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A drabble's a short story done within 100 words; but I've seen and written drabbles that reach up to about 1,000 words. My drabbles are more scenes that might fit somewhere in the whole span of the "Ties in Blood" story. Motel Room Warnings: None Aaliyah staggered into the motel room she shared with Amanda and the boys. The former had agreed to make a food run while the later were working the suits on the local law enforcement. The setting sun had cut into her search for anything … supernatural like. Alone in the barely two star motel room, Aaliyah eyed the tempting bed and considered collapsing on it for a quick nap before anyone showed up. But if she did that, all the security measures Dean insisted on had to be put in place first. Aaliyah ran through all of the measures and put them up against how long it took to do them all. It was too much time and effort just to take them all down when the next person arrived. Aaliyah’s nose twitched as she caught a weird smell. Several hours out in the woods in what had been a fruitless search for anything that the campers had seen or heard that alluded to a Bigfoot sighting. The only sighting she had of wildlife that was threatening was a grizzly bear that had a couple cubs. Aaliyah swore she needed brown pants after that encounter. The thought drove her to the bathroom where she came face to face with the image of a dirt covered face with faint red scratches from small twigs. A few minutes of scrubbing with a hot washcloth and soap showed a worn-out face looking back at Aaliyah. “When was the last time you got a full eight hours?” Aaliyah asked her reflection. “When was the last time you had any fun?” Fun. A word her mind was attempting to latch onto in order to form a functioning thought process. Stepping from the bathroom gave her a good view of the vacant motel pool. Fun. Pool. Her mind finally latched onto the thought. Stripping down to her bra and boy shorts, Aaliyah grabbed a towel and her room key before charging out of the room. The towel and key were dumped near a chair as Aaliyah jogged into a jump for the pool. She was fully submerged in the pool for a few seconds before kicking to the surface. Aaliyah ran her hands through her hair, pulling it off her face. Her face contorted into a look of shock and a smile when she saw Dean and Sam soaked in their suits. “Guys, I’m so sorry,” Aaliyah told them when she recovered from the shock. Dean held up an index finger, stopping any further apologizes from Aaliyah. She watched him move for the room before casting her gaze to Sam, who was at a loss for words before following his brother. With a deep breath, Aaliyah attempted to force down the feeling of guilt and upsetting Dean. She debated on following them into the room, but decided on staying in the pool. If she gave the older Winchester brother space and time to cool down after her ill timed jump, he wouldn’t be so quick to snap at her in the room. Allowing her body to shift up to drift on the water’s surface, Aaliyah looked up to the night sky and the few stars that were able to poke through the light pollution and over hanging trees. The sound of something breaking the water’s surface was Aaliyah’s only warning before getting hit with the water displaced from the hit. She barely recovered from the first splash when the second wave hit her. Aaliyah wiped the water from her eyes as she regained a breath before seeing the brothers standing soaking wet in the pool. “Think we’d leave you out here on your own?” Dean asked. “Short stuff.” “Just because,” Aaliyah splashed toward Dean. “You and Gigantor over there are six foot something doesn’t make me Short Stuff.” “Whatever you say, Short Stuff.” Aaliyah scrunched up her face before diving under the water and aimed for Dean. He moved away from her, slowed down by the water. She fought against the burn in her lungs as her body struggled for her next breath. Her body won out as Aaliyah broke the surface and gasped for a breath. “Get back here, jerk.” “Not on your life, bitch,” Dean said, a smile on his face. If it had been any other person calling her a bitch, Aaliyah would had been upset. She knew Dean to know his term of endearment for Sam was a gut reaction whenever the word “jerk” was used. Aaliyah lunged for Dean, her lips pulled into a smile. He laughed as he moved again. Sam splashed her from somewhere just as her finger tips brushed against Dean. Finally, after a good five minute half chase half swim, Aaliyah snuck up behind Dean and jumped onto his back. “Gotcha,” she