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❪ 14 ／ shapeshifter ❫
━━━━ ❛ swear.❜
volume 1 , season 6
› OLIVE SAT ACROSS SAM AT FAT MACK'S, a fast food place just off the highway of Buffalo. She's drawing on the kid's menu while he picked at his salad. Dean was in line, getting Olive's food. Sam watched as she drew outside of the lines, creating a picture that looked nothing like the Pig on the paper.
"You know the point of coloring is to do it inside of the lines, right?" Sam questioned.
Olive places down the brown crayon, grinning ear to ear as she held up her drawing. "Look, It's you. ." She points at the large stick figure with long wavy hair and a poor attempted at a flannel shirt. "And this is me!" She points to the little stick figure beside him. "Like it?" Her eyes locked on him, practically vibrating from excitement as she waited for his answer.
Sam looked between Olive and the drawing, forcing a small smile on his face. He knew deep down that old Sam would've loved that picture, and probably colored with her, but this Sam couldn't find it in himself to care about Olive Grace or anything that she did.
Sam had told Dean countless times that having Olive around was a waste of space. He had told Dean that just because they had a bond doesn't mean he had to keep her around, he had even suggested dropping Olive off at Bobby's or an orphanage, but Dean would pull a gun on him every time.
"It's nice." He says, uninterested. Instantly looking back down at his salad. Olive sighed, softly pushing the crayons and paper away from her.
"I know, Bobby, but there's gotta be another way." Dean talks on the phone as he made his way over to the table, trying to balance both plates and the phone between his ear and shoulder. "I don't know, keep digging. I mean, if Crowley thinks we're just gonna--"
"Crowley thinks you're gonna what, Dean?" The familiar accent made Sam and Olive freeze on the spot. Crowley stands right beside Dean, a little too close for the Hunter's liking. "Is that Bobby Singer? Give him a kiss for me."
He then struts over to the table, plopping down beside Sam who looked completely uncomfortable.
"Hello, Olivia." He greets cheerfully. Olive scrunches her face, grabbing the opened salt package on the table and flinging the condiments in his direction. He sighs. "That only works for Ghost."
She frowns. "Aw, man."
"Anyway. Good news, boys. I've got a job for you." He says.
Dean plops down beside Olive, passing her a well-made BBQ rib with fries and a strawberry shake. He opens the blue cheese for her before cutting up the food into little pieces. "I'm only gonna say this once." He states, not looking up from her plate, "You can take your job and shove it up your ass."
"Is that any way to talk to your boss?"
"You're not my boss, dickbag." Dean snaps.
"I'm too young to work." Olive pipes out, looking between them. "Isn't this illegal?"
"Dean, Dean." Crowley tsked. "We've been through this. Quit clutching your pearls, you've been working for me for some time. Sam here, longer." He points to Olive. "She's right though, can't force her. You keep being adorable, love." He dismissed. Olive jerks her chin up, drinking her milkshake happily.
"We didn't know." Sam defends.
"Like that makes a difference to you. You'd sell your brother for a dollar right now if you really needed a soda." Crowley states.
Sam doesn't respond, causing Dean's eyes to widen slightly. Olive pushes Dean's soda towards Sam, like a peace offering, with the same expression.
"Look, I'm sending you--"
"No." Dean cuts off.
"Beg pardon?"
"I've done some shady stuff in my time, but I am not doing this. No." He says firmly.
"Ten quid says you will." Crowley states, and without a warning he taps the back of Sam's hand sending a sizzling sensation on the back of it.
Sam yells out, clutching his hand as the boils continued to spread. Crowley then turns to Olive suggestively, raising his hand. Olive panics, causing him to smile and turn back to the soulless man. "You like pain, Sam? You like hell?"
Sam continues to shift in pain. Dean looks between them with wide eyes, putting his hand in front of Olive.
"You need to stop thinking of this as some kind of deal." Crowley states. "This is a hostage situation, you arrogant little thug. I own your brother and I will kill your daughter, do you understand me?"
With a snap of his finger Sam's hand was back to normal. "Come on, Dean. Smile. It's not that bad. Here's incentive, you bag me a live Alpha. . .and I'll give you little Sammy's soul back with a cherry on top."
"What?" Sam says breathlessly. "Alpha Vamp not good enough for you?"
Crowley smiles mockingly. "Best mind where you poke your nose. . .if you wanna keep it." He pulls out a newspaper, throwing it on the table. "Your merry little hike up the food chain starts here. Businessman found dead in his car. Chest ripped out, heart missing. Sounds like. .?"
