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asirensrage · 2 years

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Caught in the Crossfire - 1/53

Title: Caught in the Crossfire Rating: M Pairings: Michelle (OC) x Sam side pairing: Kelly (OC) x Dean Fandom: Supernatural. Includes characters from BtvS, The Darkest Powers Series by Kelley Armstrong, True Blood, Veronica Mars, X-Men, Harry Potter Warnings: PTSD, trauma, violence, murder, loss of time, demonic possession, mentions of starvation, anger, slow burn, learning to fight and survive Summary: Takes place during s5. Michelle was just trying to gain some semblance of normality. She didn't expect to be a part of a fail-safe for the apocalypse. Reuniting with her best friend who should be dead, she struggles with trying to survive this world while being forced into a position that has her taking care of others who also don't belong. She just wants to go home.

Note: I know this is already on ffn and ao3 but I'm adding it here just because. Enjoy.

also on ffn and ao3

Chapter 1: The Start

“The big things and the little things don’t follow the same rules. We won’t be able to change the grand scheme of things… but the details. We change a grain of sand, and with that, the whole world.” (from the show Dark)

She was coming. That thing was coming.

I had gotten lucky. I got away because of a hunch from something that shouldn’t have even worked. I wasn’t even entirely sure I hadn’t just hallucinated it but...she killed everyone. Everyone who had ever been kind to me in this world was gone. I had walked into this place by chance and now I was going to die here, alone. I was just trying to get home. I just wanted to go home.

I tried to push myself further into the corner. The barn was dark, cold, and falling apart. It looked like something out of a horror movie, but it was empty and safe...for now. The world was swaying. Spots floated across my vision. My stomach heaved but there was nothing in it. I stopped throwing up bile. I hadn’t eaten in days. Time passed strangely now. I didn't know how long it had been since I ran. I couldn’t stop shaking.

I thought I was finally getting a handle on things. That they’d be okay. I had been rebuilding my life, or starting to, with the strangers who had taken me in. I had walked into this world somehow, had been trying to figure out what happened and mourning the loss of my family...my life, but I thought maybe it was going to be alright. Until her eyes changed. They had filled with black as she smiled at me and I panicked. This wasn’t supposed to be real. This wasn’t supposed to be possible.

Everything hurt. I had run out of water. I had run out of everything. I couldn’t bring myself to move, to keep pushing forward. I couldn’t feel my fingers...or my toes. There was no help left, even the hope I was chasing based on an insane theory. I wasn’t going to make it. I was going to die in this abandoned barn and no one would ever find me. No one was going to know.

Something moved into my vision. I tried to focus, and as the shape of a human came into view, I recoiled. It reached out to me but I couldn’t move, couldn’t escape through the wall behind me. Fingers touched my forehead and suddenly everything was clearer. It was like I could finally think again. I could feel my fingers again. The person kneeling in front of me was recognizable. It wasn’t her.

“Misha?” I was dreaming. Or dead. He was an odd apparition for death. His head tilted as he stared at me and I realized I was wrong. “Castiel.”

“You know me.” His hand moved forward again and I reached for the bag I had stolen. The world suddenly changed. I was standing. I bent forward, trying not to throw up again.

“Woah, are you okay?”

Hands touched me. I shoved them off and looked up. The barn was gone. I was in a cold, metal room. I knew this room. I had seen it before, but not like this. It had been on television. It was far less welcoming now. I looked to see who had been touching me. I closed my eyes tightly. This wasn’t real. I was hallucinating or I had died and hell was personalized.

“Holy...Michelle? Michelle! Mish! Oh my god.”

“You’re,” my voice cracked. “You’re not real.”

“You sure? I feel pretty real for once. Come on, open your eyes, and look at me.”

I did. The woman in front of me looked like a replica of my best friend. She had the same blue eyes, the same button nose. It wasn’t possible. “You’re dead.” My throat tightened and I tried to swallow, to keep myself from crying at the sight.

