You need to trust us!

Babysat. At fourteen it was practically an embarrassment. Alix had scowled about it three nights ago when her parents, her brothers, even Ralphy, had teamed up with John Winchester and his eldest son to try and track a particularly nasty nest of vampires. Shuffled into the Winchesters’ motel room like she was a five year old absolutely incapable of going with Iain and Rohan. She’d been training just as much as they had, was ready for her first hunt way before the two of them had been and yet there was that pesky little rule that had been handed down between the Quinns for generations. No hunting until sixteen. You could train all you liked before then but it wasn’t going to get you anywhere … except for another ratty motel room with someone who obviously had no more interest in watching over her than she had in sitting here and watching him pace back and forth. The first night she’d buried herself in the books she’d brought with her, one of Thaddeus’ journals that she’d already read five times cover to cover and a volume some Quinn had written three generations back on the best way to deal with a vampire nest. It was the sort of thing her parents would’ve stuck to chapter and verse if it hadn’t been for the fact that the nest was too big for them to deal with on their own. John and Dean were roped in and Sam got to stay cooped up with her.

Tonight it was impossible to ignore the smell of desperation that practically filled the air. Alix still wasn’t sure if it came from her or him, especially not after she’d started to eye the bathroom door, wondering whether or not she could get in there and slip out of the tiny window without disturbing the salt they’d been ordered to make sure remained ringing the room. Like demons would come a calling while they were dealing with killer vampires, who wouldn’t be stopped at all by the stuff, or by the devil’s traps that were set up. It would take vervain to slow them down, or one of those stakes she’d slipped into her bag. Biting the tip of her tongue Alix glanced at the bag over the top edge of Thaddeus’ journal. There wasn’t even a lump to be seen above the cramped handwriting but she knew the stakes were there, she’d packed them that evening, just in case she got a chance to slip away from Sam and go and do what she’d spent the last two months training to do. Strike after strike, the vibration of wood against flash painfully slipping up her forearm. Not as easy as she had ever thought but Alix was absolutely sure she could do it.

The sound of Sam’s voice had her twitching guiltily, her eyes shooting away from the bag as she sat up on the bed. Turning her back on it, slapping the book shut in her lap she frowned at him then flicked up a sandy brow. Would she tell on him? Absolutely not, she wasn’t a grass, not even to her parents. Sam didn’t have to know that though. ”Depends,” she shot back, trying not to let him see how eager she’d been to get out of the room herself. ”If you were to leave tonight, would you take me with you?” There was a dare in her green eyes, her body inching forward as she just waited for him to shut her down. ”I’m not some dumb, weak kid, you know. I’m better with hand to hand than Iain is and I know you know where they are. At least you think you do. I heard you talking with your dad. They’re going to the wrong place tonight, aren’t they?” And if she played her cards right and Sam didn’t try and force her to stay back, she was going to get to go on her first hunt. Absolutely unofficially of course but it would be a whole eighteen months ahead of when either of her big brothers had done their first hunt. This wouldn’t be solo but that didn’t matter, it was the next best thing to her taking down something on her own.

Tagged: SAM WINCHESTER * Word Count: 712

It had become pretty obvious before she’d even hit her teens that it was pointless to ask to go along hunts. The rules had been set down decades before, the Quinns finally moving with the times and setting down the sort of rules that meant that nobody got to handle their first hunt until they were trained enough to handle it. Watching her brothers try and argue their way around their dad’s rules had only resulted in him actually delaying their hunts. No matter how badly she wanted to get out there she wasn’t about to screw that chance up by trying to shout a man like her dad down. ‘You have to pick your battles’ was as much a Quinn family tenet as ‘patience’ was and they’d all had that drummed into them enough as they were growing up. Problem was, she wasn’t all that patient. Being stuck in a room for three nights in a row while the grown ups went and handled the vampires had been sheer hell, even with Sam for company. It was the hunter version of a kiddy table at Thanksgiving dinner, the place where you got sent off to after they patted you on your adorable little head. Patience wearing thin Alix had known that it was only a matter of time before she gave up being left behind and got herself out of there.

She just hadn’t bet on Sam actually encouraging it. Or that he’d be so damn good at the minutiae of the whole thing. Green eyes narrowed, a squelched ‘yes!’ echoing through her mind as she studied him. He’d obviously grown as desperate as she had and Sammy had the guts to defy the orders that had been shot back by practically every member of their combined families. ”You think that’s going to work as an excuse if we get caught?” Alix asked, flicking a blond brow upwards. ”Not that I’m looking to get us caught.” And that definitely was an us. There was absolutely no way she was going to sit here twiddling her thumbs while Sam went out there and actually found the nest that the others had failed to. Alix shifted eagerly, ready to drag out the map she’d snuck out of the gas station they’d hit on the way into town. She’d studied it herself but there hadn’t been one definite spot she would’ve said they were in. ”What places? I’ve been looking too but I wasn’t sure…” That wouldn’t have stopped her from slipping out and trying though. Even if she would’ve failed she could’ve slunk back here before dawn, when the others would return.