"Werewolf!" Olive states, kicking her feet in excitment as if she was winning supernatural trivia. Crowley hums proudly.
"No. It's not a full moon." Dean shakes his head.
"Werewolves turning on the full moon? So oh-nine." Crowley dismissed.
"He's right. Samuel and I ganked one about six months ago on a half moon." Sam explained. "Things have been out of whack for a while now, I guess."
"Yeah, I guess." Dean shifted, more questions clouding his mind as he tried to bite his tongue for the sake of everyone else.
He glances at Olive, who hasn't touched her food since the conversation started, or last night.
"So, it's settled then?" He says. "You bag the Howler, bring it home to Papa." Crowley smiles. "See you soon."
Olive blinks once and his already gone, leaving the Winchester's with more awkward tension.
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› NIGHT FALLS QUICK AND THE WINCHESTERS were back on the road. Olive sat in the back, reading her mother's journal. She hadn't had much time to continue it until now. The Elders knew God personally, they created countless of techniques on how to heal and create souls when God was too busy to tend to them.
Worker bees for a Queen. Almost all Elders took female forms, Olive notes. They valued kindness, equal with nature. They fought with words and wisdom, never killed.
Soul Guardian's live in a garden connected to Heaven. However, they chose to live on Earth among their creations. The Garden of Animarum was abandoned, and the Soul Sanctum became their home. It hides on the top of a mountain in Greece, which is guarded at the bottom by a bloodline of witches.
"Woah," Olive says out loud, looking up from the book.
"What's wrong?" Dean asked quickly from the drivers seat, glancing at her through the mirror.
Olive covers her hands over the book, startled, "I just remembered, I buried my Christmas money under the porch."
The hunter hums, "Maybe don't run away then."
She rolls her eyes and continues reading. Failing to notice Sam looking at her through the corner of his eye, watching her look at the book with confusion.
There were only two Generations that came from the Guardians. The Elders and the Soul Warriors.
Warriors were created by the Elders at the start of Lucifer's rebellion. They had sensed the betrayal miles away, but never doubted the judgement of their creator for his favorite son.
But the day Lucifer twisted and mutilated the human soul of Lilith into the first demon to prove a point to the others that human souls were inferior to God.
The Soul Guardians took personal offense.
So, if Lucifer wanted to twist their souls and ruin their universally hard work, he'd have to go through the kind of Warriors that would spill blood in the name of every human soul they create. They trained to kill first and ask questions never.
They battled against the very first formation of demons. Olive quickly pieced together that she was the only third Generation to exist.
When the War continued, Lucifer came to the temple begging for forgiveness, to spare their warriors for his rebellion against his father, ( A fleet that included her mother Cora, who was the last Warrior created. ) But the Elders could see his malicious intentions through his silver tongue and banished him away.
Months later Lucifer returned, unknown to anyone how he was able to get inside and slaughtered all the Elders and the Warriors. Celestial beings that roamed the Universe since the creation of Earth, had gone extinct in merely minutes.
Cora got away.
Olive slowly closed the book, letting out a shaky breath. That reading was intense, "Holy moly." She mutters to herself.
It made Olive's chest tighten, sympathizing with her mother. It must have been horrible to loose every last one of your family, knowing that you're the last one. But it also made Olive angry. If Cora knew what it was like to be abandoned, then why did she do the same to her only child?
Her mother had met her father decades later, towards the end of World War II, but Olive didn't want to read about her parents love story, or how she met Sylas in Greece before that, none of it.
It hurt to much to reading, thinking about how happy her parents probably were before she was born and messed everything up, and how much of an impact Sylas had on Cora.
Olive selfishly tried to ignore everything about her bound to Dean, Toula's warning always replaying in her mind.
"So the vic's a real class act." Sam says. Olive tosses the journal beside her and sits up. "Owned a bunch of slum-grade apartments, couple of houses too."
Dean clenched his jaw. "So this is it? This is what you're gonna do?"
"What am I doing. . ?"
"Crowley." Dean states. "He's so far up our asses we're coughing sulfur!" He glances back at Olive, who looked disturbed. "Sorry, O." He then turns to Sam. "You're just gonna work the case?"
Sam sighs. "Well, he's got us by the short and curlies. What else are we supposed to do?"
"It's just, you know, man. .I'm working for a demon now. I don't even know who you are, and you," He looks at Olive through the rear view mirror. "Haven't slept in days, don't think I haven't forgotten!" Olive startles awake from her power nap in the backseat. Dean sighs. "I just. . .need time to adjust."