“I was,” she nodded. She looked unusually serious. “I was dead and now, well, I guess I’m not.” She smiled at me, her grin lightening her face. She lunged forward and before I could scramble back, she hugged me tightly. It felt the same. I pulled back and looked at her. Her pale blond hair was hanging loose around her face. She looked the same as she did before she died.

“How?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I was alive, then next thing you know, dead, which really fucking sucks. All for the love of deep-fried Oreos.” She looked at me. “I went looking for you. Next thing you know, human again so...”

I shook my head. It wasn’t possible. It was too much. It felt like the walls were closing in on me. I couldn’t breathe.

“Is she well?” A different voice asked.

“Yeah, just...Michelle, breathe. Come on, not that hard, you’ve been doing it forever. Take a deep breath.”

“I can’t-”

“You can. I know, this is weird, but you gotta breathe so we can figure this out.”

My breathing shuddered as I inhaled. I felt a hand on my back and tried to focus on that, on the fact that Kelly was somehow alive and next to me. I started crying. Large, hiccuping sobs as I curled forward, trying to block it all out.

“This is fucking weird,” I thought I heard Kelly mutter. She didn’t stop touching me until I finally stopped crying. I wiped my eyes and as I quieted, she continued talking. “Hey, it’s okay. I mean, totally weird, but at least we’re here together. I mean, we’re not alone anymore, right? That’s a huge plus, being alone sucks, and if we are where we seem to be, hey! Least there’s going to be some great scenery!”

I couldn’t help but laugh slightly. The latter was something Kelly would say but it couldn’t have been possible. I looked up at her. We were in the panic room. If it worked how it was supposed to, she had to be real. Had to be human.

“Come on,” she stood up. “You gotta at least meet Jane. She’s in here too.”

My head snapped up and I looked around. Standing off to the side with her back to a wall but facing the door, was a tall, muscular red-headed woman. Her curls looked wild. She looked wild. She was wearing baggy, mismatched clothes. The skin that was shown was covered in blue-green tattoos that seemed to swirl the longer you stared at her.

Kelly helped me stand and when I swayed slightly at the sudden vertigo, she held on, looking concerned. The other woman stepped forward. I clutched the back of Kelly’s shirt tightly. The woman glanced down and seemed to notice. She stopped walking.

I kept my eyes on the strange woman as I continued to talk to Kelly. “What happened?”

“What do you mean?”

“Back home. How did you get here?”

“How did you?”

Images of the road to Gainesboro, the diner, and the concern of Edgar and his wife flashed before me. I felt myself shaking as I tried to force it to stop. “I-I walked. I was,” I swallowed dryly. “I was handing out resumes. Left a store and was just...not there anymore. Wasn’t anywhere.”

“That’s what happened?” She looked confused as I glanced over at her.

“What...what did you think happened?”

She shrugged. We were both still holding onto each other. “No idea. I was a ghost, I only found out you went missing when I stopped by your sister’s when I couldn’t find you at home. No one...no one knew what happened. You just disappeared. Police investigated and when they stopped your family hired private detectives.”

I frowned, trying to remember the days. How much time had passed? “It...it’s only been a couple of months?”

Kelly looked up at me. “You were gone for over a year.” She looked confused and sad. “Michelle, I spent months looking for you, figured I’d get more progress as a ghost since I could walk through walls and all. Had to help somehow, not like there was anything else to do. That’s how I got here. Looking for you. I didn’t expect this. I mean...I don’t even know how to wrap my head around it. I didn’t think this was a real place. It’s not supposed to be.”

My legs collapsed under me. I heard Kelly swear as I nearly brought her down with me. A year? How could it have been a year? My vision swayed and I couldn’t breathe. I had to go back. I had been trying to go back and a year passed without me.

An arm suddenly wrapped around me, under my armpits, and lifted. I was forced into standing. The redheaded woman was holding me up. She looked down at me.

“Breathe,” she said. “You have been given this trial by your gods. Stand and face it as the woman you are.” I was not expecting the deep timbre of her voice, nor the lilting accent that went with it. She was surprisingly strong.

“Who are you?” I asked. The strangeness of her had drawn me out of the shock. There was no fear, no hesitance in her eyes. She said something that I didn’t recognize, in some sort of musical language I had never heard before.

