Topic: French Onion Soup (AU)

Jo Winchester

Date: 2012-08-01 18:36 EST
You'd think that, for a hunter, getting out of a bed would be no trouble at all. Of course, for most hunters, it would be. For Nim, who had woken up completely entangled with a heavily sleeping Dean, getting up without waking him had proved to be nearly tiring enough to warrant getting back into the bed again. Still, once she was out, there was no going back. She dressed in fresh clothes, pausing a moment to brush a soft kiss to Dean's temple, tucking the covers over him once again, and slipped from the guest room, making her quiet way back down the stairs toward the main rooms. Her stomach was growling, and a glance at the clock on the wall suggested that making a meal for everyone in the house might be a good idea. Stepping into the kitchen, she turned her attention to the refridgerator, wondering whether Bobby had anything that could possibly be classed as food.

Bobby's kitchen was generally not all that well stocked up on food, unless you counted a decent supply of beer and Doritos. But he was about to have a houseful of guests and once Bill had arrived, he'd taken control of the situation and had insisted on going shopping for groceries. Hence, the once empty cupboards had been changed into a well-stocked kitchen. As for himself, Bill liked to putter around the kitchen and thought of himself as a bit of an aspiring gourmet when he wasn't busy hunting or running the Roadhouse.

Opening up the fridge, Nim blinked in surprise, one hand resting on the top of the door as she scanned the well-stocked receptacle with a quietly pleased smile. "Well, Bobby, you didn't strike me as the good food type," she murmured to herself in amusement, bending to rummage curiously. "Soup and sandwiches, maybe?"

The house was quiet for the most part with Dean sleeping upstairs and Bobby missing, most likely hiding in the library doing research or handling calls to and from hunters. A voice was heard coming from behind her as another man stepped in through the back door. "You must be Nimue," Bill Harvelle said, stating the obvious as he shut the door behind him and stepped into the kitchen. He was nearly as tall as Dean, with brown hair just starting to gray at the temples, and brown eyes. He was a handsome man, roughly in his late 40s or early 50s, with an easy smile, but that slightly weary look on his face that seemed to come with hunting.

Nim reacted predictably enough to the unexpected, unrecognized voice, spinning from her bend to draw her gun from her pants. Her thumb was halfway through flicking the safety off before she made the logical connection, offering up a sheepish half-smile of apology. "I guess that makes you Bill, then," she answered, tucking the gun into the back of her pants once again. Her eyes lingered on his face, unconsciously looking for any similarity to the face she saw in the mirror most days.

"Guilty as charged," he replied, nodding his head and pointing at the fridge. "Mind grabbing me a beer while you're in there?" He seemed completely at ease, though there was no way of telling how much Bobby had already told him. "So, Bobby tells me you're the one who graffitied his walls."

It took a moment to realize he'd asked for something, dragging her eyes from their fascinated study of his face to turn and snag a bottle from the fridge, passing it over. "Graffiti" That's one way of putting it," she smiled faintly, nodding to herself as she started peeling onions. "You'll know why once Brian gets here. It's a long story, and not one I personally want to hear three times." Once had been bad enough, after all. She paused, looking Bill over thoughtfully. "You wanna make yourself useful here, or are you a stand, watch, and eat person?"

"Fair enough," Bill replied, regarding the sigils and the story, though he had a few ideas of his own about what might be going on, and Bobby had told him a little. He cracked the beer open and tossed the cap in the trash before taking a long swallow and answering her question. "I can work my way around a kitchen pretty well," he offered. "What are you planning on cooking up" I thought I heard you mumble something about soup and sandwiches." He took another swallow of his beer as he took a lean on the counter.

"Well, I was thinking French onion soup," Nim mused thoughtfully, flicking her peelings into the bin. "Have to toast the bread rather than bake it, but that won't change the taste much. Should be a shock to the system for the fast food junkies in the house." She grinned, the expression ever so slightly evil; if she had the run of the kitchen, Bobby and Dean were going to find out exactly why Brian constantly moaned about her cooking. She wasn't a bad cook, not at all, but even her cheeseburgers were healthier than most.

"French onion soup that doesn't come out of a can?" he asked, arching a brow, looking duly impressed. He took another swallow of his beer and set the bottle aside, wiping his hands on his jeans. "I'm pretty good in the kitchen. What do you need me to do?" He'd had Bobby's cooking, which wasn't really cooking at all, and was looking forward to seeing the look on the man's face when he was faced with a real meal for a change.

