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That Hollow Feeling (Cinderella1181 and Mim)

He tasted her against for the first time. She had been the first girl she had ever done this with, and part of him ached for her to be the last. He could feel her finger nails biting into his scalp. He moaned, giving her a swirl with his tongue. He pulled away from her and looked up her body. Her eyes meeting his. "This barely scratches the surface of what I am going to do to you." He went back to his mission, sliding one of his long strong fingers into her, mimicking his the rhythm of his tongue. He could feel her wetness, beginning to drip down his fingers.

He pulled himself off."Are you ready? Tell me you are ready cause I am dying."
 
Jude gasped and moaned, looking down into those green eyes she'd fallen in love with so long ago. He'd gotten better at this. He promised that this was only the beginning and she bit her lip, her walls squeezing his fingers at the thought. She clenched the bedcovers in her fists, letting her head loll back in ecstasy.

"Oh God please," she breathed when he asked if she were ready. "Please Dean..."
 
Dean kissed at the junction of her hip and and then slowly up her body. "Do you have a condom?" He moaned. "Or do you care?" He kissed up her chest to the edge of her breast. He mouthed at the bottom of it. He kissed up to the top of it and sucked a nipple into his mouth. "I want you so badly." He murmured into his breast.

He looked at her and sighed. "I keep thinking I am going to wake up in some dingy hotel and this is going to be a dream, that your not going to be here, that I am not so lucky to have you back in my life." He said quietly. He was never one to get very sentimental but she did it to him. This was really his dream. A life with her.
 
"Doesn't matter," Jude replied breathlessly, clenching her fist in his hair as he kissed around her breast and sucked at her nipple. She disliked condoms but kept careful track of her cycle, so getting pregnant was unlikely, but even if she did she didn't care. Having a family with Dean was what she'd wanted even all those years ago. She looked down at him and talked about how much he wanted her, about how he felt like this was some dream.

"You talk too much," she teased with a smile, pulling him up to kiss him hard. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she flipped him and straddled his hips before kissing up his stomach to his chest, then tracing teasing kisses along his shoulder and throat before nibbling his lip gently. "I feel like I'm dreaming too," Jude confessed as she reached between them, wrapping her fingers around his throbbing shaft and pumping him gently. "Like if I blink it'll all be gone."
 
He groaned. "Jude...don't if you want me in you. I am not going to last long as it is." He dipped his hips a little and lined himself up. he felt her guide him and in one motion, he was in her, slowly sinking until he bottomed out. He moaned and threw his head back a little. "Oh my god, it is better then I remember." He stayed there for what seemed like a year, taking steadying breaths. He finally rolled his hips and moaned. dropping his head forward. "Oh god. Yes." He tried to go slow, moving his hips just a little but it was almost to much. He wanted to just take off, but not this time. This time he had to last longer then the first couple of times he had settled into her before.

"Oh my god.. you feel amazing." He moaned. "Like.. heaven on earth..like home." He bent down and kissed her deeply, his tongue finding its way in to her mouth.
 
Jude gasped when he finally entered her and filled her. She struggled for breath as she rolled her hips gently while Dean seemed to be trying to get his bearings. She let her head loll back and moaned as she slowly rode him, savoring the way he felt inside her as he pushed his hips up to meet her. She supported herself with her hands on either side of his head, gasping as they moved together at an agonizingly slow pace. They both knew if they didn't it would be over too quickly for both of them, and while for the most part that would have been fine by Jude so long as she got off with him, she wanted this first time to last. She wanted to memorize every detail of it, to remember every expression and every movement of every muscle.

"I've missed you so goddamn much, Dean," Jude breathed before kissing him back hard. When she came up for air she moved her lips over his chin, along his jaw, down to his throat to leave little bruises and love bites as she sucked and nipped at his skin. "I never stopped loving you."

She couldn't help it. Jude picked up the pace, just a little, needing to feel him deep inside her. There was a definite difference, to her, between fucking and making love, and she wanted both at once. It was impossible, she knew, but as she came down on his throbbing cock a little harder than before she couldn't help but want more.
 