“They have called me Jane in this world.”

“Yeah, for Jane Doe,” Kelly moved in front of me. “Are you okay?” I didn’t know how to answer that. “Did...he find you? The angel? That is super weird to say, but it was Castiel, right? He was the one who found us? Wait, why were you found after me? You were here first, right?” I thought about the diner. The smell of blood and burnt flesh and the promise made by a demon to find me. “-chelle? Michelle?” I snapped back, looking at Kelly who was staring at me in concern.

“Did he find you right away?”

Kelly shrugged. “Pretty much. Ended up arriving at this murder scene in a diner. Totally freaked a few people out, gotta say. I figured out people could actually see me and took off. Castiel found me after that. He only stuck around long enough to drop us off here.”

“I have been in this world for two lunar cycles,” Jane inputted. She released me slowly as if to make sure I would remain standing. “I knew this world was not my own. The Goddess is silent. She does not speak to this land. There is no life here...in the nature.”

I glanced at Kelly and she nodded. “You get used to her.” There was no uncertainty that Jane was not from our home. Not with how she spoke.

“Sure.” I felt the room start to sway again. “I need to sit down.” Kelly grabbed my arm and guided me to the cot in the room.

“You sure you’re okay?” she asked again. “I was saved from answering. Jane moved quickly, standing in front of the door while she motioned us behind her. I didn’t move. There was the sound of metal on metal and the hairs on my arms rose. A voice called out.

“Hi, uh,” I recognized it. Kelly hit me in the arm multiple times, grinning widely. “My name is Sam. Sorry about all of this, but, uh, we’re going to let you out and go upstairs to talk. Figure this out.” The door opened slowly.

Kelly looked at me and whispered, “oh my god!”

We all stared at the man who opened the door. He was larger than I expected, at least from the distance. He seemed to take up the whole doorway. The sight of him was just more proof that we were somewhere we shouldn’t be.

“To what purpose have you kept us here for such time?” Jane asked, shifting her stance slightly.

“Yeah,” Kelly called out. “Did it take that long for Castiel to convince you we were human? I’ve been in here for hours!”

“Sorry,” he seemed taken back by the response. “We were busy. We had to make sure.” I nodded. I couldn’t blame them for wanting to be careful.

“Couldn’t you have saved yourself the trouble and just seen if we could leave the panic room?” Kelly asked, looking at Sam like he was an idiot.

“What? How-how do you…” Sam looked stunned before he frowned. “We need to talk.” He motioned for us to leave. Jane waited until I was standing, Kelly hovering close to my side, before she exited. I grabbed the small backpack that I had brought. Kelly motioned for me to leave first, and as I walked out the door, I paused, looking up at Sam.

“My god, you are tall.” My eyes widened. I did not intend to say it out loud.

“I am tall,” he replied, looking confused but slightly amused. I moved quickly to where Jane was, trying to ignore the embarrassment of the exchange. I turned back to look for Kelly.

She had paused in the doorway. She was reaching out, but looked like she was being stopped by something. Her face fell and she started to look panicked.

“No. No no no no…” My heart stopped. She suddenly grinned at Sam, seeming to ignore the fact he was reaching for something and jumped through the doorway. “I’m just kidding. My ghost days are behind me.” She walked over to me and I hit her in the shoulder with my hand. “Ow!”

“Don’t do that!” I snapped. Kelly made a face at me and I glanced over at Sam who was watching us carefully. He motioned us forwards.

I looked around the basement as I followed the others. It seemed mundane. I looked back at the panic room. It was safe there. If I could just…Sam stepped up behind me, blocking my view of it. I turned quickly and tried not to fall at the sudden motion. He was intimidating in the flesh.

He directed us to the library. The doors were open and two more familiar men were waiting. It still didn’t feel real. I was not a hundred percent certain that it was. It seemed too easy, or good. My dead best friend back to life? The Winchesters? It seemed far more likely that I was dying in that barn and hallucinating something to help me deal with it. I just wasn’t sure why I went for this.

