Anna
Anna dropped the newspaper as Sam walked back into the bar. The two of them sat in silence as they waited for Dean to come back from the bar. Anna paged through her journal, the one she'd filled with notes before she left camp. Dean plopped down next to her.
"Did you get anything?" Sam asked his brother.
"Did you get her number?" Anna said at the same time, distracted. She found the page with the odd symbol on it. She repressed a frustrated groan as she studied the page. Her problem was that she had been trying out a new cipher on her journal; to protect the extent of her personal knowledge from everyone. She swore and glanced up in time to hear Sam say,
"You mind doing a little bit of thinking with your upstairs brain, Dean." Anna blinked at the snippy tone in his voice. She looked up. Dean flashed her a napkin with the cute bartender's digits on it as he kept talking to Sam. Anna grinned and gave him a thumbs up. She ruthlessly crushed down the part of her that was a tiny bit jealous.
'She's hot.' Anna mouthed. Dean smirked and turned back to his brother.
"There's nothing to find out. Meredith worked here, she waited tables, everybody here said she was normal. Didn't do or say anything weird before she died. Sam you find anything on that symbol?" Sam shook his head.
"Nope, nothing. Not in dad's journal or in any of the usual books." Sam turned to her.
"Anna? You said you've seen it before." Anna nodded.
"Yeah I have, right here actually. The only problem is that when I transcribed my notes, I used a new kind of cipher, one my younger sister Annabeth cooked up for me. I modified it to protect my work. But now, well, I can't actually decipher it." She dropped the spiral notebook onto the table, grinding the heels of her hands into her eyes. She stood up.
"I need a drink." She walked away as Sam showed Dean the other victim they had dug up. The energy at the table was strange. Anna knew it was her fault, both for vanishing, and for reappearing, without notice. Granted she hadn't known that the boys were headed to Chicago, but she should have reached out to them while she was at camp. She had just gotten busy, and well she'd forgotten. In retrospect the note she left was a little overkill; being far too cryptic and honestly kinda creepy. Sam seemed to be trying to behave normally and Dean, well Dean seemed angry with her. Anna couldn't bring herself to blame him. She'd dropped them without a word and now she was back. And they still didn't know anything about her. She wouldn't trust her either.
When she turned around, beer in hand, she saw Sam hugging a blonde girl. Dean and Anna exchanged a look from across the bar. She walked up and stood by Dean as Sam caught up with the girl.
"Ahem." Dean cleared his throat loudly. Anna just raised an eyebrow.
"Dude cover your mouth." The girl gave a light glare at the older Winchester. Sam shook himself slightly. Anna neutralized her expression at the snippy attitude. She already disliked this girl.
"Yeah, I'm sorry Meg, this is my brother Dean. And our friend Anna." He gestured to them both. Meg's mouth drops open a little.
"Oh, this is Dean." She said, nodding. Her gaze cooled further. Anna's eyebrows started to creep towards her hairline. She caught herself and rearranged her expression towards casual indifference. Dean huffed out an uncomfortable laugh.
"So you've heard of me." Meg nodded, eyes cold and hard.
"Oh, yeah. Nice. The way you treat your brother like luggage." Her face had closed off completely. She swung towards Anna. 'and you're the ungrateful runaway." Anna didn't let herself react, even as a tendril of white hot fury shot through her. She brutally pushed her emotions down, refusing to respond.
"Sorry?" Dean looked shocked.
"Why don't you let him do what he wants to do. Stop dragging him all around God's green earth." She continued, ignoring the expression on Dean's face. Anna took note of the older Winchester, each of his tells ratcheting his anger level up a little higher on her internal scale. Sam glanced back at them both uncomfortably.
"Meg. It's alright." He assured the blonde woman. Dean whistled, but before he could say anything he might regret, Anna seized his arm.
"We are going to get a drink." She pulled him back to the bar where the flirty bartender immediately served them another round.
Dean glared at the girl as he took a large gulp from his glass. Anna kept sipping, knowing that she needed a clear head to drive her bike back to the sewer entrance of the destroyed department store.
"Dean you know who she is?" Anna asked quietly. Dean shook his head. Anna frowned.
"Ok then, Sam seems to know her. So let's trust his judgment." She said quietly. He look another long gulp. She dropped enough money to cover the tab for all three of them before standing up.
"And for the record, I may have left. But I never took you boys for granted. And I sure as hell didn't run away. More like drove away very quickly." Dean gave her a shallow smile at her weak joke. Anna shook herself as she returned to a serious tone of voice.
"Tell me you boys burned the phone." She said, gathering her leather riding jacket and her encrypted journal. Dean reached into his pocket and pulled out the perfectly undamaged cell phone and her crumpled note.
"We gave you one more week." He said. Anna reached for it but Dean slapped her hand away. She sighed.
"Burn it. Here." She pulled a second phone out of her pocket. "You can reach me with this one. There are three numbers. The first one is me. The second one is if you can't reach me after three calls. The last one is for emergencies." Anna shrugged into her coat. 'Be careful, I don't like her." Anna started to walk away when Dean called across the bar.
"We gonna see you again?" Anna glanced back at him. She gave him a crooked smile, guilt leaving a nasty taste in the back of her throat.
"In the morning." She walked out of the bar, Dean's eyes burning her as she left.