vanillafluffy: (Keep the Faith)
[personal profile] vanillafluffy
Title: Seen and Unseen 2/?
Authored by: [livejournal.com profile] vanillafluffy
Pairing: None
Rating/Work-safeness: Safe
Approximate word count: 2300
Disclaimer: All rights belong to Eric Kripke and The Doors. Nancy McGill is mine.
Summary: Ellen makes a deal with a visitor to the Roadhouse.

Seen and Unseen



Seen -- Ellen Harvelle

In the twenty-five years that she's been running the Roadhouse, Ellen Harvelle has learned to size up her customers. The woman who comes through the door a little before three in the afternoon isn't anyone familiar to her, but Ellen reads weariness in the way she carries herself as she walks slowly over to the bar. A hunter she doesn't know? Could be, or maybe she's a hunter's woman, hoping to track down her missing man...gone without a trace. She's luckier than many of her sisters; at least she knows what happened to Bill. Some hunters lead double lives; their families don't know where they go or why they don't come back

"What can I get for you?" she asks the newcomer, who's looking around the bar as if walls could talk. Dishwater blonde hair is pulled back in a braid, and it looks to Ellen like somewhere along the line, somebody broke her nose and it set with a bump to it.

The woman fishes a dollar bill out of her pocket and drops it on the bar. "Will that get me a co'cola?" she wants to know. Her accent has a Southern tone to it---Bill's folks were from Georgia, and they called Cokes "co'cola" too.

"Compliments of the house," says Ellen, setting the plastic cup on the bar a moment later. Whoever this gal is---she's within a few years of Ellen's age, not some sassy young thing who thinks hunting is a glamourous business because she's seen too much Buffy---she looks like she needs a drink; if all she wants is soda-pop, that's not gonna break the bank. "Anything I can help you with?"

"Maybe you can." There's a pause as the thin-faced woman sips the fizzy liquid. "I'm a bit low on funds at the moment...most of my money is going into my gas tank right now." Ellen's immediately wary---she doesn't give loans to hunters, ever---and those are the people she knows. "Maybe we could make a trade? I'll work in your kitchen this evening if you'll set up the house so I can make a toast."

Ellen thinks it over for a moment, and the other woman doesn't rush her. That's one she's never heard before. There's no telling how many orders the kitchen will get---the Georgia peach might only have to cook for her and Jo and Ash---some nights, there might only be one or two folks around at midnight---or it could be a madhouse. Hunters are as likely to do their partying on a Wednesday as a Saturday, depending on what they've killed or are trying to forget.

"What's your name?" the bar owner asks, wondering if the blonde actually knows her way around a kitchen, or if it's some kind of scam. Still, it's a unique proposition, and there's something dignified about the woman in spite of her worn castoff clothes---and Ellen knows sometimes there are toasts people need to make, things they need to stand and declare and chase with firewater to get them out of their system.

"Nancy McGill. Yes, I can work a deep-fryer, no, I don't have typhoid, and if you want me to down a shot of holy water to prove I'm just me, let's get on with it."

Ellen Harvelle grins at her dry tone. "You do come to the point," she comments, but doesn't let herself be disarmed by the Southern woman's frankness, setting up another glass with three inches of liquid from one of the "special" bottles of mixers. Ellen watches as Nancy gulps it without flinching. "I guess we have a deal."

They shake on it. Ellen tries to puzzle out where she's heard the name McGill before, when the front door is yanked open, and Jo bounds in, looking around wildly. "Where is he, Momma? Where is he?" She sounds so upset that her mother has a hand on the sawed-off under the bar, certain something is after her.

"What in the world is going on, Joanna Beth?"

Jo points toward the parking lot. "That's John Winchester's truck out there."

"That's my truck, young lady," Nancy says, as Jo stares at her. She smiles without humor, providing a glimpse of uneven teeth. "Bought previously owned from a fella named Bobby Singer."

Ellen's met Bobby, knows he and John went way back, knows Dean and Sam have gotten help from him since John's death. Hell, plenty of people drive used vehicles. Just because Ellen has a beef with the previous owner is no reason to give this gal a rough time. She's seen that big fancy-ass truck of John's; the woman wasn't lying about her money going into the gas tank. Which begs the question of just who and what Nancy McGill is---a hunter...or someone on the edge of it all, like herself? Maybe the toast she wants to make will clarify the matter.

