Hunter Becoming Hunter, Part 2, Supernatural, Keeper!Verse, PG-13
Fandom: Supernatural (Keeper!Verse)
Title: Hunter Becoming Hunted, Part 2 of ?
Characters/Pairing: Sam/Dean, Dana, John
Word Count: 3962
Rating: PG-13,for violence to a minor, vague recollections of childhood abuse
Summary: Dana, Sam and Dean are on the run, Dana and Sam are fighting and Dean feels caught in the middle as they hide out in an old cabin.
A/Ns & Warnings: No real warnings. Part of the Keeper!Verse. Anger and angst and stuff...bad guys wanting to do bad things.
Two weeks on the road and Dana was not happy. Neither, for that matter were Sam or Dean. Of the three of them, only Dean had lived this way before, and never with a 13 year old girl or a brooding and still not whole younger brother.
Motel rooms simply weren’t big enough.
Dean sat at the small table cleaning their weapons while Dana watched something on television and Sam pretended to be sleeping. In the morning they would pile back into the car and keep moving. Though he didn’t know where they were going, or even if they were still being followed.
His eyes slipped through the gloom to pick out his daughter’s face. It was hardest on her, he thought. She’d left behind friends, her pet, and she’d been dragged into this life even after Dean had sworn that wouldn’t happen. Worse, she’d seen. Dean and his father had finally tracked down the hunter that had followed Sam, that had set two Harriers loose on Dana. It hadn’t been pretty. She’d seen the whole thing, even though she’d been with Missouri at the time.
She’d been shaking and crying when he came to get her. They signed Sam out of the hospital and they’d been running ever since. No time to think about it. Just keep moving. The next hunter had caught them three states away, and Dean wasn’t sure what happened there, because he’d been knocked on his ass, but he knew that whatever it was, Sam had pissed Dana off.
The air between them had been chilly for days now. He couldn’t get either one of them talking to him.
Suddenly, Sam sat up and Dana stiffened. That was beginning to be the definition of not good.
Sam was standing and at Dana’s side as she doubled over, but he didn’t touch her. “Sam?” Dean stood, but kept his distance. Dana’s visions had gotten progressively harder in the last few weeks and he’d learned not to interfere.
“It’s almost over.” Sam murmured, his hand hovering over her head without touching.
Dana’s eyes lifted to Sam’s…eyes that were suddenly far too old for his baby girl, and she nodded tightly before she let him help her to her feet and she headed for the bathroom. Dean heard the sound of vomiting and turned to Sam.
He nodded and ran a hand through his hair. “She’ll be okay.”
“What was it?”
“There’s…the next one is getting close. We shouldn’t wait for morning.”
“Sam…tell me.” Dean lifted a hand to touch his face, pulling him closer. “I need to know.”
“She’s afraid Dean. Like I’ve never seen. That guy-the last one-“ He stopped and looked up as she emerged from the bathroom, looking pale and small.
“We should go,” she said, reaching for her bag before Dean shook his head.
“No. You need sleep, and not in a car. We’re staying. We can get up early and head out.”
“It might be too late.” Dana said with a sigh.
Sam’s face was pained. “It should be okay, Dana. He’s not-“
She held up her hand and Sam just stopped. She rolled her neck and shivered. “Yeah…okay…” Dean wanted to wrap his arms around her, but she was never very receptive to touch after a vision. “I’m going to sleep.”
They both watched as she shut off the television and crawled into her bed. Sam sighed and grabbed his jacket. “I’m going down to that corner store. Want anything?”
Dean shook his head and passed him a gun. “We’ll be fine.”
Only fine didn’t exactly describe what they were. Dean got them up and out before daylight. It was going to snow before they made the state line. Sam pointed them north, into more snow. The atmosphere in the car was chilly and Dean didn’t know how to warm it up.
At the first stop of the day, several hour out, Sam went inside the small truck stop to pay for their gas and relieve himself and Dana poked her head up over the seat. “Daddy?”
“Yeah?” He turned to look at her, marking the dark circles under her eyes, the pale color of her skin.
“I miss Papa.”
He smiled and nodded. “Me too.”
“I’m sorry…I know I’m not…I’m sorry I’ve been grouchy.”
He closed his eyes. “You’re fine, baby. Getting hurt by demons, and chased out of your home makes you allowed to be grouchy.”
She shook her head. “Not what I meant.” Her eyes picked out Sam as he moved through the store. “It wasn’t his fault and I was blaming him.”
“What happened?”
Her eyes closed and she shook her head. “He killed him. Sam…I mean Sam killed the man. I wanted to…save him.”
Dean nodded. He’d suspected something like that. “Sam saved your life.”
She nodded. “I know…but, it wasn’t his fault…that man…he was innocent, he was terrified. I wanted…I almost had him, and Sam shot him…and I felt him die.”
Dana snuffled at tears she obviously didn’t want to be crying, sitting back abruptly when Sam approached the car. “Have you told Sam?”
