Daughter of the Moose (sequel to 'Married to a Moose')

Chapter 16

The next day, I was woken up far earlier than I liked. Dean hadn't warned me about what time training started. It was freaking 6:00 am. Had I known it was gonna be so early, I wouldn't have stayed up so late the night before.

"Come on Alex. It's time for training. You don't want to make Sam wait."

"Ugh. Why didn't you tell me it would be so early. I wouldn't have stayed up so late."

"It's part of training. You have to get used to being low on sleep. Now, come on." I got out of bed. I quickly changed into gym shorts and a t-shirt, and we headed out. In the woods not too far from the bunker, Sam had all sorts of targets and stuff set up to help me train.

"You're late." Sam said, trying his best to sound like a mean drill sergeant.

"Sorry. I didn't expect to be woken up so early."

"It's ok. Just be on time from now on." I nodded.

"Now, we are gonna start off with target practice. Have you ever shot a gun by any chance? Or thrown a knife?"

"No." They got some guns out of the trunk and explained how to shoot them.

"Now remember, don't aim at anyone or anything unless you intend to kill it."

"Ok. Got it." I said, thinking that was pretty self-explanatory. I set myself up, got in my stance, aimed at my target, and shot. A near bull's-eye.

"Wow." My dad said. "That was really good. You sure you've never shot a gun before?"

"I'm sure."

"Well you are actually really good." He said. I shot 3 more times. All in about the same spot. It was the same for every gun I tried.

"Well, we know you can handle a gun, how about throwing a knife?"

"Sure, I'll give it a shot." I said. They explained how to throw it so that the blade would be most likely to hit first rather than the handle. Again, I was actually really good. I hit dead center every time.

"You are definitely my kid." My dad joked. I laughed with him.

"The final thing for today is hand to hand combat. More often than not, we end up doing fighting with just our fists and sometimes a knife until we are in a position where we can easily kill it. I'm not gonna fight my own kid, so you'll be fighting Dean for practice. Don't worry, he'll go easy on you."

"Ummm. I'll try." I said, worried. Within the first couple minutes, Dean had already shoved me to the ground. My head was throbbing from hitting it on the ground. He helped me up.

"Tip #1: be careful and watch your opponent. Don't always attack right away." I nodded. I waited a bit, then went for a punch to his face. He ducked, and punched me right in the stomach. Harder than I think he meant to. I fell to the ground. I caught my breath and stood back up. We circled eachother, then he went for a punch to my face. I don't know why, but I froze. I was supposed to duck. He hit me in the eye and I fell to the ground again, and began to cry this time.

Dean came over to me, and gave my dad a finger telling him to wait. "Alex, are you ok? I'm sorry I hit you so hard. You were supposed to duck. I didn't mean to hurt you and make you cry."

"I'm not crying because it hurt. I'm crying because I can tell I'm disappointing him." At hearing this, my dad came over and talked to me.

"You are not disappointing me. You just aren't as good at this part as the other ones. We'll work on it." He said gently.

"Why didn't you duck?" Dean asked.

"I don't know. I've always just taken what comes to me. I know this is fake, but any time someone tries to hurt me, I just take it. I don't know how to do anything else. I just froze. I guess I just assume if someone has a reason why they want to hurt me, then it's for a good reason. I know that's stupid. Sorry."

"Don't apologize." Dean said "You just need to learn to fight back."

"I can't hurt people Dean."

"Well, try. Stand up, and punch me." I did as I was told and stood up. "Now punch me. I don't care how hard. Just punch me. You need to get used to this feeling. You have to get past the thought that you can't ever fight back." I gave him a look of 'are you sure about this?' He returned one of 'yeah, it's fine.' I punched him. I punched way harder than I meant to. I socked him right in the stomach. He clutched his stomach and fell on the ground.

I went over to him. "Are you ok Dean?" He nodded. After a couple minutes, he sat up.

"That was a good punch. You just need to focus all your anger towards those bullies onto whatever you hit. Then, remember when something comes towards you, you have to avoid it."

"Ok." I said to him.

"You ready to continue a little bit more?" I nodded. I started getting better. I dodged his punches at my face, and turned out of it when he went for my stomach. When I had an open shot, I took it. I ended up hitting him in the chest (which did practically nothing) and stomach, and once in the cheek. I could actually punch really hard if I tried. He assured me it was ok and he wasn't mad that I was hitting him. After doing this for a little while, Sam told us it was enough for the day.

Dean was on the ground because I had just made a gut shot. I helped him up, and helped him walk back to the bunker. Along the way, I had lost the adrenaline rush, and my eye was beginning to throb once again. It hurt so bad, and my vision was going from it. Occasionally, I would nearly fall over from trying to help Dean while also trying not to collapse from the pain of my eye.

Once inside, dean sat down. I nearly collapsed, but my dad caught me. He grabbed me an ice pack from the freezer, and laid me down on the couch. I passed out and everything went black.