If the two of them were lucky they’d be sitting here, smug as anything when their parents and brothers got home. Their first hunt and they’d have taken out an entire nest of vampires without any help. God it was going to feel good, especially when Iain and Rohan realized that she’d completed her first hunt years before them. Alix tilted her head, one corner of her mouth lifting despite the sigh that whispered out of her. ”Trying having two older brothers who get to do the things you don’t get to. In my family it’s like you’re some big blank until you hit 16.” It sounded like John Winchester took after her parents way too much. Hearing Sam’s suggestions Alix shoved her bag aside and pushed her way to her feet. ”Like the middle of town, not some hovel somewhere rural. My dad always says their natural instinct is to hole up somewhere.” Maybe most did, looking for somewhere isolated where they could kill the owner of a house or compel them into basically handing the place over to them. Not all vampires were the same though, if they were their whole job would be a whole lot easier.

Teeth dragging over her bottom lip, Alix moved close to the table, snaking her way onto one of the chairs, sitting with a leg under her to see the whole thing properly. While she’d been pretending to read Thaddeus’ journal and hiding stakes Sam really had been preparing. She let out a little huff of laughter, amazement in her eyes when she glanced up at Sam. ”You really are good at this. Unless I skip school I can barely get away from my dad for five minutes and even then it’s tough. He’s always lurking in the hallways like I’m suddenly gonna take off and get into trouble.” OK, so many she was gonna take off but the trouble part was totally debatable. Teeth back at her lip Alix tapped her fingers against one of the spots in the middle of the map. ”If it was me I’d go right here. Surrounded by the sort of people who’d probably be out looking for you. Right in plain sight. I brought some tools of my own, figured I’d need them if I was gonna leave you in my dust tonight. You got your own?” The grin she shot Sam as she leaned over from the chair and grabbed her own bag was broad and probably just a little too proud. They’d both been planning this, great minds thinking alike.

Tagged: SAM WINCHESTER * Word Count: 869

In a lot of ways her dad was a great parent but when it came to hunting he was just about as rigid as you could get. Her mom had tried to soften the blows that ‘no’ could bring by saying that their family had been doing this for generations, they’d learned certain things by trial and error and what they did now was to stop mistakes from happening, to keep them all as safe as possible. That, Alix had thought at the time, would’ve taken all of them stopping hunting to make it happen, and that just wasn’t on the cards. This was what the Quinns had done since their family had their baptism of fire into the world of the supernatural. It didn’t meant that one of them couldn’t break out of that almost inescapable mold and change things but the chance of it happening were damn near impossible. She probably would have had to have herself emancipated to get anywhere with being heard or being able to do things her way and even that would’ve had an icicles chance of in Hell. Alix knew that all she could really do was bide her time but that didn’t make her any happier.

She’d been doing the same the last couple of nights, sprawled on the bed in the cheap motel room, burying her head in the books she’d brought with her while Sam had echoed her restlessness in the room. Biding her time, driving herself insane to the point where she’d been just about to break before Sam had done that snapping for her. Planning, running everything through her mind, preparing for this so she could grin back at Sam’s shrug. ”You’ve gotta plan ahead,” she told him. ”I’ve already got a list of reasons for our parents, the top one being we heard something here at the motel that led us there. We tried getting hold of them…” Her voice dripped with feigned innocence that had worked on her parents before. Suspicions might rise but if they pulled this off then all of that would surely melt away. Snorting, Alix held her hand out to Sam. ”Deal, we each deal with our own parents. Your dad kinda scares me to be honest..” And Dean … well he was Dean. She’d spent years trying to come at her parents from all angles, earning that disappointed and exasperated look from them all too often.

She guessed that was something her and Sam had in common. He might’ve had a few years on her but their parents still treated them exactly the same, like little kids who couldn’t be trusted to do the hard things. Alix’s smile only grew more wry as she zipped her bag up, sealing what she’d bought with her inside. ”In my family the minute it hits your 16th birthday you would’ve been out there.” That was cold comfort for both of them for now though. Their families who were they were and their only defense against it was going out there by themselves. Teeth raking at her lips Alix rose, restless now and ready to get going. ”What’s the point in compulsion if you can’t get everything you want out of it. A little life of luxury.” But most nests still scurried around in the dark, the idiots. Their families were just as idiotic if they hadn’t figured out what Sam had. Alix let out a sigh, lifting her gaze to catch Sam’s smirk. ”I wish my parents were that oblivious sometimes. If it’s not them watching my every move then it’s my brothers or my Uncle.” She had one out of two, she was small but her family was too invested in her well-being not to watch her like a hawk.

