Chapter Text
Not the best start, Liv, she thought to herself as she sat on the edge of a hospital bed with her legs dangling off the side. She was barefoot because the nurse had asked her to remove her shoes, expecting her to cuddle up, lean back, and relax for a bit. The nurse was wrong, though. Liv had refused to even change into a gown. Losing the shoes was all she’d concede. She wasn’t staying the night, and the hospital would let her go one way or another. It’s just a bump on the head.
“Ma’am, the doctor will be in shortly to check you out and make sure you don’t have a concussion.”
“Thanks. I’m sure I’m fine-”
“We have to make sure. You were nearly unconscious when you’re boyfriend brought you in-”
Liv cut the nurse off with a burst of laughter, then blanched and held her head. Jesus! That was really a bump on the head. She grimaced, “That was not my boyfriend.”
“Either way,” the nurse said sternly, the hand gripping her clipboard in a fist on her hip. “You aren’t leaving until we’re sure you’re alright.” She turned abruptly and charged out of the room, leaving the door open.
Liv sat up straight with a start at the shift in the nurse’s tone, a slight smirk beginning to form on her face. She felt sufficiently scolded, but it kind of felt good. She spent a lot of her time on her own so feeling someone’s concern for her was nice, even if the lady was paid to do it.
Just then, two men in navy blue suits entered the room. It caught her off guard because, for one, she wasn’t expecting to see anyone other than the doctor, and for another, both men were incredibly good looking. The one who entered first, with a swagger in his step that was obvious just in the few feet he walked into the room, had short, manicured hair and bright eyes. The other, who followed close to the first’s side, was impressively tall and broad and had nearly shoulder-length hair. He seemed much more serious than his partner.
“Good evenin’, ma’am,” the one with short hair said with a grin, flashing a badge Liv didn’t get a chance to actually see before it was stowed back in his front pocket. “We’re just going to ask a few questions about what happened tonight.” The tall one stood a bit off to the side and nodded a greeting toward Liv.
Great, Liv thought. She had only just started this case and was already having to lie to the police.
Really not the best start.
“Okay,” Liv nodded to show her cooperation. She had deterred officers before, so this shouldn’t be too hard, especially since she was seemingly the victim. She just wasn’t looking forward to having to think quick on her feet with a possible concussion blurring her brain.
Liv grabbed a bit of her hair and started twirling it in her fingers. “But I don’t know how much help I will be. And I have such a headache.” She added a higher tone than what was usually present to her voice . She noted that when some men heard a girl speak in a high pitched voice, they were less likely to take her seriously, and she wanted to be taken the least bit serious as possible and deemed a waste of time so these two would move on. Though she also noted that it would be sad to see them go. They were both so pretty.
'Bright-eyes' had a disarming smile which he was clearly trying to use for that purpose on Liv, so she pretended to be disarmed. That seemed to play to his good side and loosened him up. He shot a wink at her and said, “We’ll be quick.”
Yeah I’ll have you guys out of here in no time.
“What’s your name?”
She smiled and leaned towards him a bit, “Olivia Loftlan.”
“Cute! I like that.”
The serious one stepped forward, interrupting his partner’s attempts at flirting. “So you were at Golden Gate Park tonight.”
Liv nodded.
“Had a date or …?” 'Bright-eyes' kept the flirtation going.
“No, sir. I’m not seeing anybody right now.”
He raised his brows. Oh, this is going to be too easy, she thought.
“So you were alone?” Interjected his partner, with a sigh. The other guy seemed to have no patience for this kind of behavior on the job.
Liv nodded again.
“Why were you at the park so late?” he continued.
“Is it a crime to go for a walk by the lake late at night?” She feigned a clueless face, tossing the lock of hair in her hand over her shoulder.
“No, but one might say it’s an odd decision, specifically at that time,” the shorter one added.
“I supposed…?”
“I mean, you know the stories about that part of the park, by the statue, right?” He was trying to lead her to reveal something, and maybe if she hadn’t been a hunter it would have worked. But as it was, Liv was a hunter so this question sent up about 15 red flags.
She dropped her flirtatious facade and narrowed her eyes at him. “Do you guys even care that I got knocked out at the park? That’s where these questions are headed right?”
