Webisode: Rest and Recuperation

See here for more information on the Supernatural RP, or contact Maeglin, ArielButtercup or MissAusten with any questions.

Disclaimer: We tend to be a little more informal around here (as well as infernal): lax with customary RP rules, rough with our language, and generally sacrelicious. We ask only that you play nice, stick to SPN canon, don’t be (too) mean, and do everything in your power to make the game fun for everyone.

Happy hunting!

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((Thought we deserved some R&R, and we haven't even met Tex formally yet, so...))
Somewhere in the wasteland that was eastern New Mexico/western Texas, Rome had switched cars. A man can only tolerate so much silence and crappy 80's metal from one's brother.

But Elenna's car was creepy, especially the way she talked to it, so both he and Allison left Lenna "alone" with "Nick" somewhere in Oklahoma. Talk about a major cock-block, however, because Allison went to ride with Georgie, leaving him to join the sausage fest in Caleb's truck.

Whatever, he had an iPhone and a laptop. Hanging with the grandpas could have been worse.

When they pulled up to to the mansion at four in the morning, Tex let them in the gate but greeted them in much the same manner as she had last time.

Standing on her porch, holding a shotgun. She was dressed in bunny slippers and a robe, a cheap-smelling cigarette hanging from her lip. "Caleb, Romulus, Rawson, you boys know the drill, she said," and for the first time a bottle of holy water, a canister of salt, and a silver shot glass were apparent, sitting on the porch rail. "The rest of you, line up. No one gets inside this house in one piece until you pass the test."

"I'm still queasy from the last time," Rome whined, but stepped up to the plate first. He licked his hand and poured some salt on it before pouring himself a shot of holy water. The rosary lying in the empty plastic gallon bottle bobbed in the water with holy buoyancy. "Any chance we can figure out the recipe for holy tequila shots? If that's how we hunt demons I'm totally in," Rome grinned, licking the salt off his hand and throwing back the shot, trying to imagine it tasted like tequila than stale tap water.

He gagged slightly, but it was something you got used to, and presently he drew himself up straight and saluted Tex sloppily. "Permission to come aboard, sir."

Tex rolled her eyes and jerked her head. "Get yo ass inside, boy. There's beer in the fridge."

"Woo hoo!" As Rome made a beeline for the kitchens, he heard behind him "Next!"

Lenna was glad when she had the Mustang for her own again. She like Rome driving with her, and also Aly wasn’t that bad for company, but it was the best way when it was just she and the Mustang. On the other hand was Lenna glad when they arrived at the Safehouse.

I think Tex is a little weird, but I guess all hunters are a little weird.

Lenna had one of her huge books in her arm. It was so large she could easily hide behind it. Georgie was more sleepwalking than anything else and would probably sleep for 3 days to catch up her missed beauty sleep. After Lenna kept a straight face through the salty, holy water, silver hunter’s greeting. She didn’t care that Aly was older, Lenna made sure that Aly got some painkiller and rest. Lenna walked out of the Aly’s room she planned to sit somewhere in a corner where no one got on her nerves and she could read, when suddenly her attention got pulled to a door that wasn’t closed properly. She had a weird feeling, without knowing what was behind this door she knew she would like whatever was behind it. She pushed the door open, switched on the light and...

“Holy crap. I think I died somewhere between Aly’s room and here.”

Lenna placed her book carefully on the floor at the door and wandered through the rows of shelves all full of books. There were enough books she could never read all in her life but she still wished she could. The place was perfect, a little dusty and without any order, but perfect. She didn’t know how long she wandered around read in some books and took mental notes what books she need to read for real, while she stroke with care the dust off some books. As a hunter she should have paid more attention to her surrounding, even though she was safe here. Lenna found her Wonderland.

“Elenna?” Tex was standing behind her but Lenna didn’t look up. She was sitting on the floor with some books in

Latin around her; she had a huge happy smile on her face.

“I found her Romulus.”

Rome followed Tex’s voice in the library, of course where else should his little geek be.

“I think we won’t get her out of this room anytime soon. Lennie what are you reading?” Rome was grinning about the girl on the floor. She looked goofy happy.

“Ordinandi, filii charissimi, in officium Exorcistarum, debetis noscere quid suscipitis. Exorcistam etenim oportet abjicere dæmones, & dicere populo, ut, qui non communicat, det locum; & aquam in ministerio fundere...”

