❛ ━━━━━━･❪ ☆ ❫ ･━━━━━━ ❜

      ELEANOR DROPS THE half finished cigarette on the ground and stamps it out with a small frown as the boys round the stairs from Sam's motel room.

      "She's about four hours down the Interstate. Try to keep up." Bobby tells them, getting into his car.

        Sam grins at Dean. "I assume you'll want to drive." He takes the keys out of his pocket and tosses them to Dean, who catches them easily.

      "Oh! I almost forgot!" Dean walks over to the Impala and has a very odd reunion with it, causing Eleanor to roll her eyes as she gets in the back seat.

      Dean gets in the driver's side and puts the keys into the ignition but pauses when he sees an iPod plugged into the stereo. He glares at Sam, who was happily getting into the passenger seat. "What the hell is that?" Dean asks accusingly.

      "That's an iPod jack, old man." Eleanor speaks up from the back seat.

      Dean glares at her through the rear view mirror. "You were supposed to take care of her, not douche her up!"

      "Dean, I thought it was my car." Sam tries to reason.

Dean sighs and starts the car. "Vision" by Jason Manns started to play. Dean rolls his eyes and glares at his siblings again, looking like someone murdered his best friend. "Really?"

Sam shrugs innocently. Dean rips the iPod out of the jack and tosses it in the back seat. It hits Eleanor in the head and she lets out a small groan. "That's a good song!" Eleanor protests. "And you hit me in the head!"

"I know you're new here, Rigby, so here's the deal: driver picks the music, everyone else shuts their cakeholes." Dean tells her, looking at his sister through the rear view mirror as he puts in a cassette tape.

         She wouldn't admit it, but Eleanor was secretly pleased with the nickname.

      Sam and Dean talk quietly, Eleanor spacing out as she watched the stars from the window. The conversation seemed to take a turn for the worse, and soon Sam was looking out the window, brooding.

･ ❪ ☆ ❫ ･

     IT WAS MIDDAY by the time they got to the psychic's house. They knock on the door, and pretty woman with long brown hair and a ready smile opens it. "Bobby!" she exclaims, pulling him into a hug and briefly lifting him off the ground.

Sam and Dean share a look and Eleanor tries to hold in her laughter at the sight. Pamela lets him go and looks the siblings up and down, her gaze lingering on the boys. "So, these the Winchesters?"

      "Sam, Dean, Eleanor. This is Pamela Barnes, best damn psychic in the state." Bobby introduces. Eleanor doesn't correct either of them when she's introduced as a Winchester.

       Dean flirted with her, shocking no one, while Sam and Eleanor made awkward hellos.

      "Dean Winchester. Out of the fire and back in the frying pan, huh? Makes you a rare individual," Pamela hums.

      "If you say so."

      Pamela ushers them inside and shuts the door behind them.

     "So, you hear anything?" Bobby asks as they walk through the door.

     "Well, I Ouija'd my way through a dozen spirits. No one seems to know who broke your boy out, or why," the psychic tells them.

"So what's next?" Bobby questions.

"A séance, I think. See if we can see who did the deed."

Eleanor spots something shiny in the corner of the room and goes to inspect it. It was a mirror with a small ruby in the frame. She goes to pick it up when she overhears Dean say, "I'm game." She turns back to the group realizing she has no idea what the plan is.

･ ❪ ☆ ❫ ･

ELEANOR LOOKS AROUND the room not paying attention as Pamela talks to ( flirts with ) Sam and Dean. She was more interested in the crystals and other odd trinkets the psychic had in her house. Eleanor gently runs a finger over a crystal Pamela had on a small table. She could feel the energy of the crystal connecting with her own. She quickly pulls her hand away, startled. It must be some psychic tool, she reasons. Still, she can't shake the feeing of how right the connection felt.

Pamela begins to set up for the séance and Eleanor offers to help her. She asks bunch of questions and the older woman explains the things they're setting up and what their uses are. Bobby notes this is the most he's heard Eleanor talk.

