Days had passed and Dean was hung up on looking for a way to rescue Castiel. There was no getting through to him. Beelzebub had left again and Sam was immersed in his laptop most of the time. And with Crowley no where to be found, I felt alone and, frankly, a little bored. So much so that I decided to do some research myself. The boys needed to get out of the bunker, and, even though he didn't say it,Sam agreed. This is why I was excited one morning when Sam came to Dean and demanded they work a case he found. Dean wouldn't budge,claiming he wanted to find a way to save Cas.
"Then I'll do that. You need fresh air, You need to get your mind off of this, Dean." Sam said. Dean just stared at him. Sam sighed. "Look,it's a simple werewolf case. You and Nellwyn go. I'll stay here and research on Amara and a way to save Cas." He promised. I looked at Dean, who returned my gaze. Then, after a moment of silence. He looked back to Sam and didn't say a word. I small smiled came onto my face, Dean was in.
Being on the road with Dean was a lot different than being on the road with Sam AND Dean. And by different, I mean a hell of a lot of fun. Not that Sam wasn't fun, but Dean really let loose when he wasn't around. Like some hyped up college frat boy. We played music too loud, and ate at fast food places; filling our selves up with processed hamburgers, salty french fries, milkshakes, sodas, and having delicious bacon cheese burgers for breakfast. It was going to be a nice two days on the road. At some point in the middle of the first, I shook my empty cup of soda and let out a sigh as the song"Another One Bites The Dust" by Queen ended. Dean glanced at me,something on his mind. Though I could tell he was hesitant about talking to me since I wasn't exactly a human. That and we haven't really had to spend time together like this. So I reached over and moved some CD's to look at them.
"Do you have anything by Kansas?" I asked. He made a face of slight surprise, reaching to grab a CD without looking.
"How do you know all this music anyway?" He asked, putting a CD in. I shrugged.
"My dad loved this stuff. I guess it grew on me." I smiled. He smirked as well.
"I know the feeling." He said, cranking up the volume.
For the first time I realized how much in common I had with Dean. Over the loud music we talked about dumb stuff we did as kids, how similar our dads were, minus mine being a demon. And I learned how much Dean actually cared about Sam and Castiel. They were his family. There was a small silence between one song and the next. He turned the volume down a bit.
"I don't think I've said... Sorry, to you." He said. I looked over at him.
"What for?" I asked.
"Your losses. It must have been hard. And Sam and I aren't exactly good guardians. Plus you're-"
"A monster?" I muttered, leaning back in my seat. Dean looked over at me.
"How long have you been staying with us?" He asked.
"I don't know. A few months." I shrugged.
"I feel like I know you a bit better than when we first met." He said, looking forward. I nodded.
"And?"
"And, you're not a monster." He said seriously. "I've seen monsters. You've seen monsters. You're not them." He said. I stared ahead.
"...What if I... Become like them?" I asked. Dean didn't say anything fora while.
"Then I'll kick your ass until you're back to being you." he promised.
I learned a lot about Dean. He wasn't just rock music and fast food and strip clubs. He was like the older brother I didn't realize I needed. We sat in silence for a little while before I leaned forward and turned up the volume, smiling at the song that played.
"Carry on my wayward son-" I sang, Dean glanced at me, I smiled back."There'll be peace when you are done. Lay your weary head to rest! Don't you cry no more-" Dean reached over to turn up the music before hitting the steering wheel as if it were a drum. I played the awesome guitar riff with an awesome air guitar, Dean played his steering wheel drum and we belted out the lyrics. I learned that Dean was tone deaf and an all around bad singer. But we still sang the song at the top of our lungs as he sped the car down the road closer towards our destination.
I must have fallen asleep at some point, because I woke up with a plastic spoon in my mouth, spitting it to my left almost immediately. Hitting Dean right in his laughing face.
"What the Hell!" I yelled through my yawn.
"Rise and Shine Nell." He said, dropping a paper bag into my lap before taking a bite out of his burger and starting the car. I rubbed my face and let out a breath, looking at the car's clock.
"What do you mean rise and shine. It's like 3 in the morning." I glared.
