth.”
Rania’s pretty eyes widened.
“So the whole Dean-isn’t-feeling-well thing…”
“We needed some time to sort this out.”
“Ooo-kay.”
Rania took a pen and played with it for a while. Dean looked like he was about to melt in his chair. “Why did you wait until now?”
“We wanted to be sure. The pregnancy tests kept coming back negative, probably because it was too early. This one we did yesterday. So…”
Rania suddenly seemed to snap out of her stupor and grabbed something from her desk - the cardboard wheel she’d used to find Dean’s due date the first time.
“Dean… your baby is going to be born around September seventh.”
“Jesus,” Dean rasped because apparently, he’d just now realised what was happening to him. It was too soon for the morning sickness, too soon for any kind of symptoms, and he’d been shocked when the fourth pregnancy test he’d taken that week finally turned positive. To tell the truth, Sam himself had started to doubt the whole thing.
There was a long moment of silence. Even Sumiko looked at everybody, wondering what the hell was going on.
Dean cleared his throat and looked Rania in the eyes. “Listen, Rania, I know we’re fucked-up. I know this wasn’t the wisest decision to make and we don’t have the right to ask so much of you again. And I’m sorry, I really am. If you prefer to stay out of it, we’ll deal.”
How would they deal exactly, Sam had no idea.
“Come on, Dean,” Rania said, her professional mask back in place. “I won’t abandon you guys to this… supernatural pregnancy. Of course, I’ll take care of you and the baby. I’m just worried, you know. Things were pretty rough last time, especially after the birth. At least we know what to expect this time and I could probably work on a combination of meds to slow things down when the curse starts to go wild after the delivery…”
Rania kept on talking, and Sam thought: here we are, starting all over again, feeling a mix of apprehension and excitement swelling in his chest.
::: :::
They decided that Sumiko deserved a Christmas, although she wouldn’t remember it. They had just finished moving into their new house in Freeport and didn’t have a lot of time to work on it, but Sam bought a small tree and some Christmas lights. It stood proudly in the living room and Sumiko never tired of looking at the blinking lights with an expression of wonder on her face.
On Christmas morning, there was only one present under the tree, overloaded with bows and ribbons, the paper glistening in a green and red pattern of squares and dots. Dean had thought that as young as she was, Sue would probably be way more interested by the wrapping than by the gift itself and had gone over the top with it.
They were short on money, and both brothers had agreed not to buy each other any gifts. Dean had put looking for a job on hold since they’d found out about the pregnancy and Sam’s technician salary was barely enough to cover their everyday expenses. Luckily, the house had come with some pieces of furniture and kitchen accessories -there was even a linen closet filled to capacity with towels and sheets. Still, they couldn’t permit themselves anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary, and all they could do was hope that no unplanned expenses came their way.
The whole thing was stressing Dean, Sam knew, but neither of them talked about it. It was like they had decided to put everything on hold until they were sure about the new baby coming. And now they were.
When Sam awoke that morning a little after seven, Dean was already up. He could hear Sue giggling from her room next to theirs on the first floor of the house.
It had snowed again during the night, Sam realised, looking out the window. The landscape was astonishing; everything was white except for the ocean. Violent dark waves were crashing on the shore, tumbling and colliding one against the other.
Home. This was their home.
Sam went to find Dean who was putting Sue in a fresh diaper. A very heavy smell hung in the room, coming from a dirty diaper wrapped up in a plastic bag.
“Jesus,” Sam groaned.
“Yeah, she outdid herself this time,” Dean said in a gruff voice.
Sue smiled and wiggled her legs.
“Bet it feels good to be cleaned up, doesn’t it, monkey?” Dean added. “Sam, grab me the pajamas over there.”
Dean had chosen Sumiko’s newest set of pajamas. They were fire engine red, with small green and white stripes. Of course, Dean would never admit they had been especially bought for Christmas, but Sam knew better. He grabbed the soft piece of cloth and handled it to Dean just in time to see his brother’s face turn a greenish white.
“Okay, no, I can’t,” Dean announced, rushing out of the room, one hand covering his mouth.
“Looks like dad’s morning sickness is starting early today,” Sam told Sue who answered with a long gurgling laugh. “Merry Christmas, baby girl.”
Later, they settled in the living room, just the three of them. Dean was a little pale but still in a good mood. Sam lay on his side on the floor, holding Sumiko in a sitting position against him as Dean put a wrapped gift in front of her. He was smiling, his green eyes bright, and that reminded Sam of the little kid who was still hiding inside of Dean, the kid who had never had the chance to really be and who was trapped there forever, giving Dean, the tough hunter everybody knew, this innocent, naïve side Sam loved so much. He was almost as excited as Sumiko as he held her present.