“Hey Lenna have you eaten since we are here.” Rome at least tried to get her out of whatever book she was reading.

Lenna shook her head, and kept reading when she suddenly felt that someone else was there. She looked up and really serious at Tex.

“You know I am really glad for all your help in the last days, but you library is a mess. All the precious books are covered in dust and how do you find a thing in here, there is no order at all. You need to tidy up this place.”
Rome chuckled that was typically Lenna. She looked damn serious and a lot like a librarian, less the hot version more the scary serious version.

“Come on chica, first food, than shower and then if you are a good girl you can go back and knock yourself out in the library.” Rome nearly dragged her up.

“Is she always like this?” Asked Tex while they walked out of the library.

“Always!” said Rome pushing Lenna along.

Lenna ate and showered in no time and was back in the library, her hair tight together, laptop open to write an inventory of all the books so that she could arrange them in a more logical order. She knew that she didn’t die and was in heaven, but it came close to heaven on earth, really close.



((OOC: The Latin comes from here and means pretty much this "Candidates for ordination, the son of my dearly beloved, the office of exorcist, you should also undertake to know what. For the exorcist must be cast away from me out devils, and may say people, that they, who does not communicate, he may give the place, and by the ministry of the water in the lavish, gifts."))

"Thanks, Tex," Rome said to the black woman as they left Elenna in her heaven once again. "That girl's a handfull sometimes, I swear."

"Just because she found the library? I'd like to see you remember to sleep or eat if you found the bikini calendar girl room."

Rome's ears perked up and Tex laughed. "Sorry, you missed the sarcasm."

"Yeah, well, whatever. She was in there for five hours!"

"Girl can take care of herself. Why, the way I hear Bobby talk--"

"She can't. She thinks she's grown up but she's just a..." Rome sighed, carded his fingers through his hair. He was tired, too. Most everyone else was asleep, except for Raws, who, judging by the dull reverberations going through the house, was trying to clear a jam in the elephant gun in the shooting range downstairs. Rawson had found his "library."

"Whatever. I'm gonna go check on Allison. Which room'd we put her in?"

"Second on the right. I'm headed that way, too. See what we can do for her. The Skin Walker do this? Or the FBI?"

Rome shook his head. "Skin Walker. It had dressed itself as a Wendigo and--"

"Not her, boy. You."

She grasped his wrist, which was still tender, and he cried out at her unnecessary roughness. "Ow!" He'd forgotten about that, with the constant stream of adrenaline pumping through him.

He bit his tongue and let Tex inspect the limb. "Looks like you pulled this one clean out," she said, working it gently.

"Uh--ow!--not my--fault. Ow. FBI-turned-skinwalker--ow! Owwwie!"

"Don't be such a baby," she scolded, then, pop! she nudged it back into place.

Rome reclaimed the limb petulantly, holding it against his stomach as he glared at her as she walked towards Allison's room. On the way she stopped at a closet, fumbled with a bulk of keys at her belt, and opened the door. She disappeared for a moment and then reemerged with a cart, laden with medical supplies. "We'll take this to Allison. Here," she added, tossing him an ACE bandage. "Wrap that wrist."

"Yes, ma'am," Rome replied, following her into Allison's room.

"Rise and shine, honey," Tex was saying gently, drawing the curtains in Allison's room. Rome started--he hadn't realized it was so late in the morning. He really had to get to bed.

Allison blinked sluggishly.

"How you doin', Scully?" Rome asked, grinning and going to her bedside.

Allison mumbled something and swatted at him.

"Boy!" Tex shouted, "You leave that poor girl alone. Go on, get! Go find your brother before he shoots the house down and let her rest."

Rome allowed himself to be ushered out, obligatory protests aside. With a slam of the door he was left in a corridor all alone. Time to scope out a room for himself? Screw that, he was going downstairs to fall asleep watching a movie. After he found Rawson.

Lenna cleaned and moved the book around and at the same time writing down where she put the book. She gave each shelf a name and in the inventory was written down where to find the book. She had a pile, for normal human a large pile of 13 books she wanted to read while they were here, which meant she had to start soon. Lenna wasn’t sure how long they would stay. She was sitting in the furthest corner to the door reading a book in Latin.

