Missed Chapter 4?

Free Supernatural Fanfiction – Chapter Summary:
Analina adapts to hunter life, initiating defensive training & bonding with Sam/Dean. She gains new skills & insight into their world, strengthening their trust.

Rating: PG-13
Contains:  Mild Suggestive Content, Thematic Elements, Implied Peril and Training, Language

CHAPTER FIVE:  
Learning and Training

Late Summer 2010

AS TIME PASSED, we fell into a routine. The guys periodically found some cases in the nearby area and investigated and hunted whatever was there. I was strictly on a stay-at-the-motel basis (with protection spells and whatnot) during that time; more than likely, Cas babysat me or was within the immediate vicinity. At first, I didn’t mind so much. It was nice not being trapped in the car all day. However, it became dull very fast, especially when they had to investigate a case for more than a few days.

Despite the safety regulations placed on me, I accrued some stories along the way. We had a few funny incidents when we checked into motels. The desk clerk sometimes took note of the two men and me. The looks we got were entertaining enough. However, one time the guy said, “I’m sorry, but we’re not that type of motel.”

Once in the motel room, Sam and Dean assured me not to worry about it. They had gotten comments about bunking together and that the motels were not against “openly gay couples.”

Not long after the clerk’s comment, I had another experience at a different motel. We had just arrived in the room, and I went into the bathroom. I shut the door. Looking by the toilet, I noticed a huge cockroach! I wasn’t sure if it was alive or dead. I was not normally scared of insects either, but this startled me. I almost caught myself, but a muffled scream escaped my lips.

I heard Sam and Dean come to the door.

“Analina, are you alright?” Dean asked.

“Fine… I’m sorry,” I said as I wadded up some toilet paper. “I wasn’t expecting an audience in here. But, don’t worry. He’s trying out the waterslide right now.”

I threw the toilet paper-rolled cockroach in the toilet and flushed. I thought I heard them laughing through the door. I, on the other hand, was surveying the rest of the room and vowed that I would no longer be the first one to try the bathroom out again.

I wasn’t always trapped in the motel room. We usually went out to eat somewhere, and on occasion, they had to go shopping. I volunteered to go with whoever was going. For one, it was nice to get out; and for two, I don’t think they were well-versed in buying feminine products. I did not know this for sure, but I was fairly confident in my assessment.

Sam and I went shopping one afternoon while Dean was interviewing someone about a recent murder. It seemed to be a fairly open-and-shut case for them. Sam was easy to talk to. He didn’t always have the sarcasm that Dean did. I learned that he went to college to study law. He did very well, although he didn’t actually admit this to me. We talked about college for a little while. I had studied Economics and Math, then did my masters in Finance online while I worked. I had just graduated with that. I said that he could still do school like that. It might not be law, but it could be something.

He wasn’t too sure. He obviously didn’t want to keep hunting the rest of his life and hoped after we stopped the apocalypse that maybe he could try a normal life once again. But, he had serious doubts. He was also hesitant with Dean’s backlash.

“It’s sometimes not worth the reaction,” he confided.

“Dean doesn’t want a normal life?” I asked him as we went down the aisle.

“I’m sure he does. He might not admit it, but I can tell. He’s just….I don’t know, worried about what would happen,” he paused. “What would follow him home. He doesn’t think that he can get away from this life.”

“Ever?”

He shook his head.

“What about you?” I asked.

“I thought I could,” he laughed without humor for a second. “Obviously, I was sucked back in.”

“And you guys are convinced that you can’t have both lives?”

“It’s hard to separate them.”

Well, I understood that. We were silent for a little while as we picked up the rest of our items. It didn’t seem fair that they had to give up their lives to do what they did. Sam hardly had a normal life – just a few years at college. Dean didn’t have it all, except when he was little. How much could he remember from being four years old? This was their lives. Maybe if we did stop the apocalypse, things could die down enough that they could have a chance, I reasoned. They might not quit the job permanently, but maybe they could have some experiences outside hunting.

“If I’m supposed to help you guys with,” I looked around, no one was in earshot, “the apocalypse and everything, how am I supposed to do that if I’m shut in the motel all the time?”

“Hunting can be dangerous,” he started. “It’s not safe to throw you into something that you have no experience with.”

“True, but if these things follow you ‘home’, like you guys believe, shouldn’t I be aware of how to protect myself?” I countered.

I could see that he was going to say something—like nothing would follow them back, but that was not entirely true. Or, at least, he didn’t believe that to be entirely true.

“Good point,” he said.