She shook her head. That was the coldness in the room, they’d both nearly closed their connection since it happened…and neither one of them knew how to function anymore without it.
“Hey, I got you a cocoa.” Sam said as he got into the car and handed it back to her. “Warm you up some.”
“Thanks.” She took the cup and sat back
“We’re about four hours from the cabin I was telling you about. Easy to secure, good place to make a stand.” Sam handed Dean a cup of coffee and glanced back at Dana.
She reached a hand up to his shoulder. “Show me?”
Sam smiled and Dean knew they were opening up slowly to one another. Dana nodded after a few minutes. Dean took that as acceptance and set them on the road. It didn’t take long before Dana was asleep in the back seat and Sam sighed in relief. “She’s really asleep this time.”
Dean looked at him and scowled. “What did you do?”
Sam looked scared for a second, then shook it off. “Normally I can sooth her to sleep, no matter what…but she wasn’t letting me. She hasn’t slept in days. I put something in her cocoa.”
“You drugged her?”
“Yes Dean. I did. She needed to sleep.” Sam sighed and stretched his legs under him. “She’ll sleep until we get there, and we should probably dose her again at dinner so she sleeps tonight too.”
The cabin was little more than an old hunter’s cabin, with a couple of beds, a wood burning stove and a table. It had belonged to Sam’s adoptive mother’s father and had been abandoned for years. It had strong defenses that needed very little to bring up, charms and sigils and protection spells that were stronger than most Dean had ever seen.
After a half an hour of unlocking them, Sam nodded and Dean gathered his daughter out of the car, awkwardly carrying her to the stairs while she slowly woke up. She struggled a little, but he kissed her forehead and her arms came up to hold on to him. This had been so much easier when she was smaller. Still, he got her inside and settled her onto the twin bed, wrapping her up in the blanket that had come with her from the car.
“Sit tight, I’ll get a fire going to warm the place up.”
Several hours later, the pot bellied stove had the place toasty warm and Sam was cooking them dinner while Dana and Dean played cards.
“Dad would love this place.” Dean said as he laid down his matching cards and discarded. “It almost feels like a vacation.”
“The last time I was here, I was Dana’s age.” Sam said, turning to look at her. He smiled, then the smile faded.
“Sam?”
He shook his head and went back to the food, but whatever it was had caught Dana’s attention too. “Sam?”
“I’m okay….just…a memory.”
“Why he was here.” Dana breathed, putting down her cards. Her eyes squinted, like she was concentrating. “He was hurt…came here to-“ Her expression changed as Sam’s shoulders stiffened, then she exhaled and slammed her hand on the table. “Dammit Sam!”
They both turned to look at her, unaccustomed to language like that. She stood, anger coloring her previously pale face. “Stop shutting me out. I’m not a child.” She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “Okay, maybe I am chronologically. But I can’t help you when you do that.”
Sam closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I don’t need-“
“Bullshit.” She said it so softly, but it cut right through and stopped him. “You think I don’t see what it’s doing to you?” She turned to look at her father. “Something happened when he was thirteen. Something big and painful. Something he thinks I’m too young to understand. It’s got him so freaked out right now that if I wanted to go behind the curtain over there and take a pee, he wouldn’t be able to stand still until he could see me again. And he won’t admit it, and that was why he shot that man while we still had a chance to save him.”
“Dana, stop.” Sam’s voice was low and dangerous, his eyes dark as they sought out Dean’s.
Dean knew, of course, at least in vague terms, what happened when Sam was 13, why he likely was sent here and what sort of memories the place likely stirred. “Dana, give your uncle some privacy.”
“Why? He doesn’t give me any. Do you know what it’s like to have him in my head all the time? Even when the connection’s closed, he’s there…lurking…Even when I want him to leave me alone.” She slammed her hand down again. “The only time he isn’t there is when he’s trying to hide something. Like when he was attacked. Like when he shot that man. Then he cuts me out and leaves me alone in the dark.” She was shaking in her anger and Dean reached out a hand to touch her, but she pulled away.
“You want me out of your head?” Sam whirled, her anger echoing in his face. “Fine. How’s this?”
Nothing happened that Dean could see. They stared at one another, then Dana blinked, the color draining from her face. Dean looked up at Sam who seemed stunned.
“Perfectly fine.” Dana said, her voice quiet, but not soft. She turned on her heel and grabbed her coat disappearing out the back door before either of them could move.
Dean rose to go after her, but a glance at Sam stopped him cold. “Sam?”
His face was white, and his shoulders shook as he sank to his knees beside the table. Dean was on the floor in a heart beat, catching him as he crumpled, tears flowing from his eyes as he quivered. “Sam…talk to me, man.”
“Its okay…we’ll be okay…its okay…” Sam clutched at Dean’s arm and he breathed heavily.