"Look. This is a crap situation, I get it. But, Dean, I'm still me. Same melon, same memories. I-I still like the same music, I still think about Suzie Heizer."
"Biology class Suize Heizer?"
"Can you blame me? She was—"
Olive raised her hand. "I'm only six." She announced, covering her ears with reddened cheeks.
"Look, I know you don't trust me, and I can't take back what I did but I'm going to prove it to you. I'm still your brother." Sam vows.
Dean gives him a barely satisfied nod.
Olive stayed in the motel room while the brothers went to dig for more information in town. Dean had made her promise to take a nap and snag something to eat but she did no such thing.
Weirdly, Olive only felt comfortable sleeping when Dean did but considering Dean also never slept Olive barely close her eyes without waking up in paranoia.
So she trained in the motel room, using all sorts of techniques inside her mother's Journal. The Soul Swipe was the only thing Olive can master, a name created by Ben all those weeks ago. Olive frowns at the thought of her surrogate brother, and wondering how he was doing.
Dean had spoken to Lisa the second everything cooled down, explaining what had happened. Lisa was horrified when she walked up the stairs to check on Olive only to find her clothes gone and the window wide open. She considered calling the police for a search party, but Toula had rushed right over to assure the woman that Olive was safe with The Winchesters.
Lisa apologized hundreds of times to Dean. He didn't blame her, he wasn't even mad at that point just exhausted. He had to be honest with her though, Dean had no plans of going back to Lisa and Ben, not wanting to put them in danger.
Dean also had no plans of giving up Olive so the Braeden's were shit out of luck in both departments.
"Okay, I got this." Olive reassured herself, staring straight at the empty beer cans lines up on the table. She parts her legs slightly, one arm raised up to her left shoulder. She lets out a deep breath and like a shock of lightning, a crescent-like energy swipes out of her hands and knocks all of the bottles down, scorching them. Olive cheers. "Oh yeah! One point for Winchester! High-five!" She holds her hand out for Goob, who just stares at her. She drops her hand. "Fine."
She wishes that Dean was here to see her improvement but the little girl has been really sneaky when it comes to training away from him.
Unknown to her, Dean knew about the Journal, she was horrible at hiding it. He didn't question how or why are suddenly knew how to read it, his mind was too all over the place with Soulless Sam and hunting the Alpha's to think about it.
Olive used that to her advantage, as horrible as it sounded. When Dean was too stressed to really sit down and pay attention, Olive was training herself the way Toula had shown her.
Besides, there was no point in stressing him more. Especially knowing that when he finds out Olive was learning about her past and training at six years old he'd be pretty pissed off.
He wanted to waiting until she was older, she they could learn about her past together and help her when she's old enough.
Olive thought that was a stupid idea with everything going wrong nowadays. And frankly, she was too impatient to wait.
The knob to the motel room jiggles, causing Olive to panic and kick all of the empty beer cans under Sam's bed. When the door swings open and the brothers step inside, Olive instantly throws herself on the couch, grabbing a magazine.
Tiredly, the boys start to unpack their equipment for research, Dean making a bee-line to the fridge for another beer.
"Find anything?" Olive squeaks, trying to seem nonchalant as possible.
Sam looks around the bedroom, instantly taking notice of the scorched beer can that Olive missed on the ground. He looks towards her with a raised eyebrow, a look that states 'I know what you were doing' as he shrugged off his jacket. Olive gulps, sinking lower on the couch. It seems like everyone knew about her spare times but Dean.
"Nothing that brings us closer to the Alpha." Dean sighs, "Did you take your nap?"
"Yes." Olive lies. "It was a nice nap."
Dean narrowed his eyes. "The beds are still made." He takes notice.
"Uh, because I made them." Olive stammers out. "I know how to make beds now."
Dean walks past her. "You never made your bed at the house." He mumbles more to himself. He sniffed the air. "What's that smell?"
Olive pretends to read the magazine. "I'm six now, daddy. I have responsibilities."
Dean's eyes widen, looking towards his brother in a 'Who is this kid?' manner. Sam scoffs in bland amusement. Dean shrugs, flipping through some books as Sam slips over to Olive on his way to the small kitchenette.
"The magazine is upside down." Sam states, actually amused. Olive fumbles to correct the magazine, reddening in embarrassment. Sam chuckles, grabbing a beer and walking back to the table without another world.