Her eyes strayed back to Bill curiously once again. "I'm sorry, I have to ask ....you don't know anyone called Ellen, by any chance, do you?" Never mind that Apollo had said Ellen Harvelle was unique to the reality she had died in, Nim really wanted to know if there was anything familiar about her to the man who wasn't her father in this reality.

Bill reached for an onion and started peeling without being told what to do, shrugging when she mentioned the name, not thinking much of it. "Not intimately. Someone you know?" he asked, having no idea that in an alternate universe, he'd been married to a woman named Ellen and had a daughter named Joanna.

"My mom, apparently. I don't remember her." She didn't see any point in lying; he was going to find out the truth eventually. "Peel and slice the onions, cook them in butter." Which she placed on the chopping board beside him before turning to investigate the cupboards for the rest of what she would need. "I don't remember my dad, either. Most of what I know about my parents, Dean told me." Did he know Dean Winchester was back from the dead and currently dead to the world upstairs"

"You're Brian's Jane Doe. The girl he found wounded in the alley a few years ago," Bill said, remembering hearing the story from Bobby at one point. He'd heard about Dean, too. Word had spread like wildfire throughout the hunter community. "Are they still alive" Your folks, I mean. If they are, maybe you can track them down. Even if you don't remember them, they might remember you." He made no other comment regarding Dean for now, focusing his attention on her and her questions regarding her family as he peeled and sliced.

Nim paused, biting her lip as she considered just how to try and explain this part. "You see, that's where it gets interesting," she admitted ruefully. "I'm not from around here, exactly. I'm more, sort of, from a different reality that kinda runs parallel to this one?" She wasn't sure why it came out as a question; perhaps her subconscious wanted to know if he was going to accept this much before she dropped the really weird on him.

"A different reality?" he repeated, glancing up from the onion to look at her. He'd seen some weird things in his day, but that just about took the cake. Then again, it explained a few things. "You don't sound too sure. You either are or you aren't. There's no sort of." He returned his attention to the onion slicing, ears open to whatever it was she seemed to want to say.

Jo Winchester

Date: 2012-08-01 18:40 EST
"Well, I am sure - it's the same reality the Dean upstairs is from," Nim corrected herself, relieved to find that Bill seemed open to accepting what she was saying. "Only in that one, my name was Joanna Beth ..." She paused for a moment, then accelerated into the pertinent information. "Joanna Beth Harvelle, my mother was Ellen, my father was William Anthony Harvelle, and, uh, ....well, we're all dead back there." She turned away rather than watch this sink in, pulling a carton of beef broth out of the fridge and checking the instructions.

Bill had little problem accepting the part about her and Dean being from an alternate reality. It made sense considering what he already knew from Bobby. Though it was a pretty wild story, at the very least, it explained how Dean Winchester had come back from the dead. The big question was who had brought the two of them here and why, but before he had a chance to continue with that line of questioning, she was dropping another brick on him. His hand slipped when she revealed the next bit of information and he swore under his breath as the knife sliced into his forefinger. "The hell are you talking about' I don't have a daughter," he asked, eyes narrowed suspicously. At least, as far as he knew, he didn't have a daughter.

She barely even glanced his way as he cut himself, slipping past to wet a towel and hand it to him. "Not here, you don't," she said quietly, taking a lean against the counter, braving Bill's expression to meet his eyes. "Look, I don't remember either way, I just ..." How do I explain this" she wondered. What could possibly convince him that I'm telling the truth" And then it hit her. "You have a knife. Pure iron. Engraved with your initials. Right?"

He sucked the blood from his finger a moment before taking the wet towel from her and pressing it against the cut, hardly feeling it or paying it much heed. It was nothing and would heal in no time; the news of having a daughter he never knew was a far greater shock. "So, you're saying where you come from, there's another me," he said, more statement than question, as he tried to wrap his head around it. He furrowed his brows as she described the knife he'd had for years, ever since he'd started hunting over twenty years ago. "Yeah, why?"

"There was another you, yeah. And I loved my dad so much I became a hunter just to be close to him after he died." She nodded slowly once again, very slowly moving to unsheathe the identical blade at her hip. Her hand reached out, setting it down on the counter in front of Bill. The engraved initials W.A.H. shone in the light pouring from the window. "That was on me when I crossed over. It was my dad's."