“What just happened, Sam?” Dean pulled his fingers through Sam’s hair.
Sam drew in a shuddering breath and slowly sat up. “I…let her go…she’s…not here.” Sam made a vague gesture at his head. “I mean, Missouri taught her how to make private places, where I never pry…but I’ve never…not since…” He breathed in again and exhaled slowly. “It hurts,” he whispered. “It hurts, Dean…not having her here…”
Dean cupped his hands to Sam’s face and kissed him. “I’m sure it won’t last, Sam. She’s angry and scared. She’ll get over it.”
Sam shook his head. “I didn’t know…didn’t realize how much I need her.”
“She needs you too. She’ll be okay, Sam. You both will.”
Sam nodded numbly and Dean picked himself up off the floor. “I should go make sure she’s all right.”
Dana flew over the snow, away from the tiny cabin and into the trees. Tears stung her eyes and whipped away off her cheeks as she ran. She knew better than to leave the cabin, to leave the safety of the wards, but she had to be away from Sam…away from the fury and anguish that crashed through him as something inside snapped and he let her go.
He let her go
She couldn’t feel him…way beyond when he shut her out…she stumbled in the heavy snow and pitched forward, landing on her knees. The cold, wet seeped into her through her jeans, but it felt right somehow. She was so cold inside, shouldn’t her outside match?
She shivered and cried and when she heard her father’s voice calling for her she covered her ears. Okay, so it was childish. She crossed her arms and hmmphed. So what. If they were going to treat her like a child, she could damn well act like one.
Dean was more than a little concerned as he stood on the back steps of the cabin and scanned the trees, calling Dana’s name into the approaching dark. There was a trail of footprints leading into the woods, indicating where she’d gone.
Normally, he wouldn’t worry. She was a resourceful kid. But this was anything but normal. She didn’t know these woods, she was scared…with good reason, and Sam couldn’t find her with the connection now. He shivered and stepped back inside to get his coat to go after her. “She’s run-“
Sam was standing, stock still, framed in the front door, staring out. “We aren’t alone,” he said softly. “Close the door.”
“Sam, Dana-“
“Their concentration is on us right now. We need to keep it that way.” Sam looked over his shoulder at his brother, then back out into the snow. Dean crossed the distance to stand beside Sam and look out into the front. A single man stood by the back bumper of the Impala, just outside the first line of defense around the cabin. “He can’t get in…not unless we let him in.” Sam’s words were still soft and directed to Dean, though his eyes never left the man’s.
Almost casually, the man raised a hand in greeting. “Hey Sam. Remember me?”
Sam nodded slowly and stepped out onto the porch. “Yeah, Peter. You aren’t welcome here. Turn around and go.”
Peter smiled, though the look was more eerie than friendly. “Can’t. Got a job to do. Why don’t you make it easier on me. Lower the wards.”
Sam shook his head. “Can’t do that Peter. Don’t make me have to hurt you.”
Peter shrugged and took a few steps away from the car, centering himself to Sam. “We only want the girl, Sam. You can keep the pretty play thing.”
Sam’s jaw was tight and Dean’s hand was closing on the gun in the back of his jeans. “I’ll kill you Peter. Don’t think I won’t.”
“You know this guy?” Dean asked and Sam nodded.
“We went to school together. He was a few years ahead of me. He’s not alone.”
“Sam, what about Dana?”
Sam shook his head. “He can’t know, okay…Just…I don’t know…we have to keep him talking and hope she sees them before they find her.”
Eventually Dana decided it was silly to sit in the snow and cry. It was getting dark, and with the dark the temperatures would drop again, and she wasn’t wearing boots, just broken down old sneakers. Her father was going to start to worry, and she was vaguely surprised that he hadn’t come looking for her.
It wasn’t like she’d tried to hide where she’d gone. She stood up and turned around, eyeing down the path of footprints she’d left behind as she’d run. Should be easy to follow.
Something wasn’t right. She pulled her hands out of her pocket and knelt in the snow, pushing it aside until she could reach the frozen ground underneath. Her hand was cold, but she pressed it against the dirt and tried to listen for the things around her.
There were animals, a cardinal on a tree branch, a couple of deer in a grove nearby…a raccoon closer to the cabin. There was the big, blank stretch where the charms and wards circled the cabin. She got a vague sense of people…more than two.
She pulled her hand up and stood quickly. More than two. More than Sam and Dad. Not good. Dana felt panic welling up inside her and kicked herself. This was her fault. She was so caught up in her emotional tantrum she hadn’t felt them coming.
She reached out for Sam, wanting to know they were safe, but he was gone…and she kicked herself yet again. Her hand went to her jacket pocket and pulled out her cell phone. No signal.
“Think Dana.” She turned, looking around her. She was the one in danger, the one outside the wards. She was the one that needed to get a grip and figure out what to do…and the first thing was to not leave a trail as wide as a highway behind her.