Her parents likely hadn’t realized just how strong a bond John Winchester had with the bottle or they likely wouldn’t have stuck around long enough for her and Sam to really get to know one another. Innocence blossomed in her grin at Sam’s question, her shoulders rising and falling under her denim jacket. ”Maybe it wouldn’t have been a completely clean get away but I’m sneaky, I like to think I would’ve been able to stay out of view if I had to. Weren’t you gonna do the same?” Her brows rose at his mention of getting a bollocking for her slipping out but that kinda went both ways. Luckily if they were getting in trouble for it now it would be together. Nudging Sam with her elbow, Alix shifted on her feet. ”What am I? An amateur? Of course I did and a ready made excuse if anybody comes nosing around. We ran away from home. It’s the truth in a way and as long as our parents aren’t the ones catching us we’ll pull it off.” Bag over her shoulder, Alix headed for the door and peered through the security peep hole for just a moment before she opened it and ducked outside. ”We walking it there?” she asked, green eyes narrowing as she glanced up and down the rows of cars outside.

Tagged: SAM WINCHESTER * Word Count: 852

Tossing Sam under the bus was just a little cruel but had it absolutely come down to her taking all the blame or shoving a little of it off on to Sam that shoving would’ve been quick and violent. Both of their parents had the sort of strict rules that would’ve made most nuns at Catholic schools look open minded and progressive. No hunting until they were old enough, no raising hell, not literally, or well, maybe literally in their case, while the grown ups were gone, no questioning any of what they were told. Alix had been planning from the start to shrug all of that off tonight if she had to spend hours more trapped in the motel room with Sam, but she hadn’t expected that Sam was feeling the same way. The fact that he was meant that she had to adjust everything she’d already had in mind to explain what was going on. Saying she’d just slipped out to get a snack and witnessing something that had made her head after it was one thing, saying that somehow both of them had was a far more involved excuse. Tilting her head she thought it might still work though, each of her excuses adjustable. Alix’s green eyes narrowed as Sam took her idea and ran with it. She squeezed Sam’s hand, her grin growing. ”Right, we were worried for her safety and we thought maybe we could kill two birds with one stone, make sure an innocent girl didn’t get hurt and find out where the were holed up to tell our families all at the same time.” Only they were never gonna go through with the last bit.

This was their idea and they were going to run with it as far as they could get. She’d come up with the excuses and she’d had a few places to look in mind but Sam had really thought about it, getting likely spots plotted out and not a single one of them was going to be where their parents and brothers were out looking. The rest of them were all wearing their hunters blinkers, blinding themselves to the possibility that these vamps weren’t like all the others. People were capable of bucking the trend and Alix was willing to put money on the fact that these guys weren’t following the pattern of hiding in the scummiest place in town. ”Why live in a shack when you can have a ten bedroom mansion, half a dozen bathrooms and a jacuzzi out back?” It was the sort of luxury most hunters had no clue about it. They lived from hunt to hunt, wheedling money in a variety of legal-adjacent ways, staying in the sort of cheap motels that left you feeling itchy if you thought about it too long. Her parents had always kept them one step above that but not too far. The fact that they weren’t in a glossy hotel was going to make this getaway from easier. Alix tried to scowl at Sam as he said he’d have done something similar to what she’d imagined but she couldn’t keep it up. ”Sneaky,” she accused but without any heat in her voice. ”If you would’ve tried locking me in I would’ve screamed the whole place down til I got out.” They’d both have been in trouble then but it would’ve been worth it.

At least this way there was a chance that they would get the hunt down and get back before their families even realized they’d left the room. All they had to do was make sure that their joined plans didn’t fail. Alix’s grin turned wolfish as she headed for the door. ”Exactly. The worst they can do is try and hold us until they manage to get hold of our parents.” With the multiple phones each family held it wouldn’t be hard to unless they made it that way. Tongue between her teeth Alix eyed the cars, her lips curving as she spotted one. ”Forget hot wiring,” she shot at Sam as she scooted along the line of cars outside the motel. ”How about one with my surname on the registration? My brother left his car here, he must’ve gone with my parents or in one of the other cars. Lucky for us he….” Alix dropped to her knees next to the blue Pontiac that she’d always thought was a piece of crap that would’ve been better off in a junk yard. All the better to avoid the eyes of the cops. She fumbled around under the bumper before she came up with one of those magnetic lock boxes. She cracked the case, shoving it into her pockets for safe keeping before she held the key up in front of Sam. Voila. They’d still have to try and avoid running into anyone who’d question how old Sam was and whether he had his license but at least now it wasn’t technically a stolen car.

Tagged: SAM WINCHESTER * Word Count: 830