Dean planted his hand in the middle of her chest, to give her support, and to feel her heart beat. He had to be sure she was real, had to feel the pounding of her heart to make sure sure that they were truly together. She was so tiny, delicate even that his massive hand looked odd and out of place on her, but, it also looked so right. He rolled his hips up to meet her, letting her take the lead the snake in his stomach already starting to coil. He wanted her to come undone on him first, he wanted to hear her scream her pleasure as he found his. Dean ran his other hand down her body, over her hip, beginning to run his thumb in circles over her clit. "I never stopped loving you either." He said giving her a little bit of pressure, varied with each stroke. He could feel the little bundle of nerves swell

He watched her in awe. This beautiful creature was his again. He pushed all of thoughts about her being supernatural out of his head, that didn't matter, this was his gift, his reward. He had gotten her back, had gotten to make love to her again. This was all he had ever wanted. When he thought of his apple pie life, it had always been with this sprite next to him. Always Dean and Jude, and now he had that chance again. He wasn't leaving her, here, anywhere. "I think I have always loved you, and always will."
 
Dean put his hand in the middle of her chest and Jude felt something warm inside her, radiating out from where he'd planted his hand. He'd always done that before, supporting her as she rode him, though that hand was somewhat bigger now. She slid one hand over his, sliding her fingers between his as she came down on him again. Maybe she wasn't dreaming; maybe she was dead and this was her heaven, being with Dean they way they had been, but better. She gasped and moaned as Dean rubbed her clit, biting her lip and pressing the nails of her free hand into his shoulder.

"Always," she agreed.

Of course Jude knew that there was bedroom talk and there was real life. Maybe they'd become people who no longer meshed. Maybe she would still love everything about him, but this was just talk for him. They had been in love, and had never stopped loving, but they were more complicated than that. But Jude would leave the complications for morning. Now was the time to take each other at their word.

"Dean," she moaned, already feeling herself climbing to that peak of ecstasy. "Oh God Dean...I'm close..."
 
Dean groaned. Hearing her words, he had to fight to keep control. He wanted her to go first. He wanted to watch her pleasure before he took his own. He adjust his hips in just a slightly different cant, he felt the tiny rough area in the inner part of her wall. Jackpot, Dean Winchester, Jackpot He heard her gasp, and between that and his finger, he began to watch her come undone. "Finish baby...finish." Dean knew this was exactly what he needed.
 
Jude slid his hand from her chest, up her throat, to her mouth where her lips wrapped around one of his fingers, sucking it gently, wishing to God there were some way to appease that oral desire with him still deep inside her. Well, there was a way...but that would be for later, months from now when she was alright with sharing him, and if he were alright with it. But it had been so long that she didn't see that happening for a long time. Dean shifted his hips and she gasped involuntarily, crying out at the sensation. In their awkward teenage fumblings he'd never quite managed to find it, but he certainly seemed to have learned a lot over the years.

"Dean!" Her nails pressed harder into his flesh, leaving angry red streaks on his skin as she dragged her hand down to his chest to brace herself. "Cum...cum with me," she panted, driving his cock harder into her as he rubbed her clit. "Oh God Dean please--!" But Jude's begging was cut off by a wail of ecstasy as her walls convulsed around him, her body going rigid as she came. It was the most incredible orgasm she'd had in years, and certainly it was no accident that it was with Dean Winchester.
 
Dean thrust one more time and felt his own shuddered release start. He pulled her down on to him as hard as he could and felt aftershock after aftershock. He pulled her down hard into a kiss, his tongue licking in to her mouth, kissing her passionately. This was what he had always wanted. Her. He pulled her down on to him and slowly rubbed her back as the blinding white light that had come into his vision began to allow him to see colors again. He stroked her back from shoulder blade to bottom and then back again, like she was some sort of lithe cat.