"In the morning." Dean pointed out.
"Shut up." I rolled my eyes.
"We'll be there in about an hour. I'm going to drop you at the motel."He said through a mouth full of food.
"What? No way!" I said through my own mouth full of burger.
"I'm going to a bar to find more out about these attacks. Can you go into a bar?" He looked over at me, swallowing his food. I crossed my arms. "Exactly." Dean finished, reaching into my bag and stealing some of my fries. I hit his arm.
"Dick."
"Whore."He responded without missing a beat. I threw my paper bag at him. And was angry when he didn't even flinch.
So Dean dumped me at the motel and told me the rules. If he's not back by morning, Call Sam. Only let him or Sam inside. Lock the doors.Don't answer the door. Don't leave the motel. Don't speak to anyone in town.
"Blah blah blah..." I groaned.
"What are you, twelve?" Dean leaned against the car.
"Yeah. On a scale of one to ten. Dick."
"Be mad all you want. I'm not bring a 16 year old girl into a bar."
"17 next month." I said.
"Does it look like I care?" He said, climbing into the car and tossing me a room key. "Get some sleep." He said, driving off.
"Insomnia!" I yelled after him. He didn't hear me. I looked around the dark parking lot and sighed, going into the motel room.
It took what felt like a few hours for me to fall asleep again, before I knew it, the light from the rising sun was shining through the window and I had to roll out of bed and pull the curtains closed before falling back into the warm blankets. Dean still hadn't come back but that didn't seem to matter to me at the moment, I was just focused on getting to sleep again, even though my mind would try to wander and worry over where Dean could be, I did my best to push these thoughts down. Which I did, and fell asleep successfully. I had the strangest dream, though.
Dean was talking to someone at a bar who was telling him about an old cabin in the woods that was near the sightings of the animal attacks.She gave Dean the address and, judging by the look on his face, he was going to go alone. I could easily tell this wasn't a dream.This type of thing had happened so many times. If I fell asleep while focusing on a person or my subconscious was worried, I would usually dream about the thing I was worried about. In this case, Dean going off on his own. Leaving me here alone. The scenery of my dream changed though and now I was in a dark and dank cabin. Dean was fighting someone, or something, actually, 3 somethings and when I turned my head to look in the other direction, a loud bang shook me to my core. Needless to say, I shot up in my bed.
I got dressed, deciding that I needed to go find Dean. Meaning I needed to disobey rules 3, 5 and 6. I had to unlock the door, leave the motel room, and talk to the people in town to find him. Although, I corrected rule 3 by locking the door behind me. Hopefully Dean wouldn't be too upset. I didn't know how to get to the bars in town, but I knew the Impala when I saw it. Meaning I probably wouldn't have to talk to anyone. I would just look for the car, and where Dean's baby was, you'd find Dean. The streets were empty,so were the sidewalks. Stores hadn't opened yet and everything was hushed and quiet. It was very, very early. It made me wonder how long I had actually slept for. We got to the motel at 4... And the sun was rising, making it almost 5, maybe 6 in the morning. Meaning I hadn't even slept a full hour. No matter. My mind was focused enough to spot the impala in the parking lot of a bar that was a few blocks down from the motel we... Well, I, was staying at.
With all the confidence I could muster, I pushed open the door to the bar.Luckily, there wasn't a lot of people then. It struck me that it was a weekday. Duh, people have work. I looked around and spotted Dean talking to the woman behind the counter, a beer in his hands. I let out a huff and let the door close, standing outside the bar once again. It was just like my dream. My idea? To go wait for Dean by the impala and make him take me with him on this werewolf hunt. So I went and hopped up to sit on the trunk of the car, leaning back against the back windshield and balancing myself in such a way that I wouldn't dent the car in any way, shape or form. My eyes slipped closed as I realized how tired I was, so I lay there, waiting.
Dean came out of the bar, saw my laying on his car, half asleep, and gave me hell for it. Someone could have taken me. Someone could have killed me. Something could have done something even worse. Young girls shouldn't be hanging around bars. Why wasn't I at the motel sleeping. Werewolf this, werewolf that. I wasn't paying much attention as we both got into the car and he started to drive. I snapped to attention when I noticed he was heading back for the motel.