The dark was deepening around her and the sounds were taking on that eerie quality that came with night in the forest. She could do this. She’d trained for this.
Dana shivered. First things first, get away from the trail. She turned and retraced her steps, then set off with short strides toward the stream that she knew ran in the distance. Then she retraced her steps again. Okay…that might draw any one looking for her away. Now, to actually get away.
She went back to where she had sat in the snow and looked around. It was getting harder to see and harder to keep the fear pushed down into her belly. But the dark worked in her advantage. She tried to keep her steps light and move as much in a single step as she could.
By the time she could no longer make out the dent in the snow that marked her resting place, she was sweating, though her feet were freezing. She had no idea how far she’d gone, only that the cabin was to her left.
The trees creaked around her and Dana got the sense that she wasn’t alone. As long as it wasn’t one of those Harrier things, she could deal. She moved cautiously, angling her path to bring her closer to the cabin so she could see what was going on. Whatever it was moved with her, not moving closer, but following.
She swallowed the lump of fear and shifted from tree to tree until she could see the lights in the cabin windows. Sam was on the porch. There was a strange man outside the wards talking to Sam. She couldn’t see her father.
Dana squatted in the snow, trying to gauge the distance between her and the wards, between her and the man, between her and it behind her. She might be able to make it. She readied herself to run, then caught the movement out of the corner of her eye. There was another man, closer, circling the cabin, testing the wards. She could feel power oozing out of him and if he got close enough, he would know she was there.
She clamped down her own power, biting back the desire to blast a thought through to Sam, despite the closed connection. It would only give her away and probably make Sam do something stupid.
Dean stood by the back door, gun drawn, tracking the movement of the second man. A cold breeze swept through the cabin. Dean’s eyes flicked to the place where he knew Dana had run, then back to the man.
“Are there more?” Dean asked over his shoulder.
“I don’t know.” Sam replied. “Just sit tight.”
“Sam.”
“Please Dean.”
Sit tight. While Dana was out there in the cold and dark alone.
“We can wait longer than you, Sam.”
Sam nodded, hands in his pockets. “That may be true, Peter.”
“If we have to break in, you know I’ll be angry. You know how I get when I’m angry.”
Sam swallowed the fear that tone was designed to raise. Damn but he thought he’d broken that programming years before. Peter was one of the “boys” that his “father” had empowered to keep him in line at school. Most of the time that meant beatings, sometimes more. “I’ve changed Peter. I’m not that scared little boy anymore. You want something from me, you’re going to have to deal. We have enough fire power in here to keep you and your boy at bay for a while. Probably long enough to bore your pets. You do remember how they get when they’re bored, don’t you Peter?”
Sam smiled a twisted little smile as Peter rolled his shoulders. Yes, Peter remembered. Peter wasn’t all that different from Sam, after all.
“I want the girl.”
Sam shrugged. “She’s not for sale.”
“I will knock these wards down, one by one.”
“You can try.” Sam’s eyes scanned the tree line. By now, Dana should be figuring out what was going on…if she hadn’t gotten hurt already. He shook off the thought and tried to look casual about his searching. “You’re traveling light these days, Peter…and reduced to bounty hunting…how demeaning.”
“Oh, I took this assignment special, Sam. I was delighted to know I’d be seeing you again.”
There. Sam scanned past again, just to make sure. She held up her hand. Five. Two, and she pointed behind the cabin. One, and she pointed to Peter. One, and she pointed to her left. One, and she pointed up. Sam forced his eyes back to Peter, scanning past him and then back, as if he was just sweeping the area for more of his friends.
“I have a visual.” Sam said over his shoulder in a tone that wouldn’t carry further than Dean. “We have five visitors, at least one is incorporeal.”
“How do you know?”
“She says it’s over the wards.”
They were silent for a minute. Sam could taste Dean’s fear for his daughter. “We should send her away. Give her the signal for the back up plan.”
He watched Dean consider it. The standard back up and regroup would send her down the road, alone in the dark. There was a gas station/post office a few miles down, and she should be able to reach it and hide until it was open. From there she would call John. From there they would just have to catch up once they got out of this.
Dean nodded tightly and Sam inhaled. “So, we’re gonna be here a while, then, eh Peter? Better put the coffee on.” Sam made the same casual sweep, over Peter’s face and past until he caught sight of Dana again. He stretched his long arms over his head, joined his hands, then dropped them behind his head, making sure Dana was watching. When he knew she was paying attention, he dropped his hand to the side, wiping it across his hip, then moving it back over his backside.
Dana watched same signal her to move to backup. Watched and swallowed, because that meant things were bad. She couldn’t hear the words, and she couldn’t believe how scared she felt without Sam’s reassuring voice in her head. She waited while he did the looking around thing that the dumb idiot talking to Sam was actually buying, then when his eyes came her way again she signaled her agreement.
She didn’t like it. But maybe she could get a cell signal…or something. Papa would answer if she called. Papa would come. The only question was whether or not Papa could get there in time to make a difference.
