Hey! Sorry for the long wait. I was just deciding which way I wanted to take the story. But fear not decision made and next chapter written. Also school is starting so sadly updates are never my forte during this time of year, but I have made it goal of mine to get better at it. So we'll see how that goes.
Also thank you for all of the feedback!!!
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December
WomanofMystery
Chapter Three
Maria sat in silence. Liz knew it was a mix of shock and complete and utter disbelief. Not that she could really blame Maria…Demons, possession and Hell were a complete different story from the usual that they were used of. And reborn, intergalactic, royalty wasn’t exactly normal…so there was definitely room for skepticism.
The longer Maria sat in silence the more concerned Liz became. After a moment Liz turned to look at Ruby, “Is she okay?”
Ruby looked up from the blade she was twirling in her hands. Taking a look at the silent blonde girl on the bed Ruby shrugged, “You just told her that you spend your sleeping hours watching over a guy that you don’t even know that gets tortured in Hell and that you take some of his injuries on to yourself, so that he suffers less. Plus, you let the cat out of the bag about things that go bump in the night being real…Did you really expect her to take it as well as you did?”
Liz half rolled her eyes and half glared at Ruby, “Of course not! She took the whole alien thing pretty badly, but complete silence? I think I would prefer if she started screaming at me.”
Ruby was about to say something when Maria all of the sudden yelled out, “Liz!! –How do you know this guy isn’t some demon trying to trick you or something?—Liz we’ve dealt with enough enemies to know that they are never straight forward and truthful about their intentions!”
Liz sighed and listened to Maria ramble off question after statement after question. Knowing that this is what Maria needed to do before the situation could progress any further.
Liz couldn’t help but smirk slightly when she noticed Ruby glare and roll her eyes at Maria’s rapid speaking.
“Oh yeah, her freak-out rambling is
so much better than her shocked silence," Ruby muttered as she pushed off of the wall that she had been leaning against.
Liz couldn’t help the smile that formed on her face. She knew all too well that dealing with the full experience of one Maria Alexandra Deluca took both easing into and getting used of…both of which Ruby did not have the luxury of.
She’d have to remember to thank Maria later.
Hey, Ruby may be helping but that didn’t mean she trusted the blonde female demon. Besides…she was still pissed at the bitch for not trying to help Dean sooner. Whether, her anger was justified or not she couldn’t bring herself to care.
She was about to settle in to listen to Maria rant some more, when her stomach mad a loud protest. It was only then that Liz remembered that what little she had eaten before had been purged from her stomach earlier that night.
Liz rolled her eyes when Maria shut up and looked at her in shock.
“Chica, when was the last time you’ve eaten?” Maria demanded.
Liz shrugged, “I don’t know,” answering Maria honestly was about the only option she had right about now, “But whatever I had eaten, I threw up earlier.”
Ruby seemed to perk up, “Well then I’m going to get some McDonald’s, who wants what?”
After placing their orders with Ruby, the female demon happily escaped the room, but not before handing Liz the blade she had been playing with earlier, “Until we get to go over how to keep demons out, this will kill any demon it cuts.”
Liz nodded and watched as Ruby’s eyes flashed black and she just opened the sealed door and walked out.
“Alright, now that the crazy bitch is gone, Liz we have to tell Max! –Chica, this could be one of our enemies trying to get to you!” Maria said as she reached for the motel phone.
Liz spun around and sent a blast at the phone, “We’re not telling Max, Maria! This had nothing to do with intergalactic wars or something like that! This is about someone being in Hell who doesn’t belong there!”
“How do you know its Hell, Liz?” Maria exclaimed.
Liz glared at Maria before walking over to her duffle bag and pulling out two five subject note books and two drawing pads. She threw them all on the bed next to Maria, “Here Maria. Every vision I’ve had in full detail and some visuals to show you exactly what Dean goes through every second of every day!”