Olive throws her head into the cushion, knowing that was a close one.
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› SAM HADN'T SLEPT THE ENTIRE NIGHT, like every other night since he got back from Hell. He stayed awake researching and digging into the case without a care in the world, even after Dean and Olive had gone to sleep. Sam looks away from his computer for a moment, his insomnia eyes looking towards his brother and his child as they laid on the same bed.
The bed was to small to fit both of them and they couldn't make it work. Dean was stiff as a board, arms into his chest as he laid beside Olive, who looked seconds from falling off. She was a messy sleeper, legs on top of Dean's, one arm shoved into the man's face and the other dangling off.
For a second Sam thought it would be hilarious if she fell off the bed and startled his brother awake but Dean would probably get mad at him and that was the last thing he needed, it seemed that helping her was the only option. With a deep sigh, Sam closes the computer half-way, standing up from the table and making his way over.
He stared at them for a moment, comparing how different Dean was with her to how Dean was with literally everyone else, it was like he was a different person. His older brother had gotten softer, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing but as a Hunter it wasn't a good thing either, at least to Sam.
The youngest Winchester considered Dean weak for it.
He then looked to Olive, who looked more paranoid and scared in her sleep than she did when she was awake. The horrors of her past written in her brow as she shifted, probably reliving one of them as she slept.
Sam should feel bad for her, he knew her story and maybe if he had a soul he would have been more sympathetic and supportive but he just couldn't. There was something about Olive that Sam didn't like and he knew it had something to do with her abilities.
Olive was like a soul outlet, whenever he was around her he was filled up with a sense of humanity that he didn't want.
Her abilities to heal and control souls made him vulnerable to her, her presence made him feel like his old self and he hated her for it, it was too overwhelming. It was like her presence was building his soul back up little by little.
His soul was what made him weak before, that was why he didn't want anything to do with the little girl who looked up to him. He was disturbed that Olive saw him as a remarkable man, a hero. Because he didn't think of himself that way.
After all this time of ignoring her and pushing her away from him she still just kept coming back. Every time.
Sam sweeps his arms under her small figure, trying his best not to wake up Dean as he forcibly untangled them. He froze when Dean did, like a father's instinct. Sam waits for his brother to relax before he pulls them apart completely.
He picks her up, her head dropping onto his shoulder, her legs dangling as he walked over to his bed. She stirs for a moment, causing him to freeze. Olive wraps her arms around his neck, practically hugging him.
"Great." He sighed, trying to pry her off of him and onto the bed but she wouldn't budge. She seemed to fall deeper into her nightmare, causing her to whimper. Sam needed to take a lighter approach. "It's okay." He awkwardly coos, grimacing at his attempts to be comforting. "You're safe. Just sleep, okay?" He says quietly.
Olive's grip loosens at his tone, her head rolling to the side as Sam placed her on his bed and covered her body in the comforters. Sam gingerly reach over to Dean's bed and grabbed her teddy bear, which was now missing an ear. Sam remembered how annoyed he was when Olive stared crying about it, watching a panicked Dean search all over the Impala only to come up empty handed.
His fake soothing made him wince in disgust.
Sam hasn't taken the time to look at Olive Grace until now. She was powerful. Naive and gullible, all things he could use at his expense. Dean was slowly starting to grow out of touch with Sam and the youngest Winchester needed to find a way to keep Dean around.
A feeling, no not a feeling, a mental decision appeared to him.
He hated that he had to protect her. He didn't care about her. Not even in the slightest but he still needed to protect her because what if she got into the wrong hands? They could use her against the brothers. Pretending the care for her might be the only way to keep both Dean and Olive under his watch.
Sam understood why Dean cared for her so much. She was a blessing in disguise. She made his brother feel normal even though she was everything but. He didn't give a shit about Dean. He didn't give a shit about anyone, but one thing was made clear to him. If he pretends to like Olive, and protected her, Dean is guaranteed to stay. Sam needed Dean, and Dean wasn't going to leave Olive so it was the only thing to do.
With a huff, Sam turning off his lamp light and grabbing his things, slipping out of the motel room and into the night, determined to solve the case and stop working for Crowley.
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› DEAN WOKE UP WITH A PAIN IN HIS NECK, his arm reaching over only to be met with his daughters absence. His eyes shot open, panic settling into his chest as he sat up, "Olive?" He says groggily, a firm grip on the gun under his pillow. He let out a relieved sigh when he saw Olive a few feet away from him on Sam's bed out cold.