Soon the group is seated around the small table, six lighted candles in the center. "Take each other's hands," Pamela instructs. Everyone links hands. "And I need to touch something our mystery monster touched..."

Dean jumps suddenly. "Whoa. Well, he didn't touch me there," he says quickly. Eleanor furrows her eyebrows in confusion but doesn't interrupt.

"My mistake." Pamela didn't sound very sorry.

Dean looks at the group nervously, then takes off his flannel. He pulls up the left sleeve of his t-shirt, revealing a large, raised handprint. Eleanor lets out a quiet gasp. Sam stares at it, looking shocked. He glances over at Bobby, whose eyes had gone wide.

Pamela lays her hand on the brand. "Okay, close your eyes." Their eyes flutter close as she begins to chant, "I invoke, conjure, and command you, appear unto me before this circle." A television flicks on to static as she repeats the refrain. "I invoke, conjure, and command... Castiel? No. Sorry, Castiel, I don't scare easy," Pamela speaks to it.

"Castiel?" Dean questions.

"Its name. It's whispering to me, warning me to turn back." The table begins to shake. Eleanor resists the urge to open her eyes as her heartbeat quickens. She wasn't sure if anyone else could feel the overwhelming energy coursing through the room.

"I conjure and command you, show me your face," Pamela continues. The static and rattling become increasingly violent.

      "We should stop." Eleanor had a bad feeling about the séance and whatever was on the other side of it. Her stomach turned with nerves and she was beginning to get a headache from the noise.

      Pamela shakes her head, though everyone had their eyes closed. "I almost got it," she tells Eleanor. Returning back to the creature they were trying to summon, she raises her voice, her tone firm and powerful. "I command you, show me your face! Show me your face now!"

       The candles being to flare up, the flames extending several feet in the air. Pamela screams, her eyes flying open, filled with a white-hot flame. She begins to fall to the ground and suddenly the room goes quiet and the flames go out. Bobby catches her before she can hit the floor. "Call 9-1-1!"

       Sam rushes out of the room to call for help and Eleanor follows, feeling sick. From the other room she can hear Pamela screaming, "I can't see! I can't see! Oh god!"

        "I'm going to go wait outside for the ambulance," Eleanor informs her brother. She exits the house as quickly as she can. The fresh air was instantly calming as she sits on the porch taking deep breaths. She closes her eyes and the Pamela's burning eyes flash through her mind. Her eyes snap open, hands starting to shake so she pulls out her lighter. The repetitive opening and closing of the lid made her feel more grounded. She had been overwhelmed by the noise and the energy and the psychic's screams wouldn't leave her mind.

       She takes some deep breaths, hearing sirens in the distance. She pulls out a cigarette but doesn't light it, letting it dangle between her fingers. It's going to be fine. Everything is going to be fine. I think.

･ ❪ ☆ ❫ ･

       ELEANOR AND DEAN sat at a booth inside Johnny Mac's Diner. The waitress stands in front of them, notebook at the ready. "Two apple pies," Dean tells her.

      "And uh, I'll have a strawberry milkshake," Eleanor adds. "and a slice of the chocolate cake, please."

      "What, no pie?" Dean asks, almost sounding offended that Eleanor had ordered cake.

      Eleanor shrugs. "I'm more of a cake person."

      Dean gasps dramatically. "And you call yourself my sister!" Eleanor simply rolls her eyes at this.

       The waitress gives them a smile. "Be up in a jiff." She closes her notepad and makes her way back to the kitchen.

      As she leaves, Sam walks into the diner, talking on his phone. He ends the call as he slides into the booth beside Dean. "Pam's stable and out of I.C.U." he informs them.

      "And blind, because of us." Dean's voice was laced with guilt.

       "And we still have no idea what we're dealing with," Eleanor frowns.

      "That's not entirely true," Dean points out. Eleanor raises an eyebrow. "We got a name. Castiel, or whatever. With the right mumbo-jumbo we could summon him, bring him right to us."

