But Deadly 'verse: Morning Moon (1/1)
Title: Morning Moon
Author: Bella Temple
Category: SPN, AU, Gen, drama
Rating: Teen
Warnings: AU, some language, violence
Spoilers: General for seasons one and two
Characters: Ellen, Jo, Ash, Sam, Dean, other
Disclaimer: The characters and basic premise within are property of Warner Bros, Eric Kripke, etc. No money is being made off this work of fiction.
Author's note: Part of my But Deadly 'verse. It is highly recommended that you read the others, first. You know how throughout the series I've been saying there's "at least one more story"? This is the one more story. But I fully intend to continue the series past this point. Title and cut tag are from "Ghost in the Morning Moon" by Breathe, Owl, Breathe.
Summary: Bobby sends Sam and Dean to the Roadhouse to talk to a woman who might have more information on the Yellow Eyed Demon, and it sets Ellen's world askew.
When it came right down to it, there was only one thing in the world that could get Ellen angry enough to start smacking around the tables and chairs or slamming glasses onto the bar hard enough to crack them, but that one thing was big enough and important enough -- and infuriating enough -- that she ended up acting that way pretty often.
Especially since that "thing" had turned thirteen.
"This isn't a discussion, Jo."
"Yeah, it's not." Jo was just as skilled at slamming things around -- hell, she'd learned it straight from Ellen, over the years. "Because I've made up my mind."
"I don't care what you think you've decided --"
"I'm not a kid!"
"You're sure as hell acting like one!"
"Maybe you should listen to her, Ellen."
Ellen whirled, nearly knocking one of the chairs from the table it was resting on. "You stay out of this, Maggie, you've done enough."
"She asked me to come get her, Ellen, what was I supposed to do, leave her there?"
Ellen's eyebrows went up. "Yes!"
"She was miserable!"
"She was getting an education!"
"She's standing right here!" Jo stepped up between Ellen and the older blond. "Thanks for the ride, Maggie."
Ellen fumed at her daughter's back, but swallowed some of her rage as the phone rang. They all stood there silently for a moment before she finally nodded to Maggie. "Thank you for bringing her home." She headed for the phone, shooting a glare at Jo. "This isn't over, Jo. You don't have to do the summer term, but you are going back to school."
Jo huffed, then turned to finish getting the bar ready to open. Maggie looked between the two of them, then nodded and headed towards the back, to the room that Ellen had kept for her since Bill had died. Maggie and Jo had been thick of thieves since then, though Maggie was closer to Ellen's age. She'd thanked God for the woman's help back then, still did, most days, since Maggie was as adamant about Jo keeping out of hunting as Ellen was. But this wasn't what Ellen had hoped for, for her daughter. Working the bar was no way to get ahead in life -- it was enough for Ellen, always had been, but Jo was supposed to do something more.
She only barely managed to keep her continuing anger out of her voice when she picked up the phone. "Harvelle's."
"Ellen, it's Bobby."
"Singer. It's been awhile."
"It has. Am I calling at a bad time?"
Ellen turned to look at Jo, who was steadfastly not looking back. "Just some family business, Bobby. You know how it is."
Bobby laughed. "I don't, and I don't want to. Maggie around?"
"Yeah, I'll go get her."
"Nah, just checking to see if she was in. I sent a couple of boys out your way, they'll want to talk to her."
Ellen frowned. "What's this about?"
"They're fire kids."
Ellen let out a low, hissing curse. "You think that's wise? You know Maggie tries to keep things quiet."
"I do, but these kids aren't like the others. They're hunters, for one."
"Woulda thought Maggie might've mentioned that." The "fire kids" were a bit of a pet project of Maggie's, a bunch of kids all born the same year who'd lost their mothers to a nursery fire on their six month birthday. As far as Ellen knew, there were three that Maggie kept track of, never getting close enough to talk to the kids in person, just watching over them, looking out for the demon she thought was responsible.
"Might be she missed these two. They're brothers, don't quite fit the M.O. Lost both parents, not just the mother. I've known one of them for years, the other just got started in the business this year, after his girlfriend got toasted."
"Shit."
"Yeah. Anyway, they got some information about the demon, figured it'd be good for them to knock heads a bit with Maggie, share some info and see if we can't get this whole thing figured out."
"Good thinking. How far out are they? I'll let Maggie know they're coming."
"Should get there in the next couple of hours. Thanks, Ellen."
"Not a problem, Bobby. You should stop back in, sometime."
"Just might do that. I'll talk to you later."
"Bye, Bobby." Ellen hung up and spent a moment just looking at the phone. She didn't really understand what was going on with the fire kids, what they meant in the grander scheme of things -- Maggie didn't often feel much like talking about it. To have a couple of them here, well. It made her nervous.
"Jo, do me a favor and get out some whiskey."
Jo's lips tightened and she crossed her arms. "What, so now bar work's good enough for me?"
"Don't you give me that. You aren't in school, you might as well be doing something useful. Go."
Jo huffed and stormed off. Ellen set about wiping down the bar, thinking over how to tell Maggie that Bobby'd sent some folks their way.
Whatever happened, it was bound to be an interesting evening.
* * *
They showed up a two hours later, after Ellen had unlocked the door, but before she'd gotten to turning the sign from "closed" to "open". She hadn't been certain what to expect -- most hunters were closer to her and Maggie's age, bitter old men and women whose lives had been so smacked around by the supernatural that they didn't look like they'd fit anywhere else. These two were almost like that, they had the right guarded look, and the uniform of jeans, boots, and flannels, but it was clear that the world had only just started to wear on them. The taller one, especially, looked like he'd be better suited hanging out with Jo in her dorm room than he was standing in the entrance to her roadhouse.
They both glanced around the bar, almost synchronised as they did it, before meeting her eyes and walking over, the shorter one leading by about a foot, hands loose at his sides, while the taller one shoved his hands into his pockets and gave her an open, cheerful expression.
"Hi," he said, and flashed her a smile that might've melted her back when she'd first met Bill, but these days just made her hackles rise. "I'm Sam, this is my brother, Dean. We're here to talk to Maggie?"
Ellen just raised her chin, giving the two of them an obvious once over and waiting to see if Sam's puppy-dog expression would fade. Dean met her gaze with a raised chin of his own, but didn't say a word. Sam's expression flickered, but held, and he tried again.