With that Liz grabbed some clothes out of her duffle bag. Arguing with Ruby and telling all to Maria hadn’t allowed her a chance to dress after her shower. She stormed into the bathroom door and slammed the door shut.
There was no way in hell that she was involving any of the others. Michael would go all over protective big brother on her; Max would get into his ‘I’m King, you should have told me and what I say goes’ mood again; and Isabel would dream walk her. She hadn’t even wanted to show Maria her records of her visions, never mind having another of the group see what she saw all the time.
She would leave with Ruby if she had too, but there was no way she was involving anyone else. It’s bad enough that Ruby had went ahead and brought in Maria.
Sighing she dressed and washed her face in an attempt to relax the tension from her body.
Just as she opened the bathroom door to head back into the main part of the motel room, Maria pushed past her and ran to the toilet and emptied her stomach.
Liz sighed and walked over to her friend to pull her hair back and rub soothing circles on her back, “This is why I didn’t want anyone else involved, Ria. There was no way that you read through all of it in that short amount of time and you’re already heaving.”
Maria was breathing heavily, “You see all that in every vision?”
Liz sighed, “See it; feel it; hear it; smell it. I didn’t want anyone else to ever have to know what Hell is like. –But I can’t leave Dean there either. It’s not fair that he’s there.”
Maria coughed and spit into the toilet, “Chica, don’t you have to really
evil to get yourself sent to Hell?” Maria asked a bit sarcastically.
Liz sighed once again, “He’s there because he made a deal with a crossroads demon. He sold his soul for his brother’s life.”
Maria looked at her incredulously, “He killed his own brother?”
Rolling her eyes, Liz shook her head, “No, he sold his soul to bring his brother back to life. –Sam died and Dean couldn’t handle his little brother being gone so he sold his soul.”
Maria was silent for a moment, “Ruby, the bitch demon from hell, tell you all that?”
Liz shrugged and ignored Maria’s sarcasm…Michael was seriously rubbing off on her blonde friend, “She told me he sold his soul to save Sam because to him Sam is his responsibility, so ultimately his suffering is protecting Sam.”
Maria cleaned herself off and flushed the toilet, “Alright, say I believe all of this, are you seriously telling me you agree with what he did?”
Liz gave Maria a look, “Can you honestly tell me that after Alex died that if you had known about a crossroads deal that you wouldn’t have sold your soul to bring him back?”
Maria looked away and muttered, “No, I can’t.”
“Neither can I. We’d be hypocrites if we got angry with him for being selfish and loving his brother,” Liz said quietly.
They were both silent as they sat there thinking about everything that had happened that night. after about ten minutes they were brought out of their thoughts by the motel door opening and closing.
Liz looked at the bathroom door and clutched her hand around the handle of the knife Ruby had given her earlier.
Moments later Ruby appeared in the doorway and raised an eyebrow, “Party in the bathroom?”
Liz and Maria rolled their eyes.
“Yeah, some party. Vomiting right before we’re supposed to eat dinner can’t wait to do it again,” Maria mumbled.
Liz raised an eyebrow at her best friend as she hopped off of the bathroom counter and stated an earlier thought she had regarding Maria’s new attitude, “Chica, Michael’s been rubbing off on you.”
Maria glared at Liz as they both began walking out of the bathroom, “You tell him that and I will tell Max you are still in love with him, Chica!”
Before Liz could say anything Ruby laughed, “That would be interesting the little green royal vs. the big bad possessive hunter.”
Maria frowned as the three sat down to eat their dinner, “Dean is possessive?”
Ruby shrugged as she chewed her burger, “He’s not really possessive…its more…only he can be an ass to those he cares about. It’s like with Sam, no one else can beat up his little brother but Dean and vice versa. One time a fellow hunter granted the guy was psychotic, but anyway the guy called Sam ‘Sammy’. Again this guy hated and tried killing Sam a few time and the boys eventually ended up killing Gordon when he was turned into a vampire, but Sam flat out told Gordon that Dean was the only person who could call him ‘Sammy’.”
