⌜ chapter seventeen ⌟

"Did you miss me?" Isla smiles as she looks up at Sam, who answered the door when she knocked.

"Yeah, actually. I need someone to make him get his mind out of the gutter." The younger boy tells her as she walks into the room.

"Yeah, good luck with that... Why does it look like the '70s threw up in here?" She asks, not liking the disco theme that's going on.

"No idea." He shakes his head as she walks over and sets her stuff on the foot of the bed that his brother isn't currently laying on.

"So, haunted painting?" The blonde asks as she opens Minx's carrier, and the little black kitten rockets out, jumping from Sam's bed to Dean's.

"Hey, girl." The oldest chuckles as Minx runs up his body until she's standing on his chest.

"Yeah, uh... We tried to burn it, but that didn't do any good." Sam tells her, answering her question about the case that they're working. "There seem to be differences with how it looked when it was originally painted and how it looks now. So, we have to get another look at it."

"Which is a good thing, because Sam can get some more time to crush on his girlfriend." Dean says as Isla walks over and lays beside him on the bed, reaching up to get Minx's attention.

"What did I miss?" The blonde questions as she pets the kitten.

"Nothing." Sam says. "Dude... Enough already."

"What?" His brother questions as he looks at him, crossing his arms over his chest.

"What? Ever since we got here, you've been trying to pimp me out to Sarah. Just back off, alright?"

"Well, you like her, don't you?" Dean asks, but Sam doesn't answer. "Alright. You like her, she likes you, you're both consenting adults."

"Ow." Isla mutters as she plays with Minx, who's laying on his chest; the kitten bit her finger. The older boy looks over at Isla, him being very aware of her hand that she has resting on his bicep.

"What's the point, Dean?" Sam questions. "We'll just leave. We always leave."

"Well, I'm not talking about marriage, Sam." His brother tells him.

"You know, I don't get it. What do you care if I hook up?" 

"Because then maybe you wouldn't be so cranky all the time." He says, his gaze drifting back to the woman beside him.

"Yeah, well, what's your excuse?" Sam questions. "'Cause you're constantly being a dick lately, and you were just with those women from the bar the other night."

Isla's hand stills as she stops playing with Minx, and Dean sees her jaw tighten as she pulls her hand away from him. The blonde clears her throat as she sits up and moves away from him. "On that lovely note — I'm gonna get in the shower since I haven't had one in almost two days, and I feel gross. You guys enjoy your conversation, and be careful if you pick up Minx. Her stomach might still be sensitive." She says as she grabs her duffle and walks into the bathroom.

The next morning, Isla's laying on the foot of Sam's bed with her knees bent so that her feet are near her butt. Her hands are pushing on her lower stomach, and she looks annoyed. "Do I look like I've gained weight?" She asks, and the boys both just look at her from their own spots in the room. "It wasn't a trick question, I just feel bloated."

"High sodium intake can cause bloating." Sam tells her. "Stop eating a bunch of fries at dinner."

She snaps before pointing at him, having heard that same thing in the past. It's also been a few weeks since they were in Texas, so it could be bloating before her period. She hasn't had a regular cycle from month to month in years, so she never really knows when she's starting. Plus, stressing over being near her family was bound to have some negative effects on her body.

There's a knock on the door, and Isla sits up as Sam walks over to answer it. "Hey." He greets as a dark-haired woman walks into the room. "Are you alright?"

"No, actually." She turns to face him after moving about halfway toward the beds. "I just lied to the cops and told them I went to Evelyn's alone and found her like that." She tells them, and Dean smirks.

"Thank you." The younger boy says, but she shakes her head.

"Don't thank me. I'm about to call them right back if you don't tell me what the hell is going on. Who's killing these people?" She questions, and Sam turns to look between Dean and Isla; Dean's sitting at a table a few feet away from her.

His older brother shrugs — your choice. The blonde makes a face — no idea, sorry.

"What." Sam corrects as he looks back at the woman that Isla assumes is Sarah.

"What?" The dark-haired woman questions.

"It's not who. It's what is killing these people." He tells her, but she only looks more confused than she did before. "Sarah, you saw that painting move."

"No." She scoffs as she starts nervously walking in circles. "No, I wa— I was seeing things. It's impossible."

Dean chuckles. "Yeah, well, welcome to our world." He tells her, and Isla smirks.

"Sarah, I know this sounds crazy...but we think that that painting is haunted." Sam says, regaining her attention.

Sarah's eyes fill with tears as she laughs to herself. "You're joking." She says, but all she sees is three serious faces looking back at her. "You're not joking." She sighs as her gaze drops to the floor. "God, the guys I go out with."

"Sarah, think about it." He continues as he takes a step forward. "Evelyn, the Telesca's — they both had the painting. And there have been others before that."

"Which I don't get." Isla mumbles. "First off, that painting is creepy as hell. Second, who wants to hang a painting of someone else's family in their home? Rich people are weird." She shakes her head, and Dean chuckles as he looks at her.

"Thank you, Isla." Sam looks annoyed as he turns, and she smiles sarcastically at him before he returns his attention to Sarah. "Wherever this painting goes — people die. And we're just trying to stop it. And that's the truth."

"Well, then, I guess you better show me." Sarah says as she starts for the door. "I'm coming with you."

"What? No." He shakes his head, and she turns back to face him again. "Sarah, no, you should just go home. This stuff can get dangerous, and...and I don't want you to get hurt."

"Look, you guys are probably crazy, but if you're right about this, when me and my dad sold that painting, we might have got these people killed." She argues. "Look, I'm not saying I'm not scared, 'cause I am scared as hell, but I'm not gonna run and hide either." She tells him before walking to the door and opening it. "So, are we going or what?"

