Alex yawned, sitting up. Bear immediately jumped to his feet, tail thumping loudly against the paper-thin walls. Alex looked out the window to see that the sky was still dark. She had fallen asleep on the couch earlier that evening, and scratched her head, not fully sure how she had gotten upstairs. She threw back the covers and crept quietly out of bedroom, which, in all actuality, was rather pointless, as Bear ran out ahead of her, tail swinging like a club against the walls.

She hurried down the stairs and stopped by the back door, putting on a pair of shoes and one of Dean's jackets. Then, she slipped outside, letting Bear dash out ahead of her. The summer air was nice and warm, and Alex wandered among the cars, looking up at the stars. She sat down on the hood of her favorite car; a 1965 Chevrolet Chevelle. "Castiel?" she called. "Castiel! You listening?" No answer. Not that Alex was expecting one. "You out looking for Dean yet? Hopefully. Lilith's still planning to use him to start the apocalypse, you know. I'm not lying. He's the only one who can stop it."

She paused, listening, but there was nothing.

"It'd be easier if you were here," she finally admitted. "Explaining it, and all." When there was still no answer she sighed. "Well, okay. Stay safe, man." She lay back on the hood of the car, looking back up at the stars.

...

Late the next morning, Alex hurried down the stairs. Not seeing Bobby, she walked into the kitchen, pulling out a box of cereal and the milk. She poured herself a bowl and then frowned, shoulders dropping in disappointment and disbelief. "That son of a bitch ate all the marshmallows." She slammed the box down the table. "I splurge and get Lucky Charms and he ate all the marshmallows. That bastard." She raised her voice so Bobby could here. "You ate all my marshmallows?"

When the hunter didn't answer, she rolled her eyes and reached the the milk. She poured herself a bowl before sticking it back back into the fridge and sitting down at the table. There was an open book there, and Alex casually read it, glad that it was actually in English. Judging by the hasty sketches and small, almost illegible screwing on the worn pages, she deduced it to be Bobby's notes on demons.

"Alex?" Bobby's voice reached her ears, causing the young girl to look up. "You seen my book?" His words were faint, probably originating from the basement below.

"Yeah, Bobby," Alex called back, stabbing her spoon into her marshmallow-less cereal while looking around the crowded kitchen and study. "I'm looking at a couple hundred of your books right now. Want to be a little more specific?"

She heard footsteps coming up from the basement, and a few seconds later Bobby appeared. "Smart-ass," he muttered. "You're reading it." Alex laughed. He took the book out from under Alex's hand. He stopped, glancing at the necklace Alex had around her neck. "Haven't seen that in a while," he commented.

"Oh." Alex glanced down at it. "Usually I keep it under my shirt."

"You wear it everyday?"

"Yeah." Alex nodded, fingering the angel-wing charm. "Every day since my mom died."

"That reminds me," Bobby mumbled, and disappeared up the stairs without another word. Alex shook her head at his strange but surprisingly common exit. She had just picked her spoon back up when there was a knock on the door. "Get it," Bobby called from somewhere upstairs.

Alex rolled her eyes, but did as he asked. She pushed back her chair and walked over to the front door, eyes flickering over to the silver knife resting on the small table next to her. She opened the wooden front door and peered through screen. "Uh, hello?"

Two men stood there, the oldest no older than mid twenties. The younger's eyes flickered past Alex further into the house. "Hey. Is, uh, is Bobby around?"

"Maybe." Alex narrowed her eyes in wariness. "Depends, I suppose. Who are you?"

The older man smiled, the corners of his blue eyes crinkling humorously. "It's okay. I'm Charlie. Charlie Hayward. This is my younger brother Duncan." He jerked a thumb towards the other man

"Oh. I'm Alex." The young girl held open the doors so the two hunters could enter. "I, uh, I'm the one who called about the shishigra when you guys were in Washington. That was you guys, right?"

"Yeah, that was us. Thanks, by the way." Charlie led the way into the study. "Thanks, by the way. Brass knife worked just fine."

Alex grinned. "Great. Glad I could help." She sat down on the corner of the desk, watching as Duncan wandered into the kitchen.

Charlie rolled his eyes, leaning against the doorframe and turning his head to see what his brother was doing. "Put that down, you idiot," he chastised. "You're gonna hurt yourself." He rolled his eyes and turned back to Alex. "He's a numbskull."

"Am not," Duncan retorted, returning to the study with a beer in his hand. He stuck of his tongue as he passed, and Charlie reached out to knock him over the head. Duncan flopped down on the couch, long legs stretching outwards. "Where's Bobby?"

"Dunno." Alex walked over to the stairs. "Bobby?" she called. "It's Charlie and Duncan."

"Hold up, girl. I'm coming." Bobby hurried down the stairs. "Ah. Charlie. Duncan." He acknowledged the two hunters in turn. "What brings you around?"