The motel door opens. Sam waltzed in with a nod and a two breakfast bags. "Morning."
"You didn't sleep." Dean rubs his eyes in realization. "Because you don't. . .sleep."
"Right." Sam agreed.
"Yeah. That's not creepy at all."
"Not like I can help it." He states. "So, you just gonna lay there staring at me or you wanna hear what I dug up?" He asked, grabbing one of the bags and throwing it in his brother's direction. Dean didn't bother to catch it, closing his eyes when it smacked him in the face.
"Olly, wake up." He shouts, looking towards her. Olive mumbles a no. "Come on, we don't have all day." He says. Olive groans, grabbing the pillow and smushing it against her face.
Sam looks between them for a moment, watching his brother struggle to wake her up before picking up the second breakfast bag. "I got you blueberry waffles."
Olive sits up quickly, her eyes flashing with tired excitement. Olive easily slipped out of the bed in her multicolored onesie and grabbed the bag out of Sam's hands. She wasn't even that hungry, but considering Sam was the one to got it for her she took it eagerly.
Plus, blueberry waffles were the shit.
Dean stares directly at his brother with narrow eyes. "Seriously?" He deadpans. Sam shrugs his shoulders, pretending that he had no idea why Dean was edged about the simple act.
"All right. So we know that werewolves are basically ID gone wild, right?" Sam asked rhetorically but Olive nodded along anyway. "I mean, whoever they hate they kill when they wolf out. So I've been playing Connect the Victims."
"I like board games too!" Olive smiles, "Maybe we can play a board game!"
Dean goes to speak before Sam could reject her once again, "Olive I don't think—"
"Sure, only if you want to lose at Checkers," Sam responds, nodding. Olive beams, looking fully awake now.
Dean clenched his jaw, forcing a smile when she looked in his direction for approval, "What'd you find?"
"I think I found a common denominator." Although he just got there Sam was already packing up to leave the motel. "So uh, lets go. Let the lead out, huh?"
Dean hesitates, looking at Olive before sighing. "Let me get dressed, Robocop. Olly—"
"Stay here. Don't blow anything up." She responds.
"See, we already have a system."
The brothers spent the whole day gone and as night comes Olive knew that she likely wasn't going to see them until the morning.
Practice got boring. TV got boring. She took a nap but it didn't last long, because she was bored in her sleep. The second she woke up she went to the window to watch the sunrise. Everything was so boring to the point where Olive started running across the ceiling for some form of entertainment.
Lisa should've persisted on getting her tested for ADHD.
That was when an idea struck her, literally causing her to loose balance on the ceiling and crash onto the bed. Olive scrambles for her phone, throwing herself back on the bed before clicking through her contacts.
She presses it against her ear, surprised when he picked up on the second ring. "Hi, Mr. Singer!" She said cheerfully.
There was a long pause on the other line, Bobby was expecting her to add more, like help on finding lore or how to gank a monster. After another moment he cleared his throat.
"Uh, hi. .?" He says unsure. "Is there somethin' wrong?"
"Nope! I was just checking in." She hummed.
Bobby doesn't know how to react. "You just called to check in? That's it? No. .monsters that need gankin'?" He questioned.
"No, sir. How was your day?" She asked.
His eyes widened. "M-My day was fine. Didn't really do much." He was shocked. The boys never called to check on him, at least not after they've asked him for something for their hunt. Actually, thinking back, nobody has called to check on him except Jody Mills a few times. "How. . .are you?"
She sighs. "Bored! Daddy and Sam are hunting and I'm stuck at the motel doing nothing! Sucks right?"
"I. . .guess?"
"I ran on the ceiling though, that was fun."
"You. . you what? The ceiling?" His eyes widened.
"Yeah! After I set the beer cans on fire!" She said innocently. The door knob jiggles, signaling that someone was trying to get it. "I gotta go Bobby, I think someone's breaking in. Bye!"
"Wait what? Olive, don't you hang—"
Olive hangs up the phone just as Sam and Dean busted through the door carrying in a German Shepard. She gasped in excitement. "A doggy!" They throw the dog onto the floor roughly, the Shepard instantly morphing into a man. Olive becomes morphed. "Naked man!" She points.
Dean grabs her shoulder, leading her into the bathroom, "Make soap potions in the sink," He slams the door. "Get him dressed and tied up." He ordered Sam with a sigh.
Olive is called out a few moments later, her eyes screwed shut as she navigated towards her father. "Is he still naked?" She whisper-yelled to him.