The shorter one side-eyed the one with the long hair.
Liv frowned. “Uh… who did you guys say you were with again?”
“The FBI, ma’am.”
Liv raised her eyebrow at the taller one with a smirk. Not with that haircut, you’re not. He returned her scrutiny with a scrunched up brow. “And why does the FBI care about the statue at Stow Lake?” she asked, not breaking eye contact with the giant.
“Why won’t you give a straight answer about what you were doing there?” said the other, stepping between her gaze and his partner, looking annoyed for the first time.
“Show me your badges.” They both extended their badges toward her. 'Bright-eyes' flipped his closed as Liv leaned in to look closer and almost started questioning her again, but Liv cut him off. “Uh, no I wasn’t done. Hand it over.”
The men in suits exchanged looks. The tall one, with his still extended and unflipped, handed his badge to her. The other reluctantly did the same with a roll of his eyes.
I’m not so cute anymore, am I?
“‘Agent Steven Perry’ and ‘Agent Neal Schon’…?” she read aloud. Her eyes darted from one to the other, as amusement broke across her face. “So.. you’re the lead singer of Journey and you’re the lead guitarist? This is so cool! Can you guys break me off a few bars of 'Lovin’ Touchin Squeezin’ before you continue asking me about Stow Lake instead of how I got injured?”
There was a bit of facepalming and head shaking from the men in front of her.
Liv burst out laughing again, only to end up scowling in pain like the first time. Ouuuuch! Dammit! “You aren’t FBI,” she said, flatly, holding her hand to her forehead.
After another pause the tall one burst out with, “Dean, I told you, you have to stop making IDs that are so matchy matchy!”
“Shut up!” the one called Dean shouted. “And ‘matchy matchy’? Seriously? Be more of a girl, Sam.”
Sam rolled his eyes.
“Who the hell are you guys?” Liv demanded, though she was incredibly entertained watching the two bicker.
“I’m Sam Winchester, this is my brother Dean. We’re here to check out some of the oddities happening out at Stow Lake and we know you weren't just out by the statue taking a walk. We need ans--”
“Winchester,” Liv said, distantly. “I feel like I’ve heard that name before.” The boys seemed jarred by this. “Wait! So you guys are looking into the lake, too? Are you hunters?”
Dean stared a little wide-eyed at her, then looked over at his brother. Sam shrugged at him. “Uh… yeah?” he answered.
“Me too!”
“What is going on in here?” All three of them were startled by the booming voice that came from an angry doctor.
“Uh, this is our friend,” --Dean glanced sideways at Liv, momentarily forgetting her name--”Er...Olivia!” He patting Liv on the shoulder. Clearly being arrested for sneaking into an ER and impersonating an officer was not on his agenda for the night. Liv went along with the story and smiled up at the doctor, nodding. “We’re just here, checkin’ on her.”
“You’ll need to wait in the waiting room,” barked the doctor. “Only patients are allowed back here!”
“Of course,” Sam said, tugging Dean along. “We’re sorry.”
“So you guys’ll be in the waiting room, then?” Liv shouted as the Winchesters tried to make their exit. There were a lot of questions she now had for them and there was no way it was fair for them to ring-and-run. They paused in the doorway, slightly confused.
“Sure thing,” Dean responded, a little forced, and then they were gone with the door shutting behind them.
“Your friends sure do dress nice,” said the doctor in a much sweeter tone than before.
Liv nodded awkwardly in agreement.
****
“...and it’s only minor if it is one at all, but someone needs to keep their eye on her for the night just to be sure.” One of the nurses was explaining Liv’s status to the Winchesters even though Liv was standing right there. Dean looked unbelievably put out, but Sam seemed to fake “concerned friend” pretty well. Liv was thankful, but it was unnecessary
“Alright, got it,” Dean said to the nurse. She didn’t seem convinced and Dean didn’t care. He turned to Sam. “Let’s go.”
“We’ll make sure she’s alright,” Sam assured the nurse, before turning to Liv. “Do you need a ride or do you have a car here?”
“My car is still at the park, actually.”
“Oh no,” interjected the nurse. “It’s probably best if she doesn’t drive tonight.”
Dean groaned. The nurse shot him a hard look.
