A Hunters Heart

Awkward!

The dreams Lexi had were most definitely not sweet. She dreamt of her home town, as usual, and going back to find that nobody missed her and the town was mostly the same. The dream only turned bad when the whole town got turned into vampires by a nest that was living in her old hideout by the lake. Ugh. So not realistic.
Ignoring her usual nightmares, Lexi's mind seemed set on killing everybody who mattered most to her. As she slept, she was forced to watch herself kill Dean and watch Castiel try desperately to revive him, only to kill the angel as well. After that, everything that happened to Sam... all that blood... all the things he said... it was enough to send shivers down Lexi's spine.
She eventually decided that the only way she was going to get over her nightmares was to get out of bed and see for herself that they weren't real.
Lexi threw herself out of bed and forced some real clothes on. A plain t-shirt and jeans would have to suffice. Who are they to judge anyway.... Lexi entered the study to see Dean eating a few slices of toast with fried eggs. "That looks good!". Both hunters jumped at sound of Lexi's voice, "Sorry to scare you! I didn't even mean to say that out loud!"
Dean chuckled and stood up, revealing that he was in the same clothing as the day before. His eyes were red and only slightly puffy, indicating that he had been crying, but managed to get himself together in time for the day to start.
"That's alright, I was just about to get some more OJ, you want some?"
"Yeah! That sounds great!"
But, before she could finish her sentence, the Winchester was already well on his way to the kitchen.
"Rude." Lexi said aloud.
"Don't blame yourself."
Lexi jumped and swung a fist at whoever was behind her. In the next second, Castiel was holding her fist inches away from his face.
"That was unnecessary." he said.
"Sorry!" Lexi apologized, "Natural reflex, y'know?"
"Yes. I understand. I apologize if I scared you, but I don't think you're the reason why Dean was in such a hurry."
Only then did Lexi take a good look at the angel. His eyes were just as puffy as Dean's, but less red, showing that he cried most of last night, but not as much in the morning. Though, Lexi already knew that.
"How are you feeling?" she asked, genuinely concerned for his health.
The angel glanced at the hall that lead to the kitchen, confirming that Dean hadn't snuck back into the study. He sighed heavily before continuing, "I didn't sleep well."
"I thought angels didn't need sleep."
"They do when they've just told somebody to stay away from them."
Lexi sighed and looked at the ground. Castiel grew concerned at Lexi's reaction.
"That is to say, that's what happened," Castiel explained, "This is a specific case, and with my fading grace, I'm not sure that all angels would need to sleep if they were put into this specific-"
"I get it, Cas."
"Oh." he raised his head a bit, showing that he understood that he hadn't needed to say any of that.
"Would some grace help?"
The angel smiled as his he was finally offered the one thing he was craving, "That would be wonderful, but maybe after some sustenance."
"Dean's in the kitchen if you want to..." Lexi didn't know where to go from there. She realized that there was no way for her to feel comfortable with them acting like this.
Then, as if by miracle, Sam walked into the room, hair still damp from his morning shower. Sam didn't seem fazed by how disheveled Castiel looked, and when Dean came back into the room with a stack of pancakes and plates, Sam didn't really make any sign that he had heard their conversation.
"I heard everybody was up, and I didn't feel like making a shitton of eggs, so I got pancakes instead," Dean explained.
They all sat around the table in an order that drove Lexi mad. There was Dean, then to his left, Cas. Then to his left, Lexi. Sam sat on the end between Lexi and Dean. How Sam was acting so natural, Lexi had no clue.
Because of this order, Lexi was forced to sit across from Dean. Any and all eye contact with him seemed awkward. He heard her talking with his... Castiel... right after they fought. Cas was obviously ruined by the whole fight. He hardly looked up from his plate, and when he did, it was to make a pitiful gesture to the syrup or butter. Lexi was the only one who really acknowledged his presence.
And then there was Sam. Samuel Sammy Cool-as-a-Cucumber Winchester. He was reading the morning paper. Not bothering to look up from it, the article must have been very interesting.
"So," Lexi broke, "Did you get anywhere with the ingredients?"
"Yeah, actually," he put down the newspaper and reached to the other table, pulling out a spiral notebook, "The next ingredient we need is... the blood of a newborn vampire. Have we got any vamps on the 'To Kill' list?
Dean pulled a laptop from a nearby stack of books and opened it up, "Well, we got a few hits on... nevermind."
"No, what was it?" Lexi asked, her input was an interesting change of tone.
"Well, our friend Claudia setup this system for us. We put in a few keywords like 'Demons', 'Hell', and 'Mysterious'. We got a hit on one of them, but it's just the name of a pond or something."
"What's the word?" Sam asked.
"Devil. There's a few missing persons cases at Devil's pond."
"Lake." Lexi said, almost as an impulse. Through this, she earned the attention of everybody at the table, "It's Devil's Lake. North Dakota. Excuse me but I have to receive a call."
Everybody's face twisted into confusion, "Um, do you mean 'make' a call?" Sam asked.
"No, you see I have this friend-" Lexi was cut off by her ringtone sounding. she picked it up and started to walk out of the room, but not before covering the receiver with her hand and saying to the boys, "Get packed, we've got a case."