Dad cum eodem libro si memini dici.

She was sliding off in a world of dreams, using the pile of books as a pillow and not looking the slightest as if it wasn’t comfortable.

She must have been hiding for some hours, when Tex came in and saw the girl asleep.

“Bobby isn’t right it is the best that happened to her to meet those boys.” Mumbled Tex. Her plan was to leave the sandwiches on the trolley, but something caught her attention. She didn’t mean to check out Lenna’s laptop but she saw the inventory and checked it out.

“Elenna?”

“What?” Lenna snapped still half asleep.

“Is this all done? The books and shelves?” Tex sounded a little impressed.

“Yeah, all done, no big deal, go back to sleep.” The girl was already settling back down on the books when Tex asked.

“Don’t you think to sleep in a bed would be more comfortable?”

“Nah, here. Feel safe.”

Tex had to admit the girl was exactly like Bobby had descripted her. As soon she found books she was going anywhere. But Tex still thought that the girl was old enough to know how to look after herself, so she left her sleep where she was.

I wonder where everyone is? I haven’t slept that good in a long time.

She walked in the bar and found Tex. Which made her suddenly feel really small and unimportant. Lenna hadn’t even said really hi to her or thanks for all the help.

“Um Tex?”

“You are awake?”

“Yeah, sorry I mean thank you for the help with the skin walker and after that to sent Caleb.” Lenna looked shy at the woman “Normally I don’t just rearrange other peoples books, but your library is awesome and well gross at the same time. I started to organize it a little and...”

“I know I saw it. It looks great. Enjoying yourself, in there?”

Lenna’s eyes were shining. “Yes I do.”

“I thought so, Bobby told me a lot about you. You know he is really proud of you, how good you handle the life.”

“Thanks Um I didn’t call him lately. I dunno why not.”

“He still knows what you are doing; he has his contacts to know where you are.”

“Hey Tex can I borrow this book here? I think I read it when I was younger, my dad had the same.”

“Sure.”

Lenna went outside to sit on the porch and read and wait until the others wake up. It was then when she thought she heard someone call her. She knew no one was there but still could she clearly hear it.

“Elle!”

A shiver ran down her spine. This wasn't possible, no one used this name anymore.


((OOC: Dad cum eodem libro si memini dici. -- Dad had the same book if I remember it right.))

Lily was tired. Bone-achingly, sand-papery-eyelids, I-would-sell-my-first-born-child-into-slavery-if-I-can-just-sleep kind of tired.

Still, she kept driving her family's RV. She'd inherited it from them. It was the only home she'd ever known, and she'd be damned if she was going to sell it. Nope. Not happening.

She hadn't slept in two days. For a myriad of reasons, really, but the two most prevalent were: 1) she needed to get to Tex and ask the older lady some questions and see if Tex knew anything about what her family had been chasing after, and 2) sleep meant nightmares that she couldn't remember, and she was getting really tired of waking up after biting through her lip, or ripping her fingernails to shreds on her clothes and skin while she was asleep. No. Sleep couldn't happen unless she had someone she trusted to make sure she didn't hurt herself in her sleep- something she hadn't had to worry about for years, which mean that her control was slipping.

As soon as that thought appeared in her head, she shoved it down just as quickly.

Lily Benelli? Lose control? Inconceivable. She was the very definition of control. There was no way on God's green earth that she was losing that control.

Except that she was.

Her fingers gripped the steering wheel tighter, her knuckles now white, as she grit her teeth. I'm going to focus on driving now. You can keep your opinions to yourself, brain.

She was almost there. If she could last another fifteen minutes, she would make it to Tex's house. Tex's place meant safe.

And she could finally get some rest.

She yawned widely, blinking rapidly to regain her vision.

No more yawning. No more distractions.

Lily contemplated just stopping where she was, and making it the rest of the way in the morning, but she'd spoken to Tex that morning, and Lily had sworn up and down she'd be there by now. Which, if Lily hadn't gotten a flat tire, she would have been there by now.

So, no. She couldn't stop, or Tex would start to worry, and Lily refused to worry the lady that had sneaked her and Keith extra chocolate chip cookies when they were itty bitty and the Benelli family had crashed at Tex's house on the way to somewhere and something else.