"That was awesome." He said, finally able to form words. "Like.. better then Pie awesome. And frankly not much is better then pie, but that was."He grinned and loved his head to see her, looking in her eyes. "So, on a scale of one to 10, how was that compared to the last time?"
 
Jude's throat hurt. It clenched from unshed tears and she didn't know why they were there in the first place. She laid on Dean's chest, panting and shaking and sweating and trying not to cry. Her lips were pulled into a permanent grin so wide it made her face hurt. She laughed shortly when he compared sex to pie, still trying to get a hold of her emotions.

"Well...I'm glad I'm better than pie..." she said shakily, clinging to him as adrenaline pumped through her veins, sending her through a whirlwind of emotions all at once.

"So, on a scale of one to 10, how was that compared to the last time?" he asked. Dean always did have a way--or rather, not--with words. But at least she knew he wasn't just clumsily attempting to smooth-talk her.

"Well I'm not in the habit of grading my sexual partners," she teased, finally able to look up at him but still shaking. "It was pretty good, but it's been a while...maybe we'll just have to go again, just to make sure I can give you an accurate assessment."
 
"I can give you a good sampling, perhaps 5 in total, you can take an average." He smiled. He looked at her, her eyes filled with tears. "Hey, what's wrong, what's with all the tears?" He kissed her. "I am right here, with you, right now."

He shifted them a little and he groaned as he felt himself slid from her, he pulled her in close to his side and kissed her. "I have to be honest I never thought I was going to see you again Jude. Ever." He ran his hand up her back. "I never thought I was ever going to be here with you again, but I am going to enjoy every single second of it."
 
Dean shifted and adjusted, sliding from her before pulling her close and kissing her. Jude laughed and sniffed, privately horrified that she was making such a mess of this. Shivering, warmed only by his body heat--he'd always been like a walking furnace to her--she tugged the comforter and the covers down and pulled them over them as she leaned against his chest.

"That's just it," she admitted with a sniffle. "You're here and we're together and everything's perfect and just how I imagined it." Jude took a deep, shuddering breath but let it out explosively. "It's a lot of adrenaline...years of emotions..." She laughed and shook her head. "I'm sorry, it's not a bad thing, I promise." She looked up at him and gave him a watery smile. "It's just sorta...emotional overload. It won't stop me from averaging the best of five." Her grin was a little more solid, a little more mischievous.

As promised, they went again...and again...and again...By round four Jude protested weakly that she'd love to but she was worn out, and that's when Dean slipped beneath the covers. By the time they had finally exhausted themselves it was two in the morning, but they had time and energy enough for a shower and another slice of pie--with Jude admonishing Dean playfully for getting crumbs in her bed--before passing out in each other's arms. It was nothing short of perfect.

The following day was grey and rainy when she awoke, something Jude would never forget for the rest of her days. It was a chilly, drizzly day in April. She slipped out of bed while Dean was still sleeping and pulled on his shirt, nimbly buttoning it up. He'd always loved it when she wore nothing but one of his shirts and some panties. Pulling on said panties, she stepped into the kitchen to start breakfast. She was working on the second batch of waffles when her phone buzzed.

"Happy Saturday Chief!"

"Mornin' Judy." He was one of the few people who she would allow to get away with calling her Judy, a name she hadn't gone by since second grade. "Look ah...we don't need you in today. We got another one, so we're gonna go ahead and close the station."

Jude usually awaited Chief Parker's calls on Saturday mornings, letting her know whether she ought to come in or not. Usually she got called in about half the time, often to catch up on filing or paperwork or some other clerical nonsense, but whenever they got another Hollow victim they closed the station. With a serial killer around they'd be down to emergency dispatch only on weekends in order to focus manpower on the case. There was something in Parker's voice this morning, though, which made her frown.

"Alright. Know who it is?"

He hesitated. "Not yet," he lied. He always lied to her when it was somebody he knew she knew.

"I'd rather find out from you than from the morning paper," she retorted with a scowl.