"Died," Bill echoed, barely stiffling a shudder, unsure he wanted to know much more about that. Whatever had happened to his alternate self, his life here had obviously followed a different path. He watched as she pulled the identical blade from its sheath, reaching out a hand to touch it, but hesitating and darting a questioning look her way. "May I?"

"Go right ahead. In a way, it's yours anyway." She slipped back to the counter, taking over slicing the onions to dump them into a pan with butter. It was a moment before she spoke again. "It's not like I'm asking anything from you. Believe me, I know it's weird and a lot to take in, and I don't remember the Bill Harvelle who was my dad. Brian's the closest thing I have to a father, and I would never want to replace him. But I thought you deserved to know the truth. And I'd like us to be friends."

Bill looked the knife over, quietly listening as she continued. As far as he could tell it was identical to the one he had left upstairs in another of Bobby's guest rooms. "You know how crazy that sounds, right' I mean, I've seen some pretty strange stuff in my day, but..." He ran a thumb over the initials engraved in the blade. She was either telling the truth, or it was a ridiculously good copy.

"Never got married, never had a daughter, not after what I saw some of my friends go through. Hunters dying, leaving loved ones behind. It's a thankless job, Nimue. There's no salary, no pension, no health insurance. Your whole life is a lie to everyone around you, but those who know the truth. It takes a special couple to endure all that and make it work." He didn't realize until after he'd said it that he could just as well be talking about her and Dean as anyone he might have considered making his wife.

"Then you must have been special," she said quietly. agitating the pan as she added salt and pepper. "From what I've been told, our Bill Harvelle died when I was ten years old, and his wife, Ellen, ran Harvelle's Roadhouse and brought me up. She didn't want me to hunt, but I did." She shrugged lightly, catching into the realization at the same time he did. "Some things you just can't do on your own. There'd be no point to me being here if it wasn't for Dean. He's the reason I was brought over. He's everything." Her voice gentled as she spoke, loving affection painted in her eyes even as she added sugar to the pot, turning her attention to caramelizing the onions.

"I must have been?" he repeated, snorting. "I was nothing of the sort. Whoever this other W.A.H. was, he wasn't me." Bill set the knife on the counter, pushing it back toward her, wondering what his life would have been like if he had gotten married and had children. He figured it was more than likely that, one way or another, it wouldn't have turned out well. It wasn't that he'd never been in love, never considered it; things just had never gone that way. He could have chosen to brood on this and feel sorry for himself, but he'd made his choices and he wasn't the type to linger on it long. He'd think about it later. "So, tell me....Why am I here" Bobby didn't call and tell me to get my ass to Sioux Falls just to meet a daughter who doesn't remember me."

Nim winced faintly; this was part of the long story she didn't want to dwell on herself. Her gaze stayed on the pan as she stirred, very carefully picking apart what she could and couldn't say right now. "Uh, that's part of the long story," she admitted quietly. "There's something new out there, something that would have killed you if you'd stayed at the Roadhouse last night. Something you need to know how to kill. And ....you're a target now, because the ones behind this know where I come from. They know that, on some level, you're a part of me."

He narrowed his eyes at her again as he watched her stir the onions in the pan, listening as she explained just enough for him to understand the urgency in Bobby's voice when he'd called and insisted on this visit. "Okay, so I'm a target. Wouldn't be the first time. I assume you are, too. Are we waiting for Sleeping Beauty to wake up and explain" Because I'm pretty good at putting two and two together." He remarked, reaching to take the spoon from her to take over the stirring, so she could work on the broth.

"We're waiting for Brian to get here," she told him softly, handing over the spoon easily to open up the carton of broth. "Between you, him, and Bobby, we can tell every hunter out there what they need to know within a matter of weeks. But first, Dean's got a lot to tell all of us, and I'm not going to put him through telling it three times. It was hard enough telling me, and I'm not sure I know all of it yet." She poured the broth into the pan with the onions. "Stir and simmer. You wanna grate cheese or slice bread?"

He said nothing for a moment as he stirred the onions into the broth she was adding to the pan, wondering what it would have been like to have a daughter and if he had, whether she would have been anything like this Nimue. "I can do either," he answered, as he shrugged his shoulders. "I knew his father a little. Hard man. He was tough on his boys, but it was only because he worried about them."

Another rummage in the fridge found a block of cheese; a moment of searching located a grater that had seen better days and a bowl big enough to hold said cheese. She set them down beside Bill. "You get to play with the dairy product, then," she informed him, showing off the lopsided playfulness of her smile before sobering once again. "He doesn't really talk about his dad. And I don't ask. I don't want to open old wounds."

