Chapter 7: The Girl who Knows Too Much

"Carly?"

The Impala sat at a stoplight, Dean peering into the backseat at the young woman; it looked like she'd finally fallen asleep after hours on the road. The streetlights illuminated the purple of her face, a gift from the demon she'd met yesterday, and Dean couldn't help but wince as he remembered that this was the second meeting the poor kid had had with the monsters. Truth was, he'd expected her to run for the hills or at least thought she would have begged to be brought back to Bobby's. Instead she'd quietly called Bobby, told him simply it had been a dead end, and settled down with another of Sam's books. Anyone else and he might have been impressed—unfortunately he had other worries.

As soon as Dean was sure the girl was asleep, he turned to Sam with a glare, barely looking away from his brother as the light turned green.

"You went after her, didn't you?" Dean finally asked, getting angrier as he continued. "The Crossroads Demon. After I told you not to."

"Yeah, well..." Sam shrugged.

"You could've gotten the kid killed." Dean growled. "You could have gotten yourself killed!"

"I didn't." Sam shot back. "And I didn't know she was even there, Dean. It's not like I invited her."

"Oh, yeah, like getting snuck up on by some teen hunter wannabe is so much better." Dean grimaced. "While messing with a crossroad demon."

"Dean…"

"And then you shot her."

"She was a smartass!" Sam explained. With a wince, he turned to check that Carly was still asleep. The Winchesters fell quiet, both considering what to say or do next. Finally Dean spoke up, still exasperated with his idiot younger brother..

"So, what? Does that, does that mean I'm out of my deal?"

"Don't you think I might have mentioned that little fact, Dean? No. Someone else holds the contract. She wouldn't say who." He shook his head, obviously frustrated.

Dean's voice was filled with sarcasm as he replied, only barely remembering to keep his voice down in his frustration. "Well, we should find out who. Of course, our best lead would be the Crossroads Demon. Oh, wait a minute..."

"That's not funny."

"No, it's not! It was a stupid freaking risk, and you shouldn't have done it."

"I shouldn't have done it?" Finally letting himself get angry as well, Sam could barely keep his voice at a whisper. "You're my brother, Dean. And no matter what you do, I'm gonna try and save you. And I'm sure as hell not gonna apologize for it, all right?"

The boys fell silent again, the Impala's engine the only sound as they headed toward their next job. Eventually Dean spoke up, smiling without humor as he remembered another question.

"Well, at least after I die I can ask around a bit; find out who Carly's dad is. Has to be somebody impressive—I thought we were the only ones who could get them that pissed off." Dean glanced at Sam and found his brother frowning disapprovingly again. "What? You really think she doesn't know?"

"Why would she lie?"

"Well, it's not like we told her everything. Though she knows about the Colt now-nice work on that by the way."

Sam crossed his arms and then dropped them again, trying to stop himself from starting another argument. "If you don't want her around you could have headed back to Bobby's. "

"And get reamed out for what those demons did to her? No, thank you. But I wasn't planning on training another hunter when we agreed to take her. And a hunter who already has some weird price on her head? How long is she going to last?"

"Longer with us."

"Yeah." Dean shook his head.

Movement from the backseat stopped the conversation. A moment later, Carly's face appeared between the boy's, her chin resting on the middle of the front seat.

"We there yet?" She mumbled, rubbing the sleep and the pattern of her small pillow from her face.

Dean raised an eyebrow, smirking back at her. "An hour yet. How you doin back there?"

"Ugh." Carly said, torn between the pain in her back, the fuzziness that wouldn't leave her head, and the fact that she'd had no nightmares. "If I become a real hunter, I'm taking a plane."

Sam laughed and Dean shuddered, quickly changing the subject. "So this next one doesn't look like a demon. You wanna do some recon with us or search for signs?"

The girl opened her mouth answer and caught sight of her face in the mirror. "I might go to a hospital actually. I think I could use an x-ray… And I am not looking my most FBI at the moment. What about you, Winchester?" She met Sam's eyes, not sure whether she simply felt sympathetic or guilty that he'd been injured trying to help her. "Your ribs still intact?"

Sam brushed off the injury with a few words and the car fell silent. Soon the Impala was pulling into a motel lot and Carly was scooping up her pajamas and gun for the four hours of sleep the Winchesters would likely allow her.

…

The pages of the book on Carly's lap fluttered in the sea breeze and she sighed. Pressing the book more firmly between her elbow and her knee, she went back to her notes and tried to tell herself it did not matter that there was now a huge stain of ink in the middle of the word 'vampire'. Afterall, it made it marginally less likely that someone walking by would notice how weird she was. Not that anyone would be looking at the book when they had the bruises on her face to wonder about.

Carly shook her head and tried not to think of it, scribbling out the rest of one of her many questions for Bobby; 'Where does one get dead man's blood and what level of felony might that require?' She paused as several possibilities crossed her mind, shuddered, and pulled the hood of her powder blue sweatshirt more firmly around her face. How much more would she have to know before it stopped feeling like anyone around her could be an enemy?