"As soon as I can release the information you'll be the first to know, Jude. I promise." Parker sounded tired. Jude sighed.

"Alright Chief. Well, good luck." After he signed off she set her phone down, rescuing the waffles from being almost-not-perfect just as Dean shuffled in. "Morning, sleepy head," she purred with a smile and a kiss.

Before Dean could reply his phone rang, displaying Sam's number. "Hey, we've got two more bodies." Sam sounded like he was driving. "I think I've got a lead but I want to examine these ones first. I'm on my way now if you can meet me. 4738 Evergreen Terrace." Dean would recognize this as the address where he had resided for ten months in 1995 and 96. It was Jude's parents' address.
 
"Don't come get me. I am gonna be needed here." Dean said, every bit of seriousness in his voice. He knew this was not going to go well. "He's a pastor and his wife, if there are two. Jude is their daughter." He scowled. "Finish up there, I am going to need you man. Really need you."

"Dean...I'm...sorry." It was really all Sam could say. He was still mostly kept in the dark about what had happened, but he knew enough to know that if Dean said he needed to stay somewhere, then he needed to stay. "I'll call you n the way to Jude's house." He said, hanging up with his brother.

Dean looked at the phone. He sighed, sliding his feet from the bed and finding his boxer briefs that had been so carelessly discarded the night before. He headed down the stairs, looking for her, and sensing her way before. He saw her. It took his breath away. The most beautiful think on the plant to him and he hand to tell her. Maybe he could just wait until Sam got there to tell her.

"Jude. Baby, we need to talk." He said quietly.
 
Jude more felt than heard Dean--for such a tall guy he was very light on his feet--and turned with a plate of fresh, warm waffles. One was already at the scrubbed little wooden table, still steaming, along with a bottle of syrup. Her eyes glanced over him appreciatively, lingering in certain places. Truly she was the luckiest woman in the world to be able to wake up to this man and have him standing in her kitchen.

"Morning sleepyhead," she purred with a smile and a kiss before setting the plate down and gesturing for him to sit with her. "I'm gonna make more, I just thought you'd like to at least get started. How did you sleep? Once you slept." Jude's nose crinkled with her mischievous smile as she cut into the waffles. If he was really going to stay this time, she could imagine most mornings going like this...maybe eventually with a couple of kids pulling their own chairs up to the table...

"Jude. Baby, we need to talk," Dean said quietly.

Jude found her appetite suddenly gone along with her smile. She didn't like the tone in his voice. Calmly she set down her knife and fork and looked up at him, watching his expression carefully. It was full of regret. "You're leaving." It wasn't a question. She sighed and rubbed her face. "God I was so stupid to think you meant any of it! Of course you're leaving. You don't stay in one place...never have..." Jude wanted to cry but was determined not to, not until Dean had left. Instead she harnessed her anger and frustration--at him and at herself--and fueled herself on that. "You can still have some breakfast before you go, but you didn't have to say those things you know..."
 
Dean looked at her a second. "Leave, go.. oh no! No baby, no. I am not leaving yet. I mean eventually I will have to get back to work, but I plan on taking you with me. No, it's not that at all." He went over and knelt in front of her on the chair, her took her face into his hands. "I do love you, so much. Like I can't tell you how much I love you. But this is something entirely different." He leaned in and kissed her. " But I have to tell you something and I want you to hear it from me. There were another set of killings last night Jude. Same as before. Sam is on his way there right now. I am going to stay here with you."

Dean took a deep breath in and braced himself for the onslaught of what was about to happen. "Jude, Sam is headed to your parents house right now, to investigate the murder scene." That was the easiest way to say it with out coming right out and telling her. There was still that hope that it was nothing, that it was two other people, but deep down he knew differently. He could see her making the connections, he could see the moment she realized exactly what he was saying. She looked at him, eyes wide and wild. "I am so sorry baby.. I am so so sorry."
 