Dean expresses his amusement through his eyes. "No. Sit down." He states. Olive opens her eyes and plops down on the bed, waiting for the interrogation to start. The man didn't look like a werewolf, he was scrawny and looked completely horrified.
"Well, I gotta tell you, Lucky. You got us stumped." Sam starts. "I mean, why shack up with a family? Is it a kinky thing? Do you like to play with your food?" He mocked.
Olive turns to Dean, nose scrunched. "Dad, what does Kinky mean?"
Dean turns to Sam with wide, horrified eyes. "Look what you did." He snapped. Sam doesn't respond. "It's a soup, now shh." He dismissed. Olive nods, having no reason to think he's lying.
"Roll over, Lucky. Speak." Sam continued.
"Go to hell." He choked out.
"Already been, didn't agree with me." Sam dismissed, standing up. "So look, how about I take this silver knife. . .and I start carving some dog until you behave?"
"Do what you gotta do." The man shifts.
"Hang on, Sam." Dean orders lightly, looking at the Skinwalker. "Listen, you don't have to tell me why you're with the family, I get it."
"Oh, you do, do you?" He mocks.
"You killed every threat that came near them. You care about them, in your own whack-a-doodle kind of way, it's obvious." Dean deducts. "What I wanna know is, who was that guy you were kibitzing with? He a skinwalker too?"
The man says nothing, a deep frown on his face as he avoided eye-contact with the Hunters. It was easy for Olive to feel sympathy for the man, then again Olive feels empathy for anything that moves, she wasn't one to judge people so quickly—unless they're trying to kill her, that's a different story. l
"Look, I can't say anything." He finally states.
"But if you don't, then you're gonna put that girl and the little boy in danger." Dean persists. "And sooner or later all this crap is gonna come for them." He says from experience, standing up. "Now, look, we don't give a rat's ass about you. We wanna help them. That's our angle, that's it."
The skinwalker gives in. "Yeah, that guys, he's a—whatever it is I am. He's not the only one."
"How many are you?"
"About thirty. We were all—we were kinda recruited."
"Recruited?" Sam repeats.
He then goes on to explain his pack's process of finding families that will take them in and turning them. Thirty becomes at least a hundred and fifty within a day. The brothers had to admit the plan was clever, but now they had over a dozen Skinwalkers to kill before the town turns to monsterville.
Sam whistles suddenly, holding a red ball in his hands, wiggling it in front of the man in the chair. Without breaking eye contact Sam throws the ball as if expecting him to react.
Olive frowns. She wonders why Sam was being so mean towards the monster that was obviously cooperating with them. But of course she needed to remember that he didn't have a soul and that he wasn't himself, but the other part of her with sad that the Sam she knew about wasn't who she met the first time around.
"Sam, not helping." Dean deadpans.
"Fetch this, bitch." He replied.
"Listen to me." Dean states. "What are you gonna do to that family, really? You gonna our your jaws around that little boy's throat? Clamp down? Listen to him cry for his mom?" He says lowly, guilt tripping the man.
The Skinwalker looks behind Dean at Olive who sat on the bed with sad eyes. For a moment, Amanda's little boy flashed in her face, someone even younger that she was. He began to feel more guilty then he ever thought possible.
"I'm gonna guess that these are the only people who, in your pathetic life, have ever showed you any kindness. So it's either that or you can help us stop it."
The skinwalker gives a single, defeated nod.
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› WHEN THEY GOT INTO THE CAR, Olive was surprised when Sam passed over his computer and let Olive play games in the backseat. Dean watched the exchange with narrow eyes, piling out of the car and slamming it behind him. Sam sighs, looking at Olive once before following.
"So how are we supposed to get near something that can smell us a hundred yards off?" Sam questions.
"We don't." Dean replies, unlocking the box that held a large sniper.
"The pack leader." Sam notes. "We're taking him down?"
"Uh yeah. You got a better idea?"
"No, I—Crowley's not gonna be too happy about that." He explains.
"Who gives a rats ass?" Dean states, "We let that thing live one second and it sends out that psychic dog whistle and." He makes an explosion noise.
"On the other hand, it could lead us to an Alpha." Sam chimes. "Then Crowley would give me my soul back."
"Are you kidding? A hundred and fifty people turned into monsters. That's what you want?"
"No, of course not." He hesitates. "I-I was just asking."