“Have you seen a kind of stocky guy with curly, dark hair, dark eyes, dark skin, and glasses around the waiting room lately?” Liv asked the nurse.
“The man who brought you in?”
“Yeah, his name is Ives Driskel.”
“No, I haven’t seen him up here since he checked you in. Sorry, dear.”
Now Liv groaned.
“Does that mean he just took off?” Sam asked in a disapproving tone.
“He tends to do weird stuff like that. There’s no telling where he is.” She sighed like being abandoned at an ER was a common occurrence. “I’ll call him--”
“No, we’ll take you to your car,” Sam declared, placing his hand on her phone to cover the screen. He shook his head. “It doesn’t sound like you can really trust this guy.”
Liv paused to appraise this tall stranger. Okay, maybe this guy isn’t pretending to be concerned. That’s pleasant. She ended up nodding.
The nurse pointed at Sam to get his attention. “Don’t let her drive. And she probably shouldn’t do much reading or any complicated tasks until she rests.” He nodded kind of like he was being scolded, Dean gave a sarcastic thumbs up in the background, then slipped out the door. They followed him to the parking lot.
“Could she not see me? Why did she only address you guys?”
“That was weird,” Sam replied. Dean kept trudging through the lot towards his car. He clearly had not signed up for this shit.
“And what kind of ‘complicated tasks’ does she think I’m going to do in the middle of the night?” Liv jeered.
Dean snickered.
Ugh, gross. Is this guy for real?
“Anyway,” --she popped Sam on the shoulder as they went-- “I really do feel fine, but as it is now, yes, I need a ride. If you guys don’t mind? I really can call Ives if it’s too much trouble.”
Sensing Dean was about to suggest she do that, Sam cut him off before he could start just as they arrived at the Impala. “We’ll take you.”
“Holy shit, this is your car?”
“Hmm, guess this chick ain’t all bad,” Dean conceded. “Hop in.”
*****
“Who is this Ives, then? He your hunting partner?” Dean asked Liv via the rearview mirror as they sped down Geary Boulevard on their way back to Golden Gate Park. Dean seemed to be taking it personal that Ives had left Liv for him to deal with.
“On this job, yeah.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t really have a partner. I work different jobs whenever I get a call. I have a lot of different contacts that keep me busy.”
This thought seemed to horrify Dean. “How do you know you can trust ‘em all?”
Liv laughed. “I have my ways. I trust them all to at least keep me alive. Now, whether or not I can depend on them for a ride home, that’s a different story.”
“Clearly.”
“Ives is really not a bad guy, he’s just… offbeat. He probably got distracted by some new innovative idea that struck him and had to get back to his laptop to work on it.”
“Well, if I were you,” Sam began, turning back to face Liv, “I’d find someone to work with who wouldn’t get distracted while I was injured in the ER next time.”
“Touche,” Liv sighed. “So you guys are here working this case, but you don’t seem like you’re locals and I take it you aren’t really into networking, huh?”
“Not really,” replied Sam.
“More like hell no!” Dean spat.
“Then how did you guys end up here?”
“We keep tabs on stuff across the country. Golden Gate Park is the most visited public park in the nation and there are all kinds of legends of hauntings through each part. The most famous being the Lady of Stow Lake.” Sam leaned his elbow over the back of the seat as he explained what he had researched. He talked with his hands a lot. This made Liv smile. “Around Halloween it’s normal for people to come around and try to test out some of the urban legends to scare themselves, so there was an uptick of police reports surrounding the lake.”
“But since it was Halloween the police haven’t been taking many of the complaints seriously,” Liv added.
“Exactly. Until people started dying. Which is why we’re here.”
“And how did you guys know to question me about the Lake?”
“Well, the legend and ‘survivor’ accounts all emphasize a specific time in the evening for when the Lady ‘visits’--”
Dean finished Sam’s sentence. “So since we knew the time of night, we turned our scanner on to see if we could catch anything on the radio waves. Not long after we did we heard a park security guard radio about yet another accident happening with some ‘kids’ messing with the statue. Our scanner picked it up, and boom. Didn’t take much time to pin-point the nearest ER, then we headed out.”
“Impressive.” And Liv meant that.
“Speaking of, what exactly happened to send you to the ER?” Sam asked.