"Can we keep her?" Isla asks after Sarah walks out of the room.

"Sam." Dean gets his younger brother's attention. "Marry that girl."

—

After looking at the painting for any more key differences that'll give them clues, looking through three different graveyards to find the Merchant Family Mausoleum, and then finally finding where Daddy Dearest was buried separate from his family — the four of them are now in a fourth graveyard digging up the remains of Isaiah Merchant so that they can salt and burn them.

The two boys are in the grave while Isla and Sarah are holding the flashlights for them. The blonde's knelt down beside the grave while she talks to them, and Dean looks up with narrowed eyes when she moves the light beam away from where he's digging.

"I'm gonna pull you in here."

"Watch yourself, Winchester. I wake up before you every morning." Isla says, and he shrugs.

"You don't scare me, doll face." He tells her as his brother climbs out of the grave.

"You guys seem to be uncomfortably comfortable with this." Sarah says as the youngest of the hunters stands beside her.

"Well... This isn't exactly the first grave we dug." He tells her, watching Dean and Isla continue their bickering. "Still think I'm a catch?"

"N— Dean!" The blonde yells when he reaches up and grabs her wrist, pulling her forward so that she falls into the grave.

Her feet hit wood and they hear the coffin break, causing Dean to wrap his arm around her waist and pull her into him just in case the lid snapped all the way through. Even in the dim light around them, he can see the greens mixed with the browns in her eyes as she glares up at him.

"Hey, Sasquatch, how do you feel about being an only child?"

"You'd miss him if you killed him." Sam says, and she shakes her head in protest as Dean smiles down at her.

Isla pushes on his chest, and he grunts when his back hits the side of the grave. She then turns and holds her hands up to Sam, who takes them so that he can pull her out of the freshly-dug grave as she uses her feet to push herself up. She then goes to get the salt as Dean busts through the lid of the coffin so that they can burn the bones.

Sarah watches the hunters salt the remains before pouring the lighter fluid, and then Dean strikes the match. "You've been a real pain in the ass, Isaiah. Good riddance." He drops it in, and the flames roar up.

After going back to the house that the painting's in, they discovered that the father wasn't the one killing people — it was the little girl that the Merchant family adopted, and the dad was only trying to warn people. She locked Sam and Sarah inside the house, and Dean and Isla went back to the mausoleum to burn the doll that the little girl used to own because it was made with her hair, making it remains that they could destroy in order to get rid of the spirit.

"This was archived in the county records." Dean says as he and Isla walk over to Sam and Sarah inside the Blake's auction house. "The Merchant's adopted daughter, Melanie — know why she was up for adoption?"

"She was a crazy little bitch." Isla mutters.

"'Cause her real family was murdered in their beds."

"Biological." She corrects, and he looks down at her.

"What?"

"DNA doesn't make a family real." She says as she looks up at him. "Actually, biology has very little to do with it."

"I feel like I should apologize, er..." He says, and she shakes her head.

"No, just...saying." The blonde glances around at the three of them awkwardly.

"Wait." Sarah regains their attention. "You're saying that the little girl killed her families?"

"Yeah." Dean nods. "Who would suspect her? A sweet little girl. First, her...biological family, and then her adoptive."

"Sorry I said anything." Isla mutters as she walks away from them.

"What did I do now?" He questions, and his brother shrugs.

The blonde's at her truck with Minx, and then the kitten suddenly jumps from her hands and runs away from her. She starts to panic, until she turns and sees the little black bundle of fur running to Dean. He chuckles when Minx jumps and hooks her claws into his pant leg, then she starts climbing up his jeans until she makes it to his utility jacket, and he grabs her.

"You know, I used to think it was cute. Now, she does it, and I just think traitor." Isla tells him, and he laughs as he walks over to her.

"I didn't mean to offend you inside or anything." He says as he pets Minx, and the blonde shakes her head.

"You didn't. Uh..." She takes a deep breath as she looks up at him. "My...mom was adopted, and her parents were great. So... While I was growing up, she and my dad did a lot of fostering." She tells him, clearly having a hard time talking about any of it. "They never actually adopted any of the kids — they, uh... They took in a lot of the older ones who most people didn't want, um... The older kids — teenagers, especially — they have a hard time getting placed into homes. So, my parents took them in until they aged out of the system. Some of them stuck around for awhile even after they turned eighteen, and... They still call my parents their parents, so..."

"You really do have a hard time talking about your family." He says, and she nods.

"Yeah, but, uh... You've asked, and... I probably should tell someone something every now and then." She swallows the lump in her throat as she looks down.

"You don't have to do anything that you're not comfortable with." He tells her, and she laughs nervously.

"Then I may as well just pretend that they don't exist, and that's not..." The blonde clears her throat as she shakes her head. "I don't think that's healthy."

"Are you okay?" He asks, and she offers him a small smile as she meets his gaze again.

"They weren't bad people. They never beat me or anything, you know? It wasn't like that, it just..." She shrugs. "I miss them sometimes, but I know that I'm better off...as I am now."

"There's nothing wrong with that." He tells her, and her smile becomes less forced.

"Thanks." She nods, and then her hazel eyes widen when she sees something behind him. "Oh, well... Mhm." She chuckles.

"What?" Dean turns then and sees Sam kissing Sarah in the doorway. He smiles as he looks at his younger brother. "That's my boy." He says before turning back to Isla.

"I think someone wants to stay with you for the drive this time." The blonde says as she looks at the kitten, who seems to be falling asleep in his hand. He chuckles as he looks down at the little black cat as well.