Dean scoffs, staring at his brother in disbelief. "You know what? That's it. You say you're just folks, huh? That you like baseball and apple pure or whatever. The truth is, I don't know what you are, because you're not Sam."
Sam rolls his eyes. "Dean, come on."
"It's your gigantor body and maybe your brain, but it's not you. So just stop pretending. It'd do us both a favor." He goes to turn, but faces his brother. "And don't think I don't know what you're doing with Olly." He says lowly.
"What are you—"
"Don't play that. You know, it's one thing to pretend in front of me but don't sit there and pretend you care about my daughter." He snaps.
Sam hesitates, he shouldn't have been surprised that Dean caught on so easily. "Dean, I'm just trying to be nice."
"No. No you're using the fact that Olly cares about you as a way to get to manipulate me, I know because dad did it with me when it came to you." Dean admits.
The confession of their childhood lingers in the air, and Sam bites the inside of his lip. Dean takes the silence as an invitation to continue.
"You thought that if you pretended to care about what happens to Olly that I would trust you more. I don't." He states, "She wants an uncle. Her uncle. You're not that."
Without a heated expression Dean grabs his bag and slams the truck, knocking on the back window with a reassured smile. Olive looks up, closing the computer and sliding out of the backseat, grasping onto his hand.
The sun burned against Olive's soft skin, making her sweat and itch uncomfortably in her utility jacket as she held Sam load clips of silver bullets.
She wore a pair of jeans and one of Dean's shirt because she had no more clean clothes, kicking rubble and rocks with the tops of her sparkly sneakers.
Dean spend a long time trying to brush out and put up her hair, complaining that it was getting to long.
"He looks nervous, right?" Sam guessed.
Dean doesn't take his eye from the scope, watching the man's every move. "Wouldn't you be?"
"I'd double-cross us." Sam admits bluntly. Dean shifts at the statement. "He's gotta realize that's his best bet if he wants to keep breathing."
"No, he'll go through with it." Dean defends.
"You mean because he loves that family?"
"Yeah."
"I'd double-cross us." He repeats with a shrug.
"Thanks, Dexter. That's reassuring." Dean says sarcastically.
"No it's not." Olive frowns.
"Just making conversation." Sam hums.
Dean perks up as a car approaches. "Here we go."
Sam and Olive stand up, the Hunter quickly pulling out binoculars to scope out the scene but Olive was to short to even look over the ventilator they were scouting behind. She tries to jump to get a good look over their shoulders but neither of them moved. With a huff, Olive crosses her arms.
"That big guy, the driver. That's the guy Lucky met in the park." Sam states.
"And there's el jefe." Dean chimes.
"I wanna see!" Olive squeezes in between. Sam pushes her back softly.
"Take him out."
"It's not clean." Dean shakes his head. "We got one shot at this, literally."
"Take the shot." Sam orders.
"I'm trying. She's in the way!" Olive assumes he meant the woman Lucky was referring to inside the motel.
"Take it anyway." Sam snaps. Olive steps back, wide eyed. Dean even turns to him for a moment.
"Come on, come on, come on." He mumbles to himself, trying to find an opening. He lets out a huff when the leader is ushered inside, the Skinwalkers following close behind. "Damnit!"
"So, plan B?" Sam asked.
Dean blinks. "We've got one?!"
Olive throws her hands up. "We had a plan?!"
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› SNEAKING IN THROUGH THE BACK guns blazing was the grand plan. A stupid and reckless plan on Sam's part, but if they played their cards right it would work. Dean was stationed with his sniper on the second floor, while Sam and Olive charged in. Dean almost sent Olive to the car the second Sam suggested it, but Olive knew she could handle a few bad dogs—her play-on words that she was proud of.
The point was that she shouldn't have to handle it, but a celestial six year old has a better development than most, and he had to remind himself that she was the same kid that sizzled a demon's soul from the inside out the night they met.
And so that was how it went. The second the Skinwalkers closed in on Amanda and her son, Sam and Olive bursted into the room.
Sam instantly shoots the pack leader in the face while Olive soul sliced three men that ran towards them, sending them back. They died on impact, but Olive was to busy fighting off more people to notice.
It was times like this that remind people just how screwed up hunters grow up. Or just had bad the universe delt cards. Yet, nothing seemed more natural to them than taking down the monsters one by one.
Dean shot multiple men from the second floor, all headshots. Sam runs off in a completely different direction, like he said he wouldn't do, leaving Olive alone in a room filled with at least three advancing men.
They shift into their dog forms, causing Olive to panic for a moment before lifting her palms upward, closing her eyes and letting whatever fear she felt take over.