It turns out to be a much busier-than-average night. Everyone comes in hungry; the kitchen is slammed, and Ellen's glad for the unexpected help. Nancy McGill knows her stuff, alright---even with the press of constant orders, the burgers are juicy, the fries crisp, and she overhears a none-too-sober hunter tell Jo that if she's the one who cooked the chicken, he'll marry her.

"No, but I killed it," Jo retorts, one hand on the hilt of her knife, and walks away as the guy's friends laugh at him.

As midnight approaches, Nancy emerges from the kitchen and Ellen starts pouring drinks. More drinks than she expected to pour, because it's been quite a while since the house was this full. She doesn't mind; it's just too bad that she can't afford to offer the McGill woman a full-time job, because damn, the woman can cook, and could bring in more business like this.

The room gets quiet as Nancy steps forward with her glass raised---she's requested two fingers of bourbon in her cup, and a "co'cola" chaser waiting on the bar. After eight hours of cooking, she looks more gaunt and worn-out than ever. Her hair is matted with grease; her thin, angular face shiny with oil.

"For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand," intones Nancy. "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."

Like someone walking over her grave...Ellen's spine stiffens. This doesn't sound good, for all it's Scripture. Does Nancy have some kind of death wish?

"Being a hunter isn't an easy road," continues the evening's cook. "It's about sacrifice. It's about offering to save the world from things no rational person would take on. It's lonely, scary and probably fatal in the long run. Like they say, it's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it. Here's to fighting the good fight, and keeping the faith." She knocks back the bourbon, and there's an approving buzz from the room. Ellen isn't so sure.

"You want to tell me what that was about?" she asks later, after the last stragglers have gone off to wherever it is they go. She still doesn't know where Nancy fits in.

"John Winchester was a friend of mine," says the blonde, unloading the dishwasher stacking clean plates on the shelf. "But John being John, I figured if I was to toast him by name, things might get a little loud. The man sure could piss people off when he set his mind to it." True enough. Reviewing the crowd present tonight, Ellen can think of a couple people who'd sooner turn down free booze than drink to John...including herself.

"You sent a card to him one time," she remembers, the elusive memory surfacing of a square envelope with 'N.L. McGill' printed in the return corner. "From somewhere in Florida, wasn't it?" The 'card' was a photo of a couple buzzards; a word bubble had been drawn above one of them, and it read 'Patience, hell---I'm gonna kill something!' "John passed that around. He laughed his ass off about it. So, what brings you up our way?"

Nancy makes a palms up gesture. "I guess I needed...closure," she says, and hesitates. "I don't suppose you know where he was laid to rest? I'd like to pay my respects."

"You don't think those boys were gonna put their daddy in the ground, do you?" Ellen shakes her head. "Oh, hell no---not knowing what's out there like they do. They lit him up and salted the ashes---"

"Did I hear my name?" her helper pipes up from the doorway.

"No, Ash---I was talking about Sam and Dean burning John's body."

"Oh, yeah. There was a big to-do in the White River paper about the body going missing from the local hospital."

"So it's not like there's a gravestone with his name carved on it, or anything like that," Ellen concludes, and Nancy nods. "Look, you're all in. I've got a spare bed...." She's almost surprised when the woman takes her up on it---she sees traces of the same stubborn pride John used to display, talk about your birds of a feather---but Nancy totes in a duffle that looks like it's gonna pull her over in a minute, and thanks her for her hospitality.

When Ellen gets up the next morning, Nancy's gone, and the bed doesn't look like it's been slept in.


0000
0000

Unseen -- Rolling the Bones


Arriving at White River at sunrise, Nancy wants to take the timing as a good omen, but right now, she's too damn tired. She washed off last night's cooking grease, ducked out of Harvelle's, and drove all night When did she last have a decent night's sleep? Not since September, for sure, when the whole ordeal started.