“I really don’t know,” Liv said, screwing up her face confusedly. “I literally just got into town today. Me and Ives met up at the park just to scope things out and before I knew it, I had this throbbing pain in my head, then I woke up in Ives’ car on the way to the ER with blurred vision.”
“Well, I guess this gives us a starting point,” Sam said.
“Glad I could be of service!” Liv quipped, with a grin. “Be careful boys, this is how networking starts.”
Sam grinned back.
“Hey Olivia--” Dean interjected.
“Actually, most everyone just calls me ‘Liv.’”
“Yeah, I’m good with ‘Olivia.’”
Liv and Sam raised their eyebrows at one another.
“Which side of the park is your car at?” Dean asked.
“The South side, off Lincoln. Oh, dude, you just missed the turn.”
“Dammit! There’s all these one way streets! I hate this city.”
“San Francisco is my favorite city! It’s the best, you just have to get used to it --No, go down that street. There!”
“Stop being a back seat driver!”
“Well, perhaps you should try driver-seat driving, just a suggestion.”
Sam was laughing.
When they pulled up next to what Liv pointed out as her car --a little charcoal, compact car Dean immediately called a “mom car”-- Sam hopped out of the Impala with Liv before she could thank the Winchesters for helping her out. She hesitated with her door between them still ajar, a quizzical look on her face. Sam shut his door.
“Yes?”
“What are you doing?”
“Yeah, Sammy! What’re you doin?” Dean shouted from the driver’s seat.
“The nurse said she can’t drive, Dean,” Sam explained loudly so his voice carried through the open car door.
Dean groaned.
“Really, I’m fine. The nurse said it was just to be safe and there is probably nothing wrong…” she trailed off, watching Sam just stare at her with a furrowed brow. “I supposed if you guys wanted to kidnap and murder me you’ve already had your chance?”
With a chuckle, Sam nodded. “I just wouldn’t feel okay leaving you to drive.”
“I just wanna get back to the hotel to relax and have a beer,” grumbled Dean to himself, yet not-so-under his breath.
Sam face palmed.
“I arrived in town today and never got a room so” --Liv glanced into the Impala to see a cranky Dean miming banging his head against the steering wheel-- “uh, why don’t we just go back to your hotel and I’ll get one there. That way you can put Dean straight to bed as soon as possible.”
“You hear that, Dean?” Sam shouted through Liv’s still-open door. “Go on back. We’ll meet you there.”
The Impala roared to life, drowning out more Dean grumbles, and Liv slammed the door shut. There was still a dull ache in her head, but she knew she was feeling better and better because she was able to laughed to her full ability without grabbing her forehead. Liv handed her keys to Sam. “Really, you didn’t have to do this. I could have managed.”
“It’s no big deal.”
Sam adjusted the driver’s seat of Liv’s car to accommodate his mile-long legs and hit the ignition. “Lights” by Journey blared from the speakers. Sam sat back and turned slowly over to Liv with a smirk. She returned it by raising her eyebrow at him playfully and shrugging.
“So you really like Journey, huh?”
She nodded. “And I always turn on ‘Lights,’ when I come into San Fran. They wrote it about this city. Just feels right.”
Liv reached to turn the volume down as Sam pulled out of the parking spot, and they were off. She felt fidgety but she wasn’t sure why because Sam seemed to naturally put her at ease. The lights of the city shined by as they drove. The boys had chosen a dinky Victorian style hotel off of Sutter so it would take about twenty minutes to get through town from where she was parked. She spoke up to fill what she feared was an awkward silence.
“You take pity on strangers with head trauma often?”
“Not specifically victims of head trauma,” Sam replied, amused. “But I know a thing or two about that so...”
“Care to elaborate?”
Sam side-eyed her with a smirk. “Not really.”
“Mysterious.”
“I’ve been called worse.”
“I’ve only known you for a few hours so I’ll take your word on that.” There was a brief awkward moment until Liv ended it again. “So, Sam. Is that short for Samuel, Samwise, Samwell?”
“It’s just Sam. I was named after my grandfather.”
“Awe, that’s sweet! So was I --well-- kind of. My middle name is Sydney after my Grandpa, whose name is Sid.”
