1.1 Mother Knows Best: A Supernatural Fan Fiction

Chapter III: Quid Pro Quo

As Sam and Dean pulled up to the motel, they saw the red El Camino already parked in the lot. Little did they know that Jay was aware of a back-road that took her there faster, so she beat them by several minutes. Shaking his head, Dean thought to himself, that girl's full of tricks. Oh, joy.

Sighing as they climbed out of the impala, Dean called to Sammy, "Come on, I think she's room 32a." And started across the parking lot.

"Did she say we were going to talk in her room, then?" Sam blinked, sounding a bit concerned. Dean rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, Sam, it was implied."

Sam licked his lips, unsure, but followed his brother anyway as they went up two flights of stairs to the level that this girl Jay's room was on. He didn't know who she was. He didn't know if she was dangerous. He didn't know why Dean trusted her so fully and yet so loosely without even knowing her aside from last night. Sam sighed, sticking his hands in his pockets. He'd been dragged out here by Dean's insistence. Their dad was out in another hunt, and had apparently sent Dean this way on his own on the one condition that he would bring Sam with him. And after a long, uncomfortable, drawn-out discussion, Sam consented. He didn't really want to be here. But he didn't want to get in any hotter water than he was already in with his dad. After all, he was only 20. And Dean had promised that they'd be done by the end of the week. So he tagged along.

"Come on, Sam, where would I be without my handy-dandy researcher?" Dean had grinned at him in the midst of begging him to come. And with a sigh so heavy that it ruffled his hair, Sam had agreed to come.

So now they stood there outside some supposed hunter's motel room door, ready to talk, in the middle of a hunt. Dean rapped his knuckles on the door, and was met by a low, bizarre growl that made the hair on the back of his neck prickle. Then "Ozzy, cut it out", and the door opened.

"Ah, you finally made it," Jay retorted sarcastically, widening the space between the door and the frame to let them in. "Come on in." She stood out of the way as the came inside. She'd changed her clothes from the blouse and slacks to a long-sleeve Aerosmith shirt and jeans. Shutting the door quickly behind her, Jay offered, "You want a beer?"

Dean grinned, saying, "yeah, sure." But his grin disappeared when he looked down to see a black cat, half-hidden in shadow, perched on a cushion on the floor by the bed. Its ears were flattened against its skull and its eyes glinted like slivers of emerald.

"Cute kitty." Dean commented with a grimace, eyeing the feline with distaste.

"Yeah, that's Ozzy." Jay said as she cracked open a pair of beers, handing one to Dean. "He's just a little ball of fur once you get to know him. But he's a good companion. You thirsty, Sam?"

"No, I'm good," Sam replied, almost blushing. He was underage. Even if he'd wanted a drink he couldn't take it. "Thanks."

"Suit yourself. So." Dropping into a chair, Jay looked critically up at the two as Dean sat down on the edge of the bed. Mildly mortified at that small gesture of intrusion, Sam stayed standing. She took a swig of her beer. "You have questions."

"Yeah, who the hell are you?" Dean asked in a low tone, scrutinizing her.

"A hunter like you. My name really is Jay Kingsleigh and I'm not really a divorce agent." She responded. "My turn. Do you even know what you're hunting?"

"No," Dean said, pressing his lips lightly to the rim of the bottle as if forming his next works carefully. "All we know is it's a spirit of some sort. How did you know we were hunters?"

"I knew it from the moment I talked to you." Jay said smartly, pursing her lips and narrowing her eyes. "The instant I saw the flannel, the classic car, the beer, and the cocky way you thought you could get into my pants with a couple drinks and a lame pickup line, I knew."

Sam let out a dry laugh. Dean made a face. Jay smirked, and after a pause and another sip of beer, stated, "Alright, Q&A aside, you two need my help. I know what we're hunting, and I know how to kill it -- I just need to do some more research and figure out where it's going to strike next."

"So what is it?" Sam pressed, feeling a suppressed sort of annoyed eagerness.

"It's a Pontianak." She stated, standing and heading over to the bed. Sliding her hand under the pillow, she removed a small black journal fastened closed by tarnished silver buckle. Undoing the clasp, she opened it up and began to rifle through the stiff pages. Dean shot Sam a half smile. The hunter's journal. Such a symbol it was of their line of work.

Straddling the chair, Jay finally stopped, licking her lips. Ozzy looked endearingly up at her, his wide green eyes warm, as if he were actually listening. "It's an Indonesian ghost of a woman who died while pregnant."

"That's cheery." Dean commented, frowning. "What's it look like? Any warning signs?"

"She appears as a very pale woman with long black hair, dressed in white...and she kills by 'digging into their victims' stomach with her sharp nails and devouring their organs'."

"Delicious."

"And when it chooses a male victim, and this is usually the first, it's for revenge, and it... Oh."

"What?" Dean looked up at her, his brow furrowed.

Jay snorted. "It will rip out the sex organs with its hands."

Both men cringed. Finally, a look of muted horror on his face, Dean pressed, "So how do we gank the liver-hungry bitch? Smoke the bones, right?"

"Actually, no. We have to, er," Jay squinted at the paper. "Sorry, can't read my own handwriting... Plunge an, er, iron nail into the nape of its neck."

"That sounds easy." Sam retorted with a scoff.

"So, Jay." Dean said slowly, crossing his arms and surveying her as she redid the clasp on her notebook and tossed it back over to her bed. It landed with a soft thump on the pillow. Ozzy gazed at it in disinterest.

"So, Dean." She said expectantly.

"You don't seem the type to want help working a case," Dean observed. Jay shrugged, debating. "But you also don't look eager to flip a coin and see who gets the job, so... Howsabout we pool our resources and work together?"

"I really hope that wasn't an attempt at a pickup line." Jay sneered, tapping her fingers along the neck of the bottle. "Because if so, you're doing worse than last night."

The expression on Dean's face was quite put-out. Sam chuckled silently.

"It wasn't." He said shortly. "Now we gonna get on this or what?"