The Hunter

“Yeah?” Bobby answered his phone was his usual amount of phone manners, causing Dean to roll his eyes a bit before lowering himself onto the bed in the hotel room he and Sam had secured for the night. They were somewhere in east Nebraska, heading towards their next case. Dean had almost driven back to Sioux Falls, South Dakota instead to pay a visit to the man, but decided against it. It’d been hard seeing a man who had once been so cantankerous and active be restricted to a wheelchair.

“So, Noora ditched us with a stiff back in Montana,” Dean started, running a heavy hand down his face and heaving a sigh.

“I’ve already heard all about it from her and then some, believe me,” Bobby grumbled and Dean pinched the bridge of his nose. Glancing up as Sam walked back into the room with a bucket of the complementary ice the hotel offered, he drew in a deep breath of air and stayed himself.

“You talk to her often? Noora?” Dean asked, brows pinching together as he glanced over to the coin-slot for Magic Fingers. Whenever Sam went for a shower, Dean was definitely going to set aside some time for him to unwind to those things. Magic Fingers were worth far more than 25 cents in his eyes. He heard Bobby heave a great sigh and barely heard the wheelchair he sat in give a slight creak, as if Bobby was leaning back in the seat.

“I should hope so. I taught her all she knows,” the man replied, though there was something more in his voice, something more than he wasn’t divulging to Dean. “For sanity’s sake, she calls me at least once a day since she works alone,” he continued. Dean’s eyes narrowed slightly and he drew in a deep breath of air.

“And were her parents hunters too?” He asked immediately pulling in Sam’s attention. He sat on the bed opposite of Dean, watching his brother closely.

“As far as she’s told me, no,” Bobby replied and Dean ran a hand across his stubble-laden chin. He made a mental note that he’d probably have to trim it soon before it turned into a full-fledged beard. “Then again, she hasn’t said much about her parents just that they’re still alive and she’d prefer to keep them that way.” Dean heaved a sigh and ruffled a hand through his hair, glancing over to Sam.

“What do you know about her, Bobby? She’s a real piece of work,” Dean said in a low voice, shaking his head slowly. Bobby let out a soft huff of laughter on the other end of the line and Dean’s brow fell low over his eyes.

“Have you ever met a friendly hunter, Dean?” He asked. “I taught her to forgo being polite for the sake for not coming off too soft. I told her that the other hunters would just laugh in her face if she didn’t bite back. You of all people should know how mean hunters can be,” he said, causing Dean to nod a bit in response. Instead of continuing on, however, Bobby merely remained silent and said naught a word on Noora.

“Are you going to tell me anything or no?” Dean asked.

“No,” Bobby replied without missing a beat, “it’s not my place to tell you.” There was the sound of a door opening on the other end of the phone and someone’s muffled voice. “Now, is that all you wanted when you called me or what?” The man asked, sounding ornerier than ever. Dean glanced over to Sam for a moment before drawing in a deep breath of air.

“Yeah, do you have any word on the Co—”

“No, I haven’t. You’d be the first person I’d call if I had,” Bobby replied before hanging up. Dean slowly pulled the phone away from his ear and sighed, looking up at Sam and shaking his head.

“Not a word on her, huh?” Sam asked, studying his brother for a moment before standing and striding over to his duffle. “Well, at least she doesn’t want to kill us. That’s one step above nearly everything else out there.”

“Are you always this optimistic?” Dean murmured as Sam pulled out a change of clothes and shot his brother a look before starting toward the bathroom and shutting the door behind him. Dean’s eyes followed him for a moment before sighing again and tossing the phone on the bedside table before fishing a quarter from his pocket. He decided that he wasn’t going to think about Noora or getting the Colt back until his little Magic Fingers session ran out. He deserved that much.



“Dean?” Noora questioned Bobby as he hung up and set the phone down on his cluttered mess of a desk. She could never figure out how that man kept track of anything on it, but he was still one of the best hunters she knew. He merely nodded in reply, grabbing a glass tumbler half-way full of an amber liquid and taking a sip of it.