"Bobby Singer sent us."
Ellen nodded. "He told me. Maggie'll be out in a few moments." She looked at the two of them again. "You're hunters?"
Sam's expression flickered again, and Ellen caught confusion in the momentary change. "Uh, yeah. How did you --"
"Told me that, too. This place gets a lot of your folks on through. Can't say that I've heard much of you two."
Dean rolled his eyes, but continued to hold his tongue, which was a surprise. He didn't look the sort to keep his thoughts -- or his hands -- to himself. She'd have to watch him around Jo, especially considering the way her eyes lit up at the very sight of him. Her daughter didn't need to go through the same things Ellen had with Bill. She'd get a normal life if Ellen had to tie her to a chair to convince her of it.
Sam was clearly out of his element, though he was doing his best not to show it. He stood there as silent as Dean for a moment, mouth open as though to say something, then shrugged. "We keep a low profile."
"Guess so."
More silence, then Dean elbowed Sam and brought his hands up, moving them quickly through in some sort of code. Sam watched him, then turned back to Ellen and tried that smile on for size again. "Could we get a beer while we wait for Maggie?"
Ellen gave Dean a guarded look, then nodded. "Sure thing. PBR?"
Dean's lips quirked into a split second of smile, and Sam shrugged. Ellen looked to Jo only to find her already popping open two bottles and setting them on the bar.
Yeah, she'd have to keep a close eye on the situation.
Maggie came out of the back, then, head turned back over her shoulder as she called some last thing to Ash about a search she had him working on, and the two boys took their beers and turned to face her. She turned around and flicked her eyes over the boys the same way Ellen had, curious but with trepidation, and Ellen nodded. Sam smiled and stepped forward, hand out, but Dean had gone completely still, eyes wide, staring at Maggie. He breathed in sharply, and for the first time since he came into the roadhouse, opened his mouth.
"Mom."
* * *
Generally speaking, all hell didn't tend to break loose in Harvelle's Roadhouse until at least ten pm. Today it looked like it might happen a full seven hours early. Sam spun, eyes as wide as Dean's, mouth hanging open in blatant shock, and Jo dropped the pint glass she was filling for Maggie. Dean's fingers tightened hard enough on his bottle of PBR to turn his knuckles white, and Maggie's eyes widened, then narrowed as she tilted her head.
"I'm sorry," she said softly, an undertone to her voice that Ellen hadn't heard before. "I think you're mistaking me for someone else."
Sam turned again, back towards Maggie, shock and confusion written loud and clear on his face, so he missed the flash of agony that crossed Dean's, but Ellen didn't. She was watching him carefully, but even still, she didn't quite see him move to put down his beer before he turned and walked back out the door he'd entered not five minutes before. Ellen had seen men skedaddle that fast without running, but it had been a long time.
The door was slamming shut before Sam turned back around to register that his brother was gone. He turned back to Maggie, then the door, then to Maggie.
"I'm sorry," he said, then headed for the door as well, Ellen, Jo, and Maggie all hot on his heels.
They got outside to see Dean standing with his hands pressed to the roof of a familiarly-shaped black muscle car. Jo turned to Maggie and said "Didn't you used to --" but never finished the question. Sam walked straight forward, his expression tight.
"Dean," he said, and Maggie whispered "No," though Ellen was certain the boys couldn't hear it. She stepped back into the wall of the roadhouse, and Jo looked to Ellen as though she should know exactly what was going on.
She didn't. But she could guess.
Dean raised one hand and slammed it down onto the roof of the car with all his strength. Sam said "Dean," again, a hint of pleading in his voice, and Maggie said "Sam?" and both boys turned to look at her.
Ellen put out her arm and held it up in front of Jo. "Get back inside, honey."
Dean and Sam stood stock still in the parking lot, Dean with one hand still pressed to the roof, Sam halfway between him and the front porch. Maggie took a single step forward, her eyes wide and lined with red, and Ellen pushed against Jo's stomach, urging her back inside even as she wondered if she should be leaving these three alone, herself.
Sam swallowed and tilted his head. "How did you know my name?"
Dean let out a low noise in the back of his throat, and his hands tightened into fists against the car. Ellen recognized it now -- Maggie had had one like it, somewhere around ten years ago, though hers had been a rusted out, barely mobile piece of shit, where this one wore a few marks of good use, but otherwise looked newly minted.
"I think -- oh God," Maggie said, her hands coming up to the base of her throat as she looked between the two boys. "Look at you two. You're all grown up."
Dean made that noise again, almost a whimper, and the look on his face was so open and pleading that Ellen felt her heart break a little for him. He'd sounded so certain, back in the bar, but Maggie didn't have children. She'd had a family once, Ellen knew that much, but she'd lost them to the hunt as surely as Ellen had lost Bill.
Hadn't she?
Maggie took another step forward, and Sam stepped back towards his brother, looking over at him as though to demand an explanation, but Dean didn't meet his eyes. He stepped away from the car, paused, then crossed the rest of the distance to Maggie, standing right in front of her, head tilted down to look her in the eye, though he looked all of four years old, the way his eyes watered and begged Maggie to tell him that everything was okay.
"You shouldn't be here," was what she said instead, and the noise in Dean's throat was definitely a whimper, then, and Sam stepped up behind him, pressing his hand to Dean's arm even as Maggie lifted one of hers to touch his cheek. Dean closed his eyes at the touch, and Sam stared down at Maggie. She looked back at him, her mouth curling in a smile even though her cheeks were getting wet. Jo leaned foward against Ellen's arm.
"Mom, what's going on?" Her voice was low -- she was as hesitant to break the building moment as Ellen was, even by going back inside.
"Don't know for sure, Jo," Ellen said back, not taking her eyes off the three people in her parking lot.
"You're Sam and Dean Winchester," Maggie said, her hand going from Dean's cheek to hover a few inches from Sam's. Dean opened his eyes and nodded. "I'm so sorry, I should have --" She shook her head. "It's been so long, but I should have recognized you."
Dean trembled faintly in Sam's grip, but he didn't take his eyes off Maggie. "Mom," he said again, and Sam's eyes screwed up, in emotional pain or surprise, Ellen wasn't sure which. Maggie nodded.