“Holy fuck,” Kelly muttered. “He can’t be fucking real.” She was staring at Dean. I nudged her with my arm and she blinked. She grinned widely at me, nudged me back and shrugged. “What?”

“Right,” Dean broke the tension. “Let’s get to it. Who the hell are you and why’d Cas put you in the basement?” His voice was deeper than I expected. He looked the same as the actor did. All of them did. It was eerie to look at. It didn’t help make it feel real.

“I’m Kelly, this is Michelle and that…” Kelly motioned to Jane, eyes narrowing as she tried to figure out what to say. Jane seemed to take pity on her and said something in the same language she used before. Kelly nodded slowly like she understood. “This is Jane.”

“Uh-huh, want to tell us why Cas says you’re from another world?” Dean asked.

“Because we are,” Kelly replied.

“Yeah, I’m not believing that without proof, sweetheart,” Dean said. He folded his arms across his chest. “There’s no such thing as other worlds.”

“You sure about that?” I asked softly. I still felt Kelly next to me and it steadied me enough. “Alternate universes are a thing that scientists have been trying to prove for years.” Everything was building and I felt like it was going to explode. Everyone was staring but I couldn’t stop. After all that I had gone through, I still needed to prove myself. I dropped the bag I was still holding on the floor. “If there’s no such thing as other worlds, tell me how it’s possible that I went from dropping off a resume, to walking on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere. How did I go from Canada to the middle of the States in the blink of an eye? In a place I don’t exist.” I moved forwards, anger fueling me. “I searched for myself. There’s no record of me in this world. There’s nothing on my family. If other worlds don’t exist, where’s my family?” My voice cracked and I swallowed the lump in my throat. I didn’t want to cry. I felt a hand on my back.

Kelly stood next to me as I stared down Dean Winchester. I couldn’t stop myself from lashing out. “You don’t exist in my world. You’re a fictional character in a stupid tv show that we watched, and you know what? That means we know everything. Everything .”

“Like the deals,” Kelly said.

“The demons,” I added.

“The angels.”

“The visions.”

“And the time in hell,”

“Drinking demon blood.”

“And letting Lucifer out of the cage,” Kelly said before scoffing. “We know everyone wants a ride in your meatsuits. Tell me, Dean, thought about saying yes yet?”

He recoiled as if she slapped him.

I moved back, suddenly deflated and regretted it. The room tilted and I felt myself sway, vision darkening. Exhaustion and hunger had caught up with me again.

“Woah!” Dean grabbed my elbow and Kelly tried to steady me, arm going around my waist. “You okay?”

“I...I need to sit down.” I blinked, trying to get the world back in focus. Jane appeared at my side. She took Dean’s hand off of me and led me to the couch. I sat down and bent over, putting my head between my knees. I just needed the nausea to pass. My body was shaking. My stomach rolled and I tried to stop myself from heaving. There was nothing to throw up anyway. I tried to focus on my breathing.

Jane knelt in front of me. “When was the last you ate?”

I groaned. The thought of eating made my stomach roll. I waited until it settled, breathing in through my nose and out of my mouth. “I don’t know,” I said. “Yesterday? The day before?” The snacks that I had stolen didn’t last long.

“Jesus,” someone muttered. My head hurt and it almost felt like my skull was going to crack in two.

A slice of pizza was suddenly shoved in my face. I shoved it back. “I can’t.” I looked up to see Dean scowling at me.

“This ain’t the ritz, you get what you get.”

I shook my head. The movement and the smell made me want to throw up again. “I can’t eat it.” He didn’t move.

“Come on, Mish,” Kelly said. “Not the worst thing you could eat. Hell, you practically lived off of it before.” She cracked a smile. I was going to have to explain. Fuck.

“I can’t.” I looked at the ground, trying to avoid the expressions on their faces. “I’ve barely eaten in the last two weeks, outside of scraps I could find or things I could steal...which wasn’t a lot. Last thing was that kid’s backpack.”

“What?”

“What the fuck? Why?”

“I know you’re thin, but I figured that was from stress,” Kelly’s voice said. “How the fuck were you starving?”