Sam didn’t think it was very sweet that he was named after Samuel. He smiled at her anyways. She didn’t need to know that. Clearly being named after Sid made her happy. “So you close to your grandfather?”
“Yeah, I really am!” Liv’s voice brightened. “He’s great. He’s my mom’s dad, and a police officer in his younger days. My parents lived in New York and ran this little hostel in Time Square, but they split up when I was really young and my dad remarried pretty quickly. When Mom got cancer, she couldn’t stay in NYC because she couldn’t work, so she and I moved to Dalhart, Texas to live with Grandpa in basically the oldest house in the world. Mom died when I was three, I barely remember a real parent who wasn’t my Grandpa Sid.”
Sam was never this up front with people about his past so he wasn’t sure if it was too meddlesome to ask her to go on or not, but he tried it anyways. “Did your dad ever come around?”
“When I was in High School his second wife left him and he insisted that I come back to NYC and let him put me in a private art school out there. He offered to pay if I stayed with him and tried for a scholarship to a University. It was his weird way of trying to make up for not giving a shit about my dying mother or about me for the first half of my life, I guess.” --Liv shrugged. There was only a slight feel of bitterness in her voice, and from what Sam judged based on how her father sounded, not enough bitterness-- “Grandpa was always really supportive of me so he encouraged me to go because he knows how I love the arts.”
“Oh, so you’re an artist?” Sam sounded impressed.
“Well,” Liv chuckled. “I dance. I love the stage. I couldn’t paint my way out of a devil’s trap.”
“That’s still really cool, though. The stage?”
“Broadway. I guess it’s in my blood, I don’t know. I never remembered living there as a kid, but I always wanted to go back. Grandpa was so great about it.”
“That must be nice.”
“You’re family not so supportive?”
“You might say that.”
“Can I assume you don’t care to elaborate on that either?”
Sam amusedly raised his eyebrow at her.
“Okay, keep your secrets then,” Liv replied with a playful tone.
“I grew up in the life,” Sam said flatly. This girl had trusted him when she didn’t have to, and she seemed genuinely interested to know about him. Maybe he owed her a little background. He could be vague. “My mom died when I was a baby and Dad raised me and Dean to be hunters. I went to college for a stint but it didn’t last. I ended up leaving to do a job with my brother and we’ve been hunting together ever since.”
“I’m sorry about your mom. I mean, when I lost Mom, I was still so young I barely remember her, but it’s still hard.” Sam nodded silently so Liv, who was surprised to hear him open up at all, decided to change the subject quickly. “But college, huh! Which one, and did you have a major or--”
“Stanford. I wanted to be a lawyer.”
Liv’s jaw hung open for a second. “Wow, brainiac!”
This was something Dean had called him many times as a cut-down but he could tell Liv didn’t use it the same way. His cheeks turned red under her gaze. He wasn’t used to this kind of attention but it felt kind of nice. He cleared his throat awkwardly and then tried to turn attention away from himself. “So how did you get into all of this?”
“Well, I too made it to college for a stint, but like you, it didn’t last. My father was killed in my second year and it was...difficult.”
“Like he was murdered?”
“Yeah. It was a demon.”
“Wow. I’m so sorry Liv.” Sam was sincere but not surprised. There weren’t many hunters he knew whose family hadn’t been destroyed before entering this way of life. Not many of them chose it lightly, if they chose it at all.
“Thanks,” Liv said. And she was sincere, too, though Sam could tell it no longer broke her up, if it ever did. “I mean,” she continued, “it was traumatic at the time even though my father and I were never close. Emotionally or geographically speaking. But I just knew something was up with the circumstances surrounding his death, so I started digging. I had watched Grandpa work cases my whole life, even if they were stupid, small town things, so I went with my instincts and what I thought he would do. I discovered there was a lot more to the world than I had originally thought.”
“That’s rough.”
“Yeah. Dad had made a deal. Ten years before, he could tell his wife was losing interest because his business was slipping, so he made a deal to stay successful to keep her around. Obviously it did not work.”
“Yikes.”
“Yeah sometimes there just isn’t an easy fix, imagine that!” Liv rolled her eyes.
Okay, there’s the bitterness.
“He knew he was on his way out. He had changed his will a few months before. Named me beneficiary of the business and a semi-lofty inheritance.”