"Yeah, love. It's me."
Dean slammed forward then, his arms going around Maggie in a fierce hug, leaving Sam hovering a few feet away until Maggie stretched out a hand to him and pulled him in. Ellen wrapped her own fingers around Jo's wrist and tugged her backwards, towards the door. Jo didn't resist.
They'd get their answers later. For now, this was a private moment.
* * *
By the time the bar opened at four and the first of the other hunters started straggling in, Maggie and her boys were tucked away at a table in the back corner, beers all around, where they were slightly less likely to be overheard. Ellen kept nearby even so, curiosity winning out over her desire to give the group the privacy they deserved. She'd known Maggie for almost twenty years, after all, and while she'd learned after Bill died that Maggie had been married and had children once, she'd been damned sure that Maggie had said she'd lost them all in a fire.
She just couldn't remember if Maggie had ever specifically said she'd lost them to death.
Dean was the first to break the silence that hovered over the table, in a manner of speaking. He cleared his throat, swallowed, winced, then finally lifted his hands to sign again, like he had at the bar. Maggie watched him in confusion before looking to Sam, who hunched futher into his jacket and slumped down into his chair, shooting occasional glances at his brother as though trying to work out some sort of puzzle. He shrugged at Maggie.
"He can't --" He shook his head in frustration, rubbing the bridge of his nose, then tried again. "He doesn't talk. Since the fire."
They were fire kids. They were Maggie's kids. God, that explained so much. . . .
Maggie nodded, her expression carefully neutral. "I don't know sign language."
Dean barked out a pained laugh and looked down toward the floor next to his chair. Sam flinched at the noise and kicked at the leg of the table. "He wants to know about your name."
Maggie sighed and took a long sip of her beer. "Why Maggie, you mean."
"Yeah."
"Mary Winchester is dead," she said simply, and this time, both boys flinched. Dean's hands came up again, and Sam was quick to translate.
"No, you're not."
"No, I'm not. But who I was. . . . You boys have to understand, I thought that fire happened because of me. I thought that staying with you, with your father, was the reason why the demon attacked us. I'd already lost John, I couldn't bear to lose you two, too." Dean looked up from the floor then, mouth tight and eyes wide. "I thought it was better this way. If Dan and Carrie took care of you, I could go after the demon and kill it. And then come back for you."
"But you didn't." Sam spoke without Dean's prompting, this time, though Dean nodded along.
"Not yet," Maggie -- or Mary, Ellen supposed -- said. "But I will. I'm getting closer every day. You two -- I thought you'd be in college, by now, like Jo was." Ellen scowled. "I thought maybe you'd be married, Dean. Have kids of your own. I wanted so much for you two to be happy."
Dean shook his head sharply. "How?" Sam flinched, the way he did every time Dean made a sound. Ellen could sympathize, the boy spoke like every noise hurt on the way out. Maggie shook her head.
"I don't know what you mean."
Dean leaned foward, elbows on the table, and started signing furiously. Sam struggled to keep up.
"He says -- he says how were we supposed to be happy without you around? How are we supposed to be happy not knowing the truth? Not being able to -- Dean, what do you mean?"
Dean shot a look at Sam and shook his head, then glared at Maggie, angling his head at Sam as though demanding that she explain to him. When it was clear she wasn't going willing or wasn't able, he let out a soft growl and started signing again. Sam watched without translating, his brows moving closer and closer together, then he turned towards Maggie.
"You did this to him?"
Oh, hell.
"What?" Maggie leaned back, guilt written across her face. "No, I --"
"You made your four year old son responsible for his baby brother, and then told him he couldn't speak?"
The few other hunters in the bar stopped what they were doing as Sam raised his voice, and turned to watch. Ellen decided it was time to intervene.
"Can I get you guys something to eat?" She asked loudly, stepping up behind Dean. She met Maggie's eyes and then looked sideways at the rest of the bar, willing her to understand.
She did.
"Actually, I was thinking the boys might like to see where I've been staying." She looked at Sam and Dean, who were both fuming silently, and gave them a weak smile. They stared back, then with a glance at each other, both nodded in unison. Ellen stepped back and kept a close eye on the three until they made it safely into the back room. She turned to look at the rest of the hunters, catching Gordon Walker's eye, specifically.
"Well? Anybody need anything, or are you all just planning to loiter?"
* * *
Ellen didn't know what had passed between the three Winchesters -- and it was odd, thinking of Maggie that way, when she'd always known her as a Harrison -- after they went back to Maggie's room, that night. She only knew that three of them were calmer, and seemed happier, the next morning when they gathered in the bar again for breakfast with Ellen, Jo, and Ash. Dean even smiled occasionally, a real smile, bright, young, and if Jo's expression was any indication, incredibly charming, though Sam kept shooting him looks like he wasn't entirely sure who he was.
Ellen would find out later that the night before was the first time Sam had ever heard Dean speak real words, but for the time being, she was forced to just watch the boy and wonder why his own brother seemed so foreign to him.
Over all, it was a pleasant meal, the boys and Ash teasing Maggie over her choice of name -- Harrison was her maiden name, and an obvious enough choice, but Maggie was apparently out of left field, and a reference to Mary Magdalene. Ash snorted "the Penitent", and went on to make allusions to prostitution until Dean smacked him hard enough in the arm to make him wince. Maggie had shrugged and just murmured "It seemed right," when they asked why she chose it.
The lighter mood of reunion might've continued straight through to dinner if a crash hadn't sounded from the front lot as they were clearing up, Dean and Sam insisting on helping out no matter how much Ellen insisted they leave it for her and Jo to take care of. At the sound, Dean froze, shot Sam a glance, then pulled a Colt 1911 from his waistband, holding it low as he headed toward the door. Sam followed after, calling a short "we'll check it out" over his shoulder, and Ellen nodded Jo towards the rifle behind the bar as she pulled out her own revolver and followed. Maggie and Ash made up the back of the pack, Maggie gripping her glock firmly and Ash armed with nothing more than his damned mullet.
The lot was empty save for Dean's Impala and Maggie's battered Corolla. The rear windshield of the Impala had been busted in, and when he spotted it, Dean lunged forward, letting loose a wordless growl.