"Yet?" Jude's eyebrows shot up, trying not to be hysterical but not appreciating that he wasn't being straightforward. Then he said he planned on taking her with him! She had a life here, her parents were here, everything she knew was here in Keene. She frowned when he knelt in front of the chair and kissed her, telling her how much he loved her. "I love you too..." she said slowly. He told her that there were more killings and that his brother was on his way, that they were going to stay here. "Yeah I know. Chief Parker called me this morning to let me know I didn't have to come in for work. But what...?"

"Jude, Sam is headed to your parents house right now, to investigate the murder scene." Dean watched her carefully, still holding her. She jerked her face out of his hands.

"No...that's not right..." Jude jerked her face out of his hands and stood, walking past him back into the bedroom. "They're always out in the woods, they're not home invasions." Stage one of grief: denial said a small traitor voice in her head, but she shoved it to the side as she pulled off Dean's shirt and pulled on a sundress. It was far too light for the chilly April morning and on a second thought she pulled on some leggings under it and a long cardigan. She ignored Dean's apologies as she dragged a brush through her hair. "We'll go over right now and prove that it's not them. We'll prove it."

Dean had left the Impala at the restaurant last night; if he wanted a ride back into town he would have to go with her. Jude babbled--mostly to herself--the entire time, about how the Rev had prepared a sermon for tomorrow about lost sheep and it would have been fun to surprise him with another lost sheep. About how she knew Dean had never been one for church--and recently neither had she, but it would've broken the Rev's heart to hear it--but they'd always appreciated the effort when he'd come. About how there must have been a mistake. About how she was prepared for it to have been a friend since the Chief was being evasive, but he would have told her if it were her parents. She talked so she didn't have to think, and she continued talking as she pulled onto Evergreen Terrace. 4738 was a cute two-story cape with grey clapboard and ivy climbing up the chimney. Those bushes out front were where Dean had sprained his wrist when he fell sneaking out his second night there. The porch swing was where the Rev had had a heart-to-heart with him about his home life, about how he could leave if he wanted, but that they hoped he would stay and they could give him a home. That big oak tree was where he and Jude had first kissed...and the maple was how he'd made his escape to the Impala without alerting the family again. Jude had rolled over onto his chest when he'd first started moving, but gradually he'd replaced himself with a pillow before going out the window; there was a creaky floorboard in front of the door that would have woken her. There was an old, restored pickup in the driveway that the Rev and Mrs. McGann had liked to take them in on Sunday drives after church when the weather was nice, where they would go upstate and have lunch at a quaint little roadside farmstand they knew. Jude had liked to sit on his lap and he'd never told her that his legs had gone numb after two hours in the car, and they'd lost their virginity in a field the bed of that truck.

Police tape was wrapped around the oak and the maple tree to cordon off the yard, and with the drizzle it stuck to the tail lights of the old pickup on its way to the fence where the end was tied off. One cruiser was in the driveway; another, an ambulance, and the Impala were on the curb. Sam had walked to the restaurant so he didn't have to catch a ride with the cops and answer awkward questions or make smalltalk. Neighbors crowded the street, parting as Jude inched through and giving her looks of sympathy. She pulled up behind the Impala, blocking the driveway with her own car. Her face was pale and she felt sick. Parking and pulling the keys out of the ignition she slipped under the tape before Dean could catch her.

"Deputy Andy, what's going on?" Jude tripped over the flowerbeds towards a surprised-looking Deputy.

"You're not supposed to be here, Jude!" He took her by the arms and gently started trying to lead her away, but she struggled.

"Andy what's going on? Why're you here?" Her voice was becoming shriller, more hysterical as he pulled her back towards her car and she struggled to get towards the front door. Deputy Andy looked to Dean for help in handing her off and getting her back to her car. "Joe!" she shouted at an alarmed cop coming out of the open door. "What happened? Will somebody please tell me what's going on?" Jude knew what was going on, she just wasn't willing to believe it. Not yet. Even as she was handed off to Dean she struggled and Chief Parker's face darkened with surprise and anger when he poked his head out to see the ruckus.