Sumiko grabbed the gift with both hands, letting out small excited cries, and let it drop onto her legs, banging on it and wiggling her feet.
“There’s something inside, sweetheart,” Dean said, laughing and tearing a piece of wrapping paper.
He was taking pictures with his cell phone.
Sumiko’s eyes crossed in excitement, hearing the noise it made. She tried to mimic Dean’s gesture but all she could do was to get a bow stuck to her hand, which made her even more excited. She drooled all over her chin and down her new Christmas pajamas, waving her hand in front of her. Sam was laughing too, now, petting the soft blond hair on her head.
“That’s awesome,” Dean declared, and lay on his back next to Sue. “Let her play with it for a while. She can finish unwrapping it later.”
“She’s going to hyperventilate,” Sam giggled as Sumiko continued working herself up.
They were alone on Christmas morning with the only gift being an overwrapped package of plastic blocks for Sumiko and Sam thought it was the best Christmas ever. He looked at Dean’s stomach, flat and firm, and was filled with anticipation at the idea of seeing it swell, of another human growing in there, one they would love as much as they loved Sumiko, even if that seemed impossible.
“No, Sue, not in your mouth!” Dean said suddenly, and Sam helped him take a piece of paper soaked in saliva out of their daughter’s mouth.
Sam laughed the whole time. The warm sensation blooming in his chest was pretty damn close to happiness, he thought. And as it was Christmas, he thought he was entitled to be a sentimental sap.
::: :::
When they went to bed that night, Sam found Dean laying on his back on the bed, naked, a red ribbon tied around his dick.
“Merry Christmas, Sammy,” he said with a mischievous smile. “Wanna come and get your present?”
“You are a moron,” Sam said, but started to undress as quickly as he could.
Dean waggled his eyebrows. “Come on… you know you wanna…”
“Shut up.”
But Sam… yeah. Sam wanted. He took his time to give Dean the best, sloppiest blow-job he could manage and then jerked himself off until he came all over his brother’s belly. Dean, sated, still riding the last aftershock of his orgasm, groaned.
“Need to mark your territory, dude?”
And yes, that was how Sam felt. Possessive, crazy in love. He kissed Dean’s pink lips as an answer, then grabbed a discarded tee-shirt near the bed to clean them both. When he was done, Dean lay on his side, leaning his head in his palm, looking serious and preoccupied all of a sudden.
“There is this job offering as a busboy in a bar nearby.”
“Busboy.”
“Yeah. I thought maybe I could go for it. It’s three days a week from Thursday to Saturday and since it’s at night, you’ll be home for Sue.”
“Busboy is a tough job, Dean. You’ll be on your feet all that time and, huh… what if there is a fight and…” Sam tried his best to sound casual, but the worry was clear in his voice.
“Well, I could still, ya know, try it, see what kind of bar it is and… We need the money, Sam.”
“I know.” Sam sighed, turning on his back. “You know, there is another solution, right? Find a baby-sitter for Sumiko and find an easier job.”
Dean frowned stubbornly.
“She’s still too young for that.”
It wasn’t the first time they’d had this baby-sitter conversation. Sam knew Dean was reluctant to leave their daughter in the hands of a stranger, but they would have to do it eventually.
“Dean. We’ll have doctor appointments coming up, and with your pregnancy we’ll need help. It’s past time to find someone.”
“Yeah well, anything could happen, Sam. And what? Think a thirteen-year old girl could deal with-”
Dean bit his lips, like he’d been about to say something unthinkable. A pink blush was creeping up his cheeks.
“We can’t protect her more than we are now,” Sam said softly. “I mean, this house is like a fortress against the supernatural with all the protections we’ve installed. And she has her bracelet and her name.”
The bracelet was a fine leather band Sam had made when Sumiko was born. It was tied around her left ankle and carved with all the protection symbols he could think of. Of course, it wasn’t fool proof, a bracelet could be cut, but then again, what were they supposed to do? Have their baby daughter tattooed?
“We don’t know if her name has any power at all, and as for the bracelet…” Dean made a dismissive gesture.
“Dean. We can’t act like that, like something is after her and is just waiting for us to turn our backs. We’re gonna turn into dad.”
It was a low blow, Sam knew, but it was also effective if the way Dean’s face hardened was anything to go by.
“It’s not like that.”
“All I want you to do is to think about it, okay?”
“Oh, geez, Sam. Stop treating me like a freaking kid.”
Dean let himself fall back on the mattress, staring at the ceiling and sighing loudly. “Anyway, I don’t know how we’ll manage it.”
“What?”