The moment Ash was out the door, it slammed shut and Dean spun to face it, then was thrown sideways into Maggie's car by some invisible force.
"What the --" Ellen never got a chance to finish the sentence as she felt herself lifted off her own porch and hurled backward into the ice box, pain flaring through the back of her head as it smacked into the lid with a dull *clang*.
She didn't know she'd blacked out until she found herself blinking awake, not much later, judging by how little the sun had moved. She looked for Jo first, finding her just pulling herself up against one of the support posts and rubbing her head. Ash lay face down in the dust just off the porch, but his chest rose and fell, so Ellen sat up and looked for the others.
Maggie stood between the Impala and the Corolla, hand wrapped tight around Sam's elbow as he leaned against her, hand pressed to the side of his head and features screwed up in pain. They both stared toward Maggie's car, where Dean stood, hands out a little to either side and pressed to the doors, his head arched back against the roof, throat working to breathe against the contorted position. A blond girl Ellen had never seen before stood several feet in front of him, gazing with contempt at Sam and Maggie, her eyes hard and completely black.
Maggie took a step forward without releasing her grip on Sam's arm. "Let him go." Her voice had an odd importance to it, an echo that made Ellen shiver, but the demon just laughed.
"Getting a little rusty, there, Mary." It grinned, the expression sharpening the girl's already pointed features. "Guess you should have kept practicing." It stretched out a hand behind it, and Dean grunted, his knees buckling, though he stayed pressed against the car. Ellen shot a glance to Jo, silently ordering her to stay down, as she started shifting slowly to her feet and looking for her gun.
The demon didn't take its eyes off Maggie and Sam as it swung its hand in Ellen's direction and forced her back against the ice box. Dean slid a few inches down on the car and gasped for breath.
"Stay out of this, Harvelle, you'll live longer."
"What do you want?" Sam pulled his hand away from his head and squinted at the demon as though it gave him a migraine, and the demon laughed, moving its hand back towards Dean, who was slammed back into the car again, hard enough to make its shocks groan. Ellen noted with a flare of hope that the demon seemed to only be powerful enough to keep one of them pinned at a time, and while she hated seeing anyone contorted into the position Dean was forced into, him being held did free her up to try and figure out a way to get them all out of this.
If she survived, she was definitely getting Bobby to work out a hidden trap for the front lot. Every entrance to the roadhouse itself had one, but they'd never considered protecting the parking area.
"Oh Sammy," the demon said, fisting its hand and causing Dean to let out a choked howl. "We want you."
"No." Maggie tugged at Sam's arm, pulling him slightly behind her. "Leave," she said, and her voice echoed again, and the demon's hand opened sharply, long enough to let Dean slide all the way to the ground. His lips were tinted dark red and his breath shuddered in and out, but Ellen was relieved to see that he seemed to be alright, other than that. She had no idea what Maggie was doing with her voice, but she hoped she'd keep it up.
The demon shuddered head to toe as Ellen started to inch her way towards Dean. Its eyes flickered from black to blue and back again, and its lips curled into a sneer, but it continued as though nothing had happened. "You see, Sam, we've got plans for you. Plans that don't include touching family reunions. So I'm here to offer you a choice." It lifted its hand sharply and Maggie cried out as she was flung back into the Impala, leaving Sam standing on his own in the open. Ellen shoved herself across the last few feet to Dean as quietly as she could, grabbing for the boy's hand. He spat blood onto the ground and looked up at her, grim and determined.
"You know how to make a devil's trap?" she hissed, and Dean nodded carefully. She dug her thumb into the dirt and started the first line of the circle, and he pushed himself up onto his elbow to dig into the ground and started the circle in the opposite direction.
It was a damned stupid plan, and if anyone else had tried to get her in on it, she would've laughed in their face. But they were all hurting and Maggie was in trouble and Ellen had no reason to believe that if the demon won it would leave her and Jo and Ash alone, either, and it was the only plan she had.
She just hoped Sam could keep the demon distracted long enough.
"See, we're willing to let you keep one of them," the demon was saying. "For now. Someone's gotta watch out for you, right? Make sure you keep breathing until we're ready for you. So which is it going to be, Sam?" It gestured towards Maggie again. "The estranged mother?" Ellen had a good five feet of circle done, and Dean was working quickly in the opposite direction, when the demon gestured back again without looking and threw him back into the car. "Or the lying brother?"
"No," Sam said, grinding it out between clenched teeth. He looked as though he might pass out at any moment. "I won't." He took a breath in the middle of the sentence, letting out a soft, high pitched cry of pain before continuing. "Choose."
"Then you'll lose them both."
Before the demon could move, before Ellen could keep drawing the circle for the trap, before Maggie or Dean could get themselves together enough to pull themselves off each other's cars, Sam's knees gave out, pitching him down into the dust, both hands gripping his temples. "No!" He screamed it into the dirt, then raised his head, his face flushed and his eyes resolved. "LEAVE THEM ALONE!"
Where Maggie's voice had been weighted and echoing with importance, Sam's seemed to be a physical force, and Ellen wasn't certain if she'd have managed to stay on her feet if she were standing. The demon's eyes widened and it wavered on its feet, then suddenly threw its head back and howled into the sky, black smoke pouring from the host body's throat and soaring higher and higher upwards until it turned sideways and streaked off over the trees. The lot fell silent again as time seemed to freeze, then the moment was broken as the blond girl collapsed -- unconscious or dead, Ellen wasn't sure -- into the dirt and Maggie and Dean slumped to their knees.
Ellen stared, trying to wrap her mind around what she had just seen. Sam pushed himself up to his feet and staggered towards Dean, who wrapped his arms over his chest and slumped down onto his side. Maggie gasped for breath and watched her boys with a look of terrible sadness, and Ellen felt her heart break for her.
Then Ash woke up.
"What the hell just happened?"
Ellen started to laugh. "That's a damned good question, Ash." She looked at the Winchesters, Sam and Dean huddled together against their mother's car as they tried to look each other over for injuires, Maggie crawling her way over with one arm pressed to her ribs. "Jo, go get the Johnny Walker. I'm thinking it's going to be a long morning."
Someone was damned well going to start explaining, and Ellen had a feeling there wasn't enough whiskey in the world to get them through it all.