Liz frowned, “Why’d Gordon want to kill Sam?”
“Because Baby Winchester has visions and telekinetic powers; he could have some more if he practiced but Dean wouldn’t let him,” Ruby said casually.
Maria frowned at that, “What? Did Dean not like Sam having abilities?” After she said that Maria looked at Liz in concern.
Ruby smiled at Maria’s look toward Liz, “If you’re wondering if Dean is going to turn Liz away just because she had powers then the answer is no. Dean didn’t want Sam to practice his powers because he knew more demons would be after Sam if he stronger and more prominent abilities. –I can pretty much guarantee that if we succeed in getting Dean out of hell he’ll be just as protective of Liz, if not more.”
Wanting to steer the conversation away from any possible ‘relationship’ talk about her and Dean, Liz turned to Ruby, “So how do we keep demons out of our motel rooms?”
Maria and Liz listened carefully as Ruby explained what certain herbs and plants could, along with the easier attainable salt lines.
Liz sighed and ran a hand through her hair, “Sure the salt is more attainable but also a lot harder to explain to the rest of the group as too why we are carrying bags of salt around with us all of the time.”
Maria nodded in agreement, “Yeah, that’s for sure.”
The three of them were silent for a good length of time.
Liz finally closed her eyes and looked over at the curtained window, imagining the world outside of it. She had to decide whether or not saving Dean was worth putting the others in danger. If Ruby was right about all her changing a bit more every time she went to Hell then she would most likely start attracting other demons besides just Ruby. Plus, having a demon babysitter was going to be raising some suspicions among the bump in the night community she was sure.
The sooner she left the group the less other demons should be able to associate with her.
Closing her eyes and made her final decision, “I can’t stay here,” she said softly.
Maria looked at her in surprise, “What?’
Liz looked at Maria, “I can’t stay with the group. Sure I will be vulnerable to our…their enemies if I’m by myself. By if I stay I risk bringing my own enemies to them. To keep them safe, I have to leave. I don’t want them to know about these visions; I don’t want them to know about what goes bump in the night. They have enough on their plate with intergalactic wars. If I leave I won’t have to answer to anyone, I won’t have to explain why I need to do research on demons that are after me and I won’t have to explain why I wake up in pain.”
Liz scrubbed her hand over her face, “Ria, you’ve seen me with them lately. I’m biting their heads off for caring about me. I don’t want to have to hide the fact that I wake up in pain; that depending on the injury not only am I going to be vomiting, from what I’ve seen, but that I am also going to be coughing up blood. I need to find Sam and help him get his brother out of Hell…but do you honestly thing that even after I’m done with helping Sam and Dean to the best of my abilities that I’m going to be able to just ignore what goes bump in the night?”
Liz sat silently and watched as Maria took in everything that she said. She knew that her best friend was going to put up a fight. Hell, she didn’t even really want to leave the safety of the group…but with every outcome of this situation running through her head, there was no way that she was willing to put the others through this.
“Liz, they will help…” Maria trailed off when Liz started shaking her head negatively.
“No, Maria, they won’t. Max will try healing me. He will tell me to stop taking on Dean’s pain. He will have Isabel dreamwalk me and then she will be in a similar predicament that I’m in with the vomiting and the sleeping all of the time. Michael and Kyle are the only ones that I can see being even remotely supportive of this and even then it’s a slim chance. And you know just as well as I do…Max won’t listen to either of them…not when it comes to me,” Liz finished quietly. She desperately wanted Maria to see what she knew would happen if they went to the others.
Maria shook her head, “Liz this is insane! You can’t just leave because of some vision you have of a guy you don’t even know! Yes, it sucks that he is in Hell…but you can’t seriously be thinking of doing this?”
Liz looked her best friend since childhood in the eyes, “I’ve done more for Max, and I loved him. Why should I not help someone who needs it, when there is something that I can do about it?”