“The business and money he made a deal for, he left to you?”
“Yeah. I’m telling you, Sam. He wasn’t a great guy. I guess if I hadn’t discovered how he had really died --that there was a demon deal involved-- it would seem like a generous thing. But it just felt gross.”
“So what did you do?”
“After basically having an existential crisis and questioning everything I’ve ever known--”
“Naturally--”
“--I couldn’t go back to school. Everything seemed… erroneous? I don’t know, I just couldn’t …. you know?”
“It’s definitely not something you can bounce back from easily.”
“So I got a little obsessed and started researching everything I could and I stopped going to classes and kind of went a little Leo in the Aviator --without the weird pee jars. But! The business kept on going like usual under the management of my dad’s best friend, Bernie, and the inheritance was transferred over to me as well, so I had all this disgusting deal money and an entire new outlook on this terrifying world and felt totally useless.” Liv sighed, pulling her brows together. “So I just left New York.”
“You left? Alone?”
“Yup, and I decided if Dad wanted me to benefit from his deal then I was going to use it as a way to hopefully help clueless people like pre-existential-crisis me from having to go through what I did. I took the little knowledge I had, a few weird urban legends leads I wanted to check out, my car, a suitcase, and my checkbook on the road and I’ve been learning everything I could ever since. That was about --Jesus!-- nine years ago. That’s why I network like I do. At first, it was the only way I could stay alive, throwing myself into situations like I did.”
“Wow!”
“I know,” Liv replied with an embarrassed tone. “Sometimes I look back on how I started, knowing what I know now, and cringe. I don’t know how I survived most of that shit.”
Sam chuckled. “No, but even being brought up doing this stuff, you still feel that way when you look back on early cases.”
“Yeah? So what’s your dad like? It must have been nice having someone to guide you.”
Sam’s expression told Liv she was treading into unwelcome territory. Her face fell.
“My father is dead,” Sam said, simply.
“Oh. I--” She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I should know by now not to ask too many questions when I meet new hunters.”
“It’s okay, I brought it up.”
Thankfully they pulled into the hotel parking lot behind the Impala before it got too awkward. Liv unclicked her seatbelt --she noted how weird it was to sit in the passenger seat of her own car-- and hopped out. Sam did the same. He tossed her the keys from across the car and she headed to the trunk to grab her bags.
Instead of an arsenal in her trunk, Liv had an entire closet, complete with a section for what looked like costumes. There were weapons tucked here and there, but for the most part it was clear that she very much lived out of her car. And she very much emphasized camouflage, deception, and adaptation to work her cases rather than force and intimidation.
She reached for two medium sized pieces of luggage, hesitated, then also grabbed a small cooler, and turned to head into the hotel. If she had known Sam was standing right next to her with his arm outstretched, waiting to help her with her bags, she probably wouldn’t have run right into him and dropped it all. The luggage was fine, but the cooler cracked open and started leaking on the pavement.
“Aghh!” she yelled, involuntarily.
“Sorry!” Sam bellowed, grabbing up the dropped bags before the liquid from the cooler could get at them. Liv went to the cooler with a confused look on her face. “Um… what is that?” Sam pointed at the small, silvery, glistening pieces of something sitting in the mostly melted slush that clearly used to be ice.
“I’m not sure,” Liv replied, approaching it with caution. “It’s Ives’ cooler.”
“Was he icing down bullets?”
She bent over and picked one up. It was shaped like a silver bullet shell, but was completely hollow, and there was nothing inside. She rolled her eyes with an amused groan.
“Oh my God,” she scoffed.
“What?”
“I told him this would never work, but he was so stuck on the idea.” She held the hollow shell up for Sam to see. “Holy water bullets.”
“What?”
“Like ice cubes.”
“But wouldn’t it melt and break and keep the gun from firing--”
“That’s what I told him--”
“And couldn’t he just use rock salt instead--”
“That’s what I told him!”
“This is the guy that’s supposed to have your back on this case?”
Liv shrugged. “Guess it’s a good thing I met you.”
“Sammy!” Both Liv and Sam turned to look. A disgruntled Dean stood with his arms in an exaggerated what-the-hell-are-you-doing shrug under the dim light of the Hotel entrance across the lot. They shut the trunk and headed in.