Rebirth \\A Supernatural Spinoff// [2018 Watty Award Winner]

Ten - October

Ten - October

The days rolled on with the women in the bunker. They fell into a rut: when Jo and Jessica were training, Charlie, Meg, and Cas were searching for their missing Winchesters. When the two blondes weren't training, they were aiding the search.

They were also looking into suspicious happenings in the country. And boy, did they land a few cases.

The women never went all together, it was mostly Jo and Charlie, or Charlie and Meg. Jessica felt she wasn't ready to take on full-fledged hunter cases, and Jo refused to team up with Meg despite all they had gone through together this far into the Save Sam and Dean mission. Cas was more about searching for clues to Sam and Dean's whereabouts than joining the women on cases.

To this day in October, Sam and Dean Winchester were still not located.

Jo did worry about the Winchesters, just as Jessica and Charlie did, and even Cas. She doubted Meg cared about them. But she had to put her worries aside when it came to training Jessica. She needed to be razor-sharp to train this college girl and whip her into shape. The research and lore would be Charlie's gig once Jessica felt ready for that.

Training first, book sessions later.

When trainings first started, Jo had Jessica doing slow attacks and defensive moves with her batons. She taught the tall woman some moves, with and without the batons. The pace quickened after a time, and Jessica would get frustrated, but she would persist.

Jo believed that getting Sam back was a big motivation for Jessica's persistence.

The two practiced outside in the cool October weather, dressed in training wear. Jo armed herself with a knife this time to ante up the danger level for Jessica. The two squared off, and Jessica moved first. She went at Jo, who felt every block as the batons connected with her bones. She pushed through the throbbing pain, refusing to back down over something so menial. She'd had Hellhounds tear her up, a little beat down from batons was nothing.

Jo did a sweeping kick at Jessica's leg, she connected with a shin. It brought Jessica to her knees, and Jo thrust the knife at Jessica's face. Both batons came up, making an X in front of Jessica's face. With force, Jo was shoved back, allowing Jessica to return to her feet.

"Nice day for a fight, don't you think?" Jessica teased.

"Someone sounds confident." Jo stood straight, moving a wet strand of hair off her forehead.

"Can't let them think I'm a wuss." Jessica shrugged. She twirled a baton in her hand.

A loud whistle interrupted their session. Charlie waved for them to get inside. The two blondes exchanged looks before ending their session early.

"Do you have something?" Jessica asked as the redhead led them inside.

"I might. Those hunts we've picked up recently? I think they're all connected."

The three got down the stairs and gathered into the library. Jo noticed Meg and Cas were nowhere to be found. Charlie sat at the table, over a laptop.

"It took a while to connect the dots, but it makes total sense," Charlie muttered under her breath.

"Wanna clue is in, Charlie?" asked Jo.

"What's the one thing our hunts had in common?"

Jo had to think about the past few. The first she went on with Charlie, a hunter had ended up dead. The case was a dead end, because the culprit was never found. The next case was the same way: dead hunter, no justice served. It had burned her inside to not bring justice for the dead. "All the victims were hunters."

Charlie bopped her nose. "Bingo. And we never caught our bad guy."

"Wait...so you think this is Sam and Dean, or the demons in them?" asked Jessica. "That seems like a stretch."

"Nothing's a stretch until you can prove it to be. Guys, I think our demons are using Sam and Dean to wipe out the hunter population." Charlie looked to the two blondes gravely. "Question is, who's ordering the hits?"

"I could probably answer that for you," said Meg, who entered the room with a new look. Her hair was now raven-dark, and it was now cut at shoulder length. "I'll bet you anything it's Crowley."

"Crowley?" asked Jo.

"Hunters have always been pesky, but none more so than the Winchesters. I'll bet Crowley got fed up with them killing his followers, so he decided to take the fight to them and play dirty."

"What proof of that do you have?" Jessica asked the demon.

"Some things you just know, Malibu."

"And if you're wrong?"

"Then I'm wrong. Nobody's always right." Meg rolled her eyes.

Jo was stunned that the demon could admit that out loud. She had pegged the creature of darkness as one who always had to be right, even if she was way wrong.

"You sure this isn't about settling a vendetta?" asked Charlie.

"Hey, if we can knock two birds with one stone, everybody wins." Meg folded her arms.

"What if this isn't Crowley?"

"Then we're back to the drawing board," Jessica said reluctantly. "Let's get Cas here."

"What, think we can't do this all our own?" Meg raised a brow.

"He deserves to know what we're doing. He founded this rescue."

"Someone summon his fine feathery ass here, then."

Jo made a face of disgust. Meg chuckled.

When the angel did appear, and the women told him what they came up with, he disagreed on one thing: finding Crowley.

"I'm sure you've got him on speed-dial, ring him up," Meg told Cas.

"If he really is behind this, he won't admit it over the phone."

"So you do have his number."

"That's not the point, Meg. If we want him to confess, we need to confront him. He won't be willing to admit it in a neutral location, I doubt he'd even consider showing."

"You mean we go into his turf...Hell," Charlie said. Jo noticed the color leaving her skin.

"It's much roomier than people tell you," Meg joked. "Full of laughter, not screams."

"Even I don't believe that," Jessica said.

"Mm, knocking down the big bad's door." Meg sauntered to Cas, and Jo felt uncomfortable. "Mighty alpha of you, Clarence."

"Hey, hey," said Charlie, who snapped her fingers. Meg threw the redhead a deathly glare over her shoulder. "If what we think is true, then we have to move on this before we lose this chance. Can you get us into Hell, either of you?"

"I can't believe we really want to go to Hell," said Jessica, who rubbed her forehead, tucking her batons under one arm. "We've really gone off the deep end."

"Malibu, in this world, I don't think there's such a thing as the 'deep end'," Meg told her. "But between Cas and I, I think we can find a backdoor in."

**The Megstiel tension though.**