We were silent as we checked out. We didn’t say anything as we walked back to the motel, which was two blocks away. I figured that he was just going to let the subject drop, and maybe not deal with it, but I was wrong.

As we reached the motel room, he said, “I guess we should probably show you a few things.”

He dropped the bags on the table.

“I assume you’ve never fired a gun?” he asked.

I confirmed that I hadn’t. After we unpacked our items, he started to explain the workings of a gun. Honestly, I wasn’t exactly comfortable with handling a gun. I’d never even held a real one in my hands before, but I thought it would be a good idea to learn if I was going to be around them all the time.

Dean had come back as I was loading a gun and showing Sam what he taught me. Dean was a little startled, and they had a short (semi-loud) spat about me learning to use weapons. However, it ended up being more centered on hunting. I basically stayed out of the argument and unloaded the gun I held in my hands and waited.

Finally, it was made clear that my training would be more defensive in nature. Besides learning how to use a gun and a few other weapons, they also thought it was wise to learn some defensive blocks and moves. This hurt—literally. I was not an athletic person, and I remained very sore for a while after those trainings. However, I began to gain some visible muscles in my arms, which was nice. I was still slim, but I didn’t look as fragile as I used to.

Dean tended to train me more with the weapons, and Sam took over the defensive work. I also got spontaneously drilled on how to handle certain monsters and what signs indicated what it was. For instance, a ring of salt would protect me from ghosts, or a silver blade would hurt a shape-shifter.

One of my favorite training techniques was picking locks. I managed to impress them in one area. Because of my tiny wrists, I was able to get out of handcuffs without picking the lock. I found this out ages ago when I had handcuffed my friend and myself to the banister. Somehow the key was lost, and I was able to get out of the cuffs without a problem. She wasn’t too lucky. We managed to find the keys within half an hour.

Despite the training, they weren’t entirely sold on me joining them in their hunts, which at that time was fine. Everything was still new to me. I dealt with ghosts, demons, and angels, but not on a level that made me ready to hunt anything. Creatures were out there that I never even heard of before or could believe existed. The training helped a lot and my confidence slowly grew. I thought this also helped us to bond better. We gained more trust in each other, and slowly we became better friends.

Soon after the beginning of my training, I asked to read their dad’s journal. They warned me that I might not be able to understand a lot of it. Many cases and other things were randomly thrown in there. I told them not to worry about it; I wouldn’t ask them a ton of questions while I read.

With everything that happened to me the prior weeks, things started to get better. I adopted a “Cone of Silence” with them, but especially Dean. He wasn’t always forthcoming with his feelings – unless he was mad. I slowly got him to talk to me. I hadn’t realized I had said, “Don’t worry. We’re in the cone of silence,” as many times as I did. He eventually started to tease me about it. So, I teased him back. Soon it went from being a joke to being serious. We learned quickly that we both could hold secrets if asked.

MINI CHAPTER BONUS – Alone Time

From the beginning, I had always felt that Sam and Dean needed some guy time. And personally, I could use some alone time myself. When I first joined up with Sam and Dean, being alone was almost impossible. As I eventually understood what I could do and the immediate danger wasn’t as bad, I found myself getting some space. It first started off as getting my own room – more than likely in a suite that was in with theirs. It upgraded to having two rooms that were connected.

Also, Cas and Bobby no longer babysat me when Sam and Dean had to do something for a case that didn’t involve me. I learned the methods for detecting and stopping monsters, and even then, they were only a phone call away.

Dean would get antsy when we were on a case too long, which meant that he needed to unwind once it was over. His favorite pastime for doing so was going to a bar. For me, I never really went to a bar. It wasn’t that I was against drinking – even though I rarely drank myself – but I liked a quiet atmosphere somewhere else. Going to a bar was also where Dean and Sam got their cash – from playing pool or poker. Most of the time, if not all the time, this was illegal, but they didn’t seem to flinch at it. Unfortunately, hunters usually didn’t get paid at all, so gambling was a way to bring in some money. Cash worked well when the fraudulent credit cards did not work. Has my life really come to accept these things so easily?

I never gambled, so if I was ever there, I tended to just sit at a table and let them do their thing. In a way, I believed they preferred this. It was one thing to learn how to hunt, but it was something completely different to learn how to gamble – and sometimes cheat at it. That was something I was uncomfortable with, and it showed – apparently when Dean had tried to teach me how to play poker. Therefore, once I was in the “inner circle of trust”, I stayed at the motel – which was never too far away from the bar – and spent some time by myself. I would read, talk to my parents on the phone, watch television, and answer emails.