"He'll talk about him when he's ready," Bill told her. "When he's ready, you let him. You talk to each other. Don't bottle it up inside until it turns to rage and hatred." This coming from a man who had no wife or solid relationships of any kind to speak of but that of other hunters, but he'd seen one too many destroy themselves that way, and he didn't want that for her. "You know," he started, as he tapped the spoon on the side of the pan and set it aside so he could grate the cheese. "If I'd ever had a daughter and if she was anything like you, I'd be damned proud of her."

"Well, if we don't kill each other, we'll definitely make each other stronger," she laughed, choosing to take the advice as it was offered. It was clear that Bill Harvelle was just trying to help in his own way. Setting a knife to a loaf of bread, she was in the process of cutting generous slices when his last comment made itself known, bringing a startled, touched smile to her lips. "That's, uh ....that's really nice of you to say, Bill."

Jo Winchester

Date: 2012-08-01 18:46 EST
"Yeah, well..." He shrugged again, putting an end to the sentimental moment, however brief, avoiding her gaze as he went about shredding cheese into a bowl. Maybe later when she wasn't aware, he'd take a really good look at her, see if she saw any of himself in her, any of his family. It was hard to tell right off, but he couldn't deny she had gumption and courage. "So, you two are pretty serious, I take it?"

The question brought another of those softer smiles to Nim's face as she thought of the hunter sleeping upstairs, though a faint worry was there in her eyes. She hoped Dean was sleeping peacefully; she didn't want him to wake up from a nightmare alone. But then, she doubted he was going to wake up anytime soon anyway. He was exhausted.

"I don't think it's possible to get much more serious," she told Bill quietly, not sure why she was so open to sharing this with what was essentially a stranger. "Like I said, there wouldn't be any point to me if he wasn't here." She offered another smile, perhaps a little sad at the memory of almost three years spent without Dean, but hopeful for many more spent at his side as the future became the present and the past.

"There was a point to you before you came here, right?" Bill pressed further, as he shook off the cheese he'd just grated into bowl before continuing to grate more. "You two knew each other where you come from?" he asked, more curious than anything else, still trying to wrap his head around the fact that she and Dean weren't native to this world. It explained a few things, but begged more questions than it answered.

She paused in the act of lighting up the grill, straightening to look over at Bill thoughtfully. "Dean says we did," she nodded, shrugging one shoulder gently. "We were friends, but we could have been more there. Wrong place, wrong time, every time. I died to save his life ....and I'd do it again, if I thought he'd let me get away with it."

He arched a brow as he looked pointedly over at her. "I only know him by reputation, but my guess would be he'd rather you didn't. I'm sure Brian feels the same way. I hear he's become quite the father figure," Bill remarked, finishing up his grating. There was no jealousy in his voice, though he could at least biologically claim that title for himself. Envy, maybe, but no jealousy. "How'd it happen" How'd you get here" Or is that part of the long story, too?"

"Well ..." Nim clicked her tongue lightly, pausing to stir the soup as a delicious smell began to creep through the house. "I don't know the details, really. I mean, we only got the cliff notes version. I think we're gonna have to summon Apollo to explain that one again." Setting the slices of bread beneath the grill, she leaned her hip against the counter, looking over at Bill. "Brian knows me better than anyone but Dean," she said quietly. "He gave me a place here when I didn't have one. That's a huge gift to give to a complete stranger."

"Apollo?" Bill echoed. "As in the mythological Apollo?" He couldn't think what other Apollo they might be talking about. He'd always thought the Greek Gods were nothing but myths, but he also knew that most myths were founded in some sort of fact. Something suddenly clicked in his head. "I guess that explains the Greek symbols you drew on the walls. Let me guess - They're protective symbols to keep someone or something from making a surprise visit."

"Bobby didn't pass that bit on, huh?" she asked in a wry voice, her lips curving in a small smile. She'd been asleep a good few hours, long enough for Bobby to have passed on some of the information they'd dropped before passing out. Evidently, he hadn't. "This year's big bad is Hades," she told Bill with false excitement. "And Hades has new toys. The sigils pretty much make the house unfindable for any Olympian, and if they can't find us, they can't set their pets on us."

Bill made no comment regarding what Bobby had or had not told him. Either he didn't know much of what was going on or he was hoping to get more information from Nim than he had from Bobby. "Hades, as in the God of the Underworld," Bill said, recalling his mythology. "I assume he's the reason I'm here. Has he got a hunter hit list and he's crossing us off one hunter at a time?" he asked, moving to the sink to rinse the grater, now that he had accumulated a small pile of cheese in the bowl.