"Where are you going? The cabin with the wolves is in the woods." I said,looking at him. He stared at me in the most confused and frustrated way.
"How did you-"
"I had a dream about it." I said. He shut up, as if he instantly understood. Then he sighed.
"I'm not bringing you." He said.
"You have to." I crossed my arms.
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Or what?"
"Or I'll do this-" I leaned forward and played with the radio stations until Taylor swift was blasting on the radio. Dean's eyes narrowed.
"Fine." He shut the radio off and turned the car around, though I swear I heard him singing the lyrics to "Shake it Off" under his breath.
I slept most of the way, but when I woke up we were stopped in the woods and Dean was sifting around in the trunk. I pushed open my door and rubbed the sleep from my eyes as I walked over to him.
"What're you doing?" I yawned.
"Sam taught you to shoot?" He asked. I nodded and Dean thrust me a pistol. "Silver bullets are in there. But if you stay near me you won't have to use it." He promised as he grabbed a machete and a rifle for himself.
"Werewolves are really allergic to silver?" I muttered, inspecting the gun.
"Yeah. 'allergic'." Dean said in amusement as he closed the trunk.
"Are we close to the cabin?" I asked.
"No.We have to continue on foot from here." Dean said. I looked out towards the woods and he started walking. I followed after him.
"Hey Dean, have you ever heard of Slender man?" I asked as we walked into the woods.
After a long story about a slender man case turning out to be crazy humans,Dean put a hand out that stopped me in my tracks.
"What?"I said in a low voice.
"We're close. Be careful." He said, motioning farther up the trail where I saw the cabin, looming in the peaceful environment that was the forest.
"Why would you go in there at all..." I shrunk away instinctively.
"Most humans aren't that smart." Dean said.
"Well yeah. I've met you." I held back a laugh. Dean elbowed me hard and I glared at him.
"Come on. Stay behind me." He said. "They could still be around. Be ready." He pulled a handgun from his pocket and I gripped my pistol tight, finger on the trigger as we moved towards the cabin.
But, in going into the cabin, we were only met with two chained up hikers,begging us for help. Dean put his gun in his pocket, I did the same,searching around for a key while Dean walked to them, asking what had happened. The man and his wife, who was very sick, had been hiking when they were attacked and dragged here. Dean talked to the husband while I made sure his wife was alright, she was burning up, but she didn't seem injured. Dean let out a breath.
"Okay, Nellwyn let's-" He froze when he heard a car door slam, followed by foot steps. I grabbed the gun from my pocket and walked over to Dean as the door opened. It was the lady from the bar. And she brought friends. "Run!" Dean demanded of the man, who grabbed his wife and headed for the backdoor. Dean pulled out his machete as the werewolves growled, low, staring at us. I swallowed hard, clutching the gun because my life actually depended on it.
I ducked and dodged, following my instincts as grown woman of a werewolf attacked me. Dean was fighting his own battles, and doing great on his own. I wasn't so lucky. The woman grabbed a large knife off the wall and I felt my heart race a million miles a minute.With each swipe from her, I just managed to jump back out of the way,that was until, I was cornered against a wall, a sick smile on her face. A smile that was instantly removed, as in, her head fell clean off her body. Her decapitated body fell to the ground and Dean let out a breath, looking at me.
"Are you okay?" He asked. I gulped and nodded as he helped me step over the headless corpse of the werewolf, kneeling to inspect the body for any signs of life.
"You beat two by yourself?" I asked. He looked up and gave me a look of confusion.
"Two?"He asked. My eyes widened.
"I saw three. I saw three in my-" My eyes shifted behind Dean where one had came in with his own gun, pointed right at Dean. "Dean!"I held up my own gun and pushed Dean to the side, pulling the trigger at the same time as the werewolf man. The silver bullet pierced his chest, his bullet hit me in the stomach and I fell backwards, my gun sliding out my hand.
It was the worse pain imaginable. I swallowed hard multiple times, I could feel blood seeping through my shirt and sweat rolling own my face at this new found pain.