Continued in The Reasons
Author: Bella Temple
Category: SPN, AU, Gen, drama
Rating: Teen
Warnings: AU, some language, violence
Spoilers: General for seasons one and two
Characters: Ellen, Jo, Ash, Sam, Dean, other
Disclaimer: The characters and basic premise within are property of Warner Bros, Eric Kripke, etc. No money is being made off this work of fiction.
Author's note: Part of my But Deadly 'verse. It is highly recommended that you read the others, first. You know how throughout the series I've been saying there's "at least one more story"? This is the one more story. But I fully intend to continue the series past this point. Title and cut tag are from "Ghost in the Morning Moon" by Breathe, Owl, Breathe.
Summary: Bobby sends Sam and Dean to the Roadhouse to talk to a woman who might have more information on the Yellow Eyed Demon, and it sets Ellen's world askew.
When it came right down to it, there was only one thing in the world that could get Ellen angry enough to start smacking around the tables and chairs or slamming glasses onto the bar hard enough to crack them, but that one thing was big enough and important enough -- and infuriating enough -- that she ended up acting that way pretty often.
Especially since that "thing" had turned thirteen.
"This isn't a discussion, Jo."
"Yeah, it's not." Jo was just as skilled at slamming things around -- hell, she'd learned it straight from Ellen, over the years. "Because I've made up my mind."
"I don't care what you think you've decided --"
"I'm not a kid!"
"You're sure as hell acting like one!"
"Maybe you should listen to her, Ellen."
Ellen whirled, nearly knocking one of the chairs from the table it was resting on. "You stay out of this, Maggie, you've done enough."
"She asked me to come get her, Ellen, what was I supposed to do, leave her there?"
Ellen's eyebrows went up. "Yes!"
"She was miserable!"
"She was getting an education!"
"She's standing right here!" Jo stepped up between Ellen and the older blond. "Thanks for the ride, Maggie."
Ellen fumed at her daughter's back, but swallowed some of her rage as the phone rang. They all stood there silently for a moment before she finally nodded to Maggie. "Thank you for bringing her home." She headed for the phone, shooting a glare at Jo. "This isn't over, Jo. You don't have to do the summer term, but you are going back to school."
Jo huffed, then turned to finish getting the bar ready to open. Maggie looked between the two of them, then nodded and headed towards the back, to the room that Ellen had kept for her since Bill had died. Maggie and Jo had been thick of thieves since then, though Maggie was closer to Ellen's age. She'd thanked God for the woman's help back then, still did, most days, since Maggie was as adamant about Jo keeping out of hunting as Ellen was. But this wasn't what Ellen had hoped for, for her daughter. Working the bar was no way to get ahead in life -- it was enough for Ellen, always had been, but Jo was supposed to do something more.
She only barely managed to keep her continuing anger out of her voice when she picked up the phone. "Harvelle's."
"Ellen, it's Bobby."
"Singer. It's been awhile."
"It has. Am I calling at a bad time?"
Ellen turned to look at Jo, who was steadfastly not looking back. "Just some family business, Bobby. You know how it is."
Bobby laughed. "I don't, and I don't want to. Maggie around?"
"Yeah, I'll go get her."
"Nah, just checking to see if she was in. I sent a couple of boys out your way, they'll want to talk to her."
Ellen frowned. "What's this about?"
"They're fire kids."
Ellen let out a low, hissing curse. "You think that's wise? You know Maggie tries to keep things quiet."
"I do, but these kids aren't like the others. They're hunters, for one."
"Woulda thought Maggie might've mentioned that." The "fire kids" were a bit of a pet project of Maggie's, a bunch of kids all born the same year who'd lost their mothers to a nursery fire on their six month birthday. As far as Ellen knew, there were three that Maggie kept track of, never getting close enough to talk to the kids in person, just watching over them, looking out for the demon she thought was responsible.
"Might be she missed these two. They're brothers, don't quite fit the M.O. Lost both parents, not just the mother. I've known one of them for years, the other just got started in the business this year, after his girlfriend got toasted."
"Shit."
"Yeah. Anyway, they got some information about the demon, figured it'd be good for them to knock heads a bit with Maggie, share some info and see if we can't get this whole thing figured out."
"Good thinking. How far out are they? I'll let Maggie know they're coming."
"Should get there in the next couple of hours. Thanks, Ellen."
"Not a problem, Bobby. You should stop back in, sometime."
"Just might do that. I'll talk to you later."
"Bye, Bobby." Ellen hung up and spent a moment just looking at the phone. She didn't really understand what was going on with the fire kids, what they meant in the grander scheme of things -- Maggie didn't often feel much like talking about it. To have a couple of them here, well. It made her nervous.
"Jo, do me a favor and get out some whiskey."
Jo's lips tightened and she crossed her arms. "What, so now bar work's good enough for me?"
"Don't you give me that. You aren't in school, you might as well be doing something useful. Go."
Jo huffed and stormed off. Ellen set about wiping down the bar, thinking over how to tell Maggie that Bobby'd sent some folks their way.
Whatever happened, it was bound to be an interesting evening.
* * *
They showed up a two hours later, after Ellen had unlocked the door, but before she'd gotten to turning the sign from "closed" to "open". She hadn't been certain what to expect -- most hunters were closer to her and Maggie's age, bitter old men and women whose lives had been so smacked around by the supernatural that they didn't look like they'd fit anywhere else. These two were almost like that, they had the right guarded look, and the uniform of jeans, boots, and flannels, but it was clear that the world had only just started to wear on them. The taller one, especially, looked like he'd be better suited hanging out with Jo in her dorm room than he was standing in the entrance to her roadhouse.
They both glanced around the bar, almost synchronised as they did it, before meeting her eyes and walking over, the shorter one leading by about a foot, hands loose at his sides, while the taller one shoved his hands into his pockets and gave her an open, cheerful expression.
"Hi," he said, and flashed her a smile that might've melted her back when she'd first met Bill, but these days just made her hackles rise. "I'm Sam, this is my brother, Dean. We're here to talk to Maggie?"
Ellen just raised her chin, giving the two of them an obvious once over and waiting to see if Sam's puppy-dog expression would fade. Dean met her gaze with a raised chin of his own, but didn't say a word. Sam's expression flickered, but held, and he tried again.
