disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or any of its characters, all rights are reserved for the writers and CW, I only own my oc Nova C. Webber and her plot.

☾ ☼ ☽

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Nova asked Dean, who was humming a classic rock song. John had gone away for another hunt, but he hadn't been back for a while. This made Dean worried, making him have the bright idea of going after his brother at Stanford.

"Yes, for the third time, it's going to work," Dean said, taking a small look at the brunette at his side. "And if that doesn't work, I have a plan B." She knew Dean's tone of voice and his smile. Noticing her bewildered expression, he grinned. "You."

☾☼☽

Upon arriving at the destination, the two hunters were thinking of a way to climb to Sam's floor. "Okay, that's it. We'll climb through the window." Said Dean.

"Or you could just knock on the door." Nova suggested nonchalantly.

Dean simply smiled at the girl in response, heading towards the emergency stairwell of the complexes, which was currently locked. With Nova just behind, the hunter reached into his pocket and pulled out a bolt cutter, then slit the padlock. "Ladies first." Dean said, placing the broken lock and cutter to the side. Nova scoffed but walked up the stairs nevertheless. Dean followed the huntress' path.

Dean stepped forward as he reached the side window and lifted the glass, signaling Nova to slide inside. She obliged and leaned on a leg as she swung the other into the apartment. Now leaning on the window, she landed inside with a soft thud. She looked around for something, but all she found was silence and darkness. Dean opened the window more and slid in, causing the sill to creak. The hunters looked at each other, frozen in place. As nothing happened, he quickly entered the apartment. "It wasn't so bad." He whispered.

"Now what?" She asked, "Do we sit and wait until tomorrow to have a family breakfast?" She snapped around to try and look around the room.

"We have to take a little look around."

Dean had only taken a few steps into the middle of the room when he was grabbed by the shoulder. Nova stepped forward to help him but realized this was just Sam. She stopped and watched as they fought in the darkness. Dean easily knocked Sam's arms away, throwing his fist in front, which Sam easily dodged. This lasted for a while until Dean knocked Sam on the floor. "Whoa, easy, tiger."

The light was dim, but Nova could see all their faces. "Dean," She heard Sam asked as his eyes adjusted. Dean chuckled in response. "You scared the crap out of me."

Dean scoffed, "That's because you're out of practice," Sam frowned and clutched Dean's wrist, pulling him down and slammed his heel into his back, resulting with Dean stuck on the floor. "Or not..." He groaned. "Get off me."

Sam stood, assisting Dean as well. "What the hell are you doing here?" Sam questioned, glancing around the room. His eyes finally landed on Nova, standing in across the room beaming at them.

"Nova," Sam didn't wait for an answer and hurried towards her and embraced the woman he'd grown up with. "Wow, it's been a while." She laughed, wrapping her arms around him.

Dean cleared his throat as the two of them released each other. "How come I didn't get a hug?"

"You just broke into my apartment." Sam sneered.

Dean rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, because she's a saint." Nova merely smiled.

Samm returned to the previous topic. "What are you guys doing here," He asked, "I mean, you didn't just come into my apartment just to say hello."

"Well, I was looking for a beer," He replied, looking around the room. Sam sent him a bland look. "Okay, fine." He gave in.

Nova answered as she pointed to everyone standing in the room. "We have to talk."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Uh, the phone?"

"If we would've called, you wouldn't have answered." Dean snapped back.

Before Sam could respond, the room brightened, causing the three hunters to turn their heads to the source. There was a young blonde woman standing by the doorframe. "Sam?" The blonde asked.

"Jess, hey," He said, "Nova, Dean, this is my girlfriend, Jessica."

Nova inched forward. "Hi, it's nice to meet you," She greeted with a friendly smile. "I'm Nova, but you, uh, already knew that."

Jess let out a small laugh, greeting her back. "Nice to meet you too. I've heard a lot about you. It's really nice to know that you grew up together." Nova was happy to know Sam was talking about her as his own family. Jess turned her attention to Dean. "And this is your brother, Dean, right?"

Dean looked at her with a smile as Dean nodded. "Oh, I love the Smurfs." He said, taking a step closer. "You know, I have to tell you, you're completely out of my brother's league."

Jess snuggled into herself uncomfortably. "Just let me get something." She turned to leave.