Lily rolled the windows down and blasted the radio as loud as it would go, hoping that the cold air on her face and the noise would keep her from falling asleep. It didn't occur to her to worry that other people would be woken up by her radio.

Lily yawned as she pulled the RV into Tex's driveway. Apparently, she wasn't the only one crashing here for the night, judging by the amount of cars. She suppressed a flash of irritation- she wanted to talk to Tex, not deal with other people!- and climbed out of the large vehicle.

Tex met her on the porch, pointing at the items on the railing. “You know the drill, sweetpea. Drink up.”

Lily wordlessly complied, pouring the salt into her mouth, and slugging the silver shot of holy water back. Once she'd "passed the test", she gave Tex a hug, breathing in the familiar scent.

Then Tex took over. “Let's get you into a bed, and then you can ask me your questions in the morning."

Lily hung back. "About that. I can't sleep by myself right now. Nightmares have been happening lately, and I need someone to be there with me and make sure I don't hurt myself." She shifted slightly. "Again."

She found herself wrapped in Tex's arms again, and allowed herself to relax just a little bit. "Oh, sugar, don't you worry about that. I know just the person, and he knows better than to try to pull anything on you." Tex started leading Lily through the house, Lily dragging her backpack with her overnight necessities behind her. The older woman rapped on a door. "Caleb? Got a job for you."

Caleb had almost bailed out of the truck on arrival. Rome talked a lot on the drive. Despite the laptop and propeller-head phone, he'd talked. Caleb stood in the warm Kansas night, arms held out cruciform and taking in the deafening silence of the darkness. Finally, he was able to hear the crickets and the birds and whatever the hell else was running around out there in the black. He breathed in the dry air and turned to Tex's mansion of a house, arriving at the porch and picking up the salt cellar first. He didn't follow the usual shot formula like the others. He did it like he learned in the bars back in Red Hook.

He poured the salt out on his hand and snorted it like Colombian Mad Powder. At this stage it didn't even make him wince. He knocked back the shot without a problem and tried not to sneeze at being so close to Wolfsbane. He passed on by, ignoring Tex's "you crazy bastard" facepalm at his procedure. He stretched his arms, feeling his shoulders and back pop as he stepped into the house, making a bee-line for the kitchen for a cold Guinness - which he had found was a fantastic substitute for food.

He knocked the cap off the bottle with a well-scratched part of the counter he always used, tipping the bottle back. He gave a satisfied grunt and leaned against the table as everyone left to do their own thing. It'd be good to kick back and relax. He sighed heavily and headed for his usual room, flopping down on the bed and staring at the ceiling once he'd arrived. Not too long later, a knock came at his door, jarring him awake.

"Caleb? Got a job for you."

He sat up slowly, pulling on a battered old AC/DC t-shirt and sweats, answering the door sleepily.

"What's up?" Caleb grunted, "Plumbing trick-acting again?"

"No, I need you to look after Lily here. She's having trouble sleeping," Tex told him.

"Here or her room? What am I supposed to be doing?" Caleb asked, "Making sure she doesn't get possessed or something?"

"Just make sure she doesn't hurt herself," Tex answered.

"You'd wanna talk to my unit's Medical Sergeant. I'm the guy who knows a billion ways to hurt people," Caleb joked half-heartedly.

"Don't joke about it Cal," Tex answered, "Just look after Lily for me."

Caleb found the small redheaded girl being pushed against his chest as Tex headed back to the kitchen.

"Just remember, Cal," Tex called over her shoulder, "You mess with her, she'll cut ya."

This house was huge. Rome stumbled bleary-eyed from one room to another, trying to remember where he had been and where he was going and whether there was a really good party at the opposite end of this hangover.

Oh, yeah. Just tired. And coming down off a week-long adrenaline-pain-and-worry-high.

Some party.

Or not.

Allison was asleep. Caleb was in his room, probably asleep. Hell, Elenna was asleep, even after discovering the library. Danila was at the bar, drinking what Rome assumed was vodka and prune juice and was broadcasting I-drink-alone-vibes. Rawson didn't want to be bothered, and he had a gun. Georgie also didn't want to be bothered, and she was wielding some sort of diabolical instrument of female beauty he didn't understand which was somehow scarier than the gun.

Dawn was cracking as he, having brushed his teeth, changed into his pajamas, and located a blanket, made his way downstairs in order to more comfortably introduce himself to the wide-screen TV and the couch and the insides of his eyelids.