Duncan shrugged. "We were in the area." He cracked open the bottle and took a long gulp before sitting up straighter. "It's been a while sine we've been around."

Alex studied him. Short beach-blonde hair, blue eyes. He was shorter than his brother, but not by much. He looked a lot like his older brother. Charlie, however, had dark brown hair that stuck up in every direction, and ice blue eyes that sparkled humorously at everything. He glanced over at Alex, and, catching her eye, he smiled. "Word's gotten 'round you had a new friend," he told Bobby light-heartedly. "I'll admit, I was expecting someone . . . older."

Bobby grunted in acknowledgement of his statement. "Yup. That's Alex."

"Already introduced myself."

Bobby turned back to Charlie. "How'd the Shishigra go?" he asked, leaning against the desk next to Alex and crossing his arms.

"Great, actually. Brass knife worked like a charm, everything went without a hitch. Thanks a lot." Charlie glanced around at the empty whiskey bottles on the desk. "Everything okay here?"

"Everything's fine," Bobby said, a sharp edge on his voice. "Hope you don't mind, but I was in the middle of something. Make yourselves at home; I'll be right back." With that, he ran up the stairs.

Both of the Heywards watched Bobby go before Duncan looked over at Alex. "So, Alex. How'd you get involved in all this hunting?"

Alex shrugged, shifting on the desk and bringing her feet up to cross them under her. "Long story short? I, uh, sort of, fell into it. Was hit by a couple other hunters' car, they brought me here. Uh, Winchesters. Don't know if you've heard of them." When the brothers shook their heads she finished, "I didn't have anywhere else to go, so I just kind of stayed."

"You been hunting?" Charlie asked.

Alex hesitated. "I've been on one trip. Didn't do any actual hunting though."

"Good," Charlie nodded. "Hunting's no fun. And not something you should get involved with it you can help it," he added.

"I'm sure it's not. But, thankfully, I've never been grossed out by blood or guts or whatever."

"Hm." Charlie walked into the kitchen. "Anything to drink?"

"Yeah. There's beer in the fridge. Top shelf."

"Thanks." The fridge opened and closed. "I assume you don't drink." When Alex nodded he grunted. "Good. Don't start drinking until you need to, okay?"

Alex smiled, blushing slightly at his concern. "Don't worry," she promised. "I won't." She hurried into the fridge and pulled out a can of Mountain Dew. "So. What's your guys' story?"

She returned to the study in time to see Charlie and Duncan exchange looks. "There's not much to it," Charlie finally said. "Like you said earlier, we kind of fell into it."

"March 2001," Duncan began. "We were on spring break down in Missouri. Long story short, one of the kids with us got possessed by a ghost. Killed three of us until Singer here came in and sent that bitch back to beyond."

"Duncan became obsessed with the paranormal," Charlie added scornfully.

"We were attacked by a ghost," Duncan defended. "What was I suppose to do?"

"I only became a hunter to keep this idiot out of trouble." Charlie ducked to one side when Duncan chucked his empty beer can at his brother's head.

Alex grinned, settling back onto the desk. "He can't be that bad," she teased.

"Let's just say if you were tied up in a cave and Duncan showed up to rescue you, you'd hope he wasn't alone."

"That was one time! You were suppose to keep that damn Wendigo —"

"You two still fighting about Yellowstone?" Bobby walked back into the study, shaking his head in dismay. "Idjits. You'd both be dead if I hadn't been there."

Alex smirked at the look on both of their faces. "You hunt with them a lot?" she asked instead. "I . . . I don't know, got the impression you were mostly a Winchester kind of guy."

"There's a lot you don't know about me."

"Yeah, I'm starting to discover that." She turned back to the two Heywards. "He keeps a bookshelf in the upstairs bathroom." When they chuckled she added, "How long are you guys staying? We could call in a pizza for lunch."

Charlie looked at Bobby for his approval before nodding. "We caught wind of a case a few hours north though. Just thought we'd stop by and say hey, but we can stay for a little while."

"Course," Bobby agreed. "You boys are always welcome here." There was a bark from outside and the hunter's eyes rolled back into his skull in annoyance. "Damn dog." He disappeared around the corner, and Alex heard the back door open before there was a rushed click of nails against the wooden floor. Seconds later Bear came bounding into the room sliding to a stop in front of Duncan, tail swinging from side to side. He reared up and placed his front paws on the man's crossed legs, panting heavily in both exertion and excitement.

Alex grinned and clicked her tongue, turning the dog's attention to her for only the briefest of seconds. "That's Bear. He's my dog." When Bobby came back she added in a stage whisper, "I don't think Bobby likes him very much."

"Damn thing's a menace," Bobby grumbled. "And clumsy as hell."