smiled. “I’ll make a decent hunter yet.” “You’ve survived this long,” Sam commented. “Yeah, only cuz I’ve had Amanda or you two.” Aaliyah removed herself from Dean’s back. “Don’t forget the werewolf,” Dean brought up. “Two days of lessons and you took it down. You’ve survived your first encounter with the supernatural. That makes you a hunter.” Aaliyah half smiled just as the brothers started splashing her. She ducked under the water’s surface and aimed for one set of legs. With a good hold on each of the ankles before her, Aaliyah pulled toward her. She allowed her body to float back up and found Sam pushing his hair out of his face. “Food’s here,” Amanda called out. Aaliyah turned at her friend’s voice to see her standing in the doorway of the motel room. Aaliyah stopped and watched the boys start for the pool edge and pushed themselves up and out. She had the thought several times over what life would had been like if she hadn’t taken out the werewolf. Or what it would had been like if she hadn’t made the call to Dean for help. The boys and Amanda seemed to help fill the hole not having a ‘normal life’ left. “Come on, Liya,” Amanda called. “You know how the boys get once food’s on the table.” Aaliyah shook her head, bringing herself back into the moment. Following the boys in pushing herself up out of the pool, she grabbed her towel and room key before joining her friends.

Okay, not sure how many have seen the show (or how much), but this is what might turn into the first of a three part block of a fan fiction. At the current point, it's 25 chapters long and is at season 3 in the show's run. I do plan on making each post be a chapter a piece; unless I reach the word/character limit. Anyway ... Story summary. Yeah, that sounds good. Aaliyah's a nursing student at U of M and manages to kill a werewolf after teaming up with a pair of hunters. She then makes a call a month later that not only answers questions, but changes her life. Chapter 1 Aaliyah stood still as the young man adjusted her two layers of clothes. Behind him she watched the older man Aaliyah pegged to be the father finish the last of the traps. She hadn’t expected the elder to allow her on this part of the hunt. Yet after the werewolf caught her scent three days ago, there was little choice. Once the young man seemed satisfied with how Aaliyah’s jackets fit, he reached over to the trunk of the car, a black Impala, and brought out a knife. “Silver blade,” he told her. “Short of lobbing off the head, best way of dealing with werewolves.” With a slight flick of the wrist, he caught the blade and handed the knife handle first to Aaliyah. She accepted the blade, adjusting her hold, and nodded. “Any advice?” “Yeah, don’t get killed.” “Dean. We need to move,” his father instructed. Aaliyah watched Dean’s father climb into the driver’s seat of the car before the engine rumbled to life. She watched the car move away as memories flashed of the past few days hearing the engine around the college campus. Turning back to Dean, Aaliyah blinked a couple times in a slight surprise to find he wasn’t there. With a couple stabilizing breaths, she stepped out into the open. The late summer breeze tugged at the top jacket and she swore she heard cheers from the football stadium. The thought that the werewolf would be drawn there passed through her mind. Then again, even a wild animal would avoid people. A howl carried on the wind. Aaliyah spun her head and shifted her grip on the knife. Leaves on nearby trees rustled, but there was no breeze. She turned to see just out of the corner of her eye a lumbering werewolf in md arm sweep at her. Full force sent Aaliyah into a sapling, snapping it and sending the wind from her lungs. Gasping for breath, she searched for the knife that laid a few feet away out of the creature’s path. Crawling for the weapon, Aaliyah’s neck hairs stood on end as the hot stank breath of the werewolf touched her. Her fingers just barely grabbed the knife as her back erupted in pain as if it was on fire. Screaming in pain, Aaliyah curled into a ball, her hand around the knife handle. Fighting through the pain, she rolled onto her back as the werewolf swiped at her again, cutting into her side. The muzzle of the werewolf was inches above her face, a large glop of saliva hanging down. Biting through that pain, she thrusted the knife up into the creature’s stomach, pulling the knife up to the rib cage. She didn’t fight the shutter that worked through her body as hot blood bathed her. Pushing the dead body up and off of her, Aaliyah laid there, regaining