"That's a terrible idea! Are you insane?" Eleanor protests. She didn't want to have any more run ins with this "Castiel," especially after what happened to Pam. She had a weird feeling this wasn't a simple demon case.

"We'll work him over. I mean, after what he did?" The anger was evident in Dean's voice.

"Pam took a peek at him and her eyes burned out of her skull," Sam reminds him, "and you want to have a face to face?"

      "You got a better idea?"

       "Yeah, as a matter of fact I do," Sam announces, "We followed some demons to town, right?" Dean nods. "So, we go find them. Someone's gotta know something about something."

    The waitress reappears with their food and sets them on the table. Eleanor mumbles a quick "thank you." The waitress plops down in a chair at the end of the table.

       Dean looks at her with a smirk. "You angling for a tip?"

       The waitress glares at him. "I'm sorry. Thought you were looking for us." Her eyes go black for a moment. Eleanor notices the cook and a man by the counter had black eyes as well. The man goes to the door, locks it, and stands in front of it.

         "Well shit," Eleanor mutters under her breath.

        The waitress's eyes go back to a normal brown. "Dean. To hell and back. Aren't you a lucky duck."

      "That's me."

Eleanor notices the shift in his demeanor, though he acted like it was no big deal, she could tell he was getting into flight or fight mode. From the stories she'd heard, she was pretty sure Dean didn't have a "flight" mode.

      "So you get to just stroll out of the pit, huh? Tell me," the demon leans forward, "What makes you so special?"

        "I like to think it's because of my perky nipples." The demon glares at him. "I don't know. Wasn't my doing, I don't know who pulled me out."

"Right. You don't," the demon says sarcastically.

"No. I don't."

"Lying's a sin, you know," the demon reminds him with a smirk.

"I'm not lying. But I'd like to find out, so if you wouldn't mind enlightening me, Flo..."

The waitress glares at him. "Mind your tone with me, boy. I'll drag you back to hell myself," it snaps.

Sam moves as if to attack and Eleanor goes for the small flask of holy water she always has on her. Dean holds a hand up and they stop, settling back into their seats.

"No, you won't," Dean tells her simply.

The demon-waitress raises an eyebrow. "No?"

"No. Because if you were you would have done it already. Fact is, you don't know who cut me loose. And you're just as spooked as we are. And you're looking for answers. Well, maybe it was some turbo-charged spirit. Or, uh, Godzilla. Or some big bad boss demon. I'm guessing at your pay grade that they don't tell you squat. Because whoever it was, they want me out. And they're a lot stronger than you. So go ahead. Send me back. But don't come crawling to me when they show up on your front doorstep with some Vaseline and a fire hose."

"I'm going to reach down your throat and rip out your lungs," demon-waitress snarls.

Dean seems to take that as a challenge. He leans forward and throws a right hook at her, which she takes. He throws another. She still sits there doing nothing but glaring at them, though she was beginning to look more and more nervous.

       "Dean . . ." Eleanor warns.

Dean stands, brushing off his hands. "That's what I thought. Let's go, Sam, Elle."

They stand to leave, the demon sits there fuming. Dean pulls a roll of cash out of his pocket and pulls off a twenty dollar bill. He holds it up and drops it on the table. "For the food."

       The siblings make their way out of the diner and to the impala across the street as quickly as they could.

      "Holy shit, that was close," Eleanor breathes as they head across the parking lot.

       "We're not just going to leave them in there, are we, Dean?" Sam asks.

      "Well yeah, there's three of them, probably more, and we've only got one knife between us."

       Sam frowns. "I've been killing a lot more demons than that lately." Eleanor clears her throat. "We've been killing a lot more demons than that lately," he corrects.

     "Not anymore – the smartest sibling is back in town," Dean quips. His sister rolls her eyes.

     "Dean, we've got to kill them. They're dangerous," Sam protests.