“Asking questions about you…and the Colt,” Bobby replied as she lowered herself down on the couch in front of the bay windows. “Seems you’ve made quite the impression with him and Sam.” Noora rolled her eyes as she toed off her boots and sprawled out on the couch, leaning back against the arm to face Bobby. She eyed her mentor for a moment, lips twisted to the side before she shrugged a bit and turned to glance out the window at the graveyard of cars that sprawled out behind the house.

“Well…they forced me to it, whatever bad thing they said about me,” she said through a sigh, turning back to Bobby with the ghost of a smirk on her lips. Bobby let out a dry laugh and shook his head a bit at the girl. She flexed and pointed her toes, rolled her ankles a bit, and generally unwound from the day, in slight disbelief of how it had started. The case had practically closed itself and she knew she had probably really pissed off the Winchesters by leaving them with a body to clean up. All she really cared about was getting the case closed, since she wasn’t too much concerned with making friends. The older hunter watched her for a moment just as she watched him.

“Did they get the journal?” Bobby asked her finally and she nodded a bit before pulling a bit of a face.

“Well…I hope they did. Otherwise, it’s still on the bottom of some hotel in Middle-of-Nowhere, Montana and probably lost forever. I’d hope they were more perceptive than I think them to be,” she said softly. “Either way, it’s good for me.” Bobby merely nodded slowly as he listened to the girl. “They ask you any questions about the journal?”

“No, none at all,” he replied, brows lifting slightly. “I suppose they probably think you just forgot it there.” Noora let out a heavy sigh and nodded slowly, glancing back out to the junkyard. She remained quiet for some time, finding herself tiring of talking about the Winchesters. Eventually, she stood and glanced over at Bobby, who was pouring over an antique looking book.

“Do you need anything? I’m about to head upstairs and try to get some sleep,” she asked as she stood, stooping down to snatch up her boots in one hand.

“Nah, I’m good. You go on and head up to bed,” he said, “I’ve got to look up a few things anyways.” Noora watched him for a moment before drawing in a deep breath of air through her nose.

“I’ll be gone by tomorrow. I’ve got a new case down in Oklahoma so I’ll need to get an early start tomorrow,” she told him, nodding a bit before offering him a small smile.

“Oh yeah, what do you think it is?” He asked, causing the girl to shrug a bit in reply.

“I have a feeling it’s a werewolf, but I’ve learned not to go into a case set on one thing and have it turn out to be another,” she said, letting out a soft laugh.

“Well, you know where I am if you need me,” he replied, matching the smile but Noora could see that the light behind his eyes had all but gone. She sighed softly before padding softly down the hallway, grabbing her duffle from the bottom of the stairs before continuing slowly up the stairs. Noora made her way back to that familiar guest room; the one she stayed at while she trained with Bobby. It seemed a bit weird for her to be so trusting of the man, and at first she had stayed at a nearby motel. It was only in the last week of training when she passed out on his couch and soon moved to the guest bedroom.

As she entered the room, lit only by the bright floodlight that illuminated the junkyard, she took it in for a moment before stepping over to the bed and slowly sitting down on it. In the corners of the room were stacks of books that stretched to the ceiling; some of them she could read, others were in a language she had never even seen before. A sigh left her as she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, pulling her phone from her back pocket and setting it on the bedside table, or more like a table stacked with books. Bobby had more books than some libraries she’d seen and she knew that he had use for most, if not all, of them.

She rolled off her socks, tucked them into one another and shoved them into one of her boots. Noora pulled the hunting knife from the inside pocket of her jacket, setting under the pillow before pulling the jacket off and setting it over her bag. With another heavy sigh, she pulled the duvet and sheets up off of the bed and she pulled them up around her neck. Snuggling against the pillow, she stared blankly at the peeling wallpaper on the wall in front of her. Part of her wondered where the Winchester’s were and if they were reading through Samuel Colt’s diary, like she had so many times before. It was the only one that had remained in her family, but her parents had always thought it to be something involving witchcraft from the symbol on the front.