"Stop!" She screams.
The dogs freeze, whimpering in pain as Olive flicks her palms downward, causing them to bow in place. Her eyes widened, not expecting a reaction.
She practiced this in the motel on her teddy bear but it obviously didn't work. These monsters had souls and she was controlling them.
Frightened, Olive releases them just as Sam comes back and shoots them dead.
They morph back to human and Olive couldn't help but stare intensely.
How could she do that? Toula was right, there was no control, no balance. What other damage could she do just by simply panicking? Who else would she end up hurting?
"Let's go." Sam grabs her arm, dragging her back.
Olive numbly follows, not finding it in herself to look back at all the lives they had taken.
Children around her age laughed in the park, running around playing games and climbing the slides.
Olive sat on a swing, kicking off the cement slowly as she frowns. Sam and Dean sat at a bench a little away from the park, out of earshot as they talked.
Olive looks at them, her frown deepening. She was scared.
"I'll never look at a dog the same." Dean shutters. "Makes you wonder though, huh?"
"What?"
"How many packs are out there. What if they're all just waiting for the signal, you know?" He takes a sip of his drinks, eyes flashing over to the park where Olive stared at her shoes. He sighs, knowing that this was taking a different toll on her then it did for them.
"So I was thinking." Sam states, bring Dean's attention back. "You were right."
"About?"
"I'm not your brother. I'm not Sam." He states.
"Oh. .kay."
"All that 'blah, blah, blah' about being the old me? Crap. Like Lisa and Ben, right? I've been acting like I care about them. But I don't. I couldn't care less." He says bluntly.
Dean narrows his eyes. "Is this supposed to make me feel better?"
"You wanted the real me, this is it. I don't care about them. I don't even really care about you, except that I need your help and that's why I pretended to care about Olive, but I don't. I just care about her power." He continues.
Dean wanted to punch his throat.
"And you're clearly not gonna stick around for much longer unless I give it to you straight, so. . .I've done a lot worse than you know. I've killed innocent people in the line of duty but. I'm pretty sure it's not something the old me could have done. . .and maybe I should feel guilty, but I don't."
"Sam, get to the punchline." Dean sighs tiredly, unable to even look at him. Are those words even coming from his brother's mouth right now?
"Look, I don't know if how I am is better or worse. It's different. You get the job done and nothing really hurts. It's not the worse thing but I've been thinking." He says. "I was that other Sam for a long time, and it was. . .it was kinda harder. I'm not that person Olive thinks I am, I didn't want to be." He sighs. "But there are also things about it I remember that. . ." He trails. "Let's just say, I think I should probably go back to being him."
Dean's eyes cast down to the table, "That's very interesting." He says, his voice wavering from the pain he felt for his brother. "It's a step."
"So. . .?" Sam pressed.
Dean clicks his tongue. "We do what we gonna do. . .and we get my brother back."
"Really? That's it?" Sam says skeptically.
"No. If you actively put my child in danger just because you can, I will beat you to the inch of your life, lock you up, and find a way to cramp your soul back in your throat myself," Dean threatens with a smile.
Sam blinks, "Noted."
Dean walks into the park, taking the swing on the other side of Olive. He sighs, rocking his knees to keep at her pace as they sat in silence.
"You okay? I know that was a lot." Dean asks after a moment, squinting his eyes at the trees.
Olive shrugs.
"It was a lot for me," He continues, shrugging.
She slowly looks up, "I know. You're overwhelmed all the time. I can. .feel it sometimes."
He nods, sucking his teeth, "Yeah? Well, I can feel the fear roll of you. Every time I look at you, and it kills me. I'm putting you in a position where you're scared."
Olive sighs, "I'm scared because I've got all these powers." Now that she's aware of it, it scares her and she can't control it. "What if I hurt someone dad? Someone that doesn't deserve it."
"You won't," Dean promised.
She sniffled, "But what if I do? What if I hurt you, or Lisa or Ben, or Sam?"
"I want to hurt Sam," Dean jokes.
"I'm serious. . ." She falters.
"Don't be," He tells her, "Leave being serious to me. Be you. Because you don't hurt people, O. If you did, it would never be on purpose and we'd figure out how to get past it."
She holds out her pinky, "Swear."
Dean wraps his pinky around hers.
The universe shifts just slightly, a bound alined and a bond strengthening. Olive feels the tie knot, and with a smile he says.
"I swear."
WORDS,, 7177