"Bobby Singer sent us."
Ellen nodded. "He told me. Maggie'll be out in a few moments." She looked at the two of them again. "You're hunters?"
Sam's expression flickered again, and Ellen caught confusion in the momentary change. "Uh, yeah. How did you --"
"Told me that, too. This place gets a lot of your folks on through. Can't say that I've heard much of you two."
Dean rolled his eyes, but continued to hold his tongue, which was a surprise. He didn't look the sort to keep his thoughts -- or his hands -- to himself. She'd have to watch him around Jo, especially considering the way her eyes lit up at the very sight of him. Her daughter didn't need to go through the same things Ellen had with Bill. She'd get a normal life if Ellen had to tie her to a chair to convince her of it.
Sam was clearly out of his element, though he was doing his best not to show it. He stood there as silent as Dean for a moment, mouth open as though to say something, then shrugged. "We keep a low profile."
"Guess so."
More silence, then Dean elbowed Sam and brought his hands up, moving them quickly through in some sort of code. Sam watched him, then turned back to Ellen and tried that smile on for size again. "Could we get a beer while we wait for Maggie?"
Ellen gave Dean a guarded look, then nodded. "Sure thing. PBR?"
Dean's lips quirked into a split second of smile, and Sam shrugged. Ellen looked to Jo only to find her already popping open two bottles and setting them on the bar.
Yeah, she'd have to keep a close eye on the situation.
Maggie came out of the back, then, head turned back over her shoulder as she called some last thing to Ash about a search she had him working on, and the two boys took their beers and turned to face her. She turned around and flicked her eyes over the boys the same way Ellen had, curious but with trepidation, and Ellen nodded. Sam smiled and stepped forward, hand out, but Dean had gone completely still, eyes wide, staring at Maggie. He breathed in sharply, and for the first time since he came into the roadhouse, opened his mouth.
"Mom."
* * *
Generally speaking, all hell didn't tend to break loose in Harvelle's Roadhouse until at least ten pm. Today it looked like it might happen a full seven hours early. Sam spun, eyes as wide as Dean's, mouth hanging open in blatant shock, and Jo dropped the pint glass she was filling for Maggie. Dean's fingers tightened hard enough on his bottle of PBR to turn his knuckles white, and Maggie's eyes widened, then narrowed as she tilted her head.
"I'm sorry," she said softly, an undertone to her voice that Ellen hadn't heard before. "I think you're mistaking me for someone else."
Sam turned again, back towards Maggie, shock and confusion written loud and clear on his face, so he missed the flash of agony that crossed Dean's, but Ellen didn't. She was watching him carefully, but even still, she didn't quite see him move to put down his beer before he turned and walked back out the door he'd entered not five minutes before. Ellen had seen men skedaddle that fast without running, but it had been a long time.
The door was slamming shut before Sam turned back around to register that his brother was gone. He turned back to Maggie, then the door, then to Maggie.
"I'm sorry," he said, then headed for the door as well, Ellen, Jo, and Maggie all hot on his heels.
They got outside to see Dean standing with his hands pressed to the roof of a familiarly-shaped black muscle car. Jo turned to Maggie and said "Didn't you used to --" but never finished the question. Sam walked straight forward, his expression tight.
"Dean," he said, and Maggie whispered "No," though Ellen was certain the boys couldn't hear it. She stepped back into the wall of the roadhouse, and Jo looked to Ellen as though she should know exactly what was going on.
She didn't. But she could guess.
Dean raised one hand and slammed it down onto the roof of the car with all his strength. Sam said "Dean," again, a hint of pleading in his voice, and Maggie said "Sam?" and both boys turned to look at her.
Ellen put out her arm and held it up in front of Jo. "Get back inside, honey."
Dean and Sam stood stock still in the parking lot, Dean with one hand still pressed to the roof, Sam halfway between him and the front porch. Maggie took a single step forward, her eyes wide and lined with red, and Ellen pushed against Jo's stomach, urging her back inside even as she wondered if she should be leaving these three alone, herself.
Sam swallowed and tilted his head. "How did you know my name?"
Dean let out a low noise in the back of his throat, and his hands tightened into fists against the car. Ellen recognized it now -- Maggie had had one like it, somewhere around ten years ago, though hers had been a rusted out, barely mobile piece of shit, where this one wore a few marks of good use, but otherwise looked newly minted.
"I think -- oh God," Maggie said, her hands coming up to the base of her throat as she looked between the two boys. "Look at you two. You're all grown up."
Dean made that noise again, almost a whimper, and the look on his face was so open and pleading that Ellen felt her heart break a little for him. He'd sounded so certain, back in the bar, but Maggie didn't have children. She'd had a family once, Ellen knew that much, but she'd lost them to the hunt as surely as Ellen had lost Bill.
Hadn't she?
Maggie took another step forward, and Sam stepped back towards his brother, looking over at him as though to demand an explanation, but Dean didn't meet his eyes. He stepped away from the car, paused, then crossed the rest of the distance to Maggie, standing right in front of her, head tilted down to look her in the eye, though he looked all of four years old, the way his eyes watered and begged Maggie to tell him that everything was okay.
"You shouldn't be here," was what she said instead, and the noise in Dean's throat was definitely a whimper, then, and Sam stepped up behind him, pressing his hand to Dean's arm even as Maggie lifted one of hers to touch his cheek. Dean closed his eyes at the touch, and Sam stared down at Maggie. She looked back at him, her mouth curling in a smile even though her cheeks were getting wet. Jo leaned foward against Ellen's arm.
"Mom, what's going on?" Her voice was low -- she was as hesitant to break the building moment as Ellen was, even by going back inside.
"Don't know for sure, Jo," Ellen said back, not taking her eyes off the three people in her parking lot.
"You're Sam and Dean Winchester," Maggie said, her hand going from Dean's cheek to hover a few inches from Sam's. Dean opened his eyes and nodded. "I'm so sorry, I should have --" She shook her head. "It's been so long, but I should have recognized you."
Dean trembled faintly in Sam's grip, but he didn't take his eyes off Maggie. "Mom," he said again, and Sam's eyes screwed up, in emotional pain or surprise, Ellen wasn't sure which. Maggie nodded.