Title: Hunter Becoming Hunted, Part 2 of ?
Characters/Pairing: Sam/Dean, Dana, John
Word Count: 3962
Rating: PG-13,for violence to a minor, vague recollections of childhood abuse
Summary: Dana, Sam and Dean are on the run, Dana and Sam are fighting and Dean feels caught in the middle as they hide out in an old cabin.
A/Ns & Warnings: No real warnings. Part of the Keeper!Verse. Anger and angst and stuff...bad guys wanting to do bad things.
Two weeks on the road and Dana was not happy. Neither, for that matter were Sam or Dean. Of the three of them, only Dean had lived this way before, and never with a 13 year old girl or a brooding and still not whole younger brother.
Motel rooms simply weren’t big enough.
Dean sat at the small table cleaning their weapons while Dana watched something on television and Sam pretended to be sleeping. In the morning they would pile back into the car and keep moving. Though he didn’t know where they were going, or even if they were still being followed.
His eyes slipped through the gloom to pick out his daughter’s face. It was hardest on her, he thought. She’d left behind friends, her pet, and she’d been dragged into this life even after Dean had sworn that wouldn’t happen. Worse, she’d seen. Dean and his father had finally tracked down the hunter that had followed Sam, that had set two Harriers loose on Dana. It hadn’t been pretty. She’d seen the whole thing, even though she’d been with Missouri at the time.
She’d been shaking and crying when he came to get her. They signed Sam out of the hospital and they’d been running ever since. No time to think about it. Just keep moving. The next hunter had caught them three states away, and Dean wasn’t sure what happened there, because he’d been knocked on his ass, but he knew that whatever it was, Sam had pissed Dana off.
The air between them had been chilly for days now. He couldn’t get either one of them talking to him.
Suddenly, Sam sat up and Dana stiffened. That was beginning to be the definition of not good.
Sam was standing and at Dana’s side as she doubled over, but he didn’t touch her. “Sam?” Dean stood, but kept his distance. Dana’s visions had gotten progressively harder in the last few weeks and he’d learned not to interfere.
“It’s almost over.” Sam murmured, his hand hovering over her head without touching.
Dana’s eyes lifted to Sam’s…eyes that were suddenly far too old for his baby girl, and she nodded tightly before she let him help her to her feet and she headed for the bathroom. Dean heard the sound of vomiting and turned to Sam.
He nodded and ran a hand through his hair. “She’ll be okay.”
“What was it?”
“There’s…the next one is getting close. We shouldn’t wait for morning.”
“Sam…tell me.” Dean lifted a hand to touch his face, pulling him closer. “I need to know.”
“She’s afraid Dean. Like I’ve never seen. That guy-the last one-“ He stopped and looked up as she emerged from the bathroom, looking pale and small.
“We should go,” she said, reaching for her bag before Dean shook his head.
“No. You need sleep, and not in a car. We’re staying. We can get up early and head out.”
“It might be too late.” Dana said with a sigh.
Sam’s face was pained. “It should be okay, Dana. He’s not-“
She held up her hand and Sam just stopped. She rolled her neck and shivered. “Yeah…okay…” Dean wanted to wrap his arms around her, but she was never very receptive to touch after a vision. “I’m going to sleep.”
They both watched as she shut off the television and crawled into her bed. Sam sighed and grabbed his jacket. “I’m going down to that corner store. Want anything?”
Dean shook his head and passed him a gun. “We’ll be fine.”
Only fine didn’t exactly describe what they were. Dean got them up and out before daylight. It was going to snow before they made the state line. Sam pointed them north, into more snow. The atmosphere in the car was chilly and Dean didn’t know how to warm it up.
At the first stop of the day, several hour out, Sam went inside the small truck stop to pay for their gas and relieve himself and Dana poked her head up over the seat. “Daddy?”
“Yeah?” He turned to look at her, marking the dark circles under her eyes, the pale color of her skin.
“I miss Papa.”
He smiled and nodded. “Me too.”
“I’m sorry…I know I’m not…I’m sorry I’ve been grouchy.”
He closed his eyes. “You’re fine, baby. Getting hurt by demons, and chased out of your home makes you allowed to be grouchy.”
She shook her head. “Not what I meant.” Her eyes picked out Sam as he moved through the store. “It wasn’t his fault and I was blaming him.”
“What happened?”
Her eyes closed and she shook her head. “He killed him. Sam…I mean Sam killed the man. I wanted to…save him.”
Dean nodded. He’d suspected something like that. “Sam saved your life.”
She nodded. “I know…but, it wasn’t his fault…that man…he was innocent, he was terrified. I wanted…I almost had him, and Sam shot him…and I felt him die.”
Dana snuffled at tears she obviously didn’t want to be crying, sitting back abruptly when Sam approached the car. “Have you told Sam?”