“Fucking everything. The money, and the pregnancy, and the new baby. I mean, what are we gonna tell people this time? If Bobby comes by, what are we gonna say? That I’ve put on some weight? And then after it’s born, will we say this baby is another love child of mine, dropped in my arms by another unfit mother? Jesus, Sam, I’ve been thinking about this constantly and I can’t find any solution.”
Sam wanted to reassure him, he really did, but Dean had just expressed out loud the same worries he himself had been struggling with. He had no solution to propose.
“We’ll manage. Let’s take it one day at a time for now. It’s still so new and…”
“You don’t know what to do either.”
“… No.”
“Fuck.” Dean rubbed at his eyes. “It keeps me up at night, trying to wrap my head around all of this. And that’s when I don’t have those strange dreams.”
“What kind of dreams?”
Dean shrugged, looking like he already regretted saying anything about it. “T’s probably the freaking hormones and all that shit. But huh, yeah… I keep dreaming about this… thing. I’m in the woods and there’s some kind of woman running through the trees, and I can’t really see what she looks like because she’s all… shinny and stuff. And in my dream I know she’s hunting and I’m thinking, ’There’s the huntress.’ It’s… strange. I never have recurring dreams but I’ve had this one three times this week.”
“Is it more like a nightmare?”
“No. I don’t feel threatened. Just… like, I’m trying to understand what’s going on, but I can’t.”
“The woman, is she-“
“Sam. Enough. I’m tired and it’s just a dream.” Dean yawned loudly, as if to rest his case and Sam let it go. He could feel, nevertheless, that this was bothering Dean. He would have never mentioned it in the first place if it was just an ordinary dream.
Maybe he was right, though, maybe all of it was just a hormone issue.
He turned off the nightstand light and settled comfortably in bed. Sue didn’t wake them up until six am the next morning.
Freeport, January 6
Since they had moved to Freeport, Sam had to spend thirty more minutes on the road each morning and afternoon. It wasn’t that much of a big deal, but still, he didn’t like the idea of not being able to be there quickly if anything were to happen. Of course, when they had bought the house, Dean hadn’t been pregnant and they hadn’t had any plans to have another baby, but now… now Sam kept wondering what they would do if Dean got hurt in any way. It’s not like he could go to the nearest neighbor if he had stomach pain or early contractions.
Even though it was very early in the pregnancy to be having those kind of worries, Sam liked to be prepared and if Dean’s first pregnancy had given him cause to be worried, now things were even worse since Dean had not only himself to take care of, but their baby daughter as well.
Another thing that bothered him was that now they were almost an hour away from Portsmouth and Rania. For this reason, and since the first pregnancy had been fairly normal, considering the circumstances, they had decided that one visit every two weeks would be enough. Still, if the labor was to start in a rush like those I-gave-birth-in-the-car tales the internet was so full of, this was another reason for Sam to feel uneasy about it.
He was juggling with all these thoughts while at work. The students wouldn’t be back until the next day and Sam had had plans to fix some minors problems with the internet connection without being disturbed, but his thoughts kept wandering, he was more nervous and fidgety than usual and unable to understand why exactly. He’d called home three times, and during the last call, Dean had told him to get a life and that he wasn’t his freaking fragile wife waiting for him to come back to her.
During his lunch break, Sam scanned the job offerings in the Freeport area, just in case he could find something better than what he had right now. He doubted it; he had a good salary, nice benefits and most importantly, he wouldn’t have to work during the summer, when Dean would be close to term, and he would still get paid his salary. He did find something else, though. An ad that was titled: “Hey, mom! Looking for a supplementary income? Work in the comfort of your own home! - easy statistics compiling job.”
Sam bookmarked the ad, wondering if it was legit or not. It was from a company in the Great Portland area, not a mysterious internet source, and it seemed to be exactly what it said, statistics compiling. The qualifications included a working knowledge of Excel and Microsoft office and an internet connection, all of which Sam -and Dean- had.
Sam thought he could make this work for Dean. It seemed boring but not complicated at all. As long as Dean didn’t saw the advertisement (Hey, mom? Yeah, that would go well.) he’d probably be interested by the job. It was way much safer than busboy in a shady bar.
Lost in his thoughts, Sam still couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling he had.
He couldn’t wait to be back home and left early.
Turned out, Dean wasn’t in a good mood either. When Sam got home, he was folding the laundry in the living room, sitting on the floor with Sumiko laying on a blanket next to him and drooling around what looked like a carrot.
“Dean?”
“Yep.”
“Is that a carrot?”
“Yep.”
“Why?”
Dean shrugged impatiently. “I think she may be cutting a tooth. She’s drooling like crazy and she’s snappy and she has all those red patches on her butt again.”
“There are dental toys for babies, ya know?”