"He just reminds you of Rumsfeld," Alex admonished, bringing up the old Rottweiler Bobby had owned a few years back. If she remembered correctly, he had been killed by Meg or something.

Bear leaned against Charlie's leg, and the young hunter chuckled. "He's a sweet dog, Bobby. How can you hate a face like that?"

"Watch me," the gruff hunter retorted good-naturedly.

...

The two brothers stayed for a while, then said their goodbyes and left. Bobby left a few minutes later to run into town, leaving Alex by herself. She was sitting at the table reading when there was a knock at the door. She got up and warily approached the door.

"You gotta help me." A man was there, with dark skin and dark eyes. "I got — where's Bobby?"

"Uh, town." Alex's fingers tightened on the handle of the silver knife, and she held it behind her back. "Can I help you? Who are you?"

The man studied her up and down, then held out his hand. "Name's Rufus. Rufus Turner."

"Alex." Alex opened the door and shook it, some relief coming at the familiar name. "I've heard of you. Bobby's friend, right? Hunter."

"Yeah, sure. 'Friend.' Now, you busy? This is kind of important."

"Why?"

"Cause I got someone in my trunk and I need you guys to figure out what she is."

Alex blinked. "What?" She tried to peer past the hunter to see what she could see, but his broad body blocked her view.

"Oh, don't worry. She's as dead as can be," the hunter quickly promised. "Silver knife worked just fine. But I don't know what she is. Mind if I bring her in?"

Alex stared blankly. "You want to bring the dead body into the house."

"Yeah, girl. You must be new here."

"Yeah. Wha - where would we put it?"

"Basement."

"Okay, uh, what the hell? As long as it's dead."

Rufus nodded and hurried out to his truck that was sitting beside a pile of old parts. Just then, Bobby pulled up in his rusty truck, the old piece of machinery rumbling to a halt and suddenly dying. "Thank God," Alex muttered as the door was flung open.

"Rufus." Bobby got out of the car.

"Singer."

"What brings you here?"

"Got a bitch in my trunk, and I don't know what she is."

Bobby looked over at Alex, who shrugged, eyes wide with innocence. "Okay," he finally conceded. "How'd you kill her? I assume she'd dead."

"Oh she's dead alright. A silver knife did her in just fine." Rufus propped open the trunk to his car, revealing the body of a young, beautiful woman. He prodded her, but she didn't stir. "Figured you'd want to know what she is as much as I do."

"Hell yeah. Bring her in."

Alex watched as Rufus heaved the body out of the trunk and slung it over his shoulder. Alex hurried over to the house, holding the door open for the hunter and his cargo.

"You mind explaining what's going on?"

Alex looked over at Bobby, shocked. "I haven't the slightest," she admitted. "This guy Rufus just showed up banging on the door saying he's got a body in the trunk."

"Didn't I tell you not to answer the door unless I"m here?"

"Really?" Alex rolled her eyes. "Bobby, it's not like I'd be any safer. The doors don't even lock."

The old hunter just shook his head. "Come on. Let's go see what this thing is."

...

A few hours later, Alex found herself in one of Bobby's old, worn shirts, which was now splattered with blood. "The hell is this?" she muttered, prodding into the now-open chest cavity of the monster, her nose and mouth cover with the back of her hand.

Bobby barely spared the organ a glance, but was able to identify it immediately. "Looks like the heart."

"Yeah, but what's it doing down by the liver?"

"Obviously she had different physiology." Bobby removed a large, smooth organ which Alex couldn't place off of the top of her head. "Means she was born a monster, and wasn't bitten. Hearts don't normally change places."

"Oh." Alex raised her eyebrows, shrugging. Okay then. It made sense. "So, born a monster, killed with a silver knife. Okie-dokie." She wiped her hands on her shirt. "When I woke up this morning, I didn't think I'd be doing this," she admitted with a small laugh. She tossed the scalpel onto the other table and pulled off her gloves.

Bobby let out a chuckle. "Don't tell me you never did this back home."

Alex huffed. "Never. I, uh, yeah." She ended in awkward silence, not keen on bringing up anything about her past.

Bobby definitely noticed. "That bad?"

"Wasn't good." Alex turned her attention back to the open corpse for one last look. "Is this the stomach?" she guessed, pointing to where the heart should have been.

"Not sure what that is." Bobby wiped the blood off his hands. "You ready to put her back together and bury her? I've got a hole dug in the back woods that should work."

"Uh, sure. Why don't you take care of that." Alex looked down at her phone to check the time. "I, uh, I'm suppose to be with Craig today." Seeing the hunter's face she added, "I'm not just saying that cause I'm lazy. I actually work today."

Bobby rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

With a similar roll of her own eyes, Alex left.

...

Idk what I'm gonna do for the next chapter, but I'll probably start adding some actual plot haha. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot in each chapter so far. Stay tuned.