At the top of the stairs Caleb stood talking to Tex, who had a small red-headed girl under her arm, dragging her backpack like it was a child's teddy bear.

Rome cocked his head and dredged up some consciousness from somewhere.

"Yo, yo, yo," he said amiably as he sidled up, keeping his voice low not to disturb the others who slept not doors away. "What's going on? Who's this?" he asked.

"This is Lily," Tex said. He didn't miss the warning glare Tex shot at him that said this one's off limits unless you want me to tear you a new one as clearly as if she had said it out loud. Rome gulped, nodded, and turned his head to greet the new girl.

"Hey, I'm Rome, nice to meet you." He didn't offer his hand. She didn't look like she wanted to be touched. Actually, she didn't look like she wanted much of anything right now.

But she met his eyes. And that triggered something--a flash of white, and before Rome could think "Aww, crap!" he was seeing elsewhere:

A small, pale white hand holding a weathered photograph, standing in the rain. Three coffins matched the three in the picture: Mom, Dad, son. Tears fell from those gray-green-blue eyes, from that face, pale and freckled framed in flaming red hair...

And then he was back, almost without missing a beat. This wasn't a hard-hitting one, though it did leave a spike of pain behind, but that was about par for the course for him these days. As he tried to recover before anyone noticed, however, he caught Lily giving him a weird, knowing look. He wasn't quite ready to come out to random strangers about his problem, though, so he shook it off and forced a grin.

"I, ah...I'm just about to go crash on the couch and watch the third X-Men movie. My brother never wants to watch it with me, he says it's crap, but I kinda like it. Anyone wanna join?" he asked those gathered around.

Lily turned to look at the newcomer, who was kind of scruffy cute. Cool gray eyes- she was tired enough that her eyes were almost completely gray- raked him up and down. She listened to him talk, and Tex's response, and then his response.

Then his mind went somewhere else, and he was back just ask quickly.

Interesting.

Lily gave him a knowing look, and was unsurprised when he asked about X-Men. Well, surprised that it was X-Men, less surprised about him not talking about whatever it was he'd seen.

She probably didn't want to know, anyway.

Lily turned to Caleb. "I'm in, but it depends on what you vote. After all, you're my babysitter for the night."

Damn. She was too tired. That normally wouldn't slip out like that. She didn't want to explain why she needed a babysitter, and apparently, Caleb saw that in her eyes, because they both spoke at the same time. Lily's comment was, "He's my cousin.” At the same time that she said that, Caleb piped in with, "She's my friend's little sister."

Lily sighed. "I'll let you explain it. First things first. X-Men?"

Caleb shrugged. "Long as I'm allowed to pass out in the middle of it."

Lily nudged him with her shoulder- not wanting to, really, but having to do something to make it seem like they'd known each other for longer than fifteen seconds or however long it had been. "I sure hope you can, because I'm pretty sure I'm crashing, myself. I've been running the last two days on coffee, energy drinks and expresso beans."

"Awkward!" Rome laughed, but lightly enough to let them know he didn't really care if they were kissing cousins if that was how they rolled.

"Anyway, welcome to the club. I'm still waiting for Red Bull to be available intravenously, myself." He winked and picked up the girl's bag for her. "Trade ya," he said, handing her the blanket instead. She looked like she needed it more than he did.

Downstairs he played around with the audio-visual system until he adjusted it to his liking. "We trying to sleep here or are we trying to stay awake? I plan on sleeping if it's rock-concert level, so no worries if we want it loud."

He looked at Lily, but she didn't respond, but sat despondently on the edge of the sofa next to Caleb, who eventually said, "Keep it down. I'm going to sleep."

"Sure. Anyone hungry? Thirsty? Beer?"

"Sit down, Remington."

Rome laughed and commandeered a recliner which was surprisingly comfortable. Not optimum sleeping arrangement, but he could sleep on a cactus right now and call it heaven.

He debated with himself briefly about how best to deal with the clear emotional wreck sitting just to his right. Was she in the leave-me-alone stage or the please-distract-me stage? It was always a tough call. Hoping for the latter, Rome rolled over and fixed her with his green-eyed grin of epic playfulness.

"So, Lily, who's your favorite comic book character?"