her breath, her mind blank. She fought the urge to close her eyes as her body reverted into survival mode. “That took guts,” she heard a voice tell her. A slow turn of her head showed Dean coming up to her. “Think you can move?” Testing her side with a deep breath, Aaliyah nodded. Holding up a hand and worked with Dean to get to her feet. Wrapping her free arm across her stomach, she didn’t fight when Dean put the arm he held around his shoulders and wrapped his arm around her, mindful of her back. Eased over to the car, Dean helped her onto the hood before going to the trunk. She flinched when John came up to her. “What were you thinking?” he demanded. “Letting the werewolf…” “It’s dead,” Aaliyah cut in, eyes closed against the throbbing pain. “Bet you couldn’t do better.” A heavy thud on the hood reverberated through her body. With an eye cracked open, Aaliyah watched Dean start fishing through a duffel bag. From it appeared make shift medical supplies plus typical first aid items. Last item was a bottle of cheap looking alcohol any of the local party stores had in stock. She reached for the bottle as Dean found a needle and dental floss. “Think you can shed the jackets and shirt?” Dean asked. Aaliyah freed one jacket and struggled with the second. She ignored the feeling of serious judgement from Dean’s father. Unfit to be a hunter, the older Winchester said when she wanted to help three days ago. She wanted to show him he was fit when she heard that. Finally freeing the second jacket, Aaliyah dared to shed the shirt. A hiss from Dean was a clue on how bad it looked. A small shiver when a breeze passed by, Aaliyah hissed when a cold liquid washed over her open wounds. Adjusting herself on the hood, she folded her legs in front of her. Meeting Dean’s gaze, Aaliyah nodded. Holding herself still, she felt Dean’s hands working on stitching up her side and back. As he worked, Aaliyah started to drift off to sleep. A shake brought her back around. “Come on, I’ll take you back to your dorm,” Dean told her. *** Unsure of what she was conscious of first, Aaliyah laid in bed and attempted to pick each noise out. Her roommate moving around doing something. Coffee dripping into the pot. Music playing just a little too loud Aaliyah swore would have affected her if she had been drinking. Shifting under her blanket, pain snagged on her dental floss stitched wounds. “You look like you had a rough night,” her roommate told her, passing through to the bathroom. “Yeah, I had one.” Aaliyah eased herself into a sitting position on her bed, the covers pooled in her lap. “Where you at the game, Amanda?” “No, had a test to study for.” Amanda came out from the bathroom and gasped. “What happened to you? Have you been to the ER?” Aaliyah looked down to her bandages had red spots on them and shook her head. “You wouldn’t believe me.” She didn’t fight when Amanda eased her forward. “Try me.” Closing her eyes as Amanda started peeling off the bandages, Aaliyah watched flashes of the previous night. The fresh wounds pulled at her muscles. “You remember the reports of a large wild dog and all that howling the past few weeks?” “What about it?” Amanda continued unwrapping the bandages. Aaliyah heard her roommate half listening to what she was saying. “It was a full blown werewolf.” “Werewolf, huh? Twilight or Harry Potter?” “More like Underworld.” Aaliyah glanced to the bundled bandages speckled with red as Amanda stepped away and tossed it into the trash. “I’m … still trying to figure out how I really survived the fight.” “You sound …” “Insane? Like I need to be put up in a psych ward indefinitely?” Aaliyah took a deep breath and held it as she moved her body to the edge of the bed. Feet on the scrap of carpet that served as a rug and her hands white knuckled the mattress, she released the air from her lungs. The pain was still there, blood vessels, muscles, skin working still to knit themselves back together. Breathing through the pain flair until it died down to a mild throbbing. “Go ahead and say it, I won’t fight it.” “That’s the thing, though, Lia.” Amanda sat down in the oversized chair that Aaliyah had. “I do believe you. I had gone out to the library yesterday …” “Studying for the test,” Aaliyah remembered, gaining a nod from Amanda. “Coming back here when the library closed, I swear I saw some sort of fight in the Diag,” Amanda told her, voice. “One of the … fighters loomed over the other, howling and grunting like those wolves we had gone to see over the winter. It clawed at the smaller fighter, who cried out. The smaller reached for