"Nellwyn? Hey!" Dean was at my side. "Move your hand, let me see." He pulled the hand away from the wound, the hand I didn't even realize was clutching my stomach. "Okay, kid. I'm going to get you to a doctor. So just stay with me." Dean dropped everything, literally.He scooped me up and I let out a noise of pain.
"It hurts..." Was all I could manage.
"I know. Just hang in there." He said, heading out the backdoor after the couple.
There was an argument.
"Just leave her here, she'll slow us down." the husband was saying.
"No way in hell am I leaving her here." Dean shot back angrily.
"My wife is sick-"
"This is a little kid we're talking about. Who got shot trying to help me save your ass." Dean snapped.
"I..." The man shut up, he couldn't argue anymore.
"I'm going to carry her. We'll go to the hospital for her and your wife.Then I never want to see you again. Got it?" Dean said with his authoritative voice.
"Dean..." I muttered through my haze of pain. It was more numb than anything now He un-tensed as he walked. "It's okay..." I breathed. He looked back at the couple who was a little ways behind us.
"I'm not leaving you here." He said.
"They need to be safe..."
"Yeah? Well so do you." and that was that. Mostly because I couldn't muster up the strength to argue just yet.
Dean had to walk slow so as to not put me in anymore pain that would cause more bleeding for me. I felt cold, and must have been shaking,because we go to another cabin that was in the woods and Dean made us all stop there.
"We need to stop the bleeding." He said as he laid me down on the old couch that was in there.
"What are you doing? We need to keep going!" The man was helping his wife sit.
"We'retaking a break." Dean snapped, walking towards the cabinets and searching for bandages or rags or something to stop me from bleeding.
"This is about her again, isn't it." The husband sighed.
"Damn right it is. I don't want to hear another word from you." Dean pointed at him. I struggled, but managed to push myself up.
"Dean..."
"Lay down." He demanded.
"Go get help. I'll wait here. I'll be okay." I breathed. He looked back at me. Then at the family.
"See?"The husband said. "She want's us to go ahead." Dean glared at him, he stopped talking. Then he came over to me.
"Nell.I can't leave you out here, there are probably more werewolves and-"
"I'll be okay, Dean." I sighed. "We came here to save them. So we need to save them. If that means I have to wait here for a bit then..."I ran out of energy mid sentence, taking a deep breath. Dean stared at me.
"No..." He looked at the couple. "You two...stay with her. I'll go get help and be back." Dean said.
"What? You can't leave us-"
"Stay with her." Dean said, making his way towards the door. There was a slam, followed by rushed footsteps that said he was running. Dean was gone for now.
I laid on the couch, taking deep breaths, pressing a hand to my wound to stop the bleeding. The wife used a ripped off piece of the couch to wipe the sweat off my face.
"It'll be okay, little one." She said softly. She asked me questions. How old was I? Where did I go to school? What was my favorite color? I did my best to stay focused and answer her. That is, until her husband had her go rest herself, and he stayed over there with her,muttering about something I couldn't quite hear. I just laid as still as I could, breathing in and out. I counted the nails on the ceiling, until the husband came over to me. He had a strange look on his face.
"Is...Your wife okay?" I asked.
"Yes. Thank you..." He sucked in a breath.
"That's good..." I smiled softly at him, but then I felt something pressed over my face, hard. I couldn't breath. I instantly started to struggle.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. He won't leave without you, we need him. I'm sorry." I heard the husband saying over and over as I struggled,trying to breath. I wasn't sure, but I could hear myself screaming for help. Begging him to stop as I grabbed his wrists, clawing at his arm, banging on whatever I could reach that was him. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." was all he said, over and over, until everything went black for me.
I've had out of body experiences before. That small gap between being alive and being dead... Or asleep. Or... Both? I was standing in the room, watching the man back away from me, his wife with a hysterical look on her face, him looking overcome with guilt and horror as he turned to his wife and started to comfort her and justify his actions. Also, saying that they couldn't, for any reason, tell Dean what had actually happened. I watched Dean come back, them tell him I had just stopped breathing. Dean dropped the bag he had brought and tried to wake me up. I could hear his voice right next to me.