It was getting late and since their sleeping times were totally turned around, this meant is was late afternoon, and Lenna’s stomach started to grumble and she wondered where the others were. She went back inside. Holding on tight to the book, it looked like a buckler. Lenna realized soon that hadn’t paid any attention to the place before. She was lost in it and had since a few minutes no idea where she came from or where she wanted to go. When she heard in the distance the noises of the TV.

At least I found someone, let’s hope I know this someone. I met enough strangers in the last days.

Lenna walked in and saw Rome in a recliner asleep, a smile appear because she planned to tell him about the book she found when she saw on the couch Caleb and a girl she didn’t know.

Damn it more strangers.

She sneaked to Rome, she pulled careful at his hand and whispered. “Hey Rome, wake up.”
Rome stirred a little.

“Come on Rome wake up, you have slept long enough. When you don’t wake up, I gonna hide Raws favorite gun and tell him it was you.”

“You wouldn’t dare to do that.” Answered Rome grumpy.

Lenna smiled glad he was talking quiet enough not to wake the others.

“No true I wouldn’t. Hey Rome who is the girl in Caleb’s arm?”

“Lily.”

Lenna was hugging the book tighter, while she sat down on the floor next to Rome. Yes she defiantly had met too many strangers in the last week. She accepted Danila, Georgie, Aly and Caleb but something about this girl worried her. Maybe it was not really that girl more the fact that the group started to become huge. She didn’t look at Rome. She didn't want him to interpret anything that wasn't there, and also she wasn't sometimes sure how truthful he was about his visions. She still had no idea why they came back. She still remembered her breakdown after he saw her brother in a vision, even when it was not her real brother. She liked to keep her thoughts to herself.

I don’t like this. At some point there will be someone who is smarter than me and I will be useless.

Aly was barely conscious when they'd made it to the house in the middle of Kansas nowhere. She had muttered to herself about tornadoes, witches, and flying monkeys as she took the awful shot of salt water. This had to be a dream--one scary-ass, never-ending, psychotic dream. She didn't really remember being led to a bed or who led her there. she only knew it wasn't Rome when she woke up and found herself still dressed in the scrubs she'd escaped the hospital in.

Everything felt surreal--even the rumble in her aching belly that demanded food. She sat up slowly, wincing at the pulling of her stitches. Once she was propped up on a pillow she risked a peak under her shirt. She peeled back the cloth to find a white bandage. The tape pulled at her skin making her yelp but it came away clean.

"uh oh."

Under the bandage her skin was angry red and swollen. There was a slight heat to it when she brushed her fingers over the inflamed area. So, she had escaped the FBI to get hit with an infection? No way. She noticed the medical bag and took out a bottle of penicillin. Her stomach screamed as she leaned over and grabbed the glass of water next to her bed and downed two of the pills. Now she had to eat--which meant she had to get up or else wait for someone to get her something.

Aly cursed quietly as she slid out from under the covers and placed her bare feet on the cold wood floor. She used the wall to guide her steps down the corridor and to the smell of frying eggs. Her legs almost gave out before she got to the kitchen, but lasted long enough for her to sit hard in a chair at the table.

Tex was the epitome of Southern. She greeted her with a warm smile and a bowl of grits. Aly looked at it, unsure for a moment, before dipping her spoon into it and tasting. Then her hunger took over. She didn't speak until half the bowl was already empty.

"Thanks...for everything."

"Don't you worry your pretty little heart. How are you feeling?"

"Like I lost the job I love, became a fugitive, threw my lot in with a bunch of psychotic ghost hunters, and had my insides torn out by a werewolf--but other than that, dandy."

Tex chuckled and went back to making breakfast.

Rome started awake, glad to be awoken from the now-usual parade of tripped-out dreams, as Lenna poked him. "Hm? What?" he asked.

She was threatening him. Something about tricking Rawson into kicking his ass. Where was he, even? What time was it?

He mumbled something as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He smelled breakfast cooking, and checked his watch. Ah. So they'd all conked out for just over 24 hours. Made sense, considering how badly he really had to pee right now, though he was surprised he'd managed to actually sleep that long and not wake himself up dreaming about pink elephants or people dying or something.

Elenna was showing him a book.

"You woke me up to tell me about a book?" he asked blankly.

