𝐃𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐀𝐍

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐕𝐄

The first thing Dean sees when he wakes up, peeping around the corner of his pillowcase, is Katherine Donovan. She's sat at the table in front of Sam's laptop with one foot propped in a neighboring chair, knee bent and drawn close to her. And the frown is tucked quite deep into her features. All of her hair is pulled back into a long ponytail, her fringe held back by a thick gray band of stretchy fabric. She's wearing a large dark blue t-shirt, and there's barely a hint of her black shorts underneath.

He twists his head to look at the alarm clock and sighs, dropping his head back onto the pillow. Katherine doesn't even look away from Sam's laptop at the rustling. The shower is running and the bathroom door is closed—Sam.

So Dean swings his legs out of bed and walks over to Katherine. He picks her leg up at the ankle, flexing her knee, then she looks at him, all suspicious with the end of her pen pressing into her full lower lip as she rakes her eyes over his bare torso and sweatpant-clad legs. She fell asleep before he did the night before and had no idea what he wore to bed. 

He honored her request of wearing at least pants. The thought makes her smile a little.

Dean rests her leg in his lap, his hands over her shin. "Why are you looking like this at seven AM?"

"I couldn't sleep," she murmurs, shifting her big blue eyes back to the computer screen. Then she starts to write.

"Did you try?"

"Yes."

Dean glances to the computer. "Well what are you doing?"

"Looking for cases," she says, her eyes darting from his fluffy hair to the monitor and back again.

"What?" He croaks. He can see the fleeting smirk.

She spreads her fingers on top of her head and points them into the air. "You've got major cockatoo, dude."

Dean reaches up and runs his fingers back through his hair, worsening the state of it. The gesture has managed to relax her brow and tug a smile at her lips. Maybe his hair's more hedgehog than cockatoo. "Got any hits?"

"A few," Katherine answers with a nod. "There's a few reports of some strange occurrences in New York. Couple of hearts missing from some corpses found in alleys. Werewolf, maybe. Heard it from one of my contacts. Ummm...there's a haunted hotel about fifty miles east. One room in particular, people are getting scratched and hit and someone was strangled last night. Windows and door were locked. The maid found the guy a few days into his stay." Her nose wrinkles. "Can't imagine what that smelled like." Katherine sighs, slouching a bit in her seat, and closes her eyes. One eye opens when she realizes Dean is kneading her calf. She closes her eye again and smiles a bit. "Dean Winchester?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you trying to seduce me?"

"Are you offering?"

"I'm offering my other leg," she says, swinging her left up into his lap. Deans gives her a flat look and she giggles. "That Jenny girl looked nice," she hums, turning her attention back to her computer. "The one from the bar last night? I was almost certain Sam and I would have the room to ourselves."

"Bummer."

"Oh, yeah. You interrupted our almost-biweekly session of flirting through literature."

"Sounds like something you nerds would do."

"I love him as certain dark things are to be loved," she says, and shifts her eyes to Dean. Her voice has dropped to a sultry, conspiratorial whisper. "In secret, between the shadow and the soul."