There's nothing like an out-of-body experience in Hell to make your life go crazy, she thinks grimly. She was sitting at her kitchen table, cutting up vegetables for stew, when suddenly, she couldn't breathe. It was like having a car parked on her chest, then she found herself in writhing darkness with no boundaries, a place of filth and corpse-stench, where the shrill sound of a universe in torment was as oppressive as the miasma of foulness.

John was there; she screamed his name and waved her arms and nothing she could do penetrated the indifference of this terrible realm. Then something else stood between her and John, something only vaguely human in shape, and it saw her, its yellow eyes flashing with amusement as she tried vainly to get to John's side. "Puny, soft, futile creature," it sneered. "He's mine, now." It swatted at her, like brushing away an annoying fly, and Nancy found herself sprawled on the green linoleum, paring knife and a half-scraped carrot nearby.

Panic set in, and as soon as she could move, she crawled to the phone and started calling everyone she could think of for news. It took days before she got confirmation of what she already knew: John Winchester was dead.

Random details drifted in as she grieved; a car wreck---they got T-boned by a semi, John and the boys---the trucker who hit them was a man with a spotless safety record during his twenty-five year career---they were registered at the hospital under the alias "McGillicuddy"---the oldest boy almost didn't make it, but he came out of his coma just before his daddy died---one of the hospital maintainence workers had some kind of seizure around the same time---the hunters and fellow travelers she talked to each had one or two pieces of the puzzle; they didn't see the shape of it the way she did.

Which is why she's here, in this overgrown field where there's a patch of scorched earth.

On her hands and knees, Nancy works her way toward the center of the burned earth in a clockwise spiral. The closer she gets to the epicenter, the more slowly she moves and the more careful she becomes. Her blackened fingers are numb with cold; sometimes she picks up bits of debris and holds them to her cheek, because her hands are so cold she can't sense them properly. They're always rocks, or carbonized branches from the funeral pyre.

No one sees the mad-looking sight she presents: a hollow-cheeked woman with coal smudges on her face, crawling around in the middle of a freezing field at daybreak. No one hears her mutterings, pleading with a universe that seems intent on ignoring her. So tired. She's been at this for how long now? She's gotten over feeling cold, but she can't get away from how weary she is...she'll close her eyes, just for a minute...maybe if she rests for a little while, she won't be so out of it and she'll be able to find something...she sags against the ground, almost motionless.

Nancy shifts just a smidgen, and her bare right wrist comes into contact with something that looks like just another blackened stone. The nearly flat rock is less than an inch thick and about as big as the bowl of a serving spoon, and she's suddenly wide awake. This time, when she touches the relic to her face, it resonates with a familiar energy. She regards it with something akin to awe, and wonders what it was---a shoulder blade, a chunk of pelvis? Salted or not doesn't matter to her. That's just a way of negating negative energy, and won't affect what she wants it for.

There's a rawhide cord around her neck, holding a red flannel pouch against her ribcage. Carefully, she deposits her find into the little bag and tucks it back beneath the soot-greyed front of her jacket. She ambles back to the truck with more energy than anyone who'd seen her just a few minutes ago would've given her credit for.

Her labors have earned her a shower and some rest, if only she can sleep.

The time to hesitate is through
No time to wallow in the mire
Try now we can only lose
And our love become a funeral pyre
Come on baby, light my fire---




-------------

Previously in the John-Nancy 'verse....
http://vanillafluffy.livejournal.com/135447.html The Girl From Cassadaga
http://vanillafluffy.livejournal.com/138894.html The End of an Era
http://vanillafluffy.livejournal.com/140653.html What Fresh Hell
http://vanillafluffy.livejournal.com/146321.html Seen and Unseen, Part One

Feedback is love.

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 02:18 am (UTC)
lark_ascends: Blue and purple dragonfly, green background (Default)
From: [personal profile] lark_ascends
Interesting...

I'm trying to figure out time lines here, because John died in early November, so I'm confused by the September.

But, other than that, I'm adoring the idea and the different perspectives.

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 03:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
November??? IMToD aired in September, that's what I was going by. Did I miss something?! (Wouldn't be the first time....)