"Nellwyn? Come on, wake up. You can't be dead, you're..." He stared in along silence as the couple begged him to get them out of there. "I'll come back for you." he promised. "And Sam and I will give you a hunters burial." He ran his hand over my hair before leading the family out.
"Dean?" I watched him go, looking down at my hands. "Am... Am I dead?" I muttered.
"Not exactly." A voice surprised me. I jumped and looked towards it, a dark skinned woman with big curly hair looked down at me.
"W-who-"
"Call me Billie. I'm a reaper. And to answer your next question, no.You're not dead. Your body went into shock." She said. I nodded .slowly.
I opened my mouth to say something when I heard a flutter of wings. I looked over and Beelzebub was looking around the empty cabin. I must have called out to him while I was screaming for help.
"Beelz?"I stepped towards him, and, to my surprise, he looked over at me, and at Billie.
"A reaper... Nellwyn. Are... Did you die?" He asked, a look of sadness crossed his face for a moment.
"No." I said, "Billie just told m-" I looked to Billie, who was gone. I shook my head, looking back at Beelzebub. "I'm hurt. Really bad.I don't know when Dean will be back, but if it isn't soon... I may die for real." I said, looking down. Beelzebub nodded in understanding.
"I won't let you die." He promised, moving over to my body and putting a hand on my forehead and one on my stomach. He began to glow, as did I. "This... May take a little while so-" I couldn't hear him anymore. I must have been... Sucked back into my own body.
I woke up alone. I could feel my angelic power running rampant inside me, probably from healing me. I took in a breath of life and was basically heaving as I pushed myself up, I looked down, lifting my shirt to see the bullet wound gone. I was hit with realization.
"The...The bullet is still inside-" I tried to stand and felt pain beat from that spot. "Shit-" I fell back onto the couch. I groaned and the pain left me. I felt it again, my power surging through me.Numbing the pain every now and then when it got to be too much for me to bare. I found the bag Dean left. He must have forgot it in whatever grief he was feeling. I searched through it, there was a first aid kit. Useless. A machete. Too sharp. And... A gun. Yeah.That could work. I grabbed that, just in case. I set a goal in my mind. Find Dean. Find Dean. Find Dean. Find. Dean.
I spent about an hour trekking my way through the forest before I came to the clearing that Dean and I had left the impala in. To my surprise, it was still there. A smile crossed my face and I pushed through the pain and practically fell onto the hood of the car in happiness.
"Oh, it's good to see you baby..." I sighed, patting the car. I had never been so happy to see a vehicle since my parents showed me the car they planned to get me, the car I had taken to calling my baby.But the Impala could take it's place any day, especially now. I made my way to the drivers side, pulling the handle. It was locked. I looked around. I definitely was not going to survive the long miles that it took to get back to town and to a hospital. So I found a rock and looked over at the car. "Don't take this the wrong way. You know I love you... You also know that Dean didn't give me a key. Forgive me." I nodded before chucking the rock as hard as I could and sending it crashing through the drivers side window.
The important part was that I was in the car. Sitting on glass with a bullet inside me and my powers running wild in keeping the pain away,power that was fading fast, sure. But I was in the car. And I had watched enough movies to know that I needed to break off the part that connected the key hole to the engine so I could hot wire it.Though the movies always made it seem easy, they would lean behind the steering wheel, off screen, and then the car would turn on. Me,on the other hand, had to kick the car repeatedly until the piece I needed to come off, came off. Then I was faced with a bunch of wires,and sat there for a good hour figuring out what went to where. I popped the trunk open and grabbed one of the many knives, cutting the wires I needed to cut and tying them together, getting shocked in return. But, on the bright side, the car was on and, after putting on my seat-belt, I drove away from the forest.
Yes,I was speeding. I didn't know if hot wiring had a time limit or something. I was very new to this criminal lifestyle. I found the closest hospital, assuming that was the one Dean had gone to. I stumbled through the front door, my power had faded and I could feel the intense pain that was the bullet inside me. Of course the wound had to heal around it.