She shook her head. That was the coldness in the room, they’d both nearly closed their connection since it happened…and neither one of them knew how to function anymore without it.
“Hey, I got you a cocoa.” Sam said as he got into the car and handed it back to her. “Warm you up some.”
“Thanks.” She took the cup and sat back
“We’re about four hours from the cabin I was telling you about. Easy to secure, good place to make a stand.” Sam handed Dean a cup of coffee and glanced back at Dana.
She reached a hand up to his shoulder. “Show me?”
Sam smiled and Dean knew they were opening up slowly to one another. Dana nodded after a few minutes. Dean took that as acceptance and set them on the road. It didn’t take long before Dana was asleep in the back seat and Sam sighed in relief. “She’s really asleep this time.”
Dean looked at him and scowled. “What did you do?”
Sam looked scared for a second, then shook it off. “Normally I can sooth her to sleep, no matter what…but she wasn’t letting me. She hasn’t slept in days. I put something in her cocoa.”
“You drugged her?”
“Yes Dean. I did. She needed to sleep.” Sam sighed and stretched his legs under him. “She’ll sleep until we get there, and we should probably dose her again at dinner so she sleeps tonight too.”
The cabin was little more than an old hunter’s cabin, with a couple of beds, a wood burning stove and a table. It had belonged to Sam’s adoptive mother’s father and had been abandoned for years. It had strong defenses that needed very little to bring up, charms and sigils and protection spells that were stronger than most Dean had ever seen.
After a half an hour of unlocking them, Sam nodded and Dean gathered his daughter out of the car, awkwardly carrying her to the stairs while she slowly woke up. She struggled a little, but he kissed her forehead and her arms came up to hold on to him. This had been so much easier when she was smaller. Still, he got her inside and settled her onto the twin bed, wrapping her up in the blanket that had come with her from the car.
“Sit tight, I’ll get a fire going to warm the place up.”
Several hours later, the pot bellied stove had the place toasty warm and Sam was cooking them dinner while Dana and Dean played cards.
“Dad would love this place.” Dean said as he laid down his matching cards and discarded. “It almost feels like a vacation.”
“The last time I was here, I was Dana’s age.” Sam said, turning to look at her. He smiled, then the smile faded.
“Sam?”
He shook his head and went back to the food, but whatever it was had caught Dana’s attention too. “Sam?”
“I’m okay….just…a memory.”
“Why he was here.” Dana breathed, putting down her cards. Her eyes squinted, like she was concentrating. “He was hurt…came here to-“ Her expression changed as Sam’s shoulders stiffened, then she exhaled and slammed her hand on the table. “Dammit Sam!”
They both turned to look at her, unaccustomed to language like that. She stood, anger coloring her previously pale face. “Stop shutting me out. I’m not a child.” She crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “Okay, maybe I am chronologically. But I can’t help you when you do that.”
Sam closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I don’t need-“
“Bullshit.” She said it so softly, but it cut right through and stopped him. “You think I don’t see what it’s doing to you?” She turned to look at her father. “Something happened when he was thirteen. Something big and painful. Something he thinks I’m too young to understand. It’s got him so freaked out right now that if I wanted to go behind the curtain over there and take a pee, he wouldn’t be able to stand still until he could see me again. And he won’t admit it, and that was why he shot that man while we still had a chance to save him.”
“Dana, stop.” Sam’s voice was low and dangerous, his eyes dark as they sought out Dean’s.
Dean knew, of course, at least in vague terms, what happened when Sam was 13, why he likely was sent here and what sort of memories the place likely stirred. “Dana, give your uncle some privacy.”
“Why? He doesn’t give me any. Do you know what it’s like to have him in my head all the time? Even when the connection’s closed, he’s there…lurking…Even when I want him to leave me alone.” She slammed her hand down again. “The only time he isn’t there is when he’s trying to hide something. Like when he was attacked. Like when he shot that man. Then he cuts me out and leaves me alone in the dark.” She was shaking in her anger and Dean reached out a hand to touch her, but she pulled away.
“You want me out of your head?” Sam whirled, her anger echoing in his face. “Fine. How’s this?”
Nothing happened that Dean could see. They stared at one another, then Dana blinked, the color draining from her face. Dean looked up at Sam who seemed stunned.
“Perfectly fine.” Dana said, her voice quiet, but not soft. She turned on her heel and grabbed her coat disappearing out the back door before either of them could move.
Dean rose to go after her, but a glance at Sam stopped him cold. “Sam?”
His face was white, and his shoulders shook as he sank to his knees beside the table. Dean was on the floor in a heart beat, catching him as he crumpled, tears flowing from his eyes as he quivered. “Sam…talk to me, man.”
“Its okay…we’ll be okay…its okay…” Sam clutched at Dean’s arm and he breathed heavily.
“What just happened, Sam?” Dean pulled his fingers through Sam’s hair.