________________________________________
“I know you’re there. I can’t see you, but I can sure as hell feel you looking at me! What are you here to torture me some more?” he spit out as he looked around wildly.
She should have been shocked that he actually knew she was there…but if what Ruby had said was true then she was probably starting to become a staple in Hell for him…just another thing he had to be afraid of.
She made her way over to him slowly, her nerves going crazy the closer she got to him. He wasn’t doing any better; the closer she got the more he more agitated he became as he flailed his body on the hooks, “Stop, baby, you’re hurting yourself more than you need too,” she said desperately. She wasn’t sure if he could hear her, after all he didn’t look any more tired than usual.
“Of course, I’m hurting myself you bitch! I’m attached to fucking meat hooks!” he spit out.
She just let his harsh words slide off her shoulders. He was in pain and he was scared, even if he wouldn’t admit it; besides he couldn’t know whether or not she was a danger to him.
Those thoughts quickly disappeared when she finally realized that he had heard her, “Wait…you can hear me?” she asked him in surprise.
“No, I’m talking to Easter Bunny!” he said sarcastically.
She couldn’t stop the tears that came to her eyes. After months of being able to do nothing but watch him suffer he could finally hear her. She let out a choked laugh, “If that’s who you want to be talking to, that’s fine with me.”
He frowned obviously not expecting that to be her answer. She ignored his frown and let him think about what ever was running through his mind. She hadn’t exactly expected him to be welcoming…after all who would be in a place like this. In the mean time to took inventory of his injuries.
His left rib was bleeding profusely. She would have to try and take some of that injury later…she couldn’t take it now or she would have to wake up and cough up blood…and she wasn’t quite ready to leave him yet.
“So, are you just another one of Hell’s tricks? Let me hear a female voice so that I can get attached and then get tortured some more?” he asked her coldly.
She sighed, “I’m not a part of Hell, Dean. I know you have no reason to believe me and that’s fine. I have a feeling that if the big wigs of Hell knew I was here I would be in more pain than you are at the moment,” she said softly as she let her hand hover over his hair that was matted to his head with both fresh and dried blood.
He laughed humorlessly and shook his head, “Sweetheart, there is no way that you could be in more pain than me.”
She smiled sadly at him even thou he couldn’t see her, “Sure, I could be. All they would have to do is take me away from you before I have a chance to help you with the constant knowledge of the pain you’re in. That would probably kill me,” she whispered.
She hadn’t meant to get all gushy on him, but she couldn’t help it. To know that he could finally hear her and that she could talk to him now, and help him keep a grasp on his humanity as Ruby said he needed to do…it was more than she could have asked for.
He smirked coldly, “What bastard told you I would fall for that?”
She smiled slightly…always the stubborn ass. “Hate me all you want. I won’t make you talk to me. Shit, I’ll tell you about my life and you can ignore me or make all the sarcastic comments you want but I’m not going anywhere until somebody wakes me up,” she said in a tone that would tell him she was just as stubborn as he was.
“Wakes you up?” he asked in annoyed disbelief, “That’s the best shit you can come up with?”
She rolled her eyes and shook her head, “Geez, you really are an ass do you know that?”
He smirked sarcastically, “Oh, sweetheart, you’re making me all tingly inside.”
She looked at him with a raised eyebrow, “No, I think that is one of the hooks making your nerves go numb,” she deadpanned.
He said something but she ignored him as she caught a glimpse of another hook coming his way. She looked at him quickly and immediately took her hand in his. She ignored his look of confusion as he stared at his hand, “Baby, you have to relax there is another hook coming in on your right,” she said urgently.
He tensed up at the knowledge causing her eyes to fill, “No, baby, you can’t tense your muscles it will hurt all the more! Please, baby, relax. I know it hurts, but I’m right here.”
She noticed that he seemed confused but not at about the hook coming as he had been a few moments ago. She felt a bubble of encouragement flurry inside her stomach and continued talking to him, “So, I hear that salt lines in front of doors and windows keeps demons out, huh? You know how that works? Or is it just some big mystery that can’t be explained?”