"Dean. Dean Winchester." I breathed to the front desk before nearly collapsing in pain. Before I could object, nurses were at my side and I was carried off to a room. They checked my vitals. Everything was fine, minus the bullet inside me. I told them I was looking for someone. They said they would see what they could do, but they needed to call a parent. So, naturally. I gave them Sam's number. When they went off to call him, I pulled another movie cliche and snuck out of my hospital room.
Fora hospital in a town that was prone to animal attacks, the halls were surprisingly empty. I navigated through them easily enough, but something definitely felt off. It was quiet. That eerie quiet that said we didn't kill all the werewolves. Which was strange since I had only saw three in my dream. Then again, dreams could be wrong. As I walked through the halls, I thought hard about everything that had happened. Dean killed two werewolves. I killed one. That was three,but there was a forth, I could feel it. So who else was in the hospital? It could have been anyone. There was a thought, gnawing away in the back of my mind that I refused to accept. Not him. Dean would have known if it were him. Or would he have? He could have gotten injured during the fight... But he was protecting his wife!The man who tried to kill me... I wasn't mad at him for whatever reason. And he wasn't-
"SON OF A BITCH!" I heard the shout that dragged me from my own head.
"Dean!"I breathed, fumbling to pull my gun from my pocket and sprinting in that direction.
I skidded to a stop and saw that I was in denial that whole time. The husband of that poor woman had been bitten or something and was attacking Dean, on top of him trying to rip his throat out. I held up my gun and aimed, taking a breath before shooting and hitting him in the back. He froze and let out a howl, falling away from Dean, who looked at me in happy surprise.
"Bad puppy." I muttered before falling back on my ass. Dean scrambled up and ran over.
"You. How did-"
"I want to go home." I muttered, cutting him off. He nodded slowly.
"Yeah. Let's get that bullet out of you first."
"Is it going to hurt?"
"Like you wouldn't believe." He said, picking me up and walking down the hall to the nearest empty hospital room. "Nice shooting." He commented. I just groaned in response.
After an agonizing hour and some quick stitch work, Dean was helping me out of the hospital. Telling me to "walk normal" so I didn't draw attention from the nurses.
"It. Hurts." I said, wiping some more tears from my eyes that had come from earlier.
"Quit whining." Dean hissed as we got to the front door where the dead wolves wife was sitting.
"Hold on." I said, moving away from Dean, he gave me a look before he sighed and pulled out his keys.
"I'll be in the car." He said, walking out. I winced at that. I had neglected to tell him about the car. I sat next to the woman and looked her over.
"Are you feeling better?" I asked. She stared at me for a bit.
"I'm sorry." She said, lifting a hand to my face. I shook my head.
"He wanted to save you." I said with a small smile.
"NELLWYN!" I flinched and chuckled at Dean's shout.
"I should get going." I said.
"Wait-" The woman moved forward as I stood.
"Yeah?" I looked at her.
"Why are you staying with him? If this is your life...You're so young.And such a nice girl, I bet you could-"
"I can't do anything but this." I said a bit sadly. She gave me a concerned look. I bet I looked as if I would cry. "You don't understand. But I just can't." I said, running out the door before the woman could open her mouth again.
Dean gave me hell for a good two hours.
"Well maybe if SOMEONE gave me a key." I said, looking out the window and away from him.
"You...You're grounded!" He yelled, my head snapped towards him.
"You can't ground me!" I yelled back at him.
"Oh yeah? I just did. No... Hunting for a week. No guns no... No salt, no Beelze-whatever. Nothing!" He said, not looking at me.
"How is that fair?" I whined, he didn't say anything. I sat back in silence as well. After a while, he leaned forward, turning on the radio where a Taylor Swift song was blasting. He flipped the station quickly. I glanced at him and leaned forward, flipping it back. "That's what people say... Mm mm... But I keep crusin', can't stop won't stop movin', it's like I got this music, in my mind sayin' it's gonna be alright.." I looked at Dean, who smirked as I turned up the volume, we both laughed and sang as we sped away from the town.
"Baby I'm just gonna shake shake shake shake shake shake, shake it off!! I shake it off!"