At first, Sam and Dean were unsure if I would be alright by myself. They also wanted to make sure that I felt included – not a third wheel, so to speak. I assured them as an only child that I was quite fine and preferred some alone time every now and again. I also felt that spending some time apart helped our relationship after being stuck in the car for hours on end. It gave everyone a chance to breathe for a while.

MINI CHAPTER BONUS – Bar Scene

It wasn’t too long before Sam and Dean took me to a bar. Dean enjoyed these outings. Sam seemed to tolerate them. I was never that comfortable in a bar, but I tried not to think too much about it.

We took a seat at the table, since we ate dinner there. Dean went to the bar to get some drinks afterwards. He didn’t ask what we wanted; he just went. That was probably going to be bad for me, I thought. It was here that I learned how Sam and Dean normally obtained their money. They weren’t planning on hustling pool that night, even though a pool table was not far from where we sat. They had enough cash at the moment.

Sam brought out the laptop and started to show me some articles he was looking at for the case – which was a rawhead. I never heard of such a thing, but they looked disgusting in the drawings. How do these things exist without everyone’s knowledge?

Dean came back and placed a beer bottle in front of Sam and me. He took a sip of his own. His eyes scanned the place, which was completely normal for him. I didn’t think he realized that he did it as often as he did. It was probably the natural hunter in him. Checking out the surroundings. Taking note of anyone that looked out of place. I did a similar thing, but from being outside my comfort zone. I had found that two guys were periodically glancing over at me. I tried to ignore them and was thankful that Sam had stayed at the table so I didn’t have to worry about one coming over.

“Hey,” Dean said, bumping my arm, “Looks like someone is checking you out.”

“Which one?” I asked, still looking at the rawhead pictures. It still baffled me. “The one to my one o’clock or the one to my nine?”

Dean swiveled his head around, apparently not noticing the other guy yet. “Well, look at you. Do you need us to leave you alone? So you know…” He wagged his eyebrows.

I looked up from the laptop. “That’s alright. Thanks.”

“Can’t decide which one, huh?” he continued. “Honestly, I would go with that one over there.” He nodded his head behind him. “He might not be handsome like me, but he’s not spending his days at McDonald’s like that one.”

I just stared at him for a moment.

“What?” he blinked in surprise. “Unless wider guys turn you on….”

“Dean…” I smiled and looked back down. “Don’t worry about it. Besides, shouldn’t you be more concerned with the bartender, whose number you got?”

Sam looked at Dean in surprise – probably not that he got a number, but that I noticed.

“She’s good,” Dean said, pulling out a napkin with a number written in feminine handwriting. He smirked at Sam. “What else have you noticed?”

I pushed the laptop back towards Sam. “Well, that guy in the red plaid seems to be cheating at pool, but I don’t think the other has noticed yet. There was a couple sitting there, but the woman went to the bathroom and met up with another guy. They’ve been in the back for a while now. I’m surprised that the guy sitting there hasn’t gone back to check things out – unless he wants to be in denial. That woman over there has been trying unsuccessfully to gain the tall guy’s attention. Honestly, I think he’s gay because he’s been periodically checking out the manager.”

Dean grinned. “Like sands through the hourglass…”

He took a swig of his beer. He noticed I hadn’t touched mine yet.

“Don’t you want your beer?” he asked.

“I don’t really like beer,” I said honestly and waited for the reaction. It came minutely as a surprised reaction, but he gained composure in a blink of an eye.

“I can get you something else,” he said – which surprised me a little. I was waiting for the backlash. Dean tended to tease Sam’s preferences for eating healthy. I thought I would get something similar.

“I’m fine.”

“No, really,” he said and pulled out his wallet to go back over to the bartender.

I smiled a little. “I think she’ll talk to you regardless if you’re buying a drink.”

That stopped him in mid-thought. He smiled for a moment. “Well, yeah… of course.” He turned his thoughts back on to what was going on. “I’ll get you something else. Hold on.”

“Dean, you don’t….” But he was already sauntering up to the bar.

“I guess it’s better than him getting more for himself,” Sam said with a laugh. “You know, you’re pretty observant.”

I smiled. “Yeah, I kind of have to be with my work because I could get in a whole lot of trouble if I miss something. I guess it can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it.”

After a few minutes, Dean came back with a glass this time. “Here, try this.”

The drink in question was what Dean called a “girly drink” – amaretto sour. Considering I was a girl, he didn’t tease me about it. As for the bartender, I didn’t think Dean got a chance to call her. We had to leave fairly quickly after that case was solved the next day.

Image by ChatGPT and tweaked by Copilot and Photoshop

Ready for Chapter 6? Come back August 23rd!