"I can't say," Nim admitted, shaking her head lightly as she turned the slices under the grill, taking a moment to paint the untoasted sides with oil before pushing them back under the grill. It was something of a lie, but she wasn't comfortable with declaring herself as number one on that hit list. It felt arrogant. "I guess you just gotta be patient and wait for Brian with the rest of us."

"It's not a bad plan, you know. Take out the hunters and who's left to defend the rest of humanity?" Bill continued, not particularly happy with that thought, but it made sense. He wasn't quite sure what Hades' goal was, but he wasn't stupid. Now that Lucifer and Michael were out of the picture, he figured it probably had something to do with usurping power. "Patience isn't really my strong suit." He glanced at the soup, noting its progress. "You better get your boyfriend up soon or he's going to miss out."

"No, it isn't a bad plan at all," she agreed. "Which is why every hunter out there needs to know how to fight these new things off. This is why Dean's here; he's a kind of figurehead for the hunters, encouragement to keep humanity alive while the so-called gods fight it out." It was strange, hearing Dean described as her boyfriend, strange enough to bring a laughing smile to her face. "I can try to wake him up, but that could get, uh, loud." Chuckling, she bent, searching for an oven-safe tureen. Bobby might not make full use of his kitchen, but he hadn't changed its contents since his wife had died. Karen had been a whiz in the kitchen.

"I have a feeling Dean Winchester is going to want to be more than just a figurehead. He's a legend, you know. He and his brother. Stopped the Apocalypse, so they say. Funny how things work, isn't it' You stop one nemesis, only to have them replaced with another. I wonder if it ever ends." He plucked up his half-forgotten beer from the cupboard and took a swallow.

"You sound like him," she murmured softly, turning the heat off the grill and hob, flicking the oven on instead. With towels wrapped about her hands, she lifted the pan from the hob to pour the soup into the tureen, floating the toasted slices on top. "He's not a legend. He's a man; a very special man, but still a man. He remembers the Apocalypse going down differently, the way it did in our reality. And he's still grieving for that reality. I wouldn't mention him being a legend, or a hero, to his face, not if you want to get things off on the right foot."

As she spoke, she was sprinkling the cheese over the layer of toasted bread floating on top of the soup, taking it up to put it in the oven on a low heat. "Okay, give that ten minutes and it's ready to go." She dusted her hands off on her thighs, wiping the surface down carefully. "You wanna get Bobby' I'll, uh, I'll check on Dean."

He set the beer down to help her with the pot, but she seemed to have things well under control. Stubborn woman, apparently, but stubborn women were more likely to live longer. "No living legend, got it," he promised, flashing a warm smile. He had no intentions on doing so anyway, figuring it would only embarrass the man. He wasn't one for hero worship, though he was impressed by the stories he'd heard. Time would tell if the man could live up to the legend. He plucked up his beer again, draining it and setting the empty near the sink. "If you get lost, should we send out a search party?" he teased, eyes shining. He wasn't the type to brood very long and found it unproductive.

She laughed at the shining tease, brushing a hand through her hair as she stepped away from the oven. "If I'm not back in thirty minutes, serve up and let the rest go cold," she countered with a wink and a chuckle, hooking her thumbs through her belt loops. "Do not let Bobby come looking." Backing up, she turned to make her way back toward the stairs, enjoying the smell of the soup as it wafted through the house, impressed with her own cooking.

"Yes, ma'am," Bill smirked with a mock salute. "We wouldn't want the old man to have a heart attack, now, would we?" He grinned again and hoping she wasn't looking, snuck over to take a taste of the soup.

Without even looking back, Nim grinned, calling over her shoulder toward the kitchen. "You stick any of that in your mouth, I will bruise you with a wooden spoon, William Harvelle." Not that it was likely to be much of a threat to the older hunter, but it made her laugh.

Bill froze in place, mouth open, and actually dumped what he had on the spoon back into the pot before he could sneak a taste, not wanting to anger her or tempt fate. Unaware of a reaction that would have brought a very satisfied grin to her lips, Nim broke into a jog, rising up the staircase toward the bedroom where Dean was sleeping. Whether he was rouseable or not, she was going to enjoy watching Bobby and Bill's faces when they encountered her cooking for the first time.

((Thankity thanks to Dean's player!))