"Get her the hell out of here!" he called to Dean.

"Chief! Where are my parents? Where's the Rev?"

"Go home, Jude. I'll be around this afternoon, alright hon?"

Tears pricked Jude's eyes. "Please...!" But then four people came out, two per gurney, with bloodied sheets over the bodies. The word "CORONER" was emblazoned on the back of their jackets. With a shriek of agony Jude stopped struggling all at once and collapsed, to the pavement if Dean didn't catch her, into unintelligible screams and sobs.
 
Dean pulled her up into his arms and held her close and tight to his body. "Shhh...shh baby... I got you. It's okay I got you." He took her back towards the car, her opened the door and sat her down, then squatted in front of her. He pushed the hair from her face. "I am going to get this thing. I swear baby, I am going to get it. And then you can come home to Kansas with me, and I'll teach you to hunt and it'll be you, Sam, Cas and I, her have a huge bunker and technically a door to Oz." He kissed her. "And we'll start a family, cause that is all I have ever wanted, and I will protect you."

Deans heart was tearing in two. He didn't handle this well. He knew how to deal with his own grief, and Sams grief, but he wasn't sure how to deal with this level of profound grief. "Lets go home, Sam will be coming to the house soon, we need to make a plan of attack and I want to keep you close to me, to keep you safe. And we gotta research." He felt himself shift gears. His pain and sadness of losing someone he cared about was a lot. but he needed to make sure that he was there for her. The girl he did love.

Sam saw them and came over. He squatted next to Dean. "Jude, I am so sorry. But these attacks are consistant with the rest. We need to start doing research to find out how to kill it."

Dean looked at her and smiled. "See, a plan of attack baby. You wanna go home?"
 
Jude felt her feet drag along the pavement as Dean hauled her up and took her over to the car, sitting her on the backseat as he murmured comfortingly. As he squatted in front of her and promised her things, she moved on from denial. Her parents were dead. A Hollow had murdered them in her own home. Hollows weren't stupid animals, and the wights who usually accompanied them were devious and clever. This wight and this Hollow knew who she was; they were taunting her, and her parents had paid the price for it. Stage two of grief: anger. Her hands clenched into fists in her lap as the white-hot anger rushed over her and she was left not knowing where to direct it.

"Kansas?" Jude finally managed. "Dean my parents were just murdered and you're talking about me moving in with you and living happily ever after in Kansas? And I'm not your baby." He talked about doing research, about keeping her safe and making a plan, as though he knew more about this threat than she did, as though she hadn't spent her entire life living in fear and researching how to survive one of these things if it ever showed up at her doorstep.

"Home," she sneered, standing and heading around to the driver's side. Sam backed up and exchanged confused looks with Dean. "You go home. You do research. You make a plan. I've lived my entire life in fear of these things, Dean, and if you think I haven't already done all of that then you don't know me like you think you do. You make a plan. I'm going to kill this son of a bitch."

Sam stood, dazed, as Jude slammed the door and started the engine, waiting for them to either get in or get out of the way. "Well...your girlfriend seems...interesting."
 
Dean shrugged a little. "Remember how we were when Dad died. Same deal." He sighed. "Follow us." He said and got in the passenger side of the car. He sat there quietly, not paying much attention to Jude at all. He knew she would come around when she wanted too. He was just going to be supportive. He had been there before. More the once, the stages of grief as someone died, the anger, the sadness, the desperation to bring that person back, the willingness to do anything, make any deal to the get that loved one back. He had been there, it had been a regular part of his life, and now, he just sat, quietly.

He didn't say a word at all to her until they got back to her house. She shut the car off and he sat there a second. "Jude, look, I am sorry. I just...am trying to find the right thing to say. You tell us what you need us to do. Okay?" He said quietly. "But, just know, I have been right where you are too, I know this pain and sometimes, you gotta take this and channel it. Channel this hurt and this rage into something. Or it will consume you. And then, when the threat is gone, and everything is done, then you can have a week or two or three where you can just cry and scream at the sky. But right now, we need to focus. Something is hunting you, and there is no better set of hunters then Sam and I. Let us help you do this. Let me protect you in the best way I can, to guide you to kill this mother..." He reached out and touched her hand. "I do love you, you know that right?"
 