"Yeah, love. It's me."
Dean slammed forward then, his arms going around Maggie in a fierce hug, leaving Sam hovering a few feet away until Maggie stretched out a hand to him and pulled him in. Ellen wrapped her own fingers around Jo's wrist and tugged her backwards, towards the door. Jo didn't resist.
They'd get their answers later. For now, this was a private moment.
* * *
By the time the bar opened at four and the first of the other hunters started straggling in, Maggie and her boys were tucked away at a table in the back corner, beers all around, where they were slightly less likely to be overheard. Ellen kept nearby even so, curiosity winning out over her desire to give the group the privacy they deserved. She'd known Maggie for almost twenty years, after all, and while she'd learned after Bill died that Maggie had been married and had children once, she'd been damned sure that Maggie had said she'd lost them all in a fire.
She just couldn't remember if Maggie had ever specifically said she'd lost them to death.
Dean was the first to break the silence that hovered over the table, in a manner of speaking. He cleared his throat, swallowed, winced, then finally lifted his hands to sign again, like he had at the bar. Maggie watched him in confusion before looking to Sam, who hunched futher into his jacket and slumped down into his chair, shooting occasional glances at his brother as though trying to work out some sort of puzzle. He shrugged at Maggie.
"He can't --" He shook his head in frustration, rubbing the bridge of his nose, then tried again. "He doesn't talk. Since the fire."
They were fire kids. They were Maggie's kids. God, that explained so much. . . .
Maggie nodded, her expression carefully neutral. "I don't know sign language."
Dean barked out a pained laugh and looked down toward the floor next to his chair. Sam flinched at the noise and kicked at the leg of the table. "He wants to know about your name."
Maggie sighed and took a long sip of her beer. "Why Maggie, you mean."
"Yeah."
"Mary Winchester is dead," she said simply, and this time, both boys flinched. Dean's hands came up again, and Sam was quick to translate.
"No, you're not."
"No, I'm not. But who I was. . . . You boys have to understand, I thought that fire happened because of me. I thought that staying with you, with your father, was the reason why the demon attacked us. I'd already lost John, I couldn't bear to lose you two, too." Dean looked up from the floor then, mouth tight and eyes wide. "I thought it was better this way. If Dan and Carrie took care of you, I could go after the demon and kill it. And then come back for you."
"But you didn't." Sam spoke without Dean's prompting, this time, though Dean nodded along.
"Not yet," Maggie -- or Mary, Ellen supposed -- said. "But I will. I'm getting closer every day. You two -- I thought you'd be in college, by now, like Jo was." Ellen scowled. "I thought maybe you'd be married, Dean. Have kids of your own. I wanted so much for you two to be happy."
Dean shook his head sharply. "How?" Sam flinched, the way he did every time Dean made a sound. Ellen could sympathize, the boy spoke like every noise hurt on the way out. Maggie shook her head.
"I don't know what you mean."
Dean leaned foward, elbows on the table, and started signing furiously. Sam struggled to keep up.
"He says -- he says how were we supposed to be happy without you around? How are we supposed to be happy not knowing the truth? Not being able to -- Dean, what do you mean?"
Dean shot a look at Sam and shook his head, then glared at Maggie, angling his head at Sam as though demanding that she explain to him. When it was clear she wasn't going willing or wasn't able, he let out a soft growl and started signing again. Sam watched without translating, his brows moving closer and closer together, then he turned towards Maggie.
"You did this to him?"
Oh, hell.
"What?" Maggie leaned back, guilt written across her face. "No, I --"
"You made your four year old son responsible for his baby brother, and then told him he couldn't speak?"
The few other hunters in the bar stopped what they were doing as Sam raised his voice, and turned to watch. Ellen decided it was time to intervene.
"Can I get you guys something to eat?" She asked loudly, stepping up behind Dean. She met Maggie's eyes and then looked sideways at the rest of the bar, willing her to understand.
She did.
"Actually, I was thinking the boys might like to see where I've been staying." She looked at Sam and Dean, who were both fuming silently, and gave them a weak smile. They stared back, then with a glance at each other, both nodded in unison. Ellen stepped back and kept a close eye on the three until they made it safely into the back room. She turned to look at the rest of the hunters, catching Gordon Walker's eye, specifically.
"Well? Anybody need anything, or are you all just planning to loiter?"
* * *
Ellen didn't know what had passed between the three Winchesters -- and it was odd, thinking of Maggie that way, when she'd always known her as a Harrison -- after they went back to Maggie's room, that night. She only knew that three of them were calmer, and seemed happier, the next morning when they gathered in the bar again for breakfast with Ellen, Jo, and Ash. Dean even smiled occasionally, a real smile, bright, young, and if Jo's expression was any indication, incredibly charming, though Sam kept shooting him looks like he wasn't entirely sure who he was.
Ellen would find out later that the night before was the first time Sam had ever heard Dean speak real words, but for the time being, she was forced to just watch the boy and wonder why his own brother seemed so foreign to him.
Over all, it was a pleasant meal, the boys and Ash teasing Maggie over her choice of name -- Harrison was her maiden name, and an obvious enough choice, but Maggie was apparently out of left field, and a reference to Mary Magdalene. Ash snorted "the Penitent", and went on to make allusions to prostitution until Dean smacked him hard enough in the arm to make him wince. Maggie had shrugged and just murmured "It seemed right," when they asked why she chose it.
The lighter mood of reunion might've continued straight through to dinner if a crash hadn't sounded from the front lot as they were clearing up, Dean and Sam insisting on helping out no matter how much Ellen insisted they leave it for her and Jo to take care of. At the sound, Dean froze, shot Sam a glance, then pulled a Colt 1911 from his waistband, holding it low as he headed toward the door. Sam followed after, calling a short "we'll check it out" over his shoulder, and Ellen nodded Jo towards the rifle behind the bar as she pulled out her own revolver and followed. Maggie and Ash made up the back of the pack, Maggie gripping her glock firmly and Ash armed with nothing more than his damned mullet.
The lot was empty save for Dean's Impala and Maggie's battered Corolla. The rear windshield of the Impala had been busted in, and when he spotted it, Dean lunged forward, letting loose a wordless growl.