“It’s too pure for them. That’s why you throw salt on bones when you burn them to get rid of a spirit,” he answered in confusion.
She nodded as she felt her tears spill over onto her face just as the ‘new’ hook dug deep into his right hip. He screamed out in pain and unconsciously gripped her hand tighter. It was that unconscious squeeze that actually registered in her brain that she was actually touching him and that he could feel it. He couldn’t see her but he could feel her presence as well as physically.
She let out a shaky breath and lifted her free hand up to his hair and began to slowly smooth her hand over his short locks, “I’m here, baby, hold on as tight as you need to.”
She watched as his jaw clenched through the pain and then after a few minutes he slowly opened his eyes. His eyes moved over toward her, “You’re the one that warned me before about the meat hook that was coming at me from behind,” it wasn’t a question.
She nodded, “Yeah.”
“And you’re the one that I have been hearing. Soft whispers, but nothing concrete, not until that last warning,” he said in confusion.
She was surprised at that, “You could hear me before that last time?”
He looked like he tried to shrug, as if he for a moment forgot that there were meat hooks running through his body. But the movement and the hiss of pain became a blunt and painful reminder.
“Hey, go easy there, baby. Try not to move, the more you move the more pain you cause yourself,” she said softly as continued running her hands through his hair.
He breathed heavily and trying to push the pain away, “Not much. Mostly I would just hear words here and there. I was seriously beginning to think I was losing my mind. Especially, when you would call me that...”
She frowned, “What? ...Baby?”
He nodded slightly, so as not to cause himself too much pain, “Thought the sons a bitches had finally gotten to me when I started relaxing every time I heard it.”
She looked at him sadly, “Hey, I swear on my grandmother’s and my best friend’s grave that I am not here to trick or hurt you. I don’t know how I’m here with you and I honestly do give a shit.”
He let out a painful scoff, if the wince on his face was any indication…but she didn’t have to look at his facial expression to know he was in pain. All while he was talking she had been putting her powers into her hand that was holding his and taking as much pain from him as slowly as she could so that she wouldn’t alert him to what she was doing.
“You better start givin’ a shit, sweetheart. Look around you this isn’t exactly the frickin’ Holiday Inn.”
She had to laugh a little at that, “Trust me, I know. I fell asleep in a Holiday Inn. Compared to my roommates…you’re much better company.”
He smirked, “Going at it like rabbits?”
She wanted to find that funny…really she did. But instead she was sad. He was chained to six meat hooks and he was still cracking jokes…blocking out the pain.
“Ah…No. Get your mind out of the gutter, Dean,” she tried her best to sound somewhat upbeat.
She could tell that he had heard her less than jubilant tone but did his best to keep his smirk in place.
“Aww, come on, sweetheart, what the hell else is a guy supposed to think about with all this free time on his hands?”
She felt like she was failing him. Here he was trying to cheer her up and he was the one being tortured beyond what should be the natural threshold of pain…she was sure she had surpassed that natural threshold years ago. She really needed him to not be so strong. She wanted him to lean on her for support, to scream at her when he was in pain…something…anything…just to let her know that he wasn’t holding all of this turmoil inside of him.
“If you must know I am sharing my room with two very opinionated blond females that dislike each other greatly. Not to mention before I fell asleep I sided with the bitch that my best friend hates over her…she was less than thrilled,” she answered softly.
Dean frowned at that, “Why’d you side with the bitch?”
She shrugged and looked down at their hands, “I didn’t want too. But if I thought rationally she was right. Maria has a habit of thinking with her emotions…it’s what I love about her. Rationality has never been her strong point.”
“Maria is the best friend right?” he asked curiously.
She nodded, “Yeah.—I can feel her trying to wake me up, Baby. I’m going to have to leave soon.”
“You coming back?” he asked.
She could hear in his tone that he both hoped she did and hoped she didn’t.