Sam drew in a shuddering breath and slowly sat up. “I…let her go…she’s…not here.” Sam made a vague gesture at his head. “I mean, Missouri taught her how to make private places, where I never pry…but I’ve never…not since…” He breathed in again and exhaled slowly. “It hurts,” he whispered. “It hurts, Dean…not having her here…”
Dean cupped his hands to Sam’s face and kissed him. “I’m sure it won’t last, Sam. She’s angry and scared. She’ll get over it.”
Sam shook his head. “I didn’t know…didn’t realize how much I need her.”
“She needs you too. She’ll be okay, Sam. You both will.”
Sam nodded numbly and Dean picked himself up off the floor. “I should go make sure she’s all right.”
Dana flew over the snow, away from the tiny cabin and into the trees. Tears stung her eyes and whipped away off her cheeks as she ran. She knew better than to leave the cabin, to leave the safety of the wards, but she had to be away from Sam…away from the fury and anguish that crashed through him as something inside snapped and he let her go.
He let her go
She couldn’t feel him…way beyond when he shut her out…she stumbled in the heavy snow and pitched forward, landing on her knees. The cold, wet seeped into her through her jeans, but it felt right somehow. She was so cold inside, shouldn’t her outside match?
She shivered and cried and when she heard her father’s voice calling for her she covered her ears. Okay, so it was childish. She crossed her arms and hmmphed. So what. If they were going to treat her like a child, she could damn well act like one.
Dean was more than a little concerned as he stood on the back steps of the cabin and scanned the trees, calling Dana’s name into the approaching dark. There was a trail of footprints leading into the woods, indicating where she’d gone.
Normally, he wouldn’t worry. She was a resourceful kid. But this was anything but normal. She didn’t know these woods, she was scared…with good reason, and Sam couldn’t find her with the connection now. He shivered and stepped back inside to get his coat to go after her. “She’s run-“
Sam was standing, stock still, framed in the front door, staring out. “We aren’t alone,” he said softly. “Close the door.”
“Sam, Dana-“
“Their concentration is on us right now. We need to keep it that way.” Sam looked over his shoulder at his brother, then back out into the snow. Dean crossed the distance to stand beside Sam and look out into the front. A single man stood by the back bumper of the Impala, just outside the first line of defense around the cabin. “He can’t get in…not unless we let him in.” Sam’s words were still soft and directed to Dean, though his eyes never left the man’s.
Almost casually, the man raised a hand in greeting. “Hey Sam. Remember me?”
Sam nodded slowly and stepped out onto the porch. “Yeah, Peter. You aren’t welcome here. Turn around and go.”
Peter smiled, though the look was more eerie than friendly. “Can’t. Got a job to do. Why don’t you make it easier on me. Lower the wards.”
Sam shook his head. “Can’t do that Peter. Don’t make me have to hurt you.”
Peter shrugged and took a few steps away from the car, centering himself to Sam. “We only want the girl, Sam. You can keep the pretty play thing.”
Sam’s jaw was tight and Dean’s hand was closing on the gun in the back of his jeans. “I’ll kill you Peter. Don’t think I won’t.”
“You know this guy?” Dean asked and Sam nodded.
“We went to school together. He was a few years ahead of me. He’s not alone.”
“Sam, what about Dana?”
Sam shook his head. “He can’t know, okay…Just…I don’t know…we have to keep him talking and hope she sees them before they find her.”
Eventually Dana decided it was silly to sit in the snow and cry. It was getting dark, and with the dark the temperatures would drop again, and she wasn’t wearing boots, just broken down old sneakers. Her father was going to start to worry, and she was vaguely surprised that he hadn’t come looking for her.
It wasn’t like she’d tried to hide where she’d gone. She stood up and turned around, eyeing down the path of footprints she’d left behind as she’d run. Should be easy to follow.
Something wasn’t right. She pulled her hands out of her pocket and knelt in the snow, pushing it aside until she could reach the frozen ground underneath. Her hand was cold, but she pressed it against the dirt and tried to listen for the things around her.
There were animals, a cardinal on a tree branch, a couple of deer in a grove nearby…a raccoon closer to the cabin. There was the big, blank stretch where the charms and wards circled the cabin. She got a vague sense of people…more than two.
She pulled her hand up and stood quickly. More than two. More than Sam and Dad. Not good. Dana felt panic welling up inside her and kicked herself. This was her fault. She was so caught up in her emotional tantrum she hadn’t felt them coming.
She reached out for Sam, wanting to know they were safe, but he was gone…and she kicked herself yet again. Her hand went to her jacket pocket and pulled out her cell phone. No signal.
“Think Dana.” She turned, looking around her. She was the one in danger, the one outside the wards. She was the one that needed to get a grip and figure out what to do…and the first thing was to not leave a trail as wide as a highway behind her.
The dark was deepening around her and the sounds were taking on that eerie quality that came with night in the forest. She could do this. She’d trained for this.