Jude's teeth grinding was audible on the way back to her house. She didn't play the radio, didn't talk, only stared out at the road, going over her plan in her mind as she had many times before. There were times growing up when she had felt something watching her, when she hadn't felt safe, and she had gone over the plan multiple times a day until it felt like the threat was gone. When she had moved out and into this house she had set everything up very carefully and even dreamed about what she needed to do in an event like this. She took several deep breaths as she shut off the engine, trying to remind herself that Dean was only trying to help. But then he talked about protecting her, guiding her, and her grip tightened on the steering wheel again.

"I know," she said with an air of forced patience. "I love you too, Dean. But what I need from you right now, what I really need you to do, is to stop trying to protect and guide me." Jude wasn't an angry person, and she hated the venom in her voice even as the words fell from her lips, but it felt as though someone else had taken over her words. She looked at him, still gripping the wheel tightly. "This is a threat I have lived with for literally my entire life; I know very damn well that something is hunting me, I know what it is, and I know what I have to do. You and Sam may be the experts on what goes bump in the night, but you're in my world now. I don't need guidance from a Common, and I don't need you to tell me to channel my emotions. I've had the same plan since I was nine years old if this were to ever happen. The second thing I need is for you and Sam to get any sort of large weapons and bring them inside." There was a fire and a determination in her eyes as she got out of the car and headed inside.

Sam pulled up behind Jude, who was already at the front door she'd forgotten to lock in her desperation to prove that the new bodies weren't who Dean had said they were. The younger Winchester frowned, joining his brother at the passenger's side of Jude's car. "So...hit the books?"

Once the Winchesters were inside with any weaponry they cared to bring with them, Jude knelt by the front door and placed her hand flat against the floor, closing her eyes and concentrating hard. There was a creaking sound around the doors and windows from outside and daylight behind the blinds dimmed slightly. Peering through, she nodded in a satisfied sort of way before turning to them.

"So Jude," Sam started, "I think what killed your parents was a--"

"A Hollowgast," she cut him off, handing a bag of flour each to them. "They're invisible and immortal, but not invincible. Spread this throughout the house and check on top of all the furniture so we can make sure there isn't one already inside."

While they did that Jude rummaged about in a hall closet, extracting two machetes, a heavy mallet used for driving railroad spikes, a baseball bat, and two weapons which at first glance looked alarmingly like assault weapons but which turned out to be paintball guns. She sat on the couch, waiting for the brothers to finish, before motioning them to sit.

"The only time you can see a Hollow is when it's feeding, which means it's already too late," she informed them bluntly. "There are a few very rare Peculiars who can see them, but one of them got with a 3D artist to draw up a 'monster concept for a video game.'" She used air quotes around the excuse that had been given before handing them the picture which had been widely circulated within the Peculiar community.

Sam frowned. "I'm sorry, Peculiar?"

"We're basically timehopping X-Men." It was the shortest explanation Jude could think of. "This Hollow knows who I am, and it's probably working with a wight. It's...they evolve, like Pokemon. I'll explain later. The point is wights look like normal humans except their eyes, but thanks to the wonders of modern technology and colored contacts they can now pass for normal. The good news is that a wight is much less dangerous than a Hollow; the bad news is that they're still dangerous, and they're much smarter. And they're probably watching my house." She took up one of the paintball guns and gestured for one of the brothers to take the other. "You can see a Hollow's shadow, but out there in the woods it's gonna be pretty hard, especially since it's cloudy. But I figure if we can hit it with paint or something, we can keep track of it. It's fast and vicious and brutal, but you can kill it just like you can kill anything else. Machete, gun, I heard one guy killed one with a pair of knitting needles once." She stood to lead the way to the back door. "Questions?"
 