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 04:20 am (UTC)
lark_ascends: Blue and purple dragonfly, green background (Default)
From: [personal profile] lark_ascends
From Salvation with the six month's exactly old for the baby, some eagle eyed people spotted the birth dates that they were looking at, which would be six months on approximately November 2nd. So, it's definitely November.

I hadn't known that until someone mentioned it....

(I still adore this fic!)

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 04:51 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] winchesterxgirl.livejournal.com
just curious .... didnt John give Sam a medical insurance card that said his name was 'Elroy McGillicuddy '

'Elroy McGillicuddy? 'questioned Sam
'and his two loving sons' John

cause you have them registered as Gillespie.....just curious ....
other than that I like the story
sorry i seem anal over this lol but i rechecked the ep and got the spelling of the card he takes from his wallet from there...though if the name you use fits your story better, then artistic license is the best!! *hugs i hope i didnt offend you just interested in how a writer writes and the choices they make

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 05:07 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
Fuckity fuck. I didn't have access to IMToD and *thought* I remembered. Off to do some ret-con!

No offense taken. I have no objection to being corrected when I'm flat-out wrong, it's the people who give me shit because my interpretation differs from theirs who get me snarky.

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 05:13 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] winchesterxgirl.livejournal.com
OMG i totally understand about those peeps ... I think that to me all paitings and interpretations are valid ....if everyone wrote the same formula fics and the same stories over and over it would kill a fandom ... I love reading all types of pairings .. I'm glad you didn't mind my question ... I'd hate for anyone to think i was trying to be mean

*hugs * as soon as you have more to post I'll be there to read it :D

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 05:15 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] winchesterxgirl.livejournal.com
damn ....my typing is suffering due to too much new years cheer lol.... sorry for the typos lol pairings not paitings LOL

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 05:29 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
I figured it out from the context. And fixed McGillicuddy in this AND Reconciliation (not in the John-Nancy 'verse), where I was deliberately trying to cop John's deathbed identity. *eyeroll*

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 05:27 am (UTC)
tabaqui: (johnbychar_cohen)
From: [personal profile] tabaqui
Oh *very* intersting. So curious. I really want her to meet up with the boys, but of course i won't mind if she doesn't.

I think i have an idea of what she's doing but....i'll think on it some more.
:)

Good stuff!

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 05:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
The boys will be turning up one of these days.

Doing? *looks shifty*

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 05:41 am (UTC)
tabaqui: (s&dhotelbynatacha92)
From: [personal profile] tabaqui
HA!
No shifty eyes, i've *got your number*, missy!
:)

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 05:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] agent-of-kaos.livejournal.com
I love the way you're structuring this..the seen and unseen.
That Nancy is the only one to have felt John's torment, is very interesting...Ellen hasn't felt him, the boys haven't felt him...and now she has a piece of bone...bone and blood....what next?
Thanks for posting again so quickly.

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 06:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
The next bit may take a while longer. I originally thought this was going to be a three-part arc, and a follow-up, but a few gears turned, and now I think it's going to be at least twice that. Arrgh---!

Ellen's not psychic (in canon OR fanon, that I've seen) and neither is Dean. Sam's talents go in another direction, and he was too much in the moment...but a repetitive task like scraping carrots is the kind of activity that uses a different part of the brain. (How many great ideas have you had while showering or driving somewhere or folding laundry?) Also, bear in mind that Nancy's not just gifted, she's been attuned to John from the beginning.

As to what she's up to...it never pays to jump to conclusions.

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 09:18 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] agent-of-kaos.livejournal.com
yes...that kind of activity where your active brain just shuts down, and something older and more primitive takes over...oh yeah...half my story ideas come from THAT place....

And ONE of the things I like best about Nancy is that she IS attuned to John...it's a very deep part of her, and of JOHN too, I very much liked it that John didn't want to...COULDN'T be responsible for bring evil to Nancy, and just had to leave and not come back, and he needed her KIND of acceptance, and love, so much....