     Eleanor nods. "Yeah, I don't feel comfortable just leaving them here. What if people get hurt?"

     "They're scared. Okay? Scared of whatever had the juice to yank me out. We're dealing with a bad mofo here. One job at a time."

     "Whatever," the blonde huffs, getting into the back seat of the impala.

･ ❪ ☆ ❫ ･

      DEAN WAS SLEEPING on the couch with a large book open in his lap. Sam sneaks out, checking to make sure Dean doesn't wake up. He didn't have to worry about his sister, who was no where to be seen. Even if she was, she had grown used to Sam leaving in the middle of the night. She had assumed he was going to meet a girl, and based on what Sam would tell her, he was. She had no reason to suspect he was up to anything else.

･ ❪ ☆ ❫ ･

ELEANOR KICKS AT the vending machine that wouldn't dispense her soda. "Come on! I spent money for this!" Another kick sent at the machine must have dislodged the stuck drink because a bottle of Fanta orange soda fell to the bottom with a 'thud.' Eleanor grabs the bottle muttering a prayer of thanks to the vending machine gods.

As she heads back to her room, she spots Bobby running to Dean's, so of course, she follows him. The two hunters open the door to reveal Dean on the floor, covered in blood and surrounded by broken glass. "Dean?" Eleanor's voice was barely above a whisper. Her brother lifts his head and hunters rush over to help him up. They lead him to Bobby's car, stopping briefly in Eleanor's room to grab her first aid kit.

Eleanor forces Dean to sit in the back seat with her as Bobby drives, carefully wiping the blood off his face.

"How you doin', kid?" Bobby asks from the front seat.

"Aside from the church bells ringing in my head, peachy." He winces as Eleanor wipes a particularly deep cut, causing her to frown.

"You should let me put something on that, I think I might have something in my first aid kit," Eleanor tells him.

Dean shakes his head, pushing her hand and the cloth away. "I'm good, thanks, Doc." His sister frowns but says nothing. Dean pulls out his cell phone and dials a number.

Eleanor could only her snippets of the conversation from Dean's end. "What are you doing? . . . In my car? . . . Well, uh, Bobby's back. . ." She eventually stops listening, uninterested

"Why the hell didn't you tell him?" Bobby speaks up.

Dean shrugs, though Bobby couldn't see him. "Because he just tried to stop us."

Eleanor had a bad feeling about this. "Oh God, from what?"

"Summoning this thing." Dean's voice is firm. Bobby and Eleanor look at him in shock. "It's time we faced it head-on."

"You can't be serious!" Bobby protests.

"As a heart attack. It's high noon, baby."

"We don't even know what it is. It could be a demon or it could be something worse," Eleanor points out.

"That's why we've got to be ready for anything." Dean pulls out the demon-killing knife. "We've got the big-time magic knife, you've got an arsenal in the trunk..."

Bobby looks at him through the rear view mirror. "This is a bad idea."

Dean sighs. "Yeah, I couldn't agree more, but what other choice do we have?"

"I don't know, maybe not dying," Eleanor tries to reason.

"Well lucky for you, Eleanor, you won't be a part of it. Whatever this is, whatever it wants, it's after me. That much we know, right? I've got no place to hide. I can either get caught with my pants down again, or we can make our stand."

"You're not leaving me out of this!" Eleanor snaps. "I'm not a child and Sam's been teaching me to hunt. If you're going, I'm going."

"You're nineteen and we don't know what we're up against, so absolutely not. And we're going to talk about Sam teaching you to hunt later. This is too dangerous."

"You're not my dad, Dean. Plus, you've been gone for four months, you have no idea what I'm capable of. I'm going whether you like it or not."

"I'm not your dad, but I am your older brother and it's my job to protect you. You can come but you have to stay in the other room when we summon the thing or you're not coming at all."

      "I've gone nineteen years without your 'protection,' I don't need it now." She glares at him. "Fine, whatever, I'll stay outside." At least that way she would be able to go with them, and besides, she had no intention of actually listening to her brother.

