"Monica." Someone nudged her gently.
Monica's eyes opened slowly. She blinked a few times before focusing on the figure in front of her. Mary.
"Are you okay?"
Monica nodded.
"I'll be right back, okay?" Mary left the room.
Monica looked around. She was on her bed. She had passed out on the floor. Someone must have put her here. She wondered, who?
Then Jack sat beside her. "Hi. How are you doing?"
Monica sat up. "I'm fine."
"What happened?"
Monica looked at him, then immediately regretted it. He was looking at her with those soul reading eyes. "I...I was just overwhelmed. I don't know what happened. But I'm okay."
"Good." He sounded like he believed it, but his eyes said something else.
"You don't believe me, do you?"
"I never said that."
"I know." Her voice hardened.
Just then Mary entered the room. "Are you feeling okay, Monica?"
"I'm fine."
Mary smiled. "Good. What happened?"
Monica looked at Jack out of the corner of her eyes. "I just got overwhelmed. I don't know. Excitement, probably. I'm fine."
Mary looked almost convinced. "Okay. Well, let me know if you need anything."
Monica nodded. After Mary left, she turned to her brother. "I only just met you two days ago. Isn't it a little early for accusations? Admit it. You think I'm lying."
Jack blinked calmly. "Well, are you?"
Monica's eyes flashed with surprise. "No. And that's not a lie, either. Look, I don't know what sort of literal sibling bond we have, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't include soul reading. If it did, I would know. So whatever makes you think what you do, it's not accurate." Monica stared at him a moment for extra effect. Only then did she realize, she knew what he was feeling. And thinking. Without even trying to read his mind. Her eyes widened. Oh crap. Soul reading is included. "Are you doing what I'm doing?"
"What?"
Monica gripped him by the edges of his jacket. "I asked, are you doing what I'm doing? And don't say you don't know what I mean."
"Okay," Jack said slowly. "Um...yes?"
"You're reading me."
He gave an almost reluctant nod.
"Crap." Monica let him go and fell back onto her bed. "Okay. So you know...what do you know?"
"Only what you let me see."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"It means, you're blocking off most of it without knowing it."
"Oh." Monica thought for a moment. "Good."
"So...what really happened?"
Monica shook her head. "Doesn't matter. It wasn't real." She stood up. "I'm not going to spend all day in this room." She walked out.
Jack was, technically, stalking his sister. He didn't call it that, of course. He figured if it was for the right reasons it didn't matter. The only catch was making sure she didn't know. But she had seemed keen on ignoring him lately, so he wasn't concerned. She had dedicated her first week with them to research, about every single thing they hunted. She really didn't know anything, which Jack found surprising, but he didn't say anything. She read, she practiced using knives and guns and Holy water, reciting every exorcism.
She seemed perfectly normal, except for a little minute here and there when she would stare off into blank space. For a little while Jack contemplated the idea that maybe there was nothing wrong with her, that she had just had an off day. After she walked past him one day and he felt her energy, he discarded that idea. It felt different this time. Heavy with angst and tense with shoved down emotion.
It appeared he would have no choice but to confront her and hope she didn't get mad. Despite being nearly as powerful as she was, Jack would be lying if he said he didn't fear her, just a little bit. As Dean had said, she was like a mini female God.
He finally found her down in a library-type room surrounded by books about Egyptian spells and curses and whatnot. "Hi."
Only her eyes darted up to look at him, she kept her head down over the book. "Hello." She looked back to the text.
"I'm going to be honest here. You're hiding something and it's slowly destroying you."
This time, her whole head moved to see him. "What?"
"You can't keep doing this. Eventually, you're going to explode--metaphorically--and when you do it won't be good."
"What, you're worried I'm going to start hurricane Monica? Relax. If I do, I can stop it."
"That's not my point."
"I know." She stood up and took a step towards him. "But I don't like your point, so I'm ignoring it." She placed her hand on her hip. "So tell me. Did you come to interrogate me? Force me to tell you whatever secret it is I'm hiding? Well, darling, here's the thing. I'm loaded full of angel mojo, half of which is the devil's. I'm bound to have a few secrets."