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 03:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
that kind of activity where your active brain just shuts down, and something older and more primitive takes over...oh yeah...half my story ideas come from THAT place

Yes, exactly. If you aren't familiar with her, Julia Cameron is a writer who teaches creativity (who knew that could be learned?!), and her method is basically, get up every morning and write three pages of *anything*...she's written several books, but The Artist's Way is the primary one, and it's quite good. I noticed, after trying it, that I do, in fact, get a sizable percentage of my ideas early in the morning---like within the first hour or two of waking up. I think the brain is still partially in dream-state and has deeper access to whatever generates new ideas. I've been known to stay quietly in bed some mornings and think about where a plot is going or what's motivating a character, and I find out all kinds of things.

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 06:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] agent-of-kaos.livejournal.com
I pool run as part of my physiotherapy (arthritis). I get many ideas, clear up motivations, "see" what a scene looks like in my head, turn over descriptive phrases.... the pool is one of my most productive places.

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 09:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
With me, it's my daily 40 minute-each-way commute. Not so much in the afternoon (I work 2nd shift), but at midnight, when there's no one on the road, my brain gets to jettison the last 8 hours and play.

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-06 05:12 pm (UTC)
fufaraw: mist drift upslope (jdm)
From: [personal profile] fufaraw
" I think the brain is still partially in dream-state and has deeper access to whatever generates new ideas."

Oh definitely. And it continues, at least with me, as long as I don't have to talk to anybody or deal with phones, figures, anything that engages other parts of the brain. Once I've had to do anything more complicated or engaging than making coffee and feeding the cat, I can't get that dream-energy back.

I'm bird-dogging this story and eating it all up. 'Nother helping, please.

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-06 05:56 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
Once I've had to do anything more complicated or engaging than making coffee and feeding the cat, I can't get that dream-energy back.

As a friend of mine says, there is no snooze alarm on a hungry cat....

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 09:21 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] agent-of-kaos.livejournal.com
hmmmm...I missed that last line, on my first read through your comments....Ok, no jumping. *G*

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 11:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com
Ugggghhhuuuggghhhhh!!!

*Weeps*

*Clutches at what's left of John*

*Weeps some more*

*Hugs*

*Clings to you*

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 03:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
*pats you on the back and squirms loose* Thanks, but it's kind of hard to write like that! *wink*

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 02:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] starhawk2005.livejournal.com
Very cool. God, I hope Nancy can bring John back. If only to get one over on the Demon. *glares at It*

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 04:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
You're jumping to conclusions. *grin* And I cannot confirm or deny Nancy's goals at this time, but...nah, that would be too much of a spoiler.

(ala Bugs Bunny) Ain't I a stinker?

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 05:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] starhawk2005.livejournal.com
You're jumping to conclusions. *grin*

Call it my desperate need for John to return from the grave. If canon won't oblige me, fanon's my last hope! *wibbles*

And I cannot confirm or deny Nancy's goals at this time, but...nah, that would be too much of a spoiler.

Oh, all right! *pouts prettily* ;)

Ain't I a stinker?

You are. But s'okay, we still like you. :)

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-01 10:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
Okay, here's a hint/except from the next bit:

http://vanillafluffy.livejournal.com/131144.html

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-02 10:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] starhawk2005.livejournal.com
Oooh, cool. I guess it gives new meaning to the words, 'divine intervention'. ;)

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-02 04:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] baileytc.livejournal.com
The plot thickens.

You created a really vivid image of Nancy crawling around on that scorched field, looking desperately for any piece of John's body--and that's an unsettling image all by itself--that survived the pyre. Not pleasant but very striking and effective.

If the boys find out what she's got, I don't think they're going to be happy with her...

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-02 06:28 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
If the boys find out what she's got, I don't think they're going to be happy with her...

Which is grimly amusing, when you consider how often they desecrate graves...and true; they're *not* going to be happy. But, as they say, desperate times call for desperate measures....

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-07 11:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ultraviolet9a.livejournal.com
*hug* Did i mention how much i like your writing? Did i? Did i? I won't jump into conclusions (who am i kidding) but no matter how the story evolves this is darn.good.writing. *hugs again*

(no subject)

Date: 2007-01-07 03:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vanillafluffy.livejournal.com
Thanks! *grins and blushes* Years (who am I kidding---decades) of hard work to get here....

(no subject)

Date: 2007-02-20 09:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] anakin415.livejournal.com
excellent addition

(no subject)

Date: 2007-02-21 04:05 pm (UTC)

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