"I don't dream of it, seriously." Dean said, taking a few steps back, not removing his eyes off Jess. Sam and Nova shared the same expression. "Anyway, I gotta borrow your boyfriend here, talk about some private family business, but, nice to meet you." He said with a smile.

Sam suddenly let go, catching Dean and Niva off guard. "No," He declared, "No. Whatever you want to say, you can say in front of her."

Dean glanced at Nova. "Okay," He said simply. "Dad hasn't been home in a few days."

"So he's working overtime on a 'Miller Time' shift. He'll stumble back in sooner or later." Said Sam.

Dean looked at Nova once again, and she sighed, turning to face him. "John's on a hunting trip, and he hasn't been home in a few days."

Sam stiffened. "Jess," He stated, his face contorting into realization. "Excuse us."

☾☼☽

"Come on, you can't just break-in in the middle of the night and expect me to hit the road with you." Sam said, descending the stairs behind Dean."

"You're not hearing me, Sammy. Dad is missing, I need you to help me find him." Dean as he walked.

"You remember the poltergeist in Amherst or the devil's gate in Clifton?" Sam interrogated. "He's always out. and he's always fine."

Dean abruptly stopped, causing the other two to halt as well. "Not for this long. Now, are you gonna come with us or not?"

"I'm not." Said Sam.

"Why not?"

Sam shrugged his shoulders, responding, "I swore I was done hunting for good."

Dean chuckled breathlessly. "Come on, it wasn't easy, but it wasn't that bad." He sneered again, continuing his way down the stairs. Sam turned to Nova, who so far hadn't said a word. The girl just smiled rigidly in response, clearly uncomfortable with the situation.

"Yeah," Sam scoffed, "When I told Dad I was scared of the thing in my closet, he gave me a .45."

"Well, what was he supposed to do?" Dean asked, stopping once more. They were now beside the entrance.

"I was nine-years-old. He was supposed to say: "Don't be afraid of the dark."

"Don't be afraid of the dark," Dean recited, disbelief coating his tone. "Are you kidding me? Of course, you should be afraid of the dark. You know what's out there." Nova nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, I know, the still-the way we grew up after mom was killed and Dad's obsession to find the thing that killed her, but we still haven't found the damn thing. So we kill everything we can find."

Dean hadn't hesitated before speaking. "We saved a lot of people doing it, too."

A silence fell between the three of them for a brief moment, until Sam broke it. "Do you think mom would have wanted this for us?"

Dean rolled his eyes brutally before pushing through the door. Sam and Nova were right behind. Sam laughed humorlessly, shaking his head, and continued. "Honestly, Dean. The weapon training and melting the silver into bullets? Man, Dean, we were raised like warriors."

Dean stopped by the Impala. "So what are you gonna do," He asked, "You're just going to live some normal, apple-pie life? Is that it?"

"No, not normal-safe." Sam shot back.

"And that's why he ran away," Dean said. Nova noticed Sam's stiffened shoulders and his frown.

"Dean..." She warned.

Sam's voice rose. "I was just going to college. It was dad who said if I was gonna go, I should stay gone. And that's what I'm doing."

Nova sighed, remembering that day. She agreed with Sam, despite what Dean thought. If he wanted to escape this life to follow his passion, John should've supported him.

"Yeah, well," Said Dean, "Dad's in real trouble right now, if he's not dead already. I can feel it," Sam didn't say anything, then Dean continued. "I can't do this alone."

Nova raised her eyebrows and glanced at the two brothers. "Really? What does that make me? A potato," She snarled, "I see how it is. You'd rather take Sam and leave me here." Sam laughed and Dean merely rolled his eyes with a small smile, knowing she'd purposely lightened the mood between them. He would never leave her behind and she knew that.

Sam sighed, looking down. He really wanted to help them in this, John was still his father, no matter what. He looked back at Dean. "What was he hunting?"

Dean smiled knowing he'd won his brother over and headed towards the Impala's trunk. Opening the spare tire compartment revealed the concealed arsenal placed there. He withdrew a shotgun, propping open the compartment and began digging through it. "All right, let's see where the hell did I put that thing?"

"So when dad left, why didn't you go with him?" Sam asked as his brother continued his search.

"I was working my own gig-this voodoo thing down in New Orleans."

"Dad let you go on a hunting trip alone?" Sam commented, having Nova break into a laugh, receiving a glare from Dean.