The moment Ash was out the door, it slammed shut and Dean spun to face it, then was thrown sideways into Maggie's car by some invisible force.
"What the --" Ellen never got a chance to finish the sentence as she felt herself lifted off her own porch and hurled backward into the ice box, pain flaring through the back of her head as it smacked into the lid with a dull *clang*.
She didn't know she'd blacked out until she found herself blinking awake, not much later, judging by how little the sun had moved. She looked for Jo first, finding her just pulling herself up against one of the support posts and rubbing her head. Ash lay face down in the dust just off the porch, but his chest rose and fell, so Ellen sat up and looked for the others.
Maggie stood between the Impala and the Corolla, hand wrapped tight around Sam's elbow as he leaned against her, hand pressed to the side of his head and features screwed up in pain. They both stared toward Maggie's car, where Dean stood, hands out a little to either side and pressed to the doors, his head arched back against the roof, throat working to breathe against the contorted position. A blond girl Ellen had never seen before stood several feet in front of him, gazing with contempt at Sam and Maggie, her eyes hard and completely black.
Maggie took a step forward without releasing her grip on Sam's arm. "Let him go." Her voice had an odd importance to it, an echo that made Ellen shiver, but the demon just laughed.
"Getting a little rusty, there, Mary." It grinned, the expression sharpening the girl's already pointed features. "Guess you should have kept practicing." It stretched out a hand behind it, and Dean grunted, his knees buckling, though he stayed pressed against the car. Ellen shot a glance to Jo, silently ordering her to stay down, as she started shifting slowly to her feet and looking for her gun.
The demon didn't take its eyes off Maggie and Sam as it swung its hand in Ellen's direction and forced her back against the ice box. Dean slid a few inches down on the car and gasped for breath.
"Stay out of this, Harvelle, you'll live longer."
"What do you want?" Sam pulled his hand away from his head and squinted at the demon as though it gave him a migraine, and the demon laughed, moving its hand back towards Dean, who was slammed back into the car again, hard enough to make its shocks groan. Ellen noted with a flare of hope that the demon seemed to only be powerful enough to keep one of them pinned at a time, and while she hated seeing anyone contorted into the position Dean was forced into, him being held did free her up to try and figure out a way to get them all out of this.
If she survived, she was definitely getting Bobby to work out a hidden trap for the front lot. Every entrance to the roadhouse itself had one, but they'd never considered protecting the parking area.
"Oh Sammy," the demon said, fisting its hand and causing Dean to let out a choked howl. "We want you."
"No." Maggie tugged at Sam's arm, pulling him slightly behind her. "Leave," she said, and her voice echoed again, and the demon's hand opened sharply, long enough to let Dean slide all the way to the ground. His lips were tinted dark red and his breath shuddered in and out, but Ellen was relieved to see that he seemed to be alright, other than that. She had no idea what Maggie was doing with her voice, but she hoped she'd keep it up.
The demon shuddered head to toe as Ellen started to inch her way towards Dean. Its eyes flickered from black to blue and back again, and its lips curled into a sneer, but it continued as though nothing had happened. "You see, Sam, we've got plans for you. Plans that don't include touching family reunions. So I'm here to offer you a choice." It lifted its hand sharply and Maggie cried out as she was flung back into the Impala, leaving Sam standing on his own in the open. Ellen shoved herself across the last few feet to Dean as quietly as she could, grabbing for the boy's hand. He spat blood onto the ground and looked up at her, grim and determined.
"You know how to make a devil's trap?" she hissed, and Dean nodded carefully. She dug her thumb into the dirt and started the first line of the circle, and he pushed himself up onto his elbow to dig into the ground and started the circle in the opposite direction.
It was a damned stupid plan, and if anyone else had tried to get her in on it, she would've laughed in their face. But they were all hurting and Maggie was in trouble and Ellen had no reason to believe that if the demon won it would leave her and Jo and Ash alone, either, and it was the only plan she had.
She just hoped Sam could keep the demon distracted long enough.
"See, we're willing to let you keep one of them," the demon was saying. "For now. Someone's gotta watch out for you, right? Make sure you keep breathing until we're ready for you. So which is it going to be, Sam?" It gestured towards Maggie again. "The estranged mother?" Ellen had a good five feet of circle done, and Dean was working quickly in the opposite direction, when the demon gestured back again without looking and threw him back into the car. "Or the lying brother?"
"No," Sam said, grinding it out between clenched teeth. He looked as though he might pass out at any moment. "I won't." He took a breath in the middle of the sentence, letting out a soft, high pitched cry of pain before continuing. "Choose."
"Then you'll lose them both."
Before the demon could move, before Ellen could keep drawing the circle for the trap, before Maggie or Dean could get themselves together enough to pull themselves off each other's cars, Sam's knees gave out, pitching him down into the dust, both hands gripping his temples. "No!" He screamed it into the dirt, then raised his head, his face flushed and his eyes resolved. "LEAVE THEM ALONE!"
Where Maggie's voice had been weighted and echoing with importance, Sam's seemed to be a physical force, and Ellen wasn't certain if she'd have managed to stay on her feet if she were standing. The demon's eyes widened and it wavered on its feet, then suddenly threw its head back and howled into the sky, black smoke pouring from the host body's throat and soaring higher and higher upwards until it turned sideways and streaked off over the trees. The lot fell silent again as time seemed to freeze, then the moment was broken as the blond girl collapsed -- unconscious or dead, Ellen wasn't sure -- into the dirt and Maggie and Dean slumped to their knees.
Ellen stared, trying to wrap her mind around what she had just seen. Sam pushed himself up to his feet and staggered towards Dean, who wrapped his arms over his chest and slumped down onto his side. Maggie gasped for breath and watched her boys with a look of terrible sadness, and Ellen felt her heart break for her.
Then Ash woke up.
"What the hell just happened?"
Ellen started to laugh. "That's a damned good question, Ash." She looked at the Winchesters, Sam and Dean huddled together against their mother's car as they tried to look each other over for injuires, Maggie crawling her way over with one arm pressed to her ribs. "Jo, go get the Johnny Walker. I'm thinking it's going to be a long morning."
Someone was damned well going to start explaining, and Ellen had a feeling there wasn't enough whiskey in the world to get them through it all.
Continued in The Reasons