something before turning around and just as the larger was just over them.” She mimed being stabbed. “The one on the ground stabbed up at her attacker. After that, two men came out from wherever they were and took care of the scene. One took care of the dead attacker while the other helped …” Amanda gestured toward Aaliyah. “You, apparently.” Aaliyah worked what her friend told her, wondering why she so readily believed her tale of being attacked by a werewolf. “That whole time, you never thought to go get help or come help?” “Oh, hell no. Too much trouble on my end.” Amanda pushed herself out of the chair. “Come on, I’ll help you wash up and get fresh bandages on those stitches of yours.” Aaliyah couldn’t help smile a little as her roommate and good friend since freshmen year of college offered a hand up. In the couple years she had known Amanda, Aaliyah wondered how much remained hidden between them. Any time she brought up family or friends before college, Amanda deflected the conversation to another topic. “Whoever did those stitches knew what they were doing,” Amanda called from the bathroom. “Major props to ‘em.” “Yeah, he knew what he was doing,” Aaliyah replied, trying to remember how it felt having her wounds being stitched with a deft and gentle hand. She half shuffled to the bathroom, using the furniture to help, where Amanda had water running. “A shame I didn’t get his number.” “There’s a piece of paper on your desk.” Grateful she was holding onto it, Aaliyah reached for the paper. “You did great, Aaliyah. Your roommate helped getting you back in. Here’s my number if anything happens while you’re still here.” --Dean Spotting the number under Dean’s name, Aaliyah made a mental note to call it later. Maybe after the shower and more rest. *** Panting, Aaliyah came up to The Rock near the ZTA chapter house and braced herself against the rock. Early morning before the University of Michigan and the surrounding city buzzed with its daily workings was a good time to run. A month after killing the werewolf, Aaliyah was able to breath and not have the feeling her side and back were on fire. The talk of the day had gone from the random animal attacks to the varsity football team being able to reach the championship game. Aaliyah had no issue with the gossip changing from the werewolf to the team. It kept the attention off of her and her wounds. Her professors and classmates had been worried when she showed to class after the fight. Her wounds bleed a little through her bandages the first day or so when she returned to class. Amanda had offered to go around and collect assignments from all her professors in that first week, but Aaliyah refused. She didn’t want to put more stress on her roommate and friend than what she already had with her load. Once her breathing slowed, Aaliyah dared to head off toward the Quad where the fight with the werewolf had taken place. Speeding up to a light jog, she passed a few students on their way to a morning class. A few minutes and a quicken heart rate later, she came to a stop at the grass line. The late summer yellow grass still held onto the large brown spot where the werewolf had fallen a month ago. Word had spread about a large animal being killed when the landscapers showed the morning following Aaliyah’s kill. Rumors and guesses of what it was had circulated the University and surrounding parts of the city for the past month, and Aaliyah kept to herself during those conversations. She stood there in the early morning silence as a strange sense of peace fell over her. Like something finally clicked in her mind that she, with some help, had not only learned of the supernatural but taken down one of the most popular creatures. If she could do that, what else couldn’t she do? Reaching for her phone, Aaliyah thumbed through the contacts until she reached Dean’s and paused. He never said anything about keeping in touch, but he might know a thing or two about maybe finding a missing person. Hitting the dial button, Aaliyah listened to the tone before the voicemail picked up. “This is Dean’s other, other cell, so you must know what to do,” the greeted stated before the beep. “Hey, um, Dean, it’s Aaliyah,” she started, her tongue tripping on her speed. “I was wondering if you knew anything about finding a missing person or two. Call me on this number.” Short and to the point. The thought of if he was going to return the call passed through her mind as she pocketed her cell and started a jog down the sidewalk back to her dorm building.

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