She smiled at that, “If I don’t come back how will I get to hear your lectures of how I shouldn’t come back?”
He smirked at that, “You really shouldn’t you know. This place is filled with bastards that won’t think twice of doing things to you that will have you screaming in horror.”
She squeezed his hand and leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his hair line and whispered into his ear, “I don’t care. You can’t get rid of me that easy. You’ll soon learn that it takes a lot to scare me away. Rest as best you can, baby. I’ll be back soon, I promise.”
________________________________________
She groaned as she woke up. At the rough shake that woke her up she let out a pained whimper.
“Lizzie?” she heard Maria ask her in concern.
She swallowed past her dry throat, “My ribs,” she whispered.
She felt Maria lift her shirt and heard her best friend gasp in shock.
“Oh god, Liz, what happened?”
“A hook punctured must have punctured his lung at some point or something because his rib was wouldn’t stop bleeding. I was surprised he could even speak,” she said as she opened her eyes.
When she looked down she saw Ruby looking at her in concern, “He can here you now?”
She nodded stiffly, “I can touch him now, too.”
Ruby nodded and took a deep breath, “The next step with you becoming visible to him. When that happens the hooks are going to start sensing you. They will start digging into you, Liz. There is no way around that. It may happen the next time to fall asleep, it may not. I have no idea when it will happen, just that it will happen. You have to be prepared. Soon enough you will have your own injuries on top of his. Can you handle that?”
She looked the blonde demon in the eyes, “You let me worry about what my body can and can’t handle. You just help me figure out how to get Dean out of Hell. You had to do it somehow, right?”
Ruby glared at her a bit, “Yeah, I had done it once before. I knew the tricks of getting out. Kill a few hunters, ‘prove’ that I wasn’t a ‘flight risk’ anymore and they let me out. Dean doesn’t have that luxury.”
She was about to say something when Maria glared at Ruby, “How do you know that they believed you? That they didn’t follow you straight to us?”
Ruby smiled, “I just do.”
It was her turn to glare at Ruby again, “How, Ruby? If they find out that I can get to Dean through my visions we’re screwed!”
Ruby sighed, “I told them that I would collect all of the ‘special’ children that I can.—I am saving Sam for last. He’s the strongest…if we have Dean out by the time I have to get to Sam we have a chance at making a dent in the amount of demons that have escaped Hell when the gate was opened as well as the ones that aren’t killed because of the hunters that I took out…we’ll be fine.”
Maria looked at Ruby in disbelief, “What about all of the ‘special’ children that you were talking about?”
“I only go after innately evil ones. There those particular ones that are just born to be evil, no if’s, and’s or but’s about it. While, Sam is still one of the ‘special’ children, he’s not innately evil. But he is one of the strongest, so they want him anyway. There is nothing I can do about that except help you help Dean which ultimately will help Sam and in turn help rid the world of more demons. Trust me you want Sam and Dean fighting the good fight. You want Sam and Dean working together. While they are each other’s weakness, they are each other’s strength. They balance one another…they always have,” Ruby sighed and grabbed an empty bowl on the table, “I’ll go get some water to clean out those gashes on your ribs.”
She watched as Ruby headed to the bathroom before turning to Maria who was looking off into space, “Do you believe me now?”
Maria looked at her with sorrow in her eyes and nodded tightly, “Yeah, you can’t stay here,” she whispered softly, “If you’re going to be injured more often…the others will ask too many questions.”
She looked at her friend. It was killing her to see her long time, childhood friend in such sorrow. They were the last of the three musketeers. And now she was splitting them up, “I’ll be okay, Maria. I promise.”
Maria was silent and took the bowl of water and a face cloth from Ruby, who had just stepped back into the room. Maria looked at her directly in the eyes, with a set determination Liz knew could never be changed.
She frowned, she had no idea why that look was in Maria’s eyes…but it was unsettling.
Maria began gently cleaning the gashes, “I know you will. Because I’m going with you.”