Forcing her thoughts to stop and her eyes to shut, she finally managed to find a dreamless, well-needed sleep that was free of any thoughts of the Winchester’s or Samuel Colt or Lucifer. Meanwhile, Bobby worked away distractedly on trying to find any sort of lore he could find that would be of use to the Winchester’s and their current case.

The next morning, when Noora woke up, she found Bobby asleep at his desk, leaned over a pile of books. A fond smile curled her lips as she watched the man for a moment before she silently left the house and stepped into the foggy, grey morning. Her boots crunched over the gravel driveway as she walked to her car, pulling open the door once she reached it and shoving her bag into the passenger seat. She turned over the engine and pulled out of Bobby’s driveway, starting in the direction of the next highway towards Oklahoma with nothing but her car, her music, and the next case mulling over in her mind.

She felt like it was a typical werewolf case, but she knew that there was always the chance of some other force imitating such a thing to throw a hunter off. That being said, she made sure that anything silver she had was all organized in one section underneath the false bottom of her trunk, just in case. There wasn’t much room in the trunk of her car, but she didn’t need much variety of weapons to hunt. She stuck to a few of her favorite guns, just changed out the rounds and such, along with a few iron blades and her hunting knife. There was nothing really special about the hunting knife she was so attached to, but it was sure to slow something down and she had found it quite handy when in a pinch or when she needed to open a beer.

The further away she got from Bobby’s the darker the skies got and eventually she drove through a sheet of thick rain. In an instant, she turned her headlights and windshield wipers on, but was forced to drive a bit slower in order to feel like she wasn’t going to hydroplane or run into the back of the car in front of her. Over the sound of the heavy rain pelting her car, she couldn’t hear the sound of her engine giving a whine or a rattle every few minutes. She only made it to the middle of Nebraska before her RPMs started to soar and the car started to slow. She pulled over to the side of the road, frowning a bit when she saw that the rain wasn’t letting up in the slightest, and turned off the engine. With a loud huff, she pushed open the door and got out, shutting it behind her and rounding the hood.

The rain pelted against her as she stopped in front of it, popping it open and propping it up so she could take a look inside. She knew her car was old and prone to breaking down. It was just something that happened with old cars, or so Bobby said. He’d helped her procure the Mustang, since he said he couldn’t have her driving around in something that didn’t have any horsepower and it was the fastest thing in the junkyard. He taught her how to repair most of what she’d encounter, but there were still times when she called him for questions and just had to make sure that she was pulling apart or fixing the right thing. She tinkered around under the hood, tightening a few things and checking a few others. Noora shut the hood and jogged back to the driver’s seat, quickly getting in and shutting the door behind her.

She sat there for a few moments, thankful that Bobby had put a faux-leather interior in the car, since she was soaked to the bone. Sighing heavily, she reached for the key in the ignition and righted to turn the car over, hearing an awful grinding and grating noise coming from the engine in front of her. Her posture slumped a bit before she leaned back, pushing her soaked hair back from her face and staring up at the roof of the car. She tried once more time to get her car to start up, but was met with the same, awful grinding noise.

Noora reamed her mind for everything that she could possibly do, but she knew that she couldn’t leave the car and try to walk somewhere since she had a mini arsenal in the back. So, she did the only thing she could do and grabbed her phone, dialing in that overly familiar number. A chill had settled in the car, or maybe it was just the fact that she was drenched in cold rainwater.

“Hello?” Bobby answered and Noora drew in a deep breath of air, pushing her damp hair back from her face once more.

“Hi Bobby,” she sighed, pausing a moment before she continued on. “The car’s not starting. It’s got this horrible grinding noise when I try to turn the engine over and I don’t know what to do,” she told him before letting out a heavy sigh and shaking her head a bit. She heard the older man give a sigh along with her and pause for a moment.