Sam tried to take the carrot away from Sue, but she held her own, growling around the vegetable.
“I know, but I didn’t have any, and dad used to do this with you. It’s a freaking big carrot. She can’t bite it. It’s okay. And before you ask, yeah, I washed it.”
“Is there anything for dinner?”
“No, Sam! You can cook too, ya know,” Dean snapped, then went back to folding the laundry.
Sam wisely held back any comments he might make, and didn’t mention the job offer he had seen on the internet. He snatched Sumiko from the floor and went into the kitchen to cook dinner. Settled in her swing, she huffed and groaned around her saliva-covered carrot the whole time.
“You do look like you’re cutting a tooth, baby girl. A bit early, isn’t it? Dad is going to buy you a nice frozen dental ring tomorrow, what do you say?”
Sumiko mumbled her approval.
She went to bed early after Sam and Dean decided to give her some Children’s Tylenol to help with the pain. After that, Dean looked like he needed some time alone, settling in front of a western rerun on the TV, silent, almost broody.
The uneasy feeling wouldn’t leave Sam, and he felt too impatient to cajole Dean into a more talkative mood. Instead, he made some excuse and went to bed just after eight, intending to read a little but falling asleep quickly, still wondering if there was something important he was forgetting.
::: :::
Jess.
Jess was looking at him from the ceiling, blood dripping on Sam’s face, flames melting her skin.
He closed his eyes. It’s not happening. Not happening. Not…
It smelled like smoke and burning meat, and he was running in the darkness, screaming for Dean. There was something he had to tell him before it was too late.
Something.
Somewhere, a baby started crying, and the smell changed: it was the stench of sulfur, heavy and insistent, everywhere, and then…
Yellow eyes opened just in front of him and suddenly he remembered what he had forgotten.
Oh God.
Sam woke up in a sweat, tangled into the sheets, already sitting up with a silent scream on his lips.
He was alone in the room. And today, Sumiko turned six months old.
The house was silent. It was almost eleven o’clock. Sam’s breathes came deep and fast. He stood up in a hurry, his heart beating so hard in his chest it hurt.
Yellow Eyes is dead. He’s dead, Lilith’s dead, Ruby’s dead. Nobody… No one is coming for her.
But as much as he told himself that, trying to grasp onto the logic and the facts, Sam was scared to death as he ran to Sumiko’s room, trying to scream her name, to yell for Dean, but unable to let out one single sound.
Please, no. God, please.
He should’ve remembered. After everything they had been through, how could he have forgotten?
Sumiko’s bed was empty. Everything looked normal. The salt lines were still there. There was no scent of sulfur in the air.
“Dean,” Sam wanted to scream, but it came out as a shaky whisper and he walked downstairs on wobbly legs. It seemed like an eternity before he reached the bottom.
There was a feeble light coming from the living room. Sam followed it, the wooden floor creaking under his bare feet.
“Dean?” he rasped.
His brother was lying on the couch in front of the TV, which was on mute. Sumiko was fast asleep in his arms, her head resting in the crook of his neck, her small butt jutted up.
Dean had one arm securely wrapped around their daughter, the other lying on the floor, Ruby’s knife held in a lax fist.
Sam let out a sigh that seemed to go on forever. He had to sit before his legs gave out on him. Dean looked up at him intently, the white trembling light of the TV dancing over his features like moving shadows.
“You okay?” He murmured.
“You remembered. Why didn’t you remind me about it?”
Dean bit his bottom lip and shrugged. His voice was soft and low when he answered. “I thought… I thought maybe you’d tell me it was stupid, worrying like this after we’ve killed him. But I couldn’t get it out of my head.”
“I dreamed about it,” Sam answered. “Fuck.”
He dragged shaky hands over his face and suddenly he was overwhelmed by the need to be close, to touch his daughter. He knelt on the floor near the couch and put his hand on Sumiko’s back, feeling her warmth and the slow movement of muscles as she breathed evenly. She was still so small. His hand seemed huge, with his fingers spanning his daughter’s shoulders and the bottom of his palm almost sitting on her butt. He sighed again and had to swallow back the lump in his throat.
“She’s alright,” Dean murmured, crooking a half-smile.
“Yeah, she is.”
Sam kissed Dean on the lips and settled himself as comfortable as possible.
They didn’t talk much.
Sam thought about Jess, thought about his mother, thought about how wonderful it was to have someone worth fighting for, like a brother and lover, like a young, innocent daughter. How wonderful but terrifying, because he could lose them.
He wondered what Dean thought about, if he was reliving that night all those years ago, when he had saved his baby brother from the fire.
Neither of them slept until the sun rose. They watched over their daughter the entire night and no demons visited them.
Chapter 2