Off The Deep End

Part 1

Being a Winchester is never easy. Believe me, I know. I've lost so much in my life. My father, my surrogate uncle. I even lost both of my brothers once. Somehow though, they always find their way back to me, even if it meant crawling out of hell to do it.

Sam and Dean were my best friends. I could count on them for everything. John and I never had that strong of a relationship. I was more of a thing he had to haul around everywhere he went. Bobby, on the other hand, was more my father than John ever was. He was there for me through everything, including the discovery of my little secret... He was the only one who knew I was a mermaid. He helped me through every change. I'd go to his house to 'help him', but that was just our excuse to get Sam and Dean to let me go. He'd set up a pool behind his house and fixed it to be salt water.

My first change was a surprise. It happened when I was six. I was terrified, and with good reason. In my life, it's usually a bad sign when you sprout a tail for no reason. We'd tracked my changes and found that they corresponded with the full moon. I'd change as the moon rose, and would change back in the morning once the moon went down. We would do this every month. Everything was normal, well, as normal as a teenage girl turning it a fish could get. But, seven months ago something changed. I didn't change back until an hour after the moon went down. We thought nothing of it at the time, but the next month, it took two hours after normal. The change lasted longer each month, until I'd spend two days with my tail.

Me and Bobby were getting concerned and considered telling Sam and Dean, but with the constant threat of the leviathans, they never got around to it.

And we never would.

Bobby died.

I was alone with my secret, and I didn't have the strength to tell my brothers. Not even with the fact that tonight was a full moon.

"Ava?" I look at Dean, my mind drifting out of my thoughts. "Yeah, Dean?" Dean sits next to me and shows me Sammy's laptop. "We found a case. It's in Washington near the coast." Dean pauses and looks into my eyes, which I avoid. "Are feeling up to that?" I chew my lip and Dean sighs. "Look I know it's been hard lately, what with what happened with Bobby," I look at Dean. He's not usually the type to have these kinds of conversations. "But we don't want to push you to do anything you don't want to." After a long moment I let out a breath. "It's alright. I'll go." Dean smiles and pats my back. "Alright. I'll go tell Sammy." Dean leaves the Bunker Library. Dean said the case was on the coast, huh? Maybe I could sneak off to change in the water. I never changed anywhere besides Bobby's bathtub, and eventually the pool, but he was gone now, and I have to figure this out on my own.

"So what do we have on this case?" I asked once Sam and Dean returned. They sit down, and show me the news articles. "On a stretch of road, cars and people go missing without a trace." I look at the last report, which was a few days ago. A family was driving down Tesapeak Road, when they mysteriously went missing. "We think maybe it is a vengeful spirit." I raise an eyebrow. "What gave you that idea?" Sam nods and opens a new tab which had an article from the 50's. "Fred Benson was killed in 1956 when a drunk driver hit him going 76," I cringe. "Exactly. The coroner says he was alive for two days, paralyzed on the side of the road. An eye witness later claimed to have seen a body on the side of the road, but had figured that someone had already called the authorities and didn't bother to stop." I purse my lips. "So, he probably signaled several cars, but no one stopped to help." Sam nods. Dean smirks. "This should be an easy one. Get in, Salt and Burn, and get out." I nod. Alright. Lets go."

In the garage, Dean leads the way to one of the other cars. "What about Baby?" Dean looks at the impala. "You heard the reports. Freddy likes taking out cars." I scoff out a laugh. "And you don't want to risk it." Dean smiles at me. I roll my eyes and climb into the car.

After a few hours of driving we arrived in Washington. I look at my watch. 8:42. I bite my lip. "Dean, can we go to the hotel first?" Dean glances at me in the back seat. "We're going to check out the road first." I open my mouth to reply, but hiss in pain. My hand goes to my throat, and my fingertips trace slits. My gills. Shit. If this was happening, then... I pull up my leggings at the ankles. Yep. My scales were growing out from my skin. If I didn't get to water soon, then this wouldn't get pretty. "You alright Ava?" I look at Sam and take my hand away from my throat. "Uh, yeah," I bite my lip. "Just, uh," I swallow hard. It was getting hard to talk. Let alone breath. "Just that time of month I suppose." Sam's eyes widen and turns around. Yeah, no kidding it's that time of month, but no, I don't bleed like a normal teenage girl should, no. I grow a tail and sprout gills. "Dean," I croak out. "Please." I cover my gills, in effort to stop them from opening all the way, because once that happens, goodbye lovely ability to breath air. "Cool it Ava, we'll get there when we get there." I whimper as I feel my scales push out from under my skin. I try to beg to go home again - home being the hotel - but my voice comes out as a squeak. Sam turns to me again. "Ava, are you sure you are okay?" I stare at him, unable to speak. My eyes find the street. I made a face of shock and hit Dean. He gasps and slams the breaks. The car stops just feet away from a man. He had blood falling down his face, and his back was at an odd angle. The ghost. "Dammit." Dean tries to put the car in reverse, but when he hits the gas it doesn't work. "What the hell...?" The gear shifts into drive and starts to move. The ghost stares at us with a look of hatred. "Dean..." Sam warns, "I know!" The car starts to speed up, and it leads us to a bridge. It slams to a stop and a chill runs down my spine. "You didn't stop. You should have stopped." I jumped away from the ghost that was now next to me. Sam swings his arm around and puts it in front of me. "Dean!" The car starts driving again and steers toward the bridge edge. "Dean!" But it was too late. The car goes over the edge and hits the water.