“Well…there’s not much I can do at the moment since I can’t get myself over there to peek under the hood,” he started and Noora immediately went to protest but Bobby quickly continued, “but let me see who I can call and who’s in the area. You planning on calling a tow truck in?”

“Not at the moment, no…but that’s just because I don’t want anyone else touching my car and risking the paintjob,” she murmured wryly, causing Bobby to let out a soft chuckle.

“Just hold tight, Noora. Don’t try to turn over the engine again no matter who tells you to try because you don’t want to have to replace the whole thing. I’ll see what I can do for you and then call you back, alright?” Bobby said before the call was ended and Noora set the phone aside. She merely crossed her arms over her chest, watching as cars passed by without a second thought of turning around to help her. So, to conserve battery, she shut off the headlights and sunk low in the seat, hating having to be patient but knowing there was nothing much she could do other than wait.

The longer it took Bobby to get back to her, the more anxious she got and the more impatient she became. She knew better than to call Bobby back, because she knew that when he said he’d get something done, he’d do it without question and as quick as possible. There was always the possibility that there weren’t any hunters in the area and she would just be stranded there and he was still flipping through his phonebooks for people to help her out. She resorted to tapping her feet on the floor of the car to pass the time, making sure to send a glare in the direction of the passing cars instead of ignoring them like before. Each one that drove by was a possibility of her finding someone that knew something about cars and they were robbing her of getting her car fixed.

Finally, about an hour later from the time she’d called Bobby, she saw headlights pull up behind her car and the rumble of an all-too familiar engine. She glanced in the rearview with a scowl, praying this was just another hunter with an old black 1967 Impala, but she knew that a hope like that was rather farfetched. Her eyes followed the shadow of a man as he slipped out of the car, his features still muddled by the rain still pelting against the car as he walked alongside it. Before he had a chance to knock on her window, she slipped out of the car and into the rain once more. The two hunters eyed either other for a moment before Noora let out a sharp sigh through her nose and shook her head.

“Bobby,” she murmured before turning and starting toward the hood of the car. Dean merely stood there for a few moments, glaring at her back before he followed her around.

“I’m going to pretend you didn’t just give me that look because Bobby told me that I had to get your car fixed no matter what you say to me or he’d have my hide,” Dean replied in an irritated sort of tone, raising his voice so she could hear him clearly over the sound of the rain. “That doesn’t mean I’m going to be nice to you.” Noora let out a loud huff of laughter as she pulled up the hood of the car and propped it up.

“Good, because I’m not going to even try to be nice to you,” she shot back before looked down at the engine. Dean soon joined her and glanced down at the engine as well. They both remained silent for a while, the only sound being the rumble of the Impala behind her car, the rain, and the occasional car passing by them.

“Do you know what happened to it?” He asked, reaching forward and poking at the carburetor and a few of the intake valves.

“I couldn’t hear the engine much over the sound of the rain, but my RPMs started to spike without any change in speed so I pulled over. I checked the engine, looked for anything loose or anything on the outside of the engine and what have you that could be the reason for the car acting up. I went back in the car and tried to start it up and all the engine did was grind,” she told him, hoping he wasn’t going to bring up the fact that she was a woman who didn’t know how to try or didn’t know a thing about cars. She knew one too many hunters who’d made the mistake and she didn’t want to end up decking Dean and having to find someone else to fix her car. He leaned over the engine for a moment, eyes wandering it before glancing up to her.

“You sure it wasn’t doing anything odd before?” He asked, eyeing her as rain soaked through the many layers of shirts that he wore and dripped down his face.

“Positive. Ran like a charm up until about an hour ago,” she said softly. His eyes slipped over her features before he cut them at her and let out a soft hum. She merely stared back at him, pulling a bit of a face before letting out a sharp sigh through her nose and rolled her eyes. “Look, just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I’m completely clueless about cars. I just feel like this is something more than just a topical fix,” she told him, not even bothering to keep the defensive tone from her voice. Dean’s brows lifted slightly as he watched her.