"We're the same age," Nova said, moving to Dean's side, already knowing what Dean was searching for. "It's not as if we're going to kill each other something."

"We're twenty-six, dude." Nova removed the folder that was previously thrown there and passed it to Dean. He gave her a grateful look. He slid the papers to Sam. "Anyway, here we go. So dad was checking out this two-lane out of Jericho, California," He informed, pointing to one of the pages. "About a month ago, this guy disappeared, they found his car, but he was gone."

Sam read the article to find out what he could for himself. The paper was a copy of an article in the Jericho Herald. The headline read 'Centennial Highway Disappearance.' "So maybe he was kidnapped." Sam deduced when he finished reading.

"There is another in April," Nova said, approaching Sam. She took the papers and showed the other dates as she unfolded the pages. "Another on December 04, 03, 98, and 92. All men, all on the same stretch of five-mile road."

Dean turned, taking a sack from the trunk. "It started to happen more and more, so dad went to go dig around. That was about three weeks ago. I haven't heard from him since, which is bad enough, and then I get this voicemail yesterday."

He pressed the button to start. The recording came through the broken signal. John's voice appears amid through the loudspeakers. "Dean...something is starting to happen. I think it's serious. I need to try to figure out what's going on...be careful, Dean. We're all in danger." Nova heard the recording before, but even listening to it again was frightening. Dean pressed the stop button on the trunk, waiting for Sam to give him some form of response.

"You know there's E.V.P. in that." Sam stated.

Dean smile didn't falter. "Not bad, Sammy. Kind of like riding a bike, isn't it?" Sam just shook his head and Nova rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I slowed the message down, ran it through a Goldwave, took out the hiss, and this is what I got." He pressed the button again, making another voice come from the device. A woman was echoing a phrase, 'I can never go home.'

Sam stood still, processing what he'd just heard. He sighed and finally spoke. "Okay, I'll help you find him," Dean nodded, looking pleased with himself. Nova was just happy to know they'd all be together again. "But I have to be back for something on Monday. Wait here."

Sam turned to walk back but froze as he heard his brother's voice ring through the air. "What's first thing Monday?"

"I have an interview."

"What, a job interview, skip it."

Sam smiled. "It's a law-school interview, and it's my whole future on a plate."

Dean just grinned. "Law school?" Nova rolled her eyes and smacked the back of his head.

"So, we got a deal or not?" Sam asked.

Dean said nothing, casting a glance at the brunette at his side while rubbing his head. Nova nodded with a big smile.

She noticed the older Winchester was still staring at her. Responding nonchalantly, she shrugged. "What? You deserved it." Sam smiled to himself and went back into his apartment.

☾☼☽

After a couple hours of driving, Dean stopped at a gas station. "All right, I just need to fill up Baby and we'll be on our way soon."

Nova leaned on the seat to take a closer look at what Sam was examining. "Hey, Sam, what do you have there?" She asked.

"Dean's tape collection," Sam stopped for a moment, analyzing some of the cases. "He desperately needs an upgrade. I mean look at this; 'Black Sabbath', 'Motorhead', 'Metallica'?"

"I'm not sure what you mean, Sam. I don't think he needs an upgrade," The girl took the tape. "Plus, it only takes the cassette player." Sam laughed, watching her with familiarity. He'd forgotten that Dean and she had similar taste in music. Dean appeared soon after, entering the driver's seat.

"You and dad still running with all those credit card scams?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, well, hunting ain't exactly a pro-ball career." He said.

"Besides..." Nova continued, calling Sam's attention to her. "All they have to do is apply. It's not their fault that the cards are still being sent."

Sam sighed, returning his attention back to the box of cassettes. "Dude, I swear, man. You have to update your cassette tape collection."

"Why?" Dean asked, clearly offended by the suggestion.

"Well, for one, they're cassette tapes. And two, they're the greatest hits of mullet rock."

"I like it." Nova commented from the back.

Dean didn't appear to take the suggestions to heart. "House rules, Sammy-driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole.

"You know, Sammy is a chubby twelve-year-old. It's Sam, okay?"

In response, Dean only increased the volume from the stereo. "Sorry, Sammy. We can't hear you, the music's too loud!" Sam snorted, crossed his arms and looked out the window. Nova leaned back in her seat, smiling at them both. She missed moments like this.

gab talks about the chapter

I'm so ready to really begin this thing

[oc's name edited in february 22.]