The young woman let the book drop to the ground as her phone began to ring, the notebook joining it as soon as she'd turned a page to hide the words. The pen found a home just behind her ear as she finally flipped the cell phone open and saw Bobby's name lit up across the screen.

There was a moment of hesitation-she still didn't know what to tell him about the demon run in or about the Colt-but she found that it was impossible to hit the ignore button. As the ring cut off, there was a long moment of silence as both waited for the other to speak up.

"Caroline?" Bobby said finally. "Damn it, Carly, are you there?"

The girl set the phone between her shoulder and cheek, trying to scoop up her belongings so she could head back to the car. "I'm here. What's going on?"

"Those idjits aren't picking up the phone." Bobby's voice grumbled into her ear. Carly responded with a small smile and found it took a bit more effort than usual. "They on a case?"

"Yeah... "

"You're not with them?"

"I'm fine, Bobby." Caroline had reached the car, taking a moment to lean against the hood as she considered what to tell the older hunter. "I'm trying to get some more research in. After that dead end… I don't know." She ran a hand through her hair and grimaced as the pen fell from behind her ear, disappearing under the car. "There's got to be something I'm missing, something I saw when she attacked me… Maybe if I…"

"That's actually why I'm calling." Bobby hesitated.

"Bobby?" There was desperation in her voice and it made her wince.

The older man continued reluctantly. "I'm tracking one of those damn demons and I could use a hand. I was hoping we could nab him and get some questions answer but if the boys-"

"I'm not doing anything. Where are you? Oh, hold on…" Carly tossed the book onto the hood of the Impala and got down on the ground with her notebook. Setting the blank page open, she peered under the engine for her lost pen. "One sec…" She muttered, pressing her face against the ground as she stretched her arm out awkwardly, finally sitting up with a triumphant smile. She gave a quick swipe at her now dirty sweatshirt, placed the pen against the paper, and shifted her weight to find a more comfortable spot. "Ok, go."

"Now wait just one min-"

"Well, isn't this an interesting read."

Carly Thompson jumped at the new voice, her pen flying away again and her eyes widening as she looked up to see a young woman grinning down at the book Carly had thrown carelessly on top of the car.

"Carly, you're not-"

"Um,I gotta go. Text me? Bye-oh, no. Bye, Bobby."

She stuffed the phone to her pocket, frantically edging around the Impala as the woman began to walk away still flipping through the book on vampires.

"Excuse me, that's not yours." Carly said, half jogging to catch up with the woman. Her hood began to fall back and she reached up to tug it more securely around her marked face.

The stranger turned, finally giving the bedraggled Carly a good look at the smirk on her perfect face. "Oh, I know."

"You know." Carly's hands twisted around the notebook, wishing one of the Winchesters were here to handle this-her mind rejected that thought. She wished that Sam was here. Dean would have only made her feel worse. "Can I have it back then?"

The woman considered the girl for a moment-bruised up face, pebbles and dirty stuck to her faded sweatshirt, shoulders hunched at the pain of bruised ribs- and then gave a dismissive shake of her head. "I don't think so. You're obviously out of your league already; and this book certainly isn't going to help you." She turned as though to walk away, calling over her shoulder as Carly stood stunned. "I'd leave the Winchesters alone if I were you. They're no good at this, either."

"Who are you? Wait!" Carly found herself following the woman, knowing it was idiotic but still figuring demons would leave her alone as long as she was out in public. "Who are you?"

The woman paused, considering. "You first."

"I'm…" Carly shifted her weight, reconsidering and then figuring just her first name couldn't hurt. "Carly."

"Bela."

"Nice to meet you. Can I have my book back?"

Bela raised an eyebrow. "You're not asking how I know the Winchesters? Or why I'm not surprised that you're reading about vampires? You're as thick as the rest of the hunters, aren't you, dear?"

"Sure, but can you just-"

But Bela's eyes were focused behind Carly and her growing grin showed that she wasn't listening to the girl any longer. A sinking feeling in her stomach, Caroline turned just in time to see the tow truck carting away the Impala. Bela had kept her distracted until it left the dock's parking lot.

"Oooh." Carly took a few helpless steps toward the disappearing car and then turned on the strange woman. "Who did you say you are again?"

"Bela." The woman preened. "You want to know more, you can ask them."

"Oh, balls." Carly breathed, borrowing a curse she hadn't even been aware of hearing as she caught sight of the Winchester brothers walking up. "No, no, no..."

"Where's my car?"

...

Author's Note: So this chapter was gonna be three times as long but it's not getting finished and looking it over i found it was enough to publish and set some new thing ups. I have plans for Bela and the Colt and so on, but they are undecided so until then here's something at least. Thanks for reading!