Dana shivered. First things first, get away from the trail. She turned and retraced her steps, then set off with short strides toward the stream that she knew ran in the distance. Then she retraced her steps again. Okay…that might draw any one looking for her away. Now, to actually get away.
She went back to where she had sat in the snow and looked around. It was getting harder to see and harder to keep the fear pushed down into her belly. But the dark worked in her advantage. She tried to keep her steps light and move as much in a single step as she could.
By the time she could no longer make out the dent in the snow that marked her resting place, she was sweating, though her feet were freezing. She had no idea how far she’d gone, only that the cabin was to her left.
The trees creaked around her and Dana got the sense that she wasn’t alone. As long as it wasn’t one of those Harrier things, she could deal. She moved cautiously, angling her path to bring her closer to the cabin so she could see what was going on. Whatever it was moved with her, not moving closer, but following.
She swallowed the lump of fear and shifted from tree to tree until she could see the lights in the cabin windows. Sam was on the porch. There was a strange man outside the wards talking to Sam. She couldn’t see her father.
Dana squatted in the snow, trying to gauge the distance between her and the wards, between her and the man, between her and it behind her. She might be able to make it. She readied herself to run, then caught the movement out of the corner of her eye. There was another man, closer, circling the cabin, testing the wards. She could feel power oozing out of him and if he got close enough, he would know she was there.
She clamped down her own power, biting back the desire to blast a thought through to Sam, despite the closed connection. It would only give her away and probably make Sam do something stupid.
Dean stood by the back door, gun drawn, tracking the movement of the second man. A cold breeze swept through the cabin. Dean’s eyes flicked to the place where he knew Dana had run, then back to the man.
“Are there more?” Dean asked over his shoulder.
“I don’t know.” Sam replied. “Just sit tight.”
“Sam.”
“Please Dean.”
Sit tight. While Dana was out there in the cold and dark alone.
“We can wait longer than you, Sam.”
Sam nodded, hands in his pockets. “That may be true, Peter.”
“If we have to break in, you know I’ll be angry. You know how I get when I’m angry.”
Sam swallowed the fear that tone was designed to raise. Damn but he thought he’d broken that programming years before. Peter was one of the “boys” that his “father” had empowered to keep him in line at school. Most of the time that meant beatings, sometimes more. “I’ve changed Peter. I’m not that scared little boy anymore. You want something from me, you’re going to have to deal. We have enough fire power in here to keep you and your boy at bay for a while. Probably long enough to bore your pets. You do remember how they get when they’re bored, don’t you Peter?”
Sam smiled a twisted little smile as Peter rolled his shoulders. Yes, Peter remembered. Peter wasn’t all that different from Sam, after all.
“I want the girl.”
Sam shrugged. “She’s not for sale.”
“I will knock these wards down, one by one.”
“You can try.” Sam’s eyes scanned the tree line. By now, Dana should be figuring out what was going on…if she hadn’t gotten hurt already. He shook off the thought and tried to look casual about his searching. “You’re traveling light these days, Peter…and reduced to bounty hunting…how demeaning.”
“Oh, I took this assignment special, Sam. I was delighted to know I’d be seeing you again.”
There. Sam scanned past again, just to make sure. She held up her hand. Five. Two, and she pointed behind the cabin. One, and she pointed to Peter. One, and she pointed to her left. One, and she pointed up. Sam forced his eyes back to Peter, scanning past him and then back, as if he was just sweeping the area for more of his friends.
“I have a visual.” Sam said over his shoulder in a tone that wouldn’t carry further than Dean. “We have five visitors, at least one is incorporeal.”
“How do you know?”
“She says it’s over the wards.”
They were silent for a minute. Sam could taste Dean’s fear for his daughter. “We should send her away. Give her the signal for the back up plan.”
He watched Dean consider it. The standard back up and regroup would send her down the road, alone in the dark. There was a gas station/post office a few miles down, and she should be able to reach it and hide until it was open. From there she would call John. From there they would just have to catch up once they got out of this.
Dean nodded tightly and Sam inhaled. “So, we’re gonna be here a while, then, eh Peter? Better put the coffee on.” Sam made the same casual sweep, over Peter’s face and past until he caught sight of Dana again. He stretched his long arms over his head, joined his hands, then dropped them behind his head, making sure Dana was watching. When he knew she was paying attention, he dropped his hand to the side, wiping it across his hip, then moving it back over his backside.
Dana watched same signal her to move to backup. Watched and swallowed, because that meant things were bad. She couldn’t hear the words, and she couldn’t believe how scared she felt without Sam’s reassuring voice in her head. She waited while he did the looking around thing that the dumb idiot talking to Sam was actually buying, then when his eyes came her way again she signaled her agreement.
She didn’t like it. But maybe she could get a cell signal…or something. Papa would answer if she called. Papa would come. The only question was whether or not Papa could get there in time to make a difference.