･ ❪ ☆ ❫ ･

     Eleanor draws a symbol with white spray paint on the cement floor. Bobby had told her the symbols and let the girl help him paint them on the walls, floor and ceiling of the warehouse. Almost every surface was covered in the paint.

      Dean stands by a table, setting up equipment. He looks over at the symbols. "That's a hell of an art project you two have going on there."

"Traps and talismans from every faith on the globe," Bobby explains. "How you doin?"

"Stakes, iron, silver, salt, knife," Dean lists. "I mean, we're pretty much set to catch and kill anything I've ever heard of."

     "This is still a bad idea," Bobby mutters.

      "Yeah, Bobby, I heard you the first ten times. What do you say we ring the dinner bell?"

     Bobby nods reluctantly. He goes over to a table, takes a pinch of powder from a bowl, and sprinkles it into a different bowl, which begins to smoke. As the smoke begins to rise, he starts to chant in Latin.

        Dean gives Eleanor a pointed look and she huffs, walking out of the other room and hiding behind the door.

      After what felt like forever a loud rattling shakes the roof. Eleanor slips her knife out of her pocket and peaks in through the crack by the door.

     "Wishful thinking, but maybe it's just the wind," she overhears Dean say. The door bursts open and a dark haired man in a suit and trenchcoat walks in.

       She hears light bulbs above his head shatter in a shower of sparks and Dean and Bobby open firing, but she can't seem to fully see what's happening.

"Who are you?" Dean asks, voice low.

"I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition." The man's voice was deep and gravelly. Eleanor tries to get a better look from the gap in the door.

"Yeah. Thanks for that." Dean grabs the demon-killing knife and plunges it into the man's chest. The attack does nothing. Eleanor watches him pull the knife out of his chest, unconcerned and drop it on the floor.

Bobby goes to attack him from behind but the man easily intercepts his attack, without even looking. He swings Bobby around and places two fingers on his forehead. Bobby falls to the ground.

      "We need to talk, Dean. Alone," the man tells him. Eleanor moves away from the door, flattening herself against the wall in hopes of not ending up like Bobby.

       "Your friend's alive," she hears the man reassure. Eleanor breathes a sigh of relief. She had only just met Bobby, but she was growing to like him.

       "Who are you?"

        "Castiel."

"Yeah, I figured that much, I mean what are you?"

"I'm an Angel of the Lord."

Eleanor lets out a quiet gasp but quickly covers her mouth, hoping she wasn't heard. She inches closer to the gap between the door and the wall and watches again.

"No way. There's no such thing."

"This is your problem, Dean. You have no faith." Lightning flashes and the shadow of large wings appear behind him. Eleanor's eyes go wide.

"Some angel you are. You burned out that poor woman's eyes."

     "I warned her not to spy on my true form." His eyes shift over to where Eleanor was watching as he says not to spy. "It can be... overwhelming to humans, and so can my real voice. But you already knew that."

"You mean the gas station and the motel. That was you talking? Buddy, next time, lower the volume."

"That was my mistake. Certain people, special people, can perceive my true visage. I thought you would be one of them. I was wrong."

Eleanor leans a little too close to the door and falls, stumbling into the room. She curses and lets out an awkward laugh.

The man in the trench coat, Castiel, walks over to her and reaches out two fingers. Everything around her felt warm and comforting as her eyelids droop shut and she falls to the floor with a soft 'thud.'

❛ ━━━━━━･❪ ☆ ❫ ･━━━━━━ ❜

AUTHOR'S NOTE: as my february break comes to an end updates probably won't be as frequent but i'll try to work out some sort of schedule. i'd really appreciate some feedback because i haven't written chapters that follow a specific episode before so i'm still kind of navigating that and how to fit eleanor into the show. please comment and vote if you liked the chapter and follow clairenovak.wp on tiktok because i post edits and occasionally updates there