“I don’t doubt your knowledge of cars, Noora. If all you know has been taught to you by Bobby, you know a great deal more than most people,” he told her. A crooked grin curled his lips before he added, “Not as much of me, of course.” Noora rolled her eyes yet again and shot him a look that clearly said she wasn’t one for much bantering at the moment.

“Just tell me what’s wrong with the car so we can both get out of the rain and get to where ever we were going before this happened,” she said, keeping her eyes locked on his as if to show him that she meant business. Dean merely lifted his brows a bit and let out a heavy sigh.

“I think we’re going to have to get it towed to a hotel around here and wait until the rain clears up until I can get a proper look at it,” he said, putting the hood back down. Noora gave him a wide-eyed, exasperated look before running a hand over her face. “Give me all the looks you want. You’re either stuck here until someone stops to help you out or you go with my plan. I mean, at least you won’t have to hide anything from me,” he told her before starting back to the Impala. Noora’s mouth fell open as she watched his back, thinking he was going to just leave her there without a ride.

“Where are you going?” She called after him, but he didn’t give her any reply. She merely glowered at him before ducking back into her car and slamming the door shut. If he was going to leave her here, at least he wasn’t going to get the opportunity of seeing her disappointment as he drove off. She merely sat in her car, drenched, and glaring at her steering wheel. She heard the roar of the Impala as it pulled away and her hands clenched into fists on her lap.

The sudden rapping on her passenger side window caused her to jump suddenly and look over at whoever it was with the same harsh glower. Dean was peeking in through the window, hands in his pockets and back hunched over to shield himself from the rain. Noora gave him a scrutinizing sort of look before leaning over and pushing open the car door for him. He quickly hauled himself into the car, closing the door behind himself and glancing around the car for a moment.

“What are you doing?” Noora finally asked him, brows lowered over her eyes. Dean almost laughed at the look she was giving him, never finding someone so perpetually unfriendly in his life, aside from maybe Bobby. That thought only brought the thing whole circle, really.

“I’m going to wait with you while Sam drives up to the nearest hotel and then we can call a tow truck to get your car there,” he said simply, though he looked like he really didn’t want to be stuck in the car with the girl. She was undeniably hot, for sure, but she’d made one too many threats to his family jewels for him to want to get cocky and risk trying to talk her up. Noora merely stared over him for a few moments, her expression giving nothing away from what she was feeling.

“Can’t I do all that on my own?” She asked, lifting a brow. “I’m not incompetent.” Dean merely closed his eyes in frustration, reminding himself that he was doing this for Bobby and Bobby only.

“I don’t want the tow truck driver trying to coax you into going to his reliable relative’s auto shop and then up having them charge you an arm and leg for everything…and it’s just not safe for you to be left alone around those kind of men,” he told her, opening his eyes to look over at her with a furrowed brow. Noora let out a humorless laugh and shook her head, looking ahead as she rested her hands on the steering wheel.

“That’s rich coming from a man who told me not to get dressed yesterday,” she said, turning her eyes back to him and giving him a poignant look. “If I can handle what I do, all by my lonesome, you think I can put a guy from a towing company in his place?” She asked him, cutting her eyes at him. “I think so,” she answered for him, “despite what you think, despite what Bobby says, I can handle myself.”

“I never said you couldn’t,” Dean defended, staring wide-eyed over at her.

“You kind of did, Dean,” Noora said, shrugging a bit before letting out a heavy sigh and looking out the windshield. Dean merely stared at her for a few moments longer before copying her actions and staring out the windshield as well. Silence fell between the two of them for the longest amount of time and the only sound was the sound of the rain.

“Look…” Dean started after a while, drawing her attention from the rain and back to him. “I understand that you don’t like me, alright. I’m not too fond of you at the moment either, but…we can at least try to be civil for Bobby. The man deserves that much.” Noora studied him for a moment before she nodded a bit in agreement.

“Okay…I’ll do it for Bobby,” she said softly before turning and staring back out the windshield, cupping her hand over her mouth as she relaxed back in her seat.