Sam's jaw worked a little and he shook his head. "No, I just... wait.. I don't think we have anything in the bunker about...Peculiars, and we have a very extensive library. Are you old? How did you start, were you a creation of Eve?" Sam went into full Men of Letters research mode. Dean just simply sighed. He was determined to just do what she needed, because hell, every time he opened his mouth, he put his foot in it with her. He got up and followed her and Sam as they walked to the back of the house.

Dean continued to listen to him barge her with questions. "Sam, stop." He said. "Once all this is over, then you can interview her for a case file."

Sam frowned. "Sorry Jude, it's just interesting." He shrugged a little. "I am kind of a nerd."

Dean smiled a little. "He kinda is."
 
Jude raised an eyebrow and looked over her shoulder at Sam when he bombarded her with questions. "There've been Peculiars as long as there've been people. We think it's, like, a genetic mutation..." she said slowly. "There's some old ones out there, but I'm 35 and don't know what the hell you mean by Eve. Wait, do you mean the Biblical Eve?" But curiosity wore the edge off of her anger, and something deep inside her told her that if she let go of her anger she would break. If she broke now, she was as good as dead.

With a deep breath she unlocked the back door and wiggled it open a little. The vines she'd asked to grow up around the doors and windows of her home still held fast, but she reached out to touch one and it retreated back into the ground. Once the boys were out she put a hand to the ground and the thick vines sprung up again, twisting themselves around the doorframe and blocking anyone from entering. Carefully she led them around the edge of her garden, warning them not to trample her seedlings, and into the forest behind her house.

"Alright, fuckers!" she shouted into the trees. "Olly olly oxen-free! I know you're here!"

"Now Jude, there's no need to shout." When they spun around Deputy Andy was leaning against a tree, smiling. Gone was his slump-shouldered posture and his slow, southern-accented speech that gave the impression of a helpless dullard.

"Andy?" Jude staggered a step backward. She'd known Andy for years, and he'd never... "You're the wight?"

He slow clapped, smiling patronizingly. "I've been watching you for years, Judy. Making my list, checking it twice...and you're the last one, you know. You--oh for god's sake. Give me a second will you?" He stopped and reached delicately into his eyes, pulling out the contacts and tossing them into the dirt. His eyes were milky white, with pinprick pupils and no irises at all. "Oh that feels so much better. Those damnable things are just hell on the eyes, you know! Where was I? Oh yes! You should be honored. You're going to make a certain Hollowgast a very happy wight." He smiled, and it was difficult to tell but his eyes apparently landed on the boys. "Sam and Dean Winchester, as I live and breathe! Y'know, I'd heard our little Judy had a fling with a Winchester boy some years back but I thought to myself 'nah...couldn't possibly be the same Winchester!' And yet here you are! Y'know Jude, your boys here did some stellar work on the apocalypse a few years back."

"Where is it?" Jude demanded. She was actually glad he'd taken out the contacts; it would make it easier to witness the death of someone she'd been friends with for five years, even if she couldn't do it herself. The man was a monster.

"It? Oh you mean Norluth?" He chuckled and spread his arms. "Button, button, who's got the button?"

At that moment an invisible tongue wrapped around Sam's leg and yanked him off of his feet.
 
"Sam!" Dean called. He took a handful of flour and threw it in his direction. There was just the faintest outline of something. Sam's reflexes reacted and he swung out at the thing that had his leg. He managed to cut something, he felt the connection and the sudden sense of freedom, and he scrambled back to his feet. Keeping himself pointed in the direction of the thing he could barely see the outline of. He grabbed a paint gun and shot it in it's direction, hitting it square in the side. At least they could see it now, sort of.

Dean looked over at Andy, and then at Jude. He called out, "Obviously if you know who I am you know the reputation that I have. I will kill you, you mess with my family. Come and get a Winchester. Cause you obviously are dumb and suicidal." He turned and looked at Jude and smiled. "Can I kill that thing the same way? Just with whatever?"
 
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