For the first time, Elenna realized her mistake and looked chagrined, but then she regained her courage: "Yes, it's important. Anyway you have slept too long already. Look at this," she said, and dumped the thing on his lap, a corner stabbing painfully into his thigh. He stared at it.

"Rituale Romanum. You know, Lennie, contrary to popular belief I share nothing with the Roman Empire than my name and general awesomeness. I don't speak Latin."

"Well I do! It has all of the services which may be performed by a priest or deacon which are not contained within either the Missale Romanum or the Brevarium Romanum. The book also contains some of the rites which are contained in only one of these books for convenience..."

"Okay, okay, slow down. You sound like Wikipedia."

Elenna punched his arm--rather hard--he forgot she had had a brother.

"Okay, okay, sorry!" He grinned, leafing through the ancient pages, trying to force interest. Then a thought struck him. "Does it have...exorcisms in it?" Rome tried to sound nonchalant, but he figured she knew exactly what he meant by that.

Lenna wasn’t sure how to react. She looked at the book in his lap for a long time before she felt save to look at him. And she had a plan, first distract him and then answer the question. So she said with shining eyes and a huge happy smile in her face. "Have you seen how many books, Tex has? She has books about everything. Really everything and mostly in different languages. THe library is awesome, the best I've seen so far. Maybe even better than Bobby's."

To bad and I hoped a tiny bit that he would forget his question. Fine.

“Um yeah it does.” She reached over him to go to the chapter he asked for. “Here this one rather complicated, I don’t understand all of it. I am trying to understand it but it is a little bit weird. But there is also the one I used when…”

Lenna trailed off not even after one year she had no idea how to handle their first meeting.

“But I don’t have to understand the exorcism to use them, just I want to. Rome did you ever think about learning them yourself? It is not that difficult, even you should manage to remember some Latin words?”

Lenna grinned at him, they had too many chick flick moments the last days. It was great to use her I-am-a-helpless-little-girl-look to get what she wanted, like a book, but she doesn't want to be always this helpless little girl. But something let her still wonder.

Since when is Rome so badass overprotective? Yeah he was protective before but that bad? I am surprised he left me in the library alone.

"Rome who is the girl, and don't answer just with Lily again?"

After Tex was satisfied with Allison eating enough, she grabbed a manila file folder and offered the former FBI agent a hand.

"Think you can make it into the TV room, hun? I gotta talk to y'all about something."

Allison nodded and Tex helped to steady her. Girl was doing fine, just a mite shaky from the looks of it. The few-odd days of rest had been good for them. Just knowing that something wasn't waiting around every corner to kill you did wonders, and this was a safe house.

Tex sensed an intense conversation was going on in her TV room between the two kids, but there were more pressing matters at hand. Which trumped even waking Caleb Daly from a dead sleep, which was traditionally an unhealthy move. And as for Lily, well, maybe Romulus had it right: distraction was the best way to heal the deeper wounds. Well, if this didn't distract her, nothing would.

"All right, y'all. Got a job for you."

Romulus and Elenna looked up, guiltily, and Elenna snatched a book from off of Rome's lap and pulled it to her chest. Lily blinked her eyes owlishly, looking as if she had only just fallen asleep. Caleb, true to form, went from 0 to Commando in .012 seconds, but stilled when she put a firm hand on his shoulder.

"What's up, Tex?" he asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes once he realized nothing was immediately trying to kill him.

"Some disappearances going on in Chicago, and the police have no bodies yet."

"Why not a police job?" Rome, eager to be lazy whenever the opportunity allowed, asked.

"All men, all from the same area of town, all ages 21-30. Looks like a vampire hunting ground to me." Tex paused. A bit quick. "Anyway, here's the file," she said, tossing the folder down on the coffee table. Elenna picked it up and rifled through the newspaper clippings, reading the same way a starving man ate. "Let's just say it's suspicious, anyway, and worth checking out. The sooner you can head out, the better."

Tex paused, glanced around the group. "Anyone who thinks they oughta stay behind is welcome to, of course. There's lockers for your belongings downstairs if you want, or you can claim yourself a room upstairs, and it'll be here when you get back. My door's always open for you young things. Anytime."

A deep breath: "But now, you got a job to do. So get out."

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Stay tuned for the next episode of Supernatural: Reanimated, Welcome to My Nightmare