I ran a hand through my hair, before I covered my mouth. Tears built up suddenly and I felt myself start to cry again. Kelly was suddenly kneeling in front of me, looking concerned and scared.

“Mish, what happened?”

“I...” the lump in my throat grew and I swallowed, trying to gain some control over myself. “I was so lost,” my voice cracked. “I didn’t know what was happening, or where I was. Edgar,” I took a deep breath. I looked at Kelly. “Edgar helped. He and his wife took me in, let me use their phones and computer to try to get home. When it didn’t...when I couldn’t find anything, they took me in. They owned a diner and let me work there until I figured something out.” I clenched my hands tightly. “They helped and now they’re dead.” My jagged fingernails dug into my palms. “Three months. Three months of trying to figure out what was happening. And then…” I looked up at the brothers, at Bobby. Someone who would understand.

“A demon came into the diner. I didn’t know. I served her and she grabbed my arm. Something was different, something was off about me. She said she could tell I didn’t belong.” They suddenly looked concerned. “She killed them all. Everyone. She wanted to tear me apart to find out what was wrong, what she sensed. They died. They died and it was all my fault!” I gave into the tears. Sobs wracked my body, releasing more of the tension and fear that I had been carrying since I ended up on that road.

“Holy shit,” I heard Kelly. “That must have been where I showed up. It was a murder scene. They were still cleaning it. Cops were all over that place.”

“Hey,” a large hand touched my shoulder. I wiped my eyes to look at Sam. He had moved Kelly to the side and was kneeling in front of me. “It wasn’t your fault. She probably would have killed everyone regardless of whether or not you were there. That’s what demons do.” He looked far more concerned and upset than I expected him to.

I nodded, unable to speak, as I wiped tears from my face. This was embarrassing. I hated crying and already had done it twice. It felt like weakness, like I was giving the world weapons to be used against me.

“That must have been that diner Rudy was checking out, Gainsboro. Said there was sulphur all over the place,” Dean said quietly. I looked up at him and when he saw me watching, he cleared his throat. “How’d you get away?”

I huffed. “The only way I could.” I glanced at Kelly. “I tripped, fell into a counter and a cart as she was coming towards me. It was pure luck. Her eyes went black and I...I was desperate to try anything. It had salt. She was blinded, just long enough for me to run. She said she’d find me. Cops were already outside. I just...I never stopped running.” I shrugged, trying to play it off. “I avoided everyone. I didn’t know...I couldn’t be sure who was safe or not, so I stayed off the roads. I stole from dumpsters, people if I could, and just walked. I think the last sign I passed was Nebraska.”

“That’s...that’s like a fifteen-hour drive. At least.” Dean said, his eyes wide. Both of the brothers glanced at each other.

“Yeah, I don’t know how...I think it was about two weeks? Maybe more, I don’t know. I barely slept, barely ate, just-just kept going.” I looked up at them. “What could I do? She said she was coming and I didn’t...I didn’t know where to go. I thought of this place, of Bobby. I was going to try to get here. I-I didn’t make it.”

"What do you mean?”

I tried not to shift under their gazes. “I was in a barn when Castiel showed up. I-I couldn’t go on anymore. It was...I was so cold. And tired. I couldn’t move. I thought...I thought I was dying. That I was going to die,” I gave a small laugh, ignoring the look on Kelly’s face. I tried not to curl up into myself. I felt like I was under a spotlight being scrutinized.

“Right, well, you all seem pretty friendly with each other. You all come from the same place or what?” Dean asked around a mouth full of pizza.

“We do not,” Jane answered, looking disgusted at the sight. “They knew of each other at first glance. I have no knowledge of them before I was sent here.”

“Oh god,” I heard Dean mutter. “It’s another Cas.”

“She’s right,” Kelly said. “Michelle and I were friends for years before I died, but I’ve never seen this girl before in my life.” She pointed to Jane. “Or afterlife,” she added with a tilt of her head.

“Wait wait wait,” Dean held up his hand. “Afterlife?” He looked at her incredulously. He rubbed his forehead as if he had a headache.