Jack studied her for a minute. "You're scared." He watched her palms start to glow, and he saw the, 'oh, crap' expression touch her eyes.
"And you're a moron."
"You're scared of something." He took a step closer to her. "And you're stressed because you think you have to leave to deal with it and you don't want to."
"Stop it." Monica stepped back.
"No." Jack's voice was defiant, almost like a stubborn child. "What's going on with you? You can't do this forever. You know that."
Monica's eyes were wide and afraid. She looked from the wall beside her to Jack, as if there were someone there.
"I said, stop it."
Then it dawned on him. "You see someone, don't you? You think someone's in your head. Who is it? Michael? Lucifer?" He saw her eyes change at, 'Lucifer.'
"Our father. That's who it is."
"Stop it!" Monica raised her hands. The light coming from her palms was searing, but it simply bounced off Jack. Her eyes blazed gold, and she spread her wings, but Jack just stood there. He knew she wouldn't hurt him. Couldn't, at this point, not without destroying the building and everyone in it, anyway. And he knew she wouldn't do that.
Seeing nothing was happening, the light dimmed and her eyes returned to normal. She looked at her palms, then at him. "It didn't work," she said, like a small child. "So, what? You're immune to me?"
"No. But if you want to kill me, you'll have to destroy everything." He spread his arms. "If you want to, go ahead."
Monica just stared at him for a minute. Then she tilted her head slightly, sadly. Tears beaded in her eyes. "He says I need to leave, Jack. And he's right. I can't stay here. I've tried to have homes and families." She shook her head. "In the end, everyone just dies."
Jack stepped closer to her. "Then these are the people you need to be with. Monica, that's pretty much who we are. People with broken souls and blood on their hands that feel the same way you do."
"He'll find me, Jack."
"Who?"
"Michael."
"Michael's not going to get you. Ever. We're taking care of Michael. And Lucifer? He's not in your head. He's gone. If he wasn't, he'd feel like me. Does he feel like me?"
After a minute, the girl shook her head.
"See? It's your own paranoia. It's not real. Okay?"
Monica nodded.
Jack let out his breath and smiled slightly. "It's okay. You are okay."
Monica took another step closer to him. "Are you sure I can stay?"
"Positive."
Monica looked down for a moment, then back at him. "I won't have to leave?"
"Not unless you want to."
She thought for a moment. "I don't ever want to leave."
"You won't ever have to."
Monica smiled slightly. "I'm home."
Monica slammed the book shut and rubbed her temples. That was enough Arabian spells for one night. She yawned and stood up and headed for her room.
"Hey, we need to talk."
Monica turned to see Dean, who looked at her with a less than friendly expression.
Dean stepped forward, cornering her. "You."
She blinked. "I don't understand."
"Sure." He took yet another step forward. "I don't know what your game is, kid, but I know who you are. And if it's necessary, I will kill you. And I've killed a lot of stuff, kid. Stuff almost as powerful as you. So if you think those shiny hands and that little knife is going to make you my god, think again."
Monica shook her head, then caught Lucifer out of the corner of her eye.
"He's getting rid of you already." He shook his head and stepped closer to her. "Well, this has been fun. Come on, make a mess and let's get out of here."
Monica ignored him and stepped closer to Dean, hands on her hips. "I am not who you think I am. And I will prove that to you if you give me a chance. You gave Jack a chance. Now it's my turn." She pushed past him and went to her room, heart pounding.
Author Note: Hi, wonderful readers. Thanks so much for reading, it means a lot to me! So this chapter (All these beginning chapters, actually) happen somewhere around the episode, 'Nightmare Logic,' in that general timeframe. The next chapter will be based on the episode, 'Optimism.' Please, let me know if there's any plot holes or it doesn't line up with the show (I've only seen like four episodes from season 14--at the moment I'm halfway through season nine, but I'll be skipping ahead to write these chapters.
Thanks again for reading and don't forget to tell me what you think!
--Rachel