“Yeah,” Kelly nodded. She stared off into the distance, eyes unfocused until she shook her head. She looked at Dean. “I died like...two years ago? Wandered around as a ghost, not as fun as you’d think. I tried to haunt some people, communicate you know? When I found...when Michelle went missing, I searched for her. Ended up here alive and...alive.”

“I need a drink,” Dean pushed away from the desk before turning. Bobby already had glasses poured out. Dean handed one to Sam who finally stood up awkwardly from his place at my feet. He was even more intimidating when he stood while I was seated. The height difference was insane.

“What I don’t get,” Bobby finally spoke, “is how you girls know what you claim to know.” He had been watching us quietly, letting the boys take the lead. With the Winchesters questioning and trying to help you, it was easy to forget he was there.

“Like we said, it’s a tv show,” Kelly said. “You know how there’s books written here about you guys?” The men either rolled their eyes or winced at the reminder. “Same idea, only a tv show back home. Same plotline, but it doesn’t end with you going to hell.”

The boys looked at each other. “Where does it end?” Dean asked. “What was the last thing you saw?”

“On TV? You got sent to the future by Zach,” she said softly. “Where the Croatoan virus was everywhere. You met your future self.”

I frowned. I didn’t remember that.

“What about you?” Dean asked, looking over at me.

“Um,” I tried to think. It was hard to focus on it, to think back. “Lillith died. Ruby too. You let Lucifer out.”

“That makes sense,” Kelly said. “You were gone before season five started.” She paused for a moment. “Us being here doesn’t make sense. That’s not in any of the notes or plans for the season…”

“How do you know?” I asked.

She shrugged. “I got bored. They had whiteboards all over the offices with plans for the show. Things to come, things they were scrapping. Just ideas really. Alternate universes weren’t a part of it.”

“I take it we’re running off-script then,” Sam said.

“Just a bit,” Kelly grinned before her smile faded. “So, do you have any reason why we’re here? Or how it happened?”

“This had trickster stink...Gabriel written all over it,” Dean said.

“Gabriel?” Kelly asked, looking confused. “Who’s-”

“It’s a tear,” Castiel said, suddenly appearing next to Dean. I jolted back, nearly falling off the couch.

Kelly jumped and held a hand to her chest. “Don’t do that!”

“What do you mean a tear?” Sam asked.

Castiel seemed to sigh. He looked around the room. “You started the apocalypse. It created...rips into other dimensions, other worlds. They came through them,” Castiel motioned to us. “It leaves a trace. There may be others. I’m looking into it.”

The trace. That was what it sensed. That was why I was here. My hands started shaking as adrenaline coursed through me in a demand for flight. I tried to stay still.

“Can they go back?” Sam asked. “If they walked in through a rip, couldn’t they just walk back through?”

“If one could find it, theoretically, yes. If the rips haven’t sealed. We don’t know how many have opened or how many are coming through. I have heard...nothing from heaven.”

“It might be impossible,” I spoke up, ignoring how my voice shook. I cleared my throat and clutched my hands together in an effort to still them. “I mean, it’s obviously moving. I ended up on a dirt road about five miles from Gainesboro. Kelly arrived by the diner. If it is still there, it won't be in the same place. Besides, I can’t go back.”

“Why not?” Kelly asked.

“Come on,” I scoffed. “Strange girl walks into town, then disappears after everyone is killed? It’s suspicious.” Dean looked like he agreed.

“So what are we going to do?” Kelly asked.

“I don’t know! Okay? I don’t know! I just-I can’t...I can’t go back, I can’t let it get me. She said she was coming, she’s going to get me and I can’t-I can’t go back.” I looked around. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t...I bent over, trying to calm down, to take slow breaths but it made me panic more. No air was coming in. I needed to get out of here. I needed...I needed air. I couldn’t breathe. Tears built up in my eyes. I felt someone stride towards me and I looked up, desperate for help. Castiel reached out. Cool fingers touched my forehead and everything went black.

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#fic: caught in the crossfire #spn fanfic #sam winchester x oc #dean winchester x oc #supernatural fanfic #spn fic #these poor girls #but i adore them #lol #caught in the crossfire

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